disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot... sadly


Guilt

Yagyuu looked up briefly from a paper he had been working on to acknowledge the tall boy who had just entered the homeroom. "Morning, Yanagi." The boy dipped his head in the general direction of Yagyuu as he took his seat at the table next to the Gentleman's. He started to get ready for class as Yagyuu turned back to his essay.

"You missed morning practice," he stated offhandedly as he made corrections to the thesis statement of the second paragraph.

Yanagi had started writing away in his notebook at an inhuman speed. "Sanogome sensei wanted to see me regarding a project that I would be undertaking. Practice was over by the time we finished."

"I see." Yagyuu cast a sideways glance at his friend and saw the notebook. Something was not right; the notebook was brand new. While he had never been privy to any of the Master's mysterious volumes, he had known the boy for long enough to know that Yanagi Renji would never move on to a new book unless the previous one had been completely filled with his intelligible handwriting from cover to cover. And he was sure that Yanagi still had a few more pages to go before his old book ran out. His brow creased just a little as he returned to his essay, only to find himself being distracted. His frown deepened as he attempted to focus on the paper before him again.

He gave up after five minutes of trying.

It was humanly impossible for even the ever collected Yagyuu Hiroshi to concentrate when the cause of his distraction was right beside him.

He bit his tongue in contemplation as he continued to pretend to be deep in thought over his essay. To anyone who was looking, Yagyuu was the perfect picture of a genius at work: totally focused and completely shut off from society. When in actual fact he was eons away from being focused. He adjusted his glasses as he stole another sideways glance at Yanagi out of the corner of his eye.

Something was very wrong.

Yanagi's absence that morning was most uncharacteristic of him; he could still see the unmasked disbelief on the faces of other club members once they found out that the Master was not at practice. Not that anyone minded though, once the initial shock wore off. After all, the eerie omnipresence that was the data-crazy Master was something they would much rather be without. However, unnatural as that may be, it was nothing that could not be explained with a perfectly logical reason.

No, it was not merely Yanagi's absence that unsettled him. It was the coincidence that Kirihara was in an exceptionally foul mood at practice that had alarms going off in Yagyuu's head. While Kirihara had never been known for his good temper, he was not one who enjoyed inflicting unnecessary pain on his teammates either. The very fact that he had sent three seniors, four juniors and six freshmen straight to the infirmary within half an hour was therefore a highly unnatural occurrence. The same, however, could not be said for tennis players from other schools, but that was beside the point. The point was that something was amiss between his friend and his kohai.

It did not take a genius to put two and two together and figure out that it had something to do with what he… divulged… to Yanagi yesterday.

He bit harder on his tongue; so it was his fault that things had soured between the two of them. So he was… wrong. He did not like being in the wrong. Yagyuu Hiroshi was never wrong if he could help it. He had spent a whole hour weighing out the consequences of telling Yanagi the day before, meticulously going through all the pros and cons before coming to the decision that telling Yanagi was the right thing to do. He hated that despite his thinking it through thoroughly, it had yielded such unpleasant results.

Above all, he hated to think that it would be his doing if the two broke up.

His frown deepened suddenly as he tasted blood. Damn.

"How's that essay of yours coming along?" Yanagi paused his rapid scribbling to turn towards Yagyuu.

"Fine. Why?" Yagyuu immediately cleared his mind- the last thing he wanted was to have Yanagi reading off his mind like an open book. While there had been no concrete proof that the Master could indeed read minds, Yagyuu wanted to take no chances around the ever-vigilant and ever-observant Yanagi Renji.

"You have been working on the same paragraph for the past fifteen minutes. On the average, you require only thirty minutes to complete an essay that would give you a grade A," he explained in a monotone, barely open eyes trained on the bespectacled boy before him, pen poised over his newly acquired notebook.

"I was preoccupied." Yagyuu forcefully kept his voice as level as humanly possible. Which was to say that it was very level indeed.

"I see." Yanagi returned to his notebook.

Yagyuu started to bite on his tongue again and was awarded with another taste of his own blood. He winced silently. He really should rid himself of this habit; he was drawing blood much too often, even without Niou's help.

Niou Masaharu.

If Yagyuu had been distracted before, he was now positively incapable of any rational thought. He hated to admit it, but thinking about Niou did that to him. Thinking about the relationship they shared worsened the situation. It made him… happy, and it filled him with a strange inexplicable feeling that never seemed to go away. He hated that too; he hated not being in control, especially that over himself.

Yagyuu Hiroshi hated many things that had to do with his doubles partner; it was hard not to when you were polar opposites of each other. But he loved loving him. His brow creased; that did not make sense. Then again, with Niou around, things hardly ever did.

"You love to hate me because you love me, don't you Hiro-chan? Ever heard that opposites attract? Admit it, you're hopelessly attracted to me," Niou had unabashedly whispered in his ear after their first victory as a doubles team in the regionals the year before. He had smirked as he stole a kiss from Yagyuu. "You're totally mine, ne?"

Niou.

Yagyuu did not what to think. He enjoyed being with Niou, and the more… intimate… moments were bonuses, but there had to be something more to this relationship. Something that made his mind shut down on him every time he thought of the silver-haired boy.

Something.

"Morning." Sanada's voice startled him, though he showed no outward sign of it.

"I hope Harada sensei wasn't hard on you? You were gone for quite a while," Yagyuu commented as he looked up casually.

"Exactly twenty-three minutes and 46 seconds," Yanagi offered as he looked up from his notebook.

"It was fine." Sanada made his way to his seat on Yagyuu's other side.

Yagyuu adjusted his glasses again and this time looked sideways at his fukubuchou. Sanada's stony mask was firmly in place, but Yagyuu knew that the stoic boy was no better than a wreck on the inside, if what happened yesterday was any indication.

"Sanada," Yagyuu started. The dark-haired boy looked up from his table, as did Yanagi.

"Yes?" he asked.

Yagyuu never managed to continue; the bell rang.

As they broke eye contact, Yagyuu finally grasped what it was that unsettled him so much. It was guilt. Guilt that he was so happy with Niou when his friends were in so much pain; guilt that it was partly his fault too that his friends were suffering. Yagyuu Hiroshi was guilty.

Unconsciously, he started chewing on his tongue again.


Kuwahara Jackal was worried. Yanagi had missed morning practice, and it was not natural. Yanagi had been known to physically drag himself to practice even when he was down with a 40 degree fever. He was there to witness it when it happened. It happened in their freshman year, and even in that condition, Yanagi had been able to hold out on court for nearly an hour before collapsing. Therefore his absence worried Jackal no end. It did not help that he had been there to witness the state Yanagi had been in yesterday.

Marui had had to hit him soundly on the head a few times during the practice to help him focus. Not that the redhead was complaining though. If anything, he seemed to relish the opportunity to embarrass his doubles partner very much. He looked like a very satisfied kitten who had just stuffed itself with cream. Remembering the delight on Marui's face brought a smile to Jackal's face.

Marui could hit him as much as he wanted if it really made him that happy; he would give anything to see that grin again. But of course, Marui did not need to know that.

When Jackal finally met Yanagi along the corridors on his way to class, he felt strangely relieved. He had not known what happened exactly the day before, only that Yanagi had been talking to Yagyuu shortly before he went into shock. He had also seen Yagyuu conversing with Sanada shortly before joining Yanagi. Which was to say that he knew nothing about what had happened at all, and was deeply troubled by the fact.

Surprisingly, Yanagi had volunteered the answer himself.

"Akaya was with Yukimura last Sunday, and for some reason, he found it necessary to lie to me about it." Yanagi had spoken looking straight ahead. "I thought I should tell you in case your worries affect your play again like it did during morning practice." It was uncanny how Yanagi always seemed to know what was going on in the club without being physically present.

"You're alright? Renji?" he had asked.

"Is there a reason I should not be?" Yanagi had answered calmly before nodding goodbye; they were from different classes.

Jackal grimaced at the Maths question before him; he was in no condition to be doing Maths. The fact was that while the conversation with Yanagi had on a certain level alleviated his worries, it had fuelled new ones on another level. It was not right for anyone to be so calm when talking about one's lover seeing someone else. He thought of how he would feel if Marui were to start seeing someone else, and realized that he really did not want to think about it.

He spun his pen idly as he mulled over the jumble in his head. Yanagi, for all his cold facade, really cared for the younger boy; it must have hurt to know that Akaya was seeing Seiichi behind his back. Wait.

His pen stopped spinning.

Something was terribly wrong with the scenario.

If Akaya was seeing Seiichi, then what about Sanada? His pen clattered to the ground and earned him a glare from his teacher.

What was going on?

The question stuck with Jackal for the whole day. He pondered over it during classes, as he walked along the corridors and even during lunch. It did not make sense that Akaya and Seiichi were seeing each other behind their lovers' backs. It was like a Maths question gone wrong. Seiichi loved Sanada and had never been too shy to show it. And Akaya was all cuteness whenever Yanagi was around whereas he acted pretty much the devil around anyone else. It was clear to anyone looking that they were absolutely in love. There was no way they could be seeing each other. Unless he was missing something.

There was a missing link in the picture but Jackal could not find it.

Like a puzzle that was missing a piece.

"Oi! Jackal! You there?" Marui had shoved a hand right in Jackal's face and was presently waving it in a very dramatic way.

"Sorry. Got carried away." Jackal shook his head a little to clear his mind. He needed to concentrate on his game. Suddenly he felt Marui rest his hand against his face. Its warmth was comforting.

"You okay? You've been this way since morning," Marui said, a slight frown touching his brow. Jackal gazed into the redhead's eyes; they were a fey mix of lilac and soft grey. They were breathtakingly beautiful. And right now, they saw nothing but him, held nothing but concern for him. He smiled; all this beauty was his and his alone.

"Never better," he said, never taking his eyes off the redhead's.

"Okay!" Marui's face broke into a widespread grin. "Then let's have a match again! C'mon! I'll beat you today for sure!"

Jackal stared after Marui in amazement. The self-acclaimed Tensai of the tennis club never failed to surprise him with his mercurial nature. Whenever he thought he had finally understood Marui, the fiery redhead would always find one way or another to prove him wrong.

He did not dare to think about what he was going to do without Marui.

As he started to follow Marui to the courts, he caught sight of Yanagi. He was observing a match between Sanada and Yagyuu. Something roiled in his stomach as he stared at the taller boy.

Something called guilt.

For a moment, it crossed Jackal's mind that it was not fair for him to be enjoying Marui's company when his teammate was suffering silently. Teammates. It lasted until he saw Marui waving to him.

He was too much in love with Marui to stay guilty for long.


A/N: Hey... here it is! The second chapter! Yay! I really wanted to write about the incident that Sanada saw and get on with the story, but I had to lay the ground first. Introduce the pairings and whatnots... This chapter wasn't as good as I hoped for it to be though... sigh. And I still have not gotten to the crux of the story yet! The main players are still being kept under wraps...Yuki, Sanada, Akaya, Niou, Marui... they're still pretty silent. It's kind of frustrating, trying to move it along but holding back at the same time. grrr.

Anyway, I really want to thank for Kalamity Kat reviewing. Your comments really made my day. I was so worried that no one might find it interesting! I hope to move on to the main plot soon, in a chapter or two. So please hang around a while more. lolx.

Lastly, before I sign off and go to bed, please, please, I would really like to know what I did well, and more importantly, what i did not! So please review, anyone who happens to be reading this.

Okay. I shall go to bed now. Nights!