Like Them
By xxkoffeexx
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.
Warning: There may be a reason why people don't write about Rokkaku much. I'm blatantly ignoring it for now. So please forgive any OOCness or plain stupidity on my part if I completely screw up the Rokkaku characters.
By the way, the kids are probably around ten years old. So if you're wondering why the kids think and act the way they do, please blame it on their young age.
It was the giggling that got their attention. Normally, they would have ignored it, passing it off as a girl's thing. But this time, it was really distracting.
When another peal of laughter rang across the playground, one of the boys, unable to take it anymore, leapt up and growled, "That's it! I've had it with their annoying—" As he made to stomp towards them, his friend grabbed his arm.
"Wait, Yuji, it might be a trap!"
"Yeah," piped another boy, "they probably just want our attention."
Yuji shook off the hand and gritted out, "That's stupid! They never did that before."
"So? They're girls," responded another boy with glasses, as if that explained everything. A fresh wave of giggles made them all wince and he added, "My sister and her friends are like that all the time."
"Your sister is a big kid, Ryu," retorted Yuji. "They," he pointed at the girls, "are not."
"Why don't you go ask them, then?" suggested Yuji's friend. At Yuji's are-you-crazy stare he held up his hands defensively, "It's just an idea."
"Seishiro's got a point. You should ask them what's so funny," said Ryu, rubbing his chin.
A few more boys joined them, asking, "What's going on?"
"Yuji's going to ask the girls why they're laughing," answered Seishiro. Yuji blinked and backed away, protesting.
"Oh no, not me. It was your idea, Seishiro. You go!"
"But you're the leader, Leader," said a boy on the swings cheerfully. There were more claims of agreement as other boys dropped from the monkey bars and the slides, joining the ever-growing circle. Yuji found his protests overpowered by the sea of other's voices.
At a slight pause he finally snapped, "I'm not going!"
"You're the one who wanted to go before," pointed out Ryu. "So go."
"Yeah!"
"You can do it, Yu!"
"But that was way before—" He scowled when he realized there was no getting out of it. "Fine, I'll go. But only 'cause you guys don't have the guts." With that he stomped off, ignoring the yells of encouragement behind him while grumbling to himself.
Slowly though, as his initial adrenaline rush wore off, he found himself unsure of whether to go through with it or not. It wasn't like he had to do this. The others could do it themselves, if they wanted to know so badly. But before he could turn around and tell them so, a girl's voice reached his ears.
"He's so handsome! If I ever married, my husband will be just like Aoi-buchou!"
His jaw hit the ground as he felt the world grind to a halt.
The girls carried on, oblivious of the shocked boy. A girl with braids spoke, "Okay, so that's two people so far. What did we say about Amane-san again?"
"Remember, Mika? His hair!"
"Oh yeah. That was you, Reina," Mika nodded and mentally counted off a finger. "Then that makes Amane-san and Aoi-buchou—"
"Wait!" They turned at his frantic yell, and Yuji stumbled closer to them. His face was dumbfounded, and after a pause he continued, "Wait. Did you—what in the world are you guys talking about?"
A girl with a ponytail gave him a 'duh' look. "Boys, of course."
His voice was incredulous, "But-but—why Aoi-buchou? And Amane-san?"
Mika's words were deliberately slow, "Because they're on the tennis team."
"And we're talking about our future husbands," piped Reina. "Our teacher asked us about our future during class today."
Yuji failed to see how that had anything to do with his beloved tennis team. Fortunately, Mika seemed to sense his slowness because she sighed impatiently, "We're finding guys who would make perfect husbands, and we thought that the tennis team was the coolest. So we're talking about them." As if that made any more sense.
As the girls nodded in agreement, he said slowly, "So… you're talking about the tennis team because you want to marry them?"
"Yes," said Reina dreamily. A couple girls giggled and elbowed her.
"No," said Mika firmly, giving her friends an exasperated look.
Another girl with glasses explained quietly, "We're talking about them because they're cool and they make perfect husbands." More nods circulated.
Yuji felt faintly nauseated, but bore it stoically, feeling it was his duty to get to the bottom of this madness. "And just how are they… perfect husbands?" He said the latter with a bit too much derision, and many girls reacted indignantly. With their loud voices, he felt very much like he did when the boys volunteered him to go on this mission.
Over the hubbub, Mika's voice rose, "Because they're cool. Now, can you go away? You interrupted us."
He stayed put. Any previous thoughts about leaving had vanished once he realized the danger his favorite tennis team was in, courtesy of the girls. He blurted, "Cool? They're perfect husbands because they're cool? That's stupid." Too late, he realized there could have been a more tactful way of putting that, but the girls were already riled up, and he quailed at the accusations hurled at him.
This all changed when Mika, being quite intelligent, inserted an effective comment, "You're just jealous because you'll never be as cool as Aoi-buchou."
"Or Amane-san," added Reina assertively. The girls echoed them, righteously angry in their taunts.
Yuji blinked, hardly believing what he was hearing. "Jealous?" he began incredulously. "I'm not jealous of them because they're—"
"Cooler," Mika finished breezily for him. "Much cooler than you'll ever be."
That did it. He marched up to her and demanded, "How are they cooler?" In the very back of his mind, he knew this was ridiculous and that he shouldn't even be this angry, but his manly pride and ego couldn't take any more abuse. Briefly, he mentally sent a small apology to the Rokkaku tennis team.
Reina's eyes glinted at his challenge as she went to stand beside Mika. "Can you carry five heavy grocery bags for an old lady for a whole mile?"
He was startled and said, "No."
Mika raised an eyebrow, "Would you defend a helpless puppy from bullies?"
He hesitated. "No."
A quiet girl named Fuyumi asked, "Have you ever held a girl's hand while she cried because she accidentally lost her mother's jewelry, and then helped her look for it… still holding her hand the whole time?"
This time he blushed. "No."
Mika smirked as Reina crowed, "See? You're not as gentlemanly as Aoi-buchou, so that means he's cooler than you!"
Yuji scowled and looked at the ground. There was no doubt that Aoi-buchou was cooler than him, and he knew it, but he wasn't exactly happy to admit it. Then his head shot up in realization. "Hey… then how is Amane-san cooler? He isn't gentlemanly like Aoi-buchou, so he can't be cooler than me." He smirked, knowing that he was right.
But Reina tossed her head and said, "He used his racket to save the food I accidentally dropped. That was gentlemanly of him." She ignored Yuji's protest and continued with a dreamy smile, "Besides, he has better hair than you, or any of the other guys."
He stopped then, realizing she right. Nobody could pull of Amane's unique hairstyle, and even Yuji admired him for it.
"Then what about Kisarazu-san?" He turned at the new voice and saw Ryu, Seishiro and the other boys gathered behind him. Seishiro gave him a thumbs up and Yuji grinned back, forgiving his friends for all the wrongs deed they had done, if only for this desperate moment of support.
Mika glanced at Fuyumi, who was blushing deeply. "I'm sure Fuyumi can inform you guys."
The girl said shyly, "Kisarazu-san has nice hair, too. And… um… he helped me when a couple of big kids from school were bothering me. Um… so that… th-that's why Kisarazu-san is cooler than all of you!"
There was a subdued silence, as the boys digested this information. Then, there was rustling, and a tall boy made his way to the front, demanding, "Who bullied you, Fuyumi-chan? I'll find them and make them pay if they even touched—"
She shook her head quickly. "No, no, Atsu-kun, it's okay. Kisarazu-san already took care of them."
He deflated. "Oh." He made his way back behind the boys, who realized that they had been shot down again by the girls. Yuji wondered if his friends were more useless than supportive.
"So," said Reina smugly, "do you boys need any more proof?"
"Yes," replied Ryu. He pushed up his glasses and asked, "How is Kurobane-san cooler than us when he isn't as gentlemanly as Aoi-buchou, or as rescuing as Kisarazu-san, or has cool hair like Amane-san?" The boys simultaneously looked at the girls, grinning because this time, for sure, they had gotten the upper hand.
The girls shifted a little, before hands pushed forward a short girl with pigtails. She was flushed and wringing her hands, but when Mika nudged her, she smiled widely up at the boys and chirped, "Bane-san is very kind, like a prince!"
Yuji choked, while Seishiro and Ryu blinked. The boys exchanged quizzical glances as she continued to beam.
Mika said gently, "I think you should explain how Bane-san is like a prince, Chiko."
Chiko turned red again. "Well… he's like a prince because he's tall and very manly. And also, once, he caught me when I tripped, and asked if I was okay. He…" She buried her blushing face in her hands, exclaiming, "He almost carried me!"
The girls cooed and squealed at how princely and cool Kurobane was as the boys shrank back, defeated once again. None of them were big enough to carry a girl the same way Kurobane could, and so in that sense he was cooler.
But Mika wasn't finished. She looked at Yuji and said, "Before you ask about Saeki-san, I'm going to say this: Saeki-san is handsomer, nicer, has better-colored hair than any of you guys, and offers to buy a girl any ice cream she wants—something you guys can't do."
"Besides," another girl with long hair chimed, "Saeki-san is good at tennis and kendo."
Fuyumi smiled, "He has very good vision."
Yuji heard a boy mutter, "I have good eyes too…" He refrained from sighing.
"Did you hear about that one time?" Reina began eagerly, and the girls leaned in closer. The boys unconsciously listened as well. "Saeki-san perfected his motion-vision while doing kendo, not tennis. I heard Aoi-buchou say that he practiced everyday during the summer even though it was super hot and he was sweaty. And do you know what he said?"
The girls practically held their breaths. "What? What?"
Suddenly, Yuji was struck by another realization, one that completely slipped his mind until this very moment, and he blurted, "Hold it!"
Everyone turned to stare at him. Mika sighed, irritated, "What is it, Yuji-kun?"
He couldn't help the triumphant smirk from spreading as he asked, "What about Itsuki-san?"
There was another pause. Reina blinked. "What about him?"
But Ryu and Seishiro caught on and grinned, "You know. Itsuki-san. How is he cooler than the rest of us?"
The boys exchanged smug looks and mental high-fives, knowing this time for sure, they had one-upped the girls. There was just no way possible that Itsuki, no offence to the tennis player, was cool in any way, shape or form.
The girls looked at each other, and then Mika shrugged. "He is, isn't he?" she said, and the girls nodded.
Yuji couldn't contain himself. "What?"
Mika and the girls smiled. "Itsuki-san's steam-like nose will be handy for dusting around the house. He'll make a useful husband, so he's cool."
The boys staggered.
Practice was over and the Rokkaku tennis team was heading out of the courts toward the locker room when Saeki saw it. On the other side of the fence, a boy walked blindly with a cloth tied over his eyes, almost tripping and falling on his face.
Saeki stopped him before he ran into an oak tree. Steadying the boy, the vice-captain asked in bewilderment, "What are you doing? You can hurt yourself—"
"I see it!" The boy suddenly cried out, and ripped the cloth from his eyes. He looked wildly from Saeki to the cloth, exclaiming, "I can see it, Saeki-san!"
"See what?" Saeki began confusedly, but the boy ran off, shouting excitedly to his friends watching not too far away. "See...?" And then Saeki blinked in understanding.
Watching with the rest of the team, Aoi burst into laughter. In the distance, they could hear the boy's excited cries.
"Yuji, Ryu, I can see it!"
END
A/N: And in my heart, every single one of the Rokkaku tennis players is "cool." That's why I wrote this, despite not knowing a lot about them. Heh.
Er, did anyone get the ending? Probably not. Sorry for being in a totally abstract dimension. XB
Thank you so much for taking time to read this. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed thinking about it. Go Rokkaku!