(no subject)

A warm summer’s day, after a year-plus barely able to move? Marui guessed correctly that Yukimura would be in the garden around back, and therefore bypassed the front door.

What he was wrong about was what the captain would be doing. Instead of maintenance around the tapestry of colorful blossoms he nurtured every year, Yukimura was sitting contemplatively in the middle of the dirt. Not even the grass– he was mostly just in dirt. Dirt that was overrun by weeds, yes, but still primarily dirt, and… well, Marui put two and two together. He could have sighed, or smacked himself in the forehead, but that would be a little too distracting, and not at all helpful. The damage was done.

Instead, he approached, let Yukimura notice him, and slid himself down to sit against Yukimura’s back.

“I’m sorry,” Marui began, but Yukimura cut him off.

“I could have asked Sanada to do it,” he said brusquely. “But I’d already asked him to take care of the tennis club, and I thought that was enough for him to handle.”

Neither of them said And he didn’t even do that right, and Marui wondered if it was for the same reason.

“You could have asked any of us,” said Marui. “And we should have thought of it, too. Without being asked, I mean.”

Yukimura shook his head– Marui knew because his wavy hair tickled his neck just a little.

“Childhood friends are different,” said Yukimura. “He doesn’t mind me bullying him the way you or the others would.”

Marui laughed, though whether it was at Sanada’s expense or Jackal’s, he couldn’t tell. It was enough that he could feel an answering laugh reverberating through Yukimura’s back, could feel his head tilt back just a little (his hair was still tickly), could see his elbow lift out of the corner of his eye so Yukimura could hide the lingering smile behind his hand.

“Akaya will feel left out if you don’t bully him, too,” said Marui lightly. “Don’t write the rest of us off, okay?”

He’d wanted to stay in that moment of laughter, wanted to prolong it with another little joke, but Marui must have tripped something. Probably Akaya was too close to tennis, and he felt Yukimura go still again. Lost sight of the elbow; he must have lowered his hands in front of him again, now that there was no mirth to hide.

“Akaya will be getting plenty of my attention when I get back to practice,” Yukimura promised, and despite sitting full in a patch of sunlight multiplied by the humidity, Marui had to fight a shiver at that. He made a mental note to drag Akaya and Jackal to the arcade after that first practice. A couple of rounds of Street Fighter might be in order, after Yukimura got done with them.

Yukimura stood, abruptly. Marui followed automatically, without even a thought.

“We need to focus on what we can still fix, not what’s already lost,” said Yukimura. “If you want to stay, I’m putting you to work.”

Marui shrugged, and followed his captain inside. He half-expected to be handed a trowel and a watering can, but that wasn’t the work Yukimura was focused on right then. Instead, he spent the rest of the afternoon going over Sanada’s club reports with Yukimura, giving him a play-by-play recounting of every single one of their matches against Seigaku, and trying not to blush too obviously when Yukimura praised his taking the initiative and ending his match against Momoshiro and Kaidoh before they could regain their confidence and change the flow of the game.

He left the Yukimuras’ home that night feeling somewhat bad about what was waiting for Yanagi, Sanada, and Akaya, but still worse for their fearless leader himself. Going back to what Yukimura said… well, the garden wasn’t a tennis match. Just because it was already lost didn’t mean it couldn’t be fixed.

Marui was about two hours late to practice the next day, because he needed to wait until Yukimura left his house, and then he needed to do the work correctly, and he was relying on things Yukimura told him in passing over the last two years and some frantic late-night Internet searching. They looked okay when he left. He hoped they would stay okay.

He walked out onto the court, already hot and sweaty, and not from the glares he was getting from the other two-thirds of Rikkai’s Big Three. Jackal had about six questions on his face, and Marui promised himself he wouldn’t bully him too much tomorrow, because Jackal undoubtedly spent the last two hours having to answer the others’ questions about where the hell Marui was, and unable to satisfy them.

Sanada started towards him, just because he’d gotten into the habit of enforcing the rules, but Yukimura stopped him cold with just a shake of his head. Marui braced himself.

“If you’re not going to show up on time, don’t show up at all,” said Yukimura, and the sun must have passed behind a cloud, because Marui swore all the light left the world.

Nobody else spoke up for him, because nobody else was stupid enough to come to practice two hours late. Marui forgave them readily, and he forgave Yukimura, too.

He turned around and, aside from the pop of bubblegum, left as silently as he came.

Jackal called him that night, both on the phone and an idiot for what he’d done– or at least the way he’d gone about it.

“Couldn’t it have waited until after practice?” he asked.

Marui’s bubblegum popped. “Nope.”

Marui was two hours early to the next practice. Nobody told him he had to make up the lost time, but nobody had to. He knew how things went around here.

Jackal found him at his locker (definitely could not bully him too much today) just as Marui was unpacking his jersey. Or so it looked to Jackal; Marui had, in actuality, been contemplating the yellow daisy he found tucked in the vent for an embarrassingly long time, and Jackal had to punch him in the shoulder to get his attention.

“Yukimura’s waiting for you on the court,” Jackal said. He didn’t make it sound like a threat, but he didn’t need to.

Marui grinned.

“Guess I gotta take my punishment like a man, huh?”