Morning practice had thankfully been regulars only, but the afternoon practice came far too quickly in Oishi's estimation, far before he was ready to face it, and he thought seriously for most of the day about finding a reason to just not go. He could say he was sick, which he couldn't consider a lie when he felt so twisted in on himself; or he could claim a mound of homework or library work, or that he needed to clean the classroom. He wondered as he ducked between two of the outlying buildings how many practices he'd have to miss before it would be decided that he had quit.

He felt the pit of his stomach drop out of sight as he imagined doing just that, heard in his head the hushed conversations, tried to explain it to the imaginary people that confronted him. Moving his lips as he fielded the questions that rang through mind because no one was around, he couldn't even convince himself why he needed to get away. Perhaps that was saying something.

Oishi forcibly cut off that line of thinking as he felt pain swell in his chest at his thoughts, but he did realize, as he ducked unobtrusively into the clubroom, taking the cowards way out wasn't fair, to himself or to…any others.

He'd walked slowly and the clubroom was already full.

Eiji was already there.

They had, of course, laid claim to adjacent lockers, even bribed one of the second years out of his to get an arrangement this perfect. But as Oishi stripped out of his school pants to pull on his shorts while brushing up against a half-dressed Eiji in the too crowded locker room, part of him wished that they hadn't and the other part…Oishi refused to consider it, not when he was this close.

The white cotton of his practice shirt smelled pleasantly of detergent so he took a deep calming breath that became a weak sob as the fabric was pulled around his head. When he pulled the shirt down past his eyes, Eiji was studying him with a look that said, 'I heard that, dummy. Are you hurt?' And somewhere down deep in his blue eyes but welling up like cool spring water was hurt and sorrow.

'I'm sorry,' they spoke more clearly and purely then any words could express.

Oishi reached up to his own face and trailed his fingers lightly across the bruise on his cheek as if he had just been reminded of its presence, and watched as Eiji's eyes suddenly gleamed in the light of the club room, shaking.

Oishi felt his arms twitch and try to leave his sides, itching with a desire of hold and comfort and protect until his stomach turned at the idea of allowing himself so close to Eiji after everything that had happened between them.

The white shoelaces felt unnaturally thick in Oishi's suddenly clumsy hands as he laced his tennis shoes as quickly as he could, feeling Eiji bend to do the same next to him. He grabbed his racket bag and walked quickly from the club room, pushing his way through other players to step out into the too bright, too chilly day.

"Everybody!" Oishi jumped slightly at his coach's voice echoing off the side of every surrounding building and reverberating back at the team with supernatural force, "Get started with your warm-up drills and start with the posted practice schedule!" Oishi took in the wide eyes of his teammates and felt somewhat mollified that he wasn't the only one who just couldn't get used to the ungodly loud voice of Yagi-cochi.

But the pleased look on Oishi's face was wiped away in a heart beat as he felt his coach walk right up behind him.

"Oishi, Kikumaru," when their names were spoken all of the energy that he normally used to shout was condensed into what was by the Coach's standards the faintest of whispers. The intensity made Oishi's stomach drop two feet. "I wanna talk to you in my office, now."

He turned and plodded forward, strangely heavy considering he'd just been bouncing on the balls of his feet to warm his muscles. Oishi was hyperaware of Eiji walking close behind him the entire trip up to Yagi-cochi's second story office.

It was silent for the longest three minutes of Oishi's life. Time ticked by from the wall clock as Yagi-cochi simply stared at the both of them sitting in two identical chairs in the middle of the room, clearly set just for this purpose. Their coach paced one way, then back and on and on. It made Oishi dizzy and sick.

In the chair next to him, bare inches separating their bare legs, Oishi felt Eiji start squirming, heard his breath go tense and start coming in gasps, terrified, and the former vice captain had to remind himself three separate times why it was a bad idea to reach out and grab hold of his partner's hand.

Oishi clenched his hands on top of his thighs and studied the space between his knees, his entire body straight and tense, drawing tighter as he became aware that Yagi-cochi had stopped moving.

He still jumped when their coach started talking.

"Now that I have the both of you, I don't know what the hell to even say," there was the slightest bit of chuckle in his voice, but Oishi and Eiji weren't in any sort of position at the moment to appreciate it.

Oishi studied a tiny crack in the tile flooring in front of the left toe of his shoe and felt eyes on him as the silence stretched out long and tight untill it shattered with a sigh.

Yagi-cochi closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose trying to concentrate, then moved forward to squat down on the floor in front what was left of the Golden Pair, moving into their averted lines of sight.

"I need you guys to look at me."

Shocked into compliance by the uncharacteristically human tone the two first-years looked up at their coach in his frog-like position and realized in the same moment that he didn't look nearly old enough to be teaching high school.

They saw for the first time a gentleness about the coach's eyes and the usual stern set of his mouth held an edge of deadly seriousness, and Oishi knew in that moment that he wasn't going to like what their coach was planning to tell them.

"I…" Yagi-cochi started then averted his stare and though for a moment, eyes darkening in concentration, "…let me tell you a story."

Yagi-cochi paused a moment to shift on the balls of his feet, but he didn't stand or sit, instead choosing to remain in his crouched stance.

"Two years ago, I wasn't thrilled to be coming back to Japan, but my student Visa was up so…I know that sounds pretty harsh, but all I could think to myself was 'Ahh man, Japanese tennis is gonna to be crap compared to American tennis. I wanna go back,'" he trailed off with a sigh, "But then I went to the Junior High Nationals and saw the most amazing thing, this pair of second years beating the hell outta everyone. And I realized then that this was exactly where I wanted to be coaching. I spent the next year applying everywhere with a tennis program and working part-time, but I took time off to go see the Junior High Nationals that next year. And that pair of second years was now a pair of third years and…" he broke off suddenly like he suddenly dropped his chain of thought. "When Seigaku High School offered me the job, I…I was too happy to answer, and I hoped, and I was speechless again when you guys showed up on my court nearly half a year ago, ready to play."

He leaned forward, balancing precariously on the tips of his toes, and whispered, "Because, I was a doubles player who never got it right. I tried so many different partners, wanting so bad what you two have…had, but, in the end…"

He looked down at the floor before he started talking again as the players in front of him held their breath. "So you see now," the words, barely said, were inhumanly loud in the tiny room; they made Oishi's heart skip a beat, "how hard it is for me to do this."

A small voice, calling from somewhere in Oishi's chest cried out, 'then don't' as Oishi bit his lip to keep silent.

"I know something happened between you two," Oishi saw his gaze linger briefly on his left cheek, "but what it is is your business, not mine. Kikumaru," he caught eyes with the redhead, "I'm putting you into the singles practice bracket, and Oishi," he looked into wide green eyes, "I'm finding you another partner."

Oishi had been expecting it, how could he have not been, but he thought, in his own panicked and unreasonable way, as those words he'd been dreading left the coach's mouth, that the shock was somehow impossibly made all the worse by the knowing.

"Unless…" Yagi-cochi started again, making both players hung heads spring up, "You can convince me otherwise."

He paused letting the ethereal melody of a second chance float through the air and in the space of those moments Oishi had the time to become fully aware of his breathing and Eiji's.

They were perfectly in time.

And Oishi had the strangest notion that Yagi-cochi was aware of it too, because there was the vaguest suggestion of a smile on his face when he stood up from his crouched position and walked over to the door.

"I'm going to stand right outside that door for the next ten minutes, making sure that no one comes in," the reverse truth was left unspoken, but both players heard it anyway. Yagi-cochi opened the door and paused to look back, a deep tired pain settling into his face, "After that time is up I'll leave to make up a new practice schedule and assume that you think what you have isn't worth a rat's ass."

The click of the door shutting made the air quiver with tension, like a gunshot that rang though the tiny room and trailed off into the silence.

Time ticked away slowly as the silence between the two players became heavy and cloying. Oishi started to draw in air to say something, but choked on the breath when Eiji beat him to it.

"How's your jaw?"

Oishi wondered for one strange panicked moment what he meant before he felt his cheek throb faintly in time with his quickened pulse and remembered.

The words felt stupid in Oishi's mouth, but he forced them out anyway, "Fine, I guess…I don't really notice it."

They sat side by side, too uncomfortable to face one another, staring at the floor, and after a long moment Eiji spoke again, but so quietly, barely a whisper, "I'm sorry."

The words were huge, despite their lack of volume, or maybe because of it. The softness made the apology bigger then just a simple bruised cheek.

"No," Oishi swallowed back the tension in his throat, "I'm the one who should be sorry."

'…for everything.'

But Oishi left it unsaid like so many of his thoughts recently; keeping things from others, keeping them from himself in turn.

Eiji whispered a reply, "It's true though," the admittance so hushed that Oishi was unsure if Eiji had meant to say it out loud. So soft he instinctively thought that he couldn't possibly have heard it and the questioning 'eh?' was out of his mouth before he had a moment to even think.

"What you said…" Eiji sucked in a breath after the words had come tumbling out, "It's true."

They sat for over a minute in silence after that, they could tell because the clock on the wall gave single particularly loud tick, like a heart beating its last, on every minute, as they both waited and hoped the other would talk first.

It was only after the silence was shattered that Oishi realized that he was the one who did.

"I still shouldn't have said it. I…" then suddenly there were too many options and Oishi became lost, trapped in his own words. "I…" am, know, want, lov… "was…" angry, scared, selfish, hurt, jealous… "stupid."

As the words left his mouth, Oishi half-hoped for some type of protest, but wasn't surprised when none came. It was entirely true, he realized, this was a mess and nothing about it could be fixed with good grades and studying.

Oishi let his head hang, lost in his own rapidly spinning world as the seconds ticked away and if it hadn't been for the loud minute tock briefly distracting him from his reverie, he might have never noticed what Eiji had said moments before he'd realized that those were words he was hearing. Oishi's eyes went wide as he heard Eiji in distant echo.

'I don't want it to end.'

He turned slowly to face the other player, his partner. There were tears; tears and determination and that expression on Eiji's face would have absolutely shattered Oishi's resistance, had there been any to begin with.

Oishi's arms itched to reach out and hold close and feel that heart beat in synch with his. He didn't, only folded his hands together and grasped them tightly, but not because he wanted too. He heard another precious minute click past, and the sound of his chance slipping away in ever flying minutes.

"Me neither," he admitted after a long moment, but the words that should have come racing, pouring out were not enough, too little too late. It made the corners of Oishi's eyes sting with suppressed emotion, and that small hurt helped solidify his determination and allowed him to continue.

"I want to play more tennis, lots more tennis, a lifetime of it, but…" he panned his gaze across Eiji's face and let his eyes catch and hold onto Eiji's and felt the truth surely drawn from his lips by the sadness and regret he saw there, "I don't want it if it's not with you."

A startled, question laden, "Oishi…" slipped from Eiji's mouth as it fell open in surprise and he pulled back, pleasantly burned by Oishi's words.

Oishi began to form an answer he felt obligated to give, but only got as far as, "I…" before he realized he didn't understand what he was supposed to say. There were just too many things that he needed to answer for.

There was a long moment where their eyes connected and the tandem of their breathing was the only sound that passed between them and seconds ticked away unnoticed. There was an instant when they realized they were gravitating slowly and inexorably together, falling into place. Eiji's body flashed in heat and he looked away from Oishi, hiding the flush of his face.

He looked at the floor as his thoughts gradually sifted through the jumble of his feelings into something he could put to words. "Don't do that," he pleaded softly, unconvincingly, "It's not fair."

Oishi leaned forward, following his partner, whispering his name in concern.

The redhead drew in a quivering breath, bouncing the flipped ends of his hair with every tiny movement. "I can't," he choked out, "I've tried so hard but I can't change…my feelings."

"I don't want you to change Eiji," Oishi admitted, realizing it was true in that moment.

Eiji mumbled something under his breath that Oishi thought sounded like a protest, but he ignored it, leaning in closer to Eiji, studying the profile of his averted face. "I've missed you Eiji. I've missed…us."

"Me too," his words were soft and genuine

Oishi felt his pulse quicken to a frantic pace, frightened and nervous and Eiji so near he couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

Eiji had barely time enough to feel the pressure on his chin, turning his face up, before the gentle fringe of Oishi's eyelashes filled his vision and there were lips on his own, moving with a barely restrained hunger on his surprise parted mouth.

Then he jerked back, aborting the contact with a near violent reaction. Oishi allowed him to move away pulling back himself and feeling his heart clench painfully at the shocked betrayal in those quivering blue eyes that haunted him every moment he stopped trying to forget.

"What did you want to do, just now?" The question tumbled spontaneously from Oishi's lips as his heart pounded in excitement and apprehension.

"Eh?" The surprise that had never left Eiji's face morphed into confusion at the sudden question.

"Just now," Oishi pressed on, "When I…" the pause hung heavily for a bare instant and they both felt a sharp flare of heat on their faces, "What did that make you want to do."

Eiji turned his lower lip in a thoughtful pout, considering, then, "I just wanted…to get away."

The line of Oishi's mouth curved in triumph and compassion, "And not because you were frightened of me or disgusted, just…surprised?"

And in that moment Eiji spoke the most telling one word answer that either of them had ever heard before.

There was suddenly a grin on Oishi's face and a building wet pressure around his eyes. It felt stupid and cheesy and perfect. Then Eiji turned his face to his partner, lashes darkened and stuck together, eyes brilliantly shiny in the dim light of the office, and a painfully beautiful smile.

The rhythm of Oishi's pulse shuddered in a sharply pleasant sensation. Finally succumbing to a long reined in desire he unobtrusively slid his hand toward Eiji's, fingers eagerly outstretched and searching until he could feel the warmth of the other boy, and he froze, courage abruptly waning as his throat closed tight in panic.

Then there was a hand griping his and strong, sure fingers interlocking with his own. Oishi looked down at their knotted hands, their sticky-damp palms pressed together and in that moment he was himself

The stillness of the moment was shattered by the sudden insistent tock of the clock striking their last minute away. Their gazes locked in twined looks of determination. They rose in tandem and walked side by side, only letting their hands reluctantly fall apart as they opened the door and stepped into the sun brightened hallway.

Yagi-cochi looked at them both but said nothing. He just turned and began to walk down the hall towards the courts, but he couldn't avert his face quickly enough to entirely hide the deep, wide curve of his mouth.

They walked together out into the practice area where the scheduled practice games were in progress, their coach leading the way they walked right up to the fence and peered through the steel links.

Every spectator's eyes were instantly drawn to the pair, games forgotten and then the games themselves slowly ground to a stop as each volley ended. And then at last, when the volley between the Captain and the Vice Captain ended, and every single eye weighed heavily upon them, Oishi and Eiji looked at each other. They nodded together as a wordless agreement passed between them and they looked back at the questioning stares of the entire Seigaku High School Tennis Club.

There was a deep hush that every player sensed as an almost physical sensation, then Eiji raised his hand in a triumphant fist.

"Seigaku's Golden Pair! Fight, O!"

The roar of applause from the team built to a swift crescendo which turned into cheers, and Eiji and Oishi could only stare back in wonder and joy at the rally of the team.

They turned to each other for support in the same instant, each raised his right hand instinctively and they brought them together.

And the only person who noticed, from behind his nearly curved closed eyelids, that their hands lingered together too long for it to really be just a high-five only clapped louder.