Hello again
Hello again. Well, to not be rude, I want to answer back to my quick reviewers.
tennisnohime- Yes, Shinji may be a genius, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have flaws. As for normal, would we really love all the Prince of Tennis cast if they weren't so weird?
Tsubame0104- Kaidoh has a back injury. That's a good question since I was going to go into more detail about it this chapter. ;) Nothing doesn't really get by you.
tUrNtOfAcEtHiSwAy- I really know everything and what everyone is supposed to do in my story, it's just how I'm going to write it. And I'll try to make you happy when I can.
ladywatertiger- I think I did make Kaidoh in my story a little…out of character, I'll try to control myself on that for now on. And yes, there will be other pairings, but only male/female pairings and some hints of male/male, but only hints.
RandomnessUnleashed.- Thanks, I'll try to update asap.
Dragon Reverb- Okay then, good bye.
...
Momoshiro Takeshi was taking a jog until he saw an giant poster on a building. It was a beautiful woman sitting and holding a bottle of perfume, and the words above said, "Beauty of the Exotics". But it wasn't the perfume that interested Momoshiro. His eyes bugged out when he realized that the woman was someone very familiar to him. Someone who had an older brother who was ranked number two in the world right now...and her name is Tachibana An. But it wasn't just the fact that it was An, it was also the fact that she was wearing only a blanket that exactly didn't hide her nice figure.
"It's a nice picture isn't it?" a feminine voice asked.
"Yeah, it sure is," and then Momoshiro thought, "oh crude" he knew that voice. He turned to see it was the lady on the poster, Tachibana An.
"Hi Tachibana imouto," he said, trying to cover up what he said before. She started laughing and gave Momoshiro a hug.
"Oh Momoshiro, it's so good to see you. How are you?" she asked as she let go. Momoshiro smiled and said he was doing good, and that he was going to play with Kaidoh later that afternoon.
"Darn, I wanted to invite you to dinner at a restaurant I like. Could you maybe come over at 8:30pm at Le Rousseau?" she asked. Even though she knew practice was important, but the tournament was still twelve days away, leaving Momoshiro plenty of time to practice.
"Sure, I'll just tell Echizen and Kaidoh that I'll be leaving early," he said. An smiled, "Okay, good bye Momoshiro," and with that, the two went separate ways...
...
Shinji Ibu was in the tennis section of the sports store, trying to find Babolat Tonic+ Natural Gut 16 (1). He was in Europe after all, and was pretty expensive, so it shouldn't be a problem finding and buying it. Though, as he was looking for it, he saw a familiar face, Echizen Ryoma. He tapped the younger man on the shoulder, to see he was buying three packs of Babolat Tonic+ Natural Gut 16.
"Hey, is that all that's left Echizen?" Shinji asked. Ryoma nodded and handed him one of the packs.
"You look fat to me for some reason (2)," Ryoma said and walked away. Shinji blushed and then poked his stomach, "I'm not fat Echizen. That's not a way to talk to your sempais you know,"
He caught up with Echizen at the register and saw there was also that younger Fuji brother. It seemed that Ryoma read his mind when he said, "Ah, you're here too. This is weird, reminds me of middle school," A lot of things before the French open reminded Shinji of middle school. Yuuta and Ibu looked at each other and just nodded. Echizen left after paying for his things, leaving them to stare at each other.
"I thought I wouldn't see you until the second round," Yuuta said. Shinji Ibu shrugged, "I didn't either, Paris is a big city," this was an awkward moment where they stared at each other and Shinji was finishing his sentences earlier than usual. Yuuta just left though, having nothing in his hand, and Shinji just calmly paid for his things...
...
Tachibana Kippei sat in a large room. He was seated on a comfortable wooden chair that was behind a long table covered in a navy blue cloth that reached the floor. To his right was his manager, Yanagi Renji who was looking out into the crowd very calmly, even though this was the biggest press conference they had. Tachibana's coach and also Sanada and Kirihara's coach, Yukimura Seiichi (3), smiled innocently at the reporters, making some of the women reporters even swoon a little. Kippei took a deep breath and looked at the clock. It was 4:35p.m, as soon as it was 4:45p.m, the reporters' questions would pour in. In the mean time, all the reporters were writing down all the questions they could think to ask Tachibana Kippei, and left lots of room for other questions the other reporters though of.
And it was going to turn 4:45p.m...now!
A woman reporter's hand raised high into the air and asked, "Kippei, how do you feel about going into the French open?" Kippei shrugged his shoulders and answered, "I feel pretty good. No cramps, no pain, and nothing bothering personally either, so I'm good,"
"Do you have strategy on how to beat Ryoma in the finals?" another reporter asked. Seiichi laughed in a slightly evil way, saying, "Wait until the man gets to the finals first," Since he was charismatic, the people laughed with him, not getting what he was saying. Renji smiled a little, wondering how people can be so stupid sometimes.
"How come your wife isn't here?" and Tachibana sigh. Did they expect a woman who just gave birth two months ago to really attend a tennis tournament that she could watch safely at home? But he answered it, "I don't want to put anymore stress on my wife after the labor of my son. I know that at home she is safe with her sister, and she and the baby can cheer me on," Some of the reporters went "Aw" making him blush. Renji looked at the clock, only ten minutes have passed. If there wasn't so much money involved in this, he wouldn't have set this up. The things like conferences are so...troublesome.
The conference continued on like that for over two hours, but the reporters and the cameras kept on going.
"Alright, one last question, and then he needs to rest," Yanagi said, looking at Yukimura who agreed.
"Kippei, how long do you think it will take for Kaoru Kaidoh to get up to the top three again? There's a lot of Japanese men in the top 20 to fight through as well," a reporter said. Tachibana smiled and said, "If it's the same Kaidoh that I'm thinking about, then it's really up to him..."
...
Echizen Ryoma felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and fished it out. It was Momoshiro calling him.
"Hello?"
"Oi Echizen, something important came up. You'll need to go to practice with Kaidoh by yourself," he said. Ryoma looked at the poster on the building with An's picture and smirked.
"Eh, Momo-sempai should focus on tennis instead of women. You're like my dad," Ryoma heard Takeshi huff and said, "It's not like that! We're just friends who haven't seen each other in a long time,"
Ryoma's smirk widened and he just said, "Yeah yeah, I'll tell Inui as soon as you hang up." Momoshiro was happy with that and said his good bye and hung up. Echizen started calling Inui's number to tell him that he was the only one going to practice. Though, he wasn't the one who answered the phone...
"Hello?" a rough voice answered.
"Kaidoh-sempai?!" Ryoma almost dropped his phone. He heard Kaoru quietly hissed, meaning he gasped too loudly on the phone.
"What is it Echizen?" he asked. Ryoma answered that he was the only one that was going to show up for practice, for Momo-sempai had a date with Tachibana An. Kaidoh seemed to understand when he went, "Ah" and everything got quiet between them.
"How have you been Echizen?" Kaidoh asked. That was strange, Kaoru usually didn't try to start a conversation unless it was an ever-so-predictable argument with Momoshiro Takeshi.
"...Good Kaidoh-sempai, but it's more like I should ask you that question. That car accident looked pretty horrible on television," Ryoma said. Kaidoh hissed and said, "I'll talk about it later, bye Ryoma," Ryoma didn't notice that Kaidoh said his first name.
"Bye Kaidoh-sem-"
"Kaoru," he interrupted.
"What?" Echizen asked.
"Call me Kaoru. We've known each other for over five years," Kaoru explained. Ryoma shrugged and said, "Bye Kaoru..."
...
"Hoy! Fuji, thanks for buying our tickets to France and the French Open. We can't wait to see everyone play," a hyper voice burst out. Fuji's eyes opened to find it was his friend Kikumaru Eiji and his other friend Oishi Shuichiro.
"It's no problem, really guys. Yuuta pays me very well as his manager," Fuji said, but Oishi was the type of person who wouldn't let a nice gesture not get paid back.
"Well, why don't I treat you to dinner to any restaurant in Paris?" Oishi asked. Syuusuke thought for a moment, and then he remembered something. Oh, he was thinking sadistic thoughts again.
"Actually Oishi, there is one restaurant I'd like to try. It's called Le Rousseau," he said. Oishi smiled, "I remember my wife and I went on a double date with Eiji and his girlfriend. It's a nice place,"
Fuji seemed to smile even bigger.
"Great, how about we go at 8:00p.m? I want do some shopping first..."
...
Ryom showed up at the Roland Garros, waiting for Kaoru to arrive. He arrived early, thinking Kaidoh would as well. But then exactly at 6:00p.m, Kaidoh walked by, looking at him with his almond eyes. They didn't waste any time, they went to their court and grabbed some balls to start hitting. Back and forth with two balls at the same time, trying to warm up. Both of them knew the other stretched before practicing so they didn't even bother asking. After ten minutes of doing that, Kaidoh caught both of the balls and went to the service line, meaning he wanted to practice volleying. And there they took turns with that until they asked each other if they were ready. Both answering with a "yes" and Kaidoh went to serve first.
His slice serve even on this surface bounced high, but Ryoma was able to get it before it reached higher than his shoulder. Kaidoh got to it quickly and hit it on the other side of the court. Ryoma anticipated it though and chipped the ball with an unexpected drop shot. Kaoru ran to the net, and hit a boomerang snake that went past Ryoma, making him the winner of the point. Echizen looked at his sempai and smiled, "I see you've made a full recovery,"
They continued points like that until it ended 7-5 in favor of younger man. Ryoma and Kaoru looked at each other, panting and barely holding their rackets. It was a long set they played, and the clay wasn't exactly helping by sticking to their shoes and weighing them down. They finally sat down on a bench next to the court and looked at each other through drench sweat bangs.
"...Ryoma, what was it that you wanted to know about the accident?" Kaidoh asked. Ryoma sighed from exhaustion, and said, "I didn't hear much from the news and the doctors said you didn't want to talk to anyone. After that, everyone decided that we'd wait for you to show up at an event because we know that you would never give up tennis. So, yeah...what happened?" Kaoru looked up at the sky, that was glowing a peach color at 7:50p.m.
"My match was supposed to be at 10:00 p.m on center court at the U.S open. It was raining that day, and Inui was driving very carefully. But a man who was drinking a lot that night decided he was okay to drive and rammed right into my side of the car. I woke up in the hospital and they said I shouldn't walk until I completed physical therapy. Really, my whole body throbbed ever time I moved a muscle," Kaidoh explained, and put his arm around Ryoma's shoulders to pull him a little closer.
"Kaidoh- Kaoru-"
"I was depressed for quite some time. Until I remembered I had something to look forward to," and reached in for a kiss...
...
Alright, the end of the chapter explanations.
(1) Babolat Tonic+ Natural Gut is a type of string. This certain type of string actually is used really when you want even more power on the ball. Usually this is used by someone who uses a lot of spins in their game and need some extra heaviness on the ball.
(2) I just like poking fun at Shinji. XD
(3) Yukimura is also the manager of Sanada and Kirihara. Usually people aren't managers/coachs of more than one person, but it's Yukimura. XD He's special.
Well, thank you for reading, and please review.