Thank you for those who reviewed. I don't really know if any of you pay attention, but I want to be courteous and reply to you as well before the beginning of the chapter.

Dragon Reverb- To settle this, yes, there is one pairing that is… not straight? There are straight pairings though besides the one that isn't, and they're more mentioned. And thank you for the first review. :)

Tsubame0104- Yes, it is an odd pairing. XD I wasn't even sure how I thought of this story. As for other regulars, you'll see.

...

It was around eight in the morning when Ryoma and Takeshi's plane landed in Paris. The sky was blinding everyone with light, and everyone on the plane felt sluggish from exhaustion. Of course, not everyone complained as loudly about this as Momoshiro did to Echizen (poor Echizen).

"Eh, I hate flying so much! Why did I even decide to be a pro?" Momoshiro sighed. Ryoma just pushed his hat down to cover his face from his friend, and got up to get his carry on bag and Karupin. Ryoma sat back down for they were at the back and needed to wait for people to get out. Once some people got up and left, Momoshiro also got up and grabbed a backpack from under his seat. It was after that, the two teens looked at each other with the same thought in mind.

"Hey, Echizen,"

"Yeah Momo-sempai?"

"Do you really think Kaidoh will be there waiting for us at Roland Garros?"

Ryoma smirked, "Only one way to find out," and they both left the plane and on their way to the hotel…

…

"Achoo!" Kaidoh didn't know what happened, the sneeze just came out of nowhere. Inui looked back at Kaidoh as he was making tea (no, not Penal tea), and asked if he was alright. Kaoru hissed he was fine, and continued stretching. Kaidoh sat on the floor with his legs together and out in front of him. His arms then came together and stretched out for his legs. His hamstrings felt a pressure, and his back also felt a little tight. It was then after feeling this he stretched some more so that his finger tips could touch the back of his feet. Kaidoh Kaoru was just like that, if he felt pain, he'd only push himself even more. But this didn't get passed Inui Sadaharu…

"Kaidoh, you're pushing your back to hard. If you want to stretch it, lay on your stomach and try to make your feet touch your head." His coach requested.

Kaoru did just that and felt his back start to loosen a bit from it. As soon as he got comfortable in the stretch though, a knock on the door was heard. Kaidoh retracted back and stood up to get the door, to see it was Tachibana An.

"Hi Kaidoh-kun, I'd just like to say that my brother's sorry he can't practice with you tomorrow for he has some unexpected press conference. I hope that's ok," she said with her sweet voice. Ann certainly grew over time. The female sibling of the Tachibana family was five feet, eight inches tall, and was very slim. An's body was extremely slim, but it wasn't a stick figure, and it made her curvy body even more appealing to not just men, but fashion. Her hair was a little past shoulder length now, but was still pushed out of her face by bow shaped barrettes. And, instead of wearing simple shirts and jeans, she wore cute vintage dresses that didn't go past her knee. The one she wore right there was a charcoal colored dress with a deep v to emphasize her chest (she had a white cami under the dress to hide her cleavage) and was synched by a wide, white patent leather belt. Her beige stockings made a great contrast to the dress and her cobalt blue pumps gave a nice pop of color as well.

"That's fine, and thank you for telling us," Kaidoh said. He still wasn't used to talking to girls, even if he's known An and her brother for quite a while.

"You're welcome. Hey, if you want, I could practice with you tomorrow," she suggested with a smile. She wasn't that serious, but hey, who knows?

"I'm sorry Tachibana-chan, but being a model for probably doesn't allow you to be as fit as Kaidoh," Inui answered. An just laughed it off and said good bye before she closed the door. Kaidoh went back to the floor and stretched while Inui decided to turn on his computer to find out who is participating in Roland Garros. Now they finally know everyone who's playing because qualifying matches are over. As he skimmed through the players' names, he realized there were quite a number of Japanese men on the tour that they knew from middle school besides Tachibana Kippei.

"So Kaidoh… who do you think we should ask to practice against you tomorrow? There is Fuji Yuuta, Kisarazu Atsushi, Shinji Ibu, Sanada Genichiro, Kirihara Akaya, Jirou Akutagawa…or Echizen Ryoma and Momoshiro Takeshi," Inui listed off as he scrolled down the list. Kaidoh's eyes seemed to get bigger when the last two names were mentioned. Afterwards, he didn't understand why he reacted that way. Of course they would be here, it's the French Open!

"Kaidoh, is there something wrong?" Inui asked, wondering why the younger man hadn't answered him yet.

"Ah, do you even carry Echizen's phone number?" Kaoru asked. Sadaharu smiled and said, "Of course,"...

…

Fuji Yuuta, ranked number four in tennis, was warming up with his tennis coach Mizuki Hajime, his body getting all of Hajime's shots with ease. They rallied like that for about 15 minutes, before Mizuki caught the ball and said, "Alright Yuuta, now that we warmed up your hand-eye coordination, let's do some drills," which Yuuta nodded in agreement too.

"Alright, now, let's first start with the medicine ball," Hajime said. Hajime ran quickly to his tennis bag to pull out a large ball that weighed about 12 pounds. The younger Yuuta brother then went to his coach's side of the court's baseline and waited at the middle.

"Now, I'm going to throw this ball Yuuta-kun, and where ever I throw it, you have to catch it and throw it back at me like with a swinging motion like hitting a tennis ball. Okay?" Fuji Yuuta nodded and focused his eyes on the ball. Hajime threw it straight at Yuuta's body, where Yuuta moved to the right so he could catch the ball with his left arm and then threw it back at Mizuki like he was told. Mizuki Hajime threw it as randomly as he could, but Fuji Yuuta was able to get them all. After 40 minutes of that exercise, Mizuki stopped and order the younger Fuji sibling to rest while he checked quickly at the board outside the Roland Garros tennis courts (1) to see who Yuuta was playing in the first round.

On the board was a chart that had 128 names written on it. He looked up to see that Yuuta's first round match was with a man from Argentina named Armano Encic, only ranked in the 100s. But Yuuta's next opponent in the next round would probably be Shinji Ibu. Hajime frowned and then ran back to the courts.

Once he arrived back, Yuuta asked him who he was facing.

"It doesn't matter, you'll win your first match for sure. Your second round is going to be a challenge. Remember Ibu Shinji, you beat him at Wimbledon last year at the quarter finals? Well, this surface definitely favors his spins, so be careful and try to win points in a short amount of time," Mizuki warned. Yuuta nodded, knowing the 'spot' that effected Ryoma when they were in middle school, his brother told him about it.

"Oi! Yuuta!" and speak of the devil, it was his brother at the entrance of the tennis courts. Yuuta gasped, "Aniki! What are you doing here?" and the older Fuji brother suddenly wrapped his arms around Yuuta and said, "Oh, I've missed you so much. It's not good for a handsome man to be all by himself in the streets of a big city like Paris,"

Mizuki growled and had the urge to yell, "EXCUSE ME! I'M YUUTA'S COACH! I'M ALWAYS WITH HIM!" but fought it off. He would not fall into such middle school tactics. Besides, there was really no fight between them anymore, otherwise Mizuki wouldn't be Yuuta's coach.

"Hm... Kamio, look, there's the Fuji brothers, especially that one who got in the way between my match with Ryoma back then. And there's that weird guy who wears weird sweaters and used to always try to pathetically get the older Fuji brother to notice him. Now that I think back on it, it's really pathetic. Sometimes I wonder if there are really any normal people in tennis. (2) Maybe I should have-"

"Shinji, can we practice now?! You need to practice," Kamio interrupted. Shinji then looked closely at Yuuta and how...much he just changed. His body was still skinny, but all parts of the boy's body were muscle. His shoulders were even bigger now, and his calves made his ankles look more narrow from the muscle. His face though didn't seem to change, except the scar was smaller. It made him feel a little insecure for his body still had a little layer of baby fat from teenage years so he looked less...manly compared to Yuuta. (3)

"I see you've been working out," Shinji said looking at Yuuta. Yuuta was a little surprised, but nodded.

"Yeah, I have. You look like you're in good shape as well," and then it was silence between the two after that. Kamio shook hands with Fuji Syuusuke, and they started talking about tennis. The two weren't that close in middle school, but as they started to become more of the role of managers instead of players (with Kamio, he's Shinji's manager and coach), they understood each other more.

Yuuta and Shinji kept looking at each other until Hajime said, "Well Yuuta-kun, it's been 20 minutes. Practice starts again,"

The younger Fuji brother nodded and looked back at Shinji again.

"I'll see you in the second round," Yuuta said. Shinji nodded and went after Kamio so they could practice as well...

...

It was at around 6:00pm when Ryoma got a phone call.

"Hello?" Ryoma answered.

"Ah, Echizen, it's Inui, I was wondering if you and Momoshiro would like to practice with Kaidoh tomorrow?"

Ryoma smiled, "We'd love to sempai. What time?"

"Around 3:00pm at the practice courts, I need to go grocery shopping and pick up some stuff from Kaidoh's sponsors,"

"Oh, okay then. Ja,"

"Ja," and with that, Inui hung up. Momoshiro just came out of the shower, the long jog outside really worked up a sweat. He noticed Echizen was holding his phone, something he rarely did, so he asked him who he was talking to.

"I was talking to Inui-sempai. Sounds like we were right about Kaidoh-sempai after all," the younger boy said. Takeshi could only smile and say, "Hehehe, that viper is full of surprises."...

...

Eh, some more things I should have explained, but get in the way of writing. :P

(1) Roland Garros closes their courts to the public before the tournament so that the pros that arrive early can practice on the clay. The clay at Roland Garros is a special clay made of crushed brick and water unlike most clay courts, and it's a bright red in color. Since it's made of crushed brick instead of the material usually used to make clay courts, there's more chance if a tennis player slips and falls on the surface to get a scratch that'll get infected.

(2) There really is no such thing as normal tennis players on the show Prince of Tennis. I'd have to say either Kawamura Takashi or Fuji Yuuta are the only ones that can really compete as normal. XD

(3) Poor Shinji. He shouldn't feel so insecure. hug

Well, thank you for reading. Please review whether you hate my story or like it, so I can improve.