Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of tennis or any character used in this story
~O~O~O~
When the Seigaku regulars arrived at morning practice they saw a strange note pasted to the door of the clubroom.
Dear Seigaku Regulars,
Please fill out my survey about who you would most rather Dance with, Kiss, and Marry. Hand in the forms to me today after practice.
It is for my important research
Thank you,
-Inui Sadaharu
P.S. No two answers may be the same!
P.P.S. Answers will be kept confidential and only be seen by me.
Not surprisingly, everyone found Inui's little survey in their tennis locker:
Name:
Dance partner:
Kiss:
Marry:
~O~O~O~
"He says pick 'who you would rather dance with, kiss, and marry' But, he didn't even give us a choice of people. What the hell." Momo fumed.
"His research is about the tennis team, right? So I think he means pick from our teammates. Maybe…?" Oishi guessed.
"We have to pick from the team? This is a problem." Kawamura covered his face in embarrassment, he definitely didn't want to do those kinds of things with his teammates.
"Cheer up, Taka-san! It's only a survey. It's not like you actually have to marry or kiss anyone." Fuji smiled.
Fuji actually liked drinking Inui juice and taking his surveys. He was weird. Kawamura wouldn't choose to marry him for sure.
"Fshuu…Is this mandatory?" Kaidou grumbled.
"Yeah. I'm not doing this. It looks stupid." Momo retorted.
Suddenly the regulars realized they didn't finish reading the note posted outside the door:
P.P.P.S. The survey is of course optional, and those who do not wish to fill it out will instead be given the wonderful opportunity to taste my latest juice creation. Inui Juice Formula XYZ123
"Ah, crap! I guess there's no choice then." Momo sighed in defeat.
Later at the 3-6 class:
"Fujikooooo, I finished my survey!" Eiji smiled joyfully, putting down his pen.
"Already? Hnn let me see." Fuji mumbled, scanning over Eiji's survey.
"Fuji! It's supposed to be confidential! Didn't you read the instructions?" Eiji looked at Fuji incredulously, trying to keep those prying eyes away from his survey.
"Did you, Eiji? The instructions also said we have to choose a different person for every category. You put Oishi's name for all the categories!" Fuji chuckled.
"But…but…I REALLY want to kiss Oishi and marry Oishi and dance with Oishi! It's not fair, Inui is such a meanie!" Kikumaru pouted.
After a moment of silence Kikumaru spoke up again.
"Say, Fuji, whatcha gonna put for your survey?" Eiji asked curiously.
"Hmm….do you want to see it? I have it right here." Fuji grinned impishly, fishing the survey out from his school bag.
"Gimme that!" Eiji said yanking the survey out of Fuji's hand. "Wah! Fuji! What is MY name doing on here?"
Name: Fuji Shyusuke
Dance partner: Kawamura Takashi
Kiss : Kikumaru Eiji
Marry: Tezuka Kunimitsu
"Saa…Who knows?" Fuji shrugged
"You want to kiss me?!" Eiji shrunk back in fear
"Want is a strong word, Eiji. I just mean compared to the others…."Fuji trailed off cryptically. "Besides you remember freshmen year…don't you?"
"THAT was a PRACTICE kiss for Oishi!" Eiji said hotly. "You better erase that before Inui gets any weird ideas. These lips are for Oishi and Oishi only!" Eiji said pointing dramatically to his lips.
"Eiji, You're the one that's going to give him ideas if you don't keep your voice down." Fuji calmly stated. "But, if it bothers you so much I'll change my answer."
Fuji had honestly just put that as his answer to get a rise out of Eiji. He wouldn't actually want to go through with kissing Eiji ever again. Kissing Eiji was kind of like kissing your pet dog, really sloppy and gross. Maybe since Eiji had been with Oishi he had improved, but probably not. Probably Oishi just liked sloppy, gross dog kisses, because Oishi liked everything about Eiji. Besides, Taka-san was a great doubles partner, but a terrible dancer. Fuji and Kawamura had gone dancing together right after they became doubles partners for the first time, and it was a total disaster. Kawamura kept stepping on Fuji's feet and mumbling apologies the entire time.
"Nya, Fujiko, you're the best!" Eiji cheered as Fuji erased Eiji's name from the 'Kiss' category.
Kikumaru's plan was brilliant. If Eiji could get Fuji to switch his answer about the kissing question, it wouldn't look so suspicious when he wrote on his survey he would most rather kiss Fuji. After all, they had already done it that one time so it wasn't that weird. He would just have to make sure Oishi didn't see his survey.
Some people didn't understand the true meaning of the survey
Tezuka sat in the student council office during lunch filing through a few important papers and thinking over that weird survey he received in the morning. Why would Inui care who he wanted to dance with, kiss, or marry? It was strange. There had to be something more, something he was missing.
Tezuka sat at the desk for a couple more minutes thinking
Then it hit him. The whole survey was a tennis metaphor.
Who is the person you want to marry? It is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. The person you want to play tennis with forever.
Who is the person you kiss? Tezuka didn't know anything about kissing really, for gosh sakes he was only 14! He did however know someone who seemed to know a great deal about the subject. Apparently, when Oishi first started dating Kikumaru, Kikumaru kissed like one would imagine a dog kissing. But, Oishi was kind, gentle, and taught Kikumaru how to kiss like a proper human. Therefore, (in Tezuka's mind) 'kissing' must be a metaphor for the person in tennis you want to teach things to, the person you want to mentor.
Finally, the dancing partner. A dancing partner is not romantic, it can be a friend or even a family member. A dancing partner is like a tennis doubles partner, someone you can rely on when times are hard or if you have a fight with the "one you want to play tennis with forever." This is your tennis best friend.
After figuring out the 'metaphor' it was much easier to fill out the survey.
Name: Tezkua Kunimitsu
Dance partner: Oishi Shuichiro
Kiss: Echizen Ryoma
Marry: Fuji Syusuke
After completing the survey, Tezuka got up made his way over to Inui's classroom where Inui was perfecting his latest juice creation
"Ah, Inui, I finished the survey." Tezuka announced.
"Oh, you're just in time to taste test my Inui Juice formula XYZ123-"
"I also figured out your survey's metaphor." Tezuka cut him off.
Metaphor? He even found a metaphor in a place where there is no metaphor
"Very good, you are the first one to find it, Tezuka. Now, about juice formula XYZ123…" But Tezuka was already gone.
Some people were taking the survey way too seriously
Kawamura and Oishi sat together in Oishi's classroom during lunch. Oishi was trying to be a good mother hen/ Vice captain, helping Kawamura work out the dilemma of who to choose for the survey. Oishi looked calm, but on the inside he was just as stressed out about the answers to the survey as Kawamura.
"I just don't want to hurt anyone's feelings." Kawamura sighed.
"Don't worry, Taka-san, the survey is confidential. Well, partially confidential, only Inui will know the results. Besides, it looks like you already have one of the answers figured out." Oishi comforted.
"Yeah! Fuji and I went dancing together right after we became doubles partners. Actually, I thought he was pretty good…so…" Kawamura mused.
"Haha, I think doubles partners probably make great dance partners too!" Oishi agreed. But if I put Eiji as my dance partner, then the kiss and the marriage…Ah! What a problem!
"Oishi? Are you okay?" Kawamura asked, concerned. Oishi looked slightly pale.
"Yeah, I'm A OK, don't worry about me!" Oishi lied.
"Oh, sorry! I forgot I need to check out a book at the library before class starts again. Please excuse me." Kawamura apologized as he walked out the door to Oishi's classroom. The library had just gotten a brand-new sushi book: "Great-O! Burning Sushi: The Proper Use of Wasabi."
"Sure, see you at practice, Taka-san." Oishi waved goodbye.
Oishi looked at the survey in front of him seriously. How was he supposed to pick Eiji for only one of these answers? Obviously Eiji would be the best dancing partner, because they were, well, doubles partners. Then, to consider kissing someone else on the team was pretty disgusting. But, to think about marrying someone else was agonizing also. Oishi held his head in pain as he felt a tension headache coming on.
Just then he had an epiphany. He was the mother of Seigaku. Tezuka was kind of the father Seigaku, so in a way they were already a little bit married. Quickly Oishi wrote down, "marry Tezuka" in one of the blanks.
Now he just needed a dancing partner. Who was good at dancing? Wait, didn't Kawamura just say Fuji was good at dancing! Perfect!
The stress was finally over and Oishi could relax. He sat back in relief, when suddenly—
"Oishiii! Sorry I'm late, Nya! Hey! Who did you say you would marry in the survey?" Eiji asked curiously.
"Eiji, it's confidential, I can't tell you!" Oishi firmly asserted as he quickly tried to hide the survey in his schoolbag.
"Yes you can!" Eiji argued, yanking the paper out of Oishi's hands.
Name: Oishi Shuichiro
Dance partner: Fuji Syusuke
Kiss: Kikumaru Eiji
Marry: Tezuka Kunimitsu
"What? You're going to marry Tezuka? Why does everyone want to marry Tezuka, huh? How could you betray me like this, Oishi? Big jerk!" Eiji screamed, infuriated.
"Betray you? But this way I don't have to kiss anyone else but you!" Oishi was dumbfounded, kissing was such an intimate act. He couldn't possibly do that with anyone but Eiji.
"If you and Tezuka are married, of course your gonna kiss, dummy!" Eiji rolled his eyes. Although Oishi was smart, sometimes he was not very smart at all.
"Well, if you said you were going to marry me in your survey, then who did you say you were going to kiss?!" Oishi demanded, annoyed that Eiji hadn't chosen him.
"Secret!" Eiji pouted, crossing his arms.
"Eiji!"
"Fine! Fuji, but don't worry, because the kiss already happened in the past….ehehehe" Eiji blurted, blushing as the words spilled out of his mouth.
"You kissed Fuji…in real life?!" Oishi seethed.
"Don't be mad! It was just a practice kiss…for you!" Eiji emphasized, trying to calm Oishi's scary angry mode.
"Ahem" A familiar third voice interjected.
Oishi and Kikumaru both turned around to see Captain Tezuka standing in the doorway. Who knows how long he had been standing there and how much of the conversation he had overheard.
"Oishi, isn't it obvious the person you want to marry is Kikumaru?" Tezkua asked sternly. Remember, Tezkua still thinks 'Marry' is a metaphor for 'play tennis with forever'
"T-Tezuka!" Oishi flushed, realizing that they had been speaking rather loudly and Tezuka probably overheard the entire conversation. Tezuka thinks I want to marry him! Maybe he thinks I have a thing for him! Oh, WHAT A PROBLEM
"It's okay if you're confused. We've been friends a long time, and after all this time we even make good dance partners. Sometimes I might try to kiss you, it's okay. But, remember, the person you want to marry is ultimately Kikumaru." Tezuka emphasized.
[Translation: "It's okay if you're confused. We've been friends a long time, and after all this time we're even best friends. Sometimes I might try to mentor you, it's okay. But, remember, the person you want to play tennis with forever is ultimately Kikumaru"]
"Gahhh" Oishi sputtered incoherently, face redder than a tomato.
Luckily Inui came just in time to save the day. Well, he started the whole thing anyways, so it should really be, Inui came just in time to fix the giant mess he made. Inui snuck up right behind Tezuka, whispering something quietly in his ear Oishi couldn't hear. Suddenly, without a word Tezuka left the room.
