[Fanfiction] Marui, Rikkai Ensemble [Part 2]

Aug 21, 2011 00:57

Return to Part 1.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Cactus ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sunlight cut harshly through a gap between the curtains, striking Marui in the face. He wrinkled his nose and turned over in bed, shifting into a more comfortable position. Then he remembered. Trying to get out of bed so quickly, he got tangled in the covered and fell onto the ground in his haste. “Ouch…” He gritted his teeth and rubbed his back, getting up and picking up the covers so he could make his bed.

It was the last day before the new term started again. For the past week, he had been thinking of all sorts of ways he could spend his last day, but at the end, he decided not to commit to anything and just see what would happen if he just banked his luck on fate and trusted whatever came. Before he could even step out of the house, however, Marui found himself surrounded by his two younger brothers. “Bunta-nii! Come play with us!” One of them shouted, grabbing him by the hand. “Yeah!” The other pouted, pulling at Marui’s shirt, “You’re always out of the house! Play with us today!” Marui ruffled the two boys’ hair, messing the red locks up as best he could, “Haha, yeah, all right! What do you guys want to play?”

“Tezuka versus the Dinosaur!!” The two shouted in chorus, “You’re the dinosaur, Bunta-nii! You’d better hurry and run or you’ll be killed off!” Rolling his eyes at the choice of game, Marui let the two kids chase him through the house, over to the backyard, around to the front yard. It wasn’t until he passed by his bedroom window that Marui stopped suddenly and let his brothers run into him. Untangling himself from the mess of limbs, he pulled himself up to look at the window ledge. There were more than a dozen flowers there, of all sorts, some of them which looked recently cut, others obviously starting to wilt. Frowning, he pulled the front of his shirt out into a makeshift basket and swept the flowers onto it, careful not to crush any or accidently leave any behind. Marui’s brothers exchanged looks, mouthed to each other how strange their elder brother was, and continued their game, dinosaur against dinosaur, grappling and tumbling on the ground, Tezuka Zone forgotten.

Marui dumped the flowers onto his bed when he returned to his room. He put them in order as best he could, trying to distinguish which flower was put on his window more recently and which had been waiting to be picked up for a long time. When that was done, he tore through his room, frantically searching for that book he was certain he had bought a while back. Finally finding it under a pile of dirty laundry at the corner of his bed, he flipped it open and scanned the pages, fingering each flower one by one, trying to match them up with the pictures and descriptions. And so, the afternoon passed.

“Buchou! Yukimura-buchou!!” The only thing Marui could think to do next was run straight to his captain’s house and pound on the door, before catching himself and reminding himself of that time at Niou’s house. He rapped on the door with his knuckles instead, praying that Yukimura would be home. “Who is it?” A thoroughly confused face poked through the door, not sure whether he should let someone in who was trying to break down his front door, then throwing it wide open in surprise, “Bunta! What are you doing here?” Yukimura asked, stepping to the side to let him in. Marui didn’t move, instead gripping Yukimura by the arm, “Yukimura-buchou, you have to help me! I-I’ve done something terrible!” he tightened his grip, voice straining. Yukimura ushered him inside the house, frowning slightly, “Oh dear. You haven’t murdered anyone have you?” he asked in mock seriousness, “And here I was thinking Sanada would be the first one. Remind me I owe Yanagi 500 yen.” He turned to Marui, placing a hand on his shoulder, “All right, Marui. What did you do? Don’t worry, you can tell me.”

“I’m being serious here,” Marui gave Yukimura an unamused look, then immediately one of utmost apology, “Sorry. It’s just… These flowers!” He held up the bag he had carried at his side, which was filled with the flowers he had collected from his windowsill, that Yukimura had failed to notice in his preoccupation of a potentially demolished door. “I didn’t realize… There’s this book I got from the bookstore… The meanings… The meanings, Buchou!” Marui muttered distractedly, handing the bag to Yukimura and now flipping through the book he had tucked underneath the flowers, stopping and holding the place of each page he had tagged. “Look at these,” He shoved the book in front of Yukimura’s face in distress, “White carnations, primrose, spider lily, Buchou! What have I done? What am I supposed to do!?”

“Calm down, Bunta.” It was that Buchou Voice. Marui closed his mouth immediately, freezing. Yukimura sighed, taking the book from Marui’s hands and dropping it into the bag, setting both on the ground, “Just… relax, okay? Come on, let’s take a walk.” Not questioning, Marui followed his captain outside of house. Neither talked the entire way around the neighborhood and to the shopping district. They passed different shops, pausing sometimes when something interesting caught their eyes, but not stopping any longer than a couple minutes at any given place. Marui felt himself growing bored, and opened his mouth to complain when he realized that Yukimura did indeed successfully get him to calm down. He turned to his captain as he walked, trusting that he was allowed to talk again, “Yukimura-buchou. Do you think… that person hates me?” Yukimura kept his gaze in front of him, but smiled, “No.” “How do you know?” Marui pressed, falling in step with Yukimura, who replied simply, “Trust me, Marui. I-“

“Oh!” The two of them jumped in surprise as a shopkeeper ran in front of them and looked at Yukimura excitedly, “You used to come every day past lunch time, right? You’re early today, so I wasn’t expecting to see you here. You mentioned this would be your last purchase, a pity, since we had such good business from you! What did you need next? Ah… sweet peas, right? They’re in the back, let me get them for you~” As quickly as she appeared, the shopkeeper turned and disappeared into the shop. Marui stared, perplexed, then realization dawned as his eyes travelled from the spot the shopkeeper was standing, to the pots and pots of flowers surrounding them, and finally on Yukimura. “…You?” Marui asked breathlessly, not daring to believe. Yukimura gave him a faint smile, “Me.”

“What? Why?” Marui ran a hand through his hair, trying to get things together, “All this time, at your house, and you never…?” He looked up at Yukimura, waiting for an explanation. Yukimura crossed his arms in defense, “…Because we were the same. No one likes seeing their team broken up, and I just though… I would be able to keep you at my side for a while longer.” He sighed, uncrossing his arms, “And it worked… for a time, at least. I got to see you every day when you were still interested. Hmmn. Renji would have gotten what I meant. But really, you’re more oblivious than Sanada when it comes to these sorts of things.” He sighed, “You know, I’d imagine it would take everything up to a red rose to make him understand, and that’s even with a reference book.”

Marui gaped at him. “Buchou…” he said weakly, “All of this? Just so I would visit every day?” Yukimura gave him a look, as if daring him to question his buchou, “Hey. Do you know how weird it would have been if I had said, ’Bunta, spend every day of your break with me.’? What would you have said?” “I would have said yes!” Marui stepped towards his captain with conviction, “I would have stayed by your side forever if you had asked! It’s all I want, to be with you, and Akaya and Hiroshi and Jackal and Niou and Yanagi and Sanada-fukubuchou and everybody.” He gave Yukimura a sad smile. “I never got to say this, but… thank-“

“Oh. Rikkai.”

The two of them turned towards the unfamiliar voice. “…Fuji?” Marui tilted his head in confusion. The Seigaku player smiled, “I knew I recognized the two of you. So you shop here too? They have a wide selection of cacti, so I like to browse here from time to time. Here, I bought extra today; perhaps you would like to take one and try growing it yourself. They’re fascinating.” He placed a small pot in Marui’s hand and waved goodbye, happy to spread the love of cacti. Marui looked down at the pot, then at Yukimura, “So… Hanakotoba. What does ‘cactus’ mean?” “Uh… well… ’lust’. ButIdon’tthinkthat’swhathe-“ he began quickly, but Marui laughed. Freely, wholeheartedly, like he hadn’t for the longest time. Yukimura joined in, and it felt great.

“Here you are,” the shopkeeper grinned proudly and held out a pot, “Sweet peas!”

Yukimura gave Marui a side glance and smiled, “I’m sorry, I would like to cancel that order. Instead, there are several flowers I would like in place of them…”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Forget-Me-Not ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Akaya! Stop slacking off and finish digging that row!”
“Ah, sorry, Sanada-fuku-“
“TARUNDORU!! Who are you trying to impersonate!?”
“Eh? Niou-sempai!? Arrggh! I’m going to get you for this!!”
“Puri~”

“Haha…” Marui laughed to himself as he wiped the sweat and dirt of his forehead, leaning against his shovel. A bed of freshly turned dirt lay in front of him, spanning across the entire field. Yukimura appeared beside him, handing him a bottle of water, which he gratefully accepted. Despite the team having worked all morning digging out weeds and sowing seeds, the captain didn’t seem to have a spot of dirt on him. “All right, team!” Yukimura called out cheerfully, clapping his hands to call them all back, “It looks great so far! Renji, I’ll leave the rest of the organization up to you. Jackal, aren’t you tired of picking up Akaya’s share of work? Let Sanada do it; he seems to have enough energy. …and Yagyuu, why are you wearing gloves? A little bit of dirt isn’t going to kill you.”

Marui looked over the field, “This time next year, it will be full of color, won’t it?” he smiled happily. “Of course,” Yukimura laid a hand on his shoulder as the two faced the rest of the team, “That’s why I expect to see every single one of you back here in one year’s time. No. Exceptions.” It was his Buchou Voice. No one even dared considering making up an excuse.

Feeling confident that this plan of Yukimura’s would work itself out, Marui got back to digging, together with his team. The team he grew up with. The team he fought alongside. The team he would never forget. The team… his team.

Joushou Rikkaidai.

fanfic:prince of tennis

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