Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or it's character, I make no money off this, do not sue me!
AN: Yay, second fic in as many days. Most of this was actually typed up yesterday, but I felt the need to tweak it a bit. As always, if you hate it or love it I apologize, I didn't mean to!
Another sunny day, another afternoon spent watching tennis…another day I wondered where exactly my common sense had gone. A month ago if you'd told me I would voluntarily been sitting on the sidelines watching two boys chase a little yellow ball around a court I would have laughed hard enough to fall over. Heck, I might still, it was early, and you never know what might happen. Tilting my ever-present umbrella I glanced over at my sister, she too was pretty absorbed by the scene in front of us, though she was equally absorbed by the cell phone in front of her.
Neither Fuji nor Eiji were playing, so both of us were doing other things while keeping half an eye on the courts. Miki was using her blackberry to keep abreast of the latest stock reports, and I was typing up our latest review to the board. It was amazing how dexterous we were considering one hand was constantly curled around the handle of an umbrella. Smiling faintly I turned as I felt a presence beside our blanket, my smile getting larger as I realized it was Fuji.
Crouching down beside me he glanced at the screen of my phone and lifted a brow. "Still playing boss?" he asked and settled on the balls of his feet slightly under the edge of my shade.
"I haven't been playing since I was eleven Fuji, but you know I'll put it away when you play later." Glancing at the court I pulled a face, Momoshiro and Inui were still on the court, Inui saying something about data and blah blah blah…. Those two were definitely not my favorite of Fuji's friends. Even the taciturn Tezuka and the bipolar Kawamura were higher up on that list. "You have some very odd team mates Fuji…speaking of which the snake is missing…again…." A hiss behind me ran nails along my spine. "Or he's eavesdropping behind us." With a glare over my shoulder I twisted to face more towards my boy, ignoring the serpentine one.
"Miiiiiiiiiki, Miiiiiiichi!" a perky voice echoed over the campus and I stopped where I was in the conversation with my boy and hopped to my feet. This was a matter of self preservation; Saki had no compunction about tackling us to the ground if we weren't braced. The blonde was jogging up, her long golden hair pulled back with a band which did nothing to detract from her heart shaped face. The other regulars and club members all did a double take as she jogged past to embrace Miki and me.
Wrinkling my nose I had to tease her after she released my sister. "Saki you have been jogging for hours from the smell of it, what boy is going to date you if all you ever do is chase the sunset?" No one looking at her would believe I was serious though, tall slender, blonde and dark eyed she was the unspoken beauty of the school. It helped that she was nice and a hard worker too, otherwise she would have probably been smothered by rivals years ago.
Collapsing on our blanket she started stretching, obviously cooling down from one of her marathon runs. Twisting her head she smiled at Fuji and Kaidoh, the former just smiled, the later seemed to be torn between a scowl and a stare. "Oh I don't know Michi…you are Michi right?" Wrinkling her nose she again looked at the boys. "I tell them they should at least attempt to look different or no one will ever know who they are."
Stepping over to me Fuji grin widened and laced his hand with mine, "Oh I don't know, if you look closely you can see which is which." Squeezing my hand he leaned closer to look into my eyes shielded by the umbrella. "I'll be playing next, be sure to watch." With that he was gone, and with a dreamy sigh I settled onto the cloth.
"Ooooh, Michi, he's dreamy," Saki sighed behind me as she curled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. "Now I'm jealous," glancing around the group she pointed at a red-head. "He's not bad either." she had a tone to her voice that made Miki turn her head and lift a brow.
"Sorry, taken Saki, try again." she retorted as she watched Eiji and Oishi work on various formations by themselves.
"Well…darn…hmmmmm," a sibilant hiss from behind reminded us that we weren't alone. Refusing to turn I waved a hand over my shoulder.
"Oh I don't know Saki, you and Kaidoh-kun have a lot in common. Running…uhm…I'm sure something else…breathing, blinking, things like that." My tone was light and teasing, and I waited for her to laugh it off. Instead I heard her hum and felt her move. "Uhm…Saki…that was a joke." I turned to stop her before Kaidoh hurt her, or at least scared her. Let's face it; the snake wasn't exactly a warm and welcoming visage!
Expecting to see her running away I had to scrape up my jaw as she circled him and eyed him up and down. Blanching I nearly swallowed my tongue as she tugged off his sweaty bandana to more clearly see his face. But what was more surprising was that he wasn't killing her. Looking over at Miki I noted her shock too, and together we turned to watch the drama in front of us, or maybe it was a train wreck.
"Definitely good raw material," she crossed her arms over her chest and tapped a finger on her forearm. "How much do you run?" she asked. Answering her with a hiss he didn't move, didn't even seem to blink as she stopped in front of him. "Mmm, good point, how much isn't as important as where is it? I've not completely cooled down; want to go for a short run?" She picked up her feet, running in place for a moment before jogging backwards and gesturing towards him. Like an obedient, if slightly confused, puppy Kaidoh followed.
A minute, then two passed and I looked at Miki. "Uhm…did we just see that?"
"No, I don't think we did, I think we've been out in the sun too long." She settled again to face the courts, and I did the same just as Fuji walked onto them. Waving a hand I saved my presentation and turned off my phone. With a frown I watched the Golden Pair take the opposite side of the court. "Looks like they're going to double team him." I said to no one in particular. Though he was outnumbered he held his own, but really that didn't surprise me, I was learning, albeit slowly, that not much truly challenged Fuji in tennis. If he ever did find someone that did it would be the match to watch. When they finally left the court I glanced up and realized quite a bit of time had gone past; a glance around showed that neither Saki nor Kaidoh were back.
"Uhm...should we send out a search and rescue team," I asked Miki. "He might have buried the body already...then I'd really have to hurt him...uh..." My sentence trailed off as a familiar blonde head bobbed into view. Running backwards, facing the snake, Saki was apparently chattering at him as they ran. From all appearances he was having trouble with the bubbly blonde. The two finally stopped a dozen feet away and started cooling down...well...Saki did as Kaidoh took the court to do some more practice. Biting my tongue, I was not going to ask, really, I lasted for all of thirty seconds.
"What were you doing?" Miki beat me to the question. Snapping my mouth shut I waited for her reply.
"Oh, we did a short run around campus. Kaidoh has really good stamina, but only if he's on pavement...we'll have to work on that." Twisting her torso and wrapping her arms around one leg Saki turned her body into a human pretzel a few times before moving onto other muscles. "I think he'll get much better...but until he can outrun me he's going to have to accept me as his girlfriend." She stated this in a perfectly calm voice...so it took us a while to react.
"You what??!" we said in unison.
"What? No one said you two were the only ones to have a hot tennis boy for your very own." grinning she waved as she stole Kaidoh's towel from his bag and strolled off. Calling over her shoulder as she headed off, "Enjoy the rest of practice!" we weren't sure if she was talking to us, or the completely befuddled snake...though if truth be told we were in the same boat...er...tree...er...whatever. Some days it didn't pay to try to figure her out.