Disclaimer: I don't own anything..
A/N: So, here's the next chapter Still ..uhm... six chapters (oO I thought they were six in total..not eight) more to go, nya!
Please tell me if you liked (or disliked it), comments are love!
Nya, thanks to those who wrote comments on the first chap; I hope I'm not disappointing you with this one TT I'm still unexperienced in writing
Ah and sorry for the mistakes ...
Next day- next trouble
The next day everything seemed back to normal again. Eiji's behaviour was the same as always; he acted cheerfully and bounced around, rambling about random stuff.
That would be the things a normal eye would just see. But to those, who knew the redhead just better, it occurred that some pieces didn't fit into the whole picture.
So thought Fuji. He could observe it during lessons.
Eiji's concentration tended to slip away- like it was the case too often- during subjects the redhead didn't consider to be his favourite ones. But today…it wasn't doing in that playful way it usually did. This time Eiji wasn't distracted because he kept on trying to chat with him during lessons or by doing something different than he was supposed to do; it was more like he still was thinking about the matters concerning him.
Fuji observed how the teacher caught Eiji few times, when the redhead shifted his gaze and stared out of the window occasionally. Every time that happened, Eiji would startle slightly and his eyes would widen and clear up, focussing on reality again.
And every time that happened, Fuji saw himself being busy with trying to let his friend, who sat right in front of him, know, which question their teacher just had asked.
Finally, lessons ended and while most of the students were about to leave the class-room, Fuji straightened up and stepped in front of the other's desk as Eiji didn't seem to have the intention to leave his position.
With his elbows resting on the edge of the table and his chin supported by his left hand, Fuji brought himself at eye-level with his friend, who watched him curiously.
"Eiji", the tensai started, slightly teasing, with his usual smile in place and his voice sounding as melodic as ever when he was about to do something.
"Nya Fuji, what is it?" the addressed one replied, sounding tired. Nevertheless he tried to smile, wondering what the brunette was about to do.
"That would be the question I would prefer to ask you instead", Fuji stated, still smiling serenely.
"Eh? Nothing's wrong, Fuji", Eiji tried to protest, just being rewarded with a rather suspicious glance of his friend.
"Don't even try to pretend that", the brunette replied.
Eiji started to feel more and more uncomfortable, somehow thronged, and he had a hard time to not just say what he was thinking.
"Why do you care that much?", he almost shouted back and caused his friend to blink in confusion. "What?"
The redhead just recognized that Fuji's smile had disappeared- an unreadable expression took its place- and he felt sorry immediately. "Sorry..", he whispered barely audible, not expecting the other one to hear that, and his gaze shifted away.
Eiji just had wanted to act normal towards his friend, because he hadn't decided what to do yet and was still desperate about this, but it seemed that he didn't do well at all.
Instead of this, so Eiji realized, he was…
"It's okay." Softly spoken words interrupted the redheads process of thinking. "I didn't want to bother you. I'm sorry." Somehow shocked, Eiji turned back again and stared at his vis-à-vis to find the other's smile back in place. Nevertheless Fuji made a hurt, maybe sad, impression.
"Fujiko.." Eiji's voice broke, the only remain was a silent whisper. Maybe he'd gone too far.
If Fuji had heard Eiji calling him, he didn't react. The brunette withdrew himself and went back to his table to grab his things, before he started to leave the classroom. In front of the door he just turned around for a few seconds. " Don't be late for practice, ne Eiji? Otherwise Tezuka will make you run laps…" Then he left.
This time, Eiji felt like being to one who was left behind, But he realized that this probably was his fault- he was acting way too moody.
"It's okay." Softly spoken words interrupted the redheads process of thinking. "I didn't want to bother you. I'm sorry." Somehow shocked as he was just realizing the whole situation, Eiji startled slightly, turned back again and stared at his vis-à-vis to find the other's smile back in place. Nevertheless Fuji made a hurt, maybe sad, impression.
"Fujiko.." Eiji's voice broke, the only remain was a silent whisper. Maybe he'd gone too far.
If Fuji had heard Eiji calling him, he didn't react. The brunette withdrew himself and went back to his table to grab his things, before he started to leave the classroom. In front of the door he just turned around for a few seconds. " Don't be late for practice, ne Eiji? Otherwise Tezuka will make you run laps…" Then he left.
The usually cheerful readhead couldn't prevent himself from thinking that things could still get worse. Up until now that day really was a failure- maybe practice would be too. Even if it hadn't started yet, Eiji just had the feeling that it would. It was annoying. He decided that he would put all effort in acting normal- he was in need of more self-control for this matter, because Eiji didn't want to experience more encounters like the one he had with Fuji earlier that day. He still felt sorry for that as he didn't meant to be that rude and the fact that his friend didn't make any further attempt to talk to him again made him a bit upset.
"Nya, let's try to think about something, which is more fun!", the redhead scolded himself. Anything else wouldn't improve the situation either. He bounced to Oishi's side. "Oishi? Who's today's opponent?" he started asking his doubles partner, but instead of the addressed one Ryuzaki-sensei was answering his question. "You two will play a practice match against Inui and Kaido. Court B. Now."
While heading to the given court, Eiji just leaned over to Oishi. "Is she in a bad mood today?" he asked, the volume of his voice dimmed so that nobody else, except Oishi, could hear his words. "I wonder..", the redhead continued.
"Eiji…Maybe it is because she already explained everything right before you'd asked about the same stuff. You didn't get anything of what she said, did you? You should have listened more carefully…" Oishi explained reproachfully. "Oh." That was everything Eiji managed to reply, his lips curved into an embarrassed grin. Oshi sighed. "Momo and Echizen will have a match against each other on court C and Fuji will play against Taka-san on court A. These matches will start around the same time as our one; after that there will be some other practice units to gain more stamina and so on.", the dark-haired boy continued to summarize the essence f their trainer's earlier words.
"Nya, thank you!" his doubles partner replied smilingly as they entered the court; Inui and Kaido already waiting for them.
From the very beginning their match had been pretty hard; Inui and Kaido didn't seem to have the intention to give them any opportunity to relax for a few seconds. But nevertheless Eiji couldn't prevent himself from being distracted from the match occasionally; his gaze shifted to the other two courts, where his team-mates played their own matches. His attention seemed to live it's own life, not willing to obey his orders.
"15-40!"
"Nya, sorry Oishi, I didn't see that one..", Eiji apologized when he missed one of Kaido's shots, because he had been staring at court A for a few moments.
"It's okay, Eiji. Just concentrate better, ok?" the other half of the Golden Pair replied.
But the addressed one couldn't do anything about it. The whole day he had problems with his concentration, which seemed to slip away like water through one's hands. And it didn't get any better, no matter how hard he was trying. It was too tempting to watch the match on court A; but the fact which was disturbing him most was that his eyes seemed to be stuck on the brunette tensai's lithe movements. And that was the reason why his attention distracted increasingly- because the more the match progressed the more effort Fuji would put into it; but it was obvious that the latter one would win without giving his best, though.
"Change court!"
"Eiji!" The now angry voice of his doubles partner caught him unprepared. Normally, Oishi was quite patient, but it seemed that Eiji just had managed to pass this barrier.
"Is there something wrong with you? You don't concentrate at all! I wonder what's more important right now?!," Seigaku's vice-captain continued, obviously annoyed by his partner's behaviour. And that was just the moment the redhead realized that the other combination was leading with two games.
"I'm sorry…", Eiji replied barely audible.
"Why don't you just listen to me? I told you to increase your concentration, didn't I? If you would have taken my advice we wouldn't loose like that!"
"Nya, Oishi! Why are you so mad at me? It's not alone my fault! If you aren't able to keep the pace of the game, I'm not to blame!"
"Eiji, this is doubles, not singles!"
The conflict between those two started to escalate. The Golden Pair didn't quarrel often, but if they did it mostly was impetuous.
"Don't talk to me like that!"
And it wasn't getting any better.
They continued to argue; the match seemed to forgotten for now. Even Inui headed to the bench to get one of his notebooks, after all he was getting some interesting data.
"I wonder what's going on there", Kawamura suddenly mumbled, a silent question reflecting in his eyes when he glanced at his team-mate. The two of them just had finished their match; and now they were wondering, why everyone- except them- seemed to gather at court B- even Momoshiro and Echizen had interrupted their match to observe the situation locally.
"I can't tell", Fuji replied, obviously busy with interpreting the scene, which took place 20 meters away from them. It was too far away to get every detail, though.
But seeing Eiji storming off the court suddenly really was upsetting him.
"Shouldn't we go there, too?", the other one asked.
"We've finished our match anyways, so we don't have to stay here any longer", the tensai replied smilingly. "So let's go."
When the two of them entered the other court, the atmosphere had changed from before. Everyone seemed to be restless, although there wasn't any conversation going on. Except Oishi's conversation with himself. The dark-haired boy still was asking himself why the redhead behaved that strange way- it was easy to overhear that as he was thinking quite too loud for the matters of privacy.
"What are you doing there?!" A familiar voice exclaimed angrily. "Regulars, you are expected to practice, not to chat or relax!"
Ryuzaki-sensei was entering the court, followed by Tezuka, and was obviously annoyed that practice was quitted for a matter she didn't get.
"By the way", she continued after a few seconds, which had been necessary to calm down a bit and to put the whole situation in some context, "where's Kikumaru-kun?"
"He..uhm…", Osihi started to give some explanation, but failed miserably. That was Inui's catchword.
"Eiji left exactly six minutes ago, after he had some quarrel with Oishi about the recent match. It seems like he had problems with his concentration, which caused his partner to go crazy.. And.."
"Ok, that's enough, Inui," their coach interrupted him. "That explains why you couldn't continue your match, but what about you?" With the last words, she turned around and faced the other regulars, causing Momo and Echizen to look like they had been caught on stealing some little kid's lollipop, before the to of them turned around and headed to their court to continue their match.
"And you?" she turned to Fuji and Kawamura, only earning the first one's usual smile, accompanied by the words "We've already finished it."
At least hose two just did what they were expected to do, Ryuzaki-sensei thought with resignation.
