BP: I realized I didn't like chapter 10, so I deleted it and made a new one. I hope you all like it. I'm so sorry for not updating for a long time, I've been so busy, and I was writing my new story. I hope you all will forgive me.
Alluka, as usual, went to Ryoma's room to wake him up, but surprisingly, he wasn't there. Where could he be? He wasn't in the bathroom either. If that is so, then he's probably up, which was weird, because usually he slept later than she did, and they are the same age.
She shrugged. Maybe she should start making breakfast, and feed Karupin.
Alluka went out into the kitchen, and surprisingly, Ryoma was there, humming in a happy way and making pancakes. Alluka nearly died of shock when she saw him actually cooking something so early in the morning, let alone something American. Not that Ryoma is a bad cook (contrary to popular belief, Ryoma can actually cook a few dishes himself), but why would he be taking over the cooking voluntarily (he doesn't cook unless when there is a dire situation that calls for it, such as Alluka herself falling sick.)
"Morning, Al-chan." Ryoma greeted her, and continued tossing pancakes into the pan.
Alluka gave him a funny look, but went to fill Karupin's bowl with dry food, and another with water, went outside where the cat is sleeping, and placed it in front of him. She nudged him gently to wake him up. Karupin blinked its eyes, and saw Alluka smiling down at him. Karupin, seeing Alluka's smile, gave his cat grin back. There's something about Alluka's smile that lights up everyone's day. Karupin proceeded to consume his breakfast, and felt Alluka pet him, before walking back to the kitchen.
If she wasn't going to cook, she might as well help set up the table. At the kitchen, Ryoma was making French toast, having finished the pancakes. Just as she was done setting up the table, Ryoma appeared carrying a plate of pancakes and French toast.
"Here. I heated up the syrup for the French toast, just the way you like it."
Alluka smiled appreciatively and sat down as Ryoma shovelled some French toast onto her plate. She poured syrup over it and took a bite.
She nodded, indicating it's delicious, as Ryoma poured hot chocolate on their cups. 'He must have enjoyed the date very much to have started breakfast himself instead of waiting for me to make him some.' She noted mentally, as she took some pancakes, and applied some syrup as well.
"So, what do you want to do today?" Ryoma asked.
Alluka gave him a pointed look. She usually gave him this look whenever Ryoma's homework is due the next day and he still hadn't done it.
"It's only one essay, Al-chan. It's a 250 word paper on Ice Worms for Biology."
Alluka looked at him all sarcastically, as if to say, "Right….", before she shrugged. As Ryoma is a genius, he should be able to knock those 250 words in half an hour, and Ryoma never lied to her about homework, because he knew she would always check.
Alluka loaded the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher later, as Ryoma went to wash the bowls that he took from Karupin after he finished his breakfast, is now basking in the sun at the backyard.
She held out a hand once they are in the living room, indicating for him to let her take a look at his homework. Ryoma sighed, and went up to his room, and took out the piece of paper he had been writing during English Class from his backpack (the teacher was rather boring, and he already knew all that was taught, being born in America, and speaking English for almost all his life). He went down to Alluka, who already took out some writing materials, and he handed the essay to her.
'Contrary to popular opinion, glaciers do not just support life above and below them, but also within them. Recently, scientists discovered the existence of worms that live inside ice- even mounds of methane ice on the flood of the Gulf of Mexico. There creatures, called ice-worms, are one to two inches long and live off the chemosynthetic bacteria that grows on the methane, or are otherwise living symbiotically with them….' Alluka read the essay in her mind. 'Well, 70 words, 180 to go, I guess.'
"Well, you know, if those methane ice worms turn out to be ubiquitous on shallow sea-floor gas deposits, they could have a significant impact on how methane deposits are formed and dissolve in seawater, and how we go about mining and otherwise harvesting natural gas as a source of energy." She remarked.
Ryoma was hastily scribbling what she said, as that may be good to know for his essay.
"Well, I'll turn on the TV. Do you mind?" Alluka asked Ryoma, who was working on his essay.
"No not at all." Ryoma replied, as she turned on the TV, and turned to one channel.
Alluka noted that they are showing last year's America's National Tennis Championship (Girls), which was won by New Day Academy. They are now halfway through Singles One, where New Day Academy Girls' Tennis Club Captain Amethyst Goldstein was up against Maurice Cole, the Captain of the Bronx High School Girls' Tennis Club. Amethyst just managed to hit a ball past Maurice.
"Game to Goldstein, 5-4." The referee announced. The cameras were now trained on Amethyst, who was wiping sweat on her forehead with her hand. Alluka squealed as she saw one of her tennis idols. She knew Amethyst won first prize in all the tennis tournaments she participated, because she practiced like crazy and never gave up, even when she got injured from some of the games she played or had accidents from practicing new techniques. It didn't hurt that she was beautiful, with her midnight black hair, sapphire blue eyes, and having a figure many girls would kill for.
She watched as Maurice served to Amethyst, who swiftly returned it with ease and grace. She returned the shots with ones even easier to return, as if to taunt Maurice, and soon, Maurice began to serve even more difficult shots, and Amethyst became serious as well. While Maurice relied on brute strength and sheer power, Amethyst relied more on grace and strategy.
'It's clear her strategy is to wear Maurice out.' Alluka thought when she saw Maurice was panting and Amethyst would've looked like she hardly played if not for the sweat on her body.
Maurice served, and realized her arm was tired as she threw the ball, but she couldn't' stop herself from hitting the ball, as it was a natural reflex, and the ball hit the net.
"Fault!" The referee announced.
Maurice gritted her teeth, as she tried again, and this time, she managed to get it over the net, but Amethyst was there in an instant, and smashed the ball towards Maurice. Maurice used both her hands to hold the racquet, but the ball hit the racquet out of her hands.
"Game, to Goldstein, 6-4! With that, the winners of 2014's Girls' National Championship is New Day Academy!" As Amethyst shook hands with her opponent, the other girls from Amethyst's team ran out, squealing, as they hugged their captain like there's no tomorrow. They threw her in the air, and caught her, and repeated the process. Amethyst herself was laughing as well.
"I want to be like her…" Alluka muttered longingly. She sighed as her illness made her take a break from tennis indefinitely. She clutched to her chest, saddened.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Ryoma sat down next to her on the couch. He had finished his essay already.
Alluka silently pointed to the TV, where Amethyst was receiving the Trophy from the Officials.
Ryoma wrapped an arm around her. "I know, Al-chan, while I have no doubt you'll grow to be as beautiful as her…" Here Alluka gave him a playful punch. "I think your health is the number one priority. I don't want to lose you, and I doubt our parents would too. But I promise, when I receive the Trophy at this year's Nationals, we'll receive it. Together."
Alluka nodded. After all, that was the best she could get, with her illness in the way.
"Come, let's change the channel." Ryoma coaxed her, as he took the remote and changed the channel. "Do you want some orange juice?"
She nodded, and he left the kitchen to pour out some pulpless orange juice (Alluka doesn't like the pulpy kind).
Alluka checked the info for the name of the next show, as Ryoma served up the orange juice and she got curious when it says "Pokémon: The PAL Chronicles- Episode 1". Obviously, it's a new TV show, and Alluka can't wait to see how it turns out.
She pointed to the TV title at the Info Guide, and he raised his eyebrows. "Is that a new show?" He asked, and she nodded.
"I wonder if it is any good." Ryoma muttered. Alluka shrugged, indicating they'll have to watch it to know.
Just then, the doorbell rang, and both of them looked at each other, not expecting any guests.
Ryoma got up to answer, and choked on his orange juice when he saw Fuji and Tezuka standing outside.
"What are you doing here?" He spluttered.
"I thought we'd come hang out, you know, and make your sibling time all the more fun! You know what they say, the more the merrier!" Fuji wrapped an arm around Ryoma and gave him a kiss on the cheek, and Ryoma blushed.
Tezuka shook his head, and walked past them, and sat next to Alluka on the couch. She raised her eyebrow at him.
"It's another one of Fuji's idea for the four of us to hang out." He muttered.
She inclined her head in acknowledgement.
"So, what are you guys doing now?" Fuji asked, as he and Ryoma entered the living room.
"Watching TV." Ryoma muttered. "We were about to watch a new show."
Apparently, the show followed the main character, who is Champion of an entirely new region, the region that is said to be the most prestigious, even more than the five combined, and then they told of the story of his pain when his friends and mother turned on him, and his aura accidentally teleported him to another region, which turned out to be the region he was the current Champion of. There was an upcoming tournament held in his region where all regions would compete to see who the best of the best is. The Elite members of his region were also something else; Alluka was particularly entranced in the girl who killed a man without hesitation as part of her mission.
"She's so cool!" She squealed.
"She's attracted to strong and pretty girls. She dreams to be like one someday." Ryoma explained.
"Can't blame her." Fuji said. Tezuka nodded.
"Hey, hey, what kind of girls do you think are more attractive? The female leads that always needs the hero to save them, or the female leads who can fight for themselves with a weapon?" Alluka apparently didn't hear Ryoma and Fuji's remarks.
"Well, I can't resist a girl with a weapon, there's something dead sexy about them." Fuji said thoughtfully. "Though my taste would be cute boys like Ryoma!" He gave Ryoma a tight hug not unlike Kikumaru's.
Alluka and Tezuka looked at each other, non-verbally agreeing that it would be better to leave them at it, before continuing to watch the show.
Tezuka had to admit that the knife wielding female character was breathtakingly beautiful, but Alluka shouldn't feel insecure over her. After all, she's a TV character, not a real life one, and she does have some good qualities herself.
It's too bad because of her illness, she only saw what she couldn't do.
"Alluka." Alluka tore her eyes off the TV, and looked at Tezuka. "Come with me."
Ryoma opened his mouth to say something, but Alluka held out a hand. She raised her eyebrow, but followed Tezuka all the way to the tennis court that the Echizen family had. He threw her a racquet, which she caught easily.
"Let's see if you are better than your brother." Tezuka said.
Alluka shook her head, and pointed to her heart, indicating that she can't play.
"I'll stop when I decide you unable to play. It's just a warm up." He gave her a reassuring nod.
Tezuka threw his ball, and served a ball that is as fast as the first ball he served Ryoma that one match. It was so fast Ryoma was unable to react, and let it bounce past him.
However, Alluka was able to react, and made it to the ball, and hit it back.
Tezuka inwardly smiled, as he returned the ball. Alluka managed to hit it back with ease, and the next time Tezuka hit the ball towards her, she used the same stance Ryoma always did before serving a twist serve.
'It's usually towards the face.' Tezuka thought, running forward to meet the twist serve. However, it surprised him when the twist serve bounced away from his face instead of towards, causing him to miss the ball by inches. The ball hit the wall behind him.
He turned to Alluka who was smiling a little. "I can hit twist serves that both bounce towards and away from a person's face. The difference between those two is that when I want it to bounce away, my racquet would be pointing towards the right by 5 millimetres from where Ryoma usually points his racquet when he uses his Twist Serve."
"I see. You are pretty talented."
Alluka shook her head. "Not really. Go ahead and serve again."
He did, and decided not to go easy on her, as he hit another fast serve. Alluka was forced to increase her speed to be able to return the ball, and her eyes were flicking to the left, which got him running towards the left. However, Tezuka almost missed her wrist flicking in the completely opposite direction, which forced him to change direction. He managed hit the ball by the very edge, and the ball flew, and rolled to the ground before coming to a complete stop.
'Amazing….unlike Echizen, she never copied her father's style, and developed deception to trick others.'
Just then, Alluka got to her hands and knees, and started to cough. Tezuka could see blood from where he was, and rushed to support her.
"Alluka! Are you ok?" He asked, panicked.
His voice apparently carried over to the living room, as Ryoma and Fuji rushed out.
"Al-chan!" Ryoma was by her side in an instant, wiping her mouth and hands with a handkerchief. He glared at Tezuka. "What were you thinking, buchou?"
Tezuka had the sense to stay quiet.
"It's fine, Ryoma. It's just a warm up exercise. Nothing major."
"Nothing major?" Ryoma exclaimed incredulously, holding up the pristine white handkerchief, which was now dyed in red.
He supported her back to the living room, and settled her down on the couch, before getting her a glass of hot water with lemon and honey in a glass.
"What was your plan in getting her into a coughing fit, Tezuka?" Fuji asked curiously.
"Well, I just want to confirm something." He muttered.
"And have you confirmed it?" Ryoma looked at him all sarcastically.
"Yes, and I want to ask Alluka something."
Alluka turned to him, looking curious.
The question got Fuji to open his eyes and shock, Ryoma to gap at him, and Alluka looking at him in confusion.
"Would you be the manager of the Boys' Tennis Club?"
BP: I know, but this is the result of writer's block and ten minutes. Please review, I beg of you!