Wittyphantom, here's your crack!
Title: Much Ado About Notebooks
For: Wittyphantom
Pairing: Atobe/Mizuki, Horio/Dan, (Sanada/Shinji)
Rating: PG
Summary: A simple instance of mistaken identity entwined with the fate of two misplaced notebooks causes much upset at Atobe's party. Fortunately, everything ends happily, and even Sanada gets his tennis match in the end.
Author’s Notes: I practically squealed when I saw the pairings… and then had the idea of staying true to the spirit of crack by tying them all together in a big Shakespearean comedy style mess, fitting in two of the prompts as well. I rather enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it as well.
Kay Faraday (mentioned) is property of Capcom, from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.
It was, as was only natural, a truly grand event. Of course, nothing he arranged could be anything less than grand. With guests milling about in colourful costumes of varying creativity and quality, talking and shouting and dancing and just having fun, the grand ballroom of the Atobe mansion was quite full. Atobe, naturally, casually treaded through the crowd as though the floor had been perfectly empty and free for him to make his way as he pleased among his guests. A word here, a nod there, and some absolutely charming smiles all around, he was simply the perfect host as was only appropriate.
However, even with all these people gathered at his invitation, his eyes were searching the crowd for one face in particular. Even for eyes as unmatched as his were, it was not an easy task; trying to spot a head of black hair in a party full of Japanese was not exactly looking for a needle in a haystack, but pinpointing one dark-haired head in particular was quite more challenging. Once, he almost thought he'd found his target, surely there could be no mistaking that head of dark curls, but a moment later he realized it was merely the young ace of Rikkai, looking quite similar. Typical.
Some raised voices from the side momentarily caught his attention. Seigaku's Momoshiro and the redhead of Fudoumine were apparently getting into some form of an argument. He momentarily thought about going over to separate them, but then thought better of it. Getting between two easily angered teenage boys was not exactly his idea of fun time, however often he had to do exactly that when Shishido's and Gakuto's mutual teasing went from semi-jovial to openly hostile, and besides it wasn't as though they were upsetting the rest of the guests, judging the crowd that was joyfully gathering to watch the scene unfold. Scoffing his head at such uncouth activities, Atobe continued his search for the one person he was actually interested in.
Now where on Earth had Mizuki got to?
*
Horio had to admit he was having fun, despite his initial wariness. Of course he had been wary; the party was hosted by Atobe, after all. However, most of his fears had turned out to be completely unfounded; instead of the snobby, stuck-up air he had expected to see, everyone actually seemed to be having fun. He supposed it was partly because of the costumes; there were some really great ones around.
Even then, he occasionally found himself wondering when someone would come up to tell him to leave. He wasn't a regular, after all; he was hardly even a proper player, being still a first year. However, nobody had yet come to complain about his presence, and besides the invites had been open to anyone in the tennis clubs and not just the regulars so surely he had every right to be here. He was sure he'd spotted other first-years, too, like that loud one from Rikkai with the weird hair. He'd lost sight of Katsuo and Kachirou a while ago, though, and hadn't seen Yamabuki's Dan-kun yet, either. As a result, he was currently wandering around the party looking for someone to talk with, or possibly something to drink.
Nobody had even complimented his costume yet, even though it was all kinds of awesome. Everyone was already sick of ninjas wearing green and orange; Horio had decided to take the trend to the next logical point of progression. He was most certainly the only candy-striped ninja in the entire party, and nobody was even noticing him!
There weren't any girls around, he noticed, not that it was very surprising. After all, far as he knew the invitations had only been issued to boys' tennis clubs, so the only girls who would come were managers or spies or little sisters like Fudoumine's Tachibana-chan. Horio kind of wondered why. Judging by the amount of fan girls he led around every day, one would have thought Atobe would like more girls in his party, too.
Then, however, his eyes met with something that was most definitely a girl, standing near the wall and facing away from him. If the long, dark hair hadn't clued him in, then the shirt with pink swirls and the short skirt certainly did. It only took him a moment to realize the girl was dressed as one of his favourite video game characters, too. Nobody else could have been wearing that key in their hair.
"Kay!" he said cheerfully, making his way through the crowd. He didn't know who the girl was, of course he couldn't know with only seeing their back, but he just knew she had to be awesome to choose such an awesome character to dress up as. Kay Faraday was almost as cool as the candy-striped ninja. And it wasn't even a big almost; Kay was just that awesome.
He called her name - well, the character's name - again as he tried to get closer. Then, just as he was about to reach to tap her shoulder, she spun around. She was pretty short, he realized, even shorter than he was if one didn't take into account the high-rising hair. And she was looking at him with awfully familiar brown eyes.
"Horio-kun?" said Kay with Dan-kun's voice, blinking even as she - or, as it appeared, he - started to smile. "Oh, you're here, too! It's great to see you~"
"Dan-kun?" Horio blinked in surprise, taking a step back. Well, that was… unexpected. "I… you're Kay?"
"Yup~ Do you like my costume?" Dan smiled brightly, tilting his head to the side as though everything had been just perfect in the world and he hadn't been wearing girls' clothes. "I made it myself~ Well, most of it. My mum did help desu."
"It's… well, it's good," Horio said, trying to sound as sincere as he could. The outfit really was great, especially if Dan had indeed made it himself; he'd recognized the character right away, even without the key in the hair. But… "You're not a girl."
"No, I'm not. Sorry to disappoint desu~" Again with the head-tilt. "Is that a problem?"
"No… no, I guess not." Horio shook his head. "It… looks good on you." Girl or not, for such a small person Dan managed to have quite a bit of legs between the skirt and the boots. Not that Horio was looking, oh no. You just weren't supposed to look at the legs of another guy, unless you were playing tennis. There weren't a lot of bits in a guy's body that were not appropriate to look at when you were playing tennis; after all, you did have to anticipate your opponent's moves. Really, Horio's senpai would probably have been very proud of him for remembering this point.
"Thanks desu~" Dan smiled at him some more. "Ano… were you looking for something? Or someone? I'm sorry if I distracted you…"
"Ah… nothing in particular," Horio murmured. "Well, I was wondering where to get something to drink. People walk by all the time with all kind of fancy juices and stuff, the nice kind and not the juices Inui-senpai makes, but I can't seem to figure out where they're getting them."
"Oh, there's a table at the other end of the room desu," Dan replied. Well, trust a data player to know, Horio reasoned. "Want me to show the way? It's kind of an adventure just to make your way through with all these people about."
"Ano… if it's not too much trouble." Horio gave him a bit sheepish grin. "With this many people around, it's hard even for a ninja to find a way through the crowd."
"It might be because of your clothes desu," Dan said with a level tone, eyeing him almost critically. The good kind of critical that definitely noticed all the details on his costume, too, and not those stupid gazes that only noticed the candy-stripes and couldn't even tell he was a ninja. "Candy stripes can be good camouflage sometimes, but there aren't a lot of peppermint candy canes for you to leap around on."
"Tell me about it," Horio sighed, relieved that someone finally understood his vision. "But, yeah, if it's not too much trouble…"
"Not at all." Dan smiled, reaching a gloved hand to tug at his hand.
Neither of them noticed as a small notebook fell from the pouch on his belt as he skipped along, falling to the floor, only barely protected from stomping feet by one of the chairs settled along the walls.
*
Now where was that man? One would have thought it wouldn't be so hard to spot a diva in an event he was hosting all by his snobbish self, but apparently Atobe was intent on proving wrong even the most trivial bits of his data. This, along with the constantly milling and talking and laughing crowd, was really rather wearing on Mizuki's nerves. As his team might have been able to attest to, he could get irritable over things some people might have called trivial, and an annoyed Mizuki was never a good thing. Mizuki, for his part, disagreed; his reasons were never trivial, and if someone got him annoyed they most definitely deserved whatever was coming to them.
Right now, the target of his annoyance was Atobe, except he wasn't there. He hadn't even been kind enough to inform Mizuki what he was going to dress as, which certainly wasn't helping with the task of finding him. For someone who wanted to meet up, Atobe was certainly doing his very best to hide away from Mizuki.
Coming to a halt in a slightly calmer spot near the far wall of the ball room, Mizuki pulled out his notebook, flipping through a couple of the pages. He had gathered some statistics from some past events also hosted by Atobe, but they really weren't proving very useful. For example, the previous data didn't include the rather significant factor of the costumes, which contributed greatly to making his search nigh impossible. Never mind that he didn't know what Atobe looked like at the moment, but there were a dozen people walking around looking quite more similar to Atobe than they might have otherwise. And given that Atobe was already familiar with the usage of wigs, really the only hope he had of recognizing the snob for sure was getting close enough to get a good look at his face, and that was rather easier said than done in this crowd.
Sighing, Mizuki let his gaze browse over the gathered people once more, only to freeze completely as he finally spotted the familiar form. That was Atobe, no doubt about it. The same hair, same face, same smug smirk, even the same beauty spot under one eye, though right now it had been covered up by a little sticker cut into some sort of a specific shape; he wasn't quite close enough to tell what the shape was. Even the costume was something he might have quite expected from Atobe; with purple and blue and velvet and lace, he was the perfect picture of a storybook prince.
Really, the only thing that didn't fit in with the picture was the way he was practically clinging to Sanada's arm.
For another couple of seconds, Mizuki stared at this sight. The notebook fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers, hardly even noticed. Then, right in the wake of the initial shock, a wave of rage replaced his former annoyance. How dare Atobe commit this - this travesty. How dare he host a party just so he could practically slap Mizuki in the face with his interest for another!
However, he wasn't going to do something as lowly was running up to yell at Atobe. Oh, no, that would have been absolutely plebeian. Instead, he was going to plot and scheme his diabolical revenge like any good mastermind.
And if he wanted to storm away from the scene fuming with rage, that was perfectly within his rights, too.
*
Some rude people had been known to suggest that Sanada's powers of observation weren't the keenest ever. Sanada himself wasn't inclined to disagree all that much, though he would have argued it wasn't due to lack of skill as much as lack of interest. There wasn't a single detail he missed when it came to something important, like tennis. It was only the trivial things he ignored; other than that, there was absolutely nothing wrong with his observational skills.
For example, he could perfectly tell this person was Niou. It was evident in his hair, in his tones of voice, in that little dab of make-up hiding a small mole that had fallen on the wrong spot for the role. It was evident in ways that were so tied to the particular manners of habit that he could have told it was Niou even if he hadn't seen a glimpse of the other boy.
Of course, there was also the fact that Atobe would have never been clinging to his arm like this. Or anyone's arm, surely. For all that Sanada often found himself annoyed with the other's snobbish ways and strange habits, at least he knew Atobe wasn't one to busy himself with such empty gestures of affection. Oh, no, this was most definitely Niou.
"Let go of me," he said levelly.
"You're no fun," Niou replied, and continued clinging on. "I bet you've never had any fun in your life."
"That is irrelevant," Sanada said. And it was. "Fun" had little importance in life. No matter what those freaks from Shitenhouji claimed, and no matter what even that brat Echizen would say on the court, tennis had nothing to do with fun.
"You'll have those lines permanently on your face before we're out of middle school," Niou claimed. "You should be careful, you already look enough like an old man."
Again with the irrelevancies. Sanada shook his arm, trying to make Niou let go. He didn't have the time to bother himself with a fake Atobe bent on insulting him. He wanted to find the real one. At least the real Atobe would surely agree to playing some tennis with him while insulting him.
Finally, in a moment of blessed relief, Niou actually let go of his arm. Sanada stood up even straighter than before, gaze scanning the crowd around them. No sign of Atobe.
"I'm going to go look for the real Atobe," he said. "If you see him, send him outside." He had no idea where to start looking for Atobe in all this crowd, so he figured the only logical conclusion was to go to the location Sanada himself would have picked if he hadn't been dragged right inside by Yukimura and then abandoned in the middle of the crowd. Perhaps it wasn't Atobe's preferred location as well, but at least he could have a minimal break while looking for the other captain.
Niou murmured something that could have been a yes for all he cared as Sanada walked away. Good. He really felt like he needed a match.
Honestly, Atobe was so stupid for not meeting up with him for a match right away. After all, what else could possibly be taking up his time? They were only in Atobe's costume party.
*
Typical. Just as Atobe finally managed to catch a glimpse of Mizuki, the dataist would storm away before he could even call out to him. By the time Atobe reached the place where Mizuki had been standing, the other was long gone, swallowed by the mingling crowd.
There was a notebook peeking out from under the chair. Come to think of it, he'd seen Mizuki dropping his, earlier. He'd most definitely throw a fit when he realized his precious data book was gone, and Atobe knew better than to allow Mizuki to throw a fit if only he could help it. Crouching down to pick it up, he bravely resisted the almost invincible urge to peek inside. For all he considered his interests to be quite more valid than those of anyone else, he did have some respect for other people's privacy. That, and Mizuki would have skinned him alive had he found out, and there weren't a lot of things Mizuki couldn't find out if he set his mind to it. It was all a part of his charm.
Keeping the notebook firmly shut, Atobe gave the crowd one last cursory glance before starting to make his way in the direction he had last seen Mizuki disappear to.
*
"Okay, okay, don't panic." Horio would have been the first one to admit he wasn't exactly the best person to calm someone down. However, at the moment he had little choice but to try his very best, what with Dan very nearly freaking out. "I'm sure it's somewhere around here."
"But what if it isn't?" Dan asked, sounding pretty much desperate. As soon as they had realized his notebook was gone, they had made their way back as close to their original route as possible, ending up at the spot where he had first found Dan. However, they hadn't caught any sight of the all-important little data book. It really was getting harder and harder for Horio to try to keep cheering Dan up.
"Of course it is," Horio said, looking around. There were less people here, which meant better visibility of the floor, but even then he was seeing no hide nor hair of Dan's notebook. "It wasn't on the way here. Where else could it be?"
"Well, we could have taken a slightly different path in the crowd desu," Dan pointed out in what was unfortunately a rather valid point. "Or someone might have picked it up, or kicked it away. And even it had been here, someone might have just stolen it away…"
"Oh, come on." Horio reached a hand to pat the panicking dataist on the shoulder. "Who would ever steal your notebook?"
Immediately, Dan spun around, brown eyes sparking with anger born from panic. "Are you saying my data isn't good enough to interest anyone?" he snapped.
"No! I mean - of course not! It's just, there really aren't that many dataists around, are there?" Horio said, desperately trying to save himself. He hadn't meant anything like that at all, honestly. He'd only been trying to reassure Dan, not insult him. "The rest of us probably wouldn't even understand any of it…"
Dan relaxed a bit, worry immediately flooding in to replace the dissipating anger. "But then why isn't it here?" he asked miserably. "It has to be around here somewhere… it's not like notebooks can disappear in thin air!"
Horio really was feeling rather guilty now. This was his fault, wasn't it? After all, Dan had been helping him when this had happened. If Dan had just stayed here, happily gathering his data in peace, he wouldn't have dropped his notebook and it wouldn't have been lost now. But he had asked for help and Dan had helped him and now Dan had lost something really important and Horio couldn't even do anything to help.
"You're looking for a notebook?" someone asked suddenly. As both of their eyes snapped to the side and up, Horio found himself looking at one of the players from… that one school. The one with the annoying dataist and Fuji-senpai's little brother. This one played… doubles, right? Or something?
"Kisarazu-san?" Well, trust Dan to know even the name. No wonder he was the dataist and Horio was… not a dataist. "Have you seen it somewhere?" There was an almost pitifully hopeful look in Dan's eyes as he looked at the taller boy. It just served to make Horio feel even more guilty, even though it was an awfully cute look.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I'm not sure if it was yours, but I did see Mizuki-san around here with a notebook earlier," Kisarazu said. "It could have been his own for all I know, but…"
"Ah, that helps anyway," Dan said with a faint little smile. Horio wasn't quite sure how he could smile so soon after being all panicky. "Thank you, Kisarazu-san."
"Don't mention it," murmured the older player. "…Oh, and Atobe was around here with one earlier, too. I thought it was kind of weird since he's not a data player and he was here right after Mizuki-san."
Dan blinked at this new information. Horio did too, though he was fairly sure Dan was already putting the pieces together and he… well, he wasn't. His mind just didn't work that way; Dan's did.
Someone called for Kisarazu, the duck guy most probably, and he excused himself and quickly disappeared. Dan, however, was looking around with a newly found fervour. This was shortly rewarded as he peeked under a chair another time and reached out a hand to pick up something.
"I didn't make much note of this earlier, since it's not mine," Dan murmured, looking at the notebook in his hands. How he could have told that much at a glance was beyond Horio; it certainly looked exactly like Dan's from the description he'd gotten from the dataist earlier. "This one must be Mizuki-san's… And then either he or Atobe-san picked up mine by accident."
"What would Atobe do with a notebook, though?" Horio asked doubtfully. It just didn't make much sense in his opinion. "I mean, like Kisarazu said, he's not exactly a data player…"
"I don't know." Dan gave him a gaze that was shining with determination, clutching onto the wrong notebook. "But either he and Mizuki-san have my notebook… and I'm going to get it back." There was a glint in his eyes that almost reminded Horio of that horrible Akutsu. Bad influence, obviously.
Well, Horio thought, at least he wasn't all miserable and panicky anymore.
*
Compared with the noisy and crowded ball room, the grand, lush garden outside was a welcome respite. Of course there was still some noise, what with the music and voices spilling out from the open doors, but in general the garden was rather devoid of people. Sanada couldn't understand why they would rather be inside with all the people around, but if it suited them, fine. There were only a couple of people outside besides himself, none of whom was Atobe. Ah, well. He'd just have to look further.
"Everyone is too loud," he heard a quiet voice, and it took him a moment to realize it wasn't just his own thoughts. Turning to look, he saw someone he vaguely remembered seeing before. He was fairly sure they had played against this guy at some point, though he could hardly even place a team, never mind the name. "All those idiots just talking each other's ears off and talking and arguing and even though I wanted to talk with Akira he won't even listen to me because of that stupid Momoshiro annoying him and now they're off fighting somewhere and they're being even louder than everyone else. It's really quite annoying, I don't know how they can stand it, but then I usually don't understand what Akira thinks most of the time and it's not like he tells me."
Well. That he did remember, if not the face. Someone from Fudoumine, right? Their best claim at tensai. He'd had a half-way decent move, too. "Have you seen Atobe?" It was a valid question, after all.
The boy blinked, turning to look at him. "I haven't seen him anywhere," he said. "Wouldn't he be inside anyway, since it's his party? It would be really quite rude of him to be outside with most of his guests inside, but then he might think that maybe the ones outside aren't having that much fun, I certainly am not, but then it's not like he cares much about me anyway and besides I don't think he cares much at all and it's all annoying and -"
"If you do see him," Sanada cut in, "can you tell him to wait for me here?" He could just as well make a longer round of the gardens while he was at it. Give his ears some rest. Surely Atobe would do as told; Sanada was sure he would realize Sanada wanted to play against him, and certainly Atobe wouldn't have anything that would be higher on his list of priorities than tennis. Atobe was sensible like that.
The Fudoumine player said something that sounded vaguely like an agreement. He also said a whole lot of other things, but by that time Sanada was already gone.
*
This being a costume party, Atobe had been prepared to see many kinds of things. He already had, with sights varying from that candy-striped monstrosity of a Seigaku first year - what he was supposed to be, Atobe had no idea, but the mere glimpse of him was enough to cause migraine - and someone wearing a rather short skirt to Oishi being dressed up as a half-decent cat boy, apparently for Kikumaru's amusement. All this was within his exceptions, and certainly tolerable. After all, it was the basic idea of the party.
However, he most certainly hadn't been prepared to run into… well, himself.
"So very charming," he said, lips twitching a bit into a smirk. "Niou, I presume? I must commend your choice of attire."
"So kind words of you," the other replied, mirroring his smirk quite perfectly. He really had done a good job, even masking some of his facial features to resemble Atobe's own. Of course, they were easy enough to tell apart when they were both there, but Atobe assumed that with some distance and without comparison, someone might have mistaken Niou for him.
"And the exact definition of this… costume?" Atobe nodded towards Niou's clothes. They weren't a half-bad choice, certainly something he might have worn to the party himself had he not had a different idea. Of course, he might have gone for rather more expensive fabrics, but these weren't any cheap rags, either. Certainly enough to fool someone without much eye to detail or a proper chance to inspect the quality. In any case, his choice of a well-dressed musketeer was certainly superior to Niou's apparent form of royalty.
"Oh, is it not immediately clear?" Niou feigned innocence very badly. It didn't really help that Atobe's face wasn't exactly made for looking innocent, either. Making a little twirl, lace and velvet tracing the arc of his arms while the little crown upon his head stayed perfectly still, he declared, "I'm a royal pain in the ass."
"Oh, do forgive me." Atobe knew better than to get offended at that. That would just have been exactly what Niou wanted. Instead, he tilted his head minutely to the side, looking over Niou's costume. "You know, it'd work even better if you could remember the hand," he pointed out. "I know you mostly do your illusions in tennis, but certainly you have enough experience faking your doubles partner's right-handedness? It's not that obvious when you're not holding a racquet, but you twirled your hair with your left hand just now."
"I do thank you for the constructive criticism." Niou smirked.
"You're quite welcome. After all," Atobe said, returning the smirk, "imitation is the highest form of flattery." That, and he was the first one to admit he could occasionally be, indeed, a royal pain in the ass. At least he was the best at what he did.
"Of course." Niou gave him an almost feral grin before adding with a slightly closer-to-serious tone, "Oh, by the way - someone was looking for you." He nodded his head towards the open doors at the garden's side of the ball room. "I think he went outside or something."
Someone was looking for him? Well, with any luck, it'd be Mizuki. And even if it wasn't, he could just as well play the good host and see who was trying to find him. Thanking Niou briefly, he gave his copy a cordial bow, receiving one in return. They parted with again matching smirks.
At least the one imitating him was a proper bastard instead of some insufferable fan boy. That made everything better.
*
The cooler air outside was doing its best to alleviate Mizuki's anger. However, its best wasn't quite enough, he noticed, doing his best not to march around in his own little bit of holy rage. That would have been most undignified, and he refused to let some two-timing bastard make him sink that low. Atobe was only deserving of his contempt and eventual revenge, not such open rage. He wouldn't give the bastard the satisfaction.
It was, in his opinion, quite obvious that Atobe was indeed trying to upset him on purpose. After all, otherwise he would have at least had the guts to break up with him properly instead of just inviting him to a party and then clinging to Sanada like a lovelorn puppy in front of everyone. That, or he was just a coward, which made him even less deserving of actual anger.
Of course, all his resolve to stay cool and collected faded away rather instantly as he spotted Atobe again. The bastard had even taken the time to completely change his costume rather than seek Mizuki out. He was currently talking with Fudoumine's tensai, Mizuki had always quite disliked Ibu's way of speaking, and Ibu was saying something about… Sanada? Who had told Atobe to wait for him? Well, of course he would. After all, it was quite evident Atobe wasn't looking for Mizuki.
The moment his eyes met the notebook in Atobe's hand, Mizuki suddenly realized he didn't have his own. And that did look awfully familiar… The bastard had even stolen his notebook!
Marching closer, he ignored the surprised looks on both of the other boy's faces. "I'll have that, thank you," he said, snatching the notebook away from Atobe's hand without giving it a further inspection. After all, it was obviously his, by the mere fact that Atobe did not have a notebook. Ergo, he was the only one this could have belonged to.
"Hajime," said Atobe, as though he had any right to even speak to him. Well, he could keep on dreaming. Mizuki didn't answer, didn't even look at him any further as he spun on his heels and marched right back where he had come from.
Stupid, stupid, stupid Atobe.
And stupid Mizuki, letting himself be hurt over this.
*
"Where can they be?" Dan sighed, leaning against the side of the window. They'd been hurrying all around the ball room but had caught not even a glimpse of either Mizuki or Atobe. They had seen someone who quite looked like Atobe but had turned out to be Niou instead, but that was the closest they had gotten. By now, Dan was looking rather weary, which in turn made Horio feel even more guilty.
Dan hung his head, a lock of dark hair falling from his forehead to hang over his face. Horio watched it idly as the thin strands swayed as they caught the faint breeze of his breath. By now, Horio had figured out the huge ponytail was probably the only fake part of Dan's hair, or at least if it was a wig, it was a damn good one for just some cosplay at a party. Either way, he almost wanted to reach out a hand and push the lock away from where it fell in front of Dan's face, but that would have been just weird. You didn't touch guys' hair unless it was to mess it up, and he supposed Dan would have killed him if he had messed up the hair; getting the ponytail attached had probably been a total pain. Come to think of it, you didn't touch girls' hair either without permission or you were in danger of getting slapped. Horio wondered if it applied here since, well, Dan was wearing a skirt after all. And had the legs to match, too, not that he was looking.
"I'm sure we'll find them soon," he said, more to reassure Dan than because he truly believed so. There was an awful lot of people here, and the two of them were certainly from the shorter end of the scale. Just trying to get anywhere was like trying to break their way through a huge wall of giants. Of course, both of them had plenty of experience with navigating such crowds, but simply getting forward wasn't enough when their goal was to spot a specific person. He had even thought of suggesting that one of them should get on the other one's shoulders, but then immediately decided against it since he was obviously the stronger one here and Dan was… well, Dan was wearing a skirt. You didn't sit on someone's shoulders when you were wearing a skirt.
"But what if we don't?" Dan sighed. "I really don't want to lose my data… even if I do have Mizuki-san's right here desu," he added, glancing at the notebook he was holding. "I need my own data. I had things in there I absolutely have to get back desu…"
"We'll get it back," Horio said, putting on his best trust-me look. It certainly worked on Katsuo and Kachirou whenever they were unsure about his latest idea. Well, most of the time it did. Sometimes at least. "Just you wait and see."
"But how?" Dan asked miserably. "We obviously can't find anyone in this crowd, not with us being so small and with neither Atobe-san nor Mizuki-san exactly towering over everyone else… I mean, what can we do? Look through the window and spot them passing by?"
Prompted by this suggestion, Horio glanced at the window over Dan's shoulder. And blinked. "Well," he said, "it seems to work better than anything we've tried this far." Honestly, spotting not only one of the two but both Mizuki and Atobe was just beyond the realm of imaginable good luck.
And Mizuki was even holding a notebook.
*
Well. A perfect reunion that hadn't been. After a moment of staring bewildered after Mizuki, Atobe had marched on after him; however, Mizuki seemed to be ignoring all his calls, simply walking away as fast as he could. Well, two could play this game. Atobe was not about to give up on pursuing his boyfriend just because the little diva had gotten angry at him for some reason he didn't even know.
Finally Mizuki came to a momentary halt, his progress hindered by an elaborate fountain. Atobe took this opportunity to speak up again, catching up to a couple of steps from Mizuki.
"Okay, Hajime, stop this," he sighed. "This is honestly getting annoying."
"'Annoying?'" Mizuki echoed. "You think annoyance is the worst problem here?" He spun around, eyes blazing as he looked at Atobe.
"Well, obviously, since you're annoyed at me for something." He rolled his eyes. "If only you'd inform me why, exactly…"
"If you don't know, then I'm not about to tell you." Mizuki frowned.
"Look, I have Insight, yes, but I can't read your thoughts, dating or not," Atobe snapped. He was vaguely aware there were other people in the garden as well, but none were close enough to hear him. There were some sounds of running in the distance but that hardly mattered; with so many athletes gathered in one place, he would have been quite surprised had nobody had any extra energy needing to get out. "And you're acting like some damn girl, now."
"Are you calling me a girl?" Mizuki's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I only call them as I see them," Atobe shot back, getting annoyed as well. He was most definitely not used to being treated like this, and wasn't about to make a habit of it now, either. "You sound exactly like some stereotypical little bitch!"
"Well, obviously that's all I've ever been to you!" Mizuki spat at him, tossing the notebook at him. Not exactly the most fearsome of projectiles. "Sorry if I've gotten enough of being played with!"
Atobe might have asked him what he meant. He might have even been able to trace back to the origin of this misunderstanding. However, he never got the chance. The sound of running he had caught earlier was much closer now, coming to its logical end as two figures ran right past them. He had just enough time to realize that Kamio and Momoshiro had taken their little spat to the next level; then, his attention was stolen by the water splashing all over him.
Apparently, the two idiots had managed to push Mizuki into the fountain.
*
Seeing the splash of water, Dan didn't as much pause in his run towards Atobe and Mizuki as he completely froze in his footsteps, a little cry escaping his lips then cut short. Horio, who had been coming a bit after him, came to a halt at his side. "What's wrong?"
"Mizuki-san fell into the fountain desu," Dan murmured, looking mournfully over to where Atobe was apparently helping Mizuki out of the water. "If he really was the one holding my notebook, it's absolutely ruined now."
"Oh." Horio's face fell. Dan looked pretty much devastated, and it was all still technically his fault. Stupid, stupid Horio Satoshi, can't you even get something to drink without getting someone else into trouble? "I… I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," Dan sighed, head hanging again. "Not like you made him pick it up by accident… or pushed him into the water desu."
"But without me, you wouldn't have ever dropped it in the first place," Horio reminded. "So it kind of is my fault in the end."
"No, it isn't." Dan shook his head determinedly, the ponytail whishing around. "It's nobody's fault. I would be angry at you if you had thrown my notebook into the water, but you didn't desu. You didn't mean for any of this to happen desu."
"But still, your notebook is ruined," Horio pointed out, and regretted it immediately as Dan's brief expression of determination turned into nigh despair again. He hesitated for a bit before finally giving in to the temptation of drawing him into a hug. It was all right to hug your friend if he was upset, wasn't it? And besides Dan was wearing a skirt so it kind of didn't count as weird.
"I guess I should just take this one to Mizuki-san, now desu," Dan murmured, head resting against Horio's shoulder as he momentarily leant into the hug. It didn't feel too bad, really. Almost kind of good. Had to be because he was comforting his friend, right? "I wouldn't want him to lose his data, too."
Horio drew away from the hug with a just slightly awkward pat on Dan's back. "You know, Dan-kun," he said with a faint smile, "you're just too nice for your own good."
"…Ha. I damn well know that desu." Dan gave him a matching faint smile, but it didn't exactly make Horio miss the tiny tears at the corners of his eyes. For some reason, seeing this caused a painful sting in his chest. No matter what Dan said, it was all his fault that Dan was actually crying.
Well. He had sure screwed up even worse than usually, here.
*
"Now look at me!" Mizuki complained, trying to wring the water out of his clothes and hair. His costume was absolutely ruined, now, as was his hair. "I'm going to strangle those idiots!"
"I'd rather prefer it if you didn't commit any murders in my party," Atobe said. Yeah, right, some boyfriend he was, taking other people's side against Mizuki in a disagreement. But then, he really shouldn't have been surprised. Atobe really hadn't been acting like a boyfriend lately.
"Oh, don't worry. I don't want anyone to see me like this," Mizuki murmured, frowning at his clothes. They were dripping wet, all heavy and cold. He was going to catch a cold for sure. Great. As though his day hadn't already been absolutely ruined.
"…Come on." Atobe's hand at his arm prompted him to look at the Hyoutei captain. "I'll lend you something to wear."
"What do you care?" Mizuki snapped. If Atobe thought he could get back into his good graces with this, well, he was sadly mistaken. Mizuki wasn't about to be won over this easily, not after the obvious betrayal. He'd be the laughing stock of the entire tennis circles if word got out he'd clung to a boyfriend who cheated on him in public.
"Just imagine I do, okay?" Atobe sighed and rolled his eyes. As though he'd been suffering absolutely anything. The insolent little… "I don't want you to catch your death of cold."
Mizuki could have questioned his intentions again, but then, Atobe was speaking sense. It wasn't that pleasant standing outside with his wet clothes clinging to skin, cold and sticky and heavy. It was a most unpleasant feeling. Unpleasant in an entirely different manner from the unpleasantness he had felt as he witnessed Atobe clinging to Sanada, as that had been a reaction to inward emotions and this was his reacting to external stimuli, but still very much unpleasant.
And, well, since he obviously couldn't murder Atobe in his own house, that would have been just seriously bad taste, at least he could abuse his hospitality much as he could.
Walking alongside Atobe, no way was he going to be led absolutely anywhere, Mizuki was rather surprised as suddenly two small figures ran up to him. One of them was one of Seigaku's annoying first years, and the other… after a second, Mizuki recognized him as Yamabuki's little wannabe dataist. Obviously, he was nowhere near Mizuki's skills, but sadly Mizuki couldn't exactly stop kids from dabbling in such an exclusive art. Even if said kid was eccentric enough to be apparently dressed as a girl. But then, Mizuki hardly could say anything about that, not with his own clothes soaking wet.
"Ano… Mizuki-san?" Mizuki blinked in surprise as the Yamabuki kid showed him a notebook. "I… think this is yours desu."
Looking closely at the notebook, Mizuki was just about to say the kid had to be mistaken; after all, he'd already gotten his own notebook from Atobe. However, unlike when he had snatched the book away from his boyfriend, now he had the chance to get a good look at it. The title was the exact right thing, for one, and the corner was worn in that one specific manner. "Ah… where did you find this?" Taking it into his hands, he flipped carefully through a couple of the pages, trying not to let it get too wet. Yes, it was his. But what was it doing in those hands? …And what had been that other notebook.
"Inside the ball room, under a chair," replied the kid - Dan, wasn't it? "We figured one of you had picked up mine by accident… We couldn’t find you before you, ah, fell," Dan looked rather miserable, now, "but I figured I'd bring back yours, anyway."
"I… thank you." Mizuki felt slightly uncomfortable. He couldn't even imagine getting his own data soaked wet through someone else's mistake… he certainly wouldn't have been selflessly returning the other's data after that, if even before it. An insight in another dataist's information could provide excellent information… and this kid was apparently turning it in for the pure kindness of his heart, right after losing his data. "Ah - I'm sorry about your notebook -"
"'s okay desu." Dan tried to smile, but didn't quite manage. His friend looked quite concerned, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was a childish kind of adorable, really, the same way Yuuta could sometimes be adorable in his insistence to be called by his first name. "It's not like you did it on purpose, after all."
"…What are you apologizing for?" Dan gave Atobe a shocked glance at this, with the Seigaku kid opening his mouth in apparent anger, and even Mizuki was about to snap at him for feigning ignorance at the obvious value of data, but Atobe managed to continue before any of them got a single word out. "I don't recall anything bad happening to your notebook."
"Are you kidding?" The Seigaku kid asked disbelievingly. "Mizuki here fell right into the fountain with it!"
"No, he didn't." Atobe ignored their incredulous gazes, perfectly calm. "Hajime tossed it at me just before he was pushed over."
"…Oh. Right." Now, Mizuki's eyes widened minutely as he remembered that little detail. He indeed had done that in his anger. "It should be somewhere around the fountain, still…"
He didn't manage to say anything else as the kids were already on their way. Glancing after them, Mizuki then turned to glare at Atobe. "…Don't think you're forgiven just for remembering that, though," he said.
Atobe looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, and really Mizuki would have hit him just for that except he really did want some dry clothes. "I wouldn't dream of it."
*
"So it's got to be around here somewhere, right?" Horio kept walking around the fountain. "They were around here, and if Mizuki tossed it at Atobe…"
"I just hope it hasn't landed anywhere dirty," Dan murmured, glancing around as though expecting to see a vicious puddle of mud sneaking in to ambush his poor, unsuspecting notebook.
"I'm sure it hasn't," Horio reassured him. "After all, it's the notebook of the Great Thief Yatagarasu, right?" He gave Dan a grin that he hoped was indeed reassuring. "It wouldn't be caught by common dirt."
"…I can always hope." Dan gave him a small smile before returning to his inspection of a bush nearby. It was big, thick, trimmed neatly into a clean shape, and just close enough to the fountain it might have plausibly swallowed the notebook.
Except it hadn't, since the notebook lay neatly on the ground, half hidden by the protruding edge of the fountain, looking all dry and clean for what Horio could see. "Hey, it's here!"
He only just about managed to brace himself so as not to fall over as Dan suddenly rushed over to him, throwing arms around his neck. "Thank you so much, Horio-kun!" he exclaimed, hugging him close. Horio blinked. It felt kind of funny, in a pretty good funny way, a bit like earlier when he had been comforting Dan only it felt even better now because Dan wasn't upset or crying.
Dan didn't let go immediately, either, apparently deciding only a proper hug could be enough of thanks, and Horio didn't protest because it didn't feel too bad or even weird, really. It had to be because Dan was wearing a skirt, he decided. Hugging a guy was supposed to feel weird but of course it wouldn't be that strange when Dan wasn't dressed like a guy so that explained why it felt kind of good instead.
Finally Dan let go, taking the notebook from him, and smiled even more brightly than before. "Come on~" he said happily. "Let's get inside, okay? There were some really good snacks there and if we wait too long, they'll all be gone!"
Well, there was no way to say no to that, was there? Horio would have been betraying the entire race of teenage guys if he'd refused snacks. Therefore he found himself following Dan back inside, not that he had much of a choice since Dan was practically dragging him along by the hand anyway.
Now he did feel kind of weird, like he'd had butterflies tingling somewhere in his chest, but it was really a good kind of weird, so he supposed he could get used to it.
*
"Here." Atobe returned from the trip to his closet, handing Mizuki a pile of clothes. At the moment, Mizuki was clad in nothing but a towel wrapped around his hips, another being busy at work with drying his hair. For all that he was doing this to the accompaniment of a steady stream of curses that hardly fit someone raised in a Catholic school, mainly directed at Atobe, Atobe certainly wasn't complaining about the view. It wasn't the nice view's fault the soundtrack was less than pleasant.
Mizuki didn't bother to thank him. In fact, he didn't say much of anything aside from the quietly murmured curses and insults before he was dressed up in the clothes Atobe had given him. Fitting their actual owner perfectly, they were obviously too large on Mizuki's shorter and slighter frame, though to be honest that just made him look cute in a weird way. Never mind that Atobe quite liked the thought of Mizuki wearing his clothes. It held a weird sort of… intimacy.
However, he didn't have much of a chance to enjoy this new view as Mizuki glared at him and spat, "Explain."
"Explain what?" Atobe shot back, raising his eyebrows. Honestly, how did Mizuki expect him to find out what he was supposed to talk about? He'd already pointed out that his Insight was not exactly telepathy, even if it did come frighteningly close sometimes.
"As though you didn't know." Mizuki snorted, arms akimbo. "I certainly would have had to have been blind to miss it!"
"To miss what?" Atobe asked flatly. "Me looking for you? Or picking up what I thought was your notebook when you dropped it? Or are you just jealous because I talked to someone who isn't you? Because if that's it, we have a tiny problem, here."
"I don't get jealous over talking," Mizuki replied with a biting tone. "However, I do react to seeing you hanging on to other people like some… leech."
Oh. …Oh. "Honestly, Hajime," sighed Atobe. Was it really that simple? "Do you really think I'd 'hang on to' anyone, even you?" He wasn't exactly one for such gestures, after all, or for just about any forms of PDA in general. He did have appearances to upkeep.
"Well, I saw you." Mizuki glared at him. "And don't even try to tell me I saw wrong."
"Oh, you didn't," Atobe reassured him. "It's just that you didn't see me." He smirked a bit. "Niou is walking around dressed up as me, dressed up as a king."
"…Dressed up as… you?" Mizuki gave him an incredulous gaze. "Why?"
"Apparently, he's being a 'royal pain in the ass.'" Atobe's lips twitched. At least Niou had the decency to be creative with the way he presented his insults, even if the actual choice of words was hardly anything he had never heard before.
"Well, that certainly matches you." Ah, yes. Getting defensive instead of admitting to making a mistake. "So… this party wasn't just some elaborate scheme to make me witness you clinging to another man in public?"
"Oh, please." Atobe rolled his eyes. "If I went to the trouble of doing something like that, I'd make sure you saw it for certain. Perhaps add a little fanfare or something. But don't worry," he added, reaching a hand to wipe a still damp lock of hair from Mizuki's face. "You're the only person in this party I'd like to cling to."
"Oh, really?" Mizuki raised his eyebrows, lifting a hand to catch Atobe's. "…Enough so to hold onto me with people watching?"
"Well, I have nothing against that." Much though he was often concerned about appearances, there were some things Atobe refused to be ashamed of, and his dating Mizuki was definitely one of them. Just because he hadn't made it explicitly public yet didn't mean he wouldn't have if the opportunity had presented itself. "…It's just that you're not exactly looking your best right now."
"…Right." Mizuki sniffed. "These look hideous."
Atobe resisted the urge to affect an offended air at this comment that obviously insulted his clothes. Instead, he just gave Mizuki a smirk. "Alternatively," he said, "I could let everyone else at the party just fend for themselves and concentrate on getting those, ah, hideous pieces of clothing off you."
After a moment of thought, Mizuki finally, finally returned his smirk. "…I might not be entirely opposed."
*
Wasn't this just typical. He'd heard from someone that Atobe was near the fountain, yet when he had gotten there, all he had seen was the glimpse of a couple of kids running off holding hands. Really, it was absolutely inappropriate and unnecessary to partake in such activities at such a young age. Shaking his head, Sanada walked back towards the entrance to the ball room. If Atobe wasn't outside anymore, he had to be somewhere indoors, right?
Ibu was still standing around the entrance. Sanada walked right to him. "Has Atobe gone by here?"
"Yes, he did," murmured Ibu. "Not like he paid any attention to me. Went off with his boyfriend or something, I really don't want to know why Mizuki's clothes were all wet but I doubt he'd tell me anyway, nobody tells me anything anyway, even Akira won't talk to me since he's too busy being chased around by that idiotic Momoshiro."
"I… see," Sanada said slowly. He certainly hadn't been aware Atobe had a boyfriend. And… Mizuki? Surely there had been some kind of a misunderstanding. Yes, that had to be it. Atobe wouldn't have wasted his time on something as useless as a relationship. Those were nothing but trouble.
"I really don't see why Akira thinks it's so entertaining to fight with Momoshiro, anyway," Ibu carried on. "He says it's because he's annoyed but can someone really be that annoyed all the time? I bet he gets some kind of a twisted pleasure out of it. That or he just enjoys annoying me with it. Honestly, if I didn't know better I could sometimes swear he's my enemy instead of my supposed friend. And now there's nobody here for me to talk with and this is all just annoying and bothersome." He actually paused for a moment before adding, "Everyone is annoying."
Sanada thought about that statement for a moment. He also thought about Yukimura, who had dragged him here against his will, and Niou, clinging to him and making a fool of himself, and the rest of the team who had deserted him as soon as they had stepped inside the mansion, and about the elusive Atobe who seemed intent on being everywhere Sanada wasn't looking for him, and about all the noisy people inside and outside and about Kamio and Momoshiro who were probably still busy running around on the mansion grounds, chasing each other like a cat and a mouse.
"Yes," he said, "I agree."
Then he thought further, about the tennis courts Atobe was said to keep in perfect condition, and Atobe's mention they could be freely used whenever he was around, and all these annoying people.
"…Want to play some tennis?" he asked.
Ibu's response was rather more verbose than might have been entirely necessary, but then that didn't matter since Sanada stopped listening after the "yes" anyway.
For: Wittyphantom
Pairing: Atobe/Mizuki, Horio/Dan, (Sanada/Shinji)
Rating: PG
Summary: A simple instance of mistaken identity entwined with the fate of two misplaced notebooks causes much upset at Atobe's party. Fortunately, everything ends happily, and even Sanada gets his tennis match in the end.
Author’s Notes: I practically squealed when I saw the pairings… and then had the idea of staying true to the spirit of crack by tying them all together in a big Shakespearean comedy style mess, fitting in two of the prompts as well. I rather enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it as well.
Kay Faraday (mentioned) is property of Capcom, from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.
It was, as was only natural, a truly grand event. Of course, nothing he arranged could be anything less than grand. With guests milling about in colourful costumes of varying creativity and quality, talking and shouting and dancing and just having fun, the grand ballroom of the Atobe mansion was quite full. Atobe, naturally, casually treaded through the crowd as though the floor had been perfectly empty and free for him to make his way as he pleased among his guests. A word here, a nod there, and some absolutely charming smiles all around, he was simply the perfect host as was only appropriate.
However, even with all these people gathered at his invitation, his eyes were searching the crowd for one face in particular. Even for eyes as unmatched as his were, it was not an easy task; trying to spot a head of black hair in a party full of Japanese was not exactly looking for a needle in a haystack, but pinpointing one dark-haired head in particular was quite more challenging. Once, he almost thought he'd found his target, surely there could be no mistaking that head of dark curls, but a moment later he realized it was merely the young ace of Rikkai, looking quite similar. Typical.
Some raised voices from the side momentarily caught his attention. Seigaku's Momoshiro and the redhead of Fudoumine were apparently getting into some form of an argument. He momentarily thought about going over to separate them, but then thought better of it. Getting between two easily angered teenage boys was not exactly his idea of fun time, however often he had to do exactly that when Shishido's and Gakuto's mutual teasing went from semi-jovial to openly hostile, and besides it wasn't as though they were upsetting the rest of the guests, judging the crowd that was joyfully gathering to watch the scene unfold. Scoffing his head at such uncouth activities, Atobe continued his search for the one person he was actually interested in.
Now where on Earth had Mizuki got to?
*
Horio had to admit he was having fun, despite his initial wariness. Of course he had been wary; the party was hosted by Atobe, after all. However, most of his fears had turned out to be completely unfounded; instead of the snobby, stuck-up air he had expected to see, everyone actually seemed to be having fun. He supposed it was partly because of the costumes; there were some really great ones around.
Even then, he occasionally found himself wondering when someone would come up to tell him to leave. He wasn't a regular, after all; he was hardly even a proper player, being still a first year. However, nobody had yet come to complain about his presence, and besides the invites had been open to anyone in the tennis clubs and not just the regulars so surely he had every right to be here. He was sure he'd spotted other first-years, too, like that loud one from Rikkai with the weird hair. He'd lost sight of Katsuo and Kachirou a while ago, though, and hadn't seen Yamabuki's Dan-kun yet, either. As a result, he was currently wandering around the party looking for someone to talk with, or possibly something to drink.
Nobody had even complimented his costume yet, even though it was all kinds of awesome. Everyone was already sick of ninjas wearing green and orange; Horio had decided to take the trend to the next logical point of progression. He was most certainly the only candy-striped ninja in the entire party, and nobody was even noticing him!
There weren't any girls around, he noticed, not that it was very surprising. After all, far as he knew the invitations had only been issued to boys' tennis clubs, so the only girls who would come were managers or spies or little sisters like Fudoumine's Tachibana-chan. Horio kind of wondered why. Judging by the amount of fan girls he led around every day, one would have thought Atobe would like more girls in his party, too.
Then, however, his eyes met with something that was most definitely a girl, standing near the wall and facing away from him. If the long, dark hair hadn't clued him in, then the shirt with pink swirls and the short skirt certainly did. It only took him a moment to realize the girl was dressed as one of his favourite video game characters, too. Nobody else could have been wearing that key in their hair.
"Kay!" he said cheerfully, making his way through the crowd. He didn't know who the girl was, of course he couldn't know with only seeing their back, but he just knew she had to be awesome to choose such an awesome character to dress up as. Kay Faraday was almost as cool as the candy-striped ninja. And it wasn't even a big almost; Kay was just that awesome.
He called her name - well, the character's name - again as he tried to get closer. Then, just as he was about to reach to tap her shoulder, she spun around. She was pretty short, he realized, even shorter than he was if one didn't take into account the high-rising hair. And she was looking at him with awfully familiar brown eyes.
"Horio-kun?" said Kay with Dan-kun's voice, blinking even as she - or, as it appeared, he - started to smile. "Oh, you're here, too! It's great to see you~"
"Dan-kun?" Horio blinked in surprise, taking a step back. Well, that was… unexpected. "I… you're Kay?"
"Yup~ Do you like my costume?" Dan smiled brightly, tilting his head to the side as though everything had been just perfect in the world and he hadn't been wearing girls' clothes. "I made it myself~ Well, most of it. My mum did help desu."
"It's… well, it's good," Horio said, trying to sound as sincere as he could. The outfit really was great, especially if Dan had indeed made it himself; he'd recognized the character right away, even without the key in the hair. But… "You're not a girl."
"No, I'm not. Sorry to disappoint desu~" Again with the head-tilt. "Is that a problem?"
"No… no, I guess not." Horio shook his head. "It… looks good on you." Girl or not, for such a small person Dan managed to have quite a bit of legs between the skirt and the boots. Not that Horio was looking, oh no. You just weren't supposed to look at the legs of another guy, unless you were playing tennis. There weren't a lot of bits in a guy's body that were not appropriate to look at when you were playing tennis; after all, you did have to anticipate your opponent's moves. Really, Horio's senpai would probably have been very proud of him for remembering this point.
"Thanks desu~" Dan smiled at him some more. "Ano… were you looking for something? Or someone? I'm sorry if I distracted you…"
"Ah… nothing in particular," Horio murmured. "Well, I was wondering where to get something to drink. People walk by all the time with all kind of fancy juices and stuff, the nice kind and not the juices Inui-senpai makes, but I can't seem to figure out where they're getting them."
"Oh, there's a table at the other end of the room desu," Dan replied. Well, trust a data player to know, Horio reasoned. "Want me to show the way? It's kind of an adventure just to make your way through with all these people about."
"Ano… if it's not too much trouble." Horio gave him a bit sheepish grin. "With this many people around, it's hard even for a ninja to find a way through the crowd."
"It might be because of your clothes desu," Dan said with a level tone, eyeing him almost critically. The good kind of critical that definitely noticed all the details on his costume, too, and not those stupid gazes that only noticed the candy-stripes and couldn't even tell he was a ninja. "Candy stripes can be good camouflage sometimes, but there aren't a lot of peppermint candy canes for you to leap around on."
"Tell me about it," Horio sighed, relieved that someone finally understood his vision. "But, yeah, if it's not too much trouble…"
"Not at all." Dan smiled, reaching a gloved hand to tug at his hand.
Neither of them noticed as a small notebook fell from the pouch on his belt as he skipped along, falling to the floor, only barely protected from stomping feet by one of the chairs settled along the walls.
*
Now where was that man? One would have thought it wouldn't be so hard to spot a diva in an event he was hosting all by his snobbish self, but apparently Atobe was intent on proving wrong even the most trivial bits of his data. This, along with the constantly milling and talking and laughing crowd, was really rather wearing on Mizuki's nerves. As his team might have been able to attest to, he could get irritable over things some people might have called trivial, and an annoyed Mizuki was never a good thing. Mizuki, for his part, disagreed; his reasons were never trivial, and if someone got him annoyed they most definitely deserved whatever was coming to them.
Right now, the target of his annoyance was Atobe, except he wasn't there. He hadn't even been kind enough to inform Mizuki what he was going to dress as, which certainly wasn't helping with the task of finding him. For someone who wanted to meet up, Atobe was certainly doing his very best to hide away from Mizuki.
Coming to a halt in a slightly calmer spot near the far wall of the ball room, Mizuki pulled out his notebook, flipping through a couple of the pages. He had gathered some statistics from some past events also hosted by Atobe, but they really weren't proving very useful. For example, the previous data didn't include the rather significant factor of the costumes, which contributed greatly to making his search nigh impossible. Never mind that he didn't know what Atobe looked like at the moment, but there were a dozen people walking around looking quite more similar to Atobe than they might have otherwise. And given that Atobe was already familiar with the usage of wigs, really the only hope he had of recognizing the snob for sure was getting close enough to get a good look at his face, and that was rather easier said than done in this crowd.
Sighing, Mizuki let his gaze browse over the gathered people once more, only to freeze completely as he finally spotted the familiar form. That was Atobe, no doubt about it. The same hair, same face, same smug smirk, even the same beauty spot under one eye, though right now it had been covered up by a little sticker cut into some sort of a specific shape; he wasn't quite close enough to tell what the shape was. Even the costume was something he might have quite expected from Atobe; with purple and blue and velvet and lace, he was the perfect picture of a storybook prince.
Really, the only thing that didn't fit in with the picture was the way he was practically clinging to Sanada's arm.
For another couple of seconds, Mizuki stared at this sight. The notebook fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers, hardly even noticed. Then, right in the wake of the initial shock, a wave of rage replaced his former annoyance. How dare Atobe commit this - this travesty. How dare he host a party just so he could practically slap Mizuki in the face with his interest for another!
However, he wasn't going to do something as lowly was running up to yell at Atobe. Oh, no, that would have been absolutely plebeian. Instead, he was going to plot and scheme his diabolical revenge like any good mastermind.
And if he wanted to storm away from the scene fuming with rage, that was perfectly within his rights, too.
*
Some rude people had been known to suggest that Sanada's powers of observation weren't the keenest ever. Sanada himself wasn't inclined to disagree all that much, though he would have argued it wasn't due to lack of skill as much as lack of interest. There wasn't a single detail he missed when it came to something important, like tennis. It was only the trivial things he ignored; other than that, there was absolutely nothing wrong with his observational skills.
For example, he could perfectly tell this person was Niou. It was evident in his hair, in his tones of voice, in that little dab of make-up hiding a small mole that had fallen on the wrong spot for the role. It was evident in ways that were so tied to the particular manners of habit that he could have told it was Niou even if he hadn't seen a glimpse of the other boy.
Of course, there was also the fact that Atobe would have never been clinging to his arm like this. Or anyone's arm, surely. For all that Sanada often found himself annoyed with the other's snobbish ways and strange habits, at least he knew Atobe wasn't one to busy himself with such empty gestures of affection. Oh, no, this was most definitely Niou.
"Let go of me," he said levelly.
"You're no fun," Niou replied, and continued clinging on. "I bet you've never had any fun in your life."
"That is irrelevant," Sanada said. And it was. "Fun" had little importance in life. No matter what those freaks from Shitenhouji claimed, and no matter what even that brat Echizen would say on the court, tennis had nothing to do with fun.
"You'll have those lines permanently on your face before we're out of middle school," Niou claimed. "You should be careful, you already look enough like an old man."
Again with the irrelevancies. Sanada shook his arm, trying to make Niou let go. He didn't have the time to bother himself with a fake Atobe bent on insulting him. He wanted to find the real one. At least the real Atobe would surely agree to playing some tennis with him while insulting him.
Finally, in a moment of blessed relief, Niou actually let go of his arm. Sanada stood up even straighter than before, gaze scanning the crowd around them. No sign of Atobe.
"I'm going to go look for the real Atobe," he said. "If you see him, send him outside." He had no idea where to start looking for Atobe in all this crowd, so he figured the only logical conclusion was to go to the location Sanada himself would have picked if he hadn't been dragged right inside by Yukimura and then abandoned in the middle of the crowd. Perhaps it wasn't Atobe's preferred location as well, but at least he could have a minimal break while looking for the other captain.
Niou murmured something that could have been a yes for all he cared as Sanada walked away. Good. He really felt like he needed a match.
Honestly, Atobe was so stupid for not meeting up with him for a match right away. After all, what else could possibly be taking up his time? They were only in Atobe's costume party.
*
Typical. Just as Atobe finally managed to catch a glimpse of Mizuki, the dataist would storm away before he could even call out to him. By the time Atobe reached the place where Mizuki had been standing, the other was long gone, swallowed by the mingling crowd.
There was a notebook peeking out from under the chair. Come to think of it, he'd seen Mizuki dropping his, earlier. He'd most definitely throw a fit when he realized his precious data book was gone, and Atobe knew better than to allow Mizuki to throw a fit if only he could help it. Crouching down to pick it up, he bravely resisted the almost invincible urge to peek inside. For all he considered his interests to be quite more valid than those of anyone else, he did have some respect for other people's privacy. That, and Mizuki would have skinned him alive had he found out, and there weren't a lot of things Mizuki couldn't find out if he set his mind to it. It was all a part of his charm.
Keeping the notebook firmly shut, Atobe gave the crowd one last cursory glance before starting to make his way in the direction he had last seen Mizuki disappear to.
*
"Okay, okay, don't panic." Horio would have been the first one to admit he wasn't exactly the best person to calm someone down. However, at the moment he had little choice but to try his very best, what with Dan very nearly freaking out. "I'm sure it's somewhere around here."
"But what if it isn't?" Dan asked, sounding pretty much desperate. As soon as they had realized his notebook was gone, they had made their way back as close to their original route as possible, ending up at the spot where he had first found Dan. However, they hadn't caught any sight of the all-important little data book. It really was getting harder and harder for Horio to try to keep cheering Dan up.
"Of course it is," Horio said, looking around. There were less people here, which meant better visibility of the floor, but even then he was seeing no hide nor hair of Dan's notebook. "It wasn't on the way here. Where else could it be?"
"Well, we could have taken a slightly different path in the crowd desu," Dan pointed out in what was unfortunately a rather valid point. "Or someone might have picked it up, or kicked it away. And even it had been here, someone might have just stolen it away…"
"Oh, come on." Horio reached a hand to pat the panicking dataist on the shoulder. "Who would ever steal your notebook?"
Immediately, Dan spun around, brown eyes sparking with anger born from panic. "Are you saying my data isn't good enough to interest anyone?" he snapped.
"No! I mean - of course not! It's just, there really aren't that many dataists around, are there?" Horio said, desperately trying to save himself. He hadn't meant anything like that at all, honestly. He'd only been trying to reassure Dan, not insult him. "The rest of us probably wouldn't even understand any of it…"
Dan relaxed a bit, worry immediately flooding in to replace the dissipating anger. "But then why isn't it here?" he asked miserably. "It has to be around here somewhere… it's not like notebooks can disappear in thin air!"
Horio really was feeling rather guilty now. This was his fault, wasn't it? After all, Dan had been helping him when this had happened. If Dan had just stayed here, happily gathering his data in peace, he wouldn't have dropped his notebook and it wouldn't have been lost now. But he had asked for help and Dan had helped him and now Dan had lost something really important and Horio couldn't even do anything to help.
"You're looking for a notebook?" someone asked suddenly. As both of their eyes snapped to the side and up, Horio found himself looking at one of the players from… that one school. The one with the annoying dataist and Fuji-senpai's little brother. This one played… doubles, right? Or something?
"Kisarazu-san?" Well, trust Dan to know even the name. No wonder he was the dataist and Horio was… not a dataist. "Have you seen it somewhere?" There was an almost pitifully hopeful look in Dan's eyes as he looked at the taller boy. It just served to make Horio feel even more guilty, even though it was an awfully cute look.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I'm not sure if it was yours, but I did see Mizuki-san around here with a notebook earlier," Kisarazu said. "It could have been his own for all I know, but…"
"Ah, that helps anyway," Dan said with a faint little smile. Horio wasn't quite sure how he could smile so soon after being all panicky. "Thank you, Kisarazu-san."
"Don't mention it," murmured the older player. "…Oh, and Atobe was around here with one earlier, too. I thought it was kind of weird since he's not a data player and he was here right after Mizuki-san."
Dan blinked at this new information. Horio did too, though he was fairly sure Dan was already putting the pieces together and he… well, he wasn't. His mind just didn't work that way; Dan's did.
Someone called for Kisarazu, the duck guy most probably, and he excused himself and quickly disappeared. Dan, however, was looking around with a newly found fervour. This was shortly rewarded as he peeked under a chair another time and reached out a hand to pick up something.
"I didn't make much note of this earlier, since it's not mine," Dan murmured, looking at the notebook in his hands. How he could have told that much at a glance was beyond Horio; it certainly looked exactly like Dan's from the description he'd gotten from the dataist earlier. "This one must be Mizuki-san's… And then either he or Atobe-san picked up mine by accident."
"What would Atobe do with a notebook, though?" Horio asked doubtfully. It just didn't make much sense in his opinion. "I mean, like Kisarazu said, he's not exactly a data player…"
"I don't know." Dan gave him a gaze that was shining with determination, clutching onto the wrong notebook. "But either he and Mizuki-san have my notebook… and I'm going to get it back." There was a glint in his eyes that almost reminded Horio of that horrible Akutsu. Bad influence, obviously.
Well, Horio thought, at least he wasn't all miserable and panicky anymore.
*
Compared with the noisy and crowded ball room, the grand, lush garden outside was a welcome respite. Of course there was still some noise, what with the music and voices spilling out from the open doors, but in general the garden was rather devoid of people. Sanada couldn't understand why they would rather be inside with all the people around, but if it suited them, fine. There were only a couple of people outside besides himself, none of whom was Atobe. Ah, well. He'd just have to look further.
"Everyone is too loud," he heard a quiet voice, and it took him a moment to realize it wasn't just his own thoughts. Turning to look, he saw someone he vaguely remembered seeing before. He was fairly sure they had played against this guy at some point, though he could hardly even place a team, never mind the name. "All those idiots just talking each other's ears off and talking and arguing and even though I wanted to talk with Akira he won't even listen to me because of that stupid Momoshiro annoying him and now they're off fighting somewhere and they're being even louder than everyone else. It's really quite annoying, I don't know how they can stand it, but then I usually don't understand what Akira thinks most of the time and it's not like he tells me."
Well. That he did remember, if not the face. Someone from Fudoumine, right? Their best claim at tensai. He'd had a half-way decent move, too. "Have you seen Atobe?" It was a valid question, after all.
The boy blinked, turning to look at him. "I haven't seen him anywhere," he said. "Wouldn't he be inside anyway, since it's his party? It would be really quite rude of him to be outside with most of his guests inside, but then he might think that maybe the ones outside aren't having that much fun, I certainly am not, but then it's not like he cares much about me anyway and besides I don't think he cares much at all and it's all annoying and -"
"If you do see him," Sanada cut in, "can you tell him to wait for me here?" He could just as well make a longer round of the gardens while he was at it. Give his ears some rest. Surely Atobe would do as told; Sanada was sure he would realize Sanada wanted to play against him, and certainly Atobe wouldn't have anything that would be higher on his list of priorities than tennis. Atobe was sensible like that.
The Fudoumine player said something that sounded vaguely like an agreement. He also said a whole lot of other things, but by that time Sanada was already gone.
*
This being a costume party, Atobe had been prepared to see many kinds of things. He already had, with sights varying from that candy-striped monstrosity of a Seigaku first year - what he was supposed to be, Atobe had no idea, but the mere glimpse of him was enough to cause migraine - and someone wearing a rather short skirt to Oishi being dressed up as a half-decent cat boy, apparently for Kikumaru's amusement. All this was within his exceptions, and certainly tolerable. After all, it was the basic idea of the party.
However, he most certainly hadn't been prepared to run into… well, himself.
"So very charming," he said, lips twitching a bit into a smirk. "Niou, I presume? I must commend your choice of attire."
"So kind words of you," the other replied, mirroring his smirk quite perfectly. He really had done a good job, even masking some of his facial features to resemble Atobe's own. Of course, they were easy enough to tell apart when they were both there, but Atobe assumed that with some distance and without comparison, someone might have mistaken Niou for him.
"And the exact definition of this… costume?" Atobe nodded towards Niou's clothes. They weren't a half-bad choice, certainly something he might have worn to the party himself had he not had a different idea. Of course, he might have gone for rather more expensive fabrics, but these weren't any cheap rags, either. Certainly enough to fool someone without much eye to detail or a proper chance to inspect the quality. In any case, his choice of a well-dressed musketeer was certainly superior to Niou's apparent form of royalty.
"Oh, is it not immediately clear?" Niou feigned innocence very badly. It didn't really help that Atobe's face wasn't exactly made for looking innocent, either. Making a little twirl, lace and velvet tracing the arc of his arms while the little crown upon his head stayed perfectly still, he declared, "I'm a royal pain in the ass."
"Oh, do forgive me." Atobe knew better than to get offended at that. That would just have been exactly what Niou wanted. Instead, he tilted his head minutely to the side, looking over Niou's costume. "You know, it'd work even better if you could remember the hand," he pointed out. "I know you mostly do your illusions in tennis, but certainly you have enough experience faking your doubles partner's right-handedness? It's not that obvious when you're not holding a racquet, but you twirled your hair with your left hand just now."
"I do thank you for the constructive criticism." Niou smirked.
"You're quite welcome. After all," Atobe said, returning the smirk, "imitation is the highest form of flattery." That, and he was the first one to admit he could occasionally be, indeed, a royal pain in the ass. At least he was the best at what he did.
"Of course." Niou gave him an almost feral grin before adding with a slightly closer-to-serious tone, "Oh, by the way - someone was looking for you." He nodded his head towards the open doors at the garden's side of the ball room. "I think he went outside or something."
Someone was looking for him? Well, with any luck, it'd be Mizuki. And even if it wasn't, he could just as well play the good host and see who was trying to find him. Thanking Niou briefly, he gave his copy a cordial bow, receiving one in return. They parted with again matching smirks.
At least the one imitating him was a proper bastard instead of some insufferable fan boy. That made everything better.
*
The cooler air outside was doing its best to alleviate Mizuki's anger. However, its best wasn't quite enough, he noticed, doing his best not to march around in his own little bit of holy rage. That would have been most undignified, and he refused to let some two-timing bastard make him sink that low. Atobe was only deserving of his contempt and eventual revenge, not such open rage. He wouldn't give the bastard the satisfaction.
It was, in his opinion, quite obvious that Atobe was indeed trying to upset him on purpose. After all, otherwise he would have at least had the guts to break up with him properly instead of just inviting him to a party and then clinging to Sanada like a lovelorn puppy in front of everyone. That, or he was just a coward, which made him even less deserving of actual anger.
Of course, all his resolve to stay cool and collected faded away rather instantly as he spotted Atobe again. The bastard had even taken the time to completely change his costume rather than seek Mizuki out. He was currently talking with Fudoumine's tensai, Mizuki had always quite disliked Ibu's way of speaking, and Ibu was saying something about… Sanada? Who had told Atobe to wait for him? Well, of course he would. After all, it was quite evident Atobe wasn't looking for Mizuki.
The moment his eyes met the notebook in Atobe's hand, Mizuki suddenly realized he didn't have his own. And that did look awfully familiar… The bastard had even stolen his notebook!
Marching closer, he ignored the surprised looks on both of the other boy's faces. "I'll have that, thank you," he said, snatching the notebook away from Atobe's hand without giving it a further inspection. After all, it was obviously his, by the mere fact that Atobe did not have a notebook. Ergo, he was the only one this could have belonged to.
"Hajime," said Atobe, as though he had any right to even speak to him. Well, he could keep on dreaming. Mizuki didn't answer, didn't even look at him any further as he spun on his heels and marched right back where he had come from.
Stupid, stupid, stupid Atobe.
And stupid Mizuki, letting himself be hurt over this.
*
"Where can they be?" Dan sighed, leaning against the side of the window. They'd been hurrying all around the ball room but had caught not even a glimpse of either Mizuki or Atobe. They had seen someone who quite looked like Atobe but had turned out to be Niou instead, but that was the closest they had gotten. By now, Dan was looking rather weary, which in turn made Horio feel even more guilty.
Dan hung his head, a lock of dark hair falling from his forehead to hang over his face. Horio watched it idly as the thin strands swayed as they caught the faint breeze of his breath. By now, Horio had figured out the huge ponytail was probably the only fake part of Dan's hair, or at least if it was a wig, it was a damn good one for just some cosplay at a party. Either way, he almost wanted to reach out a hand and push the lock away from where it fell in front of Dan's face, but that would have been just weird. You didn't touch guys' hair unless it was to mess it up, and he supposed Dan would have killed him if he had messed up the hair; getting the ponytail attached had probably been a total pain. Come to think of it, you didn't touch girls' hair either without permission or you were in danger of getting slapped. Horio wondered if it applied here since, well, Dan was wearing a skirt after all. And had the legs to match, too, not that he was looking.
"I'm sure we'll find them soon," he said, more to reassure Dan than because he truly believed so. There was an awful lot of people here, and the two of them were certainly from the shorter end of the scale. Just trying to get anywhere was like trying to break their way through a huge wall of giants. Of course, both of them had plenty of experience with navigating such crowds, but simply getting forward wasn't enough when their goal was to spot a specific person. He had even thought of suggesting that one of them should get on the other one's shoulders, but then immediately decided against it since he was obviously the stronger one here and Dan was… well, Dan was wearing a skirt. You didn't sit on someone's shoulders when you were wearing a skirt.
"But what if we don't?" Dan sighed. "I really don't want to lose my data… even if I do have Mizuki-san's right here desu," he added, glancing at the notebook he was holding. "I need my own data. I had things in there I absolutely have to get back desu…"
"We'll get it back," Horio said, putting on his best trust-me look. It certainly worked on Katsuo and Kachirou whenever they were unsure about his latest idea. Well, most of the time it did. Sometimes at least. "Just you wait and see."
"But how?" Dan asked miserably. "We obviously can't find anyone in this crowd, not with us being so small and with neither Atobe-san nor Mizuki-san exactly towering over everyone else… I mean, what can we do? Look through the window and spot them passing by?"
Prompted by this suggestion, Horio glanced at the window over Dan's shoulder. And blinked. "Well," he said, "it seems to work better than anything we've tried this far." Honestly, spotting not only one of the two but both Mizuki and Atobe was just beyond the realm of imaginable good luck.
And Mizuki was even holding a notebook.
*
Well. A perfect reunion that hadn't been. After a moment of staring bewildered after Mizuki, Atobe had marched on after him; however, Mizuki seemed to be ignoring all his calls, simply walking away as fast as he could. Well, two could play this game. Atobe was not about to give up on pursuing his boyfriend just because the little diva had gotten angry at him for some reason he didn't even know.
Finally Mizuki came to a momentary halt, his progress hindered by an elaborate fountain. Atobe took this opportunity to speak up again, catching up to a couple of steps from Mizuki.
"Okay, Hajime, stop this," he sighed. "This is honestly getting annoying."
"'Annoying?'" Mizuki echoed. "You think annoyance is the worst problem here?" He spun around, eyes blazing as he looked at Atobe.
"Well, obviously, since you're annoyed at me for something." He rolled his eyes. "If only you'd inform me why, exactly…"
"If you don't know, then I'm not about to tell you." Mizuki frowned.
"Look, I have Insight, yes, but I can't read your thoughts, dating or not," Atobe snapped. He was vaguely aware there were other people in the garden as well, but none were close enough to hear him. There were some sounds of running in the distance but that hardly mattered; with so many athletes gathered in one place, he would have been quite surprised had nobody had any extra energy needing to get out. "And you're acting like some damn girl, now."
"Are you calling me a girl?" Mizuki's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I only call them as I see them," Atobe shot back, getting annoyed as well. He was most definitely not used to being treated like this, and wasn't about to make a habit of it now, either. "You sound exactly like some stereotypical little bitch!"
"Well, obviously that's all I've ever been to you!" Mizuki spat at him, tossing the notebook at him. Not exactly the most fearsome of projectiles. "Sorry if I've gotten enough of being played with!"
Atobe might have asked him what he meant. He might have even been able to trace back to the origin of this misunderstanding. However, he never got the chance. The sound of running he had caught earlier was much closer now, coming to its logical end as two figures ran right past them. He had just enough time to realize that Kamio and Momoshiro had taken their little spat to the next level; then, his attention was stolen by the water splashing all over him.
Apparently, the two idiots had managed to push Mizuki into the fountain.
*
Seeing the splash of water, Dan didn't as much pause in his run towards Atobe and Mizuki as he completely froze in his footsteps, a little cry escaping his lips then cut short. Horio, who had been coming a bit after him, came to a halt at his side. "What's wrong?"
"Mizuki-san fell into the fountain desu," Dan murmured, looking mournfully over to where Atobe was apparently helping Mizuki out of the water. "If he really was the one holding my notebook, it's absolutely ruined now."
"Oh." Horio's face fell. Dan looked pretty much devastated, and it was all still technically his fault. Stupid, stupid Horio Satoshi, can't you even get something to drink without getting someone else into trouble? "I… I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," Dan sighed, head hanging again. "Not like you made him pick it up by accident… or pushed him into the water desu."
"But without me, you wouldn't have ever dropped it in the first place," Horio reminded. "So it kind of is my fault in the end."
"No, it isn't." Dan shook his head determinedly, the ponytail whishing around. "It's nobody's fault. I would be angry at you if you had thrown my notebook into the water, but you didn't desu. You didn't mean for any of this to happen desu."
"But still, your notebook is ruined," Horio pointed out, and regretted it immediately as Dan's brief expression of determination turned into nigh despair again. He hesitated for a bit before finally giving in to the temptation of drawing him into a hug. It was all right to hug your friend if he was upset, wasn't it? And besides Dan was wearing a skirt so it kind of didn't count as weird.
"I guess I should just take this one to Mizuki-san, now desu," Dan murmured, head resting against Horio's shoulder as he momentarily leant into the hug. It didn't feel too bad, really. Almost kind of good. Had to be because he was comforting his friend, right? "I wouldn't want him to lose his data, too."
Horio drew away from the hug with a just slightly awkward pat on Dan's back. "You know, Dan-kun," he said with a faint smile, "you're just too nice for your own good."
"…Ha. I damn well know that desu." Dan gave him a matching faint smile, but it didn't exactly make Horio miss the tiny tears at the corners of his eyes. For some reason, seeing this caused a painful sting in his chest. No matter what Dan said, it was all his fault that Dan was actually crying.
Well. He had sure screwed up even worse than usually, here.
*
"Now look at me!" Mizuki complained, trying to wring the water out of his clothes and hair. His costume was absolutely ruined, now, as was his hair. "I'm going to strangle those idiots!"
"I'd rather prefer it if you didn't commit any murders in my party," Atobe said. Yeah, right, some boyfriend he was, taking other people's side against Mizuki in a disagreement. But then, he really shouldn't have been surprised. Atobe really hadn't been acting like a boyfriend lately.
"Oh, don't worry. I don't want anyone to see me like this," Mizuki murmured, frowning at his clothes. They were dripping wet, all heavy and cold. He was going to catch a cold for sure. Great. As though his day hadn't already been absolutely ruined.
"…Come on." Atobe's hand at his arm prompted him to look at the Hyoutei captain. "I'll lend you something to wear."
"What do you care?" Mizuki snapped. If Atobe thought he could get back into his good graces with this, well, he was sadly mistaken. Mizuki wasn't about to be won over this easily, not after the obvious betrayal. He'd be the laughing stock of the entire tennis circles if word got out he'd clung to a boyfriend who cheated on him in public.
"Just imagine I do, okay?" Atobe sighed and rolled his eyes. As though he'd been suffering absolutely anything. The insolent little… "I don't want you to catch your death of cold."
Mizuki could have questioned his intentions again, but then, Atobe was speaking sense. It wasn't that pleasant standing outside with his wet clothes clinging to skin, cold and sticky and heavy. It was a most unpleasant feeling. Unpleasant in an entirely different manner from the unpleasantness he had felt as he witnessed Atobe clinging to Sanada, as that had been a reaction to inward emotions and this was his reacting to external stimuli, but still very much unpleasant.
And, well, since he obviously couldn't murder Atobe in his own house, that would have been just seriously bad taste, at least he could abuse his hospitality much as he could.
Walking alongside Atobe, no way was he going to be led absolutely anywhere, Mizuki was rather surprised as suddenly two small figures ran up to him. One of them was one of Seigaku's annoying first years, and the other… after a second, Mizuki recognized him as Yamabuki's little wannabe dataist. Obviously, he was nowhere near Mizuki's skills, but sadly Mizuki couldn't exactly stop kids from dabbling in such an exclusive art. Even if said kid was eccentric enough to be apparently dressed as a girl. But then, Mizuki hardly could say anything about that, not with his own clothes soaking wet.
"Ano… Mizuki-san?" Mizuki blinked in surprise as the Yamabuki kid showed him a notebook. "I… think this is yours desu."
Looking closely at the notebook, Mizuki was just about to say the kid had to be mistaken; after all, he'd already gotten his own notebook from Atobe. However, unlike when he had snatched the book away from his boyfriend, now he had the chance to get a good look at it. The title was the exact right thing, for one, and the corner was worn in that one specific manner. "Ah… where did you find this?" Taking it into his hands, he flipped carefully through a couple of the pages, trying not to let it get too wet. Yes, it was his. But what was it doing in those hands? …And what had been that other notebook.
"Inside the ball room, under a chair," replied the kid - Dan, wasn't it? "We figured one of you had picked up mine by accident… We couldn’t find you before you, ah, fell," Dan looked rather miserable, now, "but I figured I'd bring back yours, anyway."
"I… thank you." Mizuki felt slightly uncomfortable. He couldn't even imagine getting his own data soaked wet through someone else's mistake… he certainly wouldn't have been selflessly returning the other's data after that, if even before it. An insight in another dataist's information could provide excellent information… and this kid was apparently turning it in for the pure kindness of his heart, right after losing his data. "Ah - I'm sorry about your notebook -"
"'s okay desu." Dan tried to smile, but didn't quite manage. His friend looked quite concerned, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was a childish kind of adorable, really, the same way Yuuta could sometimes be adorable in his insistence to be called by his first name. "It's not like you did it on purpose, after all."
"…What are you apologizing for?" Dan gave Atobe a shocked glance at this, with the Seigaku kid opening his mouth in apparent anger, and even Mizuki was about to snap at him for feigning ignorance at the obvious value of data, but Atobe managed to continue before any of them got a single word out. "I don't recall anything bad happening to your notebook."
"Are you kidding?" The Seigaku kid asked disbelievingly. "Mizuki here fell right into the fountain with it!"
"No, he didn't." Atobe ignored their incredulous gazes, perfectly calm. "Hajime tossed it at me just before he was pushed over."
"…Oh. Right." Now, Mizuki's eyes widened minutely as he remembered that little detail. He indeed had done that in his anger. "It should be somewhere around the fountain, still…"
He didn't manage to say anything else as the kids were already on their way. Glancing after them, Mizuki then turned to glare at Atobe. "…Don't think you're forgiven just for remembering that, though," he said.
Atobe looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, and really Mizuki would have hit him just for that except he really did want some dry clothes. "I wouldn't dream of it."
*
"So it's got to be around here somewhere, right?" Horio kept walking around the fountain. "They were around here, and if Mizuki tossed it at Atobe…"
"I just hope it hasn't landed anywhere dirty," Dan murmured, glancing around as though expecting to see a vicious puddle of mud sneaking in to ambush his poor, unsuspecting notebook.
"I'm sure it hasn't," Horio reassured him. "After all, it's the notebook of the Great Thief Yatagarasu, right?" He gave Dan a grin that he hoped was indeed reassuring. "It wouldn't be caught by common dirt."
"…I can always hope." Dan gave him a small smile before returning to his inspection of a bush nearby. It was big, thick, trimmed neatly into a clean shape, and just close enough to the fountain it might have plausibly swallowed the notebook.
Except it hadn't, since the notebook lay neatly on the ground, half hidden by the protruding edge of the fountain, looking all dry and clean for what Horio could see. "Hey, it's here!"
He only just about managed to brace himself so as not to fall over as Dan suddenly rushed over to him, throwing arms around his neck. "Thank you so much, Horio-kun!" he exclaimed, hugging him close. Horio blinked. It felt kind of funny, in a pretty good funny way, a bit like earlier when he had been comforting Dan only it felt even better now because Dan wasn't upset or crying.
Dan didn't let go immediately, either, apparently deciding only a proper hug could be enough of thanks, and Horio didn't protest because it didn't feel too bad or even weird, really. It had to be because Dan was wearing a skirt, he decided. Hugging a guy was supposed to feel weird but of course it wouldn't be that strange when Dan wasn't dressed like a guy so that explained why it felt kind of good instead.
Finally Dan let go, taking the notebook from him, and smiled even more brightly than before. "Come on~" he said happily. "Let's get inside, okay? There were some really good snacks there and if we wait too long, they'll all be gone!"
Well, there was no way to say no to that, was there? Horio would have been betraying the entire race of teenage guys if he'd refused snacks. Therefore he found himself following Dan back inside, not that he had much of a choice since Dan was practically dragging him along by the hand anyway.
Now he did feel kind of weird, like he'd had butterflies tingling somewhere in his chest, but it was really a good kind of weird, so he supposed he could get used to it.
*
"Here." Atobe returned from the trip to his closet, handing Mizuki a pile of clothes. At the moment, Mizuki was clad in nothing but a towel wrapped around his hips, another being busy at work with drying his hair. For all that he was doing this to the accompaniment of a steady stream of curses that hardly fit someone raised in a Catholic school, mainly directed at Atobe, Atobe certainly wasn't complaining about the view. It wasn't the nice view's fault the soundtrack was less than pleasant.
Mizuki didn't bother to thank him. In fact, he didn't say much of anything aside from the quietly murmured curses and insults before he was dressed up in the clothes Atobe had given him. Fitting their actual owner perfectly, they were obviously too large on Mizuki's shorter and slighter frame, though to be honest that just made him look cute in a weird way. Never mind that Atobe quite liked the thought of Mizuki wearing his clothes. It held a weird sort of… intimacy.
However, he didn't have much of a chance to enjoy this new view as Mizuki glared at him and spat, "Explain."
"Explain what?" Atobe shot back, raising his eyebrows. Honestly, how did Mizuki expect him to find out what he was supposed to talk about? He'd already pointed out that his Insight was not exactly telepathy, even if it did come frighteningly close sometimes.
"As though you didn't know." Mizuki snorted, arms akimbo. "I certainly would have had to have been blind to miss it!"
"To miss what?" Atobe asked flatly. "Me looking for you? Or picking up what I thought was your notebook when you dropped it? Or are you just jealous because I talked to someone who isn't you? Because if that's it, we have a tiny problem, here."
"I don't get jealous over talking," Mizuki replied with a biting tone. "However, I do react to seeing you hanging on to other people like some… leech."
Oh. …Oh. "Honestly, Hajime," sighed Atobe. Was it really that simple? "Do you really think I'd 'hang on to' anyone, even you?" He wasn't exactly one for such gestures, after all, or for just about any forms of PDA in general. He did have appearances to upkeep.
"Well, I saw you." Mizuki glared at him. "And don't even try to tell me I saw wrong."
"Oh, you didn't," Atobe reassured him. "It's just that you didn't see me." He smirked a bit. "Niou is walking around dressed up as me, dressed up as a king."
"…Dressed up as… you?" Mizuki gave him an incredulous gaze. "Why?"
"Apparently, he's being a 'royal pain in the ass.'" Atobe's lips twitched. At least Niou had the decency to be creative with the way he presented his insults, even if the actual choice of words was hardly anything he had never heard before.
"Well, that certainly matches you." Ah, yes. Getting defensive instead of admitting to making a mistake. "So… this party wasn't just some elaborate scheme to make me witness you clinging to another man in public?"
"Oh, please." Atobe rolled his eyes. "If I went to the trouble of doing something like that, I'd make sure you saw it for certain. Perhaps add a little fanfare or something. But don't worry," he added, reaching a hand to wipe a still damp lock of hair from Mizuki's face. "You're the only person in this party I'd like to cling to."
"Oh, really?" Mizuki raised his eyebrows, lifting a hand to catch Atobe's. "…Enough so to hold onto me with people watching?"
"Well, I have nothing against that." Much though he was often concerned about appearances, there were some things Atobe refused to be ashamed of, and his dating Mizuki was definitely one of them. Just because he hadn't made it explicitly public yet didn't mean he wouldn't have if the opportunity had presented itself. "…It's just that you're not exactly looking your best right now."
"…Right." Mizuki sniffed. "These look hideous."
Atobe resisted the urge to affect an offended air at this comment that obviously insulted his clothes. Instead, he just gave Mizuki a smirk. "Alternatively," he said, "I could let everyone else at the party just fend for themselves and concentrate on getting those, ah, hideous pieces of clothing off you."
After a moment of thought, Mizuki finally, finally returned his smirk. "…I might not be entirely opposed."
*
Wasn't this just typical. He'd heard from someone that Atobe was near the fountain, yet when he had gotten there, all he had seen was the glimpse of a couple of kids running off holding hands. Really, it was absolutely inappropriate and unnecessary to partake in such activities at such a young age. Shaking his head, Sanada walked back towards the entrance to the ball room. If Atobe wasn't outside anymore, he had to be somewhere indoors, right?
Ibu was still standing around the entrance. Sanada walked right to him. "Has Atobe gone by here?"
"Yes, he did," murmured Ibu. "Not like he paid any attention to me. Went off with his boyfriend or something, I really don't want to know why Mizuki's clothes were all wet but I doubt he'd tell me anyway, nobody tells me anything anyway, even Akira won't talk to me since he's too busy being chased around by that idiotic Momoshiro."
"I… see," Sanada said slowly. He certainly hadn't been aware Atobe had a boyfriend. And… Mizuki? Surely there had been some kind of a misunderstanding. Yes, that had to be it. Atobe wouldn't have wasted his time on something as useless as a relationship. Those were nothing but trouble.
"I really don't see why Akira thinks it's so entertaining to fight with Momoshiro, anyway," Ibu carried on. "He says it's because he's annoyed but can someone really be that annoyed all the time? I bet he gets some kind of a twisted pleasure out of it. That or he just enjoys annoying me with it. Honestly, if I didn't know better I could sometimes swear he's my enemy instead of my supposed friend. And now there's nobody here for me to talk with and this is all just annoying and bothersome." He actually paused for a moment before adding, "Everyone is annoying."
Sanada thought about that statement for a moment. He also thought about Yukimura, who had dragged him here against his will, and Niou, clinging to him and making a fool of himself, and the rest of the team who had deserted him as soon as they had stepped inside the mansion, and about the elusive Atobe who seemed intent on being everywhere Sanada wasn't looking for him, and about all the noisy people inside and outside and about Kamio and Momoshiro who were probably still busy running around on the mansion grounds, chasing each other like a cat and a mouse.
"Yes," he said, "I agree."
Then he thought further, about the tennis courts Atobe was said to keep in perfect condition, and Atobe's mention they could be freely used whenever he was around, and all these annoying people.
"…Want to play some tennis?" he asked.
Ibu's response was rather more verbose than might have been entirely necessary, but then that didn't matter since Sanada stopped listening after the "yes" anyway.