To Climb a Mountain
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Rating: G
Pairing: Fuji/Tezuka
Summary: Fuji always thought Tezuka was the Everest
For
ketchupblood. Merry Christmas!
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Fuji always thought Tezuka was the Everest but unlike the rest of the team he never treated him as such. It was not because of a secret superiority or just some other oddity attributed to his prodigy status but simply because that was the way Fuji dealt with tall mountains, he smiled, took a careful approach and tried to figure it out.
Tezuka wasn't an easy mountain to approach. He kept his barriers around, like the strong winds protecting him from unwanted visitors. That was fine, Fuji was rarely one to meet things head on. He preferred the subtle approach, focusing on the other's strengths and making the journey beautiful because that was what made it worth it.
It was due to that that Fuji failed at many things, once and again but people chose to disregard that. He was never the first to raise his hand solving a math problem because even though he could come to the answer easily he liked to play with the equations and find as many different possible ways to get there. Yumiko had taken to keeping him away from the kitchen since most of the times he ended up burning things, getting distracted with the different colors and shapes they took when heated.
So true to form, his approach to the Everest was slow and careful. Tennis was already there as a connecting bridge and it would have been easy to play Tezuka seriously, knowing that that more than anything would guarantee that Fuji could fend the winds and get closer, but that wasn't Fuji's style. Unknowingly, while Fuji searched for alternative routes and blatantly avoided the obvious one, Tezuka started taking notice of him.
Fuji didn't know when it became a game but he was very aware of the fact that he hadn't planned it that way. He had somehow become Tezuka's Everest and true to his character Tezuka kept trying to approach him head on while Fuji carefully stepped away just enough.
In the end, climbing the Everest was just another thing Fuji failed to do and no one noticed. He hadn't counted on falling for Tezuka and even less on Tezuka tiring of playing their game and kissing him. He could have kept the game going, refuse to give in, but one thing most people never understood about Fuji Syusuke was that he didn't care about wining. He kissed Tezuka back knowing that he had been defeated. He didn't conquer the Everest because Tezuka was no longer it; Tezuka was simply his now, much better than a cold mountain.