Forfeits and Wagers
Disclaimer: I don't own the Prince of Tennis boys. Honestly… If I did, I'd be so ecstatic and my fics would be canon. However… I own this storyline. Honest!
Chapter summary: Atobe is depressed over the size of his summer house. The Rikkai team has become sort of more OOC than usual. Really. And Sanada somehow wants to crawl somewhere and disappear. Yukimura is proud of his training regime. You won't believe how he's going to run it. Seriously.
Warnings: Crack, over the top OOC and shounen ai.
A/N: XD I should have done this way before… But as I am lazy… I only wrote this one up yesterday. Whee! I hope you enjoy. And here are the pairings… Fully filled in this time. I won't put this up next chapter (because it's too long XD) but they should be obvious.
Oshitari x Gakuto/Gakuto x Oshitari
Shishido x Choutarou/Choutarou x Shishido
Niou x Yagyuu/Yagyuu x Niou
Marui x Kirihara/Kirihara x Marui
And the biggest one:
Sanada x Atobe/Atobe x Sanada
There! I've given you all of the pairings. XD And a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who read and reviewed!!!
Now go and enjoy!
For Meg!
Chapter Three: The Happy Cup
Atobe and his team drew up in his limousine at the agreed upon summer house.
"Are you sure it's owned by Yukimura?" Gakuto asked doubtfully as the entire Hyoutei team surveyed the fairly impressive property sprawled before them.
"Yes." Atobe ran a hand through his immaculate hair and removed a small hand mirror from his bag to check his appearance. He had heard the same question echoed by other members of his team countless times throughout the journey. Even he was slightly surprised at the actual size of the place. It could have rivaled any of his summer chateaus.
"It could rival one of your summer chateaus, Atobe." Oshitari smirkingly informed his longtime friend and captain.
Said captain resisted the urge to roll his eyes and snapped his compact mirror closed irritably. They were currently just inside the gates. Atobe had called Yukimura, as soon as they arrived, to inform him of their appearance. Yukimura had told him that the welcome party had been deployed. Atobe just barely refrained himself from commenting about the military reference. He just hoped it didn't involve dancing or songs. Atobe was not sure about his patience lasting through such a performance.
"Ore-sama's summer chateaus may be around this size, but my winter mansion is definitely bigger." Atobe informed his tensai who was still wearing that infuriating smirk. Atobe was slightly unnerved by the length of time that the smirk had stayed around for, ever since he announced the camp, but Atobe didn't let on that the expression was bothering him.
"Still… Yukimura probably has the bigger summer house out of the two of you right?" Jirou bounced up and down, clearly excited. He was going to see Marui-kun again. Never mind that his idol was already dating that scary second year from Rikkai, Kirihara Akaya… He could still cheer and bounce around him right?
"Maybe…" Atobe was still unable to concede defeat. "But my winter house is definitely bigger."
Ohtori leaned towards his partner, Shishido, "Say… Is comparing houses an ego thing with buchous?"
Shishido snorted and leaned quite comfortably against the taller boy, "Probably just Atobe does it. And it's definitely to compensate for something…" The Silver Pair shared a knowing look.
The blue-capped boy cast a slightly impressed look at the place they were going to be holding 'training camp' for the next couple of days, "But even I've got to say that this place is clearly bigger than any holiday mansion of Atobe's."
Atobe twitched, obviously overhearing that comment and turned his glare onto Shishido. "You dare compare this to ore-sama's /winter/ mansion?" He put particular stress on the word 'winter'.
"Not winter. Summer, buchou…" Hiyoshi was sitting quite steadily on top of a pile of luggage. He had become much more social ever since his interaction with the Rikkai boys at the previous training camp. He actually could talk without been prodded, asked a question or have that little white string in the middle of his back pulled.
You could see Atobe's teeth clenching. "Yukimura's summer house may be slightly more spacious… But my winter mansion is /bigger/!"
He turned away in a way that signaled the current topic of conversation was clearly closed. Atobe didn't hear anything about the chateau or summer house again.
Oh… That also may have been due to the fact he had Kabaji block his ears for him, but that's not very important at all.
As the remainder of the Hyoutei team sniggered amongst themselves or leaned back to snigger about their buchou, a small dust cloud was fast approaching. A closer look revealed the Rikkai team, in their entirety, approaching.
But what made the Hyoutei boys gape and back away was the fact that Rikkai were wearing super short shorts and tight tops, all in that particularly horribly blinding yellow color of the Rikkai uniform. Oh… All apart from Yukimura of course. He was in his usual Rikkai tennis uniform which totally did nothing to elevate the effect of all that horrendous yellow since it was the same color.
As soon as they were within earshot, the Rikkai team began something which couldn't be classed as anything but a cheerleading routine.
"W!" Marui jumped forward, somersaulted and did the splits.
"E!" Jackal copied Marui, with that placid smile firmly in place.
"L!" Akaya looked pouty, but jumped over Jackal and Marui, performed an impossible number of flips and still managed to stand straight.
"C!" Renji skipped forward and smiled. He took up his position on the side, after mirroring Akaya's steps. Except that he felt slightly woozy and collapsed onto the floor.
"O!" Yagyuu didn't look very excited. He had no expression on his features as he performed several cartwheels before kneeling down on the grass. It was obvious that he had been taking his medications.
"M!" Niou was in full smirk as he copied what Yagyuu had done, with considerably more enthusiasm and bounce.
"E!" Sanada looked ready to crawl into the nearest rabbit hole and hide till the end of the world came. He back flipped three times and landed at the very front of the little triangle that had formed. His face was a steaming red color as he tugged down his… shorts?
The entire Hyoutei team took several scrambled steps back. Even Atobe did. They were that horrified. The Rikkai team wasn't in short shorts. They were in short skirts! But was mainly the fact that only Sanada and Akaya looked somewhat embarrassed to be wearing them that was… /slightly/ unnerving.
//But cross dressing was perfectly normal// The Hyoutei team thought in unison, trying to reassure themselves. //People do it all the time now. Look at the girls. They practically cross dressed everyday. Yup… Perfectly normal. //
They nodded in unison again, after coming up with that perfectly scientific explanation.
"WELCOME!" The entire Rikkai team, Yukimura excluded, cheered and waved their pom poms. God knew where those had come from.
Yukimura burst into applause and Atobe followed. The Hyoutei team joined in reluctantly as Atobe sent them a glare. Jirou was dancing again and yelling Marui's name at the top of his lungs. That earned him a glare and mental death threat from Akaya.
"Bravo! Bravo!" Yukimura smiled, obviously very happy with his team's performance. "It was wonderful!"
Atobe's normal arrogance and composure had returned. Finally. "Hmm… Thank you so much for that… utterly enlightening… performance Seiichi." He turned to the other captain, "Am I presuming too much when I say that you prepared that routine just for us?"
The Rikkai buchou continued to smile and nodded happily, "Of course Keigo. How could you think that I wouldn't welcome you with open arms?"
"I couldn't." Both captains shared a smile a pleased look. That was probably the reason why Atobe missed the significant look that Niou and Oshitari exchanged. And you can't have a 'significant look' without a 'very sinister smirk' which both wore for a split second after the eye contact.
Ah well… It was best for both teams that he hadn't seen it. If he had… It could have been guaranteed and doubly insured that Atobe would have run away.
The pure evil that floated around in that second was more than enough to overdose a fluffy bunny on. And everyone knows that bunnies, especially fluffy ones, need a lot of evil to overdose. It was probably because they were such evil in the first place. Just like Yukimura.
They were arranged carelessly in the living room. The boys from both teams that was…
They sprawled comfortably around the living room. On sofas, in them, on the floor, in the floor and on the table.
Yep. /In/ the sofas and in the floor.
Renji was the one in the floor. Kabaji had stuck him there after Renji tried to predict his future. It seemed that the data master had gotten himself interested in tarot cards and fortune telling. Yagyuu and Akaya were the two in the sofas.
Niou had thought it would be funny to sandwich his partner between the base and the cushioning of one sofa. Yagyuu had desisted to protest after Niou sat on him but still wriggled every now and again. Ohtori had offered to help the slightly perturbed looking Gentleman but Yagyuu had declined the offer.
Akaya appeared to be in the same position because he thought it looked fun, Marui was sitting on top, giggling whilst Jirou sent them envious glances. Jackal had wanted to join him but Akaya had protested that there wasn't enough room and he would die from the weight.
Gakuto had then snorted and made a comment about Jackal being fat which made the defense master give him a very genial smile. Oshitari immediately came between the two as his protective instincts kicked in. Thank goodness he had, or else it just may have ended up fatal for Gakuto.
No one present knew what an angry Jackal could do… Mayhap burn something with his famous yell of 'FIYAH!' or with a lighter. Even worse… He could shave Gakuto bald with his razor.
Oshitari shuddered. Then there'd be /two/ Jackals. One shorter than the other. But still two of him.
Yukimura was the only one who was missing from the room. He had left everyone to their own devices saying that he had to retrieve the training menu and various other things. Hyoutei and most of Rikkai were warily wondering what those things were. Other people, namely Niou and… well... just Niou, knew what was coming. He could have rubbed his hands together with glee.
The Rikkai captain reappeared pushing a trolley with various compartments. It rattled and clicked. Both teams eyed it with high levels of apprehension. It couldn't be good.
Yukimura whipped out sixteen sheets of variously colored paper and black markers. He handed them out to everyone. Everyone, sans Niou, looked at the two things with slight confusion. Was this some kind of spelling test? If it were, the teams looked ready to mutiny.
Akaya pouted and whined to Marui, who was still sitting on top, "Marui-chan! I don't want to do a spelling test! Tell buchou to stop!!"
Marui patted Akaya's head. "There, there. I don't think we're actually doing a spelling test. But if we are, I'll do your one for you, ok?"
Akaya smiled at him gratefully. It was a feat from where he was. "Thank you so much!"
Niou looked slightly creeped out at this obvious show of affection. He looked down at Yagyuu, hoping that he wasn't expecting something like that from him. Niou shuddered and bounced up and down /hard/ on the sofa, making sure to squash his partner every time. And that would hopefully quash any thoughts of romance out of the Gentleman's head too.
Marui smiled back, "I know that spelling is just below botany on your hated subjects list…"
Everyone blinked at that statement. Botany was offered at Rikkai? Sanada scratched his cap thoughtfully, even he hadn't known that and he /went/ to Rikkai.
Niou snorted, "And here I thought Akaya was the dumb one in the group."
Akaya protested at that with muffled thuds. He was probably trying to throw punches at Niou who was sitting a couple of feet away, perched on top of Yagyuu.
Jackal blinked and looked thoroughly confused. "We don't do botany. If we did, everyone would fail that apart from buchou." A normal smile reappeared on his face, "Remember when he brought a pot plant in to liven up the club room? It was dead before that first practice was over."
"I thought it was a weed alright?" Akaya protested sulkily. "It looked like one."
Niou bounced up and down a couple more times because he was bored. Yagyuu gave out a few muffled 'oomphs' but otherwise remained silent. "You never fail to amaze me Akaya. That was a cactus. It looked nothing like a weed. I don't know how much weed killer you used on that poor thing."
Akaya opened his mouth and Niou completed his sentence quickly, "And I don't want to know."
The silver haired Trickster smirked and flicked his braid back. "I think you meant biology." That comment was directed at Marui.
"That's what I said!" The pink haired tensai blew a bubble irritably.
"Sure, sure." Niou winked. "And cows can fly."
"They can!" Akaya suddenly struggled up and tipped Marui over, "I /saw/ them last night!"
Everyone looked carefully away and pretended to hear nothing.
Yukimura smiled and captured everyone's attention again, "Please write on that sheet of paper the thing you would most like to do."
The room remained silent, waiting for Yukimura to complete his explanation. After about ten minutes of silence and uncomfortable staring, it became obvious that Yukimura wasn't about to add anything else.
Yagyuu had been allowed to sit on top of the sofa now. "Are we supposed to write down what we would like to do now? Or for training?"
Yukimura's smile just didn't seem to dim at all. "Whatever you would most like to do," was his repeated answer.
"Yukimura?" Oshitari was staring at his sheet of paper in surprise. "What is 'whatever you would most like to do'?"
"Whatever you would most like to do of course!" The Rikkai captain repeated again and folded his newly written piece of paper carefully.
Akaya pouted. "Buchou?"
The entire room sighed, expecting another question on what they were to write and another repetitive answer from Yukimura.
"Can I use crayon? I don't like black marker." Akaya finished.
"Sure." Yukimura handed his second year a bright red crayon. Marui watched it with an envious look. With a smile, Yukimura handed the volley genius a nice green crayon. "There you are Bunta. It's nice and pretty."
Marui nodded and began scribbling next to Akaya.
The Hyoutei team didn't know what to make of the scene and so just deleted it from their collective memories. Atobe was sitting back with a smirk. He had finished writing his long ago.
Yukimura gestured to the Hyoutei buchou, "Keigo? Would you like to come up here please?"
Standing side by side, the two formidable captains surveyed their teams. When everyone looked about finished, Yukimura pulled out a bright purple canister and a bright pink one. Everyone shielded their eyes from the sight. It was almost as bad as the Rikkai uniforms. And just as hideous. Were those pink and purple /ribbons/ hanging off them? A horrified shudder ripped through the assembled mass of tennis players.
Yukimura seemed highly pleased with the reactions he received. He waved around the pink canister after handing the purple one to Atobe. "Let me introduce you to the 'Happy Cup'!" He exclaimed happily and pointed to where Atobe was examining his purple one the way one would examine a particularly valuable diamond. "That's 'Happy Cup 2'! Get it?" The blue-haired captain chuckled indulgently at his own, very lame, joke. No one pointed it out to him exactly /how/ lame it was.
Yukimura smilingly continued, oblivious to the gagging expressions that were dominating almost everyone's faces. "Now… Can the Rikkai team please fold their paper and put them inside this cute pink can?"
No one on the Rikkai team had the courage to inform their captain that it was the furthermost thing from cute. It was positively revolting. Instead, they quietly lined up and dropped their pieces of paper in.
Atobe gestured for his team, "You can put yours in the purple one." The Hyoutei team obliged. However, when Shishido made a move to push the delicate looking thing onto the floor, Hiyoshi made a diving tackle and attacked his senior whilst Atobe grabbed onto the can quite firmly.
"Shishido!" Atobe sounded as shocked as Yukimura looked. "How could you? It's our 'Happy Cup 2'!"
Shishido gagged, literally this time, and had to be helped back by a very concerned looking Choutarou.
When everyone was seated back down, excluding Atobe and himself, Yukimura shook both cans quite firmly and set them down. As he was about to elaborate on the cups, his gaze was caught by something that needed his immediate attention.
Disapproving looks were directed to Akaya and Marui, "Akaya! Bunta! How many times have I told you? Those /aren't/ edible!"
Both boys looked up guiltily. The remains of their colored crayons were smeared around their mouths and shirts.
"But… Buchou!" Marui wailed, "It said that it was apple flavored!"
Akaya nodded, "Mine said that it was strawberry flavored!"
Yukimura then sent Niou a warning glance. Niou shook his head and looked genuinely bewildered. He hadn't changed any crayon labels lately and definitely none to apple and strawberry. Yukimura and Niou's gaze went straight to Yagyuu who looked back at them innocently and pushed his glassed up the bridge of his nose more firmly. "What?"
The entire Hyoutei team was lost to the undercurrents that floated about. They were still fixated on the fact that two of the Rikkai team had just eaten crayons and the remainder of their team acted like it was normal.
Scary.
No one on their team had eaten a crayon before. Unless you counted that dare that Shishido had made to Hiyoshi in which the second year had to bite a pastel in half. Hiyoshi did the entire pack.
Yukimura shook his head and kept to the task at hand, "Now… I will draw one piece of paper from the Rikkai 'Happy Cup' and Atobe will draw one from the Hyoutei 'Happy Cup 2'…" Again, he stopped to chuckle warmly. No one really wanted to share in that humor but they grinned or giggled along sportingly.
Atobe was lounging quite comfortably against the giant whiteboard. It had confused him somewhat to find one in a living room. But then this was Rikkai, so he guessed that anything went.
Yukimura recovered from his little laughing spree and continued, "Then we shall stick them up onto this whiteboard," and thus Atobe found his reason for having a whiteboard in a living room and for living again.
Silence reigned in the room again, and again, everyone found out the hard way that Yukimura had apparently finished what he had planned to say.
"Erm…" Oshitari cleared his throat, "Excuse me…"
Yukimura turned to the Hyoutei tensai questioningly, "What is it?"
Oshitari leaned back a little more into the chair he was currently sitting in. Gakuto was snuggled into his side. Oshitari took a little time to reflect on how convenient it was to have a small boyfriend. You could practically carry him in your pocket.
After that one moment of reflection, he continued to chase his original train of thought, "What are we supposed to do with the two activities listed on the paper?"
An enlightened look dawned on the Rikkai buchou's face, "Oh. Well… It's very easy. That will be our training regime for a couple of hours."
An uproar ensured in the spacious living room. Couples yelled over one another and Yagyuu calmly picked Niou up and threw him across the room, presumably in revenge for being used as a stick. Or maybe he just wanted to vent his frustration. But mostly likely, it was because he wanted to show everyone that he could.
Niou picked himself up and said in a voice pitched to carry over the chaos in the room, "Do we do Hyoutei's first? Or do we do ours first?"
Yukimura looked puzzled at the question until Niou clarified it again, "There's two activities picked out each time right?"
He waited until Yukimura nodded before continuing, "So which do we do first?"
"Neither. We do them together, at the same time, mixing them together." Yukimura blinked and added something as if it just occurred to him. "Oh… And the two people who had written the activities have to agree as to how it is to be carried out. They will tell me and I'll plan it according. Anyway… There'll be three activities each day today and tomorrow and only two on Sunday."
Another smile, "That way, we'll have plenty of time for the party…"
Without another word, Atobe handed Yukimura a piece from the purple 'Happy Cup 2' whilst Yukimura drew one out from the 'Happy Cup' and each captain suck it up onto the board.
The room stilled as everyone stared at the two. One was in green crayon. The other was in black marker.
"Baking cakes," murmured Niou with a raised eyebrow. Marui gulped.
"Model making," Oshitari examined the Hyoutei entry.
Kabaji nodded, "Usu."
Yukimura clapped his hands together, "Well… It looks like we have our first activity! Now… Kabaji and Bunta will discuss this for a little while. We shall prepare the kitchen in that time." He made small shooing motions at everyone in the room.
However just as everyone was about to exit the room, Yukimura made a surprised sound and called them back, "Just one more thing!"
Everyone stopped and turned back questioningly.
"I forgot about this before..." With some effort on his part, Yukimura pulled out a sticky board from his trolley with Hyoutei names on one side and Rikkai names on the other. "Since this is a teambuilding training camp, I've decided to pair you up randomly for every activity. That way, you will all learn how to get along with various partners who you are not used to."
"Erm… Buchou?" Marui pointed at the board, confused. "Why is my name, Jackal's, Mukahi's and Oshitari's names written on yellow paper?"
"And why is my name the same color as Renji-senpai, Akutagawa and some random person named Hiyoshi?" Akaya pouted, which earned him a death glare from the aforementioned Hyoutei second year.
"And why are Choutarou and my names the same color as Yagyuu and Niou's?" Shishido growled.
Atobe looked at his name with slight surprise. It was white on an otherwise black slip of paper. The same as Sanada's. "Sanada and I share a color," he announced to the room in general.
He looked closer, "Say Seiichi… Your colors and Kabaji's match."
Yukimura smile turned even happier, "Oh… The colors represent your roomings for the duration of your stay. This house was meant to be a retreat for a family of four and could accommodate two extra guests. I had two bunk beds installed in the three bigger rooms…"
"But why does Atobe get to share his room with only one other person? And why do we get the sugar high one and the insane one?" Gakuto whined and clung harder to Yuushi, although he was pleased that they were rooming together, he still wanted to put up a token fight against the perceived injustice.
The smile was still there, "Atobe and I deserve more privacy since we're your captains. Other than that… I drew your names out of a hat."
"A hat?" Everyone asked, obviously surprised.
"A hat." Yukimura confirmed. "Or did you prefer it if I had done it out of the 'Happy Cup'?"
The entire room assured him that the hat was fine. More that fine in fact.
"Good. Now, these will be your pairings for this first activity. We'll assemble here after we complete it to get our next activities and our new pairings." Yukimura beamed at the room cheerfully, "Ok?"
Everyone beamed back, "Ok!"
Apart from Shishido of course, he glared at the innocent looking Niou and remembered another training camp ever so long ago.
Fate had to be playing a very nasty joke at the moment. And laughing its head off at the irony.
Shishido's only wish was that Fate would really laugh its head off and the dismembered body part would fall right down and squash Niou. That'll solve everyone's problems.
Both Fate and the Trickster gone...
Oh how the world would be a happier place.
It's going to be crack. Serious crack.
Hopefully.
I'm looking at completing one day of the camp a chapter. But it may drag on for a couple more… But I'm aiming for three more chapters and an epilogue. Reckon I could do it? XD
Questions, suggestions and anything else connected or not to this fic is welcome.
Reviewers will be worshipped. XD