Truth Serum
"Nya? But I don't know anything unusual about Tezuka." Eiji scratched his head, as the other regulars paid rapt attention. Inui only leered and brought his jug of juice closer to Oishi's face, which by this time had turned a peculiar shade of teal.
No one (except maybe Fuji) knew exactly how things had progressed this way. Ryuzaki had come in to check on the sleeping team, but of course, they were all pretending. This was the first time since middle school that the Seigaku tennis team had been reunited and no one was going to pass up the opportunity to dig into the gossip.
Eiji's suggestion of a pillow fight had been vetoed as too loud ... and then ... well.
The slightly fluorescent clearly juice had round black shapes gathered near the bottom. And although it smelt like an appetizing pitcher of fruit juice, Inui's skills were not to be doubted. Reputedly it made one tell the truth, so the solution to evading its consumption had been...
"Tell us anything you know." Inui pushed up his glasses in a subtle gesture that he was getting impatient. Eiji's hopeful look was quickly quashed as Fuji reminded him that it had to be strange, and about Tezuka-buchou at the same time.
Momo was sneaking looks at their captain, but he only sat to the side, resigned that his team was going to have fun, rule breakage and all.
"I don't know anything! I swear! It's not fair, you know, not all of us have super detective skills like you do!" Tezuka twitched faintly at the mention of Inui's old stalking habit, but only the practiced eye would have picked it up. As it was, Fuji was too busy watching Kaidoh's reaction, and Ryoma was napping fitfully.
"I'll go." Fuji volunteered. Tezuka visibly twitched. His reputation was saved by the fact that everyone was staring in slack-jawed surprise at the normally tight-lipped tensai. The focus of attention only smiled.
"Well, this story is actually from his mother, so I'm not sure Tezuka can verify, but anyway. When Tezuka was a toddler, around three, he wouldn't eat anything but ice cream. Vanilla ice cream. And ... Kunimitsu, are you alright?"
Tezuka did indeed, remember, as his mother teased him about it even now. Whenever his father thought he was (being too uptight) acting like his grandfather, he would be reminded about the sullen silences that he gave when there was no ice cream at a meal.
But Fuji was moving on with the story, "... tried everything to cure him, but there wasn't a single type of food he liked except ice cream. One day his father was watching the US Open and left the TV on, because he'd forgotten to get the carton of Haagen-Daas. And when he got back from the local store, Kunimitsu was glued to the screen. So, anytime he refused to eat, they'd make him watch a tape of tennis, so his mother could feed him whatever foods she had cooked."
Eiji blinked. "Ne, that's why Tezuka's not fat?"
"..." Oishi tried to formulate a coherent excuse to leave the room. Or at least explain that you do not mention the tennis captain and fat in the same sentence.
Inui gave an eerie smile. "Ah, but it seems that Tezuka has given up on ice cream. I have yet to see him pick one up for the six years I've known him."
"Saa... I suppose he had to choose between the two greatest passions of his life." At that, Momo flopped down on the tatami mats, "Then we're lucky that buchou picked tennis, huh?" Eiji nodded vigourously. "Yes! Because otherwise he would be fat, and chubby! Like this!" Oishi's partner proceeded to demonstrate with energetic stretches of his cheeks.
Tezuka was secretly thankful that his teammates held him in too much awe to ever spread this around.
Inui was looking gleefully at Ryoma's sleeping figure. "Hmm. This one fell asleep in our sacred ritual. He shall be punished." All those present thought of the fluoro-fruit punch, and winced. Fuji took a swallow of the contents in the pitcher. "Saa, it's still fresh."
"Excellent." With this rejoinder, Inui proceeded to shove most of it down Ryoma's throat. He woke up, sputtering and choking, and glared balefully at Momo, who tried to look innocent by hiding behind Taka-san.
Glasses flashing without a single source of light, Inui was so full of glee Fuji had to step in to talk for him. "Ne, Ryoma-kun, you have to tell us something you know about buchou now." Mostly everyone blinked. They had been expecting harsher punishment than this. Tezuka, however, gave up fighting his migraine and leaned his head against the wall.
Ryoma suppressed a yawn. "Che. Do I have to?" Fuji nodded emphatically as Inui slowly caressed the side of the jug. Ryoma stared at the liquid with an impenetrable look. "Buchou likes to sing in the mornings." He then got up and walked to the farthest corner of the room, threats of punishment notwithstanding, and went to sleep.
The rest of the room looked at Tezuka. Then they decided that the best course of action was to collectively go to bed, so as to not further provoke the already tested captain.
The next morning dawned early and cheerful.
A/N: Hope you like!