Ch: Ten

|YUUTA|

I dragged the phone out of its holder and allowed a long, rattling sigh to escape through my clenched teeth. Looking helplessly at the plastic buttons, I irritably punched out the numbers and listening to the soft ringing that I knew was now resounding in my home.

Once again, I had single-handedly proven that I could make a complete fool of myself, even WITHOUT the help of either aniki or Mizuki. Which, on reflection, was decidedly worse, since in this case I couldn't really go and yell at anyone without being completely unfair to said person. Not to mention that I felt ten times as bad about it than if it had been someone else's fault.

I still hadn't spoken to Matsuno. Not that I hadn't wanted to; maybe Sakai was a lot more of a distraction than I'd normally willingly admit, but when it came down to really getting something done, I doubted that she would have been that much of a hindrance. Of course not; I still had a reasonable amount of self discipline, of course not…

So, the problem?

"Moshi moshi?" came the deceivingly mellow voice through the receiver.

"Hello, aniki?" I said heavily, bracing myself and lifting the phone slightly farther away from my ear.

Three…two…one…

"YUUTA!"

I looked up at the small patch of sky I could see outside my dormitory window. Why me?

"Saa! You're calling home more and more often! Have you finally decided that we've really got to talk with each other more?" Aniki sounded delighted.

"Er…no." It was just plain crazy, the kind of stuff these things called tensais thought up. In my opinion, people should really stop humouring them, even if they are geniuses in one way or another. "No, there's actually a small problem that…" I took a deep breath. "…that I'd like you to help me with."

You will understand why I had chosen the seclusion of my dorm to make this call.

I hadn't wanted too many people to faint on me.

Due to, you know, shock.

"It's about Matsuno," I added quickly, knowing that I wouldn't be able to get a single word in once—

"Yuuta! Of course I'll help you! Saa, aren't we brothers? We should always be there to help each other!"

Etc., etc.

During this onslaught, I could perfectly well have abandoned the phone and gone off to explain the situation to someone else, figure out a suitable game plan and make a cup of coffee before picking up again and still have time to spare. I briefly wondered whether or not I'd be better off with confining in Mizuki, before dismissing this idea hurriedly; Mizuki, while being as good a data collector as you could get around St. Rudolph, hadn't done an especially great job at making people like him. Thus I figured that it would've been unwise to ask him about human relations.

Matsuno just might end up hating me for the rest of her life, or something similar.

"Aniki," I cut in the moment he had to stop for breath. "The thing is…I, er, want to talk to Matsuno, because, um…"

For once I hoped that he would come up with some ridiculous assumption that I could play along with, as long as I got the desired results anyway.

Strangely enough, aniki didn't make any guesses to help me in that direction, but remained silent.

"Because…well, I just do." I finished, frustrated at how lame that sounded, even to me.

"Saa…"

My brow unconsciously furrowed. At this moment, it seemed, when I'd least wanted it to happen, aniki had got serious.

"Ne, Yuuta, did you two have an argument? Is that why she didn't come to visit with Sakai that night?" he asked quietly. Though it wasn't exactly a question; more like he was simply asking for confirmation. Like he knew already, but wanted an open confession.

I hated it, hated that my older brother seemed to know more about what went on between me and my friends than me myself. "That's not the point," I snapped, simply because it felt so degrading.

Suddenly it seemed a good deal more important that I outshine this teen who thought he knew—and unfortunately did know—more of what was going on with my life than I did. And not just in tennis; I could not settle for simply being his equal or superior—hey, I can still dream—in tennis, not when I couldn't even manage the little things.

Not when I still had to count on him to fix my problems for me.

Speaking of which…

"Look, aniki, this is really between Matsuno and me. She's my friend, remember? But I still need your help. I need to talk with her, I've been thinking about calling her for some time now…"

"And, the problem…?"

Your problem is that you think you know all about me, even though we don't live together anymore. You know so much that you can even predict what mistakes I'll make… And you know what the solution is because you are JUST PLAIN BETTER.

"The problem…" I swallowed. It was such a small, tiny hitch. Something anyone could have done. Anyone but my brother.

"Yes, Yuuta?" he prompted, though I had the distinct feeling that he probably already had some idea.

I sighed, a long, rattling sigh.

"Nothing much…I just realised that I don't have her number…that's all."

|HIKARA|

It was one of those Tuesday morning practices when you've just got out of bed, still feeling sleepy, and your head feels blurry like you're coming down with a cold.

Oh, and you're weighed down with the problem concerning the potential loss of one of the best friends you've met in a long while.

Which can really bother you a bit, believe me.

"Matsuno!" Ann called out in greeting, waving a hand cheerfully. "How are you today?"

"Sleepy," I said, sounding more droopy than I'd expected I would. "Not a problem. The senpais will wake me up with plenty of laps, I'm sure. Unless you successfully distract them…hmm, actually…could you? Yes. I don't think they'll bother about one member slacking off if they see some drastic technique growth… From you, I mean. What about it?"

Ann giggled. "Stop it!" she pouted playfully. "You'll give me a big head, one of these days… Those tournaments are getting nearer, though," she reminded me, immediately solemn. "I could really do with a bit more improvement."

"Let's start practice then," I suggested, and walked off towards the tennis courts as Ann broke into a trot, rushing ahead. I gave a small smile. Sudden breakthroughs didn't come to me, like they came to tensais or some other legendary players. Or maybe even to Ann, once in a while; I wouldn't know, but definitely not me.

The pace I set for myself as we began our training with a few laps was steady. A few of the other club members sprinted past me, anxious to gain as much stamina as possible, to deal with the upcoming tournament.

It was slightly strange, having a bunch of people running in front of me for once, while I normally led most of the team. I resisted the urge to accelerate and catch up with them, going no faster and no slower than I usually would have. Advances in skill or stamina took time… . A last minute burst of extensive training wasn't the way to go… Over exertion just tended to get people injured, anyway, Yuuta said…

One of my feet gave an involuntary jerk, causing the other foot to nearly trip over it.

"Daijoubu, Matsuno?" Ann asked, concerned, as she passed by to overtake me. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," I gasped, quite out of breath now that my pace had been broken.

Yuuta again.

Damn.

Things got a little better, once there was actual tennis to distract me.

"15-love," I said evenly, taking another tennis ball from the basket beside me and tossing it to Ann. "Try to relax; you're getting impatient."

"I'm losing five games to three, of course I'm impatient!" Ann flustered. Catching the ball, she tossed it up at once and hit it with full force.

I hadn't yet mastered the art of returning high speed serves of someone who's obviously lost patience with the game. In fact, even controlled serves sometimes got the better of me. Yuuta was getting a lot better—

"Ugh!" My racket swung high as the ball soared back to Ann's side of the net, returned by a slicing backhand of mine, as the strings gave a satisfying 'ping'.

Good thing instinct always came first.

No time to think, only to react. The ball flew back at me, always, each time heading for a different part of the courts.

"Ugh!" I sent it back.

Another came.

"Ugh!"

And another—and another—

The match was my sanctuary, a place where there were no troubles, no problems, except for the girl, obscured below the waist by the taunt netting. No dilemmas…no Yuuta… Though of course I thought nothing of this at the time. There was just the match… Only the ball and the racket, the net and the white lines marking the ground.

"Game and match!" I finally said triumphantly near the end of that day's practice, trotting up to shake Ann's hand.

"Tell me, do you usually eat or sleep?" she asked weakly. "It's only been…what? A month? No one normal can improve that much in a month…"

I smiled at her incredulity, though secretly giddy at my own results. "I was lucky today. You weren't going all out."

The petite brunette let go of my hand and placed hers on her waist, eyeing me suspiciously. "I couldn't have taken the match even if I had been going all out and you know it. Is this some sort of plot to get me to let my guard down so you can continue whatever demonic training programme you're on and get better without any of us noticing?"

Demonic training programme?

If she was right and one of us was overdoing it, it definitely wasn't me.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "I'm not on any demonic training programmes, I can assure you. Anyway, wouldn't you have discovered that sort of thing earlier, with your amazing deductive skills?"

"Matsuno!" Ann squealed, apparently unable to decide whether I was being sarcastic or not.

Eh? So it isn't just Yuuta. My internal knitting brow relaxed a little. I was being stupid. Yuuta was undeniably a great friend, but it wasn't like he was the only one. Fudonime was pretty big, after all. Plenty of tennis players that I would get along with perfectly well…

There was nothing whatsoever to worry about.

"Matsuno!" Ann said again, her tone losing its playfulness.

"What?" I asked at once, turning around to face the spot she had been staring at over my shoulder.

The noise level in the courts had gone up significantly. The rest of our club members, if not gasping or inhaling sharply, were muttering in question. Even some of the players on the boys' courts had stopped their rallying or whatever else they were doing.

Craning my neck, I looked over a small huddle of excited girls to see the source of the disturbance, and ended up gasping, inhaling sharply and whispering strings of questions myself.

Among the many arms and bodies, I spotted the tennis bag.

Over all the other heads, I caught a glimpse of the brown hair.