Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ 10 Years Later ❯ Chapter 5

"Ten Years Later"

A _Price of Tennis_ Fanfiction

By Andrea Readwolf [andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com]

Chapter: 5

Rating: R

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

Genre: Drama-Angst

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

 

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

 

Started: March 2005.

Word Count: 1914

 

 

"10 Years Later" Chapter 5

 

 

~~~****~~~

 

Karina answered his knock promptly, inviting him in and locking the door behind him. Her night robe was wrapped tightly around her, and for a moment, Chotaroh panicked that he might have woken her.

 

"I'm sorry, Karina-san," he began. "Shishido-san called and--"

 

"I know," she cut him off. "Come on, we were waiting for you," she continued, leading him off into the back.

 

"Ah, Karina-san, I--"

 

She ushered him into one of the rooms before he could finished whatever it was he was going to say. And then she closed the bedroom door with a click that sounded so final, it made Otori's heart skip.

 

"You ever sleep with a woman before, Chotaroh?" Karina asked.

 

His mind whirled, and he thought he might be hyperventilating. "I don't think--"

 

"Good. Don't think," Karina whispered, pressing against his back and breathing hotly against his neck--she was too short to reach his ear. "Just answer the question. Have you ever slept with a woman before?"

 

Otori looked directly at the person laying on the bed, looking back at him, expression challenging.

 

"Yes."

 

"Have you ever touched a pregnant woman?" she asked, slipping around to stand in front of him, taking his hand and pressing it against the swell of her satin-covered breast.

 

His fingers instinctively molding around the soft swell; a hardened nipple teased his palm, even as he wondered detachedly when had she removed her robe.

 

"Karina... What do you want?" he asked, feeling confused and torn.

 

She leaned up, attempting to reach his mouth, but it would be impossible unless his leaned forward. "Sleep here tonight," she said, half a request, half a demand, her dark eyes searching his. "We can talk tomorrow."

 

She released his hand and it dropped of its own accord to her swollen stomach. He caressed her enlarged belly wonderingly, giving in to her silent request and bending so she could reach his lips, his other hand helping to steady her and she stretched up on tip-toe to run her tongue along his lips.

 

"You know, you're pretty hot, Chotaroh," she said somewhat bemusedly.

 

"Karina..."

 

And then he was kissing her, still touching her stomach, and she was unbuttoning his shirt and soon the satin of her bra was pressing against his lower chest. He shoved off his shirt and then pulled her against him, kissing her hungrily as his arms wrapped around her shoulders and back. She moaned against him, running her hands up and down his back, down into the band of his pants and into them, until one small hand was hugging his ass.

 

"Chotaroh..." she breathed, moving to lick and kiss along his chin and throat and down across his chest.

 

"What about--"

 

"Shh," she commanded. "Don't worry about anything tonight. Just focus on feeling good, feeling good together, and tomorrow we'll answer all your questions and worries. Tonight just feel good. We're going to feel good, right?"

 

Her hands worked at his belt and pants until the material fell from his waist and pooled around his ankles. She coaxed him to step out of them, running her hands along his thighs and behind his knees, and he made an involuntary little sound when he looked down at her kneeling in front of him like that.

 

"Sit back, relax," she teased him, and he suddenly released she had maneuvered him closer to the bed--Shishido's bed. And there was Shishido, laying naked, watching his wife and Otori and...

 

Shishido's eyes seemed to burn across Otori's skin. He wanted to ask the other man what he should do, but Shishido's eyes were already telling him that Otori would have to make his own decisions here. Shishido had already made his decision, after all, by calling Otori over here tonight. The rest was up to Otori... and Karina.

 

"This is too weird," Otori announced, sitting down, and Karina frowned.

 

"Is it because of me? I--I could leave, if you want," she offered, not quite able to meet Otori's startled look. "You two can be alone and--"

 

Otori stopped her from leaving, tugging gently on her wrist to pull her closer to him until he could rest his forehead against the center of her chest. "I'm sorry, Karina-san. It's not you. You--" he swallowed and tried again. "You are a very beautiful and attractive woman. And you're kind and very generous. You're a good mother to Marika, too, and if that was it, I honestly would have no problem sleeping with you, but... that isn't just it. You're also a wife. You're Ryoh's wife, and that makes a very big difference for me."

 

Behind him, Shishido huffed. "Chotaroh, you're being dumb," the other man announced, reaching over and tugging him onto his back. He leaned over Otori and deliberately crushed their mouths together.

 

The bed dipped again and Karina climbed up next to them, and almost shyly, she ran a hand up Otori's chest. "Chotaroh, I want you to be here. Ryoh wants you to be here, too, but.... if you honestly don't want to be here, I--no, we--won't force you."

 

Otori ran a hand up her arm and slowly drew her closer, leaning up a bit to meet her lips, savoring the taste and texture of her kiss. "Tell me what you want me to do," he said when they pulled apart.

 

"Stay here tonight," Karina answered promptly, though it sounded much like a question than a statement.

 

"Stay, period," Shishido added, dragging Otori further up the bed and wrapping his arms around the taller man's middle as if that would keep him put.

 

"We can just sleep," Karina added, crawling forward, tentatively, as if still unsure of her welcome in her own bed. "We don't have to do anything else."

 

Otori reached for her again, pulling her down beside him as Ryoh had done to him. He waited until she'd shifted into a comfortable position before cautiously laying his arms around her. Shishido pressed up against his back, a warm, solid, familiar presence; Karina snuggled against his front, and Otori realized he really wouldn't be getting out of this bed any time tonight.

 

"Jiroh stopped by today," he said, not really sure why he felt the need to say anything at all in that moment. Except... his head wouldn't turn off. And the questions that kept plaguing him, they were questions that these two people could answer. "He gave me some papers to look at."

 

Neither person said anything, so Otori pushed on. "Karina," he started, unsure of what it was he wanted, no needed, to say. "I--"

 

She stopped him, shifting to press her fingers against his lips. "Let's not talk about that now, okay? Not tonight, okay, Chotaroh? We can talk about any of it, all of it, tomorrow, ne?"

 

"Karina," Otori breathed, heart-wrenchingly.

 

"Stop it, Chotaroh," Shishido ordered gently. "It can wait. We can just sleep now." Shishido pulled back to look at Otori, and there seemed to be a warning, challenging glint in his eyes.

 

Otori exhaled again, but relented. And despite the weighty issues hanging over them like dark storm clouds, they slept.

 

~*~

 

Karina shifted carefully, trying not to wake either of the sleeping men in her bed as she attempted to clamber/roll out of said bed. She didn't worry much about waking her husband--Ryoh was long accustomed to her sleep patterns now, as she was to his; but Chotaroh was an unknown addition, so she cautiously eased away from him until she could successfully shimmy/wobble her way out of the bed.

 

"Karina-san?"

 

She sighed defeat. "Go back to sleep, Chotaroh."

 

"What's wrong?" the mostly-asleep man mumbled, shifting.

 

"Nothing's wrong, I just need to use the toilet," she whispered. Ryoh might be used to her getting up, but he wasn't used to conversation. "Go back to sleep. It's okay."

 

He made another sleepy sound and rolled over, curling against Ryoh's back. She watched for another moment and Ryoh unconsciously shifted for Chotaroh, and then she softly padded out of the bedroom.

 

Quarter of an hour later, she was settled on the sofa with a cup of tea, her nightrobe wrapped securely around her to fend off the early morning chill. In a couple of hours, the sun would burn the chill away, and she'd be forced to turn the air conditioner on or die a sweltering death, but for now, at least, it was still cool enough to go with the windows open.

 

"You didn't come back to bed."

 

Karina started, nearly spilling her tea. "Chotaroh!"

 

"Sorry," he yawned, trudging out to fall onto the sofa next to her. "You didn't come back to bed."

 

He looked like a grumpy teddy bear, she thought and couldn't help smiling just a little at that image. "I--I normally get up this early."

 

"It's barely five," he groused, slumping over to rest his head against the arm of the sofa.

 

She placed her tea safely on the end table. "I told you to go back to sleep."

 

"Can't," he mumbled. "Strange bed. Never good at sleeping with others."

 

"I don't know, you looked comfortable sleeping with Ryoh," she teased, feeling slightly guilty because she knew she was more awake that him.

 

"Practiced."

 

"You... practiced sleeping with Ryoh?" she asked, amused.

 

"Mmm." Otori nodded, not bothering to open his eyes at all. "Hard to sleep in the same room before," he confessed.

 

"Really?" So sue her. Her interest was pricked. "I would've thought you two would've cuddled up like a pair of puppies."

 

"We're teenagers, an' tennis partners, and we liked each other, and spent a lot of time together, but we weren't together. And then we became roommates, but we still weren't 'together', so it was hard to sleep in the same room." Otori yawned and stretched a little, rolling onto his back and cracking one eye experimentally open enough to peer at her blearily.

 

Karina shook her head, watching him with a small, amused smile. "You're too cute, Chotaroh," she finally told him.

 

"Hmm?"

 

"You know, I've always wondered--I mean, there were the rumors and speculations and everything, but--when did you two finally get together?"

 

"Hhn?"

 

"Well, you were tennis partners in junior high school, but you didn't room together until high school," she pointed out. "So when did you finally hook up?"

 

"Oh. Um... you know, I don't really remember," he admitted, looking up at the ceiling as if the answer was there. "Just... one day we were watching TV... and then we were making out."

 

Otori shrugged and closed his eyes and silence lapsed around them.

 

"Are you falling asleep?"

 

"Mmn."

 

"You should go back to bed," she told him, shifting her weight on the sofa.

 

He shifted, too. "Come here?"

 

"Hm?"

 

"Can I--I mean, is it okay..." Otori held up an arm to her. "Lay with me?"

 

She hesitated, but eventually shifted over and around until she was lying back against his chest, head pillowed against his one arm, the other placed carefully over her like a blanket. It was strange and uncomfortable at first, neither body really able to relax.... And then Otori released a heavy exhale, forcing his body to relax and was asleep soon after. Karina thought for sure she wouldn't be able to rest, but before she realized she was asleep, Ryoh was grumbling mulishly about there being a bed for 'that sort of thing.'

 

TBC