FIC: And All Things Nice (Sanada/Niou, PG13ish)
Title: And All Things Nice
Author: Ociwen
Wordcount: 6100
Rating: PG-13ish?
Disclaimer: Konomi owns all.
Summary: Niou always seems to be the cause of Sanada's misfortunes.
Author's Notes: Written for Niou's birthday 2010. Even though it's Sanada POV. Is that even possible…? ;)
1.
Technically, the tennis season is over. Technically, it ended after the Nationals-do not mention them in front of Yukimura!-and it was definitely over by the Invitationals in November.
And yet here Sanada is, standing on the sidelines with a scowl. He's sweaty from laps. The sweat which slithers under his tracksuit and makes him twitch. He could itch. But he won’t. Across the court, another ichinen trips over his feet.
"Lazy ass!" Sanada shouts. The kid stares, red-faced. "Get a move on!" The ichinen are slow this year. Sanada thinks to himself that they never huffed and puffed like that in first year. It's only been twenty laps.
"Pathetic," he whispers.
"Hn?" Renji asks.
Sanada purses his lips. "Nothing."
Renji shrugs.
Another kid falls behind. He tries to walk through part of a lap, hands clutching his sides. Sanada rolls his eyes. "What the hell are you doing?" he yells.
The kid starts to run faster.
"If they can't do laps, why the hell do they think they'd last in a tennis match?" Sanada asks-no one in particular, but of course Renji raises his eyebrows.
"Prestige," Renji says. "Previous so-called experience at the elementary level. Perhaps even goading by parents to join a club lest they-"
"I get it," Sanada says. He clenches his jaw a little tighter. He can see Renji shaking his head.
Technically, Sanada shouldn't even be doing this. But at the shoe cubbies, Yukimura touched his arm.
"Ne, Sanada?"
Sanada's arm tingled.
"Can you do laps this afternoon? Beatification Committee has to plant the crocus bulbs today." Yukimura smiled. Sanada fumbled with his shoelaces. Yukimura chewed on his bottom lip. It was almost a pout, but not quite.
Sanada muttered, "Okay."
And behind him, someone whispered, "Sucker". Sanada turned. So did the shadow on the wall, with its spiky hair and slouching shoulders.
That same someone can't be bothered to come to tennis practice. Even if the practice is technically not mandatory. On the far court, Akaya plays with a handful of balls. Sanada narrows his eyes. Akaya throws three balls in the air. He misses the first with his racket. And the second. And the third ball the racket hits. The ball zooms across the net. Marui falls to his knees, moaning and curling into a fetal position.
The ball rolls past his feet.
"AKAYA!" Sanada yells.
Akaya's laughter echoes between the slap of sneakers doing laps.
Technically, Sanada can't grab Akaya by the ear and call him an idiot.
But he does anyway. Akaya squeaks and squirms and flails his arms. Jackal frowns, behind them, and passes Marui the ice pack. Renji hasn't looked up from the bench, where he parked himself with a novel, next to Yagyuu, who has spread out his math textbook.
The ichinen and juniors skid to stops across the court. Sanada touches his cap. He flicks the brim up to see better in the thinning light. On cue, the kids rush back into their laps.
Sanada just rolls his eyes.
***
He shivers in the showers. The hot water is gone-used up by Akaya and Marui, maybe. All the hairs on his body stand up straight. His balls have retreated into his abdomen. He slides the soap into his armpit one last time. Wincing, he holds his arm up for a second to wash it out. Then he cranks the water off.
It sputters to a stop. He huddles into his towel. It's frayed and thin and he really really should have brought that new one his mom bought last week that he said no, he didn't need it, it would be wasteful to chuck this old rag out.
Sanada slides back into the locker area. He pulls his underpants on, then his socks. His feet stick to the inside. Rank sweat still permeates his school uniform. His legs stick to the wrong parts of his pants. His fingers, still with cold, button his shirt up, one button off.
He sighs.
Everyone else has left. Sanada glances around. Renji is gone too. He frowns. His stomach rumbles.
So much for ramen together tonight…
He rubs the damp towel one last time over his hair. Sanada opens his locker door. He reaches to the top shelf.
His hand hits cold metal. He lifts his head.
There is no cap on the shelf.
He looks at the floor. He pushes his tennis bag aside. Then his school bag. He reaches inside, shuffles through the notebooks, and opens the side pouch.
His cap isn't there.
Sharp panic seizes his chest. Sanada takes a deep breath. He tries to loosen his shoulders. His cap is around here. He set it on the top shelf of his locker, the same as always.
But he looks a second time, and a third: at an empty shelf.
He swallows hard.
He checks the top of the lockers. He checks the showers, and the toilets, too. His socks are wet. His hands shake. His throat thickens, and his eyes sting. He tries to retrace his steps-he definitely wore his hat for practice, didn't he?
Sanada even checks the top of his head.
Nothing.
There is no sign of the hat.
Something slithers down his cheek. Sanada wipes it away with the back of his hand. He tries to think straight, but his mind is clouded. Thoughts of his cap, incinerating in a trash depot, make his chest tighten.
He opens his day planner and flips to the second-to-last page. One by one, he opens the padlocks of seven other lockers with the numbers written on the page. Candy wrappers and a rotten sandwich spill out of Marui's locker. Jackal's door is pasted with posters of Maria Sharapova clutching her boobs. Yukimura has Andy Roddick's calendar, circled every second Friday in red pen: DOCTOR APPT :<
Akaya has broken toys, and more wrappers. Yagyuu's locker is barren, except for a novel. Renji's locker is a cesspit of dirty uniforms and crumpled papers.
Niou's locker is empty, too, save for a small black box on the top shelf. Sanada's eyes widen. He pulls the box down. It is almost shoebox size: perfect to hide a cap in.
He throws the lid off.
The only thing in the box is a small, dirty piece of string.
Sanada slumps onto the bench. His breath hitches, and he starts to cry.
***
Grandfather says, "Lazy ass! I thought you were told to sweep the dojo this evening!"
Ken says, "What's your problem, Gen-chan?" He chuckles. He slaps Sanada on the shoulder, and adds with a wink, "Girl problems?"
Dad doesn't say anything. He's asleep on the couch until Sasuke jumps on his stomach.
Neko-chan weaves between Sanada's feet. She looks up with beady eyes and says, "Nyah?"
Sanada shuffles up to his bedroom. He shuts the door, and crawls under his futon. He presses his face into his pillow.
The door creaks. Light footsteps pad across the tatami. "Is everything okay?" Mom asks.
Sanada sucks in a breath. His chest heaves anyway. Mom pats his back and doesn't say anything else.
2.
"Sanada-kun, did you find your hat?" Yagyuu asks. He doesn't even have the decency to say hello or good morning. That is what hanging out with Niou all the time will do to a person.
Niou slaps Sanada hard on the back. Sanada glares at him. With a shrug, Niou slinks away.
"I'm certain it was simply misplaced," Yagyuu says. "Perhaps a first year took it to the lost-and-found this morning." He smiles blandly. Sanada's temple pounds. He could smack Yagyuu across the face for being a smarmy smartass, but instead he snaps,
"I already checked!"
Yagyuu blinks. He coughs, flushed and flustered for a moment, before he smiles again. "Well, I'm sure it will be found by this afternoon."
Sanada keeps his mouth shut, mostly to avoid any cracks in his voice talking about his hat. His head is naked-okay, so he can't wear his cap in class anyway, but his head felt exposed walking from the bus stop to school. His head feels naked in the hallway. And it especially feels naked as he steps into the classroom and sets his bag down. Miyu and Naoko behind him are snickering from the moment Sanada stomps over to his desk. The back of his neck prickles. Apprehension slithers down his spine, all cold and drafty like the window.
He starts to turn his head.
The snickering stops.
Sanada pulls out his notebook. A pen rolls onto the floor, underneath his desk. He leans down to pick it up. All the hairs on his arms stand up under his blazer.
He shifts his eyes.
The snickering stops a second time.
Sanada scowls.
He scowls even deeper when Miyu leans over to Yagyuu and cups her hand around his ear. Yagyuu blinks, turns a little, and his head nods to Sanada. Sanada thinks, What? as Yagyuu leans back in his chair. He has little smirk on the side of his mouth. And a snicker Sanada can hear across the desks.
Sanada lifts his hand. But his cap is gone. Naoko bites her lip.
It's a conspiracy.
***
Before the math teacher comes to the classroom, Rie walks down the row of desks. Sho and Kouhei at the front whoop and shout and pump their fists. Heat crawls across Sanada's face, and he can't quite place why.
"Ne, Sanada-kun?" Rie says. She glances back to Sho, then she smiles at Sanada. She twirls a curl of permed hair around her green nail. "Me too."
"What?" Sanada says.
Rie skips back to Sho, who bursts into a gale of laughter.
Sanada's skin prickles all over.
***
At lunch time, Sanada stands in the cafeteria line. He gets an extra scoop of rice (his usual). Today there are breaded and fried sardines with cream soup, or the omelette special. Yukimura picks the sardines. Sanada reaches for a plate of the same.
His skin crawls.
The person behind him laughs.
Sanada stiffens. He sets his plate down on his tray. The laughing gets louder. He whips his head around, but it's not Akaya there.
It's some first year, half his size. Sanada narrows his eyes. The ichinen turns away, red in the face and choking on a not-laugh.
Sanada turns back around. The lunch lady asks him something. He grunts, and mumbles if she could repeat herself. She passes a wrapped slice of bread across the counter. "Are they pink?" she asks.
"What?" Sanada stares at her.
Her lips curl up in a wry sort of smile. "Pink? Yellow?"
Sanada stares at her a moment longer. He decides that she's developing early on-set Alzheimer's, like Yagyuu's grandmother. Whenever the team goes to Yagyuu's house, she asks how General Tadamichi is treating the troops.
He walks across the cafeteria. Eyes seem to follow him from every corner. Sanada purses his lips thinner. He walks faster. His head has never felt more naked. He wants a brim to cover his eyes. He wants something to hider the cow-lick in his hair that keeps curling up.
The moment Sanada sits down at the table, Akaya falls over. He rolls on the floor, clutching his stomach. Sanada rolls his eyes. He asks Renji, "Do we need to invest in some Ritalin?"
Renji leans back in his chair. He clears his throat and stands up behind Sanada. Then he sits right back down with a self-righteous smirk.
Students at the adjacent table start to talk about girl's panties and bra sets. Then frills and lace and titty tassels. Sanada clenches his jaw. Their snickering gets louder than Akaya's pained gasps on the floor. And something continues to slither under Sanada's skin.
He turns around. "That's inappropriate!" he snaps at the students.
"You should be talking!" one of them tells Sanada. Some kid from 3D, with frosted hair and a bead necklace.
Heathen, Sanada thinks.
"Inappropriate behaviour gets reported to the head teacher!" Sanada says. He thrusts his arm out. The moral committee band is stitched to his blazer bicep.
"Like…frilly panties rubbing your d-"
"Yo," Niou says. He slides down in the seat across from Sanada-after ripping a section off of Sanada's bread slice and stuffing it in his mouth.
"That was not yours," Sanada tells him. The laughter continues behind him: the lesser of two annoyances.
He picks at his sardines. They're tepid and a little on the soggy side now. Yukimura leans across the table. Sanada squirms in his seat a little. Niou starts to whistle under his breath.
"Sanada, are you not eating those…?" Yukimura licks his top lip.
Niou flicks granules of rice at Sanada's arm.
Sanada says Yukimura can have his sardines. Jackal walks up to them, but not after first peeling something from Sanada's bag.
"'I wear frilly panties'?"
Sanada blinks. Then he grabs the paper from Jackal's hands. He stares at the hiragana. His stomach sinks to the floor with Akaya, who has started to wheeze and gasp even louder.
On a choked laugh.
That the table of 3D boys joins in.
And Renji, too, who slaps his thigh and cackles.
Even Yukimura drops a sardine. His hand reaches up to cover his mouth.
Sanada's face is on fire. His entire body burns with shame as dozens of stares crawl over his skin. His mouth hangs open. His heart pounds. He wants to get up and run, except Niou's chair blocks his path.
Niou sits next to Sanada, his own face flushed. He opens his mouth to join in the laughing.
Sanada does the only thing he can: he takes a deep, shuddered breath. Then, through his teeth, he says, "That is not funny."
He stomps out of the cafeteria. The laughter doesn't die out until he's at the exit doors.
***
Sanada sits outside the clubhouse, right beside the outdoor faucet. He tucks his hands under his legs. His fingertips are cold. He tries to listen to the wind sough the vestigial leaves in the trees. He tries to close his eyes, and think of nothingness. He tries to count to ten, the way Renji told Akaya to calm down.
Mostly, Sanada sits and stews and glares at the ground. His stomach growls. Yukimura has probably polished off his lunch tray by now.
He thinks of how many laps Niou will be running this afternoon. Or perhaps shuttle runs.
If only flagellation were legal these days…
But even that thought just makes Sanada clench his jaw so tight, his muscles crack.
The clubhouse door swings open. Sanada glances around. Marui skips out of the clubhouse with a lollypop in his mouth. He skips past Sanada. Then he backtracks.
"Ah, Sanada," he says.
"Shut up," Sanada snaps.
Marui touches his chest. "Dude, chill." He plunks himself down beside Sanada, and drops a plastic bag between them. A box of Meiji chocolate almonds drops to the ground.
"Ne, guess what?" Marui waggles his eyebrows. He tucks his hands behind his back.
Every fibre of Sanada's being stiffens at his words. His heart skips a beat, and then it pounds hard into his ribs.
"Don't bother me!" Sanada says. "You're as bad as Niou!"
"Hey hey!" Marui sniffs. "I am not like that shithead. Besides," he says, with a flourish of his hands. Something drops into Sanada's lap.
"Look what I found when I was looking for my gum ball behind the trophy-I mean, when I was totally cleaning the clubhouse since it's my job this week."
Sanada looks down.
His fingertips touch the familiar curve of the black brim. His throat is thick, and he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry or just say thanks.
Instead, he stands up. He unfolds his arms. And he makes for the cafeteria.
***
Sanada watches Niou struggle through the shuttle runs. The sky is black. Niou drags his feet on the ground. His gasps make frosty plumes in the air. Sanada clicks the button again.
95…
"LAZYASS!! PATHETIC!" he shouts. "SHAME!! YOU AREN'T FINISHED YET!! SHAAAME!"
Conveniently, Marui has yet to clean the clubhouse toilets.
Conveniently, they haven't been cleaned in the two years Yukimura has been tennis club captain.
Sanada smiles to himself.
3.
On Monday, there is an emergency.
Yagyuu bursts into the washitsu so fast the door shakes on its track. Sanada turns around. Yagyuu's panting. His moral committee band is untied on his arm.
"Sanada-kun!" he says. "On the rooftop! Moral urgency!"
Sanada stands up. He narrows his eyes. They run down the hallway, past students clustered in classrooms, eating their lunches.
"What has Niou done now?" he asks.
Yagyuu stops in his tracks. Sanada ploughs right into him. Together, they fall to the floor.
Sanada brushes his knees off. Yagyuu says, "Ow" and straightens his glasses.
"Niou-kun hasn't done anything that I am aware of," he says. "It's 3D. On the rooftop."
Sanada takes a deep breath. "It is an emergency. We need to be armed."
Yagyuu blinks. Deadpan, he says, "I apologize. I've left my sword at home."
Sanada says, "That's fine." He runs to the end of the hallway, with Yagyuu on his heels. The stairs to the rooftop are ahead of them. And against the wall there is a glass box: EMERGENCIES ONLY.
Sanada slams his elbow into the glass pane. He grabs the fire extinguisher. Yagyuu pushes open the door and they whip their heads around. Sanada crinkles his nose. He sucks in a breath, and coughs.
"Disgusting," he mutters. "Disrespectful."
Yagyuu nods.
The same 3D boys from lunch the other day are grouped at the far end of the rooftop, leaning over the ledge. Smoke rises from their huddle: acrid and grey and sharp against the frigid cold. Sanada approaches them with a puffed-up chest and a glare from under his cap. Yagyuu is right behind.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sanada asks.
One guy turns around. He's slouched worse than Niou and has beads in his hair. His pants are so baggy he looks homeless. He chucks his chin. With a snort, he says, "What's it look like, grandpa?"
Sanada curls his lip.
So does the guy. Then he flicks cigarette ash at Sanada's feet. It settles on the toe of his school shoes.
Sanada presses the trigger. "That is against school policy."
The foam flies.
***
He and Yagyuu walk back into the school, a job well done. Sanada has a bounce in his step. He almost smiles. When he glances to the rooftop garden, where Yukimura waves them over, he pulls at his brim to hide the tug of his lips.
Yukimura says hey. Sanada grunts back. Yagyuu says he'll just be going now.
Sanada kneels down next to Yukimura. Yukimura digs a fresh hole with a trowel. Dirt cakes under his fingernails. He wipes a hand across his face. Dirt smudges his cheek, too.
Sanada clears his throat.
"Ne," Yukimura says, "have you seen any of my salvia plants?"
Sanada blinks. Yukimura frowns.
"They had some really pretty flowers and now they're all gone." He nods to a row of stumpy little green plants that look uprooted and ripped apart. A single red petal litters the ground beside them.
Sanada says he hasn't seen anything.
Yukimura sighs. He rocks back on his heels. He drives his trowel into the soil, and twists hard. A hair falls out from his headband.
"It's just…I really wanted to give some to Mika, in class D, you know?"
***
Sanada slinks into the washitsu. His throat is so thick that he can't even ask Niou what the heck he's doing in here. Niou takes one look at Sanada and creeps out.
The door closes without a sound.
Sanada sinks to his knees. The light from the paper windows has shifted and dimmed. His blazer brushes the tatami floor with the briefest of rustles. Sanada takes a deep breath. He closes his eyes.
The bell for class rings. Sanada takes one last, shuddered breath. He grabs his school bag, and slams the door behind himself.
***
In the middle of the test in chemistry class, a cellphone rings.
Sanada looks up from his paper. He clenches his jaw, and thinks, Fool! He glances around the classroom with narrowed eyes, along with everyone else. The tune is shrill and mid-tempo, the sort of tune you hear in an anime, or a video game.
Yuki in the first row starts to giggle. "That's Sailor Moon!" she whispers.
The teacher looks up. He shakes his head. "Turn your cellphone off!" he tells the class.
The girls start to whisper more.
"No," Aya says. She rolls her eyes at Yuki. "That's Sailor Chibi Moon Eternal!"
"Ridiculous!" Sanada hisses. He glares at Kyoko next to him. The cellphone loops the song again. And it's awfully close to him. "Turn off your phone!" he snaps at her.
Kyoko sniffs. She flips her hair back, and picks at one of her nails. The cellphone won't shut up.
"It's not mine," she says. She clicks her tongue, and nods to Sanada's bag, which is conveniently on the floor next to her hobo bag.
"It's yours."
Realization that the noise is permeating from his bag is a fast, feverish flush up his neck and across his face.
Life would be so much easier if he could crawl under his cap, rather than frantically reach into his bag as thirty-five sets of eyes stare.
As soon as Sanada flips his phone open, his stomach sinks even lower. His eyes pop out of his head. It can't be possible to flush any harder without spontaneously combusting.
His entire screen is covered in illegible script. He blinks. He presses the 'end' button. He presses three more times, and still Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon Transformation plays on loop. His fingers fumble even worse. His phone drops to the floor with a crunch.
The screen goes black.
Only then does the music stop.
***
Only one person can be at fault.
And it's his fault, too, that Sanada couldn't concentrate on his test. The words ran together, blurry and squiggly and just like his cellphone screen. Thai? Persian? Urdu?
He doesn't know. And he doesn't care.
As soon as the school bell rings, Sanada storms out of his classroom. He marches past classroom 3B. He ignores Marui calling out his name. He pushes through the cluster of girls pointing and giggling at the top of the stairwell.
Of course, the last person to come to class is the first to leave.
Sanada catches up to him by the shoe cubbies. He grabs Niou by the collar and slams him against the wall.
"YOU!" he shouts.
Niou just blinks at him. He doesn't say anything, he just stares straight into Sanada's eyes. Sanada's blood begins to boil. He tightens his grip on Niou's blazer. Niou doesn't even struggle.
"You immature….CLOWN!" Sanada yells. "What is wrong with you? WHY DO YOU DO THIS?"
Niou's throat bobs, just once.
"You fool…you immature….BRAT!" Sanada's knuckles crack. He wants to slam Niou's head into the cinderblock wall. He wants Niou to laugh, or shrug, or just react!
But instead Niou has no expression at all.
Sanada's nostrils puff up. He grinds his teeth. He calls Niou a fool, an idiot, a complete ASS! He shoves his knuckles into Niou's chin, where his skin is warm and his Adam's Apple moves a second time.
But Niou still does nothing.
Sanada loosens his grip. He steps back. His neck prickles. Students are staring and watching and blinking.
Sanada pulls the brim of his cap down over his eyes. He shoves right through the crowd.
He'll deal with Niou tomorrow.
Because first he has a new cellphone to buy.
4.
Except that Niou doesn't show up for morning tennis practice.
Granted, it is December. A sludgy sort of rain drizzled the bus windows. The tennis courts are muddy. It's cold without mittens, but the rain seeps through them. Renji stands under an umbrella. Sanada crosses his arms. Rain drips from the brim of his cap. He tries to bite down on the chatter of his teeth when he calls out, "Fifty laps!"
Jackal's tracksuit is soaked through. Marui has a rain jacket on.
"It's team coloured, at least," Renji says, to Yukimura's frown.
Sanada flips his cellphone open. It's metallic purple and feels all wrong. The menu screen is different. He hasn't had a chance to string his phone charms on. And he hasn't even changed it from the generic ringtone.
Sanada tightens his jaw. He keeps his eyes peeled for a bleached head among the dark heads running around the courts. Yagyuu shows up, five minutes late and all apologies.
"The bus was late," Yagyuu says. He reaches to push his glasses up, but it doesn't completely hide the yawn behind his hand.
Sanada narrows his eyes. "Fifty," he says.
Yagyuu nods.
"Plus five for tardiness."
Yagyuu purses his lips, and nods again.
At quarter to eight-a half hour late-Akaya bursts onto the courts. Sanada takes one look at him, and Akaya is on the court with the others, starting his laps, too.
"Sixty!" Sanada shouts at him. Akaya runs past. Sanada doesn't have to see his face to know damn well that Akaya is rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue.
"Seventy!!" Sanada shouts, even louder this time.
"English project due?" Renji asks.
Sanada snorts. "No."
Renji hums-Sanada is suspicious. "What?"
Renji makes a non-committal noise. Marui pops up from behind him, unwrapping a stick of gum.
"He means that you seem…"
"Cranky," Renji says.
"A little more than usual," Marui admits.
Sanada draws his hand back. Marui starts to wince, but before Sanada can backhand him across the face, someone else grabs his hand.
Renji raises his eyebrows. "Point proven."
***
Lunch is hot pot, with steamed rice and dried smelt. Sanada asks for two scoops of rice. He sits down at the usual cafeteria table, in one of three free seats at the end.
Akaya tries to shove a chopstick in Jackal's ear. Sanada grabs the chopstick from his hand. He narrows his eyes.
Akaya sticks out his bottom lip.
"Spoon?" Marui offers. He snickers. Yagyuu makes a noise behind his hand, and says excuse me.
Renji has a stack of papers beside his cafeteria tray. Sanada picks one up. It's a copy of August's training schedule, colour-coded with highlighters.
Sanada's brow furrows. Renji says, "Urayama will be in charge of the team training menu next year. He's asked for help."
Sanada grunts. He looks around the table. "Where's Niou?" he asks.
Marui says he doesn't know. "He was definitely in Chem class, since he was the idiot who spilled acid all over the teacher's sleeve." He smirks. "Probably detention?"
Akaya snickers along with Marui.
***
The last bell of the day rings. Sanada grabs his bag, pockets his cellphone, and marches down the hallway for 3B.
A voice calls his name out. He glances up. Yukimura waves from the doorway of 3C. He jogs over, past the students heading the opposite direction.
"Ramen tonight," Yukimura says.
Sanada grunts. He taps his foot on the floor. Yukimura keeps talking, but Sanada ignores him. He waits for a break between students and steps inside the classroom.
Marui is halfway down the first row. Two desks back and an aisle over, right in the back corner, is Niou.
"Niou!" Sanada snaps.
A pair of eyes peers out from underneath Niou's hair. The glance is too fleeting to catch Sanada's eyes. Niou slings his back over his shoulder. Sanada calls his name a second time. He asks Niou where the hell he was this morning. He folds his arms over his chest, and stands in Niou's way.
Niou extends his arm. He jumps over a desk, then he sidesteps to the right in a prancing little grapevine. He darts out the door before Sanada has time to blink.
Marui blows a raspberry. "So what, he's trying out for ACROBATIC CLASS now?"
Yukimura bites his lip. He's smiling, anyway.
Sanada glares at the doorway, but Niou doesn't come back.
And he doesn't come out for ramen with everyone, either.
***
He's sitting in literature class-if studying post-1960s popular novels counts as literature (which Sanada doesn't think it does). There are no messages written backwards sent to his cellphone. There is no ink in his hair, or spitballs stuck to the back of his blazer. There is no gum inside his school shoes, and there have definitely been no topless bar flyers inserted into his textbooks.
This week has been eerily, oddly quiet.
The teacher is droning on. Yagyuu bolts up from his seat to answer another question. Sanada taps his pen on the spine of his notebook.
He glances to the window, and sigh escapes.
"-therefore the literary topos of a boy terrorizing a girl with pranks, as proof that he actually is in love with her can be seen in chapter 4, page 56 when Hiro…"
Sanada's eyes snap open. His pen rolls across the desk.
No…
***
Except that no one else smeared girl's deodorant all over the back of his locker padlock in the clubhouse last month. No one else hid that rubber snake in his shoe cubby for three days straight in August. No one else drew the wrong characters on his pep rally headband, the ones that read Large horse seafoam humping.
Sanada stares at the tokonoma alcove of the dojo. His grandfather has turned the light out to go to bed some time before. A cold draft pricks at the hairs on Sanada's arms. His toes tingle, cold and sleepy under his knees. Neko-chan is mewling on the other side of the door.
The calligraphic scroll hanging above has four vertical characters. Even in the darkness, Sanada can make out the bold, fluid strokes of his grandfather's brush. His eyes settle on the last character, the same as one from his name.
One of the meanings, Sanada knows, is to be at peace.
A wry tug pulls at his mouth.
5.
Marui emails promptly at 11:30 on Saturday.
Cakee BUFFET!!!
Sanada responds with one word: Why?
His cellphone buzzes in the pocket of his cableknit sweater. He finishes raking the pile of leaves in the garden. The sliding door opens and Sanada rolls his eyes. "Took you long enough," he says.
Sasuke sticks his tongue out. Then he jumps straight into the pile. Leaves scatter in the air. Sanada picks one off his shoulder, as he shakes his head.
A muffled Ryoma-den OP starts to play from his pocket. Sanada chucks the leaf at Sasuke, and flips his cellphone open.
***
Sanada asks Yagyuu, "Why are we here?"
Marui sticks his head between the two of them. "One never needs a reason for a 2-hour all-you-can-eat cake buffet!" He licks his lips. Sanada snorts. He looks at Yagyuu.
Yagyuu checks his watch. With a frown, he says, "It is also Niou-kun's birthday…"
A woman walks past them through the hotel lobby. Akaya clambers over an arm chair. It tips, and in slow-motion, Sanada watches Akaya arc towards the floor, and end up sprawled in a heap by Yukimura's feet.
"I don't know these idiots," Sanada mutters.
Renji hums. "Nor I."
Jackal stands up. "Guys, it's already two thirty."
Marui joins him. He claps his hands together. Akaya stands up, salutes him, and lines up behind Jackal.
"We can start without him," Marui says. "Gosh darn."
Yagyuu flips his cellphone shut. "He hasn't responded to any of my emails all morning."
Akaya laughs. "Maybe he's pissed because I beat him at darts last night."
"Or he's bitter that my natural genius trumps his at Donkey Kong?" Marui adds. He and Akaya share toothy grins.
Yukimura stands up, too. He rubs his stomach. "Well, I'm going in now. If we wait any longer, I won't make it tonight."
"Tonight?" Renji asks. Yukimura shifts his eyes. Renji narrows his. "Ah, yes, you have a da-"
"This is ridiculous!" Sanada says. He scoffs. He walks straight past Jackal and Akaya. Jackal calls his name, but Sanada doesn't turn around.
He adjusts his scarf, and heads through the revolving door.
***
He has been here a total of once, while Yukimura was sick and they were locked out of the clubhouse because someone misplaced the keys even though they were supposed to be in Sanada's tennis bag. Like usual.
Sanada vaguely remembers the street. It's up a hill from the pachinko parlour and the used book shop beside the Familymart. He steps into the Familymart first, and stands in front of a rack of disposable salaryman-type shirts.
This could be a very, very stupid idea.
He takes a deep breath, and goes back outside. He stuffs his hands deep into his jacket pockets and starts up the hill. There is only one house on the street with a buzzer labelled 'NIOU'. In fact, the house looks normal in every respect: leafless vines hang over the cement fence, there is an NHK sticker pasted to the gate, and through the slats, Sanada can see a compact Toyota parked in a spotless driveway.
There is a thick lump pressing at the bottom of his throat. Sanada swallows. Nothing happens. He reminds himself that this is foolish. The whole idea is just…
But he presses the buzzer.
A female voice says, "Come in!" The same voice greets him at the door. Sanada bows his head to Niou's mom. It's warm inside, and filled with the salty, heady smell of something cooking in the kitchen.
"You must be…one of Masaharu's tennis club friends?" she asks. She smiles at Sanada. At the same time, her brows furrow together above her glasses.
Sanada mumbles a yes. He stands in the foyer, silent and in his socks. His eyes drift to the stairs. His face feels hot. Then he remembers about the cap on his head. He grabs it, and holds it by the brim.
"He's here?" Sanada asks. He clears his throat. The lump won't go away.
Niou's mom nods. "Just let yourself upstairs."
So he does. It's pretty obvious which room is his. There's a Biohazardous Waste sign on the doorway, with balloon stickers forming the name MaSAhArU underneath.
Sanada doesn't bother with knocking. Niou is sitting at a desk, with his head hung low in front of a leaning stack of notes. He mumbles something that sounds like, "I said leave me alone."
"That's just pathetic!" Sanada says.
Niou whips his head around. His eyes pop out from behind a pair of glasses. Which he yanks off his face and chucks onto the messy piles of blankets that must hide a bed. This is the first time Sanada has ever seen Niou with his jaw on the floor.
"What…what are you doing here?"
It's Sanada's turn to be slackjawed. He clears his throat. His face burns even hotter than before, and Niou's room is oddly well-lit.
He hadn't actually thought ahead this far.
He opens his mouth. Sweat must be beading along his temple. His throat is drier than the cakes Marui was raving about earlier. He tries to think of something to say that won't come out as a croak. Or a lie.
But instead, Sanada does something else. He reaches out to Niou's chin, where his skin is warm and a little clammy. His heart hammers against his ribs. He hopes that Yagyuu is right, literary topoi and all.
Because Sanada's eyes flit down to Niou's mouth, still open just a little. His lips shine with saliva. Sanada can't remember if he's supposed to breathe or not or when as he leans closer.
Niou's breath is hot. His nose bumps against Sanada's. He doesn't move an inch when Sanada presses his mouth against Niou's.
The same sort of tingle runs down his spine, except Sanada isn't annoyed or pissed off with Niou's. He's sliding his hand-shaking, sweating-behind Niou's neck. He touches Niou's rat tail, and the hot skin.
Then, it occurs to Sanada just what he is doing. He pulls back. He stares straight at Niou, who is just as stiff as he is. Niou stands, unmoving, for the longest while. A clock ticks. A cellphone vibrates. The hot flush spreads across every corner of Sanada's body.
And Niou's jaw drops.
Sanada swallows. "I…" He starts to remove his hand from Niou's neck. But another hand reaches up for it. Niou's eyes flutter as he leans forward this time. His mouth hasn't closed, and Sanada realizes that it's a rather good thing when he tentatively slides his tongue over Niou's.
The sparks through his body explode.
He can feel Niou's lips curling into a smile.
Sanada leans his forehead to Niou's. He likes the touch of skin to skin. He likes the feeling of Niou's fingers creeping between his. He likes the sensation, too, of Niou's hot exhale ghosting his lips.
"Well," Sanada says. His eyes meet Niou's. "Will you come out with us now?"
Niou has all of one word to say, as his thumb brushes over Sanada's palm.
"Puri."
Author: Ociwen
Wordcount: 6100
Rating: PG-13ish?
Disclaimer: Konomi owns all.
Summary: Niou always seems to be the cause of Sanada's misfortunes.
Author's Notes: Written for Niou's birthday 2010. Even though it's Sanada POV. Is that even possible…? ;)
1.
Technically, the tennis season is over. Technically, it ended after the Nationals-do not mention them in front of Yukimura!-and it was definitely over by the Invitationals in November.
And yet here Sanada is, standing on the sidelines with a scowl. He's sweaty from laps. The sweat which slithers under his tracksuit and makes him twitch. He could itch. But he won’t. Across the court, another ichinen trips over his feet.
"Lazy ass!" Sanada shouts. The kid stares, red-faced. "Get a move on!" The ichinen are slow this year. Sanada thinks to himself that they never huffed and puffed like that in first year. It's only been twenty laps.
"Pathetic," he whispers.
"Hn?" Renji asks.
Sanada purses his lips. "Nothing."
Renji shrugs.
Another kid falls behind. He tries to walk through part of a lap, hands clutching his sides. Sanada rolls his eyes. "What the hell are you doing?" he yells.
The kid starts to run faster.
"If they can't do laps, why the hell do they think they'd last in a tennis match?" Sanada asks-no one in particular, but of course Renji raises his eyebrows.
"Prestige," Renji says. "Previous so-called experience at the elementary level. Perhaps even goading by parents to join a club lest they-"
"I get it," Sanada says. He clenches his jaw a little tighter. He can see Renji shaking his head.
Technically, Sanada shouldn't even be doing this. But at the shoe cubbies, Yukimura touched his arm.
"Ne, Sanada?"
Sanada's arm tingled.
"Can you do laps this afternoon? Beatification Committee has to plant the crocus bulbs today." Yukimura smiled. Sanada fumbled with his shoelaces. Yukimura chewed on his bottom lip. It was almost a pout, but not quite.
Sanada muttered, "Okay."
And behind him, someone whispered, "Sucker". Sanada turned. So did the shadow on the wall, with its spiky hair and slouching shoulders.
That same someone can't be bothered to come to tennis practice. Even if the practice is technically not mandatory. On the far court, Akaya plays with a handful of balls. Sanada narrows his eyes. Akaya throws three balls in the air. He misses the first with his racket. And the second. And the third ball the racket hits. The ball zooms across the net. Marui falls to his knees, moaning and curling into a fetal position.
The ball rolls past his feet.
"AKAYA!" Sanada yells.
Akaya's laughter echoes between the slap of sneakers doing laps.
Technically, Sanada can't grab Akaya by the ear and call him an idiot.
But he does anyway. Akaya squeaks and squirms and flails his arms. Jackal frowns, behind them, and passes Marui the ice pack. Renji hasn't looked up from the bench, where he parked himself with a novel, next to Yagyuu, who has spread out his math textbook.
The ichinen and juniors skid to stops across the court. Sanada touches his cap. He flicks the brim up to see better in the thinning light. On cue, the kids rush back into their laps.
Sanada just rolls his eyes.
***
He shivers in the showers. The hot water is gone-used up by Akaya and Marui, maybe. All the hairs on his body stand up straight. His balls have retreated into his abdomen. He slides the soap into his armpit one last time. Wincing, he holds his arm up for a second to wash it out. Then he cranks the water off.
It sputters to a stop. He huddles into his towel. It's frayed and thin and he really really should have brought that new one his mom bought last week that he said no, he didn't need it, it would be wasteful to chuck this old rag out.
Sanada slides back into the locker area. He pulls his underpants on, then his socks. His feet stick to the inside. Rank sweat still permeates his school uniform. His legs stick to the wrong parts of his pants. His fingers, still with cold, button his shirt up, one button off.
He sighs.
Everyone else has left. Sanada glances around. Renji is gone too. He frowns. His stomach rumbles.
So much for ramen together tonight…
He rubs the damp towel one last time over his hair. Sanada opens his locker door. He reaches to the top shelf.
His hand hits cold metal. He lifts his head.
There is no cap on the shelf.
He looks at the floor. He pushes his tennis bag aside. Then his school bag. He reaches inside, shuffles through the notebooks, and opens the side pouch.
His cap isn't there.
Sharp panic seizes his chest. Sanada takes a deep breath. He tries to loosen his shoulders. His cap is around here. He set it on the top shelf of his locker, the same as always.
But he looks a second time, and a third: at an empty shelf.
He swallows hard.
He checks the top of the lockers. He checks the showers, and the toilets, too. His socks are wet. His hands shake. His throat thickens, and his eyes sting. He tries to retrace his steps-he definitely wore his hat for practice, didn't he?
Sanada even checks the top of his head.
Nothing.
There is no sign of the hat.
Something slithers down his cheek. Sanada wipes it away with the back of his hand. He tries to think straight, but his mind is clouded. Thoughts of his cap, incinerating in a trash depot, make his chest tighten.
He opens his day planner and flips to the second-to-last page. One by one, he opens the padlocks of seven other lockers with the numbers written on the page. Candy wrappers and a rotten sandwich spill out of Marui's locker. Jackal's door is pasted with posters of Maria Sharapova clutching her boobs. Yukimura has Andy Roddick's calendar, circled every second Friday in red pen: DOCTOR APPT :<
Akaya has broken toys, and more wrappers. Yagyuu's locker is barren, except for a novel. Renji's locker is a cesspit of dirty uniforms and crumpled papers.
Niou's locker is empty, too, save for a small black box on the top shelf. Sanada's eyes widen. He pulls the box down. It is almost shoebox size: perfect to hide a cap in.
He throws the lid off.
The only thing in the box is a small, dirty piece of string.
Sanada slumps onto the bench. His breath hitches, and he starts to cry.
***
Grandfather says, "Lazy ass! I thought you were told to sweep the dojo this evening!"
Ken says, "What's your problem, Gen-chan?" He chuckles. He slaps Sanada on the shoulder, and adds with a wink, "Girl problems?"
Dad doesn't say anything. He's asleep on the couch until Sasuke jumps on his stomach.
Neko-chan weaves between Sanada's feet. She looks up with beady eyes and says, "Nyah?"
Sanada shuffles up to his bedroom. He shuts the door, and crawls under his futon. He presses his face into his pillow.
The door creaks. Light footsteps pad across the tatami. "Is everything okay?" Mom asks.
Sanada sucks in a breath. His chest heaves anyway. Mom pats his back and doesn't say anything else.
2.
"Sanada-kun, did you find your hat?" Yagyuu asks. He doesn't even have the decency to say hello or good morning. That is what hanging out with Niou all the time will do to a person.
Niou slaps Sanada hard on the back. Sanada glares at him. With a shrug, Niou slinks away.
"I'm certain it was simply misplaced," Yagyuu says. "Perhaps a first year took it to the lost-and-found this morning." He smiles blandly. Sanada's temple pounds. He could smack Yagyuu across the face for being a smarmy smartass, but instead he snaps,
"I already checked!"
Yagyuu blinks. He coughs, flushed and flustered for a moment, before he smiles again. "Well, I'm sure it will be found by this afternoon."
Sanada keeps his mouth shut, mostly to avoid any cracks in his voice talking about his hat. His head is naked-okay, so he can't wear his cap in class anyway, but his head felt exposed walking from the bus stop to school. His head feels naked in the hallway. And it especially feels naked as he steps into the classroom and sets his bag down. Miyu and Naoko behind him are snickering from the moment Sanada stomps over to his desk. The back of his neck prickles. Apprehension slithers down his spine, all cold and drafty like the window.
He starts to turn his head.
The snickering stops.
Sanada pulls out his notebook. A pen rolls onto the floor, underneath his desk. He leans down to pick it up. All the hairs on his arms stand up under his blazer.
He shifts his eyes.
The snickering stops a second time.
Sanada scowls.
He scowls even deeper when Miyu leans over to Yagyuu and cups her hand around his ear. Yagyuu blinks, turns a little, and his head nods to Sanada. Sanada thinks, What? as Yagyuu leans back in his chair. He has little smirk on the side of his mouth. And a snicker Sanada can hear across the desks.
Sanada lifts his hand. But his cap is gone. Naoko bites her lip.
It's a conspiracy.
***
Before the math teacher comes to the classroom, Rie walks down the row of desks. Sho and Kouhei at the front whoop and shout and pump their fists. Heat crawls across Sanada's face, and he can't quite place why.
"Ne, Sanada-kun?" Rie says. She glances back to Sho, then she smiles at Sanada. She twirls a curl of permed hair around her green nail. "Me too."
"What?" Sanada says.
Rie skips back to Sho, who bursts into a gale of laughter.
Sanada's skin prickles all over.
***
At lunch time, Sanada stands in the cafeteria line. He gets an extra scoop of rice (his usual). Today there are breaded and fried sardines with cream soup, or the omelette special. Yukimura picks the sardines. Sanada reaches for a plate of the same.
His skin crawls.
The person behind him laughs.
Sanada stiffens. He sets his plate down on his tray. The laughing gets louder. He whips his head around, but it's not Akaya there.
It's some first year, half his size. Sanada narrows his eyes. The ichinen turns away, red in the face and choking on a not-laugh.
Sanada turns back around. The lunch lady asks him something. He grunts, and mumbles if she could repeat herself. She passes a wrapped slice of bread across the counter. "Are they pink?" she asks.
"What?" Sanada stares at her.
Her lips curl up in a wry sort of smile. "Pink? Yellow?"
Sanada stares at her a moment longer. He decides that she's developing early on-set Alzheimer's, like Yagyuu's grandmother. Whenever the team goes to Yagyuu's house, she asks how General Tadamichi is treating the troops.
He walks across the cafeteria. Eyes seem to follow him from every corner. Sanada purses his lips thinner. He walks faster. His head has never felt more naked. He wants a brim to cover his eyes. He wants something to hider the cow-lick in his hair that keeps curling up.
The moment Sanada sits down at the table, Akaya falls over. He rolls on the floor, clutching his stomach. Sanada rolls his eyes. He asks Renji, "Do we need to invest in some Ritalin?"
Renji leans back in his chair. He clears his throat and stands up behind Sanada. Then he sits right back down with a self-righteous smirk.
Students at the adjacent table start to talk about girl's panties and bra sets. Then frills and lace and titty tassels. Sanada clenches his jaw. Their snickering gets louder than Akaya's pained gasps on the floor. And something continues to slither under Sanada's skin.
He turns around. "That's inappropriate!" he snaps at the students.
"You should be talking!" one of them tells Sanada. Some kid from 3D, with frosted hair and a bead necklace.
Heathen, Sanada thinks.
"Inappropriate behaviour gets reported to the head teacher!" Sanada says. He thrusts his arm out. The moral committee band is stitched to his blazer bicep.
"Like…frilly panties rubbing your d-"
"Yo," Niou says. He slides down in the seat across from Sanada-after ripping a section off of Sanada's bread slice and stuffing it in his mouth.
"That was not yours," Sanada tells him. The laughter continues behind him: the lesser of two annoyances.
He picks at his sardines. They're tepid and a little on the soggy side now. Yukimura leans across the table. Sanada squirms in his seat a little. Niou starts to whistle under his breath.
"Sanada, are you not eating those…?" Yukimura licks his top lip.
Niou flicks granules of rice at Sanada's arm.
Sanada says Yukimura can have his sardines. Jackal walks up to them, but not after first peeling something from Sanada's bag.
"'I wear frilly panties'?"
Sanada blinks. Then he grabs the paper from Jackal's hands. He stares at the hiragana. His stomach sinks to the floor with Akaya, who has started to wheeze and gasp even louder.
On a choked laugh.
That the table of 3D boys joins in.
And Renji, too, who slaps his thigh and cackles.
Even Yukimura drops a sardine. His hand reaches up to cover his mouth.
Sanada's face is on fire. His entire body burns with shame as dozens of stares crawl over his skin. His mouth hangs open. His heart pounds. He wants to get up and run, except Niou's chair blocks his path.
Niou sits next to Sanada, his own face flushed. He opens his mouth to join in the laughing.
Sanada does the only thing he can: he takes a deep, shuddered breath. Then, through his teeth, he says, "That is not funny."
He stomps out of the cafeteria. The laughter doesn't die out until he's at the exit doors.
***
Sanada sits outside the clubhouse, right beside the outdoor faucet. He tucks his hands under his legs. His fingertips are cold. He tries to listen to the wind sough the vestigial leaves in the trees. He tries to close his eyes, and think of nothingness. He tries to count to ten, the way Renji told Akaya to calm down.
Mostly, Sanada sits and stews and glares at the ground. His stomach growls. Yukimura has probably polished off his lunch tray by now.
He thinks of how many laps Niou will be running this afternoon. Or perhaps shuttle runs.
If only flagellation were legal these days…
But even that thought just makes Sanada clench his jaw so tight, his muscles crack.
The clubhouse door swings open. Sanada glances around. Marui skips out of the clubhouse with a lollypop in his mouth. He skips past Sanada. Then he backtracks.
"Ah, Sanada," he says.
"Shut up," Sanada snaps.
Marui touches his chest. "Dude, chill." He plunks himself down beside Sanada, and drops a plastic bag between them. A box of Meiji chocolate almonds drops to the ground.
"Ne, guess what?" Marui waggles his eyebrows. He tucks his hands behind his back.
Every fibre of Sanada's being stiffens at his words. His heart skips a beat, and then it pounds hard into his ribs.
"Don't bother me!" Sanada says. "You're as bad as Niou!"
"Hey hey!" Marui sniffs. "I am not like that shithead. Besides," he says, with a flourish of his hands. Something drops into Sanada's lap.
"Look what I found when I was looking for my gum ball behind the trophy-I mean, when I was totally cleaning the clubhouse since it's my job this week."
Sanada looks down.
His fingertips touch the familiar curve of the black brim. His throat is thick, and he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry or just say thanks.
Instead, he stands up. He unfolds his arms. And he makes for the cafeteria.
***
Sanada watches Niou struggle through the shuttle runs. The sky is black. Niou drags his feet on the ground. His gasps make frosty plumes in the air. Sanada clicks the button again.
95…
"LAZYASS!! PATHETIC!" he shouts. "SHAME!! YOU AREN'T FINISHED YET!! SHAAAME!"
Conveniently, Marui has yet to clean the clubhouse toilets.
Conveniently, they haven't been cleaned in the two years Yukimura has been tennis club captain.
Sanada smiles to himself.
3.
On Monday, there is an emergency.
Yagyuu bursts into the washitsu so fast the door shakes on its track. Sanada turns around. Yagyuu's panting. His moral committee band is untied on his arm.
"Sanada-kun!" he says. "On the rooftop! Moral urgency!"
Sanada stands up. He narrows his eyes. They run down the hallway, past students clustered in classrooms, eating their lunches.
"What has Niou done now?" he asks.
Yagyuu stops in his tracks. Sanada ploughs right into him. Together, they fall to the floor.
Sanada brushes his knees off. Yagyuu says, "Ow" and straightens his glasses.
"Niou-kun hasn't done anything that I am aware of," he says. "It's 3D. On the rooftop."
Sanada takes a deep breath. "It is an emergency. We need to be armed."
Yagyuu blinks. Deadpan, he says, "I apologize. I've left my sword at home."
Sanada says, "That's fine." He runs to the end of the hallway, with Yagyuu on his heels. The stairs to the rooftop are ahead of them. And against the wall there is a glass box: EMERGENCIES ONLY.
Sanada slams his elbow into the glass pane. He grabs the fire extinguisher. Yagyuu pushes open the door and they whip their heads around. Sanada crinkles his nose. He sucks in a breath, and coughs.
"Disgusting," he mutters. "Disrespectful."
Yagyuu nods.
The same 3D boys from lunch the other day are grouped at the far end of the rooftop, leaning over the ledge. Smoke rises from their huddle: acrid and grey and sharp against the frigid cold. Sanada approaches them with a puffed-up chest and a glare from under his cap. Yagyuu is right behind.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sanada asks.
One guy turns around. He's slouched worse than Niou and has beads in his hair. His pants are so baggy he looks homeless. He chucks his chin. With a snort, he says, "What's it look like, grandpa?"
Sanada curls his lip.
So does the guy. Then he flicks cigarette ash at Sanada's feet. It settles on the toe of his school shoes.
Sanada presses the trigger. "That is against school policy."
The foam flies.
***
He and Yagyuu walk back into the school, a job well done. Sanada has a bounce in his step. He almost smiles. When he glances to the rooftop garden, where Yukimura waves them over, he pulls at his brim to hide the tug of his lips.
Yukimura says hey. Sanada grunts back. Yagyuu says he'll just be going now.
Sanada kneels down next to Yukimura. Yukimura digs a fresh hole with a trowel. Dirt cakes under his fingernails. He wipes a hand across his face. Dirt smudges his cheek, too.
Sanada clears his throat.
"Ne," Yukimura says, "have you seen any of my salvia plants?"
Sanada blinks. Yukimura frowns.
"They had some really pretty flowers and now they're all gone." He nods to a row of stumpy little green plants that look uprooted and ripped apart. A single red petal litters the ground beside them.
Sanada says he hasn't seen anything.
Yukimura sighs. He rocks back on his heels. He drives his trowel into the soil, and twists hard. A hair falls out from his headband.
"It's just…I really wanted to give some to Mika, in class D, you know?"
***
Sanada slinks into the washitsu. His throat is so thick that he can't even ask Niou what the heck he's doing in here. Niou takes one look at Sanada and creeps out.
The door closes without a sound.
Sanada sinks to his knees. The light from the paper windows has shifted and dimmed. His blazer brushes the tatami floor with the briefest of rustles. Sanada takes a deep breath. He closes his eyes.
The bell for class rings. Sanada takes one last, shuddered breath. He grabs his school bag, and slams the door behind himself.
***
In the middle of the test in chemistry class, a cellphone rings.
Sanada looks up from his paper. He clenches his jaw, and thinks, Fool! He glances around the classroom with narrowed eyes, along with everyone else. The tune is shrill and mid-tempo, the sort of tune you hear in an anime, or a video game.
Yuki in the first row starts to giggle. "That's Sailor Moon!" she whispers.
The teacher looks up. He shakes his head. "Turn your cellphone off!" he tells the class.
The girls start to whisper more.
"No," Aya says. She rolls her eyes at Yuki. "That's Sailor Chibi Moon Eternal!"
"Ridiculous!" Sanada hisses. He glares at Kyoko next to him. The cellphone loops the song again. And it's awfully close to him. "Turn off your phone!" he snaps at her.
Kyoko sniffs. She flips her hair back, and picks at one of her nails. The cellphone won't shut up.
"It's not mine," she says. She clicks her tongue, and nods to Sanada's bag, which is conveniently on the floor next to her hobo bag.
"It's yours."
Realization that the noise is permeating from his bag is a fast, feverish flush up his neck and across his face.
Life would be so much easier if he could crawl under his cap, rather than frantically reach into his bag as thirty-five sets of eyes stare.
As soon as Sanada flips his phone open, his stomach sinks even lower. His eyes pop out of his head. It can't be possible to flush any harder without spontaneously combusting.
His entire screen is covered in illegible script. He blinks. He presses the 'end' button. He presses three more times, and still Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon Transformation plays on loop. His fingers fumble even worse. His phone drops to the floor with a crunch.
The screen goes black.
Only then does the music stop.
***
Only one person can be at fault.
And it's his fault, too, that Sanada couldn't concentrate on his test. The words ran together, blurry and squiggly and just like his cellphone screen. Thai? Persian? Urdu?
He doesn't know. And he doesn't care.
As soon as the school bell rings, Sanada storms out of his classroom. He marches past classroom 3B. He ignores Marui calling out his name. He pushes through the cluster of girls pointing and giggling at the top of the stairwell.
Of course, the last person to come to class is the first to leave.
Sanada catches up to him by the shoe cubbies. He grabs Niou by the collar and slams him against the wall.
"YOU!" he shouts.
Niou just blinks at him. He doesn't say anything, he just stares straight into Sanada's eyes. Sanada's blood begins to boil. He tightens his grip on Niou's blazer. Niou doesn't even struggle.
"You immature….CLOWN!" Sanada yells. "What is wrong with you? WHY DO YOU DO THIS?"
Niou's throat bobs, just once.
"You fool…you immature….BRAT!" Sanada's knuckles crack. He wants to slam Niou's head into the cinderblock wall. He wants Niou to laugh, or shrug, or just react!
But instead Niou has no expression at all.
Sanada's nostrils puff up. He grinds his teeth. He calls Niou a fool, an idiot, a complete ASS! He shoves his knuckles into Niou's chin, where his skin is warm and his Adam's Apple moves a second time.
But Niou still does nothing.
Sanada loosens his grip. He steps back. His neck prickles. Students are staring and watching and blinking.
Sanada pulls the brim of his cap down over his eyes. He shoves right through the crowd.
He'll deal with Niou tomorrow.
Because first he has a new cellphone to buy.
4.
Except that Niou doesn't show up for morning tennis practice.
Granted, it is December. A sludgy sort of rain drizzled the bus windows. The tennis courts are muddy. It's cold without mittens, but the rain seeps through them. Renji stands under an umbrella. Sanada crosses his arms. Rain drips from the brim of his cap. He tries to bite down on the chatter of his teeth when he calls out, "Fifty laps!"
Jackal's tracksuit is soaked through. Marui has a rain jacket on.
"It's team coloured, at least," Renji says, to Yukimura's frown.
Sanada flips his cellphone open. It's metallic purple and feels all wrong. The menu screen is different. He hasn't had a chance to string his phone charms on. And he hasn't even changed it from the generic ringtone.
Sanada tightens his jaw. He keeps his eyes peeled for a bleached head among the dark heads running around the courts. Yagyuu shows up, five minutes late and all apologies.
"The bus was late," Yagyuu says. He reaches to push his glasses up, but it doesn't completely hide the yawn behind his hand.
Sanada narrows his eyes. "Fifty," he says.
Yagyuu nods.
"Plus five for tardiness."
Yagyuu purses his lips, and nods again.
At quarter to eight-a half hour late-Akaya bursts onto the courts. Sanada takes one look at him, and Akaya is on the court with the others, starting his laps, too.
"Sixty!" Sanada shouts at him. Akaya runs past. Sanada doesn't have to see his face to know damn well that Akaya is rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue.
"Seventy!!" Sanada shouts, even louder this time.
"English project due?" Renji asks.
Sanada snorts. "No."
Renji hums-Sanada is suspicious. "What?"
Renji makes a non-committal noise. Marui pops up from behind him, unwrapping a stick of gum.
"He means that you seem…"
"Cranky," Renji says.
"A little more than usual," Marui admits.
Sanada draws his hand back. Marui starts to wince, but before Sanada can backhand him across the face, someone else grabs his hand.
Renji raises his eyebrows. "Point proven."
***
Lunch is hot pot, with steamed rice and dried smelt. Sanada asks for two scoops of rice. He sits down at the usual cafeteria table, in one of three free seats at the end.
Akaya tries to shove a chopstick in Jackal's ear. Sanada grabs the chopstick from his hand. He narrows his eyes.
Akaya sticks out his bottom lip.
"Spoon?" Marui offers. He snickers. Yagyuu makes a noise behind his hand, and says excuse me.
Renji has a stack of papers beside his cafeteria tray. Sanada picks one up. It's a copy of August's training schedule, colour-coded with highlighters.
Sanada's brow furrows. Renji says, "Urayama will be in charge of the team training menu next year. He's asked for help."
Sanada grunts. He looks around the table. "Where's Niou?" he asks.
Marui says he doesn't know. "He was definitely in Chem class, since he was the idiot who spilled acid all over the teacher's sleeve." He smirks. "Probably detention?"
Akaya snickers along with Marui.
***
The last bell of the day rings. Sanada grabs his bag, pockets his cellphone, and marches down the hallway for 3B.
A voice calls his name out. He glances up. Yukimura waves from the doorway of 3C. He jogs over, past the students heading the opposite direction.
"Ramen tonight," Yukimura says.
Sanada grunts. He taps his foot on the floor. Yukimura keeps talking, but Sanada ignores him. He waits for a break between students and steps inside the classroom.
Marui is halfway down the first row. Two desks back and an aisle over, right in the back corner, is Niou.
"Niou!" Sanada snaps.
A pair of eyes peers out from underneath Niou's hair. The glance is too fleeting to catch Sanada's eyes. Niou slings his back over his shoulder. Sanada calls his name a second time. He asks Niou where the hell he was this morning. He folds his arms over his chest, and stands in Niou's way.
Niou extends his arm. He jumps over a desk, then he sidesteps to the right in a prancing little grapevine. He darts out the door before Sanada has time to blink.
Marui blows a raspberry. "So what, he's trying out for ACROBATIC CLASS now?"
Yukimura bites his lip. He's smiling, anyway.
Sanada glares at the doorway, but Niou doesn't come back.
And he doesn't come out for ramen with everyone, either.
***
He's sitting in literature class-if studying post-1960s popular novels counts as literature (which Sanada doesn't think it does). There are no messages written backwards sent to his cellphone. There is no ink in his hair, or spitballs stuck to the back of his blazer. There is no gum inside his school shoes, and there have definitely been no topless bar flyers inserted into his textbooks.
This week has been eerily, oddly quiet.
The teacher is droning on. Yagyuu bolts up from his seat to answer another question. Sanada taps his pen on the spine of his notebook.
He glances to the window, and sigh escapes.
"-therefore the literary topos of a boy terrorizing a girl with pranks, as proof that he actually is in love with her can be seen in chapter 4, page 56 when Hiro…"
Sanada's eyes snap open. His pen rolls across the desk.
No…
***
Except that no one else smeared girl's deodorant all over the back of his locker padlock in the clubhouse last month. No one else hid that rubber snake in his shoe cubby for three days straight in August. No one else drew the wrong characters on his pep rally headband, the ones that read Large horse seafoam humping.
Sanada stares at the tokonoma alcove of the dojo. His grandfather has turned the light out to go to bed some time before. A cold draft pricks at the hairs on Sanada's arms. His toes tingle, cold and sleepy under his knees. Neko-chan is mewling on the other side of the door.
The calligraphic scroll hanging above has four vertical characters. Even in the darkness, Sanada can make out the bold, fluid strokes of his grandfather's brush. His eyes settle on the last character, the same as one from his name.
One of the meanings, Sanada knows, is to be at peace.
A wry tug pulls at his mouth.
5.
Marui emails promptly at 11:30 on Saturday.
Cakee BUFFET!!!
Sanada responds with one word: Why?
His cellphone buzzes in the pocket of his cableknit sweater. He finishes raking the pile of leaves in the garden. The sliding door opens and Sanada rolls his eyes. "Took you long enough," he says.
Sasuke sticks his tongue out. Then he jumps straight into the pile. Leaves scatter in the air. Sanada picks one off his shoulder, as he shakes his head.
A muffled Ryoma-den OP starts to play from his pocket. Sanada chucks the leaf at Sasuke, and flips his cellphone open.
***
Sanada asks Yagyuu, "Why are we here?"
Marui sticks his head between the two of them. "One never needs a reason for a 2-hour all-you-can-eat cake buffet!" He licks his lips. Sanada snorts. He looks at Yagyuu.
Yagyuu checks his watch. With a frown, he says, "It is also Niou-kun's birthday…"
A woman walks past them through the hotel lobby. Akaya clambers over an arm chair. It tips, and in slow-motion, Sanada watches Akaya arc towards the floor, and end up sprawled in a heap by Yukimura's feet.
"I don't know these idiots," Sanada mutters.
Renji hums. "Nor I."
Jackal stands up. "Guys, it's already two thirty."
Marui joins him. He claps his hands together. Akaya stands up, salutes him, and lines up behind Jackal.
"We can start without him," Marui says. "Gosh darn."
Yagyuu flips his cellphone shut. "He hasn't responded to any of my emails all morning."
Akaya laughs. "Maybe he's pissed because I beat him at darts last night."
"Or he's bitter that my natural genius trumps his at Donkey Kong?" Marui adds. He and Akaya share toothy grins.
Yukimura stands up, too. He rubs his stomach. "Well, I'm going in now. If we wait any longer, I won't make it tonight."
"Tonight?" Renji asks. Yukimura shifts his eyes. Renji narrows his. "Ah, yes, you have a da-"
"This is ridiculous!" Sanada says. He scoffs. He walks straight past Jackal and Akaya. Jackal calls his name, but Sanada doesn't turn around.
He adjusts his scarf, and heads through the revolving door.
***
He has been here a total of once, while Yukimura was sick and they were locked out of the clubhouse because someone misplaced the keys even though they were supposed to be in Sanada's tennis bag. Like usual.
Sanada vaguely remembers the street. It's up a hill from the pachinko parlour and the used book shop beside the Familymart. He steps into the Familymart first, and stands in front of a rack of disposable salaryman-type shirts.
This could be a very, very stupid idea.
He takes a deep breath, and goes back outside. He stuffs his hands deep into his jacket pockets and starts up the hill. There is only one house on the street with a buzzer labelled 'NIOU'. In fact, the house looks normal in every respect: leafless vines hang over the cement fence, there is an NHK sticker pasted to the gate, and through the slats, Sanada can see a compact Toyota parked in a spotless driveway.
There is a thick lump pressing at the bottom of his throat. Sanada swallows. Nothing happens. He reminds himself that this is foolish. The whole idea is just…
But he presses the buzzer.
A female voice says, "Come in!" The same voice greets him at the door. Sanada bows his head to Niou's mom. It's warm inside, and filled with the salty, heady smell of something cooking in the kitchen.
"You must be…one of Masaharu's tennis club friends?" she asks. She smiles at Sanada. At the same time, her brows furrow together above her glasses.
Sanada mumbles a yes. He stands in the foyer, silent and in his socks. His eyes drift to the stairs. His face feels hot. Then he remembers about the cap on his head. He grabs it, and holds it by the brim.
"He's here?" Sanada asks. He clears his throat. The lump won't go away.
Niou's mom nods. "Just let yourself upstairs."
So he does. It's pretty obvious which room is his. There's a Biohazardous Waste sign on the doorway, with balloon stickers forming the name MaSAhArU underneath.
Sanada doesn't bother with knocking. Niou is sitting at a desk, with his head hung low in front of a leaning stack of notes. He mumbles something that sounds like, "I said leave me alone."
"That's just pathetic!" Sanada says.
Niou whips his head around. His eyes pop out from behind a pair of glasses. Which he yanks off his face and chucks onto the messy piles of blankets that must hide a bed. This is the first time Sanada has ever seen Niou with his jaw on the floor.
"What…what are you doing here?"
It's Sanada's turn to be slackjawed. He clears his throat. His face burns even hotter than before, and Niou's room is oddly well-lit.
He hadn't actually thought ahead this far.
He opens his mouth. Sweat must be beading along his temple. His throat is drier than the cakes Marui was raving about earlier. He tries to think of something to say that won't come out as a croak. Or a lie.
But instead, Sanada does something else. He reaches out to Niou's chin, where his skin is warm and a little clammy. His heart hammers against his ribs. He hopes that Yagyuu is right, literary topoi and all.
Because Sanada's eyes flit down to Niou's mouth, still open just a little. His lips shine with saliva. Sanada can't remember if he's supposed to breathe or not or when as he leans closer.
Niou's breath is hot. His nose bumps against Sanada's. He doesn't move an inch when Sanada presses his mouth against Niou's.
The same sort of tingle runs down his spine, except Sanada isn't annoyed or pissed off with Niou's. He's sliding his hand-shaking, sweating-behind Niou's neck. He touches Niou's rat tail, and the hot skin.
Then, it occurs to Sanada just what he is doing. He pulls back. He stares straight at Niou, who is just as stiff as he is. Niou stands, unmoving, for the longest while. A clock ticks. A cellphone vibrates. The hot flush spreads across every corner of Sanada's body.
And Niou's jaw drops.
Sanada swallows. "I…" He starts to remove his hand from Niou's neck. But another hand reaches up for it. Niou's eyes flutter as he leans forward this time. His mouth hasn't closed, and Sanada realizes that it's a rather good thing when he tentatively slides his tongue over Niou's.
The sparks through his body explode.
He can feel Niou's lips curling into a smile.
Sanada leans his forehead to Niou's. He likes the touch of skin to skin. He likes the feeling of Niou's fingers creeping between his. He likes the sensation, too, of Niou's hot exhale ghosting his lips.
"Well," Sanada says. His eyes meet Niou's. "Will you come out with us now?"
Niou has all of one word to say, as his thumb brushes over Sanada's palm.
"Puri."