Written for a drabble challenge: A Fuji/Kikumaru/Oishi/Tezuka love quadruple, or 'why you should never let Fuji and Eji get bored'.

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360 degrees
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It started, as many things did, with Eiji. Between Ryuuzaki-sensei away on seminar and both the captain and vice-captain of the tennis club being laden with so much paperwork that they crinkled if they moved, official tennis practice had been cancelled for the third time this week. All this really meant for the regulars was that they ran less laps (or, on Inui's whim, more), and had to pick up their own balls after they were finished playing, but for the third day in a row, Eiji had no partner to practice with, and Eiji was /bored/.

Dropping his racket on the bench, he flopped next to Fuji, who was lounging by the side of the courts with his back against sturdy wire mesh of the fence.

"Oishi didn't come for practice /again/!" he complained without preamble, stealing Fuji's waterbottle and taking a drink after suspiciously unscrewing the cap and peering at its contents.

"Neither did Tezuka," said Fuji, ignoring the water theft. "Whatever they're doing, they must be very busy."

"But it's the third time this week they both haven't showed up! What could be more important than /tennis/?"

"Hmm," Fuji said, tilting his head to one side, as if considering.

They each met the other's eyes at the same moment with a wide 'are you thinking what I'm thinking?' grin, Eiji leaning closer to Fuji like he was sharing a secret.

"Don't you think it's a bit suspicious?" he asked, pitching his voice carefully so that it carried--the courts weren't /that/ far from the cafeteria. "They're spending so much time together now... you know, I saw them walking out of school together the other day, when it was like... late, and dark, and stuff..."

"Eiji!" Fuji said, injecting an appropriate amount of shock into his voice. "Are you saying--"
Eiji clapped a hand over Fuji's mouth. "Shh!" he hissed. "I'm just /saying/, you know? Anyway, not so loud... do you want the whole school to find out?"

Fuji mumbled something that may have been a "well, yes" against his fingers. He removed his hand and got to his feet.

"Come on, Fuji," he said, bouncing to one of the abandoned courts. "Let's play."

As far as Eiji could tell, Oishi's face never lost its blush the next day, and he mentally awarded himself ten points when he got it to become two shades deeper by innocently walking up to Oishi and asking just what all the fuss regarding him and Tezuka was, with another twenty for making Oishi stutter and finally flee to his homeroom. Tezuka just looked grumpy, and the last Eiji heard, Momoshiro had been assigned thirty laps for asking when the honeymoon would take place.

All in all, Eiji felt quite pleased with himself, although his good mood was dampened when neither Oishi or Tezuka showed up for practice that afternoon again.

"It's not fair," he muttered to Fuji. "If /I/ started... you know... and didn't go for practice, I'd be running laps until the seas ran dry."

"Maa, Eiji," Fuji said. "They're busy with student council work, too, and..."

"And?" Eiji asked.

"I don't know, but are you sure Tezuka and Oishi really...?"

"Well, /obviously/," Eiji said. "The entire school knows!"

"But everytime I see Tezuka," Fuji said, biting down on his lip doubtfully, "He's looking at..."

"At?"

"...at you."

Eiji blinked. "You've got to be kidding me, Fuji," he said. "How do you know that, anyway?"

"Well..." Fuji said, "I... you know..." He trailed off, looking both slightly shy and somewhat miffed that he was incapable of blushing on-cue.

"Know what--ohhhh," Eiji breathed, a long sigh of enlightenment. Fuji bit down on his lip harder, as though he was embarrassed.

Eiji, who had long mastered the art of telling when Fuji was biting his lip because he was embarrassed and when he was biting his lip because he was trying to keep from laughing out loud (answer: it was always the latter, because Fuji didn't have a single ounce of shame in his body), clapped his friend on the back and tried not to giggle. "He'll come around," he said sincerely, and they went back to playing tennis.

Eiji arrived at school a little later than he usually did that morning, and by then, everybody already knew that Tezuka was really together with Oishi because he wanted to get closer to Eiji, while Fuji was desperately pining away for their captain but had nobly stepped aside in the path of love.

"It must be very tragic for you," he told his best friend solemnly, perching on his desk.

"My path is a hard one," Fuji replied, handing over his Math homework for Eiji to copy.

By lunchtime, apparently Oishi and Tezuka were dating because they were both in love with Eiji, who was either tragically straight or in love with Fuji, who only had eyes for Tezuka. Also, Momoshiro had gotten another thirty laps by walking up to Tezuka early in the day and going "Buchou, you /cad/."

Tezuka and Oishi apparently finished whatever had been taking up so much of their time and came for practice that afternoon, where the first thing Tezuka did was snap "Fuji! Kikumaru! Thirty laps!"

Eiji blinked innocently. "Is that any way to talk to the object of your affections, Tezuka?"

"Fifty laps, Kikumaru."

"I'm beginning to rethink my choice in soulmates, Tezuka," Fuji told him.

"That goes for you too," Tezuka said.

"I don't know what you see in him, Fuji," Eiji complained, starting to jog.

"Sometimes," Fuji said cheerfully, "Neither do I." Behind them, Tezuka twitched and Oishi sighed.

They broke into a run; the sooner they finished the laps, the sooner they could play.

-owari

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Hello, cliched storylines and completely reused plot points! I've missed you. In my defence, it was late and I was both tired and writing this directly into an LJ comment box. xE