Author's Note: New chapter, yay! Let's hope I can keep this on schedule through the summer, since next week I start up a major performance internship that will have me in rehearsals 35 hours a week plus the four I work at my job and dress rehearsals in August, so it's possible that I might have to miss August's update. I should be all right with July, though. Keep your fingers crossed! And as usual, happy reading! This time it's Eiji's turn. Yatta nya!
Chapter Six: In Everything I Do
But there's a spark in your smile and your smile's in my mind
And I know that everything will be fine 'cause,
Somehow, you're with me all the time
-"Higher Ground," Lisa Furukawa
"Would it be impolite to ask how long you and Oishi have been dating?"
I suppose the question should have startled me, but for some reason it didn't surprise me at all. Maybe because it was because of who was asking the question. I raised an eyebrow at Uchida curiously. "Wow, are we really that obvious?"
Uchida blushed a little bit at that but managed a sheepish smile. "A little bit. It's probably just because I'm more sensitive to those sorts of things."
"What things?"
The small young woman looked ahead of us for a moment, falling silent as she watched the rest of the group interact. It was actually pretty interesting and I found myself getting distracted as well. The other couple of the night, whose names I had definitely already forgotten, were practically absorbed with each other…or they were trying to be, anyway, and mostly failing because Kakashi kept harassing them and teasing them mercilessly. At some point after the fireworks ended, we'd run into Nishida, Itou, and two other girls on their way out for something to drink, and now Nishida and the guy who I thought might have been named Moriya or Miyama or something like that were arguing with each other about some class assignment while the other two girls giggled and whispered with each other about something of obviously great import. And as for the focus of my attention, he and Itou were having an intense conversation that I could only guess based on the few words I could catch had something to do with protein and acid.
Were there acidic proteins? I'd always thought it was only fruits that were acidic.
Thankfully, before I could actually say anything about this mystery, Uchida's quiet voice interrupted my thoughts. "Well, to begin with, every single time Oishi has looked at you tonight, his eyes just…" She gestured futilely and shook her head. "I don't know how to say it, but I'm sure you've noticed it, right?"
I thought of the gleam in his eyes earlier than night in the restroom and had to work to keep my grin fairly innocent. Uchida wasn't my sisters, after all. "I guess, yeah."
"He's completely gone for you."
This time I could look her in the eye without any guilt at all when I smiled. "I know."
Uchida's smile blossomed and it hit me that she was really incredibly pretty. "Good. I thought so, but…good." She folded her hands into her sleeves and looked at the others again, still smiling. "Now, should I ask what happened in the restroom earlier when you both looked so flustered?"
My mouth dropped open and I gaped at her in shock, frozen in place. Uchida actually went on walking for a few more steps before she noticed I wasn't next to her anymore. She turned and laughed at my expression, daintily, with one hand covering her mouth just the tiniest bit.
The fact that she giggled like an anime schoolgirl just made it even harder to believe what I'd just heard pop out of her mouth.
When I thought my eyes would fall out of my skull if I goggled any harder, she reached forward and tugged at one of my sleeves so that I followed her automatically. "It was only a question, Kikumaru. Oh, you should have seen your face!"
I managed to yank my tongue back from where it had gotten stuck when I swallowed it. "Please don't tell me that you're going to be-"
"Hardly!" Uchida cried. "It was just simple curiosity. You were bright red when you came out to join Kakashi and I. It was a simple assumption to make." She studied me for a moment and then added, "And you were calling him Syuichirou earlier. If subtle is what you are going for, you really ought to be more consistent with that. It's a very obvious tell."
I shook my head, more to clear it of the sound of my sister's shrill voice shrieking with fangirlish glee in my memory than in response to anything Uchida had said. "Subtle isn't really a worry for me. I don't know if it is for Oishi or not, but I think we're both just used to everyone already knowing. It only took about a month before the rest of the tennis regulars figured it out when we first started…well, dating."
"Which team?"
"Junior high."
Uchida's face cleared suddenly. "So you are the girlfriend then!"
I shrugged again and tried to hide the flush of heat to my face. "Like I said, everyone at home sort of knew already."
Uchida giggled again. "Kikumaru, if you don't mind my saying so, if you went to school here as well, so would everyone in Kyoto as well. It's not even the name or the restrooms or even you two sneaking off in the middle of the fireworks alone together. I told you, it's the way that Oishi looks at you. It's like you're the only person in the entire world."
It was funny…even after we'd all gone out for snacks and drinks, made our way back home for the night, and everyone else including Oishi was sound asleep, Uchida's words stuck with me. It wasn't in the way I had expected, either.
After what seemed like forever, I shifted in the bed so I could shake Oishi's shoulders. "Syuichirou. Hey, Syuichirou?"
"Grunf." At least that's what it sounded like he said.
I leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Are you awake?"
"No."
Good enough. I didn't really want him to wake up all the way anyway. He looked so pretty, still and silent and sleeping in the faint blue glow of the moonlight in the window. But I had to ask. "Hey, can you do me a favor?"
"I'm sleeping, Eiji."
"Not that, pervert." My lips curved into a smile against his ear. "I just wondered if I could choose what we do tomorrow."
"What?"
Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea. But Uchida's words just kept coming back to me and the urge was irresistible. "If you don't already have plans for us tomorrow, I want to pick what we do."
Oishi shifted minutely to blink up at me. "Oh. Sure, go ahead. What did you want to do?"
The light from outside turned half of his face a pale blue, almost like a spirit or something equally unreal, but his eyes were so warm even mazed by sleep that I had to smile again before I light brushed my lips over his forehead. "It's okay. I'll tell you in the morning."
Oishi's eyes fluttered closed again and he sank deeper into the mattress again. "Oh. Okay," he answered, his voice already slurred as he let himself drift away from wakefulness again.
I watched as his chest moved with his breathing, until it slowed into the deep, mellow rhythm of sleep. "Okay," I whispered back at last without meaning to, and then repeated it again with more confidence.
"Okay. In the morning."
The sound of Oishi locking the door to his room woke me up out of a sound sleep. I sat up and stared at him for a moment while he made an apologetic face and went back to rummaging through his clothes, and suddenly realized the flaws in my plan.
"Oh, dammit!"
Oishi spun around so quickly he almost fell. "What? What happened?"
I ignored him and concentrated on beating the stupid out of my own head instead. "Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, why am I such an idiot sometimes?"
My friend looked seriously concerned now and leaned over to grab my wrists and stop me from pounding my fists against my forehead. "Whoa, whoa! When did anyone say you're an idiot?"
"No one," I grumbled in annoyance. "Doesn't make it any less true, though. I'm the biggest idiot on the face of the entire planet. How stupid can I get?!"
Okay, so I was definitely overreacting. Right then, I didn't care. I'd really been looking forward to that day…my plans had even invaded my dreams the previous night. And somehow I had missed out on a few crucial pieces of the puzzle.
How did I even land that sport scholarship if I can't even remember what equipment I'm supposed to use?
Oishi carefully pushed my hands down into my lap and made his way over to sit on the edge of the bed beside me. "Okay, Eiji, you mind telling me what exactly is going on? Because I have absolutely no idea what you are going on about right now."
With some effort I managed to actually meet his eyes. This was so embarrassing. Even the entire idea seemed stupid by the light of day. "I don't have my good sneakers with me. Or my racquet. Or any of my tennis stuff!"
The look of confusion only deepened on Oishi's face. "Well, you are on vacation right now…I'm sure your coach doesn't mind if you miss a few days of-"
"That's not it!" I interrupted, feeling more embarrassed by the minute. "I was going to…I thought today we could find one of the local courts and play a few games, and I didn't even think about the fact that I have nothing here I'd need to do that!"
"You wanted to…" Oishi stopped, looked down at his hands, and then looked up at the ceiling. Obviously he didn't find any explanation in either of those places because he just put a hand to his temple and frowned in thought. "That's what you wanted to do today?"
Well, great, now I felt really stupid. "Yeah," I muttered without looking at him. "I thought it might be…um, fun, I think."
"Well of course it would be fun, but that doesn't explain why you had to wake me up in the middle of the night, or why you're literally beating yourself up now!"
I groaned and flopped over onto the covers in exasperation. "Well, it should!" I complained, and closed my eyes until my face felt less like a volcano.
We stayed there like that in silence for a long while before Oishi spoke again, and when he did it wasn't at all what I had expected. "How do you fold yourself in half like that?"
"I had my ribcage removed surgically," I shot back without lifting my head. "And I have a double-jointed spine. And no internal organs. I have no idea, I just can!"
Other than a short laugh, there was no reply. Oishi just sat there, only moving to breathe, and didn't make a sound. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.
"I miss playing with you," I managed through the blankets and my legs and arms around my head. "Uchida said something last night and it just made me remember something. That match with Hyoutei in our third year?"
"When I sprained my wrist?"
I nodded, or tried to. It wasn't very easy to do when I had my face pressed into my own knees. "Yeah, that one. I was so messed up, you remember. And then you showed up and everything was better." I turned my head so I could actually look at him again, though I didn't sit up yet. It was too much fun seeing him wince at my position. "And then everyone was cracking jokes about it being a doubles game with three?"
Now Oishi really did wince away. "Thanks for that embarrassing reminder. I'd forgotten about that."
"It wasn't embarrassing, so don't even try to pull that. Anyway, it wasn't true. It wasn't even a doubles game. I just…" I struggled to find the right words. It wasn't that I was worried about what to say or how Oishi would react, I just wasn't sure I knew how to say it. "Did you know that you, what was it? You look at me like I'm the only person in the world?"
"I do?" Instead of being embarrassed or even flattered, Oishi just frowned in thought and then nodded. "I guess I could see that. You're usually the center of my attention even when you aren't here."
My stomach fluttered at bit at that and I managed a faint smile. "Good for me."
"It's a good thing you like the attention."
"I really do. But anyway, it's not just when you look at me, or when I look at you, or anything like…no, that's not right. I just miss playing tennis with you, doubles and singles both. I wanted to do that today because when you're on the court with me, there's no one else there. Not even in our matches against other people. There was that one game, but we…that was different," I explained. "You weren't yourself and I wasn't myself and I've just made this more complicated than it needed to be. Can I try again?"
"Please do," Oishi replied pitifully. "I'm completely lost."
"Okay." I told myself it was okay to steal Uchida's words. It wasn't like I wouldn't be putting them to good use. "Got it. When we're on the court together, there isn't anything or anyone else in the world but us."
I somehow managed to shrug without moving from my position flopped over my own legs. It was actually pretty comfortable. "So that's why I wanted to play today. Except I don't even have a racquet, much less the right shoes or anything. I don't even know if you have any of that stuff here, either. I know you don't really have much free time."
Oishi just stared at me with a faint line between his eyebrows. It was a little bit disconcerting. I knew he wasn't upset, but he did look thoughtful and sometimes he thought too much.
"Could you sit up?" he finally asked.
"But it's comfortable like this," I joked lightly. "You wouldn't ask me to go outside my comfort zone just because it weirds you out, would you?"
"In this case I would because I can't imagine that's comfortable even for contortionists, but that's not why I'm asking."
With a small sigh I pushed myself back up and studied him closely. "Okay. So what, then?"
The kiss was entirely a surprise. A pleasant surprise, but still unexpected. When he pulled away again and left me staring at him with a dopey confused grin on my face, Oishi smiled back. "That's the most flattering compliment anyone's ever given me. I was afraid when you kept playing in college that the Golden Pair was gone for good."
Now it was my turn to look incredulous. "No way! Are you nuts? That is never happening, not until the world implodes or the sun explodes and fries us all or whatever it is that makes the universe end!"
"Isn't that a bit extreme?" he teased and I shook my head as hard as I could.
"Nope. It's not too extreme because the Golden Pair is never going to be gone. So there."
Oishi cracked up, but I knew his response wasn't a joke at all. "Good. That's excellent." He reached out to ruffle my hair and I hissed at him as I pulled away. No one touches my hair in the morning before I get the tangles out. "In the meantime, you should get ready to head out. All the good things at the bakery next door will be gone if we don't get there before lunch."
I jumped out of bed obediently. "Yes, sir! I will try to come up with another plan for the day, sir!"
"Don't think too hard," Oishi advised calmly. "I know of a public court that rents racquets out for the day, and I bet some of my clothes fit you. The yukata did last night, anyway."
I wanted to cheer at that, but I kept most of the celebrating inside. "I thought you said those are one size fits all?"
"Go take your shower, Eiji."
I darted over to drop a quick, light kiss on his cheek. "Whatever the only other man in the world wants."
