Talking, in the abstract, about kissing your kouhai in public was quite different from actually having to perform the act. The actual execution of the plan was nerve-wracking and embarrassing. Kirihara hadn't even shown up yet. Marui paced in the stands above the street tennis courts. He was wearing, per Jirou's insistence, a pair of low-slung black jeans and a mustard colored t-shirt. Jirou claimed that mustard yellow highlighted Marui's hair. Jirou was not high on Marui's Favorite People list at the moment, neither was Kikumaru, who had a camcorder "to get info on Echizen and Momo." This plan had better work.
Marui's phone rang. "Hello? Oh, Kirihara-kun. What's the matter?" Faking nonchalance when you knew your kouhai was being bribed to sexually molest you was also not easy. Marui resolved to remain professional. "I'm at the street courts. I'm supposed to meet some friends, but they're running late." This whole setup was stupid. Kirihara was going to see through it. "Sure, come on down. I'll take a look at the serve and see if I can help." Marui hung up the phone and walked down to Kikumaru, who was cleverly disguised in a Fudomine uniform, borrowed from Kamio, who was disguised in a Hyoutei uniform, borrowed from Jirou, who was hiding in a bush near Echizen and Momo's usual court. "Akaya just called. He said he'd be down in about ten minutes. What's Momo and Echizen's ETA?"
Kikumaru consulted a small notepad. "Fifteen minutes. Make sure the display lasts until you hear the signal." The signal was Kamio cawing like a crow and using the word 'tamale' three times. The display was to begin toning down at the first tamale and finish on the third.
"I guess I'll go prepare for my public humiliation, then," Marui sighed, his back hunching just a bit. "I can't believe you're making me do this."
"Just take it for the team!" Jirou called from his bush.
&-&
Kamio watched Kirihara stroll past the street courts, making a direct line for Marui. Marui was standing around, doing a convincing ditched-friend impression.
"Psst. I can't see anything," Jirou whispered from behind. "Step to the left."
"Aren't you supposed to be waiting for Echizen and Momo?" Kamio asked the tree he was leaning against.
"They won't be here for a while. The bus they take is running late." Was Jirou actually laughing?"
"Shouldn't we signal to Marui so he knows not to start the display?" Were Kamio the one forced to kiss Kirihara, he'd be livid if the display was all for nothing.
"Nah, I'm sure they can string it out. We'll give the signal to draw it out if he looks this way." Yes, Jirou was definitely laughing. "I'm going to test the camera, just to make sure it works."
Kamio stepped away from the tree and went to get a soda. When Marui found out about this, he was going to kill them.
&-&
Marui-senpai was kind of cute when he was upset. His lips puffed out and his eyes sharpened. Maybe kissing him wouldn't be so bad. It would be better if there weren't a lot of people watching, but oh well. They were dumb and weren't good enough to practice on their own school's courts. Their opinions didn't matter.
"Akaya!" Marui waved Kirihara over. "The courts are busy, but I put us in line for a game. There are two rotations left. I'll take a look at your serve form, though. Once we assess the weaknesses there, we can figure out why your arm's tiring out so fast."
Kirihara stared. Maybe he couldn't do this. Jackal would hear about it and be upset, which meant he'd tell Sanada, and Sanada would make Kirihara run laps. Also Marui-senpai was so innocent and nice, despite his really awesome ideas on how to annoy Sanada and get away with it.
Still 5400 yen was a lot of money, and Kirihara's father wasn't going to buy him new shoes when Kirihara just begged for a new tennis bag last month. Kirihara took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. He would do this. Marui-senpai was the nice, forgiving type. Besides, Jackal-senpai never paid any attention to Marui-senpai, which was a crime. Tensai needed to be nurtured or they turned out like that Fuji Syusuke from Seigaku: crazy. Kirihara, as a good kouhai, should make sure his senpai didn't go crazy.
"Kyah!" Kirihara launched himself at Marui, grabbing hold of the other boy's arms before pressing their lips together.
&-&
"What kind of training do they do at Rikkai?" Kikumaru asked Kamio as the two stood, dumbstruck.
"I guess this could work as endurance training," Kamio said. "They're either breathing recycled air or breathing through their noses. They haven't come up since Kirihara put his hand up Marui's shirt."
Kikumaru knew he was blushing but, like everyone else on the now-silent tennis court, he couldn't look away. Marui was really taking his job seriously. The display looked really authentic. "Where are Echizen and Momo? Those two won't be able to keep this up forever."
"Yeah, those two're going to start losing clothes if they don't' slow down." Kamio sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve.
"Let's have some faith in Brother Bunta," Jirou piped up. The surprise appearance caused Kamio to let out a squeak.
"Don't do that!" Kamio growled, shaking a fist at Jirou.
Jirou snapped a picture. "I can so sell these at the next Rikkai game." Jirou's eyes were sparkling. Kikumaru moved away.
"He's going to kill you when he finds out you're taking pictures of him and not of our targets." Kikumaru didn't want to be around for that argument. Marui would win. He may look cute, but he had long nails and wasn't afraid to use them in a fight. Kikumaru saw Marui fight another student over the last lemon custard tart at a bakery once. Marui got the pastry and banned from the bakery while his opponent went home with a three inch slash across his cheek. Finally, something registered. "What did you call him?" Kikumaru asked, looking to Jirou.
"Brother Bunta. Doesn't it sound cool? Every secret society should have special names for eachother." Of the four of them, Jirou knew the most about secret societies. He was always toting around some book or the other. Last week, it was the Masons. From what Kikumaru knew, secret societies usually had hats and handshakes and special codewords. Brother Bunta didn't sound too bad, he guessed. Kikumaru would look into the hat thing.
&-&
Kirihara wasn't a bad kisser. His tongue was long, thin, and thus able to dart about Marui's mouth in a squiggly, pleasing sort of way. But, despite the tongue in his mouth and the hand moving in small circles and scratches along his back, Marui was focused on the task at hand, that being waiting for Echizen and Momo to get to the courts before Kirihara and Marui reached a place that would make seeing one another on a daily basis very uncomfortable. Marui tried to let out a controlled "Akaya" in hopes of giving himself and Kirihara a breather from their vigorous kissing, but he only managed the "Ak" before Kirihara's tongue trailed from Marui's mouth, around his cheek, and down to the dip of Marui's collarbone. The combination of air and wet skin stole the breath out of Marui in a ragged exhalation.
&-&
While Kirihara removed Marui's shirt, Jirou sorted through the photos on his digital camera. He didn't have a spare memory card with him, so he had to delete some of the lesser quality photos if he wanted to capture the whole display and still have room left for Echizen and Momo, who were now twenty minutes late. Maybe Kamio should go find them. "Hey Brother Akira, would you mind…"
"Where is his hand going?" Kamio asked, wiping his nose on his sleeve again. Jirou was going to throw that blazer out and get a new one. The stains would never come out.
"Well, Marui's working on Kirihara's shirt now, so I'm guessing Kirihara is protesting and shoving his hands down Marui's pants so that the shirt can't come off." Kikumaru said this while jotting some notes down. "1200 yen says that Marui rips the shirt."
"With those arms? No way! You're on." Kamio reached into his pocket and took out the required bet.
"I have to side with Kamio on this one." Jirou held out his money just as the rip echoed across the courts, followed by a gasp from the crowd. Evidently, they didn't think Marui could do it either.
"Suckers," Kikumaru laughed, snatching up his winnings. "Zen-"
"Shut up!" Kamio stalked off toward the park entrance. "I'm going to go look for those two idiots before Marui-"
"Brother Bunta," Jirou corrected with a smile and a waggling of his finger.
"-Brother Bunta gets arrested for public indecency."
"Bye!" Jirou and Kikumaru sang, turning to the digital camera as soon as Kamio was out of sight.
&-&
Echizen and Momoshiro stood at the seldom-used west entrance to the street courts. From there, they could hear a great commotion, mostly hooting and whistling, but couldn't see the source of said commotion. They did, however, see a familiar mop of red-brown hair.
"Why is Kamio-kun wearing a Hyoutei uniform?" Echizen asked Momo despite the fact that he knew his senpai wouldn't know. Their walk to the courts had been an uncomfortably silent one, and Echizen would take whatever opportunity he could to break the tension.
"Maybe he went spying today?" Momo waved and shouted, "Oi!"
Kamio ran up to the Seigaku duo. He was panting and there was blood on his sleeve. "Hey. You guys should come check the action out over at the first court. We're trying to figure out who these two guys are." Kamio took hold of Echizen's hand.
Echizen grabbed hold of Momo. "You're coming Momo-senpai." Echizen refused to be alone in a wild, hooting mass of tennis players.
When they finally arrived at the scene, Echizen's eyes went wide and he immediately turned away. Two shirtless guys were kissing at the top of the stadium. Oyaji watched this sort of thing, only with girls, so watching it was obviously going to ruin Echizen's brain. Echizen wanted to avoid following in his father's footsteps at all costs, which meant avoiding sex and sexual situations at all costs. Showers didn't count so long as there was no one else in the shower with you.
"Didn't that guy come to Seigaku once?" Momo asked, pointing.
Echizen looked up. The kid with the black hair did look familiar. A vision of hundreds of tennis balls scattered across the tennis courts came to mind. "He's the one that made us stay late, picking up tennis balls." Echizen reached into his tennis bag and removed a racquet and ball.
Momo's arms wrapped around Echizen, taking the tennis ball. "You can't! He didn't mean to. Besides, that was a long time ago."
When Momo's arms didn't move, Echizen resorted to blushing and pulling down his cap with his free hand. Momo's gesture didn't mean anything, but the heat radiating off Momo's arms was making Echizen blush, just a little. He blamed the pink haired kid and the black haired kid. Still, Echizen didn't say anything, even when Momo continued to drape over Echizen while watching the two kissing above the courts.
&-&
Marui-senpai was pretty well built for such a small guy. His chest, which Kirihara was currently nibbling on, was tight and compact, dipping every now and then for a nicely defined muscle. But, while Kirihara heard and read all sorts of things about the taste of sweat being sexy, he thought that the taste of sweat was a lot like the taste of dirt. Still, the noises Marui-senpai made when Kirihara's tongue slid over his nipples was really cool, so Kirihara continued on despite the vile taste.
"You must work out a lot, Marui-senpai," Kirihara said after a nibble.
Marui panted out a few breaths before responding, "I train a little extra on the weekends. Tensai skills don't just pop out of thin air." Marui pushed Kirihara back a little.
"Problem senpai?" Kirihara's gaze remained on the red spot he'd just left on Marui's chest. It looked rather pretty, standing out against the white of Marui's flesh. There should be another one, lower down, to add visual balance.
"This isn't helping you with your serve." Marui looked over his shoulder and his skin went a touch paler, allowing the mark to really stand out. "There's a court full of people watching us."
Kirihara took Marui by the hips and, after a deep exhalation, hoisted his senpai up. Marui reflexively wrapped his legs around Kirihara's waist, though his attention remained on the crowded tennis courts below. "They're just jealous because I got to the tensai first." Kirihara smiled, licked his lips, then went about making Marui's abdomen more artistic.
"What about your serve?" Every other word out of Marui's mouth was accented with "oh" and "ah."
Kirihara bit at Marui's side. Marui-senpai should be grateful that Kirihara was braving the disgusting sweat-taste and paying attention to his senpai. He shouldn't be complaining about stupid things. Besides, Kirihara still needed to get that gum. "We can't practice if everyone's crowding the court like that. Kirihara nibbled his way back up to Marui's mouth, where the gum was and where he could keep his senpai from talking.
&-&
Around him, Momo heard various reactions from the crowd. Some people were saying that the two should get a room, but most were just staring, saying how "hot" the two kissing were. Momo was one of the later, but he wasn't saying anything, not aloud. It would make Echizen feel uncomfortable, much like Momo's unintended hug had earlier. Momo would have liked to extend the hug a little more, but alienating Echizen wasn't worth it. In a month or so, Momo was going to ask Echizen out. First, he had to deal with Inui, who was no doubt telling Echizen lies about Momo. Momo's heart dropped as he recalled his conversation with Inui two days ago.
Inui-senpai didn't have to say all of those mean things. He could've just said Kaidoh wasn't interested or asked Momo to stop looking- Momo now admitted he looked- but, instead, Inui recorded Kaidoh and Kaidoh's thoughts on Momo. The commentary was not flattering, and there was nothing wrong with Momo's hairstyle. Lots of people liked the spiked look.
Liking Kaidoh was a passing thing anyway, just like the way Echizen looked at Tezuka-buchou. Tezuka-buchou and Fuji-senpai would be engaged if Fuji had his way. Fuji lectured Echizen on proper senpai-kouhai relations right before the Hyoutei match. It didn't stop Echizen from looking, though. Momo knew Echizen was looking because whenever Momo tried to look at Echizen when Buchou was in the room, the ichinen had a faraway look, like he was thinking about a nice place, a Fuji-free place.
Momo liked Echizen because Echizen understood wanting things that are dangerously off limits. They never talked about any of this, though. That would be awkward.
"Do you want to go?" Momo asked. He hoped Echizen would say no, but he wasn't going to hold his breath for it.
"Yes. We can play at my house." Echizen grabbed Momo's arm and sprint-walked away. Under the cover of his hat, Echizen was blushing down to his neck. He looked really cute when he was flushed.
&-&
Kamio's throat was raw from cawing and the people around him were wondering why he was shouting 'tamale' at the top of his lungs. They could stare all they wanted as far as Kamio was concerned; the most important thing was stopping the display before Marui's pants slid any lower. Momo and Echizen left ten minutes ago.
"I got a really nice shot of Momo hugging Echizen. Wanna see?" Jirou pushed the digital camera in front of Kamio.
"I think we should concentrate on Brother Bunta's dignity before we worry about your photo essay." Kamio moved closer to the display area.
"Don't worry so much. I think Brother Bunta's enjoying himself." Kikumaru draped an arm over Kamio's shoulder and pointed upward. "See, he's got a pretty tight hold on Kirihara now."
"He's going to fall if he doesn't hold on," Kamio countered, his distress giving his words a nasal quality. "His legs are wrapped around Kirihara to keep him from falling."
Jirou took out a pair of binoculars. "Wow. Brother Bunta's got some pretty good thigh muscles. Kirihara's not even helping to support him."
Kikumaru swiped the binoculars. "No way!" Kikumaru's jaw fell. "Um…maybe we should stop them. I think Kirihara's hand just went into Marui's pants."
Kamio took the binoculars and pulled them close to his body. "See!" He shoved Kikumaru toward Marui and Kirihara. "Now go stop them."
Kikumaru shoved Kamio back. "Nuh-uh, this was your idea. You stop them."
"It wasn't my idea for them to strip eachother. They improvised that part." He shoved Kikumaru again. "I got Momo and Echizen here. It's your turn to do something now."
Kamio and Kikumaru stopped shoving at eachother when they heard a series of clicks. They turned to Jirou, who was smiling, camera resting against his eye. As one, they dove at the camera, shutting it off before pushing Jirou toward the stairs leading to the top of the stands.