Title: A game for four

Author: Atamagaitai

Characters: Tezuka, Fuji, Kikumaru, Oishi.

Rating: PG-13 / T

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis isn't my copyright.

Author's Note: The Truth or Dare plot device has been on my mind for a while. Why? It seemed like just the sort of think Eiji and Syuusuke would inflict upon people when in a playful mood...

They were sitting in a circle with some stolen sake, Kikumaru already warm and giggling, Fuji a little softer and sweeter than usual, and Oishi doing his best to keep his head. Oishi noted that perhaps unsurprisingly, Tezuka looked completely sober, seemingly unmoved by the warm liquid in his gullet.

"Ne, it's Oooishi's turn," Kikumaru said, pushing the sake bottle to the blushing youth. Oishi refilled his cup with the warm liquid: the more courage the better. "And I wanna ask the question!"

"To be fair, I think it's Tezuka's turn to ask," said Fuji, turning his eyes to the captain. Oishi thought that Fuji's eyes were just a bit softer when they stared into Tezuka's, and saw that Tezuka gulped, rather visibly, and didn't answer.

Neither Oishi nor Tezuka really wanted to be there, sequestered in Fuji's bedroom, playing drinking games late into the night while Fuji's parents were away. It was naughty in a way that Tezuka and Oishi nearly always weren't. But earlier that day when they'd been hijacked after practice, they somehow couldn't say no.

And so there they were, cups of sake in front of them, candles lit all around them, and the atmosphere in the room completely charged.

"No way," Kikumaru wailed, "Tezuka's questions are all lame, like 'when did you hit your first tennis ball' and stuff like that. I have better questions for Shuu-chan!"

"What can we do?" Fuji said lightly, and shrugged. "Go ahead, Eiji..."

Kikumaru took a deep breath and then shot back another cup of sake. He shook his head and gasped afterwards, swaying a little. "Ne, okay, Oishi. Shuuichirou... truth or dare?"

Oishi looked at Tezuka again for some kind of aid, butonly got a helpless look in return. They were both trapped by the wiles of the redhead and the tensai, and the only way out was to push through.

"Ummm. Truth."

Kikumaru looked both eager and disappointed at the same time. "Okay -- okay. So, um. Oishi. Have you ever...kissed anyone?"

In a sudden, gut-clenching moment Oishi's mind filled with the scene of his first kiss and his face suffused with red. He didn't -- couldn't -- look at Tezuka. Oishi wondered for an instant whether he should simply lie to protect them both. But then, with the sake sinking deep into his system, he realized that he kind of wanted Kikumaru to know.

"Yes, I have," Oishi said, staring at the floor. His face was so red he wondered whether the other boys could feel the heat from it.

Kikumaru stared at him. "You...have?" The boy sounded deeply curious and a little sorrowful at the same time, and Oishi wondered why. And then came the question Oishi knew would follow. "Who?"

And now Oishi looked at Tezuka, asking permission with his eyes, but Tezuka was staring at Fuji with a slightly lost expression.

Oishi sighed. He was clearly on his own. He turned to Kikumaru and somehow felt that it was appropriate to take the other boy's hand. Why was he doing that? Oishi didn't know, but it felt right. And then, "Kikumaru, I've only kissed one person before, and he's right here next to me."

Kikumaru's reaction was strange. It was half a pout and half interested, and his eyes went wide like a child's. "Tezuka," he breathed. "Wow -- I -- I really want to see that."

"What!" Oishi didn't mean to bellow it, but he did, and Kikumaru grinned.

"I think Shuuichirou would look really...really hot kissing Buchou," Kikumaru said, and then brought a hand up to cover his mouth, as if shocked at his own words.

Somehow, on the other side of the room, Fuji had moved much closer to Tezuka. So close, in fact, that Fuji was draped around Tezuka's shoulders. The captain himself looked like he was undergoing some kind of strange internal struggle, but then one half of the puzzle clearly won out. Tezuka slowly draped an arm over the cuddly tensai and pulled him close.

"So," Oishi said, emboldened somehow by the sake, "so is that a dare? Do you want to see us kiss?" Oishi wondered for a moment what kind of game they were really playing. He felt like a lot more was at stake than simply a half-drunken kiss.

Kikumaru's face suffused with the most delicate shade of pink, and Oishi wanted, helplessly, to see what it tasted like. This wasn't good -- this was strange, right? They were doubles partners, but since when did that mean that Oishi... i liked /i him?

i Since forever, dummy /i an internal voice practically yelled in Oishi's ear. "Must be the sake speaking," Oishi said to himself, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"No -- I --" Kikumaru's voice sounded conflicted. "I -- well, okay. Yes. It's a dare. Oishi: will you kiss Tezuka? Show us what you did?"

With his superior Buchou ability to grasp any situation, comprehend it, and overcome it, Tezuka seemed to know exactly what to do. Without letting go of Fuji he leaned over and touched Oishi very lightly on the cheek. "It's your dare," Tezuka said with very little inflection, "we'd better get it over with."

And Oishi leaned close, still holding Kikumaru's hand, and pressed his lips firmly against the Buchou's.

Tezuka's lips tasted like sake, and like the rice they'd had for dinner. Tezuka's lips were as firm and full and warm as Oishi remembered from Oishi's blushing confession long ago (they'd both been freshmen, and Tezuka was sweet to let Oishi down gently, and even kissed him for working up the courage to ask). And somehow, Tezuka's lips i still /i tasted like they were Not Oishi's.

Oishi sighed, the old heartbreak suddenly bitter in his mouth. And then Kikumaru's hand was pulling him back, pulling him away.

"Ne, that was long enough," Kikumaru said, his voice a little gruff.

"Yes," Fuji agreed, staring up at Tezuka from his position on Tezuka's shoulder with large and limpid eyes.

"So, who's next?"

"Me," said Kikumaru, still holding Oishi's hand.

"I get to ask the question this time," Tezuka said, unexpectedly. "Truth or dare?"

"...Dare." Kikumaru's eyes bored into Tezuka's, and it was as if some kind of strange communication was flowing between the two, something that Oishi couldn't hear no matter how hard he tried.

"You need to repay the favor that Oishi and I did for you," Tezuka said in his "command" voice. "I think you and Fuji need to kiss each other. So that we can see it."

Fuji looked suddenly very sulky, and seemed unwilling to untwine from Tezuka's shoulder. But Kikumaru nodded.

"Fair is fair," he said to Fuji.

"But why did I get dragged into this?"

"We've kissed too," Kikumaru reminded him.

"Saa..."

"Come on, hoi!" Kikumaru scooted close to the other side of Fuji and planted a long, wet kiss on Fuji's mouth. Oishi, who had been trapped in some kind of murky daze, was jolted suddenly awake by the sight of his partner kissing another boy. It was hot. It was strange. It was somehow entirely right and entirely wrong. What was wrong about it?

When Kikumaru was done, Fuji pushed him away and sighed. "You still kiss like a puppy," he said. "Did you learn nothing from all those lessons?"

"Lessons...?" Oishi said weakly, and it seemed like a protest, so he stopped.

Fuji grinned at him. "Gotcha. We've only kissed twice. And he's really, really good."

Oishi felt simultaneously shot through with lust and jealousy, and wondered where the night was heading. But then Fuji spoke.

"Tezuka's turn. And I will ask the question."

Tezuka looked at Fuji, and Fuji looked back. The air was suddenly still, all shot through with a strange, pregnant tension.

"Truth or dare?"

Tezuka didn't even pause. "Dare."

Fuji stood and offered Tezuka his hand. Tezuka took it and stood too.

"We'll be back later," Fuji informed the other two men, and led an unprotesting Tezuka out of the room.

Leaving Oishi alone with a bottle of sake and a very quiet Kikumaru.

So Oishi tried his best to break the silence.

"So -- I -- you --"

Kikumaru crawled closer to Oishi and put his finger very lightly on Oishi's lips. "Shhh," Kikumaru said, and his eyes went wicked.

"Eiji." Oishi said, tongue tasting Kikumaru's first name with a bit of wonder. Kikumaru's eyes narrowed in a grin, and suddenly they were kissing.

This time, when Oishi's lips were full of Kikumaru's soft mouth, and his nose full of the cinnamony scent of his...friend, Oishi felt entirely different. There was no heartbreak, and no sense of wrongness.

There was only Eiji.

...Who was breaking away. Oishi whimpered a protest, and twined his arms around his partner's back to keep him close.

And Eiji's smile was wicked. "It sure took you two long enough. Look what Fuji and I had to do..."

And Oishi kissed him again, just to shut him up. Or maybe (Oishi thought, tongue meeting Eiji's in a sliding wet heat that made his whole body burn) not just to shut him up.