Thanks to everybody who reviewed, and to those who gave very interesting suggestions... I used some of them here... Anyway, just read on!

Chapter 12

Tensai, tensai, tell me why

You can't stand people who pry

Fuji glanced at his watch and let out a sigh. It was only three. Still an hour more to go.

He resumed his pacing, only to be interrupted by a well-beloved voice shouting in frustration. "Can you please stop walking about, aniki? I'm trying to finish my homework here!"

Fuji complied with utmost haste, for about thirty seconds.

"Aniki! If you're that excited, just go now!" Yuuta finally snapped. "Or I'm out of here!"

The honey-haired tensai looked at his younger brother for a moment, before breaking into a wide smile. "Of course, Yuuta! Why didn't I think of that earlier?"

Yuuta shuddered. His aniki was most scary when he wasn't trying to be. Who knew that the renowned prodigy could be so completely undone by a girl?

"Ja, itte kimasu!" Fuji gave Yuuta a big hug just for good measure, and ran out of the door.

Yuuta decided there and then that he would never, ever fall in love.

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Shyoko opened the door to see a familiar brunette smiling down at her. "Fuji! I thought we were meeting at the courts?"

"Aa, but I didn't have anything else to do, so..." He shrugged.

"Come in!" She ushered him to the living room, motioning for him to seat himself on the beige-coloured sofa. "Just give me five minutes, okay?"

He nodded, and as she dashed away to get ready (or so he presumed), he made himself comfortable and proceeded to do some very thorough observations that Inui would have been proud of. His eyes wandered over every inch of the room, finally alighting on the mantelpiece.

Fuji got up and walked over. His fingers touched it lightly, cerulean eyes gazing at the family photo. Shyoko herself in the middle, between her mum and her dad. Shyoko looks more like her dad, he mused. The same hair, and eyes... the nose is definitely from her mum's side, though.

"Let's go, ne?" A voice startled him, and he turned to find that she had finished changing into tennis attire, complete with tennis bag.

"Sure." And they walked out of the house together, after saying a quick goodbye to her mum.

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"Inui-sempai! What are you doing here?"

Inui turned around, his glasses glinting eerily. "Collecting data on Fuji's date."

"Masaka! Fuji-sempai's on a date?!"

Ryoma stared hard at the retreating figures in the distance.

"It's just Shyoko-sempai," He announced calmly.

"Nya! Fujiko's dating Shyoko?! How come he never told me?"

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She got out her tennis racquet, and turned to face Fuji. But he was not looking at her. Instead, he was looking at a seemingly innocent clump of bushes.

"Forgive me, but I need to discuss privacy issues with somebody for a moment." He smirked before walking over to the bushes, with Shyoko trailing along curiously.

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"Fuji-sempai's coming here!"

"Ow! Get off me, Echizen!"

"Baka! Keep your mouth shut!"

"Anou... I don't think we should be doing this..."

"Nya, Ochibi! You're stepping on my shoe!"

"Fssh..."

Ryoma removed the offending foot, and in the process of doing so, overbalanced – which turned out to have dire consequences for all of them, to say the least. He fell onto Eiji, who was quite unable to take the extra weight, and therefore fell onto Inui. The data specialist then managed to entangle himself with Kaidoh, who was busy fighting with Momoshiro. The mass of flailing arms and legs then overran Taka-san and Oishi, rolling out of the bushes and ending up in a very undignified and impressively jumbled heap right in front of Fuji and Shyoko.

There came an assorted muddle of moans and groans as the regulars extricated themselves from the human ball. But they had more pressing matters to worry about than broken limbs.

"And what were all of you doing hiding in a bush, pray tell?" Fuji's voice was simply dripping with honey.

Ryoma tugged his cap lower. Momoshiro shifted uncomfortably, while Eiji looked down at the ground.

"... Ii data?" Inui offered.

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After that little incident, in which no one, thankfully, had to go to the hospital, for either physical or mental problems, Fuji decided that it was time to resume their original activity. After all, they hadn't come here just to torture the rest of the team, no matter how much fun it was. He turned to Shyoko. "You wanted to try something?"

"Ah, yes!" She smiled. "This is what we're going to do. You'll feed me lobs, and when I smash, you hit it back with Higuma Otoshi, okay?"

"No problem." He agreed easily, and that was how they found themselves at opposing ends of the court.

Her first few smashes were effortlessly returned, and she started to get a little frustrated. When her next attempts also yielded no results, her enthusiasism level dropped drastically. In fact, she was quite about ready to give up.

Then she saw Fuji's face. The slightly mocking smile was more aggravating than any 'I told you so', and she vowed that she would seal Higuma Otoshi if it was the last thing she'd ever do.

She used a different technique for her next smash. Twisting her racquet violently to give the ball extra spin, she smashed it hard. The ball flew to Fuji's waiting racquet, and bounced off – into the adjacent court.

There was stunned silence for a moment until Shyoko burst out in ecstatic joy. "I did it! I did it!"

Fuji stared disbelievingly at the ball, then at his racquet, and back at the ball again. It can't be... It must have been a fluke...

"Let's try it again." His tone brooked no argument.

Shyoko complied willingly. She smashed again, this time rotating her body to increase the spin on the ball. The result was even more spectacular, the ball flying to the courts at the furthest end, where a string of curses was suddenly heard – someone had apparently gotten in the way of the ball.

It can't be... Fuji thought numbly. A girl... broke one of my Triple Counters?

It was, indeed, the end of the world as he knew it.

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Fuji took some time to get over the idea that his Higuma Otoshi could be broken, by a girl, no less. But after a few hours, he finally came to terms with the fact that one of his Triple Counters had been sealed, and it wasn't, in actual fact, the end of the world. Life still went on as per normal.

Now that their objective (or at least, Shyoko's objective) had been achieved, it was time to go home. Fuji walked Shyoko home, as befitting the occasion. After all, even if it was a tennis date, it still was a date.

"Now we can win against Hyoutei." Shyoko said confidently.

He waggled a disapproving finger at her. "Getting cocky, eh? Yudan sezu ni ikou!"

And they both cracked up at his imperfect imitation of Tezuka.

They halted in front of her house, both reluctant to say goodbye. Fuji was the first to break the silence.

"Today was fun, ne? Let's do it again sometime."

She smiled. "Sure!"

"Well, then... Ja, mata ashita!" And he leaned down swiftly, his lips brushing her cheek for the briefest of moments before he straightened.

"Bye!"

He left her standing there as if she had just been turned into stone. He himself did not dare to look back, and he was glad that the darkness obscured the scarlet colour of his cheeks.

But if he had looked back, he would have seen her slowly, disbelievingly, put her hand to her cheek, and the lovely flush on her face could have rivalled his.

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Itte kimasu – literal translation: "I'm leaving now but I'll come back"; said when leaving one's home

Masaka – exclamation: "Surely not!"

Ja, mata ashita – literally translated, "Well, till tomorrow!", also carrying the meaning of "See you tomorrow"

Okay, okay, I know this chapter is pretty sappy, but what can I say? Perhaps I watched too many sad tv shows this week... Oh, and the Hyoutei match should be coming up soon... stay tuned!

Review, ne?