Disclaimer: I do NOT own PoT
Pairing: Inui Sadaharu X Ryoma Echizen
Word Count: 1,850
Chapter 3 -
.
Ryoma blinked his eyes open, feeling strangely sluggish. It took him a moment to realize that he was lying down on a bed. And another moment to realize that there was a hand resting on the side of his head. He turned to see Inui reading a book. The older boy seemed unaware that his thumb was making small circles on Ryoma's temple.
"Senpai," Ryoma called, his voice rough and his nose stuffy.
Inui immediately turned to him. "How are you feeling?"
Automatically, Inui's hand moved from his temple to the top of his head, brushing back his fringe before settling on his forehead to check his temperature.
"M'fine," Ryoma answered, feeling otherwise. His body feels uncomfortable. His nose seemed blocked so he could only shallowly breathe through his mouth. And his head feels waterlogged, heavy, and with his thoughts loud and muted at the same time. He closes his eyes.
"What happened?"
Inui's hand was still resting on his forehead. Normally, Ryoma would find the constant touch invasive but at the moment, the coolness of that palm soothed his hot head so he was loath to remove it.
"We're at the Nurse's office," Inui explained. There was a rare hint of admonishment in his tone. "You knew you were sick but you still soaked your head in cold water. It's no wonder that you fainted right after."
But it was hot, and I was sweating! Ryoma wanted to reason. But in hindsight, aside from being hot and sweaty, he also had a headache and his nose was getting stuffier by the minute. He just wanted to cool down but instead, the cold water probably exacerbated the hot temperature within his body. As a result, he grew light-headed and he fainted.
But all these were in hindsight, so Ryoma could only grunt, noncommittal at Inui.
Silence reigned for a few minutes before Ryoma opened his eyes again. Inui had gone back to his book but his left hand remained obediently on Ryoma's forehead, fingers occasionally brushing through his hair.
Ryoma watched him silently. This was a rare chance. Before, the only times that he's found himself in the older boy's presence were during club activities. Outside of those times, he can only see this senpai when they pass each other in the school's hallway. Cursory glances were enough to recognize each other. They didn't need to look too hard to give the other a polite nod or a perfunctory greeting before going their own separate ways.
Now, they're in the school clinic. Ryoma was in bed due to a fever, while Inui was being a responsible senpai and looking after him. It was a rare moment where they're in each other's vicinity without having to do with club activities.
Maybe the heat of the fever was starting to fry his tennis-obsessed brain. Or maybe he just doesn't have anything better to do. Either way, Ryoma couldn't help but take this chance to really observe the older boy.
Inui had shed his jacket in the time that Ryoma was unconscious. He was left in only a plain white shirt, the sleeves rolled to his shoulders presumably because of the hot weather that Ryoma couldn't appreciate at the moment due to the chills that are still shaking his body every so often. Inui was sitting on a stool on the side of the bed, hunched over with one of his elbows on his knee so he could hold up his book while his other hand was outstretched to touch Ryoma's head. The posture looks stiff and uncomfortable but the older boy didn't seem to notice, so absorbed was he on his history book.
Ryoma's gaze traveled to Inui's face. Ryoma wasn't an expert nor does he have an interest in how other people look but he guessed that the older boy can be considered good-looking. In any case, he wasn't ugly. The shape of his face is not chiseled but clean. His jaw is well-defined, his nose is straight, his eyebrows are long and thin, and his lips have a nice curve at the corners. His eyes...
Ryoma squinted at the older boy. As usual, those thick eyeglasses were obscuring his eyes from view. Ryoma felt curiosity rising within him, fleeting but familiar. He realized he's been wanting to see those eyes. His fingers move on top of the covers, itching to reach up and snatch those glasses away as they're impeding his surprisingly fascinating observation.
Just as he was about to move, the hand playing with his hair suddenly shifted to cover his eyes.
"If you don't stop staring, your eyes are gonna tear up," said Inui, still looking focused on his book. In reality, the back of his head was actually starting to sweat with the intensity of the younger boy's scrutiny. He felt a sense of deja vu. Didn't he experience this very same stare during the earlier practice match?
Ryoma blinked at the sudden darkness, his eyelashes fluttering like butterflies against Inui's ticklish palm. Inui stiffened imperceptively before moving his hand away. He cleared his throat and moved to turn a page on his book.
Just then, the door opened, and in bounced Kikumaru. Following him at a more sedate pace are the rest of their team members.
"Ochibi~!" And then came the death-hug. "How are you feeling, nya~?"
Before Ryoma could even recover from being suffocated, his face was already being pinched and prodded as Kikumaru took it upon himself to check his temperature. "You're so warm, Ochibi~!" Kikumaru observed. "You really have a fever, nya~"!
Ryoma expressionlessly removed the prying hands from his person. "Your hands are cold, Kikumaru-senpai," he observed back.
Kikumaru paused. He seemed taken aback by Ryoma's deadpan voice. But then he grinned like a Cheshire cat, pats Ryoma on the cheeks, and cheerfully announced his conclusion. "I see you're the same as ever, Ochibi~! You're gonna be fine, nya~! Hai, hai~!"
Momoshiro pfft-ed, his cheeks bulging in abortive laughter before nodding enthusiastically, obviously in agreement.
Ryoma stopped paying attention to them.
"It's a good thing that Inui was there with you," Fuji remarked as he sat down at the foot of the bed.
"That's right, Echizen," seconded Oishi, ever the concerned one. "What if Inui wasn't there when you fainted? It would have been too late when someone finds you."
Ryoma raised an eyebrow. That sounded a little too extreme to him. Apparently, Kawamura thinks so, too, because he commented with a sweatdrop, "T-too late? It's not as if he's going to die, Oishi..."
The Vice-Captain, already busy scolding Kikumaru for playing with the medical equipment, didn't hear this. "Eiji! What are you doing!? You can't use that as a ball! Mou..."
"Still," continued Fuji, addressing the – somewhat – normal people in the room. "I think it's better for Echizen to stay home for at least a couple of days." He looked over at Tezuka and said, "Ryuuzaki-sensei will probably order it anyway when she finds out."
Tezuka readily nodded his assent. He was already thinking about it even before he received word that Echizen was brought to the Nurse's office. Fever, and any other illness, is an unpleasant business when it comes to athletes like them. If left unattended, it may cause serious repercussions that could have been easily avoided by a few days' rest.
Tezuka turned to Echizen and saw how pale the boy was. Lying in the clinic's bed, there was a rare vulnerable air about him that everyone in the room was unused to seeing. Tezuka promptly made a decision. "I'll talk to the coach. Oishi, you're with me. Inui, you take care of Echizen. The rest of you, go home. Dismissed!"
….
Someone tell me exactly how I ended up here? Ryoma wanted to ask for the nth time that afternoon.
He was sitting dazed in a car with his senpai-tachi. To be more specific, he was in Fuji's sister's car with four of his senpai: Inui, Momo, Kikumaru, and Fuji. The tensai was sharing the front passenger seat with Kikumaru while Momo and Inui sat on either side of Ryoma in the backseat. It wasn't exactly a tight fit. But Ryoma, already feeling unwell, wasn't exactly comfortable either. In fact, the short but loud ride home was making his head ached something fierce.
.
Ten minutes ago...
.
"Can you walk home, Echizen?" Inui had asked while they were signing off in the logbook in the Nurse's office.
Ryoma, feeling a bit better after his short rest, twitched in slight exasperation. "Of course. I'm not an invalid, senpai."
"Demo, Ochibi~ you can't walk home. You're gonna make yourself even sicker if you do," reasoned Kikumaru.
"That's not possible, Kikumaru-senpai," Ryoma answered dully.
"But Echizen," inserted Momo. "If your fever gets worse, you won't be able to play for weeks!"
Ryoma, despite himself, couldn't help but freeze. He was sure that was an exaggeration. Right?
"Stop exaggerating, Momo."
See? Kawamura-senpai thought so, too.
"76 percent says that walking home will exhaust you and make you even weaker, thus making your fever wors–"
Ryoma glared. Inui's speech came to a sudden halt.
"...hai. Arigatou, Nee-san." Came Fuji's voice as he reentered the room, phone on his ear. "I'll wait for you at the front gate. I hope it's not any trouble... Yes... Bye."
"That's it!" Kikumaru exclaimed. He grinned at Fuji and gave him a thumbs up.
Fuji blinked.
Five minutes later, they were squeezing into a small car, trying to make themselves fit in the limited space.
Thank God, Fuji-senpai's sister was understanding.
…..
"Still okay, Echizen?" Inui asked the dazed boy on his right. Obviously, the boy wasn't. He could feel Echizen's body heat through the minute distance that separated them and could easily tell that the fever was getting worse.
Echizen had been staring blankly ahead, but he looked up at Inui's question. He seemed to hesitate before finally admitting, "My head hurts, senpai."
There wasn't much inflection in his voice, but his eyes and face tell of how miserable he really is.
Echizen's eyes are glassy and wet, the edges red from the heat trapped in his body. His cheeks are flushed and his lips are pale and dry.
Beside him, Momoshiro was laughing nonstop as he listens to Eiji's lively chatter at the front, not noticing at all the way Echizen hunched in on himself, shoulders almost up to his ears as he winced with every loud guffaw from the second year.
Inui normally wouldn't care about the noise. Despite being a quiet person himself, he doesn't care if the people around him are noisy, so long as they're not being too loud to be obnoxious. His tolerance was even higher when it came to his teammates. They can clamor for all they want, Inui wouldn't stop them.
However, this time was different. They seemed to have forgotten the reason why they're all squeezed together in the small car, so Inui had no choice but to remind them.
His first order of business was to drape his jacket that he's been holding all this time on Echizen's shoulders. He pats him on the head in passing. Then, once his arms are free, he leans forward to grab both Momoshiro and Kikumaru on the head. Using the slightest bit of force, he turned their faces to him so that they can see just how serious he is.
"If you don't shut up until we get out of this car, your training menu will be tripled for the whole month, with my new and improved Inui Vegetable Juice Drink as your only supplement," Inui warned lightly. "Do you understand?"
It was satisfying to see how fast the two people's faces turned blue after hearing Inui's threat. They nodded frantically, quickly zipping their mouths shut before metaphorically throwing away the key.
Inui let them go and sat back on his seat, pleased.
He then turned back to Echizen, "It's alright now," he coaxed. "Why don't you close your eyes first? I'll wake you when we arrive so that you can rest comfortably as soon as you get home."
Echizen blinked at him gratefully before burrowing into his large borrowed jacket. "Thank you, senpai," he whispers before closing his eyes.
In the front, Kikumaru looked contrite as he realized just how loud they'd been. Momoshiro wears a similar expression. He opened his mouth to apologize but quickly closes it again at Inui's sharp look. Alright then, he'll just apologize to Echizen later when he gets better.
….
"Saa," Fuji intoned in a light voice, smiling to himself. "This is interesting."
"Hmm?" Kikumaru asked distractedly. He's been leafing through one of his notebooks, looking for a note that he folded into one of the pages. "Nani? What's interesting, Fujiko~?" he asked in a whisper.
Fuji's smile widen. He meets eyes with his sister. Both of them glanced up at the rearview mirror and watch the three boys at the back. Momoshiro had settled down, squeezed into the door on his side so that he won't jolt the sleeping Echizen in the middle of the seat. He was busy playing on his phone, tongue between his teeth as his fingers flew across his screen*.
On the other side, Inui was leaning his cheek on a fist, elbow braced against the narrow ledge of the window. He was peacefully watching the scenery pass by. He looks very comfortable, except for his right shoulder that he was consciously holding down.
Finally, there's Echizen in the middle. The boy had quickly fallen asleep after the car quieted down. There was a too-large jacket draped around his shoulder. The ends of the long, empty sleeves were on his lap, grasped loosely in his hands. He was leaning to his left, head pillowed comfortably on Inui's lowered right shoulder as he puffs soft, shallow breaths with his mouth.
He~ how sweet. Fuji shared a smile with his sister.
"F-Fujiko?" Kikumaru starts inching away. "Your smile... It's kinda creeping me out. Could you please, stop doing that, nya~?"
Fuji's sister chuckled.
Omake: