A/N I'll be returning to Niou (Marui's) story next chapter, but this chapter is focused on Marui (Niou). It takes place right after the trickster and tensai leave the school.

Also, sorry for not updating sooner! These two weeks have been hectic for some reason, so I couldn't find the time even though I had already typed up this chapter weeks ago and only needed to upload it...

Disclaimer: I don't own TeniPuri, and never will

Chapter 3

Niou may have been in a hurry, but he took time to write the map neatly. Each road name was legible, unlike Marui's incoherent scribbles. Therefore, Marui was able to get to Marui Bunta's house in under 10 minutes.

It was a normal house, Marui learned. There was a car at the drive way, and the lawn was nicely kept with a few weeds here and there. Slightly nervous, Marui rung the doorbell. After all, Niou didn't mention anything of having a house key, and it looked like his parents were home.

The door was opened by a middle-aged man holding a mug of coffee, and wearing pajamas. "Oh, you're finally home," he welcomed, "We have a surprise for you!".

Marui entered the house curiously, wondering what the Marui's had prepared for him. When he was lead to the dining table, he faked happiness as a huge strawberry cake greeted him. The real Marui would have been delighted, after all.

Uneasily, Marui began to consume the cake, to find out that it tasted better than he thought. Niou Masaharu didn't have a sweet tooth, and therefore rarely ate sweets. But now he was in Marui's body, and the tensai absolutely loved the pastry. Somehow, Marui felt stronger after eating, and Niou Masaharu decided to start believing the red-head when he said that sugar increased his stamina.

I could get used to this, Marui thought as he licked the final bit of icing off his fork. Sighing contently, he made his way upstairs. Suddenly, he stopped and realized that he didn't know where Marui Bunta slept. He tried looking at every room, but all the rooms looked like a place where Marui Bunta would sleep. Quickly, Marui entered a random room and opened his books to start his homework.

On second thought….

Marui put all his homework, smirking when he realized that the real Marui would probably get in trouble for that. Well, as it wasn't Niou Masaharu who would be blamed, he didn't particularly care.

"Bunta-nii! Why are you in our room?"

Marui quickly looked up to find two similar-looking boys standing at the doorway. "Well… it was closer, and I was tired…" he said, using a sophistry to give reason to his actions.

"But, your room is the closest to the stairs!" one protested. The other one nodded furiously. "But if you're already here, let's play!"

I refuse to believe that Bunta goes through this everyday and actually enjoys it, Marui thought grimly while pretending to wince in pain when one of Marui Bunta's brothers fake-stabbed him with a needle. "Great! Are you feeling okay?" he said with an innocent questioning glance adorning his face.

"Yes Doctor, I'm fine." Marui said sarcastically. At first he was worried that he would lose his disguise, but the Marui twins didn't even seem to notice that his character had changed. He sighed as the younger twin wrapped his arm with bandages, even though he hadn't even made a scratch on the tennis player's skin.

Finally, the twins handed him a lollipop and pushed him into Marui Bunta's bed, bringing the blankets up before Marui could even protest. Not that Marui intended to stop them anyway; he was exhausted, and thankful to be able to escape the two doctor-imitating kids. Marui sighed and waited for the twins to close his door and exit the room. Suddenly, he remembered something and grinned.

Marui slowly and silently got out of bed, and turned on the lights before closely inspecting Marui Bunta's room. It seemed normal enough, with a few pictures of the tennis team placed on his headboard, and his uncompleted homework scattered on the desk. Unsatisfied, Marui decided to look closer, and opened every drawer and closet before he noticed something that put an evil glint in his eyes.

"Marui Bunta's Private Diary: Keep out!" it read, with the cover decorated with pastries. Of course, Marui planed to do the opposite of what the diary intended him to do, and instead searched even more to find a key. After 10 fruitless minutes of searching, Marui decided to look where he find the diary, and behold, a tiny silver key sat right next to the book.

Unable to resist the suspense, Marui shoved the key inside and turned it, the lock opening with a rewarding "click". Without hesitating, he started to scan his eyes over every page, wanting to ingest every bit of info that the diary had to offer. It started off jokingly, and Marui even found himself involuntarily smiling at some parts that the pink-head had wrote. But after a while, the entries took a turn for the worse.

His eyes widened at what was written. He stared at the words for what seemed like hours, until he finally closed the book and relocked it, making it appear that it had never been moved in the first place.

Deciding to try to forget what he had read, Marui turned off the lights and slipped back into his bed, forcing his eyes closed and mind blank.

"RING RING RING, RIIIIIIIING!" the alarm clock shouted for 10 minutes until Marui finally woke up, glaring death at the small device. Looking at the thing properly, he found out that it was only 7:00 a.m. Their morning tennis practice started at 8, after all, and Niou Masaharu had learned to treasure every last second of sleep until he got out of bed 5 minutes before their morning practice started, and casually walked to school with no intent of rushing.

Marui Bunta, on the other hand, made a noticeable attempt to wake up early everyday. Key word: attempt. He often explained that his body was refusing to move, and that his sleepiness wasn't helping either.

Which was probably why exactly 5 minutes after the alarm clock had gone off (and Marui had ignored it), the doorbell rang. His mother, who had awoken much earlier, happily trudged to the door and opened it.

"Good morning- why, aren't you Niou, one of Bunta's tennis friends? Great! Please, come in..." With a welcoming gesture, Marui Bunta's mother lead Niou inside.

"Yeah, 'morning mom- I mean, Marui-san. May I please see Ni- Marui?" Niou said awkwardly, trying to cover up his mistakes. Then he realized that Niou Masaharu wasn't nearly as nice, and gave up trying to imitate the trickster.

"Oh, hey Niou!" Marui said, his words not once fumbling, "Why are you here?"

Niou looked visibly annoyed at the sight of his body being occupied by another soul, but tried to smirk and imitate the trickster. "Just coming to, um, wake you up? Because, Sanada-fukubuchou said that our morning practice is... a few minutes earlier today, so I thought that you wouldn't make it there in time..." he finished uneasily. Luckily, Marui sensed his nervousness, and smiled. "Yeah, I'll be there in a second!" he said, and rushed upstairs to change. A few moments later, he returned, dressed in Rikkai's yellow and black tennis uniform and carrying his tennis bag.

When he walked over to the place that Niou was sitting, Niou dropped his façade and glared at Marui. "You forgot my cake!" he hissed, and pointed to pile of pastries on the table that Marui hadn't noticed before. Sighing, Marui went back over and shoved a few wrapped cakes into his bag, before dragging the unwilling Niou out the door and informing his "mother" that he was leaving.

A/N Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Marui's diary. I'll probably explain what it says in a later chapter, and the same with Niou's books.