Disclaimer: Tenisu no Oujisama is not my property.
EURO CUP
"Ah, Tezuka-kun! Come on in!"
Tezuka greeted Fuji Yumiko and stepped into the house. He had a bag with him. Earlier in the morning Fuji had asked him to come and sleep over since he would be home alone that night.
"Shuusuke asked you to stay over, right? Why don't you go to his room, then? He is sleeping, though," The oldest of Fuji siblings chirped happily. "I should get going now. Take care of yourselves, ne!"
With that, Yumiko stormed outside. Tezuka went upstairs to Fuji's room. Just as he creaked the door open, Fuji woke up.
"Ah, Tezuka!" The smaller boy beamed as he sat up on his bed.
"Fuji," The buchou nodded curtly in reply. He put his bag down and had a seat.
"Sorry, this room is a mess," Fuji grinned apologetically. "I was immediately asleep when I came home, so I had yet to tidy it."
"Were you that tired?"
"No, not really. I was preparing to stay awake through this night. I want to watch Euro Cup, you know."
"You watch soccer?" Tezuka's frowned lightly. He didn't know Fuji liked soccer.
"My, everybody watches it, Tezuka!" Fuji replied spiritedly. But then he frowned at his friend, "Don't tell me… you don't?"
"No, I don't," Tezuka answered truthfully. Well, he had heard his classmates and the tennis club members talked about it but since he didn't have any interest in it, he didn't give a damn. As long as it didn't disturb their practice, he didn't really care.
"Tezuka," Fuji called, suddenly became very serious. "Mention a football player's name you know."
The stoic boy stared at the tensai incredulously. What was with the sudden test? But being the top student with wide general knowledge he was, he still answered intelligently, "Pele."
Fuji stared at him for a good ten seconds before responding, "Well, he was a football player. Mention a player who still plays."
"Doesn't he?"
Fuji's jaw almost touched the ground. True, he knew that Tezuka's life always revolved around tennis and he kinda had no idea about any other sport, but… but not this bad! Everyone knew Pele had retired 30 years ago, for God's sake!
"He was a football player," Fuji repeated carefully. "Until 1974. Mention another name."
Tezuka threw an almost annoyed look, "Ronaldo."
"Which Ronaldo are you referring to? From Brazil or from Portugal?"
"Are there two?" Tezuka asked back too innocently.
Tezuka immediately knew he had asked a wrong question, for now Fuji was looking at him as if he was some kind of creature from Andromeda galaxy.
Fuji was tempted to question where the buchou spent his life for so far, but he held back. "There are Ronaldo from Brazil and Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal," instead, he answered patiently.
Deciding that the topic about players was hopeless, Fuji turned to countries, "Which country do you support in this year's Euro Cup, Tezuka?"
Tezuka really looked annoyed now for he had told Fuji that he didn't watch Euro Cup, but he knew declining someone's question when the question was still inside the frame of norm was impolite, so he answered calmly, "Japan."
Discovery of the year: Tezuka Kunimitsu was a patriotic nationalist.
Fuji's jaw really hit the floor this time. "TEZUKA!! Japan doesn't participate in Euro! Look at the name! Euro is for European countries!"
Being the dignified person he was, Tezuka replied stubbornly, "U.S. Open allows other countries' players to participate."
Fuji wanted to roll his eyes and sighed in frustration. "That's tennis. And mind you, that's for individual. They don't play on their countries' behalf."
"I know," Tezuka said, as if it didn't make any difference.
Well, if Tezuka doesn't even know that Japan is NOT participating in Euro, then this is hopeless, Fuji shook his head in disbelief. He predicted that someone like the Tezuka Kunimitsu could at least deduct that EURO was for European countries, no matter how clueless he was about sports other than tennis. But apparently he was wrong. Tezuka Kunimitsu, the nationally-ranked junior high tennis star, was not clueless. He was HELPLESS.
Fuji Shuusuke's new mission: get Tezuka to forget tennis for a while and make him know soccer better.
When midnight finally arrived, Fuji dragged his guest to the living room. He switched the TV on just in time for the kick-off.
"Sweden versus Russia, ne?" Fuji nodded a little. "Who do you support, mm, Tezuka?"
Tezuka gave him an I-don't-know-anything-about-soccer-if-you-forget stare. "I don't have any."
"Mou, you have to pick one, Tezuka! Otherwise it will be no fun!" Fuji went on with his mission. Even for a tensai like he was, it felt like mission impossible. "Come on, pick a side to cheer! That's the art of watching soccer," he added in expert-like manner.
"Mn," a light crease formed on the buchou's forehead. "How about you?"
Fuji grinned. At least he cares. "Well, actually none of them is my favourite. But my bet is on Sweden because they have better offence. See, they have two good strikers. Their middle line is also strong."
"Hn," Tezuka nodded, his eyes were on the screen. Like all things he did, the buchou watched with total concentration. Focus. Dedicated.
They spent the next ten minutes in silence before Tezuka announced, "I guess Russia will win."
"We'll see," Fuji nodded as he grinned inwardly. It's not really a mission impossible after all. At least he tries. He studies the match, analyzes and makes a guess. So much like Tezuka.
Fuji played his role as temporary Swedish cheerleader very well. He cheered when the team got chances and fussed when Russia invaded. He practically mourned when Russian team made their first goal.
"Ooooohhh, that's too bad! You can do better than that… Ooh, why could this happen…" He wailed in agony and wiped imaginary tears on his cheeks. He most likely would add a heart-rending 'It breaks my heart!' should Tezuka not throw him that priceless blank stare. He poked Tezuka's side and whispered a 'saa, Tezuka, you're supposed to cheer!' between his sobs.
"Hn," the bespectacled teen grunted. Inspired by his teammate's Broadway-like reaction, Tezuka stated his festivity charmingly, "That's a sharp shoot."
Realizing that the match analysis-like praise was the best cheer he could get out of Tezuka, Fuji sighed in defeat and focused his mind back on the match. Well, at least he praises. Russia made another goal and Tezuka was still as cheerful as an iceberg.
Once the match was over (2-0 for Russia), Fuji commented animatedly with a happy beam, not bothering that Sweden lost at all, "Ne, Tezuka, even if you don't show any sign of passion whatsoever you do have a thing for soccer. What drives you to guess Russia will win?" At least he has sharp analysis or even sheer luck in soccer, Fuji thought. Mission accomplished, if so.
"Because," Tezuka contemplated for a moment, "Russia produces good tennis players."
Fuji's face fell.
Mission failed.
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A/N: Random idea of mine ;) Pop out of nowhere when I'm taking a bath. Oh, I feel like whacking Tezuka's head with a soccer ball. Not everything in this world is tennis-related, buchou!
I don't know how it is in Japan, but in my country every guy likes soccer and watches Euro Cup. Oh, and some girls do too.
Please review, darling! Thank you for reading ;)