[Fanfic] White Wings and You chapter 5 (Prince of Tennis

[queensweets]

Chapter 5 – Forward
 

The year passed in a flash and before they knew it, it was time for Christmas break. After the last practice for the term Wakato pulled Takahisa aside in the locker room.
“Ne, do you want to spend Christmas with me?”
The blonde blinked, looking a little confused. “That's fine.. I don't really have any plans anyway..”
“Yes! You're awesome, Kajimoto!” Wakato hugged him tightly, a wide grin on his face. “Yosh! Let's have the best Christmas ever!”

---

He had never stayed the night somewhere else before. That Wakato made him experience new things always left him breathless, but he wouldn't deny the time spent with the redhead was the time he liked the best. Had he not had Wakato he would have been too tense to even sleep. Now that he was staying at Wakato's house, with his family, he was nervous. But Wakato was an expert at making him feel that way.
He stood looking at his friend's home for a moment, before said boy pulled him inside.
“Tadaima!”
Shoes went off, and Takahisa found himself getting tugged towards one of the doors. It led to a living room much cleaner than the one in his own home. He couldn't see a single can, nor bottle anywhere in the room. Wakato snickered at the wide violet eyes, before speaking.
“Only nee-chan's home right now, but kaa-san and tou-san'll come later. Wanna have something to drink?”
Takahisa turned his eyes towards the redhead, who was smiling happily at him.
“Ano..” He thought for a while. “..Tea..?”
“Okay! Tea it is!” Wakato had him sit down in the big soft sofa, turning on his heels to run through another door, that Takahisa guessed led to the kitchen. A second later that head plopped back through the door.
“I'll be right back!” And with that, he was gone again.

Takahisa looked around the spacey room. Inside, there was a TV, bookshelves and a lot of soft-looking furniture. There was a whole shelf of recorded tennis matches, and even a few trophies. He had seen a few rackets and racket bags in the hall. Even a few stray tennis balls in both rooms. Well, he had already known that Wakato's family was interested and Wakato had explained that that was why he started so early. But it felt weird that it wasn't hidden, since he still had to hide all his tennis-related things, racket, balls, the tennis club's uniform. It was just that it was his first time visiting another persons home, he would probably get used to it.
When Wakato got back he was grinning as he held one mug of steaming tea in each hand. “Hey, you finally said 'yes' to coming here! I'm really really really happy!”
A weak blush tinted Takahisa's cheeks at those words. Wakato always said something that threw him off, but that's something he rather liked about his friend. He could be so random at times it was unbelievable.
“Um.. Thanks.” he said, taking the mug offered to him. His eyes crossed when he looked down at the mug in front of his lips. The steam warmed the tip of his nose, that was still cold from being outside in the snowy afternoon.

Both boys took their time to drink the tea, chatting away, Wakato articulating with his whole body, while Takahisa was more sparse with his body language. It didn't only come from his personality being a more calm one than Wakato's, but also on the large bruise on his back that hurt if he moved. But since he usually didn't act the way Wakato did while talking, his best friend didn't notice.

Just as they had finished their tea, the door was opened and they could hear two pairs of feet shuffle around.
“Okaeri! Kaa-san, tou-san!” Wakato called to the hall, pulling Takahisa into the kitchen to put the mugs in the sink, then the blonde found himself being pulled back into the living room, seeing Wakato's parents for the first time. He winced just slightly as Wakato's father reached out to shake his hand, making Wakato tilt his head a little to the side and his mother and father to somewhat raise eyebrows at the action, but they let it slip when Takahisa took his hand and shook it.
“Hajimemashite.” At least shaking hands spared his back some pain.
“Ara, what a cutie.” Wakato's mother said, smiling at the guest. “You must be Kajimoto-kun. Hiroshi talks about you all the time.”
Blushing, Takahisa glanced at Wakato. “We-well, I.. enjoy being with him the most.” he stuttered. Wakato's cheeks were tinted a dusty red shade.

To hide his own blush, Wakato waved his hand in the air. “Hai, hai, haaaai, let's dress the Christmas tree!” he called out, slinging an arm around Takahisa's shoulders. “Sounds like fun, ne?”
“Well.. I guess so.” Takahisa let Wakato's arm rest on him for a while, before pushing it off.
Wakato-san smiled and nodded. “Call down your sister first though. And please, Kajimoto-kun, call me Arisa.”

He could never have pictured that dressing a tree could be so fun, really. Wakato's older sister, Kanna, was nice, even though she seemed to like to tease people. She poked him in the cheek for not reacting to it, which made Wakato annoyed and protectively wrap his arms around his friend and glaring daggers at his sister. She just laughed at him.
“Heh, you're acting like he's your girlfriend o something, Hiro-chan.”
Both boys cheeks flushed, Wakato stuttering out that it wasn't like that and besides, Takahisa wasn't a girl.
She just laughed even harder than before, almost falling over where she stood with a glittery garland in her hand, Wakato's lips forming into a pout. Takahisa just smiled, amazed by how a family was supposed to be. On top of being nice to each other, they were nice even to him.

When the tree was finished dressing and they had eaten the best food his tongue had ever tasted, Wakato's sister went out to meet someone –she said it was her boyfriend, Wakato didn't believe her– and his mother and father went out to “relive their first Christmas together and don't wait up, we'll be back in the morning”, making Wakato grimace and say that he didn't want to know, please don't mention it again. His father grinned at him and ruffled his son's styled hair, talking more about it just to tease the redheaded tennis-player.

Once they were alone, Wakato pulled him upstairs to him room. It was quite big, especially compared to his own. A big bed stood against the wall and a big window pointed east and Takahisa thought it must feel amazing to wake up to the sunbeams waring you in the morning. Opposite of the side of the bed stood a small TV. Things were cluttering on the desk and there was no visible spots on the desktop. The thought of where he could possibly do homework with a desk like that passed through Takahisa's mind for a split second until Wakato pushed him to sit on the bed and pulled out a box from beneath the bed. It was full of even more recordings of tennis matches. At least that was what Takahisa thought. Turned out he knew him well enough, when he found out that it indeed was what he'd thought.
“Not very Christmas-y with tennis matches. Maybe we should watch a movie today and we can watch some of these next time..” Wakato pondered, tapping the edge of a VHS against his lower lip. “Yeah.” he then said, putting the box back in its place beneath the bad. Rising to his feet and rushing to the door, he called to Takahisa that he'd be right back, he'd just get a few movies and snacks. He heard Wakato's feet drum as he ran down the stairs, skipping the last few steps and jumping down on the floor with a thump. Once downstairs, he couldn't hear him anymore, but soon the others footsteps were heard rushing up again. Wakato pushed the door closed with his foot, hands and arms loaded with different snacks and movies.
Wakato turned the TV on when he'd dumped everything in front of the bed near where Takahisa sat, pressing buttons and putting the VHS into its slot. When he'd pressed the 'play'-button he turned of the lights in the ceiling and rushed to lay down on the bed next to his friend on his stomach, opening the closest snack that happened to be potato-chips. Takahisa also laid down on his stomach, taking a few of the offered snacks. The movie he'd never heard of, but halfway through he decided he liked it. It was a bit of romance in it, and whenever the romance came in, Takahisa would glance at his friend, more often than not finding their eyes meet. Their cheeks tinted pink and they turned their eyes away and back to the screen.

The second movie was even worse than the first when it came to romance, and by the end of it, Wakato fumbled with the VHS, almost dropping it when he tried to push the third one into place to be played. Finally getting it in, he pressed the 'eject'-button on accident.
Laughing a little and pressing in the movie again, Wakato managed to press the right button and stumble back to the bed, face aflame as he realized it was one of his sister's super-sappy and extra-romantic movies. Why was it in the wrong cover, anyway? Did she know this would happen, or what?

Yet none of them made a move to stop it. Every so often, one of the boys would edge a few millimeters closer to the other, not noticing that the other was doing the same until he couple on the screen started to make out and the turned their heads at the same time and were face to face. Blushes exploded on both their cheeks and both thought that their cheeks had never burned this intensely before. Being the redhead that he was, Wakato's blush even reached his ears.
Their sides were brushing against each other, but they didn't notice, just staring wide-eyed into each others eyes, mouths hanging slightly open is surprise.

A loud sound from the screen made them jump and the eye-contact was broken. They pulled away as if electrified, Takahisa's mind not even registering the pain in his back as he did so, wide eyes and red cheeks as they stared into the floor. The same thought repeated itself in both their heads over and over.

'What... just happened..?'