A/N: Poor Niou. He is being played by Fuji and he doesn't even realize it yet. And now someone is looking for him…Enjoy the new chapter!

PS… for those, like me, who are participating in NaNoWriMo this month – GOOD LUCK!

Chapter 10 – Lovers?

It took him almost an hour to get back to Rikkai Dai, but when he finally managed to enter the hallowed gates of the tennis courts, Niou wanted to turn around and go back home. Out of everyone it could have possibly been, why did it have to be her? "What are you doing here?" He demanded to know.

"Masaharu-kun!" A girl with jet black hair spun around and found the person she had been waiting for. She completely forgot about the game she was playing with a couple of the non-regulars and ran towards the silverette. "Where were you? I've been waiting and I came here especially to see you…lover." Her voice turned sultry and she flung her arms around him, hugging the very life out of him.

"Stop that!" He tried to push her away.

"You don't love me anymore?" She pouted.

"What are you doing here?" Niou could hear the whispers around him, everyone curious as to who this girl was and her relation to their trickster.

"Don't be like that. I came here to visit you, but when I got here I found out that you weren't required to be at practice today. Your fukubuchou was nice enough to call you and here you are. Aren't you happy to see me? It's been almost a year."

"Am I supposed to say yes?"

"Mou, Masaharu-kun! I love you and we are going to be spending the rest of our lives together!"

"Stop with the act!"

She stopped him with a finger over his lips, "Come with me, Masaharu-kun. We have things to talk about that concern the future." Without allowing him to explain, she grabbed his arm and proceeded to drag him away.

His day was going from bad to worse, and now his teammates probably thought he was having some sort of affair with this girl…something that was as far from the truth as one could possibly get. Pulling his arm free, he snapped, "What are you doing here Nee-san? When did you get back from university?" He thought about it for a moment and asked, "Aren't you in the middle of your term?" It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see his sister, he was. He loved her and when she had decided to go to a university in Kyoto, he had missed her. Before she had left, they used to have fun pranking other people together and that included their own parents. She is the very person who taught him how to be a first rate trickster, which is probably why she didn't want his team to know the truth about who she was for a while. She had been gone for more than two years and was currently in her third year at university, and since his teammates didn't know much about him or his home life, or even where he lived, they had no clue this girl was his sister and not some older lover.

"I passed my midterms and am on a small break, so I decided to come home and see my favorite otouto. Besides, I talked to one of my former senpai and she said that you were at a crossroads."

"I don't know any of your senpai!"

"She saw it in the cards."

"The cards?" Niou deadpanned. Even by his standards, this conversation was getting weirder and weirder.

"So who is she?"

"She?"

"The girl!"

His eyes cut downward, "I don't know what you are talking about." How did she know about Sakuno?

"You can lie to kaa-san, tou-san, and anyone else, but you have never been able to lie to me. So who is she?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about. I helped a girl earlier this week because she was lost and I was bored, but other than that, the only girls I deal with are in school and they are so annoying, I ignore them most of the time…unless I'm pranking them."

She studied him for a moment and knew he was hiding something, and her curiosity was sufficiently piqued; however, she also knew that her little brother would rather have his teeth pulled without Novocain rather than talk. That was all right though because she didn't mind getting her hands dirty. "Souka. Well then, I guess my senpai was wrong."

Niou didn't trust is sister. Normally, she would not give up so easily. This was not like her, which meant, he needed to be on guard in order to protect himself and Sakuno. "Nee-san, I'm serious."

"And I said I believed you," she smiled deviously.

That grin made him want to crawl under his bed and never come out. In so many ways, it mirrored ones he had seen on Yukimura and Fuji. Add to that her trickster ways, and she might actually be more dangerous than both of the sadists combined. Plastering on his own nymph-like smile, he asked, "Do tou-san and kaa-san know that your home?"

"Not yet, but they will when we go home together."

"Who says I'm going home right now? Tennis practice hasn't finished yet."

"It was my understanding that your presence was not needed today."

"I have a tournament tomorrow."

Clasping her hands together, she gushed, "That's perfect! I can meet her then!"

A chill ran up his spine. "Her? Her who?"

"Masaharu…"

"Naoko…" Her name really did not suit her. Docile child? In who's dream?

Narrowing her eyes, she took a step forward and almost laughed when he started to take a step back before stopping himself. Her little brother was growing up and learning to stand his ground. She was proud of him, but that didn't mean she wouldn't get what she wanted…she always did. "Let's go. I'm sure your friends are dying to know what is really going on and I think we should keep them guessing. Don't you?" Linking her arm with his, she pulled him along and she couldn't wait to see what happened next.

Niou could only follow along for now, but he would not let her win. He had spent time perfecting his trickster ways away from her, and she would not get the upper hand this time. Soon she would find out that her brother wasn't the same little kid she left behind. And somewhere in the middle of his battle with his sister, he needed to get Sakuno alone so that he could apologize. This was either going to be fun, or be the death of him.

Back at Rikkai Dai…

"Ne, Yanagi, do you know who that girl was? Do you really think it was Niou's girlfriend?" Marui asked. Like the others, he had been left confused by the whole interaction. Niou had looked like he wanted to kill her, but she had seemed so intimate with the trickster.

"23.7% chance that she is his girlfriend. 52.45% chance she is a relative."

"That doesn't equal 100%. Are you slipping?"

"The rest is unknown relation."

"How do you not know?"

"Niou-kun is very good at keeping his secrets."

Yagyuu stepped forward, "Marui-kun, before you ask another question, think about the person we are discussing."

"Everyone go home for today! We will meet here at 8am so that we can go to the tournament together. No one is to be late!" Sanada ordered, tired of seeing everyone speculate about the girl; although, even he had to admit that he was curious himself…and he still had the urge to torundorou her. It matched the urgency he normally felt with Niou.

The team scattered not wanting to be on the other end of one of Sanada's famous slaps. They could find out more later, for now, they would let it rest for the night.

Sakuno's house…

The sky was starting to get dark and she never heard from Niou. And she shouldn't want to after what he did to her earlier. She had been so embarrassed, but at the same time, she wanted to see him, wanted to forgive him. If he hadn't rescued her the other day, she didn't know where she would be today…and she didn't mean helping her find her way back to school. Would she see him tomorrow at the tournament? Was she ready to see Ryoma? She wasn't sure what the answer was to either question.

There was something about Niou that made her smile, and she always looked forward to the next time they would be able to see each other again. With Ryoma she always felt nervous and shy, and while she still felt some of that with Niou, she also felt like she could be herself…even if herself was directionally challenged and easily addled. He never made fun of the way she played tennis, never told her to cut her hair, and never made her feel like she didn't belong. It was so very different from Ryoma. Maybe that should have been her first clue that the relationship with the tennis ace was wrong – not that it ever existed except in her own head.

But what did she feel for Niou? She had known him a matter of days, and yet, she felt a connection with him. Maybe it was just as friends, or maybe more, she just wasn't sure, however, she had the feeling she liked him much more than she should.

Elsewhere…

After the horrible afternoon she had, Tomoka wanted nothing more than to hear a reassuring word or two from her boyfriend; however, what she got was the shock of a lifetime. "Ryoma-sama, Sakuno and the others were mean to me, and I just…"

"Why are you calling me about this?"

"Why? Because we're dating."

"When?"

"When what?"

"When did we start dating?"

"You agreed to go to the movies with me."

"Oh. That was a movie I wanted to see and I couldn't get tickets."

"Eh?"

"I don't have time to date anyone. I need to focus on my tennis." After a pause, he said, "Dinner is ready. Bye."

Tomoka heard the click of the disconnected call and sat there in stunned silence listening to the beeping on the other end. Sakuno had been right about Ryoma? It couldn't be. Her heart was breaking as she realized not only did she lose her supposed boyfriend, she had also lost her best friend. She felt utterly alone.