My first and probably only excursion into the Prince of Tennis fandom.

The Day At The Beach

or

A Story Of A Hat

"Sanada? Did you know Yukimura has run off with your hat?"

The currently cap-less teen scowled as Yagyuu fell in beside him. "Yes. He sneaked up behind me and stole it when we were getting off the train. He'd better look after it."

Yagyuu hid a smile. "So you're not going to try to get it back?"

Sanada gave him a stern look. "Yagyuu, when has anyone ever managed to get something back off of Yukimura, be it hat, senses, game or serve?"

Yagyuu had to admit that his vice-captain had a point. However, that didn't change the fact that Yukimura was currently wandering along at the head of the tennis team as the group headed for the beach, Sanada's cap perched proudly atop his head. Quite why Yukimura had decided that a beach-trip was required was still uncertain, though Yagyuu suspected it might be something to do with 'introducing fun to their tennis'. And, more to the point, exactly how the captain had managed to separate his best friend from his hat was anyone's guess, and preferably not Yagyuu's.

"Then again," and that rarest of all expressions – a smile – crossed Sanada's face. "His headband is currently in my possession."

.

"Yukimura! Give my hat back!"

If there was one thing Sanada knew, it was that black hats and salt water did not mix. Yukimura was perilously close to the edge of the sea, all but dancing in the surf, white foam flying around his feet and – yes, and Sanada's hat still on his head. Unfortunately, Sanada (not as comfortable with running around a crowded beach half-naked as his team-mates seemed to be) had been put on bag-and-towel guarding duty by the very same hat-thief he was currently watching.

"Hmm? What's that, Sanada?"

Sanada blinked. There was another Yukimura next to him, this one decidedly hat-less and smiling gently. "Niou, this isn't funny."

Yukimura-Niou looked affronted. "Sanada, I thought you of all people would be able to to tell the difference between me and Niou."

Oh. "Then it's Niou who's currently threatening to soak my hat in salt water. How did I know?"

Yukimura laughed. "Serves you right. That hat probably needs a wash by now anyway."

Sanada harrumphed and turned away. Why did nobody respect his hat? "It's your fault for stealing it in the first place – and it was definitely you, Niou was walking next to Kirihara and Yagyuu in front of me."

"Go and get it back, then, if it bothers you that much."

Honestly, his captain was infuriating sometimes. "Fine, then. But you have to look after the bags."

Yukimura shrugged. "Go on then. Get your precious cap back."

Sanada set off determinedly, eyes fixed on where Niou-as-Yukimura was now heading into deeper and deeper water. He was up to his chest by now, and the bigger waves were forcing him to jump so that he didn't go under. Sanada was going to have to be quick.

The general hubbub hid the noise of Sanada sneaking up on Niou-as-Yukimura, that and the fact that Niou was clearly determined to get as deep as possible. He hadn't got the cap wet yet, which was slightly surprising considering Niou's usual habits. Then again, despite appearances, the Trickster did actually have a survival instinct, so maybe there wasn't so much to wonder at.

Sanada was two steps away from his quarry when his feet suddenly went out from under him, the sand being swept away by the rolling water above. Instinctively, he reached out to grab his hat, only to get his fingers tangled in the blue wig instead as he fumbled for purchase on the shifting ground. He yanked at the wig to get his hat off -

It didn't come off.

Yukimura shrieked.

Instantly, Sanada found himself deep under the influence of the yips, blinded to the approach of the next swell that filled his mouth and sightless eyes with salt. "Yu-Yukimura?" he spluttered. What was going on?

"Sanada," Yukimura growled. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"But... but you're Niou... I..." Realising what had actually happened, Sanada's mood instantly darkened. "I am going to kill Niou."

He heard a soft snarl from beside him and suddenly he could see again. "You thought I was Niou? Honestly, Sanada, I'd have thought you of all people would be able to tell the difference between us."

Sanada sighed, realising that Yukimura was out of his arm's reach and still wearing his (amazingly dry) hat. "That's exactly what he said."

"So either you're not as observant as I give you credit for, or Niou's mimicry is getting a lot better, or both," Yukimura looked thoughtful. "You can both be on clean-up duty in the locker rooms for the next month. That way you might learn what Niou's actually like."

It wasn't as bad as some of the punishments Yukimura was renowned for doling out, but it still wasn't nice. Normally the first-years were on clean-up duty. Then again, Sanada supposed, he had pulled Yukimura's hair rather hard.

Speaking of his captain, Yukimura was making his way back out of the sea, apparently on the warpath towards the real Niou-as-Yukimura who was happily sunbathing at the top of the beach. More to the point, Yukimura and Sanada's hat were on said warpath.

"Hey! Yukimura! Give my hat back!"

.

The sun was at its highest and hottest, and of all the regulars only Jackal and Kirihara seemed to have any energy left – they were building a very impressive sand-Rikkaidai a few feet away. Yagyuu and Yanagi were reading, as was a sorry-looking Niou, who had been icily informed of his punishment by his captain and had then proceeded to lose the miniature beach-tennis tournament they had set up by crashing out spectacularly to Marui of all people. This had earned him many laps from his vice-captain. Marui himself was off getting ice-cream for all of them. For once, Jackal was not paying for them (Yagyuu had lost a bet against Marui and the result was that it was his turn to treat). Sanada was lying on his stomach, one eye on the puzzle book he was slowly working his way through and the other on the captain lying next to him, sunbathing, fast asleep and, yes, still wearing Sanada's cap as a shade. For once, though, Sanada wasn't tempted to just grab it back; being woken by blinding light in your eyes was never pleasant.

"Yanagi?"

"Hmm?"

"Present. Blank A blank blank blank R."

Yanagi closed his eyes against the glare of the sun. "Blank A?"

"Blank A blank blank blank R," Sanada confirmed.

"Favour. A small present, once given by a lady to her knight, champion or lover to show her support of him and worn in her honour."

"Thanks." Sanada quickly filled in the missing letters. He was normally pretty good at crosswords, but the heat was sapping both his energy and his brainpower, and that one had stumped him.

"Oh wow! How'd you do that, Jackal?" The exclamation came from Kirihara. "You made the nets and everything!"

Sanada rolled over and looked across to where the pair were sitting. Jackal looked rather proud of himself, and it was quickly obvious why when Sanada sat up. Next to the magnificent sand-copy of Rikkaidai School was a perfect scale model of the tennis courts, right down to the line-markings, the benches, the slopes around them and even the nets, collapsed as they would be at the end of a training session. It really was rather impressive.

"Good work, Jackal," Yagyuu said, putting his book down. "So what time is it at Sand-Rikkai?"

"Half past nine," Kirihara said, just as Jackal said "Twelve on a Saturday."

Kirihara frowned. "No, we don't take the nets down at lunchtime," he protested.

"We do on this Saturday," Jackal told him. "We've all gone off to Hyoutei for practice matches, but Captain has said that no matter what the results are, we have to come back and run cool-down laps here."

"Do I get to play Atobe?" Kirihara asked immediately.

"No, you get to play doubles with Niou against Shishido and Choutarou," Yukimura informed his little ace from under the peak of Sanada's cap, revealing that perhaps he hadn't been quite as asleep as Sanada had thought.

Kirihara scowled. "I could beat Atobe. Definitely."

"Beat Hiyoshi in an actual practice match first and I might consider it," Yukimura said. "Until then, Atobe is mine and Sanada's."

"But captain...!"

"Ice-cream!" Marui carolled, dropping down onto his towel with extreme care. "Man, it's hard carrying eight at once when you've only got two hands."

The introduction of slightly soft ice-cream stopped the conversation in its tracks as each of the boys abandoned what they were doing and scrambled to grab a cone from Marui because they all ended up in the sand. Yukimura put Sanada's hat on properly as he accepted his cone from Yanagi. Weirdly, it suited him, which was very odd as Yukimura never wore caps as a rule and very rarely ate ice-cream.

A sudden thought occurred to Sanada and he grinned to himself as he dug through his bag and pulled out a thin strip of green material – Yukimura's treasured headband. Revenge was not his usual modus operandi, but this seemed to be a day for exceptions.

From Niou's instantaneous reaction, headbands did not suit Sanada in the slightest. The white-haired boy snorted with laughter and ended up with ice-cream on his nose and in his hair, much to Kirihara and Marui's amusement. Yukimura, wondering what the hilarity was about, glanced up at his vice-captain and then looked away just as quickly, his expression gleeful and clearly fighting laughter.

"Please tell me you have a camera, Jackal," Marui gasped between his own laughter. "I can't hold mine steady!"

Jackal wasn't the only one taking photos. Niou was grinning evilly as he caught Sanada's embarrassment, Yukimura's now-serene expression and the swapped head-gear. There were only two possible uses for shots like these – blackmail or humiliation, or better, the yearbook, which was both.

Irritated, Sanada pulled off the offending article and dangled it in front of Yukimura's nose. "Give me back my hat."

Yukimura looked more amused than ever. "But your cap is such a useful sunshade, Sanada, and I wanted to go back to sleep again..."

Sanada rolled his eyes. "You're ridiculous."

"No, I'm captain. Now, eat your ice-cream before the sand or the seagulls get it."

Sanada gave up.

.

"That was fun! When can we go again?"

The eight Rikkai boys were safely ensconced in an otherwise empty train carriage, both they and their stuff haphazardly sprawled across far more seats than was strictly necessary. Kirihara was already asleep, curled around his bag, and Niou looked set to follow. Only Marui had any real energy left, recharged by a last-minute bag of candy-floss that he'd bought when Yukimura was looking the other way.

"Seriously," he continued. "We should do this more often. It's not like we're even very far from the seaside – we could go on Sunday instead of practice or something..."

"Instead of practice?" Considering that he was half-asleep in the heat, Sanada's cap sitting slightly askew on his head, Yukimura's voice held an astonishing amount of ice. Marui shuddered and back-tracked.

"After practice, I meant..."

Yagyuu pulled his feet up onto the seats and leant back against the window like the fifteen-year-old boy he was instead of the Rikkaidai Gentleman he was meant to be. "It depends on the weather – would you want to go when it was raining?"

"Practice on the beach would be great training, though," Jackal pointed out, eyes closed. "Running on sand is much harder than normal ground."

"It could improve the game of the serve-and-volley players too," Yanagi added. "The bounce of the ball is completely nullified by the sand, so it would force everyone to return it before it landed."

"Excellent training for Marui, then," Sanada chipped in. "Maybe practice on the beach wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"Swimming in the sea would improve cardiovascular strength, endurance and general fitness." There was a definite yawn in Yukimura's voice and he was leaning against Yanagi. "Good plan, Marui. Sanada, we'll sort out getting the regulars to train on the beach twice a month or so when we get back to school."

Marui looked from team-mate to team-mate in only mild surprise at how quickly a day off at the beach had turned into plans for extra-hard training sessions. After all, they were Rikkaidai.

"Could we still get ice-cream afterwards?" he asked, but got no reply. The other members of the team had all fallen asleep.

Okay, Jackal and the still-hatless Sanada were awake, but they never slept anyway so it didn't count.

.

"See you Monday!" Niou called as the group separated at the gates of Rikkaidai, finally back home. Most of them were sporting some degree of sunburn, but strangely the severity of the burn seemed to be in direct correlation to the size of the smiles on their face, so Marui was positively beaming. Niou offered an equally large grin before turning to walk off with Kirihara; they lived in the same direction.

"Don't forget we've got that essay for History to finish," Jackal could be heard saying to Marui as the two set off in the direction of their own homes, followed by Yukimura and Sanada who lived just beyond them. Yanagi and Yagyuu were left to go their separate ways, as usual.

"It was a good day," Yukimura said as he halted at the corner of his road, leaving Sanada to go ahead to his own house a few streets beyond.

"It was a long day," Sanada retorted, and Yukimura laughed at him.

"You're the one who woke up at four," he said.

"It felt longer. Besides, you were the one who was up at five to get everyone together."

Yukimura just rolled his eyes, shifting his bag on his shoulder to ease the pressure on a long streak of sunburn down his left arm. "I'll see you on Monday, then."

"See you Monday," Sanada echoed as Yukimura turned away. He watched him heading towards the wide gardens of his house, mind racing as he tried to remember what it was that he had been meaning to say to his blue-haired captain for a long time now. It was something important, he knew that...

It wasn't until Yukimura was almost at his front door that Sanada finally remembered with a jolt.

"Yukimura! Give my hat back!"