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Tachibana Kippei ([personal profile] saypassion) wrote in [community profile] tennis_hell2018-07-29 11:37 am
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[log] Tachibana & Kamio

Who: Tachibana Kippei & Kamio Akira
What: Tachibana-saaaaaan Kamio and Tachibana go on a drive to help bring Tachibana down off the ledge after a particular comment thread riles him up, and then it turns into much needed laughter
When: ~June 1st after this post
Where: Somewhere by the ocean
Rating: G

It wasn’t the first time that a comment from Niou got him riled up. It wasn’t even the second or third. He felt bad for An-chan, that someone she considered a friend talked about her that way, and he felt almost as bad as Tachibana-san for being helpless to do anything about it.

Kamio understood. He really did. If An-chan had not asked him not to and gave her a piece of her mind regarding what was in her best interest, he would have been barking up Niou’s tree as well. Under the circumstances, the very least he could do was be there for Tachibana-san. And as his userhandle suggested, he arrived quick!

A few minutes earlier than promised, he turned off his bike and, still straddling it, texted, I’m outside.

It was not often that Tachibana let himself get worked up over something someone said. He was certainly not above curt words and escalating accordingly if the poor situation continued, but he would do so calmly - not in such a way that would leave his hands shaking and seeing red. It was no secret that many thought of Tachibana as a lion - or more appropriately a lioness, protective over her cubs - and it was also no secret that he would go to great lengths to seek justice for those who couldn’t speak up for themselves, but he also never often had the reason to feel that way over his sister.

Niou had pushed him over that edge. What had started off with light amusement quickly turned to impatience, but still willing to humor Niou because he knew that Niou sought reactions out of people out of amusement, that ultimately pushed him over the overprotective brother line. And he should have known that he was reacting in the exact manner that Niou was hoping for, but Tachibana felt that Niou had crossed the line in what was and wasn’t appropriate to speak of anyone, let alone his sister, and he was incapable of staying silent.

Tanegashima’s words had edged him back somewhat, though he was still too angry to truly appreciate that Tanegashima was trying to de-escalate the situation, and it was frankly a welcome distraction that Kamio stepped in to give him a healthy way of expressing his rage… rather than hunting Niou down and pummelling him to a pulp, which is what the anger was telling him to do.

Not much longer than he anticipated given Kamio’s great speed by which he did everything in life, his phone sprung to life in his hand, indicating that, sure enough, Kamio had arrived. Tachibana didn’t bother doing anything to prepare himself to go out except to throw on a light hoodie and step into his loafers before locking his apartment shut and pocketing his phone. Kamio was certainly a welcome sight as he descended the stairs to where he knew Kamio would be waiting.

“Hey, Akira. Thanks for coming by.”

Tachibana was looking better than he would have in this situation, but that said nothing of what kind of passion and anger lurked beneath the surface. Kamio knew his former captain better than to think that everything was all right.

“It’s nothing, I’ve got you,” he said, somehow both nonchalant and warm as he flipped up the visor of his own pink helmet and extended his black spare to Tachibana. “You good to go anywhere, Tachibana-san?”

It brought a smile to Tachibana’s face to take the black helmet from Kamio; it reminded him of the days when they both so proudly wore the black and red of Fudoumine. “Yep - I’ll leave it to the one who knows best.” And with that, he put the helmet on.

“When it comes to places to run -- I can’t be beat,” Kamio agreed, catching Tachibana’s smile with one of his own. “Hold onto me.”

When Tachibana did, they were off. Still obeying the speed limit (barely), Kamio weaved a dizzying path in and out of small streets with expert ease. The walls among houses blurred together with plants and shop fronts, and when they stopped at a nearby light, it became evident that Kamio was singing to himself and tapping on the bike handle.

Although a number of years had long since passed since they had been teammates, Tachibana still felt a strong sense of pride when he spent time with his former underclassmen - especially when certain traits and qualities were clearly present even though they had grown up. He felt completely at ease with Kamio at the helm, even if it did mean that he would probably be left with jittery limbs once they had arrived at their destination.

“Some things never change,” he commented, taking the pause as an opportunity to motion to Kamio’s hand.

“Hey, that’s not entirely true,” Kamio said loudly over the hum of the motor. He managed to grin over his shoulder before the light turned. “You’re riding the rhythm with me, now.”

And ride they did, for at least another twenty minutes, until it was clear they had reached some kind of industrial part of the shore, which might have been bustling during the earlier work hours. By now, the cranes were abandoned and shipping boxes sat stacked, the gentle waves of the back licking at the docks below. It wasn’t quite pretty, but the sea air kissed their skin and played with their sleeves until Kamio finally came to a stop.

“We’re here,” he declared.

It was no secret that one of Tachibana’s favorite place to spend time was near the water. It reminded him of summers in Kyushu - travelling to the soft sand beaches with his family, and playing in the surf with his sister. The beaches in Kantou were a little different than what he had growing up, but the sound of the waves would always serve as a gentle reminder that the ocean was never far, and it helped soothe some of his irritation near instantly.

“This is lovely,” he admired, getting off the bike and removing the helmet. “And exactly what I needed.”

Kamio wasn’t sure that lovely was the right adjective for it, but he felt somewhat proud for pleasing Tachibana. “We can get a little closer,” he said, pulling off his helmet and setting it on the bike. The wind ruffled his helmet hair for him, tossing it up and around as he made for the railing. One thin leg and then the other scaled the low rail, and he made the short hop onto one of the shipping containers.

Tachibana followed Kamio’s lead, expertly getting himself onto the shipping container. He had height on his side certainly, but it was more that he had much experience making difficult maneuvers in the spirit of getting into trouble - controlled trouble of course, but trouble nonetheless. Not that he was going to be particularly troublesome with one of his favorite underclassmen.

The wind gently tickled the back of his neck and Tachibana reached up to pull the ponytail out of his hair that was keeping it back. It fanned around his face like a lion’s mane, the wind catching it as though to puff him up in preparation of a big roar. He certainly felt like roaring after the night he had.

“So,” Tachibana murmured, plopping himself down on the shipping container, and draping his legs over the side. “It’s a good thing you came and picked me up.”

Just in case he needed anything -- anything at all -- Kamio watched Tachibana make the little leap. And then, grinning a bit wider, he more collapsed loudly in a pile of limbs than sat back down next to him. His smile sobered a little with the reason for their visit.

“I’m glad I saw it, then,” Kamio said, turning into the wind such that it whipped his hair back from his face and let him make eye contact. One hand settled between them and tapped absently on the container, accidentally punctuating any moment of silence. “Because yeah, it’s. It sucked for me. I know it must be even worse for you.”

It wouldn’t take any stretch of the imagination to figure out why Kamio felt like that - they were thinking in the same terms where his sister was concerned, that they didn’t care for the way that she had been treated. There was also the fact that Tachibana knew Kamio wouldn’t want An’s gaze to go elsewhere… which, really, had it been a possibility, Tachibana would have been truly happy should An turn her attention toward him in a way that was more than just friends.

“Yeah…” Tachibana sighed and tilted his head up toward the sky. “I know I need to be supportive no matter what. And I want to be. I just don’t like what I observe.”

Kamio nodded his agreement. Regardless of the unidentifiable feelings for An that had been marinating since childhood, he just couldn’t remain still while a friend took that kind of disrespect from someone that they called a friend.

“Yeah,” Kamio agreed. His fingers continued to rhythm against the metal as thoughts bounced around in his head. “She has to make her own choices. And you don’t have to be supportive no matter what, you know,” he looked at Tachibana warmly. “You’re choosing to support her.”

Which was, of course, a decision he also supported. But it was more active than Tachibana gave himself credit for. “That support doesn’t necessarily have to mean you have to agree with everything she does, though. Maybe talking to her will add some nicer things to what you observe?”

Although Kamio still didn’t like Niou after talking to An-chan about it, he was able to understand and respect the feelings that his good friend had for him.

Kamio certainly had a good point. It wasn’t a set expectation that he as her brother had to be supportive of her choices, especially when he viewed them as poor ones. However, he felt as though it would be doing her a disservice to not allow her to make her own choices; he would be there to catch her if she fell, and it would make him even happier to simply watch her soar. It was important to him that he only shared his opinions when it truly mattered - when she asked for his vantage - but it was hard when he just wanted to shut this particular thing down.

“I know it does,” Tachibana agreed. “I hope that it does, but I also want to be careful in how I approach it so that she doesn’t think that I’m inserting myself in a place that’s not my business.”

Kamio couldn’t really talk. Not when he received a (kind) talking to for getting into An’s business and getting upset on her behalf even though she wasn’t actually upset (supposedly).

“I don’t really know what you should do,” Kamio said. Figuring out these situations weren’t really his forte; figuring out situations in general wasn’t really his forte. “But. If it were reversed. And you cared about a friend that no one else liked and thought treated you poorly. What would you want?”

It was an interesting question and Tachibana wasn’t quite sure if he had the answer to it. He would of course appreciate greatly that someone cared enough for him to say something in that situation, but on the other hand he was much like his sister in that he also needed to learn for himself. If there was anything he had learned with everything that happened with Chitose back when they were in middle school, it was that he took personal responsibility for anything that he felt was his to take on - to the point where he would often maybe take too much personal responsibility. And so it was difficult to put himself in the same position because he would take the opposite path that his sister would - where she would feel strongly for making her own decision regardless of how it could be viewed, he would take their words perhaps too strongly and begin to psychoanalyze each and every interaction to see if he could see where they were coming from.

Ultimately it was the same quality - learning for themselves - but spun in wildly different directions.

“I suppose I don’t really know,” he let out a sigh and stretched his arms back to lean his hands on the metal to support his new positioning. “An and I aren’t so different that it makes it difficult to answer.”

That made sense to Kamio. He unconsciously copied Tachibana’s posture, leaning back with his hands spread on the warm metal.

“It’s okay,” he said, and it was. “That’s just the kind of stuff I try to think about when I come here…That, and I really like to yell as loud as I can.”

Tachibana laughed. He wasn’t one to raise his voice basically ever, at least not in the way that Kamio meant, so he wasn’t going to do that specifically, but it was certainly a great place to reflect. The gentle sounds of the ocean were calming. It reminded him of late nights of self-reflection - where he would sit at the edge of the water, letting it wash up and over his legs and carry his problems away.

“No, it’s great. If I was a yeller, I’d definitely do so.” He drummed his fingers against the shipping container. “Though… it might feel good.”

Tachibana’s contagious laugh had Kamio smiling. He released his arms to lay down flat on the metal and tilt his head, directing that grin up on his former captain. “If you’re embarrassed to yell alone, I’ll yell with you.”

The laughter faded away to instead a gentle smile as Tachibana looked down at Kamio who was now very much not sitting up. “That sounds like a great idea,” he agreed, getting to his feet. “But we have to stand and do it so we can yell the loudest, right?”

Even as he thrust his arms up at Tachibana in a wordless request for a pull up, Kamio’s cheer turned a bit cheeky, “Yell so loud they can hear us from Korea.”

“You bet.” Tachibana pulled Kamio to his feet and then draped an arm around his shoulders, wildly motioning toward the ocean with his other. “And so that the fish way down there will hear us, too.”

Kamio wrapped a whipcord arm around Tachibana’s back and offered a conspiratorial smirk. “On three, then?”

Tachibana nodded in agreement. “On three.”

Upon their joined countdown to one, Tachibana let out a yell. It was wordless to start, akin to a roar of a lion befitting of what people thought of him, that eventually turned into a rich belly laugh that brought an ache to his abdomen. There was something incredibly cathartic about throwing all reservations to the wind and letting the waves wash away the yells that reverberated in the air.

Kamio’s somewhat higher pitched cry into the sea was much less impressive, but raw with feeling. Their shouting harmonized in the kind of way that had birds quickly fleeing the scene and then, when Tachibana lost it, Kamio followed. He laughed until his face turned red and he had to lean against Tachibana to not fall over.

His long fingers formed to and then squeezed Tachibana’s shoulder. “Been practicing?”

“Something like that,” Tachibana responded smoothly, though his tone was still laced with laughter. Just as Kamio had suspected, it did make him feel better - very much so, in fact. The interactions with Niou still lingered on the back of his mind and he knew better than to think that this would erase all the negative feelings associated with it, but at least for the moment it was a very welcome distraction.

“I should do this more often,” he added. “It’s pretty therapeutic.”

“I’ll make you scream anytime,” Kamio promised with a beam as he patted Tachibana’s bicep.

Then Kamio frowned. What he said set in and turned him as pink as his hair.

“Um. I mean—” Kamio flailed, gesturing wildly as he tried to explain. “Not like…Mean. Like HAH not like AHHH you know…”

Tachibana couldn’t help it. Even as Kamio tried to backtrack to explain why he didn’t mean for it to come out the way it did, the laughter had already come. It was another rich belly laugh - one that brought tears of amusement to the corners of his eyes and the need to take in deep breaths to control the heaving of his chest. “Akira, you’re fine - it’s fine.” It was meant to be reassuring, but certainly the laugher wasn’t going to help matters. “I understood what you meant.”

Something about Tachibana’s pleasant, booming laughter eased the tangle of tension he had knitted his nerves into. His arms calmed, although one of them rubbed the back of his neck to accentuate the sheepish and tentative smile on his face. “Well,” Kamio admitted. “I’m not sure I could scare Tachibana-San anyway.”

It was well worth his slip of the tongue.

Tachibana couldn’t agree more. A billion years could pass and he would still hold Kamio close, even with such amusing proclamations. The online conversations from earlier in the day were even further from the mind now and Tachibana could almost forget that it had even happened. He would likely have some processing to do once he was alone once more - he didn’t want to go into future conversations holding Niou’s words over his head, especially if he was going to continue to be a staple in An’s life - but for the time being, his mind felt at ease.

“No, never.” He used the leverage of his arm draped around Kamio’s shoulders to pat him on the top of his head before pushing his fingers into red hair and tousling it. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me for the rest of time.” He turned his head enough to give Kamio a bright, warm smile, but not removing his hand. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Tachibana’s declaration, smile, and touch were each individually enough to push heat into Kamio’s face; as the wonderful and maddening components piled one after the other, he blushed deeper and deeper until his face matched his impossibly vivid hair. Which Tachibana-san was ruffling. Was it sweaty from his helmet? Did he smell okay? Was steam coming out of his ears? Kamio couldn’t help but smile wide and scream internally at the same time.

“Good,” he said. His voice cracked a bit when he directed his smile up at Tachibana-san. “I’m like duct tape. If you try to get rid of me you’d lose arm hair and it wouldn’t be worth it.”

What?

It was evidently clear that Tachibana’s words had embarrassed Kamio if his scarlet cheeks were anything to go by, but unlike a time when Tachibana would normally just let it slide so as to not further embarrass him, this was different - he couldn’t let Kamio get off so easily, not when Tachibana was in such a good mood.

“That’s quite a comparison,” Tachibana mused out loud, looking thoughtful. “I mean, with the loss of arm hair, it would be as though you were a swimmer, moving much quicker in the air…”

Kamio blinked; it took a moment for his overloaded brain to process that information. When he did, the contemplation had him relaxing despite the proximity. Lifting a forearm for Tachibana’s inspection, he said, “Do you think I should shave my arms? It might make my deliveries a few seconds faster.”

The thin, almost blond scattered hairs on his forearm probably weren’t that much of an impediment.

Tachibana laughed, removing his hand from Kamio’s hair and clapping him on the back instead. “Now that’s a great idea. We’ll need to add a modifier to your business name - like ‘super’ or ‘lightning.’”

It was impressive that Tachibana’s strong back pat didn’t so much as budge the contemplative redhead. “Kamio Cums Lightning…” he muttered, leaning somewhat into the touch as he peered up earnestly and asked, “Kamio Cums Super Quik...Which one sounds faster?”

It took every fiber of his being to not burst into further laughter at the last option, so instead he was just going to let Kamio slip that one by without a pointed comment so as to save him face. Kamio was certainly earnest - and always well meaning, just… needed to think through his words before speaking them. “I think they both sound pretty quick… how about instead of a modifier to the business name, we add it to the tagline instead?”

“A tagline?” Kamio asked, still looking up at Tachibana. That definitely sounded like something an entrepreneur student would know more about than a runner. “Like to come after the name? What do you suggest, Tachibana-san?”

There were so many options available. They could play on the absolute hilarity that was his business name, or they could go with something that was genuine and catchy. Tachibana would far from consider himself a particularly creative individual when it came to putting a name on a business (he would be more the sort to have a literal “Kippei’s Bakery,” or something else equally terrible), but he could probably muster something…

“‘Arriving with a flash of light?’ ‘See for yourself?’” He looked thoughtful and offered, “‘Ready for you when you need it the most?’”

This time, Kamio’s pensive tapping happened against Tachibana’s back; the redhead wasn’t even conscious of doing it.

“The first one sounds kind of…” he frowned. “Religious?”

And he definitely wasn’t like Atobe, the kind of man to consider himself a god. “I like second one, I want to be very reliable for my customers. It’s kind of long, though. Maybe… ‘Here when you need it the most?’ ‘Ready for you -- anytime, anywhere’?”

The tapping on his back made him smile, and Tachibana just tightened his hold around Kamio. “The only trouble is now I feel like we’re edging into corny territory…” he smiled warmly. “Perhaps we should leave everything as is - it is perfect, after all.” Though, admittedly, the corniness was part of the charm - it helped balanced out the sheer ridiculous that was the unfortunately spelled business name. “But if we had to pick one… I like the latter.”

Kamio’s fingers paused in their comfortable song. “Perfect?”

So many people had laughed at his business name that it threw him to hear anyone -- especially Tachibana-san -- say such a thing.

“Really? You really think so?” Kamio asked in a fast, eager jumble, his face flushed and his earnest eyes fixed on Tachibana. “It’s memorable, right?”

Tachibana had a feeling that he probably had, without meaning to, said the magic words. “It is memorable - it wouldn’t be mistaken for anybody else, either. I think it’s a good, strong business name because of that.” And despite the completely unintentional double entendre nature of the name, everybody had to admit that they were never going to forget it - or would be hard pressed to think of anyone else to do the job.

Kamio lit up like fireworks on New Year, a wide smile cleaving his face.

“If Tachibana-san likes it,” he said bravely. “Then I won’t change it. Not even when I have the money to do so.”

There were a billion and one reasons why this was probably a bad thing to encourage, but Tachibana just couldn’t say no to that face that was just so earnest and bright. Admittedly, his soft spot was the size of Russia when it came to any of his former underclassmen, but Kamio in particular just made him swell with pride. It may have been the fact they used to spend more time together than some of the others due to the fact he was their vice-captain, but also the close friendship with An had often brought him over to their house even if it was unrelated to tennis.

“And as long as it brings you as much happiness as it does me acknowledging it, then I think that’s a great thing.” Tachibana smiled and placed his hand on the top of Kamio’s hair. “And even were it to change one day - I’m confident that would be great, too.”

Honestly, the name brought him a good deal of embarrassment. But it brought up other things, too. Despite the mistake, Kamio had made a successful business with his own blood, sweat, and tears. He had many regulars and an ever-increasing amount of experience. Even without Tachibana’s approval, the name reminded Kamio that (1) he was still learning, and (2) he should never give up.

Those two sentiments were closely intertwined with his feelings about Tachibana Kippei as well.

“...Well now I feel like I need to yell again,” Kamio said, pink-faced but content under Tachibana’s hand.

Another laugh escaped Tachibana, but this time rather than the hearty belly laugh of before, it was gentler - one reserved usually for those he was most fond of when they did something to only further endear themselves to them. He certainly wasn’t going to discourage the yelling with how good it felt, though he knew this time it was a bit of a different reason. He knew that blush on his cheeks.

“But only if the fish get to hear you again,” Tachibana said with the most serious of tones, though a warm smile tugged on his lips instead. “Deal?”

Tachibana-san really was amazing. Maybe someday the entrepreneur could make a business bottling laughter.

Because he couldn’t nod, Kamio thrust his pinky up for Tachibana and said quite seriously, “I’ll wake up every last one of them for the fishermen.”

Linking their pinkies together, Tachibana nodded, and with an unwavering certainty in his voice reminiscent of all those times that he had guided and encouraged their team, said, “I can’t wait.”

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