A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I can't believe this is my first Rikkai fic. Well, actually, I've had another one but when I was about to publish it it got lost and I can't fucking remember everything oh god I just want to cry anyway enjoy

WARNING/S: Weirdness and shit. Very weird shit. OOCness. Maybe some mentions of things that aren't meant to be said to second year aces that have very broad imaginations but very pure minds aka innocence.

DISCLAIMER: Konomi Takeshi blah blah blah not mine etc.

WALK IN THEIR SHOES

By ThroughTheMonsoon

"Damn... It's so...tight in here... Feels like...Yagyuu..."

"What? You shouldn't...say that al...aloud!"

That was the conversation that cost Akaya his sanity.

And here he is now, rocking back and forth on a bench a few ways from the clubhouse. Sanada passed by him in an orderly manner, but did a discreet double take and saw his kouhai slowly lose his mind.

"Kirihara," called Sanada.

The second year ignored him.

"Akaya." The senior's voice upped a volume.

No response.

"Tarundoru!"

The junior sat up immediately. "I didn't do it!"

Sanada resisted the urge to roll his eyes. This kid never changes.

"Oh. It's you, fukubuchou." Kirihara's shoulders sagged and, once more, he looked on the verge of insanity.

"Shouldn't you be training?"

"Buchou granted me a thirty minute break."

Sanada seemed skeptic. "Then go run twenty-five laps for me."

"No can do, fukubuchou. Buchou said because I was sick out yesterday, I should take it easy. He told me to not listen to anything you say today. He's in a pretty good mood."

The third year glared at his kouhai. Akaya didn't flinch, so Sanada figured the kid wasn't lying this time around. Besides, Akaya would never—could never—make up lies using Yukimura's name. He must have learned the first time.

"Fine," Sanada sighed, resignation close to revelation in his voice. "What havoc have you been wreaking?"

"It's not me who wrecked my mind," muttered Akaya.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The vice captain glared the answer out of his junior.

"Blame Niou-senpai and Marui-senpai!" Then Akaya covered his mouth with both his hands.

Never changes, thought Sanada wryly. He looked across from where he was.

"Don't kill them, though, fukubuchou! They would kill me if you tell them I told you I heard them having sex-"

Sanada's cool and strict composure fell instantly. He turned to face Akaya so fast it almost seemed like he applied his Invisible Swing to his neck.

"Say that again," he ordered.

The second year ace shook his head, a deer-caught-in-headlights look on his face. He pressed his hands harder against his mouth.

"Akaya."

More head-shaking. Sanada glared at him once more.

"How did you—"

"In the clubhouse! I-I didn't see! I just heard panting and—and—and—"

Akaya started rocking back and forth again, not able to say more.

Sanada stared at Akaya, wanting to hear everything. Yet, he also wanted their innocent little kouhai to remain that—innocent.

Niou and Marui.

He's going to kill them for this.

Yukimura was barely surprised when Sanada came stalking into the clubhouse, imagining the latter with smoke rushing out of his ears and nose.

"What's wrong, Sanada?" The Rikkai buchou inquired with upturned lips.

"Where's Niou and Marui?" Sanada asked in a raised voice.

Yukimura's smile faltered a little, but resumed and actually grew wider. "Raising your voice now, Sanada?"

Sanada coughed. Danger. "I need to talk to them," he said in a calmer, much more polite voice.

"They're in the showers. I'd go talk to them after a while more, if I were you."

The vice captain blinked. Did Yukimura know something about this?

He decided to sit and wait.

"Yo, fukubuchou," Marui greeted Sanada in a very Kirihara-ish way, which infuriated Sanada more.

"What's wrong with you?" Niou asked the capped man—er, boy.

In a grave voice, he replied, "Have you seen Akaya lately?"

Niou and Marui turned to each other, then scowled when their eyes met.

"Not really," Marui said. "Why? Something wrong with the Wonder Chibi?"

"Oh, I don't know," Sanada growled bitterly. "Why don't you go check for him outside, on the bench?"

Niou rolled his eyes. "Geez, Gen-chan, on your period today?" He checked outside the clubroom, to a bench a few feet away from them.

Kirihara was still rocking back and forth.

"Hey," the trickster said. "He's rocking back and forth. He isn't supposed to be rocking back and forth. Why is he rocking back and forth?"

Marui blew a raspberry—which is not a gum—at him. "Stop horsing around, let me see." He went to check behind Niou, shoving the taller boy away.

"...oh, this is not good."

In a very not-Sanada way, the Emperor said, "Ya think?"

"Dumbass, what did you do to Akaya?" Marui glared at Niou.

"I didn't do anything, fatass. You're one to speak," replied the silver-haired boy.

"You two are at fault!" Sanada reprimanded.

"What?" The two boys turned to him

"How—?"

"Why—?"

Once again, they said in unison, "What?"

"What were you doing here earlier?" The fukubuchou demanded with authority. Which goes without saying, this is Sanada we're talking about.

"Taking a shower. I was sticky and hot, okay?" Marui groaned.

Niou snorted. "Was hot. Like you were ever."

Sanada raised an eyebrow at the 'alibi'.

"Doing the same. But I was four cubicles from him. I don't think I could take the stench." The trickster made a face.

"And before that?"

"Duh. You take your clothes off before you take a shower," Niou said. Sanada glared at him.

"Resting?" Marui replied.

"...resting after what?"

"Training, of course," the redhead replied with eyes that screamed Sanada are you fucking okay? His left eyebrow was raised.

Sanada turned to Niou. "Yeah, what he said."

The Emperor pinched the bridge of his nose. Really, these idiots. From where he was standing, he bellowed, "Tarundoru!"

Through his weird haze, Akaya scampered into the clubroom. "I didn't do any of it!"

"What did you see these two do?" The vice-captain asked in a running-out-of-patience voice.

"I-I didn't see anything!"

Niou glared. "I swear, Akaya, if this is about the mustard we sloshed into Sanada's sweatpants I will bash your head with a golf club."

Sanada didn't seem to hear the comment. "Then hear, Akaya?" After that, his brain processed the statement. "What?" Niou acted deaf.

Akaya went silent.

Marui, Niou and Sanada stepped closer to him menacingly, crowding him and making him fidget.

"Akaya?" Marui asked oh-so-sugar-like-sweetly.

"...kuso," Kirihara cursed.

Niou kept quiet, but you could feel evil emitting from his very being.

Sanada insisted on the question. "What did you hear, Akaya?"

Akaya felt himself slowly melting into a puddle.

"I-I didn't hear anything."

None of the three were contented with this, obviously.

"Wh-Why don't you ask buchou? I think I can hear him calling—"

"Akaya!" The trio exclaimed.

"S...Stop it! I was passing by here and I heard panting...a-and groaning...a-and squelching...a-and—"

Akaya dropped onto the floor, rocking back and forth for the third time.

The two suspects stared dumbfoundedly at the second year.

"Oh, Kami," Marui sputtered.

Yukimura sneezed from outside.

"Y-You don't think we did that, do you?" The redhead's jaw might have been drilling a hole in the ground.

"Ew. Gross. With Marui? This sick psycho? No fucking way," Niou half-puked out.

"Then what was that about?" Sanada glared at the two once more.

"Oh, god, that was about shoes, Sanada!"

"What?" Sanada and Akaya asked, flabbergastingly confused.

"We were commenting on shoes," Marui facepalmed very violently.

"Then what was the panting and the groaning and the squelching about?" Akaya inquired, confuzzled out of his wits. (Like he had much at all.)

"The panting was because Yukimura made us run laps for being late," the redhead sighed. "Stupid janitor."

"The groaning was because I hit my knee agains the lockers," the trickster answered, rubbing his knee.

"And the squelching?" Sanada pressed on.

"And why did Marui-senpai say not to speak out loud?"

"The squelching was from Jackal. He was wringing some sponge to wipe this little kid down." Niou saud.

"The kid was some lost first year who went through the forest with his friends for a dare. He fainted from exhaustion, and he was mucky and all that. So Jackal, being the holy priest guy he is, did the kid a favor." Marui carelessly finished the story. "Jackal told us to shut up so that the kid won't wake up and rest well and blah blah blah."

Nods of understanding and sighs of relief were passed around and started filling the room.

Akaya perked up once more. "But wait, what did Niou-senpai mean when he said... 'It's so tight, it feels like Yagyuu' or something?"

The trickster snickered. "Oh. That."

Sanada narrowed his eyes, suspicious.

"Well, it was tight in there! It felt like Yagyuu with all the stiffness and stuff."

Marui rolled his eyes.

"What did that mean?" The vice-captain inquired further.

"I was using his shoes," Niou shrugged.

"What? Why? You have your own shoes! You're not a hobo!" The Second Year Ace exclaimed.

"Because I can, Wonder Chibi," came the terse reply.

"How did you even change with him?"

"I took it from his house, duh. But I didn't know he absolutely adored tight, stuff leather shoes. I can tell you, his closet had so much loafers."

The mystery was resolved. Akaya's sanity was restored. Well... As much as he had, kinda.

"Akaya, you are a complete idiot," Marui spat out with complete joking disgust.

The four headed on towards the courts.

"How did you get in his house, though? Rope? Ninja? Parkour?" Kirihara asked.

"I was there since last night," Niou answered, tripping Marui effectively with his right foot.

Sanada glanced at him questioningly.

"I slept with him. Duh."

The Emperor reached Akaya just in time to catch him from falling onto the ground, rocking back and forth.

"Puri."