Additional Note:
Because a few of you actually mentioned this in your reviews... I know some people are still a little confused over the meaning of 'TezuFujiRyo' as written in my summary. For those who are curious (and honestly don't mind spoilers, because this is probably one of the biggest spoilers for the story) you can check one of the earlier entires on my LJ to know what the hell is going on ^^

Standard Warning and Disclaimer applies.

Date Started: 110803

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Confessions
by
Jennifier D.










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To love, is to show the greatest courage of all.

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02:


Usually, Kikumaru would have lunch with Fuji and Oishi (and sometimes Tezuka.)

Today seemed to be a special day.

Glancing around himself, Kikumaru noted that he didn't only have Tezuka joining them today, though the former buchou joined them only because Oishi requested. There was Ochibi sitting beside him, who constantly kept a sharp eye on Tezuka and Fuji for some strange reason. And then, of course, Momoshirou had followed Ryoma to this strange gathering, since the both of them usually lunched together.

"Momo-senpai! That's mine!"

The acrobatic player turned and blinked, watching Ryoma and Momoshirou haggle over a piece of ebi (prawn.) He sighed. Kids would always be kids, apparently.

"Maa maa, Echizen... you have to be nice to your senpai tachi! Come on, give it to me!"

"Yada."

Kikumaru shrugged, then stole a croquette from Oishi's bento instead.

"Eiji..." His doubles partner gave him a chiding look.

"Nyaaa."

Fuji then laughed, soft.

Kikumaru glanced over at his friend and classmate again, noting that he hadn't touched his bento at all.

Although the hyperactive boy might be somewhat easily distracted by things which interest him, he wasn't an idiot. Of course, after knowing Fuji for as long as he did, he also knew when to take the tensai's words seriously, and when not to. What the fair-boy mentioned during their extra lesson the other day had definitely caught his interest.

He wasn't nosy, though.

The only reason why he became so serious about that issue was because he saw the look on Fuji's face when he said 'The love of my life.' Fuji had never been a very serious person either, and he usually took matters with the same flippant attitude Kikumaru used. That was one of the reasons why they were such good friends to begin with.

But Fuji had been serious when he said he was watching the love of his life.

The fact that he either evaded or tripped all of Kikumaru's questions was a good enough proof that what he said must be true. Now, the difficult bit would be figuring out _who_ could that person possibly be. It couldn't possibly be a girl. That was what the hyperactive boy thought. Because Fuji had never shown interests in girls before, and Kikumaru doubted that he was going to start any time soon.

Maybe someone from their tennis club?

That might be possible... one of the lowerclassmen? Hmmn, likely, but who?

Kikumaru glanced over again, distracted. Fuji only smiled in return. Beside the acrobatic player, his doubles partner peered at him for a moment before reaching over to steal a piece of his chicken. Kikumaru realised that a little too late and therefore failed to stop Oishi from hurriedly stuffing it into his mouth.

"Mou~ Oishi!"

The mild-mannered boy only smiled and mumbled a reply while chewing the stolen food. "That's repayment for my croquette."

The redhead pouted at him, and was about to say something else when he was interrupted.

"Yada!"

Ryoma glared at Momoshirou over his bento box, holding it close to himself almost protectively. Momoshirou glared back, chopsticks poised and ready to steal Ryoma's last tempura ebi.

"Just give it to me!"

"Yada tada yada!"

They glared some more.

Kikumaru sighed loudly. "Since you guys can't make up your mind-"

He stole the ebi off Ryoma's bento and ate it before the two shocked lowerclassmen.

"Kikumaru-senpai!"

"Eiji-senpai!"

"Zannen munen mata raishuu!" The redhead made a face at them and stuck out his tongue, the tail of the prawn still hanging from the corner of his mouth.

"Maa..." Fuji's soft voice interrupted the staring match between them and everyone turned to stare at him instead. He only smiled. "I'm not really hungry... so you all can have my bento if you want to."

Sitting next to Fuji was Tezuka, who continued eating his lunch as though nothing catastrophic was happening (or going to happen) around him. With the amount of attention he gave his lunch companions, he might as well be sitting elsewhere for all it was worth.

Kikumaru stared at his friend. The tone he used was scandalous. "Fuji!"

"Yosu. Arigatou, Fuji-senpai." Before any of them could react, Ryoma had already reached for Fuji's bento and started eating it.

"Echizen!"

"Ochibi!"

Oishi sighed, soft, and his shoulders sagged a little in defeat. He turned to Kikumaru with a small smile. "Here, you can have my last croquette."

His doubles partner's eyes immediately began to resemble big, shiny marbles. The hyperactive boy glomped Oishi with glee, making a face at the two lowerclassmen. "Hoihoi! Oishi! You're the best nya! And Obasan makes the best croquette nya!"

"Hai hai..."

"Echizen!" Momoshirou turned to the younger boy, irritated. "You can't just finish Fuji-senpai's bento on your own!"

Ryoma only glanced up at Momoshirou nonchalantly, still eating.

Kikumaru watched boy wonder eating Fuji's bento with suspicion. Although Fuji was never one to poison others for fun, it wasn't like the tensai to surrender his lunch with no reason either. He glanced over to Fuji, who was smiling at the scene before him. There was something going on here. The cat-like boy was very, very sure of that.

He needed time to think this through.

And maybe a talk with Oishi might help too.

With those two thoughts in mind, Kikumaru finished his own lunch and stared at Fuji. He got nothing but smiles from his friend for his efforts. Fuji knew he was trying to figure out who that mystery person was. Kikumaru had decided that since it was going to be a difficult job anyway, he might as well get as much help as it was possible.

The hyperactive boy glanced over to where Ryoma was finishing up Fuji's bento and keeping it out of Momoshirou's chopsticks reach. Here would be two morons who could help him too. They certainly could. There was no way for them to reject his request.

He wasn't their senpai for nothing.

With a decidedly self-satisfied nod, Kikumaru started on Oishi's last piece of croquette with relish.


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Before Echizen Ryoma entered Seigaku Junior High, Inui Sadaharu was considered the third best player in their school team, right after Tezuka and Fuji. His data tennis was not only uncanny, it was also somewhat fear-inspiring. Nobody ever wanted to know the amount of information he had, for fear of finding out something they didn't want to know.

Things appeared to be like that in their club, until Echizen Ryoma appeared.

It would be simple to say Ryoma practically tore everyone's world apart when he appeared. He entered their lives suddenly, ascended through the ranks and threw Inui out. He played a style of tennis which was highly flexible and he also had a knack for upsetting his opponents through and through. Ryoma was not only talented; he was also stubborn and proud to the point where people were willing to smack him on the back of his head and tell him to stop acting like a smartass.

While people around him were crowing with indignation and anger, Inui calmly took notes and sought to find ways of defeating the younger boy. On one hand, he knew he had underestimated the younger boy due to his own carelessness. On the other hand, he was unable to deny that Ryoma had all the talent in the world to fight Inui off in their very first match.

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that he was going to graduate soon, and the both of them never managed to have another match since.

Currently, the data tennis player had his interests invested elsewhere.

Ryoma was out of bounds to him, and he knew it. Inui knew it from the moment he saw Fuji and Tezuka watching Ryoma. He happened to be one of the sharpest members on their team, right after Tezuka, Fuji and Ryoma. The interesting thing was, only Tezuka, Fuji and him were equally sharp for things outside of tennis. Ryoma appeared to be more or less oblivious towards anything that wasn't tennis-related.

Of course, the younger boy might have noticed what was going on too, but from the way he was behaving, Inui had suspicions that Ryoma actually misunderstood the situation. It was a little difficult to tell, and it was even more difficult for Inui to nail him down with questions, since Fuji stopped him whenever he so much as opened his mouth around boy wonder.

If Inui's predictions were correct, Ryoma wasn't going to get out of this triangle without dating either one of them. As for which one of them it would be eventually...

The situation was still too early to tell.

With the information he had gathered, he was able to say Fuji actually had a higher chance of getting Ryoma, since the tensai was more outspoken than Tezuka. Then again, Tezuka was known to pull tricks out of his sleeves at the last moment, and even with Fuji's intelligence and wit, it might be a little difficult to predict what their former buchou planned to do.

Inui was a smart person. He wouldn't want to vie with them for Ryoma's interest. In fact, he wasn't even interested in Ryoma (in that manner) to begin with. He had his attention on someone else in their team. Since the day he met the other, he was amused, for the lack of a better word. The other was shy and unobtrusive; he chose to don a menacing exterior when he was anything but.

He was cute, even, and terrorising him had been plenty of fun.

The bespectacled boy was unable to deny the fact that his idea of 'fun' and 'amusing' sometimes ran in the same direction as Fuji's. His vegetable juice, penal tea and blue vinegar were good examples of his sadistic tendencies. It was a pity that Fuji liked spicy food, and thus was able to tolerate his penal tea. He felt that his Hyper Golden Remix Penal Tea had been his best creation so far.

But watching his former team mates sprint around the courts while trying to avoid drinking a cup of the juice he came up with was still fun. Watching them collapse from drinking it was equally fun. The type of power it gave him... Inui was always in a relatively good mood after making almost everyone in the tennis club drink at least one of his concoctions.

Ahh, but back to who he was thinking about...

Kaidoh Kaoru was one of the most isolated members of their team. He was quiet, and actually very shy. He was also... hmmn, there was something about him which appealed greatly, despite his antisocial exterior. Inui could still remember the incident where Kaidoh mistook what he said and thought he asked him out on a date. Normally, Inui wouldn't have minded if the younger boy wanted to do that, even, but the mamushi actually refused to speak to him for days after the incident.

It was still amusing, though.

He was slowly building up rapport between them. Although they wouldn't be playing in the same school anymore, Inui predicted that they would meet together again in high school next year. After that, they would continue playing as doubles partners. This was one of the reasons why he continued training with Kaidoh even when he was supposed to stop and study for his examinations.

Inui had already done all the preparations he needed for his promotional examinations. He believed he had a ninty-six percent chance of getting all those questions he spotted, as indicated by the data he collected from all the past year examinations so far. And those were more than enough for him to move on to Seigaku Senior High.

He could afford to pay attention to Kaidoh. Because things could actually turn out promising, to say the truth. But Inui also knew that the time wasn't right yet, so he had plans to let things sit out for a bit before asking the younger boy out again. Maybe Kaidoh wouldn't be as adverse to that idea as he had been back then. He should know what to expect from Inui, at least.

Meanwhile, there was an interesting show unfolding, and since it actually concerned Fuji, Tezuka and Ryoma... it would do his data collection some good to stick around and see what was going to happen. The antics his year mates could actually come up with were refreshing. Since both boys were rather subtle when it came to Ryoma, it made Inui interested to see what they planned to do in order to win the younger boy´s heart.

He could take tips, too.

And everything would be good for data collection, eventually.


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Oishi couldn't understand why Kikumaru was so hung up about discovering Fuji's 'love of his life.'

In fact, to say the truth, he was mildly upset with the whole issue. It was true that Kikumaru and Fuji were good friends; they had known each other since their first year, just like Tezuka and Oishi. But Oishi couldn't see himself wanting to discover who Tezuka's love interest was. It wasn't his business, and he certainly wasn't interested to know whoever that person was, despite how good it would be for his quiet friend.

"Oishi~" Kikumaru's whine, something he could constantly understand and tolerate, was beginning to get on his nerves today. "Mou~ you have to help me nya!"

The former fuku-buchou gave his doubles partner a faint, troubled look. "Eiji... but what if Fuji doesn't want you-"

"Ohh he doesn't mind nyan."

"How would you know?"

"Uunnnnya!" Kikumaru's bright-eyed, enthusiastic look made Oishi feel vaguely disappointed. "It's because we're good friends nya! So Fuji's not going to mind~"

Oishi sighed, soft. "Well, if that's what you want then-"

"Hoi hoi! Sankyuu Oishi~!" With that, Kikumaru jumped onto his doubles partner, a cat-like grin on his face. "You're the best nya!"

The other only smiled, a little worriedly.

"Okay nya~" The hyperactive boy began dragging Oishi towards the lower level classrooms. "Now we just have to get Echizen and Momo to help us and we'll be done nya."

"Eh?" He gave Kikumaru a confused look. "Why?"

"Uaaahnya! That's because they ate Fuji's bento nya!"

"But that has nothing to do with-"

Kikumaru stopped, then neared Oishi with a serious look on his face. "Oishi Syuuichirou, do you want to help me?"

Oishi blinked. "Maa, Eiji..."

"You do right?"

"Ahh, well..."

"Then that's settled nya!" With a determined look on his face, Kikumaru continued dragging Oishi towards Ryoma's class stubbornly. As they travelled, Oishi wondered vaguely about the connection between Ryoma and Momo eating Fuji's bento, and them finding out about Fuji's love interest. There didn't seem to be a relation between the two subjects at all.

The other students milling about in the corridor gave the two upperclassmen surprised looks when Oishi was towed past, and the latter could only give them apologetic smiles and attempt to avoid crashing into anyone coming from the opposite direction. After Kikumaru managed to get Ryoma out of his class, the lowerclassmen stared at his two senpai darkly, annoyed at being interrupted from his lunch.

"So you're going to help us nya!" After Kikumaru finished explaining the situation to Ryoma, the younger boy only blinked, then shrugged.

"Yada."

"Ehhhhh?! Ochibi-chan nyan! You're supposed to help your senpai tachi nya!" The hyperactive boy smacked Ryoma on the side of his head lightly. "Aren't you interested to know who Fuji's love interest is nya? Unnya?"

"Itai!" Ryoma glowered at the both of them. "I'm not interested."

"Ochibi!"

Oishi sighed. "Eiji..."

"Ungrateful nya! And you ate Fuji's bento too!"

Ryoma shrugged again. "He gave it to me."

"Nhhnnnnnyaaaa!!" With that, Kikumaru took off in exasperation. Oishi had to run to keep up with him.

Later, when the both of them were standing on the rooftop idling away the last few minutes of their break, Kikumaru turned to the former fuku-buchou with a sad little pout. "Nobody wants to help me nya."

Momoshirou's reply was 'I don't want Fuji-senpai to kill me' when they managed to find him about fifteen minutes before lunch ended. Oishi could tell that the second year student was interested, but apparently, he was also more afraid of offending Fuji than anything else.

One never knew what one would get from Fuji after offending him. Even if it had been purely accidental. To say the truth, Oishi didn't want to know either.

Turning to Kikumaru, he smiled, gentle. "Am I not helping you?"

"Yah nya, you are nya but... eto... nyaaaaa..."

The mild-mannered boy reached over and hugged his doubles partner close with one arm. "It's okay if they don't want to help us, Eiji... we can do this on our own, can't we?"

Kikumaru only sighed loudly.

"Remember? We're the Golden Pair ne."

At this, the acrobatic player brightened up visibly.

"Unnnya! We are the Golden Pair nya!" Kikumaru hugged Oishi happily and grinned, cat-like. He then lowered his head and relaxed his hold on his partner, gentle. When he spoke again, his voice was uncharacteristically soft. "You'll always be the best to me nya, Oishi."

His doubles partner only smiled.

"Of course, Eiji. I'm your other half, ne?"

"Nnnnyaa. You are. Always the best nya."

"Isn't that good then?"

"It's the best nya!"

Both boys laughed, knowing that for the rest of their lives... the right place for them to be would be by each other's side, supporting and trusting the other to lead them straight again should they ever veer off the course they were meant for.

The Golden Pair would stay as the Golden Pair, until the end of their days.


to be continued...

Date Completed: 170803
Date Revised: 290803