Title: Prince & Prejudice
Summary: So if Carlinda is Eliza Bennet, is there a Mr. Darcy for her, if not Dr. Tezuka? Still not yaoi, but no longer exclusively Tezuka, if you were paying attention…
Disclaimers/notes/pleas: See Chapter 1
Epilogue: Tennis & Tezuka
Tezuka set aside his idle thoughts on the absurdity of permanent seating at a private tennis court and leaned forward as Kurt Davis prepared for his initial serve. A few weeks had passed since the last observation and finally progress had been made; he could see that Davis had improved in efficiency of movement and in concentration just by the way he bounced the tennis ball.
Tezuka was further pleased by the subsequent rally: Davis' strokes were more controlled, the way Davis positioned himself for returns showed that he was planning farther ahead…and best of all, Davis' intensity level indicated he now regarded tennis as a challenge, not a convenience. Miss Kennedy had succeeded in curing the aimlessness in Davis by making him care about winning in tennis.
Satisfied that the most difficult hurdle had been overcome, Tezuka turned his thoughts to how his assistant was playing. Compared to the power of Davis' shots, hers appeared to float over the net. Miss Kennedy had been under an emotional strain the last few months, Tezuka knew, which would explain why she seemed more tired than usual; even so, he felt he was overlooking something.
The ongoing consistency of lift from her groundstrokes provided Tezuka with the clue he needed to figure out what that something was. Neutralizing incoming spin and changing it to a different outgoing spin with each and every swing was hardly spectacular compared to some tennis skills he had seen. Yet this new ability suited her understated style, and not only did it achieve in one stroke what it took him several to do to work up to the Tezuka Zone, it also was the one strategy that effectively counteracted the Zone.
A glow of excitement spread through Tezuka. This meant that Davis' skill had been refined even more than anticipated. It meant that Miss Kennedy had also benefited from the lessons. And it meant that he would benefit as well—with some practice, her new skill could be incorporated easily into their doubles play. Controlling the Coopers' erratic shots from the very first would be a boon, for one thing. Playing with the weekly social group was about to get that much more interesting.
In his preoccupation Tezuka missed what happened exactly—whether Davis mistimed his swing or let Miss Kennedy's shot go by him because it was out-of-bounds—however the result was a familiar sight from his Seigaku days: the tennis ball had ended up lodged in the fence. Davis went over to inspect the ball; it was at about knee-level, and the partition prevented Davis from being able to get at it from the other side. Even so, Davis seemed to be experiencing an unexpected amount of trouble in prying it out.
Tezuka suppressed his amusement. Not that he found this difficult after learning to maintain a demeanor of stern detachment appropriate for a team captain—which would have been practice enough, in itself, to last a lifetime, given the various personality quirks and antics he had needed to channel into getting them to Nationals. However, he had had his recent years of teaching to perfect his emotional control as well.
In the meantime, Miss Kennedy had calmly walked to the bench with her duffel bag and pulled out her water bottle. Tezuka shifted down several rows so he could talk with her. "Nice backspin. It may take a while for him to dislodge that ball…"
Miss Kennedy shrugged as she sat down carefully; he realized that her weariness had not been entirely in his imagination. "Thank you," she replied after taking a sip. "But it had better come out some time. I don't think the president would appreciate it as a permanent fixture."
He did not have anything to say to that, and the hush of a hot summer day stretched out between them companionably.
Davis interrupted the moment with a half-hearted kick at the fence: he had pushed the ball out so that it had dropped down in between the fence and the partition. After the display of frustration, Davis proceeded to kneel and roll the ball along toward the fence gate—taking his time, as if wanting to prolong the break, Tezuka noted. However he decided to ignore this and asked Miss Kennedy quietly, "How is Carlinda, by the way?"
"Better. Unfortunately something like this takes more time to get over than to fall into. But she is getting there. At least she's somewhat distracted by the president's persistent attempts to engage her in another tennis match."
This seemed a good opportunity, so he ventured a question he had wanted to ask her for a while: "Should I have done or said something sooner, do you think?"
She mulled this over. "Hard to say, Dr. Tezuka. Nor am I the best person to judge that, in all honesty."
Tezuka pressed his lips together in unhappiness at what he inferred from that last comment—that she was still agonizing over her conflict of interest in befriending Carlinda. Leaving words unspoken and actions undone did not make Miss Kennedy's feelings for him or his for her any less real, yet he knew she would hardly be forthright about those emotions to Carlinda while they remained unacknowledged. And that was not about to change as long as she continued working for him, for neither she nor Tezuka could pursue a romantic relationship with each other because of the policy.
Most of the time, honorably maintaining the status quo was enough, in his opinion; he considered it a blessing to be able to spend the greater portion of almost every day with her while in his preferred environment. Within those bounds, he could still allow himself to do and feel certain things. Such as … go to a party so she could be with him when he needed her presence as emotional support … be gratified that she was comfortable enough with him that she let him read her wordplay poetry … play doubles with her as his partner in a social group setting … be happy that she would not be leaving him just yet, such as to become a teacher—because he could trust her when she said that her reasons for making the decision had nothing to do with him.
Situations such as this present one, however, were still quite difficult, because there were limits in what he could do to comfort her; even cradling her head against his shoulder would be crossing the line.
She sighed and Tezuka searched his mind for something to help. The best he could come up with was: "Saa… Carlinda will need all her wits about her with Atobe's thoughts turned in her direction."
"Mm."
"It is more than for another tennis opponent. He is not usually so conversational when we play, but yesterday he said that he likes the look in her eyes."
Miss Kennedy had raised her water bottle for another drink but froze halfway at this, then turned to him with an incredulous, "He did?"
"Mmmm. Surprised me, too. So whatever he might have said about the scavenger hunt being for commoners, I expect she impressed him with her ability to manage a complex social situation." He coughed. "It probably increased her wife potential, in his view."
She turned back to watching Davis, who was still working at his project diligently, judging by the consistent fence-rattling.
Eventually she commented softly, as if she was thinking out loud to herself, "Well, his appreciation of her 'fine eyes' is one thing so far. From an outsider's perspective, he does come across as a bit full of himself on account of his wealth and position. Plus his support during this whole Kurt Davis affair demonstrated he does have principles—he is the one sponsoring the tennis scholarship, too—though he applies them from afar. If he's intrigued by her rather than put off, then perhaps he really is more like…"
Tezuka was not aware that he had allowed any emotion to show, but when she glanced at him, she said, "Please don't give me that look. I know you're worried about me—I appreciate your concern—but I have not completely lost it." Here she paused. "Well, maybe I have, but it was a while ago." She gave herself a little shake. "Sorry. Never mind me."
At this point Davis finally succeeded in reaching the gate and pulled the ball out easily from the gap… and he immediately stumbled into a basket full of tennis balls hard enough to overturn it. Displeased by the deliberate delaying tactics, Tezuka frowned and straightened, about to issue a reprimand; Miss Kennedy held up a hand, though, and he subsided.
"Mr. Davis," she called out, and the student eyed her warily. Her mild "next time, simply ask for a break—you may take another 5 minutes and pick up the balls when you come back" obviously surprised him.
"However If you try to pull anything like that again," she continued just as casually, "I can't answer for the consequences in your progress check match with Dr. Tezuka."
Tezuka did his best to look appropriately intimidating, and was almost satisfied with Davis' involuntary steps backward. After deciding he needed to reinforce the idea with some tangible evidence, Tezuka moved down to the last row so that he could pick up Miss Kennedy's racquet, then one of the tennis balls that had halted by her feet. He re-seated himself next to her and from that position, hit the ball powerfully toward the main group of balls that had spilled; it was his Zero-Shiki Drop Shot, but instead of rolling back toward them, it knocked several balls back into the basket like in billiards.
Davis nodded hastily and his pace appeared rather hurried as he went back to the locker room.
Miss Kennedy made no comment, so Tezuka murmured, "Laps would have been a more constructive punishment."
"And deprive you of an opportunity to show off, Professor? Wouldn't dream of it." She sounded more like herself, especially in the way she said "Professor" as if it were a nickname—which he liked, coming from her.
"I never show off, Miss Kennedy. That was a demonstration of how physics and geometry are very useful in tennis."
"…"
He let her non-reply pass, though normally she would have been amused and continued the banter. "That reminds me," he said, changing the subject. "Your tennis skill needs a name."
"My what?"
"What you did to change the spin."
"It needs a name?"
"Yes," he said with his best professorial inflection.
"Get-A-Grip," she said mildly.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The name, since you're insisting. I kept losing it—literally and figuratively—as I was working it out."
He shook his head; this time the "…" was his.
Davis re-emerged; she stood and held out her hand for the racquet, which he gave back to her. "You come up with a better one, then, Dr. Tezuka. I'm going to help pick up the rest of those tennis balls and finish the lesson."
Thus dismissed, Tezuka returned to his former position half-way up the bleachers and watched the two of them intently for the rest of the session. Davis was more properly alert and made use of Miss Kennedy's ability to explain as well as demonstrate. As for his assistant, she seemed a little less tense; he wondered if he had helped or if learning that Atobe was interested in Carlinda had eased her mind.
He also firmly kept his thoughts on physics rather than the physical as he watched Miss Kennedy, and applied himself to thinking of a name worthy of her particular sense of humor. 'Something positive,' he thought as the end of the lesson drew near—and he had his answer.
His reward was a small-but-definite smile from Miss Kennedy when he informed her that her tennis skill should be called "Spin Doctor."
The End
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Reactions, thoughts, comments … even flames … on the outcome are welcome. And because I'm incorrigible, I also would like to know how you feel about the implied potential for an Atobe/Carlinda pairing.
And about my portrayal of Tezuka Kunimitsu: who, in my mind, has the nobility of Mr. Darcy, the integrity of Edward Ferrars, the patience of Mr. Knightley, the kindness of Edmund Bertram, the sense of Henry Tinley, and the ambition of Captain Wentworth… OK, aside from the fact that this just goes to show who truly HAS gone off the deep end in Austen metaphors.
So what comes next? I'm planning on doing the "origin story" of how M.J. Kennedy and Tezuka got to know one another two years prior to this story, though it might be a while before I start posting that, even in Iruka-chan2 time. To tide everyone over, myself included, I'll post some random vignettes from various points in the Iruka-chan2 "Tezuka Zone" chronology as they come to me (2 have already been written, actually), most of which will be fluffier than Tezuka's hair.
