[Prince of Tennis] Translucence - Platinum Pair

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, as I can never own something as awesome. ;DD

Title: Translucence
Author: sixthwinemaiden/staticspacetime
Beta: hakkai_sensei
Pairing: Platinum Pair
Rating: G
Words: 1,952
Warning(s): pre-canon stuff
Summary: Yagyuu should know that he's not ONLY amused at Niou's antics. Even Niou knows more than that.

Author’s note: The fic is in Yagyuu's PoV and is set before canon. Other than that, there's nothing else to note. ^^;; Enjoy the Platinum Pair love~

It’s fifteen minutes past seven in the morning, yet I do not stir from the edge of my bed. My uniform is neatly pressed and worn as usual, and all I have to do is to get my schoolbag from the desk and proceed to school. But my body is stationary – unwilling to move from its rest. For the past few days, I’ve been feeling vaguely exhausted at random times. Not that I have anything to feel exhausted about. It certainly isn’t caused by school and tennis – I’ve handled these things perfectly ever since I joined the tennis club. Or to put it more specifically, I’ve managed to handle these things. I like doing things perfectly, and I’m good at it.

The clock marks another minute and continues to tick away. I force myself to move. After saying goodbye to my parents, I head to school, which is a fairly short walk from my home.

Today, I have to keep my wits about me, especially at the crossing in front of the school. I don’t want to find myself in another awkward situation wherein I barely miss a speeding car. A couple of my classmates saw what happened, and they blamed the driver for speeding in a school zone to begin with. They may not have noticed, but I was also at fault for not paying attention. At any rate, that shouldn’t happen again.

My mind continues to wander, and I feel my eyes getting heavier. Strangely, this occurs even when I’ve had enough sleep. I’ve never been satisfied with my sleep, now that I think about it…

“Yagyuu!” calls a voice from not so far away.

As if I had been possessed, I snap out of my deep thoughts, only to feel a swift rush of wind and see a speeding flash of red in front of me, then the fading sound of a car’s horn. I blink repeatedly in disbelief until someone comes up beside me and places a hand on my shoulder.

I turn and realize that it’s Niou-kun. “Jeez, Yagyuu, do you want to die young?” he says, lifting his hand from my shoulder and places it back into his side pocket. His schoolbag hangs lazily on his shoulder, complementing his lax and seemingly uncaring expression.

I clear my throat until I can think of something sensible to say. “Apparently, vehicles that pass by here don’t really care if they run people over,” I begin rather awkwardly. “The school should do something to ensure the students’ safety in this area.”

“Oh. Well, whatever. I’m still sleepy, so I’ll be taking a nap somewhere. Catch you later at practice,” Niou utters listlessly as he raises his hand in a wave and crosses the street ahead of me.

I remain unmoved from my spot as I watch him disappear into the crowd of students. It’s my first time to see him so early in the morning. Perhaps I’m already late and hadn’t realized it? I check my wristwatch – ten minutes later than my usual time of arrival, but not for classes. With a push of my glasses, I decide to pick up my pace anyway.

Stranger things have happened.

====

I have just finished reading the last three lines of “Elegy in the Country Churchyard” when the lunch bell rings. Rustles of book pages and faint sounds of chair-and-desk-scraping fill the classroom. The teacher voices out a reminder for an assignment, but most of my classmates are already busy chatting and stowing their things away. I scribble a quick note of it at the back of my notebook before preparing for lunch myself.

Three of my classmates accompany me to the cafeteria for today. I don’t have anyone in particular – a companion, to use a more concrete term – in class who I spend most of my time with. I just get along well with everyone as a proper acquaintance. There is nothing wrong with that, so I keep things the way they are. No one seems to arouse my interest anyway, to be perfectly honest.

We come across Niou-kun at the cafeteria entrance, leaning against the wall with his lips curved up in an amused smile. He must have known that he could always find me here at lunchtime. Anyhow, I don’t know what he is up to this time – he’s simply just looking at me as I approach.

“Yo, Yagyuu,” he greets me.

“Good afternoon, Niou-kun,” I greet back.

My eyes shift to the interior of the cafeteria. Looks like another ruckus has just occurred, and I don’t need to probe any deeper to know who has probably caused it. I turn to Niou just as he is about to snicker lightly.

“Ah, it seems like you’ve had a good afternoon already.” I can’t help smiling as I say that.

Niou shrugs his shoulders as he glances at the cafeteria door. “Things can still get interesting,” he replies. From behind him, Niou-kun takes out something and tosses it at my direction.

My companions immediately flinch while I catch the thing effortlessly – a can of black roast coffee. Not something that will explode at any given moment, I conclude in my mind. I glance at Niou-kun and ask why he has given me that.

“Because it looks like you need one,” is Niou-kun’s simple reply. “I have a lot of those at my place, so I don’t mind.”

“I appreciate this. But I don’t drink coffee,” I reply. Caffeine isn’t really something that I depend on if I want to keep my senses sharp.

“What a shame,” Niou-kun hushes out as he makes his way out of the cafeteria hall. “If you stay the way you are, you’ll end up missing a lot.”

I inspect the can of coffee as I ponder on his words. One of my classmates has started talking about him already – saying how scary he is and how in the world can I smile at Niou-kun’s misdeeds inside the cafeteria. I want to chuckle at that statement, but I know I shouldn’t.

I can’t help wondering if Niou Masaharu truly finds it enjoyable to mess around.

---

After class duty, I go straight to the clubroom. The other regulars are most likely halfway through their warm-up, and I don’t want to fall behind. As expected, the clubroom is nearly empty when I arrive, except for a couple of freshmen on their way back to the courts. I maintain a leisurely pace as I open my locker and change into my jersey. There is no point in hurrying – Yukimura knows that I’m always later than usual every Friday.

Soon enough, I find myself alone in the clubroom, the freshmen having made it a point to close the door behind them. Everything seems quiet, as they should be. After placing my bag on the shelf, I walk over to the door. Oddly, though, the knob seems to be stuck. I fiddle with and pull the knob with all my might, but it still won’t open.

“What in the world...” I find myself sighing in exasperation.

Today must not be my day, no matter where I look at it. I decide to pound on the door a couple of times, hoping that someone would hear. But practice has already started, and the chances of anyone going back here is slim. Leaning back on the door, I give up and allow myself to slide down to the floor. On the brighter side of things, at least this day isn’t like the rest. It’s funny when I think of it – Yagyuu Hiroshi getting stuck in the clubroom.

“Oh, you’re just going to slack around in there until later?” a voice called out through the clubroom window.

I look up and stare in disbelief. Niou-kun is standing outside, looking at me with one of his smirks. “Niou-kun, what is the meaning of this?” I demand.

“I should be asking that, you know,” Niou-kun replies with raised eyebrows. “It’s weird seeing you looking stressed.”

“And I take it that you’re not going to do anything to help me out,” I say.

Niou leans against the wall, so all I can see is a part of his face through the window. “You can always call for help, or try to get through this window here,” he mutters loud enough for me to hear. “But I know you still keep enough of your cool to realize that you can’t fit through the window. Calling for help isn’t exactly something that a calm gentleman does either, so there’s no way that you’d try it.”

I don’t say anything. This person – I am honestly impressed that he can already analyze my thinking so well, and we’ve only been in the same team for a month. But there is one thing that I’m sure of: he also knows that I can see through him as well, even if I’m not as good as he.

“Why are you doing this, Niou-kun?” I ask point-blank.

Niou turns his head, his indifferent blue eyes staring straight at me. “Do you think I did this to you?”

“I do not merely think,” I reply. “I am certain that you did this all. You wouldn’t have said the things that you had earlier if you’re not the one behind this.”

I can see that I’ve said the right words to expose Niou-kun, but his still-amused look gets to me.

“That’s a good point! I knew you’d get it right easily. But there’s this one thing…” He faces me and places his arms on the windowsill. “I wanted you to know that I did this.”

My eyes widen in surprise. “And for what reason?” I find myself asking.

Niou shifts his head to the side and looks at me intently. “You’re bored, aren’t you, Yagyuu?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me,” Niou lets his arm hang from the windowsill as his eyes wander across the empty clubroom. “I’ve been observing you. Doing everything exactly the way perfect people want it – it’s getting on your nerves. You’re getting sick of always having to act the way you should, and I can tell.”

I press my lips together. While it is indeed true that I find Niou-kun’s antics amusing, I still can’t comprehend whatever it is that he wants to say. The way I’ve been losing my concentration and interest these past few days – am I really bored of being perfect?

“So, let’s say that you got things all figured out. But how does it benefit you to lock me in here?” I ask.

A small smile plays on Niou’s lips. “The benefits won’t show at once,” he says. “But I’ll give you a hint, Yagyuu…” He straightens himself up and holds his head up. “Deep inside, you and I have the same desires. You’re just not ready to accept it.”

“You can take off that gentleman’s mask in front of me, Yagyuu,” Niou-kun continues as he picks up his racket and rests it on his shoulder. “Eventually, it’s going to be the two of us, doing things as one.”

I blink behind my glasses as I watch him step away from the window. “Wait, where are you going?” I call out.

“The gum that I stuck into the strikeplate is pretty nasty, so I’ll go get someone to let you out,” I hear Niou call back. “I just realized that you look so tempting in that state.”

“Tempting?” I breathe out to myself as I get on my feet. I look out the window just in time to see Niou-kun disappear into the courts. “Heh, you’re such an interesting person, aren’t you, Niou Masaharu?”

Whatever he means, his words still sound hard to resist.