"Love, hate, and the like"
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Author/Artist: Maria
Written for: 30 Angsts. Theme(s): #5 (True Love), #22 (Once upon a Time...), and 27 (Line between Love and Hate)
Pairings: Ryoma/Sakuno. Allusions to Ann/Momoshiro and Fuji/Tezuka.
Rating: PG-13 for allusions to homosexuality.
Disclaimer/claimer (if needed): Not mine. Konomi's

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Once upon a time, there was a Boy. He was raised as a cocky, proud, kinda bratty Boy who loved tennis. Under the wing of his Father, an eccentric ex-tennis player, the Boy developed astonishing talent, and won several junior tournaments in the USA.

One day, when The Boy was twelve, his family moved back to Japan. He would attend a prestigious junior high school with a good tennis club, which was directed by his Father's Old Friend and Teacher, and go to the Nationals and win. The Boy accepted this, thinking it'd not only allow him to defeat his Father in tennis, but to see how far he would be able to go on his own.

Weeks passed, and The Boy slowly adapted himself to his surroundings. His Upperclassmen were all people of very unique personalities, and sometimes their attitudes startled him. There was the Serious Captain, who leaded the team with pride and taught him how to find his own style and rhythm; the Blue-Eyed Genius, whose azure eyes promised either doom or bliss to whoever crossed in his path; the Green Viper, who had an competitive spirit and trained all day to improve... unless there were animals in his surroundings; the Four Eyes Data Gatherer, sadistic brewer of all kind of horrible-tasting juices and Data Player to Boot; the Cheery Best Friend, who ate a lot and also broke his walls of self-defense to become the closest to an intimate friend that the Boy ever had; the Redhead Wonder and the Gentle Senior, alias the Golden Pair, who played doubles like no one else and were each other's counterpart in the same way; the Future Sushi Master, who looked harmless on the outside but was a force to be reckoned with in the courts...

And there were the others. Specially That Girl. Oh, The Boy really wanted to hate her at times. She and her best friend, the loud and happy-go-lucky Ponytails, were usually found hanging around the team, cheering for them each in their own ways; Ponytails with her high-pitched screams and laughter, That Girl calling him by his first name (how unusual...) and quietly wishing him luck.

That Girl was sweet. Sickeningly sweet, he thought. And she was clumsy as Hell, too. She adamantly refused to cut that waist-length hair of hers sorter, despite him many times telling her that it was too long for a tennis player. On top of it, she didn't seem to have lots of talent for the sport itself, always missing the ball or sending it so far that it'd be lost among the bushes.

The Boy didn't want to develop any feelings (beyond friendship, that is) for That Girl. He did not want it. He had already planned his life; he would be a Top Tennis Player, beat his Father for once and all, and become a champion. He was barely getting out of the cooties stage, anyway, so he had no urge to find a girlfriend. Not even despite his Cheery Best Friend and his sorta partner-in-crime, Carefree Lass, telling him That Girl would be a good girlfriend to him - or never mind the fact that he thought she'd look better if she cut her hair to a manageable length... while keeping the braids.

Months passed, and all of a sudden The Boy and his family decided to go back to the USA. After a long and meaningful match with The Cheery Best Friend and lots of good-byes from his teammates, he got ready to leave. In the decisive moments, however, That Girl was nowhere to be found. Everyone thought she wouldn't make it in time to the airport... but suddenly, she was there. The Boy couldn't help but making snarky comments about her, like he always did in normal days, but he did accept the tennis ball with an encouragement phrase written by her as a gift before leaving the Country of the Rising Sun.

Again, time passed. The Boy spent the following years training hard to take the tennis world by storm. He succeded, and was practically hailed as a God by the tennis fans. But sometimes, when he was alone, The Boy thought something was missing. He brushed it off as a part of the process of Growing Up and tried to drown it within the thrill of playing and winning and living up to the several promises he had made to his upperclassmen and friends...

In his sporadic visits to Japan, The Boy found himself gradually realizing what he was missing. To his horror, it was all related to That Girl. Through the years, she didn't change a lot; she was still shy, still refused to cut her hair shorter, and still sucked at tennis despite her efforts to improve...

But The Boy found himself deciding that he didn't really care about that.

Ironically, what made him realize that was something that caught him completely off-guard. In his last visit, he and his friends stopped by a park to rest after a series of good tennis matches played in the street tennis court. And while trying to get away from Cheery Best Friend to allow Carefree Lass, now his girlfriend, to spend some quality time with him, The Boy arrived to a particularly solitary spot of the green, fresh place...

But then, he saw the Serious Captain and the Blue-eyed Genius, sitting under a tree... and kissing each other passionately.

The Boy was speechless. Not because he hated gay people, in fact he didn't mind them, but because he had never ever tought that the Captain could pull off something like that. He wasn't unfeeling and cold, he knew it very well... it was just that the mental image he had of him didn't fit in this. Straight-laced, very traditional (and possibly frigid, according to the Redhead Wonder and Cheery Best Friend's jokes) Serious Captain, kissing another man...

The Boy walked away slowly, trying to make the less possible noise, and wondering why the Serious Captain would give himself to the Blue-Eyed Genius. He kept his questions to himself during the rest of his visit, but as soon as he e-mailed the Captain, he couldn't help but asking why.

And the reply he got was short and simple.

"He keeps me sane, Echizen. That's all you need to know".

The Boy didn't know what to think of it at first. But slowly, he came to realize what the Captain meant. The Genius was very different to him, but unlike other couples, they didn't clash, but complement each other. When the Captain needed to loosen up, the Genius would set him free. In turn, when the Genius needed strength, his Captain would be strong for both of them. Ying and Yang, Light and Dark... that's what they were.

And in a sense, that's what The Boy and That Girl were to each other. He gave her a motive to persevere, she smoothened what was rough. He needed That Girl, and in turn, she also needed him.

Now, with a Roland Garros title under his belt, The Boy is getting ready to spend some days in Japan again. Ponytails already told him in an e-mail that That Girl is very busy due to her university work, but that she'd make her best to leave her uni books aside for a while and have fun...

And The Boy has already decided to cross the line between love and hate, going towards the side that says "love".