Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ 10 Years Later ❯ Chapter 2

"Ten Years Later"

A _Price of Tennis_ Fanfiction

By Andrea Readwolf [andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com]

Chapter: 2

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Shishido Ryou, Shishido Karina, Shishido Marika, and Otori Chotaroh

Genre: Drama-Angst

Warnings/Spoilers/Summary: 10 years after Otori decided to leave Japan, 10 years after Shishido married another woman, Hyotei's Platinum Pair are destined to meet again.

 

Disclaimer: Tennis no Ohjisama, characters and settings are the property of Konomi Takeshi. Original characters and story idea are property of Andrea Readwolf.

 

Started: February 2005.

Word Count: 3549

 

 

"10 Years Later" Chapter 2

 

The Shishido residence was a modest house in one of the newer single family home communities built near Hyotei in the last twenty years or so. The entranceway was overcrowded with potted plants and trees in various states of care and there was a family car parked safely under the shaded car park. A cat darted across their path with a dead mouse in its mouth as they approached the side door.

 

"Better not let 'Rina see that," Shishido told the cat as he side-stepped the feline and went straight to the kitchen door. "What would you like to drink?" he called over his shoulder.

 

Otori gave that cat an inquisitive look, remembering the old calico cat Shishido had had in high school and realizing Old Cat must have passed on. This was a new feline. He wondered about Shishido's old dog, Smoke, and was saddened to think he must have died, too. "Anything's fine," he answered, moving to catch the door Shishido was holding open for him.

 

"So when did you get back into town?" Shishido continued friendly-like, and Otori appreciated his effort at making this seem normal. Even ten years ago, Otori hadn't known what to say when he'd returned to Japan for a visit. But that was ten years ago, Otori reflected. Surely he could compose himself more maturely now? After all, he was a responsible, successful person.

 

"About a week ago," he answered, realizing Shishido was still waiting. "My sister picked me up at the airport, and Jiroh's been helping me settle into my new apartment."

 

"Not staying with the parents, then, huh?" Shishido grinned, handing him a tall glass of lemonade.

 

"They offered," Otori grinned back, accepting the glass, "But I plan on staying for good this time and didn't want to get into any... bad habits."

 

Shishido laughed. "Meaning, you're too damned used to living on your own to live back under your mother's thumb, ne?"

 

"Yeah, there's that," Otori laughed sheepishly.

 

"Ryou? Is that you?" a woman's voice called lightly from another room a moment before the young woman emerged from one of the doorways.

 

Otori had seen Shishido Karina before, several times, actually, although he'd never met her. It had been several years since he'd last been in Japan, but Jiroh was rather dependable for updated news and recent pictures of everyone. Otori had thought Karina was a very beautiful woman on her wedding day, and his opinion really hadn't changed in the years since.

 

The sleepy woman looked fresh from a nap, her dark brown hair tangled with curls as it fell around her face and shoulders in the popular style. Her face was well-shaped and featured, her posture delicate yet proud. Her stomach was noticeably swollen but not overly enlarged yet with pregnancy, and the simple golden band on her left hand still shined.

 

"Oh, good afternoon," the young woman started, offering him a little bow as was Japanese traditional custom--something Otori had missed sorely while living abroad.

 

"Good afternoon, Shishido-san," he replied, returning her greeting and mentally kicking himself for almost tripping over the addressing. It... hurt...

 

"Karina, this is Otori Chotaroh," Shishido spoke up, leaning against the sink in his casual manner and drawing from his drink. "We went to school together."

 

Otori swallowed and felt foolish standing there in the middle of Shishido's kitchen, standing between his ex-partner---his ex-lover---and Shishido's wife.

 

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Shishido-san," he said to cover his embarrassment, purposefully addressing her as was her station.

 

"And you, Otori-san," she returned. "Welcome to our home."

 

"Thank you."

 

"Chotaroh's just moved back to Japan," Shishido added and Otori felt his chest twinge at hearing Shishido's voice wrap around his given name again.

 

"Oh, how wonderful," the young woman looked honestly happy, and Otori felt like the worst sort of person for being there. "Do you live nearby?"

 

"Ah, yes, actually," he admitted. "I have an apartment near the park."

 

"Does Akutagawa know you're here?" she continued.

 

"Ah, yes, actually, Jiroh contacted me before I moved back and has been helping me get settled in." And was probably doing a lot of scheming, too, Otori suddenly realized, since it was the blond who had found Otori his current apartment, which just so happened to be close to the Shishido residence.

 

Shishido snorted. "He is such a meddling mother hen," the dark-haired man huffed apparently sharing Otori's thoughts. "Ever since we all graduated and went our separate ways, he's had to wake up to make sure we haven't slipped his apron strings."

 

"That's not very nice," Otori started, but Karina waved her hands.

 

"Oh, just let him. He's not happy unless he has something to complain about, but just you watch," she went up, chasing Shishido away from the sink area. "If Jiroh didn't call him to confirm their regular game night, Ryou would be on the phone demanding to know what's wrong."

 

"I do not complain--" Shishido started but stopped when he realized both Otori and Karina were hard-suppressing their amusement at his expense.

 

"Yes, you do," Karina corrected him, smiling so lovingly that Otori felt a little sick at being there again, and then she turned that smile on him. "Otori-san, will you stay for dinner?"

 

"Oh, no, I couldn't," he started to protest, but she cut him right off.

 

"Don't be silly. It's no trouble, really. Please," she added gently. "I insist. Stay for dinner and you and Ryou can talk some more. You've been away from Japan for a long time, and, whether he'll admit it or not, I know he's missed you."

 

Otori looked over at Shishido, but the older man just growled something and wouldn't look at him. He nodded, just a short bob of his head, and Otori smiled back at the young woman. "I appreciate your hospitality. Thank you."

 

Otori and Shishido were sitting around a low table, talking on about old times and rehashing memories over food and drinks when Shishido's breathless little girl came running in caught in a flurry of excitement.

 

"Mom! Dad! Guess what! Haruka's dog had puppies!" Marika cried ecstatically, pushing long dark strands of hair that had wisped free from her pony-tail out of her sweating face. "Haruka's mom says they're still too little to leave their mom, but they still have to find homes for 'em, and can we have one, puh-lease?"

 

"In a couple of months you'll be a big sister," Shishido told her, "and there'll be no room for a dog, let alone that cat you begged and pleaded for and neglect."

 

"I don't neglect Gili," the girl pouted. "And what's so great about babies, anyway?"

 

Shishido rolled his eyes and snatch the girl up, dragging her into his lap. "Chotaroh, you really didn't get a chance to meet this hellion earlier, but this is Marika."

 

"I'm not a hel'lon!" she cried, wrestling to get free. "I'm just high-spirited!"

 

The adults laughed.

 

"Marika, go wash up for dinner," Karina commanded softly as she set a bowl down on the table.

 

She wormed off her father's lap, but wasn't quick enough to avoid the affectionate swap he aimed at her. She turned and stuck her tongue out at him before darting safely away.

 

"She's her father's daughter," Karina said to Otori after Shishido had excused himself, too, sharing the other man's amused smile.

 

"I can see that."

 

"You like children, Otori-san?"

 

"Well enough, I suppose."

 

"Mmm." She set individual bowls and chopsticks out and continued on conversation lightly. "What do you plan on doing now that you're back in Tokyo?"

 

"Well, I intend to keep up with my studies to begin with." Otori shifted uncomfortably. It felt very strange to be so alone with this woman, he thought.

 

"Oh? You're a student then?"

 

"Not officially, no. Merely a musician."

 

"That must be nice," Karina smiled pleasantly. "What instrument do you play?"

 

"Many, but I prefer to work with the violin--I imagine it's what the soul must sound like if the soul had sound."

 

She sighed. "That's a beautiful sentiment."

 

"Thank you, although," he blushed, "I fear it's a rather silly thing to say."

 

"No, not at all. I think it's lovely," she told him, and Otori couldn't be sure, but he felt she was looking at him strangely, as if trying to decide something.

 

"Are you an 'uncle-person'?" Marika piped up suddenly, peering into the room at Otori from around the corner.

 

Otori started. "Excuse me?"

 

"Are you an uncle-person," she repeated slowly, as if speaking slowly would help him understand, as she stared warily at Otori.

 

"Marika, come here," Karina bid holding out her hand to the ten year old. "Now that you're all cleaned up, there's someone special I want you to meet. This man is Otori Chotaroh," she introduced, hugging the girl into her lap, "and he's your father's very special friend. Your father and Otori-san used to play tennis together when they attended Hyotei."

 

"Oh, another tennis player," the ten year old sighed and slumped into her own seat, completely losing interest in Otori.

 

~~~****~~~

 

Two weeks later, Otori was marking notes on a score sheet when his phone rang. He frowned with annoyance, but reached over to answer the pestering thing regardless.

 

"I'm sorry to bother you, Otori-san," Shishido Karina's voice sounded sweet and delicate on the phone, and Otori forgot his annoyance.

 

"Not at all, Shishido-san. How can I help you?"

 

And that was how Otori Chotaroh found himself waiting in a woman's doctor's office beside his ex-lover's wife---pregnant wife, his guilty mind insisted on reminding him. As if he wasn't going through enough emotional confusion just thinking about Shishido... there was also the thought of Shishido's wife to contend with. He was almost tempted to just pick up and leave Japan again. Not that it made the confusion any easier to understand, but it was a lot easier to ignore when he was living on the other side of the world.

 

"Shishido Karina-san," the nurse called, and the young woman sitting next to him reached for his hand.

 

"Come with me?" she asked softly, not relinquishing his hand.

 

"I really don't think," he began to protest, but then she looked at him with those brown eyes that seemed to plead with him, and Otori cursed his weak disposition towards women as he rose.

 

And that was why he was there when Karina's doctor spoke with her; why he heard everything her doctor had to say; why he wished he was anywhere else but in Japan that very moment.

 

And, perhaps worse yet, Otori didn't know what to say or do about this new knowledge he possessed. He wasn't even sure why Karina had made a point to make sure he was there, and he did realize then that his presence had been a very calculated move by the other person, and he reminded himself that he would be wise to remember that Shishido Karina was a Hyotei graduate, too.

 

"Did your ride really cancel on you today, Shishido-san?" he asked as he shifted the car into gear.

 

Brown eyes slanted towards him before looking away again. "There wasn't a ride," she answered calmly. "I usually go by myself."

 

He wanted to ask, "Why me?" but found his mouth too dry to even form the words.

 

Shishido Karina sat beside him, seemingly calm, hands folded delicately in her lap over the gentle bulge tummy, staring at the road that stretched ahead of them.

 

"It's very hard to live for someone," she said suddenly. "Did you know that, Chotaroh?"

 

"Shishido-san?" he queried, unsure if he really wanted to understand.

 

"Karina, please," she corrected, looking at him from behind a fringe of bangs. "Do you think I'm being selfish?"

 

"I--don't understand," he admitted hesitantly.

 

She sighed. "Ryou is a good man."

 

"Yes. He is."

 

"And he's a good father."

 

"I can see that," Otori agreed softly.

 

"It was an accident, you know," she waited for him to say something, anything, but his mouth felt like it was filled with paste. "We didn't love each other. We were, are, in love with someone else, but... we are comfortable together. We met at a party, both of us completely miserable and wishing we were anywhere else. We started talking, and then, we started fooling around."

 

Again she waited for his response, but Otori firmly kept his mouth shut and his eyes glued to the road ahead.

 

"When I found out I was pregnant, well, I made the decision to have an abortion. My uterus is... malformed, you see. It's usually not a problem--lots of women go around having perfectly healthy babies and healthy lives with misshaped equipment, and everything's fine, but..."

 

She made a small sound that could have been a laugh, but Otori didn't see anything funny. In fact, he felt sicker than he had when leaving the doctor's office.

 

"I was madly in love, once. And then he died...he was... killed in a motorcycle accident. He... he saved my life, and, all I could think of at the time was, why? How could he do that to me? Leave me behind like that? I was so angry and so..." she searched for the words. "I was so incredibly lonely. And then, suddenly, there was Ryou."

 

A small smile teased her lips as she rested her forehead against the window, gazing unseeingly at the passing scenes.

 

"Here was this proud, passionate man, determined to live, when all you had to do was take one look at him and see how lonely he was... how much pain he was in." She glanced at him again. "I didn't tell Ryou about the baby, but he found out anyway... He chased me down to the abortion clinic and we started arguing right there." She laughed. "I'm sure you can imagine."

 

And Otori had to smile a little at that, because he could imagine the scene Shishido would have caused, uncaring of whoever else was around to witness it.

 

"Afterwards, I promised myself that I would continue to live, for him and for Marika... but..." She wasn't looking at him anymore but out the side window, and she sounded distant, hallow.

 

"Chotaroh, this life I have--it's a wonderful life," she said slowly, carefully. "Many women would kill to have it. I have a wonderful husband who's a wonderful, diligent father to our wonderful daughter... and more and more, I find it harder and harder to convince myself to get out of bed in the morning. More and more, I look at my husband, and I can't help being angry because he's not Hiroshi... And when I watch Ryou with Marika, sometimes, sometimes I feel so... so damn distant and sick; it's like they're no relation to me at all... and I hate that feeling, Chotaroh. I hate it. And I hate myself because of it."

 

"Shishido-san..."

 

"Don't! Just... don't...." she choked, fighting against crying but in anger or shame or sadness, Otori couldn't tell. "Sometimes... sometimes I think he has it harder than me, you know. 'Cause, you see, the person Ryou loves... is still alive, and yet, they can't be together. Because of me. Because I was selfish and attached myself to a person I didn't love, to a person who didn't love me, either, all because we couldn't stand being alone, being alone in our loneliness."

 

The tears were there in her eyes, but she was determined not to shed them.

 

"When I learned I was pregnant again, I was... surprised. It shouldn't have happened the first time, but this time, this time.... The possibility of my surviving a second pregnancy was less than twenty percent. My doctor wanted me to abort immediately, but.... Ryou was so excited... I couldn't... I couldn't do that to him. And when we discovered I'm carrying twins... well, the chance of survival is less than zero now."

 

Otori swallowed harshly. He knew; he had heard what the doctor had told her today, but... to hear her say it so calmly. Shishido's wife was dying, and Shishido...

 

"Part of me is scared. Not because I'm dying--I've, accepted that, I even welcome it a little, but... I'm worried. I'm worried about Ryou, and about Marika, and about these little babies...." She rubbed her stomach and smiled. "They're boys. And they'll be tennis players, like their daddy..."

 

"I... haven't told Ryou that I probably won't survive," she whispered hoarsely. "Maybe that's selfish of me, but... I didn't want him to try and tell me to abort the babies when it's so obvious how happy he is about them, and... he would; he would tell me to have an abortion."

 

She seemed convinced of that, and Otori believed it, as well.

 

"What about your promise?" he asked finally.

 

"I broke that promise long ago, Chotaroh," she sighed dejectedly. "This life of mine, it's merely an excuse, a weak existence. I stopped living a long time ago, and Ryou..."

 

"He already knows something is wrong, Shishido-san," Otori cut in, remembering the worry he had seen in his friend's eyes whenever Shishido looked at his wife, and understanding it now in a new light.

 

"I know," Karina sighed again. "Ryou is a smart man, don't you think so, too?"

 

"Yes." Otori felt all mixed up inside--anger, resentment, fear, pity, hope--and he wished he could just shut his emotions off, push all these thoughts and feelings away and not have to deal with them ever. "Shishido-san... why are you telling me these things?"

 

"Because, even if I'm not in love with Ryou," she said carefully, "I care for him and want him to be happy. He has been very good to me, you see. He's been very good to our daughter, and it will be difficult for him to raise three children by himself. I haven't told him, you see?"

 

"Shishido-san..."

 

"And... and because I want to know that he won't be lonely anymore," she added softly. "Sometimes I can't help but wonder: why?"

 

"Why what?" Otori asked hoarsely, his throat feeling scratchy and tight. Although, he was pretty sure he didn't want to hear anymore.

 

"Why he let that person he loves go away," Karina answered, turning to look directly at him.

 

Hurt seared through Otori's body, and he had to fight to keep his eyes opened and focused on the road ahead of him. He was thankful that they were almost to the Shishido household.

 

"Maybe," he licked his lips and tried again. "Maybe they weren't meant to be together."

 

"Mmm," she acknowledge although she didn't seem anymore convinced than he'd sounded.

 

"Or maybe," he tried again, "S-she moved away?"

 

Karina shot him a sharp, amused look, and in an awful moment of realization, he understood that she knew. She *knew*, and Otori wondered who had told her--not Shishido. And not any of the others, either, he was reasonably sure, unless someone had slipped at some point. But... he was in a car, with his ex-lover's pregnant wife, and she *knew*.

 

Karina looked away, and Otori focused on breathing. After another minute she said, "Ryou still loves this person." Otori didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. "Tell me, Chotaroh, do you think this person still loves him?"

 

"She," Otori coughed, "would be foolish not to, right?" He shot her a quick glance.

 

"Mmm," she mused again and closed her eyes as she leaned back into the car seat. "Do you think--this other person," she said, her lips twitching, "minds very much that I married Ryou? That we had children together?"

 

"I... I don't thinks so, no. Like you said, it's obvious how much Shishido enjoys being a father. And, I think, he's been... happy." And Otori was very happy as they had reached the Shishido residence, and he pulled into the car park.

 

"Content," she corrected, as if the distinction made a real difference to her. "One last question then, if you will," she said, opening her eyes and looking back at him.

 

He pushed the car into park and returned her stare.

 

"Do you think this other person, who Ryou still loves, who still loves him--do you think he'll be a good parent to our children?"

 

Otori choked and closed his eyes, fighting for composure. Surely she couldn't be--- "I... I can't answer that, Shishido-san. I don't know."

 

Karina sighed but nodded, unfastening her seatbelt. "I'll tell Ryou everything tonight, after Marika goes to bed. I'll... I'll understand if he spends the night out. And Chotaroh?" she added as she eased out of the car. "Thank you for driving me today. I'm glad we could finally talk, just the two of us. Please don't be a stranger around our home, okay?"

 

"Please take care of yourself, Shishido-san," he called after her.

 

She went to close the car door but then paused, looking back at him as if trying to make up her mind about something. Then she nodded. "Hiroshi would have liked you," she said determiningly. "He was a tennis player, too, you know. Went to a different school, though."

 

She smiled and waved him goodbye, leaving him to drive home, his head spinning with chaotic thoughts.

 

He was playing his violin, a chaotic composition to match his thoughts, when the doorbell rang several hours later. Otori blinked, surprised to see just how late it already was--after eleven.

 

He wasn't surprised to find Shishido when he opened his door; he just held it open wider, silently inviting the other man inside.

 

 

~~~****~~~

 

TBC