Studying Together
by Suke

Hoi hoi! It's a golden pair one-shot because I can't seem to keep myself from writing Oishi-Eiji ^_^ Silly fluffy thing. Hope you like and please review.

*****

"Eiji," Oishi said, casting a suspicious glance at the hyperactive redhead beside him.

Kikumaru Eiji was not to be caught. His eyes were forcibly directed towards the page of his book now, away from their previous preoccupation. Had he a glacial glare like Tezuka's, the room temperature would have dipped below liveable limits. As it was, it just looked like Eiji was having a very, very hard time solving his science problems.

"Nani, Oishi?" Eiji looked up at his doubles partner, the previously assumed intense frown of concentration clearing off quickly, wide eyes blinking.

Oishi, however, appeared largely unconvinced by Eiji's show of innocence, possibly because any kind of concentration was unheard of from the hyperactive redhead when it came to doing homework. Eiji was usually noisy when it came to studying with a penchant for talking aloud to himself.

The last time some of the tennis third-years had been doing homework together during a shared self-study period, Eiji had driven them all crazy doing algebra homework aloud, addressing the variables, an assortment of 'x- san' and 'y-san', as he went along.

"X-san, you have to move over here. And then, y-san will be equal to..." and so on with regular updates on his progress and triumphant announcements and victory dances when the value of 'x-san' was finally discovered. "Hoi hoi! The answer is 27 and two-thirds! Neh, Oishi, I got the answer! Neh, neh, Tezuka-buchou! Neh, Fuji!"

Today, however, not only was the redhead uncharacteristically quiet, Oishi had also caught Eiji casting surreptitious glances at him when he thought the mild-mannered boy wasn't watching. And today, the situation was slightly different. There were only two of them and they were in Eiji's room, lying belly-down and propped up on elbows, side by side on the floor.

"Aa, it's nothing. Gomen," Oishi quickly said.

The vice-captain of the tennis team didn't want to call the redhead out on what he was doing. He might have suspected wrongly after all, and if that was so, he might end up hurting Eiji's feelings by accusing him of something he wasn't doing. And, if anything, Oishi was very careful with Eiji's feelings.

Oishi returned his attention to his homework, a slight frown returning to his brow. Eiji slid a few furtive sideways glances in his direction to assure himself that Oishi was truly focused on the page of his book before the acrobatic player very slowly turned his head to look at his doubles partner fully. He had to be more careful. The last time, Oishi had so very nearly caught him. And now, Oishi was suspicious too.

For some reason, Oishi was so fascinating right now.

Eiji had seen Oishi studying before of course. And he'd seen Oishi in his room from time to time when Oishi came over. And then, there were lots of times he'd seen Oishi when there were just the two of them. But he'd never seen all of that altogether. He'd never seen Oishi so close before, studying in his room with just the two of them. And for some reason, that fascinated Eiji immensely.

In fact, it's so fascinating that the redhead found himself staring at his doubles partner continuously and thinking about him, even with Eiji's legendary attention span - legendary because no one's actually seen it.

Everyone said that Oishi was the most dependable person alive, but he worried about things so much, he probably enjoyed doing it. And they said he was nice and stable and very, very caring. And he's soft-hearted too, and always willing to believe people and believe in people. Oishi had a very quiet playing style but his game sense was amazing. And in the same way, although Oishi was a quiet, predictable person, he was somehow really sensitive and wise.

Oishi must be the best person in the world. Eiji concluded that no one else could be as nice as Oishi. Even though Eiji liked being with Fuji because Fuji was so fun, and he liked being with Momo and Taka too because he loved to tease them, Oishi probably made him the happiest. With these thoughts and others such as 'Has anyone ever noticed that Oishi's eyes are brown?' Eiji spent a lovely ten minutes before Oishi glanced up at him again.

This time, Eiji only smiled vaguely at the other boy before turning back to his book with a fierce look of concentration, as though Eiji himself had also only looked up for a moment like Oishi had. The frown on Oishi's brow deepened but he didn't question the action and returned to work.

Phew, Eiji sighed inwardly. That had been close. He should probably stop looking. Oishi had a very nice face but Oishi might not like being stared at very much. Eiji thought he wouldn't mind the attention but he also knew that he and Oishi were two very different people -- although they were the same where it counted.

No looking, Eiji told himself sternly. Just a peek, one peek. Oishi won't notice. He's so busy studying! Oh, this was so hard! It was way too hard! Eiji very carefully turned his head a little just so he could see his friend from the corner of his eye, only to find that Oishi was looking, somewhat sternly, back at him!

Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no!

"Eiji", Oishi said unsmilingly. "Are you --" the words were on his lips but he couldn't voice them out. What if he was wrong? Eiji would be so hurt at the accusation. It was too embarrassing to continue.

Oh no! Did Oishi know? Oh no! Would Oishi be angry? He didn't look pleased. He had his scolding face on. Oh no! Would Oishi think he was some pervert for staring so long? Oishi did have a way of knowing things that he wanted to hide. Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no!

"Unnya!" Eiji said unhappily, gaze dropping. He chewed at his lower lip, awaiting the anger and inevitable upset. He really didn't like Oishi being upset with him.

"Aa, it's okay Eiji," Oishi said and suddenly smiled at him. He couldn't bear the misery in the redhead's eyes any longer and quickly strove to assure him. "I really don't mind."

"Nya, really?" Eiji said, eyes wide. If he thought about it, he supposed it wasn't that surprising. People probably stared at Oishi a lot after all since Oishi was so pretty.

"It's okay if you want to copy," Oishi moved his book a bit closer to Eiji, edging nearer to his doubles partner on his elbows. "But I'd really feel much better if I could explain the problems to you. Then, you'd understand them better."

Oishi gave the cute boy an encouraging smile.

"Nya?" was Eiji's response, followed immediately by a torrent of laughter. Oishi, at once, looked really confused and a little hurt so Eiji tried to say something but that only made him choke.

"If - if you don't want me to teach you, that's okay too." Oishi sounded rather miffed and hurt.

"You thought I was trying to copy your homework?" Eiji finally managed to say amidst chortles. It was so far from the truth that Eiji didn't even notice that he'd just been accused of copying.

"Well, yes," Oishi said hesitantly. Confusion was now winning over as the prevalent emotion on his face.

Eiji shook his head and laughed some more. It was partly relief and partly the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Gomen, Eiji, I shouldn't have accused you of copying."

"Nya, it's so funny Oishi." Seeing his friend's confusion, Eiji tried to explain it to him. "You see, I was looking at you because you're so nice to look at and you seemed so suspicious and then when you said something, I thought you realised that I was staring so much and you were going to be angry at me but you actually thought I was looking because I was trying to copy and then, and then --" Eiji stopped abruptly when he realised what he had said.

"Nya," Eiji found himself blushing alarmingly. "I'm sorry I was staring at you. Please don't be upset. I know it's weird."

Oishi laughed. It was a nice warm sound that made Eiji glance at him again and find his attention caught by the way Oishi's eyes lit up.

"It is quite funny," Oishi said.

"It is, isn't it nya?" Eiji said enthusiastically, encouraged and beaming now at this new turn the events had taken.

"Yes, now let's get back to work," Oishi replied and they went back to their books. Or rather, Oishi went back to work and Eiji went back to trying to catch furtive glimpses of him.

"Eiji."

"Gomen, I'll stop nya."

"I feel uncomfortable when people stare at me."

"Gomen-nya."

"But I don't mind it when it's you."

Oishi paused writing to smile at him before returning his attention to his science problems.

Eiji blushed.

*****

Ano, I hope you liked this. Please review! Onegai!

This is dedicated to Cheeseburger of Doom and Regatto-san. Arigato for reviewing Truly Equilateral. Gomen, but I'm discontinuing that fic because, well, I started to dislike it very much and couldn't get past writing ch 3. Suke-san wasn't going to upload this fic till much later but now, it is my measly recompense to all of you. T_T gomen gomen.