A/N: Well, here goes. My little attempt at drama…

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Mistaken Identity

10

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"Echizen, what are you doing?" asked Fuji. Ryoma ignored him and continued walking.

"Echizen, stop," said Tezuka. Ryoma ignored him too.

"Nani Echizen, what the hell's the mater with you?" Momoshiro looked nervous. It was bad enough to ignore Fuji. Ignoring Tezuka was unthinkable.

"Nya, ochibi. Please stop before you make things worse," pleaded Kikumaru. Ryoma ignored them both.

"You guys don't think this has anything to do with the book yesterday do you?" whispered Kikumaru.

"You mean Sakuno's the girl he's trying to get?"

"That would explain why Ryoma is always miserable when he sees them together."

"Oh, you noticed too?"

"I think we all did."

"Inui, what's the chance of Sakuno being the one he's after?"

"The likelihood of it being Sakuno is ninety-eight percent."

"Who makes up the other two percent?"

"Tomoka and a miscellaneous category."

"There's no way he bought that book for Tomoka."

"Ninety-nine percent chance then."

"Everyone shut up and pay attention."

The regulars stood silently and watched as Ryoma stopped in front of a taken-aback Atori.

"What did you say?" The tightness in Ryoma's voice could be heard by everyone in the silence. It sent shivers down some of the members' spines. Unfortunately, Atori was not as skilled in picking up murderous vibes.

"I said, I doubt you're tennis prodigy seeing as you run so slow."

Ryoma clenched his fists. The team members sensed that Atori's life was on the borderline of life and death.

"Say that again." This time everyone was spooked by Ryoma's deathly calm whisper. Everyone but Atori.

"What, are you both slow and deaf? Let's face it, a six year old could run faster than you."

A thin trickle of blood ran down Ryoma's tightly clenched fists. The regulars tensed. They'd never seen Ryoma lose his cool like this before. If they didn't do something now, Atori might not wake up tomorrow morning. Simultaneously, they rushed forward and jerked Ryoma away from Atori.

"No, let me hit him. Just once. No, let me go. I only need one shot. Please. Just give me one shot at him," pleaded Ryoma as he struggled against his fellow team members. And for a freshman up against eight people older and stronger than he was, he put up a damn good fight.

"NANI RYOMA-KUN, WHY ARE YOU SO CRUEL TO MY COUSIN?!"

Ryoma stopped struggling and the team members dropped him in astonishment. Cousin?! Atori was Sakuno's COUSIN?!

"That's it. I'm going to the doctor's first thing tomorrow to have my hearing checked." Kikumaru informed the rest of the team.

"I don't think you'll need to Eiji. We all heard it." Fuji had another one of his smiles on his face.

Ryoma stared at Sakuno, flabbergasted.

"Atori's your c…c…cousin?" he stammered.

"Yes. He is. I know he can be a bit…competitive sometimes but that didn't give you any right to hurt him."

"But he's blonde."

"Well I can't control what he does with his hair!"

"I don't believe it."

"Have it your way." Ryoma watched helplessly as Sakuno turned walked off, Atori not far behind her.

A/N: I was planning to throttle Atori in some way, I'd even written a nice little bit for it. But some of you seem to like Atori so I decided not to ruin his face. XD By the way, this is going to be the second-last chapter. Yes, it's devastating. The world will probably whiz out of orbit because of it. Alas, such is the world we live in. Oh woe is me! Okay, I really need to seek a therapist. Sorry, am I scaring you?