Title: I Love My Computer

Pairing: Yagyuu x Oshitari

Fandom: Prince of Tennis

Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.

Note: Uh… so now we pretend that people talk online similar to how they talk in person, OK? Because I sure as heck don't know how the Japanese talk on IM.

He had to write a paper that night, so obviously the first thing Oshitari did when he turned on his computer after dinner that night was sign on IM. Maybe someone could amuse him as he wrote five pages about the current Japanese export policy and why it needed changing. Before he could even open up his text editor, a window popped open, asking to accept a message from someone new. He clicked OK, intrigued by the odd screen name and wondering if it were someone he knew.

"Is this Oshitari from Hyoutei? I'm Rikkai's Yagyuu," immediately popped up. Whoa. That was totally unexpected. Paper completely forgotten, he replied the only way he could think of, "Hi, what's up?" Another window popped up – Gakuto, something in the back of his mind vaguely registered – to which he replied without even thinking, before focusing back on Yagyuu's window. He was slightly amused by the serious boy's choice of a buddy icon – the gold foil wrapped Hershey's kiss just… wasn't very stereotypical Yagyuu.

"I got your sn from Yukimura and Atobe. Niou told me what he said to you before your match; I wanted to apologize for his childishness." Well, wasn't that just like the gentleman, Oshitari chuckled inwardly. Perfect grammar and spelling aside, the mere fact that he found Niou's actions atrocious enough to apologize for was simply not something the average high school player did.

"It's all right," he quickly typed. "It's all part of the game, and I lost fairly. Niou's a very good player." In more ways than one, he added silently. There was a pause, and Oshitari wondered if that was all Yagyuu was going to say. He looked over at Gakuto's annoyingly blinking window and told his partner that no, he was fine, nothing had happened with Niou, when Yagyuu started talking again.

"Ano sa… I was wondering, is it true?"

OK this was bad, Oshitari thought. It looked like Atobe's matchmaking suggestion wasn't even necessary. He'd been so busy wondering himself whether or not Niou's statement was true that he didn't even make the connection that Yagyuu and Niou were best friends, and therefore probably informed each other of news like this. As he stared at the window, wondering how to respond, Yagyuu seemed to take his silence as an answer, because he continued, "I'm sorry, that was quite rude of me."

"I don't know." It was easy, non-compromising, and true, Oshitari thought. As an afterthought, he asked, "Why?"

"Because I think I'm interested in you."

Well, there you had it. Yagyuu obviously wasn't one for wasting words, and apparently wasn't affected by that embarrassment thing at all. He seemed perfectly confident in saying what he thought needed to be said, regardless of repercussions, kind of like Atobe, actually. He was different from Atobe though – Atobe was confident because he believed he was never wrong; Yagyuu was confident just simply because he was.

Oshitari was very glad they were talking over the internet now, as he suddenly realized his face was slowly flushing from reading and rereading Yagyuu's pseudo-confession. He couldn't figure out why this was affecting him so much though, aside from the simple reason that he was interested in Yagyuu. It wasn't as if this was the first time someone had expressed an interest in him – he got his fair share of love letters in his locker and confessions after practice and whatnot. He just never was interested in any of them, and so was able to keep his cool all those times.

This time was clearly different. He wasn't sure he "liked" Yagyuu in that way – he certainly had never spent time daydreaming about Yagyuu the way he'd seen Shishido spacing out in class, but not everyone was Shishido. He and Atobe never really went through this phase – Atobe had just shown up at his door one day and demanded that Oshitari go to the theatres with him then and there.

A persistent blinking made Oshitari click on Gakuto's window before returning to Yagyuu's. It'd been a couple of minutes since Yagyuu had written, and he knew he needed to say something, so he just let his fingers type and pressed send. Then he read what he'd written. "Are you free tomorrow afternoon?" Holy shit. He did not just write that. That sounded like quite the come on. But the words were there, on his screen, and there was no taking them back.

"Yes."

Oh. Interesting. His mind decidedly wasn't into forming actual sentences at the moment. "Do you want to see a movie or something?"

"I'm not really into movies," came the reply. "But you know, I've heard Tokyo's got a new ice rink near Hyoutei."

Ice-skating. He could sort of skate, but not too well. It was decidedly unclear why or how Yagyuu knew of the rink, but he wasn't going to think about that just now. "It's about a fifteen minute walk. Do you like skating?"

"I used to play hockey." Now that was unexpected. Yagyuu, the excruciatingly polite tennis player whose neck some people mentioned desiring to strangle for his infuriating ever-calm demeanor, played the rough checking sport of hockey?

"How about meeting in front of the rink at 1, then?" He so totally had no clue what he was getting himself into.

"Sounds good to me."

"I need to finish writing this paper right now though, so I'll see you tomorrow, then?" They went through the usual pleasantries of good lucks and good nights, before Oshitari put up an away message. He completely forgot about Gakuto, but that was OK – he could just make up some excuse later. Right now, he needed to clear his mind write his paper. How realistic that was, though, was yet to be determined, as his mind kept replaying the conversation that had just transpired.

How the HELL had that happened?

Reviews loved. D