Guaku (Counter)
by Monnie

Gakuto had been wrong, and normally, he hated being wrong--like, really, really hated it, it made him want to stamp his foot or cross his arms or something--but this was the one time... well, he didn't really mind so much.

So their team's too-tall White Knight (obviously Still A Virgin) and too-cranky Wicked Stepmother (wicked stepmothers were just all drama queens who tended to do really stupid things when they freaked out, but hey, if they didn't freak out, what would be the fun in that?) had figured out their feelings. Oh, la-de-joy, they were both just impossibly dense, the two of them--seriously, if Gakuto had had to see Ootori making sad longing puppy eyes at Shishido's back, or Shishido reaching out to untangle his so-cutie partner's cross chain from his hand again with that smooshy soft look on his face, just one more time...

He'd have gone and gotten Oshitari to screw him silly to make him feel better.

Well, he'd done that, anyway. That wasn't the point.

Still, though, it had been so much fun to tease them, when they hadn't been together--kind of the way it was fun to tease Atobe and Jirou, now, not that Jirou actually cared, or even noticed--so it was more just like teasing Atobe, but still. Teasing Atobe was kind of like teasing a shark sometimes. Teasing Shishido had been more like... like dangling a bone right out of a puppy's reach, or something, until it flopped over onto its back.

Gakuto didn't much like puppies. Besides, the eyes the puppy gave him after he did that made him all uncomfortable, because they reminded him way too much of Ootori, and he always ended up giving the smelly little creature the bone anyway. It always made him feel a little like he'd lost. To a little yappy bundle whose paws were too big for its body and which chewed on the laces of his new shoes.

It was sort of why he'd liked teasing Shishido so much. Shishido never gave him puppy eyes--Shishido got all cranky and grumpy, while Ootori blushed bright red until Gakuto could almost see it through the white chest of his Hyotei jersey, and then the boy stammered and grabbed for his chain. Predictable, yes. But it never stopped being so... so entertaining. They both got so uncomfortable that it was a good time all around.

Gakuto had honestly thought that that kind of thing would have ended when the pair finally worked their way into something huggy-kissy-lovey-fuckey. When you were already together, what more was there to be embarrassed about, right? They should have been perfectly, exquisitely happy together, or something, right? Wasn't that what Happily Ever After was all about? (Because, well, Gakuto just wasn't dumb enough to think that they wouldn't figure each other out eventually. He'd hoped it would take a couple of years, but, well, he wasn't betting on that, and you took what you got. It wasn't because he was secretly rooting for them at all.)

Okay, so maybe they weren't fucking, no fuckie for the Shishi-Tori pair because, Hell--that just wasn't going to happen. If they did do anything at all, it was 'love-making,' probably. They didn't know what they were missing. Geez, sometimes it made him want to gag on something significantly less enjoyable than--

Nevermind.

Not that he gagged anymore. It just took practice. He'd gotten pretty damned good at it, if he could say so himself. Yuushi said so, too.

Though from the way Shishido kept trying so hard not to look at Ootori's pert little ass (because hey, Gakuto didn't mind looking at it; 'Tori wasn't his type, not really, too pure and sweet, but he did have quite the fine rear) whenever they were in the changing room... well, hey, maybe they weren't even doing the lovemaking thing. Shishido was probably waiting until Ootori felt he was 'ready,' or something like that (though what that meant, Gakuto had never really been sure--ready for what? Shouldn't Ootori have been good and lubed and all 'ready' if Shishido did his job right? Damned amateurs.)

Okay, so Gakuto wasn't that dense. He still wasn't sure what 'ready' meant, not quite, but if Ootori felt he couldn't do it, well, he couldn't. (Poor kid. Gakuto almost felt kind of sorry for him. He couldn't help being Catholic and thus subject to all sorts of weird repressed... things. At least, that was what Yuushi had told him.) And Gakuto had to respect Shishido, sort of (very sort of) because it just wasn't cool at all to do something to your uke that he didn't want you to do, first. Gakuto was pretty sure he wouldn't have liked it at all if anything like that had ever happened to him.

Yeah, right. Like he'd ever been unwilling.

So he'd been wrong when he thought that Ootori and Shishido weren't going to be any more fun, now that they were 'a couple' (and if they'd thought that no-one could see the way they looked at and tried not to cuddle each other the first night they were all back, seriously, someone needed to give the pair of them a big ol' reality check)--but Hell, if anything, they'd been even more fun the past couple of months. Sure, there had been that near little scrape when he hadn't been able to help himself--he'd reached out to pat Ootori's butt. 'Cause the kid had such a nice, tight little ass, almost as nice as Gakuto's own, and it was really an awful shame no-one was getting any use out of it. Gakuto liked Ootori (well, kind of the way he liked My Little Ponies) and felt, hey, maybe the boy could use a little appreciation now and again.

Plus it had been a great excuse to seriously get on the drama queen's nerves.

Okay, so he hadn't expected a snarl from the other end of the locker room that had sounded like it had come from the throat of something big and furry, not something with a bad haircut, a worse hat, and the personality of Snow White's stepmom. And sure, Shishido was fast (damned show-off; he must've been practicing, or something) but Gakuto had stuck Ootori between Shishido and himself (nya-nya), and somehow Oshitari was there, too, grabbing Shishido by the arms. Yuushi was always there when Gakuto needed him--couldn't have asked for a better partner, ever.

"I'm sure it was just an accident on Mukahi-senpai's part," Ootori had said, patting Shishido's shoulder in that cute, awkward gawky sort of way he had. The kid really was just too tall--he'd hit the ceiling soon if he kept growing like that. "Everything's okay, Shishido-san."

Well, that was gratitude for you. Still, he'd known that Shishido got jealous, but he hadn't thought that Shishido got that jealous. It'd been a good afternoon, really.

And it was hilarious how Ootori and Shishido were still trying to pretend, even after that, that nothing was happening.

They even got changed after practice with their backs facing each other, and not that Gakuto had been watching, but it didn't look like they ever went into the shower room at the same time, either. They were so... tooth-rottingly chaste. Or something. And damn, it made Gakuto's life after club practice a lot more fun.

Today, Gakuto wasn't in the mood, really, to say anything that made Ootori go red and clutchy and Shishido get his panties all in a bunch. He'd have tried patting Ootori's butt again as the kid changed back into his school uniform--well, except the locker room was pretty empty except for the three of them. Oshitari was still out talking team things over with Atobe (his Yuushi was so damned smart; whoever had said that smart couldn't be sexy obviously hadn't been fucked by a guy with glasses and an IQ that looked like Gakuto's pulse after Oshitari was done with him.) Playing Ring-Around-The Ootori with a dash specialist didn't really sound like a good idea, either. Besides, had a feeling that he'd end up sitting on Ootori's shoulders, or something, if he tried to somersault over their jolly little giant.

And then Ootori turned with his shirt dangling from his hands, with that cute little smile on his lips that the kid gave to everyone, and--

That can't be--but--

Well, I'll be damned. Gakuto felt a grin curling on his lips, and smothered it. Firmly.

Well, that was weird. Why they'd still be changing with their backs to each other, when Ootori was sporting a pretty wild hickey, a purple so deep it was almost blue, just to the side of the base of his throat... well, Gakuto just wasn't going to ask about what kind of weird, dysfunctional, repressed sex life they had.

He was just going to make fun of it, was all.

"Ne, Ootori-kun! Nasty bruise," he blinked, as if concerned. Ri-ight, like he was ever concerned. Sure, he'd been a little curious when Shishido had started coming in to practice all covered with bruises and band-aids, but he hadn't been concerned. (No matter what Yuushi had said!) If Shishido had gotten himself into S&M or something--well, the kinky bastard could do what he liked, he'd thought at the time. Really. "Did you get hit by a ball?"

Nope, no mistake--while it was possible, maybe, that a very weird rock or a giant bug (ugh, bugs) or something similar had gotten Ootori, that mark was way too small to have come from being hit by a tennis ball. And there was just no mistaking the way Ootori blinked--nope, the kid had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Cute, innocent thing that he was. It was probably a good thing he didn't get it--two more seconds of respite for the Prince. "Bruise, Mukahi-senpai?"

Gakuto cut his eyes in Shishido's direction. Yep, he was pretty sure he heard a tooth or two or twenty grinding over there. Ootori might not have had a dirty enough mind to realise that a hickey looked just like a bruise, but he was pretty damned sure their drama queen did. Gakuto raised his voice, just a little. "Well, yeah. There on your shoulder."

Ootori was so transparent. Really, Gakuto should have felt bad for teasing him (and he almost did, it was kind of like the puppy reaction) but it was so much fun to see those hands venture up to his shoulders across his body--and then jerk to a stop with his fingertips on the mark, eyes widening and cheeks already beginning to flush as the team's junior realised exactly what his Mukahi-senpai was talking about.

Ootori really was going to have to do something about that blush, seriously, if he ever wanted to get anywhere. He just got so flustered. Well, it was cute, if you liked the blushing virginal boy type, Gakuto wasn't about to deny that, and he figured that even after Ootori wasn't a virgin, he was still going to be the blushing virginal boy type--oh, wait, whoa, maybe Ootori wasn't a virgin anymore. He hadn't noticed the boy walking funny, but you weren't always sore after your first time (and the drama queen being who he was, no doubt he'd been damned careful and taken a year about it, because Ootori was His Sweetheart. Gaaah. Well, no matter the reason, Shishido had to get some kind of points for that--though sure as heck Gakuto wouldn't ever be telling him that.)

Besides, that was a very serious hickey. Like the lover-moving-inside-you-with-his-mouth-latched-on-your-throat kind of hickey. Gakuto had had a few of those after his and Yuushi's first time...

Eeew. He didn't want to think about the details of Ootori and Shishido having sex. He especially didn't want to compare them having sex to him and Yuushi having sex. Eeeew.

"It's--oh, this? Oh, it's nothing, Mukahi-senpai--" Ootori was beginning to sputter, and babble, just a little. It took work for Gakuto to keep the concerned look on his face--especially since he actually could hear the teeth grinding behind him now. "I mean, I bruise easily, and it doesn't hurt at all, so it's not a big deal--"

Never mind thinking about the Purity Pair having sex. This was much better. Gakuto cocked his head, all innocence, and Yuushi always said he was so cute when his hair fell over his shoulders like that. "But if you got hit by a ball, shouldn't you get your shoulder checked?" Oh, it was Ootori's right shoulder--even better. "That's your playing arm, and Atobe'll kill you if you drop a game 'cause you didn't get something looked at." He would, too, because Atobe was just a bastard like that sometimes. Good buchou--Gakuto would grudgingly admit that--but an egomaniac bastard. Who took care of his team. But that wasn't the point.

"But, Mukahi-senpai, it's not--" yeah, Shishido must've gotten Ootori a better chain for that precious necklace of his, not too long ago, because the way Ootori was grabbing at it, Gakuto was half surprised it hadn't beheaded him, or something. And his cheeks seriously looked painfully red--almost the same colour as Gakuto's hair dye. And then Ootori's mouth gaped open and snapped closed, something like a little pained noise coming from just behind his lips.

Gakuto just blinked, still all innocence. It really was getting harder to keep from smiling. Shishido and Ootori were so into keeping their whole little thing a secret, and this was Ootori, of all people--he wasn't going to lie (yep, that was something else they had to teach him to get over before the lot of them graduated; seriously, if they didn't, the kid was going to be massacred when he got to high school) and the sweetheart couldn't very well tell the truth and then have to explain what the mark actually was.

"What's the matter, Ootori-kun?" he asked, all sweetness and light. "You're all red."

"Choutarou didn't get hit by a ball." Gakuto almost jumped at the snarl from behind him. Almost. Shishido really was getting into the trick of making his voice sound like ten octaves deeper than it actually was. "Leave him alone."

Ooooh, big scary drama queen. Gakuto grinned, and turned to face Shishido--this was going to be even more fun. Their once-Singles player seriously looked like he was about to throw a major hissy fit--he hadn't even bothered to put on his shirt (and he didn't have matching love marks, either, but Ootori marking Shishido was kind of just a weird thought anyway.) And there was something in his eyes that told Gakuto to back off, but Hell, when had he ever listened to Shishido's eyes?

After all, if Ootori was into keeping their little roomie fling thing a secret, then Shishido was positively rabid about it. No doubt the idiot thought that doing that would keep the rest of the team from teasing them. Stupid. If he'd known any better, he would have just told them, or something--if he had, teasing them would have gotten all the appeal of teasing a gay guy who was already out of the closet. As it was, the closet door was wide shut, and that made them fair game. "Oh?" Gakuto quipped, sweetly. "Oh, right, he's your partner, of course you'd know what happened to him, right?" He felt the grin slip out and onto his face, but it didn't matter--Shishido knew what he was up to. And couldn't do a damned thing to stop him. "You... do know, right?"

Sure, Shishido could deny it--but they both knew that if he did, Gakuto would be turning right back around to start on his little sweetheart again. He was looking forward to seeing what excuse Shishido was going to make up this time around--he might not have been Shishido's best friend in the world, but the Queen was amusing. Well, when he was being laughed at, anyway. And he did come up with some of the funniest things ever. Jirou being in love with Atobe. Yeah, right, like Jirou was lucid enough to even realise when he was sitting on their captain's lap.

"Yeah." Shishido's reply was curt as he walked over to Ootori's side--yeah, no surprise. At least no whiney. Goodgoodgood.

Gakuto waited as Shishido reached his partner's side.

And then Shishido reached up, and ran his fingertips oh-so-tenderly over the little purple mark on Ootori's white-white shoulder before glancing at Gakuto with something almost like a growl in his voice. It wasn't quite the same kind of growl that he normally pointed in Gakuto's direction, either. "I bit him. Got a problem with that?"

Gakuto stared.

Okay, he hadn't expected that. Sure, it was one thing to know what the truth was, and another thing to have someone--especially a drama queen who was trying very hard to keep everyone from knowing he and his partner were far, far out of the closet--actually tell him.

And the sudden image of Shishido with his mouth on Ootori's pale shoulder was just so horrible that Gakuto, much to his surprise, found his own mouth dropping open and himself without anything at all to say.

"I--we--but--" Ootori yelped, fingers twisting hard enough in his chain that by all rights, it should have been choking him. Hey, maybe it was. The kid's face couldn't have possibly been any redder. Finally, he just seemed to decide on "Shishido-san!"

Made him wonder if Ootori called his partner that in bed, too. Seemed like a mouthful--well, better than 'Shishido-senpai'... eeew. Now that it was possible they actually were doing it, he just didn't want to think about that anymore. Maybe he'd just been kidding. It was just so not like Shishido to say something like that, not about his precious darling. Maybe it was just some weird kind of bug bite--Gakuto hadn't been looking at it too closely, and heck, they got some pretty vicious bugs around this time of year...

Shishido just shrugged at Ootori, and raised his eyebrows. He was smirking. How dare he be smirking when Gakuto was scared to even look at him? "What? Didn't I?"

Ohdeargods he was going to die if Shishido didn't stop stroking Ootori's shoulder like that. It was quite possibly one of the last things in the world he'd wanted to see... well, there, that was better, though he hadn't thought that there would ever be a time when he would say that Shishido's hand stealing down to untangle Ootori's fingers from his cross was 'better' than anything. Oh, the cute. Ugh.

O-kay. Now was time for Ootori to blush and squeal and deny it--

Ootori... giggled, nervously. "Well, yes, but--"

Well, shit. They were doing it.

"There, then," Shishido commented--with something very like satisfaction as he tiptoed to brush his lips, so lightly, over one of Ootori's flaming crimson cheeks. "Problem solved."

There was just no satisfaction in seeing Shishido having to tiptoe to kiss Ootori on the cheek when it was very, very obvious, from the way that they were standing right next to each other and Gakuto could easily see exactly what height their drama queen stood at, that Shishido didn't need to tiptoe to suck on Ootori's shoulder. Or, for that matter--oh, Hell.

The door clicked open just as he squeezed his eyes shut to try and block out the image of them being so smoochy-cutie lovemaking-y to try and keep his dentist bill for the year down. He really hated the way his mind worked, sometimes... ohgod he had to get out of there before they started doing something that he just really didn't want to see. (Hell, he certainly would have, and he'd never have thought it of the Purity Pair, but who knew what they were going to be up to after this?!)

But he said he'd wait for Yuushi, and--

"Shishido. Ootori. Gakuto." A brief pause into the darkness behind his eyelids. And then that wry, sexy voice commented, curiously, "Why are you all standing around in your pants?"

Saved!

Gakuto snapped his eyes open and grabbed his doubles partner's hand. "Yuushi, take me home!" he pleaded. Yuushi would have said he was whining, but he didn't whine. He just pleaded. He was cute when he pleaded. "They're being nasty."

"We're being nasty?!" Shishido said in a tone that might have been snarly if it hadn't been... so amused. That just wasn't right. Shishido should definitely not have been amused by something that Gakuto had done. Especially when Gakuto had been aiming at getting Shishido extremely unamused, because he was just fun that way. This was like the puppy thing all over again, and it wasn't fun anymore! "Look who's talking!"

Both of his partner's eyebrows rose in slow increments--not the "Yuushi was surprised" look, but more the "Yuushi was curious" kind of look. Gakuto liked that kind of look very, very much indeed. It made him feel just a little less... sugar-sick. "All right, Gakuto, I'll take you home, but--don't you think you should put your shirt on, first?"

Gakuto thought about it--and then grinned. No, no more sugar for him--he knew exactly what he wanted. "Nah. It'll save you the trouble of having to take it off me when we get to the dorm. It's close, anyway."

Yuushi smiled down at him--slow, predatory, and it made everything in Gakuto's belly go very, very tight when his partner adjusted his glasses with that look in his eyes. It meant that the glasses would be gone, soon, and so would their clothes. It was nice to know that they understood each other. "Well, then."

Gakuto didn't often like being reminded of how short he was--but being slung over his partner's and lover's shoulders was one of the times he really didn't mind.

Dangling over Yuushi's shoulder--with a great view of that tight, powerful butt and the way his calves bunched in taut bands when he walked--also gave him a perfect view of the inside of the clubroom. He had only enough time to catch the way the drama queen's nose wrinkled as Shishido scowled, and pointedly turned back to putting his shirt back on, muttering, "Oh, gross."

Ootori just blinked.

Gakuto stuck his tongue out at Shishido's back just before Oshitari closed the door behind them.

It wasn't quite revenge--but it was close.

At least it wasn't like the puppy thing.

Their apartment was nearby--they lived in the same dorm building as Atobe and Jirou--and Hell, anyone who wanted to stare at Yuushi carrying him shirtless through campus could just stare at them. And Yuushi really was very, very good at getting his clothes off.

He was even better at other things. Mm-mm-mmm. Oh, wow. Ooooh.

*_*_*_*

"What was all that about, incidentally?" Oshitari asked, slowly, carelessly, picking up his glasses from the bedside table and sliding them back onto his face with one easy motion. Gakuto loved watching his partner, even if it was only out of the corner of his eyes. He did everything so--so efficiently. Except Gakuto. Gakuto, he took his time on. "Hm--not that I mind, mind you, but--were you teasing Shishido again?"

Gakuto wrinkled his nose and turned his head until he was lying face-down and flat on the messy sheets, rather than just... flat. Well, they weren't messy near his head, so it didn't matter. Damn it, the feel of Yuushi had almost let him forget the whole icky ordeal in the club room. Shishido hadn't beaten him. Really, he hadn't. "Ootori-kun had a mark on his shoulder, that's all."

He wanted some water. It was on the tip of his tongue to poke Yuushi to get him some, but that would mean that he'd have to get Yuushi some later, because that was just the way things worked, with them, and he didn't really want to have to get up again.

"Did he, now?" Oshitari didn't sound surprised--but then again, he wouldn't. That damned brain and those eyes of his never missed a thing (well, except for that time Gakuto had hidden his glasses inside Jirou's shirt, just to see what would happen. Jirou hadn't even twitched. His Yuushi hadn't missed a ball, either. Business as usual, except Yuushi hadn't seemed to notice Atobe fishing down Jirou's shirt for the glasses.) "Hm. So you were teasing Shishido."

Gakuto rolled out of bed, and to their fridge to pour himself a glass--and then he poured one for Oshitari, too, just because. He liked being naked, even if he was sort of sticky, and a little drippy. It felt good to have the warm wind from the open window--oops, had they forgotten to close the window again? And the shades, too. That was just too bad--across his trim, sleek body, and he stretched in the light breeze and waved to whoever might have been looking. "Well, sort of." He swallowed the water down in two gulps, and placed the glass onto the fridge maybe a little harder than necessary. "It was really weird, though."

"Oh?" Gakuto watched those familiar, big hands move across the pillow as Oshitari picked it up from the floor and set it back against the headboard. Oops. How'd it gotten there? He remembered biting down on it, but--"How so?"

"Well..." he didn't really want to think about it. But Yuushi had to be warned. "I asked what it was. And Shishido--he said that he'd bitten Ootori. And Ootori agreed!"

His Yuushi just smiled, slowly, and shook his head. "I do believe that's fairly normal, Gakuto. It is Shishido, after all."

"But he bit him," Gakuto insisted--and this time, he did stamp his foot. Didn't Yuushi get it?

His doubles partner lolled on the bed and stretched, languorously, before getting to his feet in one easy, fluid motion, his hair mussed around that long face, a dark strand of it stuck to his cheek and just outlining the edge of that full, talented mouth. Ooooh, what it did to him when Yuushi did things like... well... breathe. Or walk. His partner was just so crazy sexy that Gakuto squirmed, a little. He really was kind of tired--it'd been a lo-ong day at practice--but...

And then his partner looked at him--that long, slow look over the edge of his glasses before just the edges of his lips moved into that hard, sexy smile that promised that Gakuto would be screaming very good things sometime in the very near future. Okay, maybe he wasn't feeling so tired. "Ah. I see."

Yuushi smiled as he walked over to Gakuto, and reached just past him--Gakuto felt the burn of skin against skin, so familiar by now, as his partner reached past him--his forearm running its length along Gakuto's side--to pick up the glass of water. He drank, slowly--he always took his time with anything that mattered, and Gakuto watched, hungrily, as that throat moved in long, easy flows before his partner put the glass down with a tiny sound... and chuckled. "And do you want me to bite you, too?"

Gakuto thought, maybe, if he could have sparkled, he'd have sparkled. "Mm-hmm!"

Yuushi always knew exactly what he wanted.

The End

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