The walk to Echizen's house was quiet, which was fine as far as Ryoma was concerned. He didn't want to talk right now because, if they talked, it would probably be about those two kissing guys. Echizen did not want to discuss kissing with Momo-senpai. Discussing kissing with Momo-senpai would lead to a discussion of what Echizen spoke to Inui-senpai about, and those topics were embarrassing.

"Echizen, what did you think of those guys back there?" Trust Momo to mention the things Echizen wanted to avoid.

"Mada mada da ne," Echizen mumbled, pulling down his hat and quickening his pace.

Momo laughed. "I thought you'd say something like that." The subject fell, swallowed up in a thick silence.

Once to Echizen's, both boys immediately headed for the backyard court. "You serve, Momo-senpai," Echizen said while testing the tension of his racquet.

"You always let me serve. Why don't you serve?" Momo jumped in place, swinging his arms to warm his muscles up.

"You need to practice your serve more than I do." It was true. Momo's serve was powerful, but sloppy. If Momo wanted to be competitive in the later matches of the tournament, he would need to rein his serve in and refine it. If he couldn't then he'd be stuck as alternate. Echizen didn't want to have a crush on an alternate.

Momo laughed, his embarrassed laugh, and readied his serve. "Ah, you've got the truth of it. Oh well, here it comes!"

&-&

Kamio and Kikumaru shoved at eachother. "I can't see, move over," Kikumaru hissed, using his hip to bump Kamio halfway out of the bush they were using for cover.

"Why do we always have to hide in bushes? It's almost dark out. And why do we have to hide in the same bush?"

Kikumaru shoved at Kamio again. Kamio-kun worried too much. If he didn't get into the spying spirit soon, he was going to be bounced from the club. "Shhh, they're about to kiss."

"Momoshiro's serving. They're not even on the same side of the court." Kamio removed himself from the bush. "I'm going to that bush over there. I'll text you if I see something."

"Shhh!"

&-&

Now was as good a time as any, Momoshiro supposed. "Hey Echizen, so about those guys at the courts."

"Momo-senpai, you're supposed to be serving." Was Echizen blushing? The gesture was oddly cute.

"No no, hear me out. When I saw them, I got to thinking that maybe we should, you know?" Momo brought his racquet to his face in a serious of light taps. This sounded a lot smoother when he was saying it in his head.

And look at Echizen, he was standing, taxidermy still, on the tennis courts. His eyes were probably going to dry out really quick. "Momo-senpai, it's your serve."

Was that Echizen's way of saying yes? Did that mean he wanted Momo to make the first move? "Well," Momo scratched at his head, "I know you're kinda fixated on Buchou right now, but he's gone and I thought you might wanna, you know?" Gah, why couldn't he just say it?

Echizen was at the net now, gripping the plastic roping. "Momo-senpai, your serve." He sounded almost desperate. He must really be waiting for Momo to ask him.

"I know, I know, I'm trying to get there, okay? I asked this girl out last year, and she said no, so I'm really nervous." Momo frowned at the memory. "I only asked her out because she confessed to Mamushi and I thought that it would piss him off if she suddenly turned around and went out with me, but she said no. It was kinda painful." A tennis ball collided with Momo's hair.

"Serve!" Echizen's hand was still in the air, hanging at the point where he'd released the ball.

"So, what I'm saying is that, while Buchou's away, you can't really do much, so maybe, if you want to, we could go out. I know I'm not as good as Buchou or anything, but we could go play tennis and get dinner and maybe go to an amusement park or something." Momo closed his mouth, aware he was rambling. "So?"

Echizen was sitting on the ground, his head in his hands. "Don't you like Kaidoh-senpai?"

Damn, he knew about that. "Well…yeah, but that'll never happen."

"So I'm second place?" Echizen's eyebrow twitched, but he was smiling a little, too. "I'm not used to being second place Momo-senpai."

Momo chuckled and started walking to the net. "With a rival like Mamushi, you get used to it." Momo paused, a thought striking him. "Why does everyone like the Mamushi, anyway? I'm a lot nicer. Okay, so he does better in school, but I bet it's because Inui's been helping him study…"

"You're much better, Momo-senpai." Echizen said it in the laughing, condescending way he said Mada Mada Da Ne.

"Don't just try to stroke my ego, Echizen, I'm being serious here! I'm way better!" It did feel good to have someone stroking his ego, though, even if it was only in jest. Momo cleared his throat. "So, you think we could try it? I'll be your second place and you can be mine?"

Echizen stood up, casting a look toward the house, probably to make sure his creepy father wasn't watching. "I'm better than Kaidoh-senpai. I'll beat him," Echizen declared, pushing out his fist.

Momo met Echizen's fist with his own. "Same here. Tezuka may be buchou, but I'll definitely beat him someday."

Echizen laughed and pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket. "It's your serve Momo-senpai. Stop making up reasons to stall your inevitable defeat."

"I'm going to crush you."

"Mada mada da ne."

&-&

"I feel sick," Marui grumbled, coddling his strawberry shake.

"It's probably the blood loss," Jirou reasoned, picking at his banana split. Marui had a large bandage on his neck, covering one of the places Kirihara bit him. Jirou laughed.

"Shut up." Marui used his straw to flick shake on Jirou.

Jirou's tongue waved in the air. "Don't laugh at my hickies anymore."

"You had a hickey?" Kikumaru's ears perked up and he began to examine Jirou's neck. "I don't see anything."

"He covered it up with make-up," Kamio commented, swirling his straw through his chocolate shake. "It was on the left, near the collarbone." Kamio pointed to the spot on his own neck.

Kikumaru stared at Jirou's neck, then laughed. "I see it, I see it," he sang.

"Can we please get down to business?" Jirou asked, scooting away from Kikumaru and toward Marui, who looked like he was ready to end his life by way of a straw to the jugular. "Come on, Brother Bunta, it wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I can't believe you made me do that," Marui sighed dramatically, leaning forward to put his head on the table. "If fukubuchou hears about this, I'll be running laps all week."

"Don't worry so much about it. We accomplished the goal, didn't we?" Jirou gave Marui a few pats on the back. Kikumaru and Kamio called the previous night to inform the group of Momo and Echizen's upcoming date, consisting of a game of street tennis and dinner, Momo's treat, afterwards.

"Tennis isn't a date," Kamio argued. "They play tennis all the time."

"Oishi and I play tennis on dates," Kikumaru argued.

"You do?" Jirou asked, delighted. Keigo never wanted to play tennis with just the two of them. Keigo liked playing tennis out in the open, where everyone could "be awed by his prowess."

Kikumaru nodded. "All the time."

"But you're the Golden Pair," Kamio argued. He was near-whisking his shake. "Was your first date tennis?"

"Well…no," Kikumaru admitted.

Jirou waved his hands in the air, trying to capture his friends' attention. "I suggest we leave it be for a month and re-evaluate their progress at that time. What say you?"

"I'll keep the phone monitoring on. Once we get a few hours, we can review it," Marui suggested, taking out a small notebook and jotting some things down.

"Sounds good." Kamio was no longer frothing up his shake. "So…I guess I'll see you guys around then, huh?"

Jirou frowned. "What? We're not meeting here next week? We can't have a secret society if we don't have regular meetings."

Kikumaru was bouncing in his seat. "Yes! We can't let our group fall apart just because we don't have a project."

Marui nodded in approval around his straw. "So long as I don't have to kiss Kirihara again," he warned, sending a particularly nasty glare at Jirou. "So, next week?"

"Next week," Kamio agreed.

"Definitely." Jirou shoveled a big bit of banana into his mouth.

"So long as Jirou pays for the snacks," Kikumaru added, looking at the bill at the end of the table. "Otherwise, we're going to the Happy Burger."

"We can't go to the Happy Burger," Jirou protested, "Momo and Echizen go to the Happy Burger."

"Then buy the snacks. Besides, you owe me." Marui stuck his tongue out at Jirou.

"Do not."

"You so do."

"Do not…"