Never ask your teammates for girl advice.

Kikumaru bit into his burger with a contented smile, emitting satisfied noises as he chewed. Beside him, Echizen ate his fries with less enthusiasm.

"It's such a nice day today," Kikumaru said from his seat facing the window. "We should do something fun, ochibi."

Echizen merely lowered his cap at the idea, stuffing another fry into his mouth. Disregarding Echizen's indifferent attitude, Kikumaru stole another glance out the window onto the streets of Tokyo. That's when he noticed a familiar figure passing by the burger restaurant, a cup of coffee held delicately in her hand. He couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"You're not her type, Kikumaru-senpai."

Kikumaru tore his eyes away from the window and turned back to Echizen.

"Nya? What are you talking about?"

Echizen took a sip from his drink.

"That girl you were staring at."

"What do you mean?" Kikumaru asked, trying to hide the stutter in his voice. "I wasn't staring at anyone."

Echizen looked at his senpai knowingly.

"You were staring."

Kikumaru crossed his arms, mouth slipping into a slight pout.

"So what if I was?"

"It's nothing. I just don't think you're her type."

"And how would you know, ochibi?"

Echizen shrugged his shoulders.

"Just a guess."

Kikumaru stuffed his tennis racket back into his bag and pulled out his change of clothes, having just finished a long and demanding summer practice. He was now in the locker room with his doubles partner Oishi, who especially noticed the peculiar change in Kikumaru's character today. During practice, the two of them had engaged in a match against each other with Oishi sweeping the game 6-2, a defeat that Kikumaru would have considered rather humiliating had his mind not been on other things.

"Oishi, can I ask you something?"

Oishi gave a brief side glance to the red head before buttoning up the last of his shirt.

"Um…yeah."

"If you were going to ask a girl out, how would you do it?"

At the question, Oishi paused for a moment and now looked at Kikumaru rather seriously, concern etched onto every detail of his face.

"This is all about a girl?"

Kikumaru shrunk away feebly.

"Just a little bit…"

Oishi shook his head, striking up the motherly and reprimanding tone he was known for.

"Eiji, you know we're about to enter high school soon, and if you want to do your best on the tennis team there, you can't afford to be distracted by such trivial matters…"

Kikumaru let out a disappointed sigh.

"…but then again," Oishi said suddenly, abruptly turning away to stroke his chin in contemplation, "your tennis has been suffering a lot lately, and maybe helping you with this girl will actually fix the problem…"

Kikumaru opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a still rambling Oishi turning back around to face him.

"…but what if you get together with this girl, and you actually become more distracted. Balancing your life isn't easy, you know…"

"Oishi, I…"

"…though I guess you could always just…"

Kikumaru finished buttoning up his shirt and grabbed his tennis bag, making his way toward the club room exit.

"I knew I shouldn't have asked Oishi."

Kikumaru rapped his fingers impatiently on the arm rest of the park bench as he waited for Fuji. After Oishi had proven to be of no help, Kikumaru decided to explore his other options for assistance, and Fuji had seemed like a good place to start. If only Fuji hadn't chosen that specific moment to decide he was thirsty and head off to the vending machine to buy a drink.

The minute Fuji returned, Kikumaru wasted no time in asking him for help.

"Fuji…"

Fuji made a small sound of acknowledgement while taking a sip from his water bottle. Kikumaru took this as permission to continue.

"I kind of need your help."

Fuji closed the cap to his water bottle and turned back to look at Kikumaru with his usual calm demeanor, a discerning smile gracing his lips.

"It's about a girl, isn't it?"

"H…Hai."

"And you like this girl…"

Kikumaru nodded his head vigorously.

"…and you want my advice on how to ask her out?"

"Yes, that's it!" Kikumaru shouted, practically jumping from his seat with excitement. "Wow, how did you know? Are you psychic?"

Fuji did nothing except sit there quietly, now piercing his fellow teammate with exuberant orbs of cerulean.

"Maybe."

Kikumaru was left dumbstruck at the answer as Fuji stood up to throw away his now empty water bottle. Having completely forgotten about his dilemma, Kikumaru spent the rest of the afternoon suspiciously eyeing Fuji, deliberating whether or not Fuji was actually psychic. What Kikumaru didn't know was that Oishi had already told Fuji the entire situation on the phone just five minutes previous.

As Kikumaru was getting ready for another summer tennis practice, he realized that he still had a problem to deal with, and he had gotten absolutely nowhere with Fuji, but sensing that the ship had already sailed, Kikumaru decided to turn to another reliable friend of his as they entered the courts.

"Hey Momo, do you have a minute?"

Momoshiro stopped in front of the court entrance.

"Sure Eiji-senpai, what's up?"

"Well, I'm having problems…"

"Eh? How strange. The senpai is asking the kohai for help."

Kikumaru gritted his teeth with frustration.

"Shut up, Momo! Are you going to help me for not?"

Momoshiro raised up his hands in defense.

"Calm down, calm down. I'll help you."

The red head let out a quick huff of breath.

"As I was saying, I'm having problems with this girl, and I—"

Kikumaru was interrupted as Momoshiro erupted in laughter. Kikumaru's eyebrow even started to twitch slightly, getting more and more annoyed by the second.

"What's so funny, Momo? Stop laughing and be serious!"

"I'm sorry, Eiji-senpai," Momoshiro said as he tried to suppress his laughter, only to have them come out as tantalizing snickers instead. "It's just too funny."

"Momo!"

"So you've finally found a lady to have problems with," Momoshiro teased, enjoying the situation much more than he should. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Kikumaru was in the midst of strangling the still laughing Momoshiro when Oishi noticed the struggle on his way from the club room and pulled his irritated partner out of it. All during practice, sore neck aside, Momoshiro never failed to shoot Kikumaru a derisive smirk or emit a taunting chuckle every single time he managed to catch the other's attention. With a sigh, Kikumaru wiped the sweat off his brow and gripped his racket even tighter.

"This is going to be a long practice."

After half an hour of demanding drills and conditioning, Kikumaru decided it was time for water break, anything to avoid Momoshiro and his smug looks. As he sat on the bench, Kikumaru noticed Inui standing beside him, scribbling data into one of his notebooks. Seeing this gave him an idea.

"Inui, you're smart, right?"

Inui adjusted his glasses.

"I would like to think so, yes."

"Good…because I was kind of hoping for your advice."

"What is it, Kikumaru?"

Kikumaru scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Um…it's about a girl."

"Interesting," Inui muttered, furiously recording this newfound data. "Please, start from the beginning."

Kikumaru let out a deep breath.

"Okay, well I guess it all started out when I went to that coffee place with Fuji a few weeks ago. Now normally I don't like coffee, but I would keep on going there anyway because there was this really cute girl working there, though she sort of figured it out a few days ago, but I don't think she really minded that I went to the coffee house for no reason. But you see, now I really like her, and I kind of wanted to ask her out, but I'm feeling nervous because I don't really know if I should. What do you think I should do, Inui?"

Kikumaru turned to face Inui, only to find that he was no longer there.

"Inui?"

Inui walked off the courts, happily writing in his notebook with a certain gleam in his eyes. His mouth twisted into a satisfied smile.

"Ii data."

"Kaidoh!"

Fshuuuuuuuuuuuu.

"Hehe…never mind."

Kikumaru ran a frustrated hand through his hair as the ball hit the net yet again. Everyone in the tennis club could tell that Kikumaru was just not being his normal self today, and even the tennis team captain Tezuka was starting to take note of this.

"Kikumaru," Tezuka cried out sternly, arms crossed in a dignified posture. Kikumaru paused his match with Fuji and rushed over to the captain, awaiting the rebuke that was sure to come.

"What is it, Tezuka?"

"You're not playing well today," the captain said bluntly.

"I know," Kikumaru said rather dejectedly. "I'm sorry. It's just that I have a lot on my mind."

When the captain didn't respond, Kikumaru hesitantly continued.

"There's this girl that I really like, and I've been wanting to ask her out, and everyone is trying to help me, but so far, they haven't really been much help. To be honest, they're just making me more anxious, and I don't know what I should do."

As Kikumaru told Tezuka all of this, the latter simply stood there patiently, showing no change in emotion, though Kikumaru could swear the captain's frown had softened the tiniest bit. With a seriousness that was often attributed to Tezuka, the captain looked at Kikumaru and began to speak.

"Kikumaru…"

Kikumaru tensed up at the fact that his buchou was saying his name with such a tone.

"Yes Tezuka?"

"…twenty laps."

With tennis practice now over, Kikumaru slung his tennis bag over his shoulder and exited the club room, intercepting an exhausting Kawamura just now leaving the courts.

"Hey Kikumaru," Kawamura said as he walked up toward the red head.

"Taka-san, what are you still doing here?"

"Oh, I was talking to Ryuzaki-sensei about something," he explained. "Anyway, I was just wondering if you were okay. Everyone could tell you weren't really being yourself today."

Kikumaru let out a sigh.

"Fuji told you everything, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Kawamura admitted, nodding his head slowly.

"I don't know what it is about this girl, Taka-san. Something about her just makes me really want to not mess this up."

"Well, I don't think I'm very good in giving girl advice, but if you ever bring her down to the sushi restaurant, I would be more than happy to treat you both to dinner."

Kikumaru seemed to think about this for a moment.

"You know what? That's actually not such a bad idea. I could just invite her to the restaurant, and then if I ever got nervous during dinner, you would be there to help me out. Yeah, I could totally do that. I mean…um…"

Kikumaru's sharp eyes picked up a gleam from among the nearby bushes.

"I-NU-I!"

Having been discovered by Kikumaru, Inui drew himself up to full height. Momoshiro and Kaidoh followed shortly after. (Don't even ask who dragged Kaidoh along).

"Why hello, Kikumaru," Inui said casually, as if what he was doing wasn't wrong at all, "I was just observing you for data purposes."

"Don't say it like it's completely normal," Kikumaru retorted, eyeing the group wearily.

"But Eiji-senpai," Momoshiro interjected, draping an arm over the red-head's shoulder, "we just wanted to know how you were doing with your girl problems. It seems like you're doing a lot better."

Kikumaru looked at Momoshiro annoyingly, though the latter did not seem to notice. To the side, Kaidoh emitted a scoff at the sight.

"We heard about you bringing her to the sushi restaurant," Inui said. "Don't worry. I will be there as well to support you through the entire thing."

"Yeah, we'll all come and help you out," Momoshiro added. "By the time we're finished, this girl will be yours forever."

Kikumaru twitched at the sudden flurry of images that rushed through his mind, imagining all the possible things that could go wrong with his teammates beside him.

At this point of the day, Kikumaru didn't even have the energy to say or do anything in opposition. He just simply settled for slapping his forehead in frustration and walking away. As he made his way out of the tennis court area, however, he passed by a still practicing Echizen smashing a tennis ball repeatedly against the backboard.

"She likes romantic comedies…"

"Eh? Did you say something, ochibi?"

Echizen carried on with his swinging.

"…and she prefers orchids instead of roses."

Kikumaru placed his hands on his hips with a pout.

"Are these another one of your guesses, ochibi?"

Echizen didn't reply.

With no response, Kikumaru left the younger boy, now thoroughly agitated. As he exited the school grounds, he let out a scoff.

"Tch, what does ochibi know?"

Don't worry! I did not forget about this story. I mean, I know I haven't updated in a while, but I kind of made up for it since this chapter is much longer than what I usually do, though that's kind of why it took me so long to write it. I swear, I have a really short attention span so I get distracted really easily. Oh, by the way, by the time I got done with this chapter, I got really lazy in proofreading it so there might be some errors or something like that. Feel free to tell me if you spot them. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll do my best in updating more quickly.

Reviews are welcome!!!