This is the last of pre-prepared chapters. I'll try my best to update regularly but there might be weeks where I'm one or two days behind. Hopefully it won't come to that but just in case. Anyways, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince Of Tennis.

Chapter Two

Niou was a little late for practice the next morning but he had a viable reason: Marui. To make sure he didn't fall over and hurt himself, Niou had offered to walk Marui to and from school until he got some new contacts. Niou had set his alarm clock a lot earlier than usual to factor in picking Marui up and Marui had been waiting for him at the front door so that had all been fine. It had been when they got to the park that problems had arisen.

Niou had noticed that his shoelace was undone and he let go off Marui's hand for a moment to tie it. In that moment, a dog chasing a cat chasing a squirrel ran past them. The dog ran a little too close to Marui and the redhead had to take a step back to avoid being tripped. Whilst he had one foot in the air, a strong gust of wind blew past. It had knocked Marui off his already precarious balance and Marui fell heavily to the ground, scratching the palms of his hands. Niou had had to wash the scratches out carefully to prevent any infections and they had had to take a big detour to go to the supermarket to get some bandages.

Fortunately, Niou had expected and accepted that there might be a delay so he had worn his tennis uniform to school. He just stopped for a moment to sit Marui down in the same spot as the previous day and to grab his tennis racket before running off to do his warm up laps.

Leaving everything in Sanada's capable hands, Yukimura jogged over to Marui.

"Hey 'Mura-buchou." Marui greeted as soon as Yukimura was in hearing range. "It's my fault that 'Haru's late so please don't punish him." Yukimura nodded with a small smile.

"Don't worry, Niou told me that he was walking you to school today so I guessed something had happened that was out of his hands. Speaking of hands, how are yours?" Yukimura asked, holding his hands out for Marui's so he could inspect them.

"They're fine, just a couple of scratches. 'Haru bandaged them real good." Marui as he extended his arms. Yukimura took his hands carefully, inspecting the bandages thoroughly to make sure they had been applied correctly. Satisfied that they were, Yukimura let go of Marui's hands and ruffled his hair gently with a smile before going back to tennis practice.

When practice ended, Niou changed as quickly as he could before going to get Marui. Even though practice had ended late and they were going to be late for homeroom, Marui was still sitting patiently on the hill, bag on his shoulder, ready. He smiled when Niou extended a hand and took it, allowing himself to be hauled to his feet.

"Sorry 'bout taking so long. I bet it's boring for you, puri." Niou said a little guiltily. Marui shook his head.

"It's fine, it's Yanagi's fault for not keeping an eye on the time. Besides, this way I get to pick apart all your moves and beat you next time we have a match." Niou snorted lightly.

"In your dreams. The only thing you'll ever beat me at is being a girl." Niou scoffed. Marui pouted and shoved him playfully and Niou grinned as he made to shove Marui back lightly. Akaya ran past at that moment, bumping into Marui and almost knocking him over and Niou had to quickly turn the shove into a catch. "Oi, Bakaya, watch where you're going!"

"Sorry, senpai, but if I'm late again I'll get detention!" Akaya yelled back before disappearing into school.

"Bloody brat, I'll prank him for this." Niou grumbled as he kept a tight grip on Marui's shoulder and hand. Marui shook the hands off and gently held on to Niou's upper arm as they walked.

"It was an accident, 'Haru, you don't need to get him. Now let's hurry before we get detention." Marui smiled and Niou took a deep, calming breath before nodding and letting Marui tug him along.

Over the next few days, a slightly disturbing pattern started to emerge around Akaya. He and Marui had had a rather amicable relationship before but that had seemed to have gone down the drain. Akaya kept bumping into Marui as if he didn't notice was there and barely talked to him, even when Marui said something to him. The only times he spoke to the redhead was when he was teasing him, something which obviously hurt Marui's feelings a little. This annoyed Niou to no end but a few words from Marui always calmed him. It was Friday lunchtime when things came to a head.

Niou had lost some important English sheet and he and Marui had gone to photocopy Marui's copy. On the way back from the library they had to go down a small flight of steps. A few metres from the steps, Marui tripped up. His arms windmilled as he hopped forward, desperately trying not to fall over. He let out a small 'phew' of relief as he stopped just a foot away from the top step. Unluckily for him, a stray baseball suddenly appeared and hit him in the small of his back, knocking him off his balance and sending him tumbling down the steps. As Niou quickly ran to check if Marui was okay, there was a loud snort that set everyone else off laughing. Niou looked up sharply and his gaze hardened when he saw who had snorted: Akaya. Niou stood up sharply and tool a threatening step forwards but was stopped by Marui quickly grabbing his sleeve.

"It's okay, 'Haru. I'm fine. It's okay." Marui said, his eyes pleading Niou not to make a scene. Niou closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose. He sent one last glare at the still laughing Akaya before helping Marui to his feet.

"Let's get you to the medical room to make sure you're completely fine, puri." Niou said as he guided Marui in the right direction, an annoyed scowl on his face as the laughter continued.

"Akaya!" The second year's head snapped up at the yell of his name and he quickly spotted Yukimura. The bluenette was gesturing him to come over so Akaya quickly trotted over to his favourite senpai. As soon as he was close enough, Yukimura grabbed Akaya's arm and began pulling him towards a quieter spot. As he was pulled along, Akaya frowned. Yukimura rarely treated him so roughly so that meant it was either something majorly important or he had done something very, very bad.

When they got to a secluded area, Yukimura turned on Akaya.

"Akaya, why did you laugh at Marui? I thought I told you not to! Especially not when he's just fallen down stairs! He could've been seriously hurt!" Yukimura yelled angrily. Akaya was taken aback by the unusual aggressiveness before he was filled with self-righteous anger.

"Hey, you only told me not to call him a nerd, which I haven't! And he wasn't hurt, he said himself that he was fine! Besides, I wasn't the only one laughing so don't just yell at me!" Akaya shouted back. He froze when Yukimura pinned him with a dark glare.

"All I can remember from our first year is Marui saying 'I'm fine' all the time, even when he was obviously not. The only time he maybe might've possibly said that he was not fine, he was unconscious. Marui, no matter what persona he's using, will do anything to make people not worry. You, Akaya, should know that." Yukimura said in a low and dangerous voice that sounded a lot more scary than if he had shouted.

"Wait, why was Marui-senpai unconscious?" Akaya asked as he tilted his head to one side, starting to get a little concerned. Yukimura growled.

"That isn't important! What's important is why. Did. You. Laugh?" Yukimura punctuated each word with a shake of Akaya's shoulder.

"I don't know! The way he was moving his arms and hopping on one foot maybe! Besides, I get shown up by nerds everyday so it's nice to be able to laugh at them for once!" Akaya shouted heatedly. In that moment, Yukimura's look went from angry to disappointed.

"So you're basing your actions on appearances? Even though you know the Marui behind the glasses and have done for almost two years? I didn't realise you were so shallow." Yukimura sighed sadly as he let go off Akaya's and began walking away. Just before he disappeared round a corner, Yukimura looked back at the second year. "Akaya, I suggest you take a long, hard look at yourself." And with that, he left.

Akaya was shocked. Not only at how severe Yukimura had been but also because he was right. Now that Akaya thought about it, he had been treating Marui differently from usual.

'It's not my fault! I'm treating him differently coz he's acting differently! Those glasses made him stop playing tennis! I can't imagine not playing tennis! I wouldn't be able to live without tennis! Just because he doesn't want to get hurt and worry us…' "Oh." Akaya now felt extremely guilty. It wasn't Marui's fault that he had bad eyesight and glasses that prevented him from playing tennis. He probably definitely missed playing the sport that they all loved. "Maybe I should apologise to Marui-senpai…" Akaya murmured as he quickly started to walk towards the medical room.

Halfway there, Akaya bumped into Niou and Marui. The tensai had his left wrist bandaged and in a sling and his eyes were rimmed with the lightest red.

"Marui-senpai, are you okay? What happened to your arm?" Akaya asked worriedly as he moved forward to have a proper look. He stopped when Marui hid behind Niou a little, holding on to his arm with his good hand as the Trickster glared at Akaya.

"He's sprained his wrist. Now if you'll excuse us, Kirihara, we have a lesson to get to, puri." Niou said snappishly as he put an arm round Marui's shoulders and gently guided him away from the second year. As they walked away, Akaya could see Marui berating Niou softly though it seemed more half-hearted than before.

Akaya felt hurt. He knew he hadn't been the bestest of friends towards Marui over the last few days but for Marui to actually hide from him? Had he really been that much of a jerk? And Niou had used such a mean voice…

"Wait, what did Niou-senpai say about getting to lesson?" Akaya asked the air as he checked the time on his mobile. "Crap, I'm late!"

Akaya sighed as he flung himself into his seat. He wasn't as late as he thought he was since his mobile clock was apparently a bit fast and he was lucky in the fact that the teacher had yet to arrive. The teacher finally arrived with some poor excuse about losing their lesson plan, which no one believed. Everybody knew that he and the Maths teacher were going out. Either way, their Geography lesson finally started.

"Okay, class, over the next few weeks you're going to be working in pairs on a project. I've worked out all the pairings already. No complaints or swapsies, understood?" The class grumbled out an affirmative and the teacher began writing up all the pairs on the board. Akaya almost groaned when he saw who he was partnered with. Akizaki Cheren, the class nerd.

'Wait, is this like with Marui-senpai and I'm just calling him a nerd coz of his looks?' Akaya thought as Akizaki made his way over to his desk. To be fair, Akizaki did have very thick-framed glasses that positively screamed 'nerd'. Akizaki sat down next to Akaya. Before either could say anything, there was a loud grumbling sound. Akaya stared as Akizaki flushed lightly.

"Sorry. I was running away from my sister this morning and forgot to grab my lunch." Akizaki explained quietly so the teacher couldn't hear them as he opened his book to make it look like they were working. Akaya raised an eyebrow as he copied the other's actions.

"Why was she chasing you?" Akaya asked as he began doodling so it looked like he was writing.

"You know how if you put a sleeping person's hand in a glass of warm water, they're supposed to wet the bed? I wanted to know if it actually worked and I tried it on my sister." Akizaki answered. Akaya bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing. Why hadn't he thought of doing that to his sister? He could take pictures and blackmail her into buying loads of manga and ice cream… "Ugh, I can't be bothered to do work." Akizaki mumbled before raising his voice. "Sensei, it's a bit noisy in here. May Kirihara-san and I go to the library instead?" the teacher nodded and the two quickly gathered their stuff and left.

"How did you manage that? Usually sensei is really strict!" Akaya exclaimed when they were far away from the classroom. Akizaki shrugged.

"When you have glasses, teachers immediately assume that you're smart, a good boy and that they can trust you. Let's go to the library. The fiction section has loads of cool manga and really tall shelves that you can sleep behind. And I don't suppose you have a chocolate bar in your bag, do you?" He asked hopefully.

"Nope but I do have one better." Akaya grinned as he took out a slice of cake. It had been Marui's after morning practice cake but since he wasn't doing practice, Yukimura had given it to him. Akizaki descended in it greedily, quickly thanking Akaya before he ate it. "You know, you're not how I expected you to be." Akizaki looked at Akaya, swallowing the last bit of cake.

"You probably thought I was a nerd, right? Because of my glasses as well, I bet. Honestly, I hate these glasses. The only reason I have them is because my Kaa-chan chose them since I can't see what I look like when I'm trying glasses on." Akizaki's voice sounded slightly bitter and Akaya suddenly felt guilty. He had a bad habit of categorising people on how they looked but he hadn't realised that it could hurt some people's feelings. He was going to fix that.

"Akizaki-san, can we hang out this weekend so I can desensitise myself to nerds?" Akaya asked seriously.

"…I don't know whether to be insulted or not." Akaya shook his head.

"It's not an insult. It's just that your glasses make you look like a super nerd but you're the complete opposite and kinda cool. I hope that by hanging out with you I'll be able to stop seeing the glasses and stop being mean to Marui-senpai." Akaya explained. Akizaki looked confused when he brought up Marui so Akaya decided to expand a little. "Marui-senpai lost his contacts and has to wear his glasses now but they look even nerdier than yours. Thing is, I'm not the smartest person in the world and real nerds keep showing me up and making people laugh at me so now I automatically hate everyone who looks like a nerd. Since Marui-senpai now looks like a nerd, I've been really mean to him and hurt his feelings but he's my friend so I don't wanna hurt him so I'm hoping that-"

"-by hanging out with me, you'll desensitise yourself to nerdy looking people." Akizaki completed the circle of explanation with a small nod. "Okay, let's hang out then. We need to do that project and I'll see if I can get my brother to help us. He's a nice nerd."

"A nice nerd? That mythical being actually exists?" Akaya exclaimed with wide eyes. Akizaki nodded.

"Yep, there are nerds out there who help the average and idiots instead of laughing at them." Akaya's eyes went sparkly.

"Wow…" Akizaki couldn't help but burst into laughter. Akaya grinned and laughed along as they walked towards the library. 'I'm not going to hurt Marui-senpai ever again.'

A/N: I hope you enoyed this chapter. Until next week! Bai bai!