Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

18

"Not long" Marui said, holding his hands up in surrender, "I got tired so I thought I'd rest here". Jackal sighed loudly, and Yanagi appeared next to him.

"Interesting. This far exceeds my data on your stamina, Marui" he murmured, already scribbling in his notebook, which he had pulled out from nowhere, and the two left Yanagi to his ramblings.

"We've been looking everywhere for you" Jackal continued in his parent persona. Marui nodded his head guiltily.

"I know. This wouldn't have happened if I wasn't so curious about Echizen" he mumbled loudly, expecting a sharp response.

"I think your curiosity is perfectly natural" Yanagi said, looking up from his book. Marui popped his apple gum.

"I believe that everyone in the team is curious about Echizen to a certain degree" he continued, "For example, the fact that Niou has not yet returned Echizen's iPod means he too is interested in our kouhai" There was a pause.

"It's what he will do after that's the problem" Jackal finished. Yanagi nodded his head.

"Precisely".

Marui sighed loudly. It seemed that his curiosity had got him into deeper trouble than he imagined. What was the saying? 'Curiosity killed the cat?'

"Wait" Marui blurted, turning to Jackal, "Does that mean you're interested in Echizen too?" Jackal immediately blushed and rubbed the back of his bald, shiny head awkwardly.

"Don't put it like that" he said awkwardly, "It sounds really weird". Marui paused, realising it did sound kinda weird, but chose to ignore it.

"Do you?" he asked persistently.

"I guess so" Jackal admitted with a shrug, "I mean, we've never heard Echizen talk, or seen him smile, or do anything other than play tennis"

Marui stopped, realising how true those words were. They'd never seen their kouhai smile. Did that make them bad as senpais? To be unable to make their kouhai smile? It was true, Echizen never expressed his true emotions to them at all, he just kept his thoughts behind that passive mask of his.

Does he not trust us? He had to wonder.

But it was the last part that bothered Marui more than anything. Echizen had been a regular for two weeks now and they knew nothing about him. It wasn't that Echizen didn't show anything, but rather that they didn't bother getting to know him. Everyone had acknowledged that Sanada is the only one who can communicate with him, so in a way they let Sanada get to know Echizen for them. Because he was mute they never bothered to speak to him.

Marui immediately felt waves of guilt, for starting all of this. He had stolen his iPod for his own selfish reasons, wanting to understand Echizen when an alternative was right in front of him, but he simply chose not to take it and instead took the premature, easier option. He wondered what Echizen thought of them. Did he think they were friends? Or sempais?

Did he think of them at all?

"Bunta!"

Marui jolted up at the call, and Jackal was kneeling in front of him with a concerned expression on his face. Marui realised he'd been spacing out during his internal debate. He was on his feet immediately.

"I need to find Echizen" he proclaimed, "I need to apologize to him"

And Marui shot off in an instant, taking two steps before he slowed, and panted heavily, forgetting how tired he was.

"Bunta!" he heard Jackal cry again.

"Marui, you shouldn't be running after you've been active for so long without rest" Yanagi said in the background.

Marui found it impossible to protest with the short breaths he was taking, and steadied himself on a low brick wall of the garden.

"Jackal" he said weakly.

"Yes?" he heard him reply.

"Carry me" Marui ordered.

"No"

"But Jackal -"

"No"

Marui looked up at his doubles partner and gave him the biggest puppy-dog eyes he could manage and pouted cutely. He could see the hesitation in Jackal's eyes after a few moments, and Marui continued until Jackal was practically sweating.

"Fine" he said in defeat.

"Yay!" Marui cheered, jumping onto Jackal's back, and he could hear him grunt and mumbling under his breath.

"Onward, steed!" he cried, pointing towards the door.

"Call me 'steed' and I'll drop you down the stairs" was Jackal's curt reply.

Marui paused.

"Onward, stallion!" he cried, and Jackal sighed loudly and slowly carried Marui towards the door.

Yanagi watched the whole scene with a very large amused smirk.

"New data..." he mumbled under his breath, writing neatly in his notebook.