So... New Prince of Tennis hasn't updated in... a long time... .; and for those who haven't seen the raw scans yet, I won't spoil anything... I'll just say that the game after Kintarou's will be... interesting to say the least...
Also, I kind of sort of just realize that in the anime they have Sanada like... legit- "ladies-and-gentlemen-this-is-how-you-pillow-fight" joining in... oh well... I don't keep up with the anime at all so I had no clue o.O Sorry for any such discontinuity! (I also found out that he got himself a black eye or something... that's why he has the eye-patch on... no cuts or anything as far as I've seen... darn...)
Disclaimer: All of the recognizable characters belong to Konomi Takeshi, all unrecognizable characters belong to me (unless they're hella OOC... hopefully they're not...)
..
Don't Win, Don't Lose
..
When was the last time he had played tennis like this? When was the last time he had played without a single care of whether he won or lost? When was the last time he had played just for the sake of playing?
Too long. Sanada leaned on the bleacher seat behind him, acutely aware of the sweat running down his body. He thought back to mere moments before when, after a particularly taxing rally, she had started laughing and he had even allowed himself a small smirk. After that, through some sort of unspoken agreement, they eased up.
Neither one of them trying to win or best the other. Sanada felt that he… understood, in a way, why she had asked him to play tennis with her. They were reasonably well-matched. He had never thought he would have to pull his return set against such an opponent. FuuRinKaaInZanRai. It was something he had taken the past two and a half years to perfect. He pulled his hat off and raked his other hand through his sweat-damp hair.
..
"Swift like the wind." Surely, with that return would best his opponent. When had he started thinking of her as an actual opponent? Wait. He hadn't?
"Drown in the rain."
The sensation of thousands of drops of water battered him as the ball came back over the net towards him. He mentally made a note that it was only because her move was used to counter Fuu that it was unremarkable… like how rain slowed the wind.
..
Yuria stretched her arms behind her back. The old man had been right. Their respective return sets seemed to be made to counter each other. She bit back a grin. It felt good to play again, without a care in the world. Back when there were no tournaments, no training, no victor and no loser.
..
"Freeze like ice." It was a move meant to seal, to render the other motionless.
A raging black aura came rocketing over the net. "Invade like fire."
It was a normal shot… only when it was used against Hyouga.
..
"You know, they used to call me the Dragon Queen because of my return set."
He turned to her and raised his eyebrows, "Dragon Queen?" Sanada thought 'Queen' wasn't the best term to describe her…
"Who knows?" she brought her knees to her chest and hugged them, "Americans…"
"Oh." America? Come to think of it, there had been a rumor of a girl they called "the Queen"…
..
"Silent as the forest." She wouldn't even be aware of the shot coming until it landed…
"Deafen with thunder."
Sanada blinked in surprise as his body reacted on its own.
..
He lifted his hat to eye level and looked it over, dusting it off a bit.
"Hey."
The teenager grunted in reply, inspecting the nicks and tears in the worn fabric.
"That hat… where did you get it?"
Sanada tugged it back on, "Someone gave it to me… don't remember who."
"You've taken good care of it, if it's been that long that you'd forget," she observed.
"Less than I should have," he shrugged.
She lifted a hand and ran a finger over the chipped brim of the black hat, failing to notice the way his eyes widened at the action. "I think… that whoever gave it to you… they would be happy to see that you wear it a lot."
He watched her out of the corner of his eye, "What makes you say that?"
She withdrew her hand—he almost regretted asking—"Hats are meant to be worn… especially if they're gifts," she smiled, "If someone gave you that, they must have wanted you to wear it."
..
"Crush like an earthquake." A shot usually used to break defense.
"Strong as the mountain."
Yuria watched him set a solid stance at the baseline. The next thing she knew, she was dashing to the other side of the court to catch up with the spinning yellow globe. Or not.., she thought.
..
She pulled out the elastic band, and shook out her hair with a sigh. The way he had completely nullified Jishin, earthquake, had left her almost speechless. Yuria smirked. Saitou must have known this would happen. How many times had he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation and said that, one of these days, she would meet her match?
..
Sanada was suddenly struck with a ridiculous notion. Thank goodness he had gotten in the habit of mentally reviewing his actions before executing them. He wanted to touch her; to reach out and tuck long strands of black silk behind her ear. It was absurd. He swallowed and forced himself to look away from her.
..
"Strike like lightning." He had made that returned without a second thought, on instinct. Rai was a shot that only Yukimura and Echizen had been able to break so far. And suddenly, he realized that he didn't want her to miss this shot. He didn't want her to lose this point. If she did… then they would be back to winning and losing… and that was something, Sanada realized with a jolt of his consciousness that he didn't want to happen. Not here. Not with her.
"Shatter like glass."
His eyes flickered. Perhaps, he need not have worried.
..
"It's getting late," he tilted his head back to see the dark sky from under the brim of his hat.
"It is… sorry I've kept you this long when you have a game tomorrow."
Sanada raised an eyebrow. Was it his imagination, or did she actually sound embarrassed? No. That was impossible. Since when did he start imagining people being shy? Never, as far as he could remember.
Presently, the mellow sound of a saxophone floated down to them in the night air.
"Ah," she perked up, eyes bright and a smile on her face, "Irie-senpai."
"Irie Kanata… we didn't send 'reinforcements' to that one," he said it more to himself than for anyone else to hear.
She cast him a sidelong glance, "He lost against Atobe."
Sanada blinked, "Did he," he believed it too. Atobe's cockiness was not unfounded. That is, assuming he had improved.
The lilting melody continued to envelop them, "He always plays to calm himself."
He looked at her again and was struck, if only a little, by the curve of her throat and the light dancing in her eyes. Sanada realized that he was staring and, after taking a breath of air to reclaim his composure, tore his eyes away from her lithe, slender form. Instead, he found a pebble on the court worth his intrigue if only to keep his attention from wandering back to her.
..
"Blind with the sun." It was the last of her return set. She didn't know why she had used it. Yuria supposed that if they could nullify all of each other's previous attacks, there was no reason to not go all out and empty the reserves.
"Formless like the shadows."
Yes, she was right. It was a wonder, really, that they each had one counter that played the weakness of the other and rendered it into a normal shot. Then again, there had been that monstrous black, writhing cloud that he seemed to have mastered while on the cliffs. She let loose a laugh when she returned In with an easy backhand.
No matter. Something told Yuria that her opponent wasn't going to use it for this match. And, as far as that went, they were even.
..
Sanada Genichirou had sat through "the talk" before. In fact, he had heard it at quite a young age from his older brother. At that point in his life, all that mattered to him was kendo, iaido, tennis, and classes. He wore his black baseball cap backwards because it was cooler that way and listened to every word his cool older brother had to say to him. At that point in his life, the only differences between boys and girls were that girls had longer hair (with the exception of Yukimura and Renji ), cooties, and didn't fall over from pain when they were hit… well… there.
He had heard everything from his older brother and thought that logically, it made sense. Despite this ready agreement to what the elder of the Sanada brothers said, Genichirou had thought that he would never be physically or mentally attracted to a girl. Ever.
But now, here, at fifteen years of age, Sanada Genichirou had caught himself staring at a girl for the first time.
…
Not really.
He had stared when Higashidani Kiora scored the lowest marks in their class. He had stared when Irinaka Shiori had tripped and fallen because she, in turn, had been staring at Niou. He had also stared at Omori Emi when she fainted during a frog dissection (which Marui had also done, apparently). This wasn't the first time he had stared at a girl. This was the first time, though, that he stared at a girl because he thought she was pretty and played good tennis.
A corner of Sanada's mouth quirked up in a half-smile, "Tarundoru," he whispered to himself.
..
"I'm getting soft?" she teased, "Or you're getting soft because a girl played evenly against you?"
Yuria watched with amusement as his eyes widened and a faint tinge of pink spread across his cheeks. He hadn't realized that she'd heard him.
"Well," she decided to put him out of his misery, "I think we'd better get going. Get some rest. You have an important match tomorrow, right?"
Sanada swallowed and nodded curtly before picking up his racket and standing. He stood there for a moment, taking in the way the court seemed to glow in the blinding stadium lights. After a moment's thought, he turned to her and held out his hand.
Surprised would have been an understatement. Yuria stared at his proffered hand before directing her gaze to his face. She was perplexed. Surely, he wasn't actually… He looked away.
She allowed a smile to spread over her features before gently sliding her hand into his large one and pulling herself up with his strong, firm grip.
..
Yay for fluffiness! and awkward Sanada! xD
Also, hooray for writing magic tennis! Although, I can't exactly describe Sanada's... like the action for "Invade like fire" as best as I can come up with is "spinning, swirling black aura with three different poses and a smash-looking finisher" or something to that extent...
Glass is a natural insulator and therefore not a conductor of electricity if you're wondering where I got that :P
Thank you to everyone who responded to me! (and those of you with your constructive criticism/corrections, they're much appreciated!)
Thank you for reading!
R/R Please and thank you!