Winter Escapade

Uploaded 1/12/07

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine.
Pairings: Slight Silver Pair. Dirty Pair and AtoJiroh if you really looked hard.

Wow, I have not written a fanfiction in a long time, let alone anything I would even think about letting anyone else read (yes, it was that bad). But I guess the best way to remedy that is to just start writing

Just a little ficlet featuring everyone's favorite rich kids (plus Shishido – everyone knows he's secretly a peasant, but we still love him).

Enjoy!

---------

"Shishido-san!"

Shishido Ryou grumbled, adjusting his baseball cap on his head. He hated the cold weather that winter brought, and didn't really know how he had gotten talked into going to the park with his tennis team. One of Atobe's ingenious ideas, most likely; he shoved his gloved hands deeper into his jacket pockets.

"Shishido-san!!"

He turned to the sound of Choutarou's voice, only to be caught full-on in the face by a large snowball, followed by devilish giggling.

"Mukahi, you brat!" He cursed, wiping snow out of his eyes. Sure enough, there was the cheeky redhead, doubled over and laughing. In fact, his whole team was laughing – with the exception of Kabaji (who knew if he could even laugh?) and Hiyoshi, who just stood there stoically (was that anything new?). Even his doubles partner was giggling.

Damn that kid…He stooped to grab some snow, packing it as he eyed the little devil. When Gakuto noticed he was being watched, he jumped up and fled. Shishido charged after him, winding back and getting ready to release-

"Yuushi, save me!!" Gakuto jumped behind the tensai, who had been conversing with Atobe.

"Oh carp!" Shishido couldn't stop himself from releasing his snowball.

The whole team watched as it sailed in a graceful arc towards Oshitari, who at that moment turned to see what all the commotion from his partner was.

"Ah-"

It landed right in the middle of his face – one might even have called it a perfect shot, if Shishido had been aiming for the blue-haired boy rather than that red-haired midget.

The regulars stood there for a moment in silence.

Oshitari gently removed his glasses and wiped them on his scarf, then replaced them on his face.

They all watched in fascination as he bent over and scooped his own handful of snow, carefully molding it into a perfect sphere.

"Hmmm," the tensai said, tossing his snowball up and down in his palm. By reflex, Shishido put his arms up as a barrier in front of his head. Only the sound of snow making a soft pakk against something else (miraculously) followed by muffled sniggers made him look up.

"Oshitari?"

"Hmm?"

"Ore-sama does not appreciate his inclusion in childish activities like snowball fights."

"Ne, ne, Atobe! We should all have a snowball fight!" Jiroh bounced impatiently at the captain's side, orange hair sticking out from under his hat.

"Now Jiroh, one never knows what snow might do to Ore-sama's fine complexion…"

Shishido coughed something that sounded like "Complexion my ass," but since Atobe kept talking they weren't really quite sure.

"But Atobe, it's winter! You have to have a snowball fight in the winter! It's like… required!"

"Ore-sama believes he has the authority to make decisions about what is required here or not, Jiroh-"

And with that, a large chunk of snow went down the buchou's jacket. His eye twitched. Only slightly, but it did.

"Ore-sama believes his revenge will be extracted upon this offending person in a slow and meticulous matter." He put his fingers to his forehead, closing his eyes and smirking slightly. "Ore-sama can see it now…"

A snowball landed on his head, and another exploded on his shoulder causing crystals to fly all over his face.

It was all out war now.

"Super lame," Shishido scoffed, chucking another at the captain. "What, is it beneath you to get your hands cold in the snow or something?"

"On the contrary, Shishido, one believes Ore-sama's prowess is too great for even the snow to handle. It just melts upon contact with him."

"Ego much?" Gakuto muttered, eliciting a stab from Choutarou's elbow.

Thus the battle continued for a time, with everyone getting cold noses and covered in snow and as a whole very worn out.

It was only after Hiyoshi had 'accidentally' slide-tackled Shishido ("Genkokujo…"), who ran into Choutarou, who fell over and presumably broke his finger (they couldn't really tell, everyone's hands were very numb) that they decided to call it quits.

"Gomen, everyone, for making you stop because of me!" Choutarou bowed to his team.

"Ore-sama believes it was about time for that excursion to end anyhow, so there are no hard feelings."

"Ah, Shishido, thank you for carrying my bag for me." Choutarou smiled at his sempai, who just averted his eyes and looked at his shoes. "Sure, no problem." He hefted both of the bags over his shoulder with one of his hands. "Not heavy at all." He didn't really mind doing anything for Choutarou, really.

And when they all began to walk towards Atobe's mansion for cocoa, he didn't really mind how Choutarou's hand slid into his own, or how they seemed to fit perfectly into each other. He just glanced at his doubles partner, who smiled, and smiled a little also.

So maybe he was a little glad Atobe had dragged him out with the rest of the team, but he didn't have to tell anyone that.

FIN.

---------

(Oh, and yes, I do know that Shishido says "Oh carp!" – I just thought it would be funny if he said that.)