Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Residual ❯ Residual ( Chapter 1 )

[ A - All Readers ]

Yuuta's scar is rather old, a reminder from an Incident That Shall Not, May Not Be Mentioned. Every time he looks in the mirror, or sees himself in a glass window or a puddle, he tries not to think of then, instead wondering when it will finally fade into unnoticeability.

It stays. It's a clingy little bugger. Yuuta tends to hate it.

Yuuta grows older, but the scar doesn't change. He pretends it's invisible, even if only to him.

One day when Yuuta is ten he's flipping channels with Aniki, bored with half the programming, when an anime show comes on that makes the younger boy pause and stare at the screen. Or rather, not the screen so much as the figure suddenly walking on-screen.

Yuuta zeroes in on the cross-shaped scar upon the man's cheek, raw and red and bleeding, and suddenly feels the urge to check his own. His breath hitches as he smoothes his fingers along the scarred paths, almost fearful he'll pull his hand away and find his fingertips sticky and red.

"Yuuta."

The voice startles him, but equally moreso do the fingers that suddenly wrap around his wrist. He turns and stares wide-eyed as Aniki's hand tugs his away slowly.

It's gotten very quiet, except Yuuta's pulse is roaring in his ears.

Aniki is giving him one of those smiles again. He pulls Yuuta tighter so he can press his lips to Yuuta's temple, as if a simple kiss will put everything at ease. Yuuta knows it won't, but he lets Aniki try anyway.

Yuuta's eyes travel back to the television, where the wandering samurai with the cross-shaped scar continues on his way, and Yuuta barely registers the voiceover dialogue, barely notices the words (just Aniki's lips still pressed to his cross-shaped scar) until a certain line nearly killkillkills him.

Something about the power of a grudge, and scars still bleeding years down the line.

Yuuta freezes, and Aniki pulls away, still holding onto Yuuta's wrist. Yuuta glances at his fingers, which are clean, and he wonders just how red Aniki's lips are, but dares not look.

Aniki likes his scar, and says so. Yuuta pretends he didn't hear it.

And the show goes on.