Notes: Multiple chapters today because they're short and because otherwise I'll forget to update. XD Actually I meant to say a while ago that although I've finished writing About Us already (when I remember XDD) which is why I can update it quickly, reviews can be helpful. When I was having trouble writing the last few chapters of About Us, some of the thoughtful reviews for Satisfaction were really encouraging :3

Second to last chapter! XD

Archive: No.

About Us

Chapter 14

By Miki

It didn't really hit Atobe until he was sitting in the back seat of the limousine, that what Yumiko had meant by calling him out like this was to tell him she didn't trust him. It was nothing more and nothing less. She simply didn't trust him with her younger brother and she wanted to know what sort of a person Atobe was.

The realisation was almost insulting. He was Atobe Keigo, for goodness' sakes! How could she not trust him? He wasn't just any commoner.

Besides, he thought, was it not enough that he felt equally confused about the whole thing? What did she expect of him? Perhaps it was true he'd been the one to start the ball rolling, but it wasn't as though Yuuta had been forced to date him. It wasn't as though Yuuta couldn't make up his own mind and didn't have his own brain, and it seemed utterly unfair that Yumiko seemed to have pinned responsibility for everything on him only.

He stared out the window, suddenly unhappy. The conversation with Yumiko had left him feeling unsure about where he stood with her, and though he knew Yumiko wasn't Yuuta and Yuuta wasn't his family, he didn't feel much better for it. He was used to being openly scrutinised – his family's social position attracted interest, of course – but when it came from Yumiko, he felt ill at ease.

He felt caught suddenly; caught between trying to be the one who knew what they were doing and where they were going, and caught between wanting to just let things be because when things were like this with Yuuta, he really felt as though he was just a kid trying to play a game he couldn't quite understand. He felt odd about the fact that there were no rules to follow and no guidelines to tell him how to stay on track. He felt odd because unlike the singles games he was used to, this was something which was reliant on the fact that there were two of them in it together.

He'd never really been good at doubles matches, oddly enough. It had always struck him as stupid to try and do something with someone else that he could easily do alone.

Yuuta didn't exactly strike him as much of a doubles player either. Doubles was something that required coordination, understanding, trust and commitment. It wasn't something you could learn overnight.

(S)

Yuuta stepped in through the front door, standing his right heel on the toe of his left shoe and lifting his foot out, and then doing the same for the other shoe.

He slipped his shoes onto the shelf, shuffled his feet into his slippers and trudged through to the lounge room, hearing Yumiko come in the door behind him. She'd picked him up from school, ringing him just as he was signing out of the office and rushing to catch the train. He'd asked her where she'd been, but all she'd said was that she was 'on this side of town' and then she'd changed the topic… which seemed to suggest to Yuuta that she'd been doing something she didn't want him to know about.

Sometimes he wondered if she talked about that sort of thing to Aniki; if he missed much because he was living at St Rudolph instead of at home.

As he passed through the lounge room, he had to do a double take, glancing at the figure on the chair across from his brother. The crossed legs and the hands holding a cup of tea caught his eye quickly, but he glanced, heart in his throat, and then realised he'd been wrong.

The person on the chair was Tezuka, and his blank expression was about the last thing Yuuta wanted to see right now.

"Yuuta," Syuusuke exclaimed happily, turning around and getting up to walk around the sofa to his brother.

"Aniki," Yuuta grumbled, being hugged only slightly against his will.

He might have hugged his brother back if Tezuka weren't in the room, but his brother's captain had always bothered him a little, so he pushed his brother off quickly and headed towards the stairs instead, giving an awkward 'hello' to their guest.

"Yuuta? Tezuka's staying over tonight, okay?" Syuusuke called out.

Yuuta froze in his steps, biting his lip to stop himself from saying something in response. Just this once, he'd wanted to talk to his brother and he'd wanted to talk to him about Atobe, which meant that having Tezuka around was out of the question.

He trudged to his room, dropped his bag down in the middle of the floor and then shut his bedroom door. Loudly.

(S)

"How's school, Yuuta?" Yoshiko asked, smiling at him.

"Okay," he said, putting a piece of fish in his mouth. His mother usually didn't ask him questions when he was eating, so he figured the more he ate, the less she'd ask.

Apparently that didn't deter her though.

"So how's tennis lately? How's Mizuki-kun? Did you have practice today?"

Yuuta swallowed his mouthful slowly, ignoring the smile on Yumiko's face and the blank look on Tezuka's. The fact that Tezuka was a brilliant player was totally unrelated to the fact that he had about as many facial expressions as the steamed fish on Yuuta's plate right now, though it did stop Yuuta from feeling as though he could really talk to the guy.

His brother's other friends were worse than Tezuka anyway, and Tezuka was the only one who really came over regularly anyway. Mostly he seemed to come on the weekends and mostly he seemed to bring stacks of maths books with him, which made Yuuta think that his tennis genius might not extend to his studies.

"Yuuta?" Yumiko prompted. "Aren't you going to answer?"

Yuuta gave her an irritated look. "Yeah, fine."

There was silence at the table for a moment as his mother tried to interpret his answer. "You mean school is fine? Or do you mean Mizuki's fine?" she questioned.

Yuuta shook his head. "Everything's fine."

"So what did you do today? Yumiko said you played tennis at the street courts," Syuusuke said.

Tezuka was politely quiet beside him, sipping at his tea.

Yuuta wondered why they weren't all interrogating him instead. Wasn't he more interesting anyway? And why were they ignoring their guest in favour of him anyway? He'd just wanted to come home to get away from people and yet they were probably going to keep asking him stupid things until he answered everything.

He sighed, rolling his eyes up at the ceiling and then taking a long sip of his tea. "I went to the street courts with Yanagisawa and-"

"Da ne," Syuusuke interrupted.

Yuuta tried to give him a dirty look, but couldn't help smirking a little. "Da ne," he echoed, agreeing with his brother while Yumiko looked bemused and Yoshiko looked confused.

"Anyway, I went to the street courts with Yanagisawa and Kisarazu and we played a doubles match with… with Tachibana An and Kamio Akira."

"Oh, how's Kamio?" Syuusuke asked enquiringly. "And if you were going to play a match, you could have called us, Yuuta."

Yuuta frowned. "I wasn't planning to go out there today," he grumbled.

"How come you didn't ask Atobe-kun?" his mother asked, as though reading his mind.

"Yes, Yuuta, how's Atobe going?" Syuusuke echoed, taking the chance to change the topic slightly.

Yuuta glanced at him, accidentally catching Tezuka's eye. The surprised look on Tezuka's face wasn't what Yuuta was expecting to see so he turned his head to meet Tezuka's gaze directly.

"Uh… He's fine," he answered distractedly, glancing back at his dinner again.

That was right, wasn't it? Atobe and Tezuka were at the same level of tennis; it was normal that they'd be interested in each other.

He shoved the rest of his fish into his mouth quickly and finished off his rice so fast that he nearly chocked on a few stray grains.

"Yuuta? Are you okay?" Yumiko questioned, frowning.

He swallowed down the rest of his tea. "Yeah, fine. Can I go now?"

(S)

"Keigo? What are you doing in here?"

Atobe looked up, shrinking back as he recognised his mother's face. "I'm tired," he said, a whine slipping into his tone of voice.

"Don't be silly," Miyoko admonished, frowning at him. She stepped further into the library, pushing the heavy door behind her and clicking it shut. "Our guests are out there and you're in here sulking like a child, Keigo. I even had to come and get you myself. What are they going to think if you stay in here any longer?"

Atobe concentrated his vision on the bookshelf opposite him, drawing his legs up onto the lounge chair he sat on. He really didn't want to spend any more time out there. He didn't care for any of the guests his mother had invited over, nor did he care for his cousins and their stupid, childish antics. They thought they were so grown-up sitting there blabbing about politics and the economy, but Atobe could have told them that the more they talked, the more they showed their complete and utter ignorance.

All they were good for was regurgitating what the morning's newspaper had said and Atobe had no interest in that, just as they had no interest in actually learning anything for themselves.

The only cousin whose company he really enjoyed was currently overseas on business anyway, so Atobe had retreated to his library after the main course. He knew it was terrible of him, but he just didn't want to see anyone.

"Come on, Keigo," Miyoko said again, a little more loudly, when he showed no signs of movement. "They're asking where you are."
"Tell them I'm sick," Atobe grumbled, knowing fully that it was just as unreasonable a request as it was a statement. He wasn't sick; they'd know he was lying since he'd been at the dinner table looking perfectly normal just a few minutes before. "They're so annoying…"

Miyoko stared at him a moment longer, frowning before making a noise of irritation and turning on her heel.

"I'll let you stay in here for an hour, Keigo. One hour and then I expect you back out here. Don't make us look silly." She cast a glance at his posture as he hunched in his chair. "I don't know what you're being so childish about, but it's unlike you."

Atobe listened to the door click shut.

He knew it was silly. He knew it was childish, but he just didn't want to have to sit there and listen to their half-baked drivel. He didn't have the patience for it and he didn't care for it, so why couldn't he just do what he wanted? Why couldn't he just have told Yuuta yes and told his parents no?

He knew it wasn't as though he had to spend every weekend like this, but the knowledge that in the future he wouldn't be able to shirk any of this was starting to worry him. If he couldn't do what he wanted to do now, what was he going to do in five or ten years' time?

And he'd really wanted to see Yuuta.

He propped a pillow under his head and wriggled until he was comfortable.

He wasn't going back out. Let them come in and find him if they really gave a shit at all.

He hoped they didn't find him, and stared at the handle of the door, sure his mother had closed it properly. He wanted to see Yuuta so badly but he wasn't going to call him about it now. He already felt odd about seeing Yuuta after seeing Yumiko and he hadn't yet decided what he wanted to do about Yumiko either.

He just wanted to be. He just wanted to spend time with Yuuta and stop worrying so much, yet he knew it came with his position. It came with his position, with his name, with the fact that they were still teenagers; kids, really. It came with the fact that they were both boys just trying to fumble their way through some kind of relationship.

He felt like such a kid.

(S)

Yuuta woke up to sore legs and the thought that today was Sunday and he ought to have asked Atobe to meet him in the afternoon. Instead, he'd told him he'd be busy and had come home instead, intending to stick around until after dinner before going back to school.

He wanted to talk to his brother actually. He'd have done so the night before, but it just didn't feel right with Tezuka in the house. Maybe it would be easier to talk to Yumiko about it? But then, Yumiko already knew about Atobe, really, and his brother… Well, Yuuta still hadn't told Syuusuke, and even though he hadn't really spelt everything out to Yumiko, he'd told her that he liked Atobe at least.

He rubbed at his legs, deciding to get out of bed.

He fumbled the handle of his door when he opened it and stumbled as he walked down the hallway to his brother's room. The bathroom door was shut and the shower was going, so he figured it would be Tezuka in there.

Perhaps now was a good time to catch his brother anyway.

His boxers were twisted from tossing a lot during the night, and he'd accidentally matched the wrong buttons to holes when he'd changed his shirt the night before. Apparently his mother thought he ought to get rid of his old t-shirts since they were either too stretched or too worn to function as pyjamas now, and she'd left him little choice in sleepwear.

Yuuta hoped Tezuka didn't come out of the bathroom soon, because bumping into Tezuka Kunimitsu while he was wandering around the house in an old flannel shirt and a pair of boxers really wasn't on the list of ways Yuuta wanted to meet the guy.

He probably wouldn't go to the street courts later, he thought. He'd planned to be here until dinner and he wanted some of Yumiko's blueberry pie, since he'd asked her to make it.

"Aniki?" he called out, pushing open the door.

There was a bit of a thump on the other side and a yell and Yuuta peered around the door, only to realise Tezuka had been about to open it.

He'd just banged it into Tezuka's nose… which meant that his brother was the one in the shower… and now Tezuka was standing in front of him in his pyjamas and looking like he had a tender spot on his nose.

Yuuta stared, horrified.

Oh god. He'd probably just broken Tezuka Kunimitsu's nose.

(S)

"I thought you weren't coming," Atsushi blurted out, surprising Yuuta.

"Huh? Ah, right…" he mumbled, avoiding looking at him and Yanagisawa. It was kind of embarrassing to admit the reason he was here at this time was because Tezuka's nose, while not broken, fractured or really damaged, had taken on a funny shade of purple because Yuuta had hit him with the door that hard.

Luckily he hadn't been wearing his glasses or they'd have broken.

Yuuta didn't really feel like staying in the house any longer, so he'd taken the early train back and dropped his bag off at the dorms, only to be told by Hanashima at the front desk that he'd find Atsushi and Yanagisawa at the street courts. Mizuki was out shopping and Akazawa was with him.

"Fuji-kun!"

Yuuta blinked, seeing the trio of Kamio, Ibu and An coming towards them.

Yanagisawa frowned. "Oh yeah, that stupid redhead is here too, da ne," he said, pointing his finger over his shoulder.

Yuuta gave half a smile. Trust Yanagisawa to be so enthusiastic at this time of the afternoon. Atsushi looked a little sleepy actually, as though he'd eaten too much at lunch. "So what time does the tournament start?" Yuuta asked.

Yanagisawa grinned. "Five minutes. If you want to sign up, you have to do it now."

Yuuta peered around Yanagisawa, seeing a large group of players lingering around the side of one of the courts. They looked like a muddled bunch though he did recognise a few other St Rudolph boys. He wondered why Mizuki wasn't here.

"Mizuki said he couldn't be bothered wasting his talent on second-rate competition," Yanagisawa mentioned, as though reading Yuuta's mind. "I think he's still hanging out for your brother."

Yuuta rolled his eyes.

"We're playing doubles," Atsushi said, stating the obvious. "I think Tachibana An wants you to play mixed doubles with her actually, but if you don't want Kamio to punch you, you'd better say no."

Yuuta snorted. "Like I'd play doub…" he cut himself off and winced as An grinned at him, waving a water bottle as she reached the group.

"Have you warmed up yet?"

Yuuta shook his head.

"Good. You can warm up with me. Shinji and Akira are playing doubles."

"Are not," they both chorused at the same time, apparently intent on playing singles no matter what.

"If I can't play mixed doubles with An-chan, then I'm not playing any doubles," Kamio declared loudly, glaring at Yuuta, who shuddered. He did have to grin though, at the way An gave a look to Kamio which just shut him up.

He was glad he'd come out. An was fun to be around – when she wasn't touching him anyway – and it was pretty funny seeing Yanagisawa and Kamio already giving each other dirty looks again.

Ibu watched them, shaking his head slightly. "You know, I still don't see why Akira's so worried about Fuji-kun. It isn't like he's Atobe, is it?"

Yuuta glanced at him quickly, Atobe's name surprising him. Why was Ibu talking about Atobe?

Ibu continued, "… since Fuji-kun didn't try anything weird and it's not as though getting mad really helps when it didn't help things with Atobe and I don't think Fuji-kun's nearly as bad as Atobe, and really, An-chan can surely-"

"What about Atobe?" Yuuta interrupted quickly. Ibu's droning voice was annoying him, but Yuuta wanted to know why he was talking about Atobe. Did he know about them? About his dating Atobe?

He felt nervous and jittery, awkward and on edge; defensive. He was conscious of Yanagisawa and Atsushi beside him, and he saw Atsushi's movement out of the corner of his eye. He was tapping on his watch, telling Yuuta he only had a few minutes until registration closed for the tournament.

Yuuta ignored him, concentrating on the look on Ibu's face.

An glanced at Yuuta and he returned her look quickly, curious as to what she knew. He hadn't talked to Atobe enough lately and he'd spent too much time thinking over the way things could go and the way they could be, and it was doing his head in.

Ibu nearly started mumbling. "Atobe's-"

Kamio cut him off, snorting, putting a hand on Ibu's arm as he leaned against him a bit. "Atobe liked An-chan."

Yuuta's stomach was turning. "Oh," he said, because he was relieved none of them knew about Atobe and him… But when had Atobe liked Tachibana An? Why didn't he know? Was it recently? Did Atobe still like her? Had he taken her out to dinner as well? Did they go to the same places?

He wanted to ask Atobe himself, but he wasn't here and An was.

"Anyway," An said, shaking her head. "We saw him yesterday. He doesn't like me anymore so you don't need to talk about it; it was just stupid."

Yuuta's chest felt tight. So Atobe really had liked her sometime.

"You saw him… yesterday?" he asked. "Was there something on?"

Kamio looked away, looking pink in the face. He wasn't about to tell Yuuta they'd started off trying to follow him and had ended up getting lost. Besides, he couldn't see how any of this mattered to Yuuta. Why didn't he just hurry up and register before he missed the cut off? The tournament was being organised by some kids from some nearby high school – not exactly famous for tennis, but word had gone around and there were a lot of decent players here now – and they weren't exactly going to wait for some private school kids to register themselves so they could start.

Yuuta was bothering him, though half of that was the fact that An was paying so much attention to him. "What's it to you anyway? Do you know Atobe?" he finally asked.

Yuuta could feel the palms of his hands getting sweaty. "No… I…" he fumbled, glancing instinctively at Yanagisawa and Atsushi, but he knew they were probably just as confused as Kamio, Ibu and An. He hadn't told them; didn't want to tell them, couldn't tell them… He hadn't told anyone really.

An tilted her head slightly, looking at Yuuta carefully. "Atobe was on a date with a girl," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know who she was, since we couldn't see her, but I think she looked like an older girl. They looked pretty serious."

"Well, isn't that what those other two said?" Kamio butted in. "They said Atobe had been seeing her for something like two months, didn't they? Wouldn't you have to be serious after two whole months?"

"You could have gone in," Ibu suggested, taking the conversation back. "Of course you couldn't see her face. She was facing the other way and I can't see through peoples' heads. If I could though, it might not be so bad since I wouldn't have to worry about sitting behind Suzuki in maths and I might actually be able to read the board for once. I mean, really it-"

"Shinji," An said sharply.

Ibu paused, noticing she was looking at Yuuta and then turning his attention to Yuuta as well.

"Yuuta?" Atsushi questioned, glancing at Yanagisawa. He looked lost for words, so Atsushi touched Yuuta's shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah… I'm fine…" Yuuta tried to say, but the words came out strangled sounding and stupid. It hurt just getting them out. His chest felt constricted and tight and his throat felt hot and his eyes felt wet and he wasn't going to cry. He just wasn't.

He sniffed, trying not to let his nose run. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he chided himself, but it didn't help. He knew he wasn't crying yet, but he was close, and he could feel the heat in his chest and the ache at his throat. He didn't know why everything hurt so much; why something someone said just made him feel like shit like this, like every insecurity he'd ever felt was just coming back to him and all the trust he'd put in Atobe – in whatever the hell it was that they were supposed to have – was just being thrown back in his face.

It wasn't the first time he'd heard it. It wasn't even the first time he'd doubted that he was good enough for Atobe and it definitely wasn't the first time he'd wondered why Atobe would even be interested in him at all.

All the doubts in the back of his mind were coming to the surface – why Atobe had ever even bothered talking to him in the first place…

Did he get something out of it? Was it all some kind of sick joke? A dare? A prank? A kind of bet who could talk the stupid Catholic school kid into believing someone like Atobe would ever even look seriously at him? Would Atobe do that to him?

Was he just some kind of object Atobe thought was funny? Was he just amusement?

What the hell was going on?

Yuuta wanted to give up trying to understand what Atobe was thinking. He just couldn't second-guess him anymore and now he was standing at the street courts and he was just making a complete idiot out of himself and he just wished he was at home again.

He didn't want to look like this; didn't want Yanagisawa or Atsushi or Kamio or Ibu or An to see him looking so stupid.

"Yuuta," Atsushi said again.

Yuuta realised Atsushi's hands were on his shoulders and he looked up, realising how close Atsushi's face was to his.

"What?" he asked. His voice came out sounding weak, so he repeated himself.

Atsushi gave an awkward smile. "You… You don't have to play today if you don't want, you know? Is there…" he stopped, uncertain.

Truthfully, he didn't know how to deal with Yuuta when he was like this and they weren't in the safety or privacy of the dorms.

Yuuta looked shell-shocked and to anyone who didn't know him, he only looked shocked, but Atsushi and Yanagisawa both recognised the look on his face. The tight fists at his sides were easier to notice, but it was the look in his eyes that gave the game away.

Yuuta realised Ibu was talking. He was always talking. His voice was droning on and on and on about nothing.

His own mind had suddenly gone blank.

"Do you want to go and get something to drink?" Atsushi asked, adding a little more tactfully, "You don't look that well right now."

"There's a café around the corner, da ne," Yanagisawa piped up, sticking his head in next to Yuuta's and Atsushi's.

Yuuta blinked.

Café.

Café.

The word never failed to remind him of Atobe now.

"No… I… I just…" he muttered, "I'm going to go and see someone." He swallowed hard, trying to fake a bit of a smile.

It didn't work on Yanagisawa or Atsushi. He could see that easily by he couldn't care less; he just wanted to get away from them. He wanted to see Atobe and he wanted to do it now, before his resolve weakened.

He lifted Atsushi's hands off his shoulders gently and stepped backwards, shuffling his tennis bag on his shoulder. He'd have apologised to An for not sticking around, but at that moment, there was a loud voice yelling out that the draws were starting and registration was over, and Yuuta took the moment to turn and run down the steps of the street court.

His nose was running now, but at least he hadn't started crying, even if his eyes were a bit watery. He hoped Atsushi hadn't seen them.

He jerked his hands into his pockets, but they came out empty. His mother had cleared out the tissues from his pockets when she'd washed these shorts the night before, so he looked around to see that no one was watching and then wiped his nose on his arm.

It was grotty; he knew that, but letting it run was worse and he didn't care for pretentious manners anyway.

Atobe's number was at the top of his contacts list. It was easy enough to press the buttons and listen to the dial tone on the other end of the line.

It was harder to say the words that he wanted to say though.

He nearly hung up when he heard Atobe's voice answering. A fresh wave of anger and hurt went through him and he struggled to keep his voice level, not even letting Atobe finish talking before he interrupted.

"Atobe-san…? I… want to see you. Where are you now?"

.tbc.