Author: MaiAkikoChan

Beta: Nispedana

Summary: A random encounter of a certain man who loved oranges, and a girl who was often likened to a sloth.

Genre: Family/Friendship

Rating: K+

Pockey and Oranges

'Why would he eat an orange without peeling the skins off?'

Akutagawa Jirou, a high school senior at Hyotei Gakuen was running hurriedly to the train station to catch the train. She got caught up in her serve and volley practice that she forgot how late it was. She would usually take her time going home, but since Atobe, a good friend of hers, had an exquisite dinner with some business partners, he wouldn't be giving her a lift on his limousine.

Once she reached the station, she took a moment to breathe before stepping inside the train. She looked around and mused how she'd find a good sleeping spot in the midst of crowd and sleep until the train reached her station.

Her eyes however, acted unusually. They didn't bother looking for such spot and instead, they focused on a somewhat eye-catching man with green hair.

The green-haired guy was standing near the door. He was looking outside with a blank look. The emotionless expression on his face was probably what captured Jirou's attention. Suddenly, his arm moved as he was taking out an orange from his sweatshirt pocket. He gave the orange a glance before looking back to the moving scenery and started to toss the orange upwards to catch it.

He kept on doing that again and again. Jirou couldn't help but to follow the orange's movement and as it was kept on being tossed upwards and then dropped down, her head also moved up and down. It would look to others as if she is nodding at herself repeatedly. It looked especially weirder when no one was even having a conversation with her. Some of the people nearby thought she was an unusual high schooler having a realistic daydream.

'Stop it. I'm getting dizzy,' Jirou thought to herself, but the guy didn't stop nor slowed down.

"We will be arriving at our next stop shortly. Please do gather all your belongings," the announcer announced through the speaker.

"No, not this one. My stop is the one after this one," Jirou quietly mumbled, as if to remind herself. After all, she had been in quite a trance. She worried she lost track of her destination.

The guy stepped a few steps back away from the door, to make way to those going outside.

'Seems like the next stop is not his stop either,' she thought with relief. But then she blinked at a realization. 'Relief? Why am I relieved that he is not getting off on the next stop?'

She got caught up in rummaging her brain for possible explanation that she didn't notice the people around her passing by her to walk out of the train until she was pushed from behind.

She almost fell (well she did) but luckily not all the way to the floor. She realized that it was because someone got a hold of her hand. "I'm sorry!" The person who unintentionally pushed her apologized and went on his way while the person who got a hold of her hand helped her to stand up.

"Thank you very much, Mr…?" Jirou said and stared at the man she had been staring at the whole time.

"Echizen Ryoga. You're welcome. Next time, don't—what?" Ryoga stopped talking as he noticed that she was staring at him (ogling to be more accurate) the whole time he was speaking.

"A-ah, no… It's just that your eyes look like a cats'..." Jirou made a quick response. It was true that his eyes looked like cats' eyes, anyway.

"Huh?" Ryoga got visibly confused at her response. He shrugged it off and walked back to his previous standing spot once the train started moving again. "Be careful next time."

"Okay…" Jirou slightly nodded. She sat on the nearby empty seat, the one behind Echizen, and fished out a box of mousse flavored pocky from her school bag. She took out a stick and nibbled on it.

'Ah… He said that his name is Echizen Ryoga… Echizen… Why does Echizen sounds so familiar?' Jirou wondered.

Jirou looked back to Ryoga and to her surprise, he was biting onto an orange. The skin of the orange wasn't peeled off, 'Doesn't that taste bitter?' Jirou shivered when she imagined how bitter it would taste. More to her surprise was that Ryoga didn't even flinch when he bit on the orange and instead, he had a serious expression on his face,

'How could he eat that? What is he busy thinking about that he didn't mind the bitter taste?' "My mousse pocky tastes so much better...'"

It was then he turned to her direction, making her flinch a bit. He only grinned in a congenial way however, and she found herself staring at him. "Is it really?"

She nodded and absent-mindedly handed him one. He took it with a grin. "Thanks."

"We will be arriving at our next stop shortly. Please do gather all your belongings," the announced again through the speaker, making the passengers wince and she stared at the guy's back again.

'It's my stop...' Jirou put in the pocky box into her school bag and stood up. When she walked closer to the door, she saw Ryoga looking far away again, smirking. It was a smirk that says that he was ready to win an imminent battle. He was waving the pocky stick like it was cigarette, and continued eating his orange. She wondered if giving him one of her precious chocolate pocky sticks was a waste.

The door opened and people started walking out of the train. She lost sight of Ryoga, being one of the first ones to walk out of the train. Jirou gave up looking for him after almost being pushed again (asked to the pocky gods for forgiveness) and just walked out of the train station and headed for home.

On the way of walking home, she started thinking why Echizen sounded so familiar. It was then she recalled her buchou's somewhat bitter face as he talked about someone.

"Ah!" She recalled (with matching vivid images) Atobe mentioning the name Echizen and how he was a first year student at Seigaku and was capable of defeating Hiyoshi in the Kanto Regionals match.

"Is he related to that Echizen?" She wondered when she was quickly pulled out of her reverie.

"Jirooouuu!" A guy with a similar hair color as her, but darker, called out to her as he was running towards her. But Jirou didn't notice that he was running towards her until he called her name.

"Keiichi-niichan!"

Keiichi took a moment to breathe before asking her, "Why are you late? It's getting dark. Mom is getting worried, you know."

"Gomen… I got caught up in my serve and volley practice. I thought of a cool new move, nii-chan! I was practicing it." Jirou told her older brother enthusiastically.

Keiichi just sighed, "Hai, hai. Next time, take notice of the time, okay? Let's head home before mom gets even more worried." Keiichi took the lead and walked home.

Jirou nodded and followed her older brother. "Oh, that's right, Nii-chan… I saw someone eating an orange in the train. He bit on to the orange without peeling the skin off!" Jirou told her brother with a surprised expression.

"Hmmm? Doesn't that taste bitter?" Keiichi asked her while still walking as they neared their house.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too… Oh, he stopped me from falling down when someone unintentionally pushed me. He mentioned that his name is Echizen Ryoga. Have you heard of him, Nii-chan?" Jirou asked.

"Echizen…? Ah, I think I have heard of him from my tennis player friends." Keiichi replied and then asked, "Why? Are you interested in him?"

"Huh? No, I don't think so…" Jirou said.

"Eeeeehh, I don't think so, you said." Keiichi wore that knowing smirk on his face and snickered.

"What?" She asked but his smirk did not fade. Confused, Jirou changed the subject, "Anyway, Nii-chan, why don't you play tennis?"

"Heh, I'm not interested even though it seems pretty cool," Keiichi replied.

"Why? I think you have the potential, Nii-chan." Jirou said.

They walked in the gate. "You do too, but you sleep in through practices," Keiichi jokingly said. "Anyway, let's just go in."

Jirou pouted, "Alright."

"We're hooomee!" The siblings announced as they entered their house. Jirou loved her home! It's warmth, its texture, and even its smell.

But somewhere along the way….for some reason… Jirou started wondering if that guy already reached his.

She also wanted to know how he was related to that other Echizen.

And why he had green hair.

And why he liked to eat oranges.

…

Hachoo!

"That's disgusting, aniki."

"Some chick must be thinking about me." Ryoga said with a smile, went back into tennis stance, and then wiped his nose.

"Gross." Ryoma said as he hit the tennis ball.

"Thanks." Ryoga replied as he returned his brothers' shot. He put in much force and the small one was too late to catch it.

"Che."

"I win this time." He said. "Again."

"You just got lucky." He said and eyed him, following the brand new orange he just took out of his pocket.

"And Chibisuke."

"What?"

"Did you know?" He paused and bit his orange. "What those food experts said was true."

"Huh?"

"Orange actually tastes well with chocolate."

-The End-

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