Hi guys! Author eunjus2 here. Thanks for all your reviews and such, they've made me really happy! This one'll be a long one, but please bear with it!
--00--
"I'm sorry" Niou repeated. Sanada, who sat behind a desk opposite the trickster, still didn't look satisfied. "I'm really, really sorry fukubuchou – but it was an accident!"
"I honestly don't know what to say" Sanada grumbled. "It's not the first time this happens Niou. And this time Akaya saw it!" Yes, their precious kouhai had seen Niou on top of Yukimura.
"Hey! I didn't fall on purpose" the other boy protested. "Buchou kicked me in the groin! Even Jackal would fall over if buchou kicked him in his-"
"You may leave" Sanada interrupted, turning his attention to the stack of papers on the desk in front of him. "I've got some paperwork to finish."
"Uh… so we're done?" the trickster said, sounding hopeful. The room smelled of sweaty clothes and different types of shampoos, not a very nice place to be in a beautiful summer day.
"Get out, Niou!"
The sound of a chair scraping against the floor was heard, and then Niou emerged in the door opening. Yukimura was waiting for him outside, leaning against a nearby tree.
"Ah! Bucho!" Niou said, waving at the other boy. "What're you doing here? School's finished already right?"
"I was waiting for Sanada finish, that's all" Yukimura said, smiling. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened."
"OK. Is it alright if I take a smoke while you're talking?"
"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about!"
"Eeek!" Niou almost dropped his lighter in surprise. "Take it easy!" Geez, don't raise your voice like that!"
"As long as you're a member of this team, you will not be allowed to smoke" Yukimura said, glaring at him. "I won't allow it. For the sake of our third consecutive win in the Nationals, I will not allow anything that might be a hindrance for us. Either you're with us or…"
--00--
Niou lay on his bed, holding a pack of cigarettes in his hand.
The day they had told Yukimura about their loss at the Kantou finals… the whole team had been there, waiting outside buchou's hospital room when Sanada had given the news. And Yukimura had become furious.
"Why don't you just go home already-!!"
His voice that time was stuck in Niou's brain, as was the agonized scream that had followed when Sanada left the room. At first he'd thought Yukimura's anger came from the fact that they had lost.
But now, Niou wasn't sure if that'd been the case… or if it had been the fact that they were talking tennis to him, when he had told them not to. Yukimura had by that time just undergone a surgery, not even starting rehabilitation and yet they were already talking about tennis in front of him. Or maybe it was both.
"Maybe I'm getting tennisexual like him" Niou muttered, as he threw the pack into his trash bin. Then, he grabbed his phone, about to dial Yagyuu's number. He'd need something to occupy his mind with now that he'd quit smoking.
The phone rang, and Niou took the call by reflex.
"Hello" he squealed, before clearing his throat. "Ehm, Yagyuu. What's up? I was just about to call you." Damn puberty and that lingering, embarrassing voice.
"I was wondering if I could come over, Niou-kun" Yagyuu said on the other end of the line. "We could eat something and then go through tomorrow's homework" he offered when the other boy hesitated a moment.
"Yeah sure, come over" Niou answered, sounding indifferent. "You could help me get rid of the tension in my back." The one he'd got during a game of American football at P.E class. It was technically Yagyuu's fault since he was in fukubuchou's class and it had been Sanada who had tackled Niou and Marui to the ground.
--00--
School was over since a while ago, and he should be home tending to his plants instead of being here. But this was the only right thing to do. Yukimura sighed, but still pushed the doorbell. He was standing outside of the Niou residence, seemingly to explain (not apologize) why he had scolded the trickster earlier that day. And he also wanted to see if Niou indeed had given up his smoking habit.
No one opened the door, which made Yukimura a bit curious – after all, Niou had gone straight home from school. Maybe he was asleep? And now Yukimura did something he normally didn't, since he was a nice and fairly well-behaved boy (off the courts). He experimentally pressed the door's handle. The door was unlocked… and then he silently opened the door and slipped inside. But he did lock the door from the inside.
"Um. Hello?" he said to the empty house. Not even Niou's siblings seemed to be at home yet, luckily since Yukimura would've found it hard to be in the same house as Niou's older sister. The girl could make Sanada stammer rubbish by just being in the same room as him. The first time she met Yukimura, she had eyed him from top to toe with a little smile playing in the corner of her mouth. And then the she-devil had said: Oh my, looks like Haru found himself a flat-chested one this time eh?
And suddenly Akaya's ranting about Niou's sister being a 'female Niou-senpai bitch' hadn't seemed so farfetched after all. Yukimura'd had to clench his fists and bite his tongue to prevent himself from either burst into tears or hitting her. Just by thinking of it still made his blood boil, and he didn't dare to think of what things she would've said if she had known his true gender.
"Don't be so rough Hiroshi!" Niou's voice was suddenly heard from upstairs. "I'm in a really awkward position here y'know."
"Stop whining Niou-kun" Yagyuu said, and Yukimura frowned. "This wouldn't hurt if you would just relax yourself for me!"
"But I feel like a girl" Niou complained. "I don't wanna be bottom!" (Yukimura almost choked on his own spit when he heard Niou say that)
"We'll switch as soon as I'm finished" Yagyuu assured. A series of muffled moans were heard, and then a sudden scream of pain which made Yukimura wince. He hesitated a moment before making his way towards Niou's bedroom.
"Holy fuck! Yagyuu, what the hell did you do?!" Niou gasped, grabbing the spot Yagyuu had recently kneaded and somehow turning onto his side. "I seriously think you broke something in my shoulder dammit!"
"I'm sorry. But your back doesn't still hurt, right Niou-kun?"
"No- no it feels great actually. You're pretty good at this massage thing" the trickster said, flashing a grin at his doubles partner. "Alright, let's switch places! Show me what to do Hiroshi."
Yukimura, who was standing in the door opening, stared at the two regulars. Niou was only wearing his pants, and was lying on the bed with Yagyuu straddling him; what made the scene looking more suspicious was the fact that the gentleman was holding a bottle of what looked like lube.
"I… Uh. This is one of those misunderstandings you're so good at, right?" the buchou of Rikkai said, sounding hopeful.
"I was just helping Niou-kun release some tension" Yagyuu explained, pushing his glasses up a little.
"I can see that" Yukimura said, staring at Niou's non-existent shirt and then at the bottle in Yagyuu's hand.
"In my back, the tension in my back" Niou explained. "My back's been hurting – must have been all the buchou-carrying I've been doing lately" he added. Not to mention the combined weight of both Sanada and Marui falling on top of him during P.E class.
"So it's not… um." Yukimura searched for the right word and felt his face becoming redder by the second.
"We're not about to fuck" Niou said, trying to be helpful. And failing horribly, since Yukimura's face suddenly boosted into a crimson red color.
"I will be going now" Yagyuu said. He threw Niou the bottle of massage oil and said: "It's up to you now, Niou-kun" before leaving the room, not giving Niou time to answer. Yukimura heard the door close behind him.
"…you wanna sit down?" Niou said after a couple of moments in complete silence. He nervously fingered the bottle, before putting it on the windowsill beside the bed.
"Yeah, I'd like to do that." Yukimura sat down beside him on the edge of the bed. Niou, on the other hand, had shuffled up and was leaning back against the wall.
"Before you start yelling at me for some reason, I just want to say that I quit smoking so I'll be staying on the team" Niou said, staring at the air in front of him.
"I wasn't going to yell" Yukimura said, suddenly feeling relieved.
"Well, there was a 26 percent chance that you would've done it later if I hadn't said that first."
"You're creepy when-"
"-creepier" the trickster corrected him.
"And I thought I would... apologize for my behavior earlier today." There. He had said it.
"That was really unexpected. I mean, really, really unexpected" Niou muttered. "I mean, it's not as if you've done something to-"
"Now I know you're being sarcastic."
"Puri." But none the less, Niou gave him a smile. Not one of his lopsided grins but a genuine one that reached his eyes.
--00--
When Niou's mother came home a couple of hours later, she could hear the sounds of the two boys playing TV- games upstairs. She recognized the shoes in the hallway – they belonged to that sweet Yukimura boy. It was nice to know that her son, despite his own behavior, at least had managed to make friends with two nice boys: Yukimura and Yagyuu. The tennis team seemed good for him in that way.
Then, she happened to look towards her son's bedroom door. Outside of it, four boys were sitting or halfway standing, resting their ears towards the door. And four tennis bags were dropped in a corner in the living room.
"They're still playing TV-games?!" a pink haired boy wheezed. "Geez Niou!"
"Iiii data" another boy muttered.
"Marui-senpai, Yanagi-senpai… I wanna go home. My back's killing me."
"Tarundouru" the fourth one muttered, and smacked the youngest boy over the head. "If we leave now, they might start doing something immoral!" He was a member of the public moral's committee after all.
"Ahem. Boys?" Niou's mum said. Four pair of eyes stared at her. "Would you like some ice cream?" She didn't really care if they ruined their appetite, but she did wonder how on earth they had gotten into her house without a key. Maybe she could wriggle it out of them while they were eating ice cream?
"Yes ma'm!" the two shortest boys said, and hurdled themselves down the stairs. The other two looked at each other.
"Tarundouru" the capped boy said, but they followed the other two downstairs and into the kitchen. Niou's mother smiled at them and proceeded to set the table.
As the team members were eating the best they could, the front door opened. And Niou's sister stepped inside. The boys immediately fell silent, horrified.
"Muuum! Someone's picked the lock to the porch open and smashed your favorite gnome in the garden!" the girl said as she pulled off her shoes. Then she looked the four boys at the table. Very much like a predator eyeing its prey.
"Hello there" she said, tossing her hair with a hand in a casual way.
"H-hello" Marui and Kirihara said, fidgeting nervously. They had suddenly realized that Niou's mum had gone outside to the garden to look after her garden gnome. Then hell broke loose.
--00--
"What's the ruckus downstairs?" Niou said. Some screaming and yelling was drowning the sound from the TV.
"Maybe we should have a look" Yukimura suggested, and got to his feet.
Marui and Kirihara were sitting on top of the closets in the living room, clutching their plates with ice cream and looking utterly traumatized. And if beetroots knew how to blush, that would be close to Sanada's face color as he was standing beside Yanagi, staring intensely at a spot on the floor.
Niou's sister was eyeing the data master with amusement in her eyes. Yanagi on the other hand looked about as amused as a rat trapped in a rat trap. He felt as if Niou's mum had set the trap and they had waltzed right into it.
"What… the-" Niou said when he saw his teammates and his sister in the living room. "You btch!" he exclaimed, and pointed at her. "What did you do to my teammates?!"
"Well if it isn't my little brother and his pretty, pretty girlfriend. Grown any sizes since last time honey?"
"Answer me!" Niou screamed. Yukimura on the other hand blushed, and resisted the urge to cover his chest.
"I was just showing the boys my new tattoo" Niou's sister said, winking at Marui and Kirihara.
"You had another one?" Niou looked almost speechless. "Where?" He blurted out.
"Here" she said, as she reached up to undo the buttons of her shirt but both Marui and Kirihara scream so loudly that she stopped.
"Have you no shame?!" Niou wheezed with strained voice. "Stop showing your- your chest to my team mates! Think about the bratling dammit!"
"You're no fun Masaharu. I bet they liked what they saw. Right Sanada fu-ku-bu-chou?" she said, putting weight on every last syllable. Sanada refused to look at her, still staring onto the floor as if his life depended on it.
"Alright, that's it! You're getting out of here you slut" Niou growled, grabbing his sister's arm and shoving her towards the front door.
"You're one to talk!" she yelled, as she was dragged away. "You slutty little wh-" the rest of her speech was drowned in Niou's shouting and then completely shut out as Niou forcefully threw her out.
"Sorry about that" he said when he had closed the door and locked it shut. Although he didn't look like he regretted it at all. Marui and Kirihara simply nodded from where they sat on the closets, having forgotten about the ice cream melting on their plates.
"So, uh, why're you here again?" he said. Sanada's face color hade almost returned to normal by now.
"Tennis of course" Yanagi answered. "We were wondering if you and Yukimura would like to play some tennis with us." What a lie. But they had brought their tennis gear.
"Tennis?" Yukimura said, lightening up exceptionally. "Yes, of course! Tennis, right. I'll go get my tennis gear." He returned into Niou's room, absentmindedly feeling his chest. Flat he thought, gritting his teeth as he grabbed his tennis bag.
"Let's go through the back way" Niou said, urging the other boys towards the porch, tennis bag slung over his shoulder. "So we don't run into her again."
"Sorry for breaking your gnome, Mrs. Niou" Marui said as they passed Niou's mum on their way. He bowed slightly.
"And sorry for intruding and eating ice cream" Kirihara said, also bowing.
"Akaya" Yanagi reprimanded him.
"…and for breaking into your house" the youngest one added hastily, before running to catch up with his senpais.
"Oh no, not at all" Niou's mum shouted after them. "Now you go have fun!"
"Thanks mum. We'll go practice for Nationals then. See ya! Bakaya! Let go of my ponytail dammit!"
"You-!"
"AAH! Akaya's gone into red-eye mode! Someone save my tensai!"
"Niou! Akaya! Fifteen laps when we get to the courts!"
Such nice boys, Niou's mum thought. Yes, Masaharu was lucky to have such good friends.
FINI