Craze: Hiya! . I'm really sorry for the wait, finally here is Chapter 1 of "What Will you Do?" Thanks to princesssugar for helping me to beta read Hope you like it…
Ryoma: …
Craze: Err… Ryoma-kun? Right, he had fainted during the last chapter…well I do not own any Prince of tennis's characters.
Keys:
'Thought'
"Talking"
Dream
Chapter 1
"Oi, Echizen! Echizen!" the voice called again, shaking the boy in his arm. 'Now what should I do? He seem feverish, I better bring him back first.'
Thus, the owner of the voice carried the unconscious Echizen home and decided to wait until the boy wonder wake up before taking any further actions.
On the other side of the town, Oishi and Eiji were waiting for Ryoma in the burger joint.
"Unya! Ochibi is very late, uh-huh…extremely late. Where is he!" complained Eiji.
"Let just wait a little while more…" said Oishi, with worried all over his face.
"Ne, ne, Oishi! Let's order some food, I'm starving. Maybe Ochibi decides to go home after all, since he isn't feeling well, nya!"
"Maybe you are right…let's order some food then." Oishi said. 'What happen to Echizen? I better call him later.'
"Tadaima!"
"Okaerinasai! Ara? Ko-chan, I didn't know that you are a pervert."
"I'm not a pervert. He is one of the tennis club's regulars from Seigaku."
"What's going on?" asked a gentle voice.
"Okaa-san, Ko-chan just kidnapped a boy home."
"Aw! Nee-chan, could you stop it?" Saeki Kojiro whined.
"Kojiro what happen? Who is this boy?" Kojiro's mother, Saeki Ayako (1) asked.
"He is Echizen Ryoma, the freshmen Regular from Seigaku…"
"He's Echizen Ryoma? I heard a lot about him from the tennis magazines, but he's a chibi and he is so cute. I always thought that he might look really fierce; never did I ever imagine him to be so cute and small. Kawaii!"
"Nee-chan, could you let me finish?"
"Sure, go on. I'll keep on looking at him while you go on." Kiriko (2) smiled.
"I met him or rather he bumped into me on the street and fainted, he seemed to have a fever, I don't know what to do, so I decided to bring him back." Kojiro explained.
"I see…hmm… Kojiro, can you bring him to your bedroom and put him on the bed. Kiriko, you go and contact the doctor." Ayako commanded.
Kojiro did as told, carrying Ryoma to his room and out him on the bed. Minutes later, Ayako brought in a small basin of cold water and put the towel on Ryoma forehead. Ryoma flinched a bit at the touch of the cold towel. Kojiro could not help but keep on looking at boy wonder. Although this was not his first time seeing boy wonder, he had never seen boy wonder in such a state…
'Never did I ever seen or imagine Echizen to be so fragile and in need of protection, a total contrast to his usual solemn and anti-social attitude.'
Kojiro continued to watch Ryoma, observing every details of boy wonder until the doctor came.
About fifteen minutes later, the doctor said, "He has a really high fever, not high enough to be sent to the hospital though. He also seems a little dehydrated. I will give him some medicine, just make sure he drinks lot of water and has lots of rest."
"Arigato, Sensei. This way please." Ayako said and lead the doctor outside.
Minutes later, Ayako came back into the house after talking to the doctor for a while, "Kojiro, would you kindly get some comfortable clothes and help the poor boy to change?"
"Eh? Me?"
"Yes. You of course, I don't remember having another son named Kojiro."
"Ne, Ko-chan, if you don't want to do the job, I don't mind doing it, you know." Kiriko winked at Kojiro.
"No thanks, I can do it myself." With that, Kojiro went up to his room and chose some fresh clean clothes for Ryoma to change.
Kojiro found it to be embarrassing at first, but he decided to hurry up and went with job before any more embarrassment occurred if Ryoma decided to wake up all of a sudden. Kojiro had never imagined things to turn out the way it is, especially not this. To be honest, he felt rather uncomfortable with Ryoma's current state. He was a teenager with err… needs after all and the conclusion of his observation of Ryoma before the doctor arrived really didn't help, at all.
After finished changing Ryoma's clothes, Kojiro went downstairs to the kitchen to get some drink. In the kitchen, he could smell food and he saw his mother was cooking some food.
"Kaa-san, what are you cooking?"
"I'm cooking some porridge for Echizen-kun. Has he waked up?"
"No, I guess he's a deep sleeper, anyway isn't it better? The doctor did say that he needed a lot of rest."
"Probably, well you go up and look after him then." Ayako went back to her cooking.
Feeling dismissed, Kojiro went to check the "patient". On his way to his bedroom, he remembered something that happened before Ryoma fainted. 'I remember he called for Tezuka, what happen? Does he…'
Before he could think any further, he heard sounds coming from his bedroom. When he went in, he saw Ryoma thrashing about in the bed. Immediately, he ran to his side and started calling him, "Echizen! Wake up! Echizen!"
On the other hand, in Ryoma's dream……
'Help! Ryoma thought. He was struggling to swim upwards but every time he tried swimming upwards, he seemed to be further away from the land.
He wanted to scream, shout for help, but he couldn't and when everything started to blur to him, he heard voices calling for him, he looked up and saw someone swimming towards him stretching out the hand to reach him. He caught hold of the hand and everything went blank.
"Echizen! Wake up!" Kojiro called holding to Ryoma's hands.
Suddenly, Ryoma snapped open his eyes, his body covered with sweat, his hand still holding onto Kojiro's.
"Echizen, you finally wake up. You kind of scared me just there." Kojiro exclaimed.
"Where am I? Who are you?"
"I'm Saeki Kojiro, fuku-buchou of Rokkaku, remember? This is my house; you fainted on the street, so I have brought you home."
"So…what is your phone number? I need to at least inform your parents."
"Don't bother, my parents went back to America and my cousin went back home, they will not be back for another four to five months time." Ryoma tried getting up but his body was too weak, so he fell back down again.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going home; I still need to take care of Karupin." Ryoma tried once again, but before he managed to get out of the bed, Kojiro held his shoulders firm.
"Karupin? Didn't you say that no one is at home?"
"Karupin is a cat, not a human. Give me back my stuff, I'm going home."
"Sorry! Echizen-kun. I won't allow you to go home since I know that you be all by yourself. If you really want to go home, at least wait until you get better." Ayako interrupted, walking inside the room with Kiriko behind her and then stood beside her son.
"But…"
"No buts. Kojiro get his house key and go to his house to pick up some necessary stuff he needs, bring along his cat too. Kiriko, would you mind giving Kojiro a lift? I don't think he can carry much with his two hands."
"Sure. Come on, Ko-chan I'll drive you there."(3)
"Now young man, you have to finish this and eat your medicine if you want to get well soon."
"I…"
"Don't worry too much, Kojiro will be back with your cat and stuff soon. In the mean time, you will eat your food and rest, while I call your school to inform them that you will be absent for three days." Ayako smiled and leave the room.
Ryoma was left alone in the room, he observed the surrounding and found that it was quite a spacious room compared to his and everything was neatly arranged and put aside, a total contradict to his own. He then stared at the bowl in front of him and started eating it. After finishing his food and medicine, he fell back asleep. A few hours later, Ryoma wake up.
'Where am I… right, I'm at Saeki-san's house.' He looked to his right and saw a fur of ball sleeping soundly; he smiled and went to touch its soft fur. Just then Kojiro walked in.
"Echizen, you finally woke up. Do you feel any better?"
"Un……Arigato gozaimashite."
"You're welcome; after all, it's mainly Kaa-san's decision. Are you hungry? Want to have something?" Kojiro asked.
"Iie, it's okay." Ryoma assured.
"Is that so… well, if you don't mind me asking, why were you crying just now?"
Being taken a back by the question, Ryoma gave Kojiro a glare and answer immediately, "I wasn't crying you must be mistaken for something else."
"I don't mean to pry, but I heard you mention someone's name while you're unconscious. Maybe…" Before he could continue, Ryoma cut his sentence.
"It is not your business, but… whose name did I mention?" Ryoma asked meekly.
"Well, since you insist," He saw regrets flashing through Echizen's eyes,"I heard you mention someone in your team, someone with the name of Tezuka perhaps? Do you like him?"
Ryoma's eyes widened in surprise, "H-how did you know?"
"You called him before you fainted. Is the reason you cried and fainted was because of the situation between Tezuka and…Fuji?"
Ryoma could only whisper, "Did you spy on me?"
"No… that was my reaction when I found out about their relationship. I used to like Fuji, just like the way you like Tezuka…so from past experience, you will feel much better if you cry it out loud." Kojiro explained.
Just as Kojiro finished saying, Ryoma found himself shedding tears that he had been holding, he was really confused when he saw the scene of Tezuka and Fuji kissing. Well, confused was actually an understatement, he was downright heartbroken.
Kojiro saw Ryoma starting to cry, so he gently embraced him. Ryoma grabbed hold of Kojiro's front shirt and continued crying, "I really don't know what to do… What should I do?"
"It's going to be okay, all you have to do right now is cry all you want and take some rest. I'll be right by your side." Kojiro said, comforting Ryoma. Not long afterwards, Ryoma fell asleep. However, this time with Kojiro's company.
TBC...
Explanation:
I really don't know the name of Kojiro's mother so that only a random name.
Same as Kojiro's mother, I don't know his sister name.
Beside name I also don't know his sister age, so I just assumed that she has started working around 20 to 22.
Ochibi--- baby boy
Chibi--- small
Tadaima--- I'm back
Okaerinasai--- Welcome back
Okaa-san/Kaa-san--- Mother
Nee-chan--- Elder sister
Craze: Okay...pls review and I will promise to post the next chapter very soon!