Title: Reach me

Genre: Angst

Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, just taking them out to play.

Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing/Characters: Oshigaku

and I hate
and I hate elevator music
The way we fight
The way I'm left here silent

They're seventeen and in high school and sharing a dorm room and yet nothing has changed. Oshitari who still reads romance novels might have said that it was 'meant to be', but he doubts it is as simple as that. Gakuto is bouncy and loud and suffers from unpredictable mood swings: lately he's taken to eating outside in the morning, and he won't tell why.

When he wakes up there is dew on the windowsill and a cold wind ruffles the sheets on the empty bed at the other end of the room, and he doesn't remember leaving the window open. He shivers but doesn't say anything, and thinks instead of his philosophy assignment, and Diderot's answers to determinism and existence, wondering how much applies to them, and if he isn't yet again waxing clichés in his head.

Gakuto is there at lunch, his scarlet hair like a slap to the face in a sea of shy toned-down colors. He smiles easily and there's a spark in his eyes that speaks of something wild that wants to be let out. He wraps his arms around Oshitari's when no one is looking and whispers wouldn't it be nice if we went out tonight, Yuushi? And Yuushi says yes because above anything else he doesn't want to see that spark directed at someone else.

He doesn't like the club but he refrains from saying so because Gakuto seems to be having a good time and maybe that's good enough for tonight. Gakuto who is swaying to the music and wrapped in an ocean of bodies pressing close, ever closer, but he's the star and he knows it. A graceful leap takes him to a smaller stage where he can dance by himself, and from there on it is just him and the lights playing with the curves of his supple body.

Yuushi watches from a booth, one hand elegantly draped on his glass, and shadows play across his face, reflections of the dancefloor lights. He drinks in the moment, foregoing thought for a brief moment as raw sensations assault him, interrupted only when a hand then an arm then a body invade his personal space. He looks up, momentarily startled, and it is one of those creatures who are all eyes and curves and intoxicating scents.

She drags him to the dancefloor, and he only complies because he spots his partner's gaze burning a hole on his back. He smirks, and lets himself be swept away by the beats –let it not be said that Oshitari Yuushi is a bad dancer: he just rarely sees the need to prove it to anyone-. It is a challenge and they both know it.

He smirks and lets her do what she will, because he knows that Gakuto will only complain about the smell she left on his clothes.

In the end he has to carry the other boy back home, despite Gakuto's insistence that he's nowhere near drunk enough to require assistance. He shuts him up with a kiss, because he doesn't want the warden catching them sneaking in at undue hours of the night.

Some time later he lights a cigarette on the balcony while Gakuto takes a shower, and he watches the smoke curl around his fingers before disappearing in thin wisps in the night. He pushes his spectacles up his nose, and knows it's a nervous habit he can't quite get rid of.

Gakuto comes out trailing steam and droplets of water which fall with a muted sound on the carpeted floor, clad only in a towel, and he plucks out the cigarette from between Oshitari's lips and throws it far away. Before the redhead can launch in a tirade, he cranes his neck to look him in the eye and says:

"Get back inside or you'll catch a cold."

"And you'll catch death, Yuushi."

"Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we?"

The next morning Gakuto brings him coffee and bagels and says he would like to try on his life for a change. Yuushi is not surprised: Gakuto has always been one for new challenges. His life is comprised of goals and small victories that all lead to a greater path, somewhere where light shines and doubt fades to dust. He envies his partner's confidence that life will be there to treat him to new experiences at every corner.

So he complies, and for the rest of the day Gakuto tries his best to step in his partner's shoes: like everything he sets his mind to, he gives it all his energy and resources. He browses through Oshitari's cds and steals his glasses to read his books, and complains that he can't see straight afterwards.

The rest of the students don't seem to mind too much, because they've dismissed them as a pair, and what happens between them is surely none of their business. Yuushi wonders at this projected image, and how much of it is their own doing: it all seems so simple from the outside. They still play tennis, and the high school coach has acknowledged their strength as doubles players, even though they are sometimes partnered with other players.

When Gakuto flops on his bed that night, he simply states: "I don't understand how you are you, Yuushi."

Oshitari has trouble sleeping that night.

They never fight but they always argue, as though this was an implicit rule to their relationship. Most of the times he enjoys the mental stimuli, but today his red headed partner seems to be constantly on his case. He retreats in himself, mulling over what Gakuto said the night before, and hides behind books and muttered excuses.

He stays like that for three days, and people start wondering about his silence. Gakuto tells them he'll come back when he gets tired of pacing inside his own head.

To tell the truth, he is tired of the silent treatment Gakuto has taken to inflicting on him as a consequence of his earlier behaviour, and he begins to miss the teases and the lopsided grins and the red bangs bouncing dangerously close to his chin. He feels as though they're at a turning point, yet despite his genius-life abilities he can't for the life of him discern what lies on the paths ahead.

It stands to reason that Gakuto never does anything according to plan, thus Oshitari is only mildly shocked when his diminutive partner climbs on his lap as he's reading on his bed: "You know Yuushi, if you keep frowning like that, you'll become an old man much too soon" before running a finger along the lines of his forehead and winking.

Trust him to make it so anticlimactic, he thinks, and he leans into Gakuto's touch, realizing for every skirmish there is a reward that makes everything worth it in the end.

The End+