Hello anybody reading this! Shia is sick right now, but I'm still writing! (probably more so, because I can't do much else right now. No Tennis. -tear-)
Blufox- Don't feel bad, I like the Silver Pair too. Actually, I like a lot of the pairs, almost all the same, but TezuFuji has my heart.
Alaena Flame Dragonstar- Ah, the ball... -Dreamy look.- I can almost write it...
Shimizu Miki- Don't worry, I was just kidding! Here's the new chapter.
Yoshikochan- Yay! Yay! Hyotei! (Oooh, that rhymed.) Hyotei is fun... And there is more to come! Thank you for the review!
KiriharaAkaya- Ah, 29th, I'm fairly certain. (My friend is like a reference book. You name a character, she tells you their birthday.) As for Fuji's eyes, I ignored that. Honestly, I think that they made his eyes brown in the manga so that he looked a bit more like Yuta. -Laughs.- I remember a friend of mine said 'That's his brother? They don't look alike.' I have to say I agree... Hmm..
KaL KeY- I'll do my best! It's long again. -Laughs.-
Skyblue147- Yay! Glad you like it!
Disclaimer- I do not own Prince of Tennis
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Choutarou Ohtori was a little bit sad when he saw the cake still in the fridge the next morning, as he pulled the orange juice out from beside it. He poured himself a glass, gesturing to ask Shishido if he wanted some, but Shishido shook his head. Choutarou put it away, and a companionable silence settled over them.
Choutarou was used to this. It had become a daily routine for them since they had begun living together. Shishido, Choutarou had noticed, barely ate anything in the morning, but if he made toast or something, and offered some to Shishido, the senior never refused. Choutarou really liked living with sempai, though at times he was... Tempting...
Two days ago, for example, Choutarou had gone into his room to make sure he was awake, merely to see his sempai laying naked on top of his bed. He had been on his stomach, so it wasn't as if Choutarou had gotten prime seats to everything, but he had still had a really great view of Shishido's a--
He realized that he needed to stop thinking about that now, or else his horns were going to appear, just as they had then. Thank Kami-Sama he had closed the door in time! Choutarou had the blood of an Addra Gazelle in him, as he had found out about a week ago. It was actually kind of nice, in a way, having gotten a few traits from this animal. He had gained a certain grace, such that he hadn't tripped or stumbled once since the change, and his sigh and hearing had improved a lot. He was faster too, but not nearly as fast as a few of the other TPPs (Trivial Pulse Positives) in Hyotei alone. Thinking on that, Choutarou drained his juice and headed off to practice with Shishido.
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"Gaku," Yuushi whispered, shaking his doubles partner's should lightly. "Come on, Gakuto, we've got to get up soon."
"Nnn!" Gakuto griped, and rolled away, pulling the covers up over his shoulder as he did so. Yuushi couldn't help but smile. Gakuto behaved worse then a spoiled three year old in the morning, but it was so adorable when he did.
"Come on, Gaku," Yuushi coaxed, kissing the back of the acrobatic player's neck as the said individual tried to pull the covers farther off of Yuushi and more onto himself.
They had slept in the same bed the night before, and had every night since coming to the dorms at Hyotei. Yuushi himself had actually lived on campus before any of the Trivial Pulse things had ever happened. His parents lived much too far away for it to be logical for him to commute, and since he was hardly on good terms with them most of the time anyway, this arrangement suited him well enough.
Gakuto, on the other hand, had always lived at home before this. Though they had started going out over a year ago, they had never gotten much of a chance to really do all of the things they wanted too, because Gakuto's mother was the living embodiment of an over-protective nature. Still, it showed when you tried to get the petite boy up in the mornings. It showed whenever you tried to get him to do... Anything!
"Come on, Gaku-chan," Yuushi smiled, sucking lightly on Gakuto's earlobe, which was seeming to finally have an effect. Gakuto moaned softly, and then snuggled closer to his lover, smiling in a strangely content manner. "You have to get up, Gakuto."
Well, that ruined it. The immature boy's face scrunched up in a displeased expression, but Yuushi was making headway. "If you get up," Yuushi whispered softly into the redhead's ear, "Then I'll give you a treat."
Gakuto was up. He shot up, actually, looking at his boyfriend with expectant, sleepy eyes. "Yuu...shi?" Gakuto mumbled, smiling slightly.
"Yes, Lover," Yuushi smiled back, giving Gakuto a small kiss, and running his fingers over the long ears his boyfriend had let appear. Gakuto parted the tensai's lips and began teasing the taller boy's mouth with his clever tongue. Yuushi kissed him back just as eagerly, but refused, with a bit of effort, when Gakuto slyly tried to pull him back into bed. "It's time to get up... And that means movement." He added the last part to make it clear that just sitting up wasn't going to cut it anymore.
"Mmph... Fine," Gakuto sighed, and Yuushi smiled at the sound.
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Jirou glanced at the clock wearily. Ah. Six thirty. Sleepy time.
Atobe quickly ruined those plans, patting the bed just hard enough that it shifted Jirou out of his comfortable position. Now, that wasn't fair, Jirou decided. He had been up all night after all, with no help from Atobe.
Jirou Akutagawa was practically nocturnal. Scratch that. He used to be practically nocturnal. Now, he most literally was nocturnal. Still, it didn't change much, not for Jirou. He had always had more energy in the evenings and at nights, and had slept away the days. It didn't matter to him, but his change had in fact effected him in other ways.
One was the striped tail that was now twitching at his body's mild annoyance at having to get up. Another was the fangs that would betray him if he wasn't careful when he yawned throughout the day. And then there were his eyes. His eyes were his biggest problem. Mostly because they didn't change back.
Jirou's eyes, upon changing for the first time, had changed to the Golden-green (a strange, but alluring color, in Jirou's opinion) of an Amur Tiger. None of the TPPs at Hyotei had thought this would be a problem, not at first. After all, with Jirou sleeping most of the day anyway, how many people knew Jirou's natural eye color in the first place?
The problem was, this was Hyotei. And, in Hyotei, there were strange and eccentric fan girls, who watched the Regulars' every move. Jirou's fans knew his eyes had been a caramel brown before. Knew, and wanted to know what had changed. Atobe and a few of the others had convinced them that it was a trick of the light, but now Jirou had to be careful. And that was no fun!
"Jirou," The voice sounded to Jirou like velvet. He chuckled, at thinking of velvet as a sound. Instead of protesting, Jirou rolled towards the voice, then sat up, propping himself up with his arms. A smiled crossed his face and his eyes closed in what was becoming a habit. "Don't do that." Jirou understood and opened his eyes obediently. Atobe loved his new eyes. Actually, he had adored Jirou's natural eye color as well, but he said that he liked his eyes even more now, and that made Jirou happy.
Many people underestimated Jirou, and when they did, he beat them without mercy. They always seemed the think he was a simple person, and that there was no more to him then being a sleepy rich boy. Many people, mostly outside of Hyotei, thought he was carried through everything by his family's money, but the truth was that Jirou worked hard for everything he had and got. It was something his mother had always believed, that you should work for something you really wanted. Not to say that Jirou wasn't occasionally spoiled, as he knew he was. So, he was not simple, not at all. Well, at least not with anything or anyone but Atobe.
The truth was that Jirou adored the other senior. They had grown up together, sort of. Actually, their parents had been competitors when they were younger, so even though their mansions were extremely close to each other, even bordering at one point, they had hardly played together. They had seen each other a lot, though, at different events, and so Jirou felt accomplished to say that they had grown up together. It was more then he could say for anyone else.
"I'm up," he smiled, careful to keep his eyes open this time. He shifted, and felt the sheet move against his bare skin in a sensual way. Atobe turned away, and Jirou realized just how sensual that picture of him was for his boyfriend.
"Jirou, work hard today," Atobe said.
"Of course, Buchou," Jirou said, as he always did to Atobe's usual order. There weren't loving words passed between them in the mornings, but it didn't matter to Jirou. He was one to read between the lines.
Many people believed that Atobe only took advantage of Jirou. They often said that, in hushed whispers that they didn't realize Jirou's sharp hearing could now catch. Still, Jirou knew something that they didn't.
"Jirou..." Atobe said softly, turning back just long enough to give the volley-specialist a quick kiss. He then turned his back again, "When you look like that in the mornings, I want to jump right back into bed with you."
"I love you too, Keigo." Jirou was the only one who at Hyotei who ever heard Atobe call himself 'I', and not 'Ore-sama'. The only other exceptions were his parents. Still, there was more to it then that. Atobe loved him. Jirou knew it. Atobe had loved him ever since they were young. He had told him so.
When they were little, Jirou had found the place where their land bordered with Atobe's. As if to mock the grandeur of the rest of the place, the fencing at this point was run down and made of an older wood. Jirou easily slipped through. Atobe, young then, and adorable in a 'I-own-the-World-' kind of way, had been the one to find Jirou.
When asked what he was doing on Atobe's property, Jirou explained that he was looking for a Frog-Prince. As he had, in his childish game of the time. He had grown up without his parents around a lot of the time. Actually, his best friend before Atobe had been an elderly maid, who read him fairytales almost constantly to keep him occupied. She would tell him about Princes and Princesses and Kings and Queens, along with dragons and everything else that was mystical and exciting. When Jirou had asked, one long night in the winter, why the princess always got to find the Prince-Frog, the maid patiently explained that it had to work that way. Jirou didn't understand why a girl had to be the one to find the frog. It didn't seem fair to him. And so, he had headed out to see if it was possible for a boy to find a Prince-Frog, just like the princesses of his fairytales.
Atobe, in all of his five-year-old glory, had wanted to know what part he was in Jirou's story. Jirou had laughingly answered that he was the Bear, who told the young adventurer to get out of his forest. Atobe said that that was preposterous, and that certainly he was the prince. Jirou had only smiled and shook his head, pointing out that he would have to be a frog first in order to be the prince. Atobe demanded that they find this Frog-Prince, else he would never get a chance to persuade the Frog-Prince to trade him rolls.
Thus, two weeks of playing in the forest had ensued, much to Jirou's delight, as well as the happiness of his maid, who had been running out of stories for him. Jirou had introduced himself as 'Ji-chan', and called Atobe 'Kei-chan', making it so that if either of them should slip and speak of the other at home, no one would be suspicious. His family actually came to believe that Jirou had invented an imaginary friend, as he occasionally told his maid about his and Atobe's adventures. Everything was great, until his father found out what was really going on.
After that, Jirou had been forbidden to see Atobe. He had snuck out once, to leave a hastily and poorly written note, explaining to Atobe that he was sorry and that he couldn't see him again. Also with a promise that they would meet again. Jirou had found out not long after coming to Hyotei (He had been ecstatic to see Atobe again) that Atobe did remember him. Kind of. He remembered his 'Ji-chan', but he remembered him as a girl.
This wasn't hard to understand, as Jirou had had very long, curly hair back then, and they were both young enough that the difference was not yet apparent. He was often mistaken for a girl in those days. Jirou didn't mind. He also didn't mind that Atobe didn't recognize him. Alright, it would be a lie to say that it hadn't hurt, it had, but Jirou had gotten over it, and had worked at becoming Atobe's friend. Jirou had heard that Atobe often told the girls that he dated not to fall too deeply in love with him, as he was destined to marry his Ji-chan. That was how Jirou discovered that the other boy remembered, and it made him laugh. Jirou himself had gotten that same warning when the two of them had started going out, over two years ago now. He had struggled not to tell Atobe then, and had decided to wait until the other boy remembered.
"Come on, time for practice," Atobe said, pulling on his uniform. Jirou couldn't help but smile.
"Coming, Kei-chan."
"What was that?" Atobe turned his head back over his shoulder. He honestly hadn't heard, which made Jirou's smile widen a bit.
"Nothing." Atobe wasn't a Frog or a Bear, but he was Jirou's prince anyway.
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Kunimitsu hadn't slept more than two hours in four days. It was catching up with him. He was extremely weary, but he smiled for Fuji's benefit as they continued getting ready for school. Three nights so far, he had managed to get Fuji sleeping quickly-- the movie had helped last night-- and hid the fact that he wasn't sleeping fairly well, he thought. Fuji didn't seem to suspect a thing.
"Kunimitsu," Fuji said, snapping him out of a trancelike state he hadn't realized he had fallen into, "Are you alright?"
"Fine," Kunimitsu assured him with a smile. Fuji looked like he might press the matter further, but a memory of their fight the day before must of passed through his mind, because he quickly decided to keep it to himself.
"...Just take care of yourself, Kunimitsu," Fuji smiled, then opened the door. "Shall we?"
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Hmm... That was strange... Why was the world spinning? No, Kunimitsu decided, that was not natural. Yeah, he was pretty sure that people could see when the world spun. No, positive. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, but it ended up just sending a wave of pain through it instead. What was going on? Oh, he remembered. He was in the club locker room, it was after school, and, thank Kami-sama, he was alone. He slowly straightened up, and realized that in that single delirious moment, he had ended up leaning heavily against the lockers.
He knew he was in trouble. He had expected something like this to happen eventually, but he had over-estimated himself. He had thought that he could make it to the weekend, and then use a trip home as an excuse to get the rest he knew he needed. Whoa. Another wave of dizziness swept over him, and he felt his breathing irregulate.
"Kunimitsu?"
Kami-sama, no, not now... Not Fuji. If Fuji saw him like this, everything he had worked for would be ruined. He heard a gasp. Too late. Kunimitsu sank to his knees, and everything went black.