This was the result of a fifteen-minute word challenge. The challenge word is stated at the end of the ficlet.
Room Assignment (Prince of Tennis)
By Haruka (email: haruka at ymail dot com)
It wasn't very often that Echizen Ryoma had to be told to do something by his mother, but she had laid down the law this time. His room had to be cleaned or he wasn't going out back to play tennis with his father. Even Oyaji's whining wouldn't change her mind.
"Get it done, Boy!" his father barked, waving his tennis racquet around. "And be quick about it! I don't have all day to wait for you!"
"It's not like he does anything else," Ryoma muttered to himself after Oyaji left. Besides, if his father was in such a hurry, he could have helped him.
He had to admit he hadn't noticed until now the state he'd allowed his room to get to. He had been so busy with tournaments lately that his own usual standards for neatness had gotten lax. With a sigh, he got down to business.
Old Ponta cans went in the garbage, as did the sappy love letters that his classmates had left in his locker. School notebooks were organized and stacked, with extra notes tucked into the appropriate texts. Tennis magazines were piled up on his desk. Laundry went in the hamper and clean clothes he'd neglected to put away earlier now were. He lost some time when he discovered his photo album, and a bunch of loose pictures that he'd meant to put into it. It was hard NOT to pause over each picture of his teammates and smile as he remembered the circumstances under which they were snapped.
He knew he shouldn't have been surprised by how many tennis balls he found laying around once they were uncovered, but he was grateful that he'd never killed himself by slipping on one.
After he'd swept the floor and his surroundings were looking better, he realized that the messy bed just looked that much worse by comparison. He decided to be ambitious and actually changed all the bedding before making it up again.
He finally gathered up a garbage bag of trash that he'd acquired during the cleaning and brought it downstairs with a sense of pride and relief. He was done! Now all he had to do was get his mother to come up and inspect his work.
As he started back upstairs he noticed something on the floor that hadn't been there on his way down. Paw prints. MUDDY paw prints. They led all the way upstairs and … into his bedroom!
Ryoma darted up the steps to his room, stopping abruptly in the doorway. His cat, Karupin, had gone straight up onto his bed and was laying there like the Lord of the Manor, which indeed he was. Muddy paw prints decorated his swept floor, clean bedspread, and fresh pillow case.
For a moment, he considered strangling his beloved cat.
Nanjiroh stuck his head in and groaned. "BOY! How do you ever expect to be able to come play me if you do such sloppy work! I may as well go grab a random opponent off the street!"
On second thought, Ryoma decided grimly, maybe he'd just strangle his father instead.
(Word challenge – Tidy)
(2005)
Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi.
This fic is not to be re-posted.