The Dangers of Drugs

Headaches were a strange affair. People used the word 'pounding', but to Tachibana, it always felt less like pounding and more like his head was trying to cave in on itself. It's what his head felt like now, and he became aware of it even before he started waking up, and a giant squirrel was gnawing on him, rows of teeth clamped down on his forehead.

When he opened his eyes everything was blurry and dark. Water, he thought, and his mind focused in on that one item. He needed water, and he needed it now. Pure need drove him to jump up only to prompt a wave of vertigo. A sheet was bunched up around his waist, and then a glass was pushing itself into his hand, and he was drinking like a man dehydrated.

"You really overdid it, huh?"

Tachibana cringed. The voice probably wasn't that loud, and came from a good number of feet away from him, but every syllable was like a nail in his head. The water, though, brought him a little more out of dream land, and he soon became aware of four things.

One. He was naked.

Two. He was naked on his living room couch. This one almost scared him, before he remembered his parents were out of town, and Ann was sleeping over at a friend's house.

Three. Chitose was standing in front of him, also naked, except he was also wet, and had a tiny towel wrapped around his waist.

"That's a hair towel," Tachibana muttered.

"Eh? Is it?" Even if he did acknowledge the fact, Chitose didn't seem too nonplussed about it, and went about drying his strangely kinky hair on another towel he had found in Tachibana's closet. Then the bell was ringing, and Tachibana remembered the fourth thing that he had been so aware of just moments before.

"I'll get it," Chitose said, as if he had every right in the world to answer Tachibana's door.

"No, you-" Tachibana got up, pulling the sheet with him, but it was too late.

"Hey." Chitose was, no doubt, smiling both smugly and stupidly at the newcomer.

"... ..."

From above Chitose's shoulder, Tachibana could see Shinji's face. Shinji looked first at Chitose, then at Tachibana, and Tachibana wished that the younger boy was more expressive than he was. Knowing Shinji's reaction to this would be highly beneficial, and Tachibana hoped for one futile moment that maybe Shinji's lack of expression was due to his (miraculous) obliviousness to the boys' states of undress.

"... I was supposed to meet Tachibana, but it seems like he's busy. Sorry to bother both of you." Then Shinji was turning and leaving, and Chitose (stupid Chitose!) was closing the door behind him.

"Was that your boyfriend?" Chitose smiled at him. "I remember checking him out at Kantou. Nice little ass on that one."

"Shut up," Tachibana finally managed to say, only it was muffled into his couch cushion, because he was digging around the floor for his clothes. He managed to throw on some pants (he realized after he put them on that they didn't belong to him), and ran out to door. "Shinji!"

He stumbled over the steps, but caught himself, and saw a fluttering of blue hair and then a pair of eyes that he had never been good at reading. Shinji stopped and waited for him at the street corner, but when Tachibana caught up to him, he wasn't sure what to say.

"Shinji..." There was an awkward silence for awhile, as Shinji had nothing to say about the situation, and Tachibana wasn't sure what rights he had to justify it to began with. "Chitose's an old friend of mine."

"From Kyuushuu," Shinji interrupted. "I know."

"There's nothing going on between us."

"Yeah." Shinji looked away, uncomfortable. "I don't know why you're telling me this, it has nothing to do with me. Except you could have told me before that you couldn't meet me to go shopping, instead of letting me interrupt that, whatever that was. But like I said, it's none of my business. It's not like we're dating."

Tachibana frowned. Shinji was staring up at him, his brow furrowed in the most minute of gestures, and part of Tachibana thought that maybe it was because he was bothered by the whole thing. Not that he wanted to make Shinji jealous, but it would be nice if Shinji was something other than nonchalant. "That's true enough."

"So you see how it wouldn't matter at all to me. Who you sleep with, that is. I'm going to go do the shopping for the tennis club now, so you should get back to your house. You wouldn't want to keep your guest waiting. It's impolite to keep people waiting, and I'm sure you'd want to be a good host. So I'll see you at practice."

"Shinji-" Whatever Tachibana was about to say was cut off as Shinji waved and got on his bike.

"I said I'll see you at practice," Shinji mumbled, and then he was riding away.

When Tachibana got back to his house Chitose had changed into a pair of (Tachibana's favorite) boxers and nothing else, and was hunched over smoking something. The smell that filled the air was way too familiar for Tachibana's tastes.

"Don't smoke up in here," Tachibana reprimanded, opening the window. "My parents will smell it."

"You didn't seem to mind last night."

So that's why his head hurt so much. Only alcohol mixed with pot could wreck this much havoc on his system. And he hadn't smoked up since he had transferred... why did he start again last night? Tachibana wished that he could remember. He walked over to Chitose, whose eyes were already glazed over. He tried to reach down for the bowl, presumably to put it out, but Chitose slapped his hand away.

"Hey," he laughed, "I'm, like, one toke away from achieving the state of self-actualization, so chill."

Tachibana frowned and plucked the bowl right from Chitose's lips.

"Mou." Chitose pouted. "You were a lot more fun when you were blond."

Tachibana took care of the bowl and then started spraying air freshener around the room. He made sure to keep an eye on Chitose, who was getting dressed and constantly complaining about how hungry he was. After Tachibana was satisfied with the smell of his room and had changed, he turned to the other boy. "Let's go get some breakfast."

It was time to get some answers.

Thankfully, by the time they reached the restaurant, Chitose wasn't high any more. He was back to his cheerful self, though he seemed to be sincerely apologetic about the scene with Shinji.

"What was I thinking," he chuckled, the sound of it like nails on chalkboard in Tachibana's head, "answering your door like that. Your boy wasn't too upset, was he? But, I guess, having sex with another guy is a pretty big deal."

So they did have sex after all... and here Tachibana was hoping they had just fallen asleep naked for some reason. Tachibana nursed on his coffee cup, wishing that Chitose wasn't so happy and talkative, cursing the fact that Chitose never seemed to get a hangover. "He's not my boy."

"Really?" Chitose seemed a little surprised by the statement, but generally unaffected. "That's too bad, he's pretty cute. What about Kamio, you going out with him?"

Tachibana looked up from where he had been staring down into his coffee. "How do you know Kamio's name?"

"We ran into him last night, during our grope-fest over at the karaoke place."

Kamio seeing him drunk and making out with Chitose... karaoke... it was like things kept getting worse and worse. "What exactly happened last night?"

"You don't remember? Typical. We ran into each other at the sushi place, I treated us to a lot of sake, then I treated us to some karaoke, where we ran into some of your team members, and then we went back to your place and smoked up and fucked. I mean, it was pretty much the same kind of stuff we always used to do together."

"I thought I left all that behind in Kyuushuu."

"Yeah, well, so did I, but I guess we just bring out that sort of thing in each other." Chitose held up his glass of orange juice, hitting it against Tachibana's coffee mug. The reverberations multiplied in his head, a sharp ache. "Cheers."

Tachibana didn't know what he was expected at Fudomine's next tennis practice... really, he had assumed it would be business as usual. Nationals was about to start, and they still had a lot of work to do. What he wasn't expecting was the awkwardness that hung almost palpably in the air. Kamio seemed extremely embarrassed, not even able to look at Tachibana, even though they had several conversations. He would fumble with the equipment, and on the courts, and Tachibana finally had to sit him out he was so distracted.

Tachibana wondered if Kamio's image of the perfect role model had been shattered last night. It's true he shouldn't have been drinking, or smoking, or participating in public displays of lust, and he reprimanded himself for not maintaining a rational head.

Shinji was acting strangely as well, even more so then usual, in that he was pretty much avoiding his buchou. Tachibana figured he'd need to do something to get them back to normal in time for Nationals, scant days away, but more than that he needed to know what Shinji was thinking. Shinji, who was the reason he had started playing tennis again to begin with.

Not that the others didn't have anything to do with it. He knew they all looked up to him, relied on him even, but Shinji had always been apart from the rest. He remembered being a new transfer student, his hair freshly cut and his head feeling too light, too naked. He remembered seeing a first year Shinji on the courts, hair clinging with sweat to the pale skin of his cheeks, long fingers testing the strings on his racket.

He had tried to kiss Shinji once, soon after they had formed the new tennis club, as they were cleaning up the club room. Alone, Tachibana's fingers had wrapped around Shinji's wrist and pulled him forward. Shinji's skin was so soft, and his hair was silky as Tachibana used his other hand to cup the side of Shinji's face. Their lips had just barely met when Shinji pulled back and pushed away.

"Don't do that," Shinji had said, and it sounded like a pout. He looked the same as he always did, expressionless, and after a few shaky moments the two went back to their cleaning.

Now, Shinji's pale skin was flushed pink from the exertion of practice, damp from the exercise, though it only served to make him more appealing. His lips were wet, slightly parted as he breathed out through them, and Tachibana wondered for the umpteenth time what they would feel like moving against his.

Tachibana didn't say anything to either Shinji or Kamio until the end of practice, and he took it upon himself to walk Shinji home. Usually Kamio was with the blue-haired boy, as the two lived close by, but he had run off earlier. Shinji didn't say anything as Tachibana fell into step beside him, only walked his bike along the bumpy pavement.

"Why are you avoiding me?" Tachibana asked, point blank. He certainly wasn't going to skirt around the issue.

Shinji only shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't even know I was doing it. Are you sure I was avoiding you? Maybe you're just imagining things."

Tachibana's brow furrowed in a frown, tiny creases above his nose. "I'm absolutely certain."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you."

Shinji's eyelashes were always so long. They seemed almost a waste on him, instead of on a girl, and now they were fluttering in the breeze. Tachibana always noticed those little things about him, bruises on his legs, tangles in his hair, because it kept him from actually reaching out and touching him. "I shouldn't have gotten so drunk last night. If I had been sober I wouldn't have slept with Chitose. We're just friends."

"Kamio likes you."

Tachibana blinked at the statement. There was no change in Shinji's facial expression, though it was true there rarely was, and Tachibana wondered if he had imagined it. But Shinji didn't say anything else, and he realized that he was supposed to respond. "Kamio doesn't like me. Kamio idealizes me."

"Kamio likes you. Kamio's liked you since before you joined the tennis club." Shinji looked at him them, and Tachibana imagined that his eyes had a slightly angry look to them. "Kamio likes you, and I'm Kamio's best friend."

Shinji didn't have to say the rest, Tachibana could make an inference. Still, the whole situation seemed to him terribly unfair. "You know that it's you I like, don't you?"

Maybe it was a hurtful thing to say, in terms of Kamio's emotions, but Kamio wasn't around. At any rate, the statement didn't seem to illicit any reactions in Shinji.

"It doesn't matter," Shinji explained, sounding tired and probably wondering why Tachibana couldn't just get it. "Because Kamio's my best friend, and I would never do anything that would hurt him. I wouldn't be much of a friend otherwise."

Tachibana wanted to object, but they were already at Shinji's house, and the other boy was unlocking the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Shinji muttered, before he disappeared into his house.

Before, Tachibana had planned to stop by Kamio's house after walking Shinji home, but now he wasn't so sure that was the best thing to do. Instead, he headed back to his place, passing familiar stores and restaurants along the way. He was rounding a corner when a very recognizable voice called after him. He cringed and started walking faster.

"Kippei! Hey, wait up!" An arm slung itself over his shoulder, and flowing, silky material brushed against the skin of his right arm.

"Are we back on a first name basis now?" Tachibana frowned at Chitose, who was obviously on his way to getting drunk again. "And shouldn't you be getting ready for Nationals, instead of drinking?"

"Well, after seeing your team in action, I figured we'd just coast through to the finals. Any way, every one's off doing their own thing."

"So you had to come harass me?"

"I'm hurt," Chitose said, holding a hand against his heart. "Don't you enjoy my company?"

"About as much as I enjoy having my team insulted like that."

"Lighten up, Kippei." Chitose removed his arm and frowned at his old friend. He wondered when Tachibana had changed so much. "It's about the blue-haired boy, isn't it? That's why you're being so grumpy."

"It has nothing to do with Shinji," Tachibana lied, looking away.

"So it does have to do with him." Chitose scratched his head, pondering. "Come on, just let me treat you to one beer. It's not gonna make much of a difference, you've already finished practicing, and you'll be fine in time for practice tomorrow."

Tachibana narrowed his eyes, but old habits were hard to break, and Chitose always had been difficult to say no to. Thirty minutes later, Tachibana wouldn't say that he was wasted per se, but he was certainly feeling better and a lot more talkative.

"I want to touch him," Tachibana was slurring. "I want to kiss him. I want to... I want to..."

"Dude, you want to fuck him."

Tachibana glared at Chitose, but the other boy only laughed at him. "Don't be so vulgar."

"I just call it like I see it."

"And Kamio!" Tachibana groaned and laid his head on the table, knocking over some sake cups in the process. "Kamio's probably hurt and embarrassed from seeing us together, and I have no idea what to do about it."

"Hey, man, there's nothing you can do. You can't lead him on, that's even worse."

"That's true. Every now and then, for some one so stupid, you say something that's pretty smart."

Chitose beamed. "Thanks, man."

"I think I'm going to throw up."

"Just don't do it on me, and it's all gravy."

The room was spinning around him, and he was fumbling for another glass, but then he felt an arm under his shoulders and lifting him up.

"I see your tennis skills aren't the only thing that's waned," Chitose mumbled into his ear, "your tolerance is way lower than it was before."

"Don't drink any more. Good example."

Chitose chuckled. "Yeah, you're being a great example right now alright."

Tachibana was only half aware as they stumbled out of the restaurant. It wasn't too late out, but it was already dark, and he hoped Chitose remembered where he lived because he sure as hell didn't.

"You know," Chitose was saying to him, "if you want to get into Shinji's pants so bad, I can take Kamio off your hands for you-"

"Chitose," Tachibana interrupted, eyes widening, "shut-"

"No, seriously, like, he's cute, and he seems like he'd be a wildcat in bed. Mreow, you know?"

"Chitose!"

Chitose finally listened to Tachibana enough to look up, right into the flushed face of one Kamio Akira. He looked absolutely horrified, but then he turned and ran, not stopping even though Tachibana called after him.

Tachibana yanked himself away from Chitose's hold, stumbling a few steps before leaning against a lamp post. In a moment of absolute lucidity, he made a mental note: never, ever, no matter what, go drinking with Chitose again.

"Oops," Chitose said, his mouth a small 'o'. "I kinda messed up, huh?"

Tachibana didn't know what else to do but glare.

The next morning Tachibana's headache wasn't as bad as it was previously, just a dull throbbing, but the thought that he had to somehow fix things with Kamio was even worse. After he brushed his teeth and took a shower he tried calling the second year, numerous times, but Kamio's sister said he wasn't home and Kamio wasn't picking up his cell.

Kamio didn't show up to practice, something which made Tachibana feel even more guilty. The others were bewildered by Kamio's absence, but they didn't say anything, save for Shinji who cornered him in the locker room.

"Why isn't Kamio at practice?" Shinji asked. "When I called him he said he was sick, which is an obvious lie, because even if he was sick he would still come to tennis practice. That's just the kind of person he is. Then he said he didn't want to talk about it. What could he not want to talk about? I'm his best friend, he tells me everything. I think maybe you said something to him, or you hurt him, or something like that, because-"

"Shinji. I'm going to talk to Kamio now. I'll fix it."

Shinji blinked, surprised, before looking down at the floor. His lips parted, then closed, and Tachibana waited for him to say something. But then, uncharacteristically, he didn't, and went back to packing up his things.

The walk to Kamio's house was long, if only because Tachibana walked so slowly. He wasn't sure how to deal with Kamio. It's true the whole team was strangely devoted to him ever since he had stuck up for them, something that always struck Tachibana as a little odd, but Kamio's devotion had always been borderline worship. Tachibana had never thought much about it... just that Kamio was like that, and had made him up to be some kind of hero. Some one to emulate. He would never have guessed that it was because Kamio liked him in a romantic sense.

When he got to the Kamio's place, a small one-story wood house, he rang the doorbell and waited for some one to let him in. He was half-expecting the door to remain unanswered, but then Kamio's mother was there, smiling in that grateful way that she did. 'Thank you for taking care of my son', her expression always seemed to be saying. She ushered him inside and then down the hallway, where he knocked on Kamio's door once before letting himself in.

Kamio hadn't even heard him, a pair of large headphones on his ears, slumped over a pile of homework on his desk. Tachibana made his way to the stereo system, which he flicked off, and took a seat on the bed.

At the sudden stop to his music Kamio looked up, and then behind him, and gave a visible start as he saw Tachibana sitting there. He pulled off his headphones and dropped them on his desk, sending some papers fluttering to the ground.

"Tachibana!" Kamio turned around in his chair, still a little surprised and vaguely embarrassed. "I didn't know you were here."

"I just got here."

"Oh." Kamio looked at his ceiling, at his floor, around his room... anything to keep from looking directly at his captain. "Sorry about missing practice."

"You wouldn't have been playing well anyway, with the state you're in." It was so much easier to be the captain, instead of dealing with the awkwardness of being a teenager. "You have to learn not to let your emotions affect your tennis."

"Yeah." It seemed as though Kamio had found a spot on the floor to focus on, right between his feet, and was now resolutely staring at it.

Tachibana crossed his legs, the gesture as close to fidgeting as he ever got. "I'm sorry about what Chitose said. Tennis skills aside, he's an idiot."

Kamio didn't say anything, and Tachibana wasn't sure what he was doing, because now he couldn't bring himself to look up at him.

"I never meant to make you feel awkward."

"Oh." The sound was small, and extremely awkward, causing Tachibana to frown a little.

"I shouldn't have been drinking."

"Yeah... umm... it's okay, I guess."

There was a long, long silence then, and Tachibana thought maybe he shouldn't have come around. Maybe he should have just stayed away and let Kamio get over it, and then Kamio would come back to practice and they would pretend that nothing had ever happened. Maybe it was best to pretend he didn't know that Kamio liked him, because the alternative must be mortifying for the redhead.

"Do you..." Kamio's voice was quiet, embarrassed, and Tachibana almost wondered at it. Kamio was always so angry with people he didn't know, and yet he could be so meek with his own team members. "Do you... like Shinji?"

"Aa." There was no point in lying about it. "I do."

"Oh." It sounded as though Kamio had deflated even more. "That's cool, you know, if you do."

Tachibana knew that it wasn't cool, could hear it in Kamio's tone of voice, but he also knew that it was something he shouldn't point out. Kamio would work things out on his own, without Tachibana's prodding, because that was what one did in these kinds of situations.

"I won't excuse you from tomorrow's practice," Tachibana said, as a means of ending the conversation. "So make sure you're on time."

"Yeah. I will."

Tachibana got up, Kamio quick to do the same, and they both walked to the front door. Honestly, Tachibana would have preferred letting himself out, but it was a formality that Kamio wouldn't be so rude to push aside. They exchanged awkward goodbyes and then Tachibana was out of the house, the door closing softly behind him.

The next few practices were tense, not just between he and Kamio, but also between Kamio and Shinji. But whatever was going on with them, Tachibana didn't ask, and by the time Nationals started it seemed everything was back to normal. Like a family, again, and at one of the matches that idiot Chitose hit on Kamio, sending Tachibana a big grin and a thumbs up sign. Kamio kicked him in the shins.

Fudomine lost halfway through the Nationals, and Chitose called every day for a week to rub it in. But then Tachibana had to quit the club and focus on getting into a good high school. He made Kamio the captain, Shinji became the vice-captain, and he stopped by often to see how every one was doing.

He was ready to end this chapter in his life. High school was looming on the horizon, new beginnings, new people. He probably wouldn't play tennis in high school... it would be strange, now, wearing colors that didn't belong to Fudomine.

It was almost over, and he had said his mental goodbyes to the past two years. So he was somewhat shocked when, the day before graduation, he came home to find Shinji sitting on his bed.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Tachibana asked, thinking that maybe Shinji needed some advice with tennis.

Shinji shifted on the bed, almost fidgeting, and those long, graceful fingers folded wrinkles in the blanket. "How come you never asked me out?"

Shinji's deep blue eyes were focused on the carpet, his skin white in the sunlight that drifted into the room. Tachibana thought it would have been nice if there was a breeze coming through the window, but as it was Shinji's hair hung limp at the sides of his face. He didn't have the chance to say anything, caught off guard by the question, and then Shinji had started into his habit.

"I thought that after you had straightened everything out with Kamio, you would have done something. Ask me out, or kiss me again, I don't know. I was waiting for something and then you never did anything and now you're leaving to a different school, so I guess you're not planning on doing anything at all. I was waiting for you, and now I feel like an idiot, so... never mind. Sorry for coming."

Shinji got up off the bed and made to leave, but then Tachibana's hand was grabbing his wrist, and Tachibana's other hand was wrapping itself around his waist. Closer, Tachibana thought, pulling a little, and then Shinji was pressed against him, and his hand had moved from Shinji's wrist to tangle itself in that soft hair. He leaned down, feeling Shinji's breath on his cheek, and pressed his lips against Shinji's. They were moist, parted, and then he felt Shinji's tongue against his own. The younger boy's body was so small in his arms, his mouth so warm and inviting, and Tachibana had to remind himself to breath.

When he pulled back he had to whisper, because his voice wouldn't come out any louder than that. "I never did anything because I thought you didn't want me to."

Shinji smiled and wrapped his arms around Tachibana's neck. "But I want you do."

And then he was pulling Tachibana down, for another kiss.

.end.