Rumored Relationship ~ Chapter 6
Story Summary: A certain rumor leaves Tezuka wondering as to exactly what Fuji means to him. shonen-ai: Perfect Pair.
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.
Chapter 6
“Fuji~!” Eiji glomped onto the smaller boy after he finished dressing for practice. “What happened? What happened?”
Fuji untangled the redhead’s arms from around him. “Maa, nothing that would interest you.”
“Liar! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”” He pouted cutely at the other boy. “Please?”
“Hmm…Nope. Secret.”
“Fuji~!”
Fuji laughed as Eiji tugged on his jersey’s sleeve. “What do you want to know?”
The acrobat paused and tilted his head to the side. “Eto, are you and Tezuka officially together now?”
The tensai smiled softly. “Yes, we are.”
“Really?! Congratulations! I knew Tezuka would come around!”
“Mm. I’m glad that he did. Yesterday was the best day of my life.”
“So…” Eiji looked around, making sure that Tezuka could not hear him. “Did he kiss you?”
“Eiji!” Fuji giggled. “Do look like the type of person who would kiss and tell?”
“Yes.”
“Then yes. He did kiss me. He’s the one who actually made the first move.”
“Then did he give you t-”
“Kikumaru, thirty laps.”
Eiji jumped as he heard Tezuka’s voice come from right behind him. “Eh-heh. Hi, buchou.”
Tezuka glared. “Forty laps.”
The acrobat pouted but ran off before Tezuka could assign him any more laps.
“Fuji-”
“Syuusuke.”
The captain raised an eyebrow in question.
“Call me Syuusuke. You did yesterday.”
“Syuusuke, what were you doing with Kikumaru?’
“Hm? Oh, Eiji and I were just talking. Why? Jealous that I was paying more attention to him than I was to you?
Tezuka deliberately ignored the question. “Let’s go.”
Fuji laughed but followed his boyfriend out of the locker room
“Fuji!”
The two tennis players turned to see another third-year student standing near the courts.
“Can I help you with something?” Fuji asked politely with his usual smile in place.
“You can.” The boy smiled at the tensai. “You can go out with me after classes end today.”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible. Excuse me. Saa, Tezuka.” Fuji placed his hand on the captain’s arm. “Let’s go.”
The bespectacled boy nodded and walked with Fuji onto the courts, which still had nearly all of Seigaku’s students surrounding it.
“Wait a minute!”
Everyone stared as the boy who had asked Fuji out stepped onto the courts and grabbed the smaller boy’s arm, yanking the singles two player around to face him. “Give me one good reason why you won’t go out with me.”
Fuji’s smile dropped slightly, and he tried to pull his arm out of the other boy’s grasp. “I have several reasons, and I believe that everyone here has heard of at least one of them.”
The boy snorted in disbelief and tightened his grip on Fuji’s arm. “I don’t believe that rumor about you and Tezuka. Besides, even if you were dating Tezuka, I would make a much better boyfriend than he would.”
Fuji winced as the grip on his arm tightened further. “I’m having a hard time believing that. Now I would appreciate it if you let go of my arm.”
The taller boy scowled and roughly twisted Fuji’s arm, causing the tensai to cry out in pain softly.
Tezuka gripped the boy’s wrist and glared. “Let go.”
The other wavered slightly under Tezuka’s glare but tried to yank Fuji towards him instead of releasing the other’s arm.
Tezuka quickly wrapped his free arm around the smaller boy’s waist and pulled Fuji’s body against his own. He roughly pried the other’s hand off of the tensai’s arm before using the same hand to gently rub Fuji’s arm. “Leave.” The captain’s voice was a near growl. “Only members of the tennis club are allowed on the courts.”
“Why don’t you make-” The boy cut himself off as a tennis ball whizzed by his ear, crashing into the fence behind him.
“Heh. My bad.” Echizen lifted his racket to rest on his shoulder, smirking. “It looks like my hand slipped. Ne, since you seem to be so sure of yourself on a tennis court, then do you mind teaching me some tennis?”
The third-year changed targets and stalked towards Echizen. “You little-”
“Oi, oi.” Momoshiro stepped in front of the first-year, causing the older boy to pause. “That’s not a good idea. Not good at all.”
Kaido joined Momoshiro in glaring down the intruder to their courts. “Fssh. Bastard.”
The Regulars stepped forward with the non-Regulars close behind them, making the non-member step back nervously. “Ch’. Fine. I don’t give a damn anymore.” He scowled but turned and left the courts.
Oishi sighed in relief and approached the top two singles players. “Are you alright, Fuji? Do you need to see the nurse?”
Fuji smiled at the vice-captain and leaned back into Tezuka. “I’m fine, Oishi. Don’t worry about it.”
“Are you sure? He gripped your arm pretty hard.”
“Mm. It already feels a lot better than before.”
“Really?” Oishi’s eyes fell on the tensai’s arm, and he realized that Tezuka was still rubbing his hand where Fuji was grabbed, as if the captain was trying to erase the other boy’s touch. “Oh. Well, that good. Um…Tezuka?”
The bespectacled boy glanced over at his vice-captain.
“Did you want to start practice now?”
“Aa. Take care of things for a bit.”
“Eh?”
Tezuka took Fuji’s hand and led him back into the locker room before anyone could protest.
“You do realize that we’re skipping practice, don’t you?”
“It’s fine.” Tezuka turned around so that he was facing the shorter boy. “Take off your jersey.”
“Mitsu!” Fuji gasped in mock surprise. “Anyone could come in and see us. Not to mention that we would get into trouble. But I suppose if you really wanted to…”
“Fuji.”
“Syuusuke.”
“Syuusuke, you know what I mean.”
Fuji pouted. “Mou, you’re no fun, Mitsu.” He slipped his jersey off and held out his arm for Tezuka to inspect. “This is what you wanted to see, right?”
Tezuka quickly inspected Fuji’s arm, making sure that it was not seriously damaged. “It looks like everything is okay, but I want you to sit out of practice today.”
“Does that mean we’re skipping afternoon practice as well?”
“No. It means that you will just be watching practice instead of participating in it.”
“But that’s boring. Well, unless you plan on letting Inui play with his juices again.”
“I’m not.”
“Then let’s skip.”
“I’m captain.”
“Yet you’re skipping practice right now.”
“I’m not skipping. I’m making sure that my singles two player is fit to play when I need him to.”
Fuji blinked. “That sounds like something I would come up with.”
“I know. Where do you think I learned it from?”
Laughing softly, Fuji wrapped his arms around Tezuka’s waist and rested his head against the other’s chest. “So you knew that I was just cheering Eiji up last practice, ne?”
Tezuka wrapped his arms around the smaller boy. “I did, but Kikumaru wasn’t performing at his usual standard. You were the only one able to snap him out of it.”
“Aw. You just don’t want to admit that you’re actually really nice.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes you are, but it’s okay if you won’t admit it. That means that I’m the only one who gets to see that side of you. Too many people would be chasing after you if they knew how nice you can be.”
Tezuka sighed and brushed his lips over Fuji’s temple. “Whatever you say.”
“Then we’re ditching afternoon practice.”
“Syuusuke.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“But I wanted to go to Hyotei!”
“Hyotei?”
“Mmhm. Apparently, the rumor started with Atobe.”
Tezuka’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
“Now can we skip?”
“No. And you can’t go alone even if you won’t be playing today.”
“Don’t you want to know why Atobe started the rumor?”
“Not enough to miss practice.”
“Please?”
“No, and that’s fin-” Tezuka was cut off as his mouth was suddenly occupied with Fuji’s tongue.
Fuji pulled back and looked up at Tezuka, blue eyes sparkling. “Please?”
“Fine.”
“Yay!” Fuji kissed his boyfriend once again. “Thank you, Mitsu.”
Tezuka shook his head and sat down on a bench, pulling the smaller boy onto his lap. “Don’t do anything permanent to Atobe.”
“What makes you think I’m going to do something to him?”
“Just don’t.”
“Spoilsport.” Fuji pouted until Tezuka kissed him. “Fine. I won’t do anything too bad to him. Actually, I have a more fun idea than that.”
“Syuusuke…”
“What? It’s the perfect way to get back at him, and it won’t be anything bad.”
“Define bad.”
“It’s not illegal.”
Before Tezuka could reply, they heard the other Regulars near the locker room. Fuji quickly got off of Tezuka’s lap, and both began changing into their uniforms.
“Nya! Fujiko-chan~! You never came back to practice!” Eiji glomped the tensai from behind. “What were you and Tezuka doing in here?”
Fuji giggled as he once again unwound himself from the acrobat’s arms. “Tezuka just wanted to make sure that I was okay.”
“And that took all of practice to do?”
“Saa, Mitsu’s very thorough in his inspection.”
“Sure he is, and-Wait. What did you just say?”
“I said that Tezuka is very thorough.”
“No you didn’t.”
“Yes I did.”
“No. You called Tezuka something else.”
“Mm, no, I don’t believe I did. You must have heard wrong, Eiji.”
“But I heard you say-”
“I said Tezuka.”
“But-”
“Eiji.” Oishi called over to his boyfriend. “You need to change. Class is starting in five minutes.”
“Nya! I forgot!”
Tezuka approached Fuji as the redhead hurried to change. “I’ve told Oishi that he’ll be running practice today.”
The tensai smiled brightly. “So that means we’re free to ditch practice and go to Hyotei.”
“We are not ditching.”
“So you’re attending to matters that need to be dealt with as soon as possible, and, because I’m not allowed to play, I’m helping you so that Oishi can run practice?”
Tezuka stared at his boyfriend.
“What? Do I need to come up with a different truth?”
“You changed ditching practice into that?”
“Well, that’s what we’re doing, right? You need to deal with Atobe as soon as possible to prevent any more rumors, and I’m not allowed to play. It’s best for me to assist you in confronting Atobe because of that. Oishi will be free from that responsibility and can remain here to run practice for you. It’s still the truth. It’s just a different version of the truth that happens to sound more appropriate for the situation.”
Tezuka shook his head as Fuji just stood there smiling innocently. “Come on. We need to get to class.”
Fuji giggled but followed Tezuka into the school. ‘Now I just need to have a talk with Atobe.’
Tbc...