Title: Fictional Truth
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
Niou found himself horribly tangled in his blankets when he woke up. He didn't feel rested at all, despite having fallen into a dreamless sleep earlier than normal. He checked the clock - there was still an hour before he had to get to morning practice, so he decided to finish as much of his homework as he could. He didn't want to go to practice and face Yagyuu, and he also didn't want Yanagi to see him not wanting to face Yagyuu. Grabbing a bite of rice, Niou decided he really didn't want Sanada to give him more laps than a human could possibly run, so he hurried out the door, stuffing his half-finished homework in his schoolbag.

He arrived early at the clubroom - only Sanada and Yanagi were there. Sanada looked mildly shocked at Niou's timeliness, since Niou usually competed with Kirihara to be the last one arriving in the mornings. Yanagi seemed to take it in stride and offered to show him the weight exercises they'd discussed.

When Yagyuu sauntered into the clubhouse, suave and cool, Niou glanced at him and dropped the weights he was working with, which he was certain did not go unnoticed by Yanagi. He immediately averted his eyes and picked up the weights, hoping that everyone else just assumed he lost his grip. "Niou-kun, be careful." Yagyuu's voice was smooth as he set his tennis bag down and started to change. Niou just nodded at him.

Marui and Jackal's entrance didn't help Yanagi's analysis of Niou. Marui took one look at Niou's presence and said, "Is the world ending today? Niou's actually here early?" Niou didn't feel like responding, though he normally would've responded with something just to shut Marui up. The most tell-tale sign was probably when Kirihara burst through the door, shoes already half-toed off as he was preparing to change quickly to still be on time. Niou didn't say a word about how he'd arrived before the junior, when he'd normally be taunting the boy, only to have Kirihara yell back at him while tugging his shirt down with one hand, his shorts up with the other, and stuffing his feet into his sneakers, all at once. This time though, he left Kirihara to perform his superhuman changing routine in peace.

At lunch, Yanagi pulled Niou aside to ask why he'd been acting so strangely. Niou didn't admit to anything. Yanagi sighed and let him be, wandering over to talk with Sanada, probably about lineups. Niou went through afternoon practice like a robot. He wasn't able to concentrate and just hit balls when they came at him. Despite his having been on time in the morning, Sanada still assigned him laps after practice for not giving his all. Niou didn't complain, and even jogged an extra five laps, just to make absolute certain that Yagyuu would have already left by the time he returned to the clubroom. Indeed, Yanagi was leaning by his locker alone, apparently waiting for Niou. Yanagi waited as Niou showered and changed, and then they walked to Niou's house together in silence.

"You want to come in? We have some leftover curry." Niou held the door open for Yanagi and found a pair of guest slippers for him to use. The curry was pretty good, even reheated.

When they finished, Yanagi thanked him for the food and stood to leave. At the door, Yanagi picked up his bag and looked at Niou. "You don't have to tell me what's up with you. I think you like Yagyuu, but I've never hoped to be more wrong. I like you, Niou. I want to ask you out. I don't care if you like Yagyuu more than me. I can wait - for you, I will wait." He closed the door behind him, leaving Niou staring after him in complete and utter shock.

Niou leaned against the hallway wall and wondered what to do. He wanted to call Yagyuu and ask him what to do - Yagyuu was always good at helping him - but he wasn't sure if that was the best of ideas. Other than Yagyuu, he'd probably be questioning Yanagi when something like this came up, but for obvious reasons he couldn't do that this time either. Yanagi's speech repeated itself in his head. He was almost certain Yanagi had prepared the speech ahead of time, but like one would expect of the master, it didn't sound the least bit preplanned.

"I'm kind of in the middle of something right now, Niou, can this wait?" Yagyuu sounded preoccupied, and Niou would swear that was a girl giggling in the background.

"Yea, sure. I'll see you tomorrow." Niou clicked off the phone and slid down the wall, sitting with his knees bent in front of him. He stared at the phone in his hands for a few minutes before punching in Yanagi's phone number.

"What's up?" Yanagi's voice might have held a hint of trepidation, but it was hard to tell.

"I'm going to need a little time."

"That's OK. I told you - I can wait."

"I'm not sure this will work."

"That's OK. I'll be happy enough if you're just willing to try it."

"Yea." He paused, and Yanagi wisely said nothing, waiting for him to continue. "Yea, that sounds good. We can try it." Niou leaned his head back, resting it against the wall.

"Are you free Saturday after practice?" Yanagi's words came out in one breath, as though he'd been holding them in for a long time. The anxiety was entirely gone from his voice, and Niou could almost hear a smile teasing at Yanagi's mouth.

"Yea, that sounds good." Niou closed his eyes. They spoke for a little while longer before hanging up. Niou closed his eyes, resting his arms on his knees. How could his life have changed so much in just twenty-four hours?

When Saturday came, Yanagi took him to watch a professional tennis match. It almost felt like any other normal outing together as teammates, except it wasn't, because Yanagi paid for both tickets and the snacks - he even got pretzels because he knew that Niou likes crunching on the salty sticks. They barely talked during the match, though they'd usually be chattering away about how the serve was too slow or how the cross-shot was probably not the best idea.

"You know, I don't think this is such a good idea." The match was over, but Niou didn't remember a thing that had happened - he was too busy being incredibly aware of each time their knees accidentally bumped and each time their fingers accidentally brushed when they both reached for a pretzel. "It's too weird. I don't see you in that way, which just makes it just that much weirder."

"No, no, wait, it's my fault." Yanagi moved to stand in front of Niou and stopped. "I thought a tennis match would be a good way to ease into this, since it's so normal, but maybe we should try something else, something where we talk some more. Can we just try something else?"

Niou thought for a moment before replying. "Sure. There's an arcade two blocks from here, do you want to go there?" Video games was always a normal activity for boys their age - he could really get into the game and pretend Yanagi wasn't there, if it were still awkward. Yanagi agreed, and they started walking again in the direction of the arcade. Niou told Yanagi about a new game the arcade got, and how he'd been dying to play it and how he'd been reading reviews about it on the internet; Yanagi just nodded along. Niou played the game first with Yanagi watching - he was very proud of bumping the top score off on his first try. Yanagi tried the game after Niou and nearly doubled his score. "Oh wow! Do you play a lot of video games or something? I don't think even Kirihara could have dealt with those snipers across the moving bridge!"

"No, it's just pretty easy to find patterns in the coding of the game and predict what's going to happen next." Yanagi stuck his tongue out with a smile, making Niou laugh. It was fun, normal, and not a bit awkward.

As the sun started to set, they started to walk back home. When they reached the junction between their houses, Niou turned to Yanagi and grinned. "I had fun today."

"Uh, I thought I could maybe walk you home." Yanagi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Niou's smile widened - he could still play with the data master.

"I'm not a girl, Yanagi. I can walk home by myself, and you should be getting home, too."

"Oh." Yanagi's shoulder shifted slightly, and Niou decided to take pity on him.

"We should do this again sometime." Niou bent forward and looked up at Yanagi, grinning. "Got'cha there, didn't I?"

Yanagi let out his breath and smiled, straightening back up. "Yea, yea, let's. Well then, I'll see you on Monday."

"Yup." Niou started walking home, before turning, hopping back and pecking a kiss on Yanagi's cheek. He left Yanagi standing there with his tennis bag, shocked immobile, and sauntered back towards his house.


comment/critiques please? I'm not sure how long this is going to be... though I do seem to enjoy writing weird pairings. o.0