[FIC] "Legacy", Kirihara & Kaidou, PG
so i have this guy friend who was curious about PoT a long time ago. we talked like this:he: so you're a Prince of Tennis fan?
m.e.: yup!
he: cool! you write yaoi fics for it?
m.e.: uh...nope, can't write hardcore.
he: aww, too bad! i was about to make a fic request, too.
m.e.: ?
he: slash me with one of the characters.
m.e.: @_@
he: the only character i know there is kaidou. but i don't want you to slash me with kaidou...
m.e.: i don't want to slash you with kaidou either, dude. (strange look)
he: i know! slash me with his snake!!
m.e.: ...
he: HAAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
for the record, he's STILL curious about PoT. logistics reasons.
and the conversation above has nothing to do with the story behind the cut.
*****************
unproductiveness is a natural offshoot of the combination of new job + a hundred sidelines. i just think i ought to do this before i forget i lead a double life.
so, rushed. not a work of art. not sure if anything in it would qualify as a crack pairing...nothing really happens ^^v
PS: I feel it's almost a given that Momo's going to be the next Seigaku captain, so this is very much a "what-if" or "wtf" kind of thing.
and i still use "sempai." not "senpai." b*tch of a habit to break, so i just won't bother. hope it doesn't trouble anyone too much, though...
*****************
Legacy
by MorphailEffect
"...And that's it. Do you have any questions?"
Kaidou Kaoru looked up. Rikkai's fukubuchou had finally finished droning about the conditions of Rikkai university during their upcoming practice match.
There were two reasons the Rikkai vice captain had to go on and on like this... and the meek, well-spoken boy who rather reminded Kaidou of his Ooishi-sempai had so generously itemized these reasons thus:
1) so the practice match could be conducted without hassle, and
2) so the Seigaku regulars would have no trouble finding their way to the courts. Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku was, after all, a huge campus. And while it was open to visitors, security was strict and the tennis club facilities in particular were out of the way. If Seigaku and Rikkai were going to hold their practice match a few days from now, they needed to get everything ready.
Kaidou paid attention, but spaced out during that part about Rikkai's rich history and propensity to turn out excellent athletes. That oaf, Momoshiro, his vice captain, would have dished out a barbaric sigh and stuck a pinkie finger into his ear, if he were in Kaidou's place.
"Yes I do," Kaidou answered civilly. "Why isn't your captain here?"
The Rikkai fukubuchou suddenly looked embarrassed. He had been going on with a dignified, aloof air before now.
"Ah...that is...er." He cleared his throat. "Our captain is...indisposed at this moment. He's really busy, you understand..."
"You mean you can't find him?"
An exasperated sigh. "It's more like he doesn't want to be found."
Kaidou smirked. "This happen a lot?"
"Maa. He gets like this. We're used to it."
The vice captain sounded so resigned, Kaidou couldn't help but draw the smirk out into a sympathetic smile. Even when he was a second-year, Kirihara Akaya didn't seem like a person who would take official responsibility seriously.
Besides, it wasn't a big deal. The vice captain seemed competent enough to handle official matters in Kirihara's absence.
"There won't be any problems," Kaidou assured him. "The Seigaku regulars will be at the appointed time and place. In light of the absence of an adult to oversee the proceedings, we will be bringing along our coach, Ryuuzaki-sensei."
The Rikkai regular breathed out a relieved sigh. "Thank you," he said. "I'm glad Seigaku's new captain is a reasonable person."
He must live with a lot of unreasonables in that campus, Kaidou thought.
The two of them exchanged polite farewells, and Kaidou started to see the Rikkai vice captain off.
***********
The first clue that Kaidou got about being made captain came when Inui asked if he was free for a "date" one night, before the seniors officially retired from club activities.
"Yes, a date," Inui emphasized. Confused ringing in his ears or not, Kaidou could hear his sempai's laughter over the line. "Nothing fancy, so don't dress up."
Kaidou gulped as he put down the phone. Gulped again. And followed the instructions to the letter. Be here at this time, don't bring any money except for transportation fare, don't dress up fancy.
To his relief, the place Inui chose for their "date" was a quiet little traditional restaurant at the heart of the city. And Inui sat at their table without a gift box, a bouquet of flowers, or anything of the sort.
Inui invited him to sit. Then promptly began talking about retiring from club activities. The new regulars were going to be determined by ranking matches, he told Kaidou, but he had already drafted a list of members who had the highest chances of making it in.
"Echizen will certainly make it. Arai will surprise you. There is a 94% chance that next to Momoshiro, Echizen and yourself, he will be the one with the highest ranking." When Inui was done predicting Seigaku's tennis club's future, he started to talk about their rival schools. How Hyoutei was bound to focus more on teamwork with Ohtori as the new captain, how Fudoumine's Kamio choosing Ibu as his vice-captain was going to strengthen their team even more, and how Rokkaku's Aoi was going to be no less easily distracted off the courts...
Kaidou listened to everything politely, somewhat disturbed that he was the one being force-fed all this information. Sometimes a kind smile appeared on his sempai's lips, the way it would whenever Kaidou won a match, or learned a special move.
That was his biggest clue.
"Barring unforeseen circumstances, Kirihara Akaya will be named Rikkai's new captain. Never take him lightly, Kaidou. By no means is he wild. He may have used to be, but since the Kantou regional matches, he has become much more controlled. I imagine his sempai had a lot to do with it." A thought struck him, and he chuckled to himself. Kaidou heard him mutter, "A boy with eyes I used to have... not the shape, but..."
Kaidou heard this clearly, but had a hard time believing his ears.
"Sempai, Kirihara Akaya is nothing like you."
Besides, a few times in the past, he had seen Inui's eyes -- or thought he did. And they didn't look like Kirihara's at all. Inui's eyes had only ever been hooded, tired.
Or maybe he just hadn't looked that closely...
"You never knew me a long time ago, Kaidou."
Inui tilted his face then, in a way that made his huge glasses gleam. Kaidou couldn't help but feel his sempai was laughing at a private joke, in which he was involved... but really, it was something he had gotten used to. Some things about Inui-sempai, you just had to put up with.
Kaidou honestly never thought much of Kirihara Akaya. He just remembered that Kirihara was one of the dirtiest players ever in the history of middle school tennis, but he never let himself be intimidated. Or even made mildly curious.
Still, something was said about Kirihara Akaya's eyes...
***********
"Buchou!" the Rikkai vice-captain exclaimed. He stopped in his tracks, and Kaidou stopped as well.
The main road leading from the street to the school was empty. There were only three people on it: Kaidou, the Rikkai middle school tennis club's vice-captain beside him, and the one ambling in through the wide open gates.
"Oi! Where are you two going? Mou, I just got here..."
When he looked at Kaidou, presumably to throw over a smile of greeting, the expression on his face was predatory.
Kaidou scowled on impulse.
"What the heck are you doing here now?" Dropping the respectful tone now, vice-captain started talking to Kirihara like an older buddy. Who was about to explode from frustration. "Our meeting's over! Where have you been?? I called you up this morning to confirm that we were going to Seigaku today, but your mother said you were out! Nobody in school knew where you were, and you weren't answering your phone!"
Rikkai's newly-inducted tennis club captain Kirihara Akaya scratched his head and yawned loudly while his vice-captain was talking.
"Stop griping! I got here, didn't I?" Before the vice-captain could answer, he nodded over to Kaidou. "Guess I can still have a few words with Seigaku's captain before we go?"
Vice-captain sighed. "I told him everything already."
"Just wanna pay my respects! Cut me some slack, will ya?" He jerked his head in the general direction of the exit from school grounds. He gestured with head movements a lot, the long-ish black curls seemed used to getting tossed. "And give me a few minutes. We're going back together."
"...Fine. Just don't take too long, Akaya. We'll get back after dark at this rate..."
Kirihara rolled his eyes as the vice-captain took his leave from Kaidou, and jogged off, only too glad to be out of visual range of the source of his irritation.
Captain Kirihara Akaya waited for him to vanish round the school wall. Then he faced Kaidou again, with that strange look under those black curls.
"The truth is, I just didn't want to discuss all that useless stuff with you," was the opening move. "But I did want to talk to you."
What is up with this guy. "You could talk to me at the practice match. What do you want to see me for now?"
"...Let's go to the shade. It's hot here."
Kaidou led the way. There was a large tree in the vicinity that provided enough shade, surely, for a guest rival school captain complaining about the heat.
Then Kaidou leaned back against the trunk, folded his arms across his chest. When he looked at Kirihara it was with one eyebrow raised, as if to say "Well?"
He was in no mood to be courteous while Kirihara smiled like that.
"You're the prodigy of Seigaku's data man, right?"
Was this supposed to mean anything?
"I'm nobody's prodigy."
"Don't fool yourself. You didn't become captain on your own. Granted it's partly because of your skills...I respect Seigaku's ranking matches. I don't underestimate Seigaku's play styles either, in fact that's why I asked for this practice match. But still..."
Kirihara stepped up to him, stunning Kaidou with his ease of movement and air of purpose, as if he had meant to do this from the beginning.
Planted the palm of one hand on the wood, beside Kaidou's head. Stuck the other hand in his pocket. Put his face up close.
"Did you ever notice? You have Yanagi-sempai's lips. I don't know how your data man could have gotten over it."
Over what? Kaidou held Kirihara's gaze steadily, refusing to be intimidated. If Kirihara tried to touch him, there was going to be war.
Kaidou wouldn't have been able to disprove what Kirihara had said, though. He had never looked that closely -- at Rikkai's Yanagi, or at himself.
"I didn't know," he started to answer, "you were this full of shit. Rikkai's captain."
One last look of langurous disdain, and Kirihara shoved himself away.
Kaidou watched Kirihara as he stepped back, every part of him swaying smooth and cool, limber like a cat's, like a tree in the wind.
"Practice match or no, I won't lose to you. Or your golden boy Echizen." These words were safe enough to say above a whisper, and Kirihara did so. Loudly. "Let's see how you put what you've learned to good use."
With this as goodbye, Kirihara Akaya turned, and walked away.
Kaidou watched him leave. He wondered if that boy, in turn, considered himself a prodigy of Yanagi. Inui had been his teacher, his guide -- there was little more to be said. It certainly did not warrant a challenge like this, full of malice and resentment.
His sempai could never have had eyes like that.
m.e.: yup!
he: cool! you write yaoi fics for it?
m.e.: uh...nope, can't write hardcore.
he: aww, too bad! i was about to make a fic request, too.
m.e.: ?
he: slash me with one of the characters.
m.e.: @_@
he: the only character i know there is kaidou. but i don't want you to slash me with kaidou...
m.e.: i don't want to slash you with kaidou either, dude. (strange look)
he: i know! slash me with his snake!!
m.e.: ...
he: HAAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
for the record, he's STILL curious about PoT. logistics reasons.
and the conversation above has nothing to do with the story behind the cut.
*****************
unproductiveness is a natural offshoot of the combination of new job + a hundred sidelines. i just think i ought to do this before i forget i lead a double life.
so, rushed. not a work of art. not sure if anything in it would qualify as a crack pairing...nothing really happens ^^v
PS: I feel it's almost a given that Momo's going to be the next Seigaku captain, so this is very much a "what-if" or "wtf" kind of thing.
and i still use "sempai." not "senpai." b*tch of a habit to break, so i just won't bother. hope it doesn't trouble anyone too much, though...
*****************
Legacy
by MorphailEffect
"...And that's it. Do you have any questions?"
Kaidou Kaoru looked up. Rikkai's fukubuchou had finally finished droning about the conditions of Rikkai university during their upcoming practice match.
There were two reasons the Rikkai vice captain had to go on and on like this... and the meek, well-spoken boy who rather reminded Kaidou of his Ooishi-sempai had so generously itemized these reasons thus:
1) so the practice match could be conducted without hassle, and
2) so the Seigaku regulars would have no trouble finding their way to the courts. Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku was, after all, a huge campus. And while it was open to visitors, security was strict and the tennis club facilities in particular were out of the way. If Seigaku and Rikkai were going to hold their practice match a few days from now, they needed to get everything ready.
Kaidou paid attention, but spaced out during that part about Rikkai's rich history and propensity to turn out excellent athletes. That oaf, Momoshiro, his vice captain, would have dished out a barbaric sigh and stuck a pinkie finger into his ear, if he were in Kaidou's place.
"Yes I do," Kaidou answered civilly. "Why isn't your captain here?"
The Rikkai fukubuchou suddenly looked embarrassed. He had been going on with a dignified, aloof air before now.
"Ah...that is...er." He cleared his throat. "Our captain is...indisposed at this moment. He's really busy, you understand..."
"You mean you can't find him?"
An exasperated sigh. "It's more like he doesn't want to be found."
Kaidou smirked. "This happen a lot?"
"Maa. He gets like this. We're used to it."
The vice captain sounded so resigned, Kaidou couldn't help but draw the smirk out into a sympathetic smile. Even when he was a second-year, Kirihara Akaya didn't seem like a person who would take official responsibility seriously.
Besides, it wasn't a big deal. The vice captain seemed competent enough to handle official matters in Kirihara's absence.
"There won't be any problems," Kaidou assured him. "The Seigaku regulars will be at the appointed time and place. In light of the absence of an adult to oversee the proceedings, we will be bringing along our coach, Ryuuzaki-sensei."
The Rikkai regular breathed out a relieved sigh. "Thank you," he said. "I'm glad Seigaku's new captain is a reasonable person."
He must live with a lot of unreasonables in that campus, Kaidou thought.
The two of them exchanged polite farewells, and Kaidou started to see the Rikkai vice captain off.
***********
The first clue that Kaidou got about being made captain came when Inui asked if he was free for a "date" one night, before the seniors officially retired from club activities.
"Yes, a date," Inui emphasized. Confused ringing in his ears or not, Kaidou could hear his sempai's laughter over the line. "Nothing fancy, so don't dress up."
Kaidou gulped as he put down the phone. Gulped again. And followed the instructions to the letter. Be here at this time, don't bring any money except for transportation fare, don't dress up fancy.
To his relief, the place Inui chose for their "date" was a quiet little traditional restaurant at the heart of the city. And Inui sat at their table without a gift box, a bouquet of flowers, or anything of the sort.
Inui invited him to sit. Then promptly began talking about retiring from club activities. The new regulars were going to be determined by ranking matches, he told Kaidou, but he had already drafted a list of members who had the highest chances of making it in.
"Echizen will certainly make it. Arai will surprise you. There is a 94% chance that next to Momoshiro, Echizen and yourself, he will be the one with the highest ranking." When Inui was done predicting Seigaku's tennis club's future, he started to talk about their rival schools. How Hyoutei was bound to focus more on teamwork with Ohtori as the new captain, how Fudoumine's Kamio choosing Ibu as his vice-captain was going to strengthen their team even more, and how Rokkaku's Aoi was going to be no less easily distracted off the courts...
Kaidou listened to everything politely, somewhat disturbed that he was the one being force-fed all this information. Sometimes a kind smile appeared on his sempai's lips, the way it would whenever Kaidou won a match, or learned a special move.
That was his biggest clue.
"Barring unforeseen circumstances, Kirihara Akaya will be named Rikkai's new captain. Never take him lightly, Kaidou. By no means is he wild. He may have used to be, but since the Kantou regional matches, he has become much more controlled. I imagine his sempai had a lot to do with it." A thought struck him, and he chuckled to himself. Kaidou heard him mutter, "A boy with eyes I used to have... not the shape, but..."
Kaidou heard this clearly, but had a hard time believing his ears.
"Sempai, Kirihara Akaya is nothing like you."
Besides, a few times in the past, he had seen Inui's eyes -- or thought he did. And they didn't look like Kirihara's at all. Inui's eyes had only ever been hooded, tired.
Or maybe he just hadn't looked that closely...
"You never knew me a long time ago, Kaidou."
Inui tilted his face then, in a way that made his huge glasses gleam. Kaidou couldn't help but feel his sempai was laughing at a private joke, in which he was involved... but really, it was something he had gotten used to. Some things about Inui-sempai, you just had to put up with.
Kaidou honestly never thought much of Kirihara Akaya. He just remembered that Kirihara was one of the dirtiest players ever in the history of middle school tennis, but he never let himself be intimidated. Or even made mildly curious.
Still, something was said about Kirihara Akaya's eyes...
***********
"Buchou!" the Rikkai vice-captain exclaimed. He stopped in his tracks, and Kaidou stopped as well.
The main road leading from the street to the school was empty. There were only three people on it: Kaidou, the Rikkai middle school tennis club's vice-captain beside him, and the one ambling in through the wide open gates.
"Oi! Where are you two going? Mou, I just got here..."
When he looked at Kaidou, presumably to throw over a smile of greeting, the expression on his face was predatory.
Kaidou scowled on impulse.
"What the heck are you doing here now?" Dropping the respectful tone now, vice-captain started talking to Kirihara like an older buddy. Who was about to explode from frustration. "Our meeting's over! Where have you been?? I called you up this morning to confirm that we were going to Seigaku today, but your mother said you were out! Nobody in school knew where you were, and you weren't answering your phone!"
Rikkai's newly-inducted tennis club captain Kirihara Akaya scratched his head and yawned loudly while his vice-captain was talking.
"Stop griping! I got here, didn't I?" Before the vice-captain could answer, he nodded over to Kaidou. "Guess I can still have a few words with Seigaku's captain before we go?"
Vice-captain sighed. "I told him everything already."
"Just wanna pay my respects! Cut me some slack, will ya?" He jerked his head in the general direction of the exit from school grounds. He gestured with head movements a lot, the long-ish black curls seemed used to getting tossed. "And give me a few minutes. We're going back together."
"...Fine. Just don't take too long, Akaya. We'll get back after dark at this rate..."
Kirihara rolled his eyes as the vice-captain took his leave from Kaidou, and jogged off, only too glad to be out of visual range of the source of his irritation.
Captain Kirihara Akaya waited for him to vanish round the school wall. Then he faced Kaidou again, with that strange look under those black curls.
"The truth is, I just didn't want to discuss all that useless stuff with you," was the opening move. "But I did want to talk to you."
What is up with this guy. "You could talk to me at the practice match. What do you want to see me for now?"
"...Let's go to the shade. It's hot here."
Kaidou led the way. There was a large tree in the vicinity that provided enough shade, surely, for a guest rival school captain complaining about the heat.
Then Kaidou leaned back against the trunk, folded his arms across his chest. When he looked at Kirihara it was with one eyebrow raised, as if to say "Well?"
He was in no mood to be courteous while Kirihara smiled like that.
"You're the prodigy of Seigaku's data man, right?"
Was this supposed to mean anything?
"I'm nobody's prodigy."
"Don't fool yourself. You didn't become captain on your own. Granted it's partly because of your skills...I respect Seigaku's ranking matches. I don't underestimate Seigaku's play styles either, in fact that's why I asked for this practice match. But still..."
Kirihara stepped up to him, stunning Kaidou with his ease of movement and air of purpose, as if he had meant to do this from the beginning.
Planted the palm of one hand on the wood, beside Kaidou's head. Stuck the other hand in his pocket. Put his face up close.
"Did you ever notice? You have Yanagi-sempai's lips. I don't know how your data man could have gotten over it."
Over what? Kaidou held Kirihara's gaze steadily, refusing to be intimidated. If Kirihara tried to touch him, there was going to be war.
Kaidou wouldn't have been able to disprove what Kirihara had said, though. He had never looked that closely -- at Rikkai's Yanagi, or at himself.
"I didn't know," he started to answer, "you were this full of shit. Rikkai's captain."
One last look of langurous disdain, and Kirihara shoved himself away.
Kaidou watched Kirihara as he stepped back, every part of him swaying smooth and cool, limber like a cat's, like a tree in the wind.
"Practice match or no, I won't lose to you. Or your golden boy Echizen." These words were safe enough to say above a whisper, and Kirihara did so. Loudly. "Let's see how you put what you've learned to good use."
With this as goodbye, Kirihara Akaya turned, and walked away.
Kaidou watched him leave. He wondered if that boy, in turn, considered himself a prodigy of Yanagi. Inui had been his teacher, his guide -- there was little more to be said. It certainly did not warrant a challenge like this, full of malice and resentment.
His sempai could never have had eyes like that.