Training Camp… Or Not

Disclaimer: I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

Chapter summary: Akaya starts getting a bad vibe about his roommate and Hiyoshi becomes traumatized. Shishido and Niou continue to wage a cold war over Choutarou whilst Yagyuu has a headache. Jackal is strangely happy and shortcuts are mentioned continuously.

Warnings: Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

A/N: Yeah! It's the seventh chapter!!!! (Don't worry… there's totally nothing important in this A/N. You could so skip it. XD) Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing! It totally brightens this world!!!!

For Sandy.

Chapter Seven: Shortcuts

Kirihara poked his head out from under the bed where he had crawled right after when Sanada had growled at him. The only other live object in the room apart from himself appeared to be Oshitari.

"Is fukubuchou gone?" he whispered.

Oshitari looked up from the novel he had apparently picked up and nodded genially. "Yep. He's gone, along with Hiyoshi."

The second year ace sighed with relief and crawled out from under the piece of furniture.

"Why are you still here?" he asked stretching.

Oshitari put away the book and smiled an even more genial smile, "Because I'm waiting for you… It's common courtesy to show your roommate around, especially if they're strangers to the area."

"Che… Won't you be late for lunch?" Kirihara muttered. Internally, he was starting to get freaked.

//The smile looks like Niou crossed with 'Mura on a bad day. The attitude is like Renji on a data spree. In other words… He's SCARY… //

The Hyoutei tensai glanced at his watch and shrugged, "We've still got one minute. It's plenty. If we go by a shortcut."

Kirihara was immediately forewarned by the slight smirk that appeared. "What shortcut?"

Hiyoshi took a bare glance at his watch and then stared at it.

Shock and horror were mixed on his face.

One minute till lunch was served.

If he was late…

God help him.

Atobe hated tardiness, especially in one who was being groomed to lead Hyoutei on next year.

//Dance… Laps… School… EMBARRASMENT… //

Those were the only thoughts going through Hiyoshi's head. He had once been unfortunate enough to turn up late to an occasion.

It was… HORRIBLE…

Hiyoshi was positive he was in a coma for more than a day, knocked out by the extreme exercise and embarrassment.

Sanada looked slightly worried at the sudden blank look on the second year's face. "Hiyoshi?"

No response.

"HIYOSHI!"

Still nothing.

Frowning now at the obviously unnatural state his roommate was in, Sanada started towards the younger boy, intending to shake him out of whatever world he was currently in.

Hiyoshi could skip with his purple bunnies and scatter flowers in Hiyoshi-world another time. Sanada really needed to attend to Yukimura, which meant going down to lunch, which meant getting Hiyoshi to show him the way since he, embarrassingly, would get himself lost.

At that point, another concern took over the usually stoic fukubuchou of Rikkai. //Why on earth did I think of purple bunnies and flowers. I don't even like purple bunnies. Pink bunnies are nicer… They don't bite… //

Imagine his surprise when the other boy suddenly came back to life again and dragged him out of the room screaming something about 'late', 'dances' and 'shortcuts'.

Niou and Yagyuu sat patiently at the dining table. Or at least, Yagyuu sat patiently whilst Niou fiddled and snuck flirtatious glances at Choutarou.

This made Shishido tense up and glare and caused the second year under dispute to blush.

Yagyuu rubbed his temples. Aspirin would be good right now.

Shishido glared at the silver haired Trickster.

//Do. Not. Dare. Touch. /MY/. Choutarou. OR ELSE. // Was the mental message he was screaming to Niou.

Niou didn't look fazed at the murderous edge to the blue capped boy's look. He just ignored him and kept trying to hit on Choutarou with looks.

Choutarou felt a little uncomfortable under Niou's gaze. //But Niou-san really doesn't mean anything by it… Niou-san just likes to tease people… I do hope Shishido-san doesn't take this the wrong way… // He tried to reassure himself mentally, still unable to truly turn Niou-san into just Niou.

At that point Atobe and Yukimura walked in side by side.

"Hmm? I see we only have the four of you here." Atobe took a glance at his watch. "The rest of them have a minute to show before…"

Just as the Hyoutei buchou was about to finish his sentence, loud stomping and complaining was heard from just outside the room.

Sure enough, Gakuto stormed in from the opposite door from Atobe and Yukimura and proceeded to rant and rave exclusively on the stupidity of his roommate 'Jacket'.

Choutarou blinked and asked hesitantly, "Anou, Mukahi-senpai… Isn't your roommate's name 'Jackal?' "

This stopped the short acrobat for a full second before he shrugged and continued.

At that point, the man under the rant appeared. Slowly, taking his time, Jackal made his way to Niou and Yagyuu's side and plopped down next to Yagyuu with a slight smile.

Ignoring his roommate as if the other boy didn't exist, he turned to the others on the table and asked, "So what have I missed?"

Uh oh. Shortcut?

Shortcuts were never good things, in Akaya's experience.

For instance... There was the time when he and Marui were late for school, having been doing some early morning tennis practice and lost track of time. So Marui dragged him through a shortcut which ended up taking them to the complete opposite side of town.

And then there was that time Niou-senpai had taken him on a shortcut through Tokyo's back alleys during the Kantou tournament, and Akaya had been nearly groped by several random street guys.

He shivered at the memory and said firmly, "I think I'll survive being a little bit late. I'm /not/ taking a shortcut."

"Missed? Only one of the most stressful ten minutes of my life," Yagyuu muttered. Niou snorted and waved a dismissive hand.

"Ah, ignore him. I've been getting acquainted with Choutarou. Ne, Chouta-kun?" he smirked, giving the junior a little wave and looking very pleased with himself when the poor boy's blush deepened.

"Haru," Yukimura said mildly, sitting himself down in a chair next to Atobe. Niou immediately dropped his gaze and gave Yukimura a small apologetic smile. Gakuto raised an eyebrow and made a quiet whiplash noise, which earned him a deadly glare from the Trickster. Niou made a mental note to plan something nasty for the acrobat later.

The doors burst open again, and Hiyoshi ran in, dragging a shocked-looking Sanada behind him. "Am... am I late?" he panted anxiously. Sanada shook off Hiyoshi's grip on his wrist, massaging it grumpily and stalking over to sit next to Yukimura.

Marui and Jirou came through the doors too, in mid-conversation.

"Ne, ne, Akutagawa-kun!" Marui was whining. "You haven't answered my question yet! You can be honest. Please? Please? Please?"

Well… I'm sorry if it's a bit over the place. XD It is still a RP after all… It'll be just me going solo in a couple of chapters. Review please! Thank you!!!

BTW: Any requests for pairings or events you want to happen or don't want to happen? I can't promise that they'll appear (or not appear XD), but I can promise that I'll try my best! XDDD Thank ya all!!