FIC: Breathless [Prince of Tennis; Sequel; Fuji/Kaidoh]

[sarisia]

I finished my anthropology test today and got bitten by all my muses immediately after. All I can do is thank god that they're all agreeing on a plot line, finally.

Title: Breathless
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Couple, Characters: Fuji/Kaidoh, and Inui
Rating: PG
Summary: The rumors have spread and have started causing lots of trouble for Fuji and Kaidoh. How to deal with it?

[Sequel to: Reason to Fall]


Fuji had expected the rumors. It was only natural that a public kiss on a Saturday, just as the last class let out, would cause rumors to grow and spread from person to person and school to school throughout the following weekend - especially one that was between two boys. Especially one that involved one Kaidoh Kaoru and one Fuji Shuusuke. It was a natural part of life in junior high. So, he handled the questions as easily as he could - answer some, side-stepping others and ignoring the rest.

It honestly hadn't occurred to him that Kaidoh would not be able to do the same.

So, it was only natural that - when Kaidoh showed up at the lunch table with a glowing bruise across the bottom of his jaw, his bento in one hand and an ice pack in the other - Fuji's eyes went wide. "What happened to you?" he asked.

Kaidoh scowled at a few of his classmates as they passed, pointing and chuckling. "It's nothing. I just got caught unaware this morning," he answered, but said nothing more on the matter despite Fuji's attempts to coerce him into speaking.

The laughing from others around the cafeteria were beginning to grate on Fuji's nerves after a while. It was clear to him that they knew something that he didn't. Before he could demand that Kaidoh tell him exactly what had happened, the younger boy had gathered up what remained of his lunch and left, glancing back after each time he glared and hissed at those that dared to approach him.

.....

"Did you hear? Kaidoh Kaoru - that boy from Saturday, you know-"

"Hear what? Did he get kissed again?"

"Oh, no. Much worse. He got punched by a girl this morning. I think Sakura-sempai did it. She was so heartbroken when she found out what he and Fuji-sempai had done."

"What? No way. She didn't really punch him, did she?"

"Yes, she did! You should see the bruise. It's enormous."

"Hmph. Well, I guess it's no more than that Kaidoh deserves, acting like he's so cool just because Fuji-sempai kissed him."

"Watch what you're saying, Yuiko. That's cruel."

"That doesn't mean it's not true. I heard that he's refused to answer any questions about what's going on with him and Fuji-sempai. He's hogging Fuji-sempai all to himself! How do you think that makes the rest of us feel, to see Fuji go and kiss Kaidoh when we're the ones who loved him first?"

.....

After a little asking around, Fuji found Sakura sitting on the roof near the tennis courts. She had her knees drawn up to her chest and she was staring at a building near the courts. Upon closer inspection of her gaze, Fuji saw Kaidoh hitting a tennis ball against the side of the building with more severity than Fuji had seen before.

"He seems quite upset," Fuji commented and Sakura spun around. "It's my fault, I think. I should apologize."

"Fuji-sempai! No, you shouldn't!" Sakura blushed a little at her outburst. "It's not your fault at all. He's been like that since this morning."

"When you hit him?" She nodded. "Because of the kiss."

More stiffly this time, she nodded. "But he was acting so blase about it, like it was nothing. I couldn't stand it! Because I know..." She hesitated for a second, gathering her courage around her before continuing, "I know I'd feel like flying if Fuji-sempai kissed me."

Fuji said nothing at all for a while and turned, instead, to watch Kaidoh battle his frustration. "I'd like to know if I made him felt like flying," he murmured, hearing the brush of Sakura's hair as she looked sharply toward him. "Kaoru can be very stubborn. The fight is..."

He trailed off, unable to find a single world to describe what it was like to push someone who didn't like to be pushed and keep on pushing. To force confessions from a mouth that didn't like to admit to any sort of vice. To do all of that to someone that was a brute on the outside, soft on the inside, and almost his opposite... and then to want more.

Not only more, but everything. What word was there to describe that?

"I don't understand, Fuji-sempai," Sakura said. "Kaidoh-kun doesn't suit you at all."

"Oh? And what kind of person would suit me?"

She curled her hair around her finger, shooting him coy looks from beneath her lashes. "Someone who's pretty or cute. Who's strong enough to support you and won't lie or cheat. Someone... someone as perfect as you are, Fuji-sempai." Another blush - not half as vivid as Kaidoh's.

He tucked his hands into his pockets. "Sounds impossible... and boring." Sakura's hand fell to her side. "And Kaoru..." His breath left him briefly as he resigned himself to exposing himself in this way. "He's everything. There's no way to describe what I see in him."

It was her turn to be silent, but she didn't keep it for long. "Fuji-sempai..." she said. "You like Kaidoh-kun very much, don't you?"

"Yes. I do." It felt wonderful to say so, like a release.

She laughed a little. "Then, maybe you could help calm him down so he doesn't stay mad at me?" She glanced over, smiling helplessly at him. "The rumors, you know..."

He nodded. "Yeah. Rumors can cause lots of trouble."

.....

Fuji liked to watch Kaidoh. There was something about long arms and long legs that he knew could wrap around him without ever letting go that made his blood pump that much faster when Kaidoh was near. The younger of the two moved deliberately, always with a smoothness that he couldn't invoke in his personality, which was gruff and unrefined and so frankly honest but undeniably adorable at the most obscure moments.

"I heard you got hit by a girl, Kaoru-chan," Fuji called when he felt it was time to announce his presence.

Moments like these, when Kaidoh was as angry as he was embarrassed and wanting to glare as much as he wanted to run and hide, Kaidoh was at his cutest.

Kaidoh hissed loudly. "She hit me with a textbook!" he argued, touching the bruise gingerly with his fingertips. "It doesn't hurt much anymore, but... Tch! Really annoying."

Reaching up, Fuji pulled Kaidoh closer and touched the bruise with his lips, mouthing the injury at first, then scraping his teeth against it. Kaidoh inhaled sharply at the pain, but didn't move away. "Wait, Shuusuke." He grabbed Fuji's arms. "What if someone sees again? This is your fault, you know."

Ignoring the questions, Fuji asked his own, "One of the girls today told me that she'd feel like flying if I ever kissed her. What do you think?"

"Idiot. Only girls think of sappy things like that," hissed Kaidoh. "I'm not a girl."

"But what do you think of my kisses?" Fuji insisted. "Do you like them?"

When Kaidoh looked up, backing away, Fuji could still see the red tint of his cheeks that he was trying to hide. He was about to pull Kaidoh back to him again, force them to look at each other, when the other boy sighed.

"You'll just pester me until I say it," Kaidoh said.

Already, Fuji was smiling again.

Kaidoh was the one pulling on Fuji this time, wrapping his hand around Fuji's smaller, frailer wrist and tugging so that they were chest-to-chest. "You're a pain, Shuusuke," he murmured. "As for your kisses..."

It was a soft kiss - light and teasing - and their lips hovered close. Their breath was shared for one, too-short moment. It occurred to Fuji - now, as it had every time they'd kissed - that Kaidoh had very kissable lips, just full enough and not at all sloppy or uncomfortable. Kaidoh kissed him over and over - small, chaste kisses that drove him to frustration.

"Kaoru..." More, Fuji wanted to say, but disliked begging for himself. Still, I want more!

At the sound of the want in his voice, however, Kaidoh still smirked. "Like that," he said. "Exactly like that."

.....

The rest of the day went smoothly. Kaidoh was no longer assaulted by questions, though many still cast him furtive glances as he passed. He ignored them. As for Fuji, he wandered through his classes in a sweet daze; he couldn't stop smiling, not even when he saw Inui approaching him between classes.

"I hear that you and Kaidoh are officially a couple," Inui said without preamble.

Is that what the rumors are saying now? "Did you really?" Fuji asked. He was glowing at the news. He knew he was. "And? What of it?"

Inui pushed up his glasses and settled a hand on Fuji's shoulder as he passed. "You may have intimidated me before," he said, "but don't start thinking that I'm going to let it go on without a fight."

.........................

Eyaa... the next chapter's getting long. Yes, it's getting longer than I anticipated. And that plot that my muses agreed on? It's in the next chapter too. Let's just forget that I should be doing my maths.