Nekomata

"So, is everything straightened out then? It was an honest mistake." Atobe tried to turn to look at Jirou, but the blond was currently nestled against his back, so any attempt to do so was fairly futile. As it was Jirou was almost completely hidden behind him, only a pair of fuzzy ears and blue eyes sticking out over his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Jirou," Oshitari said, and his voice was apologetic enough even if his expression wasn't. His expression... well, Jirou wasn't very good at reading expressions, but he knew Oshitari was frowning, and seemed to favor looking off to the distance rather than looking at him and Atobe. "I completely misread the situation."

"See, Jirou? Oshitari didn't mean to scare you so much."

"Surely," Oshitari agreed, "it was just a kiss."

Jirou, in answer, poked Atobe hard in his side.

"Oh, yes. Oshitari, do you promise never to do it again?"

"I wouldn't want to kiss some one that didn't want to be kissed. Now, is this conversation over, because you must admit it's highly embarrassing. I feel an absolute fool."

"Yes, this is an odd conversation to be having." Atobe might have leveled an accusing gaze at Jirou, if he had been able to actually see the boy. "Of course, feel free to leave."

Jirou watched as Oshitari left, let out a relieved sigh, and let go of his clutch on Atobe's shirt.

"Really, Jirou, you mustn't overreact to every little thing."

Jirou frowned. "You think I'm overreacting?"

"Just a little bit." When Jirou's frown deepened Atobe gave a long-suffering sigh. "But since it's you, I suppose it's okay."

Really, Atobe thought, he should stop spoiling Jirou so much.

Later on Gakuto scolded him for being so mean to Oshitari, but Jirou kind of just phased him out, and at any rate he didn't see the other boy for the rest of the summer. When they returned to school Jirou noticed with some small amount of happiness that Oshitari had taken it upon himself to change their seating order... now, Oshitari sat beside Gakuto, leaving Jirou with a seat on the redhead's other side.

Once again, things were pleasantly back to normal, at least for the next few weeks.

But then, things were never 'back to normal' for very long, and Gakuto and Atobe lost their ears on the same awful day. It was like a double blow to Jirou. Gakuto spent the entire day afterwards at school doing gross lovey dovey things with Himiko, but at least Jirou was expecting Gakuto to go through with it one of these days. He had never, ever expected it from Atobe, and spent tennis practice in the locker room moping and pouting instead of sleeping like he usually did.

"Jirou. Wake up."

Okay, so maybe he had fallen asleep a little bit.

"Wha-" Jirou blinked open his eyes and looked around, but the only person there was Atobe, looking funny and weird and completely earless. "Go away."

Jirou pouted and hid back underneath the bench.

"Jirou." Atobe frowned, then sighed. "Don't make me get Kabaji."

"I don't care! Go away!"

"Really, you're so difficult, Jirou."

Jirou heard Atobe stepping over the bench, then he felt Atobe's hand scratching underneath his ears. Mmmm.... no one scratched him like Atobe did, and soon enough he felt his tail waving about in a lazy, figure eight pattern. Maybe he was purring, too, but he was too content to really hear properly.

"I'm still the same old Keigo-sama, aren't I?"

Jirou's eyes opened, and though he was still pouting, he didn't look nearly as upset as he was before.

"Who was it?" Jirou asked, his voice coming out quiet and small.

Atobe gave a little huff, then looked around the room. "You must promise not to tell any one."

"You know I won't."

"I mean it this time, Jirou, because if it got out then we could get into a lot of trouble."

Jirou frowned at Atobe's words... this sounded serious. "I promise."

"It was Sakaki."

Jirou's eyes were large saucers in his face. "Kantouku?"

"So you realize nobody can find out about it."

Jirou nodded, and Atobe patted him on the head.

"Good boy."

"Isn't that... isn't that weird? Kantouku's so old." Jirou wrinkled his nose up thinking about it.

"He's not that old, Jirou." Atobe smirked. "More like... experienced. Now, let’s get you up from under there."

Jirou let Atobe pull him out from under the bench and brush the dust off his clothes, then the two walked out of the club house. There was a hunch to Jirou's shoulders, and the blond seemed to be thinking about something. The look of minor concentration was a marked difference to the still half asleep expression he perpetually wore.

"A penny for your thoughts, Jirou."

Jirou shrugged, shuffling his feet, and Atobe had to slow down to remain beside him. "It's just.. I dunno... I'm the only third year in regulars that still has his ears."

"Yes, you are. It's one of the many, many things that makes you so special."

Atobe ruffled his hair, and gave his ears one more nice, long scratch, and Jirou beamed up at his friend. Atobe always knew just the right thing to say... it was so nice to have him around whenever Jirou needed him.

"Oh, by the way, I'm going on a business trip with my father for the next week, and Sakaki wants all the regulars at practice. That means you won't be able to sleep through them... of course, I'll tell Kabaji to make sure you're there."

"You're leaving me?"

"Don't make that face, Jirou, it's only for a week. Really, what am I to do with you?"

The Week Without Atobe started out alright enough... true to his word, Atobe had given orders to Kabaji to take care of Jirou, and Jirou found the hulk of a boy waiting outside his classroom every day. Gakuto, as usual, walked him home after practice, but now Himiko came along as well, and Jirou was stuck shuffling behind them and playing third fiddle. Then, Wednesday rolled around, and Kantouku posted the shopping assignments for the next month on the board.

Jirou saw his name, written in flowing, precise characters next to this week's date. Next to his name was written 'Oshitari Yuushi'.

"Sorry, Jirou," Gakuto said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'd go for you, except I have to spend the Friday hanging out with Himiko."

"Do you think Kabaji will go instead?"

"And miss his piano lesson? Hardly."

Jirou frowned and looked out the window to where Kantouku was watching over the second-years. Their coach probably wouldn't let him out of it... and besides, Jirou was too scared to ask.

"I guess I have to go then."

Gakuto patted Jirou's head. "Yuushi's a nice guy, you know, so give him a chance."

Thursday night came too quickly, and for once Jirou had a hard time falling asleep as he lay in bed. What if Oshitari tried to molest him again? He imagined a big, bad Oshitari with a snarky grin and glowing fangs, devil horns popping up out of his shaggy hair. The thought that he would have to spend at least an hour alone with the other boy, and what would his brother think, kept Jirou awake for more than a few hours. When he finally drifted off, though, a voice in his head was whispering that Oshitari wasn't all that bad, and had been nice to him and had left him alone when he asked, and really, the kiss had actually been very pleasant. Lips tingling, Jirou fell asleep.

Three hours. Three hours of sleep was all he had gotten, compared to the normal eight, and all the napping in the world that day wouldn't do him any bit of good. Gakuto and Ohtori kept shooting him concerned expressions at him, but they probably chalked it up to the obvious, and Kabaji went easy on him when they had their practice match.

By the time practice was over and it was time for the shopping trip, Jirou was too tired to care. Everything was moving as though in slow motion, fuzzy and monochrome, and then there Oshitari was, blinking at him, a worried expression on his face that Jirou had never seen there before.

"Jirou, are you okay?"

"Yeah..." and his voice was distant to his ears, and maybe he was half asleep already.

"Don't worry about him, Yuushi, he just hasn't gotten his thirteen hours of sleep today."

Oshitari frowned. "Jirou, you can go home and sleep if you want. I can do the shopping myself."

Jirou woke up a little, mildly surprised. "Really?"

But then Kantouku's voice cut through the air, and Jirou cringed at it's stiff tones. "Akutagawa-kun has gotten out of enough duties over the years; the least he can do for the team is go on one shopping trip."

A lot of the time with Kantouku, Jirou couldn't tell if he was being distant (as he was with all the club members, save Atobe) or if he actually hated him or something. He was vaguely aware of Gakuto shuffling him out of the club room, and then Oshitari was beside him, and he jumped a little when he realized it.

"..." Oshitari took a step to the side, an unreadable expression on his face. "You can go home, I won't tell any one."

Jirou wanted to go home, he wanted to take Oshitari up on the offer, but then he happened to glance behind him for a moment. Kantouku was there, giving him some kind of glare, and it made him shudder just a little bit. "No. I'll go."

The shopping trip was not what Jirou expected. The silence and awkwardness, he expected, but Oshitari was being oddly formal. He had thought Oshitari might come on to him, or try to kiss him again, or do something, but nothing was happening. Jirou shook his head, reprimanding himself... it was good that Oshitari wasn't doing anything. This was a good thing.

Jirou plodded along behind the other boy, occasionally stopping to look over things like grip tape and strings, and then they were paying and Oshitari hadn't said more than twenty words to him. There were two white bags on the counter, and Jirou reached for one, but Oshitari plucked them both off before he could reach it.

"I can hold one," Jirou said, a little angry, and he wasn't sure why.

"I've got it."

"It's fine." Jirou grabbed one of the bags and pulled, but Oshitari wouldn't let go, and the bag tore open and spilled all over the floor.

Oshitari made an exasperated sound before bending down to pick everything up and put them in the bag he was already holding.

"Why are you acting so out of character?" Jirou asked, sudden and annoyed.

"Me?" Oshitari sounded incredulous. "Me, out of character? What about you?"

Oshitari threw the last roll of grip tape into the bag, then all but stomped out of the store, Jirou having no choice but to follow. He had to run to catch up to Oshitari, and ran smack into a tall, well-built body as he exited the store.

"Jirou?"

"Aniki?" Jirou looked up, and sure enough, it was his older brother.

Hazuki looked at Jirou, then at Oshitari, and pulled his brother even closer to him as he noticed a distinct lack of ears.

"Jirou, is this boy bothering you?"

But Oshitari was bowing, and Jirou thought it looked so stiff and strange for the other boy to do so. "Akutagawa-san, it's nice to meet you. I'm Oshitari Yuushi, Jirou's teammate."

"Oh." Hazuki blinked, but he seemed impressed by Oshitari's manners, and let go his grip on Jirou. "Well, in that case, thank you for taking care of my brother."

"Aniki!" Jirou whined, but his brother was patting his head and stepping away.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go. Be good, Jirou."

Jirou watched sadly as his brother's blond curls bounced off into the horizon, then leveled an confused expression on Oshitari. "Why were you so polite just now?"

"Of course I would be polite with your family." Oshitari sighed, sadly, and Jirou felt like there was something he just wasn't getting. "It's your family."

It's like a million different thoughts were swirling around in his head. He didn't know what to think any more. "But you're not polite... you kissed me when I wasn't paying attention, and you don't have your ears-"

"That's exactly what this is about, isn't it."

Jirou's mouth formed a little 'o' at the anger in Oshitari's voice, because he had never heard Oshitari sound angry before.

"This is about the fact that I don't have ears, and from the moment you saw me you judged me because of it. And when I kissed you, you couldn't possibly think it was because I might have liked you, because you already think I'm some kind of cad."

"What other type of person would lose their ears so young?"

Oshitari was saying something, and he looked mad, but Jirou couldn't hear it. There was some kind of ringing in his ears, and he felt so dizzy... like everything was shaking.... and then he couldn't see anything any more, and he felt his legs give out underneath him.

Everything was black. At first, everything was black, but then the grass came rolling out like it was a red carpet at some fancy event, except it was rolling out in every direction. Then there was the sound of a splash, and splatters of sky appeared above the grass-carpet. More splashes, and more, until the whole sky was blue and white. Curiouser and curiouser, a giant gloved hand came out of nowhere and placed a glowing orb in the middle of everything.

Jirou looked around, and noticed bunnies and kittens frolicking among his feet. He picked one up, and it had curly black hair and red eyes, and nuzzled against his neck.

"Kirihara?"

But the bunny didn't say anything, and Jirou put it back onto the ground, watching as it scampered off. Then everything was getting bigger, bit by bit, and he realized, no, it was him that was getting smaller. He swished his tail and stretched his paws out in front... he was a cat.

Yes, he must have been a cat, and not Jirou, because Jirou was right over there! Only it was little Jirou, and he was talking to a boy who looked strangely like what Oshitari looked like, only younger. The cat walked closer and mewed, but they weren't paying attention to him, and then little Jirou had fallen asleep on little Oshitari, and little Oshitari looked quite befuddled. Oshitari poked at the small blond, but he wouldn't wake up, so he relaxed the best he could with a body leaning against him. And smiled.

"Meewww...."

Mmm. Some one was scratching him now, and it felt so good. This was the best ear stretch he had ever felt.

"Atobe?" Jirou's head cleared of bunnies and grass, and he blinked his eyes open. Everything was still fuzzy though, and he was still so tired, but he saw a pair of glasses and longish, shaggy hair before he fell back asleep.

The next time Jirou woke up he woke up all the way, though it still took him some time to do so. Some one was hitting a ball against his wall, and then he heard the sound of gum popping.

"Marui?" Sure enough, Jirou's vision focused enough to narrow in on clumps of red.

"Yo. Are you feeling okay?"

That red hair was right in front of him now, along with a pair of big, worried eyes, and a finger was poking him in the shoulder. "Oww..."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Where am I?"

"Duh." Marui rolled his eyes and climbed into the bed, making himself comfortable alongside Jirou. "Your bedroom. That Oshitari guy took you here after you fainted. You've got a fever, yanno. You should take better care of yourself when you're sick."

"I didn't know." Jirou blinked. "Marui, what are you doing here?"

"Huh... Kirihara and Niou set fire to the club house, so practice ended early."

Jirou cringed at the notion of Rikkai's practice ending early... it was already well into evening. When exactly did their practice end usually?

"So, any way, I thought, let's go see if Jirou wants to play a match, and here I am."

"I wanna play, I wanna play!" Jirou sprang up on the bed, bouncing a little, but Marui pushed him back down.

"Nuh uh. You're sick." Marui leaned against him, and arm over his shoulder to keep him from jumping out of the bed, and it reminded Jirou of when they were roommates during the Newcomer's Tournament. He could smell the artificial grape of Marui's gum, and he hoped it wouldn't get stuck in his hair like when they used to fall asleep together. "This Oshitari guy, he seemed real worried like about you. He sat here for awhile until I came, then he left, told me you didn't like him very much."

"It's not that I don't like him..." Jirou mumbled into Marui's shoulder. "He's... I dunno... he's scary."

"Why?"

Jirou rubbed at the spot on Marui's head where his right ear should have been.

"Oh. But you don't think I'm scary."

"Well, you're from Rikkai. No one has their ears at Rikkai."

Marui looked offended for about one second before he grinned. "True, true. Though Yanagi and Akaya held out for awhile."

"I don't want to lose my ears."

"You don't have to, Jirou."

Marui stroked long fingers through his hair, and Jirou fell back asleep. This time when he dreamt, he dreamt of candy sheep and glowing fish, and nothing of relevance or significance.

When it was time for Jirou to go back to school, after having been out with the flu for some days, he was feeling much better and much more clearheaded. At least, as clearheaded as he ever got, considering he lived most of his waking life as if he were dreaming. It wasn't necessarily a good thing, and now he was struggling over how to act around Oshitari.

Jirou was admitting that he had possibly been wrong about the other boy. Oshitari had been very nice to him... had carried him home, in fact. That alone deserved some gratitude, and maybe he should apologize as well. But then there was the fact that right before he fainted, Oshitari had said something about maybe liking him. The thought made Jirou blush, but maybe he was making too much of it, and that hadn't been what Oshitari meant at all.

It's not as though Jirou wanted the other boy to like him.

All his thinking (which had, in fact, hurt his head a little) was all in vain, because Oshitari wasn't in school, and Jirou found himself looking over at his empty seat from time to time during class.

"Why do you hate Yuushi so much?" Gakuto scrawled it on a piece of notebook paper as their teacher lectured about geometry, his characters big and messy.

"I don't hate him," Jirou wrote back, lazy, rambling script.

"You haven't been nice to him since he's transferred here."

"I've been nice."

Gakuto shot Jirou an incredulous expression. "Not Jirou-nice."

Jirou shrugged, not even bothering to respond, but Gakuto had already picked up the pen again.

"You just don't want to admit to yourself that you like him." Then he was pulling the paper away, out of Jirou's grasp, and sticking his tongue out at him.

Jirou scowled, at least as much as he could scowl. And it still came out looking a little like a pout. But Gakuto didn't say anything else about it, and Jirou didn't think about it again until he saw Atobe later on that day. He found the boy eating in the courtyard with Kabaji at lunch, the usual crowd of girls gathered at the arched entrance to watch their Atobe-sama eat. Jirou pushed past them and into the courtyard, plopping down on one of the wrought iron chairs that surrounded a matching table.

"Atobe, do you know where Oshitari is?"

"Hmm? I believe he caught your flu, and is sleeping it off."

"Oh." Jirou rested his head on the table, feeling the lace-like pattern dig into his cheeks. There might be marks left behind, if he stayed there long enough, so he just had to be very careful not to fall asleep.

"Jirou, I don't think you should go see him."

"Huh?" Jirou looked up to see Kabaji peeling grapes for Atobe. "But I just want to say thank you."

"It's not nice to lead him on."

Jirou hunched his shoulders over and tucked his head into his arms. Atobe was using his 'lecturing' voice, the voice he used whenever he was discussing people's mistakes on the court, and Jirou didn't like it. "I'm not."

"Jirou..." Atobe closed his mouth, then opened it again, still contemplating. His lips were slightly parted as he debated within himself, and Kabaji used the opportunity to slip a grape through. "Mmph! ... Kabaji, we're too old for that, ahn?"

Kabaji dropped the grapes he had been holding and lowered his head, and Jirou stifled the urge to laugh a little. Atobe dabbed at the corner of his mouth with a napkin, then turned back to Jirou.

"Jirou, Oshitari likes you. Must I really spell it out? He's liked you for a long time, and he only kissed you because he thought you liked him too."

"But that doesn't make any sense. We met less than two years ago."

"You really don't remember, do you."

Jirou blinked, even more confused then ever. "Remember what?"

"That you've met Oshitari before. I'm not sure of the specifics, he's only just told me, but it was more than a few years ago. He said he had just finished a match and you came up to him, this little blond boy with a Tokyo accent, and told him that you liked him. You ate all his pocky and then you fell asleep on him."

Jirou blinked some more before recognition set in all over his face. "But that boy had ears! And no glasses! Oh...."

Jirou ran a finger over the pattern of the table, contemplating. It had been a silly grade school tournament that his father had taken him to while checking the laundry mats in Kansai, and he had been so little... he hadn't even started his lessons yet. There was a boy there with longish, shaggy hair, and he had been the funnest to watch play, and when Jirou saw him sitting alone afterwards he couldn't help but run up and tell him how much he liked his playing. Except now, thinking back on it, the words had come out 'I really like you a lot'.

"Well, it turns out you made quite the impression, and he's harbored affections for you ever since then. He never thought he'd actually see you again, let alone end up in the same school."

Jirou sighed. "Well, what am I supposed to do now, now that I know all this?"

"Jirou, you know," and Atobe's voice was so full of fondness and affection, "it's about time you stopped leaning on me and stood on your own two feet. You're perfectly capable of deciding what to do on your own."

Jirou frowned, and Atobe's hand reached out to rub his ears, only to stop halfway.

Everything was muddled, and grey, and confusing, and Jirou didn't really want to deal with the fact that he might like some one, let alone the fact that he might like Oshitari Yuushi. He didn't want to deal with the fact that all his friends were losing their ears. He just wanted everything to stay the same, and to just be a kid, and the fact that that wasn't happening made him want to cry.

Muddled emotion or not, though, he thought he should at least apologize to Oshitari for being so unfair, and to say thank you for carrying him home the other day. It really was nice, and he remembered mousse pocky, Oshitari's warmth next to him in the classroom, and Oshitari's concerned face, and thought about how Oshitari really was such a nice person.

He wasn't aware of actually walking to Oshitari's sprawling house, nor was he aware of ringing the bell and being let in by an young woman who must have been Oshitari's sister. But then he was standing in the doorway of Oshitari's room, and he became very aware of the fact that Oshitari was in bed with Kaede, the blonde long-legged girl who had graduated from junior high last year.

"Jirou?" Oshitari pushed the girl off of him and ushered her out of the room, much to her loud complaints. "Jirou, you know, she came onto me, I wasn't going to do anything with her."

"Hmph!" Kaede slapped Oshitari's hands off of her and glanced over at Jirou before glaring at the bespectacled boy again. "I should have known you were gay, when you weren't interested in me."

Then the girl was huffing down the hallway, Oshitari looking after her with a bemused smirk. "Really, women are so hard to understand, I-"

But then Oshitari stopped, realizing that Jirou was sniffling.

"Jirou? Jirou, what's wrong?"

"I don't want to lose my ears," Jirou near-sobbed, rubbing at his eyes.

"Oh, Jirou."

Jirou felt arms wrap around him, and fingers scratching at the base of his ears, and it felt even better than when Atobe did it.

"You don't need to lose your ears. You can keep them for as long as you want."

"But every one else is losing theirs." Jirou's voice was muffled in Oshitari's chest, and he reached his arms out to wrap around Oshitari's waist. "Every one's changing except for me."

"But no one ever said you had to change." Oshitari's chest was so warm against his cheek, and it felt so good just to be held like this. "I like that you sill have your ears, Jirou. I like how you're so sweet and naive. I like most everything about you, and if you don't want to change, you don't have to."

Jirou clung tighter to the back of Oshitari's shirt... he had been so silly about everything, and Oshitari was still being so nice to him. But it was so hard to think, because his eyelids felt so very heavy.

Oshitari shifted a little, and his voice was low against Jirou's ear, conspiring. "You know, if I had known I was going to meet you again, I would have waited to lose mine."

"Liar," Jirou said, and Oshitari chuckled at it.

"Hmm. Or not."

"Why didn't you say anything? About the before time?"

" I don't know..." Oshitari sighed, and it tickled his neck a little. "My pride was hurt when you didn't remember me."

Jirou was so tired. He was so tired, and Oshitari was so warm, and so soft.

"I really like you a lot," Oshitari was saying, voice so sincere, and Jirou was whispering back, "I think I might really like you too."

But his lids felt so heavy, and then he felt a bed underneath him, and Oshitari's lips pressing against his temple. A whisper, light and distant.

"Go to sleep, Jirou."

And he did.

Gossip spread fast at Hyoutei, especially when it had to do with newly formed couples. So the next day at school Atobe patted his head while giving him and approving look, and Gakuto gave Oshitari a high five.

"Congratulations, Yuushi! You finally caught the Ji-lamb you've always wanted!"

.end.