Hiya! Thanks to the people who reviewed! You guys make me smile in the morning (cause I check my e-mails then) and made me really happy for the day! Woohoo!
I know this update took ages, longer than I would have hoped for, but I moved over the weekend and spent ages cleaning and packing, then I also had to wait for the internet connection to be set up! Plus I have been so out of it lately, I had to pick myself up and pull it all together. (And then I got really, really side tracked on my science project because I decided to make a movie instead of a simple power point…)
Okay, no more excuses! Also, because of the delay, I present you with an extra-long chapter!
Hope you like this chapter, review what you think, or not, it's all up to you! Almost 100 followers! And over 8,200 views on my story! THANK YOU SO MUCHHHH!
A little OOC for the teeny, tiny not-so-much kind of one sided fluff. (it's not really fluff, but yea…)
xxx
Ruka sat on her bed, her back propped up against the head rest. Just yesterday she believed she could be able to walk again. But looking at all the scars that crisscrossed over her thin legs gave her second thoughts.
'The glass, they cut through the nerves in her legs. She probably won't be able to walk again.' She remembered her doctor's words clearly.
"But nothing is impossible right?" she assured herself, smiling.
"Oi, Ruka, what 'cha doing all locked up in your room?" Nanjiro's cheerful voice came through the other side of the door, "Gaki and I are going out to play. Are you going to come?"
"Umm, just give me a few minutes!" she called back, heaving herself onto her wheelchair. After a minute or so of twisting, turning and struggling, she'd finally got herself placed comfortably into her version of legs (for the moment).
"Alright!" she said, flinging the door open, "Let's go!" she flashed a cheesy smile at her dad as he pushed her to the courts.
Ryoma was already there waiting, he stood on one side of the court stretching his muscles and the two greeted him.
"Haiyaku…" Ryoma grunted impatiently as Nanjiro stood on the opposite side, bouncing the tennis ball up and down casually, his old racket in his right hand.
"Mada mada dane. Just for you, I'll play with my eyes closed." Nanjiro smirked cockily and held the ball up to serve. Closing his eyes, he threw the ball up, high into the air and jumped up with it.
"Twist serve?" Ryoma muttered questioningly, was his father finally going to play seriously?
'Oi, Oyaji, you better not be copying my serve.' Ruka thought steadily as she studied his form, 'Nah, never mind… he doesn't even know how.' She realized and forgot about it soon after, 'A fake twist serve then? You're just going to make it a normal serve aren't you? Mada mada, Oyaji.'
Just as Ruka had thought, the elder Echizen faked the twist serve and hit a normal slice serve. Ryoma immediately sprang into action, a frown of disappointment hovering over his face.
"Of course, you never play serious." He huffed, swiftly returning the ball with a sweet, resounding noise.
Over across the other half of the court, Nanjiro chuckled, his eyes still closed as he barely even took a step to reach the ball. The two rallied for a long time as Ryoma kept pulling all his finishing moves on their dad and Ruka watched intently.
Although unable to enjoy the rush of playing tennis, she always learnt new things but watching the games. Sometimes they were hard to pick up, and sometimes they were quite obvious. For her, it was her own little show, watching the match like any other would watch an interesting movie, or read an engaging book. She found flaws, habits and improvements in almost every single play and it almost always had her on the verge off falling off her wheel chair.
As the first rally came to an end, and the second one started, Ryoma had already broken a sweat whereas Nanjiro just stood there calmly, as if playing sleep tennis. (In which Ruka had actually seen him do that once or twice.)
Ruka smiled at the thought of possibly being on that court one day, sharing their love of tennis again, like the old times.
xxx
"Genichiro, Renji." The Child of God greeted.
"Aa." The stoic boy said back while the brunette just nodded.
"Have you seen Ruka since yesterday?" Seiichi questioned.
"No."
"I see." Seiichi looked away, out the window, allowing his mask to slip for those few moments.
"You like her, don't you?" Renji stated. Seiichi gave nothing but a mere nod.
"She's… she's different." He said softly. He recalled the small breakdown Ruka had had, her smaller fists thumping his chest lightly as she cried. And all he could do… all he could do, was tell her sorry.
"4% chance she's mad at you right now." Renji told him, scribbling in his notebook.
"And 4% is too much." The bluenette said stiffly.
Genichiro cleared his throat. It was clear he felt awkward in the current situation, and Seiichi gave him a small nod. Nodding back, Genichiro stepped out of the room. Taking deep breaths, he secretly hoped that for once, maybe he would win against Seiichi in his inner competition. It was always the Child of God.
Back with Renji, his mind turned gears; it seemed everyone had fallen for not just the pretty face, but her sweet personality. He too, was a little jealous. But of course he refused to show it. Scribbling a few notes into his note book, he continued to converse with Seiichi, who, for once seemed oblivious to what the brunette was thinking.
xxx
"Hmm? Tezuka-san, fancy meeting you here." Ruka smiled up at the hawk eyed boy.
"Hn." Tezuka gave a brief nod.
"Are you… possibly waiting for someone?"
"Aa." Another nod.
"I see… well, I'll see you around?" Ruka sighed inwardly, what was with grumpy teenage boys and their short answers these days?
Another nod was sent toward her as she start navigating her way around the street, silently blowing a big, fat raspberry at him.
The bell chimed as Ruka rolled into the bookstore.
She wandered around for a few moments, trying to find a particular book she had wanted to read.
Spotting its unique onyx cover, she quickly rushed over to it. There were just two copies left in the book store and you could say she was lucky.
Reaching out, she skimmed her finger over the title, 'Stealing the Thunder'. Smiling she grabbed hold of the book, just as the other was too, taken away from the shelf.
Looking up, she saw a boy with tousled short brown hair, and a scar just above his eye.
"Lucky, aren't we?" Ruka commented.
The boy hummed in response, merely glancing down at her as he glared at the book.
"Have you read all of his other works?" she said, implying about the author.
"Ah, no I'm picking up a book for my brother. Jeez, I come to visit him, and he treats me like a slave." His face contorted and his cheeks flushed a light red of anger.
"Well, that's not very nice of him, is it?" she chuckled slightly, watching him get worked up.
The boy seemed to realize and the flush of anger changed into slight embarrassment.
"Ah… sorry you had to see that. Just, Syuusuke-nii can be a real sadistic slave driver you know…" he sighed.
'Syuusuke? Does that mean?' Ruka thought, recalling just yesterday when Ryoma had told her he'd beaten Fuji's brother… Youta or something like that.
"Could you possibly be…" her eyed widened in question while the brunettes sharpened as though he knew what was coming.
Ruka noticed this and stopped herself.
"Possibly be what?" he snapped.
"Fuji Youta?" she smiled sheepishly as his face changed and he let out laugh.
"Do you mean Yuuta?" he held his stomach in genuine laughter. She was different, this girl. To her, he wasn't 'the prodigy's' brother. He was Yuuta for himself.
"Oops…" Ruka laughed along with him, "Well, I'm Echizen Ruka. Yoroshiku!"
The laughter died down.
"You mean… Echizen… as in Echizen Ryoma?" he asked slowly.
She nodded, "Don't mind my cocky brother. I'll knock it into his head one day."
"Is that why you knew my name?" he smiled.
"Mm, sort of… I got it wrong, after all." She scratched the back of her head.
Yuuta was about to speak when the sound of a ringtone was heard and he scrambled around his pocket to pick it up.
"Aniki." He said gruffly.
"Are you thinking of coming home anytime soon?" a voice was heard over the phone.
"Sure, jumped bumped into someone; I'll be on my way now." Yuuta frowned.
"In Tokyo? That's unusual… who?" Fuji sounded curious.
"It's no one you need to know about."
"Saa… see you at home then." You could hear a slight change in his voice on the other end.
"Okay." With that, Yuuta ended the call and looked at Ruka sheepishly.
"Sorry about that… my brother can be a bit over protective sometimes."
"It's okay." She smiled brightly, "I think I'm going to go pay for this now." She held up the thick book.
"Same here." He smiled back as they both headed for the counter.
xxx
"Fuji." Someone said sharply.
"Yes Tezuka?" the boy answered back, a smile on his face.
"Why did you call me out here to spy on your brother?" Tezuka frowned… not only that, he'd just seen the tensai call his brother even though they'd been standing right outside of the bookstore, watching him converse with Ruka. He rubbed his temples.
"Saa, that's not the reason, I'm merely interested in what's going on between the two. I called you out here to go the Kawamura's place." Fuji said, ducking lower behind the bush as he watched the two pay for their books and begin to leave.
Tezuka stayed silent, his ever present frown on his face as he glared at Fuji.
His glare was ignored when Fuji pulled his phone out again.
"Yuuta!" he said cheerfully as Yuuta lifted his phone toward his ear. They were only meters apart, but Yuuta seemed pretty oblivious to the fact that his brother was looking at him.
"What now?" an angry Yuuta almost yelled into the phone.
"Never mind, I just want you to know that I'm going out, so feel free to stay out as long as you want." Fuji hung up and quickly walked away, Tezuka walking after him.
Yuuta looked at his phone in bewilderment. Placing it back in his pocket, he turned to the waiting Ruka and have a crooked smile.
"Of which we will go to, now." Fuji continued from their earlier conversation and beckoned Tezuka aside as Yuuta helped push Ruka out of the door.
"Are you free for a while?" Yuuta questioned at which Ruka cocked her head innocently.
"Not sure, I think Oyaji is expecting me home." She put a finger to her chin thoughtfully.
Yuuta's face fell slightly, but the smile came back as Ruka looked toward him.
"Uh… that's okay then… I'll see you around maybe?"
"Sure." Ruka waved goodbye, oblivious to everything that had happened. Witnesses gave Yuuta a pitiful look and walked off. Awkwardly, Yuuta waved back.
xxx
"Tadaima!" Ruka called from the doorway. She heard hushed voices from the television that immediately fell into silence as her mother greeted her back.
"Is something wrong?" she made her way toward the living room.
"Ah... no." Rinko's face came into view and you could obviously tell she was lying.
"Okaa-san, tell me the truth…" she looked at her mother with a serious face.
"Well… Ryoga just called." Rinko started out softly.
"He's not coming home again is he?" Ruka guessed. Her facial features looked crestfallen.
"Something like that."
"But Ryoga-nii… he's never home." A small shadow lay across Ruka's eyes, covering her tears. Ryoga barely came home after the… accident. It was like he blamed himself for it in the first place, when it wasn't even anyone's fault.
"Ru-chan… some times, people need time to heal…"
"But it's been almost four years!" Ruka tried.
"And, sometimes, it takes years… decades even." Rinko stood up to comfort her daughter.
But even in a wheelchair, Ruka was faster. The door clicked shut behind her and Rinko was left standing there.
Ryoga blamed himself for giving Ruka that ticket, which led to her accident. And Ruka blamed herself that Ryoga never came home. Then, Ryoma… he secretly blamed himself about everything, Nanjiro too. Ryoma saw nothing as his eyes were covered, but Nanjiro, he saw everything.
"I wish I could make everything okay…" Rinko sighed.
In her room, Ruka had rolled onto her bed, her face buried in the depths of her pillow. She didn't have tears to cry, she was mad, mad at herself.
It seemed karma hated her, no matter how hard she tried.
"Ruka." Someone called.
"What." She whispered, her voice barely heard through the muffle of her pillow.
"I'm going out to work until late. Take care."
'Trust 'kaa-san to bury herself in work when things like this come up.'
She heard the door shut quietly and the car drive away from the house a few minutes later. Slowly lifting her face off the pillow, she looked around the room. Scrambling onto her wheelchair, she fled out of her room and called out to Nanjiro.
"Oyaji! Help me down the stairs!" she shouted quickly.
Her lazy father soon lumbered up the stairs, his face buried in a dirty magazine. Rolling it up and stuffing it into his monk's robe, he lifted up Ruka and helped her down the stairs without a word. Rinko must have told him about what had just happened.
"Expect me home late!" she called as she rushed off, racing down the street and around the corner.
"Mada mada dane…." Nanjiro sighed, his daughter was hiding something, but of course, he was too lazy to figure it out.
xxx
Masaharu tapped his foot impatiently. Not only had he ditched his doubles partner to meet up with her. But now was she ditching him? He recalled the conversation the two had over the phone.
"Hello?" Masaharu excused himself and walked a few steps away from Hiroshi.
"Masa-chan? Are you possibly free at the moment?" the silverette's eyebrows shot up.
"Puri… are you possibly asking me out on a date?" he countered.
"Huh? Something like that. Could you meet me at the train station soon?"
The line went dead and a positive blush was left on his face. Turning around he mumbled a quick apology to Hiroshi, promising to call him later before running off.
"Masa-chan! Sorry I'm late! I missed the first train to Kanagawa." He turned to face the cat-eyed girl. He face changed from slight annoyance to shock when he realised what she was holding.
"What are you holding?" he blinked, trying to take it all in.
"Masaharu." Ruka said seriously, "You and Hiroshi are the only ones that know… so you have to promise not to tell anyone."
"Puri?" he feigned innocence… but how could he forget the day he found out about her condition? Mental illness? It was hard to believe.
"Masa…" she almost pleaded.
"Fine."
"I need you to help me." Ruka smiled hopefully.
"And you can trust me because?" he gave her a pointed look that screamed 'resident prankster!'
"Because. You're going to help me play tennis again." She smiled broadly and it was then Masaharu realised that it was the reason Ruka had a tennis bag slung over her wheelchair.
"You. Want. To. Play. Tennis?" he said slowly.
"Please…" she whispered.
"Well… what am I even supposed to do?"
xxx
"Hey Jackal…." Bunta chirped, his face stuffed with cake, making his cheeks puff out like a chipmunks.
"Mhmm?" Jackal replied, but his attention seemed elsewhere.
"Jackal? What 'cha looking at?" Bunta leaned around his friend to look at the same thing Jackal was distracted by, "Is that… Niou?"
"Seems like it."
"Is he playing by himself?" Bunta blinked curiously.
"I think so… should we go talk to him?" Jackal wondered.
"Hmm, maybe we should." Another slice of cake met with Bunta's lips and the red-head became silent as he chewed.
Sadly, his poor cake ended up all over Jackal as he spat it out. "Is Niou… smiling with himself?" he asked incredulously.
"That's the smile he pulls for pranks though…" Jackal shrugged as Bunta felt shivers down his spine. Being one of the usual victims of his pranks, he knew what the result could end with. But then again, nothing is worse than Renji's friend's discoloured juice… if you could call it that.
"Maybe we should check if he's causing any trouble." Jackal continued, walking toward the courts.
"No, no, no, no." Bunta ran forward to stop him from walking any further.
"You know if Niou causes any trouble again, then Sanada-fukubuchou will be mad at him again." Jackal pressed, being the nice guy as usual.
"But – " the sweet tooth was cut off when Jackal pushed past him, "Hey! Wait up!"
"Is that… Ruka?" Jackal stood there, dumbfounded.
"Certainly seems like it." Bunta now stood next to him, just as wide eyed as they watched the two oblivious people have a light rally where Niou was running around, chasing the ball, and then hitting it straight back to Ruka so she didn't have to move from the centre of the baseline.
"But, what's she doing?" even the tensai of Rikkai was confused.
"Playing tennis. What else." A new voice spoke.
"Y-Yagyuu!" the other two jumped around to face the gentleman.
"Niou suddenly left so I followed him." He pushed up his glasses nonchalantly.
"Do you know what's going on?"
"All I picked up was that Ruka wanted to play tennis again." He stated, slightly jealous. I mean, he was the first to know about her condition after all… so why choose Niou?
"Really?" Bunta now bounced around excitedly, "Is she any good?"
"Well, at this point. Who really knows? They've been lightly rallying for almost two hours now, non-stop."
"What?! Ruka must be tired then! She shouldn't be playing for too long… should she?" Jackal fretted, his motherly instincts kicked in. If Ruka hadn't been playing tennis for a long time… wouldn't her arms have lost the strength to be able to play for long amounts of time?
xxx
"Ruka… are you tired yet?" Masaharu breathed, sweat dripping down his forehead.
"Just a little more!" Ruka ground out, although having not played for a few years, pushing a wheelchair around certainly maintained the strength and muscle in her arms.
A tired Masaharu hit a lob and it bounced over Ruka's head as she smiled.
"We should stop now… Thanks a lot, Masa-chan. As return for the favour, I'll buy you something to eat." She spoke, placing her racket back into her bag, 'Hmm, I should probably get my strings tightened soon though…' she added as an extra thought.
"It's ok, I have to call Yagyuu, and I'll go eat with him instead." Masaharu waved of Ruka's invitation. If it was helping Ruka with her rehab, he didn't need anything in return… except for her smile… or something more… maybe. He shook his head violently to clear his thoughts and stood up.
"Did you want to meet up again?" he slung his tennis bag casually over his shoulder. (They had detoured past his house before heading to the courts to grab his tennis racket.)
"Hmm? Sure. Can we do this every week?" Again, Ruka looked at him hopefully with her cat-like eyes… and who could turn that down?
"Sure…" he sighed, Masaharu wasn't one to keep many of others secrets… so just how long could he possibly keep this one? Honestly, he didn't want anyone else to know… but then at the same time, in the back of his head, he felt betrayal. Because he told Yagyuu everything, and Yagyuu told everything to him. Once or twice was fine, but with him disappearing every so often, the Yagyuu that knew so much about him - so much he could write a book – would suspect something.
"Come on." Ruka suddenly appeared before him and grabbed his hand. He almost flinched away, but blushed slightly and let them stay like that, "You have to eat something." She urged.
"I said I would eat with Yagyuu." He argued, pulling out his phone just to make a point. Flipping it open, a flashing battery sign appeared on his screen, then the screen went black. He sighed, "Never mind, I'm going home."
"But that's not fair! I made you hungry by running around everywhere!" she tugged on his arm, "Just let me buy you a drink at least." She pouted and pointed to the vending machine.
"Fine." He huffed.
Dragging him, (more like Masaharu pushing her) to the vending machine, she pulled out two coins and pushed them through the slot.
Two ponta cans dropped into the tray below and Ruka went to pick them up. Handing on of the cans to Masaharu, she smiled in victory.
Masaharu wasn't one for sweet things, Marui already took care of that. But in her suffice; he downed the drink anyway, trying not to grimace as the sickly sweet liquid flowed past his taste buds.
Further away, the other three regulars watched in slight jealousy.
"How come Niou of all people got the drink? He doesn't even like sweet things!"
"We should confront him tomorrow."
"Definitely. Niou, you are one dirty player."
xxx
And that's the end, not good, but not bad… I hope hahah.
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