A Semblance of Normality: There's a very thin line between normal and not. Some people are normal, but they don't look or act normal. Others aren't normal but the fact would be ignored and denied until they don't seem so different from everybody else and the line is temporarily blurred, but still there. Always there, but the truth maybe more dangerous than people would think.

Disclaimer: I do not own the irresistible cuteness of Akutagawa Jirou or the brilliant shininess of Atobe Keigo's perfect teeth……or anything else from prince of tennis. I only own their abnormality and the plot……and my personal nickname for Kabaji, but that is irrelevant

Hajimari: Yume No Naka De

Jirou was not normal. He believed that it was too much to hope for, and in a way, it is.

Most people would laugh or smile, maybe give him one or two or ten hundred million (Choutarou) pat(s) on the back, and tell him that he was perfectly fine (Choutarou) or at least he wasn't as weird as, say Hiyoshi, or Gakuto, or say whoever that one guy from Seigaku who constantly says "ii data" was (Everyone minus Choutarou). If not they would start blaming his narcolepsy. However, this wasn't the case. It wasn't because of his narcolepsy. Narcoleptics were normal too. They fall asleep because that's what normal narcoleptics do. To be completely honest, he wasn't even narcoleptic.

Yawning, He reached out and volleyed the little green ball that had just flown over the net. 'Sorry Ohtori-kun, you have a pretty good cross court shot, but not strong enough too stump me yet.' He smiled at his frowning Kouhai. 'Such a nice guy. Can't even cuss in his own head, even though he knows he really wants to.'

Looking over from his game, Shishido gave his partner an encouraging smile. Jirou would have laughed had he had the energy to bother, and for just a second, he seriously considered whether or not he should push the two even closer together (as if asking Atobe to make them doubles partners hadn't been close enough). Alas, he didn't really feel like it so he just gave the gentle silver haired boy a smile of his own and turned his attention to their dear captain. With a single nod, Jirou knew he had been dismissed. Personally, he'd never been so grateful to curl up on a cold hard bench and close his eyes.

When Atobe looked, back, Jirou was already snoring softly. He spared his teammate a small smile, gracing the world with his pearly, straight even, expensive (what Oresama can harldy walk around with - gasp - normal teeth. It would ruin the effect of his radiant smile) front teeth, before turning back to practice. He always did have a soft spot for their volley tensai one that a certain red-headed acrobat never seems to forget to emphasize daily (yes, that means weekends and holidays too. He was begining to regret giving his team members his cell phone number). However, despite all protests, Atobe was always willing to set aside at least a couple of minutes of shut-eye for Jirou at the end of each practice (as if anyone could actually stop him).

"Ne Kabaji," he met the eyes of his towering friend, "Whenever Jirou decides to wake up please bring him to me."

"Usu."

The next time Jirou opened his eyes, he was staring up at Hyoutei's own Incredible Hulk! Well, nobody actually remembers it anymore (except for him, one other person, and Kabaji himself), but Jirou was actually the one to come up with that name. He couldn't help it really; he just felt the connection between the two. It certainly didn't hurt when he found out that his friend was a fan of American comics.

Unlike Jirou, Kabaji was normal. Most people, normal people would protest this, but they were too shallow to look beyond the larger boy's exterior. Despite all appearances, the fact remains. Kabaji was as normal as anybody else could claim, though maybe a bit rare as it were.

"Ne, Kabaji-kun." Jirou tried (and failed) to rub the sleep from his eyes yawning all the while. "Can you take me to Atobe please?"

"Usu."

"Arigatou ne." He hopped off the bench. "And Kabaji-kun?"

"Usu?"

"If you're that worried about your sister's new baby, go talk to her." He smiled. "Or consult your mom. Anything's better than keeping quiet right?"

"Usu." Yes, as any other Hyoutei student (except of course Atobe, Kabaji, and Jirou), the sleepy-head was very prone to giving advice to the friendly giant out of the blue, no warning whatsoever. You see, he was very fond of Kabaji as the other boy was one of the very few who knew that Jirou was not normal. Further more he was one of the even fewer people that Jirou found easy to talk to (which earned double points in his book), and if it didn't inconvenience Atobe in anyway, he'd help Jirou in a heartbeat. It was something to be grateful for, being able to be compared to Atobe, it means that Jirou was his second best friend.

Hence, the reason Jirou always went out of his way to help Kabaji in return, always probing around to see whatever the other boy wanted and deal with the situation accordingly. Some times this included seemingly irrelevant advice.

Yes, Jirou was a mind reader, a psychic, if you prefer to put it that way. He can invade people's heads and tell what they're thinking, he can send messages directly into someone's mind or seal it in an inanimate object (but don't worry, he's never dreamed of utilizing such things in a tennis match. That would be just wrong). However, that wasn't all he could do. In fact, as far as he was concerned, those things weren't even relevant to his true powers. So no, he did not consider himself a psychic. He was a dreamer, a thinker, a seer and had been given the perfect title for it.

He was Akutagawa Jirou, the Dream Strider