Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis, or anything similar to it. ^.^ ; The personalities of the characters are my friends', and the personalities of the original Prince of Tennis characters are theirs.

Chapter Twenty One: Morning Preparations

The next day, Kyoko woke up earlier than she meant to. Her stomach still had butterflies from the night before, and after tossing and turning for about ten more minutes, she decided to get up and get ready.

As she was getting ready, she took everything slow so she wouldn't be too early.

When she was finished, she was still twenty minutes ahead of schedule, so she decided to go see if Ryoma was awake.

As she walked outside with her things, and locked up her house, she felt the sun's rays warm her face, and she smiled as she leisurely walked to Ryoma's house.

She arrived and rung the doorbell, to which Ryoma's dad, Nanjiro, answered.

"Ah, back again Kyoko?" he said, smiling at her. "Feel free to wake Ryoma up. I've already tried; I swear that boy sleeps through everything."

He opened the door for her and she took off her shoes and stepped inside.

"Meooow," Karupin greeted Kyoko.

"Oh, good morning, Karupin," Kyoko said picking him up and petting him.

"Ryoma's room is upstairs. His door is wide open, so you'll find him no problem," Nanjiro said before walking into another room.

"Alright, thank you. I'll do my best," Kyoko called to him before walking upstairs.

She found his room almost immediately and walked in.

"Meooow," Karupin said again, staring at Ryoma.

Kyoko smiled at Karupin and set him on Ryoma's bed. Karupin jumped on Ryoma and started meowing again.

Ryoma moved a little, and then noticed Karupin was lying on him. "…huh? Oh, Karupin…" he said, petting him.

Suddenly, he realized Kyoko standing there. "…Kyoko?" he said in a surprised tone.

"Good morning," Kyoko said, smiling. "Your dad told me to wake you up, and Karupin wanted to help."

Ryoma smiled and rubbed his eyes. "Is it almost time to go?"

"You have about twenty minutes, don't worry," Kyoko assured him.

"It won't take me that long, so wait downstairs for me, okay?" Ryoma said.

"You sure your parents don't mind?"

"Not at all."

Kyoko looked warily at him and searched his face for any uncertainties, but, when she found none, she nodded and smiled at him. "Alright, Karupin and I will go down and wait for you," she said, picking up Karupin again and walking out.

Ryoma walked downstairs a few minutes later, all ready to go. He found Kyoko in the dining room with his family, while his mother was making breakfast.

"Oh, you finally decide to show your face down here?" Nanjiro asked, giving Ryoma a teasing glance.

Ryoma glared back and took a chair next to Kyoko.

When the two finished their breakfast, they excused themselves to go to the zoo.

"Thank you very much for breakfast," Kyoko said, bowing to Ryoma's mother.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Thank you for coming over," she replied, smiling at her.

Kyoko smiled back and walked toward the front door.

"She's cute," Ryoma's mother whispered to Ryoma just as he was leaving.

Ryoma just stared at her, then followed Kyoko out the front door.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Eiji exclaimed.

Sachi opened the bathroom door and peaked out. "No, I'm busy," she said before slamming the door.

"UUUUUGH! I bet Fuji's ready!"

"Well, then call him and complain to him. You're just making this take longer," Sachi said from inside the bathroom.

"I will call him and complain to him!" Eiji said as he stormed into his room.

"Hello?" Fuji said as he answered his phone.

"Oh my gosh! Sachi's taking forever!!" Eiji whined.

"…Eiji?"

"I understand that girls take so long to get ready in the morning, but come oooooon!! She's taking sooo long!"

"How long has she been taking?"

"It's been like five million hours!"

"Are you sure you're not over exaggerating it just a little?"

"…fine, an hour, but when she comes out she doesn't look any different than when she went in there! I want to goooooo!! Do you think I should smoke her out?"

"I think that would be a very bad idea. Just find something else to do. Make lunches?"

"Nya, my mom already made some…"

"Well, Momo might eat your lunch, so you should go pack another one…?"

"You don't think I already thought about that! I'm bringing extra snacks secretly!"

"Then just do jumping jacks or something?"

Eiji started jumping up and down. "It's…not…doing…anything…"

"Well, what do you want?"

Eiji stopped jumping. "To smoke her out!"

"Besides that."

"Just come over here and tell her she's pretty as is so we can go!"

"By the time I get there she'll already be out…"

"You don't know how long she takes. I swear, every morning, and days that we're going out in public, even worse!"

"Eiji, just close your eyes, count to one hundred, and I'm sure she'll be done by then."

Eiji closed his eyes. "One…two…three…four…five…I can't take it, Fuji!"

Fuji sighed. "I'll just head on over to your house so we can meet everyone at school. See you in a few, Eiji," Fuji said, then hung up.

Eiji closed his phone and ran back outside the bathroom door. "SACHI! Hurry up!!"

"Why?" Sachi said.

"Fuji's coming!"

"WHAT?! Eiji, how could you do that to me?! Make him go away!"

"Sachi, are you…crying?"

"I'm stressed! I'm not done getting pretty yet, how could you?!"

"YOU'RE LOCKED UP IN A BATHROOM! HE CAN'T SEE YOU!"

"Okay, I'm heading to school to meet everyone," Tezuka informed his mother as he grabbed his bag.

"Okay, have fun dear!" she said waving at him.

"Fun? I'll try…" he said before walking out.

"According to my data…" Sadaharu said, looking at his notebook. "Tezuka will leave within the next five minutes, Eiji has been ready to go, Fuji is on his way to Eiji's house, Kyoko is waiting at Ryoma's house for him to get ready, and…Sachi's still in the bathroom, getting ready… "

Sadaharu shook his head sadly and went back to putting a few things in his bag.

"Just calm down!" Eiji exclaimed.

Sachi opened the bathroom door and threw a case of eye shadow at him.

"Ow!" Eiji said, rubbing his forehead. "Arg, Sachi! It exploded, now there's blue all over me!"

"Suck it up, jerk!" Sachi said, slamming the door again.

Eiji wiped his face and looked at his hands. "No! I'm wearing makeup! I've got to go wash this off!" he said, rushing into the kitchen and turning on the sink.

"Okay…" Oishi said, checking his bag one last time. "I think I've got everything…I hope everyone else is excited."

He nodded and smiled, then started toward school.

"Uh, Eiji, what happened?" Eiji's mother asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Sachi threw blue at me," he said, then continued washing off his face. "I don't want makeup!"

"Were you annoying her when she was in the bathroom again?"

Eiji looked up at her. "Maybe…" he said, then went back to washing his face.

"All ready!" Sachi announced as she joined them in the kitchen.

"Oh no, don't act all nice now! You were just all RAWR!"

"Don't be rude, Eiji. I'm never 'RAWR'."

"Yes you are! Why do think I have blue all over me?!"

"Eiji, quit being mean to Sachi," Eiji's mother said walking out.

"Why do I always get blamed??" Eiji said, washing off the last of the blue on his face.

"Because your mom gets it. It's a girl thing, and boys shouldn't be mean to us when we're getting ready. Plus, you take forever to brush your teeth. Two minutes is what the dentists say, but you take like eight! And don't even get me started on the 'pea sized' toothpaste bits," Sachi said.

"Brushing your teeth is way different than putting on makeup."

"And doing my hair," Sachi amended.

"Too much stuff!"

"Okay, you two, go on…you don't want to be late for the zoo…" Eiji's mother said from the other room.

Just then the doorbell rang.

"FUJI'S HERE!" Eiji exclaimed and ran to answer the door.

Fuji waved and smiled at him and Sachi. "Good morning. Oh, good morning to you, too, Mrs. Eiji."

Eiji mother smiled and waved. "Good morning Shusuke," she replied before walking upstairs.

"Zoo! Zoo! Zoo!" Eiji said, jumping up and down.

"Calm down, Eiji. Bye Mrs. Kikumaru! Come on hyperactive one," Sachi said, grabbing Eiji's wrist and dragging him out with her. "Hi Shusuke. Where's your little brother? I told you to bring him, didn't I?"

"I didn't need the little Fuji to get you out of the bathroom, I needed this one!" Eiji exclaimed.

Fuji smiled. "He got up late this morning, so he should be here any minute…"

Yuuta ran up to them at that moment. "Sorry…I was getting ready…"

"Oh, hello Yuuta. Nice of you to join us," Fuji said, smiling at him.

"Yeah…so are we meeting everyone at school?" Yuuta asked.

"That sounds stupid, why not just the zoo?" Sachi asked.

"The zoo has three entrances…" Fuji explained.

"So tell everyone but Momo to meet at the south entrance. That's always the best one," Sachi said, nodding knowingly.

"We already told everyone to meet at the school, though…and I'm sure there are already some people there waiting for us…"

"Maybe Momo!" Eiji said.

"Unless he slept in," Yuuta pointed out.

"So there'd be two of you that did," Fuji said smiling at him.

Yuuta glared at Fuji.

"Aww, Yuuta, are you sleepy? I can get you coffee. I want coffee, too. We'll meet you all at school," Sachi said, dragging Yuuta to a nearby coffee place.

Eiji and Fuji watched Sachi and Yuuta go, then Eiji turned to Fuji. "You planning anything yet?"

"Almost…it's getting harder to find the right time…" Fuji said.

Eiji smiled and patted his back. "Just remember that if she gets hurt, you'll pay."

Fuji smiled at him. "I'll be sure to remember that."

"Oh, good morning, Oishi!" Kyoko said, waving at Oishi.

Her and Ryoma were waiting at the front gate of the school as Oishi arrived.

"Morning," Oishi said, waving back.

"Oishi-sempai," Ryoma acknowledged, fixing his hat.

"Hello Ryoma," Oishi said, smiling at Ryoma.

Just then Sachi walked up with Yuuta.

"I found out Yuuta doesn't handle caffeine well. I got him a grandé, which is hardly enough for me and well…" Sachi said, glancing at Yuuta who was shaking. "You can see for yourself…"

"Oh…" Kyoko said, patting Yuuta on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, Yuuta…"

Yuuta just stared at her while continuing to shake.

Fuji and Eiji walked up behind them.

"Oh, I see Yuuta actually drank some coffee," Fuji said, smiling at him.

"Why is Yuuta shaking?" Tezuka asked as he joined the group.

Sachi held up her venté coffee. "Except his was a bit smaller."

"Oh."

"He said he was sleepy," Sachi defended.

"I don't care, it's not one of my team members that you're killing."

"Aww, no need to be like that Tezuka…" Kyoko said.

"Like what?"

"Uh…never mind…"

"He will be fine. Right, Yuuta?" Fuji asked, smiling.

Yuuta just stared at him while shaking.

"He'll slowly calm down," Sachi said.

"Why did you get a hot coffee?" Tezuka asked.

"Because I'm always cold," Sachi said, frowning. "Why do you care?"

"If you over heat, Fuji's going to freak out."

Fuji and Yuuta both looked over at him.

"That one," Tezuka said, pointing at Shusuke.

"Oh, okay," Fuji said, smiling.

"Well, at least we can keep track of them…" Kyoko said with a laugh.

Momo ran up at that moment, out of breath. "I'm not late, I swear! This guy tried to kill me!" he said, pointing behind him where Kaidoh was.

"He said he was going to kill Bombaclot," Kaidoh said.

"Momo!" Sachi said, popping off the top of her coffee lid and frowning. "Ugh, if there wasn't so much, I'd splash this on you! Bombaclot isn't even here, one of Eiji's sisters has her for the day! Why are you such a bad person?! And Kaidoh, why didn't you kill him?!"

"HEY!" Momo protested.

"What, did you expect me to be on your side?" Sachi asked.

"I wanted to make sure you knew about his plan, so I needed him to testify so you could kill him instead," Kaidoh reported, glaring at Momo.

"HEY!!"

"You really expect those two out of everyone to actually be nice to you?" Kyoko asked in disbelief.

"Momo-sempai has never been the brightest…" Ryoma pointed out.

"Never ever," Sachi agreed. "So, are we going now? Hey, what's that beeping?"

Fuji reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone.

"Oh! Oh…oh…I have to take this," Sachi said, walking to the back of the group to answer her phone.

"Anyone have any idea who she's talking to?" Kyoko asked the group.

"No! Oh! It's a secret!! I want to know the secret, Sachi!" Eiji exclaimed, to which Sachi continued talking quietly on her phone. "Fine, but I will figure it out!"

Fuji smiled. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"We'll leave when she gets off the phone, so everyone make sure you have all of your things!" Oishi announced.

Sachi turned and motioned for everyone to start walking.

"Or we'll go now," Oishi corrected.

"It's harder to hear when we're walking," Eiji complained.

"Just ask her about it later, I'm sure it's no big deal," Fuji said.

"Well, as long as someone else is leading…I'm not even sure where the zoo is…" Kyoko said sadly.

Ryoma pulled out a map and started looking at it.

"You had a map…?" Eiji asked.

"I figured Sachi would be leading, so I wanted to make sure we didn't get lost."

"That's…really…thoughtful?" Kyoko said.

"He means the best," Fuji assured her.

"Why is everyone shaking?" Yuuta asked.

"That's you, Yuuta," Fuji said.

"I think I drank too much coffee…"

"You'll get used to it…" Sachi said.

Eiji put his hand on Yuuta's shoulder to help him stop shaking, but he started shaking, too. "Whoooooa…this is kind of weird…"

Sachi grabbed Yuuta's wrists and held him still. "There, fixed it."

"Aww…" Eiji said, backing away.

"Wow, that was amazing Sachi," Kyoko complimented, clapping.

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "What has happened to our group…?"

Momo pointed at Sachi. "That's what happened to our group."

"You'd be bored if I wasn't here. Quit your bitchin' Nancy," Sachi said.

"Ha-ha, that's a girl's name!" Eiji said, laughing. "Momo, you're the female illegitimate child of a hippo!"

"What? No! I'm not a girl or an illegitimate child of a hippo! You're being so mean, Eiji-sempai!" Momo whined.

Eiji continued laughing. "I'm not being mean, I'm trying to tell everyone else your secrets!"

Momo glared at him. "Let's just go to the zoo already…"

"You know, Momo, it's hardly fair for you to complain about someone else being mean," Fuji pointed out.

"I can complain all I want," Momo countered.

"Yeah, we've noticed…" Sachi said.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You're stupid," Kaidoh said simply.

"I am not!"

"Quick poll! Who thinks Momo's being stupid?" Kyoko said.

Everyone but Momo raised their hand.

"It's settled! Sorry, Momo, but I'm afraid you're being stupid."

"What?? How is that fair??"

"It's a democracy. It's how our group works. You should know after all these years!"

"All these years? We've only been a group for one year!"

"One year…" Sachi thought back before gasping. "Wait, you mean after this tournament and the rest of the school year, half of this group is going to a new school?! How are you guys going to cope without each other?"

"I just think about how great it'll be when you're gone," Momo said.

"It's only been one year? Seems like such a long time!" Kyoko said.

"Too long…" Momo said.

"I don't think we came out here to talk about how long we have left at Seishun," Tezuka pointed out.

Fuji smiled. "Tezuka's right. We've got a zoo to go to."

"I think we're all sad about leaving…but we've still got the rest of this year!" Kyoko said with a smile.

"It'll be over as soon as you know it!" Momo said happily.

Ryoma glared at Momo.

Sachi poked Tezuka. "Aww, Kun-Kun, are you sad?" she asked, pouting at him.

Tezuka stared at her with a blank face.

"That's a yes until you say no! Okay, let's go!" Sachi said, as the group made their way to the zoo.