The night after Tezuka's confession, both Fuji and Tezuka were on "friend" terms. Which was awkward for Fuji. There were no sleeping in one bed together, there were no kisses, no sharing the same drinks. Nothing. Just talking on friendly terms. Maybe a snuggle while watching a movie. But that was only the night that happened during the movie.
"NYA! Fujiko!" exclaimed Eiji pouncing on Fuji
"Hm?"
"We need to go Christmas shopping!" said Eiji his blue eyes glittering madly.
"You're right, everyone needs to have different schedules for when they shop for people. Hm, you and I will go now. Tell Oishi and Tezuka that they'll go after we get back. Ryoma and Kaidoh will go then. And then Inui and Momo get to be creative and go afterward," said Fuji.
Eiji nodded and headed upstairs.
Kaidoh worked on his training. Stretching and lifting. He wondered how cold it was outside wondering if he might be able to take a couple hundred swings with his racket. Inui watched him all the time making sure that his kouhai didn't strain himself.
"Kaidoh, take a bar off of the left weight. You're using that one and placing too much pressure on your leg. When the weather clears up you can do swings with the weights," said Inui.
Kaidoh obeyed taking a bar off the left ankle weight.
"Rest for now."
"But I've only been at it for an hour, usually we don't stop for another thirty minutes at the least," pointed out Kaidoh.
"You know me well Kaidoh. I have to talk to you," said Inui sitting beside him.
Kaidoh looked away already knowing what he was going to bring up... Why couldn't they leave this subject alone?
"About what?"
"For one is there anything in particular you want for Christmas? And two what did you mean a couple days ago when you said…" replied Inui.
Kaidoh squirmed.
"You shouldn't think so low of yourself senpai. It doesn't help with your tennis at all, and don't get me anything. It'd be a waste of money," he replied.
Inui smiled.
"But I want to anyway. At least give me a little bit of a hint so I won't be running all over town for something," he said.
Kaidoh sighed and closed his eyes to think. He didn't want his senpai to go through so much trouble for him so he tried to think simple.
"Something that will help me in tennis or something warm. I dunno," he finally stated.
Inui thought for a second. Hmm…to be creative. He had a slight idea. On what would help him tennis wise. He had spotted that part days ago.
"Is there anything you want senpai?" asked Kaidoh glancing at him.
Inui face him looking a little surprised.
"Now that's where I put the line down. I don't need anything from you. I just want to get something for you," he said.
Kaidoh made a face and hissed annoyedly.
"Don't be difficult with me! It's only fair for you to give me a hint too!" he protested.
"Fine something that'll help me with my data. Or something black."
"Black?" asked Kaidoh. Black? Okay he was confused now…
"Black is my favorite color if you didn't know," replied Inui.
"Fsshu, alright. I'll see what I can do," said Kaidoh trying to deeply think of what he could get.
Just then someone burst into the room.
"Hoi! Inui, Kaidoh! Fujiko and I are going shopping. He said that Tezuka and Oishi go after we come back. Then Kaidoh and Ryoma. And lastly Momo and Inui!" said the hyper-active red head.
"Alright, perfect plan," said Inui.
Eiji dashed back downstairs.
"96 percent chance that Fuji was coming up with a schedule of making us go Christmas shopping today; that's why I asked when I did," explained Inui.
Kaidoh looked dumbfounded for a second. How could Inui predict things like this?
"You planned the timing too."
Momo and Ryoma were being quiet for once. Ryoma was writing which wasn't something he didn't do often. He was practicing his English to be more specific with you. He tucked a strand of hair behind ear. Practicing more. Forming both Hiragana and the English alphabet on paper. He was soon after a couple minutes pounced on.
"What the hell Echizen!" shouted out Momo who was on top of the smaller boy as paper and pen slipped from his grasp onto the carpet.
"Momo! Get off me!" screamed Ryoma.
Momo look stunned.
"You got your ears pierced!" he said looking at the tiny silver hoops in Ryoma's ears.
"You didn't notice? You're blind Momo," said Ryoma smirking.
"When did you get them done?" asked Momo fingering one of the hoops.
"About…a year ago. Ryouga wanted me to get them done because we looked too much alike," replied Ryoma.
Momo slid off the boy and sat down beside him.
"You keep in touch with your older brother?" asked Momo.
"Yeah, ever since the cruise ship fiasco we've been mailing eachother once a month. And then when I went to America he and I spent some time together," said Ryoma.
That was the truth. Ryouga and Ryoma had spent time with eachother when Ryoma had returned to the US. They had became known as brothers in the tennis community. Everyone would bet money on which was better and it was very hard to tell if you'd win the bet or not. Both Ryouga and Ryoma were good. After they were off the court they became brothers again. Except they both had completely different personalities. Ryouga was easy going a little bit of an ass when he wanted to be and loved to flirt with girls. He associated with the wrong people sometimes.
As for Ryoma he loved to relax as well but he has a gut instinct about people and either like them, thought they were okay, a waste of time, or they weren't worthy people. He wasn't into women yet. It might be odd but he found women to be prissy and they'd squeal over him as if he were some sort of plush doll or something. Ryoma found them annoying in truth. That's why he had blocked all of that girl and Ryuzaki's granddaughter's calls on his cell phone. Ryoma kept to himself and played tennis better that way, and he had a pretty damn good life without women if you asked him.
Ryouga had gotten completely annoyed when one of his many girlfriends had mistaken Ryoma for him. He had yelled at Ryoma saying things like, "How could she mistake you for me? Your eyes are way different along with your voice and personality! I'm way more attractive as well!" Ryouga said there would need to be another difference, and so the older Echizen took his younger brother to get his ears pierced. It was no real big deal to Ryoma, at first he wasn't used to it and kept playing with the hoops he had and finally he stopped and to annoy his brother let his dark green hair cover his ears so nobody would see the silver earrings.
Ryoma kept it a little secret from his teammates but unconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind his ear and revealed the piece of jewelry to Momo.
"That's good to know. Anyway they look good," said Momo.
Ryoma made a little noise of surprise. He thought Momo would make some stupid comment about earrings being for girls or something.
"You think so?" he asked.
Momo grinned.
"Yeah! Not many boys get their ears pierced so it's different and it must've hurt!" he said.
"It didn't hurt," snapped Ryoma.
"You sure you weren't having a little bit of tears come to your eyes Echizen?" teased Momo poking the green haired boy in the stomach.
"AH! No I didn't cry!" he exclaimed flinching at the that finger poked him.
Of course not. It didn't exactly hurt when he got the done. It only hurt for a second and then the pain was gone.
"Suuure."
"Baka Momo!"
(A/N: I'm happy to announce that I have finished WRITING Memory! I not finished posting yet so look for updates. The story is twenty chapters long and I've decided to give you a little piece of the last chapter to make up for this currentchapter being such a short chapter.
"Oishi can you see who you have in front of you?" asked Tezuka.
"Hm?"
"You need to stop denying yourself. You've fallen in love with Eiji and you need to tell him," said Tezuka getting straight to the point. He wasn't sly like Fuji would take things slowly.
"Fuji put you up to this didn't he?" asked Oishi.
Tezuka rolled his eyes.
"Not just Fuji noticed it. You and Eiji are more than just friends. You guys are just frightened to death that you're going to get heartbroken which is unlikely. Now this is going to sound odd coming from someone like me/ You need to tell Eiji before you two miss out on a lot. I'm trying to prevent that from happening to you. Oishi you're my friend, as your friend I'm telling you to be brave and do what you think your heart's telling you," he answered flatly.
"Tezuka.."
"I told you that was going to sound odd coming from me," said Tezuka.
I won't tell you what what's happened and all, but that's just a little snippet. I'm also going to be happy to announce that I'm working on a prequel to 'Memory' called'Anything For You'I will tell you that it's Mizuki and Yuuta centric, and you get to see their views on what's happened between Tezuka and Fuji as well. We'll also see little bit Hyoutei in the prequel Anything ForYou. Sokeep on reading and I'll keep you updated! Once again thank you for the reviews, they mean SO much! Until next chapter!