Ending One: Ask For Help

"INUI! INUI, HELP ME!" Eiji screamed, flipping the whole of Seigaku upside down to find the bespeckled boy. Being much younger, he had had a reasonably easy time outrunning his coach, but he was sure she'd find him soon.

The frantic boy burst into the science labs, and flung himself at a lone figure that was mixing any number of chemicals in a dark corner. "INUI, SAVE ME!"

"What's the matter, Eiji?" the other boy said calmly.

"Coach Ryuzaki--Momo--Kaidoh--Tezuka--YOUR LOVE POTION!"

"Love potion?" Inui blinked. "Ah yes, the love potion. What about it?"

"Tezuka's in love with Fuji, Momo's in love with Kaidoh who's in love with Echizen and Coach Ryuzaki is, um, in love with me." Eiji squirmed. "Anyway, there isn't any potion left to make everyone normal again, so I need you to make some more."

Any normal person would get the shock of their lives and fall over themselves making more potion, Eiji assumed. Only there was a slight hang up in that assumption, the hitch being the word 'normal'. And Inui Sadaharu didn't exactly fall into that category.

He smiled slyly. "It wears off eventually. I think. So why not just enjoy the fun?"

"WHAT?! Sorry, but the girl I want to go out with on my first date doesn't happen to be my COACH who is FIVE TIMES OLDER THAN ME! You HAVE to make more potion, and quick, Coach might be here any minute."

Watching the frantic boy in amusement, Inui's evil grin never left his face. "What if I've forgotten the recipe?"

Eiji stared at his teammate in disbelief. HOW anyone could label Fuji as sadistic when Inui was around...

"Wait it out, Eiji. Wait it out." Inui turned back to his work.

Helpless and desperate, Eiji steeled himself for carrying out Plan B, an alternate strategy he had thought up in case of an emergency. Such as Inui refusing to make more potion, which the redhead had actually half foreseen.

"Inui?"

"Yes? Arg!" The moment Inui had turned around in his seat, Eiji had caught hold of his face and poured the last drops of the love potion down his throat. He forced the data collectors face towards his own, so that the first person he saw after drinking had to be Eiji.

The cat like boy was getting very tired of people suddenly looking like they'd found an angel, or a detailed description of Tezuka's weaknesses, in this case. But he waited patiently for Inui to get on with his gasping in delight.

"Eiji! At last! We are alone! We can be together!"

Suddenly this didn't seem like such a good idea, but there was nothing to be done about it now except go on.

"You love me, right, Inui?"

"Yes, Eiji!"

"And you'd do anything for me, right, Inui?"

"Yes, Eiji!"

"Then could you make more love potion for me? PLEASE?" Eiji whined.

"No, Eiji!"

"Huh? But I thought you said--"

"Once you have the potion you'll make everyone fall out of love again, and I want to love you for ever and ever!" Inui took the other boys hands. Eiji was so flabbergasted that he didn't object. While being in love vaporized your common sense, knowledge didn't seem to be affected.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY EIJI?" Coach Ryuzaki had crashed through the door and was all but breathing fire.

"What do you mean, your Eiji?

Sighing, Eiji let them fight it out by themselves. He certainly hadn't prepared a Plan C. Looking over at the arguing pair, he had to appreciate how bizarre it was to have both a male and a female fighting over you. It would probably have been easier to deal with only one--

"That's it!" The light bulb flashed temporarily over Eiji's head. He grinned. It wasn't just Fuji who could talk his way into getting what he wanted.

"Inui," he whispered into the taller boys ear. "What are you thinking, wasting your time with her when we could be, um, could be...doing something together? Alone. Just make the love potion and she'll forget all about me and we can be together!" He had to clap his hands to his mouth to keep from vomiting or laughing, whichever came first.

Inui was gazing at him like he was a genius. "You're right," he gasped, as if no one in the whole history of the world had ever come up with a better idea. The invention of the light bulb? Who cares?

While Eiji consented to go out to dinner with his smitten coach, something he didnt really hate, the food wasn't bad, Inui set to work on the love potion.

"Here it is, Eiji-chan!" The bespeckled boy handed the juice over to Eiji outside the restaurant where Coach Ryuzaki was waiting.

"About time!" Eiji clutched the bottle of liquid excitedly. "Wait here, I'll go and..." He skipped back inside.

"Oh Coach" he sang, returning to her table. When they say love makes you blind, they weren't kidding, he thought, as he poured the love potion into to his coach's wine in plain sight of her. Except she was too busy feasting her eyes on the young tennis player to notice.

"Have some wine," he cooed. Pretending that he had left something in the washroom, he slipped out of the restaurant, leaving Coach Ryuzaki to look confusedly around. And pay the bill.

"Now, at last, we can be together," a ecstatic Inui took Eiji's cheeks tenderly in his hands.

Eiji also placed his hands on Inui's face--and forced the love juice into his mouth again once he'd gotten a good grip.

"What happened? What am I doing here?" As in the case of Oishi, Inui had no idea what he was doing standing in front of a first class restaurant with his hands cupping Eiji's face. Hands which he quickly removed.

"Believe me," Eiji said dryly. "You dont want to know."

Looking down, Inui recognised the bottle in Eiji's hand. "True," he agreed. "I don't."

They parted ways a short while afterwards. Momo and Kaidoh were nowhere to be found. Eiji gave them up as a bad job. They hated each other enough in essentials to prevent anything from actually happening before the potion wore off, anyway.

He was very interested in seeing how everyone was the next day.

Tezuka was very puzzled to find all the pamphlets about wedding gowns and suits in his bag, something which he mentioned to Fuji, who looked more petrified than puzzled and immediately scooted off to a far away corner, much to the captain's perplexity.

Momo was accusing Kaidoh of kidnapping him, having found himself sleeping on the couch at the bandana wearing boy's home. Kaidoh was too busy yelling back at Momo that he didnt notice Echizen's face grow white on spotting his senpai.

"Eveyone come over here!" Coach Ryuzaki called after they'd finished their afternoon practice. "I've got a surprise for you as a reward for working so hard today."

"Yes! A surprise!" Eiji was the first to bound over, eagerly awaiting whatever it was that his coach had in store for them.

"Help yourselves!" She stepped to one side, revealing Inui, who was holding up a platter with a couple dozen cup on it, all filled to the brim.

Filled to the brim with a pink substance.

"NOOOOOOO!" Eiji ran from the court, screaming.

The others watched him go.

"That's strange," Oishi said. "I thought he liked strawberry milkshake."

Shrugging their shoulders, the regulars took their share of the drink.

In a dark corner, Inui sniggered, holding up the bottle of pale pink juice, which was half empty. None of the other regulars noticed the light, transparent swirls in their milkshakes.

"This is going to be excellent data," Inui murmured.