Author Note: The title refers to the Prince of Tennis song by the same name. Just another series inspired by the warm, nostalgic feelings of the song. Enjoy!
It is already late in the evening when you pop into the Internal Medicine workroom. Oishi, as expected, is still under a large stack of paperwork, diligently signing orders and other necessary reports.
"Hey," you greet, dropping your extra coffee in front of him. He shoots you a grateful look. "Still working?"
"Late admission," he shakes his head. "The usual."
You hum sympathetically and decide the large couch in the workroom is a comfortable place to settle with your own laptop.
"No consults yet?" he glances over at you.
"Shhhhh," you shush him and pretend to hide your pager. "Maybe they don't know I'm here."
Oishi chuckles but nods, amused, and returns to his paperwork. "Are you still free this weekend for lunch?" he asks, distractedly.
"Yeah," you shrug. "I'm not on call, and I think Fuji had said Sae was also coming in town for a few days. You don't think people would be opposed to him joining, right?"
"Oh," Oishi raises an eyebrow. "Saeki Kojirou?" he takes a second to think. "That's a name I haven't heard in a while, but no, of course not."
"Great!" you pull out your phone and text Fuji the green light. "It'll be a lil tennis reunion for you all," you laugh.
Oishi lets out another thoughtful hum that almost makes you think he wants to say something more, but he shakes his head dismissively at your questioning look.
Tezuka, obviously, is the first to arrive. Even when Oishi knows he's a good ten minutes ahead of schedule, he will never fail to find his lawyer friend at the table, already sipping his coffee.
"Hey," Oishi greets, and Tezuka nods in greeting.
The two enjoy a short silence while Oishi browses the menu. The waiter stops by and Oishi orders himself an iced coffee too before he turns back to Tezuka.
"I hear you've been busy recently," he smiles. "It's been a while since we've seen you at one of these lunches."
Tezuka blinks, almost looks a little sheepish. "Ah. We just closed a big case. It's … been a little hectic," he looks at Oishi apologetically.
Oishi waves away his concern. "No need to apologize," he replies. "We've all been there. Remember when Lita and I missed two whole months straight because we were on call?"
At the mention of the woman's name, he sees Tezuka's eyes soften and it makes Oishi's lips curl up a little. As if on cue, the doorbell chimes and he sees Tezuka's eyes flicker towards the door. Oishi follows his gaze and sees you at the door, eyes sweeping through the shop until they land on the two of them.
"Tezuka!" you beam as you walk over, and Oishi can even see the start of a smile on Tezuka's lips. "It's been a little since we've seen you. How are you?"
"Fine," the man answers quietly, and the short, quintessential answer makes you laugh a little.
"Classic," you grin at Oishi. "Making the rest of us look like slackers out here."
Oishi grins as even Tezuka lets out an amused chuckle.
"How was your call shift?" Tezuka asks quietly, and Oishi sees your eyebrows furrow.
"How did you …" you reach up to your hair, currently tied in a ponytail. "Oh no, it's a mess isn't it?" you shoot Oishi a look about why he wouldn't have gently let you know and pull off the hairtie you have on to retie it.
"Your badge," Tezuka nods towards the hospital ID still clipped to your pants.
"Oh," you sheepishly yank off the badge and shove it into you jacket pocket. "Sorry, the only way I could make it is by coming post-call."
Oishi feels himself frown and shakes his head. "You guys have been pretty busy recently too. Hana said you guys ended having to go to the OR yesterday emergently."
You scrunch your nose. "Yeah, that was suboptimal," you wave away his concerned look. "How are you and Hana doing?" you grin, changing the subject.
The subject change has its desired effects and Oishi feels himself blush and stutter out an answer. Truth be told, it had been you who had introduced the young nurse to Oishi a few months ago, and so far, they had gone on a couple successful dates. He sees you smirking and is about to respond when the chimes on the door go off again and this time, Oishi sees Fuji enter followed by a familiar brunette.
"Sorry we're a little late," Fuji smiles. "Someone had some trouble waking up this morning."
Oishi sees your eyes light up as you whirl around and toss yourself at the man next to Fuji.
"Sae!" the man laughs as you hug him.
"Oh wow, this was a much warmer welcome than I was expecting," he chuckles, and Oishi can slowly piece together the familiar features of the man despite the lack of silver hair.
"Oh shush, you know it's been forever since we've seen you," you roll your eyes. "I'm sure you remember Oishi and Tezuka," you gesture across the table.
"Of course," Saeki shoots them a wide grin. "Always a pleasure, Tezuka, Oishi."
Oishi sees Tezuka also slowly piece together the Saeki Kojirou they remembered from middle school and high school tennis tournaments. "Good to see you again," he response politely.
"Man, imagine my surprise to hear you were all doing these monthly reunions without me," Saeki grins and sits down next to you.
You roll your eyes. "You've been in Chiba. Don't pretend you would have come." Oishi sees you rolling your eyes and it makes both him and Fuji let out a chuckle. Despite the actual travel distance, Oishi does remember the three of you as an iconic trio. Clearly time hasn't done much to change that.
The waiter stops by to take orders and the five of you fall into the regular banter.
You take another sip of your coffee and hide a smile behind your cup, watching the four men chat around the table. It's rare for you all to make these lunches, but you do miss seeing the Seigaku boys catching up at these monthly meals. It was originally started by Kikumaru – who was busy today unfortunately – but the standing invitation for Saturday mornings always managed to gather a few folks in the group chat.
Your eyes flicker to Tezuka, who is currently caught up in a discussion with Fuji and Oishi about something in the recent political news. It's been a while since you've seen the young lawyer – Oishi had said he had a big case coming up with the prosecutor's office and had been working a lot of weekends – and you had to admit that you did miss seeing him the last two months.
"I can see your gears turning."
You turn quickly and see Saeki grinning at you with a glint in his eyes. You school your features into a neutral expression. "I have no idea what you're talking about," you take another sip of your coffee and narrow your eyes when his grin widens.
"You must know that doesn't work with me and Fuji anymore," you see him raise an eyebrow.
You take another sip of your coffee to buy time. "Worth a shot," you smile back challengingly. "How long are you in town, anyways?"
Saeki narrows his eyes at the change of subject but bites anyways. "A few days this time. My company's looking to expand into a Tokyo branch and asked me to lead it."
"Oh," you look surprised. "Permanently? I didn't realize you were considering moving."
Saeki shrugs. "We'll see what it shakes out to be – nothing's been finalized yet."
"Oh," this time it is Oishi sitting across the table who speaks up. "What do you do, Saeki?"
"Finance," Saeki grins. "Just a run-of-the-mill businessman."
From the corner of your eye, you see the waiter glance at your table again and look at your phone. "Oh god, we really probably get out of here."
Oishi checks his watch and whistles. "Oh god, it's much later than I expected. I'm afraid I have another engagement I need to get to," he looks at the group apologetically.
"Us too," Fuji smiles and jerks Saeki up out of his seat.
"Oh wait," you stand up. "I was hoping you could drop me off at home first? I took the subway here from the hospital."
"Goodness, Lita, are you post-call?" Saeki shakes his head. "You should have said something. You need to get some sleep."
Fuji's smile widens. "Oh, I'm sorry," he says in a way that sounds suspiciously like he's not, in fact, sorry. "Sae actually needs to go down to Yokohama for work later today and I promised to drive him. Tezuka," the former tensai's eyes flash before relaxing back into a smile. "Would you mind driving Lita home?"
"Not at all," Tezuka grabs his keys and turns to look at you. "Are you alright with that?"
You narrow your eyes at both Fuji and Saeki standing before you, who are now grinning like Cheshire cats. Slowly you tear your eyes away from the two and fix an apologetic smile at Tezuka.
"Of course," you murmur, a little sheepish. "Sorry about that. Thanks."
"I'm sorry again," you apologize as Tezuka holds open the passenger seat for you. "I don't mean to trouble you because those two are being jackasses."
You see Tezuka's lips curl in amusement as he slips into the driver's seat. "It's truly no trouble," he repeats.
A comfortable silence falls over the two of you as you sink into the seat.
"How have you been?" Tezuka asks, stopping at the red light.
"Good," you give him a small smile when you see him glancing over at you. "It's been a little busy at the hospital, but nothing we can't handle."
Tezuka hums in acknowledgement, shifting gears as the light changes. "Oishi said you've been on call a lot recently."
"Oh, you know Oishi, always a worry wart," you roll your eyes at the mother hen of the group fondly. "Anyways, how was your big case recently?"
Tezuka recognizes a deflected topic when he hears it and lets the conversation go. "It was fine. We are just finishing up some of the paperwork so hopefully it will be a little less busy for now."
You can't help the giggle that escapes. You see Tezuka glance at you out of the corner of his eyes before flickering back to the road. "You always say that when you win," you laugh. "Always 'it went fine' or 'we did okay.'"
You see a small smile creep at the corners of Tezuka's lips. "Do I?" he replies, a little amused, and pauses. "We did win."
"See?" you lean forward and this time he chuckles and it makes your heart flip a little bit. Tezuka, over the years, had definitely become much more expressive compared to when you first met them all in middle school, but it was rare to see him fully relax.
"Ah."
You lean back and let a comfortable silence fill the car. It takes only a few minutes before he pulls up at your apartment complex.
"Thank you," you unbuckle your seatbelt and smile at him. "I do appreciate you driving me home."
"I don't mind," Tezuka is looking at you with a small smile and if you really, really squint, you can almost delude yourself into thinking there is something else in his eyes. "We both live in the same direction. I hope you get some rest today."
"I will," you open the door and pause. "And Tezuka," you turn back to him and see him patiently looking at you. "I'm glad you made it today. We've missed you." You flash him a smile and close the car door. You give him a quick wave and run up the stairs to your apartment before he sees your blush.
