Notes:

- I was listening to Yuushi's infamous 'Valentine Kiss'. My brain is irreversibly fried now.
- This chapter is a bit shorter, it's just that I passed my first exam and because I'm fracking happy right now, I decided to update for once. And I haven't abandoned Unbelievable, don't worry, I'm just trying to groom it some more.
- Next chapter will be ToriShishi fluff, aw yes. Much love to my reviewers!

"Ore-sama refuses to talk to anyone who sports the disillusion of being higher than him. Down, Gakuto."

Gakuto rolled his eyes and jumped down from Oshitari's shoulders with a disgruntled face. Stupid Atobe, I was just enjoying a rare free ride. Oshitari's eyes just gleamed with amusement behind his glasses.

"Yesterday - as I was saying - there was a beep of a text message and then the moron Shishido suddenly tripped over his own feet and landed on his face. His leg's twisted."

"How unfortunate. Ore-sama would drop the said moron from regulars we already weren't short of Jiroh, Hiyoshi and Taki because of those bothersome winter illnesses."

Gakuto changed his expression to the one and only that pissed off Atobe the most. It was a combination of a sarcastic frown, a small pout and a stingy, bitchy irritation that made Atobe's skin crawl with sheer disgust. "I can understand that you forgot dear Akutagawa on a bench somewhere and he almost froze to death, but why the hell those two?"

"The floor in the clubhouse is quite cold during this time of year," drawled Yuushi suggestively behind Gakuto. "Especially during the night."

"Oh."

No matter how innocent the statement could have been, coming from Oshitari Yuushi, it was exactly as naughty as it sounded.

The buchou side of Atobe Keigo was glad that his D2 pair was so much in synch, but his usual self could not understand Oshitari's choice for a tennis partner. Gakuto was annoying. Definitely not cute. Nor decorative.

Jiroh, on other hand, was decorative. Extremely decorative. Even more when he slept - his presence fit in any room of any known style. Having a cutely dozing off Jiroh curled on your luxurious sofa was by all means utterly decorative. And Atobe liked it that way. His room, his fancy furniture, his Jiroh.

Wait, his Jiroh?

Atobe blinked, only to find Gakuto still staring at him, leer in his face. Not good, the little bastard had caught him daydreaming this early in the morning. He needed only a little of his Insight to find out that while his mind took a brief vacation, Gakuto got a hold of a snowball. No doubt that it was Oshitari who passed the crude piece of ice to the little rascal. If there was something that Atobe Keigo admired Seigaku's Tezuka for, it was his way of dealing with things. Just the mere thought of throwing a puny snowball at Ore-sama deserved a punishment. He will simply make Mukahi and Oshitari run laps, exactly like Tezuka would do. A hundred for both if Gakuto would have the nerve and hurl the snowball.

Apparently, he had the nerve. And Atobe actually decided to relieve Gakuto from picking up balls for tomorrow. Because the cranberry-haired boy executed a flawless headshot, knocking a stylish ebony haircomb from the hand of a suddenly very, very angry Sakaki Tarou.

Choutarou was left alone at the indoor tennis grounds, pouting dejectedly. For some unknown, Shishido-san refused to pick up his phone since yesterday. For some unknown reason, Gakuto started to choke violently whenever he asked if anybody knew about Shishido-san's whereabouts. Choutarou was confused. It was the nasty kind of feeling that everybody knew something critically important he was completely unaware of.

---

"Man, that's so uncool it ain't nice."

"Mukahi, do me a favor and die."

Gakuto pouted. It was an obviously fake pout. But he had tried. Seeing it had absolutely no effect on the bedridden Shishido, he pulled a sickeningly pink lollipop out of his mouth, visibly proud of the slurping sound he made in the process.

"No, wait. Before you die, stop clinging to Oshitari already. And coax the sodding nurse to return my cellphone!"

Actually, Gakuto wasn't just sitting on Oshitari's shoulders. His legs were firmly locked around Yuushi's torso and the tensai was securely holding Gakuto's nimble legs. Shishido suspected that Oshitari actually didn't have to hold him; he only did so to grope his doubles partner in the broad daylight.

"Just...die already. Both of you."

"Aw, Shishido, how cold," whined Gakuto and bounced down to the ground, leaving the strawberry lollipop stuck in Oshitari's hair.

Shishido just gaped. Oshitari was standing there, his regal, tensai aura severely disrupted by the pink candy right behind his left ear. And he didn't seem to mind.

Gakuto seated himself on the bed, carefully avoiding the bandage that held Shishido's leg in place.

"Don't worry about that," he whispered as he leaned close, vaguely pointing at Oshitari. "Of course Yuushi doesn't mind it, since he knows that I'll lick it clean later"

Shuddering, Shishido tried to edge himself away from the redhead.

"Naw. And we were so kind to visit the poor little you. If you want to, we can tell your beloved Ohtori where you are currently residing, you lame thing."

"Wait, Choutarou doesn't know I'm here?!"

"Nope," Gakuto shook his head happily. Shishido managed to overlook two insults at once. Interesting.

Shishido groaned. "He must be pretty upset, for sure."

"Oh yeah. He's completely devastated. Like, standing on the court and sighing. With that sad, distant and lonely look in the gorgeous, big puppy eyes of his. "

Shishido suddenly didn't know if he should panic or not. He knew he was starting to blush and he couldn't stop it.

"We saw him solemnly waiting under the windows of your room. It was a pretty cold night yesterday. Mmhm, it was, wasn't it, Yuushi?"

"Precisely. And he had this dreamy look on his face and kept wistfully sniffing. As if trying to catch a very elusive fragrance."

Shishido almost started to panic for real.

Wait.

Choutarou would never do that. He would enter the dorm, smile broadly and ask if Shishido-san was around or not. He wouldn't stand under his window like a kicked puppy or a lovestruck---

...he wouldn't, would he?!

And anyway, the sniffing couldn't be that obvious, could it?

Shishido glared, gritting his teeth.

Gakuto glared back. And then Shishido spotted the slight tick in Gakuto's left eye. The ultimate sign of Gakuto Mukahi pulling a prank. For once, Shishido fully understood why Atobe loathed Gakuto so much.

Shishido Ryou snapped. He quickly reached to his side, ignoring the searing pain in his leg and threw the first solid object his fingers managed to find.

Gakuto, being an acrobat, easily evaded the hurled teacup and Oshitari, being a tensai, easily caught it.

"You bastards! Gimme back the cellphone! Now! Or else!"

"No wayyy!" cheered Gakuto, waving Shishido's phone out of his reach. "Man, there were like twenty unanswered calls and your mailbox is totally full!"

Growling, Shishido attempted to sit up and strangle Mukahi with his bare hands, just to get his phone back and end the whole embarrassing situation.

"Shush, we are in the infirmary," reprimanded him Oshitari and tried to calm the happily bouncing acrobat at the same time.

"We will send your dear Ohtori, so be a good boy and whine in pain so he can fuss over you," cooed Gakuto sweetly and climbed up back to his perch, bidding him goodbye, just barely missing the doorframe with his red head.

Shishido managed just to gape silently. Until he snapped again.

"Damnit, the phone! Gakuto, you flippy little bitch! Hey! Wait! Oshitari, you traitor! I'm going to...!"

Soon after the nurse rushed in and sedated Shishido for the rest of the afternoon.

----

"I'm expecting you to make up for the awfully sticky thing in my hair," stated Oshitari once they left the building, mist escaping his lips.

"Of course, Yuushi," replied Gakuto smugly and hugged the tall tensai from behind, rubbing his face in the soft, black fur of Oshitari's long, winter coat.

----