The super long delay? I have no excuse. The chapter refused to write itself asufhshidfosds *killed*

Well now. Enjoy the insanity. I hope.


Two days after the match with Hyotei Gakuen saw the Seigaku tennis regulars back to their usual training schedules - albeit with a major difference.

Their captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu, had left for Germany to treat his shoulder.

Miyuki pouted slightly, already missing the silent, rather comforting presence. The rest of the team had placated her in their own ways, but the small redhead still felt the gap left behind by the absent captain. Unbidden, her mind replayed the meeting Tezuka had with a surprise visitor that decided where he was going for treatment - one Atobe Keigo.

It was rather surprising, really - the silver-haired teen came up to them out of nowhere that day, though Tezuka's reaction was to blink and say "oh, you came, Atobe," in a manner that suggested he expected him to drop by - either that, or nothing fazes the bespectacled captain at all.

As the two captains went into the clubroom to talk, Miyuki did not really know what they were talking about until Tezuka told them himself. But there was this one incident wherein she completely forgot Atobe was around and went barging into the clubroom to get Tezuka's approval for something.

She only remembered Atobe was there when he "ah~n"-d at her, and the redhead promptly turned around and slammed the door behind her.

"...she really doesn't like you." Miyuki heard Tezuka state bluntly - well, as bluntly as she could make it through the door.

"I never struck you as the type who'd point out the obvious, Tezuka," was Atobe's reply. Then there was the scratching of chair against tile as the two inside the clubroom stood up. "Well then, my business here is done. Take care of that shoulder, Tezuka. It'd be a shame to lose an opponent like you so soon."

"That was my intention."

And then the door opened, and a hand started ruffling her hair. "I see you haven't changed much, princess."

"Stop calling me princess, you stupid cake!"

It was not like her, but Miyuki knocked his hand away from her, glared, and ran away to find one of her seniors. Maybe Fuji would scare him off, with his pretty smile and pretty eyes. Yes, Fuji-senpai has pretty eyes...

She pulled herself out of that piece of memory quickly, even though the smiley senior really did have pretty eyes. It would not do to space out thinking about pretty eyes when Tezuka was counting on her to help Oishi in his absence.

Briefly, Miyuki wondered if it would be bothersome of her to invite the newly-acquainted Rikkaidai manager for an impromptu tennis match.

The redhead decided she would just ask. No harm done in asking, as her brother liked to say.


So there really was no harm done in asking. Miyuki decided to call Rei as she was waiting for dinner to finish cooking, and the elder teen had sounded surprised when she picked up her call but easily agreed to the impromptu tennis match.

"So, this weekend, three at the tennis club in Kanagawa Prefecture okay with you?"

Miyuki was not exactly sure of the place and told the elder teen so. Rei laughed.

"Take the bus from your school. I'll meet you at the bus stop near the club." There was a pause. "You do remember what I look like, right?"

The redhead pouted. "Miki wemember, Wei-chan," she whined. "Miki swear Miki 'member!"

"Well, I don't know," the other girl teased. "You forgotten who I was the day you met me, after all..."

"Miki said Miki sowwy, Wei-chan!" She was getting teary-eyed now, and Rei giggled.

"I know, I know," she appeased. "Well, I have to get back to work before someone yells at me. See you this weekend, Miki."

Miyuki chirped a happy goodbye in response, pocketing her phone and turning off the fire just as she heard the front door open and her brother's voice drift into the house.

"I'm home!"

Which was promptly followed by a loud thud.

"Nii-nii, welcome back!" she answered with mild confusion, walking out to investigate the thud. Golden eyes blinked slowly once, then another time before she spoke again. "...nii-nii died...?"

Kitsuke Takeshi had flopped - there really was no other word for it - on the ground, not even bothering to let go of his school bag and baseball bat. He lazily turned his hazel eyes towards her, and Miyuki blinked again.

"Miiiikiiiiiii... feeeeeeeeed meeeeeeeeeee..."

The younger blinked at the elder brunette before giving him his answer. "Dowaaaaan!"

"Eeeeeh..." her normally handsome and charismatic brother whined. "Miki, you no love nii-nii no more?"

Miyuki pouted. "Nii-nii smelly!" she cried in response. "No want feed smelly nii-nii!"

"Eeeeeh..." Takeshi whined again. He paused. "Then, Miki, help me take a baaaaaaaaath..."

He began crawling towards his sister, and Miyuki deemed it fit to scoot away. "Go 'waaaaaaaay!" she not-quite screeched, but it was close. Takeshi sighed and gave up, pushing himself up to sit and pouting despondently.

"First Rei refused to come with me on a date, then my cute sister rejected me..." he sighed. "Why am I so unlucky today?"

The familiar name made Miyuki pause. "Wei-chan?" she repeated. "Wikkai tennis club manager, Wei-chan?"

This time, Takeshi blinked. "Yea..." he confirmed. A pause. "Miki, you know Rei?"

Instead of answering him, Miyuki cheered. "Wei-chan weject nii-nii!" She repeated that cheer while running around the living room, which made her two Siberian Huskies join in the fun - even though the dogs really did not know what was going on; they just know their owner was excited, and hey, excitement is good!

Takeshi observed his younger sister's celebration with a pout. Just as he was about to ask her why she was so happy about that, he got his answer.

"Wei-chan weject nii-nii to go date with Miki!"

The elder's palm met his forehead with a loud smack. First he found out his sister knew his junior, and now his sister says that they were going on a date? This just was not fair!

...though to be fair, someone from the tennis club itself was keeping a pretty close eye on the younger brunette. It... probably did not help that someone's case for Rei to be quite dense... and for said person to be in the hospital, anyway.

"Fine," he huffed as he forced himself up - damn it, but practice at the baseball club was harsher than usual that day. The captain said something about not losing to the tennis club...

'Rei, damn you and your insane training menus for your team!'

(Over in a tennis court, the younger brunette sneezed. A certain seaweed-head laughed at the fact she missed an easy return, and was promptly hit in the head when Rei retaliated by hitting a twist serve... then another one... and another. Akaya quickly learned to never let his guard down against his childhood friend ever again.)

"Fine?" Miyuki echoed, coming down from her random high.

"Yes, fine," Takeshi repeated, starting to make his way up the stairs to his room. "I'm going to come and crash your date with Rei."

It took the redhead a moment to figure out what he was talking about, then she pouted. "Nii-nii, no distuuuuuuuurb...!" she yelled at him from the bottom of the stairs. He laughed merrily.

Bullying Miyuki was just so much fun.


OMAKE:

It was just another regular day of training over at Rikkaidai's tennis courts. The non-regulars were practicing their swings, the first years were helping out with picking up stray tennis balls (trust them; there were a lot of them), and the regulars were playing single matches against each other under Sanada's watchful eye - and Rei's, to a lesser extent (only because she was playing against the data master, who claimed he did not have enough of her data. The brunette wondered why the heck did he need her data for when she's just the manager, but decided not to question it. Saves her brain cells that way).

"'mmtachi!"

Rei, who was in the middle of getting into a position to return the slice, stopped short, as did everyone else within hearing vicinity. The tennis ball hit the fencing around the court and bounced slightly before rolling to a halt. A long pause ensued.

"...'Kamaitachi'?" Rei questioned, and the senior she was playing against looked mildly flustered.

"It was a sudden tongue-tied moment that escaped my calculations," Yanagi replied, his tone trying but failing to hide his embarrassment.

Another pause, but it was cut short by Rei's burst of laughter. "'Mmtachi'," she repeated in between laughter. "'MMTACHI'!"

"Oy, Yanagi," Niou called from a different court. "You broke our manager." In the background, the brunette was still laughing and repeating the phrase that cracked her up in the first place. Akaya soon joined her hilarity, as did Marui. Jackal shook his head at the trio of laughing hyenas despite the smile that tugged at his features, and Yagyuu hid his smile by adjusting his glasses. The trickster outright grinned.

Yanagi sighed. "The percentage of Takeuchi being unable to continue the match with me is 99.9 percent," he deduced sadly. He really wanted to gather more data on their manager's play style, too... "Genichirou, would you like to play a match with me?"

The vice-captain, who had been sighing at the manager's amusement ("'Mmtachi'!" she repeated for the fifteenth time), smirked wryly at him. "If you could get her to stop rolling on the court with laughter," he said, "I don't mind."

Yanagi glanced at the manager who still found the entire thing amusing with a wry smile of his own. "Well," he told his friend, "I guess it can wait."

Sanada sighed self-sufferingly, but Yanagi noticed the glint of relief in the strict vice-captain's eyes before his cap shaded them. As the other teen barked orders for everyone to resume training and to ignore the laughing fit their manager got into, the data master's smile went unnoticed.

'Looks like even Genichirou was worried.'

They did not see their manager laugh like that ever since Seiichi got hospitalized, after all. Watching her laugh - even at the expense of his own pride - was, in his honest opinion, quite worth it.


Uh... somehow, the omake became total sap. IDK how that happened. D:

The 'mmtachi' is a loving reference to Ono Kento, the first guy who played Yanagi Renji in the musicals. Apparently, he got tongue-tied during an actual performance and actually said that. x'D

Also, Miyuki's speech was typed like that on purpose. She's a child in a teenager's body, remember? x'D