Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Title: Correlation
Author: hana-akira AKA rurichi
Character: Echizen Ryoga, Echizen Ryoma
Genre: Romance, General
Rating: 19+
Warning: OOC, AU, incest that isn't incest, boy liking another boy, sexual content mentioned or implied
Prompt: 1sentence LJ Theme Set Beta, Ryoga/Ryoma
Summary: The mutual relation of two or more things; something that communicates. – —Ryoga/Ryoma, 1sentence?, Theme Set Beta, and incest that's not incest
A/N: Originally done for the 1sentence challenge, but since because I'm bad with rules, I didn't do one sentences so that's why it's not posted at the community. Ryoga is adopted so it's only incest in name between Ryoga and Ryoma, though they do look alike. But even if they're actual brothers, love is love—it shouldn't, in the first place, be defined by things like gender, age, color, or relation, but rather by feelings. "Aniki" means "big brother" in Japanese and is a term Ryoma refers to Ryoga by. "Chibisuke" roughly means "shorty" in Japanese and is Ryoga's endearment for Ryoma. "Otouto" means "little brother" in Japanese.
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#01 – Walking
Their paths have crossed each other's countless of times, but maybe, just this once, they can walk together instead of walk in perpendicular or parallel lines.
#02 – Waltz
How did this happen? Ryoma thinks in dismay, but he can only feel that something inside of him just shrivel up and die when his older brother once again twirls him around like in the waltz and then dip him down tango-style.
#03 – Wishes
When Ryoga, in a fit of absolute boredom, makes a wish one night after eating Chinese take-out with the fortune cookie stating, "Big things come in small packages," he will understand just how true this statement is when not even three hours later, he will see the image of Echizen Ryoma in motion.
#04 – Wonder
Is it alright if I start liking you like how a man would like his lover? Ryoga wonders, but he just stays silent and stands completely still at the open doorway of Chibisuke's room, observing quietly his younger brother's sleeping form and the moonlight playing on his hair.
#05 – Worry
I'm worried about you, Ryoma wants to say instead of saying that tennis is fun because he can see that the look in Aniki's eyes are like the eyes he sometimes sees in those teary-eyed soap operas on TV that mother sometimes leaves on, but he doesn't because he's only six and what does a child like him know, anyway?
#06 – Whimsy
The older male was a capricious sort of person—doing things on a whim or only things that interested him—but Ryoma could only thank his lucky stars that "Echizen Ryoga" was like this otherwise his way of tennis would have never distracted the other.
#07 - Waste/Wasteland
What's left behind of Echizen Ryoga's actions is a wasteland and the only thought Saitou Itaru had in his mind was that Byoudouin Houou was a complete fool for ever trying to hurt the younger Echizen male with a tennis ball.
#08 - Whiskey and rum
How Ryoga can stand the taste of any alcoholic beverage—especially its sour odor and the sharp, bitter tang it offers—Ryoma would never know even as he just sighs in resignation and practiced tolerance when the older boy pulls him into another whiskey-and-rum-flavored kiss.
#09 – War
This constant state of war between them is disturbingly arousing, but it doesn't really matter and neither of them really care because in the end, it's just a fun game to them.
#10 – Weddings
They don't need to have a wedding to make things official or to promise each other forever since their love for each other is already enough for all of that, but Ryoga still tries to cajole Ryoma into wearing a wedding dress after having seen his younger lover in a photo wearing Cinderella's dress.
#11 – Birthday
He knows he can't ever make up for the fact that he's missed too many of his little brother's birthdays, but Ryoga wants to at least try and make each one that he spends now with Chibisuke be the best.
#12 – Blessing
Nanjiroh just blinks and shrugs dismissively when his sons admit that they're gay, already saying flippantly that they have his blessing with their loves of their lives and all the other rot fathers are supposed to tell their kids, yet he still chokes on his own spit and almost rips a page out from the magazine he's reading when they tell him further that they're in love with each other.
#13 – Bias
To anyone with even half a brain, it was obvious that Echizen Ryoga was biased when it came to his baby brother. The younger boy, after all, was Ryoga's favorite "playmate".
#14 – Burning
Underneath his skin, Ryoma could feel an itch and burning fury build up, a dark desire to crush the older boy and make his mocking laugh turn into wretched screams begging for mercy. A burning urge to wreak destruction and burn everything he could reach to the ground.
#15 – Breathing
They both breathe heavily and are beyond exhausted before they even reached the end and so neither of them can be considered a winner or a loser.
#16 – Breaking
Every time they play against one another, neither of them can deny the feeling that they were breaking past their limits, and perhaps, also, breaking past the barriers, walls, and fortresses they had built around them to test the worth of the world that had laid before them.
#17 – Belief
Before he had been reunited with Chibisuke, Ryoga hadn't put much stock into things like luck, chance, fortune, or even fate. After they'd been reacquainted, though, he started to believe that at least karma must have existed, what with how he had been so thoroughly beaten and absolutely defeated.
#18 – Balloon
"I'm not a little kid anymore," Ryoma states matter-of-factedly, but it still doesn't change the fact that he takes the ridiculous amount of multicolored balloons from Ryoga's hands and quickly looks away from the older boy with a faintly blushing face.
#19 – Balcony
Late at night, after everyone else had gone to sleep on the cruise ship, Ryoma would continue to stare at the crescent moon in mute contemplation from the balcony connected to his room, not knowing that another pair of dark golden eyes would be gazing at his form with the same amount of intensity.
#20 - Bane
"You're no fun, Chibisuke," the taller boy says as he pouts slightly, and Ryoma inwardly thanks all the deities he knows that he won't be used as free entertainment by the bane of his existence.
#21 – Quiet
It's when the older male suddenly, out of the blue, gets quiet that Ryoma knows that something dangerous is coming, and he's proven right when in the next second, Ryoga gets down on one knee with a small black ring box—the expression on his face so serious that it's uncharacteristic of the taller boy's usual sense of humor.
#22 – Quirks
Despite all the years Ryoma has known Ryoga for, some things can never be explained—one being his penchant for always teasing him with that atrocious nickname, and the other being his quirk of taking all the things that were his for his own without so much as a by-your-leave.
#23 – Question
As much as he wants to know, Ryoma will never ask his "older brother" why he had left all those years ago because he knows that some things are much better off left alone and ignored.
#24 – Quarrel
Ryoma hates quarreling—not just because it's loud, tiring, and pointless since it's obvious that people are bound to have different opinions and is therefore just a waste of time and effort—but because his Aniki always seems to rile him up enough to make him take his frustrations out on him by way of rough, wild sex.
#25 – Quitting
"You can't quit now," Ryoga gasped out heavily, his back arched and stretched to its limits. Ryoma merely grinded his teeth together, his own body literally on top of his "older brother's" figure, and cursed six ways to Sunday at the dumbass who had developed the game "Twister".
"Twister" indeed. More like "Twisted".
#26 – Jump
His dislike for water (which was quite alike to a cat's own disdain of the substance) prevented him from jumping into it, and as young male tried to get his tennis ball by using his racket as some sort of net, Ryoga could only stare at the scene, his insides nearly melting at the cuteness of it all, particularly the part where his little brother was tiptoeing the swimming pool's edge just to trying to get back what was his.
#27 – Jester
Ryoma knows his Aniki is talented at many things—tennis, flirting, jet skiing, threatening, conning, smirking—but it still somehow catches him off guard that the taller boy can juggle oranges, tennis balls, and his tennis racket all together at once without even breaking a sweat.
#28 – Jousting
There was nothing interesting about two guys on horses charging lances at each other, and even if both of the Echizen brothers agreed that the injuries were somewhat amusing, jousting, in their opinion, just wasn't as interesting as tennis.
#29 – Jewel
Ryoga knows that this feeling of wanting to keep his younger brother to himself isn't quite right—especially when he wants to lock the other up in a cage and never, ever let him go or out of his sight (not unlike how a dragon would protect its most precious gems and jewels)—but the thought of right or wrong had never mattered much to Ryoga. Not when there were more important things to pay attention to like who did Chibisuke like the most or something like that.
#30 – Just
Just as well, Ryoga will never tell his "little brother" why he had left in the first place—and why he still keeps on leaving at irregular intervals—simply for the fact that once he reveals it, Ryoma might just leave him one day and never look back.
#31 – Smirk
"Hey Chibisuke," Ryoga began with a confident smirk on his face, his hands resting dangerously low on Ryoma's hips as he pulled their bodies flush against each other's, "how about showing some love to your favorite older brother?"
#32 – Sorrow
The taller boy looked at the smashed orange on the ground with such a sorrowful and woeful look in his eyes that suddenly, with only an abject feeling of horror he could feel, Ryoma wanted to… comfort the older male or somehow get him another orange.
#33 – Stupidity
How Ryoga can be so stupid, Ryoma would never know, but he just endures the stupidity like a seasoned pro and tells himself that his older brother's kink for orange-flavored lip-gloss would blow over as soon as it had come.
#34 – Serenade
As his older brother started to sing and serenade him with a guitar in front of all the people at the U-17 camp, Ryoma could only freeze with a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face and think that their reunion had come too soon.
#35 – Sarcasm
"Here I am, at your beck and call—how would you like your massage today?" Chibisuke snarls out with a petulant, disgruntled voice, and Ryoga almost says, "Rough," before he remembers that his "younger brother" only meant that sarcastically without a hint of seriousness or sincerity at all.
#36 – Sordid
It's a sordid affair of things, their relationship, but they wouldn't have it any other way because they have each other and honestly, that was the only thing that actually mattered.
#37 – Soliloquy
"Do you always talk to yourself?" the younger teal-haired boy asks curiously with an innocent expression on his face, and it takes Ryoga a few blinks or two to realize that yes, he had been daydreaming about the past and that yes, Chibisuke had caught him in the act.
#38 – Sojourn
During his temporary sojourns in places all around the world, Ryoga would buy several trinkets that reminded him of Chibisuke—his lips lifting into a soft, warm smile full of adoration and affection whenever he looked upon a single one.
#39 – Share
The feeling of 'Maybe, we shared dreams, too?' is fleeting, but Ryoga can't help but think this as distant cities fade away and the only thing that matters is a small boy with a white cap on his head standing silently before him.
#40 – Solitary
Usually, Ryoma was a solitary creature, preferring only his cat Karupin during those times when he just needed to be alone from the usual bustle and hustle, but his older brother could be included, too, but only if the older boy could keep quiet.
#41 – Nowhere
It comes out of nowhere, just another normal day with normal weather, but Ryoma is one day looking at Ryoga and suddenly he just knows he's in love with the other man, in spite of all the flaws and faults and the mars that he knows the older man has.
#42 – Neutral
While it is neutral ground when they meet on the tennis court, that doesn't mean, however, their feelings are at all neutral for each other, and this is proven to be the truth every single time by the passion and power that is visibly apparent in their play.
#43 – Nuance
Ryoma may not understand or know his "Aniki" as much as an "Otouto" should have known, but even he can tell from just that one nuance in Ryoga's tone that the older teal-haired boy meant business and violence.
#44 – Near
If he had his choice, his younger brother would always be near him, side by side, because then they would always be together.
#45 – Natural
It's only natural that after a certain amount of time, if two people were compatible, they would want to spend more time with each other, and this truth is no different with the "Echizen brothers".
#46 – Horizon
On the horizon, watching as the sunset dipped into the sea, Ryoga could appreciate the sight before him, his mouth quirking upwards just a little bit when his little brother shifted sleepily once again at his side before settling back into a deep sleep.
#47 – Valiant
"Stop trying to act cool! I don't need you to protect me because I… I can protect myself!" Ryoma shouts vehemently, pounding his fists at the taller boy's chest, yet all Ryoga does is smile strangely at the shorter boy, doing nothing to stop the younger one's fit of temper.
#48 – Virtuous
There's nothing virtuous at all about the way Ryoga touches him or how each touch seemed to linger just a tad too long, slipping into places he would have never let anyone but himself touch, yet Ryoma also knew that there was something honest about the contact—something true and genuine.
#49 – Victory
"We're getting better at this," the older boy murmurs aloud, both of them soaked and still in the water, and even if there's an indescribable look on Chibisuke's usually blank face, Ryoga counts it as a victory on his part when his younger brother doesn't protest at all when he brings him just that bit closer so that he can properly hug him.
#50 – Defeat
As Chibisuke glares down at Ryoga from his position on the taller boy's stomach, threatening to tie him up and do unspeakable things to his body if he leaves again, Ryoga just looks up to the other boy's eyes, saying nonchalantly with a flirtatious leer on his lips, "I can live with that."
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A/N: Footnotes ahoy!
#10 – Weddings: The photo mention of Ryoma being in Cinderella's dress actually refers to the Prince of Tennis picture drama, "Pair Puri Episode 8: The Ocean Festival". In this picture drama episode, the Rikkaidai tennis club holds the play Cinderella and originally Kirihara Akaya is Cinderella, but he later tears up the dress and the dress gets shorter so Ryoma has to be Cinderella. At the end, there's a photo of Ryoma in Cinderella's dress.
#14 – Burning: This refers to the look and feeling in Ryoma's eyes in the Futari no Samurai movie where Ryoma hits the orange at Ryoga.