Amber Flame

Amber Flame

Summary: Oh Sengoku….
Disclaimer: Look, I can’t play tennis and if I tried I’d be drinking lots of Inui juice. I don’t own Prince of Tennis…but it owns me.
Warning: None
Author’s Note:First Prince of tennis fic. I really like Akutsu.

Akutsu

This school shit is boring.

If my Mother didn’t nag me all the fucking time I would have quit this too.

“It’s important Jin-chan! You don’t want just sports scholarships do you?”

I could care less.

This morning I was over near the courts, trying to see if there was anything interesting going on. There wasn’t. There never is, but of course, here comes Taichi with his squeaky ass voice asking me to come back to the tennis team.

I can’t believe he’s still wearing that head band. It probably gets him off. Little brat wants to walk home with me from school. That’s Mother’s fault too.

“He admires you as his senpai! That’s’ so sweet! Bring him buy and I”ll give you two free things and you won’t have to do chores for a while!”

I should get free shit anyway because I’m her son. And then the jerk Yuuki married just stands there smiling. Jackass.

In anycase, class sucks, I can’t wait till it’s over. I’d rather deal with the perpetual smile of that bastard coach than listen to this bitch drone on about science.

Feh.

**

Walking home is no big deal. It never is. But now I’ve got this kid next to me talking a mile a minute. Wasn’t he supposed to walk home with that slut Sengoku? Aren’t they together or some shit? I dunno. Sengoku’s fuckin’ the coach.

“Senpai! I was thinking, that maybe if you didn’t want to rejoin the tennis team you could um…help me out! You know like help me get information and stuff and scout other schools!”

“Why the fuck would I want to do that?” the kid nearly gets run down by other people so I put him on the other side of me, away from the street. If you don’t pay attention, Taichi will run into poles and shit.

“Well um…” the boy pushed up his head band. “Maybe…like you’ll see some interesting competition and want to play again? I’m supposed to scout Seigaku again.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d seen enough of Echizen kicking ass. Hell, he’d kicked my ass at tennis then he had the audacity to imitate me when he was playing that Sanada creep. Sure it was cool.

Okay it was awesome, that little brat went psycho on his ass.

But, I don’t care anymore. Besides, I’ve got dojo.

“Senpai?”

I look down at him and he just sort of flinches and blushes. He does that a lot.

“What?”

“Want to…come with me to scout Jyousei Shounan?”

“We’ll see…” I growl, pushing open the door to the shop. He goes in, under my arm of course.

My Mother waves hello and we take seats in the back. The place is pretty full today, but who cares. I scowl at some customers and sit so I can see the door. Taichi gets in the booth and his head barely reaches the top of the seat.

Yuuki's "Man" comes over to take orders and we get the usual.

“Akutsu-senpai…is it okay if…”

“If what?” I rip the paper off my straw and throw it at him. He just laughs and gets serious again.

“Can I stay over here tonight?”

“Why?”

He doesn’t say. He just gets quiet and looks down.

I don’t like it when this kid gets quiet. That means something’s wrong and I have to fix it.

“Who’s messing with you kid?”

Taichi shrugs and begins unwrapping his straw.

I lean back in my seat and the straw is between my lips, even after the drinks come. I watch this kid. Everytime he takes a glance at me, he’s turning red and shit. I know he likes me. But there’s something wrong.

“Answer me.”

“…I don’t like Sengoku. He sends the other guys over to make sure I get to school on time and I don’t like it when he touches me.”

Oh. So that was it. Sengoku was being a slut to the kid.

“Hn.”

“…so can I stay?”

“Whatever Kid.”

**

He’s surprisingly quiet when the time rolls around for him to stay over. He barely talks during dinner, which is alright because my Mother has a problem not shutting up. I’ve never seen her ask so many damn questions, unless she’s giving me the third degree about something I’ve “done” to someone.

The kid’s good. He gives good answers and the dude Mom married just sits there and smiles. We finish and I wander up to my room, the Kid in tow.

Home work is easy, I get it done. I don’t care about it really, I just figure I have to do something to please my parents.

“Senpai…I don’t understand what this means…”

“Read the book.”

“…but I don’t understand English.”

“And I do? Fuck it, ask your teacher tomorrow.”

He gets this crushed look on his face and I roll my eyes. “Gimme the damn book.”

I take a look at it and it’s easy shit. I probably had the same problems with it when I was his age. I explain it and put my crap away.

My Mother comes in with an extra futon and some pillows and stuff. He thanks her, but I just want her to get out.

“Hot water’s on. You two can take a bath.”

We have a nice bath in our house. It’s just big enough. Taichi gives me this look and I want to punch him in the face. I get out the towels and stuff and toss one to him.

“Hurry the fuck up. Come on.” I undress and wrap the towel around me, leading the way to the bath.


While I’m scrubbing myself, I take a look at the kid. He’s got bruises on his arms.

“Who did that?” I ask, starting to rinse off.

“Sengoku grabs me really hard. It’s okay.” He scrubs his arms slowly and I know it still hurts. I move my little bench closer and take the rag from him, starting to scrub his back.

“Try it like this. Bruises from the dojo hurt less if I do it this way.”

And he starts to cry! What the fuck!

Taichi

I don’t like admitting these things to Senpai. I know it makes me look weak to him, even weaker than I already am, but I really wish I hadn’t started crying. I just like that he’s listening to me. No one else does. Everyone just tells me to shut up.

“G-gomen –”

“Shut up.” He says softly.

So I do. He scrubs my back and helps me wash my hair and rinses me off. We get in the tub and I look over to him. His hair is slicked back. I think it makes him look even more attractive than the way his hair usually is.

And I know I’m red. I rub my arms again and divert my eyes. He probably won’t like the idea of me trying to check him out in the bath, but I can’t help it. Besides, he’s got the towel over his eyes-

-Okay, no he doesn’t and he’s staring right back at me.

“Senpai, gomen! I just –I was –”

“You can’t go to public baths if you’re going to be checking out the men there. Understand?”

“H-hai…” I looked away. This wasn’t good at all.

I tied my hair up so it wouldn’t trail in the water and so it wouldn’t get in the way when I splashed my neck with water. I like baths like this. The water is just right. Nice and hot.

Like Akutsu Senpai.

“Hmmm.” I say, running the water over me. “Arigatou Senpai. I like this bath. It’s so nice.”

“Hn. It’s just a bath.”

I look at him and smile. He knows it’s more than that to me.

“So can I walk with you tomorrow?”

“Whatever.”

That always means yes. I know it does.

He gets out suddenly and grabs a towel.

“Hurry up Kid. My parents need it too.” Then he leaves.

I’m quick to follow. I don’t want him angry at me. When we get back to his room, he tosses some shorts at me and a t-shirt that is of course way too big. Like the bandana, the shoulder is continuously slipping.

I make up the futon and pull up the boxers. They’re too big too, but I can manage. I think it’s cute that Akutsu-senpai has boxers with devil tails and horns on them. They’re red and he looks cute in them. He also sleeps with out a shirt. That’s also cute.

I lay down in the futon and stare at the ceiling. I laugh suddenly and run my hands over the top of the covers.

“Senpai?”

“What?” he growls from the bed.

“Senpai wa daisuki desu.”

And he didn’t say anything so I just giggled in the dark.

“I think…that you’re really good looking and…that you have a nice body and stuff. And Sengoku tries to kiss me and I hate it.”

“Shut the fuck up Taichi.”

“…sometimes I think about us together.”

“You’re a little whore. Shut up Taichi.”

“Okay.” And I giggle again. Why did I say all that. I don’t know. There’s some freedom about the darkness of his room. All I can see are the numbers on his alarm clock. They’re a burning red. They remind me of the feelings in my heart.

They get blocked out all of a sudden and I get lifted out of the futon by my wrist. I’m in the bed now and it’s warm.

“S-senpai?”

“I said shut up Taichi.”

And we lay there a while. I can’t go to sleep. I just can’t. My heart is going so fast. What do I do? What will he do? Does he like me back? What’s going on?

I feel like fainting so I just sit there breathing pretty hard.

“Are you okay Kid?”

“No…I feel like I want to explode. Senpai is this okay?”

I just feel this arm thrown over me and before I can react, I get this crushing feeling. The one I wanted.

I don’t know what to feel, but I want it, his tongue in my mouth like this. I feel like I’m too small for this, he feels like he’s everywhere, but I want this.

“Senpai?” I gasp, when he’s pulled away from me. “I won’t tell anyone I promise –”

“Shut up Taichi…” he whispers. “You ever done this before? With Sengoku?”

“no.” I whisper. “I don’t like him that way.”

“Hn…”

And I get to taste him again.

****

*Yeah, there’s a lemon scene coming but it’s going to be in third person. Anytime I do a POV switch fic I always do the final scene in third person. It won’t be labeled and that’s how I’ll let you know.
*Thanks to Ladygizarme for reviewing!