A conversation, slight fluff. Not really shounen ai-ish unless you want to think so in the end. I prefer that the speakers be discovered as you read along...

Style is inspired by Elf Asato's "Noises (or Lack Thereof)", a Yami no Matsuei fanfic.

Everything

..

.

"Winning is not everything."

"You only said that because you never lost."

"I lost quite a few times. You watched all of them."

"...All right, you only said that because you hardly lost."

"Mmmm."

"...Don't laugh at me."

"I'm not."

"...Hmph."

"Do you think so?"

"Think what?"

"That winning is all that matters."

"Isn't that what everybody cares about, in the end? A loser is a loser."

"One who knows tennis knows the worth of a player, winner or not. Those who don't understand, why should we care what they think?"

"..."

"... Hey... if that Mizuki tries to..."

"Hmph. I can take care of myself."

"I know you can. Just checking."

"..."

"...You're not practicing that spin shot anymore, are you?"

"No." -- "...N-not that I need to tell you about my practices..."

"Mmm."

"I told you not to laugh at me!"

"Mm... sorry."

"..."

"You... want to defeat me?"

"Of course."

"I see."

"..."

"..."

"Or... perhaps not."

"Mm?"

"You are always ahead of me. If I ever surpass you... I might not know where to walk to anymore."

"Hm..."

"...Forget it. I said stupid things."

"Not at all."

"It doesn't matter to you, does it? You think I'll never get to that point."

"It does matter to me, because it matters to you."

"..."

"And you will surpass me."

"That's for sure!"

"Hehe."

"...You were not serious about that."

"But I was!"

"..."

"You will surpass me. But it is not necessarily by defeating me."

"...How is that?"

"One day... you will play and play and play... and it suddenly won't matter to you anymore if you can defeat me or not."

"... I wonder..."

"Hm-mm."

"...So that was what you meant when you said winning was not everything?"

"Well, what do you think?"

"...You're not going to give me any answers, are you?"

"I can't. My answer is not for you. You have to answer it for yourself."

"...Saa."

"Haha."

"To be able to keep playing... that is the important thing, right? No matter if you win or lose..."

"If you think so."

"Oy--"

"The important thing... is whatever makes you happy."

"..."

"So... is that your answer? To keep playing tennis?"

"I suppose..."

"Hm..."

"Mm."

"But tennis... is not everything, either."

"Huh?"

"Hm-mm."

"...Then, what is?"

Fuji just looked at him, and smiled.

Yuuta turned away a second later, blushing.

.

..

Author's Note:

I suppose I already gave away who the speakers are early in the story, but for consistency, I insisted on not inserting their names until the last two lines. But I guess it's kinda against their conversing habit not to include any "Yuuta"s and "Aniki"s, so just think of it as being omitted from the script, instead of not spoken. ^^

And I hope all the "Mm"s and "..."s are not confusing. Depending on the context, they can mean smiles, pouts, thoughtful silence, suspicious glances... ^^0 I hope the context is clear, but if not, you can basically interpret them any way you want, just to smoothen out the conversation.