yep so Fuji confronts Ryoma xDDD My favvvv chapter

The next day, the dreaded morning, Ryoma trudged to school. He was early as usual since Ryoga had morning tennis practice. The Echizen household had purposely catered to the first son's schedule so breakfast was moved way up in the morning at an ungodly hour (to Ryoma) of 6am. Ryoma gave a huge yawn. Another thing he hated was waking up early in the morning.

Being forced to walk past the tennis courts, Ryoma spotted the Sunday prince character in one of the courts doing warm-up, that same brown hair, that same model fake smile and that same pale almost ghostish skin. He was wearing the Seiyou Chuugaku tennis regular jacket with the branded name Fuji Shuunsake behind it in block letters. It didn't take much for Ryoma to match the two and two together.

Fuji Shuunsake. A senior regular, known as the tensai Fuji, probably one of the strongest in the team. He had a slender build, much like a girl, but the way he moved his body, the way he played tennis had all told Ryoma that he wasn't a regular for show, his muscles were well-developed and trained. Rumors had it that even though he was always smiling, his eyes so small that they seemed closed in a slit, when he opens them, poison or lightening or whatever not will shoot out of his eyes.

Ryoma gave a non-chalent shrug. It didn't matter to them. Using his left hand to push up his glasses, he headed in a beeline for his classroom. Hopefully by all luck, the tensai Fuji would just leave him alone.

"Oi. Are you going?" the boy who sat beside Ryoma said. To date, Ryoma hadn't bothered to remember his name. Ryoma continued reading his book. "OI! I'm speaking to you, you know." he continued to say. It took a moment for Ryoma to realize the 'you' was referring to him. He looked up from his books, silent.

"Are you going or not?" He pressed, more and more irritating by the minute. To shut him out, Ryoma replied, "No." even though he had no idea what he meant and returned to his book. The guy gave a shrug with a mutter of "anti-social" under his breath.

"Ne Kachiro? You going?" the guy turned to ask some other first year student of the same class.

"Eh what?" the guy called Kachiro asked.

"the tennis senior regular tournament! That's what you dumbo!" the very noisy neighbour of Ryoma explained in an air of grandisco.

"Of course. You are going too aren't you Horio-kun? I heard the senior regular tournament is a sight to behold." the said guy, Kachiro, replied.

"That's right. From my information and experience, the reason why Seiyou's tennis is top notch in the province is because of these regular tournaments. This is the secret to…." Horio began to explain with a self-important drawl.

After school, Ryoma headed off to his solicitude, the library.

"Echizen-kun." came a velvety, all too familiar and all too unwanted voice from behind.

Ryoma decided to ignore the person calling him, undoubtedly the tensai Fuji. He continued to walk straight forwards towards the library. Doesn't anyone got their own things to do other than bothering him about tennis? He asked himself.

".zen." came the voice again, still smooth and silky but with a bad vibe this time. It sounded like poison if poison ever have a sound. Somehow, it made Ryoma stop in his tracks, turning to face him.

"what is it?" He replied curtly, clearing showing him that he was very VERY unwelcomed.

"As usual, rude and cold." the tensai Fuji replied with his trademark smile. 'ne, aren't you coming to watch the senior's regular tournament?"

"No." Ryoma fired back, turning to continue his way to the library like that was his greatest mission now. He placed one foot in front of the other in a steady pace. He didn't want to go too fast, if not he would seem like he was running away. He had a bad feeling that doing this would make things worst, but his pride won't allow his to agree without some hard persuasion or threat. He was a bit interested to be honest but only a teeny weeny bit so he claims.

Fuji caught up with his pace easily. He was almost a head taller.

Fuji grabbed Ryoma's arm with surprising strength. "Ne, if you don't come, I'll tell everyone your secret of your match with Momoshiro." He whispered softly, like a devil whispering corruption.

A shiver ran down Ryoma's spine. "What match? Who's the Momoshiro guy?" Ryoma played dumb.

"You know who he is. The match, well everyone knows it. They just don't know who. Although Momo did give a good clue, unknowningly I'm sure. He said "yes it was much like the freshman representative Echizen Ryoma." Fuji explained. "that got me interested. I was thinking of how to corner you up when you just walked to me. Your muscles" Fuji squeezed his arm. "are built from tennis aren't they?" Fuji suddenly let go of Ryoma's arm, a 'angelic' smile returning to his face.

"see you at the courts" he said with a smile before turning to walk away.

Well well. here goes Fuji... Fuji never stops till he gets his way don't he? xD

Just realized this chapter is quite short. :O I'll try make it longer for the next chapter. Well just kidding. I'm gonna give a reviewer present by merging the next chapter with this one xD 2 in 1 :D So here's goes. PART 2: Tennis match

Ryoma had no choice. It was just bad luck. Bad luck and trouble. For one, heaven just had to have it that it was Fuji Shuunsake, the tensai Fuji to know his secret. He just know that if Fuji had his way with it… Ryoma shuddered he didn't want to think of what might be the outcome.

With a thick book on philosophy that Ryoma didn't exactly care for, he headed to the tennis courts. "I am just going there then out again. In and out 2 mins." Well, Fuji didn't exactly ask him to watch the entire tournament did he? Ryoma grinned slyly.

It didn't take a genius to know where the tennis courts were. There was a huge crowd… of squealing girls and tennis kouhais. Ryoma sighed. Another thing he disliked, not to the point of hate though, was crowds, especially crowds of girls. He spied an empty bench some way away from the tennis courts and sat down to read. If anyone he knew passed him by, he could give the excuse that he was reading, not watching the tennis match.

'Ryoma kun?" came the voice of the desk partner. What was his name again? Oh right. Horio.

Ryoma looked up from his book and saw Horio and the Kachiro guy with anther male from their class standing together beside him.

"You're here to watch the match right? Come on, let's get closer." Horio declared without even asking Ryoma first. He practically dragged Ryoma to the courts. Ryoma didn't have time to respond until he found himself standing just at the fence of the tennis court beside a tall male in tennis regular jacket which read Tezuka. Ryoma cursed his luck.

Tezuka the current Seiyou Gakuen tennis buchou, well known for his zero-shiki drop shot though no one actually saw it before. His play and skill is way above the average of the middle schooler.

Ryoma subconsciously used his left hand to push up his glasses. It had become an action that served as a reminder to him: that's right. I hate tennis. He used to do it at first so as to constantly remind himself of his new side but now it had become a habit.

Ryoma was in the front row of the spectators seats. He was being pushed from behind and he didn't like it. First of all, he couldn't open his book like that and secondly, it made him look like he was interested in the match and thirdly, he could spy Fuji at the opposite side of the tennis court, grinning at him. Oh damn him, Ryoma cursed under his breath. He so wanted to get his racket and fire a fast serve straight to that smirking face of Fuji's… but he won't cause he is no longer the tennis lover Ryoma Echizen but the student representative Echizen Ryoma.

Ryoma ignored Fuji's smirking, Horio's blabbering and in fact, all the spectators around him. His golden cat-like eyes sparked a glow that was long absent from his eye. He watched the match. No, corrections, he was drawn to the point that he had no choice but to watch the match.

The tennis court, so familiar that it felt like yesterday, was hot. The sun was high up in the afternoon sky beating down mercilessly. The two players facing each other on the battlefield were more or less evenly matched. On his right was a taller male, probably a second year senior and the one of his left was probably a first year junior of the high school section. In his mind, he registered them as player 1 on the right and player 2 on his left.

The current game, best of 3 set match, was already well into its 2nd match. The first match had ended with a 5-3 with player 1 in the lead. Ryoma could read that off the scoreboard held by the student referee. The current match was at a tie with 3-3. player 2 was going the service.

Ryoma watched player 2 as he served. He was tall for the average but the opponent was taller. It was disadvantageous on the tennis grounds in terms of both ground coverage and height coverage. But player 2 was swift, nimble. He was exceedingly fast as well, matching up with player 1's longer strides. Player 1 was stronger, more at ease on the tennis field. His long limbs gave him much advantage over his smaller opponent but his opponent wasn't giving up. Player 2 had a fair chance to win, only if his stamina could be kept up. He was running around too much. He was desperate, trying to return each of player 1's ball, running from side to side and his stamina was draining.

Player 1 was stronger, more experiences definitely. He was in control of the match but Ryoma noticed something awkward about the way he moved. He was leaning too much on his right foot. His weight was slightly off balance unlike player 2 who had a really extraordinary sense of balance. A psychological barrier? Or was it a form mistake? Player 1's movement was bulky. It was pulling him down. He need much more training to his tennis form and work on his sense of balance. Ryoma analyzed quietly.

'4-3" the referee called as player 1 lost balance for a second and lost the ball. Player 2 was now in the lead.

Ryoma's left hand pushed his glasses again. Alright, he was annoyed. He should get rid of the habit of pushing his glasses soon. It was irritating him now.

The sun shore down bright. The match continues.

4-4. player 1 scored a lucky break.

4-5. miss on player 2's part, he misjudged the direction of the ball. He obviously lacked match experience.

4-6. match end with player 1 winning.

Ryoma breathed a sigh a relief. He was suddenly aware that he had been too caught up in the match and had lost his persona of the student representative, being caught, twirled and enchanted by the match in front of him. He had been held in tension in the match. A very bad feeling was coming to him. He had forgotten that he was in a crowd and was being watched as student rep. Echizen Ryoma. Fuji! Where was Fuji?

He was glanced worriedly, almost in a panic around the opposite side of the crowd. Fuji was nowhere to be seen.

"Ne, is he really coming over here:" Horio excited whisper disturbed Ryoma's attention. Ryoma had a really bad feeling about who the 'he' was referring to. He willed himself not to turn.

"He's really coming here!" Horio exclaimed softly again. Ryoma remained impassive.

"oh gosh!" was Horio's last sentence before the every so dreaded poison prince (as Ryoma now referred to him as) cut in.

"Echizen-kun?"

Haha. Now Fuji's got Ryoma TRAPPED amongst the crowd with no escape. Well Fuji's gonna make a demand and Ryoma gonna accept it. He haven't got much choice otherwise.

Next chapter; The demand. I'm the tennis-WHAT?

Shiroi MI