A/N: It has been a while. That's all that I can say.

DISCLAIMER: PoT will never be mine nor yours. Don't sue me.

KOE WO KIKASETE

Fuji Syuusuke, 15, third year in middle school paused from doing his homework one early evening. He could not concentrate anyway. There was a funny feeling in his stomach, a feeling similar to excitement before a game, or nervousness before a speech. However, the tensai felt neither of the two. He was rarely excited for a tennis match and he was not that nervous in making speeches. The odd sensation in the pit of his stomach was closest to anxiety of losing or missing something. That was the problem. Fuji didn't know what he had been missing.

All he knew was he couldn't finish his Mathematics homework one Friday evening and even a tensai needs to finish tons of homework a night before the submission of assignments, even if it means submitting the homework on a Saturday. Fuji Syuusuke was not just a tensai. He was a tennis tensai and his grades would reflect on his tennis performance—or more accurately, his tennis reputation. Besides, there was Kikumaru Eiji, his bestfriend who would be the first to taunt him. Fuji could almost hear him say, "Mou, Fujiko, you didn't finish your homework? Not a tensai in Arithmetic, ne?"

Fuji smiled, "Hai, I definitely need to finish this." He tried to focus on the swirling numbers on his notebook. However, the more that he tried to concentrate, the more that he found himself looking at his alarm clock telling him that he still had some hours to spare. Besides, there were worse kids out there who were already watching evening anime shows enjoying the beginning of their weekend. At least he was trying to be good. But of course, those thoughts never occurred to his mind, being preoccupied as it was.

Syuusuke stared at the ceiling and he tried to recall the events that day. He thought he had left his books but when he got to the locker room and checked his things, he found all the materials he needed for the day in his compartment. He then thought he forgot to talk to his cacti. He told this to Eiji who, with a soft 'nya' raised his eyebrow at him. He remembered he had been humming to them when Eiji had arrived to pick him up. He had passed his World Literature Project. The teacher even had commended his well-organized homework and he had made a mental note to thank his sister, Yumiko, for helping him. Eiji had given him thumbs up.

They, Fuji and Eiji, had lunch with their teammates and they had been successful in bullying their stoic captain to treat them. In the afternoon, the tensai had a good game with Kawamura against Momoshiro-Kaido pair. He had answered their queries as regards Eiji's unusual quietness and told them that Seigaku's red cat had been nursing a canker sore.

Before going home, he had bought a bouquet of flowers for Yumiko and his mother.

Upon reaching the house his family had warmly greeted him and invited him for an early dinner before having DVD marathon (one more reason for him to finish his homework as soon as possible). Even Yuuta had been considerably friendly.

"What did I miss?" Fuji asked loudly half-hoping that the four walls of his room would give him the answer. He tried to remember I f he had run the number of laps Tezuka-buchou had asked him to. He started counting his cacti. Should he start counting its spines too?

He sighed as he picked up his pen to start on another mathematical problem. That was when his cerulean eyes landed on his phone. He put his pen down and got his phone, flipping it open. He scrolled down, looking at the numbers in his phonebook. There was nothing missing; all of his teammates were there. For the nth time he wondered if he could call each one of them and ask if they knew about his problem. However, he stopped himself since an incident earlier involving Inui resulted into our tensai counting each of his pen, and the strokes of his name written in Kanji. It was pure insanity.

Fuji contemplated if he could ask a saner person in their team. He could ask Tezuka but the buchou would probably give him a 'hn' as an answer. Oishi would think he was not feeling well. If he would call Kawamura, the latter would more likely narrate his life story than listen to him. No offense to Kawamura but Fuji might not be able to empathize with him if he could not even remember his own problem. The tennis team's juniors—save Ryoma—would be so worried for no apparent reason.

So our dear tensai opted to call that one person who would make everything feel normal. Fuji Syuusuke pushed the call button at the digits of Kikumaru Eiji. While he was listening to the dial tone, waiting the line to be connected, Fuji remembered Eiji's canker sore. Feeling guilty, he was about to drop the call when he heard a soft click from the other line.

"Nya, Fujiko," Eiji softly said.

Cold sweat broke out of Fuji's forehead yet unexplainable warmth filled him. He felt his fingertips tingle as if he was in a match that he already knew the result. A lump formed in his throat slightly obstructing his voice as he trying to find the courage to speak.

He had finally found the missing piece of his life puzzle for that day.

"Saa, Eiji, Koe wo kikasete." (Let me hear your voice.)

There was silence from the other end and then, "Tondo monde ma-awatte…NYAAAAA! Fujiko! It's difficult!"

That earned a smile from the tensai. "Tell me, would you like to come over for DVD marathon, and a sleepover. Oh, and mouth wash before sleepover."

Half an hour later, in Fuji's residence…

"ITTTAAAAAAAI! (OOOUUUCCCHHH!) That's painful, nya!"

Fuji patted Eiji's back as the latter rinsed the stinging effect of the mouthwash. They were in the common toilet of the house situated just behind the kitchen. Eiji gargled probably a liter of water already but the mouthwash' effect was still there. Fuji, quite amused, handed the red head a towel to dry his face with.

"It's your punishment for being soo quiet today, Eiji-kun."

"Nya?" Eiji's accusing eyes nailed the tensai to the spot but Fuji promised himself that he would not tell Eiji his realization.

"Gomen gomen," he laughed to Eiji's slight annoyance. Oh, Kikumaru Eiji would get his vengeance a little later, with fluffy pillows.

"Will Kikumaru-san be alright?" Yuuta said out of the blue in between munching potato chips and seeing a movie.

"What do you mean?" Yumiko half-heartedly asked back, also engrossed in the movie.

"Kikumaru-san has canker sore. Aniki is giving him a painful remedy, THE mouthwash."

Both of them laughed with their parents as the characters in the movie did a somersault ending up in the trash bin.

Yumiko stopped shortly though as epiphany dawned on her. She looked at Yuuta, "THE mouthwash you mean HIS mouthwash?" she asked, already anxious.

Yuuta nodded, still focused on the TV. Then as if struck by lightning, he finally unglued his eyes from the running movie characters, looked at his sister and both of them bolted to the door toward the common toilet of the Fuji family.

"Aniki!"

"Syuusuke!"

"What was that all about," Mrs. Fuji asked her husband, following her kids with her eyes.

"Nothing. Syuusuke's been playing with his Wasabi Mouthwash again," Mr. Fuji replied nonchalantly. It was clear in his mild indifference that he was savoring his "rest" day at home and a prank done by his all-too-a-saint son was not a big deal.

Right. It was not a big deal for one Fuji Syuusuke who would do anything just to hear Kikumaru Eiji's voice again. What Eiji thought about it was another story altogether.

End

A/N: I hate canker sores. Hehe. Tell me if it's lame.

Koe wo kikasete- Let me hear your voice-a title of a song from my favorite Korean group Bigbang's Japanese album. One of my favorite songs from the group.

Tonde Monde Mawaatte—first few words from Cap to Bin's song