Stakeout [Prince of Tennis; Eiji/Mizuki]
Title: Stakeout
Pairing: Eiji/Mizuki, Inui/Yanagi
Rating: PG
Summary: Eiji and Mizuki go spying on dates together. Sort of.
Word Count: ~2000
A/N: Well, it's my birthday and I'll write what I want to. Inspired by bloodybrilliant and chasingwhispers, with thanks to garlandgraves for shipping this pairing with me.
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The flowers are the first sign that something suspicious is going on. There are twelve of them, red roses, and they're wrapped in fancy pink paper. Eiji might not find this strange if it were some other boy, like Momo or Fuji or that guy from Yamabuki, but it isn't. It's Inui, and Inui has never been out on a date before. Yes, Eiji has checked.
He wonders if maybe Inui has a sick relative. Maybe his sister is in a school play and the flowers are for curtain call. But Inui doesn't have any siblings and, come to think of it, he might not have any relatives either. Eiji really thinks that maybe Inui just sort of appeared on Earth fifteen years ago, like by magic, or aliens.
Inui certainly looks a little like an alien now, carrying the flowers like they're a scientific specimen, holding them out in front of him, his grip tight and careful. Eiji wants to give him some pointers. He could be charming, maybe, if he tried really, really hard. He looks happy though - or maybe deranged, Eiji can't decide.
He follows Inui at a safe distance, a block behind him at all times, just the way Inui would were this his spy mission. He feels stealthy in spite of his lack of hat and notebook. He hums a secret agent theme song as he moves, cat-like steps on the sidewalk, his eyes darting from left to right as though an enemy could emerge at any moment from out of a doorway or up from the sewer.
Eiji thinks about calling up Momo or Fuji to tell them the news, but only one other person at Seigaku is as fascinated with dates as Eiji is and, well, that person is going on one.
Inui rounds the corner and there's a café across the street, five tables with a green canvas umbrellas, one of them occupied. Eiji assumes it's Inui's date. They keep checking their watch, its face glinting in the sunlight.
Haha! Eiji thinks, Inui must be late!
When Inui crosses the street, Eiji gasps.
"Wait. Is that-?"
"Renji," Eiji hears Inui say, and the figure at the table stands and emerges out from under the shade of the umbrella. Eiji recognizes Yanagi's haircut, but he looks different in regular clothes instead of a tennis jersey. Less mysterious, more normal.
Eiji's sure that if either one of them were to look back across the street, they'd spot him immediately - damn his red hair! - so he makes a split-second decision to leap into the clump of bushes the line the sidewalk -
- and land clean on top of someone. Something hard jabs him in the back and before Eiji has a chance to find out what it is, the someone flails and screeches and shoves Eiji off.
"Get off!"
Eiji blinks. "Mizuki?"
Mizuki sits up and brushes frantically at his hair. Then he picks up a pair of binoculars from off the ground - So that's what they were! Eiji thinks, rubbing the place they'd poked him - and eyes Eiji like a lion whose prey has just wandered into its den.
"Nfu," says Mizuki, still sounding more startled than smug.
"How long have you been here?" Eiji asks, pointing an accusatory finger. "No wait, why are you even here?"
"Kikumaru-kun," Mizuki starts. "I realize all you're good at are fancy acrobatics, but surely you see what's going on here."
Oh, Eiji thinks. So Mizuki likes dates, too?
"Your team member and Yanagi-kun are engaged in a most shameful exchange of tennis data in a public place. This is clearly a plot to unseat St. Rudolph in the running for Nationals and, as team manager, I must look out for my school's best interests."
Eiji just sort of stares at Mizuki for a good ten seconds before he bursts out laughing. Mizuki's finger stops in his hair mid-twirl.
"Stop that!"
Eiji laughs harder. "Mizuki, you're so dense!" Mizuki's expression is hilariously strained.
"What are you talking about?"
"They're on a date!"
"You're more unhinged than I thought, Kikumaru-kun."
"All your data and even you can't see that?"
Mizuki glares at Eiji and then says, "If you don't mind," and puts the binoculars to his face. "The flowers must contain some clue…"
"They're just flowers!" Eiji says. "You know, like people give each other when they go on dates? Here, let me look." Eiji tries to grab the binoculars, but Mizuki clutches them tightly to his chest.
"No."
"Why not?"
"They're my binoculars!"
Eiji pouts, then sticks out his tongue. "You're no fun. How are we supposed to spy together-"
"We're not doing anything together, Kikumaru-kun. I am protecting my tennis team's reputation. Go… practice your somersaults or something. Nfufufu."
Kikumaru feels his ears burn. When he and Momo and Inui go spying, they never tell him off like that! He's just as entitled to this as Mizuki is, binoculars and data or not.
Mizuki obviously isn't expecting it when Eiji tackles him to the ground with a growl that sounds almost feline. His eyes go wide and he makes a choking noise as Eiji pins him against the grass. "You're so mean!" Eiji says. It's sort of a half-hearted attack because Eiji isn't all for fighting with people he doesn't really know that well, and besides, he's much more interested in what's happening across the street at the café. When he lets Mizuki go and sits back up, his mouth falls open.
Inui and Yanagi are kissing.
Eiji grabs Mizuki's collar and drags him up by it. Mizuki splutters in surprise. "They-No, this can't be right!" he starts, immediately fumbling with the focus on his binoculars and ignoring the way Eiji is still half-straddling his right leg.
"Hah!" Eiji says, as Mizuki continues his mumbled re-calculating. "I told you so! They're on a date, anyone can see that! Admit I was right."
Mizuki's eyes are dark when he lowers his binoculars and looks at Eiji. Then he grabs Eiji's hair and tugs. "Don't you dare point out errors in my data, Kikumaru-kun! You're not even on my team! You're nobody! And your hair-what the hell is even in your hair??" He pulls it again, this time knotting his fingers through it and Eiji makes a startled yelp before grabbing Mizuki's shirt and trying to scratch him through the material.
"You fight like a girl!" Eiji exclaims, to which Mizuki just laughs. He shoves Eiji down this time and they roll over one another in the grass, a well-matched battle of hair-pulling and scratching and maybe even a little biting from Mizuki's end. It's almost fun, Eiji thinks, if it weren't Mizuki, and if there weren't teeth there on his wrist a second ago, and if he still wasn't wondering why Inui and Yanagi were kissing when Eiji hadn't heard a single thing about Inui liking boys, or dating boys, and they were teammates!
Eiji snaps out of his distracted train of thought when his phone rings.
Both he and Mizuki freeze as Eiji fishes it out of his pants pocket and flips it open.
"Fujiko~!" Mizuki's eyes brighten and he leans in so that his head is almost on Eiji's shoulder. Eiji's volume is on low, though, so he can't really hear anything from the other end. Fuji is chattering on about his math homework, and the new cactus his sister bought for him that morning, and then he wonders aloud if Eiji would like to sleep over that weekend.
"Nyah, Fujiko, I would come over but I'm busy!!" - Mizuki pushes Eiji over and tries to grab the phone away - "I can't talk right now, I'm pinning Mizuki to the ground and- Ow! He just bit me again!"
"Nfu!" says Mizuki, looking triumphant. "Now let me talk to Fuji Syuusuke."
"No!" Eiji says, hanging up the phone and shoving it back into his pocket.
Mizuki's hand flies to the front of Eiji's pants before he stops himself, apparently realizing that no matter how dirty the fighting, it's never proper to stick one's hands into another boy's front pockets. "So rude, Kikumaru-kun."
"Me?" Eiji looks affronted, because it's Mizuki's fault after all that he wasn't able to just talk to Fuji like he usually would. Mizuki does that stupid little laugh of his, looking quite satisfied at the fact that Eiji didn't get to have a normal conversation with his best friend today. It really makes Eiji angry, not in the serious-angry kind of way, but in a way that Eiji can't really explain.
And then suddenly they're fighting again, and Eiji wonders if this is how Momo feels every day at practice when he's fighting with Kaidoh. It's sort of exhilarating, even though Eiji doesn't want to think about how many hard-to-explain teeth marks will be on his neck by dinnertime.
"You come here and interrupt my data gathering. You insinuate that my data is faulty. And then, to add insult to injury, you won't even let me speak with my destined rival!"
They're weirdly twisted against each other and Mizuki's hand is in Eiji's hair again, and Eiji sort of just stares at Mizuki for thirty seconds before saying anything in reply. Then: "I didn't know you were going to be here! And it's not like this spot has your name on it! And haha, Fuji doesn't even know who you are!" Mizuki starts to raise his binoculars up, perhaps as a shield, but Eiji is too fast and grabs them out of his hand. He leans over Mizuki, studying him. "Don't you even know what a date is, Mizuki?" And then he kisses him, quick and hard as if to illustrate his point.
That'll show him, thinks Eiji.
Mizuki splutters again, this time with some added flailing of his arms. "What?? What was that?" Eiji crabwalks backwards, grinning and laughing, and Mizuki lunges forward at him. "You can't just do that with no explanation!"
This time around, Mizuki gets the upper hand easily, or maybe Eiji isn't really trying, because soon Mizuki is on top of him and Eiji is still squirming and giggling.
Mizuki has a strange, open sort of look in his eyes, like his ego has been hurt from Eiji's words and it's almost too much for him to take. He pins Eiji's arms at his sides and kisses him, with tongue and everything, and Eiji's mouth falls open not with invitation but in shock. Mizuki looks suspiciously smirky, and Eiji wonders if this is his form of retaliation, which seems sort of silly. He wonders if Mizuki feels vindicated for this revenge. He wonders if Mizuki has kissed anyone before.
Eiji hasn't, for the record.
He decides to kiss back not because he likes the idea of kissing Mizuki - he doesn't - but because he knows Mizuki won't expect it, and that's what counts. He grabs Mizuki's collar and bites his lip too for good measure. Then he laughs at the mental image of Momo and Kaidoh fighting like this.
When he opens his eyes, Mizuki is watching him.
"I hate you," he mutters, pushing against Eiji again and stopping his laughter with his mouth. Eiji murmurs in agreement and then they're grabbing at each other's clothes and Mizuki's binoculars get knocked off and under the bushes nearby and Eiji knows there will be grass stains on his jeans soon.
He doesn't mind, really. This is more exciting than browsing idol albums at the music store, at any rate.
It isn't until Eiji hears someone clearing their throat that he and Mizuki both freeze. And look up. And see Inui and Renji staring down at them with twin expressions of amusement.
"Look, Sadaharu, it seems we weren't the only ones on a date today."
Mizuki looks at Eiji and Eiji looks right back. "Told ya!"
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Pairing: Eiji/Mizuki, Inui/Yanagi
Rating: PG
Summary: Eiji and Mizuki go spying on dates together. Sort of.
Word Count: ~2000
A/N: Well, it's my birthday and I'll write what I want to. Inspired by bloodybrilliant and chasingwhispers, with thanks to garlandgraves for shipping this pairing with me.
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The flowers are the first sign that something suspicious is going on. There are twelve of them, red roses, and they're wrapped in fancy pink paper. Eiji might not find this strange if it were some other boy, like Momo or Fuji or that guy from Yamabuki, but it isn't. It's Inui, and Inui has never been out on a date before. Yes, Eiji has checked.
He wonders if maybe Inui has a sick relative. Maybe his sister is in a school play and the flowers are for curtain call. But Inui doesn't have any siblings and, come to think of it, he might not have any relatives either. Eiji really thinks that maybe Inui just sort of appeared on Earth fifteen years ago, like by magic, or aliens.
Inui certainly looks a little like an alien now, carrying the flowers like they're a scientific specimen, holding them out in front of him, his grip tight and careful. Eiji wants to give him some pointers. He could be charming, maybe, if he tried really, really hard. He looks happy though - or maybe deranged, Eiji can't decide.
He follows Inui at a safe distance, a block behind him at all times, just the way Inui would were this his spy mission. He feels stealthy in spite of his lack of hat and notebook. He hums a secret agent theme song as he moves, cat-like steps on the sidewalk, his eyes darting from left to right as though an enemy could emerge at any moment from out of a doorway or up from the sewer.
Eiji thinks about calling up Momo or Fuji to tell them the news, but only one other person at Seigaku is as fascinated with dates as Eiji is and, well, that person is going on one.
Inui rounds the corner and there's a café across the street, five tables with a green canvas umbrellas, one of them occupied. Eiji assumes it's Inui's date. They keep checking their watch, its face glinting in the sunlight.
Haha! Eiji thinks, Inui must be late!
When Inui crosses the street, Eiji gasps.
"Wait. Is that-?"
"Renji," Eiji hears Inui say, and the figure at the table stands and emerges out from under the shade of the umbrella. Eiji recognizes Yanagi's haircut, but he looks different in regular clothes instead of a tennis jersey. Less mysterious, more normal.
Eiji's sure that if either one of them were to look back across the street, they'd spot him immediately - damn his red hair! - so he makes a split-second decision to leap into the clump of bushes the line the sidewalk -
- and land clean on top of someone. Something hard jabs him in the back and before Eiji has a chance to find out what it is, the someone flails and screeches and shoves Eiji off.
"Get off!"
Eiji blinks. "Mizuki?"
Mizuki sits up and brushes frantically at his hair. Then he picks up a pair of binoculars from off the ground - So that's what they were! Eiji thinks, rubbing the place they'd poked him - and eyes Eiji like a lion whose prey has just wandered into its den.
"Nfu," says Mizuki, still sounding more startled than smug.
"How long have you been here?" Eiji asks, pointing an accusatory finger. "No wait, why are you even here?"
"Kikumaru-kun," Mizuki starts. "I realize all you're good at are fancy acrobatics, but surely you see what's going on here."
Oh, Eiji thinks. So Mizuki likes dates, too?
"Your team member and Yanagi-kun are engaged in a most shameful exchange of tennis data in a public place. This is clearly a plot to unseat St. Rudolph in the running for Nationals and, as team manager, I must look out for my school's best interests."
Eiji just sort of stares at Mizuki for a good ten seconds before he bursts out laughing. Mizuki's finger stops in his hair mid-twirl.
"Stop that!"
Eiji laughs harder. "Mizuki, you're so dense!" Mizuki's expression is hilariously strained.
"What are you talking about?"
"They're on a date!"
"You're more unhinged than I thought, Kikumaru-kun."
"All your data and even you can't see that?"
Mizuki glares at Eiji and then says, "If you don't mind," and puts the binoculars to his face. "The flowers must contain some clue…"
"They're just flowers!" Eiji says. "You know, like people give each other when they go on dates? Here, let me look." Eiji tries to grab the binoculars, but Mizuki clutches them tightly to his chest.
"No."
"Why not?"
"They're my binoculars!"
Eiji pouts, then sticks out his tongue. "You're no fun. How are we supposed to spy together-"
"We're not doing anything together, Kikumaru-kun. I am protecting my tennis team's reputation. Go… practice your somersaults or something. Nfufufu."
Kikumaru feels his ears burn. When he and Momo and Inui go spying, they never tell him off like that! He's just as entitled to this as Mizuki is, binoculars and data or not.
Mizuki obviously isn't expecting it when Eiji tackles him to the ground with a growl that sounds almost feline. His eyes go wide and he makes a choking noise as Eiji pins him against the grass. "You're so mean!" Eiji says. It's sort of a half-hearted attack because Eiji isn't all for fighting with people he doesn't really know that well, and besides, he's much more interested in what's happening across the street at the café. When he lets Mizuki go and sits back up, his mouth falls open.
Inui and Yanagi are kissing.
Eiji grabs Mizuki's collar and drags him up by it. Mizuki splutters in surprise. "They-No, this can't be right!" he starts, immediately fumbling with the focus on his binoculars and ignoring the way Eiji is still half-straddling his right leg.
"Hah!" Eiji says, as Mizuki continues his mumbled re-calculating. "I told you so! They're on a date, anyone can see that! Admit I was right."
Mizuki's eyes are dark when he lowers his binoculars and looks at Eiji. Then he grabs Eiji's hair and tugs. "Don't you dare point out errors in my data, Kikumaru-kun! You're not even on my team! You're nobody! And your hair-what the hell is even in your hair??" He pulls it again, this time knotting his fingers through it and Eiji makes a startled yelp before grabbing Mizuki's shirt and trying to scratch him through the material.
"You fight like a girl!" Eiji exclaims, to which Mizuki just laughs. He shoves Eiji down this time and they roll over one another in the grass, a well-matched battle of hair-pulling and scratching and maybe even a little biting from Mizuki's end. It's almost fun, Eiji thinks, if it weren't Mizuki, and if there weren't teeth there on his wrist a second ago, and if he still wasn't wondering why Inui and Yanagi were kissing when Eiji hadn't heard a single thing about Inui liking boys, or dating boys, and they were teammates!
Eiji snaps out of his distracted train of thought when his phone rings.
Both he and Mizuki freeze as Eiji fishes it out of his pants pocket and flips it open.
"Fujiko~!" Mizuki's eyes brighten and he leans in so that his head is almost on Eiji's shoulder. Eiji's volume is on low, though, so he can't really hear anything from the other end. Fuji is chattering on about his math homework, and the new cactus his sister bought for him that morning, and then he wonders aloud if Eiji would like to sleep over that weekend.
"Nyah, Fujiko, I would come over but I'm busy!!" - Mizuki pushes Eiji over and tries to grab the phone away - "I can't talk right now, I'm pinning Mizuki to the ground and- Ow! He just bit me again!"
"Nfu!" says Mizuki, looking triumphant. "Now let me talk to Fuji Syuusuke."
"No!" Eiji says, hanging up the phone and shoving it back into his pocket.
Mizuki's hand flies to the front of Eiji's pants before he stops himself, apparently realizing that no matter how dirty the fighting, it's never proper to stick one's hands into another boy's front pockets. "So rude, Kikumaru-kun."
"Me?" Eiji looks affronted, because it's Mizuki's fault after all that he wasn't able to just talk to Fuji like he usually would. Mizuki does that stupid little laugh of his, looking quite satisfied at the fact that Eiji didn't get to have a normal conversation with his best friend today. It really makes Eiji angry, not in the serious-angry kind of way, but in a way that Eiji can't really explain.
And then suddenly they're fighting again, and Eiji wonders if this is how Momo feels every day at practice when he's fighting with Kaidoh. It's sort of exhilarating, even though Eiji doesn't want to think about how many hard-to-explain teeth marks will be on his neck by dinnertime.
"You come here and interrupt my data gathering. You insinuate that my data is faulty. And then, to add insult to injury, you won't even let me speak with my destined rival!"
They're weirdly twisted against each other and Mizuki's hand is in Eiji's hair again, and Eiji sort of just stares at Mizuki for thirty seconds before saying anything in reply. Then: "I didn't know you were going to be here! And it's not like this spot has your name on it! And haha, Fuji doesn't even know who you are!" Mizuki starts to raise his binoculars up, perhaps as a shield, but Eiji is too fast and grabs them out of his hand. He leans over Mizuki, studying him. "Don't you even know what a date is, Mizuki?" And then he kisses him, quick and hard as if to illustrate his point.
That'll show him, thinks Eiji.
Mizuki splutters again, this time with some added flailing of his arms. "What?? What was that?" Eiji crabwalks backwards, grinning and laughing, and Mizuki lunges forward at him. "You can't just do that with no explanation!"
This time around, Mizuki gets the upper hand easily, or maybe Eiji isn't really trying, because soon Mizuki is on top of him and Eiji is still squirming and giggling.
Mizuki has a strange, open sort of look in his eyes, like his ego has been hurt from Eiji's words and it's almost too much for him to take. He pins Eiji's arms at his sides and kisses him, with tongue and everything, and Eiji's mouth falls open not with invitation but in shock. Mizuki looks suspiciously smirky, and Eiji wonders if this is his form of retaliation, which seems sort of silly. He wonders if Mizuki feels vindicated for this revenge. He wonders if Mizuki has kissed anyone before.
Eiji hasn't, for the record.
He decides to kiss back not because he likes the idea of kissing Mizuki - he doesn't - but because he knows Mizuki won't expect it, and that's what counts. He grabs Mizuki's collar and bites his lip too for good measure. Then he laughs at the mental image of Momo and Kaidoh fighting like this.
When he opens his eyes, Mizuki is watching him.
"I hate you," he mutters, pushing against Eiji again and stopping his laughter with his mouth. Eiji murmurs in agreement and then they're grabbing at each other's clothes and Mizuki's binoculars get knocked off and under the bushes nearby and Eiji knows there will be grass stains on his jeans soon.
He doesn't mind, really. This is more exciting than browsing idol albums at the music store, at any rate.
It isn't until Eiji hears someone clearing their throat that he and Mizuki both freeze. And look up. And see Inui and Renji staring down at them with twin expressions of amusement.
"Look, Sadaharu, it seems we weren't the only ones on a date today."
Mizuki looks at Eiji and Eiji looks right back. "Told ya!"
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