untitled [Hyoutei gen]
Untitled Hyoutei drabble. Not sure how many words, and I am not confident with my characterizations or voices in this.
The last day of school and everyone is laughing, smiling, cheerful in ways they haven't been cheerful since the summer. It's not hard to notice the strained smile Shishido gives him, or note the lingering hug Oshitari gives him, or even the way Jirou clings just a little tighter. Ohtori smiles, smiles until he thinks his lips can stretch no further and that his cheeks will soon be frozen in their place and he'll walk around with a smile fixed in place for his senior year.
The thought makes him chuckle, and the smile fades, and next to him, Shishido-san nudges his shoulder. "What's so funny?" he demands in a whisper. Not that it's soft enough to escape notice from anyone around them, and Atobe stops in the middle of his speech-slash-monologue to turn toward them.
"If you are going to say anything, say it to all of us," he says with a sniff, sounding for all the world like any of the teachers, and manages to look down his nose at them all. Ohtori can feel the blood rising in his cheeks. "It's impolite-"
"He probably just wanted you to shut up," Muhaki says, flinging a few grains of rice at Atobe, and that manages to distract them all. Atobe might think food fights are beneath his dignity, but he can't stand being outclassed: when Jirou grins and exclaims, "You've got rice in your hair, 'Tobe," Atobe upends a bowl on Muhaki's head, and flicks grains toward Jirou, and it's only the beginning.
By the end, Atobe is left to pay repairs, which he does with minimal grumbling, and they leave as a group; no hanging heads, but most of them are fighting back laughter and grins that erupt when they get out of the restaurant.
It feels like old times and that makes it all the more difficult: Ohtori glances around at the group and thinks briefly of the team awaiting them at the high school level. And at the team remaining behind. And it's hard to swallow past the lump in his throat.
None of them want to be the first to leave; Jirou and Muhaki are still shaking rice from their hair, scattering the ground with the grains and attracting the birds, and it's nice to walk, in a group, from the restaurant.
Atobe's the first, though; it surprises no one when his limo pulls up curbside and he climbs in. What does surprise them is when he turns back, fixing a look first at Hiyoshi and then Ohtori, and last Kabaji. "I expect the team to win Nationals this year," he says, an order if anything from Atobe is, and climbs in.
The window rolls down a second later. "And I expect the rest of you on the senior team."
It breaks the tension, at least, tension Ohtori didn't realize was there; he finds he can grin a little easier and say good-bye to Hiyoshi, who he won't actually miss, and to Oshitari, whom he will, and Muhaki, and everyone else, until it's only him and Shishido. Ohtori thinks, for a moment, that it should be awkward, but it isn't; it somehow feels just like the end of any random day, one when they had worked on their doubles game and gone for dinner and were on the verge of going their opposite ways. Ohtori glances at Shishido and notices him pulling the cap from his bag and fixing it on his head.
"I gotta get home," Shishido mutters, "or my mom's gonna kill me." He reaches out and punches Ohtori in the shoulder. "See you around."
Ohtori watches him jog off in the opposite direction, thinking that of all the endings that day, none of them have actually felt like an ending. It's almost normal.
The last day of school and everyone is laughing, smiling, cheerful in ways they haven't been cheerful since the summer. It's not hard to notice the strained smile Shishido gives him, or note the lingering hug Oshitari gives him, or even the way Jirou clings just a little tighter. Ohtori smiles, smiles until he thinks his lips can stretch no further and that his cheeks will soon be frozen in their place and he'll walk around with a smile fixed in place for his senior year.
The thought makes him chuckle, and the smile fades, and next to him, Shishido-san nudges his shoulder. "What's so funny?" he demands in a whisper. Not that it's soft enough to escape notice from anyone around them, and Atobe stops in the middle of his speech-slash-monologue to turn toward them.
"If you are going to say anything, say it to all of us," he says with a sniff, sounding for all the world like any of the teachers, and manages to look down his nose at them all. Ohtori can feel the blood rising in his cheeks. "It's impolite-"
"He probably just wanted you to shut up," Muhaki says, flinging a few grains of rice at Atobe, and that manages to distract them all. Atobe might think food fights are beneath his dignity, but he can't stand being outclassed: when Jirou grins and exclaims, "You've got rice in your hair, 'Tobe," Atobe upends a bowl on Muhaki's head, and flicks grains toward Jirou, and it's only the beginning.
By the end, Atobe is left to pay repairs, which he does with minimal grumbling, and they leave as a group; no hanging heads, but most of them are fighting back laughter and grins that erupt when they get out of the restaurant.
It feels like old times and that makes it all the more difficult: Ohtori glances around at the group and thinks briefly of the team awaiting them at the high school level. And at the team remaining behind. And it's hard to swallow past the lump in his throat.
None of them want to be the first to leave; Jirou and Muhaki are still shaking rice from their hair, scattering the ground with the grains and attracting the birds, and it's nice to walk, in a group, from the restaurant.
Atobe's the first, though; it surprises no one when his limo pulls up curbside and he climbs in. What does surprise them is when he turns back, fixing a look first at Hiyoshi and then Ohtori, and last Kabaji. "I expect the team to win Nationals this year," he says, an order if anything from Atobe is, and climbs in.
The window rolls down a second later. "And I expect the rest of you on the senior team."
It breaks the tension, at least, tension Ohtori didn't realize was there; he finds he can grin a little easier and say good-bye to Hiyoshi, who he won't actually miss, and to Oshitari, whom he will, and Muhaki, and everyone else, until it's only him and Shishido. Ohtori thinks, for a moment, that it should be awkward, but it isn't; it somehow feels just like the end of any random day, one when they had worked on their doubles game and gone for dinner and were on the verge of going their opposite ways. Ohtori glances at Shishido and notices him pulling the cap from his bag and fixing it on his head.
"I gotta get home," Shishido mutters, "or my mom's gonna kill me." He reaches out and punches Ohtori in the shoulder. "See you around."
Ohtori watches him jog off in the opposite direction, thinking that of all the endings that day, none of them have actually felt like an ending. It's almost normal.