This chapter really isn't as funny as the last one, and I really wanted to fit the whole date in here but then it threatened to be fourteen pages, and I don't think you guys want to spend an hour at the computer.

Also, because of school, chances are this story will only be able to be updated once a week, at most. With luck you can expect this chapter by Sunday, but probably not on a weekday. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The tennis ball flew back and forth, from Sanada to Yukimura, from Yukimura to Sanada, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It was like watching a pendulum swing, and the rally never seemed to end. Akaya was getting tired just watching it. He was supposed to (insert cringe here) ask Yukimura out today, right after the match, or at least flirt with him to get the tennis player to notice his existence.

He honestly wasn't looking forward to it. Marui has it easy, Akaya thought grimly, thinking of how the older reporter was waiting outside at the moment, flirting with random people (girls, the lucky guy!) and slacking off.

"Fifteen-love!"

Akaya couldn't help but sigh at the word 'love.' Not in a romantic way, but rather in a God-help-me-now-because-my-boss-is-a-psychotic-nut way. This was just so completely unfair. Yukimura Seiichi was a year older than him, he was incredibly famous, he had a billion fangirls who would probably end up killing Akaya for "taking him away from them," and for heaven's sake, Akaya wasn't gay. He was honestly beginning to believe that Niou was doing this just to spite him, and clearly his boss was getting a kick out of it.

Akaya wanted to kick him.

With a groan, Akaya banged his head against the glass panel between him and the tennis courts (something that had seemed very appealing during his conversation with Niou yesterday). A group of people also watching the tennis match between Yukimura and Sanada angrily shushed him, and he frowned, leaving his seat to go outside and fetch a drink.

Marui was sitting on the bench right outside the stadium, calmly flipping through a magazine and sipping a soda. "Out so soon?" he asked with a knowing grin, noticing Akaya's angry expression. "Shot down already?"

"No!" Akaya snapped. "I didn't ask yet. The stupid match is taking too long."

"Aw, does our little Aka-chan have a bad case of homophobia?" the redhead taunted, turning back to his magazine. "Don't worry. Yukimura seems pretty nice; he'll let you down easy."

"Don't be so sure," Akaya answered smugly. "It can't be that hard to seduce a gay guy, right? I mean, from what I've heard they're not all that different from women. Just more flamboyant and stuff. I can deal with that." He ran a hand through his hair confidently and grinned. "All I have to do is smile at him, run a hand through my hair, introduce myself, take a step closer and offer him the absolute pleasure of my company."

"Your typical routine with women," Marui realized approvingly. Then he snorted. "Good luck with that. You're a dead man, Kirihara."

Akaya tried to remember why he'd chosen to bring the obnoxious reporter with him, and recalled it had been for emotional support.

What a stupid idea that had been.

"You should probably go back," Marui continued. "The match is tied five games all, right? I don't know much about tennis, but isn't there a match point thing or something around there?"

"What do you mean, you don't know much about tennis?" Akaya protested. "You're the one who's always bragging about your tennis wizardry and your genius talents. You never shut up about it," he added in a mutter, but of course Marui heard that, and shot Akaya a dirty glare.

"I'd love to be in that stadium, watching that game right now," he replied, "but you're supposed to hit on Yukimura once the match ends, remember? Niou told us that after Yukimura finishes his game, he's going to the bench to warm up for a practice match with some Yanagi guy or something. He's going to be totally body-guard free, and the fans will have left by then. You can't afford to miss that moment..." Marui grinned widely, "or you'll be screwed."

He was about to retort, but then Marui added, "But getting screwed is the goal, right?" and Akaya just about fell over.

"Game, Yukimura! Seven games to six!"

Akaya sighed, half from relief that the relentless volleying and rallying was finally over, and half from anxiety. Okay. Just do this. Pretend Yukimura's a girl. It's like Niou said—the guy looks like a girl anyway. No big difference, right?

He squinted and tried to imagine the sweaty athlete as a hot supermodel, but all he could see was Marui pointing and laughing at him, calling him things he really didn't want to be called.

And he reallydidn't want to hit on Marui.

Yukimura was smiling and waving to fans, and shook hands with his best friend, Sanada. They said something brief, then Yukimura began stretching, just as the fans left the stadium and began crowding outside the doors. Clearly they were hoping for a quick autograph session once Yukimura left the courts, but they'd have to wait. Akaya took a deep breath. Just don't think about it, he soothed himself. Get it over with, and once Yukimura turns you down, you can go to Niou, step on his foot and demand compensation for doing something so humiliating. Like a therapist. Yeah, that could work. Just don't think about it. That's all there is to it.

Akaya huffed and, carrying his soft drink, jumped onto the courts. Sanada had already left, and Yukimura was standing by himself, drinking a bottle of water and barely glancing at the young man making his way to him. "H-hello," Akaya offered.

At last the blunette turned to him, and gave him a brilliant smile. "Hello, nice to meet you. Can I help you?"

The reporter cringed again, then quickly covered his half disgusted, half horrified expression with a flirty grin. "I'm Kirihara Akaya, nice to meet you too." He ran his hand through his hair again (albeit extremely awkwardly) and smiled. Just follow the routine. "T-that was a, uh, great match today." He looked at the floor, pretending to be shy, then looked back up at him with mischievous eyes.

Or, at least, that was what he was supposed to do.

Instead, in all his awkward awesomeness, he'd glanced at the floor and stared back up with the crazed, terrified eyes of a lunatic, and somehow Akaya doubted that the young tennis star would find that attractive.

Flirting with girls was so much easier. For one, he wasn't scared of them. And Yukimura's intent, never-fading smile was actually starting to bother them.

Yukimura's smile widened, and soon it had turned into a smiling contest, seeing whose smile would outlast the other's. "Thank you very much."

Summoning all his courage, Akaya took a step closer and silently hoped nobody would see what would happen next. "So, uh—" But fate had decided to be cruel and he tripped over air, landing on Yukimura's racquet—and flat on his face. Miraculously, his soft drink was still in one piece (though he couldn't say as much for the rest of him). God, this is embarrassing, he thought with a red face, and stood to the sound of Yukimura's laughing. Unable to help himself, he protested, "It's mean to laugh at an injured person!" He stood and put a hand on his hip angrily, trying to look sexy and offended at the same time.

It was a bad look for him, because he strongly resembled a scorned woman with dirt on his face.

Yukimura's hearty laughter died down, and the tennis player settled for beaming sweetly at him, blue eyes shining and wavy hair delicately flying in the breeze. He looked truly majestic, and maybe that was why Akaya spontaneously dropped his drink—and the red liquid spontaneously landed on Yukimura's shirt.

There was a gasp, an embarrassed glance, and then more hysterical laughter. "My, my," Yukimura said, "what a day." In a joking manner, he added, "You'll have to pay me back for this, you know."

Akaya nodded sheepishly. And Niou, you're paying for all this. "Y-yeah, sorry about that."

"So, how about paying me back tomorrow night at the Roux la Vex? Six o'clock?"

Akaya could only stare, astonished. Yukimura asked him out? The soft drink was clearly messing with his head (and his flirting abilities), because all he did was stand there, mouth hanging somewhere below his knees and realizing that it was incredibly hard to breathe when a famous tennis star is grinning daggers at you—daggers that, unfortunately, represented more amusement than violence. And Akaya would much rather get kicked in the head than get laughed at. His ego was picky like that.

Strange preference, no?

"It's a date," Akaya finally blurted, trying to regain his composure. He was just about to conduct his 'routine,' when:

Yukimura ran a hand through his hair, grinned at him, took a step closer and whispered, "Guess it is," before he finally sauntered off.

Well, now. That was eerily familiar.

Marui was laughing hysterically and Akaya was thoroughly pissed off. "He asked you out? He asked you out? You lucky son of a—"

"Shush!" Akaya hissed, throwing a pillow at his colleague and plopping down on the sofa. "Don't tell anybody about this, okay? I really like Sakuno, and if she thinks I'm gay, then—"

"You like Sakuno-chan? Really?" Marui whistled. "She's definitely a looker, but you haven't got a shot. Now tell me how you tricked Yukimura into going out with you."

"I didn't trick him!" Marui watched him from above, still looking a little too amused for Akaya's comfort. "It was weird, okay?" Then he smirked. "I guess my stunning good looks were too much for him, eh?"

The redhead began laughing again. "You wish, man! I bet he asked you out because of pity. Probably out of pity. I'm so smart, I figured that out in what, two seconds? I'm such a genius, such a genius..."

Another pillow was promptly thrown at him.

"Okay, wait, wait," Marui interrupted, still stifling his laughter. "What exactly happened? Like, did you actually flirt with him? Did he flirt with you? Damn, I can't believe I missed it." He quickly held up a pillow to shield himself from whatever Akaya was going to throw at him next.

Akaya scowled. If he admitted what really happened, well, he'd never hear the end of it, would he? But because he was such an honest person, he told the truth, and nothing but the truth.

And embellished just a little bit. Just a little.

Like saying how Yukimura was begging him to go out with him after Akaya flashed his trademark smile and rainbows suddenly shot out of his eyes and cherry blossoms had come out of nowhere to give him their blessings.

Okay, so maybe not just a little.

Marui nodded intently as Akaya finished, and smiled up at him. "Wow."

"Yup," Akaya said proudly.

"That's pretty amazing."

"Yup."

"Now tell me what really happened."

Damn. And with that, Akaya succumbed to his fate.

"Holy crap," Marui yelped when Akaya came back from his 'date,' exhausted and looking extremely disheveled. "Did the guy rape you or something?"

Akaya nodded absentmindedly and staggered to his room. "Something like that." He moaned. "Don't remind me. That was the worst date I've ever been on and I'm never doing this again. Give me the phone."

Tossing one last glance at his hell-bent friend, Marui rushed out of the room to fetch the phone.

The green-eyed man fell onto his bed and closed his eyes.

That.

Was.

Hell.

Oh my God, he tried to... And then he... And I... But then... Ew.

"Here's the phone," Marui said meekly, handing Akaya a simple cordless phone. The younger man practically tore it out of his hands, and started dialing a number with sudden energy, conviction, and just a tidbit of violence. There was the sound of Niou answering the phone, and then:

"I'm going to kill you, Niou-san! Get me out of here; Yukimura's nut case, damn it! Did you know he tried to kiss me? On the neck? The neck, Niou!"

"Dude, that's creepy. You've only been on what, one date?"

"Yeah, and that was hell in itself. Please let me leave," Akaya begged. "Send Marui in or something."

"Sorry brat, but you're in too deep to back out now. Look on the bright side: Yukimura's got some hot fangirls. You don't see chicks like that in the office, eh?"

"Are you stupid? They think I'm gay!"

"Oh, right. Forgot about that for a sec."

"You're not helping! Please, please let me go. You can even fire me, if you want! I don't care if you make Marui jump off of Mount Fuji, please," he moaned, rolling over and hitting his head on a lamp. "Ow." He rubbed his nose, perhaps a bit more pissed off than what was healthy for him.

"What, are you and that tennis player doing it right now?"

Akaya glared, temporarily forgetting that his boss couldn't see him over the phone. "First of all, Niou, you're twenty. I'm nineteen. I think we're old enough to say 'sex' without getting a rash. Second of all, no. We've officially established tonight that I have a severe case of homophobia and a fear of blunettes who hit on you five minutes into the freaking date. Third of all, screw you!"

"Sorry man," Niou cackled, "but you're going to have to save all that screwing passion for Yukimura, 'cause you didn't take any photos, did you?"

Akaya froze. Shoot. I knew I forgot something.

"That's what I thought," Niou said triumphantly. "You'll need to ask him out on another date or something, because we still don't have any evidence."

"No, no, no, no!" he pleaded, squeezing a pillow. "I quit! I'm leaving the magazine! I'll go study psychology or something, and I'm resigning as soon as I figure out how to download resignation forms."

"You can't. I'm Star Magazine's boss, and I'm not accepting any resignations until you finish this assignment."

"I hate you."

"Good luck, Kirihara. You're one of my best photographers. Don't screw up now." There was a quiet chuckle, and Niou mumbled, "Haha, screw... I crack myself up." Then the line went dead.

Akaya snarled at the phone and hurled it against the wall. Marui walked inside, sitting on the chair next to the bed and offering his friend a cup of hot coffee. "What happened?" he asked calmly, trying not to give away his worry (and sadistic amusement).

"Well..."

Are you confused? So basically, I skipped the date in this chapter. It shows Akaya talking to Marui, and somewhere in between he leaves for his date, and at the end he comes back, totally freaked out. The date that was left out will be in the next chapter, promise. I'm sorry for leaving it here, but in the next chapter you'll get to watch Akaya make an idiot of himself. Here's the preview (the date):

He wondered if he could make a quick getaway.

"You showed up!" Yukimura suddenly exclaimed, delighted.

Guess not.

Akaya smiled, though the smile came out looking much more like a grimace. He made his way to the table (which was in the very back!) and put his hands in his pockets in a meager attempt to look cool.

"Sure did," he answered weakly, and stood there, awkwardly. He cleared his throat. If he was going to do this, then he was going to be the dominant one in the relationship. So what if he was a year younger? Yukimura looked like a girl and he didn't. That was enough evidence for him. "So, uh..." He played with his tie as seductively as he could. "..." And that was when he realized he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to say.

"Oh! Please excuse my horrible manners," the blunette said politely, and pulled out a chair for him. Akaya mentally smacked himself on the forehead. Way to be a man, Akaya. Way to be a man.

So he sat down like the woman he was going to have to act like for the rest of the date.

God, this was hell.