Disclaimer: No, don't own

Ok… Yes, I did it. I just couldn't help myself! I apologise now! I made Akaya a girl, because seriously, I was watching the series a while back and I suddenly thought 'Hey, Rikkaidai doesn't have girls…' and then I thought that Akaya as an An type character, the one always with the boy's team, and a good strong character, would be cool… So I broke down and I wrote it. Just don't flame please, if you don't like it just don't review; you know what you were getting into when you clicked the link.

A different Beginning

"She's wasted over there." Yukimura pointed out quietly to his two companions.

Yanagi nodded his agreement. "I make it a 94% chance she'll quit before the end of the month."

Sanada merely made a sound the other two took to be an agreement of sorts.

"It's a shame though. She has a lot of potential." Yukimura sighed and turned away, refocusing on what he and the others were supposed to be doing. It was the second week of their second year, and while all three were already part of the regular squad, though only Yukimura had gotten to play in last year's tournaments, there were still higher positions to aim for. Yukimura was determined to at the very least, be named vice captain if not captain within a month.

The girl the three had been watching was a first year; she had kicked up quite a stir when she had arrived and immediately sought out the acting team captain (of the boy's team) and challenged him to a match. She had been laughed at and told to go play with the other little girls. Curious over who would outright challenge the tennis captain, Yukimura, Yanagi and Sanada had made a stop at the girls courts later that very day and were treated to a rare display of skill, and a style of play that was significantly more forceful than the girls team normally played. it bordered on outright violence.

She was wasted in the girl's team, who had never been a very serious team to begin with, and none of the boys she had challenged would take her up on it, citing they didn't want to hurt her. Had they bothered to take the time to watch her play like Yukimura had they would be far more worried about her hurting them. But there was nothing they could do about it. The girl's team and the boy's team didn't mix, but it was just such a waste of talent.

She made it just over a month before she left the girls team. by this time Yukimura was far too concentrated in winning the captainship to pay that much attention, and all Sanada and Yanagi could tell him about her was that she tended to spend a few minutes every day standing outside the courts watching them play before leaving, probably to do some practising herself (after all, she had a well made tennis kit of her own, so obviously she took the sport seriously).

By the end of the second month of the new year, Yukimura was officially given the title of Captain, after much consultation; because it was rare for a second year to have defeated all other promising third year regulars to get the position (Rikkaidai did not operate on typical handover routine, Captain went to the person with the best skills). He immediately appointed Sanada as his vice captain and promoted Yanagi to help him work out schedules and routines. Thankfully, the third years knew him well enough not to make trouble.

A few weeks later Yukimura finally realised that the first year girl showed up every day and remained standing outside the fence, watching the team train avidly, one hand gripping the wire of the fence, the other rhythmically squeezing the strap of her tennis bag. On the fourth day of actively watching her watch them, he went over and blocked her view. She scowled up at him.

"What?"

Yukimura smiled. "What's your name?" he asked.

She eyed him suspiciously for a moment. "Kirihara Akaya." she answered.

"I'm Yukimura Seiichi." he told her. "You like tennis?" of course he already knew she did, but it seemed a good way to get her talking.

Her entire demeanour changed in an instant, no longer suspicious or scowling, her whole face lit up and she nodded happily. "I love tennis, my coach in my elementary school, said I could probably go pro if I trained hard enough, and she even managed to convince my dad to buy me my own racket and kit and everything!" she grinned.

Yukimura tilted his head; her old coach had obviously seen her raw talent too. "Why aren't you in the girl's team then?"

She scowled again. "They're a joke. I was told this place had the best tennis team in the whole of the region, but the girl's team isn't nearly as serious as I'd hoped. All they do is talk about some stupid TV programmes and never play properly!" she pouted, and Yukimura was embarrassed to realise that he thought it looked cute.

He didn't really have to think about it, he just asked. "Would you like to play a match against me?"

She was shocked he thought, the way her eyes had widened and she just stared stupidly at him for the longest time before suddenly pumping her fist in the air and taking off at a run round to the gate to the courts. When she reached them she marched straight in and over to him, pulling her bag around and pulling out her racket.

It was perhaps one of the most exhilarating games Yukimura had ever played, even though he won by a long shot, Kirihara never got a single point, she refused to give up and just kept playing, demanding a rematch when they were through and vowing to defeat him. He had laughed, and decided then that she would have to join training. There was just too much talent to waste.

The awed group of boys around the court gave Yukimura the credence to make the unorthodox decision, and after watching her play, he doubted any of the other members of the team would argue the point. After all, it wasn't as if she would be stealing the regular places or anything, so having her on board would be interesting.

And fun.

Please enjoy… Had this written for weeks, just never worked up the nerve to post… but now I have, so please, no flames (these means comments like 'OMG you made Akaya a girl! That is the stupidest idea ever!' and other such comments), if you don't like it then don't review. However, constructive crit accepted.