I wrote this out during class before the holidays came around; yea I got plenty of free time for it!
Warning: Contains scheming (As always!)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of tennis series.
Ryoma's father had grounded his son for going behind his back and got Ryoma's mother involved on the situation; so much for a father and son talk. And as days flew by without Ryoma and Sanada meeting or greeting, the entire class of girls from Ryoma's class who had all seen with their own eyes how starry eyed Ryoma looked and now his eyes were dull grey like they had been before his accident. But Ryoma was beginning to get the hang of it even when he was constantly reminded of Sanada through the other tennis players.
As for his team mates, Momoshiro and Inui, had visited him as often as possible when off from doing their practice matches for the day but neither could lighten up the boy's spirit. They had seen him at the beginning of the week playing baseball in his gym class but saw that he had not participated for the game. Neither of them understood what could be going through their young player's mind nor were they given the time and day to worry for Tezuka had instructed them to leave the problem to Echizen. But even their captain couldn't take it anymore, so he visited the boy himself after class during lunch break.
"Echizen, do you have a minute?" The said boy looked up from what he was doing and straightened up when he saw that it was Tezuka.
"Yeah…" Ryoma then looked down at his desk knowing full well what the man wanted to talk about with him. But he got up from his seat anyway and followed Tezuka out to the courts of the tennis team, to where their team had been playing some matches.
Some of the members who were not playing or participating at all in the matches, which occasionally included Horio and his two other friends, noticed the captain speaking to Echizen.
"Echizen, you're not coming to our practice matches and I've been kept in the dark about your personal problems but I really wish you'd think your actions through. It just might cost us our next games." Ryoma was hurt by these words as he was not the one in the wrong but apparently only he knew such things.
'Sanada would have…' Ryoma took a pause in his thoughts. Was he just about to say that Sanada would have said something more comforting?
Either way the boy looked at it, this current situation was leading him down a more difficult path on top of having delusions about seeing a mirror image in his dreams of himself. All he wanted to do was follow Sanada to wherever the other young man walked. Now that he did that, he was feeling more horrible about tennis then ever before.
Ryoma looked up to the captain of the Seigaku tennis team and made sure the man met with his glaring eyes. "I hate tennis! Sanada-san was wrong about this team! My skills in ever playing…I quit!" Ryoma's shouting caused a stir among the regulars and all of them stopped their matches to see what had gotten to Echizen's head.
As Oishi had come around, Ryoma was already running past Horio and the others, leaving behind confused faces and more rumors to spread. What Ryoma had said had gotten Tezuka's attention and he himself began to question the thoughts he had when he had set Ryoma up in playing matches the boy probably never even wanted to play in. Nurturing and training the boy's strength with a ball and a racquet was on a whole other subject to if the boy ever wanted to join the team or not.
It was bad enough that Inui was not actually apart of the team as much as he would have liked the man to be, and now they would have to see Echizen off as well. "What's gotten the kid so upset?" Momoshiro, the young man was always next to Echizen whenever something was troubling the boy and was sort of there for him to get the boy out of trouble but now Tezuka could see that Sanada was beginning to fill that role.
"I'm not sure. But I don't think Echizen will rethink his actions this time. Momo, talk to Echizen and see what you can dig up on his 'problem'." Tezuka wasn't so sure if he should say the word 'problem' as he would have thought the situation to be.
Later in the afternoon, Ryoma found himself wallowing in self pity as he rethought the words in his head. The words he had told to Tezuka had might as well been for everyone. But what was he supposed to do? He told Sanada that he hated tennis but yet the man insisted that he try it out and that he had great skills that no one could match up to if he just kept practicing. But these days, he was under house arrest with his father around while his mother was trying to get him out of the mess. Ryoma smiled. The only time he felt at ease in stressful times like these, were with his mother or cousin or even Sanada.
'I doubt I'll ever be allowed on those courts after the way I spoke out today…' Ryoma thought as he popped a bubble in his bathtub and allowed the steam from the hot water to seep into his skin.
A/n: Sorry if it's so short, got a lot of uploads but I'm not trying to rush this, I wanted to save the rest for a new chapter!