Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry 'bout the long wait but here's the next chapter! Unfortunately, due to exams in January and then two massive pieces of coursework spanning from February to around Easter time, I won't be able to spend much time writing Megane-chan but I will have the whole Easter holidays to write so if I don't get distracted by shiny things then the next chapter should be up about a week after Easter.

Also, I've finally remember to put a link in my profile to my fictionpress account. It isn't as active as this account but feel free to look around.

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince Of Tennis.

Chapter Five

Marui yawned as Niou led him to the tennis courts, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. He had slept over at Niou's the night before and the Trickster had kept him up all night playing video games. It was a miracle he hadn't fallen over yet.

Niou left Marui at his usual spot on the grassy verge after making sure there was no risk of the redhead falling asleep and thus falling over and quickly ran to the changing room. Marui watched with sleep-blurred eyes as people slowly trickled out on to the courts, all beginning their warm-ups. He decided that he might as well get his drawing pad out and draw some sweets in the hope they would give him an imaginary sugar rush and keep him awake.

Yukimura sighed as he reached for his water bottle, having just finished giving out orders to the club and succeeding in giving himself a sore throat in doing so. He took a quick swig from his bottle before setting it back down again as he looked round with disinterested eyes. They were helping the first years perfect their skills so the most interesting anything would get was if Akaya got so bored that he started sleep-playing again and even that was only mildly amusing.

As Yukimura's bored gaze swept over the court, he saw Marui out the corner of his eye. He looked over at the redhead properly and saw that Marui was drawing again. Yukimura was about to sigh and look away again when he remembered a juicy piece of gossip that Yanagi had given him. He smiled like a cream-filled cat as he slinked over to Marui's hill.

Marui was just beginning to shade in his picture when a pair of arms suddenly wrapped themselves round his shoulders. He jumped violently in surprise, his hand thankfully jumping away from the paper instead striking pencil across it. Marui lowered his drawing stuff as he tilted his head back to see who it was.

"Hey 'Mura-buchou." Marui greeted, trying not to feel too worried as Yukimura started rubbing his cheek against the red hair.

"Hey Marui! Guess what a little birdie told me?" Yukimura all but purred. Marui pouted.

"'Mura-buchou, you know I hate this game. Can't you just tell me?" Marui pleaded with his best puppy eyes. Yukimura shook his head, his grin growing wider. "Fine then, I guess that the little birdie is Yanagi. Is that enough for you to tell me the rest?" Yukimura put on a thoughtful face.

"Hmm, I guess so." He finally relented after Marui had upped the ante to kitten eyes. "Renji told me that Genichirou got a kiss from a certain little someone, hmm? I hope nobody tells Niou or he'll get jealous." Marui instantly blushed the colour of cherries.

"'Mura-buchou, it was just a kiss on the cheek! I give them to everybody! I gave one to Yagyuu last week for helping me finish my History essay! And why would 'Haru be jealous?" Marui blustered as he tried to hide his red cheeks with his hands. He suddenly thought of something and looked suspiciously at Yukimura. "You haven't come to kill me for kissing Fukubuchou, have you?" Yukimura shook his head.

"No, Genichirou heard Renji telling me and rather hurriedly clarified that it had been a thank you kiss. I won't be killing anyone today." Yukimura reassured him, hugging Marui gently to convince him completely. Marui relaxed and leant back into the hug. As he did so, Yukimura saw his picture. "Marui…"

"Yes?"

"Are you suffering from sweet withdrawal or something?" Yukimura asked as he warily eyed the picture of jellybeans doing laps. Marui blushed a little embarrassedly.

"A little." He admitted. Yukimura chuckled a little as he hugged Marui a little tighter before standing up.

"Well, I'd better do some practice now but I'll get Genichirou to go to the corner shop at lunch time and get some sweets for you. It won't kill him to be on sweet duty for once in his life." Famous last words.

Marui sighed as he waited for Niou to finish collecting all the books. Their extremely disorganised History teacher, who had obviously been in a hurry and hadn't noticed who he was talking to, had asked them to collect some books from the library for their lesson that afternoon. Only problem was that he had forgotten to tell the library staff about this little arrangement so now Niou and one of the library assistants were rushing round the library to get all the books on the teacher's list. Well, the library assistant was rushing; Niou was just strolling along, looking at books that interested him and occasionally picking up a book they needed. Marui would've also been helping but Niou had forbidden him from leaving the seat he had pushed the redhead into, saying that they didn't need an avalanche of paper cuts. Marui would've retorted but they all remembered him almost causing that exact scenario in his first year so he settled for pouting instead.

Marui sighed again as he rested his head in his folded arms. It was boring just sitting there and doing nothing. It didn't help that he had left all his stuff in the classroom or that Niou hadn't gotten him a book to read whilst he was waiting. He would've just leaned over to the nearby bookshelf to grab one but the shelves next to him were all physics books and that was how he had caused the first near avalanche.

Marui was about to sigh again (doesn't he know that sighing causes wrinkles?) when a fantasy book suddenly appeared in front of him. He looked up and smiled when he saw Yanagi.

"Hey." He greeted as Yanagi sat down opposite him. "What are you doing here? Aren't you usually looking at the club's budget now?"

"I usually am but since I'm a student library assistant, I've been dragged in to put books back on shelves since everybody else is helping Niou." Yanagi explained as he handed over the book to Marui so the redhead could read the blurb.

"Has 'Haru got a single book for himself?" Marui asked with a wry smile.

"He has but I think he's passed them off to everybody else to carry." Marui shook his head whilst tutting good-naturedly.

"That 'Haru…"

"Is a sexy beast, puri." Marui looked over his shoulder to see a smirking Trickster. "We've got all the books and the librarian's just checking them out."

"Just in time too. It's just one minute and thirty-nine seconds to the end of lunch." Yanagi commented as he stood whilst Niou helped Marui to his feet. "Would you like me to check that book out for you?" Marui nodded and Yanagi took the book from him before leading the two to the main desk. He waited patiently for head librarian to finish checking out the last couple of History books before quickly stamping out Marui's.

"Thank you." Marui said as he accepted the book back.

"No problem." Yanagi replied. "Would you like some help carrying these books?" Marui quickly shook his head.

"No, it's-"

"Yeah, we could do with the help." Niou said, looking at Marui pointedly. Marui shrank back a little, holding his book close to his chest as Yanagi picked up half the books, leaving the other half for Niou. Niou got a good grip on his pile before carefully offering his forearm to Marui. "Here, Maru, hold on or you'll fall over." Marui nodded and gently but firmly held on to Niou's forearm before they started to follow Yanagi who was waiting for them by the library door.

They managed to get to the classroom without any incidents. There was another late student from Marui and Niou's tutor group who took Yanagi's pile of books off him.

"Thanks for helping us, Yanagi. And sorry for making you late for homeroom." Marui said as he let go off Niou's arm.

"No problem, Marui, I'm certain my teacher will understand and even if she didn't, my friends' safety is more important to me than being on time for homeroom." Yanagi said with a small smile as Marui blushed lightly. "I'd better get going now though. See you later."

"Thanks again… See you at practice." Marui called after Yanagi's retreating back. Yanagi waved over his shoulder just in time for Marui to see as he entered the classroom. Marui closed the door behind him as Niou put pile of books on the teacher's desk before taking Marui's hand and leading him to their desk. Marui carefully slid into his seat and pretended to listen to the homeroom's teacher's announcement as he instead read the book that Yanagi had given him under the desk. Niou could take his own History notes for once.

When Niou and Marui entered the changing room that afternoon, they were confronted with the strange sight of a pale Jackal being comforted by Yagyuu. Marui let go off Niou's hand and hurried over to Jackal's side, sitting down next to the Brazilian and gently rubbing his back soothingly.

"Jackal, what's the matter? What happened?" Marui asked concernedly as he worriedly touched Jackal's arm. Jackal opened his mouth as if to speak but no sound came out and he started to shake. Marui and Niou both looked at Yagyuu instead for an explanation.

"Yukimura-kun has gone on a rampage and Jackal was one of the first victims." Niou and Marui's faces drained instantly. Yukimura on a rampage was beyond not good.

"W-why?" Marui squeaked as he clung fearfully to Jackal's arm, also starting to shake a little.

"Sanada-kun's fangirls saw him buying some sweets and now they're plaguing him with baked goods. Yukimura-kun is more than a little annoyed." Yagyuu explained. Marui paled even more. Sanada had been getting sweets for him so he was probably right at the top of Yukimura's 'To Kill' list.

"D-do you th-think 'M-M-Mura-buchou will b-be c-coming in h-h-here anytime s-soon?" He all but whimpered out as he hid behind Jackal slightly. Yagyuu shrugged.

"Only Yanagi-kun would be able to foresee that and, unfortunately, he was the second victim." Yagyuu said as he pointed to a corner of the changing room. Niou and Marui looked over and saw Yanagi curled up in the corner, rocking back and forth as he mumbled unintelligible words under his breath. They both gulped and Niou held out his hand for Marui.

"Come on, Maru, let's go home before we get dragged into this mess. I prefer having no legs to losing what little sanity I have left, puri." Niou said dryly as he helped Marui to his feet. Marui nodded, waving quickly to the others before sticking close to Niou as they crept out of the changing room. As they slinked away, Niou chanced a glance over at the tennis courts and shuddered a little. Sanada could only just be seen over the mass of females and bright pink gift boxes. He felt Marui shudder as well at the sight and he squeezed the redhead's hand comfortingly before quickly tugging him out of the school grounds. Just in time too, with what happened next.

One particularly adventurous girl managed to elbow her way to the front, though it wasn't just to give him her gift (which, by the way, was wrapped in sparkly pink paper, Barbie pink ribbons and flamingo pink feathers. Sickening). She grabbed his arm and yanked him down to her level. Sanada's eyes widened and he only just managed to turn his head as the girl planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek.

Mount Yukimura erupted.

"Sanada Genichirou! Club office! NOW! Tennis is cancelled for today! All members get their bags and be gone in ten minutes! All non-members get off the courts! Anyone left on in ten seconds, I will make sure they have detention for the rest of the term! Do. I. Make. Myself. CLEAR?" Yukimura roared. Everybody froze and paled before quickly scrambling to do Yukimura's orders. Yukimura sent the still frozen Sanada a Look. Sanada quickly defrosted and all but scampered to the office.

Nobody knows what happened in that office and anybody who asks promptly gets tarundoru'd but the two spent several hours in there, every single piece of furniture was on its side and Sanada came out haggard, limping and with a very smug Yukimura hanging off his arm.

Meanwhile, a good way away from Yukimura's wrath, Niou and Marui were just a couple of streets away from the redhead's house.

"So I heard from a little bird that you gave a kiss to Fukubuchou, puri." Niou finally broke the fearful silence that he and Marui had been walking in, though he couldn't help looking over his shoulder to make sure a raging bluenette wasn't coming after them.

"Why do people always say 'a little bird'? We all know they mean Yanagi." Marui sighed.

"Because that way we can pretend he doesn't know everything. But that still doesn't confirm what he told me." Niou said smoothly, poking Marui lightly in the stomach. Marui batted the hand away as he blushed lightly.

"Okay, I kissed Fukubuchou but it was just on the cheek! A thank you for helping me! Why is everybody so bothered about it? Or are you jealous?" Marui asked as he tried to will away his blush. To his surprise, Niou's cheeks went a little pink.

"I'm not jealous. Why would I be? It's just that I've helped you a lot more than him." Niou muttered as they arrived at Marui's house. Marui opened the door and stepped inside. Niou gave him a small wave before turning round to walk away. He hadn't gotten more than a step, though, when a hand suddenly grabbed his sleeve. He looked back at Marui.

"Thank you for helping me." Marui murmured as he stood on his tiptoes and kissed Niou near his mouth. Marui pulled back after a few seconds, blushing brightly. "See ya tomorrow." Marui said in such a high pitch that he put mice to shame before quickly stepping inside and closing the door. Niou was also blushing and was more than a little dazed as he started to walk away. What a thank you…

A/N: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!