Disclaimer: Do not own anything.

~~ Fighting Over Small Things ~~

~~ 25. February, Late Afternoon ~~

Where the hell was his son? He was supposed to be home ten minutes ago but still wasn't. Nanjiroh tried his best not to panic, not to sprint out of the door and search for his cute son with a large sign over his head - his son's name on it. He was worried, he was scared and, all thanks to Ryoma, he was thinking about having done the wrong thing. Maybe a public school wasn't good for him after all?

Oh god, if someone had bullied his petite and boyish son... he had a feminine side, Nanjiroh couldn't deny it. His dear son came after his beautiful mother. His big eyes - though they were pretty sharp and piercing most of the time - and his delicate skin and the well formed body thanks to the regular tennis practice... Hopefully, nobody had taken his son away, kidnapped him...

His son hadn't showed any signs of being a victim of some bullies or fights, he had acted like always - like an antisocial brat. Had he overseen the signs? Rinko, his ex-wife and Ryoma's mother, would kill him if something had happened to their son! No, he had watched him play against the friendly teen with the spiky hair. The other guys, who lived in the neighborhood, seemed to be nice and gentle, too. The girl with the blue eyes, who lived opposite of them, seemed to be very tender and soft, even if she looked strange with her boyish clothes. He hoped his son saw the same and would go out with her. They would make a good couple.

"Meow..." Karupin sat in front of him and waited for the old man to play with him. Nanjiroh ignored him and drummed his fingers onto the kitchen table in a fast rhythm. He would wait five more minutes, then go out and search for his son. "Meow, meow..."

It took two more minutes before he rose from the seat and stormed outside, yelling for his son. The people glanced and stared at him as if he was one of those crazy mothers, nonetheless, he didn't care. His nerves lay blank, his mind told him to run faster and search in every corner. His son had never been late. His son had never been out alone! Where was he now?

Ryoma ignored the two newcomer and went past them and along the corridor. "Hey!" one of them called and sprinted up to him, walked beside him. "Echizen Ryoma, Atobe, our captain, wants to see you." Ryoma ignored them further till they reached the exit of the building and both guys stood on each side of him. The sun blinded his sensitive eyes for a second before he saw and heard a horde of squeaking girls. His ears rang from the shrieking and he started to move again, ran straight to the large school gate. However, before he could reach it someone snapped with his fingers and the ground quietened abruptly as if a spell shut their mouths. "Echizen Ryoma, son of samurai Nanjiroh..."

The called teen stopped abruptly, turned around and sighed heavily. In front of him, surrounded by other students, stood Monkey King in his full glory, posing like an idiot. Ryoma laughed inside his mind. The image, which played in his fantasy, made him smirk. "...You should be awed by Ore-sama's presence. I invite you to have a great meal with me and Seiichi. Afterwards you are allowed to join Hyotei's tennis club." Ryoma's ears peeked up by the bluenette's name, his view searching for him. Before he could focus on any face, broad shoulders blocked his view and the teen glanced up, saw the brunette with glasses from the other day.

Tezuka Kunimitsu, as Horio had told him more than once today during the breaks where there hadn't been a chance to run off. The guy was annoying and loud as hell, surely nobody he wanted to be near for a long time. Ryoma would hit a tennis ball straight in his face if Horio shouted one more time in his poor ears. He had already given up his voice, he didn't want to renounce his ears, too. "Atobe, as much as he would like to go, he has already some plans for today."

"Right, Ochibi needs to come with us to eat burgers!" Eiji hugged his cute kouhai and rubbed his cheek against the exotic soap smelling teen. He had always an addiction for fruits of every kind. Most of his favorites tasted sweet like strawberries, cranberries, raspberries and cherries. They had such a great color and taste... Mhm...

"Are you so afraid he would choose us instead of you that you leave him no choice? I'm sure he wants to use his time in a better way." Seiichi said and came out of the shadows behind Atobe, this time without the broad-shouldered guy from the last time. Ryoma smirked and his eyes gleamed in the afternoon sun. The bluenette's violet orb glanced at him and a brow rose perfectly.

"I'm sure our company is more appreciated than yours. Keigo seems to think the same." Fuji entered the battle field, and the teen heard the referee call: Round 1! One thing he learned so fast, whenever those two, Fuji and Yukimura, saw or met each other, they would fight. The emerald-haired teen guessed they had had a very special relationship, otherwise they wouldn't react like jealousy wives who tried to surpass one another.

SNAP

The sound replayed in his good ears, he glanced up and searched for the source of the noise.

SNAP

Louder, faster and more intense. The sound was the only noise in his ears, he knew it far too good to misjudge it for anything else than the sound of a smacking tennis ball. The students around him faded one after another, left school as parents and friends picked them up. Just a little group of girls stayed to watch Monkey King and the other three fighting - Atobe and Tezuka tried to separate the two tensais. The students forgot him and his presence and he took the chance to take a peek at the tennis player. The sound led him away and along a way which ended at a few large tennis courts. He reached the courts soon enough to see an amazing shot, fast and directly aiming for the target.

His view landed immediately on the male, who stood in front of him, with the back to him. It was a male tennis player with short black hair and broad shoulders, only now he wore a black cap and a suitable yellow/black uniform. Ryoma was excited and happy to see someone worth of his full strength, he saw the focus and change of different emotions in the other teen's orbs. The black-haired guy threw the ball up and waited for it to come into the right angle to hit it. The younger teen was quicker, shoving his bag onto the ground and pulling out one of his three red racquets, he served and hit the ball with all the strength of his right hand.

The ball left an echoing, banging sound, flew across the air and hit the ball from the other guy, disturbed him by his serve. The older teen turned around, glared at him with his deep, dark brown eyes. Ryoma played with a ball in his hands, banged it on the floor and caught it, repeated the action a few times before he served anew. The tennis player narrowed his eyes in concentration, got in position and hit it back. The match between them started, neither needed to speak out the asked challenge.

15:00

15:30

30:30

30:40

Both were starting to sweat, a ghost of a smile was on Ryoma's lips. He enjoyed the sudden match, he wanted to feel the adrenaline in his veins and the feeling of freedom. He felt happy - after a long time, untamed and unbreakable. He had missed it, the feeling of a good challenge, a game with another person than his father. Something glittered in his challenger's eyes, he couldn't figure out what it was, nonetheless, he served once more, hitting the ball straight, so he wouldn't bounce against the ground. Sadly, his opponent seemed to have seen such a trick before as he knew exactly what to do. The ball flew past Ryoma, left not a single chance for him to hit it back.

40:40

The other guy got ready to serve, fire burnt in those brown orbs, something between excitement and desire stroke in them, made Ryoma curious about the next shot. His grip tightened around his racquet, his golden eyes sharpened and his focus was alone on the fuzzy ball which flew through the air. "Genichirou,..."

Both of them stopped immediately, slipped out of their trances and turned to the source of voice. Behind Ryoma stood the bluenette, arms crossed and a frown on his beautiful face. Ryoma liked the face, really did. What was he thinking?! "...you know that unofficial matches are against the rules. Especially with players out of Rikkaidai."

Huh?

Genichirou blinked twice before he bowed - why was he bowing? - and said in a strong voice: "I'm sorry, it won't happen again." He picked up the rolling ball, went up to his bag which stayed onto the ground near Yukimura and packed the ball and his racquet inside,

"I hope so." Yukimura's voice softened and so did his look. The mute watched them, listened to the talk between them. "Keigo wants to treat us for dinner. I would be happy if you would come along."

"Alright." Genichirou bowed again, shouldered his bag and left the courts, entered a small house - the club room, Ryoma guessed - and got out of the emerald-haired teen's sight. His golden orbs swayed to the bluenette, looked at the large tennis bag which hung over his neighbour's left shoulder. If the older student was the captain of the tennis club, he needed to be strong. He stepped forward, ready to challenge him but stopped as another person came up from afar and stopped right next to Yukimura.

"Ore-sama allows you to come along, Echizen Ryoma." Monkey King announced and flipped a strain of his hair back. It looked hilarious and Ryoma snorted by the sight but nodded. It couldn't be so bad to meet up with two - perhaps three - good players.

Ryoma listened half-heartily to their conversation, most likely tried to understand the moves of his opponent. Sanada Genichirou as Yukimura had introduced him, had managed to challenge him, to amuse him and forced him to think about a harder training with more fierce and care. How had his opponent managed to challenge him like this?

Nobody had the ability to hold his curiosity for long - nobody other than his own father. Perhaps he had found another person who could hold it longer than one or two matches. The teen couldn't loosen his gaze from him, he couldn't stop glaring. Sanada blinked and finally noticed his strong stare. Brown eyes narrowed dangerously and gazed back at him, not afraid to hold his piercing glare.

Seemed he was used to be stared at with such fierceness.

"Genichirou?" Sanada turned his head around and looked in his captain's beautiful eyes in question. Was it just Ryoma's imagination or was Yukimura's voice quite piercing and cold, almost monotone? "I would like it if you stayed away from Fuji and Tezuka. Both of them seem to plan something. Fuji actually told me that you had talked to him today after PE."

Violet orbs narrowed sharply and Ryoma would have never guessed that the beauty was actually capable of making such a scary face. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"I hope so." The bluenette sighed, relaxed his muscles and turned with a much more friendly and charming face to Ryoma. "Akaya told me that Kuro-sensei called you mute. Is it true?" Ryoma was surprised and shocked at how fast rumours travelled. He had at least expected to have a quiet afternoon.

The words were spoken quietly and without discomfort, he noticed the steady tone in the voice. The mute stared at the bluenette, enjoyed the melody in his ears, caused by the beautiful voice. He had had a great voice, too. Long ago before it all had happened. His parents had told him many times that he had sounded like an angel. At least before he hit puberty. He didn't know how his voice sounded now, after having lived through the vocal change. If it was still the same voice? Like his?

What was he thinking again? It didn't matter now...It was a dangerous thought and he should stop doing and thinking this thoughts before more of this stupidity plant themselves in his mind and caused him more pain than he already had...

Wait! No, he didn't have any pain from it... It was okay, it had been his choice and he didn't regret it. It was his choice and it had never harmed or caused him pain. Everything was fine. He gave his voice up long ago, speaking wasn't important. There were always other methods to communicate with others. Or even better, some wouldn't bother to learn those other methods and wouldn't bother him any longer and would leave him alone like he wanted them to be. Maybe the squeaking girls in his class would leave him alone now too, after hearing the rumor being true. Ryoma had no doubt they had already heard it and where now voting if they should fine him even cooler or plain strange and bothersome.

It wasn't that he couldn't understand the people around him. He would be too lazy too to learn another language only to be able to speak with one single person who wasn't even your friend. He understood them but they didn't understand him... well, who did it at all? He doubted anybody other than Karupin understood him - his daily emotions and behaviours and the reason behind them.

"Echizen?"

The teen blinked, chased the thoughts away and focused on Yukimura once more, remembering he hadn't answered him yet. He nodded as an answer and looked out of the window.

All three eyes narrowed carefully by the flick of expressions on the mute's face. Ryoma didn't notice it - swam in his own thoughts. The limousine stopped and parked right in front of the entrance of an unnaturally large mansion.