Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or anything affiliated with it, but I do own some old tennis equipment.

AN: It's not Betaed; I'm the only one who's edited it so sorry for any mistakes. Also I'm still working on GWA so don't worry. (I seem to have a thing for characters that look alike, twins and pairs like these two do tend to be my favs)

WARNING: Character death.

Title: His Face

It wasn't supposed to happen, not to him and not when they were each other. They'd gotten so good at being the other that they tricked their friends and family every time now. Or they had, before this. It was just fun, to walk around as their doubles partner, to live two lives together. They had switched again during practice, lately they stayed as each other for days on end sometimes, and each ended up going to the other's house for the night. One of them didn't make it home, and he wasn't even wearing his own face.

Everyone said it happened too quickly to avoid, that it was almost instantaneous. As they tried to comfort him the doctors claimed his partner died so quickly that he most likely didn't suffer for long. But that wasn't the real problem. No, the problem was that he wasn't dead. He hadn't been there when the drunk driver ran a red light and ran over his best friend. He wasn't told until hours after the fact; his own sister called and told him he was dead. The hospital had used the school ID and contacted the family of the boy who'd been dead before arrival. Nobody knew that they weren't themselves when it happened. Now he was the only one who could tell the difference. The only one who could tell his family that it wasn't him who was dead, but the partner wearing his face.

But he couldn't do that. How could he tell his partner's parents that their son had died in his place? That they had been there when he'd gotten the call and hugged him and driven him to the hospital while he was in shock and yet he wasn't their son. He was wearing their son's face and living his life. He should have been the one to die, he wasn't missed as much as his partner would be, but he hadn't and no one knew. No one knew that Niou Masaharu had been Yagyuu Hiroshi and Yagyuu had been him the night Niou was killed by a drunk driver. So now everyone thought the dead boy wearing his face and carrying his ID was Niou. Everyone thought Yagyuu was devastated that his doubles partner had died. But Niou was devastated because he hadn't died: Yagyuu had.

The only proof was his word now; he would break Yagyuu's parents if he told them the truth. If he told them that he wasn't really their son, that their son was dead. His own mother didn't care that her son had been killed; the tennis team seemed to be the only ones really mourning him, he hadn't been close to his siblings either. Yes, it would have been better if they hadn't been switched, if Niou had been the Niou that died and Yagyuu had been the Yagyuu who still lived. It wasn't supposed to happen to him, he was the important half of their team. The trickster, the copycat, should have been the one to die because the gentleman was somebody. Who really wanted a copy? Yagyuu had been unique, he was somebody special that people liked, he deserved to live. Niou should have been the one to die, so he would. Yagyuu should have lived and Niou would make sure he did. Niou would become Yagyuu, because he owed it to his partner. Yagyuu, the gentleman, would live on exactly as he would have. And Niou? Now Niou was dead too. He would be the boy who's face he wore.