Anything You Can Do…
By: Cedony
Chapter Three
When Syuusuke arrived at Taisei with Oishi, the two of them were herded at once into a massive lecture hall by a smiling young woman who introduced herself as the treasurer of the university's student representative council. She gave them nametags, told them that they were part of tour group five as she pointed to the said number scrawled along one corner of the tag, and shoved in the general direction of where their other group members were.
"I think you'd better head home right after this, Fuji," Oishi suggested. They'd had plans to go out and eat, but he'd been hanging back, allowing Syuusuke to walk ahead of him, and he'd been able to notice the strange way that he was walking. Fuji had told him about yesterday's meeting with Mizuki on their way to Taisei, and going by what he'd been told happened, he thought it safe to assume that that was the cause for his friend's awkward movement. "You wore yourself out yesterday, and now you're going to have to do a lot of walking because of the tour. Give your muscles a rest afterwards, okay?"
"I think you're right," Fuji agreed. Oishi was one of only two people in the Seigaku tennis club that he felt completely safe with, the other being Tezuka. If he was tired, he had no problem letting Oishi know. If he was hurting, and Oishi happened to notice, he wouldn't even bother wasting his time trying to pretend that he wasn't, because with him, there was no need for pretense. He didn't have to be strong for Oishi, or try to be someone that he could look up to, like with his other team mates.
Oishi and Tezuka both understood that he was just another flesh and blood athlete who would understandably be hurting after an intense, all night exercise session. Hurting actually didn't even come close to describing the intense, dull aching spreading throughout his body right now, but his legs were the part where most of the pain was centered. His legs felt like a mound of mushy, pureed beef, which was not a pleasant sensation at all.
Oishi, being as thoughtful as ever, came up beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder, offering Syuusuke that little bit of help along that he needed to make walking more comfortable for him. "I've got a great ointment at home that should make things better. I'll run it by your house tonight."
"Thank you." Syuusuke said, smiling at him. He couldn't help but notice that Oishi's lips were pressed together in a thin line, a tip off that he was holding back on something because he wasn't sure whether Syuusuke was in a receptive enough mood to hear it. "Out with it, Oishi," he prodded.
It burst out of him almost immediately, as though he couldn't get it out fast enough, now that he had Fuji's go ahead. "I think that what you did yesterday with Mizuki-san wasn't a very good idea." Syuusuke, who was fluent in the subtleties of Oishi speech, knew that what he wanted to say was that he thought it had been an incredibly idiotic thing to do, but Oishi being Oishi, couldn't get himself to word it more strongly than that. "You let Mizuki-san goad you into doing things that you'd normally have more common sense not to, and vice-versa. That's not good. You could have really hurt yourself! Mizuki-san, could have injured himself too!"
"You sound like my brother…" Only with a lot less of the swearing and angry yelling that had filled yesterday's frantic late night phone call. Yuuta had scared the hell out of him because he'd thought that something bad was happening over at St. Rudolph's when he'd first answered the phone. He had heard someone banging on Yuuta's door and shouting for him to come out, which naturally led to that conclusion, but when he'd asked, he'd been relieved to find that it was just an angry Mizuki who wanted to 'talk' to Yuuta.
He wondered how that conversation had gone.
"It's like Mizuki-san sucks all the common sense out of you Fuji…" Oishi murmured thoughtfully. He wasn't even going to go into Fuji's effects on Mizuki Hajime, because the nicest way that he could think of to put it was 'reversion to an infantile state of mind'. It was strange how two people who were normally so intelligent could bring out the absolute worst in each other.
"You worry too much." Syuusuke soothed him. He didn't look as though he was taking things seriously, which Oishi wasn't exactly happy with. "If I get this tired after a few hours at the gym, it only means that I haven't been taking care of myself too well. I got the best workout that I've had in a long, long time yesterday." Oishi directed a skeptic look at him, which Syuusuke ignored.
As they approached their assigned group, Syuusuke shrugged Oishi's hand off his shoulder, drew himself up to his full height and began to walk in a far more steady and normal pace. Just a second ago, Fuji had been walking carefully, favoring his left leg. What brought on this miraculous recovery? Oishi didn't have to wonder about the sudden change for too long.
Right in the middle of group five's meeting place was Mizuki. He was leaning against a tall, ash-brown haired guy that Oishi had never seen before, and was looking totally wiped out. He had big, wrap-around sunglasses concealing his eyes, probably in an effort to hide signs of tiredness that they would have given away. Oishi sighed.
"Well look at that! It's Mizuki-san!" Syuusuke sounded considerably more cheerful now than he had before. His hands had unconsciously gone to his hair and he began fluffing it up to get more volume.
Oishi had never seen him doing this before. "What are the odds of that?" he muttered. This was ridiculous. Hundreds of incoming freshmen, broken off into at least eleven other groups and Mizuki had to be placed in with them? It made Oishi wonder if this was the gods' way of telling Fuji something about Mizuki.
He personally had nothing against the man, he did what he had to do and was a great tennis player, so Oishi respected him as he would any other athlete, but there was always that tension that arose whenever he was around Fuji that made Oishi incredibly uncomfortable. Otherwise he thought Mizuki might actually be fun to be around.
The St. Rudolph student hadn't noticed them yet, which was strange since they were only a couple of feet from him now. For some reason, Oishi had had the stupid idea that Mizuki could sense Fuji's presence within a hundred meter radius in the same way that cats and dogs could sense an oncoming earthquake.
When he peered through the yellow-tinted lenses of the other boy's sunglasses, he saw that Mizuki's eyes were closed. It looked as though he was taking a quick, upright nap, and the only thing that was keeping him on his feet was the support of his classmate, who was nice enough to act as a bolster.
Oishi would have been happy to let Mizuki catch up on his sleep, but Fuji had other ideas for him. "Yellow and purple! You're really getting into the school spirit, Mizuki-san!" he exclaimed.
Mizuki tensed noticeably at the sound of his voice. One eye popped open, the other soon following once his suspicion was confirmed, and the change was instantaneous.
Gone was the relaxed, sleeping Mizuki. He shoved his friend away from him, straightened up and rearranged his face so that his haughty 'I can't believe I am actually wasting my time on you, you who are so unworthy of my precious time' look was directed on Syuusuke. He'd pushed his sunglasses up onto his hair so that he could be treated to the full impact of this look, and Oishi noted the furrowed brows, the narrowed eyes and the disdainfully curled upper lip before noticing that Mizuki was wearing eyeliner. It really brought out his eyes, and made 'The Look' even more impressive.
Maybe Atobe Keigo would be even more intimidating with his similar 'I am a superior, higher being' chin stuck up in the air, eyes looking down on you from over the bridge of his regal nose look if he wore eyeliner. He should get Tezuka to suggest that to him.
Syuusuke was unintimidated. He reached out and actually ran an admiring hand along the bright yellow short sleeved shirt that Mizuki was wearing over a purple, long-sleeved one. "I really like this yellow shirt," he said. He'd never actually wear one himself because yellow made him look even paler than he already was, but it looked great on Mizuki with his stark black hair.
Yuuta had once told him about going into Mizuki's dorm room and finding a load of flower patterned shirts and sweaters. Syuusuke could also remember seeing Mizuki in a couple that had caused even Tezuka to smother back a laugh, and though this shirt kept with his flower theme, it was rather more demure than his purple pink cabbage roses patterned sweater. Silkscreened on the front of the yellow shirt was a close up picture of some sort of purple flower with gracefully curled petals that looked amazing. He'd never seen anything like it before.
"Isn't it amazing? Can you believe that he actually made it himself?" Mizuki's friend piped in.
"The whole thing?" Oishi asked disbelievingly. He couldn't even thread a needle without experiencing some major frustration. He'd had to do emergency sew ups on ripped gym shorts for his team mates a couple of times, because they all seemed to assume that he was capable of whatever their mother's were, seeing as how he was jokingly referred to by Fuji as the 'mother of the Seigaku tennis club', but he wasn't actually any good at it. His stitching always ended up looking like those on the Frankenstein monster.
The friend nodded. "The shirt, the flower design, the photo that he used for the flower design. It was for a home ec project."
"Well, you did a very good job, Mizuki-san." That actually got Oishi a small smile of thanks for the praise, which transformed the sulky looking teenager completely. He was about to go on to say that Mizuki had made a good choice in deciding to go into fashion design when the lights to the lecture hall were flipped on and off a few times, catching the attention of everyone so that a hush fell over the room.
"Go sit down somewhere everyone. And stay in your groups!" The young man standing by the room's light switch commanded.
They did as they were asked. Oishi tried to grab the seat between Mizuki and Fuji so that he could act as a buffer of sorts if the need for that arose, but Fuji maneuvered himself so that he was able to take that spot. Mizuki didn't say anything when he noticed, and when Syuusuke began talking to him about random things, he at least gave brief, monosyllabic replies. The friend, who'd been introduced as Shinsuke, picked up most of the slack in the conversation.
What followed was a three hour speech by the light switch guy about what to expect on their first year, with constant reminders of how fortunate they were to be one of the chosen few admitted into the great institution that was Taisei.
It turned out that he had actually just been elected the president of the university's student council, but Syuusuke didn't find anything that he said particularly interesting since he'd read the handbook that had been sent to those accepted and already knew everything that he needed to about the admissions process and how to register for his classes. So instead of paying attention, he talked to Mizuki, who wasn't exactly acting friendly, but wasn't being completely hostile either.
Twelve o'clock rolled in, and finally they were given a forty-five minute break by the Student President. Syuusuke was about to invite Mizuki and Shinsuke to come have lunch with himself and Oishi when the tallest Japanese person that he'd ever seen approached their group. He had a piece of paper pinned to the front of his Taisei athletics jacket that had a big 5 scrawled across it.
"Group five?" He asked, and was answered by a loud chorus of yeses. He grinned, and held a hand up in greeting. "I'm Sasaki Takuei, and I'll be your tour guide. I'll be taking you around Taisei today, to all the academic buildings, the cafeteria, wherever, and of course, my home away from home; the school's basketball courts. So meet me back here in about forty-five minutes. I don't care if you're just a little bit late, but the most that I'll allow you is 12:53, all right? After that, I'll just leave you behind and you can take your chances with another group."
"Why 12:53?" Someone in the group asked.
"No particular reason besides I like messing with people, so I never say 12:50 or 2:30. It's always 12:53 or 2:27," Sasaki explained with a shrug. "Any other questions people?"
"Yes, are you going to be taking us by the tennis court?" Syuusuke asked immediately. That was the part of the tour that he and Oishi had been most concerned with. He'd seen pictures of the school's courts in the brochures of course, but he wanted to actually see them and maybe walk around on them a bit.
Sasaki scratched at his longish hair, which had been bleached to a very white blond and tied back in a messy half ponytail. "We were actually all warned off the perimeter of the tennis courts. Especially me," he admitted sheepishly. "The thing is that the team has practice today, even though it's Saturday, and their slave driver—who is sometimes also referred to as their captain—doesn't want any disturbances. He's not going to appreciate me bringing a big group of people by." He squinted at Fuji's name tag. "So I'm sorry, Fuji, but I don't think I can do that for you right now."
Syuusuke's disappointment was hard to miss, so Sasaki hurried to give him something. "I'm guessing that you're going to be trying for the team, so I'll mention you to Sakito-kun. I'll tell him that I promised you that he'd give you a tour of the tennis facilities. Fuji what?"
"Fuji Syuusuke."
"Oh, I've heard of you before! Sakito forced me to watch a tape that he made of you playing, and that's why you looked a bit familiar." There was a long pause as he looked at Fuji consideringly. "Okay, here's the deal, Fuji. I don't think Sakito will mind if I bring you by for a quick look. That's if you can skip a proper lunch and just get something from a vending machine."
"I don't mind!" Syuusuke agreed immediately. He just wanted to check out where he'd be spending most of the next four years. He'd give up his lunch for that any day! "Can my friends come along, too?"
Sasaki shrugged. "Sure thing. A few extra people won't matter when Sakito's yelling at me."
There was no question that Oishi would be accompanying him, but he still had to ask Mizuki and his classmate. He knew that Mizuki would want to come along, but he was so stubborn that he was likely to refuse something like this just to show him that he didn't need to take any invitation from him. "Do you guys want to come?"
Shinsuke shook his head immediately. "I'm not really interested in seeing a tennis court." He admitted.
"What about you, Mizuki-san? It'd be interesting to see the court and how the team practices, don't you think?"
It would…Mizuki answered silently, but did he really want to tag along as an afterthought to an invitation handed out to Fuji?
Seeing his hesitation, Oishi hurried to convince him. This was a good opportunity, and he didn't think Mizuki should miss it, seeing how well he was getting on so far with Fuji and his similar interest in the Taisei tennis team. "Come, Mizuki-san. It'll be interesting!"
There was a long pause, then Mizuki allowed his curiosity to get the better of him. "All right, I'll go with you. Are you sure you don't want to come with us, Shin?" He'd definitely feel better with his classmate around. He'd feel outnumbered if it were just him with the two Seigaku students.
"I'll have to pass. Akira's right over there, so I think I'll just go eat lunch with him. I'll see you here after, okay? Have fun."
They made a quick stop at the nearest vending machine for 'lunch'. Fuji was torn between a pack of cheddar and sour cream chips or pretzels, and ended up getting the potato chips after a lengthy deliberation process.
Mizuki got the pretzels, and once he opened the pack, he held it out towards Fuji in offering. It was his way of paying him back for inviting him along, and the smile that Fuji directed at him was brilliant as he dug out a few pretzels for himself.
"Thank you!" he said. He pushed his pack of chips towards Mizuki in return. He had deprived himself of the junk food that he loved so much for so long that he couldn't resist getting a few, in spite of the first impulse to say no thank you.
It was a bit of a walk to the Taisei tennis courts, but Sasaki entertained them throughout with stories of the tennis club captain, Nakamura Sakito, who turned out to be one of Sasaki's best friends. They were both majoring in sports medicine, and had become good friends over the years, what with their having so many similar interests.
"Sakito decided to have practices all throughout summer this year. Usually he only has them the first three weeks, but this is going to be his last year in Taisei, so I guess he wants to go out with a big bang," Sasaki revealed. "I don't know why he thinks he needs all that extra practice, though. His team does perfectly well without it."
By then they were close enough to the courts to see the people running all over the place, hear the impact of the balls on the racquet strings and to listen to the loud bantering going on between the team mates.
Fuji fell in love immediately. There were tennis courts as far as the eye could see, and a row of walls that a solitary player could practice against. It was fantastic. There were grass courts and clay, so that you could choose what surface you wanted to practice on, and when he asked Sasaki what a small, nearby building was, he told him that it was a gym for the tennis club.
"Only the tennis club?" Mizuki asked. St. Rudolph had a really good gym with great equipment, but the problem was that it had to be shared by all of the students, so he only had access to it at certain times.
"It's for the tennis club," Sasaki confirmed. "It's filled with exercise equipment that's suited particularly for tennis players. The school's got to take care of this club because they always do so well. Anyone on the team can use it, but there are certain times when priority is given to the starting players."
"That sounds great!" Fuji had approached the chain link fence that surrounded the nearest court and had hooked his fingers through it, as he watched its occupants.
There was a match going on that was absolutely taking his breath away. He recognized Nakamura Sakito immediately, because Fuji had watched plenty of his games and he'd always thought the golden skinned, dark haired Sakito incredibly handsome.
As he watched, Sakito set himself up for a serve, every little movement leading up to his throwing the ball into the air so graceful. He smashed that ball into the next court, the sound of the its impact against his racket strings so loud and clear that he must have hit the sweet spot right on. It seemed like an impossible serve to return, but his opponent managed it, retaliating by sending the ball across the court to the corner opposite from where Sakito was standing.
The Taisei captain made a mad dash for the return, sliding across the turf the last few feet to reach it just in time. The ball just barely flew over the net, but the point was that it did.
Magnificent play followed each magnificent play. The ball was sent from one court to the other with such rapid speed that Syuusuke had to put his whole concentration into keeping his eye on it.
It must feel incredible to be a part of such a great game! The adrenaline rush that those two must be experiencing at facing such a well matched opponent must be mind blowing. He wanted that. He wanted to be a part of this, to be challenged and brought to his very limit as so few players in the past had ever really done.
Oishi and Mizuki had drifted over to him and were watching the match with the same intensity that he was. Finally Sakito was able to get one past his opponent. He drove a ball so close to the line that Syuusuke would have thought it had gone out if it weren't for the little cloud of chalk dust that had gone up to show that it had indeed hit the line, and was therefore in.
"He's incredible!" Syuusuke enthused, just a little breathlessly in his awe.
"They all are," Oishi said, shaking his head. He was confident with his own tennis skills, knowing that they were way beyond your average casual tennis player's level, but there was nothing like seeing a big group of exceedingly talented athletes in action to kick you into wanting to train longer and harder. "Fuji, I'm getting the feeling that playing in the Taisei team is like being part of a tennis club full of Tezuka Kunimitsus and Atobe Keigos…"
"Which just means that they'll be needing a Fuji Syuusuke, Oishi Syuuichiro and Mizuki Hajime even more, right?" Fuji smilingly returned.
"I like your confidence, kid." Sasaki told him, thumping him on the back approvingly a couple of times. Then he cupped his hands around his mouth as a makeshift megaphone. "Oi! Sakito-kun!" He called out in a very loud and sing-song voice.
Sakito, who'd just been about to serve, dropped his racquet. He twisted around to glare at Sasaki, looked as though he wanted to start raving at him about something, but stopped himself when he saw Sasaki's companions. "Ten minutes, Kudoh. And that serve didn't count!" he told his opponent, before stomping off to a gate so that he could let himself off the court.
The first thing out of his mouth when he reached the little group and finished punching Sasaki was "I told you not to bring anyone around, you bastard." But he couldn't have been too upset by that because then he was grabbing Syuusuke's hand and pumping it up and down, with a quick 'Hey, Fuji. Glad to see you here.' He moved onto to Oishi and Mizuki, who he also appeared to know of since he greeted them both by name and made some sort of reference to past matches that he must have seen them playing.
"When the three of you are officially on the team, I want you all to keep as far away from Takuei as possible. I don't want his attitude rubbing off on my players."
"You don't automatically own their souls the moment they sign up for the tennis club, you do understand that, don't you, Sakito?"
"That's what I want you and them to think. You have to let them believethat they at least control a little bit of their life, when in fact I make every little decision for them!" Sakito let out a sinister cackle. He winked at the new kids since they didn't know him well enough yet to figure out whether he was only joking or not. "I always arrange a friendly match between prospective club members and my team mates on the first week of summer vacation. I expect to see the three of you there, and I expect to see you all performing the way I know you can. Mizuki-san, I hope you've been practicing even though you were out of competitions for a while."
"Of course, Nakamura-sempai," Mizuki hurriedly assured him, flattered that their future team captain was impressed enough by his skills to keep tabs on him. "I'll show you what I can do then."
"I'm sure you will," he agreed. He hurriedly gave them the information on the friendly match before going back to the game that he'd left behind after saying his goodbyes. Sasaki then went off to talk to a friend of his, leaving the three of them to explore by themselves.
"They're incredible…" Mizuki murmured. The game had resumed and the short break had rested the two players sufficiently to make sure that they were re-energized enough to make a good show for their audience, and Sakito and his partner weren't the only ones making an impressive show of strength for the Taisei team.
Now that he was seeing it right in front of him, Mizuki was coming to realize just how big the Taisei tennis club was and how much being a part of it might do for their tennis careers. Being faced with this level of excellence was rather daunting, even though he was confident that he could fit right in with these people, and could hold his own, he still had that little voice at the back of his head asking him if he was going to be good enough.
After all, he had a lot of work ahead of him to get back to his pre-break shape, but he was willing to do that. He was willing to do anything that it took.
"I guess we're in for a lot more competition within the team than we bargained for," Syuusuke remarked to his companions.
Mizuki nodded wearily. "I'm up for it." He said, both to reassure himself of this, and to let Fuji Syuusuke know that he was going to be right up there with him, trying his hardest to be worthy of playing with the best.
Syuusuke hesitated. He had an idea, and he thought it was a good one that would greatly benefit him, and probably even Mizuki-san, but Oishi might not like it very much. "I always seem to work out just a little bit harder whenever you're around, Mizuki-san."
"It works the other way around too," Mizuki admitted, as much as he hated it. Fuji goaded him into trying harder than he normally would have when not faced with the guy. He didn't know what it was about him that made him want to push himself harder. Maybe it was because Fuji always seemed at least one step above him? It got so frustrating for him, and made him so much more determined to show him up on something.
"So am I going to be seeing you around 'Shape Up' then?"
Did he want that? Fuji hanging around his space while he was at his most vulnerable?
Maybe a little bit of Fuji was just what he needed to kick him into even better shape than he was in now. There was that saying about keeping your enemies close to you, wasn't there? It sort of made some sense… "I think maybe you will." He couldn't be sure, but Mizuki thought he heard Oishi saying something along the lines of 'God help you, Mizuki.'
"We have to start right away. I'll get Inui to work out a fitness plan for me." This was going to be fun! The advice that Yuuta had given him about trying to mend things between him and Mizuki had been invaluable, Syuusuke realized.
They were going to be in this together for the next few years. The guys already in the team would have their own little cliques, and newcomers such as themselves would have to stick together. He knew that he could count on Oishi, but Mizuki Hajime was an unknown entity.
He had to make things happen with him.
"I'd feel better if you trusted me, Mizuki-san," Fuji said. He tried for the most trustworthy expression that he could work up, to help his cause along, but it didn't change the suspicious look on Mizuki's face.
The St. Rudolph student just smirked. It was going to take a long time before that happened. "I'd feel better if I trusted you too," he told him as Sasaki approached to take them back to the lecture hall.