disclaimer: prince of tennis is not mine

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just like old times.

.deathberrylove

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"Welcome!"

A wooden door slid open and a tall man with a hint of a mischievous grin on his face, accompanied with a shorter, light brown haired woman with triple heart clips in her hair, slid under the cloth bearing "Kawamura Sushi" and entered into the small but homey and cozy sushi shop.

"I'm sorry, we're closed today but – ," a brown haired man with the traditional white rope tied around his head, bustled out to greet the customers.

He gaped for a second whilst the couple before him smiled back.

"Taka-san, it's us!" chortled the man while the young, sparkling lady beside him nodded.

"Momo!" the sushi maker cried. They both simultaneously jumped into great bear hugs then pulled away, letting Taka to shake Tachibana Ann's hand and give a small hug to.

"I didn't know you'd be this early!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah well, was eager to see you guys again, wasn't I? Was too eager."

He laughed good-naturedly. "So tell me all about - ,"

"We've got a new flat!" burst out Ann, unexpectedly excited.

"What - ?" he didn't quite get it – until both Momo and Ann held out their hands to reveal a single silver ring on their middle finger.

"Engaged?"

They both nodded happily, bright inexplicable beams on their faces.

Before Momo could explain, the sliding sound of the door followed by the chink of light from the setting sun shone inwards paused him. The door slid shut again and footsteps with a kind of rolling sound entered.

The three spun around to see another couple – the man had on glasses and had wavy light shade of brown hair – he wore a stony expression and was pushing a black pushchair. The woman was tall and looked half Japanese, half European. She was bearing a shy smile and was tall with waist-length golden blonde hair that was pulled into a loose braid so that loose tendrils escaped and hung loose in front of her face. Her arms were cradling a small pile of blankets. Amidst those blankets seemed to be a –

"A baby!" Momo yelled out.

"Momoshiro!" said Tezuka strictly, looking directly at him. "You'll wake her up. Be quiet. Let's not get careless,"

Momo turned a bit red as Ann giggled. Taka-san couldn't help letting out a smile at the sound of the familiar phrase.

"Captain!" he began, but paused, scratching his head embarrassedly. "No, no it's not really Captain anymore is it? Oh nevermind. Captain! Sit down! Sit down!" Taka quickly guided them to the mats and instantly put down cups of steaming hot tea. But before any warm chatter or catch-ups could be started, the entrance opened yet again and in stepped another man and woman. The man had reddish-brown hair that curled at the sides and a beam that covered the whole of his face.

"Hoi, hoi! I thought we'd be earliest but I guess you guys beat us!" despite his age, he left his female companion at the door for a second and bounded comically straight to Momo who had stood up and hugged him, half dancing around and laughing, half embracing affectionately. Eiji then went to give Tezuka a quick hug but released him within a second, then bounced back to his company – a tall fair woman with long flowing red hair and large red shades – to sit down. A few seconds later, two men and a young woman ambled in.

"Oishi! There you are! What took you so long?"

"Couldn't find any free spaces," replied the man, twirling a car key chain on his finger. "Met Kaidoh outside!"

The surly looking man who had his hands stuffed into the pockets of ripped trousers, shuffled into the light. A green bandanna with white patterns were tied on.

"Fushuuu." He lazily raised a hand. The young woman unconsciously stepped away from him, closer to Oishi. She had shoulder-length black hair with brown highlights and a pale, heart-shaped face which registered fear.

He smiled down at her and said reassuringly. "Don't worry."

After addressing, one another, the newest of the arrivers had settled down too when the wooden door was swung aside once more. A well dressed man with glinting rimmed glasses, whose eyes were not visible and seemed to be a holding a green tattered notebook in one hand, briefcase in the other walked in.

"Inui!"

Four figures in casual jeans and shirts (except for one) that were the shortest of them all, appeared behind him, all looking self-conscious and extremely bashful. The one wearing a tank top and short shorts had bushy hazel-brown hair that was tied down as two low ponytails and had a dot beneath one of her eyes, tugged onto one of the jean-clad male impatiently, "You idiot! You didn't even lock the car! It's no wonder that you lost your wallet last week! Why are you such a careless idiot?"

"I didn't lock the car? I'm the one with two years of driving experience!"

"Shut up! Those two years don't mean anything – if you don't lock the car!"

It was without surprise that Oishi was the one who shot up and went over to them and soothed, "Calm down! C'mon, let's just calm down."

To which the girl had suddenly brightened and squealed. "Oishi-senpai! He still looks as cool as ever!"

Oishi's accompanying person shifted in her seat and looked directly at Tomoka with a mixture of discomfort and fondness at the same time. But she was too oblivious to it, since she had caught sight of the other old members and had started shrieking about them too, to which, they either sweat-dropped or laughed at.

She was making such a ruckus that the new man, who had slipped inside quietly, emerged slightly bemused. He edged behind the vigorously moving girl and into the open space.

"Fu-Fuji!"

Seven years and still no change in taste for fashion. He was wearing an open collared shirt with a pale sweater and casual trousers - his still famous smile in place.

Once they too, had seated themselves. They all sat waiting patiently, for what didn't seem to be coming.

"Did he forget?"

"He can't forget something as important as this. He just can't."

"Well that Ochi – he's still in America, isn't he, nya?"

"The latest tournament highlight I've heard of was over two days ago."

The minutes ticked by as they all just sat there. Until –

"Mou! I can't wait anymore! Taka-san let's just start!"

It was as if this triggered the alarm. Immediately, they started ordering what they wanted and soon Takawas busy with orders and sushi-making.

It had finally gotten dark outside and a storm had started. Rain pounded on the little shop and the wind howled outside as thunder and lightening raged on. But nothing quelled the level of warmness and snug feeling inside.

When the rush of eating and stuffing had been considerably lowered, chatter had started up amongst them.

"Nah. We have some bigger chain shops up in Tokyo – but I like working at this original one best. Otousan's really pleased…"

"Nya! That's so mean! She really is from The Chocolates! The youngest member! See?" the woman sitting beside Eiji, reluctantly pulled off her large shades and revealed bright brown eyes and a pretty face.

"No wonder she looked familiar. Ne, remember when Inui pretended to be you…?"

"Yes. My proper name if Clarissa but I rather be called Clarii-chan."

"She's only three months old. She's called Kouki, but when we go back in Germany she'll be known by Brianna."

As if on cue, the baby girl wrapped in Clarissa's arms started to cry and excusing herself, she went to the shadows of the back of the restaurant to tend to the baby.

"Mm. But some of those Olympic hopefuls really annoy me. 51.6 percent of them always think that they're above those special training menus and take on more than they can and none of them in those hundreds can take on Inui Juice. Not the Electric Remix, or the Valentine's Special or the Renewed Nutritional Juice."

Sniggers.

"I have brought some. A new kind – just tested. Would you like to try - ?" He reached for his briefcase and pulled out a large bottle of sloshy, bubbling, shocking purpleof … something.

"Hmm?" he held it out, the familiar maniac look on his face. Everyone but Fuji backed away. He held out his empty cup. However, before Fuji could place the cup to his lips, Tezuka unexpectedly held out an arm and said in a firm tone. "No."

Everyone turned to goggle at him. "I don't know what happened last time when you said Fuji finally fainted at some Aozu creation. I don't want injuries happening here. Let's not get careless."

"Aah, Tezuka." Smiled Fuji, handing the cup back to Inui. "Sorry Inui. Maybe another time?"

The sound of the door being opened paused the laughter. They all looked over, expecting none other than the dark-green haired boy – man.

Except... it was a slim female – drenched from head to toe. She had light purple hair with red highlights that were drawn up in a tight bun, glasses and was wearing a business suit and holding a Coach handbag.

She quickly stepped in; fumbling with the door to shut it then started swiping off the droplets of rain on herself, her hair and bag.

"Taka!" she called. Then looking amongst the many faces, sought out Taka's and repeated herself. "Taka! Can you get me a towel?"

"Uh-uh!" Taka who was in the middle of bending down and serving more tea quickly placed down the teapot and ran to the back of the shop. He quickly returned with a white fluffy towel in hand and gave it to her.

"Thanks." She said with a quick smile. She flung her handbag onto an empty bar seat and started drying off her hair, whilst everyone else stared in awe and mentally wondered who she was. When she finally flicked the towel onto the seat as well, she caught sight of everyone. Her smile widened before she bowed in greeting.

"Sorry for interrupting your gathering!"

To Taka she said, "Sorry. The conference ended a lot earlier than I expected and there was barely any work left to do, only bits and pieces of editing. So I thought I'd come home slightly earlier. I'll get changed and then I'll come back down to help, okay?" with that, she picked up both handbag and towel, mouthed another sorry to the guests and went through the back, up the stairs to the small flat over the shop.

Once she had gone, both Eiji and Momo immediately bombarded Taka with, "Who is she?" "Where's she from?".

"Aii-ya," Taka resumed his usual, withdrawn characteristic of scratching the back of his head and talking to the floor. "She's – she's my wife. "

"What?" all the cups and boxes were nearly knocked over and Tezuka looked livid. "Please do not awaken the baby."

Clarissa put a gentle arm on his' and calmed him. "It's okay, Kunimitsu. She's fast asleep."

Tezuka looked at her, and his face broke out into one of his rare smiles.

The other ex-regulars nodded at each other, impressed. If this woman could conjure up Tezuka-rare-smiles as much as Momo could complain he was hungry – this was the right woman for him.

Oishi then pressed on. "When did this happen?"

The chef appeared to look a bit shame-faced. "I'm sorry I didn't contact you guys when we got married. It was really quiet, only family. We've been married for one and a half years now."

"Bit more than half a year, Taka!" laughed a voice, from the back. She re-entered the shop, now dressed in faded jeans and a tight pink polo-shirt. Her hair was let down and she looked pretty. She sat down at an empty mat, next to Clarissa.

She grinned. "I'm Maneda Chiyoko from the magazine Taste. Nice to meet all of you! I'm a food critic and Kawamura Sushi here was one of the shops I heard was pretty famous. So I came here, did a interview, quick inspection and tried some of the signature dishes then wrote an article about it. It really is a great restaurant so I started coming here regularly and got to knew Taka." She shot him a contented look and he shrugged, turning red.

More talking broke out as introductions were made, more explaining and updates.

It figured that right now:

Tezuka has been married for three years to Clarissa Hemmings (half Japanese, half German) with a six month old child named Kouki – Japanese for Brianna. He now currently works in a high-standard tennis private school in Germany. Clarissa works as a secretary.

Eiji shares a flat with girlfriend of two years, the youngest member of the pop idol group The Chocolates. Eiji's is a record producer - CEO of his founded Chocolate Cat Recording Studios. His girlfriend still remains as a singer.

Oishi is currently engaged to Kinihaki Satomi. He is a social worker, whilst she is a top, experienced psychiatrist. They are getting married in two months time.

Taka, as mentioned above, is married to Maneda Chiyoko, food critic from magazine Taste for one and a half years (or, as she says, a bit more than that). They live in the small flat overlooking Kawamura Sushi. Taka-san has opened numerous bigger restaurants in Tokyo and over Hokkaido, but prefers to work in the smallest, original one.

Inui, works at a sports institute in Tokyo as a trainer and professor. According to the data he collects, he gives suggestion, advice and special training menus to athletes and pro-hopefuls. At the moment, he is going out with Masete Asaka, who is also a trainer at the center and whose life also revolves around data gathering and analyzing (and stalking…though you're not supposed to know that). He lives in a large flat alone.

Momo is presently engaged to Tachibana Ann and have just moved in together with her. Momo is a businessman indulging in sports products. Ann works as a fashion designer and has opened up a few small boutiques around the Tokyo and Kyoto.

Kaidoh, (to everyone's surprise) works as an instructor in a world-wide-known gym called Waterfront in Osaka as well and also models for the company's magazine. He has the single status and lives with his little brother, who is in university, in a flat.

Fuji, following his known hobby of photography, works at an Advertising Agency as a somewhat famous photographer and his been associated with a few top models and other professional photographers. This is what he does for a pretty luxurious living for both himself and long time girlfriend Haruka Motoko – a girl he met during a photography course.

Kachiro and Katsuo are both roommates along with two other friends. Kachiro works as a co-manager in a small café and Katsuo is a sales assistant. However Kachiro also works part-time at his father's old tennis club as a coach for young, beginner players.

Tomoka, now paired up with Horio (though how the hell that happened, nobody would ever know) works as the young protégé of "big sister" Shiba-san. Seemingly, her eagerness for hot tennis players performs a big role in helping her do a good job. Horio, though unpredictably young and "inexperienced" for it, has a job as a trainee at an insurance company. They too, are planning to move in together soon, but there are no further ties in their relationship just yet.

And it all came down to that one person who was absent.

"He's not coming." Momo said flatly, his fingers drumming the table. He did a very sad job in covering up his annoyance and disappointment.

"Nya, that Ochi – no - ahh! I don't know what to call him!"

"It's fine, Eiji. Your habits do die hard."

Eiji gave Oishi an offended look but then said. "You don't think Ochibi really forgot, do you?"

"I'd have to say he did forget. The 73.8 percent tells me so."

A few collective sighs and grumbles issued along the tables.

"He's the only one in all of us to truly continue tennis, isn't he?" Fuji spoke up.

"I did hope Echizen-kun was going to be here." Put in Ann.

A sudden dramatic flash of lightening followed on by the loudest clap of thunder by far, shocked them all. Eiji's girlfriend, clutched her chest, breathing heavily and Eiji put a reassuring arm around her .Inui was readjusting his glasses and Kaidoh…Kaidoh seemed to have disappeared. The others stared as he slowly crawled out on all fours from the bottom of the table behind the sushi bar. Wow, he's still in pretty good shape to have accomplished the feat in getting there in the maximum of two seconds. Realizing all eyes were on him, he quickly grunted, cleared his throat and walked back to his seat, averting all gazes to regain his composure.

"Fushuuu."

The lightening however had struck off the power all of a sudden, and the lights went out. Another streak of lightening illuminated the tensed up faces for a second before leaving them in darkness again to hear the new clap of even louder thunder.

Then the door at the front suddenly slid open.

Two hunched over figures, clutching bags seemed to blindingly clawing their way in in a very zombie-like way. The ex-Freshmen Three and Tomoka screamed. Momo and Eiji gave a yell of both pain and terror as their girlfriends tugged onto their arms in fright. Kaidoh had already yelled (in a very manly way) and jumped behind Oishi, cowering. Fuji had his arms over his head protectively. Tezuka, in an autopilot manner, got in front of Clarissa who was clasping Kouhi close.

Then the lights automatically flicked on. Power was back.

Their heads were bowed so the faces were unidentifiable but they could see it was a dark-green haired male along with an extremely long reddish-brown haired lady. The lights that had turned back on seemed to tell them that they were there and they looked up. Their hair were dripping and matting onto into their tired and worn faces – but it was no mistake. It was Echizen Ryoma and Ryuzaki Sakuno. They both took in a deep breath when they saw that they were finally inside refuge and they both collapsed, side by side at the doorway.

"Echizen!"

"Echizen!"

"Ryuzaki!"

"Sakuuunooooo!"

"Ochibi!"

"Sakuno-chan!"

Taka and Chiyoko speedily went over. Chiyoko closed the door and the howling of the wind subsided at once. Taka bent over and pulled the both of them up. They were still panting heavily and shivering from their dampened clothing as they leaned against each other for support. Momo, Eiji and Tomoka resisted the urge to glomp them happily as Oishi assisted in passing them towels for them to dry off.

"Here. I'll get you some spare change of clothes." Chiyoko ushered the two into the back before anybody could officially greet them. But a few minutes later, they emerged again. Sakuno looked shaken up and even Ryoma looked slightly alarmed and mainly pissed, but they were both warm and in dry clothes. Sakuno had her hair down, it was wet but it made the long flowing effect look good. It didn't reach as far as her waist but was still considerably lengthy. In her hair she had a light faded blue headband. She was wearing tight, low jeans and a polo shirt that had a very low buttoned collar that revealed an interestingly full development.. Ryoma was attired in black tracksuit pants and a plain blue shirt. They were both a lot taller than they were back in Seigaku. Ryoma, without a doubt had gotten more muscular, though it wasn't the obvious, burly type. Sakuno had grown well and she looked a lot more mature with less of the "clueless" look on her face.

Oishi surveyed them up and down. "You guys look like you've been through hell. Is it that bad out there?"Ryoma nodded. "The taxi driver stopped two streets before here. Said it was flooded too much and didn't dare go any further. We had to practically swim our way over here."

"And the street lamps were out so we couldn't really see where we were." Added Sakuno.

"Sakunooooo! I've missed you soooo much! And you – Ryoma-sama!" Sakuno was the clear winner of the glomper-wannabes. She swung her arms full around both Sakuno and Ryoma, strangling them and banging their heads together – all three of them nearly toppled over.

"To-Tomo-cha-chan…" choked Sakuno. The pair might've died right on the spot if it weren't for Oishi.

"Ochibi, you're so late, nya!" pouted Eiji.

Ryoma massaged his throat. "Storm delayed the flight. Airport was crowded and we waited for five full hours."

"Here! Here!" Momo excitedly pulled the both of them towards mats. All eyes were on them.

"So how's America?"

"Whoo. Amazing, Sakuno-chan, you really did follow Echizen to America after all these years."

"Hu-huh?" immediately, the unmistakable pink blush etched up her cheeks. "

Momo crossed his arms and shot Ryoma a smug look of disapproval. "She's stuck with you for so long and you don't even shower her with a bit of affection."

"No! It's – it's not like that!" cried Sakuno quickly, holding up her hands and shaking them, the pink turning to a dark red.

"Heh." Ryoma looked exasperated and grabbed the left wrist of Sakuno's hand, stopping her swirling typhoon movements. He held it up.

Without mistake, a single perfect silver ring was perched on her middle finger.

Sakuno's gaze fell down to her lap in embarrassment. Her cheeks were so reddened that you could almost feel the heat coming from it.

All the ex-Seigaku regular members and the Freshmen Three all goggled at it. Momo, Eiji and the Freshmen Three all had their mouths hanging down. Tomoka was squealing, dramatically resting a hand on her heart. The rest of the regulars and their significant others merely smiled serenely whilst Kaidoh simply went, "Tch."

Finally, Ryoma guided her hand back to her own lap and released it.

Eiji and Momo exchanged devilish grins. "Ne, Sakuno-chan, do tell…how did Ochibi ask you?"

Sakuno flamed. "Wha-what?" Ryoma injected them with vicious death glares - that went clearly ignored.

"What words did he use? How exactly did he say it?"

"Ne, ne, where did he ask you? When? How?" the both energetic and boisterous old teammates pushed their way in front of Sakuno, trying to budge each other off so their questions could be answered. Sakuno's mouth twitched and she leaned back.

No escape.

Tomoka had soundlessly prowled behind her and clamped her on the shoulders.

"That's right! How did Ryoma-sama ask you? Ahhh!! I'm so envious Sakuno! You nabbed him first!"

"Hey!" came an indignant voice from where Horio was sitting.

A heated argument rose between the two lovebirds. Oishi had instantly jumped to his feet and was attempting to separate them.

The rest laughed as they admired the scene, Taka announced another round of orders.

They started eating again and the chatter elevated. Eiji, seeing that Kaidoh was eating all the anago sushi immediately left the "interrogate-Sakuno" group and went to bother Kaidoh who was giving absolutely no response. Tomoka and Horio had been successfully divided and Horio had resumed stuffing his face whilst his other two friends accused him and berated him for taking everything. Kouhi had woken up and Clarissa accompanied with Ann, Tezuka, Fuji and Eiji's girlfriend, started feeding and playing with her. Chiyoko and Taka were standing behind the bar working blithely, once in a while stealing happy glances from each other. Inui was staring at both Sakuno and Ryoma, writing furiously into his dilapidated green notebook. Tomoka, still grilling Sakuno with "Ryoma-sama" questions. Eiji, presently fighting with both Momo and Kaidoh for food, accidentally dragged up their old rivalry and causing them both to bawl at each other. Oishi was sitting and eating pleasantly with his girlfriend. Sakuno was now being forced by her best friend to feed Ryoma.

The storm raged outside, but the bright light from the small shop shone and illuminated the part of the street it stood on. Shadows of joyful figures bantering around could be seen from the outside.

Everybody inside was in high spirits and contented. All was well.

Just like old times.