Notes: I was going to write about pool (the type played with balls on a table) and ended up writing about swimming pools instead. :3 Summer. High school. Degrees are in Celsius.

For Merissala, who when asked to give a prompt, said I could write whatever I wanted. Happy new year! :3

Summary: Desperate times call for desperate measures when Atobe finds his pool out of order and his air-conditioning out of whack.

Party of Two

By Miki

"It's the thermostat or the remote," Yuuta said blank faced and unimpressed, watching as Atobe irritably pressed button after button on his air-conditioner's remote control. "It's probably just broken."

Atobe's lips pursed as he contemplated his reply. Yuuta wasn't showing nearly as much concern as he should have; obviously he wasn't suffering as Atobe was in the torrid heat of his room. The curtains had already been drawn mostly shut, and Yuuta was reading with his manga positioned in the tiny sliver of natural light still permitted to come in.

Pressing the up and down buttons was doing nothing to change the temperature of the air coming out of the machine, and when the room itself was already twenty-six, it was hardly necessary for the reverse-cycle machine to be heating.

"It can't be broken. It was serviced just a week ago. I told you, it's probably just because you insisted on changing the temperature yesterday and now it's stuck," Atobe finally huffed, unable to think of anything else. It had to be Yuuta's fault; he was the last person to have touched anything.

Yuuta, for his part, snorted and rolled over on the bed, ready to ignore any protests which would surely burst from Atobe's lips in another moment. "It's not that hot, you know. It wouldn't even be as hot as it is now if you hadn't turned the stupid thing on."

Atobe finally pressed the off button, throwing the remote down to the floor with a thump. In the heat, his patience was wearing thin, and he hated the fact that Yuuta was correct about the temperature in the room rising.

"Well, fine then," he haughtily declared, when he registered the non-reaction he was getting from his companion. "Let's go out."

"Go out where?" Yuuta frowned, pushing aside his tankoubon. "The shops will be packed, and I don't want to go to that weird ice cream place with Oshitari and Shishido again."

Atobe rolled his eyes, only slightly placated as pleasant thoughts of ice cream distracted him from the heat. "There was nothing bad about that 'weird ice cream place', as you so crudely put it," he corrected Yuuta, who raised his eyebrow slightly.

"Well, nothing wrong except Oshitari," Atobe conceded, remembering how Oshitari had accidentally pushed Yuuta's cup into his face, causing him to inhale milkshake bubbles. Had Yuuta simply asked for a straw and drunk his shake like any normal person, the accident wouldn't have happened. "At any rate, I wasn't thinking of inviting them along."

No, on top of the fact that he wouldn't be able to stand seeing Oshitari teasing Yuuta in this heat, he wasn't in the mood for turning their twosome into a threesome... or, as was often the case with Hyoutei, a foursome or a moresome. He only had limited holiday time and he was intending to spend it primarily with Yuuta. As for his teammates, he could see their ugly mugs any day of the week once he went back to school.

"If you don't want to go somewhere with anyone else... we could just go swimming outside," Yuuta suggested. If they went out, they'd probably inevitably bump into someone whether they wanted to or not.

Atobe twitched. "It's hotter outside."

He'd be happy to have a hit out on one of their grass tennis courts because tennis was one of the few things that could distract him from the heat, but Yuuta hadn't brought his gear along and they'd been told to keep off the grass for a few days anyway. That left the hard courts, which reflected heat in the summer and made Atobe feel he was in a sauna to be practicing on them.

Still, if they were in the water...

Atobe peeked out through the gap in the curtains. It was glary and hot with no cloud cover, the sun overhead. It was, honestly, the worst time of day to go swimming outside, but he couldn't deny the thought of floating in the cool water was tempting.

Decided, he marched over to his bedside table and picked up the tube of sunscreen which had been left there the day before. "Yuuta, hurry up and change."

Of course, irony dictated that the moment they stepped out of the double doors downstairs, Atobe could see the various fat pipes worming their way out of the swimming pool and remembered that it was the day the pool was being partially emptied, various pieces of equipment replaced and the water refilled.

"Maybe we should just go stand under the greenhouse sprinklers," Yuuta said as he crossed his arms and waited for Atobe's retort.

"Why would you even suggest that?" Atobe asked, aghast. "What do you think I am? A limp fern in need of watering?"

Yuuta frowned. "Then why don't you try being a cactus instead? You'd mind the heat less and you wouldn't need to be watered."

Atobe raised his eyebrow, yet amusement coloured his tone of voice as he spoke. Taking one last glance at the swimming pool, he grabbed Yuuta's hand. "Fine, as long as no one sees us. If they do, I'll make it perfectly clear it was your idea."

The greenhouse tried and failed (Atobe refused to stand in wet dirt), and all the spas, bathtubs and showers in the house neglected for being uninteresting (and not outside), Atobe finally found himself half in and half out of a round paddling pool. Designed for children ages three and up, it didn't seem too happy to have two teenage boys contorting their legs to squash into it and Atobe wasn't sure he was happy about it either.

"I can't believe you actually had one of these," Yuuta mused.

"Neither can I," Atobe returned sourly. "I think this is the first time I've ever sat in one."

"Liar," Yuuta snorted. "Who else would have sat in it if it wasn't you?"

Atobe's cheeks flushed an embarrassed pink, his hand half-heartedly flicking water at Yuuta. "I have no memory of it so it didn't happen," he declared.

Yuuta just snickered, leaning back and looking up at the early afternoon sky. "I bet someone has photographic evidence. Your mum, maybe?"

There was a distinct look of alarm on Atobe's face, a flicker of indignation at the suggestion, and then finally when he realised Yuuta wasn't seriously going to look for it, a haughty sniff as he pretended to be miffed.

"You can actually relax, you know." Yuuta jabbed Atobe in the side. "It's not like anyone's going to come over and see you like this."

However, Atobe's only response was a predictable twitch, Yuuta having hit the nail on the head.

"If anyone does come, I'll tell them it was my idea," Yuuta coaxed, trying to stop from grinning.

There was something extremely funny about the way Atobe had so excitedly pounced upon the idea of a 'mini swimming pool' once his mother had suggested it, only to discover that mini meant 'large enough for two pairs of legs, two bottoms and nothing more'. But it was too good a day to be wasted on one of Atobe's moods, and since they were finally away from the air conditioner, the remote, and out of sight of the men working on the swimming pool... Atobe no longer had a reason to be in one.

"It was your idea," Atobe corrected him. "I would rather have stayed inside with the air-conditioner."

Yuuta decided it was better not to comment.

Fin.