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"Yukimura-san, Marui-sempai said you wanted to talk to me?"
Yukimura stood in the shade of the tree, letting the wind bring the scent of summer flowers as it played at the hair falling by his cheeks. The russet tinge in the sunset's gold after the seashell pinks had faded was particularly beautiful. He wanted to savor every ray of light before the purples racing from the east overtook them. Part of him thought about pulling his jacket tighter around his shoulders, just as he saw his little stray kitten zipping his jersey against the oncoming chill. But then again, the tingling sensation of cold, the shivers, were part of being alive, and he'd spent too long closed inside four climate-controlled walls to give that up.
"Yukimura-san, you--"
"I heard you the first time, Akaya."
"Tsch. Right."
The other boy looked back toward the tennis courts, as if this were some kind of waste of time and he might have something more important to do. Yukimura, on the other hand, stared transfixed at the last glimmers of today's sunlight burning out on the horizon like the embers at the end of a candlestick fighting to burn even after the wick was an ashen memory. The cool darkness made his junior's pout harder to see, but he doubted even pure blackness would wash it away.
Walking toward the bench, he offered his brightest smile over his shoulder. "Akaya, sit with me."
"I'm gonna miss my bus, Yukimura-san. I haven't even changed out of..."
There were, of course, other buses, and Akaya knew it. Yukimura kept smiling as he sat, but let his eyes go hard. All the excuses dried up on Akaya's tongue, the way every once in a while they did, but his feet still weren't moving.
"Are you worried you'll be too late getting home? I'll have a teacher drive you, then. Sit."
The boy took his place on the bench at last, full of nervous stares and twitching eyes that kept straying between Yukimura's chin and nose. When Akaya was looking up, that was. He leaned over his knees with his back curled like he expected a fight, or perhaps to be hauled off to the principal's office by his ear. Such a silly expression. Yukimura stroked one of his blushing cheekbones with the knuckle of his index finger, then pushed the boy's chin up to meet his gaze.
"Now really, Akaya. Is that any kind of face to be making when you're going to be a senior next year? You should never look weak in front of your fellow players."
"Y-Yukimura-san, can you stop? You're kinda freakin' me out."
Setting that aside.
He stretched his arms over his head, studying again the smoky twilight over the horizon. "Akaya, I've been thinking about who to name the Captain of next year's team."
Like a parachute shooting open during freefall, he shot up straight so fast, the force carried him to his feet. "I knew it! I knew it had to be me! Don't you worry about anything, Yukimura-san, I'll have those jerk-asses working so hard, they..."
He could hardly hear the rest of Akaya's tirade over the sound of his own laughter. By the time the boy noticed and fell back to his seat, he had had to wipe tears from his eyes from all the hilarity. "Oh, Akaya. When did I say I'd decided to pick you?"
"Who the hell else would you pick? I'm the best! Set up a tournament, Seigaku-style if you want me to prove it. I'll beat all those suckers till they beg me to stop! I can do it!"
"I'm sure you can," he said with the last of his laughter, bopping Akaya on the forehead, which always made his eyes turn adorably cross-eyed as he followed Yukimura's fingers. "Do you think the only reason I was Captain and Gen'ichirou was Vice Captain was because I could always beat him in matches?"
The boy's dark-sparkling eyes pinched close. "Could? Don't you mean 'can'? You're not..." He started to whisper. "Holy crap, you're not retiring?!"
"Now, don't be silly. I'll go on playing as long as I like, but I don't intend to talk about the future as if we can know how it ends. So tell me, Akaya." He waited for the glimmers of fear to fade into curiosity. "What do you think of your teammates?"
"If you're asking me who else I think can be Captain, I've got nothing to say. If you're not strong, you can't lead, and not one of them is as strong as me." He crossed his arms, scowling in the exact opposite direction from an angle Yukimura could see, but ruined the effect seconds later be checking over his shoulder to see if Yukimura had been impressed by his obstinacy.
After making a mess of his junior's already messy hair, he slipped his hand into a lock on Akaya's jaw, and turned it just enough so Akaya couldn't look away no matter how he stiffened and tried not to struggle. "Any strong player can find another's weakness, put fear into someone's heart. A captain's job is to lead his team to greatness. That means being able to see the strength in others, and draw it out -- like I did with you, Akaya." The face he made then was perhaps his most terrified of the night. Yukimura held the boy's chin more tightly yet. "You have one week. Find me someone like that. Do it well, and I'll at least make you Vice Captain."
There was rage in him then, but ambition, too; exactly what brought out the best in his little devil cat. Every flutter of his nostrils was the promise of a very interesting week. Yukimura didn't put his joy on his face, though. That would have ruined the moment. Instead, he stood, pulling a tennis ball out of his pocket to examine in the moonlight with his back to his enraged Akaya.
"One week. Don't disappoint me."
As he walked away, the boy yelled, "But Yukimura-san...!"
Only then did he turn to look back. "I told Renji to leave your things outside the locker room when he locked up, so you can change in the gymnasium with the basketball team. You'd best hurry before they finish up as well."
There were no more interruptions, nor would Yukimura have listened to any. Next stop, the teacher's room to see if there was anyone he could send to check on Akaya and make sure he got home properly. And, next week, he'd find out just who Akaya would make of himself and his ambitions if he truly meant to take Rikkai in hand.