Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Ohjisama.
Notes: Hey, all ye peoples who actually bother to read my pathetic story, this was just an idea I had when I was watching the anime and goofing around with a word document so any feedback would be extremely welcome. Sankyuu!
-x-
Tennis…it was a word of the past, a past that didn't seem to quite connect to his current self. His memories carrying the title of Seigaku's captain were almost nonexistent. That was expected, since he made little effort to keep them there in his head; as a result, they were beginning to fade bit by bit.
It had been…how long? Five years since he left Seishun Gakuen, also the dreams he called tennis, those years seemed to drag on like centuries, not that Tezuka ever remembered feeling young.
That hardly mattered now, it was stupid to try and relive the past with a piano concert less than 10 minutes away. He'd forgotten everything…well, almost everything.
Except that one face. That face would not fade from his mind's eye; the harder he tried to forget, the more that face would taunt him, nagging at the back of his subconscious, causing him to lose concentration on whatever he was doing. He couldn't afford that.
That face haunted him; he'd long forgotten the name.
"Tezuka-san," the head usher peeked into the room, "You have five minutes."
After a brief glance at his watch, Tezuka nodded, "Fine."
"And this is a note from your mother."
"Thank you." He put the plain envelope on the table, making no move to open it, there would be time for that later, and time was running short.
"I'll come for you again when we are ready, good luck." The usher closed the door.
Tezuka let out a shaky breath that he wasn't even aware of holding. He looked at his watch again. Two minutes, one minute…
He took a deep breath.
"Tezuka-san." The usher magically materialized at his elbow. "It's time to go."
Numbly, Tezuka somehow got to his feet and forced his leaden feet to move. A thought flashed through his mind as he placed one hand on the doorknob. The thought was only there for a total of eight seconds, so he had no time to deem it true or false, nor did he really care. The thought was this: I was never nervous when I played tennis. Tennis…that was tennis, this was piano, they were totally different things.
-x-
Inui met him backstage, after the performance. "Nice job, only two concerts to go and you're free for this season."
Inui Sadaharu was the only one with whom Tezuka had bothered to keep in touch in the past years, for no particular reason, he just happened to share a rented apartment with Inui two miles down from campus. Though it was he who paid most of the rent.
"Be serious." Tezuka snapped as he stuffed his sheet music in a faded shoulder bag that looked very out of place when he carried it, partly because he was wearing a suit and tie. "I made mistakes, I know that." He really wasn't in the best of moods, with an exam to cram for tomorrow morning; Tezuka could sense a major headache coming.
"It wasn't that bad, you rushed a bit on the last piece, and on the ending, you played a major chord instead, but nobody noticed, except me, because I hear this song everyday, it's only reasonable that I'd detect the mistakes. You completed at least 96 percent of it, as far as I can tell." Inui said, shoving a bouquet of fresh yellow tulips into his arms. "Before I forget, these are for you."
"Tulips…right." Tezuka raised an mildly curious eyebrow, "Who brought these? You didn't, I'm assuming."
"The usher brought them a few minutes ago."
"I'm not interested." Tezuka shoved the tulips back at Inui.
"Tezuka, don't be an idiot, they're not from the usher." Inui examined the flowers, then stating the obvious. "Whoever sent you these…there's no note."
"Note or no note, I don't care." Tezuka shouldered the bag, "I'm not in a good mood, let's go home. I've got more than enough homework to last me a lifetime."
Inui had enough sense to shut up as he followed his friend out the door.
-x-
Since Tezuka was tired, Inui wordlessly took the wheel. "Do you even remember them?"
Tezuka rested his head on the windowpane. "Who?"
"You know who, Tezuka."
"I wish I didn't." that was the truth, he didn't want to remember, "Only bits and pieces."
"Like?"Inui was clearly enjoying this, for some reason. Maybe he just enjoyed seeing his former captain struggle.
"There was a kid who hissed and wore bandanas."Tezuka ventured finally.
"That was Kaidoh."
"A kid with a cap, a freshman, I think."
"That was Echizen."
"Wasn't there a person who, well, had a dual personality, if you could put it that way?"
"That was Kawamura."
"Why are we even having this conversation?" It seemed to Tezuka that this conversation was sour, they had recalled this dialogue one time too many. He was tired. "If you really want a reunion, you could look them up in the phone book."
"You wouldn't approve, would you?"
"If you care about what I approve of or not, you wouldn't even bothered bringing this up, we've been over it." Tezuka retorted quietly.
"You should go to bed early today." Inui said right out of the blue, "There's a 70 percent chance that you'll flunk your exam if you don't get enough sleep."
"I think I need some aspirin." Tezuka pressed a hand to his forehead.
Inui braked suddenly and pulled the car near the curb, "Fine, there's some in the cupboard, what do you want me to do with the tulips?"
"Do whatever you want, I really don't care." Tezuka managed to drag himself out of the car, "I'm going to bed."
Inside, Tezuka swallowed two pills and collapsed on the bed, overcame with fatigue, he dreamed of the face.
-x-
"Hey, wake up. Tezuka? Tezuka!" a hand shook him roughly.
Tezuka rolled over and opened his eyes to see Inui standing over him pointing at the clock. 8:00, his first class started at 8:15, he had exactly fifteen minutes to get over to the campus. "Damn." He swore under his breath, "Why didn't you wake me earlier?" he sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes.
"I just got out of the shower." Inui slung a wet towel over his shoulder. "Hurry up."
"Don't you need the car?"
"I can walk, my first class doesn't start until 10:45."
"Great." Tezuka ducked into the bathroom and quickly changed into the first two garments he grabbed out of his top drawer (jeans and shirt with the top three buttons missing). "I'm going."
"What about breakfast?" Inui called after him.
"I don't trust you, you haven't cooked anything edible in years." With that, Tezuka headed out the door.
"I'm honored." Inui smirked
