"This is impressive." Kamio looked at the dessert menu. It was in a leather sleeve. Good thing Jirou was paying; Kamio would have to save up for a month to be able to afford the Chocolate Blitzer, which was what he was going to order. The menu claimed that the dessert would send you into chocolate fits of ecstasy. Kamio could go for that about now.
"Isn't that Marui from Rikkai?" Jirou whispered. "I remember him from nationals last year." Jirou scowled a bit. Hyoutei went down to Rikkai the previous year. Kamio wasn't there to see it, but he heard that the Hyoutei-Rikkai matches were long and bitter.
"Yep, looks like." Kikumaru craned his neck around. Kamio thought only owls could perform that particular trick.
"If we ignore him, maybe he'll go away." Jirou brought his menu up to cover his face. Kamio followed suit and soon found out that whispering through a menu was not the best of ideas.
"I didn't think I'd ever see you three here together!" Also, Marui was already walking over, smiling and waving. "Are you having some sort of secret meeting or something?"
"No." Jirou replied through a yawn. "I was sleeping and didn't get off at my stop. Kikumaru-kun and Kamio-kun are making sure I don't fall asleep again." Jirou yawned again.
"Get the Chocolate Blitzer, then. It'll keep you up. Or, if you really want a buzz, try the Caramel Hurricane." Marui continued to give his suggestions, reciting nearly the entire menu. Kamio stopped listening at the Mint Mauler-Blaster Shake.
&-&
Marui wasn't leaving. Jirou faked sleep three times, but to no avail. The pink haired boy refused to be shaken off. Currently, Marui was sitting at the table, discussing doubles technique with Kikumaru. The two seemed to be getting on well, which was all well and good, but there was business to be dealt with. Jirou would just have to take a stand. "Excuse me, Marui-kun, but we have some things we'd like to discuss."
"I thought you were just trying to get home," Marui laughed, waving over a waitress. "We'll have Chocolate Blitzers all around please." Marui smiled at the waitress and waved her goodbye as she left. "She's really nice. She puts extra whipped cream on everything. So, you were saying, Akutagawa-kun?" Marui was cheeky, and Jirou, as a rule, didn't like cheeky people. They made things difficult.
"We're trying to get ochibi and Momo together. They'd be cute." Trust Kikumaru to ruin any hopes of getting Marui to leave.
"Oh, it's one of those things. I know all about that. Earlier this year, I had to get Niou and Yagyuu together. That was a tough one. It was worth it, though. They're a killer doubles team." Marui grinned at Kikumaru. "Probably better than your Golden Pair."
"Nobody is better than the Golden Pair." Kikumaru said it as a matter of fact. Jirou admired Kikumaru's confidence, particularly since Kikumaru and Oishi took a beating from Rikkai at last year's competition.
"Can we not fight?" Kamio asked from behind his menu. He was holding it like a barrier between him and the dueling doubles specialists.
"I'm not fighting." Marui smiled, a slow, falsely happy smile. "I'm waiting for you to let me in on the deal." He scooted closer to Kikumaru. "Rikkai's been boring lately. I want to hang out with you guys."
"No." Kikumaru scooted away, moving toward Jirou in the round booth.
"Stop fighting," Kamio snarled, snapping his menu closed.
"He insulted me. I don't want to be friends with him." Kikumaru turned his head away from Marui. Jirou saw the hidden corner of Kikumaru's mouth quirk up.
"You need a genius like me on your team," Marui countered, also smiling. "I'll even pay for dessert as a goodwill gesture."
"Even if I want another Chocolate Blitzer?" Kikumaru asked, his grin widening.
"Sure." Marui agreed. Jirou didn't think Marui quite understood what he was getting into.
"How about if I want a Toffee Tornado Cake, too?"
"Fine."
Kikumaru cackled. Jirou waited for Marui to realize he had been tricked. Kamio put his head down on the table. Marui simply continued to smile. "I won a bet against our waitress, Meriko-chan, so whatever I order is on the house today," Marui explained, baring his teeth in glee.
Kikumaru's shoulders drooped. Kamio let out a noise somewhere between a snort and a walrus' mating call. Jirou extended his hand across the table. "Welcome to the Club."
&-&
The meeting lasted until the sun set and Meriko's shift was over. The three didn't get anything particularly useful done, but they did manage to consume four desserts each, which was more than Kamio was used to, it seemed. He was buzzing around the street like a five year old. Marui, on the other hand, was walking calmly, thinking aloud. "So," he said, turning to Jirou, "you guys don't have an attack plan at all?" The chocolate taste in Marui's mouth was fading. He took out a stick of bubble gum and began chewing.
"We were going to come up with one at the parlor, but someone distracted us," Kikumaru cut in. He was smiling, though, so Marui chose not to be offended.
"Let's split up and think about it for the night. We'll get together tomorrow and come up with a plan." Jirou's eyes were beginning to slide closed. "I shouldn't have eaten so much, I'm getting sleepy."
"I have to practice with Tachibana tomorrow, so I'll be a little late," Kamio mumbled. He was blushing. Marui caught Kikumaru's eye and raised an eyebrow in inquiry. Kikumaru shrugged and mouthed "later."
"We meeting at the same place?" Kikumaru asked. He was bouncing now.
"We'll have to pay for things, though." Marui hoped they wouldn't want to go again. He was broke and wouldn't be able to afford another Blitzer until allowance, which was a week away.
"I've got it covered," Jirou yawned. Jirou's pace was slowing. Kamio was supporting the volley specialist as they walked. "I'm gonna call for the car. You guys go ahead." Jirou blinked and took out his cell phone. Marui would've moved on, but the other two weren't. "Hey, it's me," Jirou said into the phone. He was smiling a goofy smile, like Kamio did when he talked about Tachibana, which he did at least once every five minutes. "Sorry, I fell asleep and ended up near Rikkai. Come get me?" Jirou's grin widened. "Great, see you in a bit." It was then that Jirou noticed he had an audience.
"So," Kikumaru slung an arm around Jirou's shoulders. "Who was that?"
"That was no one." Jirou began to snore. Marui began to suspect that Jirou was never as sleepy as he pretended to be.
"You can tell us," Kikumaru protested. "We're brothers now!"
Jirou's eyes opened again and he watched them all in turn. Marui thought that Jirou's full attention was a bit scary and not something he wanted to be the subject of any time soon. Finally, Jirou sighed and relented. "That was Atobe. He's going to be here soon, so you better get going. He won't be happy if he finds out I've been out with all of you." Jirou shrugged. "You know how it is."
Marui didn't know how it was, but he suspected Kikumaru did because the boy let Jirou go and waved for everyone to leave the volley specialist be. Marui stopped walking and turned to his two remaining friends. "I'm going to head home. See you guys tomorrow."
"See you!" Kikumaru surprised Marui by giving him a hug. "I'm glad we met today." Kamio waved and jogged ahead of Kikumaru, who was now bouncing down the street.
&-&
Echizen was not normally a paranoid person, but there was definitely someone following him today. More than once, he turned to find a bush shaking or curtains swaying. It was probably one of those crazy fangirls, but it could also be a spy from their next opponent. Inui-senpai said there were more scouts hiding around campus after the Hyoutei game. Everyone wanted to know what Seigaku was going to do without their buchou to support them.
"Oi, Echizen!" Momo bounded out of the clubhouse, waving. Sometimes Momo-senpai was embarrassingly loud.
"Momo-senpai, you should finish getting dressed before you leave the clubhouse." Echizen pointed to Momo's side. His shirt was riding up and his boxers were showing above his warm-ups. Momo was wearing solid blue boxers today. He wore red Scottie dog boxers yesterday. Echizen saw them on accident while they were changing. He wasn't looking on purpose.
Momo laughed and righted his clothing. "Oops, guess I was in a hurry. Let's warm up before Oishi-senpai gets here." The sophomore grabbed Echizen's hand and pulled the freshman toward the courts.
Echizen pulled his hand free as soon as they got to the courts. "That hurt, Momo-senpai," he grumbled, trying to shake the tingly feeling out of his hand. You couldn't play if your hand was having pins-and-needles.
"Don't be such a whiner, Echizen. You're fine." Momo slapped Echizen on the back. "You serve, but none of that Twist Serve business, we're just warming up." Momo-senpai laughed and strutted to his side of the court.
Momo-senpai never walked anywhere. He always strutted or swaggered, moving himself in such a way that everyone noticed he was there. Echizen didn't like how Momo put himself on display all the time, exuding so much confidence, even when Momo lost as much as he won. It reminded Ryoma of his father, and he never wanted to compare Momo to that old man. In fact, Ryoma wanted to keep the two as far apart as possible.
Ryoma opened the warm-up with a Twist Serve, simply because Momo-senpai said not to. Whenever Momo said not to do something, it was his way of asking Echizen to do it. That was the system, at least this week. Echizen would change it next week because no one told him what to do, especially Momo-senpai.
&-&
"He was so watching Momoshiro's abs during that Dunk Smash," Kamio whispered to Jirou. They were hiding in a bush, taking notes on Echizen and Momoshiro's interactions.
"Momoshiro doesn't seem to be noticing, though." Jirou pointed to where Momo was stretching. He wasn't so much as looking at Echizen while the freshman lifted his shirt and wiped his face.
"Not much to notice. Echizen doesn't have Momo's bulk." Kamio pulled them back further into the bush as Inui passed.
"So, our main problem is getting Momo to notice Echizen, then. We can do that, easy." Jirou pulled Kamio back further. "Let's go down to the street courts. We need to position ourselves there for their after-practice game." Jirou asked around and found out that Momo and Echizen regularly appeared at the street tennis courts on Tuesdays, circa 6pm. Jirou and Kamio were going to observe them there while Marui observed the pair at the Happy Burger. Echizen and Momoshiro never competed against Marui before, so the Rikkai player could stand in open view and be safe.
"I think I've got that covered," Kamio whispered. "I need to call Shinji for it to work, but I think I've got it. I'll meet you at the courts in a little bit." Kamio dashed off, leaving Jirou alone to wait until Inui wasn't looking again. Kamio rustled the bushes a little too much on his way out. Inui was prodding at the front of the bushes with his data notebook. Jirou would have to teach Kamio some of the finer points of spying, the first being; don't get caught.
&-&
Momoshiro felt exposed. He wasn't ashamed of his body, but there were a lot of people at the courts tonight, and it was a little cold out. Also, he wasn't wearing a shirt. Momo couldn't remember why he wasn't wearing a shirt, it had something to do with something Kamio said, insulting Echizen. Maybe it was a bet. The point was, Momo was playing tennis without a shirt and Echizen was staring at him.
"Momo-senpai, it's your serve." Echizen tugged his hat down.
"Sorry, sorry. I was thinking."
"I find that hard to believe," Kamio snorted. Kamio could really be an ass sometimes.
"I wouldn't talk like that until you've won, Kamio-kun." Momo served, hard and fast. Kamio returned the ball. Kamio and Ibu were a good doubles team. Momo was aware he and Echizen…had some things they needed to work on. For example, they needed to not run into eachother on the court.
"Match point," Ibu called. "We win. Not that we ever thought we would lose. I don't know why Kamio insisted we come here. Unless we play against tough opponents we're never going to improve. I would've done better if I could've played singles against Echizen, but he won't play against me because he's still mad about that eye thing, which wasn't even my fault. Everyone still blames me for it, though, even though his eyesight is fine and…"
"Shinji. Stop." Kamio pulled Ibu to the net and everyone shook hands. "It's time for us to go, see you next time."
Momo turned to his tennis bag, frowning. He hated losing, especially to Kamio.
"Momo-senpai, our shirts are gone." Echizen was still standing on the court. He was watching Ibu and Kamio leave.
"Huh?"
"Our shirts, someone's stolen them."