Flash Effects
Summary: Before classes start for Fuji, Atobe, and Shiraishi, Fuji finds out something no one can predict. Then, all kinds of problems start popping up.
Warnings: Shounen-ai
Pairings: Shiraishi x Fuji, Tezuka x Atobe, Chitose x Yukimura
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine.
Okay, time for the picnic! I'm sure you guys will like this chapter. It includes a couple references to Japanese food...and I don't really know anything about Japanese food, so I looked some up online (you see, I'm Chinese), and tried to make something out of it:) If there are any cultural references that I might've botched, just let me know. Please read, review, and enjoy!
Oh yeah, and here is the return of Ryoma to my story! And Tezuka, of course. And this is the last chapter, so I hope everyone that read 'Osaka' liked this sequel! And I thank all the reviewers and the anonymous readers!
Chapter 9:
Fuji woke up (as he had been doing the past few days). It was finally Saturday! It was finally the day that they would all see each other. He had woken up pretty early today, since he was excited. They were all to meet at 10:00 am on the tennis courts of the park by Chitose's house. They would probably play doubles matches first, but Fuji had yet to figure out the teams. But that could be done when they got there.
Right now, he had to figure out what he was going to be wearing. He opened his closet doors. The air was slightly chilly, but it was still warm enough for shorts. He had told all his friends to wear tennis clothes and bring tennis racquets. He had specified for them to bring their best racquets, since these matches were going to be serious. He thought it would be kind of strange to be playing with the No. 1 and No. 2 pros in the world, but they had known each other a long time. There would probably be tons of people crowded around the courts to watch Ryoma and Tezuka.
It was still 7:30 am. Fuji had two and a half hours to do whatever. He would've taken a shower, but he thought it might be useless, since they were going to play tennis, anyway. Fixing his hair might be useless, too, since they were all close friends, and he didn't have to look nice for them. What would he do?
He walked outside onto the balcony quietly, careful not to wake Atobe. He had his camera slung around his neck. Fuji smiled. He started snapping pictures of the rising sun. The sky was pink-ish blue, and the blue parts were the parts that it was still night. The moon was still slightly visible, and that was the main subject of most of Fuji's photos.
He seemed to have a strange attraction to taking pictures of the moon lately. He smiled again. You never know when these pictures might come in handy later, he thought. He heard the door to the balcony slide open. "Good morning," Atobe said. "Taking pictures this early?"
"Of course. Sunrise and sunset are the prime times to take pictures. Especially on a day such as this, where the line between night and day appears blurred," Fuji said. "The moon is still able to be seen."
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Atobe said.
"Yeah," Fuji replied. He leaned over and looked at Atobe's watch. 8:32 already? He had been standing out there for an hour? He looked at the sky. It was beginning to brighten and the cerulean color that the sky was turning was staring to appear. At least he had gotten some pretty good shots, Fuji thought. That was the main importance.
"I'm going across the hall to wake up Kuranosuke," Fuji said. He walked into the warm room, happy to be inside again. The fresh air had been nice. As Atobe walked in, Fuji noticed that he had left the door slightly ajar to let some of the air into the room.
Fuji walked across the hall and knocked on Shiraishi's door. After a couple seconds, he tried the knob, and it was open. When he walked in, he saw Shiraishi sleeping peacefully on the bed. Fuji smiled. His boyfriend looked so gentle when he was sleeping. Then again, most people did. It was almost like Tezuka, Fuji thought. A single tear slid down his cheek, though he was smiling, and he saw a hand reach up and brush it away.
"Did you come to wake me?" Shiraishi asked.
"Yeah. I was thinking we should probably leave at around 9:30 to give us some extra time. Just in case, you know?" Fuji suggested.
"Yeah, that's a good idea." Shiraishi got out of the bed and walked into the bathroom. "Just let me take a shower and I'll be right out."
Fuji nodded and swung his legs onto the bed. He reached over on the nightstand and picked up the book he had left there a couple days ago. He really needed to catch up on his reading, and the little time sockets every now and then were good opportunities.
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Fuji and Shiraishi walked down the street, which was still pretty empty at this time of day. It was 9:42, and they were almost at the park. The sun was almost completely up, and the air was still and crisp.
When they got to the courts, they saw someone already there. "Hmm? Who could be here at this time?" Shiraishi said.
"Actually, there are quite a few people who find it wise to play in the morning instead of the afternoon. I was once playing in the morning when I was a kid, and I swung my racquet up and cut my eyelid. It was bleeding all over the place (1). That was a long time ago. Despite that, I still enjoy playing in the morning. Probably because I knew I wasn't really focused when I was playing that day, and I know I'll never do it again." Fuji laughed. "I had to wear a bandage that day, but it was a Sunday."
They were at the tennis courts now, and recognized the two people there as none other than Chitose and Yukimura. "Hey, guys, why are you here do early?" Shiraishi asked.
"We live close, and I couldn't wait for any longer," Yukimura said. "We're just warming up now."
"Are you excited about playing Tezuka and Ryoma?" Fuji said.
"Of course," Chitose said. "There will probably be a lot of people watching, since the #1 and #2 pros are here."
"I've never really thought about how lucky we are to know them personally," Fuji said. "They've improved, though."
"But so have we," Yukimura pointed out. "Are we going to play doubles?"
"Probably. I don't want to take up all the courts. Besides, I don't want the audience just to be watching two out of four matches. So we can't have Tezuka and Ryoma in a team or playing each other," Fuji said.
"Of course they can't be on a team! Then it wouldn't be fair," Chitose said.
Just then, two more people showed up. Coincidentally, it was Atobe and Tezuka, but they were both coming from different directions. They haven't seen each other yet, Fuji noticed. He wanted to see their reactions. He whispered something to the group that was already there, and they all stared at Tezuka, hoping to get a reaction from Atobe. And sure enough, Atobe turned to see Tezuka and leapt into his arms.
"Mada mada dane," a voice said from behind them. Fuji smiled.
"I haven't heard that voice in a long time," Fuji said. He turned around and walked slowly up to Ryoma. They were about the same height now that Ryoma had grown faster than Fuji.
"Fuji-sempai," Ryoma said. He leaned in. "It has been far too long."
In the background, Tezuka and Shiraishi twitched. Chitose walked up to Tezuka. "Maa, the boy has grown to be much more like Fuji than you," he commented.
"I think I've noticed that," Tezuka said under his breath.
Coming to Tezuka and Shiraishi's rescue, Chitose shouted, "So, how are we going to divide the teams?"
"Senri," Yukimura said quietly. "You know I already have that taken care of."
"I just wanted to come to their rescue." Chitose pointed at Tezuka and Shiraishi.
"I wish you hadn't done that," Yukimura said. "I wanted to see how this played out." He laughed and gathered everyone in a group. "After finding out that we were going to play tennis, Senri and I decided to take the initiative to decide the teams. Now all we have to do is decide who's playing who. Here are the teams: Ryoma and Fuji, Tezuka and Atobe, Senri and Shiraishi, and Kintarou and myself."
"The decisions were completely random, up to the last flip of the coin," Chitose added. Everyone laughed.
"Let's spin a racquet. If it's smooth, than you'll be playing Ryoma and Fuji, and if it's rough, you'll be playing Tezuka and Atobe. That way, we won't have the two pros playing each other," Yukimura said. "And audience is no doubt going to show up, and we don't want them to be watching just one match. Senri, Shiraishi, do us the honor."
Chitose spun the racquet. "Smooth," he said. "Ryoma and Fuji."
Ryoma looked at Fuji who looked back at him. "Let's crush them," Ryoma said.
"As competitive as ever, Ryoma," Fuji said. "We're going to take this one."
"You better have improved, Fuji-sempai," Ryoma said.
"Of course I have."
"Three set match, Echizen to serve!" a random bystander that they chose as the referee shouted.
"We really need to get ourselves a referee," Fuji said under his breath at the net. By now, quite an audience had accumulated, even though it had only been a couple of minutes. "Ryoma, I hope your serve has gotten better," he called.
"I hope it's good enough to meet your standards!" He tossed the ball high into the air and swung at it. Fuji couldn't see the speed at which he swung, and he was sorry about that, but judging from the sound that the racquet hitting the air made, Fuji knew it had to be fast.
The ball flew past his head and right onto the service line. Instead of stopping on the ground to spin upwards, it just shot up and to the side, like his original Twist Serve, but a lot faster and harder. Shiraishi didn't even move.
"Wow," Fuji said quietly. "Impressive."
"Isn't it?" Ryoma said and smirked. Fuji walked to the other service box.
"15-0!"
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"Game to Echizen-Fuji pair! 1 game to 0!"
Fuji smiled and walked to the other court. He hadn't even done anything that game. Every ball was just left to Ryoma's serve. This was the game that Fuji would show off himself. And as he was walking to the other court behind Ryoma, he said, "It's my turn to show off now."
Chitose was serving, and Fuji stood at the baseline to return the serve. He almost forgot about Chitose's new 'invisible serve' until he tossed the ball into the air. Fuji had analyzed it in his head the last time during that one game where he was playing on a team with Chitose and had figured out how to return it. He just didn't know if he could do it.
The serve was a lot like a really dramatic version of Fuji's Disappearing Serve. The ball cut out wide when Chitose first hit it, but was somehow pulled back into the service box for a fraction of a second. Then, if it was hit fast enough, people couldn't see it. It would cut out wide again and be pulled back by the same force to drill into the fence as if it were following the same straight path the entire time. If Fuji could get toe the service box in time and hit it just as it bounce up, he could return it. But it would be really difficult with Chitose's speed in the ball as well. He would also have to hit the ball on the far right side so that it would actually hit, because if he tried to hit up the back, the ball would already be curving out of the way.
Chitose hit the ball, and sure enough, it 'disappeared' right off the bat. Fuji ran up to the service line and tried to return the ball just as it hit the ground. He felt the ball hit his racquet, but it framed it. As soon as the ball came in contact with the racquet, though, it became visible again. "Interesting," Fuji murmured as he watched the ball roll off the court.
"15-0!"
Fuji tried his technique again. He swung the racquet even more to his right, and this time, he returned it. He heard the crowd's whispers and he smiled. Perfect, the crowd was focused on him. Surprised, Chitose returned Fuji's shot with a regular down the line shot. Even more perfect. This was his chance. He swung the racquet a particular way that everyone on the court recognized.
"Gatekeeper," Ryoma murmured.
"No…" Chitose said. He tried to return it, but it went flying out.
"Ryoma, meet my Gatekeeper #2," Fuji said. Ryoma turned and looked at him, wide-eyed.
"When did you develop this?" Ryoma asked.
"Just this summer, actually. They've both seen it before, and it hasn't been broken yet." Fuji opened his eyes and smiled. "As long as you can't tell which one I'm going to hit."
Ryoma smirked. "When I said 'have you improved', I wasn't expecting this."
Fuji smiled back. "We're going to take this one," he repeated.
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Sure enough, with a combination of both Ryoma's and Fuji's skills, they won the match 6-1, 6-2. Fuji used the Gatekeeper quite a lot of times, and he also used his set of triple counters and that move that he had stolen from that one boy only a little over a week ago.
When Fuji walked up to the net to shake hands with Shiraishi, he smiled. It felt like it had been so long, but in truth, school had only started Thursday of the week before last week.
"Fuji-sempai, your tennis has improved greatly," Ryoma said.
"I have to agree with his statement," Yukimura said. "I haven't seen that move yet at all, and you just go all out with the modified version. You'd be a great professional tennis player."
Fuji shrugged. "I guess that's just not the path I chose to take."
"As long as you don't let go of tennis, Fuji," Tezuka said. "It has been such a big part of all of our lives." Tezuka and Atobe had surprisingly lost to Yukimura and Kintarou. Amazingly, the winners of that match were a really good doubles team. Fuji, Kintarou, and Yukimura seemed to be two people out of their group of eight that could play doubles with anyone. Since both Yukimura and Kintarou were on one team, they seemed like they had been playing doubles with each other their entire lives.
When the group got back to the picnic site, Fuji almost fell onto the blanket that had been set up for them. He was, despite how he looked, very tired. Fuji wasn't the only one, he thought, as everyone else sat down exhaustedly around him.
"Hey, who brought food?" Kintarou asked. Tezuka put his hand over his mouth.
"I didn't bring any," he said.
"Neither did I," Ryoma said.
"Ah, it's alright. You two are our guests," Fuji said.
"Are you sure?" Tezuka asked.
"Of course. You can't do anything about it now, anyway." Fuji looked into the basket. "I brought three dishes, Kintarou brought three, and Senri, Yukimura, and Kuranosuke each brought one."
"Does he like to cook?" Ryoma asked, pointing to Kintarou.
"Yep! I love to cook! Here, I brought these rolled omelets, tuna salad rolls, and pickled Chinese cabbage!"
"I brought pot stickers, Chinese style cold noodles, and some sushi," Fuji said.
"I brought some rice crackers," Yukimura said.
"I brought fried chicken," Shiraishi said.
"And I brought stir fried chicken and egg over rice," Chitose said.
They took each of their own foods out of the picnic basket, and Atobe, Tezuka, and Ryoma stared. "That is a lot of food," Tezuka commented.
"Yeah, I guess I didn't specify how much to prepare," Fuji said. He smiled. "We can always save the leftovers, anyway."
The group was eating in a comfortable silence. Finally, Fuji broke it. "Ryoma, I noticed that you are a lot easier to talk to and a lot more open." He looked at the younger boy for a moment. "And a lot taller."
Ryoma blinked and the smirked. "Yeah, I guess I am. Fuji-sempai has changed, too. You're less…sadistic?"
Fuji laughed. "Thank you. And Tezuka is also more approachable and amiable. And Atobe is less egotistical."
Tezuka nodded, and Atobe said, "I can't let go of the infamous, 'Be awed at my prowess', though." Everyone else laughed, too.
"Everyone seems to have shifted more to the normal side," Ryoma said. Just then, Kintarou popped a piece of sushi into his mouth and his face turned almost as red as his hair.
"HOOOOOT!!!!!! WASABI!!!!!!!" he shouted. Other people at the park were looking at him. He swallowed the sushi grudgingly and downed an entire pitcher of water. Fuji chuckled.
"Or not," Ryoma said.
Fuji shrugged. "I couldn't resist dunking one of the pieces top and bottom in wasabi. And I coated the inside of the seaweed, too. I thought someone would notice, and I just tried to keep you guys absorbed in the conversation."
"So that's why you broke the ice," Chitose said. "I'm lucky I didn't get it."
"Haha, yeah. I don't think Tezuka would've minded, though, right?" Fuji looked at Tezuka, who kept silent and crossed his arms.
Fuji shifted. They started eating in comfortable silence again, until Tezuka started speaking this time. "Hey, Fuji, have you done anything since you got here?"
Fuji smiled at Tezuka gratefully and said, "Oh, yeah. Shiraishi and I—" he looked at his boyfriend who grinned at him, "—have won an award already."
"Oh really?" Tezuka said. Everyone nodded.
Ryoma said, "Fuji-sempai, when we're done eating, maybe you can show us the...um…"
"Photograph?" Fuji finished.
"Yeah. I wasn't sure what you won it for," Ryoma explained.
"Of course it was photography," Fuji said. "It was the Annual Osaka Autumn Photography Contest."
"Oh, is Shiraishi a photographer, too?" Tezuka asked.
"No, but he's a graphic artist. He helped me with, you know, editing the picture."
"Oh, I see."
"So, uh, are we done here?" Fuji asked. He looked around. Everyone had finished eating, and was now looking at him.
"Yeah, I'll help you clean up," Chitose said.
"Same," Yukimura said.
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Fuji was ever so innocently picking up a plate when something hit him in the side of the head. Something hard, heavy, and plastic. He turned toward the source of the disturbance and was about to yell at the thrower when water poured all over his face. He opened his eyes and blinked. Yukimura was standing near him, covering his mouth.
"I'm so sorry," he said. "I pulled the blanket out from under the things and the water bottles flew everywhere. This one was open. And I think there was another one…"
"Ow!" Chitose shouted at that moment. "Who hit me with an open water bottle? I'm soaked!"
"Yukimura did," Fuji said innocently, pointing to the said boy. He smiled.
"Why you…" Chitose started to walk towards Yukimura, who backed away. He took a water bottle off the ground and poured it all over the smaller boy. Yukimura, Chitose, and Fuji were laughing. Chitose picked his boyfriend up and spun him around.
"What's going on over here?" Shiraishi said. He was walking towards the three of them and Kintarou was skipping around next to him.
"Think fast!" Chitose shouted and threw an open water bottle at Shiraishi. It hit his shoulder, bounced off, and dumped water all over Shiraishi and Kintarou. Soon, there was water flying everywhere, and even Atobe and Ryoma joined in. Tezuka just stood aside and sighed.
"Tezuka, join in!" Fuji called. Tezuka just shook his head, but there was a water bottle aimed at him anyway. He threw his hand up and caught it, but the water still spilled on him.
"Fuji," Tezuka said in a stern voice, but Fuji was laughing and not paying attention to him. Fuji soon found himself covered in ice cold water. He shouted in surprise. He opened his eyes and wiped aside his hair to find Shiraishi and Kintarou on either side of him with the cooler over him and halfway melted ice on the grass.
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"I think I'm the wettest out of all of you guys," Fuji said, while they were walking down the street back to the college dorm.
"You and Seiichi," Chitose said.
"Oh well, you two started it, anyway," Shiraishi said. He shrugged. "You deserved it."
"It was fun, right?" Fuji said, wringing out his shirt.
"Yeah, it was."
They stepped onto the college campus and everyone who was outside stopped what they were doing and stared at the boys. They walked into the building and through the hallways. Even in the school lacking people with any interest in romance, the girls were still staring at them. Even the boys couldn't help but notice the mob of eight handsome guys.
"Good timing, guys," Fuji said. "We're getting a lot of attention." Shiraishi and Atobe laughed. "You guys know how people in this school don't even spare a glance at others, when they're absorbed in their school work."
They stepped into the room that Fuji and Atobe shared, and Ryoma and Tezuka immediately noticed the picture. "As expected of you, Fuji-sempai," Ryoma said.
"Haha, I'm surprised you knew which one it was right away," Fuji said.
"Well, I can tell that all the pictures hanging up are taken by you, but I knew it was this one because it has both you and Shiraishi in it," Ryoma explained. He leaned in and read the plaque aloud. "The Forbidden Love."
"Great picture," Tezuka said simply. "What was the theme?"
"Shadows," Fuji replied.
"I can tell," Ryoma said. "Were the other finalists any good?"
"Oh yeah," Fuji said. "There were times that I thought, 'Well, if I haven't gotten anything yet, I probably won't be getting anything'. Especially the second place one."
"Yeah, that one was pretty amazing," Shiraishi said.
They stepped outside into the bright sunlight. Tezuka looked at his watch. "Oh, I have a plane to catch in about an hour. I'm afraid I'm going to have to be going soon. It's for a tournament. Ryoma's coming, too."
Fuji blinked. "If you had told me there was a tennis tournament, I would've scheduled the reunion at a different time."
"We didn't find out until a couple days ago, and we knew you already planned it out and stuff," Ryoma said.
Fuji laughed. "Planned? We pretty much played by ear. The only things planned were the picnic and the tennis."
"Well then, you're good at it. I had a lot of fun. Most I've had in a while, actually," Tezuka said. "I really hope to see you guys later sometime. And Keigo," he walked up to Atobe and leaned in. "This is for you." He tilted the slightly shorter boy's chin up and kissed him.
Fuji smiled and leaned against Shiraishi's shoulder, as did Yukimura to Chitose. Ryoma looked at Kintarou. "Does this mean that we're supposed to get together?"
"Absolutely not!" Kintarou shouted, looking at Ryoma like he was insane.
"Relax, I was joking," Ryoma said. Kintarou looked at Ryoma again and blushed, but the boy had already turned away.
Fuji turned his attention back to Tezuka and suddenly ran up and threw his arms around his neck. "Tezuka, I loved you." He backed away and held Shiraishi's hand. "I loved you," he repeated. Shiraishi squeezed the smaller hand. "But we're strong. We can forgive and move on, right?" Fuji smiled at Tezuka.
THE END!!!!!!!!!!
(1): This happened to me not too long ago...actually, it was on Mother's Day. I just decided to include it in my story because I needed something for Shiraishi and Fuji to talk about.
Okay, about the water bottle thing...food fights are too cliche, in my opinion. Needed something different. And it's not like they would've been carrying hoses or water guns around with them at any given time. xD;; Gotta be realistic here!
And with Ryoma and Kintarou, that was honestly just a spur of the moment. Everyone else had a boyfriend already, right? But nothing else will be added on to that little hint there, because I'm not planning to write anything more to this storyline. Sorry! I'm currently working on a YukiFuji fic, and I think it'll turn out to be a hit. It's kind of going to be more like Painless, if you've read that...more science-fiction type. Which is why I think you'll like it, because it's fun to write so far. So look for that on the fanfictions page soon!
Thanks again to all readers and reviewers, I hope you enjoyed the story!