My friend gave me the prompts "And then there were five" and "I told you to put it away, now you know why." It was raining the other day. Take that as you will. :D

I've since been told that Chitose did not, in fact, decide to quit in the end. Heh heh. Oops. n.n;;

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.

I Wonder if They Have Umbrellas

It's an unusually cool August day in Osaka as I walk down the quiet street. The sky is dark and cloudy, turning the normally bright shops gray and dreary. There aren't too many people out on such a day; I don't mind it, myself, and I had needed to pick some things up at the sports store anyway. Absently, I shift the bag I'm carrying from my left hand to my right as I continue to take in every inch of the familiar street.

One may ask what, exactly, Shiraishi Kuranosuke is doing spending his free time buying tennis supplies and walking down empty streets, or why he seems to be enjoying himself when he is not, in fact, doing anything significant. To put it simply, I like cloudy days like this; I'm not entirely sure why. There's just something rather calming about them.

Sharp movements from the inside of a café off to my right catch my attention suddenly. Automatically, I turn my head. Then I have to keep myself from sighing in amusement at the cause of the disturbance.

Sitting together at a windowside table in the café are Konjiki Koharu, Hitouji Yuuji, Chitose Senri and Tooyama Kintarou. Koharu is busy checking out the blond guy a few tables down, while Yuuji is whacking him upside the head for it; Chitose is both mock-scolding them and laughing at Kintarou, who's eating a bowl of ice cream while asking something with that perfectly oblivious look only Kintarou can pull off.

I allow myself a small smile at the sight. Absently, I run a hand through my pale brown hair as I briefly wonder just how these four members of Shitenhouji's tennis team ended up together in the first place. I walk towards the entrance of the café to join them; I have to find out what kind of chaos they're creating now.

My entire team, you see, is insane.

This is not a mere opinion or theory; it is fact. Spend one day with them and you'll understand. Hell, you don't even need to go that far; just spend a few hours playing them and you'll be able to tell.

To be fair, I should really say "us," not "them." I'm the captain, after all.

The bells on the top of the door tinkle invitingly as I push the door open. The girl at the front is about to ask me something, but I hold up a hand to stop her. "I'm with them," I murmur, pointing at the table my teammates are sitting at.

I don't bother to announce myself as I stroll right up to them. I swing one of the white metal chairs over from a nearby empty table and sit down in it, settling myself at the end of the table.

Kintarou grins as he spots me. "Shiraishi!" he exclaims. The redhead is only a first year, two years younger than myself, and completely unbeatable in tennis-- though he's normally so bright and bouncy that you can't tell.

Next is Chitose. "Oh look," he exclaims as he throws his arms up in half-real, half-teasing enthusiasm. "And then there were five."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "What are you going on about?" I ask calmly, resting my chin in my left hand.

"Nothing, nothing." He flaps a hand at me, waving off the random comment. I've learned to expect such things from him by now anyway. Chitose isn't technically a member of the team anymore, but everyone still thinks of him as one of the regulars, and it's obvious he still likes the game. He stands out a bit in a crowd, with tan skin and frizzy black hair, so it's difficult not to notice him, and with half the school muttering about how "that talented transfer from Kyuushu" quit the tennis club, an outsider might think he's some sort of celebrity-- though the same could be said of myself and a few others. Anyway, he still hangs around us a lot, and nobody minds; we're his friends, and I think that on some level, we all still think of him as one of us.

"What brings you here, Shiraishi?" Koharu asks coyly. He's a rather difficult one to peg at first glance. His hair is shaved close to his head, and his glasses and merrily squinting eyes make him seem a lot older than he actually is.

In response, I set my bag down on the table. "I was out buying some tennis supplies," I explain. "I passed by and saw you guys in here."

"And you decided you simply had to join us, because you love us so much," Chitose teases, smirking slightly.

"Yes," I reply with a straight face. "I'm madly in love with you all." I earn a lot of laughs and a few teasing comments from that one.

"Actually," I continue once it quiets down again, "It really wasn't any choice of mine to come in here. I saw you four, here, together, and I had to." I lean back in my chair. "It was an inevitability."

"See? What'd I tell you? Magnetic attraction." Guess who.

"Well, now that you're here, at least someone can keep this guy in line," Yuuji butts in sarcastically. "He's been checking out every guy that's come in here so far!" Yuuji points an accusing finger at Koharu; in response, his doubles partner apologizes and puts on a pouty face.

"Can't you two just kiss and make up or something?" I inquire, raising an eyebrow again. "He's never going to stop, Yuuji. You know that."

"I know, I know," Yuuji mutters, tugging in mild irritation at the bandana that's wrapped around his forehead. Then he glances over at Koharu on his left. The boy attempts a swat at his partner's head, but Koharu ducks.

"Hey, Shiraishi," Kintarou exclaims suddenly from his window seat. "I got Koshimae to e-mail me this week. He actually said we're rivals!" (1)

"Echizen?" Another eyebrow raise. "How did you get him to e-mail you?"

Kintarou grins. "I got his e-mail from this guy on his team. That Fuji guy that you played!"

I sigh at this, grinning wryly. Just what kind of person is Fuji off the court, anyway?

-o0o-

"So that's the story behind the noodle incident!" Kintarou marvels as the five of us step out of the café an hour or two later. (2)

"Yep." Chitose nods sagely. "The moral of the story: never leave Kippei, Miyuki, and me alone in the kitchen. None of our parents let us out of their sight after that."

"I'm pretty sure Chitose could wreak havoc in the kitchen all by himself," I remark, coming up to join the two of them from behind.

"Hey!" he protests. "I am a master in the kitchen."

"Master of wreaking havoc?"

Koharu interrupts our good-natured banter. "Well, this is where we split up," he says. "Yuuji and I are going that way." He points to another side street on the left. Koharu and Yuuji are hanging off of each other as they walk, like always.

Chitose laughs a little as he watches them go. "They're really something else, aren't they, those two?"

"Yeah." I smile slightly. "Those two."

Now it's just Chitose, Kintarou, and me. We continue walking down the street together, talking and joking.

Suddenly a drop of water lands on my shoulder, and I stop. Is that...? Sure enough, another one hits my arm. I look up at the gray storm clouds above us. It's starting to rain.

"...Crap," Chitose says. "Did anyone bring an umbrella?"

I shake my head, suddenly realizing I forgot to take one with me when I left home. On Chitose's other side, Kintarou is having a similar reaction.

"Let's hurry," I say quietly. The other two give murmurs of agreement.

-o0o-

Luck, however, is not on our side. In a few minutes it's coming down in buckets, and the idea of simply hurrying is a moot point. The three of us duck into the nearest doorway we can find-- a small shop that happens to be a convenience store. We're all soaking wet, and the lone clerk at the counter is sending us glares for making puddles all over his nice clean floor.

"Damn, it's really coming down out there," whistles Chitose. He turns to me. "Guess we'll have to wait out the storm in here, eh?"

I nod. Then I notice: something seems to be... missing. After a moment, I look at Chitose.

"Where's Kintarou?"

-o0o-

We find him casually wandering up and down the aisles of the store.

"Oi, Kin-chan," Chitose exclaims once we catch up to him, "don't wander off like that! We were afraid you disappeared on us or something!"

"But I was just looking around!" Kintarou pouts.

I sigh inaudibly. "That's fine, Kin-chan," I say, giving Chitose a look that says, We can leave him for a few minutes, can't we?

Famous last words. A few minutes later, Kintarou discovers aisle seven: the toy aisle.

"Put the Furby away, Kin-chan."

"But I don't wanna!" Kintarou protests, clutching the furry toy. Chitose just closes his eyes in a "Why me?" expression.

"Kin-chan." I make sure my voice is firm. "Put it away."

"But..." Kintarou falters, still holding the Furby.

"Kintarou." I give him my "not amused" face, unwrapping the end of my left arm's bandages warningly.

His face instantly transforms into one of horror. "The poison arm!!" In a flash, he's put the Furby back on its shelf and is cowering behind Chitose, who just raises his eyebrows interestedly. "I'm sorry...!" the redhead whimpers.

I sigh, wrapping the bandages up again. Then I look Chitose squarely in the eye and say:

"This is your fault for giving him sugar."

"Wha-- my fault?" Chitose exclaims, holding his hands out innocently.

"Yes, yours. Kintarou." I motion for the first-year to come forward. Slowly, he creeps out from his spot behind Chitose, approaching me. I grab his hand and lead him a few aisles down. Chitose follows, catching on to my plan.

"This aisle has a bunch of other cool stuff, see?" I point.

His eyes light up and he wanders down aisle nine instead, temporarily distracted. You can almost hear the mental sighs of relief Chitose and I both breathe.

"That was close," my companion mutters as we walk off. I silently agree.

We spend a while after that wandering around the convenience store to pass the time. Chitose laughs at how many different shades of hair dye there are in the hair care aisle; I raise my eyebrows at the wall of medicines in the back, and wonder just how many effects all these different pills can actually have.

The two of us get into a mock fight with the plastic swords we find on aisle ten. When Kintarou finds us, it becomes a vicious three-way fight. The clerk at the counter yells at us for being so loud, and we're forced to stop, much to all of our [especially Kintarou's disappointment. After that, though, Kintarou drags the two of us over to an aisle that's filled with miscellaneous things like swimming pool floats and indoor fans and fake plants. All three of us spend a few minutes discussing why, exactly, one might want to buy a fake plant in a convenience store.

It's after that that Chitose and I discover the other real gem of the convenience store.

"Whoa, they actually have drinks and stuff here?" Chitose says when we get to the final aisle. Lining the wall is one of those refrigerated shelves, the ones used at grocery stores to keep dairy and drinks and such cold.

"Hey, snacks, too!" the other boy continues, walking over to look at the selection with interest. "And ice cream! Cool."

I give in to the slight half-smile that's been threatening to take over for a few minutes. With passing interest, I stride over to the middle of the aisle next to Chitose to see what they have as well.

I ponder the selection of items lining the wall. "...I should get milk before we leave."

Chitose looks at me.

"What?" I return his stare evenly. "We're almost out."

A pause. Then he snorts. "You're such a dork."

"Says the guy who wears geta sandals even in the rain?" I glance down at his feet.

"...Shut up."

By this point we're running out of places to explore, so we go up to the front of the store by the checkstand. While Chitose looks over the usual selection of gum, chocolate, and other sweets, I take the chance to actually talk to the clerk a bit. I learn that his name is Aoyagi. (3) His hair is bleached orange, and he has several piercings in his left ear.

"So," Chitose says casually, "what're you in for?"

Aoyagi-san scowls. "This isn't a prison, you know."

"Might as well be, with your attitude about it," I point out. "If you hate it as much as you seem to, why are you here?"

He snorts. "I'm waiting a year to go to college, so my parents made me get a job in the meantime." The scowl on Aoyagi-san's face suggests that the job was not a mutual agreement.

Chitose's eyebrows raise. "Ah, I see!" he exclaims, smacking his palm with his fist. "You're one of those slackers."

Aoyagi-san growls at him dangerously; whatever witty reply the clerk might have in store, however, is sharply cut off by loud and rather conspicuous noises coming directly from aisle seven.

Chitose and I look at each other, both suddenly realizing that we've forgotten about someone.

"Kintarou," I breathe, and Chitose nods. We rush off.

-o0o-

In the tennis world, I have a reputation for being rather hardcore, even frightening. The great, awe-inspiring Bible of Tennis.

Oh, if my opponents could see me now.

"It won't stop!" Kintarou cries, his young face looking uncharacteristically worried. "It just keeps saying 'doo-dah' over and over!" In his hands is none other than the bright orange Furby he spotted earlier. Apparently Kintarou's fascination with the toy aisle had not been quelled.

"Doo-dah! ...Doo-dah! ...Doo-dah!" the things squawks, over and over again. Kintarou tries talking to it, shaking it, anything, but the infernal toy does not seem to comprehend the redhead's attempts at shutting it up.

Chitose's eyebrows are raised in evident interest. "Wow. I've never seen someone manage to break a Furby that fast," he murmurs.

I cover my hand with my face, trying to deny any relation to these two at all. It doesn't work. "Kintarou..." I mutter, growling slightly. "I told you to put it away. Now you know why."

"But..." Kintarou pouts, looking down at the Furby helplessly.

I sigh in defeat. "I'm sorry about this," I say quietly to Aoyagi-san. He does not look pleased.

-o0o-

We end up having to pay for the Furby in compensation for having damaged store property. Kintarou doesn't have any money on him, naturally, so Chitose and I split the cost. We finally just take out the batteries to get it to stop talking.

Kintarou insists on taking the Furby home with him. Despite the earlier incident, he's somehow grown attached to the thing. Chitose and I promise to help him figure out how to fix it later.

The three of us wait up at the front of the store after that. There's nothing left to do, and the silence is rather tense; I think Kintarou gets the impression that we're mad at him.

Suddenly, something occurs to me. It is blindingly obvious now that I've thought of it, and I wonder how none of the three of us thought of it before.

"...Chitose," I say, feeling incredibly stupid.

He looks at me impassively. "Yeah?"

"This is a convenience store, no?"

"...Yeah..." He doesn't see where I'm going just yet.

"What do convenience stores do?"

"Sell... conveniences."

I look at him blankly. "Don't you think a convenience store would have umbrellas?" I deadpan.

He blinks. Then he smacks his forehead.

-o0o-

"Ahhh, I can't believe it..." Chitose moans as we walk home a few minutes later. We're walking side-by-side, each with his own umbrella; me on the right, Chitose on the left, and Kintarou in between us. "We spent all that time in there, and not once did we think that there might be umbrellas!"

"I thought of it," I point out. "You two were too busy playing with all of the stuff in there to bother."

"Hey, who started the sword fight?" Chitose argues. I ignore him.

"And it might've been easier in there if we hadn't made Aoyagi-san mad with the whole Furby incident..." I add.

Kintarou looks down at this. Oops.

"...Hey Shiraishi..." he mutters after a moment. I look at him. He refuses to look up; his eyes are glued on the water-sprinkled bag that has the aforementioned Furby in it.

"...'m sorry," he says quietly.

I can't help myself; I'm smiling fondly. "Kintarou," I say, trying to get him to look up at me. He doesn't move. I try again. "Kintarou, look at me." No reply.

"Kintarou." Finally I stop and crouch in front of him, resting my umbrella on my shoulder as I put both my hands on his shoulders. Finally, he looks up, his face guilty.

I stifle a laugh at his expression. "Don't worry about it," I say gently. "It's not a big deal; it's just a toy."

His face lights up. "Really?"

This time I do laugh. "Yes, really," I confirm, standing up again. Just as long as we don't give him sugar again, I add mentally.

The redhead grins gleefully, proceeding to run down the street, ahead of Chitose and me.

"Kintarou," I call after him. He stops and turns around curiously.

I point to a street off to the right. "Your house is that way."

"Eh heh heh..." Kintarou laughs sheepishly. He runs back to us and goes down that street instead. After a few seconds he waves a hand behind him, shouting, "Bye, guys! See you tomorrow!" Then he's gone.

Chitose laughs as the two of us continue-- I admit I'm smiling a bit myself.

"You're good with him," Chitose says thoughtfully after a minute.

"Hm? ...Yeah," I answer absently, turning to him.

Chitose grins. "He's like your little brother or something, isn't he?"

I pause at this; I've never thought of it that way before. "...I suppose," I answer after a moment.

He smiles. "Congratulations, you're a big brother now."

I smirk at him. We continue in comfortable silence.

"A big brother who forgets that convenience stores sell umbrellas."

"...Wait, why am I getting teased? You guys are the ones who didn't think of it..."

-o0o-

The next day at school, I take the opportunity to sit with the other regular members at lunch. They're all already there by the time I show up.

"So," I say, sitting down in a cafeteria chair next to Chitose. "Who's up for a team outing this Sunday?"

The others look mildly interested. "Where at?" Kenya asks.

"I was thinking pizza or something."

Chitose looks thoughtful. "A pizza place, huh...?" He smirks. "I wonder if they have umbrellas there?"

Kintarou laughs; everyone else just looks confused. My only response is to smack Chitose upside the head.

OWARI

A/N-

(1) - This is a reference to another fic of mine, "No Big Surprise." And, er, that's not quite the way it goes. Kintarou himself is actually the one that says it ;;

(2) - Much love to anyone who gets this reference.

(3) - Haha, this is my tribute to Loveless. I got volume 6 the other day and completely fell in love with Soubi. :D;; (Though that's irrelevant, really.) Could also be a reference to Aoyagi Ruito, if you like. XD

Hope you enjoyed. This is my second time writing Kintarou and my first time writing everyone else, so please tell me what you thought:D;;