Part 10

Kamio finished his own match against one of the pre-Regulars, the last ball smashing past the stunned-looking boy to win the final point. The score was 6-0, but the boy had scored the odd point against Kamio, and the captain gave him an encouraging grin and a thumb's up as they moved of the court.

The day had finally come for the first of the ranking matches, and all of the regulars were playing with their usual skill. The pre-regulars weren't a threat yet, but they were still beating out all of the members of the club who WEREN'T pre-regulars, which gave Kamio a hope that they were doing something right.

He ambled to the other court, where Ishida was preparing to play a match against Akaya. The other boy hadn't appeared yet, but Ishida was already warming up.

Usually Akaya was the first one on the courts and one of the last to leave, but today he was almost the last one out of the change room. And when he did come bursting out, it wasn't with racquet in hand. He was wearing his Senbatsu jersey, which he'd told Kamio earlier that day that he wanted to wear for luck. But he still had his school uniform pants on, and his tennis bag over his shoulder. There was a wild, panicked look in his eyes.

"Akira!" For once dropping Kamio's title, the green-eyed boy headed straight for him. He didn't even hear the astonished murmurs of the crowd as the boys caught sight of him. "Do you have enough money on you for me to take a cab to the area near Rikkai?"

Kamio blinked, his eyes widening. "Why? Akaya, what's wrong?" he demanded, moving towards him. His bag was in his locker, in the clubroom. He wasn't sure how much cash he had, but he THOUGHT it would be enough.

"I have to go," Akaya replied, his thoughts too jumbled in his head for him to form a coherent answer. He was panicked, and to make matters worse the oni was taking advantage of his weakness to try to break through, but he was fighting it off. For now.

"Hey, what about our match?" Ishida demanded, scowling.

"I forfeit," Akaya snapped at him, having no patience to deal with anything at the moment. There were more gasps from the crowd, and everyone who wasn't playing at that moment was gathering around. He had three games scheduled today, and it was only the first day of rankings; if he forfeited even two of them, he'd lost his chance at the Regulars.

"Just hold on a second," Kamio said, glancing back at Ishida and pleading with his eyes to calm down. He grabbed Akaya by the arm and hurried him towards the clubroom. "I have enough money, I think," he said. "What HAPPENED? Maybe I can postpone the matches, if it's something really urgent, Akaya."

Taking a deep breath, Akaya tried desperately to order his thoughts long enough to give an explanation. "He just stopped breathing, out of nowhere. Relapse. Not sure they got him to the hospital on time, I have to go, Akira! Now!"

Kamio almost asked "Who stopped breathing," but then he realized. "Oh god," he gasped, bursting through the door of the clubhouse. He rummaged through his bag, grabbing his wallet and shoving a small sheaf of yen notes into Akaya's hands. "Is that enough?" he asked.

"Yes," Akaya replied automatically, without even looking. Then he shook his head. "No. I don't know. I.. fuck." He held his palm to his temple, trying to force order into his thoughts. "I don't... I can't think. Shut up!" he finally snapped at the oni, frustrated. He couldn't hear his own thoughts over its howling. He turned pleading eyes on Kamio. "Help me, Akira. I need to get there. The hospital."

Akira started when Akaya suddenly snapped at him to shut up, though it seemed as though he were shouting at someone who wasn't there. There's something really wrong. He's really FREAKED OUT. If I let him go, will he even make it there? he thought worriedly. "I'm coming with you," he said, slinging his bag onto his back and starting for the door. "Call a cab, Akaya, I'm just going to explain to everyone that the matches are postponed."

"All... all right," Akaya agreed, breathless. Call a cab, he could do that, couldn't he? If he could remember where he was... Fudoumine, right. What was Fudoumine's address? Everything was disjointed, coming apart at the edges.

Well, if he couldn't call a cab, he could call Niou back and he could get a cab to come for Akaya. In fact, now that he was thinking about it, he thought he vaguely remembered Niou saying something about exactly that. He hadn't really registered much past 'they're not sure they got him to emergency in time...'

"I think there's already one," he said, shaking his head again in a futile attempt to clear it. Why did it always have to get harder to think right when he most needed to be able to? This had happened the first time Yukimura got sick too, though it hadn't been as bad then. And when they were waiting to find out if Yukimura had lived through the surgery, though his teammates had helped keep him grounded then. "At the front, probably. Niou."

Kamio nodded. "Okay, then," he said. "Come with me." He took Akaya's hand, steering him out of the clubhouse and down to the courts again, where everyone was milling around in confusion.

"Everyone," he called. "I'm really sorry, but the matches for today are postponed. We'll push everything back a day. No one's going to forfit or lose their chance to play. Yukimura, Rikkaidai's captain from last year, just went into the hospital, and they don't know if he'll make it." He frowned at Ishida, looking to see if he'd recovered from his snit earlier. "So I'm taking Kirihara-kun to the hospital."

Ishida looked appropriately horrified, as did everyone else. "I'm sorry, Kirihara," he said sincerely. "I hope he's okay." The rest of the Regulars nodded vigorously, and it wasn't hard to tell they were all picturing their own reactions to hearing the same news about Tachibana.

"Thanks," Akaya replied shortly. It was a minor miracle he'd remembered to respond at all. "Can we go now?" he added impatiently to Kamio, his hand tightening on the other boy's.

"Yeah, let's go," Kamio said, moving with Akaya towards the front of the school and leaving everyone else behind to clean up.

They found the cab easily enough and got into it, Kamio managing to determine which hospital Yukimura was in and then instructing the cab to go there. They drove in relative silence, Kamio's hand squeezing Akaya's tightly.

Kamio couldn't help but feel a bit...weirded out by the whole thing. Akaya was acting really strangely, and he was showing far more emotion than he'd ever seen him. Of course, the situation was dire, and he could understand that, but there was a part of him that wished Akaya would show the same depth of emotion towards him sometimes...

The moment they reached the doors of the hospital, almost before the car had stopped moving, Akaya had the door open and was struggling to get out of the car. Since he was also still clinging tightly to Kamio's hand, however, this was somewhat difficult. "Hurry," he implored his lover, still looking panicked. "He's inside," he added, as if Kamio might somehow think Yukimura might be found out here instead.

"You go," Kamio said, trying to extricate his fingers so he could pay the driver. "I'm right behind you, Akaya. Look, I think I see Marui!" he added, gesturing towards a redhaired boy who was racing through the hospital doors towards them.

"Marui!" Akaya let go of Kamio and practically pounced on the small senior. "What happened, where is he, is he okay, did they... what did... how... ARGH!" His thoughts got tangled up again, and he squeezed his eyes shut in frustration.

A sharp smack on the top of his head made him open them again, and he stared at his former teammate. "You're spazzing, Akaya," Marui him, as though Akaya might not be aware of the fact. "Reset, before you work yourself into a fit. We don't need you in the hospital too." He shrugged. "He's still alive, that's all we know. You know how doctors are... we're not family, they won't tell us a damn thing. Same as last time." He glanced curiously at Kamio, who was emerging from the cab. "Fudoumine's Kamio, right? Akaya's mentioned you."

Kamio nodded, oddly nervous now that he'd realized that he'd accompanied Akaya to a meeting with a whole bunch of other Rikkaidai members. He was the outsider here, for sure. He wondered when Akaya had mentioned him. "I...just brought Akaya," he said. "I wanted to be sure he got here OK."

"Thanks," Marui said sincerely. "Knowing him, he'd probably have ended up in Kyoto instead of where he was supposed to be."

"Hey!" Akaya had to protest that. Knowing Yukimura was still alive was helping, his thoughts weren't so chaotic. Marui's smack had also helped, jarring him and giving him something to focus on. "Wasn't going to take a bus."

"No, that's why Niou called you the cab, to make sure you didn't," Marui replied dryly. "You never could stay awake on a bus longer than five minutes. C'mon inside, we've taken over one of the waiting rooms." It was clear his invitation included Kamio, and Akaya turned to grab at his lover's hand again.

Kamio squeezed Akaya's hand tightly, following the two of them into the hospital and down to the waiting room. Sanada was the first one he saw, as the tall boy was pacing the room ceaselessly. The rest of the Rikkaidai team were ranged around the room, seated. Kamio tried to somehow fade into the background without letting go of Akaya's hand.

There was a general round of greetings, each of the former Rikkai team members showing their stress in their own way. Most of them seemed only a little surprised to see Kamio; Niou went as far as to give him a brief wink and what might have been a flirty smirk under other circumstances when he saw Akaya holding the redhead's hand.

"Is his family here?" Akaya wanted to know, glancing at the doors that led deeper into the hospital. Only family members were allowed past that point, as he knew all too well. This was, in fact, the same room where they'd kept their vigil after Yukimura had gone into surgery.

"Not yet," Sanada replied. "I called them, they'll be here as soon as they can."

It was a little odd, even for Akaya, to see them all in casual clothes rather than tennis or school uniforms. It was Saturday afternoon, after all, and they were all seniors and therefore out of the tennis club. They must have all been studying together when Yukimura had collapsed, Akaya realized.

Kamio flushed at the flirty look, ducking his head and drawing a fraction of an inch closer to Akaya. He still couldn't help but feel as though he were intruding on something private where he didn't belong.

"They don't bite, y'know," Akaya told him, feeling him draw closer. Then, catching Yagyuu's soft snort and Niou's smirk, he amended, "Not in casual circumstances."

Marui gave a short laugh, more a release of tension than real mirth. "We may all be chewing on the furniture and each other by the time we hear anything," he muttered, flopping down into a chair next to Jackal.

"I know they don't bite," Kamio muttered, flushing deeper. He shook his head. "Let's sit down," he said, not wanting to talk about what was bothering him.

Akaya just nodded, and took one of the only two empty seats next to each other, next to Yanagi and across from the others. That put Kamio on one end, with an empty seat on the other side for Sanada if he ever chose to sit.

And they proceded to wait. Akaya didn't remain sitting for long, his nervous energy refusing to be contained. He got up to pace, twitching a bit as he tried to avoid looking at the oni trailing after him.

Niou glanced up and saw him flinch slightly, and called him to get his attention. "Yo, Akaya. Word games?" It was a standard tactic the other Regulars had learned; when Akaya started getting twitchy, distract him.

"Oh, don't you two start on that," Marui groaned, rolling his eyes. "They'll drive you nuts if you let them," he explained to Kamio.

Kamio blinked at Marui and then up at Akaya. "What kind of word games?" he asked in confusion. Akaya had never mentioned liking that kind of thing to him.

"Anything that will occupy Akaya's attention and keep him distracted," Yanagi murmured, low enoug to keep Akaya from hearing him. "Especially when he's this bad. Niou's always been best at distracting him."

Niou and Akaya were firing letters back and forth at each other, each adding a letter to the previous set to form a word. The point of the game seemed to be to force your opponent to finish the word. It got much more challenging when Yagyuu joined in.

Kamio stared at the threesome, feeling like his brain was about to cramp from trying to follow the game. It was even more obvious to him than before that the Rikkaidai players weren’t just better tennis players – they were frighteningly intelligent. He looked at Yanagi, chewing his lower lip. “What happens if we don’t keep him distracted?” he asked softly, thinking of the day that he’d first slept with Akaya. That day, Akaya had asked him to distract him, too.

Yanagi gave him a surprised look, his eyes slitting open ever so slightly to stare at Kamio. "He hasn't told you? Hmm, strange. The way he's been talking about you... well." He shook his head, returning his gaze to his former teammates. Akaya was slowly but visibly relaxing as his attention was entirely absorbed in the game. It was obvious that he wasn't the only one benefitting from the distraction; the others had stopped staring at either the clock or the doors as if willing time to pass more quickly. Sanada and Jackal were just watching, Marui despite his earlier jeering had now joined in as well.

"It's not really my place to tell you," the singles three player said in an eerie echo of Yukimura's words from that day. He still kept his voice down, not wanting to attract Akaya's attention away from the game. "But in general, if what he's saying stops being very coherent or he becomes twitchy, it's just best to distract him."

Kamio frowned, trying not to get frustrated at Yanagi’s unwillingness to answer him. “Akaya doesn’t want to tell me…no one will tell me, and yet all of YOU know,” he hissed. He hunched in his chair, something squeezing his heart painfully. “I guess however he’s been talking about me, it’s not what you think.” Or what I wish it were. He watched Akaya from under his hair, his eyes following him as he moved around the room.

"Or possibly it means more than you think it does," Yanagi replied cryptically, though not unsympathetically. "After all, if we had turned from him it would only have hurt him. If it makes you feel any better, we all figured it out on our own and confronted him with it, it's not as if he told us willingly." It was impossible to tell exactly where he was looking, but he turned slightly towards the doors. "If there is anyone Akaya would actually confide in it's Yukimura, and I'm not entirely sure even that is true."

Kamio looked at him, his expression a little disbelieving, but hopeful. “You really think I mean something to him?” he blurted, and then reddened immediately. He must be crazy, asking someone like Yanagi Renji a question like that. The data player hardly knew him, and would probably laugh in his face at his uncertainty.

Though he didn't laugh, Yanagi did turn his customary kitsune-like smile on Kamio. "He's hardly talked about anything but you since he went to Fudoumine. While I was sorry to see Rikkai lose him, I think the change may have been good for him." With that he turned and joined in the rapid-fire word game, making Akaya swear at him as he stole the second-to-last letter in a word and forced Akaya to end it.

By the time they were all sick of the game, Akaya had relaxed enough to be able to flop back down into the seat next to Kamio, catching his hand as he sat and rubbing it idly with his thumb. "We're probably going to be here for hours, you know," he said softly to his lover. "None of us are going to leave until we know for sure he's out of danger and will recover, but I can tell you're bored and feeling awkward. Hell, I'd have the same problem if it were me watching you all worry over Tachibana in similar circumstances." It occurred to him to wonder if the Fudoumine team had spent anxious hours in a waiting room for the verdict on their captain's knee after Akaya had destroyed him. Probably.

“It’s OK,” Kamio protested, warmed not only by Yanagi’s words, but by the fact that Akaya was being so open about holding his hand in front of his friends. “I’ll be fine. If you want me to stay with you, I’ll stay.”

"Yeah, don't scare him off, Akaya," Niou called, having either heard or guessed at the conversation. The white-haired boy grinned. "We haven't had any new blood in this group since last year when you made the team and I dragged Yagyuu in. Even Jackal's no fun to tease any more, he's gotten used to us and doesn't blush now." The dark-skinned boy rolled his eyes and made a rude gesture at Niou, who returned it with interest. The tension and heavy knowledge of what they were all here for still hung over them, but the word games had lightened the atmosphere enough to allow them the outlet of familiar teasing.

"Okay, now I'm really going to encourage you to go home," Akaya snickered to Kamio. "You don't want to be the object of Niou's boredom and curiosity, trust me in this." He squeezed the redhead's hand briefly. "Anyway, at least one of us should get some sleep tonight. We've still got rankings tomorrow. And while I can probably take all my games half asleep, the same can't be said of you." He grinned to show he was teasing.

Kamio gave Akaya a long, uncertain look, then nodded, offering him a smile. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be waiting for you at home.” He gave Akaya’s hand a squeeze and then, greatly daring, ducked in to give him a kiss as he stood up. “If you need anything, call, okay?” he added, reddening as he felt the eyes of the rest of the Rikkaidai team on him.

"Yes mother," Akaya drawled, but his eyes said 'thank you'. Everyone else murmured goodbyes, and Akaya was grateful they at least had the decency to wait until Kamio was out the doors - though probably not out of earshot - before the catcalls and wolf whistles started. "Oh, shut the hell up, half of you don't have any room to point fingers!" he shot back, but he was laughing. It was good to know that the only other people in the world who could be called his friends approved of his lover.

|Prologue| |Part 1| |Part 2| |Part 3| |Part 4| |Part 5| |Part 6| |Part 7| |Part 8| |Part 9| |Part 10| |Part 11|

Return to Miscellaneous Page

Return to the Main Index

Email Miko no da
Email Chichiri no da