Disclaimer : I do not own the Prince of Tennis

AN: oh no. what have I done? anyway, this is a pilot chapter to an idea I had that I couldn't resist. It's really bad.

Fleeting: An American Tale

Pilot Chapter

Everything that happened then led him to where he was now, standing in front of a run down house in a low income Los Angeles neighborhood and staring across the lawn into golden cat like eyes. It was like everything came rushing towards him and that hollow portion within him began to pulse and come to life for the first time since he moved to America. Since that one left him so many years ago.

It seemed like destiny was laughing at him.

Everything seemed to be working up to that one moment. From the first day he held a tennis racket, to when he met Yamato-buchou, and then the day when he met Seigaku's--no his… Tezuka's own pillar of support. He didn't realize how much he was relying on him. He wanted so much to teach him and to shelter him.

He was so naïve. They both were.

The team won and they were so happy and felt as if nothing could go wrong. But it wasn't long after that when they had to realize the bad news. With the end of the tennis season came the end of Echizen's stay. He was leaving Seigaku and Tezuka behind and going back to America.

It was the first time Tezuka remembered acting without any reservations. It was his first kiss and the moment was so bitter. Tezuka was holding onto the shorter boy, clutching him so tight it must have hurt. Their mouths were pressed together a moment before opening and exploring desperately. It was their last chance and they had to make the best of it.

In this way their time together ended.

Still, Tezuka was always serious and stern, and so it came as no surprise that he retained that trait. Throughout his high school years, he studied, improved his tennis, and wandered around trying to decide which way to go in his life. He decided on becoming an engineer.

Time went by and his friends began finding girlfriends, Tezuka didn't bother to question himself regarding that matter. He just assumed that when a girl that was interesting came along, then he'd surely be interested.

Tezuka reasoned that he was only just too busy to take any interest in any girls, that he was content on focusing on his academic career. Still, that didn't explain the nagging emptiness that threatened to overcome him with despair.

It wasn't like he could still miss someone after all those years. It was just, he felt like he had something to say.

He didn't realize what the pull was or why he wanted to study abroad so much, why he insisted in California, in LA.

"You really don't know how to move on," Fuji had said when he found out about Tezuka's plan to attend University in the US. "You really are hopeless."

"This isn't about that," Tezuka replied, convincing no one but himself.

Tezuka's mind was still elsewhere. He was be succeeding in building his future, but he was held back by memories of how it was five years ago. It was the best year of his life.

And so there he was, in America attending UCLA fully believing this was what he wanted and there as no external force guiding him. He was in the engineering program as a 2nd year now and he was beginning to really like Los Angeles. He adapted to America as well as he could manage and made friends and as usual stayed on the Dean's list every semester. Instead of going home in the summer, as an international student Tezuka stayed behind and took more classes, making him already in junior status.

Now it was his second summer in America and Tezuka was taking a few summer courses, including an internship with the city in public works.

And that's why he was there today, in a lower income area, as a part of a team surveying the area. And that's how he came face to face with those two golden orbs he had been missing since junior high without even knowing.

Standing on the porch of the old brick apartment was Ryoma Echizen, a little disheveled, dressed in oversized basketball shorts, a black tank top that clung to him in the sweltering heat. His hair was longer than Tezuka last remembered, and of course Ryoma had grown in height since they last saw one another. However, there was no denying the man Tezuka saw before him. No, not with those piercing eyes and that dim and yet cocky gaze.

That's when Tezuka realized why he came to America

-to be continued-

AN: as before stated, this is a pilot chapter. Actual working on this story may not begin until I finish working the tweaks out, but I just wanted to get people's idea. But looking back at it, this pilot chapter sheds NO light on what I really planned for this story. Oh well... thanks for reading and please review as it will REALLY have an impact on my decision to rewrite, tweak, continue etc...