Spring Fever
IV. Tezuka

Tezuka did not like Valentine's Day. The minor annoyance of girls he barely knew who insisted on giving him chocolates was compounded by the fact that Fuji had felt obliged to visit him during every break time, simply to stand around and smile eerily at said girls. But even more so, he disliked the fact that he'd had to cancel morning practice and lock the doors to the tennis court during afternoon practice due to a steady stream of interruptions from yet another delivery of Valentine's candy. Even now, the squealing and screaming from the fangirls clinging to the courtsides was a constant distraction to everyone at practice.

Tezuka's eyes narrowed slightly as he finished his critical sweep across the courts. Seigaku's famed doubles team was not present.

"Fuji." He addressed the tensai who shared a homeroom with one of the missing duo. "Where is Kikumaru?" It was obvious that if both of the Golden Pair were missing, then whatever the trouble the acrobat had gotten into, Oishi was most likely with him.

Fuji turned with his usual smile. "Eiji was a little sick at the end of lunch. Oishi took him to the nurse."

"There is an 85 percent chance that Kikumaru had to be sent home for indigestion or food poisoning, and an 97 percent chance that Oishi accompanied him."

Both boys turned around to see Inui buried as always in his notebook. The light gleamed eerily from his glasses as he looked up. Beside him, Kaidoh inexplicably blushed, and edged away from his senpai.

Ryuzaki-sensei approached the group at that moment. "Inui is right. I've already received notice from the nurse that Kikumaru was sent home earlier. Oishi was given permission to help him home."

Before anyone could respond to that, however, a sudden renewed squealing caught everyone's attention. The doors of the tennis court now stood open, and the inimitable buchou of Hyoutei's tennis team sauntered in. Following him, as always, was the giant hulking form of Kabaji, carrying a huge red box labeled with the sign "Valentine's Day Chocolates for Ore-sama Here." Underneath those words, in smaller lettering, read "Accepting Swiss, Belgium, and Giovanni's brands only."

Atobe stopped a few steps inside the courts, posing for all to see. "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoina," he drawled. No one was surprised.

"You're not expecting anything from the girls at Seigaku, are you?" Momoshiro taunted loudly.

Atobe didn't deign to answer. He didn't have to, for at that moment, several girls did indeed run through the doors he had left open to drop chocolates into the box Kabaji held.

As most of the Seigaku tennis club stared and muttered amongst themselves at their rival buchou's audacity, Atobe sauntered up to the stoic form of Tezuka.

"Atobe," Tezuka's deadpan was unchanged. "Why are you here?"

"Why, to grace the ladies and gentlemen of Seishun Gakuen with my glorious presence, of course," Atobe replied, his arrogant smile fully in place, "especially on today of all days."

Tezuka stared at the box Kabaji held, then at the girls who were still trying to sneak into the court despite Arai's and Kaidoh's efforts at keeping them out.

"Atobe." This time there was a hint of warning in the deadpan.

Atobe sighed, as if in forced resignation. With an elegant flourish, he pulled out an exquisitely wrapped gift box.

"This is for you… Kunimitsu-kun."

Complete silence dominated. Even Inui's frantic scribbling stopped. Atobe did not notice.

"And this too." An elegant red envelope joined the gift. "Invitation to the Valentine's Party taking place tonight at my mansion."

Tezuka's expressionless eyes widened just a smidgeon. Fuji's eyes, on the other hand, were fully open as he stared at Atobe's arrogant smirk.


Next Up: Inui. Who sorta gets what he wanted... and then some.

A.N.: For those of you not familiar with Japanese etiquette and culture, I'll going to go over the whole first-names vs. last-names issue. In Japan, manners are very important, and it's considered polite to call people only by their last names, usually with the appropriate appellations (eg. Tezuka-buchou, Oishi-senpai, Shishido-san, etc.) attached. Among peers, especially among boys, the only time you call someone by their first name is if you're on very, very familiar terms with the guy or if you're being very rude. This is why in the anime Oishi and Fuji calls Eiji by "Eiji", while Tezuka and Ryuzaki-sensei calls him by "Kikumaru". The VIZ manga translations in America, of course, got the whole thing wrong as usual by translating all references to names into first names. But most people write by the anime anyways, who does get the name issue right. At any rate, circling back to my story, this is the reason why it's such a big deal when Atobe calls Tezuka "Kunimitsu-kun", because Atobe is indicating that either he's being rude to to Tezuka, or he's taking liberties at being very personal with him. Either option is likely to send the other Seigaku boys into shock.

Also, for the reviewer who asked where Tezuka was - he's in class 3-1, whereas Oishi is in class 3-2 and Eiji & Fuji are in class 3-6. This makes sense, since in the anime we see that both Tezuka and Oishi are their class presidents and representative to the student council. Thus, they obviously couldn't be in the same class. (It's also interesting to note that some Japanese middle schools rank their students into classes according to their grades. Ie. Tezuka's class would be where they put all the best students, and Oishi's the next best batch... The reason that Fuji ended up in a lower class with Eiji could either be because he put himself there on purpose to stay with his friend, or because Fuji is the kind of person who does the absolute minimum of what he can get away with and can't be bothered with exerting himself for more unless sufficiently motivated, usually by someone else.)

Vocabulary:
tensai - prodigy
senpai - upperclassman
sensei - teacher, coach
buchou - team captain and president of the club
ore-sama - highly grandiose reference to oneself
Ore-sama no bigi ni yoina - "Indulge yourself in the beauty of my skill"