Hold

Pairing: Inui/Shinji

Fandom: Prince of Tennis

Theme: #22. cradle

Disclaimer in part 1.

Rating: PG-13

Note: This picks up immediately after "Tournament"

Inui was laughing as he settled back to watch the match. He was right; the Ibu-Kamio pair was having no trouble with their opponents, and Inui was appreciating both the opportunity to gather more data and to watch Shinji as he moved around the court. Everything was falling as he had predicted, though the pair in front of him seemed to be breaking beyond what Inui's data had even suggested, not that he was too surprised, considering that both Kamio and Shinji were involved. Watching his boyfriend play at that moment, Inui honestly had a hard time imagining that anyone would be able to defeat that pair, even him and Kaidoh.

And then it went wrong.

When he looked back on the scene, Inui couldn't pinpoint the one thing that caused the sequence of events to take place. Shinji had hit a shot that left him a little off-balance, and he stumbled briefly over a shoelace that had managed to come untied. A minor thing that most players at his level could work around without a hitch.

But the opponent had noticed the weakness as well.

He aimed his shot into Shinji's court, targeting it to his weaker side. Kamio saw this, tried to get over there, but even his speed wasn't enough. Shinji saw the ball, moved to take the shot, hit it…and then was down with a sharp cry.

Inui didn't even realize he was moving, didn't see the referee come onto the court, didn't see the medic move in, didn't even acknowledge the gross impropriety of jumping onto the court when a game was technically still in play. All he saw was Shinji's pale, twisted face, and all he heard was Shinji's silence.

He reached the cluster of Kamio, referee, and medic just in time to hear the medic say "…ankle. Could be sprained, could be more. Better get him to the hospital for X-rays. I'll go get the stretcher." He and the referee walked off, once the referee called the match.

Shinji looked up at Kamio. "Sorry, Akira. Didn't want to make you forfeit."

"Don't be stupid, Shinji. It's not your fault." Kamio looked up at Inui, who he had noticed hovering there. "I'll get our stuff. You calm down your boyfriend."

Shinji looked up and tried to smile. "I'm not dead, Sadaharu."

"But you still scared me." He knelt down beside Shinji. "Does it hurt?" He winced at the swelling.

"Like you wouldn't believe. Aren't broken bones supposed to not hurt? Or is that something else I'm thinking of? I don't like pain, it's very distracting. But I guess if we didn't feel pain, then we wouldn't know that something's wrong…did it suddenly get cold?" Shinji shivered a little.

Inui wrapped his arms around Shinji, cradling him close. "Shock, probably. There's a 67 percent chance you'll go into some form of shock from any given traumatic injury."

"I wouldn't call this injury traumatic, Sadaharu. Yeah, it hurts, but it won't scar me for life or anything like that. People wrench ankles all the time, you know."

"That wasn't quite what I meant…." Inui wasn't able to elaborate, as just then Kamio returned with their gear, and the medic came back with another medic and a stretcher.

Very carefully, the medics got Shinji arranged on the stretcher, then the first one looked at Kamio. "You're his partner, right? You can ride along with him in the ambulance."

Inui looked both hurt and torn.

Shinji looked up at him. "I'll be fine, Sadaharu. Go. You have a partner that's counting on you." He winced a little as the stretcher was lifted off the ground and he was jostled some.

Kamio looked at Inui, eyes sincere. "I'll take care of him for you, Inui. Nothing will happen to him on my watch. He'll be fine." Patting Inui's arm awkwardly, Kamio ran to catch up with Shinji, leaving Inui standing there, alone and worried.

Inui tried to continue on, he really did. He played a match, and while he and Kaidoh won, both of them knew that it was hardly an impressive game.

"They should not have scored as much as they did, let alone have taken three games from us," Kaidoh said as they stretched out a little. "Is something wrong, Inui-sempai?"

"I…you know that Shinji and Kamio are out, right?"

"I saw the forfeit on the board. It has something to do with that?"

Inui nodded. "Shinji…got hurt. He was taken to the hospital."

"I see." Kaidoh folded his towel, then took a long drink from his water bottle. "There will be other tournaments, you know."

"I know. I just feel bad that Shinji's hurting right now. I hope it isn't serious. Shinji won't like it if he has to miss a lot of time from playing…." Inui looked about ready to start reciting statistics and percentages, so Kaidoh made himself interrupt.

"I meant, there will be others for us." Inui stared at him, so Kaidoh continued. "Your mind isn't here. It's with him, so your body might as well go join it."

"Are you sure, Kaidoh?" Inui clearly wanted to run, but manners and a sense of loyalty made him stay and ask.

"Inui!" He looked up to see a very familiar redhead running over to him, Oishi following behind him. "Good game…but where was your head?"

"Shinji…." Inui's conflicted feelings were written across his face.

"Inui-sempai's…boyfriend got hurt. That's where Inui-sempai's head is."

"Ibu-kun got hurt?" Eiji pouted a little. "I wanted to welcome him to our family! But if he's hurt, why are you still here, Inui?"

"The match…and…." Inui shook his head.

"I told you already, Inui-sempai. Go." Kaidoh stalked over to the officials to notify them of their withdrawal.

"Tell Ibu-kun that we hope he recovers soon, and that we still want to meet him." Oishi had finally arrived, wrapping an arm around Eiji.

"Yeah, get out of here, Inui." Eiji smiled. "The person you care about is always most important."

Inui didn't stop again to think. He just picked up his bag and ran.

A bit later, Inui charged into the emergency waiting room, and looked around until he saw a familiar shock of red hair. "Kamio." Inui approached him. "How is he?"

Kamio looked up from his magazine. "I told Shinji you'd be here. Shinji said you'd stay with Kaidoh, but I said otherwise. He owes me lunch now." Kamio grinned.

"Yes, but…how is Shinji?"

"Just a sprain. They're putting an air cast on his ankle right now to immobilize it for a couple weeks, then he has to do some therapy. But they think there's no permanent damage."

Inui dropped into a chair. "I'm glad to hear it. Even so, his ankle is going to be 16 percent weaker for some time, and even later, it will still be approximately 7 percent weaker than it was before the injury."

Kamio shook his head. "I swear, I have no idea how Shinji puts up with you. It's like dating a computer, with all those numbers. Throws me off my rhythm." He stood. "I'm going to go call a cab so Shinji can get home."

Not too long after Kamio disappeared, Shinji came out into the waiting room, hobbling on crutches. "Akira?"

"He went away for a few minutes…will I do?" Inui stood and walked over to him.

"Sadaharu?" Shinji blinked. "Is it over? It must be later than I thought, though time was moving so slowly, I have no idea what time it should be at all, and that's more depressing than being hurt, they should really do something—"

Inui leaned down and kissed Shinji, mindful of the crutches and the ankle. "I don't know if it's over, and I don't care. I was too worried about you."

"But Kaidoh?"

"Kaidoh was the one that told me to go."

"You should've stayed." Shinji smiled and leaned against Inui a little. "But I'm glad you're here."

Inui wrapped his arms around Shinji, holding him close. "It wasn't just him. Eiji and Oishi, too. They know what's truly important…and that's you. I'm always here for you, Shinji."

"If you lovebirds are done having your moment?" Kamio cleared his throat. "There's a cab waiting for the two of you.

"Two of us? What about you, Akira?"

Kamio shook his head. "I've got something very important to do that doesn't involve being a third wheel in the back of a cab with the two of you." Grinning, Kamio ushered them out of the emergency room and into the waiting cab. "Bye, you two! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Shinji sighed. "That means I can't make out with my Sadaharu, because you wouldn't do it. That's not fair, Akira to tell me something like that. We're not the same people, so of course we'll do and not do different things…."

Kamio looked at Inui sympathetically. "Yeah, he's going to be fine. Just…put him right to bed when he gets home, because when the painkillers kick in, they're going to kick in big time."

"Understood." Inui nodded and gave the driver the address.

One cab ride later—during which Shinji never shut, up, though his words did pick up a slur towards the end—Inui was practically pouring Shinji into his house. Once he determined that no one was home—thus no assistance—Inui struggled a little in getting Shinji up the stairs, and found his room mainly by process of elimination. "This wasn't how I was hoping to get you into bed," Inui told him as he lowered Shinji onto his bed.

Shinji grinned the grin of the massively drugged. "But now you have me here! What will you do next, Sadaharu?" He tried to move seductively, but it was coming off as rather clumsy.

"Tuck you in and let you sleep it off." Inui wasn't going to lie and say that the sight of Shinji sprawled across his bed, relaxed and willing, wasn't an appealing sight, but he wanted Shinji to be fully conscious of it more than he wanted what Shinji's smile and body were promising.

As Inui leaned down over Shinji to pull up the covers, Shinji reached up and pulled Inui down on top of him. "That's better!" he chirped, cradling Inui against his chest. "Like you right here…." He lifted his face and pressed his lips against Inui's.

Inui found himself responding to the kiss, and he instinctively leaned some more into Shinji, pressing against him. Shinji gasped and rocked up into Inui, and it was that that brought him back to Earth.

"No," Inui gasped, pulling away from Shinji's tempting mouth and moving off of him. "There is a 97 percent chance that you will regret it if we did…anything now, and a 54 percent chance that you would be upset enough to break up with me. I'm not willing to risk that." Moving a little more carefully, Inui tucked the blankets securely around Shinji. "Sleep for now."

"Stay, please…." Shinji's words trailed off as he finally succumbed to a drugged sleep.

Unable to help himself, Inui kissed Shinji's forehead before taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "Of course," he said softly. He looked down at Shinji, part of him hoping he continued to sleep, and the rest of him hoping that Shinji would wake before his family got home. This wasn't exactly how Inui had wanted to meet them.

But he couldn't deny Shinji anything, either. Especially when he was hurt. So Inui settle in to spend his afternoon and evening watching Shinji sleep.

Oh, well, Inui thought. There's much worse things I could be doing.

--The End--