Legend: "Speech"

'Thoughts'

'Inner self which randomly comes up'

'Chinese language' (and occasionally to signify someone is shouting extremely loudly)

----

Taiya closed her eyes as she tried to get some rest like Fuji told her to. She felt sick; like she had been spinning on a swivel chair for several minutes straight. Fun, but it came with queer consequences (yeah, she wanted to hurl).

But she was glad.

Glad that these group of people from Seishun, from Japan, had it in their hearts to forgive her even if she wasn't expecting it. Though personally, she thought it was the best that Eiji and Fuji forgave her (well, Fuji is halfway), being the closest of the lot to her. Actually, she was overwhelmed that they didn't regard her as some sort of fiend or give her the cold shoulder. Eiji was definitely not one who was like that.

"But I can't erase that guilty feeling inside of me," Taiya said to herself, feeling obnoxiously ashamed at herself. "But first...."

The black-haired girl eyed the large book which read 数学 at the front with distaste.

"How am I going to finish the maths work mum left me?!"

----

The teacher of class 3-6 peered up in surprise. "Hmm? Sanzushi-kun isn't here today?" he asked, a mild hint of surprise in his voice. Fuji and Eiji glanced at each other. It was Monday morning and Taiya was still resting at the hospital.

Eiji marked on a piece of paper the very first day Taiya had ever been absent from school- a nice and beautiful Monday.

Fuji stood up from his seat to address himself. "Tai-kun (took Taiya's absence as an advantage to add -kun there) is on sick-leave today," Fuji explained, a small smile on his lips. One girl- a big fan of 'Taichi'- gasped.

"Oh no! Taichi-kun is unwell!" she whispered fearfully among her friends.

"Let's try to find his address- maybe we could give him a surprise visit!"

Fuji chuckled to himself as he was once again seated at his desk.

'I could give them her address as a little pay-back...but then they might find out about me, plus she won't be home until later.'

Eiji shot a sour glance at Fuji. 'He's planning something evil again nya.'

Fuji sat in the class with his usual serene smile worn on his face. He was a fine epitome of a young clown as Taiya would call it. Eiji shot a worried glance at his best friend.

'Nyaaaa, I know something happened between Fujiko and Tai-chan, I can feel it~! Did Fuji do something rash, or was it the other way around....?' Eiji contemplated to himself whether he should risk his life and ask the tensai, or just mull things over by himself. 'I know Fuji misses Tai-chan! I mean, look at him!'

Fuji was half-heartedly reading the dictionary.

'Scary...' Eiji mused, ridding his thoughts of the cursed book before collecting his thoughts again. 'I hate it when things are so uneasy between all of us....!'

At practice, the Regulars were told to have practice matches against whom they desire- just for variety. Fuji effortlessly won his matches, straining his opponents until they were sorely out of breath and dragged down by exhaustion. Some even had the nerve to call him a demon.

Fuji had only smiled as though it was his job.

Eiji watched from afar as his friend left for the taps. 'Tai-chan! Help me! T-T...Fuji is being scary.'

As Fuji splashed his face with the cold and refreshing water, a small frown appeared on his lips. He was confused. Confused as to why he was so disturbed by the fact Taiya hid her gender from them. From him. It wasn't as though it was anything that important. No, it was something you could get over quite soon, even if it was somewhat disturbing....since your so-called 'same-sexed' friend suddenly emerges....with a chest and hips.

Actually, why didn't he notice that Taiya had no 'Adam's Apple'?

Some genius he was -.-".

He returned to the courts with his face plastered with his usual clown-like smile.

"Fuji!" Oishi waved as he ran over. "You got a match up against Inui. He wants to observe all of us in play again in preparation for the next tournament." Fuji continued smiling and nodded.

"Aa"

----

I swatted away the irksome flys hovering around my face which I'm sure is sheening with sweat. O'chibi and Momo sure are persistent in doubles! Wait! Maybe I can steal a glance at Fuji. Remember, as secretive as possible.

....

AH HA! Caught ya, Fujiko! Your play style is rustier than normal! Pays to have eyesight as sharp as these, heeheehee! And look at his face! -peers- It's so solemn! No...sober?

Nya!

All I can figure out right now is that Fuji is most probably distracted by Tai-chan- no, I'm positive it's got something to do with hi- her! Phew, nearly thought 'him'. Sure, Tai is actually Taiya instead of Taichi, and Taichi is actually Tai-chan's older brother over in Australia, but it's nothing after a while. She gave us her reasons, that should be good enough -.-". Fujiko, you expect too much.

Nyaaaa, what should I do?!

Momo is a blabber mouth -.- Can't trust him entirely, and even if he does keep the secret, he talks too loud. And not only Fuji, but Taiya'll know....and they'll annhilate me. I can imagine it now.....

Ah! My hands are shaking!

I walked over to Fuji, and greeted hello like usual, a little glomping, a little chatting. Heehee, he can't tell that I, Kikumaru-sama, am observing his every facial expression and action?

---

Fuji had to admit himself; the lesson seemed quite lonely. He would usually tease 'Taichi' every practice, or some sort of mocking, and Taiya's reactions to each trick he pulled were immensely amusing. Like the time Fuji got her so agitated that she overarm served the ball towards him, only to have him duck and have the ball strike the second year Arai on the forehead until he went unconscious. How many laps did she have to run after that?

I think it was something like.....30.....times 3.

'I wonder where she gets that power from, seeing as she's not a power player,' Fuji mused to himself.

"Eiji."

Eiji stiffened at Fuji's voice and he went as rigid as a board. "Y-yes, Fuji?"

"Let's go pay Tai a visit in the hospital. Since we don't know when he's going to be discharged," Fuji smiled, bouncing a tennis ball on the strings of his racquet. Eiji sighed in relief.

"Yeah, sure, Fujiko!"

"And then we'll have a chat about why you kept staring at me today."

"Ah-!"

-

Fuji and Eiji had gotten a lift from Yumiko down to the hospital when Yumiko was going to work. She told them to pass her message to Taiya since she was too busy to visit. Fuji and Eiji had brought along some sushi, kindly offered by Taka-san, to take to her. They wondered if she lasted long with plain hospital food.

They peered cautiously around the door to the ward which could hold 5 beds in total. All beds were empty except for one in the very corner of the room next to the window. There laid Taiya who was boredly reading a book written purely in Chinese and numbers. But the two characters 数学 were distinguishable at the very front. Fuji chuckled. 'Studying maths even in the hospital.'

Taiya looked up from her book before greeting them. "Hey Eiji....Fuji..."

'She talks as though we're gonna attack her,' Fuji supressed a giggle. Eiji started off the loud conversation.

"Tai-chan! How are you? Well, of course you're not that okay if you're in a hospital!!" Eiji jabbered all in one breath before standing back with his hands on his hips. This caused Taiya to emit a soft laugh; it was obvious she was extremely happy to see them. Fuji smiled on the inside.

"Here, Taka-san offered this, since we don't know how long you're going to be staying here," said Fuji, handing over the plastic bag with a obento box in it. Taiya's face gave a sliver of a smile.

"Thanks." 'Is it just me, or it is really tense...?' "Um, thank you for dropping by!" she said, plastering on a large, grateful smile on her slightly pale face.

"No problem, Tai-chan! So- when are you coming back to team practices?" he asked rather excitedly. Taiya's heart sunk.

"Eh, about that Eiji- has Tezuka-buchou said anything about me around the tennis courts?" asked Taiya, hoping very much that the answer was in her favour.

"No, I don't think so, but he was talking to Ryuzaki-sensei about it...." Eiji informed her while she sighed, letting one hand fan itself across her face.

"天啊 (heavens)," she breathed out, feeling her troubles lighten a considerable amount from amidst her shoulders. "I still have a chance then...."

Eiji and Fuji watched her in silence, taking notice of her behaviour as she murmured to herself about who-knows-what. Finally, they saw Taiya raise her head from her hands and gave a weak smile, out of relief or because she was tired, they were not sure.

"Thanks for letting me know the news. I guess when I get back to school, I'll have to talk with Ryuzaki-sensei and Tezuka-buchou."

"Of course. We'll back you up," Fuji stated calmly, as though he was talking about how nice the day was. Taiya and Eiji looked at him with an incredulous expression.

"Hah?"

Fuji gave a shrewd smile. "What? Did you think I wasn't going to help Tai-kun out? What kind of friends are you, I just don't believe it...." He sighed disbelievingly. Eiji and Taiya sweat-dropped in the background.

"Ehh, eheheh....come here, Fuji-boy!" And Eiji quickly hugged him tightly, causing Fuji to stagger somewhat, seeing as Eiji was bigger than him even if it was slight. "You forgive me now?!"

Fuji laughed while playfully shoving Eiji off. Eiji beamed. Taiya watched with a 'what the flatoodles' look until Fuji's voice snapped her out of her daze. "So, Taiya; where's my hug?"

Taiya gave him a well-defined glare. "What in the world are you talking about?" she said with a sickly sweet smile, although she knew perfectly well what he meant. Fuji's smile seemed to broaden.

"Well, Eiji gave me a hug. So what are you going to give me in return, Taiya?"

"I'm gonna give you a good smack around the face if you keep playing around like this."

-.-"

'Fuji seems more normal than yesterday, not that he is normal...' Taiya watched the two Junior High Senior boys in front of her talking animatedly with each other while placing a single rose into a small and narrow vase. 'Well...at least the worst stage is over for the meanwhile...I really don't like Fuji's pissed off side...for some reason...

Then Taiya's eyes flickered across to Eiji's horror-struck face, his blue eyes staring at Fuji as though he was some sort of sea-beast. Taiya felt her mouth curl up into a nervous smile, a blue shadow forming across her left temple. 'Or maybe because I know it's wise not to have Fuji as my enemy.'

Suddenly the sound of clicking heels met the threesome's ears and they all turned to see Aiki, Taiya's mother, walking in donned in what appeared to be her last photo-shoot clothes. Taiya lifted her hand in greeting.

"Yo, mum! You do care about me!!"

"Oh, Eiji-kun! Fuji-kun! Glad to see you here!" Aiki said joyfully, giving them both a hug, all the while ignoring Taiya ("What about me...?" murmurs Taiya).

Aiki turned to Taiya and gazed down at her with a firm stare. "Taiya....."

Taiya seemed to let off an audible gulp. "Y-yes, mum?"

"....Where's the maths work I gave you to complete?"

"Here! Take it all!"

Fuji and Eiji had their mouths agape in disbelief, a blue and black shadow strewn across their eyes. 'She's in the hospital and she still set her homework....more than that, she's asking for it's submission before the greeting?'

"Okay! I talked to the nurses in charge here and they told me you can be released on Wednesday. Lucky it wasn't anything serious," Aiki told them, while Taiya beamed.

"Yes, mum," she replied, giving a big grin. "Then I can get back to training on my stamina-!"

"And one more thing; you are banned from tennis until next week."

"WHAT THE F.....!!"

"Shhh!"

"Uh, yeah....but- but!"

Taiya tried to argue, but Aiki shook her head disapprovingly. "No, Taiya. Do you really want me to see you in hospital all the time like your father?" she asked in Chinese, as though daring Taiya to answer. Taiya was defeated and she let her shoulders slump.

"No, mum."

Fuji and Eiji watched in silence (nothing much they could do seeing as mother and daughter starting conversing in Chinese).

"Well, I'll be back around 4. I have a meeting to attend to; your Uncle is coming down here again very soon," Aiki said. "It's so boring at home now that I think I could take this up again. It's only been 2 years since my last," Aiki chuckled before she gave a curt nod, turning to leave. "Eiji-kun, Fuji-kun; thank you for keeping Taiya company. Drop by our house any time you want to! Taiya's very lonely without her brother nowadays. Bye!"

Taiya shook her head in relief. "Finally she's gone. There's not a moment when she's a normal, caring mother like yours, Fuji."

"That's....quite incredible."

"Anyway, Taiya," Fuji started. "What were you conversing about? Surely you're not keeping more things from us."

Taiya pulled a face as Fuji turned and gave her a very icy stare with an incredibly honest smile. "N-no...nothing of the sort."

"Oh, that's good then."

'Eiji, help....!' Taiya cleared her throat. "My mum just said she'll be back at 4. She said my uncle will be down soon."

"Uncle?"

"My mother's brother and also my mother's agent," she explained. "My mum was a model back then but after stopping for 2 years, she's taking it back up again on request from her old agency."

"Ahh, no wonder Tai-chan's mother is so young and pretty!"

"Well she had me when she was 18-"

"Young!"

"Yeah...."

"...But don't you have an older brother? She must have had a child at least at 17 years of age then..." trailed off Fuji. Taiya let out a shout of laughter.

"He's my half brother. Nii-san as you would call it here had the same dad as me, but a different mother. That is why my mum and him don't get along extraordinarily well; more like siblings than anything I swear. Well, she is only 11 years older than him or so?"

"...There's a lot about you that we don't know," commented Fuji with a sweat-drop, a small and uncertain smile on his face.

"I don't know much about you guys neither. We just...mixed. We never really talked to each other a lot," admitted Taiya. "I really didn't want to mix...but it just happened...."

There was an awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere hovering above them like Death. Eiji shifted on his seat while Taiya fiddled with the sheets.

"Oh," started Fuji, breaking the tension, "I forgot. I brought...." Fuji fished out something from his denim pockets before holding up a stack of red playing cards. Taiya blinked. He gave a smirk.

"I want to see if you as Taiya are any good. Game?"

"You're on."

-

Fuji and Taiya were highly engrossed in a game called 'Big 2 ' after Eiji had left and, for some reason, Fuji kept winning.

"Aha! Take this! Full house with triple K's!" Taiya threw down a 5-card-combo consisting of a triple and a double. Fuji smiled serenely before placing his last 5 cards down.

"Quad 7; I think that beats your Full House," Fuji said with a wide smile.

"Why?! I just taught you this game and you beat me already!!"

"Ah ha, Taiya- I am always one step ahead of you when it comes to mind games."

Aiki walked in just as Taiya threw the card container at Fuji playfully, but still earned her a scolding from her mother. "Don't let me catch you doing that again," her mother warned. "Or I'll cage you in your room for more than a week."

"Okay, I won't.....let you see," she muttered under her breath as her mother left the room.

"Well, Taiya-san- I mean, Taiya," he corrected. "I'll have to go back now. See you on Wednesday- maybe."

Taiya frowned. The way he talked was as though she was a person he had only met on several occasions, instead of for 2-3 months while seeing each other at least 6 times a week with after-school training. What happened to that personality coincidence? She guessed it would be a while before everything went back to how it used to be.

Taiya fell back on the hospital pillows. "I can't expect too much. This situation itself has already been too kind to me."

The ceiling of the hospital seemed highly hypnotizing. The pure white tiles engrossed her mind into a 'count the tiles on the hospital ceiling' feeling, and she soon found herself falling into a light doze.

-

On a nice Thursday afternoon.....

Taiya's jaw was down to her feet as she stared at her tennis team-mates training once again. Watching everyone return the balls over the net, serving, smash practice, running laps oh-so joyfully...

"I can't believe I miss exercise..." breathed out a girl in the male uniform. This is none other than Sanzushi Taiya.

That was when Ryuzaki-sensei came over to Taiya, sitting down on the bench beside her. Taiya pretended not to notice, but that's what probably gave her away.

"It was a rather interesting turn of events, wasn't it, Taiya?"

Taiya gave a gulp, her heart rate beating at what felt like 200 beats per minute. But Ryuzaki-sensei didn't seem to be able to feel or hear the loud thumping of Taiya's heart; the feeling of it nearly breaking her rib-cage as it continued its rhythmic thumping was highly disturbing.

"I thought it was strange. Ryu's son Taichi should already be in College studying, since he would be....21 now?" Taiya nodded. "And then only on the day of the tournament when," Ryuzaki gave a low chuckle. "Your real gender was revealed that I remembered Ryu had a daughter about 14 or 15 this year...."

The elderly tennis coach's gaze on Taiya made her feel acutely uncomfortable and the only way to react was to stare away.

'I know this is impolite, but...," Taiya clenched her eyes. "I'm sorry. Did Tezuka-bu-" Taiya stopped herself in time. "Did Tezuka-san tell explain everything to you already?"

"He did, and I must say, you had us all fooled rather well!"

Her laughter stabbed Taiya in the heart, and a blue shadow formed across her forehead. 'W-what...? Is she mocking me...?'

"Have you told the school yet?" Taiya asked suddenly, rather pleadingly while silently praying she didn't. 'I can't be.....exposed like....like THAT~!'

An image of herself dressed in the ridiculous green school uniform skipping around the school grounds with her arms linked with other school girls appeared in her mind.

A horror-struck shadow casted over the top half of her face as the corner of her mouth twitched. 'Never....!'

"About that, Taiya...."

Taiya gulped.

"....we haven't said anything to anyone yet, seeing as we wanted to get the full picture ourselves first. But..." Taiya waited for it. She was going to say something that decided her fate.

"....Tezuka and I agreed that you could remain on the team."

Taiya nearly died of a heart attack as she shot up out of the seat and yelled incredulously, "You serious?!?!"

Ryuzaki-sensei gave a warm smile. "We asked the other Regulars about it, and they don't seem to have much of a problem." 'And the fact Kikumaru and Fuji kept harping on about it....'

Confusion and shock was still lingering heavily in Taiya's head.

"B-but! Why?! Why are you accepting it?!" 'Oh my God! Shut up, Taiya! She's giving you a chance, why ask, you freakin' moron?!'

By this time, Tezuka had walked forward and his frame seemed to tower menacingly above her. "What's this all about?" he commanded in his deep voice. 'And he's 14...?'

If he's intimidating in a purple shirt, he's even more so in a Regular's jersey with the sun hidden behind his head, glaring down at her along with him.

"I- I w-wanted to...."

"If you forgot, then don't waste time. I expect you to be training for the upcoming tournament by next week; don't let your guard down." And he stalked off without another word. Tezuka was surrounded by a holy light. Like an...an...

'Angel! So he does have a nice side afterall.'

-

From a little way away, Fuji heard the cry of exclamation coming from none other than Sanzushi Taiya, the soon-to-be first girl member in the boys Regular team.

"You serious?!?!"

Fuji stifled a giggle, and Eiji cast him a sideways glance.

"What's so funny, Fuji?"

Fuji merely smiled. "Oh, nothing, Eiji. I was just thinking what a interesting last year of Middle school it would be for us this year."

--------------

Old A/N - I mean, Holy crap. I finally updated -.- Now, I just need to get my hands on those Prince of Tennis eps fufufufufu.....anyways.....Happy New Year everyone for a few days ago!

I'm officially 14!! Boo-ya!

And thank you for reading. Bye bye.

Thank you for reading the first, rather boring section; Himitsu!

The 'sequel' or continuation is on my account page if you're interested. Even if this story is complete, I hope new readers who enjoyed it (or thoroughly think I need a check up) to comment on their thoughts. But like I said; don't ask me to kill off my OC character -.- Or compensate with a new monitor because you threw up for some reason. All other advice and criticism, please point out; if I have a reason or point of view, I will definitely reply. But I'm sure we can reach a good conclusion without the murder of the OC.

And 再见！