Nekomaru Eiji?
By Hikaruchi

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah - do I really need to put this in every chapter? Cos some people do, and some people don't... You know TeniPuri doesn't belong to me by now. o.O

"Nyaaa..."

Oishi blinked open one eye sleepily. What was that noise he just heard? Vision still fuzzy, the dark-haired boy attempted to sit up... but failed. There was something heavy pushing down on his body - something a lot heavier than what a cat should weigh.

Rubbing his eyes with one hand, and using the early morning light streaming in from the crack in the curtains for help, he was finally able to focus on the object on top of him. Upon doing so, he rubbed his eyes again, more vigorously this time. Oishi had to be dreaming.

Sprawled across his body, one leg resting in between his own, an arm rising and falling along with the rhythm of his chest, open mouth dangerously close to his own parted lips, was laying a sleeping Kikumaru. And if -that- wasn't enough, Kikumaru was naked. Oishi wasn't sure if he should be annoyed or relieved at the fact the only thing separating them were his bedcovers.

"Nn... Hooiii~?"

Oishi felt his stomach clench as one drowsy blue eye met his startled green pupils.

The two simply stared at each other, neither moving or speaking for what seemed like forever. Oishi was frantically searching his mind for the meaning of the situation while Kikumaru continued to lie dazed on his front, still half asleep. In the end, Oishi could only reach one conclusion.

It was a dream - and if it was a dream, that meant he was safe to do anything he wanted.

He broke the silence with a tentative cough.

"Y- You must be cold like that... Why don't you come under the sheets?"

When Kikumaru (still slightly groggy with a brain which wasn't functioning properly) beamed at him before wriggling down to join him, Oishi decided that this -definitely- couldn't be real. But he was fine with that - he might as well enjoy it while it lasted, and besides, this particular dream felt real enough to him.

"Mmmm Oishi..."

The redhead proceeded to curl up against the inviting body, head propped in the crook of his doubles partner's neck. Oishi just smiled gently, feeling a pleasantly warm flush appear on his cheeks, then laughed as Kikumaru nuzzled the top of his collarbone in an attempt to get closer, causing his soft red hair to tickle the exposed skin.

"...Still sleepy?"

The smaller boy mumbled something incoherent in response, but Oishi got the message and wrapped his free arm around the other boy's slender waist.

"I love you, Eiji."

The snore he received as a reply triggered another smile from the dark- haired boy. Feeling more comfortable than he'd ever been in his life, Oishi settled down to drift off to sleep again, a content grin on his face, hoping he'd remember this dream in the morning.

        --------------------

The first thing to greet Kikumaru as his eyes opened was the floor. Smothered under the bedcovers, the redhead seemed to have made a habit of falling off the bed in the morning... Kicking the tangled sheets away and sitting up so they lay in a heap around his waist, Kikumaru gasped for air as he managed to release his head from the stuffy confinement.

"Nyaaa~! Freedom!"

As soon as the words left his lips, the acrobatic tennis player paused, puzzled, arms still in the air mid-wave. Had he just spoken? Had he just spoken and not had it come out as a purr, or a meow, or a hiss?

No. Way.

Bringing his arms back to rest at his sides, he slowly ventured a peek down at his body. A grin immediately sprang onto his face and a series of cheers erupted from his mouth.

"Waiii~! Waiii~! Freeeedom!! Real freedom nya~!!!"

His arms were also back to doing their previous windmill motion above his head.

In fact, Kikumaru was so busy celebrating he forgot where he was - who's house he was in, who's room he was in, and who he was actually with. It wasn't until he heard the grunting of a familiar voice (annoyed and confused at the sudden absence of a warm blanket, and the sudden presence of a cold draft of air) behind him that he remembered, and he shut up at once.

"Ugh, what happened...? I don't usually move around enough to throw the covers off..." Oishi murmured sleepily to himself as he rolled over, eyes still tightly shut.

The events from the night before came flooding back to Kikumaru.

/"If he wasn't... I wouldn't be in love with him."/

He felt suddenly embarrassed, and guilty, like he'd betrayed his partner's trust by spying on him. He wasn't meant to hear Oishi's words yesterday, was he... But it was a good thing he did, right? Right? Of course it was! Now they had no excuses, -he- had no excuses for not making a move. It was ok now - they both felt the same, so it was ok!

But Kikumaru had another problem right now. He wasn't exactly well known for being the most articulate person about things... Nor was he well known for explaining things well - so how was he going to explain himself being in Oishi's room? After all, that was something he didn't fully understand himself... It wasn't all the time one turned into a cat.

The redhead did the only thing he could think of to buy himself more time to contemplate this strange situation... And that was to curl up in a ball and hide underneath the covers again on the floor.

"Ahhh what time is it?" Oishi yawned as he finally sat up to check the clock by his bedside.

It read 09:36.

"Nnng I must've forgotten to set my alarm last night..."

Swinging his legs over the edge of the mattress, the dark-haired boy bent down to gather his blanket off the carpet. He stopped though, hand poised over the messy bundle. Something was missing.

"Nekomaru!?!"

Where was his cat? He glanced quickly over at the window, then at the door. Both were shut, making it ridiculous to think the tabby had left through either of those exits. Leaping up, Oishi hastily checked under his bed, in his wardrobe, behind his desk, and all the other possible hiding places he could think of in his bedroom. Nekomaru wasn't in any of them, and it didn't cross the young vice-captain's mind to check underneath the heap of bedclothes on the floor.

Meanwhile, Kikumaru felt like he was suffocating. Did he dare chance a movement for fear of getting caught? But then, what other choices did he have... He could be waiting under there for ages before Oishi might leave the room - could he survive only breathing stale air for that long? Kikumaru wished he had the brains to plan ahead and to prepare an air hole in the side of his little cave to keep him alive. His thoughts drifted over to doubts of him ever making a good ninja...

"Ahhh where'd he go..."

Oishi had moved back onto his bed, depressed at his inability to find the ginger feline. After all, there weren't really that many places it could have gone, or that many options open to it as hiding places in his room. He felt utterly useless. So useless he even chose to ignore the bundle of covers at his feet, no matter how annoying they were... No matter how much they made him twitch just by looking at them... No matter how -messy- they were... No matter how...

Ok, so he couldn't stand it any more. Oishi Syuichiroh was a clean freak.

Just as he gave in and was about to go down and scoop up the heap on the floor, the blankets suddenly jumped up to fling themselves at Oishi's face, knocking him backwards onto his bed.

It seemed like Kikumaru couldn't stand it any more either.

"Unyaaa~! I thought I was going to die under there!"

After hurriedly pulling the blankets out of his way, Oishi just stared, open mouthed and shocked, at the sight before him. As if he wasn't surprised enough at the redhead being in his room in the first place, apparently Kikumaru had failed to notice he wasn't wearing any clothes.

Oishi could feel his face burning up.

"E- Eiji?!?!"

        --------------------

It took a while for the two to calm down after that. Kikumaru had the decency to blush upon realising his mistake, and Oishi had willingly offered some of his clothes to the smaller tennis player. Their embarrassment had momentarily pushed aside any thoughts of confusion, or questions they had, but now they were sitting together on the bed again, a hum of awkward silence had beset the room.

It was up to Oishi to say something first, if a conversation was to get going.

"Ano... Eiji?"

Kikumaru was sitting perfectly motionless, head down so as to not look his doubles partner in the face. In fact, his eyes were closed, and he was counting. Counting wordlessly in his mind, concentrating profusely. /59, 60, 61, 62.../

"H- How did you get here...?"

Now, Oishi wasn't the dumbest person in the world - he could put two and two together easily enough... He had an inkling at the back of his mind on what was going on, but his instinctive level-headedness prevented him from fully believing the possibility. Still, it was best to find out from Kikumaru himself.

"You brought me here yesterday," the redhead stated simply, unmoving, before resuming his counting.

/70, 71, 72, 73.../

A shiver ran through Oishi's body. Apart from the outrageous theory he'd concocted in his mind, there was no other explanation for the reply he'd just received... But that was impossible, wasn't it?

"Um..." the dark-haired boy laughed nervously, "I don't remember bringing you here last night - you weren't even at school yesterday, so how-"

"You carried me," Kikumaru interrupted, in the same flat tone of voice, still refusing to look up.

/81, 82, 83, 84.../

Oishi was feeling uneasy now. They lapsed into another period of awkward silence, the atmosphere weighing heavy on their chests. Neither of them were used to this kind of mood between them - it was somewhat painful to experience.

/95, 96, 97, 98.../

Suddenly Kikumaru broke the silence.

/99, 100!/

"Oishi!"

Surprised green pupils turned to meet wide blue ones as the redhead lifted his head to stare the other directly in the face. Shifting his hand so it rested firmly, but gently, on top of Oishi's, Kikumaru took a deep breath before continuing. There was no turning back now he'd gone this far.

"Is it true what you said last night? About me, how you felt, what you thought... Did you really mean it? Everything you said?" For once, the acrobatic tennis player was deadly serious - uncharacteristically so.

Oishi knew better than to not answer truthfully.

"I- I..."

Although, forcing the words out of his mouth was harder than he'd imagined.

But wait, was this confirming his crazy suspicions? If Kikumaru had heard what he'd said last night, that means he would have had to have been in the room with him... The redhead told him he'd carried him home, Nekomaru had disappeared... Would that... Would that also make the 'dream' he'd had this morning reality? A blush was setting in on his face. It would explain the reason behind Kikumaru being naked anyway...

The pressure of the smaller boy's hand upon his own jolted the dark-haired boy back to reality.

"Oooishi~!"

Kikumaru practically whined the name - the suspense of waiting for an answer was killing him. What was so difficult about it? All he had to do was say 'Yes'! One word! Only one word!

Which was why Kikumaru was shocked to find himself pinned to the bed, warm lips pressed against his half-open mouth, a soft hand caressing the side of his face, and slender fingers laced together with his own.

Apparently, Oishi had decided that actions spoke better than words.

        --------------------

Kikumaru had responded to the kiss readily enough, not sure what else to do, when a knock at the bedroom door broke up the two's antics. They jumped apart quickly.

"Syuichiroh! What are you doing in there!"

Then froze.

"Mou... Do you know what time it is? How long do you plan on sleeping? Your father's already left for work and I need to go collect some things from the shops..."

A sigh of relief escaped both boys mouths as they let out the breath they were unconsciously holding.

"I'm up, don't worry!"

Another exasperated sigh from Oishi's mother, then, "I'll be leaving now."

"Have a safe trip!" the vice-captain called, a little too enthusiastically, as he scrambled over to the window to listen for the sound of the front door slamming.

Stifling a snigger at his friend's flustered face, Kikumaru couldn't help but fall about laughing when Oishi finally turned around, once the coast was clear.

"Nya Oishi~! You looked so funny just then!" the redhead pointed a shaking finger at the other boy, and their previous moment of intimacy was forgotten in the amusement that followed - they were back to their usual selves again.

Just as Kikumaru managed to straddle Oishi, capturing him and making him beg for mercy in their all-out tickle war, the doorbell rang. Exchanging confused looks on who would be calling on a Saturday morning, the redhead rolled off his partner's stomach onto the floor, before following the taller boy down the stairs.

        --------------------

It was Inui.

"Yo," the spectacled third-year greeted them casually enough, inviting himself inside to Oishi's front room.

The Golden Pair followed, bemused at their friend's behaviour, watching as the infamous notebook was opened and a pencil was brandished from nowhere.

"Sit down, Kikumaru," Inui motioned to the couch, moving to stand over the redhead, one eyebrow raised. He proceeded to take out a stethoscope from the small bag at his side which had previously gone unnoticed.

Oishi eventually managed to regain his voice after he watched for a while, stupefied, at the spiky haired boy's prodding of his best friend.

"...Inui, what are you doing?"

"Checking for side-effects."

"Oh."

Silence.

"Side-effects!?!?!" Oishi realised what had just been said.

"Ah," the data mastermind continued with his probing, producing an assortment of other medical instruments from his bag and making various notes as he went along.

Oishi opened his mouth, about to say something else, when Inui cut in.

"If you wanted to ask what for, I believe you already know the answer to that. If you wanted to know how I knew Kikumaru was here, there was a 92% chance you'd have brought him home after some sort of incident at school yesterday."

Oishi stood gaping like a goldfish - Inui's powers of speculation never ceased to amaze him.

Kikumaru, on the other hand, was slow in shaking himself out of his bewildered daze. He'd sat down out of curiosity into what Inui was planning to do, hoping it would be something interesting, like a game, but being poked and scrutinised wasn't exactly his idea of fun. When the tall third- year had pushed a stick into his mouth and began examining his tongue, Kikumaru finally decided that was enough.

"Nyaaa~! Inuuiii~! There's nothing wrong with me!" the redhead exclaimed, pushing the other boy away. Standing up quickly, he virtually ran to hide behind Oishi.

Inui just smiled, scribbling more notes down.

"I thought as much - side-effects didn't seem to be present in my case, either."

"...Your case?"

While Oishi picked up on that fact, Kikumaru didn't seem to have heard. He was off on another rant, obliviously shaking his arms at Inui, complaining about having to be checked when Inui obviously knew there wasn't anything wrong with him.

If Oishi wasn't so caught up on what the data tennis player had just said, he would have found Kikumaru's behaviour to be cute. Instead, he just repeated himself.

"What do you mean, 'your case'?"

"I thought that would already be clear to you, Oishi."

Still kneeling on the floor, Inui had chosen to ignore the raving redhead.

"I make it a habit to taste all my concoctions - wouldn't it make sense for me to experience the same post-symptoms as Kikumaru did? But unlike our redheaded friend, I didn't presume it wise to venture to school as a cat."

Kikumaru scowled at this last comment, having abandoned his one sided argument.

"Schuu~ Well -I- thought it -was- a good idea..." and with that he latched himself onto Oishi's arm, a pout set firmly in place.

Again, Oishi would have been blushing deeply had the realisation of Inui's words not kicked in.

"So... So you really did turn into a cat?!? And Nekomaru was really Eiji?!? And... And..." he turned his head away from Inui to look at his smaller partner, "But how...? Why? Because of your juice? That's just..."

"Impossible? Yes, I wasn't quite expecting that particular result either," the team's coach frowned slightly as he stood up, having finished packing away the various devices pulled from his bag.

Still clinging to Oishi's side, Kikumaru muttered under his breath, "Silly Inui and his crazy juices..." when a question hit him.

"Oi, Inui... How come we changed back then? I thought we'd have to-"

"Do something to reverse the process? Like drink some other juice? Ah, that thought crossed my mind too - which is why I spent a good deal of yesterday in my lab - but it seems it wore off by itself, after it passed through our systems. I suppose mine wore off faster because I drank less."

Kikumaru had to bury his head into Oishi's arm in order to stifle his sudden giggling fit - the thought of Inui as a cat trying to blend together different ingredients? It was just too funny! And would Inui have had to wear his glasses still? Wow, a cat with glasses like Inui - that was even funnier!

Oishi found himself frowning despite the redhead in hysterics at his side. There was still one more thing bothering him.

"What happened to the rest of the stuff then...?"

"Hm. A reasonable question." The spiky-haired third year shifted uncomfortably.

"Hoi~? What did you do, Inui? Ne, ne, tell us nya~!" Kikumaru was gasping for breath, tears in his eyes from laughing too hard.

"I spilt it."

"Nya?! You- You spilt it?!?! All of it?!?!"

And Kikumaru was in hysterics again.

"Handling things with paws is difficult... You don't get nearly as much control over what you're doing..." Inui trailed off.

Even Oishi couldn't help but smile. It wasn't like the data tennis player to be so clumsy.

"Anyway," Inui walked to the door, clearly finished with the conversation, "now I've checked up on Kikumaru and explained everything, I have an appointment to meet."

"An appointment?" Kikumaru -had- to ask, his inquisitive nature overriding his fits of laughter.

"I'm meeting Kaidoh at the park, for S-p-e-c-i-a-l Training," Inui smirked.

"Hooooiiii~?" the redhead leered at the tall third-year, implying things with the tone of his voice.

Oishi smacked the back of the acrobatic player's head lightly.

"Control yourself, Eiji!"

Kikumaru rubbed the spot, pulling a face at his doubles partner, sticking his tongue out.

Inui was grinning again, jotting something else down in his notebook.

"Interesting data..."

And with that he was gone from the house, leaving the Golden Pair alone.

        --------------------

"So..."

"So..."

They'd decided to go back to Kikumaru's house. It would be quieter there, and the redhead needed to change his clothes anyway.

They were sitting lazily on Kikumaru's bed, having just finished watching a movie, the smaller boy resting his head on the other's chest, tracing patterns over it with one of his fingers. Oishi's arm was hung over the redhead's shoulder protectively, and their hands were entwined together.

"It's been a crazy past couple of days..." Oishi murmured quietly.

"...Yeah."

Kikumaru closed his eyes, moving closer so he could hear the sound of his partner's heart beating gently. The dark-haired boy just smiled, squeezing the hand in his own slightly.

"I'm glad it happened though, no matter how crazy it all was."

"...Yeah."

A comfortable silence followed, both just enjoying the other's company.

"Ne, Oishi?"

"Hm?"

"Does that mean that... that 'dream' this morning was real? Where you asked me to join you in bed...?"

The green-eyed boy chuckled softly before replying.

"Ah, I guess it was... Why?"

"Mm... I just thought it'd be good if we did it again sometime, except knowing it wasn't a dream..."

Oishi's smile deepened. He'd never expected the redhead to be so forward - not that he was complaining - it was a shock, but a pleasant one.

"Yeah, that would be good..."

Tilting Kikumaru's head backwards so they were staring each other in the eyes, Oishi slowly leant forward to capture his doubles partner's lips in his own. Eyelids fluttering shut again they fell backwards onto the bed, contentment and bliss radiating from their beings.

Yeah, things were going to be good from now on.

~ Owari ~

        --------------------

Notes: Haha yeah, I can't write decent endings... o.O

Hmm I can't write decent lemons either for that matter, so what happens next can be left to your imaginations... ^.~

Well, this chapter was a quite a bit longer than the others (I didn't know where to split it), so I have a good excuse for it taking longer than anticipated. And besides, long chapters are better than short ones, right? ^^

Anyway, comments and criticisms are much welcomed! And thanks to you all for reading! ^^V

Special thanks for all those who were kind enough to leave a review, I probably would've taken longer if it wasn't for your support. ^^;