#14 - Unguarded Touch. : #15 - Last Time. : #16 - Dying sun.
Author/Artist: smirli
Rating: PG
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing/s: Chiquita Pair
Theme: #14 - Unguarded Touch.
Words: 1880
Warnings: kind-of angst, drama, AU
Worksafe: yes
Summary: The "disease" is a horrible sickness transmitted by touch. People try to forget about it in Tachibana's bar. But can he himself forget about it?
Disclaimer/Claimer: I own nothing, Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
The town was safe. This town was safe. The disease couldn't get though the walls, the boss made sure of that.
Tachibana quickly walked through the busy street. He was a bit late for work, but he could still make it in time. Running the last few metros he entered the small bar and changed into his working clothes, before he started cleaning the tables.
It was a small bar, but it had a good atmosphere, so guests came like flies and the evenings were always busy. The DJ was good and people liked him, but not as much as they liked the former. Poor boy, caught the disease and left the town.
People danced and the blonde man tried his very best to keep up with the orders for the drinks while cleaning glasses and convincing drunkards, that they'd be better off at home, where they couldn't disturb anyone.
But mostly the evenings were spent having fun and dancing, not drinking. People seemed to want to get everything they could as long as they could as the disease was omnipresent. It was a constant feeling of fear, a desperate need for pleasure and joy while death was only one wall away.
Red hair was flipped through the air and Tachibana let go of one of the glasses. Cursing he went to get a broom and when he came back, someone familiar sat on the counter.
With a sigh he poked the person's ass with the broom pointing out, that there were chairs to sit on, damnit.
The other laughed and rubbed the spot the blonde had hit him.
«Is this how you treat your best-est friend ever, Kippei?», he asked grinning.
Tachibana frowned.
«No. This is how I treat the guy who parks his fat ass on my freshly cleaned counter.»
The blackhaired quickly hopped over said counter and pressed the other's hands on his ass.
«I'm not fat.», he said amusedly.
Tachibana sighed and gave the other's behind a squeeze before shoving him on his side of the counter again.
«Yes, yes, you're not fat, you're actually to thin for your own good. Are you happy now?»
Chitose laughed loudly and seemed to quite enjoy himself. At least he had a good time.
«How's your work going?», Tachibana asked.
The other just looked at him with a frustrated expression.
«Same as always. But this isn't the place to talk about it. People come here to forget, not remember. Can you fix me a drink?»
The familiar noises of the glass and the liquid calmed the blonde bar keeper down every time. It made him forget for a while that times had changed, that his job was no longer to make his guests lifes a bit more colorful but to make their lifes survivable.
His bar was the only one in the town. When he opened it first he wasn't sure, if anyone at all would come there, with all the terror going on in their daily lifes. But surprisingly even in times of angst and violence people seemed to want to get a bit of their former world back. A world without the disease. A world, where their loved ones still were with them.
«Hey! Are you concentrating?»
Tachibana was caught a little off guard by the poke in the ribs Chitose gave him.
«Uuh, yeah, sure.»
The black haired gave him the look.
«Okay, alright. Listen, Kippei… You couldn't have done anything for any of them. It's transmitted by touch, you'd be dead by now. Come on, you can't feel sorry for yourself for the rest of your days.»
The glass made a loud noise as he put it down before his friend a lot more forceful than necessary.
«Thank you. I'm fine. I have other customers to take care of. Excuse me please.»
The mild shock and stronger hurt in his friends eyes made the blonde feel better in a bad way. He turned to find himself a distraction anyway. It wasn't Chitose's fault that everything got worse and worse. But it was easier to be mad at him for mentioning the six closest friends he'd probably ever have.
No, he really didn't want to think of the gang. It was enough that he let go of the (not really) expensive cups as soon as he saw red hair. Or blue. Or black. Or a cap. Or anything else that reminded him of Kamio, Shinji, Mori or any of the others.
But there wasn't anything he could do about it. The town was safe and had to remain so. In order to keep the «disease» under control every one had to be eliminated as soon as he or she was found sick, no matter how much he or she cried or begged.
Tachibana shook his head and got back to work.
«Get over it, damnit!», he said to himself.
The music was still deafening and for the moment he was grateful for that. Half dancing he cleaned the surface of the tables before he returned to his original spot.
Chitose was still there and the blonde wasn't sure if he should be surprised by that or not.
«Look, I'm sorry. I just-»
«You just don't want me to be sad for the rest of my life, I know. You'd have to watch me after all and it wouldn't be that much of a pretty picture. I know that. But please, for your sake, let me get over this myself. And now enough of this! Do you want another drink?»
Chitose nodded.
«Let's go to your place after your shift.», he added after he took the first sip of his new drink.
«Uh, sure. Any special reason?»
«Mhm.»
Chitose leaned over the counter and kissed Tachibana's cheek.
«Let's just say I want to spend the evening with my good friend Kippei.»
The blonde nodded and went back to work. He refused to blush.
Chitose indeed stayed until Tachibana was finished with his work for the day and dragged him onto the dance floor afterwards. Even though the blonde complained about it being too late for that and that he was tired his friend almost forced him to move with him. After half a minute he gave in and danced with his best friend. He was a great dancer after all.
The bar would soon close and there weren't so many people anymore which suited them both just fine. When ever they'd danced it had been special, not squeezed in a bunch of people.
«Come on, let's go, Senri. We're gonna close for today in some minutes.», said a slightly red-faced Tachibana after a while.
«Alright.», the black haired whispered into his friends ear. He then grabbed him and spun him around slowly without listening to the music anymore. The whole dance ended with them kissing slowly.
«You're so sappy today, what's up?», the smaller man asked curiously.
«Oh, nothing much. Let's go to my place?», the other answered smiling.
Tachibana shrugged and followed his friend.
Chitose's apartment was as messy and almost-health-threatening as everything else about the tall guy. In the two rooms were enough books to fill at least a small library and bits of food were everywhere.
It was Tachibana's favorite place right after his own bed.
The black haired balanced on two legs of a chair while eating some fast food he got on his way to the house.
«You know… We probably have a cure for the "disease".», he mentioned casually, as if talking about the weather.
His friend stared at him in shock. Up until now the «disease» had been uncureable! If Chitoses freaky science colleagues really found something that would heal it, that would mean that thousands of people could be safed!
«Really?», he asked in misbelief.
«Of course. Do you think, I joke about it? It's still a prototype though. It worked on 55 out of 61 mice. The remaining six died almost instantly.»
Tachibana rubbed his forehead with his hands. This was great news, he had to get used to the thought first.
«This is… this is good. Isn't it? It is.», he murmured more to himself.
His friend said «Yes.» anyway.
A moment later both were sitting next to each other, Chitose gently hugging his longtime best friend. Said friend leaned in to the warm chest offered to him.
They stayed like this for a while.
«Hey, can I kiss you, Kippei?»
Brown eyes looked up in amusement.
«Did you ever need permission for that before?»
The black haired grinned and bowed down to kiss the other boy slowly.
«I love you.», he whispered softly afterwards.
«I love you too, but you're weird today. What's wrong?», Tachibana asked frowning.
Again, Chitose just smiled and refused to say anything.
«Hey, I gotta get up early tomorrow, so uhm… are you mad, if I leave now?», the blonde confessed after a while.
«No.»
Chitose kissed him on the forehead.
«You gotta be full of energy for your bar. People need that. Believe me.»
So Tachibana freed himself of the others arms and got up. Chitose accompanied him to the door and kissed him again. It was a really long kiss and the blonde knew something was up. But he'd already asked twice, if his friend didn't want to talk about it, alright. He wouldn't ask anymore.
Tachibana went home quickly and dropped on the bed, asleep as soon as he lost his balance over the soft cover.
The day after, he felt tired like never before in his life, even though he slept longer than usual. He still had a little time before he had to leave for work, so he went outside to go and get his newspaper.
After he read the headline though, he decided that it was a bad idea to even get up on that day.
«Scientists experimenting with possible cure for the "disease" on own people
The doctors working on the medicine that will hopefully eliminate the "disease" have presented a prototype of a treatment for that purpose. It still has to be tested on human test people and a inquiry on possible candidates showed, that many of the doctors would be suited as test subjects. Some of them volunteered for the other peoples sake. The tests started today, but the result is still not clear. All of the 61 testers were still okay by the time this article was written. The people volunteering were:
Akihara Natsuko
Kamiya Ryohei
Chitose Senri
…»
«Six out of 61 died. But we don't know about the right doses yet, so we should try it out on people. We can't ask people on the street to volunteer, they live here, because they don't want to get infected. My dear colleagues, I know as well as everyone else in this room how much you already gave and lost in the war against the "disease" and still I have to ask more of you. I, myself will take part in the tests about the new medicine. Who else of you is willing to take the risk?»
A ridiculously tall man stood up and raised his hand.
«For the sake of the people out there who lost everything they loved. I'll take part in this too.»
/For Kippei/
Author/Artist: smirli
Rating: PG
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing/s: Kenya/Zaizen (or the other way round. xD)
Theme: #15 - Last time.
Words: 800
Warnings: shonen-ai (is this even a warning?)
Worksafe: kind of
Summary: Kenya has made a descision.
Disclaimer/Claimer: I own nothing, Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
Kenya seemed to take his reputation as Naniwa's Speed Star very serious. At least if the tempo he had while he tidied up his room.
«Kenya!! Will you stop this awful noise right now?!», his mother called from the kitchen.
«I'm tidying up my room!», he shouted back and brushed a tiny bit of dust off his desk.
«You've been tidying up for four hours straight, it can't possibly be any tidier! Hikaru-kun will be here any minute and he knows just what kind of air head you are.»
The blonde rolled his eyes and made a face. She was the one who complained about the mess in his room the most. Normally he just ignored it. He liked his room messy. It was part of his personality!
Heck, if Chitose opened his locker (which happened about once every two month) stuff fell out of it, it was that full. Nobody complained about that.
Anyway. Today was a special occasion. Zaizen came over.
Okay, he had to admit, that that itself wasn't that special a reason. The other knew, that he was really bad at keeping things in order.
But really. Today was special.
Zaizen had been Kenya's best friend for a while. (Probably «most favorite annoyance» was a better definition) But the blonde realized after a while that he felt more for his kohai, than he probably should. And today he was going to tell him. This would be the last time he'd watch Zaizen leave without knowing what could be. If he found him disgusting afterwards, fine. Then he'd know at least what the other felt.
He tried to confess earlier, but in the end he was usually too scared to. But today he would! He definitely WOULD!
…
would try.
So, one last check, did he put everything embarrassing away? All smelly socks in the laundry? Everything dusted off? Everything-
Someone opened the door.
Kenya shot around, broom in his hand and almost lost his balance in the process. It was Zaizen. The blonde sighed frustrated. Of course it was Zaizen. Only Zaizen would have the nerve to enter his room without knocking.
«Senpai. What are you doing?», he asked with an unreadable expression.
«Uh, I, uhm… Would you please knock just ONCE?!», Yuushi's cousin snapped.
The black haired raised a hand and knocked on the already opened door.
«Ha-ha, you're so funny.», Kenya said and facepalmed. What was this? Didn't he want to confess today?
«Ugh… Come on in.»
Zaizen actually came in and sat down on his senpai's bed. Well, he didn't actually sit. More like… he sprawled himself all over it.
«You're weird today, senpai.», he remarked, before he stretched his arms.
Kenya cursed inwardly.
«Uhm… yeah. Hello. Ah. I… How are you?», he muttered.
Zaizen raised one eyebrow.
«Confused. What's wrong?»
Months of studying Zaizen and his expressions told Kenya that his teammate was actually worried.
«I… I wanted to tell you something today. That's why I asked you to come here.»
«And that's also, why you tidied up. I'm not going to listen to any of your complaints if you don't find any of your stuff again tomorrow. And your image is already completely ruined, a tidy room won't change anything.»
Kenya felt the urge to throw something hard at his underclassman's head, but since he tidied up, there wasn't anything to throw. He mentally kicked Zaizen's ass instead.
«Yes… thank you. I too think that you're a very valuable member of society. Anyway, what I wanted to say-»
«You want to tell me, that you have a crush on me.», Zaizen interrupted dead-pan.
Kenya stared.
The other boy shrugged.
«Koharu told me you might. Was I wrong?»
It was clear, that this wasn't a question.
«Yes! Uhm… No… I… What the hell?!»
Zaizen leaned towards his senpai and softly kissed him on the lips.
«You were going to tell me, right?»
The blonde blushed and stared.
«Yes. I… yes, I was going to. I… I like you.», he said to have said at least anything.
The younger boy cocked his head.
«I know, senpai. Took you long enough.», he said. If Kenya looked really hard he saw a faint blush on the other's cheeks.
«Uhm… so, what about you?», Kenya muttered. He silently prayed that he didn't make a fool out of himself for nothing.
«Me? Oh, I like Chitose-senpai.»
«Oh… okay.»
Kenya felt as if someone had stabbed a dagger in his guts and turned it around twice.
«Rubbish. Do you think I kissed you, because I want to tell you that I don't like you?»
Zaizen kissed him again. On the cheek this time.
«I like you too, Kenya-senpai»
The blonde blushed like a madman.
«But it's so much more fun seeing you squirm around.»
Author/Artist: smirli
Rating: PG
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing/s: none
Theme: #16 - Dying sun.
Words: 490
Warnings: none
Worksafe: yes
Summary: Just a spontaneous glance in Niou's mind.
Disclaimer/Claimer: I own nothing, Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
«Live hard, die young.» said the writing on Niou Masaharu's shirt. It was his favorite shirt. It was too tight and threadbare from washing it every week and the saying on it wasn't that original. But it was a shirt that had changed his life, so he refused to let go of it anytime soon.
Live hard, die young.
It wasn't that Niou wanted to die young though. If he could have fun until he was 130 years old he'd gladly get to this age.
Someone walked into the barely visible thread of iron the white haired had put there for people to stumble over so the mechanism of the construction holding a bucket of water right over it.
SPLASH!
Niou pumped his fist in triumph. And Yanagi had said, the probability of a person walking right in his trap on the one spot he had placed the bucket above was around 5%.
«Another one who will remember Niou, the Great Trickster.», he thought grinning. The pranks would have to stop eventually and he'd have to search for something new he could better than everyone else, so people would remember him, when he died.
Niou liked to think of the world and the people living in it as candles. Most candles burned steadily and neatly until they were out of wax and died. But some candles would burn brighter and stronger than all of the others. The idea to be one of those candles became an odd sort of obsession with Rikkai's Trickster. Those candles would be out of wax a lot faster and died way earlier than its fellow waxsticks, but they would be remembered.
Niou usually did his best to stand out of the crowd. But physical appearance alone was soon forgotten. There were so many people who looked remarkable. His character had to be special too. And, well… Everyone who had the pleasure to fall prey to one of Niou's pranks could tell you that they were indeed special. Mostly because there never was any proof that they were indeed put up by him.
It was somehow a trademark, that every prank that didn't have an obvious prankster behind it was set up by Niou.
He was feared for that. Over time this lead to people shivering even at the mention of his name, even though they never saw him before.
And doing something useful for society was too mainstream for him. He lived for himself and all he wanted, was being remembered.
Even if it meant that all of his energy would be burnt out once he turned twenty or something.
He would burn as bright and hot as he could as long as he could until he'd die. This seemed like a better life to lead than always being small and dreaming of being bigger.
Niou brushed a bit of dust off his shirt and strolled away, looking for the next best location for a prank.
Rating: PG
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing/s: Chiquita Pair
Theme: #14 - Unguarded Touch.
Words: 1880
Warnings: kind-of angst, drama, AU
Worksafe: yes
Summary: The "disease" is a horrible sickness transmitted by touch. People try to forget about it in Tachibana's bar. But can he himself forget about it?
Disclaimer/Claimer: I own nothing, Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
The town was safe. This town was safe. The disease couldn't get though the walls, the boss made sure of that.
Tachibana quickly walked through the busy street. He was a bit late for work, but he could still make it in time. Running the last few metros he entered the small bar and changed into his working clothes, before he started cleaning the tables.
It was a small bar, but it had a good atmosphere, so guests came like flies and the evenings were always busy. The DJ was good and people liked him, but not as much as they liked the former. Poor boy, caught the disease and left the town.
People danced and the blonde man tried his very best to keep up with the orders for the drinks while cleaning glasses and convincing drunkards, that they'd be better off at home, where they couldn't disturb anyone.
But mostly the evenings were spent having fun and dancing, not drinking. People seemed to want to get everything they could as long as they could as the disease was omnipresent. It was a constant feeling of fear, a desperate need for pleasure and joy while death was only one wall away.
Red hair was flipped through the air and Tachibana let go of one of the glasses. Cursing he went to get a broom and when he came back, someone familiar sat on the counter.
With a sigh he poked the person's ass with the broom pointing out, that there were chairs to sit on, damnit.
The other laughed and rubbed the spot the blonde had hit him.
«Is this how you treat your best-est friend ever, Kippei?», he asked grinning.
Tachibana frowned.
«No. This is how I treat the guy who parks his fat ass on my freshly cleaned counter.»
The blackhaired quickly hopped over said counter and pressed the other's hands on his ass.
«I'm not fat.», he said amusedly.
Tachibana sighed and gave the other's behind a squeeze before shoving him on his side of the counter again.
«Yes, yes, you're not fat, you're actually to thin for your own good. Are you happy now?»
Chitose laughed loudly and seemed to quite enjoy himself. At least he had a good time.
«How's your work going?», Tachibana asked.
The other just looked at him with a frustrated expression.
«Same as always. But this isn't the place to talk about it. People come here to forget, not remember. Can you fix me a drink?»
The familiar noises of the glass and the liquid calmed the blonde bar keeper down every time. It made him forget for a while that times had changed, that his job was no longer to make his guests lifes a bit more colorful but to make their lifes survivable.
His bar was the only one in the town. When he opened it first he wasn't sure, if anyone at all would come there, with all the terror going on in their daily lifes. But surprisingly even in times of angst and violence people seemed to want to get a bit of their former world back. A world without the disease. A world, where their loved ones still were with them.
«Hey! Are you concentrating?»
Tachibana was caught a little off guard by the poke in the ribs Chitose gave him.
«Uuh, yeah, sure.»
The black haired gave him the look.
«Okay, alright. Listen, Kippei… You couldn't have done anything for any of them. It's transmitted by touch, you'd be dead by now. Come on, you can't feel sorry for yourself for the rest of your days.»
The glass made a loud noise as he put it down before his friend a lot more forceful than necessary.
«Thank you. I'm fine. I have other customers to take care of. Excuse me please.»
The mild shock and stronger hurt in his friends eyes made the blonde feel better in a bad way. He turned to find himself a distraction anyway. It wasn't Chitose's fault that everything got worse and worse. But it was easier to be mad at him for mentioning the six closest friends he'd probably ever have.
No, he really didn't want to think of the gang. It was enough that he let go of the (not really) expensive cups as soon as he saw red hair. Or blue. Or black. Or a cap. Or anything else that reminded him of Kamio, Shinji, Mori or any of the others.
But there wasn't anything he could do about it. The town was safe and had to remain so. In order to keep the «disease» under control every one had to be eliminated as soon as he or she was found sick, no matter how much he or she cried or begged.
Tachibana shook his head and got back to work.
«Get over it, damnit!», he said to himself.
The music was still deafening and for the moment he was grateful for that. Half dancing he cleaned the surface of the tables before he returned to his original spot.
Chitose was still there and the blonde wasn't sure if he should be surprised by that or not.
«Look, I'm sorry. I just-»
«You just don't want me to be sad for the rest of my life, I know. You'd have to watch me after all and it wouldn't be that much of a pretty picture. I know that. But please, for your sake, let me get over this myself. And now enough of this! Do you want another drink?»
Chitose nodded.
«Let's go to your place after your shift.», he added after he took the first sip of his new drink.
«Uh, sure. Any special reason?»
«Mhm.»
Chitose leaned over the counter and kissed Tachibana's cheek.
«Let's just say I want to spend the evening with my good friend Kippei.»
The blonde nodded and went back to work. He refused to blush.
Chitose indeed stayed until Tachibana was finished with his work for the day and dragged him onto the dance floor afterwards. Even though the blonde complained about it being too late for that and that he was tired his friend almost forced him to move with him. After half a minute he gave in and danced with his best friend. He was a great dancer after all.
The bar would soon close and there weren't so many people anymore which suited them both just fine. When ever they'd danced it had been special, not squeezed in a bunch of people.
«Come on, let's go, Senri. We're gonna close for today in some minutes.», said a slightly red-faced Tachibana after a while.
«Alright.», the black haired whispered into his friends ear. He then grabbed him and spun him around slowly without listening to the music anymore. The whole dance ended with them kissing slowly.
«You're so sappy today, what's up?», the smaller man asked curiously.
«Oh, nothing much. Let's go to my place?», the other answered smiling.
Tachibana shrugged and followed his friend.
Chitose's apartment was as messy and almost-health-threatening as everything else about the tall guy. In the two rooms were enough books to fill at least a small library and bits of food were everywhere.
It was Tachibana's favorite place right after his own bed.
The black haired balanced on two legs of a chair while eating some fast food he got on his way to the house.
«You know… We probably have a cure for the "disease".», he mentioned casually, as if talking about the weather.
His friend stared at him in shock. Up until now the «disease» had been uncureable! If Chitoses freaky science colleagues really found something that would heal it, that would mean that thousands of people could be safed!
«Really?», he asked in misbelief.
«Of course. Do you think, I joke about it? It's still a prototype though. It worked on 55 out of 61 mice. The remaining six died almost instantly.»
Tachibana rubbed his forehead with his hands. This was great news, he had to get used to the thought first.
«This is… this is good. Isn't it? It is.», he murmured more to himself.
His friend said «Yes.» anyway.
A moment later both were sitting next to each other, Chitose gently hugging his longtime best friend. Said friend leaned in to the warm chest offered to him.
They stayed like this for a while.
«Hey, can I kiss you, Kippei?»
Brown eyes looked up in amusement.
«Did you ever need permission for that before?»
The black haired grinned and bowed down to kiss the other boy slowly.
«I love you.», he whispered softly afterwards.
«I love you too, but you're weird today. What's wrong?», Tachibana asked frowning.
Again, Chitose just smiled and refused to say anything.
«Hey, I gotta get up early tomorrow, so uhm… are you mad, if I leave now?», the blonde confessed after a while.
«No.»
Chitose kissed him on the forehead.
«You gotta be full of energy for your bar. People need that. Believe me.»
So Tachibana freed himself of the others arms and got up. Chitose accompanied him to the door and kissed him again. It was a really long kiss and the blonde knew something was up. But he'd already asked twice, if his friend didn't want to talk about it, alright. He wouldn't ask anymore.
Tachibana went home quickly and dropped on the bed, asleep as soon as he lost his balance over the soft cover.
The day after, he felt tired like never before in his life, even though he slept longer than usual. He still had a little time before he had to leave for work, so he went outside to go and get his newspaper.
After he read the headline though, he decided that it was a bad idea to even get up on that day.
«Scientists experimenting with possible cure for the "disease" on own people
The doctors working on the medicine that will hopefully eliminate the "disease" have presented a prototype of a treatment for that purpose. It still has to be tested on human test people and a inquiry on possible candidates showed, that many of the doctors would be suited as test subjects. Some of them volunteered for the other peoples sake. The tests started today, but the result is still not clear. All of the 61 testers were still okay by the time this article was written. The people volunteering were:
Akihara Natsuko
Kamiya Ryohei
Chitose Senri
…»
«Six out of 61 died. But we don't know about the right doses yet, so we should try it out on people. We can't ask people on the street to volunteer, they live here, because they don't want to get infected. My dear colleagues, I know as well as everyone else in this room how much you already gave and lost in the war against the "disease" and still I have to ask more of you. I, myself will take part in the tests about the new medicine. Who else of you is willing to take the risk?»
A ridiculously tall man stood up and raised his hand.
«For the sake of the people out there who lost everything they loved. I'll take part in this too.»
/For Kippei/
Author/Artist: smirli
Rating: PG
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing/s: Kenya/Zaizen (or the other way round. xD)
Theme: #15 - Last time.
Words: 800
Warnings: shonen-ai (is this even a warning?)
Worksafe: kind of
Summary: Kenya has made a descision.
Disclaimer/Claimer: I own nothing, Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
Kenya seemed to take his reputation as Naniwa's Speed Star very serious. At least if the tempo he had while he tidied up his room.
«Kenya!! Will you stop this awful noise right now?!», his mother called from the kitchen.
«I'm tidying up my room!», he shouted back and brushed a tiny bit of dust off his desk.
«You've been tidying up for four hours straight, it can't possibly be any tidier! Hikaru-kun will be here any minute and he knows just what kind of air head you are.»
The blonde rolled his eyes and made a face. She was the one who complained about the mess in his room the most. Normally he just ignored it. He liked his room messy. It was part of his personality!
Heck, if Chitose opened his locker (which happened about once every two month) stuff fell out of it, it was that full. Nobody complained about that.
Anyway. Today was a special occasion. Zaizen came over.
Okay, he had to admit, that that itself wasn't that special a reason. The other knew, that he was really bad at keeping things in order.
But really. Today was special.
Zaizen had been Kenya's best friend for a while. (Probably «most favorite annoyance» was a better definition) But the blonde realized after a while that he felt more for his kohai, than he probably should. And today he was going to tell him. This would be the last time he'd watch Zaizen leave without knowing what could be. If he found him disgusting afterwards, fine. Then he'd know at least what the other felt.
He tried to confess earlier, but in the end he was usually too scared to. But today he would! He definitely WOULD!
…
would try.
So, one last check, did he put everything embarrassing away? All smelly socks in the laundry? Everything dusted off? Everything-
Someone opened the door.
Kenya shot around, broom in his hand and almost lost his balance in the process. It was Zaizen. The blonde sighed frustrated. Of course it was Zaizen. Only Zaizen would have the nerve to enter his room without knocking.
«Senpai. What are you doing?», he asked with an unreadable expression.
«Uh, I, uhm… Would you please knock just ONCE?!», Yuushi's cousin snapped.
The black haired raised a hand and knocked on the already opened door.
«Ha-ha, you're so funny.», Kenya said and facepalmed. What was this? Didn't he want to confess today?
«Ugh… Come on in.»
Zaizen actually came in and sat down on his senpai's bed. Well, he didn't actually sit. More like… he sprawled himself all over it.
«You're weird today, senpai.», he remarked, before he stretched his arms.
Kenya cursed inwardly.
«Uhm… yeah. Hello. Ah. I… How are you?», he muttered.
Zaizen raised one eyebrow.
«Confused. What's wrong?»
Months of studying Zaizen and his expressions told Kenya that his teammate was actually worried.
«I… I wanted to tell you something today. That's why I asked you to come here.»
«And that's also, why you tidied up. I'm not going to listen to any of your complaints if you don't find any of your stuff again tomorrow. And your image is already completely ruined, a tidy room won't change anything.»
Kenya felt the urge to throw something hard at his underclassman's head, but since he tidied up, there wasn't anything to throw. He mentally kicked Zaizen's ass instead.
«Yes… thank you. I too think that you're a very valuable member of society. Anyway, what I wanted to say-»
«You want to tell me, that you have a crush on me.», Zaizen interrupted dead-pan.
Kenya stared.
The other boy shrugged.
«Koharu told me you might. Was I wrong?»
It was clear, that this wasn't a question.
«Yes! Uhm… No… I… What the hell?!»
Zaizen leaned towards his senpai and softly kissed him on the lips.
«You were going to tell me, right?»
The blonde blushed and stared.
«Yes. I… yes, I was going to. I… I like you.», he said to have said at least anything.
The younger boy cocked his head.
«I know, senpai. Took you long enough.», he said. If Kenya looked really hard he saw a faint blush on the other's cheeks.
«Uhm… so, what about you?», Kenya muttered. He silently prayed that he didn't make a fool out of himself for nothing.
«Me? Oh, I like Chitose-senpai.»
«Oh… okay.»
Kenya felt as if someone had stabbed a dagger in his guts and turned it around twice.
«Rubbish. Do you think I kissed you, because I want to tell you that I don't like you?»
Zaizen kissed him again. On the cheek this time.
«I like you too, Kenya-senpai»
The blonde blushed like a madman.
«But it's so much more fun seeing you squirm around.»
Author/Artist: smirli
Rating: PG
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing/s: none
Theme: #16 - Dying sun.
Words: 490
Warnings: none
Worksafe: yes
Summary: Just a spontaneous glance in Niou's mind.
Disclaimer/Claimer: I own nothing, Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
«Live hard, die young.» said the writing on Niou Masaharu's shirt. It was his favorite shirt. It was too tight and threadbare from washing it every week and the saying on it wasn't that original. But it was a shirt that had changed his life, so he refused to let go of it anytime soon.
Live hard, die young.
It wasn't that Niou wanted to die young though. If he could have fun until he was 130 years old he'd gladly get to this age.
Someone walked into the barely visible thread of iron the white haired had put there for people to stumble over so the mechanism of the construction holding a bucket of water right over it.
SPLASH!
Niou pumped his fist in triumph. And Yanagi had said, the probability of a person walking right in his trap on the one spot he had placed the bucket above was around 5%.
«Another one who will remember Niou, the Great Trickster.», he thought grinning. The pranks would have to stop eventually and he'd have to search for something new he could better than everyone else, so people would remember him, when he died.
Niou liked to think of the world and the people living in it as candles. Most candles burned steadily and neatly until they were out of wax and died. But some candles would burn brighter and stronger than all of the others. The idea to be one of those candles became an odd sort of obsession with Rikkai's Trickster. Those candles would be out of wax a lot faster and died way earlier than its fellow waxsticks, but they would be remembered.
Niou usually did his best to stand out of the crowd. But physical appearance alone was soon forgotten. There were so many people who looked remarkable. His character had to be special too. And, well… Everyone who had the pleasure to fall prey to one of Niou's pranks could tell you that they were indeed special. Mostly because there never was any proof that they were indeed put up by him.
It was somehow a trademark, that every prank that didn't have an obvious prankster behind it was set up by Niou.
He was feared for that. Over time this lead to people shivering even at the mention of his name, even though they never saw him before.
And doing something useful for society was too mainstream for him. He lived for himself and all he wanted, was being remembered.
Even if it meant that all of his energy would be burnt out once he turned twenty or something.
He would burn as bright and hot as he could as long as he could until he'd die. This seemed like a better life to lead than always being small and dreaming of being bigger.
Niou brushed a bit of dust off his shirt and strolled away, looking for the next best location for a prank.