Five Middle School Tennis Clubs Fuji Never Joined (And One He Did) [Part 1/6]
title: Five Middle School Tennis Clubs Fuji Never Joined (And One He Did) [Part 1/6]
fandom: Prince of Tennis
summary: Fate takes care of itself. What will be will be, and circles eventually follow themselves back round.
notes: One of those Five Things Fics again ;) Fuji-centric. Brought about by his questioning how he and Tezuka might have been if they had gone to rival schools, though that question isn't addressed much here.
part one: In which someone else sets Fuji on the path to seriousness, and gets something back in exchange.
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Five Middle School Tennis Clubs Fuji Never Joined (And One He Did)
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Fudomine Middle School
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"That's Fuji-kun," Kamio tells Tachibana the first time he asks. He hasn't been at Fudomine long by then, and apparently, neither has Fuji. "He comes by often to watch us play and give us pointers. I've never seen him play, but he sure seems to know a lot about tennis."
This explanation doesn't sit well with Tachibana at all, especially after he overhears Fuji's quiet but confident advice to the freshmen first-hand.
"Someone with this much knowledge should be on the court, not beside it." He says. Fuji doesn't even look startled by his sudden prescence.
"I promised someone I wouldn't." He replies shortly. This explanation does not sit well with Tachibana, either.
"But yet you are here day after day," he says, looking to the court in front of him, "which says you made the promise against your better judgement. So whoever bound you to that promise must mean a lot to you, for you to put yourself through this."
"You would know what it is to have someone that means so much that you could consider giving up tennis?" Fuji asks, but it's not phrased especially like a question. Tachibana takes a breath, thinks fast, and takes a gamble, knowing he could risk everything and end up with nothing. But this gentle-voiced, quick, and perceptive Fuji Syuusuke does not seem the type to take without giving something back in return.
"I have... had... a terrible style of tennis playing-" Tachibana began.
"Terrible, how?"
"The power consumed me, and I managed to injure a teammate of mine by accident. But I could not escape the fact that the fault was completely mine, and so I contemplated giving up tennis to erase the guilt. But even that didn't do it."
"Well..." Fuji began thoughtfully, after a bare moment of silence. "When something is accidental you can't really attach yourself to what happened as a result. And yet you can't escape the guilt of knowing if you hadn't been there, there would have been nothing to cause it to happen."
"Who did you hurt?" Tachibana asks without thinking, taking his second gamble. Fuji smiles knowingly.
"My younger brother." He replies eventually. "When he started his freshman year at our school, everywhere he went he was compared to me. When they found out he played tennis, it became worse. They wanted to know if he was a 'prodigy' like me." Fuji paused to let out a deep, slightly shuddery breath. "Unfortunately, though Yuuta is good, he is no prodigy."
"You left so that he could come into his own without being overshadowed by you?"
Fuji smiled. "Does that sound too good to be true? I love Yuuta dearly; he is my brother after all." His story stopped short. "But enough of me, your tale sounds far more interesting. You would like to believe you have captured and contained your wild and reckless side, but the... incident with the coach recently speaks differently. No-one as in control as you seem to be could have made such a fatal error." Fuji turned to Tachibana and opened his eyes. "You are lucky; you have gathered so much love and respect from these freshmen for all that you have done for them, that they don't mind not being able to play in the tournaments this year. Now they have an entire year to prepare for them, with you leading them."
"They told you that?"
"You couldn't already see it?" The idea of that seemed to amuse Fuji. And the idea of making Tachibana lost for words unlockedsomething in him. "Tell you what, Tachibana-kun, I'll satisfy your curiosity of me and my skills, if you will show me the wild strength you claim in your mind to have locked well away."
Tachibana glanced at Fuji, and if he looked close enough, Fuji believed he could see the dark shadow behind Tachibana's eyes. "Can you promise to be an opponent worthy of it?"
Fuji smiled once more.
"I can't promise you anything." He replied. But they both suspected they knew the answer already.
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fandom: Prince of Tennis
summary: Fate takes care of itself. What will be will be, and circles eventually follow themselves back round.
notes: One of those Five Things Fics again ;) Fuji-centric. Brought about by his questioning how he and Tezuka might have been if they had gone to rival schools, though that question isn't addressed much here.
part one: In which someone else sets Fuji on the path to seriousness, and gets something back in exchange.
-
Five Middle School Tennis Clubs Fuji Never Joined (And One He Did)
-
Fudomine Middle School
-
"That's Fuji-kun," Kamio tells Tachibana the first time he asks. He hasn't been at Fudomine long by then, and apparently, neither has Fuji. "He comes by often to watch us play and give us pointers. I've never seen him play, but he sure seems to know a lot about tennis."
This explanation doesn't sit well with Tachibana at all, especially after he overhears Fuji's quiet but confident advice to the freshmen first-hand.
"Someone with this much knowledge should be on the court, not beside it." He says. Fuji doesn't even look startled by his sudden prescence.
"I promised someone I wouldn't." He replies shortly. This explanation does not sit well with Tachibana, either.
"But yet you are here day after day," he says, looking to the court in front of him, "which says you made the promise against your better judgement. So whoever bound you to that promise must mean a lot to you, for you to put yourself through this."
"You would know what it is to have someone that means so much that you could consider giving up tennis?" Fuji asks, but it's not phrased especially like a question. Tachibana takes a breath, thinks fast, and takes a gamble, knowing he could risk everything and end up with nothing. But this gentle-voiced, quick, and perceptive Fuji Syuusuke does not seem the type to take without giving something back in return.
"I have... had... a terrible style of tennis playing-" Tachibana began.
"Terrible, how?"
"The power consumed me, and I managed to injure a teammate of mine by accident. But I could not escape the fact that the fault was completely mine, and so I contemplated giving up tennis to erase the guilt. But even that didn't do it."
"Well..." Fuji began thoughtfully, after a bare moment of silence. "When something is accidental you can't really attach yourself to what happened as a result. And yet you can't escape the guilt of knowing if you hadn't been there, there would have been nothing to cause it to happen."
"Who did you hurt?" Tachibana asks without thinking, taking his second gamble. Fuji smiles knowingly.
"My younger brother." He replies eventually. "When he started his freshman year at our school, everywhere he went he was compared to me. When they found out he played tennis, it became worse. They wanted to know if he was a 'prodigy' like me." Fuji paused to let out a deep, slightly shuddery breath. "Unfortunately, though Yuuta is good, he is no prodigy."
"You left so that he could come into his own without being overshadowed by you?"
Fuji smiled. "Does that sound too good to be true? I love Yuuta dearly; he is my brother after all." His story stopped short. "But enough of me, your tale sounds far more interesting. You would like to believe you have captured and contained your wild and reckless side, but the... incident with the coach recently speaks differently. No-one as in control as you seem to be could have made such a fatal error." Fuji turned to Tachibana and opened his eyes. "You are lucky; you have gathered so much love and respect from these freshmen for all that you have done for them, that they don't mind not being able to play in the tournaments this year. Now they have an entire year to prepare for them, with you leading them."
"They told you that?"
"You couldn't already see it?" The idea of that seemed to amuse Fuji. And the idea of making Tachibana lost for words unlockedsomething in him. "Tell you what, Tachibana-kun, I'll satisfy your curiosity of me and my skills, if you will show me the wild strength you claim in your mind to have locked well away."
Tachibana glanced at Fuji, and if he looked close enough, Fuji believed he could see the dark shadow behind Tachibana's eyes. "Can you promise to be an opponent worthy of it?"
Fuji smiled once more.
"I can't promise you anything." He replied. But they both suspected they knew the answer already.
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