Chapter summary: Events transpire as Seigaku play against Rikkai, and a date is proposed.

Chapter Seven

When An had accidentally kissed him, Atobe had been shocked. In the split second that it took him to compose himself, though, one thought had entered his head. This was his chance to publicly embarrass the girl, just as surely as she had embarrassed him. So he had done it, said those condescending words, and after they had left his lips... he felt even worse than he had before. He told himself that he felt bad because An hadn't reacted to his taunts, but he knew it was something else. He didn't want to embarrass her, no matter how she acted with him. He didn't want to hurt her.

Meanwhile, in a hospital not so far away, An was absolutely livid.

"What?" She was practically screaming. "There was no emergency? But I was so worried! So I kissed Atobe for nothing?"

"You kissed Atobe?" Tachibana raised an eyebrow.

"Oh... hehe... it was an accident."

The siblings engaged in a short bout of staring at one another before Tachibana gave in and seemingly let it slide. An breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry to make you worry," Tachibana said seriously. "I went down to the cafeteria to get a snack. When mom came to visit me and I wasn't in the room she freaked out."

"That's so like her."

"So what's this about kissing Atobe?"

An groaned. "It was an accident."

"Accident?"

"I fell."

Tachibana looked incredulous. "You fell? Upwards? Onto his lips?"

"I don't know how it happened, okay, it just did!"

Tachibana chuckled a little, noticing that his sister was now a delightful shade of pink. "You know, Atobe's not a bad guy, once you get to know him."

Now it was An's turn to look incredulous. "And what would you know? I'm the one who goes to school with him."

Tachibana shrugged. "I'm just trying to offer you my opinion."

An rolled her eyes, then decided to change the topic. "So you know Fuji decided that he wants to play in the singles 2 position against Rikkai."

"He hadn't told me that. Kirihara will probably be playing singles 2."

"Isn't it romantic?" An purposely opened her eyes wide and put her hands up to her face in a dreamy posture. "The noble hero... getting revenge for his injured lover. I wish I could be the damsel in distress one day."

Tachibana frowned. "Who's the damsel in distress here?"

"Hehe... just kidding."

A few days later An was, as she promised Tachibana and Fuji, watching the Rikkai and Seigaku match from the bleachers. There were members from all the other teams there as well, if only because the match was guaranteed to be exciting. This was, after all, the Regionals.

Rikkai had won two games, and Seigaku had won one game. Now Fuji was up, playing against that insufferable Kirihara, and the devil was trying to use the same trick that he used on Tachibana on Fuji. An cringed as she watched Fuji stumble, but manage to return a shot any way. Suddenly, she felt a vibration coming from her purse. She picked up her phone to see the name "Kippei" flashing on the screen, accompanied by a chibified picture of her older brother.

"Hello? Kippei?" she asked.

Kamio heard An's greeting and turned curiously towards her. "Is that Tachibana?"

"Hi, An," Tachibana's voice came through the line, although it was muffled by static. He was probably calling from one of the hospital pay phones. "How's the match going?"

An frowned, wondering if she should lie and then deciding against it. "Well... Fuji was winning for awhile, but now Kirihara's making a comeback and Fuji's in trouble."

"Trouble?" Tachibana's voice had raised an in volume, obviously concerned.

"Well... it seems as though Kirihara is trying to injure him as well."

There was no answer from Tachibana then, and An had thought he might have gone into shock until she realized he had just hung up.

"What did he say?" Kamio asked.

"He hung up." An frowned as she watched the match. Knowing Tachibana, he might just ignore the doctor's orders to stay in his room and come down to the match. Kamio, as it turned out, was thinking along the same lines as An.

"Do you think he'll come down here?"

"Probably."

An looked over at Jirou, something she had been doing throughout the matches. He was standing with the rest of the Hyoutei team, behind the chain link fence that surrounded the tennis courts, completely enraptured in Fuji's match. An noticed, with some distaste, that Atobe had joined his teammates, even though he hadn't been there for the previous matches.

An then turned back to the match, although she made a point to constantly scan the crowd for signs of her brother. In about ten minutes her suspicions had proved to be correct, and she spotted Tachibana behind the fence directly above Fuji.

"Tachibana!" Kamio yelled, and the Fudoumine members rushed out of their seats and up to their injured captain.

When An and the others got there they saw Tachibana staring down at the courts with a worried expression on his face, and looked down to see that Fuji had fallen, grasping his ankle in pain.

"Fuji!" Tachibana yelled, his voice as loud and commanding as his teammates remembered. "Get up! The Fuji I know would never lose like this!"

An looked down at the courts to see Fuji look up. His face was confused at first, probably questioning why Tachibana was there, but then his lips spread into a genuinely happy smile. His eyes opened wide, content blue eyes looking up and directly at her older brother. He mouthed two words, "thank you", and stood up, a new focus within him.

An, in the meanwhile, had taken the chance to smack her brother upside his head, very unsatisfied when all he did was grunt in annoyance.

"What do you think you're doing here?" she yelled. "You shouldn't be running around with your ankle injured! What on earth are you thinking?"

Tachibana rubbed his head sheepishly. An was even more intimidating than him when she wanted to be.

"What do you think your doctor's going to say? What if you hurt your ankle even more? We should take you back to the hospital right now!"

"Um... An..." Kamio interjected meekly, "it's already done with, so maybe we should just watch-"

Whatever Kamio was about to say, however, was interrupted when every one realized a tennis ball was flying straight at Tachibana. It hit the fence, and the force of it caused the injured boy to stumble to the floor. An looked down at Kirihara, who had obviously shot the ball, his smile devious.

"That bastard!" Kamio exclaimed, before he and Shinji bent down to help Tachibana up.

"It's alright," Tachibana said as he got up on shaky legs, supported by his two friends, "Fuji will teach him a lesson."

An shouted down to the court, cheering on her brother's boyfriend, and the others soon joined her. True to Tachibana's prediction, Fuji won the match, leaving a devastated Kirihara crouched on the tennis courts. Fudoumine couldn't be happier.

The next match would decided which team won the Regional Tournament, and would be a pairing between Sanada and Echizen. An decided to use the break to go to the vending machines to get some water for her and her brother. When she got there she was pleasantly surprised to find Momo getting a Ponta.

"Hey, Momoshiro!"

Momo turned and smiled. "Hey, Tachibana's sister."

"I have a cute name you know. It's An-chan. An-chan. See, it's not hard to pronounce."

Momo chuckled and opened his Ponta.

"Aren't you going to treat me to a water?" An asked with an upraised eyebrow.

"Eh?"

"It's rude to leave a girl thirsty you know."

"Oh, of course." Momo dug some more change out of his pockets and inserted it into the vending machine, picking a bottle of water out for An.

"Are you worried about the game?"

Momo tossed the bottle at the other girl, who caught it deftly. "No. Well, a little. But Echizen's a monster... he won't lose easily."

"Oh, it's Momoshiro."

Momo and An turned at the voice, which turned out to belong to St. Rudolph's Mizuki. He was standing there with the goofiest expression on his face, his eyes glowing and his cheeks pink.

"What's with him?" An whispered to Momo.

"Oh, apparently he just met Fuji's sister, and he's developed quite the crush."

An was shocked. "You mean... he's not gay?"

Momo nodded his head sagely. "Yeah, I know. I didn't believe it when I heard it either."

"Ne, it's Momoshiro's girlfriend, da ne. She's as cute as always."

"Thank you," An replied to the enamored Yanagisawa, conveniently forgetting to correct him and say she wasn't Momo's girlfriend. She just loved to tease Momo about it, even though she thought of him more as a little brother. Little brother, even though he was technically the same age as her.

"An!" he exclaimed nervously. "Don't go along with a statement like that!"

"What are you two doing here anyway?" Mizuki asked. "Sneaking time to be with one another?"

"Momo's treating me to refreshments," An replied happily.

"So they are sneaking off to be together, da ne."

"No!" Momo exclaimed again. "It's not like that!"

An laughed, then grabbed Momo's hand and dragged him back to the courts. "Come on, we're going to miss the game!"

When they got back An gave the rest of her water to her brother and congratulated Fuji, who was seated next to him. She noticed that the Rikkai team members were leaving then, leaving Sanada by himself.

"Where are they going?"

"Yukimura's surgery is today," Oishi, who was seated nearby, replied. "Sanada told them to go be with him."

"Oh." An was surprised by the news... she hadn't known Yukimura's surgery was scheduled so soon. She looked over at the Hyoutei team. Most of the members were focused on the match, but Jirou was seated underneath a tree a little farther away from them. Surprisingly, he wasn't sleeping, but staring at the tennis courts in a distracted manner. An decided that he was far enough from Atobe that she could go talk to him.

In a few minutes she had reached him, and had seated herself delicately to the right.

"Are you worried?" she asked gently.

Jirou looked up at her, startled out of his thoughts. He looked back at the tennis courts. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"You should go, too. To the hospital."

Jirou looked up again, and his eyes seemed hopeful. Maybe he had wanted to go to the hospital... had just been waiting for acknowledgement that it was okay. "Do you really think I should?"

"I really think you should."

Jirou smiled, and seeing that, An couldn't help but smile back. "Thanks, An."

An watched Jirou get up and go, then noticed that Atobe, Shisido, and Ootari were staring at her. Shisido and Ootari were amused, and Atobe was standing there with some unreadable expression on his face. In truth, he had seen the whole exchange, and had been confused by it. He knew An liked Jirou... and here she was telling him to go to Yukimura. What was wrong with the girl? He would never have pushed An into Jirou's arms. Even as Atobe thought that, though, part of him couldn't help but be admire something about her actions, even if he didn't know what it was.

An decided to ignore the three tennis players, and got up to rejoin Fudoumine. She had taken two steps when she felt her wrist grabbed and she was pulled back, ending up not a foot in front of Atobe. Atobe looked down at her, still with that unreadable expression, and An found that she couldn't think of anything snide to say.

"This Saturday," he said, his voice completely serious, "I'd like to take you out on a date. I'll be waiting outside the fountain on Kunikuyo at noon."

Atobe let go and An rubbed at her wrist, making a confused face before turning and running off.