Rose Wreath

Chapter Two:

Ryoma – The Impossible Blue Bloom

*-*_*-* Takeshi Momoshiro *-*_*-*

Momoshiro prided himself on few things in this world.

One of...oh...maybe...four? Was his friendship with Ryoma-kun.

(The second would be always remembering things about people, like Ryoma-kun's birthday, or the fact that the only Inui Juice Fuji is not allowed to drink is that black-out blue one. Because... he... you know... blacks out.)

(The third would be beating Kaoru Kaidoh at tennis...and, well...everything.)

(The fourth would be making his momma smile. Momoshiro was a momma's boy after all.)

Momoshiro happened to be down the street from his friend's house that day, ready to take him to school. Ryoma-kun wouldn't let him in front of the house anymore, because his father would sometimes come out and annoy them both. As he waiting for Ryoma-kun, he took a moment to think about his small friend.

Ryoma-kun had barely started at Seigaku before he was already popular with ladies and a coveted member of the Seigaku Regulars. It no secret that Ryoma-kun had shaken up the foundation the team stood on, just by being there. And, no matter what Kikumaru said, it was not JUST because he was adorable. Though, he was. It was because the flame of his determination and passion for the sport lit the proverbial fire under all of his upperclassmen, Momoshiro included. For the team, Ryoma-kun was a miraculous find, young, talented, and focused on nothing but TENNIS-TENNIS-TENNIS-TENNIS. Sometimes Ryoma-kun's one track mind could be annoying (even prompting various awkward jokes about the older boys now understanding what girls were always complaining about when it came to boys and their one-track minds...haha...ha...), but it was that same determination and focus that made the others want to be better players, to be worthy of Ryoma-kun's devotion to his team and the respect he had for his upperclassmen (and burning desire to defeat, destroy, and winwinwin against them, but no one talked about that part. Haha...ha...).

Momoshiro most of all enjoyed Ryoma-kun's company. It had been awhile since he had been able to connect to another person like he was slowly doing with Ryoma-kun. Momoshiro knew about the whole competition for Ryoma-kun's best friend spot, but he also thought that everyone knew that the spot was already his. Ryoma-kun may be as skittish as his cat Karupin when it came to things such as friendship and closeness, but Momoshiro liked to think that Ryoma-kun enjoyed his company as much as was vice-versa. So, no, Momoshiro didn't take the competition too seriously – except for when it came to showing Kaidoh up! – and was just content in his friendship with Ryoma-kun.

And, besides, Momoshiro realized that Fuji had only initiated the competition as a means to one of his weird endgame's. What that endgame was Momoshiro could only wonder...but he hoped that no one would get hurt in the long run. Namely himself. Because one thing was obvious – Ryoma-kun was a part of Fuji's endgame, and Momoshiro was Fuji's top competition. Momoshiro had no doubt that Fuji would never hurt Ryoma-kun, but anyone in his way to get Ryoma-kun? Well... he wasn't the Seigaku Sadist for no reason.

Pondering this with a slightly pale face, he almost missed Ryoma-kun practically launching himself onto his bike.

"Go, Momo-senpai!" he grunted, situating himself almost violently onto Momoshiro's handlebars. "Fast!"

Momoshiro was confused but he stepped on it, worried that maybe Ryoma-kun's father had thought he had corrupted his son in some way and was on his way to ninja his head off with a tennis racket.

Hey. Anything was possible.

"What's going on, Ryoma-kun? I swear, I did not do whatever it is that your father thinks I did!" Momoshiro said, panicking, racing through his recent memories to try and pinpoint when he might have done something bad to Ryoma-kun. "Was it that r-rated movie I brought over? Because, it only had ONE nude scene in it! And it was mostly blocked off! And I even covered your eyes!" Momoshiro was very responsible with his young friend, you see.

Ryoma-kun gave him a strange look. "No, Momo-senpai, we're late. Didn't you check the time?"

Momoshiro blinked and looked over Ryoma-kun's shoulder at the arm that was shakily holding up his wristwatch as they bumped along the road. 7:25.

"OHSHITWE'REGOINGTOMISSMORNINGPRACTICE ...!" Momoshiro cried, pedaling faster.

Ryoma-kun wisely held on for dear life as they sped towards the school. This was going to be a long ride...

*-* Fifteen Minutes Later *-*

Momoshiro and Ryoma-kun arrived at the school 10 minutes late for practice.

Once they arrived, Ryoma-kun practically melted off of Momoshiro's handlebars, looking a little green in the face. Momoshiro had to stop moving for a moment to catch his breath – he'd been leaning forward to pedal harder, and one of Ryoma-kun's tennis rackets had dug under his ribcage.

Once they were both a little calmer, Momoshiro grinned at Ryoma-kun. "Would ya look at that, Echizen," he said, using his last name teasingly. "I think you broke my rib's just by sitting on my handlebars.

Ryoma-kun huffed and covered his eyes with the palms of his hands. "If that was meant to be perverted...I didn't get it...so drop it...Momo-senpai..." he said, out of breath.

Momoshiro let out a loud laugh that promptly shot a jolt of pain straight through his rubs. "Yiii..." he whined.

Then, just before Momoshiro was going to retort with some smart-ass comment, Ryoma-kun looked at him.

"Don't ever call me Echizen again," he breathed. "And also, I don't like it when you say Ryoma-kun, either. It's annoying."

Momoshiro's eyes widened at he looked at Ryoma-kun in shock and slight pain (both physical and emotional). "Wh...What?!" he snapped. "Where the heck did that randomly come from? I thought we were friends!"

Ryoma-kun gave him another strange look, and for a sickening second he thought his friend would laugh at him. But instead, he said; "Yeah, of course we are. I mean, I thought we were, too. I was just saying...you can call me Ryoma. I don't like it when you call me 'Echizen' or '-kun'," he explained calmly. "We do it different America. You won't make me feel uncomfortable."

Momoshiro was stunned, and that was probably an understatement. "Oh...okay."

Ryoma-kun... no... Ryoma, smirked almost nastily at him. "You're face is stupid right now," he said cheerfully.

Momoshiro grabbed a fistful of grass and threw it on the younger boy's face. "Ha!"

Ryoma spluttered and sat up. "Jerk, Momo-senpai!"

Momoshiro paused. "You...could call me Takeshi."

Ryoma's gave him an owlish look, and it almost looked as if he were well and truly embarrassed by that statement. "I...I like Momo-senpai."

Momoshiro laughed. "And here I thought we were having a heart to heart!"

Ryoma blushed and looked away. "No...it's just...Takeshi sounds weird."

"Oi! That's rude!"

Ryoma smirked. "Sorry, Momo-senpai. I'm just so used to calling you Momo, that anything else wouldn't suit you."

Momoshiro rolled his eyes, but grinned. "Alright, Momo then. But, no more 'senpai'. Just Momo."

Ryoma nodded and gave Momoshiro a quick, small smile, before getting up. "Anyway, get up, we're 15 minutes late now!"

"And you're going to run 15 laps each, for every minute you were late."

Ryoma and Momoshiro froze at the sudden appearance of their captain.

"Uhh...Tezuka-bunchou...," Momoshiro mumbled.

"...Tch," Ryoma scoffed, then jogged towards the field.

"It was my fault...," he said lamely, now that Ryoma had gone.

Tezuka shook his head. "It takes two to tango, Momoshiro. Now go."

Momoshiro complied, albeit a little confused. What did the tango have to do with any of this?

*-*_*-* Sadaharu Inui *-*_*-*

Seigaku Data Tennis Player was, at the moment, baffled.

This was no minor feat. It took a lot to baffle Sadaharu Inui, who prided himself on knowing damn near everything there was to know about his team and his tennis.

But this was unprecedented. That is to say, it is without precedence. Never happened before, so on and so forth.

Ryoma Echizen had just formally requested for his teammates to stop calling him by "Echizen". Though he seemed to have no intention of reciprocating the action. Which was fine with Sadaharu, he would actually prefer Ryoma...hmm...that would take some getting used to...he would actually prefer Ryoma to call him Inui-senpai as he usually did. Inui was still embarrassed about anyone calling him by his given name. He was just raised that way.

The other's seemed to take the news...strangely. When Ryoma... Ryoma... Ryoma... hmm... anyway, when Ryoma had asked Fuji to call him by his given name, Fuji had nearly choked on his milk (Kikumaru had in fact, spit out his milk, all over poor, stunned Oishi). Tezuka-bunchou had tried to politely decline, but Ryoma almost pleaded with him to call him by his given name. He kept mumbling some nonsense about how it didn't mean anything, he was used to it, he lived in America most of his life, how this, how that, anything to get everyone to agree with his terms. It was strange because Ryoma reacted with embarrassment when Fuji decided to try out his name in rapid succession "Ryoma-kun, Ryoma-chan, Ryoma-san, Ryoma-sama, Ryoma, Ryoma, Ryoma." Though, Fuji toying around with his name WAS decidedly different than any of his other teammates doing it. But Ryoma did seem to be embarrassed by the other's doing it too, but that was most likely because everyone was making a big deal out it. Inui wondered if maybe Ryoma was homesick for America?

He mentioned as much to Tezuka-bunchou and Kaidoh later, and Tezuka-bunchou seemed to seriously consider this. He vowed to bring it up with Ryoma during practice.

Practice. Ryoma seemed to cringe every time it came up. It's as If he were dreading something.

Momoshiro spent most of the day being close to Ryoma, possibly giving moral support, though why he was comforting Ryoma even he didn't seem to know. Ryoma just seemed... down. A person less brilliant than Inui might have also said...nervous. But Ryoma doesn't get nervous. That is an Inui-certified fact.

Finally the time came when they were to attend practice.

"Oi...Ochibi!" Kikumaru called out to Ryoma.

Ryoma turned to him, unflinchingly. Kikumaru and Momoshiro seemed to safe territory for him. He was used to the "baby boy" nickname from Kikumaru, and he just seemed generally more comfortable around Momoshiro than anyone else (which, Inui had noticed, seemed to make Fuji slightly irritable).

"Kikumaru-senpai?" he asked.

"Just... just... you've been all... down and fidgety and stuff today," he explained lamely. "And the whole name thing..."

"I like that you call me Ochibi," Ryoma interrupted.

Kikumaru blushed a bit. "Yeah... but... I only... are you okay?"

Ryoma was silent. Then, he sighed. "I only wanted you to know that it would be fine with me if you called me by my given name to avoid... any... future..." Ryoma seemed to think hard about his next words. "...mix-ups, or misunderstandings."

This got everyone's attention.

"Ochibi?!" Kikumaru.

"Mix-ups? What do you mean, mix-ups?" Tezuka-bunchou.

"Misunderstandings? Ryoma-kun, have you done something...?" Fuji.

"What do you mean, Ryoma? Are you okay?" Oishi.

Ryoma grimaced under the sudden onslaught of attention and yanked his cap down in embarrassment. "Look, it's just...!"

"Oh my gosh!"

"Help! Help! Someone's collapsed!"

Our little conversation came to an abrupt halt as Tezuka-bunchou immediately ran for the field, followed closely by Oishi. Fuji and the rest of us lingered behind for a moment, then ran after them.

This day was turning out interesting after all. Good data.

*-*_*-* Kunimitsu Tezuka *-*_*-*

After everything that has been going on lately, the cry for help from the classmate of a collapsed freshman tennis player seemed almost welcome, in a morbid way.

The entire team has been feeling the pressure to perform at their best from the challenges we've been getting, left and right, not the mention the tournaments coming up, and another ranking match coming up. We were going to hold off until after the tournament to hold another ranking match – our line up right now was too crucial to throw away – but Coach Ryuzaki had the final say, and she declared that after the incident with Takashi's wrist in the last tournament, we needed an extra reserve player, just in case.

And then there was the issue with Eiji's home life. Not that Eiji was having problems with his family – Eiji adored his family, and so did the rest of the team – but there had been a lot of stress throughout the household since one of his brother's lost his job, his oldest sister was trying to attend a private University overseas, his other sister was not feeling well lately, and his other brother was seemingly having a go with everyone in the house. Eiji had been very stressed out, to the point where Tezuka was considering letting him come stay with him for awhile. The last thing they needed was for one half of the Golden Pair to be off his game.

Then, of course, Kaoru and Takeshi seemed to be at each other's throats more often than not lately. Tezuka wasn't entirely sure of the reasons behind their recent uptake in fighting, but he needed to figure it out fast before it devolved into actual violence.

And, Shusuke. Oh Shusuke. Tezuka sighed mentally. His dearest and oldest friend has always been known for his odd sadistic habits, his strong stomach, and his mind games. A big part of Shusuke's tennis was about intimidation and humiliation, and it's what made him so good, so fierce. And as long as Tezuka had known Shusuke, he had never once known him to take an interest in dating. It wasn't something he liked spending time on. Not that he didn't want to date at all, it was just that he felt he hadn't settled on a good enough person yet.

And then of course he meets Ryoma Echizen.

Tezuka had noticed the change in Shusuke's demeanor almost instantly. He did know him the best, after all. Shusuke began paying more and more attention to Ryoma, he focused on Ryoma, he talked about Ryoma, he thought about Ryoma, he broke into Tezuka's house through Tezuka's bedroom window to talk to him about Ryoma (That incident was honestly not as bad as Tezuka made it sound, it wasn't like Shusuke hadn't broken into his house before when something was on his mind).

In other words, Shusuke was not afraid to show that he had taken a deep interest in their youngest player. Keyword: Youngest. (Tezuka: ...Shusuke. Shusuke: Yes, Kunimitsu? Tezuka: What does the word "Pedophile" mean to you? Shusuke: … *Grin* Pedophile. In a hypothetical situation, it's something I won't have to deal with until I'm 18 and he's 16, and then I only have to worry for 3 years. Tezuka: …I worry about you sometimes.)

And that brought Tezuka to his biggest concern of the moment – you know, besides the collapsed child – Ryoma.

Tezuka had never regretted his decision to make Ryoma a part of the team. Ryoma was an excellent player with drive, motivation, and skill. He'd had some doubts when he realized he was carbon-copying his father's tennis, but once Ryoma began to break out of his shell, it became more and more apparent how much he fit in among Seigaku's best.

But nowadays, Tezuka wonders if it all wasn't just a bit too much for Ryoma to process. The kid was only 13 after all. Before his father had been there to help him focus on tennis, and there was nothing else to distract him from that. But here, Ryoma had been exposed to friends, enemies, rivals, and, well, girls. Not that Ryoma seemed interested at all in his fan club. Which, was good...Tezuka didn't need Shusuke getting suspended for giving poor naïve girls Inui Juice for touching something he had claimed as his own. Was in the process of claiming. Oh, God, Shusuke gave Tezuka the worst headaches sometimes.

Digressing. Ryoma had been very out of focus as of late, and Tezuka was hard pressed to find out why. Ryoma had broached the subject of death with his Captain – which both honored and frightened him. On one hand, he was glad Ryoma trusted him. On the other, he wasn't sure if Ryoma should be thinking about such things at his age. For the love of tennis, he was 13! Barely old enough for whatever Shusuke was thinking to be legal!

Tezuka sighed. Yes. A collapsing child was a wonderful distraction from everyday life. (Tezuka well and truly love Sadaharu, Shuichiro and Takashi. They were the only ones not causing him headaches at the moment.)

When they got to the field, Tezuka barked an order to step away form the collapsed child. He noticed Ryoma's friends Horio and Kato standing near a boy, laying on his back, pale as a sheet. Mizuno had probably gone to get the nurse.

Horio looked up at Tezuka with big, scared eyes. "Tezuka-bunchou, he just...he was laying here when everyone got here. We don't even know his name."

Tezuka moved past Horio and crouched next to the boy. Young, pale, black hair... white racket? Tezuka blinked. This was the boy from the park on Saturday.

He turned and said as much to Shuichiro who looked confused.

"I've never seen him around before...," he said. "Only that Saturday." He looked around. "Does anyone know who this boy is?!"

Masashi Arai stepped forward. "Oishi-senpai, I know him. He is a foreign exchange student. He was in one of my classes today. His name is -"

"Oi!" came an angry voice from behind them just then. "Nabari!"

Tezuka turned around, just in time to see Ryoma's racket come sailing through the air. It hit the fence and landed on the boy's stomach.

"I'm really going to have to talk to him about that," Tezuka muttered.

Then the boy sat up. "Wha...?"

Horio shrieked and jumped back, and Tezuka jumped a bit, startled.

Shuichiro stared owlishly at the boy. "You...you're alright?!"

The black haired boy looked up at Shuichiro and Tezuka curiously. "Yes...," he said, giving a small yawn. "I was tired so I took a nap."

Tezuka frowned. "You didn't get up when the others tried to wake you?"

The boy looked confused. "Did someone try and wake me up? I was just sleeping. I sleep like a kitty. Easy to startle awake."

Tezuka glared at Horio and the others. "Did none of you check to see if he was sleeping or not?"

The crowd looked kind of guilty.

"20 laps! All of you! Go!" Tezuka bellowed.

The non-Regular tennis club members all scrambled to comply and were gone within a minute.

Tezuka turned to Ryoma. "Ryoma, you know this b-"

The boy instantly sprung to his feet as soon as Ryoma's name left Tezuka's mouth. "RYOMA-NIISAN!" He shrieked, bounding towards Ryoma and throwing his arms around him with such force it knocked both of them to the ground.

"Oof!"

Silence.

Takashi was the one to break it. "Well...that explains the name thing."

Haha, this one was shorter than before...! And I still need to post two more stories tonight. I need to finish editing the Hetalia one I'm writing (You guys should check it out if you like Hetalia, and MYSTERY...lol), then I'm submitting another TOGf one. Because I love Asbel and Richard. Love.

I think the Hetalia one is my priority at the moment, because someone who's writing I admire wants me to write that one. Then, I think I'll post the TOG one tomorrow. WHAT WRITERS BLOCK? WHAT? NOT IN MY HOUSE! lol

I actually wrote this chapter the same time I wrote the first one, but it irritated me irrationally so I didn't post it until I fixed it. lol. Hope you enjoyed it!