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Disclaimer: I own neither Prince of Tennis nor The Bachelor.

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Chapter Two- The First Rose

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Atobe inwardly sighed as he listened to the girl rattle on about something or other that was unimportant. He already knew that this person—Tomo was it?—was not going to make it through the eliminations that night unless every other person was worse than her. Something which he highly doubted.

He let his eyes wander around the room, first settling on Ikeda Arisa—if he remembered correctly, which he was sure he had. The auburn haired lady was sitting cross-legged on a couch, laughing with a few of the other girls. Even from that distance, he could see a spark in her eye that let him know she was merely sizing up her—for lack of a better word—enemies.

The woman was… attractive, he had to admit, but anybody—male, female, gay, straight, bi, ect—could see that, but to him there was just something lacking (other than the obvious missing parts of the male anatomy), there was just something off about her.

But he figured that it didn't matter much anyways. It wasn't like he was looking to fall in love with one of these "hopeful candidates" after all. All he needed was someone who could keep up the Atobe image and supply him with an heir. That was all that he was going to look for, because it wasn't possible for him to fall in love with one of them if he wasn't even attracted to any of them.

Well, he had to take that back. There was one person here whom he found very attractive despite having breasts (however small they seemed to be) and lacking a penis. He glanced over in the girl's direction to see her smiling broadly and laughing with some of the other girls. At least she was getting along with the others, not that he hadn't expected her to. Even if she had seemed a little nervous when being introduced to him, he could tell that she was actually a rather cheerful and happy person. His insight never failed him.

But his insight could not—for the life of him—figure out what seemed a bit… different about her. If he thought there was something off about Ikeda, then there was definitely something off about this Koiko. And he looked forward to figuring out what it was.

"Atobe-sama," a voice said, walking up to him. The heir looked up to see Ikeda striding gracefully towards him, a pleasant smile on her face. "I was wondering if we might have a chance to talk?"

Glancing over at the person next to him, he nodded and hurriedly stood, giving a polite farewell to the girl and walked off with Ikeda. "Ore-sama thanks you for that. She was getting a bit…"

"Annoying?" Ikeda asked in slight amusement.

Atobe nodded. "Hai, she was indeed. Atobe Keigo and you are Ikeda Arisa if ore-sama remembers correctly, is ore-sama right?"

Ikeda smiled over at him. "Aa, you are. It is very nice to finally meet you, Atobe-sama. I've heard quite a bit about you from my father, he is competition—more or less—of Atobe Corp."

"Ore-sama sees," Atobe stated slowly, now eyeing her with slight interest. He could already see that if his father got to choose, this would probably be the person he would pick for him. But his father was not choosing for him and therefore Atobe would pick whom he wanted to, but already he could see that this girl would probably be the best for Atobe image. Although, he had only just met all of them and would have to wait until more time had passed to judge them.

"Ore-sama wishes to know your age," he stated suddenly as the two of them sat down on the couch, ignoring the jealous gazes shooting into Ikeda for getting to talk alone with him. He sighed, the ones acting jealous when they didn't even know him, definitely were not mature enough. Atobe glanced over to the blonde across the room and saw to his delight that the girl was still laughing and not acting jealous.

Ikeda followed his gaze before answering, "Nineteen. My birthday is December 13th."

"Ah," Atobe looked back over at the woman next to him. "Only a few months younger than ore-sama."

Ikeda smiled at having his attention turned back to her and crossed her legs, hands neatly placed in her lap. "Hai, and I love being born in winter. The snow is very beautiful, don't you think? I like to ice skate, or rather, ice dance."

Atobe raised an eyebrow. "Is there a difference?" he asked seriously, but Ikeda laughed, taking it as a joke.

"Of course there is, ice skating you are just skating on ice, ice dancing is when you dance to music wearing ice skates on ice. It's what they do in the Olympics despite calling it 'ice skating'." Ikeda answered. "Do you play any sports?"

The heir nodded and smirked. "Tennis and ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na."

Ikeda chuckled and shook her head. "Arrogant, I see. I have heard rumors of you being so but I didn't know whether it was true or not, but I guess I should've figured it was from the 'ore-sama', and I don't know anything about tennis. Not my cup of tea."

Atobe went to respond but a voice interrupted him from doing so. "I love tennis! Sugoi, ne? Best sport in the world! It is!" he looked over to see the blonde girl standing and grinning in front of him, eyes sparkling at the mention of the sport.

"You play?" he asked Koiko and the girl nodded, taking the seat on his other side but not sitting as close as Ikeda was to him, which Atobe was thankful for. Although, he didn't think he would mind this girl sitting that close to him.

"I do! Serve and volley," she answered, almost bouncing in her seat and Atobe found it rather… endearing. "I'm not sure how good I am or anything but I beat my friend all the time and he's really good! He can jump very high and spin in the air and he has this move called 'Moon Volley' and it is very cool!"

He wanted to chuckle at the girl's excitement that filled her words, brown eyes beaming happily. "You play against males a lot, ore-sama takes it."

Koiko blushed and rubbed the back of her neck shyly. Atobe wondered how someone can go from one extreme (bubbly) to another (very shy) in only a few seconds. "Hai, all of my friends are guys so I play tennis with them a lot. But its fun!" she smiled happily again. "And it's also fun getting all that Strawberry Pocky from Gakuto because he bets that he'll win and if he loses he'll get me Pocky and he always loses to me."

Ikeda watched the interaction with a small frown. This girl whose name she had not yet found out was getting more of a reaction from Atobe-sama than she was. It probably had to do with something about the fact that they both enjoyed tennis and she didn't understand a thing about it.

"I'm a singles player, but I think it might be fun to play doubles every once in awhile!" Koiko was saying, excitement still ringing in her voice.

Atobe sniffed slightly. "Ore-sama only plays singles. Ore-sama laughs at the thought of anyone keeping up with ore-sama enough to play doubles with ore-sama."

"Oooh…" Koiko blinked. "So you're good?"

"Of course ore-sama is."

Koiko beamed. "Maybe we can play some time?" She questioned, leaning forward only slightly and Atobe found himself glancing quickly over her barely made-up face. There was a natural glow about her that could light up a dark room, he was sure.

Atobe's lips twitched up slightly. "Ore-sama would love to play with you." He paused after saying that, only then realizing how that sounded. He glanced over at the girl's red face and saw she had realized how it could sound as well. "Uh… ore-sama would like to rephrase that and say that ore-sama would love to play on the court with you." He twitched when her face only got redder. "Play tennis on the court with you."

She gave a small nod, glancing awkwardly away, face not losing any of the red it had gained over the last minute or so. After an short, awkward silence, Atobe asked, "How old are you, Koiko-san?"

"It's Koiko," the blonde corrected, looking back over at him. "And I'll turn twenty May 5th."

"Ah," Atobe began in interest. "An older woman." He looked her over again, still wondering how it was possible that he found a female attractive. She was rather flat though and he inwardly thanked the fact that she was. As a gay man, he was less than… fond of the female attribute called "breasts".

"How old are you?" she questioned curiously and Atobe figured that she hadn't known his birth date.

"Nineteen as well. Ore-sama was born on the 4th of October so ore-sama is five months younger—almost exactly—than yourself." The fact that the girl was older than him somehow just made her seem all the more cute somehow.

"Have you ever done an American style Halloween?" she asked almost randomly and Atobe blinked in slight shock at the sudden change of topics before recovering and answering.

"No, ore-sama has not."

"Never?" Koiko replied, mouth slightly agape. "But it's so much fun! All the candy and the costumes and the candy! I love candy! Sweets are good." She nodded to herself, not noticing all the incredulous gazes on her.

Atobe gave a small laugh. "Ore-sama is not that fond of sweets." He told her truthfully and this time it was Koiko looking incredulous.

"You don't? But-but… sweets are so good! I mean," she paused. "They're sweets. I like anything with strawberries."

The image of Koiko bringing a strawberry to her lips as she stared up into the clear, blue sky popped into his head, and he inwardly smacked it away. No daydreaming, especially about females.

"What is your favorite type of flower?" Atobe fired off, deciding to go along with random questions.

"Um," Koiko scratched at her head in thought, seemingly not taken aback by the question. "I like a lot of them. They're pretty. But I really like sunflowers!"

"Ore-sama would've thought daisies by your outfit." He smiled and Koiko glanced down. "Oh yeah… I like daisies too." She nodded, smiling again.

They looked rather pretty on her too. "Ore-sama is rather fond of roses," he revealed and Koiko's eyes shone.

"Roses are very pretty! And they mean different things too. I'm not sure what all of them are though, but I know the red rose means love!" she grinned, bouncing again in her seat. "Those ones are my favorite type of rose."

"Ore-sama's also."

"Hello minna-san," the host—Baba Aoi—greeted, smiling at everyone as the room fell silent. "It is just about time for the first rose ceremony so we will leave Atobe-sama to himself for a few moments to let him figure out which twenty of you will stay and who will go home. So please, say your goodbyes to Atobe-sama and you will see him again in a little while. Atobe-sama,"

"Hai," Atobe turned back to Koiko and gave a small smile and nod before standing and moving to say his farewells to the rest of the girls—most of which he didn't even want to go near—before leaving the room and heading up to his own to think about whom he was going to choose. There was already one to stay and she was at the top of his list.

Jirou sighed as he watched Atobe walk away. Being a girl was harder than he thought it was going to be, but he thought he pulled it off rather well if by the way Atobe was eyeing him was anything to go by. He blushed at the thought. That had been rather awkward, the thoughts and pictures that had entered his mind when they had been talking about tennis. He didn't know whether or not he would ever be able to look at a tennis court the same way again.

The blonde bit his lip and averted his gaze when he saw the auburn haired girl on the other side of the couch staring at him unblinkingly. He wondered what she was thinking of but couldn't bring himself to care all that much.

Soon it would be the first rose ceremony and he really hoped that he would get passed it. He really wanted that new bed! But he also didn't think he would mind getting to know Atobe even more so. Maybe after this was all over they could become friends? But he highly doubted it as he didn't think he was going to respond to well to him actually being male. Jirou could hope though, right?

"What was your name? I don't think I caught it." The other woman asked kindly, scooting a little closer on the couch.

Jirou smiled. "Akutagawa Koiko," to get used to calling himself—and others calling him that—Oshitari and Gakuto had only called him "Koiko" for the last month or so (which had gotten him many strange looks while they were in public).

"Ikeda Arisa," the auburn haired woman introduced, bowing slightly where she sat. "That was some… conversation you had with Atobe-sama."

The blonde cocked his head to one side. "Eh? I was just being myself… it wasn't anything that special, I don't think so anyways."

Ikeda raised an eyebrow and Jirou wondered what she was thinking of again. It really wasn't anything very special. They had just talked about tennis and ages and stuff. Not special at all.

But it just wasn't sinking in his mind that Atobe had only responded in interest to his questions and had answered back and asked in kind. This was something that Atobe had not done with the others for lack of interest in what any of them had to say.

"Nothing special?" Ikeda asked with a small smile and laugh. "You two have just met and it's already obvious that he likes you. You are rather pretty though but I guess he also likes your happy personality."

Jirou blushed at the compliment and looked down at his hands, blonde hair hiding his face. Atobe didn't like him. That was definitely impossible. They had only spoken for a few minutes before the heir had to leave! That was hardly enough time to start liking someone. Especially liking someone like him.

"I don't think so," he shook his head, rubbing the back of it as he did so. "Atobe-kun wouldn't like someone like me, would he? Probably someone more like you." Jirou beamed, inwardly frowning at the smile that twitched at Ikeda's lips.

The two of them continued to exchange words every minute or so until the host had come back and announced that it was time and the girls, heading for the gathering place. Jirou smiled shyly over at him as he took his spot almost directly in front of him and glanced at the nineteen roses placed in an open, black box on the table next to him, one rose already in his hand.

Everyone quieted in anticipation as the host began to speak again.

"Welcome, minna-san. The first rose ceremony and I'm sure most—if not all—of you know how this goes. Atobe-sama will give a rose to twenty of you who will move on in the competition for his heart—" Atobe gave an unnoticeable twitch at this. "—and the other twenty who do not get a rose will go home." He gave a comforting smile and then turned to the taller man next to him. "Are you ready, Atobe-sama?"

Atobe didn't spare him a glance. "Hai," the host gave another smile and stepped away and Atobe looked over each of the girl's in turn, deciding to skip the written script of what he was supposed to say. "The first rose…" he glanced over at Jirou. "Ikeda Arisa."

It remained silent as Ikeda grinned and walked up to him, taking the rose in hand and giving the heir a small bow before walking back over to her place, head held even more highly at the fact that she had been chosen first.

"Second rose, Nure Yau." A dark haired woman who's hair fell in long curls over her bare shoulders grinned and walked up to him, long, flowing, brown dress dragging behind her as she took her own rose and gave him a bow before walking over to her spot.

This went on for another few minutes, and as each rose was slowly given away, Jirou got more and more worried that he wasn't going to be picked. But it was for a different reason than was expected. Yes, he did want that bed, but he would also like to get to know Atobe a bit more. He was very… interesting. But maybe that wasn't the right word… he was captivating.

"Tachibana An,"

"Naito Chinatsu,"

"Azuma Wakana,"

Jirou frowned and bowed his head. Only one name to be called and he already knew it wasn't going to be called. Afterall, what were the chances of him being called out of all these other girls for the last rose? It wasn't like he was anything special. It wasn't like Atobe liked him or anything. No, he definitely wasn't going to be call—

"Akutagawa Koiko," Jirou's head snapped up at the sound of his "name" and he blinked his brown eyes owlishly before turning another light red and taking a few small steps forward. He bit his lip and looked up, taking a deep breath and continued on to stand in front of Atobe.

Atobe held out the rose loosely and Jirou grabbed on to it, hand brushing softly against Atobe's. "Arigatou," he said quietly, but loud enough just for his microphones to pick up on it.

The heir smiled, still not yet letting go of the final rose. "Ore-sama's pleasure," he finally let the rose go and Jirou took hold of it, holding it in both hands as he walked back over to his spot, blushing in embarrassment.

"That is it for the first rose ceremony. Ladies who have been picked will be shown to their rooms—two to each—and those who have not I'm afraid will be going back home." The host told them, only a little pity in his voice. "Ladies, this way if you please and we will show you the rooms."

As Jirou walked off following the girls, he kept shooting small glances over his shoulder, turning darker each time Atobe caught his eye—which was every time. There was something about those calculating, blue eyes that he just really liked… and he hoped to see more of them.