Bildungsroman

Chapter four

Thanks to the lovely Rejar, my first reviewer, who left a lovely mix of appreciation that warmed me through my exams, and criticism that I've tried to work into this chapter, and will continue working on. Tell me if I've succeeded, love! This chapter is for you!

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis, which belongs to Takeshi Konomi. I do, however, own Kagawa Sakura and any other non-canon characters you may see here.

"Hey, you're back late." Sakura said, bringing two glasses of water for her parents, who were seated in the dining room. "Go somewhere important?"

They didn't reply immediately, both taking their time over the water. Her mother sipped at it slowly, her eyes fixed on the reducing liquid in her glass. Her father took two large gulps, small drops spilling from his wet lips to his creased white shirt. "Get me a little more, would you, sweetheart?" He requested.

When she returned to the dining table with the refilled glass, she found her parents sitting very close together, talking softly. Sakura cleared her throat. "Something the matter?" She asked pointedly. "Here, papa."

He accepted the glass with a murmur of thanks, draining it just as quickly as before.

"We- your father and I- went to the doctor today." Aiki began slowly, an unreadable look in her eyes as she moved them to her daughter's face. Sakura sat down immediately. "Shit, is everything okay, ma?" She asked, worry creasing her forehead.

"Everything's fine. The thing is... we went for a pregnancy test."

"Okay. And?"

Aiki's face split into a smile of helpless delight. "And it came out positive. I'm pregnant, sweetheart."

Sakura was happy, she really was, but as soon as her mother said the word 'pregnant', she couldn't help but remember the last two times. Ma had always wanted more than one child, but two miscarriages had followed after Sakura, and five years ago, she and Papa had decided to stop trying. Aiki simply wasn't strong enough to handle another baby, the doctors had said. She'd always been a bit on the frail side, but the young age at which she'd had Sakura had been a factor her carrying the child to term. Sixteen years were hardly going to add to her youth and her ability to have a child, and Sakura bit her lip, suddenly worried.

Aiki saw the expression and took her hand. "You don't need to worry, Sakura. I'm going to take very good care of myself, and I'll be checking with Dr Ishida as often as required. It'll be perfectly fine, you'll see. Cheer up! You're going to be a sister!"

And, well, what could she say to that, in the face of such hope, such happiness?

Quashing her misgivings, Sakura wound her arms around her mother and kissed her cheek.

She could fear in private.

Two months passed; schoolwork mounted, and club activities increased. More than once, Sakura seriously considered dropping out of the tennis club; many times, she cursed herself roundly for being such an over-enthusiastic over-achiever, and for actually liking the things that were making her life difficult.

One would have thought that with only two weekly sessions- Wednesday and Sunday evenings- debate club wouldn't be so bad, especially with how easygoing the President and Vice-President were. Au contraire, fuckers, Sakura thought bitterly, as she re-wrote her argument for Sunday's debate- the first of the season- for the fourth time. Three previous drafts had been read and corrected by both Ueda and Asano alternately- and still she couldn't seem to figure out what had been wrong with the last one. Flaws in the logic of the rebuttal, please rethink your arguments, they had written; Sakura wondered where they thought she had the time to think, let alone rewrite the same thing a hundred times.

Tennis, too, was hard, hard, rewarding work. Her weights had been added to, the daily dose of Inui Death Tonic 4.0 (her variation of the name she was sure everybody privately called it) had been increased- and this was outside of the 'incentive' doses that the players who failed any training exercise succumbed to. Sakura thought it was more 'punitive' than 'incentive', but that was just her, she was sure (yeah, right). Laps were increased (and actual punitive doses meted out freely- even during girls' practice. Tezuka was clearly influencing Nomura, and not for the better), which meant her endurance increased. There was a measurable decrease in her sprint timings. Her shots had more force, more accuracy, more control. She could think clearer on the court; she'd managed to take three games from Imako-senpai, the girls' team vice-captain, the previous week, rather than her previous best of two.

Her combination with Fuji was also working itself out much to her surprise.

Even in the wake of being utterly fucking destroyed by the Golden Pair, that was something to hold onto.

"You and Fujiko are playing like you've been together for a while, Sakura-chan." Eiji said. They had just finished their match, and were sitting outside the court, watching the Momoshiro-Takada pair warm up before their match with Kaidoh and Inui. "It's impressive."

"Eiji's right. We've known only a few doubles pairs who've been able to almost pull off the Australian Formation so early." Oishi added, earnest and warm as always.

Sakura grinned as she took another sip of water. "Yourselves included, naturally."

Eiji laughed and threw an arm around his partner, who tried not to pull away from the sweat. "What can we say, we're unique!" He gave her a roguish wink.

"That play was shoddy, though; needs work, don't you think, senpai?" She asked, turning to Fuji, whose smile had remained eerily static all through the match. He nodded in assent, strangely quiet.

Oishi and Eiji glanced at Sakura, who bit her lip. "Eiji," Oishi said, his gaze slowly shifting to his partner. "I need your help warming up before Sato-san gets here; care for a rally?"

Kikumaru shouldered his racquet, grinning. As they walked away, he threw a comforting sort of grimace over his shoulder at Sakura.

She returned it with a small smile of her own, before breathing in deeply. Fuji was still silent; he'd not said a word since about halfway through the match.

Since the bolloxed-up Australian Formation, which had been all her fault.

He wasn't going to begin for her; she was going to have to muddle through this, and start right now.

"Um," Yep, now that was sure and confident, like a true public speaker. "Fuji-senpai, look, I'm- I'm sorry…?"

He said nothing. Did nothing. Didn't move a muscle; gave no sign he'd heard her.

"I- I said I'm sorry, senpai. I- we- I screwed up out there today, made you look bad. It won't happen again, really. I promise."

Progress! Well, he'd only tilted his head a tad, and not even in her direction, but it was still something.

"Anyway, like I said, I'm really, really sorry. It won't happen again, honestly! Let's just put this behind us and work things out, yeah?"

"What went wrong out there today, Kagawa?"

Fuji's voice was soft, but it wasn't brittle. It wasn't helpless, or wondering, either. It was a straight-up question; he was asking what she thought. A simple question that required a simple answer.

It was through a lump of shame lodged in her throat that she managed to choke out the answer. "I… I didn't do what you said."

It was such a hard thing for her to admit. She made mistakes, she wasn't perfect, but she wanted to believe she could be. She wanted to be perfect and clever and independent and a quick thinker; she didn't take too well to orders, and that had back-fired terribly on her today.

"You gave me the sign, and I didn't follow it, and that threw off our play. I should have listened to you. I'm sorry, again."

The corners of his lips seemed to thaw as he turned and smiled at her. "I must be the only person in school to get five apologies out of Kagawa Sakura in a single day!"

She scuffed the ground with the tip of her show. "Try in a single lifetime." Her mutter wasn't lost on him, and he laughed.

"You need to trust me." He said, opening the gate of the court for her. "I do know what I'm doing- most of the time, anyway."

Her laugh was bright and high, and nearly everyone looked around.

She flushed, and Fuji laughed again.

Practice couldn't end fast enough. As soon as Tezuka dismissed them, Sakura all but ran to the clubhouse, ducked under the shower for the two minutes required for the sweat to slide off her, and darted out. She changed her clothes in record speed, and left the clubhouse, leaving behind a confused Takada with a quick "I've got so much work to DO!"

Her house, luckily, wasn't all that far; she reached quick enough, her run slowing to a jog due to the fatigue and the ever-present weights. Homework was shunted aside, to be completed in a hurry tomorrow… sometime, and she made herself a coffee later that night to stop her eyes from blurring further over the argument she was reading through for the fifth time that week. The scratch of her pen reverberated in her room long into the night, writing out the final argument, making the final flow-charts and flash-cards.

You didn't just walk into Rikkai Dai unprepared. Even if she was going to throw up spectacularly in their toilets the next day.

Aaaand finally I can bring Rikkai and Sanada into it- although I don't know if the latter turn up next chapter. He's a moody bugger, who won't be written if he doesn't feel like it. Which is probably why I like him so much. But this chapter really took a while to do. Do leave a review and tell me what you think!

Cheers,

Chilli.