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An post, themes 2, 6, 9
Title: A Non-Violent Battle
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Hirakoba Rin/Tachibana An
Claim: Prince of Tennis General Series
Prompt: #2 Laugh
Word Count: 1,081
Rating: G
Summery:  It was a battle she hadn’t meant to start, but once ‘uncute’ was thrown into the mix, well she wasn’t responsible for her actions.

 

Ugh, why does it have to be so hot? An swiped irritably at her forehead in a vain attempt to remove the dripping sweat from falling into her eyes.  Already her poor eyes were burning from the sun, they really didn’t need the added pain of salt water and forehead grime. 

If only she could find Fudomine in the maze of tennis courts.  Then she would be one step closer to being able to go home – an air conditioned home at that!  But, as it was, she had been wandering for a good fifteen minutes without catching so much as a glimpse of the familiar black, white and red.  The summer heat, and the tennis courts, were, apparently, conspiring against her.

Wandering along, An wasn’t really paying attention to her surroundings, except of course, for keeping an eye out for her school’s tennis team.  As such, when she collided with someone, it came as a surprise, and though she didn’t hit him hard enough to knock either of them over, it still sent a jolt of awareness through her.  “Ah, sorry!” She apologized instantly, laughing in what was contrived to be a cute way.

The boy she had run into blinked at her, his blond head tilting as he looked down at her from his minimal height advantage. An stared back, marveling that a boy had nicer hair than she did.  Shoulder length and bright blond, it was criminal to have hair like that and be of the male gender.

His uniform struck her as familiar and in moments she recognized it.  “Ah, you’re from that cheating school from Okinawa!”  An exclaimed, before wincing inwardly.  She hadn’t meant to go that far.  Sometimes her mouth got ahead of her brain.

He stiffened instantly, his expression becoming hostile.  “Tche.  I better go, your uncute might be contagious.”  Whirling, he began to stomp away, leaving An in his dust.

Not one to let a personal insult slide (despite the fact that she had started it, albeit unintentionally), she found herself shooting words at his back.  “Wow, I’ve never met a blind tennis player before.  Stupid, yes, but not blind.  What a rarity to find both qualities rolled up in one package!”

The boy froze in his tracks, shoulders stiffening in what An could only assume was outrage.  When he turned back to her, his blue eyes snapping bolts of lightning at her.  “Uncute and shrew-like, you’re single aren’t you?” He fired back, storming over to her, looming in his diminutive glory.

Face flushing, An glared back.  “Says a pretty boy who spends more time on his hair than on his tennis skills!”

“How would you know!” He growled, his cheeks practically puffing with displeasure, burning as red as hers were turning.

They stared each other down for at least a solid minute.  In that time An, in her anger, forgot about Fudomine and the match they were going to be playing any minute.  All she could see was the crown of golden hair and fiery blue eyes that were currently spitting at her.  How did this situation get so out of hand?  It was too bad, if he wasn’t a cheating pretty boy, he’d be really cute.

The boy was the first to break the glaring match, and he did so by all of a sudden deflating.  His eyes lost the anger and his posture relaxed.  However, An was sure she didn’t like what replaced it.  A calculating gleam entered his dark eyes, and a smug grin overtook his lips.  “Oho…I know what this is about!”

“Excuse me?” An replied, brow furrowing in confusion.

His grin became more devious and he leaned closer, fully invading her personal space.  “You like my hair,” his voice lowered even more, entering the realm of purring.  “You think I’m cute.”

An’s flush grew darker, and she struggled with the need to grind her teeth.  “I do not!” She refuted hotly, foot tapping in impatience. 

“Aa, aa,” waving one of his hands, he shrugged his lean shoulders.  “I think you’re intimidated by my good looks, seeing as you’re so uncute.”

Now he had done it.  It was one thing to call her uncute, repeatedly, but it was quite another to infer that she, Tachibana An, who faced down prettier, more talented boys than this one would ever be, was intimidated by his looks.  As if she would ever be demoralized by the likes of him! 

She itched to smack the smug grin right off his face.  She wanted to stomp on his foot and kick him in the shins for being a jerk to an obviously cute girl.  She did none of that, however.  Theirs was a non-violent battle, and she would win it without violence.  After all, she was an attractive girl with an arsenal of tools to defeat smug boys.  She had done it before, and she would do it again.

So, An only snorted, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her head away.  “If I had found you even remotely attractive, you would have known it,” she said haughtily, raising her chin.  A plan was forming in her mind – she could only hope he would take the bait.

“Oi, Rin!  What are you doing?”

The boy ignored the calls from behind him.  One glance told her that it was his teammates that were calling, and that he was far too intrigued to leave the conversation now.  Got ya!

“Is that so?” He drawled after a moment, not sparing even a glance for his friends as he leaned even closer to her.  “And what would you have done if you had?”  It was clear from his tone that he still believed that she found him attractive, and it was likely her plan would only further cement that belief in his head.  But it would be worth it to have the last victory.

Pasting a cheeky smile on her face, she pivoted suddenly toward him and brought her face within inches of his.  “I would have shown you… like this!” Darting forward she pressed her lips against his for a few seconds before pulling away, a tinkling laugh echoing through the tennis park around them.  “But as I don’t find you attractive, you’ll never know what that truly could have felt like!”

She left him there, gaping like a fish, his face ablaze in a fierce blush.  Feeling self-satisfied, An looked over her shoulder and raised a hand in farewell.  “See ya, Rin-chan!”

.

Title: Feelings
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Fuji Yuuta, Mizuki Hajime/Tachibana An
Claim: Prince of Tennis General Series
Prompt: #6 Lovers
Word Count: 350
Rating: G
Summery:  Mizuki had never felt this way before.

“I’ve never felt this way before.”

Yuuta blinked, turning his head to look at his manager and friend.  Mizuki looked positively lost.  His eyebrows were furrowed in a deep frown and he was actually gnawing on his bottom lip.  Not to mention he was staring at his hands like there was something wrong with them. 

Yuuta wasn’t really one to get involved in other people’s problems, and he wasn’t really one to want to know about other people’s feelings, especially when the other person was Mizuki.  But knowing that Mizuki expected some sort of guidance (at least Yuuta assumed he did), he sighed and fortified himself for what was sure to be a long and awkward conversation.  “Never felt like what?”

He didn’t know how it was possible, but Mizuki’s face seemed to scrunch even more.  It was an expression somewhat reminiscent of the one he wore when he lost to the elder Fuji brother.

“She…”

Oh god, was all Yuuta could think as he tuned out what he was pretty sure was a long, drawn out soliloquy about Tachibana An.  She was the only girl Mizuki had ever mentioned, and the only one that could be at all related to feelings he had never felt before.  Why me?  I must have done something to deserve this?  Maybe I should ignore aniki less…

“What should I do?”

Yuuta snapped back to attention just in time to see Mizuki look at him with eyes that didn’t suit him at all.  It was disconcerting to see Mizuki confused and unsure, since that was practically the boy’s trademark – confidence.  “Er… tell her how you feel?” His words were stilted and uncomfortable and he really didn’t know what to say.  It wasn’t like he had any experience with girls.

Mizuki seemed to straighten at the words, however, and a look of determination crossed his features.  “You’re right,” he said, nodding self-importantly.  “There’s no way she can deny me.”

If you say so.  If there was one thing Yuuta was glad about in regards to Mizuki’s character, it was that he was extremely easily placated.

Title: Not Stalking
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Tachibana An/Kaidou Kaoru, Momoshirou Takeshi
Claim: Prince of Tennis General Series
Prompt: #9 Sun
Word Count: 2,552
Rating: G
Summery: She was just watching and planning… but not stalking.  Kaidou didn’t really know the difference.

An wondered idly if her current activity constituted stalking or not.  It was likely that someone would classify it as such, but she didn’t.  Not really.  She was watching, and planning, but not stalking.  It wasn’t like she was making any effort to be subtle.

It was broad daylight, nothing sneaky there, and the sun shone brightly overhead, bathing the tennis park in light.  It was warm, a bit overly, but the heat was the last thing on her mind.  At that moment she was contemplating how she was going to get one Kaidou Kaoru to notice her without frightening him.

She was one of the few that could see past his so-called ‘scary’ face.  She knew that inside he was a big softy, and that he really didn’t want to be seen that way.  She thought the contrast was endearing, which was how he had caught her interest in the first place.  The fact that he was Momoshirou’s archrival also helped.  Lord knew that though she liked Momo, he annoyed her enough to want a bit of revenge.  The date incident was not nearly enough.

That wasn’t to say that she only liked Kaidou because she knew it would annoy Momo.  It was just a bonus.  The real reason she liked Kaidou was because he was so incredibly kind and his external gruffness held a sort of fascinating charm.  He was so different than anyone else she had met.

Too bad he didn’t notice her existence.  Sure he had looked at her once or twice, but they had been nothing more than cursorily glances.  She doubted that anything besides her status as ‘enemy’ even registered.  It was a bit disappointing.

Not that she was going to let that stop her.  When had she ever let little obstacles like that get in her way?

--

Kaidou Kaoru was not easily frightened.  Ghosts, certainly, Inui-senpai, maybe, but definitely not teenage girls.  Generally they weren’t even on his radar – a radar that included his family, food and most importantly tennis.  However, that all changed when one teenage girl started stalking him.

At first he hadn’t noticed.  She was, after all, a regular attendee of the street courts.  It wasn’t unusual for them to be there at the same time.  But then he began to get the sensation of being watched.  She tried to be subtle about it, but to someone who was used to having other people turn their eyes away from him, a handful of intense glances from a single source was noticeable.

It was a bit creepy, especially considering which girl it was.  He had heard Momo compare her to Inui on several occasions and the thought that she too had turned her sights on him unnerved him.  He wondered what she could possibly want with him of all people.

It was this uneasiness that led him to keep his mouth shut and to ignore her as much as possible.  Maybe if he ignored her she would leave him alone?

In retrospect, the idea that Tachibana An, a girl who was apparently as evil as Fuji and as clever and devious as Inui, would simply leave him be was absurd.  Stalking him quickly became not enough, as within days of his noticing her attention, she began to try to speak to him.

Kaido felt vaguely like a mouse being herded into a trap.  The first few attempts were awkward and cautious, and he was certain she was setting him up for something.  She was, after all, a friend of Momoshirou.

But things slowly got better, and if she was as evil as Momo said she was, he had a more difficult time seeing it.  She had nothing but smiles for him and she chatted at him like he was an active participant in it, and she took his hisses, grunts and glares in stride, simply grinning and laughing.

He wasn’t completely fooled though.  He could see the intelligence in her eyes and the wicked mirth that lurked behind the navy orbs.  Yet, as days turned into a month, he actually found that he liked her.

He liked the way she didn’t flinch and scurry when he snapped at her in ill temper, and he liked the way she was aware of tradition.  Most of all, he really liked her spunk.  She took crap from no one about anything, and for that he respected her.  Even if she could be sneaky and conniving when she wanted to.

She never was with him, so what did it matter?  Quite the opposite really.  Often she tried to get him involved in her mischief in one way or another, whether it was as an active participant, or as just an in-the-know listener.  He still never ceased to blush when she would giggle evilly behind a hand and stand on her tiptoes to whisper something in his ear.  He figured that was part of why she did it.

Thus, by the time his teammates caught on to Tachibana An’s increased attention towards him, and started teasing him about his “girlfriend” he secretly didn’t mind so much.  The thought was no longer as weird as it once had been.  That didn’t mean he didn’t hiss and deny it of course.  What business was it of theirs anyway?

This was until they did it in front of her.  He nearly killed them then.  That was the end to any and all communication between him and her.  He liked her too much to subject her to his teammates stupidity.  That’s what he told himself anyway.  In reality, he was just afraid she would laugh too.

--

Mou, and she was so close too.  Stupid Kikumaru and Momo.

She wasn’t going to let a whole month of work go to waste however.  Pursing her lips, An stomped up the tennis part stairs, muttering internally.  If those morons had scared him away from the park entirely, she was going to knock all their heads together.  Twice. 

Cresting the stairs, her eyes quickly surveyed the park and was disappointed to find her target missing.  The two that caused his flight, however, were there, and she immediately turned her wrath upon them  “Momoshiro!”

Momo froze where he stood, his shoulders bunched and his expression fearful.  “Tachibana no imouto?”

An did more than glare, she glowered.  She was certain the only reason Kaidou wasn’t present that afternoon was because this ‘friends’ had teased him two days before.  Destroying all her hard work.  It was a long process gaining Kaidou Kaoru’s trust, and in one second they had destroyed it. 

Setting her hands on her narrow hips, An began tapping her foot.  “You had better tell me where Kaidou is, if you know what’s good for you.”

Momo turned, his fearful expression slowly morphing into an obnoxious grin.  “Why?  Can’t find your boyfriend?”

Blue eyes narrowed.  “And if I can’t, whose fault is that?”

Momo was about to reply when he suddenly stopped, realizing what exactly she had said.  He gaped at her, his mouth dropping open and his eyebrows furrowing.  “Wait… are you saying that you and Kaidou are-?”

An did not reply, and instead turned turbulent eyes towards the sweating red head some feet away.  “Eiji-kun?”  her tone left no room for argument and Kikumaru quickly nodded.

“H-he likes to train down by the canal!  I’m sorry An-chan!”

Forgiving Kikumaru was easy, since he was so cute, and he almost always apologized to her when he took it too far.  He, at least, was intelligent enough to stay in her good books.  “You’re forgiven Eiji-kun,” she smiled at the red head and turned – making sure to glower at Momoshirou again.

“Are you and Kaidou really… like that?”

An just chuckled darkly and threw a saucy look over her shoulder as she disappeared down the stairs.  Going, she could hear the howl, “Tachibana no imouto!”

--

It took some going to find him, since Kikumaru hadn’t said where by the canal Kaidou liked to train.  She figured her best bet was to start at the point nearest to Seigaku and move outward in the direction of the tennis park.  It was the only method she knew – it turned out she got lucky.

She found him only meters from a bridge, knee deep in the canal, swinging a wet towel and muttering to himself.  Having the strategic advantage of being above him, An was allowed a moment to watch him.  He was quite a sight, and she admired him in a way only a teenage girl could.

Eventually, however, she moved off the bridge and made her way the precariously down the steep hill towards him.  He didn’t notice her until she was only feet from the bank, and when he did, all his movement stopped and his eyes widened comically.  The towel had had been swinging fell limply to his side, but other than that he didn’t move, he merely stared, as if he were utterly floored that she had sought him out.

An giggled inwardly, grinning outwardly.  He really was adorable!  “Hello Kaidou-kun!”

To say that he was shocked to see her standing behind him would be understatement.  He was beyond shocked, he was… well there wasn’t even a word to describe it.  She had sought him out, purposely it seemed, and now he was faced with her and her giggles.

What did she want anyway?  She couldn’t have possibly searched him out just to laugh at him.  Well, she could have, but he liked to believe that she was better than that.  That she liked him a bit more than that.  Hadn’t she been the one stalking him in the first place?

She didn’t really expect him to reply.  Even if he wasn’t in a state of shock, it wasn’t really his nature to reply to simple greetings with more than a nod.  So, she plowed on, her smile never dimming.  “You left so quickly the other day… and I haven’t seen you since.  I hope you haven’t been avoiding me.”

Kaidou felt his neck and ears burn.  He had been avoiding her… but he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her that.  “No.”

“Good then!”  An replied, taking a few steps closer to the bank.  “For a moment I thought that you might actually be bothered about being called my boyfriend.”

What?  Now he really had the mouse-in-trap feeling, and the burn was spreading from his ears to his face.  What exactly was she getting at?  And how did he back pedal out of this?  There was no possible way he could say anything without it sounding incriminating either way.  Thus he only replied, “Nn.”

Maybe this will work out after all.  Things seemed to be even better than they were before Momo and Kikumaru had teased him.  He was walking into her grasp.  “I’d hoped that you didn’t mind… since I kind of told Momoshirou-kun and Eiji-kun that you actually were my boyfriend…” Why not be truthful?  When it would get him where she wanted him.

“What?!” He gaped, his eyes wide as he whirled to completely face her.  How?  And why?  Why was he plagued by a scheming, if really cute, girl?  He only wanted normalcy, and maybe to be better than Momoshirou at everything.  How did he get stuck with Tachibana An?

She had maneuvered it, that was how.  Oh sure, the whole Momo-Kiku teasing hadn’t been in her plan, but like Inui she could think on her feet.  He knew she was tricky… he had just never thought she’d pull her tricks on him.

His face was completely on fire by that point, but he was slightly reassured by the tinge of pink that danced over her cheeks as well.  At least he wasn’t the only one affected.  Apparently, even when being sneaky, she still had some semblance of shyness… if that was what you could call it.

She had him in her trap now, and he couldn’t figure a way out.  He could tell her that he did in fact mind, and that he didn’t want to be known as her boyfriend.  That would probably work… except that he didn’t really mind, and he was taught never to lie.  Not even in the face of embarrassment and awkwardness.

He couldn’t tell her he minded, but he could ask why.  And he did.  “Why?”

Her grin never dimmed, only became brighter and a bit more mischievous.  Kaidou found himself actually liking the expression on her.  It suited her… in a strange way.  An giggled and leaned towards him, winking as she did so.  “Because I like you, and I think you like me too.”

And then she proceeded to “fall” forward.  She even flailed her arms for effect, and he had no choice but to drop his towel completely and catch her.  An didn’t notice that her semi-new tennis shoes were now water logged, or that the water almost reached the top of her thighs.  All she could think was, Mission accomplished with an impish smile as she circled her arms around her neck.

Kaidou, flabbergasted and unsure of where to put his hands, blushed hotly and tried to look away.  Girls were confusing and ridiculous, especially this one.  Too bad he found he couldn’t actually be annoyed, since her body fit against his rather nicely.  This, of course, only brought more burning and awkwardness. 

He had never actually hugged a girl that wasn’t his mother before.

“Na, Kaoru-kun, you’ll be my boyfriend right?”

He coughed.  “Aa.”