Title: It's Just Not the Same
Summary: He's not going to be here for his own birthday. Celebrating it is just not going to be the same. We're going to have to find some way to celebrate it right? Or do we have to wait?
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. The anime and its canon characters belong to their rightful owners.
"Wait, you have to leave?" Fuji questioned with a look of hurt on his face. It was the 17th of December, a full week before Christmas Eve or better yet known as Ryoma's birthday.
Ryoma nodded reluctantly. "It turns out that baka oyaji had something planned for the week, so we have to go back to America for the week."
"But what about Christmas Eve? Your birthday? Christmas?"
"I don't know," Ryoma said with a shrug. "You know that if I had a choice, I'd try and stay with you all, but oyaji isn't giving me a choice right now," he explained with a roll of his eyes. "Baka oyaji has to make everything so difficult."
"When are you leaving?" Tezuka asked his youngest boyfriend.
"Tomorrow. We'll be gone for the week," he answered them both, scratching the back of his head. "I can't believe oyaji is making me go on this stupid trip in the first place. I'd rather stay home and look after Karupin."
Fuji and Tezuka both chuckled at that. "We'll miss you Ryo-chan," Fuji said, kissing Ryoma on the forehead.
"I'll miss ya too," Ryoma said as Tezuka pecked him on the cheek. "I gotta get home and pack. See you both later."
"Bye Ryo-chan. See you later," Fuji waved off to the boy with a small smile on his face.
Once Ryoma had left, Fuji sighed. "I can't believe we won't be able to celebrate his birthday together…"
"I know Syuu. I know. We'll just have to find some other way to celebrate his birthday," Tezuka said, wrapping an arm around Fuji's shoulders to comfort the sad brunet.
"Come on. Let's get back to Kawamura's Sushi and tell everyone else the news," Tezuka said after a minute or two of comforting Fuji.
Turning on their heels, they both began to walk to their friend's sushi shop in order to tell them exactly why Ryoma wouldn't be able to join them for Christmas this year.
"Wait what! We had a party thought up and everything though!" Eiji whined after hearing the news that Fuji and Tezuka had brought to them.
"You mean his old man decided to just have a week's vacation right before his birthday?" Momo asked, blinking and gaping in surprise. "What the heck?"
"We don't know either," Fuji admitted with a sigh as he looked out the door and into the streets which were getting just a light snowfall.
"That's too bad. We were really looking forward to spending Ryoma's birthday together," Oishi said, wrapping his arm around Eiji's shoulders.
Kaidoh could only shake his head in response along with a hiss. "Is anyone staying at his house?"
"It seems as though Echizen and his parents will be going to America. Nanako is spending the week with her college friends, and it seems as though their family pet Karupin will be the only one staying at the home actually," Inui explained to them all.
"How do you even know that Inui-senpai?" Momo questioned, raising an eyebrow at the other.
"I have my ways," Inui answered with a small smirk on his face as he continued to write in his notebook.
"That's still just plain creepy," Momo said with a shudder before turning to everyone else. "So what are we going to do for the kid anyway? I mean, he's going to be gone for a week starting tomorrow."
"We can't celebrate his birthday this early either… but it would be rude to celebrate it afterward," Oishi reasoned with a hand on his chin in thought. "What are we going to do? We want to celebrate his birthday, but there is no way to do that unless he is here with us?"
"Let's start brainstorming then. What can we do nya?" Eiji said, jumping up with a large smile at the thought of coming up with a plan to celebrate his ochibi's birthday.
"Does he have a laptop?" Inui questioned, flipping a few pages in his notebook.
"He does," Tezuka answered. He remembered seeing the electronic in Ryoma's room throughout the two years that he has been with the boy.
"I think it's in his desk. He mentioned bringing it with him though, so he won't be bored if he can't play tennis because something happened," Fuji added on. He had seen Ryoma on the laptop late at night for something. He just didn't know what exactly. "Why are you asking?"
"There are a few programs that will allow video chats through a laptop," Inui explained. "Does his laptop happen to have a webcam?"
"It does," Fuji answered, nodding his head. He had looked at the laptop when Ryoma was gone and saw the little camera at the top of the screen.
"Well then. We'll just need to bring one laptop and download the program onto it, so we can video chat with Echizen. We'll just need him to download the program as well," Inui explained.
"We can call him and ask him to download it," Fuji offered, already getting his cell phone to make the call to the youngest.
"Alright. Here's the name of the program," Inui said, showing Fuji a quick peek at the notebook in order to get the name.
"Alright," Fuji nodded in response, calling Ryoma on his cell and putting the call on speaker.
"Hello?" Ryoma greeted as soon as he answered the phone. It sounded like he was moving something around because there was a loud thump on Ryoma's side of the call.
"Hey there Ryo-chan," Fuji greeted with a small smile.
"Hello Ryoma," Tezuka greeted as well, letting the younger know that the phone was on speaker.
"What's up? I'm just cleaning up my room. Okaa-san won't leave me alone about it. I have to clean up my room before packing up for the week trip," Ryoma said, another thump making itself known.
"Okay, I was wondering what that was nya~," Eiji chimed with a happy tone.
"Are you bringing your laptop with you?" Fuji asked, just to make sure.
"Yeah. Why?"
"Do you think you can download a program on it at the moment?" Inui asked.
"Let me turn it on really quick," Ryoma said, a few more noises making themselves known for a few more seconds as more things were moved around. "Okay it's up. What's the program."
"It's Skype," Fuji answered.
"I've heard of that program. It's the chatting program right? With either voice calls or video calls?" Ryoma said, the sounds of typing keys being heard through the call. "I found it. Did you want me to download it?"
"Yes," Tezuka answered for everyone. "We all want to talk with you on your birthday. We may not be able to celebrate with you in person, but we'd like to celebrate it nonetheless."
"Really now? Well I'll download it real quick. While it's going I'll continue the clean up. I don't want my old man yelling at me to hurry." The tone in Ryoma's voice just signaled to the rest that he was probably rolling his eyes at the moment. "I'll text you when I have the program up along with contact information."
"Alright Ryo-chan. See you and talk to you later," Fuji said before they both hung up the call.
"Yes! Ochibi is gonna get the program, and we'll be able to video call him for his birthday! Yahoo! We can celebrate his birthday on time nya!" he cheered happily, Momo joining in with his own cheer.
"You are being loud," Kaidoh hissed with a small shake of his head.
"You want to go Mamushi!" Momo threatened with a fist as the two nearly began to fight again, Oishi trying to calm the two down. No matter how much time has passed, these two rivals will never stop fighting will they?
"What are we going to do for Echizen's birthday party anyway?" Oishi questioned once Tezuka was able to stop the two rivals from fighting with a threat of Inui juice just like in middle school.
"We have to make sure we decorate his house," Eiji suggested with a large smile. "Inui said that no one was going to be home except for Karupin, so we have to decorate his house!"
"And no Mitsu, you aren't going to be the only one planning it like last year," Fuji teased with a chuckle. "That was a great party, but this time, we are all going to plan it. Right everyone?"
"Yeah!" Momo agreed enthusiastically along with a few of the more vocal in the group while the rest just nodded in response.
"Let's get this started then, and don't let your guards down," Tezuka said, making everyone chuckle. How did that last part even make sense anyway? Oh well, it was Tezuka, so no big deal.
Throughout the entire week, the entire team was busy planning things to do for Ryoma's birthday party. They had to make sure to come up with something fun to surprise Ryoma, but they couldn't do that much either. The reason? They couldn't do birthday activities if the birthday boy wasn't there right? That would be weird.
So they were busy getting the decorations set up in the room, doing different parts of the living room throughout the next week.
The team had also gone to the stores and picked out presents for their youngest along with Christmas presents for the next day. They all agreed that they would show Ryoma that he had both birthday and Christmas presents but wouldn't open them until Ryoma returned.
It just wouldn't be right if they opened Ryoma's presents right in front of him. It would be a lot better to wait until Ryoma would be able to open them himself. It was just more festival-like and polite for that matter.
They had gotten Hanako involved as well.
Ever since the event on Halloween with the collapsed haunted house, Hanako had been just a tad distant from the rest of them.
They had all understood that the collapse of the haunted house was not Tezuka's, Fuji's, or Hanako's fault, but the girl still felt it was her fault.
They had to explain to her that it was just bad luck, and it was fine since Ryoma survived.
Tezuka and Fuji had to reassure her as well.
At the moment, Karupin was sitting on a cushion in front of Hanako, meowing and lightly swishing her tail from side to side. The only three in the house were Hanako, Tezuka, and Fuji as the others were busy, spending time with their families instead of helping out with the party.
During the week, the team had taken turns, spending time with their family or helping decorating. It just wouldn't be right not to spend time with their families either, and everyone understood that. Especially with today being the 23rd of December, so it was especially important not to spend too much time away from the family.
"Are you sure I should be helping you with this?" Hanako questioned, working on making some of the decorations. She wasn't an artist for nothing, so the group was hoping that she would agree to help them make some of the decorations instead of buying them all instead. Making them just seems more personal, and that was perfect considering the season and the holidays coming up.
"For the last time Hanako, we are glad you are here with us. It doesn't matter that the event on Halloween happened. All that matters is that Ryo-chan survived," Tezuka answered the girl, putting up another decoration that Hanako handed to him.
"These are very good Hanako. Thank you for the help," Fuji said, Hanako handing him another painting to hang. This was a picture of Karupin in a Christmas themed outfit. It was cute to say the least.
Hanako just nodded in response before saying, "It's the least I could do for the trouble I caused. If I had just not decided to take you to that for-"
"It wasn't your fault Hanako," Fuji interrupted the girl with a stern stare; his eyes opened just a slit.
Hanako froze at the look before continuing her painting.
"Look Hanako. I asked you to include that booth. If anything, that's my fault for asking you to do such a thing for the Halloween festival. It's not your fault. We did our best to protect Ryoma, and you know it," Fuji told the girl, stopping to put a hand on Hanako's shoulder. "It wasn't your fault, and you should realize that by now."
"Ryoma doesn't have any feelings against you. He had a lot of fun at the festival. It was Halloween, a bit of fright should be involved. It was more than planned, but it was still fun. And we got to spend some time together. That should be fine," Tezuka added his own opinion to the talk.
Hanako sighed before nodding in reply. "Thanks for letting me help then. I'm glad that I get to help with his birthday party again. Last year was fun. Especially keeping the secret away from the rest of your team," she chuckled in response as she finished the very last decoration and allowed the two to hang it up in the back of the room.
"What was the plan for tomorrow again?" Hanako asked as they were all cleaning up the supplies, making sure not to touch the decorations on the wall.
"We all come here in the evening after spending time with our families. If we get here late enough, it will just be the morning in California where Ryoma went to," Tezuka explained. "We are 17 hours ahead of them after all."
"Right. See you then?" Hanako said, packing up her things at the front of the door.
"See you then. And don't blame yourself for everything that happened a two months ago. Everything is fine now."
"Thanks," Hanako said with a nod, turning on her heel and leaving the Echizen house grounds.
"Let's hope we can give Ryoma a good birthday party even though he's not here," Fuji said, a small, sad smile on his face as he leaned against Tezuka's chest.
"I know Syuu. I know," he replied, patting Fuji on the shoulder as the two locked up the house after leaving food for Karupin for the rest of the night and turning to leave.
"Alright. Someone call Ryoma and ask him to get onto his laptop," Hanako said, a bit excited as she handed plates of food around for everyone to eat.
"Thanks for the food Hanako," Oishi said with a nod of his head.
"Too bad Kawamura is still in another country," Eiji said, already eating some of the food as Tezuka pulled out his phone in order to call Ryoma.
"Yes. Are you able to get on the laptop right now? Yes I know it's early Ryoma," Tezuka said into the food, setting his food aside just for now. "I know. Could you get onto the program? We'll get on the laptop Inui brought along. Okay. See you then."
Tezuka hung up the phone while Inui pulled up his laptop, turned it on, and logged into the Skype program to see that Ryoma had logged in a few minutes after ending the call with Tezuka.
Within just a few moments, the program was up and running, the video call going through and finally being picked up.
"Hello everyone and happy Christmas Eve," Ryoma greeted with a small smirk on his face. Behind him was just the wall of his hotel room at the moment, pretty plain to see the least along with a window that showed it was snowing outside.
"Happy birthday Ryoma!" everyone greeted him with a warm smile.
"Wow. Are those decorations for me?" Ryoma said, the smirk on his face growing just a fraction wider as Hanako picked up the laptop gently and showed it around the room, letting the male see all of the decorations that the entire group had put up.
"Yeah," Eiji cheered, standing up with his plate of food and walking around with Hanako. "Some of them we got from the store in your favorite color, and the other ones, Hanako made herself."
"Is that a picture of Karupin in a Christmas outfit?" Ryoma questioned with a chuckle as Hanako pointed the laptop in the direction of the handmade decorations.
"Do you like them?" Hanako questioned, giggling at the decorations she had made. It was a lot of fun for her to create the pictures. She was used to making human portraits, so doing cute animal ones was a good change of pace for her. "I had a lot of fun with them. Karupin is a good model."
"Mrow," Karupin meowed as she jumped up onto Eiji's head and gave a small little wave toward Ryoma in the camera.
"Hey Karupin. Glad to see that everyone has been taking care of you."
"Mrow," Karupin meowed happily, giving Ryoma a cat smile in return as Hanako fed the cat some food.
"Want to see the presents you got?" Oishi questioned as Hanako put the laptop back on the table.
"You got presents? Even though we weren't celebrating together?" Ryoma questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"We weren't going to forget your birthday Echizen," Momo said with a cheeky smile on his face as he pulled up a large box filled with presents.
"These are the ones for your birthday. We have the Christmas presents in another box. We were planning to wait until you got back for you to open them all to be honest," Inui explained to the boy who was blinking at the box of presents.
"You guys didn't have to get me birthday presents you know," Ryoma chuckled, shaking his head at them. "But thanks anyway. I appreciate it."
"Looks like you dating Tezuka-buchou and Fuji-senpai turned out well for ya," Momo teased the other. "You actually have some manners," he added with a snicker.
"Momo-senpai," Ryoma growled out with a small smirk on his face before he chuckled as well. "It's the Christmas holiday, so I may as well be a little thankful."
"I got you a present too Ryoma, so I guess it was a two-fer with the decorations I made," Hanako said, a sheepish chuckle making its way out of her mouth.
"It's fine Hanako. You didn't need to get anything either."
"I wanted to. You know, for all the trouble I caused. I guess you could consider it an apology gift with the decorations and a birthday present with this one," Hanako said, pulling out a present from the box and showing it to the boy before putting it back. "Make sure to open mine first though," she said with a wink. "I think you'll like it."
"Alright, alright," Ryoma said before looking up at something. "Oh. I have something to do really quickly. Be right back alright everyone?" he said, standing up from his seat and walking away.
"Alright Ryoma!" Fuji called out to the boy, making sure he was loud enough for the boy to hear even while walking off.
They all waited for a few minutes for Ryoma to finish his business and come back to the computer.
"What is taking Ochibi so long?" Eiji whined, leaning back against Oishi.
"I don't know Ei-"
He was interrupted by the sound of footsteps.
"What is that?" Hanako asked, turning around and looking toward the source of them before gasping. "Oh my Kami!"