Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any of the characters. I don't own any franchises, songs, video games, ect mentioned either (like Facebook, song lyrics, and DDR).
If you notice any spelling, grammar, plot errors please let me know. I will fix them as soon as I can. Reviews are always nice, like the chocolate syrup on top of a banana sundae, but aren't necessary.
.-.
At the sushi restaurant I'm passed around like a doll between people who hug me close. Everyone tells me how much I've changed, how they've missed me, how they're so happy I'm back. Everyone wants to sit by me and in the end it's Sanada and Kiyomi who get the honor.
"Tell us everything!" Tsukiko states just as the first round of sushi arrives. Everyone agrees and I smile and start to tell the tale of my time in Sweden. People were nice to me, I made a few friends while I was there. It was incredibly cold, I went snowboarding a lot with Josh while I was out there. School was difficult since I knew very little Swedish when I first arrived, knowing a lot of English did help me though. I even managed to teach a few kids Japanese while I was there. But the most I told them about was how much I missed everyone; the parties and sleepovers we had, tennis practice, team bonding nights.
As the night goes on things between Sanada and I get more and more tense. Tsukiko and Jackal are still together and have cute moments where they feed each other or kiss. Kiyomi's been texting most of the evening, and her background picture doesn't escape my eyes; a picture of Momo and her smirking at the screen together. Sanada's presence keeps making my skin crawl and my heart ache. Our hands would occasionally brush and suddenly we're back to being awkward around each other.
.-.
Just like I promised Sanada and I walked to my house at exactly five. His shoulders are tense as we walk to the door together.
"Come inside." I urge him.
"Aa."
There's a loud meow and Riot races by with Juice chasing after her. Oh how old they've both gotten. A few boxes lay about as I head upstairs with Sanada at my heels. We never sold the house, we just moved out so nothing's changed. But suddenly I feel like a parasite or something, like I don't belong. Mounds of boxes are piled in the corner of my room, clearly Mom hadn't touched my things.
Sanada perches on the edge of my bed as I hunt through boxes. "Amaya." He says softly as I yank out a large box titled Clothes. When I hum and glance at him he continues, "I love you." My heart clenches and I turn to him. "I'll never love another woman, and I'm sorry.. So deeply sorry." He drops his head. I stride to him and yank his hat from his hair.
"Stop saying sorry. Just be your normal self… I already said I forgive you."
"Yes… but…" Sanada looks away.
"But what?" "I've missed holding you… and… kissing you." His cheeks turn red and I'm taken back to our bet about not kissing for a week. Somehow we managed five months without kissing, well I did anyways, I'm sure Yamasaki kissed him a few times. "Just one kiss… then you can spend as long as you want being mad at me."
"Who would have thought you'd like kissing this much?" I tease making his cheeks heat up even more. "I love you." I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him gently. His lips are so soft and warm, how I've missed kissing Sanada. Hands grab my hips and move me forward until I'm hovering over Sanada our lips moving around each other. No dreams could ever match the soft feeling of Sanada's hair between my fingers.
The clicking of heels on hard wood make both of us pull away, his cheeks are red, hair astray and he's breathing heavier, but there's a smile on his face. A small satisfied smile. "I've missed you." He murmurs before his hands wrap around me and pull me into a hug. He leans back, pulling me on top of him and I yelp as I'm tossed aside on the bed. Sanada starts to chuckle as he props himself up and looks down at me. "I'm glad you're back though I've been saving my money to fly out to Swe-" I cut him off and give him a little kiss.
"Get unpacking." Mom says as she walks by. With a grunt I sit up and flop off the bed, since our time in Sweden Mom's gotten more and more distant and, to put it bluntly, bitchy. Sanada rolls out of bed and helps me unpack my clothes. When we come across his hoodie and hat we both pause.
"Do you want them back?" I ask, my hand twisting the worn black cap in my hand.
"No. Did you wear it a lot?" "Practically every day." I admit with a shy smile. "Take them home and wear them and wash them… and then give them back." "Why?"
I blush and look down, "Because then they'll smell like you again." Sanada takes the hoodie and hat and sets them aside before helping me put away clothes in my old dresser.
.-.
My phone vibrates against my bedstand waking me from sleep. Pulling me from horrid dreams. Dreams of Yamasaki and Sanada cheating on me, kissing each other without care as I stood there and watched. I'm going to punch that bitch.
Thoughts of punching out the blond fill my head as I skip through the house, preparing for my first day back at school. I'm actually excited to go back to school, I'm eager to see all my friends but at the same time…
Sanada's not waiting for me outside when I leave the house. My heart sinks a little. He probably left early this morning for college; I won't be able to have lunch with Niou anymore, or sit with Yukimura during practice, or walk to school with my boyfriend. Suddenly my backpack weighs a ton, no longer am I excited to go to school, I hang my head and watch my sneakers kick small pebbles. The way to school never felt this long, walking with Sanada made time fly and now that I'm alone each step takes a million years to take.
"Amaya." I look up and smile at the black capped male in front of me holding a small cup of what I know to be a latte. "You're leaving for school early." Sanada states as I walk to his side, the latte is just as sweet and delicious as I remember them even if it burned my tongue. "I was going to surprise you…"
"Trying to butter me up?"
He blushes.
"Oh crap! Yamasaki goes to college now doesn't she?"
Sanada's eye twitches and he nods.
"Darn it. Now I can't punch her."
"Amaya." Sanada warns in his authoritative voice.
"What?" I ask innocently. "She seduced my boyfriend, I deserve pay back."
"Revenge just leads to more hatred." Sanada says cryptically.
"By the way." I punch Sanada's shoulder as hard as I could, my knuckles stung and Sanada rubbed his arm, guess I've gotten stronger. "I don't remember if I punched you or not yesterday." His brown eyes rolled around before glaring down at me. I wonder if he ever wanted to yell at me for hitting him, but this time he really deserved it.
"I have to catch a bus." Sanada leans down suddenly looks like he was going to kiss me but at the last second kissed my cheek. "I'll meet you at school after tennis practice." My heart sinks again, tennis practice. And just like that he runs down a road to catch a bus.
"Aww." A high pitched coo hurt my ears. I turn around to find Beniko grinning from ear to ear with a cinnamon bun perched on the top of her fingers. Beniko was short, even for her age, the top of her head didn't even skim my shoulder. Her small size, close to Choshi's, made her fast and agile, but she had some surprising power. I remember when I first played her how surprised I was by her strength. "Sanada-San is an awful nice boyfriend isn't he?"
"How do you know Genichiro?" I ask as we head down the road together.
"I saw him around school of course." She shrugged and smiled again at me. "I never thought he'd actually go out with someone… he get's so embarrassed over nothing."
"I know." I say a little curtly, obviously I know how my own boyfriend acts.
"Ne, Kokawa," Ben-Chan tugs on my sleeve, "aren't you worried though? Rumor has it Yamasaki has her eyes on him… and now they're alone today without you."
"They're not alone." I say to assure myself, "They're at college, there are plenty of people around. And I trust my boyfriend."
"But… he cheated on you didn't he?"
"Ben-Chan, why do you care?" I ask.
Her large gold eyes blinked at me before she shrugged, "I'm just curious." Please don't tell me she likes him too, I have enough to worry about with just Yamasaki. Thank God Aki is out of the picture with his freaky bro-mance.
When we arrive at school I head to the tennis courts, there's no practice this morning and I'm thankful. The courts look smaller, less green, less new, and more intimidating. What if I forget everything? Everything Kiyomi and I worked so hard to achieve together.
"You didn't play much in Sweden did you?" Otaka's calm voice surprised me. "You get a sad, distant look on your face whenever we mention tennis." Then more gently, "You're still our Buchou, we believe in you."
"But I don't believe in myself Otaka-San." I turn to the Data Star and frown.
"You can do it." She flashes me a smile. "Besides, you have Kiyomi-Buchou to help you." Right, unlike most players, I'm never alone on the court. Kiyomi would never let me down, she covered for me before. "We believe in you Buchou." And just like that Otaka is gone.
For a moment I stand there staring at the court before I turn around and walk off preparing myself for the day. Tennis is like riding a bike or skiing, you never forget. School is something else you never forget. Between math, science, literature, history, and English there's little time for me to enjoy art, chorus, and band, at least I have a study hall. My body aches as I head down to the locker rooms after school, I guess classes in Sweden were easier than here. There's a kink in my back from my backpack as I change out of my school clothes and into my tennis uniform. While I didn't play tennis in Sweden I wore the uniform whenever I went exercising, the bright yellow made me feel bold and noticeable.
Choshi bounds to my side, her hair in a pony tail, she, like the rest of the team, were wearing the sweats instead of the skirt and shirt. Since I personally didn't think it was that cold out I wore the skirt and shirt. Guess that's another thing that's different, the temperature.
"I'm so glad your back." Choshi smiles up at me, "Umeko and I are working on the Australian Formation right now and it's so awesome!" The two of us start running laps, I have no idea how many laps Kiyomi and Imai have the team up to but I'm sure I can run as many as Choshi can as we talk. I'm not out of shape, not yet.
"I'm glad you're all doing so well."
"Of course! We still miss you though. We need a strong Buchou." Choshi makes a serious face and we both start giggling. "There's a lot of slackers now that you're gone, 'specially the freshman."
"Oh, right, I haven't met the freshman yet." Great, if I suck at tennis they'll never respect me.
Choshi laughs, "Don't sound so happy Buchou!"
Hida runs up at that moment and smiles at me. "Good to have you back Buchou."
"Thanks." I nod my head and jog just behind the two. Choshi teases Hida and the taller girl just elbows her shoulder. Hida ruffles up Choshi's hair, commenting how short she is, Choshi's face turns red and she runs faster.
I lose track of how many laps we run, all I know is my body can certainly feel the effort. Wonderful, I'm back to the beginning. Still, I square my shoulders and face the team as they gather, waiting to hear what we'll be doing today.
"Everyone!" Imai ends the little chit chat between people and she glances to me.
"Hi everyone!" I say.
"Hi Kokawa-Buchou!" A large handful of people cheered.
"If you don't know me." I glance to the freshman wearing white and red gym sweats. "I'm Kokawa Amaya, one of the three Buchou's. And I'm back for the year. Now… what's our goal!" I shout.
"Win Nationals!"
"Good." I step back smiling, everyone has the same goal. A few freshman snicker and chat amongst themselves as Kiyomi and Otaka set up today's training regime. Just simple round robins. Perfect. I want to observe my team. I sit on a cool bench and watch the team break up and start practicing. My eyes quickly find Masuzoe, I wanted to know if she improved at all, her skills had improved and she was better but she kept tripping over her feet or swinging too wide. Beniko was ruthless against her sending ball after ball into the girl's blind spot, but like we'd come to appreciate, Masuzoe never gave up.
My fingers twitched and curled around my tennis racket but I wasn't in the round robin and playing a match would just mess everyone up. A hand curled around my shoulder and I glance up curious. "Let's play a match Ladybug." Niou smirks and flicks his rattail over his shoulder. Kiyomi nods her head at me and Niou and I head off to the gym where there was an empty tennis court waiting for us to use. As he walks I notice his shoulder's don't slouch like they used to.
"How's college?" I ask as he stands across from me, bouncing a ball a few times.
"Eh. Hot babes though." He looks up and winks.
I roll my eyes. "Is that all you care about?" The white haired boy tossed the ball into the air and hit it hard. My body moved automatically but I could feel the stiffness and strangeness in my bones, these were motions unusual. Conversation ended as I focused on moving, my shoulders hurt from swings and my wrist ached but I was moving and I was playing. Niou was going easy on me, I could tell from the way he barely moved along the baseline. For some reason I could care less about how hard he was playing.
After many balls bounced by me Niou finally stopped serving. "You have some work to do Ladybug but you're not that bad." The trickster drapes the racket over his shoulder as he struts to my side, a few girls who had been in the gym watching us swoon. Was that why he came? To show off for the girls?
"Thanks though… why'd you come Niou?" I ask as we pick up the balls we used.
"Yanagi said you might have some trouble adjusting to life without us. Asked me to stop in and see if you were doing ok." I give Niou a look, really? "I'm telling you the truth." He holds up his hands, "Everyone else had work of clubs or something to do today. Besides, I wanted the girls to see me." I roll my eyes and Niou snickers. "So we don't need to come back to check up on you? I mean you do have the Seaweed Head if you need someone… and then you got all them girls on your team."
"Yea, I'll be fine." I shrug my shoulders. "Thanks for coming."
"No prob. I'd ask you to go out and get something to eat but I know Sanada-san is coming after school for you." Niou smirks. "He's not Fukubuchou anymore, if you could only see the glares we get when we call him Sanada." I can only imagine. "So, see ya Ladybug. Oh, Yagyuu said to text him soon." Niou waved over his shoulder as we part ways.
The chill in the air freezes the sweat on my skin and for the first time since arriving home I'm cold.
.-.
A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed :D I want to especially thank Risa for noting a few errors in the story, I should have changed them all by now. :) I'm forgetting small details I wrote a while ago. Also if I haven't made it clear all the boys (except Kirihara) are at college now... so we'll be seeing less of them sadly. I only imagine about ten more chapters for this story, just a heads up. Thank you everyone!