This is my first attempt at a PoT fic so please be nice!
Disclaimer: I don't own PoT… If I did they would never play tennis with shirts on.
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"He was such a smart boy"
"He had such a bright future ahead of him"
"He was going to be very successful in his life"
Said voices in front of Kikumaru Eiji, it pained him to hear the past tense in their statements, he was, he had, it made everything seem too real. He found himself standing in front of a funeral parlor a few blocks from his own home; he'd been standing there for around five minutes now trying to wrap his head around the situation. The only problem was he didn't want to understand, he didn't want it to be real. The whole thing was just incomprehensible to him. It was just as absurd today as it had been on the day he first found out.
It had been had been about a week ago when he got the call. He'd been on his way out of his dorm. He was going to meet up with his partner to play a long awaited game of tennis, doubles of course; they usually played in a park just about halfway between their respective colleges. A park that was always overflowing with tennis hopefuls so it was never hard to find people to play against. They usually meet up once every other week, however their last scheduled game had to be put on the backburner until today, Oishi had been studying for some big test and hadn't been able to play. They hadn't talked to each other in almost a week.
Eiji had been really looking forward to their game, and was already late, of course Oishi would forgive his tardiness but that wasn't the point, so when he felt his cell phone ringing he rolled his eyes knowing from the ring tone that it was his mother calling and that she was probably planning to talk his ear off and make him even later.
"Hello," he greeted.
"Oh Eiji! … I'm so sorry…" had been all the pained voice needed to say for Eiji to know something was horribly wrong.
"It's ironic how he died… It just doesn't make sense for someone in that major to die like that," said the last person as they filtered through the large oak doors a few feet in front of Eiji. He didn't want to go in. He didn't want to face reality, knowing that he would have to accept it after he saw what was beyond those doors. Knowing he was the last to arrive and that his entire family was probably already in there, Eiji took a deep breath and with one shaking hand opened the doors and entered.
It was everything he had expected it to be. There were tons of people sitting in chairs talking quietly to each other. The faint smell of the sandalwood incense greeted him; he never did like the smell of it. There were lit candles all over, and framed pictures were on every available flat surface. The thing that grabbed his attention however was the large wooden coffin in the front of the room. He felt a lump growing in his throat as his eyes locked on the coffin. He stumbled over to a seat on the aisle in the last row. A man dressed in a suit came to the front and everyone turned their attention to him. He cleared his throat and began speaking.
"We're all gathered here today, in a time of great sorrow, we have sadly lost one of our numbers…" the man began to drone. Eiji tuned him out; he couldn't tear his eyes of the coffin or the black and white picture of the deceased young man on top of the coffin. It just couldn't possibly be real.
"We're going to make it to nationals." Said Tezuka in a voice that brokered no argument.
"Well of course we are! Why wouldn't we try to get to nationals?" smiled Eiji. Tezuka glared.
"Why indeed buchou?" grinned Fuji next to Eiji.
"Fssh… this is pointless," hissed Kaidoh from the corner. It was raining outside and all of them were slightly disappointed that they weren't able to play and for a rare occasion, Tezuka's had decided to give them a pep talk. It was actually probably Oishi's idea, who was currently standing next to their captain nodding at the right moments.
"mada mada da ne" said Echizen pulling his hat lower on his face as he leaned against the lockers. Taka, sitting next to Echizen, seemed to have already fallen asleep. They had been cooped up in the locker room for over an hour now waiting for the rain to stop. They'd been caught in the unexpected downpour without a single raincoat or umbrella between them.
"According to my data we have a 67.8 chance-"
"I don't wanna know!" cried Momo cutting off Inui mid spiel.
"Fssh…You some baby that can't handle the truth"
"What'd you say mamushi!" growled Momo. "You wanna take this outside!" Kaidoh opened his mouth to response.
"Say another word, and you're all getting laps," said Tezuka sternly.
"Yeah! Let's sing songs instead!" cried Eiji happily. Fuji smiled at his friend.
"That sounds like a fun idea."
"Don't encourage him," pleaded Oishi.
"STARTING WITH OISHI!" cried Eiji happily jumping onto his partners back.
"Nya! What song are you going to sing!"
"I'm not singing,""You're a spoilsport! Nya!… Fine! Tez-"
"Hey look the rain stopped," interrupted Tezuka rushing out of the room. Eiji looked out the closing door confused.
"No it didn't." Everyone else just laughed.
Before he knew it the man in the suit had finished speaking, Eiji had heard the last statement, something about an open microphone. A young man in the front row stood up and came to the podium to the right of the coffin.
"When I got the email, I thought it was just some kind of sick joke some one was playing on me," began Tezuka. Speaking almost the same exact words that Eiji had been thinking all along. "I just couldn't imagine not having him there. He's been with me since middle school. We've been friends for almost as long as I can remember, just the thought of never seeing him again is too hard to imagine… it's like trying to imagine never playing tennis," said Tezuka. He paused, his hands gripping the sides of the podium until his knuckles were white.
"I know I never really gave him credit but… he was really my closest friend, one of very few people I felt I could trust completely, I couldn't have gotten as good at tennis without him constantly pushing me to get better, or supporting me, no matter what I choose to do, or how many laps I choose to give the team" there was a brief chuckle from his tennis friends.
"As I was flying back here," began Tezuka again. "I was trying to think about what I would say given the chance. I was going to go with the obligatory, he was smart, he had a promising career in front of him, he was a good friend etc… but it just doesn't do justice to him, sure that's what he was, but that wasn't what he was about... There was so much more to Oishi Shuichiro than just that"