I apologize beforehand for the shortness of this chapter. It was definitely longer in my head.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.

New Beginnings
(12) Summer Breeze

"I think you scare buchou," Ryoma said.

Kagome choked on her chicken. "Excuse me?" she asked, wiping her mouth with an expensive-looking napkin.

Ryoma shrugged. "When I bring up your name he gets a really distant look on his face." He took a bite of his fish looking as if he was about to add something more.

His cousin frowned, thinking. "Well, I definitely haven't done anything to make him… scared of me." If anything, she should be the one scared of him, with his glares and stern voice and just everything about him. Kagome shuddered.

"What about that time you made the target explode?" Miroku asked. "I can't imagine anyone not being scared of that."

Sesshomaru looked up then. "You made a target explode?" he asked, speaking up for the first time since they had started dinner. The group was currently having dinner at his house. It was Sango's idea. Rather strange if Ryoma thought about it but his mother had insisted on a western dinner for tonight so Ryoma wasn't complaining.

"It was an accident!" Kagome whined.

The demon snorted. "Five hundred years ago, an accident would have gotten you killed."

"Ha!" Kagome exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him. Sango gave it a look, only she would be able to get away with doing that to Sesshomaru. "Five hundred years ago I pulled Tessaiga out. On accident! And guess who's not dead and who got his arm cut off?"

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"That's right," she continued proudly. "And—"

"You also tripped on a rock and killed Naraku," Sango added.

Kagome flushed, that was not something she had been proud of despite the positive outcome. "I did not trip on a rock," she mumbled turning a nose into the air. "I was graceful."

"Indeed," Sesshomaru agreed. "Incredibly graceful when looking for the shards." He paused. "Less than graceful upon shooting your final arrow."

Miroku and Sango laughed at the memory and Kagome felt her flush deepened. Ryoma raised his eyebrows at his sponsor. "Why were you watching her?" he asked before he could stop himself. He frowned at the thought, he never stopped himself; he does what he wanted. And then he caught the sight of amber eyes and reminded himself that this was Sesshomaru.

Immediately the care-free atmosphere around the group completely vanished, leaving a tense, electrifying air in its wake. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Kagome's two friends paling and glancing at the demon worryingly. Ryoma almost smirked at a job well done especially after seeing the expression on his cousin's face.

Miroku was the first to recover: "Hmm…" He hummed, tapping his chin gleefully. "What an interesting interpretation."

Sesshomaru's fingers twitched slightly and he narrowed his eyes. Five hundred years ago he would have killed them all on the spot. "You don't know your cousin as well as you claim you do, boy." He slanted his gaze towards the priestess. "If one does not keep an eye on her during battle, they will find themselves the unintended target of the end of one of her arrows."

"That's not—" Kagome squeaked.

Ryoma blinked. "Okay," he said slowly and most pointedly did not look in Kagome's direction. He knew that he didn't sound convincing enough, especially when Kagome knew him as well as she does. Then again, he wasn't trying to sound convincing; he was doing his upmost best to let the older man know that Echizen Ryoma did not believe a word he just said.

"Enough of this," Sesshomaru interrupted anyone could say anything else. Ryoma had a feeling that the he was uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. "What is it that you plan on doing to the…" he looked over in Ryoma's direction. "…tennis captain of yours?"

Ryoma thought and then shrugged; too many words, he might as well have Kagome explain it.

"As of right now," Kagome began, swallowing her bite before continuing, "I actually don't plan on doing anything. I want to observe him first and see if I can get rid of it."

Miroku's eyebrows shot up. "Get rid of it? What happens if you purify his arm off?"

Once again, the young tennis prodigy winced at the mental image.

"Which is why I plan on observing him first."

Ryoma almost panicked. Buchou unable to play well due to whatever the hell is going on with his left arm was okay. Buchou unable to play at all due to the fact that his left arm was nonexistence was another story altogether. "Have you… purified an arm before?"

His cousin and her two friends—what were their names again?—all turned and blinked at his question and then turned and stared at the demon lord, sitting and eating and all in all, looking very nonchalant. Kagome giggled nervously, making Ryoma turn his attention back towards her. "Well, I didn't exactly purified demonic energy in a human's limb before but I've done something… similar… so, well, uh…" She bit her lips. "Anyway, it ended up fine."

"She almost purified my arm off," Sesshomaru pointed out calmly. "Again."

Kagome stood up, pushing her chair back forcefully. "I did not!" she exploded.

"Of course, then am I to presume that the one time I attempted to save you, your reaction was not actually you attempting to purify my arm?"

"I thought you were trying to kill me!" she protested. And really, no one could really blame her for thinking such a thing. "That's also completely different! Ryoma's asking if I've ever purified someone's arm while attempting to heal them!" She yanked her chair back and sat down hard. Ryoma could almost hear the crunch of bone. "When I purified the poison in your arm that one time, it ended up fine!"

Sango shook her head and sighed. Kagome was just digger herself a deeper hole. "Fine?" he repeated. "You fail to mention the part when my demonic strips disappeared and the tips of my claws faded into dust."

Ryoma's eyes went wide.

"But I didn't completely purify your arm, now did I?"

"Only because Lord Sesshomaru almost introduced her internal organs to the ground," Miroku whispered.

"If Inuyasha hadn't gotten between them," Sango agreed.

"Which he probably shouldn't have done since it ended up with the introduction of his internal organs to the ground," Tatsuki muttered softly, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

Everyone froze and stared. He blinked, winced, bit his lips and stared back. Ryoma, who really had no idea what was going on just took another bite of the fish.

Kagome stared—once again—into green, green eyes and then all of sudden, everything clicked.

She exploded.

"How was dinner?" Nanjirou asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively because he had seen the girl that was in the same car Ryoma and Kagome had climbed into hours earlier and damn, her ass was—

"Kagome's scary," he replied flatly as he walked by.

"Eh?" He looked around, expecting but not seeing his young niece following his son. "Hey brat! Where's my precious Kagome-chan?"

"She's staying over at Sesshomaru's."

"Eh? Already?" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Damn, she works fast! Or should I say he works fast. I mean, Kagome-chan got her good looks from my side of the family"—Ryoma rolled his eyes at this and wondered if his father forgotten that he wasn't related to Kagome by blood—"so of course with her killer body, especially her—"

Ryoma tuned him out after that, not wanting to hear anything about "killer body" since she was, after all, his cousin. And really, he still remembers when they used to take baths together and they was like five or something. What in the world made his father think it was okay telling his son these things? About his cousin no less. Then again, he was pretty sure his father would not hesitate to marry Kagome despite everything once given the chance. He was weird like that.

Speaking of his cousin… Ryoma frowned as he sat down onto his bed. He hasn't seen Kagome this angry for a very, very long time. The last time was… over the phone, if he remembered correctly. Something about a guy torturing some girl and how she was never going to forgive the guy or something like that. The only reason he had even the briefest memory of that was because he remembered being shocked at Kagome's tone of voice.

He frowned, trying to remember. Actually, with that tone of voice he knew now that Kagome might have been talking about some situation in the federal era. She must have just been modernizing it for him.

Ryoma sighed. His life had been so much easier before Kagome.

If there was anything Kagome was good at, it was tripping. She had tripped so many times in her lifetime, her body knew what to do and she could trip accidently on purpose and no one would be any wiser. She smiled brightly at Ryoma who narrowed his eyes in suspicion. And the moment, Kagome was just about to pass by Tezuka in the halls, she tripped (accidently on purpose) falling forward and hoped that despite appearances, Tezuka is a gentlemen and will catch her.

He did.

Unfortunately, just not the way she was expecting to be caught. His arms wrapped around her middle, his hand pressing hard against her chest. Kagome automatically shrieked, twisting her body and slammed a fist into the older man sending them both falling towards the ground.

This was not how I envisioned this going.

Tezuka rubbed his stomach, wincing. He could already feel the bruise forming; Higurashi-san had a lot more power than she let on.

"What are you doing?" Ryoma asked wanting very much to hit his head against the nearest wall.

Kagome looked up; face still flushed and arms wrapped around her chest in embarrassment. "I tripped!" she squeaked out. "It was an accident! I promise." She turned towards Tezuka and watched as he got up and held out a hand to her. She stared at it almost fearfully. "No thank you! I got this!" She immediately shot up and dusted herself off.

Awkward silence.

"Well," she chirped. "I guess I'll see you guys later!" And with that said, she power-walked her way past the two tennis players.

"I think Kagome might have been distracted," Ryoma heard Sango whisper as she followed his cousin at a slower pace. "Did you get a good look at his arm?"

"I saw his hand," Miroku replied, waggling his eyebrows suggestively in a way that made Sango uncomfortable especially since his free hand was slowly inching its way towards her. She wrapped two fingers around his ears and yanked, earning a yelp from the older man. For the first time since remembering her past life, she sincerely missed her boomerang which was still taking resident in Sesshomaru's house.

Ryoma blinked and then turned and stared at Tezuka. "Hm." His gaze dropped to his left arm. He had… powers after all; he realized and then wondered if he would see anything.

Tezuka shifted uncomfortably underneath Echizen's gaze. He appeared to be lost in thought, his gaze calculating. Tezuka wondered if this was what Echizen's opponents felt when Echizen decided enough was enough and maybe a Twist Serve to the face would make them see sense. He felt his arm throb. His pressed his right hand against his left shoulder blade, gripping it hard and feeling it pulse against him.

If he didn't know better, he would think that his shoulder was throbbing in response to Echizen.

"Don't be late for practice," he murmured softly and then walked away. He didn't look back. There was something about Echizen, he had noticed but this is the first time he had ever consciously thought it. Ever since Higurashi came, Echizen had been acting stranger and stranger. He thought he knew the younger boy and that all that mattered to him was sleeping, Ponta and tennis. It appeared, he thought almost regretfully that there were secrets that Echizen was hiding. And he couldn't believe that he actually felt uncomfortable in the younger boy's presence.

With every step he took away from Echizen, Tezuka felt the throb in his shoulder lessened until it completely faded away.

He narrowed his eyes. Thoughts of Echizen, his arm and Higurashi plagued his mind throughout the day. In fact, he was so lost in thought that he was pretty sure that his math teacher's glanced worriedly in his direction more than once when he didn't stand up to correct the problems. He wanted to sigh, he could feel his fingers twitch; if anything could to take his mind off the current problem it would be tennis.

Entering his first class, he nodded a greeting at Oishi.

"Tezuka."

"I need an appointment with your uncle."

Oishi immediately paled at Tezuka's words. "Your… shoulder's bothering you again?"

He didn't answer the question especially since the answer was so obvious. Ignoring Oishi's worried look, Tezuka took his usual seat and took out his notebook for the class. His shoulder wasn't really bothering him, it was only during long, serious matches that it acted up. His fingers curled into a fist and he wondered if he should go back to the specialized health center to get it checked up on again. He needed his shoulder healed. Completely.

Otherwise, how would he be able to continue to play tennis?

The door to the classroom slid open forcefully with a loud clank, making Tezuka look up at Higurashi. She looked flushed, large blue eyes flickering embarrassingly around the classroom at the ruckus she caused. "Sorry," she murmured. "I thought I was going to be late…"

Everyone turned back to what they were doing and Higurashi slowly made her way towards her seat, located next to him and sank down. He felt her gaze flickered in his direction and eyed her the moment she flushed and looked away.

Tezuka cleared his throat. "I apologize about earlier, Higurashi-san."

"It was my fault," she mumbled, embarrassed. She looked over in his direction again; face flushing in a way that made her look—his lips pursed at the thought. "Is your stomach okay?"

He remembered her punch and forced himself not to wince. "I will be fine."

Her blush intensified. "I'm really sorry about that. You just—you surprised me."

"Yes." He nodded his understanding.

Higurashi sighed. "Well… I'm still really sorry."

Tezuka frowned wondering how many times and how many ways he'll have to say it in order for her to understand. "I am fine," he pressed. "The bruise will be healed within a week."

Her eyes snapped upwards towards him and he almost drew back in surprise. "There's a bruise?" she asked, her voice oddly demanding.

He blinked.

Her gaze dropped downwards towards his stomach. "A bruise," she repeated, her eyes wide.

Higurashi-san, Tezuka noticed—not for the first time, was a frightening woman. She did not know her own strength and he had to remind himself—again—to not make her angry. She really was much more than she seemed. "I am fine," he repeated.

"Yes, yes," she mumbled, distantly. "I guess I'll see you Friday, then."

He blinked.

Friday… he agreed to do something with Echizen Friday. What was it again? He frowned, he couldn't, for the life of him, remembered what he agreed to at all.

Well, damn.