fandom: テニスの王子様

title: Imperfection is Perfection

author: pseudonym

pairing/characters: goldenpair

rating: G

disclaimer: The character are not mine.

summary: A friend is someone who thinks you're a good egg even though you're slightly cracked.

- 1 -
The problem with assumptions.

It is an easy assumption to make that Kikumaru Eiji is friends with everyone; well, at least with everyone in his year, that is. Another assumption is that there isn't anyone Eiji cannot get along with. It is also easy to assume that because Eiji is able to befriend just about anyone he must have this wonderful, bubbly, and easy-going personality. To most people this overly energetic and easily excitable boy is their view of who Kikumaru Eiji is. It is rather difficult to not assume these things when the energetic red-head enthusiastically throws his arm around your shoulder and starts to prattle on about the latest movie that he's seen at the cinema or about the new pet shop that opened up a few blocks away from his house, all with a grin on his face and a sparkle in his eye.

However, the thing about assumptions is that sometimes they're not true. Sure, it may seem like Eiji has a ton of friends, but perhaps a more fitting word would be 'acquaintances'. There simply isn't enough time in the day for Eiji to do something with everyone. In fact, if you ask him, Eiji will probably tell you that he doesn't even know half of the names of the people in his class. This, of course, isn't really his fault because the Seigaku freshman class is quite large this year. To make up for his forgetfulness with names, Eiji has a wonderfully photographic memory, and is therefore usually able to remember who a person is by some sort of physical characteristic or some such thing.

For instance, Eiji can never remember the name of the girl who sits three seats to his left, up four rows, in his Japanese history class, even though she smiles and says hello every morning. He can remember that she has three little freckles on her left cheek that form somewhat of an isosceles triangle and that she has a penchant for all things Hello Kitty. Sometimes Eiji has to remind himself to not call her 'Kitty-chan' to her face, even if it is what he calls her in his head.

There is also the strange boy who sits in the desk two seats to his left in Chemistry class. He is always wearing a peculiar grin on his face and totes around a ragged green notebook in which he is almost constantly scribbling in. Usually there is a ball-pen tucked just above the ears of the thick plastic frames perched on his face. Eiji swears that just before an explosion goes off, which is at least once every couple of weeks, those glasses glint in a very diabolical fashion and has thus dubbed the boy from chemistry class, Megane-kun.

It is also not true that Eiji is able to get along with everyone. Sure, he gets along with most people, but not everyone. There are plenty of people who think that Eiji is too loud, too rambunctious, too… well, Eiji. It isn't his fault that he can't sit still for more than ten minutes without having to move. Eiji thinks that there isn't any point in sitting still when you could be moving around and doing something more productive. This is also probably why people sometimes think that he is a bit of a flake who can't take anything seriously enough. Eiji's even heard his parents muttering about his lacking attention span sometimes when they think he's not listening.

Eiji is well aware of these assumptions that people have of him. He would like to say that they don't bother him at all, and most of the time they don't. However, it is natural for everyone to have good days and bad days and it's on those bad days that Eiji feels very inadequate and greatly misunderstood. On good days, he is able to ignore those pointed stares and the rolling of eyes at his antics, and just concentrate on being himself.

However, this greatly contradicts with the assumption that Eiji is too naïve to understand what is going on in his surroundings, or is too simple-minded to be able to even worry about what other people are whispering behind his back. Whether or not the people behind those whispers are aware of just how hurtful those comments are, Eiji tries to keep any reactions hidden. And so, it's also wrong to assume that seemingly bubbly and perpetually happy and outgoing people are incapable of feeling down, or inferior, or… lonely.

While Eiji is a person who does thrive off of contact and socialization with other people, sometimes it feels as though everyone is humouring him. Yes, Eiji does have a lot of acquaintances, but people he can really think of as more than just that? Well, he can count the number of people who he considers friends on one hand, not including his thumb, since it isn't really a finger at all. Most people think that they understand him, but if they really did see who he was, then they'd understand that all of those assumptions that they make, simply aren't true at all.

And so, this is where we find Eiji at this moment: tumbling under the shade of a tree, just in view of the tennis courts, trying to cheer himself up after a particularly troublesome day. In the past, he used to use the front lawn to practice acrobatics, since it is free of any trees and shrubbery but he doesn't anymore after a group of upperclassmen told him to knock it off and stop being showy. Since it was his first week at Seigaku at the time, Eiji reluctantly complied, not wanting to create any unnecessary friction between him and his sempai's so early into the new school year. So, now Eiji practices in a less populated area to avoid being told off again.

Truth be told, Eiji isn't really all that interested in tennis. Sure, he has a few years of tennis experience under his belt, though that is due to his mother signing him up for lessons in elementary school, probably as a way to get him out of the house. He has to admit, it is a great way to burn off energy and there is nothing more satisfying than taking out his frustrations on the court after a particularly tiresome day. However, with tennis, Eiji isn't able to find a sense of satisfaction, even after he's just whooped someone's ass.

If Eiji had his own way, he would have taken gymnastic lessons. At an early age Eiji discovered that he was quite flexible. It might have been when he woke up quite disoriented from a dream and had rolled right off the side of his bed. For most people, that wouldn't be a problem, but Eiji owns the top bunk, and so it was quite a distance to the floor. Somehow he had managed to land on his feet after twisting and doing an odd sort of flip in the air. After that, if he had any spare time after tennis lessons, homework, and chores, Eiji was most likely to be found in the backyard, teaching himself cartwheels and flips and other exercises that allowed him to test how much he could twist his body into a pretzel.

Since he is no longer taking lessons and it is still fairly early in the afternoon, Eiji decides to take advantage of the field right beside the tennis courts of Seigaku. Usually there are only the sounds of squeaking tennis shoes, the smack of the ball between racquets, and the light pant from running laps from that area. Today though, from the look of it, there is a bunch of girls lining the chain link fence; Eiji thinks that there must be some sort of a match currently going on, though he pays no mind and carries on his way; he's practiced in much more noisy environments before.

While practicing, the noise from the courts soon fades into the background and Eiji is lost in his own little world. However, about twenty minutes into his practice and while in the middle of a back handspring, Eiji's concentration is jarred by an extremely loud outburst of English. All he can make out is something about a bunny (BAAAANINGU!) and then before he has time to pull out of the flip, he feels a sharp burst of pain in the side of his head; and then everything fades into black.