Four Years in Nine Drabbles
Four Years in Nine Drabbles
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing: TezuRyo
100 words each
For LJ user clinck's TezuRyo Revival!
clinck.livejournal.com/18450.html#cutid1
9.
He thought he’d make it easier for the kid, kind of take him under his wing at first; but then he saw there was no need to coddle him: the kid had skills, real skills, almost like he’d been coached by a pro. At least he had power to try and counterattack the kid’s finesse - but the kid had some power, too. But there was one guy on the team he bet the kid couldn’t beat. He’d seen the kid staring at buchou like buchou was some kind of god. Heh. It’d be years before he would beat that guy.
8.
It wasn’t so much what the two of them said to each other - since neither boy really talked that much. It was more that he noticed, as he carefully arranged the toro slices delicately on top of the sushi rice, how buchou and their newest member sat next to each other so comfortably, without saying anything. Other people seemed to need to talk all the time, to try to connect. Instead, these two were connected by their silence. He thought that was nice. They were the two most talented players on the team. Maybe they would become friends, in time.
7.
He sat back, stunned. It didn’t add up. All his previous data had indicated that it would be buchou and the tensai, not buchou and… Surely, he had miscalculated. He ran the numbers again. No - there was no mistaking it. There was now a sixty-five percent chance it would be the tensai, but a ninety-five percent chance it would be… Incredible. He would never have predicted this particular pairing, but the data never lied. He would have thought that the two were too similar. Could it be true? He adjusted his glasses. He would just have to wait and see.
6.
Sure, he missed buchou - they all did. He knew he did. Even his baka fukubuchou missed the guy. But the kid seemed especially down about it. His skills were such that he could get away with not practicing that much, but he still sent him for laps anyway. Can’t get too soft on any of them. But the buchou - yeah. He’d heard he was beating everyone on the high school team, even though he was just a freshman. Next year he’d try for the team. He’d overheard the kid saying he’d be going there, too. Sure must miss the buchou.
5.
Could it possibly be true? Could it? He went over it in his mind again and again. Ochibi was fifteen now, taller and still growing. And he’d always looked up to buchou - anyone could see that! And now in his first year of high school, he was a freshman again, and buchou was the captain again. It was fate, nya? But the way they looked at each other… it was like… could they really be looking at each other in that way? He’d always thought there might be something between them someday, and now… neither of them were kids anymore.
4.
He had worried about it to the point of losing sleep at night. He had been shocked when his best friend - the captain - had told him about it. Both of the boys would be turning pro, and would be out of school soon, but still… He wasn’t sure what to think about it all. He didn’t want to see anybody get hurt. He was a friend to both of them, and he cared about everyone involved. Everyone else would be affected, after all. And then, there was the other one to consider. What could he be feeling now…?
3.
He had seen it developing slowly between the two through the years, and been unable to stop it or even slow it down. What he had dreamed of had been crushed to dust - taken away by that green-haired, cat-eyed boy. How could this have happened? How? He had so carefully cultivated that special friendship with him, nurturing it, making it grow. He had interpreted the other’s silence as a gradual acquiescence to the idea of… being with him in that way. And now… everything he thought he had achieved dissipated into nothingness, like it had never existed. He wept bitterly.
2.
In four years, they had been through struggles and trials and joys and triumphs as teammates - and now they were something more. He was on the pro circuit, and in a few months his lover would join him there.
He would always caress the other boy’s face at the right temple, or bend down and kiss him on that spot. A nose would wrinkle: “You’re weird, buchou.” Then the snarky laugh. How he loved that laugh. One time, the question was finally asked. “Why are you always doing it there?” “Because,” he answered seriously, “I hurt you there, once.”
1.
All he could see at first was an impenetrable wall.
A cold, impenetrable wall. A challenge to meet. A call to rise above himself. And then one day… the wall crumbled. And a young man was standing there. And he realized that, from the first moment on, he had always been there: as his captain, his mentor, his light to look up to… his lover. As he stood there now, his opponent across the net, in his first game as a pro player.
From the first moment and every moment thereafter, buchou had been the only thing he could see.
(In case this was major fail and it’s not otherwise obvious - the order was Momo, Taka, Inui, Kaidoh, Eiji, Oishi, Fuji, Tezuka, Ryoma.)
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing: TezuRyo
100 words each
For LJ user clinck's TezuRyo Revival!
clinck.livejournal.com/18450.html#cutid1
9.
He thought he’d make it easier for the kid, kind of take him under his wing at first; but then he saw there was no need to coddle him: the kid had skills, real skills, almost like he’d been coached by a pro. At least he had power to try and counterattack the kid’s finesse - but the kid had some power, too. But there was one guy on the team he bet the kid couldn’t beat. He’d seen the kid staring at buchou like buchou was some kind of god. Heh. It’d be years before he would beat that guy.
8.
It wasn’t so much what the two of them said to each other - since neither boy really talked that much. It was more that he noticed, as he carefully arranged the toro slices delicately on top of the sushi rice, how buchou and their newest member sat next to each other so comfortably, without saying anything. Other people seemed to need to talk all the time, to try to connect. Instead, these two were connected by their silence. He thought that was nice. They were the two most talented players on the team. Maybe they would become friends, in time.
7.
He sat back, stunned. It didn’t add up. All his previous data had indicated that it would be buchou and the tensai, not buchou and… Surely, he had miscalculated. He ran the numbers again. No - there was no mistaking it. There was now a sixty-five percent chance it would be the tensai, but a ninety-five percent chance it would be… Incredible. He would never have predicted this particular pairing, but the data never lied. He would have thought that the two were too similar. Could it be true? He adjusted his glasses. He would just have to wait and see.
6.
Sure, he missed buchou - they all did. He knew he did. Even his baka fukubuchou missed the guy. But the kid seemed especially down about it. His skills were such that he could get away with not practicing that much, but he still sent him for laps anyway. Can’t get too soft on any of them. But the buchou - yeah. He’d heard he was beating everyone on the high school team, even though he was just a freshman. Next year he’d try for the team. He’d overheard the kid saying he’d be going there, too. Sure must miss the buchou.
5.
Could it possibly be true? Could it? He went over it in his mind again and again. Ochibi was fifteen now, taller and still growing. And he’d always looked up to buchou - anyone could see that! And now in his first year of high school, he was a freshman again, and buchou was the captain again. It was fate, nya? But the way they looked at each other… it was like… could they really be looking at each other in that way? He’d always thought there might be something between them someday, and now… neither of them were kids anymore.
4.
He had worried about it to the point of losing sleep at night. He had been shocked when his best friend - the captain - had told him about it. Both of the boys would be turning pro, and would be out of school soon, but still… He wasn’t sure what to think about it all. He didn’t want to see anybody get hurt. He was a friend to both of them, and he cared about everyone involved. Everyone else would be affected, after all. And then, there was the other one to consider. What could he be feeling now…?
3.
He had seen it developing slowly between the two through the years, and been unable to stop it or even slow it down. What he had dreamed of had been crushed to dust - taken away by that green-haired, cat-eyed boy. How could this have happened? How? He had so carefully cultivated that special friendship with him, nurturing it, making it grow. He had interpreted the other’s silence as a gradual acquiescence to the idea of… being with him in that way. And now… everything he thought he had achieved dissipated into nothingness, like it had never existed. He wept bitterly.
2.
In four years, they had been through struggles and trials and joys and triumphs as teammates - and now they were something more. He was on the pro circuit, and in a few months his lover would join him there.
He would always caress the other boy’s face at the right temple, or bend down and kiss him on that spot. A nose would wrinkle: “You’re weird, buchou.” Then the snarky laugh. How he loved that laugh. One time, the question was finally asked. “Why are you always doing it there?” “Because,” he answered seriously, “I hurt you there, once.”
1.
All he could see at first was an impenetrable wall.
A cold, impenetrable wall. A challenge to meet. A call to rise above himself. And then one day… the wall crumbled. And a young man was standing there. And he realized that, from the first moment on, he had always been there: as his captain, his mentor, his light to look up to… his lover. As he stood there now, his opponent across the net, in his first game as a pro player.
From the first moment and every moment thereafter, buchou had been the only thing he could see.
(In case this was major fail and it’s not otherwise obvious - the order was Momo, Taka, Inui, Kaidoh, Eiji, Oishi, Fuji, Tezuka, Ryoma.)