Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
Before they knew it, the Kantou tournament started. Strangely though, their first round opponents forfeited before the match even started.
"I wonder if they ate something that disagreed with them." Marui looked at the box of cake he had prepared for the match, clearly wondering if he could eat them, now that he wasn't actually going to be playing.
"Marui, you know very well that you're not allowed sweets unless you're playing a match. You'll get diabetes otherwise." Jackal took the box from him.
"But!" Marui's eyes suddenly lit up. His back straightened and he gave a little hop. "How about if we have a practice match instead? We can go back to the school grounds and play a practice match - then, can I have the cake?" Jackal laughed and nodded. He very rarely denied his partner anything - it was obvious to any passerby that they were best friends. Niou remembered when he and Yagyuu were like that, too, before all this awkwardness developed between them. He wished it would disappear soon - life was funner when he could joke and laugh freely with Yagyuu.
"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Let's go, then. Are any of you guys going to come?"
"I kind of want to watch some of the other matches." Yanagi looked towards what was doubtless the Hyoutei-Seigaku match. Periodic eruptions of cheers had been coming from that direction for awhile, undeniably the work of Hyoutei's enormous cheering squad.
"Let's go then; I want to check out Seigaku's Golden Pair. I heard they're supposed to be really good." Niou looked over at Yagyuu, uncertain of what to say to him. They weren't supposed to have played together that day anyway, so it didn't matter that the match didn't happen. The damage was already made during the lineup decision. "We should check them out, Yagyuu. Rumor has it that Hyoutei's doubles one pair is also pretty good; whichever one of them wins is likely to be the one we face in finals."
"According to Yanagi, I suppose?" Yagyuu certainly wasn't going to go out of his way to make it easy for Niou and Yanagi. Apparently, hell has no wrath like a gentleman scorned, either.
"Yes, in fact. You can see the data for yourselves. Hyoutei and Seigaku are each other's only challenge on that side of the bracket." Yanagi pulled out a laminated sheet of the Nationals bracket and offered it to Yagyuu. Yagyuu didn't take it, though Kirihara sneaked a peak.
"I want to go also; I want to see Tezuka Kunimitsu play. He'll be playing Atobe Keigo, too. That should be doubly interesting."
"Actually, we should probably watch that match and report it back to Yukimura." Sanada always had the team on his mind, including which matches would be important for the future.
"You have the brackets laminated?" Niou raised an eyebrow, a grin tweaking at the corner of his mouth. He'd been discovering more and more of Yanagi's quirks everyday, and this was quite an amusing one. Notebooks, he could understand. Laminating the tournament bracket, though, was on an entirely different level of obsession.
In the end, everyone except Jackal and Marui headed over to the Hyoutei-Seigaku game. It wasn't the Golden Pair in doubles one, though. "Where's Oishi and Kikumaru?" Niou had picked up on their names when he first heard about a doubles team known as the "Golden Pair." He had showed the article to Yagyuu, and told him, "We have to be the Platinum Pair, then." Yagyuu had scoffed at the suggestion, but didn't disagree.
"Sadaharu." Yanagi's voice was kind of surprised, kind of shocked.
"Your elementary school friend? You still recognize him after all these years?" Niou looked up at Yanagi, whose expression was unreadable.
"Yes. He's improved."
"Duh, of course he's improved since elementary school. I'd like to think that elementary level players couldn't make it this far on the high school circuit." Kirihara rolled his eyes. "This is doubles one, right? How much time do you think we have before singles one?"
"With these teams, who knows. It could be over in an instant, it could drag on for a long time." Even though Yanagi was correctly responding to all the questions posed to him, Niou could tell his mind was clearly focused elsewhere. He studied Yanagi's gaze, the match, and back. He needed to make Yanagi tell the story of his and Inui Sadaharu's pairing and parting again sometime. Though Niou's intuition wasn't as sharp as Yanagi's, he still could tell when something was wrong.
Hyoutei won the doubles match, but neither Niou nor Yagyuu were impressed. "They can be silver or bronze or something. Or maybe they could be promoted to gold, depending on what happened to the Golden Pair. And that Seigaku pair is nothing to worry about. Renji, are you sure you used to clean up doubles tournaments with that guy?" Niou winced when he saw Yagyuu grimace at his use of Yanagi's first name. He didn't like making his best friend suffer, but he also had a right to be happy and close to his, well, his boyfriend. They already were careful to tone it down when Yagyuu was around, but at some point, that had to stop. Yagyuu had to get over it - he was supposed to, as Niou's best friend.
While that was going on, the Seigaku doubles team had returned to their bench. Inui took out his notebook and started writing when he suddenly looked up. Yanagi's eyes met his briefly, before Inui returned to his notebook.
"He saw you, right, Yanagi-senpai? Why didn't he come say hi? What happened between you two?" Kirihara, it was to be noted, did not have any tact whatsoever.
"Nothing. He probably just didn't recognize me after so long." Yanagi was clearly hiding something, and Niou was determined to get it out of him later. Kirihara knew better than to keep questioning Yanagi when he refused though, and so the matter was dropped.
The third and second singles matches weren't very exciting; each of the Rikkai members knew they could take on any of the players. "I can't believe Seigaku is trying to have a power match when a footwork face-off would clearly work better." Yagyuu scoffed at singles three.
"Yagyuu, not everyone is as light-footed as you are." Niou grinned at him, but Yagyuu only stared back. Niou frowned, and turned his attention back to the game. He didn't see Yagyuu's expression soften into regret, nor the warning look that Yanagi sent Yagyuu's way.
"What's so special about those returns and volleys? Just use a serve that can't be returned; problem solved!" Kirihara wasn't just talent combined with evil - he was also pretty good at game-planning. After all, Yukimura was training him to be the next captain. The third years all kept their mouths shut. Sanada was waiting for the the next match, Yanagi was lost somewhere in his own mind, and Niou and Yagyuu were trying to avoid saying anything that would increase the tension by saying nothing at all. Unfortunately, the silence came with a brand of tension all its own.
When the long-awaited singles one match started, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Here was a match they could all get into. Atobe's little pre-match show made Sanada shake his head in annoyance. "That guy..."
"He needs to take himself less seriously and take tennis more seriously." Yagyuu's voice was carefully neutral as he kept his eyes locked on the match.
"Five hundred yen says Tezuka takes it."
"Masaharu, that would be rather unwise." Yanagi furrowed his eyebrows for a moment as he studied Tezuka's movements. "Atobe's insight will show him Tezuka's shoulder is weak, and he'll take the game."
"What's wrong with Tezuka's shoulder?" It wasn't like Kirihara to worry about the welfare of anyone, really. Perhaps he only cared when it was good players that he wanted to challenge and beat - he certainly was concerned enough about Yukimura.
"I don't actually know, but I'm sure we'll see it soon enough. Just watch."
Indeed, midway through the match, Tezuka collapsed on the courts, grabbing his left shoulder in what could only be described as agony. He refused to stop though, and eventually lost after a long tie-breaker. "How disappointing." Kirihara kicked a pebble as they walked to the bus station, clearly feeling gypped out of a high quality round.
"It was still a high caliber match though, Akaya. Atobe still played at his best, and Tezuka not at his best is still better than most. Plus, Seigaku's got itself quite an interesting freshman there." Yanagi walked behind Kirihara, with Niou at his side. Sanada and Yagyuu followed them - Sanada was already outlining the details of the match to Yukimura.
"Yea, it looks like Tezuka won't be playing at the Kantou finals, either. Their super-rookie? He was OK. Not great. I can see why Hiyoshi was the Hyoutei reserve though. Hiyoshi? The guy with the bowl haircut that kind of looks like a mushroom? Whatever, he's not important."
Niou snickered. He was the one who originally pointed out that Hyoutei's second year reserve player looked like a mushroom. It was a normal comment coming from him, though Yukimura must be thinking that Sanada had lost it.
"By the way, I heard that Oishi injured his wrist, and that was why he didn't play. Apparently we missed Kikumaru and one of their sophomores in doubles two. It was a last minute change, which was why Seigaku's doubles wasn't all that impressive." Yanagi had gone to have a brief chat with Inui after the match was over. Niou watched as they stood stiffly, both clearly uncomfortable with the situation. He wondered if he was just paranoid, but he could talk with Yanagi about that over dinner tomorrow.
"I see. Hopefully that'll heal before finals, then." It was statements like that that made people think Yagyuu was a polite gentleman, concerned for his opponents' welfare. Niou knew better, though - what Yagyuu really wanted was the Golden Pair to be in prime condition when he and Niou delivered the smackdown. Niou grinned. Oh what a smackdown they'd deliver, indeed.
Yes yes, I'm blatantly changing canon. It fits better this way though. :X
I thought it was an appropriate time to take a break from our regularly scheduled angsty UST and talk a little about the tennis. Then I realized I could have the UST (not-so-)subtly interspersed within the tennis. :D
