Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Singing Juices: A Tenipuri Musical ❯ In Which They Fight ( Chapter 4 )

Not much singing in this one and there is probably some wild OOC-ness here. Sorry. Kaidoh especially is really hard for me to write.

 

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Chapter #4: In Which They Fight

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That song yesterday had said he was lonely. Kaidoh wasn't lonely. He refused to be lonely. He would fix his relationship with Inui if it killed him.

“Are you sure you want to stay?” Inui asked, looking back at him with a small frown, “I'm going to be busy with the antidote all night. I don't want you getting bored.”

“I'll be fine, senpai,” Kaidoh replied, following Inui into his garage (a.k.a. his laboratory). “I have homework to do.”

Inui looked a little suspicious of this—Kaidoh wasn't normally in the habit of coming over just to do homework—but let it go. He had other things to think about.

And Kaidoh held tight to his resentment at this. It didn't make sense to resent Inui for not stopping what he was doing immediately to figure Kaidoh out. So what if there had used to be a time when Inui had wanted to do just that. Kaidoh had invited himself along and Inui was busy.

“Very well,” Inui just said and turned to his lab. The results of last night's research were still on the table and he shuffled through his notes, organizing them and putting them to the side to get ready for his latest experiment. He had a small container full of the original juice kept under the table and he got that out, along with one of those small things that suck up water like a turkey baster— Kaidoh didn't know its technical name—and got to work.

Dropping his backpack on the floor, Kaidoh bent over to take out his books, clearing a small space for himself on Inui's lab table. His English teacher had given them nearly a chapter of reading to do and he really did need to work on his Japanese history report.

And for a long while they worked in comfortable silence, a quiet hour quickly passing by.

Kaidoh wasn't really sure what to think of this. On the one hand he knew that neither Inui nor he was the biggest of talkers, so it was normal. But on the other hand the whole point of his being there was to try to re-establish the bond between them. It wouldn't work like this.

Pausing in his work, Kaidoh looked up from his books to study Inui's serious face. The other boy was single-mindedly focused on his test tubes and beakers, carefully measuring out a few drops of juice or some other chemical and doing whatever it was he did with them. Kaidoh couldn't claim to understand the chemistry involved.

He didn't want to bother Inui while he was working either. Inui would not be happy about being disturbed when he was in the middle of something important and it had already been rude enough to invite himself along.

Kaidoh sighed and looked back down at his books. Maybe this had been a bad idea.

Dispirited, he went back to his homework. And for a while more they worked in silence, the quiet stretching between them. To Kaidoh at least it was becoming strained, testing his nerves, and finally he couldn't take it anymore and looked up again. “Inui-senpai?” he spoke up hesitantly. He knew Inui wouldn't yell at him, or really do anything but be silently frustrated, but that was still no reason to be rude.

“Yes?” Inui mumbled distractedly, carefully squeezing a few drops of some chemical into a beaker full of a blue liquid. The liquid began to bubble at the contact and Inui frowned, obviously displeased.

“Are you going to be eating dinner tonight?” Kaidoh asked. It was getting late and Inui didn't seem to be showing signs of stopping any time soon. Usually he was extremely conscientious of eating properly—it wouldn't be good for his tennis game if he was weak from hunger and the proper food could actually be very beneficial to his physical improvement—but occasionally when he was involved in some kind of project he would forget.

Inui made a few notes in a nearby notebook, only paying half attention to his words. “There's a 56.2 percent chance that if I work through the night I will have a breakthrough.”

Not liking this, Kaidoh frowned. “Inui-senpai, you need to eat.”

Inui didn't look up from his notebook, tapping a pencil against the pages as contemplated his next step. “I have some energy bars in my bag,” he murmured absently.

Frustrated, Kaidoh hissed. The battle to drag Inui away from his work was familiar and almost never successful, but Kaidoh could always hope. He looked down at his books with a frown as he searched for something else to say and there was a moment of silence. Finally coming up with something, he looked up. “Inui-senpai?” he asked more confidently.

Inui didn't answer, too caught up in his work.

Somewhat irritated, Kaidoh tried again. “Inui-senpai?”

“Hmm?” Inui was obviously barely paying attention and that pissed Kaidoh off.

“Will you at least look at me?!” Kaidoh snapped, suddenly inexplicably angry.

And that got his attention. Obviously surprised, Inui's head shot up and he turned to him, eyes a little wider than usual behind his glasses. “Kaidoh?” It wasn't often that Kaidoh used that tone of voice on him. He was usually far too respectful so it only happened when they fought. Which meant he used it practically never.

The name pissed him off even more and Kaidoh hissed again. What ever happened to the days when he was simply Kaoru?

Inui frowned, eyes narrowing as he studied Kaidoh, obviously wondering where this sudden anger had come from. “Is something wrong?”

Kaidoh knew his anger was unjustified. He had invited himself along; of course Inui didn't have to pay attention to him. But this was just too common. Inui was always busy. To get any time with him Kaidoh would have to practically force himself on the other boy and he was too respectful to do that so he was always ignored. He hadn't realized just how sick of it he was until then.

“No, senpai,” he growled angrily, “everything's just fine.”

Inui's frown deepened at the anger behind those words and he stood up straighter to regard Kaidoh seriously. “Everything is obviously not fine. What's wrong?”

Kaidoh crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at the older boy, scowling. “Why don't you ask your data?” And did he sound bitter? No. Of course not.

“Kaidoh . . .” Inui said disapprovingly.

But Kaidoh wouldn't say anymore, stubbornly refusing to share what his problem was, so Inui had to guess. Which he did.

“There's a 23.5 percent chance that this has something to do with an event that happened at school,” he tried first, “64 percent that this somehow involved Momoshiro.”

Kaidoh stayed silent, glaring at the older boy.

His guess obviously wrong, Inui continued, “But there's a 78.5 percent chance that I myself have somehow personally offended you in the last five minutes. 75.2 percent that this is because my attention was on my work and not you.”

And put like that it sounded so stupid and needy and Kaidoh blushed, confirming Inui's guess,

“Ah,” Inui said, nodding his understanding, but then looked at him. “Kaidoh, why did you come over today?”

Anger gone, replaced by embarrassment, Kaidoh's arms tightened across his chest and he looked down at the floor, mumbling lowly, “I needed to.”

“I'm sorry. What was that?”

His blush worsening, Kaidoh looked up, meeting Inui's eyes, and repeated more clearly, “I needed to.” Hoping Inui wouldn't ask anymore questions. He really didn't want to have to explain himself any more than that.

Inui looked curious. “Why would you think that?”

Damn him. “Because . . .” Kaidoh struggled to get the words out. He looked down at his lap again, arms uncrossing to reach up and tug at his bandana uncomfortably. “Don't you . . .” he finally said, not looking up, “Don't you notice it?”

“I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about.”

That made some of his anger come back and Kaidoh let his arms drop down to his lap, looking up to give Inui a dirty look. “Don't you even care?”

And still Inui had no idea what he was talking about. “About what?”

“About us. About anything. We're practically strangers and now you won't even listen to me.”

Inui looked a little confused. “We see each other everyday. On estimate, 4 hours, 42 minutes, and 56 seconds per day. We are in no way strangers.”

Kaidoh felt his hands curl into fists under the table and he narrowed his eyes at the older boy, more than irritated by Inui's current stupidity. “Yes. We. Are,” he grit out past his increasing anger.

But Inui was obviously not listening anymore. “Something else must be bothering you. This isn't like you.”

But that was just like Inui. He didn't listen. Sick of it, Kaidoh growled, banging his fists down on the table, causing the beakers and test tubes to rattle, and leaned forward aggressively. “Will you just listen to me for once?”

Inui frowned. “I am listening. The problem is you are not making any sense.”

Back tense, Kaidoh closed his eyes, grit his teeth, and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. It wouldn't do to start yelling no matter how much he wanted to. Inui could be so annoying sometimes. “Just tell me this,” he finally said more patiently than Inui deserved and opened his eyes, deciding to just give up and go back to the question he had wanted to ask in the first place, “What are we going to do for our anniversary tomorrow?”

“Kaidoh, until I find an antidote I'm afraid we won't be celebrating anything.”

Kaidoh was silent as he let that run through his mind. “So this is going to be like my birthday?” he finally asked with a deadly calm, “You told me that would never happen again.”

“Yes, I know, but there's an 83.7 percent chance that the next time you fall under the drug's influence you will be in public and I was under the impression that this was something you would like to avoid.” Inui paused then added, almost as an afterthought, “I'm sorry.”

And could Kaidoh really blame him for that? He did want to avoid it and, in a very Inui-like way, Inui was showing that he cared. But still . . .

Kaidoh clenched his fists tighter and looked down at the tabletop, taking another deep breath in and out as he tried to get his anger under control. It took a few minutes to calm himself but he was able to do it, even if he still couldn't look at Inui. “I'm going home,” Kaidoh announced, not letting Inui see his expression as he silently began collecting his things, shoving them roughly back into his backpack. “Thank you for having me, senpai,” he muttered just because he was naturally polite and got to his feet, walking out the door.

Inui stayed staring after him for a long moment before eventually just shaking his head and going back to his work.

 

 

The next morning came and Inui still had no idea what had so upset Kaidoh the night before. It had distracted him the whole night and he'd been able to do little more on his search for the antidote. It was frustrating and almost worrying, but he would see how things played out today.

And there was the boy now, coming up to the school. Inui frowned as Kaidoh came closer, close enough to see the way that Kaidoh's head drooped almost 23 degrees lower than its usual absorbed-in-thought tilt. He must have gotten less than his optimal 7 hours of sleep the night before. That was not a good sign. It meant that whatever had so upset him last night was bothering him enough to effect his sleeping patterns. But Inui didn't have enough data to correctly ascertain the problem and Kaidoh didn't seem likely to tell him.

Further research would have to be done. First step: Get a closer estimate of how upset Kaidoh actually was. The level of upset could be directly proportional to the size of the problem.

Inui waited patiently for Kaidoh to come closer, expecting the boy to stop at his side as usual and he blinked when Kaidoh merely glanced at him then moved to brush past on his way to the doors of the school.

“Kaidoh,” Inui spoke up but Kaidoh didn't turn around and kept right on walking. Worried by this, Inui hurried to catch up, reaching out to grab Kaidoh by the arm and bringing him to a halt. “Kaidoh,” Inui said again, hoping to get his attention, but Kaidoh's eyes didn't move from the concrete.

Now Inui was really getting concerned. This was not typical of the boy. All his data of post-fight behavior indicated that while Kaidoh might still be angry, he would still maintain eye-contact. He would be glaring and hissing. Was he really that upset about their anniversary? It was two years but surely Kaidoh had to see that this problem with his juice took precedent. Inui knew Kaidoh hated the singing. Logically, he should be glad that Inui was working as hard as he was to find an antidote. They could always go out another day. It was really that simple.

Of course there was a 43 percent chance that something else had occurred between the time Kaidoh had left Inui's house yesterday and the present. “Has something happened?” Inui asked.

Kaidoh closed his eyes and looked pained. “Inui-senpai . . .”

Well at least he still spoke.

“Yes?” Inui asked, wondering if maybe Kaidoh would tell him the problem after all.

“Just . . .” Kaidoh closed his eyes and put a hand to his forehead, hiding his eyes. “Just don't.”

“Don't what?”

“Don't talk.”

Well that was a little ruder than Inui was used to. Kaidoh was usually so respectful. Maybe he was sick. Pushing Kaidoh's hand away, Inui put the back of his hand to Kaidoh's forehead. Warm but not overly so. Inui frowned again. Then what . . .

“Are you okay?” he asked, leaning down and trying to catch Kaidoh's eyes, but Kaidoh stubbornly kept his head down and eyes averted. “Kaidoh?”

Kaidoh slowly shook his head, then opened his mouth. “I don't feel like loving you today,” he sang softly, slowly and almost sadly. “So don't you even try to change my mind. The best thing you can do right now is just go away. `Cause I don't feel like loving you today.”

Blinking in surprise, Inui drew back to study the other boy. He had been able to take a few more notes yesterday when Momo had burst into song in the middle of practice, but he hadn't been able to properly study Kaidoh under the influence yet. Somewhat pleased and curious to see if there would be any differences between those afflicted, he got out his notebook.

“I don't want to talk about last night,” Kaidoh continued just as slowly, “I'm angry and I haven't had much sleep. I'm so tired and bloodshot there ain't no telling what I'd say. `Cause I don't feel like loving you today.”

Kaidoh appeared normal. No discolorations on his skin, no blush even, and he didn't appear dazed. He now held his head 45 degrees lower than normal but that could be contributed to a variety of factors. The only thing really different about him was that he was singing. Something Kaidoh would rather die before doing in public.

Inui noted this down, but was somewhat disappointed.

Still lost in his song, Kaidoh sighed and just looked tired. “But you know I will anywaaaay even though we make it hard sometiiiimes. I'll wind up forgiving you and probably loving you for the rest of my liiiiiii-iiiiife.”

Maybe he wouldn't be getting any data from observing the phenomena. Not unless he took some blood samples which he couldn't do at school without the proper equipment. And maybe he should actually be paying attention to what Kaidoh was singing. These songs were the involuntary verbalization of Kaidoh's feelings. Maybe they would give him a clue as to what was bothering him.

“But I don't feel like loving you today. And I've got sixteen hours left to go. I might tell you that I'm leaving even though you know I'll stay. `Cause I don't feel like loving you today.”

And actually hearing that, Inui didn't know what to think. Brow drawing down in concern, he flipped to a different section in his notebook and noted this down. Kaidoh didn't want to love him anymore? That did not sound good.

“But you know I will anywaaaay even though we make it hard sometiiiimes,” And did Kaidoh really have to sound so pained at that? “I'll wind up forgiving you and probably loving you for the rest of my liiiiiii-iiiife. But I don't feel like loving you todaa-aay,” Kaidoh paused and took a breath, looking sad, “I just don't feel like loving you today.”(1)

Kaidoh sighed again and the song seemed to be over. Kaidoh had stopped singing, but still refused to look at him or at anything around him. There was a moment of silence as Inui stared down at his boyfriend, not sure what to think.

“I'm sorry, senpai,” Kaidoh finally mumbled and then sped off into the school. The words replaying in his head, Inui stared after him.

This was not good.

 

 

Ryoma had ignored him all of yesterday and all of that day and Momo was not happy with this. Ryoma seemed to just want to put the whole song thing behind him, and Momo understood that, but Ryoma also seemed to want to put their whole friendship behind him with it, and Momo didn't plan on being quite so understanding of that.

Sure he'd never expected Ryoma to actually return his feelings, but did the brat have to try and shut him out of his life completely?

He'd offered to go for burgers yesterday, the food all on him, but Ryoma had claimed mountains of homework and hadn't gone. He'd gone by Ryoma's house that morning to take the brat to school only to find that Ryoma had actually gotten up early for once and had already left. He'd gone to practice that morning and approached Ryoma to ask a simple question only to be rudely turned away. He'd gone up on the roof during lunch intent on making Ryoma listen to him only to be ignored. Now it was after practice and he was following Ryoma off the tennis courts. He would follow Ryoma all the way home if he needed to too and he wasn't planning on shutting up while doing it.

“Echizen, come on. This is getting stupid.”

Ryoma ignored him and kept on walking, his pace fast and clearly meant to get him far, far away.

“You can't ignore me forever,” Momo tried, long legs easily keeping up with Ryoma's short ones.

Again, Ryoma ignored him, his eyes on the road in front of him. He adjusted his grip on his tennis bag and kept on walking.

“I'm just going to keep talking and following you around, you know. You'll never get rid of me!” There was still no response to this and Momo frowned before continuing, “I bet you like that, huh? Having me follow you around? Bet it gives you some kind of rush. Man, that's just like you.”

At this, Ryoma couldn't help but roll his eyes.

And Momo grinned, pointing at Ryoma's face triumphantly. “Hah! I knew you were listening! You can't block me out. You love me.”

And that sure got a response. Ryoma abruptly stopped walking (Momo almost ran into his back) and whipped around to face him, a dark look on his face. “I don't love you,” he nearly snarled, “You're just that annoying.”

And, ouch, that actually kind of hurt. A lot. But Momo smiled past it, determined to not let Ryoma get to him. “You love me,” he said instead, “You even sang the song to prove it. I don't know why you're so freaked out about this.”

Ryoma scowled darkly and ignored the part about being freaked out. “That song never said anything about loving you.”

Which, when he really thought about it, was true and Momo frowned, brought down a little. “Well it sure sounded like you did.”

“But I don't.”

“Well, you obviously feel something,” Momo said, not about to give up, “That song showed that at least.”

”Except, Momo-senpai,” Ryoma started, his patience obviously being strained, “for the fact that I don't.”

And they could go on like this forever so Momo decided to try something else. “You do,” he said, just to get that in there, “But even if you don't that doesn't mean you have to start avoiding me.”

Obviously glad that Momo had stopped claiming that Ryoma loved him, Ryoma turned and started walking again, this time slower than before and asking faux-casually, “Who ever said I was avoiding you?”

That was irritating and Momo gave Ryoma a look, jogging awkwardly with his bike to catch up with the younger boy. “Don't insult me,” he said when he was walking besides Ryoma again. “You're avoiding me and we both know it.”

Ryoma made a noncommittal sound and adjusted his grip on his tennis bag again, going back to ignoring him.

And that was enough of that. Momo huffed and jogged a few more steps, swinging his bike around and standing in front of the other boy to block his path.

“Momo-senpai!” Ryoma protested, barely stopping in time to avoid running into to the older boy. Obviously annoyed, he tried to go around but Momo quickly moved his bike to block his way. He tried to go the other way and Momo blocked him again. With no way past, he stopped and gave Momo a narrow look. “Get out of my way, Momo-senpai.”

Momo remained stubborn, not moving. “No. You are going to listen to me.”

But Ryoma wasn't going to be any less stubborn, crossing his arms and looking Momo straight in the eye as he said, “No.”

“Yes,” Momo countered, “We need to talk.”

“There's nothing to talk about,” Ryoma said and tried to get past again but Momo quickly moved to block his path.

“There's everything to talk about,” Momo said, moving his bike again as Ryoma tried one more time, “I mean, look,” moving his bike when Ryoma tried again, “Look, just because I love you that doesn't—

“You love me?” Obviously startled, Ryoma abruptly stopped all attempts to get by, staring up at Momo with wide eyes.

Momo gave Ryoma a strange look. “Well yeah. I thought you knew that.” Hadn't he known that?

Clearly he hadn't. “You never said anything about love.”

“I didn't?” Momo thought back to his song yesterday. The closest he had gotten to love was the lyrics `All I want is you'. Huh. Oh well. He turned back to Ryoma. “Well, I do,” he said as if this were nothing, “but—

“I need to get going,” Ryoma interrupted and tried to push past again, this love thing obviously freaking him out even more than he already had been.

Momo held firm, pushing his bike in Ryoma's way. “No. Not until you listen to me.”

Ryoma shook his head and feinted to the left then went right, managing to get by before Momo could push his bike in the way.

“Hey!” Momo protested as Ryoma got past him, then sighed, irritated, and awkwardly turned his bike around to follow. “Oh come on, Echizen.” He jogged a few steps till he was right behind the freshman again, who was back to his previous fast pace, obviously wanting to get away quickly. The only thing holding him back from running had to be his pride. “I know you feel something for me too. Why is this freaking you out so much?”

“It's not freaking me out and I don't love you.”

“It is freaking you out and I never said you loved me. Just that you felt something. Your song said you did.”

“No it didn't,” Ryoma denied.

“`You make me smile'?” Momo quoted, “That sure sounds like something someone who likes me would say.”

“That's `cause you're an idiot.”

Momo wouldn't let Ryoma get to him. He was just lashing out. Still, this was getting annoying. Why did the brat have to be so goddamn stubborn? “Echizen . . .”

Ryoma hunched slightly, clearly uncomfortable. “Just leave me alone, Momo-senpai.”

Momo was starting to feel bad that he was pressing so hard. But that didn't mean he would stop. “Not until you've listened to me.”

“I have listened to you,” Ryoma said. “Now go away.”

“No. I'm not finished talking.”

Ryoma closed his eyes briefly, irritated. “You're never finished talking.”

“Not when something's important.”

Ryoma spared him a backwards glance, raising a brow and asking, “And this is important?”

And ouch. That one hurt too. “Of course this is important,” Momo said, shocked he would even say such a thing. “I love you. That's not something you hear everyday, you know.”

“Maybe you don't, but I actually do.”

Momo faltered, coming to an abrupt halt with his mouth hanging open, unable to believe Ryoma had actually said that. Shaking it off he hurried to catch up. “Are you actually comparing me to those crazy fangirls of yours?!” Momo asked furiously when he had gotten close to Ryoma again, more than insulted. “I'm nothing like them! I actually do love you!” It was getting easier to say that and Momo actually kind of liked to do it. It sounded good.

Cringing a bit at the loudness of that last statement, Ryoma quickly looked up and down the street before glaring back at him, hissing, “Will you be quiet?”

Momo had to agree that that may have been a little loud and he shrunk down, apologetic. “Sorry,” he said quietly.

Ryoma sighed, clearly annoyed, but stopped walking and allowed Momo to stop beside him. “Why can't you just leave it alone?” he asked.

“You know why I can't.”

Ryoma made a vague noise of acknowledgement and reached up with his left hand to rub his temple, looking down at the ground. He was starting to get a headache. He wasn't meant to deal with these kinds of situations.

Seeing that Ryoma wasn't going to be running away anymore, Momo decided now would be a good time to get out what he had wanted to say. “You know, if you're running away because you're worried that I'm gonna be expecting something of you then don't. I'm not expecting anything. I just don't want you to ignore me.”

Ryoma looked up at him, seemingly judging his sincerity with his eyes. When the decision seemed to be taking a really long time, Momo began to get nervous.

“And I mean,” he said, just because he felt like he should be talking, “it's not like I'm gonna jump you or anything like that. Really. I just want things to go back to the way things were. You know, with us as friends. Only this time I guess you'll know and I guess that could be a bit awkward for both of us but that'll pass really quickly. At least I think it will. I mean, I'm not gonna say anything and you're probably not gonna say anything and we can all just go back to ignoring it and—

“Momo-senpai,” Ryoma finally broke in, looking irritated, “Shut up.”

Momo shut up, but looked at Ryoma pleadingly, begging Ryoma with his eyes to say that they could still be friends. Because Momo didn't know what he would do if Ryoma said no.

Ryoma sighed and looked away from Momo's eyes. “Look, I think I just need some time to think about things, okay?” He looked back at Momo to see how this was being taken.

Momo looked a little disappointed but smiled anyway, nodding. “Yeah. Sure. Take all the time you need.”

Ryoma stared at him a long minute, assessing him, then turned away and began walking again. This time Momo didn't follow.

 

 

 

Eiji grabbed Oishi before he could escape after practice. “We were gonna talk, remember?”

Oishi looked uneasy, but allowed himself to be dragged out of the clubhouse willingly enough. “Does it really have to be right now? I mean, I have homework and—

“It has to be right now,” Eiji said, uncharacteristically serious, “You're not escaping without telling me why you think we can't be together.”

Eiji stopped dragging him along when they had reached a more private section of the tennis courts and turned to regard him seriously. Oishi got his arm back and sighed as he rubbed some life back into it. “I told you. We just can't.”

“Yeah and I think that's a pretty stupid excuse. Why can't we? Because we're both boys? That doesn't make any sense and you know it. I mean, you're okay with Fuji and Tezuka and Inui and Kaidoh, but not us? You even want to help Momo and Ochibi get together. Why not us?”
”I never said that I wanted Momo and Echizen to get together,” Oishi corrected. “I said I wanted to help them. There's a difference.”

“But you're okay with them being gay?” Eiji pressed but then looked suspicious. “You aren't some kind of closet homophobe are you?”

“What!” Oishi looked shocked. “No! Of course not. I'm totally fine with it.”

“Good,” Eiji said, nodding seriously, “because if you weren't I'd have to hit you. Besides Ochibi our entire team is gay in some way and even Ochibi is questionable. I won't let you secretly hate them all just because they like boys.”

“Tezuka's as gay as they come and he's my best friend,” Oishi said, looking a little hurt that Eiji would say something like that to him. “Why on Earth would I hate him?”

“Well I don't know,” Eiji said, throwing his hands in the air helplessly. “Why do homophobes hate anyone?”

“I'm not a homophobe,” Oishi repeated.

“Well, okay then. That's good,” Eiji said, accepting the fact, and then turned the conversation back to his original question. “But then why not us?”

Oishi looked down at the ground and shrugged uncomfortably. He had hoped Eiji had forgotten. “Well you know . . .”

“Obviously I don't know. That's why I'm asking.” Eiji was beginning to look irritated. This was a strange day. Oishi wasn't used to Eiji showing negative emotions or being serious and here he was doing both at the same time. Eiji really must be serious about their possible relationship. And knowing that made Oishi even more uncomfortable than he already was.

But still. Obviously Eiji was not going to be backing down on this. Oishi sighed again and decided just to come clean. “I listen to Tezuka and what his family puts him through because of his relationship with Fuji and I just don't want that to happen to either of us. I mean, I know you're really close with your sisters. Do you really want that taken away just for some possibility of a relationship?”

Eiji looked incredulous. “That's what you're worried about?” Looking relieved, he stepped back and laughed. “And here I thought it was something serious.”

Oishi didn't like that Eiji would take this so lightly. “That is serious.”

“No it's not,” Eiji disagreed, shaking his head and smiling, “I know for a fact that my sisters would love it if I was gay. They already think I am.”

“And your parents?” Oishi asked pointedly.

Eiji waved that off dismissively. “They'll be fine. They're my parents. They love me.”

Oishi crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the ground. “Well my parents might not be so understanding.”

“How would you know if you never tried?” Eiji asked logically.

Oishi gave him a look. “I'm not going to risk losing my parents just because you say they might be okay with it.”

“Well who says that we have to even tell them?” Eiji asked. “I mean, they don't really have to know, do they?”

“I don't want to get into a relationship that I feel I have to hide,” Oishi said reasonably, “And even if my parents do accept it, it's not exactly accepted by society.”

“The others do okay,” Eiji pointed out, hoping that would get through to him.

“Yeah and none of them actually care what other people think of them. I can't help caring.”

Eiji quickly ran through the others in his mind, finally landing on one he could use. “Na-uh. Kaidoh cares!”

“And he does his best to keep his relationship with Inui a secret,” Oishi replied patiently. “I don't want to do that.” They had gone around full circle.

Eiji huffed, annoyed, and stomped a foot. “Oishi!” he complained. “You can't do that! I mean, so there would be a few obstacles,” he said, gesturing wildly with his hands. “Is that really so bad? Nothing's perfect.”

Oishi shook his head and remained stubborn. “My mind's made up.”

“But you can't just go through life that way!” Eiji exclaimed, trying to make him see. “You'll never be happy.”

“I'll be happy enough.”

Eiji obviously couldn't take this anymore. “Argh!” Looking more than frustrated, he stomped his feet and had a little fit.

“Eiji!” Oishi exclaimed, watching this worriedly. Finally Eiji calmed down enough for him to ask, “Are you okay?”

“No!” Eiji shouted. “No I'm not okay! This effects me too, you know. You can't just decide my life for me based on what ifs.”

“Eiji, I'm sorry.” And he really was. “But I told you. I just can't.”

“Ugh!” Eiji stomped another foot. This was too much for him. “This isn't over, Oishi!” he promised, pointing a finger at the other boy, “I'm gonna keep bugging you until you cave! And you will cave!” And, with that, he stomped off, leaving Oishi staring after him alone.

 

 

 

TBC

 

“I Don't Feel Like Loving You Today” by Gretchen Wilson