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Satisfaction

Chapter 2

By Miki

"Yuuta," Fuji smiled as he opened the front door.

Upon seeing Atobe, he promptly shut the door again.

Atobe didn't even register a blink. He merely stared at the closed door for a moment before smirking and raising his hand to press at the doorbell again, figuring Fuji Syuusuke didn't know a blessing when he saw it.

(S)

"Syuusuke?" Yumiko called out as she licked some icing off her fingers. "Is there someone at the door?"

Fuji poked his head around the corner of the kitchen and smiled. "Not at all, Nee-san. It's just the wind."

Yumiko raised an eyebrow and peered out the window at the perfect blue sky.

The doorbell rang again.

"Syuusuke," she smiled. "You wouldn't be able to pop down to the shop for me, would you? I've just run out of icing sugar."

Fuji gave a nod and went out via the back door.

(S)

Twenty two minutes later, when he returned, he opened the front door to see Atobe sitting rather comfortably on the sofa. His legs were crossed, his back straight, and his hair annoyingly grey as usual.

The room smelled faintly of Chanel.

Fuji frowned, turning his gaze towards his sister enquiringly.

"Nee-san? The point of keeping the front door closed was to keep the rubbish from blowing into the house, you know."

Yumiko smiled and said nothing.

Atobe twitched.

And then they heard the faint click of the door as someone opened it again.

"Yuuta," Fuji smiled as he went the door once more.

"Aniki," Yuuta said by way of greeting. He sighed, shuffling past his brother, his tennis bag over one shoulder and his duffel bag over the other.

"How was your trip?" Fuji asked, straightening Yuuta's shoes as he dropped them by the door.

"Fine," Yuuta replied shortly.

He was keen to escape to his room before his brother became overly affectionate, past experience having told him that Fuji usually interpreted any delay in slinking off to his room as an excuse to clasp him rather tightly and proclaim embarrassing things in a very loud voice.

But when he walked past the living room, he stopped suddenly, brow creased in confusion as he dropped his duffel bag to the floor.

"Aniki."

Atobe twitched again, and turned his head to frown at the new arrival. Fuji's younger brother, again.

Atobe couldn't help but notice his apparent disregard for appearance. His jersey was crinkled and crooked, his hair looked a mess and apparently colour coordination was too much for him since he hadn't even bothered to match his pants to his top.

Atobe felt thoroughly irked.

"Actually, I'm not your Aniki," he replied curtly, rather abhorred by the lack of manners in the Fuji household. "In case you've been living under a rock or in any other state of near-deprivation, you ought to recognise me…" He trailed off, waiting for a sound of recognition.

There was silence, and he continued on, feeling his irritation growing by the nanosecond. "My name is Ato-"

He stopped, shocked.

Yuuta was already halfway up the stairs.

Yumiko hid her smile behind her teacup, but her eyes twinkled as she looked at Fuji.

Perhaps she should let him have some fun after all.

"Syuusuke," she said suddenly, standing up. "I've just realised I forgot something else for tonight's meal." She smiled apologetically at Atobe and placed her teacup back on the tray. "I think I'll just go down to the supermarket, so why don't you and Yuuta look after our guest while I'm gone?"

Fuji smiled. "See you when you come back, Nee-san," he replied, refusing to acknowledge Atobe's presence in their conversation.

Yumiko smiled back.

"If you don't mind, perhaps you could take out the trash when you leave. It's starting to make the house smell."

(S)

Atobe drummed his fingers on his desktop in dissatisfaction.

Despite appearances, Fuji's elder sister didn't appear to be any better than him, since she'd promptly put him out of the house, telling him that he could come again any time so long as no one was home to answer the doorbell.

The humiliation he'd felt as she'd kicked him out was almost enough to make him want to kick down the door and demand that Fuji Syuusuke come back at once and apologise.

But kicking down the door would surely be detrimental to his own welfare somehow, so he hadn't. Public displays of anger weren't for Atobe Keigo at any rate.

Anyway, if he changed his mind, he would call Kabaji.

(S)

"Kabaji."

"Usu."

"Ore-sama would appreciate your input into this strategic plan."

Atobe unfolded a piece of paper he'd been writing on throughout the day.

Kabaji looked.

It looked like a drawing of lines and circles placed strategically on the page. He supposed they could have been people, although he was sure that if Atobe had meant to draw people, he'd have drawn people, not piles of sticks with circles on top.

He wasn't sure what Atobe expected him to say. It was rare that Atobe asked him for anything requiring an actual opinion, and even less rare that he wanted Kabaji's own opinion, as opposed to an agreement with his own. So he stayed silent for the moment, trying to figure out what exactly he was looking at.

Atobe huffed a little and crossed his arms when no answer was forthcoming after a few minutes. He sat back in his chair, perfectly still.

Luckily for them both, Shishido walked into the room at that moment, and Atobe called him over, uncrossing his arms and tapping his finger irritably on his plan.

"Shishido."

"Yes, Atobe?"

"Ore-sama would like your opinion on this particular strategic plan I've been working on."

Shishido looked at the piece of paper, his face blank.

"Is this… by any chance… related to tennis at all?"

Atobe frowned. "It is related to me, and I am an integral part of your tennis life, am I not, Shishido?"

Shishido gave Atobe a look.

(S)

"Choutarou," Shishido stated blankly over lunch. "Atobe won't leave me alone."

Choutarou looked up, concern on his face. "Atobe?"

Shishido rolled his eyes. "Apparently he has it in for Fuji Syuusuke and he wants ideas on how to take him out."

Choutarou blinked.

(S)

By the time afternoon practise arrived the following Friday, the first-years were surreptitiously avoiding looking Atobe in the eyes (rumours tended to snowball when passed on by bored school boys with too much imagination after all) and Atobe for one, was glad. All this thinking had him losing sleep.

Panda eyes were not becoming on Ore-sama.

Something had to be done.

(S)

Jirou's advice wasn't the greatest, but it was all Atobe could go on. This wasn't a normal problem after all, since Fuji wasn't a normal person, and Atobe had never really had problems of this sort with this sort of person before.

After simplifying things down so that Ore-sama was a theoretical figure and his problem was a hypothetical one – Fuji was the annoyingly common, brown-haired mouse and Yuuta was his favourite block of cheese – Jirou had blinked and yawned and given Atobe the strangest of looks.

"What sort of cheese?"

Atobe frowned a little, impatient. "Does it matter?" he snapped.

Jirou paused.

"Well, if you want the annoyingly common brown-haired mouse to pay you attention, wouldn't you steal his cheese?"

Atobe stared.

"I mean, Atobe," Jirou yawned, "why would you want a brown-haired mouse anyway? If you really want one, I'm sure I can find one at home you know… The maids keep putting out traps to catch them, but you know, I'm pretty sure I saw one in the bathroom. I think maybe they're left over from the time I mouse-sat for that kid down the street and somehow the mice all got out of the cage when I left the lid off…"

Atobe didn't respond, lost in thought.

"But you know, it really depends on what sort of cheese it is… Mice usually like cheddar, though I fed the mice some Brie and they didn't mind… I always thought you'd like Camembert more though…" Jirou was mumbling, drooping against Atobe as he began to lose interest in talking to himself.

Atobe wasn't sure he liked Jirou's solution. If Jirou thought that stealing the annoyingly common, brown-haired mouse's cheese was the best solution to the problem, that meant…

Atobe frowned, hm-ing to himself as he thought things through.

How did one go about stealing cheese?

He supposed Yuuta could be equated with a common supermarket-bought cheddar. Fuji was perhaps a matured cheddar, but that was hardly any better. In any case, Atobe had never been particularly fond of cheese, and he didn't suppose he was going to start now.

.tbc.