A/N: man. what do i even say after not touching this for 3 and a half years? anyways. here's a chapter?


Reunion

As Shirou Emiya, he tended to try to be as meticulous as possible when facing an upcoming enemy. After all, every piece of information he could get his hands on about them could be the difference between life and death. In fact, he prided himself in being pretty good at information gathering and had somewhat of a network going before things completely fell apart for him then.

As Ryoma Echizen though, at least when it comes to tennis, he likes to kick back and simply listen to the information given to him by his seniors. It's not that he doesn't care enough, but juggling three different clubs where he's very much on demand in all three is tough and he only has so much time. In fact, the upcoming match against Hyotei clashed with a Kendo competition he was supposed to take part in but had to withdraw from.

Now, usually, he would have skipped out on the tennis. After all, the kendo club needed him more than the tennis club did since he knew that the tennis club would be perfectly fine without him. But for some reason, Ryoga was being extra annoying about it, and between a sulking Ryoga (thus, incredibly whiny Ryoga) and missing out on what in the end was relatively unimportant competition, he relented.

(Considering how much he had to be the one placating Ryoga instead of the other way around, sometimes he feels like the older teen is his younger brother instead of his older brother. Then again…)

Apparently, it had something to do with Hyotei's Captain, someone called Keigo Atobe. According to Ryoga, he's the only one that managed to defeat Ryoga in a match the previous year though Seigaku ended up being the overall winner.

Of course, that means Ryoga's insistence for Ryoma to come was mostly because the older teen wanted to show off by getting his revenge on the one opponent he failed to beat the previous year. Ryoma could only quietly sigh in exasperation upon the realization. Ryoga can get rather ridiculous and clingy in ways that Ryoma isn't really sure how to handle.

(Not that Shirou doesn't understand Ryoga's clinginess. Even after Ryoma regained the memories of his previous life, they're close in ways only brothers could be. Considering the circumstances, the separation they experienced had probably been much harder on Ryoga. In a weird way, Ryoga reminded him of Illya and that's not a thought he wanted to dwell on at all)

In the end, he could only sigh and follow along. He's not even put in the line-up for the match, only as a reserve. He's fine with that, of course. Seigaku seemed to have taken the mind of making him their secret weapon of sorts for some degree of surprise factor against opponents which otherwise would have known quite a lot of them. While Hyotei was one of those teams that would have known a lot about them, Ryoma assumed that they were confident enough that they would be able to deal with Hyotei without bringing him out.

That's all fine and Ryoma would have been content to just watch the matches, but then his eyes met Atobe Keigo's, and he just knew.

It wasn't like the times he saw the ghost of those who knew in his previous life in those he knew in this one. No, with Atobe Keigo Ryoma can feel it deep in his soul that the person currently looking at him, the person he had never met previously, was someone that he knew. Not from this life but from the previous one where he's not Ryoma Echizen but Shirou Emiya.

"Oho~, what do we have here?" Atobe said out loud as he began walking toward Ryoma.

It's not quite the same, in the same way that Ryoma Echizen was not quite Shirou Emiya, but he there's enough. There's enough traces of the person that he knew back then in the way that Atobe Keigo moves, in the tone that he spoke just those few words that he just knew.

Ryoma could see that despite the projected confidence and surety that Atobe Keigo had as he walked toward him, there's doubt and insecurity. A hidden fear and a question in the other teen's eyes. He wondered what he looked like in Atobe's eyes at the moment.

"You must be Atobe Keigo." Ryoma stated. He's not sure how he should do this. The more he looked, the more he paid attention, the more he felt validated in his feeling that Atobe Keigo is her and he didn't know how to deal with that.

"And you must be the Echizen Ryoma that Ryoga had been talking about so much," Atobe said, his mouth curving into a smirk.

Ryoma suppressed a snort. See, while Seigaku seemed to have it in mind that he's their secret weapon, Ryoga on the other hand incessantly brag about how 'Ryoma is much stronger than you all and will kick your asses'.

"Tell me, what's your Zodiac sign?" Atobe asked.

"…Libra," Ryoma replied, and the next thing he knew Atobe grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the direction of the nearest bathroom which he immediately shut the door of and locked it using a pin that he pulled out of his pocket in record time.

"Rin, couldn't you have done this in a way that wouldn't make me, and for that matter, you as well, get interrogated by our team once we get out?" Ryoma asked exasperatedly.

Atobe looked at him weirdly, "You, asking someone to not do something questionable? Really?"

"Hey, I haven't done anything that got me in trouble ever since I figured out I was Shirou Emiya." Ryoma said defensively.

"…I find that hard to believe but sure," Atobe replied haughtily.

Ryoma could only sigh in response. "Really, what would you have done if I had answered anything but Libra? It's been so long I could have forgotten."

Honestly, it was just a little code between them. A sort of secret message to confirm if the other is not an impostor. Shirou doesn't even know his actual birthday, and he's content just having his birthday celebrated at the same time as Kiritsugu's and that's also the birthday listed in his documents back then. Then after Kiritsugu died, he just kinda forgot about it and it was Rin who ended up coming up with a new birthday for him: October 20th, which kinda made him a Libra. Nobody else knew this of course, and those who only knew him from documents and such would say Scorpio. It still works too, as Ryoma Echizen's birthday is December 24th.

"Oh please, it's just a test. I knew it was you the moment our eyes met and I saw the kind of brokenness that's uniquely yours. Don't worry, you're doing a good job hiding it from everyone else, but I think we both know that you couldn't hide anything from me."

Ryoma doesn't know whether that's a good thing or not. Or what Rin being here meant. But for now, he's content to be happy about the fact that she's here and they can figure out the rest later.

Cover

As it turns out, completely refusing to answer any of his teammates' questions once they got out because they couldn't stay much longer in the bathroom due to the incessant banging on the door was a decent enough way to not have to deal with it. Sure, Ryoga looked like he was going to have an aneurysm when Atobe said that they were going to talk more after the match, but Ryoma figured that it was a problem to be dealt with later after all there was a tennis match to play.

He feels a little guilty for his refusal to give any answer, especially to Ryoga who had been glaring daggers toward Atobe ever since they came out. In fact, he's got a feeling that they all had the completely wrong idea about what happened inside the bathroom and he's not sure where to even begin with that.

(Well, once upon a time Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka had been intimate and done things that lovers do before Shirou Emiya chose to go down the path that ultimately led to his demise. But Ryoma Echizen and Atobe Keigo had just met for the very first time, and for the moment Ryoma didn't think that either of them intended to go anywhere that way)

In the end, Ryoma figured out that he might as well try to answer. He's pretty sure that Atobe would have some choice words later but unlike Atobe who he could see had none of his teammates even daring to question him about it out loud, Ryoma doesn't quite have the same privilege and the questioning looks are kinda killing him.

"We knew each other, by accident," Ryoma said, immediately gaining all his teammates' attention. He tried recalling whatever tidbit about Atobe that he had been told by his teammates before. Something about him being super rich? Huh, good for Rin he supposed. Anyway, he needed a believable cover story on how they knew each other and he had never been a particularly good liar.

"How did you two even meet?" Ryoga questioned.

"You know how Genichiro's family got me caught up with swords thing?"

Ryoga nodded. Ryoma knew that his older brother had always been somewhat annoyed by how much of a "sword nerd" he is, which in his defense isn't something he can help with considering it's just the way that it works for him. Touch the sword, get history. But anyway, back to his cover story.

"It's from one of those," Ryoma stated and gave nothing else.

Ryoga frowned but didn't ask anything more while their teammates just looked confused but no longer questioning. Ryoma sighed in his heart. He remembered the lessons he got on how to create working lies from Rin: Don't offer too much information and let the other person come up with their own conclusions and it seemed to have worked on his brother.

Now, he just had to tell Atobe about it and make sure that if things came to it, their stories would match.

Technology

"…you don't have a mobile phone?"

A faint blush appeared on Atobe's face which honestly told Ryoma everything he needed to know. Looks like the complete ineptitude with technology in his previous life carried over to this one too.

They're in a secluded corner which Atobe took them to, away from the prying eyes and ears of their teammates. In the end Hyotei lost and was eliminated in the Regional, though Ryoma doesn't think that Atobe doesn't look to upset about it or about losing to Ryoga. If he had to guess, Ryoga was probably sulking at that moment since the whole point of dragging Ryoma to the match was to show off and not only did Ryoma not praise him for it, he also went off and disappeared with the guy he had just beaten. He internally sighed, thinking that he'd have to placate Ryoga once he's done talking with Atobe,

"How about your home phone?" Ryoma tried again.

Atobe's face scrunched at the suggestion, "That won't do. There's a chance that my parents or one of the maids picked it up instead."

There's a story there, but Ryoma decided to keep quiet. It's Atobe's business to deal with, and he knew from experience that the other doesn't like people meddling in his business unless asked. Then again, Ryoma is going by his memories as Shirou, and he knew for one that he's definitely not the same person as Shirou Emiya, and Atobe probably isn't the same person as Rin Tohsaka. But he'll go with what he knows until Atobe chooses to correct him.

"Is there anyone that you can trust to get your messages for you on their phone? We don't have magecraft and I would rather not use letters."

Atobe thought about it for some time before conceding, "I suppose Kabaji will do."

"The quiet one?" Ryoma asked. If he remembered correctly, this Kabaji was the one who played against Kawamura to a draw.

Atobe nodded in confirmation, and Ryoma began rummaging through his bag to look for a piece of paper and pen to write his number and email on.

"There."

As Ryoma gave the paper to Atobe, he could feel his phone buzzing briefly in his pocket. He could hazard a guess that it's probably Ryoga messaging him to hurry to get back. Honestly, he still had some things he wanted to talk with Atobe about beyond just exchanging contact and syncing up their cover story. Like how long had he known about their past life and things related to it, but he supposed that one could wait.

"Well, anyway looks like I have to go back to my team," Ryoma said.

"See you, then."

Ryoma gave a small smile as he tipped his head and turned away.

(There's no need for too many words between them. Even after parting ways, Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka understand each other all too well. It's really a matter of Ryoma Echizen and Keigo Atobe getting to know each other, and there's still an entire lifetime ahead of them to do that)


just in case: Atobe being Rin doesn't mean that the fic will be Atobe/Ryoma. just throwing it out there, and I honestly completely forgot what my original plan for this fic was. so if you feel that there's a jarring difference between the older chapters and this one, it's because my intent for each characters had probably changed drastically so yeah