Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Heartbeat ❯ Chapter 1

"Heartbeat"

~A Game Worth Winning~ "Prince of Tennis" Fanfic Series

By Andrea Readwolf <andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com>

Chapter: 1/1

Rating: PG--for mental trauma

Pairings: Ryoma ( & Momoshiro)

Genre: Fluff

Series Rating: Mature for sexual content

Series Pairings: Kikumaru + Oishi, Tezuka + Fuji, Echizen + Momoshiro, Inui + Kaidoh

Spoilers: Post teni-puri series

Summary/ Warnings: The prince of tennis vs a four month old--who will win?

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

Date Started: July 5, 2004

Status: finished.

Revised:

Word Count: 604

"Heartbeat" by Andrea Readwolf

Echizen Ryoma considered himself a fairly reasonable adult---if there was a problem, you looked for the solution until the problem was solved. If there was an obstacle in your way, you found a way past it. It was a simple concept that had governed the majority of Ryoma's life.

Until now, it seemed.

Now, Ryoma's four-month-old nephew/cousin was refusing to stop crying and Ryoma couldn't understand why.

The tiny boy wasn't hungry. His diaper was still clean. He wasn't cold. He wasn't hot--despite him screaming his head off. He had been thoroughly burped after lunch, and did *not* appreciate Ryoma's attempts to rub his stomach or back. In fact, the tiny baby didn't even want to be touched or cuddled in any way Ryoma could figure out and it was thoroughly pissed him off.

Ryoma didn't know *what* to do for the boy.

His mother and his cousin had taken the baby's older sister shopping with them earlier, leaving Ryoma to baby sit. Ryoma didn't mind-- babies, after all, pretty much just slept, ate, pooped, and slept some more. He could deal with that.

What he couldn't deal with was the boy's crying for no apparent reason.

"Don't worry," his cousin had said. "Kenji always sleeps the afternoon away, so he'll be fine till about four, and we'll be back by then!"

"Fine my ass," Ryoma grumbled, setting the baby carrier down in a shady, grassy spot. "Stay there," he told the wailing infant before walking several steps away and pull a tennis ball from his pocket.

He'd finally determined to just let the kids scream himself hoarse, but Ryoma would be dammed if he went crazy in the meantime.

The ball made sweet music against the gut of his racket--soared towards the wall, struck a hard staccato beat, and returned for more. It was several volleying strokes later before Ryoma noticed that his nephew wasn't crying anymore.

Surprised, he caught the ball and stepped over to the carrier---it would really suck if he'd killed the kid. He was rather attached to his nephew when the kid wasn't screaming bloody murder non-stop--but within seconds, the baby was crying his head off again.

Annoyed, Ryoma went back to his serving. Again, within moments, the baby had settled. It took the dark-haired young man another repetition to catch onto the fact that the rhythm of the tennis ball soothed the baby.

Who knew?

Maybe with a little luck, the baby would quiet down enough to actually fall asleep....

~2 hours later~

"Ryoma? What are you doing?" Momoshiro asked as he arrived home after work.

The younger man shot his boyfriend an annoyed look--what did it look like he was doing? "Go get your racket," he growled, not bothering to watch the surprised expression on Momo's face as he continued to strike the ball evenly.

Minutes later, the older man returned, changed and with his racket in hand. Ryoma didn't miss a beat, sending the ball soaring to his boyfriend, who returned it, easily although still somewhat surprised.

"What ever you do, don't. Stop. Hitting that ball," the younger man growled before sinking into the sweet grass next to the baby carrier.

Momo stared at him. "Ryoma, what are you going on about?" he started to ask, but already, in the lull of the bouncing ball, Kenji started to cry again.

"Hit the ball!" Ryoma demanded and Momo, shocked, obeyed.

The baby quieted, Ryoma sighed and sank back into a relaxing lay. "I'm taking a nap. Remind me to kill my cousin when she gets home."

~Owarimasu~