Disclaimer in first chapter

Characters might be OOC.

A/N: Well, this was intended to be a one shot. I even marked it as complete. But then numerous people put this on story alert. And so, I decided to add an epilogue. It's cheesy. It's cliche. But I like it.

Epilogue:

He stared out the window at the large group of players warming up on the court. Never in his life did he think he would be in this particular role, much less so early in his life. He had many memories of Seigaku and all of them good, with the exception of a few his freshman year.

Needless to say, Ryuzaki-sensei was more then thrilled when he accepted the position as the school's tennis coach. The history department, after seeing his scores and achievements earned at the university, were definitely more then thrilled to accept him as a history teacher.

As he watched the students play, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness. Not because of his injury, but the level of junior high tennis after they had graduated. It seemed their year contained talent beyond expectation. And only their year.

Rikkai Dai and Fudomine had thoroughly crushed Seigaku, with Kaidou and Momoshiro trying desperately to keep the spirit alive from the year before. Even Arai, who was talented, found it difficult to keep up the former champions Rikkai. Fudomine had only suffered the loss of Tachibana, and despite their newest member's less than outstanding skill, still managed to blow by them in the Kantou tournament.

Coming back to the present, his gaze followed the current captain, one Tanaka Daisuke. He was shouting orders to the club members and, thankfully, everyone was listening. Tanaka-kun was not the same type of captain that he was. Instead, he pictured him more like Momoshiro, friendly with everyone. And it was this friendship that made him a good captain.

Nodding in approval, he turned back to his desk, intent on getting some of the required work for the team done. There was no one like Inui on the team, and a lot of the work outs were set by him. But there were also travel forms, budgets and registration forms that he needed to go through before discussing them with Tanaka-kun and his vice captain, Suzuki Keigo.

Thankfully, the unexpected opening of his door allowed for him to further delay the somewhat boring, if necessary, paperwork.

The visitor was unexpected as well.

"You look busy, buchou. Never thought I'd see you behind the desk."

Tezuka allowed himself a small smile before standing up to greet the younger man. "You knew I was coaching here, Echizen. It shouldn't be a surprise."

Echizen Ryoma, the man who had met and surpassed the famous Echizen Nanjiroh's accomplishments, sauntered inside the office. "Still . . . it's one thing to hear about it. It's another thing to see it."

It was only then that he noticed the boy that was with him. He was small, which wasn't surprising, considering neither Echizen nor his wife were very tall. He could see the boy's father in his features, though the hair made it a bit difficult. It was dark brown, noticeably different from his father's. A large tennis bag was slung over his shoulder.

"I take it this your son," he said, looking at the boy. Eyes similar to his father's peered back at him. The boy shuffled a bit on his feet, his hand squeezing the strap of his bag tightly, and his lips were pursed rather tightly. Surprisingly, he never broke eye contact despite the apparent nervousness.

"Yeah." Then, in a movement that surprised even Tezuka, he gently coaxed the boy forward. "Say hi to Coach Tezuka," he said in English. "He'll be your coach while you're here."

"You do realize we're in Japan," Tezuka quickly interjected. He understood well enough what Echizen had said.. But he had hoped the boy knew Japanese. Otherwise, what was the point of bringing him here?

As if to answer his statement the boy stepped forward and held out his hand, before jerking it back and bowing respectfully. "Hello, Tezuka-sensei," he said in well pronounced Japanese. "My name is Kenta . . . er, Echizen Kenta."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Tezuka replied politely. The boy straightened and grinned.

"Here's his registration form," Echizen broke him, handing him a slightly crumbled piece of paper. "Practices start today, right?"

"The club members are already out there. You'd better hurry."

"Yes sir." With out another word, he hurried out of the office.

"Apologies, Buchou. He loves tennis."

Turning, he returned to the window. Almost immediately, Echizen joined him. He watched as Kenta-kun hurried to the court. He was quick, he had to admit. They both watched as he hesitated just outside the court before entering.

"He's a bit different than you were," Tezuka observed. Echizen, he remembered, had entered and it was plainly obvious that he was more than confident in his ability. Not that he didn't have a reason to be. He was exceptionally talented.

"That's his mother's doing," he heard his young friend explain. "She insisted that he not flaunt his skills."

"I'm not going to let him into the ranking matches just like that."

"His skill will speak for itself." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw smirk on Echizen's face.

"How is your wife?" His own had mentioned to him on more than one occasion that he needed to be more in tune with things of this nature.

"She's doing well," he said, the smirk dissipating into a serene smile. "She's at home with our daughter, trying to force feed her some of the local cuisine." He shook his head. "Ami was really picky with her food in the States. I don't know how she'll handle food here."

"She'll adapt," Tezuka said simply. She was an Echizen, after all. They had a unique way of adapting, whatever the situation. "Has she started tennis?" The pause was unexpected and he glanced over at his young friend.

"She's not interested in sports," he said and Tezuka didn't miss the grimace that passed over his expression. "She's been bugging Grace and I to be in beauty pageants."

This to was a bit surprising. "Beauty pageants?"

"Don't ask," his former protégée muttered. "Some girls at school." He snorted. "If she decides to do that, it better be long after I'm dead and gone. And you?"

He smiled. "Ayumi is doing well in the junior division for her age. She wants to play for Seigaku when she reaches middle school."

They both continued to watch the club practice. From his vantage point, he could easily see, that while not as outstanding as his father had been, Kenta was talented. He could see him playing with a second year, who seemed to be enjoying the match. Despite first years needing to be doing drills, he'd let this slide for once.

Maybe he was getting soft in his old age.

"Kenta isn't doing drills, Buchou," Echizen finally spoke up. "I thought first years were supposed to be doing drills."

"I'll let it slide for now," he said, returning to his desk. He motioned for his young friend to sit, which he did.

"Buchou," he said slowly. Looking up from the tea he knew his friend wouldn't care for, he set down the thermos to see Echizen staring at him.

"What is it, Echizen."

"Do you remember . . . a couple years after the U.S. Open . . ." The hesitation was there, almost as if he was afraid of asking. But from the intensity in his eyes, Tezuka knew, this was something he felt he had to ask. He hadn't spoken that much with the younger man since they split all those many years ago. The years came and went, both married and had families. Tezuka went to school, taught and coached. Echizen continued to play tennis. But in the end, they still ended up meeting.

"Ah." It still burned in his mind. Besides, it wasn't difficult to forget the outcome of that meeting. He looked at the younger man. His expression, the same that was full of pride just a minute ago, was now slightly nervous. "Why do you ask?"

Echizen shrugged, fiddling with his tea cup. "I was thinking about it the other day. When we were preparing to come here." His voice faltered, something so uncharacteristic of him. "Wondering if we made a mistake."

A mistake? This was surprising. He didn't think he'd given any indication that I had been a mistake. And he wondered how long his former protegee had been carrying around his feelings. Truthfully, it was something he needed. It gave him direction. There was no more uncertainty as to where his future would go. It hadn't been a mistake.

"You can stop thinking that," he said, startling Echizen. "I asked you. I wanted you to do it."

The younger man glanced away. He didn't looked thoroughly convinced.

"I can still play," he continued. "Not as well, but I can still play." He poured himself more tea, offering more to Echizen, who declined. "If you'd like, we could play a match."

Echizen eyed him warily. "Weren't we just talking about the outcome of the last time we played?"

He sighed, something he wasn't inclined to do. "I needed to know, Echizen. If I was still capable of playing at that level. If I couldn't play at your level . . ." He left it at that. No point in bringing up his injury. Echizen had been devastated enough when Tezuka made the decision not to return to the pros. He felt he was partially to blame. He obviously thought agreeing to the match was a mistake.

"Are you happy, Buchou?"

The question was so sudden, he had to stop and process just what exactly his young friend was asking him before he could answer.

"Yes."

"Good." A rare smile passed over his features. Hopefully, his assurances would help to dispel the doubts his friend had. "Me too."

Draining their cups, they returned to the window.

"Your sons skilled," Tezuka commented. "He'll lead this group."

"Another pillar, Buchou?"

He didn't say anything. Echizen snorted and turned his attention again to the courts. Echizen Kenta could very well become the pillar that this club needed. Tezuka didn't want to make that decision just yet. He first needed to see what the boy could do. There was silence as they watched the younger generation begin to try and reach new heights. They watched Echizen's son as he played against another club member, a third year, Tezuka noted. While his moves weren't flashy, he saw no one footed split step, he could see that he was genuinely enjoying himself. Kenta-kun had Tezuka's passion for the sport and the skill and talent that ran in the Echizen line.

Memories of middle school surfaced and he could almost see their younger selves practicing. It wasn't something that happened very often. In fact, up until that point, it had only happened once. When he saw Ryuzaki-sensei on the court. He and Echizen had pushed themselves to more than their limit. They had pushed themselves to the pros. They had given it their all until his untimely injury. And then, all he could do was watch from the sidelines as their genius rookie fought to stay on top. And took some pride knowing that, at the very least, he was able to show Echizen the love he had for tennis. He hoped he could install that same love in his club members.

Echizen Kenta might be that key.

"He really loves tennis, doesn't he."

There was a short laugh. "He's still got a lot more to work on."