Chapter Two: Partly the Same

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Prince of Tennis.

Author's Note: Here's chapter two! Hope you all like it. From here on out, it gets good. (I hope.) Remember, you can read my full length, way too long Author's Note for the whole story in chapter one. In all its may contain spoilers/ shonen-ai/ not-shonen-ai/ please review/ flamers make me cry glory. XD

To The Reviewers: Thanks to all who reviewed chapter one so far! Extra love to BluAyu for reviewing… she just started posting a story like this too. So I was kinda afraid to post mine for fear of stepping on her toes, figuratively speaking. But she even read mine, which was sweet! Btw, MANY people are asking if this is a slash fic. And what the pairings are. Yes, there shall be slash/shonen-ai/yaoi/whatever you call it. LOTS of it. But I should warn you... my plan is to write it just a little differently than most fics do. If you keep that in mind, you should like my fic just fine. Err, I hope. As for the pairings, you'll start seeming some hints in chapter three. At least, that's the plan. Anyway...

Let me know what you think of chapter two, everyone!

You and I together…

I still remember how it used to be.

We were just kids back then. Still innocent, still foolish…

But now, when I think of you, it only hurts.

…

Sakuno should have seen this coming. After all, it was Tomoka that she'd been waiting for. How could she possibly expect to get a word in edgewise after she finally showed up from library duty?

"But after all," her energetic best friend was saying. "It's too weird! To think that Ryoma-sama, of all people, would just show up right in front of our school, today of all days! I mean, after all, we haven't seen you in AGES!"

Ryoma seemed almost half-dazed at the barrage of chatter that had beset his person in the form of a talkative teenage girl. Perhaps he was marveling at how quickly Tomoka's mouth could move, Sakuno thought to herself.

"But what brings you, the champion Ryoma-sama, to Seishun High? I mean, it's been AGES since we saw you last! Did you come to see us? Did you? Ryoma-sama?"

Ryoma was unabashedly staring at Tomoka by this point. He seemed unaware that all the upward inflection in her sentences was an attempt to solicit a reply from him, and not just a spectacle to behold.

Sakuno took this as her cue to interrupt.

"Ah… Tomo-chan…" She tapped on her friend's shoulder, attempting to get her attention.

"Sakuno, do YOU know why he's here? Did you know he was coming? You better not have been keeping secrets from me! I mean, I just about had a HEART ATTACK when I came down the walk and saw you standing next to RYOMA-SAMA of ALL PEOPLE…"

Tomoka's voice was getting progressively louder, which, as Sakuno knew, always happened when her friend got overly excited.

"That's… that's not it…" Sakuno glanced around, hoping that her friend's shrill exclamations hadn't attracted any unwelcome attention. "Um… well, that is…"

"WELL, SPIT IT OUT, SAKUNO!" Tomoka even started laughing, which at this point sounding more like a maniacal kind of cackle. Ryoma looked almost pained at the sound.

"We should get going!" Sakuno blurted out finally, embarassed. "We're going to be late!"

"Ehhhh?…." Tomoka blinked once, then twice, appearing somewhat caught off guard. "Oh, I guess you're right, Sakuno. We shouldn't keep them waiting like this."

She turned to Ryoma and pointed directly at him. "Ryoma-sama, you're coming too."

For a moment, Ryoma just looked dumbfounded. Then, as though he really couldn't help it, one corner of his mouth turn upwards in something akin to a smirk.

"If you say so, Osakada-san." He pulled his cap downward slightly, so that the girls could only see that half-smile just underneath the brim of his cap. "But, really, mada mada da ne."

There was a momentary pause.

"That is music to my ears," Tomoka said, almost in awe. And then she burst out giggling. Even Sakuno couldn't resist a smile. After all, Ryoma-kun really was Ryoma-kun, no matter how many years had gone by.

Once they'd crossed the street, which for Sakuno was the third time in ten minutes, Tomoka began whispering excitedly in her friend's ear with something like ecstasy.

"Can you BELIEVE it?" She glanced back at where Ryoma was walking. "It really IS him! And he looks even better than in his photo ads!"

Sakuno couldn't resist a shy look backward herself. Tomoka babbled on, heedless of her friend's wavering attention. "He's absolutely GORGEOUS… It's no wonder the girls are all over him back in America! I'd be all over him! Heck, I'd be all over him NOW if it wasn't for…"

"Ah, Osakada-san?" At the sound of Ryoma's voice, Tomoka instantly turned around, her voice taking on a sugary-sweet tone.

"Yes, Ryoma-sama?"

"Isn't this the place?" He pointed at the diner to his left. The girls had already passed it by, Tomoka being too busy with talking and Sakuno with staring.

"Oh, right!" Tomoka seemed to feel the need to fill the awkward silence with her cackling laughter, for reasons neither Ryoma nor Sakuno could determine. "You're absolutely right, Ryoma-sama. Let's go in!"

"Ryuzaki-san, was she always like this?" Ryoma couldn't help mumbling to the less boisterous of the two females.

"Ah… well…" Sakuno chuckled nervously. "I guess Tomo-chan is also Tomo-chan."

"You mean, she's also loud." Ryoma put one hand to his ear, wincing.

"Ryoma-sama!" He winced again.

"Errr… yes?"

"I want to introduce you to someone!" she declared, taking him by the arm and all but dragging him toward one of the booths by the window.

"And who is that?" He was surprised to hear her say it so ostentatiously, as though she was about to announce the arrival of the Prime Minister.

"My boyfriend, of course!" Tomoka all but collared a brown-haired young man already sitting at the booth, across from two other teenage guys. "Hey, hot stuff, look who I brought with me! Look, look!"

Ryoma did a double-take. It had been five years, but he was sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. After all, that uni-brow was just too obvious a hint…

"H-Horio?"

"ECHIZEN?" The young man apparently recognized Ryoma as well, expressing this in a voice just as loud as Tomoka's.

Was everyone in Japan always this loud, and I just got used to it? Geez…

"Hey, you guys, it's Echizen!" Horio, for it was definitely him, was still shouting.

"Ryoma-kun! It IS you!" One of the dark-haired teenagers spoke up as well, getting up from the table in surprise.

"Is it really? I can't believe it!" the taller one chimed in with a tone of disbelief. "Ryoma-kun, what are you doing here?"

Ryoma stared for a moment, and then he pointed to the first boy and then the second. "Ahh… Katsuo? And Kachiro?"

"Ah, well, it's the other way around, but whatever," the shorter one explained amiably, laughing. "But it really is you, Ryoma-kun! And we were just talking about you, too!"

"You were?" Ryoma looked somewhat incredulous.

"You were?" Sakuno and Tomoka looked equally surprised.

"Yeah, it was on this page…" Katsuo grabbed a magazine off the tabletop and started flipping through it. The words on the cover read Pro Tennis Monthly.

"Oh, dear god, no…" Ryoma all but groaned. "Whatever it is, I don't want to see it!"

"Ah, it's nothing too bad, Echizen!" Horio grinned somewhat mischeiviously. "Not nearly as entertaining as those photo spreads in that one fashion magazine…"

Ryoma couldn't help glaring at his hapless former classmate. "It's not like I enjoy the modeling jobs, okay? But I happen to be the one paying for my parents' penthouse apartment in Manhatten…"

Horio's jaw dropped. "P… Penthouse apartment… in…. Manhatten?"

"He got you there, Horio!" Kachiro exclaimed amid the ensuing laughter. "You work at that fast food joint, don't you?"

Ryoma smirked again at that, but he resisted the urge to say anything.

"Well, here it is," Katsuo said finally, holding up the magazine. "It's just an article about how you won Wimbledon. You know, again. Inoue-san wrote it."

"Oh, that…" Ryoma just shrugged.

"Echizen…" Horio shook his head disapprovingly. "You are the ONLY person in the entire world who would shrug off a Wimbledon championship! I mean, really!"

"True as that may be," Tomoka interrupted. "I think we all really should sit down now."

"Ah, right!" Kachiro and Katsuo promptly moved over, and the former gestured to Ryoma to sit down. Which was how Echizen Ryoma found himself packed into a booth in a diner with not one, not two, but five of his former classmates.

"So what are you doing here, Ryoma-kun?" Katsuo inquired suddenly. "You haven't come back even once since you left for the U.S. Open. I would think all the journalists here would be stalking you by now, if they knew you were in Japan."

Ryoma glanced up from the placemat-style menu he was reading. "Ah, well… Nobody knows I'm here yet, except for my manager."

"Wait, what do you mean, no one? Your family knows, right?" Kachiro looked confused.

Ryoma paused for a moment, as though something had just occurred to him. "Hmm… I guess I should call them, come to think of it."

Everyone just stared at the teenage tennis star. "You didn't tell your parents?"

"Well, it's not such a big deal." Ryoma looked as though it was all perfectly normal. "I live by myself most of the time. I'm too busy to visit them that much. And I'm almost always traveling, anyway."

"He's so grown-up," Tomoka sighed, perfectly oblivious to the fact that she was swooning aloud in the presence of someone who was apparently her boyfriend.

"But if nobody knows you're here, why'd you come?" asked Kachiro, hoping to divert the attention of a now-grimacing Horio away from Tomoka's state of bliss. "It couldn't have been on business."

Ryoma didn't reply, and Sakuno thought she saw that… the look, somewhere deep inside his eyes. Just like before. But what did it mean?

"Well, no," he said finally. He met their eyes again, and Sakuno noticed the look had vanished. "It's more like a vacation."

"A vacation?" Now they all looked slightly confused. Tomoka tapped the surface of the table somewhat absently. "You mean, like you wanted to get away from your schedule or something?"

"Something like that," Ryoma agreed amiably. His voice even sounded a little distant, Sakuno thought.

There was a kind of awkward silence, but it lasted only a split second before Ryoma spoke up again, sounding much more like himself.

"So… is it true, what Osakada-san said before?" He even chuckled slightly, catching all of them off guard. Even Tomoka was lost. "What did I say before?"

"That you two are going steady?"

Just like that, the mood at the table completely changed. Tomoka was giggling, Horio was grinning like an idiot, and Katsuo was answering for them both. "Are they ever! They've been going out since our third year in junior high."

"That long?" Ryoma was actually surprised. He never would've guessed… Though the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like they could be made for each other. Two completely transparent and occasionally obnoxious loudmouths. A match made in heaven, really.

He chuckled again at the thought, but this time only under his breath.

"I guess it really has been that long, hasn't it?" Tomoka was practically beaming, though she promptly proceeded to belittle her significant other. "He's completely useless, of course, but he can be cute when he wants to be. And I make sure he treats me like the princess I am! You can bet I trained him right."

"Trained him is right," and Katsuo smirked. "You sure taught him how to beg."

"Katsuo!" Kachiro blurted, flushing slightly. "Don't say things like that!"

Ryoma blinked. This was all a bit of a surprise. He should have expected it, but he hadn't really given it any thought. They were all practically adults now, after all, he reasoned. Things should have been different from the innocent days when they were all a mere twelve years old. Suddenly, he noticed how much older they seemed to his unaccustomed eyes. There was Katsuo, who was much taller than he was… Kachiro, whose quiet voice was nothing like the pre-pubescent squeak he remembered… And even obnoxious Horio was dressing like an adult and had a faint five-o'clock shadow around his mouth, of all things.

And it was these observations that, more than ever, made him feel somewhat uneasy about his real reasons for coming to Japan. All the chatter around him faded away into a sense of dread. And then came that bad feeling in the pit of his stomach again… Maybe it had been a stupid idea, after all…

Sakuno watched Ryoma stare off into space right across from her, and for what seemed like the hundredth time, she wondered what was bothering him. She could tell, somehow, that he was troubled… And, whatever it was about, it had nothing to do with where he was at the moment. No, his mind was far away, that much she could see. And at the thought of "far away," she guessed at what was perhaps part of the problem.

"Ahh… you know, Ryoma-kun…" When she finally spoke up, she found herself choosing her words carefully, catching the attention of everyone at the table. "Do you… I mean, that is… Have you seen anyone else yet?"

Ryoma glanced in her direction, and Sakuno could see that he knew what she meant. But just as quickly, he looked away again.

"No. You're the first."

Everyone was silent for a moment. A few knowing looks were exchanged, without Ryoma noticing.

"Oh, really?" Horio tried to sound at ease. He wasn't quite sure where the suddenly tense atmosphere had come from, but he had a hunch. "Well, of course, we're honored by the distinction, Echizen. But I would have thought you would have at least seen Momochan-senpai before us."

"Why would I see him first?" Ryoma interrupted, almost too quickly.

"Well, he's here in Tokyo, after all. Of course, you could have also seen Kikumaru-senpai in that case, and also…"

"Wait." Ryoma frowned. "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Now Horio was just confused. Katsuo and Kachiro glanced at each other.

"Ryoma-kun, you didn't know already?"

"Know what?" Ryoma didn't know, but he didn't like the way this was starting to sound. That uneasy feeling was becoming painfully difficult to ignore.

There was a strangely inevitable silence. Tomoka was fingering a straw wrapper that Horio had left on the table. Sakuno stared at her hands, which were clasped in her lap. Katsuo drew an invisible pattern on the magazine cover with his finger. And Kachiro just stared at the ice floating in his glass.

"Echizen," Horio said finally. "None of the senpais are here anymore. Except for Momochan-senpai, Kikumaru-senpai, and Kawamura-senpai."

"I know that," Ryoma almost snapped, feeling somewhat discomfited. "They're all in college."

"It's not that, Ryoma-sama." Even Tomoka's voice was quiet then, as though the subject itself was as delicate as glass.

"Three of them aren't even here in Japan."

-end of chapter two-

A/N: I know, I know! This was a TERRIBLE cliffhanger! My bad, really! I didn't expect this scene to be nearly so long, but I figured I'd better not try to fit it all in one chapter at this rate. I'll try to get the next chapter done asap… Sorry to leave you hanging!

Well, by now I'm sure you all figured out who our Exposition Man is going to be. Yup, it's Mr. Seven Years of Tennis Experience, lol. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it was a freshmen-fest. And if you're wondering why they're being so dramatic at the moment, well, you'll see! Please review, and let me know what you think so far!

Coming Up Next: More exposition than you can shake a stick at, along with Angst Power, plus the first appearance by a Seigaku Regular other than Ryoma:D