Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
"Coming!" Niou hurried down the stairs, wondering who was at his door. His family was out when he returned from his Sunday afternoon date with Yanagi. He didn't expect to see Yagyuu standing on his front porch. "Yagyuu. What's up?"
"Can I come in?" Always the polite one, Yagyuu waited for Niou to give him permission before stepping inside and slipping out of his shoes. "There's something I wanted to ask you, and I thought it'd be better in person." There was a very slight rim of red around Yagyuu's eyes, and his shoulders drooped just a little. These details didn't go unnoticed by Niou though - he knew Yagyuu so well, watched him so closely, that he could even tell Yagyuu's voice held some manner of confusion.
"OK. Do you want anything to drink?" Niou wasn't sure if he necessarily wanted to know what Yagyuu wanted to talk about. All the signs were pointing for him to run away and avoid his partner, but this was Yagyuu. He never could turn down anything Yagyuu requested. When Yagyuu answered in the negative, Niou led the way up to his room. Plopping down on the floor, he leaned back against the wall andcwaited for Yagyuu to begin talking.
"What's going on between you and Yanagi?" Yagyuu sat down on the corner of Yagyuu's futon, facing him.
"What?"
"I saw you guys together today, coming out of some cafe. It looked like you guys were on a date."
"Well, what about you and Mizutani?" Niou suddenly felt his energy drained. What right did Yagyuu have to come to his house demanding an explanation for Niou's behavior, when it was all Yagyuu's fault for dating cute, intelligent, female Mizutani Ami in the first place?
"Niou, I thought you liked girls. You're always talking about them. I thought - I didn't know." Yagyuu trailed off, apparently unable to express what he thought or didn't think. Niou's eyes widened and his mouth went dry. He was afraid to ask the next question. Yagyuu was avoiding his gaze, and Niou's intuition told him that whatever Yagyuu was having difficulty saying, he'd have difficulty hearing.
"What... didn't you know?" He was surprised to hear his voice come out a bare whisper. In the otherwise silent room, though, it came out loud and clear. Yagyuu finally met his gaze, and Niou's heart skipped a beat.
"I didn't know I might have had a chance."
The room spun, and Niou was glad he was sitting down. The meaning behind Yagyuu's words hit him like a train. "I thought you liked girls." He paused to swallow, desperately needing to wet his dry throat and wishing that he'd brought tea up with them. "You're dating one."
"I do." Yagyuu's response was a little too quick, a little too defensive. Niou shrunk back slightly, confusion blossoming back onto his face, and Yagyuu's face softened. "But you, you're special. Niou. I don't know why, but if it's you, I don't care that you're a guy. It just doesn't matter."
Niou started at Yagyuu for a long time, searching for some answer, some tell to expose Yagyuu's bluff, but he couldn't find anything. Yagyuu's gaze met his unwaveringly, full of confusion, hurt, hope, and all sorts of emotions he couldn't even put a name to. "So, what do you propose doing?" He was starting to get a little bit unnerved by the intensity behind Yagyuu's eyes.
"Are you with Yanagi?"
"I think so. I don't know. We've been on two dates, sort of. He was really nice, really thoughtful. He likes me a lot." Niou was babbling, and he knew it, but he couldn't stop. Yagyuu's face fell, and Niou was quick to continue in a different direction. "But he also seems to think that I like you. He told me he was willing to wait however long I needed to get over you."
"Do you?" Hope reentered Yagyuu's face, like the world overrun by evil when Pandora released the hope she found at the bottom of her jar.
Niou sighed and averted his eyes. Why couldn't Yagyuu have discussed this with him before they got into this whole big mess? How was he supposed to respond to this? "I don't know. Maybe. If I did, what would happen?"
"I'd break if off with Mizutani and ask you out." Yagyuu's response was so quick, it was clear he had already prepared the whole thing. Niou would confess, and Yagyuu would accept, and they'd each apologize to their respective partners and make hot monkey love to each other in the clubroom. No, strike that last part - that was in Niou's fantasy. Yagyuu would probably want to do it in a bed, but Niou could train him out of that idea.
"And Yanagi?"
"Knowing him, he's already got this entire scenario mapped out." At Niou's frown, Yagyuu quickly retracted his words. "There are going to be some losers in this. Mizutani and Yanagi are just innocent victims, and if avoidable, I'd prefer not having to hurt them. But Niou, I also don't want to live with this huge regret over my head. Niou, if you really do like me, don't you think it's unfair to Yanagi to keep going out with him?"
Niou briefly wondered if this was an entirely over-elaborate ruse Yanagi had set up to test how Niou would respond given the situation. He really wished it were, because then his life would be so much easier. He knew that it couldn't be the case though - even as the idea was formulating in his head, he knew that Yanagi wouldn't risk it this early. Yanagi knew that Niou wasn't over Yagyuu yet, and the master never took unnecessary risks. This was more like something Niou himself would set up, except not against himself. Maybe this was just his karma kicking in. In any case, even if Yanagi had set this up, Yagyuu couldn't act that well - no actor could display so much emotion on his face all at once, each fighting for dominance and none ever actually winning. "I don't know. This whole situation is unfair. It's unfair to me and you and Yanagi and Mizutani, no matter the outcome."
"Do you like Yanagi, Niou?" Yagyuu's voice was soft, almost resigned. Niou didn't like hearing Yagyuu's voice like that - Yagyuu was supposed to be strong and determined.
"Do you like Mizutani?" That was a dumb question. Of course Yagyuu liked her; he was dating her. That same logic could be used to prove that he liked Yanagi though, and Niou knew that wasn't entirely true.
"Yes, but Niou, she's not you."
Niou was slightly taken aback by Yagyuu's using the same exact words he'd used on Yanagi before. Yanagi was not Yagyuu Hiroshi. The boy - no, man - in front of him was Yagyuu Hiroshi. He thought back to that evening when he realized Yagyuu was dating a girl, and the numbing cold that had spread over his whole body. He tried picturing Yanagi with a girl, but didn't feel anything.
Yagyuu moved off the bed and knelt in front of Niou, so that their faces were only about a foot part. "Niou." He tilted Niou's chin up with his finger, and Niou couldn't avoid looking into his partner's green, green eyes. Yagyuu leaned forward slowly, slowly, until their noses were touching. "Niou." Yagyuu's whisper was so soft, Niou felt it against his lips more than actually heard it. Yagyuu tilted his head slightly, and fell back onto his rear with a thud when Niou pushed him away and jumped to his feet.
"I think you should go." Internally, his head was screaming at him. Yagyuu Hiroshi, the star of his fantasies these past few weeks, was just about to kiss him, and he stopped it for no real reason at all. He knew it wasn't right though, if only because Yanagi and Mizutani didn't know it was happening.
Comments/critiques please? Seriously though, the kind and number of reviews I get each chapter lets me know what people like, and that means more of that in the future...While I dislike the whole "I have to get x number of reviews before writing a new chapter!" that seems to frequent other FFN stories (and don't worry, would never do that), encouragement really does help the creativity process. :X
