Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or its cute and or hot characters. This is just fanfiction and I'm not making money off this 'cause if I did, I'd be rich and not here.
Chapter 2 – Kawamura Takashi
It was that day once a year that Kawamura Takashi used to look forward to. Nowadays, however, he didn't really care. Most of the time, his friends forgot, his dad was busy with the restaurant and well… He usually felt depressed on his birthday.
That's right, his birthday.
So that morning, he did his usual routine, trying to forget the fact that it was his birthday and continue smiling.
After all, it was pretty painful having no one remembering your birthday even though you told them tons of times.
As he was walking down the stairs, fixing his uniform and grabbing his tennis bag, he heard his dad call from downstairs saying something about someone was it?
"What?" he yelled in return, hoping that his father would repeat what he just said and felt his heart raise at the fact that maybe, just maybe, his dad would at least say "happy birthday" to him.
His hope came crashing down.
"Someone is here to see you!" he said instead as Kawamura reached the ground floor. He saw that his dad was wiping the counter with a damp rag.
"A-ah…" he replied as he placed his tennis bag strap on his shoulder and made his way towards the door.
"Takashi!"
He turned around, a questioning look flared upon his face.
"Happy birthday and have a safe trip," was his dad's reply plus a grin.
He smiled. "Thank you Otou-san(1), and I will," he said firmly, walking out the door.
There, he met a surprise. Standing next to the door, on the sidewalk was none other than the one and only tennis prodigy Fuji Syuusuke. His friend…
"Good morning Taka-san," he greeted with his usual smile, eyes closed.
Somehow, his smile seemed to be more…brighter…than usual…
"Ah! Good morning Fujiko-chan(2)," he greeted, using Fuji's nickname. He smiled in return and the two of them were on their way to morning tennis practice.
It was the typical November morning, with colorful leaves falling to the ground caused by the sudden cool weather and the chilly air.
As the two walked in silence towards the junior high school, other students jogged past – in a hurry to attend a meeting or just to get there early – or others would strut pass them. Some of them went in groups – chattering about in loud decibels.
When they reached the entrance, Fuji turned around with a smile once again. "We're here…" he stated.
Kawamura chuckled, "You're stating the obvious, Fujiko-chan," he teased him.
Fuji only kept grinning and then said, "Well, let's go…"
The third year power house nodded and followed the tennis prodigy inside the school grounds.
--
By the time they reached the clubroom, almost everyone who were changing had gone silent the moment Kawamura walked in. He turned his head around to see what was going on and what he was missing out on. But nothing out of the ordinary was seen.
So he continued his way, oblivious to strange looks from his other team mates. He quickly changed, not wanting to be late for the morning practice but by the time he had finished, almost everyone had disappeared.
Next to him, there was Momoshiro Takeshi, who had just finished putting his bag in the little locker and was about to go. Noticing that Kawamura was staring, he grinned and offered, "Why don't we go together?"
Kawamura nodded and smiled in return, "Thanks," he replied quickly pushing the rest of his clothing into the locker and rushing out the door with Momoshiro.
"You two!! You're both late!"
That wasn't the first Kawamura had heard those words and he doubt they would be the last, but this was the first time he heard them directed to him. He was late, he realized, what a way to start off a day – especially on his birthday.
"A-Ah!! We got caught!!" Momoshiro said as he turned around to face the wrath of the captain for being late.
Kawamura followed and bowed his head, "I'm sorry Tezuka, I don't know –"
He was interrupted.
"Momoshiro – 20 laps for being late and Kawamura – I'll let you off the hook since this is the first time you've been late," Tezuka Kunimitsu said with a stern tone as he dismissed the both of them and walked towards his vice captain to talk to about tennis.
Kawamura was surprised to be let off. He thought he'd be running at least 40 laps, not none. But it really was his first time. He shook his head, enough thinking, it was time to practice!!
--
Echizen Ryoma panted as he rushed into the empty clubroom. Quickly, he pushed the doors open and rushed inside. Once in, he managed to take off his school uniform to exchange it with his tennis one without getting any buttons stuck in his hair. (The last time he tried to do this in less than 5 seconds, he failed and got a button stuck in his hair but - deep breath - that's another story).
Once he managed to achieve his goal, he placed his Fila cap on his head and walked out the door.
He walked silently, waiting for the key words –
"Echizen!!"
Ah there was the first one.
"20 laps for being late!!"
And more words… Ah well, might as well explain to him.
Echizen turned and faced the captain of the tennis club. "Buchou, I was on library duty," he answered, explaining why he was late to practice.
The captain looked at his disinteresting, but remembering what he had told himself, he let out a sigh and then, "Fine, but tell us if you're on library duty next time."
"Yes Buchou," Echizen answered in his usual monotone voice.
"Now get to practice."
Echizen nodded and was about to go off but something stopped him. A hand on his shoulder. He turned, expecting to see the captain but it was Fuji Syuusuke – both his hands were on the captain's and his own shoulder.
"Eh? Fuji-senpai…?" he asked, wondering what was going on.
"Fuji…" Tezuka growled as he remembered that "incident" on his birthday.
"Dear Kuni-chan, would you like to remind us what date is today?" Fuji went straight to the point without any hurdles, smiling sweetly and almost venomous.
Tezuka only looked at Fuji was crazy. "November 18th."
"And…?" Fuji continued as if waiting for something.
"It's Saturday…"
"And…?"
"I don't know…?"
"He's waiting for the announcement of Kawamura Takashi's birthday, Tezuka," a voice out of nowhere said.
Both Echizen and Tezuka let out a small gasp of surprise at the sudden appearance of their data player – Inui Sadaharu.
"B-Birthday? Another one? Already?" Echizen asked firstly.
"Yes, Kawamura is turning 16 today," Inui said with a maniacal grin, "Good data…"(3)
Both captain and freshmen backed away from him slowly while Fuji only smiled his usual smile.
"Exactly, I've already told the others ahead of time since I knew that you wouldn't remember," his smile became brighter, "So the clubroom is probably already set up by now."
Tezuka gave Fuji his most surprised looks (which wasn't very surprised-looking) and glared at him. "You should have told me, I would have helped," he replied, surprised the one who wanted to surprise him. (XD)
"Well… What shall we do now? Ah, just dismiss practice early for this afternoon," Fuji said smiling.
"…Fine…"
Echizen was standing there confused while Inui scribbled down notes in his green data book.
"Echizen."
Echizen jerked.
"You still have practice."
Echizen groaned and ran off.
Inui grinned and scribbled some more.
"You too Inui."
Inui had already disappeared.
"Fuji too."
Fuji had disappeared a while ago.
It was going to be a long day…
--
Kawamura sat down, heaving sigh and sipped his cooled drink. It was so nice to have a cool drink of water after practicing for a while… Especially on a day like this – nice and cool. But when you played or exercised of any sort, it got hot.
Kawamura watched as Fuji, first walked away from the group consisting of Tezuka, Inui and the always-late-to-practice Echizen. Obviously Echizen had had library duties or something for Tezuka to excuse him from the 20 laps for being late.
He noticed that Echizen had run off, followed by Inui, leaving Tezuka by himself. He wondered what happened.
He felt someone sit down next to him and saw that it was Kaidou Kaoru. The snake-like tennis player.
"Hi Kaidou," he greeted with a smile, releasing the straw from his mouth.
Kaidou nodded and greeted, "Hi Kawamura-senpai."
It was then that he noticed that the younger tennis player was breathing deeply. Apparently he had had just finished a practice match with… He turned to survey the courts. There was Momoshiro hitting a rally with Oishi, Fuji talking to Inui, Echizen hitting balls to a wall, Tezuka surveying the practice so that left…
It was then that he saw Kikumaru bouncing up to him with a smile, and breathing heavily.
"Hi-hi Taka-san!" he greeted with a smile and glomped him for a while before letting him go.
"Hi E-Eiji (4)," Kikumaru said, trying to catch his breath from being glomped with such a force that seemed almost impossible for someone like Kikumaru Eiji.
Kikumaru plopped himself down next to Kawamura and grabbed a drink and started gulping down the cool water. Once he finished, he let out a sigh and wiped a sweat forming on his forehead. "So what are you doing after school, Taka-san?"
Kawamura – who had been just taking out his racket and was about to go and hit some more balls – looked back with a surprised look. "Eh?" he asked, "Oh um, probably helping my dad again," he answered shyly.
Kikumaru only pouted, "Aww!! Taka-san doesn't want to hang out with meeeee!!" he complained in a sing-song voice.
The other boy's eyes widened in panic, "A-Ah!! Eiji!! I didn't mean it like that! I'm just – Eiji, please stop crying!!"
Yes the hyper acrobatic had started to cry – not really but poor Kawamura couldn't tell. (Crocodile tears).
"E-Eiji!!" Kawamura said again, "P-Please stop crying!!" His mind raced with thoughts on trying to figure out how to stop the cat-like tennis player from crying, "I can try asking my dad if I can come with you!!" he offered.
Kikumaru brightened up immediately, "Really?" he asked, eyes shining with happiness, "YAY!!" He glomped the power house once again.
He got up quickly and waved back at Kawamura, "See ya later then!!" Kawamura nodded but knew that Kikumaru wouldn't notice.
Kawamura sighed, somehow he knew it would be a long day…
--
By the time practice was over, everyone had already gone inside the clubroom to change to had already gone to their homeroom class. However, only one person was left on the courts, appearing to be waiting for Kawamura to finish washing his face with the cold water.
"Ah! Hi Echizen-kun!" he greeted Seigaku Tennis Club's rookie regular.
The said regular only nodded with his usual bored expression and said, "Isn't Kawamura-senpai supposed to be in the clubroom by now?" he asked in a bored tone.
"Ah, well… I stayed behind to finish helping the freshmen pick up balls," Kawamura explained – too good for his own.
"Kawamura-senpai should really just stick to practicing and leave the ball picking to the other freshmen," Echizen replied.
"Well… It would feel… awkward…"
"It's more awkward having a third year regular helping you."
Kawamura only chuckled slightly as the both of them headed towards the clubroom. Echizen stepped aside and let Kawamura – with a questioning stare – open the door.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" the seven other regulars shouted or in Tezuka case – said.
"E-Eh?" Kawamura asked and turned around to look at Echizen, "Is it your birthday?"
Echizen slapped his forehead, and shook his head, "No Kawamura-senpai," he stepped in and turned around, "It's for you."
Kawamura only blushed out of embarrassment and found himself being glomped once again, by Kikumaru. "Nya!! Taka-san, happy birthday!!"
"You're not forgotten Taka-san," Fuji added with his usual smile.
"Happy birthday Kawamura," Inui and Tezuka said almost at the same time.
"Happy birthday Kawamura-senpai," Kaidou and Echizen said in a monotone while Momoshiro cheerfully shouted, "Happy birthday Taka-san!"
"Guys…" Kawamura started as he felt his eyes water, before Kikumaru gave him a slap on the back of his head.
"Don't cry Taka-san! It's your birthday and you don't want to have puffy eyes at homeroom now do you, nya?" Kikumaru asked with his usual cat-like grin.
Kawamura nodded as he looked on. His friends were smiling, he wasn't alone, they remembered! Well, maybe one of them did and he told the others – then again he didn't tell anyone his when his birthday was since Inui asked the first day of Jr. High…
He wiped his eyes and smiled, "Thank you, you guys…"
"You'll be late if you don't hurry, Kawamura," Tezuka said in his usual stern tone.
"Correction, we'll be late if we don't hurry, Tezuka," Inui corrected the captain of the Seigaku Tennis Club, receiving a glare in return.
Inui only did his creepy laugh.
--
Throughout the rest of the day, almost every tennis club member had gone up to Kawamura and wishing him a happy birthday. He had thanked them and smiled gratefully that someone had remembered – make that a whole club!!
A few teachers had even asked him to stay behind to speak with him about having a happy birthday and if he was late, they excused him.
Probably 'cause he had never been late before and that was the first time since a teacher had held him back to talk.
His 16th birthday had to be his happiest and most joyous.
By the time he had gotten to afternoon practice, they had skipped practice in order to celebrate his birthday. Everyone crowded in the clubroom, singing the traditional song off key and each had cake. Of course it wasn't as eventful as Kunimitsu's birthday but he still had fun.
As the time when they usually left for home came, everyone followed Kawamura to his sushi restaurant and celebrated a double – just for the regulars.
--
Later that night, as the restaurant was finally cleaned thanks to a few regulars, Kawamura laid in his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
The party had been short and sweet but he still had tons of fun. He had received a lot of birthday wishes and a few presents from the tennis club members. Mostly grip tapes, tennis videos, and other tennis-related items. Some had considered his other hobby – karate and gotten him the outfit for it. Another had gotten him some sushi books with recipes inside.
He smiled and an arm rested over his forehead.
No, he wasn't alone. He had his friends by his side, he wouldn't forget them and they wouldn't forget him even if he would quit next year.
He wasn't alone…
Author's Note: I just thought Kawamura needed some love. ((heart, heart)) And I guess some people feel that way on their birthdays too… If anyone's birthday is coming up, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! XDDD Once again, it's un-betaed.
1 - I suppose that Kawamura calls his dad in a formal way.
2 - I think Kawamura calls Fuji that. Not sure.
3 - English for "Il data…"
4 - Not sure how Kawamura calls Kikumaru – so I went by first name.
Next is our favorite acrobatic!!
Please tell me what you think of this fanfiction.