Yays Another chapter! we can now see how things will turn out. Will Yagyuu stay mad at Niou? Will Niou be able to resolve his mild feelings of being inadiquate? We shall see. Enjoy.

Yagyuu's shoes where neatly, like always, placed next to Niou's Mother's shoes in the entry way. Niou shucked off his own shoes leaving them strewn.

"Oh Yagyuu-kun, you're home. Where's Masaharu?" Niou heard his mothers overly sweet voice come from the kitchen. He looked up and saw Yagyuu standing at the door way connecting the hall to the kitchen,

Yagyuu turned and looked at him before saying. "He's here, somewhere."

Niou gaped, but then composed himself and twisted his open-mouth into a tightly closed, twisted smirk.

"Well, I hope he'll be home soon. I'm making his favorite tonight, Barbecued Eel."

That had been the smell that had hit Niou in the face, he hadn't particularly noticed it, due to his anger from the Yagyuu confrontation on the sidewalk, but now he could. That wonderful sweet, tangy smell of Eel cooking, with sound of the rice cooker steaming away in the background. He never did give his mother much credit, but when she cooked it was always exquisite, there rarely ever where 'leftovers' (that wasn't a word in the Niou household that was used on a regular basis, such words were almost blasphemous to them though you couldn't tell by Niou's testimony alone.)

Rika cam down the stairs, not looking in her brothers direction, and asked Yagyuu where her dear little brother was, since he wasn't with him. Yagyuu replied in the same bland, monotone he had used before, only adding an 'I guess' to the front of it.

Niou clenched his right fist around the strap of his tennis bag trying hard to not rip it off and just pummel Yagyuu right there. His knuckles began to hurt, he didn't even need to look at them to tell they were white and trembling. He gritted his teeth and said, "I'm standing right here." biting his tongue so as to not add 'you fucking, jackass,' at the end.

"Oh, I didn't know Masaharu," Yagyuu's reply was nonchalant and casual, as if he and Niou where talking about how practice had gone or something else of insignificance.

"Of course you didn't."

"Masa-chan," Niou looked over to his sister. "Why are you holding an egg?"

Niou gave her a questioning look, then he remembered that Hiro-chan was still in his left hand. What surprised him even more was that he hadn't cracked it yet in all of his anger the past fifteen minutes or so.

"Because, it makes me feel better about myself that's why." He sneered, "No you idiot, they're for a class project."

"What, you have to take care of them or something?" Niou nodded slowly. Rika began laughing asking if he was really serious. Niou nodded again.

"Stop laughing!"

"But, you have to take care of an egg with a girl!"

Niou flushed. "I'm not working with a girl, Hiroshi is my partner." He muttered.

"Oh, Yagyuu-kun you'd make an excellent wife."

It was Yagyuu's turn to had a hue of red to his skin, Niou couldn't help but laugh at the sight, it was priceless. Rika looked back at her brother and smirked. If there was one ting she could do, it would be having this amazing ability to tell when something was wrong with her younger brother and just how to fix it.

"Well," She continued on, "he already is very neat, polite, and just plain cute. You on the other hand Masa-chan are rude, messy, perverted, and childish, definitely not fit to be the mother of anyone's children real or fictional, on top of that you definitely aren't girly."

She certainly did get to the heart of the matter as well. Without Niou having to utter a single word about how pretty much everyone called him a girl at one point or another or implied it, Rika had honed in on the problem. Because of this Niou was practically beaming on the inside, but kept his cool smirk in place.

"Wouldn't you agree Masa-chan?"

Niou nodded.

"Good now let's end this little battle that Masaharu has waged on you Yagyuu-kun." Niou rolled his eyes knowing exactly what his sister was going to say next. "Now, kiss and make up."

Yagyuu looked her with thin, pursed lips, Niou scowled.

"Not going to happen." Niou stated, "You are a sick, sick woman that needs help."

"I won't watch." Rika placed her hands behind her back innocently and turned on her heels to face the opposite wall, her back now to them.

"I ain't kissin' you," Niou said crossing his arms over his chest.

"Am not." Yagyuu corrected.

"All the same thing."

"Hardly, a lot of things may seem the same, Masaharu, but in truth they are quite different take homonyms for example-"

Niou held up a hand. He then smirked and lifted his chin upward his mole catching the light slightly, and gave Yagyuu an almost challenging sneer. He then plucked Yagyuu's glasses from his face and placed them on his own, straightened his back up and pushed out his chest.. "Now, elaborate further."

"Why should I?" Yagyuu replied his posture slumping over so that Niou was now standing taller than he was. A twisted half grimace half scowl took the place of his bland smile. "Its not like you'll listen anyways."

"How so?" Niou asked, pushing the glasses up the bridge of his nose. These weren't like the ones they used for the switch. Yagyuu's prescription hurt his eyes, causing a sharp pain to form behind them. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, relieving them of the strain for the fleeting second.

"You choose to ignore me when you don't know how to fix the problem. Hoping it will all just blow over that way." Rika had turned back around, staring at the sight. These two had to be completely crazy.

"Really? And you, Masaharu, fly off the handle when things do not go your way."

""How else am I supposed to get your attention? The rest of the time you're off in your God damn bubble world other wise."

Niou couldn't understand why they hadn't used this method to solve problems before. By switching to each other, they could voice and accuse the fake with all of their faults and opinions. That way the guilt could be evenly spread.

"I won't let my anger get the best of me then." Yagyuu sighed, slouching forward and placing his hands on his hips.

"Then I will not ignore your feelings and be more empathetic, Masaharu." Niou tilted his head forward acknowledging the end of the discussion, just like Yagyuu always did to him.

"What are you two doing?" Rika asked. "This isn't kissing and making up, this is like some type of kinky foreplay!"

"That's vulgar, Rika-san." Niou grimaced, his mouth tightening into a tight, thin line.

Rika glared pointedly at him, "Since when have you ever thought anything to be vulgar, is that even a word in your vocabulary?"

"It must be since he used it." Yagyuu retorted

"Oh hush you," Rika said. "Now, Masaharu, stop this nonsense and I mean it."

Niou stood there, the grimace fading into a perfect imitation of Yagyuu's bland, vacant look, then to the impassive smile Yagyuu was so fond of. His left arm crossed over his stomach while his right index finger hooked over the top of the nose piece of Yagyuu's glasses pulling them down so he could look over the top of them and grinned wildly saying, "Puri," in a low whisper.

Rika frowned and thumped her brother on the forehead, "Don't you 'puri' me Masaharu." She scolded.

"Ow," Niou furrowed his brow and rubbed the soar spot, there would probably be a very unattractive red spot there later on. Taking off the glasses he handed them back to Yagyuu who took them gladly.

"Thank you, Masaharu," He said returning them to his face.

Niou nonchalantly nodded, "Umm Hiroshi."

Yagyuu looked up at him, "Yes?"

Niou hesitated, unsure as to how he should word his sentence. Yagyuu was the only person, that Niou could think of right off the bat, that would make him really think before he spoke. Tentatively he spoke, "I'm sorry for…what I said earlier, about your being polite pissing me off. Not that it doesn't. What I mean is-"

Yagyuu held up a hand cutting him off and smiled, "I understand, Masaharu, I'll just hold back on it some ok."

Compromise, a word that Niou did not particularly like. Compromise, was one of those words fickle minded adults used so that they could have their pie and eat it too, like loving both genders and never going without a lover of some kind, that false security blanket they craved for, called compromise of sexuality. Compromise, was something that two war generals did in order to end or avoid violent confrontations, thus saving the lives of thousands, or perhaps saving more of what would have been lost souls like those who had gone before them, the compromises of governmental alliances and treaties. Compromise, is something married couples did when both sides wished to be selfish and have their way like spoiled children fighting over an old toy that neither of them really like, but wish to fight just because the other wants it, the compromise of familial confrontation and need of validation though such conflicts. Compromise is something that he and Yagyuu had just done though, the compromise of lacking communication and . Grant it they are fickle, but not whorish adults with nothing better to do then have sex. Neither are they military leaders looking to get into the history books. They sure as hell weren't married, legally, and probably never would be given the Japanese government right now. Putting all these things into perspective there was hardly any way they could even think of the word, compromise, let along actually put the meaning into motion, but they had.

"Ugh, this is useless." Rika groaned.

"What was useless?" Niou's mother poked her head out of the kitchen.

"Nothing," Niou replied a bemused grin on his mouth.

Ok first things first...awesomeness that things are better sorta. The switch works both on and off the courts apparently, and Rika is still a weirdy.
...that's kinda it this time around. I do understand this was an extremely short chapter this time around, and I'm sorry for that, just I've been preoccupied with other things. Because of Elle-chan I've been playing around with the idea of writting SanadaxTezuka smut, like actual M rated stuff, I'm really happy about it. YAYS UKE!Tezuka, you make me smile so much. So much crazy angsty stuff we've been contemplating...ah. well please review if you so choose to!

animeo