Author's Note: Hello all! This is my first posted fanfic and I hope all of you enjoy it. Yes, this will be a boy on boy fic, so if that's not your thing feel free to click the back button. I promise I won't mind. Anyway, constructive criticism is appreciated, flames are not. Like I said above if you don't like the idea of guys being with guys then just don't read this. Now, on to the first chapter!

Disclaimer: Though this may shock you, I do not own Prince of Tennis, just this story. Sorry if I disappointed any of you.

Ryoma was having a nice dream. Actually, he was having a very nice dream that he had no desire to wake up from. Unfortunately, he found that it was rather difficult to stay asleep when someone was licking his neck. Grumbling, and still half asleep, he attempted to block the offending tongue, but his attacker simply moved to another area…one where he happened to be very sensitive.

"DAMMIT KARUPIN!" was all he managed to say before hitting his bedroom floor in a tangle of sheets and pajama pants. He glared at his cat with all the venom he could muster at such an early hour but she just cocked her head and proceeded to clean off her left paw. Now thoroughly irritated, both at falling out of bed and at not being able to recall his dream, the 7th year freed himself and got back into bed- only to be set upon by his cat a second time. "Get off already!" He said heatedly, trying not to wake up the rest of the house's occupants, now that he was lucid enough to consider them. "Come on Karupin, I need to get some sleep before I go to morning practice."

Having finished, he rolled over and covered his head with a pillow to prevent further harassment. Karupin; however, wouldn't have it. She padded across the bed, over her now dozing owner, and onto the nightstand. Here she paused a moment, as if considering her next action, and then with a swipe of her paw knocked the alarm clock off the small piece of furniture.

And right onto Ryoma's head.

Holding the throbbing injury, and swearing enough to burn a hole through a church door, the tennis player prepared to take all his anger out on his up 'til now beloved pet. Then he caught sight of the clock. The glowing red numbers read 7:42 a.m. which wouldn't hold any significance except for one very important fact. "SHIT!"

That fact being that Tezuka had scheduled their practice for 8:00 a.m.

The gray cat watched with interest, and what seemed to be amusement as her owner got ready in record time, even managing to fill her food and water bowls before running out of the front door. Content that she had done her duty, she stretched and leaped gracefully down from the nightstand to eat her breakfast. After all, she'd need all the help she could get before going to wake up the other male resident of the Echizen household.

Ryoma had never run so fast in his entire life, which considering his hobby (and his constant need for escaping fan-girls) was quite impressive. In his haste he somehow managed to jump two fences, narrowly avoid getting hit by a car, and get yelled at by an old woman (who probably resented the fact that he had knocked her over…right onto her newly-planted, and recently-watered flowers).

When he came in sight of the school he actually began to think that he would make it in time, but just as soon as this thought crossed his mind he remembered a very crucial and currently unpleasant fact. Because of his (and his father's) great love of sleeping (or being lazy- depending on who you asked) all of the clocks in their house were a full ten minutes behind, giving the illusion that they always had some extra time to nap. Unfortunately for him, this also meant that not only was he already late…he was very late. Maybe buchou will be too busy to notice... What am I thinking, he always notices when someone's late. It's like he's got some kind of sixth sense that tells him when he needs to give someone laps-

"There you are Echizen! Fifty laps for being late, and make them quick! I still expect you to practice with everyone else after warm-ups."

With a grimace Ryoma took off around the courts, not needing to change since he'd thrown on his uniform at home in a futile effort to save time. And a lot of good any of it did. At least Karupin woke me up before practice had actually started or else I really would have been in trouble. I'll have to get her something on the way home. Resigning himself to being thoroughly exhausted for the rest of practice, he picked up his pace in an attempt to avoid getting into anymore trouble. But Fate, it seems, was not in the mood to indulge him that morning.

He hadn't been running for long when loud voices caught his attention. From his vantage point across the courts Ryoma couldn't quite tell what was going on. Speeding up a little, he soon came close enough to discern voices and immediately recognized them as Momo's and Kaidoh's. Apparently they decided to start one of their fights bright and early this morning and Ryoma groaned. If the two of them kept it up it would only put Tezuka in a worse mood, which meant that everyone would be running laps whether they deserved it or not. He could only hope that someone would split them up before the captain got involved.

"THAT'S IT! BREAK IT UP RIGHT NOW!" Startled, the two tennis players stared at Oishi with mouths wide open. The court had gone deathly quiet and Ryoma had abruptly stopped running. Well…that wasn't what I expected.

"What? Why are all of you looking at me like that?" Genuinely confused, the motherly co-captain waited a moment before shrugging it off. "Now that you two aren't yelling at each other- Kaidoh fifty laps. Start now. And don't look so smug Momo, you're running too. I just think that you two will cool down faster if you're not so close to each other." By the time Oishi decided it was safe to let Momo start, Ryoma was only a little ways past where the rest of the team was stretching. After recovering from his temporary shock he had attempted to make up for lost time by speeding up again and out of boredom was trying to remember his dream from the night before. All he knew was that someone else had been in it and that he had definitely resented being woken from it, but every time he thought about it too hard it slipped away from him. Trying a different tactic, he let his mind wander and got immediate and mind-numbing results. The other person in his dream had been Momo. Yeah, he and Momo were at his house alone and they had been taking a shower together and…Wait, they were taking a shower together? WHAT THE HELL?!

Ryoma's face turned scarlet when he finally recalled just what he and Momo were doing in said shower. Okay, I have to calm down. It was just a dream so it's not like anyone else knows. This kind of thing is normal anyway right?

Oh yes, having sex dreams about male upper-classmen is completely normal Came a rather sarcastic response from the more cynical, and endlessly irritating part of his brain. Yep, there's nothing strange about having fantasies that include your best friend- who also happens to be a guy. Oops, but that would make you gay wouldn't it? Yeah, this is about as normal as Tezuka skipping around in a pink dress

SHUT UP!

And now you're talking to yourself. This just keeps getting better and better

After effectively pushing his chaotic thoughts to the back of his mind Ryoma took a deep breath and tried to steady himself. He could do this. All he had to do was avoid Momo during practice and he'd be fine.

Fate just snickered evilly and made a rather rude hand gesture in Ryoma's general direction- and that was when Momo caught up to him.

"Hey Ryoma! Great day to be running laps isn't it?" Chuckling he matched his kouhai's stride to make it easier to talk. "Oh that reminds me, why were you late to practice this morning? I was starting to get worried."

Desperately trying to stay calm, the 7th year finally managed to choke out a response which ended up sounding more like a squeak. "I forgot to set my alarm!" Blinking at Ryoma's odd attitude Momo cocked his head to the side.

"If you didn't set your alarm then how are you even here in the first place? No offense, but I've tried waking you up before at the end of practice to make you go home and it took me ages! I nearly got the hose from the back of the locker room." Shaking his head in amusement he waited patiently for an answer.

"Karupin woke me up, or tried to anyway. She ended up having to knock my clock onto my head to get any kind of coherent reaction, and then I saw the time…" By this point Momo was laughing too hard to breathe, finding it endlessly amusing to picture the look on Ryoma's face when the clock hit him. This isn't so bad. Actually, everything feels normal. Maybe that dream really was just some kind of fluke. It must have been. Otherwise I'd feel different around him right? Comforted by the thought, Ryoma was taken completely off-guard when his senpai moved closer.

"You really are a riot. You know that Ryoma?" Momo gave the prodigy an amused smile that made his heart skip a beat and then speed up. Which would have been bearable, except the upperclassmen then reached over and swiped his ball-cap…and proceeded to ruffle his hair.

That feels…kind of nice. It's never felt this good when he's done it before…No! What am I thinking?! I shouldn't want him to do that! Unable to deal with his conflicting emotions any longer, the 7th year turned scarlet for the second time in as many minutes and after yelling- "I HAVE TO GO HOME!" took off, setting what could possibly be a new land-speed record. All the team could do was stare after him, dumbfounded, as he ran right past his equipment bag and straight home.