Happy birthday Yanagi Kotarou and Echizen Ryoma!! (Yanagi plays Echizen in the TeniMyu. His birthday is Dec. 23rd...I think...)
Happy Birthday
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis – 'cause if I did, I would know how to draw the bodies… (Gosh that sounded weird…)
Chapter 4 – Echizen Ryoma
Several weeks had passed since Kikumaru Eiji's mini birthday party and Echizen Ryoma found himself lying on his bed, in the middle of December. He sighed, a frown creased on his forehead and wondered if any of his senpai would remember that today was his birthday.
What was he saying? Of course not! They were too busy enjoying long winter break and the cool, slushy feeling of snow. They were too busy celebrating the American holiday of Christmas…
He closed his eyes and let Karupin – his Himalayan cat – jump on him and settled down to rest on his chest – rising steadily up and down, breathing.
Feeling a bit warm all of a sudden, he pulled himself up, Karupin jumping off him and onto the ground where he gave a hissed at his owner and pillow and ran off downstairs for a place to sleep.
Echizen, however, quickly dressed into warm jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, grabbing his tennis bag on the way and quickly went downstairs, ignoring his father.
"Oi boy! Where are you going?" the perverted man asked of his son as he looked up unconcern from his "newspaper".
Echizen only gave him a look that said, "Shut up Oyaji or I'm going to tell 'Kaa-san about your magazines" or "I'm just going to ignore you so bye" and grabbed his jacket, putting it on quick and he was out the door by the time Echizen Nanjirou had looked up again.
He scratched his head.
"Now where did that boy go?"
--
Echizen frowned and tugged his scarf even closer to his body. Walking aimlessly in the soft snow, he found himself heading for a…park? He blinked, confused as to why he was even here, then shrugged and figured that if he was here already, why not stay a while?
So he took a seat on one of the swings and started to swing little by little…
Last year, he had been in the U.S… And though they celebrated Christmas and his birthday before… It didn't feel quite right… He frowned. At least his parents remembered… Wait, why would they forget anyways?
And his friends? He never bothered to make any… though a lot of girls came up to him and tried to start a conversation… The longest one had to have been at least five minutes and that was when she had asked him out… Jeez…
He closed his eyes and opened them slowly, staring at the soft white ground.
Hm… Was it just him or were things getting foggier? And why did his eyelids feel…heavier all of a sudden?
He yawned, unaware that a pair of sapphire eyes were watching him.
Ah, it seemed his body had decided to feel heavy all of a sudden, he thought as his grasp on the chains holding up the swings loosen.
Hm… That warm body felt good… Wait, warm body? He blinked, opening his eyes and all of a sudden wide awake.
"Nice of you to wake up, Echizen."
"F-Fuji-senpai!" Echizen exclaimed as he pulled himself up from being held up by his senpai. He was about to fall right into the snow face-first too!! He looked away, cheeks flushing from embarrassment. Wait, what was his senpai doing here?
"What are you doing here, Fuji-senpai?" he asked as soon as he calmed himself down.
He smiled, eyes lidded and said, "Just wanted to show you something…"
"Eh?" Echizen looked up, eyebrows creasing in confusion.
"Come on, I'll show you now," he said as he got up, brushing the snow off his pants and offering a hand to the freshmen.
Echizen only raised an eyebrow before taking the offered hand.
He soon found himself meeting the ground…
…with his senpai on top of him…
"Ah! Sorry Echizen, I must have slipped on some ice…" he apologized and explained as he got up once again and brushing the snow off. Echizen followed the same suit – not wanting it to happen again.
"Alright, what is it that you wanted to show me?" he asked, clearly impatient.
"Hold on, hold on, ah! Follow me!" Fuji said as he started walking in a random direction.
Echizen followed silently behind. It had been around lunchtime when he left and now it was getting later – plus the sun was setting sooner nowadays…
Lost in thought, he bumped into his still senpai.
"Uh… Fuji-senpai?" he asked questioningly as he raised an eyebrow to inquire what was going on.
"Look Echizen!" Fuji answered, raising a hand to point to where the sun was setting.
Indeed it was setting, beautiful hues of orange, red and yellow overtook the sky as well as the dark midnight blues, purples and light dancing pinks. A light green washed over the colors almost like creating a rainbow. (1)
"Happy birthday, Echizen."
For the first time that day, Echizen smiled.
"Ah! And Echizen, that's not all your present…" Fuji replied as he turned around, grabbed Echizen's wrist and started to drag him elsewhere.
"Eh?!"
--
"Ta-daaa!!" Fuji said with a smile as he waved his arms in effect as they appeared in front of Kawamura's Sushi Store.
"Senpai…"
"Aww… Echizen, you don't need to thank me!"
"You don't need to do special effects…"
Echizen sighed and slid the door open and was met by the usual voices of the Seigaku regulars yelling "Happy Birthday!"
Actually, Echizen hadn't been expecting that. What he had been expecting was a Christmas party of some sort. And that he was just attending it… Well, maybe it had been a bit obvious…
He smiled but it quickly vanished as Fuji pushed him in and he was met by Kikumaru's customary hugs.
"Itai!! Kikumaru-senpai!" he yelled in protest as he struggled to get freed.
"Nuh-uhhh!! I'm not letting go for 13 minutes!! You're 13 now!! NYA!" he grinned.
"What?!" Echizen nearly screamed, "13 minutes?! That's too long!" he protested as he kept struggling.
"Well, I thought that 13 seconds was too short...nya…" Kikumaru pouted as he kept the hug up.
"I give up…" Echizen said almost inaudibly as his arms laid limp beside him.
"That's much better!" Kikumaru said in agreement, and hugged him even tighter.
"E-Eiji! If you keep that up, he'll run out of air!" Oishi Syuichiro said as he waved his arms about, acting like the usual mother hen.
There was a sudden click and everything – everyone went silent.
"Ah, that was a nice picture…" Fuji smiled and replied as he lowered the offending item.
"FUJIKO-CHANNNN!!"
"Fuji-senpai!!!"
"F-Fujiii!!"
"Why is everyone calling my name?"
Tezuka Kunimitsu sighed from the corner of the room and slapped his forehead. Why did it feel like the next hour would feel like a day?
--
As the party began, streamers were flown off due to the chasing that Kikumaru and Momoshiro gave while Kikumaru was scolding his kouhai for not thinking of his senpai and letting them have the eel sushi.
Echizen sighed as he found himself wandering towards the back of the store – near a corner. Sitting in the corner table was Ryuuzaki Sakuno – he blinked – what was she doing here? Oh, maybe Ryuuzaki-sensei had invited her?
He walked over, nodded in a greeting just to be polite and sat down in a table nearby.
She blushed from who knows what and replied, "H-Hello Ryoma-kun… H-Happy birthday…"
He jumped from his seat and nodded his thanks, noticing that Inui had already come in and hiding under the sushi bar's table with his usual notebook. He growled, couldn't someone have some privacy?
"Thanks…" he mumbled quite shyly as he felt her get closer. "Um… Merry Christmas…" he said in response, trying to break the awkward silence.
She looked surprise for a minute and meekly looked down. "Thanks, you too Ryoma-kun…"
This was awkward…
"OCHIBI-CHANNNN!!" came Kikumaru's voice as Echizen found himself being glomped for what seem like the millionth time but was really only about seven. "That's seven!! Six more to go!" Kikumaru said, proudly as he let go of the poor boy.
Echizen mumbled something under his breath that sounded very much like, "Evil senpai-tachi" and stuffed his mouth with more sushi.
"A-Ah… Echizen, want some more sushi?" Kawamura offered as he held out a tray of various sushi for Echizen to choose.
Echizen nodded in thanks and took a couple. He couldn't turn down free food after all, could he?
Meanwhile, Fuji leaned against the wall next to Tezuka. "Ne Tezuka…" he called as he looked over at his captain, "What do you think of Echizen and Ryuuzaki-chan getting together?"
There wasn't a reply at first until Tezuka croaked out a, "He can choose what he wants and who he wants to be with as long as it doesn't effect his tennis."
Fuji opened his eyes and smiled. "You really are too kind… But you think so much about tennis… What about me? What would you think of me getting together with someone?" he asked, smiling very warmly.
Tezuka didn't answer this time and was glad that Inui had intervened with his notebook in hand.
"There is a 97 percent chance of Ryuuzaki-sensei's granddaughter and Echizen getting together however Echizen, being Echizen, that brings it down about 30 percent. There is also a 100 percent chance that Ryuuzaki-sensei's granddaughter likes Echizen and an 89 percent chance that Echizen likes her back," he muttered to himself as Tezuka and Fuji caught onto what he was saying.
"And what about Tezuka?" Fuji asked, closing his eyes.
Inui looked up, lifting the bridge of his glasses with a finger and said, "I have yet to collect enough data on Tezuka so I am currently unable to answer. Now…if you'll excuse me, let me collect data on the Golden Pair's behavior towards each other…" He then left as soon as he came.
"Strange… I still can't figure out why he's in the tennis club and not the science or math club…" Fuji replied as he watched the tall male walk away and headed towards his "hiding spot".
"…"
"No answer Tezuka?" Fuji asked as he looked over at the captain.
"I'm going to get more tea…" he answered and excused himself.
"Ah… Alright then…"
--
The chatter filled the whole restaurant as the small hand ticked closer towards the seven indicating that it was getting later and was almost seven. Fuji Syuusuke smiled as he got up from his current seat and decided that everyone needed to hear this. He took out a mug of tea and a pair of chopsticks and tapped on it for attention.
"Attention! Atobe Keigo will be holding a New Year's party and of course have invited us so we are to all attend. That is all," he announced and sat down, oblivious to all the stares of wonder he was receiving.
"Fuji," came Tezuka's voice as he walked closer towards the smiling prodigy. "When did you learn of this?" Already, he had heard of the party however, he did not plan to attend. But now that Fuji had announced to everyone that he was attending… He couldn't take back his words even if they were spoken by someone else…
Fuji only smiled and said, "Well… Atobe-kun phoned me a couple days ago and informed me about it. He's also inviting the other tennis teams – it'll be fun!"
Tezuka could only inwardly groan. He stared at the second singles player with a look that clearly questioned if Fuji had been drinking and said, "Well, it's time we wrapped up for the night – it's getting late…"
Fuji nodded and noticed that already Echizen had begun packing up his tennis bag with the presents that they had given him earlier.
A stuffed cat that looked like that Himalayan from Kikumaru; a Japanese cookbook from Kawamura; three months without paying for burgers thanks to Momoshiro and a book on doubles from Oishi. A new tennis grip from Tezuka; a weird looking thing that looked very similar to a cat toy from Kaidou; an assortment of bath salts from Inui and a CD of rock music for "relaxing" from Fuji.
The others were trying to persuade him to play video games with them – Oishi trying to stop it all.
"Quiet!" Tezuka's voice rang out and silence soon followed.
"Buchou, I have to go…" Echizen's usual bored-like voice spoke up as soon as he heard the silence. "My parents want me to go somewhere…," he explained as he zipped up his tennis bag.
"Ah." Tezuka's one-word reply was heard and soon Echizen was out the door.
"Nya… What's a birthday party without the birthday boy?" came Kikumaru's disappointed voice.
"I'm sure you'll get a chance to finish up that 13 hugs of yours, Eiji," Fuji said smiling.
"Of course nya!"
--
Echizen ran; glad to get away from his senpai even for a little while. Looks like he'll be seeing them at the New Year's party… he thought with a sigh and adjusted the strap of his tennis bag.
He smiled, thinking back to the party. That had…been certainly surprising though a bit…expected?
He was glad his senpai had remembered though… But how had Inui-senpai known that he liked testing out bath salts? He asked himself as he remembered the look on the said senpai's face when he opened it.
Well, that was one thing he'd be using. (Unless it had been meddled with of course.) The stuffed cat too – he would use that whenever he didn't have Karupin with him. He flushed slightly at the thought of using a stuffed cat to sleep with.
He was still a kid and kids do what kids do… Okay, well preteen now.
It felt weird…to be a preteen. His smile grew wider as he continued, "Hm… Senpai-tachi certainly know how to throw a party…"
He only wished he had met them a year earlier.
Author's Note: I'm sorry if anyone was OOC but I really tried. ((sighs)) I have forgotten how it feels like to be thirteen even though it was a year and some ago… XD My sister is thirteen though!! YAY! Alright…notes…
1 – Have you ever seen the sunset? It is really beautiful! Though I think the sunrise is much more beautiful… I wake up early for school so by the time I get there, the sun's rising and all and…wow… The colors are so vibrant and YOU JUST HAVE TO SEE IT!!
((sweat drop)) Sorry, I'm getting excited over the sunsets and sunrises… I'm sorry Ryoma's chapter is so short! But I really couldn't think! I'm not bashing him or anything! He's actually my favorite character!
Please tell me what you think.
Oh and a New Year's special is up next if I can finish re-writing it in time. ;.; Thank you for the 1000 hits and have an awesome Christmas!! (and if you don't celebrate it, then happy holidays!)