Title: Shopping Spree
Author: shy-hinata
Rating: G
Summary: Even if he's just going for the bet, Atobe still has standards to uphold
Disclaimer: I don't own PoT

Author's notes: I apologize profusely to everyone who has been waiting patiently for another instalment of this story. I've had serious writers block, which included pretty much losing my muses. Thanks to my dear friend Sarit for lending me some of her muses when I needed them.

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It was a sunny Sunday morning, and Ann greeted it with a smile. She had it all planned out: tennis at the street courts in the morning, hopefully followed by lunch with the boys, a little bit of shopping to get ready for the dance next week, and then studying (which would invariably be interrupted by her friends calling to talk about the dance). There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and Ann felt as though nothing could bring her down. Too bad life had other plans.

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The sight that greeted her at the street courts made her eye twitch. Facing off squarely against each other were the Fudomine boys team, and the Hyotei boys team. Oh. Dear. This was not good. Her brother looked like he was having the migraine of the century, Kamio was acting like he was going to rip Atobe's throat out any second, while Shinji's ice cold expression sent chills down Ann's spine.

Walking a bit uncertainly to the group, Ann tried to wave as cheerfully as she could. "Uhh…hey guys! Nice day for a friendly game of tennis, huh?" She tried to emphasise that word as much as possible. She really didn't want to see a bloodbath out on the courts.

Kamio was the first one to rush to her side, a desperate look on his face.

"Tell me it's not true! Tell me that this arrogant twerp isn't going with you to the dance!"

Oh. So that's what all this was about.

"Umm…well…actually…" Ann looked at her feet; she felt so uncomfortable answering her friend, especially when she could feel the weight of his stare on her. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"Like hell you are," Shinji's icy voice made Ann raise her head in shock. She'd never heard her friend talk like that before. "Slimy guys from Hyotei don't know how to act human, let alone human enough to take good enough care of our Ann-chan."

It really shouldn't have surprised Ann to hear a response from the Hyotei regulars, but she couldn't help secretly hoping that maybe, just maybe, all this would blow over and everyone could go back to their normal lives. But alas…

"EXCUSE ME?! What would you know about being human you walking iceberg?!" Hyotei's dash specialist had felt the need to make himself heard, and in the background, Ann could hear his double's partner quietly mumbling "Shishido-san…that isn't very nice."

Or course, when it rains, it pours and Ann found Mukahi joining the fray.

"So? The princess is right for once." The acrobat sniffed indignantly, wiping his nose in the Fudomine team's general direction. "They're just some lowlife public school brats. Why are we even talking to them?!"

Ann was half convinced that this was all a bad dream, and maybe if she blinked enough times, she'd wake up. Her brother looked like he was thinking the same thing as he had by now shut his eyes and brought one hand to massage his temple.

"I know more than you ever will you over excited Chihuahua, going around shooting your mouth off like you're the best in the world..." And with Shinji's last comment, Ann could feel things starting to turn ugly.

"That does it! You scrawny little public school ass is mine!" Shishido was practically growling, and even Ootori looked worried. This was about all Ann could take of silly boys going around trying to prove a non-existent point.

"Stop it! All of you!" Ann's voice cut through the mumblings on both sides. "You," she said looking pointedly at Shishido "You have no right to talk to one of my best friends that way. Say what you will, but Shinji has always been there for his friends, and if that's not a mark of humanity, I don't know what is."

Ann took a breath, and it looked like Shinji was about to say something else, but Ann stopped him. "And Shinji, don't you go doing the same thing, calling people names and saying mean things about them when you hardly know them. And you!" She turned her ire on Gakuto even as Oshitari adjusted his glasses, looking amused by all of this. "We might be from a public school, but the way you've been acting, I would say that you've got a long way to go in terms of having class."

Having said her peace, Ann watched as all the boys were quiet for a moment, all eyes on her. It only lasted a moment before they all started talking at once. Mukahi pretended to ignore Ann's comment, instead turning to his captain. "Atobe, I'm bored. I thought we were going to do something FUN. Not sit here and talk to little children."

Just when Shishido was about to open his mouth to respond to Ann's comment, Atobe held up his hand, silencing all his players. He looked at Kamio, who only seemed to glare back at him, arching his eyebrow a little.

"Kamio? Perhaps ore-sama is mistaken," but everyone knew that Atobe would never open his mouth to say anything if he wasn't quite sure of it. "But rumour has it that Ann actually asked you to go to the dance with her already…"

Atobe let that statement hang in the air, as if waiting for Kamio to tell him otherwise. The Fudomine speed demon's face froze in a look of complete shock as he wondered just how on earth Atobe had learned such a thing. It was Shishido's raucous laughter that broke the silence that hung over the courts.

"And you said no?! BOY, YOU'RE STUPID!!!"

Kippei looked as though his head was going to explode as he groaned inwardly. Even the look on Shishido's doubles partner's face seemed to say 'you are an idiot'. As he watched his player's shoulders slump in shame, Kippei decided that this was enough. He cleared his throat just loudly enough to catch everyone's attention.

"These are tennis courts. If we're not going to use them to play tennis, then we should all leave."

For her part, Ann definitely thought that her brother had the right idea. She was ready to pull her hair out at all this and decided that there was no way she could play any decent tennis now. With a sigh of frustration she turned around and left the courts. Maybe she should just move to the shopping phase of her day. From a distance, she could hear her brother getting his team in order.

"Fudomine! Warm up! 5 laps before we start practice matches!"

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For a good half an hour after that encounter, Ann seemed to wander aimlessly through the Tokyo streets. She was supposed to be picking up some new earrings and hair clips for the dance, but couldn't manage to get focused. She stood at an intersection waiting for the light to change when a car with tinted windows stopped in front of her. She blinked in puzzlement, and was about to tell the driver off when the window rolled down.

"A-Atobe-kun?!"

"You, dear Ann, are a very hard person to track down sometimes." Atobe smiled at her, but without the usual arrogant air to it. He opened the door and got out of the car before watching it pull away. "You don't mind if I join you for a while, do you?"

Ann wondered why it was that it sounded more like a statement than a request, but answered it with a slight shrug. "If you want. Can't say that I'm doing anything particularly interesting though. Just some shopping for the dance."

Atobe's eyebrow arched a little. "Oh? Well, then I would say that I definitely need to accompany you then. After all, I need to make sure that I don't clash with my date." That last word seemed to hang in the air for a moment, Atobe feeling a little strange saying it for some reason, and An finding it just as strange to hear it coming from him.

"Um…well, I don't need to get much," Ann admitted as they started to walk together. "Just some earrings, and maybe some new hairclips." Ann was mentally calculating just how much she could afford to spend without breaking her bank.

"That's all? No nice new dress? And here I thought that girls liked to do that sort of thing."

Ann sighed a little with exasperation. "Atobe-kun, this might be a little hard for you to understand, but it's not always a case of what one would like to do, but rather what one can afford to do. My dress from junior high graduation will be just fine."

Atobe tsk-ed. "So, you're telling me that you're going to wear a dress that pretty much everyone at your school has already seen you in?"

Ann bristled a little at his comment, crossing her arms defensively. "You say that as if there was something wrong with that, Atobe-kun."

At that, Atobe came to a halt and pulled out his cell phone. Ann hadn't quite realized he had stopped until she was a few steps ahead of him. For some reason unknown to her, she retraced her steps to stand next to him as he finished his call. "Is there a problem, Atobe-kun?"

Returning the phone to his pocket, Atobe smiled at her. "Oh, no problem at all. There's a shop that I'd like to take you to, actually. I was just calling ahead to let them know to expect us."

Ann wasn't sure if she should be horrified or flattered. Instead, she shook her head, giving in to his idea. "Alright, fine." She threw her arms up in mock surrender. "I don't know what the point is, but fine. Lead the way." Atobe offered her his arm, which Ann took though she was still shaking her head.

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For probably the fiftieth time that day, Ann was wondering how these series of events had managed to unfold. After walking with Atobe to this rather exclusive looking shop, Ann really had to be coaxed into even setting foot inside. It took a good deal of persuasion on Atobe's part to convince her that they were indeed expecting her there, and that it wasn't some sort of joke. Ann didn't know what she was expecting, but it sure as heck wasn't what she got. Between the personal attendant, to the catered lunch, Ann honestly didn't know what to make of things. For the first half of the visit, Ann was introduced to a stylist who talked with her about things that she liked and didn't like, and then while they had lunch, a few people in the store went around picking things out that they thought would suit her. And now that it was after lunch, Ann was now in the middle of trying on the various dresses that had been selected.

The stylists had really done a great job, and An personally couldn't find anything to complain about with any of the dresses. Atobe on the other hand, seemed to be much more particular than she. One after another, he found something wrong with it: too dark, too light, poor cut, odd colour. It wasn't until An got to the second last dress did he seem satisfied. Or rather, he didn't seem to have anything to complain about. He simply spent a long time looking at Ann, making her feel a little nervous.

"Um…I'll just go and try on the last one?" Ann looked at Atobe while she shifted her weight from one foot to the next. He didn't say anything back, but simply nodded, and Ann made a beeline for the change room to try the last dress on. The last dress must have been something of a joke, because Ann decided that she wasn't going to even come out of the change room with it. All the feathers on it were going to make her sneeze. When Atobe asked to see it, she flat out refused, telling him that nothing 'ore-sama' said would make her come out. Chuckling to himself, Atobe told her it would be fine before asking the clerks to wrap up the second to last outfit, including all the matching jewellery and shoes, and put it on his tab.

When Ann emerged from the change room, one of the clerks handed some bags containing a set of boxes inside, bowing to her politely. "With the compliments of Atobe-sama," the still bowed clerk said quietly to Ann. She blinked for a moment, totally dumbfounded before turning her eyes to Atobe, who was on the phone. Ann was still too shocked to say anything. At first she was wondering what the whole point of this exercise was considering she wasn't really able to afford anything in the store at all. But now this?!

Atobe held the door open for her as she stepped out of the shop, asking her to wait for the car he had just called to come and get them. The two of them stood there silently for a moment before Ann finally spoke. "Atobe-kun? Why did you do this?"

The question hung in the air before Atobe cleared his throat. One might have said that he seemed almost uncomfortable, almost as though he was searching for something to say. Except ore-sama always knew exactly what to say, didn't he? "While I did agree to go to your school dance with you, I still have some standards that I would like to see upheld." Atobe folded his arms across his chest as he seemed to shift his weight from one leg to another.

Ann knew she really should have been offended, and yet something about his body language seemed to tell her that maybe he wasn't nearly as sure of himself as he liked to let on. She smiled and shook her head at him before laughing quietly. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see if you manage to meet mine." She winked at him mischievously, which made him smile back at her. As the car pulled up to meet them, Atobe wondered why his stomach was doing flip-flops. Must've been the lunch.