It's been a while, hasn't it? My birthday passed 3 days ago and my beloved Nee-chan fixed up my old old computer (the one I had before the previous one) so now I'm all ready to post and write and everything again! I'm sorry for the delay, a whole bunch of stuff has happened since my last post. But hopefully I can get back into writing without any more of these annoying circumstances coming up and breaking my rhythm! I hope you enjoy!

SPOILER ALERT: This chapter includes the Doubles Matches against Hyotei Gakuen

START

It was a sad sight to see. Kikumaru and Momo were really giving their best against the Hyotei pair but they were too out of sync to play on the same level. Frustration and disappointment were evident on Kikumaru's face as each point was lost. Without any control of the flow of the game, the mismatched pair simply couldn't keep up. Before long the score had reached 4-0 and it seemed hopeless. Miki turned to look at the reactions of the other Regulars.

All at once Miki realized how alone she felt at that moment. Everyone she was close to on the team was gone. Two of her best friends were struggling to keep up on the court, another was off warming up for his turn, yet another was in a deep conversation with his buchou, and the last was in the hospital watching over a woman in need. I'm not really close with any of the other Regulars and I have practically no friends outside of the tennis club... Less people to lose when the day comes, I suppose.

The vibrations of Miki's cell phone drew caught her attention just as Kikumaru made a remarkable dive and returned a shot the first time that game. Miki smiled in relief when she saw him start flipping his racket, the sign of his conviction and confidence. She flipped open her phone and her smile widened even more. She shared a quick look with Fuji and dashed out of the stands, on her way to the front gate.

She arrived just as Oishi neared the front steps. At some point he had changed into the tennis club sweatsuit and had donned a bandanna Momo had made.

"Am I too late?" Oishi asked as he followed Miki back towards the court.

Miki looked back at him over her shoulder and winked. "Iie, they were just getting started."

The two quickly made their way back and silently stood at the top of the stands. It was quite the sight to see. Kikumaru and Momo had assumed the Australian Formation and were putting pressure on the Hyotei team. The stands buzzed with interest and concern. Miki herself wondered if the two could pull it off without prior practice together. Kikumaru had a hard enough time learning to do it with Oishi and their synchronization was perfect.

"Eiji's made a lot of progress." Oishi smiled to himself, watching his best friend with pride. "He's out there supporting Momo and controlling the plays. I didn't think he'd be able to handle that."

Miki stayed silent for a while, watching the doubles team score point after point with their almost perfect style. "I guess it wasn't Momo who had to take your place after all. It was Eiji-kun."

"Hai."

The two stayed back and watched in silence as the pair breezed through the next four games, bringing the score to 5-4 in their favor.

"They're playing great, those two..." Oishi muttered as the two finally noticed his presence. Momo raised his arm up to Oishi, who returned the gesture happily. Kikumaru smiled up at his friend in joy and understanding. Oishi made his way down to talk to the other Regulars as Miki wandered off to find Kaidoh and Inui. She knew well enough how the game would end.

A few minutes later Miki returned with Inui and Kaidoh in tow, just in time to see Momo pretend to do a Dunk Smash and Kikumaru return the ball easily for the winning point. She rushed down the stairs and tackled Kikumaru as he walked out.

"Omedetou, Eiji-kun! I'm so proud of you!" she squealed as he lifted her and spun her around. He put her down just as Oishi approached the two.

"Good work. Nice game you two."

"Thanks!" Momo winked at Miki, who stuck her tongue out in reply.

"I'm so tired!" Kikumaru began as he wiped the sweat dripping from his brow, "If it weren't for Momo moving around so much... If it were just us..."

"Yeah, maybe we wouldn't win." Oishi smiled at Momo.

"Not bad for a singles player," Miki added with a pat on his shoulder.

Momo looked surprised at the compliments and his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. Miki smiled at him and began to move so the others could talk to them. Just as she was walking away an arm snaked its way around her waist and pulled her backwards. She found herself tightly pressed up against Momo's chest.

"Arigatou," he whispered before releasing her and walking towards Ryuzaki-sensei and the other Regulars, leaving Miki a little stunned for a moment.

Her reverie ended when the announcer called Doubles 1 to the court. She walked down the stairs to her seat, pausing when she noticed Momo had taken the seat next to her. It was just a friendly hug, she told herself with a shake of the head, nothing to get all worked up about. She sat down as Inui and Kaidoh made their way out onto the court. Kaidoh looked over at her and their eyes connected. Simultaneously the two looked away blushing and Kaidoh let out a loud hiss. Miki looked back a moment later to see Inui's creepy gaze fixed right on her. Now that's something to get worked up about, she realized as she knelt down out of his line of vision to tie her shoe, Inui-sempai knows I was watching Kaidoh practice...

The sound of a racket made Miki look up, but she didn't see the ball in play. Nobody had moved as far as she could tell. She turned to Momo to ask what had happened, only to see him frozen in shock.

"Momoshiro? What's wrong?" He pointed silently to the ball slowly rolling out of bounds behind Inui. "Eh? How did that get there?"

"Just watch," he said quietly.

The second time Miki definitely didn't miss the cause of such shock. She found herself just as dumbfounded as the rest of Seigaku as she watched the ball move almost too quickly to see, leaving what looked like a burn mark on the court where it bounced.

"Uh oh..."

The next shot faulted, as did the one following it. The speed of the shot never dropped and the player hit the shot again and again, taking their service game easily.

Finally Inui was up to serve. Miki watched with interest as Kaidoh approached the net and began to sway. Is he going to use it so early? she wondered as she watched intently. He delivered a beautiful Boomerang Snake and Miki realized how much his training had paid off. Only it hit in the Doubles court.

"Damn, Doubles court," she heard him mutter to himself.

"Kaidoh," Momo said to himself quietly, drawing Miki's attention. She had to restrain herself from laughing openly at the surprise and frustration on Momo's face. "So you've been working hard."

"Makes you want to work harder yourself, doesn't it? It would take a lot of time to match what he put into improving the Boomerang Snake," Miki told him with a snicker. She froze in realization. Kuso!

Momo looked at her suspiciously. "How do you know how long it took him?"

"... Urusai," she mumbled, ducking her head to hide the blush spreading quickly over her cheeks. Momo snickered at her embarrassment but gave her an odd look before returning his attention to the game.

Miki's phone buzzed again, making her jump in surprise. She pulled it out to see Kazue was calling her. Careful to not disturb anyone, Miki crept out of her seat so she could answer the call.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Miki, Kumo got out of the house," Kazue's panicked voice told her.

"Nani? When?"

"Just 10 minutes ago. He got through the window in the kitchen and I couldn't reach him before he jumped the fence."

Miki's eyes widened in fear and ran off towards her home. Oh Kumo-kun, please be someplace safe. Places he could be darted in and out of her head, mixed with all of the terrible things that could happen to him in the open.

"Kumo-kun!" she called out as she neared her jogging path nearly another 10 minutes later. "Kumo-kun, where are you?" She ran the length of the path more quickly than she ever had but she didn't see him anywhere. Another place popped into her head and she ran off towards the school's tennis courts, making sure to call to him and keep her eyes open for any sign of his gray fur.

As she rounded the changing room Miki's right foot landed in a small drop and she lost her balance. Her head connected hard with the metal drainpipe on the shed and everything went black for a few seconds. Once her vision returned and she rose to her feet, Miki realized again that Kumo was nowhere to be seen. Kuso. Kumo-kun, where could you be?

Suddenly an idea popped into her head and she turned on her heel to check where she and Kumo had spent their evenings for the past week. Miki came to the river and saw three elementary school kids throwing rocks into the river. As she came closer she heard them yelling at something. "Demon!" one screeched, tossing a rock as hard as he could down the embankment. "Evil," another called out, doing the same thing. The third was watching the other two silently with a worried look on his face. Miki realized that their target was a small gray ball of fluff down by the bank of the river. Kumo-kun!

"Oy, what are you three doing?" she yelled as she ran towards them, grabbing the two that were trying to hit Kumo. They looked up at her and shrank away from her anger. She squeezed their arms until they dropped their ammo and glared down at them. "Get out of here!"

She heard them running away as she carefully made her way down the slope. Kumo was curled up right by the river, shaking and holding a bleeding paw close to his stomach. Just as Miki reached him her vision went hazy and she had to kneel to steady herself. Kumo came back into her sight and she carefully scooped him up into her arms.

"Everything's okay now, Kumo-kun," she cooed, walking as quickly as possible back up to the road. "We're going to get you home and fix your paw and it'll be fine."

Twice on the way back to the house Miki had to stop and lean against something so she wouldn't stumble as her sight blurred and her head pounded. She was determined to make it home as quickly as possible to treat Kumo's wound so she brushed off the dizzy spells. By the time she got home she could hardly see straight.

Kazue met her at the door and brought Kumo inside. "I'm so sorry Miki, I didn't even realize the window was open." He gave her a worried look as she stumbled towards the medicine cabinet. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine," she mumbled as she took a seat next to Kazue and began cleaning Kumo's wound. "I just hit my head is all." Kazue gave her a look and she shook her head, clenching her teeth as a wave of nausea hit her. "I didn't have to fight anybody, I promise. It was really just a bump to the head." He nodded and held Kumo tightly as Miki treated a scrape to his paw, most likely damage from one of the rocks the boys were throwing.

Just as she finished wrapping Kumo's paw her phone rang again. Kazue stood with Kumo and left the room to lay him down as she pulled out her phone. Miki could barely make out Momo's name on the screen. She flipped open the phone but a wave of dizziness knocked her out just as she heard Momo's voice come through her phone.

"Moshi moshi? Miki-chan? Oy, Miki-chan?"

Everything went black before she could respond.

END

Kyaaa, that was annoying. I hate when it's so hard to write something that's so easy to visualize in your mind. Well, reviewer appreciation time!

yvonna: Nah, Seigaku won that match. Momo was about to do an awesome Dunk Smash but purposefully missed the ball so Kikumaru could score the point and win the game. It was cool. I try to make my story match very closely to the anime so you can actually find dialog and such from the anime in my story. I think it would be cool to watch the anime and imagine Miki in it. That's why I write it this way :P Thanks for the review!

MoonlightChaos: I know! Much excitement. Keep reading! Thanks for reviewing!

darkheart1992: I wouldn't say a fear of boys, per se, but she has a fear of people who could hurt her. The Hyotei boys scared her because they weren't very welcoming and all of them are pretty big and intimidating. Besides, she's been hurt before. I'm sorry if I confused you! Thank you for reviewing, I hope you continue enjoying it!

Next chapter soon, I hope! I made a little bit of a cliffhanger, didn't I? Whoops? Until next time! :D