Fic: Two Out Of Three (Prince of Tennis)
Just realized I never posted this here.
Two Out Of Three
Kirihara/Marui, mentions of Yagyuu/Niou | PG | 2206 words
In which Kirihara has a not-so-unfortunate dentist appointment.
A/N: Originally written for emmayori in rikkai_exchange.
Kirihara kicked angrily at the sidewalk. The stupid bus was late. He’d had plans today, good plans to meet Yukimura and Yanagi and play a few games, but his mom had gone and ruined it. It was bad enough that Kirihara had to go to the dentist at all, but having to take the bus just made it that much worse. He didn’t see why his mom was making him go when she wasn’t even willing to drive him. The dentist was stupid anyway. He hated having someone poke around in his mouth with all those metal things. Besides, Kirihara always brushed his teeth so why did he need to waste his perfectly good tennis time having someone else do it for him?
The bus finally arrived and Kirihara climbed on, digging in his pockets for the fare. Luckily, the bus wasn’t very crowded for a Sunday. Kirihara slid into an empty seat and leaned his head against the window. He only had two stops to go. Maybe he could get this over with quickly. Kirihara sighed. He should have thought to bring a video game or something with him.
For once Kirihara was in luck. The bus driver must have been trying to make up for being late or something because it only took a few minutes to reach Kirihara’s stop. Kirihara stepped off the bus and headed down the block. He had just reached the dentist’s office when he heard someone call his name.
“Akaya!”
Kirihara looked up to see a familiar redhead heading toward him. “Marui-senpai!”
“Hey.” Marui said, stepping out of the path of a group of giggling high school girls. “What’s going on?”
“My mom’s making me go to the dentist.” Kirihara pointed to the building behind them and rolled his eyes.
“That sucks.” Marui unwrapped a piece of gum. “Want one? It’s strawberry lemonade.”
Kirihara’s eyes lit up. Marui-senpai was usually willing to share candy, but he never shared his gum. Now he was actually offering Kirihara a piece that Kirihara hadn’t even asked for. Kirihara was about to take the gum when he remembered where he was going. Stupid dentist, keeping him from playing tennis and from Marui-senpai’s gum. Kirihara sighed and shook his head sadly. “I can’t.”
“Oh, right. Gotta keep your teeth clean, huh?” Marui stuck the gum in his own mouth and shrugged. “More for me then.”
“So what are you doing, Senpai?” Kirihara asked. “I was supposed to go play tennis with Yukimura-buchou, but I had to come here instead.”
“Going to Niou’s. I had to get out of the house before my mom decided to make me babysit; the brats were driving me crazy.” Marui leaned sideways, looking down the street, over Kirihara’s shoulder. “I think I see the bus. I’ll see you later, okay?” Without waiting for a response, Marui took off toward the bus stop.
“Bye!” Kirihara called after him.
Marui waved over his shoulder without turning around.
Kirihara sighed and opened the door to the office.
****
Kirihara groaned as he headed toward the bus stop. It was still stupid that he’d had to go to the dentist at all, but he supposed it hadn’t really been that bad. At least he hadn’t had any cavities. Still, he’d been in there nearly an hour and a half.
Yukimura and Yanagi were probably still in the middle of a game, but the school tennis courts were closed for resurfacing and Kirihara didn’t know where else they would have gone to play. He’d thought about trying to find them anyway, but he didn’t think they would have gone to the high school courts and there were an awful lot of street courts nearby. Kirihara didn’t have anything else to do so he could go around and check the street courts, but his mom hadn’t even let him bring his tennis bag with him. He’d have to go home and get it first. By the time he managed to find the courts where Yukimura and Yanagi were playing they’d probably be done anyway. Stupid appointment.
Kirihara so busy cursing the dentist and his mother for ruining his Sunday that he almost walked right past the bus stop.
“Hey, Akaya.”
Kirihara stopped, startled. Marui-senpai was sitting on the end of the bench in front of the bus stop. Kirihara had just walked right past him. “Marui-senpai! What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Niou’s.”
Marui shrugged and snapped his gum. “Yeah, well, Yagyuu was there.”
“So?” Kirihara sat down on the other end of the bench.
“They were… busy.” Marui grimaced. “Niou’s parents are out of town.”
“Ew.” Kirihara wrinkled his nose. He’d been unfortunate enough to walk in on Yagyuu and Niou before. There were just some things he did not need to see.
“Yeah,” Marui said. A bus pulled up in front of the bench and they both fell silent for a moment as a large group of people got off. “So anyway, I thought I might as well see what you were doing after you got your teeth fixed. Wanna hang out for awhile?"
Kirihara could feel himself blushing but he couldn’t help it. He was willing to admit, to himself anyway, that maybe he liked Marui-senpai a little and Marui-senpai had actually waited for Kirihara's appointment to end! Okay, so he’d only waited because Niou and Yagyuu were busy being gross, but he’d still done it. “Sure. I have to be home for dinner though.”
“Okay.” Marui looked down the street and stood up. “Here comes another bus. What do you want to do?”
Kirihara stretched and stood up. “Um, we could go to the arcade if you wanted?”
Marui looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yeah, all right. Let’s go to the one over by that sushi place Niou likes. There’s a café near there that has awesome strawberry cake with real strawberries and it’s not too far from your house, is it?”
“The one we went to after practice last week?” Kirihara asked as the bus came to a stop in front of them. Marui nodded. “Yeah, that’s close to my house,” Kirihara said.
“Come on then, before the bus leaves without us,” Marui said. Kirihara reached in his pocket for the fare and grinned. The arcade was almost as good as tennis and Marui-senpai was always fun. He was good at video games and he never acted liked hanging out with Kirihara was babysitting. Maybe if Kirihara was lucky Marui-senpai’d even offer him another piece of gum.
****
“Ha! Take that!” Kirihara yelled over the noise of the arcade. On screen, Marui’s character collapsed to the floor. “That makes two games, Senpai.” Kirihara stepped back from the controls. “Admit it, even if I’m not a genius,” he said with a smirk in Marui’s direction, “I’m still better at arcade games than you.”
“No way!” Marui squawked. “You may have won two out of three at Tekken, but I kicked your ass on the racing game, remember? I won all three races.”
Kirihara poked Marui in the shoulder. “That doesn’t count, Senpai. You cheated!”
“Quit it,” Marui said, grabbing Kirihara’s hand. “It does too count. Running your car off the road was perfectly fair. You’re just upset that you couldn’t come up with a genius strategy of your own.”
“Come on, Akaya, let’s find another game.” Marui scanned the arcade. “What do you want to play? We can do the best two out of three different games.”
Kirihara was too busy fighting a blush to think about what game he wanted to play. Marui-senpai had grabbed his hand to keep Kirihara from poking him and he hadn’t let go. He wasn’t sure if Marui-senpai was doing it on purpose or if he’d just forgotten that he had Kirihara’s hand in his. Either way, Kirihara was finding it hard to care. Marui-senpai was holding his hand.
“Oh, hey,” Marui said, “there’s an open DDR over there. How about that?”
“Okay,” Kirihara agreed absentmindedly, still distracted by the hand holding.
“Excellent. I’m gonna kick your ass, Akaya, and you’ll never be able to deny my genius again.” Marui tugged on Kirihara’s hand, pulling him toward the DDR machine.
Kirihara groaned as he realized where they were headed. “Marui-senpai! That’s not fair! I know you have a DDR pad at home. You only picked that because you have more practice than me.”
“Hey, you agreed,” Marui pointed out. “It’s too late to take it back. Besides, you come here all the time. Don’t act like you never play DDR.”
“But…”
Marui rolled his eyes and let go of Kirihara’s hand in order to shove him onto the pad. “Quit complaining. If you win I’ll buy you a piece of cake at that café when we’re done, okay?”
“Fine,” Kirihara huffed. His hand felt a little bit cold now that Marui-senpai wasn’t holding onto it anymore.
“Ready?” Marui asked, shoving his coins into the slot.
Kirihara took a deep breath. He could do this. He was going to win and Marui-senpai would buy him cake and maybe he would even hold Kirihara’s hand again on the way home. “Ready.”
****
“Say it, Akaya!” Marui said as they left the arcade.
“Fine.” Kirihara rolled his eyes. “You’re a genius and you’re better at arcade games than me. Happy now?”
Marui grinned. “Yup. Come on, the café's this way.”
"I won one game of DDR, though. And I totally kicked your ass at Tekken," Kirihara muttered as he followed Marui down the street.
"Doesn't matter," Marui said, "but I'll still buy you a piece of cake if you want."
“Okay.” Kirihara perked up a bit. “Wait, what time is it?”
Marui pulled out his phone and checked the display. “Almost five. Wow, we were in the arcade for a long time.”
“Yeah,” Kirihara said with a sigh. “I have to be home for dinner. I probably shouldn’t have any cake after all. My mom’ll be super pissed if I come home and I’m not hungry.”
“Oh.” Marui looked just as disappointed as Kirihara felt. “I can just get cake later, I guess. Which way is your house from here? I’ll walk you home.”
“It’s this way,” Kirihara said, pointing across the street. “Just a couple blocks.”
“All right, let’s go,” Marui said with a smile. “Last year my mom got me a strawberry cake from some other café for my birthday. It was pink, because it was strawberry, you know? Anyway, after dinner she left it on the kitchen table and my brothers found it.”
Kirihara listened to Marui-senpai as they walked, but he was too busy wondering about the hand holding in the arcade to pay much attention to the story. He still wasn’t sure if Marui-senpai had done it on purpose or not. Marui-senpai had waited for him at the dentist’s office, he’d paid for most of the games at the arcade, and he’d offered to buy Kirihara’s cake even though Kirihara had lost at DDR. That made it kind of like a date and people held hands on dates. Then again, they were already on Kirihara’s street and Marui-senpai hadn’t tried to do it again so maybe it hadn’t been on purpose. Kirihara frowned.
“So everything came out pink. It was all over the towels and the their faces. My mom had pink hands for days.” Marui started laughing and Kirihara realized that he’d missed whatever the story was about. “I guess they used some artificial dye in the cake or something. My mom was so mad and my brothers were grounded for two weeks. It was awesome.”
“This is it,” Kirihara said, stopping as they reached his house. “I had fun today, Senpai.”
“Me too.” Marui looked down and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Um… maybe, if you wanted, we could go back and have that cake. I mean, not now, but one day after practice? It’s really good.”
Kirihara smiled. “Sure, Senpai. Buchou would probably like to try it; he likes strawberries.”
“Oh, uh, I kind of meant just us.” Marui didn’t look up, but Kirihara could see the blush spreading across his cheeks. “Um, if you want to.”
“Like a date?” Kirihara asked without thinking.
Marui was slowly turning bright red. “Yeah,” he muttered, glancing up at Kirihara.
“Oh!” Kirihara’s smile turned into a full-fledged grin. “I, um, want to. Yeah.”
“Great.” Marui grinned back. “I guess you should go have dinner now.” Marui hesitated for a moment like there was something else he wanted to say.
“Yeah, I-“ Kirihara started to say, but then Marui was leaning forward and his lips were pressing against Kirihara’s, warm and surprisingly soft.
Marui pulled back and gave Kirihara an awkward smile. “So, um, bye then.”
Kirihara stood in shock for a moment as Marui walked away. Marui-senpai had kissed him. Marui-senpai had held his hand and asked him on a date and kissed him. Marui-senpai liked him. He was definitely going to thank his mother for making him go to the dentist.
Two Out Of Three
Kirihara/Marui, mentions of Yagyuu/Niou | PG | 2206 words
In which Kirihara has a not-so-unfortunate dentist appointment.
A/N: Originally written for emmayori in rikkai_exchange.
Kirihara kicked angrily at the sidewalk. The stupid bus was late. He’d had plans today, good plans to meet Yukimura and Yanagi and play a few games, but his mom had gone and ruined it. It was bad enough that Kirihara had to go to the dentist at all, but having to take the bus just made it that much worse. He didn’t see why his mom was making him go when she wasn’t even willing to drive him. The dentist was stupid anyway. He hated having someone poke around in his mouth with all those metal things. Besides, Kirihara always brushed his teeth so why did he need to waste his perfectly good tennis time having someone else do it for him?
The bus finally arrived and Kirihara climbed on, digging in his pockets for the fare. Luckily, the bus wasn’t very crowded for a Sunday. Kirihara slid into an empty seat and leaned his head against the window. He only had two stops to go. Maybe he could get this over with quickly. Kirihara sighed. He should have thought to bring a video game or something with him.
For once Kirihara was in luck. The bus driver must have been trying to make up for being late or something because it only took a few minutes to reach Kirihara’s stop. Kirihara stepped off the bus and headed down the block. He had just reached the dentist’s office when he heard someone call his name.
“Akaya!”
Kirihara looked up to see a familiar redhead heading toward him. “Marui-senpai!”
“Hey.” Marui said, stepping out of the path of a group of giggling high school girls. “What’s going on?”
“My mom’s making me go to the dentist.” Kirihara pointed to the building behind them and rolled his eyes.
“That sucks.” Marui unwrapped a piece of gum. “Want one? It’s strawberry lemonade.”
Kirihara’s eyes lit up. Marui-senpai was usually willing to share candy, but he never shared his gum. Now he was actually offering Kirihara a piece that Kirihara hadn’t even asked for. Kirihara was about to take the gum when he remembered where he was going. Stupid dentist, keeping him from playing tennis and from Marui-senpai’s gum. Kirihara sighed and shook his head sadly. “I can’t.”
“Oh, right. Gotta keep your teeth clean, huh?” Marui stuck the gum in his own mouth and shrugged. “More for me then.”
“So what are you doing, Senpai?” Kirihara asked. “I was supposed to go play tennis with Yukimura-buchou, but I had to come here instead.”
“Going to Niou’s. I had to get out of the house before my mom decided to make me babysit; the brats were driving me crazy.” Marui leaned sideways, looking down the street, over Kirihara’s shoulder. “I think I see the bus. I’ll see you later, okay?” Without waiting for a response, Marui took off toward the bus stop.
“Bye!” Kirihara called after him.
Marui waved over his shoulder without turning around.
Kirihara sighed and opened the door to the office.
****
Kirihara groaned as he headed toward the bus stop. It was still stupid that he’d had to go to the dentist at all, but he supposed it hadn’t really been that bad. At least he hadn’t had any cavities. Still, he’d been in there nearly an hour and a half.
Yukimura and Yanagi were probably still in the middle of a game, but the school tennis courts were closed for resurfacing and Kirihara didn’t know where else they would have gone to play. He’d thought about trying to find them anyway, but he didn’t think they would have gone to the high school courts and there were an awful lot of street courts nearby. Kirihara didn’t have anything else to do so he could go around and check the street courts, but his mom hadn’t even let him bring his tennis bag with him. He’d have to go home and get it first. By the time he managed to find the courts where Yukimura and Yanagi were playing they’d probably be done anyway. Stupid appointment.
Kirihara so busy cursing the dentist and his mother for ruining his Sunday that he almost walked right past the bus stop.
“Hey, Akaya.”
Kirihara stopped, startled. Marui-senpai was sitting on the end of the bench in front of the bus stop. Kirihara had just walked right past him. “Marui-senpai! What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Niou’s.”
Marui shrugged and snapped his gum. “Yeah, well, Yagyuu was there.”
“So?” Kirihara sat down on the other end of the bench.
“They were… busy.” Marui grimaced. “Niou’s parents are out of town.”
“Ew.” Kirihara wrinkled his nose. He’d been unfortunate enough to walk in on Yagyuu and Niou before. There were just some things he did not need to see.
“Yeah,” Marui said. A bus pulled up in front of the bench and they both fell silent for a moment as a large group of people got off. “So anyway, I thought I might as well see what you were doing after you got your teeth fixed. Wanna hang out for awhile?"
Kirihara could feel himself blushing but he couldn’t help it. He was willing to admit, to himself anyway, that maybe he liked Marui-senpai a little and Marui-senpai had actually waited for Kirihara's appointment to end! Okay, so he’d only waited because Niou and Yagyuu were busy being gross, but he’d still done it. “Sure. I have to be home for dinner though.”
“Okay.” Marui looked down the street and stood up. “Here comes another bus. What do you want to do?”
Kirihara stretched and stood up. “Um, we could go to the arcade if you wanted?”
Marui looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yeah, all right. Let’s go to the one over by that sushi place Niou likes. There’s a café near there that has awesome strawberry cake with real strawberries and it’s not too far from your house, is it?”
“The one we went to after practice last week?” Kirihara asked as the bus came to a stop in front of them. Marui nodded. “Yeah, that’s close to my house,” Kirihara said.
“Come on then, before the bus leaves without us,” Marui said. Kirihara reached in his pocket for the fare and grinned. The arcade was almost as good as tennis and Marui-senpai was always fun. He was good at video games and he never acted liked hanging out with Kirihara was babysitting. Maybe if Kirihara was lucky Marui-senpai’d even offer him another piece of gum.
****
“Ha! Take that!” Kirihara yelled over the noise of the arcade. On screen, Marui’s character collapsed to the floor. “That makes two games, Senpai.” Kirihara stepped back from the controls. “Admit it, even if I’m not a genius,” he said with a smirk in Marui’s direction, “I’m still better at arcade games than you.”
“No way!” Marui squawked. “You may have won two out of three at Tekken, but I kicked your ass on the racing game, remember? I won all three races.”
Kirihara poked Marui in the shoulder. “That doesn’t count, Senpai. You cheated!”
“Quit it,” Marui said, grabbing Kirihara’s hand. “It does too count. Running your car off the road was perfectly fair. You’re just upset that you couldn’t come up with a genius strategy of your own.”
“Come on, Akaya, let’s find another game.” Marui scanned the arcade. “What do you want to play? We can do the best two out of three different games.”
Kirihara was too busy fighting a blush to think about what game he wanted to play. Marui-senpai had grabbed his hand to keep Kirihara from poking him and he hadn’t let go. He wasn’t sure if Marui-senpai was doing it on purpose or if he’d just forgotten that he had Kirihara’s hand in his. Either way, Kirihara was finding it hard to care. Marui-senpai was holding his hand.
“Oh, hey,” Marui said, “there’s an open DDR over there. How about that?”
“Okay,” Kirihara agreed absentmindedly, still distracted by the hand holding.
“Excellent. I’m gonna kick your ass, Akaya, and you’ll never be able to deny my genius again.” Marui tugged on Kirihara’s hand, pulling him toward the DDR machine.
Kirihara groaned as he realized where they were headed. “Marui-senpai! That’s not fair! I know you have a DDR pad at home. You only picked that because you have more practice than me.”
“Hey, you agreed,” Marui pointed out. “It’s too late to take it back. Besides, you come here all the time. Don’t act like you never play DDR.”
“But…”
Marui rolled his eyes and let go of Kirihara’s hand in order to shove him onto the pad. “Quit complaining. If you win I’ll buy you a piece of cake at that café when we’re done, okay?”
“Fine,” Kirihara huffed. His hand felt a little bit cold now that Marui-senpai wasn’t holding onto it anymore.
“Ready?” Marui asked, shoving his coins into the slot.
Kirihara took a deep breath. He could do this. He was going to win and Marui-senpai would buy him cake and maybe he would even hold Kirihara’s hand again on the way home. “Ready.”
****
“Say it, Akaya!” Marui said as they left the arcade.
“Fine.” Kirihara rolled his eyes. “You’re a genius and you’re better at arcade games than me. Happy now?”
Marui grinned. “Yup. Come on, the café's this way.”
"I won one game of DDR, though. And I totally kicked your ass at Tekken," Kirihara muttered as he followed Marui down the street.
"Doesn't matter," Marui said, "but I'll still buy you a piece of cake if you want."
“Okay.” Kirihara perked up a bit. “Wait, what time is it?”
Marui pulled out his phone and checked the display. “Almost five. Wow, we were in the arcade for a long time.”
“Yeah,” Kirihara said with a sigh. “I have to be home for dinner. I probably shouldn’t have any cake after all. My mom’ll be super pissed if I come home and I’m not hungry.”
“Oh.” Marui looked just as disappointed as Kirihara felt. “I can just get cake later, I guess. Which way is your house from here? I’ll walk you home.”
“It’s this way,” Kirihara said, pointing across the street. “Just a couple blocks.”
“All right, let’s go,” Marui said with a smile. “Last year my mom got me a strawberry cake from some other café for my birthday. It was pink, because it was strawberry, you know? Anyway, after dinner she left it on the kitchen table and my brothers found it.”
Kirihara listened to Marui-senpai as they walked, but he was too busy wondering about the hand holding in the arcade to pay much attention to the story. He still wasn’t sure if Marui-senpai had done it on purpose or not. Marui-senpai had waited for him at the dentist’s office, he’d paid for most of the games at the arcade, and he’d offered to buy Kirihara’s cake even though Kirihara had lost at DDR. That made it kind of like a date and people held hands on dates. Then again, they were already on Kirihara’s street and Marui-senpai hadn’t tried to do it again so maybe it hadn’t been on purpose. Kirihara frowned.
“So everything came out pink. It was all over the towels and the their faces. My mom had pink hands for days.” Marui started laughing and Kirihara realized that he’d missed whatever the story was about. “I guess they used some artificial dye in the cake or something. My mom was so mad and my brothers were grounded for two weeks. It was awesome.”
“This is it,” Kirihara said, stopping as they reached his house. “I had fun today, Senpai.”
“Me too.” Marui looked down and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Um… maybe, if you wanted, we could go back and have that cake. I mean, not now, but one day after practice? It’s really good.”
Kirihara smiled. “Sure, Senpai. Buchou would probably like to try it; he likes strawberries.”
“Oh, uh, I kind of meant just us.” Marui didn’t look up, but Kirihara could see the blush spreading across his cheeks. “Um, if you want to.”
“Like a date?” Kirihara asked without thinking.
Marui was slowly turning bright red. “Yeah,” he muttered, glancing up at Kirihara.
“Oh!” Kirihara’s smile turned into a full-fledged grin. “I, um, want to. Yeah.”
“Great.” Marui grinned back. “I guess you should go have dinner now.” Marui hesitated for a moment like there was something else he wanted to say.
“Yeah, I-“ Kirihara started to say, but then Marui was leaning forward and his lips were pressing against Kirihara’s, warm and surprisingly soft.
Marui pulled back and gave Kirihara an awkward smile. “So, um, bye then.”
Kirihara stood in shock for a moment as Marui walked away. Marui-senpai had kissed him. Marui-senpai had held his hand and asked him on a date and kissed him. Marui-senpai liked him. He was definitely going to thank his mother for making him go to the dentist.