Disclaimer: If only. If only, if only, if only. But if I owned it, it probably wouldn't be as brilliant, so maybe it's a good thing all round…

Rating: … PG-13?

Warnings: Shounen-ai, language, fluff, death of several innocent confectionaries.

Summary: Latest in the Rikkai drabblethings. Little do Akaya and Marui know how the accidental murder of eight strawberry mini cakes will affect their lives.

Author's notes: This was based off a rp that I did with Linc, who I love and should be given muffins. :D I did Akaya, and she did Marui.

This is the chronological order of my Rikkai fics – if you haven't already, I recommend reading the ones that come before this first, to get a sense of where this goes in the whole… yanno, universe. But you don't have to – it might be a bit more enjoyable if you did, that's all. $.$

Times of Stress

Passing the Time

How to ask out Marui Bunta

Four Days Later (takes place four days after HtaoMB. Hence the title. I know it's lame, but I'm rubbish at thinking up titles -.-;; So sue me. Only, please don't. xD)

On with the fic!

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Kirihara Akaya snickered to himself as he settled comfortably behind a small bush. It was lunchtime at Rikkai Daigaku Fuzokuchuu, and he was meant to be attending detention with his English teacher. But he had no intention of missing lunch today, oh no. Today was Friday, which meant that he had squid for lunch. Yum.

"Miserable hag," he muttered. "Not my fault if she's too uptight to appreciate a joke. Deserved it anyway."

Several people passing by gave the talking bush some odd looks, but most of them ignored it when they recognised the voice. A few hurried away, rubbing long-gone bruises and injuries.

The curly-haired boy was going to wait here until one of the tennis team members came by. Then he'd come out and eat lunch with them. Unless it was Niou-senpai, in which case he'd stay well put.

A cool wind was starting to pick up, and Akaya suddenly remembered with a scowl of dismay that he'd left his jacket in the English classroom. Damn.

Maybe he could persuade one of his senpai to go get it for him. Hmm. It would depend on what mood they were all in. Oh, wait… There was Marui. Akaya grinned. Excellent.

He'd been avoiding the pink-haired boy for the last four days, ever since that unfortunate practice when he'd made the mistake of asking Niou for some confession strategies. However, he'd managed to pass the whole thing off as one of Niou's usual practical jokes, and Marui seemed to believe him. Everything seemed back to normal now, and Akaya felt brave enough to face eating lunch with him again.

"Marui! Hey!"

Jumping out from behind the bush, Akaya gave his fellow Regular a big grin. "Can I eat lunch with you today?" he asked hopefully, before standing on the dangling strap of his bag and falling flat on his face.

Today was going to be just one of those days. He could feel it already.

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Marui Bunta was minding his own business. Or as much of it as he could given the situation.

Chortling to himself as he snuck quietly away from the unwitting supplier of his lunch and dessert (actually, his lunch was his dessert), Bunta started towards his secret location.

Well... It wasn't his fault that Fujiwara-chan decided to have strawberry mini cakes for dessert, was it?

Giggle, giggle.

He walked along the little path that led to his special lunch spot, ignoring the weird looks he recieved as he took out the brightly wrapped package and caressed it lovingly.

'Oh yes... We're going to have a little private date later, aren't we…?'

It was then...

As he was about to tuck the cakes back into his bag.

It was then...

As he started whistling a cheerful tune.

It was only then that someone decided to jump out of the bush and yell his name.

"WAA!"

Marui jumped about a foot up into the air and needless to say, his cakes went flying.

"My cakes!" He turned to the person responsible and his eyes fell on Akaya.

Violet eyes opened as wide as his mouth. "YOU! I knew it was you! Who else could so casually ruin someone else's lunch!"

Kirihara ignored the fuss Marui was making. "Can I eat lunch with you today?"

As he took a step forward, he stood on his bag strap and tripped himself, and fell on top of the little pink package. There was a loud, squishy crunch.

"... Oops."

Akaya got up and brushed himself off sheepishly, licking away the specks of icing that had stuck onto his fingers. "Sorry, Marui. I didn't mean to." He tried for a charming smile, but couldn't pull it off very well. It came out more like a smirk than anything else. "I think I've got some cupcakes in my lunch. You can have one if I can eat lunch with you?"

As he spoke, Akaya was tugging hard on his bag strap, trying to figure out a way to stop it from tripping him again in the future. It kept on lengthening itself, no matter how hard he tried to shorten it, and eventually he gave up with an annoyed
huff and held it out to Marui. "Ne, can you do something about my bag?" he asked,
having seemingly forgotten all about the fact that he'd just destroyed his senpai's lunch even though he was still standing in the remains. He had a convenient memory like that.

Marui narrowed his eyes and glared. "You want me to fix your bag?" A nod greeted his words. "Ok."

Grinning, Akaya handed over his bag and Marui rummaged in his. An evil smile lit his face as the light glinted off a pair of scissors. "All you have to do is..." He cut the strap. "...Cut it like this..." Then tied the ends together. "...Tie it together like this..."

He handed the bag back to a mortified Kirihara. A smile and a pat on the head. "There you go, my cute little brat, one fixed bag for you."

"…Now it's wonky!" complained Akaya, glaring. "And it looks like a handbag!"

He resisted the urge to stamp his foot, remembering Sanada's admonition to stop behaving like a ten year old. "How'm I supposed to wear it now?" No cake for Marui, he decided firmly, even if he did accidentally destroy his lunch. Not his fault. It was never his fault. It was always the people around him who did stupid things, and then for some reason decided to blame him. Except Mura-buchou, cos he was nice. Marui was ok too sometimes, but usually only when he hadn't had enough sugar and was more sober.

Bunta glared right back. "Do I look like I care that it's WONKY!" he groused, obviously oblivious to the pouty vibes coming off his kouhai. "Besides, it's the same bag you had before, just more fashionable now..."

His thoughts went back to his cakes. 'My cakes...' he thought mournfully, staring at the scattered pink mess on the ground and on Kirihara. What a waste...

Taking a quick look around, Bunta wondered if anyone would tell on him if he swiped some of the pink stuff off the ground. Just to have a taste. The bits on top hadn't touched the ground, so it was safe to eat. Right?

As he was about to act on his thoughts, a new thought struck him. If Sanada or Jackal or Yukimura found out... Then... NO CAKES or GUM or CANDY for the rest of the month...

Bunta panicked. He was getting sugar-low. Need. Sugar.

Now.

As he glanced around again, he noticed Kirihara once more. An evil grin formed for the second time in minutes. 'How about if I...'

Akaya looked wary the instant he noticed the look on Marui's face. "Um, Marui?" he asked hesitantly, taking a tiny step back so that he could kick if need be. "If you're going to take some sort of revenge, I swear I'll use my knuckle serve on you and knock you out at practice, honest, so please stop looking like that because it's fuckin' scary and I hate being scared," he reeled off without taking a breath. Damnit, he should've waited for someone like Yagyuu-senpai or Jackal-senpai to come by...

Smirking, Marui took a tiny little step forward until he and Kirihara were at the same distance again. Then a sugary sweet smile dominated his face. "Now then, my sweet, darling little brat... Don't you want to do your senpai a favour? You did ruin my lunch after all..." The last was said with a pout that rivaled Akaya's.

There was no reply from the other. Bunta slung a friendly arm around the black haired junior but kept his gaze on the pink confectionary scattered across Kirihara's uniform. His sweet smile didn't drop a watt. "Akayaaa," he said in a sing-song voice.

He pounced, pinning the younger boy underneath him. "Ittadakimasu!"

"Ow! Marui! Gerroff!"

Taken completely by surprise, the second-year didn't get a chance to kick or punch before he was effectively pinned down. He snapped his teeth at Marui futilely, looking for all the world like an angry puppy.

"Getoffgetoffgetoffgetoffgetoff!" he yelled, flailing. What the hell was his senpai doing! This was downright embarrassing.

A quiet snort from nearby made Akaya glance sideways for a moment. "Niou-senpai! Get him off!" he pleaded, suddenly bucking as a small rock underneath him dug into his side and tickling unmercifully, forcing frantic, breathless laughs from him. "Niou-senpai!"

Niou didn't budge an inch, evidently enjoying the spectacle before him. He even went so far as to get out a bag of crisps, eating them slowly and grinning.

It was the crunching sound that informed Marui that there was someone close by. He looked up from Kirihara's shirt (now a lot cleaner thanks to him) and saw Niou leaning against a wall with a bag of chips in hand. The crunching was coming from him.

Licking his lips clean, Bunta smiled cheerily. "Want a taste too, 'Haru?" He gestured to the squirming kouhai beneath him.

Niou looked amused. "Nah. I'll leave him to you. Besides, I've already had lunch and dessert."

"Oh.Your loss then." Bunta shrugged and went back to his lunch.

Niou fought back a snicker. At that point, his doubles partner appeared behind him.

Eying the scene, Yagyuu pushed the glasses up his nose and stared at the scene in front of him. "Not again..." he muttered, sighing.

Squirming off the tickling rock, Akaya looked up at the comment and winced. Oh, fantastic. Now all he needed was for fukubuchou to show up, and his embarrassment would be complete.

"... What the hell is going on here?"

Akaya shut his eyes and groaned.

At the sound, Niou burst into outright laughter, eyes looking utterly gleeful. Even Yagyuu looked entertained, saying (and sounding disturbingly like his doubles partner), "Why, Kirihara-kun. I never knew you were such an exhibitionist."

It took him about half a second to understand what Yagyuu had said. "WHAT? I'm not...! He...!"

Incoherent with indignant fury, Akaya bit Marui's shoulder, hard.

"OW!" Bunta rubbed his shoulder and glared sulkily at Akaya, who was still neatly trapped beneath him.

The younger boy started muttering. Bunta only caught a few words, "fukubuchou" and "embarassment" being amongst them.

He looked up for the second time and noted two new additions to the spectator's gallery.

"Sanada! Yagyuu! Great of you to join us on this lovely day. Are you here for lunch too?"

Sanada's eyebrow twitched as Niou supressed another snicker and Yagyuu looked more amused than ever. The usually stoic fukubuchou was currently seriously considering grabbing and throwing the sugar high tensai off to the opposite side of the school.

At that point, Yagyuu stepped in. No matter how much entertainment value the scene unfolding before him had, he still wanted to be able to play tennis. Sanada was bound to assign laps to Bunta and Kirihara. As soon as he did that, Yagyuu knew that he would run the rest of the team into the ground just for kicks. But he was beaten to it.

"Don't worry, fukubuchou; Kirihara and Bunta were merely giving us a demonstration."

Yagyuu felt like smacking his head into the nearest wall. Repeatedly. Trust Niou to make the situation worse.

Steam began pouring out of Sanada's ears. Figuratively, of course, although Akaya's ever-active imagination provided great clouds of white vapour for him.

"Kirihara... Marui... 500 laps... NOW!"

Marui's eyes opened wide. All this because he was eating lunch with Kirihara...

Alright, just because he was eating lunch off Kirihara. Still, that didn't give Sanada the right to order laps for it.

He opened his mouth to protest at the order. But before he could get a word out, a new voice was heard.

"What's going on here?"

The entire group froze.

Yukimura had appeared.

"Mura-buchou!" said Akaya desperately, breaking the silence and madly hoping that he'd finally found an ally. "Marui's being really..." He was cut off by Niou.

"Hey, Mura. Marui and Akaya were entertaining us with some lunchtime theatrics," he smirked. "Nothing to worry about."

Yukimura raised an eyebrow and glanced at his second in command. "Genichiroh?"

"They're making a public spectacle of themselves!" he barked. Yukimura nodded.

"Bunta, Akaya, run fifty laps. I think five hundred might be slightly excessive for such a fault," he added, giving Sanada a small, amused smile. Akaya was absolutely furious.

"But, Mura-buchou," he whined, fighting to put on his best puppy-eyes, but it was extremely difficult when he was so frustrated. "It's not my fault! Marui just jumped on me!"

"Marui-senpai," Yukimura said absentmindedly, already walking off. "Don't make me tell you to run laps twice, Akaya." The boy glared daggers at Marui, who had finally gotten off him.

Bunta scowled at his buchou's back. And here he thought that he was going to be helpful.

So much for a quiet lunch.

Sighing with resignation, he looked around for Kirihara who had already started on his laps.

Stretching his muscles, Bunta frowned at his bad luck. 'First my lunch got squashed. Now I get laps for eating lunch... All this and I'm still hungry. Wish that there was more of that cake left... Life is so unfair...'

Kirihara passed him again and a glint of pink caught his eye. Could that be…? Bunta's excitement levels climed higher and higher.

Oh yeah! More CAKE!

Quickly finishing his stretches, he started after his junior. "Yo! Akaya! Wait for meee…!"

Niou watched with a raised eyebrow as Kirihara increased his speed dramatically. He turned to his doubles partner, a sly smirk on his face. "You know, Hiroshi? That looks kinda fun. We should try it sometime."

"..." Yagyuu sweatdroped but declined to comment.

Niou's look turned thoughtful, "But I don't really like strawberry cake. Maybe we should use chocolate cake instead..."

"...!"

"Akaya's speed increases by threefold when he's chased by a sugar high maniac..."

Yanagi appeared behind the two with his ever present notebook. "Good stuff..." He scribbled into the notebook furiously. "Must have this all down. Would be an interesting addition to his training regime."

A few more scribbles. "Would be better if I could get all the regulars to participate."

A pause.

"The only problem would be that we need six more sugar high Buntas."

One shudder from Yagyuu and another raised eyebrow greeted the statement.

Kirihara ran past yelling.

"On the other hand, maybe one is enough."

"Stoppit, Marui!" Akaya yelled. When his senpai showed no signs of obeying, he resorted to desperate measures. "Look, if you stop chasing me like that, I'll buy you some cake after school, ok! Just let me run the laps in PEACE!"

"Interesting. Akaya goes a very light shade of pink when he's embarrassed," Yanagi murmured aloud, continuing to write in his book. "I thought he would have gone a darker shade, judging from the various heart and blood pressure tests we did last week."

"Oh, Hiroshi's the guy you want for dark blushes," Niou chipped in. "Goes bright pink, don't you?" He nimbly ducked a halfhearted swing from Yagyuu's bag and strolled off, chuckling to himself, balling up the empty crisp packet and throwing it into a bin. "Good luck with your laps, children. See you at practice later," he called. Akaya gave him a rude hand gesture in passing. Marui didn't hear him, trying to catch his kouhai.

"Don't need you to get me cake after school!" he called. "Jackal always brings me some! Come on Kirihara, just one little taste. You won't even know what bit you..." Akaya's response was to put on another burst of speed.

"Well..." Yanagi shut his notebook with a satisfied snap. "That's all that I can get for the moment." He turned a small grin onto Yagyuu, who was the only other regular left standing here. Sanada had long since run after Yukimura.

Yagyuu returned the closed eye stare with an open eyed one. "..."

Yanagi nodded genially as he walked away, "Do tell me when you and Niou decide to host the same set of experiments. It would be very interesting. Maybe I should tell Sadaharu about this little test... Hmm..."

Muttering to himself, engrossed in his data, Renji unknowningly walked into the pole, then the wall and finally tripped himself over and landed in a bin. In the space of ten seconds.

Yagyuu shook his head and wandered off in the opposite direction as Yanagi flicked a crisp packet off his head and continued on his way. He always knew that the whole
practically-closed eye thing was going to get Renji into some trouble one day...

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Well, ten laps down already. But students were starting to file back into the school buildings, and Akaya took a glance at his watch. Damn. Two minutes before lunch was over. He weighed his options for a few moments before deciding that obeying Yukimura was more important than attending Geography class. They were learning about South America again, and Akaya couldn't see the point. He was never going to go there, right?

So he kept running, even when the bell had sounded. He risked a glance over his shoulder and was momentarily startled to find that Marui had almost caught up. Damn.

"Ne, Marui! Aren't you going to class?" he panted hopefully.

"Class?" Bunta was momentarily confused. Then his expression cleared, "Oh..." A grin formed and he did his peace sign. Nobody bothered to point out how silly it looked on him whilst running. "I have PE. We're here anyway," A slight pause as he
counted his 12th lap. "But I can't do PE if I don't get my energy up."

"Akaya?"

No response.

Bunta tried again. Louder. "AKAYA!"

Still nothing.

"Akaya… Just one little bite... I promise... Please?"

Akaya scowled. Looked like there wasn't going to be any escape.

"Fine!" he ground out, slowing down and sucking in air gratefully. "But only a little bit. And quickly, cos it's embarrassing enough without a whole PE class watching, ok?" he said firmly, turning. Well, what with all the running, at least he wasn't cold anymore. Good thing too - he didn't have to be heading back to English class until Tuesday. He only hoped no-one stole his jacket.

Bunta gleefully jumped his kouhai again. "I love you Akaya!" he cheered, ducking his head down enthusiastically.

It was just their bad luck that Sanada chose that time to come and check on their laps.

"… KIRIHARA! MARUI! LAPS, NOW!"

Bunta looked up, straddling Kirihara. The area around his mouth was covered in pink icing again. "Awww, fukubuchou..."

Sanada's eyebrows twitched and he drew in a deep breath to commence his lecture at top volume.

Akaya winced. Oh, not again. The fates HAD to be picking on him. "Fukubuchou! Don't you have lessons now!" Akaya asked in vain hope. The icing on his uniform was practically all gone now, hoovered up by Marui's eager mouth.

"No, I have a free period now," growled Sanada. He stood there for a second in silence, gathering his lecture together, then started yelling.

"WHEN YOU'RE ASSIGNED LAPS, I EXPECT THEM TO BE RUN! ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY'VE BEEN GIVEN BY YUKIMURA! IF YOU CAN'T SHOW RESPECT FOR YOURSELVES, THEN AT LEAST SHOW SOME RESPECT FOR YUKIMURA AND I! YOU'RE REGULARS OF THE CHAMPION TENNIS TEAM, AND IT'S HIGH TIME YOU STARTED ACTING LIKE IT INSTEAD OF, OF, OF FOOLING AROUND LIKE SMALL CHILDREN!"

Boy. Fukubuchou was really angry. Well, angrier than usual.

With an effort, Akaya rolled Marui off him and got up. "We honestly were - " he began.

"If your grades don't start improving, Kirihara, then you'll be kicked off the tennis team altogether," growled Sanada. "So no excuses. Finish your laps then go to your lessons. That goes for you too, Marui. Apart from the grades part."

Bunta jumped off the ground hastily and continued with his laps. 'Only 30 something to go,' he thought resignedly.

He looked back to see the younger boy dash into a sprint and pass him. Damn him.

The urge to chase him was strong, but Bunta bit it back and continued at his pace. Five laps later, the rest of his PE class came out.

"Eh? Marui-kun, why on earth are you out here running laps already?" His PE teacher asked, surprised. Normally Marui was late and would turn up on a manic sugar high, gabbling apologies at lightning speed before dashing off to catch up with the rest of the class.

Some of Marui's classmates giggled since they had caught some of the action from before. Bunta only flashed a quick smile and his peace sign as he passed his sensei. "I'm promoting healthy living and exercise on behalf of the Tennis Team," he chirped.

Sanada resisted the urge to roll his eyes because stoic fukubuchous weren't supposed to do childish things like that.

Instead, he gave Bunta a warning glance as he walked passed the running boy, continuing on his way to the library.

Bunta promptly shut up.

Kirihara though, had felt no such restrictions.

"Marui's a great big liar, sensei," panted Akaya. He was in a very bad mood now. Well, not in a bad enough mood to feel the urge to destroy someone slowly and painfully, but pretty bad. "He jumped on me so fukubuchou made us run laps which is
really fuckin' unfair."

The PE teacher frowned severely. "Language!" he barked, in an uncanny imitation of Sanada.

"Bite me," growled the irate junior in response. "It's all Marui's fault anyways." He turned the corner and saw that Sanada was glaring murder at him, having heard him clearly. Damn. Damnit. Damnit all to hell. He was gonna be in so much trouble at practise tonight... Well, maybe he could drag Marui down with him. He'd have to think about that.

"KIRIHARA!"

There was an audible gulp from the second year.

Sanada didn't need to say anything else, Bunta said it for him.

"Hee hee. Hee hee." Bunta's manical giggles (driven by his sugar high of course) sounded across the area. "Akaya… Fukubuchou will see you tonight at practise for some private time!"

Bunta managed to make the last bit sound highly wrong.

Sanda's eyebrows started twitching again.

The pink haired tensai didn't get the message. "Maybe he wants to experiment with some banana cake this time. Hee hee. Hee hee hee."

Kirihara gulped again.

So did the rest of the PE class, and the teacher was no exception.

Everyone started to back away.

Slowly...

Slowly...

But the impending death of their eardrums never came.

Akaya wasn't sure whether to be relieved or frightened when Sanada appeared incoherent with fury. He stood there for a good ten seconds opening and shutting his mouth, before turning bright red and spinning on his heel, storming off to the library.

The PE teacher looked a little relieved that Sanada hadn't said anything, but he still found the energy to snap, "I'll be reporting you to the head of your class, Kirihara-kun," before turning and starting to address the PE class, most of whom were giggling amongst themselves.

Oh, boy. The day really couldn't get all that much worse.

"What did you have to go and say that for!" he demanded Marui. His eyes were starting to become slightly bloodshot - something that hadn't happened since his defeat at the Kantou tournament.

"Hee hee. Hee hee hee." Bunta just continued to giggle like a maniac.

The whole class was still staring in the direction that Sanada went, mostly ignoring the teacher.

"I guess Mura-buchou's gonna hear about this..." Bunta added. "Ooh, I hope he'll forgive you for stealing fukubuchou from him, Akayaaa!"

The PE teacher had had enough. He turned back to the duo.

"MARUI-KUN! Enough. Go do some more laps so you work off your sugar levels."

Anyone remotely associated with Bunta knew that his current mental state was due to excessively high sugar concerntrations. The only way around it was to get him to exercise enough to come off it.

"Hee hee. I hope you'll still be alive after tonight Akaya-"

Akaya had had enough as well. With a deep breath, he charged Bunta and tackled him to the ground. Once he had his senpai on the ground, he started punching angrily,
although his subconscious managed to keep the punches below the neckline so they didn't hurt as much. After all, although Marui was a major cause of his current bad mood, he was also angry at everything in general and his subconscious knew that he'd only feel guilty if he actually gave Marui a serious injury. Non-serious but painful, however, was another matter altogether.

The PE teacher hurried towards the pair scuffling on the ground, calling out for them to stop it, but couldn't get close because of the pairs of flailing limbs, and was forced to stand close by and just yell at them. Which Akaya was pretty much immune to by now anyway.

Ignoring the teacher completely, Akaya stopped hitting Marui, breathing hard, eyes bloodshot. "I hate you," he snarled. Then he immediately felt bad. Stupid conscience! But he didn't retract the statement.

"You're always high on sugar and loud and fucking annoying and you just can't take a hint, even when Yanagi-senpai practically tells you that I've had a crush on you since first year and you never listen and you never shut up, and, and..." he ran out of breath,
panting. Bunta took it all in a state of shock.

Kirihara had a crush on him?

Since when?

"Akaya..." he whispered as the younger boy let him go with a final shove.

He sat up. "I didn't realise… I'm sorry, Akaya."

Pulling Kirihara closer, Bunta briefly pressed his lips to him. "I've liked you for so long..."

For his part, Akaya wasn't even aware that he'd blurted that out loud until Marui kissed him. Shocked, he pulled away, staring at Marui as though he couldn't quite believe what had just happened. Which he couldn't.

"Marui..." he said, sounding dazed. Then he heard the excited mutters and laughs of the eagerly watching PE class.

Flushing deep pink, Akaya scrambled upright, absolutely mortified. He tried to say something, but his mouth refused to co-operate, and in the end he just settled for fleeing the scene, one hand coming up to touch his lips as he ran. Fuck it. He was gonna need a whole lotta green tea to sort this mess out in his head.

Bunta watched as Akaya ran away from him.

'Again...' he thought sadly. 'I think I just stuffed that up big time.'

"Akaya..." was all he whispered out loud.

"Ahem." The teacher clearing his throat sounded from behind.

Quickly, Bunta scrambled off the ground as well and looked around. He slowly flushed a deep pink.

From where he stood, he saw his entire class snickering and giggling behind their hands. On top of that, he was positive that he could see other classes from inside the school buildings watching him with interest as well.

'Shit...'

"Umm... I think I feel a little sick today, sensei. Could I be excused?" Not waiting for an answer, Bunta sprinted off as fast as he could in the direction he saw Kirihara take.

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"Baka." Thud.

"Baka." Thud.

"Baka, baka, bakabakabakabakabaka!" Thud.

No, he wasn't hitting his head off a wall, although the idea had been awfully tempting. He had settled for the less painful option and was hitting a tennis ball against the wall as hard as he could, using one of the spare tennis racquets from the clubhouse. Luckily, there was no-one around, and Akaya could rant to himself out loud as he always did when he was in this sort of mood.

"Wasn't that what you wanted?" he ranted. "Why the hell did you just run off like that! Now Marui's probably thinking you rejected him. Which you kinda did. Baka." Thud, thud, thud.

"... He didn't have to do it in front of all those people though. Gods, everyone's gonna be talking about it... fukubuchou'll probably kick me off the team... Not my fault! Stupid Marui. Stupid people. Stupid me."

Panting, Marui spun on the spot, surveying the whole school. He could have sworn he'd seen Akaya come this way...

Trudging sadly back the way he came, Bunta shook his head in despair. Just when he'd thought...

Thud.

'I should have stopped him from running away,' he reflected mournfully.

Thud.

'Maybe...'

Thud.

Bunta's head shot up.

That sound he knew so well. The sound of a tennis ball being rhythmically hit against a wall.

His heartrate increased. "Akaya...?"

Quickening his footsteps, Bunta hurried over to the tennis courts. He knew for a sure thing that Niou had biology while Renji and Yagyuu had maths. That left Jackal, who was home sick today, and his buchou and fukubuchou.

Obviously, he had just seen Sanada storm off to the library earlier. He and Yukimura were in the same class, so it made sense that the two must be holding some private study session together.

That left... Akaya...

Increasing his speed to a full out sprint, Bunta reached the courts. Sure enough, it was Kirihara smacking the ball against the wall.

There was an angry look in his eyes, but he wasn't in his demonic state, for which Marui thanked his lucky stars.

"Akaya?" The name was barely a whisper, but the other boy dropped his racket in shock as he turned.

Akaya swore under his breath as his racquet clattered to the ground. Crap. He eyed Marui warily, wanting to say something but knowing, sensing, that this was one of the most important moments in his young life and for once he should think before he spoke.

He took in a deep breath, and then said slowly, face expressionless and blank, "What'd you go and do that for? In front of all those people, too. Everyone'll be talking about it." He instantly hated how meek and small he sounded, and hastily added, "Not that I care. But it was fuckin' embarrassing, yanno?"

"Embarrasing?" Bunta blinked repeatedly.

He took a small step forward and reached out a hand to the junior. "Akaya... I swear, I didn't do it to embarrass you."

Now he stared at the ground too as he lowered his hand. "I really do like you. Honest to god."

Unable to handle the sudden, completely unexpected surge of feelings welling up inside him, Bunta's eyes filled with tears for the first time in a long while.

There was silence as two drips of liquid hit the floor of the courts.

Akaya stared. W-whoa. Marui-senpai was... crying? Over this? Over him?

He stood there for a few seconds, totally stunned. Then he took a hesitant step forward. "Marui?" he said uncertainly. "Don't - don't cry. Please." Slowly, he reached up and brushed at a tear that threatened to fall, wiping it on his sleeve. He stared at the tiny damp patch it made, then cautiously tilted his head up and pecked Marui shyly on the tip of his nose.

"Just... don't do that again, 'k?" he muttered, feeling awkward.

Bunta was most startled when Kirihara actually came closer.

He almost choked when the other wiped a stray tear away for him.

He definitely started hyperventilating when Akaya kissed his nose.

Unable to control himself, Bunta nodded and threw his arms around the younger boy.

"Never, ever do that to me again Akaya..." he mumbled into Akaya's shirt. "I can't bear to see you run away from me like that."

"... I won't," he mumbled. He still felt awkward, unable to relax into the hug - obviously, they still had a long way to go. But as his eyes slid shut and one arm came up to awkwardly encircle the other's back, he found that he didn't mind. It was just like 'Mura-buchou always said - few things worth having come without hard work and effort. Akaya had scoffed at the time, but now he thought he saw some vague sort of sense to the words.

They stood like that for a while, then Akaya broke off the hug, staring at his shoes. "Wanna play a match?" he asked, nodding to the abandoned racquet and ball.

Both contemplated the ball and racquet for a moment.

Then Bunta grinned and wrapped an arm around Akaya's waist, pulling him closer again.

"I can think of a few things that are much more interesting than tennis at the moment," he purred into the black haired boy's ear, all traces of tears now gone, swallowed up by his usual good cheer.

Letting go of the waist, Bunta grabbed one of Akaya's wrists, "The clubroom's empty at the moment. Why don't we go and... return that equipment you borrowed."

When Akaya looked like he was about to protest, Bunta silenced him with a quick brush of his lips.

A mischievious grin. "I promise that'll we'll be practising more of that...After we get inside of course... We wouldn't want to embarrass you again, would we?"

Laughing out loud, Bunta broke into a run as Kirihara chased after him with pink tinging his cheeks.

The ball and racquet were left to their own company on the courts.

They would found much, much later by a very irrirated fukubuchou.

His irritation would increase tenfold when he entered the clubroom and found...

Well...

That can be left to your imagination.

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Sandy: -Hides- xDD Hope that wasn't too bad. First time I've ever done something based off a rp, so sorry if it's kinda fragmented. I tried my best to make it flow, honest. +.+;; Review? Pwease? They feed my soul.

I'm still looking for someone to do a PoT roleplay with me over email (I already have one lovely person, but the more the merrier! You can never have too many rp partners). Just to get ideas and inspiration, yanno:3

Unfortunately, I'm fairly picky people I rp with. I ask that you're able to type at least three sentences for a reply, and that you're… well, good. 0.- I don't know how else to put it, really. But if you're interested, then please let me know! If I don't want to rp with you anymore, I promise to let you know –nods- so don't worry about that. -Gives cheesy grin- Any takers…?