The wonders of a paradox

Disclaimer: Ah, I own Fuji or Aiba… in my dreams.

Rating: G or K

Genre: General, suspense

Pairing: Currently none

Warnings or notes: Possible anime spoilers, AU, OOC-ness, grammar and other errors (English is not my mother tongue), and contained a few minor original characters.

Thanks for adding this story into your alerts, as well as dropping a few reviews. ;) I hope you enjoy the first chapter now. As for the mysteries of the untitled painting in Tezuka's room, as well as the artist by the name of Aiba Hiroki will remain until further chapters. Another plot device, that is.

Since they all only know each other for not so long, they'll refer each other as '-kun'.

Hope you enjoy reading and do drop a review na? Thanks!

: Ready… Go :

Chapter 1 – Making a new friend

"Ano… Fuji-kun, would you like to try my homemade strawberry jam?" A timid voice asked nervously. Its owner found the floor to be very interesting. She kept her gaze at the ground while her hands holding a bottle of said jam.

It was the second day of Fuji Syuusuke's transfer to Seigaku, and he was already gaining a lot of fans without much effort of showing off. "Ah, thank you, Ayako-san," he replied with a warm smile and took the jam graciously. The girl was beaming with joy and her face colored with pink. After a bow, she rushed out of Fuji's class, leaving other boys green with jealousy.

Kikumaru happened to be one of the boys. He was eyeing the jam with puppy eyes; a sign showing he would like to try it very much. Fortunately for him, Fuji's sharp eyes spotted his desperate look and handed him the strawberry jam with a 'hai'. "You look like you love this," was what the generous boy offered as an explanation.

The red-haired could not be much happier than to receive it, considering the fact he loved all things sweet with a passion. "Really? Thank you! You're so kind! But she made it for you…," suddenly, Kikumaru remembered the look on Ayako's face and doubted she would appreciate it if she found out.

"It's okay. We can share na? If you don't mind, of course," Fuji replied with a chuckle.

This time Kikumaru bounced and hugged Fuji from behind, startling the other boy. "Wai! Thanks!!"

"Kikumaru-kun, you're very active," the sandy-haired boy commented with amusement when the said person had let go to tackle the bottle of jam.

"Eiji," Kikumaru corrected Fuji. "All my friends call me Eiji nya! Oh, I have to be active because I'm in the tennis club! Buchou is scary nya!" he said, sending a wink that clashed with his comment regarding a scary tennis captain.

Nevertheless, Fuji found this new friend very friendly and adorably cat-like. "Tennis club eh? Maa… sounds so interesting. I haven't decided to join any club," he answered with a finger on his lips as if deep in thought. The sight made a few girls swoon.

"Later we have practice! Come and watch it. And people usually transfer to Seigaku to join its tennis club! Nya, aren't you one of them too?" Kikumaru asked, bemused.

"Saa… I was invited to join this school only after I was enrolled in another. But nee-san said I'll find something important here. Thus the transfer," was the reply, leaving the other more confused than ever.

Fuji was invited to join Seigaku not because he wanted to join its famous tennis club? Speaking of which, could he even hold a racket with those slim wrists? And what did his sister mean he would find something important here? It sounded as if his sister had some sort of psychic power…

A bell chimed, indicating lunch break was over and class would resume. One by one, students went back to their respective seats when heavy footsteps drew near. The door was pulled open, revealing a middle-aged female teacher. English literature books were placed on top of each desk, excluding Fuji's. "Fuji-kun, you may share your book with anyone since you haven't purchased it," Ayamine-sensei said with a nod.

Almost instantly all the girls' eyes glowed, but quickly dimmed when Kikumaru pulled his chair towards Fuji's desk with the book in hand. And so the lesson started, boringly in Kikumaru's taste.

"Kikumaru-kun, please read the following paragraph," after a few minutes, Ayamine-sensei decided to call upon the redhead. Apparently, he was daydreaming and Ayamine-sensei was more than happy to catch anyone not paying attention in her class.

Panicking, Kikumaru stood up with the book in his left hand. His eyes were scanning for the said paragraph before a small voice told him. "Third paragraph," Fuji whispered and the other quickly read it. For once, Ayamine-sensei shot a disbelieving look at her student but she said nothing else except a firm nod.

When class was finally over, the hyper boy had nearly hugged Fuji again. "You saved my life, Fuji-kun! I was thinking about tennis nya! And Ayamine-sensei is strict! Hehehe," he chuckled gratefully. The brunette merely replied with an equal titter.

They were chatting happily when the next teacher entered the classroom. "Mathematics! I hate it…," Kikumaru whined as he went back to his place which happened to be two seats in front of Fuji.

After half an hour, Fuji suddenly heard his name being called upon. It seemed like one of the teachers caught him thinking of something else. "Fuji-kun, please come forward and answer this question." All the other students frowned. The question was out of syllabus, they noted. They had yet to learn something so complicated, so what was their teacher doing by asking Fuji that?

To Fuji, it was nothing out of ordinary. Back then, all the teachers tried to catch him daydreaming or sleeping in classes. His closed eyes always led to wrong assumptions, but Fuji was not one to complain. Instead, he walked to the blackboard, took a white chalk and started to answer the question with ease. Everything was easy in Fuji's eyes. He had great intelligence, which was what his sister Yumiko told him. But he never really tried to show off in front of anyone. Even if he did, it was unintentional.

As soon as he was done with the question, everyone's eyes widened including the teacher's. So far only Tezuka Kunimitsu in the first year was able to answer such a question. It was a well-known fact that Tezuka was far more intelligent than the other students in his year. Now this new transfer student showed the ability of doing the same thing as the famous Tezuka.

"By the way, sensei, I believe this question is under chapter six. We still haven't come to that chapter na?" Fuji asked almost too innocently before he smiled and went back to his seat. Just when he reached it, a bell indicated the lesson was over.

"Hand in your work tomorrow morning. And next we are going to have a pop quiz," the male teacher said nonchalantly before going out of the classroom. Once he was out of sight, everyone in the class surrounded Fuji to applaud him.

"You're great, Fuji-kun!"

"How can you be so brilliant? I don't even know which chapter the question was from!"

"Teach me Mathematics?"

"You're like Tezuka-kun!"

And the comments continued noisily. Kikumaru decided to butt in and gave Fuji a hand. "C'mon, Fuji-kun. The tennis practices will start soon." He gave Fuji a sign to go for a run from all these people. And both of the boys rushed out of the classroom while laughing madly.

'At least nobody calls me that, yet,' was all in Fuji's mind as he followed his new friend; his smiling face never betrayed his inner thought.

For the moment, Aiba silently wished he had brought his camera to capture yet another picture to his collection. Oh well, even if his trusted camera was not with him, Aiba had a sudden inspiration to paint something. Smiling at the idea, he promised himself to work on another soon-to-be-masterpiece as fast as possible.

: To be continued :