Title: Fictional Truth
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
Yanagi was waiting for Niou by his locker after the last class of the day let out. "Hey."
"What, couldn't wait until we got to the courts to see me again?" Niou grinned, opening his locker to switch his shoes. When Yanagi didn't respond, Niou glanced up at him while tying his shoelace, only to see Yanagi's eyes fixated on a point above his head.
"Yagyuu." Yanagi's greeting was colder than usual, and Niou groaned inwardly. They didn't need this now.
He stood and turned - Yagyuu was standing so close to him, Niou was surprised he didn't sense his presence earlier. He took a step back. "Hey Yagyuu. Headed over to practice?" Niou closed his locker and picked up his tennis bag. He started to walk past Yagyuu when he was stopped by a hand grabbing onto his own.
"Niou, I think we need to finished our talk from this morning." Yagyuu's eyes moved from Niou to Yanagi, a spark of challenge igniting in them. Before Niou could respond, Yanagi stepped in and forcibly opened Yagyuu's hand to release Niou's. Despite his skinny appearance, Yanagi was one of the strongest boys in the tennis club.
"Yagyuu, please leave my boyfriend alone. We should be getting to practice now before we're late." Yanagi's voice may have seemed calm to any passer-by, but both Yagyuu and Niou could tell that there was a sharp edge in his voice. "Let's go, Masaharu." Yanagi started walking. Niou hurried after Yanagi, not wanting to stay and see his best friend's reaction to Yanagi's use of his first name. He wasn't sure he could withstand it - he just might cave - and he didn't want that to happen. He was also a little surprised at Yanagi's calling him his boyfriend. Niou wasn't quite sure they were that serious yet, but maybe Yanagi had only used it for effect. "I don't think you guys should practice together for a couple days at the least." Yanagi's shoulders were stiff, and his expression was still annoyed, though it lightened a bit when he looked at Niou.
"He'll collect himself. We'll be OK. We have to be, for the team. For Yukimura." Niou lightly bumped his shoulder against Yanagi's and smiled. Yanagi smiled back at him, relaxing ever so slightly. Jackal and Sanada were already in the clubroom when the two of them entered. "Yo."
"Akaya got detention again," Yanagi coolly informed Sanada. Both Niou and Yanagi had thrown on masks upon entering the room to avoid letting the others suspect something was wrong. "He'll be thirty minutes late."
"Again?" Jackal sighed as he finished shaving his head and put his razor away.
"What are we going to do with that kid?" Niou muttered, shrugging out of his school uniform and pulling out his tennis uniform. Yagyuu walked in then, with Marui right behind him. Niou avoided looking at Yagyuu - he wasn't strong enough right now to continue rejecting Yagyuu, even with Yanagi standing right next to him.
"What's up with you two?" Sanada wasn't the world's most intuitive person - in fact, a tennis ball was probably more intuitive than Sanada. It was kind of sad, really - the entire team could tell that Yukimura had a crush on Sanada and was just too shy to speak up about it. Sanada didn't pick up on it at all. It was like trying to get electric fields through a Faraday cage - it just wasn't going to happen. The fact that he picked up on tension between Niou and Yagyuu, therefore, was both impressive of him and of their situation.
"Nothing." Niou grabbed his racket and started to head out, but was stopped by Sanada.
"It's not nothing when you refuse to look at Yagyuu, Niou. We need you guys at Kantou. What's wrong?" Sanada used his "vice-captain voice" - the one that he usually reserved for yelling at people when they didn't win a match six-love.
Niou glanced at Yagyuu and recoiled as if burnt. Yagyuu's green eyes were intense. Niou often thought that Yagyuu was the more frightening half of their combination, though their opponents typically underestimated the sadistic streak hidden inside the gentleman and instead were afraid of the trickster, Niou. He'd thought it was amusing, until he found himself on the receiving end of Yagyuu's undivided attention.
When Yagyuu saw Niou's reaction though, he wilted like a flower. Yagyuu wasn't supposed to be the one who hurt Niou. Yagyuu was Niou's best friend - he was supposed to make Niou smile and laugh and be generally happy. His face immediately took on an softer, apologetic expression.
"Look, whatever is troubling you girls, either put it behind you or talk about it so we all know what's going on. Remember that we're a team - we're supposed to work together." Sanada was clearly frustrated and ready to start assigning penalty laps.
"Sorry," Niou and Yagyuu spoke simultaneously. Jackal raised an eyebrow, which made funny creases in the skin on his forehead and scalp.
"Niou, Kirihara told me that you had something planned for the prefectural finals that you didn't get to implement - did you want to use it at Kantou instead?" Yagyuu's voice was gentle, almost too gentle. It scared Niou.
"Niou and I were just talking about that at lunch, actually." Yanagi had finished changing while Sanada was scolding their best doubles team and was now standing next to Niou. "If you're OK with the plan, I'm going to help you guys perfect it."
"Can the rest of us know?" Marui was always interested in Niou's latest ploys. Niou sometimes shared them ahead of time, and sometimes he waited to see their reactions when he implemented his plans during the tournaments.
"Maybe. Not right now though; I need to talk it over with Yagyuu first." Things were starting to feel a little more normal. Niou was glad no one else on the team was involved in this, well, whatever it was between Yagyuu, Yanagi and himself. He could hide his emotions easily when he was playing tennis, as could Yagyuu and Yanagi. They were all well-trained to be entirely single-minded when it came to tennis - Yukimura had beaten it into their very souls over the past two and a half years.
Practice, in fact, was quite normal. Niou played against Yagyuu, and everything was fine. While running laps, Niou explained his plot to Yagyuu, who seemed to enjoy the idea immensely and was interested in getting started right away. So after everyone else had left, Niou, Yagyuu and Yanagi stayed behind to start working on "The Switch."
"It's weird playing with my left hand." Yagyuu bounced Niou's racket in his left hand a couple of times, trying to balance himself opposite of what came to him naturally. One court over, Niou was quickly improving at hitting a forehand slice with his right hand. They were going to start the training by getting all the basic shots up to par, before moving in on special techniques. Niou had a slight edge, since he'd already practiced with his right hand a lot in preparation for playing Kirihara.
"You should try some more footwork exercises so that it's more intuitive to step forward with your left leg instead of your right. Just work on swinging the racket for awhile, instead of trying to hit balls." In between jotting down notes and diagramming out footwork sequences, Yanagi looked up at the two and called out specific advice. Two hours later, Yanagi stopped the practice. "Don't overexert yourselves on the first day. We've got at least three weeks before you even get a chance to use this."
Yanagi refused to leave Yagyuu and Niou alone while showering. Instead, he stood outside their stalls, giving them more tips on what training to do and what kind of cosplay supplies they'd need. Niou disliked the way it seemed as though he couldn't take care of himself and needed to hide behind Yanagi, but at the same time, he was touched by Yanagi's possessiveness and desire to ensure that Yagyuu didn't steal him away. When they finished showering and changing, the three of them stood outside the clubroom awkwardly, unsure what to do and say.
"Renji, I think there are some things Yagyuu and I need to finish talking about." Niou lightly touched Yanagi's hand, not wanting to seem too affectionate for fear of making Yagyuu feel worse. When it came down to it, Yagyuu was still his best friend and partner, and he didn't want to see Yagyuu hurt. "Why don't you go home first; I'll call you when I get home."
Yanagi clearly didn't like the idea, but he didn't object. They parted ways at the school gate - while Yanagi walked home, Niou led Yagyuu to the woods behind a nearby Shinto shrine, where they used to go for their strategy talks.
Niou liked these woods. He and Yagyuu had been coming here since their freshman year. They would climb the different trees and talk for hours while watching and listening to the nature around them. Sometimes they'd be plotting schemes to use in competitions, sometimes they'd just talk about whatever came to mind. It was part of how they were such a good doubles team - with all the hours they'd spent together, they'd managed to get in sync with each other.
There was one old, enormous tree with sturdy branches that they found sometime during their second year, just before they first became Regulars in the tennis club. Since then, they would always climb that particular tree. It was "their spot," in a way - Niou had never brought anyone else here, and he was certain Yagyuu hadn't, either. Niou sought it out, and they each climbed onto a separate branch, leaving their schoolbags resting against the trunk. No one else ever came to this spot, so they could have a quiet, undisturbed talk. Niou knew better than to let Yagyuu stare at him while they were having this conversation - that could get pretty dangerous pretty quickly. He leaned back against the tree trunk, his legs stretched out in front of him, balancing on the branch. He knew Yagyuu was in the same position without even looking - it had always been like this. "Why didn't you ever talk to me about it? Why did it have to be Yanagi who first talked with me about it? Why did you have to start dating Mizutani? Why me, but no other guys?"
"Slow down, Niou. This isn't an inquisition." Yagyuu's voice drifted to him clearly from the branch below his and slightly to the right. "I don't know why it's only you - I just know that it has to be you. I never talked to you about it because I thought you liked girls. I didn't know, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship because of that. I don't think you were as close to Yanagi as you are to me, that's probably why he had less to lose, and why it was easier for him to tell you. Knowing Yanagi, he probably also knew that you liked guys."
"So why, now that I'm with Yanagi, are you suddenly willing to risk our friendship for this?"
"Niou, I don't want to risk our friendship. I care about you, and the team, too much for that. But... it's different if you're dating another guy. I've already come to terms with the idea of you not being with me because you wanted a girl. That I could accept - that would be because of something out of my control. But if it could be me, and it's not because I made a mistake and was too late - I can't handle that, Niou. I can't stand seeing you looking at him with those eyes when I know you could very well be looking at me."
Niou waited, but Yagyuu didn't continue. "You want to know how Yanagi asked me out? He said, 'I don't care if you like Yagyuu more than me. For you, I will wait.' Then, when I called you because I wanted to talk about it, you told me you were busy and asked me to wait."
"Niou, if I had known that's what it was about-"
"Let me finish." Without even looking, Niou knew that Yagyuu was probably pinching the bridge of his nose, underneath the nosepiece of his glasses. He knew Yagyuu's habits like the back of his hand - it was what gave him the idea for the switching project in the first place. "For the prefectural finals, you didn't say a word about my playing with Kirihara. It seemed like you didn't care who you played with, not because it could help our combination, but because you just didn't care. It seemed like it didn't have to be me. Yanagi was on the lookout for me that whole time. He knew I was having difficulty adjusting to the idea of you dating, and specifically wanted to give me time apart from you."
"Niou, you know that's not true."
"I'm not done yet. Yagyuu, you're my best friend. Aren't you supposed to be happy for me at a time like this? Even though I was really upset when I first found out that you were dating Mizutani, I just set it aside and tried to be happy for you, for our sake. Why can't you do the same for me?" Niou finished talking and looked down at Yagyuu. Indeed, Yagyuu was sitting in the same position he was, pinching the bridge of his nose just as Niou had predicted. "Now I'm finished."
"Niou, I care about our combination also. I just figured that since you were so eager to play with Kirihara, it didn't matter what I wanted. Besides, you guys were right in saying that we could grow even more by not playing together sometimes, especially when the opponents aren't a challenge at all. And I'm sorry I didn't take your call that day - I didn't know what was up and I was still trying to start a relationship and I thought that spending extra time with you instead of her would just confuse me even more. I cared for you too much; just being near you would make me wonder again why I was dating someone else." Yagyuu's words came out in a rush, like he'd been holding them in for a long time. "Niou, I... I think I'm in love with you." Yagyuu paused, letting his words sink in for the both of them. He didn't retract them, though. "I know you... care about me, too, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation. I don't want to see you in another guy's arms. I can't."
"And yet it was so easy for you to kiss Mizutani and be all happy with her." Niou hated how bitter he sounded. It sounded like he still cared, like it still bothered him to just think about Yagyuu with someone else. He didn't, right? He chose Yanagi. He was with Yanagi now. It didn't matter that Yagyuu used the word "love." Niou wasn't sure what to do with that, so he just filed it away to mull over later.
"I was confused. I thought I could pretend you were just my best friend and nothing more. I thought I could learn to love someone else, but Niou, I never told her I loved her. I was just trying to move on, and you can see how miserably that failed." Indeed, Yagyuu did sound miserable, about as miserable as Niou felt.
"I'm sorry, but I think you're just going to have to get used to the idea that I'm with Yanagi now, just like how you got used to the idea that maybe I liked girls and would never go out with you." Niou hopped out of the tree, landing gracefully on his feet. Picking up his schoolbag and brushing some wood chips off his pants, he pulled out his cell phone and started to walk away. He couldn't take more of this. He wasn't supposed to be the one breaking his best friend's heart. He conjured up pictures of Yagyuu kissing Mizutani, of Yanagi's confession, of anything to keep him sane.
Yagyuu jumped out of the tree right after Niou did. Grabbing onto Niou's arm, he stopped the other boy before he could get too far. "I won't give up this easily, Niou. I'm going to keep coming after you, because it's wrong that we're not together."
For the first time ever, Niou ignored Yagyuu. He snaked his arm loose from Yagyuu's grip and put his phone to his ear as he walked away. "Renji? Hey, it's me."
This whole story falls under "triangle," really. :whistles: I am teh amused.
Faraday cage. XD The engineer in me couldn't resist.
And really, this was supposed to be one part, but that wasn't quite as happy with either theme as the two themes separated, so I labeled them part 6 & 6.5. Yes, yes, I'm a cheater. :X Comments?
