A/N: A good day to you. I had one review that asked why I made them girls. Why not! Okay, for a better answer I read one too many doujinshis! Alas, chapter 3.

Edits: For without them, this would make no sense?! Tiny added bits of detail. 11/5/2009

Disclaimer: Only the weird twist of the girls' team is somehow mine, Prince of tennis belongs to everyone! I-I mean Takeshi Konomi!

Chapter Three

I'm being underestimated again, Fuji thought. Leiko Arai, who was her vice captain, had gathered the tennis team together before Fuji entered the courts. Once she walked on with her content smile and calm manner, they looked upon her and wondered if such a sweet face was capable of giving them the right level of training. They wanted someone like Tezuka, who they could hear from across the courts giving his team absurd orders. Fuji pretended not to hear the words from the new year sevens and year eights'. This would give her a chance to exercise her authority. She sniggered under her breath and a bright smile ripped across her lips that troubled the regulars, who could see her face changing.

"Good morning ladies. I see we have some new faces. Thank you for joining the team. Unlike the boys, we're going to make things more enjoyable, although, equally hard working. I am the captain of this team and my name is Sumiko Fuji. Please, address me as Captain or Fuji-senpai. I would suggest that the first years call me Captain. And standing next to me is my Vice-captain Leiko Arai- chan. When I'm not here, please listen to her. I'm known to go off and sort out rank divisions for tournaments, but don't worry I'm almost always here to give advice, hints and tips. And if Arai-chan isn't here, please listen too Ai Suzu, who is a year nine regular."

She clapped her hands to show she had finished and it was time for some fun.

"Since it's the first week back, I think it's best to get back into shape. Hmm, fifteen laps around the courts and then some stretching."

A bothersome sigh hovered around the courts but they cried out 'yes Captain!' and 'understood Fuji-senpai' and began jogging out the courts.

"Oi, Kikumaru, that includes you too!" Arai shouted.

Fuji looked upon her absentminded friend. Before Arai got too bossy, she offered to take care of Kikumaru so she could start on her jog. Fuji bent down to get a look up at her face to see her cheeks were still red and her eyes had a distant glint. Her hands embraced each other as if a young man was telling her sweet nothings in her ear.

"Kikumaru-chan?"

"O…Oishi-kun…"

Fuji cocked her head to the side. She had no other choice but to take Kikumaru by the hand and gently pull her to the bench to have a sit down.

"Why do you always get like this Kikumaru, you shy kitten?"

She tapped the side of her face to wake her up. Kikumaru slowly turned her head to where the hand came from and suddenly jumped.

"Oi Fuji-chan, don't look at me like that so suddenly!"

Kikumaru slumped back down and held her hand over her chest. Fuji could not figure out why the sudden appearance of her eyes scared the wits out of anyone who accidentally caught them. She was not being mean or threatening, but they still startled people. She liked it all the same.

"I'm sorry Kikumaru-chan, I wasn't trying to scare you. Try to pay attention. You don't what Arai-chan on your case. Though I am intrigued… What were you thinking?"

Her face flared up crimson and she dipped her head, embarrassed by the thought. Fuji leant closer.

"Nothing naughty with good-oh-natured Oishi-kun? Ne, Kikumaru-chan?"

She grew flustered trying to defend herself. "I... I just pictured us holding each other's hand and… hugging… but nothing more then that…"

Fuji's smile grew. How cute. She wondered if she ever had little moments like this with Tezuka on her mind, and, if she did, when did she stop?

"Wanna know how Tezuka treats me in my mind?"

Kikumaru blinked several times on hearing the saucy tone in her Fuji's voice. They both watched the girls making their second lap around the courts. With that feline curiosity, Kikumaru could not resist on hearing Fuji's thoughts.

"I'm not sure I want to know?"

Fuji leant back on the fence and looked towards the sky.

"We would be at my house. My little sister will be away, and my brother at work. I would invite him into the living room where I would sit him down on the sofa. I would go off to get drinks and come back and sit down with him." Fuji studied Kikumaru's attentive face as she leant that little bit closer. "After a while, he turns to him and asks if he can kiss me. I can feel my face turning red. He takes off his glasses, leaving his face, exposed and naked. He leans towards me and places his hand on my cheek and through my hair and kisses me softly at first, then when we're no longer tense, he deepens the kiss on my lips. Both our hearts are beating fast. I can feel his heart as our chest's touch, and then he would-"

"Oi!" Arai shouted as she ran by. "I expect better from you two!"

Kikumaru was in another kind of shock. "…I… I don't think he would ever do that!"

Fuji couldn't understand where this worry came from. "It's got nothing to do with Tezuka-kun. It's my daydream; you can have a lot of fun with it. You should try it. Picture Oishi-kun on the beach with all his skin showing, he can have red boxers on and you in a kinky red bikini licking innocently on an ice cream."

"…H-hoi…" Kikumaru's words came out tantalisingly slow but distance in thought.

She patted Kikumaru's head and pulled her up and out of the court to start power walking before she could manage a jog. The rest of the group finished and started stretching in pairs.

"You're so bad Sumiko, making me think such things of Oishi-kun."

"Come on, it was fun, wasn't it?"

"Well, a little, but I don't want to think of Oishi like that because then I would want him to do as you suggest and I know he won't so I wanna keep it simple."

"Would you like me to ask him to walk around in his boxers?"

She gasped, "Don't you dare! I'm ignoring you now!"

They took to the last lap and entered the courts. Fuji looked to her team and asked if they were all limbered up and they responded, so she sent them round the courts five more times to fully warm up. They did not argue. Fuji sat on the floor and stretched forward to touch her toes. She asked her too-cute friend to lean on her shoulders.

"How do you feel now? Any better?"

"Fine, I guess."

"Good."

After a while they swapped places. Kikumaru reached her toes easily.

"I don't understand Fuji-chan, if Oishi-kun does like me, and Tezuka-san likes you, why haven't they said anything to us?"

Fuji stretched her arms in the air with the question in mind.

"Maybe they want us to say something first. Or they aren't really thinking about such things right now."

Kikumaru sighed, tossing her breath to the sky. "But it's tiresome waiting for them. My heart really hurts every time I think he's going to say something. I just want it to be official so I don't have to worry that some other girl will take him."

"Don't worry. By the looks of it, Oishi-kun is not going to sway towards anyone but you. Come on, five more laps."

They took off around the courts once more and Fuji wondered when this sudden passion in Kikumaru grew from a carefree fancy to a full-blown infatuation? Maybe the summer sun did something to her. Maybe her brothers and sisters said something to her. She might have seen Oishi over the vacation that influenced her thoughts.

Oishi was a sweet and caring character. His own teammates saw him as a mother figure and he did not seem to mind this title… to some extent he did not mind. He had caring eyes that welcomed anyone over and he never had to raise his voice to get his point across. Despite all that, he was a hopeless sap. Fuji nodded, he was definitely a sap, kinda like Kawamaru. That's why they were the cute ones in the boys' team. She glanced over to see what they were getting up too. She opened her eyes slightly. Was Arai playing a year seven kid? Arai-chan's younger brother, Masashi Arai. If not a sap, Arai was a moron. Neither Tezuka nor Oishi were on the court.

On their last lap they spotted Ryuzaki-sensei walking over. They both waved to her and turned the corner.

"She looks happy today." Kikumaru added.

"That's a good thing. Let's hurry so we can hear what she has to say."

On their way round Ryuzaki-sensei shooed Kikumaru away and called Arai over. Fuji figured Ryuzaki-sensei really loved tennis and the school to have taught for twenty years and more. Fuji was sure she would have moved on by now if she were in Ryuzaki-sensei's position. Then again, with all these young men for her to look over, she would not be so foolish as to part her ways. And besides twenty years in the same places also meant twenty years of solid and valuable experience.

"As you know the district preliminaries are up in just ten days. You have not done your rankings yet. If you want to be in it I suggest you find a classroom and get deciding."

"Yes sensei. Is Tezuka-kun in your office sensei?"

Ryuzaki-sensei nodded then realised her mistake.

"Oi, Fuji-kun, you leave those two to sort out their rankings."

"Sensei, do you think of me as some kind of trouble maker?"

"When my two best players waddle into the courts burning redder then a plum, I know you've provoked them, and by the looks of Kikumaru-kun, you've done something to her too. Hurry up and do what you have to do."

"I understand. I'll be good." She said with that warm face.

...tbc...

A/N2: Tee hee, in the next chapter you'll get to see a bit more of Leiko Arai. Thanks for reading.

Edit: Some of those 'ne's' were getting on my nervous too. 6/6/2006