Missed Appointments and Omake [OtH verse]; Atobe, Yuuta & Cast, PG, 12095 words, complete.
Missed Appointments
***
Yamato looked a little shocked all the same though, opening the door to find Yuuta and Atobe, the former with his shoes and pants caked in mud, and the latter with his necktie undone, shirt buttons open and jacket hooked over his arm.
“What have you been doing?” he asked, blinking at them.
Yuuta rolled his eyes. “Long story. If Alice is around, ask her to prepare a bath for Atobe.”
Yamato turned around quickly, going to look for her.
“You’ll stay for dinner?” Yuuta asked, leading Atobe in.
Atobe noticed the muddy footprints he left all over the clean floors, and grimaced, taking off his shoes so he wouldn’t do the same.
“I suppose I’ll have to,” he frowned. “I can hardly go back without the car. It would be inconvenient.”
Yuuta grinned at him. “And you sound so enthusiastic,” he chuckled. “The least I can do for you after all that bother is to offer you dinner, and you’d best accept it before I have to tie you down to a chair.”
Atobe smiled a little, still looking down at his shoes and at his messed up clothes. “You might want to wait until after the bath then,” he joked.
Yuuta nodded, smiling back and noticing Alice hurrying towards them. “Maybe by then I won’t need the rope,” he said, as he went up the stairs ahead of them.
***
“It seems as though no one will be able to get out here until tomorrow, and from the looks of it, you’ve broken something underneath so we’ll need a mechanic too,” Yamato sighed. He stepped further into the room as Alice tried to get past him, two glasses of lemonade on a tray.
“In the meantime, you’ll stay the night, won’t you?” he insisted.
Atobe let out a sigh. “I hadn’t planned it, but yes.”
“You do remember you’re the one who didn’t listen to me,” Yuuta said dryly. “Don’t say it as though you have nothing to do with it.”
Atobe shot him a dirty look for reminding him, and moved his chess piece.
“You were last here a few weeks ago, weren’t you?” Yuuta asked, watching his father step out of the room.
Atobe gave a nod, and watched with a little apprehension as Yuuta’s fingers hovered near his knight. He had a sinking feeling he might have just made a bad move.
“You haven’t seen Shuusuke’s new dog then?” Yuuta asked, getting a shake of the head for an answer.
“Do I need to?” Atobe asked with a sigh. He sat back in his chair and tilted his head until he could see out the window clearly, sighing to see clouds covering every inch of the sky. If he were at home by now, he’d only be in his office working, he supposed, but it didn’t quell the annoyance he felt about the car.
Yuuta shrugged. “Dalmation. It’s nice… I guess.”
Atobe looked at him carefully and then down at the chess board. He’d missed seeing Yuuta make his move, but he realised it had to be the horse, which was now looking rather close to, albeit in the wrong position to really threaten, his king. “You don’t like it?”
Yuuta chuckled, realising how obvious he’d made it. “Yuusuke doesn’t like not being…” he paused. “Dog of the house anymore.”
“What? The other one started marking all his trees?” Atobe rolled his eyes.
Yuuta’s lips quirked upwards. “Who knows? I didn’t exactly ask Yuusuke.”
Atobe smiled. “No, because that would only be another weird habit to add to your collection.”
Yuuta tilted his head, grey eyes peering curiously at his guest. “And what other weird habits do I have?” he asked.
Atobe only smiled some more and made his move, queen easily taking Yuuta’s horse. He removed the piece from the board with some satisfaction, and raised an eyebrow at Yuuta. “Your move.”
“You didn’t answer my question about weird habits,” Yuuta frowned slightly. “Distraction isn’t playing fair.”
Atobe smirked to see Yuuta saw through him. “I’m playing fair on the board.”
“Because you couldn’t cheat even if you wanted to,” Yuuta retorted, barely giving Atobe a glance as he studied the board.
“You wouldn’t be saying that if I were Shuusuke,” Atobe murmured.
“He can cheat at anything,” Yuuta replied.
“And Tezuka?” Atobe asked.
Yuuta shrugged, his answer still distracted as his hands hovered. “I suppose he could cheat, but he wouldn’t.”
“You’re not exactly concentrating, are you?” Atobe concluded suddenly.
Yuuta finally picked his piece and smirked at him. “I am, just not on conversation.”
“Then on what?” Atobe sighed.
“The game,” Yuuta answered, smiling. “Always concentrate on the more important matter at hand if you can’t do both at once. And checkmate.”
“And you can’t concentrate on two things at once?” Atobe teased without skipping a beat, although he felt a little sore as he stared at the board. He’d clearly made a few mistakes he normally wouldn’t have - Yuuta’s victory had been fair and quite smart, but it had certainly been helped in part by his own distraction.
Yuuta smiled easily as he stood up. “I could, but neither of them would be truly enjoyable then, don’t you think? And besides, you’re distracting when you talk,” he laughed. “You’re like Aniki.”
***
It had been a while since Atobe had slept in the guest room at the end of the hallway. It was one of a few bedrooms which didn’t have a bathroom attached, so he walked down the hallway when he woke up, having trouble remembering the direction he’d walked the night before.
The hallways of the Fuji house, like his own, were decorated with family portraits and photographs - their grandparents and Yoshiko, Yumiko and Yamato, and Shuusuke and Yuuta. Yuuta and Yuusuke. Yuuta.
Atobe stopped walking in front of the most recent photo of Yuuta and stared at it in the dim, early morning light. Yuuta had always been in the force since Atobe had met him, and in the photo, he looked to be a few years younger, uniform slightly less tidily worn and less decorated.
His mother liked to tell him they’d seen each other once or twice as children, but both he and Shuusuke never had any recollection of it, and it seemed that for a long time, their families simply hadn’t been in contact with each other because of their differing schedules.
It was strange to think that had things been different, he might have grown up with Shuusuke and Yumiko and Yuuta, as well as Oshitari, Shishido and Tezuka.
There was the click of a door opening behind him, and he spun around to see Yuuta, who looked just as surprised to see him.
“You’re up early,” he said, a little gruffly.
Atobe smiled. “Likewise.”
Yuuta rubbed at his hair and walked over, leaning against the wall tiredly. “I have some paperwork to finish off, so I thought I’d get it done before breakfast.”
“Oh?” Atobe smirked. “You’re not sleeping until lunch today?”
Yuuta grinned. “I don’t try to make a habit of that.”
“Tezuka says otherwise,” Atobe smirked, glancing at the photo again. “He said you used to spend the morning doing push ups for punishment because you were last out of bed.”
“Yeah?” Yuuta sighed. “Does he always talk about me a lot?”
Atobe blinked, turning to him to answer, when he realised the answer was actually… no. Tezuka didn’t often talk about Yuuta of his own initiative - Atobe asked him.
He glanced down the hallway, noticing one last frame he hadn’t yet looked at, and walked towards it.
A large framed sketch of Yuuta and Tezuka, he observed, in Shuusuke’s drawing style. And on the wooden table below it, a paper sketch book.
Atobe picked it up, flicking slowly through.
“That’s not Shuusuke’s,” Yuuta said, taking it from his hands.
“Yours?” Atobe asked.
“How did you know?” Yuuta looked at him, a little trace of annoyance in his tone.
Atobe gave a shrug. “I didn’t think he’d draw a picture of himself with Tezuka.”
Yuuta looked away. “I’m not as good as he is,” he frowned, but let Atobe take the book back from him.
“I’ve been looking for it since last time I was back,” he continued. “I guess I forgot it.”
Their drawing styles were different in detail, but much the same in other ways, Atobe thought. It was evident they’d either learnt from each other or from the same teacher, or perhaps both. Though he was quite sure Shuusuke’s sketch books would be full of Tezuka, not full of Yuusuke, he mused.
Reaching the last sketch in the book, he hesitated uncertainly.
“Who’s that?” he asked softly, tilting his head.
Yuuta shook his head and took the book back. “I’d have thought you’d recognise yourself, at least.”
Atobe hesitated again. So it was himself. “I don’t suppose you could draw me a larger version,” he suggested.
Yuuta looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think you’d want one. Like I said, you’d be better off asking Aniki if you really want something decent.”
***
“Tezuka,” Atobe greeted. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Tezuka smiled slightly. “Where else would I be?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Atobe rolled his eyes. “With your nose stuck in a book, perhaps,” he suggested.
Then he smiled a little more kindly, eyes drifting in Fuji’s direction. “It’s nice to see you with something other than work stuck in your head anyway.”
“I… didn’t really have a choice whether I wanted to come or not,” Tezuka admitted. “It was this or… this, actually.”
Atobe could imagine it.
“Have you seen Shishido and Oshitari yet?” he asked, chuckling. “You should ask them about their new project when you get a chance. They actually managed to get it into the air and stall the engine at two hundred feet.”
He rolled his eyes. “Of course, now they’re snarking at each other over it, which I suspect was the problem in the first place,” he lamented.
“What did they do?” Tezuka frowned, looking around the room for them. “Was it idling too hi-”
“Oh, go and ask them instead,” Atobe cut him off. “I wasn’t even listening after the first sentence. Oh, and you haven’t seen Fuji Yuuta around, have you?”
Tezuka shook his head to the negative, and watched Atobe huff slightly.
“Well then, I’m off,” Atobe smiled, getting over his annoyance quickly. “I see a few faces I have yet to greet. Business, you know.”
And he disappeared off into the crowd, getting swamped by people who wanted to talk to him before he seemed to get to the ones he really wanted to talk to.
“How’s Atobe?” Fuji asked as he appeared, somewhat amused by the confusion on Tezuka’s face. “Same as usual, I assume?”
Tezuka shook his head slightly. “Not quite.”
“How so?” Fuji laughed, watching him.
“You haven’t seen Yuuta around, have you?” Tezuka asked, before he forgot. “Atobe asked about him, and now that he’s mentioned it…”
Fuji shrugged. “He might be up there,” he pointed to the ceiling.
“What?” Tezuka frowned. “Up in his bedroom still?”
Fuji shook his head. “Roof,” he mouthed, as Yumiko walked past with a friend.
Tezuka sighed. “Little chance Atobe will find him then,” he responded, guiding Fuji out of the way of a waiter pushing past.
Fuji only smiled.
“I wonder…” Tezuka murmured quietly. “If for all the times he prides himself on his insight into other people, he doesn’t actually have a rather large blind spot.”
“Himself,” Fuji said.
“Exactly.”
“Speaking of blind spots,” Fuji whispered. “You don’t have to say hello to anyone else do you? Because there’s a place I want to show you.”
***
If anyone had asked Shishido, he’d have said it was times like these that he wished Oshitari would just disappear.
He winced as yet another girl pushed him out of the way, eager to talk to Oshitari.
“Damn it,” he muttered, looking around despondently and wondering why there wasn’t better company here - everyone free for talking or dancing was either old, taken or boring. Which was why they weren’t otherwise engaged.
Tezuka and Fuji were nowhere to be seen - not that he wanted to talk to Fuji anyway - and Oishi and Sengoku were both on the dance floor; Oishi falling over his feet and Sengoku doing a good job of inadvertently seducing other people’s partners.
Shishido almost wished Atobe would walk by Oshitari so the girls would flock back to him, but he was busy talking to Yamato in the corner of the room and they looked serious.
“For goodness -” Oshitari stumbled past Shishido as he tried to get back to him.
“Okay, that’s it!” Shishido snapped, yanking on Oshitari’s arm violently. “Ladies, he’s not free to dance - not now and not for the rest of the evening.”
“Why? Why, Oshitari?” they asked, and Shishido twitched in irritation.
“Because he has a sore foot,” he answered tersely.
“It doesn’t look like it,” one frowned. “He was walking perfectly fine just now,” another pointed out.
“Well he does now,” Shishido huffed, and brought his heel down on Oshitari’s toes, making him curse.
“See? Not available for dancing,” Shishido frowned, taking their stunned silence as a good opportunity to drag his friend away.
“What are you, jealous?” Oshitari teased as he let himself be led.
“No, grossed out is more like it,” Shishido retorted. “How could they have such bad taste?”
Oshitari sighed. “Well I hate to be vain, but if you’d looked around the room, you probably wouldn’t have found a better candidate for a dance.”
Shishido snorted. “Yeah, yeah.” But he still hoped he’d put all those women off enough to keep them away for the evening. He had no intention of dancing with Oshitari, but he wouldn’t mind having his company.
He was annoying, to be sure, but being in the ballroom with everyone else only reminded him that everyone else was more annoying.
***
‘Try upstairs in his room,’ Yamato had suggested after a spot of thought. He’d added that if Atobe found Yuuta, to drag him back down to be sociable as he ought to be, but Atobe wasn’t about to do that because he knew what would happen if he did. He’d get stuck doing the rounds of the room again, and Yuuta would inevitably find some other escape.
He knocked on Yuuta’s door a little tentatively, pushing it open to find the room empty. He might have walked back out again then, if he hadn’t noticed the curtains shifting about and the door to the balcony left ajar, something he suspected Yuuta wouldn’t do unless he were outside.
“Yuuta?” he called out quietly, and walked over.
He slipped through the open door and stepped outside, and startled to see Yuuta up, balanced in the middle of a small table, hands on the gutters and looking about ready to climb up onto the roof.
“Yuuta?”
A jerk and Yuuta turned his head quickly, almost losing his precarious balance.
As he clung to the gutters with both hands, he let out a shaky breath. “Shit.”
“Well, it would have been if you’d fallen,” Atobe commented, surprisingly calm as he looked over the edge of the railing.
“I wouldn’t nearly have fallen if you hadn’t scared me,” Yuuta retorted, climbing down off the table. “So what are you doing out here anyway? You’re going the wrong way if you’re looking for the party.”
“No, I was looking for you,” Atobe responded quietly. “What’s the host of the party doing climbing up onto the roof?”
Yuuta stared at him.
“Come up and I’ll show you,” he sighed, running a hand through his short hair.
“Not if I have to climb on that table,” Atobe frowned, crossing his arms.
Yuuta rolled his eyes. “Well I’ll climb up first and you can decide if you want to come or not.”
Atobe nearly protested, but Yuuta was already up on the table again, getting his hands into position at the edges of the tiling and carefully lifting himself up. He watched Yuuta’s feet leave the table, and cringed to see the way he steadied himself once he was up on the roof.
It sloped too sharply for Atobe’s liking, and he considered turning on his heel, uneasy about sitting on the roof, let alone getting up onto it first.
“I hope you have insurance,” he said, to which Yuuta only grinned down at him, making him decidedly nervous. .
“I’m not coming up there,” he called out, louder, in case Yuuta hadn’t actually caught what he’d just said.
“It’s safer up here than down there,” Yuuta chuckled. “Take off your shoes and socks and come up.”
“How can it be safer on the roof tiles, two storeys up in the air than on the balcony?” Atobe yelled back, frustrated, but Yuuta didn’t respond.
Atobe took a deep breath and squatted down to take off his shoes and socks and tuck them neatly under the table. Then he climbed up onto it, breath caught in his throat as he glanced to the side, and put his hands up to the tiles.
“Oh, so you are coming up,” Yuuta grinned, face in front of his.
Atobe grit his teeth and lifted himself up, only just able to get his knees up onto the tile. For a split second, he contemplated the horrid idea that he could just roll down the roof tiles until he fell off them, but then Yuuta grasped his hands, and he steadied himself, crawling along and sitting down, feet planted in front of him.
“And now that I’m up here,” he pursed his lips. “Would you care to explain to me why on earth it’s safer up here than down there?”
Yuuta shrugged. “It’s the right time for someone to come looking for us,” he explained.
“Only cats would look on the roof,” Atobe said, exasperated.
Yuuta smiled, staring out at the sky. “But people still look on balconies,” he pointed out.
“You’ve had practice at this,” Atobe observed dryly.
“Only every time there’s one of these things,” Yuuta said, and waved a hand towards downstairs.
Atobe couldn’t help the slight twitch of his lips. “No wonder you’re always noticeably absent.”
Yuuta leant back. “I wouldn’t have said noticeably,” he cringed. “They’d notice more if Shuusuke or Yumiko weren’t around.”
He smiled a bit wryly, but before Atobe really had a chance to answer, his hand was at Atobe’s chest, pushing him back hard against the tiles.
“What’s the-”
Yuuta put his finger to his lips, the click of the door all Atobe picked up.
“I think they’re gone,” Yuuta murmured, sitting up a moment later.
Atobe let out a breath and sat up, flicking his hair. “Next time give me some warning,” he huffed, trying to calm himself down.
Yuuta smirked. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d want a next time,” he mused, then added: “And if I’d had any warning, you would have gotten one. As it was… I don’t think you want to be dragged back down there, do you?”
Atobe looked out ahead of them, staring out into the vastness of the night sky as though he’d only just noticed why Yuuta was up on the roof in the first place.
The music from the open doors and windows of the ballroom downstairs floated up, along with the sounds of all the people down there. Yuuta might have wanted to get away from it all to be alone, but he wasn’t about to spurn company like this; not Atobe anyway.
“Look,” he smiled at Atobe, pointing his fingers up and along constellations. “It’s not so bad up here.”
***
“Marie,” Atobe frowned. “Why are these wilted?”
She looked up from cleaning his bookshelf to see him fingering a rose petal between his fingers. “They do, sir,” she responded. “They’ve been in here two days.”
“No, what I’m asking is why haven’t they been replaced?” Atobe demanded, walking across his study to the window.
“I’ll have Gerard do it right away,” Marie answered, picking up the vase and whisking it out of the room.
Atobe sighed, fiddling with his collar restlessly.
“Actually I don’t want roses,” he said, hearing the door open again. “Get me something fresher… Lighter, I don’t know,” he complained. “Why are the gardens so bare today?”
“They’re not bare,” Oshitari’s voice pointed out. “You’re just not looking in the right direction. And I’m not getting you any flowers, let alone something light and not roses.”
“Oh, it’s you,” Atobe frowned, looking disappointed.
“Not the company you expect?” Oshitari asked, amusement seeping back into his tone.
He slipped into a seat, legs crossed comfortably as he watched Atobe fiddle by the window.
“No,” Atobe sighed. “The company I…. expect,” he hesitated. “The company I want is probably off cavorting over the countryside right now. You’d think that dropping by to see me wouldn’t be so much to ask, but one suspects it never occurred in his head to-”
“Tezuka,” Oshitari said.
“No,” Atobe snapped quickly. “Not Tezuka.”
Oshitari blinked. “Ah,” he smiled to himself. “No relation?”
Atobe glanced at him over his shoulder. “One would hope not yet.”
Oshitari chuckled, tilting his head back. “I’m going down to the hangar. Do you want to come? Or are you going to stay in here and stew some more?”
“I’m not stewing,” Atobe retorted. “One doesn’t stew, Oshitari.”
“Perhaps I should say sulking then,” Oshitari mused.
“I would rather you didn’t.”
***
“From Fuji Shuusuke, sir,” Marie announced, placing a letter on Atobe’s desk along with his coffee.
“Mm,” Atobe answered distractedly. “Oshitari.”
“What am I now?” Oshitari complained, never quite having gotten out the door to the hangar after all. “You have a letter opener right next to you.”
Atobe rolled his eyes. “Just because I can, does not mean I want to.”
“Of course,” Oshitari sighed, “And just because you want to, doesn’t mean you can.”
Atobe let out a sigh and picked up his coffee, swinging around in his seat to stare out at the garden. “When was the last time we saw Shuusuke?”
“At Fuji Yamato’s ball,” Oshitari said, slitting open the envelope and pulling out the letter. “One month ago.”
“Was it that long ago?” Atobe frowned.
“Feels like a lifetime,” Shishido complained, walking in and slamming the door shut. Oshitari chuckled, a look passing between them that Atobe didn’t catch.
“There was a call just five minutes ago - a request to clear the runway so someone can land. I said yes,” he reported.
Atobe sipped at his coffee thoughtfully. “Who’d bother calling for that? What’s on the runway? Either runway.”
Shishido glanced sideways. “Our plane on one, and the guys down there are running some experiments using the other.”
“Oh, you’re sharing one now?” Atobe mused, smiling a little as he looked.
“Not by choice,” Shishido commented, snorting. “It just works out more easily that way. Plus it’s not like we can both fly two at the same time, so she’s just… the spare.”
“Having one already never stopped me from having another,” Atobe commented. “And did you clear the strip? Who lands here who bothers asking permission anyway?”
“Perhaps someone who’s running low on fuel and spotted the strip from the air,” Oshitari suggested.
Shishido shook his head. “No, someone was calling for someone else. I didn’t get time to ask who needed to land because the guy wanted the answer ASAP.”
“I guess we’ll find out who,” Oshitari spoke. “He’s circling now.”
“Probably someone who hasn’t landed here before,” Shishido said thoughtfully. “Tezuka wouldn’t bother circling more than once. Oishi’s the same.”
“Mm,” Atobe agreed, setting down his coffee and standing swiftly. “I don’t recognise the plane at all.”
“Neither,” Oshitari blinked.
“He’s coming in pretty low,” Shishido observed worriedly.
Atobe looked torn between staying at the window to watch the landing and going downstairs to meet the pilot on the runway, but the latter won as soon as he could see the plane touch down safely - and surprisingly smoothly.
“He’s just lucky,” Oshitari frowned, keeping up with Atobe down the paths to the hangar and runways.
“I don’t know,” Shishido objected. “It looked like he knew what he was doing, and he came down pretty quickly too.”
“Not necessarily a good thing,” Oshitari pointed out. “Although at least he didn’t bounce,” he admitted, curiosity piqued.
“Maybe Tezuka actually let Fuji at the controls, for once,” Shishido joked.
“I hope not,” Oshitari cringed. “I don’t think that’s the Fuji he wants to see,” he muttered under his breath.
***
Yuuta let out a relieved breath as he opened the door and jumped down from the plane, feet banging into the runway with a nice, loud smack.
“We nearly thought you were going to overshoot that!” was the first thing he heard, a person who looked to be an engineer approaching.
He grinned back, slightly apologetic as he realised he’d have scared them a bit. “I almost did,” he admitted. “I thought it was longer, somehow. I misjudged from the trees at the end.”
“Everyone does,” the guy cringed. “After the first time, they get the hang of it though.”
Yuuta nodded, his heart still beating too quickly in his chest. “I guessed so, or Atobe would never have so many visitors as he does.”
“Oh, you’re here to see him then?” the guy asked. “We thought you were just running low on fuel and needed a top-up somewhere. We had it all ready to go for you, too.”
Yuuta blinked, the serious look on his face dissolving into a laugh. “I’d hope not. I only just picked her up half an hour ago,” he grinned, and patted his plane’s nose. “She’s so fuel efficient she should still be able to go all the country to the north without another top up.”
He deliberately didn’t mention the fact that her fuel consumption was only low when cruising straights with a healthy tailwind, rather than the barrel rolls and loops he’d actually been testing out, but he had a feeling it was obvious enough, just looking at the plane’s design.
“Ah, here he comes now,” the guy said loudly.
“Who?” Yuuta asked, walking around the plane to get a better look.
“Oh, Atobe,” the man grinned. “He’ll probably be interested in getting a look at your machine too, since he’s down here.”
Yuuta walked back towards his cabin door and pulled out his logbook, filling it in briefly, waiting for Atobe to get closer.
“Who is it, Perry?” he heard Atobe asking.
“Young man come to see you, sir,” was Perry’s reply. “Did you notice the new model he has? Beautiful thing. Piece of genius, really.”
Tucking his book and pen away again, Yuuta pulled out the package he’d brought with him - luckily still in one piece.
“Morning,” he greeted, hopping down out of the cabin for the second time. “Delivery for one Atobe Keigo.”
Atobe froze in surprise. “Yuuta? You didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“Like I said,” Yuuta smiled a bit. “I’m just the delivery boy today.”
Atobe shook his head. “Delivering… what?”
Yuuta held the package out to him, leaning against the plane contentedly. “I hope you won’t be wanting a discount since it’s so late,” he joked. “Because I couldn’t give it to you for any less than for free.”
Atobe glanced at him quickly, curious. He took the package, fingers undoing the paper on it as he tried not to drop it.
“It took a bit longer than I thought it would,” Yuuta admitted, awkwardly rubbing at his neck. “I redrew it twice.”
He didn’t really need to tell Atobe the first time he’d redrawn it was because Shuusuke noticed the sketch and told him Atobe’s head looked big. Yuuta had started screwing up the page only to have his brother tell him it looked normal that way.
Atobe shook his head, studying the contents of the picture frame in his hands - a drawing of two men sitting on a roof. Certainly not the exact picture he’d asked for so long ago, but infinitely better.
“I thought it’d make a change from the usual,” Yuuta grinned.
Atobe smiled. “It does. It’s less tiring looking at myself standing up,” he joked.
“Oh, you’ll stay for lunch, won’t you?” he asked quickly.
Yuuta blinked, pushing a hand into his pocket awkwardly. “Well, I…”
“You don’t want to fly all the way home without at least something to drink,” Atobe insisted, trying again.
Yuuta shrugged, trying to hide his cautiousness. “If you’re up for it, I wouldn’t mind.”
He tilted his head towards the hangar, seeing Oshitari and Shishido there, apparently in no rush to walk over and say hello. “So I heard you have a couple of budding mechanics.”
“Crashing mechanics, don’t you mean?” Atobe frowned. “Anyway, nevermind them. You still haven’t taken a ride in my new plane, and the weather should be just right for it this afternoon.”
Yuuta’s lips curved upwards, his eyes twinkling. “I have to be back at work tonight, but if you want, instead of your plane, why don’t I take you up and show you mine? I’ll have to fly her home later and then take a taxi back to base, but I reckon we could fit in two hours in the afternoon if you think you can hold your lunch down that long,” he teased.
Atobe swallowed. “I’d like that,” he answered, once again glancing at the frame in his hands.
“Which part?” Yuuta laughed, and slammed the cabin door shut. “The part where you can’t keep your lunch down?”
“One has to have actually eaten some lunch in order to keep it down,” Atobe chuckled with a playful roll of his eyes.
“Point taken,” Yuuta grinned. He fell into step beside Atobe as they walked back across the runway to the lawns, glancing at the roses and noting them to be intact. He smiled to himself and glanced down at Oshitari and Shishido again, but they seemed busy with each other, arguing over something, from the look of it, and Yuuta’s smile only grew.
“Maybe the next time I come, you can take me up in their machine,” he gestured.
Atobe snorted contemptuously, waving his hand dismissively at the two men. “Goodness, I wouldn’t let you near it! They probably didn’t even screw the bolts on the engine mount on properly. The thing rattles like you wouldn’t believe.”
Then it occurred to him to wonder at what Yuuta had said, and he gave him a look. “And what do you mean, ‘the next time’? When exactly was the last time you visited anyway?”
Yuuta flashed a grin again, flexing his arms above his head lazily. “Oh, I don’t know,” he answered. “I think this is my first visit in a few years, so I probably have a few to make up.”
Atobe rolled his eyes again, muttering under his breath. “A few indeed. Shuusuke comes here all the time, and he doesn’t even fly.”
But he walked up the lawns, turning around when he reached the back door, only to see Yuuta a few metres back and peering up at the sky, probably already thinking about being up and flying again.
At least the day was a good one, Atobe mused, and he couldn’t complain about the company either.
Looking out at the sky above, he smiled. Everything within sight was a perfect blue.
Omake
“Do you think he even noticed us?” Shishido asked.
Oshitari pretended to consider for a moment, before delivering a swift “No”, a wry smile on his lips.
“That was what I thought,” Shishido sighed. Then he tossed a screwdriver at Oshitari.
“Now, about these nuts, whose idea was it to fix them on here after I said not to?” he demanded, glaring.
“Now now,” Oshitari smirked. “Whose idea was it that got us in trouble in the first place?”
Shishido stared at him blankly, until Oshitari let out a sigh and waved his hand. “Fine, fine. I admit it; it was all my fault.”
Shishido nodded. It really wasn’t that hard to admit to being wrong. If only Oshitari would do it more often, he might be more tolerable.
“Of course, if you’d listened to what I’d said in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to tinker around by myself and make that mistake,” Oshitari added.
“Spanner,” Shishido managed to get out grouchily. He held up the object, waving it. “Do you want it in your head or in your hand?”
“Better than in the works,” Oshitari chuckled, back to his normal smug self again. “Of course, with you, I never expect anything else.”
Shishido only huffed.
The end. :D ♥ Comments appreciated~
***
Yamato looked a little shocked all the same though, opening the door to find Yuuta and Atobe, the former with his shoes and pants caked in mud, and the latter with his necktie undone, shirt buttons open and jacket hooked over his arm.
“What have you been doing?” he asked, blinking at them.
Yuuta rolled his eyes. “Long story. If Alice is around, ask her to prepare a bath for Atobe.”
Yamato turned around quickly, going to look for her.
“You’ll stay for dinner?” Yuuta asked, leading Atobe in.
Atobe noticed the muddy footprints he left all over the clean floors, and grimaced, taking off his shoes so he wouldn’t do the same.
“I suppose I’ll have to,” he frowned. “I can hardly go back without the car. It would be inconvenient.”
Yuuta grinned at him. “And you sound so enthusiastic,” he chuckled. “The least I can do for you after all that bother is to offer you dinner, and you’d best accept it before I have to tie you down to a chair.”
Atobe smiled a little, still looking down at his shoes and at his messed up clothes. “You might want to wait until after the bath then,” he joked.
Yuuta nodded, smiling back and noticing Alice hurrying towards them. “Maybe by then I won’t need the rope,” he said, as he went up the stairs ahead of them.
***
“It seems as though no one will be able to get out here until tomorrow, and from the looks of it, you’ve broken something underneath so we’ll need a mechanic too,” Yamato sighed. He stepped further into the room as Alice tried to get past him, two glasses of lemonade on a tray.
“In the meantime, you’ll stay the night, won’t you?” he insisted.
Atobe let out a sigh. “I hadn’t planned it, but yes.”
“You do remember you’re the one who didn’t listen to me,” Yuuta said dryly. “Don’t say it as though you have nothing to do with it.”
Atobe shot him a dirty look for reminding him, and moved his chess piece.
“You were last here a few weeks ago, weren’t you?” Yuuta asked, watching his father step out of the room.
Atobe gave a nod, and watched with a little apprehension as Yuuta’s fingers hovered near his knight. He had a sinking feeling he might have just made a bad move.
“You haven’t seen Shuusuke’s new dog then?” Yuuta asked, getting a shake of the head for an answer.
“Do I need to?” Atobe asked with a sigh. He sat back in his chair and tilted his head until he could see out the window clearly, sighing to see clouds covering every inch of the sky. If he were at home by now, he’d only be in his office working, he supposed, but it didn’t quell the annoyance he felt about the car.
Yuuta shrugged. “Dalmation. It’s nice… I guess.”
Atobe looked at him carefully and then down at the chess board. He’d missed seeing Yuuta make his move, but he realised it had to be the horse, which was now looking rather close to, albeit in the wrong position to really threaten, his king. “You don’t like it?”
Yuuta chuckled, realising how obvious he’d made it. “Yuusuke doesn’t like not being…” he paused. “Dog of the house anymore.”
“What? The other one started marking all his trees?” Atobe rolled his eyes.
Yuuta’s lips quirked upwards. “Who knows? I didn’t exactly ask Yuusuke.”
Atobe smiled. “No, because that would only be another weird habit to add to your collection.”
Yuuta tilted his head, grey eyes peering curiously at his guest. “And what other weird habits do I have?” he asked.
Atobe only smiled some more and made his move, queen easily taking Yuuta’s horse. He removed the piece from the board with some satisfaction, and raised an eyebrow at Yuuta. “Your move.”
“You didn’t answer my question about weird habits,” Yuuta frowned slightly. “Distraction isn’t playing fair.”
Atobe smirked to see Yuuta saw through him. “I’m playing fair on the board.”
“Because you couldn’t cheat even if you wanted to,” Yuuta retorted, barely giving Atobe a glance as he studied the board.
“You wouldn’t be saying that if I were Shuusuke,” Atobe murmured.
“He can cheat at anything,” Yuuta replied.
“And Tezuka?” Atobe asked.
Yuuta shrugged, his answer still distracted as his hands hovered. “I suppose he could cheat, but he wouldn’t.”
“You’re not exactly concentrating, are you?” Atobe concluded suddenly.
Yuuta finally picked his piece and smirked at him. “I am, just not on conversation.”
“Then on what?” Atobe sighed.
“The game,” Yuuta answered, smiling. “Always concentrate on the more important matter at hand if you can’t do both at once. And checkmate.”
“And you can’t concentrate on two things at once?” Atobe teased without skipping a beat, although he felt a little sore as he stared at the board. He’d clearly made a few mistakes he normally wouldn’t have - Yuuta’s victory had been fair and quite smart, but it had certainly been helped in part by his own distraction.
Yuuta smiled easily as he stood up. “I could, but neither of them would be truly enjoyable then, don’t you think? And besides, you’re distracting when you talk,” he laughed. “You’re like Aniki.”
***
It had been a while since Atobe had slept in the guest room at the end of the hallway. It was one of a few bedrooms which didn’t have a bathroom attached, so he walked down the hallway when he woke up, having trouble remembering the direction he’d walked the night before.
The hallways of the Fuji house, like his own, were decorated with family portraits and photographs - their grandparents and Yoshiko, Yumiko and Yamato, and Shuusuke and Yuuta. Yuuta and Yuusuke. Yuuta.
Atobe stopped walking in front of the most recent photo of Yuuta and stared at it in the dim, early morning light. Yuuta had always been in the force since Atobe had met him, and in the photo, he looked to be a few years younger, uniform slightly less tidily worn and less decorated.
His mother liked to tell him they’d seen each other once or twice as children, but both he and Shuusuke never had any recollection of it, and it seemed that for a long time, their families simply hadn’t been in contact with each other because of their differing schedules.
It was strange to think that had things been different, he might have grown up with Shuusuke and Yumiko and Yuuta, as well as Oshitari, Shishido and Tezuka.
There was the click of a door opening behind him, and he spun around to see Yuuta, who looked just as surprised to see him.
“You’re up early,” he said, a little gruffly.
Atobe smiled. “Likewise.”
Yuuta rubbed at his hair and walked over, leaning against the wall tiredly. “I have some paperwork to finish off, so I thought I’d get it done before breakfast.”
“Oh?” Atobe smirked. “You’re not sleeping until lunch today?”
Yuuta grinned. “I don’t try to make a habit of that.”
“Tezuka says otherwise,” Atobe smirked, glancing at the photo again. “He said you used to spend the morning doing push ups for punishment because you were last out of bed.”
“Yeah?” Yuuta sighed. “Does he always talk about me a lot?”
Atobe blinked, turning to him to answer, when he realised the answer was actually… no. Tezuka didn’t often talk about Yuuta of his own initiative - Atobe asked him.
He glanced down the hallway, noticing one last frame he hadn’t yet looked at, and walked towards it.
A large framed sketch of Yuuta and Tezuka, he observed, in Shuusuke’s drawing style. And on the wooden table below it, a paper sketch book.
Atobe picked it up, flicking slowly through.
“That’s not Shuusuke’s,” Yuuta said, taking it from his hands.
“Yours?” Atobe asked.
“How did you know?” Yuuta looked at him, a little trace of annoyance in his tone.
Atobe gave a shrug. “I didn’t think he’d draw a picture of himself with Tezuka.”
Yuuta looked away. “I’m not as good as he is,” he frowned, but let Atobe take the book back from him.
“I’ve been looking for it since last time I was back,” he continued. “I guess I forgot it.”
Their drawing styles were different in detail, but much the same in other ways, Atobe thought. It was evident they’d either learnt from each other or from the same teacher, or perhaps both. Though he was quite sure Shuusuke’s sketch books would be full of Tezuka, not full of Yuusuke, he mused.
Reaching the last sketch in the book, he hesitated uncertainly.
“Who’s that?” he asked softly, tilting his head.
Yuuta shook his head and took the book back. “I’d have thought you’d recognise yourself, at least.”
Atobe hesitated again. So it was himself. “I don’t suppose you could draw me a larger version,” he suggested.
Yuuta looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think you’d want one. Like I said, you’d be better off asking Aniki if you really want something decent.”
***
“Tezuka,” Atobe greeted. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Tezuka smiled slightly. “Where else would I be?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Atobe rolled his eyes. “With your nose stuck in a book, perhaps,” he suggested.
Then he smiled a little more kindly, eyes drifting in Fuji’s direction. “It’s nice to see you with something other than work stuck in your head anyway.”
“I… didn’t really have a choice whether I wanted to come or not,” Tezuka admitted. “It was this or… this, actually.”
Atobe could imagine it.
“Have you seen Shishido and Oshitari yet?” he asked, chuckling. “You should ask them about their new project when you get a chance. They actually managed to get it into the air and stall the engine at two hundred feet.”
He rolled his eyes. “Of course, now they’re snarking at each other over it, which I suspect was the problem in the first place,” he lamented.
“What did they do?” Tezuka frowned, looking around the room for them. “Was it idling too hi-”
“Oh, go and ask them instead,” Atobe cut him off. “I wasn’t even listening after the first sentence. Oh, and you haven’t seen Fuji Yuuta around, have you?”
Tezuka shook his head to the negative, and watched Atobe huff slightly.
“Well then, I’m off,” Atobe smiled, getting over his annoyance quickly. “I see a few faces I have yet to greet. Business, you know.”
And he disappeared off into the crowd, getting swamped by people who wanted to talk to him before he seemed to get to the ones he really wanted to talk to.
“How’s Atobe?” Fuji asked as he appeared, somewhat amused by the confusion on Tezuka’s face. “Same as usual, I assume?”
Tezuka shook his head slightly. “Not quite.”
“How so?” Fuji laughed, watching him.
“You haven’t seen Yuuta around, have you?” Tezuka asked, before he forgot. “Atobe asked about him, and now that he’s mentioned it…”
Fuji shrugged. “He might be up there,” he pointed to the ceiling.
“What?” Tezuka frowned. “Up in his bedroom still?”
Fuji shook his head. “Roof,” he mouthed, as Yumiko walked past with a friend.
Tezuka sighed. “Little chance Atobe will find him then,” he responded, guiding Fuji out of the way of a waiter pushing past.
Fuji only smiled.
“I wonder…” Tezuka murmured quietly. “If for all the times he prides himself on his insight into other people, he doesn’t actually have a rather large blind spot.”
“Himself,” Fuji said.
“Exactly.”
“Speaking of blind spots,” Fuji whispered. “You don’t have to say hello to anyone else do you? Because there’s a place I want to show you.”
***
If anyone had asked Shishido, he’d have said it was times like these that he wished Oshitari would just disappear.
He winced as yet another girl pushed him out of the way, eager to talk to Oshitari.
“Damn it,” he muttered, looking around despondently and wondering why there wasn’t better company here - everyone free for talking or dancing was either old, taken or boring. Which was why they weren’t otherwise engaged.
Tezuka and Fuji were nowhere to be seen - not that he wanted to talk to Fuji anyway - and Oishi and Sengoku were both on the dance floor; Oishi falling over his feet and Sengoku doing a good job of inadvertently seducing other people’s partners.
Shishido almost wished Atobe would walk by Oshitari so the girls would flock back to him, but he was busy talking to Yamato in the corner of the room and they looked serious.
“For goodness -” Oshitari stumbled past Shishido as he tried to get back to him.
“Okay, that’s it!” Shishido snapped, yanking on Oshitari’s arm violently. “Ladies, he’s not free to dance - not now and not for the rest of the evening.”
“Why? Why, Oshitari?” they asked, and Shishido twitched in irritation.
“Because he has a sore foot,” he answered tersely.
“It doesn’t look like it,” one frowned. “He was walking perfectly fine just now,” another pointed out.
“Well he does now,” Shishido huffed, and brought his heel down on Oshitari’s toes, making him curse.
“See? Not available for dancing,” Shishido frowned, taking their stunned silence as a good opportunity to drag his friend away.
“What are you, jealous?” Oshitari teased as he let himself be led.
“No, grossed out is more like it,” Shishido retorted. “How could they have such bad taste?”
Oshitari sighed. “Well I hate to be vain, but if you’d looked around the room, you probably wouldn’t have found a better candidate for a dance.”
Shishido snorted. “Yeah, yeah.” But he still hoped he’d put all those women off enough to keep them away for the evening. He had no intention of dancing with Oshitari, but he wouldn’t mind having his company.
He was annoying, to be sure, but being in the ballroom with everyone else only reminded him that everyone else was more annoying.
***
‘Try upstairs in his room,’ Yamato had suggested after a spot of thought. He’d added that if Atobe found Yuuta, to drag him back down to be sociable as he ought to be, but Atobe wasn’t about to do that because he knew what would happen if he did. He’d get stuck doing the rounds of the room again, and Yuuta would inevitably find some other escape.
He knocked on Yuuta’s door a little tentatively, pushing it open to find the room empty. He might have walked back out again then, if he hadn’t noticed the curtains shifting about and the door to the balcony left ajar, something he suspected Yuuta wouldn’t do unless he were outside.
“Yuuta?” he called out quietly, and walked over.
He slipped through the open door and stepped outside, and startled to see Yuuta up, balanced in the middle of a small table, hands on the gutters and looking about ready to climb up onto the roof.
“Yuuta?”
A jerk and Yuuta turned his head quickly, almost losing his precarious balance.
As he clung to the gutters with both hands, he let out a shaky breath. “Shit.”
“Well, it would have been if you’d fallen,” Atobe commented, surprisingly calm as he looked over the edge of the railing.
“I wouldn’t nearly have fallen if you hadn’t scared me,” Yuuta retorted, climbing down off the table. “So what are you doing out here anyway? You’re going the wrong way if you’re looking for the party.”
“No, I was looking for you,” Atobe responded quietly. “What’s the host of the party doing climbing up onto the roof?”
Yuuta stared at him.
“Come up and I’ll show you,” he sighed, running a hand through his short hair.
“Not if I have to climb on that table,” Atobe frowned, crossing his arms.
Yuuta rolled his eyes. “Well I’ll climb up first and you can decide if you want to come or not.”
Atobe nearly protested, but Yuuta was already up on the table again, getting his hands into position at the edges of the tiling and carefully lifting himself up. He watched Yuuta’s feet leave the table, and cringed to see the way he steadied himself once he was up on the roof.
It sloped too sharply for Atobe’s liking, and he considered turning on his heel, uneasy about sitting on the roof, let alone getting up onto it first.
“I hope you have insurance,” he said, to which Yuuta only grinned down at him, making him decidedly nervous. .
“I’m not coming up there,” he called out, louder, in case Yuuta hadn’t actually caught what he’d just said.
“It’s safer up here than down there,” Yuuta chuckled. “Take off your shoes and socks and come up.”
“How can it be safer on the roof tiles, two storeys up in the air than on the balcony?” Atobe yelled back, frustrated, but Yuuta didn’t respond.
Atobe took a deep breath and squatted down to take off his shoes and socks and tuck them neatly under the table. Then he climbed up onto it, breath caught in his throat as he glanced to the side, and put his hands up to the tiles.
“Oh, so you are coming up,” Yuuta grinned, face in front of his.
Atobe grit his teeth and lifted himself up, only just able to get his knees up onto the tile. For a split second, he contemplated the horrid idea that he could just roll down the roof tiles until he fell off them, but then Yuuta grasped his hands, and he steadied himself, crawling along and sitting down, feet planted in front of him.
“And now that I’m up here,” he pursed his lips. “Would you care to explain to me why on earth it’s safer up here than down there?”
Yuuta shrugged. “It’s the right time for someone to come looking for us,” he explained.
“Only cats would look on the roof,” Atobe said, exasperated.
Yuuta smiled, staring out at the sky. “But people still look on balconies,” he pointed out.
“You’ve had practice at this,” Atobe observed dryly.
“Only every time there’s one of these things,” Yuuta said, and waved a hand towards downstairs.
Atobe couldn’t help the slight twitch of his lips. “No wonder you’re always noticeably absent.”
Yuuta leant back. “I wouldn’t have said noticeably,” he cringed. “They’d notice more if Shuusuke or Yumiko weren’t around.”
He smiled a bit wryly, but before Atobe really had a chance to answer, his hand was at Atobe’s chest, pushing him back hard against the tiles.
“What’s the-”
Yuuta put his finger to his lips, the click of the door all Atobe picked up.
“I think they’re gone,” Yuuta murmured, sitting up a moment later.
Atobe let out a breath and sat up, flicking his hair. “Next time give me some warning,” he huffed, trying to calm himself down.
Yuuta smirked. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d want a next time,” he mused, then added: “And if I’d had any warning, you would have gotten one. As it was… I don’t think you want to be dragged back down there, do you?”
Atobe looked out ahead of them, staring out into the vastness of the night sky as though he’d only just noticed why Yuuta was up on the roof in the first place.
The music from the open doors and windows of the ballroom downstairs floated up, along with the sounds of all the people down there. Yuuta might have wanted to get away from it all to be alone, but he wasn’t about to spurn company like this; not Atobe anyway.
“Look,” he smiled at Atobe, pointing his fingers up and along constellations. “It’s not so bad up here.”
***
“Marie,” Atobe frowned. “Why are these wilted?”
She looked up from cleaning his bookshelf to see him fingering a rose petal between his fingers. “They do, sir,” she responded. “They’ve been in here two days.”
“No, what I’m asking is why haven’t they been replaced?” Atobe demanded, walking across his study to the window.
“I’ll have Gerard do it right away,” Marie answered, picking up the vase and whisking it out of the room.
Atobe sighed, fiddling with his collar restlessly.
“Actually I don’t want roses,” he said, hearing the door open again. “Get me something fresher… Lighter, I don’t know,” he complained. “Why are the gardens so bare today?”
“They’re not bare,” Oshitari’s voice pointed out. “You’re just not looking in the right direction. And I’m not getting you any flowers, let alone something light and not roses.”
“Oh, it’s you,” Atobe frowned, looking disappointed.
“Not the company you expect?” Oshitari asked, amusement seeping back into his tone.
He slipped into a seat, legs crossed comfortably as he watched Atobe fiddle by the window.
“No,” Atobe sighed. “The company I…. expect,” he hesitated. “The company I want is probably off cavorting over the countryside right now. You’d think that dropping by to see me wouldn’t be so much to ask, but one suspects it never occurred in his head to-”
“Tezuka,” Oshitari said.
“No,” Atobe snapped quickly. “Not Tezuka.”
Oshitari blinked. “Ah,” he smiled to himself. “No relation?”
Atobe glanced at him over his shoulder. “One would hope not yet.”
Oshitari chuckled, tilting his head back. “I’m going down to the hangar. Do you want to come? Or are you going to stay in here and stew some more?”
“I’m not stewing,” Atobe retorted. “One doesn’t stew, Oshitari.”
“Perhaps I should say sulking then,” Oshitari mused.
“I would rather you didn’t.”
***
“From Fuji Shuusuke, sir,” Marie announced, placing a letter on Atobe’s desk along with his coffee.
“Mm,” Atobe answered distractedly. “Oshitari.”
“What am I now?” Oshitari complained, never quite having gotten out the door to the hangar after all. “You have a letter opener right next to you.”
Atobe rolled his eyes. “Just because I can, does not mean I want to.”
“Of course,” Oshitari sighed, “And just because you want to, doesn’t mean you can.”
Atobe let out a sigh and picked up his coffee, swinging around in his seat to stare out at the garden. “When was the last time we saw Shuusuke?”
“At Fuji Yamato’s ball,” Oshitari said, slitting open the envelope and pulling out the letter. “One month ago.”
“Was it that long ago?” Atobe frowned.
“Feels like a lifetime,” Shishido complained, walking in and slamming the door shut. Oshitari chuckled, a look passing between them that Atobe didn’t catch.
“There was a call just five minutes ago - a request to clear the runway so someone can land. I said yes,” he reported.
Atobe sipped at his coffee thoughtfully. “Who’d bother calling for that? What’s on the runway? Either runway.”
Shishido glanced sideways. “Our plane on one, and the guys down there are running some experiments using the other.”
“Oh, you’re sharing one now?” Atobe mused, smiling a little as he looked.
“Not by choice,” Shishido commented, snorting. “It just works out more easily that way. Plus it’s not like we can both fly two at the same time, so she’s just… the spare.”
“Having one already never stopped me from having another,” Atobe commented. “And did you clear the strip? Who lands here who bothers asking permission anyway?”
“Perhaps someone who’s running low on fuel and spotted the strip from the air,” Oshitari suggested.
Shishido shook his head. “No, someone was calling for someone else. I didn’t get time to ask who needed to land because the guy wanted the answer ASAP.”
“I guess we’ll find out who,” Oshitari spoke. “He’s circling now.”
“Probably someone who hasn’t landed here before,” Shishido said thoughtfully. “Tezuka wouldn’t bother circling more than once. Oishi’s the same.”
“Mm,” Atobe agreed, setting down his coffee and standing swiftly. “I don’t recognise the plane at all.”
“Neither,” Oshitari blinked.
“He’s coming in pretty low,” Shishido observed worriedly.
Atobe looked torn between staying at the window to watch the landing and going downstairs to meet the pilot on the runway, but the latter won as soon as he could see the plane touch down safely - and surprisingly smoothly.
“He’s just lucky,” Oshitari frowned, keeping up with Atobe down the paths to the hangar and runways.
“I don’t know,” Shishido objected. “It looked like he knew what he was doing, and he came down pretty quickly too.”
“Not necessarily a good thing,” Oshitari pointed out. “Although at least he didn’t bounce,” he admitted, curiosity piqued.
“Maybe Tezuka actually let Fuji at the controls, for once,” Shishido joked.
“I hope not,” Oshitari cringed. “I don’t think that’s the Fuji he wants to see,” he muttered under his breath.
***
Yuuta let out a relieved breath as he opened the door and jumped down from the plane, feet banging into the runway with a nice, loud smack.
“We nearly thought you were going to overshoot that!” was the first thing he heard, a person who looked to be an engineer approaching.
He grinned back, slightly apologetic as he realised he’d have scared them a bit. “I almost did,” he admitted. “I thought it was longer, somehow. I misjudged from the trees at the end.”
“Everyone does,” the guy cringed. “After the first time, they get the hang of it though.”
Yuuta nodded, his heart still beating too quickly in his chest. “I guessed so, or Atobe would never have so many visitors as he does.”
“Oh, you’re here to see him then?” the guy asked. “We thought you were just running low on fuel and needed a top-up somewhere. We had it all ready to go for you, too.”
Yuuta blinked, the serious look on his face dissolving into a laugh. “I’d hope not. I only just picked her up half an hour ago,” he grinned, and patted his plane’s nose. “She’s so fuel efficient she should still be able to go all the country to the north without another top up.”
He deliberately didn’t mention the fact that her fuel consumption was only low when cruising straights with a healthy tailwind, rather than the barrel rolls and loops he’d actually been testing out, but he had a feeling it was obvious enough, just looking at the plane’s design.
“Ah, here he comes now,” the guy said loudly.
“Who?” Yuuta asked, walking around the plane to get a better look.
“Oh, Atobe,” the man grinned. “He’ll probably be interested in getting a look at your machine too, since he’s down here.”
Yuuta walked back towards his cabin door and pulled out his logbook, filling it in briefly, waiting for Atobe to get closer.
“Who is it, Perry?” he heard Atobe asking.
“Young man come to see you, sir,” was Perry’s reply. “Did you notice the new model he has? Beautiful thing. Piece of genius, really.”
Tucking his book and pen away again, Yuuta pulled out the package he’d brought with him - luckily still in one piece.
“Morning,” he greeted, hopping down out of the cabin for the second time. “Delivery for one Atobe Keigo.”
Atobe froze in surprise. “Yuuta? You didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“Like I said,” Yuuta smiled a bit. “I’m just the delivery boy today.”
Atobe shook his head. “Delivering… what?”
Yuuta held the package out to him, leaning against the plane contentedly. “I hope you won’t be wanting a discount since it’s so late,” he joked. “Because I couldn’t give it to you for any less than for free.”
Atobe glanced at him quickly, curious. He took the package, fingers undoing the paper on it as he tried not to drop it.
“It took a bit longer than I thought it would,” Yuuta admitted, awkwardly rubbing at his neck. “I redrew it twice.”
He didn’t really need to tell Atobe the first time he’d redrawn it was because Shuusuke noticed the sketch and told him Atobe’s head looked big. Yuuta had started screwing up the page only to have his brother tell him it looked normal that way.
Atobe shook his head, studying the contents of the picture frame in his hands - a drawing of two men sitting on a roof. Certainly not the exact picture he’d asked for so long ago, but infinitely better.
“I thought it’d make a change from the usual,” Yuuta grinned.
Atobe smiled. “It does. It’s less tiring looking at myself standing up,” he joked.
“Oh, you’ll stay for lunch, won’t you?” he asked quickly.
Yuuta blinked, pushing a hand into his pocket awkwardly. “Well, I…”
“You don’t want to fly all the way home without at least something to drink,” Atobe insisted, trying again.
Yuuta shrugged, trying to hide his cautiousness. “If you’re up for it, I wouldn’t mind.”
He tilted his head towards the hangar, seeing Oshitari and Shishido there, apparently in no rush to walk over and say hello. “So I heard you have a couple of budding mechanics.”
“Crashing mechanics, don’t you mean?” Atobe frowned. “Anyway, nevermind them. You still haven’t taken a ride in my new plane, and the weather should be just right for it this afternoon.”
Yuuta’s lips curved upwards, his eyes twinkling. “I have to be back at work tonight, but if you want, instead of your plane, why don’t I take you up and show you mine? I’ll have to fly her home later and then take a taxi back to base, but I reckon we could fit in two hours in the afternoon if you think you can hold your lunch down that long,” he teased.
Atobe swallowed. “I’d like that,” he answered, once again glancing at the frame in his hands.
“Which part?” Yuuta laughed, and slammed the cabin door shut. “The part where you can’t keep your lunch down?”
“One has to have actually eaten some lunch in order to keep it down,” Atobe chuckled with a playful roll of his eyes.
“Point taken,” Yuuta grinned. He fell into step beside Atobe as they walked back across the runway to the lawns, glancing at the roses and noting them to be intact. He smiled to himself and glanced down at Oshitari and Shishido again, but they seemed busy with each other, arguing over something, from the look of it, and Yuuta’s smile only grew.
“Maybe the next time I come, you can take me up in their machine,” he gestured.
Atobe snorted contemptuously, waving his hand dismissively at the two men. “Goodness, I wouldn’t let you near it! They probably didn’t even screw the bolts on the engine mount on properly. The thing rattles like you wouldn’t believe.”
Then it occurred to him to wonder at what Yuuta had said, and he gave him a look. “And what do you mean, ‘the next time’? When exactly was the last time you visited anyway?”
Yuuta flashed a grin again, flexing his arms above his head lazily. “Oh, I don’t know,” he answered. “I think this is my first visit in a few years, so I probably have a few to make up.”
Atobe rolled his eyes again, muttering under his breath. “A few indeed. Shuusuke comes here all the time, and he doesn’t even fly.”
But he walked up the lawns, turning around when he reached the back door, only to see Yuuta a few metres back and peering up at the sky, probably already thinking about being up and flying again.
At least the day was a good one, Atobe mused, and he couldn’t complain about the company either.
Looking out at the sky above, he smiled. Everything within sight was a perfect blue.
Omake
“Do you think he even noticed us?” Shishido asked.
Oshitari pretended to consider for a moment, before delivering a swift “No”, a wry smile on his lips.
“That was what I thought,” Shishido sighed. Then he tossed a screwdriver at Oshitari.
“Now, about these nuts, whose idea was it to fix them on here after I said not to?” he demanded, glaring.
“Now now,” Oshitari smirked. “Whose idea was it that got us in trouble in the first place?”
Shishido stared at him blankly, until Oshitari let out a sigh and waved his hand. “Fine, fine. I admit it; it was all my fault.”
Shishido nodded. It really wasn’t that hard to admit to being wrong. If only Oshitari would do it more often, he might be more tolerable.
“Of course, if you’d listened to what I’d said in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to tinker around by myself and make that mistake,” Oshitari added.
“Spanner,” Shishido managed to get out grouchily. He held up the object, waving it. “Do you want it in your head or in your hand?”
“Better than in the works,” Oshitari chuckled, back to his normal smug self again. “Of course, with you, I never expect anything else.”
Shishido only huffed.
The end. :D ♥ Comments appreciated~