*Whistle* this sucker's over 5000 words! Longest yet, and therefore...

IT'S A SUPER-D-DUPER-EXTRA-LONG-PRINCE-OF-FIELD-DAY SPECIAL EXTRAVAGANZA! Annnnddddddd… GO!

Here We Go Again

Chapter Thirteen: The Prince of Field Day

Ryoma woke up to the sun shining obnoxiously in his eyes and the sound of Fuji returning from his morning and evening routine of sitting on the balcony. Cracking his eyes open the minimal amount, he saw the brunet frowning uncharacteristically and glaring at the phone in his hand.

"Who died?" he mumbled, not one for tact.

"Ah, it's nothing you need to worry about. Just a bit of troubling news from my sister. You should get dressed; we need to be at the school early, after all." Oh, it was Field Day, right.

"Mm." Still half asleep, Ryoma dragged himself out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. He did not want a repeat of yesterday's wake up call. Once the door had been shut firmly between him and his new roommate, the sleepy teen called out, "Ne, Fuji-senpai. We're supposed to wear gym clothes today, right?"

"More or less. There's going to be a school-wide water fight later, though, so they want us wearing swimsuits and whatever colored clothes your class was assigned. I believe class 1-A is in black."

'Easy enough.'

Digging out one of his few swimsuits, black with red paint splatters, Ryoma threw it on and began searching for a t-shirt.

Two minutes later, he stepped out into the main room, black Ponta shirt (and matching hat; ah, the benefits of sponsors) on and his hair pulled up. "Fuji-senpai, you ready?"

The brunet looked up from where he sat, reading a book on his bed. "Mm-hm. Let's go downstairs, otherwise Momo will have taken all the food by the time we get down there." Smiling, Fuji led the way out.

Upon arriving in the kitchen, the duo was greeted by the sight of their teammates already eating (and fighting over) breakfast.

All of that stopped when a platter of eggs almost ran straight into Fuji. As the brunet looked down at the food resting dangerously close to his jersey, all of the house's occupants froze, looking sick with fear.

"F-Fujiko…?" Kikumaru (the one responsible for the situation) said hesitantly.

Everyone watched anxiously, tensing as the brunet took a breath and… laughed. The soft chuckles subsided quickly before Fuji addressed his friend, saying, "Why thank you, Eiji. I was just trying to figure out what to have."

"R-right… No problem, nya…" said the redhead with a shaky smile and a twitching eyebrow.

Ryoma sighed resignedly. Really, the way everyone would sometimes act around Fuji was ridiculous. True, the brunet was a screwed up freak of nature, but that didn't mean he was to be feared… right? Shrugging the matter off, the dark haired boy pulled a chair up for himself and plopped down. "Oi, someone pass the pancakes," he said, already reaching for a mountain of food.

~X~

"Alright, everyone! Please circle up over here!" yelled Ayaka-sensei cheerfully, waving one arm straight in the air. The woman's other hand held a clipboard with her attendance list and schedule, and she was dressed in a black t-shirt and red sweatpants. "You get five minutes to stretch, then we'll be starting the first activity of the day: capture the flag!"

At their teacher's announcement, an enthusiastic cheer went up. Capture the flag was the second most popular game played in gym (dodge ball was the first; nothing could beat getting to throw things at your classmates with a teacher's permission, after all).

Ryoma sat down next to Kevin and began stretching, trying to zone out his loud classmates. Today, though, he knew that he wouldn't need to stretch half as much as he usually did. The chances of pulling a muscle were about the same as the chances of Horio being able to back up his claims.

After the five minutes had passed, Ayaka-sensei spoke up again. "Okay! Sawada-kouchou says that he'll be giving the signal to start the games soon. We'll need teams picked and set up before then! Who wants to be captain?"

Of course, thought Ryoma,she can't pick teams because she doesn't know who's an athlete and who isn't. That means the captains will probably be…

"Oh, oh, oh! Me!

"Me, me, me!"

"Alright, how about Horio-kun and Osakada-san?"

"Yes!"

Both of the loudmouths jumped up in their personal victory poses. Tomoka then lowered her arm at Horio, pointing imperiously. "You're going down! Now, I'm a lady-"

"Uh-huh…"

"Shut up! So as I was saying, I'm a lady, so I get to pick first!" For the second time in so many days, class 1-A found themselves sweat dropping at their classmates' antics.

"Ryoma-sama! You're on my team!" exclaimed their female captain happily.

"Eh! No fair, why do you get Echizen?" blurted Horio, thoroughly startled. In response, Tomoka simply stuck out her tongue. "Heh…" sighed the teen. "Fine, then. I get Kevin!"

As the blond stood with an impish smile, a chill ran through the watching crowd. The tension between Ryoma and Kevin could already be felt, and the students knew that anyone who the superstar respected enough to argue with had to be a phenomenal athlete.

Let it never be said that class 1-A was uninteresting.

The rest of the students were picked without nearly as much trouble, and soon the two groups stood, chatting and joking.

"Is everyone ready?" asked Ayaka-sensei.

"Hai!"

"Alright, Horio-kun, your team will be on the far side, and wearing blue belts. Tomoka-san, your team will be in yellow. Everyone knows the rules?"

"Hai, sensei," the class chorused, already going for their assigned belts.

"Huh. Who'd have guessed? These are the exact same as the ones we used in the states," Kevin commented to his friend. The belts were durable, with several strips of fabric dangling from the main section every few inches, and a clip to fasten them. This made them easy to grab and yank off for the other team.

"Guess so," Ryoma replied noncommittally. Immediately switching from apathetic to teasing and competitive, he continued, "It won't really matter, though. It's not like anyone will be able to catch me."

"What was that? It sounded like a challenge to me."

"You're on, peroxide head."

"It's my-"

The teen's well-worn exclamation was cut off by Ayaka-sensei calling the class to attention. "Quiet down, everyone! Sawada-kouchou is going to start the events soon!"

Sure enough, the slight man could be seen two fields away mounting the podium next to the administrator's table. "Welcome, students, to Seishun Kokou's seventeenth annual Field Day! Throughout the morning, you'll be rotating through several activities with your grade, and after an hour for a picnic lunch, the entire school will be participating in a water war and footraces. Your teachers have each class's schedule, if there are any questions. Now, without further ado, let the games begin!" Pressing the button next to him, Sawada did two things at once.

One: send a loud beep across the entire vast sports complex.

Two: let all hell break loose.

Immediately, Kevin and Ryoma shot off onto the other's side of the field, going for their opponent's flag. It was ultimately a race; who could get to the flag and back first? The other players weren't a problem, as most could barely even react before the teens were gone. When, not half a minute later, both crossed the boundary at the same time, several of their teammates' jaws hit the ground. Something about the school's tennis players gave them the uncanny ability to always run the same distance in the same time.

"Oi, Ryo-ma! That was my point! I crossed the line first," shouted Kevin, glaring at the bored looking boy a few feet away from him.

"It was mine."

"It was mine!"

"Mine."

"Mine!"

"M-i-ne." (1)

"I'm telling you that it was mine!"

Déjà vu? Yes.

The argument was cut short by Ayaka-sensei's intervention. "Excuse me, you two. We need to put the flags back, if you'd hand them over. No points everyone, sorry!"

Amidst the groans and complaints, the two sources of trouble looked at each other. "We switch for defense and offense?" proposed Kevin.

"I get offense first," said Ryoma, by way of agreement.

"Sure." With that, the blond backed up, determined to catch his friend and therefore prove his superiority.

Ayaka-sensei blew her whistle, swinging one arm down dramatically as she did so. This time, Kevin stayed put, carefully watching as Ryoma drew closer. Lucky for him, he'd grown over the past two years, and while he wasn't a giant, he was taller and more muscular than his petite rival.

Ryoma suddenly cut to the side, probably trying to say, "I ran right past you and you still didn't catch me," but before the boy got far, Kevin shot out his arm. In a combination of street fighting and football, the American brought his friend crashing to the ground, ripping off his belt in the process.

As the slight teen hit the ground with a satisfying thump, he sent a baleful, I'll-get-you-for-that glare at Kevin from under the brim of his cap.

"That's what you get for being a showoff. Now, off you go," chided the taller freshman, dropping the belt in his hand back on top of its owner.

"Che. That freaking hurt peroxide head," Ryoma replied testily, standing back up.

"Good. Maybe it deflated your head a little."

"Humph." Turning on his heel, the boy stomped back to his side so he could put his belt back on and rejoin the attack. Then, he would score a point, laugh at peroxide head, and stop the blond when it was his turn on the offensive. Simple.

As soon as the strip of fabric was refastened around his waist, Ryoma took off, making sure to steer clear of Kevin. Dodging narrowly around the few other athletes in class, Ryoma reached the flag once more and gripped it firmly. Knowing full well that his irritatingly fit friend would soon be on his heels, he began running off to his own side again.

True to his predictions, Kevin soon caught up to him, one arm reaching for the belt that would nullify any points were it to be ripped off. Sorry, but not today.

Just as Kevin's hand was about to grasp one of the pieces hanging from Ryoma's belt, the dark haired boy put on an extra burst of speed and crossed the boundary line.

Turning, both to expend his momentum and gloat in his friend's face, Ryoma tossed the flag back to Kevin. Over the cheers and squeals that had erupted at his point, the teen said, "Mada mada dane."

"You son of a- you're going down."

For the next twenty minutes, a full-blown war ensued between the two tennis players. They rarely accepted, or needed, any help from their teammates, and as such dominated most of the plays. Kevin was able to win most of the rounds, as he was better at dealing with head on, straightforward attacks. To Ryoma's delight, however, Ayaka-sensei announced that the second half hour would be played with each team placing or hiding their flags every round. This meant that having good eyesight, deducing, and preferably a small stature would help a great deal.

While Kevin was comparable to his friend in two of the aspects, Ryoma had him outweighed by far in the latter. And so, the war began anew.

This time around, Ryoma was able to pull ahead, to Kevin's extreme chagrin. The slight teen was able to quickly spot and reach the flag on every try, while Kevin was caught on occasion. In keeping with their infamous rivalry, the end of the hour found the two friends arguing heatedly as they walked to the next station.

"I definitely won more than you; I lost track of the number of times you got tackled!" yelled Kevin.

"Except you tried to barge through like a dumb bull half the time. I definitely won," replied Ryoma as he carelessly sipped a Ponta (that he'd produced from absolutely nowhere).

"I did not! My footwork's better than yours, at least!"

"Yeah, sure. Go through baka aniki's training regime and then maybe we'll talk."

For the second (but surely not the last) time that day, Ayaka-sensei was forced to intervene. "You both did fine, I assure you," she interrupted dryly. "I would appreciate it, though, if you let the others participate. Surely even you two can't turn an obstacle course into a contest?" the woman joked.

The two troublemakers exchanged looks.

"We'll see."

Sighing in exasperation, the woman walked away to the front of their class. "Settle down, everyone! This event, as you can all see, is an obstacle course. For the first forty-five minutes, we'll be running it individually, then, we'll split into two relay teams." As she spoke, several students glanced at the two American boys standing lazily off to the side. All of them realized that the two had to be kept on separate teams at all costs. It meant a whole lot more arguments to split up, but it also gave other teams a fighting chance.

Ayaka-sensei spoke up again, calling the class back to attention. "For the course," she said, "you'll start at the cone, vault or climb over the mat wall, and walk across the balance beam." As she detailed their paths, Ayaka-sensei walked down one of the courses and used various gestures to get her meaning across. "Then, you need to get to the next platform only by stepping on these little mats laid out. Once you get there, you'll swing over this gap on the rope and land in front of all the vaults. You can either go over or under them, but no going around."

While his teacher continued to speak, indicating a wire dome with thin strings crisscrossing it (which she called, "the spider web") a rock wall, and the finish line, which involved climbing down from the rock wall on a large rope ladder and falling the last few feet onto a mat, Ryoma couldn't help but wonder, when in the hell did they set all this up?

"Echizen-kun, can you run a practice run for us?"

"What?"

Kevin watched as his friend jumped clean over the five-foot wall of mats and hit the ground running. The boy continued to cut, run, and leap through the course with enough speed and grace to be considered inhuman. Well, at least he had something to beat.

He twitched in irritation as another girl sighed breathily. Ryoma was either a master at the art of I'm-not-listening or he was truly an idiot, because the boy always failed to notice his fangirls. This particular airhead had long, ebony hair and so much makeup that Kevin had no clue what her actual facial structure was like. The cosmetics, combined with her rolled up shorts and deliberately low cut t-shirt helped the blond place her in the "slut" category right away. Tsukiko, if memory served.

The girl suddenly turned to Kevin, batting her lashes. "Ne, Kevin-kun, I don't think we've been introduced properly. I'm Ayaka Tsukiko, and Ayaka-sensei is my older sister. I hope we can be great friends, like Ryo-kun and I are. Speaking of which, how did you two become friends?"

That's got to be one of the quickest times that someone's tried using me to get close to Ryoma, thought the incredulous American. It was obvious what her goal was, too. Her use of "Ryo-kun" was the first indicator.

"Um…" Seeing Ryoma jogging back, Kevin tossed a glance over the girl's shoulder. Help me!

Acknowledging his plight, the teen's gold eyes widened and his pace picked up ever so slightly. Coming to a stop and completely disregarding the fact that his teacher was talking, Ryoma grabbed his friend's arm and pulled the blond off to the side, saying, "Oi, peroxide head, bet'cha can't beat that."

Thankful for a reason to get away from the menace known as Tsukiko, Kevin gladly took the bait.

"Sure I can. A kid could've beaten you with the pace you were going."

Ryoma's eyes sparkled with amusement as he retorted, and the two continued to banter playfully until it was Kevin's turn to run the course. On Ayaka-sensei's whistle, the blond raced off, leaping and striding as effortlessly as his friend before him had.

For most of the time allotted to running the course alone, Ryoma and Kevin competed to see who could get the fastest time, remaining fresh and raring to go as their classmates gradually gave in to exhaustion. By the time the relay came around, the two had finally come to an agreement of sorts (neither would back down, but both realized that) and were sitting under a tree, drinking Ponta.

"Oi, Ryoma," said Kevin as he lowered his can from his lips.

"What?"

"I just heard Ayaka-sensei saying what the next event is for our class; tug of war."

Ryoma's eyes narrowed slightly as his friend's calm demeanor switched to a mischievous aura. "Speak clearly, peroxide head. I've got no clue what you're trying to say." This was a total and complete lie, of course.

Kevin laughed and leaned back again, taking another sip. The tiny celebrity next to him followed suit, and after a long quaff, tossed the empty can into a nearby trash bin. "We should probably be going now, right? Looks like Ayaka-sensei is rounding everyone up."

Glancing over, the blond nodded and stood. "Yeah, let's go."

Momo watched amusedly as his kouhai were arranged into two teams, each lining up on either side of a kiddy pool filled with water. After getting banned from his class's activities for the last ten minutes before lunch, (due to "destructive actions," apparently) he'd decided to come see his two favorite freshmen duke it out.

As it so happened, he only got to see one fight between his two little roomies, but that didn't mean nothing else interesting happened. In fact, Echizen was getting into a hilarious conflict right now.

"Echizen-san, I know you don't like it, but in tug of war, you always put the smallest, lightest person up front, with someone who's big and strong in the back," explained an exasperated brown haired boy about six inches taller than Ryoma.

"That still doesn't explain why I have to be the first in line," the boy deadpanned, trying to control his glare-o'-death.

"Oi, Ryoma. Give the guy a break. You're in the front because the only person shorter and lighter than you is from the artisan dorms and opted not to participate," Kevin yelled from where he stood near the back of the opposite line.

"Che. Easy for you to say." Despite his scoffing, the teen let the matter drop. No matter how much he tried to deny it, (maybe he wouldn't do so quite as much if everyone stopped shoving his height in his face) he was one of the shortest people in school, as well as one of the lightest.

Momo laughed audibly, earning himself a withering glare from Ryoma. Ah, youth…

As his chuckles subsided, the junior watched as Echizen's willowy brunette of a teacher swung her arm down quickly, signaling the tug of war's start.

Immediately, he saw the students' muscles tense as they all pulled backwards. Occasionally, one would falter or lose their footing for a moment, causing them to stumble backward. It was on one such occurrence (caused by the girl standing a few feet behind Ryoma) that Kevin's team began noticeably pulling their opponents forward. The athletes on the losing side were now trying their damndest to regain ground, but to no avail.

Momo leaned forward as Ryoma was dragged forward another few inches. Just a little more and…

Splash.

As Kevin's team gave one final pull, cheering, a splash rose up from something hitting the water. Several students got a good drink, but one student in particular got a good bath.

Coughing and shaking himself, Ryoma pulled himself out of the water, already trying to wring out his hair. At the sight of his shirt clinging to him, the boy ripped off the garment and tossed it at Momo's head, exacting his revenge.

Peeling the mass of wet black fabric off of his face proved profitable for Momo, as it would provide him with invaluable blackmail material. As soon as his eyes were free of water, his sharp eyes noticed how every female in the vicinity's eyes snapped to the boy's pale, toned abs. It would seem that their little rookie was also a Casanova- unwelcome and unintentional as it may have been.

"You look very refreshed, Echizen!" Momo called to the waterlogged teen.

His only response was an irritated twitch of the eyebrow.

After Ayaka-sensei handed him a towel, the boy walked over to his upperclassman, Kevin by his side. "What are you even doing here, Momo-senpai?"

"Watching you get your ass kicked. I mean, man! You went down like a ton of bricks!" While the teasing was incredibly fun for Momo, it would also prove fatal.

"Oi, Kevin," said Ryoma, for once reverting to the way he'd originally called his friend. "What did you say the next event was?"

"A school-wide mock war with water guns and stuff," replied the blond, seeing exactly where Ryoma was going.

"Sounds good. C'mon, let's go."

Momo had a creeping feeling that this wouldn't be a good event for him.

There were three teams, each with one senior captain and one junior vice-captain. This was set up to keep any one grade forming most of a team. Other than this restriction, players could join whichever of the three teams that they wanted. Once someone is sprayed by a water gun or hit by a water balloon, they're "dead" until one of their team's two doctors comes and "revives" them by tapping them.

So were the rules explained to the red team, captained by Tezuka Kunimitsu and the track team's star, a second year by the name of Nori.

"Sensei," said Tezuka, startling the woman.

"Uh… Y-yes, Tezuka-kun?"

"How is the game won?" the towering student asked in his usual monotone.

"Oh, right. Well, the enemy team has to get all the way onto your side, and they'll need to take both your and Nori-kun's armbands," she replied, indicating the red cloths tied around all of the students' arms that indicated their allegiance.

Responding with a nod and a respectful, "Thank you," Tezuka backed up.

The instructor nodded and began walking away. "I'll leave you all to your planning. Make sure you choose two doctors!"

"So," piped a shy looking first year girl, feeling slightly embarrassed at all of the older boys suddenly looking at her. "We should have some fake doctors and a defense, at least, right?"

In an impressive show of sounding like his brother, Ryoma spoke up. "Defense and all that stuff won't matter as long as we take the other team down first, right?"

"That's not the only part of it, Ryoma," drawled Kevin in a patronizing tone. "Everyone else is going to have another knucklehead like you who'll come up with the exact same thing as you, and then where'll we be?"

"You can't win if you don't attack, peroxide head."

"You will lose if you don't defend, idiot."

"Echizen, Smith, stop or else it five laps around the grounds," ordered Tezuka. His day away from his younger "children" was apparently over. Looking away as the two said, "Hai…" reluctantly, he began to assess his teammates. Aside from the shy girl and the arguing freshmen, he had a few members of the track team, Oishi, Inui, Kaidoh, several unseated tennis club members, and a random assortment of students who'd come to be on the team with their friends. The latter group was about half athletes, so all in all, it was as good a group as he could've hoped for.

He set up a team with one fourth of the people staying on their own ground, one fourth attacking one team, another fourth attacking the other team, and the other fourth could do whatever they wanted (or needed) to.

The doctors, he decided, would be best as smaller, innocent looking people who were also as fast as they could be. This would make people hesitant to fire on them, but if someone did, they'd probably be able to dodge. So, he picked two freshman girls from the track team.

Ryoma and Kevin, part of the roaming group, began walking to the edge of the red team's territory. Ryoma tightened his armband with his teeth, a large water gun in one hand. "Kikumaru-senpai and Momo-senpai are in charge of the blue team. I'll get them."

Weighing his own gun in one hand, Kevin agreed. "Sounds good. I'll take the yellow team."

"Bet I'll have to come help you out," countered Ryoma, his keen eyes watching Sawada-kouchou, who was about to begin the war.

"Right," said Kevin as the whistle sounded, taking off.

Ryoma followed suit, dodging through people in a running crouch much as he had during capture the flag. The only difference was that now, he made sure to give them a quick blast of water as he passed. Soon enough, there was a trail of people, sitting and wondering what had just hit them as they waited for their doctors.

"Momo! Ochibi's coming!" yelled Kikumaru, not to be fooled.

"Aa!" the second year called in reply. He had totally been expecting Echizen to come attacking them as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately for him, he hadn't expected to get blasted in the face with water, flinch, and have his armband gone when his eyes opened.

"Argh! Freaking brat! You little-"

Drowning out Momo's impressive display of expletives, an announcement rang out over the playing field. "The blue vice-captain is down!"

As Ryoma smirked triumphantly, Kikumaru shouted over to him, "Unyah! Ochibi! You're so mean!"

This reminded the dark haired teen of the matter at hand, and he immediately began sprinting to where his redheaded senpai stood.

Kikumaru proved to be much more of a problem, as his excellent eyesight allowed him to dodge any jets of water, as well as giving him excellent aim himself.

After being at an impasse for almost a minute, Ryoma came up with the perfect plan. "Ne, Kikumaru-senpai," he said, narrowly dodging another stream of water. "I found this toothpaste the other day, it was pretty cool tasting, so I just used what was left of it."

"What!"

Before he could recover from his shock, Ryoma darted forward and grabbed the blue armband from Kikumaru. "Just kidding."

"The blue team is out!"

"Gah! You're so annoying sometimes, nya!" In a strange combination of irritation and unconditional love, the catlike teen jumped out and gave his little brother a full on glomp.

"Kikumaru-senpai?"

"Nya?"

"Could… you… please… get off?"

"Unyah! When did you get blue skin?"

~X~

True to his word, Kevin had quickly taken the yellow team's armbands. This quick win on the red team's part resulted in several rematches, only one of which ended in red losing (a major factor was that Fuji was the only one brave enough to go near Tezuka).

By the time the hour was up and the sun only two hands' breadth above the horizon, barely any of the students were dry. Ryoma was one such student, barely having been touched the entire game. Slipping back into his shirt, he began walking towards the track, accompanied by his teammates.

"Ryo-chan, which events did you sign up for?" asked Fuji as he walked up, also completely dry.

"The forty and one hundred meter dashes and the three-legged race, with peroxide head. Then I'm being forced into the team relay," the short athlete replied, struggling to remember. Those who wanted to participate in the track and field events had to sign up for at least three races, and while Ryoma hadn't been particularly interested in them, Kevin was. That morning, the blond had come up to his friend, asking if they could do the three-legged race together. After much wheedling on Kevin's part, Ryoma had agreed to it. To fill his other two slots, he'd chosen two of the early races so that he wouldn't have to get up more than once.

Completely seeing through this, Fuji replied, "Well, the team relay is the kickoff race, your race with Kevin-kun is right after that, and the dashes are after that. Seems like you won't have anything to do for the last hour or so."

"I could use a nap anyways."

Fuji laughed quietly and descended into comfortable silence until the team reached the track. As most of the students filtered into the stands, the varsity players for the football, track, tennis, cross country, and baseball teams began stretching and getting in their places for the relay.

"Ah, Echizen. You're our lightest and fastest, even without your pinnacles, so you'll be going last. You'll be running 100 meters after Kikumaru hands the baton to you. Got it?" explained Inui, snapping his notebook shut.

"Uisu."

Five minutes later, Ryoma stood bouncing on the spot as Oishi handed the baton to Fuji. The order for the relay was Tezuka, Oishi, Fuji, Inui, Kaidoh, Momo, Kikumaru, and finally, Ryoma. So far, only the track team was ahead of the tennis team, as their captain and vice-captain had been roughly the same speed as the tennis club's leaders.

Each person would run for around fifteen seconds before a new player would take the baton and begin their portion of the race to raucous cheers. Now Inui was running… now Kaidoh… now Momo.

Kikumaru swiped the baton out of Momo's hand and took off, copies of himself appearing as he pulled ahead easily. In almost ten seconds, Ryoma had the baton in his hand. The small athlete began his run, taking long, quick strides and getting his team even further ahead. All too quickly, he raced across the finish line amidst cheers and whistles.

As he slowed to a jog, expending his momentum, Kevin trotted up to him. "Good job, but you might want to make sure that people can see that you were actually running next time. Be like Kikumaru-senpai and have the decency to leave some copies behind, at least," joked the American. "Now come on, we've got to go get our legs tied together for the three legged race."

"Sounds fun," Ryoma replied dryly, not even winded from his sprint.

"I know, right? Now come on." Laughing at how his friend suddenly seemed to become dead weight, Kevin dragged the irate boy off.

"You'd just better not drag me down, peroxide head."

Thrill Forever- Y U NO LEAVE SIGNED REVIEW? I'm kidding, it's fine. You left one and that's all that matters. There will be Thrill soon, (two chapters) but please bear with me and remember that Ryoma is the least romantic person EVAH. It's bound to take a while. -3- Even if I REALLY want to write those scenes…

The moral of the chapter is that Ryoma is a god (it's pretty clear that he's going to win all of his races, right?).

Hey! It's 11:11 (FFN time) on 11/11/11 (cuz I'm obsessive like dat)!

Oh, last random disjointed announcement, I now have one hundred favorites, (thanks dontchafeel likedancing) which means I have 100+ subscribers, reviews, and favorites. Thanks SO much, everyone!

(1) Approximation of "O-re no" (from that episode in America).