The First

Summary: An account on what went on in the past few hours spent. [TezukaxFuji]

Disclaimer: (long forgotten. Gomen.) Prince of Tennis is not mine. We should all know that by now.

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Monday Morning, 7:30 am. Tezuka had woken up with his alarm clock and wiped his nose. He had acquired a little cold throughout the night. He sat up and moved to his desk to take care of his little cold before heading to take a shower. Today was the day. Today, he was going to go with Fuji on a date.

Whether he was nervous or excited, he couldn't tell. Tezuka got dressed before taking his cell phone and stared it down, wondering where the tensai was. The tensai in question was going to be taking a bus and get down at a stop just outside the buchou's subdivision, where Tezuka would often meet him. He typed a message and sent it to Fuji. He powered up his laptop for a little while to check on his e-mail. 20 minutes passed before he called Fuji up.

"I'm at the terminal," Fuji said reassuringly, with a chuckle slowly following it. "I was about to let you know."

Tezuka flushed but got to his feet. "I understand… I'll meet you there."

The stoic youth hung up before heading out of his house and began his 2 minute brisk walk to the guardhouse and out into the streets. He reached the terminal and watched the buses and taxis whizzing by. Finally, a particular bus came to a stop and Fuji came down from it.

Tezuka nodded at the tensai before they began their walk back to his house. Having arrived up in his bedroom not long after, Tezuka allowed Fuji to use his laptop for a short moment while waiting for his father to get ready to go.

He and Fuji were going to one of the malls to run a few errands – more on his end, actually -, and Tezuka's father had offered to drop them off. Wondering where the time went, Tezuka and Fuji found themselves in the back of Tezuka's father's car and on their way.

Promptly being dropped off at the mall at around 9 am, Tezuka and Fuji went into a coffee shop and ordered some drinks to pass the time for the rest of the shops to open. Of course, ordering cold drinks early in the morning was not something you would consider a right move for either of them – considering Fuji didn't even finish his own drink.

The stoic youth's unconscious action of sprinkling chocolate powder into his chocolate drink – which he eagerly finished - was a cause of having him do nearly half of the things he did that day in Fuji's presence. What a way to start things off.

They took a stroll around the mall, finding a number of closed shops and such but headed up a few floors. Fuji's request at watching a movie led the duet upstairs to check the times for the movies, although it wasn't until later that they would be buying the tickets. After confirming what they were to watch – an animated movie about a dog believing that he had super powers (A/N: The movie 'Bolt'), they headed back down to check once more if the stores were open now.

To his relief, Tezuka saw that it was. He headed inside with Fuji close behind him and asked the clerk for what he needed. Fuji looked at the other merchandise being sold, effectively preoccupying himself while Tezuka was with the clerk. Seeing that the size of the outfit he was looking for was not there, he settled for what was available and purchased it, along with two mouse pads – one for himself and one for Fuji. Once that was purchased – and Fuji had paid for what he wanted as well -, they headed off to find the other thing Tezuka wanted to buy – a new USB flash drive.

It became an easy task for Tezuka to figure out what he would be giving Fuji for Christmas, and he had long planned it ever since they returned from one of their many escapades. When he would replace his lost USB, he would buy the tensai his own mouse for his little laptop – which explained why he wanted to buy him a mouse pad to go with it. He gave Fuji the freedom to choose the mouse he wanted while he moved to the USBs and browsed through them quickly and picked one.

When the tensai had chosen one, Tezuka paid for both before stuffing it along with his other purchases. The two passed by a bookstore and went inside and browsed through some of the shelves. The buchou stopped by the magazine section and searched for a particular issue and bought it – it was the latest issue of the sports magazine he had been collecting since its first issue was published 6 years ago.

Tezuka did not at all find this romantic to begin with, considering how they were just shopping around and he was the one who was buying all said items. He sighed but led Fuji back upstairs to purchase the movie tickets. They bought ones for the 11:20 am showing, and still had some spare time. Tezuka and Fuji moved to the arcade nearby – not that you would imagine the buchou going near any such similar establishment.

Tezuka blamed his earlier consumption of chocolate back at the coffee shop for everything he had done in that arcade before the movie – a shooting game with Fuji, a basketball game and a dancing game. The stoic youth had sworn he did not have any adept talent at any of these games beforehand. The last of the three mentioned games, however, left the buchou parched as he purchased himself some water before heading into the movie house with Fuji.

The dark atmosphere of the movie house was enough, and the less-than-full audience provided them with the illusion that they were the only ones there. Throughout the movie, Tezuka admitted that he did not find any moment to be more… intimate with the tensai beside him – and the armrest between them was already pulled up -, which he would have to blame on the overall plot of the movie for not being more… accommodating of allowing such things. It was one of those movies where you just couldn't pry your eyes away.

Coming out of the theater - now well-famished for lunch -, Tezuka and Fuji headed downstairs to one of the food courts, walking through its entire length, gazing at the various food choices. But what had unsettled them was the number of people seated at the tables. Tezuka sighed before suggesting that they find a restaurant instead. Fuji immediately agreed, the whole time latching himself to the taller boy's arm – that wasn't holding the rest of the purchases.

The two eventually agreed that they wait a while until most of the people were done with their late lunches, and ended up back at the top floor. Tezuka saw a familiar restaurant – one where he admits he has not eaten in for quite a while – and suggested that they eat there… but not after another – hopefully last – round at the arcade.

After spending more of the credits on some random games – Tezuka was cursing inside that this particular arcade did not have his favorite Virtua Tennis game -, he eventually settled with finally getting photo stickers of himself and the tensai. They waited for the customers using the booth before them until stepping inside.

Tezuka had wondered what he was thinking with doing this, but they posed for the camera as it took four different shots for them to choose from. Out of the four, Tezuka would've preferred the last shot – where they had kissed -, if the tensai had not been looking at the camera thinking that the picture had already been taken. Tezuka groaned but operated the machine to print out the stickers – losing all interest of designing them, more out of careless pressing and laziness combined than for any other reason.

'Oh calm down, that wasn't what you were waiting for, was it?' he thought to himself with a light shake of his head. When the stickers had come out, he carefully slid it into one of the parcels in his big bag of purchases to keep it from being wrinkled.

Tezuka and Fuji headed off to the said restaurant and finally sat themselves down to lunch. Something Tezuka's stomach was looking forward to. He wasn't sure if it was the weight of his purchases that got his hands so tired or if it was from the game he played at the arcade – some drum game called 'Percussion Master', but Tezuka was certain that he would be complaining about this tomorrow during PE class.

They finally decided to head back to Tezuka's place via taxi without complaints from the stoic youth – who was, by then, too tired to start any arguments on their way back -, to which the fees were taken care of by the tensai himself.

Upon arriving back in the house, Tezuka and Fuji settled in the former's bedroom a second time that day. Diego and Kurt were not left out of the equation, though. Fuji settled himself on Tezuka's bed for most of the time, after all. Tezuka had powered his laptop and went to set his new purchases aside while waiting.

The buchou watched as Fuji brought Diego and Kurt with him and sat himself down on the empty seat beside Tezuka. He looked down at the two stuffed animals in Fuji's hands before suggesting that the four of them have a picture together. The stoic youth wondered why he had offered, but opened up a program that made use of his laptop's built-in webcam. He snapped a picture of them and had to shake his head at how it slightly resembled a family picture.

Tezuka eventually strayed away from his laptop and joined Fuji on his bed feeling sleepier – or just tired - by the minute. He promptly took off his glasses, set them down on the bedside table and let his head collapse onto the pillow and closed his eyes. Fuji, he noted, did not waste any moment keeping him awake by using either Diego or Kurt as a means to bother him.

Not that Tezuka took it personally; he was just overly tired and the slightest disturbance in what little sleep he wanted to get would've proved fatal towards anybody else. But then again, this was Fuji Syusuke we were dealing with. Tezuka swerved away from any 'attacks' made to his neck by either of the two stuffed animals (controlled by the tensai himself), while managing to stay on the bed. The tensai had long since been figuring out where – if it existed – the stoic youth was ticklish, after all. This was just one of those 'games' to hopefully answer that query.

Tezuka was inwardly amused at it and 'attacked' Fuji himself – without use of the stuffed animals -, quickly found the tensai's ticklish spots (which he rather not mention for private amusement). 'Finally, something to bother Syusuke with…' Tezuka thought to himself with an innate smirk.

Time passed. In the background were random songs off Tezuka's iPod – who knew the stoic youth actually owned one? -, to which the owner was singing along with some of them – 'The culprit is that chocolate drink from this morning, I tell you,' Tezuka reasoned to himself.

Day was turning into night. Fuji said that he would have to get going soon. They sat in silence on Tezuka's bed for a moment before they took each other in a chaste kiss.

"Syusuke…" Tezuka called when they broke off. "That was an awkward position for you, wasn't it?" The stoic youth was correct, of course. Fuji was sitting almost directly behind him when they had shared the kiss. Tezuka seemed to be the more comfortable of the two.

An exchange of 'I Love You's and another kiss later, Tezuka offered to walk Fuji out of his subdivision after Fuji had packed up the things he brought with him. Holding hands as they normally did now, farewells were exchanged between the two lovers before they parted ways.

As Tezuka returned home, he smiled as he settled onto his chair in front of his laptop. Today, he agreed, would be engraved deep into his mind – at least he wanted it to be – for a long, long time.

'For today, Syusuke… I hope you had fun… However blunt and uneventful it was – in my eyes, at least. Next time… I'll bring you to a good restaurant… they make the best Tori Kamameshi (A/N: Translated to Chicken Rice), and we can order ourselves some good sushi as well…'

Tezuka smiled secretly to himself. In his heart, he knew that this was just the first of many more to come.

TBC