what it's worth, part two
What It's Worth, Part One
Kirihara Akaya, Rikkaidai Ensemble
what it's worth, part two
“I can take care of myself,” Kirihara grumbled, looking very dejected with his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Yeah, well,” Niou shrugged, ruffling the other’s hair with a lazy grin. “Tell that to buchou, not to me. You think I like babysitting you?”
“I’m not a baby!” Kirihara retorted stubbornly. “And why does it have to be you anyway? Why can’t it be Jackal-sempai?”
“Because you’ll spend all of his allowance in the arcade?”
Kirihara’s eyebrow twitched. “I do not spend all of his allowance in the arcade, you know.”
“Most of it.”
Kirihara opened his mouth. And quickly shut it.
Niou grinned. “Anyway, just go with the flow, Bakaya. Buchou just wants me to keep you out of trouble.”
“It’s not like I look for trouble,” Kirihara muttered. He stopped walking, standing properly and straightening up. “Trouble just finds me.”
Niou turned his head to the side to see two guys walking out of an alley, looking unbelievably pissed off.
“You have the nerve to walk by here again after you put Kagami in the hospital?”
Kirihara scowled. “Hey, you’re the one picking fights, not me.”
Niou smirked, stepping forward. “So you’re the idiots that have been bullying our team baby, huh?”
“Am not a baby,” Kirihara muttered.
The guy with the bonnet that looked like it was colored with pee sneered at him. “Can’t protect yourself so you got yourself a friend?”
“Hey!” Kirihara yelled, annoyed. “It’s not like I asked him to, you know,” he drawled out, grumbling. “And unlike you, I actually have a life.”
Niou whistled.
Pee-colored bonnet guy wasn’t very happy.
Kirihara prepared to dodge because pee-colored bonnet guy seemed very intent on giving him a black eye. He was surprised, however, when Niou stepped in front of him and blocked his view. A few seconds later, pee-colored bonnet guy was screaming in agony after Niou grabbed his wrist and started to twist.
“Trust me, mister,” Niou murmured, an eerie smile forming on his face. “You don’t want to mess with Rikkaidai.”
“Oh, yeah?” The one who spoke wasn’t the pee-colored bonnet guy anymore. The one with him, the guy with the cheap shutter shades, lunged forward towards Niou to attack.
Kirihara’s eyes widened and he quickly stepped in between his sempai and the shutter shades guy.
At the back of his mind, he faintly heard a woman’s shrill scream from across the street, but he paid her no mind. All he could see was red, and all he could think about doing was shoving those cleaning mops he used just a few hours ago up into these guys’ sorry asses.
With a growl, Kirihara gripped the guy’s wrist, as tight as he could, making the knife fall to the floor. He raised a leg and kicked the other’s chest harshly, satisfied when shutter shades guy let out a yelp of pain before toppling over pee-colored bonnet guy, resulting in both of them falling to the floor, groaning.
“Okay, now you’re already fucking with me,” Kirihara all but snarled, bringing his foot down on whoever was the nearest body.
Poor shutter shades guy.
“I have no idea what the hell I did to you, though it must have been something bad, I’m sure, but don’t fuck with me. The only reason why your so-called friend is in the hospital right now was because he was pissing on my vice-captain, and the only one allowed to piss on fukubuchou is me, and this guy right here?” Kirihara hissed, jabbing a thumb towards Niou’s direction. “I have rights to be the only one to make him cry and shove dirt down his pants, and heaven help me, the only reason why you’re not bleeding right now is because buchou would kill me, now fuck off, and stop bugging me.”
The two guys practically scrambled away as soon as Kirihara lifted his foot.
After all, a red-eyed pissed off Kirihara wasn’t a very enlightening sight.
The people around them did what the guys did and hurriedly walked away from the scene, pretending that they didn’t see anything and hoping that they weren’t noticed.
Niou, however, was anything but scared.
He was furious.
He was almost stomping when he walked towards his kohai, before harshly grabbing Kirihara’s elbow. “You’re bleeding,” he said simply. He had half a mind to chase down those bastards and castrate them.
Kirihara looked away, not really because he was bleeding, but mainly because he knew that his eyes still weren’t back to their normal color. “It just scratched my skin,” he said, and it was true. The wound would probably heal in three days at the most.
The knife lay innocently on the ground just beside Kirihara’s feet. Niou’s tightened his grip on Kirihara’s arm. “Don’t just jump in recklessly like that!”
Kirihara scowled. “I wasn’t gonna let you get stabbed!”
Niou scowled back. And then, with an exasperated sigh, Niou’s grip on his arm loosened, and he rubbed his temples with his free hand. Somehow, he felt more exhausted than he was just half an hour ago, after tennis practice. “Just…” he sighed yet again. “Let’s just go and get a bandaid or something.”
He finally let go of Kirihara, and instead chose to wound an arm around the other’s shoulders to drag him off and ruffle his hair in the process. “I’m supposed to be a babysitter here,” he muttered, more to himself than to his kohai.
Kirihara scrunched his nose up. “Am not a baby.”
But he let his hair be messed up anyway.
“And who the hell’s gonna let you shove dirt down my pants, kid?”
Kirihara grinned.
After a while, Kirihara spoke up, almost shy. “Sempai?”
“Hm?”
“Don’t tell buchou?”
Niou blinked. And he laughed.
“’Course not, seaweed head. I’d be in trouble too.”
-
“But I just want a bite!” Kirihara whined, reaching across Marui to grab the cake that the latter was so desperately trying to keep away.
“HEY, Niou already gave you his tuna sandwich!”
“But I need dessert!”
“NIOU!” Marui shrieked, glaring at Niou lazily lying on the grass, his head on Yagyuu’s lap.
“Yes?” Niou smirked at him.
“You brought two tuna sandwiches, right? Give him the second one!”
Niou grinned. “Already did.”
Jackal laughed, enjoying his own lunch. It was a good thing Kirihara didn’t like sardines. “Give it up, Marui. The kid’s just gonna keep on bugging you.”
“NO.” Marui said stubbornly, finally escaping free from Kirihara and immediately scrambling away with his fork and his cake. With a triumphant grin, Marui devoured the cake in a matter of seconds.
Kirihara looked as if you had just told him he wasn’t allowed to eat grilled meat anymore. “YOU MONSTER SEMPAI.”
Jackal couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing, almost spewing chewed sardines on the grass but at least still remembering to retain his dignity. Niou grinned as Kirihara slumped against the trunk of the tree beside Yagyuu, looking defeated.
“I want my dessert,” he said mournfully.
Marui grinned at him, bread and icing on his lips - just to be spiteful. “Go buy yourself one.”
“But I’ve spent all of my allowance this week,” Kirihara said, almost whining.
“Ah, we’ve been wondering about that,” Marui started, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. “What the hell did you buy that your allowance’s already gone?”
Kirihara pursed his lips in thought. “…I can’t remember really.”
Marui looked at him, mentally asking if he was stupid.
Then Kirihara’s face brightened. “Ah! I remember!” he then reached over Yagyuu to get his backpack that was leaning on Niou. Rummaging through it, it took him a while before he finally got what he wanted.
That expensive box of chocolates.
Marui’s jaw dropped.
“I remembered sempai talking about it and I saw a kid running around with it, so I thought I’d buy it for you, but I left it in the fridge and with everything that happened, I kind of forgot about it. I just remembered it today.”
Marui’s eyes sparkled. “For me? Really? Really?” Then he faltered, smile slowly falling from his face as guilt ate away at him.
Kirihara seemed oblivious to it all and threw the box of chocolates at him.
Okay, goodbye guilt.
Marui nearly jumped for joy.
“Why’d you bring your backpack with you?” Niou asked, raising an eyebrow. “You could have just bought the box.”
“Well,” Kirihara started, distracted as he continued rummaging through his bag. “I couldn’t find it earlier… but… hmm… WAIT, I FOUND IT.”
Grinning, Kirihara presented Yagyuu with a crumpled ball of paper.
Yagyuu raised one delicate eyebrow. “Trash,” he said flatly.
Kirihara looked indignant. “It’s not trash.” He took the liberty of opening the paper and creasing it out, before presenting it proudly to Yagyuu yet again.
Yagyuu didn’t even try to hide his smile when he saw the big A+ on his kohai’s English paper.
“KIRIHARA-KUUUN!” A girl screamed from the school building, waving as she leaned over the window ledge. “Sensei wants you for cleaning duty!”
Niou grinned. “Duty calls, seaweed head.”
“Ah, crap, I forgot!” Kirihara scrambled to his feet, abruptly zipping his backpack closed. “SEE YOU LATER, SEMPAI!” he yelled, as he ran towards the school, waving his arms up in the air.
Jackal let his grin go as wide as it wanted to. “You do know that those chocolates cost Akaya two weeks’ worth of allowance?”
Marui opened his mouth to speak, but only shut it close afterwards, feeling horrible.
Jackal felt triumphant somewhat.
-
“She died, buchou,” Kirihara said mournfully, slumping against the chair. “And she didn’t even finish making a thousand paper cranes.”
Yukimura smiled patiently. “But I think she’s accomplished something much more than that, don’t you think?”
“Well, yeah…” Kirihara frowned, looking thoughtful. “But it would have been nice to make a wish, you know?”
“Do you have a wish, Akaya?”
Kirihara pursed his lips in thought. “I dunno. I mean, it’s kind of a given that I’m already going to be the best tennis player the world has ever seen so it doesn’t really matter if I wish for that,” he shrugged. Yukimura had to laugh.
Kirihara loved the sound of his captain’s laugh. It always sounded so free, though it’s been getting a lot more strained nowadays.
He blinked, an idea coming to him.
“You know, buchou,” he said, leaning his elbows on the edge of Yukimura’s bed and planting his chin on his palms. He looked up at his captain, and continued earnestly. “I’d wish for you to hurry up and get better so you can start practicing with us again.”
Yukimura’s laughter was cut short. He stared at Kirihara’s determined face, and couldn’t help the smile that spread to his face. “Go fold me a thousand paper cranes then.”
Kirihara’s flabbergasted face made him double up in laughter all over again.
-
“Jackal-sempai, I finished it!” Kirihara announced as soon as he entered the clubroom, setting his backpack and his tennis bag on the bench in front of his locker.
Jackal paused from tying his shoelaces to look up at Kirihara with a question on his face. “Finish what?”
Kirihara zipped open his backpack, before rummaging through it for a while, until he finally found what he was looking for. He threw what looked like a small package in Jackal’s direction.
The package wasn’t exactly a package. It was basically just something covered in pad paper twice over and closed with tape. It made Jackal grin somehow. So very Kirihara.
“What’d you give him, seaweed head?” Niou piped up, successfully managing to put his shirt over his head.
Jackal peeled the tape carefully, thankful it was scotch tape so it peeled off easily. Wrapped inside the paper were five abnormally thick pencils except they were carved and painted.
“Totem pole pencils!” Kirihara said proudly. “I made them in English class because Sensei always bores my ass off.”
With how the totem pole pencils were painted, Jackal could definitely believe that it was Kirihara who made them.
Kirihara continued. “I mean, Jackal-sempai reminds me of totem poles and all, and I think maybe it’s because you’re bald, but anyway, you can’t use them anymore because it’d be a pain to sharpen them, but at least you can decorate your room with it. I know how boring your room is.”
Jackal grinned.
“And I just wanted to, you know, say thank you and stuff because sempai’s always taking care of me and treating me to yakiniku and video games and stuff.”
The door opened and Sanada walked in, frowning. “Stop slacking off! Get into the courts! Akaya, ten laps if you’re not ready by five minutes.”
Kirihara all but dashed into the shower room.
Marui whistled as he leaned over Jackal’s shoulder to take a look at the pencils. “They actually look pretty cool.”
“It’d look cool as a keychain,” Niou quipped.
Smiling to himself, Jackal wrapped the totem pole pencils again with the pad paper, and delicately placed them in his backpack. He looked at Marui and Niou with a grin.
“You see, this is the reason why I’ve stopped trying to resist Akaya a long time ago.”
-
Yukimura looked up from the book (after Kirihara had finished reading about Sadako, Yukimura asked if he could borrow it) he was reading when he heard the sound of the doorknob turning. Immediately, a smile wormed its way up to his face when the door burst open and the complete cast of his regulars came pouring in noisily.
“Buchou!”
The nurse would probably reprimand him later about how noisy his visitors were, but right now, he wanted everyone to be as noisy as they can get.
It wasn’t everyday that all of his regulars came to visit him after all.
It was Sanada who cut the noise, glaring at his teammates like a mother would to her children. “All of you, ten laps tomorrow before we start morning practice!”
The whole room groaned and looked at their captain for help, but Yukimura merely grinned. He was rather tempted to resign as captain when he got well enough and leave the job to Sanada, mainly because he knew it would provide him day to day amusement. That, and he knew that Sanada was doing a good job, more than he himself could ever do.
Yanagi eyed the book on Yukimura’s lap and was surprised. “Ah, so you’re the one reading that now?” He sounded amused.
“I told Akaya to ask Yagyuu if I could borrow it,” Yukimura said, looking at the holder of the mentioned name.
Yagyuu nodded at his direction, smiling a bit. “I don’t mind.”
Niou groaned, rolling his eyes for effect. “What is this? The tennis club turning into the book clu - OOF.”
Yagyuu elbowed him and pretended to look innocent afterwards, even as Niou doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach.
Kirihara cackled and doubled over as well, but this time in laughter. Beside him, being calmer and cooler, Marui grinned, obviously enjoying the show.
In the sea of craziness, Jackal found it appropriate to be the only normal one in the team. “How are you feeling, buchou?”
“Fine,” Yukimura smiled. “Nothing different, though… I have been getting tired a lot these days.”
The room gradually turned quiet this time and Yukimura didn’t know if he should be flattered or pained at the extent of his teammates’ concern. After all, he didn’t want them to worry too much. Especially if it will affect their tennis.
“Buchou!” Kirihara’s firm voice cut through the silence and he moved across the room, next to Yukimura’s bed. He put his tennis bag down on the floor and placed his backpack on the bed to rummage through it. It took a while before he finally found he was looking for, and when he did, a grin spread on his face that made Yukimura wonder if his kohai knew what the word ‘eureka’ was.
All eyes peered curiously at Kirihara’s hands. He took out a piece of paper that would have made Yagyuu think about trash again, if not for the fact that Kirihara quickly tried to straighten it out and fix it.
Yukimura’s eyes were damp when Kirihara presented to him the paper crane, all crumpled and weary-looking, but it was a paper crane. A smile was on his lips when he took it and placed it on his palm.
Everyone didn’t bother to hide their smiles as well, that turned into big grins when Kirihara spoke.
“I’m not making you a thousand of ‘em, buchou,” Kirihara said, crossing his arms stubbornly just in case Yukimura ordered him to. “I mean, by the time I finish making a thousand of them, you’d already be up and practicing with us anyway, so I’m giving you just one.”
Yukimura couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out of his lips.
Kirihara continued, almost rambling. “Though I don’t think it’ll be much help since I know that buchou won’t need a paper crane’s help anyway, but I dunno, maybe it’ll help or something, even though buchou can get well just fine on his own.”
Yukimura was still laughing by the time he was done talking, and soon enough, everyone was laughing as well. Except for Kirihara, anyway, who looked sour and sulky because he obviously didn’t know what was funny. At least Sanada wasn’t laughing.
Oh - wait. His lips were… twitching?
Kirihara’s shoulders slumped. Oh, world.
“You’re welcome, by the way,” he muttered, sulking.
Yukimura breathed in heavily, letting the last bouts of laughter leave him. “It’s not that, Akaya,” he let out, still chuckling. “I, well…” he started, fidgeting towards the wall. He patted the space next to him, which Kirihara happily plopped himself down on.
Yukimura smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Kirihara grinned back, ear to ear. Nothing beats making buchou happy after all.
Marui’s exclamation broke the moment. “OH CRAP WHAT TIME IS IT?”
Jackal looked at his watch, before blinking at him. “5:45. Why? Did your mother want you home early?”
“NO,” Marui huffed out, almost panicking. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed hold of Kirihara’s wrist, pulling him away even as Kirihara stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face. “The cake shop down the street closes at 6!”
“S-SEMPAI?” Kirihara yelped out, baffled as Marui pulled him towards the door in an almost frenzy.
Marui looked almost annoyed. “Do you want cake or not?”
Kirihara looked hopeful. “Your treat?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I buy that new chocolate cake that costs like a thousand yen per slice?”
Marui paused, then shrugged. He ruffled his kohai’s hair affectionately. “Sure.”
Kirihara almost glomped him.
Niou looked heartbroken. “WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US, MARUI?”
Marui stuck his tongue out at him as he opened the door. “Suck it up, Niou,” he smirked, before leaving the room with a sparkling Kirihara in tow, almost like a puppy. The room was deathly silent. A few seconds later, Marui opened the door and stuck his head in the room, grinning at Yukimura. “I’ll bring back a slice for you, buchou.”
Niou almost threw a shoe at him. Marui quickly closed the door and left for good.
Yukimura looked satisfied.
But nothing could beat Jackal’s smug and all-knowing expression.
After all, if anyone knew what Kirihara was capable of, it was Jackal.
(And of course, Yukimura. After all, he wouldn’t spend so much of his time and effort training Kirihara if he knew that it wouldn’t be worth it in the end.)
And Jackal knew that Kirihara was capable of anything, even breaking down his sempai-tachi’s resolves.
After all, if Jackal didn’t want to babysit the team baby, he could have said no. Yukimura would have listened.
But, as Jackal found out, Kirihara Akaya was always worth it.
end
Thoughts and concrit would be very much appreciated! ♥ :D Thank you for reading! ^^
Kirihara Akaya, Rikkaidai Ensemble
what it's worth, part two
“I can take care of myself,” Kirihara grumbled, looking very dejected with his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Yeah, well,” Niou shrugged, ruffling the other’s hair with a lazy grin. “Tell that to buchou, not to me. You think I like babysitting you?”
“I’m not a baby!” Kirihara retorted stubbornly. “And why does it have to be you anyway? Why can’t it be Jackal-sempai?”
“Because you’ll spend all of his allowance in the arcade?”
Kirihara’s eyebrow twitched. “I do not spend all of his allowance in the arcade, you know.”
“Most of it.”
Kirihara opened his mouth. And quickly shut it.
Niou grinned. “Anyway, just go with the flow, Bakaya. Buchou just wants me to keep you out of trouble.”
“It’s not like I look for trouble,” Kirihara muttered. He stopped walking, standing properly and straightening up. “Trouble just finds me.”
Niou turned his head to the side to see two guys walking out of an alley, looking unbelievably pissed off.
“You have the nerve to walk by here again after you put Kagami in the hospital?”
Kirihara scowled. “Hey, you’re the one picking fights, not me.”
Niou smirked, stepping forward. “So you’re the idiots that have been bullying our team baby, huh?”
“Am not a baby,” Kirihara muttered.
The guy with the bonnet that looked like it was colored with pee sneered at him. “Can’t protect yourself so you got yourself a friend?”
“Hey!” Kirihara yelled, annoyed. “It’s not like I asked him to, you know,” he drawled out, grumbling. “And unlike you, I actually have a life.”
Niou whistled.
Pee-colored bonnet guy wasn’t very happy.
Kirihara prepared to dodge because pee-colored bonnet guy seemed very intent on giving him a black eye. He was surprised, however, when Niou stepped in front of him and blocked his view. A few seconds later, pee-colored bonnet guy was screaming in agony after Niou grabbed his wrist and started to twist.
“Trust me, mister,” Niou murmured, an eerie smile forming on his face. “You don’t want to mess with Rikkaidai.”
“Oh, yeah?” The one who spoke wasn’t the pee-colored bonnet guy anymore. The one with him, the guy with the cheap shutter shades, lunged forward towards Niou to attack.
Kirihara’s eyes widened and he quickly stepped in between his sempai and the shutter shades guy.
At the back of his mind, he faintly heard a woman’s shrill scream from across the street, but he paid her no mind. All he could see was red, and all he could think about doing was shoving those cleaning mops he used just a few hours ago up into these guys’ sorry asses.
With a growl, Kirihara gripped the guy’s wrist, as tight as he could, making the knife fall to the floor. He raised a leg and kicked the other’s chest harshly, satisfied when shutter shades guy let out a yelp of pain before toppling over pee-colored bonnet guy, resulting in both of them falling to the floor, groaning.
“Okay, now you’re already fucking with me,” Kirihara all but snarled, bringing his foot down on whoever was the nearest body.
Poor shutter shades guy.
“I have no idea what the hell I did to you, though it must have been something bad, I’m sure, but don’t fuck with me. The only reason why your so-called friend is in the hospital right now was because he was pissing on my vice-captain, and the only one allowed to piss on fukubuchou is me, and this guy right here?” Kirihara hissed, jabbing a thumb towards Niou’s direction. “I have rights to be the only one to make him cry and shove dirt down his pants, and heaven help me, the only reason why you’re not bleeding right now is because buchou would kill me, now fuck off, and stop bugging me.”
The two guys practically scrambled away as soon as Kirihara lifted his foot.
After all, a red-eyed pissed off Kirihara wasn’t a very enlightening sight.
The people around them did what the guys did and hurriedly walked away from the scene, pretending that they didn’t see anything and hoping that they weren’t noticed.
Niou, however, was anything but scared.
He was furious.
He was almost stomping when he walked towards his kohai, before harshly grabbing Kirihara’s elbow. “You’re bleeding,” he said simply. He had half a mind to chase down those bastards and castrate them.
Kirihara looked away, not really because he was bleeding, but mainly because he knew that his eyes still weren’t back to their normal color. “It just scratched my skin,” he said, and it was true. The wound would probably heal in three days at the most.
The knife lay innocently on the ground just beside Kirihara’s feet. Niou’s tightened his grip on Kirihara’s arm. “Don’t just jump in recklessly like that!”
Kirihara scowled. “I wasn’t gonna let you get stabbed!”
Niou scowled back. And then, with an exasperated sigh, Niou’s grip on his arm loosened, and he rubbed his temples with his free hand. Somehow, he felt more exhausted than he was just half an hour ago, after tennis practice. “Just…” he sighed yet again. “Let’s just go and get a bandaid or something.”
He finally let go of Kirihara, and instead chose to wound an arm around the other’s shoulders to drag him off and ruffle his hair in the process. “I’m supposed to be a babysitter here,” he muttered, more to himself than to his kohai.
Kirihara scrunched his nose up. “Am not a baby.”
But he let his hair be messed up anyway.
“And who the hell’s gonna let you shove dirt down my pants, kid?”
Kirihara grinned.
After a while, Kirihara spoke up, almost shy. “Sempai?”
“Hm?”
“Don’t tell buchou?”
Niou blinked. And he laughed.
“’Course not, seaweed head. I’d be in trouble too.”
-
“But I just want a bite!” Kirihara whined, reaching across Marui to grab the cake that the latter was so desperately trying to keep away.
“HEY, Niou already gave you his tuna sandwich!”
“But I need dessert!”
“NIOU!” Marui shrieked, glaring at Niou lazily lying on the grass, his head on Yagyuu’s lap.
“Yes?” Niou smirked at him.
“You brought two tuna sandwiches, right? Give him the second one!”
Niou grinned. “Already did.”
Jackal laughed, enjoying his own lunch. It was a good thing Kirihara didn’t like sardines. “Give it up, Marui. The kid’s just gonna keep on bugging you.”
“NO.” Marui said stubbornly, finally escaping free from Kirihara and immediately scrambling away with his fork and his cake. With a triumphant grin, Marui devoured the cake in a matter of seconds.
Kirihara looked as if you had just told him he wasn’t allowed to eat grilled meat anymore. “YOU MONSTER SEMPAI.”
Jackal couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing, almost spewing chewed sardines on the grass but at least still remembering to retain his dignity. Niou grinned as Kirihara slumped against the trunk of the tree beside Yagyuu, looking defeated.
“I want my dessert,” he said mournfully.
Marui grinned at him, bread and icing on his lips - just to be spiteful. “Go buy yourself one.”
“But I’ve spent all of my allowance this week,” Kirihara said, almost whining.
“Ah, we’ve been wondering about that,” Marui started, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. “What the hell did you buy that your allowance’s already gone?”
Kirihara pursed his lips in thought. “…I can’t remember really.”
Marui looked at him, mentally asking if he was stupid.
Then Kirihara’s face brightened. “Ah! I remember!” he then reached over Yagyuu to get his backpack that was leaning on Niou. Rummaging through it, it took him a while before he finally got what he wanted.
That expensive box of chocolates.
Marui’s jaw dropped.
“I remembered sempai talking about it and I saw a kid running around with it, so I thought I’d buy it for you, but I left it in the fridge and with everything that happened, I kind of forgot about it. I just remembered it today.”
Marui’s eyes sparkled. “For me? Really? Really?” Then he faltered, smile slowly falling from his face as guilt ate away at him.
Kirihara seemed oblivious to it all and threw the box of chocolates at him.
Okay, goodbye guilt.
Marui nearly jumped for joy.
“Why’d you bring your backpack with you?” Niou asked, raising an eyebrow. “You could have just bought the box.”
“Well,” Kirihara started, distracted as he continued rummaging through his bag. “I couldn’t find it earlier… but… hmm… WAIT, I FOUND IT.”
Grinning, Kirihara presented Yagyuu with a crumpled ball of paper.
Yagyuu raised one delicate eyebrow. “Trash,” he said flatly.
Kirihara looked indignant. “It’s not trash.” He took the liberty of opening the paper and creasing it out, before presenting it proudly to Yagyuu yet again.
Yagyuu didn’t even try to hide his smile when he saw the big A+ on his kohai’s English paper.
“KIRIHARA-KUUUN!” A girl screamed from the school building, waving as she leaned over the window ledge. “Sensei wants you for cleaning duty!”
Niou grinned. “Duty calls, seaweed head.”
“Ah, crap, I forgot!” Kirihara scrambled to his feet, abruptly zipping his backpack closed. “SEE YOU LATER, SEMPAI!” he yelled, as he ran towards the school, waving his arms up in the air.
Jackal let his grin go as wide as it wanted to. “You do know that those chocolates cost Akaya two weeks’ worth of allowance?”
Marui opened his mouth to speak, but only shut it close afterwards, feeling horrible.
Jackal felt triumphant somewhat.
-
“She died, buchou,” Kirihara said mournfully, slumping against the chair. “And she didn’t even finish making a thousand paper cranes.”
Yukimura smiled patiently. “But I think she’s accomplished something much more than that, don’t you think?”
“Well, yeah…” Kirihara frowned, looking thoughtful. “But it would have been nice to make a wish, you know?”
“Do you have a wish, Akaya?”
Kirihara pursed his lips in thought. “I dunno. I mean, it’s kind of a given that I’m already going to be the best tennis player the world has ever seen so it doesn’t really matter if I wish for that,” he shrugged. Yukimura had to laugh.
Kirihara loved the sound of his captain’s laugh. It always sounded so free, though it’s been getting a lot more strained nowadays.
He blinked, an idea coming to him.
“You know, buchou,” he said, leaning his elbows on the edge of Yukimura’s bed and planting his chin on his palms. He looked up at his captain, and continued earnestly. “I’d wish for you to hurry up and get better so you can start practicing with us again.”
Yukimura’s laughter was cut short. He stared at Kirihara’s determined face, and couldn’t help the smile that spread to his face. “Go fold me a thousand paper cranes then.”
Kirihara’s flabbergasted face made him double up in laughter all over again.
-
“Jackal-sempai, I finished it!” Kirihara announced as soon as he entered the clubroom, setting his backpack and his tennis bag on the bench in front of his locker.
Jackal paused from tying his shoelaces to look up at Kirihara with a question on his face. “Finish what?”
Kirihara zipped open his backpack, before rummaging through it for a while, until he finally found what he was looking for. He threw what looked like a small package in Jackal’s direction.
The package wasn’t exactly a package. It was basically just something covered in pad paper twice over and closed with tape. It made Jackal grin somehow. So very Kirihara.
“What’d you give him, seaweed head?” Niou piped up, successfully managing to put his shirt over his head.
Jackal peeled the tape carefully, thankful it was scotch tape so it peeled off easily. Wrapped inside the paper were five abnormally thick pencils except they were carved and painted.
“Totem pole pencils!” Kirihara said proudly. “I made them in English class because Sensei always bores my ass off.”
With how the totem pole pencils were painted, Jackal could definitely believe that it was Kirihara who made them.
Kirihara continued. “I mean, Jackal-sempai reminds me of totem poles and all, and I think maybe it’s because you’re bald, but anyway, you can’t use them anymore because it’d be a pain to sharpen them, but at least you can decorate your room with it. I know how boring your room is.”
Jackal grinned.
“And I just wanted to, you know, say thank you and stuff because sempai’s always taking care of me and treating me to yakiniku and video games and stuff.”
The door opened and Sanada walked in, frowning. “Stop slacking off! Get into the courts! Akaya, ten laps if you’re not ready by five minutes.”
Kirihara all but dashed into the shower room.
Marui whistled as he leaned over Jackal’s shoulder to take a look at the pencils. “They actually look pretty cool.”
“It’d look cool as a keychain,” Niou quipped.
Smiling to himself, Jackal wrapped the totem pole pencils again with the pad paper, and delicately placed them in his backpack. He looked at Marui and Niou with a grin.
“You see, this is the reason why I’ve stopped trying to resist Akaya a long time ago.”
-
Yukimura looked up from the book (after Kirihara had finished reading about Sadako, Yukimura asked if he could borrow it) he was reading when he heard the sound of the doorknob turning. Immediately, a smile wormed its way up to his face when the door burst open and the complete cast of his regulars came pouring in noisily.
“Buchou!”
The nurse would probably reprimand him later about how noisy his visitors were, but right now, he wanted everyone to be as noisy as they can get.
It wasn’t everyday that all of his regulars came to visit him after all.
It was Sanada who cut the noise, glaring at his teammates like a mother would to her children. “All of you, ten laps tomorrow before we start morning practice!”
The whole room groaned and looked at their captain for help, but Yukimura merely grinned. He was rather tempted to resign as captain when he got well enough and leave the job to Sanada, mainly because he knew it would provide him day to day amusement. That, and he knew that Sanada was doing a good job, more than he himself could ever do.
Yanagi eyed the book on Yukimura’s lap and was surprised. “Ah, so you’re the one reading that now?” He sounded amused.
“I told Akaya to ask Yagyuu if I could borrow it,” Yukimura said, looking at the holder of the mentioned name.
Yagyuu nodded at his direction, smiling a bit. “I don’t mind.”
Niou groaned, rolling his eyes for effect. “What is this? The tennis club turning into the book clu - OOF.”
Yagyuu elbowed him and pretended to look innocent afterwards, even as Niou doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach.
Kirihara cackled and doubled over as well, but this time in laughter. Beside him, being calmer and cooler, Marui grinned, obviously enjoying the show.
In the sea of craziness, Jackal found it appropriate to be the only normal one in the team. “How are you feeling, buchou?”
“Fine,” Yukimura smiled. “Nothing different, though… I have been getting tired a lot these days.”
The room gradually turned quiet this time and Yukimura didn’t know if he should be flattered or pained at the extent of his teammates’ concern. After all, he didn’t want them to worry too much. Especially if it will affect their tennis.
“Buchou!” Kirihara’s firm voice cut through the silence and he moved across the room, next to Yukimura’s bed. He put his tennis bag down on the floor and placed his backpack on the bed to rummage through it. It took a while before he finally found he was looking for, and when he did, a grin spread on his face that made Yukimura wonder if his kohai knew what the word ‘eureka’ was.
All eyes peered curiously at Kirihara’s hands. He took out a piece of paper that would have made Yagyuu think about trash again, if not for the fact that Kirihara quickly tried to straighten it out and fix it.
Yukimura’s eyes were damp when Kirihara presented to him the paper crane, all crumpled and weary-looking, but it was a paper crane. A smile was on his lips when he took it and placed it on his palm.
Everyone didn’t bother to hide their smiles as well, that turned into big grins when Kirihara spoke.
“I’m not making you a thousand of ‘em, buchou,” Kirihara said, crossing his arms stubbornly just in case Yukimura ordered him to. “I mean, by the time I finish making a thousand of them, you’d already be up and practicing with us anyway, so I’m giving you just one.”
Yukimura couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out of his lips.
Kirihara continued, almost rambling. “Though I don’t think it’ll be much help since I know that buchou won’t need a paper crane’s help anyway, but I dunno, maybe it’ll help or something, even though buchou can get well just fine on his own.”
Yukimura was still laughing by the time he was done talking, and soon enough, everyone was laughing as well. Except for Kirihara, anyway, who looked sour and sulky because he obviously didn’t know what was funny. At least Sanada wasn’t laughing.
Oh - wait. His lips were… twitching?
Kirihara’s shoulders slumped. Oh, world.
“You’re welcome, by the way,” he muttered, sulking.
Yukimura breathed in heavily, letting the last bouts of laughter leave him. “It’s not that, Akaya,” he let out, still chuckling. “I, well…” he started, fidgeting towards the wall. He patted the space next to him, which Kirihara happily plopped himself down on.
Yukimura smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Kirihara grinned back, ear to ear. Nothing beats making buchou happy after all.
Marui’s exclamation broke the moment. “OH CRAP WHAT TIME IS IT?”
Jackal looked at his watch, before blinking at him. “5:45. Why? Did your mother want you home early?”
“NO,” Marui huffed out, almost panicking. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed hold of Kirihara’s wrist, pulling him away even as Kirihara stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face. “The cake shop down the street closes at 6!”
“S-SEMPAI?” Kirihara yelped out, baffled as Marui pulled him towards the door in an almost frenzy.
Marui looked almost annoyed. “Do you want cake or not?”
Kirihara looked hopeful. “Your treat?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I buy that new chocolate cake that costs like a thousand yen per slice?”
Marui paused, then shrugged. He ruffled his kohai’s hair affectionately. “Sure.”
Kirihara almost glomped him.
Niou looked heartbroken. “WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US, MARUI?”
Marui stuck his tongue out at him as he opened the door. “Suck it up, Niou,” he smirked, before leaving the room with a sparkling Kirihara in tow, almost like a puppy. The room was deathly silent. A few seconds later, Marui opened the door and stuck his head in the room, grinning at Yukimura. “I’ll bring back a slice for you, buchou.”
Niou almost threw a shoe at him. Marui quickly closed the door and left for good.
Yukimura looked satisfied.
But nothing could beat Jackal’s smug and all-knowing expression.
After all, if anyone knew what Kirihara was capable of, it was Jackal.
(And of course, Yukimura. After all, he wouldn’t spend so much of his time and effort training Kirihara if he knew that it wouldn’t be worth it in the end.)
And Jackal knew that Kirihara was capable of anything, even breaking down his sempai-tachi’s resolves.
After all, if Jackal didn’t want to babysit the team baby, he could have said no. Yukimura would have listened.
But, as Jackal found out, Kirihara Akaya was always worth it.
end
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