Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

35

You guys have no idea how long it took me to write this. I got bored half-way through, and so I ended up scrolling through tumblr for an hour, and then I watched Pokemon Origins, and then I read some fanfiction before coming back to this. So yeah this chapter may be kinda lukewarm in your opinion (can you tell I'm very self-critical?), but if you pay attention to the dialogue and you're a PoT nerd like me you will see a wonderful plot point on the horizon.

Also I would like to say in advance: after Pokemon X and Y release on the 12th Oct you will see almost no chapters from me for at least a week

Just saying

Tokyo Shopping Mall

Roko wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up here. It started at the noodle bar where he and Ann talked about general things, life stuff, anything worth talking about, and Ann had then dragged him around the streets for a while for some company, and now they were here.

He didn't really care that he was at the mall, but rather that he was at the mall with Ann. If anyone else looked at the situation they would definitely call it a date, and that was sadly what it looked like. Roko mentally sighed, keeping pace with Ann who was striding ahead in her apparent excitement. Well, there could be worse people to be seen at the mall with, so at least that was something, despite how it didn't reassure him at all. But at least he wasn't carrying around his cello case, since carrying that all around the mall would be a nightmare. When Ann had invited him out he'd decided he would leave the cello at school, since he figured it would be easier. He knew he had a concert coming up, but he would just practice twice as hard tomorrow.

Roko noticed Ann had stopped and was staring into a shop window, and Roko turned to the direction she was looking, seeing a colourful pet store with people bustling around, and in an instant Ann was in the store, and Roko had no choice but to follow.

The store was pretty nice on the inside; it was lined with shelves filled with pet food, toys and essentials. Roko quickly scanned the crowd and noticed Ann standing in front of a small pen, and he moved toward her. He noticed that there were two fluffy white rabbits inside, both sitting on the ground and generally doing nothing, but Ann looked smitten by the inanimate rabbits.

"They're so cute" she chirped excitedly with large eyes and Roko smiled softly at the rabbits. He wasn't much of an animal person - excluding Karupin - but he still thought that small fluffy animals were cute. The rabbits seemed to notice they were being watched and one of them hopped slowly and uncertainly to Roko, looking up at him and sniffing the air as if it was trying to sniff danger from him or something. Roko just raised an eyebrow at the small rabbit, and the rabbit seemed to think he was fine and proceeded closer to him.

"Aw, that's so cute" Ann said, suddenly appearing next to him. The rabbit sat on its hind legs and looked up at him with large eyes, and Ann gave another squeak of adoration, whilst Roko rolled his eyes.

It proceeded like this for a while, they'd pass a pen for an animal, and Ann would squeak and coo at them, and Roko would just watch her half-amusedly. Ann was definitely an animal person, since there wasn't one animal in the store she didn't label as cute.

Roko figured if he was going to follow Ann around, he might as well buy some groceries, so he bought some food and a new fluffy toy for Karupin, since he knew Karupin adored fluffy things for some reason, and some milk and teabags at the supermarket. Ann didn't seem to mind, buying her own things whilst they were there, and they were just about to leave when Roko noticed a certain store that immediately attracted his attention.

"Echizen?" he heard Ann ask, but Roko kept staring at the sign, wondering if he should walk in. It was a music store with a glowing neon sign on the front, and posters in the windows of the latest rock bands and artists, none of the boring mainstream pop artists that Roko despised so much. Roko suddenly felt excited, he had a lot of music on his iPod, but that didn't mean he didn't have a CD collection to rival his iPod library. Ann seemed to notice what he was staring at and poked him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"You can go in if you want" she offered kindly, and Roko was already in the store before Ann had finished the sentence. It was a large place, lined with racks of the latest and oldest CDs from multiple music genres. Roko didn't bother checking to see if Ann was following him, and he quickly proceeded to the Rock section of the store, quickly scanning the albums. Most of the albums were in Japanese, but there was also a small English section of music that Roko scanned and smiled widely when he realised his favourite bands' CDs were on sale, and ones he didn't already have.

"Heh? You must really like music, Echizen" Ann stated. Roko had no idea when she appeared next to him, but he was too excited to care, and just nodded his head, suddenly understanding how Ann felt in that pet store. He quickly picked up several CDs and moved to the counter to pay for them, smiling excitedly the entire time.

Tokyo Shopping Mall

"Aw, they already look like a married couple" Marui stated happily as he watched the two buying groceries together in the supermarket. The three smiled and nodded in agreement, and Marui continued to mentally cackle at how well their kouhai's date was going, he certainly knew how to play his cards right.

He had to give Echizen credit, even though he couldn't talk, he was still doing everything right, with just an appropriate nod or shake of the head when needed. The girl he was with was pretty good looking, for a first-year, and Marui smirked despite himself. He had never really gotten over his want to know about Echizen ever since he took his iPod, and this was a very rare opportunity to know about him.

It had never occurred to the four until they arrived in Tokyo that they wouldn't be able to understand Echizen. They heard Ann's replies, but it was difficult to guess what Echizen was saying from her chuckles and short returns. Marui had never thought about that one detail, but Echizen often just replied with a change of expression or a nod of the head, so it wasn't a major setback anyway.

The four moved to follow the couple when they left the supermarket, and they were going in the direction of the door. Marui frowned, as he realised this would be the point where they break off and go their separate ways, and he didn't want that, he was enjoying watching them way too much.

"Echizen has stopped" Yanagi suddenly said, and Marui looked up to notice that Echizen had stopped, and was staring at the sign for the music store with an excited glimmer in his eye. Ann noticed he'd stopped and said something to him, and in an instant he was in the store, and the four blinked at how fast he moved.

"Echizen must really like music" Kirihara muttered to no one in particular. The other three nodded in agreement and carefully walked into the music store, but thankfully the two's backs were to them so they could move to the other aisles and blend in.

"What's he doing?" Marui asked, looking in the other direction trying to appear inconspicuous.

"He's just looking at CDs" Niou replied, holding a random CD in his hands and scanning it, also trying to appear inconspicuous. They watched the brief interaction the two had before Echizen quickly paid for his CDs and then they left, and the four again followed them.

They reached the doors of the mall, and Ann said something to Echizen quickly with a wide smile on her face, before nodding and walking off in the opposite direction. Echizen just smiled and walked away, and Marui frowned.

"What?" Marui demanded, "That's it? No making out or anything?"

"They are twelve, Marui" Yanagi replied calmly.

"Well, Echizen could be thirteen" Kirihara reasoned, and there was a slight pause.

"When is Echizen's birthday anyway?" Marui wondered out loud.

"Not sure" Yanagi replied, "I'll look into it"

The conversation ended there, and the four decided it was time to leave and return to Kanagawa. Marui folded his arms behind his head as he walked and sighed loudly.

"Mou, that wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be" he muttered.

"I did say they were twelve, Marui" Yanagi repeated, and Marui sighed loudly as they turned a corner.

"Yeah but I at lea-" Marui stopped as he noticed that Echizen wasn't gone like he expected, but he was kneeling on the ground tying his shoelace with his back to them just ten feet away from them. The four promptly froze, and Echizen's head turned to the sound of Marui's voice, and Marui, Yanagi and Niou dived back to the corner and out of Echizen's view. Kirihara, however, did not move quickly enough, and froze under Echizen's gaze. Marui watched the events unfold from behind the corner of the street, afraid to peek at Echizen in case he got caught.

Kirihara began to pale.

"Uh... Echizen" he began lamely, staring at the freshman who Marui couldn't see from the corner, and there was a long period of silence.

"We have to go" Niou whispered sharply to Marui and Yanagi, and they turned their heads curiously.

"Why?" Marui asked. He stopped when he noticed the horror in Niou's eyes, the absolute terror in them, and Marui swore he could see the horrors Niou had suffered from the freshman in his eyes. Without replying Niou grabbed them both and ran away, dragging them both with him, leaving Kirihara behind to suffer Echizen's wrath.

Actually, when Marui did a double take, he realised Kirihara was no longer standing where he was. He just hoped that he wasn't being murdered by Echizen in an alleyway or something.

Echizen Household

Ryoma heard the door open, and Karupin jumped off his lap and walked to the doorway to investigate, mewing loudly when Roko appeared with several bags.

"Where've you been?" Ryoma asked curiously, and Roko just shrugged, blocking the question and moving into the kitchen. Ryoma frowned and followed him in, and he watched Roko take a carton of milk from the bag and place it in the fridge, followed by some teabags which he placed on the counter, some cat food and then a fluffy toy. Karupin had followed them and meowed loudly at the sight of it, and Roko smiled widely, tossing the toy at Karupin who leapt and caught it in mid-air, already running off with his prize. Ryoma smirked at his cat as he sped away, and turned back to Roko who was taking a teabag out of the box.

"How can you drink that stuff?" he asked disgustedly, moving to the fridge and taking out a can of ponta. Roko didn't respond with signs, but instead gave a rather pointed glance to the can of ponta Ryoma was holding. Ryoma scowled in response.

"At least this tastes of something" he returned, and Roko just shrugged again, filling the kettle with water and flicking the button on it, heating it up. Ryoma opened his can and sipped it, not breaking eye-contact with Roko as he did.

"You never told me where you went" he pointed out, and Roko just smiled mischeviously. Ryoma sighed, realising that Roko wasn't going to let up easily, but then again he rarely did.

"So it's a secret then" he stated bluntly, and Roko shook his head in response to his statement.

"So you can tell me then" Ryoma pressed, but Roko just shrugged like he always did, but Ryoma did not stop there.

"And why won't you tell me?" he pressed further, and he could see the mental sigh in Roko's eyes, and he responded with signs.

"I went to the mall and got some CDs and some other things while I was there" his hands stated, and Ryoma frowned.

"And why didn't you just say that?" he asked annoyed, and Roko just shook his head in a scolding way that a parent does with a child, before turning back to the kettle and pouring the boiling water into a ceramic cup, dropping a teabag in and stirring it with a spoon. Ryoma just sighed, dropping the conversation and moving back into the living room. He threw himself onto the sofa and sipped his ponta, Roko entering a while later.

"So" Ryoma began as Roko sat down next to him, "How's school? You never tell me about Rikkaidai"

"You never tell me about Seigaku either" his hands replied, and Ryoma scowled.

"Can you at least talk to me about school?" he asked annoyed, and Roko rolled his eyes at him, causing Ryoma to frown. Inwardly Ryoma wanted to know how school was going for Roko since he was mute, and they had always gone to the same school together. He didn't like them going to separate schools, and especially so when Roko came home several weeks ago covered in bruises, and a particularly nasty one on his head. Ryoma remembered how long he spent demanding to know who had done that to him, along with their parents, and Roko just shook his head and continued on like they hadn't said anything. It irritated Ryoma to no end, because he wanted to know how Roko was doing and whether he was fine with school, and yet he just wouldn't give anything away.

"I have my concert in two days" Roko replied after a while, and Ryoma mentally smiled.

"Oh?" he replied, "And are you looking forward to it?"

"I'm going to be performing in front of the entire school, alone" his hands stated bluntly, and Ryoma blinked.

"You're nervous" he stated surprised. Roko was never nervous about anything, since he always had that 'I don't care' attitude about him, so this was a real change. Roko's lips tightened and he sipped his tea, and Ryoma frowned at him.

"Oi, don't ignore me" he stated bluntly, and Roko turned to him.

"You're never nervous. Ever" he said, and Roko frowned.

"This is different. I'm performing a piece I composed by myself in front of the entire school, who all think I have a disease" his hands said, and Ryoma blinked.

"So you're saying you're nervous because the people you'll be performing for think you're a freak?" he asked, and Roko didn't respond, and just sipped his tea, but Ryoma could see the clear response in that one action.

"Why do you care?" he asked, and Roko put down his tea again, and Ryoma could see the slight anger in his eye.

"Because they hate me and I have to stand up in front of every single one of them" Ryoma blinked again surprised.

"They don't hate you, Roko" he protested, and he stopped when Roko's expression changed. He was recalling a bad memory, Ryoma could tell, by the way his face melted into a frown and he looked into his tea as if it somehow held answers.

"Yes they do. You wouldn't know" he replied with signs, and then promptly stood up and left the room before Ryoma could reply. Ryoma just stared at the space where he was before throwing his arms behind his head in exasperation and groaned loudly.

What is up with him? He wondered.

Possible lukewarm chapter? Let me know