Disclamer: PoT do not belongs to me, sadly, because if it did...what can I say I am a Yaoi fangirl.
A pot one shot taking place during chapter 89, Tezuka PoV. I apologize in advance for this is unbeta-ed and English is not my first language. I have been reading Pot again and this strucks me and I just had to write it.
"Hey, Tezuka, when you played Echizen, was it like this with you too?"
Tezuka was not really surprised when Fuji asked him about his own match against Echizen. Fuji was one of the most observant people he knew and what would have been shocking was if he hadn't noticed the evolution of Echizen's way of playing.
No, what startled him was the strange light in his teammate's eyes. A kind of light he had never seen shining before in those blue orbs. Even two years ago, during their first match, he hadn't managed to capture Fuji's attention the way the freshman did. He may have missed most of their match but he had seen the look both players had on their faces. The rain didn't seem to reach them in the strange world they had built just by competing against each other. A world of clashing genius.
Fuji the genius and Echizen the prodigy. Two words, one kind. No matter what people might say, what grades could show, no one in Seigaku had the intelligence or the skill to reach the level of those two. Himself, and maybe Inui, were the closest but there was like a wall separating the two and the rest. The life of a genius is a lonely one, to never have one able to understand your thoughts process without explaining. And there, there was those two, evolving in the same circle, in the same world, for they were two of a kind, the kind of genius.
Tezuka had, in the beginning, expected Fuji to show more toward the freshman but he had never really approached Echizen, letting Momoshiro and Kikumaru handle the younger boy. He had though Fuji would have been intrigued by the skills Echizen had displayed on daily occurrences but he hadn't seem interested more than the others. So Tezuka had let it pass thinking nothing of it. Thus, he had focused on developing Echizen's skill and not on protecting him from the sadistic actions of an overbearing Fuji. He hadn't thought since both of them had been bent on ignoring each other that letting them play a match would have such consequences.
Echizen had awaken Fuji who had in turn challenged him and he had responded breaking the second counter Higuma Otoshi. Both of them had been grinning, their attention focused on the other, taunting, daring. Then, it had begun to rain and neither had stopped, the fact they had or not noticed the rain didn't matter but they obviously hadn't care. If Ryuzaki-sensei hadn't decided to yell at the two of them stopping Ryoma in the middle of a service, Tezuka was sure they would have finished the match. He didn't know when but sometimes during their match, they had started looking like they were more having fun than playing a training match as a stamina-building exercise.
Tezuka had seen the way they had bantered when the rain had started, had heard the unspoken promise for a rematch ("it's disappointing but…this match will have to wait for another time") and had witnessed the way Fuji had been enthralled by the back of the already walking away Echizen, the way he had tightened his hold on his racket. In that moment, he had known he had lost Fuji's attention for those blue eyes would be for a long time always, secretly following the act of another.
Under that rain, he had witnessed Fuji acknowledging Echizen as a fellow genius, a worthy companion. He just didn't know what kind of sensation this meeting with a being of the same breed would entice in Fuji's mind.
"You knew about it?"
He just hoped that match wouldn't disturbed the two boys ' way of playing since they, Seigaku's tennis team, didn't have the luxury to lower their guard now if they wanted to reach the nationals. Let's just hope and pray that the two of them would have enough restraint to wait after to start challenging each other again for the sake of Seigaku.
"Yeah! I just had the feeling…"
Feedback is welcome!