Chapter 14

Unlike Shishido's family, Ohtori's had insisted on actually holding a birthday party for him, instead of just letting him invite some friends over to hang out. His protests, no matter how vehement, had gone unheeded. At this point, he was just grateful he'd at least been allowed to choose the guest list, and that they did recognize that he was a bit too old for party games.

Also unlike Shishido, Ohtori did not hold his birthday celebration on his actual birthday. He never did, unless it happened to fall on a weekend, because there was already far too much stress associated with that day. If he'd had his way, he'd have spent the majority of his birthdays curled up under his blankets and ignoring the world.

Well, the female half, anyway. He didn't even like chocolate all that much. Why had his mother thought that it would be 'cute' for him to be born on Valentine's day? The way his father told it, his mother had gone out of her way to do strenuous things that would trigger labour early, even though he hadn't been due for another couple of days.

Of course, his mother always laughed and swatted at his father when he told that story, protesting that she'd done no such thing, so it was possible his father was making it up. But frankly, he wouldn't have put it past his mother to do something like that.

Instead, the Sunday before his birthday he invited a bunch of people over to his house - the former tennis team, his boyfriend, and a couple other people from the orchestra. In all honesty, most of the latter had been invited purely so that Amano wouldn't be stuck listening to tennis stories all afternoon; Ohtori wasn't particularly close to anyone in the orchestra except Amano. For all that the orchestra itself was smaller than the tennis club, it didn't foster the same sense of closeness that being on the Regulars had.

None of them except Shishido and Amano had been to his house before. His family was well off even by Hyoutei standards, and most of his friends had been rather astonished to see where he lived. The tennis Regulars of course were used to Atobe and his mansions, so it wasn't quite as shocking to them, but he was still getting some sideways looks from Mukahi and Jirou had babbled about the house for a good ten minutes before getting sleepy again.

He stood now in the doorway to the back garden, a plate of half-eaten cake in one hand as he watched the little clusters of people talking and drifting about. Even though it was supposed to be his party, he wasn't really enjoying himself. Most of his attention had gone into keeping Shishido and Amano away from each other; any time they saw each other he got a sense of impending disaster that was hard to shake.

Maybe it had something to do with the way he could see Amano freezing over anytime Shishido was even mentioned, or the sound of Shishido growling if he caught sight of Amano. The fact that his boyfriend and his partner disliked each other intensely was a severe source of strain for Ohtori, and it was getting wearing.

"Hey, Ohtori-kun, this cake is really good!" a familiar voice exclaimed from behind him, and Ohtori's smile was only half feigned as he turned. Jirou was bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, his brown eyes wide and a grin the size of Atobe's ego plastered over his face. Ohtori could only assume it was a result of the sugar rush from the cake.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it, Jirou-san," he said politely. "Um. Have you seen Shishido-san or Kazuya anywhere?" He hadn't seen either of them in at least ten minutes, and it was starting to make him nervous. What if they were somewhere together?

"I saw Amano-kun talking to your sister in the kitchen," Jirou replied, tilting his head to one side. "We went in 'cause I wanted more cake, but then Atobe dragged Shishido off somewhere when we saw Amano-kun." His grin widened slightly. "I think he went to go 'drill some culture into him' by asking your mother to show them the rose gardens.

Ohtori breathed a quiet sigh of relief. His mother's prize roses had won several shows, and the gardens had been featured in half a dozen magazines. His mother could talk about them for hours, and it wouldn't surprise him in the least if Atobe actually was interested in that sort of thing. And while Shishido wouldn't have hesitated to tell Atobe off for dragging him into something like that, the senior was never anything but polite to Ohtori's mother. Once she started talking, he'd have been forced to just follow along and listen quietly.

"Thank you," he said fervently to Jirou, who snickered softly. "And please pass my thanks on to Atobe-san as well, if I don't get a chance to. I don't know what I'd have done today without the two of you helping to keep Shishido-san occupied."

"It was the least we could do," Jirou replied, making no effort to dissemble about it. His eyes were sparkling with laughter. "Considering how badly we screwed up at Shishido's birthday party. We figured it was kind of our duty to make sure things didn't go too badly today."

"Well it's working, so far at least," Ohtori said wryly. "I've been waiting for disaster to strike all day, but it hasn't yet." He tried to stifle a sigh without much success. "This would be so much easier if they could at least tolerate each other."

Somewhat to his surprise, Jirou reached up and patted him gently on the shoulder. "It's tough on you," the older boy agreed. "But you can handle it. You're stubborn - as stubborn as Shishido, in your own way."

Laughing, Ohtori nodded. "I have to be, or he'd walk all over me. That wouldn't be much of a partnership."

"You'll be fine," Jirou predicted, nodding firmly. "It'll all work out in the end, you'll see. At least you're not fighting with either of them now."

Much, Ohtori mentally appended Jirou's sentence. He and Amano had reached a sort of cold-war stalemate on the subject of Shishido, mostly by avoiding the topic of conversation entirely. Ohtori was careful not to ever bring the senior up, and Amano did his best to pretend the older boy didn't exist. It was an uneasy truce, and Ohtori knew it couldn't go on forever. Sooner or later one of them would reach the breaking point, and he had a feeling it was going to be messy when it happened.

He could only hope that it wouldn't happen today. Not with his family present. He hadn't yet found the courage to tell them about his preferences, and doubted he would do so any time in the near future. Maybe later, after he'd moved out to go to university. The last thing he needed right now was to possibly be thrown out of his house and lose his tuition to Hyoutei. Not that he really believed his family would do that to him, but it wasn't worth even the slightest risk.

But he wasn't going to dump any of that on poor Jirou. He could handle his own problems, damn it. He was fourteen years old - well, he would be in two more days, anyway. He needed to stand on his own two feet, and work things through without relying on others to fix things for him.

At least Shishido was making an honest effort not to bad-mouth Amano in any way. He also preferred to avoid the subject of Ohtori's boyfriend if at all possible, but when he sensed Ohtori really needed to talk about it, he wasn't hesitant to draw the younger boy out about it. And true to his word, he'd done his best to offer a supporting shoulder without letting his own bias interfere.

Then again, given their respective temperaments, if a blow-up did happen today he was fairly certain it would be started by Shishido, so maybe there wasn't all that much difference in the two situations after all. He was just nicer about it to Ohtori.

"You know, sometimes I think I must subconsciously like having my life be so complicated," he said wearily. "I certainly go out of my way to do things in the most difficult way possible. I'm too stubborn to ever take the easy route."

"Life is complicated," Jirou replied with a shrug. "If it's not, then you're not actually living, you're just drifting. It's the tough stuff that makes it interesting." When Ohtori stared at him in surprise for that rather deep statement, the older boy grinned at him again. "Why do you think I sleep so much? It's to get past all the boring, unchallenging stuff to the things that are actually worth being awake for."

"You..." Ohtori had to laugh. He reached up to ruffle the shorter boy's hair, and Jirou leaned into the touch happily like an overeager puppy. "Sometimes I forget that Atobe-san and Shishido-san don't just keep you around because you're cute."

"That's okay, everybody forgets," Jirou informed him glibly. "Even Atobe and Shishido. I don't mind, I think the look on people's faces when I shock them is funny."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me in the least." Ohtori mimed smacking Jirou and the older boy ducked playfully, nearly spilling his cake.

"You should go find Atobe-san," he added when Jirou had rebalanced the endangered confection. "At least somebody ought to be having fun today."

"Nah, I'm not interested in roses," Jirou shook his head. "I'd fall asleep, and your mom would probably be insulted because she doesn't know me." Ohtori laughed again, and Jirou grinned impishly. "I think I'll go talk to Amano-kun. He should know that not all tennis players are evil... and he's fun, he doesn't know what to make of me."

"You have spent far too much time around Atobe-san and Shishido-san," Ohtori told him, shaking his head. "They've corrupted you. I bet you were a sweet, innocent little child who would never even think of enjoying the fact that someone didn't know how to react to you."

"Are you kidding me?" Now the impish grin was turned on Ohtori, brown eyes sparkling up at him. "Who do you think corrupted them?" With that Jirou scampered off, heading back into the kitchen in search of Amano.

Chuckling softly to himself, Ohtori leaned back against the side of the house and resumed watching the little knots of people drifting about. Mukahi was demonstrating his gymnastics prowess to a group of awed musicians, while Oshitari appeared to be discussing doubles training methods with Hiyoshi. One of the drummers was over in a corner teaching Kabaji basic beats using an upside down bowl; Ohtori smiled when he realized the big junior's ability to copy anything he saw physically done was actually making him a quick enough study that he was impressing the other musicians in the area. It was nice to see Kabaji getting a bit of attention for his own sake for a change.

"Well, it's nice to see you smiling for a change, little brother," his sister's voice came from behind him. He turned to see her coming out of the kitchen towards him, and she raised an eyebrow at him. "I know you don't like your birthday much, but you usually enjoy the parties more than this. Why were you so insistent on mom and dad not doing anything this year, anyway? You've spent the whole afternoon looking like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"More like waiting for the bomb to explode," Ohtori sighed and gave her a resigned smile. She was shorter than he was despite being four years older; not by much, though. She was probably taller than most of the people at the party. She often teased him that it was supposed to be the little brother who looked up to the older sister, not the other way around, so he needed to shrink a bit.

"Why, what's the disaster waiting to happen?" she wanted to know, coming out to lean against the wall beside him. "Everyone seems to be having a good time."

"That's because there are a couple of people, including me, putting a great deal of effort into making sure things stay peaceful." He raked a hand through his hair and tried not to sigh again. "I've got two people here who literally can't stand the sight of each other. One of them has a short temper, and the other one snarks at people he doesn't like. If they stay in each other's presence for more than a minute or two I'm afraid it might degenerate into a fight."

"Why'd you invite them, then?" she asked curiously. "You should have left them both off the guest list, and if they asked about it you could have told them it was because they were too childish for you to be sure they'd behave properly. That would probably shut them up fast."

"I couldn't not invite them," Ohtori shook his head wryly. "One of them is my best friend, and the other is my partner." It occurred to him belatedly that telling her this was just asking for her to wonder why the two boys hated each other so much. Well, maybe he could just tell her they'd gotten into a fight over something.

"Ouch." She winced and looked appropriately chagrined. "Yeah, that's a pretty bad situation. I don't blame you for being nervous." She paused, and then laughed softly. "I wondered why that hyperactive tennis boy was taking such an interest in Amano-kun. Keeping him busy and away from Shishido-kun, is he?"

"Something like that," Ohtori agreed. He couldn't help smiling again as he added, "Atobe-san dragged Shishido-san off with him to ask kaa-san about her roses."

His sister laughed again. "Clever. That will keep him occupied for a while. So is that why you've been dragging around looking so frustrated lately? Because the two of them are fighting and it's putting you in the middle?"

Hesitating, Ohtori reviewed his options. While he and his sister had never been terribly close, he valued her advice a great deal. He'd been badly wanting to ask her for help with this whole mess, but hadn't figured out how to do it without giving himself away. "Partly," he answered slowly. "There's some other stuff going on as well, unrelated to them." He shrugged awkwardly and looked at her from the corner of his eye, shyly. "Nee-san? Will you promise not to tell kaa-san and tou-san if I ask you something? They'll just tease me."

She grinned at him, looking delighted. "Girl trouble, huh? It's about time. All right, I promise I won't tell them. I still owe you for not telling them you caught me kissing Daisuke in my room last year. What's up? Trying to figure out how to confess to someone you like?"

"No, I'm kind of past that part," he told her, shuddering at the memory of his confession to Shishido. At least Amano had been the one who'd confessed to him. "I wish it were that simple. I just... if you were going out with someone and one of your friends, a really close friend, didn't like the guy, what would you do?"

Sharply she asked, "You know you could be expelled if they catch you dating before high school, right?" He nodded. She had no idea how likely that outcome was if the school authorities found out about his relationship. "So long as you're careful," she shrugged. "Not like you're the first person to break the rule.

"As for your question, I'd like to say that I'd start seriously reconsidering the guy I was dating," she replied thoughtfully. "Having your friends not like your guy is often an indication that there's something going on that's not so good, that you can't see because you're too close to the situation. But in all honesty, I'd probably ignore them. Nobody who thinks they're in love ever wants to listen to anything bad about their boyfriend. It would probably make me worry, though."

"What if the friend who didn't like him was also a guy, though?" Ohtori persisted. "And you knew he kind of had a crush on you, and that probably the reason he didn't like your boyfriend was that he was jealous?"

She gave him an odd look, and he realized too late that talking about this immediately after telling her about Amano and Shishido's feud probably hadn't been the smartest thing he'd ever done. He was really sticking his foot in his mouth today. He flushed miserably and looked away from her.

"Choutarou, do you even have any close female friends?" she asked, and his flush deepened. Before he could blurt out something about the few girls from the orchestra he'd invited to the party, she shook her head and raised her hand to stop him. "No, you know what? Never mind, don't answer that. None of my business."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ohtori relaxed. She'd always been a very open and progressive person, at least. And she'd already promised not to tell their parents about this. "Thank you, nee-san," he said quietly.

"No problem," she replied, giving him a quirky smile. "What are big sisters for? I don't really know what to tell you, though. I guess you just have to decide if the friendship is worth the jealousy or not. But remember that this probably won't be an isolated incident; they'll always be jealous of your, uh... significant others. It could cause more problems later on."

He nodded seriously, considering her words. She patted him on the shoulder in an unknowing echo of Jirou's earlier gesture of support. "Just remember, however bad it all feels like it is right now, it's mostly just teenage angst blowing everything out of proportion. In a couple of years you'll look back at yourself and laugh because you were so dramatic about everything."

Somehow he doubted that very much. He was not 'dramatic' - though people had certainly referred to Shishido as a 'drama queen' often enough. And the situation was a great deal more complicated than he'd told her, so she just didn't understand what was going on.

She laughed, apparently seeing his doubt in his eyes. "I know, you don't believe me," she grinned at him. "I didn't believe mom either, when she told me the same thing. I was your age and going through my first crush, and I was convinced the world was going to end if I confessed to him and he didn't like me back. You'll see." Patting him again, she turned to go back into the kitchen.

The only real problem with her advice - other than the ridiculousness of thinking he'd be able to laugh at this in a few years - was that it wasn't actually Shishido who was causing most of the problems with his jealousy. Oh, he would probably be the one to start any real fighting that might happen between his boyfriend and his partner, but for the most part Ohtori had to admit he was being remarkably mature about the whole thing. Maybe because he knew he had only himself to blame for missing his chance.

Did that mean it wasn't the value of his friendship, but rather the value of his relationship that needed to be weighed against the difficulty caused by the jealousy issues? He shifted, uncomfortable with the thought. If he was being honest with himself, there was a part of him - a small part, but nevertheless a part of him - that was starting to think that having to constantly placate Amano wasn't worth the effort he had to put into it. The cold-war state they were in meant they weren't actively fighting about it any more, but Ohtori sometimes felt like he had to keep track of all the time he spent with Shishido, so he could be certain to spend just as much or more with Amano.

It shouldn't be about how much time he spent with one or the other of them, right? Shouldn't it be about the quality of the time they spent together? Somehow he didn't think Amano was going to get over the need for frequent reassurance any time soon.

Guilt struck him as he realized he was actually contemplating breaking up with his boyfriend just because he had to put a little effort into keeping the other boy happy. What kind of a shallow person was he? Amano had been there for him during one of the worst periods of his life, and had certainly put more than just 'a little effort' into dealing with Ohtori at that time. Was it too much of him to ask that Ohtori put up with a bit of insecurity from him in return?

Of course not. Sighing, Ohtori resigned himself to the situation. He wasn't willing to give up Shishido as a partner, and he was by the gods going to prove to Amano that he had nothing to worry about. Hopefully things would improve as time showed Amano that he didn't need to worry about losing Ohtori to his partner, even if he was actually becoming friends with Shishido again. He rubbed at his forehead, trying to massage away the headache building behind his eyes. Teenaged angst, indeed. If his sister had ever had to deal with anything this complicated at his age, he'd eat his tennis racquet.

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