"A Matter of Winning"

Summary: Drabble. Shiraishi isn't too happy with the result of his match. A random conversation with Chitose tells him why.

Setting: Shitenhouji arc of the manga. Took place right after the Singles 3 match.

Warnings: Spoilers for Genius 321-322

Disclaimers: I don't own anything.

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Shiraishi Kuranosuke's brows furrowed in dismay as he stared at the vending machine standing in front of him.

It ate up his 500-yen coin. But the bottle of mineral water he had expected to get from the machine still had not appeared.

He pushed the refund button, hoping that he could at least get his money back, if the machine was not going to give him his drink. Five seconds had passed. Nothing happened.

He pushed it twice, then thrice. Still, the stubborn machine did not respond.

Shiraishi was very much a calm person, but pushing the refund button repeatedly and not getting anything was beginning to annoy him. He silently cursed the administrators for putting a broken machine in the Tokyo Municipal Arena tennis courts and causing inconvenience to customers like himself.

Realizing that his struggle against the malfunctioning machine would prove to be futile, he stopped pushing the refund button. He fought the urge to kick the machine out of annoyance and instead muttered an incoherent curse under his breath. He glowered at it one last time before he slung his tennis bag over his right shoulder and walked off to a nearby tennis court.

He had barely taken ten steps away from the vending machine when he heard the familiar clip-clop of wooden slippers against the concrete ground. The tiny jingle of a coin being dropped in the coin slot rang in his ears, followed by the whirring sound of the vending machine as it spat out a can of soda and a bottle of mineral water. Shiraishi's eyes narrowed.

"Hey."

Shiraishi extended his arm just in time to catch the bottled water thrown at him. He glanced sideways and was greeted with the sight of Chitose opening a can of Coke. The said person raised his hand in greeting and grinned at Shiraishi before gulping down his drink.

"Ah, that was refreshing, ne?"

"Hn," was the nonchalant reply.

Chitose walked towards him and deposited something in his hand. Shiraishi stared at the coins sitting on the palm of his right hand.

"You forgot your change."

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Shiraishi twisted the cap open and eagerly drank from the bottle. The cold water going down his throat quenched his thirst and refreshed his tired muscles. A gentle breeze brushed past him, tossing his hair from his face. He rested his back against the wire fence that covered the nearby tennis court, where he was idly passing the time. He closed his eyes as he inhaled the fresh burst of air in the surroundings.

"I haven't seen you so tired before. Fuji must have been a really tough opponent."

Shiraishi's eyes snapped open. He turned to Chitose who was standing beside him, eyes fixed on the tennis court. A grin tugged at the side of his teammate's lips.

"Yes, he's a really strong player," Shiraishi said as stared at the bottle in his hands.

"Gave you quite a challenge, didn't he?"

"Yeah."

"It was a great game," Chitose mumbled, resting his back against the fence and burying his hands on the pockets of his track pants. "For a while, I thought he was going to win."

"Yeah, me too. It was a good thing I won."

"But it seemed to me that you didn't like what happened back there."

A confused expression covered the Shitenhouji captain's face. "Huh?"

"You didn't look too happy even though you won the match."

"You noticed?"

"Of course."

Silence hovered above the two players as they stood, staring in space. Shiraishi began playing with his water bottle, tossing it up and catching it with his right hand. He sighed as he caught it after the fifth toss. His fingers gripped the bottle tightly.

"If Fuji's Hakuryuu didn't land out, you would've lost."

"…"

"You just got lucky."

Shiraishi bit his lip in irritation. As much as he didn't want to agree, Chitose had been right. That was why the results of the match bothered him so much. He did not feel as if he had really won the match.

"The one who wins the match is the winner. That's all that matters," he stated in a firm voice, as if trying to convince himself. He clenched his fists.

"True," Chitose said as he looked up to the sky, "But after watching your match, I felt like Fuji was the one who really won, not you."

Shiraishi heaved a sigh as all his convictions fell apart. "Yeah, me too."

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A/n: Confused? I was too, when I was writing this… haha… This was my attempt at interpreting Shiraishi's thoughts after the match with Fuji. There was this one picture of him in Genius 322 that looked really disappointed even though he won that match. I wrote it because the idea had been bugging me for days, though it didn't really turn out the way I wanted to. The title didn't really fit in well with this either, but it was the first thing that came to my mind and it stuck. Oh well.

Feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!