FIC: A New Definition of Success, Inui/Ryoma, PG
Title: A New Definition of Success
Author: cmere
Pairing: Inui/Ryoma
Rating: PG
Summary: Echizen catches Inui on a spying mission.
Word count: 3335
A/N: For poilass for help_haiti. Thank you so much for bidding on me and I hope you enjoy the fic! :) Thanks to longleggedgit for the excellent beta, and to reallycorking, sharply_unclear, and aunt_agatha for read throughs, encouragement, and a whole lot of love.
By the time Inui realizes he’s being followed, it’s already too late. He’s been caught.
“Inui-senpai, what are you doing here?” Echizen says, the tone of his voice a strange combination of curious and bored that Inui is sure only Echizen could pull off-especially while sweating.
“Echizen! I must have wandered back here by mistake,” Inui says, trying not to stutter, an unfamiliar prickling sensation in his cheeks telling him that his face is flaming red. “Are you following me?”
“You’ve wandered into the bushes behind Buchou’s house by mistake every day for the last two weeks?” Echizen asks, simultaneously ignoring and answering his question. Inui is flabbergasted.
“You’ve been following me for two weeks?”
“Your capacity for attentiveness and attention to detail has declined fifty percent,” Echizen announces seriously, then smirks. “There’s no proof or anything, but I’m guessing these things are related.”
Inui’s entire body is prickling now. He feels a bead of sweat slide down the back of his neck and he’s not sure whether it has to do with the intense summer heat or the fact that Echizen has not only been watching him, but analyzing him. Even though he’s sure Echizen just pulled that figure out of nowhere, it’s true-Inui has been distracted, off his game, and Echizen’s been paying attention. Usually Inui is the only one that notices these occurrences in his teammates, and that’s because he has to keep careful records.
“It’s just a side project, Echizen. Nothing to concern yourself with,” Inui says, trying to sound self-assured. Echizen does not look convinced.
“What’s Buchou doing?” Echizen asks, ignoring Inui and settling in next to him behind the bushes. He squints toward the kitchen window.
“His bedroom is upstairs,” Inui says, pointing. “Here.” He unstrings the binoculars from around his neck and hands them to Echizen, who’s now at least looking in the right direction. Inui always thought Echizen would make a pitiful spy, but he can see he wasn’t totally right if he hadn’t noticed he was being followed for two whole weeks.
“He’s on the computer?” Echizen says.
“That’s right,” Inui replies. “He used to only use the computer for schoolwork or tennis-writing papers or researching on the internet, emailing about tennis tournaments. That’s changed.”
“Changed to what?” Echizen asks, and Inui is surprised that he sounds genuinely curious. He straightens up, more confident now than he was a few minutes ago.
“Chatting on instant messenger,” Inui reveals, and Echizen’s eyes go wide.
“I can’t really picture Buchou chatting,” he says.
“There was only a three percent likelihood that Tezuka would ever start spending his free time doing such a thing, and yet for the last two weeks he’s spent at least one hour a night on instant messenger, time that he used to spend reading or exercising. It could have started earlier, I don’t know. I only found out about it by coincidence when I came by on my weekly rounds to see what Tezuka is currently reading.”
“You’re a creep, Inui-senpai,” Echizen says mildly, standing up a bit on his knees in an obvious attempt to get a better view into Tezuka’s bedroom. “How do you even know he’s chatting? You can’t see the screen.”
“Be quiet a moment,” Inui suggests, and they sit in silence. After only a few seconds the unmistakable ping! of an instant messaging client can be heard and Inui smiles triumphantly. “That’s how.” Echizen nods.
“So who is he chatting with? Oishi-senpai? They could be discussing the team.”
“I’ve already confirmed with Oishi that he has never chatted online with Tezuka.”
“Maybe Fuji-senpai is making him do it for some stupid reason?”
“Fuji has confirmed the same as Oishi. I’ve asked all the likely candidates, including the student body vice president and even Ryuuzaki-sensei.” Echizen snorts at that, but Inui continues. “No one is even aware Tezuka has a screen name, let alone is speaking to him for an hour every evening. I can only come to one possible conclusion, but I have yet to find proof.”
“What conclusion?”
“Tezuka has a girlfriend,” Inui says and can’t stop himself from grinning. Echizen snorts again.
“Yeah, right. What girl would be interested in Buchou?”
“61% of the female student body at Seigaku would date Tezuka given the opportunity, and at any given time there are at least six girls actively pursuing him. One of them must have captured his heart.”
“Buchou would never get a girlfriend,” Echizen protests. “And how do you know he wasn’t chatting with me?”
“Due to your tendency to be generally unhelpful in the course of my research, I was still trying to think of the best way to approach you about it. Since you are now here beside me, I think it’s safe to say Tezuka is not chatting with you.”
Echizen nods, seemingly satisfied with the answer. “But what about tennis?”
Inui knows that he must be referring to the effect a girl would have on Tezuka’s focus. “His performance has actually improved notably since I began documenting it seriously two weeks ago. His power, speed, and reflexes are all up by at least four percent. Whoever she is, she’s actually doing good things for his tennis.”
“But not for yours,” Echizen says, looking far too pleased with himself. “I saw Kaidoh-senpai demolish you yesterday.”
“I admit this possibility has made me a bit distracted,” Inui says, pulling his shirt away from where it’s sticking to his skin. Sitting in the sun in this heat probably hasn’t helped either. “Seeing Tezuka with a girl would open up an entirely new world of data.”
“Except even on the slight chance that Buchou did have a girlfriend, you would never see him with her, and also it’s impossible.”
“It’s the only logical conclusion from the data I’ve gathered.”
“Why don’t we just ask him?”
“Data indicates that were Tezuka to ever get a girlfriend, there’s a one percent maximum chance that he would admit it to anyone.”
“My data indicates that there’s a zero percent chance Buchou would ever get a girlfriend,” Echizen says stubbornly.
“Would you care to place a wager on that?” Inui asks, the idea occurring to him suddenly. Echizen narrows his eyes in suspicion.
“What’s the wager?”
“If you’re wrong, you have to play me in tennis.” Inui smiles, pleased with how the situation is playing out. He’s wanted another chance to get Echizen’s data up close for months, but Echizen always refuses to play him.
“What if I’m right?”
“You get to play me in tennis?” Inui suggests. Echizen rolls his eyes. “You can try a sample of the new juice recipe-” Echizen cuts him off.
“When I win, you have to buy me hamburgers for a week,” he declares with a satisfied smile.
“Deal,” Inui says, holding out his hand. They shake on it.
“So how do we find out for sure?” Echizen asks.
“We keep collecting data, of course,” Inui replies, holding out his hand for the binoculars.
***
They’ve been spying on Tezuka together every day for a week now, and Inui hadn’t realized that having a partner in crime would make everything a whole lot more fun. Echizen spent the majority of the time complaining about being bored and hot and trash-talking Inui’s methods while Inui took notes, but Inui kind of liked listening to him.
“Inui-senpai,” Echizen starts one Thursday afternoon, “we’re not going to find anything else out like this. We have to try something diff-”
“Shhh!” Inui hushes him, focusing his binoculars. Tezuka had just gotten up from the computer but a small chat window was clearly visible. If only they had a ladder to get up the side of the house…there were vines growing that would be possible to climb, but it would most likely take far too long.
“Echizen, go ring the doorbell, quick!” Inui whispers. Echizen raises his eyebrows.
“No.”
“Yes, just go talk to him and distract him for a minute! If I can get up the side of the house and look in the window-”
“You’re going to kill yourself and I’m not disturbing Buchou right now,” Echizen says flatly.
“Please!” Inui says, desperate. After a week of no new developments this could be a huge breakthrough. “Just ask him…ask him if he knows anything about the lineup for the upcoming match against Hyotei. Tell him you want to play first singles.”
“Inui-senpai-”
“Echizen, if you want to find out the truth, you have to do this! Quick!”
Echizen stares at him for a moment, clearly annoyed. Without a word he gets up, peering around to make sure no one’s looking out of their window, and walks around the side of the house to the front yard. Inui waits until he hears the sound of a doorbell from the open window before he allows himself to move closer to the house. Now the only question is if he’ll truly be able to scale the house using the vines. He grabs hold; they seem steady, so he hoists himself up. He’s been doing extra upper body weights just in case this situation ever came up and is pleased to note it’s easier than the last time he practiced.
Inui is climbing slowly but steadily when he hears a breathy, “Hey, Buchou,” from the downstairs window, and he stops dead in his tracks. He feels an irrational flare of anger at the tone of voice but he’s not sure where it comes from; Echizen speaks to Tezuka that way ninety-four percent of the time, both in public and private. Inui gives himself a firm mental shake and continues climbing.
“Echizen,” Tezuka responds curtly, and Inui’s chest loosens up a bit. For once, Tezuka doesn’t sound entirely pleased to see him. Inui tries to focus on getting to Tezuka’s window and ignores the following murmurs, but after only a short moment, he hears Tezuka’s bedroom door opening and closing, meaning Echizen has already left. Inui briefly considers risking it and trying to peek in anyway, but a quiet “psst!” from down below stops him. He climbs back down as quietly as possible, hoping Tezuka’s mother isn’t standing at the kitchen sink, where she would have a clear view out the window.
“What happened?” Inui whispers as he and Echizen settle back in behind the bushes. He feels frustrated, like the answer he was searching for was within is reach and he let it get it away. If there’s one thing Inui hates, it’s a missed opportunity to collect data. It would have been nice to see Tezuka’s bedroom layout more clearly as well.
“Buchou said he was really busy and we could talk about it tomorrow,” Echizen says. Echizen scoots a bit so that his and Inui’s thighs are touching. Inui’s not sure why he notices, but he takes a mental note, promising himself that he’ll write it down later. He realizes he’s smiling a little.
“It’s very unusual that Tezuka would send you away so quickly,” Inui says, trying to focus on business. “Did he mention what he was doing?”
“If he had, don’t you think I would have told you already?”
“I suppose you would have,” Inui mutters. “Okay. Now we need to-”
“I’m tired, Inui-senpai,” Echizen announces and plops his head down on Inui’s shoulder. Inui has seen Echizen participate in similar behavior with Kikumaru and Momoshiro and he knows Echizen doesn’t mean anything by it, but he feels his frustration dissipate anyway. Echizen’s hair is tickling Inui’s neck and it feels nice, even though it’s a bit itchy, not to mention hot.
“I suppose we can rest for a while,” Inui says, and he sets down his binoculars. Echizen makes a small, incoherent noise against his t-shirt, and while Inui’s certainly not in a comfortable enough position to fall asleep, he can’t bring himself to move away. Inui loses track of how long they stay like that, his shoulder burning hot where Echizen’s head is resting in a way that’s not unpleasant at all. He walks home thinking that even though they didn't collect any data, it’s been quite a successful day.
***
The next day, after tennis practice, Tezuka asks Echizen to stay behind to speak with him. Inui doesn’t want to arouse suspicion, so he follows the rest of the team into the club room, feeling uncomfortable just underneath his skin, like there’s an itch he knows he’ll never be able to reach. Echizen and Tezuka saunter in twenty minutes later, after Inui has already showered. He’s dawdling by his locker, pretending not to be waiting for them. The rest of the team has left already.
“Did you need something, Inui?” Tezuka asks.
“I, uh, no! Not at all. I was just cleaning out my locker,” Inui fumbles. Tezuka nods and disappears into the showers. Echizen smirks and follows him. Inui’s gut clenches. What were they talking about for so long? He decides to wait outside; Echizen’s showers are usually three minutes longer than Tezuka’s, so perhaps they’ll leave separately and he can walk Echizen home. He stands around the corner of the building, the sun beating down on him, sweat prickling at his collar.
Tezuka and Echizen leave together a few minutes later. Inui sits down in the grass and closes his eyes.
***
“Tell me immediately what went on today,” Inui demands, grabbing Echizen’s elbow as he approaches their usual meeting spot down the street from Tezuka’s house.
“What do you mean?” Echizen says. “We were just talking about the lineup for Hyotei.”
“For twenty-two minutes you were talking about the lineup for the match with Hyotei?”
“Yes.” Echizen sounds bored. Inui feels like screaming. He knows Echizen is keeping something from him, but he doesn’t know why he feels so frustrated. Usually a lack of data makes him excited, not angry.
“There’s nothing else you want to tell me?”
Echizen cocks his head to the side. “Do you want to go get hamburgers instead of spying on Buchou? I don’t think we’re going to find out anything else.”
Echizen is bored. Inui didn’t think they’d end up spying together forever, but he had been hoping it would last longer than a week. He’s been having more fun on this mission than he generally does, and he usually has a lot of fun in any case, even when he was documenting the different flavors of toothpaste Kikumaru had tried.
“You can go,” Inui says, defeated. Echizen doesn’t want to spy with him anymore, and he’s having twenty-two minute conversations with Tezuka. He’s not sure why the second fact bothers him so much. “I’ll keep it up.”
“C’mon, Inui-senpai. I’ll let you treat.”
“That’s very generous of you, Echizen, but I think there’s still important work to be done here.”
Echizen frowns. “Aren’t you hungry?”
He is. “That doesn’t matter,” Inui says. Echizen grabs his arm this time and starts dragging him in the direction of McDonald’s.
“Come on, Inui-senpai. It’s hot and I’m hungry.”
Echizen’s hand is cool on his forearm, and any protests Inui can think of die before they reach his lips.
***
“Echizen, my mother wants me to be home for dinner tonight,” Inui says, trying not to blush. They’ve gone out to eat five days in a row, for burgers and noodles and sushi; one night Momoshiro and Kikumaru joined them and Echizen spent the evening pressed up next to Inui in a small restaurant booth while the other boys shoved and jostled each other. Echizen occasionally joined in, once catching his elbow on Inui’s ribcage. He had apologized so sincerely that it left Inui feeling downright perplexed. Echizen wasn’t known for apologizing.
“Okay,” Echizen says, seemingly unconcerned.
“Listen, I think I have a possible girl pegged down-I’ve seen Tezuka speaking to her on three different occasions this week!”
“Buchou doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Echizen says, smirking.
“We still don’t know that! And since we’ve stopped spying-”
“We stopped spying because I found out for sure,” Echizen says.
“What? That’s impossible.” Inui narrows his eyes.
“The other time, when I rang Buchou’s doorbell? He told me he couldn’t talk because he was speaking with a friend of his from Germany. They started chatting for an hour a night because Buchou wants to practice his German.”
Inui’s mouth drops open slightly, but he recovers. “Why didn’t you tell me at the time?”
“I don’t know. I thought it would be fun to keep spying. But then I got you to start taking me out to eat, and that was even more fun.”
“So you didn’t tell me because…you wanted to keep spending time with me?” Inui says. His brain feels as though small electric pulses are being shot through it; it’s making him slightly dizzy.
“If you want to put it like that,” Echizen responds. Then he pushes Inui up against the tree they’re standing next to and kisses him. Inui’s trying to figure out the probability that he’s hallucinating but then Echizen’s fingernails scratch slightly along his neck and his mind goes blissfully blank.
“Echizen,” Inui says when he pulls back. His mouth is dry; he hopes it wasn’t unpleasant to kiss him like that.
“You owe me hamburgers,” Echizen says, still up close to him, invading his personal space. Inui finds he rather likes it.
“I’ve bought you dinner every night this week,” Inui protests weakly. Echizen’s hand circles around his wrist, fingers pressing into his palm.
“But that was just because you wanted to,” he replies with a grin. It’s true. It wasn’t part of the bet.
Inui tries to think logically about all the things that have happened in the last five minutes, tries to think of something to say that would make sense, but he can’t. Instead he blurts out, “What were you talking about with Tezuka for so long the other day?”
Echizen rolls his eyes. “What do you think? The lineup for Hyotei. I was trying to convince Buchou to let me play Atobe. I don't think he's going to, though.”
“It was really just tennis?”
“What else would it have been?”
“But why did he walk you home?” Inui persists, ignoring the question.
“We just walked to the corner together and then went our separate ways.”
“Oh,” Inui says, feeling stupid. Echizen grins up at him from under his cap.
“Anyway, you have to go home for dinner, right?” he says then, letting go of Inui's hand.
“Yes,” Inui manages to reply.
“So I’ll see you here tomorrow?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Inui confirms dizzily, and before he can talk himself out of it, he pulls Echizen in for another kiss. Echizen’s tongue is wet and slides over his bottom lip and Inui’s entire body feels light, like it’s full of bubbles, like maybe if he keeps his eyes closed he’ll just float away. The feel of Echizen’s hips suddenly pinning him insistently to the tree is the only thing that grounds him. Inui almost moans.
“Bye, Inui-senpai,” Echizen says against his mouth and then turns to walk away. And even though he had been wrong, even though he got caught, even though he hadn’t even figured out the solution on his own, Inui has a feeling that in the future he will consider this his most successful spying mission ever.
Author: cmere
Pairing: Inui/Ryoma
Rating: PG
Summary: Echizen catches Inui on a spying mission.
Word count: 3335
A/N: For poilass for help_haiti. Thank you so much for bidding on me and I hope you enjoy the fic! :) Thanks to longleggedgit for the excellent beta, and to reallycorking, sharply_unclear, and aunt_agatha for read throughs, encouragement, and a whole lot of love.
By the time Inui realizes he’s being followed, it’s already too late. He’s been caught.
“Inui-senpai, what are you doing here?” Echizen says, the tone of his voice a strange combination of curious and bored that Inui is sure only Echizen could pull off-especially while sweating.
“Echizen! I must have wandered back here by mistake,” Inui says, trying not to stutter, an unfamiliar prickling sensation in his cheeks telling him that his face is flaming red. “Are you following me?”
“You’ve wandered into the bushes behind Buchou’s house by mistake every day for the last two weeks?” Echizen asks, simultaneously ignoring and answering his question. Inui is flabbergasted.
“You’ve been following me for two weeks?”
“Your capacity for attentiveness and attention to detail has declined fifty percent,” Echizen announces seriously, then smirks. “There’s no proof or anything, but I’m guessing these things are related.”
Inui’s entire body is prickling now. He feels a bead of sweat slide down the back of his neck and he’s not sure whether it has to do with the intense summer heat or the fact that Echizen has not only been watching him, but analyzing him. Even though he’s sure Echizen just pulled that figure out of nowhere, it’s true-Inui has been distracted, off his game, and Echizen’s been paying attention. Usually Inui is the only one that notices these occurrences in his teammates, and that’s because he has to keep careful records.
“It’s just a side project, Echizen. Nothing to concern yourself with,” Inui says, trying to sound self-assured. Echizen does not look convinced.
“What’s Buchou doing?” Echizen asks, ignoring Inui and settling in next to him behind the bushes. He squints toward the kitchen window.
“His bedroom is upstairs,” Inui says, pointing. “Here.” He unstrings the binoculars from around his neck and hands them to Echizen, who’s now at least looking in the right direction. Inui always thought Echizen would make a pitiful spy, but he can see he wasn’t totally right if he hadn’t noticed he was being followed for two whole weeks.
“He’s on the computer?” Echizen says.
“That’s right,” Inui replies. “He used to only use the computer for schoolwork or tennis-writing papers or researching on the internet, emailing about tennis tournaments. That’s changed.”
“Changed to what?” Echizen asks, and Inui is surprised that he sounds genuinely curious. He straightens up, more confident now than he was a few minutes ago.
“Chatting on instant messenger,” Inui reveals, and Echizen’s eyes go wide.
“I can’t really picture Buchou chatting,” he says.
“There was only a three percent likelihood that Tezuka would ever start spending his free time doing such a thing, and yet for the last two weeks he’s spent at least one hour a night on instant messenger, time that he used to spend reading or exercising. It could have started earlier, I don’t know. I only found out about it by coincidence when I came by on my weekly rounds to see what Tezuka is currently reading.”
“You’re a creep, Inui-senpai,” Echizen says mildly, standing up a bit on his knees in an obvious attempt to get a better view into Tezuka’s bedroom. “How do you even know he’s chatting? You can’t see the screen.”
“Be quiet a moment,” Inui suggests, and they sit in silence. After only a few seconds the unmistakable ping! of an instant messaging client can be heard and Inui smiles triumphantly. “That’s how.” Echizen nods.
“So who is he chatting with? Oishi-senpai? They could be discussing the team.”
“I’ve already confirmed with Oishi that he has never chatted online with Tezuka.”
“Maybe Fuji-senpai is making him do it for some stupid reason?”
“Fuji has confirmed the same as Oishi. I’ve asked all the likely candidates, including the student body vice president and even Ryuuzaki-sensei.” Echizen snorts at that, but Inui continues. “No one is even aware Tezuka has a screen name, let alone is speaking to him for an hour every evening. I can only come to one possible conclusion, but I have yet to find proof.”
“What conclusion?”
“Tezuka has a girlfriend,” Inui says and can’t stop himself from grinning. Echizen snorts again.
“Yeah, right. What girl would be interested in Buchou?”
“61% of the female student body at Seigaku would date Tezuka given the opportunity, and at any given time there are at least six girls actively pursuing him. One of them must have captured his heart.”
“Buchou would never get a girlfriend,” Echizen protests. “And how do you know he wasn’t chatting with me?”
“Due to your tendency to be generally unhelpful in the course of my research, I was still trying to think of the best way to approach you about it. Since you are now here beside me, I think it’s safe to say Tezuka is not chatting with you.”
Echizen nods, seemingly satisfied with the answer. “But what about tennis?”
Inui knows that he must be referring to the effect a girl would have on Tezuka’s focus. “His performance has actually improved notably since I began documenting it seriously two weeks ago. His power, speed, and reflexes are all up by at least four percent. Whoever she is, she’s actually doing good things for his tennis.”
“But not for yours,” Echizen says, looking far too pleased with himself. “I saw Kaidoh-senpai demolish you yesterday.”
“I admit this possibility has made me a bit distracted,” Inui says, pulling his shirt away from where it’s sticking to his skin. Sitting in the sun in this heat probably hasn’t helped either. “Seeing Tezuka with a girl would open up an entirely new world of data.”
“Except even on the slight chance that Buchou did have a girlfriend, you would never see him with her, and also it’s impossible.”
“It’s the only logical conclusion from the data I’ve gathered.”
“Why don’t we just ask him?”
“Data indicates that were Tezuka to ever get a girlfriend, there’s a one percent maximum chance that he would admit it to anyone.”
“My data indicates that there’s a zero percent chance Buchou would ever get a girlfriend,” Echizen says stubbornly.
“Would you care to place a wager on that?” Inui asks, the idea occurring to him suddenly. Echizen narrows his eyes in suspicion.
“What’s the wager?”
“If you’re wrong, you have to play me in tennis.” Inui smiles, pleased with how the situation is playing out. He’s wanted another chance to get Echizen’s data up close for months, but Echizen always refuses to play him.
“What if I’m right?”
“You get to play me in tennis?” Inui suggests. Echizen rolls his eyes. “You can try a sample of the new juice recipe-” Echizen cuts him off.
“When I win, you have to buy me hamburgers for a week,” he declares with a satisfied smile.
“Deal,” Inui says, holding out his hand. They shake on it.
“So how do we find out for sure?” Echizen asks.
“We keep collecting data, of course,” Inui replies, holding out his hand for the binoculars.
***
They’ve been spying on Tezuka together every day for a week now, and Inui hadn’t realized that having a partner in crime would make everything a whole lot more fun. Echizen spent the majority of the time complaining about being bored and hot and trash-talking Inui’s methods while Inui took notes, but Inui kind of liked listening to him.
“Inui-senpai,” Echizen starts one Thursday afternoon, “we’re not going to find anything else out like this. We have to try something diff-”
“Shhh!” Inui hushes him, focusing his binoculars. Tezuka had just gotten up from the computer but a small chat window was clearly visible. If only they had a ladder to get up the side of the house…there were vines growing that would be possible to climb, but it would most likely take far too long.
“Echizen, go ring the doorbell, quick!” Inui whispers. Echizen raises his eyebrows.
“No.”
“Yes, just go talk to him and distract him for a minute! If I can get up the side of the house and look in the window-”
“You’re going to kill yourself and I’m not disturbing Buchou right now,” Echizen says flatly.
“Please!” Inui says, desperate. After a week of no new developments this could be a huge breakthrough. “Just ask him…ask him if he knows anything about the lineup for the upcoming match against Hyotei. Tell him you want to play first singles.”
“Inui-senpai-”
“Echizen, if you want to find out the truth, you have to do this! Quick!”
Echizen stares at him for a moment, clearly annoyed. Without a word he gets up, peering around to make sure no one’s looking out of their window, and walks around the side of the house to the front yard. Inui waits until he hears the sound of a doorbell from the open window before he allows himself to move closer to the house. Now the only question is if he’ll truly be able to scale the house using the vines. He grabs hold; they seem steady, so he hoists himself up. He’s been doing extra upper body weights just in case this situation ever came up and is pleased to note it’s easier than the last time he practiced.
Inui is climbing slowly but steadily when he hears a breathy, “Hey, Buchou,” from the downstairs window, and he stops dead in his tracks. He feels an irrational flare of anger at the tone of voice but he’s not sure where it comes from; Echizen speaks to Tezuka that way ninety-four percent of the time, both in public and private. Inui gives himself a firm mental shake and continues climbing.
“Echizen,” Tezuka responds curtly, and Inui’s chest loosens up a bit. For once, Tezuka doesn’t sound entirely pleased to see him. Inui tries to focus on getting to Tezuka’s window and ignores the following murmurs, but after only a short moment, he hears Tezuka’s bedroom door opening and closing, meaning Echizen has already left. Inui briefly considers risking it and trying to peek in anyway, but a quiet “psst!” from down below stops him. He climbs back down as quietly as possible, hoping Tezuka’s mother isn’t standing at the kitchen sink, where she would have a clear view out the window.
“What happened?” Inui whispers as he and Echizen settle back in behind the bushes. He feels frustrated, like the answer he was searching for was within is reach and he let it get it away. If there’s one thing Inui hates, it’s a missed opportunity to collect data. It would have been nice to see Tezuka’s bedroom layout more clearly as well.
“Buchou said he was really busy and we could talk about it tomorrow,” Echizen says. Echizen scoots a bit so that his and Inui’s thighs are touching. Inui’s not sure why he notices, but he takes a mental note, promising himself that he’ll write it down later. He realizes he’s smiling a little.
“It’s very unusual that Tezuka would send you away so quickly,” Inui says, trying to focus on business. “Did he mention what he was doing?”
“If he had, don’t you think I would have told you already?”
“I suppose you would have,” Inui mutters. “Okay. Now we need to-”
“I’m tired, Inui-senpai,” Echizen announces and plops his head down on Inui’s shoulder. Inui has seen Echizen participate in similar behavior with Kikumaru and Momoshiro and he knows Echizen doesn’t mean anything by it, but he feels his frustration dissipate anyway. Echizen’s hair is tickling Inui’s neck and it feels nice, even though it’s a bit itchy, not to mention hot.
“I suppose we can rest for a while,” Inui says, and he sets down his binoculars. Echizen makes a small, incoherent noise against his t-shirt, and while Inui’s certainly not in a comfortable enough position to fall asleep, he can’t bring himself to move away. Inui loses track of how long they stay like that, his shoulder burning hot where Echizen’s head is resting in a way that’s not unpleasant at all. He walks home thinking that even though they didn't collect any data, it’s been quite a successful day.
***
The next day, after tennis practice, Tezuka asks Echizen to stay behind to speak with him. Inui doesn’t want to arouse suspicion, so he follows the rest of the team into the club room, feeling uncomfortable just underneath his skin, like there’s an itch he knows he’ll never be able to reach. Echizen and Tezuka saunter in twenty minutes later, after Inui has already showered. He’s dawdling by his locker, pretending not to be waiting for them. The rest of the team has left already.
“Did you need something, Inui?” Tezuka asks.
“I, uh, no! Not at all. I was just cleaning out my locker,” Inui fumbles. Tezuka nods and disappears into the showers. Echizen smirks and follows him. Inui’s gut clenches. What were they talking about for so long? He decides to wait outside; Echizen’s showers are usually three minutes longer than Tezuka’s, so perhaps they’ll leave separately and he can walk Echizen home. He stands around the corner of the building, the sun beating down on him, sweat prickling at his collar.
Tezuka and Echizen leave together a few minutes later. Inui sits down in the grass and closes his eyes.
***
“Tell me immediately what went on today,” Inui demands, grabbing Echizen’s elbow as he approaches their usual meeting spot down the street from Tezuka’s house.
“What do you mean?” Echizen says. “We were just talking about the lineup for Hyotei.”
“For twenty-two minutes you were talking about the lineup for the match with Hyotei?”
“Yes.” Echizen sounds bored. Inui feels like screaming. He knows Echizen is keeping something from him, but he doesn’t know why he feels so frustrated. Usually a lack of data makes him excited, not angry.
“There’s nothing else you want to tell me?”
Echizen cocks his head to the side. “Do you want to go get hamburgers instead of spying on Buchou? I don’t think we’re going to find out anything else.”
Echizen is bored. Inui didn’t think they’d end up spying together forever, but he had been hoping it would last longer than a week. He’s been having more fun on this mission than he generally does, and he usually has a lot of fun in any case, even when he was documenting the different flavors of toothpaste Kikumaru had tried.
“You can go,” Inui says, defeated. Echizen doesn’t want to spy with him anymore, and he’s having twenty-two minute conversations with Tezuka. He’s not sure why the second fact bothers him so much. “I’ll keep it up.”
“C’mon, Inui-senpai. I’ll let you treat.”
“That’s very generous of you, Echizen, but I think there’s still important work to be done here.”
Echizen frowns. “Aren’t you hungry?”
He is. “That doesn’t matter,” Inui says. Echizen grabs his arm this time and starts dragging him in the direction of McDonald’s.
“Come on, Inui-senpai. It’s hot and I’m hungry.”
Echizen’s hand is cool on his forearm, and any protests Inui can think of die before they reach his lips.
***
“Echizen, my mother wants me to be home for dinner tonight,” Inui says, trying not to blush. They’ve gone out to eat five days in a row, for burgers and noodles and sushi; one night Momoshiro and Kikumaru joined them and Echizen spent the evening pressed up next to Inui in a small restaurant booth while the other boys shoved and jostled each other. Echizen occasionally joined in, once catching his elbow on Inui’s ribcage. He had apologized so sincerely that it left Inui feeling downright perplexed. Echizen wasn’t known for apologizing.
“Okay,” Echizen says, seemingly unconcerned.
“Listen, I think I have a possible girl pegged down-I’ve seen Tezuka speaking to her on three different occasions this week!”
“Buchou doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Echizen says, smirking.
“We still don’t know that! And since we’ve stopped spying-”
“We stopped spying because I found out for sure,” Echizen says.
“What? That’s impossible.” Inui narrows his eyes.
“The other time, when I rang Buchou’s doorbell? He told me he couldn’t talk because he was speaking with a friend of his from Germany. They started chatting for an hour a night because Buchou wants to practice his German.”
Inui’s mouth drops open slightly, but he recovers. “Why didn’t you tell me at the time?”
“I don’t know. I thought it would be fun to keep spying. But then I got you to start taking me out to eat, and that was even more fun.”
“So you didn’t tell me because…you wanted to keep spending time with me?” Inui says. His brain feels as though small electric pulses are being shot through it; it’s making him slightly dizzy.
“If you want to put it like that,” Echizen responds. Then he pushes Inui up against the tree they’re standing next to and kisses him. Inui’s trying to figure out the probability that he’s hallucinating but then Echizen’s fingernails scratch slightly along his neck and his mind goes blissfully blank.
“Echizen,” Inui says when he pulls back. His mouth is dry; he hopes it wasn’t unpleasant to kiss him like that.
“You owe me hamburgers,” Echizen says, still up close to him, invading his personal space. Inui finds he rather likes it.
“I’ve bought you dinner every night this week,” Inui protests weakly. Echizen’s hand circles around his wrist, fingers pressing into his palm.
“But that was just because you wanted to,” he replies with a grin. It’s true. It wasn’t part of the bet.
Inui tries to think logically about all the things that have happened in the last five minutes, tries to think of something to say that would make sense, but he can’t. Instead he blurts out, “What were you talking about with Tezuka for so long the other day?”
Echizen rolls his eyes. “What do you think? The lineup for Hyotei. I was trying to convince Buchou to let me play Atobe. I don't think he's going to, though.”
“It was really just tennis?”
“What else would it have been?”
“But why did he walk you home?” Inui persists, ignoring the question.
“We just walked to the corner together and then went our separate ways.”
“Oh,” Inui says, feeling stupid. Echizen grins up at him from under his cap.
“Anyway, you have to go home for dinner, right?” he says then, letting go of Inui's hand.
“Yes,” Inui manages to reply.
“So I’ll see you here tomorrow?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Inui confirms dizzily, and before he can talk himself out of it, he pulls Echizen in for another kiss. Echizen’s tongue is wet and slides over his bottom lip and Inui’s entire body feels light, like it’s full of bubbles, like maybe if he keeps his eyes closed he’ll just float away. The feel of Echizen’s hips suddenly pinning him insistently to the tree is the only thing that grounds him. Inui almost moans.
“Bye, Inui-senpai,” Echizen says against his mouth and then turns to walk away. And even though he had been wrong, even though he got caught, even though he hadn’t even figured out the solution on his own, Inui has a feeling that in the future he will consider this his most successful spying mission ever.