A/N : Somehow, I'm not really satisfied with this chapter... Something seemed lost, but I don't know what it is... I'm sorry for the very late update since I'm currently writing another fanfiction (Slam Dunk and Kuroko no Basket)...
Anyway, thanks for the review. And for Mamita about lemon... hmmmm... I don't think I can write it (I blush like mad when I'm writing a kissing scene)... anyone up to this request? Hehe, sorry... *bow*
Warning : (look at first chapter)
Disclaimer : Me no own, you no sue.
On with the story!
Chapter 4
White Heather
One year later
"That senpai… He always there during practice, right?" Katou Kachirou asked his fellow freshman who were also tennis club member. Right now, they were collecting ball into the basket as they watched the second years and regulars trained on the court.
"What do you mean, Kachirou-kun?" asked Mizuno Katsuo, his friend. He followed his friend's gaze to a tall second-years student with a camera on his hands. "Now that you mention it, I just realized. Who is he by the way?"
"It's Momoshiro Takeshi-senpai!" said another freshman, Horio Satoshi. "He's from newspaper club and currently worked as free-lance photographer for Pro-Tennis Magazine."
"Hee? Horio-kun sure knows much about trivial tennis fact…" said Katsuo.
"Of course. I am, after all, have two years tennis experience!" Horio boasting as usual; this only caused Katsuo and Kachirou to let out a nervous laugh at their friend's weird behavior.
Momoshiro Takeshi enjoyed his usual routine. Even though he was still in middle school, he was well-known as a free-lance photographer. Most of his photos were published in Pro-Tennis Magazine as a request from Inoue Mamoru; a reporter from the same magazine. Beside, sometimes he helped Inoue-san to write an article concerning Seigaku's tennis team. Momo was glad though, since he had more reason to watch how the practice went.
His glance turned to three freshmen who were chatting to each other while picking up the balls. Momo smiled as he took a picture of them and walked casually towards them.
"What are you guys talking about here?" asked Momo as he reached the freshmen. Three of them were surprised at his sudden appearance. They only looked at him as he threw his best smile at them.
"Momoshiro-senpai!" the three of them was quite nervous when they called his name.
"You already know my name?" asked Momo. "I never realized I'm quite popular here… Well, you can call me Momo-chan then!"
"Eeeeh? H-how… we… ca-can't…!" the smallest one of them didn't know what to say. Momo only smiled brightly. He loved first-years!
"Oy! Momoshiro! Stop playing with them! Your presence distracting them!" a voice could be heard coming from the court as a second-year student with rather longish hair and blue headband came forward. His racket ready in his hand.
"Ceh… Arai, you're no fun. No fun at all," said Momo as he faked pouting and pulled up his camera to took a picture of Arai Masashi's angry face.
"YOU…!"
Arai couldn't finish his sentence because Tezuka already glanced at them.
"What are you guys doing?! Arai! Start your practice!" he gave order from his place. Arai quickly returned to the court. Momo only laughed nervously and waved at him. Kachirou, Katsuo and Horio started to pick up the balls.
When Momo once again started to take pictures around, he saw a boy wearing a white-and-red jacket carrying a big tennis bag. His face was hidden behind the shadow from the hat he wore. The boy was rather small, but looked fast and strong. Interested, Momo took a picture of him before he greeted the said boy.
"Are you lost?" asked Momo being nice.
"No."
Short answer. Momo tried to get a better look and he wasn't please to see the boy's expression.
"What's with that look? Not cute at all…!" said Momoshiro. "You're a first-year, right? Do you want to join tennis club?"
"Who knows?" the boy said coolly as he entered the court. His entrance attracted the attention of all the club members. The freshmen trio which Momo was talking to before stood up and greeted the capped boy. The boy only stood there as the other freshmen seemed to be scolding him for his tardiness. Momo tried to listen, as he got a name of that capped boy.
Echizen Ryoma? So that was him… He remembered Ryuuzaki-sensei and Tezuka-senpai mentioned about the super freshman. Momo smiled as he took a picture of Echizen Ryoma once again. Now was a good time to conduct some research.
"Momoshiro, you still here?"
"Tezuka-senpai!" Momoshiro looked up at the now captain of tennis club. Tezuka was holding his racket after practice while Momo sorting the shots he got today. "You'll go home soon?" asked Momo.
"Not really," said Tezuka. "Want to play a light match with me?"
"Sure," Momo smiled.
Tezuka lent him one of his rackets before Momo changed into his t-shirt. He always liked the match with Tezuka even though they never really done one set match. They were always stopping in the third or fourth game, since Momo couldn't really play a match. It was to prevent his knee from too much burden and worsening the injury.
Tezuka found it was relaxing to play against Momo, since he knew it was only just for fun. For both of them, the matches had become their ritual every week, after practice. It was a sad fact though that Momo couldn't play a match seriously. From the power of his ball, Tezuka knew what kind of tennis Momo used to play. His power-tennis might-be would match Kawamura's, but Momo couldn't do much with the way he kept protecting his injured foot. It was a great lost. If Momo joined the tennis club, it would make their team became stronger.
Five minutes later they stopped with the score of 3-1. Tezuka didn't intentionally drop one game, but it was hard to predict Momoshiro once he used his most dangerous ability to observe. Tezuka really felt he had lost one of the most valuable players.
"You dropped one game," said Momo.
"I didn't mean it."
"You did."
"I didn't. You purely took that one game from me."
"Liar."
They didn't say anything. Momo was lying on the court with Tezuka beside him. The other team members had already left, so it was only two of them now. They laid there, didn't say anything as they watch the sky turned black. Momo finally stood up to collect his thing. Tezuka followed him and went ahead to the clubhouse.
"Wait a moment," he said. Momo nodded.
As usual, Tezuka would walk Momo home. Momo remembered how he refused the idea at first, but Tezuka insisted though his house was in the opposite direction. He wouldn't let Momo walked alone at night since it was dangerous. Momo told him he could take care of himself since he wasn't some weak girl what-so-ever. Tezuka didn't argue with this, but he still walked Momo home and left without saying a word.
Today was the same as ever. They walked in silence. Momo was walking beside his bike as he enjoyed the comfortable silence until they reached Momoshiro's residence.
"Thank you, senpai. Would you like to come in first?" asked Momo.
"No thank you. I'll see you tomorrow, Momoshiro."
With that, Tezuka left.
Momo didn't know since when he and Ryoma became close friend. All he could remember now, they used to walk home together, getting burger and so on. Before he knew it, they'd become best friend, with Momo's sunny attitude and Ryoma's lack of words. Right now, the two of them was sat comfortably with a bunch of burgers, fries and cola in front of them.
"Momo-senpai like to eat that much, huh? Aren't you afraid of being fat?" asked Ryoma as he finished his third burger.
"I work out," said Momo. "How about you, Echizen? You sure eat a lot for someone so small…" asked Momo.
"I do sport, Momo-senpai. Unlike someone from newspaper club…"
"Oy oy, that's not nice, Echizen. You can't underestimate someone just because they're from non-sport club."
"Let's have a match then. You play tennis right?"
"I did."
"Then let's go."
They finished their meals quickly before headed to the nearest tennis court. They arrived in a street tennis court and stood there for awhile. They waited for awhile to play, but unfortunately, the court was only for doubles. Momo was starting to debate whether he should play, or let Echizen knew about his injury when Ryoma was talking to what looked like the leader in this court.
Ryoma got back to Momo after awhile and he said he had set up for them to play as doubles. Momo agreed reluctantly, because he knew, someone would scold him if he knew what Momo did.
"Momoshiro."
Momo looked up at the familiar voice coming behind him. He turned around and got himself face to face to Seigaku's captain, still in his school uniform. Tezuka glanced at Momo's jersey and Ryoma's racket in his hand before he scowled.
"What do you intend to do with the racket?" asked Tezuka.
"Playing tennis?" answered Momo weakly.
"You know you can't," said Tezuka. "Not without putting more burdens on your knee."
"It won't be long, Tezuka-senpai. I play doubles with Echizen anyway," said Momo as he gestured to Ryoma who was getting his gear on. When Momo walked towards the court, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Momo turned around and gave Tezuka a questioning look.
"Four games. After that you will stop," said Tezuka.
"Whatever," said Momo. He walked towards Ryoma who was ready.
"Is that Tezuka-buchou? What is he doing here?"
"Dunno," said Momo shortly. "Shall we go?"
They walked into the court and started to play. They won for games easily against four pairs. It was really one sided. Service ace and return ace, Ryoma and Momo didn't give any of them chance. Momo enjoyed it though. But just before they started another game, Tezuka has stood just outside the court with a stern look on his face.
"Buchou?" Ryoma and Momo left the court for awhile.
"It's four games already, Momoshiro. Now go home both of you," said Tezuka.
"Eeh? Why? I'm okay, Tezuka-senpai!" said Momo. "I don't even sweat! It was barely warming up."
Ryoma didn't say anything, but looking into his captain's eyes, he knew Tezuka didn't just playing around. He knew that Tezuka had his own reason to stop the game now, and it seemed like he stopped it because of Momo. Was something wrong with Momo-senpai's condition? He seemed fine when they were eating burgers, and he didn't seem to lose his appetite.
"Ceh, whatever. Let's go, Momo-senpai," said Ryoma as he turned to gather his stuffs.
"Oy, oy, Echizen!" said Momo. But Echizen didn't turn around, and it left only Momo and Tezuka as the game was started to continue on the court. "Hmf, this is your fault, Senpai! I'm not a member of tennis club, and whatever happened to me doesn't concern you. Why do you keep doing this?" asked Momo. He suddenly regretted his words when he realized how harsh it sounded. He glanced towards Tezuka, hoping he would see anger or something.
But none. Tezuka looked at him directly in the eyes.
"Because I care about you, that's why," said Tezuka. "Now go home, Momoshiro."
"Momo-senpai, why was Tezuka-buchou stopping you from playing the fifth game?" asked Ryoma. "Are you feeling unwell or something?"
"Well, maybe because the tournament just around the corner and he didn't want you to get hurt or something," said Momo.
"Don't take me for a fool, Senpai. I clearly see it that you are the reason he told us to stop. The question is why?"
Ryoma looked at Momo as they stood in the middle of deserted road. Ryoma stared at his senpai as he tried to read the expression of the taller boy. He was expressionless for a second, before a sad smile came to his face.
"Well, because it's impossible for me to play tennis like I did back then…" said Momo as he leaned to the wall on the side of the road. "Not with this knee…" Unconsciously his hand went to his right knee.
"Heeeh? Well, that's unfortunate," said Ryoma. "After watching your serve and return today, I think you might be a good player in tennis team."
"Oy, oy, Echizen, you give me a creep by acting out of character like that," said Momo. "Anyway, I'm going home now. See you tomorrow, Echizen!"
Ryoma waved at the taller boy as he continued his way back home. Suddenly a thought reached his mind. A question he might not find the answer yet.
Why did Tezuka-buchou cared so much for Momo-senpai?
Tezuka Kunimitsu always considered himself as a cool character. Yup. Cool.
So why he kept blushing after he left Momoshiro and Echizen?!
"Because I care about you, that's why."
Didn't it sound like a confession? And why was he questioning himself? Why was he acting so out of character lately? He opened the front door of his house when his mother, Tezuka Ayana greeted him.
"Ara? Kunimitsu, you look flustered. Are you okay?" his mother asked him innocently.
"I'm fine, Mother," said Tezuka. He quickly walked up to his room and locked the door.
What on earth?!
A/N : I'm sorry if there're so many OOC-ness... anyway, please review!
