Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ What if ❯ chapter 19 ( Chapter 19 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Last time

Humming a tune to himself, Hiroshi started towards the kitchen to help out his mother in the task of serving dinner but not before informing his aunt Rinko not to bother Carl and Ryoma for the time being. He knew they both needed time to settle their difference and certain explanations were needed, but not only for them since he felt the need to settle things between himself and his mother as well. He would need to dissolve his own family problem first, before he allowed himself to get entangled in his blooming relationship with Jirou. Bracing himself with determination, Hiroshi started towards the kitchen hoping that he will not chicken out at the last moment.

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What If- Chapter 19

"Good morning, Echizen-kun!" Hiroshi heard someone calling him the moment he stepped into the locker room for Hyotei Tennis club. Turning around slightly, he found one of the freshman smiling at him, with a cheerful smile of his own he greeted the latter in return.
"Aa... Good morning to you too, Akizuki-san." Hiroshi smiled in acknowledgement, as the two of them stepped into the locker room which was empty except for a snoring Jirou on one of the benches in the room. Resisting the urge to pinch Jirou on the nose, Hiroshi shifted his attention to Akizuki observing the latter closely as the boy changes into his practice attire.

Akizuki Hiro, a freshman standing at a height of 158 had been playing tennis for the past three years before attending Hyotei and joining the tennis club. He looked rather ordinary on the outside, but Hiroshi knew that the latter had a very focus concentration whenever it comes to playing a match. (A/N: Imagine Oishi, Hiro is that kind of player) Akizuki Hiro was in Hiroshi's class, and was a very quiet boy in class. If Hiroshi wasn't paying attention to the class at all times, he might had missed Akizuki since the boy was practically full of knowledge and had a desire to learn when in class. Akizuki was always called upon in class to answer question, whereas he on the other hand like Ryoma had a tendency to correct the teacher hence most teachers in school had given up on the idea of addressing him in class.

Upon further inspection, Hiroshi realized that Akizuki had straight ebony hair, emerald jade eyes which will easily catch people attention if they'd looked closely enough. Although, Akizuki had ordinary looks but with the addition of his ebony hair and emerald jade eyes, it simply grace him with a certain type of attractiveness. Added in his quiet,attentive and caring personality, it brings out his air of elegance and confidence easily. Hiroshi's observation of Akizuki was broken when Jirou awoke from the deep slumber by stretching lazily, Hiroshi watched as Jirou rubbed the sleep from sleepy eyes slowly before blinking twice to take in the surrounding. He smiled in response when Jirou spotted him instantly and brightened up, he watched Akizuki leaving the room to allow them some privacy before practice.

He allowed himself to be pulled onto Jirou's lap when Akizuki closed the door to the locker room, he relaxes himself fully as Jirou embraces him tightly but not tight enough to cut off his oxygen supply. They stayed in that position for quite some time before Jirou mumbled something against his hair "I missed you so much... Did you miss me?"
"Hm..m... Of course, I did missed you... What sort of boyfriend am I if I didn't even missed you after spending the whole weekend away from you..." Hiroshi retorted by hitting Jirou playfully on the shoulders from his current position.
"How would I know? After all, you did seemed a little distant a week prior..." Jirou replied hesitantly, carefully avoided looking Hiroshi right in the eyes.

Hiroshi removed himself from Jirou's embrace and frowned slightly at Jirou's sudden change in actions, he let out a sigh when he realized Jirou had been feeling insecure over the week due to his distant behavior. He hitted Jirou on the chest hardly forcing the latter to face him directly before stated firmly with determination "Listen up, I am not going to break up with you. So, don't you even dare to think about it... I'm sorry, if I cause you to feel insecure earlier on... and I admitted I did distant myself from you deliberately and I apologized for it. However, I only did it because I wanted time to myself and to sort out my own messed-up relationship with my family before committed myself to our relationship..."

Hiroshi looked up at Jirou to find the latter eyeing him in unreadable eyes, he was about to turn and exit the room when he was pulled back into Jirou's embrace. Before giving himself time to react, Jirou had already captured his lips in a brusing and passionate kiss. Breaking apart for breath, Jirou apologized profusely for doubting Hiroshi's feelings for him while Hiroshi spend the rest of his free time pacifying the latter, whispering soothing words to Jirou. Hiroshi had knew Jirou was very vulnerable when it comes to dealing with emotions, that's why he'd wanted to take time off to settle his own problems at home before committed himself fully into his blooming relationship with Jirou. He'd agreed to being Jirou's boyfriend some time after Jirou's invitation for him to join their family for dinner, through conversation conducted between himself and Jirou's parents he'd understand Jirou's characteristic further.

According to Jirou's parents, it seems that Jirou had been hurt badly before in a relationship which he'd never fully recovered from, hence they're glad that Jirou had opened up to Hiroshi. They had in fact pleaded to Hiroshi, hoping he will never hurt Jirou in the same way. Hiroshi had analyse the situation at hand and had given them his promise that he'll never hurt Jirou, therefore he came to a decision to settle all differences between his mother and himself over the weekend which he'd spent over at his grandparents' mansion together with Ryoma.

They were still kissing each other senseless when Otori walked into the locker room, he took one look at the current occupied Jirou and Hiroshi and continue doing his changing without a flinch. Hiroshi had no need to wonder why Otori wasn't affected, in fact, the whole of Hyotei Tennis Club members had apparently walked in on such session and it was so frequent that they no longer felt embarrassed by their discovery, saved for the freshman who had only just joined their club. Most of the freshman had been aghast when they'd walked in on such display of affection with the only exception of Hiroshi, but then again Hiroshi was kind of immune to such display especially with Fuji's frequent visit over at their house. He had in fact chance upon Fuji and Ryoma making out in the bathroom on more than one occasion, not to mention walking in after their session of hot steamy sex. After comparing Fuji and Ryoma session with those he'd chanced upon here in this very room of their tennis club, he'd came to a conclusion which is whatever his fellow team mates were doing in here is still considered normal as compared to those session between Fuji and his cousin, Ryoma.

However, their little display of affection was cut short when Atobe strolled into the room with Kabaji trailing behind him. A clap signaled to Jirou and Hiroshi that Atobe had something to announce to them, breaking apart hastily with their lips swollen and bruised they shifted their attention from each other to Atobe who's standing in front them without even raising an eyebrow with regards to their appearance.

"Are you two done?" Atobe simply cocked an eyebrow at them, both Hiroshi and Jirou nodded, not trusting themselves to speak as they were still short of breath.
"Good!" Atobe said pointedly as he diverted his attention to the whole of the tennis club and announced "There's a friendly match arranged by Rikaidai and St. Mary academy of America next weekend over at Rikaidai."

Hiroshi's eyes widen at Atobe's announcement, he had to bite his lips to prevent himself from cursing out loud. He forced himself to mask his feelings as he continue listening to Atobe's announcement, Atobe waited for the commotion to die down before continuing "Rikaidai had graciously extend their invitation to Hyotei and Seigaku Tennis Club, Sakaki-sensei had thought this to be a good opportunity to test our new members abilities hence had graciously accepted. I had consulted Tezuka, Captain of Seigaku Tennis Club for their decision and he'd confirmed their participation in this friendly match. Therefore, I wanted you guys to prepare for the upcoming match seriously."

Upon hearing the announcement, anxious chatterings spread throughout the club with most of its members feeling ectastic while Hiroshi felt a sense of looming doom hovering above him. Plastering a forced smile, he faced Atobe directly and said "Please pardon my up-coming outburst, I'm sure Tezuka-san will enlighten you later on in the day with regards to Echizen Ryoma outburst as well..."

Taking a deep breath as he dropped his mask of indifference, every one stared in silence and awe as they watched Hiroshi letting lose a string of colorful curses in all different languages before switching back to japanese and ranted "I can't believe this, how could Aunt Rinko agreed to Carl's ridiculous suggestion. How could Mr. Carmen turn a blind eye upon Carl's request, he'd declined it over the past ten years... why did he caved in now? Ryoma is going to throw a fit, it'll be a miricle if he hasn't went ballistic already! St. Mary Academy... of all schools in America, they just had to choose that very school which Ryoma went to back in America, isn't it... Oh, Shit! James... he's going to be one of the players as well... I'll be damn if I had to face him once again, the last time I did it, I almost injured my right hand and had to resort to use my left hand throughout the whole game. Carl Harrison, another thorn in my flesh... it's no surprise that he'll ended up been one of the last opponents standing. In the end it's still either me or Ryoma facing off him, geez... to think that Ryoma had only just defeated yesterday! Why am I ranting now when I should be practicing? Never mind!"

The whole room was quiet when Hiroshi finished his rant, they were all gaping at him when he suddenly smiled at them politely with his mask of indifference in place again. Hiroshi ignored all of them and proceed towards Kabaji challenging the latter to a practice match, ignoring all gasps from the other members when he pop the request.

"Geez... Echizen, are you serious about challenging Kabaji to a match? None of us can actually lasted throughout a game with Kabaji, including the regulars with the only exception of Atobe." Oshitari asked Hiroshi incredulously. However, he was met by Hiroshi's steely gaze as Hiroshi answered the question with one of his own "Ne, senpai-tachi... how much do you know about the players of St. Mary academy?" He continued speaking when he received no response from the rest of the members, "You had no idea, don't you? Well... let me tell you, I'm speaking from past experience. They are not someone to compete against unless you are well-prepared, their players were all strong enough to be considered National level. You will not stand a chance against them unless you'd won against my cousin, Echizen Ryoma. That alone, give us the idea that casting aside our very own captain, Atobe-san... none of us really stood a chance against them. Of course, Seigaku is another matter all over again since they'd won against Rikaidai in the Kantou tournament... Tezuka and Fuji is a sure-win against them, Ryoma is confirm as well... since this is not his first time playing them."

"Wait a minute, what do you mean by not his first time playing against them?" Hiyoshi narrowed his eyes at Hiroshi suspiciously.
"Did you not hear my ranting just now? I remembered mentioning Ryoma being one of their students back in the days he'd lived in America, in case you didn't know ... St. Mary academy is a school consisting of students from all levels of education, meaning they offered Elementary education all the way till University level. Ryoma spent half of his childhood in America, he'd only arrived back here in Japan when he reached the age of eight. Before that, he'd been living in America all his life and was studying in St. Mary academy with several of the players involved in the friendly match from that school as well. I'll have you known Ryoma was considered one of the best players by their coach, Mr. Carmen. The school I was representating back when I'm in United Kingdom was St. Andrew and we'd never won the champion from St. Mary before whenever we met on court during our exchange programs with them." Hiroshi clarified.

"It seems that you know a lot about their players, care to enlighten us with your knowledge?" Atobe interjected with a tone of superiority.
"Of course, I shall do as you wish. Mr. Carmen had brought along several players whom I knew not of, however, within the players he'd brought along. I knew two of them well enough, since they are related to my mother's side of the family distantly. One of whom was James Mckenzie, James Mckenzie was among the top three players in their school back when Ryoma was still with them. James had power, speed and not to mention flexible reflexes. He was well-known for his power serves and returns, I can't exactly explained his strength in details but if I were to describe his skills and techniques in general, I would say he's a combination between Akutsu Jin from Yamabuki, Kawamura Takashi from Seigaku and Kabaji-senpai, that is why I requested a game with Kabaji-senpai. I need a warm up before I really face him on the court, especially I almost injured myself fatally during my last game with James." Hiroshi barely suppressed a shudder at the mere memory of it.

"Anyway, another player which I knew is Carl Harrison. Carl Harrison was ranked just slightly below Ryoma back then, I would say he's about the standard of Jirou and Kirihara. As for his play style... I can't exactly define it since he adopted different play against different opponent, he's usually a combination of Momoshiro, Atobe-senpai when it comes to smashing and usually against Ryoma. When he played against me, he would opted for style like Kirihara Akaya or even Kevin Smith, at times even adopting Ryoma's play style. He knew Ryoma style well-enough to pass off as his own, since he'd first been introduced to Tennis by Ryoma back in America. They used to be the best of friends, until Ryoma moved to Japan abandoning him to his own device. They played each other just yesterday during our family annual gathering, the final game count had been 7-5 with Ryoma defeating him yet again for the tenth time in the past ten years." Hiroshi smirked at the mere memory of Carl's maddening look when Ryoma refused him for another game after his loss the first time round.

Leaving the rest of the members to absorb the information provided, he left for the court to proceed on with the match Kabaji had promised him before he was ordered to provide information to the club by Atobe.

~ to be continue~

date completed: 16/03/05