Fluff and snark, because all this angst shit is depressing me.
Echizen is pretty enough, Gakuto concedes, narrowing his eyes, when he's stretched out in the sun and without a racket. His arms are long and thin and his body is a tad bit bony to be called toned. But still, his eyes are sharp and his lips are soft when it's not curving into a smirk. In short, Echizen is pretty when he's not talking or moving. But Echizen isn't better than the girls swinging their hips around the beach, and Gakuto is satisfied with this conclusion.
"Stop ogling Echizen," Ryou comments besides him, "Atobe'll have your neck."
"He won't," Gakuto says, "He loves his team too much."
Ahead, he sees the rest of the Seigaku ensemble hooting and chasing each other like animals. Or, he could he the contours of Momoshiro and that is all it takes for him to comment on with a sigh, "Why did we even pair up with them to the beach? It's not Nationals yet. This is summer."
"They're one of the National contestants," Ryou points out.
"Not valid."
"They're the only players from Tokyo who could play matches with us impromptu?"
"We didn't even bring our rackets," Gakuto grits out.
"Because," and here Yuushi arrives with a flourish, plopping down between them, and suspicious looking drinks in his hands, "This is all a wonderful ploy by our dear captain for intimate bonding." He offers Gakuto a drink held in a triangular cup.
"Yuushi," he says, "Is that a martini?"
Yuushi hums and Ryou shakes his head but accepts the other drink.
"We're not of age yet, y'know," he points out, but clinks his glass with Gakuto's.
"What's another year," Yuushi sings, and leans back. Dark sunglasses replace his fake glasses and he directs a smirk in the direction of the Seigaku freshman. He looks like a leering pervert with those shades, Gakuto observes.
"Echizen-kun," Yuushi says sweetly, loud enough for the freshman to hear, "Would you like a drink?"
Echizen is lying far enough for them to pretend that he hadn't heard anything, but Yuushi's voice is loud enough to make people passing by stare. But Echizen merely stirs under the shade and declines to answer.
"Horrible brat," Gakuto mutters, chugging down his drink. He is disgusted that he had been observing the boy a moment ago. Pretty, he decided, but not pretty enough to cover up his bratty nature.
"He's just sleeping," Yuushi says. He sips his own drink thoughtfully, and offers, "I wonder where Atobe is. Neglecting the poor boy like that."
Gakuto sniggers. "You make him sound like harem property."
"He's just sitting there, all neglected. I can't help drawing conclusions."
"This is all so very touching," another voice drawls out, and Gakuto has enough experience in him to restrain jumping, "To discuss the wellbeing of a person that has nothing to do with the lot of you." Atobe stops his speech and wrinkles his nose. He is standing up and Gakuto has to crane his neck to see his captain. "Oshitari, is that a martini?"
"I brought several cups, Keigo," Yuushi says cheerfully, offering two glasses to him, "Be a dear and offer one of them to Echizen."
Atobe rolls his eyes and takes one cup. "Careful with those drinks, or I'll throw you in the ocean," he warns, before bypassing them.
"Can we even hear then talking?" Ryou mutters, just as Atobe situates himself next to Echizen. Gakuto plops his head against his hand and observes them.
"They're not even talking," he points out, they're just…lying there. Urgh." He looks at his empty cup and makes a face. "This stuff is awful, Yuushi."
"That's because you downed it. Martinis must be savored."
"Yeah, or it had shitty gin."
"Or that, yes."
/
"Your team thinks I'm a harem boy," Ryoma informs him the moment he sits down. His voice is muffled through the mat where he is lying facedown, but Keigo hears the warnings nevertheless. "I'm going to bury them alive."
"No you're not," Keigo says, "You're too lazy to even go and indulge your team."
Ryoma snorts. He rolls over on his back and looks at Keigo through narrowed eyes. "Is that gin?" he asks.
"Clever of you," Keigo says, "To know that at such a young age."
Ryoma immediately scowls and kicks him. Sand invades their mat. "You are two years older than me," he says testily. Keigo is too busy smoothing over the disaster to listen.
"Did you hear me? Two."
"Your teammates are behaving like idiots." He opts to ignore Ryoma's glare in favor of pointing at the hollering of one Momoshiro Takeshi. "Tell your teammates to set camp away from us."
"Us? I'm not sleeping with you." Ryoma scoffs and sits up. His face looks tired. Keigo sets down his drink and rummages through his bag. "Your teammates are yipping on as it is."
"You're not sharing a tent with Momoshiro, I hope."
"With Fuji-senpai."
"No," Keigo says, resolute, and finds what he is looking for. He takes it out and hands it over to the younger boy.
"What do you mean no—oh." Ryoma raises and eyebrow and accepts the Ponta. It's relatively cool, considering that it had been stored in a duffel bag for several hours. "Erm."
"Yes, erm," Keigo mocks, poking him in the ribs, "Is there anything else I should hear? Such as—"
"Oh shut up," Ryoma retaliates the poking, a smirk on his face, "Yeah, yeah, thanks, I am utterly speechless."
"You were, though," he observes, a bit smug. He feels that he had a right to be. Ryoma shoots him a look.
"Don't start."
"I have another box stored in the ice-box," Keigo says, as Ryoma opens the can, his eyes alight already at the prospect of chugging down the frizzy drink.
Ryoma looks at him, wary, but he takes a gulp before asking. "And?"
"You should stop mingling with Fuji," Atobe informs him.
Ryoma takes another gulp and rolls his eyes.
"I'm going to make your team hate me so much," he warns, and eyes the martini. "Can I mix some with the drink?"
"No," Keigo says primly, and finishes the cup.
/
He can't understand why Echizen would move his luggage to mingle with the enemy. He tries to wheedle it out of his favorite underclassman, but Echizen looks irritated and snaps at him. Three years in the making, and still the brat has no respect for his elders.
"Are you spying on them?" he asks for the third time, watching Echizen heave his duffel bag upon his shoulders. Echizen gives him a flat look.
"Yes, Momoshiro-senpai," he says. "Spying, yes, that."
"Really spying? But they haven't even brought their rackets! We're not here to play tennis, are we?" He frowns.
Echizen gives out a huff. "I'm just…whatever," he says, "And I don't want to sleep with Fuji-senpai."
He nods to that, then thinks it over. "You could sleep with me!" And nods again, repeating, "Yeah, you could sleep with me, I could ask Eiji-senpai to switch."
Echizen sighs. "Thanks, senpai," he says, "But no."
He doesn't know why Echizen is so willing to be the sacrificial lamb. He decides to talk to Oishi about it.
/
"This is not a tent," he informs Atobe, "This is a fucking…I don't even know what do you call it."
"It's a huge tent, Ryou." Atobe gives him one of those long-suffering smirks, and he doesn't think that's very fair: the tent was huge for ten people to crowd in and not suffocate. "Huge, but it still can be folded and discarded away."
He rolls his eyes and examines the room. There were three suitcases, two ice boxes, a grill and two airbeds.
Two airbeds?
Just as he is wondering that, Echizen enters the tent with no presumable. "Ta-da," he announces flatly, and on his shoulder is his duffel bag.
Ryou gaps while Atobe says, "Glad to know you persuaded Fuji."
"I sneaked out," Ryoma says, "They would have never—" Then he spots Ryou. He stops mid-speech and narrows his eyes and bites his lips. Ryou stares back at him and a nervous silence ensues.
Atobe breaks it first. "For god's sake," he says, "Shishido, this is Echizen, Echizen, this is Shishido. As you were both aware."
"Shut up," Ryou says, and rolls his eyes. "I'm going out and spreading the news."
Ryoma sneers in retaliation.
/
"Echizen is pretty but that doesn't excuse him for being an asshole," Gakuto informs him.
Yuushi raises his eyebrow. "Pretty?" he repeats, dubious. "I don't think you would call him pretty."
Gakuto huffs. They are stirring beef and onions that had previously been salvaged by Atobe's disastrous attempt to cook at breakfast and the crouching is hurting him. "There must be a reason why Atobe's boning that kid," he says impatiently. "I mean, he's not even technically gay. He went out with…what's her name again, Yuushi?"
"Kimiko."
"Yeah, her. And then some that I don't even know. So there must be a logical reason behind all this."
Yuushi gives off a dramatic sigh. Gakuto hates that gesture. "Ah Gakuto," he purrs, "There is no logic to love."
Gakuto pokes him and gags. Besides him, Wakashi stops stirring his side of the pot and gives him a deadpanned look.
"Please don't, Oshitari-senpai," he says. Yuushi gives him an evil smirk.
"Love," he repeats, "But love is endless and fragile!"
"And does not apply to this situation," Gakuto says, giving him a shove this time; Yuushi struggles to stay on balance, "So, no, shut up and stir the fucking soup." He sighs and looks behind him. "Where the fuck is Atobe anyway?"
"Considering that he burned onions," Wakashi mutters, in a tone that is disbelief of how could anyone possibly burn vegetables, "He's better inside, isn't he?"
"Careful, he might hear you say that and prove his awesomeness by cooking again and we'll all starve to death."
Ryou joins them and squats down. "Echizen," he says, "Echizen. Is joining us."
"Well duh," Gakuto snipes, "There must be some compensation for our captain at least. We're all cold and miserable here."
Ryou gaps at him and turns to Yuushi. "Wait, am I the only one who thinks that's crazy?" he demands.
Yuushi gives him a sweet smile. "We all live to serve the King," he says.
Wakashi snorts. "That's how the French Revolution happened," he says.
Ryou makes a face and takes the long spoon offers to him. He stirs. "We don't even have a guillotine to behead him," he grumbles.
/
Echizen joins them when dinner is adjoined, but Gakuto is adamant.
"Just because you're dating our captain," he informs the Seigaku enemy/brat/ban of their existence, "Does not mean you'll be getting fed here. You need to contribute something you know."
Behind him, Yuushi gives out a little sigh and tries to offer Echizen a bowl, but Gakuto blocks him.
"Yuushi," he hisses.
Ryou rolls his eyes. "That's lame, Gakuto," he says, "But yeah, like he says. No work, no food."
Atobe isn't here to defend the kid, and Gakuto feels a little smug in the fact that he'll finally see the kid vulnerable and begging. Instead, Echizen rolls his eyes and announces, monotone, "I do have something." He turns around and walks into the huge tent that Gakuto will not acknowledge as a tent. A minute later, he comes out, carrying a huge bottle of transparent liquid.
There is a sudden hush near the impromptu dining area, and the only sound heard are crickets.
"Is that…." Ryou trails off.
Ryoma smiles, self-satisfied and Gakuto is involuntarily reminded of Atobe. " Yeah," he says, almost cheerful. "Absolute Vodka. Stole it from my old man."
There is more silence as they contemplate the bottle with its huge letters imprinted in its glory.
"I think he deserves that soup now, Gakuto, hm?" Yuushi says, and Gakuto hands it to him silently. Echizen takes the bowl smugly away.
/
It is not the vodka. He swears it is not the vodka.
"Y'know," he slurs, after a few drinks, "You're okay for a brat and a Seigaku player. Just sayin'."
Echizen gives him a funny look, but nods. "Erm. Thanks?" he offers. Ryou sniggers next to him and takes another swig. Gakuto kicks him.
"Yeah." He says, and mimics Echizen's nod. "And you're kinda pretty too."
"What is it with you and the pretty," Yuushi sighs. Vodka makes Yuushi feign melancholy and he dramatically tips his cup and acts like the cup is a holy fucking grail.
"It's a good adjective," Ryou defends him, and Gakuto is glad to have normal friends like Ryou.
"It is a good word and a adjective!" he repeats, and clinks glasses with Ryou.
Echizen sighs.
"Are you regretting that you let the bottle loose now?" Atobe remarks from somewhere far away.
"No," Echizen says, "It's still better than dealing with all of you sober."
"Hey!" Gakuto protests, and he tries to shove Echizen too, but ends up putting his arms around Echizen's neck. "We are sober!"
"Okay," Echizen says dutifully. He smells of Atobe's mint that Gakuto is so used to by now, but somehow it's strange to smell it on Echizen. He leans closer and sniffs.
Ryou stirs. "Er, Gakuto," he says, "Not the best idea."
"Mukahi, do get away," a prim voice is heard, and Atobe tries to pry him apart from his boyfriend. Or whatever. Gakuto sniggered and dodges the attack and drags Echizen along with him. Echizen accepts this all quietly and soon his neck is held hostage by Gakuto's arms.
"You are so cute," he informs the freshman, "You should totally transfer."
"It's the alcohol talking," Ryou says, trying to pry his fingers loose with no avail, "You're going to regret this tomorrow, Gakuto."
"Of course it's the alcohol talking," Gakuto snaps, and lets his hands be maneuverers away by Yuushi. Echizen sits cross-legged in a normal position again, and gives Atobe (who is now frowning) a smirk. "But not the transfer part."
"He is traumatized by you," Atobe says, "So he won't, no."
Gakuto snorts. "I think you'd traumatize him more than I ever could," he informs loudly, "Naa, Yuushi?"
And he plops down and goes to sleep.
/
"You are either a horrible being or a genius," Keigo tells him, "I'm still debating."
"I'm awesome," Ryoma drawls out. He's been drinking water all evening and watching his team act like idiots and thoroughly enjoying himself. Keigo makes a face at him and pretends to sip his own drink. Ryoma had monopolized the water supply and Keigo was not going to get drunk and act like an idiot.
Ryoma eyes his glass. "That's still your first," he says. Keigo gestures around him.
"Do you want me to act like the rest of the plebeians here?" he says, "No thank you."
"I think it's a juniors' thing," Ryoma says. He's been wearing that self-satisfied smirk all evening; Keigo doesn't know whether to kiss him out of it or leave him be. "Hiyoshi and Ootori-san are sober."
"As am I."
Ryoma pouts. It's not a real pout, but he could tell the boy had been practicing just to annoy him. "It'd be funny to see you drunk," he says.
"I have too much self-control for that."
"Blah blah." Ryoma gives him a little smirk though, and hooks his thumb with Keigo's. None of them are paying attention, and if they are, they'll do their best to ignore it. Hopefully.