Title: Variable Geometry (1/?)

Author name: Leo Dormiens

Author email: leodormiens2000@yahoo.com

Category: Drama

Warning: Non-explicit Shonen Ai

Rating: PG-13

Summary: A love triangle... No wait! It's a love square.

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Takeshi Konomi. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author notes: Thanks to Abinikai and Jennifer M for their help.

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Tezuka was as close to furious as they'd ever seen him. "Show some spirit ! The competition season may be over, but that's no reason to let down your guard. And keep in mind that the regulars have to set a good example for the rest of the club."

While speaking, the Seigaku Tennis Club captain swept his eyes on his team. Then he pointedly looked at Ryoma, who just stared back, looking mildly amused, as usual.

Ryuzaki-sensei, the tennis coach, hid a knowing smile: of course; the kid did not mind the insinuation that he was childish and setting a bad example. After all, as the youngest member of the regular team, the little prodigy was the only one who could actually use his age as a justification for his behavior. Well, thankfully the rest of the team had the grace to look ashamed. The best way to get teenagers to cooperate was to threaten their ego. A thorough dressing-down from their captain, the ice king in person, in front of the rest of the tennis club ---and at least one third of the school, if you counted the admirers coming after class to watch them practice ---always brought results.

She silently watched the boys get back to their assigned positions on the courts and then approached Tezuka, who was now discussing the new training menu with Inui. "Poor kids!" she said, though she obviously sounded too pleased to really mean it. "They'll miss your iron grip. In a few months, your last year at this school will come to an end and I'll be left all alone to discipline what will remain of this lazy bunch."

Inui, playing assistant coach, sniggered while taking notes.

"Maybe, if I could still rely on you, Inui," the coach complained, "but you'll leave at the same time as our captain. I don't have any idea how I'll manage the situation once all the current third-years are gone."

"You've faced much worse," replied Tezuka, "I'm not worried. However, it is true that most of the best players are third years, and the level of the school team will suffer from their departure. Every year this particular problem arises, but this time it seems even more critical."

Suddenly, both Ryuzaki-sensei and Tezuka turned to face Inui, as if he held in his ever-present notebook the answers to all their worries. Inui nervously pushed back the glasses on his nose. It certainly was quite flattering, to be acknowledged as the data bank of the tennis club; everyone seemed to think that nothing could escape his attention. However, data alone could not solve everything.

"Let's face the facts," he finally said. "The players tend to obey better if the leader is stronger than them. Most of the time, captain, you don't have to raise your voice because they all admire you. But if you remove Fuji, Kawamura, Kikumaru, Oishi, and yourself Tezuka, the strongest among the remaining regulars is probably Echizen. And he's far too young, selfish, rebellious and unpredictable to be a potential leader. That leaves us with Momoshiro and Kaidoh. They're older, and both have an interesting potential, but they're almost as childish as our wonder boy. I tell you, Ryuzaki-sensei, you'd better pray that a clone of Tezuka transfers to this school at the beginning of next year."

Hearing this last comment, the coach broke out in a sharp laughter, while Tezuka glared at Inui before walking to the courts to continue his practice. Ryuzaki-sensei followed, and stopped him by holding his arm.

"One have to agree with Inui," she observed, "Kaidoh is a desperate case, but I sincerely think we could get somewhere with Momoshiro. Did you notice how the first years look up to him? He protects them from bullies, and helps them at every occasion. He could be a passable leader, if only he could acquire some dignity and a sense of responsibility."

"Mmmh." agreed Tezuka, his gaze focused on Momoshiro. The second year was, as usual, making a fool of himself, trying to impress the schoolgirls gathered around the courts. The captain emitted a frustrated sigh.

"Well," chuckled Ryuzaki-sensei, "I never said it would be easy! Anyway, we don't have any other option, so consider this to be your priority mission until the end of the school year."

She could have said: Stop concentrating all your efforts on Echizen, it's not helping. But there was no need to be rude.

"Understood." said Tezuka before picking-up his racket and resuming his practice match with Fuji.

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It was fun to watch as a third party, but when you had to cope with Momoshiro as your training partner, it was just irritating. Almost as irritating as trying to get Nanjiroh Echizen to play a real game of tennis with you.

"Eh, Momo-senpai ! Stop showing off and play seriously!"

"Don't get mad, Shorty," replied Momoshiro with a big, shit-eating grin. "It's not my fault if all these people adore me. Besides, I need a break."

The second-year walked out of the court towards the bench, looking far too pleased with himself.

Ryoma let out a disgusted moan. "When you fool around like this, you look exactly like him."

Momoshiro, who had sprawled messily on the bench, suddenly sat upright, offended. He took a glance at Kaidoh, who was standing near the bench, drinking from a can.

"How dare you insinuate that I, Momo-chan, bear even the slightest resemblance to that guy?!"

Ryoma's facial expression went from annoyed to clearly amused. "Huh. In fact, I was talking about a relative, but."

"That's better," answered Momoshiro, arms crossed in a challenging attitude. "You see, I'm not really fond of snakes."

"Buzz off, Momoshiro," hissed Kaidoh.

"The same to you, my dear" countered Momoshiroh, bowing in mock deference.

But the bickering died as quickly as it started. Kaidoh was listening to the precious advice Inui was giving him about how to improve the Boomerang Snake technique. "Your precision is going down lately. Have you hurt your arm?"

"No, it feels ok."

"Still, you clench your racket too tightly, it's a sign that something's wrong. If you're experiencing stress or exhaustion, you'd better tell me, Kaidoh-kun. Your daily regimen is too demanding. We should discuss together how to reduce it progressively."

"Sssssh.. It's not what you think."

Inui opened his mouth to deliver carefully prepared arguments, but Ryoma's unexpected remark stopped him in his tracks.

"But, Kaidoh-senpai, you don't know what I think. How can you be so sure I don't understand what's going on?"

The only first year of the regular team possessed a remarkably clear, balanced and far-reaching voice for his age. Most of the time, he didn't have to raise it in order to be heard from afar. As one could expect, though he had spoken from the other side of the court, Kaidoh, Inui, Momoshiroh, and half the people around them turned to stare at him. And Ryoma, his dirtiest smirk fully in place, was nonchalantly checking the strings of his racket, enjoying the attention of his audience.

Kaidoh audibly clenched his teeth, making all the stares shift towards him. His face was a menacing mask of rage.

"You.you.!"

"Watch out, Ryoma-kun!!!" screamed Sakuno from behind the railings, before covering her eyes with her hands.

Ryoma ducked, fast enough to prevent the collision of his head with the can, but not enough to avoid the icy splash of grape-flavored soda.

For a long and frighteningly silent moment, everyone froze in a stunned tableau. Momoshiroh was the first to react, breaking the tension. "What's wrong with you, Mamushi?" he exclaimed, now standing in full battle mode. "If you wanna pick up a fight, at least choose someone your age. Eh, where do you think you're going? I'm talking to you!"

The two second-years started to run, one chasing after the other, and were soon out of sight.

Fuji took a towel out of his sport bag and calmly walked to hand it to Ryoma. "You alright, Echizen?"

"I'll survive," mumbled the boy from under the white fabric. "Thanks, Fuji- senpai."

"What's the problem between you and Kaidoh?"

"Dunno."

"Ryo.Ryoma-kun." Sakuno had come running, and kept staring helplessly at her little prince. She was visibly on the brim of tears.

"How dare he treat you like that?! I'll kill him!!!" howled Tomoka, her face red and contorted. She took Ryoma by the wrist and yanked him forcefully across the courts, towards the exit. "Come on, Ryoma-sama, we have to rinse you hair or it'll be all sticky. Sakuno, are you following?"

Along the way, they passed a bunch of schoolboys who involuntarily gave Ryoma an opportunity to escape. "All this fuss for nothing. the can didn't even touch him." murmured one of them.

"That's it!!!" screeched Tomoka, leaping on the unsuspecting teenagers like an enraged tiger. "I'll kill you first, then I'll find that crawling freak and throw him in the incinerator alive!!!"

From behind the tree where he took refuge, Ryoma heard Sakuno start to cry, four third-year students get mercilessly trashed by a first-year girl, and the team captain Tezuka order the players to resume the practice.

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Horio, Katsuo and Kachiro, the first year friends of Ryoma, were away buying drinks when the small incident took place. The story that reached them, deformed by the spreading of gossip, could be summed up as, The Viper stabbed Echizen with a broken glass bottle.

At the end of the day, when Inui called them to check that all the equipment had been taken care of, he was met with three identical panicked frowns.

"Inui-senpai, you have to do something!" Horio said eagerly. "He's in real danger, and so are we."

"What are you talking about?" asked Inui while counting the tennis ball baskets.

"It's Ryoma-kun," moaned Katsuo. "He's so reckless, provoking that psychopath like that. Kaidoh-senpai's gonna get him, and then he'll go after us. You can't let that happen. We tried to speak to Momo-senpai, but he.hum, you don't want to know what he told us."

Inui readjusted the glasses on his face. "Stop overreacting. Mamushi's always on a short fuse, but he's not that dangerous. In fact, he and Ryoma never acted like friends; they've been sending jibes at each other since the beginning. Why are you starting to worry now?" He paused, considering something. "True, it never got physical before. Usually Kaidoh reserves that for Momoshiro."

The three first years drew in a circle to discuss something between them, and finally Horio addressed Inui again.

"Senpai, we think.we're almost sure that Echizen recently learned something he's not supposed to know."

"What do you mean?"

It was now Kachiro's turn to speak. He told Inui in a slightly shaky voice about how it all started.

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Two days ago, at the end of practice, the first years were asked to clean up the shelves of the changing room. They were almost empty, since most club members had already changed and had headed home. In fact, only Kaidoh's bag remained. Kachiro and Katsuo, wary of their Senpai's temper, chose to clean around it rather than displace it. Seeing this, Arai told them not to fuss like that, and carelessly gripped the bag to put it on the bench on the other side of the small room, scattering books and pens on the floor. In a terrified frenzy, the first-years crouched to gather everything up, praying that Kaidoh wouldn't walk in just at that precise moment. On all fours beside the bench, Kachiro had then noticed that a small piece of paper was trapped under Ryoma's left foot, who was sitting at the end of the bench, lacing his shoes. At Kachiro's request, the young regular picked it up and frowned while studying it.

"What's that. a crib?" he mumbled.

The other boys looked at each other, immediately dismissing the idea that the proud and single-minded Kaidoh could resort to cheating during a test. The paper was a glossy, blue bookmark, with series of tiny figures written on its back in black ink. Bending over Ryoma to get a better look, Horio suggested, "Maybe the answers to a brain teaser or something. Anyways, we should put it right back and forget about it."

Ryoma gave him a skeptical look. "Are you even sure this belongs to Kaidoh- Senpai?" he asked. "I didn't see it falling from his bag."

"Well, this is definitely his handwriting," replied Arai, after a quick look. "Get a move on!" he added before leaving. "You first-years still have a lot to do."

"Yes, Arai-Senpai!" answered Katsuo and Kachiro at the same time.

Horio impatiently put the bag under Ryoma's nose. "Well, you heard him, put that back here. Eh, Echizen, do you hear me?"

Ryoma was now staring at he figures with a shocked, puzzled expression on his face. "It can't be.How come." he mumbled incoherently.

"What is it, Echizen-kun?" asked Katsuo, "You know what it means?"

"Ah, it's.I.But WHY?"

"You're not making sense" remarked Horio with a sigh "What the hell is this about?"

Ryoma stayed silent for a while; then an amused half smile settled on his lips. "It seems some people really enjoy wasting their time."

The others three boys waited for an explanation, but, as usual, the regular player did not judge it necessary to add anything.

Growling, Horio shook the bag in front of Ryoma. "Echizen! Stop acting cryptic and drop that secret code ---or whatever it is ---in the bag. We don't have all day, and Kaidoh-Senpai may come in any minute now!"

They stared, dumbfounded, as Ryoma neatly folded the bookmark in two and shoved it in the pocket of his school uniform.

"Don't worry," he drawled, standing up to leave. "I'll give it to him myself."

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Inui was now scribbling furiously in his data notebook, looking like he just came across the scoop of the year. "And then what happened?" he asked the first-years, without taking his eyes from his work.

Once more, Kachiro and Katsuo exchanged frightened glances.

"Huh, to tell the truth." started Katsuo, "we thought Echizen wanted to keep it, for some reason. So we followed him."

"He went straight to where Kaidoh-Senpai was doing some extra-practice!" continued Kachiro. "We couldn't hear what they said to each other from that distance, but Inui-senpai, you should have seen the look on Kaidoh-senpai's face when Ryoma-kun handed him that thing. For a moment, I thought he was having a heart attack!"

Inui suddenly stopped scribbling, and stared pensively in the distance. He could easily remember how much Kaidoh had looked shaken when they met that evening in the small park Kaidoh often used for his after-school training. So, that's what was bothering him, huh? Quite interesting.

He returned his attention to the boys fidgeting in front of him. "Any of you remember what was on the paper?"

"Huh! It's so rude to invade other people's privacy," said Horio. "I didn't look at it."

That comment earned him a withering look from Kachiro and Katsuo, and Inui's glasses gleamed in a very creepy way.

"In fact, we had no way to know it was important, so we didn't pay much attention," offered Katsuo.

"Mmh, I see." Inui was again lost in thought. "I must, at all costs, get my hand on this."

As he walked away, scribbling frantically in his notebook, he heard Kachiro declare: "Too late to even try. As soon as Ryoma-kun had turned his back, Kaidoh-senpai borrowed a lighter from a third-year smoking near the court and burned it to ashes."

Inui froze. "WHAT?!"

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Kaidoh had believed the matter closed. Echizen, apart from staring at him with a puzzled expression several times a day, had made no move to speak about.the Thing. Three days, and Kaidoh had thought that maybe Echizen had just forgotten it, given it a rest, moved on to other stuff ---but of course he hadn't.

His mother was getting worried; it was the second time this week he'd skipped dinner, and he heard his father and Hazue downstairs, joking about his sudden loss of appetite.

"Maybe his tennis coach has put him on a diet, and he's ashamed to tell us," suggested his adorable little brother.

"Mmh. looks like the result of an unhappy love life. Poor Kaoru doesn't seem to know how to deal with girls," replied his oh-so-caring father.

What nonsense. The problem was, Kaidoh had been stupid enough to carry compromising stuff in his bag. Why the hell did he keep that damn memo anyway? He had known it by heart for a while now. If he told Inui the whole story, his senpai would probably say that, unconsciously, Kaidoh wanted to get in trouble.

Yeah sure, his life wasn't messed up enough; He'd been trying to add some spice. That's how he came to be sitting in the dark, on the floor of his own room, praying to every single god he could think of for some way out of this situation. The brat was bluffing. He had to be, or else Kaidoh might as well go throw himself off a tall building right then.

Kaidoh had to admit, sometimes even he couldn't read his own handwriting. The way he took notes was rather cryptic. There was little chance, if any, that Echizen deciphered it. On the other hand, if anyone could understand what it was about, it'd be him.

Anyway, Kaidoh would probably never know for sure, because on the next day Ryuzaki-sensei was going to kill him. One, he lashed out at a first-year. Two, not just any first-year at that, but her precious Wonder Boy. Three, he left in the middle of practice. He was so dead.

It was rather late, and he should go to bed, but first he had to calm down or sleep wouldn't come until morning. What about an extra weight training exercise? Tonight, he would concentrate on biceps and abdominals.

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End of Chapter One

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