It happened softly and slowly, a paradox given the intensity and nature of their individual personalities. It seemed to the public that Touya Akira and Shindo Hikaru were completely different people with very little common traits except a love and brilliance for go and almost unbelieveable streaks of determination and stubbornness. However, underlying their obvious clashes was a sense of understanding and respect for each other. Only Touya had an inkling of Sai's existence in Hikaru and because of that, only he was with Hikaru at Hiroshima-prefecture on every May 5th day as the boy prayed in front of Honninbo Shusaku's grave.

Hikaru never gave Akira the true reason for his yearly paid respects to the Go legend on every Boy's Day but even after the first year, Akira was smart enough to make a connection between Shusaku and Hikaru - or rather the "Sai" that used to reside within Hikaru. As it was, even after their 6 years of knowing each other - 1 and a half of which was spent in their newly developed relationship, Hikaru still had not revealed the full story behind "Sai" to Akira. Akira was, however, not majorly worried or disturbed with such a detail. He knew Hikaru would tell him the truth eventually, and whenever the bleached blond boy was ready for such a major confession, Akira knew he would be by Hikaru's side, ready to listen.

The days passed between the two, peacefully -save for the obligatory argument they had over Go at the Touya Go Salon- and rather happily. Due to their conflicting schedules, the two didn't get to spend as much time together as both would have liked, but it was alright. Go was, after all, their career.

There were only two major flaws to this seemingly blissful relationship. The first flaw was that Akira, who had spent a good portion of his life concentrated solely on Go, wished to take their relationship a step further but unfortunately, had no idea or experience at how to go about such a task. The second flaw to their relationship was that Hikaru, who was somewhat rough around the edges and also had not expressed any interest in anyone previous to Akira, was equally as clueless.

So where did these two flaws get them?

Absolutely nowhere, Akira thought with a trace of self-pity as he gazed at Shindo from across the goban. The two were playing at Akira's Go salon with the outcome looking like it would be in Akira's favour. Hikaru's forehead was crinkled in the way it got whenever he was in deep concentration and Akira found himself wanting to reach across the board and smooth the lines out with the tips of his fingers. However, controlling his impulses, he settled for lightly pressing the side of his foot against Hikaru's under the table. Their relationship was still a secret from most people for obvious reasons and they tried their best to be as discreet as possible in front of everyone - though sometimes with varying results.

For example, while Akira was sure that Waya, who had by this time grudgingly accepted Akira's existence in Hikaru's life, was completely oblivious to the two of them being together; Hikaru's other friend, the tall man with the hair falling into his eyes, Isumi-san, probably did suspect something between them. The thoughtful, probing looks that Isumi had periodically sent their way on the few times that all of them were out together housed more than mere curiousity, Akira noticed. And of course, Yashiro-kun knew - though it was not by Akira or Hikaru's choice and completely by accident. Just thinking of the compromising position in which their former Hokuto Cup teammate had caught them in still made Akira blush madly. There just wasn't much you could say to explain yourself when one of your friends, as Akira now considered the Kansai boy to be after 3 years of a rather sporadic friendship, caught you and another one of your mutual friends pressed up against each other with your tongues in each other's mouths. They were just lucky that Yashiro was an easygoing enough person that he accepted their relationship without question or comment, and that he was a loyal enough person that he had not let their secret out to anyone else in the Go world.

Thinking of Yashiro made Akira smile a little wistfully. This would be the last year all three of them would be eligible for the Hokuto Cup tournament, and Akira wondered if that would end up affecting their friendship in any way. Hopefully it wouldn't. Akira had too little friends his own age to afford to lose one and while he admitted that at first Yashiro and his mannerisms had secretly annoyed him, he had really grown to like their friend. Akira's smile widened at that thought, and Hikaru, who just happened to take notice, pressed his foot against Akira's in question.

"What's so funny?"

Akira should his head. "No, nothing."

"Nothing?" Hikaru repeated. He cocked an eyebrow in clear disbelief. "Really?"

Akira couldn't help a small chuckle at Hikaru's expression. The boy had unfortunately not yet mastered the art of raising his eyebrow and his attempts to do so always ended up with Hikaru unknowingly wiggling his eyebrows in a rather comic fashion. "Okay, not really, I suppose," Akira said with a smile. "I was just thinking of Yashiro-kun."

"Yashiro!" Hikaru's face lightened up. "Really? How come? Have you heard from him? I haven't heard from him in ages! How is he doing?"

Akira blinked, still a little caught off-guard by Hikaru's habit of firing off a string of questions when he got excited, before he shrugged lightly. "To be honest, I wouldn't know. Yashiro-kun hasn't called me recently either." Akira decided not to mention the fact that Yashiro usually never called him anyway, seeming to prefer to talk to Hikaru instead. "I was just thinking of our first year in the Hokuto Cup together. We had a lot of fun together."

"Didn't we?" Hikaru agreed enthusiastically. "It was such a good move to offer the usage of your house, Touya. It made everything so much more convenient for the three of us."

"I still remember," Touya said with a bit of a lopsided smile, "how you and Yashiro got lost coming to my house. Even after I gave you that map." When he saw Hikaru bristle under his comment, he quickly added, "And don't you dare say it was because of the way I drew my map. When I gave it to you earlier, you said it was FINE."

"Well, when I first looked at the map, it looked like I would have no problems finding my way to your house," Hikaru said somewhat sulkily. "And I've never been to your area so how was I to know that I turned down a wrong street?"

"But that's why I offered to come meet you and Yashiro at the station so we could walk to my house together - and you turned my offer down," Touya pointed out, his smile fading from his face.

"Well, that was because I didn't want you to waste your time and energy coming to pick us up!" Hikaru protested, his voice rising as his quickfire temper kicked in. "I was worried about YOUR welfare then. You should actually be appreciating the thoughtful concern I had for you!"

"What thoughtful concern?" Akira shot back, his voice also getting progressively louder. "You made me wait forever! I almost thought the two of you weren't going to show up. In the end, it would have been faster if I had gone to pick you two up instead!"

"Well, how was I to know that?!" Hikaru gritted out between clenched teeth. "And it was so long ago... Why the hell are you still getting so pissed off about it now?"

"That's because--" Akira began but then stopped abruptly. Hikaru didn't know - was totally unaware of the reason behind his initial apathy to Yashiro. He had to be honest to himself. It wasn't Yashiro's mannerisms that had annoyed him in the beginning. No, the real reason behind his dislike, and he still had trouble admitting this reason to himself now, was because he had felt alarmed by Yashiro's existence in Hikaru's life back then. The Kansai boy was just too straight-forward, too...familiar for Akira's tastes. It bothered Akira that Yashiro had gotten Hikaru's number off of the Go Institute and contacted Hikaru out of the blue when the two had barely spent more than a couple of hours in each other's presence. It bothered Akira that Yashiro could so easily touch Hikaru, whether it be a messing up of Hikaru's hair or a friendly hand on Hikaru's shoulder. And it bothered Akira that Yashiro could talk so naturally to Hikaru, as if the two had known each other for years beforehand.

Moving in too fast, too close...

Of course, now that Akira sat back and reassessed the situation again, he realized how childishly ridiculous he was being - after all, he was assuming that just because he liked Shindo in that way, any other guy who tried to be friendly with Shindo did too. However back then, with his own feelings for Shindo unsatisfied, he had just felt...threatened.

He hadn't realized that he had fallen silent until Hikaru called out to him, "Touya. Hey Touya, what are you thinking about?"

"Eh? Aa, nothing," Touya replied automatically.

"Nothing?" Hikaru repeated. He pushed his foot against Touya's under the table. "You liar. How can you be thinking about nothing when you were sitting there with an expression like this," and here Hikaru paused briefly to twist his face in imitation of what he thought was Touya's expression at the time, "the whole time."

Hikaru's imitation of Touya had consisted of hooded eyes and a highly exaggerated - or at least Touya considered it highly exaggerated - frown, and Touya didn't know whether to laugh or feel offended at the comical way in which Hikaru had portrayed him. Deciding in the end to do both, Touya arched his eyebrow but said with a smile, "Nice try, but I'm pretty sure I did NOT look like THAT at the time. Besides, I really wasthinking about nothing. Nothing important, anyway." Not allowing Hikaru the chance to reply, he deftly changed the subject, "Shall we get back to playing now?"

Hikaru blinked at first, thrown-off by the way Touya had so quickly turned the topic around and unsure of how to reply. Finally opting to just let the subject drop, he said in agreement, "Aa. Let's play."

And he found his choice worth it as Touya gave him a beautiful smile in reply.

"What do you mean I don't look ahead? You're the one who totally missed my attack here!"

"Yes, but YOU'RE the one who didn't see how that same attack left you open to my move over here!"

"I did see it," Shindo shot back, "and I anticipated it - which is why I decided to put my stone here," he jabbed the air right above the Go stone he was referring to, "and subsequently blocked your attack from the diagonal here!"

"But that's not thinking far ahead enough!" Akira shot back. "Especially since--"

Ichikawa rolled her eyes from her position in front of the counter as the two boys' argument got progressively worse - and, in her opinion, progressively childish. Reaching under the counter, she pulled out Shindo's bag in preparation as the bleached blond boy finally pushed back his chair with a loud scrape and yelled, "That's it. I'm leaving!"

"Your bag," she said dryly, letting the boy snatch it from her hands and stalk out of the Go salon. That done, she then reached under the counter for another bag, knowing its owner would be needing it fairly soon as well.

Sure enough, soon after Akira finished cleaning up the Go stones from his game with Shindo, he approached the counter with a faint smile. "Ichikawa-san, I'll be leaving too," Akira told her, all trace of anger seemingly gone from his face.

"So soon, Akira-kun?" Ichikawa said with obvious disappointment in her voice. "If you don't mind staying till the salon closes, I can drive you home." She knew her request would probably be turned down as Akira always seemed to like leaving a few minutes right after Shindo, but she just couldn't stop help herself from trying occasionally.

However, like always, Akira shook his head. "I'm sorry, Ichikawa-san, but I'm afraid I have to leave now." He flashed her his usual gentle smile, the one that always seemed to make her knees go a little weak. "Thank you very much for the offer though, I appreciate it."

Ichikawa couldn't help the rosy flush that spread across her cheeks as she just felt herself melt. "Well, if you say so, Akira-kun."

Akira merely gave her another quick smile before taking his bag from her and politely taking his leave. Stepping outside the Go salon, he chanced a quick glance at his surroundings before taking a few steps to his right and ducking into the alley that separated his father's Go salon from the neighbouring building. Pausing a bit to let his eyes adjust to the relative darkness of the narrow alley, he then took a few steps forward--

--only to get painfully shoved into a wall as a pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders and forcefully pushed him up against the outside wall of the Go salon. A pair of lips soon followed the hands as they intruded into his personal space and brushed against his right ear in a teasing manner. Akira opened his mouth to protest but found his lips covered and his words muffled as the pair of lips now pressed against his own and a tongue slipped in and teased the insides of his mouth.

When the kiss finally broke and the person drew back slightly, Akira uttered his first words since entering the alley, "We have got to stop meeting like this."

"Why?" Shindo asked with a mischevious smile. "Don't you find it exciting to get accosted in the middle of a dark alley?"

Akira gave a small snort, or at least it would have sounded like a snort had it been anyone else. With Akira, it just came out more like a disdainful huff. "You would find it exciting," he retorted. "As for me, I would much prefer to do things in a different way."

"Oh yah? Like how?"

"Like this," and here Akira grabbed Hikaru by his waist and deftly turned the boy around, backing the bleached blond boy into the wall before he could even blink. He pressed his body lightly against the other boy, pinning him down with the extra weight he had on him from his height advantage and moving the hands on Shindo's waist to his wrists, clasping each in a firm grip and likewise pinning them against the wall. He grinned at Shindo's startled expression and parted lips before quickly moving in and claiming those lips for his own, his tongue flicking into the other boy's mouth in a skillful manner. When he finally withdrew, Hikaru took a noisy gulp of air. "Pervert," he accused.

Akira recognized the harmlessness of Hikaru's statement and responded in kind, "Takes one to know one."

"True..." Hikaru's face broke into a large smile, his eyes dancing. "But I never said being a pervert was a bad thing, now did I?"

"You little--" Akira began before breaking out into quiet chuckles. He then drew back a bit, releasing Hikaru's wrists and letting his forehead fall lightly against the crook of Hikaru's shoulder with a small sigh. This was the part of the day that he looked forward to the most, the time when him and Hikaru could drop their pretenses against each other and just...exist together.

Hikaru brought one of his newly-released hands to cup the back of Akira's head with a gentleness that no one other than Akira knew he had. He twisted his head a bit and pressed the bottom of his cheek against Akira's glossy hair, lightly resting there as the fingers cupped around Akira's head began absentmindedly fiddling with the long strands of hair underneath them. "You're right though," he said after a long silence where the two of them simply enjoyed the feel of each other's body against the other, "we really should stop leaving like that."

"Huh?" Akira couldn't quite follow Hikaru's sudden comment. "What are you talking about?"

"The Go Salon, Stupid, the Go Salon," Hikaru clarified, whapping the back of Akira's head softly with the hand originally cupped around Akira's head. "We should really stop staging arguments like that to leave. I mean, don't you think people will catch on after awhile?"

Akira lifted his head off of Hikaru's shoulder, naturally glaring at the boy as one hand went to rub the spot where the other boy had hit him. "Don't call me 'Stupid'," he said automatically. "And no, I don't think people have caught on, nor will they catch on. They won't suspect a thing, I'm sure."

"But how can you be so sure?"

"Shindo," Akira replied simply, with the exasperated air of a teacher explaining something to a disobedient student, "we've been fighting at the Go Salon for 4 years now."

"That's what I'm saying!" Hikaru exclaimed. "I mean, we've been fighting for so long now. Don't you think people would think that we would have started getting along better by now?"

"No, I think people would suspect more if we suddenly started acting all friendly and familiar with each other," Akira shot back. "I mean, we HAVE been fighting for 4 years. To suddenly stop...wouldn't that just make people wonder more?"

"Well, you do have a point..." and here Hikaru bit his lip in contemplation, accepting Akira's argument but not agreeing with it. "But I still think we're overkilling the whole fighting idea. I mean, we're 18 now - adults now, right? Therefore--mmf!" Hikaru found the rest of his words going down Akira's throat as the other boy claimed his mouth once more. When they parted for air again, Akira said simply, "Shindo, you talk too much."

"Shut up," Hikaru retorted between ragged breaths, "you're the one talking too much." Moving his hands so they wrapped around the other boy, he pulled Akira down into another kiss. Akira, responding accordingly, moved one knee in between Hikaru's parted legs as his body pressed close against the other boy's. Aligning himself with the pliant body beneath him, Akira then used one hand to steady himself against the wall behind Hikaru while the other unconsciously wrapped around Hikaru's wrist, pinning the boy's hand down. Like always Akira couldn't help but marvel at how well they fit together despite their differing heights. It was like they were made and meant for each other, the two of them sliding together as easily as two adjacent pieces to a puzzle.

As they parted briefly to breathe, Akira decided to contemplate that idea further at a later time. Fusing his mouth to Hikaru's again, he just let himself fall into the moment, knowing that it would soon be ending. The two would, as always, kiss a bit more, occasionally pet and stroke the other, but then reluctantly part, telling each other they would see the other tomorrow. It was a cycle that, while pleasureable, was also highly unsatisfying as Akira felt like he was being tempted with a delicious appetizer but denied the full course that followed.

However, today, right in the middle of one of their passionate kisses, Hikaru broke this familiar cycle by suddenly laughing out loud.

"Wha-what is it?" Akira said with a small gasp, still trying to catch his breath. "What's so funny?"

Hikaru grinned. "Yashiro," he said simply.

"Haa?"

"Yashiro. Remember? This is the exact same position we were in when he caught us making out in your bedroom."

A lovely flush spread across Akira's cheeks as he nodded. "Aa. Yes, I remember." It had been the third year of the annual Hokuto Cup tournament and the second time Yashiro was their teammate, as Waya had been their Hokuto Cup teammate the second year around. Akira had by then moved out into his own apartment and the three teammates were residing there instead, intensively training for the three days before the actual tournament. Yashiro had gone to take a shower and Akira and Hikaru, still fairly new to their relationship then, had after a couple of embarassing mishaps and awkward moments engaged in a pretty heavy make-out session against the wall behind Akira's half-closed bedroom door.

Unfortunately for them, the session was so intense and their concentrations so absorbed in it that they missed the sound of Yashiro walking down the hall, re-entering the bedroom, and seeing them behind the door. Akira turned a couple of shades redder as he recalled what had then happened next...

"I," and here Hikaru broke off into a fresh round of giggles, "can still remember what Yashiro said to us when he found us together. Remember, Touya? He said--"

"--would you two like me to leave or can I stay and watch the free show?" a new voice, thick with the Osaka dialect, cut in, smoothly finishing Hikaru's sentence for him.

At the voice, Hikaru and Akira automatically jumped apart from each other and whipped around to stare at the newcomer.

Yashiro!"

Chapter 159(?) - I'm afraid I can't quite remember the exact chapter, but basically, the introduction of Yashiro Kiyoharu is here. Yashiro Kiyoharu is a new pro, also 15 and from Kansai, Osaka, where there is another Go institute. Yashiro is shodan like Shindo, and is said to be a powerful player who starts with very interesting moves (such as Tengen - placing the Go stone right in the center of the board as a starting move).

Chapter 168 - Hokuto Cup tournament members decided. The team members are Shindo Hikaru, Yashiro Kiyoharu, and Touya Akira.

Chapter 170 - Hikaru tells Akira that Yashiro called him. The dialogue is so cute, I just have to translate it below (plus it captures everything I have to say so you'll know exactly what went on):
Hikaru: Touya, I need to tell you something.
Akira: What is it?
Hikaru: Yashiro called my house.
Akira: Yashiro-kun did?
Hikaru: He said he got my number from the Go Institute.
Akira: And? Then what did he say?
Hikaru: He wanted to know if we wanted to meet before the Hokuto Cup Tournament to play/train our Go together. If it's alright, he'll come to Tokyo three days before the tournament.
Akira: ----That's fine. Where is the place?
Hikaru: We haven't decided yet, but Yashiro is staying in a hotel so probably in that room.
Akira: .....What about [meeting at] my house instead? Yashiro-kun can also stay in my house instead of a hotel.
Hikaru: Your house?
Akira: Aa. My father and mother will be in China until May 3rd so I'm alone at home. Besides worrying about meals, I don't think it will be inconvenient.
Hikaru: I'll also stay over! It'll be easier to play that way!
Akira: I agree. (Actually, he literally says: "Sou da na" which is literally translated as "That is so". However, I think "Sou da na" in this case is more of an agreement and/or a confirmation to what Hikaru has proposed so I just translated it as "I agree.")
See? Wasn't that cute? The Akira and Hikaru interaction here is very nice. Chapter 170 is undoubtedly one of my favourite chapters (if you couldn't tell already). *grins*

Chapter 172 - first day of Hikaru and Yashiro staying over at Akira's place. The scene opens with Hikaru and Yashiro arriving late to Touya's house because they had gotten lost on their way to the Touya residence. ^^; Akira and Hikaru then get into a big argument regarding that, much of what is seen in this fic, with Akira yelling that Hikaru should have let him pick the two of them up and Hikaru yelling back that he didn't think they needed it at the time. ^^;;

...which leads us up to Chapter 173, the most recent chapter at the time of this writing (December 8, 2002), which talks about the second day Hikaru, Akira, and Yashiro live together. ^_^

Anyway, I hope that helped! ^_^ As for this fic, I really hoped everyone liked it. I don't know when I can get more done but I will definitely work hard at it if the reception for it is favourable (hopefully it will be ^^;;;). Thank you very much for reading anyway! ^_^