lucathia | [HNG/POT] Go no Oujisama * chapter 2: I'm a tad bit rusty

Title: Go no Oujisama
Chapter: 2/?
Author: lucathia_rykatu
Fandom: Hikaru no Go, Prince of Tennis
Characters: Shindou Hikaru, Touya Akira, Echizen Ryoma, Momoshiro Takeshi, Kikumaru Eiji
Disclaimer: I do not own HNG nor do I own POT.
Archive: livejournal / ffnet

Summary: Touya Akira finds himself standing at the baselines of the tennis courts, wondering what in the world he's doing there. It's all Shindou's fault.

-----Chapter 2: I'm a tad bit rusty-----

Meeting Shindou Hikaru that one hot afternoon didn't change Echizen Ryoma's life much. When the embarrassed second year boy with bright yellow bangs came stumbling into the tennis courts, Echizen just thought, "Mada mada dane. [1]" It was just another boy. At least that was what he thought.

Momo-senpai seemed to think differently of Shindou. He had let Shindou borrow his racket. Echizen had known then that he was supposed to hit with Shindou. A beginner. Someone who had never even touched a racket before. Echizen had pulled his cap down, covering his slight annoyance with Momo-senpai. This was a waste of his time. Only people like Momo-senpai who seemed to want to befriend EVERYONE would offer to hit with a beginner.

Still, Shindou had looked eagerly at him, waiting for him to hit him a ball. Echizen felt like sighing as he hit a ball slowly and to an easy to return place.

Just like he had expected, Shindou swung wildly at the ball, completely missing it. Totally a beginner. Just as he was about to feed another ball to Shindou, Shindou yelled, "Urusai! [2] I know that!" Echizen raised his eyebrow and Shindou hurriedly replied, "Ah...I was telling my mind to shut up. Gomen!" [3] Echizen had shrugged at that time, unconcerned with the other boy's behavior. Shindou...was just a little weird.

He fed another ball to Shindou...and the ball ended up hitting Shindou in the face. He pulled his cap down a little. Momo-senpai, on the other hand, tried to smother his laugh.

Echizen glanced at Shindou. Instead of the embarrassment he thought he'd find, Echizen instead saw anger in Shindou's face. Anger, mixed with determination. Shindou shouted, "Gomen nasai! Please hit another one to me!" Shindou was certainly...a weird and somewhat interesting character.

When Echizen hit the next ball to Shindou. the other boy was actually able to hit it back. Echizen made sure to hit the ball to places easy for Shindou to return. They rallied for awhile...when suddenly Shindou's eyes seem to narrow. Echizen could have sworn that the ball Shindou hit glowed when it landed in the corner.

Although Echizen had easily returned that shot of Shindou's, he couldn't help but feel...what was that feeling? Surprise? Wonder? Whatever he felt at that time, Echizen already knew then that Shindou Hikaru wasn't just some boy who stumbled upon the tennis courts.

And just now, another boy stumbled into the courts. A boy who was surprised that Shindou was here. Echizen bet that the newcomer wasn't a tennis player, from the looks of his neat button up shirt and dress pants. No one intent on playing tennis would dress that way. Echizen dully wondered what was with these people and stumbling into courts.

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Hikaru's disbelief that Touya was currently standing in the tennis courts was etched across his face. For why would the Go-obsessed Touya ever be anywhere else other than in front of a Go board? Hikaru even tried picturing Touya playing in the arcades...or singing karaoke. His mouth started twitching as a smile threatened to appear. Unable to suppress his amusement anymore, Hikaru laughed out loud.

Touya narrowed his eyes. "What's so funny?"

Hikaru's laughter subsided as he shook his head. "Iie, nothing!" Touya continued glaring at Hikaru suspiciously, "It's nothing, okay?" said Hikaru. Sai chuckled next to Hikaru.

Hikaru made a face at Sai.

Neither Hikaru nor Touya had answered their previous questions to each other, but that was forgotten as a new voice cut into the conversation.

"Why don't you introduce your friend to us?" suggested Momoshiro, whom Hikaru had almost forgotten was there.

"Who's friends with him!?" Hikaru and Touya sputtered at the same time, all the while pointing their fingers at each other.

Echizen smirked. "Ne, Momo-senpai, doesn't their reaction remind you of yourself and Kaidou-senpai?"

Momoshiro blinked as he turned towards Echizen. "No it does not! I do not act like that! Maybe that baka Mamushi [4] would, but I wouldn't act so immature!"

Touya frowned. Him? Immature? Maybe Shindou was immature, but him? On second thought, maybe he WAS immature, but that was only when Shindou was involved.

Echizen shrugged. "I guess that's typical behavior for rivals then."

Hikaru's head quickly swiveled towards the shorter boy. Typical behavior for rivals? Echizen could tell that they were rivals just by the way they acted? Hikaru felt a tiny tingle of contentment. At least someone thought that he was Touya's rival, even though that someone practically knew nothing about Go.

Since it was plain that Hikaru wasn't planning on introducing him, Touya spoke up for himself. "Hajimemashite. Boku wa Touya Akira desu. Douzo yoroshiku. [5]" He gave a little bow at the end.

Momoshiro sweatdropped. That boy was a bit too polite. "Well, I'm Momoshiro Takeshi. You can call me Momo-chan." Like Touya would ever do that.

Echizen pulled his cap down lower. "Echizen Ryoma desu."

After the new round of introductions, Momoshiro grinned as he turned towards Touya.

"Have you ever played tennis before?" Echizen wanted to groan. Was Momo-senpai going to ask another beginner to hit with him?

Touya seemed to be digging through his memory about whether or not he had played tennis before. After a long pause, Touya finally nodded slowly. He didn't like the direction this conversation was heading though...

Hikaru blinked. "Ehh?? Uso! [6] You can't have played tennis before!" Sai nodded energetically next to Hikaru.

Touya shrugged. "I've only played a little bit of tennis during my physical education class."

Echizen felt slightly relieved. At least he wasn't a total beginner.

Momoshiro's smile got wider. "Really? That's good to hear! Then you can hit with Echizen over here. He's kinda bored from sitting out since I'm hitting with Shindou over here."

With that, Momoshiro plucked one of Echizen's spare rackets out of Echizen's bag, completely ignoring Echizen's complaint. He thrust the red racket into Touya's hands.

"Now go play!"

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Touya would have been much happier if those words weren't "go play" but rather "play go." Right now, Touya stood at the baseline, wondering what in the world he was doing here standing in the tennis courts with a tennis racket in his hands. He had better things to do. Such as playing Go. And studying Go. And teaching Go.

He shook his head as he glanced across the court at the other boy, who was currently impatiently bouncing a ball.

Touya stood there for a moment, wondering why the other boy wasn't doing anything. An awkward silence engulfed the two, until the other boy's slightly taunting voice sounded.

"Ne, aren't you going to stretch first?"

Touya was about to retort until he remembered that he didn't really know the other boy at all. And the boy stated a really good point too. He blushed slightly as he put down the racket and began to stretch. If it had been Shindou, Touya would have no doubt started a shouting match with him...but it wasn't. Before Touya had met Shindou, he would never have dreamed of yelling at anyone. It wasn't in his "usual" nature to do so.

He felt the pull in his leg muscles as he leaned forward, trying to reach as far as he could. As a devoted Go player, Touya rarely did any form exercising, save for a few occasional walks. Otherwise, he spent his time concentrated on Go. It felt sort of nice to stretch, since he had a long lesson today and had been sitting all that time.

After a few arm and leg stretches, Touya picked up the racket and gave a nod to the other boy.

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Momoshiro couldn't help but laugh when he saw the two dark-green haired boys head off to the adjacent court. Both were equally solemn and quiet. Echizen was slightly annoyed while that Touya guy was quite unwilling to play as well. Momoshiro shrugged.

"Shall we continue?"

Hikaru nodded as Momoshiro started rallying with him. However, Hikaru's attention was focused on the boy in the next court.

He was really, really curious as to how well Touya played tennis. Hikaru saw, through the corners of his eyes, that Touya had missed the first shot that Echizen had hit to him. Hikaru heaved a sigh of relief. At least that meant that Touya wasn't good at everything! After all, he couldn't be skilled in both Go and tennis, right? And besides, Hikaru had started playing a bit earlier than Touya. Well...not really, considering how Touya had hit before, but Hikaru had been hitting quite frequently these past few days! Lost in his thoughts, Hikaru didn't notice as the ball bounced on his side of the court again.

Hikaru! yelled Sai.

Hikaru quickly broke out of his daze as he wildly swung at the ball. The ball missed the racket strings entirely. Instead, the ball made a thunk sound as it collided with the rim of the racket and flew into the net. He sweatdropped. He needed to pay more attention to his own rally first!

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Meanwhile, Touya was puzzling over his swing. His reaction to the ball was too slow. He swung the racket a few more times to get used to the feeling. He then gave a nod to Echizen.

As the yellow ball flew over the net once again, Touya focused his entire attention on the ball. His eyes narrowed. Everything in his surroundings disappeared. The sound of the birds chirping. The gentle blowing of the wind. The slight shuffling of feet in the next court. The sounds of the racket meeting the ball. Everything disappeared. The only thing he noticed was the drifting, yellow ball. Time seemed to have slow down as Touya watched the ball approach him. As the ball bounced, Touya began his swing forward. His racket met the ball squarely. The impact sent the ball flying over the net.

Echizen smirked. This Touya wasn't an exact amateur at tennis. At least he knew the basics! He was just a tad bit rusty...and didn't look like he could move much in those stiff, formal clothes of his. Echizen dashed to the right to return the ball.

After Touya's initial miss, the rest of his swings were all straight and true. Echizen was slightly surprised at Touya's skill, since the other boy had only mentioned "hitting a bit in P.E." But after they rallied for a bit, Echizen noticed that Touya was starting to breathe much more heavily. Che. His endurance was pathetic.

And so, despite Touya's relative skill, he still earned Echizen's famous words.

After Touya missed the ball entirely due to his inability to catch up with the ball, Echizen fixed his white cap.

"Mada mada dane."

Touya frowned as he knelt down to pick up the ball. His grip tightened on the ball. He could surely do better than this.

-----to be continued-----

Notes:

[1] mada mada dane: Echizen Ryoma's famous line. XD No...not yet...still got lots more to work on (something along those lines)
[2] urusai: it literally means "noisy" but can be used as "you're noisy," hence the implied meaning of "shut up"
[3] gomen/gomen nasai: sorry (the second being more polite)
[4] baka Mamushi: Momoshiro's nickname for Kaidou Kaoru from POT. Means "stupid Viper."
[5] Hajimemashite. Boku wa Touya Akira desu. Douzo yoroshiku: How do you do? I am Touya Akira. (Boku is used by younger boys, slightly more polite than "ore"). Pleased to meet you.
[6] Uso: that's a lie!

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Next chapter: Doubles? With him?