fic - Double Timing, Prince of Tennis, Prologue (original) (raw)

Title: Double Timing
Authors: Lynn Bartlett and Illiyenia
Characters: Fuji, Yuuta, Rokkaku
Pairing: Fuji/Saeki, others
Type: PG-13
Notes: This is an alternate universe.
Email: illiyenia@yahoo.com.au

Prologue

In Chiba, the sun always shined, even when it was raining.

Saeki smiled a bit to himself as the rain sprinkled down lightly, the clouds parted just enough so that the sun was able to peer through and cast rainbows around them. A few of the members sulked a bit about having to get off the courts, since Oji had long ago made it clear that tennis during the rain was not allowed, but the more fun-loving among them laughed, enjoying what was to come.

"Race you!" Kentarou said to them all cheerfully, before kicking up his long legs and stealing a head start.

Saeki laughed aloud, loving the way these days were - childish and carefree, with nothing to truly bother him. His long time doubles partner, Fuji Syuusuke, winked at him before racing off, leaving Saeki to trail behind.

The playground, with its dirt floor, was just saturated enough to turn into a pit of fine mud. A few of the more wary hung back, worried about the inevitable mess they would make of their uniforms, but the regulars all plunged ahead, grabbing ropes and swinging on tires, merrily testing their luck. It was slippery, and it would only be a matter of time before one of them fell.

“Boo!” The sudden noise from his side distracted Saeki. Fuji laughed as he watched Saeki come to a skidding halt, which eventually saw him turning his practice shorts into something resembling a mud monster. It was hard to shock the other boy, yet Fuji had spent years in his company and learned the finer points of it. Affecting astonished rue, he smiled angelically. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Did I shock you?” Behind tawny bangs his eyes laughed in genuine mirth.

Fuji was always shocking Saeki, but Saeki took delight in returning the favour. Without replying, he leapt up and grabbed Fuji by the waist, pulling him off the monkey bars, which he had been clinging to. Fuji seemed resigned, and offered no protest as he started to go crashing to the ground... yet somehow managed to land on top of Saeki.

"Ouch!" Saeki whimpered as he ended up with a elbow in the gut and Fuji's full weight on top of him. The team, more than used to the antics of its doubles one pair, merely laughed and continued to climb, ignoring the way Saeki's hand rested intimately on Fuji's hip.

With a laugh, Fuji leaned forward a little, still seated comfortably on top of his doubles partner. “Aww, did the poor baby hurt himself?” Fuji was used to the feel of those fingers against his skin, but for some reason it felt even better in the rain. Leaning down even further, he smirked. Ignoring the rain running down his back, and ignoring the other team members running around them, he lowered his voice teasingly like a promise. “Want me to kiss it better?”

Had the hand not been in place, Fuji would have stood and left Saeki lying in the rain, but they’d played this too many times for Saeki to fall for that. The grip tightened a little. "How many times have I told you not to make offers you don't intend..." Saeki started, but a voice pierced through his threat.

"Aniki! Saeki-san!" Yuuta hurried over, looking thoroughly harassed. "Not in public!"

The grip loosened a little, enough to allow Fuji to stand up anyway. Reaching a hand down to help Saeki up, Fuji glanced at his younger brother. “Thank you, Yuuta.” He leaned over as if whispering a secret to his brother. “Sometimes we forget.” It was all Fuji could do to stop from laughing at the slight blush that crossed Yuuta’s features.

Yuuta crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm sorry, aniki, but I have matters I need to attend to. As captain of Rokkaku, I can't let my brother get distracted by his paramour-"

"Paramour? Did you look that up?" Saeki asked curiously, not at all offended. Jerking Yuuta's chain was one of his favorite pasttimes. It was an unforeseen side-benefit of having Fuji as a boyfriend.

Yuuta's eyebrow ticked as he tried to keep from lashing out, since he knew that both of the older boys were just waiting for that. "No," he said, grinding his teeth just a bit. "We have Seigaku coming up in a week, and they're going to be..."

"The strongest team we've faced yet," Fuji and Saeki said in unison, having heard Yuuta's speech dozens of times before.

The captain’s eyebrow shot up, and he had to count to ten. That was the trouble of having your brother on the same team; he knew everything about you, including how to rile you up. “You should be leading by example, vice-captain.” He glared at his brother as strictly as possible, knowing it was useless when Fuji was in this mood.

Trying his best to look contrite and failing abysmally, Fuji nodded. “But I do!” Well, he sort of did. He came to training, didn’t he?

"I've yet to see any evidence," Yuuta said. "You two think because you're nationally recognized that will take care of your laziness...."

"I'm not lazy," Saeki said quietly.

"You let yourself get distracted with that kendo garbage when you should be practicing tennis!" Yuuta shot back.

Saeki’s eyes flashed as Yuuta crossed the one line no one should ever dare to cross with him. Opening his mouth to speak, he was halted by a hand on his shoulder.

Smiling smoothly, Fuji stepped between the two. “We are less distracted than you realise. There are reasons behind everything. Just because we haven’t told you what they are, does not mean they are non-existent.” Opening his eyes a little, hand still restraining Saeki, Fuji lowered his voice. “You’re our captain, not our mother. We won’t let the team down, we never have.”

Yuuta tried to remain angry, but it didn’t work. In a way, Fuji was right, but at the same time everything just seemed to come so easily to him. “Just hope that’s the case when we play Seigaku. You need to be better than usual.”

Saeki grinned, shaking off the hand holding him. “We’ll be better than the best,” and he winked.

Yuuta rolled his eyes. "You'd better be. I-" he started, but was jerked aside when a loud yell came from the swingset. Itsuki and Kentarou were talking to Davide, and Bane was looking like he wanted to take a tennis racket and club all three of them. Yuuta sighed, looking a bit frazzled. "Remind me why I'm about to go separate them?" he asked. "If one of them drops dead, my life would be so much easier...."

Fuji smirked. “Because you’re just the best little… captain in the whole wide team?”

With an exasperated glance at his brother, Yuuta muttered under his breath as he made his way over to the others: “And because you’d have far too much fun not separating them.”

“What was that, Yuuta? I don’t think I quite heard you.” Fuji called out sweetly. The older brother grinned, crossing his arms to watch the captain work his rather blunt form of magic. It was a pity Yuuta had never learned the finer points, but there was still time.

"I'll tell them that if they don't behave, I'll lock them in a room with you and Saeki-san when you're horny," Yuuta said, his eyes gleaming wickedly. "I think being forced to watch you two make out would be enough to make anyone behave..."

"It's not like they haven't seen it before..." Saeki said, shrugging. "Remember that time on the bus?"

"Or in the locker rooms?" Fuji added.

"Or last week, on this playground?"

Yuuta knew he should have known better than to try and mince words with those two. No matter how much he thought he’d learned, he always ended coming out on the rough end of things.

Fuji watched his brother's retreating back, a thoughtful grin on his face. “You know,” he nudged his boyfriend with his elbow. “He’s learning, we might have to be more subtle in the future.”

Saeki watched as Yuuta ploughed his way into the regulars, tossing a couple of them into the mud as he started to yell about the dignity of Rokkaku. A smirk found its way to his lips, and he crossed his arms behind his head. "I think he still has a ways to go."