Okay, so this is going to be the first chapter of the story that will be third person POV. Basically it's going to be a discussion that happens while Eiji is asleep. I hope that I get the names right as well as the nicknames and the personalities. Please forgive me if I mix them up.
Prince of Tennis: Forgotten Memories
Chapter Three – Thinking and Hoping
Echizen closed the door to Eiji's bedroom and sighed. He had never seen his senpai like that. It had been sad to see him so weak and helpless before. Now just made it hit him that much harder. Sure his professional matches were important, as was school and his high school's tennis team – he was the captain, oddly enough. That didn't matter right now.
No, he needed to bee with the members of his team that had been able to come for the acrobatic senpai he had met his first year in middle school.
"Is he asleep, Echizen?"
The young man looked up at his former captain and nodded. "He is."
Oishi and Fuji had gone and taken control in the kitchen to make a meal for all five of them. Ryouma proceeded to try and finish cleaning up the small spot on the carpet where his senpai had landed. Tezuka started reading into his books for could be wrong.
The roommate wouldn't be around that night – and it was unknown if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It would make things easier, but when he got home the man who Eiji shared the apartment with would question things.
As the former vice-captain began to work on a soup, he stopped cutting up the vegetables. He hated what was going on with his friend and former doubles partner. It wasn't right. They'd all watched their former teammate and friend just decline into…
Into something that wasn't meant to be Kikumaru Eiji.
"Two years…"
Everyone looked to Syuusuke. He'd also stopped working on his part of the meal – a simple salad with tomatoes, carrots and other such things.
"Fuji?" Tezuka questioned.
"It's been two years since he'd last made contact with us," the tensei spoke, "Two years since he's last played tennis. Two years since he even held a racket. Did he not want us to see him like this? Like what he is? I know that I've had at least five classes with him and he's never noticed me once."
"I've had three with him, one over lapping with you, Fuji," Oishi added, "It's almost like if we still have our synchro, he's turned it off from his end. I can't predict him anymore. I was lucky to earlier."
"To see him fall apart at just us talking to him," Tezuka agreed, his usually stoic expression filled with worry, "Just calling his name… Why is he like this?"
"Might it have something to do with what happened... back then?" Echizen offered.
They fell silent. Oishi continued making the soup, which was turning into more of a stew. Fuji finished making the salad. For the longest time those were the only sounds in the apartment, other than Eiji's soft snoring that came from the other room. They were all in deep thought.
Back then. When it had happened they were all scared. They had nearly lost the one who was their acrobat, their team moral. Even the normally calm and collected captain and first year has been afraid.
"But why is it doing this to him now? If that it the case," the other half of the Golden Pair spoke, "why didn't it effect him in high school? Why did it start in college?"
"Didn't he say he couldn't remember what had happened?" Ryouma wondered aloud.
FLASHBACK
The whole teams of Seigaku, Hyotei and Rikkaidai waited in the hospital waiting room for news on the cat-like teen. Any matches that they had been planning to play had been cancelled. They were only going to do it once and then this happened. It was important that they be there for their teammate, rival and friend.
It was strange to see the three rival captains sitting side by side as they were, but this was not a normal situation. Yukimura had taken one side of Tezuka while Atobe had taken the other. Their teams had also intermingled with each other. This frightened the doctors and nurses. If there were any fights that broke out while waiting, they were quickly resolved and everyone just went back to their nervous silence.
The Kikumaru family was also there, worried for their youngest son and brother. Since they had gotten the call from the Seigaku captain they had dropped everything and went to the hospital. They had been waiting there ever since.
They had all been waiting there nearly four hours when a doctor finally came out.
"Kikumaru Eiji."
Nearly everyone that was in the waiting room stood up that wasn't already standing. Tezuka slowly stood and walked toward the physician with Eiji's parents.
"Are you sure that you want outsiders to hear your son's condition?"
"It's alright. He's our little Eiji's tennis bucho," the redhead's mother answered, "Now could you please tell us how he is?"
"He's in the recovery room currently. He has a few broken ribs, a sprained ankle and wrist, a mild concussion as well as a few lacerations, bruises and abrasions. He'll be stiff for a while, as well as in pain. Whatever happened to him, he's extremely lucky. It appears that it could have been much worse."
"Arigatou, sensei," the Kikumaru father bowed slightly, "May his team go and see him?"
"Don't you want to see him first before you let in strangers?" the doctor questioned.
"What are you talking about? 'Strangers?' These eight young men are like a second family to our son," Eiji's mother countered.
"Very well," was the curt reply, "but four at a time. He's still resting."
"Arigatou gozaimasu, sensei," the father thanked again as he was handed a piece of paper with the room number on it. He then turned toward the stoic captain, handing him the paper. "Tezuka, you have your choice to take in. The ones who don't go this time will be the second ones in."
Tezuka turned toward the three teams. He nodded to them, as if to affirm that the red haired acrobat would be alright. This caused everyone to visibly relax, whether they knew they were tense or not.
"Fuji, Echizen, Oishi, we'll be the first ones in to see him," he spoke calmly, though it betrayed his inner emotions of relief and some worry.
The three who had been sitting stood up and started to walk toward their captain. It wasn't until just then that everyone noticed how small the first-year looked against the other two. The youngest not only looked small, but was also feeling small at the moment. He had never experienced something like what had just happened and a knot had formed in the pit of his stomach when he had watched his senpai get hurt.
"Alright, let's go."
The four Seigaku regulars made their way down halls. Everything around them was sterile white. It caused them to be somewhat tense as they all mentally noted that they hated hospitals and that they never wanted something like that to happen again.
They finally reached Eiji's room and slowly entered it. They were amazed to find that he was awake and tracking on his own – hell, he was watching television. He gave a smile and a wave, but that was quickly ended as he wrapped his arm over his ribs gently.
"Bucho! Fujiko! Ochibi! Oishi! You're here! I'd glomp you, Ochibi, but it'd hurt too much, nya," the wounded tennis player gave a laugh before grimacing again.
"That doesn't matter right now, senpai," Echizen waved it off as he came in with the other four, "How are you doing?"
"I'd be better if I wasn't hurt. I don't even know what caused it, nya."
The four standing Regulars felt something within themselves stop. He… The acrobat didn't…
"You don't remember, Eiji?" Oishi asked, worried for his 'other half.'
"Nuh-uh," he shook his head gently, holding it a little with his gingerly wrapped hand, "I only remember going to the courts with Oishi. Then waking up here, nya."
END FLASHBACK
"Do you think his mind is finally remembering what happened?" Ryouma continued.
"Five years is a long time for a mind to do that," Tezuka replied, "I don't think that is was just momentary amnesia. I think he didn't want to remember."
Fuji put the finished salad on the counter. Then he looked to Tezuka. "It's not all that uncommon for someone to forget or to want to forget a traumatizing event. In the case of Eiji, he wanted to forget that time."
"But for that to start to effect him now? He can't even hold a racket anymore," Oishi uttered, swallowing as he stirred the stew, "My own doubles partner and he can't put his hands on a grip, let alone use synchro."
Concerned for his friend, the tensai placed a hand on the former Seigaku mother hen. He gave it a gentle squeeze. When Oishi turned to look at him, he gave a smile.
"We'll get him back. And to make up for the years that he's been 'gone,' we'll make him twice as bouncy," Fuji smiled.
"Twice… as bouncy?" Ryouma seemed to pale. He remembered the pounces from back at Seigaku.
"Well, relatively speaking, of course," the brunette smiled that innocently creepy smile. A shiver ran down the young prodigy's spine.
"As long as we get him back to how he was," Oishi uttered, "That's all that matters right now."
Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. They all missed the Eiji that used to be around. They missed him and wanted him back.
