Kamio could hear the music in his mind now; a calm, contented melody that weaved between the sunlight and piped higher with interest when he caught sight of his target. There was Shinji, pretty and aloof even as the wind lifted his hair in smooth, silky locks. He could just imagine the page of a manga flipping past, a solitary ray of sunlight that graced Shinji's face at a flattering angle, while flower petals drifted and spun in the gentle breeze. Shinji would always be stunning that way.

He braced himself for the inevitable uphill task that would follow. Everything had gone wrong during the past ten times where he attempted to confess his feelings to Shinji. Literally everything, from a clichéd storm that broke them up before the dreaded words could emerge, to the mundane where the table they were sitting at broke abruptly, to the freak accident which involved a clothes peg, his neighbours' cat , and a cream cake. To be honest, he was on the verge of giving up….

Just then, Shinji turned to face him, and a solitary ray of sunlight graced his face at a flattering angle.

…well, almost anyway.

"Hi Akira, there you are. You're late again, but your shirt does look pretty today, with those white frills… I suppose you took the time to dress up and became late in the process. It's alright, I got used to do it, but it doesn't mean that you're let off from treating me to lunch though… "

Kamio sighed. He really did have an uphill task ahead. Reaching out, he nodded and gently steered Shinji towards the expensive restaurant he was so fond of.

He liked watching the way Shinji ate. He moved steadily from one side of his plate to another, and didn't pick at food randomly like Kamio. He secretly found it adorable how Shinji left aside the hated cucumber sushi and could push the plate towards him with no doubt that Kamio would finish it for him. He didn't think he ever told Shinji that he didn't actually love cucumbers as much as he liked taking food from his best friend's plate.

They met up every weekend without fail, and they went out together to the tennis courts, the mall, the planetarium, and even the beach a couple of times, despite Shinji's complaints that the sunrays were ageing him 2 weeks at a time. During the week, he called Shinji whenever he was feeling low, and it cheered him up to hear Shinji chattering away at him about nothing inconsequential. With anybody else, he would have gotten mad at how self-centred they were. But Shinji's voice somehow calmed him down, and anyway, he always knew when to keep quiet and let Kamio talk when he actually had something important to say. Also, whenever Shinji was feeling particularly generous, he graced Kamio with the opportunity to visit his fair house, and sometimes Kamio barged in anyway just because he felt like it.

Sometimes, he really wondered how dumb Shinji could be.

No normal guy would lie in your lap and read their physics textbook, because that was just well, gay. Normal friends wouldn't cook for you when you fall sick, and they would shove you off their shoulders when you fall asleep from the incessant gunfire and thrilling plot twists in the newest Hollywood blockbuster. Normal best friends didn't sit there and risk the cinema attendants chasing them out with a broom, just so they could watch you sleep a little longer. Normal friends didn't watch the other with that specific kind of hunger, and normal friends didn't have to endure an almost torturous but blissful patience in waiting for the right moment to spring the question.

"Shinji, would you go…"

The words died in his lips when the chef cheerfully dumped Shinji's order of chinese dumplings in front of them. The sheer hunger that awoke in Shinji's eyes as he contemplated the newest addition to their flooded table was disturbing to say the least.

"Yes?" Shinji replied affably, his eyes never leaving the plate in front of him.

Kamio sighed.

"Never mind."

END CHAPTER

A/N: Hmmm...this is my first time writing a non T/F pairing in Prince of Tennis. Any constructive criticism would be very helpful!