Throw in the Towel [Prince of Tennis; Ishida]
Title: Throw in the Towel
Pairings: Tachibana/Ishida's towel, Shinji/Kamio, some implied Chitose/Tachibana
Summary: Tachibana has a towel fetish...? Don't judge me. Just go with it.
Rating: R, for Ishida's naked head. :O No, actually this is pretty PG.
Word Count: ~1850
A/N: written for spurious, obvs. I don't know if this is crack or not. I think it's just weirdness.
--
"Why do you wear that towel on your head?"
He's heard it a million times before.
This time the question comes from Rokkaku's Itsuki Marehiko, during their game against Fudomine in the Kantou semi-finals. Ishida shouldn't be surprised by now, people are always asking him that. And he always replies with the same thing: "I like it."
It's sort of the truth. Enough of the truth anyway.
When Tachibana came to Fudomine for the first time, he asked Ishida about the towel. Well, the way it happened was more like Tachibana saying, "Wouldn't it be easier to play tennis if you didn't have that thing wrapped around your head?" It almost sounded condescending, but Ishida had just smiled.
"Maybe so."
After he'd seen the way Tachibana had stood up to their senpai, Ishida had thought that, if Tachibana asked again, he would gladly leave the towel on the warm-up bench.
But Tachibana didn't.
And Ishida forgot about it. Until today.
"What was that?" Itsuki doesn't seem satisfied with Ishida's answer, but then, nobody ever is. The truth is that Ishida Tetsu doesn't really have a logical reason for wearing the towel. It isn't because of some spiritual sect or because he's striving for enlightenment or even because it makes him look like a badass.
It does, though, but that's sort of beside the point.
Ishida has worn a towel on his head ever since his brother transferred to Shitenhouji. They never really looked alike, but when Gin was ten and Ishida was nine, they both shaved their heads and pretended to be twins. It was sort of an ineffective plan, considering Gin was at least thirty pounds heavier than Ishida, even back then. When Gin left, Ishida decided he'd keep a towel on his head until his hair grew back.
A month passed, and the towel stayed on.
When he started school at Fudomine Chuu, it became sort of a trademark for him. People he didn't know called out to him in the hallway, "Hey towel-head guy!"
It felt good to stand out.
He certainly stands out now. Itsuki keeps badgering him with questions: "Why is it white?" "Where did you get it?" "How big is it?" "Is it your sister's?" "Can I try it on?" "Will you take it off?" and Ishida starts to feel sort of awkward, as though everyone's eyes are on him.
And they are. Especially Tachibana's. Ishida's towel is apparently the most interesting thing on the tennis court that afternoon.
It's as though Tachibana catches on to Ishida's nervousness, because he interrupts Itsuki's interrogation, just as Ishida starts to feel his face grow flushed with embarrassment.
And when Tachibana speaks, everyone falls silent.
"Thank you for the games," he says. "We hope to play you again at Nationals." Ishida has always loved to hear Tachibana speak. He has the sort of presence of someone twice his age, a natural charisma. He looks at Ishida when he's finished talking, eyes sliding over the other players, Kamio, Ibu, Uchimura, until they're focused back on the towel atop Ishida's head.
Just then, there's the click of sandals on the pavement and Tachibana looks up. They all do. There's some floofy-haired hippy sauntering over. He looks like he thinks he owns the place, and Tachibana looks at him with recognition, acknowledgment, and something more.
They must know each other, Ishida thinks.
When the hippy opens his mouth and speaks to Tachibana, Ishida feels an immediate pang of something in his chest that he will, moments later, recognize as jealousy. Because this time, Tachibana is the one who is mesmerized. The hippy calls him by his first name and their eyes lock with a shared secret past that Ishida has heard nothing about, that all of Fudomine is not included in.
And then after few words, the sandals click away and the whole mood seems to break back into disarray. Ibu starts mumbling on about how those shoes aren't really appropriate for walking. They're kind of tall and unwieldy and look kind of like the shoes a geisha would wear, and maybe this guy is a geisha, but he isn't sure if there are male geishas, and surely Tachibana-san didn't associate with geishas to begin with and-
Rokkaku Chuu's Saeki breaks through Ibu's monologue sounding sort of anxious.
"Shouldn't we get going?" he says, calling to his teammates. "I'm sure the other schools are already getting onto their coaches to head out."
"What?" asks Itsuki. He scratches his head and opens his mouth to say more, but then Kisarazu and Aoi are leading him away, beckoning to the rest of the team to follow.
"Our bus was parked over here, right?" Ishida hears Saeki ask. "By Hyotei's?" He's grinning.
And then they're gone.
"I wonder why Saeki-san was in such a hurry," Ibu starts. "Maybe they don't like us. But why shouldn't they like us? Our uniforms are really nice. I've always liked black and pink together. We're much cooler than anyone from those other schools. At least, Akira thinks I'm cool. He said that to me last night, I wonder if he meant-"
"Shinji!" A hand claps over Ibu's mouth and everyone freezes and looks over.
Kamio is blushing.
That evening when the team returns to the clubroom, everyone wastes no time changing out of their uniforms and hitting the showers. Kamio is already planning a party at his house to celebrate their victory. Ibu has been mumbling about what sort of music they should play for the past eight and a half minutes.
When the two of them come back from the showers and change into their regular clothes, he has moved on to discussing decorations. Kamio frowns at the idea of streamers and balloons, but likes the idea of a strobe light.
"I don't actually know where we'd get a strobe light though," Ibu starts. "I know they have them at some of the karaoke boxes. But I don't think they'd like it very much if we stole one. Besides, they might be heavy. But you can run fast, Akira. The other day when you were running, I think I saw Seigaku's Inui timing you, not that I was really watching you or anything…" He trails off, but Kamio is already grinning.
"Karaoke!" he says. "That sounds like a great idea, Shinji!" Ibu smiles and nods and blushes a little, and Ishida wonders how it is that Kamio can make him go quiet like that. It's a skill the rest of them would love to have, at any rate.
Ibu and Kamio set out the door together to make plans and, when their fingers thread together as they leave the clubroom, Sakurai and Mori exchange looks, and a few hundred yen.
"What's that all about?" Ishida asks them.
They smirk. "Bets, my friend," says Mori. "Bets."
Soon everyone else is out of the clubroom but Tachibana and Ishida. Ishida always lingers because he likes to shower by himself. It's weird to admit, but he's grown so used to having the towel on his head that taking it off makes him feel exposed and vulnerable. He starts to take off his tennis shorts and jersey and wraps a towel around himself before heading off to the shower. He's aware of the way Tachibana's eyes follow him, but thinks nothing of it at first. He doesn't mind when Tachibana watches him, not really. It's Tachibana, after all. And besides, he looks at all his team like that, with the same pride and sincerity.
No, not quite the same.
Ishida thinks it would be presumptuous to think something is different today, with him. Maybe Tachibana is just feeling shaken up over seeing that hippy. It would certainly be enough to make anyone nervous. The guy must've been at least 6'5", give or take a few inches for the sandals, which, in and of themselves were sort of fearsome. Granted he was willowy as a rake, but he had that same charismatic gleam in his eye that Tachibana always does, like he was in control. It made Ishida uncomfortable, to have someone know Tachibana that long, that well.
It wasn't that Ishida was possessive. He had no claim to his Tachibana. But Fudomine did. He was their captain. He was theirs.
When Ishida comes back from the shower, Tachibana is still there, sitting on the bench adjusting the tension on his racket. Upon closer inspection, Ishida can see that he seems to be only pretending, and is sort of just fiddling with it now. Ishida feels something in his stomach jump.
"Tachibana-san…" he starts, and Tachibana stands. "Are you all right? You seem different from earlier today."
Tachibana nods, and smiles slightly. He looks more open than usual. "That Itsuki sure had a lot of questions for you, didn't he?"
"I guess so," Ishida replies, trying to sound casual. He pulls his t-shirt off the shelf and slips it over his head. Then he grabs his jeans and boxer shorts and puts them on too. "He seemed like he was like that with everyone."
"He seemed like he liked your towel," Tachibana says, laughing.
Ishida blushes. "Oh," he says. "Maybe he wants one too?"
"He asked you something," Tachibana starts, "something I'd been wanting to ask for a while…"
"It's not my sister's towel, Tachibana-san," Ishida replies. Then he blushes even harder. He shouldn't have made a joke to Tachibana-san. He might find it rude or something.
"Not that question, Ishida." Tachibana takes a step forward and Ishida realizes that his jeans are still unbuttoned. He moves his fingers quickly to fasten them. But Tachibana isn't looking at his jeans. He's looking at the towel. He quirks an eyebrow and the smile is back.
"Will you take it off?" he asks. His voice is soft, edged with something Ishida hasn't heard before, at least not directed at him. It's sort of the same tone Tachibana had used earlier with the hippy - Senri was his name, Ishida remembers.
"I-" Ishida starts, his voice cracking. Then it falls to a whisper. "Tachibana-san…"
Tachibana leans in closer. "I asked you that the day I met you. Do you remember?"
"No," Ishida says, a nervous protest, "You asked if it would be better for my t-tennis…"
"That was just a cover," Tachibana says, grinning. "You're a mystery, Ishida-kun. You're all wrapped up under there."
Ishida's face feels hot. Tachibana is so close to him now. Ishida watches his fingers climb through the air and thumb the edges of towel.
"Tachibana-san," Ishida says, "You can- you can take it off if you want to."
That's all the permission Tachibana needs, because then his hands are everywhere, moving to cup the back of Ishida's skull and slide under the white terrycloth. Ishida shivers. No one has ever touched his head like this before. No one has-
Tachibana lets out a little gasp of surprise when he finds Ishida's scalp smooth.
"You're-" he starts. His pinky brushing the back of Ishida's right ear.
"Yeah," Ishida says. "Long story."
Tachibana carefully unravels the towel and it falls away, a puddle of white at Ishida's feet. Ishida blinks and looks at his captain. Tachibana stares back at him in something like awe.
"Damn," he says, finally, "you're even hotter when it's off."
--
Pairings: Tachibana/Ishida's towel, Shinji/Kamio, some implied Chitose/Tachibana
Summary: Tachibana has a towel fetish...? Don't judge me. Just go with it.
Rating: R, for Ishida's naked head. :O No, actually this is pretty PG.
Word Count: ~1850
A/N: written for spurious, obvs. I don't know if this is crack or not. I think it's just weirdness.
--
"Why do you wear that towel on your head?"
He's heard it a million times before.
This time the question comes from Rokkaku's Itsuki Marehiko, during their game against Fudomine in the Kantou semi-finals. Ishida shouldn't be surprised by now, people are always asking him that. And he always replies with the same thing: "I like it."
It's sort of the truth. Enough of the truth anyway.
When Tachibana came to Fudomine for the first time, he asked Ishida about the towel. Well, the way it happened was more like Tachibana saying, "Wouldn't it be easier to play tennis if you didn't have that thing wrapped around your head?" It almost sounded condescending, but Ishida had just smiled.
"Maybe so."
After he'd seen the way Tachibana had stood up to their senpai, Ishida had thought that, if Tachibana asked again, he would gladly leave the towel on the warm-up bench.
But Tachibana didn't.
And Ishida forgot about it. Until today.
"What was that?" Itsuki doesn't seem satisfied with Ishida's answer, but then, nobody ever is. The truth is that Ishida Tetsu doesn't really have a logical reason for wearing the towel. It isn't because of some spiritual sect or because he's striving for enlightenment or even because it makes him look like a badass.
It does, though, but that's sort of beside the point.
Ishida has worn a towel on his head ever since his brother transferred to Shitenhouji. They never really looked alike, but when Gin was ten and Ishida was nine, they both shaved their heads and pretended to be twins. It was sort of an ineffective plan, considering Gin was at least thirty pounds heavier than Ishida, even back then. When Gin left, Ishida decided he'd keep a towel on his head until his hair grew back.
A month passed, and the towel stayed on.
When he started school at Fudomine Chuu, it became sort of a trademark for him. People he didn't know called out to him in the hallway, "Hey towel-head guy!"
It felt good to stand out.
He certainly stands out now. Itsuki keeps badgering him with questions: "Why is it white?" "Where did you get it?" "How big is it?" "Is it your sister's?" "Can I try it on?" "Will you take it off?" and Ishida starts to feel sort of awkward, as though everyone's eyes are on him.
And they are. Especially Tachibana's. Ishida's towel is apparently the most interesting thing on the tennis court that afternoon.
It's as though Tachibana catches on to Ishida's nervousness, because he interrupts Itsuki's interrogation, just as Ishida starts to feel his face grow flushed with embarrassment.
And when Tachibana speaks, everyone falls silent.
"Thank you for the games," he says. "We hope to play you again at Nationals." Ishida has always loved to hear Tachibana speak. He has the sort of presence of someone twice his age, a natural charisma. He looks at Ishida when he's finished talking, eyes sliding over the other players, Kamio, Ibu, Uchimura, until they're focused back on the towel atop Ishida's head.
Just then, there's the click of sandals on the pavement and Tachibana looks up. They all do. There's some floofy-haired hippy sauntering over. He looks like he thinks he owns the place, and Tachibana looks at him with recognition, acknowledgment, and something more.
They must know each other, Ishida thinks.
When the hippy opens his mouth and speaks to Tachibana, Ishida feels an immediate pang of something in his chest that he will, moments later, recognize as jealousy. Because this time, Tachibana is the one who is mesmerized. The hippy calls him by his first name and their eyes lock with a shared secret past that Ishida has heard nothing about, that all of Fudomine is not included in.
And then after few words, the sandals click away and the whole mood seems to break back into disarray. Ibu starts mumbling on about how those shoes aren't really appropriate for walking. They're kind of tall and unwieldy and look kind of like the shoes a geisha would wear, and maybe this guy is a geisha, but he isn't sure if there are male geishas, and surely Tachibana-san didn't associate with geishas to begin with and-
Rokkaku Chuu's Saeki breaks through Ibu's monologue sounding sort of anxious.
"Shouldn't we get going?" he says, calling to his teammates. "I'm sure the other schools are already getting onto their coaches to head out."
"What?" asks Itsuki. He scratches his head and opens his mouth to say more, but then Kisarazu and Aoi are leading him away, beckoning to the rest of the team to follow.
"Our bus was parked over here, right?" Ishida hears Saeki ask. "By Hyotei's?" He's grinning.
And then they're gone.
"I wonder why Saeki-san was in such a hurry," Ibu starts. "Maybe they don't like us. But why shouldn't they like us? Our uniforms are really nice. I've always liked black and pink together. We're much cooler than anyone from those other schools. At least, Akira thinks I'm cool. He said that to me last night, I wonder if he meant-"
"Shinji!" A hand claps over Ibu's mouth and everyone freezes and looks over.
Kamio is blushing.
That evening when the team returns to the clubroom, everyone wastes no time changing out of their uniforms and hitting the showers. Kamio is already planning a party at his house to celebrate their victory. Ibu has been mumbling about what sort of music they should play for the past eight and a half minutes.
When the two of them come back from the showers and change into their regular clothes, he has moved on to discussing decorations. Kamio frowns at the idea of streamers and balloons, but likes the idea of a strobe light.
"I don't actually know where we'd get a strobe light though," Ibu starts. "I know they have them at some of the karaoke boxes. But I don't think they'd like it very much if we stole one. Besides, they might be heavy. But you can run fast, Akira. The other day when you were running, I think I saw Seigaku's Inui timing you, not that I was really watching you or anything…" He trails off, but Kamio is already grinning.
"Karaoke!" he says. "That sounds like a great idea, Shinji!" Ibu smiles and nods and blushes a little, and Ishida wonders how it is that Kamio can make him go quiet like that. It's a skill the rest of them would love to have, at any rate.
Ibu and Kamio set out the door together to make plans and, when their fingers thread together as they leave the clubroom, Sakurai and Mori exchange looks, and a few hundred yen.
"What's that all about?" Ishida asks them.
They smirk. "Bets, my friend," says Mori. "Bets."
Soon everyone else is out of the clubroom but Tachibana and Ishida. Ishida always lingers because he likes to shower by himself. It's weird to admit, but he's grown so used to having the towel on his head that taking it off makes him feel exposed and vulnerable. He starts to take off his tennis shorts and jersey and wraps a towel around himself before heading off to the shower. He's aware of the way Tachibana's eyes follow him, but thinks nothing of it at first. He doesn't mind when Tachibana watches him, not really. It's Tachibana, after all. And besides, he looks at all his team like that, with the same pride and sincerity.
No, not quite the same.
Ishida thinks it would be presumptuous to think something is different today, with him. Maybe Tachibana is just feeling shaken up over seeing that hippy. It would certainly be enough to make anyone nervous. The guy must've been at least 6'5", give or take a few inches for the sandals, which, in and of themselves were sort of fearsome. Granted he was willowy as a rake, but he had that same charismatic gleam in his eye that Tachibana always does, like he was in control. It made Ishida uncomfortable, to have someone know Tachibana that long, that well.
It wasn't that Ishida was possessive. He had no claim to his Tachibana. But Fudomine did. He was their captain. He was theirs.
When Ishida comes back from the shower, Tachibana is still there, sitting on the bench adjusting the tension on his racket. Upon closer inspection, Ishida can see that he seems to be only pretending, and is sort of just fiddling with it now. Ishida feels something in his stomach jump.
"Tachibana-san…" he starts, and Tachibana stands. "Are you all right? You seem different from earlier today."
Tachibana nods, and smiles slightly. He looks more open than usual. "That Itsuki sure had a lot of questions for you, didn't he?"
"I guess so," Ishida replies, trying to sound casual. He pulls his t-shirt off the shelf and slips it over his head. Then he grabs his jeans and boxer shorts and puts them on too. "He seemed like he was like that with everyone."
"He seemed like he liked your towel," Tachibana says, laughing.
Ishida blushes. "Oh," he says. "Maybe he wants one too?"
"He asked you something," Tachibana starts, "something I'd been wanting to ask for a while…"
"It's not my sister's towel, Tachibana-san," Ishida replies. Then he blushes even harder. He shouldn't have made a joke to Tachibana-san. He might find it rude or something.
"Not that question, Ishida." Tachibana takes a step forward and Ishida realizes that his jeans are still unbuttoned. He moves his fingers quickly to fasten them. But Tachibana isn't looking at his jeans. He's looking at the towel. He quirks an eyebrow and the smile is back.
"Will you take it off?" he asks. His voice is soft, edged with something Ishida hasn't heard before, at least not directed at him. It's sort of the same tone Tachibana had used earlier with the hippy - Senri was his name, Ishida remembers.
"I-" Ishida starts, his voice cracking. Then it falls to a whisper. "Tachibana-san…"
Tachibana leans in closer. "I asked you that the day I met you. Do you remember?"
"No," Ishida says, a nervous protest, "You asked if it would be better for my t-tennis…"
"That was just a cover," Tachibana says, grinning. "You're a mystery, Ishida-kun. You're all wrapped up under there."
Ishida's face feels hot. Tachibana is so close to him now. Ishida watches his fingers climb through the air and thumb the edges of towel.
"Tachibana-san," Ishida says, "You can- you can take it off if you want to."
That's all the permission Tachibana needs, because then his hands are everywhere, moving to cup the back of Ishida's skull and slide under the white terrycloth. Ishida shivers. No one has ever touched his head like this before. No one has-
Tachibana lets out a little gasp of surprise when he finds Ishida's scalp smooth.
"You're-" he starts. His pinky brushing the back of Ishida's right ear.
"Yeah," Ishida says. "Long story."
Tachibana carefully unravels the towel and it falls away, a puddle of white at Ishida's feet. Ishida blinks and looks at his captain. Tachibana stares back at him in something like awe.
"Damn," he says, finally, "you're even hotter when it's off."
--