Secret Ambitions
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or the canon characters. I only own the OCs in the story.
Summary: A boy with a passion and talent like no other. In daylight, he rules the courts he plays on…at night...he rules the stage… In one life, he's known as the prince…the other as a star. When he needs to choose which life to go by…which will he choose for the rest of his life?
Here are the results of the poll so far: RyomaX
Atobe (Royal): 5
Fuji (Thrill): 11
Fuji/Tezuka (OT3): 4
Eiji (Cat): 2
Tezuka (Pillar): 5
Yukimura (Sensual): 2
Fuji/Tezuka/Sanada/Yukimura/Atobe (OT6): 4
The poll will end at chapter 8, so until then, please keep voting in reviews. Please enjoy the chapter.
"Ambitions" – Normal Speech
'Ambitions' – Thoughts
Beat 4: New Group
Now the regulars were getting worried…
It had been a week since the incident with the machine, and Inui finally fixed it but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that Ryoma was yawning more than usual and had been seen taking more pills lately. They were worried about what was going on with their kouhai.
"Is something the matter Echizen?" Oishi asked one day after seeing Ryoma taking another pill.
The boy jumped and hid the pills in his bag before shaking his head signaling that he was fine.
Oishi didn't believe it and quickly told Tezuka about how Ryoma reacted to the question.
Tezuka raised an eyebrow before looking out the clubroom window to stare at the young prodigy. The boy was practicing against the wall and was yawning behind his hand again. He could see darker bags under the boy's eyes and narrowed his eyes as Ryoma let his head droop a bit before he immediately brought it back up. "Find out what is wrong with Echizen," he ordered Oishi turning back to the papers needed for the Regional Tournament.
Oishi nodded as a reply before heading back to the clubroom. He knew this was unlike him but couldn't help but be worried for Ryoma, so he looked through the freshman's bag for the pills that he saw Ryoma hide earlier.
Once he found them, he quickly read over the information and stored it within his memory before putting it back and going to practice. He would tell the other regulars what he saw later instead of following Ryoma like they normally would after practice.
Practice was agonizing for Oishi as he couldn't stop staring at Ryoma. He would look away if he had to do something, give an order, give a tip, or if Ryoma nearly caught his stare. He wanted to just go up to the prodigy and ask him what was going on.
A few hours later practice finally ended which was a sign of relief for Oishi. He watched as Ryoma quickly jogged over to the clubroom to get changed before going off to meet with his friends again at the park like usual…
Instead of letting any of the other regulars follow Ryoma; he stepped in front of the doorway before anyone was able to get out.
"What's going on Oishi?" Kikumaru asked while still trying to keep his eyes on Ryoma who was walking out the gates.
"I see that you have found some information about those pills of his," Tezuka commented crossing his arms over his chest. When Oishi nodded, Tezuka ordered, "Explain."
Oishi explained what he saw on the label of pills. It turned out that the pills would help relieve stress but would also keep the user awake for a long period of time depending on how many they took. When Oishi first held it, it was pretty light which meant that Ryoma had used up a lot of them already.
"What would he need with those?" Kawamura asked looking at Ryoma's locker where the bag once was.
Momo shrugged and said, "I asked his parents, and they say that he comes home late every day. They even say that sometimes he doesn't even sleep at all while he is working on something. His mom is getting worried."
"We need to figure out what is wrong with Echizen and fast," Oishi commented looking out towards the setting sun.
"Ryoma!" Tenshi called out as soon as she saw the boy walk through the park gates. She ran up to him and helped support the boy. She could tell that Ryoma was too tired and too stressed to do much right now. He could barely even stand up after everything that has happened so far in the past few months or so.
"You should really get some rest Ryoma," Yuki added coming over to help Tenshi support Ryoma's other side. The group of six had been working harder than ever on their latest project.
They walked over to Spade, Skyway, and Estrella who had just gotten off the phone with someone.
When everyone looked at her, she said, "I just called boss, and he said we can have today off to rest." 'More like to actually give Ryoma some time to rest,' was the thought going through their heads except for Ryoma who was too tired to even more correctly now.
"How are we going to explain this to his parents?" Spade asked looking at the boy who looked as if he would fall asleep standing up any minute.
"Why not just take him back home with us and call his parents to say that he is staying over?" Tenshi suggested while adjusting her grip to make sure Ryoma didn't fall.
The others in the group thought for a few minutes before finally agreeing to go with Tenshi's idea to take Ryoma back to their own home. Spade went over in front of Ryoma and turned his back to the boy before kneeling on the ground. Tenshi and Yuki understood and carefully put Ryoma on Spade's back. Spade stood up after getting a good grip on Ryoma's legs and making sure the boy's arms were secure around his neck. "Rest up Ryoma," Spade said before starting to walk out of the park with the others. The entire group finished the last part by saying, "You deserve it."
That was how our regulars found their prodigy. They were just walking around town looking for anywhere that Ryoma might have gotten the medicine and saw the group of six walking along. They quickly hid in a nearby alley to see them walk past with Ryoma asleep on one guy's back. Taking a closer look, they could clearly see the dark bags under Ryoma's eyes and saw why he needed to take the medicine to keep awake. They still didn't know why Ryoma would need to stay up so late for or the reason he would be getting home as late as can be.
"Come on Spade," they heard a girl say before she added, "Our house isn't far from here."
"I know Tenshi," the boy carrying Ryoma replied. He turned his head to the other male and asked, "Did you contact his parents yet Skyway?"
The platinum-haired boy just nodded his head before turning his attention to the other two girls in the group. "Alright Yuki, I want you and Estrella to cook something for Ryoma as soon as we get inside," he said to the girl with brown hair to her waist. The girl nodded before he turned attention to the blue-haired girl and said, "You already grabbed his stuff right?" The girl held up Ryoma's tennis bag as a response which made Skyway nod in satisfaction.
"Saa, so that's what their names are," Fuji said with a small smile before opening his eyes slightly to stare at the group.
They were all interrupted from their thoughts when the group of six finally reached a house on the far end of the street. The house was just a few blocks down from Ryoma's own home.
"Come on and get him inside already," Tenshi whined before looking around the streets. As soon as she laid eyes on the regulars who forgot to hide, she quickly whispered something to her own group.
"The Seigaku regulars are here!" Tenshi whispered to Skyway who widened his eyes in response. He quickly whispered the same message to Yuki. She passed it to Estrella, who passed it to Spade.
Spade was confused and said, "The sea gaki sense shooters have hair? What?" he asked.
The others in the group sweat-dropped… "When did this become a game of telephone?" Skyway muttered under his breath. "We meant the Seigaku regulars are here on the streets and staring at us."
Spade widened his eyes before quickly setting Ryoma down on the living room couch and covering him with a blanket as Yuki and Estrella got to work to make some food for the boy to get better. "What should we do then? We can't really turn them away without them thinking we are doing something with their boy."
Skyway and Tenshi nodded in response before they both peeked out the window to see the Seigaku regulars discussing something.
The group of three was silent for a moment until Tenshi broke the silence, "We should get them to trust us. I think they have been following us ever since Ryoma met me that day a few months ago."
"They have been following us that long?" Skyway asked with a raised eyebrow. He got a nod as a response to his question. "Maybe we should invite them in?"
Spade shook his head and said, "They cannot know about our jobs. Ryoma says he wants to keep it a secret as much as possible."
Tenshi just turned her attention to Spade and said, "Well, if we hide the evidence of our jobs, we can just say that we all met when we were in America and in school together." The other two boys were in thought of the suggestion that Tenshi gave. Before even waiting for their response, she told the plan to Yuki and Estrella before going around the public areas of the house and grabbing anything having to do with the group's job. She quickly grabbed everything and went up to her room to stash the things because only she had the key to her room besides Skyway. Quickly going down the stairs, she noted that Skyway and Spade were nodding at her as agreement. Putting on a smile, Tenshi walked to the door and opened it before yelling, "Seigaku regulars! You are free to come in you know! I'm sure you're worried about your friend here!"
"Seigaku regulars! You are free to come in you know! I'm sure you're worried about your friend here!" the Seigaku regulars heard the girl, now known as Tenshi, yell at them from the door with a smile.
The Seigaku regulars looked to each other before nodding and heading over to the house. They reached the door to see Tenshi smiling widely at them before escorting them into the living room where they saw Ryoma sleeping on the couch with a blanket over him.
"What happened to him?" Oishi asked worried and heading over to the boy to make sure he was comfortable.
Tenshi looked to Spade and Skyway who shrugged their shoulders at the unspoken question she had. She sighed before answering, "He's just tired and stressed…come to think of it our group of six are usually like this." She took a deep breath before slumping onto a nearby chair along with Spade and Skyway who did the same. "We usually tire ourselves out from work…" she commented closing her eyes and taking another deep breath before her breathing slowed and deepened signaling that the girl fell asleep.
"Don't wake us up until Yuki and Estrella come out with dinner alright you guys," Spade said before he glanced at Skyway who was already asleep. A small smile appeared on his face before he closed his eyes and followed his friends into dreamland.
"What a weird new group…"
Author's Note: On my profile is a poll for whichever story you people want me to work on. Included on the poll are six of the stories I'm currenty working on including: Dragon's Master, Half-Breed, and four other new stories whose summaries are on my profile page. Please vote and I'll get started on writing those when summer vacation comes around. I wil start posting them as soon as I finish posting up Beasts Within. The poll will be up for however long until all those stories are good to be posted. Please vote and hope you enjoyed the chapter~
