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[FIC] PoT: The Rewards of Boredom
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rikkai_shorts! Yes, people, I'm still writing. =D
The Rewards of Boredom
Characters/Pairings: Yagyuu/Niou
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1618
Summary: ‘The first time they had switched was when they were both bored out of their minds.’ In which Yagyuu and Niou aren’t as much of lovers as… something else, and the Switch was born.
The first time they had switched was when they were both bored out of their minds.
It was just after the final exams of their second year, and tennis season is long over. Yukimura was in hospital; Sanada was under so much stress that even Niou’s comatose self-preservation instincts could tell that to provoke him now was to invite suicide or to be kicked off the team. Teasing Kirihara stopped being amusing a few days again when the kid decided to retaliate by kicking Niou’s ass in tennis (though, Niou would still tease him. It’s all in the principle of it). He had already stolen Yanagi’s notebooks and doubled everyone’s (except himself, Yagyuu and Yukimura’s) training workload a month ago, and now Yanagi was keeping his notebooks under literal lock and key.
In short, there was nothing even remotely amusing or interesting for him to do.
Yagyuu, too, was bored. The finals were over; he had managed to score the second highest in the level for a second year in a row. He had lost to Yanagi again (this was why Niou had taken the initiative and stolen Yanagi’s notebooks). Now, without his studies to distract him and tensed, predictable tennis practices, Yagyuu was bored out of his mind. There were no challenges for him to conquer now, and he was getting restless.
Even in hindsight, neither of them could ascertain as who was the one who first suggested the switch. Niou thought it was Yagyuu, Yagyuu thought it was Niou. But it didn’t matter then, and it didn’t matter now. What mattered was that someone had suggested the idea, and both of them had taken to it like a fish had taken to water.
It was Yagyuu who refined the idea into a plan. He drew a flowchart, much to Niou’s amusement, about what they should do in order to pull off the trick convincingly. Niou teased him about being obsessive about neatness and order. Yagyuu adjusted his glasses, making them glint and he smirked, just a twist of lips. He neither denied nor confirmed the claim. Niou had laughed, then, for this was how Yagyuu always was, and it amused him greatly.
Niou was the one who went out and bought the bleach, the hair dye, the fake mole, the non-prescription glasses. It would damage Yagyuu’s reputation if they had seen the Gentleman buying such things, and people had expected this of Niou by now. They both trained outside of school hours, outside of the campus, playing tennis against a wall, then against each other, with only their non-dominant hands. Yagyuu practiced Niou’s strange accent while Niou practiced for the Laser Beam. During theses sessions, Niou stood and sat straight, feet placed closed together, learning how to glint the glasses effectively. Yagyuu slouched, leaning his weight on a single, bent leg as he learned how to use each of Niou’s many smirks effectively.
It was something of an educational experience for both of them, to see how their partner worked and think. To literally step into their partner’s shoes and walk in them. To use each other’s racquets and tennis moves. To become their partner.
The feeling was exhilarating.
They first tried the Switch (as Niou had christened it) on a day when Yanagi and Sanada were away from school due to Senbatsu. Sanada they did not mind, for nowadays his observational skills were lower than normal (and his ‘normal’ could be described as completely blind), and he had devoted all of his attentions to just Yukimura and training anyway. It was Yanagi that they were wary of, for Yanagi had sharp eyes and a sharper mind. He could give the Switch away before they had even started enjoying it.
Niou stayed over at Yagyuu’s house the day before, charming and worrying Yagyuu’s parents at the same time with his nicest, most boyish smile and his bleached hair. He smiled at Yagyuu’s younger sister and talked to her, earning her favour immediately as she thought he was ‘handsome’. Yagyuu glared at him warningly through his glasses, adjusting them frequently so they glint light right into Niou’s eyes. Niou fought not to smirk.
They spent the night watching Star Wars movies, Yagyuu amusing Niou with his sharp criticism of the characters’ intelligence. Niou commented on how suited for each other Leia and Luke were, knowing full well that they were siblings. Yagyuu smirked at him, pushing his glasses up his nose as he shot back that Han Solo would be better suited with Luke than Leia.
It was the competition to see who could make the other choke first. Yagyuu won this round. The score was brought up to a draw.
“Are you sure that you didn’t cheat? I’m sure that my score is higher than this,” Niou’s head is resting on Yagyuu’s shoulder as he peered at the notebook in Yagyuu’s hand. The other boy was making a small mark in their tally of scores. Currently, it was seven hundred seventeen-all.
They compete about almost everything and kept scores. Their relationship was half a rivalry and half ‘something else’ that Niou had never bothered to find out. It wasn’t important, anyway, and there were many much more interesting things for him to poke his nose into.
“I don’t cheat, Niou-kun,” A pause, and Niou saw the glint of teeth as Yagyuu smirked. “I don’t have to.”
“Are you saying that I have to, then?” Niou demanded, returning smirk for a smirk as he sat down on Yagyuu’s bed. The hand he had on Yagyuu’s shoulder clenched, squeezing the flesh. Yagyuu didn’t wince, but then Niou didn’t expect him to in the first place.
“No, Niou-kun. It was you who said that,” Yagyuu was smirking with that smug certainty that came when he thought that he had won an argument. Niou rolled his eyes and leaned backwards, landing flat on his back on the back.
“Tomorrow would be fun.”
Yagyuu nodded, standing up and placing their tally book on the desk. He took off his shirt, leaving only his boxers on. Niou sat up, getting a better view to ogle his partner shamelessly. Yagyuu was still smirking, taking his time to take off his shirt, tilting his body half-teasingly, half-mock modestly towards Niou. Niou laughed, his own pajama shirt unbuttoned and hanging off his shoulders. He didn’t bother to take it off, leaning backwards slightly. Yagyuu smiled, leaning over and pulling Niou’s shirt off, throwing it in the same direction as he had thrown his shirt.
Niou smiled, tilting his head up just as Yagyuu’s lips pressed onto his own.
They did not speak for the rest of the night.
***
Yagyuu’s shoes felt weird on his feet. The size was just right, but the material was strange. The weight of the racquet in his hand was unfamiliar too, and Niou fought not to twirl it around in his hand like what he usually do with his own. Beside him, Yagyuu slouched, a hand in his pocket as he spun Niou’s racquet on the floor.
No one had noticed anything amiss yet. At least, no one had said that there was something amiss. Niou kept an eye out for anyone looking at them suspiciously, but no one did. The Switch was carried off perfectly.
He turned, meeting Yagyuu’s eyes and a smirk that mirrored his own.
But the Switch was still not perfect, it seemed, for the first thing Yukimura said when the team walked through the door of his hospital room was, “Niou, what are you doing wearing Yagyuu’s clothes?”
Niou chuckled, pushing his glasses back up his nose while Yagyuu snickered.
Yagyuu said, “Look at their faces,” and grinned, all teeth and almost mean-spirited humour.
Their teammates’ looked dumbstruck as they stared at them. Marui had his mouth open, frozen in a ridiculous position as he had half-bounced into the room and froze upon hearing Yukimura’s words. Akaya’s eyes were so wide that they swallowed up half his face, the other half swallowed by his mouth, hanging open in shock. His hand shook, held in mid-air, a finger pointing at them as Akaya gaped like a landed fish. Jackal’s eyebrows would have disappeared into his hair if he had any, and he was looking at Niou first, up and down, then at Yagyuu, the same. Then, unexpectedly, a smile broke out and he shook his head
Yukimura laughed, barely audible and more like an inhale of breath. The Captain’s shoulders shook, but he was grinning widely at them.
“Show this to Sanada and Renji when they return,” he ordered. There was a silent approval there, and an unspoken question of Why. Niou nodded, pleasant and abiding like Yagyuu’s façade.
“Sure, Yukimura,” Yagyuu said with Niou’s voice. “We’ve already planned on doing that anyway.” Then, Yagyuu gave Yukimura a purely Yagyuu smile, polite and obedient with a sharp edge almost hidden. “I’m glad that this guise had pleased you.”
“Wouldn’t want to know what will happen if you disapprove,” Niou chimed in, slinging an arm around Yagyuu’s shoulders; a purely Niou gesture.
“Why would I?” Yukimura asked, leaning back against his mountain of pillows. “After all, this is a good tennis strategy.”
The rest of the team managed to unstuck their mouths quickly enough to laugh at Yukimura’s remark. Niou thought he heard obsessed from Marui’s mouth, but it was too faint and too muffled by the laughter.
Niou looked at Yagyuu, raising an eyebrow. Yagyuu stared back at Niou, mirroring his action. Niou took off his own glasses, placing them on Yagyuu’s nose, smirking at the reflective lens before sticking his tongue out at it.
It was Yagyuu who started to laugh first, this time.
End
rikkai_shorts! Yes, people, I'm still writing. =DThe Rewards of Boredom
Characters/Pairings: Yagyuu/Niou
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1618
Summary: ‘The first time they had switched was when they were both bored out of their minds.’ In which Yagyuu and Niou aren’t as much of lovers as… something else, and the Switch was born.
The first time they had switched was when they were both bored out of their minds.
It was just after the final exams of their second year, and tennis season is long over. Yukimura was in hospital; Sanada was under so much stress that even Niou’s comatose self-preservation instincts could tell that to provoke him now was to invite suicide or to be kicked off the team. Teasing Kirihara stopped being amusing a few days again when the kid decided to retaliate by kicking Niou’s ass in tennis (though, Niou would still tease him. It’s all in the principle of it). He had already stolen Yanagi’s notebooks and doubled everyone’s (except himself, Yagyuu and Yukimura’s) training workload a month ago, and now Yanagi was keeping his notebooks under literal lock and key.
In short, there was nothing even remotely amusing or interesting for him to do.
Yagyuu, too, was bored. The finals were over; he had managed to score the second highest in the level for a second year in a row. He had lost to Yanagi again (this was why Niou had taken the initiative and stolen Yanagi’s notebooks). Now, without his studies to distract him and tensed, predictable tennis practices, Yagyuu was bored out of his mind. There were no challenges for him to conquer now, and he was getting restless.
Even in hindsight, neither of them could ascertain as who was the one who first suggested the switch. Niou thought it was Yagyuu, Yagyuu thought it was Niou. But it didn’t matter then, and it didn’t matter now. What mattered was that someone had suggested the idea, and both of them had taken to it like a fish had taken to water.
It was Yagyuu who refined the idea into a plan. He drew a flowchart, much to Niou’s amusement, about what they should do in order to pull off the trick convincingly. Niou teased him about being obsessive about neatness and order. Yagyuu adjusted his glasses, making them glint and he smirked, just a twist of lips. He neither denied nor confirmed the claim. Niou had laughed, then, for this was how Yagyuu always was, and it amused him greatly.
Niou was the one who went out and bought the bleach, the hair dye, the fake mole, the non-prescription glasses. It would damage Yagyuu’s reputation if they had seen the Gentleman buying such things, and people had expected this of Niou by now. They both trained outside of school hours, outside of the campus, playing tennis against a wall, then against each other, with only their non-dominant hands. Yagyuu practiced Niou’s strange accent while Niou practiced for the Laser Beam. During theses sessions, Niou stood and sat straight, feet placed closed together, learning how to glint the glasses effectively. Yagyuu slouched, leaning his weight on a single, bent leg as he learned how to use each of Niou’s many smirks effectively.
It was something of an educational experience for both of them, to see how their partner worked and think. To literally step into their partner’s shoes and walk in them. To use each other’s racquets and tennis moves. To become their partner.
The feeling was exhilarating.
They first tried the Switch (as Niou had christened it) on a day when Yanagi and Sanada were away from school due to Senbatsu. Sanada they did not mind, for nowadays his observational skills were lower than normal (and his ‘normal’ could be described as completely blind), and he had devoted all of his attentions to just Yukimura and training anyway. It was Yanagi that they were wary of, for Yanagi had sharp eyes and a sharper mind. He could give the Switch away before they had even started enjoying it.
Niou stayed over at Yagyuu’s house the day before, charming and worrying Yagyuu’s parents at the same time with his nicest, most boyish smile and his bleached hair. He smiled at Yagyuu’s younger sister and talked to her, earning her favour immediately as she thought he was ‘handsome’. Yagyuu glared at him warningly through his glasses, adjusting them frequently so they glint light right into Niou’s eyes. Niou fought not to smirk.
They spent the night watching Star Wars movies, Yagyuu amusing Niou with his sharp criticism of the characters’ intelligence. Niou commented on how suited for each other Leia and Luke were, knowing full well that they were siblings. Yagyuu smirked at him, pushing his glasses up his nose as he shot back that Han Solo would be better suited with Luke than Leia.
It was the competition to see who could make the other choke first. Yagyuu won this round. The score was brought up to a draw.
“Are you sure that you didn’t cheat? I’m sure that my score is higher than this,” Niou’s head is resting on Yagyuu’s shoulder as he peered at the notebook in Yagyuu’s hand. The other boy was making a small mark in their tally of scores. Currently, it was seven hundred seventeen-all.
They compete about almost everything and kept scores. Their relationship was half a rivalry and half ‘something else’ that Niou had never bothered to find out. It wasn’t important, anyway, and there were many much more interesting things for him to poke his nose into.
“I don’t cheat, Niou-kun,” A pause, and Niou saw the glint of teeth as Yagyuu smirked. “I don’t have to.”
“Are you saying that I have to, then?” Niou demanded, returning smirk for a smirk as he sat down on Yagyuu’s bed. The hand he had on Yagyuu’s shoulder clenched, squeezing the flesh. Yagyuu didn’t wince, but then Niou didn’t expect him to in the first place.
“No, Niou-kun. It was you who said that,” Yagyuu was smirking with that smug certainty that came when he thought that he had won an argument. Niou rolled his eyes and leaned backwards, landing flat on his back on the back.
“Tomorrow would be fun.”
Yagyuu nodded, standing up and placing their tally book on the desk. He took off his shirt, leaving only his boxers on. Niou sat up, getting a better view to ogle his partner shamelessly. Yagyuu was still smirking, taking his time to take off his shirt, tilting his body half-teasingly, half-mock modestly towards Niou. Niou laughed, his own pajama shirt unbuttoned and hanging off his shoulders. He didn’t bother to take it off, leaning backwards slightly. Yagyuu smiled, leaning over and pulling Niou’s shirt off, throwing it in the same direction as he had thrown his shirt.
Niou smiled, tilting his head up just as Yagyuu’s lips pressed onto his own.
They did not speak for the rest of the night.
***
Yagyuu’s shoes felt weird on his feet. The size was just right, but the material was strange. The weight of the racquet in his hand was unfamiliar too, and Niou fought not to twirl it around in his hand like what he usually do with his own. Beside him, Yagyuu slouched, a hand in his pocket as he spun Niou’s racquet on the floor.
No one had noticed anything amiss yet. At least, no one had said that there was something amiss. Niou kept an eye out for anyone looking at them suspiciously, but no one did. The Switch was carried off perfectly.
He turned, meeting Yagyuu’s eyes and a smirk that mirrored his own.
But the Switch was still not perfect, it seemed, for the first thing Yukimura said when the team walked through the door of his hospital room was, “Niou, what are you doing wearing Yagyuu’s clothes?”
Niou chuckled, pushing his glasses back up his nose while Yagyuu snickered.
Yagyuu said, “Look at their faces,” and grinned, all teeth and almost mean-spirited humour.
Their teammates’ looked dumbstruck as they stared at them. Marui had his mouth open, frozen in a ridiculous position as he had half-bounced into the room and froze upon hearing Yukimura’s words. Akaya’s eyes were so wide that they swallowed up half his face, the other half swallowed by his mouth, hanging open in shock. His hand shook, held in mid-air, a finger pointing at them as Akaya gaped like a landed fish. Jackal’s eyebrows would have disappeared into his hair if he had any, and he was looking at Niou first, up and down, then at Yagyuu, the same. Then, unexpectedly, a smile broke out and he shook his head
Yukimura laughed, barely audible and more like an inhale of breath. The Captain’s shoulders shook, but he was grinning widely at them.
“Show this to Sanada and Renji when they return,” he ordered. There was a silent approval there, and an unspoken question of Why. Niou nodded, pleasant and abiding like Yagyuu’s façade.
“Sure, Yukimura,” Yagyuu said with Niou’s voice. “We’ve already planned on doing that anyway.” Then, Yagyuu gave Yukimura a purely Yagyuu smile, polite and obedient with a sharp edge almost hidden. “I’m glad that this guise had pleased you.”
“Wouldn’t want to know what will happen if you disapprove,” Niou chimed in, slinging an arm around Yagyuu’s shoulders; a purely Niou gesture.
“Why would I?” Yukimura asked, leaning back against his mountain of pillows. “After all, this is a good tennis strategy.”
The rest of the team managed to unstuck their mouths quickly enough to laugh at Yukimura’s remark. Niou thought he heard obsessed from Marui’s mouth, but it was too faint and too muffled by the laughter.
Niou looked at Yagyuu, raising an eyebrow. Yagyuu stared back at Niou, mirroring his action. Niou took off his own glasses, placing them on Yagyuu’s nose, smirking at the reflective lens before sticking his tongue out at it.
It was Yagyuu who started to laugh first, this time.
End