FIC: Yokai Monogatari (Yagyuu/Niou) NC17 2/2
Title: Yokai Monogatari (Monster Tales, Part 2)
Author: Ociwen
Rating: NC17
Wordcount: 16 000
Disclaimer: Alas, Konomi and Kodansha own Prince of Tennis and collect all the benefits from it.
Summary: Yagyuu is perfectly content minding his own business, until a tanuki shows up one day. And weird things happen.
Warnings: This involves Niou. That should be warning enough.
Author's Notes: This was entirely written for the reading pleasure of doingfirst, whose birthday it is! ♥ to my accomplice in sick pursuits, Shakey's happy hours and 10 000 emails!
[Part 1] [Part 2]
They walk to school together, like always. Niou yawns his way to the brick gates. Yagyuu checks his cell phone messages, or he goes over the notes for his math test. Today is the last day before the winter holidays. Their breath clings to the air in heavy, fragile clouds that shatter when Yukimura waves to them.
"Guess what!" he says. His cheeks are pink and peaked, but his smile is wide.
Niou slinks around to Yukimura's back. Yukimura spins around before he's bunny-eared. Yagyuu says what.
Yukimura narrows his eyes. His smile curls up to his ears as he snickers. "The workers are going to get the new courts up before we come back in January," he says. "No more delays!"
As Yukimura skips off to class, Yagyuu is left with Niou. His stomach sinks. He starts, "Niou-kun-" but Niou is gone before Yagyuu has a chance to so much as finish his thought.
***
His math test is a poor effort. Sanada will beat him again.
It's unsurprising, Yagyuu thinks. He frowns through lunch time. During afternoon classes, Yagyuu stares at the same page of his biology notebook. Niou could be anywhere, as anyone. He could be run over by a transport lorry in tanuki form and no one would know any better.
Yagyuu swallows a hard lump.
As they walk to tennis club, Sanada pulls at the brim of his cap. His scowl doesn't reach his eyes. He asks Yagyuu, "Why didn't you stand up during class today?"
Yagyuu falls back a half-step. He blinks. "I didn't?"
Sanada grunts. His eyes look up Yagyuu's face, and then they narrow as Sanada lifts his chin. Just as Yagyuu expects him to say something more, Sanada just snorts.
The courts are covered with a thin dust of snow. It must have fallen during lessons. Yagyuu didn't notice that, either. Even though Yukimura and Sanada-maybe Yanagi, too-will be the only ones to use the courts over the holidays, Yagyuu grabs a broom from the shed. He sweeps the courts with long, vertical streaks. Snow filters down and sticks to Yagyuu's jacket sleeves. It beads on the end of his nose, and melts on his glasses.
Most of the school has escaped already. Through the rows of windows, the corridors are dim. Yagyuu stops at the baseline and pivots his broom. Kirihara and Marui run zigzags across the courts. Sanada sweeps in small, short strokes. Yanagi doesn't bother to sweep at all.
Beyond the caterpillar backhoe, which is frozen in place by the mud, the scrappy patch of pine trees and underbrush is silent. Snow collects on the evergreen branches. Yagyuu turns to each creek of the forest floor. He looks up at the lengthy silences. No tanuki waddles out of a bush. No Niou wanders over to the courts, either.
Yagyuu sighs.
"Hiroshi?" Jackal asks.
Yagyuu looks up. He blows on his hands to bring the feeling back. The numbness sinks into his belly. Jackal scratches behind his ear, where his hat is pulled down low.
"Are you looking for something?" Jackal asks.
"Maybe there's a ghost in the woods," Kirihara says. Jackal smacks him behind the ear.
Yagyuu fixes his glasses. "Niou-kun lost his favourite ball," he lies. He sets his broom on the ground, then he walks over to the gate in the chain link fence. "I think it's perhaps-"
"Niou can find his own balls," Yukimura says. He pops up right in front of the gate with Yagyuu's broom in his hands. "Here, Yagyuu. We still have B court to finish. Niou gets first dibs on sweeping in January."
A frown slips across Yagyuu's face. It's too heavy to shrug off. Yukimura turns to the pine scrub with glitter in his eyes and the weak sun bouncing off his dark hair. "And to think, in January, we'll have a beautiful new court right where those ugly trees are."
"Yukimura-kun?"
Yukimura sighs. A far-off expression softens his face. "Hn?"
"Don't you think that, maybe, three courts are enough for the team? Maybe we should leave the forest to nature…" Yagyuu holds his breath as Yukimura's brow knits up.
"What do you mean?" Yukimura taps on the caterpillar tire. The air is long gone. The suspicious hole remains. "I'll plant a garden at the end of the court, obviously."
Yagyuu tries again. "The animals…?"
Yukimura rolls his eyes. Yanagi starts to chuckle under his breath. "There's nothing but crows there, Yagyuu. Everyone knows that."
Yagyuu nods, but he asks, "What about tanuki?" The moment the word leaves his lips, he regrets it. It hangs in the damp, frozen air like a thick band of tension before the entire team starts to laugh. Marui slaps his thigh. Jackal wipes tears from his eyes. Even Sanada's lips twitch.
The gleam returns to Yukimura's sharp smile. He slings an arm around Yagyuu's shoulder in a weak echo of Niou. "Maybe we can leave tanuki-san some sake then," Yukimura says. "Niou probably knows where to get some."
***
Yagyuu eats dinner in a cold, quiet kitchen. His cup ramen noodles are left too long, and they turn mushy. They break as Yagyuu tries to slurp. Salt crystallizes at the corners of his mouth. Yagyuu licks it away, and sighs.
He leaves a dish of gourmet beef dog food on the porch. Frost paints little patterns where the draft creeps under the glass door. Yagyuu sits back down at the table to wait. His mother shuffles into the kitchen, pops a pain killer with a swig of tea from the fridge, and shuffles back to her bedroom.
Niou-kun, Yagyuu thinks.
The thermostat reads so low that Yagyuu shivers. He flicks the porch light on and off. The frost glistens in the artificial light. Yagyuu pushes the door open. "Niou-kun!" he calls. "NIOU!"
Yagyuu holds his breath, but his heart pounds in his ears. Winter coats the neighbourhood roofs with the crisp smell of ice. The hairs on his wrists stand on end. His knees start to shiver as the cold cuts through his pants. And his balls, hopeful and eager for Niou tonight, are shrivelling back up into his body.
Please come back, Yagyuu thinks. Maybe we can talk to Yukimura together.
He makes a mug of tea, and sits by the glass door. In his slippers, Yagyuu wiggles his toes to keep them warm. The tea steams into his nose. From the front door, his mother shouts that she's going out, but your dad should be home by midnight, Hiroshi. Yagyuu cups the mug. He presses the hot ceramic mug to his cheeks.
No tanuki waddles onto the porch.
The front door closes behind his mother, no Niou slipping inside by her heels.
Yagyuu is there so long, his back aches from slouching. His father walks into the kitchen. "Hiroshi? Shouldn't you be in bed?"
So Yagyuu goes to bed. He waits. He listens. He plays with his dick, too. Niou doesn’t scramble up the drain pipe and knock on Yagyuu's window.
There is no Niou at all.
Nothing remains of Niou besides the musky smell of dog in the back of Yagyuu's closet, and the thin, whispy furs that fly up when Yagyuu moves under his blankets.
When Yagyuu sighs, the furs stick his lips.
***
In his backpack, he packs a screwdriver, a roll of dental floss, three bandages, an extra pair of mittens, and a can of chicken delight dog food. Yagyuu checks the cabinet, but his mother drank the last of the sake. He wears his thickest wool coat and walks to the school. The gates are closed. Yagyuu walks around to the back entrance. His footsteps echo on the pavement. The back gate is locked, too.
He hops the fence. And then Yagyuu pushes his glasses back up his nose.
More surveyors must have come recently. There are new footprints in the thickened mud, and new tracks from a replacement backhoe. Yagyuu looks around. He squats down and opens his bag. In this temperature, the rubber is more brittle. The screwdriver makes a sharp, single noise when Yagyuu stabs it in. He pulls it out and a stream of air begins to hiss. With a discarded evergreen branch, Yagyuu sweeps any footprints of his own up. He stands back to admire his work.
You see what I do for you, Niou-kun?
On second thought, Yagyuu goes back to puncture a second tire. He reaches up under the belly of the caterpillar as best he can and he rams the screwdriver up there, too. Butterflies of satisfaction flutter around in Yagyuu's stomach. He brushes his mittens together, but they smell of diesel fuel anyway.
Yagyuu crouches under the streams of caution tape weaving between the trees. Delicate frost freezes the trees in place, and the ground melts under Yagyuu's sneakers as he walks deeper into the forest. He pauses, looks around, and walks a little further. Bushes snag on his sleeves. Yagyuu listens.
"Niou-kun?" he asks.
There is nothing.
Yagyuu sets the pair of mittens behind a thick tree root. He sets the chicken delight can on top of them. For the longest while, Yagyuu stands there. His toes lose feeling and his ears go numb. His glasses hang off the end of his nose.
"I love you," Yagyuu whispers.
He strings up the dental floss between trees at the edge of the forest, then Yagyuu walks home.
***
He goes to cram school until his vision swims.
He works on math problems until his head aches.
Yagyuu masturbates in the shower. He checks the dish of food on the porch, then he lies in his cold bed by himself.
Kirihara is the only one on the tennis team stupid enough to believe in Santa-san, but Yagyuu prays to him, too.
Please bring Niou home.
***
His toes are wet and slimy. Yagyuu gasps. The tanuki keeps licking them. "It's strange," Yagyuu says.
"Maybe," the tanuki says. He pushes back his straw hat and grins up at Yagyuu. "But they're salty and tasty."
The tanuki has a single white whisker, just like Niou.
Then he starts to scream.
It isn't Niou's voice-it is too high-pitched, too human and too female.
Yagyuu rubs his eyes. Darkness streams through his window still. He fumbles for his glasses. They are cold to the touch. His mother's piercing screams downstairs don't stop, so Yagyuu slips on his slippers and wanders to the top of the stairs.
"Mother?" he asks.
She's downstairs in the shadows of the entranceway. The door hasn't closed completely and winter rushes in. Yagyuu shivers in his cotton pajamas. His mother takes a break from screaming to catch her breath. She hobbles on the floor and rolls her ankles in her stilettos. "Hiroshi!" she pants. "You're awake." She moans and she staggers. "There's a-there's a thing in the house and…" She flicks her hands and backs into the wall. One of the large vases wobbles beside her. She starts to make little yelps again.
Or, Yagyuu assumes it's her, until he walks downstairs. She clings to his arm. Alcohol clings to her breath when she hisses, "It's over there!"
"It's not a ghost, is it?" Yagyuu asks.
"I don't knooooow," she moans. "Just do something!!"
Yagyuu's pulse starts to race. Blood drains from his head. Each step toward the curtain creaks the floorboards. Yagyuu stiffens and stops and his mother shrieks. The yelping returns.
Sucking in a deep breath, Yagyuu grabs the panel of curtain and flings it back.
From the floor, a pair of black eyes shine up at Yagyuu. There's a puddle of pee on the floor underneath the tanuki, who streaks past Yagyuu and bolts up the stairs in a flurry of fur and slipping claws.
Yagyuu's back relaxes. He shrugs his mother off. "It's okay," he says. "Go to bed, Mother, and I'll take care of it."
Niou has come back.
***
At the back of Yagyuu's closet is a nest of moulted fur, mud and his dirty socks. Niou sleeps for two days straight. Just to make sure he's okay, Yagyuu checks on him. He crawls into his closet with a torch and a clean towel. When he prods Niou's haunch, Niou flexes his toes. He makes a little squeak, and curls his head underneath his front paws. Clouds of fur puff up when Niou breathes. Yagyuu pets his side, and the fur clings to his fingers in floating strands. Yagyuu sneezes.
Niou keeps sleeping.
There is a knock on Yagyuu's door. He wiggles back out of his closet. He pushes his glasses up. His mother calls his name. Yagyuu sniffs the air, which is heavy with canine smell. It's too cold to open a window without being suspicious.
Yagyuu closes his closet door, just as his mother pads inside. She's dressed in her winter yukata, with a fake fur coat pulled over. Her eyes are bloodshot in the corners. She must have come home recently.
"Did you have a good Christmas party with father?" Yagyuu asks. He gives her his best, most innocent smile. She waves her hands and says it was okay.
"The wine was so cheap for doctors, Hiroshi," she says. She shakes her head into her palm. "My skull is on fire."
"Maybe you should lie down?"
She clicks her tongue. "Is that dog of yours gone?"
Yagyuu blinks. "Mother?"
With heavy exaggeration, she sighs and opens her eyes a little wider. "That dog. It followed me home the other night and ran inside."
"Oh," Yagyuu says. His skin crawls as the lie comes to his lips. "No, mother, you must have had too much to drink. There was no dog."
"But I saw it."
"Maybe it was a ghost?" Yagyuu offers.
She sniffs. Her long, painted fingernails knead the spidery lines of her forehead as she thinks. Yagyuu stands still, making sure to avoid any unnecessary motion, lest he seem suspicious. He might be able to make out the soft sleepy sighs Niou makes on the other side of the closet door, but his mother might not.
"Hiroshi," she says.
"Hn?"
"Your room stinks. Don't masturbate so much in here."
After she closes the door behind herself, Yagyuu remembers to pick his jaw up from the floor.
***
Yagyuu walks upstairs with a can of coke, a brown banana, and a can of dog food in his pocket (sealed, of course). He sets the banana on the floor, and he opens the can of dog food with the can opener he pilfered from the kitchen last night. His door is closed, the hot coils in the space heater hiss, and Yagyuu lies back on his bed with a dog-eared copy of Lord Edgware Dies. Between pages, he sips his coke.
There is nothing but the beautiful sounds of pages turning, and the hiss from the slow, dying fizz in the can. Yagyuu crosses his legs at the ankle. He sticks his fingers under the waistband of his pants, where his belly is hot, and the vague desire to rub his dick is building.
Yagyuu licks his lips. He wiggles his nose to slide his glasses down his nose. The page comes into better focus. As his eyes skim the words, read many times over, there is a wet, smacking sound to his left. It takes Yagyuu a moment to realize that it isn't Hercule Poirot, it's something here in his room.
"Niou-kun!" Yagyuu says.
Niou chows down on his food. Yagyuu crouches down to the floor-level. He reaches out. Niou's thick, dark pelt has been reduced to mottled patches across his back. The tip of his tail is missing, and half his whiskers. Curled up in the closet, Yagyuu couldn't tell before. His heart sinks to his stomach. Yagyuu swallows. Niou doesn't look up once when Yagyuu starts to touch the downy skin, or the chunks of remaining fur.
"Are you all right?" he asks.
Niou keeps eating. He licks the can clean, and then he sniffs around the banana. Finally, he looks up at Yagyuu with those wet, black eyes behind his dark mask. He cocks his head to the side. In his chest, Yagyuu's heart is swollen and his throat is thick when Niou sniffs around his crotch.
It's weird.
But it feels right.
In a weird sort of way.
It feels even more right when Niou transforms to his human form. Now, Yagyuu can see Niou's eye is bruised along the cheek bone, and he's grubby all over, covered in a layer of dirt and scum. Niou belches.
Yagyuu winces. He says nothing, though.
Niou picks the banana up. He sniffs it.
"Don't you have anything more rotten?" he asks.
Yagyuu sighs. That feels good, too.
***
Usually after a bath, Yagyuu's body is lethargic and limp, like jelly. His skin is hot and his insides melt into the sheets. Tonight, he waits for Niou to finish in the bathroom. Loud splashes intersperse with the occasional bang, followed by an "Oh shit!" Yagyuu's mind is too clouded to care much. He plays with his dick. Hurry, he wants to tell Niou. I've missed you.
The door opens. Yagyuu takes his hand out of his yukata. A crocodile smile plays on Niou's lips when he closes the door behind himself.
"Having fun?" he asks.
Yagyuu's face is hot to start with. He plays with his glasses. Niou has the borrowed yukata tied the wrong way, but before Yagyuu can say anything, Niou peels it off. His naked body is pale and thin and spotted with bruises. Half the hair is missing from his head. There's a nasty red welt at the base of his spine.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Yagyuu asks.
Niou grunts. He dives onto the bed. The mattress bumps into the wall. Yagyuu freezes for a second. The clock reads half-past ten. His sister must be asleep, and his mother must be out at another holiday party. It's only the two of them here. His dick throbs. His heart sticks to his collar bones and weighs him down to Niou. Niou is willing and pliable and he leans up into Yagyuu with a sigh.
"Yagyuu," his lips say.
Yagyuu brushes his mouth to Niou's. "What happened?" he murmurs. Under his body, Niou's legs shift. One of his knees slides between Niou's thighs. Their dicks rub together as Niou nuzzles Yagyuu's neck. He shakes his head. Hot, slimy kisses trail over Yagyuu's chest, down to his nipple.
He gasps.
"Doesn't matter," Niou says. His fingers wiggle their way into Yagyuu's butt crack. Yagyuu sputters. Niou's eyes consume him with their dancing light. He breaks to take Yagyuu's glasses off.
Yagyuu blinks. He sits back on Niou's stomach, careful not to press too hard, but Niou sucks in a sharp breath. Yagyuu starts to climb off until Niou's hand stops him. Their fingers twine, all sticky and hot. Yagyuu brings them to his mouth. He runs his lips over the back of Niou's hand where the skin is dry and patchy.
"Please," Yagyuu says.
Niou turns his head. Across the pillow, his eyes are vacant in the direction of the window. Yagyuu lies down next to him, spooning their bodies. Skin to skin, the winter chill isn't noticeable. Niou's balding head tucks under Yagyuu's chin. He pets the back of Niou's neck, and presses more kisses to Niou's hand.
"Please," Yagyuu says.
Niou sighs.
"It's nothing," Niou grumbles.
"Were you…" Yagyuu pauses. "Was it a car?"
"Eh?"
"Did a car hit you?"
Niou blows a raspberry against Yagyuu's chest. "No," he says. "Only dumbfucks cross the road and get hit. Puri."
"Oh."
"What do you take me for?" Niou asks. He looks up. The smirk doesn't reach his eyes, though when he adds, "An animal?"
"Of course not," Yagyuu says. "But you were gone for two days and come back like this."
Niou grunts. In a small voice, he says, "I just went to visit my family."
"And?"
"Well, they didn't exactly want to see me-it's none of your business, Yagyuu. Drop it."
"No," Yagyuu says. "Not until you tell me what happened-"
Niou looks at Yagyuu through his glasses. His black eyes are huge. With myopic blinks, he grins at Yagyuu gormlessly. His hands stroke Yagyuu's hip as he inches closer.
Yagyuu frowns. He grabs the glasses and folds them up. "Don't try to change the subject," he says.
Niou is silent.
"Niou-kun."
His hands stop. Lower than before, he mumbles, "You what's worse than a gay tanuki?"
The heater glows on the floor. The hot, red coil casts a scarlet-toned light over Niou's skin as Yagyuu kisses his shoulder. He presses his teeth into Niou's skin, gently. Yagyuu's heart holds its throbbing as Niou breathes in the swelling tension.
Tell me.
"One that's in love with a human," Niou finishes.
Yagyuu's heart pushes between his ribs as he tugs on Niou's shoulder to turn him around again. He looks down. Niou won't look up.
His tongue kisses the answer so Niou doesn't have to.
***
The night is a heavy curtain, except for the dim scarlet glow from the corner, and the faintest pearly film on the window. Their bodies heave in a messy tangle of sweaty limbs and catching gasps. Niou's legs wrap tight around Yagyuu's shoulders. His belly shudders as he cries. His body is so tight that Yagyuu doesn't think he'll ever escape this overwhelming wave of feeling that washes through his veins. Yagyuu pushes deeper.
Someone whimpers. It might be Niou. It might be Yagyuu. There is no separation as their bodies strain together. Niou shivers. Yagyuu shudders. His skin is alive with flames that Niou's fingers ignite even hotter. Skin slaps against skin. Niou squeezes himself around Yagyuu, and a gasp tumbles out of his mouth, finding its way behind the soft, slick skin of Niou's neck.
"Yagyuu…" Niou groans. He lifts his hips higher. Yagyuu thrusts back, and then deep inside as they move in and around each other. Sweat dribbles across Niou's upper lip. Hair glues down to Yagyuu's forehead. One more motion, and the electric burn of orgasm sweeps through his belly, all the way to his toes.
In the glowing dim light from the heater, they catch their breath. Niou hisses and winces as he crawls out from under Yagyuu. Yagyuu peels his thigh from Niou's hip. Their fingers lace together, and neither lets go.
"Usually only foxes do this with humans," Niou says.
"Oh," Yagyuu says.
"Yaaagyu?"
Wet kisses slime the shell of Yagyuu's ear. He twitches. In his blurred, lazy vision, Niou's hand slides across his belly to pull him close. He slimes Yagyuu's ear again until Yagyuu turns.
"Let's do it again."
***
"So what are we going to do?" Yagyuu asks.
"Tanuki magic," Niou says. "I've been working on mine."
Yagyuu shivers. "I don't like ghosts," he says.
Niou's smile falls. "You're no fun."
***
Fat drops of freezing rain pelt the windows and the roof. Yagyuu frowns. The front walkway is covered in a thin layer of ice that thickens by the minute. He's got a choice between his black leather shoes, and sneakers. Niou has a pair of brown boots. Yagyuu doesn't ask where he got them.
Niou grabs the door handle. He flings it open, and groans in the back of his throat.
"You could go back and hibernate in my room," Yagyuu says.
Niou says no. He scratches the back of his head, and another clump of hair catches the air. Yagyuu reaches for it, and stuffs it into his pocket.
"You're weird," Niou says.
Yagyuu's face is hot. He hands Niou a wool cap. "Here."
Niou hands it back to him. He grabs the cap already on Yagyuu's head by the tip and pulls it off. "I like blue better."
"It looks good on you," Yagyuu says.
Niou flashes him a toothy smirk from under the blue stripes.
The walk to school is icy. Niou skates across the sidewalks and crossings at traffic lights. Yagyuu shuffles behind him. His hands are flat to the ground for balance. He's a tennis player, not a figure skater. Niou spins around. His grey jacket is crusted over with ice. Pellets slide through Yagyuu's hair as they melt. The few cars that brave the roads today are slow and drive erratic pathways through the ice.
They cut down one of the alleys that passes behind the Seven-Eleven, and next to the local shrine. Incense hangs in the air. Yagyuu breathes it in deeply. He rubs his hands together at the gate. "Do tanukis pray?" he asks.
Niou looks at him. He cocks his head to the one side, and then the other. "Hang on," he says. "I have to adjust myself."
Low chanting seeps through the wooden shrine gate. It's a good thing that the priests are busy with their prayers, otherwise they would get any eyeful of Niou grabbing his crotch. Yagyuu frowns.
Niou cups his balls through his pants. "Watch," he says. His mole wiggles, and then his nondescript grey jacket melts and grows into a thick, dark fur coat that hangs all the way to Niou's knees.
Yagyuu blinks. "How did you do that?" He adjusts his glasses-the fur coat is real, and thick, and living warm, like the pelt on a tanuki.
Niou pats his crotch. "Like I said, tanuki magic."
***
The sight of the bulldozers drains the blood from Niou's face.
The fur of his coat seems to stand up on end, and so do the jagged whisps of his bleached hair from underneath the blue cap. Niou starts to bolt, but Yagyuu grabs his arm. "Niou-kun!" he hisses.
"Hey," Jackal says. He looks at Niou's coat and winks. "Pimpin'."
Niou isn't paying attention to Jackal, or Yukimura rallying with Kirihara on the courts, either. Instead, his nostrils flare at the bulldozers moving around the edge of the forest, ripping up the first few bushes. Yagyuu swallows. His insides feel hollow as he watches the reflection of the machines in Niou's black eyes.
"Niou-kun," Yagyuu says. The bulldozers drown his voice out, but not Marui's. Marui wanders over, racket over his shoulder and a bubble of gum popping out from the top of his scarf.
"What's with the coat and hat?" Marui asks. When Niou doesn't answer, Marui grabs it. Jackal's mouth hangs open. The hat falls to the ground along with Marui's half-chewed gum. Yagyuu's stomach sinks.
He doesn't know how to explain this.
"Whoa!" Marui says. He whistles. "You got cancer, or something?" Confusion twists his round features. Jackal just winces, and says nothing.
Yagyuu picks the hat up, and places it back on Niou's head.
One of the trees starts to shake. Its naked branches shiver and shudder as the bulldozer plows into the trunk. The tendons in Niou's neck strain. His left eye twitches.
Then his mole does, too.
And the basket of tennis balls, ice-covered and crunching, start to dance in the air. Yagyuu stiffens. His eyes look all around as the balls wave and bounce out of their basket, tugged by the invisible strings of tanuki magic.
Marui says, "What the hell!"
Jackal shouts, "Jesus!"
Even the ball Yukimura had tossed in the air to serve floats away from him. Yukimura and Kirihara shout together at Sanada to go get their ball.
Sanada, however, has his cap pulled over his face, and he's fast asleep on the slippery bench. He only wakes up when Yukimura yells, "WHAT is going on?"
Yagyuu hates ghosts, and although the tennis balls are bewitched, not phantoms, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Beside him, Niou's mole twitches sporadically, but the balls move in perfect unison toward the bulldozers. They dance across the muddy machinery, which slumps to a halt as the workers shout. One ball slams into the side of a backhoe. Another bounces off the tire into a worker's face.
Marui shakes his head. "These are…"
"…yokai," Jackal mutters. "Or maybe voodoo."
Or maybe Niou, Yagyuu thinks.
"These are like…haunted stuff," Kirihara says. He sets his racket on the ground to watch the tennis balls pummel the excavators. A tree, half-uprooted, groans and creaks its way back into the ground as the balls light up the pine forest with neon yellow flashes. The first construction worker grabs the edges of his hard hat and runs off, then a second, and a third. The balls pelt the machines harder than the sharp, frozen rain. Yagyuu's face stings as he watches, wide-eyed.
Not until the last worker flings the bulldozer door open and hops out do the tennis balls drop from the sky, one by one. They bounce to a stop in the bushes and bristling scrub at the edge of the forest, where piles of frozen mud and sludge have been pushed. The air smells of diesel fuel from the smoking machines, as the last of their energy hisses and steams to a stop.
"Whoa," Sanada says.
Everyone looks at him. He grunts and scowls and mutters, "Tarundoru."
Only then does Yagyuu turn to Niou. He sighs with relief-for now, Niou's home is safe. The sky is a murky, colourless wash above them. Yagyuu says Niou's name.
Niou turns around.
Where his face once, now there is nothing. A blank, featureless mask sits smooth and uniform underneath the blue cap.
Someone else screams.
And Yagyuu's eyes roll back.
***
Yagyuu is eating dinner and minding his own business.
Niou sits on top of his feet. His body is a warm, breathing slipper. Yagyuu wiggles his toes, but Niou isn't licking them. Instead, Niou whines like a dog. He whimpers again. A heavy shadow hangs in front of Yagyuu's face. It hovers and skits across Yagyuu's vision, which for all his blinking, doesn't improve. Yagyuu pushes at his glasses. His shoulders tense up to his neck.
His sister stares at him. "You're not supposed to keep pets, Yagyuu-senpai," she says.
Then she pokes him in the eye.
Yagyuu says, "Ow."
He opens his eyes. Nose to nose, Kirihara is an inch from his face. Yagyuu jerks back, and his head hits something hard and metallic. It must be the clubhouse lockers. His leg is cramped up and hogtied with a school cravat.
Yagyuu lifts his hands to fix his glasses. They slip down his nose as he wiggles. His hands, too, are tied. And Kirihara sits on his lap with leaden deliberateness.
Behind him, Niou paws at the inside of a locker. His claws clank on the metal door. Blood returns slowly to Yagyuu's head as he looks around at the faces of his teammates. Yukimura sits on a wooden bench, between Yanagi, and Sanada. Jackal hangs in the doorway to the toilets, sniffling and red-eyed. Marui hands him another length of toilet paper.
"What's going on?" Yagyuu asks. His vision is weak in the corners. His body is too light, and he can barely see through all the glaring. Niou howls in the locker. His claws scratch at the metal slats with greater intensity. There is a pause, and then a breathy, canine heave against the metal.
"Let him out!" Yagyuu snaps. "He hasn't done anything!"
Yukimura keeps his arms crossed over his chest. He looks at Yanagi on his left, and then Sanada on his right. Yanagi raises his eyebrows at Yagyuu. Yagyuu tries to shove Kirihara off with his shoulder. Instead, sharp pain snaps his muscle. Yagyuu hisses.
"You guys have been the ones sabotaging my courts, haven’t you?" Yukimura asks. Before Yagyuu can answer, Yukimura goes on. "I should have guessed it was someone from my own team and not Seigaku. You just want to take over, don't you?"
"No," Yagyuu says.
Yukimura snorts. "I'm not dumb, Yagyuu. You're jealous."
Niou's whining has paused for the moment. Yagyuu shakes his head. His glasses slip off his nose completely. With unskilled hands-and a sharp grin-Kirihara shoves them back on. One arm pokes Yagyuu in the ear. He winces. He winces a second time as a cramp pierces his left butt cheek. The floor of the clubhouse is ice at this time of year. Kirihara digs a bony section of his hip into Yagyuu's thigh when he wiggles to ease the ache.
"Do you mind?" he asks.
Kirihara scratches his hair. "Eheh. I'm just helping, senpai. It's kinda cool that Niou-senpai is a yokai."
"Not really," Yanagi says.
"Tarundoru," Sanada grumbles.
Jackal sneezes. A chunk of snot hits the window across the room.
"Cool," Marui says.
Niou's claws curl up from under the bottom slat of the locker door. Yagyuu jumps when they pierce his back. His frantic whining and yelping isn't convincing anyone to let him out. Yagyuu's chest tightens.
"Please let Niou-kun out," he says. "He's done nothing except wanting to save his family." Yagyuu squirms. Kirihara jabs his bony butt into Yagyuu's stomach.
"His tanuki family," Yukimura says.
"Yes."
"So you'll…do what? Bewitch our courts so we lose tennis games?" Yukimura asks. His eyes darken as the sun hides outside. What little weak light streamed through the frosted window is replaced by a flickering incandescent bulb on the ceiling.
"No," Yagyuu says. "They live in the forest you want to rip down for more tennis courts!"
Yukimura takes a big, deep breath. Sanada turns to the doorway, but everyone else looks at Yukimura as he says, slowly, "I'm not seeing where you are going with your logic, Yagyuu. I said I'll make a garden at the edge of the court-"
With a gust of unnatural wind, the clubhouse door swings open. Icy remnants of the rain from this morning sprinkle the floor and fall, like dust as four people walk inside.
Or, they mostly look like people. Their eyes are black like Niou, and ringed with heavy bags, but their hair is dark and bristly. They wear nothing but mukluk boots, and shaggy fur coats, not unlike the one Niou wore earlier today. The younger girl has pompoms on her boots that swish as she walks past Marui.
Marui blinks. A slow, sly smile forms over his face as he looks at the girl. "Hey there," he says.
The girl ignores him.
"Excuse me," Yukimura says. "We're busy having a team meeting here."
Jackal sneezes again. He rushes into the bathroom as the oldest, roundest man walks inside. He pushes his sunglasses back from his face. If it wasn't for the musky smell of dog that wafts off these people, Yagyuu would almost take them to be human.
Niou's clawing inside the locker picks up. The younger boy rushes over. Sparks fly as he touches the locker, shoves Yagyuu and Kirihara away, and opens the door. Yagyuu's glasses clack across the floor. He can't see well like this, tied up on the floor with Kirihara sprawled on top of him, but he can see the boy slam the locker door shut just as quickly as he flung it open.
"Are you Niou-kun's family?" Yagyuu asks.
The older woman answers, "Yes." She looks at the boy and shakes her head. Her cheeks are round, and her fur coat is dumpy. Her eyes are warm when she picks up Yagyuu's glasses. She wipes them off with her sleeve, and hands them to Yagyuu. The lenses are greasy from her pelt. Through the streaks of grime, Yagyuu says thank you, anyway.
Niou's mother sighs at the younger boy. With a heavy sigh of his own, he opens the locker a second time. Carefully, Niou slinks out. His fur coat puffs up to twice its size as he hisses at Sanada, and runs under the bench near Yanagi.
The light outside shifts again. Dappled, colourless light creeps through the window. It bounces off the cabinet of tennis tournament trophies and medallions. Gold plating reflects in patterns on the ceiling. All together, Niou's family looks at them. Their eyes glaze over as they shuffle toward the cabinets. Only now does Yagyuu notice the tail hanging out the back of the boy's coat, or the dark, dog ears on the older man's head. Niou's mother's boots have claws that clack on the cold floor. His sister scratches at her crotch to keep the human mask up.
Someone starts to bang on the glass cabinet case.
"Hey!" Yukimura says. "Didn't you hear what I said?"
Niou's family turns around. Marui yanks his hand back-he stands dangerously close to Niou's sister, and by the minute he creeps closer.
"You're right," Niou's mother says.
The man nods. "We will offer a trade."
"What does this have to do with tennis?" Sanada grumbles. Under the bench, Niou waddles over to bite Sanada's calf. Sanada grinds his teeth. Yagyuu motions to Niou, but Kirihara is the one to finally start untying the cravats around his wrists and ankles.
"Sorry, senpai," he says. He forces a brittle laugh. Yagyuu purses his lips. His shoulder muscle is on fire, and his backside is frozen.
Niou's father walks closer to Yukimura. "We will offer a trade," he repeats. "Give us our home, and you can have our son."
"Huh?" Yukimura asks.
Marui's hand settles on the arm of Niou's sister's coat. She makes a high-pitched yelp. As Marui starts to pet her coat, her yelp softens into a low, satisfied purr. Yagyuu watches Niou's brother swipe one of the golden medals from last year's regionals game.
It's only plated, Yagyuu thinks.
Someone warm and furry rubs against his arm. Fur chunks hang off Niou's haunches as he allows Yagyuu to pet his back. Niou shivers. Tentatively, he starts to crawl onto Yagyuu's lap, sniffing his way across Yagyuu's thighs. Yagyuu can't help the erection swelling in his pants.
"Our son is no use to us," Niou's father says. "He's gay."
"Well…we don't want him!" Yukimura says. He stands up to look Niou's father in the eye. Yagyuu hugs Niou's moulting body close to his chest. He breathes in the familiar canine musk, mixed with rubbish and dirt and the sweaty mould in the bottom of their lockers.
"He'll play on your tennis team, and you will win," Niou's father says.
Yukimura balls his fists. He stomps around a little circle of his own making. "I just want my new courts!" he yells.
"It's cool," Marui says, "The courts we have now are enough." He scratches Niou's sister under the chin. She nuzzles his neck. In Yagyuu's arms, Niou makes a retching noise and buries his face under Yagyuu's elbow.
"His…unusual origins could be used to create interesting tennis line-ups and play styles," Yanagi says.
Sanada just grunts.
"You're all against me!" Yukimura says.
Kirihara pats him on the arm. "I'm not buchou."
"What if I say no?" Yukimura asks Niou's father.
Niou's brother continues to raid the gold-plated medallions from the cabinet. Only Jackal notices, but when he opens his mouth to say something, he sneezes again.
Niou's father's ears fold back against his head. His nostrils twitch. Niou's mother sighs heavily. "If it comes to that, then…"
"We'll uproot your garden," Niou says. Yagyuu blinks. The tanuki in his arms has become human once more-naked and pale and too heavy for his lap-at least his butt isn't as bony as Kirihara's. Yagyuu manages an "Oof!" before he falls back onto the floor.
Niou stands up. He pads up to Yukimura. Of all of his family, he transforms the best. His human form is most convincing. When he cups his balls, a yellow Rikkai tracksuit grows above his skin. And on his feet is a pair of sneakers with blue soles-almost, but not quite, a convincing Yonex rip-off.
Niou continues, "We’ll eat your tulip bulbs."
Yukimura gasps.
Niou looks at his family. They all nod, even his sister, who nods against Marui's chest. He looks at Jackal and points down to her. "Hot stuff!" he mouths.
Jackal nods. He sniffles into a rolled up Kleenex, balled up into his nostrils.
"And," Niou says. His voice drops to a dangerous whisper. He circles Yukimura with a narrowed gaze that sends a new shiver down Yagyuu's spine. "We'll shit under your roses."
Yukimura shakes with a strangled moan. Kirihara makes a face. He speaks for everyone when he says, "That's just gross, Niou-senpai."
"We will," Niou's mother agrees.
Yukimura's face is ghostly white. The sight of it makes Yagyuu's pulse quicken, too.
"Do we have a deal?" Niou's father asks.
Yukimura looks from Sanada, to Yanagi. He looks at Jackal, and Kirihara, to Marui snuggling with Niou's sister under her thick pelt, to Yagyuu on the floor, and Niou in his metamorphosed tennis tracksuit.
He sniffs.
"Fine," Yukimura says, "but we'd better win every year."
***
On New Year's morning, they walk to the local shrine at half-past four. Niou buries his face in the thick fur hood of his coat. Yagyuu wears his blue cap, and matching mittens. The sky is violet and velvet. A new dusting of snow has fallen over night. It sticks to their sneakers.
The bottle of sake sloshes in Niou's pocket. Yagyuu shakes his head. Niou grins. "We gotta celebrate, Yagyuu," he says.
Before he can respond to Niou, something gleams on the other side of the street. Niou waddles over. He makes a contented little noise, his nonsense "piyo!" as he reaches down to pick up the coin. It gleams in the light of the street lamps.
"Hundred yen," he says.
"Lucky," Yagyuu says.
Niou tucks it into his pocket, then he pats his crotch. Over the ridge in the road, the fairy lights strung around the temple are a net against the gabled roofs. Yagyuu breathes in the sharp scent of winter, and the heady incense. His stomach growls. His shoulders sink with fatigue. Niou grabs his hand.
Yagyuu pushes his glasses up. With his mittens, it's awkward.
"Wakey wakey," Niou says.
Yagyuu frowns.
"I can't help my nocturnal nature," Niou says.
They stand around with the dozens of other people in the temple grounds. Yagyuu shifts his weight to keep his feet from freezing. Niou touches everything: the carved panels of dragons, the hanging lanterns, the grates and the stands of incense for sale. Yagyuu says nothing.
Niou winks at a temple statue of a tanuki. It might wink back from underneath its straw hat-Yagyuu is too sleepy to tell for certain.
Dawn breaks with fiery fingers over the pitched roof of the main shrine. The bells start to ring. Through the crowd of people, Yagyuu catches Niou's dark eyes. They reflect the first morning of the year, and Yagyuu, too.
"You'll have to win every tennis game to keep Yukimura happy," Yagyuu says.
Niou fakes a yawn. He stretches his arms above his head. "Yeah, yeah."
"How will you do it?"
"I pretend to be everyone else's worst nightmare?" Niou asks. For a split second, his human features slide off his face. Yagyuu jumps.
Niou wiggles his fingers. "Boogie woogie!" His features pop back on his face, except his mole, which never disappears.
"Don't do that!" Yagyuu hisses. His heart slams into his ribs, which tighten around his lungs. It's hard to breathe when Niou goes into Nopperabo-mode.
Yagyuu still really hates ghosts.
As they leave the temple, they walk past a stand selling fortunes. Yagyuu hesitates. Niou stops, too.
Then Niou hands him the hundred yen coin from his pocket. "Here," he murmurs.
The shrine maiden hands Yagyuu a fortune in return. He unwraps it. Before he reads it, his eyes look over the rim of his glasses to Niou.
"Well?"
Yagyuu smiles. "Very good fortune."
Niou swipes the paper. "That's not what it says!"
Yagyuu swipes the fortune back. He tosses it into the large bronze incense burner, which smoulders with a hundred smoking sticks. The paper curls up, then alights in a brief flash of flames.
Yagyuu says, "I don't need a piece of paper to tell me my fortune."
His eyes don't leave Niou's.
***
They stop for the first soba of the year on the way home.
The noodles sit warm and filling in Yagyuu's stomach. Two blocks from home, as the houses begin to wake up, Niou pauses in an alley. His nostrils twitch. His mole shifts. He digs into a dumpster and pulls out a banana peel.
From his pocket, a hundred yen coin rolls out across the pavement. Yagyuu stops it with his sneaker tread. He picks it up. In the golden light of morning, it gleams in his palm.
"You-"
Niou grins. The slimy black banana peel in his hand takes away any seriousness the moment might have. Niou smacks his lips.
"My favourite," he says.
It doesn't stop being weird.
***
When he moves, the bath water slops over the edge a bit. Yagyuu leans back against the side. His sister and then Niou used up all the hot water. What's left for him is lukewarm, at best.
Yagyuu stretches his toes out. His dick is half-hard in the limpid water. He rubs his palm on his balls, but anything more than that would be gross-even if he is the last one to be using the bath tonight.
He drains the tub, and rubs his hair half-dry with a damp towel. Yagyuu sniffs it. In human form, Niou still leaves dog-smell everywhere. Little fantasies about wet, naked Niou fill Yagyuu's thoughts. Niou may well be supine on Yagyuu's bed right now, playing with his human dick. His skin is hot and clammy and waiting to be kissed all over. Yagyuu licks his lips. The salt of Niou's kisses never leaves.
His footsteps are light on the corridor floor. The cold Pergot stings his soles. Yagyuu sucks in a breath. His erection from before starts to shrivel up under his yukata. For a moment, he pauses at his bedroom doorway. The light from his sister's bedroom is gone. She's asleep. His mother is off at a party, his father is off at a shift, and Niou is making little, tiny pants on the other side of the doorway.
Arousal liquefies Yagyuu's muscles. He cups his balls through the yukata. Then, he pushes the door open.
Niou is on his bed, all right.
He's curled up in a furry ball. His tail sticks out, his back is up, and his head is roughly in the vicinity of his butt.
Yagyuu's mouth hangs open. Watching Niou lick his own butt will never be normal.
Niou makes a high-pitched yelp. He removes his mouth from his crotch and hobbles off the bed before Yagyuu can think of something to say. Niou waddles into the closet and tucks his tail around himself.
Yagyuu pushes aside his pile of dirty clothes. The back of his closet remains thick with the smell of raccoon dog, and dirty clothes. There is so much dust and dander from the nest that Yagyuu sneezes. He wipes his nose with the wrist of his yukata.
Niou's fur is soft when Yagyuu pokes his side. It's growing back now in downy spots. Niou shifts to burrow deeper into the closet. Yagyuu reaches out, wraps his hands around Niou's belly, and pulls him out.
Niou's whiskers hang low. His pupils are huge.
"It's…okay if you lick your butt," Yagyuu says. "I don't mind. But isn't it a bit pointless if you just had a people bath?"
For a racoon dog, Niou is mostly fluff and no substance. Under the thick, musky winter coat, he squirms a little. Yagyuu puts him on the floor. Niou's claws clack-then he transforms.
And his face is bright red.
And his dick is hard, and flushed, too.
"I wasn't licking my butt," Niou grumbles.
Yagyuu blinks. His glasses have fogged up from the floor heater in his bedroom, so he takes them off. His bedroom-and Niou-are blurrier. Niou's damp, spiky hair is fuzzy at the edges, sort of like his pelt. Yagyuu reaches out to him. He touches the back of Niou's neck, almost like a pet.
It works every time. A contented purr rumbles in his chest, even when he scowls.
"I was licking my balls," Niou mutters. He adds a "Puri" and it only makes Yagyuu smile into his neck. There's an erection on his hip and Niou rubs himself on Yagyuu's body. It's faint enough to be subconscious. It's hard enough that Yagyuu shivers. His balls burn, just as much as Niou's chin does under Yagyuu's lips.
Red rocket? Yagyuu thinks.
"Aw, shut up," Niou says. He sniffs. "I know what you're thinking, megane."
Yagyuu steps between Niou's legs. Together, they back up into the edge of Yagyuu's mattress. Yagyuu kisses the damp, salty skin under Niou's chin. His fingers trail down Niou's stomach, which makes him suck it in and gasp.
He's always been ticklish, whatever the form.
"Really?" Yagyuu asks.
Niou grunts.
Yagyuu pushes him down onto the bed. Niou looks up at him. He's supine and his eyes are wide. Hair falls over his face. He opens his mouth and Yagyuu can smell his heavy breath.
His dick hardens.
And then Yagyuu climbs on top on Niou to show him what he's thinking.
Really.
Author: Ociwen
Rating: NC17
Wordcount: 16 000
Disclaimer: Alas, Konomi and Kodansha own Prince of Tennis and collect all the benefits from it.
Summary: Yagyuu is perfectly content minding his own business, until a tanuki shows up one day. And weird things happen.
Warnings: This involves Niou. That should be warning enough.
Author's Notes: This was entirely written for the reading pleasure of doingfirst, whose birthday it is! ♥ to my accomplice in sick pursuits, Shakey's happy hours and 10 000 emails!
[Part 1] [Part 2]
They walk to school together, like always. Niou yawns his way to the brick gates. Yagyuu checks his cell phone messages, or he goes over the notes for his math test. Today is the last day before the winter holidays. Their breath clings to the air in heavy, fragile clouds that shatter when Yukimura waves to them.
"Guess what!" he says. His cheeks are pink and peaked, but his smile is wide.
Niou slinks around to Yukimura's back. Yukimura spins around before he's bunny-eared. Yagyuu says what.
Yukimura narrows his eyes. His smile curls up to his ears as he snickers. "The workers are going to get the new courts up before we come back in January," he says. "No more delays!"
As Yukimura skips off to class, Yagyuu is left with Niou. His stomach sinks. He starts, "Niou-kun-" but Niou is gone before Yagyuu has a chance to so much as finish his thought.
***
His math test is a poor effort. Sanada will beat him again.
It's unsurprising, Yagyuu thinks. He frowns through lunch time. During afternoon classes, Yagyuu stares at the same page of his biology notebook. Niou could be anywhere, as anyone. He could be run over by a transport lorry in tanuki form and no one would know any better.
Yagyuu swallows a hard lump.
As they walk to tennis club, Sanada pulls at the brim of his cap. His scowl doesn't reach his eyes. He asks Yagyuu, "Why didn't you stand up during class today?"
Yagyuu falls back a half-step. He blinks. "I didn't?"
Sanada grunts. His eyes look up Yagyuu's face, and then they narrow as Sanada lifts his chin. Just as Yagyuu expects him to say something more, Sanada just snorts.
The courts are covered with a thin dust of snow. It must have fallen during lessons. Yagyuu didn't notice that, either. Even though Yukimura and Sanada-maybe Yanagi, too-will be the only ones to use the courts over the holidays, Yagyuu grabs a broom from the shed. He sweeps the courts with long, vertical streaks. Snow filters down and sticks to Yagyuu's jacket sleeves. It beads on the end of his nose, and melts on his glasses.
Most of the school has escaped already. Through the rows of windows, the corridors are dim. Yagyuu stops at the baseline and pivots his broom. Kirihara and Marui run zigzags across the courts. Sanada sweeps in small, short strokes. Yanagi doesn't bother to sweep at all.
Beyond the caterpillar backhoe, which is frozen in place by the mud, the scrappy patch of pine trees and underbrush is silent. Snow collects on the evergreen branches. Yagyuu turns to each creek of the forest floor. He looks up at the lengthy silences. No tanuki waddles out of a bush. No Niou wanders over to the courts, either.
Yagyuu sighs.
"Hiroshi?" Jackal asks.
Yagyuu looks up. He blows on his hands to bring the feeling back. The numbness sinks into his belly. Jackal scratches behind his ear, where his hat is pulled down low.
"Are you looking for something?" Jackal asks.
"Maybe there's a ghost in the woods," Kirihara says. Jackal smacks him behind the ear.
Yagyuu fixes his glasses. "Niou-kun lost his favourite ball," he lies. He sets his broom on the ground, then he walks over to the gate in the chain link fence. "I think it's perhaps-"
"Niou can find his own balls," Yukimura says. He pops up right in front of the gate with Yagyuu's broom in his hands. "Here, Yagyuu. We still have B court to finish. Niou gets first dibs on sweeping in January."
A frown slips across Yagyuu's face. It's too heavy to shrug off. Yukimura turns to the pine scrub with glitter in his eyes and the weak sun bouncing off his dark hair. "And to think, in January, we'll have a beautiful new court right where those ugly trees are."
"Yukimura-kun?"
Yukimura sighs. A far-off expression softens his face. "Hn?"
"Don't you think that, maybe, three courts are enough for the team? Maybe we should leave the forest to nature…" Yagyuu holds his breath as Yukimura's brow knits up.
"What do you mean?" Yukimura taps on the caterpillar tire. The air is long gone. The suspicious hole remains. "I'll plant a garden at the end of the court, obviously."
Yagyuu tries again. "The animals…?"
Yukimura rolls his eyes. Yanagi starts to chuckle under his breath. "There's nothing but crows there, Yagyuu. Everyone knows that."
Yagyuu nods, but he asks, "What about tanuki?" The moment the word leaves his lips, he regrets it. It hangs in the damp, frozen air like a thick band of tension before the entire team starts to laugh. Marui slaps his thigh. Jackal wipes tears from his eyes. Even Sanada's lips twitch.
The gleam returns to Yukimura's sharp smile. He slings an arm around Yagyuu's shoulder in a weak echo of Niou. "Maybe we can leave tanuki-san some sake then," Yukimura says. "Niou probably knows where to get some."
***
Yagyuu eats dinner in a cold, quiet kitchen. His cup ramen noodles are left too long, and they turn mushy. They break as Yagyuu tries to slurp. Salt crystallizes at the corners of his mouth. Yagyuu licks it away, and sighs.
He leaves a dish of gourmet beef dog food on the porch. Frost paints little patterns where the draft creeps under the glass door. Yagyuu sits back down at the table to wait. His mother shuffles into the kitchen, pops a pain killer with a swig of tea from the fridge, and shuffles back to her bedroom.
Niou-kun, Yagyuu thinks.
The thermostat reads so low that Yagyuu shivers. He flicks the porch light on and off. The frost glistens in the artificial light. Yagyuu pushes the door open. "Niou-kun!" he calls. "NIOU!"
Yagyuu holds his breath, but his heart pounds in his ears. Winter coats the neighbourhood roofs with the crisp smell of ice. The hairs on his wrists stand on end. His knees start to shiver as the cold cuts through his pants. And his balls, hopeful and eager for Niou tonight, are shrivelling back up into his body.
Please come back, Yagyuu thinks. Maybe we can talk to Yukimura together.
He makes a mug of tea, and sits by the glass door. In his slippers, Yagyuu wiggles his toes to keep them warm. The tea steams into his nose. From the front door, his mother shouts that she's going out, but your dad should be home by midnight, Hiroshi. Yagyuu cups the mug. He presses the hot ceramic mug to his cheeks.
No tanuki waddles onto the porch.
The front door closes behind his mother, no Niou slipping inside by her heels.
Yagyuu is there so long, his back aches from slouching. His father walks into the kitchen. "Hiroshi? Shouldn't you be in bed?"
So Yagyuu goes to bed. He waits. He listens. He plays with his dick, too. Niou doesn’t scramble up the drain pipe and knock on Yagyuu's window.
There is no Niou at all.
Nothing remains of Niou besides the musky smell of dog in the back of Yagyuu's closet, and the thin, whispy furs that fly up when Yagyuu moves under his blankets.
When Yagyuu sighs, the furs stick his lips.
***
In his backpack, he packs a screwdriver, a roll of dental floss, three bandages, an extra pair of mittens, and a can of chicken delight dog food. Yagyuu checks the cabinet, but his mother drank the last of the sake. He wears his thickest wool coat and walks to the school. The gates are closed. Yagyuu walks around to the back entrance. His footsteps echo on the pavement. The back gate is locked, too.
He hops the fence. And then Yagyuu pushes his glasses back up his nose.
More surveyors must have come recently. There are new footprints in the thickened mud, and new tracks from a replacement backhoe. Yagyuu looks around. He squats down and opens his bag. In this temperature, the rubber is more brittle. The screwdriver makes a sharp, single noise when Yagyuu stabs it in. He pulls it out and a stream of air begins to hiss. With a discarded evergreen branch, Yagyuu sweeps any footprints of his own up. He stands back to admire his work.
You see what I do for you, Niou-kun?
On second thought, Yagyuu goes back to puncture a second tire. He reaches up under the belly of the caterpillar as best he can and he rams the screwdriver up there, too. Butterflies of satisfaction flutter around in Yagyuu's stomach. He brushes his mittens together, but they smell of diesel fuel anyway.
Yagyuu crouches under the streams of caution tape weaving between the trees. Delicate frost freezes the trees in place, and the ground melts under Yagyuu's sneakers as he walks deeper into the forest. He pauses, looks around, and walks a little further. Bushes snag on his sleeves. Yagyuu listens.
"Niou-kun?" he asks.
There is nothing.
Yagyuu sets the pair of mittens behind a thick tree root. He sets the chicken delight can on top of them. For the longest while, Yagyuu stands there. His toes lose feeling and his ears go numb. His glasses hang off the end of his nose.
"I love you," Yagyuu whispers.
He strings up the dental floss between trees at the edge of the forest, then Yagyuu walks home.
***
He goes to cram school until his vision swims.
He works on math problems until his head aches.
Yagyuu masturbates in the shower. He checks the dish of food on the porch, then he lies in his cold bed by himself.
Kirihara is the only one on the tennis team stupid enough to believe in Santa-san, but Yagyuu prays to him, too.
Please bring Niou home.
***
His toes are wet and slimy. Yagyuu gasps. The tanuki keeps licking them. "It's strange," Yagyuu says.
"Maybe," the tanuki says. He pushes back his straw hat and grins up at Yagyuu. "But they're salty and tasty."
The tanuki has a single white whisker, just like Niou.
Then he starts to scream.
It isn't Niou's voice-it is too high-pitched, too human and too female.
Yagyuu rubs his eyes. Darkness streams through his window still. He fumbles for his glasses. They are cold to the touch. His mother's piercing screams downstairs don't stop, so Yagyuu slips on his slippers and wanders to the top of the stairs.
"Mother?" he asks.
She's downstairs in the shadows of the entranceway. The door hasn't closed completely and winter rushes in. Yagyuu shivers in his cotton pajamas. His mother takes a break from screaming to catch her breath. She hobbles on the floor and rolls her ankles in her stilettos. "Hiroshi!" she pants. "You're awake." She moans and she staggers. "There's a-there's a thing in the house and…" She flicks her hands and backs into the wall. One of the large vases wobbles beside her. She starts to make little yelps again.
Or, Yagyuu assumes it's her, until he walks downstairs. She clings to his arm. Alcohol clings to her breath when she hisses, "It's over there!"
"It's not a ghost, is it?" Yagyuu asks.
"I don't knooooow," she moans. "Just do something!!"
Yagyuu's pulse starts to race. Blood drains from his head. Each step toward the curtain creaks the floorboards. Yagyuu stiffens and stops and his mother shrieks. The yelping returns.
Sucking in a deep breath, Yagyuu grabs the panel of curtain and flings it back.
From the floor, a pair of black eyes shine up at Yagyuu. There's a puddle of pee on the floor underneath the tanuki, who streaks past Yagyuu and bolts up the stairs in a flurry of fur and slipping claws.
Yagyuu's back relaxes. He shrugs his mother off. "It's okay," he says. "Go to bed, Mother, and I'll take care of it."
Niou has come back.
***
At the back of Yagyuu's closet is a nest of moulted fur, mud and his dirty socks. Niou sleeps for two days straight. Just to make sure he's okay, Yagyuu checks on him. He crawls into his closet with a torch and a clean towel. When he prods Niou's haunch, Niou flexes his toes. He makes a little squeak, and curls his head underneath his front paws. Clouds of fur puff up when Niou breathes. Yagyuu pets his side, and the fur clings to his fingers in floating strands. Yagyuu sneezes.
Niou keeps sleeping.
There is a knock on Yagyuu's door. He wiggles back out of his closet. He pushes his glasses up. His mother calls his name. Yagyuu sniffs the air, which is heavy with canine smell. It's too cold to open a window without being suspicious.
Yagyuu closes his closet door, just as his mother pads inside. She's dressed in her winter yukata, with a fake fur coat pulled over. Her eyes are bloodshot in the corners. She must have come home recently.
"Did you have a good Christmas party with father?" Yagyuu asks. He gives her his best, most innocent smile. She waves her hands and says it was okay.
"The wine was so cheap for doctors, Hiroshi," she says. She shakes her head into her palm. "My skull is on fire."
"Maybe you should lie down?"
She clicks her tongue. "Is that dog of yours gone?"
Yagyuu blinks. "Mother?"
With heavy exaggeration, she sighs and opens her eyes a little wider. "That dog. It followed me home the other night and ran inside."
"Oh," Yagyuu says. His skin crawls as the lie comes to his lips. "No, mother, you must have had too much to drink. There was no dog."
"But I saw it."
"Maybe it was a ghost?" Yagyuu offers.
She sniffs. Her long, painted fingernails knead the spidery lines of her forehead as she thinks. Yagyuu stands still, making sure to avoid any unnecessary motion, lest he seem suspicious. He might be able to make out the soft sleepy sighs Niou makes on the other side of the closet door, but his mother might not.
"Hiroshi," she says.
"Hn?"
"Your room stinks. Don't masturbate so much in here."
After she closes the door behind herself, Yagyuu remembers to pick his jaw up from the floor.
***
Yagyuu walks upstairs with a can of coke, a brown banana, and a can of dog food in his pocket (sealed, of course). He sets the banana on the floor, and he opens the can of dog food with the can opener he pilfered from the kitchen last night. His door is closed, the hot coils in the space heater hiss, and Yagyuu lies back on his bed with a dog-eared copy of Lord Edgware Dies. Between pages, he sips his coke.
There is nothing but the beautiful sounds of pages turning, and the hiss from the slow, dying fizz in the can. Yagyuu crosses his legs at the ankle. He sticks his fingers under the waistband of his pants, where his belly is hot, and the vague desire to rub his dick is building.
Yagyuu licks his lips. He wiggles his nose to slide his glasses down his nose. The page comes into better focus. As his eyes skim the words, read many times over, there is a wet, smacking sound to his left. It takes Yagyuu a moment to realize that it isn't Hercule Poirot, it's something here in his room.
"Niou-kun!" Yagyuu says.
Niou chows down on his food. Yagyuu crouches down to the floor-level. He reaches out. Niou's thick, dark pelt has been reduced to mottled patches across his back. The tip of his tail is missing, and half his whiskers. Curled up in the closet, Yagyuu couldn't tell before. His heart sinks to his stomach. Yagyuu swallows. Niou doesn't look up once when Yagyuu starts to touch the downy skin, or the chunks of remaining fur.
"Are you all right?" he asks.
Niou keeps eating. He licks the can clean, and then he sniffs around the banana. Finally, he looks up at Yagyuu with those wet, black eyes behind his dark mask. He cocks his head to the side. In his chest, Yagyuu's heart is swollen and his throat is thick when Niou sniffs around his crotch.
It's weird.
But it feels right.
In a weird sort of way.
It feels even more right when Niou transforms to his human form. Now, Yagyuu can see Niou's eye is bruised along the cheek bone, and he's grubby all over, covered in a layer of dirt and scum. Niou belches.
Yagyuu winces. He says nothing, though.
Niou picks the banana up. He sniffs it.
"Don't you have anything more rotten?" he asks.
Yagyuu sighs. That feels good, too.
***
Usually after a bath, Yagyuu's body is lethargic and limp, like jelly. His skin is hot and his insides melt into the sheets. Tonight, he waits for Niou to finish in the bathroom. Loud splashes intersperse with the occasional bang, followed by an "Oh shit!" Yagyuu's mind is too clouded to care much. He plays with his dick. Hurry, he wants to tell Niou. I've missed you.
The door opens. Yagyuu takes his hand out of his yukata. A crocodile smile plays on Niou's lips when he closes the door behind himself.
"Having fun?" he asks.
Yagyuu's face is hot to start with. He plays with his glasses. Niou has the borrowed yukata tied the wrong way, but before Yagyuu can say anything, Niou peels it off. His naked body is pale and thin and spotted with bruises. Half the hair is missing from his head. There's a nasty red welt at the base of his spine.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Yagyuu asks.
Niou grunts. He dives onto the bed. The mattress bumps into the wall. Yagyuu freezes for a second. The clock reads half-past ten. His sister must be asleep, and his mother must be out at another holiday party. It's only the two of them here. His dick throbs. His heart sticks to his collar bones and weighs him down to Niou. Niou is willing and pliable and he leans up into Yagyuu with a sigh.
"Yagyuu," his lips say.
Yagyuu brushes his mouth to Niou's. "What happened?" he murmurs. Under his body, Niou's legs shift. One of his knees slides between Niou's thighs. Their dicks rub together as Niou nuzzles Yagyuu's neck. He shakes his head. Hot, slimy kisses trail over Yagyuu's chest, down to his nipple.
He gasps.
"Doesn't matter," Niou says. His fingers wiggle their way into Yagyuu's butt crack. Yagyuu sputters. Niou's eyes consume him with their dancing light. He breaks to take Yagyuu's glasses off.
Yagyuu blinks. He sits back on Niou's stomach, careful not to press too hard, but Niou sucks in a sharp breath. Yagyuu starts to climb off until Niou's hand stops him. Their fingers twine, all sticky and hot. Yagyuu brings them to his mouth. He runs his lips over the back of Niou's hand where the skin is dry and patchy.
"Please," Yagyuu says.
Niou turns his head. Across the pillow, his eyes are vacant in the direction of the window. Yagyuu lies down next to him, spooning their bodies. Skin to skin, the winter chill isn't noticeable. Niou's balding head tucks under Yagyuu's chin. He pets the back of Niou's neck, and presses more kisses to Niou's hand.
"Please," Yagyuu says.
Niou sighs.
"It's nothing," Niou grumbles.
"Were you…" Yagyuu pauses. "Was it a car?"
"Eh?"
"Did a car hit you?"
Niou blows a raspberry against Yagyuu's chest. "No," he says. "Only dumbfucks cross the road and get hit. Puri."
"Oh."
"What do you take me for?" Niou asks. He looks up. The smirk doesn't reach his eyes, though when he adds, "An animal?"
"Of course not," Yagyuu says. "But you were gone for two days and come back like this."
Niou grunts. In a small voice, he says, "I just went to visit my family."
"And?"
"Well, they didn't exactly want to see me-it's none of your business, Yagyuu. Drop it."
"No," Yagyuu says. "Not until you tell me what happened-"
Niou looks at Yagyuu through his glasses. His black eyes are huge. With myopic blinks, he grins at Yagyuu gormlessly. His hands stroke Yagyuu's hip as he inches closer.
Yagyuu frowns. He grabs the glasses and folds them up. "Don't try to change the subject," he says.
Niou is silent.
"Niou-kun."
His hands stop. Lower than before, he mumbles, "You what's worse than a gay tanuki?"
The heater glows on the floor. The hot, red coil casts a scarlet-toned light over Niou's skin as Yagyuu kisses his shoulder. He presses his teeth into Niou's skin, gently. Yagyuu's heart holds its throbbing as Niou breathes in the swelling tension.
Tell me.
"One that's in love with a human," Niou finishes.
Yagyuu's heart pushes between his ribs as he tugs on Niou's shoulder to turn him around again. He looks down. Niou won't look up.
His tongue kisses the answer so Niou doesn't have to.
***
The night is a heavy curtain, except for the dim scarlet glow from the corner, and the faintest pearly film on the window. Their bodies heave in a messy tangle of sweaty limbs and catching gasps. Niou's legs wrap tight around Yagyuu's shoulders. His belly shudders as he cries. His body is so tight that Yagyuu doesn't think he'll ever escape this overwhelming wave of feeling that washes through his veins. Yagyuu pushes deeper.
Someone whimpers. It might be Niou. It might be Yagyuu. There is no separation as their bodies strain together. Niou shivers. Yagyuu shudders. His skin is alive with flames that Niou's fingers ignite even hotter. Skin slaps against skin. Niou squeezes himself around Yagyuu, and a gasp tumbles out of his mouth, finding its way behind the soft, slick skin of Niou's neck.
"Yagyuu…" Niou groans. He lifts his hips higher. Yagyuu thrusts back, and then deep inside as they move in and around each other. Sweat dribbles across Niou's upper lip. Hair glues down to Yagyuu's forehead. One more motion, and the electric burn of orgasm sweeps through his belly, all the way to his toes.
In the glowing dim light from the heater, they catch their breath. Niou hisses and winces as he crawls out from under Yagyuu. Yagyuu peels his thigh from Niou's hip. Their fingers lace together, and neither lets go.
"Usually only foxes do this with humans," Niou says.
"Oh," Yagyuu says.
"Yaaagyu?"
Wet kisses slime the shell of Yagyuu's ear. He twitches. In his blurred, lazy vision, Niou's hand slides across his belly to pull him close. He slimes Yagyuu's ear again until Yagyuu turns.
"Let's do it again."
***
"So what are we going to do?" Yagyuu asks.
"Tanuki magic," Niou says. "I've been working on mine."
Yagyuu shivers. "I don't like ghosts," he says.
Niou's smile falls. "You're no fun."
***
Fat drops of freezing rain pelt the windows and the roof. Yagyuu frowns. The front walkway is covered in a thin layer of ice that thickens by the minute. He's got a choice between his black leather shoes, and sneakers. Niou has a pair of brown boots. Yagyuu doesn't ask where he got them.
Niou grabs the door handle. He flings it open, and groans in the back of his throat.
"You could go back and hibernate in my room," Yagyuu says.
Niou says no. He scratches the back of his head, and another clump of hair catches the air. Yagyuu reaches for it, and stuffs it into his pocket.
"You're weird," Niou says.
Yagyuu's face is hot. He hands Niou a wool cap. "Here."
Niou hands it back to him. He grabs the cap already on Yagyuu's head by the tip and pulls it off. "I like blue better."
"It looks good on you," Yagyuu says.
Niou flashes him a toothy smirk from under the blue stripes.
The walk to school is icy. Niou skates across the sidewalks and crossings at traffic lights. Yagyuu shuffles behind him. His hands are flat to the ground for balance. He's a tennis player, not a figure skater. Niou spins around. His grey jacket is crusted over with ice. Pellets slide through Yagyuu's hair as they melt. The few cars that brave the roads today are slow and drive erratic pathways through the ice.
They cut down one of the alleys that passes behind the Seven-Eleven, and next to the local shrine. Incense hangs in the air. Yagyuu breathes it in deeply. He rubs his hands together at the gate. "Do tanukis pray?" he asks.
Niou looks at him. He cocks his head to the one side, and then the other. "Hang on," he says. "I have to adjust myself."
Low chanting seeps through the wooden shrine gate. It's a good thing that the priests are busy with their prayers, otherwise they would get any eyeful of Niou grabbing his crotch. Yagyuu frowns.
Niou cups his balls through his pants. "Watch," he says. His mole wiggles, and then his nondescript grey jacket melts and grows into a thick, dark fur coat that hangs all the way to Niou's knees.
Yagyuu blinks. "How did you do that?" He adjusts his glasses-the fur coat is real, and thick, and living warm, like the pelt on a tanuki.
Niou pats his crotch. "Like I said, tanuki magic."
***
The sight of the bulldozers drains the blood from Niou's face.
The fur of his coat seems to stand up on end, and so do the jagged whisps of his bleached hair from underneath the blue cap. Niou starts to bolt, but Yagyuu grabs his arm. "Niou-kun!" he hisses.
"Hey," Jackal says. He looks at Niou's coat and winks. "Pimpin'."
Niou isn't paying attention to Jackal, or Yukimura rallying with Kirihara on the courts, either. Instead, his nostrils flare at the bulldozers moving around the edge of the forest, ripping up the first few bushes. Yagyuu swallows. His insides feel hollow as he watches the reflection of the machines in Niou's black eyes.
"Niou-kun," Yagyuu says. The bulldozers drown his voice out, but not Marui's. Marui wanders over, racket over his shoulder and a bubble of gum popping out from the top of his scarf.
"What's with the coat and hat?" Marui asks. When Niou doesn't answer, Marui grabs it. Jackal's mouth hangs open. The hat falls to the ground along with Marui's half-chewed gum. Yagyuu's stomach sinks.
He doesn't know how to explain this.
"Whoa!" Marui says. He whistles. "You got cancer, or something?" Confusion twists his round features. Jackal just winces, and says nothing.
Yagyuu picks the hat up, and places it back on Niou's head.
One of the trees starts to shake. Its naked branches shiver and shudder as the bulldozer plows into the trunk. The tendons in Niou's neck strain. His left eye twitches.
Then his mole does, too.
And the basket of tennis balls, ice-covered and crunching, start to dance in the air. Yagyuu stiffens. His eyes look all around as the balls wave and bounce out of their basket, tugged by the invisible strings of tanuki magic.
Marui says, "What the hell!"
Jackal shouts, "Jesus!"
Even the ball Yukimura had tossed in the air to serve floats away from him. Yukimura and Kirihara shout together at Sanada to go get their ball.
Sanada, however, has his cap pulled over his face, and he's fast asleep on the slippery bench. He only wakes up when Yukimura yells, "WHAT is going on?"
Yagyuu hates ghosts, and although the tennis balls are bewitched, not phantoms, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Beside him, Niou's mole twitches sporadically, but the balls move in perfect unison toward the bulldozers. They dance across the muddy machinery, which slumps to a halt as the workers shout. One ball slams into the side of a backhoe. Another bounces off the tire into a worker's face.
Marui shakes his head. "These are…"
"…yokai," Jackal mutters. "Or maybe voodoo."
Or maybe Niou, Yagyuu thinks.
"These are like…haunted stuff," Kirihara says. He sets his racket on the ground to watch the tennis balls pummel the excavators. A tree, half-uprooted, groans and creaks its way back into the ground as the balls light up the pine forest with neon yellow flashes. The first construction worker grabs the edges of his hard hat and runs off, then a second, and a third. The balls pelt the machines harder than the sharp, frozen rain. Yagyuu's face stings as he watches, wide-eyed.
Not until the last worker flings the bulldozer door open and hops out do the tennis balls drop from the sky, one by one. They bounce to a stop in the bushes and bristling scrub at the edge of the forest, where piles of frozen mud and sludge have been pushed. The air smells of diesel fuel from the smoking machines, as the last of their energy hisses and steams to a stop.
"Whoa," Sanada says.
Everyone looks at him. He grunts and scowls and mutters, "Tarundoru."
Only then does Yagyuu turn to Niou. He sighs with relief-for now, Niou's home is safe. The sky is a murky, colourless wash above them. Yagyuu says Niou's name.
Niou turns around.
Where his face once, now there is nothing. A blank, featureless mask sits smooth and uniform underneath the blue cap.
Someone else screams.
And Yagyuu's eyes roll back.
***
Yagyuu is eating dinner and minding his own business.
Niou sits on top of his feet. His body is a warm, breathing slipper. Yagyuu wiggles his toes, but Niou isn't licking them. Instead, Niou whines like a dog. He whimpers again. A heavy shadow hangs in front of Yagyuu's face. It hovers and skits across Yagyuu's vision, which for all his blinking, doesn't improve. Yagyuu pushes at his glasses. His shoulders tense up to his neck.
His sister stares at him. "You're not supposed to keep pets, Yagyuu-senpai," she says.
Then she pokes him in the eye.
Yagyuu says, "Ow."
He opens his eyes. Nose to nose, Kirihara is an inch from his face. Yagyuu jerks back, and his head hits something hard and metallic. It must be the clubhouse lockers. His leg is cramped up and hogtied with a school cravat.
Yagyuu lifts his hands to fix his glasses. They slip down his nose as he wiggles. His hands, too, are tied. And Kirihara sits on his lap with leaden deliberateness.
Behind him, Niou paws at the inside of a locker. His claws clank on the metal door. Blood returns slowly to Yagyuu's head as he looks around at the faces of his teammates. Yukimura sits on a wooden bench, between Yanagi, and Sanada. Jackal hangs in the doorway to the toilets, sniffling and red-eyed. Marui hands him another length of toilet paper.
"What's going on?" Yagyuu asks. His vision is weak in the corners. His body is too light, and he can barely see through all the glaring. Niou howls in the locker. His claws scratch at the metal slats with greater intensity. There is a pause, and then a breathy, canine heave against the metal.
"Let him out!" Yagyuu snaps. "He hasn't done anything!"
Yukimura keeps his arms crossed over his chest. He looks at Yanagi on his left, and then Sanada on his right. Yanagi raises his eyebrows at Yagyuu. Yagyuu tries to shove Kirihara off with his shoulder. Instead, sharp pain snaps his muscle. Yagyuu hisses.
"You guys have been the ones sabotaging my courts, haven’t you?" Yukimura asks. Before Yagyuu can answer, Yukimura goes on. "I should have guessed it was someone from my own team and not Seigaku. You just want to take over, don't you?"
"No," Yagyuu says.
Yukimura snorts. "I'm not dumb, Yagyuu. You're jealous."
Niou's whining has paused for the moment. Yagyuu shakes his head. His glasses slip off his nose completely. With unskilled hands-and a sharp grin-Kirihara shoves them back on. One arm pokes Yagyuu in the ear. He winces. He winces a second time as a cramp pierces his left butt cheek. The floor of the clubhouse is ice at this time of year. Kirihara digs a bony section of his hip into Yagyuu's thigh when he wiggles to ease the ache.
"Do you mind?" he asks.
Kirihara scratches his hair. "Eheh. I'm just helping, senpai. It's kinda cool that Niou-senpai is a yokai."
"Not really," Yanagi says.
"Tarundoru," Sanada grumbles.
Jackal sneezes. A chunk of snot hits the window across the room.
"Cool," Marui says.
Niou's claws curl up from under the bottom slat of the locker door. Yagyuu jumps when they pierce his back. His frantic whining and yelping isn't convincing anyone to let him out. Yagyuu's chest tightens.
"Please let Niou-kun out," he says. "He's done nothing except wanting to save his family." Yagyuu squirms. Kirihara jabs his bony butt into Yagyuu's stomach.
"His tanuki family," Yukimura says.
"Yes."
"So you'll…do what? Bewitch our courts so we lose tennis games?" Yukimura asks. His eyes darken as the sun hides outside. What little weak light streamed through the frosted window is replaced by a flickering incandescent bulb on the ceiling.
"No," Yagyuu says. "They live in the forest you want to rip down for more tennis courts!"
Yukimura takes a big, deep breath. Sanada turns to the doorway, but everyone else looks at Yukimura as he says, slowly, "I'm not seeing where you are going with your logic, Yagyuu. I said I'll make a garden at the edge of the court-"
With a gust of unnatural wind, the clubhouse door swings open. Icy remnants of the rain from this morning sprinkle the floor and fall, like dust as four people walk inside.
Or, they mostly look like people. Their eyes are black like Niou, and ringed with heavy bags, but their hair is dark and bristly. They wear nothing but mukluk boots, and shaggy fur coats, not unlike the one Niou wore earlier today. The younger girl has pompoms on her boots that swish as she walks past Marui.
Marui blinks. A slow, sly smile forms over his face as he looks at the girl. "Hey there," he says.
The girl ignores him.
"Excuse me," Yukimura says. "We're busy having a team meeting here."
Jackal sneezes again. He rushes into the bathroom as the oldest, roundest man walks inside. He pushes his sunglasses back from his face. If it wasn't for the musky smell of dog that wafts off these people, Yagyuu would almost take them to be human.
Niou's clawing inside the locker picks up. The younger boy rushes over. Sparks fly as he touches the locker, shoves Yagyuu and Kirihara away, and opens the door. Yagyuu's glasses clack across the floor. He can't see well like this, tied up on the floor with Kirihara sprawled on top of him, but he can see the boy slam the locker door shut just as quickly as he flung it open.
"Are you Niou-kun's family?" Yagyuu asks.
The older woman answers, "Yes." She looks at the boy and shakes her head. Her cheeks are round, and her fur coat is dumpy. Her eyes are warm when she picks up Yagyuu's glasses. She wipes them off with her sleeve, and hands them to Yagyuu. The lenses are greasy from her pelt. Through the streaks of grime, Yagyuu says thank you, anyway.
Niou's mother sighs at the younger boy. With a heavy sigh of his own, he opens the locker a second time. Carefully, Niou slinks out. His fur coat puffs up to twice its size as he hisses at Sanada, and runs under the bench near Yanagi.
The light outside shifts again. Dappled, colourless light creeps through the window. It bounces off the cabinet of tennis tournament trophies and medallions. Gold plating reflects in patterns on the ceiling. All together, Niou's family looks at them. Their eyes glaze over as they shuffle toward the cabinets. Only now does Yagyuu notice the tail hanging out the back of the boy's coat, or the dark, dog ears on the older man's head. Niou's mother's boots have claws that clack on the cold floor. His sister scratches at her crotch to keep the human mask up.
Someone starts to bang on the glass cabinet case.
"Hey!" Yukimura says. "Didn't you hear what I said?"
Niou's family turns around. Marui yanks his hand back-he stands dangerously close to Niou's sister, and by the minute he creeps closer.
"You're right," Niou's mother says.
The man nods. "We will offer a trade."
"What does this have to do with tennis?" Sanada grumbles. Under the bench, Niou waddles over to bite Sanada's calf. Sanada grinds his teeth. Yagyuu motions to Niou, but Kirihara is the one to finally start untying the cravats around his wrists and ankles.
"Sorry, senpai," he says. He forces a brittle laugh. Yagyuu purses his lips. His shoulder muscle is on fire, and his backside is frozen.
Niou's father walks closer to Yukimura. "We will offer a trade," he repeats. "Give us our home, and you can have our son."
"Huh?" Yukimura asks.
Marui's hand settles on the arm of Niou's sister's coat. She makes a high-pitched yelp. As Marui starts to pet her coat, her yelp softens into a low, satisfied purr. Yagyuu watches Niou's brother swipe one of the golden medals from last year's regionals game.
It's only plated, Yagyuu thinks.
Someone warm and furry rubs against his arm. Fur chunks hang off Niou's haunches as he allows Yagyuu to pet his back. Niou shivers. Tentatively, he starts to crawl onto Yagyuu's lap, sniffing his way across Yagyuu's thighs. Yagyuu can't help the erection swelling in his pants.
"Our son is no use to us," Niou's father says. "He's gay."
"Well…we don't want him!" Yukimura says. He stands up to look Niou's father in the eye. Yagyuu hugs Niou's moulting body close to his chest. He breathes in the familiar canine musk, mixed with rubbish and dirt and the sweaty mould in the bottom of their lockers.
"He'll play on your tennis team, and you will win," Niou's father says.
Yukimura balls his fists. He stomps around a little circle of his own making. "I just want my new courts!" he yells.
"It's cool," Marui says, "The courts we have now are enough." He scratches Niou's sister under the chin. She nuzzles his neck. In Yagyuu's arms, Niou makes a retching noise and buries his face under Yagyuu's elbow.
"His…unusual origins could be used to create interesting tennis line-ups and play styles," Yanagi says.
Sanada just grunts.
"You're all against me!" Yukimura says.
Kirihara pats him on the arm. "I'm not buchou."
"What if I say no?" Yukimura asks Niou's father.
Niou's brother continues to raid the gold-plated medallions from the cabinet. Only Jackal notices, but when he opens his mouth to say something, he sneezes again.
Niou's father's ears fold back against his head. His nostrils twitch. Niou's mother sighs heavily. "If it comes to that, then…"
"We'll uproot your garden," Niou says. Yagyuu blinks. The tanuki in his arms has become human once more-naked and pale and too heavy for his lap-at least his butt isn't as bony as Kirihara's. Yagyuu manages an "Oof!" before he falls back onto the floor.
Niou stands up. He pads up to Yukimura. Of all of his family, he transforms the best. His human form is most convincing. When he cups his balls, a yellow Rikkai tracksuit grows above his skin. And on his feet is a pair of sneakers with blue soles-almost, but not quite, a convincing Yonex rip-off.
Niou continues, "We’ll eat your tulip bulbs."
Yukimura gasps.
Niou looks at his family. They all nod, even his sister, who nods against Marui's chest. He looks at Jackal and points down to her. "Hot stuff!" he mouths.
Jackal nods. He sniffles into a rolled up Kleenex, balled up into his nostrils.
"And," Niou says. His voice drops to a dangerous whisper. He circles Yukimura with a narrowed gaze that sends a new shiver down Yagyuu's spine. "We'll shit under your roses."
Yukimura shakes with a strangled moan. Kirihara makes a face. He speaks for everyone when he says, "That's just gross, Niou-senpai."
"We will," Niou's mother agrees.
Yukimura's face is ghostly white. The sight of it makes Yagyuu's pulse quicken, too.
"Do we have a deal?" Niou's father asks.
Yukimura looks from Sanada, to Yanagi. He looks at Jackal, and Kirihara, to Marui snuggling with Niou's sister under her thick pelt, to Yagyuu on the floor, and Niou in his metamorphosed tennis tracksuit.
He sniffs.
"Fine," Yukimura says, "but we'd better win every year."
***
On New Year's morning, they walk to the local shrine at half-past four. Niou buries his face in the thick fur hood of his coat. Yagyuu wears his blue cap, and matching mittens. The sky is violet and velvet. A new dusting of snow has fallen over night. It sticks to their sneakers.
The bottle of sake sloshes in Niou's pocket. Yagyuu shakes his head. Niou grins. "We gotta celebrate, Yagyuu," he says.
Before he can respond to Niou, something gleams on the other side of the street. Niou waddles over. He makes a contented little noise, his nonsense "piyo!" as he reaches down to pick up the coin. It gleams in the light of the street lamps.
"Hundred yen," he says.
"Lucky," Yagyuu says.
Niou tucks it into his pocket, then he pats his crotch. Over the ridge in the road, the fairy lights strung around the temple are a net against the gabled roofs. Yagyuu breathes in the sharp scent of winter, and the heady incense. His stomach growls. His shoulders sink with fatigue. Niou grabs his hand.
Yagyuu pushes his glasses up. With his mittens, it's awkward.
"Wakey wakey," Niou says.
Yagyuu frowns.
"I can't help my nocturnal nature," Niou says.
They stand around with the dozens of other people in the temple grounds. Yagyuu shifts his weight to keep his feet from freezing. Niou touches everything: the carved panels of dragons, the hanging lanterns, the grates and the stands of incense for sale. Yagyuu says nothing.
Niou winks at a temple statue of a tanuki. It might wink back from underneath its straw hat-Yagyuu is too sleepy to tell for certain.
Dawn breaks with fiery fingers over the pitched roof of the main shrine. The bells start to ring. Through the crowd of people, Yagyuu catches Niou's dark eyes. They reflect the first morning of the year, and Yagyuu, too.
"You'll have to win every tennis game to keep Yukimura happy," Yagyuu says.
Niou fakes a yawn. He stretches his arms above his head. "Yeah, yeah."
"How will you do it?"
"I pretend to be everyone else's worst nightmare?" Niou asks. For a split second, his human features slide off his face. Yagyuu jumps.
Niou wiggles his fingers. "Boogie woogie!" His features pop back on his face, except his mole, which never disappears.
"Don't do that!" Yagyuu hisses. His heart slams into his ribs, which tighten around his lungs. It's hard to breathe when Niou goes into Nopperabo-mode.
Yagyuu still really hates ghosts.
As they leave the temple, they walk past a stand selling fortunes. Yagyuu hesitates. Niou stops, too.
Then Niou hands him the hundred yen coin from his pocket. "Here," he murmurs.
The shrine maiden hands Yagyuu a fortune in return. He unwraps it. Before he reads it, his eyes look over the rim of his glasses to Niou.
"Well?"
Yagyuu smiles. "Very good fortune."
Niou swipes the paper. "That's not what it says!"
Yagyuu swipes the fortune back. He tosses it into the large bronze incense burner, which smoulders with a hundred smoking sticks. The paper curls up, then alights in a brief flash of flames.
Yagyuu says, "I don't need a piece of paper to tell me my fortune."
His eyes don't leave Niou's.
***
They stop for the first soba of the year on the way home.
The noodles sit warm and filling in Yagyuu's stomach. Two blocks from home, as the houses begin to wake up, Niou pauses in an alley. His nostrils twitch. His mole shifts. He digs into a dumpster and pulls out a banana peel.
From his pocket, a hundred yen coin rolls out across the pavement. Yagyuu stops it with his sneaker tread. He picks it up. In the golden light of morning, it gleams in his palm.
"You-"
Niou grins. The slimy black banana peel in his hand takes away any seriousness the moment might have. Niou smacks his lips.
"My favourite," he says.
It doesn't stop being weird.
***
When he moves, the bath water slops over the edge a bit. Yagyuu leans back against the side. His sister and then Niou used up all the hot water. What's left for him is lukewarm, at best.
Yagyuu stretches his toes out. His dick is half-hard in the limpid water. He rubs his palm on his balls, but anything more than that would be gross-even if he is the last one to be using the bath tonight.
He drains the tub, and rubs his hair half-dry with a damp towel. Yagyuu sniffs it. In human form, Niou still leaves dog-smell everywhere. Little fantasies about wet, naked Niou fill Yagyuu's thoughts. Niou may well be supine on Yagyuu's bed right now, playing with his human dick. His skin is hot and clammy and waiting to be kissed all over. Yagyuu licks his lips. The salt of Niou's kisses never leaves.
His footsteps are light on the corridor floor. The cold Pergot stings his soles. Yagyuu sucks in a breath. His erection from before starts to shrivel up under his yukata. For a moment, he pauses at his bedroom doorway. The light from his sister's bedroom is gone. She's asleep. His mother is off at a party, his father is off at a shift, and Niou is making little, tiny pants on the other side of the doorway.
Arousal liquefies Yagyuu's muscles. He cups his balls through the yukata. Then, he pushes the door open.
Niou is on his bed, all right.
He's curled up in a furry ball. His tail sticks out, his back is up, and his head is roughly in the vicinity of his butt.
Yagyuu's mouth hangs open. Watching Niou lick his own butt will never be normal.
Niou makes a high-pitched yelp. He removes his mouth from his crotch and hobbles off the bed before Yagyuu can think of something to say. Niou waddles into the closet and tucks his tail around himself.
Yagyuu pushes aside his pile of dirty clothes. The back of his closet remains thick with the smell of raccoon dog, and dirty clothes. There is so much dust and dander from the nest that Yagyuu sneezes. He wipes his nose with the wrist of his yukata.
Niou's fur is soft when Yagyuu pokes his side. It's growing back now in downy spots. Niou shifts to burrow deeper into the closet. Yagyuu reaches out, wraps his hands around Niou's belly, and pulls him out.
Niou's whiskers hang low. His pupils are huge.
"It's…okay if you lick your butt," Yagyuu says. "I don't mind. But isn't it a bit pointless if you just had a people bath?"
For a racoon dog, Niou is mostly fluff and no substance. Under the thick, musky winter coat, he squirms a little. Yagyuu puts him on the floor. Niou's claws clack-then he transforms.
And his face is bright red.
And his dick is hard, and flushed, too.
"I wasn't licking my butt," Niou grumbles.
Yagyuu blinks. His glasses have fogged up from the floor heater in his bedroom, so he takes them off. His bedroom-and Niou-are blurrier. Niou's damp, spiky hair is fuzzy at the edges, sort of like his pelt. Yagyuu reaches out to him. He touches the back of Niou's neck, almost like a pet.
It works every time. A contented purr rumbles in his chest, even when he scowls.
"I was licking my balls," Niou mutters. He adds a "Puri" and it only makes Yagyuu smile into his neck. There's an erection on his hip and Niou rubs himself on Yagyuu's body. It's faint enough to be subconscious. It's hard enough that Yagyuu shivers. His balls burn, just as much as Niou's chin does under Yagyuu's lips.
Red rocket? Yagyuu thinks.
"Aw, shut up," Niou says. He sniffs. "I know what you're thinking, megane."
Yagyuu steps between Niou's legs. Together, they back up into the edge of Yagyuu's mattress. Yagyuu kisses the damp, salty skin under Niou's chin. His fingers trail down Niou's stomach, which makes him suck it in and gasp.
He's always been ticklish, whatever the form.
"Really?" Yagyuu asks.
Niou grunts.
Yagyuu pushes him down onto the bed. Niou looks up at him. He's supine and his eyes are wide. Hair falls over his face. He opens his mouth and Yagyuu can smell his heavy breath.
His dick hardens.
And then Yagyuu climbs on top on Niou to show him what he's thinking.
Really.