Notes: Finished! I think someone asked if there was another sequel or series after this one, but there isn't. I have other atoyuu ficlets I've written but not another series. Thanks for reading everything until now!

Archive: No.

About Us

Omake

By Miki

Inui peered in the shop window, staring at a heap of stuffed animals in the corner of the front window display. He suspected Kaidou might react unfavourably if he suspected Inui had been following him all morning, especially since the chances he actually wanted Inui to know he'd been staring at such things were slim to none, or, about three percent, allowing for a small margin of error.

He wondered what the fluffy creatures had that he didn't have. Ears? He had those, though his weren't fluffy. Black noses? Furry, huggable stomachs? Fat legs? Inui wanted none of those really.

He sighed a little, scribbling in his notebook until a voice startled him.

"Seigaku's Inui! What are you doing here?"

He spun, recognising the voice quickly. "Ah, Hyoutei's Mukahi and Oshitari," he nodded in recognition. He flicked to the back pages of his notebook, regretting he hadn't brought his other with him. This one was Kaidou's, but the back pages were dedicated to impromptu research. Gakuto and Oshitari's data could be recorded here and transferred into his Hyoutei book at a later date.

"I'm collecting data," Inui replied in response to the question.

"Oh?" Gakuto turned up his nose a little. "Stuffed toys don't play tennis."

Inui adjusted his glasses. "I would think it would be a problem if they did," he replied, the snark of Gakuto's reply lost on him. "What are you doing here?"

"We're late, actually," Oshitari said, giving Gakuto a look. He'd had enough running for one day, even if he had a suspicion it had something to do with Yuu-chan and their spying on the weekend. Oshitari had probably been fibbing when he'd said Atobe hadn't seen them. "We're on our way to a team meeting," Gakuto added, lest Inui think Hyoutei had time to waste in their preparation for the upcoming competition.

Inui scribbled in his note book, mumbling to himself.

Gakuto suspected no one was quite as fun to play with as Atobe and wondered if there were any better candidates around. "Say, Inui, you wouldn't happen to have any good data on Atobe, would you?"

Inui paused, glasses glinting as he looked up – or rather, down – at Gakuto. "What kind of data do you want?"

Gakuto perked up. "The dirty kind," he answered quickly. "About his girlfriend and things like that." Things they could use to get their revenge, was what he meant.

"Ah, I was unaware that Atobe had a girlfriend," Inui replied, shaking his head slightly. "I'm afraid I cannot help you, though I do keep other data on Seigaku's rivals… which is, however, still classified at the current time."

Gakuto blew a raspberry. "You're no fun," he sulked, grasping Oshitari's arm. "Come on, we're going to get more laps like this."

Inui watched the two of them go, and then started off after them.

Atobe's girlfriend could give rather a lot of insights into the Hyoutei captain's head, he suspected.

(S)

Inui dialled Tezuka's number quickly, waiting for the other boy to pick up the phone.

There was a click.

"Yes."

Inui sucked in a breath. "Yes, Tezuka. This is Inu-"

He blinked, hearing the beep signalling the end of the call. Frowning, he redialled.

"Yes, Tezuka. Inui here. I thought you'd be interested to know that Atobe has a boyfrie-"

Cut off again. Inui gave a long, hard stare at his phone and made a note to check it later. Such unreliable service wasn't acceptable.

He squatted down behind the post box, peering around it to stare in at the window, adjusting his glasses. Perhaps he should have informed Tezuka that Atobe's boyfriend appeared, by all counts, to be Fuji's younger brother.

He made a note to ask Fuji about it the next morning.

(S)

"Was that Inui?" Fuji questioned, fiddling with his textbook.

Tezuka gave a nod. "How did you know?"

Fuji smiled. "You always hang up on him."

Tezuka considered, about to tell Fuji he was wrong, when he realised Fuji was absolutely right. He'd almost never allowed Inui to get past the first ten seconds.

"What did he want?" Fuji asked, playing with his pen and flicking it between his fingers.

"He wanted to tell me about Atobe's boyfriend," Tezuka said, pausing and thinking about the words he was saying. How he managed to say them with a straight face when there was clearly something wrong with Inui's observation skills – maybe he needed thicker glasses? – was beyond him.

The thought of Atobe having a boyfriend… Did Inui mean girlfriend perhaps? He made a note to question Inui about it in the morning, just to clarify.

"Anyway, about this question," he pointed out, resuming his previous position on the floor and turning his textbook to face Fuji.

Fuji was staring at him with open eyes.

"Fuji?" Tezuka asked, wondering if something was wrong.

Fuji merely smiled in reply, closing his eyes and reverting back to his usual serene look. Tezuka knew better, of course.

"Nothing," he answered. "I'm going to have to… discuss things… with Inui tomorrow morning."

Tezuka blinked.

(S)

Hiyoshi grumbled under his breath as he jogged. Stupid senpai. He resented the fact that he'd had to find out from Taki where the rest of the regulars had gone off to without him, and he resented the fact that just because he'd been a minute late out of their coach's office, he'd had to jog all the way here instead of getting a lift in Atobe's vehicle.

The ice cream parlour wasn't that far away from the school. He could jog it easily, but it was the fact that even Ootori obviously hadn't told anyone to wait for him that grated at him.

He thought about getting his revenge on Ootori the next day, about putting a blob of gum on his chair before he sat down. He thought about his meeting with Sakaki-kantoku and all the privileges he'd get as captain next year. He could make everyone else run laps then. As many as he wanted! A hundred! Two hundred!

"Ack What the-!"

His backside hurt. He thought about… "Inui?"

Inui pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Hiyoshi's arm having nearly pulled them off as Inui had yanked him down and behind the post box. "Hiyoshi Wakashi," he said.

Hiyoshi tried to shift backwards, away from Inui. "… Seigaku's Inui… What are you doing here?"

Inui gave his best impression of a smile. "I am conducting research. Would you care to assist me by answering a few simple questions?"

He rummaged in his school bag for a moment, pulling out a viscous green substance in a clear container. "I'm sure you'll find this exercise to be of mutual benefit."

Hiyoshi swallowed hard.

(S)

As Yuuta and Atobe followed the other regulars out of the ice cream shop, Yuuta wondered if he should tell Atobe he could let go now.

It was nice, holding Atobe's hand, but it was kind of… well, girly and Gakuto kept staring at them with eyeballs the size of saucers, which wasn't really doing that much for Yuuta's nerves. Oshitari kept giving him smiles, which struck Yuuta as being about the creepiest things he'd seen since Mizuki had introduced him to green avocado facial cleansing masks and had proceeded to demonstrate their use on himself.

Throughout the time they'd been at the table, Gakuto had managed to ask three questions that made even Atobe's face turn pink and gotten as far as "So, have you guys done-" except that Kabaji had put his hand over Gakuto's mouth then and someone had kicked him under the table.

It made Yuuta almost glad for his team mates, though he didn't want to know what his brother was going to say about this if Gakuto and Oshitari let the cat out of the bag… and Yuuta was sure they'd do it sooner or later.

The thought made him a little nervous again.

Perhaps he didn't mind holding Atobe's hand after all. He wasn't going to do anything else – not in public and not in front of Atobe's team mates – but he guessed it was good enough like this.

(S)

Behind the post box, Hiyoshi's mouth fell open.

"Ii data," Inui muttered.

(S)

"Shishido-senpai," Ootori smiled, holding out his hand.

They were walking home along their usual route, having split from the rest of the group after Gakuto started asking more annoying questions and Ootori started suspecting there might be impending punishments if he didn't stop. Besides, he was pretty surprised. They all were, really.

He wanted to ask Atobe all sorts of questions and only the fact that they were out in public – and perhaps the fact that Atobe was his captain and the fact that Gakuto had already asked a lot of the questions everyone was thinking – had stopped him. Besides, he wasn't sure that he'd like answering a whole bunch of questions about Shishido-senpai either, so he felt a little for Yuuta and the way he'd squirmed under Gakuto's sporadic interrogation.

For a moment, Shishido almost held out his hand to Ootori in return, then common sense struck him and he pulled a face. "No way," he snorted. "Go find someone else to do that with you!"

Ootori frowned. "But I don't want to do it with anyone else," he protested.

Shishido sighed, handed over his hand, and tried to pretend he couldn't see the look of pure joy on Ootori's face.

(S)

"Yuuta," Atobe frowned. "Why are you sitting all the way over there?"

Yuuta ignored the fact that his face was still red. He hoped he didn't have to see Gakuto again for a while, because now his questions were going around in his head and it was embarrassing to think of Gakuto saying "So have you guys done it yet?" over and over again.

It was doubly embarrassing, and he was almost annoyed at Atobe, for having let those guys run around calling him 'Yuu-chan' for months. It sounded like something his mother or brother would have called him when he was a kid.

"Are you sulking?" Atobe asked, a smirk on his face. "It really wasn't that bad, was it?"

Yuuta snorted. It was fine for Atobe to say that. He hadn't had so many pairs of eyeballs analysing him the whole time he'd been eating, though Yuuta had to admit Atobe was probably just as nervous as he'd been. Perhaps even more so. They were his friends, after all.

Atobe watched Yuuta, watching the traffic pass. He looked funny; caught between seriousness and a smile. "Come here," he said, trying not to smile at the scowl that passed across Yuuta's face; the look he expected. He could see Yuuta's initial reaction was to tell him 'no', so he reached across and yanked on Yuuta's arm, pulling him sprawling, surprised, almost into his lap.

"Much better," he smirked.

Yuuta looked about ready to snap for a moment, then he sighed. "Atobe-san…" he muttered.

"Hm?" Atobe responded, his hands steadying Yuuta, rather content to have him pressed up against him rather than a whole metre away on the other side of the back of the limousine.

"You do realise you can just call me Atobe, you know, Yuuta."

"Oh," Yuuta said, mind blank. "Okay." He tightened his hold on Atobe, not knowing how much longer the car trip would last but not wanting to let go. He wasn't about to admit it, but it felt so good just to finally touch Atobe properly; not just a passing touch or a brushing of hands or anything. A proper hug. "You know, Ootori-kun looked like he was going to fall off his chair," he muttered, pressing his forehead against Atobe's shoulder.

"That's Ootori," Atobe responded, sounding amused. "He means well."

Yuuta didn't reply in words.

He pulled his head back and focused his eyes on Atobe's lips. Then he kissed Atobe slowly, a little uncertain of himself, a little worried he might be doing something wrong.

But Atobe was Atobe. Yuuta figured if he was doing it wrong, Atobe would tell him. He didn't.

Atobe's neck and jaw were hot where Yuuta touched him with his hands. His lips were warm, his mouth warmer still and the sensations his hands sent through Yuuta's body were tingly and strange and set Yuuta's blood pulsing loudly in his ears. Atobe's hands slowly worked their way up under the cotton of Yuuta's shirt and against his skin, fingers drawing lines and tracing the lines of his shoulder blades, of his back, the curve of his lower back and just below the waist of his pants where his belt was just too tight against Yuuta's hips for Atobe to fit his hand under it.

Yuuta kissed him back slowly, trying to savour the sensations and trying not to lose his mind when he felt like he was about to go crazy. He'd been wrong about Tachibana An, he realised. It was only Atobe who made his body feel like this; like he was in overdrive, as though he was losing all sensible thought from his head. It wasn't just the way Atobe kissed him either; it was everything about him, from the way he smiled to the way he nearly drove Yuuta up the wall with his expressions and his smugness and the way he just knew he'd get what he wanted in the end.

Atobe's teeth nipped at his lip as Yuuta stared at him through hazy eyes. "That feels funny," he murmured.

Atobe did it again, a little harder, kissing Yuuta again as though to make up for the sudden pain.

Yuuta could feel Atobe's hands on his chest. He could feel his shirt coming totally untucked, his tie and collar feeling too tight against his neck as Atobe pushed the thin material upwards, making room for his fingers to roam Yuuta's skin. Thumbs flicked at his nipples, surprising them both; Atobe surprising himself with his boldness and Yuuta with the feeling.

Yuuta wanted to let his hands do the same but his fingers struggled to grip Atobe's shirt material to pull it from where it was tucked into his pants and it was hard trying to concentrate on what Atobe was doing at the same time.

He settled for rubbing his hands against Atobe's hips instead, trying to steady himself and feeling the creases in Atobe's pants where his legs joined his hips, feeling the bumps of his hips under his shirt, feeling the hardness of his stomach and the smoothness of the lines of his body.

It was a moment before he registered that Atobe had spoken his name.

"Yuuta."

"What?" Yuuta murmured, having trouble getting his voice louder than an out of breath sounding mumble. "I think…" he trailed off, trying to think of anything other than Atobe's hands still touching his body, or his lips against his jaw.

Coherent thought returning, he sighed, letting out a breath. "I think I'm late for dinner… I think… I'll be…"

Atobe kissed the corner of his lips. "Be what?"

"Late," Yuuta finished off, suddenly remembering, eyes wide. "I think I'm up to two warnings again this month. I don't want to be grounded."

"You don't want to continue?" Atobe questioned, confusing Yuuta.

"Continue what?" he questioned, trying to push Atobe away from him.

Atobe smirked, picking up the phone to instruct the driver in the front.

"Change of plans," Atobe said, trying – and succeeding, Yuuta thought – to sound composed. "We're going home." Then he hung up the phone and smiled.

Yuuta watched as the limousine turned the corner, diverting from the road that led back to St Rudolph.

He wondered if it wasn't too late to change his mind, but really, he didn't care.

He kissed Atobe again.

.fin.