Binary Systems
Because I am a BIG science nerd...and reading about binary stars -- and binary planets -- made me think of TeniPuri and double geek. Admittedly, my degrees are in Biology and Chemistry, not Astrophysics, so please forgive me if I get a bit of the following wrong. I mostly just read through a bunch of Wikipedia pages to get the basics in order to fuel the muse.
Title: Binary Systems
Rating: G
Characters: Fuji Syuusuke, Tezuka Kunimitsu, Echizen Ryoma
Disclaimer: If I owned it, would I really be writing fanfiction?
Binary Systems
Science is not tennis genius Fuji Syusuke’s best subject. He would never admit as much, but the slight drop in his scores when it comes to that class speak the truth of the matter. It is not that science is hard. Science, Fuji finds, is a simple matter of memorization and recall, with some applied mathematics. The problem with science is that it is boring. Even when the class touches on refraction and reflection and calculation of a focal point, all of which have an effect on photography, Fuji finds it hard to pay attention as he should. He knows how his camera works, after all, and is able to solve the equations in his head with near perfection just by looking at them and imagining them.
Fuji misses quite a few points due to forgetting to show his work.
He likes to push at science’s boundaries, the ones put strictly in place by the laws of physics and the universe and logic -- even if Fuji believes logic should be far more flexible than his science teacher claims it to be whenever Fuji starts asking questions that begin with a, “Yes, but…”
Fuji spends at least one period a month standing in the hallway as punishment.
Fuji does not like science class, but sometimes he is able to make himself more amenable to a particular lesson.
“A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass, also called their barycenter.”
Fuji later admits to having some of his interest peaked at the idea of two stars dancing with and around each other, orbiting solely around the connection they share. When he pictures it in his head, one star is wearing a pair of glasses while the other wears a Fila cap and their circling grows erratic, but measured and paced all the same as two people run back and forth across the tennis court’s opposing baselines.
Neither orbits the other. Echizen, while younger and newer, is not dependent on Tezuka for his direction. Tezuka, despite his injury, is not reliant on Echizen to anchor him in place. Instead, the two move together, affecting each other’s progress with gravitational nudges here and there and a forehand slice exactly where it is needed until that weakness is resolved.
Tezuka and Echizen orbit brilliantly together, their barycenter being their tennis.
“Binary star systems are very important in astrophysics because study of their orbits allows for calculations of their component masses, radii and densities, which would not otherwise be possible in as simple and exact a manner. Without the study of binary star systems, we would not have any way at all of determining such measurements for solitary stars.”
Fuji wonders if that is why Inui always studies Tezuka and Echizen most closely when they play or practice together. Having watched them even the few times he has had the chance to, Fuji is certain there is no better time to see either at their best.
It is while watching the two play together, at their best tension and in their best form, that Fuji feels like he knows what tennis is supposed to be. He watches them strive against each other and with each other and when Fuji watches other tennis players he knows what they should be attempting to live up to.
Tezuka and Echizen define tennis.
“If components of binary star systems are close enough they can gravitationally distort their mutual outer stellar atmospheres. In some cases, these close binary systems can exchange mass, which may bring their evolution to stages that single stars cannot attain. For example, in the Algol paradox, named after the Algol binary system, when a larger main sequence star becomes a subgiant, its excess mass, which surpasses the Roche lobe, may be transferred to its smaller partner, quickening the smaller star’s evolution and helping to extend the lifespan of the larger which would otherwise exit its main sequence much faster.”
Fuji’s chuckling at that point is considered a disturbance to the class and he is asked to step out into the hall when he cannot give an acceptable explanation to the teacher as to just why he finds what was said so funny. Apparently tennis has no place in astrophysics. Fuji does not mind, however. He has heard all he needs to.
As he stands in the hall, waiting for the last fifteen minutes of class to pass by, Fuji thinks back on previous practices and games.
He thinks back on the day Tezuka, Echizen and Oishi were all out sick and the fire in Echizen’s eyes the next morning.
He thinks back on Tezuka’s fall at Atobe’s hands and how Echizen stepped out onto the court afterwards to not only bring Seigaku the victory, but play with a pace and skill no one had seen him use before.
He thinks back on Echizen’s match against Sanada in Singles 1 -- Tezuka’s place -- which grabbed the team the Kantou championship.
He thinks back on moment after moment after moment of watching the two help each other grow. In drawing close, the two have imparted parts of themselves on the other and it has helped the both of them evolve in their tennis game beyond what Fuji is certain either would have been able to reach alone. They grow and evolve on their own and then play again -- draw closer once again -- to share yet another piece of themselves and grow and evolve even more.
Fuji receives his lowest score on a science test ever in that unit. Apparently tennis metaphors are not acceptable short answers on science exams, however true and obvious they may be. Binary stars are not rivals! the teacher writes across his exam and Fuji wonders how they could be anything else.