Chapter 3

Yuuta poked his head into his aniki's room, frowning when he noticed the elder Fuji brother's prone figure on the bed. Honestly, didn't he have any fear of suffocating himself on his pillow? It was dangerous, lying like that when you were sleeping. Of course, not that he cared or anything…

"Aniki, nee-san says you have to hurry. Don't you have practice this morning?" He asked this rather loudly, seeing as since his aniki was usually up before him (much as he tried to wake up earlier) for him to still be sleeping was very uncommon. "Aniki!" he snapped, finally letting go of his composure and pouncing on the bed. He was quite pleased when his brother shot up in surprise, uttering an incomprehensible sound as he did so. Fuji Yuuta smirked. Finally, he could get Syusuke to do something other than smile at him like he usually did.

"Yuuta, my back!" Fuji gasped. "You're a lot heavier than when we were in elementary school!" Then a faint laugh came from the elder brother. "Besides, isn't it awkward to find yourself in that position, Yuuta?"

Yuuta blinked in confusion, and then looked down at himself, only to let out a scandalized gasp. He was on his brother's back, true, the thing was, he was straddling his elder brother's slim waste between his legs. Instantly, he was on the floor, glowering at his brother, who had pulled himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his lower back with a hand. "You enjoyed that, didn't you?" he scowled, his glare becoming fiercer by the second.

Fuji's face adopted a look of mock hurt. "What do you mean?" he asked innocently as he climbed out of bed, walking over to his window to open the blinds. Sunlight instantly entered his room, illuminating the potted cacti on his bookshelf. "What was it that you wanted to say, again?" he asked when he turned back to his glowering younger brother, usual smile present on his face. "There must have been something; you usually don't come in here."

Yuuta was silent for a moment, having forgotten what he had originally intended to do. "Nee-san says you have to hurry it there is practice this morning," he finally stumbled out.

"Ah, of course," Fuji said amiably, heading for the door. "Are you coming, Yuuta?"

"Of course I'm coming, baka aniki!" Yuuta snapped as he stomped after Fuji. Yumiko glanced up from the table as her two younger brothers came into the kitchen, one with a bright smile and the other with a dark scowl.

"Good morning, Syusuke, Yuuta," she said brightly. "How was your night?"

Yuuta growled out, "Terrible," simply because if Fuji heard that he had a nice night he would try to convince him to come home more often. The truth? Yuuta enjoyed sleeping in his own bed compared to his bed at the dorm. It just felt more natural.

Fuji's smile got just a tad bit wider. "It was wonderful," he said happily, taking a piece of offered toast. "What time is it?" His face turned to the clock as he munched contently on his breakfast. Swallowing, he said, "Looks like I'll have to go, now. Thank you for breakfast, nee-san." Yumiko smiled as she watched her brother head out the door with his tennis bag slung over his shoulder.

The eldest Fuji child could simply smile in amusement as her youngest brother marched out the door after the middle Fuji, probably just to see if there was anything to see during morning practice. What he was going to do after that, she had no clue, but seeing him this excited could only mean that he was going to pop up over there again as soon as the bell for the end of the school day rang or slightly after. Perhaps, she, too, should have taken up tennis like them.

"Yumiko, you'll be late for work if you dawdle any longer," her mother chided gently. Fuji Yoshiko entered the room with a mug of coffee and a smile that was so very similar to that of Fuji Syusuke's.

Yumiko stood, taking her dishes to the sink. "Hai. I'll be running a few errands after work is over, so I might be late coming back," she explained as she picked up her purse and the keys to her car. Yoshiko simply nodded and bid her eldest daughter a fond farewell.

I'll make Yuuta's favorite pumpkin curry for tonight's dinner, Fuji Yoshiko decided. It was rare that her youngest son decided to pay home a visit, although goodness knows what arguments the two brothers got into to get themselves into that position in the first place. Ah, well. That made these visits all the more precious.

And that was exactly how she liked it.

***

Unfortunately for Yuuta, morning tennis practice was cancelled due to heavy rain, so he had to leave the grounds of Seigaku to pursuit other interests. And, since he had failed to bring an umbrella with him, he was in a foul mood as he stalked away. However, the second-year perked up considerably when he considered that since he had the keys to the house (he always had one, just in case on one of those days he decided to give into his whims and go home to spend a night) and everyone was either at work or at school, he would spend the day alone in the house doing whatever he wanted. Not bad for compensation after getting rained on. A new spring entered his step as he marched down the street, the cold rain pelting his body and soaking him to the skin.

Likewise, his brother was soaked as well, having been playing a game against Echizen right before it started pouring. They had originally intended on finishing their first match, but it seemed that Kami-sama just refused to let that happen. So Fuji Syusuke bit back his disappointment by hiding behind his smile as he toweled his hair dry. The tennis team had opted to change in the school bathrooms instead of the usual locker room so as to avoid getting soaked again when attempting to enter the building.

"Ne, Tezuka," Fuji said brightly as he tucked his towel away into his locker. His captain gave him a faint glance to let him know he heard him. "Do you have your Japanese to English dictionary? I seem to have misplaced it somewhere." At this Tezuka's usually stoic face got just the slightest hint of emotion: one fine eyebrow arched up as if to say, 'You? Misplace something?' Fuji himself wanted to laugh as he reflected on his current position. Tezuka had been to his room once for a study session, and one of the first things he commented on was how neat and orderly it was organized. No doubt he was wondering how on earth Fuji could have misplaced such a thick book.

"I'm sorry, Fuji. We had a rather large assignment so I left mine at home. I've been finding that I leave stuff in my locker and forget to bring it home sometimes." Now it was Fuji's turn to arch an eyebrow. Tezuka? Forget something?

"Ah, so that makes two of us," he sighed lightly. "Thanks anyway, Tezuka. We had better get to class, now." It was getting late (a phrase he found to be quite ironic) and the bell was going to ring soon. Tezuka offered him a nod and the two parted ways, as Tezuka had to go to the chemistry room located in the opposite direction as Fuji's classroom. Sometimes the tensai thought that it was a pity that they weren't in the same class, but having Eiji as a classmate wasn't so bad, either.

What am I going to do about the dictionary? Truthfully, he had scoured his room from top to bottom in an attempt to find it only to come to the conclusion that it was hopelessly, utterly lost. Looks like I'll have to buy a new one. He was disappointed, not because it cost a lot to buy a replacement dictionary (he could easily afford it with money he saved from his allowance), but since this was the first time he had lost something by having it vanish into thin air, he was disappointed in his memory. He just knew it was somewhere in his house as he slid into his seat.

"What's wrong? You look really tense today, Fuji-san." Had his name not been pronounced like that, he would have assumed it was Eiji trying to get over not being able to let out his pent up energy in practice that morning. But since it wasn't the customary 'Fuji!' or 'Fujiko!' or even 'Fujiko-chan!', it couldn't have been his energetic best friend. It wasn't 'Fuji-sama!' either, so he felt he was relatively safe from his legions of fans, both genders included. They did nothing to hide the fact either, resulting in hordes of adoring fans after tennis matches when most of the time all he wanted to do was be alone when he went to get a drink. "Fuji-san…?"

He looked up to find himself face to face with Ijuuin Asa. Her hand had moved slightly forward with the preparation to wave in front of his face, and since she had not expected that, his head collided with it. He was silent for a moment, the side of his head still smarting from the collision even if it wasn't a big one, before asking, "What?" in as sweet a voice as possible.

She cleared her throat nervously; the glares of the female population in their classroom were burning into her back. They were so devious that even Eiji had started praying under his breath to Kami-sama that no mass catfight ensued, which would ultimately lead to the boys being dragged into it as well and more than a few bruises as prizes for participating. "You're in my seat, Fuji-san," she stated meekly.

He blinked, and then looked down at his desk before sweeping his closed eyes over the row, counting the number of tables. Almost immediately he realized that, indeed, he had sat one seat behind his normal seat when he had let his mind drift from lost dictionaries to sometimes annoying fans. Hastily, he stood. "Gomen, Ijuuin-chan," he murmured politely before moving himself back to his regular seat. Behind him, he could hear her ask Eiji if this happened normally. The redhead answered back, and then all chances of talking were cut off as the teacher entered the room. Fuji did, however, reflect on how well the two of them were getting along for only their second day of knowing each other. Eiji is like that, he concluded with a more genuine smile.

Class ended only with the lunch bell, which Fuji found himself quite relieved. It was strange, as normally he did enjoy his classes, even if he knew most of what was being taught. The storm had passed, and streaks of sunlight were starting to break out through a thin layer of clouds. As soon as he stood he was grabbed by Eiji and dragged outside, the redhead babbling on about eating on the rooftop. He tried to protest, saying that their customary lunch table was perfect as it was, but he would hear none of it.

"Besides," Eiji added with a cheeky grin, "I told Ijuuin-chan you had a sweet spot for honey and anything with honey into it." There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes that was much more intense than usual that did not go unnoticed, even if the genius had been spacing out for the majority of the morning.

In fact, Fuji's jaw dropped so that his mouth formed a perfect 'o'. "You… what…?" he stuttered out as his friend continued to drag him along the halls.

Eiji's entire body was fairly quivering with mirth as Fuji could just stare at him stupidly. Those bright blue eyes that were so rarely shown had opened wide as he waited for a response. "Well, how should I put it, nya?" Eiji asked happily. "Ijuuin-chan was worried because she heard rumors that you were a tensai, and that you were normally perfect, and so on so forth. Your fans are quite informative!" Inwardly, Fuji cringed. Outwardly, his face adopted a thoughtful expression as he faked that he was processing all of this information.

"She wanted to cheer you up after you sat in the wrong seat. Something about people doing strange things a little thing in their normal life gets altered or something like that," Eiji had continued on. By now he had dragged Fuji up to the fourth floor, which held all the staff lounges and conference rooms. Eiji bounced up the final flight of stairs to the roof, and because Fuji was still attached to Eiji via linked hands, he had no choice but to bounce with him, much as he disliked it. "And then I said that you liked honey and she offered to have lunch with us. Simple." The way Eiji sounded so sure of himself, a tone Fuji had when a particular blackmailing feat was successful, made him doubt that it was as simple as the acrobatic player said it was. In fact, Fuji was wary when they reached the top of the stairs and Eiji pushed the door open. Sunlight immediately illuminated the hallway and Fuji had to blink several times in order for his eyes to adjust.

The roof was a small square structure surrounded by a wire mesh fence. On one side was a set of stone benches; the rest of the roof was bare. Fuji remembered once when he and Eiji were freshmen, they had come up to the rooftop to eat lunch and had found a small potted plant flowering, a solirary living creature on an silent field of concrete. Or whatever the top of the roof was made out of. The plant had long since been removed, and although he hated to think this, Fuji thought that it had probably died as well, with no one to care for it. Since then, no new plant had appeared, although he amused himself faintly by entertaining the thought that one day it would appear again. Now, the only living thing was a girl sitting on the bench, her head turned over her shoulder as she stared off into the distance. A neatly wrapped bento was besides her, although she seemed to have forgotten all about it. A closer inspection of her face would reveal a confused look, but since neither boy looked closely at it, they didn't notice.

"Ijuuin-chan!" Eiji yelled excitedly, hurtling through the door with one Fuji Syusuke in tow. "Let's get started!" Eiji plopped down next to her bento, pulling out both his and Fuji's lunch as well. Since when had Eiji been able to get into my locker? It was just one surprise after another.

And Fuji knew definitely that he should have found some other way to pass his lunch period.