I heard that the OOC was really crazy last chappie. I'm really sorry about that, but it was necessary, because I'm going to be evil to Ryoma at the end of third grade. And so I had to make him all innocent in first and second grade. And I needed an "open" Tezuka. And I think I'll just stick to first person…but thanks for telling me that I started with third person. I really didn't notice, because I wrote it on two different days.

Thanks for the reviews, especially crassreine who left a long, helpful review. I'll speed up the story for you…I really wasn't planning on throwing the big curve until 4th grade but that's okay!

Also, I want to know if you guys prefer long chappies or short chappies, and also if you'd rather have me write the whole thing, or at least the whole chappie, in one person's POV.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

And again, I wouldn't have Prince of Tennis on my Christmas List if I owned them. But if some rich person wants to buy one of the hotties for me, I'll be glad to accept!

Third Grade (Tezuka POV)

I was proud of Ryoma. He'd learned so much recently, even stealing some of our moves along the way. Somehow he'd managed to perfect Gen-kun's moves before Gen did… and then steal Syuu-kun's move too. I thought it was pretty funny…

I watched as Ryoma ran around the courts, just barely making it to the ball before whacking it back. With my zero-shiki drop shot. Syuu-kun snapped a picture of my blissful face.

"I'll bet that'll become your favorite move now. You'll like it even more than your Tezuka Zone!" Syuu-kun giggled again. I found him extremely annoying, but that was just because he was right.

"It'd none of your business whether or not Ryo-chan's ability to use the zero-shiki drop shot affects how much I like it." Syuu-kun smiled at me. And shoved the picture he just took in my face.

"You look so happy!" He cooed. Yes, he cooed. Stupid Syuusuke.

"Of course I'm happy. We've taught this boy for two years now!" Keigo-kun was on the court, high fiving Ryoma for beating Gen-kun, again. Ryo-chan was beaming with pride. Our third grader, capable of beating everyone else in his grade at tennis.

Gen-kun stood appalled on the other side. He stared at the ball, which still hadn't moved from the spot where it had fallen. Then he stared at Ryo-chan. The ball, Ryo-chan, the ball, and then he finally gave up.

"Congrats Ryoma!" He smiled. That was definitely new. None of us smiled if we lost a game…but then again Ryoma was a part of all of us. So it was like getting defeated by yourself…

I decided to just join the others in congratulating Ryoma. I was seriously starting to confuse myself. And Syuusuke does enough of that without any help.

2 months later, Third Grade (Tezuka POV)

Genichirou still haven't been able to beat Ryoma. Normally he'd hate someone as young as him for beating me, but I think Ryoma's too cute to hate.

Gen-kun reached over, stealing Ryoma from Keigo. Keigo instantly retaliated by pouting and attempting to steal Ryoma back. Then of course, Syuusuke stole him from both of them. It was a daily routine now. The only part of it that I didn't understand was why I always ended up with Ryoma.

Not that I was complaining of course.

Moments later, we stood in front of an ice cream shop. Don't even ask how that happened. I don't like it when I don't have answers… Ryoma bounced up asking if they had wasabi ice cream. The cashiers, workers, and shoppers all cooed about how cute he was.

It struck me as funny how no one responded to the whole wasabi thing. It was even funnier when the manager came out and had a scoop of wasabi ice cream custom made, on the spot.

We were all still smiling when we left the shop. Syuusuke had been the only one not to get ice cream. The rest of us all got one scoop of chocolate. Ryoma had two ice creams. I would have scolded him if it weren't so cute.

He bounced up to Syuusuke, offering him the wasabi flavored one. "You didn't get an ice cream! And you like spicy stuffs right?" He stressed the s at the end of "stuffs" proving what a terrible influence Syuusuke was. Surprisingly, Syuusuke took the ice cream. I thought he didn't like ice cream unless it was vanilla flavor; which they were making another batch of, but he didn't like waiting either.

He licked the ice cream, even though Ryoma had already taken a bite out of it. "Spicy," Syuusuke smiled. He looked at the shock on Keigo and Genichirou's faces. Then he looked towards me.

I smirked at him. "Your new favorite ice cream flavor eh?" I didn't expect Syuusuke to reply so quickly. Nor did I suspect that he had such a dirty mind.

"Ryoma tastes really good," he replied, making sure to like the part of the deformed cone where Ryoma had bitten it minutes earlier. Syuusuke laughed, Ryoma joining after a while. Keigo and Genichirou looked absolutely mortified.

"Pedophile." I replied. It was pretty gross. I mean Ryoma's like our little brother. That'd be like incest. And besides none of us are thinking about romantic relationships with girls… and definitely not romantic relationships with guys.

Of course, Syuusuke took this moment to do his weird mind reading thing and stared at me. "Yet. You forgot to add yet to the end of your sentence."

Let's just say Keigo and Genichirou had to hold me down. And that Ryoma got a free show along with his ice cream.

Suddenly, Ryoma stopped skipping. He turned around, facing all of us. Something in his eyes made it look as though he was speaking to each of individually, all at the same time. I would have been in awe if it weren't for the fact that Ryoma looked so serious. I wonder what could be affecting Ryo-chan like this.

"Ne, Kuni-kun. Ne, Syuu-chan. Kei-kun. Gen-kun. You're in fifth grade, right?" We looked at each other momentarily; trying to remember what grade we were in. I think we were in 5th right now… That means we've only known Ryo-chan for two years. It feels like forever. I wish it was forever…

Keigo counted off the years on his fingers. "Yeah, I think we're in 5th grade right now."

Ryoma looked up at Keigo with utter despair and desperation in his eyes. "No! You can't graduate! Fail all your classes or something! Onii-kun…" He sounds so sad. And are those puppy eyes? I looked at Keigo. Yeah, ten bucks says he'll agree to fail all his classes.

Syuusuke's eyes met mine. He smiled, and his eyes silently replied to my unspoken challenge. But Keigo would totally fall for puppy eyes. Even I fail at denying Ryoma when he uses the evil-ly adorable puppy eyes.

"Hmmm…I'll consider failing my classes," Keigo finally replied after what seemed to be years of pondering. My feet were seriously starting to hurt. Syuusuke looked at me, as though her were asking who won. Well, it was a good question…

"Don't worry, Ryo-chan," I said, bending at the knees so as to talk eye-to-eye with him. "I promise, that even if Keigo decides to pass his classes, we'll still come by to visit."

Syuusuke smiled. "I mean how could we ever leave our little brother alone?" He literally pounced on Ryoma, pulling him to his chest. Looking around, I figured that I wasn't the only one who understood Syuusuke's challenge. His eyes were little slits that said, 'just try to steal Ryoma from me, muahahahaha!'

Ryoma smiled at us, all of us. "Then you promise we'll be together forever?" To say Ryoma's eyes sparkled when he said that would be the understatement of the century. His eyes freaking gleamed.

But he still looked cute, so whatever.

I held out my pinky. "Pinky promise. That means we can't break it." Ryoma's smile clouded my mind for the rest of the week.

Graduation Day, Third Grade. Tezuka POV

"Kuni-kun, I need to see you before your gradation ceremony starts." His adorable voice was strained, serious.

"Daijoubu desu ka, Ryo-chan? Should I call the others?" It pained me to see him like this, but that was natural. I mean Ryoma is practically my little brother!

After seeing how loud Syuusuke can be while running to Ryoma, and trying to stay in front of Keigo and Genichirou at the same time, I decided that I probably should've just dragged them there personally. I should have known they would have started running as soon as I mentioned the faux smile.

Ryoma was the one who had always detested those fake smiles. He used to complain all the time about Syuusuke's red herring smile. I was surprised he picked up on it so quickly. Ryoma literally begged Syuusuke to stop with the fake smiling. Syuusuke agreed never to smile falsely at Ryoma.

And of course, because we all know that's really generous of Syuusuke already, Ryoma just sat there quietly afterwards.

And now he's wearing that fake smile. I don't know what to feel anymore. I'm not sure if I should be able to feel anymore. I'm not sure of anything anymore.

All I know is that losing Ryoma feels like losing it all.

I'm sorry that it took me this long to get this chapter up, and it's a short chapter too! But we just got a new computer and we had to get it installed and all that. And I'm really sorry about the grammar mistakes, I actually got a beta reader…but I don't know how the system works so I spent forever trying to send the file…

I finally just gave up and said, you guys deserve to read it now. Please tell me if you prefer faster reviews with less story (500-1000 words less, and 1 week less time) or 12 days and the full story.