When they entered the courts, Shishido finally let go of Otori's hand to get his rackets out. He gave one to Oshitari, and then took his own out.
"Hey! What about me?" Gakuto didn't get a racket and didn't have time to get his own.
"I only have two. Tough luck for you, huh, shorty?" Shishido and Gakuto didn't have the most wonderful buddy-buddy relationship.
"You can borrow mine, I have a spare." Otori handed Gakuto his racket. Gakuto looked at the racket in his hand. Ooh. This looked promising. Oshitari, however, shot him a glance that said, "stick to the plan or I'll kill you", so Gakuto decided against whatever he was plotting. Oshitari kept staring at Gakuto though…damn that Yuushi, not very trusting, is he? Pouting, Gakuto put down the racket as evidence that he wasn't going to do anything.
Turning to the courts, Oshitari called to Otori and Shishido. "You two go ahead, me and Gaku are going to practice getting used to the new rackets." Good thing Oshitari was quick to follow up on a plan. If he didn't get Shishido and Otori occupied quick enough, Gakuto would be the one telling them that they were going to practice. It was common knowledge that Gakuto didn't care one bit for practicing, and they would be suspicious if he had said that he was going to practice.
Oshitari and Gakuto were going to watch the first point to make sure that the two players had a good rally going before they took Otori's hotel room key.The Mission: Get the key from Otori's bag. Then, if all went right, Otori wouldn't be able to get into his room, and he would have to stay at Shishido's house. If they were right, which they usually were, Otori and Shishido both liked each other. The plan was perfect: they would steal the key, forcing Otori to move in with Shishido...and hopefully, Shishido would play his part and start flirting or something...young love was so fun to watch.
The only problem was, if they got caught, they'd have to resort to a backup plan.
It was too bad that they didn't have a backup plan.
After it was decided that Otori would serve, they prepared to snatch the key. With Otori's killer serve, however, the match would probably end faster than they thought it would.
"Yuushi?"
"Mm?"
"What the hell was wrong with that serve?" Gakuto stared at the silver-haired boy. He was so sweet and kind and yet his serve was just pure…evil. He apparently wasn't the only one who thought so, as Shishido was also gaping at Otori, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped open.
Oshitari, too, was stunned, but he knew that he had business to attend to, so he poked Gakuto in the ribs and pointed to the bag. Luckily, the pockets were already open ("He is just asking to get robbed, Yuushi."), so Gakuto just reached in, grabbed a card, and took his hand out as quickly as possible.
Glancing at the card, Gakuto mentally cursed. He grabbed a business card? His luck was just…well, nonexistent, really.
He glanced over at the pair before dipping his hand back in the bag. This time, he pulled out the hotel key. Pocketing it, he gave Oshitari the thumbs-up before starting to watch the game again.
Besides Otori's serve, the match was uneventful with a final score of 6 games to 3. That must've hurt Shishido's pride a lot. Like, poked, stabbed, and left-a-scar-hurt. When Otori and Shishido were walking back towards him, Gakuto said he didn't feel like playing anymore. Shishido rolled his eyes and muttered something about "didn't even need a racket in the first place…made such a big deal about it…" and he took his racket back from Oshitari to put it away.
"I'm sure you two are tired," Oshitari tactfully said. "Why don't we just drop off Otori and rest a big, while we're there?"
"Sounds good to me." Shishido turned towards Otori. "You okay with that?"
"Yeah, that would be great." And they all headed to the hotel.
When they got to Otori's room, they found themselves locked out.
Surprise, surprise.
"This isn't good…" Otori fumbled through the pockets of his bag.
Oh no, Otori, quite the contrary. This was wonderful; the pan was playing out smoothly.
"Maybe you left it at the tennis court," Gakuto chimed in.
"If we go back now, the courts will be closed, though." It was a good thing they were very experienced in pranks…er…well-thought-out-plans-to-help-people. If they weren't then they wouldn't sound so convincing. Or keep a straight face.
It took years, Oshitari remembered, for Gakuto to learn how to keep his mouth shut when he was excited. He was still learning how to keep his mouth shut in general, though. This might take a little more time.
In any case, Shishido was taking a long time to think of the only and obvious solution, so Oshitari gave him a hint that he would hopefully take.
"If Otori can't get his keys, he's going to need somewhere to stay."
They still didn't take the hint.
"Yeah, and me and Yuushi aren't going to share. We're already sharing with each other in a tiny apartment. Shishido, you do it." Well, that worked. Otori started babbling about being rude and whatnot, while Shishido smirked.
"I guess that's our only choice. Let's all go back to my place, then." Shishido turned, heading towards the exit. They called a cab to go and drop them off at a two-story house.
"What do you think of it?" Shishido asked, unlocking the door.
"It's…um…nice." It was tiny, compared to Otori's house, but at least it looked cozy. Not to mention the fact that it was bigger than the hotel room, which is always a plus.
Still, getting to live with Shishido for almost three weeks?
He was so glad he lost his key.
When they entered the house, Shishido told Otori to look around since he needed to talk to Oshitari and Gakuto.
"If you could make it snow it would be good," were the first words out of Gakuto's mouth when Otori was out of the room.
"Or if you did construction on every room except one," Oshitari added.
Shishido groaned.
Apparently, thinking of a plan to make Otori his wasn't going to be easy.
Actually doing it would probably be even harder.
---xxxx---
A/N: I changed it (Many thanks for the constructive crit. :) ), and I hope it's a bit easier to understand now! The edits were a bit rushed though, so be sure to message if it still doesn't make sense...arigatou!