Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

25

Rikkaidai Fuzoku Indoor Tennis Courts

Sanada sighed loudly in frustration as he watched his team run and laps and laps around the courts, with the non-regulars playing practice matches and the freshmen refereeing and picking up the balls. He was irritated for many reasons today.

One, the forecast had predicted sunshine today, and yet it was a rainstorm outside, so they were forced to play in the indoor courts, and Sanada never liked the indoor courts. They just felt too cramped to play a proper game of tennis in.

Two, Yanagi had received a call from Inui Sadaharu of Seigaku, asking for data on Echizen. Yanagi had complied, feeding basic information like height, blood type and favourite colour, but nothing more. But Sanada didn't really care about the fact Yanagi had fed their rivals data about their freshman prodigy, he was more concerned that Seigaku was interested in him. He supposed they would be, considering Echizen's twin brother was a regular at Seigaku. Sanada had been appropriately shocked, as were the rest of the team when that piece of information was revealed, and suddenly Echizen was bombarded with questions from Marui and Kirihara.

Third, and most importantly, Echizen's display against Yakuta Ippei yesterday. Sanada could not describe how infuriated he was when Echizen more than doubled the limit they had set for the Lightning Bolt, and then when it was over Echizen just walked off like nothing happened! He knew the entire team was worried for him, especially when Echizen left to who-knows-where, and he could not allow that. A worried team is distracted, and a distracted team cannot play 100%

So when the regulars finished their laps, Sanada called him over.

"What happened yesterday?" he asked bluntly, and he swore he could see the mental sigh in Echizen's eyes.

"I let his comments get to me, it won't happen again" his hands stated, Sanada frowned in response.

"That's not good enough. You could have seriously injured your arm" he said firmly. Echizen didn't lift his hands to respond, and instead just gazed at Sanada hollowly with his head cocked at a curious angle.

"Your arm still hurts, doesn't it?" he pressed, Echizen pursed his lips in hesitation and nodded. Sanada frowned at him for a moment, knowing that Echizen didn't particularly care.

"No practice for you today" he said bluntly, "Your arm must rest. But tomorrow you'll be doing double the training". Echizen looked at him for a moment before nodding again and walking away without any signs. Sanada noticed Yanagi looking at him with a raised eyebrow, but Sanada glared at him, and he got the message and walked away.

It wasn't until the end of practice that Sanada realised that not only did he not punish Echizen for disobeying him; he made him skip practice to rest.

You're getting too soft, he told himself.

Class 3A - English

Sanada wasn't being very talkative today. That was fine, considering Roko expected extreme punishment rather than being ordered to skip practice. He knew that ever since he had started tutoring him in English their relationship had grew into a good-acquaintance kind of relationship, but he doubted they would become real friends; Sanada was far too stoic for such things.

Roko honestly didn't mind sitting next to Sanada anymore, since he rather enjoyed being with him and teaching him the vocabulary and grammar rules needed to pass this class, whilst he didn't need to bother glancing at it. It made him smile when he realised that they sat next to each other because Yukimura had put them together, and he reminded himself to thank him later.

Today the teacher had decided to give the class another group project, pairing him and Sanada up since the teacher was very impressed with their previous group project, which was the best in the class. He could sense Sanada internally groaning, and Roko kind of understood that he was frustrated at him for his display in their last match, so he didn't hold it against him. But it clearly wasn't going to last since Roko noticed that very familiar scowl on Sanada's face as he read the worksheet they were given. The project was to design and create a poster on Rikkaidai Fuzoku's clubs and activities - since activities and clubs was their current topic in English - all of it in English. The teacher stated that only one club should be used on the poster, and the club should be described in detail. Sanada and Roko didn't bother exchanging signs or words, since they both knew which club they would create this poster for.

Roko internally smirked as he noticed Sanada scowling at the worksheet still. It was clear he didn't like the current topic - since they mostly went over grammar structures in their tuition together - and Roko made a mental note to go over the vocabulary with him. Though this was a recurring thing in English, where Sanada would scowl at a worksheet and Roko had to intervene. Sanada just gave a huff and pulled his chair closer to Roko's without a word spoken, and Roko allowed a small smile on his face. Sanada noticed that and scowled deeper.

"I would know these things if you taught me them" he said bluntly. Roko rolled his eyes and made signs.

"It's not my fault I have to repeat the grammar structures to you every time I see you" his hands retorted, and Sanada frowned but said nothing. He looked over Roko's shoulder as he always did, as the teacher handed them an A3 piece of paper to work on.

It was strange how many things you could tell about a person when they're so close to you, as Roko discovered. For starters, his breath wasn't as warm on Roko's neck as it usually was, which meant Sanada wasn't as angry today, and a non-angry Sanada was a distracted Sanada, and when he was distracted it was impossible to work with him.

Secondly, his breathing was quite loud, coming out in frustrated puffs from his nose. That probably meant that he was annoyed - likely annoyed at having to work with Roko after his performance yesterday.

And finally, the fact that he wasn't even looking at the paper, but Roko himself. He mentally sighed and turned to look at him.

"You're still angry with me" his hands stated, and he could see Sanada frown. He was quite surprised by that frown, since Sanada would normally scowl and go into his 'I'm-angry-leave-me-alone' kind of mood.

"I'm not angry with you" he said, Roko raised an inquiring eyebrow, and Sanada sighed in response.

"I'm angry at myself for being angry at you" he said hesitantly.

... Is he apologizing to me? Roko thought in wonder.

"I thought about what your motives were for being so reckless, and I realised if someone had said those things to me I would have killed them" he continued, and Roko tried not to stare at him incredulously. This was Sanada, right? Sanada Genichiro? He was tempted to ask 'who are you and what have you done with Sanada?', but he was pretty sure that would kill the mood.

"So..." he trailed off, and Roko just waited patiently.

"Answering your question, no, I'm not angry at you, I'm angry at myself" he finished, and Roko smiled softly at his indirect apology.

It seems you do have a soft side, Roko thought to himself. It was nice that Sanada actually cared about him in his own indirect way, but they were in English class, and right now English was a priority, since Roko didn't feel like getting anything less than perfection in a subject he was fluent in.

"In that case you shouldn't have any problem with this group project" his hands stated, and Sanada rolled his eyes before Roko turned back to the piece of paper, Sanada's head hovering above his shoulder.

He's like a parrot on my shoulder, he thought amusedly.

"How are we going to design this?" Sanada asked, and Roko didn't bother looking at him, making signs in front of him that Sanada read from his shoulder.

"It's English, as long as the information is there; it doesn't need to be colourful". Sanada grunted in a way that translated into understanding, and Roko leaned to the side so he could dig his pencil and pen out of the side pocket of his bag.

"I'll draw the layout and you can plan out the sentences we need to write" his hands stated, and Sanada scowled.

"So you're saying I'm doing all the work?" he asked curtly.

"I don't suppose you can draw?" Roko asked, and Sanada gave another grunt before reaching to his own bag and pulling out his vocabulary book, quickly finding the page on clubs and activities and writing neat sentences on the topic. Roko detected a few slight mistakes as he wrote out the information, but he would iron those out during tuition later today.

He started the layout by sketching the outline of a tennis racket on the centre of the paper, drawing similar ones at the top corners and a banner spanning between them. He didn't need to bother planning the sentences since he could write them out anyway, and in a way this was helping Sanada with the current topic that he despised so much. It was clear he didn't like the idea, but Roko hoped he would understand why he wasn't helping him.

Class 3A - English

Sanada smiled satisfied to himself as he double-checked over all the sentences he had written, making sure there were zero mistakes. He had to admit that he had been starting to enjoy English recently because he understood what was being said and it was rather easy, due to Echizen's tutoring which had helped a lot. Sanada may be stubborn, but he still acknowledged the fact that without Echizen he'd probably be failing English, and silently thanked Yukimura for putting them together.

Despite how angry he was at Echizen, he somehow found it impossible to blame it on him. He would have definitely killed anyone who insulted him like that, and he honestly wondered if Yakuta was punished lightly by Echizen. It was true, Echizen put a lot of strain on his arm, and Sanada noticed him rolling his left shoulder several times during his drawing, eliciting a frown of pity rather than anger.

Sanada knew that this relationship he was developing with his kouhai would affect the team, but at the same time he knew he couldn't abandon Echizen. He was literally the only person in Rikkaidai that knew sign language, and Sanada felt something squirm in his gut at the idea of Echizen being alone.

He knew that he was developing something akin to an older brother complex, since Sanada had recently become even more protective of his kouhai since the Yakuta incident. He didn't fail to notice the involuntary death glares he shot at people who whispered 'mute boy' as they walked past, or the fact he was suddenly concerned for his health to make him skip practice. It worried him that he was becoming like this for Echizen, maybe it was because he was mute that Sanada felt sympathy for him, or maybe because he was returning the favour for Echizen tutoring him. But whatever the reason Sanada was growing concerned.

He passed his vocabulary book to Echizen, who took it gladly and scanned it with his passive mask in place, before digging out his pen and crossing several words and writing above them. Inwardly Sanada fumed, realising that even after he had checked his sentences they were still incorrect.

"Calm down, it's not that bad" Echizen's hands stated, and Sanada stopped. Was he being that obvious? He moved back to Echizen's side and looked over his shoulder, scanning the corrected sentences and frowning as he didn't recognize the corrected words.

"We'll cover this later" Echizen said, and Sanada nodded. He then noticed the poster, which Echizen had finished sketching, and was rather impressed by the realistic looking tennis rackets and banner on the page.

"By the way" Sanada began, remembering something, and Echizen half turned to him.

"When are we going to finish this project? We only have the weekend to do it" he asked, and Echizen paused before making signs.

"Your house is closer, we can finish it there at the end of the day" he stated, and Sanada frowned.

"How do you know my house is closer?" he asked suspiciously.

"I take the train to get here" Echizen's hands said, and Sanada nodded in understanding, realising in that moment how little he knew about Echizen, he'd have to ask more about him later.

"My house it is then" Sanada said defeatedly, and Echizen smiled softly before returning to correcting Sanada's English, Sanada practically wincing at every mistake he corrected.