WARNINGS AU, slash, many, many Ocs
Chapter 1Sixteen-year-old Echizen Ryoma smirked across the court at his opponent, resting his tennis racket on his shoulder.
"Mada mada dane, Okiru-sempai."
Okiru Ytashi glared at the cocky team captain Spinning, he resisted the urge to fling his racket at that smirking face and stalked off the court, grabbing his bag as he passed the benches.
Shrugging, Ryoma headed for the locker rooms, stifling a yawn. He paused at the locker room door, blinking. For a moment there, he thought he had seen a familiar figure standing at the fence. His skin prickled with the eerie sensation of being watched. But when he looked back, there was no one there.
Shrugging away the notion as an impossibility, Ryoma opened the door and stepped inside. He had been 'seeing things' all week. First, it was strangers in what might have been cloaks, deep hoods hiding their faces in shadow. This morning, it was the same person who he had just hallucinated by the tennis courts. So Ryoma thought nothing more of it, his thoughts returning to the one thing that dominated his life: tennis.
There were some promising players in the school for sure, but they still had a long way to go before they could present anything of a challenge.
It was already late afternoon, so he changed quickly out of his school uniform and headed home.
……………………………..
The bony, white hands caressed the gleaming blade of the knife as they set it upon the polished, glass tabletop with a soft, metallic clink. Curved, claw-like nails tapped the cold, clear surface, gliding across it to a crystal orb held on a stand of rough limestone by carved talons of stone.
Unseen eyes glinted as they stared greedily into the unclouded depths, intent upon the image swirling within. Leather wings rustled as the owner of those inhuman hands turned away, eyes hooded as he moved into the dark.
A crow landed in a flurry of wings upon the table, head cocked as it peered into the glittering object. Then the figure within turned and, at the flash of golden orbs, the black bird squawked and took flight, leaving only a single, ebony feather to mark its passing.
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As he opened the front door, Nanako' s voice drifted from the kitchen. "Ryoma-kun, is that you?"
Ryoma slipped off his shoes and headed for the stairs. "Aa."
"We have a guest today," his cousin said cheerfully, "so don't stay up there too long. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."
Ryoma rolled his eyes, dropping his schoolbag by his desk. His room was on the second floor, first door on the right. It was average in size with its own bathroom and one window looking down on the garden. Aside from the rectangular, mahogany desk, the room contained a bookcase, a bed, and a nightstand, upon which sat a lamp, its glass base filled with seashells and sand. Beside the lamp was a photograph.
Ryoma paused to examine it as he often found himself doing more and more often lately.
He had gotten the picture in the locket enlarged and framed it, setting it on his beside table. And staring at it now, all the memories came flooding back at the familiar features.
It had been three—nearly four years.
Sighing, he changed into a black T-shirt and shorts then headed downstairs.
"Can't I just eat up in my…." He trailed off, stopping dead in the kitchen doorway.
His heart was pounding in his throat. It couldn't be….
The figure seated at the kitchen table turned and gave him a bright smile.
"Saa, won't you join us, Ryo-kun?"
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