seigaku_no_neko

Eiji and Jordan exit Milliways into the middle of a large department store in downtown Tokyo.

Eiji blushes a little, remembering that they probably should have exited the fitting room one at a time. A woman walking by gives them a strange look.

"Okay, well just to warn you, my friends are weird," Eiji tells Jordan, pointing his thumb towards the door. "They're in a tennis shop a few doors down."

After a very interesting first visit to Milliways, Eiji bursts back into the dusty storage shed behind the clubroom. He hops back over baskets and ball machines to get to the other door, and opens it quickly, curious to see how much time has passed.

The two boys still left in the clubroom turn to look at Eiji when he opens the door so suddenly. They're the same two people that Eiji saw—doing pretty much the exact same thing—when last he peeked through the window, before he investigated the other door.

"What is it, Eiji?" Fuji asks, shouldering his bag. Kaidō just hisses and bends down again to finish tying his shoe.

"Uh… nothing!" Eiji stammers. "Has Ōishi been in here, yet?"

"No," Fuji replies calmly, in his usual light and airy tone. But then Eiji finds two blue eyes looking at him a little mischievously. "Weren't you waiting for him in there?"

What is that look supposed to mean? Eiji doesn't have time to think about it. He's a little distracted. "Yeah… I just, I found something… that I wanted to show him…" His voice drops to a self-conscious mumble.

Fuji laughs. Again, Eiji's not sure what that's about. Fuji and him are good friends and all, but sometimes the tensai* is a little hard to read. Kaidō has, at this point, ducked out of the clubroom and away from the conversation.

"What's so funny?" Eiji asks, feeling his cheeks get warm. He's feeling a little defensive right now. He wants to tell Ōishi about Milliways, but he has no idea if his best friend will even believe him.

Fuji doesn’t even have time to answer before the door opens, and Tezuka and Ōishi walk through. Fuji makes his escape, saying "I'll get out of your way, then." He gives the team captain a nod and a look. "Tezuka." Tezuka doesn't even seem to acknowledge Fuji.

"Why haven't you changed yet, Eiji?"

Eiji's a little startled by Ōishi's (perfectly innocent) question. Ōishi is just standing there, blinking at him curiously.

"I, uh… I was, um…" Eiji has no idea what to say to that. His would-be prank totally backfired on him. Finally, a little lamely, he mutters, "I was waiting for you."

His cheeks are even warmer now, despite the fact that Ōishi simply shrugs and starts changing back into his school uniform. Eiji quickly follows suit. He would talk to Ōishi about Milliways now, but Tezuka's still in the room. So instead, there's an awkward silence for several minutes, during which Eiji is free to worry about how the hell he's going to bring up the subject.

Out of the three of them, Tezuka finishes changing first, but only slightly. He walks out of the clubroom without saying a word (as is usual for their stoic captain). Eiji finishes buttoning his shirt only seconds later, and turns to see that Ōishi has not quite finished doing the same. (Eiji's always been weirdly proud that he always seems to change faster than Ōishi.)

He almost starts to speak, once, then twice. But he can't quite get the words out. He doesn't even know where to start!

"Ready to go, Eiji?" Ōishi asks, breaking Eiji's train of thought.

"Right! Let's go," Eiji answers, a little loudly, leading the way out the door. They can talk while they're walking, right? And he can show Ōishi the door later…

They've gotten past the tennis courts and Eiji still hasn't said anything. He watches the ground as he walks, distracted. He's almost just waiting for Ōishi to ask at this point, because he knows his best friend is going to notice… (Ōishi's just like that.)

"Is something wrong, Eiji?" There we go.

"Uhh… No. It's nothing." Eiji sighs a little, frustrated with himself. But then he stops, thinking of something.

"Hang on a sec!"

He runs back to the clubroom, and ducks under a tree to get to the back. From the outside, the storage shed is only as big as he would expect it to be, and there's a door with a dusty window at the very back. Eiji tries to open it, but it's locked.

Ōishi comes up beside him. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Eiji replies, quickly. "Uh… do you have the key to this door?"

"I think so," the vice captain replies, fishing in his pocket. "It should be the same one as the front door…" He takes out the appropriate key and starts working on unlocking the door, only afterwards pausing to ask, "Is there something you need in here?"

The lock clicks, and Ōishi pulls the door open with a creak.

Dusty storage shed.

"No!" Eiji says, laughing a little nervously. "I was just curious if we could get in this way. Let's go home!"


*"Tensai" translates roughly to "genius" or sometimes "prodigy." It's used excessively often to describe Fuji, to the point where at times it seems like it's replaced his name.