Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
Everyone was silent as the clock ticked away the minutes, then hours. The room was so tense that Niou was often tempted to make a joke just to relax the group a little. At least their teammates were wise enough to not ask why Niou took a seat opposite Yanagi, with Yagyuu next to him, instead of the other way around. Yanagi was the first to pull out a textbook and start studying. One by one, they each pulled out a book to study from. After all, it wouldn't do to get academic probation and not be able to play in Nationals. Besides, it was kind of amusing watching Kirihara make funny faces as he tried to silently shape English words with his mouth. It at least toned down the awkwardness of the tension.
An hour later though - or maybe less, since each minute felt like an hour - even that got old. "So Sanada, are you ever going to tell us what you said to Yukimura that made him smile like that?" Niou couldn't stand the silence anymore. Cliché as it may sound, the silence really was deafening. Even if his question was entirely inappropriate, it was still better than staring at the same page of his calculus book for another hour, afraid to move a muscle because that would make his windbreaker rustle, and then everyone would look up at him over their textbooks to see what he was doing to cause the rustling and it was all just so deeply frustrating. Instead, Sanada just glared at him from his stance leaning against the wall in between the two rows of chairs.
"Oh come on Sanada, spill." Marui also looked relieved at having something to talk about. Sanada was quick to glare at him as well.
"He probably told Yukimura that he'd be waiting in his bedroom with a dozen red roses when he returned." That would definitely earn him laps, but it was worth it to see Sanada's face turn red like that.
"Niou, fifty extra laps Monday morning." Sanada didn't sound as intimidating when his face was contorted and the tips of his ears were flushed from either anger or embarrassment, or perhaps both. Niou just grinned - he was used to the extra laps by now. It had actually gotten to the point where it was actually strange when he didn't get assigned penalty laps. "Yanagi, Kirihara, you two will be joining him."
"What? Why me? I won!" Although Kirihara sounded agitated, it was also obvious that he'd already accepted his laps. Kirihara was assigned laps more often than Niou - sometimes, Niou thought it would be more efficient if Kirihara just had extra laps as part of his training and was occasionally granted a reprieve when he was good.
"For stopping Yanagi's punishment. You know the rule of Rikkai; that didn't help our reputation. And, Yanagi, would you care to explain your loss today?"
Niou winced. He glanced at Yanagi, suddenly wishing he hadn't opened his mouth. There was simply no explanation that Sanada would understand that Yanagi would say in front of the rest of them.
"I am sorry. He surprised me, and I didn't recover fast enough." Yanagi's voice was even. He looked unflinchingly at Sanada the whole time, never allowing his gaze to travel to Niou. Niou felt Yagyuu's hand rub his knee comfortingly. He didn't brush it away.
"How will you prevent future repeats?" It had been awhile since Sanada last grilled one of them after a loss. Niou remembered when he had been on the receiving end of those and couldn't say he cared for it. He couldn't remember Yanagi having ever received one, though, and wished fervently that he was still staring at a page about second derivatives and concavity instead of having initiated this particular conversation.
"I was too arrogant. I will expect more of my opponents and be prepared for any possibility." Yanagi had clearly been expecting the post-loss "talk" and had his response entirely planned out.
"How will you make it up to the team - to Yukimura?"
"Genichirou, I think I already made it up to Seiichi." Yanagi's mouth twitched. Strangely, Sanada let that one slide. There were times when the three demons of Rikkai understood each other deeper than the rest of the team, but this one was pretty obvious. Yanagi had given Yukimura a vice captain-shaped apology. Why Sanada didn't get mad though, was apparently going to remain a secret between them. "And I'll run twenty extra laps every morning until Nationals start."
Then and there, Niou decided that he'd join Yanagi for those runs. The loss was mostly his fault, after all. He deserved the punishment more than Yanagi did.
"You kids are the ones waiting for Yukimura Seiichi, right?" A young nurse walked into the room and was immediately taken aback when the seven teenage boys jumped to attention, rushing forward only to stop in a messy semicircle just a bare two feet away from her.
"Yes, do you have news on his condition?" Sanada, despite being in the back of the group looking over Marui's shoulder, still held the most command in the room.
"The surgery went smoothly. We won't know if it was successful for a few days, but all indicators point to success. Only his family is allowed to see him right now - you may see him when he is completely taken off the anesthesia in about an hour, but he probably won't wake until tomorrow." The poor lady was so dwarfed by the Rikkai Regulars that her face was showing just a little bit of fear, and her words were rattled off with rehearsed precision.
Niou breathed a sigh of relief, and could feel his teammates do the same around him. It literally felt like a weight had been taken off their collective chests as the nurse left and they scattered back to the various positions they'd been waiting in earlier, each taking a break to stretch some stiff muscles. "I'm going to take a walk," he declared, stuffing his textbook back into his tennis bag.
"I'll go with you," Yagyuu quickly volunteered. Niou didn't reject the offer. He wasn't sure yet what to make of the whole thing, and the stress of worrying over Yukimura hadn't helped him think. Now that they knew Yukimura would be OK though, he could start thinking about his own life again.
They wandered aimlessly for awhile, side-by-side, without speaking a word. Niou studied how he had to take five strides for every four of Yagyuu's - he had never before taken the time to notice that. Actually, to be correct, he had never before been so unable to start a conversation with Yagyuu to notice. It was just like the silence in the waiting room all over again, except at least he was moving this time.
Eventually, they stopped in front of a vending machine, and Yagyuu pulled some change out of his pocket to get an iced oolong tea for Niou and green tea for himself. Niou accepted it without protesting, looking directly into Yagyuu's eyes as he let their fingers brush. He and Yagyuu had been spent so much time together over the past several years that they knew each other's tastes perfectly. It had never felt awkward before when they were alone - it shouldn't be this hard to find words to say to Yagyuu. "Thanks, Hiroshi." Yagyuu smiled gently at him. Niou felt an arm encircle his shoulders and didn't resist as it pulled him against a hard chest. "I was so worried." He didn't expect to whisper, but he couldn't muster any more strength to put behind his words.
"Me too." Yagyuu's response was equally soft. Even so, there was a torrent of emotions in it - happiness, relief, possibly regret, and others Niou couldn't pin a description to. "Me too. But he's OK. He'll be OK. He'll be back on the courts before you know it, yelling at us about how terrible our form is."
Niou nodded. "I can't wait." There was so much more they needed to talk about, it was hard figuring out where to start. So he finally started with the most recent thought on his mind. "You do realize we both have to apologize to Yanagi, right?"
A few minutes after they joined the others in the waiting room, the nurse let them go in to see Yukimura. Without his headband keeping the stray strands of hair not pulled into his ponytail away from his face, and with his face relaxed in sleep, Yukimura didn't look anything like captain they all feared and respected. He did, however, look like the friend they had lunch with in the school courtyard and fought over pieces of meat with when they went for yakiniku. Sanada set the medal on the nightstand next to the bed, so that Yukimura could see it first thing when he woke up.
"Let's go." Jackal ushered the rest of them out of the room, leaving Sanada behind to spend a moment alone with the sleeping boy.
"So, who thinks Sanada's kissing him right now?" Niou raised his hand, grinning. They all burst into laughter and were unable to stop until they were all kneeling or sitting on the floor, gasping for breath, several minutes later. It wasn't that his words were all that funny - they were just so relieved that it all came rushing out at the slightest catalyst, like a dam bursting because of a tiny hole.
About Yagyuu. I was a little concerned about his pushiness and where I had my sources for it, so I went to read his 20.5 bio again - "If you were to randomly encounter Yagyuu, you would probably never think that he was the main advocate for war on the team that makes Nationals-level players tremble in fear. No matter where he is, his speech and conduct are always gentlemanly, but he really is the king when it comes to tenacity in achieving a win." Although, Yanagi supposedly "gets along with him fairly well." :X I still think perhaps he was lacking in the gentlemanly conduct a little, but love can make people stupid...
