Title: Twilight

Chapter Title: Stranger

Word Count: 2,139

Status: Continuous - Incomplete

Pairing: RyoxSaku , FujixOC

Rating: T

Summary: "Behind the facade of bravery and strength lies hidden a delicate, wounded heart that hasn't forgotten how to care." What do you mean by that? "The most beautiful, elegantly carved glass, no matter how heavy, is still glass. It needs to be handled with care, or it will shatter."

STRANGER

Ryoma tried to block out the sound of Horio's voice as they made their way through the corridors. He wasn't exactly 'walking' anywhere with his fellow freshman. They just happened to be heading the same direction for the time being. Horio was searching for his other two companions and had heard that they were in the Chemistry lab. Ryoma had to hand in a paper to their professor. So here he was, stuck walking beside the great one 'with two years tennis experience' towards the laboratories. Thank Kami he would be detouring to the offices in a few minutes. His ears were starting to ache and he just realised that his box of milk was now empty.

"Well, I turn here, Horio."

"Huh?" said that 'experienced' one. Apparently he had taken for granted that Ryoma was heading for the labs too. He raised half of his mono-brow. Before he could ask, however, the tennis prodigy had slipped round the corner and out of sight.

"Hmph. That Echizen," he said to himself, crossing his arms. "I hate it when he does that."

Shrugging, he continued on his perilous journey to the labs. He saw shadows behind that glass of the doors to ChemLab3 and deduced that his friends must be there. He reached out a hand to push open the doors when the door moved away from him of its own accord. Staring at the place where the metal handle was supposed to have been, frowning slightly. This wasn't right. Doors weren't supposed to move away automatically – not Seigaku's Chem Lab doors anyway. His brain was just about to come to the conclusion that either his friends were playing a nasty trick on him or the place was haunted. Yes, that must be it. There must be some ghost here, some spirit of an ancestor of Sadaharu Inui. That was when he heard the voice. From somewhere above his head.

"Are you going to move, or are you going to stay there like that all day?"

Wait a minute. That wasn't a very ghostly voice. It surely wasn't a male voice either. But then again, it did not sound very female. It was deeper, more throaty than the squeals he was used to hearing. He decided to look up. He nearly screamed. Okay so he did – a bit. He stared at the figure that loomed menacingly over him.

She certainly was female. Pale olive skin contrasted with her dark hair that fell a few good inches past her shoulders. Her equally dark eyes were narrow. But it was the rectangular top-framed glasses that magnified her ominous looks and aura about tenfold. And the look on her face, it was scary ... and very familiar, although Horio couldn't quite place it yet. That look of absolute authority and power and her tone of voice that made him feel compelled to carry out her commands. Too familiar. He had seen that somewhere before. Somewhere in the back of his mind, his memory knocked at his brain, trying to tell him how he recognised these things on this woman, this girl. But he felt too frightened for his brain to work properly at the moment.

She did not speak again. She did not sink razor-sharp teeth into him, did not reveal monster-like claws, did not tear him to pieces, did not declare that she was going to take him with her so that he could be her slave and later her dinner. Nope. She merely walked forward and past him and down the corridors, not sparing him another glance.

Horio was relieved. He placed a hand over his chest, right over where his heart should have been, and released a breath he had not known he was holding.

"Horio-kun, are you alright?" said another voice. Male this time. Just as menacing. Laced with barely contained excitement, anticipation. That evil laughter.

"Ah!" Horio really jumped this time. "Inui-senpai!" he said, relieved that it was someone he actually knew.

"Horio-kun, you look shaken, are you sure you're okay?"

Horio raised half his mono-brow at this. Inui-senpai being nice? Hmm. There was something strange going on here. Maybe that girl from earlier had something to do with Inui-senpai's current mood.

"Inui-senpai, that girl was your girlfriend, wasn't she?"

"Ah, Horio-kun, I see that your brains have been slightly addled by the shock you had a while ago. Perhaps you should have some of this?" he added as an afterthought, holding up a conical flask of a bubbly bright pink concoction that was emitting sickeningly sweet-smelling fumes that turned acid green as they came into contact with the air. "And no, she's not my girlfriend."

"My latest Inui Hyper Remix Special Upgraded, Momo-iro-zu."

Horio screamed and ran for dear life.

XxXxXxX

A soft friendly voice spoke near his ear.

"What's wrong, Horio-kun? You look shaken and jumpy this afternoon."

Horio disappeared from the courts in a flash.

"Eh? What's wrong with him?" Momoshiro wondered, scratching his head.

"Could I possibly be the cause?"

Momoshiro turned towards the sound of the voice. "Inui-senpai! You the cause? You didn't offer him some of your juice, did you?" Too late, Momoshiro realized that he had uttered the wrong words.

"Hmm. Momo-iru-zu. My latest Inui Hyper Remix Special Upgraded. Want to try?"

Momo eyed the pink concoction and tried not to flinch at the sight of the green gas. "No thank you."

Before Momoshiro could attempt to put as much distance between himself and his eerie senpai, they heard Ryuuzaki-sensei's voice call out.

"Alright, everyone's attention here please. Only regulars on Court A. The rest of you divide yourselves among Courts B and C. Leave Court D free, please." The non-regulars quickly gathered their things and made their way out of Court A. "Alright. Regulars. Today we're training with our latest improved training menu." Ryuuzaki-sensei held up a sheet of paper.

"Oh," said Inui. "Those who fail to comply will have to drink a glass of this -" he held up the pitcher of the concoction he had finished only earlier that day. "- and those who lose a match, come last or fail to complete the laps, or fail the training tasks assigned to them, will have to drink a shot of this." He held up the glass and the shot glass. To the rest of the regulars, it did not matter what size the glass was. As much as possible, they did not want to have even a drop of that dangerous looking stuff offered to them.

"Okay, first we'll have warm-ups. Light, clean games, please. Don't over-exert just yet. We'll begin with these set-ups: Momoshiro-Kaidou, Eiji-Oishi, and I'll play Kawamura. The remaining regulars Echizen, Fuji, buchoo will warm up on their own."

Ryoma approached his coach. "Sensei, why are you leaving Court D free?"

Ryuuzaki gazed down at the youngest prodigy. "You, Fuji and Tezuka can warm up there if you like. There's someone whom I need to evaluate."

Fuji and Tezuka went to play a light game. Ryoma proceeded to the nearest wall to warm up by himself. He wondered who it was Ryuuzaki-sensei said she was going to evaluate. Evaluate; what did she mean? He could hear her calling to someone and out of the corner of his eye, he could see her waving, indication her position, and someone approaching the courts. He ignored it and continued his assault on the milk and juice boxes and Ponta cans he had set up. That was when he felt eyes on him. Again.

"Ryuuzaki."

"Oh, Ryoma-kun. I didn't mean to disturb you," said the shy girl from a distance behind him. Ryoma could tell she didn't have her talkative friend with her at the moment – which he was truly grateful for.

"And yet you repeatedly come to watch my warm-ups despite the fact that you think you're a disturbance." Ryoma re-arranged the boxes and cans for another round.

"Oh," said the girl to herself, finding her shoes very interesting all of a sudden. "I am a disturbance to Ryoma-kun. I'll be leaving now then."

"Just remember it wasn't me who said it," said Ryoma off-handedly. Sakuno stared at him for a moment, not entirely comprehending what she had just heard. Ryoma himself was not sure why he had said what he just did. He shrugged it off and returned to his warm-ups. Behind him, Sakuno left him to practice with a small but certain smile on her face.

"Echizen! Oi! Echizen!"

Ryoma caught the yellow ball and turned towards the source of the voice. It was Oishi.

"Oi! Ochibi! Come on here! Your turn to play Tezuka-buchoo!"

Ryoma raised an eyebrow at his acrobatic senpai and fixed his features into his well-known stoic I-don't-care-what-you-think-or-say-'cause-you've-got-a-long-way-to-go-and-I'm-going-to-defeat-you look.

XxXxXxX

Inui's new training menu was gruelling. He had them doing sit-ups and push-ups this time. This wasn't so bad for them normally, but the slowest one to reach a hundred and fifty was going to have a drink of that horrid Inui Special so everyone went all out. Echizen had to play doubles with Momoshiro again against The Golden Pair. They somehow managed to hold their ground this time. Momoshiro had definitely gotten much better at doubles ever since playing with Kaidou and once with Eiji. He even admitted to Echizen (albeit in whispers and swore him to secrecy) that he quite enjoyed playing doubles and would look forward to the next time he was cast to play in a doubles match.

After thirty laps around the court (those who took more than forty seconds to complete the last lap had to drink a shot of Momo-iru-zu, the one who came last got a huge glass), with Eiji barely stirring after his shot of Inui Special and Momoshiro probably out cold for the rest of the rest of the evening, they were dismissed almost an hour earlier than usual. Ryoma lagged behind in picking his things up, preferring to bounce balls against the wall and only go to the locker rooms when the noisy ones (Momo, Kaidou, Eiji, Oishi, Taka-san) were long gone.

When he finally went to change, though, he found Oishi, Fuji and Tezuka still on the courts with their coach. They seemed to be having a serious discussion so Ryoma let them be, making his way to the changing rooms. The sound of a tennis ball being hit, however, distracted him. He glanced back at the courts. The other three courts were empty, and in Court D, no one was playing. The three senpais and their sensei were still standing and talking. Who was playing then? The other regulars had gone, and as far as he knew, there was supposed to be no other tennis player on the grounds.

But Echizen being Echizen, he let his curiosity win over him. At least he didn't have to worry about Momo-senpai. Oishi and Taka-san would take care of them. He could investigate to his heart's desire. He followed the steady pok-pok sounds to an area not far from the locker rooms. There, at the wall he himself liked to warm up on, stood a solitary figure, bouncing a tennis ball against the wall. One look at the wall told him that the ball always hit the same spot. The figure hit a Twist return. It hit the ground, revolving rapidly before bouncing back up to hit the exact same spot on the wall.

Ryoma saw that the person, whoever it was, was quite experienced in tennis. The form was excellent, the body lithe and fluid, bending and moulding, to meet each ball and return it with increased power or cushioning the ball so that a strong hard shot was returned with a slow spin or lob. Ryoma was impressed. And then, the figure performed a zero-shiki Drop-shot that could probably rival Tezuka's. The ball, mere millimetres from the wall, fell in a straight line and then spun backwards to stop at the player's feet.

Not bad, thought Ryoma. He was about to leave when he saw it. He could only see the person's back, but he could tell that the person was sweating. That was not right. He was been watching for only about fifteen minutes. This person could not have been at it for more than twenty. He could see the contraction of muscles on the back, like this person was keeping himself from bending over, determined to stand upright. What was going on here? The right hand holding the racquet was trembling. Through the loose black pants, he could almost sense the contraction of the muscles; he could almost feel himself the lactic acid soaking the triceps in the right arm. He could hear panting. This person could not have been going at it for so long. He would have heard. Frowning, Ryoma turned back towards the locker rooms.

Author's Note:

There you go ... Chapter two. I'll let you wonder who the eerie girl Horio met is and who the person Ryoma saw was. And what we're the three senpais and Ryuuzaki sensei discussing that they waited till all the other regulars had gone?

Please review ... you help fuel my passion and my need for writing D

CherriesandRoses89