Yagyuu Masaharu (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dontgiveafox) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tennis_hell2018-04-27 09:16 pm
dontgiveafox) wrote in tennis_hell2018-04-27 09:16 pm
[LOG] Niou Masaharu and Kirihara Akaya
Who: Niou Masaharu and Kirihara Akaya
What: Hanging out
When: ... ihavenoidea
Where: Akaya's apartment
Rating: Super G :|
Niou took his time getting to Akaya’s place, keeping half an eye on the time to make sure he didn’t get there on time or even - a mad thought - early. He patted a few cats on the way, spun around a lamp post a few times to waste time, and actually did end up getting a bit lost and wasting more time.
He ended up at Akaya’s place a good 40 minutes late and Niou pressed the buzzer for his apartment. And then pressed it again. And again. And repeatedly, just for good measure. Gosh golly, he hoped he caught Akaya in some kind of inconvenient position.
Having dozed off on the couch while waiting for Niou to arrive, Akaya half-fell off of it at the first grating ring of the buzzer. Glancing quickly at his phone for the time - 40 minutes, sounds about right - Akaya winced his way to the lock system by his door, punching the gate open and offering a “Really? Really?” down the speaker.
Unlatching his door lest it be subject to the same rough treatment the buzzer outside was, Akaya shoved a hand through his hair and did a quick glance around the living space. Clean enough for company, even if he had forgot to make any actual effort to tidy.
Niou grinned at the voice over the speaker - was that the croaking of just woken up voice that he heard there? He heard the sound of the gate being unlocked though and Niou trotted through, making sure to give the buzzer just one more press for good measure.
“Greetings my cute kouhai,” Niou said as he opened the door, this entrance significantly less noisy than the first. “I have presents for you.”
Akaya raised his hand in hello as Niou entered, his pleased-exasperated combo expression almost instantly shifting into a pout. Everyone was stealing his lines, recently.
“Oi, wait. I have presents for you. Don’t show me up the first second you get here, senpai,” he said, sounding mock-deflated. Twisting behind Niou to latch the door again, Akaya gave a vague wave in the direction of his living space in an indicator for his senpai to make himself at home. “Want a drink?”
“You’ve gotta pick up your game, Akaya,” Niou said, toeing off his shoes and head into the living space. And make himself at home he did, dropping his stuff next to the couch to go and rifle through the things on the table.
“I love warm beverages,” he said, flipping over a games case to look at the pictures on the back. “Preferably in some kind of novelty print mug.”
Sliding along the hard floor in his socks to the kitchenette, there was a series of clinking noises as Akaya raided the counterside jars for anything drinkable. He only owned three mugs, only one of which was novelty printed - a Gundam helm on white. But that was his mug.
“Uhh, black tea, green tea, instant coffee or hot chocolate?” He recited. “Don’t got any marshmallows, though.” Technically a lie - Marui’s gifts had included a large bag of massive marshmallows for toasting, which Akaya had also picked up for himself, but they wouldn’t fit in a mug.
“Hot chocolate,” Niou said as he moved to crawl under the table and look at what was there. Akaya’s place was… chaotically tidy and Niou could appreciate that. “Lots of milk, I like to live dangerously with lactose.”
He rifled through the amazon box on the floor and paused as he pulled out a tub of gatsby hair wax… well that particular one looked disturbingly familiar. “Why have you got a hair mask in here?” he asked, pulling out another container. “Are you trying to emulate our dear captain’s glossy hair?”
Setting out preparations for the hot chocolate and flicking the water on to boil, Akaya leaned over the lean on the barrier between kitchen and living area. Raising an eyebrow as Niou snuck under the table, he suddenly remembered the box just as Niou came across it and his forehead hit the barrier with an audible thunk and accompanying groan.
“I actually have no idea,” he whined, already regretting leaving the box out. “Zaizen ordered it all on my account.” And had attempted to provide text instructions, which Akaya had all but ignored so far. The water hissed, almost ready, and Akaya moved back to prepare the drinks.
“Have you tried any of them out?” There was actually a disturbingly large amount of hair products in the box. And given that it was partly unpacked already… it made him wonder how many had been bought. “Oh look, there’s a hairbrush in here too, did you know that?” Niou waved it out under the table for Akaya to see. “Is that a hint do you think? Did he find tangles in your hair that offended him?”
“Uhh, yeah, one of the normal shampoos, and a dry one,” Akaya replied after finishing up the hot chocolate. He brought it out, nudging Niou gently with his foot to make him aware of the drinks being placed on the table. Plain black mug for Niou, and his own Gundam one held possessively in his own hands. “He bought a brush?? I already own a brush.”
Sweeping up Niou’s discarded bag with a free hand, Akaya brought it over as he sat himself legs-up on the couch, depositing it in his lap like it was his own. “So what did you get me?”
“Maybe this one is designed to make your hair shinier.” Niou ran his fingers over the bristles as he emerged from under the table, just managing to avoid hitting his head on the way up.
He would return to the box of hair products later. Now, the little pile of things on the TV stand that he could spot was calling his name. “I got you a book, it’s in there somewhere,” Niou said as he went to explore. “I buy everyone books now. Yours is in English, to help you with your ever increasing knowledge of the language.”
Taking that as permission to rifle through the bag’s contents, it took a second for Akaya to pull the book out and give the cover a once-over before speaking. “On the man himself, huh,” he said, grinning. A Federer biography. “Thanks, senpai! I’ll let you know if I pick up any good new vocab.”
Placing the bag on the ground and replacing its presence in his lap with the book, Akaya peered over his mug at Niou’s picking through his belongings. Briefly, his mind supplied an image of Niou knocking a pile of games off the edge of the cabinet like a cat, and he almost choked on his hot chocolate as a result.
“Yeah, someone brought it in, it’s in really good condition. No broken spine or anything.” And since Niou set the prices of books when they came in… “I hope there’s no rude words in there. I don’t need you having a dirty mouth when you’re giving your victory speeches to the cameras.”
There wasn’t really much interesting on the TV stand. A few games, a figurine that NIou picked up and spun the arms of around - and then put it back down with the head on backwards… a dust bunny that got moved to pride of place at the front. “Anyway, how was America?”
“Maybe someone didn’t like Feds all that much.” Instinctively, Akaya ran a finger over the still-solid spine of the book. Nice. “Niou-senpai, don’t you remember? Rude words are like, the first thing you learn in any new language.”
The little changes to the items on the TV stand earned Niou a flat stare for a moment. He’d be bothered by the dust bunny until it was cleaned up. “America was great,” Akaya answered, slight amount of pride slipping into his tone. “Did you know I won a thing?”
“Don’t ruin it for me, you’re meant to stay pure and kouhai-y forever,” he said with a sigh. Niou abandoned his hunt through Akaya’s things for the time being to move to the couch, sitting down on the floor with his back against the couch. He took the black mug - disappointingly plain - and gave the drink a curious sniff.
“Yeah I did know, you posted about it, remember?” Oh that was right, he hadn’t replied to that particular thing because he’d been at home. He’d known anyway, the local news had plastered Akaya’s face everywhere for a few hours. “Did you get a trophy?”
Akaya snorted, smirking at Niou as he picked up the plain mug. “Since when was I ever a pure kouhai, huh?” You know, between all the bloodshed and promises to kick their asses someday.
Asking Niou if he knew had been mostly a joke, but hearing the post had been paid attention to despite the lack of response made him happy to hear anyway. “Yeah! It’s like a mini version of the big glass one,” he said. He had been kind of disappointed to hear he couldn’t keep the full-size one, but in retrospect that made sense. “When I go get your stuff I’ll show you. Where did you vanish to, by the way?”
“Always. For Rikkai standards, anyway.” He was pretty sure Yukimura as a first year and a second year had done worse than Akaya anyway… and just didn’t openly tell people about it.
Niou finally took a sip of the hot chocolate and narrowed his eyes as he considered the taste. Acceptable. The smaller trophy to take home was not so acceptable, but he supposed he could reserve judgement until he saw it. “I just went home,” Niou said with a shrug, stretching his legs out across the floor and he took another sip. “Annoyed my brother a bit. Ate good food.”
Akaya took a moment to consider. His head tilted left, and finally he shrugged, conceding. “Okay, maybe you’re right. But I ain’t gonna stick to that forever.”
Oh, that was all, huh. Niou’s disappearances were nothing new to anyone who had known him long enough, though the longer ones tended to be the best story-wise. An-chan really had been worried for nothing. “Even someone like Niou-senpai has to return to the nest sometimes, huh,” he said, teasingly. “Did you need laundry done, too?”
“As long as the rest of us get progressively worse too, you’ll be fine,” Niou said, waving his hand vaguely at Akaya. And considering that most of them were terrible even though, that did give him a lot of wriggle room.
Niou rubbed at his chin thoughtfully as he mulled over the answer. ‘Yeah, I took all my handwash only clothes back home,” he said. “There was a lot, which is why I was gone a while.” Completely false - his mother had done it all in one day. “It was a good trip though. A+. Would recommend.”
“You’re already on the right track,” he commented dryly. That probably wasn’t fair - everyone seemed to be doing just fine for themselves, but it was hard to contrast between now and school, so the joke would probably strike the mark in some regard. It had been coming up on three years since he was really a kouhai, after all.
Akaya snickered. “What, your demon landlady doesn’t handle laundry? It’s good that you had a nice time, though.” Niou’s living situation was always a bit of an enigma, but a having a close family was something he had inferred over many years. Akaya’s own trips home were more frequent but for shorter times - it was more likely that his parents visited him on day outings than anything else.
“Nah, her washing detergent is too strong, it doesn’t go well with delicates,” Niou said with a bit of a sigh. “And she irons my underwear if I don’t specifically tell her not to, it’s weird.”
He prodded Akaya with his foot and put the cup of hot chocolate down to go explore some more. Time to rifle through the kitchen. “You should go back home. Do a celebrity visit to Rikkai, see how many people you make faint from shock.”
“Every new piece of information you tell me just makes her sound more and more suspicious,” Akaya said. “No actual human irons underwear.”
His eyes tracked Niou to the kitchen. His cupboards were actually sorted out now after Zaizen had looked after the place in part for three weeks - before this, half would have been devoid of content and the other half overcrowded. “If you want something to eat, there’s leftover chicken salad in the fridge,” Akaya offers first. “Go back to Rikkai, huh… Maybe after the French Open, since either me or buchou are, like, basically guaranteed to win it. Cause some real hype.”
“I might start. I quite enjoy the feel of freshly ironed underwear on my privates,” Niou said vaguely, already starting to open and close the cupboards.
Akaya’s fridge was pretty boring too, but Niou still rustled in it, checked the expiry date of everything in it. “Your milk’s about to expire,” he said helpfully. The chicken salad got a dubious look over before he went back to expiry date checking. “I’ve been practising a little with Seiichi. Maybe we should practise on more clay courts in preparation.”
Grimacing, Akaya finished his hot chocolate and nudged him mug a safe distance in on his coffee table. “Well, I already know you ain’t human, so that doesn’t count.”
He made a sound of acknowledgement at the milk warning, stretching his legs out to take advantage of the temporary couch space. At the mere mention of clay courts, though, Akaya tilted his head far back over the armrest and groaned at the ceiling. “I haaate clay. Hate it,” he whined. “Do we gotta play on clay? I mean, I wanna play you again, but can’t we just play hard court like always?” Clay was gross and dusty and terrible. He didn’t want to deal with any more of it than he was forced to.
Niou straightened up from Akaya’s fridge, holding a packet of - were these chocolates? “I don’t play tennis,” he said with a straight face, drawing his mouth out into a flat line. “Unless it’s weird arcade games, I still play those.”
He tossed the packet back in the fridge and opened a few containers for a dubious sniff before he decided the fridge was all inspected. Moving on to the cupboards.
Oh, that packet. Akaya had forgotten he had those. Probably for the best Niou hadn’t tried to eat them. “Huh? Oh,” he said lamely, catching up too slowly with the meaning to not sound confused. “Sure. We could go to the arcade, too. But we can also play tennis. I don’t have to play you.”
Akaya hoped that Niou wasn’t going to judge him for his over-neat cupboards - he hadn’t had time to mess them up appropriately yet. There was the one cabinet on the end where Akaya “hid” all his snacks, though. The only people not allowed in there were his coach and PT.
“Maybe Tezuka, he’s always fun to play against,” Niou said, starting to open and close drawers and cupboards. It was remarkable and so… un-Akaya-like to see them so organised.
Were his cups actually all facing the same direction? The orderliness of it made part of Niou die inside and he purposely turned one of them around.
“Who’s your favourite pro to play against? Not including Seiichi.”
“It's been a long time since I played against Tezuka-san,” Akaya considered. “Some players on tour have similar styles to him, so that’d be useful.”
He noticed Niou’s careful picking at his cupboards and slid himself off the couch to join him. Noticing the flipped mug, Akaya reached over Niou's shoulder to turn a complementary one face up. “Hmm, aside from Yukimura-buchou…” he frowned, leaning back on the bench. “Ones I can beat?” A wicked grin punctuated that statement.
“Kunimitsu’s not hard to play as,” Niou said with a grin, twisting some of the mugs around now to get them out of order. “I don’t even have to switch hands.”
He snickered as Akaya joined him with creating orderly chaos, moving to just moving the neatly stacked plates slightly out of line with each other. “So, pretty much a lot of the pros on the circuit? Since you’re becoming a big shot player now?”
A few perfectly clean glasses were removed from their shelf and strewn randomly among other cabinets. “Up to like, current standards though?” It’s teasing - Akaya knows Niou wouldn’t slack off, to borrow a phrase. “Heard he and buchou had a match and didn’t tell aaanyone.”
Despite his nonchalant shrug at Niou’s veiled compliment, the smirk on Akaya’s face was a telltale sign of his pride. “Maybe. I haven’t beaten a world number one yet, so one of those… would be cool.” He produced a bag clip from a drawer (he owned bag clips?) and clamped it to the end of Niou’s rat tail.
“I can’t believe they did that to us,” Niou said with a bit of an indignant puff up. “They should’ve invited everyone along to watch them play tennis. Don’t they know some of us have data to collect?”
He reached behind him to feel what on earth Akaya had put in his hair, shrugged and left it there so he could go back to the bowls. There wasn’t much he could do, so he just turned the stack upside down. “Yeah okay, maybe do some practice against Rafael Nadal. I know Seiichi likes playing him.”
Akaya nodded firmly in agreement. Data or not, that kind of match should have been public spectacle. “And then he says, oh but I’m playing Marui-senpai on the weekend and you can come,” a huff. “I mean I’m gonna go but it doesn’t make up for it.”
Arming himself with another clip, Akaya tested his dexterity by attempting to slide it into his senpai’s hair slightly higher than the first one. “I don’t think I’ve seen Nadal in Japan before,” he said. “Of course buchou would like playing him. I wanna have a go, too.” Satisfied with his handiwork, he reached back to pick up a third clip to add to the decoration but came up empty-handed. Apparently there were only two.
“It’s not entertaining enough to see Seiichi crush someone like Marui though,” Niou said, just looking unamused. Maybe he could convince Tezuka to challenge Yukimura to a rematch and he could sneak along and watch. And text Akaya when it was happening. “It’s not the same and he knows it.”
Niou paused at the second clip in his hair and gave that a feel as well - okay, then. At least no more seemed to be incoming. “You clearly haven’t been frequenting the right tennis courts if you’ve never seen Nadal in Japan,” Niou said with a grin. “Or at last a close enough Nadal. Maybe if I had muscles like Sanada…”
Akaya shrugged, not quite agreeing with Niou’s first statement. “I dunno, it’s fun to watch Marui-senpai try out as much as he can,” everyone on court knew the result, so it was really just time to show off. “Buchou said he’d play me after but… I still think I’d trade it in to watch that game.”
The mental image of Nadal appearing before hapless public court spectators made Akaya snicker. Running out of nearby dishes to move, he turned a few of the jars on his bench label-backward. “Nadal looks narrower than he is, though,” Akaya reasoned, stretching out his own arms. “So to people who aren’t that familiar, sure, that’d be just right.”
“If Seiichi’s in a playing mood though. He might just cut Marui down, and that’s no fun to watch.” Well, actually that was fun to watch, but also a bit depressing too.
Niou stood up and inspected the newly formed mess around the kitchen - much more satisfying with things just a little bit out of order. The jars were a nice touch, good job Akaya, Niou gave him an approving nod. “Maybe you should just settle for playing yourself. I don’t know if my artistry can be okay with an only ‘okay’ Nadal.”
“That’s true,” Akaya admitted. Yukimura could make a match a spectacle or a slaughter depending on the time of day if he so desired. “But usually it’s fine.”
Flashing Niou a thumbs up in reply, Akaya skittered out of the kitchenette with the intent to return to the couch space, but reconsidered and eyed the ajar door of the spare bedroom instead. “Not gonna settle for that! You can surprise me,” he said with a toothy smile. “Aaand on that note, I have surprises for you!” An instructive wave of his hands indicated that Niou should return to his seat.
“Maybe I’ll tell him that Marui called him fat before the match starts, and watch him get slaughtered,” Niou said with a grin and he laughed to himself.
Niou watched Akaya very suspiciously as he was told to sit down … and surprises? That just was dodgy. Still, he moved to sit on the couch, or rather crouch on the couch, in case he needed to quickly vacate it. And he squinted at Akaya the whole time. At least his hot chocolate was still there.
“Aww, don’t do that,” Akaya said, echoing through the doorway as he began to search the (finally dwindling) sea of American shopping bags. “It’ll be a waste of a day out.”
A few moments of plastic rustling finally ended with a voiced “Aha!” and a stumble as Akaya gracefully tripped over his spare futon, which had toppled over in his search. Remembering to retrieve the baby-sized version of the Indian Wells trophy from the trophy cabinet (full) as well, he re-emerged from the Room of All Impermanent Things and dangled the oversized bag in front of Niou. “It’s kinda heavy ‘cause there’s a book in it,” he said, relinquishing it to the tablespace in front of Niou’s spot on the couch.
Niou kept a close ear on Akaya’s adventures in the bedroom as he sipped at his hot chocolate and scanned the room for anything else interesting.
The dust bunny watched him just as closely.
And ooh, the bag looked quite enticing as he reached for it, making a show of giving it a good feel to guess what was in it. “I love books,” he said blandly, reaching in to pull it out. “I love books about cats and… gun control,” he added on in much the same tone, but he’d raised one eyebrow as he looked at the blurb, giving away his interest and amusement in the choice.
Akaya seated himself back down with a heavy sort of flourish. The little glass trophy turned over and over in his hand. “I saw it in a window and went, ‘hey, that’s Niou-senpai’s perfect manual’, so I had to get it,” he said boastfully. “And Yagyuu-senpai works in that one shop with fake guns, right? You can show off your knowledge.”
Placing the trophy on the table, Akaya fished quickly into the bag for the Mickey ears and placed them lightly on Niou’s head. “And these are essential, of course.”
Niou nodded along in agreement with Akaya’s statements - yes, yes this was definitely his perfect manual. “Maybe I’ll use it to train Yagyuu in proper gun control,” he said, snickering to himself as he flicked through the pages and let himself sniff them curiously. Maybe he’d have to show Tezuka and see if they smelled like America.
He patted his head to see what Akaya had put there and found the mouse ears. A bit more groping revealed it to be a boring pair too. “I’m disappointed, you should’ve gotten the wizard mickey ears,” he said, but Niou left them there happily enough to go back to looking at the book.
Despite raising an eyebrow at the page-sniffing, Niou’s actions went without comment. Instead, Akaya focused on his statement - “Kinda concerned about either of you with any kind of gun, so. Y’know. It’s for personal peace of mind too.”
He reached out a hand to reposition the ears after Niou’s physical inspection. “No playing favourites, everyone gets the iconic ones,” he said. “But there’s something else I got for you in there that could sweeten it a little!” The accompanying grin had only a slight slyness to it.
“Excuse you, I’m far less concerning than Hiroshi,” Niou said with a bit of a dignified sniff. Yagyuu was dangerous, Niou always said that. Much more dangerous than he was.
Niou narrowed his eyes at Akaya slightly and he stuck his hand back in the bag, making a show of rummaging around. “This better be some kind of tasty snack, Akaya.” Preferably sweet, since that was being hinted at. Maybe chocolate. He did fish it out between two fingers, pulling the packet out with a flourish.
Akaya nodded but said nothing. He secretly agreed with that assessment of Yagyuu, hence trusting the reading of gun safety to Niou to pass along. Plus the cats helped.
His attention returned to the bag as the larger item was unearthed with noted dexterity. The green and black pattern didn’t lend well to immediate recognition, but the frilly edging and ties and inserted card reading ‘GHOST HOST APRON’ certainly did. “I got you snacks too,” Akaya was quick to reassure. “But I dunno, this seemed like something you’d like.”
Niou laughed when he looked closer at the packaging. Ghost Host Apron indeed. “Do you think if I wear it at my place, my land lady will get suspicious?” he asked, unfolding it to hold it up and look at it. “I might have to cook something, just to wear it.”
“Suspicious about what? That you’ve really been a ghost this whole time and not a mortal at all?” Akaya snickered, then reached into the bag to bring out a packet of Hershey’s Kisses. “Combine these gifts for a killer combination!” He said as if performing an infomercial.
The little glass trophy was picked up again and offered for inspection, once Niou was done surveying his gifts.
“You’re meant to be keeping that a secret, Akaya,” Niou said, reaching to take out the Hershey Kisses out of Akaya’s grasp to turn the packet over. “I’ll have to get Seiichi to wipe your memories if you’re not careful.”
The presents were all well and good but the trophy was on offer now and Niou put the bag down on the floor - all presents neatly tucked inside except the Mickey ears - to inspect it. He held it up and tapped on it with a nail. “So you get to keep this one forever? Or do you have to return it?”
“Memories aren’t a sense, senpai,” Akaya said, somehow doubting that would prevent Yukimura erasing his memories anyway. There would be some method.
The trophy rang a tiny, bell-like sound when struck, its odd shape muting it slightly. “This one’s for keeps!” Akaya said excitedly, tapping it as well. “It’s, uh, still glass though. So I gotta try really hard to not break it.”
“But they’re formed by your senses, aren’t they? And it’s all something to do with the brain anyway, it’s possible,” Niou said, vaguely handwaving it away. He wouldn’t put it past Yukimura anyway.
Niou held the trophy up to the light to watch it reflect off the glass and he gave it an approving nod. “Maybe you should wrap it in something to keep it safe. Put it in your underwear drawer.”
The trophy sparkled as if showing off. Akaya practically joined it at Niou's approval, only for his expression to fall again at the suggestion. “No way, this is my first Master's! It has to go in a cabinet or… something, right?”
He looked around his fairly bare living area. Really, those cabinets he had in the spare bedroom should probably be out here. “Surely you have somethin’ you show off. A centrepiece or whatever.”
It was quite fun to keep moving the trophy around to watch the light catch it and he glanced at Akaya at the sort of question. “Sure, I have things on display. A pair of high heels from an ex-girlfriend. And a totem blessed by a Maori elder for fertility,” Niou said casually with a bit of a vague smile.
“Did you buy it blessed or get it blessed personally?” Akaya asked flatly. Not that he knew anything about Maori customs or… whatever that kind of totem would look like. “But you get it. Gotta show it off.”
Holding his hand out expectantly for the trophy to be returned, Akaya frowned. “Wait, where are Maoris from? Where did you go for that?” Relating peoples with geographic locations was a work in progress.
“Blessed personally, just for me,” Niou said with a grin, that just widened as he looked at Akaya’s expression. Of course, what other way were you meant to get a totem blessed?
Niou gave the trophy one last admiring look before he handed it back and he flopped back on the couch, stretching his legs out in front of him before slumping again. “New Zealand. I made a quick trip down there, it was nice.”
Akaya turned the trophy over once more in his hand before carefully setting it in the centre of the coffee table. It was dwarfed even by the relatively small surface. Hmm, needs a pedestal of some kind.
“New Zealand, huh…” he trailed off, trying to dredge up any information he knew about it. “They don’t have any big tournaments there, so I haven’t been. But there’s like… mountains and stuff, right? Did you go soul-searching?”
Oh that was right, sometimes Niou forgot that Akaya was a seasoned world traveller now with his tournaments. Except not to New Zealand, apparently.
“Yeah, mountains and caves. Lots of hot springs and mud baths.” He grinned and reached for his mug of now cold chocolate. “I went soul searching, come out like 10% more enlightened than before. Highly recommend.”
“Honestly all I really know about it is all the movie stuff that goes on,” Akaya admitted, shrugging. “I’d probably just wanna go see all that.” Maybe next time he went to Australia, he could detour over there (they were pretty close, right? He wondered).
Nudging the plastic bag of gifts so it rustled, Akaya looked at Niou bright-eyed. “So? Did I pick well?”
It would be so easy to just say Akaya didn’t pick right and watch him deflate, but Niou’s not that mean… right now, after presents and warm beverages at least.
“Yeah you picked good presents,” Niou said eventually, patting Akaya on the head. “If you managed the same quality with other people’s you probably did alright overall.”
Akaya ducked away from the headpat after a moment, but a satisfied grin showed that his protest was half-hearted. There was pride, there, that he’d been able to choose well. “I’ve seen you, Hikaru and Marui-senpai so far,” he listed, ticking the names off on his fingers. “And my sister, she took the stuff for my parents too.” Everyone had seemed pleased with their presents, so this counted as a resounding success. “You’re the first one to give me something too, though.”
Hikaru was… Akaya’s weird friend, right? Niou scratched his cheek as he thought about that quickly. “That’s because I’m the best,” Niou said, preening a little. “I can’t exactly let my kouhai buy me all the presents and spoil me, that’s a bit of a loss of face.” He had other non-kouhai friends to one-sidedly spoil him and let him feel okay about that. “What’d you get Yagyuu? Did you get him something rude?”
The laugh that Akaya started at Niou’s bragging was cut short as he remembered something. “Ah, wait, Marui-senpai brought me cake?” He said, but quickly waved his hands in defense. “But I asked him to, right, so it still doesn’t count!” Niou had brought him a surprise, which clearly was on a different tier - at least for this discussion.
At the mention of Yagyuu, Akaya frowned and fidgeted slightly. “Yagyuu-senpai was the one who took the longest to decide on,” he admitted. “I didn’t get him anything rude! Eventually I picked up the special edition of Battleship from the Disney store. It’s like, a Pirates one?” Yagyuu was difficult to shop for, so something safe like a game with a good aesthetic stood out in the end.
Cake definitely didn’t count. Especially since it was eaten so quickly. Books were forever and therefore far superior presents. And Akaya seemed to agree with him on that too… sort of, so Niou went back to preening.
“Oh yeah, I think he’d like that.” At least Yagyuu was the type that would just politely smile and thank you anyway even if he didn’t. “I’ll make him play it with me, next time I see him. I need more ways I can beat him.” It was good for both of their egos.
Hearing that reassurance from Niou set Akaya’s mind a bit at ease. If Niou trusted that Yagyuu would like it, chances were that would be true. Either way, Akaya had never been able to get reads on Yagyuu’s sincerity, so he’d end up mollified regardless.
“I’ll have to find time to give it to him,” he said, still frowning a little. “It always seems like he’s busy. But maybe I just haven’t asked enough?” A shrug. A lot of people were busy, these days. He turned to Niou with a grin. “I’m super glad you could come over, though!”
“Yeah, Hiroshi’s hard to catch up with,” Niou agreed. Even organising to meet up with him had taken… a while. “Just annoy him until he agrees. Or go annoy him at his job, he can’t escape you there.”
Niou reached to ruffle Akaya’s hair again and flicked him on the forehead as he withdrew his hand. “Any chance of another warm beverage?” he asked, looking around the room. “And then, I don’t know, we could play video games or something. I think you need to be crushed at something by your senpai now and then. Deflate that head a bit.”
‘Annoy him’ seemed like pretty solid advice. “I dunno about his job. Place kinda freaks me out.” Akaya had gone by there once and promptly chickened out of going inside. The seedy little back alley it was in had given him slasher film vibes.
Taking Niou’s mug with a mix of an annoyed and affirmative sound after the forehead flick, Akaya returned to the kitchen to prepare another drink. “Same thing?” He asked, setting the water on to boil. “Can’t deflate my head if you lose, senpai. We could play….. Smash. Or Mario Kart.”
“Maybe we can go annoy him together,” Niou said vaguely, waving a hand. He had to go visit Yagyuu at his shop anyway, he’d heard such strange things about it. “Safety in numbers and all that.”
Niou took the chance to get up and inspect the dust bunny again, hunting around the TV for a few more that he could add to the family. “Yeah, same thing.” He grinned and held up a baby bunny to show Akaya. “I never said I’d play fairly. But you need to practice good sportsmanship and be fair.”
The concept of ganging up on Yagyuu to corner him into hanging out brought a devious little smirk to Akaya’s face. Niou had such fun ideas. “Sounds good. He can’t refuse both our charms,” Akaya snickered, pulling the hot chocolate out to mix it.
The tiny dust kit was met with a raised eyebrow and a mental reminder to vacuum. That was quickly transferred to Niou, sans the vacuuming part. “So like, you get to cheat and I just gotta deal with it?” He reached into a cabinet behind him, retrieved a small strawberry candy, and threw it with not insignificant force at his senpai. “You’re on. It’ll be even better when I win anyway.”
Niou put a bit too much work into arranging the dust bunnies nicely in front of the TV and he laughed as he caught and promptly dropped the candy. “Yeah, something like that,” Niou said with a grin, picking up the candy to look at it.
“Those are some pretty big words, Akaya,” Niou said, unwrapping the wrapper. “Hopefully you’re past the crying and screaming when you lose phase.”
“C’mon, I grew out of that years ago,” Akaya said, finishing up the second round of hot chocolate. ‘Years ago’ was actually far fewer years than he’d be willing to admit. A mug was passed to Niou as Akaya returned to the living area, pausing to pop Smash Bros into the console and pick up controllers before returning to the couch.
“Bragging when I win is another story, though.” He’d picked Smash on purpose - much better for him.
“I still so fondly remember you screaming at Seiichi and co when they ground you into the dirt,” Niou said with a happy, reminiscent sigh. He took the hot chocolate and curled up on the couch - yes, perfectly made as before and waited for the start of the game.
“Alright, you ratty oversized kouhai,” Niou said, putting the hot chocolate carefully on the table. “Best out of three?”
A scowl followed Niou’s nostalgic reminder. “Do you gotta bring that up?” Then, a softer sort of annoyance - “Well, it’s not like that turned out badly outside of that.” It was Akaya’s first introduction to Rikkai, after all.
The game loaded and Akaya set the stage - no items, limited random stages - and picked his character. Bayonetta seemed like a decently irritating choice for this kind of battle. “Best of five. Like a tennis match.” The competitive glint to Akaya’s eyes surfaced along with a toothy grin.
What: Hanging out
When: ... ihavenoidea
Where: Akaya's apartment
Rating: Super G :|
Niou took his time getting to Akaya’s place, keeping half an eye on the time to make sure he didn’t get there on time or even - a mad thought - early. He patted a few cats on the way, spun around a lamp post a few times to waste time, and actually did end up getting a bit lost and wasting more time.
He ended up at Akaya’s place a good 40 minutes late and Niou pressed the buzzer for his apartment. And then pressed it again. And again. And repeatedly, just for good measure. Gosh golly, he hoped he caught Akaya in some kind of inconvenient position.
Having dozed off on the couch while waiting for Niou to arrive, Akaya half-fell off of it at the first grating ring of the buzzer. Glancing quickly at his phone for the time - 40 minutes, sounds about right - Akaya winced his way to the lock system by his door, punching the gate open and offering a “Really? Really?” down the speaker.
Unlatching his door lest it be subject to the same rough treatment the buzzer outside was, Akaya shoved a hand through his hair and did a quick glance around the living space. Clean enough for company, even if he had forgot to make any actual effort to tidy.
Niou grinned at the voice over the speaker - was that the croaking of just woken up voice that he heard there? He heard the sound of the gate being unlocked though and Niou trotted through, making sure to give the buzzer just one more press for good measure.
“Greetings my cute kouhai,” Niou said as he opened the door, this entrance significantly less noisy than the first. “I have presents for you.”
Akaya raised his hand in hello as Niou entered, his pleased-exasperated combo expression almost instantly shifting into a pout. Everyone was stealing his lines, recently.
“Oi, wait. I have presents for you. Don’t show me up the first second you get here, senpai,” he said, sounding mock-deflated. Twisting behind Niou to latch the door again, Akaya gave a vague wave in the direction of his living space in an indicator for his senpai to make himself at home. “Want a drink?”
“You’ve gotta pick up your game, Akaya,” Niou said, toeing off his shoes and head into the living space. And make himself at home he did, dropping his stuff next to the couch to go and rifle through the things on the table.
“I love warm beverages,” he said, flipping over a games case to look at the pictures on the back. “Preferably in some kind of novelty print mug.”
Sliding along the hard floor in his socks to the kitchenette, there was a series of clinking noises as Akaya raided the counterside jars for anything drinkable. He only owned three mugs, only one of which was novelty printed - a Gundam helm on white. But that was his mug.
“Uhh, black tea, green tea, instant coffee or hot chocolate?” He recited. “Don’t got any marshmallows, though.” Technically a lie - Marui’s gifts had included a large bag of massive marshmallows for toasting, which Akaya had also picked up for himself, but they wouldn’t fit in a mug.
“Hot chocolate,” Niou said as he moved to crawl under the table and look at what was there. Akaya’s place was… chaotically tidy and Niou could appreciate that. “Lots of milk, I like to live dangerously with lactose.”
He rifled through the amazon box on the floor and paused as he pulled out a tub of gatsby hair wax… well that particular one looked disturbingly familiar. “Why have you got a hair mask in here?” he asked, pulling out another container. “Are you trying to emulate our dear captain’s glossy hair?”
Setting out preparations for the hot chocolate and flicking the water on to boil, Akaya leaned over the lean on the barrier between kitchen and living area. Raising an eyebrow as Niou snuck under the table, he suddenly remembered the box just as Niou came across it and his forehead hit the barrier with an audible thunk and accompanying groan.
“I actually have no idea,” he whined, already regretting leaving the box out. “Zaizen ordered it all on my account.” And had attempted to provide text instructions, which Akaya had all but ignored so far. The water hissed, almost ready, and Akaya moved back to prepare the drinks.
“Have you tried any of them out?” There was actually a disturbingly large amount of hair products in the box. And given that it was partly unpacked already… it made him wonder how many had been bought. “Oh look, there’s a hairbrush in here too, did you know that?” Niou waved it out under the table for Akaya to see. “Is that a hint do you think? Did he find tangles in your hair that offended him?”
“Uhh, yeah, one of the normal shampoos, and a dry one,” Akaya replied after finishing up the hot chocolate. He brought it out, nudging Niou gently with his foot to make him aware of the drinks being placed on the table. Plain black mug for Niou, and his own Gundam one held possessively in his own hands. “He bought a brush?? I already own a brush.”
Sweeping up Niou’s discarded bag with a free hand, Akaya brought it over as he sat himself legs-up on the couch, depositing it in his lap like it was his own. “So what did you get me?”
“Maybe this one is designed to make your hair shinier.” Niou ran his fingers over the bristles as he emerged from under the table, just managing to avoid hitting his head on the way up.
He would return to the box of hair products later. Now, the little pile of things on the TV stand that he could spot was calling his name. “I got you a book, it’s in there somewhere,” Niou said as he went to explore. “I buy everyone books now. Yours is in English, to help you with your ever increasing knowledge of the language.”
Taking that as permission to rifle through the bag’s contents, it took a second for Akaya to pull the book out and give the cover a once-over before speaking. “On the man himself, huh,” he said, grinning. A Federer biography. “Thanks, senpai! I’ll let you know if I pick up any good new vocab.”
Placing the bag on the ground and replacing its presence in his lap with the book, Akaya peered over his mug at Niou’s picking through his belongings. Briefly, his mind supplied an image of Niou knocking a pile of games off the edge of the cabinet like a cat, and he almost choked on his hot chocolate as a result.
“Yeah, someone brought it in, it’s in really good condition. No broken spine or anything.” And since Niou set the prices of books when they came in… “I hope there’s no rude words in there. I don’t need you having a dirty mouth when you’re giving your victory speeches to the cameras.”
There wasn’t really much interesting on the TV stand. A few games, a figurine that NIou picked up and spun the arms of around - and then put it back down with the head on backwards… a dust bunny that got moved to pride of place at the front. “Anyway, how was America?”
“Maybe someone didn’t like Feds all that much.” Instinctively, Akaya ran a finger over the still-solid spine of the book. Nice. “Niou-senpai, don’t you remember? Rude words are like, the first thing you learn in any new language.”
The little changes to the items on the TV stand earned Niou a flat stare for a moment. He’d be bothered by the dust bunny until it was cleaned up. “America was great,” Akaya answered, slight amount of pride slipping into his tone. “Did you know I won a thing?”
“Don’t ruin it for me, you’re meant to stay pure and kouhai-y forever,” he said with a sigh. Niou abandoned his hunt through Akaya’s things for the time being to move to the couch, sitting down on the floor with his back against the couch. He took the black mug - disappointingly plain - and gave the drink a curious sniff.
“Yeah I did know, you posted about it, remember?” Oh that was right, he hadn’t replied to that particular thing because he’d been at home. He’d known anyway, the local news had plastered Akaya’s face everywhere for a few hours. “Did you get a trophy?”
Akaya snorted, smirking at Niou as he picked up the plain mug. “Since when was I ever a pure kouhai, huh?” You know, between all the bloodshed and promises to kick their asses someday.
Asking Niou if he knew had been mostly a joke, but hearing the post had been paid attention to despite the lack of response made him happy to hear anyway. “Yeah! It’s like a mini version of the big glass one,” he said. He had been kind of disappointed to hear he couldn’t keep the full-size one, but in retrospect that made sense. “When I go get your stuff I’ll show you. Where did you vanish to, by the way?”
“Always. For Rikkai standards, anyway.” He was pretty sure Yukimura as a first year and a second year had done worse than Akaya anyway… and just didn’t openly tell people about it.
Niou finally took a sip of the hot chocolate and narrowed his eyes as he considered the taste. Acceptable. The smaller trophy to take home was not so acceptable, but he supposed he could reserve judgement until he saw it. “I just went home,” Niou said with a shrug, stretching his legs out across the floor and he took another sip. “Annoyed my brother a bit. Ate good food.”
Akaya took a moment to consider. His head tilted left, and finally he shrugged, conceding. “Okay, maybe you’re right. But I ain’t gonna stick to that forever.”
Oh, that was all, huh. Niou’s disappearances were nothing new to anyone who had known him long enough, though the longer ones tended to be the best story-wise. An-chan really had been worried for nothing. “Even someone like Niou-senpai has to return to the nest sometimes, huh,” he said, teasingly. “Did you need laundry done, too?”
“As long as the rest of us get progressively worse too, you’ll be fine,” Niou said, waving his hand vaguely at Akaya. And considering that most of them were terrible even though, that did give him a lot of wriggle room.
Niou rubbed at his chin thoughtfully as he mulled over the answer. ‘Yeah, I took all my handwash only clothes back home,” he said. “There was a lot, which is why I was gone a while.” Completely false - his mother had done it all in one day. “It was a good trip though. A+. Would recommend.”
“You’re already on the right track,” he commented dryly. That probably wasn’t fair - everyone seemed to be doing just fine for themselves, but it was hard to contrast between now and school, so the joke would probably strike the mark in some regard. It had been coming up on three years since he was really a kouhai, after all.
Akaya snickered. “What, your demon landlady doesn’t handle laundry? It’s good that you had a nice time, though.” Niou’s living situation was always a bit of an enigma, but a having a close family was something he had inferred over many years. Akaya’s own trips home were more frequent but for shorter times - it was more likely that his parents visited him on day outings than anything else.
“Nah, her washing detergent is too strong, it doesn’t go well with delicates,” Niou said with a bit of a sigh. “And she irons my underwear if I don’t specifically tell her not to, it’s weird.”
He prodded Akaya with his foot and put the cup of hot chocolate down to go explore some more. Time to rifle through the kitchen. “You should go back home. Do a celebrity visit to Rikkai, see how many people you make faint from shock.”
“Every new piece of information you tell me just makes her sound more and more suspicious,” Akaya said. “No actual human irons underwear.”
His eyes tracked Niou to the kitchen. His cupboards were actually sorted out now after Zaizen had looked after the place in part for three weeks - before this, half would have been devoid of content and the other half overcrowded. “If you want something to eat, there’s leftover chicken salad in the fridge,” Akaya offers first. “Go back to Rikkai, huh… Maybe after the French Open, since either me or buchou are, like, basically guaranteed to win it. Cause some real hype.”
“I might start. I quite enjoy the feel of freshly ironed underwear on my privates,” Niou said vaguely, already starting to open and close the cupboards.
Akaya’s fridge was pretty boring too, but Niou still rustled in it, checked the expiry date of everything in it. “Your milk’s about to expire,” he said helpfully. The chicken salad got a dubious look over before he went back to expiry date checking. “I’ve been practising a little with Seiichi. Maybe we should practise on more clay courts in preparation.”
Grimacing, Akaya finished his hot chocolate and nudged him mug a safe distance in on his coffee table. “Well, I already know you ain’t human, so that doesn’t count.”
He made a sound of acknowledgement at the milk warning, stretching his legs out to take advantage of the temporary couch space. At the mere mention of clay courts, though, Akaya tilted his head far back over the armrest and groaned at the ceiling. “I haaate clay. Hate it,” he whined. “Do we gotta play on clay? I mean, I wanna play you again, but can’t we just play hard court like always?” Clay was gross and dusty and terrible. He didn’t want to deal with any more of it than he was forced to.
Niou straightened up from Akaya’s fridge, holding a packet of - were these chocolates? “I don’t play tennis,” he said with a straight face, drawing his mouth out into a flat line. “Unless it’s weird arcade games, I still play those.”
He tossed the packet back in the fridge and opened a few containers for a dubious sniff before he decided the fridge was all inspected. Moving on to the cupboards.
Oh, that packet. Akaya had forgotten he had those. Probably for the best Niou hadn’t tried to eat them. “Huh? Oh,” he said lamely, catching up too slowly with the meaning to not sound confused. “Sure. We could go to the arcade, too. But we can also play tennis. I don’t have to play you.”
Akaya hoped that Niou wasn’t going to judge him for his over-neat cupboards - he hadn’t had time to mess them up appropriately yet. There was the one cabinet on the end where Akaya “hid” all his snacks, though. The only people not allowed in there were his coach and PT.
“Maybe Tezuka, he’s always fun to play against,” Niou said, starting to open and close drawers and cupboards. It was remarkable and so… un-Akaya-like to see them so organised.
Were his cups actually all facing the same direction? The orderliness of it made part of Niou die inside and he purposely turned one of them around.
“Who’s your favourite pro to play against? Not including Seiichi.”
“It's been a long time since I played against Tezuka-san,” Akaya considered. “Some players on tour have similar styles to him, so that’d be useful.”
He noticed Niou’s careful picking at his cupboards and slid himself off the couch to join him. Noticing the flipped mug, Akaya reached over Niou's shoulder to turn a complementary one face up. “Hmm, aside from Yukimura-buchou…” he frowned, leaning back on the bench. “Ones I can beat?” A wicked grin punctuated that statement.
“Kunimitsu’s not hard to play as,” Niou said with a grin, twisting some of the mugs around now to get them out of order. “I don’t even have to switch hands.”
He snickered as Akaya joined him with creating orderly chaos, moving to just moving the neatly stacked plates slightly out of line with each other. “So, pretty much a lot of the pros on the circuit? Since you’re becoming a big shot player now?”
A few perfectly clean glasses were removed from their shelf and strewn randomly among other cabinets. “Up to like, current standards though?” It’s teasing - Akaya knows Niou wouldn’t slack off, to borrow a phrase. “Heard he and buchou had a match and didn’t tell aaanyone.”
Despite his nonchalant shrug at Niou’s veiled compliment, the smirk on Akaya’s face was a telltale sign of his pride. “Maybe. I haven’t beaten a world number one yet, so one of those… would be cool.” He produced a bag clip from a drawer (he owned bag clips?) and clamped it to the end of Niou’s rat tail.
“I can’t believe they did that to us,” Niou said with a bit of an indignant puff up. “They should’ve invited everyone along to watch them play tennis. Don’t they know some of us have data to collect?”
He reached behind him to feel what on earth Akaya had put in his hair, shrugged and left it there so he could go back to the bowls. There wasn’t much he could do, so he just turned the stack upside down. “Yeah okay, maybe do some practice against Rafael Nadal. I know Seiichi likes playing him.”
Akaya nodded firmly in agreement. Data or not, that kind of match should have been public spectacle. “And then he says, oh but I’m playing Marui-senpai on the weekend and you can come,” a huff. “I mean I’m gonna go but it doesn’t make up for it.”
Arming himself with another clip, Akaya tested his dexterity by attempting to slide it into his senpai’s hair slightly higher than the first one. “I don’t think I’ve seen Nadal in Japan before,” he said. “Of course buchou would like playing him. I wanna have a go, too.” Satisfied with his handiwork, he reached back to pick up a third clip to add to the decoration but came up empty-handed. Apparently there were only two.
“It’s not entertaining enough to see Seiichi crush someone like Marui though,” Niou said, just looking unamused. Maybe he could convince Tezuka to challenge Yukimura to a rematch and he could sneak along and watch. And text Akaya when it was happening. “It’s not the same and he knows it.”
Niou paused at the second clip in his hair and gave that a feel as well - okay, then. At least no more seemed to be incoming. “You clearly haven’t been frequenting the right tennis courts if you’ve never seen Nadal in Japan,” Niou said with a grin. “Or at last a close enough Nadal. Maybe if I had muscles like Sanada…”
Akaya shrugged, not quite agreeing with Niou’s first statement. “I dunno, it’s fun to watch Marui-senpai try out as much as he can,” everyone on court knew the result, so it was really just time to show off. “Buchou said he’d play me after but… I still think I’d trade it in to watch that game.”
The mental image of Nadal appearing before hapless public court spectators made Akaya snicker. Running out of nearby dishes to move, he turned a few of the jars on his bench label-backward. “Nadal looks narrower than he is, though,” Akaya reasoned, stretching out his own arms. “So to people who aren’t that familiar, sure, that’d be just right.”
“If Seiichi’s in a playing mood though. He might just cut Marui down, and that’s no fun to watch.” Well, actually that was fun to watch, but also a bit depressing too.
Niou stood up and inspected the newly formed mess around the kitchen - much more satisfying with things just a little bit out of order. The jars were a nice touch, good job Akaya, Niou gave him an approving nod. “Maybe you should just settle for playing yourself. I don’t know if my artistry can be okay with an only ‘okay’ Nadal.”
“That’s true,” Akaya admitted. Yukimura could make a match a spectacle or a slaughter depending on the time of day if he so desired. “But usually it’s fine.”
Flashing Niou a thumbs up in reply, Akaya skittered out of the kitchenette with the intent to return to the couch space, but reconsidered and eyed the ajar door of the spare bedroom instead. “Not gonna settle for that! You can surprise me,” he said with a toothy smile. “Aaand on that note, I have surprises for you!” An instructive wave of his hands indicated that Niou should return to his seat.
“Maybe I’ll tell him that Marui called him fat before the match starts, and watch him get slaughtered,” Niou said with a grin and he laughed to himself.
Niou watched Akaya very suspiciously as he was told to sit down … and surprises? That just was dodgy. Still, he moved to sit on the couch, or rather crouch on the couch, in case he needed to quickly vacate it. And he squinted at Akaya the whole time. At least his hot chocolate was still there.
“Aww, don’t do that,” Akaya said, echoing through the doorway as he began to search the (finally dwindling) sea of American shopping bags. “It’ll be a waste of a day out.”
A few moments of plastic rustling finally ended with a voiced “Aha!” and a stumble as Akaya gracefully tripped over his spare futon, which had toppled over in his search. Remembering to retrieve the baby-sized version of the Indian Wells trophy from the trophy cabinet (full) as well, he re-emerged from the Room of All Impermanent Things and dangled the oversized bag in front of Niou. “It’s kinda heavy ‘cause there’s a book in it,” he said, relinquishing it to the tablespace in front of Niou’s spot on the couch.
Niou kept a close ear on Akaya’s adventures in the bedroom as he sipped at his hot chocolate and scanned the room for anything else interesting.
The dust bunny watched him just as closely.
And ooh, the bag looked quite enticing as he reached for it, making a show of giving it a good feel to guess what was in it. “I love books,” he said blandly, reaching in to pull it out. “I love books about cats and… gun control,” he added on in much the same tone, but he’d raised one eyebrow as he looked at the blurb, giving away his interest and amusement in the choice.
Akaya seated himself back down with a heavy sort of flourish. The little glass trophy turned over and over in his hand. “I saw it in a window and went, ‘hey, that’s Niou-senpai’s perfect manual’, so I had to get it,” he said boastfully. “And Yagyuu-senpai works in that one shop with fake guns, right? You can show off your knowledge.”
Placing the trophy on the table, Akaya fished quickly into the bag for the Mickey ears and placed them lightly on Niou’s head. “And these are essential, of course.”
Niou nodded along in agreement with Akaya’s statements - yes, yes this was definitely his perfect manual. “Maybe I’ll use it to train Yagyuu in proper gun control,” he said, snickering to himself as he flicked through the pages and let himself sniff them curiously. Maybe he’d have to show Tezuka and see if they smelled like America.
He patted his head to see what Akaya had put there and found the mouse ears. A bit more groping revealed it to be a boring pair too. “I’m disappointed, you should’ve gotten the wizard mickey ears,” he said, but Niou left them there happily enough to go back to looking at the book.
Despite raising an eyebrow at the page-sniffing, Niou’s actions went without comment. Instead, Akaya focused on his statement - “Kinda concerned about either of you with any kind of gun, so. Y’know. It’s for personal peace of mind too.”
He reached out a hand to reposition the ears after Niou’s physical inspection. “No playing favourites, everyone gets the iconic ones,” he said. “But there’s something else I got for you in there that could sweeten it a little!” The accompanying grin had only a slight slyness to it.
“Excuse you, I’m far less concerning than Hiroshi,” Niou said with a bit of a dignified sniff. Yagyuu was dangerous, Niou always said that. Much more dangerous than he was.
Niou narrowed his eyes at Akaya slightly and he stuck his hand back in the bag, making a show of rummaging around. “This better be some kind of tasty snack, Akaya.” Preferably sweet, since that was being hinted at. Maybe chocolate. He did fish it out between two fingers, pulling the packet out with a flourish.
Akaya nodded but said nothing. He secretly agreed with that assessment of Yagyuu, hence trusting the reading of gun safety to Niou to pass along. Plus the cats helped.
His attention returned to the bag as the larger item was unearthed with noted dexterity. The green and black pattern didn’t lend well to immediate recognition, but the frilly edging and ties and inserted card reading ‘GHOST HOST APRON’ certainly did. “I got you snacks too,” Akaya was quick to reassure. “But I dunno, this seemed like something you’d like.”
Niou laughed when he looked closer at the packaging. Ghost Host Apron indeed. “Do you think if I wear it at my place, my land lady will get suspicious?” he asked, unfolding it to hold it up and look at it. “I might have to cook something, just to wear it.”
“Suspicious about what? That you’ve really been a ghost this whole time and not a mortal at all?” Akaya snickered, then reached into the bag to bring out a packet of Hershey’s Kisses. “Combine these gifts for a killer combination!” He said as if performing an infomercial.
The little glass trophy was picked up again and offered for inspection, once Niou was done surveying his gifts.
“You’re meant to be keeping that a secret, Akaya,” Niou said, reaching to take out the Hershey Kisses out of Akaya’s grasp to turn the packet over. “I’ll have to get Seiichi to wipe your memories if you’re not careful.”
The presents were all well and good but the trophy was on offer now and Niou put the bag down on the floor - all presents neatly tucked inside except the Mickey ears - to inspect it. He held it up and tapped on it with a nail. “So you get to keep this one forever? Or do you have to return it?”
“Memories aren’t a sense, senpai,” Akaya said, somehow doubting that would prevent Yukimura erasing his memories anyway. There would be some method.
The trophy rang a tiny, bell-like sound when struck, its odd shape muting it slightly. “This one’s for keeps!” Akaya said excitedly, tapping it as well. “It’s, uh, still glass though. So I gotta try really hard to not break it.”
“But they’re formed by your senses, aren’t they? And it’s all something to do with the brain anyway, it’s possible,” Niou said, vaguely handwaving it away. He wouldn’t put it past Yukimura anyway.
Niou held the trophy up to the light to watch it reflect off the glass and he gave it an approving nod. “Maybe you should wrap it in something to keep it safe. Put it in your underwear drawer.”
The trophy sparkled as if showing off. Akaya practically joined it at Niou's approval, only for his expression to fall again at the suggestion. “No way, this is my first Master's! It has to go in a cabinet or… something, right?”
He looked around his fairly bare living area. Really, those cabinets he had in the spare bedroom should probably be out here. “Surely you have somethin’ you show off. A centrepiece or whatever.”
It was quite fun to keep moving the trophy around to watch the light catch it and he glanced at Akaya at the sort of question. “Sure, I have things on display. A pair of high heels from an ex-girlfriend. And a totem blessed by a Maori elder for fertility,” Niou said casually with a bit of a vague smile.
“Did you buy it blessed or get it blessed personally?” Akaya asked flatly. Not that he knew anything about Maori customs or… whatever that kind of totem would look like. “But you get it. Gotta show it off.”
Holding his hand out expectantly for the trophy to be returned, Akaya frowned. “Wait, where are Maoris from? Where did you go for that?” Relating peoples with geographic locations was a work in progress.
“Blessed personally, just for me,” Niou said with a grin, that just widened as he looked at Akaya’s expression. Of course, what other way were you meant to get a totem blessed?
Niou gave the trophy one last admiring look before he handed it back and he flopped back on the couch, stretching his legs out in front of him before slumping again. “New Zealand. I made a quick trip down there, it was nice.”
Akaya turned the trophy over once more in his hand before carefully setting it in the centre of the coffee table. It was dwarfed even by the relatively small surface. Hmm, needs a pedestal of some kind.
“New Zealand, huh…” he trailed off, trying to dredge up any information he knew about it. “They don’t have any big tournaments there, so I haven’t been. But there’s like… mountains and stuff, right? Did you go soul-searching?”
Oh that was right, sometimes Niou forgot that Akaya was a seasoned world traveller now with his tournaments. Except not to New Zealand, apparently.
“Yeah, mountains and caves. Lots of hot springs and mud baths.” He grinned and reached for his mug of now cold chocolate. “I went soul searching, come out like 10% more enlightened than before. Highly recommend.”
“Honestly all I really know about it is all the movie stuff that goes on,” Akaya admitted, shrugging. “I’d probably just wanna go see all that.” Maybe next time he went to Australia, he could detour over there (they were pretty close, right? He wondered).
Nudging the plastic bag of gifts so it rustled, Akaya looked at Niou bright-eyed. “So? Did I pick well?”
It would be so easy to just say Akaya didn’t pick right and watch him deflate, but Niou’s not that mean… right now, after presents and warm beverages at least.
“Yeah you picked good presents,” Niou said eventually, patting Akaya on the head. “If you managed the same quality with other people’s you probably did alright overall.”
Akaya ducked away from the headpat after a moment, but a satisfied grin showed that his protest was half-hearted. There was pride, there, that he’d been able to choose well. “I’ve seen you, Hikaru and Marui-senpai so far,” he listed, ticking the names off on his fingers. “And my sister, she took the stuff for my parents too.” Everyone had seemed pleased with their presents, so this counted as a resounding success. “You’re the first one to give me something too, though.”
Hikaru was… Akaya’s weird friend, right? Niou scratched his cheek as he thought about that quickly. “That’s because I’m the best,” Niou said, preening a little. “I can’t exactly let my kouhai buy me all the presents and spoil me, that’s a bit of a loss of face.” He had other non-kouhai friends to one-sidedly spoil him and let him feel okay about that. “What’d you get Yagyuu? Did you get him something rude?”
The laugh that Akaya started at Niou’s bragging was cut short as he remembered something. “Ah, wait, Marui-senpai brought me cake?” He said, but quickly waved his hands in defense. “But I asked him to, right, so it still doesn’t count!” Niou had brought him a surprise, which clearly was on a different tier - at least for this discussion.
At the mention of Yagyuu, Akaya frowned and fidgeted slightly. “Yagyuu-senpai was the one who took the longest to decide on,” he admitted. “I didn’t get him anything rude! Eventually I picked up the special edition of Battleship from the Disney store. It’s like, a Pirates one?” Yagyuu was difficult to shop for, so something safe like a game with a good aesthetic stood out in the end.
Cake definitely didn’t count. Especially since it was eaten so quickly. Books were forever and therefore far superior presents. And Akaya seemed to agree with him on that too… sort of, so Niou went back to preening.
“Oh yeah, I think he’d like that.” At least Yagyuu was the type that would just politely smile and thank you anyway even if he didn’t. “I’ll make him play it with me, next time I see him. I need more ways I can beat him.” It was good for both of their egos.
Hearing that reassurance from Niou set Akaya’s mind a bit at ease. If Niou trusted that Yagyuu would like it, chances were that would be true. Either way, Akaya had never been able to get reads on Yagyuu’s sincerity, so he’d end up mollified regardless.
“I’ll have to find time to give it to him,” he said, still frowning a little. “It always seems like he’s busy. But maybe I just haven’t asked enough?” A shrug. A lot of people were busy, these days. He turned to Niou with a grin. “I’m super glad you could come over, though!”
“Yeah, Hiroshi’s hard to catch up with,” Niou agreed. Even organising to meet up with him had taken… a while. “Just annoy him until he agrees. Or go annoy him at his job, he can’t escape you there.”
Niou reached to ruffle Akaya’s hair again and flicked him on the forehead as he withdrew his hand. “Any chance of another warm beverage?” he asked, looking around the room. “And then, I don’t know, we could play video games or something. I think you need to be crushed at something by your senpai now and then. Deflate that head a bit.”
‘Annoy him’ seemed like pretty solid advice. “I dunno about his job. Place kinda freaks me out.” Akaya had gone by there once and promptly chickened out of going inside. The seedy little back alley it was in had given him slasher film vibes.
Taking Niou’s mug with a mix of an annoyed and affirmative sound after the forehead flick, Akaya returned to the kitchen to prepare another drink. “Same thing?” He asked, setting the water on to boil. “Can’t deflate my head if you lose, senpai. We could play….. Smash. Or Mario Kart.”
“Maybe we can go annoy him together,” Niou said vaguely, waving a hand. He had to go visit Yagyuu at his shop anyway, he’d heard such strange things about it. “Safety in numbers and all that.”
Niou took the chance to get up and inspect the dust bunny again, hunting around the TV for a few more that he could add to the family. “Yeah, same thing.” He grinned and held up a baby bunny to show Akaya. “I never said I’d play fairly. But you need to practice good sportsmanship and be fair.”
The concept of ganging up on Yagyuu to corner him into hanging out brought a devious little smirk to Akaya’s face. Niou had such fun ideas. “Sounds good. He can’t refuse both our charms,” Akaya snickered, pulling the hot chocolate out to mix it.
The tiny dust kit was met with a raised eyebrow and a mental reminder to vacuum. That was quickly transferred to Niou, sans the vacuuming part. “So like, you get to cheat and I just gotta deal with it?” He reached into a cabinet behind him, retrieved a small strawberry candy, and threw it with not insignificant force at his senpai. “You’re on. It’ll be even better when I win anyway.”
Niou put a bit too much work into arranging the dust bunnies nicely in front of the TV and he laughed as he caught and promptly dropped the candy. “Yeah, something like that,” Niou said with a grin, picking up the candy to look at it.
“Those are some pretty big words, Akaya,” Niou said, unwrapping the wrapper. “Hopefully you’re past the crying and screaming when you lose phase.”
“C’mon, I grew out of that years ago,” Akaya said, finishing up the second round of hot chocolate. ‘Years ago’ was actually far fewer years than he’d be willing to admit. A mug was passed to Niou as Akaya returned to the living area, pausing to pop Smash Bros into the console and pick up controllers before returning to the couch.
“Bragging when I win is another story, though.” He’d picked Smash on purpose - much better for him.
“I still so fondly remember you screaming at Seiichi and co when they ground you into the dirt,” Niou said with a happy, reminiscent sigh. He took the hot chocolate and curled up on the couch - yes, perfectly made as before and waited for the start of the game.
“Alright, you ratty oversized kouhai,” Niou said, putting the hot chocolate carefully on the table. “Best out of three?”
A scowl followed Niou’s nostalgic reminder. “Do you gotta bring that up?” Then, a softer sort of annoyance - “Well, it’s not like that turned out badly outside of that.” It was Akaya’s first introduction to Rikkai, after all.
The game loaded and Akaya set the stage - no items, limited random stages - and picked his character. Bayonetta seemed like a decently irritating choice for this kind of battle. “Best of five. Like a tennis match.” The competitive glint to Akaya’s eyes surfaced along with a toothy grin.
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