failfic
Suppose I might as well post this here.
Title: Aluminum (1/2)
Pairing/Characters: Yanagi/Kirihara, but hints of almost everything else.
Rating: R/NC-17
Warnings: Crack. General ridiculousness. Possibly self-indulgent absurdity.
Summary: The results of Nationals aren't exactly something Rikkai can accept calmly.
Notes: For reposoir at rikkai_exchange. First try at long fic that didn't go over so well. Huge thanks to onlysayitonce, rancidmelody, and jazzyjello for betaing, and to perculious, who isn't even in this fandom but listened to me whine about this forever.
"What is it?"
Kirihara cringes as Yukimura's frantic gestures nearly hit Yanagi in the eye for the third time. He's pretty sure that eyelids alone aren't enough protection from Yukimura's sharp nails. Kirihara's sister made that clear more than once.
"We train harder. We have better strategies. We run more laps. We-"
Yukimura trails off into silence, occasionally broken by an incoherent word or two as he paces feverishly around the club room. Sanada tries to approach him, to calm him down, or at least distract him for a moment, but Yukimura won't even let him get close enough to lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He swats him away, biting out a quick "I see where your priorities lie," before returning to his path around the room. The rest of the regulars avoid his gaze and his path. Yanagi appears to be keeping a mental tally of the number of times Yukimura completes a lap around the room. Kirihara wishes he would do something more productive, but it doesn't look like he is developing telepathy anytime soon. Thinking about it, though, that's probably a good thing.
Kirihara stares at the floor instead.
When Echizen had somehow managed to split the ball in half, and it had finally become clear that Rikkai had lost (that Rikkai had lost, that Rikkai had lost), Kirihara had been stunned.
"How did they win? How did he win, that fucking brat, what does he know?"
His shock hadn't really been directed at Echizen's absurd shot - it's not like anyone on Seigaku's team was actually human, anyway. It wasn't that Yukimura had lost, either - Kirihara was going to crush him too eventually, so it wasn't exactly the end of the universe. What had floored him, though, was the way he could see the fire Yukimura's eyes die as he fully comprehended who had won the match. The small, flat smile he gave Echizen as he shook his hand made Kirihara's stomach feel funny.
"He just said he likes tennis. What kind of bullshit is that? We all like tennis, for fuck's sake."
When Kirihara stopped denying that they had lost in the first place, he punched enough holes in his wall to make his knuckles bleed for three days. But for once, he wasn't scolded for his lack of control. It took him a while, but Kirihara realized that this was probably because everyone else was falling apart as well. The rock in Sanada's bag had seemed to gain two or three companions, Jackal had a few centimeters of stubble growing in on his head, and Marui had moved on from chewing gum to simply eating all the time. Yagyuu had come to class rather poorly disguised as Niou, while Niou had simply abandoned class completely. He came back after a few days with a bandage over an eyebrow and an expression daring anyone to ask him about it. Kirihara decided he wanted to live to see next year. Yanagi was the only person who didn't seem particularly concerned, but Kiriahara knew him well enough (or watched him enough, he admits with a bit of chagrin) to recognize the dak smudges under his eyes, and the way he never seemed to want to talk to Kirihara anymore. But that could have been because he was mad at him for what happened during their game. But Kirihara wasn't going to ask.
Watching his friends act like zombies as they walked around school was creepy, but Kirihara hadn't been too worried. Yukimura would be merciful and allow them a few days to accept their loss, but he would make them suffer dearly for their failure later, and then everything would be back to normal.
"That can't even be physically possible. The brat is twelve. What the fuck does he do that I don't?"
And everything had gone back to normal. Sort of.
Until today after practice. Everyone had been changing to go home, and it had suddenly become really quiet. Even Niou seemed sedate - he had only tried to slap Yagyuu's ass once before giving up and going back to getting his things together. Kirihara had been nearly through the doorway to leave when Yukimura broke out into this rant. No one could bring themselves to leave, probably more out of shock than willingness to listen to him, and now they all stand in an awkward semi-circle around their captain, waiting for something, anything, that might give them some kind of clue about how to react.
Kirihara toes the ground as Yukimura passes him again.
Marui mutters more to Jackal than to Yukimura, "Well, you know, you don't drink that faggy grape shit," and Jackal elbows him sharply in the stomach. When Marui manages to catch his breath, Yukimura is staring directly at him, about two inches from his face.
"What did you just say."
"Ah, nothing, Yukimura-buchou."
Kirihara snorts, but goes very quiet when both Yukimura and Marui turn and glare at him. He looks over at Yanagi instead, who won't meet his eyes.
"You and I both know that's a lie, Marui-kun." Yukimura's voice abruptly takes its usual tone, which in Kirihara's opinion is more terrifying than Sanada raising his hand back to hit him.
Marui looks to Jackal for help, but Jackal is busy studying Sanada's shoes.
"Uh. I was just saying you don't drink that grape Ponta stuff like Echizen. Although I don't see why you would, the stuff tastes like shit, and obviously has nothing to do with his tennis, and I shouldn't have even mentioned it in the first place..."
Kirihara watches Marui grimace as he looks up to see a horrifying expression on Yukimura's face. He can only describe it as one of inspiration, and it strikes him as very similar to the one he had when instructing them to wear their wrist weights at all times.
"Ponta, you say?" Yukimura stands back up, and Marui almost collapses with relief. Kirihara shakes his head. Pathetic. "And you neglected to give me this information before?" Yukimura's back to pacing again, but in less of a frenzy than before. "Ah well. No matter, I'll take care of this later." HE STOPS, AND TURNS TO SANADA. "We're leaving."
Sanada gives Yukimura a concerned look, but follows him. "Seiichi, are you sure-"
Yukimura gives him a glare that silences him, and then they're gone. Kirihara isn't really looking at anything, but he sees Niou make a quick flick of wrist out of the corner of his eye. Niou makes a noise that he probably thinks sounds like a whip cracking. Yagyuu looks away and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
The six of them stay staring at each other for a moment, until Yanagi picks up his bag and the rest of them follow suit.
"I guess all those drugs they gave him in the hospital must have some pretty crazy side effects, eh?" Niou says dryly.
*
If he had thought about it before, Kirihara could have speculated that Yukimura would react to losing in one of two ways. Either he would abandon the team to Kirihara, and look only toward training with the other regulars for high school matches the following year, or the team as a whole would run more laps than physically possible, and Kirihara would have to tear the captaincy from Yukimura's grasp.
He hadn't imagined that he would end up watching Yukimura-buchou turn his locker into something like a Ponta vending machine.
Sanada shifts his bag from one shoulder to the other as Yukimura pulls can after can of the purple soda from its seemingly bottomless depths and stacks them into his locker. Kirihara is almost jealous - there's no way his locker would fit all of that. Well, maybe it could, but then he'd have to take out at least half of his emergency manga collection, and then what would he have to keep him sane in history?
Some part of Kirihara's brain probably hears the bell ring, and knows that he should go to class, but since Sanada and Yukimura don't move, neither does Kirihara. He feels like he should say something, but he can't think of anything, so he stands across the hall from his senpai, half-terrified they'll notice him and half-worried they won't.
Then, someone grabs him by the wrist and tugs him down the hall, toward his next class.
"I think eavesdropping would be a bit easier if you were closer, Akaya."
Kirihara yanks his arm back, but keeps walking. "Hey! I wasn't!" He kind of regrets pulling his arm back so forcefully (or at all, really) when he recognizes his captor. "Oh, hi Yanagi-senpai." He scowls for a second, thinking. "Why didn't you just call my name or something?"
"I did. About three or four times."
"Oh." Kirihara blushes, but Yanagi is smiling, so he doesn't mentally kick himself too hard.
They walk in silence for a few moments, and Kirihara is ashamed to realize that his senpai's presence is enough to make him forget about the bizarre exchange between Sanada and Yukimura.
He stops at the end of the main hallway. "You're going to be late for English," Yanagi says softly.
Kirihara feels sheepish. "Yeah, probably."
Yanagi gives him a small smile and heads the opposite way down a side hall. Late though he may be, Kirihara watches him go, rubbing at his wrist absently.
*
Kirihara grins as he pulls another ball from his pocket, tosses it a few feet above him, and serves again to Yanagi.
It's a return service ace, but Kirihara just nods and walks over to the other side of the court. The match is 4-3, and he's winning.
He calls out 15-All, and tries again. This serve is better, and they rally for several minutes before Yanagi hits a fast drive just inside the singles sideline. Kirihara dives after it, but his racket only grazes it, sending the ball careening across several courts. It lobs high into the air, nearly beaning Sanada in the head as it lands. Kirihara cringes, and waits for the yell assigning him more laps, but it doesn't come. He glances over to where Sanada and Yukimura seem to be talking, and watches the ball bounce unnoticed at their side. He shrugs at Yanagi, who nods at him, and darts off to retrieve the ball.
Sanada and Yukimura are still talking in hushed tones when he gets there. Kirihara makes a half-hearted effort to blend in with some of the first years milling about, anxious to get back to his game with Yanagi-senpai, and even more eager to avoid being scolded for being so careless with his shots. Speaking of which, it probably wasn't a good sign that he hadn't been able to find another ball anywhere near their court. But that could just be the freshmen getting lazy. He would have to make some major changes when he was buchou to keep those little shits in line.
Kirihara shakes his head, trying to focus, when he realizes he is standing there and is still lacking a ball. It rests a few centimeters away from Sanada's feet, and he waits for a decent gap in the pair's conversation to grab it without being noticed.
Yukimura takes a long drink from a newly-opened can of Ponta, and Kirihara can smell the artificial grape from where he crouches a few feet away. He seems to be pointedly ignoring Sanada, who is speaking quickly in a rather strangled-sounding voice that Kirihara thinks he hasn't heard before. although it might have been something like the sound he made that time when they were playing doubles, and after he hit the coolest smash ever he didn't really look where he was going, and landed on top of Sanada, bringing them both crashing to the ground. They hadn't played doubles again for a while after that.
"Seiichi, you can't possibly expect this to work."
Yukimura rolls his eyes. "Of course it will work." He takes another drink from the can, emptying it, and in one fluid motion, sets it down on the bench next to him and picks up another. Kirihara is impressed. He can't even go through a can of coke that quickly. "Do you have that little faith in me?"
Sanada looks exasperated. "You know that's not - " He stops, sighs, and for a moment, Kirihara is positive he will be noticed. But Sanada just tugs his cap down further over his eyes. "Play a game with me."
"I've been playing with you for the last three years, and what has that done for me?" Yukimura belches, and Sanada looks appalled. It is all Kirihara can do not to laugh. "Go run laps or something, Genichirou." He flounces off, leaving Sanada alone and slightly flushed.
Kirihara realizes he should have just picked up the ball and gone back to his game several minutes ago, and definitely doesn't whimper as Sanada levels a glare at him, finally noticing his presence. But although he squeezes his eyes shut in anticipation of an admittedly-deserved slap, his senpai doesn't reprimand him, but instead jogs off to start his vague assignment of laps. Taking his chance, Kirihara grabs the stupid ball and dashes back to his game with Yanagi.
"Eavesdropping again, Akaya?" Yanagi asks, with a hint of a smile.
"Shut up and serve, senpai," Kirihara growls, carefully eyeing Yanagi's feet at the serviceline?
*
"I told you he was an ass man."
Niou's drawling voice carries a little too well through the clubroom, and Kirihara nearly chokes himself with his tie.
Marui's voice, which Kirihara can mostly recognize because his gum is just as loud, follows quickly.
"Oh, what the fuck, Niou, this?"
Kirihara listens with more interest than he should probably have in a conversation that probably doesn't involve him.
"Stop pretending like you're not just as interested, fatty. Otherwise you wouldn't have made that bet. Which reminds me, you owe me." Kirihara can almost see Niou smirking, even though he's only eavesdropping. Again. It kind of reminds him of Yanagi, which makes it hard to focus on Niou and Marui's conversation. It almost makes him think about crossing "international spy" off his career list.
"I'm not giving you anything until you give me some kind of proof. I know what I bet, but I still think he's about as sexual as yeast.
"You did not just- oh forget it. Just come on, if you want proof."
Then again, this was kinda fun.
Their voices lower a bit as they move away, and Kirihara has to quickly gather his things to follow them, and hopefully he can claim to be looking for Yanagi if anyone asks why he is lurking around the clubroom while fully dressed.
"You have to have noticed that he looks a little ... different, right?"
"What. Is this about his hair? Because it looks like he changed conditioners, but that doesn't have anything-"
Kirihara actually sees Niou hit Marui, who complains loudly. He quickly ducks around another row of lockers, nearly trampling some midget freshman, who immediately starts apologizing. It isn't until the fourth or fifth bow that Kirihara realizes he should probably recognize this kid - was it Ura-something? - and mumbles "It's fine, Urahara," using the first name that comes to mind, but slurring the last few syllables enough that it could be anything. It seems to make the midget happy, since almost glows with pride at being recognized, and then finally clears out.
Kirihara groans in frustration, but picks up the sounds of Niou and Marui's voices easily enough.
"...Well, I guess you're right." He hears Marui conceding, and Kirihara nearly dies of shock. Marui never admitted to being wrong. It was a sign of the apocalypse, or something.
"See! I told you. His ass is starting to look almost as huge as yours. And I'm telling you, it's on purpose. there's no other explanation."
Marui and Niou seem to have finished, as they leave the club room and start talking about something boring. Kirihara kicks an empty locker closed. He stil has no idea what they were talking about. He probably should have just asked, but it's too late now.
Then, tons of cans of Ponta cascade from Yukimura-buchou's locker to the floor. Kirihara peers around the corner and watches as Yukimura bends over to pick them up and stuff them in his bag.
Maybe the apocalypse was coming after all.
*
A few weeks later, Kirihara finds himself with Marui trying to convince Jackal that he actually wants to spend his money on them instead of himself. Obviously, "studying" together, which usually translated into Jackal buying them food, was more important than buying that stupid enka collection album Jackal had been going on about for weeks.
Kirihara is still pretty impressed with the resistance Jackal had been putting up until then. It was kind of stupid, because all it really took to win the argument was a few minutes of sulking and and off-hand comment or two about how there was no way he was going to pass this week's history test without help from both of them, but it was a noble effort, nonetheless.
The bus ride to the McDonalds closest to their school is only about ten minutes, but at some point in the past year it had become Kirihara's job to make sure that within those ten minutes, Jackal didn't get off at the stop that took him home. There had been more than enough times when a tasteless joke or five had Marui and Kirihara almost rolling out of their seats with laughter, and Jackal had just yanked his other earbud from Marui's ear and gotten off the bus, leaving Marui and Kirihara going the wrong direction without money.
Of course, it's also Kirihara's job to make sure neither of them realize he hasn't even brought his history books. After all, there's a lot of other things to talk about. Like tennis. He could study for history tonight. Or tomorrow. Eventually. Maybe Yanagi would be free to help.
Finally getting to the place, they get in line for food, and Kirihara tries not to kick the person that cuts in front of them too hard. Before a proper fight breaks out, Jackal sends Kirihara to get a table. Kirihara is tempted to ignore Jackal anyway, but he recognizes the cutter as someone he's seen around school a few times, and lts it go. Even so, he is still scowling as he slides into a booth over by the window. Kirihara watches the flow of people on the street a few floors below him, and wishes the window would open so he could test his aim.
Marui and Jackal come back with their food, and Kirihara only sort of pays attention as Marui rambles on about things Jackal pretends to care about. There was the note Midori-chan passed him in math yesterday, something weird about the creepy guy from Hyoutei that seems to follow Marui around a lot, and whatever Marui was positive he had seen Niou and Yagyuu doing in the Starbucks across the street. Marui lowers his voice to a conspiratorial tone, and says that the two of them had been making out. When neither Jackal nor Kirihara say anything in response, Marui makes an indignant huff and goes back to his food. Kirihara thinks Marui is probably making things up. Niou had told him once that Marui was a compulsive attention seeker, and he was probably right.
Using Marui's preoccupation with unwrapping a third burger, Kirihara asks in the brief silence, "Has anyone seen Yukimura-buchou play in the last month? At all? Because..." he looks down at his tray, and stabs a few fries viciously into his remaining mound of ketchup, "I'm kind of worried about him."
Marui and Jackal both blink at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. Marui catches his breath for long enough to mutter something like "I thought you had a crush on that data freak, moving on already?" Kirihara flushes and barely manages to bite back a number of incriminating replies.
By the time his senpai finish laughing, Kirihara is trying to hold back the blood he feels welling in his eyes. He manages to stop it, but not before an awkward silence falls over their table, and Marui and Jackal exchange a concerned look.
"Hey, Akaya -" Jackal starts, reaching across the table until Kirihara glares at his hand like he'd bite it off if he could.
"Are you really worried about Yukimura?" Marui finishes, confusion mixing with concern in his expression. "I mean, that guy could probably make it rain blood if he glared at the sky hard enough."
Jackal shoots him a glare, but Marui either doesn't notice or completely ignores him. "He's probably still a little upset about Nationals. I mean, we all are."
Kirihara starts to interject, but Marui holds up a hand, and he falls silent, sulking.
"Besides, I'm a genius. If something was wrong with him, don't you think I'd know?" Marui leans back with an overly smug smile that Kirihara almost wants to punch off his face. Except that probably wouldn't get him anywhere. And certainly wouldn't resolve his current problem.
"But all he ever does is drink Ponta and yell at Sanada!" Kirihara tries to keep the whine out of his voice, but fails rather spectacularly. "And I have to crush him before he graduates."
Jackal laughs, but even Kirihara can recognize this laugh as more indulgent than mocking. "You still have a few months, Akaya." He leans over and ruffles his hair. "And even then, it's not like any of us are really going anywhere."
Kirihara tries his best not to gain any comfort from this, but feels a bit relieved despite himself. Even if they were really annoying at times, Marui and Jackal usually wouldn't lie to him about important stuff.
"Yukimura's probably off training with other people from other schools. Maybe he thinks one of us leaked his secrets to Seigaku."
"Bunta, he was in the hospital for almost the entirety of this season, what secrets are you even talking about?"
Kirihara sips slowly at the remainder of his Mountain Dew, massacres the rest of his fries and wonders what Yanagi really thinks about Yukimura.
"You know the whole Ponta thing? It's probably a huge conspiracy. He might not even be drinking all of that. I read somewhere where this guy could pretend to drink something he thought might have been poisoned and it absorbed into a sponge he kept in his mouth. There's no way Yukimura would actually think Ponta was the secret to tennis.
"You're the one who gave him the idea that Ponta was some kind of miracle drug, you moron."
Yanagi always seemed to have an answer for everything. Really, it was kind of creepy sometimes, even when he wasn't willing to tell Kirihara about it. Like with his homework sometimes, which totally wasn't fair.
"He's probably just trying to impress Sanada. I mean, he must have been pretty upset after that game. Maybe he'll challenge Echizen again, and whip out some crazy move, and win in a blaze of glory that'll make that tight-ass come in his pants."
"...Here we go again."
He only half-listens to Marui speculate about Yukimura and Sanada's love life. The whole thing was pretty gross if he thought about it.
"What can I say! Niou made a pretty convincing case, after all."
"Niou also made a convincing case about you writing his English essay for him."
"Yeah well, whatever. Shut up."
Yanagi was a lot more interesting to think about, even if it did mean he needed to cross his legs under the table and hope his friends could distract each other.
"I hope Yukimura's training with that sparkly guy from Shitenhouji. Did you see that game with him and Tezuka? That shit was bananas!"
"...Don't ever say that again."
It doesn't look like Kirihara has anything to worry about.
*
Despite Marui's reassurances, as another two weeks pass and Yukimura doesn't show any signs of changing, or giving up his grape-soda diet, Kirihara is less and less inclined to believe that the tensai's abilities extend to anything outside of tennis. For a moment, Kirihara almost asks Yukimura about it himself, but just as quickly decides not to when the only thing he can think to say is "You look kind of fat, buchou." Then again, by now he could probably outrun Yukimura if he had to. Yukimura kind of waddled when he walked. But he also knows that Sanada would probably kill him instead, and he'd rather not become famous at Rikkai for leaving a permanent blood stain on the courts.
At some point, Kirihara does realize that Yukimura's appearance really isn't any of his business. But he has trouble dealing with it when no one else that he's talked to is even kind of worried. Except for Sanada, maybe, but if Niou and Marui both managed to agree on something, they were probably right, so he was canceled out. Plus he was always concerned about something or another that wasn't really a problem. Like how Kirihara hadn't really managed to control his version of Muga no whatever. Anyway it wasn't like talking to him was going to do anything but get him laps.
After practice one Thursday, Kirihara sees Niou and Yagyuu chatting, presumably about new strategies for their doubles game, but it could just as easily be about which high schools they'd been accepted into or where they needed to hide the body. Despite everything that makes the two appear to be little better than apathetic about anyone else, Kirihara knows that both Niou and Yagyuu had been just as concerned about Yukimura as everyone else when he first collapsed. Maybe they were planning something to get him help behind the scenes. He debates asking them about it, but changes his mind when he remembers the last time he asked for help. It had ended in lipstick and fishnets and Tully's and Niou laughing hard enough it looked like he was having a seizure. He has nearly repressed the memory, but not well enough to let him go up and talk to them about this.
While he walks home, he realizes the only person he hasn't talked to about this is Yanagi. Which is pretty stupid, if anyone would have noticed and had an idea to help fix it, he would have. But even so, Kirihara has kind of been putting it off for a while. He knows it's dumb to worry about looking stupid when something more important than his pride is at stake - he's made an ass out of himself more times than he can count, it's not really like he has more than a few shreds of dignity left anyway. Knowing that, though, doesn't make it any easier for Kirihara to push the words asking for Yanagi's advice past his tongue.
Another set of footsteps fall into time with his own, but it takes Kirihara almost a full minute before he notices.
"You shouldn't dwell on that game against Yagyuu-kun for too long, Akaya."
Kirihara nearly yelps in surprise. Instead, he blurts out, "What do you think is wrong with Yukimura-buchou?" and promptly claps his hand over his mouth. Fuck. "Hey, Yanagi-senpai." He wonders what the chances are that the asphalt will turn into quicksand. That should really be a side effect of Muga. Turning invisible would be pretty cool too.
"Good afternoon."
Yanagi adjusts something in his bag, but doesn't say anything else for a few minutes. The air feels thick with something, but Kirihara isn't sure if it's his own stupidity, awkwardness, or something else. It is pretty humid, maybe he's just imagining everything.
But there was only so long Kirihara could wait for a response, regardless of any tension, imagined or not. He looks up through sweaty curls at Yanagi, glad that even if he couldn't see with his eyes closed, at least had some kind of defense. "So uh, have you talked to Yukimura lately?
Yanagi looks at him with something close to surprise. One of these days, Kirihara swears, he'll be able to learn how to keep his mouth shut. He squeezes his eyes shut in frustration/anger, but opens them when he feels a light pressure on his shoulders.
His friend has both of his hands on Kirihara, although not quite in the way Kirihara usually imagines when he is completely alone in his room at night, stopping him from walking forward or running away.
His eyes are open now, and his face is a lot closer to his than Kirihara's than it probably needs to be. "Ask him for a game." Yanagi says with a look of assurance, letting one of his hands linger on Kirihara's shoulder for a lot longer than Kirihara can remember anyone else doing.
*
On Friday, Kirihara asks Yukimura for a game.
*
Yukimura storms on the bus that will take him to central Tokyo. Kirihara, along with the rest of the regulars, watch him nearly throw change at the bus driver, and he tries not to notice the way Yukimura's shorts stretch more tightly across his thighs than Kirihara would have thought possible, and carefully avoids pointing out that it's heading in the wrong direction.
After Kirihara asked Yukimura-buchou if he'd be willing to play him, the older boy had stared at him without expression for what felt like an eternity. Kirihara repressed a strong need to run away, without really knowing why he was so terrified, until Yukimura had said flatly, "Sanada, take care of this," and walked off.
Sanada had hurried after Yukimura, and Kirihara tailed them, even though he was more than a little sure that Yukimura had just told Sanada to hit him. It sounded like Sanada was trying to tell Yukimura not to do anything rash, but Yukimura had marched off the courts and out of their school muttering something that sounded like he was going to go kill Echizen now, but Kirihara couldn't be sure.
Now, a hurried conversation between Yanagi and Sanada leads to the abrupt decision that it would probably be best if they arrived at Seigaku first to at least give some kind of warning, and perhaps attempt to arrange a quick match. While waiting for the proper bus to arrive, Yagyuu suggests organizing a quick rock-paper-scissors tournament to decide who would be remaining behind to lock up the clubhouse and make sure the freshmen finished picking up the balls. Sanada makes an indignant huff, as though affronted by the very suggestion that everyone should be on equal footing in such a dire situation. Yanagi touches his shoulder lightly, though, which makes Kirihara's cheeks flare redder than anything he could blame on the cool breeze, and Sanada stops protesting.
Kirihara quickly crushes Marui, but the whole thing spirals out of control as Yagyuu and Niou enter a thirty-fourth tie-breaking round, and Marui starts narrating the match as if he were auctioneering.
Then the bus shows up. Marui pouts, but says he'll sacrifice himself and stay at the club. Jackal shakes his head and waves as everyone else climbs on.
*
As soon as Kirihara gets off the bus outside of Seishun Gakuen, a sudden flash of memory reminds him of what had happened the last time he had anything to do with their tennis team. He doesn't actually remember it, of course, but there had been something about potentially disfiguring one of their teammates, and this realization nearly sends him scrambling back on the bus.
But Yanagi blocks his path back, with a smile that seems to simultaneously accuse him of cowardice but reassure him that tennis matches weren't really interesting anymore without a few good injuries, so he hadn't done anything wrong. Kirihara barely registers his senpai's hand on the small of his back as he walks toward the Seigaku tennis courts with renewed determination. After all, it really was their fault they were here in the first place. Stupid Echizen and his stupid Ponta and his stupid magic tennis, who the hell split balls in half anyway?
The seven of them quickly make their way around the back of the school, finding the courts as much from Kirihara's memory as the shouts that are coming from them.
So much for hoping Seigaku would have gone home early.
Far to the contrary, Kirihara sees that despite all odds, Yukimura had arrived there before them, and is already in the middle of a game. He is relieved for a moment, at least they wouldn't have to make too many awkward explanations, but the feeling fades quickly as he watches Yukimura dive for a drop shot that he should have easily been able to reach. His legs look almost gelatinous, or something, and do this weird wiggly thing when he walks back to the serviceline. As he tosses the ball to serve, a line of exposed flesh reveals a stomach that spills over the waistband of his shorts. His jacket lies discarded a few meters behind him, and he is already dripping with sweat. Echizen isn't even using Muga.
Hastily deciding that intently watching this match wouldn't exactly be the best decision, Kirihara hurries over to his senpai. Perhaps Yanagi would be able to reassure him that this was all an act on their captain's part - that Echizen would be hopelessly crushed as soon as Yukimura revealed his latest move, and Rikkai would have their dignity back and everything would be right with the world.
Instead, Yanagi is talking to a mummy in a Seigaku regulars' jersey, and Kirihara freezes. For a moment, all of Niou's warnings about the upcoming zombiepocalypse seem completely relevant, and Kirihara hopes that Yanagi knows the basics of defense. Just in case, Kirihara dives forward, prepared to do whatever it would take to separate the zombie's head from it's body.
"Ah, Akaya-kun." Yanagi smiles and gives him a half-wave, and Kirihara nearly skids to a stop as he realizes that if he could still smile like that, there was a slight possibility his life wasn't in danger.
"As I was saying, Renji -" The mummy seems almost indignant at being ignored. Later, Kirihara questions how mummies or zombies would be able to seem indignant, or anything, really, but in this case it probably had something to do with the way the square glasses on its face were glinting. "Your captain seems to be lacking a certain... mental stability today."
"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about, Sadaharu." Yanagi cocks his head and studies the mummy's face. "Ah, shouldn't your face have healed ages ago? Or is that kouhai of yours a fan of bondage - sorry, slip of the tongue - bandages?"
Whoever Yanagi was talking to - Kirihara still wasn't really sure he wasn't a mummy or a zombie - splutters and scrambles for a notebook. Kirihara sticks out his tongue as he follows Yanagi over to the bench where the rest of his teammates had gathered to watch the game.
*
An agonizingly long half-hour later, Yukimura lies collapsed on the court in front of them, and Echizen was already wandering off, looking bored. A need to challenge him, to crush him and avenge Yukimura, to make everything right again, flares through Kirihara, but an unbelievably well-placed glance from Fuji Syuusuke pins him to his seat on the bench. He tells himself it's really because everyone else was still sitting there, as if they had been paralyzed, but if he were completely honest with himself he would admit that he is still completely terrified of Seigaku's tensai.
The Seigaku members start to clear out, gathering the remaining stray balls, and all the while managing to shoot several uncomfortable glares at Yukimura's prone body.
The atmosphere is tense for a long moment, but finally Sanada stands and walks around the fence onto the courts and toward Yukimura.
The rest of them get up to follow him and Kirihara can't help but think of a funeral march, until he hears a strangled sound coming from that redhead that is half of Seigaku's "golden pair," and whips around to barely catch both Niou and Yagyuu making obscene hand gestures in their direction.
Kirihara doesn't even try to contain his laughter, and suddenly the tension is broken. The situation is just as embarrassing as before, but somehow it doesn't seem to matter quite as much. He runs forward to where Sanada and Yanagi are trying to rouse Yukimura. Yanagi gives him a once-over, and declares that he really is only asleep, and that they have nothing to worry about. Sanada's worry and disbelief is obvious, and Kirihara suggests that they try to move Yukimura off the courts to distract him.
Sanada flushes crimson as Yanagi arranges Yukimura's dead-weight arms around his neck, and his legs around his waist. It works as well as could be expected, but is still slow going, as Sanada refuses to walk at more than half a meter per second. Eventually they get him over to the side of the courts, past where he could possibly be hit by a stray ball. Evidently it took more time than they had realized, however, dusk had started to fall, and any stray remaining member of Seigaku - even a slow, awkward freshman - was nowhere to be found.
"Well, shit."
Even Niou has the decency to look sheepish as the conscious Rikkai regulars realize that they had let themselves get locked in on the Seigaku tennis courts.
Title: Aluminum (1/2)
Pairing/Characters: Yanagi/Kirihara, but hints of almost everything else.
Rating: R/NC-17
Warnings: Crack. General ridiculousness. Possibly self-indulgent absurdity.
Summary: The results of Nationals aren't exactly something Rikkai can accept calmly.
Notes: For reposoir at rikkai_exchange. First try at long fic that didn't go over so well. Huge thanks to onlysayitonce, rancidmelody, and jazzyjello for betaing, and to perculious, who isn't even in this fandom but listened to me whine about this forever.
"What is it?"
Kirihara cringes as Yukimura's frantic gestures nearly hit Yanagi in the eye for the third time. He's pretty sure that eyelids alone aren't enough protection from Yukimura's sharp nails. Kirihara's sister made that clear more than once.
"We train harder. We have better strategies. We run more laps. We-"
Yukimura trails off into silence, occasionally broken by an incoherent word or two as he paces feverishly around the club room. Sanada tries to approach him, to calm him down, or at least distract him for a moment, but Yukimura won't even let him get close enough to lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He swats him away, biting out a quick "I see where your priorities lie," before returning to his path around the room. The rest of the regulars avoid his gaze and his path. Yanagi appears to be keeping a mental tally of the number of times Yukimura completes a lap around the room. Kirihara wishes he would do something more productive, but it doesn't look like he is developing telepathy anytime soon. Thinking about it, though, that's probably a good thing.
Kirihara stares at the floor instead.
When Echizen had somehow managed to split the ball in half, and it had finally become clear that Rikkai had lost (that Rikkai had lost, that Rikkai had lost), Kirihara had been stunned.
"How did they win? How did he win, that fucking brat, what does he know?"
His shock hadn't really been directed at Echizen's absurd shot - it's not like anyone on Seigaku's team was actually human, anyway. It wasn't that Yukimura had lost, either - Kirihara was going to crush him too eventually, so it wasn't exactly the end of the universe. What had floored him, though, was the way he could see the fire Yukimura's eyes die as he fully comprehended who had won the match. The small, flat smile he gave Echizen as he shook his hand made Kirihara's stomach feel funny.
"He just said he likes tennis. What kind of bullshit is that? We all like tennis, for fuck's sake."
When Kirihara stopped denying that they had lost in the first place, he punched enough holes in his wall to make his knuckles bleed for three days. But for once, he wasn't scolded for his lack of control. It took him a while, but Kirihara realized that this was probably because everyone else was falling apart as well. The rock in Sanada's bag had seemed to gain two or three companions, Jackal had a few centimeters of stubble growing in on his head, and Marui had moved on from chewing gum to simply eating all the time. Yagyuu had come to class rather poorly disguised as Niou, while Niou had simply abandoned class completely. He came back after a few days with a bandage over an eyebrow and an expression daring anyone to ask him about it. Kirihara decided he wanted to live to see next year. Yanagi was the only person who didn't seem particularly concerned, but Kiriahara knew him well enough (or watched him enough, he admits with a bit of chagrin) to recognize the dak smudges under his eyes, and the way he never seemed to want to talk to Kirihara anymore. But that could have been because he was mad at him for what happened during their game. But Kirihara wasn't going to ask.
Watching his friends act like zombies as they walked around school was creepy, but Kirihara hadn't been too worried. Yukimura would be merciful and allow them a few days to accept their loss, but he would make them suffer dearly for their failure later, and then everything would be back to normal.
"That can't even be physically possible. The brat is twelve. What the fuck does he do that I don't?"
And everything had gone back to normal. Sort of.
Until today after practice. Everyone had been changing to go home, and it had suddenly become really quiet. Even Niou seemed sedate - he had only tried to slap Yagyuu's ass once before giving up and going back to getting his things together. Kirihara had been nearly through the doorway to leave when Yukimura broke out into this rant. No one could bring themselves to leave, probably more out of shock than willingness to listen to him, and now they all stand in an awkward semi-circle around their captain, waiting for something, anything, that might give them some kind of clue about how to react.
Kirihara toes the ground as Yukimura passes him again.
Marui mutters more to Jackal than to Yukimura, "Well, you know, you don't drink that faggy grape shit," and Jackal elbows him sharply in the stomach. When Marui manages to catch his breath, Yukimura is staring directly at him, about two inches from his face.
"What did you just say."
"Ah, nothing, Yukimura-buchou."
Kirihara snorts, but goes very quiet when both Yukimura and Marui turn and glare at him. He looks over at Yanagi instead, who won't meet his eyes.
"You and I both know that's a lie, Marui-kun." Yukimura's voice abruptly takes its usual tone, which in Kirihara's opinion is more terrifying than Sanada raising his hand back to hit him.
Marui looks to Jackal for help, but Jackal is busy studying Sanada's shoes.
"Uh. I was just saying you don't drink that grape Ponta stuff like Echizen. Although I don't see why you would, the stuff tastes like shit, and obviously has nothing to do with his tennis, and I shouldn't have even mentioned it in the first place..."
Kirihara watches Marui grimace as he looks up to see a horrifying expression on Yukimura's face. He can only describe it as one of inspiration, and it strikes him as very similar to the one he had when instructing them to wear their wrist weights at all times.
"Ponta, you say?" Yukimura stands back up, and Marui almost collapses with relief. Kirihara shakes his head. Pathetic. "And you neglected to give me this information before?" Yukimura's back to pacing again, but in less of a frenzy than before. "Ah well. No matter, I'll take care of this later." HE STOPS, AND TURNS TO SANADA. "We're leaving."
Sanada gives Yukimura a concerned look, but follows him. "Seiichi, are you sure-"
Yukimura gives him a glare that silences him, and then they're gone. Kirihara isn't really looking at anything, but he sees Niou make a quick flick of wrist out of the corner of his eye. Niou makes a noise that he probably thinks sounds like a whip cracking. Yagyuu looks away and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
The six of them stay staring at each other for a moment, until Yanagi picks up his bag and the rest of them follow suit.
"I guess all those drugs they gave him in the hospital must have some pretty crazy side effects, eh?" Niou says dryly.
*
If he had thought about it before, Kirihara could have speculated that Yukimura would react to losing in one of two ways. Either he would abandon the team to Kirihara, and look only toward training with the other regulars for high school matches the following year, or the team as a whole would run more laps than physically possible, and Kirihara would have to tear the captaincy from Yukimura's grasp.
He hadn't imagined that he would end up watching Yukimura-buchou turn his locker into something like a Ponta vending machine.
Sanada shifts his bag from one shoulder to the other as Yukimura pulls can after can of the purple soda from its seemingly bottomless depths and stacks them into his locker. Kirihara is almost jealous - there's no way his locker would fit all of that. Well, maybe it could, but then he'd have to take out at least half of his emergency manga collection, and then what would he have to keep him sane in history?
Some part of Kirihara's brain probably hears the bell ring, and knows that he should go to class, but since Sanada and Yukimura don't move, neither does Kirihara. He feels like he should say something, but he can't think of anything, so he stands across the hall from his senpai, half-terrified they'll notice him and half-worried they won't.
Then, someone grabs him by the wrist and tugs him down the hall, toward his next class.
"I think eavesdropping would be a bit easier if you were closer, Akaya."
Kirihara yanks his arm back, but keeps walking. "Hey! I wasn't!" He kind of regrets pulling his arm back so forcefully (or at all, really) when he recognizes his captor. "Oh, hi Yanagi-senpai." He scowls for a second, thinking. "Why didn't you just call my name or something?"
"I did. About three or four times."
"Oh." Kirihara blushes, but Yanagi is smiling, so he doesn't mentally kick himself too hard.
They walk in silence for a few moments, and Kirihara is ashamed to realize that his senpai's presence is enough to make him forget about the bizarre exchange between Sanada and Yukimura.
He stops at the end of the main hallway. "You're going to be late for English," Yanagi says softly.
Kirihara feels sheepish. "Yeah, probably."
Yanagi gives him a small smile and heads the opposite way down a side hall. Late though he may be, Kirihara watches him go, rubbing at his wrist absently.
*
Kirihara grins as he pulls another ball from his pocket, tosses it a few feet above him, and serves again to Yanagi.
It's a return service ace, but Kirihara just nods and walks over to the other side of the court. The match is 4-3, and he's winning.
He calls out 15-All, and tries again. This serve is better, and they rally for several minutes before Yanagi hits a fast drive just inside the singles sideline. Kirihara dives after it, but his racket only grazes it, sending the ball careening across several courts. It lobs high into the air, nearly beaning Sanada in the head as it lands. Kirihara cringes, and waits for the yell assigning him more laps, but it doesn't come. He glances over to where Sanada and Yukimura seem to be talking, and watches the ball bounce unnoticed at their side. He shrugs at Yanagi, who nods at him, and darts off to retrieve the ball.
Sanada and Yukimura are still talking in hushed tones when he gets there. Kirihara makes a half-hearted effort to blend in with some of the first years milling about, anxious to get back to his game with Yanagi-senpai, and even more eager to avoid being scolded for being so careless with his shots. Speaking of which, it probably wasn't a good sign that he hadn't been able to find another ball anywhere near their court. But that could just be the freshmen getting lazy. He would have to make some major changes when he was buchou to keep those little shits in line.
Kirihara shakes his head, trying to focus, when he realizes he is standing there and is still lacking a ball. It rests a few centimeters away from Sanada's feet, and he waits for a decent gap in the pair's conversation to grab it without being noticed.
Yukimura takes a long drink from a newly-opened can of Ponta, and Kirihara can smell the artificial grape from where he crouches a few feet away. He seems to be pointedly ignoring Sanada, who is speaking quickly in a rather strangled-sounding voice that Kirihara thinks he hasn't heard before. although it might have been something like the sound he made that time when they were playing doubles, and after he hit the coolest smash ever he didn't really look where he was going, and landed on top of Sanada, bringing them both crashing to the ground. They hadn't played doubles again for a while after that.
"Seiichi, you can't possibly expect this to work."
Yukimura rolls his eyes. "Of course it will work." He takes another drink from the can, emptying it, and in one fluid motion, sets it down on the bench next to him and picks up another. Kirihara is impressed. He can't even go through a can of coke that quickly. "Do you have that little faith in me?"
Sanada looks exasperated. "You know that's not - " He stops, sighs, and for a moment, Kirihara is positive he will be noticed. But Sanada just tugs his cap down further over his eyes. "Play a game with me."
"I've been playing with you for the last three years, and what has that done for me?" Yukimura belches, and Sanada looks appalled. It is all Kirihara can do not to laugh. "Go run laps or something, Genichirou." He flounces off, leaving Sanada alone and slightly flushed.
Kirihara realizes he should have just picked up the ball and gone back to his game several minutes ago, and definitely doesn't whimper as Sanada levels a glare at him, finally noticing his presence. But although he squeezes his eyes shut in anticipation of an admittedly-deserved slap, his senpai doesn't reprimand him, but instead jogs off to start his vague assignment of laps. Taking his chance, Kirihara grabs the stupid ball and dashes back to his game with Yanagi.
"Eavesdropping again, Akaya?" Yanagi asks, with a hint of a smile.
"Shut up and serve, senpai," Kirihara growls, carefully eyeing Yanagi's feet at the serviceline?
*
"I told you he was an ass man."
Niou's drawling voice carries a little too well through the clubroom, and Kirihara nearly chokes himself with his tie.
Marui's voice, which Kirihara can mostly recognize because his gum is just as loud, follows quickly.
"Oh, what the fuck, Niou, this?"
Kirihara listens with more interest than he should probably have in a conversation that probably doesn't involve him.
"Stop pretending like you're not just as interested, fatty. Otherwise you wouldn't have made that bet. Which reminds me, you owe me." Kirihara can almost see Niou smirking, even though he's only eavesdropping. Again. It kind of reminds him of Yanagi, which makes it hard to focus on Niou and Marui's conversation. It almost makes him think about crossing "international spy" off his career list.
"I'm not giving you anything until you give me some kind of proof. I know what I bet, but I still think he's about as sexual as yeast.
"You did not just- oh forget it. Just come on, if you want proof."
Then again, this was kinda fun.
Their voices lower a bit as they move away, and Kirihara has to quickly gather his things to follow them, and hopefully he can claim to be looking for Yanagi if anyone asks why he is lurking around the clubroom while fully dressed.
"You have to have noticed that he looks a little ... different, right?"
"What. Is this about his hair? Because it looks like he changed conditioners, but that doesn't have anything-"
Kirihara actually sees Niou hit Marui, who complains loudly. He quickly ducks around another row of lockers, nearly trampling some midget freshman, who immediately starts apologizing. It isn't until the fourth or fifth bow that Kirihara realizes he should probably recognize this kid - was it Ura-something? - and mumbles "It's fine, Urahara," using the first name that comes to mind, but slurring the last few syllables enough that it could be anything. It seems to make the midget happy, since almost glows with pride at being recognized, and then finally clears out.
Kirihara groans in frustration, but picks up the sounds of Niou and Marui's voices easily enough.
"...Well, I guess you're right." He hears Marui conceding, and Kirihara nearly dies of shock. Marui never admitted to being wrong. It was a sign of the apocalypse, or something.
"See! I told you. His ass is starting to look almost as huge as yours. And I'm telling you, it's on purpose. there's no other explanation."
Marui and Niou seem to have finished, as they leave the club room and start talking about something boring. Kirihara kicks an empty locker closed. He stil has no idea what they were talking about. He probably should have just asked, but it's too late now.
Then, tons of cans of Ponta cascade from Yukimura-buchou's locker to the floor. Kirihara peers around the corner and watches as Yukimura bends over to pick them up and stuff them in his bag.
Maybe the apocalypse was coming after all.
*
A few weeks later, Kirihara finds himself with Marui trying to convince Jackal that he actually wants to spend his money on them instead of himself. Obviously, "studying" together, which usually translated into Jackal buying them food, was more important than buying that stupid enka collection album Jackal had been going on about for weeks.
Kirihara is still pretty impressed with the resistance Jackal had been putting up until then. It was kind of stupid, because all it really took to win the argument was a few minutes of sulking and and off-hand comment or two about how there was no way he was going to pass this week's history test without help from both of them, but it was a noble effort, nonetheless.
The bus ride to the McDonalds closest to their school is only about ten minutes, but at some point in the past year it had become Kirihara's job to make sure that within those ten minutes, Jackal didn't get off at the stop that took him home. There had been more than enough times when a tasteless joke or five had Marui and Kirihara almost rolling out of their seats with laughter, and Jackal had just yanked his other earbud from Marui's ear and gotten off the bus, leaving Marui and Kirihara going the wrong direction without money.
Of course, it's also Kirihara's job to make sure neither of them realize he hasn't even brought his history books. After all, there's a lot of other things to talk about. Like tennis. He could study for history tonight. Or tomorrow. Eventually. Maybe Yanagi would be free to help.
Finally getting to the place, they get in line for food, and Kirihara tries not to kick the person that cuts in front of them too hard. Before a proper fight breaks out, Jackal sends Kirihara to get a table. Kirihara is tempted to ignore Jackal anyway, but he recognizes the cutter as someone he's seen around school a few times, and lts it go. Even so, he is still scowling as he slides into a booth over by the window. Kirihara watches the flow of people on the street a few floors below him, and wishes the window would open so he could test his aim.
Marui and Jackal come back with their food, and Kirihara only sort of pays attention as Marui rambles on about things Jackal pretends to care about. There was the note Midori-chan passed him in math yesterday, something weird about the creepy guy from Hyoutei that seems to follow Marui around a lot, and whatever Marui was positive he had seen Niou and Yagyuu doing in the Starbucks across the street. Marui lowers his voice to a conspiratorial tone, and says that the two of them had been making out. When neither Jackal nor Kirihara say anything in response, Marui makes an indignant huff and goes back to his food. Kirihara thinks Marui is probably making things up. Niou had told him once that Marui was a compulsive attention seeker, and he was probably right.
Using Marui's preoccupation with unwrapping a third burger, Kirihara asks in the brief silence, "Has anyone seen Yukimura-buchou play in the last month? At all? Because..." he looks down at his tray, and stabs a few fries viciously into his remaining mound of ketchup, "I'm kind of worried about him."
Marui and Jackal both blink at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. Marui catches his breath for long enough to mutter something like "I thought you had a crush on that data freak, moving on already?" Kirihara flushes and barely manages to bite back a number of incriminating replies.
By the time his senpai finish laughing, Kirihara is trying to hold back the blood he feels welling in his eyes. He manages to stop it, but not before an awkward silence falls over their table, and Marui and Jackal exchange a concerned look.
"Hey, Akaya -" Jackal starts, reaching across the table until Kirihara glares at his hand like he'd bite it off if he could.
"Are you really worried about Yukimura?" Marui finishes, confusion mixing with concern in his expression. "I mean, that guy could probably make it rain blood if he glared at the sky hard enough."
Jackal shoots him a glare, but Marui either doesn't notice or completely ignores him. "He's probably still a little upset about Nationals. I mean, we all are."
Kirihara starts to interject, but Marui holds up a hand, and he falls silent, sulking.
"Besides, I'm a genius. If something was wrong with him, don't you think I'd know?" Marui leans back with an overly smug smile that Kirihara almost wants to punch off his face. Except that probably wouldn't get him anywhere. And certainly wouldn't resolve his current problem.
"But all he ever does is drink Ponta and yell at Sanada!" Kirihara tries to keep the whine out of his voice, but fails rather spectacularly. "And I have to crush him before he graduates."
Jackal laughs, but even Kirihara can recognize this laugh as more indulgent than mocking. "You still have a few months, Akaya." He leans over and ruffles his hair. "And even then, it's not like any of us are really going anywhere."
Kirihara tries his best not to gain any comfort from this, but feels a bit relieved despite himself. Even if they were really annoying at times, Marui and Jackal usually wouldn't lie to him about important stuff.
"Yukimura's probably off training with other people from other schools. Maybe he thinks one of us leaked his secrets to Seigaku."
"Bunta, he was in the hospital for almost the entirety of this season, what secrets are you even talking about?"
Kirihara sips slowly at the remainder of his Mountain Dew, massacres the rest of his fries and wonders what Yanagi really thinks about Yukimura.
"You know the whole Ponta thing? It's probably a huge conspiracy. He might not even be drinking all of that. I read somewhere where this guy could pretend to drink something he thought might have been poisoned and it absorbed into a sponge he kept in his mouth. There's no way Yukimura would actually think Ponta was the secret to tennis.
"You're the one who gave him the idea that Ponta was some kind of miracle drug, you moron."
Yanagi always seemed to have an answer for everything. Really, it was kind of creepy sometimes, even when he wasn't willing to tell Kirihara about it. Like with his homework sometimes, which totally wasn't fair.
"He's probably just trying to impress Sanada. I mean, he must have been pretty upset after that game. Maybe he'll challenge Echizen again, and whip out some crazy move, and win in a blaze of glory that'll make that tight-ass come in his pants."
"...Here we go again."
He only half-listens to Marui speculate about Yukimura and Sanada's love life. The whole thing was pretty gross if he thought about it.
"What can I say! Niou made a pretty convincing case, after all."
"Niou also made a convincing case about you writing his English essay for him."
"Yeah well, whatever. Shut up."
Yanagi was a lot more interesting to think about, even if it did mean he needed to cross his legs under the table and hope his friends could distract each other.
"I hope Yukimura's training with that sparkly guy from Shitenhouji. Did you see that game with him and Tezuka? That shit was bananas!"
"...Don't ever say that again."
It doesn't look like Kirihara has anything to worry about.
*
Despite Marui's reassurances, as another two weeks pass and Yukimura doesn't show any signs of changing, or giving up his grape-soda diet, Kirihara is less and less inclined to believe that the tensai's abilities extend to anything outside of tennis. For a moment, Kirihara almost asks Yukimura about it himself, but just as quickly decides not to when the only thing he can think to say is "You look kind of fat, buchou." Then again, by now he could probably outrun Yukimura if he had to. Yukimura kind of waddled when he walked. But he also knows that Sanada would probably kill him instead, and he'd rather not become famous at Rikkai for leaving a permanent blood stain on the courts.
At some point, Kirihara does realize that Yukimura's appearance really isn't any of his business. But he has trouble dealing with it when no one else that he's talked to is even kind of worried. Except for Sanada, maybe, but if Niou and Marui both managed to agree on something, they were probably right, so he was canceled out. Plus he was always concerned about something or another that wasn't really a problem. Like how Kirihara hadn't really managed to control his version of Muga no whatever. Anyway it wasn't like talking to him was going to do anything but get him laps.
After practice one Thursday, Kirihara sees Niou and Yagyuu chatting, presumably about new strategies for their doubles game, but it could just as easily be about which high schools they'd been accepted into or where they needed to hide the body. Despite everything that makes the two appear to be little better than apathetic about anyone else, Kirihara knows that both Niou and Yagyuu had been just as concerned about Yukimura as everyone else when he first collapsed. Maybe they were planning something to get him help behind the scenes. He debates asking them about it, but changes his mind when he remembers the last time he asked for help. It had ended in lipstick and fishnets and Tully's and Niou laughing hard enough it looked like he was having a seizure. He has nearly repressed the memory, but not well enough to let him go up and talk to them about this.
While he walks home, he realizes the only person he hasn't talked to about this is Yanagi. Which is pretty stupid, if anyone would have noticed and had an idea to help fix it, he would have. But even so, Kirihara has kind of been putting it off for a while. He knows it's dumb to worry about looking stupid when something more important than his pride is at stake - he's made an ass out of himself more times than he can count, it's not really like he has more than a few shreds of dignity left anyway. Knowing that, though, doesn't make it any easier for Kirihara to push the words asking for Yanagi's advice past his tongue.
Another set of footsteps fall into time with his own, but it takes Kirihara almost a full minute before he notices.
"You shouldn't dwell on that game against Yagyuu-kun for too long, Akaya."
Kirihara nearly yelps in surprise. Instead, he blurts out, "What do you think is wrong with Yukimura-buchou?" and promptly claps his hand over his mouth. Fuck. "Hey, Yanagi-senpai." He wonders what the chances are that the asphalt will turn into quicksand. That should really be a side effect of Muga. Turning invisible would be pretty cool too.
"Good afternoon."
Yanagi adjusts something in his bag, but doesn't say anything else for a few minutes. The air feels thick with something, but Kirihara isn't sure if it's his own stupidity, awkwardness, or something else. It is pretty humid, maybe he's just imagining everything.
But there was only so long Kirihara could wait for a response, regardless of any tension, imagined or not. He looks up through sweaty curls at Yanagi, glad that even if he couldn't see with his eyes closed, at least had some kind of defense. "So uh, have you talked to Yukimura lately?
Yanagi looks at him with something close to surprise. One of these days, Kirihara swears, he'll be able to learn how to keep his mouth shut. He squeezes his eyes shut in frustration/anger, but opens them when he feels a light pressure on his shoulders.
His friend has both of his hands on Kirihara, although not quite in the way Kirihara usually imagines when he is completely alone in his room at night, stopping him from walking forward or running away.
His eyes are open now, and his face is a lot closer to his than Kirihara's than it probably needs to be. "Ask him for a game." Yanagi says with a look of assurance, letting one of his hands linger on Kirihara's shoulder for a lot longer than Kirihara can remember anyone else doing.
*
On Friday, Kirihara asks Yukimura for a game.
*
Yukimura storms on the bus that will take him to central Tokyo. Kirihara, along with the rest of the regulars, watch him nearly throw change at the bus driver, and he tries not to notice the way Yukimura's shorts stretch more tightly across his thighs than Kirihara would have thought possible, and carefully avoids pointing out that it's heading in the wrong direction.
After Kirihara asked Yukimura-buchou if he'd be willing to play him, the older boy had stared at him without expression for what felt like an eternity. Kirihara repressed a strong need to run away, without really knowing why he was so terrified, until Yukimura had said flatly, "Sanada, take care of this," and walked off.
Sanada had hurried after Yukimura, and Kirihara tailed them, even though he was more than a little sure that Yukimura had just told Sanada to hit him. It sounded like Sanada was trying to tell Yukimura not to do anything rash, but Yukimura had marched off the courts and out of their school muttering something that sounded like he was going to go kill Echizen now, but Kirihara couldn't be sure.
Now, a hurried conversation between Yanagi and Sanada leads to the abrupt decision that it would probably be best if they arrived at Seigaku first to at least give some kind of warning, and perhaps attempt to arrange a quick match. While waiting for the proper bus to arrive, Yagyuu suggests organizing a quick rock-paper-scissors tournament to decide who would be remaining behind to lock up the clubhouse and make sure the freshmen finished picking up the balls. Sanada makes an indignant huff, as though affronted by the very suggestion that everyone should be on equal footing in such a dire situation. Yanagi touches his shoulder lightly, though, which makes Kirihara's cheeks flare redder than anything he could blame on the cool breeze, and Sanada stops protesting.
Kirihara quickly crushes Marui, but the whole thing spirals out of control as Yagyuu and Niou enter a thirty-fourth tie-breaking round, and Marui starts narrating the match as if he were auctioneering.
Then the bus shows up. Marui pouts, but says he'll sacrifice himself and stay at the club. Jackal shakes his head and waves as everyone else climbs on.
*
As soon as Kirihara gets off the bus outside of Seishun Gakuen, a sudden flash of memory reminds him of what had happened the last time he had anything to do with their tennis team. He doesn't actually remember it, of course, but there had been something about potentially disfiguring one of their teammates, and this realization nearly sends him scrambling back on the bus.
But Yanagi blocks his path back, with a smile that seems to simultaneously accuse him of cowardice but reassure him that tennis matches weren't really interesting anymore without a few good injuries, so he hadn't done anything wrong. Kirihara barely registers his senpai's hand on the small of his back as he walks toward the Seigaku tennis courts with renewed determination. After all, it really was their fault they were here in the first place. Stupid Echizen and his stupid Ponta and his stupid magic tennis, who the hell split balls in half anyway?
The seven of them quickly make their way around the back of the school, finding the courts as much from Kirihara's memory as the shouts that are coming from them.
So much for hoping Seigaku would have gone home early.
Far to the contrary, Kirihara sees that despite all odds, Yukimura had arrived there before them, and is already in the middle of a game. He is relieved for a moment, at least they wouldn't have to make too many awkward explanations, but the feeling fades quickly as he watches Yukimura dive for a drop shot that he should have easily been able to reach. His legs look almost gelatinous, or something, and do this weird wiggly thing when he walks back to the serviceline. As he tosses the ball to serve, a line of exposed flesh reveals a stomach that spills over the waistband of his shorts. His jacket lies discarded a few meters behind him, and he is already dripping with sweat. Echizen isn't even using Muga.
Hastily deciding that intently watching this match wouldn't exactly be the best decision, Kirihara hurries over to his senpai. Perhaps Yanagi would be able to reassure him that this was all an act on their captain's part - that Echizen would be hopelessly crushed as soon as Yukimura revealed his latest move, and Rikkai would have their dignity back and everything would be right with the world.
Instead, Yanagi is talking to a mummy in a Seigaku regulars' jersey, and Kirihara freezes. For a moment, all of Niou's warnings about the upcoming zombiepocalypse seem completely relevant, and Kirihara hopes that Yanagi knows the basics of defense. Just in case, Kirihara dives forward, prepared to do whatever it would take to separate the zombie's head from it's body.
"Ah, Akaya-kun." Yanagi smiles and gives him a half-wave, and Kirihara nearly skids to a stop as he realizes that if he could still smile like that, there was a slight possibility his life wasn't in danger.
"As I was saying, Renji -" The mummy seems almost indignant at being ignored. Later, Kirihara questions how mummies or zombies would be able to seem indignant, or anything, really, but in this case it probably had something to do with the way the square glasses on its face were glinting. "Your captain seems to be lacking a certain... mental stability today."
"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about, Sadaharu." Yanagi cocks his head and studies the mummy's face. "Ah, shouldn't your face have healed ages ago? Or is that kouhai of yours a fan of bondage - sorry, slip of the tongue - bandages?"
Whoever Yanagi was talking to - Kirihara still wasn't really sure he wasn't a mummy or a zombie - splutters and scrambles for a notebook. Kirihara sticks out his tongue as he follows Yanagi over to the bench where the rest of his teammates had gathered to watch the game.
*
An agonizingly long half-hour later, Yukimura lies collapsed on the court in front of them, and Echizen was already wandering off, looking bored. A need to challenge him, to crush him and avenge Yukimura, to make everything right again, flares through Kirihara, but an unbelievably well-placed glance from Fuji Syuusuke pins him to his seat on the bench. He tells himself it's really because everyone else was still sitting there, as if they had been paralyzed, but if he were completely honest with himself he would admit that he is still completely terrified of Seigaku's tensai.
The Seigaku members start to clear out, gathering the remaining stray balls, and all the while managing to shoot several uncomfortable glares at Yukimura's prone body.
The atmosphere is tense for a long moment, but finally Sanada stands and walks around the fence onto the courts and toward Yukimura.
The rest of them get up to follow him and Kirihara can't help but think of a funeral march, until he hears a strangled sound coming from that redhead that is half of Seigaku's "golden pair," and whips around to barely catch both Niou and Yagyuu making obscene hand gestures in their direction.
Kirihara doesn't even try to contain his laughter, and suddenly the tension is broken. The situation is just as embarrassing as before, but somehow it doesn't seem to matter quite as much. He runs forward to where Sanada and Yanagi are trying to rouse Yukimura. Yanagi gives him a once-over, and declares that he really is only asleep, and that they have nothing to worry about. Sanada's worry and disbelief is obvious, and Kirihara suggests that they try to move Yukimura off the courts to distract him.
Sanada flushes crimson as Yanagi arranges Yukimura's dead-weight arms around his neck, and his legs around his waist. It works as well as could be expected, but is still slow going, as Sanada refuses to walk at more than half a meter per second. Eventually they get him over to the side of the courts, past where he could possibly be hit by a stray ball. Evidently it took more time than they had realized, however, dusk had started to fall, and any stray remaining member of Seigaku - even a slow, awkward freshman - was nowhere to be found.
"Well, shit."
Even Niou has the decency to look sheepish as the conscious Rikkai regulars realize that they had let themselves get locked in on the Seigaku tennis courts.