AN: i made myself promise i wouldn't read any fanfiction until i updated two of my stories... lol one update done.

Chapter 3

The hole in the street was gone, replaced by a smooth black surface. Ryoma frowned. It only took them one day to fix the street. It was the day he actually went to school and by the time he returned, nothing was left of the hole but a crushed and forgotten orange cone.

Ryoma found himself staring at it, as if willing its owners to return. They left it behind, they'd have to come back and fetch it. Then again, the city probably had thousands of cones; thousands of orange triangles, stacked and lined up, thrown and skewed in a large unmarked warehouse somewhere. This cone was dispensable. He wasn't unique, and besides he was broken and crushed, rolled underfoot by a steamroller and forgotten.

Ryoma flinched.

He wanted to play tennis, and be useful again.

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Kevin looked up from where he was seated on the couch as the door slammed shut in the Atrium. His eyes went to the clock.

"Ryoma is that you?"

He stood up quickly and walked into the atrium to see the Japanese boy shrugging off his backpack and toss it to the floor. Kevin looked out of the window beside the door.

"I thought Billy was going to take you home today. You're like an hour late."

"I went somewhere else first," Ryoma replied, kicking off his shoes and walking up the stairs.

Kevin only stared up at his retreating form.

Ryoma roughly entered the bedroom and collapsed onto his and Kevin's bed. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't feel comfortable admitting that he went to Kevin's cousin's house in hopes to perhaps see Buchou again. He was happy with the fact that it wasn't in Kevin's personality to probe too much about his whereabouts. He understood they both had separate lives. Ryoma grit is teeth and buried his head in his pillow, sick with disappointment, and he didn't want to admit to himself why.

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Tezuka hit the ball towards his opponent, feeling a weeks worth of tension ease from under his shoulders. Nothing ever calmed his nerves as much as tennis did, except for maybe a bath. Tezuka's mind was occupied by many thoughts: his paper that was due for Civil Engineering, all the paperwork that he left back at the office, his room mate's loud late night activities, or performing his best during tennis meets. However, even so many distractions as those didn't manage to stop his mind from sometimes drifting to the sight he beheld earlier in the week. Echizen Ryoma. The more he thought on it the more unsettled Tezuka became.

Ryoma was here. In the same city as he was. Running around. Living his own separate life.

With a final stroke of his racket, Tezuka hit a game ending shot. His mind might have been elsewhere, but his body was still on the court.

"Nice one, Kunimitsu!" his opponent and classmate, Gerard Suarez grinned at him.

Tezuka only nodded curtly and turned to get some of his water.

"It's funny," Gerard went on, as he followed Tezuka to the bench.

"What's funny?"

"That you're so good. Like scary good. You might as well be a professional."

Tezuka knew where this conversation was headed. It was the same thing he heard every time he and the other lad played. Gerard would brag about how he was his High School's tennis captain and he went undefeated until his Senior year. Then he would go on to say how his team became run over by two freshman and that was the end of his tennis days.

Boring.

"Yeah," Gerard sighed, finishing up his story and wiping his brow with his towel. "I wonder if you could beat them. Gives me the idea to bring you there. I bet they must be seniors now."

"You went to school in the city right?" Tezuka asked.

"Yeah, I told you that before."

"That's right," Tezuka said. He sat down on the bench and began putting his racket away in the bag. He never really though much about Gerard's reflections, but the story of a skilled rookie freshman reminded him all to much of Echizen and how the two of them had met. It would seem too much of a coincidence if Ryoma was who Gerard was talking about. Besides, he mentioned there were two freshman on his team that proved formidable.

Tezuka decided he was reading too into it, seeing as he was still all muddy in the head from seeing Ryoma. When they fixed the road there was no sign of the boy and since LA was big, Tezuka resigned himself to the fate of never seeing the boy again.

"Well, that was fun," Gerard's exclamation cut through Tezuka's musings. "You hungry? You gonna eat at the dining hall?"

"No," Tezuka said. "I think I'll eat something I have in my dorm."

"Peanut butter and jelly after a tennis match? That's no good!"

Gerard slapped Tezuka on the back playfully.

"No, I have some leftovers from--"

"Hey! You two!"

Tezuka and Gerard turned towards the speaker. It was one of the court employees.

"Sorry. Are you about done with the court?" he asked. "A class is going to be using this court."

Tezuka and Gerard stood and apologized, gathering their things.

-to be continued-

AN: this chapter just a buffer until the ryoma and tezuka meet. it can't just happen just like that with a snap of the finger... or can it? thanks for reading please review!