Right. So. Timeskip. I hope you don't mind. 8D

It was rather funny, Seigaku's first-year ace decided, that even when Miyuki wasn't around to be a cause of worry to the mother hen of a vice-captain the tennis team had, he would still worry about her.

Yes, Echizen Ryoma, snarky little bastard and all that, was hiding his amusement at the worrywart that was Oishi Shuichiro, who was worrying his head off at the missing presence that was Kitsuke Miyuki - all while managing the close knit yet slightly troublesome group of tennis players that made up the Seigaku tennis club regulars.

They had just finished their match against Rokkaku - he was a little peeved that he didn't get to play, but eh. If it was what the substitute captain had decided...

(Yes, Ryoma actually respected his vice-captain. Imagine that. It's his honest opinion, though, that anyone who was not Kitsuke Takeshi who would worry about that hyperactive redhead was more than worthy of respect - not that he would outright show it. Nope, not his style.)

(Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Miyuki sneezed, and a certain brunette couldn't help her laughter. Miyuki pouted.)

His (mental) laughter had quickly stopped, though, when he saw the match that was Fudoumine versus Rikkaidai Fuzoku after being told to warm up. The fact that Tachibana Kippei, of all people, couldn't win his match made him realize that no, he can't win at the level he was at now.

That fact peeved him even more than that he couldn't play, but he pushed that thought - along with his curiosity over what sort of training Miyuki was going through - away from his head. He knew what he had to do to help him - no, not just him; his team obtain a fighting chance... a chance to win.

Ryoma won't just complete the move; he'll perfectly master it.

Cool Drive.

When and what for was that side of him created, he wondered. He wondered a lot about it - ever since the first time he injured someone he considered family, even at a young age. Of course, Rei - surprisingly mature even as a kid, and managed to retain that as she grew up - had laughed it off and demanded parfait from him, but he knew it was a matter of time before he couldn't rein that side of him in - away from the surface that was entirely him. Kirihara Akaya.

But every time he couldn't manage to pull that...version...of him back on time, someone would get hurt - and it got easier for the other one to come out, time and time again.

And the worse part of it all was... a part of Akaya wanted that strength. Pull it by a stretch a little, and one could say he yearned it. Longed for the strength that would bring him a step closer to defeating the Three Demons of Rikkai.

Maybe that was why it was so ridiculously easy for that other side of him to gain control. Akaya didn't know.

What he did know was he hated it. Even if that side was him, in a way, it wasn't truly him. It was not the Kirihara Akaya who adored Takeuchi Rei as his older sister; who looked up to Sanada Genichirou for his strength and skill and Yanagi Renji for his calculative decisiveness in tennis; who was that bit scared of Yagyuu Hiroshi for the Gentleman was so hard to read; who liked and enjoyed the company of Marui Bunta and Kuwahara Jackal; who had a bit of a love-hate friendship with Niou Masaharu; and it was definitely not the Kirihara Akaya who looked up to, adored, and was a little scared (sometimes) of Yukimura Seiichi.

No, that Kirihara Akaya didn't see, didn't treasure those individuals as much as he did. That Kirihara Akaya wanted nothing else but to utterly, completely crush them. Them, who he treasured more than he would ever let on, and whoever else unfortunate enough to stand across him in a tennis court.

So when that Akaya came out during the match with Tachibana Kippei, what Akaya wanted to do more than anything else was to warn the elder to be careful - but all he did was laugh, smirk... and on the inside, Akaya died a little bit more.

That night, when he woke up shuddering and nearly in tears from a nightmare induced by his fear of himself, Akaya blindly reached for his phone beside his bed and hit the speed dial for the one person who knew his fear.

"Akaya?" Her voice was tired and laced with sleepiness, and Akaya found himself feeling guilty for waking her up - but when he tried to speak a choked sob came out instead.

"Akaya? What's wrong?" she was instantly alert from the sound. "Wait, no, never mind. Get ready to open the door for me. I'm coming over. Be there in five."

He heard the muffled rustle of a blanket being moved away before the call was cut, and true to her word, she was there within five minutes - complete with a bag of clothes to change into the next morning. Brown eyes took in his appearance, his eyes bloodshot not from anything else but crying for once, and the moment they were in his room she put her bag down and pulled him into a hug, letting his head rest against her shoulder.

"How bad was it this time, hmm?" she asked gently, and Akaya felt his control over his tears slip. He choked his nightmare out between sobs, and Rei did nothing else but hold him as he cried, humming soothingly into his ear and patting his back in rhythmic motions.

Akaya suspected she actually fell asleep at one point because the hand patting him and the humming stopped for a moment, but her hold on him was strong and never faltered, even when she forced herself awake again. That was something he loved about her - and maybe the rest of Rikkai did as well. The side of Rei that would always be strong for the people around her.

"Feel better?" she asked as he pulled away from her, wiping his eyes. He nodded, not trusting his voice, and the brunette smiled, reaching out to ruffle his hair.

"Okay." And that was another thing he liked - it was always 'okay', never 'good' because she knew he wasn't 100 percent okay; that he wouldn't be 'good' until he knew how to rein in the side of himself he feared.

As Rei led him to the kitchen for some warm milk, Akaya, in a moment of childishness, decided he was going to enjoy the pampering (and teasing by default) he got from his 'older sister' before anyone else realized the maternal side of the brunette and 'stole' her away from him.

Because, as Rei said before, he was her precious little brother, and that gave him the right to be as annoying as humanly possible.

Atobe Keigo was mildly amused - and perhaps a little confused, though he made sure that particular fact was well-hidden. His all-knowing vice spared him an amused smirk before casting his gaze back to the source of Hyotei tennis team's confusion.

Akutagawa Jirou, either asleep or awake and hyper during practices, was in neither of the two states at the moment. No, he was awake and...depressed?

"Oy, Jirou!" he called. The narcoleptic teen turned to him, eyes big and sad before he began to wail (the silver-haired teen made a mental note to himself to prepare ear plugs next time he saw Jirou being awake and depressed - the blonde can wail).

"Miki didn't reply meeeeeeeeee! Our cake daaaateeeeeeeeeeeee!"

More than a little confused (though, obviously, it didn't show on his face), he turned to his vice. "What's he going on about, ah~n?"

Oshitari's eyes were amused behind his (useless) glasses. "Ah, it seems Yuki-hime didn't reply his mail for their weekly cake date." A pause as the Osakan pulled his phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. "It would seem like she didn't reply mine as well, for our weekly game."

Before he could say anything, Mukahi bounded up to the blue-haired teen, glancing at Oshitari's phone screen whilst resting his arm on the taller teen's shoulder somehow. "The girl who normally mails you around this time of the week to schedule a game, right? She didn't reply you?"

Oshitari calmly swatted the redhead away. "Maa, it looks like it for-" he cut himself off when Jirou made a mad dash to the bench where his phone was, and the team as a whole watched as said teen's face brightened and proceeded to cheer.

"Cake date is on! Hurray! Ure-C!"

"Looks like he got a reply." Mukahi observed unnecessarily as their now-hyper teammate ran around the courts, cheering the entire way. A soft chime came from Oshitari's phone this time, and the blue-haired teen chuckled after he read the message and pocketed his phone.

"Looks like my weekly game is on, too," he said calmly. "Let's get back to practice, Gakuto."

As his team went back to their usual workings - sans the extremely hyper Jirou, Keigo found himself thinking of one thing only.

'...exactly how many people in my team are acquainted with Miyuki?' A pause. 'She lets Oshitari call her 'princess', but calls me a cake when I call her that!?'

OMAKE:

The start of his second year in Rikkaidai wasn't too bad, Takeshi thought. He was in the same class as Yagyuu Hiroshi again (the bespectacled teen helped him out loads in the year previous), and the (extremely loud) Sanada Genichirou joined their class this year by some sort of scoring system Takeshi refused to try and comprehend. He didn't manage to talk to the other brunette yet though, seeing as he was almost always trying to get away from the school's resident Trickster (with a capital T), who, from the sounds of things, was trying to get the golfer to join the tennis team.

It wasn't until after the Trickster succeeded that he managed to talk to him - which was also already past the time of club registration for the noo-freshmen... and also after the rumor that the male tennis team gotten a manager began to spread.

Takeshi did not expect that rumor to be confirmed in his classroom.

It was lunchbreak, and he was asking Yagyuu some questions about the topic their Japanese history teacher had covered. Yagyuu told him apologetically that Sanada would be a better Japanese history teacher than he ever would, and it was with that he turned and began walking to the other teen's desk.

"Oy, Sanada, there's something I don't understand from the topic earlier," he said, flipping his book to show the other what he didn't understand. Sanada nodded and waited for him to point out the subject matter, and then a loud door slam.

...what?

It was followed quickly by a first year girl running in the direction of Sanada's desk. The little one (Takeshi mentally cackled for addressing his junior that way) slammed a folder on the black-haired teen's desk and proceeded to rapid-fire speak at the other - something about club budget...?

The younger brunette (another one! Rikkaidai sure had a lot of brunettes...) was talking so fast that all Sanada could do was mutely nod; it looked like he had no clue what the heck she was talking about. Takeshi was amused by the junior's tone and rapid-fire speaking, but it wasn't to say that he liked being interrupted.

Shrugging, he used the chibi's head as his armrest and continued asking Sanada his question. An indignant "hey!" sounded from the poor girl, and Sanada looked stunned.

Takeshi got an elbow in his gut for his efforts. "Ow, nice to meet you too."

A hand lightly rubbing his stomach where he got elbowed, the first-year looked up at him with a slight scowl, rubbing the back of her neck. "Well my neck hurts, senpai, so we're even."

Not feeling his yan-ness subside, Takeshi grinned. "No, we're not." He let his hand resume its perch on her head, and the younger flailed.

"Senpai, hand off!"

He refused. And he continued to ask Sanada his question - all very calmly and with a smile. Apparently, the girl he was bullying hated to lose - she restarted her complaining anew, and Sanada really could do nothing else but stare that the duo of brunettes at his desk, his expression stunned.

"Please stop, both of you. You're causing a scene and troubling Sanada-kun." Yagyuu came to Sanada's rescue. "Kitsuke-kun, kindly move your hand from Takeuchi-san's head." Mentally pouting, Takeshi did. "And Takeuchi-san, you interrupted Kitsuke-kun's conversation with Sanada-kun when you came in."

The girl blinked, looking abashed. "Oh, um..." she scratched her cheek, the slightest of pouts edging into her features. "I... gomenasai."

Takeshi blinked. When the younger brunette ducked her head, he could see his sister in his mind's eye. He grinned.

"Because you're so cute, I forgive you," he said, ruffling the younger's hair. She flailed again, yelling at him to "stop messing up my hair!". Once again, he refused.

"Kitsuke-kun," Yagyuu admonished, and Takeshi grinned unrepentantly as he 'apologized' to the younger.

The bell chose to ring then, and Takeuchi jumped before grabbing her folder and hightailing it out of the second year's classroom. Amidst the mumbling and comments that erupted with the girl's leave, Takeshi went back to his seat, laughing. He halted in front of Yagyuu's desk, though.

"Kitsuke-kun?"

"...I forgot to ask Sanada that question I wanted to," he deadpanned, and the bespectacled teen chuckled.

"You can always ask him after the lesson."

"Right," he agreed, then yelled across the classroom to the slightly younger teen, "I'm booking you after this class!"

Takeshi returned to his seat amongst his classmates' amusement at this antics, and just before he sat down, a thought occurred to him. "So uh, Yagyuu?"

"Yes, Kitsuke-kun?"

"Who exactly did I meet just now?"

The entire class fell silent at his question, and Sanada's quiet "tarundoru" was heard quite clearly. Yagyuu, apparently too used to his eccentricities (Takeshi internally pouted), merely adjusted his glasses and answered.

"She's the tennis club manager."

"I see." Takeshi nodded, settling back down onto his seat. The rest of the class, though, had varying reactions to that piece of rumor-turned-news.

After class, the door flew open just as Sanada was about to explain to him the key persons involved in the Meiji Revolution. Takeshi turned and saw the same brunette from lunchtime. He grinned.

"Hi again, sorry I've booked him after you left," he called. The younger pouted and closed the door, and Takeshi's grin grew. "Oh, isn't she cute?" he cooed before turning back to Sanada. "So, yes, continue explaining please."

Right. Characters' hair colors are all taken from manga/dating sims. x'D And the omake is on how Rei and Takeshi meet for the first time. Aren't they cute? Hehehehe~

Also, that long introspection bit when it was Akaya's POV? It was something I thought suited his character, and I thought about if for a loooooong time already. It may clash with your own view on him, so just letting it out that this is my point of view on Rikkai's resident seaweed head. 8D