Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Tennis.
Sorry for bad English, typo and grammatical error.
Let's skip the tennis camp and go directly to the X day~ The date! :D
Ch11: His Magic
This couldn't be true! It was a date! A date! Tsubaki cupped her flushed cheeks as she gazed her reflection on a mirror. Today was Saturday and it was almost ten o'clock. Here she was, standing in front of the mirror and getting ready for her appointment with a certain boy. She still couldn't believe that they were going on a date. Well, she knew he might do this simply because he felt sorry for her and this might be only a date between friends, but she couldn't help feeling happy.
She looked at the pile of clothes around her. She sighed. There was one big problem: she didn't have any proper dress. Girls should be cute and stunning on their first date, yet she was lack of good clothes, let alone accessories.
What should she do?
"What are you doing?"
She jolted in surprised as she heard that voice. "Tsubasa! Why are you here? You should knock the door first!"
"Well, I did." He said as he examined her messy room. "You didn't answer so I just walk in since the door isn't locked."
Really? She hadn't heard him before.
"So, what are you doing?" He asked again.
"I…" She bit her lower lips. He must be suspicious about the scattered clothes. What should she say? It was no way she would tell him about her date with Zaizen. Those guys were in bad relationship and he would surely object if he knew about this. "I'm just separating old clothes from the new ones." He laughed nervously. She then glanced at the cloak. Crap! It's already ten! "I have to go now. I need to buy some… text books." She rushed out her room and went to the front door. She took any pair of shoes she could find. "I'll be back soon. Don't go anywhere, okay?" She shouted to Tsubasa who was still in her room before she closed the door.
She ran down from the seventh floor using the staircase because the elevator was stuck in higher floor and she knew it might take some time to wait for it. She exited the apartment some minutes later and found Zaizen was waiting for him right in front of the gate, just like what he had said before. She tried to catch her breath before approaching the younger boy and greet him.
"Sorry for the wait." She said, trying to be as calm as she could. She didn't want him to know that she had just sprint from her room because she was late.
"Yo." He greeted back. He put his cell phone to his pants' pocket and turned to her. He stared at her for a while; his eyes scanned her from top to toe and from toe back to top. "Greet choice of clothing for a date." He said in sarcastic tone.
"What? I…" She realized what he was talking about when she looked at her plain blue polo shirt, a pair of knee length denim pants and white flat shoes. Great. She had been too panic when Tsubasa had entered her room that she had forgotten to change her clothes. "It can't be help. It would be hard to deceive my brother if I dress up so tidily." She lied.
He exhaled. He touched his nape with his left hand as he looked around with blank eyes. She used this chance to examine his appearance. White printed t-shirt plus black cardigan of which sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, a pair of pale blue jeans, white sneakers and metal accessories like necklace and chains. He was perfect… and hot. She had to looked away to hide her blush.
"As expected," he began. "You don't have any good clothes, do you?"
She widened her eyes. How could he think like that? How could he… know?
"You once said that you wanted to try on some cute dresses like girls usually do so I presume you don't have any." He explained flatly.
She pouted in defeat. Well, he was right. It was even right on the bull's eyes.
"Come."
She was confused when she saw her walked away in slow pace. She really didn't understand how he thought nor did she know what he was up to. "Huh? Where are we going?"
"Well, I think we should find proper clothes for you first. I don't want my date looks homely."
She sulked. How could he say such a cruel thing? Calling her homely… Oh, right. He was Zaizen Hikaru. He might be a good person, but his mouth was as sharp as ever.
Nevertheless, she still obediently followed him.
They walked along the street, then turned left on the second block then turned right twice. After 10 minutes or so, he stopped in front of a small shop. She looked closely at the purple shop sign, beauty salon words were neatly written on it with curly golden fonts.
"Wait, Zaizen-kun, why are we here?" She asked.
"Just go inside." He ordered.
"I'll go inside but you have you answer my question first." She demanded. "I know it may be something about my clothes, but I don't think I need to go to a beauty salon."
Before he could say anything in reply, the shop's door was opened. A sound of jingling bell that was placed on the door gained her attention. She turned to see what was going on and there she found a woman in her early twenties had just walked out from the shop. She was very beautiful and skinny. She had curly long honey brown hair. Her clothes are simple but fashionable. She had a great taste in fashion. Tsubaki bet she was the owner of this beauty salon.
The woman smiled when she saw the two teens in front of her shop. "Hikaru!" She walked approaching them. She stood next to him and looked closely at Tsubaki. She giggled then leaned to the boy. "Is it her?"
"Yeah." He gave a short reply.
Her smile widened as she greeted the young girl in front of her. "Hello there, you must be Tsubaki-chan." Tsubaki was surprised by how she knew her name. She noticed Tsubaki's reaction thus she continued. "My name is Zaizen Azusa. I'm Hikaru's sister-in-law. He told me about you."
Tsubaki glanced at him. Really? Was that true? Had he really told his sister about… her?
"Let's talk about it inside, shall we? We still have a lot of things to work on anyway."
Tsubaki really had no idea what was happening now. Azusa, Zaizen's sister-in-law (she was also surprise by the fact that he already had a sister-in-law), dragged her inside the beauty salon. They both entered a small room. Azusa ordered her to stand still in the middle of the room. Tsubaki did so and the older woman started to search for something from some paper bags she had prepared before. Later, Tsubaki realized that those bags contained various kinds of dresses.
"S- So, what did Zaizen-kun say to you?" Tsubaki nervously asked.
"Nothing much. He just said that he needed my help and would come here today with a friend named Tsubaki." Azusa lightly replied. She was still busy deciding which dress suited Tsubaki the most.
After tossing some more clothes aside, Azusa finally found the perfect one. She told Tsubaki to try it. Tsubaki obeyed her and wore it.
"I'm glad my old dress suits you perfectly. It was my favorite one." Azusa smiled contently as she looked at Tsubaki. She then dragged the girl to a chair and started playing with her hair. Azusa used a curling iron, hair spray and some other cosmetics Tsubaki had never touched before, and gave her a quick make over.
…
…
…
Zaizen was reading a magazine in the waiting room when his sister came out from the dressing room. He put the magazine on the table and stood up. Judging by her happy expression, she must have finished her job smoothly.
"Come on, don't be so shy." She said pulling Tsubaki's hand. The girl peeked behind the door before she hesitantly walked out from the room. Azusa pushed her forward so that he could see her more clearly. She stood nervously in front of him as he looked carefully at her new appearance.
Her chin length dark brown hair was curled. She wore sleeveless white mini dress with blue lines borders and big ribbon on her waist, a matching blue hand bag and a pair of silver high heels with white pearls and ribbons. Azusa also had applied some make up like eye liner, mascara and peach lip gloss.
She was very different from before and her change was pretty stunning.
"You… look like you're going to shichi-go-san."
"Shi-? What?" Tsubaki's cheeks burned in embarrassment as she heard his comment. "Just as I thought, this dress doesn't look good on me." She turned around and tried to go back to the dressing room but Azusa stopped her by grabbing her arm.
"Hey, Hikaru, can't you give more generous compliment to her?" The woman complained.
Generous compliment? That was so NOT him.
He touched his mouth with the back of his hand. Although it covered half of his face, his reddened cheeks were still noticeable. "I mean… I mean, you look quite good."
"And?" Azusa smirked as she leaned forward. Her hands firmly clutched on Tsubaki's shoulders.
"And you're… sorta… cute." He stuttered. His face had completely turned red now like a ripe apple. "That's enough, isn't it? Now, go away!" He yelled at his sister.
"Fine, fine. I'll go~" Azusa chuckled as she released Tsubaki. She went back to the changing room. She looked at the couple before she closed the door and said, "Bye Tsubaki-chan. I hope you'll call me onee-chan next time we meet."
"That woman…" He grumbled, scratching his head. He could still hear her laughing from afar.
Tsubaki played with her manicured nails. She still couldn't believe what he had just said about her.
"Say, Zaizen-kun…"
"Huh?"
"Do I really look good?"
"Well, yeah… It's still a bit plain though."
"I see." She looked down, a little disappointed.
Seeing this, he stepped closer to her. He took something from his pocket and pinned it to her hair. She reached her hand to find out what it was.
It was a small flower hairpin.
"It's better this way." He smiled gently. It was the first time she saw him smiling like that.
She nodded in silence as she didn't know what to say. She was very happy. She was too happy that everything seemed unreal for her. She had thought that it had been impossible to actualize her secret wish, but here she was! She wore cute dress she had always dreamt of and was also about to go on a date. Right in front of her, stood an (extremely good looking) guy. Her date.
"Shall we go?" He offered a hand to her.
She had never thought before that this would happen so sudden.
It was just like a dream comes true.
He helped her realized her wish with his magic.
Okay, so it's not the date yet. This ends up longer than I excepted so I decide to divide the story into two chapters ^^
Actually I also wanted to introduce Zaizen's older brother and nephew along with his sister-in-law, but… maybe next time. BTW, the older brother's name is Akira. Why? Well, Akira means bright while Hikaru means light.
Have you watched the new OVA? I watched the first story yesterday and I really LOVE it. Zaizen is very adorable there~ For all Zaizen's fans, you should watch it!
Last but not the least, don't forget to review naa!
