Disclaimer: The original manga Tennis no Oujisama is the work of Konomi Takeshi. Characters and settings have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use.

Blame the Falling Snow

Okay, if he was entirely honest with himself, he liked her. A lot.

Why else would he have shown up every single time she called him to pick her up from school - to play tennis, to get a bite to eat, to do whatever she felt like if she didn't have to go straight home. At the end of the day, Tachibana Ann was just his type. Besides, you can't let a cute girl walk herself home from school. You just can't.

"Momoshiro-kun," she called out, waving from the other end of the Fudomine grounds. He'd biked over after tennis practice let out, the first snow of the year starting to fall.

Come to think of it, the rest of the Fudomine team was still in middle school. Only Tachibana had moved up last year. One of them to be sure, probably all of them, would have been more than willing to make sure nothing happened to their captain's little sister after classes and clubs let out for the day.

But she always called him, so they were probably busy, right? It looked like pretty much everyone was gone by the time he got here every day, so maybe she had extra duties. She was the girl's team's captain now, and a class rep. The other guys were long gone, for sure.

Momoshiro didn't really believe that, but it was good enough.

Skidding his bike to a stop right in front of where she was standing, he smiled his best cool-guy smile. "Need a lift, Tachibana's little sister?"

She flicked him on the nose with a finger and went back to putting on her gloves. "Thanks for coming."

"Any time," he replied, then frowned at the jacket hanging open over her school uniform. "Oi, oi. You gonna zip that up or what? It's snowing out. Not very cute for a girl to not take care of herself, you know."

"I'll be fine. Honestly, it's just a little cold."

"You gonna tell me you're used to the cold? C'mon, you're from Kyuusyuu." Without waiting for permission, he took the zipper and fastened it all the way up to the top, then took off his old blue-checked scarf and wrapped it around her neck. "There you go. Now you're dressed for snow."

It might have been the way she smirked or the way her nose looked cute with a snowflake fallen on it, or who knows what, but instead of taking his hands off the scarf, he pulled gently and she leaned in and let him kiss her.

If he could have put words to his thoughts, it might have been something like, 'Well, I guess I can't deny it now...' Didn't even cross his mind to check to make sure no one had showed up.

That being the case, he nearly jumped a mile in the air when he felt a solid tap on his shoulder, and the only reason he didn't collapse into a painful heap of injured tennis player and bike was that Ann caught his shoulders and kept him from falling. Slowly, he turned his head, feet frozen stiff to the ground even though the snow wasn't even sticking.

"T-Tachibana-san..." he stammered, seeing the last person he'd really ever wanted to see him kissing Ann after school. "I can explain."

The blond-again hair color on the new high school student made him look about five times as scary as usual. Or maybe it was just the expression on his face that said, 'You have two seconds to get out of my sight before I kill you.'

"Explain what? Explain why Ibu, Kamio, and Ishida aren't walking Ann home like I asked, or explain why you were kissing her?" His heart was trying to decide if it wanted to do double-time or stop beating altogether, and the combination of beats and skips hammering on his ribs wasn't making it any easier to think.

"Er... well..."

Tachibana grabbed the collar of Momoshiro's jacket, twisting it up and practically pulling him off the bike. "You think you want to go out with my sister? Is that it? Is that what's going on here, punk?"

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Momoshiro swallowed hard and prepared to answer. After all, it wasn't like a scary older brother was going to be any less scary if he said 'No'. Hell, 'yes' was probably a better answer if you'd just got caught trying to kiss his little sister.

Okay, succeeding at kissing her. That was pretty much it for him. And it's not like it wasn't true.

"Yes!" he managed to say, louder than he might have wanted to.

"Yes, what?" Tachibana replied, twisting his collar tighter. "I can't hear you. Speak up."

"Yes, sir! I would like to date your sister, sir!"

After a moment of quiet wherein he did not die, but thought he might have a heart attack, the hand on his collar let go. Cautiously opening one eye, he could see that Tachibana was smiling. But only for a second.

Before long, he was back to a menacing scowl. "About damn time you kept up your end, Seigaku," Tachibana said. Now released, Momoshiro sat down on the bike seat and grabbed the handles, breathing like he'd never had air in his lungs before. The cold wind burned his throat. "That the way you rich brats do things? Make the girl do all the work? From now on, you call her, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Ride slowly, no showing off. I don't want her getting hurt because of some stunt."

"Yes, sir."

"If you go out somewhere, have her home before dark. And I want to know where you are."

"Yes, sir."

"And I want absolutely no funny business. You damn well better be married before you try to touch her, or your ass is dead. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

"All right. Then you can date Ann on one condition."

Momoshiro gulped, watching Tachibana cross his arms and smirk. He'd thought Tachibana was scary when he was scowling, but that was freakin' terrifying.

"Anyone who wants to date Ann has to beat me in a one-set match first. Are you up for a game, Mr. Seishun Gakuen Middle School Tennis Club Vice-Captain?"

He could sense the hellish aura that radiated off of Tachibana on the court. Momoshiro knew he was good himself, but the high schooler was a step above human. Even if his own tennis was getting better every day, even if he could hold up his own on the court against all the legends... Even if he'd never back down from a match, that didn't mean he'd bet on him winning. Tachibana was no easy opponent.

But he'd never back down all the same. Not with the honor of Seigaku, Ann's honor, and his own pride on the line.

"Yes, sir. Not gonna change my mind. No way." He stretched out a fist to accept Tachibana's challenge. "Let's burn it up."

Tachibana bumped his fist with a sudden smile, and the frightful aura faded away. "Relax, kid. I'm just giving you a hard time. You seriously think I could stop her?" He gave Ann a nod, and she hopped up onto the back of the bike, laughing. "See you at home, Ann," Tachibana said, and turned to walk away.

Momoshiro just watched him leave, panic slowly receding until finally he could think again. "Did he just..." he began, stammering in confusion and looking back at the girl behind him.

"Show up especially to scare you?" She giggled, pulling down the scarf just far enough that he could see her smile. "Well, I know he never asked Ibu, Kamio, and Ishida to walk me home because I told him you were taking me, so yeah. Probably." He let out a half-wheezed sigh of relief, feeling his heartbeat finally starting to calm down to a normal rhythm and pace. But when she kissed him on the back of the head, saying "You're such a dork," that moment of terror subsided and he felt like he could take on anything.

The End