A/N: I know! I know! I do not deserve your kindness, let alone your dedication. I am forever in your guys' debt. I happily thank you all for even wanting to read my work. Now stop reading my pathetic excuses for years worth of procrastination and get to the real stuff!
Disclaimer: PoT has a nasty habit of sending addicts into rehab.
"TdotKdot is a bad person!" Talking
'She is so lazy!' Thinking
"Remember the last time she updated? It was nearly two years ago..." Flashback
"Kanata-san?" Fuji asked with an amused smile. This was unexpected.
"Fuji…" Seiji began in a wavering tone. The tensai readied himself for a series of "sorry's," but the next thing he heard was even more unexpected.
"…I want to have a match against you."
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
The repeated sound of forehead hitting wood resounded in a loud staccato throughout the home of Estuko and Kanjiro Kanata.
Her uncle took a languid sip from his tea while watching his youngest niece continue to bang her head against the abused piece of furniture before finally speaking.
"Seiji-chan, the coffee table didn't do anything. I don't think it deserves any more of what your head has to offer."
The banging stopped, and the brunette remained still with her face to the coffee table. "Whyyy did I have to go and do that?" She whined.
Her uncle glanced at her briefly before closing his eyes and sipping his tea. "Because, my dear, you are a teenager. And when teenagers reach a certain age, a wonderful change begins to unfold in your body. This change releases uncountable swarms of hormones, which causes your brain to beg for something that has sustained our kind for thousands of-"
"Not that!" She interjected, eager to cut off the rest of her Uncle's perverted 'metaphor for life' speech. "I mean, why did I have to challenge him to a stupid match? What the heck am I trying to prove?"
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""A match? Really?" The tensai's voice reflected just as much surprise in it as Seiji felt when the words slipped out of her mouth.
"I'd love to. When is convenient time for you?" The boy's voice continued when she didn't answer. Seiji remained rooted to the very spot where she had been hastily pacing before.
"Um, uh, how about after school this Friday?" She stuttered for a reply, again not knowing why the heck she hadn't hung up already.
"After school is fine. I'll be looking forward to it, Kanata-san." Fuji's calm demeanor was discernible even over the phone, and Seiji couldn't help but feel irked that he could keep his cool when she was having trouble responding at all.
"Um, uh, that's…good. So…um…uh-"
"I'll see you tomorrow then, ne?" The suave voice offered to the obviously uncomfortable recipient.
"Yeah, tomorrow… um…ja!" She panicked, quickly pressing the end call button and slumping against the door of her room.
The tensai smiled knowingly to himself, and hung up the phone. So it had begun: phase one of her apology ensemble, right on schedule."
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Seiji groaned at the memory, and ensued her abuse to the piece of furniture once more before her Uncle's hand stopped her head.
"No more, please. I don't want to have to take it to the shop." He said smiling.
The teenager however did not reply, as she remained quite still with her head face down on the ancient wood. Her Uncle sighed, then slid his hand under her face and gently pulled her chin up.
"Listen to me Seiji, whatever reason you had for challenging this boy, I'm sure it wasn't without an explainable intention." His eyes beheld a genuine sincerity. "Just be yourself and run with it. It's not the end of the world when you play tennis against a tennis player."
Seiji exhaled softly, then stood up to grab her school bag by the door. She paused before she slipped on her shoes, then reluctantly picked up the compact sports bag whose aluminum contents rattled carelessly and slung it over her shoulder.
On the train ride to Seigaku she realized that today she would have traded anything in the world to not sit where so many fangirls dreamt of sitting; next to her future opponent.
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Oh, what she would give to have that Japanese guy's power from that T.V. show! Today the clock seemed to grant her previous wish on numerous occasions to run ten times as fast, as the final bell rang and the students eagerly shuffled their books and papers into their bags.
One of the students, however, mutely appeared to be the most eager of all.
"Ready, Kanata-san?" A familiar smooth voice asked.
Seiji turned slowly to face the closed eyes of the infamous tensai.
"Um…sure…" She replied stoutly, trying to pack her bags as slowly as humanly possible without hopefully being too obvious of her reluctance to move.
But Fuji thwarted whatever plans she had for delaying the inevitable. "Let me help you with that," He offered casually, swiftly picking up the textbook before she had a chance to decline.
'Oooh, you're just loving every minute of this, aren't you?' She thought silently with a grimace. As if he could read her thoughts, a wide smile spread across his face in response.
"We should hurry. Practice starts in about an hour." He said as he led the way towards the P.E. lockers.
The girls' locker room wasn't as empty as Seiji had expected, as there were various clusters of girls gathered sparsely around lockers and in corners of the room, gossiping and talking while some pointed at pictures in magazines. Seiji reluctantly pulled on her shorts and top, then slowly made her way out of the locker room with racquet in hand.
Before she could open the door, a familiar pair walked in and stopped in their tracks when they noticed Seiji.
"Going somewhere?" The captain of the girl's tennis team questioned in disbelief, eyeing her clothes.
"Not really." Seiji answered quickly before weaving around the two girls. Once around the corner she made a break for it and ran towards the furthest court from the school, where Fuji was stretching carefully, adorned in his Seigaku tennis uniform.
"Eager to begin, are we?" He asked with his trademark smile as she slowed down to a jog when she approached her side of the court.
"Oh, you could say that…" She responded quickly while glancing back in the direction from where she came, sighing with relief that no one followed her.
"Well, then…" He asked after they were both finished stretching. "Rough or smooth?"
"Smooth."
He twirled the racquet on the ground, the letter on the bottom landing right side up with a subtle clatter.
"I guess it's your serve then," He smiled, picking up the racquet and gliding over to his side of the net.
Seiji swallowed hard, then bounced the ball a few times. 'I can do this. I can do this.' She brought it into the air, and hit it with all her might.
To her surprise, the ball actually made into the serving court, before Fuji countered it with a powerful backhand. Seiji reacted quickly, shuffling a bit to the right to be in perfect position for her chance to hit…the empty air.
The familiar sense of the light green object bouncing behind her filled her senses, only this time, something felt different. She felt…happy. Almost too happy.
Then she couldn't help it.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Her cheerful explosion resonated throughout the court, drawing the attention of some of the students passing by. It may have been random and out of character, but she couldn't stop it, it just felt so good. This whole situation was absolutely humorous. Here she was, trying to prove to someone that she could do something she couldn't, thinking that having that shoujo anime character-like ambitions would provide her with an imaginary collage of feminine colors and stream of magical light complete with bubbles and hearts that would surround her and transform her into an impossibly skilled tennis princess. It was just too unreal.
"Are you alright, Kanata-san?" Fuji asked tentatively. Seiji looked up and realized that she had dropped to her knees, clutching her side.
"I-I-I'm f-f-fine," She said, struggling to get out of her mini-fit. Fuji held offered his hand, and she accepted it without regret.
"Are you sure? You just…fell over without explanation," The tensai further prodded, worried that he had mistakenly hit her somewhere…possibly a vital part of the sane region in her brain.
"I'm fine, seriously," She chuckled now, slowly coming out of her hilarious delusion. When she felt in control again, she turned towards Fuji, her face completely devoid of any sense of humor.
"Fuji, I'm sorry about that other day…" She said softly. "I didn't mean any of it, I was just…taking out some anger on the wrong person." She pulled a few of her bangs out of her face and around her ear, only to be met with a startling pair of cerulean eyes staring startledly back into hers.
"Apology accepted, Kanata-san," He said quietly, his eyelids sliding closed.
"Fujiko! What did you do to Seiji-chan!?" The two quickly turned towards the spectators' fence. Seated comfortably on the benches were none other than the energetic redhead alongside with Inui and Takami. Inui was scribbling madly into one of his notebooks, while Takami and Eiji had jumped from the benches and were clinging to the chain-link fence.
"Geez Seiji, did you have a meltdown, or something?" Takami shouted from the fence.
"Fuji! I told you to stop dazzling poor innocent girls with your charm! Look what you did to poor Seiji-chan!" Eiji added laughingly.
'Oh god, how long have they been there?' Seiji thought, noticing that Inui continued to scribble frantically without looking up.
"Eiji, is practice still on? You're not in uniform." Fuji asked.
"Nope!" He smiled. "Tezuka and Oishi decided today would be a recreational day for team bonding, we were looking for you!"
"Saa, we'd better finish quickly then, Kanata-san,"
Seiji looked at Fuji, and saw that he was serious.
"Fuji-san, you should really go." She said quickly. "I think we both know what the outcome of the match would have been anyway." She laughed and picked up her racquet.
"Sorry for making such a big deal about everything. I should have said this two days ago," She two a few steps back and bowed respectively towards the tensai. "I very sorry for saying those things. I absolutely do not think of you in any way like that,"
Fuji smiled back, and bowed slightly in response. "I already forgave you, Kanata-san. There's no need for another apology, you've made your amends."
"Yes but, the truth is…" Seiji started. "I know what I should do now." Fuji smiled knowingly, and nodded for her to continue. Here it comes, phase two: explanation about her strained relationship with her siblings.
"I think…I should just leave you and the tennis team alone."
Fuji's smile disappeared as the words hit him hard.
That wasn't what she was supposed to say.
One by one he re-processed each word that she had said, but before he could respond she was walking away from him with Takami by her side.
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For a while, his actions were under the complete control of routine. His mind was churning about his reaction as he showered in the boys' locker room.
This was what he wanted. He had done it. He had ended the inevitable infatuation that another fan girl was doomed to create towards him.
It was done.
It was over.
He could go on as if nothing had ever happened.
But…if that were true…why was he even thinking about her?
He hadn't expected this, it was one of the most deadliest things any tennis player could encounter on the court; a miscalculation. It was as if he anticipated the ball to come at his right, but he dove towards the left, missing the ball completely. Occurrences like that hadn't happened since his earlier years in tennis.
He turned off the steaming water, and wrapped a towel around himself.
'An enigma.' He thought as he dressed himself. 'She's merely an anomaly. This will pass quickly.' He assured himself.
Eiji waited for him outside the locker room. "Nyah! What took you, Fuji? We're late!" He began jogging towards the entrance of the school with Fuji right behind him.
'It will pass…' The tensai thought again, increasing his speed to run side-by-side with his friend.
'It will pass…'
A/N: Oh the shame! Oh the shame! Oh the SHAME! I am so terribly sorry! I have no legitimate excuse for my procrastination, and therefore do not deserve your forgiveness, but I will beg for it nonetheless.
TO ALL OF MY READERS!!! I'M SORRY, AND I BEG FOR YOUR FORGIVENESS!!!
I'm sorry!
On a side note, the plot has been reinvented and reevaluated, so never let the doubt of discontinuation hang over your minds. I think I overdid Fuji a bit in this chapter, but understand, the rest was tailored exactly to fit the events to come, and trust me, they will come.
Until the next time, later! (And sorry again!)