NEW YEAR FESTIVAL
N/A: This is a sequel to The Christmas Spirit.
December 27, at Kawamura Sushi
Two days after Christmas, all Seigaku tennis club members gathered once again at Kawamura Sushi for an all-day meeting to discuss the new training menu for the next Kanto Tennis Tournament. Well, that matter lasted and settled for only the first three hours. The next agenda was brought up by Fuji, which was about the New Year festival that will be held at a nearby shrine
"It's not the one where my house is located, just so you know," Ryoma cleared ahead. And as everyone would expect it, Ryoma refused to go to the festival with his teammates.
"Oi! Come on its just a New Year festival, it won't kill you or anything," said Momoshiro Takeshi, the best friend of the one and only Echizen.
"That's right, that's right! Nyaaaa~!" said the ever bouncy neko-like senpai, Kikumaru Eiji, the second closest to Ryoma in the team. That's if always having to pay for all the burgers that both Ryoma and Momoshiro eat counts as a reason for him to become the second closest to the chibi.
"Why does this scene feel so familiar?' thought Ryoma as he devoured his sushi.
"Saaa… This year's festival will be interesting. Yumiko nee-san said something about Obon and a meteor shower," Fuji said, hoping to help Momo and Eiji get Ryoma to join them.
"Really? Well, if it's true then it sure will be interesting," said the Mother of Seigaku, Oishi, as he kept watching Momo and his double partner, Eiji as the two went on pestering their baby prodigy to join them in going to the festival,
"Tezuka, Fuji and I will go to the festival this year. There is 88% chance that Ryoma is planning to come with us but he just wants to keep it silent from Momo and Eiji for peaceful preparations purposes." Inui stated, not even having to check his notes.
"Pfft!" Ryoma just looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed from Inui's revelation.
"Nothing can deceive my data,"
"Ohayo, Yanagi-san," Fuji greeted, facing the entrance of Kawamura Sushi.
After the last words that he said, Inui froze on his seat after hearing the name of his former doubles partner, best friend and the person who are decimals better than him in making calculations.
Slowly, Inui turned around to see the person that Fuji greeted but saw nobody. It was then he realized that the Seigaku's prodigy just played a nasty joke on him. Inui glared through his glasses at Fuji who, just like in the context of Inui juices, felt no effect on him and just retaliated to the said glare with that playful smile of his.
All the while, the stoic buchou of Seigaku tennis team was scolding both Momo and Eiji after their two full hours of pestering his poor boyfriend and made them run thirty laps around Kawamura Sushi. This act earned him a small smile from Ryoma, which made him blush. The other members are gawked when they saw that small gestures that the two did for each other.
Just in time after the neko-human hybrid and the peach ran their laps, the team decided to have another shopping spree for the New Year's festival preparation and to buy new clothes for the festival and agreed to meet on the shopping district the next day.
-o0o-
December 28. At the Shopping District.
When they arrived at the shopping district, they decided to split up into smaller teams and do their shopping sepately just like what they did for their Christmas shopping. The teams were once again, decided by Tezuka
The first group had Eiji, Fuji and Ryoma.
"Saa… Let's us begin, shall we?" said Fuji in his all-too-gentle tone that never failed to totally masked away his sadistic nature.
"Yosh! Let's go, o-chibi!" Kikumaru exclaimed as he flung his arms all over Echizen which made Tezuka glare at him. But unfortunately for Tezuka though, his death glare was left unnoticed but the bouncing cat.
"Usu…See you later buchou," Ryoma bade goodbye specifically to Tezuka.
Nothing much can be said when Kaidoh, Inui and Momo left too. Nothing, of course, after a round or bickering from Kaidoh and Momo that almost led to a bout which was stopped when Tezuka cleared his throat which was enough to shut the two sophomores up.
Tezuka, Oishi and Kawamura, being people of the last group, walked into the store just behind them.
-o0o-
Echizen, Eiji and Fuji were inside a shop that sells paper fans. They needed the fans because the three of them decided to wear yukata on the festival.
"Nyaaa! Look! Look! Fujiko! They have a cat motif fan too!" Eiji showed a fan with many chibi cat faces printed all over it to Fuji.
Fuji chuckled, it was such a cute fan after all. "It's cute, will you buy it Eiji?"
"I will buy it, of course! What about you?"
"I think I will buy this roses themed one," Fuji showed a beautiful and elegant paper fan decorated with white roses which made Eiji gape in awe.
Nobody could ever beat Fuji's taste in elegant stuff.
While the two seniors are discussing on their fans, Ryoma on the other hand already purchased one for himself. He waited for them while drinking Ponta outside the shop because food and drinks are not allowed inside.
After the fans, they went next to a shop that sells geta (wooden sandals) and each brought themselves a pair after a quick run through of the shop. They then went to a store that sold into hair accessories.
Eiji said that a yukata will never be incomplete without hair accessories but Ryoma protested that only girls need hair accessories. Eiji insisted that they should wear hair accessories without even presenting a valid reason.
Not like there will ever be a valid reason why men should wear hair accessories.
"Fuji-senpai…" Ryoma tried to ask for help from Fuji but…
"Saa.. I think a nice rose clip will look nice on me, don't you think, Eiji?"
"Of course, Fujiko! You have the longest hair in our team after all!
"I'm hopeless," Ryoma sighed.
Like he planned, Fuji brought a red and white roses with golden leaves hair accessory and a red dragonfly brooch Eiji brought a golden Koi hair accessories that complimented his red hair perfectly and a silver kitty brooch. Ryoma is choosing between a white moon vine flower ( a type of morning glory flower that only blossom at night only) brooch and an emerald butterfly brooch.
After they shopped, they went to a nearby café for a nice, quick lunch. Ryoma ordered a plate of chicken teriyaki and a plate of ebi senbei and a nice cup of vanilla latte, Fuji got himself a hot plate of beef steak with mashed potatoes and a glass of strawberry milkshake and Eiji ordered a plate of chicken with orange sauce with rice and a glass of orange juice.
After they ate, the three of them continued shopping. This time, they met Saint Rudolph's team captain, AkazawaYoshiro and Mizuki.
"Well, isn't this another fated meeting, Fuji-ku—"
"Hello, Akazawa-san. It's nice to see you today. Are you here for New Year shopping too?"
"Well, ah, yes. But I'm just accompanying Mizuk—"
"Please say hi to Yuuta for me. I hope he'll come to the new year festival at the shrine too. Please tell him that I'd be expecting him there." Fuji cut Akazawa's sentence when he started to talk about Mizuki.
"So you are going to celebrate New Year on the shri—" Mizuki tried to speak but…
"Saa… We'll go ahead of you, Akazawa-san, it's nice seeing you today." Fuji did not let Mizuki finish anything and kept talking to Akazawa as if Mizuki's not there.
The Seigaku boys left the Rudolphians. Mizuki was starting to fume in anger because he got totally ignored by his so called destined rival while Akazawa gave him apologetic looks.
Ryoma, Eiji and Fuji continued their shopping by searching for a shop that sells yukata. On their way, they met Yukimura Seiichi and Marui Bunta from Rikkaui Dai which made it the most boring part of the day for Eiji since Fuji and Yukimura kept discussing about the gardening stuff they got for Christmas while Ryoma and Marui discussed about a new flavour of Ponta that was recently released on the market.
After parting with the questionably gentle captain and the self-proclaimed tensai from Rikkai Dai, they finally arrived at the yukata shop that sold the pieces they want.
They immediately bought the yukata they want. Fuji brought asimple light blue yukata that are just a few shades away from the color of his eyes. The yukata had pink and white roses that are intricately painted on it. He also bought a dark blue obi that matched the yukata very well.
Ryoma pointed out that the design is rather feminine but the shop owner said that the design is made for a male wearer. Ryoma did not want to believe until the shop owner showed him the female version of Fuji's chosen design. Seeing the beautiful yukata, Fuji bought it too, he thought that it would be a nice gift for his sister.
Eiji brought an orange and brown colored kimono, the colors mixing very well enough to resemble the colors of a summer dusk. It had gold fishes as it's motif and he chose a bright red obi to accentuate the earthy colors.
After Fuji and Eji paid for their items, they asked Ryoma why he did not buy any. Ryoma said he already had one for him, a handsewn yukata made by his mother. Instead, Ryoma bought himself a furry scarf.
After the three of them and the rest of the team finished their shopping, all of them met up and went to a family restaurant for dinner. Much to Ryoma, Momo and Kaidoh's liking, their share of the bill was paid by their senpai tachi. After that, all of them went home.
When he gone home, Ryoma played tennis with his father and adopted brother. Ryoga occasionally goes home there but now decided to stay for good. They played until dinner is ready. Ryoma lost to his father as usual but would rather not tell about the result of his game with Ryoga.
-o0o-
December 31, at the Shrine
No, not the one where Ryoma lives.
The New Year festival started in the afternoon. The regulars decided to gather at Ryoma's house since his house is the closest one to the shrine. All of them agreed to this, well, except Ryoma. What do we expect?
When they rang the bell, they were greeted by Ryoga. His presence surprised the Seigaku members, they've known him from the incident at the cruise ship and from the U-17 camp.
"E-Echizen's aniki!?" everyone, except Tezuka and Fuji exclaimed.
"I would prefer being called Ryoga-san,"
Ryoga is wearing a dark green yukata with bamboo motif. Needless to say, its also handsewn by his stepmother, Rinko-san.
He let the regulars in, "Well actually, right now Rinko oka-sama is still dressing up chibisuke in his yukata. So please wait few minutes 'kay?" after he said that, Ryoga went to the backyard and yelled at his father, Nanjirou to hurry and get inside the house because they have guests.
While waiting for Ryoma to come down, Tezuka and Ryoga were on a debate about who is the best player on German Open. Just when the debate got a bit intense, Ryoma came down with a blush out of embarrassment when he saw all his teammates gawking at him.
"What's with that feminine blush?" Kaido whispered. Even Momo just shrugged and did not end up challenging him into a bout, meaning the two of them had somehow the same thing in mind.
Ryoma is wearing an elegant black yukata with moon vine flowers and silver butterflies foil printed on it, the white fur scarf be bought all over his shoulders and a beautiful silver crescent moon accessory on his hair and a silver butterfly as a brooch on his obi.
Even Ryoga blushed too when he saw his younger stepbrother, "Duuuude, he looks just like a beautiful woman" he nudged Tezuka, who just cleared his throat in response.
The Seigaku tennis members and Echizen family arrived at the shrine. All of them went their own separate ways. Some paired up, some went in groups while the others met up with other agreed to gather at the hills for the hanabi display and meteor shower later.
Tezuka and Ryoma went together into the festival, combing through the shops and stopping to look at the displays and play the games. As they walked, many girls were leering and glared at Ryoma with hate and envy, all of them having the same things in mind:
"Who is THAT little girl?"
"How dare she walk with my prince charming?!"
"What did Tezuka-san saw on that little girl? I'm so much more beautiful and sexier than that little girl!"
or maybe like
"Her chest is as flat as a sheet of paper, is she even a girl? Why didn't Tezuka-san choose me?"
Feeling the leers and glares that the girl directing to him, Ryoma smirked and then walked closer beside Tezuka while tugging at his dark blue colored, lotus flower designed yukata, which earned him more intense glares from the girls.
"Die out of envy, everyone" Ryoma thought.
After he made sure that the girls knew who's man Tezuka is, the couple went to play Kingyo Sukui in a shop. Tezuka was the one who played. He was able to scoop two fgoldfishes, one gold and one silver, the latter was given to Ryoma. Then they went to the shooting stand. Tezuka and Ryoma were in for a contest between the two of them. As usual, Tezuka defeated Ryoma in the game but in the end, he gave Ryoma the other half of his prize. Since the prize Tezuka got was a couple teddy bear phone straps, he just gave the other one to Ryoma as a commemorative item of the New Year's festival.
After they played the games, they bought two candied apples, along the way they met Sanada and Niou who got separated from their teammates. After Tezuka's awkward "civil" chat with Sanada and Niou's endless teasing on Ryoma's feminine look, the two of them went on and continued searching for their teammates.
They saw Sakuno and Tomoka next. Sakuno became a stammering mess when she saw Ryoma in his yukata while Tomoka began to shamelessly profess her love and devotion to Ryoma. Sensing that Tezuka is starting to get pissed off because of Tomoka's behavior, Ryoma just dragged Tezuka out of the scene which led them to meeting Kirihara Akaya and Jackal Kuwahara who are in a "special" mission in search of their priced Emperor and Trickster under the orders of the Child of God, Yukimura. Hearing this, Ryoma pointed to the opposite direction where they met Sanada and Niou. But, even if it's his boyfriend, Tezuka just won't tolerate wrong behaviour and then told Akaya and Jackal the correct direction.
"That wasn't not a nice thing to do, Ryoma." Tezuka
"What? I'm not well oriented with directions. That's all." Ryoma replied with a smirk.
"That smirk speaks otherwise." Tezuka retorted.
30 minutes before midnight
After Tezuka sent a message to someone, he dragged Ryoma somewhere which the the two never agreed going to. Ryoma protested all along and mentioned something about getting himself killed by Rinko and Nanako for suddenly disappearing.
After minutes of dragging by Tezuka and protesting by Ryoma, they finally arrived on a small hill not so far from the shrine where the festival being held.
"Buchou… Why are we here?"
"….."
Still silen, Tezuka kept his attention on his watch, which made Ryoma pout in annoyance.
Few more minutes of silence passed, finally Tezuka said "this place is perfect for watching the hanabi display and meteor shower. I want to show this place to you."
"I…I see…" said Ryoma with a little blush creeping on his face.
"5…4…3" the crowds counting down.
"2…1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
Upon this chorused unison, the fireworks lit the sky in beautiful colors and loud sounds of explosion. The hanabi display lasted for a good amount of minutes. The sky was still smoky with all that gunpowder when a single falling light stood out.
Followed by another.
Then another.
And then the meteor shower.
Tezuka and Ryoma stood right where they are in total amazement as the sky lit up once again in the brilliance of pure light from the meteor shower. The same thing happened to the people on the shrine too.
Many couple kissed under the meteor shower. Like Momoshiro and Tachibana Ann which totally pissed Kamio off and had Tachiban Kippei mutter under his breath something along the lines of "I will seriously destroy him if he ever dare to hurt Ann." The two are spying behind bushes and trees.
Kawamura and Sakuno were picnicking under the meteor shower after Sakuno managed to separate herself from Tomoka. Kawamura being the gentle person that he is when not holding a racket, chose to skip the kissing part since Sakuno seemed to be too young for it.
Nanjirou and Rinko were enjoying a warm sake together. Rinko being happy on the fact that Nanjirou is actually spending time with him right now, and he's not busy with his erotic magazines.
And who would expect Ryoga and Yumiko to be hugging and kissing under the meteor shower? Well, unbeknownst to them though, both Yuuta and Syuusuke were spying on them. Syuusuke kept on taking pictures of Ryoga and his sister kissing while chuckling in amusement while listening to a totally pissed off Yuuta who's now mumbling like Ibu Shinji about killing Ryoga for having a relationship with their sister.
"Kill him. Kill him. I'll definitely be killing hiiiiim! How dare he touch Yumiko-nee?! He is so dead!"
Nobody could tell if Syuusuke was chuckling because he found a pissed off and overprotective Yuuta or is it because he just found out that his beloved otouto also had that sadistic side in him. Whichever it is, Syuusuke also managed to take a picture of the fuming Yuuta.
"He'll burn in hell for kissing Yumiko-nee!" Yuuta went on.
"Saa… Yuuta, do you want a kiss too?" Fuji teased.
"Whaaat?! No waaaaay!" Yuuta replied as he dashed away from his laughing brother.
While Ryoma was enjoying the sight of the meteor shower, Tezuka showed him something that make him blush hard.
It was a promise ring. Tezuka took the libery of putting it on Ryoma's finger.
"Bu..buchou…." seeing his kouhai and lover's reaction, Tezuka made a bold move and kissed Ryoma on the lips.
N/A: Finally! It's finished. Thanks a lot to everyone who keeps on reading my stories. This year, I have been absent for quite a long time. But to make up to that, I made you this New Year story. Well, for those who hate yaoi, I'm sorry, but I just can't help it. Anyway, let's all welcome year 2015 with a smile.
Riku: Happy new year, Ice-chan! Hope you'll have another good year ahead of you!
Ice: Happy new year too, Riku-chan. I'll be wishing you on reverse. I hope you had a good year this 2014! Hahaha.
Riku: What is your New Year's resolve?
Ice: Hmmm… Well, I guess I'll be more frugal? Ahahaha. I want to save money for 2015 because my friend has been nagging me to do cosplays with her and I can't do what she wants if I don't have the money. How about you, Riku-san?
Riku: Heee.. That's a good resolve you got there. Mine? Let's see… maybe I'll write good stories that can satisfy our dear readers and hopefully not have a long term writer's block like this past few months.
Ice: Hah, talk about writer's block; I am most of the time in one. I only go active for about two months in a year. My stories are all hanging until now. I have yet to finish my Christmas story until now. Hahaha Anyway, your stories are good. I was one of your readers before I became your beta, and I can attest to that.
Riku: So… minna-san? What is your New Year's resolve for 2015?
Riku: Happy new year, everyone.
Ice: Everyone, don't let your guard down and let's celebrate New Year without regret. …I am a failure in imitating buchou-kun.