Disclaimer: I don't own The Prince of Tennis.

Dedicated to: Kiki Sabakuno!

A/N A big thank you to L'uke-chan for informing me of this glitch!

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."

Langston Hughes

Trick 1

Echizen Ryoma's mind was occupied by only one thought alone, Air Trek. Everything else just didn't matter, Air Trek was what his entire life focused upon and he thought about it so often, it was just like breathing to Ryoma; a function that kept him alive.

"Echizen!"

Ryoma turned his head around lazily to his English teacher who was tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. He blinked to acknowledge that he was now listening and yawned.

"Write some examples on the board-in English-of ways to express verbs," The man said with a twinge of triumph. He'd get Echizen this time for sure…the boy had only been at the school for two weeks and he was already humiliating him in front of the class!

"Yes," Ryoma replied as he got up out of his seat at the back by the window and walked over to the blackboard, taking the white chalk from his teacher.

A few scribbling sounds and a bored looking Ryoma taking a step back from his work later, the class was in awe, whilst the English teacher gawked in horror. There, written in perfect handwriting was a whole board, chock full of examples of how to use verbs in English.

"G-good, Echizen. You may sit down," The teacher stuttered, taking back the chalk when the boy offered it to him.

"Thanks…" Ryoma muttered before going back to his seat. As he sat back down, he breathed a long sigh and gazed out the window. It wasn't that the schooling was bad or anything…Japan was just boring. He'd met some people in his class, but they said nothing about Air Treks, or anyone who used them, and Ryoma was now seriously doubting that anyone knew anything about AT's, heaven forbid.

The bell rang, signalling the end of the school day and kids immediately began packing up and heading for home or club activities. Ryoma however, took his time packing up and walking out into the schoolyard, until somebody bumped into him, sending the boy sprawling backwards onto his bottom.

"It hurts…" Ryoma whined, sitting up and rubbing his rear.

"Ah, sorry, are you okay?" The other boy who had bumped into Ryoma said, offering his hand thoughtfully. "Here."

Taking the other boy's hand, Ryoma was hoisted back onto his feet by a strong arm. "Thanks."

The other beamed down at him, "Haven't seen you around before. What's your name?"

Ryoma picked up his belongings quickly before looking up at the boy with spiky black hair and purple eyes. "What's yours?"

"Huh?" The other scratched his head dumbly before pulling a large grin. "You're a freshman aren't you?"

Ryoma glared at him.

"The name's Momo, but call me Momo-chan-senpai," The one called Momo-chan-senpai said, rubbing his index finger under his nostrils.

"…Echizen…Ryoma," Ryoma murmured before walking off.

"Hey, oi!" Momo called after him, but then stopped, choosing to leave the freshman be. He sighed, wait, Echizen Ryoma? Wasn't he that prodigy from America…? "Ah crap! What's the time?" He shouted nervously, glancing down at his wristwatch, completely forgetting what he was previously thinking about. It's Four-twenty. "Ah!" He yelled as he took off down the corridor, "I'm late; Tezuka's going to kill me! And I still need to get my AT's from my locker!"

Ryoma stopped instantly after he heard the words and turned back around, "Wait!" He shouted after the other, choosing to jog after him.

"Huh? What is it?" Momo asked, perplexed, not bothering to stop his fast pace.

"Did you, did you say AT's?" Ryoma asked, shuffling quickly beside him.

"Uh, yeah…why d'you ask?" Momo replied, keeping his eyes looking straight ahead.

Ryoma smirked. "Are there many people who ride them around here?"

"Of course there are! Do you ride them too?" Momo stopped, bending down to fumble with the lock on his locker to open it.

"Well…" Ryoma waited patiently while the other tossed his things into his bag carelessly and swung it over his shoulder.

"Wait, that was…a really stupid question," Momo exclaimed, slapping his hand on his forehead.

"Why?" Ryoma said, a little confused as Momo closed the door to his locker and locked it.

"You're Echizen Ryoma, right?"

"Yeah, so what?"

Momo resisted the urge to hit the freshman upside the head. "You're the twelve-year-old prodigy all the AT riders have been talking about! Don't go telling me that you don't even know your own fame, you can't! You just can't."

"…My own fame?" The boy quoted dumbly.

"Ah jeez…you're a slow one, aren't ya? Come with me to the meeting and I'll show you," Momo suggested thoughtfully before pulling a face and slapping his forehead again.

"What?"

Momo sighed, as if accepting his dilemma. "Just a few words of warning, when we get there, the captain ain't going to be too happy."

"Captain?" Ryoma raised a brow. Back in America, AT teams didn't ever have set roles. Strange. Ryoma thought to himself, adjusting to Japanese AT guidelines should be a difficult task indeed.

Momo glanced at his wristwatch, "Gah, no time, no time. We have to go meet up with him and the others now!"

"Wha-?" Ryoma drawled as he was dragged by the wrist out of the building and then out of the school grounds to an unknown destination. When the hell had he agreed to this?!

A i r T r e k

The crisp cool air was mingling well with the comfortable atmosphere, the bespectacled male thought as he peered around discretely, unfazed from the other boy's obvious need for something to happen as the dawdled idly in wait for their last team member. The near empty park was the perfect place to hold their regular meetings.

"Saa…Tezuka?" A…male (?) with honey coloured hair put his hand softly on the other's shoulder.

The taller boy turned around and pinned him with a quizzical look. "Fuji."

Fuji smiled his deceptive smile and took his hand away from Tezuka's shoulder. "He'll be here soon. You know Momo…"

Tezuka hardened his expression behind his glasses. "That does not change the fact that he's late."

Fuji chuckled as Tezuka merely raised his brow. "Just go easy on him. He doesn't mean to be late-"

"You don't need to defend him," Tezuka stated, a bit harsher than he had intended. "His tardiness will not be accepted."

Fuji sighed and smiled again. "You're so hard on him-on everyone."

Tezuka averted his gaze calmly and turned back around.

"…Sorry, I know your intentions, I'm just playing," Fuji smile seemed sweet, maybe even too sweet for the likes of Tezuka.

"Oh, oh, oh!" A red-head whined from his sitting place on the bench, in the middle of a taller boy with a funny hairstyle and a male with thick grey glasses and a green notebook. "Can't we just start before Momo gets here, it won't matter if he misses the start!"

Another boy with pale brown hair shook his head. "We're meeting up with the other local teams here, it would be disrespectful if one of us came in late."

"And it would seem…" The boy with thick grey glasses began, "That Arai-kun and his team have strengthened somewhat…though-by my recent information-they should still be easy enough to defeat."

The one who was leaning his back against the back of the bench made some sort of hissing sound and crossed his arms.

"Also, Fudomine's team members have all recovered-not to mention that they have strengthened a whole lot more as well," Thick-glasses added, pushing the bridge of his glasses up with his finger.

"Oh, that's good to hear, I heard their injuries were rather painful…" Funny-hairstyle said, "They should be quite a rivalry for us, ne Tezuka?"

Tezuka nodded, suddenly narrowing his eyes at the sight of familiar figures nearing their position.

"Wha?! They're here!" The red-head jumped up from the bench, pointing and shouting rambunctiously at the revelation.

"Who are?" Funny-hairstyle questioned, immediately silencing when he spotted the familiar sight of Tachibana Kippei and his other team members. "Oh…"

Tezuka narrowed his eyes further, recalling that his last team member was still absent, forcing a slight irritation to well up inside the usual calm and stoic captain. He pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. Good grief…

"Tezuka," Tachibana acknowledged politely as he and his team stopped in front of him. "It's been a long time."

Tezuka inclined his head a little, letting his fellow captain know that he was listening while his own team came to stand respectfully on either side of him. "I hope you are feeling well."

Tachibana smiled cheerfully, "It's been a long road, but we're all in good health and ready to go."

Tezuka softened his expression.

"And you?"

Tezuka suppressed the urge to sigh. "Yes, we're all fairing well."

A boy with shoulder-length red hair blinked a few times, perhaps in confusion? "Wasn't there…more members last time?"

All members of Tezuka's team sweat-dropped.

But before Fuji could pull out his sadistic/threatening/malicious grin to shut the boy up, a loud voice interjected.

"Am I late? Sorry! I was-we were helping a pregnant lady," Momo called as Ryoma threw one of his best 'death-glares' at him.

All eyes turned to a panting Momo, who was still gripping the freshman's wrist tightly when he went to stand next to the hissing-boy (dubbed the snake from now on. I don't know…think of a way it got into the scene! :P).

"Momoshiro…" Tezuka was nearly seething, but hid it well under his stony expression. "Twenty-running-laps with your ATs around the park when the meeting terminates."

Momo didn't respond, he knew better than that. If anyone questioned Tezuka-buchou, the amount of laps would just increase.

Tachibana examined the other who was next to Momo. "Is this your new member?" He asked good naturedly.

Tezuka glanced over to the boy.

"Ah, no, no. That's not it," Momo explained.

"Huh?" Tachibana raised a brow.

"This is Echizen Ryoma, he-"

"Wanted to see the competition," the freshman smirked, golden eyes gleaming eerily.

Tezuka's brow furrowed at the bluntness of the boy.

"Echizen Ryoma, child prodigy from America…born in Japan, child of Echizen Nanjiroh and Echizen Rinko, currently twelve-years of age, he is usually found with a white Fila cap on, and likes sleeping, he has a cat named Karupin, a cousin called Nanako, and he prefers Japanese food to Western style food…"

By this time, all eyes were trained firmly on thick-glasses. Some in awe, and some in shock.

"I-Inui…anyone would assume you were some kind of stalker since you have all of this intimate information," the red-head sweat-dropped.

"Kikumaru Eiji, he likes his giant teddy bea-" Inui was instantly muffled by the red-head hand clamped tightly over his mouth.

There were a few whispers of concern throughout the Fudomine group, but Tachibana merely smiled.

Ryoma had never felt such an urge to bang his head against a wall. These people were…far from normal. Well, the usual normal found in America anyway…these people were loud, foolish and didn't look as if they had the calibre of those back in America. He sighed.

"Oi, child prodigy from America, huh?"

Ryoma turned his head to see a boy approaching him. He had brown hair and a twisted grin on his face.

All members of both teams turned and looked at the boy.

"Arai," Tachibana acknowledged simply. Nobody knew how Arai formed a team, what with him being so nasty and sly all the time.

Tezuka inclined his head a little.

"Tachibana," Arai greeted. "Tezuka."

Ryoma frowned. There was something about this guy that bothered him, the very mere sight of that grin made him pissed off. It was as if the guy was constantly plotting something, plotting something bad.

Arai turned to face the freshman again, "So, d'you wanna go?"

Ryoma's frown only deepened at the challenge. "You sure you want to do that?"

Arai's grin was replaced with a glower. Damn brat, I'll show you… "Are you?" He countered weakly.

"Mada mada dane."

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