This was a request from a good friend that I couldn't turn down. It's set in the same universe as ALiE, but knowledge of that story isn't necessary to understand this one. Knowledge of DDR could help.

Rated for mature homosexual content. You have been warned.

-Friendly Competition-

Masamune stirred his black coffee listlessly. Yukimura was seated opposite him at the table, munching away happily at his cake. Sometimes the older teenager's teeth hurt in sympathy just watching the other eat. But that wasn't the reason he didn't feel as elated as he should today. They had come to the small café to grab a bite to eat after school together. It was almost like a date. Except that it wasn't.

"What's up, Masamune? Don't like the food?" And that was the problem talking.

"It's you I don't like, Monkey," he deadpanned without even looking at the friend Yukimura had brought along.

"Don't be so mean, Masamune," his unofficial boyfriend pleaded. The teen knew if he looked up now he would be caught dead in an attack of puppy eyes. They were the whole reason he'd agreed to this.

He sighed and took a sip from his coffee so he wouldn't have to answer anything.

"So," Sasuke continued in a cheery tone, "You got any plans for the evening yet? There's a party at Kasuka's place. Should be fun."

Masamune raised an eyebrow. No way he was spending any more of his free time with Sarutobi Sasuke. He could imagine a ton of things he'd rather do that evening and none of them involved any other person beside himself and the one hotheaded teenager sitting right across from him.

Who was right now again looking at him out of those big round eyes. "Do you want to go, Masamune?" I bet it would be fun to see everyone!"

The older teen shook his head. "No thanks, I don't want to spend the whole evening with him." He stared pointedly at Sasuke who rolled his eyes at him. Honestly, he'd already let him tag along to this. And paid for all their orders. He'd filled his generosity quota for the day.

"But you want to go, don't you, Yukimura?", Sasuke urged his friend.

The addressed teen hesitated for a second, his gaze shifting back and forth between his two friends. "But I promised to hang out with Masamune today and if he doesn't want to go then..."

"There'll be cake," Sasuke interjected.

Yukimura looked torn.

Masamune sighed, annoyed at both of them. "We could fight this out," he offered. "Winner gets to decide what we do." It seemed like the obvious thing to do. He was dying for some action.

Yukimura seemed ready to jump at the idea, the fire of imminent competition lit in his eyes. Then he huffed and threw his head back in frustration as he remembered something. "Oyakata-sama said no more fights until after the exams..."

Masamune narrowed his eye. Damn the old man for ruining his fun. And damn Yukimura for being so obedient. He wished he could overrule that geezer's words just once, but he knew it was a battle he couldn't win. He also valued his life too much to openly cross Takeda Shingen.

"Why not have a less violent competition for once?", Sasuke quipped.

Masamune and Yukimura both shot him questioning looks. Neither of them able to guess what he was talking about.

"You really have no idea how to solve a conflict other than by throwing punches, do you?"

Silence.

"Ever heard of rock, paper, scissors?"

Masamune scoffed. "That doesn't prove anything."

"I'm never sure I understand that game." Yukimura mused. "Why would paper beat rock?"

Sasuke looked at the two of them and let his hand connect with his face in mock despair.

"How about you toss a coin? Tails Yukimura wins, heads Masamune loses."

Masamune threw a package of sugar at Sasuke, who ducked away just in time. "Like I'm going to fall for that."

"Fall for what?", Yukimura enquired, opening his own package of sugar and emptying it into his mouth. The other two looked at him for a second, but neither answered. Masamune, for one, was too busy ignoring the phantom pain in his teeth.

"Alright, alright", Sasuke conceded, waving his hand to keep the one-eyed teen from attacking him further. "I do have an honest suggestion. There's an arcade just down the street. Settle your little disagreement with a videogame."

Masamune was about to refuse. He still didn't see why he should have to go along with this at all, but his friend spoke up before he could. "Hey, that's a cool idea! Let's go!" The older raised an eyebrow at him in question as Yukimura rose from the table, all set to go. "You're not turning down the challenge, are you?" Masamune was sure, if the younger had been capable of such an expression, a wicked smile would have shown on his face.

Ten minutes later they found themselves in the local arcade.

Masamune looked around skeptically. Videogames had never been able to hold his interest for long. The place was bustling with people that day, mostly teenagers like them with some younger kids mixed in here and there. The majority was male, but there were some girls, too. Not that he cared for them.

"Do you have coins on you?" Sasuke asked him from the side. Masamune rolled his eye. He opened his mouth to give the monkey a piece of his mind, then closed it again when Yukimura was, once again, faster than him. "Oh right! Can you pay, please? I don't have any money on me. I could give it back to you tomorrow!"

"No need," he said, biting back a frustrated growl. Reaching into his pockets he grabbed some money and grudgingly gave it to Sasuke, who seemed to be the only one of them who knew how this place was run.

"Thank you, Masamune!" Yukimura said while they went further into the gaming hall. "It's no big deal," he replied. It wasn't. Spoiling his partner was about the only good thing he could do with his wealth. What bothered him was being nice to Sasuke in the process.

"I suggest you try this one," Yukimura's annoying sidekick said and pointed to a video gaming machine decorated with what looked like fighting stick figures. Masamune was tempted to just walk out the hall. This was humiliating.

"Alright, let's play!" Screw his boyfriend's enthusiasm. He'd already grabbed a controller for himself and held another one out to the older teen.

Masamune took it and eyed the buttons suspiciously.

Sasuke explained the general mechanics of the game to them, but he didn't memorize much of it. He preferred learning by doing. To win the game, he had to beat Yukimura's character K.O. That was all he needed to know.

In the end they both followed the same strategy: Button-smashing!

A few minutes into it the strange pair had already attracted a small crowd. Not because they were such awesome players (they sucked), but because of the noise they made.

"C'MON! PUNCH HIM!" Yukimura cheered his character on, while he kept tapping the same button, trying to break through Masamune's stick figure's defense who'd been forced into a corner.

"BACK OFF!" The older teen's thumbs punched down onto the controller with unnecessary ferocity and eventually he managed to make his character break free.

Out of the corner of his eye, Masamune could see Sasuke laugh into his hands, but he didn't care. He couldn't lose now. It wasn't his thing. "There! TAKE THAT!" He punched a couple of random buttons and felt strangely victorious when it made the figure on the screen blast a ball of energy at his opponent, taking away a good chunk of his lifepoints.

"YOU HAVEN'T DEFEATED ME YET!" Yukimura smashed the buttons on his own controller furiously to reverse the situation.

Masamune could hear someone in the crowd saying "Hey, look at those nerds."

Screw that. They didn't know what was at stake here!

So the two of them went on with their virtual fight, the crowd around them growing larger the louder their voices rang through the hall.

Suddenly someone grabbed the controller out of Masamune's hand.

He only registered the presence of the person who offended him when the game pad was gone from his hands and his battle with Yukimura was forced to an end.

"You'll destroy the controllers if you keep playing like that. And you're also distracting the other costumers." Looked like the management of the arcade was a little disturbed by their actions.

Not that Masamune really cared. All he could think about was that he'd been interrupted right before his victory. He gave the employee a disbelieving look of the 'you don't want to mess with me' kind, tilting his head a little so his eyepatch became very visible. "Who cares?"

Honestly, he could have bought new equipment if they'd destroyed something. And those bitching costumers could just go to hell for all he cared.

"Be nice...," Yukimura whispered, grabbing his hand softly. "Please."

His boyfriend still looked a little stumped as well, but didn't seem as angry about the incident. Oh well, he hadn't been just about to win the match.

"Um...maybe you could play something else?" The guy in front of him stuttered. He made Masamune want to yell at him, just to see if he would run away in fright. How he despised cowards like that...

Instead he squeezed the hand in his and remembered his nonexistent manners that Kojuurou had long tried vainly to get into his head. "Oh? What would you suggest then? Got anything that doesn't break easy?" His tone implied that Masamune could very easily break him if he didn't come up with something quickly. Yet it wasn't so outright mean that it would upset his way too friendly boyfriend.

"Well...", the employee began and the one-eyed boy raised an eyebrow in question to spur him on. "You and your friend seem very...er....energetic. So maybe..." He hesitated for a second. Masamune took a step towards him. "Maybe DDR would be fun for you", he hurried to complete his sentence. "The machines are at the back. Please excuse me, I gotta go do...something." He turned on the spot and fought his way through the dispersing crowd to get away from the dangerous looking teenager.

Masamune ran his free hand through his hair in frustration. Scaring the guy had been almost too easy.

"Let's check it out, shall we?" He said, dragging Yukimura along with him to the back of the hall. Not letting go for a few more seconds even when they reached their destination and he scrutinized the game that coward had suggested to them.

There were two metal plates on the floor in front of a machine with a control panel and a somewhat large screen. The plates each had six arrows painted onto them, pointing up, down, left, right, up-left and up-right.

"This should be fun", Sasuke murmured. Masamune almost jumped at his presence. Who'd told him to tag along, anyway?

"I'll insert the money here and then you two can play. It's easy. You only have to select a song and then there'll be arrows on the screen for each of you that you will have to hit with your feet", he explained pointing to the arrows on the metal plates.

"That sounds stupid", Masamune said.

"We should give it a try", Yukimura said, freeing himself from his boyfriend's grip and stepping onto the left plate. "It could be fun. Have you ever played, Sasuke?"

The monkey shook his head as he inserted coins into the machine. "No, but I've watched other people...do you mind if I take pictures?" He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, waving it at Yukimura with a grin. "I think this day should be remembered."

"Sure, I don't mind. Do you?" The younger teen shot Masamune a questioning look.

"Whatever," was Masamune's only reply as he stepped onto the right plate and waited for the game to start. "How are we going to select a song?" The question was aimed at Sasuke, who was still standing in front of the machine.

"I don't know, there's a pretty big selection. How about I just push 'random'?" Beginner's level, right?"

"That sounds boring," Masamune complained. He was a beginner, but he didn't have to act like one, did he?

"Believe me you don't want to...or maybe, yeah...that could be boring." He didn't like that grin on Sasuke's face. "Just select a song and let's get this over with. I'm not going to lose so wipe that grin right off your face!" What to do when you have no clue what to do? Be cocky. Never failed him.

"Let's try our best, Masamune!" Yukimura said earnestly, as the game start screen came up and the walking talking annoyance moved away from the machine to lean back against the wall instead, aiming his cell phone at the two of them.

Masamune frowned deeply as the first beats of the Sailor Moon theme song rang in his ears (not that he'd ever admit to recognizing it), then raised an eyebrow in surprise at the number of arrows that came up on the screen. Damn it. How was he going to...he hurried to put his right foot on the right arrow, then back to the center, up, right again, then tried to incorporate his left foot into the action by putting it on the left arrow....damn.

He'd missed all of the first few steps.

He glanced over to Yukimura's side of the screen and noticed that his opponent had a lot less arrows to deal with. Even though he wasn't doing that much better. That damn monkey had selected beginner's level for Yukimura while his own screen was set to standard.

Tch. He couldn't even really complain now.

Instead he refocused on the game, trying to hit as many arrows as he possibly could and failing miserably. His hands were swaying in order to keep him balanced and the one thought that stood out in his mind was how lucky he was that Yukimura was busy staring at his own screen and couldn't see him flail to lines like 'Fighting evil by moonlight, Winning love by daylight...'.

Which didn't keep Sasuke from laughing his ass off.

He'd thought the fighting game was humiliating, but this was far worse.

Because this time, he was losing. To Yukimura. In front of Sasuke who was still tearing up about him, actually holding his stomach and taking pictures. Which he had allowed. This was so screwed.

He wasn't going to win now, but he wasn't going to give up either. Surrender was worse than failure. Even when it was complete and utter failure. So he kept on trying his best, like Yukimura had asked him to do.

Damn those arrows! Right, left, up, right....Ha! He'd actually hit one! Left, up, up, left and up at the same time....what the...NO FAIR. He'd lost it again. Those little bitches were surely going to haunt his dreams. Sailor Venus, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter!!, the voice boomed through his ears. Why the hell were there so many of them anyway?

He would have to see about having a little conversation with the management of the arcade. Maybe he could get that employee fired. Or better yet, he could talk to that coward again, have him run screaming for his mother. That could be fun.

It took approximately two minutes for the song to finish and the result screen to come up, but to Masamune it seemed like eternity. He knew he would have the song stuck in his head for the rest of the day, too. This had to be one of the most embarrassing competitions of his life.

They had both failed to clear the stage, but he didn't have to look to confirm that Yukimura had gotten a considerable amount more points than him. "Wow, I WON!" Yukimura exclaimed beaming. "I didn't think I was that good..."

Masamune didn't even know how to respond to that.

Sasuke had an idea. "You weren't. Masamune was just really bad." The stupid monkey still had tears at the corner of his eyes from laughing too hard at his failure. Curse him.

"The song sucked.", The one-eyed teen defended himself. "Actually I thought it was kind of catchy", Yukimura replied, still grinning.

He couldn't let it end like this. He also very much wanted a change of topic right now.

"Alright already, I lost." He shot Sasuke a menacing look, telling him that there WOULD be payback. And it would be oh so sweet.

"Yukimura!", he addressed his boyfriend, turning to face the teen who peered at him with curiousity. "Could we talk for just a second before you announce what you want to do?"

"Uh, sure I guess."

"In private", Masamune added, his eye flickering to Sasuke quickly before returning to the much preferable sight of his more-than-friend.

"O-Okay", Yukimura yelped as the older teen didn't even wait for confirmation before grasping his arm and pulling him along down the hall. "Where are we going?", the younger asked. "Somewhere a little more private," was all Masamune replied.

They ended up in the guy's restrooms. "What do you want to talk about?" The one-eyed teen didn't answer the question, but just kept walking, dragging them both into one of the stalls and locking the door. Yukimura eyed him curiously, probably wondering whether he should be worried about Masamune's state of mind.

"I just want to make sure you're aware of your options."

"Huh? What options do you mean?"

"For the evening. Before you decide what you want to do."

Yukimura kept looking at him quizzically. "I already-" His boyfriend cut him off, before he could finish the sentence. "You could drag me along to this lame little party. Or..." He tightened his grip on the other's arm that he hadn't let go of all this time. Simultaneously he leaned in a little closer until he could feel his friend's breath on his face and let their foreheads touch, all the while keeping his eye locked on Yukimura's, who still looked a little unsure, but didn't back away from him. Never would.

"Or we could have a little fun by ourselves," Masamune finally ended the sentence in a suggestive tone. Yukimura opened his mouth to form a reply, but the older teen took that chance from him by capturing his lips in a kiss the very second they parted. It was almost as though he'd planned it from the beginning.

He took another step towards the younger teen, pressing his body up against his. Letting his arms encircle the other's waist to bring them yet closer together. His partner gave in to the kiss right away, opening his mouth fully and letting their tongues engage in a short battle for dominance before giving it up to the other. Yukimura never went down without a fight and Masamune didn't want him to. Where was the fun in conquering something without a fight?

He let his hand slide down further along Yukimura's arm, until he found his hand and entwined it with his own, his right hand reaching for his boyfriend's left and doing the same. His partner let his fingers wind around his hand forcefully in return and gasped into the kiss when he was pressed back against the wall, his hands pushed to the cold surface next to his head.

When Masamune broke the kiss he could see a faint redness creeping up his partner's cheeks and marveled at the way it made him look so fucking doable right then.

He leaned in a little closer, letting his hot breath ghost over his boyfriends ear, listening to him hiss. "Masamune..." The one-eyed teen didn't answer right away. Instead he let a low growl escape his own mouth when he felt Yukimura's mouth come down on his exposed neck. His own lips formed into a wicked smile, now he knew for sure that he'd ignited the other's passion.

His partner kept sucking on his skin, running his tongue along the line of his neck and sending a shiver down Masamune's spine and right down to another part of his body.

He let his teeth scrape over Yukimura's earlobe teasingly, making the other halt in his movement for the fraction of a second and feeling the hands he still held squeeze his more tightly.

They both groaned as Masamune took the initiative and bucked his hips up against Yukimura's, making their groins meet, revealing their growing arousals to each other. His boyfriend brought his teeth down on his neck like a vampire making the other inhale sharply as he kept rubbing their groins together, both of them panting as the need for something more intensified.

Yukimura let out a muffled moan, trying to keep quiet and failing, as Masamune started grinding into him with more force. The one-eyed boy solved the issue by pressing another kiss onto his lips, keeping both their mouths occupied while his boyfriend's nails left half-moon shaped marks on the skin of his hands, digging into them as an outlet for pressure. Masamune returned the tight grip in the same vein, squeezing his partner's hands almost painfully tight.

The heat spreading from his hips to the rest of his body was becoming almost unbearable. His movements grew more frantic by the second and it took all of his willpower to stop now, before he would be unable to.

Without warning Masamune tore his mouth away from Yukimura's, relishing in the disappointed moan that rang in his ears as he stopped moving altogether, backing away from his boyfriend just a step, while their hands were still holding onto each other firmly.

He drank in the beauty of his flushed and panting lover looking at him accusingly out of glazed dark eyes, reveling in the power he held over the other, even when he himself didn't look any better.

"What are-," Yukimura's question was interrupted when Masamune spoke up. "We shouldn't let Sasuke wait now, should we?" Not that he gave a damn about the monkey.

"Just wanted to make sure you know what you're going to be missing", he said darkly, breath still coming out rapidly as he let their foreheads connect once more, his eye piercing Yukimura to drive the words home.

Then he ripped himself away from his partner. As much as he wanted to stay right there and finish his business, sometimes you had to make sacrifices.

He left the restrooms without looking back even as he heard the younger teen's voice shout out his name. There were fast footsteps on the ground after him letting him know he was being followed.

"You're being mean!" Yukimura accused. Masamune shrugged in respone, still having a little trouble regaining his composure. "You know I can make it up to you."

When they arrived back at the DDR machines, Sasuke was still waiting for them, toying around with his cell phone. Probably ogling at the pictures he'd taken. Masamune ground his teeth together in frustration.

"What took you so long?," the bastard started to complain, then eyed the two of them a little closer before saying: "Wait, I don't want to know." Immediately Yukimura blushed furiously. "Nothing happened!" He was quick to correct.

Masamune raised an eyebrow at him. He called that nothing? Oh well, it could have been more satisfying, he agreed.

"So, are you guys coming along tonight?"

Masamune looked at Yukimura expectantly, who was taking a little time to formulate his reply, eyes flitting back and forth between his two friends and one hand scratching the back of his head.

"Um...About that." Poor Yukimura, never wanted to let anyone down. "I'm terribly sorry, Sasuke, but I think I want to spend tonight at Masamune's place. Maybe some other time?"

VICTORY! The one-eyed teen looked at Sasuke, a grin spreading over his whole face. Hands off, bitch, the smirk seemed to say.

"I guess we could meet some other time...", Sasuke said, sounding a little disappointed, before he returned Masamune's gaze with a curious one.

"My arguments are just more convincing than yours", the older teen explained with a dark smile.

"MASAMUNE!" He chuckled at his boyfriend's outraged expression and Sasuke's understanding nod.

"C'mon, we're leaving. This place sucks", the one-eyed teenager announced, grabbing Yukimura's hand and pressing it softly, before the other could decide to be angry at him and change his mind.

"Just so you know", he started as they were walking out of the arcade. "Next time we need to settle an issue we're going to play Twister."

"What's that?"

"You'll like it." Masamune promised with a small smile on his face at the thought of all the days and the endless possibilities that lay ahead of them.