Author's Note: [ disclaimer goes here ]

Hmm. . . Chapter 4 was a bit too short for my tastes - even if I was in one of my inspirational spasms. So, I decided to work on this one as fast as I could before Inspiration decided to go on its merry way. . .or at least i started this one when I was still inspired. Sorry this one took forever to get out.

Chapter Five: Rallies

The sun was shining all too brightly for Tenx's tastes. Maybe it was because she still felt a little groggy. Maybe it was because she didn't get to sleep in like she had planned to. Or maybe it was because Eriol woke her up exactly at 6 o'clock that morning - looking all bright and chipper. Yeah, that was definitely it. The Italiana was grumbling to herself as she got into the rhythm of a rally with the wall. Yeah, that's right - Tenx was hitting against a wall.

When she and Eriol had arrived at the public tennis courts that morning, the latter had decided that a round of stretches and a nice morning jog were in order. The stretching wasn't so bad, but it was the running that got to her. Who the hell told her that "a mile a day kept the doctor away?" Tenx had run herself ragged and into a very, very unhappy mood. And that was just in the first hour.

"Oh, shoot!" Eriol had exclaimed, after they had their mile run. She was rummaging through her bag while Tenx was sitting on the floor, trying to catch her breath. "Looks like I forgot the snacks I set aside as a breakfast for us. Oh, and Tenx, don't sit down like that after a good run. It's not that good for you. Why don't you get started on warming up your ground strokes while I go run down to the nearest store for breakfast. I won't belong; I promise."

And that was about fifteen minutes ago. Alone at the courts, Tenx took the time to see that it was a really nice place. The wall she was currently hitting against was steps away from the two tennis courts behind her. The courts and wall themselves were located in a nice park in town. She could hear the distant laughter of children playing. And every now and then a bird would chirp. Honestly, it was a really nice place. It was a shame that she had been brought there in such mood-killing conditions.

"Stupid early morning practice," she grumbled, glaring at the tennis ball as it bounced off the wall, onto the ground, and back to her, "Freaking tennis co-captain. When I said I wanted to hang out, this was not what I had in mind!" She pronounced each word with the utmost hatred and anger, each syllable dripping with her frustration and foul mood. With an angry cry, Tenx swung her racket as hard as she could and smacked the tennis ball into the wall. Unfortunately, the laws of physics kicked in and the ball bounced off the wall with the same intensity that it hit it with. Tenx didn't even bother trying to dodge, as she was still fuming. The ball missed her anyway, and shot off somewhere behind her. She stood there, grumbling, for a few more minutes until she sighed and sat down. No sooner did she sit did she hear her stomach growl. "Well, isn't this great? Gosh. . . Shoot me in the face!"

". . .I don't know about you, but I can think of a few people who would be upset if someone actually did that. . ."

Tenx immediately scrambled to her feet, receiving an answer she didn't expect from behind her. She turned around, ready to start yelling at how she didn't like it when people snuck up behind her. To her surprise, it was Kaidoh, and he was holding the ball she had carelessly discarded. He held the ball out, and Tenx took it with a small word of thanks and a "good morning."

"Did you come to practice too, Kaidoh?" she asked, bouncing the ball on the floor with her racket a few times. She needed to feel like she was doing something, or else Eriol would say something about it. While the notion was completely absurd, it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility when it came to her Filipino friend. That freak. . .

"Yeah," Kaidoh responded, shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders to readjust the bag hanging from his left shoulder. He took a moment to look around and asked, "You came to practice by yourself?"

"No. Eriol - uhhh. . . Cruz-fukubuchou was here a while ago. But she left to get food." The Italiana didn't even bother to mention that she had no idea when her friend was coming back. And she was getting hungry. It was then that her stomach thought that it was the opportune moment to remind her that it was empty, and it emitted a growling noise. Tenx looked surprised, and laughed nervously as she slapped a hand over her stomach. "Hahaha. . .guess I must be getting hungry."

Kaidoh raised an eyebrow, before pulling his bag in front of him and opening a pocket. He rummaged through it until he pulled out an energy bar. "Here," he said, handing it to the girl, "Eat this. It might not fill you up, but at least it'll put something in your stomach."

"Aww, thank you Kaidoh," Tenx said, taking the energy bar and opening the wrapping before taking a bite. If she hadn't been so hungry she might have been a little more gracious, or reluctant, to receive it. All she got in response was a gruff "yeah" from Kaidoh. She then got an idea, and turned to Kaidoh after wolfing down the bar, "Hey, Kaidoh. It might be a while before fukubuchou gets back. Want to rally with me in the meantime?"

What was she thinking? Asking Kaidoh Kaoru to rally with her. . . They had been at it for at least half an hour (with at least five rallies before this one), and he still hadn't broken a sweat! Granted, he had better control of the ball - and thus, he had the momentum of the rally on his side - and he was hitting the ball from corner to corner and making Tenx run from side to side to retrieve them. Tenx didn't have any grand ideas or inspirations of making Kaidoh mess up and, thus, "win" the rally so much as she was concerned with hitting the ball back and continuing the rally. And, to that end, she would continue to chase down each hit and send it right back at the bandanna boy.

On the other side of the net, Kaidoh watched as Tenx dashed to each hit he made and returned it. While her power was more on the low side, he thought it quite intelligent of her to focus more on consistency and placement. Each hit she sent back at him landed just behind the service line, prompting him to move up from the baseline to hit it back before retreating. That's a good strategy. Any normal opponent would start getting impatient and start moving up to the net, which would make them vulnerable to overhead shots and having to move back again and wasting their energy. In addition, the opponent would then be free to move up to the net. . .

"Shoot!"

Kaidoh snapped out of his thoughts long enough to see that Tenx's latest return was a dud. She had slipped up somewhere and hit the ball a little to high and not enough spin. The result was the perfect set-up for a smash - and Kaidoh took it. He ran up to the net, with his racket poised for the hit. In response, Tenx moved back well behind the baseline. Smashes were power shots that have a huge bounce-back area. If she was standing back far enough, she might have a shot at being able to return the smash with a ground-stroke. Or. . .not. The smash Kaidoh hit was perfect - it bounced back up way too high for Tenx to get a good hit on it.

"Ah, that was a good one," Tenx conceded, clapping her hand on the face of her racket. Kaidoh only nodded, and both of them were surprised to hear another set of applause.

"Good job, guys," Eriol complimented the two of them, grinning.

"Eriol!" Tenx shouted, pointing a finger at her, "Where have you been? You left me here all alone and with no food! I can't believe you! You said we were going to practice and all you did was make me run and leave me!"

The Filipina only laughed, and waving her hand, "Sorry, sorry. But! I'll make it up to you. I ran into Taka-senpai in town, and he said that it was okay if we stopped by his family's sushi restaurant on our way home this afternoon."

"Yeah! You better make it up - did you say sushi?"

Eriol nodded, before turning to Kaidoh, who looked rather confused at Tenx's sudden outburst, "You're more than welcome to join us later, Kaidoh-kun."

The Viper shook his head, "It's fine. I need to run some more drills." He then turned to Tenx and bowed his head, "Thank you for the rally." With that, he went to his bag and put his racket away and got ready to leave.

"Oh well, thank you for the rally too," Tenx called after him, as he exited the court. Eriol looked from Tenx to Kaidoh's retreating figure and shrugged. That boy was always training. She wondered if he ever took any time off. No, probably not.

"Hey, Tenx. Want to rally with me?"

"After making me wait this long for you to come back? Hell no!"

"Awww, c'mon Tenx. The ranking matches are coming up. You need all the practice you can get."

"Don't you dare play that card on me, Eriol Cruz."

"Fine, I'll just play the 'I'm your fukubuchou, and you need to practice because I said so' card then."

"No! You can't do that either! I won't rally with you!"

"All right, guess I can't force you to. I guess that means we're not stopping by the sushi restaurant tonight then."

". . .spartan. . ."

Ending Notes:

WOW. That took longer than necessary and it wasn't even that good. asdfghjkl; [ /shot ]

Sorry for the wait, guys. But! I already have an idea for the next chapter and I hope to get that one written before I lose all of my motivation to Finals. Yay finals. . . But, as I said in my announcements, Winter Break is just around the corner (literally!) and once I finish my Finals in the next week I expect to write more. So yeah, thanks for bearing with me.

Rates and reviews are much appreciated and feel free to message me about anything really.