Title: Fictional Truth
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
"With all due respect, Niou-senpai, have you lost your mind?" Kirihara sounded entirely incredulous over the phone, and Niou didn't blame him.

Niou lay on his bed, one leg bent and the other crossed over it, foot swinging in the air. "Yes, a long time ago. So, are you going to do it?"

"Do you really think this will work?"

"As well as anything else." Actually, Niou wasn't sure if anything would work. He didn't think Yanagi had any interest in Kirihara beyond that of a teammate. Really, sending Yanagi on a scavenger hunt was just for fun, and perhaps to give Yanagi some time alone to think before Kirihara sprung it on him.

After practice on Saturday, Niou and Kirihara initiated their plan. Niou slipped a piece of paper into Yanagi's tennis bag while he was in the shower and gave Kirihara the thumbs up sign. Niou went to Yanagi's house and hid across the street, waiting for Yanagi to arrive home. When Yanagi left his house again, dressed in normal clothes and holding a slip of paper, looking very confused, Niou pulled out his cell phone and text messaged Kirihara, who should be waiting at point one. "He's on his way."

Niou didn't wait long at point two. As soon as he finished convincing the shopgirl to not tell Yanagi anything and paid for the card, his cell vibrated with a message from Kirihara saying that Yanagi had found their second message at the arcade and should be on his way. Clearly, Yanagi was sharp and could figure out their clues pretty easily. He watched as Yanagi arrived and looked around the card shop until he looked inside an unmarked one with a simple heart on it and found the third slip of paper. Yanagi tried to pay for the card, but as agreed, the shopgirl smiled and said it was already paid for. Yanagi tried to get more information, but she smiled and refused, just as Niou had instructed. He sent Kirihara another text, "He's confused, but is on his way. Good luck."

Niou knew that Kirihara would be waiting at Yanagi's favorite spot in the library, at the back behind rows of dusty classics in their original languages, when Yanagi arrived. He also knew that Yanagi would have figured out the messages meant that Kirihara, who loved video games, liked Yanagi, who liked those old, unread books. Somewhere inside, he also knew that Yanagi would reject Kirihara, which was confirmed an hour later when Yanagi sent him a text saying, "Why did you help him?"

"Move it up just a little, Jackal." Yanagi stood on ground, looking at the sign Jackal and Niou were putting up over the doorway.

"How's that?" Jackal pushed it up just a little. Yanagi gave them the OK, and the two of them taped the corners of the sign to the wall. Niou hopped off the chair to take a look. It was kind of corny - the sign said "Welcome Home, Yukimura!" in bright red letters - but it was the thought that counted. He meandered over to the dinner table, where Yagyuu was setting up the food and drinks, lightly bumping Yagyuu's shoulder in lieu of a greeting.

"How much longer until they arrive?" Niou stole a chip from one of the bowls Yagyuu had already laid out. He picked up the empty bags from the snacks and walked over to the trash can.

"About ten minutes. Are all the decorations up?" Yagyuu poured a bag of trail mix into a bowl and set it next to a bowl of fresh strawberries. Niou looked back into the living room and nodded. They had spent the past hour setting up a surprise party in the Yukimura household. Sanada had gone with Yukimura's family to pick him up, and had texted them with an ETA once they'd left the hospital. It looked pretty nice, actually. The sign hung over the entrance to the kitchen and the rest of the room had balloons and crepe paper draped around the walls.

"Here's the cake!" Marui bounced in the door, holding up a nicely wrapped box. They all gathered around the table as Marui carefully removed the cake from the box and set it on a decorative plate. "Everything's ready now, right?" Marui looked wistfully at the cake, causing Jackal to grab onto his wrist and pull him towards the living room, away from the cake.

"Yup. Now we just hide and wait for Yukimura to come in the front door." Niou chose a spot between the entertainment unit and the living room entrance from the front hallway.

"They just turned onto the street!" Kirihara, who had been keeping watch at an upstairs window, bounded down the stairs and into the living room. He appeared to have rebounded from Yanagi's rejection pretty quickly, and had been able to joke around and plan the party with them without any awkwardness showing through. Niou only wished it were that easy for Yanagi and himself, even if it were just pretend.

"Hide!"

Kirihara dove behind the coffee table as the sounds of a car pulling into the driveway reached their ears. The door opened, and Yukimura's soft voice floated in. "Really, Genichirou, I can walk by myself. I'm not going to collapse again."

"I know, I've just kept getting flashbacks and it worries me, you know." Sanada's voice was gentler than anything Niou had ever heard from him. He raised an eyebrow at Marui while flashing a silent countdown with his fingers. Everyone jumped out simultaneously just as someone turned on the living room lights from the hallway. "Surprise! Welcome home, Yukimura!"

Yukimura didn't show any signs of surprise other than his eyes widening ever so slightly. "Aren't you guys supposed to be at practice right now?"

"We made it up on Sunday. And Kirihara owes me five hundred yen." Niou held out his hand and Kirihara grumbled, forfeiting the stated amount. "I told him Yukimura's first words to us would be about why we're not at practice."

"Akaya, don't you know by now that it's a bad idea to bet against Niou?" Yukimura sat down on a couch, voice at once teasing and chastising. His parents and sister left the room to bring Yukimura's suitcase back to his room and do their own stuff - they would have their own family celebration later. Right now, Yukimura's time was promised to his team, who had worried just as much ever since they first saw him collapse and were just as relieved at his recovery.

"Yes, yes." Kirihara looked away, and the rest of the team laughed.

Sanada, who by now had poured two cups of orange juice, handed one to Yukimura and sat next to him, sipping from the other. "You guys did a good job."

"You knew about this?" Yukimura looked at Sanada accusingly, and Sanada held up his hands.

"Everyone knew about it, captain." Marui eyed the table in the kitchen, and then looked back at Yukimura. "We should go into the kitchen; we got you cake and everything."

Yukimura chuckled lightly. "OK, but Marui, aren't you not allowed to eat cake except before matches?" They all laughed at Marui's dismayed expression.

"Why don't we let this one time slide? It is a special occasion, after all." Again, Sanada caused eyebrows to rise when he granted Marui a reprieve from his otherwise strictly-enforced diet. "You have to run an extra fifteen laps tomorrow, though." Marui happily agreed, and they went to begin the celebration of Yukimura's recovery.

"Seiichi! What're you doing here? Aren't you supposed to stay in bed for another week still?" Apparently, even Yanagi didn't know of Yukimura's plans to return to practice the very next day as Yukimura walked into the clubroom, already dressed in his uniform.

"Relax, Renji. I'm just going to watch you guys practice; I won't be playing again for awhile yet." Yukimura moved to his locker to grab his jacket. While his movements were still as graceful as they'd been a year ago, they weren't as powerful as Niou remembered. He watched as Yukimura put his hair up and pulled on his headband before draping the jacket around his shoulders. It almost looked as though Yukimura had never left them, though the way the jacket hung just a little loose on his shoulders and his shorts fell a little lower on his hips gave away the fact that Yukimura had lost a lot of weight during his illness.

Nonetheless, Yukimura's mere presence made practice seem just that much more important. Niou was more careful with his follow through. Yagyuu hit his lasers with less flair and more power. Marui concentrated so intently on his precision that he didn't blow a single bubble. Even Sanada focused more on his own practice and less on other people's. Yet, Yukimura still yelled at them. "Everyone, your form is terrible!" He continued on to yell at each one of them, finishing with, "How did you ever win Kantou like this?"

Niou winced. Certainly, Yukimura's presence made them feel like a complete team again, and while his criticisms were mostly true, he didn't need to be so harsh. Yukimura used to be terse with them at practice, but he didn't remember the words ever having been said with as much bite behind them. "It's good to have you back, too, Yukimura-buchou!"

Yukimura leaned back against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, you guys. It's just so frustrating, watching all of you practicing and not being able to play along with you. I want to play in Nationals, too, with you guys."

"It's OK, Yukimura-buchou. We held our own at Kantou, we'll be OK at Nationals, also." Kirihara delivered a service ace against a third year.

"You just concentrate on getting better - the less we worry about you, the better our form will be." Niou hit his version of Yagyuu's laser, which Yagyuu easily returned.

"Seichii, I have a plan I want to discuss with you, actually." Yanagi finished his match against Marui and walked over to Yukimura. The rest of them returned to their matches, each putting everything he had into their games.


Seriously, this fic is refusing to end. It also sucks that we don't know the lineup for Nationals finals yet. . I need the lineup, at the very least. . This part was even harder than 12. . Not a good sign...