Egao no Tensai
Chapter 3
Drabble, 513 words (I could have made it longer, but it felt good to end it where I did).
First person.
Disclaimer: I don't own TeniPuri. And I'm not even wearing socks anymore!
Warnings: Bit of Shounen-ai. Not a lot though. This one is mostly to try and write the character as accurately as possible. Not much forward movement.
Category: General. A little AU.
Pairings: Err, I'm getting there, really I am.

pseudonym: Thanks for pointing those things out I actually noticed the blurb thing, and tried to fix it immediately. It didn't register. It should have by now though.

ruji: Actually I'll be stopping with the one after this one. Unless I get bribed to continue (i.e. more people review and tell me to ).

Ok on with it.

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He annoys me. I guess you're surprised to hear me of all people say something like that, but it's true. He really, really annoys me.

The first ranking matches of my sophomore year were uninteresting at best. Even Inui was no competition for me. It may sound supercilious, vain even, but that was the way it was. I play tennis to win, to take our team to Nationals. That was the promise I made with Oishi, and I'm keeping that promise, as I know he will as well. The result of my mentality is that people are afraid to play me now. Even our buchou prefers not to play me. According to what Ryuzaki-sensei says, he's afraid to lose the teams respect by getting beat by his sophomore fuku-buchou. I couldn't care less for his reasons. If you are afraid to play one person, you shouldn't play at all.

I'll make buchou next year. I guess it's for the best. At least this way I'll be able to make sure we reach Nationals that year. Though that doesn't mean I won't try for it this year as well. I've made that promise after all. Perhaps this year we really will make it. There are some talented people among the new sophomores, my year mates. They need a strong hand to push them to their best ability. If buchou cannot do that, then I will. Ryuzaki-sensei supports me in that decision wholeheartedly.

It was after those first ranking matches that he showed up. He had a pretty face, but his build was all wrong for playing tennis. He was short, so he didn't have the advantage of a long reach, and his body was far from muscular. I was told by Oishi that this new boy had been around at some earlier point. I didn't really care. The boy was introduced to us as a new member at a practice. I was somewhat put out that no one had come to tell me about this new addition before the announcement was made, especially as it is not custom to admit new members when the season has already started. His name was Fuji Syusuke, he introduced himself. He was a sophomore, born on February 29th, his favourite colour was beige and he liked cactuses.

I think that introduction was the first time he annoyed me.

I noticed rather immediately that there was something strange about Fuji. Inui's opinion of his playing style was that it was 'graceful, but slow', together with some percentages that I ignored. Oishi told me of a game Fuji had played when he visited practice right at the beginning of the year. I listened to his view on Fuji, realising it was the same as Inui's, all the while taking mental notes to make Fuji and the senior he played run laps for breaking the rules of the tennis club. Well, maybe not Fuji. He was not a member of the team back then after all. I shouldn't be so harsh on him.

And that thought alone should have warned me.

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For those who may not know:

Buchou means captain (in sports. I think army type captain is different).
Fuku-buchou (I've said this before) means vice-captain.

Nextchapter/drabble will be the last one. At least unless I'm bribed, as stated earlier. I think you can figure out who the next 'speaker' will be (and no, it's not Echizen).

About the grammar and spelling mistakes… Err, those things will continue to happen ; English is not my first language after all, and I have no beta.

Reviewers are received with kisses and huggles (or cookies if preferred).