A/N: So sorry it took me so long to upload, but it had to be edited and my beloved beta reader took forever. Plus I had a lot to do and got distracted myself X3.

ENJOY!

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.


Chapter 3


Tennosuke and Ryo headed for a burger joint while Rin and Fuji went off on a date leaving Yuki and her brother alone to talk. They walked in silence for a while.

"How come mom and dad let you come here?" finally Yuki asked, unable to bear the silence any longer.

Kiba smiled as he tugged at one of his sister's long golden strands. "It's good to see you too."

Taking her hair out of her brother's grasp, she looked at him seriously. "Do they even know you're here?" her brother simply shrugged. Yuki gasped and grabbed her brother's cheeks, pinching them. "You little twerp, you ran away didn't you?"

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" Taking a hold of her wrists, he managed to escape her grasp and maintained a safe distance as he said, "they had no right to send you away!" he yelled at her, his voice shaking with anger. "And you shouldn't have left me!" Tears glistened within his eyes as he glared at her.

"I couldn't stay and watch you just . . . just . . ."

"Die! Just face it already. I'm dying, so what? That doesn't mean you should have left." Running over to his sister he bonked her lightly on the head with his bat, "You're supposed to stay by my side, not leave." His voice softened when he saw her tears. "You got it backwards stupid."

Yuki fell to her knees and hugged her brother. "I'm sorry I left." Then, as she looked into his eyes she saw them spark with determination. "Let's stay here and have fun." Finally she perked up. "There's this guy on the tennis team, and he has the cutest . . ."

Kiba slapped a hand over his sister's mouth, "Please, sis, I don't want to know about your latest butt-seeking exploits." Yuki's laugh was muffled.

Removing his hand she said in a more serious tone, "you're going to have to call mom and dad and let them know where you are."

* * *

"Keep an eye on her for me will you?"

"Don't worry. While I'm around she'll keep her hands to herself." Kiba gave Rin a wide grin as he grabbed his sister, who seemed to want to trail after some guy on the tennis team. It was after school and Rin was about to leave Yuki and Kiba at the tennis courts.

Looking at him pleadingly, Rin said, "Just don't let her out of your sight."

"Oh, stop it you two." Yuki put her hands on her hips as she scoffed. "It's not like I'll do anything bad." Both Rin and Kiba gave her a slanted look that said they didn't believe her. Yuki sweat dropped. "Whatever."

Putting a hand on Kiba's shoulder Rin smiled and then headed off for her own club activities. Turning to his sister, Kiba found she had disappeared. Looking around frantically he found her. She was walking like a zombie, arms extended, intending to grope some poor guy -and it was the same guy she tried to chase earlier. Wasting no time at all, Kiba ran after her catching her just before her hands made contact.

Hearing running footsteps behind him, Tezuka looked over his shoulder and saw Yuki being dragged away by the little boy he saw the other day. Her brother Kiba, if he recalled correctly. With only a barely-discernible raising of an eyebrow, Tezuka turned back to overseeing his team's practice matches.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! I just wanted to introduce you to my boyfriend." Yuki whined as she was pulled away from her beloved Tezuka's booty.

Kiba gave his sister a sidelong glance. "Yeeeaaaaahhhhh, boyfriend. Seems more like one of your victims. Leave the poor dude alone! Hey!" Yuki had changed tactics and was now the one doing the dragging as she headed back for Tezuka.

Tezuka was watching a match between one of the Seigaku regulars and one of the second years when he felt something grab his butt. He didn't have to turn around to guess who it was ,but he did turn around when he heard an 'ouch!' The little boy had slapped his sister on the arm and was glaring at her. He watched them coolly as they bickered with one another. Finally when they settled things, Yuki smiled at him adoringly, making him resist the urge to walk the other way.

"Tezuka-chan, I'd like you to meet my little brother, Kiba Tanami."

Tezuka ignored Yuki and looked down at the boy, who looked back at him with sympathetic eyes. Tezuka almost smiled in amusement but maintained his cold look. "Do you like tennis?" he asked as he folded his arms across his chest.

Kiba gave him a lopsided grin as he said. "I'm into baseball." He swung an imaginary bat. "I don't think tennis is that hard. I mean you've got a wide racket to swing with and you don't need to run around a lot." Kiba shrugged and said; "tennis is a game for the weak."

Yuki bonked her brother on the head for being so disrespectful and was about to berate him, but Tezuka interrupted her. "Care to give it a try?" Instantly Tezuka saw the flare of challenge in the boy's eyes as he quickly accepted.

"No!" Yuki said forcefully as she put a hand on her brother's shoulder and glared at Tezuka.

Taken aback by her sudden mood change, Tezuka's eyes looked deeply into Yuki's. He had never seen her angry before, but the way it made her eyes turn from hazel to almost green made him want to stare into them even longer.

"Stop it sis, I'll be fine." Kiba shoved her hand away and looked at Tezuka with stubborn eyes. "Lead the way." Tezuka nodded and headed for one of the empty courts, wondering why Yuki was against her brother's playing tennis.

Yuki's heart slammed in her chest. True, her brother was on pain killers to stop the pain of the cancer. However, it was possible that the bone could brake upon a certain level of impact; it hadn't happened so far, but still . . . She knew how stubborn her brother could be, so she marched right into the court with him and Tezuka.

"You can't be in here." Tezuka directed the warning at Yuki after he handed Kiba a spare racket. When he turned to look at her to see if she had left he found her leaning against the fence, arms crossed and glaring daggers at him. Tezuka raised a brow but proceeded to brief Kiba on the basics of the game.

Taking his position, Tezuka looked at Kiba's side and was surprised to see him holding the racket like he would a baseball bat. Smiling slightly, Tezuka threw the ball, giving kiba a week serve.

As the ball flew at him Kiba didn't move. He simply glared at Tezuka and said, "Don't underestimate me."

Taking out the other ball in his pocket, Tezuka smiled inwardly. Don't let your guard down. This time Tezuka hit the ball with more force. Smiling, Kiba ran and intercepted the ball, returning it with a double handed swing. When the ball made contact with Tezuka's racket, he noticed it was heavy and was forced to lob it.

Grinning widely, Kiba jumped up and returned the ball with a smash, scoring a point. "Home run," he said as he pointed the racket at Tezuka. "But this racket is too wide." Twirling said racket in his hand, Kiba finally held it in a sideways position and swung it experimentally. "That's more like it." Taking his position behind the line, he took his batting stance again.

Tezuka's eyes widened marginally when he saw that Kiba actually intended to hit the ball like that. This time Tezuka hit the ball with even more force and much to his shock Kiba actually returned the ball. That wasn't all; the ball had such a strange spin on it so that Tezuka couldn't quite see its path. Before he knew it, the ball bounced behind him. Looking at the place where the ball hit, Tezuka turned back to Kiba and smiled. "Not bad." His smile froze as he saw the boy on the ground, clutching his leg.

Yuki was just as stunned that her brother had hit such a ball and didn't notice that he had fallen on the floor until she heard Tezuka cry out Kiba's name. By the time she got to her brother's side Tezuka was already there. Falling onto her knees, she looked at her brother's leg, it was turning blue. Suddenly he was lifted off the ground. Looking up, she saw Tezuka rising to his feet with her brother in his arms.

Kiba winced in pain. I shouldn't have jumped. Extreme pain shot through his leg until he could no longer bare it; he let out a blood curdling cry of pain before he lost consciousness.

When Yuki and Tezuka heard Kiba scream they froze for an instant. Tezuka looked at the boy, eyes wide, while Yuki watched as her brother became limp and fear snaked through her heart. It was only an instant, then they were both running, Tezuka leading the way to the nurse's office.

Minutes later, an ambulance came to take the injured boy and his sister to a hospital. Tezuka walked back to the tennis courts, his head swirling. When he got to the courts everyone was waiting for him to relay what happened. He simply looked at them with cold eyes. "Don't get distracted, twenty laps around the courts." As usual, Tezuka joined his team for the laps and Oishi ran alongside him.

"What's the matter Tezuka? What happened to the boy?" Oishi looked at Tezuka with concern. When he did answer Oishi sighed and ran farther ahead leaving Tezuka to his thoughts.

Tezuka's mind was in turmoil. Guilt engulfed him the moment he discovered the boy had bone cancer in his leg. His guilt had intensified when Yuki didn't blame him when it was clearly his fault.

They were standing beside the ambulance as the paramedics were preparing to lift her brother into the car. Tezuka approached Yuki with a stern face. "It's my fault, and I apologize."

But Yuki didn't shout or rage at him as he had expected her to. She simply smiled at him sadly and said, "It's not your fault, how could you have known?" Then to his shock, she reached behind him and groped him gently before climbing into the vehicle.

* * *

"You stupid idiot!"

"Ten!" Ryo shouted at his brother before jabbing him in the stomach. "Be more polite."

"Polite my ass, Kiba knows better than to move around so much, it's a miracle he made it here safely." Turning to said boy, Tennosuke glared at him. "Don't think I'm going to be all nice and sweet just because you've got this disease."

Kiba smiled at Tennosuke mischievously. "Yuck! The last thing I need is to see a sissy Tennosuke."

"What?!" Tennosuke lunged at Kiba, but his brother bonked him on the head before he reached the sick boy.

They were at the Tanami household. Kiba was released from the hospital only hours after the ambulance carried him away. It turned out that the pain in his leg wasn't a bone fracture. It was just that the movement caused a little irritation in his leg that seemed like it had been hit with an iron bar. There was no need to worry. but Kiba would have to limit his movements.

"Alright, you two, get out." Rin dragged her brothers by the ears and marched out the door, leaving an echo of her brothers' cries of pain and Kiba's laughter trailing behind them.

"What are you laughing at?" Yuki glared at her brother. "You could have been seriously injured!" Kiba wasn't looking at her but staring out the window. Yuki sighed, knowing that her stubborn brother wasn't going to listen to anything she said. "Whatever, beggar." Her voice softened as she saw him smile at the nickname she had given him when he was six. "What did you think of Tezuka?" she asked with a mischievous smile.

"You mean your latest victim?" Kiba laughed when his sister nodded vigorously. "Does he ever laugh? Or even show the slightest bit of emotion?"

Yuki scratched her head in thought. "How should I know? I've only looked at his butt." A pillow hit her face as her brother started grabbing anything within reach and tossing it at her.

"You are one perverted sister!" he shouted, his sibling laughing and dodging his missiles. Finally out of breath, Kiba collapsed back onto the bed. "How the heck are you an honor student!? The nickname Rin-neesan gave you is perfect. Hen . . . short for hentai."

Yuki threw the pillow back at her brother before she walked out of the room. "Get some rest, silly beggar."


To Be Continued . . .

R&R please!!!!!!!!! Tell me what you thoght about this chapi.