"Bane-san," Davide said, hands on his hips and looking adorably dishevelled, "give me my hair wax back or suffer my wrath."
Bane scratched the back of his neck. "I like you with your hair down like this, though," he told his junior, happy to finally be able to make Davide twitch instead of the usual other way round. "Go a day without styling your hair and I'll buy you ice cream."
Davide was obviously trying very hard to be patient with his doubles partner. "No," he said simply. "Give it back."
"No," Bane echoed, and got to his feet. "I'll see you at the courts." As he strolled out of the clubroom, he could hear Davide taking apart the small cluttered space. He'd find the jar soon enough; Bane always put it in one of the many tarnished cups strewn across the cupboards and lockers in the room.
This whole hide and seek game had begun three weeks ago, when Bane had decided that Davide spending half an hour styling his hair was ridiculous; the kid looked fine without the hair products, and anyway, Bane rather liked the whole fresh-out-of-bed look. So he'd taken the family-size jar of wax out of Davide's bag, and stashed it away in the trophy from 1998. Davide had found it after an hour of mad searching through Bane's things, and the lockers, and even the stash of trowels that the team kept for clam-digging outings. After that, Bane had decided to repeat the stunt on slow days, much to Davide's dismay.
"Did you hide his hair things again, Kurobane-nii-chan?" Saeki asked from the benches, pointing his racket at Bane.
"Yep. Come on, rally against me for a bit. I need a stretch." He didn't mention that what he really needed was some decent physical exertion to distract himself from the idea of Davide fresh out of bed, or perhaps in bed. These mental images were getting more frequent, and Bane wasn't sure if he was supposed to be alarmed or accepting.
A while later, a suitably-styled Davide emerged from the clubroom, but as Bane approached him, he ignored the taller boy and went to talk to Ryou.
"Why'd he do that?" Itsuki asked from behind a stunned Bane. Davide wasn't friendly like Bane, nor popular like Saeki, but he had never been anything but polite to everyone, and sometimes even sweet to Bane.
"I... think it's my fault," Bane mumbled. Obviously the thing with the hair wax had worn thin, and now Davide was angry. Bane dragged a hand down his face, and resolved to apologise to Davide after practice.
He didn't have to. As Ojii dismissed everyone, Davide stepped up to Bane and asked to speak to him in private. Saeki and Ryou, passing by, snickered at Bane, who agreed readily to his junior's request. They made their way to the large wooden playground-gym in the outer field, and Davide leaned against a large post and didn't look at Bane as he began speaking.
"I'm sorry for being so rude earlier," he said right off the bat, and Bane blinked; shouldn't Bane be the one apologising? "I get pretty touchy when it comes to my hair." He then glanced down at Bane, who had settled himself on a swing. "Wanna know why?"
"Uh, sure."
Davide grinned. Bane fidgeted, as he tended to do recently whenever the redhead smiled at him. "Once upon a time," he began, and made a flourish with his hands. "I was young, and innocent, and the cutest little chibi to ever walk the planet. Or at least Japan." Bane didn't doubt it - he'd met that chibi once, after all.
"Anyway, I have a sister three years older than me. When I was eight, she decided it'd be funny to stick chewing gum in my hair. It was melon-flavoured chewing gum," he emphasised. "And she spread it so thoroughly that the only way to get it out was to shave my head." Davide reached up and petted his hair down as if to reassure himself that his hair hadn't disappeared halfway through his recounting of events. "So I get really irrational about my hair sometimes. I don't really mind you hiding my wax, you know. It's just... today was a bad time." He shrugged, and plopped himself into the swing beside Bane's.
Bane looked at Davide scuff at the sand and grass with his feet for a while. "I'm sorry about that," he said at last. "Won't do it again." He reached out and took a lock of wavy red hair between his fingers. "But you really should leave it down now and then. You have really nice hair."
"Do I?" The smile was back, and Bane dropped his hand.
"Davide, do you have homework today?"
"Nothing I can't do tomorrow. Why?"
"Wanna go to the beach?"
The clubroom was deserted, as were the showers in the school gym. As Bane towelled his hair dry, he couldn't help but pause to watch Davide walk from one end of the bathroom to the other in search of his clothes, dripping wet and completely unconscious of his nakedness. Silently, Bane resigned himself to another sleepless night.
The beach was glowing by the time they reached it, the sun dipping into the distance and staining the waves gold. The pair strolled along the edge of the water, talking about nothing in particular and just enjoying each other's company. As they neared the stretch of shops and restaurants, a soft sound made them stop.
"Mew," the kitten repeated, looking up at them sadly with glowing green eyes.
Bane squatted down to examine it. It didn't seem very old, hardly old enough to be wandering around on its own, and it was skinnier than a cat that age should be. "Where's your mother?" Bane asked it. "Are you lost?"
"Are you talking to a cat?" Davide asked, but squatted down beside Bane. "Hello," he said to the animal. "I'm Davide."
"Mew," it replied, and stepped closer to Davide, who fell backwards in surprise. Bane chuckled and scooped the kitten up in one hand.
"I wish I could help you, but I have two dogs who would probably eat you," he told the cat, who made a funny meeping sound and nuzzled Bane's wrist.
Davide reached out and took the fluffy creature. "I could bring it home," he offered. "My family won't mind. I just need to get proper stuff for it. I know they sell Kit-Kats, but do they sell cat kits? ...pfft."
Bane would have smacked him, but he didn't want to shock the kitten. Instead, he settled for poking Davide's side and asking, "What are you gonna call it?"
Davide crossed his legs, not caring that he was sitting on damp sand, and lifted the kitten to eye level. Bane twitched from the tableau in front of him - first he had to watch naked wet Davide parade around in front of him, and now the redhead was determined to kill him with cute.
"I will call you... Muu-chan," Davide declared to the kitten, who mewed enthusiastically in response.
"Muu... chan," Bane repeated faintly. So much for killing him with cute; Davide was going to kill him with sheer WTF.
"Yep!" Davide beamed, turning Muu-chan in his hands to face Bane as well. "Say hello to Bane-san, Muu-chan." He gently bumped Bane's nose with the kitten's face and made a soft 'chu!' sound. "Come on, we have to get to a pet store before the shops all close." He scrambled to his feet, Muu-chan in one hand, and held the other out to help Bane up. Bane took the offered hand and tugged himself up.
Visits to the pet store and vet took place in the week that followed, and an attempt at bathing Muu-chan resulted in scratches up and down Bane and Davide's arms that earned them a lot of teasing the next day. The little kitten soon turned into a sleek white creature, with an odd black patch splashed over one eye. Bane thought it made Muu-chan look piratical. Davide just laughed and suggested getting a parrot to go with Captain Muu-chan. Or maybe an undead monkey, he added, and Bane kicked him.
The weather got colder, and trips to the beach got less frequent. Bane hated the cold, and took to wearing his jacket during practice even though everyone else was still in their sleeveless jerseys. Sometimes, Bane would come to class to find a thermos flask of hot chocolate on his desk. It was always accompanied by an unsigned slip of paper with a lame joke written on it.
"Bane-san," said Davide one day after practice as they took down the nets. "Are you free on Saturday?"
Bane shook out his end of the net and considered his woefully empty schedule. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Why?" Davide walked over to join their halves of the net together, then looked up at Bane.
"Would you go on a date with me?"