By Your Side: Part 1

Sanada Genichirou resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall. He was beginning to wish that he had never gotten involved with this stupid project that he was now honor bound to finish.

What the hell was with this interschool festival anyway? It wasn't as if Sanada didn't have enough on his plate already. Being temporary captain and coaching the Rikkai tennis team at the same time wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Having Kirihara and Marui in the same vicinity of each other wasn't exactly a brilliant thing if you valued your health and sanity. Then add Niou to the mix…

He would be glad when Yukimura was strong enough to join the team again.

The Trickster was worth twice the trouble and three times the headaches. The fukubuchou of Rikkai dai Fuzoku's boys' tennis team silently sent up a prayer to the heavens for giving him Yagyuu and Jackal. The two boys were more than enough to keep Niou and Marui under wraps. He and Yanagi were used as last resorts only.

Getting back to the interschool festival; so what if this was the biggest festival in the region? And why on earth did they get split into teams according to your extracurricular activities?

"… So I think that means we need to make the shelves sturdier right?" Jackal Kuwahara queried their resident data master hesitantly.

The team had settled on opening an amusement stall. The only problem was that the shelves available for hire couldn't stand the weight of some of the gaming machines they borrowed.

Yanagi Renji nodded his reply but before he could speak, he was interrupted by Kirihara Akaya. "Ne, senpai? Why can't we do a food stall like normal people? Why do we have to do an amusement arcade?"

Marui Bunta popped his gum and agreed with his kouhai, "Yeah, why not? Besides, food's so much easier and better too. I mean, what can beat food?"

Jackal sighed at his doubles partner's obviously derailed thought process and shook his head. Sanada resisted the urge to bang his head against the table this time.

**********

brushed her long black hair out of her eyes for the fifth time that minute.

"Argh!" The second year Rikkai dai Fuzoku student was frustrated and not happy. She had been given the dubious honor of being the student representative for Rikkai during this upcoming interschool festival.

That meant that was responsible for going through the nominated ideas for stalls before giving them her approval. She was also left with the task of putting together the whole Rikkai side of the festival.

It had sounded like a great challenge on paper when the teacher in charge had asked her, but in reality, it was just plain BORING. After giving her approval, all that needed to do was to make sure each group had arranged their transport to and from the festival which was to be held on Atobe Keigo's massive property.

"Rich boys. What can you do?" sighed as she reached for the last sheet on her table.

"An amusement stall, huh?" 's deep hazel eyes scanned the page that Rikkai's tennis team had submitted. "Interesting idea…"

A small smile appeared on her face; she was kidding herself if she didn't find the boys from the tennis team cute. Especially a certain fukubuchou…

**********

Sanada sneezed once. Twice. Damn. He must be coming down with something.

The fukubuchou wasn't sure if he was to be pleased or not about the hovering thought. If he was sick, maybe he could get out of doing this thing. But if he was sick, it meant that he was slacking off during training since his body didn't seem to be as fit and healthy as before.

Yanagi pulled out a pen and made a notation in their work logbook. Without looking up, he remarked to Sanada, "If Kirihara gets the boards cut up into the right dimensions, would you be alright putting the shelves together?"

Sanada pulled his cap down a little but nodded anyway, "I don't see any problems."

The Master nodded as well, "Good. Then Niou and Yagyuu will set up the games. Jackal and Marui will host. I will measure up everything else and send them off to the hardware house to be delivered."

Kirihara whined a little at this, "Why do I have to cut up the boards?"

"Because we're meant to make the stall by ourselves." Sanada reminded him strictly. "And you're the only one here with woodworking experience."

The junior ace gave up on the argument and pouted a little instead.

At that moment a knock sounded on their door and a familiar face appeared.

"-chan!"

"-chan!"

"-chaaaaaaaann!"

Kirihara, Niou and Bunta called out simultaneously. The whole team had become acquainted with the pretty second year when they were introduced to her two weeks previously as Rikkai's events coordinator. Akaya knew her from class as they were in the same homeroom.

All of the boys had immediately taken a liking to the slightly shy but sweet-tempered . Kirihara, Niou and Bunta got along with her especially well and she seemed to like hanging around them as well.

"Ohayou senpai-tachi, Akaya-kun." bowed politely to everyone.

Everyone, apart from the three who had called her name out before, nodded or bowed in reply.

"Ohayou, -chan."

Giving the whole room a sweet smile, stepped into the room fully and closed the door behind her.

Bunta immediately latched onto her, whilst Niou and Kirihara surrounded her on the sides. The bubble gum-chewing tensai had glomped her hard, causing a faint blush to rise to 's cheeks. "Ne, -chan, are you here to help us?"

"Sanada-fukubuchou is being mean, -chan! Help me!" Kirihara whined and pouted.

Niou took a quick glance at his fukubuchou's face and smirked. Casually, he slung an arm around her shoulders and started talking to her cheerfully, blatantly taking her attention away from Bunta and Akaya who both pouted. He appeared to be apparently oblivious to the whole world.

Yagyuu stared for a moment at the odd behavior Niou was exhibiting before realization dawned on his face. If there was one thing in the world Niou liked doing more than playing pranks, it was annoying Sanada.

The Gentleman took another look at Sanada's face and gave a faint smile. The usually emotionless fukubuchou looked close to exploding. Whether that was from the disturbance that had been created or whether it was from how close Niou was to was still openly debatable.

Yanagi scribbled madly in his mental notebook. "This is priceless…"

was confused. She had just wanted to deliver the message that the Rikkai tennis team's stall application had been approved and catch a glimpse of the boys before she left for class, but now…

's face heated as Niou leaning in even closer. "Niou… Niou-senpai," she squeaked, trying to lengthen the distance between them. "Cou… Could you maybe step back a little? I… I… I need some more space…"

"Oh?" Niou smirk got wider and his eyes glinted at the wide-eyed stare and blush wore. It was ever so cute. And ever so tempting…

All he had to do was to lean down a little and…

"MASAHARU!" Sanada's voice thundered out, stopping Niou in mid-move.

To 's relief, the tall, silver-haired boy stepped away from her and faced his fukubuchou with a seemingly innocent expression.

"What?"

Sanada opened his mouth to tell Niou exactly what before he caught himself, just in time. It was probably Yanagi's warning look that saved him. Grinding his teeth, Sanada turned away and said no more.

Yagyuu stepped forward and took his wayward doubles partner away reprimanding him all the while on 'responsibility' and 'the reality of Sanada's blood pressure and premature aging'.

"Anou…" A small voice called out into the slightly tense atmosphere.

Everyone immediately turned to the smallest occupant of the room. swallowed and blinked a few times to try and dispel her nervousness, but it wasn't very effective. Everyone, including Bunta, towered over her or seemed to. Swallowing again, really started to regret her 162 cm height. She was positive that they weren't trying to intimidate her, but still…

Gathering up all of her courage, tried again, "Anou… I'm just here to hand you your approval for your stall and to ask if you need any help at all…"

Everyone continued to stare at her for a further moment before Kirihara jumped on her. "Yah! -chan can help me with the woodworking!"

Sanada folded his arms and spoke directly to her for the first time. "Thank you, but we'll manage ourselves. This is our group activity and it is on our honor and pride that'll we'll get it done without any outside help."

Niou's smirk came back in full force, "Ne, Sanada. Aren't you a bit too busy though? After all, you do have your Kendo as well as overseeing our training, doing your own training and this festival thing. Not to mention all the exams that's coming up within two months."

stared wide-eyed at the tall, black-haired fukubuchou in something akin to awe. She had never had any idea that Sanada was this busy. He was either inhuman or insane to be able to take on so much at once.

Sanada merely repeated what he had said before. "We'll manage and therefore I'll manage."

"Oh… Okay," bowed to everyone again before leaving the room feeling somewhat downcast.

**********

Yanagi watched as the petite second year closed the door softly behind her. "That was a little sharp Genichirou," he muttered to his longtime friend quietly to avoid being overheard.

Sanada didn't seem to understand. "I only spoke the truth. What was wrong with that?"

With nothing left to say, the data master resorted to scribbling his notes again and shook his head every now and again at Sanada's denseness.

**********

didn't expect to run into the boys' tennis club so soon after that meeting yesterday. But she couldn't help but overhear Kirihara swearing as she walked past a room during break.

Knocking on the door before pushing it open, blinked at the sight of a dusty and annoyed looking Kirihara.

The dark-haired junior looked up at the intrusion and started to growl before he realized who it was. " -chan! Great timing! I need your help to carry this stuff over to our headquarters. Sanada-fukubuchou wanted it by today."

The girl shoved her bangs out of her face and looked at the mess quizzically. There were dust and wood shavings all over the school's only woodwork room and on Kirihara himself.

Kirihara took a look around too. "Ahh. I'll clean this up after we get back," he told her sheepishly. "Please?"

Unable to turn down the pout and the impossibly cute look he gave her, nodded and picked up one of the three wooden boards that lined the wall. She nearly fell over at the weight of the thing.

Apparently unfazed by the weight, Kirihara took the last two all by himself and walked to the door. He waited until was outside before leaning his two boards by the wall and locking up the room.

Picking up his burden again, the junior chatted away to who tried her hardest not to stagger into a wall or trip down the stairs. "Niou-senpai and Yagyuu-senpai have already gone with the rest of the boards. There's just these three left. All we have to do is get them to the tennis club room. Sanada-fukubuchou will take them and put them together tonight."

Panting from the unused to exercise, almost fainted because of exertion. Luckily, the two of them had reached the tennis clubroom by now and she was quickly relieved from her burden by a concerned Yagyuu.

"-san, are you alright?" he asked in concern.

Hearing this, Kirihara dropped his boards immediately and went to her side. "Ne, -chan, are you alright? What happened?"

Yanagi appeared from behind, "According to my data, you got her to carry one of the boards. Am I correct?"

Without waiting for an answer, the Master ploughed on, "Bet you didn't realize that the board was probably almost the same weight -chan is."

A look of horror crossed Kirihara's face. He really liked . She was such a nice friend to him. "-chan! I'm sorry, I didn't know… I'm so sorry!" He took a glance around the room. Thank god Sanada wasn't there yet or else he would probably have gotten laps for inconveniencing a fellow student.

wobbled to her feet, supported carefully by Yagyuu, and smiled weakly at Kirihara, "Ne, it's alright Akaya-kun. You didn't know. Besides, I'm fine now. See?"

She took a few steps, relieved to find that her balance had returned somewhat. Yagyuu still looked a bit dubious but let her go. "If you're sure about that -chan… I could help you back to class…"

Shaking her head, replied firmly, "It's alright. I can manage by myself." Waving to the group, she headed out of the door, "I'll see you in class, Akaya-kun."

**********

As the end of fifth period class bell rang, Kirihara finally walked into the classroom.

Looking a bit concerned at her classmate and friend's lateness and unhappy features, decided to ask him about it. Luckily Kirihara sat in the seat in front of her and sixth period wasn't due to begin for another couple of minutes.

"Hey, are you alright Akaya-kun?"

The boy smiled slightly when she greeted him but it faded quickly enough into a scowl at the question. "No. Stupid Sanada-fukubuchou said that my measurements for the boards were incorrect and that I had to re-do them. Stupid fukubuchou. Stupid boards. Stupid festival…"

At that point, Marui popped his head into the classroom and sauntered over to them when he spotted the duo.

"Don't you have class Marui-senpai?" asked.

The self-proclaimed tensai grinned and did his peace sign. "Nope. Us third years always have free periods last class."

He turned to his errant kouhai, "Ne, Kirihara. Sanada said that he'll be around to check the boards tomorrow afternoon at around 2 pm. Yanagi suggested that you better have them finished by 12, just in case. Sanada is very busy you know. Niou didn't mention all those activities as a joke."

Kirihara gave him an unfriendly look but couldn't do anything as the start of sixth period bell rang.

"Well. I'm off. See you later -chan! I'll see you at tennis Akaya." Bunta slid off the table he had been sitting on and waved jauntily at them before vanishing out of the door.

"Che. Stupid senpai-tachi." Akaya muttered under his breath.

##########

January 24, 2007
Written by: Linc
Edited by: Rikapyon!