Summary: It's all between Momoshiro Takeshi and Tachibana Ann and it's unclear and unsaid what it is between them. Will anything happen or will everything be left where it is – passed one stage but not yet really there?

Author's Note: It is my first try so please be kind. (: But flames as reviews are also appreciated as long as they won't burn too much xD but encouragement and suggestions to improve my work will be much more welcomed. Well, enjoy?

Disclaimer: Yeah, I'd own Prince of Tennis if I were Takeshi Konomi

--

Momo sank back into the mess of pillows and blankets that were to be his bed. Man, the day's events had so-so pissed him off, tired him out and most of all – confused him.

"It's a date!" she had kept repeating, with the same bright smile on her face. It was all a kind of misunderstanding in the end – thank god he had dragged Echizen along, just in case.

Well actually he didn't know if it was a misunderstanding. Hell, he didn't even completely know what happened. All he knew was that he was in the street tennis place where the rhythm dude turned out to be, and started calling him a "loser" and ranting on about "anybody but him". Then somehow, a whole horde of people had appeared and started arguing and bawling.

The doubles match was frankly a waste of time. They had lost. Damn that Kamio. It was all his fault they lost. It was stupid to think he was that…that Tachibana's sister's boyfriend. I mean after all, in the end it - wait. What did happen in the end? Something about a date with her brother. Heck that made things even more complicated. Then all of a sudden a few other of the regulars had been conjured from thin air and arrived at the scene.

"Arghhh," he flipped over, burying his face in the pillows. It was confusing. And hurting his brain. Perhaps he should stop thinking about it. He blindly reached up for his alarm clock and reluctantly rolled over to check the time.

9:02 pm.

It was still early. He could get some homework done. Or head down to the nearby courts for practice.

Alright. Decided. Tennis over homework. He groaned as he pulled himself out of bed, untangling himself from the sheets. Just as he was about to slip on his trainers, the shrill ring of the phone echoed through his room.

"Mm?" he slid his hand up onto the table, skimming over the smooth surface for the receiver. Feeling it in his grasp, he pressed the green button and held it to his ear.

"Moshimoshi?"

"Momoshiro-kun!"

The familiar voice caused him to jump, throwing up the receiver then comically trying to clutch it back in his hands. 'Oi Tachibana no imouto! Why are you calling again?! And how the hell did you get my number?!"

A short silence followed, though then quickly broken by a cheery laugh. "Phonebook of course! And to answer your other question – are you free tomorrow?"

He felt a jitter of nerves. "Why?"

"Nmm. How should I say it? I have a competition in a few days time down at the sports center, and I wanted someone to practice with,"

"Why don't you go with your brother's teammates?"

Her voice turned sharp and crisp. "Are you turning me down?"

"No…"

"Exactly," she said, with a note of triumphant in her voice. "If a girl asks you to practice tennis with her then you practice with her. Got it?"

"Err…okay,"

"Cool! See you tomorrow, same place, same time!"

"Whah-hey!" he called through the phone but the line had clicked dead. He'd be damned if he had to go back to that – that "street tennis place", though he found "street- where -random -tennis- players- start- arguing –and- yelling- the -crap outta' -each -other -place" much more suitable. Well it was too late now to say no. Unlike her, he didn't know her number and did not bother to go to the trouble of looking for a phonebook THEN looking for her number.

He frowned at the prospect of having the chance to meet Kamio or some other hot-headed Fudomine player again.

Thinking about tomorrow, he mechanically kicked off his trainers and rolled back onto his bed, resuming his action of staring at the white ceiling of his bedroom.

-

x

-

"Momoshiro-kun! Over here!"

"Eh?" Momo looked up, confused. School had just ended, practice was cancelled and he was heading over to where his bike was padlocked. He scanned the area, trying to locate the source of the known voice. He found it. His eyes nearly burst out of the sockets.

Ann was standing just outside the school gate, waving energetically, a radiant smile on her face. Many people were looking from her to Momo.

What the hell was she doing here? Weren't they supposed to meet at the street tennis place?

"Err…just a second!" he called over to her.

"Ooooh," he felt an arm clamp around his shoulder. "Quite the sly one, Momo. Off to another date?"

"Eiji-senpai! No, no it's not like that!" he hurriedly said. "We're just practicing tennis!"

Eiji gave him a cat-ish grin. "Date during tennis,"

Momo felt something weird shoot down to his toes. It was strange hearing the memorable/mystifying phrase. "It's not! It's not!"

"Yeah, yeah. Damn, you're one lucky guy." Chortled Eiji as he headed off. "Tell me all about it tomorrow after practice!"

"Eiji-senpai!" he grumbled.

"Don't keep her waiting!" was the last he could hear of Eiji as the acrobatic left the school grounds.

He quickly unlocked his bike and started walking with it towards the gate when he spotted Echizen. Hmm…

"Echizen!" he yelled, hurrying up to him.

"Nanuska?" he said in a bored voice.

"Want to go practice tennis with me?" he asked casually. But Echizen had spotted Ann at the gate and acknowledged her immediately.

"Konichiwa Echizen-kun!" she greeted merrily when she caught Echizen's eye. He nodded back at her then turned to Momo.

"No thanks. Wouldn't want to interrupt your date," he said with a devious smile and was conveniently accosted by Kachiro, Horio and Katsuo.

"Oi, oi, Echizen!"

"Bye bye, Momo-senpai," he said in a nearly kind of sing-song voice.

And he had walked past the gate and turned the corner, disappearing into another group of students walking home.

"Momoshiro-kun!"

He had reached the gate and they stood aside to greet each other.

"Yo. I thought we were meeting at the street tennis place."

She shook her head. "School ended early because of this teacher's training thing so I went there. It was occupied by a bunch of elementary school kids. Didn't want to shoo them away so I thought we'd go down to the center instead. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure," he shrugged. He was easy. Well except for – "Are any of your brother's teammates there?"

"It's fine," she laughed. "What happened last time, won't take place again,"

Momo joined in laughing as they both momentarily reran the scenes of the nightmare, non-stop arguments at their last meeting. He could distantly hear Inui and Oishi talking heatedly as they walked up to the school gates.

"It's not a triangle or square! Besides Echizen went home by himself! Oh no. What if another guy is involved? From another school, perhaps? A conflict might start between Seigaku and that school and who knows what could happen? There will be intense rivalry, a duel of tennis, maybe? We should stop it before any injuries occur!" Oishi was throwing up his hands agitatedly.

"Hmm…the probability of it being a guy from another school is high, around 75 percent actually, seeing as the girl is from Fudomine,"

"No, no, no. Inui we've got to do something! You know how Momo always acts rashly. And if it's something to do with his emotions – a fight might break out and - !" he stopped abruptly as he realized that the two main object of their conversations was standing right in front of them. There was an uncomfortable was no doubt Momo was annoyed at the misunderstanding but he plastered a feeble smile on his face.

"Um…Momo! Going somewhere?" Oishi asked with awkward bravado.

Silence.

Then Ann looked like she was about to speak.

Oh God, please don't say it.

"On a date!"

Inui and Oishi appeared startled that she had responded so forwardly.

Inui was muttering something under his breath. Oishi laughed uncertainly. "Good! Good! …Have fun then!" and he dragged both himself and Inui in the opposite direction.

"Sorry. You know how my teammates are." he turned to Ann who had a kind of bemused look on her face. Then she smiled again. "They're doing great, aren't they?"

"You could say so…"

"Mm, let's go,"

-

x

-

"Uooh, good footwork!" he commented as he hit the ball with a powerful return.

"Mm-mm! I've been working on it! Don't go easy!" she reminded.

"Course' not!" It was a lob. Keeping to his word, he jumped up and Dunk Smashed. She had seen it coming. But still hadn't acquired the ability to return it.

The ball bounced off the beige coloured wall and rolled to a halt.

"Ah-ah. Momoshiro-kun's famous Dunk Smash,"

"You nearly got it," he said positively.

"Really?" she looked over at him.

"It's true. You knew where it was going to bounce and got there in time. All you've got to do now is learn from which angle and how to hit it back…though don't go telling that to your brother's teammates."

She nodded and laughed at the advice and quip then checked her watch. "It's 4:30 already!" she exclaimed. "Time to give back the court. That's how it is at a sports center," she added apologetically.

"Man, and I was ready to play at full strength,"

"Hey! You were holding back!"

"Joking, joking," he held up his hands in mock surrender. "Meet ya' in the lobby!"

-

-

-

"Ne, you have time for a few hamburgers?"

They were changed back into uniform and standing at the doors of the sports center.

"A few?" she said incredulously.

"I'm hungry. Aren't you?" he said defensively.

She arched an eyebrow but then quickly broke into her regular, warm smile. "I guess…your treat!"

"Aww. Well fine. Seeing as I'm your senpai," he conceded with a sly grin.

"Peh. You're not my senpai, you're my - " she broke off suddenly and Momo tensed.

"Err…what was I going to say? I don't remember." She stuttered unconvincingly. "C'mon let's go. I am hungry,"

It was actually really easy to talk to Tachibana Ann, well once the strange hurdles of their relationship were avoided. Supplied with a burger, fries and a soda (plural of everything for Momo), their conversation had stretched from amusing stories from the training sessions at Seigaku, opponents that Fudomine had faced, what their hobbies were, their family members, to how Tezuka's arm was and what the sports center girl's tennis championship was about.

"Ne, you have ketchup on your cheek. Seriously, you eat like a pig," she reached for a napkin then leaned over the table and wiped off the smear for him. Her sudden closeness froze him. He could feel her calm breath; her soft brown hair had loosely slid downwards and grazed his cheek. And until she had rolled the dirtied napkin into a ball and stuffed it under a tray THEN looked at him again, did he seem to find his brain working, blood circulating and his arms and legs able to move.

"Tha-thanks." he managed.

She beamed at him. "No problem,"

"You done already?" he suddenly noticed the empty burger wrapping and fries packet.

"I don't eat as much as you. I'm not that much of a greedy pig. It's surprising you can still move after all that." she teased.

He chomped down the rest of his last burger then chugged down the remaining gulps of his soda then faced her proudly. "Tch. It doesn't matter. I work out," he hit himself on the chest. "There's nothing wrong with this body, a little nutritious food won't do any harm,"

"Sure, nutritious," she echoed, gesturing the bread crumbs and bits of lettuce amongst burger wrappings on their trays. "Not to mention all that fat," she grabbed her bag next to her just as he stood up.

"How're you getting home?"

"Usual. Walk. It's not that far from here actually. I'll manage – OW!" she abruptly winced in pain as she took another step from the burger joint.

"What? What? Are you okay?"

She knelt down and pressed her left foot with her hands. "These new shoes hurt like hell," she swore as she stood up and tried walking again.

"That was not very lady-like," he stated, half amused. Then he sighed. "Where do you live again?"

She reluctantly gave him the address. "It's fine. Honestly. I'll get there myself."

"Ann, just get on."

She hobbled unwillingly over and swung herself gingerly onto to the back part of his bicycle, sitting in side-saddle fashion.

Whilst her feet were still aching, her butt hurt too because of the hard and rough backseat. It didn't help either, that Momo wasn't exactly a slow and smooth bicycle rider.

Damn, she was going to fall sooner or later.

The swing around the next corner proved her right. She couldn't hold onto her bag AND seat anymore. With a small cry, she was flung off the bike, though she had half expected it, it wasn't such a nasty fall. But it resulted with heavily scratched knees and hands.

Momo braked the bike instantly and jumped off. "Crap! Ann! Ann!" he ran over to her. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

She held out her hands and gestured to her knees. The gashes and cuts weren't exactly merciful. "I've got some medical aid in my bag," she directed him to fetch it for her. Settling on the ground, she delicately used her fingers to ruffle inside the bag for the little pink pouch. At last she held it up.

"Here. I'll help you." He took the pouch gently from her and extracted a few bandages and a tube of cream. Tenderly, he applied cream on to the cuts, she grimaced at the sting. Then he carefully wrapped and stuck on the bandages.

"There," he stood up, wiping the remaining cream onto his shirt distractedly. He then bent down to help her up. All the bandages looked weird on her, her uniform was dirty and with a gloomy sense of dread, she had realized one of her triple heart hair clips had mysteriously disappeared but she felt a lot better once the bleeding had stopped.

"You think you can make it back?" he asked lightheartedly. She smiled and nodded.

"Thank you, Momoshiro-kun."

"Sure, sure," he waved off the word of thanks. "It was nothing. Though," his eyebrows creased into a frown. "Your brother's not going to like this."

She shook her head. "You didn't do anything wrong. In fact, you helped me."

He hitched her onto the back seat, one hand holding hers, the other on her waist, guiding Ann. "Hold onto something okay?" He looked at the bike as though a safety rail would suddenly appear on both sides, keeping her safe. He got on. Then knowing she wouldn't see him turn red, he said decisively. "Hold onto me."

For a second, she looked surprise. Not out of disgust or anything, but because he was the one initiating the contact. She was not blind or deaf, she had seen the cringes and flinches during the last time she had kept mentioning "date".

Little by little she slipped her arms around his middle, then deciding it right on the spot; she rested her head lightly on his back. He didn't recoil or anything but soon started pedaling at a slower velocity in silence. It was as if they were suddenly separated from the busy, noisy world out there and the atmosphere they shared was peaceful and quiet except for the noise of the wheels…and…well…the glint of glasses and a pen scratching against paper at super high speed around the corner couldn't go disregarded. But one's world couldn't be that perfect. She closed her eyes, feeling the breeze flitter by. She tightened her hold on Momo nonchalantly and a smile rose at the corner of her lips. Unknowingly, a smile too had appeared on his face.