Author's Note: It's the holidays which means that broke li'l me is gifting people with fic right and left (because it's always nice to get presents and fic is personalized and free, yay free!), and this one is my gift to Tayles, who is made of awesome pretty much all of the time, so there. She wanted Golden Pair fanfic, I offered to comply, she gave me a basic plot she was interested in, and suddenly I didn't have to write anything!

…well, okay, I DID, but it was kind of fully formed the minute she requested it, but still. Happy Holidays, Becca! (And I'm sorry for the delay again...between my grandmother landing the hospital over Christmas, overtime work to make up for everything I missed during finals, registering for next semester, and being sick...well, you know how it is!)

Secret Santa Surprise

"What?"

"Kaidoh and Momo actually agreeing? A momentous occasion indeed," Fuji noted with amusement at the identical shouts of indignation from the two second year regulars. Both Momoshiro and Kaidoh immediately turned towards him with identical furious glares on their faces. Fuji picked up his water bottle and smiled calmly at them before taking a drink.

"Ah, but…" Kawamura's hand hovered nervously by his mouth as if he were unsure whether or not to even speak. "Inui, don't you think this is kind of a strange suggestion?"

"Not at all," the bespectacled trainer replied. "The data makes perfect sense."

"What data?" Momoshiro demanded. "The Daily Dose of Weirdness is lacking of something?"

"Not his best comeback," Ryoma observed and went back to staring off in the distance at nothing in particular.

With a sigh, the vice-captain of the Seigaku tennis team, being the highest authority there at the time, held up his hands peaceably and stepped in before any possible arguments could start. "Momo, relax. Inui hasn't even explained his reasoning to us."

From where he knelt on top of one of the benches in the clubhouse looking out the window, Eiji turned and hopped easily to the floor with a grin. "I think it's a great idea! What's a Secret Santa now?"

At the redhead's clueless agreement Kaidoh out a low, annoyed hiss, but no one paid it any mind.

With a pause to push his glasses back up his nose, Inui flipped past a few pages in his notebook and began to read. "A Secret Santa is a type of gift exchange typical of the Christmas holiday where each participant draws a name of one of the others at random and must find a gift for them without revealing their identity, a game which is especially in corporate parties or other similar settings. As for Momoshiro's inquiry, it is important for the team to increase its solidarity and trust between members. This plan with require each of you to do some additional research into your recipient's interests, personality, and behaviors to better provide an appropriate gift and therefore will increase your knowledge of each other and assist you in building a better repartee in the team. In addition, this plan will encourage creativity in thinking, planning, and execution, all of which are skills highly beneficial for each of you to learn even during the off-season so as not to lose you edge when we return to play again."

"Such sound expository reasoning," Fuji murmured with a smile. Ryoma glanced at him with momentary suspicion and then shook his head, threw his empty Ponta can into the trash, and pulled his cap down low over his eyes as he lost interest again.

"I suppose that sounds logical enough," Oishi agreed thoughtfully. "Besides, I don't see what harm it could do."

"Of course there's no harm in it," Eiji replied. "We all get an extra Christmas present this way! And no death by poisonous…um, overexertion?" he edited hastily with a sideways look towards Inui.

"Poisonous overexertion?" Kawamura asked no one in particular in honest confusion.

Inui tapped his notebook once, making note of something he had already written down. "Whoever I draw as my recipient has a 74.3 percent chance of receiving a gallon of custom-designed Inui juice as their gift."

"Great," Eiji cried, "so there's no Inui juice this time unless he draws…um…oh." He visibly drooped as the realization hit him and his sad, slightly ill expression turned towards Oishi. It was a truly pitiful sight. "Nya, maybe this isn't such a good idea, Oishi…"

"Kikumaru's vote in favor is already recorded," Inui pointed out, and three sets of annoyed eyes turned towards Eiji. "Also Vice-Capitan Oishi's vote, my own, and Fuji's votes as well."

"When did Fuji vote?" Momoshiro asked desperately.

Fuji touched a finger to his lips pensively. "I suppose Inui must have enough data to have accurately predicted my vote without me actually casting in."

"It's still a tie," Ryoma pointed out calmly, but Inui shook his head and held out the notebook for everyone to verify.

"Captain Tezuka has already given his permission to do this before going to meet with Ryuuzaki-sensei. That overrides any objections the rest of you may have."

"I don't have any objections," Kawamura offered up quickly. "I just didn't understand the reasons Inui would suggest this."

"So you think this is a good idea?" Eiji asked, his expression both curious and more than a bit nervous.

"Well…" Kawamura smiled sheepishly. "It could be fun."

Kaidoh looked absolutely murderous, and Momoshiro ran a hand down his face with a groan. Inui ignored them both. "Then I will give you your assignments now."

"You already assigned them?" Fuji asked.

Inui turned another page in his notebook and removed a folded sheet of paper from it. "I wrote down the names of every member on one side of the page in random sequence and covered them up afterwards. Captain Tezuka did the same on the other side of the page, at which point we each drew lines between each covered name and one on the other side to pair everyone up. Ryuuzaki-sensei checked to be certain that no members were paired with themselves for the exchange. The selections are completely random."

As the other regulars gathered around, with the exceptions of Kaidoh and Ryoma who both hung back disinterestedly, the bespectacled trainer uncovered the names on one side of the page. "I will call each of you up one at a time. You will then uncover the name connected to yours to reveal the name of your recipient, cover it once again, and the next team member will be called. First, Oishi."

The vice captain stepped forward and peeled back the first slip of paper, and Eiji leaned over to whisper in Fuji's ear anxiously. "What if whoever we get doesn't like our gift?"

"Oishi will like whatever you get him," Fuji answered mildly.

"I know that!" Eiji hissed back, his ears going pink. "But I might not be connected to him!"

"Then you don't need to worry," the prodigy replied calmly, and Eiji frowned and went back to watching the others go up to find out who their giftee was.

"I'm not sure why you are asking me about this."

Oishi ran a hand over the back of his neck and looked away nervously. "Well, you're my friend and I trust you. Also, you know more about each of us than any other one player on the team."

"I know what motivates you all," Tezuka corrected without looking up from the information the two of them had been going over moments before. "More than half of the team would be able to answer this question better than I can."

"Well, but I don't want to bother them," Oishi stammered, "and I don't think Inui actually knows more about any of us than you do…but what if he didn't want us letting anyone know who we have to get presents for? How are we supposed to find out what is a good gift then? Taka wouldn't tell, but I can't ask him if we aren't supposed to tell anyone…is it all right if we ask people who are already our friends? He didn't tell us about that…"

Tezuka sighed and pressed his fingers against his forehead. "Oishi, why are you worried about this?"

"…oh." The other boy sat down and his eyes grew thoughtful. "I just want to make sure that I get him something that he'll like."

"Kikumaru likes almost anything," Tezuka pointed out as he adjusted his glasses and leaned over the papers more closely.

"Not everything."

"Do you really think you don't know him well enough to not pick something he doesn't like?"

Oishi looked rather sheepish. "You're probably right." He leaned over the pages and scanned the roster for the next tournament for any errors. Time passed with the two boys studying the plans and rosters in silence, silence broken only by the sound of the occasional scratching of pencils on paper and the rustle of pages turning. Even the hands of the clock swung smoothly around the clock face without making a sound.

Thirty-two seconds later, Oishi set his pencil down. "But what if he still doesn't like what I give him?"

The look that Tezuka aimed at Oishi over the rims of his glasses could have put skin on a glass of ice water, but Oishi was too busy fretting to notice. "This is supposed to help us get to know each other better, right? I can't just get him something that anyone would, that wouldn't be right. But what if he hates it? That defeats the purpose as well, and it might embarrass him in front of everyone else…"

"Oishi, stop." The captain held up a hand in exasperation. "You still have more than a week to do this. Do you need to worry about it now?"

"Yes?" Oishi offered uncertainly, and the other boy wondered briefly if he really needed a vice captain to help him after all.

"I can't really help you at all," he finally replied. "You know Kikumaru better than almost everyone else on the team, certainly better than I do. I'd probably send you in the wrong direction. If you really need help with this, you should ask Fuji. He won't say anything to Inui even if we weren't supposed to talk to each other about this, and he knows Kikumaru better than anyone else."

Oishi nodded thoughtfully, and then went pale. Before he could open his mouth to speak again, however, his friend pushed some of the papers roughly across the table at him. "I do have to be home for dinner at some point. So do you."

Oishi nodded, apologized quickly, and went back to work checking the rosters for accuracy. As he did, his stomach twisted itself into a pretzel and curled up somewhere in the vicinity of his left pinky toe.

He wondered if not having Fuji's number would be a good excuse.

Eiji kicked his legs against the freezing cold concrete wall and groaned. "I can't take it anymore!"

"Can't take what?" Momoshiro asked absently. "Hey, can I have some of your fries?"

"No! I paid for them, not you." The redhead shifted his bag further away from the younger boy and pouted. "Nyaaaaa, the wait is killing me! Why isn't it next week yet?"

"Oh, that Secret Santa thing." Momo frowned at his burger angrily. "I wish we didn't have to do that."

"Why not? Don't you think its fun?"

"Fun isn't the problem," the underclassman replied with a sigh of annoyance. "I just think it's stupid, and unfair, too."

Eiji paused in the middle of picking the sesame seeds off of his hamburger bun. "How is it unfair?"

"Well, what if someone draws somebody on the team they don't like? That's not just harder on them trying to get a gift for someone they never would, but it's unfair to the other person, too." Momo took a quick bite and continued, "Everyone else will get something nice and they'd be getting something that obviously shows their Secret Santa didn't care at all."

"Who on the team hates each other?" Eiji asked. "Other than you and Kaidoh, I mean. You two don't really hate each other, do you?" He frowned in concern and then suddenly his face cleared. "Waitaminute! Do you have to get something for Kaidoh?"

"No! I wouldn't get him anything even if I did…hey, that isn't the point!" the younger boy protested loudly.

"Are you worried he's your Secret Santa, then? Because he'll still get you something nice, just to prove he's better at it than you."

"Look, I could care less about that! Listen for a second!" Momo frowned at his burger for a moment. "Anyway, it's really more unfair to the givers than anything. If the giftee doesn't like your gift, it's embarrassing, it they don't think you tried to find anything it's even worse, and if you don't have a lot of money for this whole stupid thing, that's just really unfair not having everyone else on the same footing."

The pile of sesame seeds was fairly impressive now, and Eiji tipped his hand so that they fell into the empty burger wrapper. "What do you mean?"

"If everyone else spends a bunch of money on gifts, or comes up with something really fancy to give, and someone else can't do that because he doesn't have a lot saved up or he isn't really talented like that…" Momo scratched at his head and set his burger down in his lap without seeming to realize it. "Don't you think that would be embarrassing for them?"

Eiji thought about this carefully for a moment. "So the point is, you're worried about having to give a cheap gift?"

The underclassman glared, but there really wasn't anything for him to say. Eiji leaned back and sighed. "Nyaaaa, that's a tough one. Who did you draw?"

"Someone that will probably make me feel really stupid if I don't get them something nice," Mom grumbled in annoyance.

"How do you know?"

Dark eyes slanted a disbelieving glance at the redhead. "Are you kidding? Kikumaru-senpai, trust me on this one."

"Fine, fine." Eiji held out one fry as a peace offering, and waited until his teammate had taken it before emptying the remaining ones into his own hand so that they couldn't be taken away without him noticing. "Well, Inui said this was so we could all get to know each other better. I guess you just have to figure out something inexpensive and unique enough that shows you know him so well, he won't care."

"It's still embarrassing."

"Come on, Momo, who's going to know?"

"Probably him."

Eiji rolled his eyes and grinned. "Look, you still have a week. Maybe you don't think you're talented outside of tennis, but how many of us are? Don't answer that," he added hastily when the other boy started to open his mouth. "Most of us aren't, so there. I win. You try harder than most of the other team members, though, so the effort should cancel it out."

Momoshiro studied the older boy for a moment. "Is that from a movie or something?"

"Not really. It's from Oishi. But that means its probably true, right?"

With a sigh, Momo went back to the last couple of bite of his meal. "If I end up humiliated next week, I'm blaming you."

Eiji winked and grinned. "So's everyone else, nya!" He waited for that to sink in for a moment, and when Momo's expression grew thoughtful, he popped the handful of fries into his mouth and swallowed as quickly as he could. "I'm going back to wondering who my Secret Santa is now, okay?"

"You know, I would have eaten those," Momo complained as he unwrapped his second burger.

Eiji just smirked and bent forward over his legs in a quick stretch. He was already wondering what he was going to get next week…and from who.

Fuji studied his guest carefully. "You need help finding a gift for Eiji?"

Oishi nodded, looking more than a bit uncomfortable with all of this. The fair-haired tensai smiled thoughtfully. "Well, you just made me much less worried about my gift."

"What was that?"

Fuji just kept smiling. "What did you have in mind for him?"

"Well…I'm not really sure," Oishi admitted. "I mean, I have some ideas, but they don't seem very special or anything…"

"I'm actually quite surprised that you think you need my help." Fuji leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand as he studied the vice-captain more closely through lowered eyelashes. "You know Eiji almost as well as I do."

"I don't just want to get him anything, though," Oishi tried to explain. "That's why I need your help."

Fuji smiled calmly. "Why do you need to get him something so special, Oishi?"

Oishi looked like he wanted to moan and drop through a hole in the middle of the floor right that second. Unfortunately, neither of those were really options at the moment, so he just shrugged and rubbed his neck nervously. "I don't really know."

"Hmmm." Fuji's narrowed blue eyes studied him for a moment longer, and then he abruptly sat up again. Oishi blinked in surprise, but before he could ask if his teammate had a solution, Fuji interrupted him. "Actually, I do know exactly what you could give Eiji that would be better than any other gift he has ever gotten."

"You do?" Oishi asked in surprise, some of his nerves melting away. It was really quite amusing how easy he was to read, Fuji thought. "What is…wait, is it going to be difficult to find? There are only a few days left…"

"You'll have no problem finding it or being able to afford it," the other boy replied serenely. "But I'm not going to tell you what it is."

If Oishi had been prone to gaping, his jaw would have hit the floor. As it was, his eyes looked like they were going to fall out of his head in shock. Fuji almost laughed. Almost.

"I'm not going to tell you," he repeated, "because first of all, that would be cheating."

Oishi's mouth worked, but at last he sighed in resignation. "You're right. I just don't know what I can do about this."

"Yes, well, that would be the second reason." Fuji leaned back in his seat and smiled knowingly. "I can promise you that no matter what it is, if you give it to him, Eiji will adore it."

"Really?" With a frown, Oishi looked at Fuji in suspicion. "Are you sure about that?"

Fuji raised his eyebrows. "Oishi. We are talking about Eiji, after all."

That was probably more than enough to get Oishi thinking, he decided, and when Oishi at last nodded in agreement, Fuji knew he wouldn't be needed at all. He smiled genially. "As long as you are here, would you like some tea?"

Despite all of the worrying by the various members of the Seigaku tennis team, the day of the gift exchange arrived without any fanfare or delay. The team did not have the option of meeting at the clubhouse that day, so instead they had gathered at Kawamura's father's sushi restaurant by default. The simple change in venue seemed to take some of the pressure off of the occasion, even when Inui arrived carrying a pitcher of green and purple sludge in case anyone had failed to get a gift in time. It seemed like much less of a threat when Kawamura's father took the pitcher and put it out of sight in the kitchen so it wouldn't drive away any incoming customers.

When everyone was settled, Inui pushed his glasses up his nose and studied his notebook for a moment. "We will go by reverse seniority today. Ryoma will be the first to receive his gift."

The youngest member of the team looked up from beneath the bill of his cap without any real expression, and Kawamura stood suddenly. "Oh! I left it behind the counter, I'm sorry, just a minute…"

After a momentary dash to retrieve the gift, Kawamura passed the small, flat package over to the young prodigy, who studied it passing curiosity before unwrapping it. Ryoma studied the card and the folded slip of paper inside for a moment, and his narrowed.

"Ah...it's a gift certificate for Tokyo Dome City," Kawamura offered helpfully. "You can spend it anywhere there…Dad helped me get an unlimited voucher for the restaurants there and you also get a thirty percent discount if you spend some of it at the stores listed in the card because we said we'd put up ads for them in the windows and with the menus. They have a new shop there with tennis supplies, too, that is pretty good…" He trailed off uncertainly for a moment and looked at Inui with real concern. "Was that all right?"

Ryoma tucked the certificate into the card again and slipped it into his jacket pocket. "Thanks, Kawamura-senpai."

"Based on that response," Inui answered, "there is a ninety point two percent chance that Ryoma is pleased with his gift. That means it is acceptable."

Kawamura sat back down, radiating relief, and grinned at Ryoma. "You're welcome."

"Momoshiro is the next recipient."

"Wait a second!" Momo protested. "The viper is a second year, too!"

"Based on team seniority," Inui explained, "you fall behind Kaidoh due to your performance in the rankings tournament at the beginning of the school year this spring."

Kaidoh looked more than a bit pleased as the other second year grumbled and settled back in his seat again. Tezuka was the one who stepped forward this time, holding out an awkwardly-shaped packaged with only a nod when Momoshiro took it from his hands before sitting again.

It turned out to contain three different gifts banded together when the package was opened. Momo held up the first gift, a DVD of some kind, and asked curiously. "What is this?"

"A practice video for doubles tennis," the captain responded honestly. "You need the extra training for next year."

Kaidoh snorted but before an argument could break out, Eiji draped his arm around Ryoma and cried, "Yeah, Momo and Ochibi-chan could be the next Golden Pair next year!"

"Kikumaru-senpai, you're heavy."

As Eiji laughed and released Ryoma with a grin, Momo studied the last two gifts with genuine surprise. The racquet strings were fairly high quality, but the small framed certificate was even more surprising. "For exceptional services to the Seigaku tennis team," he read aloud with a grin. "Cool." He stared at the words a moment longer, and then a smug look crossed his face. "Hey, viper!" he called. "Did you see this?"

"Kaidoh is next," Inui interrupted, and Eiji popped up with a grin. "That's my cue!"

He reached under his chair and tossed the brightly wrapped gift over to Kaidoh, who reached out and caught it easily despite the look of horror that briefly crossed his face when it seemed that the package would land right in the middle of the table and their food and drinks. The lanky boy unwrapped the gift with surprising care, tearing the paper as little as possible, but he hesitated in the middle of folding the paper and looked up at the other regular's expressions as they watched in silence and mild confusion. He went bright red and hastily shoved the unfolded paper underneath his seat and looked down at the gift. His eyebrows winged up beneath his bangs and his lips pursed before he finally asked, "Kikumaru-senpai, how did you know which size of weights to get?"

"I asked," Eiji answered cheerfully. "Inui had which size and weight you were using for training right now written down, so I just went one bigger."

Kaidoh studied the set of leg and wrist weights thoughtfully, then set them down carefully beside him. "Thanks," he said in a low voice without looking up.

Eiji beamed, and Fuji leaned over to ask him none-too-quietly, "Eiji, why did you throw that gift if there were weights inside?"

"It's okay," Eiji replied. "They weren't that heavy."

Kaidoh's angry hiss nearly drowned out Inui's voice as he announced that he would be the first recipient of the third years.

In the end, there didn't seem to be any reason for him to have brought along the juice at all; everyone was more than happy with their gifts, though Inui himself had looked slightly confused and almost embarrassed when Kaidoh gifted him with a year's subscription to World of Warcraft. He had simply marked something in his notebook, thanked the younger boy, and moved quickly on to the next person without further comment. Inui himself turned out to be Kawamura's Secret Santa and the friendly boy had been more than happy with his new photo album, though when Inui informed them all that his data showed only a three percent chance that he would not like the gift, it was somewhat less surprising. When Eiji's name was called, Oishi looked more than a bit nervous, but when he moved to present his gift to his doubles partner, Eiji's face lit up and Fuji smiled knowingly beside him.

Eiji didn't bother about being tidy or thrifty when unwrapping his gift; he ripped right into it, balling up the wrapping paper and throwing it over his shoulder as he did so, until the cloth-wrapped bundle was revealed. He studied it for a moment with frown until Fuji whispered, "I think your present might still be inside, Eiji."

"I know that," Eiji shot back. "I just wondered what this part of it is."

"It's just one of my old kimonos from when I was a kid," Oishi explained hastily. "I needed something to protect your gift and I figured that made the most sense to wrap it in."

Fuji raised his eyebrows but wisely didn't say a word, and Eiji set to work unwrapping the silk from around his gift. When it was finally visible, he let out a yelp and threw his arms around Oishi's shoulders, beaming all the while. "Where did you get this?"

"My mother took it," the vice-captain explained once he had extricated himself from the redhead's strangling grip. "At the first match last year. I didn't even know she had it until I asked."

Eiji kept grinning and picked up the framed photo so that everyone else could see the picture of the early Golden Pair apparently just before shaking their opponents' hands after winning a match. "Hey, everyone, look! Don't we look cool?"

"He seems so disappointed," Fuji said under his breath, and the tips of Oishi's ears went pink.

When Inui called Fuji's name and Momoshiro stood up, Eiji stopped showing everyone the photo and his mouth dropped open. "You had to buy Fuji's gift?"

The underclassman winced and shot Eiji a glare that said very clearly, I told you! before handing the gift bag to the Seigaku genius. Fuji smiled genially as he opened the bag and carefully picked out the tissue paper so that it would be easy to find to throw away later. When he removed the slim jewel cases carefully labeled with various selections of opera movements, he turned that smile towards Momoshiro. "How very thoughtful. Thank you, Momoshiro."

The younger boy mumbled a faint reply and dropped back into his seat as he hissed at Eiji, "I told you I was just going to embarrass myself!"

"Are you kidding?" Eiji hissed back. "Even I'm impressed, I never know what to get Fuji and he's my best friend!"

Momo glanced around at the vaguely surprised looks on the other regulars' faces, watched Fuji read over the list of music on each CD with that same faint smile on his face, and his own expression went thoughtful and relieved.

"Oishi is the next recipient," Inui announced, and Fuji let the discs fall back into their bag and looked pointedly at Eiji. The redhead bounced to his feet. "Right, that's me."

Inui looked down at his notebook quickly and Tezuka frowned. "Kikumaru, you already gave a gift to Kaidoh."

Eiji nodded and Fuji spoke up. "Actually, I'm Oishi's Secret Santa. Eiji is his gift."

"Eh?!?" Kaidoh yelped from his seat, suddenly looking terrified. Momo went nearly as red as Oishi himself did, Kawamura looked around, perplexed, Tezuka blinked and suddenly became very interested in his drink, Fuji smiled mildly, and Ryoma stole a piece of maguro off of Momo's plate.

Eiji bowed comically, leaned forward to drop a quick kiss on the vice-captain's cheek, and recited, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!" before cracking up and falling back into his seat. Oishi was staring at Fuji with an expression of utter disbelief.

At last he managed to splutter out, "What was that?"

"Your gift," Fuji replied simply. "Of course."

Inui studied his data for a moment. "That does count as a gift," he clarified as Oishi sat there still looking as though he had just swallowed an entire school of live fish, staring blankly ahead at nothing in particular. "That leaves only Tezuka left to receive his present."

"Yeeees," Ryoma drawled as he set down his chopsticks and egg sushi he had just finished taking right before Momo's horrified eyes. He passed one last box over to the captain of the team, who set down his glass and accepted it while carefully avoiding looking at his vice-captain, his best singles player, and the snickering redhead on the other side of the table.

The box turned out to contain a rather ancient tennis racquet that was nonetheless in fairly good condition, and an equally old ball wrapped in newspaper. "They're the old man's," Ryoma explained simply as he reached for another piece of Momo's sushi. The second year finally seemed to realize that his food was disappearing right in front of him and knocked the prodigy's chopsticks away.

"Hey, that's mine! …and so are those!"

"Mada mada da ne."

Tezuka studied the racquet and ball for a moment before nodding and thanking the youngest member of the team and suggesting that they clean up the wrapping supplies before they finished eating as a courtesy to Kawamura's father. Momo and Eiji both started to protest as Kawamura tried to insist that it was fine, he could clean it up and there was no reason for the rest of them to worry at all, but when Fuji stood and carried the tissue paper from his gift over towards the back of the restaurant where the trash cans were, there was no choice but to follow suit.

No one commented when Oishi didn't help. For starters, he hadn't had any trash to throw away, and besides, he didn't seem to be able to move at all.