"Welcome back"

Summary: I can't think of a summary but the basic idea is that Watanabe and Hanamura had a relationship in the past, and due to meeting at a training camp, they are forced to deal with their relationship- both how they should handle it, as well as reflecting how it affected them both.

Author's Note: I actually basically had the idea for this story for age and I've tried to do it quite some times but none of these attempt worked- they rarely get very far. However, one day I had a really bad day as I got a pretty bad mark for an essay so that's why I ended up sitting down and just type.

Completed: May 25, 2009- June 20, 2009

Due to discussing the training schedule that only one of them currently had a copy of, the two of them was standing very close to one another. At a glance, they seemed to be a most strange pair. Hanamura was dressed in the latest fashion with the just right amount of make up applied- the image of a woman who was clearly rather conscious of her appearance. Watanabe was the complete opposite of her, as not only was he dressed in a very scruffy way, he didn't even bother to have a proper shave, and his hair was also very tussled.

Yet there was a slight sense of naturalness when the two of them stood so close together. Perhaps it was because of the way Hanamura was almost leaning toward him, although the man could be said to be much colder in his response.

"So, the groups we are in charge of will be playing together, it will certainly be very interesting…Osamu-kun." Hanamura said sweetly.

"It will be so…Hanamura-san." Watanabe said evenly.

"Surely there is no need for you to be so formal with me." she said, a bit disappointed. "I do not think you have ever called me by my proper name before."

"Yet I have never advanced beyond the last name, as the most informal way I have addressed you is Hana-chan. But after all," he added with a slightly bitter smile. "You were the one who made the fact that you are two years older then me very clearly."

"That was then." she said. "Two years was a very large gap when we were that age."

"That is true. And that was also when I was very impolite with the way I address people- especially my elder. Therefore, I am determined to not make that mistake again. So, Hanamura-san, if you can excuse me." saying so, Watanabe left her and went to the team he was currently supervising.

It so happened to include one of her students: the captain, no less.

"Watanabe-sensei, do you know Hanamura-sensei?" Kajimoto asked curiously.

"Yes and no." was the answer. "How well do you really know any one, Kajimoto-kun?"

What he said was the truth- sometime he felt that he had never really knew the real Hanamura Aoi. The woman he went out with as a young teenager was very different from the older woman he broke up with a few years ago.

He supposed people can condemn him for being a typical man, you want what you could not get, although he did not think that this was very fair, because Hanamura was exactly the same as him.

At fourteen he had been crazy for her and that was why he ended up being here.

I wanted to be a boyfriend she could be proud of,he thought with a bitter smile, only to realise that whatever I did would not matter as I could not change the fact that she was born two years earlier then me.

"Ashita!"

He heard Shiraishi calling out the name of his girlfriend happily and he had to secretly admit that the reason he allowed this was very biased. If Tanako Ashita wanted to come and help then he would let her come and help. His reasoning was that this was because she was Shiraishi's girlfriend- which also meant that she really was here to help instead of providing any romantic conflict. She would not have half of the team falling in love with her, and be torn with who she should choose.

Although such a thing tends to only exist in shojo manga that Aizuki would sometimes read underneath her text book when they were still in junior high school.

"Why, it's Ashita-chan." He said with a smile as he turned to greet the girl.

Ashita was the reminder that Aizuki always had a person who loved her, and no doubt Aizuki would have been happy with the way her sister ended up like.

Tanako Ashita was a normal girl in many ways and that was more then what could be said of her elder sister at that age.

"Banda-sensei tells me to give this to you- it is a revised schedule." Ashita said before she asked: "Sensei, do you know Yamabuki's coach? He seems to know you. He was saying how you were never one to follow schedule when you were a student."

"I was his student once." Watanabe explained simply. "It was only for a year but he really changed my life in that short year."

"Was Sensei in Yamabuki before?" Shiraishi asked, surprised at this information. "Hasn't Banda-sensei been teaching in Yamabuki for ages?"

"I was his student when I was in my second year of junior high school. I had to go and attend school in Tokyo with my aunt and uncle as there was some family issue at that time."

This was really an understatement as well as shifting the blame, as his family's problem at that time was him.

"Banji is… to an extent he is a great coach, but to another extent he is also quite crazy." Watanabe said with what could probably be described as a fond exasperation. "He sees talent and tries to get them for his school, but a lot of the time it is not really wise to get such a person in the team."

Akutsu was one, and so was he. To a certain extent he was probably worse then Akutsu as his first meeting with Yamauki's coach had ended up with a black eye as a greeting gift. Although Watanabe defended himself by pointing out that he was in the middle of a fight and lacked the time to tell the old man that he did not wish to join the tennis club.

Yet Banji still welcomed him into the team even though a large amount of the other club members seemed to have contemplated quitting upon his presence.

One of the most troublesome things about this training camp was that his ability of smoking was extremely limited. It wasn't just that he couldn't smoke, but he also had to make sure that the smell of smoke was absent. He was finally forced to do so due to a large amount of complaint.

He was glad as he knew that this was a hobby that should be stopped, but yet he was simply unable to do so.

"I see that you still haven't quit." Banji commented as he suddenly sneak up behind his ex-student. "I recalled that she did not like it very much."

"There was a lot of stuff about me that she didn't like." Watanabe muttered. "Including being two years younger then her."

"I do not meant Hanamura, I mean her, that girl whom I saw you with when I visited Osaka for your senior high school competition."

"You mean Ai-chan?"

"She didn't like you calling her that." Banji chuckled out. "Her reaction showed that quite clearly."

"Why are you calling me with such a stupid name?" Had been Aizuki's very loud protest. "It is so common…like Hanako or Aiko! And the fact that my last name is sometimes mistaken as Tanaka is bad enough."

"Aizuki." He said- a name that was rather rare to him as he always called her by that name which annoyed her, that was probably why he did so. But the last time they talked…he had called her Aizuki.

That was when he told her that he had met Hanamura in his new university (in Tokyo, as a scholarship was offered to him due to tennis) and after a few months, he has decided to go out with her again, as that was what she asked of him.

Aizuki called him an idiot…a baka instead of aho, and then she just simply walked out of the door and his life.

Sometimes he was sure he knew why her reaction was like that, but other times he wonder whether he just thought too highly of himself.

If anything, he was a coward, as he did not try to contact her again after the few months' attempt of calling a phone that would hang up, and letters that would travel back to him.

When he first heard about Shiraishi's girlfriend, he had been very surprised as it seemed too much of a coincidence. He has never visited her house before as their parents disapproved of him, even when he returned from Tokyo as a reformed boy. However, despite the fact that the amount he has seen Ashita was when he was in junior high could be counted with one hand, Aizuki often talks about her little sister. At one point, he even said: "Is she really your parent's instead of yours?"

Her reply was a kick in the shins.

But Ashita was a rather unusual name and the fact that she was also called Tanako made the coincidence a bit too impossible. When he saw her, he was even more sure as he could see the family resemblance.

But what did this mean for him?

The hope of nothing happening was really too naïve, but what ended up happening was really the worst case scenario for him.

There was a fight, that was normal and his juvenile delinquency days made him more then capable to handle any fights without appearing as if he was joining the fight himself.

Until right now…he was seriously contemplating handing his resignation in order to give a good beating to both the responsible parties. What happened was really not the two boy's fault due to the fact they never realised the consequences of such actions.

Momoshiro and Kaidou had been in a fight, which included them to shove one another as they raced down the stairs…Only that Ashita happened to be walking along with a pile of equipments that prevented her from ducking.

"We really didn't mean any harm to Tanako-kun." Tezuka said, extremely polite, this was no longer a small matter as the young girl had the misfortune to fall with her head hitting the rail.

"Tezuka…" Watanabe's voice was extremely soft, and that was probably way there was something very scary about it, making everyone automatically taking a step back, while Tezuka actually stopped talking.

"Tezuka…just shut up." Watanabe hissed, and his fist was actually clenched. "Nobody says anything right now."

"…she seems alright." Momoshiro announced hopefully as he entered the room, unaware of the tension.

He might have continued with his goods news if it wasn't for the fact that Watanabe suddenly swing his fist toward the wall beside him, causing a crack.

"I said, no body says anything right now." Watanabe repeated again, his voice still very low. "I can't control myself right now."

"Osamu, don't be so extreme." Much to everyone's shock and surprise, Banji actually walked up to him and grabbed hold of his hand.

"Old man, do not test my endurance." Watanabe snapped. "Do not think that you will be immune."

Those who understood native Kansai received another shock as the words he used were actually very rude and crude, associated with delinquency.

But Banji was completely unfazed and he continued speaking, even smiling.

"Osamu- you are not in a position to act as if she is your younger sister, are you?"

"She is a student that is placed under my care." Watanabe reasoned, and his speech was now much more polite, a sign of him being a bit calmer.

"No, you are this mad because she is your precious Ai-chan's sister."

"Old man, how much do you know? If you know so damned much then you could have prevented me from making that mistake." Watanabe snapped as he shook of the hand. Taking a deep breath, he turned to Tezuka: "I admit, this is an accident so do what you think is fitting.

"By the way, Tezuka-kun," he added, a strange smile on his face. "You better make sure that these two can come up with a very convincing apology. If Ashita-chan's sister was here, she would already have punched and kicked these two for daring to hurt her precious sister."

Ashita did recover and by now, she had heard of what had happened and she was clearly very embarrassed about what she accidentally ended up causing. However, she was even more curious about how the tennis coach and teacher in her school seemed to know her sister.

Was that why he called her by the first name? Initially, she thought that was just because he called many of the regulars by their first name too.

"Ashita-chan, are you feeling better?" Watanabe asked as he refused Shiraishi's offer of taking his chair by pulling another chair out in order to sit beside them, as he knew that this would probably take some time.

"Sensei…about what happened this evening, Oshitari-kun said that…"

"Here."

In Watanabe's wallet was a rather photo of a young boy and a young girl. The young boy was no doubt Watanabe although his hair was actually dyed blond and much longer then now, and his uniform was ripped in many places.

Ashita recognised the young girl as her elder sister, but this was an image of her elder sister that she was very unfamiliar with. Not only Aizuki was wearing make up in an amount that Ashita only see in special occasions, her hair was actually dyed in blond streaks and instead of the proper flat shoes of junior high girls, she had a pair of stilettos.

"We took this photo just before I went to Tokyo for my second year of junior high school. The reason I had to go was because I was causing too much trouble for my parents." He admitted.

"'Ai-chan'?" Strangely, this was the thing that got Ashita's interest the most. She suddenly recalled a time when one of her sister's better boyfriends had dinner with them. In the middle of the meal, he suddenly addressed her sister as Ai-chan, and that caused her sister to immediately snap at him, almost threatening to kick him out of the house.

"That is a very special name." her sister had said afterward. "Only one person is allowed to call me that."

"So sensei is the one who calls her Ai-chan." Ashita muttered. "So Sensei is that person."

They were in the same class in junior high school and they actually shared the same desk. Although they only started to have a strange friendship sometime later, due to a chance meeting after school where they worked together.

Watanabe had been involved in a fight and Aizuki happened to walk pass. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, one of the boys who was ganging up on him happened to be someone who Aizuki rejected. As a result, she became involved as well.

Her gender did not really disadvantaged her as she was very skilled at hitting just the right spot and she had a deadly weapon in her shoes, which were rather high, while her nails were a bit sharp. Afterwards, the two of them had pooled in their money and brought some cheap beer.

That was how they ended up being friends.

"When I was really little, I do recall a few times when my parents would be yelling at my sister, on the days when she returned home rather late. But I don't recall much as she seemed to have stopped when I went to primary, as she would always go home with niichan and I."

"We both decided to turn over a new leaf. We were classmates in senior high too." Watanabe told her. "To tell the truth…we might easily have become more then that."

They would have if it wasn't for his own infatuation with Hanamura…

His stay in Tokyo ended when Hanamura broke up with him. Even though he no longer had any romantic feelings for her, thinking about the event still irritated him as it had been a very severe blow to his pride, especially when he was at that age.

He had been doing very well in tennis and many girls in his school would actually put letters in his locker and desk, even though none of them had been willing to approach him just a month or two ago. Although it might not have just been due to tennis, because he had also stopped dying his hair, and the amount of time he practiced actually lessened the time he have for fighting.

All of this was done for the sake of pleasing Hanamura Aoi, who he was crazy about at that time. But in the end, it still wasn't enough. No matter what, he was younger then her by two years and people in her school, especially boys whom she had rejected, would laugh at her due to this.

He pleaded, begged, implored, but none of these tactics worked. A few days later, he decided to head back to Osaka, since Tokyo was just too painful.

Aizuki had been at the train station to welcome him, and the first thing she said to him was: "Welcome back, I am glad that you have returned."

But who was she referring to? Their native city or her?

Even though he was still infatuated with Hanamura, he did not talk to Aizuki about her, as Aizuki made her opinion about the other girl quite clear. Not only did she dislike her, she also thought of him as an idiot due to this.

Now he has to agree with her.

"But sensei, why is it that you and my sister have lost contact?" Ashita asked. He knew that she would ask this since he made it quite clear that the two of them were once extremely close.

"A lots of stuff."

This was not fully false but all these a lots of stuff could be summarise in one name: Hanamura Aoi.

In the end, a phone call was made and Watanabe decided that he would do it himself, instead of letting Ashita do it. After all, this was part of his duty as a coach. Ashita was injured under his care, so he had to do it.

It was also because he knew that if this chance go, then he might never have the courage to talk to her again.

"Hello?" it was strange, but the moment he heard her voice, he suddenly realise that the relationship he had with Aizuki was the deliberate opposite of the relationship he had with Hanamura. He never knew the real Hanamura as a boy, and that was why he had been disillusioned when he met up with her again. However, just by hearing Aizuki's voice let him knew that she was not the one who changed, it was he who never truly understood himself.

"Aizuki…it has been a long time. Hasn't it?" he said softly.

"Osamu?" she was shocked for a few seconds, but then she quickly recalled where her sister was. "Has something happened with Ashita? Is that why you are calling?"

"Yes, but it is partly because I want to talk to you." He told her before he began a quick summary.

He had to admit that he was a bit worried at Aizuki's reaction. But much to his surprise, she did not seem angry at all.

"I am surprised that you manage to have such a good hold on your self." Was what she finally said, causing him to automatically say: "You have no right to say that to me, Ai-chan!"

"'Ai-chan'?" Aizuki repeated this name with a slight chuckle, and he thought that he could see her rolling her eyes at the other side. "Well, would you believe it? I actually miss that stupid nickname."

"Your sister said that you are most insistent in not having anyone else calling you that."

"I would say that one person calling me that is enough." She said in an equally light voice.

"Oh Aizuki, when have you become the type of girl who waits for the guy to make the first move?" he finally said after a slight pause. "Alright, I'll throw my cards on the table, that is fair, right? Then you can judge what your moves will be. I did go out with Hanamura Aoi again but it lasted a much shorter time, I broke up with her after a few months."'

"How would I have known?" she said rather frostily. "I did not see you ever since that day. Why didn't you visit me then? I did hang up when you call and returned your letters but if you explained then…"

"Because I am a coward." He admitted. "And because I didn't realise what I actually felt for you until it is much too late. I thought that what we had was only friendship because it was not that same intense and passionate infatuation I had with Hanamura. Aizuki… I can promise you that I would not be with her again. I realised that I never knew the real Hanamura Aoi when I was a child and once I realised what she is really like when I was a teenager, I discovered that I do not like that type of person."

"And what about me? Osamu… you were wrong in what you said. In that extent I am the type of woman who wait for the man to make the first move. Why do you think that I never once told you that I actually like you? After all, I realised that when you went to Tokyo."

"I love you and I want to be with you." He said simply, not caring that he was using the public phone, which meant that anyone could hear him. "Ai-chan… I… I have not regretted anything more then what the mistake that I did. Because I think we would have been married if I realised it earlier."

"You said that you were infatuated with Hanamura when you were younger but realised the feeling for what it was when you get older." Aizuki said very slowly, "What if I said the same to you as well?"

"Then I will apologise for bothering you and hang up the phone. After all, how can I reproach another for the same mistake that I did? Well, I would try to ask you for a chance first, but if that didn't work, then I would give up. But Ai-chan, I don't think I have changed that much and somehow…I don't think you have." He said honestly, not even nervous. Perhaps it was because he had some sort of fatalism.

She laughed, and he automatically smiled due to this.

"Well, you are lucky then, Osamu." She said. "Come to find me as soon as you return to Osaka."

They could not spend that long talking since she had to go to work, while he should really be doing a similar thing as well. But first of all, there was another problem.

"Eavesdropping is not very ladylike, Hanamura-san." He said as he turned around, rather shocked at seeing her beside him, although he did not really care.

"So this is it, I guess? You are going back to your Ai-chan." Hanamura said with a spread of her hands. "This is what could have happened all these years ago... no, this is what happened a few years ago."

"You know, if you made different choices when we were younger then things might be different." he told her, what he did not tell Aizuki, because there was no need to do so. "If I learnt about the type of person that you are when we were still going out the first time, I think I could have learnt to live with her. After all, I was crazy for you at that time. I might have ended up very different then."

"You are not the only one who made mistakes…Watanabe-kun." Hanamura said with a rather bitter smile. "I feel what I should have felt years and years too late. But you are luckier then me as she did not change."

"Hanamura-san, it is true that I regret continuing being so infatuated with you after you dumped me, and believing that I was still crazy about you when we met again in college. However, I do not regret that I met you when I went to Tokyo. Even though it was all due to your own vanity, I am glad that you made me change, because who knows where I would be if I didn't went to play tennis due to the desire of pleasing you." Upon saying this, Watanabe stretched out his hand. "So, goodbye."

"Goodbye, Watanabe-kun." She said graciously as she took that hand. This should not be a good bye between lovers but then he was only speaking of their relationship as what it had been like when they were both teenagers. It was just someone thanking another for a small thing that caused their fate to alter dramatically.

The team were met by their family while Ashita's siblings were both there. Ashita first had her head examined by her elder sister before her brother began to ask questions.

He was not a young teenager taking a long trip so there was usually no one there, however, he might be able to describe this as an exception.

After she left her younger sister to her twin brother, Aizuki walked to him.

Like him, she had stopped dying her hair for sometime and she actually has it pulled back by a clasp- a very simple but elegant style. Likewise, she was neatly dressed. She was still wearing high heels, although he doesn't think this was due to them being a good weapon when she got into fights (he had been stabbed by these shoes before and that was not an experience he cared to repeat).

"Welcome back, Osamu." She said simply.

"I…is that all the welcome that I get?" he asked, and he was not pretending to be a bit disappointed.

"I didn't know that you are so greedy!" Aizuki laughed out and she actually leant forward to kiss him on the lips.

There were times when she kissed his checks, and there were also times when he kissed her hands, but this was the first time they had such an intimate contact with one another. However, he was not surprised at the fact that it feels so natural.

"I won't go away again." He told her sincerely.

Author's Note: As mentioned before, I actually had this idea for ages, although initially it actually started of as a yaoi story, it was actually Hanamura losing to Shiraishi, after she saw Shiraishi and the rest planning to give Watanabe a birthday cake at the training camp. However, when I got this idea again, it seems more suitable to make it into an alternative Aizuki and Watanabe pairing and to be honest, I've wrote extracts in regard to this pairing. But this is like an alternative story because it does not relate to sacrifice and chapters. Basically: same character, but different past/situation.

Even in the earliest ideas, this story is meant to start at the training camp, talking about what a different pair Watanabe and Hanamura was, and show that while she seemed to want to reconcile, he clearly does not. The juvenal delinquent is an idea that I've had for ages but I didn't thought about putting it in this story before. Initially I actually wanted to write about their story even when they were still young, but that didn't work out.

I feel that Banji does seem to have recruited other students like Akutsu before, and he really seem to know a lot of stuff, it is just that he doesn't s how this.

I don't know why, but I always really like the idea of Watanabe addressing Ashita with 'chan', as "Ashita-chan". I also had fun in slightly mocking the idea of Mary Sue in the story and how they exist in shojo manga.

The whole incident with Ashita being hit on the roof is inspired from what happened in the anime- the American team selection, when Kirihara fall off the stairs. But once I got that idea, that really make sense and it was interesting to show a hint of the old Watanabe in the story, when he was actually a delinquent.

But him calling her 'Ai-chan' is actually quite ironic, because I initially had an idea of a one shot that takes place after Shiraishi and Ashita married and Ashita was visiting Watanabe and Aizuki and aizuki met an ex-boyfriend of her's and he is actually the one who calls her Ai-chan, and it ended up with Watanabe asking Ashita whether she remembers one of Aizuki's boyfriend calling her Ai-chan.

Although one thing I don't really know is what happened to her parents in the story. There is the whole thing about how her parents gave birth to the twins when they were really young, but I didn't really mention about whether her parents still got killed in the car accident. It is implied that Aizuki and Akio are now in charge of the family because it is them that Watanabe first contact when Ashita got injured.

In regard to who cause it, I really spent ages thinking about this and in the end, I settle for Momoshiro and Kaidou.

Apparently in Kansai, aho can be used rather affectionately, whereas Baka is actually a bit more serious.