Happy spring, vacivity!
Title: “Divide and Multiply”
Recipient’s name: vacivity
Rating: Light R
Pairings: Yagyuu/Niou, Yukimura/Sanada, hints at Yanagi/Kirihara
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created by Konomi Takeshi. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warning: Yaoi. Light smut. Angsty fluff. Potty language. Future fic. Manga canon (No technicolored golf swing for Yagyuu >_<).
Summary: Niou and Yagyuu have a long overdue reunion. Domesticity ensues.
Author’s Note: Had a bit of difficulty trying to keep the smut and swearing to a reasonably low level since, well, it’s Yagyuu and Niou, but I did my best! I hope you enjoy!
Niou Masaharu never thought he’d be in a disco-themed gay bar sharing a round of beers with his former captain and his former vice-captain.
Of course, it had been an impromptu reunion, brought upon them when he had run into Yukimura in a small food mart across the street from his shabby apartment. Yukimura inevitably suggested they catch up and off-handedly mentioned that Sanada was staying with him. Niou had fought to not roll his eyes at that comment. It was pretty much a fact by now: wherever there was a Yukimura, there was a Sanada.
He hadn’t seen any of his teammates since they all went off to college. Yukimura had decided to study sports medicine and physical therapy in Tokyo University, and, predictably, Sanada had gone with him. Yanagi ventured off to Osaka to study economics. Marui and Jackal both moved to Brazil to raise cattle or whatever they do over there. Niou wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
It had still been up in the air whether or not Kirihara would even graduate. Niou wanted to believe that Kirihara would have at least followed Yanagi to Osaka, so the data specialist could keep an eye on him.
Then, there was Yagyuu -his former partner, former best friend, former everything. Yagyuu had dropped off the face of the earth half-way through high school. Just one day, he stopped showing up entirely, and when Niou had gone to visit him at home after school, there had been a ‘for sale’ sign on the door.
Apparently Yukimura had been the only one who had known about the move, and Niou had refused to speak to his captain until Sanada dragged him off to a lone corner and yelled at him that Yukimura had only been honoring Yagyuu’s request.
Life after that had passed rather quickly. Before he knew it, Niou had taken and failed his entrance exams then had promptly applied to trade school in Nagoya. He had managed to acquire a cozy job as a mechanic after two years -the pay wasn’t great, but his co-workers were the best drinking buddies a guy could ask for.
Sanada’s voice suddenly snapped him out of his musing.
“Why are we in a gay disco bar again?”
Niou grinned and slugged an arm around the solemn man who was quietly nursing a glass of rum and coke. “Thought you and the wife would feel at home here,” he joked cheekily and received an elbow in his side from Sanada in response.
“Unfortunately it’s the closest place to my apartment to get plastered,” Niou amended quickly.
Yukimura couldn’t help but chuckle, and he gave Niou a pointed look as he trailed a hand gently over Sanada’s bicep. “And what makes you think I’m the wife?”
Niou glanced back and forth between both men before letting out an amused snort. “You’re kidding me. So is that why you’re so grouchy, Genichirou? Yukimura finally knock you up?”
The dark-haired man nearly choked on his drink, eyes bugging out comically. Yukimura gently pat his back as he coughed and held a napkin to his mouth. A glare was leveled at the chuckling trickster that went unheeded.
“I see you’ve failed to remove that stick from your ass. You still wear all your buttons buttoned to the top. How do you even breathe like that, Genichirou?” Niou continued on, unaware of his former vice-captain’s increasing level of discontent.
“Masaharu,” Yukimura said in that warning tone -the same tone he used just before he had assigned them laps back in high school.
“Okay, okay. So what are you two love birds up to? How’s Tokyo University?”
Sanada scowled at his drink, and Niou quickly decided that a drunk Sanada was a moody Sanada.
Yukimura sipped at his own drink to hide his slight smirk and gently placed a hand on Sanada’s shoulder. “Apparently both he and Atobe are business majors.”
“I have him in three classes,” Sanada grumbled and downed the rest of his drink as if that would eliminate some of his ire against the once flamboyant captain of Hyoutei.
Niou couldn’t help but laugh at his plight, and even Yukimura fought down a good-natured chuckle. “Is he still- ?” Niou let his wrist flop effeminately, which set Yukimura off into louder giggles.
“You know the world changes around us…people get older, move on in life, move away from each other…there are goodbyes and greetings, changing tides…but,” Yukimura paused for dramatic effect, striking an Atobe-like pose, “Atobe Keigo…will always be Atobe Keigo.”
Both Niou and Sanada stared down at the smaller man and watched him raise his glass in the air with a carefree smile before drinking it in one gulp. It was refreshing to see, to say the least. Most of Niou’s memories of Yukimura involved hospital beds, militant training methods, and tennis balls that would bolt pass his body before he could even blink.
“I think he’s had too much to drink,” Niou whispered to Sanada who gave him a ‘No, shit’ look in return.
Yukimura’s hand moved upwards and started to casually twirl a strand of Sanada’s hair in his hand. “I’ve always found your honesty refreshing, Masaharu,” he murmured distractedly, eyes trained on the bit of hair caught around his finger. Niou had the random feeling that Yukimura had played the biggest role in Sanada’s newfound absence of hats.
“Well, if it’s honesty you want-,” Niou paused to light his cigarette before taking a drag, “I’d totally fuck Atobe. He’s hot. You should get me his number, Genichirou.”
“I’m not getting you his number. I’d like to spare myself from having to hear his voice more than I already do on a daily basis.”
“It’s a sexy voice,” Yukimura put in.
“It’s not sexy,” Sanada muttered between clenched teeth, “and you shouldn’t be smoking. We all worked hard to get you off that addiction in high school.”
Niou let out a derisive snort and puffed an angry cloud of smoke in Sanada’s face, sending the older man into a coughing fit. “Fuck that. Besides, this is part of my twelve steps.”
“Smoking is part of your twelve steps?” Yukimura questioned and started sipping at the newly filled glass set down in front of him.
“Yeah. Need it to get over my alcoholic-,” Niou gestured wildly with his hands before settling on, “-ness.”
“I don’t suppose not drinking alcohol has any pivotal role in your steps,” Sanada muttered sarcastically.
Before Niou could retort in a manner that would assuredly piss Sanada off more -and really, Sanada was a very angry drunk- Yukimura quickly intercepted with, “Have you heard at all from Hiroshi?”
If Yukimura hadn’t been intoxicated -not that the man was much for discretion, anyway-, he probably wouldn’t have approached the subject at all. They’d avoided talking about it in high school, especially around Niou.
Niou was annoyed to find out that even thinking about it still made his stomach twist in tight knots, and bile nudged at the back of his throat.
“No,” he finally answered, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice.
A strange quiet fell upon the table as they awkwardly shifted with the change in mood. Sanada drummed his fingers against the edge, and Yukimura stared at the glass in front of him.
Niou finally thought to break the silence, mostly because he didn’t think he could keep his stomach in line any longer. “I think I should head home. ‘s getting late. Have to be up at 6 a.m. in the morning and all.”
Yukimura nodded and smiled indulgently. “We’ll be in town for the next few days… we should get together again.”
Niou wasn’t sure he wanted to do that. He gave them his usually carefree grin, however half-hearted it was, and nodded. “Sure, you guys have my number.”
They all rose at the same time, and Sanada gave Niou a very manly handshake. “Take care of yourself, Masaharu,” he said in all seriousness.
Niou found himself nodding again before turning to his former captain. He was marginally surprised to find warm arms enveloping him tightly and Yukimura’s soft hairless cheek brushing against his as he murmured, “He misses you.”
It wasn’t very hard to figure out just who Yukimura had been referring to. They waved to each other one last time before Sanada furtively slid his arm around Yukimura’s waist and hailed a taxi for the two of them.
*****
Three weeks later, Niou found himself waiting alone at the train stop at 2 a.m. The only people around that night had been an elderly businessman, a young woman with strange scars on the left side of her face, and a beggar with a cane. Niou absently checked his watch and sighed impatiently. Something about the way that lady was staring at him was really starting to give him the creeps.
Suddenly, the train shrieked loudly as it pulled up in front of him, and the door slid open with a loud hiss.
Niou smirked at his watch and took a step forward.
‘Just in time, too.’
As he was about to step onto the train, his body froze in shock before he could reach the door. The windows of the train were distorted with grime and scratches, but he could see straight through them into a pair of pale blue eyes. They were just as wide as his, and it felt like looking at a fun house mirror and seeing a distorted reflection of himself.
“Hiroshi,” Niou’s lips spoke before his mind could even process the name.
The train doors began to close, and he lurched forward as fast as he could, diving and sticking his arm through them. Niou’s body went rigid in panic as the train started moving again.
“Stop the train!” someone shouted, and Niou swore he could see Yagyuu zipping through the carts with the same deadly speed he once used in tennis.
Sure enough, the train screamed as it stopped, and the doors opened. There would probably be bruises on his upper arm the next morning, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was the man who came running back into the same cart Niou tried to shove his way into.
“Niou-san,” he heard the other man say and for a second, Niou remembered thinking he’d never hear that voice again.
“Why so formal?” Niou asked, plastering a devilish grin on his face.
“I don’t presume any kind of familiarity with you considering we haven’t seen each other in-“
Yagyuu didn’t get to finish the statement. Niou had punched him hard in the jaw, and he went reeling backwards till he fell on the subway bench. His body was sprawled out awkwardly, and he rubbed the sore spot on his face as he raised his eyes to his former partner, hearing the silver-haired trickster crack his knuckles threateningly.
Niou plopped down next to the other man, leaning back against the bench in a suddenly easy and friendly manner, draping an arm over the chair and around Yagyuu’s shoulder. “Now that that’s out of the way, I can ask you what the hell you’re doing here?”
He his former partner beside him stiffen and was pleased to note the tension in Yagyuu’s shoulders and the way his eyes wouldn’t meet Niou’s dead on since they had first spotted each other. It certainly wasn’t difficult to keep his own gaze fixated on his former doubles partner. Age had been good to Yagyuu, and the man in question had let his dark hair grow out a bit longer until the edges in the back brushed over the knob of his spine and the front bangs draped haphazardly over his left eye. Probably the biggest change had been the lack of glasses. For as long as Niou had known Yagyuu, his best friend had always worn those fancy oval glasses that clouded his eyes with the light’s reflection. Now, they were left uncovered, pale blue and completely intimidating in all their glory.
Perhaps, it was just as well that Yagyuu wouldn’t meet his stare. Niou didn’t think he could see the other so openly without reacting again -whether it would be another punch or a kiss this time, he couldn’t decide.
He himself hadn’t changed much aside from the stubble now dotting his lower face and the longer rat tail that was now braided and resting over his shoulder.
“I’m here to interview for a transfer position,” Yagyuu finally answered, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Transfer?” Niou perked up slightly, “Where to?”
“Local university,” Yagyuu answered cryptically and made a move to push up his glasses before stopping short once he realized he didn’t have them anymore.
“What are you studying?”
“Investment banking.”
It all seemed so quaint. It was almost as if they had never been partners and best friends to begin with. Their history had been wiped away in the blink of an eye, and it felt absurd sitting next to Yagyuu and pretending that he hadn’t been upset for years.
However, Niou didn’t show anger easily. Kirihara had been the violent loose canon of the team. Niou preferred to grin and let things fall away, making it seem as he wasn’t upset. His later revenge was always swift and unexpected.
Yagyuu had possibly been the only person who could read Niou and predict his antics before they came into fruition, and that was why the only person who could get under Niou’s skin was Yagyuu.
The same was true of Niou. He was the only one who could peel away all those layers that made Yagyuu -he could see through the gentleman act, could see through the slight smiles and the calm demeanor and find the tiger that lay in wait, always circling in its cage and baring its teeth.
This thing between them -whatever it had been- wasn’t easily forgotten.
“So where are you staying while you’re around?” Niou suddenly asked, deliberately pressing his thigh against Yagyuu’s.
Yagyuu didn’t show whether he noticed the action or not. “Motel downtown.”
Niou raised an eyebrow. “Motel? Those places are just for sex, you know?”
“There was nothing else available.”
“Stay with me,” Niou said before he could stop himself. It was just too easy to fall back into old patterns -to invite Yagyuu back into his life.
“No,” was the abrupt answer.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Masa-Niou.”
Niou chuckled and nudged Yagyuu lightly in the side. “You nearly slipped up there. Come on. Stay for the night, at least. You can pick up your crap tomorrow from that motel if you change your mind.”
Yagyuu opened his mouth to protest then shut it abruptly. Arguing with Niou was always a moot point. He was doomed to lose right from the beginning.
*****
Niou’s apartment wasn’t anything remotely decadent. Frankly, it was a breeding ground for roaches. Dirty magazines littered the coffee table. The couch had holes, cigarette butts strewn over it, and it smelled like cat piss. The kitchen looked like it hadn’t been clean since the previous owners lived in it, and the counter had various potato chip bags, beer cans, and boxes of cookies left open on it.
“You can take the couch if you want,” Niou offered, knowing if he asked Yagyuu to share a bed with him, the other man would protest.
“Not offering your bed?” Yagyuu asked with a raised eyebrow and used the tip of his index finger to carefully nudge aside some of the contents on the couch before sitting down.
“Well,” Niou began with a grin, already advancing towards his former doubles partner. Before he could get any closer, Yagyuu held a hand out to his chest to stop him.
“I was merely expressing surprise. I’ll take the couch.”
Niou simply shrugged and dropped onto the couch next to him, casually draping an arm around Yagyuu.
“Just tell me one thing,” Yagyuu said suddenly but still wouldn’t turn his head to meet Niou’s face. “Who won Nationals?”
Niou scratched the back of his head awkwardly with his other hand and felt his stomach lurch again. “During our senior year…well, Hyoutei won. I think Sanada’s still pissed about that one. Got his ass handed to him by Atobe.”
For the first time that night, he nearly caught Yagyuu smile.
“Had to play doubles with Jackal for that one. It’s like playing with a brick wall… a very bald brick wall,” Niou continued off-handedly. A part of him hoped the guilt stung Yagyuu. They would have won if the other man had stayed on his team. They could have easily defeated Hyoutei’s fruity, lovey-dovey D1 pair.
“Who did Marui play with then?”
“He was moved to Singles 3, and Yanagi and Kirihara played as Doubles 2.”
“Ah.”
Yes, it didn’t take a genius to figure out why they had gotten trounced on the final match at Nationals. Neither pair could sync well, even if he had good reason to believe the D2 pair had been fucking and that generally did wonders for doubles pairs. Hyoutei was apparently living proof of that. He didn’t even want to think about Seigaku.
An awkward silence fell upon them, and Niou shifted on the couch.
He finally broke the silence after a couple of minutes. “Yagyuu…why did you leave?” Niou didn’t mean for his voice to sound hoarse, but it did.
“My father got transferred by his job, and we relocated to Nagano.”
The answer was so simple -so Yagyuu.
Niou pressed his fingers into his thighs and tried again. “Why didn’t you tell anyone else except Yukimura?”
“Because-“ Yagyuu paused and stared at the ground between his knees, brows knitting as if trying to decide on something. He seemed please with whatever decision he came up with after a few seconds of deliberation and turned to actually look Niou in the eye. “I didn’t want you to stop me.”
“I would have stopped you,” Niou agreed. “Hell, I would have chased you down, gotten on my knees, and blown you if that would have brought you back.”
“I didn’t want you to …do that, either,” Yagyuu murmured.
Niou’s head lolled backwards, and he stared at the large stain on the ceiling. His neck hurt with the movement, but he tried to concentrate on how much that stain kind of looked like a hawk preying on a one-legged raccoon if he squint his eyes enough.
“You suck,” he decided and finally stood up and went to bed without another word to his former partner.
*****
The next morning, Yagyuu left before Niou had woken up. It was still a mystery as to whether or not the other man even bothered staying there the entire night.
The only thing that remained of his was a brown leather wallet lying on the couch. It wasn’t like Yagyuu to leave important things like that behind.
Niou sat next to it, hands fidgeting on his lap like a child in a room full of glass objects who was trying to resist the urge to knock every single one of them down. He hadn’t wanted to go through Yagyuu’s things. It really wasn’t his business anymore, and he was trying desperately to convince himself he honestly didn’t care.
His hands didn’t listen to him and were already rummaging through the wallet when he glanced downward.
‘Well, fuck.’
Yagyuu only had 800 yen tucked into his wallet. How the guy could travel around while broke was beyond him. Then again, Yagyuu probably did paranoid things like hide his money inside his shoes or in his socks in his luggage just in case someone tried to rob him. There weren’t any credit cards. He had a library card, a worn out picture of his dog in human clothes -‘how gay’-, an international phone card, and something that looked like a high school ID.
The ID slid out onto the floor, and Niou had to pause as he bent down. The picture on the left hand corner was most definitely something he would have never expected to come from his partner. No, it wasn’t Yagyuu in the photo. It was Yagyuu’s name next to it and all of Yagyuu’s information, but it wasn’t Yagyuu.
The boy in the picture had hair dyed silver with a small rat tail dangling from behind his head, visible from the slight mocking tilt of his head. His smile was dangerous and fox-like, dripping with mischief- an expression Niou had perfected in his childhood. The boy had pale eyes that seemed to jump out of the picture and stare you down like a hungry animal. It was the exact same viciousness Niou openly displayed on the court- the look that brought fear into his opponents’ minds.
Niou drank it all in greedily and could even convince himself he was looking at -well- himself. However, it wasn’t him. It wasn’t him at all. For one, he couldn’t recall ever going to school in Nagano nor was his name Yagyuu. Only two times in his life had he allowed himself to be called Yagyuu…and had completely gotten off on that those two times.
“My wallet.”
The voice startled Niou, and the wallet nearly went flying out of his hands. He caught it mid-air and slowly glanced at the door.
Yagyuu was standing rigidly in the doorway and staring at him with an unreadable expression. His knuckles were white as his hands fisted against his pant legs.
“Hiroshi.” Niou surprised himself with the softness of his own voice as he let his fingers trace the edge of the ID.
“…You know when you’re a kid,” Niou continued softly, his eyes looking distant, “and you’re lying awake in bed and looking out the window at the stars…Sometimes, you wonder if somewhere out there, there’s some other kid who is looking up at the stars in the sky at the very exact same moment as you are and thinking the exact same thing at the exact same time, you know?”
Did you think of me while you were gone?’ Niou wanted to ask, but his mouth refused to vomit out the words that teetered on the edge of his throat.
Yagyuu seemed to read what he was thinking, anyway, because he nodded and walked closer to him. “Masaharu.”
It was the first time the other man had called him by his given name since they had reunited, and he watched those eyes stare right through him like they had every single match they played against each other. Yagyuu knew and understood.
Niou felt that irrational anger stir and boil under his skin, and he found himself shooting to his feet and tossing the ID at Yagyuu’s chest like it burned. “Why?!”
A million things raced through Yagyuu’s face. His eyes weren’t silent and solid like they had been seconds ago. They flashed and narrowed, looking like that tiger, pressing its claws against the cage.
Niou could read it clearly. ‘I needed you,’ Yagyuu said even if his mouth didn’t move. ‘We’re a pair. Without you, I cannot be me. Yagyuu is Niou.’
The ID caught under Niou’s foot, and they both stared down at it -it was all the proof Niou ever needed. It was everything Yagyuu couldn’t say.
“It was wrong of me to leave.”
“No shit,” Niou agreed and kicked angrily at the ID. “Wrong of you not to say anything either, bastard.”
“…Masaharu, I didn’t come here just to transfer. The thought hadn’t actually breeched my mind till recently. I ran into Yukimura in Tokyo, and he told me where you lived.”
Niou’s grin didn’t reach his eyes. “I figured he’d probably pull something like this.”
“He was worried about you,” Yagyuu offered with a shrug, and then after a moment, said, “…I don’t have anywhere to live.”
There were a lot of things Niou had expected in his life. Having his former partner come back to him and practically beg in so few words to be let back into his life was definitely not one of them.
Niou kept him on his toes for a little while longer before reaching behind the couch and pulling out a racket that looked like it hadn’t been touched in months. The grip tape was peeling off slightly, and it badly needed to be restrung.
“Want to play tennis?” Niou asked with a grin.
Yagyuu quickly found himself nodding.
*****
Living with Yagyuu was very difficult.
Niou had come home one day from work to find his place utterly and immaculately clean. The counter was the color blue. Niou couldn’t tell from all the grease stains and the sheer amount of shit that had been permanently resting above it.
A few roach traps were strategically placed in random corners, and the couch cushions had actually been sewn shut. Yagyuu had even gone through the difficulty of getting him an ash tray. It was touching in a weird way.
The bathroom, too, had been victim to Yagyuu’s obsessive cleaning. There wasn’t an ounce of soap scum anywhere, and even the toilet had blue toilet water.
The perpetrator in question was neatly folding Niou’s clothes when Niou found him. “What did you do?”
“I cleaned,” Yagyuu answered abruptly and neatly arranged Niou’s underwear by color.
“You didn’t have to, you know.”
“Yes, I did,” Yagyuu shot back. “You need new underwear.”
“Nah, don’t worry about those,” Niou said with a shrug as he walked over to the bed and plopped down on it. “Been free-balling it for months because I ran out of laundry quarters.”
He saw Yagyuu’s nose wrinkle in distaste and grinned. His new roommate really did take anal retention to a new level.
‘Heh. Anal…’
Niou nearly chuckled out loud.
“Masaharu, I have extra money from my scholarship…and I can get a job.”
“So?” Niou questioned, eyebrow quirking.
“We can find a better place.”
Niou smirked and crossed his arms behind his head. “You just want your own room.”
Yagyuu stood up stiffly once he was done and shut the drawer close with his foot. He finally approached Niou and twisted his body to lean over him, placing a hand on either side of his head. “I don’t appreciate you propositioning me every night to join you in bed,” he finally said when they were nose to nose.
Niou’s smirk refused to leave. Sometimes, it felt like things hadn’t changed at all. How long had they been playing this game of cat-and-mouse, anyway? Though, there were times when he couldn’t exactly tell who the mouse was. Maybe, they were both cats. Maybe that was why neither of them ever actually ‘caught’ the other so to speak.
“Hiroshi, you ever think about playing golf?”
That question seemed to startle Yagyuu out of whatever he had been planning. He watched his former partner straighten and look at him uncomfortably.
“Just once. Why?”
“I don’t know. You seem like the type who likes to play golf.”
Yagyuu looked absolutely confused. “I don’t get what you mean.”
“Plus, you’d look really hot in plaid shorts,” Niou continued, now twirling his braided tail with his fingers.
Yagyuu still looked affronted. Yes, the mouse was definitely being cornered.
“You said the same thing about me in tennis shorts.”
“I’d say the same thing about you if you just wore nothing at all.”
The other man merely shook his head and finally took his leave to do Yagyuu things -like arrange the CD collection by release date or go after the bacteria colony living under their fridge.
*****
Ironically, it wasn’t until they had moved that Yagyuu actually ended up sharing a bed with Niou anyway.
They moved to a better side of town -one that didn’t have transvestite crack whores dressed up in school girl outfits on the corner (Niou would really miss Yamato and his/her stories about the ‘glory days’ when he ruled over his tennis team like a god). It was a very domestic neighborhood -the kind of place a person could really raise a family in and maybe even have a big, fuzzy dog.
Niou took the liberty of bringing home a giant mutt from the streets. It was part German Shepherd and part cougar apparently because the thing insisted on mauling down their couch the moment it set eyes on it.
Of course, they hadn’t gotten the new bed in yet for the extra room, so Yagyuu was forced to sleep on the bed with Niou. It hadn’t been anything remotely sexy like Niou would have liked. The dog -which Niou had named Inuyasha (Yagyuu thought naming dogs after anime characters was rather tasteless, but that was an argument quickly lost because Niou still showed some signs of anger towards Yagyuu)- had developed a habit of growling viciously every time Niou touched Yagyuu.
“I think you trained the dog to do that,” Niou pointed out as he stretched out on his side of the bed and tried to ignore the mutt that was perched on the edge of the bed and glaring pointedly at him.
“You know very well that’s impossible,” Yagyuu said as he climbed into the other side and promptly curled up away from him.
“I still think you did.”
“Maybe he just doesn’t like you,” Yagyuu suggested.
Niou couldn’t help turning over on his side to stare at the curve of Yagyuu’s back. His hands itched to reach out and touch. The dog growled when his fingers got too close, and he threw the beast a nasty scowl and growled back until it finally got a hint and ran away whimpering.
He took advantage of its retreat to shoot up off the bed and slam the door shut before returning.
“You know that’s just going to make him angrier.”
“Yeah, well. Serves him right.”
Sleep wouldn’t come to him that night even without the dog. Niou found himself staring up at the ceiling and pretending there were weird stains he can turn into shapes like constellations. Instead, the ceiling was pristine white.
It reminded him of Yagyuu, and it reminded him that the anger still lurked underneath everything. No matter how hard he tried to grin, laugh, and pretend he was happy that Yagyuu was with him -had been with him this entire time- it still bothered him.
“Masaharu,” a quiet voice spoke up next to him.
When Niou turned his head to the side, he found Yagyuu staring right back. The window was open just enough to allow the stray moonlight to highlight his face in the dark.
“What do you want?” Niou snapped, too exhausted to grin and joke.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, and no matter how many fucking times you say it, it still doesn’t change a thing,” Niou hissed, his voice dripping with fury. No, he wasn’t the cat anymore. He was the snake, ready to devour the kitten in one bite.
Except, Yagyuu definitely was no kitten. No, Yagyuu was still a tiger -too big to eat and fangs glinting in the moonlight.
Strong arms pinned his shoulders to the bed, and Niou felt more than saw Yagyuu move over him until he was covering the entire length of Niou’s body with his own. There was a whisper of hot breath against his cheek.
“Does this change a thing?” Yagyuu whispered hoarsely and nuzzled his nose gently against Niou’s cheek before claiming his mouth in a hard, vicious kiss. It was exactly like being ripped through and torn apart. The tongue that poured into his mouth stroked and rubbed and claimed. Fingers dug harder into his biceps, pressing red crescents into his white skin.
There was nicotine still on Niou’s breath from the cigarette he had earlier, but that didn’t deter Yagyuu. His former partner wanted all of him, eating him alive through the kiss, moving his mouth over his, wildly and hungrily and nothing like Yagyuu.
It hadn’t occurred to Niou that this was Niou. This was Niou breaking his lips with teeth. This was Niou sucking on his tongue till it ached. This was Niou thrusting a hand into his pants without abandon, scraping along his stomach on the way.
‘Yagyuu is Niou.’
It took him back to that day when they had first decided to imitate each other. He remembered those very words being murmured as Yagyuu stared at his own reflection in the mirror and touched his face in awe. Niou wanted to complete the phrase.
“I’m sorry,” Yagyuu whispered harshly just as he finished Niou off.
Niou had no more words left. His voice was a breathless pant, and he stared at the ceiling, seeing spots dance across it and trying to hastily connect them into shapes before they ran away from his vision.
It wasn’t until the haze cleared up, and Yagyuu started to move away that Niou caught his hand. He gripped Yagyuu’s chin tightly between his fingers and stared into his eyes.
“Niou is Yagyuu,” he murmured almost drunk in his post-orgasmic daze.
Yagyuu’s lips quirked just slightly. It was the closest he’d ever come to smiling when he wasn’t dressed up as Niou, and Niou was more than willing to accept that.
*****
As it turns out, they didn’t need the new bed, anyway. Yagyuu and Niou had gotten used to sleeping together, even if Niou tended to hump Yagyuu in his sleep, and the dog still occasionally growled at him for doing it.
Yagyuu had gotten a job in a coffee shop even though his scholarships covered his education and living expenses.
Every Sunday, they’d hit the tennis courts at the gym and fire away balls at each other like they used to. Yagyuu relearned his laser beam, and Niou relearned his imitation of the laser beam.
They’d go out walking at nights with their dog, and Niou would urge Inuyasha to scare away all the small, wimpy little dogs.
Not everything was perfect, and Niou still got angry at Yagyuu for leaving while Yagyuu was still an avid neat freak. However, it was the closest to perfect they could ever hope to achieve.
******
“Hey, mail’s here,” Niou announced as he walked in one evening after work.
Yagyuu was clad in rubber gloves and doing the dishes.
“Guess who’s getting married?” Niou asked with a grin and waved the floral invitation in the air.
“Sanada and Yukimura?”
Niou’s grin widened if possible. “Nope. Akaya and Renji.”
Yagyuu’s eyes widened slightly.
Niou couldn’t help laughing at his expression. “I’m kidding. You were right the first time.”
Yagyuu suddenly made a face that could only be described as pure and utter horror and actually stopped scrubbing at the dish in his hands. Niou instantly noticed and dropped an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulder, displaying actual concern for once.
“What’s wrong, Hiroshi?”
“I just had a mental image of Sanada in a wedding dress.”
The End.
Recipient’s name: vacivity
Rating: Light R
Pairings: Yagyuu/Niou, Yukimura/Sanada, hints at Yanagi/Kirihara
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created by Konomi Takeshi. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Warning: Yaoi. Light smut. Angsty fluff. Potty language. Future fic. Manga canon (No technicolored golf swing for Yagyuu >_<).
Summary: Niou and Yagyuu have a long overdue reunion. Domesticity ensues.
Author’s Note: Had a bit of difficulty trying to keep the smut and swearing to a reasonably low level since, well, it’s Yagyuu and Niou, but I did my best! I hope you enjoy!
Niou Masaharu never thought he’d be in a disco-themed gay bar sharing a round of beers with his former captain and his former vice-captain.
Of course, it had been an impromptu reunion, brought upon them when he had run into Yukimura in a small food mart across the street from his shabby apartment. Yukimura inevitably suggested they catch up and off-handedly mentioned that Sanada was staying with him. Niou had fought to not roll his eyes at that comment. It was pretty much a fact by now: wherever there was a Yukimura, there was a Sanada.
He hadn’t seen any of his teammates since they all went off to college. Yukimura had decided to study sports medicine and physical therapy in Tokyo University, and, predictably, Sanada had gone with him. Yanagi ventured off to Osaka to study economics. Marui and Jackal both moved to Brazil to raise cattle or whatever they do over there. Niou wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
It had still been up in the air whether or not Kirihara would even graduate. Niou wanted to believe that Kirihara would have at least followed Yanagi to Osaka, so the data specialist could keep an eye on him.
Then, there was Yagyuu -his former partner, former best friend, former everything. Yagyuu had dropped off the face of the earth half-way through high school. Just one day, he stopped showing up entirely, and when Niou had gone to visit him at home after school, there had been a ‘for sale’ sign on the door.
Apparently Yukimura had been the only one who had known about the move, and Niou had refused to speak to his captain until Sanada dragged him off to a lone corner and yelled at him that Yukimura had only been honoring Yagyuu’s request.
Life after that had passed rather quickly. Before he knew it, Niou had taken and failed his entrance exams then had promptly applied to trade school in Nagoya. He had managed to acquire a cozy job as a mechanic after two years -the pay wasn’t great, but his co-workers were the best drinking buddies a guy could ask for.
Sanada’s voice suddenly snapped him out of his musing.
“Why are we in a gay disco bar again?”
Niou grinned and slugged an arm around the solemn man who was quietly nursing a glass of rum and coke. “Thought you and the wife would feel at home here,” he joked cheekily and received an elbow in his side from Sanada in response.
“Unfortunately it’s the closest place to my apartment to get plastered,” Niou amended quickly.
Yukimura couldn’t help but chuckle, and he gave Niou a pointed look as he trailed a hand gently over Sanada’s bicep. “And what makes you think I’m the wife?”
Niou glanced back and forth between both men before letting out an amused snort. “You’re kidding me. So is that why you’re so grouchy, Genichirou? Yukimura finally knock you up?”
The dark-haired man nearly choked on his drink, eyes bugging out comically. Yukimura gently pat his back as he coughed and held a napkin to his mouth. A glare was leveled at the chuckling trickster that went unheeded.
“I see you’ve failed to remove that stick from your ass. You still wear all your buttons buttoned to the top. How do you even breathe like that, Genichirou?” Niou continued on, unaware of his former vice-captain’s increasing level of discontent.
“Masaharu,” Yukimura said in that warning tone -the same tone he used just before he had assigned them laps back in high school.
“Okay, okay. So what are you two love birds up to? How’s Tokyo University?”
Sanada scowled at his drink, and Niou quickly decided that a drunk Sanada was a moody Sanada.
Yukimura sipped at his own drink to hide his slight smirk and gently placed a hand on Sanada’s shoulder. “Apparently both he and Atobe are business majors.”
“I have him in three classes,” Sanada grumbled and downed the rest of his drink as if that would eliminate some of his ire against the once flamboyant captain of Hyoutei.
Niou couldn’t help but laugh at his plight, and even Yukimura fought down a good-natured chuckle. “Is he still- ?” Niou let his wrist flop effeminately, which set Yukimura off into louder giggles.
“You know the world changes around us…people get older, move on in life, move away from each other…there are goodbyes and greetings, changing tides…but,” Yukimura paused for dramatic effect, striking an Atobe-like pose, “Atobe Keigo…will always be Atobe Keigo.”
Both Niou and Sanada stared down at the smaller man and watched him raise his glass in the air with a carefree smile before drinking it in one gulp. It was refreshing to see, to say the least. Most of Niou’s memories of Yukimura involved hospital beds, militant training methods, and tennis balls that would bolt pass his body before he could even blink.
“I think he’s had too much to drink,” Niou whispered to Sanada who gave him a ‘No, shit’ look in return.
Yukimura’s hand moved upwards and started to casually twirl a strand of Sanada’s hair in his hand. “I’ve always found your honesty refreshing, Masaharu,” he murmured distractedly, eyes trained on the bit of hair caught around his finger. Niou had the random feeling that Yukimura had played the biggest role in Sanada’s newfound absence of hats.
“Well, if it’s honesty you want-,” Niou paused to light his cigarette before taking a drag, “I’d totally fuck Atobe. He’s hot. You should get me his number, Genichirou.”
“I’m not getting you his number. I’d like to spare myself from having to hear his voice more than I already do on a daily basis.”
“It’s a sexy voice,” Yukimura put in.
“It’s not sexy,” Sanada muttered between clenched teeth, “and you shouldn’t be smoking. We all worked hard to get you off that addiction in high school.”
Niou let out a derisive snort and puffed an angry cloud of smoke in Sanada’s face, sending the older man into a coughing fit. “Fuck that. Besides, this is part of my twelve steps.”
“Smoking is part of your twelve steps?” Yukimura questioned and started sipping at the newly filled glass set down in front of him.
“Yeah. Need it to get over my alcoholic-,” Niou gestured wildly with his hands before settling on, “-ness.”
“I don’t suppose not drinking alcohol has any pivotal role in your steps,” Sanada muttered sarcastically.
Before Niou could retort in a manner that would assuredly piss Sanada off more -and really, Sanada was a very angry drunk- Yukimura quickly intercepted with, “Have you heard at all from Hiroshi?”
If Yukimura hadn’t been intoxicated -not that the man was much for discretion, anyway-, he probably wouldn’t have approached the subject at all. They’d avoided talking about it in high school, especially around Niou.
Niou was annoyed to find out that even thinking about it still made his stomach twist in tight knots, and bile nudged at the back of his throat.
“No,” he finally answered, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice.
A strange quiet fell upon the table as they awkwardly shifted with the change in mood. Sanada drummed his fingers against the edge, and Yukimura stared at the glass in front of him.
Niou finally thought to break the silence, mostly because he didn’t think he could keep his stomach in line any longer. “I think I should head home. ‘s getting late. Have to be up at 6 a.m. in the morning and all.”
Yukimura nodded and smiled indulgently. “We’ll be in town for the next few days… we should get together again.”
Niou wasn’t sure he wanted to do that. He gave them his usually carefree grin, however half-hearted it was, and nodded. “Sure, you guys have my number.”
They all rose at the same time, and Sanada gave Niou a very manly handshake. “Take care of yourself, Masaharu,” he said in all seriousness.
Niou found himself nodding again before turning to his former captain. He was marginally surprised to find warm arms enveloping him tightly and Yukimura’s soft hairless cheek brushing against his as he murmured, “He misses you.”
It wasn’t very hard to figure out just who Yukimura had been referring to. They waved to each other one last time before Sanada furtively slid his arm around Yukimura’s waist and hailed a taxi for the two of them.
*****
Three weeks later, Niou found himself waiting alone at the train stop at 2 a.m. The only people around that night had been an elderly businessman, a young woman with strange scars on the left side of her face, and a beggar with a cane. Niou absently checked his watch and sighed impatiently. Something about the way that lady was staring at him was really starting to give him the creeps.
Suddenly, the train shrieked loudly as it pulled up in front of him, and the door slid open with a loud hiss.
Niou smirked at his watch and took a step forward.
‘Just in time, too.’
As he was about to step onto the train, his body froze in shock before he could reach the door. The windows of the train were distorted with grime and scratches, but he could see straight through them into a pair of pale blue eyes. They were just as wide as his, and it felt like looking at a fun house mirror and seeing a distorted reflection of himself.
“Hiroshi,” Niou’s lips spoke before his mind could even process the name.
The train doors began to close, and he lurched forward as fast as he could, diving and sticking his arm through them. Niou’s body went rigid in panic as the train started moving again.
“Stop the train!” someone shouted, and Niou swore he could see Yagyuu zipping through the carts with the same deadly speed he once used in tennis.
Sure enough, the train screamed as it stopped, and the doors opened. There would probably be bruises on his upper arm the next morning, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was the man who came running back into the same cart Niou tried to shove his way into.
“Niou-san,” he heard the other man say and for a second, Niou remembered thinking he’d never hear that voice again.
“Why so formal?” Niou asked, plastering a devilish grin on his face.
“I don’t presume any kind of familiarity with you considering we haven’t seen each other in-“
Yagyuu didn’t get to finish the statement. Niou had punched him hard in the jaw, and he went reeling backwards till he fell on the subway bench. His body was sprawled out awkwardly, and he rubbed the sore spot on his face as he raised his eyes to his former partner, hearing the silver-haired trickster crack his knuckles threateningly.
Niou plopped down next to the other man, leaning back against the bench in a suddenly easy and friendly manner, draping an arm over the chair and around Yagyuu’s shoulder. “Now that that’s out of the way, I can ask you what the hell you’re doing here?”
He his former partner beside him stiffen and was pleased to note the tension in Yagyuu’s shoulders and the way his eyes wouldn’t meet Niou’s dead on since they had first spotted each other. It certainly wasn’t difficult to keep his own gaze fixated on his former doubles partner. Age had been good to Yagyuu, and the man in question had let his dark hair grow out a bit longer until the edges in the back brushed over the knob of his spine and the front bangs draped haphazardly over his left eye. Probably the biggest change had been the lack of glasses. For as long as Niou had known Yagyuu, his best friend had always worn those fancy oval glasses that clouded his eyes with the light’s reflection. Now, they were left uncovered, pale blue and completely intimidating in all their glory.
Perhaps, it was just as well that Yagyuu wouldn’t meet his stare. Niou didn’t think he could see the other so openly without reacting again -whether it would be another punch or a kiss this time, he couldn’t decide.
He himself hadn’t changed much aside from the stubble now dotting his lower face and the longer rat tail that was now braided and resting over his shoulder.
“I’m here to interview for a transfer position,” Yagyuu finally answered, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Transfer?” Niou perked up slightly, “Where to?”
“Local university,” Yagyuu answered cryptically and made a move to push up his glasses before stopping short once he realized he didn’t have them anymore.
“What are you studying?”
“Investment banking.”
It all seemed so quaint. It was almost as if they had never been partners and best friends to begin with. Their history had been wiped away in the blink of an eye, and it felt absurd sitting next to Yagyuu and pretending that he hadn’t been upset for years.
However, Niou didn’t show anger easily. Kirihara had been the violent loose canon of the team. Niou preferred to grin and let things fall away, making it seem as he wasn’t upset. His later revenge was always swift and unexpected.
Yagyuu had possibly been the only person who could read Niou and predict his antics before they came into fruition, and that was why the only person who could get under Niou’s skin was Yagyuu.
The same was true of Niou. He was the only one who could peel away all those layers that made Yagyuu -he could see through the gentleman act, could see through the slight smiles and the calm demeanor and find the tiger that lay in wait, always circling in its cage and baring its teeth.
This thing between them -whatever it had been- wasn’t easily forgotten.
“So where are you staying while you’re around?” Niou suddenly asked, deliberately pressing his thigh against Yagyuu’s.
Yagyuu didn’t show whether he noticed the action or not. “Motel downtown.”
Niou raised an eyebrow. “Motel? Those places are just for sex, you know?”
“There was nothing else available.”
“Stay with me,” Niou said before he could stop himself. It was just too easy to fall back into old patterns -to invite Yagyuu back into his life.
“No,” was the abrupt answer.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Masa-Niou.”
Niou chuckled and nudged Yagyuu lightly in the side. “You nearly slipped up there. Come on. Stay for the night, at least. You can pick up your crap tomorrow from that motel if you change your mind.”
Yagyuu opened his mouth to protest then shut it abruptly. Arguing with Niou was always a moot point. He was doomed to lose right from the beginning.
*****
Niou’s apartment wasn’t anything remotely decadent. Frankly, it was a breeding ground for roaches. Dirty magazines littered the coffee table. The couch had holes, cigarette butts strewn over it, and it smelled like cat piss. The kitchen looked like it hadn’t been clean since the previous owners lived in it, and the counter had various potato chip bags, beer cans, and boxes of cookies left open on it.
“You can take the couch if you want,” Niou offered, knowing if he asked Yagyuu to share a bed with him, the other man would protest.
“Not offering your bed?” Yagyuu asked with a raised eyebrow and used the tip of his index finger to carefully nudge aside some of the contents on the couch before sitting down.
“Well,” Niou began with a grin, already advancing towards his former doubles partner. Before he could get any closer, Yagyuu held a hand out to his chest to stop him.
“I was merely expressing surprise. I’ll take the couch.”
Niou simply shrugged and dropped onto the couch next to him, casually draping an arm around Yagyuu.
“Just tell me one thing,” Yagyuu said suddenly but still wouldn’t turn his head to meet Niou’s face. “Who won Nationals?”
Niou scratched the back of his head awkwardly with his other hand and felt his stomach lurch again. “During our senior year…well, Hyoutei won. I think Sanada’s still pissed about that one. Got his ass handed to him by Atobe.”
For the first time that night, he nearly caught Yagyuu smile.
“Had to play doubles with Jackal for that one. It’s like playing with a brick wall… a very bald brick wall,” Niou continued off-handedly. A part of him hoped the guilt stung Yagyuu. They would have won if the other man had stayed on his team. They could have easily defeated Hyoutei’s fruity, lovey-dovey D1 pair.
“Who did Marui play with then?”
“He was moved to Singles 3, and Yanagi and Kirihara played as Doubles 2.”
“Ah.”
Yes, it didn’t take a genius to figure out why they had gotten trounced on the final match at Nationals. Neither pair could sync well, even if he had good reason to believe the D2 pair had been fucking and that generally did wonders for doubles pairs. Hyoutei was apparently living proof of that. He didn’t even want to think about Seigaku.
An awkward silence fell upon them, and Niou shifted on the couch.
He finally broke the silence after a couple of minutes. “Yagyuu…why did you leave?” Niou didn’t mean for his voice to sound hoarse, but it did.
“My father got transferred by his job, and we relocated to Nagano.”
The answer was so simple -so Yagyuu.
Niou pressed his fingers into his thighs and tried again. “Why didn’t you tell anyone else except Yukimura?”
“Because-“ Yagyuu paused and stared at the ground between his knees, brows knitting as if trying to decide on something. He seemed please with whatever decision he came up with after a few seconds of deliberation and turned to actually look Niou in the eye. “I didn’t want you to stop me.”
“I would have stopped you,” Niou agreed. “Hell, I would have chased you down, gotten on my knees, and blown you if that would have brought you back.”
“I didn’t want you to …do that, either,” Yagyuu murmured.
Niou’s head lolled backwards, and he stared at the large stain on the ceiling. His neck hurt with the movement, but he tried to concentrate on how much that stain kind of looked like a hawk preying on a one-legged raccoon if he squint his eyes enough.
“You suck,” he decided and finally stood up and went to bed without another word to his former partner.
*****
The next morning, Yagyuu left before Niou had woken up. It was still a mystery as to whether or not the other man even bothered staying there the entire night.
The only thing that remained of his was a brown leather wallet lying on the couch. It wasn’t like Yagyuu to leave important things like that behind.
Niou sat next to it, hands fidgeting on his lap like a child in a room full of glass objects who was trying to resist the urge to knock every single one of them down. He hadn’t wanted to go through Yagyuu’s things. It really wasn’t his business anymore, and he was trying desperately to convince himself he honestly didn’t care.
His hands didn’t listen to him and were already rummaging through the wallet when he glanced downward.
‘Well, fuck.’
Yagyuu only had 800 yen tucked into his wallet. How the guy could travel around while broke was beyond him. Then again, Yagyuu probably did paranoid things like hide his money inside his shoes or in his socks in his luggage just in case someone tried to rob him. There weren’t any credit cards. He had a library card, a worn out picture of his dog in human clothes -‘how gay’-, an international phone card, and something that looked like a high school ID.
The ID slid out onto the floor, and Niou had to pause as he bent down. The picture on the left hand corner was most definitely something he would have never expected to come from his partner. No, it wasn’t Yagyuu in the photo. It was Yagyuu’s name next to it and all of Yagyuu’s information, but it wasn’t Yagyuu.
The boy in the picture had hair dyed silver with a small rat tail dangling from behind his head, visible from the slight mocking tilt of his head. His smile was dangerous and fox-like, dripping with mischief- an expression Niou had perfected in his childhood. The boy had pale eyes that seemed to jump out of the picture and stare you down like a hungry animal. It was the exact same viciousness Niou openly displayed on the court- the look that brought fear into his opponents’ minds.
Niou drank it all in greedily and could even convince himself he was looking at -well- himself. However, it wasn’t him. It wasn’t him at all. For one, he couldn’t recall ever going to school in Nagano nor was his name Yagyuu. Only two times in his life had he allowed himself to be called Yagyuu…and had completely gotten off on that those two times.
“My wallet.”
The voice startled Niou, and the wallet nearly went flying out of his hands. He caught it mid-air and slowly glanced at the door.
Yagyuu was standing rigidly in the doorway and staring at him with an unreadable expression. His knuckles were white as his hands fisted against his pant legs.
“Hiroshi.” Niou surprised himself with the softness of his own voice as he let his fingers trace the edge of the ID.
“…You know when you’re a kid,” Niou continued softly, his eyes looking distant, “and you’re lying awake in bed and looking out the window at the stars…Sometimes, you wonder if somewhere out there, there’s some other kid who is looking up at the stars in the sky at the very exact same moment as you are and thinking the exact same thing at the exact same time, you know?”
Did you think of me while you were gone?’ Niou wanted to ask, but his mouth refused to vomit out the words that teetered on the edge of his throat.
Yagyuu seemed to read what he was thinking, anyway, because he nodded and walked closer to him. “Masaharu.”
It was the first time the other man had called him by his given name since they had reunited, and he watched those eyes stare right through him like they had every single match they played against each other. Yagyuu knew and understood.
Niou felt that irrational anger stir and boil under his skin, and he found himself shooting to his feet and tossing the ID at Yagyuu’s chest like it burned. “Why?!”
A million things raced through Yagyuu’s face. His eyes weren’t silent and solid like they had been seconds ago. They flashed and narrowed, looking like that tiger, pressing its claws against the cage.
Niou could read it clearly. ‘I needed you,’ Yagyuu said even if his mouth didn’t move. ‘We’re a pair. Without you, I cannot be me. Yagyuu is Niou.’
The ID caught under Niou’s foot, and they both stared down at it -it was all the proof Niou ever needed. It was everything Yagyuu couldn’t say.
“It was wrong of me to leave.”
“No shit,” Niou agreed and kicked angrily at the ID. “Wrong of you not to say anything either, bastard.”
“…Masaharu, I didn’t come here just to transfer. The thought hadn’t actually breeched my mind till recently. I ran into Yukimura in Tokyo, and he told me where you lived.”
Niou’s grin didn’t reach his eyes. “I figured he’d probably pull something like this.”
“He was worried about you,” Yagyuu offered with a shrug, and then after a moment, said, “…I don’t have anywhere to live.”
There were a lot of things Niou had expected in his life. Having his former partner come back to him and practically beg in so few words to be let back into his life was definitely not one of them.
Niou kept him on his toes for a little while longer before reaching behind the couch and pulling out a racket that looked like it hadn’t been touched in months. The grip tape was peeling off slightly, and it badly needed to be restrung.
“Want to play tennis?” Niou asked with a grin.
Yagyuu quickly found himself nodding.
*****
Living with Yagyuu was very difficult.
Niou had come home one day from work to find his place utterly and immaculately clean. The counter was the color blue. Niou couldn’t tell from all the grease stains and the sheer amount of shit that had been permanently resting above it.
A few roach traps were strategically placed in random corners, and the couch cushions had actually been sewn shut. Yagyuu had even gone through the difficulty of getting him an ash tray. It was touching in a weird way.
The bathroom, too, had been victim to Yagyuu’s obsessive cleaning. There wasn’t an ounce of soap scum anywhere, and even the toilet had blue toilet water.
The perpetrator in question was neatly folding Niou’s clothes when Niou found him. “What did you do?”
“I cleaned,” Yagyuu answered abruptly and neatly arranged Niou’s underwear by color.
“You didn’t have to, you know.”
“Yes, I did,” Yagyuu shot back. “You need new underwear.”
“Nah, don’t worry about those,” Niou said with a shrug as he walked over to the bed and plopped down on it. “Been free-balling it for months because I ran out of laundry quarters.”
He saw Yagyuu’s nose wrinkle in distaste and grinned. His new roommate really did take anal retention to a new level.
‘Heh. Anal…’
Niou nearly chuckled out loud.
“Masaharu, I have extra money from my scholarship…and I can get a job.”
“So?” Niou questioned, eyebrow quirking.
“We can find a better place.”
Niou smirked and crossed his arms behind his head. “You just want your own room.”
Yagyuu stood up stiffly once he was done and shut the drawer close with his foot. He finally approached Niou and twisted his body to lean over him, placing a hand on either side of his head. “I don’t appreciate you propositioning me every night to join you in bed,” he finally said when they were nose to nose.
Niou’s smirk refused to leave. Sometimes, it felt like things hadn’t changed at all. How long had they been playing this game of cat-and-mouse, anyway? Though, there were times when he couldn’t exactly tell who the mouse was. Maybe, they were both cats. Maybe that was why neither of them ever actually ‘caught’ the other so to speak.
“Hiroshi, you ever think about playing golf?”
That question seemed to startle Yagyuu out of whatever he had been planning. He watched his former partner straighten and look at him uncomfortably.
“Just once. Why?”
“I don’t know. You seem like the type who likes to play golf.”
Yagyuu looked absolutely confused. “I don’t get what you mean.”
“Plus, you’d look really hot in plaid shorts,” Niou continued, now twirling his braided tail with his fingers.
Yagyuu still looked affronted. Yes, the mouse was definitely being cornered.
“You said the same thing about me in tennis shorts.”
“I’d say the same thing about you if you just wore nothing at all.”
The other man merely shook his head and finally took his leave to do Yagyuu things -like arrange the CD collection by release date or go after the bacteria colony living under their fridge.
*****
Ironically, it wasn’t until they had moved that Yagyuu actually ended up sharing a bed with Niou anyway.
They moved to a better side of town -one that didn’t have transvestite crack whores dressed up in school girl outfits on the corner (Niou would really miss Yamato and his/her stories about the ‘glory days’ when he ruled over his tennis team like a god). It was a very domestic neighborhood -the kind of place a person could really raise a family in and maybe even have a big, fuzzy dog.
Niou took the liberty of bringing home a giant mutt from the streets. It was part German Shepherd and part cougar apparently because the thing insisted on mauling down their couch the moment it set eyes on it.
Of course, they hadn’t gotten the new bed in yet for the extra room, so Yagyuu was forced to sleep on the bed with Niou. It hadn’t been anything remotely sexy like Niou would have liked. The dog -which Niou had named Inuyasha (Yagyuu thought naming dogs after anime characters was rather tasteless, but that was an argument quickly lost because Niou still showed some signs of anger towards Yagyuu)- had developed a habit of growling viciously every time Niou touched Yagyuu.
“I think you trained the dog to do that,” Niou pointed out as he stretched out on his side of the bed and tried to ignore the mutt that was perched on the edge of the bed and glaring pointedly at him.
“You know very well that’s impossible,” Yagyuu said as he climbed into the other side and promptly curled up away from him.
“I still think you did.”
“Maybe he just doesn’t like you,” Yagyuu suggested.
Niou couldn’t help turning over on his side to stare at the curve of Yagyuu’s back. His hands itched to reach out and touch. The dog growled when his fingers got too close, and he threw the beast a nasty scowl and growled back until it finally got a hint and ran away whimpering.
He took advantage of its retreat to shoot up off the bed and slam the door shut before returning.
“You know that’s just going to make him angrier.”
“Yeah, well. Serves him right.”
Sleep wouldn’t come to him that night even without the dog. Niou found himself staring up at the ceiling and pretending there were weird stains he can turn into shapes like constellations. Instead, the ceiling was pristine white.
It reminded him of Yagyuu, and it reminded him that the anger still lurked underneath everything. No matter how hard he tried to grin, laugh, and pretend he was happy that Yagyuu was with him -had been with him this entire time- it still bothered him.
“Masaharu,” a quiet voice spoke up next to him.
When Niou turned his head to the side, he found Yagyuu staring right back. The window was open just enough to allow the stray moonlight to highlight his face in the dark.
“What do you want?” Niou snapped, too exhausted to grin and joke.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, and no matter how many fucking times you say it, it still doesn’t change a thing,” Niou hissed, his voice dripping with fury. No, he wasn’t the cat anymore. He was the snake, ready to devour the kitten in one bite.
Except, Yagyuu definitely was no kitten. No, Yagyuu was still a tiger -too big to eat and fangs glinting in the moonlight.
Strong arms pinned his shoulders to the bed, and Niou felt more than saw Yagyuu move over him until he was covering the entire length of Niou’s body with his own. There was a whisper of hot breath against his cheek.
“Does this change a thing?” Yagyuu whispered hoarsely and nuzzled his nose gently against Niou’s cheek before claiming his mouth in a hard, vicious kiss. It was exactly like being ripped through and torn apart. The tongue that poured into his mouth stroked and rubbed and claimed. Fingers dug harder into his biceps, pressing red crescents into his white skin.
There was nicotine still on Niou’s breath from the cigarette he had earlier, but that didn’t deter Yagyuu. His former partner wanted all of him, eating him alive through the kiss, moving his mouth over his, wildly and hungrily and nothing like Yagyuu.
It hadn’t occurred to Niou that this was Niou. This was Niou breaking his lips with teeth. This was Niou sucking on his tongue till it ached. This was Niou thrusting a hand into his pants without abandon, scraping along his stomach on the way.
‘Yagyuu is Niou.’
It took him back to that day when they had first decided to imitate each other. He remembered those very words being murmured as Yagyuu stared at his own reflection in the mirror and touched his face in awe. Niou wanted to complete the phrase.
“I’m sorry,” Yagyuu whispered harshly just as he finished Niou off.
Niou had no more words left. His voice was a breathless pant, and he stared at the ceiling, seeing spots dance across it and trying to hastily connect them into shapes before they ran away from his vision.
It wasn’t until the haze cleared up, and Yagyuu started to move away that Niou caught his hand. He gripped Yagyuu’s chin tightly between his fingers and stared into his eyes.
“Niou is Yagyuu,” he murmured almost drunk in his post-orgasmic daze.
Yagyuu’s lips quirked just slightly. It was the closest he’d ever come to smiling when he wasn’t dressed up as Niou, and Niou was more than willing to accept that.
*****
As it turns out, they didn’t need the new bed, anyway. Yagyuu and Niou had gotten used to sleeping together, even if Niou tended to hump Yagyuu in his sleep, and the dog still occasionally growled at him for doing it.
Yagyuu had gotten a job in a coffee shop even though his scholarships covered his education and living expenses.
Every Sunday, they’d hit the tennis courts at the gym and fire away balls at each other like they used to. Yagyuu relearned his laser beam, and Niou relearned his imitation of the laser beam.
They’d go out walking at nights with their dog, and Niou would urge Inuyasha to scare away all the small, wimpy little dogs.
Not everything was perfect, and Niou still got angry at Yagyuu for leaving while Yagyuu was still an avid neat freak. However, it was the closest to perfect they could ever hope to achieve.
******
“Hey, mail’s here,” Niou announced as he walked in one evening after work.
Yagyuu was clad in rubber gloves and doing the dishes.
“Guess who’s getting married?” Niou asked with a grin and waved the floral invitation in the air.
“Sanada and Yukimura?”
Niou’s grin widened if possible. “Nope. Akaya and Renji.”
Yagyuu’s eyes widened slightly.
Niou couldn’t help laughing at his expression. “I’m kidding. You were right the first time.”
Yagyuu suddenly made a face that could only be described as pure and utter horror and actually stopped scrubbing at the dish in his hands. Niou instantly noticed and dropped an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulder, displaying actual concern for once.
“What’s wrong, Hiroshi?”
“I just had a mental image of Sanada in a wedding dress.”
The End.