Forfeits and Wagers
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis (no matter how much I want to -cries-) But I do, kind of, own this story line. Honestly.
Summary: Oshitari should know that going up against the Trickster is detrimental to one's health. Especially if it's going to end in a wager of some kind. Really Yuushi… You should have known better.
Chapter Summary: Oshitari loses. Honestly, someone should have said 'I told you so!' Anyhow, Oshitari remembers, with horrible clarity, the events of yesteryear. Yuushi? I TOLD YOU SO!
Warnings: Crack. OOC. Shounen ai. Oh… And references to TCON. XD You've been warned.
A/N: This is written as a request for OnlyMeg!! Wah! I hope you like this first chapter. I swear it's going to be closer to your request a little further on. Just setting the scene for now, so stay with me, ne? XD
XD As for the warning… Well… There's a /much/ bigger hint of shounen ai here and many couples to that affect. I'll name them in the next chapter so I don't spoil anything for you now. Oh… For readers of TCON: Don't worry about any spoilers or any contradictions and whatnot… This fic is set three years after the events in TCON. For non-readers of TCON: Don't worry, there's nothing mentioned that you won't get. So...
ENJOY!!
Chapter One: The Forfeit
Oshitari Yuushi, tensai of Hyoutei Gakuen's nationally ranked tennis team, looked over at his opponent with his long famed poker face.
His eyes went back to his long time partner, Mukahi Gakuto, who shook his head almost sympathetically.
His opponent, one Niou Masaharu, watched him lazily with a sly smirk playing on the corner of his lips. The Trickster's partner, Yagyuu Hiroshi, watched the silent interaction with amusement.
After years of playing this particular game and the knowledge that it brought, Oshitari Yuushi knew when he was beaten.
With a final look at his cards, the tensai conceded defeat. "Fold."
Niou's smirk grew, "Game. Set. Match."
It could have been worse. It could have much, much worse, Oshitari thought ruefully as he gazed at his scorecard. The final figure at the bottom showed that he had lost almost 20,000 points in today's game. Not too bad, and hopefully, the repercussions shouldn't be too serious.
His erstwhile opponent was now surrounded by a group of boys, the entire Rikkai tennis team in fact, minus Yukimura and Sanada. At his back, Oshitari had the entire Hyoutei tennis team, minus Atobe and Hiyoshi. The four had made their excuses for today, probably off for a game or two of friendly tennis. But under normal circumstances, they would be here as well.
Their, being Niou, Yagyuu, Gakuto and Oshitari himself, twice monthly poker games had long become a rallying point for the two tennis teams, long entrenched in rivalry and respect, to get together. Kind of like a memorial day for that training camp almost three years ago.
"Name the forfeit." The blue-haired tensai winced as Kirihara Akaya's voice sounded. And he was more than excited, as were the remainder of the Rikkai team. The Hyoutei team were torn between amusement at their tensai's expense and sympathy for whatever the Trickster was about to inflict on him.
Oshitari shuddered as particular memories came back to haunt him. He had sworn never ever to lose so badly as he had on that particular day almost a year ago. Niou had decided that he wanted to play STRIP poker out of all things. Which sane person would want to play such a thing within a group of guys?
On that day fateful day: According to Oshitari…
Niou named the forfeit and waited for response. No one disappointed.
Yagyuu smiled politely. Marui and Kirihara howled with laughter. Yanagi had readied his pen and notebook for data. Yukimura and Jackal stood by with amused expressions while Sanada merely looked on with a slightly shocked expression. On top of it all, Niou sat with that irritating smirk upon his face.
His own team was not much better.
Atobe had made some comment about awe-ing the others with his prowess. Oshitari wanted nothing to do with that, thank you very much. Kabaji had nodded to whatever Atobe had said.
Jirou bounced up and down, excited. Shishido had snorted with laughter while Choutarou had scolded him lightly about 'consideration for others'. Hiyoshi had muttered 'gekokujou' and sent Niou an impressed look.
Gakuto was the only one who looks somewhat upset about the idea, with his face lowered and hair covering it. Or that was what Oshitari thought, until the red-head burst out laughing.
Niou had shut the Hyoutei team up with his simple statement. "One piece of clothing in exchange for 1000 points."
No one present was dumb, they could all add, subtract, divide and multiply, to an extent.
Oshitari had lost 60,000 and it was spring, with fairly warm weather. There was absolutely no way that Oshitari could be wearing anything close to 60 pieces of clothing.
It took the entire room less than two seconds to figure out Niou had something else planned. And he didn't disappoint.
Smirk. "You're welcome to count a sock as one item of clothing. Same with a tie or necklace. Belts even."
The blue haired tensai had said nothing. He merely crossed his arms and watched Niou carefully.
Smirk. Smirk. "However, since it obvious that you don't have enough clothing on, I'll allow you to start on your team once you strip down to nothing. If your debt still isn't settled by the time your entire team has stripped, then you can start on my team. I am exempt of course. You are to keep it off for the remainder of the day, no matter where you go. You can only put them back on once you reach home."
Loud shouts sounded at this, from both the Hyoutei and Rikkai teams. The entire Hyoutei team didn't look like they had on more than 20 pieces of clothing between them. The only people not loudly yelling about the debt settlement were Niou, Oshitari, Yukimura, Atobe and Jackal. Renji was muttering but it appeared to have something to do with data. And Sanada? Well… He appeared to be more in shock than anything.
Jackal just stood with his small smile, looking out into the big, big world. Yukimura and Atobe exchanged a look and smirked away as usual, sharing their telepathic buchou link once more. Oshitari was resigned but quite amused at Niou's daring. The Trickster had just managed to put himself in everyone's bad books with one move. Quite a feat.
The Trickster added one more thing, "Oh. Just down to your boxers. Nothing more. I don't want to scar our second years more than necessary."
Akaya pouted as if he was disappointed. On second thought. He probably was. Choutarou was a nice bright red color and Shishido was patting his shoulder gently. Hiyoshi was the most expressionless one. His muttered, "Gekokujou" was the only response he gave.
Oshitari sighed but started: Tie. Shirt. Singlet. Pants. Sock. Sock. Necklace. It came to a total of seven items.
He turned to Atobe who smirked and told the entire room to be in awe of his prowess. Their captain removed: Shirt. Belt. Pants. Sock. Sock. Dog tag. Total of six items. Atobe proceeded to lounge in his bright purple boxers against the nearest wall. Only Atobe would have the daring, and the confidence, to pull that off and still look commanding.
Kabaji didn't need Oshitari to look at him. He just began stripping: Shirt. Shorts. Sock. Sock.
He reached for his boxers but the entire room shrieked or otherwise protested calmly and he stopped.
"Kabaji… There's no need to go that far. Everyone's already in enough awe." Atobe's drawl sounded calmly.
"Usu." The big, friendly, stripped giant stepped back. Everyone else in the room breathed a sigh of relief. Only Renji looked slightly disappointed. No one wanted to know what was going through the data master's mind. Anyway, Kabaji had removed four items.
Sanada, Akaya and Choutarou peeked from beneath the table. Choutarou was the first to stand and sent a grateful look in Shishido's general direction. Obviously, the elder of the Silver Pair had shoved Choutarou under the table. "Shishido-san…" Choutarou breathed with an awed expression.
Shishido reached out a hand and hauled his kouhai out from under the table, "It's no problem."
Then they had their 'silver' moment and all was good in the world.
Not.
Yukimura just smiled at his two teammates.
Sanada righted himself immediately. "I was just… Helping Akaya search for something." The vice captain's eyes met Kirihara's and they reached an understanding.
"Yeah!" Akaya bounced up and draped himself around Yukimura.
The remainder of the Rikkai team rolled their eyes. They /really/ thought that could work?
Gakuto bounced to the middle of the circle that had formed and began to count his clothes as he removed them: Light jacket. Shirt. Singlet. Chain. Belt. Pants. Sock. Sock. Necklace. Nine items.
The Rikkai team mumbled amongst themselves as they counted. If things were going the way they were supposed to, perhaps they wouldn't need to be embarrassed.
Jirou moved next. His clothes practically flew off. "Look! Look! Marui-kun!!!" He bounced around the room with only his boxers on.
Everyone's eyes were disturbingly drawn to the picture of Marui on the back of them. And the words: 'Marui-kun Rocks My Jocks' printed beneath the picture.
Akaya stared at Marui accusingly. Renji's pen flew across his page and faint snatches of song floated around. Sanada and Yagyuu both choked on the gulp of water they just took. Jackal grinned and Niou smirked. Marui himself almost fainted and kind of tottered around the room until Yukimura gave him a gentle shove which caused the red-haired tensai to collapse right into Jirou's waiting arms.
The Hyoutei team ignored the ghastly sight of Jirou. They had seen it countless times in the change rooms. Jirou insisted on showing a new pair off every practice.
Akaya stomped up the Hyoutei boy and snatched his 'partner' away with a glare. "Go away! He's mine!"
Jirou pouted but went back to join the rest of his teammates. Niou poked at the pile of clothing that the now yawning boy had left in the middle of the floor. "Shirt. T-shirt. Singlet. Necklace. One sock. Three quarter pants. Belt. Total of seven items."
Everyone turned to look at Jirou. He didn't have another sock on. Everyone turned back to the pile. Niou shrugged. "Only one sock here."
Now only three Hyoutei players were left. They glanced at each other uneasily. Choutarou was now a bright red color. Shishido blocked the other player's speculative looks at Choutarou by standing in front of him. "I'll go next!" He proclaimed.
Choutarou seriously had tears in his eyes, "Oh Shishido-san!"
What transpired next was completely private and was so distressing that Oshitari had wiped it out of his memory. However, it was definitely not what you're thinking about right now.
Really...
Anyway, Shishido slouched his way up to the front of the room and removed his gear, all the while scowling.
Niou, who had never gotten over teasing the blue-capped boy and his doubles partner, grinned, "Say, Shishido… The way you're going now, people are going to think that you don't enjoy stripping."
Shishido's face went a nice angry/embarrassed color. "Not everyone's like /you/, Niou."
The entire Rikkai team went, "Ooh…" And everyone turned to Niou who was still smiling. In an evil manner.
"Ah… It's just that I would have thought you'd have enough practice by now. Y'know… Every time you strip for Chouta-kun…" The Trickster let his voice trail off suggestively.
This time, the entire Hyoutei team went, "OOH…!" And everyone then turned to Shishido.
Choutarou flushed even deeper and buried his face into his hands. Shishido glared but couldn't appear to come up with a come back. Without a word, he took off what he could. Which definitely didn't include his boxers.
Niou drawled out the items as they hit the floor, "T-shirt. Shorts. Sock. Sock. Cap…" When Shishido stomped back to rejoin the Hyoutei players, the Trickster raised an eyebrow. "Only five items?"
Shishido sent him the glare of the century, as if daring him to say something else. Niou ignored the challenge and noted the number down on his notebook. "Right. Two more. Who's next?"
Hiyoshi looked at Choutarou who looked at Hiyoshi. They continued doing that until Shishido got jealous and 'accidentally' shoved Hiyoshi into the middle.
"…" Hiyoshi muttered. The entire Hyoutei team nodded sagely at that even though it was quite hard to understand what exactly he was saying. Honestly, to the Rikkai team, it just sounded like 'dot dot dot'.
He started on his shirt first. The entire room watched with fascinated horror as he removed item after item.
After a while, Akaya leaned over to Marui and murmured, "How does he manage to wear so much and look like he's just wearing one shirt?"
As what looked like the sixth shirt hit the floor, Marui murmured back, "Maybe it's because he's anorexic?"
Niou poked at the gigantic pile of color on the floor for a moment before stopping a slowly retreating Hiyoshi. His eyes narrowed slyly as he eyed the wide eyed second year from Hyoutei. One hand snapped out and grabbed Hiyoshi by the band of his boxers.
The entire room gasped. Yagyuu almost fainted this time round. Niou had never done that to him!
"Take them off…" Niou told an almost growling Hiyoshi.
The Hyoutei boy scowled but complied. People shrieked, covered their eyes and dove under the table. Not necessarily in the order.
When the boxers hit the floor, only Yukimura, Renji, Jackal, Atobe, Kabaji, Shishido and Yagyuu remained standing. Oh… Hold on, Yagyuu /had/ fainted, standing up.
Sanada was currently suffering from a major nosebleed. Yukimura handed him some tissues and patted his back. Shishido was censoring Choutarou's vision while Renji was scribbling away. However, a suspicious looking trickle of red was running from his nose too.
"Happy?" Hiyoshi leveled his best glare on the pleased looking Trickster.
Niou jumped around a little and poked his doubles 'partner', who was still out like a light, "Not really. I want you to remove the remaining extra pairs of boxers you have on."
Hiyoshi sighed but resigned himself to his fate. But… His lucky boxers would then be shown to the whole world! The Hyoutei second year started taking them off.
People began to peek out from the various corners and from under the table as another pair of Hiyoshi's boxers landed on the floor. Followed by another. And another.
"Happy now?" The growl was emitted from a very shadowy looking Hiyoshi.
"Very." Niou smirked, definitely pleased. He counted everything while people crawled back to their original place, or revived themselves.
"Red shirt. Blue shirt. Green shirt. Yellow singlet. Grey singlet. /Pink/ singlet?" Niou gave Hiyoshi an interested look before his eyes widened, taking in what Hiyoshi was currently clad in. Niou backed up a couple of steps, tripped and went sprawling backwards, clutching his stomach and just laughed.
Everyone, not used to the Trickster being so mirthful, turned to a highly embarrassed Hiyoshi to see what was wrong.
The flushing second year crossed his arms and looked to one side. "There's nothing wrong with Hello Kitty or Barbie."
Gakuto choked at that and sniggered. Shishido was still covering Choutarou's eyes from the abomination. Atobe smirked. Oshitari shoved his glasses up to sit more firmly, but even he couldn't control the snicker that slipped out.
"Hiyoshi… Hello Kitty and Barbie are for girls." Oshitari informed the unhappy looking second year. "Although I am curious as to how you managed to procure a pair of boxers in /that/ color and print. It's quite… Pink."
"Mutter…"
"Pardon? I didn't quite catch that…" Oshitari asked with his smirk firmly back in place.
Choutarou batted Shishido's hands away and stood, speaking up for his friend. "He said that he had it especially ordered."
The tall, silver-haired, second year crossed his arms and tried to look intimidating. That worked as well as a kitten trying to look deadly. "Now stop picking on Wakashi."
Shishido patted Choutarou's shoulder and managed to get his kouhai to sit back down. By this time, Niou managed to pick himself off the floor and continue with the counting. "Ahem… Sock. Sock. Pants. Belt. Action man boxers. Teenage mutant ninja turtle boxers. Hotwheels boxers. Transformer boxers." He looked up at the still shadowy Hiyoshi, who was apparently trying to hide in a corner without success. "Do you have some kind of fetish with…" He waved a hand at the pile of boxers in the middle.
Hiyoshi declined to answer.
Quickly adding the shirts and singlets to his count, Niou came up with the total, "Fourteen items."
The Rikkai team's mumblings became slightly louder. Choutarou only need to be wearing anything more than eight items and they were /saved/.
Choutarou started forwards and hesitantly began to take off what he had on: T-shirt. Belt. Pants. Necklace. Sock. Sock.
Six. Two items short.
Everyone's gaze landed on Oshitari. It would be his choice to see who Rikkai sacrificed. The tensai of Hyoutei sent Niou a knowing look before he gave his buchou a side glance.
Atobe didn't see the strange look sent his way, he was too busy smirking and lounging around in his outrageously purple boxers.
Oshitari opened his mouth. The Rikkai team held its collective breath.
One word dropped out into the silence. "Sanada."
Everyone's eyes landed on the Rikkai fukubuchou who looked as cornered as a rabbit in a cage.
Sanada turned to Yukimura with a whispered plea, "Yukimura…"
Yukimura gave him a faint, sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry Genichirou. You heard the rules that Niou announced. Oshitari has the pick." The blue-haired, innocent looking buchou placed a hand on his heart, "Alas… I am powerless to stop such evil."
Yagyuu and the entire Hyoutei team, who just happened to take a sip of water at /exactly/ the same time, choked at that and coughed. Oh, apart from Atobe of course. He merely sent a smile and raised his glass as if salute. Probably a case of 'birds of a feather, sticking together'.
Closing his eyes and resigned to his poor fate, Sanada Genichirou, vice captain of the National winning Rikkai team, did his duty. His shirt and his pants hit the floor.
He retook his place by Yukimura, clad only in his boxers and…
Marui blinked his bright violet eyes and turned to Niou, "Ne, ne, 'Haru?"
The Trickster looked pleased and more amused than he had been for a while and so his response was /almost/ polite, "What is it?"
"Since necklaces, belts and chains count as one item of clothing…"
"Yeah. What?"
"Don't hats count too?" Marui finished the question, his gaze going back to Sanada once more.
"Yeah. So?"
"Fukubuchou's wearing a hat."
"Yeah. And?"
"He's still wearing it."
"Oh." Niou turned to Sanada. His vice captain's eyes had widened as the exchange went further.
Dammit. Sanada had /forgotten/ about his hat. Now he was stuck like this till he went back home. He hung his head in shame.
He had /forgotten/ about his HAT!
End memory…
Oshitari had a bad case of déjà vu as he eyed Niou who continued to smirk.
The Trickster opened his mouth and the forfeit was named…
…And Oshitari felt like fainting dead away for the first time in his life.
YES! I finally get to end on a proper cliffie! HAHAHAHA.
Ahem. Now that this first chapter is posted, like I promised, the next chapter of TCON will be up in a day or so.
Yep! My HIATUS is officially over!!
For everyone who's been wondering if I was dead or something… My explanation and apology is all written out in my A/N for TCON. Brick me /after/ you read it! XDDD
So… If you liked/didn't like/completely have no view whatsoever, PLEASE! Leave this poor, starving fanfiction writer a review. Pretty please? XD