A/N: I realized last chapter that I really like writing those kinds of things, so I decided to do more friendship stuff for this fic. There will still be romance chapters from time to time, but for now I wanna do chapters like the last one. Although it's hard to think of them, so may I ask for ideas? Also, my sister got me into the anime Poyopoyo, so I just really wanted to do something with cats in it.
Chapter Summary: Hiyoshi blamed the cat too many times.
Characters: Atobe Keigo, Hiyoshi Wakashi, Ootori Choutarou, Shishido Ryou, Oshitari Yuushi. Guest appearance by Shiraishi Kuranosuke, mentions of Shitenhouji members.
Pairings: It can be Dominance pair if you wanna look at it that way, but it's really not meant to be.
Cat-sitting
~Monday~
"Buchou, can I go to the nurse's office? I need a new band-aid."
Atobe looked to his side, where Hiyoshi stood holding his hand. Indeed, the bandage around his palm was coming undone and was stained red. He raised an eyebrow.
"What happened?"
"I got into a cat fight."
"What?"
"I fought a cat."
A silence settled between the two as Atobe let the sentence process. Would Hiyoshi really fight a cat? Then it dawned on him.
He would.
He sighed. "Fine, but make it quick, practice is almost over."
" 'Kay."
xXxXxXx
~Tuesday~
The next day, Hiyoshi walked into the clubroom with a large, circular bruise on the left side of his face. Choutarou stared, mouth wide open.
"Choutar, your gonna catch flies like that." Hiyoshi said calmly, dropping his bag onto the floor and unbuttoning his shirt. Choutarou shook his head.
"What happened to you?" He asked, earning a strange look from the shorter boy.
"What? Something happened?"
"He means this." Shishido said, poking the bruise. Hiyoshi winced.
"Ah, that." He pulled his jersey on, straightening out the front. "I tripped on the cat this morning on my way to the bathroom."
Atobe sighed. "Pay attention to your surroundings more, it won't do for you to fall down the stairs next."
Hiyoshi stared at him for a moment, before getting to work on the rest of his uniform. Atobe blinked.
"Wait, don't tell me you already di-"
"Oh hey, I think I hear Sakaki-sensei outside. Gotta go, I need to ask him about our assignment in music before practice starts." With that, he grabbed his racket and made a dash out the door.
xXxXxxx
~Wednesday~
"Ouch."
Hiyoshi bit his lip, watching as Choutarou pulled out another piece of cloth, pressing it to the mouth of his water bottle to wet it.
"Wakashi, you really need to start taking better care of yourself. How did this happen?"
"It jumped at me."
"It?"
"The cat."
Choutarou raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"Your not lying, are you?" He asked after a while. He pressed the cloth back onto his friend's arm, the large scratch marks beginning to bleed again. "No one's bullying you?"
"Choutarou, do you really think it's possible for me to be bullied?" Hiyoshi said, raising both eyebrows. Choutarou shook his head.
"It's happened before."
Hiyoshi shifted uneasily, frowning.
"That's all in the past. Besides, I'm telling you, it's that damn cat's fault."
Choutarou rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh."
xXxXxXx
~Thursday~
"Okay, what happened this time."
Hiyoshi looked up to see the stern look on his captain's face.
"You've been coming to school covered in scratches and bruises, and that can't all be from just training alone."
Hiyoshi grinned. "Buchou, have you forgotten who I am? my family does some of the most dangerous training there is. You should be surprised I don't have a broken leg."
Atobe sighed, deciding to ignore the comment. He knew the boy's family had rather... difficult training. It was no secret, everyone knew. Especially those in the Karate club who tried to recruit their ace.
"Those," He said, pointing at the large marks on his arm. "Are not the results of training martial arts."
"How would you know? Does your family run a dojo? Does your father train you from morning to night with any weapon imaginable? Do you have to get up at four in the morning Monday to Friday for special workout?" Despite the words being said, Hiyoshi was smiling widely at his captain's horrified expression. He watched as the older boy sighed.
"No one wants to know that stuff, Hiyoshi. Please don't say things that will be easily misunderstood."
xXxXxXx
~Friday~
He knew they were staring, but was it really new at this point? There were only a few more...
"Hiyoshi." Oshitari started, blinking twice. "Do you have even more bandages than before?"
"I don't know what your talking about, sempai, this is the exact same amount I had yesterday."
"That's not very reassuring."
Hiyoshi shrugged, pulling off his jersey and reaching for his school shirt. Atobe grabbed his arm, pulling it back and touching each bandage.
"Wha-"
"Twenty-eight." He said, earning odd looks from the rest of the team. "You have nine more bandages than you had yesterday."
Hiyoshi blinked. "Have you been keeping count? Wait, when did you have the time count them?" He asked, slightly disturbed at the thought of his captain watching him while he changed.
"A captain must always know the condition of his regulars, especially when it comes to things like this." He said, turning his head to avoid the 'I-know-your-lying-cuz-it's-so-obvious' look he got from the younger boy. "Anyway, mind explaining what's been going on? And don't say you tripped."
"But what if I really did?" Hiyoshi blinked. "If I say I did, I did. I don't lie unless it's necessary."
Atobe frowned. "What have you-"
"Buchou, please let go before I scream something you would rather have unheard. If you haven't noticed, I don't have a shirt on, and it's kinda cold." He said, smirking when his arm was released immediately. Shishido snickered.
"He got you there, Atobe."
xXxXxXx
~Saturday~
"Okay, I know theres something wrong here."
Hiyoshi blinked, pausing in his current struggle. Atobe had caught his changing the bandages around his arms in the clubroom and demanded an explanation. Whene none came, he decided helping his younger teammate would be best. Which led to their current situaton.
"Don't say it." Atobe growled, pulling his arms back from where they held his teammate. "Don't you dare say it."
Shishido put his hands up in defense. "I wasn'g going to say anything. Film it, maybe, but not say anything." He grinned. Before Atobe could speak, Hiyoshi sat up and resumed wrapping the bandages around his arm.
"That cats gotten more violent, I swear. Look what it did this time." He said, lifting his arm up.
"What's in that box?" Shishido said, turning his attention to the shaking box in the corner. It had holes on the sides, so he had a feeling whatever was in there needed to breathe. Hiyoshi looked at the box, then him, then back to the box.
"You don't need to know, someone's coming by soon to pick it up."
~After practice~
"Is it still alive?"
Hiyoshi kneeled next to the box, peeking inside.
"Should be, I left food and water in there with it. Looks like it's sleeping." He said, walking back to his locker. He wrapped his tie around his neck and turned to Choutarou, who chuckled and began tying it.
"You still can't do this on your own, can you?"
"Why would I need to when your here to do it for me?"
"I'll settle with that for now."
Atobe watched the two, staring intently at the fading bruise on his successor's face. There was no way a cat was responsible for all that.
"Hiyoshi, tell me, was it really a cat that did all that to you?" He asked, unable to stop himself. Hiyoshi looked at him.
"Yup." He answered, looking out the window. "Why do you ask?"
"Hiyoshi," He said, eyebrow twitching. "You say a cat did all this, but you don't even own a cat."
Hiyoshi blinked.
"Right, about that-"
"Ooooi, Hiyoshi-kun!"
Hiyoshi looked to the window, Shiraishi waving from the other side. He walked over, opening it(since it was on the opposite side of the door.)
"Shiraishi-san, back from Hokkaido already? Why didn't you come around to the door?" He asked, the older boy folding his arms over the ledge.
"My parents couldn't find parking at the front, I had to come in through the back. This works either way." Shiraishi grinned. "How was Mimi-chan? I hope she didn't cause you any trouble."
Hiyoshi rolled up his sleeve to reveal many bandages and fading scratches. "Nope, no trouble at all." He said. Shiraishi chuckled.
"You have her here, right? I can take her home now." Hiyoshi nodded, walking over to he corner of the room and opened the box. He pulled out, to everyone's surprise, a brown and white cat, still sleeping despite being picked up.
"I'm surprised she stayed there during practice." He said, depositing the cat into Shiraishi's arms. "I know cats sleep a lot, but I didn't expect her to listen to me." Shiraishi laughed.
"Sorry to have you do this. I still can't believe I couldn't find anyone else. You did it for free, too."
"Hold on." Shishido cut in, catching the other two's attention. "I'm confused, what's going on here?"
"Isn't it obvious? Shiraishi-san came over to pick up his cat." Hiyoshi said. Shishido rolled his eyes.
"That's not what I meant." He said, earning a raised eyebrow. "Why do you have his cat?"
"Ah, sorry, that'd be my fault." Shiraishi said, shifting the sleeping animal. "I was going on a school trip this week, my parents are on business, so I needed someone to watch Mimi-chan. Kenya and the others were going too, Zaizen's mom is allergic to cats, and Kin-chan has a dog. I had to turn to someone with no pets or allergies."
"Of course, he offered to pay me, but I said it was alright." Hiyoshi said when he got a look from Atobe. "It was fine with my parents, so I accepted."
"Hiyoshi-kun really saved me. If he didn't offer when I brought it up I would have had to ask one of my neighbors." Shiraishi laughed. Atobe sighed.
"So this whole time you were saying 'the cat did it' you were referring to the cat that you were looking after for Shiraishi?" Hiyoshi nodded. "Why didn't you say so? Do you know what's been going through our heads whenever you came in like that?"
"You never asked." Hiyoshi said, earning a facepalm from the other. Shiraishi chuckled.
"Aww, they were worried about you, Hiyoshi-kun. See? Their not as bad as you said they were."
"You don't see them everyday Shiraishi-san." Hiyoshi said, shaking his head. "Oh, can you tell Hikaru to stop spamming me with comments about how he hates classics? It's getting annoying."
"Will do." Shiraishi said, giving him a wave. "Tell Sanada-kun I hope to see him at our next practice match."
" 'Kay."
Hiyoshi waved the older boy off, closing the window and walking back to his locker. He slung his bag over his shoulder, picking up the box and making for the door.
"Ah, I should have asked him for a ride." He said, then shrugged. "Oh well, I'll be going now."
"Wait wait wait." Choutarou called after him, grabbing his bag. "Wakashi, don't leave me behind!"
Atobe watched his two kohai exit the clubroom, then sighed.
"The least he could have done was tell us what was going on." He said, running a hand through his hair. Oshitari chuckled.
"But he did Atobe. Every time."
xXxXxXx
~Sunday~
"So you gave Shiraishi-buchou his cat back yesterday?"
"Yup, looks like I won't have to put up with it anymore. Wasn't too bad at least."
"You know he kept saying he felt bad about having you do it without giving you anything in return, right?"
"So I heard. I suspect you got my message."
"I'm not gonna stop spamming you just 'cuz you got my captain to tell me so."
"Jerk."
"Gotta go now, meeting up with Kenya-san in a few."
"Have fun on your date."
"It's not a date!"
Hiyoshi blinked, listening to the sound of a click and the beeps that followed. He chuckled, lifting his phone back up and dialing another number. He pressed the green device back to his ear, waiting for the other end tobe picked up.
"Hello?" A deep voice answered. He grinned.
"Gen-ani, I have a message from Shiraishi-san. He says he hopes to see you at your next practice match." He said, teasingly. He heard a crash from the other end, and his grin widened.
"I should have guessed." Sanada said. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that."
"Oh, so you do prefer Gen-nii-sama." He said, waiting for a response.
"... Gen-ani is fine. Wait, why do you have a message from Shiraishi? And why did you call me when we're coming over later?"
"To troll you. Want me to start?"
"No thank you."
" 'Kay, see you tonight."
xXxXxXx
A/N: This was a really old idea, as most of these will be. I had meant to do it a long time ago, and it was a lot darker cuz of what they team was thinking, but I shortened it. I only remembered this because of that anime. The end was pretty much just stuff I added in, since I've been wanting to add Sanada in for a while now and I wanted to put in a phone call.
I know I said I'd be updating On the Other Side with another extra soon, that'll come later. I didn't put my announcement here since it has somethingt to do with a certain character in that fic. See if you can guess who.
