A/N: Fine, I've finished early so I'll upload.
Disclaimer: I was bird watching when I saw Takeshi Honomi in a cherry tree. I asked what he was doing, he said he was taking a break from drawing Prince of Tennis. (Randomness/might be true!)
Chapter Forty-four
Arai placed a bottle down beside Kikumaru, who sat rigidly on the bench in the changing rooms. She never moved her hand from her cheek and she never looked up to them either. The two waited patiently for her to tell them what happened, but them knew she couldn't speak. They had to encourage her.
"So, what happened?" Arai started. "Did Sai-kun bother you?"
Kikumaru barely shook her head.
"Did a stray ball hit you? Did Tezuka-san tell you off?" Arai asked and got the same response.
"We can't help you if you don't tell us." Fuji then said.
Kikumaru took a deep breath, allowing a tear to trace down her cheek and forced herself to speak quietly. "I must have done something to upset him… he was really upset."
"Who? Inui-kun? How did you upset him?" Arai continued.
"No… I'm wondering if I did something wrong… I don't think I did…" Kikumaru thought back to what happened yesterday evening.
Arai went over to the sink and soaked a towel under the cold water and told Kikumaru to place it on her cheek. She took it.
"…I had his phone yesterday... I wanted to play a game and he let me take it home… Did he think I read his messages or used up his credit?"
Fuji glanced over at Arai to see if she understand what happened. Arai did because her face was every bit as stunned as Fuji's thoughts.
"Who hit you?" Arai came right out and asked.
Kikumaru lowered her head further, trying to hide the tears that fell. "…Oishi…"
Arai grabbed Fuji's hand. "Unforgivable." She murmured and dragged Fuji out the changing room with her. They left Kikumaru in the room but not before bellowing to Yokoishi to keep her company. They went over to the boys' court.
"I'll beat it out of him if I have to!" Arai raged.
"I don't think he would have done it on purpose." Fuji tried to convince Arai, hoping to calm her down, but unfortunately Arai had escalated to that statue again.
"Are you insane! He hit her! I don't care who it is, a guy hitting a girl is unforgivable!"
It didn't seem right that Fuji should fight the tug. Arai, in so many respects was right, and trying to talk her out of demanding an answer would make Fuji seem as if she didn't care, which she did, so she had to go along with Arai.
As they came round the corner, they saw the reality of the incident. The boys all watched from the corner of their eyes. Oishi was getting a talking down to by Tezuka for his misconduct on the courts. Before Tezuka could give Oishi the punishment of running around the courts Arai called out to the both of them. They looked up.
Oishi turned to the girls, and seeing who they were, rushed over to them to apologise.
"Is… is she okay? I didn't mean to – It was an honest mistake. I turned-"
Arai grabbed Oishi's shirt and pulled him closer. "You've got some nerve Oishi-kun. I'd never expected this from you."
Fuji held Arai's arm, wanting her to let go. "Let's not talk about this in the open, all right?"
Fuji pointed to those around the courts, and they weren't too pleased that Arai was dragging their vice-captain by his shirt. She released Oishi and faced him fiercely. Fuji glanced up to Tezuka, his eyes firmly on the two. She breathed deeply. Out of politeness she walked up to him, fighting to keep her sight from leaving his eyes.
"Sorry for the interruption."
"You don't need to talk to Oishi-kun, I can do it myself."
She ignored the hostility in his voice. "It's not that I wish to punish him, I just want to know what happened. Kikumaru-chan thinks she did something wrong."
Tezuka adjusted his glasses and turned away to go back onto the courts. "Don't take up too much of his time."
She could hear in his voice that something was wrong with him but, the situation didn't allow her time to ask. It was about ten minutes before they had to go home. "We won't be long, Tezuka-kun."
He didn't reply and he walked off. Fuji couldn't be angry, she decided this was his response to her telling him he didn't deserve to know all her secrets. She could do no more but walk over to Arai and Oishi and ask to go to a more private area to have a talk. Oishi was more then willing to clear things up. He wanted to go and apologise to Kikumaru straight away but the two refused, not while she was confused.
They agreed to go into the boys changing room. It was the only private place for the moment. It was clear that Oishi didn't have the strength in him to stand up so Fuji lead him towards the bench. He sat down heavily and held his head in his hands. He covered his face and murmured apologises to himself. Fuji knew Oishi didn't hit Kikumaru on purpose, she didn't even want to be in this room with him trying to get the information from him. But Fuji had never seen her best friend so confused. Even when Kikumaru had to sit and listen to Fuji's stories, Fuji had never seen that lost look in her eyes.
"I can't believe I hit her…" He said over and over again.
"You injured my doubles partner! What do you have to say for yourself? Even if a girl hits you, you should know to take it and go about your business. Whatever she said to you should never have warranted you laying a finger on her? You have no placed to apologise!"
"Arai-chan, that's enough." Fuji s had to stop her.
Arai tutted and walked to the back of the room.
"What happened Oishi-kun? Kikumaru-chan seems to think she's in the wrong?"
Oishi jumped up and held Fuji's shoulders. "No! No! Why would she think that! Of course it's not her fault. She could never do anything to upset me. It's just… How can I say it?"
"Say something." Arai seethed in the corner, the shadows making her more peeved.
Fuji encouraged him to sit down again. "…I… I was just worried about Momoshiro-kun. He didn't make it in the regular's line up and hasn't shown up for practise since then. I would hate to think that he might stop playing tennis because of it."
"Irrelevant!" Arai was about to march over when Fuji held her arm out.
"Go on." Fuji said.
"…Well… Today, all day, Sai-kun was making light of the situation… and I just… I couldn't take it anymore and I turned to hit him - even the thought oh me hitting him is wrong, but when I looked… when I looked to the ground…" He couldn't finish.
Fuji patted his shoulder and told him it was all right, he didn't have to say anymore.
"So you meant to hit Sai-kun?" Arai wanted to confirm it. Oishi nodded. "I'm going to knock him out for sure!"
Fuji hooked arms with Arai, who was going to leave the room to cause some trouble.
"Let me speak to her, I want to clear the air before she thinks I no longer like her."
"Not now." Fuji stopped him. He stood up again, not understanding her thinking. "Can this wait until tomorrow?"
He held his hands out and pleaded. "Why?"
Fuji let go of Arai's arm. "Tezuka-kun said I shouldn't punish you but, I want you to think about what you're going to say to her tomorrow morning. Can you tell her you're sorry tomorrow? I want her to be able to listen to your story without being so confusion. Let her think about what happened, and tomorrow, in front of everyone, apologise to her."
Oishi thought about it. He didn't think for long and agreed reluctantly. "All right. I'll wait until tomorrow at morning practise."
"We'll end it here. Oh, and tomorrow bring Sai-kun with you."
They all agreed on this and the girls let Oishi go back to his team. Fuji didn't glance over at Tezuka when she left. She felt like a hypercritic, telling Oishi to apologise when she couldn't muster up the will to do it. In her heart Fuji knew those who had the strength to say sorry had brave and humble souls. She made her way back to her girls to let them know what had happened and dismissed them from practise.
* * *
It was late into the evening and Tezuka was just finished up some of his English language studies. He had two textbooks in front of him and an English-Japanese dictionary. He would be finished soon. Or so he thought… he couldn't quite understand what happened today at school. He thought he was doing quite well. His match with Inui nearly got the better of him. Inui stepped up his game and looked determined to beat him. So he couldn't lose face and had to kick it up a notch. It felt liberating to play at that level. Even better that he won. But as soon as that match finished the day went a bit *pear shaped.
Arai wanted his help with Fuji. He thought the girls were falling out with each other, but they came over together to reprimand Oishi. He watched them holding hands and couldn't see were the tension was; they looked comfortable in each other's presence. So naturally, with that thought in his mind, he wondered where Arai's concerns were. Certain words played back in his mind. This is what she's doing behind your back; those words made him close his dictionary and peer out the window. Doing what behind his back? Nothing stupid hopefully. Sure, Fuji has done some silly things in the past, but what this time? Be mature about it; He took his glasses off and adjusted his lamp. To have used the word 'mature' means it was of adult matters… there was something on the forefront of his mind but he pushed it back.
He glanced over at his bin were he threw the envelop once he got home after practise. He couldn't see well in the dim light without his glasses, but that envelope seemed to glow, attracting his curiosity. He rubbed his eyes. He wouldn't look. He closed the rest of his textbooks. There was no chance of him finishing now with those thoughts on his mind. I don't need to resort to dirty tricks, was what he said to Arai. She took offence to it and he shouldn't have said it, but he trusted Fuji to tell him… yet Tezuka wondered. Fuji's calm but concerned smile seemed to want to tell him something important. Whenever he caught sight of her throughout the day, he noticed her sweet expression, that he liked catching a glimpse of in his day, was definitely troubled… Maybe he should have kissed her at school… he wanted to, he really did. When she held the side of his face, drawing him closer that day he had to fight the urge to reached down and steal and share a meaningful kiss with her. Why bother fighting it! He wouldn't next time. The thought that he caused that perplexed expression in Fuji's eyes, after refusing, didn't sit well with him… He wanted to see that face that was speechless when she was in his room after asking her if she wanted that good night kiss. Her blushing cheeks and nervous hands gave Tezuka that added bit of trusted. He wouldn't open it.
…But, Tezuka still wondered, as he went to lay down for the night, if he should resort to those dirty tricks he retorted Leiko for using. The last thing he saw before turning out the lights was the enticing glow of the envelop from across his room.
…tbc…
A/N2: Ooh, things are getting interesting. Tee hee!
Pear-shaped: Not sure if you've heard of this expression, but it goes along the lines of 'things becoming unusual in a negative way or wrong.' E.g. "Her life was pear-shaped after he left her."
Chapter 45: continuing the filler-episode-type-chapter.
