Melting a prodigy's heart
A/N: I do not own Prince of Tennis.
Chapter 1:
Tezuka got off the plane at Munich's international airport. After collecting his luggage, he turned and exited the terminal into the waiting area.
He pushed up his glasses before glancing around for the person who was supposed to pick him up. Looking around he caught sight of a girl holding up a card with his name on it. Hoisting his luggage higher on his shoulder, Tezuka made his way over to the girl.
The young girl upon seeing Tezuka stop in front of her and her companion looked at him and asked in fluent Japanese:
"Tezuka Kunimitsu?"
Tezuka merely nodded as an answer. The girl smiled at him before speaking again.
"Welcome to Germany. I hope your flight was okay. This is Frank, he's the clinic's unofficial chauffer." She said indicating the tall stoic blond man who stood next to her.
Frank nodded a hello to Tezuka and offered to carry his bags. Tezuka hesitated before handing over his bags. Frank picked them up and promptly turned and started to walk towards an exit.
Tezuka fell in stride next to the young girl, who in height only came up to his shoulder. They walked in silence to the car, which was waiting for them outside the terminal.
In the car the girl pointed out to him the various historical sites of Munich which they drove past on their way to the clinic.
Thirty minutes after leaving the airport, they pulled up in front of the entrance of the clinic. Tezuka got out only to be greeted by a red headed woman who introduced herself as his doctor.
She escorted Tezuka to her office where she spent an hour with him explaining the treatment he would receive and how the clinic functioned.
As she saw Tezuka to the door, Tezuka asked about his belongings.
"Where will my bags be?" he asked politely.
"Oh don't worry about that, they have been put in your room. Room 121. Yumi will have made sure everything is ready for you. If you have any questions you can ask her. She's been here for over a year now."
"Yumi?" asked a puzzled Tezuka since he had no idea to who she was referring to.
"Toyoma Yumi, the young girl who met you at the airport."
"Ah. I see, what job does she do here?" Tezuka asked curious since the girl looked his age.
"Oh she doesn't work here. She's a patient. She had a bad accident a year and a half ago and had to have surgery on her left ankle. She had a bad accident on horseback while on holiday. Her family lives in the States, but she's almost healed now only another month or two and she should be able to go home. She plays tennis just like you. She's the only other Japanese person in the clinic. Although most people in the clinic all speak English. So you shouldn't have too much trouble understanding everyone. The tennis courts are around the back if you want to go look there first."
Tezuka nodded to his doctor before leaving her office. Opting to visit the courts before going to unpack Tezuka made his way outside.
The courts were empty except one where somebody was practicing serves. Tezuka watched from a distance as the person served out of curiosity, only to have his eyes widen at the serve. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. His curiosity as a tennis player overcame him and he set off to ask the person about that serve.
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Yumi sighed as she served again. She would have preferred to be playing against someone but Hannah had already left for the day.
As she performed her signature serve, her thoughts wandered to the stoic newcomer she and Frank had picked up at the airport. The boy was stoic, but Yumi knew from what she had been told that he was an impressive tennis player.
'Maybe he would be willing to play a match once he's allowed to.' She thought to herself before she grabbed another ball and served.
Her racket hit the ball at an angle, making the ball spin on itself as it travelled through the air at a high speed. The ball hit the court and instead of bouncing forward towards the back of the court, the ball bounced backwards towards the net thanks to the spin on it.
Yumi smirked to herself. She had yet to meet someone who could stop that serve successfully.
A voice brought Yumi out from her thoughts and startled her as she thought she was the only one out on the courts.
"That's an interesting serve, what is it called?"
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As he got closer, Tezuka recognized the person as the girl who picked him up at the airport. Toyoma Yumi.
She was a petite girl but her body was mostly lean muscle. She was thin, and upon first glance fragile and weak. But from that serve Tezuka doubted that was the case. There was a lot of power in that serve.
As he asked his question, he could see that he had startled her. She stood back from her serving position and turned to face him.
Tezuka stood hands in pockets waiting for an answer.
Yumi recognized the boy in front of her as the one she had picked up from the airport.
'Tezuka Kunimitsu, tennis player. My age…. Kind of cute looking…' she thought, but then came back to earth realising he was waiting for her to answer him.
"I call it a backspin serve." She answered.
"I've never heard of it before." Said Tezuka as he tried to recognise the name of the move.
"Well that's because it's an original move. I made it based on the Twist serve, Have you ever seen that move?" Yumi explained.
"Ah I see. Impressive. Yes I know the Twist serve. A friend of mine uses it often in his matches." Answered Tezuka.
A bell rang out in the courtyard interrupting their conversation.
"Ah time for dinner." Said Yumi as she packed her rackets away. "Do you know how to get to the cafeteria?"
Tezuka shook his head to indicate no. Yumi merely laughed and slung her tennis bag over her shoulder before walking over to Tezuka.
"Come on. I'll show you where to go. And if you eat dinner with me I'll explain the back spin serve to you. And maybe you could tell me about your moves as well."
Yumi said as she faced him, holding her hand out.
"Very well then. Let us go eat Toyoma-san" said Tezuka as he shook her hand.
"Call me Yumi." She answered back.
And that was how Tezuka made a new friend upon the day of his arrival.
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Over the next month Tezuka and Yumi had become close friends. They both had the same coach, and they spent most of their spare time together, studying, or visiting places in Munich. For Yumi it was nice to have someone who could speak fluent Japanese; and for Tezuka it was nice to be able to talk to a girl properly.
As Yumi brushed her hair before doing it up in a high ponytail and then plaiting it, she thought of what was going to happen today. Today Tezuka's team was coming to visit during their break.
Humming as she made her way down towards the reception, she tried to recall all their names. Tezuka had told her about them, but she had never seen pictures of them, so she had no idea what they were going to look like.
As she arrived at the entrance to the reception, she heard Tezuka talking. Standing near the wall so that she couldn't be seen, Yumi looked at the scene in front of her.
She felt a pang of hurt as she watched Tezuka be reunited with his team. She watched as he took a medal off one of them and thanked them, and then realised something that made her feel sick to her stomach.
Making a choice, she turned on her heel and ran back to her room.
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Tezuka watched, while holding back a smile, as everyone laughed at what he said to Echizen, when suddenly a flurry of movement caught his eye. He turned fast enough to see a long plait of braided hair disappear round a corner.
Tezuka had spent enough time with Yumi to know that was how she did her hair when she wanted to look nice.
'Why did she just leave though? She said she was looking forward to meeting my team.'
Tezuka was distracted from his thoughts by Oishi who asked.
"Something wrong Tezuka?"
"No. Come I will show you my room before I show you the city." Said Tezuka before leading the team to his room.
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Yumi heard them pass her room; she had to say he was right when he said that his team could be very noisy at times.
Yumi was curled up into a ball, back against her door as the thought of Tezuka made her think back to the realisation she had only just made earlier.
'As soon as his treatment ends he'll go back to Japan, back to his team, and forget all about me. So why does that bother me so much? I mean it's unavoidable. He has to go back to Tokyo, and soon I'll go back to the States. We'll probably never see each other again after leaving this clinic. Sure I'll miss having him as a friend, but I can make other friends in the US…………………..but why does it hurt so much when I think of never seeing him again.'
Puzzled Yumi went and picked up her cell phone before dialling a very well used number.
The phone rang a few times before the other person picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hannah, its Yumi. Can you spare a minute?"
"Sure what's on your mind?"
With that Yumi started to explain her problem to her trainer, and asked for help figuring out what was wrong.
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Tezuka was just shutting the door to his room, after having taken five minutes to get all the regulars out of it and into the corridor, when a loud scream made him abandon his door and whip his head towards the source of the scream.
"I'M WHAT!!"
The regulars all fell silent at the scream and had puzzled looks on their faces. Tezuka waited a few minutes, but when only silence followed, his frown deepened. Rapidly locking his door he strode past his team mates and stopped in front of the room numbered 118.
Ignoring the curious looks of his team mates, Tezuka knocked rapidly on the door.
When no answer came he repeated his knocking again, and called out.
"Yumi? Yumi is everything alright?"
Fuji's interest was caught.
'Yumi?' he thought 'Tezuka hasn't said anything about a Yumi. Boy or girl I wonder.'
His thoughts were interrupted when a voice rang through the door. The words spoken shocking the regulars.
"OH! Nothing's wrong. Don't worry Kunimitsu everything's fine."
Fuji let a grin slip onto his lips.
'A Girl and she called him Kunimitsu. Well this is interesting; I think this deserves a bit of investigating.' He thought.
Tezuka frowned at the closed door before departing, taking his team mates with him.
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Back in her room Yumi was having a hard time believing what Hannah was telling her.
"I'm not; I mean he's only a friend…."
"Yumi that boy is much more important to you than just a normal friend. You Love him."
"But…"
"You can deny it all you want, but that's the only logical conclusion. Look just calm down a bit and think about it okay. I'll call you back later ok?"
"Sure. Try not to drink too much Hannah."
"Will do." Answered her trainer before hanging up.
Yumi looked at her cell phone for a second before setting it down on the desk, before turning and letting herself fall straight into her bed. All the while letting out a growl of frustration.
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It had been a week, Tezuka thought. He was in the car on the way back to the clinic. He had just seen his team off at the airport. To his disappointment and annoyance, they hadn't been able to meet Yumi.
He had hardly seen head or tail of the girl all week and it was annoying him. She was clearly avoiding him for some reason. Why she was he had no idea.
Tezuka Kunimitsu didn't like not knowing things. So he was resolved to track her down and talk to her.
He walked down the halls in a resolved manner and as he came up to Yumi's room he saw Hannah coming out of her room.
Upon seeing Tezuka Hannah sighed before telling him:
"She's in there. I know you're annoyed and puzzled but take it easy on her okay. She a bit confused and upset at the moment."
Tezuka nodded, and Hannah sighed before stepping out of the way to allow his access to Yumi's room.
Tezuka entered the room quietly closing the door behind him. His gaze was drawn to the girl who was perched on her windowsill staring out into space.
Absently Yumi heard the door close then open and then close again. Assuming it was Hannah she asked:
"Did you forget something Hannah?"
"I'm not Hannah." Came a smooth deep voice which had been haunting her for the past few days in her dreams.
Spinning her head to face him she stared at the boy she had spent all week avoiding.
Tezuka was standing with his back against her door, arms crossed across his chest, eyes fixed on her watching her every movement. He looked so handsome in the black shirt and jeans he was wearing.
As she gaped at him, she managed to say something.
"Kunimitsu…"
"Yumi we need to talk."
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A/N: had an idea hit me on a 7 hour flight. Sorry about my other PoT fic, for some reasons the chapters didn't save so I have to rewrite them. Hope you enjoy this. Please Review… Thanks. Ciao.