HOSPITAL BED CRAWL.
In which Yukimura hates Echizen.
disclaimer: prince of tennis is certainly not mine.
When Yukimura is a first year attending Rikkai, he walks into the tennis courts with his head high and Sanada and Yanagi on either side. They will not lose. Renji has his notebook open, already scribbling and Genichirou's face is as impassive as ever, but Seiichi has known him long enough that he can see the small signs of anitcipation.
They are almost dissapointed at how easy it was. One by one, they defeated the members of the tennis club and are so disgusted. The only challenge is the captain, and none of them win against him. Their old buchou played a certain type of tennis, where he hit every ball and incapacitated his oppenent's senses, robbing them of their ability to feel, see, hear, play. Yukimura is terrified.
Then when his old captain tells him to stay after club activities, they play a one on one match. Seiichi loses, of course, but it's worth it. He remembers looking up at his captain in awe, childish admiration in his wide ocean blue eyes, and he almost thinks he could fall in love. He asks the nameless captain to teach him how to play true tennis, and he gets a pat on the head and a condesending smile for his efforts. Along with a, "maybe someday, you don't understand enough yet."
This is how Yukimra learns to play the tennis that makes him the best.
One day during afternoon practice, when the sun was bright and sweat dripped down the club members faces, on a day that really shouldn't have been special, Yukimura collapses. There were a few warnings throughout the week, getting tired easier, losing his breath faster, slouching just a tiny bit.
Everyone is horrified and questioning all at once. No one is sure what to do, not even Yanagi with his notebook flipped to an empty page and his eyes open. The only thing they can do is rush him to the hospital, and even then they're still shaking. What would they do without their captain?
It turns out Yukimura's disease is serious. Serious enough for him to have to stay in the hospital for an indefinite time. They pretend that when they visit him the next week he doesn't have tear tracks all over his face. He justs lifts his eyes a little, and asks how the club is doing. They don't know how to respond. They don't know how to tell him that his precious tennis club is falling apart.
The days drag by when he's stuck in the hospital. He misses tennis. He hates spending all day laying on the thin mattress, hates talking to the nurses with their sympathetic smiles and false hope. Hates the tasteless hospital food they give him, hates this feeling of absolute helplessness. It's all become a vicious circle of I hate this. I want to go home. Please cure me, and he can't get out.
He begins to think he'll never get out of this place, that he'll never be able to feel the sun on his face and the wind in his hair and not have to have some fake pretty nurse assist him. The only days he looks forward to are when his team visits, because they've always been lively and somehow, when they're there, everything seems a little bit brighter and not so starch white.
One cloudy day, just Genichirou visits, and he brings Seiichi a single flower. It's not something so cheesy as a rose, it's just a plain white flower. Yukimura thinks it might be a daisy, but he never questions Sanada. He wonders what it's supposed to mean, though he does get this lingering feeling of regret after it dies a week later.
Yukimura hates Echizen Ryoma.
He realizes this while he's reading some sports magazine that Sanada and Kirihara have supplied him with. There's nothing else to do really, while he's waiting for magic, a cure that'll solve everything.
He stops at an article, about a freshman tennis prodigy. The bets are on Seigaku to win this year, the article reads. They've got a new secret weapon, which isn't so secret if there's an article about him. His name is Echizen Ryoma, a first year, and he is twelve years old, soon to be thirteen. He sounds young, compared to all the third years who are fourteen and border on fifteen. His skills are supposed to be national level, and Seichii can't help the mocking thoughts that run through his head. This mere child wasn't a threat.
There's a picture of a pretty little boy on the side, wide honey eyes staring up at Yukimura solemnly from under a cap that covered a full head of black hair that almost looked tinted with green. The photograph stirs something in Yukimura, a feeling of loathing and he wants to rip those pretty eyes out of the boy's head. He gets halfway through the article before he tears out the page and crumples it up. Next time Sanada visits, he smiles pleasantly and tells him to crush Seigaku.
A few days later, he gets a visit from Tezuka. He absently wonders why the esteemed Seigaku captain would come out all this way just to visit him. The stoic faced buchou was the same as always, stiff posture, hair in neat disarray, glasses sliding down his slim nose. He nods to the Rikkai captain, and sits down on the chair that was placed next to his bed.
After a few moments of silence, right when Yukimura is about to ask what he's doing here, the Seigaku captain says in a firm voice that tolerates no nonsense, "Seigaku will win."
Seiichi keeps his smile, even though it's gotten a bit more tense after those words. He can't believe how cheeky the other captain really is. His hands, calloused and dry, clench under the paper thin hospital blanket, and he hopes it's not obvious how malicious his thoughts really are. If Tezuka Kunimitsu is really going to place his teams hope on some young freshmen who would just dissappear into the dust, then Yukimura won't stop him. He bids Tezuka a good day as he gets up and leaves. He can almost feel the dislike grow with every step.
If he wanted Rikkai to win, they would need to destroy Echizen. That was the key.
He can forgive Sanada's loss to Echizen, who seems to have become his one-sided enemy, if only because the surgery was successful. Now they are in the nationals, and they are stronger, smarter. They have come to win. They beat their oppenents mercilessly, because they are not playing around. Their afternoon practice has become intense, there is not enough time for them mess up. Although he wonders how the hell Niou and Akaya can still find the time to play tricks on everyone.
Lately, His head has been filled with thoughts of bringing Echizen down. He's not obsessed, no, far from it, he just wants to beat Echizen. He thinks, if this were a movie, would he be the villain? He doesn't think he's evil, but the looks that Marui gives him when he orders more laps say he most certainly is.
It's for the good of the team, he tells them. It will be worth it in the end, when they are holding the trophy and Echizen has a look of utter defeat on his face.
It's later that night, when he has his hand around his cock and he's thinking of that moment when he will win that he's sort of disgusted with himself.
On the other side of the court, Echizen is smaller than he expected. His face is arrogant and he's smirking and Yukimura can't wait to wipe it off. He takes away the brat's senses, and he smiles at how easy it was. He was expecting more. This match is over, he has already won. They don't call him the Child of God without reason. But then the kid surprises him, and pulls out all the stops. In the end, Yukimura loses.
He wants to cry, but he doesn't. He's worked so hard for this, he should be the one smiling with his team. Not some brat that swooped in from America and took his championship from him. He's resentful, and the handshake he gives Echizen is too firm, his smile just a little off, and if the look Echizen gives him is anything to go by, it shows. It was a good match though, that much he can admit to, if nothing else.
He turns to his team, broad shouldered and bright blue bangs flowing with the wind, and he says they should go out to eat, Sanada's treat, of course. Yanagi recommends a good sushi place, even though everyone's face is a little surprised. Akaya gives him a look, as if he knows what it's like to play against Echizen and lose. As if he's had this feeling of being worthless and exalted at the same time. He knows it will be a while before he plays Echizen again.
He does not punish the team. It's not their fault that Seigaku's rookie beat him. If anyone deserves to be punished, it is himself.
It's years later, when he's captain of the high school division of Rikkai's tennis team, that he gets a call from Echizen. The familiar feeling of contempt is there, and he answers. Echizen asks for a match, and Yukimura briefly wonders why he's in the Kanagawa prefecture. He was never one for turning down a chance to play a good game, so he accepts. He forces himself to feel honored that Echizen asked him for a game, when he very well could've asked Sanada.
They meet at the tennis courts near his school, and they're the only ones there. He can tell it's Echizen, it was obvious even after all these years of no contact. He's matured nicely. Nearly up to Yukimumra's shoulder, but Seiichi's grown almost as tall as Yanagi now. His face was still too pretty for a boy, but the angle of his jaw the way he held himself made sure you couldn't mistake him for a girl. His eyes were still wide, but somehow more narrow around the edges, and his hair was longer, as if he hadn't gotten it cut in a long time.
He asks Yukimura, "Rough or smooth?" and when he chooses rough he feels the need to laugh because this boy doesn't get it. He forgets that Echizen is only fifteen, while he himself is nearly eighteen. The racket lands with the R upside down, it's Seiichi's serve.
The match they play is intense, and leave them both aching for more. Yukimura still hates Ryoma, and he's rough as he pushes the kid against the fence and fucks him. He absently wonders if he's hurting him, but pays more attention to his own needs.
They don't talk about it afterwards, they just avoid each other's eyes and go on their seperate ways. This is the beginning.
The matches become more frequent, and he wonders if Echizen is staying at a hotel. He's snooped around, and hasn't heard any recent news of Echizen attending Seigaku, but doesn't bother to ask why Echizen is always in the area. After a month, he decides to ask Echizen out on a real date. He still hates him, but he figures having sex with someone more than actually talking to them isn't healthy. He's a gentleman, after all.
They go to a small cafe, near his house and the atmosphere around them is awkward. This is the first time they're not at a tennis court, or in a locker room, and not pressed against something. They choose a table near the window, and Yukimura doesn't know what to talk about. He just looks at Echizen for a long moment, and Echizen looks back. Then his eyes dart to the menu, and a waitress comes to take their order.
What Yukimura doesn't expect, is for the rest of his team to come waltzing in the place, as if they've been here before. Akaya is grinning mischieviously, Niou is antagonizing Yagyuu, Jackal is trying to keep Marui from running off to look at the sweets, and Yanagi and Sanada are in the back talking to each other in low tones. His eyes widen and he glances at Ryoma, only to see the golden eyes also wide in shock. For a moment, he wonders why his team didn't think of inviting him.
They both get up at the same time, and run to the bathroom that's down the hall. Seiichi hopes that they don't see him. Explaining this would be an unpleasant experience for everyone. He feels sort of silly, hiding out in the bathroom with Echizen, and thinks, would it be so bad if his team saw him here with the kid? Sure, they'd have questions, but he could deal with that.
He takes a look out the door, and they're at some table in the corner. If Yukimura was careful, he could sneak Echizen and him out without his team seeing them. After a few more minutes, when they've successfully gotten out and are on the sidewalk walking towards the tennis court, he looks too see how Ryoma is doing.
The kid has a smirk on his face, and Yukimura thinks he might hate him a little bit less.
an; i must admit, in the process of writing this, my love for yukimura has grown exponentially. personally though, i don't like when people make him a smiling sadist like fuji. i like to think fuji smiles to hide stuff, like his feelings or when he's being tricky, but that yukimura smiles because he honestly enjoys himself. i mean, i would if i had a disease that could've killed me but didn't. though i do like to give yukimura a dose of maliciousness, hah.
excuse me for adding that small bit of alpha, but i'm a sucker.
anywho, enough of my ramblings.
all reviews appreciated (: