Disclaimer: Not mine.
Warnings: Small mentions of homosexuality, alcohol, tobacco use, and eating problems. Nothing too major. If more info is needed for triggers, message me.
Fic Notes: I've yet to read/watch shin, so not considered. There's two percent dealing with Akaya at Nationals, but otherwise it's contained before that. (Since I still haven't read that far in the manga nor watched the OVAs, and yes, I am horrible, but that's a different discussion.)
Author's note: I've got no good excuse for it being this long. I apologize. Old readers, if you're still kicking, please let me know; chances are I miss talking to you. New readers, I am so excited to meet you. :) As always, reviews/critiques/etc. are appreciated at the end! :) ETA: List format taken out due to a reviewer's concern over site guidelines. If you'd like the numbered one, just PM me your email.
Giving One Hundred Percent
(Zero Percent)
The regulars were all hand-picked by Yukimura before they even joined the team, bar Kirihara, who forced his way in.
Yukimura had been incredibly annoyed with Kirihara at first for foiling his plans.
That had all changed the moment he'd watched the boy play.
Sanada hated using force to control, but he knew no other way.
It had taken Marui a while to warm up to Jackal.
Jackal had spent almost all of his first year of junior high completely homesick for Brazil.
It took meeting Yukimura to finally bring Yanagi out of his shell after the sudden move.
Niou almost forced him right back into it.
Sanada was very superstitious, though he would never admit it.
Kirihara's sole reason for trying in school was to stay on the team.
(Ten Percent)
Niou started smoking at the age of twelve.
There was something thrilling to Yagyuu about dropping everything he knew and starting all over.
Though he was almost the youngest, Yukimura couldn't help but think of the regulars as his kids.
In Kirihara's opinion, there was no drink finer than properly chilled apple juice.
Niou agreed, but only if it was spiked.
Jackal had been worried joining the team would hurt the originality of his tennis.
Sometimes, Marui couldn't tell whether tennis or his brothers was more important to him.
Niou knew tennis was more important to him than his family.
Sometimes, Yukimura would cancel practice, commandeer a classroom, and make them watch a movie.
Living up to the expectations set by Rikkai was much more enjoyable for Yagyuu than living up to the ones set at home.
(Twenty-Percent)
Though Kirihara was the most obvious about it, Yanagi was actually the one who most often played on injuries when he shouldn't have.
Sanada felt completely naked without his cap.
And he was convinced playing without it was bad luck.
Jackal kept his girlfriend a secret from the team for months.
He finally told them because Niou and Marui had started stalking her.
Kirihara once kept a stray kitten in the club house for over a month.
Yagyuu's allergies were the reason they finally had to find it a real home.
Niou picked on Marui for his weight, because he was self-conscious about his own.
Marui's favorite color was pink, and he wasn't ashamed to admit it.
Kirihara always had temper issues.
(Thirty Percent)
Marui was an incredible chess player.
Much to Yanagi's chagrin, when he challenged him to a high-stakes game.
Yukimura, on the other hand, was rubbish at chess. It was one of the few things he just didn't get.
Yagyuu never regretted giving up golf.
They had once gotten snowed in at a winter training camp. It took them three extra days to get home, but it changed them all in the best way possible.
One of the few things Sanada and Niou had in common was their preference for coffee, black.
Kirihara had the most religious faith of anyone on the team.
Being on Rikkai made Jackal forget he was an only child. He liked that.
They had never seen Niou's real hair color.
Yanagi's fascination with data became his only way to hold on during those terrible months Yukimura was in the hospital.
(Forty Percent)
Playing on Rikkai's tennis team felt like coming home for Kirihara.
Tennis was originally Marui's escape from all of his other responsibilities.
Sanada once let Kirihara dress up the Sanada Family rock.
Sometimes Yagyuu needed an outlet so badly he nearly screamed.
Being Niou gave him that outlet.
Yanagi had a lovely singing voice.
Marui's greatest dream was to open his own restaurant.
Jackal really didn't mind babysitting Kirihara, even if he did go broke because of it.
The regulars had managed to get kicked out of both tea and coffee shops on no less than twelve occasions.
Niou had once schooled Yanagi at a speed math competition.
(Fifty Percent)
Yanagi had retaliated by crushing him in a singles game.
Yagyuu ditched class more times in a single semester than he could count on both hands. He was never caught.
Kirihara secretly loved being the baby of the team.
Yukimura talked in his sleep.
About beating French poets at tennis.
On a dare, Jackal once got his tongue frozen to a metal pole. When telling the story, he always pretended it was Kirihara.
Though he called himself a tensai, Marui knew it was less about natural genius and more about hours of hard work.
Yagyuu had twenty different pairs of fingerless gloves and over double the number of ties.
Yukimura enjoyed blatantly hitting on guys in front of his teammates.
(Yagyuu enjoyed Yukimura doing so, because so few things embarrassed Niou.)
(Sixty Percent)
Yanagi had an entire bookcase filled with notebooks. No one could understand his handwriting well enough to read them, though.
Though he wasn't proud of it, an irrational part of Jackal hated Yukimura for all of the pain the captain's illness brought on the team.
Kirihara didn't necessarily like seeing people in pain; he just wanted so badly that he would do anything to get.
That, and it was the only way he knew to get rid of this horrible, awful, hurt that burned inside of him over the injustice of Yukimura's illness.
Marui would have been blatantly lying if he said he'd never had a crush on any of his teammates.
Niou once almost punched a kid on another team for saying that it "isn't fair Rikkai always wins since they don't do shit anyway".
The only reason he didn't is that Yagyuu beat him to it.
Though he loved them all dearly, there was something about his friends that made Yukimura want to keep his younger sister very far away.
Niou was actually a virgin, no matter what he claimed.
Marui was not.
(Seventy Percent)
Kirihara was very allergic to peanuts and pecans.
Sanada had a terrible habit of denying he was sick when he clearly was.
Jackal had once been two points away from getting Sanada to shave his head.
Though Yanagi claimed to know everything about a person, he made special exceptions for his teammates, and he did not pry into their most private secrets.
(He did, however, sometimes accidentally stumble upon them.)
Those horrible months of Yukimura's illness drew them closer than they would ever realize.
Sanada would never admit it, but he cared about every one of the regulars as if they were members of his family.
Marui had an entire filing cabinet full of family recipes and whenever practice got rained out they would all head over to his house to goof off and attempt to help him make one.
Jackal's biggest fear was failing those who had given him everything. And snakes.
By the end of junior high, Niou was spending more nights sleeping in Yagyuu's bed than he was in his own.
(Eighty Percent)
Only the Regulars knew that, when Yanagi referenced something that happened to "a friend of his", he meant someone from the internet.
Losing that match to Echizen hurt Sanada more than he let anyone know.
Kirihara had truly believed his own loss meant they were going to lose Yukimura.
Yagyuu had once spent an entire week trying to teach them proper etiquette.
Yukimura wished he could say that hurting them is what hurt the most when he was sick, but the truth was he was far too selfish for that.
Yanagi accidentally walked into poles and doors at least once a week.
Niou put more effort into tennis than anything else in his life.
Marui was an emotional eater.
(Something he never told anyone, but Yanagi knew anyway.)
Even though it was more than his fair share of crazy, Jackal was always glad he joined the team.
(Ninety Percent)
Kirihara never quite forgave his senpai-taichi for the almost-panic attack he received when they decided to "help him grow".
(Even if he was always sort of thankful for it.)
Despite knowing him so long, Yukimura never stopped surprising Sanada.
Sanada never surprised Yukimura; Yukimura always knew when Sanada was making a leap, sometimes before Sanada did.
Kirihara managed to surprise both of them.
Niou was Yagyuu and Yagyuu was Niou, though they were nothing alike.
Sanada often forgot that tennis was just a game.
Yukimura never did.
Neither Yukimura nor Sanada expected complete perfection in the others; they just expected them to give one hundred percent.
They never lost, even if the score said they did.
(One Hundred Percent)