Author's Note: Wow, I felt really light-headed when I was writing this. I don't know if that just means I'm sleep/creativity deprived or if this story really isn't hitting any jackpot. Well, I guess I'll have to depend on the readers for that feedback! Although, when I think about it...it may be because I'm trying to make fluid actions work in this fic instead of my usual jam-packed stuff...not that it's really jam-packed at all, but it just seemed quicker to me in the other ones. (Insert sweatdrop here.) Gosh, even my author's notes seem kind of dry...wait a minute! DOES THIS MEAN I AM GETTING OLD??? (I know, I know, a little too early for a mid-life crisis.)

Disclaimer and Warnings: All in Prologue chapter. Oh yeah! And a little dash of angst here...and drama there...fufufu. Oh! And if I ever mention family members in here, they're probably going to be all made up. I know that Momo has two younger siblings in grade school and Hazue is Kaidoh's 11 year old younger brother, but in this story I'm going to be throwing in an older sister into their family as well, of my creation. So that means something in here besides the plot belongs to me! MUAHAHAH! (Okay...power trip over.)

Chapter Note: For some reason I really like this pairing, though it doesn't seem to be too popular. Then again, I just love these two characters in general, so that might be why!

Anyway, I hope that this fic will meet reader's standards! This'll be the official "pilot chapter" for this fic. Let's see what you guys think. If there's anything you'd like to see more of, please mention it in your review, I'll see if there's anything I can do about it!

As usual, reviews are appreciated!

Valentine's Day

"H-here, senpai! Please accept this!"

"Mine too!"

"Here you go, Oishi senpai!"

"Ahh! Tezuka-san accepted my gift!"

Momoshiro sighed as yet another squealing girl placed a gift on the desk of her tennis player of choice. He watched with slight annoyance as the gift piles on the all the desks of the Seigaku dream team players slowly seemed to increase. Even his rival, snake-boy Kaidoh Kaoru, accumulated a decent amount. Momoshiro hated Valentine's Day. To be honest, he didn't think any of the girls in his school were that attractive, so even if he received a gift he would get nothing out of it, but he still wished he could receive at least one gift, just so he didn't feel so forgotten.

Right away Oishi noticed his friend's distress. He politely excused himself from his fangirls and walked over to his glum friend. He patted his friend on the back and smiled.

"Hey, Momo, wanna share some of my candies with me? I won't be able to finish them all!"

Momoshiro gave Oishi a small smile and shook his head. "Nah. Thanks though."

Oishi's shoulder's slumped a little. "Okay...if you're sure."

"Yep. Positive."

"Cheer up, Momo! I didn't get any chocolates either!" Kawamura said as he walked up to the two boys.

Momoshiro half-smiled, "That's because the girls know you're allergic to peanuts, Kawamura. I've seen some girls give you flowers instead."

Kawamura blushed. "H-hey! It's probably just because they feel sorry for me, you know? Besides, you know Tezuka and Oishi are the most popular in our class! Between us and them, no contest!"

"Yea, I know..." Momoshiro rose from his seat, "Thanks, guys. Don't worry about me, I'm all right. I just hate sappy days like today."

Oishi looked at his friend worriedly, "Hey, where are you going, Momo?"

"Walking."

His two friends remained silent as they watched their friend leave the room. Oishi looked like he was about to go after his friend, but Kawamura caught his wrist and shook his head.

"Let's give him some time alone. If he doesn't show up for practice, then we can go hunt for Momo."

"All right..." Oishi agreed reluctantly and returned to the sea of girls hovering at their desks; they weren't the only ones concerned.

Kaidoh had also been watching Momoshiro slink deeper and deeper into his Valentine's Day depression. Unlike Momoshiro's closer friends, Kaidoh had been a bit slow on the uptake—he had been too busy inwardly grumbling over what the girls had given him. Sure it was considerate and maybe even unexpected that any girl had the courage to give him a gift at all, but he was thoroughly disappointed by the endless useless products his fans had showered him with, if that was indeed what they were. He had been showered with chocolates, pencils, cute packs of paper—which he had no idea what he was going to use that for, two carnations, and even a random pair of socks; not a single bandanna. He wondered how they could be his "adoring fans" if they had no clue what he actually lived and breathed on besides tennis.

He had decided within himself that the best way to get over his current annoyance and make his own day was to pick on his favorite subject for torment, Momoshiro. He was going to tease the boy for having so many presents and being a ladies man, and then he was going to steal from his stash whatever looked pleasing to the eye, just to annoy him even further. Except, when he looked over at his rival's desk all he saw was Momoshiro's wistful eyes and felt a dark aura emitting from his direction. Kaidoh had felt guilty instantly, which made him angry. His rival could still bother him even when they weren't on the tennis court. He stopped Kawamura on his way back.

Kawamura raised an eyebrow. "What's up, Kaoru?"

"What was wrong with the moron?"

Kawamura frowned at the name but decided to answer him because Kaidoh didn't emphasize the bad nickname the way he usually did. "Well, it's kind of obvious, isn't it? I mean, c'mon, even you're getting something from these girls..."

"Oh..." the viper dropped his hand and let the other pass.

Thinking nothing more of their conversation, Kawamura continued his way. As for Kaidoh, now he was even more ticked off. Just like his rival. "If only he paid as much attention to practicing tennis as he does to girls," Kaidoh found himself thinking in annoyance.

He couldn't believe he was doing this, but yet he was. Well, he was only doing it because he was sick of the rest of the world taking credit for his rival's torment. It just wasn't worth sitting in class when his rival was already in a down mood. That just meant that if Kaidoh got frustrated with a problem, he wouldn't be able to take it out on Momo and get the full joy of tormenting the boy.

So that brought him to his current state. He had left school, for probably the first time in his life, now that he thought about it, and he had gone and bought several chocolates and some Valentine's cards; all stuffed in his backpack which he had taken with him. He had debated going back to the school but realized that it might not be such a great idea since there was only one class period left in the day to attend. Besides, he was already exhausted from having had to walk everywhere to gather his supplies. So with about an hour left to kill before he was expected by his parents and sister to come home from school, he decided to make a pit-stop at a flower shop. He had a good amount of money left, and while he browsed flowers he was still trying to remember why he had been carrying so much money around with him in the first place, there was no way he could've known that his day would've turned out like this. The thought continued to bother him until the shop's owner coughed lightly to get his attention. Kaidoh looked up at the young woman, aged probably around her mid-thirties. It was a shame too, she was rather attractive.

The woman smiled at him. "May I help you?"

Kaidoh blinked. "Uh...I guess."

She continued to smile warmly at him. It was nice, but it made Kaidoh a bit nervous at the same time; he wasn't used to being smiled at. "Would you like to get some flowers for someone on this special day?"

His left eye almost twitched at the last part. Kaidoh looked back at the array of flowers in the shop and sighed. He did have some money left in his pocket, and this woman really didn't seem like the usual pricks in the world he had to deal with. He almost smirked when he saw an image of Momo flash in his mind. Kaidoh remained in fantasy world for a few seconds longer before returning to earth and nodding at the woman.

"Yeah, what's the best flower you've got?"

"Who's it for?"

Kaidoh raised an eyebrow at this question. The woman seemed to be prying so suddenly. "Er...does it matter...?"

"Oh!" the woman blushed and brought a hand up to her mouth, "I'm sorry, young man! I didn't want to make it sound like I was prying..."

Kaidoh looked at her skeptically. The woman continued, "It's just that, each flower has a different meaning. A flower you would buy for your girlfriend would probably not be the same one you'd like to get your mother, nor would you want to give someone a flower suitable for a funeral on a happy day such as this one."

"Oh," Kaidoh said, now understanding.

"Since today is Valentine's Day, I'm assuming you would like to get something for your girlfriend?"

Kaidoh was about to protest at the mention of a girlfriend, but then he thought about the situation. It would seem more awkward saying that he was buying a flower for a guy than saying he had a girlfriend. He would rather not be humiliated.

"Erm...sort of," he said; he didn't want her to get any strange ideas either.

"Oh?" the woman asked curiously, her smile seemed to get bigger, if that was even possible, "So it's a secret valentine, then!"

Kaidoh was seriously ready to just leave the store, he felt disgusted. He barely remembered that the only reason he had come into the store in the first place was to kill some time and randomly pick a flower. He didn't realize that it was going to be so complex.

"Yea-yea. Sure, lady. Whatever you want to think."

The woman laughed off his rudeness as an embarrassed young lovebird. "My, my! No need to get so defensive, my dear! I have just the perfect flower for you."

She walked down the aisles and found what she was looking for. She brought the flowers to the front counter and made a beautiful bouquet of them, added a nice ribbon as a special touch, and handed the flowers to Kaidoh. "Here you are!"

Kaidoh took the bouquet and looked at them for a moment. They were not a breed he recognized. The woman laughed. "They're called Acacia."

"Oh..." Kaidoh said dumbly, it seemed like that was all he could say to this woman—he knew nothing about flowers.

He rummaged for his wallet. "How much?"

The woman smiled, "Don't you worry about it, sweetheart. It's on me."

Kaidoh blushed and he felt guilty since he really wasn't buying this for a girl, so basically he was cheating this woman of her store profits. "N-no really, I..."

The next thing he knew, the woman was gently leading him out the store. "Now, now. You can pay me for another batch of flowers for her if everything goes well, the next time you come around. Just consider this a token to wish you good luck! Now go on! Those flowers won't stay fresh forever if you just stand here!"

Kaidoh looked helplessly as the woman went back into the store. He felt a bit stupid standing there with flowers in one hand and the other lightly brushing his wallet in his pocket. After a few minutes he sighed and decided to head on home; if he didn't start now he was going to be late. He made a mental note on the way to pay back the kind woman later, somehow.

"Come on, Kei! Just help me out...please," Kaidoh said the last word with gritted teeth along with a hiss.

He really couldn't believe he was doing this. He had just vaguely told his sister about the situation. He was stooping so low as to begging his little sister to help him. Kei was in her last year of high school.

His sister raised an eyebrow at him, "Okay, but you owe me any chocolates you got from girls today! You're going to make my hand hurt!"

Kaidoh nodded, "Done. I never really wanted those chocolates anyway. You can have them all."

"Really," Kei blinked in disbelief.

"Really," Kaidoh said without showing any hint of reluctance.

"Excellent! Then let's get started!"

Kaidoh couldn't help but smile a little. His older sister was lifting his spirits. They fought sometimes, but really they got along extremely well. He took off his backpack and emptied its contents. He slapped Kei lightly on the arm when she reached for the chocolates that came out of the bag.

Kei frowned, "I thought you said I could have those?"

Kaidoh rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Chocolates from girls, not the chocolates I bought with my own money."

"Oh," Kei laughed, "So where are the chocolates from the girls then?"

"Here," Kaidoh untied a plastic bag from one of the backpack straps and tossed it over to his sister, who caught it, "There should be other stuff in there too."

His sister peered inside and he couldn't help but chuckle at her pleased expression, it was so childish. "Wow! You're totally missing out on some good stuff here!"

"Heh. I'd rather get a whole set of bandannas."

Kei stuck out her tongue at her younger brother, "Geez, just like you to be so ungrateful."

They got to sitting and Kaidoh began separating the chocolates and small gifts from the many small valentine's cards he had bought. Kei got out a pen and scratched it lightly on her hand to check if the ink was working. She looked around the ground at her brother's neat piles and half-smiled.

"So, who's this for, anyway?" she asked as she picked up one of the valentine's cards.

"Um..." Kaidoh didn't really want to tell his sister since she knew about his and Momo's history together, "Can't it just all be anonymous?"

"That'd be kind of weird, wouldn't you think?" she picked up one of Kaidoh's cards that was attached to one of his chocolates, "Just tell me the name and I'll model it after one of yours!"

Kaidoh sighed, there was no real avoiding it. "...o...iro," he mumbled.

Kei frowned, "What?"

"...moshiro," Kaidoh grunted again.

His sister smacked him on the head with one of the big bar chocolates. "H-hey!" Kaidoh rubbed his head.

His sister glared, "Look, do you want me to do this for you or not?"

"...yes," Kaidoh said hesitantly.

"Then speak clearly!"

"All right! Fine!" Kaidoh said frustratedly, "Momoshiro! Okay? There, now I said it."

Kei raised an eyebrow in question, "Eh? The Momoshiro? As in Momo-chan Momoshiro? I thought you hated him!"

Kaidoh wanted to shrink and crawl away. "Would you just write the cards!" he snapped in irritation.

"Hm...all right," Kei began to work away at a few cards while her brother watched her in silence.

She took a break after a few cards and looked at her brother again. "You know..."

"Yea?" Kaidoh responded rather quickly, his tone of voice a bit defensive.

If her brother didn't seem so stressed, Kei would've burst out laughing. "Why didn't you just use the chocolates and cards you got from the girls today? That would still solve your problem, wouldn't it? Since it's Momo?"

"Hn..."

"Well?"

Kaidoh sighed and got up. "I just want it done this way, okay? Geez. I'm going to take a shower."

Kei gave a small smile, "All right..."

Kaidoh got up to leave. He stopped at the door. "Besides..."

"Hm?" Kei didn't look up, she was busy writing another card.

"Re-gifting...it cramps my style," was all he said before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

Kei laughed softly to herself and moved on to the next card. "Oh yeah? Since when?" she asked no one.

After the shower, Kaidoh entered his room and smiled when he saw that his sister had everything in a plastic bag on his bed and ready to go for tomorrow. He stopped by his room to thank her on the way to get a towel to dry his hair, but Kei was already asleep.

"Thanks, sis..." he whispered into the room before closing the door and going back to his.

He was feeling a bit more upbeat for some reason and he decided to go settle with some video games before going to bed. He played some old games he had already defeated ages ago on his Playstation on mute, so as not to wake anyone in the house, before going to bed. It was a peaceful sleep until he was suddenly jolted out of his dreams. Kaidoh pulled at his hair and his eyes were filled with fury, not that he could direct it at anyone at the moment. His mouth was agape with no noise coming out of it, though he really wanted to scream. Now he remembered why he had so much money with him earlier.

He had wanted to buy a Nintendo Wii.

"Damnit!" Kaidoh slammed his fist on the locker.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Kaidoh jumped at the sound of Momoshiro's voice. He turned around quickly and pressed his back against the lockers, his hands working behind him. "W-what does it look like? I can't figure out my damn combination."

Momo was not amused. "Isn't your locker that one?" he pointed two lockers down.

Kaidoh glared at him. "Y-yeah? What's your point!"

Momoshiro rolled his eyes and pushed Kaidoh out of the way. Kaidoh wiped away his sweat as he watched Momo open his locker. He had no idea how he had done it without looking, but Kaidoh had managed to snap the lock back on the locker before Momo could realize that he had already opened it.

"Whoa!" Momo exclaimed in surprise as the gifts flowed out of his locker.

Kaidoh let out a sigh. He had bought a little too many things because he had misjudged how deep their lockers were, and he had just had a hell of a time trying to fit it in there in the first place. He as partially relieved that Momoshiro seemed to appreciate everything, but he was a bit annoyed that he had come to enjoy himself so early. It made Kaidoh feel like he had wasted a little too much effort, stuffing the gifts in the locker. Kaidoh was now officially irritated with his rival again.

"Wow...valentines? That's weird...that was yesterday...why all this today?" Momo was beginning to inspect the cards.

"Maybe they just wanted to surprise you because there's so many. They didn't want to make the others jealous," Kaidoh snapped right away, he didn't want the slightly shorter boy to notice that there were a lot of similarities between the cards and the chocolates.

"Yea maybe, but geez, what's your damage?" violet eyes were now glaring up at onyx ones.

"You're just so pathetic. What's so great about gifts from sniveling little girls anyways?" Kaidoh felt better, this is what he had wanted to do yesterday.

He almost broke out grinning when he saw the irritation rise on Momoshiro's face. All of his stress from the day before seemed practically worth it now.

Momo was angry. "I'm not pathetic! Besides, I bet if you didn't get anything yesterday instead of me, you would be excited if something like this happened to you too!"

Kaidoh smirked. "That's where you're wrong."

Momo frowned, "Huh?"

Kaidoh snickered, "If that was the case, then I would just simply do this!"

He reached over and took one of the smaller chocolates from the other boy's stash and popped it in his mouth and grinned. Momoshiro's jaw dropped. His expression became fierce. "Hey! That was mine!"

Kaidoh smirked, "I know! And this was from..."

He opened the card that was attached to that particular chocolate and read it with his eyes to see what his sister had written. It said: "Dear Momo-chan, I really hope you enjoy this small chocolate, but I hope you like my flowers even—"

Kaidoh paled, he had forgotten the flowers! Momoshiro frowned at him and snatched the card back. "Hey, I hope you know this is—" Momoshiro didn't have a chance to finish his sentence, Kaidoh had already bolted away.

Frowning at the viper's weird behavior, violet eyes resumed scanning over his newly won prizes happily. He was too excited to notice the similarities amongst them.

"Here."

Momoshiro looked up at Kaioh's outstretched arm holding the flowers in confusion. It was lunchtime; Momo was sitting with Oishi, Tezuka, and Inui. They had been joking around together until Kaidoh randomly appeared with the acacias. Kaidoh glared at Momoshiro.

"Well? Aren't you going to take them?"

"Erm...thanks?" he accepted the flowers cautiously and never took his eyes off of Kaidoh for a second.

Kaidoh let out a small sigh of relief. Luckily his sister had a half day schedule for seniors, so she was home during their lunch break. He had to endure the humiliation of her teasing on the phone when he had called her, asking her to bring the flowers to him.

The young viper was about to leave, but he turned back around quickly, realizing something. A light blush that was hardly noticeable rose on his face. "H-hey! Don't get the wrong idea. That's not from me!"

"Oh," was Momo's reply, he was unsure how to take this.

"It...it was from some girl I ran into. She asked me to forward them to you...she meant to give it to you with whatever else she got you...and...yea, that's it," Kaidoh turned and practically sprinted away while cursing to himself for being so wordy in his weak explanation.

"Hm...stupid mamushi..." Momo said mostly to himself.

"Yea, I agree," said Oishi, "But those look like some nice flowers, Momo! Someone must really like you!"

"Yeah!" Momoshiro said excitedly, "And mamushi said that they were forwarded to him, so that means the girl isn't from this school! I'm even popular outside! They must have seen me play at some tournament!"

"Yea, maybe!" Oishi agreed.

"Hn...interesting," Inui said while pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Huh? What is it?" Momo asked curiously.

"Oh, it's nothing special. It just seems whoever gave you the flowers knows what they're doing."

"What do you mean?" Oishi asked.

"Well, if I'm assuming correctly, that particular breed of flower has several meanings...but I think what the person is trying to say, is that she likes you, but you don't know her well enough to make an opinion yet. To put it bluntly, concealed love."

"Wow! All that from a flower?" Oishi stared hard at the flowers in Momoshiro's hand, as if expecting the flowers to speak or something.

"Yes."

Momoshiro looked at the bouquet. "So someone really likes me...this makes this bouquet different from all these other belated valentines," he thought, "I wonder if she's cute..."

Tezuka remained silent and contemplative.

Saikenyuu:Wow...(insert sweatdrop here), that definitely lasted a whole heck longer than I expected. I only planned on having this chapter last about 3 pages! LOL! Well, I hope you enjoyed what's here...I shall be working on the next one in the meantime.

Please review if you have the time! I would love to hear from you.