FIC: Strawberry Honeysuckle (Marui/Jirou, NC-17) (Part 1 of 2)
Title: Strawberry Honeysuckle
Authors: Anj (anjenue) and Linz (longleggedgit)
Pairing: Marui/Jirou
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~15,500
Summary: In which Marui is sugar-crashy, Jirou sleeps a lot and then bounces on Marui a lot more, and Oshitari spills coffee. Sneakily.
A/N: So this was written about six million years ago (read: July), but it's taken us this long to clean it up and all. Happy Valentine's Day? ^^; Regardless, this was done in quasi-RP format, with Anj writing Marui (and Oshitari) and Linz writing Jirou. Awww. We hope you enjoy! Also, comments are love. :D
'Next! A-court, Rikkai's Niou/Yagyuu pair against Hyotei's Oshitari/Mukahi pair! C-court, Fudomine's Tachibana against Seigaku's Fuji!'
Marui rolled his eyes and cracked his gum. Loudly. Hyotei's Shishido shot him a filthy look, and Sanada-fukubuchou cleared his throat pointedly, but that damn Oishi just kept on smiling and looking earnest. That's all he ever seemed to do, smile and look earnest, except when he was smiling and looking worried.
Jackal shot Marui one of those sideways looks that said oi, you're being grumpy, go eat more sugar, but Marui ignored him, instead scanning the expansive fields surrounding the court in search of a nice peaceful getaway where he could hide from insufferable Seigaku, snotty Hyotei, and delinquent Fudomine. And preferably also Yukimura-buchou and Sanada-fukubuchou, who had both been in absolutely foul moods since Rikkai had lost to Seigaku in the finals. None of the rest of the team had been happy either, but Yukimura and Sanada were taking it a bit too far. Niou was still covered in bruises from his inability to stop mouthing off.
Marui sighed and cracked his gum again, a bit less obnoxiously. And then grinned as he spotted a bench under a lovely cradle of overhanging branches. It was almost too idyllic, but Marui wasn't that picky. Wiggling his fingers at Jackal, he trotted off in the direction of the bench, hoping nobody would notice him 'slacking off', or else he'd be running laps until the end of the bloody week.
The dream had something to do with pickles. Pickles, and possibly Atobe-buchou, although he'd learned from past experience that even if his dream was about Atobe-buchou, he shouldn't say anything to him about it. It made a weird look cross his face and usually resulted in Jirou running extra laps. Anyway, Jirou didn't really like pickles, so he rolled over and stretched once and decided to try for a different dream. The bench wasn't an ideal location for dreaming, but it was better than bleachers, and Jirou spent a lot of time napping on bleachers.
Falling asleep was easy for Jirou, but there were certain tricks to making it easier, and one of them was thinking about tennis. Jirou thought about the most recent match he'd played, which had resulted in Kamio from Fudomine getting really angry at him - Jirou couldn't see why, he was so cool - and the new grip tape he wanted to buy, except the store was always out, and the glimpse of training he saw that kind of scary boy from Seigaku doing the other day. It was pretty cool training, really. Maybe he wasn't so scary after all. Jirou thought maybe he would ask him if he could watch him train later. . . .
Jirou thought he heard the sound of someone walking nearby, but decided it wasn't worth opening his eyes; it was probably just a bird or a squirrel, and while squirrels were pretty cool, he figured maybe he could just dream about squirrels and then he could watch them without even having to wake up.
Marui batted at a cascade of sakura petals as he made it past the edge of the courts without being noticed. The grass was littered with them, pink on green, and he grimaced as he remembered the time Niou had teased him by telling him he looked like a budding flower whenever he blew a bubble. But then, it'd taken Niou two hours and a sharp pair of scissors to get the gum out of his hair after that, so it hadn't been a complete loss.
Sighing to himself, Marui blew another bubble, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking up at the clouds as he made his way across the lawn. The bench looked even more tempting from closer up, and he had already started daydreaming about chocolate fudge ripple ice cream before he even made a running leap over the back of the bench, stretching out in preparation on his way down.
Well that was . . . unexpected. And probably not a squirrel. Jirou gave a small yelp and cautiously, reluctantly, opened his eyes, fairly confident that whatever had just landed on top of him was a person and not a bear. Still, you never could tell.
Jirou blinked at the sight of blindingly pink hair. Then he rubbed one of his eyes, blinked again, and almost whapped the boy on top of him in the face because his arms were flailing so hard.
'Hey, you're - you're Marui Bunta!' Jirou couldn't really move too much, still being pinned under Marui's weight, but it didn't stop him from literally quivering with excitement. 'YOU'RE SO COOL! I can't believe you're sitting on me!'
Benches weren't supposed to squirm. That was Marui's sole coherent thought before said bench started flailing and shrieking at him, and then he was so startled that he would have fallen off the bench and onto his ass had he not been Marui Bunta. Instead, he grabbed at the bench (the actual bench) to keep from tumbling off the side, and waited until the flailing had subsided somewhat before disentangling himself and standing up, all in one smooth movement as if that's exactly what he'd meant to do. Because, of course, it was.
'Ah, uh...Akutagawa-kun, right?' Marui blew a perplexed bubble, wondering why the other boy was staring at him as if pleading him to sit back down again. 'Sorry 'bout that. You kind of blended in with the bench, you know,' he added with a wave of his hand to indicate the bench and the boy, who in all honesty looked...nothing alike.
'You know my name?' Jirou fought the urge to get up and do a little victory dance, then realized that was silly, why fight something like that? So he got up and did one anyway before sitting back down.
'Wow,' he said. He took a deep breath, which was really just preparation for launching into a slur of questioning. 'Did you just play a game? Who were you playing? Did you win? I'm sure you won, you're so awesome. I haven't really been playing people, I've mostly been napping because I'm bored.' Jirou cut himself off abruptly when he looked up and caught a glimpse of Marui's mildly horrified stare.
'Oh,' he said, 'sorry. Atobe-buchou says I talk too much.'
'.....ha,' Marui replied, intelligently, scrubbing a hand through his hair. This kid was crazier than Akaya when he got into his secret cake stash, and that was something no human should be able to accomplish. The fact that he was this bouncy after having just woken up, too, made Marui wonder as to the kid's sugar intake.
'Um. Yeah, Jackal and I just finished playing. We trounced those two from Fudomine,' he added offhandedly, since that was of course a total given. He wasn't even sure why Atobe had invited Fudomine along, though he supposed it was for some sort of balance, or something. That kid was about the gayest individual Marui had ever met. He took neat and organized to a whole new level that even Yagyuu couldn't touch.
He eyed the open side of the bench with some trepidation for a moment, and then flung himself down onto it, stretching out his legs and blowing a lazy bubble. 'I don't blame you for being bored,' he added. 'There's nobody here worth playing really.'
Jirou couldn't quite hide his wide-eyed disbelief when Marui actually sat down next to him. Most of the awesome tennis players he got to talk to hightailed it in the opposite direction somewhere between Jirou doing his victory dance and asking for details about their matches. His expression of disbelief was quickly replaced with one of joy, however, and he scooted slightly closer to Marui so he could better study him.
'Yeah, I suppose they wouldn't be to you,' Jirou said, nodding in complete agreement. His eyes traveled from Marui's face to his arm, which he suddenly and without warning grabbed and pulled in to line up with his own.
'Your arms are barely any bigger than mine!' he exclaimed. 'I can't believe you can pull off that tightrope shot! That's so cool!'
Marui's arm twitched in the rather enthusiastic grasp, but he smiled anyway. Here was a kid with good taste and an eye for talent. 'It's not about strength, you know,' he said loftily. 'It's all in the technique. I mean, I am a genius, but I bet you could come up with something equally...um, cool, if you work hard at it!' Privately, Marui thought that a kid who slept through practices on a regular basis was about as likely to manage a special shot akin to his own as Jackal was to win a best hair contest, but there was no harm in being encouraging.
Jirou dropped Marui's arm without warning and leaned back, eyes never straying from Marui's face. After a moment of stunned silence - Marui had actually complimented him, sort of, and he wasn't running away or screaming for help or anything - his bottom lip quivered and he propelled himself forward, wrapping both arms around Marui's back and pulling him into a suffocating hug.
'THAT'S SO NICE OF YOU TO SAY!' he nearly sobbed. Still holding on tightly, he continued, 'I can't believe you think I could be that cool! You're so nice, Marui-kun!'
Marui choked as he found himself suddenly on the receiving end of a quivering monkey hug, and then he really was choking as the sudden inhale of breath had brought his gum along with it, and it was now lodged in his throat. He scrabbled at Akutagawa's shoulders for a moment, trying to get free enough to breathe, even though he couldn't, and tipped his head back, taking desperate gulps in an attempt to either swallow the gum all the way or dislodge it with a particularly strong breath.
For a second, Jirou thought Marui was overcome with excitement and short of breath as a result, because that happened to him all the time. Then Marui's fingernails dug into his shoulders and he realized something was wrong, so he jumped back.
'Marui-kun?' Jirou gasped when he realized Marui was choking, and he ran behind the bench to get a good angle so he could smack Marui hard on the back.
'Are you okay?' Jirou fought the urge to jump up and down in panic. 'Should I go get someone?'
Marui sucked in a cooling breath, massaging his abused throat, and then looked sadly at the ground, where his gum had been projectile-launched out of his mouth to land sweetly in a nest of sakura petals. For a moment, he considered going and picking it up, shoving it back into his mouth, and pretending the whole thing had never happened, but he had a feeling if he did that, this kid would be freaking out about how cool Marui-kun was for eating gum off the ground.
Sigh. It was so hard being admired.
'Thanks,' he croaked, and then leaned back, fumbling in his pocket for another piece of gum. And then cursed, loudly, when he realized his pack of gum was back in his tennis bag, and if he went back for it, someone would surely see him show up, realize he'd been gone, and at the very least make him stay there, which was bad enough on its own. Akutagawa-kun was crazy, but at least he was a more inviting brand of crazy than his captain. Or Marui's captain, for that matter.
He sighed and slumped against the back of the bench, flopping his head back and noting, with idle interest, that Akutagawa-kun looked about nine years old when viewed upside-down.
'I'm out of gum,' he said, tragically.
Jirou tried to tear around to the other side of the bench again, but in his enthusiasm managed to actually flip himself over the back. He stumbled into a crouching position, landing on his feet, remarkably enough, before he grabbed both of Marui's hands and squeezed.
'I'm so sorry! It's all my fault!' he said mournfully. 'I'll go find you some gum! What kind do you like?'
He dropped Marui's hands and began to jog backwards in the direction of Atobe's mansion, apparently deciding it would take too long to wait for an answer.
'I'll just get you a bunch of different kinds!'
Marui blinked in surprise, then half-twisted to look over the back of the bench at the retreating figure. Akutagawa-kun was like a human tennis ball - just as bouncy, just as fuzzy, and just as unpredictable from one moment to the next. All he needed was the bright yellow-green outfit, but Marui privately thought that the only person who could ever look good in that color was Yukimura-buchou.
Sighing, he flopped over onto his back on the bench, staring up at the sky. He'd expected this whole week to be a total wash. It was nice to be able to play tennis again after retiring, especially in a competitive venue (though it wasn't like Rikkai was lacking in competition within itself), but Seigaku was insufferable as ever, and Hyotei was just as uppity, and Fudomine was just plain disturbing. It was good that Shitenhouji wasn't here too, or else there might well have been accidental death-by-tennis-ball.
But this kid...he wasn't all bad. Marui didn't hold out much hope that he was a good tennis player, because even though he was on Hyotei's regulars, they'd trounced every last one of Hyotei's players thus far. Besides, only wannabe players actually flailed at each other. Respecting a fellow player's special moves was one thing; freaking out about them was another thing entirely, and something to be expected of first years and pre-regulars. And girls, of course. Marui got a lot of flailing from girls. (Though secretly, he thought that girls flailing was just tiresome, even if his teammates seemed to revel in it.)
Despite that, he seemed eager enough to do anything for Marui, so Marui figured the least he could do was indulge the kid. Maybe he'd be able to make the week a bit less dismal.
Jirou dashed into Atobe's mansion at full speed and tore up the main flight of stairs, ignoring the servants he passed when they hesitantly offered him some assistance. He only came to a halt when he found himself facing a dead-end in a hallway he'd never seen before, cursing that he hadn't thought to ask one of the servants for a pack of gum. Knowing Atobe's standards, they'd probably be able to give him twenty packs in as many different flavors.
He whirled around to try and retrace his steps - and he really had to hurry now, because Marui's throat was probably getting all dry, and anyway, who knew how long he'd stick around on that bench waiting? - and ran smack into Oshitari, letting out a soft 'Oof!' as he bounced back off his chest.
Jirou gazed up at Oshitari's unreadable face and clasped his hands together above his head pleadingly.
'Oshitari-kun, please help me, I need some gum quick and I'm lost and I don't know how long Marui-kun is going to stay on the bench and I can't find any servants all of a sudden and I know you know your way around here better than I do and can you help me find some gum please please please please?'
Oshitari had managed to get his coffee up out of the way just in time before Jirou slammed into him. The Hyotei team had all developed uncommonly fast reflexes for exactly this reason - after being showered with liquids in varying temperatures more times than they cared to count, they'd learned fast.
'Jirou,' he drawled, taking a step back and looking at the shorter boy, who was vibrating like an excited rabbit, 'calm down. You said Marui's waiting for you to bring him some gum? If you promised him sugar, I'm sure he won't get up and walk away before you get back with it.'
Hm, he thought, eyes gleaming behind his glasses. So Jirou's object of hero-worship had finally deigned to talk to him, eh? This definitely sounded interesting enough to delay his shower for.
'Do you really think so?' Jirou asked, eyes glistening with overwhelming gratitude. Then, realizing he wasn't focused enough on his task, he shook his head violently and grabbed a fistful of Oshitari's shirt.
'But if I don't hurry he might think I'm not coming! Do you know where I can find some? I told him I'd bring a few different kinds but I don't know what flavors he likes! What if he hates them all?'
He tugged at Oshitari's shirt with every other word for dramatic emphasis, completely oblivious to the hot cup of coffee Oshitari was attempting to balance.
'He told me I could be cool!' Jirou added, clearly expecting Oshitari to follow his train of thought as he gave his shirt one last violent jerk.
Oshitari was a dangerous man to involve whenever there was a romantic entanglement at stake. Everyone else on the team had learnt that as quickly as they'd learnt to handle their liquids (except perhaps Ootori, but then he'd always been a bit naive). But Jirou was completely oblivious, which made it much easier for Oshitari to do what he was planning to do.
'Oops,' he said with a look of mock regret as his cup of coffee tilted in his hand, spilling down the front of Jirou's shirt. Some of it splashed onto Oshitari as well, but he was sweaty and sticky and needed to shower and change anyway, so that didn't much matter. But Jirou's shirt ended up drenched and stained a lovely milky brown (which, Oshitari thought privately, set off the color of his hair quite nicely).
'I'm so sorry, Jirou,' he said, injecting a note of regret into his voice. 'It should come out in the wash though - that shirt should be good as new by tomorrow.'
But not today, went the unspoken caveat, trapped behind Oshitari's jerked-flat smirk.
He set the cup down on the floor, then caught hold of the hem of Jirou's shirt. 'Here,' he said smoothly. 'Take this off, and I'll go find you another while you clean up. In there,' he indicated, pointing to the nearest bathroom, which happened to be Atobe's. Well, one of Atobe's, anyway. The one with the strawberry honeysuckle-scented soap.
'Ah!' Jirou shouted, more out of dismay than pain, although the hot beverage did burn a bit. He stripped his shirt off at Oshitari's bidding and hurried to do exactly as he said - Oshitari was good at things like this, and for some reason he always seemed especially keen to help Jirou. Or maybe Jirou was the only one on the team who let him. Which didn't make much sense, since Oshitari was so nice about it, but there wasn't time to dwell on that right now.
Jirou stumbled into Atobe's bathroom, turned on the ornate tap and waited for the water to get hot enough to steam, then squirted a handful of soap into his palm. Of course, the problem wasn't his hands, so Jirou wasted no time in smearing the soap all over his chest and, just for good measure, his back and arms as well. There was a mountain of fresh pressed washcloths next to the sink, and Jirou got one damp and managed to wipe himself completely clean of coffee and soap in a matter of seconds.
He bounded back out of the bathroom, unknowingly reeking of honeysuckle and also shimmering just a bit; Atobe's soap may or may not have had glitter in it.
'Oshitari?' Jirou called, looking from side to side nervously.
For once ignoring the less-than-pristine-ness of his own clothing, Oshitari left his and Gakuto's shared room with one of Gakuto's shirts in hand - it was deep blue and rather sheer, and quite frankly he thought it made Gakuto look like a very springy peacock, though he'd never tell him that. Jirou, on the other hand, with his fairer coloring, would be much better suited by the intense shade of blue, and it helped that he was also taller than Gakuto and thus would also be much less suited by the cut of the shirt.
Turning the corner, he caught sight of a shirtless, gleaming Jirou peering around in anxious concern, and took a moment to admire the tennis-cut definition of his muscles, the way his curls tangled casually at the nape of his neck, and then smiled and closed the distance between them, holding out the shirt. 'Here,' he said, spreading the fabric so Jirou could slip his arms into it. 'This should fit you.'
Jirou only paused a moment when he saw Oshitari holding out what was clearly one of Gakuto's shirts - well, it might not have been, but at any rate it certainly wasn't one of Oshitari's - before shrugging and allowing Oshitari to help him into it anyway. He really didn't have time to dawdle, and besides, it was a pretty nice shade of blue. It kind of reminded him of berries.
'It's a little small,' Jirou observed, although he didn't seem particularly concerned at the way the shirt rode up any time he moved his arms, revealing a flash of abdomen. Sparkly abdomen.
'Huh,' Jirou said, blinking and turning his attention to his shimmering arms. 'I'm glittery.'
'Mm,' Oshitari remarked casually, buttoning the three middle buttons on the shirt and leaving the top and bottom buttons undone. The effect was very nice, and he would have smirked to himself in triumph had he not been worried that Jirou might actually notice that.
'Atobe does have somewhat unusual taste in toiletries,' he added with an encouraging smile, carefully not mentioning the fact that Jirou smelt rather like a big ice cream cone. 'But you're clean, and...ah,' he added as one of Atobe's staff arrived carrying a positively massive basket of gum in various forms and flavors. She offered it with a bow, and Oshitari took it and handed it to Jirou. 'There you go. I imagine there'll be something in there that Marui-kun will like, hmm?'
Most people who were not Jirou might have suspected something fishy about the nature in which Oshitari was buttoning his shirt, but Jirou merely rocked back and forth on his heels, rather like an impatient child waiting for his mother to finish dressing him. When Oshitari's hands dropped away, Jirou just had time to flash him a smile before the basket of gum arrived and his mouth fell open in awe.
'Oh, awesome! Can I have the whole basket?' At the servant's polite nod, Jirou giggled and accepted it from Oshitari.
'Thank you!' he said to the servant's retreating form. He then turned to Oshitari, beaming and bouncing and glowing with energy, and promptly dropped the basket to the floor so he could attach himself like a koala to Oshitari's front.
'Thank you thank you thank you, you're my favorite and the best friend ever and beyond awesome and I love you!'
Oshitari oofed softly as Jirou pounced him, and then chuckled and wrapped his arms around Jirou in return, long fingers wandering over Jirou's back in a 'friendly' caress. (What? He wanted to help Jirou out, but he wasn't a saint.) 'You're welcome,' he purred, then let Jirou down gently and rumpled his hair. 'Now go on with you. I believe you have a certain Rikkai senior on tenterhooks.'
He flashed his slow grin, then gave Jirou a little push in the direction of the door.
And then glanced longingly at the bathroom. Now he really needed a shower.
Jirou gave no indication he found Oshitari's caresses to be anything but platonic and friendly, merely squeezed him more tightly before dropping down to his feet and allowing himself to be pushed away. He grabbed the basket of gum and balanced it on top of his head, holding it in place with both arms as he scampered off in the direction the maid had gone.
'Thanks again!' he yelled over his shoulder. 'You're my favorite!'
It wasn't until Jirou was outside again and had Marui in his sights that he took a moment to wonder just what Oshitari had meant by 'tenterhooks.'
Marui was dozing on the bench, head filled with sugarplums. Or, more accurately, ice cream parfaits and enormous quantities of pocky. Jackal had been right - he was having a sugar crash. The inevitable result of a sugar crash was either grumpy!Marui or sleepy!Marui; this time around, Akutagawa-kun's antics had stolen his grump, but there was no knowing how long that would last.
Especially since every time he breathed in, he inhaled a mouthful of sakura petals.
Jirou was so pleased to find Marui still waiting for him on the bench that he didn't even stop to think maybe he should be gentle about waking him up. Instead, he dropped the basket of gum - which was so full it was actually pretty heavy - on the ground next to Marui's head and began to root through it.
'Okay!' he said brightly. 'So there's grape, lemon-lime, sour apple, strawberry-banana, blue raspberry, cherry, blueberry, peach, lychee, wow, cool, I didn't know they made lychee gum, uh . . . and I think . . .' he paused to sniff one of the more conspicuous packages. 'Strawberry honeysuckle!' he announced.
After a moment, he frowned and sniffed his arm. 'Oh . . . sorry, I think that's actually me. This one's mango.'
If Akutagawa-kun's chirpiness hadn't startled Marui out of his daydreams, the sudden intensification of said daydreams would have. The strawberry on his parfait suddenly smelt so much of strawberries that his mouth started watering, and he leaned in and tasted it before his conscious mind registered what Akutagawa-kun was saying.
And then he blushed, eyes going wide as he realized he had just licked another boy.
'....um. Doesn't....quite taste of strawberry honeysuckle,' he managed at last, and tried not to think about how for some reason it actually tasted better. Because that was just weird. And Marui Bunta was weird in many ways, but this particular way was maybe even a bit too weird for him.
Jirou didn't appear particularly embarrassed or unnerved by Marui's actions. In fact, it just made him grin stupidly. He tore open the package of strawberry gum and, without waiting for permission, popped a piece of it into Marui's mouth.
'Try that, then,' he suggested. 'Although . . . I didn't see any honeysuckle.' He dug a little deeper in the basket until his shoulders slumped in defeat. 'Do you want me to go back and look for some?' he asked.
Marui blinked, jaw already working instinctually to macerate the lovely cube of strawberry goodness, and then smiled, blush still brightening his cheeks but far too pleased to notice. This kid was actually willing to do that for him? Just because he thought Marui was cool? And he hadn't freaked out after being licked? (Marui was pretty sure everyone else he knew might've, except perhaps Jackal, who would have given him a Look, or Niou, who might well have licked back.)
It was already weird, but Akutagawa-kun was taking it all in stride, and that was intriguing to Marui, especially considering the way boys their age tended to be. He was just so...
...oblivious, maybe?
Marui shrugged, and blew an experimental bubble. 'Nah,' he said, and flipped around so his legs were hooked over the back of the bench and his head dangled off the seat, hair brushing the ground. 'You did good. No need for you to go running off again. Sit.'
Jirou grinned - by this point his face was kind of starting to hurt - and flopped down next to Marui triumphantly. He was content to watch Marui blow upside-down bubbles for much longer than most reasonable people would be able to manage, but he did finally begin to fidget, more out of anxiousness than boredom.
'Um,' he said, scuffing the dirt with his shoes and fixing his eyes on the ground. 'Do you think you would maybe -' he cut off and rubbed the back of his neck, then, in one rushed breath, blurted, 'would you want to play a game of tennis with me maybe?'
Finally getting up the courage to make eye contact, Jirou glanced over at Marui, adding with a shy smile, 'I promise you won't be bored.'
Marui was surprised not so much by the question, since naturally everyone would want to play a game with someone as awesome as himself, but by the method of asking. It was almost like Akutagawa-kun was asking him for a favor, rather than making some sort of cocky demand or treating it like it would be an honor for Marui. It was so unusual that Marui would have agreed anyway just out of pure intrigue. But something about the look on Akutagawa-kun's face roped him in, and he found himself nodding without a moment's hesitation.
'Sure,' he added after a moment, and smiled around his gum. 'Why not?'
'Really?' Jirou looked genuinely stunned that Marui had so readily accepted, but he didn't let it prevent him from scrambling off the bench and jumping in excitement.
'Wow! Okay . . . okay.' Jirou spun in a circle, apparently looking for something, and only stopped when he failed to find it after three spins. 'I need my racket!' he said. 'And uh, you need yours! Should we go to the courts?' He pointed in the direction of the courts Marui had just come from.
Marui flinched, and then twisted his head so he was looking back at the courts from underneath the bench - a very uncomfortable position, but less trouble than moving. It wasn't that he was rethinking playing Akutagawa-kun, only that he didn't really want to get yelled at by Sanada-fukubuchou for skipping out instead of watching the other games. But then, it looked like Sanada was in the process of playing Atobe at the moment, which meant he couldn't very well yell, could he.
Marui blew a thoughtful bubble. This was his best chance to get back without being noticed, since Sanada was occupied and he was willing to wager Yukimura-buchou was occupied with watching Sanada be occupied. The only person who might've been likely to rat him out was Kirihara, but he wasn't here this weekend, since he hadn't had to retire.
Why the hell not?
'Sure,' he said nonchalantly, and flipped over, albeit perhaps a bit less gracefully than one of the acrobats might've, but still smoothly enough to where he landed on his feet instead of his ass. 'Let's go.'
Jirou tried to walk at a normal pace at Marui's side for about six seconds before he couldn't contain himself anymore, and he grabbed Marui's wrist and started dragging him toward the courts.
'C'mon!' he said. 'We want to finish our game before - oh!' He dug his heels into the ground and came to an abrupt stop. 'The gum!'
Without another word, Jirou darted back to the bench, picked up the basket, and returned to Marui's side only to drag him toward the courts even more quickly.
'Akutagawa......kun.' Marui blinked as the other boy darted away and came back in the space of time it took him to say his name. He'd been going to suggest that they come back for the gum later, since he was pretty sure having a massive basket of gum would result in Jackal rolling his eyes, Niou teasing him about how he was just so sweet that of course he necessitated a gum altar, and Sanada threatening to confiscate it. But at that point it was too late, and he just shrugged, letting himself be dragged along.
Akutagawa-kun had nice fingers, he noted absently. They were long, and smoother than most tennis players', probably because he seemed to spend more time sleeping than playing. His hand was warm against Marui's wrist, and Marui gave it a sideways glance, somewhat amused by the shimmeriness.
Which was why his gaze lingered longer than was strictly polite. The amusement. Naturally.
Jirou didn't let go of Marui's wrist as he dragged him onto the free court farthest away from the one on which Atobe-buchou and Rikkai's Sanada were having a match, and seemed in fact to have quite forgotten he was still holding onto him as he found a safe corner next to a bench to stash the gum. He continued pulling Marui along as he searched for and shortly found his racket, then, straightening up and smiling at the racket as if it had just made an amusing joke, turned to face Marui again. It was then he realized he was still holding Marui's wrist, which he released hesitantly.
'Sorry,' he said. There was an awkward silence before he broke into another grin and bounced off over the net to the other side of the court.
'Rough or smooth?' he asked gleefully.
'Smooth,' Marui answered, and then almost bit his tongue instead of his gum when he realized he'd purred instead of speaking. He knew the difference now after spending so much time around Yagyuu, and he felt the flush staining his cheeks as he swallowed and looked around. One of the second-years from Fudomine, the crazy one with the blue hair, was eyeing him curiously and muttering to himself under his breath, and Marui took a moment to wonder why the hell there were second-years here at all (probably because Fudomine was a bunch of losers who didn't have enough worthwhile seniors to bring along) before Akutagawa-kun spun the racket.
It landed with the J upside-down and backward, and Marui sighed. Of course it would be rough, after he'd embarrassed himself saying the opposite. He shrugged, and then looked at his opponent expectantly.
Jirou only grinned wider at Marui's answer, and when Marui looked over at Fudomine Jirou did as well, although instead of glaring he beamed and waved. Every member of Fudomine present hastily looked in the opposite direction, however, so Jirou just shrugged and picked up his racket.
Jirou didn't give any warning before starting the game, and since he didn't have a signature phrase or sound to accompany his serves - he kind of wished he did sometimes, that would be pretty cool - Marui seemed entirely caught off-guard when he smashed the ball into a far corner and scored an immediate ace.
It was the first time since the beginning of the camp that Jirou was feeling a jolt of excitement as a result of a match, and he couldn't hold in a playful laugh at the expression on Marui's face.
'Sorry!' he called. 'Were you not ready?'
Marui blinked, and followed the path of the ball with his eyes, studying the corner of the service box where a faint imprint of the ball's bounce stood out against the green. He had been ready, but he hadn't been expecting...that.
'It's fine,' he called back, and shifted to the other side of the court, narrowing his eyes. If Yukimura-buchou was watching, he would have gotten laps and a long lecture later on, but Yukimura-buchou was still occupied with Sanada-fukubuchou, and now Marui was really ready.
This time, when Akutagawa-kun fired off a serve, Marui returned it with a flick of his arm, then ran toward the net in preparation for a volley. To his surprise, though, Akutagawa-kun was already there, and Marui had a split second to think no one's wrist should bend that way before the ball was flying past him.
Shit.
He wanted to take it easy on the kid - no point shattering his self-esteem so early on, after all, especially since he seemed so eager to answer Marui's beck and call - but maybe this was taking it too easy. Not good. He was going to get laughed at at this rate, and nobody laughed at Marui Bunta. Except Niou, but then, Niou had a serious death wish. That was the only explanation for the fact that he partnered Yagyuu.
This? This was fun. Jirou could barely keep his wrist from trembling it was so much fun, but he managed to force it steady enough to fire off another serve, which Marui returned with what appeared to be renewed purpose. It was awesome watching Marui when he was determined, and Jirou wondered if maybe he was becoming a little distracted by the awesome-ness, because next thing he knew Marui had scored a point.
'THAT WAS SO COOL, MARUI-KUN!' Jirou nearly shrieked. 'I didn't even see the ball!' He hurried back to his service position and tugged another ball out of his pocket to serve, but before he could throw it he looked down and frowned at his shirt.
'Sorry,' he called distractedly. 'I think the buttons are off.'
He fiddled with the buttons on the front of his shirt with a look of absolute concentration until his shirt was wide open, then began to button them up again from the bottom. Weird that Oshitari of all people, who was immaculate about his own appearance, would slip up on something like buttons, but, Jirou supposed, he was only human.
'Okay!' Jirou said, waving. Unbeknownst to him, the buttons were now even more askew, so unbalanced that on one side his abdomen was mostly exposed, on the other, a good portion of his chest. He raised his arm to serve again, and now it caused his shirt to ride up so far that his belly button showed.
'Huh,' Jirou said, looking down. 'That's not right, either.'
Marui cleared his throat, studiously looking at Akutagawa-kun's...no, that wasn't right. Collarbones didn't help, because they were rather more prominent than they should have been. Plus which they drew attention to the skewed line of his buttons, which then pulled Marui's attention down to his flat stomach, and the waistband of his trousers, and Marui was going to stop right there because it was just getting weird. Stuff like that was okay for Yukimura-buchou, because he was Yukimura-buchou and nobody dared question him about anything, plus which he was just bad-ass so he could slaughter you if you thought anything but the very best about him. It was also okay for Sanada-fukubuchou, because first of all, he was doing it with Yukimura-buchou, and then because Sanada-fukubuchou was pretty good at kicking ass in his own right. Marui on the other hand did not have that luxury.
Not that that was enough to keep him from staring.
Finally he fixed his gaze on the face of Akutagawa-kun's racquet. 'It looks fine,' he said impatiently. 'Just serve again.'
Jirou was pleased enough to have earned Marui's approval that he obeyed him instantly, serving swiftly enough that Marui just barely managed to hit it back. They volleyed for a good amount of time, Jirou's eagerness growing with every returned shot until Marui sent him a tricky return that required nearly bending over backwards and flicking his wrist at a most unnatural angle. Jirou did.
'Whoo!' Jirou shook his wrist out and got into position again. His heart was beating so fast he was actually starting to feel dizzy. If this were what tennis felt like all the time, Jirou would spend far less time napping and more time playing.
'This is more fun with you!' Jirou shouted, meaning every word of it, just before serving and taking the game.
Akutagawa-kun was good. Not like, good for a rich-bitch from Hyotei, but actually, honestly good. No wonder he was always bored. Marui still didn't understand why he got so flaily-excited, but then, maybe that was just because it was him, and everyone knew to be awed by a tensai. Although his teammates didn't seem to have gotten that memo.
Akutagawa-kun could also really bend his wrists at very odd angles. He did so while he was waiting for Marui to serve, and Marui was suddenly hit with the thought that that could come in very handy for other reasons, and then winced as he served straight into the net. He hadn't done that since before he learned to chew gum on the court. Cursing under his breath, he took a moment to trot off to the sidelines and grab another piece of gum, and then returned, determined to take the next game back.
Which he did, but Akutagawa-kun made him work for it. Marui ran the back of his wrist across his forehead as they changed courts, and wondered why this kid hadn't played in the quarterfinals against Seigaku. Had he done so, Hyotei might have been the ones facing Rikkai in the finals.
Where were they hiding you? he thought as Akutagawa-kun took the next game back from him, and paused on the sidelines to shuck his wristbands, ignoring Niou's taunts as he got ready to serve again.
This far into a match, Jirou was usually ready to go to sleep. For the next four hours, or six, or maybe just until next practice.
He wasn't sleepy at all this time. This time, he felt so awake it was almost like his limbs were electrically charged, sending sparks to his hands and wrists every time he sent a shot toward Marui's side of the court. The last time he'd felt even remotely this alive, it was against Seigaku's Fuji, and even that game hadn't pushed him to this level of enthusiasm, where every fiber in his being was aching, begging to be invested in nothing but tennis. It probably had something to do with the fact that Fuji hadn't seemed particularly invested in their game, whereas Marui seemed almost as into it as Jirou was.
Then again, it could have also been just because Marui was that unbearably awesome.
Jirou actually had to stop and do a once-over of the game so far in his head when he realized they had reached match point in his favor, trying to fight back a little surge of despair at the thought. He didn't want the match to end. Ever. But if he just didn't serve, Marui would probably get mad. Sighing inwardly, he sent the ball into Marui's court and prepared himself for the return.
Marui was losing.
It wasn't like it was the first time. Yukimura-buchou trounced him on a regular basis, especially now that he was allowed to play again after such a long hiatus - he liked to trounce everyone as often as possible, as if trying to remind himself that he could. Sanada-fukubuchou trounced him too, and never even seemed pleased about it. Yanagi-kun liked to trounce him too, cruelly, and sometimes Yagyuu did as well, though Marui did beat him occasionally. But aside from that, he'd never been this soundly trounced in a singles match before, and he wasn't sure if he felt more outraged or just shocked in general. He had never expected Akutagawa-kun to be this good, nor had he expected to be pushed this hard, which was shocking in its own right, but what was even more shocking was that he was enjoying himself.
Marui hated to lose, and yet he was having the time of his life. He'd never seen anyone play with so much genuine enthusiasm for the game. Rikkai was all about winning, and while there was satisfaction and very occasionally pleasure in a win, usually it was just realization of an inevitability, and there wasn't much pleasure to be gleaned from that. But this...Akutagawa-kun looked about ready to fly out of his skin, and Marui might have expected that of the crazy redhead from Seigaku perhaps, or those weirdoes from Rokkaku, or that one shrimp from Shitenhouji (and what the hell was it about redheads, or red in general for that matter? it really made Marui consider dyeing his hair), but not from a Hyotei player, especially not one who spent most of his time bored out of his mind.
He was going to take this point. He was going to take this point. He was going to take this point.
Akutagawa-kun volleyed, a slick little move that Marui had used himself several times, and he dove for it, feeling alive, excited, like he could fly, and grinned in triumph as he caught up to it, the ball impacting his sweet spot dead centre and sending it up, over Akutagawa-kun's head, gleaming almost like gold in the bright sunlight...
'Out!'
It was silent for a good few seconds as Jirou and Marui both stared at the spot the ball had hit just before rolling away to rest next to the basket of gum. Jirou noticed with no small amount of surprise that most of the players on surrounding courts were watching their game now, likely had been for some time, and it was right then that that electric spark in Jirou's body ruptured and he almost toppled over to crash into the net. Instead, he grabbed hold of it, propelled himself over the top, and launched himself directly onto Marui.
'That was awesome awesome awesome awesome absolutely the best game ever you were so cool oh my God!' He wrapped his legs more tightly around Marui's waist and buried his hands in the bright pink hair, rubbing so hard it was just shy of being a noogie.
'Let's play again!' Jirou chirped.
Marui had lost.
Marui had lost a singles game against a Hyotei player who spent most of his time asleep on the bench.
Marui had lost in front of his captain, his vice-captain, his whole team, and three rival schools.
And yet, Marui was happy.
Clearly the world was coming to an end.
'Jirou,' said a voice from the sidelines, and Marui looked up through the wild mess of curls and the enthusiastic flailing of Akutagawa-kun's hands and saw that tall, dark-haired player from Hyotei, the one who played doubles sometimes, watching them, a small smirk twisting his lips. 'Maybe you should let Marui-kun eat something before you go at it again? You shouldn't exhaust him completely if you're hoping for another round.'
Marui couldn't explain why he was blushing, only that he'd never been quite so glad of the fact that his hair covered his face so nicely
Jirou pouted, but obediently disentangled himself from Marui, stuffing his hands in his pockets and kicking at the ground.
'I guess,' he agreed sullenly. His head then snapped up and, completely oblivious to Marui's blush, he grabbed the hem of shirt and asked, wide-eyed and pleading, 'Will you play me again later? Please?'
Oshitari was calling his name again, so Jirou began to walk backwards toward the side where most of Hyotei had gathered.
'Yes? Please?'
'All right,' Marui agreed dazedly, and blinked as Akutagawa-kun's face lit right back up in delight. He was the most bipolar person Marui had ever met. He was the most a lot of things Marui had ever met though, and he wondered at the fact that he'd never noticed him before. Clearly he was getting sloppy in his old age.
Especially since he could have sworn a lot of those moves were suspiciously similar to his.
'Puri!' Niou chirped at him, flinging an arm around his shoulders and continuing the head-rubbing where Akutagawa-kun had left off. Marui growled and jabbed an elbow into Niou's solar plexus, but Niou just gave a dramatic sigh.
'Ah,' he said, tightening his arm until Marui's face started to go red again. 'Young love.'
Marui turned his head, sweet smile in place, and promptly spat his strawberry gum into Niou's hair.
On to Part 2
Authors: Anj (anjenue) and Linz (longleggedgit)
Pairing: Marui/Jirou
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~15,500
Summary: In which Marui is sugar-crashy, Jirou sleeps a lot and then bounces on Marui a lot more, and Oshitari spills coffee. Sneakily.
A/N: So this was written about six million years ago (read: July), but it's taken us this long to clean it up and all. Happy Valentine's Day? ^^; Regardless, this was done in quasi-RP format, with Anj writing Marui (and Oshitari) and Linz writing Jirou. Awww. We hope you enjoy! Also, comments are love. :D
'Next! A-court, Rikkai's Niou/Yagyuu pair against Hyotei's Oshitari/Mukahi pair! C-court, Fudomine's Tachibana against Seigaku's Fuji!'
Marui rolled his eyes and cracked his gum. Loudly. Hyotei's Shishido shot him a filthy look, and Sanada-fukubuchou cleared his throat pointedly, but that damn Oishi just kept on smiling and looking earnest. That's all he ever seemed to do, smile and look earnest, except when he was smiling and looking worried.
Jackal shot Marui one of those sideways looks that said oi, you're being grumpy, go eat more sugar, but Marui ignored him, instead scanning the expansive fields surrounding the court in search of a nice peaceful getaway where he could hide from insufferable Seigaku, snotty Hyotei, and delinquent Fudomine. And preferably also Yukimura-buchou and Sanada-fukubuchou, who had both been in absolutely foul moods since Rikkai had lost to Seigaku in the finals. None of the rest of the team had been happy either, but Yukimura and Sanada were taking it a bit too far. Niou was still covered in bruises from his inability to stop mouthing off.
Marui sighed and cracked his gum again, a bit less obnoxiously. And then grinned as he spotted a bench under a lovely cradle of overhanging branches. It was almost too idyllic, but Marui wasn't that picky. Wiggling his fingers at Jackal, he trotted off in the direction of the bench, hoping nobody would notice him 'slacking off', or else he'd be running laps until the end of the bloody week.
The dream had something to do with pickles. Pickles, and possibly Atobe-buchou, although he'd learned from past experience that even if his dream was about Atobe-buchou, he shouldn't say anything to him about it. It made a weird look cross his face and usually resulted in Jirou running extra laps. Anyway, Jirou didn't really like pickles, so he rolled over and stretched once and decided to try for a different dream. The bench wasn't an ideal location for dreaming, but it was better than bleachers, and Jirou spent a lot of time napping on bleachers.
Falling asleep was easy for Jirou, but there were certain tricks to making it easier, and one of them was thinking about tennis. Jirou thought about the most recent match he'd played, which had resulted in Kamio from Fudomine getting really angry at him - Jirou couldn't see why, he was so cool - and the new grip tape he wanted to buy, except the store was always out, and the glimpse of training he saw that kind of scary boy from Seigaku doing the other day. It was pretty cool training, really. Maybe he wasn't so scary after all. Jirou thought maybe he would ask him if he could watch him train later. . . .
Jirou thought he heard the sound of someone walking nearby, but decided it wasn't worth opening his eyes; it was probably just a bird or a squirrel, and while squirrels were pretty cool, he figured maybe he could just dream about squirrels and then he could watch them without even having to wake up.
Marui batted at a cascade of sakura petals as he made it past the edge of the courts without being noticed. The grass was littered with them, pink on green, and he grimaced as he remembered the time Niou had teased him by telling him he looked like a budding flower whenever he blew a bubble. But then, it'd taken Niou two hours and a sharp pair of scissors to get the gum out of his hair after that, so it hadn't been a complete loss.
Sighing to himself, Marui blew another bubble, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking up at the clouds as he made his way across the lawn. The bench looked even more tempting from closer up, and he had already started daydreaming about chocolate fudge ripple ice cream before he even made a running leap over the back of the bench, stretching out in preparation on his way down.
Well that was . . . unexpected. And probably not a squirrel. Jirou gave a small yelp and cautiously, reluctantly, opened his eyes, fairly confident that whatever had just landed on top of him was a person and not a bear. Still, you never could tell.
Jirou blinked at the sight of blindingly pink hair. Then he rubbed one of his eyes, blinked again, and almost whapped the boy on top of him in the face because his arms were flailing so hard.
'Hey, you're - you're Marui Bunta!' Jirou couldn't really move too much, still being pinned under Marui's weight, but it didn't stop him from literally quivering with excitement. 'YOU'RE SO COOL! I can't believe you're sitting on me!'
Benches weren't supposed to squirm. That was Marui's sole coherent thought before said bench started flailing and shrieking at him, and then he was so startled that he would have fallen off the bench and onto his ass had he not been Marui Bunta. Instead, he grabbed at the bench (the actual bench) to keep from tumbling off the side, and waited until the flailing had subsided somewhat before disentangling himself and standing up, all in one smooth movement as if that's exactly what he'd meant to do. Because, of course, it was.
'Ah, uh...Akutagawa-kun, right?' Marui blew a perplexed bubble, wondering why the other boy was staring at him as if pleading him to sit back down again. 'Sorry 'bout that. You kind of blended in with the bench, you know,' he added with a wave of his hand to indicate the bench and the boy, who in all honesty looked...nothing alike.
'You know my name?' Jirou fought the urge to get up and do a little victory dance, then realized that was silly, why fight something like that? So he got up and did one anyway before sitting back down.
'Wow,' he said. He took a deep breath, which was really just preparation for launching into a slur of questioning. 'Did you just play a game? Who were you playing? Did you win? I'm sure you won, you're so awesome. I haven't really been playing people, I've mostly been napping because I'm bored.' Jirou cut himself off abruptly when he looked up and caught a glimpse of Marui's mildly horrified stare.
'Oh,' he said, 'sorry. Atobe-buchou says I talk too much.'
'.....ha,' Marui replied, intelligently, scrubbing a hand through his hair. This kid was crazier than Akaya when he got into his secret cake stash, and that was something no human should be able to accomplish. The fact that he was this bouncy after having just woken up, too, made Marui wonder as to the kid's sugar intake.
'Um. Yeah, Jackal and I just finished playing. We trounced those two from Fudomine,' he added offhandedly, since that was of course a total given. He wasn't even sure why Atobe had invited Fudomine along, though he supposed it was for some sort of balance, or something. That kid was about the gayest individual Marui had ever met. He took neat and organized to a whole new level that even Yagyuu couldn't touch.
He eyed the open side of the bench with some trepidation for a moment, and then flung himself down onto it, stretching out his legs and blowing a lazy bubble. 'I don't blame you for being bored,' he added. 'There's nobody here worth playing really.'
Jirou couldn't quite hide his wide-eyed disbelief when Marui actually sat down next to him. Most of the awesome tennis players he got to talk to hightailed it in the opposite direction somewhere between Jirou doing his victory dance and asking for details about their matches. His expression of disbelief was quickly replaced with one of joy, however, and he scooted slightly closer to Marui so he could better study him.
'Yeah, I suppose they wouldn't be to you,' Jirou said, nodding in complete agreement. His eyes traveled from Marui's face to his arm, which he suddenly and without warning grabbed and pulled in to line up with his own.
'Your arms are barely any bigger than mine!' he exclaimed. 'I can't believe you can pull off that tightrope shot! That's so cool!'
Marui's arm twitched in the rather enthusiastic grasp, but he smiled anyway. Here was a kid with good taste and an eye for talent. 'It's not about strength, you know,' he said loftily. 'It's all in the technique. I mean, I am a genius, but I bet you could come up with something equally...um, cool, if you work hard at it!' Privately, Marui thought that a kid who slept through practices on a regular basis was about as likely to manage a special shot akin to his own as Jackal was to win a best hair contest, but there was no harm in being encouraging.
Jirou dropped Marui's arm without warning and leaned back, eyes never straying from Marui's face. After a moment of stunned silence - Marui had actually complimented him, sort of, and he wasn't running away or screaming for help or anything - his bottom lip quivered and he propelled himself forward, wrapping both arms around Marui's back and pulling him into a suffocating hug.
'THAT'S SO NICE OF YOU TO SAY!' he nearly sobbed. Still holding on tightly, he continued, 'I can't believe you think I could be that cool! You're so nice, Marui-kun!'
Marui choked as he found himself suddenly on the receiving end of a quivering monkey hug, and then he really was choking as the sudden inhale of breath had brought his gum along with it, and it was now lodged in his throat. He scrabbled at Akutagawa's shoulders for a moment, trying to get free enough to breathe, even though he couldn't, and tipped his head back, taking desperate gulps in an attempt to either swallow the gum all the way or dislodge it with a particularly strong breath.
For a second, Jirou thought Marui was overcome with excitement and short of breath as a result, because that happened to him all the time. Then Marui's fingernails dug into his shoulders and he realized something was wrong, so he jumped back.
'Marui-kun?' Jirou gasped when he realized Marui was choking, and he ran behind the bench to get a good angle so he could smack Marui hard on the back.
'Are you okay?' Jirou fought the urge to jump up and down in panic. 'Should I go get someone?'
Marui sucked in a cooling breath, massaging his abused throat, and then looked sadly at the ground, where his gum had been projectile-launched out of his mouth to land sweetly in a nest of sakura petals. For a moment, he considered going and picking it up, shoving it back into his mouth, and pretending the whole thing had never happened, but he had a feeling if he did that, this kid would be freaking out about how cool Marui-kun was for eating gum off the ground.
Sigh. It was so hard being admired.
'Thanks,' he croaked, and then leaned back, fumbling in his pocket for another piece of gum. And then cursed, loudly, when he realized his pack of gum was back in his tennis bag, and if he went back for it, someone would surely see him show up, realize he'd been gone, and at the very least make him stay there, which was bad enough on its own. Akutagawa-kun was crazy, but at least he was a more inviting brand of crazy than his captain. Or Marui's captain, for that matter.
He sighed and slumped against the back of the bench, flopping his head back and noting, with idle interest, that Akutagawa-kun looked about nine years old when viewed upside-down.
'I'm out of gum,' he said, tragically.
Jirou tried to tear around to the other side of the bench again, but in his enthusiasm managed to actually flip himself over the back. He stumbled into a crouching position, landing on his feet, remarkably enough, before he grabbed both of Marui's hands and squeezed.
'I'm so sorry! It's all my fault!' he said mournfully. 'I'll go find you some gum! What kind do you like?'
He dropped Marui's hands and began to jog backwards in the direction of Atobe's mansion, apparently deciding it would take too long to wait for an answer.
'I'll just get you a bunch of different kinds!'
Marui blinked in surprise, then half-twisted to look over the back of the bench at the retreating figure. Akutagawa-kun was like a human tennis ball - just as bouncy, just as fuzzy, and just as unpredictable from one moment to the next. All he needed was the bright yellow-green outfit, but Marui privately thought that the only person who could ever look good in that color was Yukimura-buchou.
Sighing, he flopped over onto his back on the bench, staring up at the sky. He'd expected this whole week to be a total wash. It was nice to be able to play tennis again after retiring, especially in a competitive venue (though it wasn't like Rikkai was lacking in competition within itself), but Seigaku was insufferable as ever, and Hyotei was just as uppity, and Fudomine was just plain disturbing. It was good that Shitenhouji wasn't here too, or else there might well have been accidental death-by-tennis-ball.
But this kid...he wasn't all bad. Marui didn't hold out much hope that he was a good tennis player, because even though he was on Hyotei's regulars, they'd trounced every last one of Hyotei's players thus far. Besides, only wannabe players actually flailed at each other. Respecting a fellow player's special moves was one thing; freaking out about them was another thing entirely, and something to be expected of first years and pre-regulars. And girls, of course. Marui got a lot of flailing from girls. (Though secretly, he thought that girls flailing was just tiresome, even if his teammates seemed to revel in it.)
Despite that, he seemed eager enough to do anything for Marui, so Marui figured the least he could do was indulge the kid. Maybe he'd be able to make the week a bit less dismal.
Jirou dashed into Atobe's mansion at full speed and tore up the main flight of stairs, ignoring the servants he passed when they hesitantly offered him some assistance. He only came to a halt when he found himself facing a dead-end in a hallway he'd never seen before, cursing that he hadn't thought to ask one of the servants for a pack of gum. Knowing Atobe's standards, they'd probably be able to give him twenty packs in as many different flavors.
He whirled around to try and retrace his steps - and he really had to hurry now, because Marui's throat was probably getting all dry, and anyway, who knew how long he'd stick around on that bench waiting? - and ran smack into Oshitari, letting out a soft 'Oof!' as he bounced back off his chest.
Jirou gazed up at Oshitari's unreadable face and clasped his hands together above his head pleadingly.
'Oshitari-kun, please help me, I need some gum quick and I'm lost and I don't know how long Marui-kun is going to stay on the bench and I can't find any servants all of a sudden and I know you know your way around here better than I do and can you help me find some gum please please please please?'
Oshitari had managed to get his coffee up out of the way just in time before Jirou slammed into him. The Hyotei team had all developed uncommonly fast reflexes for exactly this reason - after being showered with liquids in varying temperatures more times than they cared to count, they'd learned fast.
'Jirou,' he drawled, taking a step back and looking at the shorter boy, who was vibrating like an excited rabbit, 'calm down. You said Marui's waiting for you to bring him some gum? If you promised him sugar, I'm sure he won't get up and walk away before you get back with it.'
Hm, he thought, eyes gleaming behind his glasses. So Jirou's object of hero-worship had finally deigned to talk to him, eh? This definitely sounded interesting enough to delay his shower for.
'Do you really think so?' Jirou asked, eyes glistening with overwhelming gratitude. Then, realizing he wasn't focused enough on his task, he shook his head violently and grabbed a fistful of Oshitari's shirt.
'But if I don't hurry he might think I'm not coming! Do you know where I can find some? I told him I'd bring a few different kinds but I don't know what flavors he likes! What if he hates them all?'
He tugged at Oshitari's shirt with every other word for dramatic emphasis, completely oblivious to the hot cup of coffee Oshitari was attempting to balance.
'He told me I could be cool!' Jirou added, clearly expecting Oshitari to follow his train of thought as he gave his shirt one last violent jerk.
Oshitari was a dangerous man to involve whenever there was a romantic entanglement at stake. Everyone else on the team had learnt that as quickly as they'd learnt to handle their liquids (except perhaps Ootori, but then he'd always been a bit naive). But Jirou was completely oblivious, which made it much easier for Oshitari to do what he was planning to do.
'Oops,' he said with a look of mock regret as his cup of coffee tilted in his hand, spilling down the front of Jirou's shirt. Some of it splashed onto Oshitari as well, but he was sweaty and sticky and needed to shower and change anyway, so that didn't much matter. But Jirou's shirt ended up drenched and stained a lovely milky brown (which, Oshitari thought privately, set off the color of his hair quite nicely).
'I'm so sorry, Jirou,' he said, injecting a note of regret into his voice. 'It should come out in the wash though - that shirt should be good as new by tomorrow.'
But not today, went the unspoken caveat, trapped behind Oshitari's jerked-flat smirk.
He set the cup down on the floor, then caught hold of the hem of Jirou's shirt. 'Here,' he said smoothly. 'Take this off, and I'll go find you another while you clean up. In there,' he indicated, pointing to the nearest bathroom, which happened to be Atobe's. Well, one of Atobe's, anyway. The one with the strawberry honeysuckle-scented soap.
'Ah!' Jirou shouted, more out of dismay than pain, although the hot beverage did burn a bit. He stripped his shirt off at Oshitari's bidding and hurried to do exactly as he said - Oshitari was good at things like this, and for some reason he always seemed especially keen to help Jirou. Or maybe Jirou was the only one on the team who let him. Which didn't make much sense, since Oshitari was so nice about it, but there wasn't time to dwell on that right now.
Jirou stumbled into Atobe's bathroom, turned on the ornate tap and waited for the water to get hot enough to steam, then squirted a handful of soap into his palm. Of course, the problem wasn't his hands, so Jirou wasted no time in smearing the soap all over his chest and, just for good measure, his back and arms as well. There was a mountain of fresh pressed washcloths next to the sink, and Jirou got one damp and managed to wipe himself completely clean of coffee and soap in a matter of seconds.
He bounded back out of the bathroom, unknowingly reeking of honeysuckle and also shimmering just a bit; Atobe's soap may or may not have had glitter in it.
'Oshitari?' Jirou called, looking from side to side nervously.
For once ignoring the less-than-pristine-ness of his own clothing, Oshitari left his and Gakuto's shared room with one of Gakuto's shirts in hand - it was deep blue and rather sheer, and quite frankly he thought it made Gakuto look like a very springy peacock, though he'd never tell him that. Jirou, on the other hand, with his fairer coloring, would be much better suited by the intense shade of blue, and it helped that he was also taller than Gakuto and thus would also be much less suited by the cut of the shirt.
Turning the corner, he caught sight of a shirtless, gleaming Jirou peering around in anxious concern, and took a moment to admire the tennis-cut definition of his muscles, the way his curls tangled casually at the nape of his neck, and then smiled and closed the distance between them, holding out the shirt. 'Here,' he said, spreading the fabric so Jirou could slip his arms into it. 'This should fit you.'
Jirou only paused a moment when he saw Oshitari holding out what was clearly one of Gakuto's shirts - well, it might not have been, but at any rate it certainly wasn't one of Oshitari's - before shrugging and allowing Oshitari to help him into it anyway. He really didn't have time to dawdle, and besides, it was a pretty nice shade of blue. It kind of reminded him of berries.
'It's a little small,' Jirou observed, although he didn't seem particularly concerned at the way the shirt rode up any time he moved his arms, revealing a flash of abdomen. Sparkly abdomen.
'Huh,' Jirou said, blinking and turning his attention to his shimmering arms. 'I'm glittery.'
'Mm,' Oshitari remarked casually, buttoning the three middle buttons on the shirt and leaving the top and bottom buttons undone. The effect was very nice, and he would have smirked to himself in triumph had he not been worried that Jirou might actually notice that.
'Atobe does have somewhat unusual taste in toiletries,' he added with an encouraging smile, carefully not mentioning the fact that Jirou smelt rather like a big ice cream cone. 'But you're clean, and...ah,' he added as one of Atobe's staff arrived carrying a positively massive basket of gum in various forms and flavors. She offered it with a bow, and Oshitari took it and handed it to Jirou. 'There you go. I imagine there'll be something in there that Marui-kun will like, hmm?'
Most people who were not Jirou might have suspected something fishy about the nature in which Oshitari was buttoning his shirt, but Jirou merely rocked back and forth on his heels, rather like an impatient child waiting for his mother to finish dressing him. When Oshitari's hands dropped away, Jirou just had time to flash him a smile before the basket of gum arrived and his mouth fell open in awe.
'Oh, awesome! Can I have the whole basket?' At the servant's polite nod, Jirou giggled and accepted it from Oshitari.
'Thank you!' he said to the servant's retreating form. He then turned to Oshitari, beaming and bouncing and glowing with energy, and promptly dropped the basket to the floor so he could attach himself like a koala to Oshitari's front.
'Thank you thank you thank you, you're my favorite and the best friend ever and beyond awesome and I love you!'
Oshitari oofed softly as Jirou pounced him, and then chuckled and wrapped his arms around Jirou in return, long fingers wandering over Jirou's back in a 'friendly' caress. (What? He wanted to help Jirou out, but he wasn't a saint.) 'You're welcome,' he purred, then let Jirou down gently and rumpled his hair. 'Now go on with you. I believe you have a certain Rikkai senior on tenterhooks.'
He flashed his slow grin, then gave Jirou a little push in the direction of the door.
And then glanced longingly at the bathroom. Now he really needed a shower.
Jirou gave no indication he found Oshitari's caresses to be anything but platonic and friendly, merely squeezed him more tightly before dropping down to his feet and allowing himself to be pushed away. He grabbed the basket of gum and balanced it on top of his head, holding it in place with both arms as he scampered off in the direction the maid had gone.
'Thanks again!' he yelled over his shoulder. 'You're my favorite!'
It wasn't until Jirou was outside again and had Marui in his sights that he took a moment to wonder just what Oshitari had meant by 'tenterhooks.'
Marui was dozing on the bench, head filled with sugarplums. Or, more accurately, ice cream parfaits and enormous quantities of pocky. Jackal had been right - he was having a sugar crash. The inevitable result of a sugar crash was either grumpy!Marui or sleepy!Marui; this time around, Akutagawa-kun's antics had stolen his grump, but there was no knowing how long that would last.
Especially since every time he breathed in, he inhaled a mouthful of sakura petals.
Jirou was so pleased to find Marui still waiting for him on the bench that he didn't even stop to think maybe he should be gentle about waking him up. Instead, he dropped the basket of gum - which was so full it was actually pretty heavy - on the ground next to Marui's head and began to root through it.
'Okay!' he said brightly. 'So there's grape, lemon-lime, sour apple, strawberry-banana, blue raspberry, cherry, blueberry, peach, lychee, wow, cool, I didn't know they made lychee gum, uh . . . and I think . . .' he paused to sniff one of the more conspicuous packages. 'Strawberry honeysuckle!' he announced.
After a moment, he frowned and sniffed his arm. 'Oh . . . sorry, I think that's actually me. This one's mango.'
If Akutagawa-kun's chirpiness hadn't startled Marui out of his daydreams, the sudden intensification of said daydreams would have. The strawberry on his parfait suddenly smelt so much of strawberries that his mouth started watering, and he leaned in and tasted it before his conscious mind registered what Akutagawa-kun was saying.
And then he blushed, eyes going wide as he realized he had just licked another boy.
'....um. Doesn't....quite taste of strawberry honeysuckle,' he managed at last, and tried not to think about how for some reason it actually tasted better. Because that was just weird. And Marui Bunta was weird in many ways, but this particular way was maybe even a bit too weird for him.
Jirou didn't appear particularly embarrassed or unnerved by Marui's actions. In fact, it just made him grin stupidly. He tore open the package of strawberry gum and, without waiting for permission, popped a piece of it into Marui's mouth.
'Try that, then,' he suggested. 'Although . . . I didn't see any honeysuckle.' He dug a little deeper in the basket until his shoulders slumped in defeat. 'Do you want me to go back and look for some?' he asked.
Marui blinked, jaw already working instinctually to macerate the lovely cube of strawberry goodness, and then smiled, blush still brightening his cheeks but far too pleased to notice. This kid was actually willing to do that for him? Just because he thought Marui was cool? And he hadn't freaked out after being licked? (Marui was pretty sure everyone else he knew might've, except perhaps Jackal, who would have given him a Look, or Niou, who might well have licked back.)
It was already weird, but Akutagawa-kun was taking it all in stride, and that was intriguing to Marui, especially considering the way boys their age tended to be. He was just so...
...oblivious, maybe?
Marui shrugged, and blew an experimental bubble. 'Nah,' he said, and flipped around so his legs were hooked over the back of the bench and his head dangled off the seat, hair brushing the ground. 'You did good. No need for you to go running off again. Sit.'
Jirou grinned - by this point his face was kind of starting to hurt - and flopped down next to Marui triumphantly. He was content to watch Marui blow upside-down bubbles for much longer than most reasonable people would be able to manage, but he did finally begin to fidget, more out of anxiousness than boredom.
'Um,' he said, scuffing the dirt with his shoes and fixing his eyes on the ground. 'Do you think you would maybe -' he cut off and rubbed the back of his neck, then, in one rushed breath, blurted, 'would you want to play a game of tennis with me maybe?'
Finally getting up the courage to make eye contact, Jirou glanced over at Marui, adding with a shy smile, 'I promise you won't be bored.'
Marui was surprised not so much by the question, since naturally everyone would want to play a game with someone as awesome as himself, but by the method of asking. It was almost like Akutagawa-kun was asking him for a favor, rather than making some sort of cocky demand or treating it like it would be an honor for Marui. It was so unusual that Marui would have agreed anyway just out of pure intrigue. But something about the look on Akutagawa-kun's face roped him in, and he found himself nodding without a moment's hesitation.
'Sure,' he added after a moment, and smiled around his gum. 'Why not?'
'Really?' Jirou looked genuinely stunned that Marui had so readily accepted, but he didn't let it prevent him from scrambling off the bench and jumping in excitement.
'Wow! Okay . . . okay.' Jirou spun in a circle, apparently looking for something, and only stopped when he failed to find it after three spins. 'I need my racket!' he said. 'And uh, you need yours! Should we go to the courts?' He pointed in the direction of the courts Marui had just come from.
Marui flinched, and then twisted his head so he was looking back at the courts from underneath the bench - a very uncomfortable position, but less trouble than moving. It wasn't that he was rethinking playing Akutagawa-kun, only that he didn't really want to get yelled at by Sanada-fukubuchou for skipping out instead of watching the other games. But then, it looked like Sanada was in the process of playing Atobe at the moment, which meant he couldn't very well yell, could he.
Marui blew a thoughtful bubble. This was his best chance to get back without being noticed, since Sanada was occupied and he was willing to wager Yukimura-buchou was occupied with watching Sanada be occupied. The only person who might've been likely to rat him out was Kirihara, but he wasn't here this weekend, since he hadn't had to retire.
Why the hell not?
'Sure,' he said nonchalantly, and flipped over, albeit perhaps a bit less gracefully than one of the acrobats might've, but still smoothly enough to where he landed on his feet instead of his ass. 'Let's go.'
Jirou tried to walk at a normal pace at Marui's side for about six seconds before he couldn't contain himself anymore, and he grabbed Marui's wrist and started dragging him toward the courts.
'C'mon!' he said. 'We want to finish our game before - oh!' He dug his heels into the ground and came to an abrupt stop. 'The gum!'
Without another word, Jirou darted back to the bench, picked up the basket, and returned to Marui's side only to drag him toward the courts even more quickly.
'Akutagawa......kun.' Marui blinked as the other boy darted away and came back in the space of time it took him to say his name. He'd been going to suggest that they come back for the gum later, since he was pretty sure having a massive basket of gum would result in Jackal rolling his eyes, Niou teasing him about how he was just so sweet that of course he necessitated a gum altar, and Sanada threatening to confiscate it. But at that point it was too late, and he just shrugged, letting himself be dragged along.
Akutagawa-kun had nice fingers, he noted absently. They were long, and smoother than most tennis players', probably because he seemed to spend more time sleeping than playing. His hand was warm against Marui's wrist, and Marui gave it a sideways glance, somewhat amused by the shimmeriness.
Which was why his gaze lingered longer than was strictly polite. The amusement. Naturally.
Jirou didn't let go of Marui's wrist as he dragged him onto the free court farthest away from the one on which Atobe-buchou and Rikkai's Sanada were having a match, and seemed in fact to have quite forgotten he was still holding onto him as he found a safe corner next to a bench to stash the gum. He continued pulling Marui along as he searched for and shortly found his racket, then, straightening up and smiling at the racket as if it had just made an amusing joke, turned to face Marui again. It was then he realized he was still holding Marui's wrist, which he released hesitantly.
'Sorry,' he said. There was an awkward silence before he broke into another grin and bounced off over the net to the other side of the court.
'Rough or smooth?' he asked gleefully.
'Smooth,' Marui answered, and then almost bit his tongue instead of his gum when he realized he'd purred instead of speaking. He knew the difference now after spending so much time around Yagyuu, and he felt the flush staining his cheeks as he swallowed and looked around. One of the second-years from Fudomine, the crazy one with the blue hair, was eyeing him curiously and muttering to himself under his breath, and Marui took a moment to wonder why the hell there were second-years here at all (probably because Fudomine was a bunch of losers who didn't have enough worthwhile seniors to bring along) before Akutagawa-kun spun the racket.
It landed with the J upside-down and backward, and Marui sighed. Of course it would be rough, after he'd embarrassed himself saying the opposite. He shrugged, and then looked at his opponent expectantly.
Jirou only grinned wider at Marui's answer, and when Marui looked over at Fudomine Jirou did as well, although instead of glaring he beamed and waved. Every member of Fudomine present hastily looked in the opposite direction, however, so Jirou just shrugged and picked up his racket.
Jirou didn't give any warning before starting the game, and since he didn't have a signature phrase or sound to accompany his serves - he kind of wished he did sometimes, that would be pretty cool - Marui seemed entirely caught off-guard when he smashed the ball into a far corner and scored an immediate ace.
It was the first time since the beginning of the camp that Jirou was feeling a jolt of excitement as a result of a match, and he couldn't hold in a playful laugh at the expression on Marui's face.
'Sorry!' he called. 'Were you not ready?'
Marui blinked, and followed the path of the ball with his eyes, studying the corner of the service box where a faint imprint of the ball's bounce stood out against the green. He had been ready, but he hadn't been expecting...that.
'It's fine,' he called back, and shifted to the other side of the court, narrowing his eyes. If Yukimura-buchou was watching, he would have gotten laps and a long lecture later on, but Yukimura-buchou was still occupied with Sanada-fukubuchou, and now Marui was really ready.
This time, when Akutagawa-kun fired off a serve, Marui returned it with a flick of his arm, then ran toward the net in preparation for a volley. To his surprise, though, Akutagawa-kun was already there, and Marui had a split second to think no one's wrist should bend that way before the ball was flying past him.
Shit.
He wanted to take it easy on the kid - no point shattering his self-esteem so early on, after all, especially since he seemed so eager to answer Marui's beck and call - but maybe this was taking it too easy. Not good. He was going to get laughed at at this rate, and nobody laughed at Marui Bunta. Except Niou, but then, Niou had a serious death wish. That was the only explanation for the fact that he partnered Yagyuu.
This? This was fun. Jirou could barely keep his wrist from trembling it was so much fun, but he managed to force it steady enough to fire off another serve, which Marui returned with what appeared to be renewed purpose. It was awesome watching Marui when he was determined, and Jirou wondered if maybe he was becoming a little distracted by the awesome-ness, because next thing he knew Marui had scored a point.
'THAT WAS SO COOL, MARUI-KUN!' Jirou nearly shrieked. 'I didn't even see the ball!' He hurried back to his service position and tugged another ball out of his pocket to serve, but before he could throw it he looked down and frowned at his shirt.
'Sorry,' he called distractedly. 'I think the buttons are off.'
He fiddled with the buttons on the front of his shirt with a look of absolute concentration until his shirt was wide open, then began to button them up again from the bottom. Weird that Oshitari of all people, who was immaculate about his own appearance, would slip up on something like buttons, but, Jirou supposed, he was only human.
'Okay!' Jirou said, waving. Unbeknownst to him, the buttons were now even more askew, so unbalanced that on one side his abdomen was mostly exposed, on the other, a good portion of his chest. He raised his arm to serve again, and now it caused his shirt to ride up so far that his belly button showed.
'Huh,' Jirou said, looking down. 'That's not right, either.'
Marui cleared his throat, studiously looking at Akutagawa-kun's...no, that wasn't right. Collarbones didn't help, because they were rather more prominent than they should have been. Plus which they drew attention to the skewed line of his buttons, which then pulled Marui's attention down to his flat stomach, and the waistband of his trousers, and Marui was going to stop right there because it was just getting weird. Stuff like that was okay for Yukimura-buchou, because he was Yukimura-buchou and nobody dared question him about anything, plus which he was just bad-ass so he could slaughter you if you thought anything but the very best about him. It was also okay for Sanada-fukubuchou, because first of all, he was doing it with Yukimura-buchou, and then because Sanada-fukubuchou was pretty good at kicking ass in his own right. Marui on the other hand did not have that luxury.
Not that that was enough to keep him from staring.
Finally he fixed his gaze on the face of Akutagawa-kun's racquet. 'It looks fine,' he said impatiently. 'Just serve again.'
Jirou was pleased enough to have earned Marui's approval that he obeyed him instantly, serving swiftly enough that Marui just barely managed to hit it back. They volleyed for a good amount of time, Jirou's eagerness growing with every returned shot until Marui sent him a tricky return that required nearly bending over backwards and flicking his wrist at a most unnatural angle. Jirou did.
'Whoo!' Jirou shook his wrist out and got into position again. His heart was beating so fast he was actually starting to feel dizzy. If this were what tennis felt like all the time, Jirou would spend far less time napping and more time playing.
'This is more fun with you!' Jirou shouted, meaning every word of it, just before serving and taking the game.
Akutagawa-kun was good. Not like, good for a rich-bitch from Hyotei, but actually, honestly good. No wonder he was always bored. Marui still didn't understand why he got so flaily-excited, but then, maybe that was just because it was him, and everyone knew to be awed by a tensai. Although his teammates didn't seem to have gotten that memo.
Akutagawa-kun could also really bend his wrists at very odd angles. He did so while he was waiting for Marui to serve, and Marui was suddenly hit with the thought that that could come in very handy for other reasons, and then winced as he served straight into the net. He hadn't done that since before he learned to chew gum on the court. Cursing under his breath, he took a moment to trot off to the sidelines and grab another piece of gum, and then returned, determined to take the next game back.
Which he did, but Akutagawa-kun made him work for it. Marui ran the back of his wrist across his forehead as they changed courts, and wondered why this kid hadn't played in the quarterfinals against Seigaku. Had he done so, Hyotei might have been the ones facing Rikkai in the finals.
Where were they hiding you? he thought as Akutagawa-kun took the next game back from him, and paused on the sidelines to shuck his wristbands, ignoring Niou's taunts as he got ready to serve again.
This far into a match, Jirou was usually ready to go to sleep. For the next four hours, or six, or maybe just until next practice.
He wasn't sleepy at all this time. This time, he felt so awake it was almost like his limbs were electrically charged, sending sparks to his hands and wrists every time he sent a shot toward Marui's side of the court. The last time he'd felt even remotely this alive, it was against Seigaku's Fuji, and even that game hadn't pushed him to this level of enthusiasm, where every fiber in his being was aching, begging to be invested in nothing but tennis. It probably had something to do with the fact that Fuji hadn't seemed particularly invested in their game, whereas Marui seemed almost as into it as Jirou was.
Then again, it could have also been just because Marui was that unbearably awesome.
Jirou actually had to stop and do a once-over of the game so far in his head when he realized they had reached match point in his favor, trying to fight back a little surge of despair at the thought. He didn't want the match to end. Ever. But if he just didn't serve, Marui would probably get mad. Sighing inwardly, he sent the ball into Marui's court and prepared himself for the return.
Marui was losing.
It wasn't like it was the first time. Yukimura-buchou trounced him on a regular basis, especially now that he was allowed to play again after such a long hiatus - he liked to trounce everyone as often as possible, as if trying to remind himself that he could. Sanada-fukubuchou trounced him too, and never even seemed pleased about it. Yanagi-kun liked to trounce him too, cruelly, and sometimes Yagyuu did as well, though Marui did beat him occasionally. But aside from that, he'd never been this soundly trounced in a singles match before, and he wasn't sure if he felt more outraged or just shocked in general. He had never expected Akutagawa-kun to be this good, nor had he expected to be pushed this hard, which was shocking in its own right, but what was even more shocking was that he was enjoying himself.
Marui hated to lose, and yet he was having the time of his life. He'd never seen anyone play with so much genuine enthusiasm for the game. Rikkai was all about winning, and while there was satisfaction and very occasionally pleasure in a win, usually it was just realization of an inevitability, and there wasn't much pleasure to be gleaned from that. But this...Akutagawa-kun looked about ready to fly out of his skin, and Marui might have expected that of the crazy redhead from Seigaku perhaps, or those weirdoes from Rokkaku, or that one shrimp from Shitenhouji (and what the hell was it about redheads, or red in general for that matter? it really made Marui consider dyeing his hair), but not from a Hyotei player, especially not one who spent most of his time bored out of his mind.
He was going to take this point. He was going to take this point. He was going to take this point.
Akutagawa-kun volleyed, a slick little move that Marui had used himself several times, and he dove for it, feeling alive, excited, like he could fly, and grinned in triumph as he caught up to it, the ball impacting his sweet spot dead centre and sending it up, over Akutagawa-kun's head, gleaming almost like gold in the bright sunlight...
'Out!'
It was silent for a good few seconds as Jirou and Marui both stared at the spot the ball had hit just before rolling away to rest next to the basket of gum. Jirou noticed with no small amount of surprise that most of the players on surrounding courts were watching their game now, likely had been for some time, and it was right then that that electric spark in Jirou's body ruptured and he almost toppled over to crash into the net. Instead, he grabbed hold of it, propelled himself over the top, and launched himself directly onto Marui.
'That was awesome awesome awesome awesome absolutely the best game ever you were so cool oh my God!' He wrapped his legs more tightly around Marui's waist and buried his hands in the bright pink hair, rubbing so hard it was just shy of being a noogie.
'Let's play again!' Jirou chirped.
Marui had lost.
Marui had lost a singles game against a Hyotei player who spent most of his time asleep on the bench.
Marui had lost in front of his captain, his vice-captain, his whole team, and three rival schools.
And yet, Marui was happy.
Clearly the world was coming to an end.
'Jirou,' said a voice from the sidelines, and Marui looked up through the wild mess of curls and the enthusiastic flailing of Akutagawa-kun's hands and saw that tall, dark-haired player from Hyotei, the one who played doubles sometimes, watching them, a small smirk twisting his lips. 'Maybe you should let Marui-kun eat something before you go at it again? You shouldn't exhaust him completely if you're hoping for another round.'
Marui couldn't explain why he was blushing, only that he'd never been quite so glad of the fact that his hair covered his face so nicely
Jirou pouted, but obediently disentangled himself from Marui, stuffing his hands in his pockets and kicking at the ground.
'I guess,' he agreed sullenly. His head then snapped up and, completely oblivious to Marui's blush, he grabbed the hem of shirt and asked, wide-eyed and pleading, 'Will you play me again later? Please?'
Oshitari was calling his name again, so Jirou began to walk backwards toward the side where most of Hyotei had gathered.
'Yes? Please?'
'All right,' Marui agreed dazedly, and blinked as Akutagawa-kun's face lit right back up in delight. He was the most bipolar person Marui had ever met. He was the most a lot of things Marui had ever met though, and he wondered at the fact that he'd never noticed him before. Clearly he was getting sloppy in his old age.
Especially since he could have sworn a lot of those moves were suspiciously similar to his.
'Puri!' Niou chirped at him, flinging an arm around his shoulders and continuing the head-rubbing where Akutagawa-kun had left off. Marui growled and jabbed an elbow into Niou's solar plexus, but Niou just gave a dramatic sigh.
'Ah,' he said, tightening his arm until Marui's face started to go red again. 'Young love.'
Marui turned his head, sweet smile in place, and promptly spat his strawberry gum into Niou's hair.
On to Part 2