Disclaimer: The most expensive thing I own is probably worth about five dollars. And since Prince of Tennis is worth way more than that, it's safe to assume I don't own it.
Chapter 2
***
I woke up to the ringing of a phone.
It was loud, shrill and sharp; the piercing noise pounded itself into my skull. Rubbing my bleary eyes, I reached over blindly to the small nightstand next to my bed, missing the phone several times. At last, I grasped the phone, and pulled it to my ear.
"Hello." My phone, clogged with sleep, sounded flat and dead.
"Akaya!" I instantly recognized the voice of the self-proclaimed tensai of Rikkai. Marui Bunta. My fellow teammate. "I got this number from your-"
Click.
I sighed, and rolled over. If my teammates really thought I was talking to them after all that had happened, they were seriously wrong.
***
Marui stared at his cellphone, his face a mask of surprise and shock.
"Something wrong, Bunta?" On the bench across from Marui, Kuwahara Jackal looked worriedly at his doubles partner. Seeing the look on Marui's face, Jackal instantly knew what he'd done. "You just called Akaya, didn't you?"
"Er…yes," Marui admitted in a small voice. He shifted slightly, tilting his head to look up at the trees surrounding the two friends in the park. It had once been the favorite hang out of the group.
"Damnit, Marui! I thought you were supposed to be a genius or something."
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. Once his dad gave me the number-"
"We were supposed to call him as a team." Furious eyes met even angrier ones.
"We're not the team we used to be, Jackal." Marui pulled himself up, stretched, and then walked over to his friend. "Come on. Let's go. They're probably waiting for us. Although, if Akaya has the same response with everyone else calling him too…"
"Why? What did he say when you called him?"
"He just hung up."
Jackal sighed, then rubbed his eyes. "This is the last thing we need right now," he thought silently to himself. Then he turned and, following Marui's lead, made his way to the local tennis courts, where the rest of Rikkai were waiting.
***
I sitting up by the time Eliza arrived. She pushed the door open lightly, her long, blonde hair pulled up in a pony tail. She was holding my breakfast. To be honest, the hospital food wasn't that bad - but most of the patients were so bored, there was nothing else to do but complain about it.
"How are you feeling, Kirihara-kun?" Eliza looked at me with wide, smiling eyes, and put my food on the nightstand, next to the phone had had awoken me so rudely that same morning. "I heard one of the nurses say your phone went off?"
I didn't respond. I still wasn't talking.
Nodding her head slightly, she continued, "You didn't speak to them either. You know, you'll be meeting the psychologist today. I'm sure you'll like him. You may even want to talk to him."
When I still did nothing but stare at the tiny crack above my head, she stood up, and walked towards the door. When she got there, she paused, and then murmured, almost to herself, "I wish this was easier. All I want to do is help…"
The door swung open, then closed. I was left alone with a tray of food I wasn't hungry enough to eat. And then that damn phone rang again.
***
"Pick up, pick up, pick up," Marui was chanting even as Yukimura Seiichi's phone rang. The entire team was on the court, and all eyes were focused on the phone. Then, the second ring stopped in the middle, meaning someone had picked up the phone.
"Akaya!" Yukimura beamed at his friends surrounding him. "Akaya, I-" Click.
"Seiichi. Is something wrong?" Sanada Genichirou's facial expression never changed, but he was just as worried as everyone else when he saw the look of frozen shock on Yukimura's face.
"Akaya just hung up on me." Yukimura sounded stunned. "Before I even uttered more than two words."
"There was a large change of this happening." All eyes turned to the data master, Yanagi Renji. "After all, we still have no idea why he's even in a hospital in the first place."
Everyone was silent for a moment, contemplating what was going on. It was hard to understand why Akaya, who adored their buchou, would hang up on him.
"Something must be seriously wrong,"Yagyuu Hiroshi said finally, when no one else had spoken up. "We must go and see him in person, so he'll talk to us."
"If the brattling doesn't want to talk to us, he's not going to." The Trickster of Rikkai, Niou Massasharu, frowned slightly. "And to be honest, I'm not going to waste the time or energy to try to talk to him. He'll talk to us when he wants to."
"But, Niou-" Marui reached forward, only to be rejected by Niou, as the Trickster began walking away.
"I don't have time for the brattling's games. He'll talk to us when he's good and ready." As Niou walked away from his friends, leaving them standing together astonished, a sudden, bitter thought occurred to him. "If Akaya even wants to see me again…"
***
Wow, that was a long chapter. For me at least. xD Anyways, as always, reviews, comments, questions, etc., are greatly appreciated. I only got 3 reviews on my last chapter. Come on, guys. I know you love me more than that! xDD
-Ducky
