Untouchable
Tezuka is sure it is not possible for Echizen to fall. Perhaps it is his attitude about tennis, or perhaps his determination when he sets his mind to a particular goal. Whatever it is about Echizen Ryoma, Tezuka realizes it makes the boy untouchable, infallible.
When he looks at Echizen, Tezuka sometimes sees the boy himself, small and lithe, lean and arrogant, striking and unforgettable. These times make him happy; it seems, almost, that Echizen is someone reachable.
Other times, however, Tezuka's sharp eyes glance at Echizen and see not a boy, but a human form housing potential and greatness and a weightlessness that allows him to reach for the stars. It is these times that make Tezuka wistful and full of a longing that makes his chest ache and the world lose its color – the boy is so distant and unearthly at those points, and it is then when Tezuka fully realizes that Ryoma will never belong to anyone.
Tezuka's interests conflict sometimes. The interests of Ryoma's buchou and the interests of Tezuka Kunimitsu, with all titles aside. As his captain, Tezuka is charged – and is pleased – to help the boy reach to any heights. It is his duty, and his pride, to be able to help Echizen achieve unthinkable things and to guide him to the place where people like him belong – the sky.
However, as Tezuka Kunimitsu – as a mortal, a mere man with feelings and quirks like any other, Tezuka finds Echizen's rise to power a little disconcerting and more than a little painful. Echizen is a person that Tezuka wants to keep grounded, to hide from the world and keep for himself. To carry out the goals of Tezuka-buchou, Tezuka Kunimitsu acknowledges that he will have to let go of the one thing he wants to hold on to.
Kunimitsu has never been a selfish person and he has always been a supportive buchou. Those two aspects of his personality had never clashed before; but then again, Ryoma does seem to always cause trouble wherever he goes and for the people he is with. Hard pressed, Kunimitsu will admit that does not want Ryoma to fail. That does not mean he wants Ryoma to succeed, either – not when it means Ryoma going on ahead without looking back.
Echizen Ryoma is both all too easy to love and all too hard to touch. Tezuka Kunimitsu has learned this the hard way.
I'm not sure if any of you reading now are also reading any of my other stories, but I just want to say in general that I'm very sorry for any and all delays. Life took a somewhat chaotic turn. Weddings and projects and AP exams and heartbreaks and... well, my friend very unexpectedly passed away not even two months ago. I think I'll be updating and posting more often now, hopefully.
Thanks for everything, guys!
a quirky little tune