Prologue

"Ah. Kaidoh wait-"

Too Late. As Kaidoh turned his head around to find out who called him, he slipped in the mud and fell down towards the river. Kaidoh closed his eyes waiting for the water to come in contact with his body but it never came. Instead, he felt a tug at his shirt. Just at the last moment Inui had lunged forward in time to pull Kaidoh back from falling into the cold water. The force from the pull caused them both to fall back and into an odd position with Inui on top of Kaidoh. Inui was the first to recover therefore was the first to speak.

"Kaidoh, daijoubu?" asked Inui with a worried look as he pushed himself up enough to be able to see Kaidoh's face. Kaidoh, still recovering from the shock, looked into Inui's eyes -or what the glasses had covered up anyway- and gave him a nod. Inui couldn't help but stare at Kaidoh because to Inui, he was adorable which made him lean closer until they could feel each other's breath. Inui leaned down, lips almost touching…

RIINNGGGGG

Kaidoh opened up one eye, slammed his hand on his alarm clock to shut it up and got out of bed. A blush crept up on Kaidoh's face when he just remembered what he had been dreaming about. 'Why the hell am I dreaming about Inui?' A flash of Inui's smiling face appear in Kaidoh's head. "hissss...at least he will never know about this and I will make sure of it!" With that, he pushed the thought out of his head as he got up, took a shower and walked out the door with his bag over his shoulder as he started his jog to school.

Morning practices weren't usually bad. On the contrary, they were really pleasant for Kaidoh. But today really wasn't his day. It seemed that it had taken a turn for the worst ever since the weird dreams he had started having that involved him and Inui kissing. Fortunately for Kaidoh's sanity, he was able to somehow forget the dreams after an hour or so. It was like it had never happened. Today wasn't an exception- Kaidoh remembered the dream, and that would mean it wasn't going to be a good day.

To put it simply, if one domino falls, it'll tip the others to fall along with it. And that's just what happened to Kaidoh. The first domino that tipped was staying in dreamland too long. Kaidoh had to practically run all out to not be late for practice and have to run laps for that. He did luck out in making it to practice on time but ended up having to run 20 laps with Momoshiro for getting into a fight in the clubhouse. All throughout the run they kept arguing and pushing, trying to get in front of each other which resulted in another 20 laps for all the noise and disturbance they caused for people who were actually practicing.

By the time they were done, they were doing doubles practices. Inui and Echizen were waiting for the two to finish so they could have their match. Even though the two were tired out from their laps, it didn't mean that the fire went out. The determination to win was so high that if Inui and Echizen hadn't come in, they would have ended up starting a singles match. The bickering continued on during the match and all Inui and Echizen could do was endure it. Some time later, the game ended 6-4 with the Inui/Kaidoh pair winning.

Momoshiro slapped his forehead. "I lost to mamushi…"

"Baka! I heard that!"

Echizen decided to step in and try to stop this before they all had to run laps. Even though he would normally never do this, his sempais were giving him a major headache with all the bickering.

"Momo-sempai, you're too loud." After he said that, he decided to walk away before his sempai gave him an even bigger headache with his constant chattering.

Practice ended and to Kaidoh, it seemed like was the longest practice ever. After he changed, he went outside to wait for his sempai so they could walk to class. Ever since Inui had asked Kaidoh to play doubles with him, they had started to get as close as the Golden Pair were. Kaidoh would tell Inui almost everything. Almost. There were just some things that weren't meant to be said.

Sometimes there would be stuff Kaidoh would only confide in Inui. They would talk about Kaidoh's family, tennis, school, tennis, training, and some more tennis. Kaidoh didn't even realize when they had gotten that close. Usually he would push everyone away. He never really made any friends because he was always hissing like a snake and had that scary face on. But Inui didn't care. He looked past all that and saw the Kaidoh that was inside, just craving for some kind of friendship to form. His pride prevented him to be like Kikumaru, who wore his emotions and heart on his sleeve. Kaidoh shook his head.

/No. I'll never be able to wear my emotions on my sleeves./

Inside the Clubhouse

"Inui, wait!"

Inui was on his way out the door to meet up with Kaidoh until somebody, more like Fuji, held him back.

"Is there something you need, Fuji?" Inui really wanted to get this over with. It was cutting in his time with Kaidoh. They were supposed to be discussing some new formations and a new training program today. Inui let out a sigh.

/I guess it'll have to wait then./

"As a matter of fact, there is something. I need you to do me a favor," replied a smiling Fuji.

/This isn't going to be good./ a voice said inside Inui.

"I assume it's something Kikumaru won't do?"

"Well, it's not that he won't do it. He'll be glad. It's just that…it's more convenient for you, as she'll have the same classes as you," Fuji simply said.

"She?" A confused look appeared on Inui's face.

"Ah. She's my cousin. If you'll come with me, I'll introduce you to her. Mostly everyone is outside with her as Eiji can hardly contain his excitement." Fuji let out a chuckle. As Inui followed Fuji out the door, he couldn't help wondering about Fuji's cousin. His guess was that Fuji and his cousin were very much alike.

When they got out, a crowd was surrounding part of the fence. Inui's guess was that it was because of Fuji's cousin. Most of the regulars were there except for Tezuka and Kaidoh. Thinking of Kaidoh, Inui looked around for the person of his thoughts but couldn't find him.

/Probably left already./ Inui let out a silent sigh and looked up to see what, or rather, who, was going to be the favor Fuji had asked of him.

"This… is my cousin, Toriumi Shigeru. She's back from America and she will be attending our school for the rest of the year. So the favor is that you show her around school. Help her adjust. She's going to join the girl's tennis team so you can help her with school, tennis, and training."

"Toriumi Shigeru? Inui Sadaharu."

"Nice to meet you Inui-kun," said Toriumi politely with a bow and a genuine smile on her face that was similar to Fuji's. The only difference was that her eyes were open.

She had beautiful brown eyes and chestnut hair that perfectly framed her face. Her hair was 1 or 2 inches past her shoulders and her bangs were just two strands that reached her nose. Her body was astonishingly perfect and the Seigaku uniform made her look even more stunning. She was just as tall as Inui, he observed. He reminded himself he would need a new notebook to record all of her data.

"Ah. You too," replied Inui.

"Saa…I think Shigeru here has all the same classes as you so why don't you go and show her to class. Hurry up. You don't want to make her later for her first day do you?" and with that said, Fuji turned and walked back to Tezuka, who was locking up the clubhouse, and made their way to class.

"Shall we leave now, Toriumi-san?"

"Call me Toriumi-chan."

Inui nodded in acknowledgement and they both walked into the school towards their class as the first bell rang. Inui would have never thought that this would be the starting point of the problems to come.