(FIC) Seven Days and Counting for tokyostory By chiachiaamichan
Author: chiachiaamichan
For: tokyostory
Title: Seven Days and Counting
Characters: Shishido and Atobe, with the rest of Hyotei thrown in on the side.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Atobe attempts to invite Shishido out for tea the first day of summer break. Shishido declines, and instead end up taking a week to show Atobe how the "other side" spend their summer vacation.
Warnings: Very minimal cursing in here; the rating comes entirely from the condoms that come up during one of the days.
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine, nor will it ever be, I fear.
A/N: Wow. I just want to say that I had an insanely fun time writing this, for all it took me about a month to get the muses going. Also, I want to give major credit to my beta for getting this entire thing read and beta-d in about two days. She deserves so many more thanks than I can possibly fit into this. As an ending, I just want to say that I really, really hope that everyone enjoys reading this.
Shishido glanced at the clock. Then back at his book. When he glanced at the clock again, a mere thirty seconds had passed since his last time-check. He resisted the urge to bang his head against his desk.
Summer break was scheduled to start in five minutes (four and a half, now), and Shishido could not and would not believe that time was passing normally. It had obviously slowed down just to torture him longer in this classroom from hell. Obviously.
After all, what kind of teacher would assign a silent study period for the time slot before school released its students for the long-awaited freedom? The answer was Shishido's, obviously.
Many things were becoming obvious to Shishido in these five arduous minutes.
That time hated him...that the school hated him...that the world in general hated him. He mentally added that Atobe was a dickhead who enjoyed the pain of those around him to the list. Who wouldn't think that, as they watched the prim and proper boy actually study? Didn't he know that you weren't supposed to study during a last block study hall?
The bell jolted Shishido out of his musings, and he belatedly realized that it had ended. He was free for a few glorious weeks. No teachers, no school, and he could laze about as much as he wanted. Heaven.
"Shishido." He looked up, to be graced with a lovely view of Atobe's chin. Oh, how Shishido hated Atobe and his need to tower over people.
"Atobe." Like hell Shishido was going to grace him with a polite response.
"Ore-sama was of the mind to extend an invitation to take tea tomorrow."
Shishido, currently in the process of shoving his books back into his desk, froze. "...what?"
"Ore-sama said--"
"I know what you said Atobe!" he yelled, slightly more loudly than he had meant to. "I mean, it's the first day of summer break, and you want to waste it on a tea party?!"
Atobe's expression, previously his usual self-satisfied smirk, immediately dropped into a frown. "I see no problem with such things."
Shishido almost sighed. However, teenage boys did not sigh, and therefore, Shishido would not sigh. "Atobe, just how were you planning to spend your break?"
"As Ore-sama always does. There would be time for daily tea, most likely banquets every week, and tennis, of course." The usual expression went right back up. "I would invite everyone," he added, as if the team was an afterthought.
The tennis team that was the central focus of Shishido's life being an afterthought was the last thing on Shishido's mind, at the moment. No, his mind was zeroing in on the fact that Atobe had no idea how to spend a proper summer break.
"No."
"Excuse me?" Now Atobe looked annoyed, or offended; or both. Shishido wasn't too good with inferring moods, especially with Atobe, despite his being the resident Drama King at Hyotei.
"No. On the first day of summer break you go to the pool. Not hold a tea party." Shishido felt like he was talking to a five year old, and the confused look Atobe was giving him wasn't helping.
"Ore-sama has his own pool."
"That isn't the point." Against his better instincts, Shishido really did sigh. He then glanced around the room, to make sure there were no witnesses he would have to kill later. "My house. Tomorrow, around ten. We'll go to the pool."
And Shishido left without giving his captain a chance to argue.
*****
He had just dug himself into a pit. From which there would be no escape.
In the safe confines of his own room, Shishido Ryou found himself banging his head against his desk, trying to come up with a reason for inviting Atobe to the pool. He was going to die for it. If people claimed that it was possible to sense impending doom, this is what it must have felt like.
Shishido banged his head a little harder. And inspiration struck.
He lifted his head off the desk, and reached for his cell phone.
*****
The next day, Atobe knocked on the door of the Shishido household at exactly ten o'clock am. He was greeted by a half-dressed Shishido Ryou with a toothbrush in his mouth and a hairbrush in his hand. After receiving a rather amused look from the gray-haired boy, Shishido let him in, then closed the door and returned to the bathroom. He emerged seconds later looking slightly better groomed and distinctly annoyed.
"Atobe, when someone says 'around ten' they mean you should come later."
Atobe shrugged, which roughly meant, I'm simply going to ignore everything you just said.
"Whatever." Shishido shook his head. "Just go get changed into your suit. You did bring one, right?"
"You have so little faith in Ore-sama's ability to infer," Atobe replied as he displayed a suit. Granted, it did have purple flowers as its main design, but Shishido counted his blessings that Atobe hadn't brought a Speedo, or something equally indecent.
Instead of saying anything, Shishido just waved Atobe into the bathroom and walked off into his room, to grab a tee-shirt and his swim bag. By the time he returned, Atobe was out of the bathroom and dressed similarly to Shishido.
"I didn't know you had it in you to own a tee-shirt, Atobe," Shishido shamelessly prodded his team captain.
"Ore-sama is not so far out of the proverbial loop that he would not own one or two," the other boy replied.
Shishido scowled as Atobe once again proved himself superior at verbal sparring. "Whatever. Let's go."
He walked to the entry and slid his shoes on without checking to see if Atobe was following. He didn't need to. All he had to do was open the door and let Atobe walk out first.
Neither said anything as they walked to the pool. Atobe was disinterestedly examining everything that they passed, as the majority of the shops and offices were far beneath his usual interests. Shishido, not one for conversations, welcomed the silence.
They reached the pool, and each paid the minimal entrance fee (because as minimal as it was, there was no way in hell that Shishido was paying for Atobe, who could probably pay the fee for all of Japan and still have enough money to buy several third-world countries).
It was not until Shishido was searching for a public locker in which to leave their clothes, that Atobe finally spoke up.
"Would you now care to explain to Ore-sama why we have come?"
Shishido, upon successfully locating an unused locker, began to explain as he slid his shoes off. "On the first day of summer vacation, it is absolutely essential that some time be spent at the public pool. When at the pool, one is expected to needle one's rivals, who will also be at the pool, and flirt with the girls."
Atobe raised an eyebrow as he placed his shoes in the locker next to Shishido's. "Flirt with the girls?"
Shishido scowled. "It wasn't my idea. It's just what you do." He glanced around the pool, before bringing his eyes back to the locker, then Atobe. "I'm not doing it with you though."
"Ore-sama is perfectly aware of how to flirt." He reached a hand up to flip his hair as a pair of girls walked by, causing them to giggle. "However, I also happen to know that flirting with a group works better if you are in a group."
"Girls are lame, and I have a back-up plan for you," Shishido replied.
"There you are!" Atobe and Shishido turned, to see Oshitari approaching, wearing a dark blue bathing suit and sunglasses. "I've been waiting for you."
"Have fun, Atobe. I'm going to swim laps," Shishido muttered, turning towards the end of the pool roped off for those who were more visiting for more serious pastimes.
"Wait." Oshitari grabbed his arm as the shorter boy tried to pass him. "I think you need these life-lessons more than Atobe does."
Shishido scowled, but moved back into the small circle once he realized that Hyotei's resident tensai was not going to let go of him.
"That's better," Oshitari said, smiling ever so slightly. Shishido though it made him look creepy, but the girls who were walking by blushed and walked faster.
"Now then, the rules. One: if the girl waves at you, you wave back. Two: one-upping someone makes you look better. Girls like that. Three: the only real competition here is Sengoku Kiyosumi. If you see him, make sure you make him look bad."
Atobe arched one delicate eyebrow. "Ore-sama wishes to know why a player from Yamabuki, of all places, is considered competition."
Oshitari shook his head in response. "He's the only one who comes here to flirt and actually can do it successfully. Hence we must sabotage him at every opportunity."
"I repeat: Girls. Are. Lame. Can I go now?" Without waiting for a reply, Shishido dashed off towards the end of the pool designated for the few people who actually visited the pool for the sake of exercising. He jumped right in and took off before his friends could catch up or the lifeguard could reprimand him. There were some perks to being a dash specialist outside of sports, after all.
He was taking a short break after his third lap set when he notices that someone was swimming in the lane next to his. He raised an eyebrow as a very familiar mop of gray hair surfaced next to him.
"Atobe," Shishido muttered.
"Shishido," Atobe replied pleasantly.
"Why are you swimming?"
"Ore-sama was not impressed with the girls. They provided no challenge to Oshitari's so-called 'sport."
Shishido scowled at Atobe, then directed it at a girl who was waving at him, then started swimming again without replying to the other boy.
Atobe quite obviously didn't like that. The next time Shishido stopped to rest; Atobe stepped next to him, wearing a scowl very similar to the brown-haired boy's.
"Why did you ignore me?"
The same girl from before was waving at Shishido again. He raised a hand and jerkily waved back at her. "Just because girls are lame, it doesn't mean you can disrespect them."
The girl was walking over. Shishido pushed away from the edge of the pool and started another lap. By the time he returned, Atobe had struck up a conversation with her.
"Shishido, this is Akari." The girl blushed. "Akari, Shishido." Shishido mentally added that Atobe also liked to stick his nose into places it didn't belong onto his ever-growing list of ‘Reasons why Atobe Keigo is a dickhead'. “I was just telling her that we were planning on leaving for some food. Don’t you think that she should join us?”
The brown-haired boy glared at Atobe, then heaved himself out of the pool. “Whatever. Let’s go.”
They left Akari briefly to collect their clothing and shoes, and to let Oshitari know that they were leaving and he was on his own, before going to meet her outside of the pool (and somewhere in the middle, they ran into Sengoku and Shishido not-so-subtlety pushed him into the pool, after which they unabashedly left the Yamabuki player to lament his ruined hair).
Shishido let Atobe lead the way to a café of his choosing. He didn’t care that he was out with a girl, and certainly didn’t care to incur Atobe’s wrath by going to an ‘indecent’ restaurant. At the moment, Shishido was more upset that his exercise had been interrupted.
Then again, it was a day to introduce Atobe to the normal teenager’s summer vacation, so Shishido probably shouldn’t have been complaining.
Probably.
“A-ano…Shishido-kun?” The boy in question tilted his head slightly to look at the girl walking next to him. “Are you getting anything?”
Shishido shrugged. “Maybe. I dunno.”
The Akari fell silent again, head tilted purposely towards the ground. Shishido thought that she might run off crying, until her head snapped up again. “Shishido-kun, am I intruding?”
Shishido gave her a look. “Do you want the truth or a lie?”
The girl fidgeted and looked at the ground again. She was frowning.
Shishido not-sighed, for the second time in as many days. “Look, you recognize the name Atobe, right?” Eyes wide, Akari looked up and nodded vigorously. “He,” Shishido motioned towards the boy walking in front of them, “Is one of them.” If it was at all possible, her eyes got wider. “I’m taking him around to show him how to be normal, but he’s still calling the shots. If he wants to go out with you, we’re going out with you.”
“Here.” Both Shishido and Akari were snapped out of their thoughts by Atobe’s announcement. Shishido stared in confusion for a second before realizing that Atobe meant that he wanted to eat at this place. Then, he realized Atobe had also chosen a higher-end pastry store that neither he, nor (he suspected) Akari could easily afford.
“You may choose what you wish. Ore-sama will cover the bill.” Shishido just shook his head as Akari’s jaw dropped; she quickly shook herself out of whatever shock she had entered into, then ran to the extensive cases.
Shishido sidled over to the gray-haired boy. “What’s the deal with coming here?”
Atobe glanced over, and smirked. “It is a place meant to impress.”
“Well, you’ve succeeded again.” Shishido pointedly looked at Akari, who was staring in awe at a case of flans.
“You fail to notice that she was interested in you in the first place. I think that she will be impressed by the fact that we are such great friends.” Atobe leaned closer for a second. “Do not waste Ore-sama’s gift.”
Shishido snorted, causing Atobe’s smirk to disappear. “Haven’t you been listening this whole time? I’m not interested, even if she is.” He paused, then grimaced. “She isn’t even the type of girl I like.”
"Some day you will come running to Ore-sama, wishing for help, and I will take it upon myself to refuse entirely," Atobe replied, before stepping forward, in the general direction of the counter.
"You'd better get me something good!" Shishido yelled back, before settling back against the glass of the store window and waiting for his team captain to return with the lootfood in tow.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur, and before Shishido realized what time it was, Akari was waving at them and running off, and Atobe was calling his driver and ordering him to pick him up at Shishido's house.
"So, Atobe, did you enjoy yourself today?" Shishido asked as he pushed his door open for the other boy.
"Well enough, I suppose," Atobe replied as we entered, almost immediately grabbing his bag and retreating to the bathroom.
Shishido took the opportunity to sprint into his kitchen, and grab a sheet that he had posted on the refrigerator the previous night, and dash back to the bathroom before Atobe noticed that he was missing.
"Good, because I've got something else for you." The door opened a moment later, to reveal Atobe in all his normally-attired, eyebrow-quirking glory.
"This." Shishido proffered the list.
Atobe gingerly took it, before running his eyes down it. "And 'this' means what?"
"It's the time and place you should meet me every day," Shishido replied. "I finally figured that one day wouldn't be enough time, so you're getting a week's worth out of the bargain."
Atobe shook his head once. "Ore-sama seems to be at a loss for replies." That being said, he tilted his head slightly to the right, and took one last look at the list. "I will go. However, I choose to reserve the right to leave at any time I decide."
"Deal!" Shishido yelled as a knock sounded on his door, signaling the end of the conversation. "I'll see you at one tomorrow, Atobe!"
*****
The next day dawned bright and early, and Shishido was actually ready for Atobe to arrive. True to his standards, Atobe was knocking precisely on the door promptly at the designated time.
This time, Shishido didn’t let Atobe into his house, but stepped out the door while yelling at his family that he was leaving, and didn’t know when he’d be back.
“Ore-sama does not know whether to be insulted that I was not let in, or indulgent of your uncouth behavior,” Atobe said as Shishido stepped off his house’s porch and began down the street.
“How about ‘interested’ in where we’re going, since you seem to be so fond ‘I’ words,” Shishido replied, casting a glare over his shoulder.
“Ore-sama will bite. Where are we going, Shishido?” The other boy raised an eyebrow.
“Today’s the arcade. I figure you need to see the typical lair of teenage boys.” Shishido slowed down, just a bit (although he would never admit to it) so that he was walking next to Atobe. “You might even see a few familiar faces again today.”
Atobe was frowning. “Ore-sama has his own-“
Shishido cut him off. “Look, this is the same as the pool case. It isn’t the same as having a game center in your own house.”
Without another word, the brown-haired tennis player swerved sharply to the right, grabbing Atobe’s arm and dragging him into their destination before he could argue.
Shishido was almost immediately greeted with the familiar noise of arcade games. He turned towards Atobe to find that his friend was wrinkling his nose at the scene. “This place is completely unhygienic.”
“It’s perfectly safe Atobe. Just go grab a game, and you’ll forget all about it,” Shishido suggested. When the gray-haired boy didn’t move, Shishido took it upon himself to push him over to one of the seated consoles and dump a few tokens into his hand.
Before he knew it, Atobe was actually playing the game, going so far as to get more tokens when the few Shishido had given him ran out, all so that he could continue playing. Shishido, having taken the console next to him, surreptitiously watched him while playing a game of his own against the player sitting across from him.
It was because of his involvement in his game that Shishido missed someone taking the seat across from Atobe, an instant challenge to a two-player battle.
In fact, Shishido would not have realized that anything at all was going on with Atobe, had the boy not jumped from his seat a minute later and yelled angrily, “You!”
From the other side of the station, a familiar cocky voice replied, “Mada mada Monkey King.”
Atobe was practically livid. “Ore-sama challenges you again!” Shishido sat back from his own console to see more easily. It was rare for Atobe to get so worked up over anything.
“It’s your embarrassment, not mine,” Echizen Ryoma called back, reaching down, presumably to put another token into the machine and start another game. Atobe crashed back down into his own seat, jamming another coin into the slot and jumping right into the game.
He lost three straight to the freshman before Shishido decided to come to his rescue. Making sure he stayed low, so that the Seigaku boy couldn’t see him, he poked Atobe and motioned to let him take the seat. Atobe sat still, probably stunned that he wasn’t winning, then moved over to take Shishido’s seat.
It didn’t take Shishido long to beat the boy across from him (as this was the only game Shishido ever played when he visited, and therefore was quite good at it). In response, Echizen jumped up, looking outraged; this quickly changed to shock when he realized that Atobe was no longer the one playing against him.
Shishido couldn’t resist snickering and smugly replying, “Shishido-sama no bigi ni yoi na~” in an almost a perfect imitation of Atobe.
The freshman across from him spluttered, glared, and then stalked away from the games and out of the game center entirely.
Shishido was satisfied with his work.
“C’mon Atobe, there’s one more thing that you have to try.” Shishido led Atobe (who had thankfully snapped out of his stupor) across the room, to where the dance music continually blared. “I can’t let you leave without trying DDR at least once.”
“DDR?” Atobe was wrinkling his nose again, probably at the high-pitched screeching of the song currently being played on the machine.
“Dance Dance Revolution. You’ve probably heard Mukahi talk about it or something,” Shishido replied, stepping over to the older (and therefore less popular) machine and feeding it coins. “Basically, you step on the arrows as they scroll over the screen. You’re a smart boy, you’ll figure it out.”
He selected an easy song, and by the end of it, Atobe had mastered the way to play the game. They played another song, and Shishido botched it badly while Atobe earned almost a perfect score.
It was almost embarrassing, how well Atobe managed to pick up the game that Shishido still could not succeed at, no matter how much effort he put into it.
In the middle of horribly botching his fourth song (Atobe had, by this point, moved up to a higher difficulty level, and succeeded at that as well), Shishido was suddenly pushed off the dance pad as another person took his place.
By the time Shishido recovered enough to recognize that he had just been displaced, and realize that he should know who had done this to him, the song had ended and both people standing on the dance had turned to look at him.
One Mukahi Gakuto was smiling widely at him, but all Shishido saw was the score flashing up onto the screen, proving that he had managed to salvage Shishido’s failing score.
“I can’t believe you didn’t call me and tell me you were coming out here with Atobe. You were lucky that I decided to stop by to play for a little bit, because you were doing horribly! Of course, that’s nothing new…”
Shishido tuned out Gakuto’s mini-rant as he turned his attention back to Atobe, who was standing with arms crossed, smiling amusedly at both of them.
“…and I wanted to see you trying to teach Atobe these things, because I was on the phone with Yuushi yesterday night, and he was telling me that you invited him out to the pool to teach Atobe about normal social activities, and I think it just isn’t fair that you ignored me completely…”
Shishido turned his eyes away from the amused teen, and instead focused on a set of bottles lying next to the machine. “What are these for?”
Gakuto stopped mid-sentence, and turned his eyes to the bottles as well, and his expression changed to interest, as if he had forgotten he had them altogether. He shrugged, and replied, “The water pipes in my house broke, and they won’t be fixed until tomorrow. If I want to bathe, the public baths are my only option.”
Shishido almost immediately realized how to use this to his advantage. “Hey, Mukahi, would you mind if we joined you?”
Gakuto was suddenly smiling, and he glanced at Atobe, who didn’t appear to know what was going on. “Why Shishido, I never thought you’d ask.”
*****
Atobe was quiet as they left the baths. Shishido was unsurprised.
He had, after all, almost stormed out on both doubles players when he learned he was expected to bathe in public. In the same water as ‘commoners’.
Gakuto had teasingly pointed out that he was probably just afraid of being naked in front of people older than he was. That settled the issue, and Atobe was out of the changing room before either of them.
He refused to let either Shishido or Gakuto come within ten feet of him until several of the older men who seemed like regular patrons approached him with an offer to join them. Nearsighted old men and Atobe’s natural gray hair did not mix, apparently, and Atobe practically ran across the baths to rejoin his fellow tennis players.
After that, Atobe stayed close, but sullenly ignored both.
Atobe’s driver was waiting for them when they reached Shishido’s house. Without a word, Atobe walked to his car.
He wouldn’t let the incident go. That was so like Atobe, to get hung up on something so small, that Shishido almost couldn’t keep himself from laughing.
Instead, as Atobe was about to slam the door shut, Shishido yelled, “Remember, tomorrow we’re meeting at eleven at the mall!”
*****
Atobe arrived at the mall early the next day, and was kept waiting for fifteen extra minutes because Shishido’s bus was running late. Everyone didn’t have the luxury of private drivers to whisk them off wherever and whenever they wanted, after all.
However, Atobe did not understand this, as he never had to make use of public transportation.
Instead, he fixed Shishido with a glare that would have dropped anyone else dead upon being exposed to it. As it was, Shishido had this specific expression used on him so often that he had quite effectively become immune to it.
“You’re late.”
“My bus came late.”
“No, you were late. Na, Kabaji?”
“Usu.”
“Wait a second. Why is he here?” Granted, Kabaji was practically Atobe’s shadow, but he shouldn’t have been here, as Shishido had done nothing to contact him.
“Ore-sama requires someone to carry his bags, and I assumed you would not appreciate a servant following us around during the course of your experiment,” Atobe replied.
“It’s not an experiment,” Shishido grumbled. “It’s total immersion in my world. Not that you’d understand.”
“Ore-sama understands better than you think,” Atobe said, standing up. “Now, what do you have planned for today’s excursion?”
“Mall dares. I think you’ll have fun with this.”
Of course, three stores and three dares for Atobe to buy pink articles of clothing, Shishido finally realized that the other boy had no compunctions against buying such things.
“Well this seems like a rather one-sided game,” Atobe finally said, after emerging from the clothing store with a pair of hot pink, girl’s knee socks. “Shishido, I dare you to go into that convenience store and buy a package of condoms.”
Shishido’s mouth dropped open, and he knew that he was turning red. Atobe had just dared him on the item that only the bravest could take on without wimping out.
Shishido certainly wasn’t a wimp, but he wasn’t sure that he could keep up his nerve to actually purchase the items.
So, before Atobe could taunt him and actually wound his pride, he stiffly walked into the nearby convenience store. He wandered a bit, just to work up his nerve to get the stupid things, and finally found himself standing in front of the small section of the store reserved for such…things.
Shishido had to stop himself from glaring at them (doing this would be pointless, he knew, as they would not run away and leave him alone) and grabbed one at random. He dashed to the counter, making sure to avoid people, and refused to look at the clerk as he paid for…them.
He ran out of the store and as soon as the change was in his hand and the item in a bag, and threw the bag at Atobe’s head; he narrowly missed, and Kabaji was quick to grab the flying condoms and place them into one of Atobe’s bags.
Shishido received some small measure of satisfaction from the fact that Atobe would undoubtedly have to explain to someone later exactly what they were doing there.
“I commend you, Shishido.” The brown-haired boy was just glad that he wasn’t clapping. That would be too much.
Shishido instead turned the glare he hadn’t given to those onto Atobe.
Atobe just smirked back, and managed to degenerate the trip into shopping for himself within the space of thirty seconds.
However, by this point, Shishido didn’t care.
He knew that he would never be able to live this down, even if Atobe forgot about it after today.
“So, your house tomorrow, at three o’clock?” Atobe asked later, as Shishido helped load bags into his car.
Shishido mutely nodded, and that was all Atobe needed to see for assurance.
It wasn’t until Atobe’s car was driving away that Shishido remembered the condoms tucked into one of the many bags; he smiled, slowly, and as he walked away, decided that maybe it hadn’t been quite so bad.
*****
Shishido could tell that Atobe was distinctly unimpressed with their plans for the day. Karaoke appeared to be even higher than the video arcade on Atobe’s list of things he considered beneath him.
Not to mention Shishido had somehow been absorbed into the small group of Choutarou and friends who also happened to be visiting on this specific day. He had been introduced to them several times, and he supposed they considered him a friend by association with Choutarou.
Atobe wasn’t that fortunate. For all he was the captain of the illustrious tennis team, the student body president, and the most popular boy in school, these boys didn’t seem to have any desire to include him.
Shishido almost felt bad for refusing Atobe’s request to rent a private room. He had opted to stay in the common room, seeing as he had only been expecting the two of them for the entire day; instead, Choutarou had spotted him, and soon Shishido had been absorbed, and Atobe ignored.
Neither of the third years had been able to speak a word to each other almost since their arrival. However, while Shishido hardly thought about this, Atobe was forced to brood on the fact, out of lack of any other way to pass the time.
That was why, when Atobe abruptly stood and stalked off towards the communal karaoke machine, Shishido didn’t notice.
In fact, Choutarou was the only one who did.
Choutarou leaned over discretely and whispered, “Shishido-san, I think Atobe-buchou is really angry,” when he noticed the silver-haired boy walking away.
Shishido glanced over his shoulder at the retreating diva, and shrugged. “He probably just decided that he should try’n sing at least once while we’re here.”
It wasn’t until the music to Suwabe Junichi’s “Cross with You” started to filter across the room that it hit the brown-haired boy that his assumptions might be incorrect. Shishido couldn’t help but wince every time he heard the phrase “I’m cross with you”. He knew that he was getting strange looks from everyone around him, because Atobe’s Suwabe impersonation was practically flawless.
The pointed glares that Atobe directed at him didn’t help, but nobody else seemed to notice.
Atobe graciously accepted the applause after the music died away, but refused to relinquish the microphone. When the clapping died away as well, Atobe held the device up to his lips once more. The audience sat forward in anticipation of another marvelous performance.
Instead, they got a single sentence. “Shishido, do not expect Ore-sama back tomorrow.”
Atobe calmly handed the microphone to the next person in line and walked off the stage, and out of the building.
Choutarou’s friends were all staring at Shishido, as many other patrons murmured questions about who this ‘Shishido’ could be, and what were they supposed to do tomorrow?
Shishido just blushed and tugged his cap around so that he wouldn’t have to see the stares of the second years who knew who he was.
Choutarou, sensing his dilemma, nudged his shoulder and smiled when the older boy looked up. “It’s all right, Shishido-san. Atobe-buchou never says mad at you, no matter what he says.”
“I think I went too far this time,” Shishido shot back, turning his eyes back down to the table.
“If it makes you feel better, I can ask Jirou-senpai to talk to him for you. Don’t give up just because of a little setback.”
Shishido glanced up again, for a second, before turning away from him and pushing his seat away from the table. “I think you’re being too optimistic, Choutarou. I know that I’m screwed.”
Without waiting for a reply, Shishido walked out.
*****
Despite his assurances to his kouhai that his plans for the week were screwed over because of the events that transpired the previous day, Shishido showed up an hour earlier at the movie theatre than the list Atobe had received on the first day indicated.
On the off-chance that he decided Shishido deserved a second chance, Shishido would be there waiting; the odds of this happening, as Shishido figured them, were slim to none.
Despite all expectations of being completely stood up, Shishido was also not the least bit surprised when a familiar chauffeured car pulled into the 'NO PARKING ZONE' in front of the theatre to discharge a single passenger.
Shishido turned to nudge Jirou (who, unsurprisingly, had been conked out on the ground next to him) awake as Atobe strutted through the crown to join them.
Shishido turned away from the other boy to face Atobe, who halted in front of him. Neither said a word, instead meeting eyes, then looking awkwardly away again.
"Hey hey, Atobe's here! Can we actually go in now? Can we?" Suddenly Jirou was up and bouncing around, grabbing arms and trying to tug both of his teammates after him at the same time.
Simultaneously they grinned; nobody could remain upset around Akutagawa Jirou's boundless enthusiasm, after all.
As they both set off after the narcoleptic tennis player, Shishido knew that somewhere in the space of those awkward moments, he had apologized to Atobe, and Atobe had forgiven him. It didn't need to be said, just understood; that was good enough.
They eventually caught up to Jirou at the food stands. He was jumping impatiently while staring at the signs that listed the horribly overpriced food available for the day.
"Shishidoooooo~ I want the big one!" Jirou called as he pointed at the board, arm flailing around and somehow managing to avoid other customers.
"Okay, okay. You'll get the big one." As quickly as the lines and the waiting they entailed permitted, Shishido acquired the most sugar-filled drink in the largest size available and an extra-large tub of popcorn. He handed the drink to Jirou and the popcorn to Atobe then led the trio to the theatre.
Atobe didn't speak up until they were safely situated in the back row.
"Exactly what have you brought me here to see?"
"I dunno," Shishido replied immediately. "I think it was called Sunset Boulevard, or something along those lines. It's some sort of chick flick."
Atobe was wrinkling his nose again, obviously less than thrilled with this arrangement.
"But we aren't here to watch it." Shishido leaned close to whisper, as anyone else hearing his plans would ruin them entirely. "We're here to make fun of it and otherwise disrupt the movie going pleasures of these women."
Because the movie theatre was indeed, filled entirely (excepting the three Hyotei boys) with women of all ages.
"And why is Jirou here?" Atobe looked around Shishido (who happened to be sitting in the middle) to the blond boy sitting on the end of the row. Said tennis player stopped gulping his soda at that exact moment and let out a belch that had people five rows in front turning around to glare.
And Shishido shrugged. "He burps the loudest."
Then he turned his attention to the bucket of popcorn sitting in his lap, looking ready for complete consumption. Instead of eating, Shishido carefully picked out a piece and began scanning the audience in front of him. He quickly zeroed in on a woman with a particularly messy mop of curls piled on her head. It was probably supposed to be a stylish up-do-Shishido though it made her look like she hadn't bothered to comb it that morning.
All the same, he silently resolved to get as many pieces of popcorn stuck in her hair as he possibly could before the movie was over, as he let the piece he had already selected fly. It landed on her head, but bounced off; she didn't notice.
Shishido didn't look as he picked out another piece. This one stuck.
He noticed another piece fly through the air, and he realized that Atobe has started on the activity as well, without question.
The lights dimmed. Shishido accidentally threw his popcorn off course, and hit a girl with shoulder-length blue hair sitting a few seats to the right. Atobe's popcorn almost simultaneously hit the girl with short, red hair next to her. Jirou belched and the other redhead turned around to glare. She had some sort of ugly heart clips holding her hair back. Shishido threw another piece of popcorn at her. It bounced off her forehead.
The girl swiveled around, so Shishido sat still and elbowed Atobe to signal that he should do the same. Finally, she turned back toward the screen; Shishido's eyes had adjusted to the darkness by this time, so he continued on his original project with the messy-haired woman.
Shishido had gotten exactly eleven pieces of popcorn successfully entangled in his target's hair when the sound went out in the theatre. The three boys in the back row seemed to realize it first, after a bang came from the projector room directly behind them, and someone could be faintly heard yelling, "The speakers!"
It was, however, Atobe's grand plan to start filling in the lines for the now-silenced actors. Jirou quickly jumped onto that bandwagon, filling in as the love-struck girl who was the main character as Atobe voiced her love interest. Shishido remained silent as the two somehow turned what must have been a touching confession into an argument.
The audience seemed confused by this, but still cooed when they embraced. However, Atobe completed his performance by saying, as the boy pulled away from the girl, "Make me a pancake, woman."
Shishido dissolved into laughter, partially at the way the audience broke seemed stunned, and partially at the fact that Atobe had just said 'pancake'. It was usually one of those uncouth things that he refused to say under any circumstances.
Shishido was just noticing that the blue-haired and red-haired girls sitting next to his popcorn dartboard were also laughing when the sound came back on, along with an announcement that they would not be replaying the movie, but offered free movie passes to all those who had attended, as an apology.
Shishido settled back, while grabbing a handful of popcorn that he actually intended to eat. Atobe grabbed one too, but opted to throw it at the girls who were still laughing at his performance. The other redhead, with the hairclips (weren't those for preschoolers?) turned around again, craning her neck to see who was throwing the popcorn. Jirou belched.
It was a good movie.
*****
Shishido managed to get twenty-five pieces of popcorn stuck in the messy curls by the end of the movie. Atobe managed to get the girl to turn around six more times. Jirou managed to finish off the entire bucket of popcorn, halting the other two's activities.
Still, the gratifying shriek of the girl as she stood up to a shower of popcorn was enough to make up for the lack of the presence of more to Shishido
However, while they were collecting their free movie passes, the group that happened to have been Atobe's targets ended up in the space behind them.
"...and I couldn't believe that she had that many pieces stuck in her hair. It almost makes me glad that the person only threw them at us, instead of doing the same thing they did to her. Except, I also wondered how it would get stuck in my hair, even if I put it up like that. I wish I knew who it was, so that I could ask them to apologize, because now we'll all have to go home and wash our hair, and it will be such a waste..."
Shishido could hardly believe his eyes or ears, as he turned slightly to find two players from the lame Fudomine team standing behind them, along with clip-girl, who he now recognized as the lame-ass captain's tagalong little sister.
And they had actually been watching the movie. It just went to prove that the little loser school was filled with weirdos.
Atobe handed his pass to Shishido as they walked away, leaving the Fudo-losers behind.
"Ore-sama wishes to ascertain that he will be meeting you at your residence tomorrow," Atobe muttered as he walked up to his car that was conveniently waiting for him.
"Yes, my place, whenever you feel like. Preferably before lunch," Shishido replied. “I think we’ll be getting it from the place we’re going.”
Atobe raised an eyebrow. “Ore-sama would prefer a definite, but if all does not go well, I will treat you to a lunch of a higher caliber.”
With that being said, Atobe’s driver pushed his door shut, returned to his side of the car and drove away.
Shishido tried to decide if his plans were actually better than the theoretical lunch Atobe had promised.
*****
Atobe arrived, once again promptly, at eleven at Shishido's house the next day. Shishido once again left without letting Atobe in. He didn't do this because he didn't want Atobe to meet his family; it was more that Shishido feared his family would become too attached to Atobe. The last thing he needed was constant requests to invite his 'charming' friend home with him.
At least, Shishido assumed they would call him charming.
"Ore-sama would like to know today's plans." Shishido was startled out of his thoughts by nobody other than their subject.
He though about it for a second, then decided it wouldn't hurt for Atobe to know ahead of time today. "We're going to crash Hiyoshi's house."
"We are going to do what?"
"Crash Hiyoshi's house. You know," actually, he probably didn't, "we're going to show up uninvited, and then proceed to raid his food and otherwise inconvenience him. Americans invented the tradition, but it's actually pretty fun." Shishido would know, having crashed several of his friends' houses before.
"And what, pray tell, would happen should Hiyoshi be out?" Atobe raised a good, if invalid point.
"It's Hiyoshi. Think about it. What does Hiyoshi do other than practice to 'gekokujo' us?"
"Ah, I see. Well than, we may proceed."
"So glad I have your permission," Shishido replied sarcastically. It wasn't like he wouldn't have done it anyway.
They arrived at Hiyoshi's house after a fifteen minute train ride and subsequent ten minute walk. It wasn't exactly an out-of-the-way location, but it wasn't within convenient transportation distance either. It must have been a dojo thing, Shishido concluded.
Said tennis player led Atobe over to the side entrance that he had noticed the household using the day before (having scouted the house the previous day after returning from the movie). It wouldn't do to knock on the dojo's main door and interrupt a class, or be ignored because they couldn't be heard.
There was a patter of footsteps, and then the door slid open, revealing a small girl who gazed up at the two boys with wide blue eyes.
The door then slid further open, revealing two more sets of identical blue eyes, all focused on the two boys before them.
"Um...we're here to see Hiyoshi," Shishido offered up, and even he admitted, it was a rather lame thing to say.
The three sets of eyes blinked, almost completely in tandem. That was just creepy.
Then the three little girls smiled (also in unison) and stepped out of the way. One ran down the hallway, and the other two motioned for Atobe and Shishido to step inside. After they did so, one little girl slid the door shut, and the other pulled out two pairs of house slippers. Shishido could faintly hear someone yelling, "'Kashi-tan, 'Kashi-tan, people want to see you!"
By the time Shishido and Atobe had gotten their shoes off and the slippers onto their feet, Hiyoshi was barreling down the steps, the girl who had gone to get him following closely.
"Ritsu, Rei, what did I tell you about letting people into the house!" The two little girls cocked their heads identically at Hiyoshi, who then turned his attention to the newcomers. "Shishido-senpai, Atobe-buchou. I...wasn't expecting this."
"That was kind of the point," Shishido replied. "You got anything to eat around here?"
Hiyoshi immediately dropped right back into his usual annoyed expression. "You're crashing my house, aren't you, senpai?"
Shishido's mouth dropped open. Atobe smirked. "That was the intended plan. Ore-sama is famished as well, so it would be prudent to provide food for the two of us."
Without replying, Hiyoshi turned on his heel and walked into another room. From the crashing the issued forth, Shishido concluded that it was the kitchen in question.
"Ne, you guys can come with us." One of the girls tugged on the leg of Shishido's pants, and soon he and Atobe were being led into another adjacent room. This one connected to the room Hiyoshi was in as well.
"Hey." One of the girls poked Atobe. "'Kashi-tan said you were Atobe Keigo-buchou, right?"
Atobe bent down to look her in the eye. "Yes, I am Atobe Keigo."
“’Kashi-tan’s been teaching us something. Wanna see?” The three little girls were now clustering around Atobe’s legs, using their wide blues eyes against the captain with all the force five year old children could muster.
Atobe smiled. Not smirked, smiled. “Ore-sama would be honored to see.”
The girl in the middle (Shishido couldn’t tell them apart, and, he belatedly realized, only knew the names of two of the three) gave a cheer of victory, then she and her two sisters (at least, Shishido assumed they were related) charged out the door.
“’Kashi-tan, we’re going to perform for Atobe Keigo-buchou! Come watch and say if we do it right!” Two of the girls dragged Hiyoshi into the doorway, and the other scurried around him.
The three girls lined up in the middle of the room, expressions mirroring the one Hiyoshi usually wore. It was suddenly disturbing, seeing three almost-perfect Hiyoshi clones, despite the difference in age and gender.
“No. I don’t think that you should-“ Hiyoshi didn’t get to finish his statement, because halfway through his sentence, the girls spun around, then pointed towards Atobe and gravely stated, “Gekokujo.”
The room went silent. Hiyoshi put a hand over his eyes, but doing so failed to hide the distinct pink tint painting his cheeks.
Shishido burst into laughter. The girls dropped their serious expressions and instead looked at him with confusion.
“Ne, what’s so funny?” One of the little girls asked as the other two began to tear up. “It wasn’t bad, was it, ‘Kashi-tan?”
“You three did fine,” Hiyoshi replied immediately, his blush deepening. “Shishido-senpai is just being rude.”
Shishido immediately stopped laughing. “That’s disrespecting your senpai, Hiyoshi. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“I’m not an angel like Ootori. I though you knew that, senpai.” Hiyoshi’s blush had all but dispersed by now, replaced by his usual scowl.
“Hiyoshi.” The second-year’s head snapped towards his captain, his expression now reflecting fear, most likely at his slight disrespect of Shishdo.
However, Atobe was smirking. If he was angry, Atobe wouldn’t have looked quite so pleased with himself. “Ore-sama may consider placing you on the actual lineup if you would bring them to our next match. It would serve as an interesting intimidation tactic.”
Hiyoshi’s blush returned, brighter than before. His scowl deepened despite his darkening cheeks, and he quickly turned back to the kitchen. “Ritsu, Rei, Rika, come help me make lunch.”
The girls cheered and ran into the kitchen. Hiyoshi turned, as if to follow them, but suddenly turned back. “I need to finish making the stuff, so it might be a few more minutes until we have anything for you. And buchou, were you being…um…”
“Ore-sama said that he would consider it, Hiyoshi. There will be no promises made at this time. But do bring your charming sisters to the next match, no matter the outcome,” Atobe replied.
“They’re cousins, not sisters,” Hiyoshi grumbled before returning to the kitchen, from which loud crashing noises were now blasting forth. It probably wasn’t the best thing to be hearing.
“Ritsu, put that pot down! Rei, the noodles need water to boil! Rika, stop waving those chopsticks around right now!”
“Seeing them almost makes me wish that I had such relatives,” Atobe said, taking a seat on one of the chairs scattered about the room.
Shishido winced as a particularly loud crash. “I don’t think you’ll feel the same after spending the rest of the day with them.”
Atobe did not reply.
*****
They left the house distinctly more tired and disheveled than they had been when they arrived.
“So, what do you have to say about younger relatives now, Atobe?” Shishido asked as they walked the route back to the train station. Shishido would be riding home-Atobe was going to be picked up and driven, but had opted to travel a small portion of the trip with his friend.
“Ore-sama finds himself corrected,” Atobe answered. He ran a hand through his hair, which was no longer holding to its usually perfect style. “I do not believe that I could survive that every day.”
“I think this is when I say, ‘I told you so’.” Shishido couldn’t keep the teasing note out of his voice. Atobe looked miffed.
“Ore-sama will also consider that comment when deciding the lineup for the next match.”
Shishido found himself without a comeback, and Atobe took the opportunity to make a graceful exit, his limo appearing as soon as he reached the curb. “Ore-sama knows the time and place tomorrow. I’ll expect you there exactly on time as well.” He raised one hand as a sign of departure, and then he was gone.
Shishido silently asked himself when he had lost control to Atobe, and then silently realized that he probably never had it in the first place.
*****
“Ore-sama does not approve.”
Of course, on the last day of his "Shishido’s-World" adventure, Atobe would decide that he didn’t wish to take part.
“It’s just climbing a mountain, Atobe. It really isn’t as bad as you’re making it sound,” Shishido grumbled in reply.
“Ore-sama does not understand why we could not have the driver take us up.” Atobe was being obstinate, but that wasn’t anything new.
“Half the fun of reaching a destination is the journey to get there, quoth some old guy I can’t remember,” Shishido shot back. “Besides, if we took the car, we’d get there too early.”
Atobe quirked an eyebrow.
“Yes, I do happen to have something else planned. No, you can’t know what,” Shishido added before Atobe could even open his mouth.
“You have successfully piqued my interest. Lead the way, Shishido.” Despite his command, Atobe stepped forward first and began to climb the dirt trail up the side of the mountain. Shishido did not comment on this, but was content to follow.
*****
Shishido was quite happy to see Atobe shocked upon reaching the mountaintop.
Who wouldn’t be, after spending two hours climbing a mountain only to find one’s teammates atop it, surrounding a roaring fire?
“Surprise, Atobe,” Shishido said as the gray-haired boy surveyed the scene before him. Surveyed might not have been the right word; Atobe looked like he was flinching away from some grotesque monster, not watching his teammates hold a bonfire.
“What is that smell?”
Shishido sniffed. “I think that’s the wieners.”
Atobe looked like he was going to faint.
“Shishido-san, would Atobe-buchou like a hotdog or a sausage?”
“Who brought sausages?” Shishido asked, completely ignoring the question posed to him.
Oshitari, who was sitting by the fire doing absolutely nothing, shrugged. “I think it was Gakuto. I told you that he shouldn’t have been the one to go shopping.”
Gakuto was currently trying to see how close he could get a burning stick to Jirou’s face before the sleeping boy rolled away. “Yuushi, I already told you, it was the right shape and the only other thing left.”
“Senpai should have sent me.” The tree beside Shishido suddenly dropped several leaves and one kouhai. “I found the Frisbee, Mukahi-senpai.”
Jirou immediately sat up, his face coming within inches of the stick Gakuto was holding. Gakuto jolted backwards, to avoid hitting the narcoleptic, and ended up falling on his ass in the dirt. The stick fell next to him and promptly smothered itself.
“Frisbee? The Frisbee is back?” Jirou jumped up and started running in the opposite direction. “Throw it to me, Hiyoshi~”
“Akutagawa-senpai, come back and get some food!” The ever-caring Ootori stood and called his senpai back, while holding up several sticks that had both hotdogs and sausages speared on them. Jirou was back in a flash; tearing open the package of buns and holding one hopefully out to Ootori. The second-year laughed and offered a stick to his senpai.
“Come on Atobe, the food’s ready, and you can’t possibly be stubborn enough to refuse trying it at least once.”
Shishido ended up dragging a reluctant Atobe over to Ohtori to get the food, but only with the help of both Oshitari and Mukahi.
Atobe made quite a show of being reluctant to eat food that had been seared over a fire and then placed in a bun of the cheap, mass-produced sort of bread. He took only the tiniest of bites each and every time, and made sure to gulp the water Hiyoshi provided, as if it was necessary to wash the taste from his mouth.
However, Shishido didn’t miss him sneaking another one after everyone else had engaged in a playful Frisbee match.
*****
They finally revealed the marshmallows as the sun was setting. The bonfire was blazing as bright as ever, and the hotdogs and sausages were all long gone.
The Hyotei tennis team was drowsing when Hiyoshi retreated to the coolers Oshitari had provided for the purpose of transporting the food. He returned with several bags and boxes; Jirou was the first to notice.
“Hey, marshmallows!” He jumped up and ran excitedly to his underclassmen. “And chocolate! Hey, hey, we’re making s’mores, aren’t we Shishido?”
“That was the plan.”
Atobe wrinkled his nose, but accepted the stick with the gooey treat speared on the end when it was handed to him, after being properly burned partially to a crisp. He did not, however, eat it as everyone else was, but instead began to pick off the black, flaky crust.
“Atobe, just eat it. That stuff isn’t going to kill you.” Shishido waved his own stick to indicate that all marshmallows were meant to meet such a fate. However, this proved to be a bad plan of action, as it instead sent Shishido’s own crispy, gooey marshmallow flying; it was soon a crispy, gooey mess lodged firmly in Atobe’s hair.
The circle around the campfire went dead silent as everyone stared at the damage Shishido had caused. Even under the scrutiny of his team, every single one wanting to see how he would retaliate, Atobe remained calm. He calmly removed as much marshmallow as he could from his hair, calmly walked away to rinse his hands of the sticky mess, calmly returned and reclaimed his stick from Hiyoshi, and just as calmly removed his own marshmallow and viciously shoved it into Shishido’s hair.
Shishido was openmouthed in shock. Atobe ignored him and insisted that somebody fetch him another marshmallow.
Atobe successfully toasted his first marshmallow that night, and added eating his first s’more to the long list of firsts he had been accumulating for the past week.
While they ate, the team began to recount their experiences of Atobe’s adventures into the world of normality.
Oshitari seemed almost too happy to relate his meeting with a disgruntled Sengoku at the pool after his unfortunate swimming lesson.
Gakuto proudly related how Atobe had mastered DDR better than Shishido would ever manage, and then whisked them right along to his meeting with the old men at the baths. Shishido managed to get the story of the Atobe versus Echizen video game combat in between the laughter.
Kabaji said nothing about the mall trip, for which Shishido would be eternally grateful.
Ohtori added, in his usual wonder-filled way, that he never knew that Atobe could sing so well, and he was surprised that he never joined in impromptu karaoke gatherings before.
Jirou excitedly told his team about the movies, and how the sound had gone out and he and Atobe had filled in the voices, and how they learned that Atobe had been throwing popcorn at the players from Fudomine that had beat their non-regulars so long ago.
Hiyoshi had to be prodded, but finally delivered the tale of his triplet cousins and their performance for Atobe.
After many laughs and cracks at everyone else’s expense, the team realized that Atobe had fallen asleep. He was still sitting in the same position, his stick poking into the fire, but his marshmallow long gone. By Shishido’s guess, he had lost consciousness sometime during the stories.
Shishido was still wrapping his mind around his captain sleeping in public (he never slept in front of people, as far as Shishido knew) when Oshitari sidled over. The brown-haired player turned, only to find the resident tensai inches away from him.
“I have to congratulate you, Shishido.”
Shishido raised an eyebrow, a habit he seemed to have picked up from his captain during the past week. “Why?”
Oshitari let out a little chuckle. “I don’t think Atobe would have agreed to this for any of us, except you. Even if he doesn’t admit to it, it’s obvious that he enjoyed it.”
“Yeah, well…it’s the least I could do,” Shishido replied, knowing that he tips of his ears would be bright red in the daylight. “I only did it in the beginning because he tried to get me to come to tea with him.”
“Moving past the circumstances, it really was a good thing for him. And what is good for Atobe reflects well in how he treats us, the team.” Oshitari shrugged and took one last look at the fire. “Gakuto’s got his cars up here to get us back down. I suggest we get him moved into one, and leave the servants to put the fire out.”
Shishido was glad Oshitari stopped the conversation there. The friendship between himself and Atobe was mainly based in the unspoken, and Shishido preferred that it remained that way. Let everyone think that they were nothing more than teammates that continually needled one another.
That was how it always had been, and how it would stay.
*****Fin*****
Super Special Omake~
Shishido only realized that he had created a monster when he received an invitation to Atobe’s house for a DDR-karaoke bonfire party to take place the next Sunday.
For: tokyostory
Title: Seven Days and Counting
Characters: Shishido and Atobe, with the rest of Hyotei thrown in on the side.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Atobe attempts to invite Shishido out for tea the first day of summer break. Shishido declines, and instead end up taking a week to show Atobe how the "other side" spend their summer vacation.
Warnings: Very minimal cursing in here; the rating comes entirely from the condoms that come up during one of the days.
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine, nor will it ever be, I fear.
A/N: Wow. I just want to say that I had an insanely fun time writing this, for all it took me about a month to get the muses going. Also, I want to give major credit to my beta for getting this entire thing read and beta-d in about two days. She deserves so many more thanks than I can possibly fit into this. As an ending, I just want to say that I really, really hope that everyone enjoys reading this.
Shishido glanced at the clock. Then back at his book. When he glanced at the clock again, a mere thirty seconds had passed since his last time-check. He resisted the urge to bang his head against his desk.
Summer break was scheduled to start in five minutes (four and a half, now), and Shishido could not and would not believe that time was passing normally. It had obviously slowed down just to torture him longer in this classroom from hell. Obviously.
After all, what kind of teacher would assign a silent study period for the time slot before school released its students for the long-awaited freedom? The answer was Shishido's, obviously.
Many things were becoming obvious to Shishido in these five arduous minutes.
That time hated him...that the school hated him...that the world in general hated him. He mentally added that Atobe was a dickhead who enjoyed the pain of those around him to the list. Who wouldn't think that, as they watched the prim and proper boy actually study? Didn't he know that you weren't supposed to study during a last block study hall?
The bell jolted Shishido out of his musings, and he belatedly realized that it had ended. He was free for a few glorious weeks. No teachers, no school, and he could laze about as much as he wanted. Heaven.
"Shishido." He looked up, to be graced with a lovely view of Atobe's chin. Oh, how Shishido hated Atobe and his need to tower over people.
"Atobe." Like hell Shishido was going to grace him with a polite response.
"Ore-sama was of the mind to extend an invitation to take tea tomorrow."
Shishido, currently in the process of shoving his books back into his desk, froze. "...what?"
"Ore-sama said--"
"I know what you said Atobe!" he yelled, slightly more loudly than he had meant to. "I mean, it's the first day of summer break, and you want to waste it on a tea party?!"
Atobe's expression, previously his usual self-satisfied smirk, immediately dropped into a frown. "I see no problem with such things."
Shishido almost sighed. However, teenage boys did not sigh, and therefore, Shishido would not sigh. "Atobe, just how were you planning to spend your break?"
"As Ore-sama always does. There would be time for daily tea, most likely banquets every week, and tennis, of course." The usual expression went right back up. "I would invite everyone," he added, as if the team was an afterthought.
The tennis team that was the central focus of Shishido's life being an afterthought was the last thing on Shishido's mind, at the moment. No, his mind was zeroing in on the fact that Atobe had no idea how to spend a proper summer break.
"No."
"Excuse me?" Now Atobe looked annoyed, or offended; or both. Shishido wasn't too good with inferring moods, especially with Atobe, despite his being the resident Drama King at Hyotei.
"No. On the first day of summer break you go to the pool. Not hold a tea party." Shishido felt like he was talking to a five year old, and the confused look Atobe was giving him wasn't helping.
"Ore-sama has his own pool."
"That isn't the point." Against his better instincts, Shishido really did sigh. He then glanced around the room, to make sure there were no witnesses he would have to kill later. "My house. Tomorrow, around ten. We'll go to the pool."
And Shishido left without giving his captain a chance to argue.
*****
He had just dug himself into a pit. From which there would be no escape.
In the safe confines of his own room, Shishido Ryou found himself banging his head against his desk, trying to come up with a reason for inviting Atobe to the pool. He was going to die for it. If people claimed that it was possible to sense impending doom, this is what it must have felt like.
Shishido banged his head a little harder. And inspiration struck.
He lifted his head off the desk, and reached for his cell phone.
*****
The next day, Atobe knocked on the door of the Shishido household at exactly ten o'clock am. He was greeted by a half-dressed Shishido Ryou with a toothbrush in his mouth and a hairbrush in his hand. After receiving a rather amused look from the gray-haired boy, Shishido let him in, then closed the door and returned to the bathroom. He emerged seconds later looking slightly better groomed and distinctly annoyed.
"Atobe, when someone says 'around ten' they mean you should come later."
Atobe shrugged, which roughly meant, I'm simply going to ignore everything you just said.
"Whatever." Shishido shook his head. "Just go get changed into your suit. You did bring one, right?"
"You have so little faith in Ore-sama's ability to infer," Atobe replied as he displayed a suit. Granted, it did have purple flowers as its main design, but Shishido counted his blessings that Atobe hadn't brought a Speedo, or something equally indecent.
Instead of saying anything, Shishido just waved Atobe into the bathroom and walked off into his room, to grab a tee-shirt and his swim bag. By the time he returned, Atobe was out of the bathroom and dressed similarly to Shishido.
"I didn't know you had it in you to own a tee-shirt, Atobe," Shishido shamelessly prodded his team captain.
"Ore-sama is not so far out of the proverbial loop that he would not own one or two," the other boy replied.
Shishido scowled as Atobe once again proved himself superior at verbal sparring. "Whatever. Let's go."
He walked to the entry and slid his shoes on without checking to see if Atobe was following. He didn't need to. All he had to do was open the door and let Atobe walk out first.
Neither said anything as they walked to the pool. Atobe was disinterestedly examining everything that they passed, as the majority of the shops and offices were far beneath his usual interests. Shishido, not one for conversations, welcomed the silence.
They reached the pool, and each paid the minimal entrance fee (because as minimal as it was, there was no way in hell that Shishido was paying for Atobe, who could probably pay the fee for all of Japan and still have enough money to buy several third-world countries).
It was not until Shishido was searching for a public locker in which to leave their clothes, that Atobe finally spoke up.
"Would you now care to explain to Ore-sama why we have come?"
Shishido, upon successfully locating an unused locker, began to explain as he slid his shoes off. "On the first day of summer vacation, it is absolutely essential that some time be spent at the public pool. When at the pool, one is expected to needle one's rivals, who will also be at the pool, and flirt with the girls."
Atobe raised an eyebrow as he placed his shoes in the locker next to Shishido's. "Flirt with the girls?"
Shishido scowled. "It wasn't my idea. It's just what you do." He glanced around the pool, before bringing his eyes back to the locker, then Atobe. "I'm not doing it with you though."
"Ore-sama is perfectly aware of how to flirt." He reached a hand up to flip his hair as a pair of girls walked by, causing them to giggle. "However, I also happen to know that flirting with a group works better if you are in a group."
"Girls are lame, and I have a back-up plan for you," Shishido replied.
"There you are!" Atobe and Shishido turned, to see Oshitari approaching, wearing a dark blue bathing suit and sunglasses. "I've been waiting for you."
"Have fun, Atobe. I'm going to swim laps," Shishido muttered, turning towards the end of the pool roped off for those who were more visiting for more serious pastimes.
"Wait." Oshitari grabbed his arm as the shorter boy tried to pass him. "I think you need these life-lessons more than Atobe does."
Shishido scowled, but moved back into the small circle once he realized that Hyotei's resident tensai was not going to let go of him.
"That's better," Oshitari said, smiling ever so slightly. Shishido though it made him look creepy, but the girls who were walking by blushed and walked faster.
"Now then, the rules. One: if the girl waves at you, you wave back. Two: one-upping someone makes you look better. Girls like that. Three: the only real competition here is Sengoku Kiyosumi. If you see him, make sure you make him look bad."
Atobe arched one delicate eyebrow. "Ore-sama wishes to know why a player from Yamabuki, of all places, is considered competition."
Oshitari shook his head in response. "He's the only one who comes here to flirt and actually can do it successfully. Hence we must sabotage him at every opportunity."
"I repeat: Girls. Are. Lame. Can I go now?" Without waiting for a reply, Shishido dashed off towards the end of the pool designated for the few people who actually visited the pool for the sake of exercising. He jumped right in and took off before his friends could catch up or the lifeguard could reprimand him. There were some perks to being a dash specialist outside of sports, after all.
He was taking a short break after his third lap set when he notices that someone was swimming in the lane next to his. He raised an eyebrow as a very familiar mop of gray hair surfaced next to him.
"Atobe," Shishido muttered.
"Shishido," Atobe replied pleasantly.
"Why are you swimming?"
"Ore-sama was not impressed with the girls. They provided no challenge to Oshitari's so-called 'sport."
Shishido scowled at Atobe, then directed it at a girl who was waving at him, then started swimming again without replying to the other boy.
Atobe quite obviously didn't like that. The next time Shishido stopped to rest; Atobe stepped next to him, wearing a scowl very similar to the brown-haired boy's.
"Why did you ignore me?"
The same girl from before was waving at Shishido again. He raised a hand and jerkily waved back at her. "Just because girls are lame, it doesn't mean you can disrespect them."
The girl was walking over. Shishido pushed away from the edge of the pool and started another lap. By the time he returned, Atobe had struck up a conversation with her.
"Shishido, this is Akari." The girl blushed. "Akari, Shishido." Shishido mentally added that Atobe also liked to stick his nose into places it didn't belong onto his ever-growing list of ‘Reasons why Atobe Keigo is a dickhead'. “I was just telling her that we were planning on leaving for some food. Don’t you think that she should join us?”
The brown-haired boy glared at Atobe, then heaved himself out of the pool. “Whatever. Let’s go.”
They left Akari briefly to collect their clothing and shoes, and to let Oshitari know that they were leaving and he was on his own, before going to meet her outside of the pool (and somewhere in the middle, they ran into Sengoku and Shishido not-so-subtlety pushed him into the pool, after which they unabashedly left the Yamabuki player to lament his ruined hair).
Shishido let Atobe lead the way to a café of his choosing. He didn’t care that he was out with a girl, and certainly didn’t care to incur Atobe’s wrath by going to an ‘indecent’ restaurant. At the moment, Shishido was more upset that his exercise had been interrupted.
Then again, it was a day to introduce Atobe to the normal teenager’s summer vacation, so Shishido probably shouldn’t have been complaining.
Probably.
“A-ano…Shishido-kun?” The boy in question tilted his head slightly to look at the girl walking next to him. “Are you getting anything?”
Shishido shrugged. “Maybe. I dunno.”
The Akari fell silent again, head tilted purposely towards the ground. Shishido thought that she might run off crying, until her head snapped up again. “Shishido-kun, am I intruding?”
Shishido gave her a look. “Do you want the truth or a lie?”
The girl fidgeted and looked at the ground again. She was frowning.
Shishido not-sighed, for the second time in as many days. “Look, you recognize the name Atobe, right?” Eyes wide, Akari looked up and nodded vigorously. “He,” Shishido motioned towards the boy walking in front of them, “Is one of them.” If it was at all possible, her eyes got wider. “I’m taking him around to show him how to be normal, but he’s still calling the shots. If he wants to go out with you, we’re going out with you.”
“Here.” Both Shishido and Akari were snapped out of their thoughts by Atobe’s announcement. Shishido stared in confusion for a second before realizing that Atobe meant that he wanted to eat at this place. Then, he realized Atobe had also chosen a higher-end pastry store that neither he, nor (he suspected) Akari could easily afford.
“You may choose what you wish. Ore-sama will cover the bill.” Shishido just shook his head as Akari’s jaw dropped; she quickly shook herself out of whatever shock she had entered into, then ran to the extensive cases.
Shishido sidled over to the gray-haired boy. “What’s the deal with coming here?”
Atobe glanced over, and smirked. “It is a place meant to impress.”
“Well, you’ve succeeded again.” Shishido pointedly looked at Akari, who was staring in awe at a case of flans.
“You fail to notice that she was interested in you in the first place. I think that she will be impressed by the fact that we are such great friends.” Atobe leaned closer for a second. “Do not waste Ore-sama’s gift.”
Shishido snorted, causing Atobe’s smirk to disappear. “Haven’t you been listening this whole time? I’m not interested, even if she is.” He paused, then grimaced. “She isn’t even the type of girl I like.”
"Some day you will come running to Ore-sama, wishing for help, and I will take it upon myself to refuse entirely," Atobe replied, before stepping forward, in the general direction of the counter.
"You'd better get me something good!" Shishido yelled back, before settling back against the glass of the store window and waiting for his team captain to return with the lootfood in tow.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur, and before Shishido realized what time it was, Akari was waving at them and running off, and Atobe was calling his driver and ordering him to pick him up at Shishido's house.
"So, Atobe, did you enjoy yourself today?" Shishido asked as he pushed his door open for the other boy.
"Well enough, I suppose," Atobe replied as we entered, almost immediately grabbing his bag and retreating to the bathroom.
Shishido took the opportunity to sprint into his kitchen, and grab a sheet that he had posted on the refrigerator the previous night, and dash back to the bathroom before Atobe noticed that he was missing.
"Good, because I've got something else for you." The door opened a moment later, to reveal Atobe in all his normally-attired, eyebrow-quirking glory.
"This." Shishido proffered the list.
Atobe gingerly took it, before running his eyes down it. "And 'this' means what?"
"It's the time and place you should meet me every day," Shishido replied. "I finally figured that one day wouldn't be enough time, so you're getting a week's worth out of the bargain."
Atobe shook his head once. "Ore-sama seems to be at a loss for replies." That being said, he tilted his head slightly to the right, and took one last look at the list. "I will go. However, I choose to reserve the right to leave at any time I decide."
"Deal!" Shishido yelled as a knock sounded on his door, signaling the end of the conversation. "I'll see you at one tomorrow, Atobe!"
*****
The next day dawned bright and early, and Shishido was actually ready for Atobe to arrive. True to his standards, Atobe was knocking precisely on the door promptly at the designated time.
This time, Shishido didn’t let Atobe into his house, but stepped out the door while yelling at his family that he was leaving, and didn’t know when he’d be back.
“Ore-sama does not know whether to be insulted that I was not let in, or indulgent of your uncouth behavior,” Atobe said as Shishido stepped off his house’s porch and began down the street.
“How about ‘interested’ in where we’re going, since you seem to be so fond ‘I’ words,” Shishido replied, casting a glare over his shoulder.
“Ore-sama will bite. Where are we going, Shishido?” The other boy raised an eyebrow.
“Today’s the arcade. I figure you need to see the typical lair of teenage boys.” Shishido slowed down, just a bit (although he would never admit to it) so that he was walking next to Atobe. “You might even see a few familiar faces again today.”
Atobe was frowning. “Ore-sama has his own-“
Shishido cut him off. “Look, this is the same as the pool case. It isn’t the same as having a game center in your own house.”
Without another word, the brown-haired tennis player swerved sharply to the right, grabbing Atobe’s arm and dragging him into their destination before he could argue.
Shishido was almost immediately greeted with the familiar noise of arcade games. He turned towards Atobe to find that his friend was wrinkling his nose at the scene. “This place is completely unhygienic.”
“It’s perfectly safe Atobe. Just go grab a game, and you’ll forget all about it,” Shishido suggested. When the gray-haired boy didn’t move, Shishido took it upon himself to push him over to one of the seated consoles and dump a few tokens into his hand.
Before he knew it, Atobe was actually playing the game, going so far as to get more tokens when the few Shishido had given him ran out, all so that he could continue playing. Shishido, having taken the console next to him, surreptitiously watched him while playing a game of his own against the player sitting across from him.
It was because of his involvement in his game that Shishido missed someone taking the seat across from Atobe, an instant challenge to a two-player battle.
In fact, Shishido would not have realized that anything at all was going on with Atobe, had the boy not jumped from his seat a minute later and yelled angrily, “You!”
From the other side of the station, a familiar cocky voice replied, “Mada mada Monkey King.”
Atobe was practically livid. “Ore-sama challenges you again!” Shishido sat back from his own console to see more easily. It was rare for Atobe to get so worked up over anything.
“It’s your embarrassment, not mine,” Echizen Ryoma called back, reaching down, presumably to put another token into the machine and start another game. Atobe crashed back down into his own seat, jamming another coin into the slot and jumping right into the game.
He lost three straight to the freshman before Shishido decided to come to his rescue. Making sure he stayed low, so that the Seigaku boy couldn’t see him, he poked Atobe and motioned to let him take the seat. Atobe sat still, probably stunned that he wasn’t winning, then moved over to take Shishido’s seat.
It didn’t take Shishido long to beat the boy across from him (as this was the only game Shishido ever played when he visited, and therefore was quite good at it). In response, Echizen jumped up, looking outraged; this quickly changed to shock when he realized that Atobe was no longer the one playing against him.
Shishido couldn’t resist snickering and smugly replying, “Shishido-sama no bigi ni yoi na~” in an almost a perfect imitation of Atobe.
The freshman across from him spluttered, glared, and then stalked away from the games and out of the game center entirely.
Shishido was satisfied with his work.
“C’mon Atobe, there’s one more thing that you have to try.” Shishido led Atobe (who had thankfully snapped out of his stupor) across the room, to where the dance music continually blared. “I can’t let you leave without trying DDR at least once.”
“DDR?” Atobe was wrinkling his nose again, probably at the high-pitched screeching of the song currently being played on the machine.
“Dance Dance Revolution. You’ve probably heard Mukahi talk about it or something,” Shishido replied, stepping over to the older (and therefore less popular) machine and feeding it coins. “Basically, you step on the arrows as they scroll over the screen. You’re a smart boy, you’ll figure it out.”
He selected an easy song, and by the end of it, Atobe had mastered the way to play the game. They played another song, and Shishido botched it badly while Atobe earned almost a perfect score.
It was almost embarrassing, how well Atobe managed to pick up the game that Shishido still could not succeed at, no matter how much effort he put into it.
In the middle of horribly botching his fourth song (Atobe had, by this point, moved up to a higher difficulty level, and succeeded at that as well), Shishido was suddenly pushed off the dance pad as another person took his place.
By the time Shishido recovered enough to recognize that he had just been displaced, and realize that he should know who had done this to him, the song had ended and both people standing on the dance had turned to look at him.
One Mukahi Gakuto was smiling widely at him, but all Shishido saw was the score flashing up onto the screen, proving that he had managed to salvage Shishido’s failing score.
“I can’t believe you didn’t call me and tell me you were coming out here with Atobe. You were lucky that I decided to stop by to play for a little bit, because you were doing horribly! Of course, that’s nothing new…”
Shishido tuned out Gakuto’s mini-rant as he turned his attention back to Atobe, who was standing with arms crossed, smiling amusedly at both of them.
“…and I wanted to see you trying to teach Atobe these things, because I was on the phone with Yuushi yesterday night, and he was telling me that you invited him out to the pool to teach Atobe about normal social activities, and I think it just isn’t fair that you ignored me completely…”
Shishido turned his eyes away from the amused teen, and instead focused on a set of bottles lying next to the machine. “What are these for?”
Gakuto stopped mid-sentence, and turned his eyes to the bottles as well, and his expression changed to interest, as if he had forgotten he had them altogether. He shrugged, and replied, “The water pipes in my house broke, and they won’t be fixed until tomorrow. If I want to bathe, the public baths are my only option.”
Shishido almost immediately realized how to use this to his advantage. “Hey, Mukahi, would you mind if we joined you?”
Gakuto was suddenly smiling, and he glanced at Atobe, who didn’t appear to know what was going on. “Why Shishido, I never thought you’d ask.”
*****
Atobe was quiet as they left the baths. Shishido was unsurprised.
He had, after all, almost stormed out on both doubles players when he learned he was expected to bathe in public. In the same water as ‘commoners’.
Gakuto had teasingly pointed out that he was probably just afraid of being naked in front of people older than he was. That settled the issue, and Atobe was out of the changing room before either of them.
He refused to let either Shishido or Gakuto come within ten feet of him until several of the older men who seemed like regular patrons approached him with an offer to join them. Nearsighted old men and Atobe’s natural gray hair did not mix, apparently, and Atobe practically ran across the baths to rejoin his fellow tennis players.
After that, Atobe stayed close, but sullenly ignored both.
Atobe’s driver was waiting for them when they reached Shishido’s house. Without a word, Atobe walked to his car.
He wouldn’t let the incident go. That was so like Atobe, to get hung up on something so small, that Shishido almost couldn’t keep himself from laughing.
Instead, as Atobe was about to slam the door shut, Shishido yelled, “Remember, tomorrow we’re meeting at eleven at the mall!”
*****
Atobe arrived at the mall early the next day, and was kept waiting for fifteen extra minutes because Shishido’s bus was running late. Everyone didn’t have the luxury of private drivers to whisk them off wherever and whenever they wanted, after all.
However, Atobe did not understand this, as he never had to make use of public transportation.
Instead, he fixed Shishido with a glare that would have dropped anyone else dead upon being exposed to it. As it was, Shishido had this specific expression used on him so often that he had quite effectively become immune to it.
“You’re late.”
“My bus came late.”
“No, you were late. Na, Kabaji?”
“Usu.”
“Wait a second. Why is he here?” Granted, Kabaji was practically Atobe’s shadow, but he shouldn’t have been here, as Shishido had done nothing to contact him.
“Ore-sama requires someone to carry his bags, and I assumed you would not appreciate a servant following us around during the course of your experiment,” Atobe replied.
“It’s not an experiment,” Shishido grumbled. “It’s total immersion in my world. Not that you’d understand.”
“Ore-sama understands better than you think,” Atobe said, standing up. “Now, what do you have planned for today’s excursion?”
“Mall dares. I think you’ll have fun with this.”
Of course, three stores and three dares for Atobe to buy pink articles of clothing, Shishido finally realized that the other boy had no compunctions against buying such things.
“Well this seems like a rather one-sided game,” Atobe finally said, after emerging from the clothing store with a pair of hot pink, girl’s knee socks. “Shishido, I dare you to go into that convenience store and buy a package of condoms.”
Shishido’s mouth dropped open, and he knew that he was turning red. Atobe had just dared him on the item that only the bravest could take on without wimping out.
Shishido certainly wasn’t a wimp, but he wasn’t sure that he could keep up his nerve to actually purchase the items.
So, before Atobe could taunt him and actually wound his pride, he stiffly walked into the nearby convenience store. He wandered a bit, just to work up his nerve to get the stupid things, and finally found himself standing in front of the small section of the store reserved for such…things.
Shishido had to stop himself from glaring at them (doing this would be pointless, he knew, as they would not run away and leave him alone) and grabbed one at random. He dashed to the counter, making sure to avoid people, and refused to look at the clerk as he paid for…them.
He ran out of the store and as soon as the change was in his hand and the item in a bag, and threw the bag at Atobe’s head; he narrowly missed, and Kabaji was quick to grab the flying condoms and place them into one of Atobe’s bags.
Shishido received some small measure of satisfaction from the fact that Atobe would undoubtedly have to explain to someone later exactly what they were doing there.
“I commend you, Shishido.” The brown-haired boy was just glad that he wasn’t clapping. That would be too much.
Shishido instead turned the glare he hadn’t given to those onto Atobe.
Atobe just smirked back, and managed to degenerate the trip into shopping for himself within the space of thirty seconds.
However, by this point, Shishido didn’t care.
He knew that he would never be able to live this down, even if Atobe forgot about it after today.
“So, your house tomorrow, at three o’clock?” Atobe asked later, as Shishido helped load bags into his car.
Shishido mutely nodded, and that was all Atobe needed to see for assurance.
It wasn’t until Atobe’s car was driving away that Shishido remembered the condoms tucked into one of the many bags; he smiled, slowly, and as he walked away, decided that maybe it hadn’t been quite so bad.
*****
Shishido could tell that Atobe was distinctly unimpressed with their plans for the day. Karaoke appeared to be even higher than the video arcade on Atobe’s list of things he considered beneath him.
Not to mention Shishido had somehow been absorbed into the small group of Choutarou and friends who also happened to be visiting on this specific day. He had been introduced to them several times, and he supposed they considered him a friend by association with Choutarou.
Atobe wasn’t that fortunate. For all he was the captain of the illustrious tennis team, the student body president, and the most popular boy in school, these boys didn’t seem to have any desire to include him.
Shishido almost felt bad for refusing Atobe’s request to rent a private room. He had opted to stay in the common room, seeing as he had only been expecting the two of them for the entire day; instead, Choutarou had spotted him, and soon Shishido had been absorbed, and Atobe ignored.
Neither of the third years had been able to speak a word to each other almost since their arrival. However, while Shishido hardly thought about this, Atobe was forced to brood on the fact, out of lack of any other way to pass the time.
That was why, when Atobe abruptly stood and stalked off towards the communal karaoke machine, Shishido didn’t notice.
In fact, Choutarou was the only one who did.
Choutarou leaned over discretely and whispered, “Shishido-san, I think Atobe-buchou is really angry,” when he noticed the silver-haired boy walking away.
Shishido glanced over his shoulder at the retreating diva, and shrugged. “He probably just decided that he should try’n sing at least once while we’re here.”
It wasn’t until the music to Suwabe Junichi’s “Cross with You” started to filter across the room that it hit the brown-haired boy that his assumptions might be incorrect. Shishido couldn’t help but wince every time he heard the phrase “I’m cross with you”. He knew that he was getting strange looks from everyone around him, because Atobe’s Suwabe impersonation was practically flawless.
The pointed glares that Atobe directed at him didn’t help, but nobody else seemed to notice.
Atobe graciously accepted the applause after the music died away, but refused to relinquish the microphone. When the clapping died away as well, Atobe held the device up to his lips once more. The audience sat forward in anticipation of another marvelous performance.
Instead, they got a single sentence. “Shishido, do not expect Ore-sama back tomorrow.”
Atobe calmly handed the microphone to the next person in line and walked off the stage, and out of the building.
Choutarou’s friends were all staring at Shishido, as many other patrons murmured questions about who this ‘Shishido’ could be, and what were they supposed to do tomorrow?
Shishido just blushed and tugged his cap around so that he wouldn’t have to see the stares of the second years who knew who he was.
Choutarou, sensing his dilemma, nudged his shoulder and smiled when the older boy looked up. “It’s all right, Shishido-san. Atobe-buchou never says mad at you, no matter what he says.”
“I think I went too far this time,” Shishido shot back, turning his eyes back down to the table.
“If it makes you feel better, I can ask Jirou-senpai to talk to him for you. Don’t give up just because of a little setback.”
Shishido glanced up again, for a second, before turning away from him and pushing his seat away from the table. “I think you’re being too optimistic, Choutarou. I know that I’m screwed.”
Without waiting for a reply, Shishido walked out.
*****
Despite his assurances to his kouhai that his plans for the week were screwed over because of the events that transpired the previous day, Shishido showed up an hour earlier at the movie theatre than the list Atobe had received on the first day indicated.
On the off-chance that he decided Shishido deserved a second chance, Shishido would be there waiting; the odds of this happening, as Shishido figured them, were slim to none.
Despite all expectations of being completely stood up, Shishido was also not the least bit surprised when a familiar chauffeured car pulled into the 'NO PARKING ZONE' in front of the theatre to discharge a single passenger.
Shishido turned to nudge Jirou (who, unsurprisingly, had been conked out on the ground next to him) awake as Atobe strutted through the crown to join them.
Shishido turned away from the other boy to face Atobe, who halted in front of him. Neither said a word, instead meeting eyes, then looking awkwardly away again.
"Hey hey, Atobe's here! Can we actually go in now? Can we?" Suddenly Jirou was up and bouncing around, grabbing arms and trying to tug both of his teammates after him at the same time.
Simultaneously they grinned; nobody could remain upset around Akutagawa Jirou's boundless enthusiasm, after all.
As they both set off after the narcoleptic tennis player, Shishido knew that somewhere in the space of those awkward moments, he had apologized to Atobe, and Atobe had forgiven him. It didn't need to be said, just understood; that was good enough.
They eventually caught up to Jirou at the food stands. He was jumping impatiently while staring at the signs that listed the horribly overpriced food available for the day.
"Shishidoooooo~ I want the big one!" Jirou called as he pointed at the board, arm flailing around and somehow managing to avoid other customers.
"Okay, okay. You'll get the big one." As quickly as the lines and the waiting they entailed permitted, Shishido acquired the most sugar-filled drink in the largest size available and an extra-large tub of popcorn. He handed the drink to Jirou and the popcorn to Atobe then led the trio to the theatre.
Atobe didn't speak up until they were safely situated in the back row.
"Exactly what have you brought me here to see?"
"I dunno," Shishido replied immediately. "I think it was called Sunset Boulevard, or something along those lines. It's some sort of chick flick."
Atobe was wrinkling his nose again, obviously less than thrilled with this arrangement.
"But we aren't here to watch it." Shishido leaned close to whisper, as anyone else hearing his plans would ruin them entirely. "We're here to make fun of it and otherwise disrupt the movie going pleasures of these women."
Because the movie theatre was indeed, filled entirely (excepting the three Hyotei boys) with women of all ages.
"And why is Jirou here?" Atobe looked around Shishido (who happened to be sitting in the middle) to the blond boy sitting on the end of the row. Said tennis player stopped gulping his soda at that exact moment and let out a belch that had people five rows in front turning around to glare.
And Shishido shrugged. "He burps the loudest."
Then he turned his attention to the bucket of popcorn sitting in his lap, looking ready for complete consumption. Instead of eating, Shishido carefully picked out a piece and began scanning the audience in front of him. He quickly zeroed in on a woman with a particularly messy mop of curls piled on her head. It was probably supposed to be a stylish up-do-Shishido though it made her look like she hadn't bothered to comb it that morning.
All the same, he silently resolved to get as many pieces of popcorn stuck in her hair as he possibly could before the movie was over, as he let the piece he had already selected fly. It landed on her head, but bounced off; she didn't notice.
Shishido didn't look as he picked out another piece. This one stuck.
He noticed another piece fly through the air, and he realized that Atobe has started on the activity as well, without question.
The lights dimmed. Shishido accidentally threw his popcorn off course, and hit a girl with shoulder-length blue hair sitting a few seats to the right. Atobe's popcorn almost simultaneously hit the girl with short, red hair next to her. Jirou belched and the other redhead turned around to glare. She had some sort of ugly heart clips holding her hair back. Shishido threw another piece of popcorn at her. It bounced off her forehead.
The girl swiveled around, so Shishido sat still and elbowed Atobe to signal that he should do the same. Finally, she turned back toward the screen; Shishido's eyes had adjusted to the darkness by this time, so he continued on his original project with the messy-haired woman.
Shishido had gotten exactly eleven pieces of popcorn successfully entangled in his target's hair when the sound went out in the theatre. The three boys in the back row seemed to realize it first, after a bang came from the projector room directly behind them, and someone could be faintly heard yelling, "The speakers!"
It was, however, Atobe's grand plan to start filling in the lines for the now-silenced actors. Jirou quickly jumped onto that bandwagon, filling in as the love-struck girl who was the main character as Atobe voiced her love interest. Shishido remained silent as the two somehow turned what must have been a touching confession into an argument.
The audience seemed confused by this, but still cooed when they embraced. However, Atobe completed his performance by saying, as the boy pulled away from the girl, "Make me a pancake, woman."
Shishido dissolved into laughter, partially at the way the audience broke seemed stunned, and partially at the fact that Atobe had just said 'pancake'. It was usually one of those uncouth things that he refused to say under any circumstances.
Shishido was just noticing that the blue-haired and red-haired girls sitting next to his popcorn dartboard were also laughing when the sound came back on, along with an announcement that they would not be replaying the movie, but offered free movie passes to all those who had attended, as an apology.
Shishido settled back, while grabbing a handful of popcorn that he actually intended to eat. Atobe grabbed one too, but opted to throw it at the girls who were still laughing at his performance. The other redhead, with the hairclips (weren't those for preschoolers?) turned around again, craning her neck to see who was throwing the popcorn. Jirou belched.
It was a good movie.
*****
Shishido managed to get twenty-five pieces of popcorn stuck in the messy curls by the end of the movie. Atobe managed to get the girl to turn around six more times. Jirou managed to finish off the entire bucket of popcorn, halting the other two's activities.
Still, the gratifying shriek of the girl as she stood up to a shower of popcorn was enough to make up for the lack of the presence of more to Shishido
However, while they were collecting their free movie passes, the group that happened to have been Atobe's targets ended up in the space behind them.
"...and I couldn't believe that she had that many pieces stuck in her hair. It almost makes me glad that the person only threw them at us, instead of doing the same thing they did to her. Except, I also wondered how it would get stuck in my hair, even if I put it up like that. I wish I knew who it was, so that I could ask them to apologize, because now we'll all have to go home and wash our hair, and it will be such a waste..."
Shishido could hardly believe his eyes or ears, as he turned slightly to find two players from the lame Fudomine team standing behind them, along with clip-girl, who he now recognized as the lame-ass captain's tagalong little sister.
And they had actually been watching the movie. It just went to prove that the little loser school was filled with weirdos.
Atobe handed his pass to Shishido as they walked away, leaving the Fudo-losers behind.
"Ore-sama wishes to ascertain that he will be meeting you at your residence tomorrow," Atobe muttered as he walked up to his car that was conveniently waiting for him.
"Yes, my place, whenever you feel like. Preferably before lunch," Shishido replied. “I think we’ll be getting it from the place we’re going.”
Atobe raised an eyebrow. “Ore-sama would prefer a definite, but if all does not go well, I will treat you to a lunch of a higher caliber.”
With that being said, Atobe’s driver pushed his door shut, returned to his side of the car and drove away.
Shishido tried to decide if his plans were actually better than the theoretical lunch Atobe had promised.
*****
Atobe arrived, once again promptly, at eleven at Shishido's house the next day. Shishido once again left without letting Atobe in. He didn't do this because he didn't want Atobe to meet his family; it was more that Shishido feared his family would become too attached to Atobe. The last thing he needed was constant requests to invite his 'charming' friend home with him.
At least, Shishido assumed they would call him charming.
"Ore-sama would like to know today's plans." Shishido was startled out of his thoughts by nobody other than their subject.
He though about it for a second, then decided it wouldn't hurt for Atobe to know ahead of time today. "We're going to crash Hiyoshi's house."
"We are going to do what?"
"Crash Hiyoshi's house. You know," actually, he probably didn't, "we're going to show up uninvited, and then proceed to raid his food and otherwise inconvenience him. Americans invented the tradition, but it's actually pretty fun." Shishido would know, having crashed several of his friends' houses before.
"And what, pray tell, would happen should Hiyoshi be out?" Atobe raised a good, if invalid point.
"It's Hiyoshi. Think about it. What does Hiyoshi do other than practice to 'gekokujo' us?"
"Ah, I see. Well than, we may proceed."
"So glad I have your permission," Shishido replied sarcastically. It wasn't like he wouldn't have done it anyway.
They arrived at Hiyoshi's house after a fifteen minute train ride and subsequent ten minute walk. It wasn't exactly an out-of-the-way location, but it wasn't within convenient transportation distance either. It must have been a dojo thing, Shishido concluded.
Said tennis player led Atobe over to the side entrance that he had noticed the household using the day before (having scouted the house the previous day after returning from the movie). It wouldn't do to knock on the dojo's main door and interrupt a class, or be ignored because they couldn't be heard.
There was a patter of footsteps, and then the door slid open, revealing a small girl who gazed up at the two boys with wide blue eyes.
The door then slid further open, revealing two more sets of identical blue eyes, all focused on the two boys before them.
"Um...we're here to see Hiyoshi," Shishido offered up, and even he admitted, it was a rather lame thing to say.
The three sets of eyes blinked, almost completely in tandem. That was just creepy.
Then the three little girls smiled (also in unison) and stepped out of the way. One ran down the hallway, and the other two motioned for Atobe and Shishido to step inside. After they did so, one little girl slid the door shut, and the other pulled out two pairs of house slippers. Shishido could faintly hear someone yelling, "'Kashi-tan, 'Kashi-tan, people want to see you!"
By the time Shishido and Atobe had gotten their shoes off and the slippers onto their feet, Hiyoshi was barreling down the steps, the girl who had gone to get him following closely.
"Ritsu, Rei, what did I tell you about letting people into the house!" The two little girls cocked their heads identically at Hiyoshi, who then turned his attention to the newcomers. "Shishido-senpai, Atobe-buchou. I...wasn't expecting this."
"That was kind of the point," Shishido replied. "You got anything to eat around here?"
Hiyoshi immediately dropped right back into his usual annoyed expression. "You're crashing my house, aren't you, senpai?"
Shishido's mouth dropped open. Atobe smirked. "That was the intended plan. Ore-sama is famished as well, so it would be prudent to provide food for the two of us."
Without replying, Hiyoshi turned on his heel and walked into another room. From the crashing the issued forth, Shishido concluded that it was the kitchen in question.
"Ne, you guys can come with us." One of the girls tugged on the leg of Shishido's pants, and soon he and Atobe were being led into another adjacent room. This one connected to the room Hiyoshi was in as well.
"Hey." One of the girls poked Atobe. "'Kashi-tan said you were Atobe Keigo-buchou, right?"
Atobe bent down to look her in the eye. "Yes, I am Atobe Keigo."
“’Kashi-tan’s been teaching us something. Wanna see?” The three little girls were now clustering around Atobe’s legs, using their wide blues eyes against the captain with all the force five year old children could muster.
Atobe smiled. Not smirked, smiled. “Ore-sama would be honored to see.”
The girl in the middle (Shishido couldn’t tell them apart, and, he belatedly realized, only knew the names of two of the three) gave a cheer of victory, then she and her two sisters (at least, Shishido assumed they were related) charged out the door.
“’Kashi-tan, we’re going to perform for Atobe Keigo-buchou! Come watch and say if we do it right!” Two of the girls dragged Hiyoshi into the doorway, and the other scurried around him.
The three girls lined up in the middle of the room, expressions mirroring the one Hiyoshi usually wore. It was suddenly disturbing, seeing three almost-perfect Hiyoshi clones, despite the difference in age and gender.
“No. I don’t think that you should-“ Hiyoshi didn’t get to finish his statement, because halfway through his sentence, the girls spun around, then pointed towards Atobe and gravely stated, “Gekokujo.”
The room went silent. Hiyoshi put a hand over his eyes, but doing so failed to hide the distinct pink tint painting his cheeks.
Shishido burst into laughter. The girls dropped their serious expressions and instead looked at him with confusion.
“Ne, what’s so funny?” One of the little girls asked as the other two began to tear up. “It wasn’t bad, was it, ‘Kashi-tan?”
“You three did fine,” Hiyoshi replied immediately, his blush deepening. “Shishido-senpai is just being rude.”
Shishido immediately stopped laughing. “That’s disrespecting your senpai, Hiyoshi. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“I’m not an angel like Ootori. I though you knew that, senpai.” Hiyoshi’s blush had all but dispersed by now, replaced by his usual scowl.
“Hiyoshi.” The second-year’s head snapped towards his captain, his expression now reflecting fear, most likely at his slight disrespect of Shishdo.
However, Atobe was smirking. If he was angry, Atobe wouldn’t have looked quite so pleased with himself. “Ore-sama may consider placing you on the actual lineup if you would bring them to our next match. It would serve as an interesting intimidation tactic.”
Hiyoshi’s blush returned, brighter than before. His scowl deepened despite his darkening cheeks, and he quickly turned back to the kitchen. “Ritsu, Rei, Rika, come help me make lunch.”
The girls cheered and ran into the kitchen. Hiyoshi turned, as if to follow them, but suddenly turned back. “I need to finish making the stuff, so it might be a few more minutes until we have anything for you. And buchou, were you being…um…”
“Ore-sama said that he would consider it, Hiyoshi. There will be no promises made at this time. But do bring your charming sisters to the next match, no matter the outcome,” Atobe replied.
“They’re cousins, not sisters,” Hiyoshi grumbled before returning to the kitchen, from which loud crashing noises were now blasting forth. It probably wasn’t the best thing to be hearing.
“Ritsu, put that pot down! Rei, the noodles need water to boil! Rika, stop waving those chopsticks around right now!”
“Seeing them almost makes me wish that I had such relatives,” Atobe said, taking a seat on one of the chairs scattered about the room.
Shishido winced as a particularly loud crash. “I don’t think you’ll feel the same after spending the rest of the day with them.”
Atobe did not reply.
*****
They left the house distinctly more tired and disheveled than they had been when they arrived.
“So, what do you have to say about younger relatives now, Atobe?” Shishido asked as they walked the route back to the train station. Shishido would be riding home-Atobe was going to be picked up and driven, but had opted to travel a small portion of the trip with his friend.
“Ore-sama finds himself corrected,” Atobe answered. He ran a hand through his hair, which was no longer holding to its usually perfect style. “I do not believe that I could survive that every day.”
“I think this is when I say, ‘I told you so’.” Shishido couldn’t keep the teasing note out of his voice. Atobe looked miffed.
“Ore-sama will also consider that comment when deciding the lineup for the next match.”
Shishido found himself without a comeback, and Atobe took the opportunity to make a graceful exit, his limo appearing as soon as he reached the curb. “Ore-sama knows the time and place tomorrow. I’ll expect you there exactly on time as well.” He raised one hand as a sign of departure, and then he was gone.
Shishido silently asked himself when he had lost control to Atobe, and then silently realized that he probably never had it in the first place.
*****
“Ore-sama does not approve.”
Of course, on the last day of his "Shishido’s-World" adventure, Atobe would decide that he didn’t wish to take part.
“It’s just climbing a mountain, Atobe. It really isn’t as bad as you’re making it sound,” Shishido grumbled in reply.
“Ore-sama does not understand why we could not have the driver take us up.” Atobe was being obstinate, but that wasn’t anything new.
“Half the fun of reaching a destination is the journey to get there, quoth some old guy I can’t remember,” Shishido shot back. “Besides, if we took the car, we’d get there too early.”
Atobe quirked an eyebrow.
“Yes, I do happen to have something else planned. No, you can’t know what,” Shishido added before Atobe could even open his mouth.
“You have successfully piqued my interest. Lead the way, Shishido.” Despite his command, Atobe stepped forward first and began to climb the dirt trail up the side of the mountain. Shishido did not comment on this, but was content to follow.
*****
Shishido was quite happy to see Atobe shocked upon reaching the mountaintop.
Who wouldn’t be, after spending two hours climbing a mountain only to find one’s teammates atop it, surrounding a roaring fire?
“Surprise, Atobe,” Shishido said as the gray-haired boy surveyed the scene before him. Surveyed might not have been the right word; Atobe looked like he was flinching away from some grotesque monster, not watching his teammates hold a bonfire.
“What is that smell?”
Shishido sniffed. “I think that’s the wieners.”
Atobe looked like he was going to faint.
“Shishido-san, would Atobe-buchou like a hotdog or a sausage?”
“Who brought sausages?” Shishido asked, completely ignoring the question posed to him.
Oshitari, who was sitting by the fire doing absolutely nothing, shrugged. “I think it was Gakuto. I told you that he shouldn’t have been the one to go shopping.”
Gakuto was currently trying to see how close he could get a burning stick to Jirou’s face before the sleeping boy rolled away. “Yuushi, I already told you, it was the right shape and the only other thing left.”
“Senpai should have sent me.” The tree beside Shishido suddenly dropped several leaves and one kouhai. “I found the Frisbee, Mukahi-senpai.”
Jirou immediately sat up, his face coming within inches of the stick Gakuto was holding. Gakuto jolted backwards, to avoid hitting the narcoleptic, and ended up falling on his ass in the dirt. The stick fell next to him and promptly smothered itself.
“Frisbee? The Frisbee is back?” Jirou jumped up and started running in the opposite direction. “Throw it to me, Hiyoshi~”
“Akutagawa-senpai, come back and get some food!” The ever-caring Ootori stood and called his senpai back, while holding up several sticks that had both hotdogs and sausages speared on them. Jirou was back in a flash; tearing open the package of buns and holding one hopefully out to Ootori. The second-year laughed and offered a stick to his senpai.
“Come on Atobe, the food’s ready, and you can’t possibly be stubborn enough to refuse trying it at least once.”
Shishido ended up dragging a reluctant Atobe over to Ohtori to get the food, but only with the help of both Oshitari and Mukahi.
Atobe made quite a show of being reluctant to eat food that had been seared over a fire and then placed in a bun of the cheap, mass-produced sort of bread. He took only the tiniest of bites each and every time, and made sure to gulp the water Hiyoshi provided, as if it was necessary to wash the taste from his mouth.
However, Shishido didn’t miss him sneaking another one after everyone else had engaged in a playful Frisbee match.
*****
They finally revealed the marshmallows as the sun was setting. The bonfire was blazing as bright as ever, and the hotdogs and sausages were all long gone.
The Hyotei tennis team was drowsing when Hiyoshi retreated to the coolers Oshitari had provided for the purpose of transporting the food. He returned with several bags and boxes; Jirou was the first to notice.
“Hey, marshmallows!” He jumped up and ran excitedly to his underclassmen. “And chocolate! Hey, hey, we’re making s’mores, aren’t we Shishido?”
“That was the plan.”
Atobe wrinkled his nose, but accepted the stick with the gooey treat speared on the end when it was handed to him, after being properly burned partially to a crisp. He did not, however, eat it as everyone else was, but instead began to pick off the black, flaky crust.
“Atobe, just eat it. That stuff isn’t going to kill you.” Shishido waved his own stick to indicate that all marshmallows were meant to meet such a fate. However, this proved to be a bad plan of action, as it instead sent Shishido’s own crispy, gooey marshmallow flying; it was soon a crispy, gooey mess lodged firmly in Atobe’s hair.
The circle around the campfire went dead silent as everyone stared at the damage Shishido had caused. Even under the scrutiny of his team, every single one wanting to see how he would retaliate, Atobe remained calm. He calmly removed as much marshmallow as he could from his hair, calmly walked away to rinse his hands of the sticky mess, calmly returned and reclaimed his stick from Hiyoshi, and just as calmly removed his own marshmallow and viciously shoved it into Shishido’s hair.
Shishido was openmouthed in shock. Atobe ignored him and insisted that somebody fetch him another marshmallow.
Atobe successfully toasted his first marshmallow that night, and added eating his first s’more to the long list of firsts he had been accumulating for the past week.
While they ate, the team began to recount their experiences of Atobe’s adventures into the world of normality.
Oshitari seemed almost too happy to relate his meeting with a disgruntled Sengoku at the pool after his unfortunate swimming lesson.
Gakuto proudly related how Atobe had mastered DDR better than Shishido would ever manage, and then whisked them right along to his meeting with the old men at the baths. Shishido managed to get the story of the Atobe versus Echizen video game combat in between the laughter.
Kabaji said nothing about the mall trip, for which Shishido would be eternally grateful.
Ohtori added, in his usual wonder-filled way, that he never knew that Atobe could sing so well, and he was surprised that he never joined in impromptu karaoke gatherings before.
Jirou excitedly told his team about the movies, and how the sound had gone out and he and Atobe had filled in the voices, and how they learned that Atobe had been throwing popcorn at the players from Fudomine that had beat their non-regulars so long ago.
Hiyoshi had to be prodded, but finally delivered the tale of his triplet cousins and their performance for Atobe.
After many laughs and cracks at everyone else’s expense, the team realized that Atobe had fallen asleep. He was still sitting in the same position, his stick poking into the fire, but his marshmallow long gone. By Shishido’s guess, he had lost consciousness sometime during the stories.
Shishido was still wrapping his mind around his captain sleeping in public (he never slept in front of people, as far as Shishido knew) when Oshitari sidled over. The brown-haired player turned, only to find the resident tensai inches away from him.
“I have to congratulate you, Shishido.”
Shishido raised an eyebrow, a habit he seemed to have picked up from his captain during the past week. “Why?”
Oshitari let out a little chuckle. “I don’t think Atobe would have agreed to this for any of us, except you. Even if he doesn’t admit to it, it’s obvious that he enjoyed it.”
“Yeah, well…it’s the least I could do,” Shishido replied, knowing that he tips of his ears would be bright red in the daylight. “I only did it in the beginning because he tried to get me to come to tea with him.”
“Moving past the circumstances, it really was a good thing for him. And what is good for Atobe reflects well in how he treats us, the team.” Oshitari shrugged and took one last look at the fire. “Gakuto’s got his cars up here to get us back down. I suggest we get him moved into one, and leave the servants to put the fire out.”
Shishido was glad Oshitari stopped the conversation there. The friendship between himself and Atobe was mainly based in the unspoken, and Shishido preferred that it remained that way. Let everyone think that they were nothing more than teammates that continually needled one another.
That was how it always had been, and how it would stay.
*****Fin*****
Super Special Omake~
Shishido only realized that he had created a monster when he received an invitation to Atobe’s house for a DDR-karaoke bonfire party to take place the next Sunday.