Hey guys! I write these before the chapter, so you tell me: did I get this chapter up on time? Hope so… *added a few days later* Haha nooo, no I did not. Sorry guys! *added a few days later* Okay, this is just getting bad *added a few days later* … … -facepalm- *few days later* Just… why. I'm really sorry. *added the last day I was writing this* I look back at my first question and LAUGH.
Here We Go Again
Chapter Twenty-Five: Getting Back
Ryoma, had he been asked, would have no way of explaining how exactly he had gotten into his current situation. It just… happened. That's all he knew.
He gasped and arched his back, his vision blurry. "Damn it… Get off of me!" He mouthed the words vehemently, knowing he would've shouted them if he could.
The weight on top on him did not lift at all, if anything it pressed into him closer. The insistent tugging, pinching sensation on his neck sped up along with it.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you say something?"
Fuji pulled back, bringing his head into Ryoma's line of sight. The boy scowled as the brunet's perpetual smile came into view and sat up forcefully. Fuji let himself fall backwards onto the thick comforter below them and propped himself up on one elbow. Ryoma, for his part, was still simply trying to regain his breath and composure. He sent a withering glare at the highly amused Fuji.
"Would you stop doing that? People are going to notice." The boy was scowling again, rubbing the abused purple skin of his neck. He then stood, determined to get away from the demon lounging on his bed. Said demon wouldn't have it, though, and as soon as Ryoma was on his feet, the blankets beneath him were whipped away. His small body tumbled back to the mattress with a light bounce.
"Bastard," he mumbled, not caring that Fuji couldn't see his lips.
"How can I stop when you look so cute, though? The look on your face is absolutely priceless, you know." The playful senior tugged Ryoma over with surprising force and rolled on top of him.
The freshman, now far past petulant and annoyed, looked about ready to punch Fuji away from him. He shot each of the arms on either side of his head an icy glance before looking at the smiling face looming over him.
"Get. Off."
The teen above him laughed, knowing that Ryoma was doing this more for his pride than anything else. "You know you like it," Fuji teased, sweeping down for a kiss.
Ryoma nipped at the larger boy's lip for being so irritating, but eventually began to return the affection. Their tongues locked in a merciless fight for superiority, and for the first time, the younger found himself on the winning end. He swept his tongue around the inside of Fuji's mouth, flicking it against the roof and exploring the new territory.
The brunet pulled back, smiling breathlessly. "Not bad," he panted.
A frown tugged on Ryoma's lips. Oh, no. He's not stopping just when I beat him. Letting his competitive side take over, the boy's hand shot forward to coil around the base of Fuji's skull. He pulled down, hard, until their lips met again. Immediately, he resumed exploring the mouth of his… teammate, boyfriend, lover, whatever Fuji was to him. One hand wandered to the genius's back.
Ryoma felt Fuji's lips tighten in a smile, and warm, minty breath ghosted into his mouth as they both paused for breath. "This is new," whispered Fuji impishly. "Why so eager all of the sudden?"
Before the dark haired boy could finish scoffing at the question, Fuji pounced. While Ryoma's mouth opened in protest, the brunet slipped his tongue past the parted lips. The boy was taken aback as the previously docile teen above him began to practically assault his mouth, even pinning his wrists down for good measure.
Ryoma strained against the grip holding his arms down, and he could see the brunet doing the same to match him. The embrace didn't stop, though. Their legs twined together, and their tongues still danced around each other.
It was enough to make Fuji laugh. The little teenager underneath him was the same boy who was so snappish about their relationship and who had been so inexperienced with all things romantic a few short weeks ago. Judging by the way he was swirling his tongue around Fuji's own, the past tense was crucial here. He had been inexperienced, extremely so, but not anymore.
It was the same Ryoma that was so calm and mischievous that was giving him a run for his money right now, making him work to keep his position on top. It was, in a word, thrilling. The defiant spark that had flickered for weeks now was a roaring flame again- Ryoma was healed.
He smiled into the passionate kiss, so unlike anything they had shared before, and began to slow the pace. Things had been fiery, ardent, and extremely sudden up until then, and while that was all fine and good, he suddenly felt the urge to enjoy his partner's rare compliance. He knew that instances like this wouldn't happen often and that the boy would deny it until the end of the world that they had happened at all, so he planned to milk the intimate moment for all it had.
Ryoma moved with Fuji as they rolled onto their sides, wrapping their arms around each other but keeping their mouths firmly locked.
The mute boy, though he couldn't express it through moans or whispers like Fuji, felt a completely new sensation rushing through him, concentrated somewhere low in his gut. It was similar to the adrenaline of a good match, there was the familiar heat and need for more, but it was still indescribably different. This yearning was more desperate, and instead of needing to conquer and defeat, he just needed to get more. He imagined that being addicted to heroin was something like this.
Cool, smooth hands began to drift over the skin of his waist and back, tracing the contours of his spine and shoulders. His shirt started sliding up his back as a heavily panting Fuji began sucking and biting on his neck again.
"Oi, Fuji, Echizen! Breakfast!"
Of course the door would open just then.
Both of the feminine boys looked up in shock, their limbs tangled together, their faces flushed, and their clothes disheveled.
"K-Kaidoh-senpai..." mouthed Ryoma, peering between Fuji's arms as he caught his breath.
The junior was standing in the doorway, looking at his two thoroughly entwined teammates with wide eyes and a face to match Marui Bunta's hair. He was completely frozen up under the two gazes, one golden, childish, and surprised, and one flat, blue, and almost curious.
"B-Buchou said breakfast on the table," spluttered Kaidoh, spinning on his heel and bolting from the room like a bat out of hell, slamming the door behind him.
"Well," said Fuji, standing and brushing nonexistent dust from his clothing. "That certainly killed the mood."
Ryoma was slowly overcoming his innocent shock, and as he realized what had just transpired, his face began to glow red-hot. Apparently, it wasn't just from embarrassment.
"You- You dumbass!" The boy grabbed Fuji's shoulder and spun him around to make sure he was understood.
The brunet wasn't phased in the slightest at being walked in on, nor did his roommate's outburst ruffle him. He simply gave a quick peal of laughter and walked away towards the bathroom. "Language," he chided. "And this wasn't really my fault. You were incredibly pushy if I do say so myself."
Ryoma made a "tch" and shoved Fuji out of his way, storming into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him. He reemerged several minutes later, dressed in his school uniform and composed, if a bit tired and flushed.
A devious smile threatened to split Fuji's face in two. "Changing took you longer than usual," he observed casually. "Did you do anything else in there?"
Already standing in the doorway with his bag in hand, Ryoma paused and turned to send his roommate a look that could freeze hell over. "Don't screw around with me." He swept out, slamming the door behind him.
It took all of his self-restraint not to turn back at the sound of bubbly laughter coming from the room.
~X~
Ryoma kicked off the ground with one last forceful stride, not bothering to control his momentum afterwards.
"Goal!"
He collapsed on the ground with a grateful sigh, sprawled out carelessly. For a few moments, the small tennis player let himself just catch his breath as he lay in the dirt with his teammates, listening to their uneven panting.
"Heh… Everyone made it again…" Ryoga sighed in disappointment, looking at his stopwatch and shaking his head. "You guys really don't want that juice."
The regulars were beginning to clamber back to their feet under the incredulous watch of those with less stamina. The number of laps had been upped recently, and with it the time they were given had gone down. Let it never be said that Seishun's tennis team didn't condition themselves well.
"Anyone who doesn't have their weights on yet, go get them," announced the young coach. When not a single one of the regulars moved, he raised his eyebrows slightly. "Do you people sleep with those things on or something?"
They knew the question was asked sarcastically, and therefore no one decided to say that yes, most of the time they did.
"Ryoga-sensei," chimed in Inui. "My data and recent evaluations suggest that the regulars are ready to add another lead bar to each of their weights. None of us have displayed any inhibitions in our movements for the past week."
"Huh?" Ryoga glanced at the data master, not used to hearing "sensei" after his name. "Go do that, then. But Chibisuke, I need to talk to you, and I know your weights are full anyways, so keep your ass planted here."
The man's smaller version complied, standing and bouncing a tennis ball absentmindedly against the frame of his racquet until the area cleared out.
"Alright," said Ryoga once the brothers were alone. "You missed the ranking tournament while you were gone. Technically, you're not a regular right now- Arai is."
Of all the things Ryoma was expecting, this wasn't one of them. His eye twitched the tiniest amount. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" As he spoke, his hands flitted in a few brief motions to get his meaning across.
Ryoga noticed the tic in his little brother's facial expression and grinned somewhat sheepishly. Tomorrow was Saturday, exactly one week after Kevin and Ryoma's return from America, and also the day of their second match in the Kanto Tournament, where they would face off against Hyotei. He would say that he had been too busy to bring it up, but…
"I forgot."
For a moment, Ryoma wasn't sure how exactly to respond. So, to fill the silent gap, he simply blinked and sighed irately. "So what now? I just have to beat him, right?"
"Heh." Ryoga smirked and clapped his brother on the shoulder, ignoring the boy's slight grimace of discomfort at the contact. "Atta boy! You can use Court C, and make sure you're back soon. We're doing evaluations today and you're not getting out of it."
Spinning on his heel, the freshman snorted and walked off to find his ticket back into the regulars. It took a great deal of sifting through identical blue tracksuits, but he was finally able to track Arai down. The slightly apprehensive look that the second year was wearing told him that the situation had already been explained. That solved one issue; Ryoma hadn't had the slightest idea how to really communicate with someone who couldn't read lips.
He jerked his head towards their court and simply walked away. If Arai already knew what was going on, then there was nothing to talk about. Ryoma knew what would happen, his senpai knew what would happen, the first years knew what would happen, and even the small cluster of girls watching from outside knew what would happen.
And it did.
"Good job, Chibisuke. But watch yourself, one of your serves almost didn't get through." Ryoga scribbled something down on a clipboard, glancing at his younger brother and the collapsed, exhausted junior lying on the ground several feet away.
The green haired boy shot him a quizzical, slightly amused look. "As if."
The elder Echizen snorted, clicking his pen shut. "I find your lack of humility… disturbing," he said in English, knowing Ryoma would understand the joke. "Now that you're officially a regular again, though, you'd better get back to practice. You missed power evaluations, but if you've been wearing your weights you'll be fine there. Now they're setting up the reflex test, so get over there before Kid Captain gives you a set of laps from hell. Or maybe I'll spontaneously forget that you suck at doubles because you missed evaluations and you won't be playing alone tomorrow."
Ryoma made a face at the mere prospect of doubles and, without further comment, spun on his heel and jogged off to rejoin his team. Reflex testing, huh? Hopefully it's not…
The boy ground to a halt, frozen at the sight of three seemingly innocent cones spaced out on Court A. Oh hell…
He had assumed that the team had outgrown this. For Christ's sake, it was a drill that had been introduced years ago. Apparently Inui believed heavily in the basics, though Ryoma honestly couldn't fault him for it. Most of the regulars refined their own play styles, moves, and strategies on their own time, so all that was really left was to condition their bodies and give them experience in practice matches. Those that weren't on the regular squad were being adequately challenged by the drills as it was.
One way or another, though, it seemed they were all in for a gauntlet run today. A gauntlet run that he would win at all costs, lest he have to find out exactly how much Inui had "improved" his juice this time.
He slowed to a walk as he drew level with the other regulars, all the while eyeing the basket of multicolored balls as if it had personally wronged him and everything he stood for.
"Well, now that we're all here, we can begin," Inui announced suddenly, having noticed their youngest member's arrival. "I believe you're all familiar with this drill, no?" A dark, eerie smile spread across the teen's face as he drew a massive pitcher of shifting black liquid from behind his back. "You'll go one at a time, and those who hit the least cones before missing will get to try my new Aozu Version IV."
To their credit, several of the regulars had gotten better at hiding their abject misery and terror at the sight of Inui's concoctions. That wasn't to say that they all had. Several shudders and grimaces ran through the gathering.
Inui looked up from his notebook, snapping it shut with a sadistic grin and a black aura. "Now, first up."
~X~
The diminutive athlete tugged his hat down, and settled into a basic athletic stance, not sparing a glance for his three unconscious teammates a few feet away. Kikumaru-senpai had let himself lose focus, Kaidoh-senpai had fallen for the overused "no, that one's blue" trick, and Momo-senpai was an idiot in general. They deserved their fates.
From his place across the court, Ryoga casually yelled, "Here I go, Chibisuke!" The green-haired man tossed the ball high into the air, bending backwards like a spring. He sent a rocketing, forceful serve to the very edge of the receiver's box, making it as difficult and awkward as he could for his younger brother to return the shot.
All the same, Ryoma smirked and struck the ball cleanly. The boy watched in satisfaction as it swooped toward one of the small tape X's that had been scattered around the court.
"Al-right," drawled the elder Echizen. "Congrats Chibisuke, you just saved yourself from a pitcher of Aozu IV; hit a ten ball rally with me by only hitting the tape and you're cleared from the accuracy testing and drinking a shot of Penal-Tea. Got it?"
A catlike smile slipped onto Ryoma's face. "Why don't we make it twenty hits with five balls?"
The boy's brother snorted, preparing to serve again. "No can do. It would mess up Inui's data. Looks like he's still mada mada… daze!" Ryoga grunted out the last word as he swung his racquet down.
"Is that so?" inquired Ryoma calmly, backhanding the ball ferociously. It curved in a perfect Buggy Whip Shot and slammed into an X on the edge of the court, throwing up a cloud of dust.
"Oi, oi, Chibisuke!" called Ryoga, easily continuing the rally. "When'd you learn to do that? Buggy's shouldn't be possible without a forehand!"
Seeing as he was in the mood to irritate his brother, the freshman smirked and hit the shot again. Instead of using the accepted stance for a curving shot, Ryoma seemed to be hitting a perfectly ordinary backhand- though it only seemed that way to those not looking very carefully. Ryoga, on the other hand, was paying extremely close attention, watching every flex of his brother's muscles and the slightest twist of his limbs. He unleashed his own feline grin.
"Alright, got it," he said in a soft, triumphant whisper. The look on Ryoma's face when the man hit a perfect copy of the supposedly impossible shot was, in a word, priceless.
"Tch."
"Mada mada daze!"
The unoccupied members of the tennis team watched in awe as the two Echizen brothers finished out the ridiculously competitive set, barely needing to pay attention to the X's they were hitting and doing their utmost to annoy each other. They had to be reminded that they were, in fact, only supposed to be hitting ten balls each before stopping.
"Whe-ew!" joked the elder, lacing his fingers into his messy green locks behind his head. "That was fun, nah, Chibisuke? We should do that more often."
The smaller version took a quick sip of water and fanned his face lightly with his hat. "Sounds interesting."
"Damn straight it does." Ryoga ruffled his brother's hair and gave him a shove, thrusting the boy's bag forward. "Now go cool down and get to class, you little punk!"
A rumpled Ryoma walked off, shoving his cap back down over his eyes. Most of the other regulars were stretching by now, seated on the ground by the clubhouse and chatting amicably. He joined them, bending to touch his toes, spinning his arms in large circles, and holding his ankle up behind him. Just when he was finishing his basic routine or cool down exercises, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Behind him stood Fuji, who was practically glowing from the thin sheen of sweat over his skin.
Typical. He doesn't get all red and gross, he freaking glows when he works out.
The brunet held out a hand with a smile. "Partner stretching?" he suggested.
Ryoma chalked the slight heat he felt around his face and neck to the recent physical activity. He gave a curt nod and sat with his legs in front of him, waiting for Fuji to push on his back. The senior complied with a laugh, finding reason for mirth in the smallest things as always.
The two traded places and headed back into the locker room with their team to change for the coming day at school. The entire simple process of getting into their uniforms had become exponentially weirder in high school, for now he had to see Kikumaru-senpai and Oishi-senpai flirting on an almost-daily basis. And, more recently, he had Fuji-senpai shooting him teasing bedroom eyes whenever he was missing an article of clothing.
Something seriously messed up was going to happen here one day, one way or another.
The regulars and unseeded members left the locker room in a large group, eventually getting separated by the flow of students and their different destinations. All too quickly, Ryoma was left in front of his classroom with only Horio, Kachiro, Katsuo, and absolutely no peace and quiet.
The four stepped in, being almost immediately ambushed by Tomoka and her followers, all asking questions and yelling greetings. To Ryoma's disgust, the obsessively persistent Tsukiko slid up to him, clutching his arm and pressing her chest into him.
Mournfully, he thought back to the last thing Fuji said to him before they went their own ways. "You'll be going to all of your classes today, right?" he had said.
Ryoma groaned. He had no clue if he would even survive to get to them all.
Okay, I'll admit it: I'm getting LA-ZY. I've got the muse, but ugghhhhh… NO GOD DAMN TIME (ah tests, they are the bane of FFN writers everywhere, no?)!So, what I've decided on after much agonizing contemplation (clearly) is to once again switch the update day. I'll be posting every two weeks now- GOMEN!
Poor, poor Kaidoh… XD Tell me if that scene was total crap, though, because I've never tried anything like it ^^
Did you know "Atta boy!" is grammatically acceptable? I thought I'd get the red squiggly line of doom when I typed it, but apparently it was fine.
This is getting kinda long-winded, but I've got one last question: Should I cut Ryoma's hair to around the canon length (god knows this story's Ryoma has enough reason)? Review or vote on the poll on my profile, 'kay?