Ookami- The next chapter! Hyoutei gets an appearance as well.

-Chapter 2 part 1-

"YAY! Onsen nya!" Eiji cheered happily as he bounced down the stone walkway. Behind him the rest of Seigaku and Hyoutei tennis teams were following at a slower pace.

Atobe was trying to annoy Tezuka as Fuji hung nearby and seemed to enjoy the torment.

In the middle of the group Kabaji was holding onto Jirou (Jiroh?) (Who was, as always sleeping) while the other members of Hyoutei were at random places around them.

Most of Seigaku were in the back of the group, Inui was writing notes in his book, Ryouma and Momo were arguing about something or another while Kaidoh glared at everything.

"Why'd we have to come anyway?" The Viper muttered.

Kuwamura Takashi, the famous bipolar player of Seigaku answered gently.

"Atobe-san invited us so we couldn't be so rude as to turn him down…"

"Psshh…" Kaidoh hissed as he resumed his glaring.

Ahead of them, a member of Hyoutei, Mukahi Gakuto turned around to glance at them.

"Well if you don't want to come you don't have to, the invitation was originally made for Tezuka after all."

"Oh? Then how'd the rest of us end up coming?" Oishi asked, genuinely confused.

Fuji smirked even wider and opened his eyes for a brief moment before they hid themselves again.

Tezuka answered in his usual strict tone. "Fuji happened to be there and thought that it'll be more enjoyable if there was more people."

"That and I don't want Tezuka to be alone with Atobe-san, who knows what he might try to do to our captain?" Fuji said sweetly as several people began snickering behind their hands.

Atobe simply shrugged. "And just what do you think I might do to him?"

Fuji's smile changed, whereas before it was friendly and amused it became a wicked smirk that seemed to say 'I know many ways to cause pain and you seem like the perfect test subject.'

Atobe hid his shudder and decided to drop the subject.

"Nya! Minna-san (everyone)! We're here! Hayaku (Hurry up)!"

Eiji was bouncing from nerves as he impatiently waited at the entrance. Oishi smiled at his best friend's childishness and walked a little faster.

0o0o0o0o0

"Whoa! It's so…big!" Eiji cried as his sensitive eyes took in his surroundings.

"Of course it would be, this is a very high class place." Oshitari said as he adjusted his glasses. The 3rd year player of Hyoutei was taking off his shoes while saying this.

"I don't see what's so great about this place." Ryouma commented, bored in his usual monotone as he dropped his bags on the floor after taking off his shoes and getting inside.

"Aitsu (that guy)" Shishido said angrily as Atobe's eyebrow twitched.

Luckily they couldn't keep blocking the door so they moved their stuff away from the genkan (place where you leave your shoes) and into the lobby.

"Irasshaimasse (Welcome)" a couple of the staff greeted them as they walked through the lobby.

"Young master, is this the whole group?" A balding man asked as he approached them. Atobe gave his affirmative and the man called on the other workers to come and retrieve the guests' bags.

"Young master?" Eiji asked, clearly confused.

"My family owns this onsen." Atobe replied and hid a smirk when Oishi, Eiji, Momo, Kaidoh and Kuwamura blinked in surprise.

"Either way, I wanna go take a bath, all that walking made me sweaty…" Gakuto said as he walked in the direction of the baths.

"I'm going too, a nice bath before dinner would be nice." Fuji said as he also left.

They took a van to get here although they had to walk a bit to get to the actual place since it was a narrow path/walkway with stone lined steps.

"Well, nothing to do except put our stuff in our rooms and that's already being done…oi, why can't we put our own stuff away?" Momo said as he sat on one of the many sofas located in the lobby.

"All the rooms were likely already picked out beforehand and the employees most likely have already been told to help us with our luggage for this one week trip." Inui said as he closed his book with a snap.

"Oh…" Momo felt stupid.

"Baka semapi." (Do I really need to tell you people what this means?)

And that comment from a certain arrogant 1st year only made him feel worse.

Before Momo could strangle his kouhai (Underclassmen) the captain of the Seigaku tennis club cleared his throat and made everyone snap to attention before the man could punish them with laps around the complex.

"We're all washing up before dinner."

"Yes sir." The team chorused as they headed off to the changing rooms.

0o0o0o0o0o0

They all striped and went to the bath area. Fuji was working up some good soap lather while Gakuto was soaking in one of the many huge tubs.

Atobe and the rest of Hyoutei were entering the baths as well. Jiroh was finally awake and chatting happily with Fuji as he knocked some soap bottles over.

Kabaji was sitting silently in one of the tubs. Everyone else was off doing whatever in various other places in the room.

The problem began when Momo looked down at Ryouma and commented on…

"Echizen, you're tiny."

"What are you going on about?" was Ryouma's reply as he scrubbed some soap on his chest.

"I don't believe it's his fault Momo-san. He hasn't hit puberty yet." Fuji reminded the power-player gently as he began rinsing the bubbles off.

"Ochibi is small so he's small as well!" Eiji said with a snicker.

Ryouma was beginning to get annoyed although he had no idea why, what were they talking about anyway? He's small? So what if he was short? He's younger than them after all.

"Actually, he's average for his height and age." Inui commented as he soaked in the relaxing hot water.

Height? Age? Average?

"What are you talking about?"

Ryouma was beginning to get a wary and foreboding feeling as his sempai-tachi and some Hyoutei members were starting to smirk at him.

'This is going to be a long week.'

0o0o0o0o0

The baths were done and they all put on robes as they headed for the dinning room.

Ryouma was still irked about the comments his sempai had made, although he didn't know what they were talking about it still pissed him off.

The fact that even some members of Hyoutei were laughing as well made him even angrier.

The food came. Nearly everyone 'oohed' and 'ahhed' at the delicious looking meal.

As one they all said 'Itadakimasu!' and began eating.

"This is fresh salmon!"

"Hey the fried roe is mine!"

"Give me that squid."

"All of you shut up."

The Seigaku team became instantly quiet as Tezuka glared at them before continuing his meal. The silence didn't last long however when Jirou somehow got into an animated conversation with Fuji.

"And then you hit the ball like 'sha!' and it was so cool! I wanna play you again! Then I'll counter your ball like 'hah!' and then the ball would definitely-"

Ootori and Shishido were taking food from each other's plates and didn't seem to have problems. Eiji watched them for a bit before he turned to Oishi and winked before snatching up a tuna roll.

"E-Eiji!" Oishi cried as the red haired boy munched on the food.

"Eh? Well they do that, so why can't we ne?"

Oishi sighed before shaking his head and smiling. Then, grinning evilly he took Eiji's eel.

"Hey!" Eiji rather liked eel.

Oishi just smirked at him.

Eiji looked over at his teammates plates, hoping to snatch one of theirs.

He found Ryouma and Momo having an impromptu eating contest…or rather they were simply stuffing any food they could into their mouths…

He looked over his team, whom could he steal food from?

He's already taken some from Oishi…didn't dare take some form Fuji after what happened last time (Wasapi rolls, Fuji likes spicy things) Tezuka was out of the question, Inui might have poisoned his or try to punish him into drinking some of his juice if he tried, Ochibi and Momo were almost done, Kaidoh was scary too…that leaves…

"Nya Takashi what's that?"

Kuwamura turned to where Eiji pointed and the acrobatic player swiped the taller boy's eel.

Meanwhile, in the Hyoutei side of the table…

Atobe was eating his food in a calm manner only benefiting his high status, he twitched as he watched Momoshiro and Echizen scarfing down food like starving pigs.

No, make that starving baboons.

Jirou had finished eating and had fallen asleep on his plate.

"Kabaji, move Akutagawa before he suffocates." Atobe said absently as he focused on his meal.

"Usu." The big teen picked up the still sleeping Jirou by the back of his robe and tossed him a ways away from the table.

The kid slept on.

-End of Chapter 2 part 1-

Ookami- I'll continue this chapter some other time when I find something to fill up the remaining 6 days of their Onsen vacation…in the meantime, I'll be putting up some other random chapters!