Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Reflections of Myself - Rikkaidai AU - Niouyagyuu ❯ Chapter 2

Reflection of Myself

A Prince of Tennis Rikkaidai AU Fic

By Andrea Readwolf [andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com]

Chapter: 2

Rating: PG

Pairings: Niou Masaharu + Yagyuu Hiroshi, Marui Bunta/Jackal, Yukimura Seiichi/Sanada Genichirou

Genre: Drama

Warnings: AU story. Shounen-ai. Family secrets.

Spoilers: Rikkaidai arc, perhaps.

Summary: Niou transfers into Rikkai HS as a freshman with ulterior motives.

 

Disclaimer: Tennis no Ohjisama, characters and settings are the property of Konomi Takeshi.

 

Date Started: September 13, 2003

Status: complete

Revised: January 2005

Word Count: 4901

 

 

"Reflections of Myself" Chapter 2 - Yagyuu Hiroshi

 

 

"I'm home," he called out in greeting as he entered his house, sliding out of his shoes and into his house slippers. As expected, silence answered him back.

 

Swallowing a sigh, he began a cursory inspection of the lower level of the house. He found his elder sister in the family room, curled up on the sofa with a damp towel covering her eyes and a hot water bottled tucked against her abdomen. Self-perseverance had him shying away from that room quickly, and instead he veered towards the kitchen.

 

He was making his way up to his room with snack and schoolbag in hand when he heard his mother call out from the front door.

 

"I'm home! Noriko? Hiroshi? Tomoko? Are you home? Come help me with these bags!"

 

He sighed. It seemed his mother had gone shopping again for more useless things to fill her house with.

 

That's how he thought of the place where he lived, slept---his mother's house. It wasn't a home; it wasn't his family's house. It was his mother's house. Even his father didn't spend more time than necessary in the dwelling, leaving for work early in the morning and not returning until late at night. Sometimes they went a whole week without seeing each other, without everyone sitting down together for a meal or to watch the television or other things normal families supposedly did together.

 

'His father,' Hiroshi thought with a mental snort as he continued up the stairs to his bedroom to drop off his books and food. He seriously contemplated remaining upstairs and blatantly ignoring his mother's continued calls. Apparently Noriko wasn't bothering to move her ass off the sofa anytime soon, and Hiroshi knew his little sister wouldn't be home until she was kicked out of one of her friends' homes.

 

Sighing, he returned back downstairs to find his mother still in the foyer, struggling with many large bags.

 

"Oh, Hiroshi. There you are! I was beginning to think you hadn't come home yet." Ignoring the fact, of course, that his street shoes were lined up neatly on his shoe shelf.

 

"I just arrived only a few minutes before you," he replied evenly, reaching out to take several of the shopping bags from her.

 

"Oh, thank you. I bought some fish for dinner. I thought maybe some vegetable tempura and fish steaks? Doesn't that sound yummy?"

 

"Of course," he answered, dutifully carrying the bags that were obviously filled not with food products but clothes and house accessories into the kitchen.

 

"Would you like to help me prepare--"

 

"Actually, mother," he interrupted with false politeness. "I was just preparing to start my homework. I don't want to fall behind so early in the school year."

 

"No, of course not," she agreed, frowning. "I understand wanting to stay at the top of all your classes. By the way, dear, how *is* school this year? With everything being so hectic around here, I haven't had a real chance to sit down and ask you."

 

'Hectic' meaning his mother had decided that the gardens that had grown in their back yard since Hiroshi could remember were suddenly deemed unacceptable, and she was currently busy remodeling the entire grounds.

 

"Everything is fine," he answered minimally.

 

"Oh?" his mother returned, smiling at him and motioning for him to take a seat. "Do you have classes with anyone I know?"

 

Hiroshi sighed, refusing to take a seat. He had no intentions of being trapped into staying for very long. Besides, his mother never bothered to remember who was in his classes even though he'd been attending the same school since kindergarten.

 

"There is no one new to the E block," he replied since he sincerely doubted his mother knew any of the students names in his entire school let alone his class.

 

"Oh? Really?" she actually sounded... disappointed? "What about that nice boy? Is he still in your class? You know the one I'm talking about--the sweet one--wasn't he the captain of your club last year?"

 

"Yukimura-kun?" he offered helpfully.

 

When his mother had first seen the other boy, back in elementary school, she had thought Yukimura was a girl.... He was probably the only person his mother actually thought she knew, although she could never seem to remember his name and always referred to him as "that nice boy" or that "sweet boy". Hiroshi blamed it on the fact that Yukimura had offered his mother flowers from the other boy's garden one day.

 

"Yes, Yukimura-kun. Are you still friendly with him?" she asked, smiling in an eerily pleasant way.

 

"We're members of the same club, Mother." It was getting harder to hide his annoyance. He did have homework to complete.

 

"Oh? Does he play golf, too?"

 

"He doesn't."

 

His mother's face dipped as the smile suddenly disappeared. "Hiroshi... I thought you decided to quite tennis."

 

Yes, he'd thought so, too, and his chest still hurt, but--

 

"I was made an offer too irresistible to refuse, so I've rejoined," he told his mother. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I really must see to my homework."

 

And with that Hiroshi made a respectable dash for the exit and his bedroom, locking himself away until supper was called.

 

~~~****~~~

 

Niou Masaharu was a tricks artist.

 

Hiroshi was unsure who had first spoke the title "The Trickster," but by the end of their second week of school everyone knew of the Trickster, even if they didn't have a clue who Niou Masaharu was. He found it somewhat amusing. In fact, Hiroshi found most things about his new partner interesting.

 

The Trickster, after all, was only one facet of Niou Masaharu.

 

Niou was a fairly decent student. Although Hiroshi told himself that he was only concerned about the other teen's academic performance because it was partly his responsibility as both a freshman representative and Niou's doubles partner, and that was why he took the time to look at the other boy's tests scores whenever they were posted. Still, he was satisfied to see that they were above the class average in most cases. That was, of course, only to be expected from someone who had managed to pass the transfer exams into Rikkaidai, but it was still reassuring to see that the other teen took his studies and academic performance seriously.

 

Hiroshi was also satisfied with Niou's performance on the tennis courts. As a tennis player, Niou Masaharu was decent. He could hold his own in a singles tennis match, but it was in doubles that he shined. Hiroshi was not naive enough to believe it was only when Niou was playing as his partner; he knew from practice that the other teen carried his own weight on the courts. He had seen it for himself when Niou played with other partners.

 

And there were plenty of opportunities to observe. It seemed that watching Niou and Hiroshi sweep through the majority of the school's doubles players had reminded the captain that good doubles pairs were in high demand, and on Monday captain Nakujima had announced doubles rotation matches for the next two weeks.

 

Hiroshi had played his own games with the ease of any experienced doubles player who was forced to endure a non-doubles partner for a period of time. He didn't take the losses as a personal insult when they came--and they came. There was no help for some losses when you were forced to play with incompetent partners. Still, he was almost ashamed to admit that it took him until Friday to understand why suddenly no one wanted to partner with him for the practices.

 

Except, of course, for--

 

"How did you know Kawahara was afraid of lizards?" he asked the other freshman casually.

 

Niou looked up at him from where he was crouching, retying his shoelace. "Huh?"

 

"Or that Arozaki is allergic to olives?"

 

The other teen's lips twitched, but otherwise he was the epitome of cluelessness. "Man, Yagyuu, I don't know what you're talking about, but it was kind of amusing to watch Arozaki puff up like that at lunch..."

 

"Are you jealous, Niou?" he asked, a tiny bit amused, a tiny bit curious.

 

"Me? Jealous?" the light-haired boy scoffed. "Oh what?"

 

"I don't know. Perhaps my playing partners with someone else? "

 

"Why would watching you play tennis make me jealous?"

 

"You tell me. Why did you do it, Niou? Kawahara and Aozaki aren't bad players, and they certainly weren't the only members I doubled with this week and lost. So why did you target them specifically?"

 

"Okay, first of all," Niou huffed, standing up fully and stretching. "You know, just because I happen to be rather easily amused by others' misfortunes doesn't mean I always have to have a hand in causing those little mishaps."

 

"Of course not."

 

"Good. Now that said..." Niou grinned. "If I was to have had something to do with Kawahara's and Aozaki's little incidents--not saying that I did, mind you, but if I did, then it would most likely be because they had the idiotic idea to try and make my partner look bad. Hypothetically speaking, of course."

 

"I sincerely hope, then," a new voice spoke up with a teasing air beside them. "That I won't make you look poorly, Yagyuu. It's our turn. Are you ready?"

 

"Of course, Yukimura-san," he replied, nodding in greeting to Sanada who stood not several meters away, glaring threateningly at Niou.

 

The former tennis captain looked to Niou, smiling, the sunlight reflecting off his dark blue-black hair. "Niou-kun?" he asked, as if asking for permission.

 

"As if you ever look bad," the other teen responded with a knowing smirk.

 

Hiroshi found it to be an interesting match; he paired with Yukimura, and Niou with Sanada.

 

Hiroshi had played both Yukimura and Sanada before--as both a singles and doubles player. He calculated Yukimura and he would be the victorious pair for the sheer fact of familiarity. He knew from court gossip that Niou had played an unofficial match against Sanada and Yukimura the previous week, but that had been a singles match.

 

In addition, it was Hiroshi's secret opinion, that of the two phenomenal singles players, Sanada was the more difficult person to play doubles with.

 

So why was the Niou-Sanada pair winning by two games?

 

"You seem distracted, Yagyuu," Yukimura commented slightly breathless as he reached for his water bottle. "Is something the matter?"

 

Hiroshi wasn't sure. Was there something wrong?

 

Yukimura's smile was kind and sincere--his eyes sharp and questioning as they glanced from Hiroshi to Niou and back again. "He is very good, isn't it?"

 

"He's not Jin," Hiroshi replied sharply and then frowned. He hadn't meant to say that...

 

"No," Yukimura agreed, replacing his water bottle. "He's not. You would do well to remember that."

 

Hiroshi watched his former captain walk back onto the court to continue their practice match. A moment later, he followed him.

 

~~~****~~~

 

Rikkaidai was a school of excellence.

 

It was the best schooling institution ranging from Kindergarten to University level in all of the Kantou Region, and one of the best in all of Japan. It took more than just money to be a Rikkaidai student, although the tuition was by no means cheap. Many parents fought to have their children enrolled in the Kindergarten level each year. Even then, once you won one of the highly-coveted limited seats on the enrollment list, students were held to high expectations and responsibilities they had to meet each year to be allowed back the next year.

 

Students were expected to excel not only in academics, but in sports and social activities as well. It was almost mandatory that everyone in the student body participate in at least one school sport and one committee throughout the school year. In addition, if your academic performance was below the national average in any given subject for more than one semester you were put on probation. If you had the misfortune to actually fail a semester's class more than once you were asked to leave the school.

 

Hiroshi had known more than a few students who had left because of that reason. Others left because they couldn't deal with the stress the demands of excellence hovering over them dealt. Of the original forty-five children he had started Kindergarten with only thirteen remained. The ninety-nine other freshman students were those who had transferred in somewhere between elementary and junior high school, plus the two who had managed to transfer in this year--Niou and some girl in Yanagi's class.

 

Akiyama had transferred in during their fifth grade year, at the start of the second term. He was a small kid, who didn't say anything at all, so most of the other kids either ignored him or teased him. Hiroshi was also a quiet kid, but he wasn't a stranger. The other kids respected Hiroshi for various reason, that honestly he couldn't have cared less about. The point was, they knew better than to try and harass him.

 

It was during recess; Hiroshi was returning from a trip to the toilet when he overheard the teacher trying to talk to Akiyama. He was as surprised as the teacher must have been when Akiyama started shouting and screaming.

 

Hiroshi still wasn't sure what possessed him to step in front of Akiyama's fist and push it aside. They stared at each other; Hiroshi calm in the face of Akiyama's upset--and then Akiyama whirled, kicked over a desk, and stomped through its spilled contents to exit the classroom.

 

Hiroshi followed. He didn't know why.

 

The bell rang to resume classes. He ignored it.

 

He found Akiyama in the sports hall, shooting at a basketball hoop and stubbornly scrubbing at his wet eyes in between shots.

 

"You can't speak Japanese, can you?" Hiroshi asked.

 

"What the hell do you want, huh?" Akiyama returned in English.

 

"How did you pass the entrance exam if you can't even understand the language?" he'd wondered aloud.

 

"You're wasting your breath, you know," Akiyama grumbled. "I don't know what you're saying. I didn't ask to come to this stupid country, with its stupid people and stupid food and--" He threw the basketball to the ground with all of his strength.

 

It bounced up high. Hiroshi watched as it came back down and reached out to grab it. "Yagyuu," he introduced, holding out his hand.

 

Akiyama stared at him warily, and Hiroshi tried one more time, pointing to his nose and saying his name again. "I'm Yagyuu."

 

"Ya-gew," the other boy tried and Hiroshi winced at the mispronunciation, but he grinned when Akiyama reached out for his hand and pumped it confidently. "Call me Jin."

 

~~~****~~~

 

Hiroshi sat on his bed, looking at the seemingly innocent folder sitting out on his computer desk where he'd placed it when he returned home this evening.

 

Yanagi had found him today during lunch and given it to him. A questioning look produced an answer and amused smile from the other teen.

 

"I thought," Yanagi explained, "that as one of the freshman class representatives, you would like to have some background information about the two new students," he answered pleasantly. "There's also a projecting chart for the first years."

 

Yagyuu had flipped through the contents of the folder--the first couple of pages displayed the projection chart. A cursory look showed Yanagi's expectation for at least three students' departure before the end of the second semester, Hiroshi noted. Behind the pages of charts and graphs were two more pages, these filled with information about the new girl--school and medical records mostly with a paragraph addendum of Yanagi's personal opinion of the girl. Behind those was a separate folder, approximately three times as thick as the previous papers.

 

"It took me nearly a half an hour to print out his school records alone," Yanagi commented with amusement.

 

Hiroshi stared at Niou's school picture... and then snapped the folder shut. "Thank you for your hard work."

 

"Of course."

 

Hiroshi had withdrawn Niou's folder after school. It was this folder that was currently sitting on his computer desk, taunting him to look through it. It contained a mountain of information about his doubles partner, after all. Practically anything and everything he might ever want to know about Niou Masaharu was sitting in that folder.

 

Niou...

 

Niou was... intriguing.

 

He was crazy and wild and sexy and ... He was like a wild, untamable animal whose eyes and smile seemed to dare Hiroshi to just try and tame him....

 

... Intoxicating.

 

The way he moved on the court, at practice. The way he slid through the hallways, during break, or lounged around at lunch.

 

It was his eyes, Hiroshi thought--the way Niou looked at you or didn't look at you. And his body--the way his muscles tensed and relaxed, and he sometimes bounced on the balls of his feet and raised his arms over his head and stretched--showing off his body to whoever would watch...

 

And many were watching, Hiroshi noticed. As the third and fourth week of school passed by and the student body began a buzzing tizzy in preparation for the oncoming midterms, Hiroshi became aware of just how many people were watching Niou.... and not all those eyes were gleaming in appreciation.

 

Hiroshi wasn't foolish enough not to realize he was receiving more than his fair share of some of those malicious looks, but he wasn't worried. Although it had been quite some time since he'd had to defend himself physically, Hiroshi knew he was still more than capable of doing so. And he felt confident that Niou was equally as capable. Not that Yukimura would ever allow anything to happen to one of his friends. Hiroshi grinned.

 

The boy his mother saw only as 'sweet' and 'nice' was an extremely possessive person... and Hiroshi knew from experience that his friend could also be extremely vicious when someone or something dared to threaten the person Yukimura had claimed as his.

 

So he didn't worry too much about those looks. He knew Yukimura was probably aware of them, and as the other teen hadn't said anything to him, Hiroshi figured they weren't serious yet. Besides, not worrying about those people left him free to think more about his partner.

 

His eyes fell on the folder once again.

 

There was nothing stopping him from reading it---

 

Except Hiroshi knew Niou wouldn't appreciate having his life's story read from a file, and that left a bad feeling sitting in Hiroshi's gut.

 

He sighed and rolled off the bed and picked up the folder.

 

He was interested. He wanted to understand Niou Masaharu--understand him better than anyone else.... But he wanted to find out about Niou *from* Niou.

 

And with that decision made, Hiroshi slid the folder, unopened, onto his bookshelf.

 

~~~****~~~

 

"Whew! I'm tired!" Marui exclaimed at the end of practice. "I need some sugar!"

 

"If you keep eating all the time, you're going to get fat," Niou retorted with a snort, smearing Yagyuu's towel across his face and reaching for a sports bottle.

 

"Hee hn!" Marui grinned and shot Niou the finger before flipping his hand into the victory sign. "I keep tell you I'm a genius--it's all in the genes! Fast metabolism," he added patting his stomach. "Besides," the redhead added over his shoulder as he started walking off towards the locker rooms. "If they keep working us as hard as they have been at practice, I won't be able to keep up without a constant sugar supply. Come on, let's go grab some burgers or something."

 

"Bah!" Niou grumped, tossing Yagyuu's towel back to its owner. "Love to, but can't. Got homework to do."

 

"No problem," Marui replied. "Just bring it with you. We can do it together, ne?"

 

But Niou looked uncomfortable. Hiroshi frowned, about to say something, but Yukimura spoke up first.

 

"Studying sounds like a really good idea," the dark haired teen mused aloud. "I know I could use a little help with math, at least. Niou-kun, you're good with math, no? Do you think, maybe, you could come over to my house tonight and help me? If it wouldn't be too much trouble, of course..."

 

"I could use some help, too," Jackal admitted, dropping a basket of balls inside the room and rubbing a hand over his smooth scalp. "Midterms are coming up, and it feels like everyone's assigning more homework than ever."

 

"Yes, a study group is a good idea," Yanagi agreed, helping Sanada and another first year carry the nets inside. "Perhaps," he added, looking over to Yukimura for confirmation, "we could all come over, tonight?"

 

The other teen smiled and nodded happily. "Mmm! That would be nice. I'll just call my grandmother and let her know."

 

Hiroshi continued to watch his doubles' partner as the conversation moved along without him. Niou looked... well, he was enjoying bantering with Marui about something, but he also shot Yukimura a strange look, too. Niou looked... strange, he thought. Hiroshi wondered what his partner was thinking about.

 

"Yagyuu?" Yukimura's voice caught his attention. "You'll be coming over, too, right?" he asked, even though Yagyuu knew it would probably have been pointless to try and say no. "You should call home and leave a message."

 

He shrugged, pulling out his school bag from his locker and double checking that the books he needed were in there...

 

"There's little point. It's not like my family has meals together or anything like that," he reminded the other teen, but Yukimura was frowning.

 

"You should at least call home and leave a message for your mother; she'll worry about you otherwise."

 

And that was the problem, really. Yukimura refused to believe that Hiroshi's mother wouldn't care whether or not he came home, so there really wasn't any point in trying to argue with him. Hadn't Hiroshi already had a thought along those lines? He went into the office to go use the phone--his mother probably wasn't even home--but someone else was already using it.

 

"Hello, Kaori-san, it's Masaharu. Is my mom there yet? Oh...Okay. Could you let her know that I'm going over to a friend's house tonight, so I'll be late getting home? Yes, yes... Thank you."

 

Niou hung up the phone, turned, and paused, seeing Hiroshi standing there watching him.

 

"You coming, too?" Niou asked with what Hiroshi was beginning to realize was forced casualness.

 

"Aa. I just need to use the phone."

 

Niou shrugged a shoulder and gestured to the phone. "Be my guest."

 

'Who was Kaori-san,' Hiroshi wondered. He was tempted to hit the redial button to find out, but instead, determinedly, punched in his own house number.

 

~~~****~~~

 

Akiyama Jin had been an incredible person--and a good friend.

 

At least, Hiroshi had thought so.

 

After their first meeting in the sports hall, they had become inseparable, best friends who shared everything. From playing sports, to doing homework, to spending countless nights at each others' houses, they did everything together.

 

One afternoon, late into the second semester of their third year, Jin's mother had come home earlier than either had expected and had found them both half-dressed, mutually masturbating each other, and kissing.

 

She screamed... and screamed... and screamed....

 

She called Hiroshi's mother and ranted and screamed down the phone for over an hour. Nothing seemed to placate the woman. His mother cried for hours; his father had come home early after Akiyama-san called him at work to scream at *him*.

 

He didn't find out until the next day that Jin had been withdrawn from Rikkaidai. Hiroshi tried going around to Jin's house, but no one was home. When he called later that night, no one answered.

 

Two days later a post card arrived for him. In a hasty, familiar scrawl were the words, "Sent to my grandparents in America. Take care. Jin."

 

That was it.

 

In a way, Hiroshi had been relieved that the school year was almost over. He threw himself into high school exam preparations with a fever never before seen, and even his friends were shown a completely detached Yagyuu--always polite, but never really involved.

 

And now Niou had appeared, mocking him to break away from the shell he'd encased himself in...

 

~~~****~~~

 

"We're finished," Hiroshi announced, and Marui closed all his books with an emphatic, "Finally!"

 

"If you would pay more attention in class, you wouldn't have such a hard time with your homework," Jackal pointed out reasonably as he started shuffling his books back into his satchel.

 

"We're almost done, too," Niou added as he watched Yukimura finish the last math problem on their extra homework sheet.

 

It had been almost a month since they'd started the study group sessions. They usually ended up at Yukimura's or Marui's houses--theirs being both the most receptive to a large group of boys and quiet enough to allow them to actually study without too many interruptions. Jackal's apartment was too small for all of them to fit comfortably into any one room; Sanada's house too strict and stuffy; and Yanagi's... was just strange. And since neither Hiroshi nor Niou ever offered their homes as alternatives, Yukimura and Marui became the default hosts.

 

"Tomorrow's Saturday," Marui pointed out with a stretch and yawn.

 

"You don't say," Niou taunted the redhead, shutting his own books.

 

Marui stuck his tongue out at him. "Exams are over, so let's do something fun to celebrate."

 

Yanagi looked up from his reading book. "What did you have in mind?"

 

"I don't know," the other shrugged uncaringly. "A movie?"

 

"There's a new art exhibit opening in Ueno," Jackal suggested, but Marui wrinkled his nose at that idea.

 

"Not another museum," he begged.

 

"We could always go into Tokyo and just look around?"

 

The others looked over at Yukimura.

 

"We could always bring our tennis rackets and pay a little visit to some old friends," Yagyuu put in considering. There were several competent tennis players in the Tokyo area he wouldn't mind running into on a casual occasion.

 

"Well, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind," Marui frowned, squinting one eye shut.

 

"Shit! Is it really that late?" Niou piped up, eyes focused on the clock. "Sorry, guys, but I gotta bail."

 

"Aa," Yukimura frowned, also looking at the time. "We have practice in the morning."

 

"And there's a ranking tournament next week," Niou added, shooting the dark-haired teen an amused, knowing look.

 

Yukimura smiled back at him. "Yes, but I don't think I'll be participating. Perhaps you and Yagyuu will, though?"

 

Hiroshi had wondered who would be the first to say something. He knew they both had been avoiding being the first to bring it up between them. He knew the others had already made their decision to wait until the seniors retired before taking part in the rankings, but he and Niou were a newer pair compared to the others. They didn't have any real experience playing competitively yet. Not that Hiroshi really believed that that would be a problem, but....

 

"Did you want to?" Niou asked suddenly as they walked together towards the bus station.

 

He looked over at his partner. "They could try to break us up," Hiroshi pointed out.

 

"They could," Niou agreed amicably enough, "but I don't think they would. The captain likes to win. He knows we work well together--better than any other pair he's got ready and willing to play for him."

 

Hiroshi smiled. He knew this well enough. The only other teams who stood a chance of beating the Niou-Yagyuu pair were the current Doubles 1, a senior pair, and the Doubles 2, a senior-junior combo. Marui and Jackal had yet to take a match from them, and Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi had announced that they were going to focus on Singles, and thus leave doubles alone.

 

"I will, if that's what you want," he answered, turning back towards their walk, but he caught sight of Niou's frown before he could look away.

 

"That's not what I asked," the other pointed out. "Do you *want* to?"

 

"Do I want to what?" Hiroshi returned, because he could, and because he liked to see those deliciously wicked grins Niou would turn on him when he was being purposefully difficult and they both knew it.

 

Niou stepped in front of him, stopping Hiroshi with his presence.

 

"Do you want to give those Regular boys a spin on their ass?" he purred, leaning in closer towards Hiroshi. "Do you want to give 'em a show they won't forget anytime soon? Do you want to fly, to the top, with me?"

 

Niou was so close... right in front of him, his breath hot and moist against Hiroshi's face... his body... so close... his eyes hooded and taunting... his entire being taunting Hiroshi to... to... what? Close the distance between them and... what?

 

He felt himself being pulled in towards Niou, although neither of them moved--of that he was sure.

 

But Niou was still waiting for an answer. What was the question again? Did he want to fly with Niou? Yes... He wanted to. That and...

 

"Not yet," he whispered, pulling away.

 

Yes, he wanted to, but the time wasn't right.

 

Hiroshi turned towards the steps leading into the bus station, not looking behind him as he called, "Are you coming, Niou?"

 

TBC.