Title: Meow Mix
Author: Ociwen
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1167
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created by Konomi Takeshi. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Sanada is a fan of pussy. Yukimura is not.
Author's Notes: Drabble-age for
ensein.
He's in the middle of working on his serves. And despite pushing his body through physio at the hospital, his limbs are more jelly than muscle and his technique has all the dexterity of…
A fourteen year old boy going through puberty.
Which means, Yukimura sucks at hitting the ball.
Not that anyone needs to know. He's got a court to himself and Sanada, for once, has left him alone. It's the same thing every day, living with a backseat mom, "Yukimura, have you taken your pills?" "Yukimura are you feeling okay?" "Yukimura do you need to rest?"
Thinking about it makes Yukimura grind his teeth. Sure, his arms atrophied in the hospital and sure, the sutures from the operation kill when he lies on them at night in bed, but dammit, Leave me alone!
Yukimura throws the ball in the air. He gages the height, the force, and then he slams his racket down.
Into the empty air.
The ball rolls by his feet.
Yukimura growls, then stomps around in a circle. He kicks the ball and it bounces off in the direction of a hydrangea bush. Only after a moment does he remember that was his last ball-he roofed the rest earlier.
Dammit!
He's all messed up now and Sanada isn't around to get the ball for him, either. Yukimura huffs. He sighs again. Sanada's been following him around, following him home for two weeks straight. He carries Yukimura's tennisbag all the way up the four flights to Yukimura's apartment, even though there's an elevator. He holds Yukimura's chemistry textbook, even though Yukimura has a perfectly fine. Mostly, Sanada wanders around Yukimura's room petting Yuriko's cat. Yukimura hates the thing. Sanada always scratches it's belly. Hairs get all over Yukimura's bed. Dander gets all over Yukimura's tennis towels.
"You don't like pussies?" Sanada asks. He's got a hand in the cat's white, furry belly. It purrs louder than the trains in Shin-Yokohama station.
Yukimura waves it off. "They're all...hairy and they smell like fish," he says.
Sanada keeps petting the cat anyway.
And yesterday, he even brought it cat food. That he opened in Yukimura's room. His bedroom stunk like fish all evening, even after he pried the window open and suffered the smog and the humidity instead of the air conditioning.
No, the recovery from the operation wasn't half as bothersome as Sanada has been.
And now, Yukimura has to get his ball all for himself. Sanada's probably off buying pussy toys, or something. Yukimura doesn't really care.
Except as he starts to walk to the bushes (which need pruning, badly, too bad his mom took the spare pair of garden shears out of his bag last week), he's ambushed.
Marui, Yagyuu and Niou block him. Marui stops chewing on his gum. Yukimura looks down.
"We gotta talk," Marui says. "It's important."
"Tennis?" Yukimura asks.
"Not quite," Yagyuu says after a beat. He fixes his glasses. "Actually, it's about Sanada-kun."
Niou nods. It's odd to see him standing so tall and frowning, serious-faced like Yagyuu. Yukimura squints, but Niou's got the mole and Yagyuu's socks are pulled up. They're themselves.
Marui takes a deep breath and rubs his belly. He pops a bubble and says, "Okay, so we'll be brief. The thing is…Sanada can't stop talking about pussy."
Yukimura blinks. "Neko-chan?"
Yagyuu and Niou look at each other. Marui grimaces. He puffs his cheeks up, like a hamster, but he doesn't blow another bubble. Yukimura glances out of the corner of his eye. Really, he just wants his balls, not a lecture.
Yagyuu clears his throat. His cheeks are pink. "In English class, Sanada-kun gave a presentation about what he likes most. And he…"
"Nearly gave Veronica-sensei a heart attack," Marui says.
Niou doesn't snicker. But he does lean in close to Marui and whisper, "That fat ugly ALT who wears the crocs?"
"Yep," Marui says.
Niou whistles. "No wonder."
"Anyway," Yagyuu says. "It's concerning for us. Sanada-kun has begun to…ask us for help…"
"To get some pussy of his own," Niou says.
Marui nods. His chin seems to wobble a bit. Yukimura inches to the right, trying to sneak around them to get his ball. Marui's girth remains in the way and when Yukimura creeps the other way, Niou cocks his head.
"See, our club, Yukimura, we don't like pussy," Marui says. "It's just a matter of preference, but we're, obviously, right and he's not. So you gotta tell him to go and-"
"Find a bitch instead," Niou says. Then, he snickers under his breath. Yagyuu's eyes shift and Marui snorts so hard that Yukimura is fairly certain he sees a wad of gum shoot out from Marui's nostril.
Right in the direction of the hydrangea bushes. Gross, Yukimura thinks. But, he's not dumb. He nods and agrees, vaguely, that he'll tell Sanada to shut up about the cats and find a new hobby.
This seems to appease Marui and Niou and Yagyuu, though in all honesty, Yukimura doesn't really care much. He crouches down on his knees and fishes around the bushes. No sign of the yellow ball, just a few dead crickets and a large, black spider, along with a tampon wrapper.
Yukimura shudders. He stands up and pulls his cellphone out. Speed-dial, first number on his list. Sanada picks up on the third ring, just like always.
"Aa, Yukimura," he says.
"What are you doing right now?" Yukimura asks. He checks his watch. He taps his foot.
"I'm at the pet store," Sanada says.
Yukimura rolls his eyes. Behind him, Marui makes wide, flashy signs with his hands and mouths, "NO MORE PUSSY!" Yukimura nods and turns back to his cellphone. He only manages to catch the last of what Sanada says.
"-and she's very nice. She's dark and warm and soft and she purrs when I stroke her…"
"Sanada?" Yukimura says.
Sanada grunts. He's probably blushing on the other end of the line.
"You need to come to practice asap and bring me some new balls." Yukimura can hear the bushes rustling. Niou and Marui, probably, still reminding him. Yukimura sighs. "Oh, and no more pussy. It's getting gross, okay?"
For the longest while, there is silence on Sanada's end. Fear pokes Yukimura hard in the soft spot of his gut and he's sorta but not really though kinda worried that Sanada might be crying. He cringes.
Instead, Sanada says, "Ah, Yukimura, can I call you later? I have to feed my pussy now."
Yukimura drops his cellphone on the ground. It lands right beside the tennis ball, three feet away, under the foot of a bench where Yanagi sits and stares and smiles at him. By his knee is a plastic bag and inside that, a bag of cat food.
Yanagi says, "Don't you like pussy, Seiichi?"
If Yukimura's serve was better, he might smash a ball into Yanagi's head. Instead, he roofs the bag of cat food.
And his racket smells like fish for a week.