To my dearest Miki, on her birthday, I give to thee, this poor excuse of an on-time birthday gift, because the man at the post office laughed at me when he asked if your package would get there in the same month. By the bought of laughter from him, I assume, that it will be late. Maybe you will at least get the card on time. But I doubt that, too.

Less Than Friends, More Than Enemies

There was a hesitant moment that filled the musky air; two parties locked eyes with one another in both embarrassment and panic. "Um, excuse me." Momo slammed the door to the tennis locker room and stood there for a moment, a queasy feeling welling in the pit of his stomach.

From inside the locker room, Ryoma and Fuji glanced at each other curiously, unsure as to what to do next. "Maa… he'll get over it." Shusuke beamed and leaned forward, his lips returning to the soft spot he had grown to obsess over on Echizen's neck for the past few weeks.

"Fujiiii… ah!.. Maybe we should… say something to him?"

"Nnn…" he lapped at the rough red spot he had created. "Later…"

Momo had wandered away in a daze, having forgotten that his original intent for going in to the locker room, had been his math binder. The walk from the locker room to his bike was a blur. His reeling mind didn't even remember passing Kaidoh, but apparently he had.

"Hey! HEY! Momoshiro!"

Takeshi finally looked over his shoulder, realizing that he'd been just standing there and holding the lock to his bike, but not opening it. "Eh?"

Kaidoh stormed forward, holding his arm out flat with a snarl to present a square white object. "You're so deaf. I called your name like six times." He snapped, still holding out a white binder.

"What?"

Kaoru could only stare at him and his blatant obliviousness. "Whatever. Here. You left this on the bench and I sat on it. Maybe you shouldn't leave your crap lying around." He berated, feeling that the scolding was necessary seeing as how they were arch rivals, and therefore it was demanded of him.

Momo stared at the binder for a moment, then finally took it from Kaoru's outstretched arm. "Thanks, Kaidoh…" his eyes absently rested on the M in the word Math for a while, drawn haphazardly in hurried letters on the white binder for identification.

"Hey… Fuji and Ryoma are rivals like us, right?" Takeshi pressed slowly.

Kaoru considered the tall boy for a moment, gauging the seriousness in Momo's voice to be one of sincere questioning, and not an oncoming joke of some kind. "Yeah. I guess so."

Momo nodded. "And uh… we're still rivals, right?"

This time a current crashed in Kaoru's stomach. "What would make you think we weren't?"

Takeshi shook his head. "Ah. Ignore me. I'm confused." He waved it off. "But… I was thinkin'…" he looked up with semi-distraught eyes. "Tennis rivals, don't always have to be rivals in everything, do they? They could still hate each other on the courts, but be friends outside of practice." As he spoke, he seemed to be hesitantly bewildered by his own words, like they didn't quite make sense to him.

"Momoshiro… did you hit your head or something? You've got no color in your face." Kaidoh stated flatly, motioning at him.

Takeshi frowned and pouted, "Answer me!"

"Fine!" he tossed his hands up in a huff. "Yeah, I suppose tennis rivals could be friends outside of the courts. Why are you asking me this?"

The distressed boy finally met eyes with Kaidoh. "Because I just walked in on Fuji and Ryoma making out in the locker room."

Kaidoh blanched. "W-what? Really?"

He nodded, then buried his face in his hands, "That was the last thing I wanted to see today." He scoffed, then threw his head back to look at the sky. "Kaidoh, what happened to good old fashioned arch rivalry? Where one guy hated another guy all day, all the time, and in everything? Like when we were seventh graders and we hated each other's guts."

Kaidoh chuckled, his voice deep and natural as he did. It was quite stunning that he was capable of having such a gentle laugh. "I don't know Momo. Maybe we're just out of date."

Takeshi considered his arch enemy for a while, then nodded towards his bike. "Wanna go get a burger since Ryoma's not coming with me?"

"If you buy."

"Cheap-skate."

"I don't have any money, jackass."

"Fine, I'll buy."

"And if you crash this bike, I'll kill you."

"Then don't knock me off balance." Takeshi snapped back, sitting down and waiting for Kaidoh to step onto the foot pegs. "Thanks for returning my math binder, by the way."

"Hn."

Momo smiled. It was a typical Kaoru answer, but at least it was just that, and not some smart remark which he would have normally received for such an act of idiocy.

"Hey, Kaidoh."

"What?"

"Tomorrow we have to tease Ryoma all day about the hickey on his neck."

"Kay." He agreed, and with this agreement the beginning of companionship veiled a small existence.

I hope you enjoyed it! Happy Birthday, Miki! Yeah, I had to through in a Fuji Ryo, sorry. Love, Aia