Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

14

Good news! I have been given a huge art project! D: So basically this means that all my time for the next week will be devoted to art, except for this weekend since I have no materials, so I'm getting started on Monday. That means from Monday onwards chapters probably won't be posted for a while.

And on the topic of my fic, I love your comments and how I'm totally getting the characters down when I don't even mean to. :P But hey, I've finally started the District Tournament (which will be short considering Rikkaidai will breeze through that) and that's not really a spoiler considering everyone who has watched PoT should've seen that coming.

Echizen Household

"Hey, Roko" Ryoma said.

The two brothers were both sat on the couch in the living room finishing their homework, as they always did. Ryoma was completing a Chemistry essay while Roko was studying a Biology text book for his up-coming test. They both shared a comfortable silence between them, engrossed in their own work until Ryoma spoke up.

Roko turned his head to Ryoma.

"Will you be watching my first match?" he asked. Roko smiled and put down his textbook so his hands were free.

"I'll take the train back here to watch you play, since my match is an hour before yours". Ryoma raised an eyebrow.

"You make it sound like your match won't take long" he suggested, but Roko just continued smiling and studied his text book.

Ryoma just sighed and smiled back at his chemistry essay. It wasn't particularly difficult, but Ryoma couldn't wrap his head around some of the details, so he just made it up as he went. Chemistry was the only subject that Ryoma really struggled in, and so his teacher declared it appropriate to give him extra homework.

Ryoma's first official match in the District Tournament was in two days, against some school beginning with a G. Ryoma didn't really know what it was called, nor did he particularly care, he was just interested in playing the team. He hoped that Roko would be there to watch, even if Ryoma was unable to go to Roko's own match.

Ryoma frowned, as he listed another problem with Roko going to Rikkaidai. There seemed to be an endless list of reasons why Roko couldn't go to this or do that, all because of tennis practice or Rikkaidai in general. It wasn't that Ryoma disliked the fact Roko had joined Rikkaidai, but it seemed that he was suddenly busy with one thing or another, and Ryoma had seen less and less of him recently. But he couldn't argue that he'd been home less and less too, with tennis practice taking up so much time every school day.

"I can't wait to play against your school" Ryoma said out of the blue. Roko looked up unfazed, and smiled softly.

"I'm looking forward to crushing you" his hands said, and Ryoma shook his head at his brother's cockiness.

Kanagawa Tennis Gardens

The Rikkaidai Regulars were assembled at the tennis courts, waiting for Sanada to return with confirmation of their entry in the tournament. The tennis gardens was a large open area with many tennis courts in sight, surrounded by metal mesh, and the area boasted a great deal of trees and flowers, since the area backed onto a nature reserve. There were plenty of park benches and food stands, and teams with uniforms walking back and forth talking strategy.

Kirihara smirked as he noticed the other teams had noticed them and were whispering sharply to each other. They were sat on two park benches, but even sitting on a park bench stirred fear into the other teams, because Rikkaidai was just that good. Kirihara smiled inwardly as he saw that one team noticed he was looking at them and they quickly walked away.

Sanada was really taking his time. As much as Kirihara loathed the useless competition they had to plough through to get to the Nationals, he couldn't help but want to play, even if the opposition could barely return his shots. He felt his pulse quicken and he buzzed with excitement when they stepped through the front gate, and he just suddenly needed to play tennis.

He wondered if the rest of the team were feeling the same. Probably not, since Yanagi was muttering under his breath while writing in his notebook, Yagyuu sat graciously and waited patiently, Marui had his arms folded behind his head and was mechanically blowing bubbles, Jackal was staring at the sky, and Niou... he had no idea where Niou was. Echizen had left earlier, just walking away without any sort of sign, and Kirihara suddenly had a very awkward moment when he asked Echizen where he was going, and immediately realised that without Sanada, Echizen couldn't communicate with him. So Echizen just gave a thumbs-up and walked off.

Kirihara wondered what Echizen was doing. He'd never understood that freshman, but in fairness, nobody except Sanada did. It was extremely awkward during the first few days when people would congratulate him on becoming a regular and start asking questions about his life, and Echizen would just stand there and wait for them to realise he was mute. He was just a person who made others feel awkward. Kirihara often wondered what Echizen really thought, since there were plenty of times people would look at him like he had cheated to become a regular, even though he defeated Yagyuu.

But Kirihara couldn't deny that his heart practically broke in two when Echizen didn't appear for his match. He so desperately wanted to play this mysterious freshman that had defeated Yagyuu, with no witnesses to tell the tale. Some of the non-regulars thought he had bribed Yagyuu or threatened him in order to become a regular, but Kirihara more than anyone understood what it was like to be underestimated.

He had forgiven Echizen since then, coming to the conclusion that there was a serious reason - serious enough for him to miss his match - for Echizen to skip playing against him. Kirihara didn't hold it against him, because he just somehow knew that whatever the freshman needed to do was far more important than the match. He wanted to ask him, but he just felt scared at the idea of fukubuchou translating for Echizen, because Sanada was just terrifying.

Speaking of which, Sanada was walking back down the path towards them, with his stoic mask in place and large stride. People looked at him awestruck as he passed, with wide eyes and whispered to each other. It wasn't surprising really, for all of fukubuchou's scariness, he was an icon in the middle school tennis world.

Sanada stood in front of the group, and raised an eyebrow.

"Where are Niou and Echizen?" he demanded. Kirihara opened his mouth to speak, but there was suddenly a white blur next to him, and Kirihara jumped and fell off the bench in fright. He groaned and looked up to see Niou smirking at him.

"Niou-senpai! Where did you go?" he asked angrily, but Niou just smirked.

"I was busy checking out the other teams, puri ~" he replied casually, sitting down to take Kirihara's place on the bench.

"And?" Yanagi asked from across the bench, leaning forward curiously.

"All weak teams" Niou stated bluntly, and there was a general sigh of disappointment from the team even though there was complete silence.

"And Echizen?" Sanada asked. Kirihara stood up from his sprawled position on the ground.

"We couldn't ask him since you weren't there, fukubuchou" he replied. Sanada grunted once as a response.

"He can take his time, the match doesn't start for another ten minutes" he said. Kirihara was shocked by his answer, normally fukubuchou would have roared and stormed away to find Echizen and drag his corpse back, but to actually allow someone to be gone for a long period of time before a match?

"Who's playing?" Marui asked with his arms still folded behind his head.

"Doubles One will be you and Jackal, Doubles Two will be Yagyuu and Niou, Singles Three will be Echizen" Sanada stated. No one pointed out that Sanada hadn't mentioned singles one and two, but he didn't need to, considering the team would win in three matches anyway.

Kirihara seethed inwardly at the realisation he wouldn't be playing. He wanted to play so badly, and yet he would have to watch from the sidelines? Agh! How could this get any worse?

Yanagi lifted his head lightly.

"Ah, it seems Echizen has returned" he noted, and everyone looked in Yanagi's direction to see the freshman walking slowly towards the regulars with earphones in his ears. Kirihara raised an eyebrow. Did Echizen like music?

"Echizen" Sanada called to him, and Echizen just looked up at him.

"Why were you gone?" Sanada asked sternly. Echizen just lifted his hands and made gestures that Kirihara and the rest of the regulars couldn't understand. It was kind of strange to see these conversations between fukubuchou and Echizen that no one else could understand, and it was kind of awkward, especially when they started to talk when glancing at the other regulars, implying they were having secret conversations. Sanada narrowed his eyebrows.

"Cake? Why would you buy that?" he asked curiously, and Kirihara noticed that Marui's eye lit up.

Echizen made more gestures.

Sanada just sighed.

"It doesn't matter, you're playing in Singles 3, think you can handle that?" he asked. Echizen just nodded once.

"Good"

Kanagawa Tennis Gardens Courts

Roko could somehow feel eyes on him as soon as the word 'Cake' was uttered by Sanada. He glanced at the regulars, but didn't see anything unordinary; they all looked at him curiously or not paying attention at all.

He mentally sighed and ignored it, and instead focused on watching the other team warm up. He could tell instantly that they were a weak team, judging by the physique and awkward stretches of the players. They looked utterly terrified, and Roko couldn't blame them for that, after all, they were against the three-time national champions.

He still had his earphones in and his music on full blast. Sanada didn't scold him for it, since the captain had softened his punishments on Roko since he started tutoring him English, and frankly there wasn't anything worth paying attention to in this game. Roko was kind of disappointed that he would have to put his iPod down in order to play his opponent; his music was of far more value to him.

He decided he was hungry, and the matches were about to begin. Roko reached into his tennis bag and pulled out a box, and opened the lid to reveal two iced muffins with cherries on top, and he practically salivated at the sight of them. They looked so good.

And then he felt that glare on his head again, and turned to see Marui staring at him shamelessly, or more precisely, he was staring at the cake. Roko rolled his eyes, and removed his earphones.

"Can I have one?" Marui asked without looking away from the muffins. Roko just shook his head, and Marui whined.

"Oh pleeaassee" he begged, his eyes growing huge and looked at Roko with a pout. Roko just looked at him hollowly; he was not getting his cake.

"Echizen" he heard Jackal say, and he turned to Jackal, who looked at him sympathetically, "it's better to just give him one, he won't leave you alone until you do". Roko looked at Jackal for a moment, and then made signs with his hands. Jackal looked confused, and looked at Sanada who had watched the conversation.

"I'll give one when you win the match" Sanada translated, and Marui's eyes suddenly lit up, and he hugged Roko tightly. Roko struggled against him but Marui held on and smiled widely.

"Yay! Thank you" he chirped, suddenly very happy, and Roko blinked at his sudden change in personality.

He must really love cake, he noted, and a small smile crept across his face.

So he took the first muffin, and took a delicious bite out of it with his music at full blast in his ears as he watched Marui and Jackal shake hands with their terrified opponents.