Disclaimer: Not mine, of course.

A Little Chaos

It had all started out like any other day in his life—orderly and routine. He had gotten out of bed two hours before tennis practice was due, just as he always did, performed all the usual morning rituals of cleaning and getting dressed for school, and prepared to head downstairs.

That was when he chanced to look at his calendar—and that was the end of feeling relaxed.

He had looked twice, even tried wiping his glasses to look again. Problem was, the date wasn't changing.

October 7nth…

It was his birthday.

Tezuka could feel himself starting to frown. He didn't like birthdays. Bad things happen on birthdays… Especially when said birthday happened to be on a school day.

Still, he reminded himself as he made his way downstairs, there was nothing to be worried about. After all, Oishi was the only one who knew when his birthday was. But…he just couldn't seem to shake off the feeling that something wasn't quite right…

Shaking his head, he thought with some regret that he was really starting to get paranoid.

"Kunimitsu dear! Is that you?"

He froze at the bottom of the stairs. Weren't his parents supposed to have left for a business trip half an hour ago? But that certainly wouldn't explain how his mother could be making her way down the hall with a bright smile to usher him into the kitchen.

"Happy birthday," she beamed at him, urging him into a chair and setting a plate in front of him.

"A—ah, thank you," he couldn't help but blink at her, 'but your trip—"

"Oh, don't worry about it," she waved him away cheerfully. "Your father's already left, but we decided I could stay home a little longer since it is your birthday."

And thus his day began---it was only the tip of the iceberg.

The bus ride to Seishun Gakuen was nothing out of the ordinary—if he didn't count the fact that he was taking a later bus after having breakfast with his mother, who had been rather cheerful for some reason and talked for a long time. It was strange really. She was never that happy on her own birthdays, just his.

Getting off before the school gates, he checked his watch to find—somewhat to his dismay—that it was already time for tennis practice to start. It was probably the first time since he had arrived at Seigaku that he had ever been anything but early to practice. Still, he was the captain, so that lent him some leeway in the matter.

Turning immediately for the courts, he hefted his bag further up his shoulder and strode briskly through the mostly deserted school. It was actually rather peaceful, with the sky a pale, pastel blue and a gentle if slightly chilly breeze brushing lightly over the world with gentle but playful fingers that tried to add their own touch to his already naturally disheveled hair. With it came the twittering and trilling of the birds, which were sweet, especially when compared to the usual buzzing of chattering students who had yet to arrive for class.

It was when he first came within sight of the clubhouse that the serenity was shattered by the sound of a myriad of voices all chattering away at the same time inside said building. A slight frown creased Tezuka's brow for a split second before vanishing as he distinctly heard the sounds of Momoshiro and Kaidoh railing at each other for the umpteenth time that week. It was already starting to give him a headache. Granted, at least the volume of chatter was a pretty reliable indication that everybody had arrived on time and were—hopefully—getting ready for practice.

If they weren't…well, that was pretty routine too. Routine was good. Routine was order, and order was the opposite of chaos.

Striding up to the clubroom door, he pushed it open and stepped inside—running straight into a solid wall of silence. Halting abruptly, he found himself the sole focus point of all the many pairs of eyes inside the clubroom—even Kaidoh and Momoshiro had temporarily suspended their debate.

And of course, that meant something was very off about this situation.

"What is going on here?" he asked calmly, though he was arching mental eyebrows at his staring audience. Really, he knew many considered him a tad farther than a little on the intimidating side, but this…he had never experienced before.

"Oh, ah," Oishi was the first to attempt speech, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head with one hand as his redheaded doubles partner edged slowly behind his back to avoid the piercing gaze now directed in their direction, "good morning, Tezuka! Nothing. We're just getting ready."

Tezuka stared at his vice captain for a long moment, then let his gaze sweep over the rest of the club members. They had all returned to their former activities of preparation so abruptly that he was tempted to think it unnatural—or at least most of them had. Oishi was still looking at him with that embarrassed 'nothing's wrong…really…even though I know you know something is…' look while Kikumaru muttered something to him out of the corner of his mouth. And of course there was Fuji, who was smiling serenely at him like always in the 'all is right with the world' manner. Then again, that in itself was probably worth a worry or two…

x-X-x

The rhythmic sound of tennis balls bouncing off of racket strings was a soothing and familiar sound as it echoed over the Seigaku tennis courts. Yet there seemed to be something missing today…

Positioned where he could see the various practice matches being played by his teammates, Tezuka found himself glancing from side to side, looking for something—though what he wasn't sure. Everyone was working hard at their tasks as they were supposed to be doing, so logically speaking everything was superb.

But that was just the problem.

Everyone was concentrated on their tasks that no one was talking. Or at least they all looked like they were hard at work. Even Kawamura had abandoned his customary bellowing of bad English. Yet, if he listened carefully, he could hear the murmur of quiet voices in rapid conversations. But whenever he turned to try and discover the location of the speakers, he was always met by nothing but silence. Even the loud freshman hadn't said more than a handful of sentences and practice was almost over for the morning.

"What's THAT supposed to mean!" a sudden shout rang out through the air, bringing everything to a grinding halt as heads turned in Momo's direction. He was facing off with Kaidoh, fists clenched and violet eyes narrowed in fury.

"Fshuu, exactly what it sounded like, baka," Kaidoh snapped back, "fshuuu."

"Who're you calling an idiot?" Momo yelled. "Stupid mamushi! I—"

Tezuka had changed his mind about finding the unusual quiet disturbing.

"Momoshiro! Kai—" he stopped abruptly as both juniors shut their mouths before he had even finished his reprimand, let alone order laps—a speed which was unheard of for the two.

"Gomen, Buchou," they both muttered instead, turning to bow in Tezuka's direction before hurriedly walking off in opposite directions, Momo back to his match with Ryoma—who was looking bored due to the lack of an opponent—and Kaidoh to his own game with Inui—who had tekn the chance to reintroduce his pen to his notebook. Said captain watched them go in a state akin to shock. Hold on a second, why had they been talking in the first place so far away from their matches? And hadn't Kaidoh's match been against Fuji? Inui was supposed to be playing against Kikumaru, but said acrobatic player was sitting with the aforementioned tensai, conversing quietly and looking as though they had just finished their match.

Or maybe he was just mistaken…?

Shaking it off with a mental frown, he glanced at his watch. Practice was about over for the morning.

For once, he felt inclined to be glad.

x-X-x

"Ah, wait, Tezuka!"

"Yes?" Tezuka turned to Oishi as the vice captain caught his sleeve before he could exit their classroom.

"Um, w—well, ah, where're you going?"

This time Tezuka really did arch an eyebrow, "To complete the forms for our next tournament."

It wasn't exactly unusual—it was quite normal actually. And he knew that Oishi knew about the forms and that he had been planning on getting them done today so that they wouldn't be pressed with it later. Plus, since when did even the worry-ridden Oishi start acting so nervous about a simple question like that?

"I—I brought the papers here!" the green eyed boy hustled his friend back into shi seat and pulled the aforementioned papers out of his bag. "I—I thought we could do them here, you know, so we don't have to come all the way back here when class starts! I thought it'd be more convenient. I hope you don't mind. I—"

"Oishi."

His friend jumped, "What?"

"Is something wrong?"

"Wrong?" he repeated, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Nothing's wrong. Why would you think that? I was just thinking bringing them here would be easier and so on, that's all. Everything's perfectly fine. So should we get started? Let's get started. Oh, look at the time! We've already used up ten minutes! We should eat while we fill these out then, I guess. Hold on, I can't remember where I put my lunch."

Hazel brown eyes watched as the vice captain dove back towards his bag as though his life depended on how fast he could get to it.

Note to self: Oishi is a bad liar…

But those were the right forms, and it was what he had planned to do. It didn't really matter where the papers were done anyway. He could question Oishi later. And he was pretty sure that his friend would have told him if the problem was something important.

x-X-x

"No, no, no! It's not going to fit there nyah!"

Tezuka paused for a moment on his way to the door of the clubroom, surprised to hear the sound of voices coming from inside. Normally, the rest of the club members wouldn't have started arriving for another five minutes or so. Yet he could hear voices from inside—that and some rather loud thumps and rustles that just didn't sound at all tennis equipment related. What was going on inside?

"It'll fit," came Fuji's voice, calm as ever, "you just have to turn this one like this, and move that red one that way a little—"

There was a loud crash.

"Ouch!" someone yelled.

"Oops, sorry about that Momo. Why don't you go help Echizen? I guess this one should be on top of those then."

"Yo! Echizen! Need some help with that?"

"Made made dane."

"…That's not an answer, so I'll take it as a yes. Here."

"No, Takashi, that must be at a thirteen degree angle in order for it to function properly when we need it. You must turn it to the right another two degrees."

"A—ah, like that?"

"Fshuu, where do these go Oishi-sempai?"

"Oh, over here will be fine. Do we have all of them?"

"You guys! Look at the time nyah! Ne, Fujiko, can you put the lock back together?"

By then, Tezuka had reached the door, and, resisting the incredible urge to push it open suddenly and give them all a scare, he pushed said door open. After all, gong 'boo' hardly seemed dignified. But by the sound of it ALL the regulars were already in there—probably let in by Oishi—and he couldn't for the life of him imagine what they were doing. Put what where? All of what? And more importantly, put what lock back together?

Thus he opened the door as quickly as he could without sounding rushed and stepped inside, waiting a few seconds to let his eyes adjust to the change in lighting. He didn't know what he was expecting to find—though there were definitely a couple vague fears drifing around inside his mind—but, much to his surprise, all he was greeted by was the sight of his fellow Seigaku regulars going through the usual pre-practice routines of talking, changing, and talking some more. A couple of them even turned to greet him as he walked in as though everything was perfectly fine and normal and that they hadn't just been doing something that required a lot of speed.

Still suspicious, Tezuka glanced over at where Fuji and Kikumaru were standing by the lockers. But he didn't see anything that looked like it might have been a lock that needed to be reassembled. In fact, it looked simply like they were waiting for practice to start while the redhead talked in his usual a mile per minute fashion.

Still, he couldn't help but feel that something was off.

But he couldn't do anything about it without proof—not that he knew exactly what it was he was trying to prove in the first place.

Thus Tezuka began afternoon practice with the unpleasant, nagging sensation that the relevant peace and quiet of the day was about to shatter and blow away in a million irretrievable pieces and leave behind it something far, far worse than the usual unruly mayhem.

That was not a happy thought.

Inui had cooked up a strange plot to try and improve the regulars' doubles skills—or more precisely their trust in possible doubles' partners—that apparently involved a blindfold and a lot of frantic shouting coupled to wind gesticulations that half of the parties involved couldn't see anyway. It could have been amusing—if it wasn't so ridiculous it almost made one watching want to cry.

The crowning event of the day was when a 'burning' Takashi, ignoring all of Oishi's frantic instructions, and charged forward so fast that he had run straight into the net, tripped over it, and all but flattened an equally blind and clueless Eiji. Then again, it was kind of a hard contest with the time when Momoshiro had—who had the misfortune of playing against Fuji, the one person who seemed unaffected as he played with his eyes closed most of the time anyway—missed the ball, spun around due to the force of his swing, and landed flat on his face just as the aforementioned ball hit Kaidoh, the violet eyed teen's 'director'.

After that, practice started to sound a lot more normal—in an undesirable way at any rate.

"Momoshiro! Kaidoh!" he barked across the courts. "Twenty laps, now!"

Yanking off his blindfold to glare daggers with his rival—which were returned with equal force—Momo tossed the piece of cloth to a madly scribbling Inui and set off. But after the initial glare, neither uttered another word, not even to insult each other as they raced neck and neck to see who could finish their laps first.

"Saa," Fuji mused as he returned his own blindfold to their resident data maniac and came to stand next to the team captain, "it looks like they'll be punished twice then, hmm?"

Glancing down at the tensai, Tezuka followed the direction he supposed Fuji was looking in to find Inui grinning madly as he poured a frothing, green and purple liquid into two Styrofoam cups. Apparently, nothing could make the dedicated juice creator forget to feed his supposedly healthy concoctions to his less fortunate teammates.

Ah yes, Tezuka frowned slightly, he had forgotten about that. Perhaps he should have given ten laps instead of twenty… After all, it wasn't really their fault his nerves were feeling a bit frazzled. And they had been trying to behave themselves all day, or so it seemed.

Then again, that was all part of the problem.

They continued to watch the various practice matches going on in silence. It was always a rather prominent question when watching Inui render half of the tennis club unconscious to wonder if one should be amused, horrified, or sympathetic. On the one hand, the sight of the club members toppling over one by one like boneless sacks of flour at the feet of the grinning teen—complete with a mad scientist's thick, square glasses—was almost comical. But, if Inui made a mistake one day, it could mean the loss of crucial players—and potential players at that, which would probably bestow a somewhat dark fate on the Seigaku tennis club's next couple years.

On the bright side, he knew Inui wouldn't give them anything that was lethal—in his opinion—and it certainly served as a wonderful incentive.

And of course, the soft chuckle reminded emitted from the youth standing next to him, at least a few people found the spectacle entertaining. Whether that was a good thing or not was not really something Tezuka felt like delving into.

"Ne, Tezuka," Fuji said suddenly, turning to smile up at the taller youth, "I was having a little bit of a problem with some of the problems on my math homework. Will you help me?"

Tezuka looked at the unreadable smile for a long time before nodding reluctantly, suddenly feeling suspicious again. Fuji never had trouble with his homework—in math or anything else. But then again there was a first time for everything.

"Thank you," the tensai's smile brightened as he turned and started for the clubroom. "We still have ten minutes, right? I'll go get it."

And he was gone before the captain could protest and point out that it was still practice time.

He reappeared a few minutes later, math textbook and aforementioned homework in hand, complete with pencil. Plopping himself down on the nearest bench, he flipped open the book with barely a glance and beckoned Tezuka over.

"You do realize that practice is not over yet?"

"Of course," Fuji smiled, "but it's only five minutes, and I don't have an opponent anymore anyway. Here, see? I marked out the problems."

Looking over the tensai's shoulder, Tezuka had to raise his eyebrows, "This is review."

"I forgot a couple things."

"…You forgot…"

"Saa," Fuji chuckled, "don't sound so skeptical, everyone forgets things. Like this one over here."

Still slightly puzzled, but seeing no point in arguing with the tensai, Tezuka proceeded to 'teach' his teammate—though he still had the sneaking suspicion that Fuji already knew it all. It didn't escape his notice either that all the problems the prodigy had selected were ones with at least four to five parts…

Coincidence? Possible. With Fuji? Not likely. Reason? …Hard to say.

Practice drew to a close as though time was in a hurry and Tezuka dismissed the club members, but there were still a few problems not yet covered. Well, at least he wouldn't have to deal with the strange behavior of his club for another few minutes.

"Tezuka," Fuji said suddenly as he gathered up his things and fell into step beside the taller youth, "you don't have any plans later, ne?"

Tezuka paused momentarily, eyeing the tensai warily, "No."

"Saa…"

"…Why do you ask?"

But Fuji only smiled and Tezuka knew that it was pointless to keep asking. Instead, he reached out and opened the clubroom door—

There was an explosion of light and a burst of vivid colors that momentarily blinded him. Blinking to clear his vision, he found himself staring at a clubroom that had received a complete makeover so that it now resembled a fractured rainbow. Multicolored streamers had been draped over the lockers, rendering them all but invisible, and brilliant pieces of confetti littered the floor like autumn leaves. It didn't help at all that all the grinning faces inside were topped by multicolored, cone shaped hats.

"Happy birthday!" was the last thing he heard before he was stampeded by the tennis club members and ushered into the clubroom.

"Wha—" he started, but his demand to know what in the world was going on—though it was pretty obvious what was happening, he just felt the urge to ask—was cut off as he was forcibly sat down and a cone shaped hat planted firmly no his head despite his protests. But the clamor all around him was so loud that he couldn't get a word in edge wise now when he really felt like speaking.

He scowled, his gaze landing accusingly on Oishi, who was standing by the window with a slightly embarrassed grin on his face—he had always thought his friend knew him better than to announce it! His vice captain turned red and shook his head vigorously, green eyes shifting over in Inui's direction as if to say he hadn't had a choice in the matter.

"Don't worry about it," Fuji patted him reassuringly on the back, sitting down on the bench beside him, "we would have found out anyway."

What an absolutely wonderful thought…

Fuji beamed, "Of course."

"Oi! Buchou! We even got a cake!" Momo grinned broadly from where he had just extracted a large, cardboard box from where it had been stashed at the back of his locker. He held it up proudly and Tezuka couldn't help but notice that half of the box was red while the other half was blue.

"They couldn't make up their minds about the color," Fuji supplied, noticing what Tezuka was looking at.

Eiji snickered, "Yeah, we went through at least fifteen different boxes nyah! The baker looked ready to throw us all out!"

"Couldn't really blame him," Ryoma could be heard muttering off to the side, pulling his hat brim lower over his eyes. "I know I would have."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault Mamushi has no taste!" Momo declared, pulling a face at his friend.

"Fsuuu," Kaidoh glared fiercely in the purple eyed boy's direction. "Like you can talk."

"Oh yeah? And what was that supposed to mean? Mamushi?"

"Mada mada dane."

"Come on," Oishi hurried to where his two kohai were already at each other's throats, "this is supposed to be a cele—"

He was cut off abruptly as he slipped on the confetti-covered ground. With a yelp, he waved his arms around frantically before crashing into Momo and Kaidoh. A loud crash shook the clubroom as the three Seigaku regulars hit the ground. The box Momo had been holding went sailing through the air and knocked Ryoma's Ponta can out of his hand so that it spilled its contents all over the clubroom floor.

"Hoi! Oishi!" Eiji exclaimed, bounding towards his doubles partner.

"Ah, Eiji," Fuji started, but he was interrupted as the acrobatic player's foot landed in Ryoma's spilled drink, squeaked, and sent a spray of liquid into the air along with the redhead. There was a startled cry before Eiji slid across the clubroom to collide with Takashi before proceeding to head straight for the already downed tangle of limbs that were the others.

Tezuka watched with a mixture of bemusement and annoyance as the rest of his team proceeded to tangle themselves in a hopeless mass of flailing arms and colorful tapers. This was getting ever so ridiculous. He could hear Fuji chuckling beside him as Inui, ensconced in an out of the way corner, scribbled away at a mile per minute, glasses glinting happily.

Shaking his head, he stood up. Without a word, he headed straight for his locker.

Kikumaru's eyes widened suddenly as all motion halted, "No! Buchou! Wait—"

But Tezuka had already pushed the colored tapers aside and opened the locker. There was a brief moment of stilled silence before, with a low rumble, the teetering wall of colorful packages that had been somehow packed inside said locker came pouring out onto the rather startled team captain.

"Ooh…" Momo and Kikumaru said in unison as Oishi and Taka gasped in horror.

Then the commotion resumed—redoubled.

Shouting filled the clubroom as the members of Seigaku's tennis team scrambled around, untangling themselves and trying to get to their feet. Taka was trying in vain to get back to his feet, but the fact that everything he pulled on was covered in none-tto-steady tapers wasn't helping his efforts at all. Kaidoh was hissing irritably, brushing confetti off of his bandana, while Oishi looked like he simply didn't know what to do next. Echizen—who had been swept off of his bench when Kikumaru slipped—seized a hold of his conveniently nearby racket and whacked Momoshiro over the head for starting the whole mess in the first place.

Getting back to his feet, Tezuka repressed the sudden, inexplicable urge to order them all back outside to run laps—practice was over for the day after all—and headed for the door.

"Nyah! Buchou! You can't leave yet!" Kikumaru exclaimed, bouncing to his feet. "We're supposed to go to Taka's after we eat the cake and you open your presents!"

"Um…ah…E—Eiji—"

"Wah! Taka-san, you squashed the cake!"

"Ii data… Now you can try my cake."

"What? No way! We already said you couldn't serve your cake! It's probably deadly!"

"I actually agree with Momo-sempai."

"Fshuu…"

"Saa, I wouldn't mind."

"Nyah, Fujiko can eat your cake then!"

"What's wrong with my cake?"

"If you think there's something right with it, then I doubly don't want it nyah!"

"E—Eiji! Shouldn't you stop shouting? Ah, Tezuka! You're really leaving?"

And of course, that meant he didn't get much farther than the clubroom door before he was dragged back inside. Kikumaru was insisting that he had to at least open the presents from the team before they moved to the Kawamura family's sushi shop. And so Tezuka resigned himself to doing just that, seeing as it was probably the quickest and most effective way of preventing any more mishaps.

Well, he couldn't say that some of the presents weren't…interesting. He had to wonder where Momoshiro and Echizen had managed to find blue tennis balls. And of course he made an immediate mental note not to touch the strange bottle of some kind of drink he had never seen before from the team's data freak. He wanted to live long enough to reach the Nationals.

For some strange and unfathomable reason Kikumaru had seen fit to give him a teddy bear—it was brown and it was hugging a small, blue tennis racket. He supposed it could be considered…cute…but he just wasn't sure why…

Then there was the cactus—courtesy of Fuji, of course. He couldn't help but stare at it. The lower part of the cactus was wrapped in what looked like a miniature version of a Seigaku regular's jacket, and was that a pair of glasses? He wondered if it was supposed to be implying something…

"You can take the rest to Taka's and open it there nyah!" Kikumaru said happily once the 'most important' gifts had been opened. "And we can all eat! I'm starving!"

All in all, Tezuka thought as he left the restaurant, laden with a few more bags than usual, it could have been worse. Inui had still managed to serve some of his cake when no one was looking, which resulted in Momoshiro and Eiji being knocked out cold for nearly an hour and a half, but on the bright side they had eaten the entire cake before anyone realized there was something wrong with it. He would never forget the look on Oishi's face. But other then that, there hadn't been too many incidents once they had gotten to the restaurant.

And he supposed that, though he hadn't even considered it before, he was actually somewhat grateful that they had cared this much. And anyways, his birthday only came around once a year, he could manage a little chaos now and then. It gave him a somewhat warm and fuzzy feeling that he didn't care to describe, and he thought he might thank them some day.

"Ne, shouldn't you tell them now?"

Glancing to the side, he found Fuji smiling serenely at him. The tensai was carrying a white, cardboard box.

"Ah, Taka-san and Kaidoh went to get another cake while the others were trying to revive Momo and Eiji," Fuji explained, "but since we didn't have time to eat it, we thought it'd be best for you to just take it home."

"Ah," Tezuka nodded his thanks and the two fell into a comfortable silence as the setting sun set the skies ablaze with gold.

-Owari-

A.N. Okay, I am honestly not sure how that just turned out, but I just felt like writing it. If it's a bit strange…well…it's my first attempt at a short story. Anyways, I hope you liked it!