A current of cold air passed over Akaya where he sat, sideways, in one of the University Cafe’s few booths, and he looked up. In part, he wanted to make sure the newcomer wasn’t a college student who would evict him from his spot, this being their proper territory after all. Akaya had only kept his place so far because so few students had stuck around campus for such a cold, wet weekend.

Of course, in the past few weeks Akaya had also learned that if he didn’t look up when the door opened he was liable to find himself lassoed by Niou-senpai’s scarf or pounced on by Marui-senpai, who turned out to be a lot more solid than he looked.

This time he was lucky. It was Yanagi-senpai. Akaya waved without hesitation. Yanagi-senpai was a lot less extreme about the whole ‘keeping in touch with Akaya’ thing than the rest of them. It had recently occurred to him to be very, very grateful that his birthday had fallen before the project got going.

Akaya swore to himself that he would never be such a trial to his own kouhai.

“I didn’t expect to see you here on a weekend, Akaya,” Yanagi-senpai noted, as he settled across the table. “Were you hoping for some company? Or,” his mouth curved just a bit, “did you hope to avoid everyone by coming here when they would expect you to be at the arcade?”

Akaya shrugged, riffling the pages of his book with a fingertip. “I’ve just gotten used to coming here. It’s a nice place to study. Not so quiet I can’t hear myself think, like the library.”

Yanagi-senpai tipped his head, examining the spine of the book. “Ten Nights of Dreams? They gave you that for homework?”

Akaya snorted. “We have to write a report for Japanese, and I asked if I could do this instead of Botchan. Which I’ve read before anyway, and this is on the alternate reading list, so Yoshimura-sensei said it was all right.” He sighed. “Couldn’t get out of the boring books for History, though. I don’t suppose … ” he trailed off hopefully.

Yanagi-senpai’s lips quirked strangely. “I might not be the best person to ask for help just now, Akaya. I’ve been working on a comparison of the old History text with the new one. I wouldn’t want to confuse you with references you won’t need for your own tests.”

Akaya blinked. “Is it a class project?” It didn’t sound like one, but every now and then weird things popped up in the elective courses.

“Purely for my own interest. The differences in the editions are politically instructive. Genichirou says I have too much taste for contention, but it’s a fascinating study. In any case, Genichirou is the one you should speak to about Japanese history.”

“Mmmm.” Akaya poked at the crumbs of his snack from earlier in the afternoon.

“Since I’m here and he’s not, though,” Yanagi-senpai went on, “what’s giving you trouble?”

Akaya eyed Yanagi-senpai through his lashes. He’d been wondering when the loaded questions would start. “It isn’t that I don’t want,” he started and paused. “I just,” he tried and stopped again, frustrated at the clumsiness of all the words suggesting themselves to him. He was supposed to be good with language, he reminded himself.

“I know,” Yanagi-senpai told him, quietly. “Don’t worry too much, Akaya. It wasn’t entirely unexpected.”

Akaya blew out an exasperated breath. “If you knew I was going to have trouble when you guys left, you could have warned me,” he muttered.

“It wasn’t sure, and if it wasn’t going to happen I hardly wanted to suggest it to you,” Yanagi-senpai pointed out, reasonably. “One of the hazards of prediction.”

Akaya raised his head, staring as a sudden thought leaped up. “Is that why you say it out loud on the court?”

Yanagi-senpai smiled.

Akaya leaned back, unsettled. “Maybe I’ll start with catching Sanada-san, instead,” he murmured, mostly to himself.

“You style is, perhaps, better suited to overcoming him,” Yanagi-senpai agreed.

Akaya made a note of that “perhaps” to chew on later. When Yanagi-senpai used such smooth qualifiers it usually meant he was bluffing. But Yanagi-senpai probably knew by now the kinds of things Akaya noticed, so maybe it was a trap. Akaya sighed. Definitely start with Sanada-san; the head games with Yanagi-senpai would just make him dizzy.

“Enough of that,” Yanagi-senpai said, chuckling. “We can play again later, if you like. I don’t want to distract you too much from your work.” He nodded at the book, now fallen closed on the table. “Do you know what you’ll say about it yet?”

“That the spirit is eternal and love kind of sucks,” Akaya answered, promptly.

Yanagi-senpai laughed out loud. “Anyone would certainly think so after reading Soseki for a while,” he allowed, “but you should probably concentrate on the first part, for the teacher’s benefit.”

“Figured,” Akaya shrugged.

“So classes are going well. What about your team?”

Akaya sprawled back down on the table, groaning. “Yanagi-senpai, please, please tell me both your doubles pairs are nice and stable and not going anywhere. Please?”

“I take it yours are not entirely stable at the moment?” Yanagi-senpai asked with only the faintest wobble of amusement in his voice.

Akaya buried his fingers in his hair. “I’ve never seen dramatics like this outside of afternoon television,” he declared. “Kuwabara didn’t take it too badly when Tsunoda threw him over to pair with Sakamoto instead. Well, not too badly considering he got upstaged by a first year; I’m surprised you didn’t hear him bellowing all the way across campus, but he didn’t break anything. But now there’s Niiyama, who was pairing with Sakamoto, all in a snit, and he challenged Ueda this week and won. So now I’ve got him sniping at Tsunoda over Sakamoto, and half the second years getting pissed off about two first years being Regulars, and Sakamoto doesn’t seem to care who he plays with as long as they hammer the other side six feet into the ground, and Niiyama and Tsunoda are making a personal competition of who can make him happiest!” He paused to catch his breath.

“Sounds like a fairly standard restructuring period for the team,” Yanagi-senpai murmured.

Akaya looked up at him, blankly. “Are you joking?” he asked, finally.

“Not at all, Akaya. That doesn’t sound all that unlike how Niou and Yagyuu came to be a pair.”

“It is?” Akaya sat back, blinking. On the one hand, it was a bit comforting to know his pack of crazies wasn’t some kind of karmic punishment for him personally. On the other … “Yukimura-san let them?”

Yanagi-senpai turned a hand palm up. “When the players balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s usually best to let them sort it out. Only when they are unbalanced do they need their captain to step in and provide the counterweight.”

Akaya considered this. “Maybe they do balance out,” he said, slowly. “At least … Niiyama never lets Sakamoto actually go too far. I thought he would, but he doesn’t.” They were silent for a while before Akaya nodded. “Thanks, Yanagi-senpai.”

“My pleasure,” Yanagi told him with a wry smile. “I think we’re more than just teammates after this past year. Friends look out for each other.”

Akaya smiled back. The words “more than just teammates” sparked another thought made him look down again, though. “Yanagi-senpai, does Sanada-san … ” he paused, fishing for the right word. Understand, he supposed. He knew Yukimura-san understood, but he hadn’t seen Sanada-san at all lately.

“He understands,” Yanagi-senpai offered, hand resting briefly over Akaya’s. “He’s been staying away from you for many of the same reasons you’ve been staying away from him.”

Every now and then, he didn’t mind so much that Yanagi-senpai knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“So,” Yanagi-senpai said in a brisker tone, “what part of History has been giving you trouble?”

“Not trouble,” Akaya protested. “It’s just so boring it’s hard to remember sometimes.”

Yanagi-senpai’s mouth curled up at one corner. “Ah. What you really want is to ask Niou, then. His historical narratives are anything but boring.”

Akaya gave him a flat look. “I’m sure they are, Yanagi-senpai, thanks very much.” Did anyone else know Yanagi-san was this evil?

“Oh, very well,” Yanagi-san said, tolerantly, “let me get some tea; pick a period, and I’ll tell you about it. Did you want anything?” he added, rising.

“Hot chocolate!” Akaya tucked away his book as Yanagi-san made his way to the counter, and prepared to listen.

He was glad he’d come here today.

End