Disclaimer: Not my characters. Just mine and my friend's insanity.
AN: I AM SO SORRY! grovels at the feet of all the readers I didn't update yesterday and the day before on account of being at a friend's house (the one that helps me plot this stuff out X3) and my computer had to get it's monthly software update either way xx. So. As a reward. I give you...TWO CHAPTERS. claps Yay 3...yes. I'll update the other two stories in a couple of minutes, but I'm also having a friend over tonight, so I might be behind in updating tomorrow. Fair warning.
Oblivious as to what was happening back at their school, and-in Fuji's case- his best friend and his brother, the three Seigaku regulars were calmly strolling through the streets towards the street courts. The entire time, Fuji kept hold of his racquet; finding himself strangely attracted to it and refusing to let either of the two with him touch it. He didn't know why, but he just didn't want them to take the seemingly useless thing from him. He had learned their names, and he tried to remember them. They were also kind enough to try filling him in on his life beforehis little trip down the stairs. None of it made much sense to him.
"So...let me get this straight," he thought it over after hearing their stories a second time, and hugged the racquet to his chest, "I'm supposedly Seigaku's tennis tensai? And I've never lost a match before?"
"Not in singles, no," Kawamura admitted, a bit sheepishly, "We play doubles occassionally...and usually win, but there have been...um...times."
"What Kawamura's trying to say, is that the two of you are better at Singles play, and only play Doubles when there isn't much of a choice," Inui put in, scribbling furiously in his notebook. Seeing Fuji this clueless was not going to happen again. He just had to take advantage of it. Fuji nodded, eyeing the notebook suspiciously, "And that...is where you keep data on everyone? Including me?" He recieved a nod and the tensai frowned, "So why I can't I just look at that?"
Inui snapped the book shut and took a few steps away from the confused boy, and Kawamura chuckled, stepping between the two, "No one reads Inui's notebook, except for Inui. It's like someone trying to take your brother--"
"--I have a brother?" Fuji blinked and the other two sighed, giving each other a worried look. They had stopped at the base of the stairs that led to the street courts, but they were beginning to doubt the idea. If Fuji had forgotten someone as important as his brother, maybe trying to get him to play tennis wasn't the best idea in the world. Any thoughts of retreating back to the school were interupted by arguing coming from the top of the stairs.Kawamura and Inui exchanged worried looks and turned to pull the tensai back to school, only to find him already creeping up the stairs. He peaked around the corner, completely ignoring the other two telling him to get away from the courts. What could he say? Curiosity killed the cat...but the scene only caused more confusion. He saw a red head, pointing accusingly at someone with wavey, short black hair, while complaining about said person to a taller black haired man with an interesting mark on his forehead. The one with wavey black hair had an amused look on his face, with one arm crossed against his stomach, and the other propped on the first arm so he could twirl a strand of his hair around his finger. Next to the red head, was a quiet boy with shoulder length blue-black hair, and distant, glazed blue eyes. He seemed to be talking incoherently to himself. He wasn't exactly sure who any of them were, but he was getting vibes from the one with wavey black hair...vibes that he didn't like at all.
"You can't be serious about us practicing around them, Tachibana-san!" The red head was yelling to the man with the akward forehead mark. Said man just shook his head, as the longer-haired boy to his side continued muttering, glaring at the one with the wavey black hair.
"I don't see why Tachibana-san should mind, Kamio-san. It's not as though we got to play each other in the district preliminaries. I think it would be a very promising opportunity."
"No one was talking to you, sna--" The red head was cut off by a hand flying over his mouth. The one Fuji had noticed replying to 'Tachibana-san', had covered the violent boy's mouth, with a small glare, "Akira. That's enough."
"But it's not fair, Tachibana-san!" Came the muffled reply.
"Akira's right, it isn't fair. We shouldn't have to play a team that has such a manipulative manager, especially after his last stunt. I shouldn't have been playing with Echizen-san as his partner, I should have been playing as Akira's partner, or against Echizen-san. How was that fair? And it was all his fault," the blue-ish haired boy had glared the entire time at the one with wavey black hair, "And Fuji-san's. But I don't blame him, he was just trying to help. It's not like he did it on purpose. You just wanted to seperate me and Akira. Fuji-san was actually trying to avoid me and his brother from fighting over Echizen-san, an--"
"That's enough out of you, too, Shinji." Tachibana turned on him, and he immediately quit muttering. It was then that Tachibana's gaze drifted over to the stairs, finding a pair of blue orbs watching him curiously. He smiled a slowly lowered his hand from Akira's mouth, "I think we have a visitor either way."
Fuji, having found the he had been discovered, strolled onto the court, despite the frantic cry coming from the bottom of the stairs-he assumed it was Kawamura- and approached the group with a smile. When he looked over the one with wavey hair, his eyes narrowed a bit, though he kept smiling, and quickly returned his attention to the three in black uniforms, "I didn't mean to interupt."
Running footsteps announced the arrival of Kawamura and Inui. Fuji ignored them, though Akira jumped at the chance, turning to his captain excitedly, "There, we can play them! Inui-sempai plays singles, and Shinji and I can play doubles with Kawamura-sempai and Fuji-sempai!"
No one noticed the sweatdrop coming off of Kawamua, but they did notice Fuji tilting his head in slight confusion. Inui sighed and stepped in to explain, "I'm not sure that would be wise, Kamio-kun. Fuji...had a small accident earlier."
"That's what Yuuta-kun was so mad about, dane? Neh, Atsushi-kun and I saw him storm out the door, dane!" Fuji looked at the speaker, blinking a bit, then turned to Inui, "Who's the duck?"
Fudomine and St. Rudolph's members promptly stared at him, jaws hanging open. Since when did Fuji call people by names given out by his younger team mates. Inui sighed, putting a hand on the smaller boy's head, "By accident, I mean he got knocked down a flight of stairs by Kikumaru." He noticed Kisarazu and Yanagisawa looked horrified, "What's wrong, you two?"
"Yuuta-kun left for Seigaku after he got off the phone!" Atsushi looked more worried than horrified. Kawamura and Inui exchanged worried looks as well. If Fuji was violent when he was vengeful, and if the brother's really did react to situations in similar manners, Eiji would definitely have his work cut out for him to get away.
"I've heard stories about him," Everyone looked to Shinji, as the boy started muttering about Yuuta, "He's suppose to be really good. He played Echizen-san too, but Echizen-san beat him...isn't he a Southpaw like Echizen-san? Does that mean he made him play right handed? I wouldn't mind playing him. Or his brother. Either Fuji-san seems interesting to play, don't you think, Akira? Of course there's no telling how much better he is at singles play than doubles. He played Ishida and Masaya, right? So that would give us a disadvantage, but I'd still want to play him. The younger Fuji-san also seems interesting. He was willing to play me for the chance to play Echizen-san again, that makes him decent, right? I wonder how well I'd do--"
"Oi, Shinji, you're not making sense." Akira pointed out, immediately silencing his friend.
"Fuji...perhaps it would be wise to go ba--...Fuji?" Inui looked to his side where the boy had once been, finding he had been led off by Mizuki. Kawamura made a small, horrified squeak, and quickly ran after the two when he realized what had happened. The data player could only sigh and apologize to the captains of both schools. This would be a long day.
If anyone didn't get the thing with Fuji calling Yanagisawa a duck...it's from the manga. Kaido and Momo constantly refer to him as a duck during their Doubles match, but this part was unfortunately taken out of the anime. -sad- ...ok. -puts next chapter up-