Part 6

Over the next week, Kamio avoided having any more to do with Akaya than was strictly necessary. He curtly announced that Akaya would be taking over training the rookies, as well as the addition of the voluntary morning practices. The sudden authority earned Akaya further resentment from the rest of the Regulars, but he'd expected that.

Rather than pushing Kamio further, Akaya decided to give him the space he seemed to want. Instead he concentrated his efforts in two areas; bringing the new pre-Regular group up to speed as quickly as possible, and winning over the rest of his prospective teammates. It wouldn't do him much good if the other Regulars only grudgingly allowed him on the team. They could still make his life plenty miserable if they chose, while allowing him to play, and that wasn't what he wanted.

It's all bloody Yukimura's fault, Akaya reflected to himself with more amusement than annoyance. Making us a team instead of just a bunch of people who played together, and getting me used to having friends instead of just teammates. Bastard.

He set about it with his usual flair by establishing himself into what had become his customary role; that of prankster and joker. Shaving cream in shoes, temporary hair dye in shampoo bottles, entire baskets of balls replaced with the cheap 'tennis' balls you could get to throw for your dog, which didn't bounce worth shit. He was a bit more careful than he'd been at Rikkai; most of these people couldn't afford to replace equipment any more than he could, so he made sure he didn't actually damage anything.

And the jokes, of course. Akaya had a sharp wit and a sharper tongue, and he wasn't afraid to use them. He was careful not to pick on anyone more often than anyone else, and made fun of himself as often as not. Once they saw that he wasn't being malicious and was in fact doing a world of good training the rookies, the rest of the Regulars slowly started opening up to him. It didn't hurt that Akaya was perfectly willing to play anyone who challenged him, and made sure he didn't play too far above their level. Once he found a counter for Ibu's technique that made your muscles temporarily freeze, none of them were enough of a challenge to make it difficult for him to keep the oni at bay.

By the end of that first week, the Regulars had stopped glaring at him any time they saw him, the pre-Regulars regarded him with that mix of awe and terror usually reserved for drill sergeants, and the rookie troublemakers were just plain terrified of him. The only hold-out continued to be Kamio.

"He's doing a good job with them," Shinji noted to his friend one morning as they took a break after a game together. The blue-haired boy was looking outside the courts, where Kirihara had the pre-Regulars running a seemingly endless combination of laps punctuated by pauses for racquet drill. There were five of them now; as Kirihara had predicted, the boys who always leapt to do extra work had similarly leapt at the chance for extra practice, and been shocked to find themselves rewarded by being made part of an exclusive group. The original three had convinced three more of their friends to come, and two of the troublemakers had shown up the second morning as well; those two and one of the latecomers had dropped the extra practice quickly when they realized just how hard Kirihara was going to be working them.

"Yeah," Kamio said disinterestedly. He didn't want to talk about Kirihara. In fact, he never wanted to talk about Kirihara. The other boy had made absolutely no effort to apologize for hurting Kamio that night, and the redhead had by now convinced himself that he'd only made friends with him so that he could get in with the Fudoumine team. And possibly to gain the position as trainer for the pre-Regulars. As soon as he'd secured his position, Kamio had been dropped like a hot rock.

Looking at his friend as he drank deeply from his water bottle, Shinji wondered how to fix whatever rift had happened between Kamio and Kirihara. Something had obviously ocurred after that first practice, because as much as Kamio had been irritated at the former Rikkai before that, he'd been furious the next day.

"It's irritating, that's what it is," he muttered to himself, sighing. "People are so over emotional. Why can't they just step back and let things happen on their own? It's much easier that way. Nothing ever gets resolved this way, and it's stupid. Much more trouble than it's worth."

Kamio turned his head and frowned at his friend. "What are you talking about?" he asked. Did he mean that Kirihara was irritating? He must have missed a logic leap in Shinji's admittedly erratic train of thought, because he had NO idea what Shinji was on about now.

"You two," Shinji clarified, turning to raise an eyebrow at his best friend. "You're avoiding each other, and neither of you will tell me why. He just laughs it off, and you don't want to talk about it. But you both watch each other any time you think you can get away with it. You're both very emotional, it's tiring just to watch, I can't imagine how you can live like that."

Kamio looked away. "It's complicated, all right, and it's all his fault," he growled. "He was teasing me, and it went too far, and he doesn't even care enough to apologize. He used me, and I'm not going to just cozy up to him and let myself be used again."

"Hmm." Shinji made a non-committal sound, absorbing that. Then he nodded, everything falling into place. "That explains why he's so nervous when you're around. He's afraid if he says anything to you he'll provoke you, and you'll kick him off the team. And you're avoiding him because you don't want to think about it. You're both very good at avoidance and denial. It's too bad, because it's starting to make the club nervous that their captain and their trainer aren't getting along."

Lips thinning, Kamio considered that. "Really?" he asked unhappily. "I didn't mean to affect the club." He sighed, pushing his hand through his hair irritably. "Shinji, what am I supposed to do? If I make some kind of peace effort, how do I know he won't just fuck with me again?"

"He probably will," Shinji replied placidly. "It's his nature, he can't seem to help it. Just like it's your nature to blow up at things that annoy you. He's at least making an effort not to be malicious about it. Though I've heard him be pretty nasty to some people who were irritating him at school. I think he holds back for his teammates. The Rikkai players seemed to get along with him well enough."

Kamio looked away. "What he did might not have been malicious, but it really really hurt, Shinji. I don't want it to happen again, or anything like it."

"You can't keep yourself from ever being hurt," Shinji pointed out pragmatically. "It's pointless to try. Even I get hurt sometimes, and I don't let things bother me the way you do. You let things get to you too much, Akira. It's hard on you. I wish I could help, but I don't seem to be able to."

He glanced back at Kirihara, who was now running the five boys through a series of agility exercises. "At least try to be less openly hostile to him during practice. Some of the pre-Regulars have come to me to ask if you were going to be mad at them too, because he favours them so much. They don't want to get on your bad side, but they don't want to lose the extra training either."

Kamio blinked and stared at Shinji. "They thought I'd be MAD at them because I'm mad at Kirihara?" he asked, stunned. He rubbed his forehead. "All right, all right, I'll TRY to make up with him, Shinji, I promise. But I won't just take everything lying down. He has to try, too. I don't mind teasing, but I don't like to be treated like a...a toy. He can't just play with me and then set me aside when I'm boring."

"Is that what you think he's doing?" Shinji asked, a little surprised. It had been obvious to him that Kirihara was avoiding Kamio, not just ignoring him because he was bored. "Well, that explains why you keep getting more angry, not less. Which he isn't aware of, because you're not talking to each other. Hmm. Tennis is so much less complicated. I'd rather play a game than try to sort out relationships any day. I'm glad our friendship has never had this many problems."

"Well, that's because you don't play on my feelings and then laugh and disappear when I react," Kamio growled. "And I don't see why he shouldn't realize that I'm angry at him. I ordered him out of my house a week ago and I've hardly said a word to him since!"

He put a throttle on his anger, not wanting to take it out on Shinji. "Soon as he's done this practice, I'll go talk to him," he muttered. Might as well get it over with.

"He knows you're angry," Shinji corrected him, hiding a smile. Watching Kamio had always been fascinating, if a bit confusing to him. His friend was so volatile, in contrast to Shinji's own cool unflappability. "He just doen't realize it's been getting worse." Watching Kamio and Kirihara togethre was proving even more interesting than Kamio alone. They were an explosive combination, but if they managed to survive the tempest he thought they might just be good for each other.

Outside the courts Akaya glanced at his watch, then blew his whistle to call the exhausted boys back from their laps. "All right, good work guys," he said to them, making them brighten visibly. "Your time on the laps is improving, and your swings are getting better. I can tell you've been practicing. Starting Monday, we're going to start holding some mini-matches so you can get a feel for how a real game goes. Pick up the balls, then get changed and hurry to class. Don't be late again!"

There was a chorus of 'yes sir's, and the boys scattered to gather up the equipment. Stretching, Akaya turned to head to the clubroom to shower and get changed himself.

Kamio watched Kirihara intently as the other boy went into the clubroom to shower. "Well, I still think he's pretty unobservant if he hasn't figured that out," he said, shaking his head. "But...I'll talk to him." He rose to his feet, heading for the clubhouse. He'd station himself outside and catch Akaya after his shower "I'll see you in class, Shinji, okay?" he called back.

Shinji nodded, and went to help the first years clean up the balls just to have something to do while he waited for Kirihara and Kamio to vacate the area. He saw the kids shooting nervous glances at Kamio standing near the door, and realized they were picking up more slowly than usual in the hopes of not being near what they thought was the coming confrontation. He chuckled, and slowed his own pace as well.

Totally unsuspecting, Akaya emerged from the shower quickly and changed into his school uniform. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times in a futile effort to straighten it as it dried, then picked up his bag and headed out.

"Kirihara," Kamio called the instant the other boy emerged from the building. "We need to talk." He jerked his head away from the courts. "Come on." Turning, he began to walk in that direction, desperately hoping that Kirihara would come with him.

Akaya regarded him warily for a long moment, before shrugging and following him. Kamio was the captain, after all. At least, if he'd finally decided to blow up, he wasn't going to do it in front of everyone.

"Finally decided to acknowledge my existence again?" he asked as he followed, forcing a light tone into his voice. No way was he going to let Kamio know how nervous he was.

"I've always acknowledged your existence," Kamio growled. He reached a fairly secluded area, far enough away from the tennis club that he was pretty sure no one had been able to follow without being noticed. He turned to face Kirihara, trying to put a damper on his anger and not really succeeding.

"Shinji thinks that this is affecting the club, and that people are afraid that because I'm mad at you, that you're going to be kicked off the team, or that they're going to get in trouble for associating with you. So we're going to deal with this, somehow. Right now."

Lips thinning in an unknowing imitation of Kamio when he'd been presented with the same news, Akaya shook his head. "I knew some of them were going to talk to him, but I didn't realize they were that worried or I'd have done something before this. Damn it. Fine pair of responsible captains we make, if we can't keep our personal shit from affecting the club."

With a sigh, he raked his hand through his hair and dropped his bag, leaning against a wall. "All right. So now that you're talking to me again, now what?"

"Now I want an apology," Kamio said simply, his eyes flashing.

"For what?" Akaya asked, honestly confused. "Kissing you? You'll have to wait a long time for that, because I'm not in the least sorry I did. It was fun."

Kamio reddened angrily. "Not for kissing me!" he snapped. "For doing it just to fuck with me. You didn't do it because you like me, or because you wanted to, you just wanted to fuck with me. And then you LEFT!" Both fists were balled and he was leaned forward, definitely getting in Kirihara's face. "You used me to get accepted into the club, to get privileges none of the rest of the team has, and the instant you were done with me, you fucking dropped me. Don't give me that shit about avoiding me because I'm mad at you. That never stopped you before, and if you really CARED about me, you'd have tried to say something before now!"

Finally the tide of words, of things that he'd wanted to say all week stopped and he fell silent, his breathing loud and harsh in his ears.

A little bemused, Akaya just stared at him for a long moment. Well, that explains a lot. I do believe he was developing a crush on me, and I stepped all over it and hurt his feelings. Hell. How the fuck do I sort this out?

"Actually, I did it because I wanted to; fucking with your head was just an additional side benefit," he finally said. "And if you really think I was just using you to get special privileges, why didn't you just take them away again?"

"Because," Kamio said, looking away. "You're doing a good job of it, and I'm not going to deprive the team of something they need because I'm mad at you. The reasons I gave them to you still stand, but you didn't have to be so obvious about it."

Akaya nodded. Kamio really was a good captain, despite the way he'd been letting his anger at Akaya spill over in public. "I wasn't using you," he said bluntly. "I've got half a notebook full of things I need to go over with you at some point regarding the team, but I wanted to wait until you were speaking to me again. I figured I'd give you some time to calm down, but then you never did."

"Did you really expect me to calm down after what you did?" Kamio demanded. And I'm still waiting for that apology. It did make him feel a little better that Kirihara hadn't meant to make it seem like he was using him. Shinji had said that, too, and Kamio was willing to believe it if the two of them both said it.

"Most people usually do calm down eventually," Akaya said ironically. "Even Sanada never stayed mad at me this long. But I underestimated the strength of your temper, I think." He still wasn't quite sure what to say to fix this. Somehow 'I'm sorry I didn't realize you had a crush on me' didn't seem like quite the right solution, but that was what it all boiled down to.

"Yeah, well, you should know better by now," Kamio replied. His shoulders sagged. "You're not going to apologize for stealing my first kiss and then abandoning me, are you?" he asked softly.

"That was your first kiss?" Akaya looked shocked, then chagrined. "Ah, hell. Damn it, if I'd known that, I wouldn't have done it. That was a horrible first kiss." He snorted. "Then again, they don't tend to be much good in general, unless you're lucky enough to be with someone more experienced."

"Uh huh." That was all Kamio could bring himself to say. He felt drained of all emotion, exhausted instead of angry. He turned away. "I guess that's it, then," he said hollowly. "I'll see you around."

"Hey!" Not wanting to let it end like this, Akaya caught at Kamio's arm. "Look, I'm a flirt and a tease, all right? I was trying to get a rise out of you, I didn't realize you'd take it so seriously. I can't even promise not to flirt with you any more, becuase you're just too damn hot when you're flustered for your own good." He shook his head, and gave Kamio a pleading look. "Will you at least play me again? Training the kids is entertaining, but I'm bored. You're the only one here who can even give me a good game."

Kamio gave him a tired look. "And how long will it take me to start to like you again?" he demanded softly. "And what'll you do to me when I do?" He squeezed his eyes shut, looking away. "You HURT me, Kirihara, and you promised you wouldn't do that. And now you're saying that you'd do it again in an instant, because I'm fun when I'm hurt."

"Wait a minute!" Akaya protested, frowning. "I promised not to hurt anyone physically, damn it. I even warned you that I wasn't a nice guy, and you said you didn't expect me to stop being an asshole. You can't change the rules on me now!" He was a little panicked. Surely after what Kamio had said about keeping him because he was good for the team, he wasn't going to refuse to let Akaya try for the Regulars spot after all?

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have to subject myself to it," Kamio said. The thought of kicking Kirihara off the team, or refusing him a Regulars spot never entered his mind. He pushed his hand through his hair. "Kirihara...does it even matter to you that you hurt my feelings? Maybe you can't stop yourself, but do you even CARE?"

The honest answer to that was that he cared because it was fucking up one of the only things that had thus far made Fudoumine bearable, but Akaya knew that wasn't what Kamio wanted to hear. He wanted to know that Akaya felt guilty, not just upset.

"I could lie to you and convince you I was totally repentant, you know," he pointed out wearily. "Does honesty count for anything? I'd spent a grand total of two days with you, half of which you spent being pissy at me for one reason or another. If you'd been... I dunno, Niou or Marui and I hurt your feelings that bad, then yeah, I'd care a lot, if that means anything."

Kamio turned that over in his mind. Was he overreacting? Kirihara was right that they'd only spent two days together, and while they'd known each other for longer, it didn't really count. They hardly knew each other at all.

"I...guess I've been making a big deal out of nothing, then," he said slowly.

"Look, I won't promise not to flirt with you, because gods alone know where our definitions of flirting might not agree. But I will promise not to touch you again." He stuck out his hand, like he was offering to shake hands after a match. "On the rare occassions we're not pushing each other's buttons, I kinda like spending time with you. Truce?"

"Don't touch me unless you mean it," Kamio corrected him, reaching out hesitantly to clasp hands with Kirihara. "And I'll remember that you don't mean it, the next time you flirt with me." He met Kirihara's gaze, his expression determined.

"I always mean it," Akaya replied lightly, not allowing his relief to show in his expression. "I just don't need any kind of emotional connection behind it first, which is what you mean. Any time you want to experiment, I'm all for it. But don't fall for me, Kamio," he added, serious for just a moment. His green eyes showed a rare trace of regret. "I don't think I'm capable of caring about someone that way, frankly, so you'll only get your heart broken."

"Your definition of meaning it and mine are different," Kamio countered. Kamio dropped his hand, sighing softly. "I'll keep that offer in mind," he said. "But I don't know if I'm wired like that. Maybe...once I've gotten used to the idea." But he didn't want to be just someone that Kirihara experimented with because Kamio wanted to. He wanted to be special. Even if there wasn't love, he wanted there to be something, even if it was that Kirihara found Kamio more attractive than his other options.

"Nothing wrong with not being wired like that," Akaya said with a mirthless grin. "Hell, you may be the better off of the two of us." The prohibition against touching, of course, only made him want to touch even more. He wanted to brush those errant bangs out of Kamio's eyes, tease him with gentle touches until he was all flustered again. Play nice, or he'll leave the sandbox for good and then you'll really be in trouble, he reminded himself with an effort. "We're seriously going to be late for school if we don't go right now, though. Were you planning to change into your uniform at any point?"

Kamio reddened. "You're right," he said. "I...guess I'll see you in class," he added, turning to race off towards the club room to change.

The sudden cessation of hostilities was quickly noticed by the rest of the tennis club. Akaya was a little chagrined to realize just how much it had been affecting the rookies; his poor pre-Regulars no longer looked faintly panicked whenever Kamio glanced over after Akaya paid them a compliment.

In the afternoon practice the main difference between the five pre-Regulars and the rest of the group was the fact that they were already much better at holding up under the physical demands Akaya made of them all. They'd lost three of the twenty new members already, unable to keep up with the increased demands, and Akaya fully expected to lose at least five more by the end of the week. So far, unfortunately, he hadn't lost any of his potential troublemakers though.

He wasn't entirely surprised therefore when he emerged from the club room after the practice to see a ring of six second-year kids out on the court, tennis racquets still in hand. It actually took him a moment to realize they weren't just doing some kind of odd cicular drill; one of the smallest first years, his most enthusiastic but least skilled pre-Regular, was crouched in the middle of the circle trying to shield himself from the balls the older boys were serving at him.

"HEY!" Grateful that he hadn't put his uniform on since he was planning to ask Kamio for a game, Akaya dropped his bag and yanked his racquet out. Kamio and the other Regulars were still inside; at the moment it was just him and the kids.

Grabbing a ball from one of the baskets still piled near the door, Akaya tossed it into the air and served with all his strength. The ball struck the biggest bully squarely on the wrist, making him cry out and drop his racquet in shock.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Akaya demanded furiously, his eyes glazing over red as he grabbed another ball and slammed it towards the next bully in the circle. This time he thought he distantly heard the crack of bone as the ball impacted, and the six bullies screamed and scattered. By now he could hear the sounds of people in the clubroom reacting, as he snatched up another ball and targeted the ankle of one of the scattering boys, tripping him and sending him hard to the ground. He could see his pre-Regular crouched on the ground now, holding his arm like it was hurt, and it infuriated him further.

Kamio heard the shouting and was sprinting towards the fight in a twinkling. "Akaya!!" he shouted, arrowing straight towards them. "Akaya, stop!" He skidded to a halt between Akaya and the group of boy, holding out his arms. "Shinji, Tetsuya," he added, seeing the other two regulars nearby. "get those boys to the infirmary now!"

Panting, his eyes still red, Akaya gave Kamio a feral snarl. "They hurt Ueno!" he growled, gesturing with his racquet like he wished he could go over there and pound on them with it. "Damn it, if his arm is broken..." Some still rational part at the back of his brain was screaming at him that he was throwing his chance at the Regulars away. He'd broken his promise; he'd hurt not one, but three of the kids. But fucking hell, nobody picked on his kids!

"We never did, we were just drilling and he came out here and started slamming balls at us!" one of the shaken but unhurt bullies had the sense to try to cover up. "He's the one who hurt Ueno. The rumours are right man, he's crazy!" There was a chorus of fervent assent from the rest of the kids.

"Everyone shut up!" Kamio snapped. "Kirihara, into my office. You'll wait for me there. And if you don't want to get tossed off this team, you'll go there NOW and calm down." He turned away, dismissing him, and moved to Ueno's side. "Come on," he said. "Everyone who's hurt, let's go to the nurse's office and you can tell me your side of the story.

He wasn't sure whether to believe Akaya or not, but he hoped Ueno, at least, or some other witness, would be able to corroborate his story. Besides, Akaya might be crazy, but in Kamio's experience he'd never snapped outside of a game.

Ueno looked back and forth nervously between the still seething Akaya and the bullies, several of whom were glaring at him fiercely. Gulping, he just shook his head silently, refusing to decide whose side to take until he figured out which one would mean less pain for him in the end.

Snarling, Akaya shook off the restraining hands on his arms and shoulders and turned on his heel, scooping up his bag and stalking off towards the school building and Kamio's office. He ignored the angry mutters of the Regulars, only barely paying attention to where he was going as he struggled to fight off the leering, whispering voices all around him. The oni was everywhere he turned, too fast for him to avoid it.

By the time he reached the office his eyes had gone back to white, at least. He was sweating and shaking, but he'd driven the demon back far enough that it had no control over him, however much it howled at him. He stood outside the locked door with his fists clenched, waiting for Kamio to show up and officially throw him off the team. At least he hadn't done it in front of everyone, that would have been totally humiliating.

Kamio sighed softly, helping the pre-Regular to his feet. "Shinji, take them to the nurse's office, please," he said, and the blue-haired boy nodded, moving to help Ueno to his feet. As he passed Kamio, the captain added. "And TRY to get the truth out of Ueno."

He glanced at the other Regulars. "Did any of you guys see anything?" he asked. Please tell me you saw something.

There was a general shaking of heads. "We were all behind you, Kamio," Ishida finally offered as he picked up the kid who couldn't seem to put any weight on his ankle. "You know you're faster than the rest of us. All I saw was Kirihara trip this guy."

"He can be unstable, but it would be strange for him to just suddenly start hurting people for no reason," Shinji commented as he helped the small first year walk towards the nurse's office, followed by the other two with hurt wrists. It looked like at least one of them had a broken wrist, he was sweating and in shock and cradling his wrist gingerly. The other just seemed to be sprained.

"All right," Kamio sighed softly. "Well, I'll go talk to Kirihara, then. I never thought he'd just go off on people, either." He thought to himself that he'd probably be a LOT more upset if it weren't for the way Ueno was acting - not accusing the other teammates he'd been with, but also not accusing Kirihara - and the fact that all of the players involved, other than Ueno, were on Kirihara's list of troublemakers.

Still, he couldn't decide for sure until he'd gotten the stories from everyone. If Kirihara really HAD just snapped, he needed to know.

As he thought about this, he was making his way up to the clubroom. He rounded the corner towards his office and saw Kirihara standing outside. He saw with relief that his eyes were back to normal. Pulling out his keys, he moved to unlock the door. "Calmed down yet?"

"I'm still pissed as all hell, but I'm not gonna snap and go after you next, if that's what you're asking." Akaya was not in a good mood and it showed in his tone and expression. At that moment he was every inch the smug, arrogant asshole who'd come to Tachibana's hospital room and professed no sense of guilt whatsoever for what he'd done. Inside, however, he was very different than he had been that day, but it was doubtful anyone but his former teammates would have been able to spot the difference.

"Uh huh," Kamio said noncomittally, seeing that Kirihara really hadn't calmed down much at all. He opened the door and entered the office, sitting down in his chair and gesturing for Kirihara to sit down. "Okay, what happened?"

Akaya glanced at the chair, but he was too agitated to sit. "I came out and saw them all in a ring," he ground out, despairingly certain Kamio wasn't going to believe a word he said. "I thought they were just passing balls back and forth at first, but then I got a glimpse of Ueno in the middle. I guess they figured nobody would be out of the changeroom that fast, but I didn't bother showering because I was going to ask you for a match."

Kamio nodded. It confirmed his suspicions. "So what did you do? You just started kicking their asses?"

Giving him a wary look, Akaya nodded. "I wanted them off Ueno before they could do any more damage. He may not be much right now, but he's probably our best chance at a good singles player next year. Assuming the assholes didn't seriously injure him."

Kamio sighed. "Please tell me you at least SAID something before you started whacking balls at them," he pleaded. "You told them to stop, or something, and they didn't listen." He shook his head. "The problem is, no one saw what happened except for the people involved, and I'm afraid Ueno might be too afraid to back you up."

"I..." Akaya flushed, and turned away. "I yelled something at them. After I knocked the first one's racquet away, but I wasn't aiming to do much more than a bad bruise. Then I lost it." Losing his temper, truly losing it and not just getting angry, had always been a guaranteed entryway for the oni. It was one of the reasons he was so bitingly sarcastic and flippant to people; if he could attack them back with words, then he wouldn't lose his temper at them.

Kamio was pretty sure he remembered hearing that yell. He nodded. "Okay," he said. "Those six are off the team permanently. And I want you to watch Ueno - assuming he'll stay after this. If it seems like he's being bullied outside of tennis, then we might have to get our useless teacher contact involved. Or get Tachibana to take care of it, or something."

"You..." Akaya stared at him. "You believe me?" He'd been sure Kamio would laugh in his face. Even he was ashamed of his lack of control, how could Kamio trust him near the kids again? "I'm still on the team?"

"Of course I believe you," Kamio snorted, though there was really nothing 'of course' about it. He'd had his doubts, but he was pretty sure now. "All six of the guys with Ueno are on the list of troublemakers we compiled at the beginning. This isn't the first time that Fudoumine has had bullies on the tennis team. And it IS the first time I know of that you freaked out outside of a tennis match. Shinji agrees with me, that there had to be a reason."

"It's..." Akaya scrubbed at his face with his hands, not wanting to admit this but feeling like Kamio deserved at least some of the truth. "It's the first time I've done it off the courts since Yukimura talked the captain into giving me a chance in the pre-Regulars."

Kamio nodded, absorbing that information. He cocked his head. "I'd ask you never to do this again, but I don't know if you can promise that. Hopefully there won't be an opportunity for it to happen again, instead. I'm not sure I can let you stay if you hurt someone else."

With a wry quirk to his mouth, Akaya noted, "I'm kinda in shock that you're letting me stay now, so I could hardly object if you kick me off the team if I do it again." Slowly some of the tension drained out of his shoulders, and he collapsed down to sit in the chair with his face in his hands. "Thanks," he said, his voice muffled.

Hesitantly, Kamio reached out and put a hand on Kirihara's shoulder, wishing he understood what Kirihara was feeling right now. It wasn't guilt, he was pretty sure of that. Was it just relief that he got to keep playing tennis? Didn't the other boy care about ANYTHING else?

Taking a deep breath, Akaya finally looked up again, though he didn't shake off Kamio's hand. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to play, but I don't... I don't think that's a good idea right now. Tomorrow? It's Saturday, I told the pre-Regulars we still had practice before school, but you and I could play after class?" Assuming, of course, the other pre-regulars weren't too frightened to show up at practice.

"Sure, okay," Kamio said without hesitation. He took his own hand back, offering Kirihara a smile. "You can stay here for as long as you want," he added, rising to his feet. "The door will lock after you when you leave. I have to go do damage control and make sure the other pre-regulars WILL show up tomorrow."

"And make sure the Regulars don't decide to gang up on me, I hope," Akaya added, only half joking. "I'll see you tomorrow, Kamio."

"Yeah, that too," Kamio said with a pained smile. He gave Akaya a wave and exited the room, emerging from the clubhouse and looking around. Surely the Regulars would have questions.

Saturday classes seemed to drag by for Akaya. He'd been seriously worried that when he got to practice that morning he'd be the only non-Regular there, but to his surprise and gratification, not one of the boys had been missing. Even Ueno was there, unable to play for a week or so but showing off the massive bruise on his upper arm and loudly declaring how cool Akaya had been while saving him. Obviously something Shinji had said to the kid had convinced him that telling the truth wouldn't get him beaten up again by the bullies.

Much to his dismay, however, he'd also discovered that after hearing the story and description, the rest of the pre-Regulars had decided on a nickname for him. They were now insisting on refering to him as 'Oni-taichou', no matter how he much he growled or how often he ordered them to cut it out.

He wasn't sure if Kamio and the others had gotten wind of the nickname yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Sighing, he watched the endless minutes drag by until finally class let out for the day at noon.

As the bell rang and Kamio rose to his feet, grabbing his books, he was feeling pretty good about himself. Sending Shinji with Ueno had been the right move, and the other Regulars trusted his decision not to kick Kirihara off the team as a result. School was out for a whole day and a half. And he was going to play Kirihara again. He was actually looking forward to it quite a bit.

"Come on, Oni-taichou," he said, smirking. "Don't we have a game planned?"

"Oh, fuck you, don't you start," Akaya exclaimed, but his tone was good-natured exasperation. "I'm going to be stuck with that for the rest of my damn tennis career, aren't I? You wanna play here? The courts are better. Or would it hurt your image too much to have someone from the club see you get your ass handed to you?" Because if they played at school, it was guaranteed someone would hear about it and tell the whole club.

Kamio considered it. The temptation to go back to that court was strong, but he really didn't want to invite Kirihara back to his house again. It was too soon, and the last two times...hadn't ended well. "Sure, let's do it here," he said. "It won't hurt my image, I think they all know you're better than I am."

"I dunno, might be a bit of a shock to some of them," Akaya laughed. "I know for a fact that some of the first years assume you must be better than I am since you're the captain, and they're utterly in awe of you." He led the way out towards the change room, Shinji following along behind muttering under his breath.

As Akaya had suspected, a couple of the Regulars and two of his pre-Regulars occupied the courts already, having hurried out to claim them immediately after class. Shinji went to stand by Ueno, who was cheering his teammates on.

By the time Akaya and Kamio emerged with racquets in hand, both courts were clear and there were easily a dozen people lined up watching them expectantly. "Told you," Akaya laughed under his breath to Kamio.

Kamio was getting a little nervous now. "You don't think it'll undermine my authority if I lose to you, do you?" he asked as they walked. "I mean, Tachibana was the best on our team last year, and Tezuka was the best in Seigaku, and Atobe..."

"Sanada beat Yukimura about one out of three," Akaya told him, shrugging. "And I'm not even sure which of those two Seigaku idiots ended up captain this year, but they're evenly matched." He started stretching out. "The captain is probably usually the best player on the team, but sometimes the best player isn't necessarily the best one to be captain. That's why captains are chosen, not decided by a ranking tournament."

"I guess," Kamio said, sounding unconvinced. Oh well, I'm committed now, and it's not like they won't find out sooner or later that he's better than I am. At least I'm GOOD. He shoved his mp3 player headphones in his ears and listened as he warmed up, his awareness of his audience receeding like a tide in the face of the pounding music as he worked out the stiffness of hours in a hard class chair.

Glancing over the crowd as he continued to stretch, Akaya caught a lot of mixed reactions. The Regulars were mostly giving him distrustful looks, like they were getting ready to jump in the moment he did anything to hurth their captain. Well, he supposed he couldn't blame them for that. All the pre-Regulars were there now, whispering to each other in excitement - this would be the first time they'd actually seen Akaya play, instead of just demonstrating techniques or feeding them balls.

When he was ready, he tapped Kamio briefly on the shoulder and moved to one end of the court, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet to stay limber. Ibu had moved to the side to ref, the only one of the Regulars with no sign of hostility towards Akaya whatsoever.

Kamio nodded, removing his mp3 player and dropping it into his tennis bag, then putting the head of his racquet down and glancing at Akaya, his eyes beginning to light up with anticipation. "Rough or smooth?"

"Rough," Akaya replied, managing to bite back the rather sexual comment he would normally have made when asked that question outside of a tournament match. He hadn't promised not to flirt, but he could at least try not to be blatant.

Kamio grinned and spun the racquet, the english K coming down upside down and backwards. He bent to get his racquet. "You serving?"

"You bet. Ready or not..." Despite his teasing words, Akaya did wait for Kamio to get into position, his off hand holding the tennis ball in anticipation of the serve. Better let him take at least a couple of games, don't want to make him look bad, he reminded himself.

"Kamio Kirihara one set match," Shinji declared, raising one hand above his head. "Kirihara to serve." He dropped the hand, and Akaya tossed the ball into the air for a hard serve to the corner of the service box.

Kamio was on his game again, and he had been practicing fiercely, every chance he got, for the last week. Kirihara wouldn't have to hold back that much to allow the speed demon to take a few games. Indeed, he returned that first serve hard, sending it with pinpoint accuracy to the far corner of the court, on Kirihara's backhand side.

With Akaya's focus on keeping the inner demon tightly leashed, in fact, Kamio very nearly was a good match for him. Akaya took to pinpointing his shots right at Kamio's feet, always a difficult shot to return. If he'd listened to the whispering in the back of his mind he could have targeted something even harder to return, something that would use Kamio's weaknesses against him, but he was very carefully not listening.

In some ways, it was actually a relief to Akaya to know he could play a game this close and not lose control. Maybe this was still something he could get a handle on, though he didn't want to have to be holding himself back when it came time to go to the prefecturals.

The game wore on, taking quite a while despite the fact that both of them were very fast. Each point was hard-won, and they were neck and neck for a while before Kirihara began to pull away. Finally, the last game was won by Kirihara without Kamio taking a single point, and could have been blamed as much on Kamio's flagging strength as on the fact that Kirihara began to go all-out against him.

Panting, Kamio approached the net, his hand out to shake Kirihara's hand as the team cheered wildly.

Only in slightly better shape than the weary redhead, Akaya walked forward and shook the other boy's hand solemnly. "Good game," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. Maybe it was just him, but he thought the other Regulars had lost some of their hostility at least.

Grinning, Kamio nodded and squeezed his hand before releasing it, moving to grab his water and towel off. He thought that the other Regulars seemed to be more relaxed, too, as Kirihara hadn't come close - visibly - to hurting their captain. Slowly, Kirihara was earning their trust.

|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