lucathia

Title: Go no Oujisama
Chapter: 3/?
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 3: Doubles? With him?-----

Touya Akira was tired. His thighs hurt, his knees and ankles felt disjointed, his lungs were burning...it felt as if heat was radiating off his muscles. His usual, tidy dress shirt and dress pants were now sticking to his arms and legs. He had long given up on keeping his tidy appearance. He had unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt and the buttons on the cuffs of his arms, letting his sleeves flop around. Though he certainly looked disheveled now, at least he was slightly cooler. Still, his shiny, black shoes were hurting him and there wasn't much he could do about that.

The only things that still felt normal were his arms and his hands. His grip on his racket remained firm and his arm still refreshed. He guessed that playing Go everyday trained his arm and hand muscles well, but not any of his other muscles. And especially not his lungs. His breathing was so labored that he almost wanted to give up. Almost.

It was frustrating. His eyes were able to follow the ball's path perfectly, yet his body wasn't able to. He knew what to do, yet he couldn't follow through.

It was damn frustrating.

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The redhead hummed cheerfully, his racket bag swung over his left shoulder. His red hair curled out at the ends and bounced as he walked. His right hand held a half eaten ice cream cone. His tongue flickered in and out as he continued licking his ice cream.

He happily listened to the pok sounds of tennis rackets hitting tennis balls as he neared some fenced in tennis courts. He rarely came this way, since he usually frequented the street tennis courts instead. However, Momo and Ochibi [1] didn't go there very often lately. It hadn't been as fun without his two kouhai there, so he had secretly followed them after they left school the day before yesterday. And he made an important discovery that day!

Momo and Ochibi were hitting at some other tennis courts!

And they didn't even tell him. How rude. So, inviting himself, the red head decided to come to the tennis courts and surprise his two kouhai.

Kikumaru Eiji smiled widely as he saw Momo and Ochibi on the courts.

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Hikaru felt the strain in his arm as he returned Momoshiro's hit. The tall, spiky haired second year relied heavily on his power in his rallies. After Hikaru's constant complaining that Momoshiro was going easy on him, Momoshiro had grinned and started using more of his strength. The result, of course, was a throbbing pain in Hikaru's arm.

Mou...me and my overconfidence. Hikaru scowled.

Sai shrugged and smiled slightly as he watched Hikaru's rally by the side. He had hoped that Hikaru would get tired so that they could go home to play Go, but it didn't seem like his wish was going to come true anytime soon.

Slightly bored, Sai glanced around the courts, watching the balls fly back and forth between the four boys on the two courts. His eyes wandered around, finally landing on the approaching figure outside of the courts.

Ne, Hikaru. Someone's coming!

Hikaru ignored Sai as he concentrated on hitting the ball.

Sai gave up on catching Hikaru's attention. Instead, he went over to the gates, intrigued about the approaching redhead.

The redhead walked with a bouncy gait, energetically pushing the gate open. Sai's eyes widened slightly as he felt the gate pass through him. He hated it when people or things passed through him. It felt horrible. People were so inconsiderate. A tiny corner of Sai's mind was telling him that he shouldn't be blaming anyone since they couldn't see him and thus couldn't accommodate for him. But still! Sai pouted a bit, sticking his tongue out at the redhead.

The redhead continued smiling despite Sai's actions, which he couldn't see. He stood next to Sai, observing the four boys on the courts. Sai sighed, once again focusing his attention on watching the four boys.

Suddenly, the redhead yelled, "Mou, Ochibi's a meanie!"

Sai blinked as the rallying stopped. The four boys started coming off the courts.

"Eiji-senpai!" exclaimed Momoshiro.

"Kikumaru-senpai..." murmured Echizen, his hat shading his eyes, slightly irritated that he had been called a "meanie" by his senpai.

The redhead beamed. "Yup! That's my name! Kikumaru Eiji desu!" He look towards the two boys that he didn't recognize. "Yoroshiku ne?" He then turned back to Echizen. "Ne, Ochibi! You're being mean to this boy! You're not even giving him a chance."

Touya twitched a bit. He didn't need any handicaps.

Kikumaru glanced at Touya. "Ah! You have almost the same color hair as Ochibi! That's hard to find!" Kikumaru grinned, suddenly latching himself onto Touya. "Shall I call you Ochibi number two?"

"Eh...iie...I don't need any nicknames," said Touya finally, after getting over his initial shock of a guy latched onto him. He calmly continued, "Can you let go of me?"

Kikumaru frowned. "I really should call you Ochibi number two. You're no fun, just like him!"

"I have a name...Touya Akira desu."

Kikumaru's frown turned into a pout as he noticed the height difference between Touya and Echizen. Touya was way taller than Echizen, so he certainly didn't qualify for that nickname.

Hikaru just snickered as he introduced himself as Shindou Hikaru.

Kikumaru suddenly brightened up when he noticed that there were four people on the courts. Four people, not counting himself, was the perfect number for doubles! He'd love to throw Ochibi, Momo, that Touya guy, and that Shindou guy onto the courts together! Just by looking at the four boys, Kikumaru could tell that each of them had equally strong, stubborn, and conflicting personalities. He could barely imagine the havoc they'd create when thrown onto the same court. Kikumaru grinned. That only made things all the more interesting!

Echizen didn't like the grin on Kikumaru-senpai's face.

"I know! Let's play doubles, nyaa!"

Echizen vehemently shook his head. He hated doubles. He couldn't coordinate with another person even if his life depended on it.

Momoshiro shook his head as well. Was Eiji-senpai going crazy? Doubles would never work, especially if he had to partner up with Echizen, who lacked all doubles skills. Touya and Shindou probably couldn't play doubles either, since they weren't that skilled as tennis players. For Momoshiro, doubles was certainly harder than singles. Not only did you have to hit well, you also had to know what your partner was thinking in order to cooperate. Or else, there would be too many holes in their play.

Touya just stood frozen to the spot. Doubles? They were going to play doubles? He couldn't imagine himself being partners with any of the other boys in front of him. After all, there were no such things as doubles in Go. You played solo, against some opponent, and that was it.

Hikaru, on the other hand, just blinked as he asked, "What doubles?" Sai nodded exuberantly next to Hikaru. He wanted to know as well.

Everyone sweatdropped.

Kikumaru exclaimed, "Nyaa, I'll explain it to you after we decide who's on whose team!" He ignored his kouhais' disagreement, since he really, really wanted to see them play doubles. He loved playing doubles and watching doubles matches, since he was a true doubles player. With Oishi, they made up Seigaku's golden pair, one of the best Junior High doubles pair in Japan.

He scratched his head a bit, wondering how they should decide the teams. He then brightened up and took out five lollipops. Two of the lollipops were red, two of them blue, and one of them white. Kikumaru grinned.

"These will determine the teams. The person who gets the white one will be the judge for the game."

Echizen and Momoshiro gave up on shaking their heads, since Kikumaru ignored them entirely. Kikumaru held the lollipops in his hands so that no one could see the lollipops' colors. "Come on, we don't have all day!"

Hikaru smiled brightly. "Will you let me eat the lollipop?"

Kikumaru frowned a bit. These were his lollipops! But oh well, if letting them have the lollipops could persuade them to play doubles, then so be it! He nodded his consent.

Happily, Hikaru pulled out one lollipop.

Echizen sighed and pulled out the next lollipop. Momoshiro followed his lead and pulled out a lollipop as well. Now, only Touya hadn't pulled a lollipop out.

"Come on, Touya. We're just waiting for you!" exclaimed Kikumaru.

Touya reluctantly pulled out a lollipop.

Kikumaru looked at the remaining lollipop in his hand. He grinned. It was white. That meant that he was going to be the judge for the game after all. Just as he wanted. He wondered what the results for the partners were.

Hikaru looked at the color of his lollipop, and then at the colors of the lollipops of the other four boys'.

"What? I have to play doubles with him?" exclaimed Hikaru. Despite not knowing how to play doubles, he wasn't looking forward to being partners with HIM.

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

notes:
[1] ochibi: Kikumaru Eiji's nickname for Echizen. It means "little one" or something about being little.