"Midnight Snack"

Summary: A cup of hot milk, a bowl of cookies and words from a brother do wonders to heal a certain Fuji's hurting ego.

Timeline: Set during the Shitenhouji Arc of the manga

Warnings: Spoilers for Genius 314-322.

Disclaimers: Prince of Tennis is not mine.

Author's notes: This is a re-post of my first fic because I found a few errors after the initial posting and re-edited it. XX

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Yuuta shifted his position on his bed for the umpteenth time that night. He was facing the window, covered with cream white curtains. A crack on the curtains allowed small moonbeams into his room, illuminating the digital clock on his bedside desk. Yuuta reached for the clock and positioned it above his face. The yellow digits read 2:05 am.

Yuuta sat up and scratched his head.

It was unusual for him to still be up this late, especially when he was staying at home. Usually, he would already be dozing off as early as 9:00 pm, since traveling to his house from St. Rudolph after Friday tennis practice would always drain whatever energy was left in his body, leaving him extremely exhausted the moment he would reach their doorstep. Also, his bedroom was always ready for him to sleep on whenever he would arrive. The bed sheets, the pillow covers and the blankets were always clean and neatly fixed, and the fragrant scent of the laundry detergent his mother used on it would instantly lull him to sleep. So for most of the time, Yuuta would already be off to dream land the moment his head touched the pillow, whenever he was at home.

Apparently, this was one of those rare instances where Yuuta was still wide-awake and restless in the wee hours of the morning, trying to figure out why he could not sleep.

Yuuta stared at the wall and blinked. He forced himself to yawn, thinking that it might induce some sleepiness in his eyes, but his efforts were futile. Not even a small yawn escaped his mouth from the many times he had tried. He stopped his yawning attempts after nearly ten minutes, when he felt that his cheeks and jaw were already starting to ache.

The next best thing to do, Yuuta thought, was to hack the fridge for some midnight snack.

He tossed the blankets aside, swung his feet off the bed and made his way to the door. He quietly opened it and tiptoed on the hallway so that he would not disturb anyone. He was almost near the stairs when he passed by an open bedroom door. Yuuta peeked inside curiously.

The curtains on the window of the bedroom were drawn to the side, allowing the moonlight to fully illuminate the room. The bed had no occupant on it, and the blankets were thrown aside. Yuuta's eyes fell on a figure sitting on the study desk, looking out of the window. A small potted cactus was sitting on the table beside him. He heard a sigh resound in the room.

"Aniki, why are you still awake?"

The figure tensed momentarily, but immediately regained composure before turning to him. His brother's smiling face came to view.

"Yuuta, you're still awake, too?"

Yuuta folded his arms over his chest and rested on the doorframe, a grin gracing his lips.

"Want to join me for a midnight snack?"

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"Here you go," Yuuta said as he handed Syuusuke a mug of steaming hot milk. The aroma of the drink Yuuta had prepared filled the brightly lit kitchen.

Syuusuke had the ever-present smile on his face. "Arigatou," he mumbled with a grateful nod as he placed the mug on the table. Yuuta pulled a chair across him and sat down, setting down his own mug of hot milk and a bowl of cookies on the table.

"It's a good thing neesan bakes extra of these," Yuuta said as he got one cookie and took a big bite from it. Syuusuke chuckled amusedly as he watched his brother wolf down on the butter cookies their sister Yumiko had baked. He took one for himself and graciously ate it.

"Ne, Yuuta, why are you still awake at this time of the night?"

"I couldn't sleep," Yuuta said in between mouthful of cookies.

Syuusuke stared at the mug and saw his face reflected on its white porcelain surface. "Really, I couldn't sleep either."

"Yeah, you were pretty lost in thoughts when I saw you looking out of the window."

Syuusuke took a sip from the mug and felt the warmth of the drink going down his throat course through his entire body. "I've been thinking about a lot of things lately."

Yuuta was about to get another cookie when his hand froze halfway to the bowl. He stared at his brother, whose blue eyes were fixed intently on the mug of milk in front of him. Yuuta set his hands on the table and a serious expression covered his face.

"Aniki, don't tell me you're still thinking about that match."

Syuusuke heaved a sigh. "I can't help it."

"Aniki, there will be other matches."

"But it was my first singles match in the Nationals. And it was also my first official loss."

Yuuta could sense the bitterness in Syuusuke's voice. He could not help but feel sorry for his brother. He knew what losing a match felt like – he had experienced it before. It was like an invisible force was weighing down on his chest and he could not shrug off the heavy feeling that was swallowing his entire being.

He also knew that it was heavy blow to his brother's pride and ego. Syuusuke had never lost an official singles match before. He had watched most of his brother's matches and had seen him seize game after game with no difficulty at all. He was not even playing to his full potential then. Even if his brother were put up against formidable opponents from tough rival schools, Syuusuke would always find some way through it. With his quick thinking and ingenious skills, he would somehow turn the match to his favor and eventually win. Winning was a habit for him. The tensai, the Seigaku tennis prodigy, Fuji Syuusuke had never lost a match before. Never.

Until that fateful match with Shiraishi.

Yuuta saw it with his own eyes. He and Mizuki had dropped by the Tokyo Municipal arena tennis courts to watch his brother's semi-final match against Shitenhouji's captain, Shiraishi Kuranosuke. Mizuki had told him that Shiraishi possessed perfect tennis skills. There was no flaw in his game. But his playing style was still shrouded in mystery, Mizuki had said, because during the prior year, Shitenhouji lost three straight games to the champions Rikkai and Shiraishi did not get to play his Singles 1 match.

Tough opponent, Yuuta had thought then, but he knew his brother would fare equally with this Shiraishi fellow.

But as Yuuta watched the game progress, he was beginning to think otherwise. Shiraishi did have perfect tennis skills –- he was able to return all difficult shots easily and had no single flaw in his game. He quickly dominated match after match. He was even able to break Syuusuke's triple counters with no sweat at all. It was the first time Yuuta had seen his brother being pushed to a corner and lose game after game miserably.

Still, he believed that his tensai of a brother would be able to find a way to break through Shirashi's perfect tennis and he was not wrong. Syuusuke displayed his evolved triple counters – more powerful than the ones nullified by Shiraishi's so-called "Bible Tennis". With those new moves, Syuusuke regained his pace and won his first game. As if that wasn't enough, Syuusuke was even able to develop his final counter in the middle of the match and used that to take the remaining games until the scores were tied.

When Syuusuke took the lead of 6-5 and was down to match point, Yuuta knew that his brother would win that match.

But to his surprise, somehow, that Shiraishi fellow figured out a way to negate the effect of the final counter and quickly caught up with the score. Syuusuke would have taken the game with his Hakuryuu had it not landed out of bounds.

In the end, Shiraishi prevailed and Syuusuke lost.

Yuuta knew, as he watched his brother slowly walking to the side bench then, that Syuusuke did his best and had put everything to that match. Mizuki had said that it was a good game, and Yuuta had thought so, too. His brother had done his best and there was nothing to regret whether the results were a win or a loss.

Only now did he realize how badly his brother took the blow of his first loss. It had been three days since that match and Syuusuke was still brooding over it. Judging from his brother's tired look and weary eyes, he must not have slept properly at all during the past three days.

A sigh escaped Yuuta's lips as he took a cookie from the bowl.

"You know aniki, not all matches are meant to be won."

Syuuske's stopped drinking his milk and set his mug on the table. His blue eyes met Yuuta's soft hazel ones.

"That's just the way it is. You can't always win all your matches. You're bound to lose some."

Yuuta took a deep breath and drank from his mug. "I know that match was important to you. It was your first singles match in the Nationals. But like I said, you can't always win, even on those important matches."

Yuuta stared at his cup and remembered his school's match against Seigaku during the regional tournament. "I've lost many important matches too, you know. I lost terribly to Echizen, remember?" He said with a grin.

"But even though I lost that match, I felt really happy and content because I had put everything to that match. No matter what results were in the end, I was satisfied because I knew I played against him with everything that I got."

He looked at Syuusuke, still smiling. "So aniki, you shouldn't regret, because you did your best against that Shiraishi fellow. You even pulled out some cool moves!" Yuuta swung his arm in air, imitating Syuusuke's final counter.

Syuusuke had to laugh at the childlike amazement laced in Yuuta's voice when he referred to his new move.

"Besides, Seigaku won over those guys. So you shouldn't waste your energy brooding over that loss. That's past, aniki. What you should be worrying about are your future matches."

Syuusuke nodded in understanding. "You're right, Yuuta," he said, a smile now present in his face.

"See, that's what's important now. Especially now that you have a championship match in two days' time. That's something you should be losing sleep over."

"Aa," Syuusuke nodded with a smile before finishing the remaining contents of his mug.

Yuuta beamed at him. He was proud that his efforts were able to cheer his brother up and finally got him over the regretting stage of his first loss. He drank the remaining milk in his mug and stood up. Syuusuke followed suit.

"I'll put these back in the cookie jar," Yuuta said as he took the bowl of cookies from the table and made his way to the kitchen counter, where the cookie jar was. Syuusuke, meanwhile, took their mugs to sink and proceeded to wash it.

After they finished cleaning up the table, Yuuta closed the lights in the kitchen and the brothers made their way upstairs to their bedrooms in silence.

"Ne, aniki."

Syuusuke, who was about to enter his room, turned to Yuuta.

"Make sure you win that championship match, okay?"

"I will."

Yuuta smiled and gave his brother a lighthearted tap on the back. "Go to sleep, aniki." He made his way to his room and was about to enter when Syuusuke called him.

"Yuuta."

"Nanda, aniki?"

"Arigatou."

Yuuta gave him am enthusiastic thumbs-up sign and Syuusuke's amused chuckle resounded in the quiet hallway before he disappeared into his bedroom.

Yuuta shook his head with a snicker as he closed the door behind his back.

A few seconds after his head touched the pillow, Yuuta was already dozing peacefully into dreamland. And in the other bedroom, Syuusuke was also sleeping soundly with a smile on his face for the first time in three days.

Owari

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A/n: I had always wanted to make a fic regarding Syuusuke's reaction to his loss against Shiraishi. In the manga, he seemed to have taken it pretty badly. It was one of my favorite matches in the manga since it seemed to show a deeper side to Syuusuke's character. I hope I was able to portray the emotions right even if it was from Yuuta's point of view.

Added 26/05/07: Thanks to the lovely reviewers who stated that the Shitenhouji match was Syuusuke's second Nationals match. I completely forgot about his doubles match with Taka-san against Higa Chuu. I also noticed a slight error that I made here: I kept referring to Fuji's fourth counter when it should be his final counter. The fourth counter is Kagerou Zutsumi while the Final Counter is Hecatoncheires no Monban. Those two moves are different. XX

For those who are wondering, "Hakuryuu" is the upgraded Hakugei, wherein the ball bounces to the side instead of bouncing back to Fuji.

Anyway, feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!