Disclaimer: Don't own Prince of tennis, or anything of it :D
Long, tiresome hours of practice after school was the usual routine for a certain person. Kirihara panted, dripping in sweat and water and whatever else he could emit from his rest of his teammates followed in suit, all sweaty.
"So I here he's in love."
" Really! You kidding…did Yanagi tell you?"
" No way, who is it?"
" It's quite obvious, Marui, don't ask such moronic questions."
" Well, excuse me Mr. golf course."
"Yes, you are excused."
" Shut it you two."
"Puri."
Kirihara sighed, knowing this would happen. " So, who's the unlucky girl?" Marui grinned, putting a hand on Kirihara's shoulder. Kirihara shoved it off, " she's not unlucky…I mean, I don't know what your talking about," he muttered, failing to realize that he was blushing slightly.
" What is going on here?" Yukimura asked, arms crossed and walking towards them with a small smile on his tender face.
He always smiled, much less to the amusement of the rest of his team. And although smiles usually meant pleasantries and such, Yukimura's smiles generally held deeper meaning of contemplation.
" Nothing really," Yanagi brushed casually, clearly trying to change the topic since he knew exactly what was going on.
" Oh bouchou! We're just talking about Kirihara's love live," Marui explained, eating his normal overload of sweets all the while.
Yukimura raised a eyebrow, "oh," he simply said, "how interesting."
Kirihara gulped, trying his very best not to seem noticeably tense and stiff. His bad luck kicked in as he felt silver stands of hair touch his own and looked up to see Niou bending down right beside him.
"That's not the interesting part though," Niou smirked, lightly patting Kirihara's head, while he tried to swat his sempai's hand away.
" Yeah, the interesting part is, who it is," Jackal sighed, picking up the small sweets Marui was dropping obliviously.
" It's reportedly the sister of-"
" What are you doing?" Yaguu's statement was cut short when Sanada interrupted, marching up to them.
" Nothing, really…we were j-"
" If you have time to falter and chit-chat then I suggest you used it more wisely, 100 laps now!" He directed strictly, towering down on them.
Yanagi had strangely vanished from the group, as did Yukimura and the two were now chatting near the benches, whispering strange necessities, which the others couldn't here.
The group, consisting of Yaguu, Niou, Jackal, Marui and Kirihara sighed understandingly, as this was nothing new or shocking them.
"Fuku-bouchou seriously needs to get laid," Niou grinned, scratching his hair as the others stifled their laughter as much as they could.
"Niou…" Yaguu said, warning evident in his tone. Niou was in dangerous waters for sure.
Sanada stopped where he was and slowly turned back around, eyeing Niou in the process. He knew what was coming. They all did.
" Niou, 200 laps and clean up the balls afterwards."
Niou only grinned wider, as the Jackal and Yaguu sighed in unison at his foolhardy actions. If only he could suppress the urge to make comments like that in Sanada's presence, then they wouldn't have to suffer.
" And Marui, if I see another one of those cakes going down your throat, you'll be joining Niou," Sanada added, as Marui choked on his cake upon hearing that.
" What!" Marui yelled, as Sanada walked away to join Yanagi and Yukimura in their little huddle.
" It's probably for the best, Marui," Jackal stated, patting his partners shoulder. Marui looked absolutely baffled at this punishment. And he hadn't even done anything.
" Besides, it will help you concentrate more on playing than eating," Yayguu pointed out, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
" But I'm not even fat!" Marui retaliated, throwing his hands up.
Niou had already started running and already looked tired, which was justified since the group had previously run 100 laps together. Marui grunted in dismay, throwing away the rest of the cake in the nearest rash cake and came back with a sour look.
Everyone was just about to their daily practices when Kirihara spoke.
" Guys, what does 'getting laid' mean?" He asked, picking up his jacket and slinging it over his shoulder. They almost forgot he was there, since he had been so quiet.
Yanagi, who had over heard, sighed in dismay, " Kirihara…" he trailed off.
The rest of them stuttered, clearly trying to avoid the conversation at hand all the while being thankful that Niou was busy running or else who knew what Kirihara's poor ears would hear.
" Less talking more training!" Sanada hollered form the side, as everyone rushed to get their equipment. He'd obviously heard Kirihara's awkward question, thus had tried to ease the tension.
Being in high school now, the group was still together, as they had all decided to go to a neighboring high school located conveniently near all of them. It was a good prestigious high school, much like their middle school. The older members sometimes skipped practice in preparation for future jobs and such, leaving only Jackal, Marui and Kirihara, the second years, to practice.
Being in the same high school too, it was no surprise that one by one, they all joined the tennis team, again having their own reign.
And days like these were quite rare, when all of them could be seen practicing together, simultaneously training for the better.
Practice was cut short, when Yukimura called the team over to the benches during there practice matches.
" What's up bouchou, cutting practice short?" Kirihara questioned suggestively, wiping his head with a towel; he was sweating.
" Or maybe it's the opposite, Kirihara," Yukimura smiled, responding as Kirihara twitched. It was not possible he could extend practices in this weather.
" What, did someone die?" Niou questioned quirking the side of his lips. Everyone turned to look at him with brooding looks that read, 'are you serious'?
" What?" He shrugged, "I mean, we never cut practices, so I thought it was something big," he stated logically.
Yukimura sighed, before smiling a hollow smile, " Niou, there's an empty track waiting for you…if you'd like," he taunted. Understanding the meaning behind his words, Niou simply nodded and kept quiet.
Sanada came up behind Yukimura and bent down to whisper something quickly. Whatever was whispered, Yukimura clearly approved, as he smiled in turn and nodded in agreement. Sanada briskly walked out of the indoor courts just as quickly as he'd come.
" What's going on?" Yaguu asked, slightly annoyed at the slow pace of revealing things.
" You all remember Fudomine from middle school, right?" Yukimura began slowly.
All the members except Kirihara widened their eyes for a fraction of second, before looking at their Bouchou with skeptical glances. They didn't need their captain to tell them what was already obvious.
" Oh fuck no," Niou declared hotly, slamming the bench, as Yaguu, his partner nodded in agreement with him.
" Ditto."
Jackal looked at Marui, "Ditto?" He repeated tesitly, " it can't be that bad Marui, I mean really guys," Jackal exasperated.
" Wait, what?" Kirihara said, confusedly looking around for some answers. Yanagi sighed, already aware of this, prior to the predicament.
" Kirihara, their indoor courts are being repaired, and in the mean time they will be needing a proper training court…"
Kirihara was nodding, faster; the information was finally getting to him, "so, so, you mean they'll be using…ours then?"
Yanagi shook his head, "precisely, our facility is large and are equipment is excellent and will suffice for both our teams," he stated.
" And let me guess…you don't know how long the repairs going to take so we're pretty much stuck with them for who knows how long," Marui said, furrowing his eyebrows.
"To sum it all up, yes," Yanagi answered back.
" Fuck no," Kirihara growled, throwing his towel on the bench. Middle school matches with Fudomine had left some hefty scars, as they'd hurt his pride.
Jackal and Yaguu gasped at his sudden outburst, but Marui and Niou just grinned in acknowledgment and agreement.
" Well I'm sorry to disappoint you people, but they've already arrived, and will be looking around," Yukimura replied calmly, clearly not frazzled or put down by any of the things his teammates had been spouting. It was expected to say the least.
" But w-"
Yukimura held a hand up to silence Kirihara, "so I ask of you, please be kind and respectful. They're guests, so treat them like the are," he explained seriously.
Kirihara sighed thoughtfully, as long as she wasn't here, it would be fine even if her brother was loitering around. He'd just have to put up with it, however method he'd need to use.
They all nodded, before resuming to their original practice matches. No sooner said then done, Sanada walked into the courts with a few people following behind. The tennis members stopped to look, as they all walked towards the bench where Yukimura was sitting. They could tell they had begun chatting, as they gestured with their hands and Yukimura explained everything.
Kirihara looked away, before something caught his eyes.
Short brown hair that had grown just and inch or two overtime, and those beautiful hazel colored, doe shaped eyes.
She hit him like a ton of bricks, and he had such little time to contemplate that he failed to realize Yanagi had served in his direction.
SMACK.
The ball hit him hard on his head, making him tumble slightly, but he caught his balance. That surely seemed to have caught her attention, as she turned towards him, and immediately her eyes lit in a fiery rage that was not evident in her eyes a few seconds ago.
And if he thought she was going to speak to him, Kirihara had something else coming. She sparred him one last glance before stalling off on her heals. Kirihara growled.
" This is gonna be one long practice," Niou whispered form the sides.
Everybody on the courts couldn't help, but nod in agreement at the trickster's words.
One long practice.
Ya-ha-ha, another chapter done :D
Yes, I did modify like, their schooling and stuff, cause I wanted to make them all 16 and over er...reasons ^_^
I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing :D
Stay tuned for the next chapter...they've finally met each other again :)
R&R
