Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Encounters of Another Kind - Part 2 ❯ A New Encounter ( Chapter 5 )

Encounters of Another Kind Part 2

An An and Hiyoshi Story

By Andrea Readwolf <andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com>

Chapter: 5

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: Tachibana An and Wakashi Hiyoshi and ????

Genre: AU, Humor, Romance, Seduction

Warnings: Underage characters situations of self-discovery. Characters are written in character according to author's interpretation.

Spoilers: none to my knowledge

Summary: Another chance encounter between two very antagonistic personalities has An thinking of possibilities.

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

Date Started: October 14, 2004

Status:

Revised:

Word Count: 1246

A New Encounter--

By a cruel trick of fact, Fudomine was scheduled to play against Seigaku twice. Their first match had deemed Fudomine the first seed of their district. The second match was set on the last day of Prefectures and would decide which team faced Hyotei for Tokyo's number one seed.

Already St. Rudolph had defeated Yamabuki to win the 4th entry ticket into the Kanto tournament, and Seigaku had won their match against Hyotei early during the Prefecture games. Today's games, however, would decide who went to Kantou as the number one seed from Tokyo and who was the runner up.

Ann had been busy most of the week helping Akira and Shinji at tennis practice, so she hadn't had a chance to stop in on Hiyoshi at all since their "date" at the arcade, and he was such a sourpuss. He never went out of his way to visit or call her. So it was, they didn't see each other again that week until that morning.

Fudomine was to play Seigaku in the morning and Hyotei in the afternoon; closing ceremonies would be held after the last match. Her brother had come with her to help cheer Fudomine on, much to the heightened spirits of the players.

"They're playing the Momoshiro-Kaido pair in D2," Kippei noted, staring over Akira's shoulder at Seigaku's line up.

"It's their strongest doubles combination," Ishida replied.

"And these two," Uchimura pointed out. "They're the same two second years we played against last time."

"Echizen's playing Singles 1?" Shinji asked--sounding both surprised and annoyed without raising his voice. "I thought he wanted to play. Hn. Too bad. Maybe we can play another time. Ah, but he's a junior, which means I'll have to wait another year before we can play formally. How unfair. Why did he--"

"Shinji!"

"It doesn't matter," Akira announced. "We'll win and then go on to play Hyotei today. We will be number one!"

"Number one!" the entire Fudomine team cheered.

"Ann," a voice greeted from behind the group.

Ann wasn't the only one to turn around and face the interloper. In the small sea of black, gray, and fuscia Fudomine jerseys, the grey-blue and white jersey clashed horribly. Hyotei wasn't expected to play until after lunch break. That's why Ann was surprised to see Hiyoshi and Kabaji there so early she told herself.

"Wakashi-kun," she greeted as normally as possible, highly aware that suddenly her team was staring at her instead of just the Hyotei boys. Well, it wasn't as if she had actually tried to hide the fact that she was seeing someone from Hyotei, not really.

She cleared her throat. "You're here early."

"I thought I'd watch Fudomine's match, since it will determine who Hyotei plays this afternoon."

"I thought I'd already told you, Fudomine will win," she replied. "After all, we've already played against Seigaku and *won*."

"Maybe," Hiyoshi returned. "But I would think you of all schools would understand just how challenging a second match can be."

"Fudomine will be number one this year," Shinji spoke, sending Hiyoshi one of his patented gloomy looks as he stepped closer to Ann's side.

Hiyoshi frowned back at the dark-haired player before returning his gaze to Ann. "Otori asked if you knew how many tickets you wanted to the concert."

"Oh? Is he coming today?" she asked brightly, feeling the eyes of her friends bearing into her back and she hoped she wasn't blushing.

"No," Hiyoshi continued to frown. "But if you come over tonight..."

She did her best not to wince, although she wasn't sure how successful she was. "I don't think I'll be able to make it tonight, but we can met after the games to set up another time?"

"Ah." Hiyoshi seemed to realize no one else was saying anything at all. In fact, there were thirteen pairs of eyes plastered to them, and it wasn't really a comfortable feeling. "I guess I'll see you after the games, then."

"Ah," she agreed, nodded and smiling and waiting for him to turn around and continue on his merry way. It took him a moment, but he did go, nodding to her before calling to Kabaji to follow him.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

"Hyotei?!"

Trust Akira to say something first. She turned around, still smiling.

"That was Hiyoshi Wakashi, Hyotei's captain," one of the freshmen piped helpfully. I watched him play against Seigaku's Echizen Ryoma the other week!"

"Hyotei?!" Akira repeated.

"I don't like him," Shinji announced.

"HYOTEI?!"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Kamio, pull it together," Ann snapped, suddenly annoyed.

They were still all staring at her, however, and fed up, she turned and walked away.

"Wait a minute, Ann! Where are you going?"

"To get a drink!" she called back without looking.

~~~****~~~

"Yo, Tachibana's little sister," Momoshiro called out in greeting from behind as he tapped his racket against her head. "You here gathering information before the games?" he teased and Echizen continued to walk past them both and drop his coins in the soda machine.

"Shouldn't you be warming up," she retorted, taking another angry gulp of her grape Fanta. She actually preferred melon, but it was harder to find.

"Ah, but this stick in the mud won't play with me," Momoshiro complained.

In response, Echizen tossed a Fanta can at Momoshiro's head. He must have been expecting it, because the taller teen caught it without a flinch.

"He's probably upset with you for placing him in Singles 1," Ann replied, trying not to grin at the two's silent carrying ons. She wondered if they were even aware of how fluidly they moved together when they weren't concentrating on it--complimenting and complementing each other. Probably not.

"Maah! But that wasn't my choice," the taller teen whined in defense.

"No, you didn't want me to play at all," the shorter teen growled, tugging his cap lower as he popped his drink.

Suddenly Momoshiro became serious. "I still think you shouldn't be on the list. Not for a game that can go on for who knows how long."

"But I'm okay to warm up with you," Echizen responded, glaring up petulantly from under the rim of his cap.

"Ah. None of us are willing to risk you causing further injury to yourself in a game we can make up."

'Further injury'? Ann perked up, sharp eyes scanning Echizen's appearance more critically, but she couldn't detect anything different.

"Ne, Tachibana's little sister, we'll see you around afterwards," Momoshiro called, following after the smaller teen who just shrugged and walked away.

Hiyoshi was acting weird, her team was acting like a bunch of over protective idiots, Echizen was somehow injured... Could anything else get---

She saw the scarlet red jersey... and the person standing in it. Grinning at her, mocking her.

And with a deep breath, Ann turned and walked away.

~~~****~~~

Seigaku won Doubles 2.

That was the only game they won.

Ann was aware of the person in the red practice jersey watching her throughout the entire match as she struggled to keep her attention focused on her team. She felt him watching her as she sat down with them to lunch and later when Fudomine faced Hyotei. And when Hiyoshi stepped forward for Hyotei to accept the medal that ranked them number one in Tokyo Prefecture, the person looked directly at her and grinned.

After all, Hyotei's next match would be with Kanagawa Prefecture's Rikkaidai Chugaku.

~~~****~~~~