Flowers In a Garden

Chapter 2: Second Flower

Rating: K+ (moved it down since this story's pretty safe. I may move it down in the far future)

Summary: Fuji's not a tennis prodigy. Well he's an unknown prodigy that is. What happens when he gets dragged back into tennis life by a new student? A blooming flower to be added to the garden of things Fuji avoids. One of those things? Love. FujixOC

A/N Here's chapter 2! It's part of the old chapter and some little new stuff. I hope you like this chapter.

"Ok class today we'll be warming up as usual and starting a new sport! As you see, we're in the tennis courts so you can probably guess what sport" the gym teacher named Mr. Yukio smiled at the class. He was always happy and full of energy when teaching the class and none of the students could do anything bad without feeling guilty. Ayame smiled from the sidelines as her eyes couldn't seem to leave the capped loner stretching by himself with a "leave me alone" aura. Suddenly a bubby redhead practically bounced over to him –ignoring his disbelief- and started to chat to him from Ayame's view.

"You're Fuji right?" Eiji asked while he stationed himself next to him. Fuji just smiled back his frozen smile and nodded.

"So... you transferred here last month right Fuji-tan?"

"Yes I did Kikumaru-san" Fuji responded while hiding his surprise at the new nickname.

"You don't have to call me by my last name! You're just like Ayame-chan." Eiji pouted to his new friend. Fuji nodded and continued to stretch.

"So do you play any sports Fuji-tan?" Eiji asked innocently. Fuji's eyes flickered a second as his smile lowered.

"Something wrong...?"

"Oh, I don't really play any sports right now" Fuji smiled with his eyes back to its signature curve. Eiji nodded and brushed it away as just something he didn't want to talk about.

"Today we'll be starting the sport tennis for all of you who don't know it. In this class we do have a few club members and even some regulars." didn't even need to point out Eiji and Oishi as their fan clubs screamed in complete adoration. Ayame sat with a confused expression and made a note to ask Eiji later what a regular was.

"Now the regulars obviously don't have to learn tennis again, and all the students who already know how to play. All students who don't know how to play, go to the right of the gym, and all students who do know how please go to the left of the gym. Eiji hopped over to the left of the gym and met up with Oishi while Fuji walked slowly to the right of the gym and to the back of the crowd. Ayame thanked the gods she wasn't playing tennis today but unluckily for her, she had to be in the next class once her gym uniform arrived. Hopefully she would actually be good at tennis. Well not-brutally-injure-people-good. In her old school the principal had recognized the danger after many numerous reports from the nurse and let her sit out from gym for the safety of her classmates. Ayame didn't have a chance to talk to the principal yet so she made once another mental note to go check later.

"Now each person who doesn't know how to play tennis must pair up with a person who does know how to play tennis. Let's pick an example then... Kikumaru Eiji and Shusuke Fuji." announced while smiling at Fuji's shock of him actually remembering his name. Fuji frowned and walked forward while Eiji happily ran up.

"Ok now you have to teach Fuji first how to properly grip the racket." He quickly threw a racket to Eiji and Fuji as they both caught it by reflex.

"Nyah? It seems that Fuji-tan already knows how to hold it!" Eiji exclaimed. When Fuji had caught the racket his hand instinctively held it in the proper grip while his eyes blinked in realization. It quickly began to flicker between glaring at or trying to stay calm.

"It was only luck" Fuji smiled while his hands shifted to hold the racket awkwardly.

"Ok since Fuji already knows how to hold the racket you two and the rest who know how can advance on learning how to hit the ball. People who need to learn to hit the ball can go advance to the tennis courts while those who don't stay in this area while I teach you how" signaled to start.

Fuji was smiling again as he walked with Eiji to the courts where a few other pairs were already trying to volley the ball to each other.

"We'll let's try to hit the ball now" Eiji said excitingly with his trademark grin. Throwing the ball into the air Eiji served it lightly as Fuji crouched awkwardly with a strained smile. His racket hit yellow ball back lightly and it flopped into the out zone.

"Come on Fuji-tan you can do better than that!" Eiji pouted. He was about to serve again but was interrupted by a panicked yell.

"Watch out!" a voice screamed as a yellow tennis ball sailed towards Fuji's head when a person learning tennis had hit the tennis ball too hard. Fuji immediately hit the ball perfectly by reflex and the ball slammed into the far corner of the other player's court. Everyone stared in shock as Fuji cursed himself in his mind.

"Wha! I thought you didn't know how to play tennis Fuji-tan" Eiji gaped.

"Luck?" Fuji attempted to cover up.

"That's not luck, that's years of playing experience Fuji-tan! Join the tennis club!"

Fuji nodded his head no but managed to keep his smile on.

"I... I stopped playing a long time ago" he grimaced slightly.

"Well you definitely remember how to play" Eiji laughed.

"Come join the tennis club" Oishi smiled kindly from the other court next to theirs.

"Why'd you stop playing anyways?" Eiji asked with confusion. It made no sense to him that somehow so talented would stop playing. Fuji stayed silent as his head lowered and the air turned thick with tension.

"Neh... anyways let's start playing then Fuji-tan!" Eiji grinned while trying to break the ice he just created. Fuji just nodded back with his unreadable smile while the shocked people slowly resumed back to the lesson at hand. Eiji just lightly hit the tennis ball towards Fuji for the rest of the period while Fuji hit it lightly back like an amateur tennis player.

For the rest of the day everything was normal, Fuji stayed in the sidelines, Eiji was as hyper as ever and Ayame was shyly introduced to all her classes. Eiji noticed that Fuji actually had all the same classes as him and Ayame-chan, except for one. By the end of the day he had a genius plan to get him to go to the tennis courts.

"Ayame-chan! Can you help me with something?" Eiji asked while pointing obviously at Fuji. Ayame nodded and Eiji started to whisper the plan into her ear with Fuji close by and raising his eyebrows in confusion. (The seats in homeroom are the same as math). A weird and strange feeling seemed to sicken him about how close the two were. He shook the feeling off quickly and gathered his stuff to go. He was about to put the hat he finally got back on except for the fact that Eiji suddenly popped up beside his book bag and that Ayame was sneaking slowly towards him. Fuji inched cautiously towards his bag and lunged quickly but Eiji blocked him while Ayame grabbed his bag and hat right off his head. Fuji was dazed and shocked as Eiji and Ayame scrambled away from him and dashed out the door but he quickly recovered and prayed they didn't open his book bag or look at the inside of his hat. He practically flew out the door and was met by shocked stares. Everybody in the hall gaped as Ayame and Eiji dashed through with a pissed Fuji on their tails with no hat on. Girls were shocked as Fuji ran by and immediately started to talk and wonder and occasionally squeal. Eventually they made it out of the school but Eiji continued to run while Ayame ran out of breath.

"Eiji I can't run anymore. You take it" Ayame gasped as she slowed to a stop. Eiji nodded and caught the flying book bag and hat while a piece of paper fluttered to the floor. Her frail form collapsed to the floor as Fuji stopped running in worry.

"Misaki-san are you ok?" he asked in a worried tone as he crouched down to see if she was ok.

"I'm fine" Ayame gasped while he supported her up from lying on the floor. Her loose looped ponytails and tired state caused an unwanted flashback in Fuji's mind but his arms just tightened on her form.

"And you can call me Ayame instead of Misaki Fuji-senpai."

"I'll think about it, but for now you're still Misaki-san" Fuji smiled with a hint of laughter. Fuji always smiled from the first time Ayame met him but it seemed different somehow and all the more charming. Wait, charming?!

"Come on Fuji-sempai" Ayame pouted while her heart beat still continued to increase at the close presence and the feeling of his arms holding her up. She brushed it off as after affects from all the running.

"How about you don't call me Fuji-senpai and I won't call you Ayame-chan" Fuji proposed.

"Ok then Fuji-chan" Ayame smiled. He was shocked for a spilt second but quickly snapped out of it.

"Ayame-chan it is then" he replied with his everyday smile.

"Shouldn't you be chasing Eiji?"

Fuji then remembered Eiji had his book bag and hat as he frowned ominously.

"Sorry I have to leave you here" he quickly apologized with a sorry smile. Ayame just waved him off jokingly and smiled while he ran off to continue to chase Eiji in the direction of the tennis courts. Her eyes scanned the area and she noticed a white piece of paper lying on the floor and remembered seeing it fall onto the floor. She got up slowly and brushed her legs to pick the face down paper off the floor. On the piece of paper was a photograph of a cute pigtailed girl with a strangely sad smile on her face standing on a hill in a white sundress. Confusion and a new feeling mixed inside her as she folded the picture slowly while trying to remind herself to give it back to Fuji later.

Can you guess who the mysterious girl is from the sketch? Review your guesses and it'll be even more fun when you find out later :D