I was so touched by all the readers and all who reviewed and gave their opinions to the story "Respect." I do recall that I said that I would write a one-shot fic on both of them again, and because I'm (once again!) in my Prince of Tennis craze, I have created an added story to Tezuka and Amasawa Amai.
Although, I ended it when Tezuka (finally!) said he loved Amai when they were in college already, I just wanted to make the setting back in middle school because it's much cooler when all of the regulars are there! When you're in college, you don't see all the regulars in one school, at all! And so, just to clear things up, Tezuka and Amai (just for this story) are already together in middle school. Cool? So, please enjoy this as much as you guys enjoyed old dear "Respect"
RESPECT: THE WAKE UP CALL
"Haru, what's the meaning of this?!"
I had just finished my chores for cleaning the classroom and was already ready to leave when I saw a message in my locker. It had said, "Stop being an idiot! Wake up and face the truth!" The handwriting was clearly Inui Sadaharu's but,it didn't sound anything like him. So, I barged into his tennis practice and yelled from the top of my lungs just to get dearest Haru's attention. And it paid off. I was waving the piece of paper around. All the members of the tennis club were staring at me. I was the star of the night, er… um… afternoon.
Haru-chan sighed for just a moment and walked to the furious and curious me. He grabbed the paper from my hand and gave me that analyzing face which I miss so badly. "This looks like my penmanship, but I didn't write it." He denied, duh.
"Neither could Renji, he doesn't sound like someone who would write it. Besides, why would he leave it in my locker when he would rather say it to my face." I replied.
"Hmm.." we both said and stared at the paper with an intense look.
And then the most beautiful low and mysterious voice rang in my head, but HE was calling Haru-chan. That's weird. "Inui, return to practice. After that run 10 laps for stopping your practice session." And that's when I realized Tezuka's voice wasn't in my head. I looked at the corner and found him, cross-armed and staring back at us. Haru stiffened.
"It seems like I have to go." He said.
"Yeah, go before he changes his mind and makes it 100 laps. I don't want you dead just because he ordered you to run laps." I replied.
He nodded, and ran but before that, he left me a simple but disturbing message. "And tell that boyfriend of yours to go easy on us once in a while."
I just gave him a stiff smile and hit his chest with full force. But I fear that felt just like a tap of a baby. Man, I should try doing some physical work some time. I looked at Tezuka, (yes, he is my boyfriend). It's still pretty hard to swallow, huh? It's like pushing down a rock through your throat. You just keep on pushing and pushing it down, but no matter what you can never never wake up from the truth! Tezuka Kunimitsu looked back at me and nodded, in return I gave him a smile.
I held on tight to the paper that I was so frustrated about and sighed once more. I pulled my cell phone out, typed down Renji's number and walked to the dorm.
"Amai-chan? Sorry we're having tennis practice at the moment." He replied immediately.
"Sorry, someone just sent me this annoying message and I just can't keep it off of my head. Call me back when you're done." I explained.
"This seems interesting. There is an 88 percent chance that this message is a hate message of some sort and if not there is an 12 percent chance that Tezuka wants to break up with you." He pointed out.
He was practically correct about his guess except that 12 percent part was just plain stupid. "Idiot!" I yelled. I was inside the bus and saying that out loud was something ironically idiotic for me to do. I apologized to the passengers silently and smiled to them. "Don't bring that up." I whispered, "but well, it is kind of like a hate message."
"So, I was correct."
Don't brag you idiot. Just because you got it right it doesn't mean that your data is always correct! And didn't you say you had practice! Isn't Yukimura going to get mad at you!!!, I yelled in my mind. "Yes, you are" I tried to handle the anger in my head. "It said 'stop being and idiot. Wake up and face the truth' with a giant exclamation point in the end. I kind of thought that Haru wrote it because he had a similar handwriting."
"What did he say? He denied it, I presume."
"He did, alright. Besides, he would never say that. Would he?"
"I don't think he would lie about that." He concluded. "Maybe, one of Tezuka's fangirls? There is still a possibility that they still don't accept your relationship."
"But hasn't that ended when Tezuka publicly announced our relationship." I reminded him.
"You can't actually call it public, since he had only announced it to those fangirls of his who had continuously hated you."
"How can you not call that public! There were 42 of those girls!!!"
"You counted? " he asked, unexpectedly.
"I got bored while he gave them a speech so I counted." I murmured. I had reached my stop and got off the bus.
"Yanagi, is that Amasawa-san on the phone?" I heard Yukimura say in background.
"Yes, she seems to be having a problem. I'll continue practice now" He returned to me, "I'm sorry, like I said, I have practice."
"Yes, yes, go immerse your life in tennis." I replied
We said our goodbyes and we were off the phone. While walking, I received a message from my phone.
Sender: Tezuka Kunimitsu
Subject: Tonight
I know you're on your way home, please meet me.
-
Short messages suit Tezuka a lot, huh. I still don't understand how I got attracted to the guy. Not too long ago, I remember that I had felt respect for the guy. It has somehow escalated to the feeling called love. How crazy life is. I replied with this.
Subject: re: tonight
Meet me in the bookstore. A bus just arrived, I'll be there in no time!
SEND!
I always wondered what he felt like whenever he e-mailed me. I mean, when do stoic people ever send people messages like these. And this isn't even a message to some teammate; it's a girl! Strictly speaking, I'm the girl.
Whatever, and to the bookstore I go.
"Yo!" I greeted him. He was silently scanning through a sports magazine.
"Amasawa-san" he replied.
"So, where do you want to go tonight?" I asked.
He adjusted his glasses, "Should we just walk?" he offered.
"Not a problem with me." I agreed. I looked up at the darkening sky above. The sun was slowly setting as I saw the moon midway through the clouds. "It doesn't look like it's going to rain."
"Hm?" came his reply.
"Nah, I just remembered how every time we meet, it rained." I shook my head, and waved my hand around. But what surprised me the most was the next move. It wasn't an unexpected rain pouring down. Nor was it some seigaku regular trying to destroy our date. It was that while I was waving my hand around, Tezuka grabbed it. Not to stop me from waving them, but to hold them. He held them tight as if he was going to lose me. When I tried to look at him, I found him staring straight at the pathway. He didn't bother turning his head to look at me nor adjust his glasses. It wasn't his face that I wanted to remember forever though; it was his warm hand that deliberately held my hand. I wanted to treasure that moment forever.
"Raining or not, that wouldn't make any difference." He looked at me. "All I want is that you would be there."
I stopped myself from blushing. But that feeling must have been hard to stop. "Tezuka, do you have your racket with you?" I changed the subject suddenly. An idea had popped inside my head.
"Yes, why?"
"Teach me." I replied. He gave me a shocked look. I continued, "I may have told myself a billion times that I would never want to learn how to play tennis, but maybe I should try it out."
"Sure."
"Just swing like that. I'll be on the other side of the court throwing a ball towards you. Try hitting it, alright?" Tezuka said.
We had reached some empty tennis court. Tezuka began tutoring me on swings. It took me around fifteen to twenty minutes to get the kind of serve that he liked. He's a perfectionist, huh. But I understand that part of him. He threw a ball from the other side; I hit it. Unfortunately, it touched the net. One more try! Same result. And once more… I hit the net again.
"What's wrong?" I mumbled.
"I want you to add more force to it." He replied, as he walked to my side of the court.
"Ah, alright." I responded.
"Can I see that form again?" He asked.
I swung once more for him. I saw him shake his head. He treaded towards me. Before I knew it, he was right behind me. His right hand on my right hand, holding the racket along with me. His head was right beside mine, staring at the racket. He said, "Like this" and I just nodded. But my head was extremely hot. I must have been turning into a red tomato. His hand was getting warmer and tighter. He stopped demonstrating the swing to me, and just whispered, "It's hard to teach you, huh?"
I didn't reply. He rested his forehead on my shoulder, his left hand wrapping around my stomach. He let go of my right hand and hugged me. I was turning red. I was turning really really red. But for some reason, I liked the feeling of him wrapping his arms around me. I liked that he was really close to me. His head moved and was right beside mine once more. "Are you sure you still want to learn?"
"I guess, it's harder than I thought." I smirked.
"Are you giving up?" he whispered.
"I don't want to, just yet." I held on to his arms and leaned on his head.
And the highlight of the night? He kissed me on the forehead. Such memories, I'll never forget.
"So, why did you call Inui in the middle of practice?" he asked, while taking me home.
"Ah, I received a weird message in my locker. It looked a lot like Inui's handwriting, so I had to call him." I explained.
"Hm? What did it say?" He asked.
"Here I'll show it to you." I picked it out of my pocket and passed it to him. "I'm still wondering what it means though."
He read it, and returned it to me. He pulled something out of his tennis bag, though. It was a paper, "I received a message, too." He showed it to me.
"'Wake up! Don't let go of her!'" I read out loud.
"It looks like Fuji's handwriting but I haven't bothered to ask. And the word her would mean you, I believe." He said.
"Let go?" I repeated from Tezuka's message, "Face the truth…" I said from my paper. "Maybe it really is Inui and Fuji."
"Hm?"
"If you analyze it properly, they're just watching out for us. They want me to see that I'm not the only girl out there who would want to go out with you and well, for you… they don't want you to let go of me. They're just giving us little reminders." I concluded. "What do you think?"
"I agree."
"But why didn't they just say it to our face?" I wondered. We both didn't respond. "Well, it's not like you're going to leave me, right?" I looked at him. He didn't budge. "Right?" I asked again.
"Right." He replied.
I grinned and held on to his hand. "Hey, you're walking slowly, Tezuka-kun!" I said then pulled him to a slight jog.
It maybe hard to force a smirk on his face, but knowing that he's happy by my side makes me realize that his expressions may not show it but his feelings are greater. Tezuka Kunimitsu will always be by my side and I'll do the same for him. No matter what!
"Yudan sezo ni ikou" I'd hear him say while dismissing the tennis club members.
"You really push them to their limit, huh?" I commented after they had all changed back to the uniform.
"That's the best way for them to train." He replied, while drinking water and wiping himself from his sweat. He, too, had his own share of practice for this day.
"Ne, Amasawa-chan? How have things been with Captain?" Eiji jumped on me. Fuji was walking behind me.
"Don't hurt her too much." He said with his signature smiled.
"Yes, Eiji, you don't want her to get hurt by your hugging, do you?" Oishi added.
"Amasawa-senpai, so, how is Tezuka-buchou?" Momoshiro whispered out loud. Or something like that.
"Shut up!" I heard Kaido say. "You shouldn't ask that!"
"Ah, what do you mean, Mamushi?"
"Argh!"
"Argh!!!"
They began arguing.
"Momoshiro, Kaidou! Stop fighting." Tezuka ordered. They both stopped immediately and stiffened.
"Ah, we made a new dish in the shop." Kawamura said. "My dad wants to treat all of you."
"Let's go" They all yelled cheerfully.
"You're getting used to everything that's going around in this club, huh, Senpai?" Echizen said behind all the screams.
"I guess." I replied.
All of them ran towards the exit of the school. Tezuka, Fuji, Sadaharu and Oishi were walking behind them. I jogged to the side of Tezuka. I didn't hold his hand this time, though. I just smiled at him, and in return he gave me a slight smirk.
As we were nearing the Sushi Shop, Tezuka stopped abruptly. He let the others enter the shop before him. That was when he held my hand and then said.
"I don't want to leave you."
"Same here." I replied
He bent down and closed the gap between us. His left hand lifted my head to face him. He then kissed me ever so softly, so gently.
"I'll be with you, forever." He said.
A/N: Awww, how sweet. And… so.. unlike Tezuka!!!!!!! But c'mon… how would you enjoy amasawaXtezuka scenes without those cheesy moments? Besides, there has to be a first for everything. Hehe. Hope you had fun with it?