Second part! It's pretty long. Enjoy and if you've got opinions - review!

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"Marui-senpai!" Kirihara shouted. He waited for a moment before screaming: "HEEEY! BUNTA-CHAN! WHERE'D YA GO??!"

No answer except for a small breeze that made the leaves rustling. And it was getting darker too.

A bird of some kind hooted and suddenly the park seemed a lot more unfriendly than a moment ago…

"Uh… Marui-senpai? Come on I wanna go home! Please…?" O-kay… this wasn't the least fun and Kirihara could think of a lot of things he'd rather be doing at the moment.

What if some kind of big, evil monster had eaten his senpai?! What if Seigaku's Fuji had Hakugei'd him and Kirihara was next in line?!

Something behind Kirihara made a slightly creaking noise. And that was enough for our favorite kouhai to lose it. He ran screaming towards the only safe place he in the park that he could think of: the park's run down old tennis courts.

"NOOO! PLEASE DON'T EAT MEEEE!!!" he screamed, and jumped to hide behind a tree.

Something small and light hit Kirihara's head and he frowned slightly. "… Boo" a voice above him said.

"Eeeek!!!"

"Stop screaming, Bakaya" Marui said. "Here, I'm up here. I'm hiding from fukubuchou." Kirihara looked for the source of the voice, and found his senpai sitting on the tree branch of a big tree with a lot of cones.

"Bunta-chan senpai!" he gasped, relieved. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Yeah, right…" Pop.

"Uh… what happened to you eye?"

"What happened to my eye?!" Marui hissed, as he carefully picked one of the cones. "YOU happened Akaya!" he screamed, and threw the cone at his kouhai. "Your stupid violent play style is what happened to me!"

He launched more cones at Kirihara, who tried to fend himself. And some of the cones actually hit pretty hard.

"H-hey! Stop it! What'd I do to you?!"

"You want a list?! I hate you! You stupid brat!! Don't you ever think before doing things!?"

"Hey! I bet you won't be so cocky when I play in doubles1!" Kirihara screamed, giving his senpai the Finger.

More throwing followed and by now Kirihara was tired of fending them off. He grabbed a cone off the ground and threw it back as hard as he could. It hit Marui senpai in the head, nice and clean.

Uh-oh...! "No! Look out!" Kirihara screamed as Marui momentarily lost his balance and slumped down off the branch.

Kirihara rushed forward, arms outstretched. And he actually caught his senpai! Was this the first cool moment of his young life?

Not likely. Since Kirihara was the second-year ace of Rikkai and he was therefore used to doing unlikely cool things on the tennis courts.

And, frankly – falling and landing onto his butt because his senpai was too heavy probably didn't count as very cool…

"Ow… you fatty-senpai" Kirihara whined. But Marui didn't answer him. The redheaded boy seemed to be knocked out cold.

"Marui-senpai wake up! Shit… Perfect. Just perfect" Kirihara muttered as he shook his unconscious senpai lightly. No response.

Now what?

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LATER AT MARUI'S PLACE

Jackal was sitting in the sofa, zapping through the TV-channels. Bunta's parents were out of town and his two little brothers needed watching after. But right now they were asleep upstairs.

And Jackal, being an only child who'd asked his parents for a little brother or sister for Christmas since he was five, was quick to volunteer to look after the two boys while his doubles partner played against their kouhai.

It was already late though, and Marui should've been back now. Yanagi had even come over to dump Akaya's and Bunta's bags and uniforms over an hour ago. Together with their cell phones, so Jackal couldn't call them and ask what had happened. Or call to shout at them that dinner was turning cold.

He sometimes felt like he was their mum and he silently wondered if Seigaku's Oishi ever had these kinds of problem.

KNOCK KNOCK

Putting on the pink bunny slippers he always wore when visiting Bunta, Jackal got up and went to the front door.

"… what the heck are you wearing Jackal-senpai?" a slightly bleeding Kirihara said as he eyed the pink slippers. He had small cuts and bruises in his face but it was nothing compared to the boy he was carrying.

"What the hell happened to Bunta?!" Jackal gasped, almost choking on his own tongue, but then he draped his arms around his doubles partner. Kirihara didn't really mind losing all that extra weight he'd been carrying for the past hour(s) and quietly slipped into the house.

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He followed Jackal upstairs. The hall outside Marui's room had pictures of the family hanging on the walls, featuring them in different stages of life.

Kirihara snickered as he saw a picture of his senpai as a five-year old, sitting in an umpire chair as if it was his throne, holding a tennis racket in one hand and a piece of cake in the other.

"I've called Yukimura-buchou" Jackal said, and waved with a cell phone. He'll be over in a minute so I suggest you have a good explanation for this."

"Uh… listen, it's not what it seems like" Kirihara started to explain.

"If we'll lose our doubles1 match because of this Yukimura's gonna have your whole body shaved."

"No he won't" Kirihara protested. "And why d'you think that you'll be-"

He quickly shut his mouth. Because the look in his senpai's eye told him that it wasobvious which pair would play as doubles1.

"Hello!" a voice from downstairs called. Kirihara recognized it as Niou's. "We're here!"

As Jackal went downstairs to greet their new visitors, Kirihara went into Marui's room and sat down beside his senpai. Marui almost seemed to be sleeping where he lay on the bed, quilt pulled up to his chin. The quilt was… pink. And it had flowers on it.

What if Marui-senpai died here and now and he died covered in a girly quilt?! Kirihara didn't know which of them was more depressing.

"Knock, knock" Yukimura said in a hushed voice, standing in the door opening.

"Hey, buchou…" Kirihara said, lighten up slightly at the sight.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure." Kirihara moved over to make room at the bedside.

"Poor Bunta" the buchou sighed. "He was very kind to me while I was in the hospital, you know", Yukimura added. "He'd come visit me by himself after school sometimes and he always brought small treats he'd made in the first-years' Home Economics class."

"… I didn't know that" Kirihara mumbled, feeling slightly guilty over the fact that he'd exposed his senpai's secret to Sanada.

"That's a nasty black eye Bunta's got" Yukimura remarked, frowning. "Who gave him this?"

"Uh…" Kirihara swallowed hard. By now Yukimura's gaze almost seemed to pierce him.

"Don't you have anything to say?" Yukimura said with a slightly accusing tone in his voice. No, not slightly. He looked angry and – and… as if he wanted to shave someone.

"I'm sorry Marui-senpai!" Kirihara wailed, and threw himself upon the pink quills. "I didn't mean to hit you in the head with those stupid cones, I promise! Please don't let Yukimura-buchou shave me!"

A hand landed on Kirihara's shoulder and he looked up to see his buchou smiling at him.

"Akaya… I'd never do that to you" Yukimura said with his soft voice, and tears of gratitude formed in the second-year's eyes. "But I might have Genichirou do it for me, you know."

EEEEEEK!!!

"Ugh… why's all noisy?" Marui moaned and Kirihara and Yukimura simultaneously blinked.

"Marui-senpai! You're not dead!" he gasped, clinging to his senpai.

"Shut up… and get off me Bakaya. Thanks to you I've got a headache…"

"Well, isn't this great" Yukimura said and got up from the bed. "I'll go and tell Niou about this. Meanwhile Bunta can think of an appropriate thank-you gift for himself."

"Thank-you gift? Why's that?"

"For bringing me sweets while I was in the hospital" Yukimura said right before he left. "I never thanked you properly, y'know."

...silence filled the room. And Kirihara decided to break it.

"So… what're you gonna ask for?" he asked.

"I'm gonna ask for Doubles1 for me and Jackal, of course!" Marui said. "Ain't I a genius?"

"WHA?! NO WAY! You can't do that!" Kirihara exclaimed. "YOU CAN'T! That's way unfair!"

"No-one said life was fair, my dear kouhai", Marui smirked.

Kirihara threw a tantrum, but suddenly he stopped. "Hey… Marui-senpai?"

"What, brat?"

"Did Yukimura say he'd 'go and tell Niou'?"

"…"

"…"

"… So… why do you think Yukimura and Niou-senpai came here togeth-"

"Y'know what? I don't wanna know."

"But-"

"NO! I said I don't wanna know!"

"BUT-"

"SHUT UPP BAKAYA!"

FINI