Psidai - Conclusion
Mar. 12th, 2005 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoTitle: Conclusion
Series: Psidai AU, part 4 of the InuKai sequence.
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Rating: G
Word Count: 2632
Pairings: Inui/Kaidoh, and slight hints of TezuFuji and MomoRyo if you squinted really, really hard.
Summary: Kaidoh has one of those days. Inui finally gets a clue. (And since when did random body parts start taking over the brain's job at decision-making?)
Timeline: Takes place in late winter/early spring with Inui still in the third year and Kaidoh in the second year of junior high.
Conclusion
Far too late in the day, Kaidoh finally started for home from Seishun Gakuen, his steps dragging just enough to indicate how tired he was. Every once in a while, he would tug at the collar of his winter uniform in a vain effort to relieve some of the heat that was trying to roast him alive.
If he had the energy to do so, Kaidoh would have cursed the weather. After a week of freezing winds and light drizzles, even Inui had not predicted that the sun would suddenly decide to stay out that day. Worse than that, instead of just temperate spring warmth, it was as if nature had decided to make up for the week of coldness with a day of blazing heat and smothering humidity.
It was no wonder that just about all the students had been falling asleep at their desks, and even some of the teachers had been too lethargic to care. Kaidoh himself wasn't immune to the effects, and had found himself nodding off several times in his English class, which was certainly a first.
And then had come the disaster that was afternoon practice. Under the heat, tempers flared easily, and of course the first to succumb had been himself with that baka Momoshiro. After having been mostly (and forcibly) civil with each other since their co-captainship for the next year had been announced, their first argument in a month was naturally a spectacular earthshaking event.
Unfortunately, they'd been so focused on each other that neither had noticed when Tezuka-buchou arrived on the courts. It was an amazing stroke of bad luck since Tezuka had only made sporadic appearances to afternoon practice since announcing the new captains due to a combination of allowing the tennis club members to get used to the new chain of command and because he had his hands full helping Fuji study for the impending cumulative final exams that all third years had to take.
While everyone else was making silent bets on how many laps their new captains would have to run, Tezuka had promptly assigned 50 laps to all the idlers on the courts and ordered Momoshiro and Kaidoh to follow him. The three of them spent the next hour or so in the clubhouse. Kaidoh did not find the experience any easier than the last two times, and from the sullen and stricken look on Momoshiro's face that must have mirrored his own, he didn't think he was the only one who felt that way. If Tezuka was going to keep having these "talks" for the rest of the school year, every time he and Momo even looked like they weren't doing their job (by Tezuka's expectations no less), Kaidoh thought that he was going to have nightmares about his buchou for the rest of his life.
The rest of practice had been mercifully non-eventful, though Kaidoh and Momo had been the ruin of more than a few tennis balls. Afterwards, while packing up in the clubroom, Kaidoh had just decided to forego changing back from his Regulars shirt and shorts for his walk home in the hot weather when Oishi had appeared out of nowhere. He had come to talk to the new captains about a few pieces of paperwork that was now their duty to handle.
However, Momoshiro was nowhere to be seen, probably having already snuck away with Echizen for their daily pilgrimage to the burger place. So Kaidoh was the one who had to put his uniform back on and obediently followed his senpai to the school offices to pick up the proper paperwork and then to Ryuuzaki-sensei's office to go over them in excruciating detail.
Kaidoh decided that Oishi-senpai had a very different definition of "few" than he (or most normal people) did.
His eyes were starting to develop a persistent twitch and his wrist felt like it was going to fall off by the time they were done at last. And finally, Kaidoh was free to go home. That was why he was the only person on campus, currently braving the heat in his winter uniform as he trudged his way toward the school gates.
Suddenly, a flash of light at the edge of his vision brought him out of his mental fog, causing him to halt mid-step. It took a second for his mind to catch up to his reflexes and recognize the flash as the same kind of glint that normally reflected off of Inui's glasses.
For a moment, all Kaidoh wanted to do was to keep going and pretend not to have noticed anything. He simply didn't have the energy to handle yet another annoying senpai that day. Let Inui do whatever he wanted to, even if he had decided to start stalking Kaidoh again. Right?
Then again, who knew what fuzzy animal his crazy senpai was torturing this time... Kaidoh took a longing glance at the gates of the school, but his feet were already walking in the direction of the glint.
Moments later, Kaidoh slowly peeked around the trunk of a large tree, trying to be as silent as possible. He found his senpai crouched near the bushes not far away, his ever-present notebook in one hand and a sprig of some leafy plant in the other.
Kaidoh blinked at the lack of any animals nearby. He wondered what his senpai was up to, since Inui must have cracked under the heat if he was going to use that sprig of wild grass as some kind of camouflage. Then immediately Kaidoh decided that he didn't really want to know and that he should leave quickly before he was caught spying.
He shifted his foot to turn around... and a twig snapped loudly under his heel.
Immediately, Kaidoh ducked behind the tree. Whirling around, he kept his back pressed to the trunk and his eyes closed as he silently prayed to whatever gods out there to not let his senpai have heard that or to come investigate.
"Kaidoh?"
Kaidoh jumped at the familiar voice so close to his ear. He opened his eyes and stared at Inui, who was leaning against the tree, scrutinizing his kouhai from an uncomfortably close distance. Whatever expression his senpai had was firmly hidden behind those thick glasses of his.
"Anou... Inui-senpai... I can explain..." Kaidoh sputtered as he backed away to get some space between them. In his nervousness, he accidentally tripped over a large root.
*CRASH!*
"Ite-te-te...fssshhh..."
Inui leaned over his kouhai's fallen form. "That looks painful," he observed.
It was just Kaidoh's luck to have fallen right into the middle of a thistle bush.
Kaidoh winced as Inui helped him up. He still couldn't look at his senpai while he systematically removed the thistles that came off with him from everywhere that he could reach. The only thing he was thankful for was that at least the thick layer of his uniform had prevented most of the thistles from piercing directly into his flesh. Only his hands bore slight traces of blood from being punctured by some of the larger thorns.
"Wait," Inui suddenly spoke up as he spun Kaidoh around, "there's still some thistles on your backside and legs. Stand still and I'll remove them."
Kaidoh immediately stiffened as he felt his senpai's hands on his back.
"Anou... senpai... you don't need to. I can't feel them through the uniform anyway."
The hands were now on his waist.
"Nonsense. You can't go walking around with all these thorns stuck to you."
The hands went lower...
Whatever excuse Kaidoh had wanted to give immediately fled his mind, and he could do nothing but stand there blushing furiously as Inui's hands worked down further to this thighs and then calves before finally stopping.
"There." Inui stood up and turned Kaidoh to face him again. Kaidoh was still blushing and frantically looking everywhere but at Inui. Thus he was surprised when his hands were suddenly seized.
Inui frowned as he examined the scratches on Kaidoh's hands. "We should get these treated too. It would be bad if the punctures become infected." With that, he began to pull his kouhai toward the nurse's office.
Kaidoh mechanically followed. A moment later, his blush deepened when he realized that Inui had not released his hand.
As was expected at this hour, the nurse had long left her office. However, it somehow didn't seem strange (though it was awful frightening) that Inui had a key to the office and knew exactly where all the supplies were held. While he took out the disinfectants and q-tips, Kaidoh scuttled over to a nearby bench and concentrated on getting himself under control. He stayed like that, with eyes glued to the floor between his sneakers, the entire time that Inui carefully tended to his scratches.
Finally, Inui finished treating the punctures and broke the silence. "So, how did you come across me so late after school is over?"
Well, there was nothing for it now but the truth. "I stayed after with Oishi-senpai to go over some paperwork," Kaidoh muttered, still staring at the ground. "I thought I saw your glasses glint when I was walking home and so..."
"So you came to investigate if I was molesting baby birds again?" Inui finished for him when he trailed off.
Kaidoh's head snapped up at that even as he stuttered in guilty protest. But he stopped when he saw the amused smile on his senpai's face. Inui was apparently not offended at all.
"It's alright Kaidoh," Inui assured him. "I have given you cause to think that."
Kaidoh lowered his eyes, his shoulders slumping with more guilt. "Sorry, senpai."
Inui waved off the apology and moved over to sit by Kaidoh on the bench. He tapped the spine of his notebook against Kaidoh's nose when the younger boy looked up at him.
"I said there's nothing to be sorry about, Kaidoh." His glasses were glinting again though, in contrast to his words of reassurance. "Do you want to know what I was working on?" he teased.
"..." Kaidoh stared wide-eyed at Inui's suddenly wicked expression. The horrified scream of 'NO!' was stuck in his throat and refused to come out.
Inui took the silence for assent. "I was cataloguing the newly budding plants around the school. Some of them are definite candidates for my next version of Inui Juice." He grinned evilly.
Kaidoh shuddered at the mention of the fearsome concoction. He wondered if his punishment for his indiscretion today would end up being forced to taste-test this new Inui Juice when it came out. But Inui was still talking, oblivious to the apprehensive boy next to him.
"Well, actually, several of the plants have already been used in various versions of my drink. However, when I made them last year, it was already well into spring and many of the plants had already matured and flowered. This time I would be testing the new plant shoots and buds of those plants soon after they've germinated in order to see what kind of effect it would have on the results of my recipes..."
Kaidoh blinked as Inui babbled on with no sign of stopping. His senpai's voice was no longer teasing or evil, nor were his glasses glinting anymore as he absently rifled through the pages of his notebook. Instead, Kaidoh thought he sounded rather excited and so immersed into his hobby that he seemed to have forgotten all else. Kaidoh's lips twitched into a small smile as he listened to his senpai lecture pedantically next to him. He might not understand what Inui was talking about, but the flow of words was almost... comforting...
~~~~
Inui's ramblings came to a sudden halt when he felt a heavy weight settle onto his shoulder. Looking down, he was treated to the sight of his kouhai having fallen fast asleep against him.
His first thought was that Kaidoh looked absolutely adorable like that. That was immediately followed up by the more rational side of his mind identifying the look on Kaidoh's face as angry had it been on anyone else. It then immediately backpedaled before the displeasure from the rest of Inui's mind and added that of course Kaidoh couldn't help the facial features that he was born to and the chances are 100% that he wasn't even the slightest bit angry or unhappy at all if he was comfortable enough to fall asleep on his senpai like that.
Still, based on the weight of Kaidoh's head and his position leaning against Inui's shoulder, Inui also calculated that his shoulder was likely to go numb in 1.9 minutes. Perhaps he should rouse the younger boy... except that his hand had apparently made its decision long before his brain, and had already gently wrapped around Kaidoh's waist, tugging his kouhai more securely against him.
The epiphany hit Inui with the force of Kawamura's Dash Hadoukyuu - the answer to the riddle he had subconsciously sought for since months ago on the banks of a familiar river. Why did Kaidoh affect him so? Because he had become so emotionally involved that his feelings toward the younger boy had long surpassed just that of a senpai for a kouhai.
Inui looked down at Kaidoh again with new eyes. Perhaps he wouldn't wake the other up after all. There was a 70% probability that Kaidoh would be so embarrassed upon waking that he'd run away without a word, and a 80% probability that he would try to avoid Inui for the next week. And then, the end of the school year was suddenly looming far too close for comfort, marking the new school year that they would have to spend wholly apart on different campuses.
Slowly, Inui tilted his own face so that his cheek was lightly pressed against the top of Kaidoh's head, breathing in the faint smell of shampoo left over from a post-practice shower. No, Inui decided, it was much better to savor this moment as long as he could.
~* OMAKE *~
Across the prefecture at Hyotei Gakuen, Atobe glared at an unrepentant Oshitari.
"Explain to me again," Atobe grounded out in a low, dangerous voice, "WHY exactly did you let Mukahi leave the house hyper this morning?"
"Well, I found the weather we've been having lately as inconvenient as everyone else," Oshitari replied blandly, "and Gakuto wanted to prep himself for some gymnastics thing later today. I can only speculate that maybe Seigaku's Kikumaru is also going--"
Atobe cut his words off. "And you thought three boxes of chocolate confectionary was the answer to that?!"
"I didn't think the effects would be this much of an overkill," Oshitari admitted.
Atobe's right eye twitched slightly.
"Hiyoshi!"
The second year and the new captain for Hyotei's tennis team next term came to stand reluctantly by Atobe's side.
"Yes, Atobe-senpai?"
"Since the day is so tiresome, why don't you give the second and first years a rest," Atobe drawled dangerously. "I'm sure that since Oshitari has spent the day so lax in his responsibility toward his partner - and it's a pity that Mukahi has already left - he alone is certainly enough to handle all the cleanup for the day."
Hiyoshi looked between the two third years nervously, not daring to defy Atobe's orders but also unsure about ordering another senpai around with his not-yet-truly-invested authority.
Oshitari sighed and took pity on the second year.
"Ah well, I suppose I'd better get started then, ne?"
~* Owari *~
Notes: Wow, this thing is loooooong. It practically took me all day to finish it. But, I'm happy that I'm able to incoporate at least two of my plot bunnies into the story. One is the whole "Kaidoh stalking Inui" idea that was inspired by my new InuKai icon. The other was cashew's wish to see some character fall into a thistle bush and suffer just like she did.
Well, I guess Kaidoh didn't suffer all *that* much from the thistle bush. Actually, at first I'd planned on Inui being the one to fall in. But things just didn't work out that way, and all the bad luck in the fic seemed to have been attracted towards Kaidoh instead. Poor woobie!! I feel almost guilty with my Kaidoh-torture. T_T
But don't worry, Kaidoh! I'll make it up to you. Or... I'll make Inui make it up to you. Wait...
Inui: *chuckle*
WAAAAH! I'm trying to keep this all rated G, you know!
Inui: *glasses glint evilly*
Uh-oh... O.o
Addendum: Edited for spelling/grammar
Addendum: Edit on 11/21/05
Series: Psidai AU, part 4 of the InuKai sequence.
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Rating: G
Word Count: 2632
Pairings: Inui/Kaidoh, and slight hints of TezuFuji and MomoRyo if you squinted really, really hard.
Summary: Kaidoh has one of those days. Inui finally gets a clue. (And since when did random body parts start taking over the brain's job at decision-making?)
Timeline: Takes place in late winter/early spring with Inui still in the third year and Kaidoh in the second year of junior high.
Far too late in the day, Kaidoh finally started for home from Seishun Gakuen, his steps dragging just enough to indicate how tired he was. Every once in a while, he would tug at the collar of his winter uniform in a vain effort to relieve some of the heat that was trying to roast him alive.
If he had the energy to do so, Kaidoh would have cursed the weather. After a week of freezing winds and light drizzles, even Inui had not predicted that the sun would suddenly decide to stay out that day. Worse than that, instead of just temperate spring warmth, it was as if nature had decided to make up for the week of coldness with a day of blazing heat and smothering humidity.
It was no wonder that just about all the students had been falling asleep at their desks, and even some of the teachers had been too lethargic to care. Kaidoh himself wasn't immune to the effects, and had found himself nodding off several times in his English class, which was certainly a first.
And then had come the disaster that was afternoon practice. Under the heat, tempers flared easily, and of course the first to succumb had been himself with that baka Momoshiro. After having been mostly (and forcibly) civil with each other since their co-captainship for the next year had been announced, their first argument in a month was naturally a spectacular earthshaking event.
Unfortunately, they'd been so focused on each other that neither had noticed when Tezuka-buchou arrived on the courts. It was an amazing stroke of bad luck since Tezuka had only made sporadic appearances to afternoon practice since announcing the new captains due to a combination of allowing the tennis club members to get used to the new chain of command and because he had his hands full helping Fuji study for the impending cumulative final exams that all third years had to take.
While everyone else was making silent bets on how many laps their new captains would have to run, Tezuka had promptly assigned 50 laps to all the idlers on the courts and ordered Momoshiro and Kaidoh to follow him. The three of them spent the next hour or so in the clubhouse. Kaidoh did not find the experience any easier than the last two times, and from the sullen and stricken look on Momoshiro's face that must have mirrored his own, he didn't think he was the only one who felt that way. If Tezuka was going to keep having these "talks" for the rest of the school year, every time he and Momo even looked like they weren't doing their job (by Tezuka's expectations no less), Kaidoh thought that he was going to have nightmares about his buchou for the rest of his life.
The rest of practice had been mercifully non-eventful, though Kaidoh and Momo had been the ruin of more than a few tennis balls. Afterwards, while packing up in the clubroom, Kaidoh had just decided to forego changing back from his Regulars shirt and shorts for his walk home in the hot weather when Oishi had appeared out of nowhere. He had come to talk to the new captains about a few pieces of paperwork that was now their duty to handle.
However, Momoshiro was nowhere to be seen, probably having already snuck away with Echizen for their daily pilgrimage to the burger place. So Kaidoh was the one who had to put his uniform back on and obediently followed his senpai to the school offices to pick up the proper paperwork and then to Ryuuzaki-sensei's office to go over them in excruciating detail.
Kaidoh decided that Oishi-senpai had a very different definition of "few" than he (or most normal people) did.
His eyes were starting to develop a persistent twitch and his wrist felt like it was going to fall off by the time they were done at last. And finally, Kaidoh was free to go home. That was why he was the only person on campus, currently braving the heat in his winter uniform as he trudged his way toward the school gates.
Suddenly, a flash of light at the edge of his vision brought him out of his mental fog, causing him to halt mid-step. It took a second for his mind to catch up to his reflexes and recognize the flash as the same kind of glint that normally reflected off of Inui's glasses.
For a moment, all Kaidoh wanted to do was to keep going and pretend not to have noticed anything. He simply didn't have the energy to handle yet another annoying senpai that day. Let Inui do whatever he wanted to, even if he had decided to start stalking Kaidoh again. Right?
Then again, who knew what fuzzy animal his crazy senpai was torturing this time... Kaidoh took a longing glance at the gates of the school, but his feet were already walking in the direction of the glint.
Moments later, Kaidoh slowly peeked around the trunk of a large tree, trying to be as silent as possible. He found his senpai crouched near the bushes not far away, his ever-present notebook in one hand and a sprig of some leafy plant in the other.
Kaidoh blinked at the lack of any animals nearby. He wondered what his senpai was up to, since Inui must have cracked under the heat if he was going to use that sprig of wild grass as some kind of camouflage. Then immediately Kaidoh decided that he didn't really want to know and that he should leave quickly before he was caught spying.
He shifted his foot to turn around... and a twig snapped loudly under his heel.
Immediately, Kaidoh ducked behind the tree. Whirling around, he kept his back pressed to the trunk and his eyes closed as he silently prayed to whatever gods out there to not let his senpai have heard that or to come investigate.
"Kaidoh?"
Kaidoh jumped at the familiar voice so close to his ear. He opened his eyes and stared at Inui, who was leaning against the tree, scrutinizing his kouhai from an uncomfortably close distance. Whatever expression his senpai had was firmly hidden behind those thick glasses of his.
"Anou... Inui-senpai... I can explain..." Kaidoh sputtered as he backed away to get some space between them. In his nervousness, he accidentally tripped over a large root.
*CRASH!*
"Ite-te-te...fssshhh..."
Inui leaned over his kouhai's fallen form. "That looks painful," he observed.
It was just Kaidoh's luck to have fallen right into the middle of a thistle bush.
Kaidoh winced as Inui helped him up. He still couldn't look at his senpai while he systematically removed the thistles that came off with him from everywhere that he could reach. The only thing he was thankful for was that at least the thick layer of his uniform had prevented most of the thistles from piercing directly into his flesh. Only his hands bore slight traces of blood from being punctured by some of the larger thorns.
"Wait," Inui suddenly spoke up as he spun Kaidoh around, "there's still some thistles on your backside and legs. Stand still and I'll remove them."
Kaidoh immediately stiffened as he felt his senpai's hands on his back.
"Anou... senpai... you don't need to. I can't feel them through the uniform anyway."
The hands were now on his waist.
"Nonsense. You can't go walking around with all these thorns stuck to you."
The hands went lower...
Whatever excuse Kaidoh had wanted to give immediately fled his mind, and he could do nothing but stand there blushing furiously as Inui's hands worked down further to this thighs and then calves before finally stopping.
"There." Inui stood up and turned Kaidoh to face him again. Kaidoh was still blushing and frantically looking everywhere but at Inui. Thus he was surprised when his hands were suddenly seized.
Inui frowned as he examined the scratches on Kaidoh's hands. "We should get these treated too. It would be bad if the punctures become infected." With that, he began to pull his kouhai toward the nurse's office.
Kaidoh mechanically followed. A moment later, his blush deepened when he realized that Inui had not released his hand.
As was expected at this hour, the nurse had long left her office. However, it somehow didn't seem strange (though it was awful frightening) that Inui had a key to the office and knew exactly where all the supplies were held. While he took out the disinfectants and q-tips, Kaidoh scuttled over to a nearby bench and concentrated on getting himself under control. He stayed like that, with eyes glued to the floor between his sneakers, the entire time that Inui carefully tended to his scratches.
Finally, Inui finished treating the punctures and broke the silence. "So, how did you come across me so late after school is over?"
Well, there was nothing for it now but the truth. "I stayed after with Oishi-senpai to go over some paperwork," Kaidoh muttered, still staring at the ground. "I thought I saw your glasses glint when I was walking home and so..."
"So you came to investigate if I was molesting baby birds again?" Inui finished for him when he trailed off.
Kaidoh's head snapped up at that even as he stuttered in guilty protest. But he stopped when he saw the amused smile on his senpai's face. Inui was apparently not offended at all.
"It's alright Kaidoh," Inui assured him. "I have given you cause to think that."
Kaidoh lowered his eyes, his shoulders slumping with more guilt. "Sorry, senpai."
Inui waved off the apology and moved over to sit by Kaidoh on the bench. He tapped the spine of his notebook against Kaidoh's nose when the younger boy looked up at him.
"I said there's nothing to be sorry about, Kaidoh." His glasses were glinting again though, in contrast to his words of reassurance. "Do you want to know what I was working on?" he teased.
"..." Kaidoh stared wide-eyed at Inui's suddenly wicked expression. The horrified scream of 'NO!' was stuck in his throat and refused to come out.
Inui took the silence for assent. "I was cataloguing the newly budding plants around the school. Some of them are definite candidates for my next version of Inui Juice." He grinned evilly.
Kaidoh shuddered at the mention of the fearsome concoction. He wondered if his punishment for his indiscretion today would end up being forced to taste-test this new Inui Juice when it came out. But Inui was still talking, oblivious to the apprehensive boy next to him.
"Well, actually, several of the plants have already been used in various versions of my drink. However, when I made them last year, it was already well into spring and many of the plants had already matured and flowered. This time I would be testing the new plant shoots and buds of those plants soon after they've germinated in order to see what kind of effect it would have on the results of my recipes..."
Kaidoh blinked as Inui babbled on with no sign of stopping. His senpai's voice was no longer teasing or evil, nor were his glasses glinting anymore as he absently rifled through the pages of his notebook. Instead, Kaidoh thought he sounded rather excited and so immersed into his hobby that he seemed to have forgotten all else. Kaidoh's lips twitched into a small smile as he listened to his senpai lecture pedantically next to him. He might not understand what Inui was talking about, but the flow of words was almost... comforting...
Inui's ramblings came to a sudden halt when he felt a heavy weight settle onto his shoulder. Looking down, he was treated to the sight of his kouhai having fallen fast asleep against him.
His first thought was that Kaidoh looked absolutely adorable like that. That was immediately followed up by the more rational side of his mind identifying the look on Kaidoh's face as angry had it been on anyone else. It then immediately backpedaled before the displeasure from the rest of Inui's mind and added that of course Kaidoh couldn't help the facial features that he was born to and the chances are 100% that he wasn't even the slightest bit angry or unhappy at all if he was comfortable enough to fall asleep on his senpai like that.
Still, based on the weight of Kaidoh's head and his position leaning against Inui's shoulder, Inui also calculated that his shoulder was likely to go numb in 1.9 minutes. Perhaps he should rouse the younger boy... except that his hand had apparently made its decision long before his brain, and had already gently wrapped around Kaidoh's waist, tugging his kouhai more securely against him.
The epiphany hit Inui with the force of Kawamura's Dash Hadoukyuu - the answer to the riddle he had subconsciously sought for since months ago on the banks of a familiar river. Why did Kaidoh affect him so? Because he had become so emotionally involved that his feelings toward the younger boy had long surpassed just that of a senpai for a kouhai.
Inui looked down at Kaidoh again with new eyes. Perhaps he wouldn't wake the other up after all. There was a 70% probability that Kaidoh would be so embarrassed upon waking that he'd run away without a word, and a 80% probability that he would try to avoid Inui for the next week. And then, the end of the school year was suddenly looming far too close for comfort, marking the new school year that they would have to spend wholly apart on different campuses.
Slowly, Inui tilted his own face so that his cheek was lightly pressed against the top of Kaidoh's head, breathing in the faint smell of shampoo left over from a post-practice shower. No, Inui decided, it was much better to savor this moment as long as he could.
Across the prefecture at Hyotei Gakuen, Atobe glared at an unrepentant Oshitari.
"Explain to me again," Atobe grounded out in a low, dangerous voice, "WHY exactly did you let Mukahi leave the house hyper this morning?"
"Well, I found the weather we've been having lately as inconvenient as everyone else," Oshitari replied blandly, "and Gakuto wanted to prep himself for some gymnastics thing later today. I can only speculate that maybe Seigaku's Kikumaru is also going--"
Atobe cut his words off. "And you thought three boxes of chocolate confectionary was the answer to that?!"
"I didn't think the effects would be this much of an overkill," Oshitari admitted.
Atobe's right eye twitched slightly.
"Hiyoshi!"
The second year and the new captain for Hyotei's tennis team next term came to stand reluctantly by Atobe's side.
"Yes, Atobe-senpai?"
"Since the day is so tiresome, why don't you give the second and first years a rest," Atobe drawled dangerously. "I'm sure that since Oshitari has spent the day so lax in his responsibility toward his partner - and it's a pity that Mukahi has already left - he alone is certainly enough to handle all the cleanup for the day."
Hiyoshi looked between the two third years nervously, not daring to defy Atobe's orders but also unsure about ordering another senpai around with his not-yet-truly-invested authority.
Oshitari sighed and took pity on the second year.
"Ah well, I suppose I'd better get started then, ne?"
Notes: Wow, this thing is loooooong. It practically took me all day to finish it. But, I'm happy that I'm able to incoporate at least two of my plot bunnies into the story. One is the whole "Kaidoh stalking Inui" idea that was inspired by my new InuKai icon. The other was cashew's wish to see some character fall into a thistle bush and suffer just like she did.
Well, I guess Kaidoh didn't suffer all *that* much from the thistle bush. Actually, at first I'd planned on Inui being the one to fall in. But things just didn't work out that way, and all the bad luck in the fic seemed to have been attracted towards Kaidoh instead. Poor woobie!! I feel almost guilty with my Kaidoh-torture. T_T
But don't worry, Kaidoh! I'll make it up to you. Or... I'll make Inui make it up to you. Wait...
Inui: *chuckle*
WAAAAH! I'm trying to keep this all rated G, you know!
Inui: *glasses glint evilly*
Uh-oh... O.o
Addendum: Edited for spelling/grammar
Addendum: Edit on 11/21/05
