Title: The Second Meeting: Life Continues
Pairing: YuuTari
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.

Long distance was hard, but he could get used to it. They kept in touch over instant messaging and emails, so for the first few weeks, it was as if Yagyuu hadn't even left Japan. School had started again before Yagyuu had even left, so there were times when he could pretend that Yagyuu was still at Rikkai, and that they would be meeting that weekend at whatever the given tournament was.

The problem was that even though the weekend would roll around and the match would occur, there was never again a Yagyuu Hiroshi present. He saw Rikkai countless times – thankfully, none of them ever made an effort to talk to him, not even Niou – but there was a big empty spot where a refined, sophisticated boy should have stood, fixing his glasses with one hand and holding a book with another. He just never was.

One night, his dad took his sister out for some father-daughter bonding. Oshitari Yuushi spent that evening in his mother's arms, crying his heart out. Though she didn't know the details of what was wrong, she could tell the up and down heaving of his chest were the heart wrenching sobs that only adults could make, and she was left to wonder when her son had stepped over the line between child and adult. Still, she could only hold her son – stroking his back, kissing his forehead, and whispering words of reassurance – like she had when he was a child, crying over his deceased puppy.

Eventually, only one lone leaf remained on the big tree outside Oshitari's window, and the air started getting nippy. The third years retired from the club activities to start vigorously studying for college entrance exams – Oshitari remembered doing that just the year prior for high school entrance exams – and the rest of the team started vying for the few open Regular spots. Atobe easily secured his spot, as did Jirou. The rest of the positions went to some second years that Oshitari vaguely remembered from middle school.

One morning, Oshitari opened his locker to find an envelope on top of his shoes. Someone had called him out after school. "Ooooo Oshitari's got an admirer!" Gakuto teased, seeing Oshitari calmly folding the letter and replacing it in the (slightly scented, he noted) envelope. "Who's it from?"

"I don't know," he replied, slipping it in his satchel and pulling out his shoes as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Are you going?" Shishido asked, seemingly a bit more concerned than Gakuto. While Gakuto was more flippant in his character, Shishido was fiercely loyal, and always threw away any letters he got without ever going to meet the sender. Shishido had always been the most callous of the bunch – he never cared if people he didn't care about got hurt.

"Yes; it would be impolite not to." Even in middle school, Oshitari had made it a habit to at least go whenever he was called for a confession. He had always tried his best to turn his admirers down gently, using whatever reason he felt would be sufficient. Maybe he could be called soft for it, but Oshitari was always very empathic towards other people, and never liked hurting those who had never wronged him. This time, especially, he knew he should go, since he had a very good reason to give.

He showed up early, so he just looked around for a bit. The particular spot his admirer had chosen was quite pretty and secluded. It was behind the science building, nestled between the building and a brick wall, populated with a lot of bushes and trees. It was definitely a spot for lovers; he could just picture himself pulling Yagyuu back here for a make out session. The unbidden thought of Yagyuu made him remember how far his boyfriend was, causing a heaviness to settle on his chest. He didn't have long to dwell on that though.

"Oshitari-san?" It was a girl. She was cute, but not really his type. "Hi."

"Hi…?" She did look somewhat familiar though – he didn't think she was in his class, but he could easily be wrong. Oshitari never made a big deal about getting to know everyone, since he figured the people he needed to know he would get to know anyway.

"Ohtori Rei, year one, class two," she said. That was why she was familiar – Ohtori's older sister had come to watch some of their games last year. He hoped she wasn't as innocent and fragile as her brother sometimes appeared.

"Ohtori-san." Sometimes, he cursed his voice for being as low and smooth as it was. Gakuto had once said it was sexy as hell, even when he was saying the most mundane things.

"I... I'm glad you came. I just wanted to know if you could, well, please go out with me." She stuttered throughout her little confession, looking everywhere except at him. It was kind of flattering and kind of cute – he wished he was dating someone like her, cute and shy and not problematic. Unfortunately, he hadn't.

Oshitari smiled. "I'm sorry," he started. "There's already someone I'm in love with, and I'd prefer being faithful to him."

"Oh!" She gasped, finally looking up at him. Her eyes were the same sparkling, innocent brown as her brother's, Oshitari noted, though her hair was a darker shade of blonde. "You're already with someone, I see, sorry, I didn't know."

"It's OK," he interrupted. "Not a lot of people know."

"Um, if you wouldn't mind, could you not tell my brother about this?" she asked, looking to her left at where the well-trimmed, yet dense bushes seemed to form a nice little resting place.

"Of course, I won't tell anyone. And good luck, Ohtori-san." So saying, he turned and left, not being particularly keen on staying in that awkward situation. Somehow, even though all he had done was turn down an admirer, Oshitari felt lighter than he had in the past few months. Maybe this episode had helped him put his relationship into the right perspective – in retrospect, this was actually the first time he had openly admitted to being in love with Yagyuu.

Uh... I blame the, "According to 20.5, he Oshitari is warm-hearted and gets teary easily."