Current mood:	sleepy
Current music:	Natasha Bedingfield: Unwritten

[log] Keisuke, Seiji
Date: Before Keisuke's birthday~
Rating: G
Summary: Keisuke and Seiji. Seiji comes out~



Somehow, when Saeki Reiko had agreed to 'play-dates' between his niece and Keisuke's younger sister, the fifteen year old tennis ace of Rokkaku didn't think he was going to end up with him and Hyotei's ace sitting on his sister's back deck, watching the two girls themselves.

However, neesan had said it wouldn't be for the entire day. Just until she got some 'work' done, and when Seiji, baffled, had asked her what work she needed to do, she'd just smiled and ruffled his hair, sweetly sing-songing "seeeeee~ecret" at him. Even now, he could hear music coming from the open window on the second story of her beachside room.

The studio.

And he was damn curious to know why.

But he also knew his sister well enough to not pry. When neesan wanted to tell him, she would...and until then, she would contrite as hell about letting him find out. So, that left Seiji seated on the steps of the deck, watching as his niece toddled around her sandbox. She had her shovel in one hand, her bucket in the other, and already was making a decent start on her own private fortress. If she even noticed the other little girl there, Ana gave no indication as she giggled and beat the sand into shape with her shovel.

Okay, it wasn't the most effective method, Seiji conceded. But it was still cute.

"Hey, Kei-kun," Seiji laughed, turned to eye the other teenager on the deck. "Sorry we couldn't just cut down to the beach." He smiled and shrugged.

"It's not a problem", Keisuke replied from where he sat on the steps, watching the two little girls. "If you're bored, Kisarazu, I won't say anything if you decide to take off." He slanted Seiji a half smirk.

Actually, this was a lot better, now that Mai and he had gotten out of Tokyo and off of the train. With their father actually home for the weekend, Mai had been throwing her special brand of tantrums over having to leave for this play date. Atobe Keigo was dealing with some business overseas that had been often taking him away from home, and Keisuke's five year old baby sister had been moping ever since.

He supposed it was hard on her. He couldn't remember what it was like to not have one of their parents always near. They'd had him young--too young--but he could remember lots of trips all together and days spent at home. He could vaguely recall sitting in his mother's lap as she jotted down some homework, or exploring the grounds of the Atobe home with his father and running back to show her things he'd found.

Mai hadn't been as lucky. After she was born, their grandfather had suffered some bad health, and decided to leave his son to the business, retiring with his wife in Greece. Atobe Keigo had had to put in even longer hours at the office, and was constantly called away to attend matters. As a young businessman, he'd only wanted to improve and expand the family business. It had taken his mother's displeasure to ground his father into realizing the need to have trusted delegates to take care of most of the work. As a result, Mai had grown up a bit deserted, and then horribly spoiled. Atobe Mitsuko had been able to reign in a good portion of her daughter's willfulness, but Mai was just as stubborn, and too much of an Atobe. Being five and always missing her father didn't help either.

So the morning had started off...interesting. Mai had been excited about the trip to Chiba until her notions of the whole family going were dashed. She'd thrown a fit, and then cried until their father had picked her up for a private talk in her bedroom. Personally, Keisuke figured he'd promised her something in order to spend the day alone with his wife and youngest child.

And the train ride...Keisuke wasn't looking forward to the trip back unless Mai was asleep. When she wasn't loudly making comments about the other passengers, she was restless and whiny and tugging on him to make the train go faster. She had no patience. He'd been grateful to get here to Seiji's brother in law's house.

Mai had been stalking around the yard, petting a flower here and there and pointedly ignoring Saeki Ana. Her first exclamation that Ana was playing in dirt and that it looked boring hadn't been taken seriously by her brother, and that had led her into a snit where she'd ignored him too. But now, with nothing else to do, she drifted back over to curls her arms around Keisuke's neck, climbing into his lap. "Kei-nii...I want to go home!"

She pouted prettily and he rubbed her back, patting it. "It's not time to go yet, Mai-chan. We just got here. Why don't you go play with Ana-chan?"

"No." The word came sharply out of Mai's mouth, and her lower lip jutted out even more. In the absence of her parents, Keisuke was her lifeline, and she clung to him tighter.

Barely restraining the urge to roll his eyes at Seiji, Keisuke hugged her briefly and dropped his head to whisper into her ear. "Wow...look at that sand castle Ana-chan's been building. It's starting to look better than anything you've built, don't you think?"

Mai took the bait. "Nuh uh! It does not! I'll make a better one!" She glared at him for his presumption and scrambled off of his lap, completely unheeding her dress as she plopped herself into the middle of the sandbox and immediately set to work on making something bigger and better than Ana's.

Now Keisuke rolled his eyes at Seiji. "Baby sisters."

Seiji chuckled, his shoulders shaking as he ducked his head down and hid his mouth behind one hand. "Wouldn't know the first thing about them, Kei-kun," he pointed out. "I've only got the older one." Though, just watching Atobe Mai, Seiji suspected he was getting the better deal. His baked cookies for him, at the very least, even if she knew when to employ her own pout to lethal ends.

The little five year old girl, however, was just as spoiled as her brother had said. Even now, building the sandcastle was nothing more than a competition to her. It had still be a brilliant ploy to get the girl into the sandbox. Seiji had to respect the ability to manipulate one's sister, older or younger, into doing something she didn't want to.

Because manipulating something female? Not an easy task in Seiji's recollection.

Neesan manipulating him was far more common.

Which was probably why they still weren't out at the beach, and Seiji didn't mind it in the least. Sneaky neesan, he decided, but only gave the boy next to him an easy smile. "I'm cool, Kei-kun," Seiji admitted as he stretched and leaned back on the steps, propping himself up on his elbows and his t-shirt riding up his stomach. "I was already at the beach this morning, ya know?" He grinned lopsided, his gaze turned forward and focused on some distant point. He had gone to catch a few waves before Keisuke's train had arrived with his boyfriend.

Instead of spending most of the morning catching the best curls, though, they'd ended up in the dunes, making out. Which Seiji wasn't going to complain about. It had been a very good morning, after all, sand in places where he'd rather not have it aside.

What was that look? Keisuke watched Seiji's grin suddenly go dopey, the dark haired boy experiencing a spacey moment.

It almost looked like he was in love. Or got lucky.

"Someone special?" Keisuke guessed, nudging Seiji's knee with a finger. "Did some cute little beach bunny from your fanclub follow you?"

"Eh?" Seiji jumped at the unexpected poke, his head jerking up to give the boy next to him a blank look. "Beach bunny...fanclub? You mean one of the fangirls? God, I hope one of them didn't follow..." He shuddered, curling his nose.

If one of them did, well...she'd gotten one hell of a surprise.

"Oh, come on. I'm sure you've got a couple of cute girls in your fanclub you wouldn't mind seeing in a bikini." Keisuke winked at his friend and rival, but his attention was diverted by Mai's voice coming from the sandbox.

Apparently there'd been a dispute about Ana's foot accidentally hitting Mai's attempt at a grand sand fortress. Keisuke was surprised that there hadn't been a blow up from his baby sister altogether...instead it seemed as though she'd managed to draft little Ana into helping her build the sand monstrosity, the two girls working in a clumsy tandem.

Keisuke shook his head with a sigh. Once an Atobe...If he decided to go into some other business with his life, his father never had to worry about passing down the Atobe empire. Judging from the way Mai directed Ana with a smile rather than indulge her natural impatience and get bratty, he was fairly sure she'd have just as natural leadership skills as his father commanded in the office.

"She's going to want to use every grain of sand in that box for that thing", he commented wryly.

"Er...not really. I mean they're okay, but..."

Seiji flushed and glanced away, reaching up to awkwardly scratch the back of his neck. He'd actually seen most of the fanclub in their swimsuits, and really, he hadn't seen the appeal of girls then, with all the soft, squishy parts that bounced around. And he certainly didn't see it now. Not when he had a nicely muscled Yuuji-chest to look at instead. Really, how were flesh-balloons supposed to compare to that?

However, Keisuke didn't know that, did he? Seiji bit his lip and cursed mentally. Keisuke liked girls. He also apparently assumed that Seiji liked girls the way he liked girls.

Seiji wasn't too sure how comfortable he was with that assumption.

Or what he was supposed to do about it.

However, that problem was diverted by the sound of Mai-chan's voice. Seiji looked over too, watching as his niece diligently piled sand for the other girl. "Maybe it's a good thing we didn't take them to beach, ne?" he laughed softly. "Mai-chan might try to have Ana move the whole thing into a pile."

"And we'd be helping." Keisuke tossed Seiji a wry grin, knowing his little sister all too well. "At least they're getting along now. Sort of."

Things got quiet for a few minutes as the two teenaged boys watched the little girls play. Keisuke's mind drifted, recalling memories of the Shishido twins playing similarly when they were children. Always a team, with himself often being drafted to haul buckets of water or approve of an idea or design. His lips quirked up, remembering all their petty little squabbles and arguing and making up all over again.

And they really hadn't changed much, had they? Like the Three Musketeers.

Except for his falling in love with Ai. Something--his heart--twisted in his chest, and he turned to Seiji. To ask what, he didn't know. If the other had ever been in a one-sided love? He doubted it...Seiji had too many legions of girls chasing after him. Keisuke bit back his question with a sigh and sat back on his hands, watching the girls and trying very hard to shove images of Shishido Ai out of his head.

Seiji laughed, his shoulders shaking gently, and nodded his head. "Yeah, probably. That'd be one hell of a sand castle though." Just hard to build. Seiji knew from experience, after all, that moving all the sand on the beach into one spot was exhausting work.

Still, his niece seemed to be enjoying her company, the way Saeki Ana pretty much enjoyed everyone who paid attention to her. And as the minutes passed by, the sand castle (…well, with a three year old and a five year old working on it, it was more like a sand lump, but Seiji wasn't going to tell his niece and Mai-chan that) grew larger. It reminded him, in fact, of the sand dunes he and Yuuji had ducked behind earlier that morning. The make out session had been intense, and had it not been for Seiji suddenly remembering that he was supposed to pick up the Atobes at the train station, it would probably have gone into…other activities.

His mind was, fortunately, derailed from that particular thought -- and all destinations thereafter -- by a sigh next to him. He shifted, turning his head to glance at Keisuke curiously. "'s not that boring, is it?" he teased.

"No...no its not that." Keisuke smiled at the teasing, but sobered. "It's just...something personal." He shrugged and flicked Seiji a glance. "You haven't told me if you've broken more poor girls' hearts around school yet", he teased back, the corners of his lips curling up.

"Ah…right," Seiji answered, nodding an understanding he didn't necessarily feel, but before he could pry any further, Keisuke redirected the conversation back to the subject of Seiji himself.

And girls.

Seiji's eyebrows both rose, a blush covering his cheeks as he quickly glanced away and ducked his head. "Ah…I don't know," he muttered. "Maybe? Had some of them upset at me over…something after the book premier, but don't really know why. They seem to have chilled out about it, so…" He shrugged; the workings of female minds were well out of his comprehension. "Don't know what was bugging 'em, but you know how girls are, right?"

"Does any guy?" Keisuke's reply was tinged with that ageless male knowledge that girls, even at their best, were incomprehensible to their gender.

He considered, wondering if he should just ask Seiji's opinion of this problem he had with Ai. Despite their rivalry, Seiji was probably the closest friend he had aside from the Shishido twins. Despite his outgoing personality at school, he had a tendency to keep himself distant from those not very close to him. And even then, it could be limited. He'd heard his father once refer to it as a Tezuka trait, something inherited from his mother.

Not that his father was any better, he thought. Atobe Keigo preferred keeping his life in order. Business was business, family was family, and never would he discuss one with the other unless it was a circumstance where one was involved with the other.

Keisuke opened his mouth to pose the subject, but Saeki Reiko's arrival in the backyard preempted him. He closed his mouth shut with a snap and managed to smile politely at her, standing up to pay her a respectful attention to her presence.

"Hey, neesan!" Seiji craned his head back, looking at his elder sister upside from where he sat. "Done?"

"Yep." Saeki Reiko smiled brightly down at her youngest sibling. "I'm going to get the girls ready for lunch, so why don't you two go ahead and go down to the beach? Or the boardwalk," she suggested, flicking a few strands of sun-bleached hair that had escaped her long braid behind her ear with a finger.

Seiji brightened. Beach…beach was good, he decided, even though Yuuji was probably at home by now. And more than likely a bit miffed at him for taking off like he had that morning, if the text he'd received before meeting Keisuke and Mai-chan was any indication of his boyfriend's mood over their fun being pre-empted by another date. It wasn't like Seiji hadn't told him that he had to meet them, though. He thought.

…okay. So maybe he hadn't.

Seiji hopped up from his place on the step easily, spinning round to smile hugely at his sister as she stepped from the deck. "Ah, beach would be good, but there's a couple of good places for food on the boardwalk, Kei-kun?" he offered. Not that Seiji was particularly hungry just yet. "Pizza and some American-Mexican place that's not too bad."

"I'm good right now. The beach sounds fine." Keisuke nodded and left for a moment to see to his sister and let her know where he was going.

"Be good, munchkin", he told her fondly, kissing the top of her head. She clung to him at first, alarmed at being left alone, but he assured her it wouldn't be long, and added that he might look for some pretty shells for her on the beach, if she behaved. The bribe went over well, and he left with Seiji with the promise of bringing some sort of trinket back with him.

Once they got down there, he stopped to breath in the salty sea air, feeling himself relax a little. "This is beautiful", he murmured, watching the waves roll in and kiss the sand. After a few minutes, he decided to just ask and get it off his chest. It was getting too much not to talk about to someone.

"Seiji. Have you ever been in love?"

"Yeah, isn't it great?" Seiji beamed as he squatted down and pulled off his tennis shoes. The day was clear and bright, and the waves lapped steadily on the sand before them. "We should be able to find Mai-chan some pretty shells down by the water," he suggested, motioning to the water's edge before Keisuke's question actually registered in his mind.

"I...uh," he started, before blushing and stammering out, "Yeah, I guess you could say I am...I mean have been. Well, am, really, but...it's not something a lot of people know about, ya know?"

In the middle of meticulously stripping off his own shoes and socks, Keisuke's head shot up at the confession, mouth falling open.

He hadn't expected that.

Shoes and socks went flying in a frenzy as he yanked them off and moved to where Seiji stood.

"You're serious? Really? When? Why didn't you tell me? Who's the girl?" His questions came out in a rush, grabbing Seiji's shoulders and shaking him a little when the answers didn't come fast enough.

So Mai wasn't the only impatient Atobe.

Seiji winced a little at the shaking. It wasn't harsh, but seeing the singles ace of Hyotei loosing his composure was...really unexpected.

Especially since Seiji couldn't get a word in between the flurry of questions.

"Kei-kun...Ke--" he tried anyway, before inhaling deeply. "Keisuke!" That stopped the shaking at least, but not the expectant look on his friend's face. Seiji grimaced a bit and sighed, because...yeah. Right. Stopping the incoming flow of questions did mean he was going to be expected to talk, didn't it? Which meant he was going to have to explain...

And Seiji still wasn't sure if he was ready to explain.

But, he was going to have to start telling people outside of his and Yuuji's family sometime. Seiji drew a deep breath. " Okay, okay...just keep in mind that I haven't really told that many people about this, okay?" he murmured, feeling color rise to his cheek. "I am in love with someone and we're dating, but it's not...a girl, Kei-kun."

"I...I'm gay."

For a moment, the statement just didn't compute in Keisuke's mind. Gay? Seiji? Kisarazu Seiji was gay?

He blinked stupidly at his friend/rival for a moment, and then stumbled over his own foot when it dawned on him that Seiji was serious.

"You're...wow." It was all he could say. In his mind, one side was arguing that Seiji couldn't be gay. He'd seen gay, right on his own team. Plus, Seiji always had flocks of girls around him and...

And always complained about them, the other side of his mind argued. Never dated them, never talked about any girls or girl attributes that he liked. No, instead, he always hung around that tall friend of his, riding on his back all the time and hiding from his fan club--

The good old Atobe Insight awakened. "It's that guy, isn't it? Kurobane, right? That's who you're dating? The one you're always jumping on?" There was no accusation in his voice, or disgust. Just curiosity.

Seiji held his breath as he watched Keisuke's face. The other teen's expression went from baffled to surprised in a span of seconds. It might be amusing, in retrospect; the brilliant Atobe Keisuke caught off guard by the fact that his rival was gay, but right now, Seiji could only slump and exhale in relief.

The other teen wasn't angry. Or disgusted. Or any of the billion and a half negative scenarios that had flitted through Seiji's mind whenever he considered telling anyone outside of his family and his boyfriend. Niisan had told him he was being silly about it, of course. And niisan, being niisan, tended to be right about these things.

But actually saying it to someone, even blurted out? A whole different level of nervousness still. Now that it was over, all the tension drained out of him and he brightened at the mention of his boyfriend's name. "Ah...yeah, Yuuji," he smiled, ducking his and blushing just a bit. "Geeze, guess we are kinda...obvious, huh?"

"Well, not exactly. I guess you are now, though, now that I know." Keisuke's problems with Ai were temporarily forgotten in light of his friend's apparent happiness.

"I never would have guessed Yuuji was gay", he said, and then laughed. "But then I definitely wouldn't have said you were either. But hey...that's great, Sei, really. So long as you're happy. How long have you been going out?"

"I didn't know at first either..." Seiji admitted, chuckling softly. "It...uhm. Was kinda surprise. I thought he would hit me or something when I told him." And instead, once they'd gotten things sorted, he'd kissed Seiji. Which, really, was a lot better than being hit.

"And...er." Seiji paused, biting his lip. "About...three months, I guess? I don't think either of us have really been keeping track or anything."

Keisuke's smile dimmed a bit. He could understand what Seiji meant. He had his own fears about telling Ai. Oh, not that she'd hit him. But that she'd turn him down and be uncomfortable around him if he dared to tell her how he felt.

"I really am happy for you. I wish...that I knew what to do about my own problem." He sighed and looked out over the water, running a hand through his wind-tossed hair.

"I've been in love with Shishido Ai forever."

Seiji glanced up, eyes widening for a moment. "You...really?" he started, surprised, then bit his lip. "Oh...oh crap." Problems with girls really weren't his forte. He'd figured out that last year, when the fangirls had started getting out of hand.

And then, last summer at tennis camp.

But that didn't mean he didn't understand what it might feel like to have a crush and the potential of being rejected. He'd wanted Yuuji since he'd come back from camp the previous summer after all, and it had taken a lot of convincing on his brother's behalf for him to even tell Yuuji that he was gay. They had only crossed the "...and I like you a lot more than friends" threshold on accident.

Still, his brother's advice had held true, hadn't it? Just tell him. Seiji watched Keisuke for a moment, and sighed. "'s not easy to tell someone you don't think is interested," he agreed. "I mean, the only reason I came out to Yuuji was to tell him that I liked him and stuff, but the idiot fell asleep while I was talking." He paused and scratched the back of his neck, unsure, really, of what to say next.

Finally, though, he decided on softly saying, "I had to tell him though, Kei-kun. It was driving me out of my mind, ya know? At least if he'd known and said no or something, I could stop thinking about all the what-ifs."

Keisuke's brow furrowed as he listened. Nothing Seiji was saying was anything he hadn't said to himself before. Over and over.

But it didn't stop the fear of the unknown or the uneasiness of those what-if situations.

"Seiji. I've loved her for three years. I loved her before I even knew what love like this was. I've probably loved her since our fake wedding when we were five." He kept his gaze over the sea, feeling just as churned up inside as those cresting waves.

"I don't know if I have the luxury of walking away if she doesn't feel the same way. I'm afraid of losing one of my very best friends. It'll...just make things too weird if it all goes badly."

"And I wasn't...?" Seiji tipped his head to the side, the wind catching at his own hair as he stepped closer to Keisuke's side. "Dude...I know I haven't know Yuuji as long as you've known Ai-chan, but he was still my best friend. Has been ever since we met."

Though whether or not Yuuji would see it that way was debatable.

Sighing, Seiji plopped down on the sand and leaned back on his hands, his head tipped back and his eyes closed. "Man...Kei-kun, all I can really tell you is what bro told me. You're never going to know until you say something -- and half the crap that 's stopping you is just worse case scenarios and you chewing on the same crap over and over in your head. The only thing you have to fear is fear itself kinda thing."

Seiji still wasn't saying anything he didn't already know. But it was good to hear it coming from someone other than himself.

Keisuke nodded, and flopped back into the sand himself, sitting next to Seiji. "Yeah....yeah I know. I've been thinking that for months. Doesn't make anything less hard but...thanks." He smiled and chucked Seiji lightly in the shoulder.

"Since when did you and your brother get so smart?" He teased.

"Hey, I'm just quoting niisan," Seiji beamed at the other teen. "He's the brilliant one." Even if Tsu-nii would argue otherwise.

Still, it was nice to see Keisuke lighten up a little bit. Seiji knew how much it could suck, falling for someone that you were afraid to loose if he (or...well, she in Kei-kun's case) didn't feel the same way. And he didn't like his friend being down, even if it was over one of the few girls Seiji could bear. "Look, you guys'll work it out. I mean...god. I'm dating Yuuji, right? I never saw that coming in a million years," Seiji offered with a lame shrug, then slung an arm around his friend's shoulders and squeezed lightly.

"So I just need a little Kisarazu luck, huh?" Keisuke grinned and teased his friend, feeling much better than he had.

"Are you sure you should be cuddling on me, though? I'd rather not be flattened by your boyfriend."

Before Seiji could speak, another voice cut in, cranky sounding and annoyed. "Sounds like a good idea to me." Yuuji stood behind them, arms crossed over his chest and scowling darkly down at Seiji's arm around Keisuke.

"Don't even think about touching my monkey."