Well, I just noticed that I barely ever do this, but I decided it's time to say "I care." So thank you and I love you, to everyone who's reviewed (especially those who have reviewed most/all of the chapters), put me on their alerts/favorites, and my ever awesome beta Self... sometimes the list of mistakes he sends back to me is frightening. Anyway, I can't even say how happy I am that my baby's doing well! I currently have a little something called "NO FREAKING TIME" thanks to my school and sports, but because of you guys, I'll keep this (meaning the punctual updates) going. Now, without further ado...
Here We Go Again
Chapter Seven: R and R
"Kampai!"
The cheer echoed through Kawamura Sushi, surprising the other customers. The source was a large table full of good-looking high school boys, glasses in the air.
At the table, Momo and Ryoma were already having an eating contest, complaining (loudly on Momo's part) about how the other had stolen their food. Kikumaru looked like he was on the verge of jumping in and competing with them.
Fuji was laughing at the scene next to Tezuka, whose fingers were once again twitching for an aspirin. Kaidoh simply sat off to the side, eating and throwing the occasional antagonizing comment Momo's direction. And of course, Inui was writing something in the notebook.
"Taka-san, why don't you come over and eat with us? You haven't seen Echizen in a while," Oishi said as he looked fondly over his team.
"I'd like to, but Pops (1) needs my help, we're busy tonight…" Kawamura looked extremely sheepish, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's fine, Takeshi. They don't stop by often and your friends are the reason that we're busy," called Kawamura's father from where he was cutting ingredients. "Go ahead."
"Ah, thanks." With that, Kawamura walked from behind the counter to join his old team. "Echizen, it's good to see you again. How've you been doing? I saw your matches over the last two years, and they were really great."
"Mm. Thanks, Kawamura-senpai. Not much fun in the pros, though," the teen replied, sipping a Ponta.
"Oi, Echizen! You can't suddenly drop out like that, you just can't!" Momo yelled through a mouthful of sushi.
"Che. I'm way ahead of you, I can stop for a second if I want."
"What was that, brat?"
"Hoi, hoi, hoi. Calm down, everyone, before we break something and Ochibi has to pay for it." Kikumaru began implementing his own mediation techniques, consisting of a large amount of 'tone it down' gestures. "Ne, ne, Taka-san! We don't have school tomorrow because of some staff conference, can we come see you guys in the afternoon?"
"You guys?" Ryoma asked, perplexed. He was pretty sure there was only one Kawamura-senpai, unless the redhead was talking about the Kawamura family as a whole.
"Mm. Every now and then if school lets out early or we don't have club activities, we'll go see Taka-san and his friends," Fuji stated, contentedly munching on his wasabi sushi.
"Sou da! And since we go later in the afternoon, their classes have ended and they're working on their cooking, nya!" Kikumaru was nearly bursting at the memory of all the good food Kawamura and his classmates had let them sample.
"Hm. Doesn't sound bad." Ryoma turned back to his food, fully prepared to give Momo a thrashing; he was still starving.
~X~
Water droplets plinked against the tiled floor as Ryoma toweled off his hair. Pulling on a pair of shorts (not bothering with a shirt), he draped the towel over his shoulders and stepped into his bedroom.
Literally falling into bed and snuggling up under the covers, his golden eyes fell on the picture taken on top of that mountain two years ago. Looking at the faces, he contemplated how they had all changed since then.
Momo looked exactly the same, other than his height. Actually, all of the Regulars had grown at least an inch or two, whereas Ryoma had grown three, now standing at five feet even. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to catch up to anyone, even Kikumaru and Fuji.
Kaidoh was now taller than Oishi and Kawamura, and had taken to wearing a black bandana with light blue decorations. He also had the most bulging muscles on the team, as Kawamura had dropped tennis for cooking.
Inui was still the tallest of all of them, and the only change in him seemed to be that he had replaced his glasses with a more modern version, still rectangular and opaque, but lined in thin silver. He'd also expanded to concocting various toxic foods as well as juices, which Ryoma had learned in the most painful way.
Kikumaru had… not changed in the slightest. The little white bandage still rested on his jaw line and his hair still defied gravity.
Oishi, on the other hand, had discarded his bowling ball hairstyle, and it now loosely resembled Kawamura's. He also needed contacts, but occasionally wore oval shaped glasses.
Kawamura now sported a few more scars on his hands, a result of training with knives, and had shaved his sideburns. Despite his face losing some of its more childish features, the teen still maintained his kind demeanor.
Tezuka seemed to have reached full maturity in middle school, and his only change had been the gaining of two inches.
Then, there was Fuji. The prodigy had done the impossible in that he was even more effeminate now, and the only thing stopping everyone from assuming he was a girl was his hair, still the same as in middle school. Were it to grow to Ryoma's length, no doubt Fuji would know what it's like to be the dark haired teen, with everyone he meets calling him 'Miss.' The genius seemed to open his eyes more now, especially around the youngest member of Seishun.
'He also talks to me a lot more… I guess I don't mind it that much, though, even if it's a little weird. Fuji's actually not too bad to be around- what am I saying? He's a freaking sadist! But he doesn't really act like one… Whatever, I'm not thinking about this now.
Rolling over onto his side and staring out of the wall, (2) Ryoma reached an overall conclusion. 'Senpai-tachi really haven't changed much…'
~X~
Bang.
"Ochibi! Explain yourself!"
"What? Goddamn it! Every freaking morning! Get out, we don't even have school today, Kikumaru-senpai!" Ryoma rubbed his eyes as he yelled, trying to dispel the sleepy haze that covered his vision. True, he was used to a rude awakening, but Kikumaru always left him alone on days that they didn't have school. Being woken up at seven-thirty to Kikumaru's dulcet tones was not how he'd planned to start his day, and as such, the tennis star was royally pissed.
"We don't have school, but we do have them, nya. Look outside your window!" exclaimed the redhead, pointing towards the large glass panes.
A crowd full of reporters waited outside their dorm, cameras flashing and, in a few cases, newscasters speaking into microphones. "Che. How'd they even find out where I live?" This was why he barely told anyone that he was coming home. It was just like the paparazzi to track down the school whose uniform he'd been wearing yesterday and actually figure out the building he lived in.
"I'd be more worried how they got on campus. The school grounds aren't exactly open to the public," Inui commented, appearing in Ryoma's doorway.
"These people aren't normal, Inui-senpai." Walking to his bathroom as he spoke, the teen grabbed a shirt from the closet and threw it on. "I'm going to talk to them, and if they don't leave, I'm calling the cops." With that, the fuming boy stormed out.
"Ochibi's scary in the morning…"
"Aa. Ii data."
~X~
Fixing on the cockiest better-than-thou smirk in his arsenal, a small teenager stepped outside his dorm and faced the massive crowd of reporters waiting there. "Heeh… Don't you people have something better to do than stalking some student?"
"Echizen-san!"
"Echizen-san!"
"Echizen-san!"
"Echizen-san!"
Ryoma couldn't hear the questions that followed his name, as there were too many voices. He simply leaned against the doorway until the frenzy had calmed down enough for him to speak. "I'm saying this once. I came back here to win Nationals with my team. No comment to any other questions. Now, you all have five minutes to leave my school or I'm calling the cops. Ja ne." Turning on his heel, the star walked back inside.
Not even noticing the chaos outside, the dark haired boy strode down the hallway to the kitchen. "Sorry, Buchou. They should be gone soon, and if they're not, you can call the cops."
Walking into the dining room and noticing the lack of Japanese food on the table, (again) Ryoma groaned and walked to the cabinet where the cooking utensils lay. In a matter of minutes, he returned to the rest of the team with rice, grilled fish, and some fruit in hand. "Eh? Echizen, you can cook?" Momo had looked up at the smell of new food approaching the table. "It even looks decent!"
"Che. I've been living alone a lot over the past two years, Momo-senpai." Sitting down, his posture screaming, 'don't talk to me,' the teen dug in.
"Ne, ne, Tezuka! Can we go into the city today before we see Taka-san? Ochibi hasn't been there in ages, and we need to show him the new arcade, and the tennis shop, and that burger place that opened another store in the entertainment district!" At the words 'burger place,' Kikumaru had inadvertently shot down any objections Ryoma had to going.
Tezuka sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Everyone always asked him for permission. In their dysfunctional little family, he seemed to have become the paternal figure. "Fine."
"Yay! Day off! Day off! Day off!" chorused Momo and Kikumaru, doing a parody of the cancan.
"Shut up would you! How old are you, baka Momoshiri!" So began the first Momo vs. Kaidoh showdown of the day.
"Echizen, those reporters left, right? It's been well over five minutes." Oishi, who had noticed how Ryoma's face had suddenly paled and his eyes narrowed, had decided to find out if he was sick.
"Aa. Something more annoying is here, though." Oishi was now thoroughly freaked. The freshman by his side never acted scared, unless faced with Inui Juice.
"What?"
"Che. Freaking fans." The boy looked as if he wished he were wearing a hat that he could tug down. Sure enough, a few girls with signs had appeared outside the back of the house, and many more could be heard up front.
"I'll get rid of them, Ryo-chan. I'm done eating, anyways." Fuji stood gracefully and walked leisurely out of the dining room.
"Don't even want to know what he's going to do to get rid of them…" muttered Momo, shivering.
"O-chi-bi! Someone's on the phone for you! It's some pissed sounding old dude who's speaking English!" Kikumaru's voice rang out from the far end of the kitchen where a phone was mounted on the wall.
'This day just keeps getting better and better…' he thought sarcastically, walking to where the team's acrobat held the phone. "Hello?"
"Ryoma Echizen, do you know how hard I've been trying to find you for the past month?" Well damn. His manager had found him.
"Obviously not hard enough."
"I'm coming to see you. We need to talk about this."
"What's there to talk about?"
"Maybe what you're planning to do now? Are you honestly retiring?"
"Calm down, you're not losing your job. I'm going back to the circuit in a few weeks for my Grand Slam, and a few months after that with some new opponents."
"That's the second time you've said that! What the hell do you even mean?"
"Ooh, watch the language, Mr. Davis. Anyway, come find me if you want, it won't do you any good."
"Wipe that smirk off your face; you sound like you're smirking. And I'm sending those two to keep an eye on you."
"Che. I'm hanging up."
"What? Ryo-"
Ryoma placed the phone back in its cradle with a satisfyingly loud 'click.' So they were coming, huh? Well, it might be a little entertaining to see his teammate's faces when they found out…
Pushing the thought out of his mind, the household's youngest member went to rejoin his teammates. The media must've spread his location around pretty quick, if Mr. Davis was already calling.
"Ah, Ochibi! Who was it? You were speaking English, I couldn't understand it…"
"No one important," he replied, brushing off Kikumaru's question and sliding back into his chair.
"Saa… It sounded like someone. Your manager, perhaps?" Fuji had appeared in the door, completely unfazed by the horde of fans he'd just dealt with.
"Che."
"What? The brat's got a manager?" shouted Momo incredulously through a mouthful of toast. "Huh? Where'd he go?"
Ladies and Gentlemen: Echizen Ryoma has left the kitchen (3).
"Eiji-senpai, come on! We're finding Echizen and taking him to the arcade. He needs to get out more, anyways." With that, Momo led Kikumaru out of the room on their Ryoma Hunt.
The five left in the room sat, ate, read, or recorded "Ii data" for a few minutes, enjoying the temporary peace. Soon enough though, shouting erupted from the direction of the foyer.
"Really, Echizen? That's low!"
"Yadda! Let me go!"
"Ochibi, do you hate us that much?"
"No, no. You're coming with us into town whether you like it or not. I thought you wanted help me clean out that burger joint?"
"Tezuka, sorry if Ochibi made us mess up some of the stuff in your Quiet Room!" At the last exclamation, the trio appeared in the kitchen door, the shortest of them being dragged.
"He was hiding in there, Buchou," commented Momo.
"Che. It's these idiots' fault if anything in there's messed up." Ryoma's irritated voice drifted up from where he dangled, one arm held by each senpai.
"Is not. Ochibi, we just dropped by here to apologize in advance to Tezuka. Now you're going to get dressed, and we're going to the entertainment district."
"Yadda!"
Kikumaru and Momo then dragged the team's rookie, quite literally kicking and screaming, towards the center of the house.
Frog marching Ryoma up into his room, the two threw the boy into his room, following soon after. "Now, I'm going to get you something to wear!" Momo stated cheerfully as he stepped towards the bathroom.
"Che. I'll do it." Picking himself up, the irritated teen walked to the bathroom door, slamming it none too gently in Momo's face. 'No way in hell is Momo-senpai picking my clothes. I need something I won't be recognized in or I'll get mobbed now that the media blabbed about how I'm in Tokyo.'
Leaving his hair down and grabbing sunglasses that could dangle around his neck on a cord, Ryoma turned to his closet. Leaving on his black sports shorts and donning a yellow and green hoodie over his plain white t-shirt, the dark haired teen jammed a green baseball cap on his head. 'Good enough.'
Or so he thought. Judging by his upperclassmen's poorly suppressed laughter when he stepped outside, they disagreed. Raising an eyebrow, he silently demanded to know what was wrong with them.
"Pfft. Sorry, Echizen, I know you'll hate to hear this, but you look like a-" The room's front door had been slammed in Momo's face before he could even finish the statement. "O-oi, Echizen!"
"Unyah! Wait, Ochibi!" By the time the two got downstairs, Ryoma was already on his way to the kitchen. 'I don't care what Mr. Davis says about it being a 'moneymaker' I'm cutting my hair soon. Hell, I might do it in front of him.'
Caught up in his thoughts, the small teenager never noticed the two bodies hurtling towards him, ready to glomp. "Ochibi! I thought we said wait!" It was only after he had been tackled to the floor did Ryoma notice that 'we' referred to the two Kikumaru's pinning him down.
"Ei-ji." The word was spoken softly, stretched out threateningly. Fuji (along with the four other members of the team) had appeared in the hallway, hearing the commotion his junior's fall had caused.
"Okay, okay. We'll get off." The two redheads chorused before becoming one again. "Now, can we go? We won't have any time downtown, though, since we're walking to Meshika (4)."
"Aa! Let's get going!" The household's two loudest members led the way out the dorm's front door, their teammates following in various states of amusement (or exasperation).
"Ryo-chan, Meshika is also our next opponent – in the prefectural finals – did you know?" Fuji had fallen into step next to Ryoma, smiling serenely with his eyes closed as always.
"Hm. They any good?" Although his eyes sparked faintly at the thought of a potential challenge, the freshman doubted that they'd be facing anyone truly skilled so early in the tournament.
"Saa na…"
The two walked in a comfortable silence the rest of the way, watching their teammates antics. As they passed through the city, Ryoma found himself looking around, noting what had changed andt what was exactly the same as two years ago. The latter, as it turned out, overrode the former. Tokyo was still largely the same.
"Ah, we're here, guys." Oishi called out from the front of their little pack.
The group had stopped in front of a gate with the words 'Meshika Kokou' on the wall next to it. Through the wrought iron bars, a few single story buildings could be seen. Gravel paths connected them, lined in bright green grass. Several maples were scattered with deliberate randomness in between the sandy brown web, making the campus resemble a park.
"This is a school?" How rich were schools in Tokyo, anyway?
"Yep. Pretty nice, huh, Ochibi?" asked Kikumaru, popping up behind the boy's shoulder.
A deep, vaguely familiar voice yelled at them from inside the school grounds. "Oi, you bastards coming in or not?"
Oo, who is it? Find out next chapter c(; [he's sticking out his tongue and winking; live with it.]
Hey, you know what this chapter's name stands for other than Rest and Relaxation? READ AND REVIEW!
(1) Ok, I know it sounds redneck-y, but that's the translation I saw for what Taka calls his dad.
(2) I laugh every time I write that.
(3) I hope everyone knows this, but this is a play on "Ladies and Gentlemen: Elvis has left the building."
(4) This will be Taka's school. If anyone noticed, other than the "ka" on the end, Meshika means food.