Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

50

I am so lazy it's unbelievable. But art homework is taking over my life so that sucks too.

Anyway, writing this chap gave me good feels, between my extensive tumblr breaks.

I swear it went: One sentence, tumblr, come back to story, stare at it, tumblr, repeat.

Anyway, enjoy guys!

Sanada Household

Roko mentally sighed as he was practically forced against his will. He shouldn't have been surprised really, since he had probably created the most awkward moment in history when he casually stepped into Sanada's living room, but the fact he was almost dragged to sit down by Kirihara in front of the table of presents, buying the group time to collect themselves, he had to wonder if maybe he should have been more subtle.

By this point everyone seemed to have recovered, most of them smiling eagerly and saying 'Happy Birthday Echizen'. Sanada had entered the room with a cup of green tea and sat opposite Roko on the table, just nodding his head in acknowledgement; he didn't expect any more from Sanada anyway.

"Echizen!" Kirihara called excitedly, "You should open our gifts!" he ordered, and Roko just smiled amusedly. It seemed he would be held against his will the entire night, not that he minded, as long as he had some cake and tea. Before Roko could respond with a nod Kirihara had already selected a crudely wrapped box from the pile and handed it to him - definitely Kirihara's gift - wrapped in dark blue paper, and Roko put his cup of tea down on the table and took the box with a nod of thanks. He didn't fail to notice how most of the group collectively frowned at how Kirihara took his gift first, but no one said a word, and Roko mentally rolled his eyes.

He tore the paper quickly, immediately noting the fact that it was held together with a lot of tape, but it wasn't an issue. When he removed the paper he turned the back of the box and he smiled widely at the sight of the blue power weights. They had specially designed pockets to hold iron bars and could hold a maximum of 5kg in each weight. This would be perfect for his stamina training in tennis, and Roko knew he would definitely use these in the near future. He turned to Kirihara and nodded in thanks with a wide smile, and Kirihara smiled widely back.

Roko turned back to the pile of colourful boxes inquisitively, and since it seemed no one would volunteer to hand him their gift, Roko just took the first one he saw from the pile, a large rectangular box wrapped in black paper. He immediately noticed Jackal's wide smile from his seat next to Sanada, and Roko decided it was his gift. He tore the paper quickly, interested to see what Jackal had bought him.

Once the paper was removed Roko knew what was inside the rectangular cardboard box, since it was rather obvious. He smiled softly, since he'd been planning to buy some new tennis shoes anyway, and he lifted the lid of the box. He noted immediately that the tennis shoes were black and yellow like the colours of the Rikkaidai uniform with a black stitched lightning bolt on either side of both shoes.

A black lightning bolt, Roko noted amusedly. Definitely a deliberate choice, since it fit so appropriately.

He turned to Jackal, who was smiling widely at him, and he nodded in acknowledgment and made signs with his hands.

"I like the black lightning bolt" Sanada translated, and Jackal smiled wider.

"I thought it would be perfect" he explained, and Roko shared his smile, nodding in thanks again, closing the lid and looking back to the table. Without really glancing at the pile he took a smaller wrapped gift from the pile, wrapped neatly in red paper.

"That's Hiroshi's gift" Niou noted from next to Roko, and Roko turned to Yagyuu with a slight smile, and Yagyuu just nodded politely.

"I hope you like my gift, Echizen-kun" he replied politely, and Roko nodded. He lifted the paper, noting how neatly the corners were folded and held down with tape and tore away the paper slowly, seeing the cover of a paperback book immediately and smiling. He'd expected something like that from Yagyuu. The title page of the book had a snow-white lily flower on the front that was stained with spots of red. Roko smiled as he picked the details from it: Innocence corrupted by blood. He would enjoy this book. He turned back to Yagyuu and smiled widely, nodding in thanks, and Yagyuu nodded in response.

Roko then turned back to his pile of gifts - which he noted was short of one or two boxes - and stared at it inquisitively. Niou seemed to notice his glance and leaned forward with a grin.

"The blue one" he advised, and Roko frowned at him before scanning the table for the so-called 'blue one', immediately noticing a long tube of blue wrapping paper, and he took it curiously and looked at it for a moment. It was a long tube, about two feet long, wrapped thinly, and Roko noted how light it was.

Probably a poster or something, Roko decided, and he tore the paper, his suspicions immediately confirmed when he saw the black paper within. Roko just grabbed the poster and pulled it out of the paper rather than tearing up the wrapping paper, experimentally turning the packaged poster to see if he could find some sort of logo, but it was all black and grey paper.

"What is it?" Marui asked curiously, leaning forward from his seat at the table. Roko shrugged unknowingly and removed the plastic wrapping on the poster, noting the size of Niou's grin as he did. He unravelled it slowly and when the poster was out of the wrapping he pulled the corner, stretching the poster to its full length.

'Breaking Benjamin' was printed on the bottom in big letters, and Roko smiled widely. It was a poster of their newest album cover, which one of Roko's most favourite albums. This would go great on his wall.

"Eh?" Kirihara asked curiously, "What's that thing?"

"It's a poster, Bakaya" Marui stated casually, and Kirihara's gaze snapped to him.

"I know that, Marui-senpai" he snapped, "I meant what's the thing on it"

"A person" Marui stated without blinking, and Kirihara narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Roko just watched the scene amusedly.

"Enough" Sanada stated irritably, and just like that the amusement was gone, and Roko rolled his eyes. He turned to Niou and smiled softly at him, who did not seem at all perturbed by the fact the person who nearly killed him twice was sat right in front of him, and returned the smile.

Sanada Household

Yanagi frowned in annoyance as his invisible schedule went up in invisible flames. He wasn't exactly pleased that the timetable for today had been changed so drastically by Akaya's sudden intervention, but he knew that Akaya had done the right thing in that situation, so he couldn't denounce him for it. In fact it was rather the opposite, he was happy that Akaya had managed to save the group from an even more awkward and embarrassing moment, and he was in the midst of reassessing his data.

He had not seen Echizen come in, and Yanagi had been listening and paying attention the entire time due to his inward demand for his schedule to run smoothly. That was interrupted when Marui had a brief temper tantrum over his weight. Marui wasn't exactly insecure, but the suggestion of him being fat had been heard many times over the years, and with the addition of Sanada scolding Marui for eating too many sweets, Marui had become decidedly conscious.

Actually, yes, he was just insecure, but insecure to the extent of strangling someone. So something more like an anger management issue. But then again, the entire team had their own social issues, since no one in Rikkaidai Fuzoku was deemed normal, so Yanagi decided to let the matter drop.

But on the topic of Echizen's appearance, he must have entered the house during Marui's attempt to murder Niou. There were several problems with that, the first being that Yanagi had locked the door. Or so he thought, but for this to have happened he must have forgotten in his haste. The second problem was that if Echizen had entered, he must have seen Marui's temper tantrum, and had simply ignored it. That wasn't really a problem, but it was more of an annoyance that no one had noticed him when he had looked into the doorway.

Yanagi just mentally sighed and went along with it, since things were going smoothly so far, even if there was no structure to it.

After Echizen had unrolled the poster and smiled widely at it - Yanagi had no idea what was on the poster that was making Echizen smile so, since it was printed in English, he'd have to add that to his data - and thanked Niou for it, he looked back to the pile curiously.

"Pick the silver one, Echizen" Marui chirped suddenly, and Yanagi frowned at his bluntness.

Echizen glanced and Marui and nodded once, taking a rather large box wrapped in silver paper from the table. Yanagi stared at the box, since he knew what was inside, but it was rather odd that Marui had wrapped it. Perhaps it was for the added effect of surprise.

Echizen tore the silver paper quickly, and Yanagi immediately saw the transparent plastic beneath the paper, and Echizen frowned, tearing more of the paper curiously, whilst Marui grinned like a cat. The last of the paper was removed, and as Yanagi expected it was a large transparent plastic box with an iced and layered sponge cake inside. It was simple, two sponges with white icing and blue jam in the middle, but Echizen was never the type for complex things.

Yanagi's slight smile faltered when he noticed the size of Echizen's eager grin and how his eye glittered at the sight of the cake. Marui laughed amusedly at the sight, and most of the table smirked amusedly, minus Sanada of course, because he was far too stoic. Marui's cake seemed to have made Echizen very happy, since he was still staring at the thing, and it made Yanagi wonder if perhaps his gift would not be the best. He'd wanted his gift to be the absolute best of the group in order to make up for his terrible lateness, but it seemed Marui's was currently in the lead.

Yanagi did not like that one bit, and he held back a frown.

Marui laughed some more when Echizen eventually put down the cake box.

"I knew you'd like it" he stated amusedly, and Echizen turned to him and smiled softly, nodding his head in thanks. Marui returned it with his own nod of acknowledgement, the large grin never leaving his face.

Echizen turned back to the pile, which only had one gift remaining: Yanagi's.

"Eh? Aren't we missing a few?" Akaya asked curiously, and Yanagi nodded.

"Genichiro's and Seiichi's" he stated flatly, and everyone glanced at Sanada, whose stoic mask did not falter.

"I'll go and get my gift" he stated bluntly, standing up and moving out of the room quickly. Akaya was on his feet immediately.

"I'll go get Buchou's!" he exclaimed before moving out of the room quickly and excitedly, and the group frowned.

"Yukimura got a gift too?" Marui wondered out loud.

"Of course he did, why wouldn't he?" Niou asked flatly from next to Echizen, and Marui turned to him visibly irritated.

"Well I figured he couldn't because he's in hospital" he protested and Niou frowned. Yanagi knew immediately by the half-second silence that a very touchy boundary had been crossed.

"He isn't dying Bunta" Jackal added softly, in order to lighten the mood, "He can buy a gift for Echizen you know".

Yanagi glanced at Echizen, curious about his reaction. To his surprise Echizen did not seem as bothered by Marui's statement as the rest of the team, looking as passive as usual as he watched the exchange. Yanagi supposed he had barely talked to Yukimura, so it made sense. The rest of the team, him and Genichiro especially, had known Yukimura for a long time, but Echizen had known him for about a week, during which they didn't really talk much, aside from one or two one-sided conversations.

But then again Echizen had gone to Yukimura when he was attacked by the school and cried on him. As much as Yanagi hated to admit it, none of the team had really gotten over that. They each expressed their anger in their own ways, and whilst people like Yagyuu were quieter about the situation, Sanada and Akaya were ready to tear the school apart. Marui, Niou and even Jackal were also very angry, but instead of mentally scarring people for life, they had used that anger as motivation to track down Echizen's assaulters.

Perhaps Echizen cared about Yukimura as much as the rest of the team. He had visited him and risked being stuck in Kanagawa - which Yanagi was very glad he did - and he had kept him company for nearly two whole hours.

Akaya entered the room, snapping Yanagi from his thoughts immediately. Akaya was carrying Yukimura's gift: a small rectangular box wrapped neatly in black paper, about one foot tall, and with a small bow on the top. He moved towards the table and carefully placed the gift on it.

"This is Buchou's gift, Echizen" he advised, before moving to his seat next to Echizen. Echizen looked at the object for a while curiously, and the table shared his expression.

Almost immediately afterward Sanada entered the room, carrying a cardboard box. Yanagi immediately frowned at him, since the box wasn't even wrapped.

"I didn't want to break it" Sanada explained bluntly when he noticed Yanagi's expression. He also put his box down on the table, which was notably larger than Yukimura's and Yanagi's, and then took his own seat opposite Echizen. Echizen raised an eyebrow at Sanada, and then glanced at the three objects placed in front of him.

He reached and took Yanagi's gift first, and Yanagi allowed himself a soft smile. His gift was a large rectangle wrapped neatly in white paper, and Echizen looked at it for half a second before looking up at Yanagi. Yanagi could tell he knew who the gift was from, and he was mildly surprised at how he had figured it out.

"Whose is that?" Niou asked curiously.

"That's Yanagi-senpai's" Akaya responded instantly, and the table glanced at Yanagi, who just nodded once.

"I hope you like it, Echizen" he said with a lot less conviction than he had. He really did have hope that he liked it, since his gift was entirely based on Yukimura's word and with no real evidence. Echizen just nodded in response and tore away the paper without haste. Yanagi involuntarily frowned as the paper was slowly torn away.

Echizen removed one side of the paper and pulled out the object curiously, and Yanagi felt his anxiety lift somewhat at how Echizen's eye lit up.

"A chess board?" Akaya wondered out loud, peering at the object. The rest of the table shared his glance, and Yanagi just looked at Echizen to gauge his reaction. Echizen looked at the board with a soft smile, his hand sliding to the drawer on the side like Yanagi hoped, and he slid it open. His eye widened slightly as he reached in and took out a small chess piece, blown solid black glass, and ran his fingers in the grooves experimentally with an amazed expression. Yanagi internally smirked in victory, since Echizen looked like he loved it. He'd chosen well, even if he didn't technically choose it.

"That is a beautiful chess board" Yagyuu said evenly, looking at it intently, and Yanagi felt himself visibly smirk in triumph.

Echizen looked away from the piece and to Yanagi, and he put it back in the drawer, making signs with his hands. Yanagi and the rest of the table glanced curiously at Sanada, whose expression had not changed from its stoic expression.

"He says he loves it" Sanada stated evenly and somehow bored, but Yanagi ignored that and mentally smiled widely, turning back to Echizen.

"I am glad you like it, Echizen" he said with utter conviction. Echizen nodded in thanks, smiling softly at him before putting the board down and looking at the last two gifts in front of him. Yanagi also looked at the two gifts curiously. One was from Yukimura, small and wrapped daintily in black paper, the other was from Sanada, a rough cardboard box not even wrapped.

After a while Echizen reached and took Yukimura's gift, to Yanagi's surprise, and started to slowly tear the paper. Everyone leaned forward curiously excluding Sanada, who simply sat there with a bored expression. The object was small so almost immediately Echizen had removed the paper, and Yanagi almost gasped at the object.

It was a blue cactus. A blue cactus. He stared at the plant incredulously, expecting some sort of flower, but not such a strange and beautiful cactus, everyone sharing his incredulous expression. Echizen just stared at the object for a while, blinking once to make sure it was actually there, before he smiled ever so softly, and Yanagi felt his pervious triumphant position in the Great Gift Race crumble. Yukimura had made a very good choice, a small but beautiful and elegant cactus with such an unusual colouring.

"I didn't know blue cacti existed" he noted out loud, and the team nodded in agreement.

"I knew" Jackal said suddenly, and everyone turned to him curiously, "They come from Brazil". Yanagi frowned at him for a moment, turning back to the plant and continued to examine it. He supposed if it originated from Brazil then Jackal would know about it, but if it did the plant would need to be kept warm, though that wouldn't really be much of a challenge.

Yanagi decided. The soft smile on Echizen's face and the slight spark in his eye; he had lost the Great Gift Race.

Echizen looked at the gift once more before putting the small plant down on the table, looking at it appreciatively, before looking to the final gift: Sanada's.

Sanada reached and pushed the box towards Echizen casually, much to Yanagi's surprise.

"Enjoy" he said simply, and the team collectively sweat dropped at his lack of formalities. Echizen rolled his eyes and took the box with a nod, opening the lid of it. Yanagi peered slightly forward to get a better view of it, but he could see nothing but styrofoam pellets. However he did note how Echizen was looking into the box with wide eyes, which meant he had a view of the object. Niou and Akaya, who were sat on either side of him, leaned toward Echizen to get a better view of the object, and they both frowned curiously.

"What is that?" Akaya asked curiously, only making Yanagi more curious.

"Not sure" Niou replied, also staring at the object, and Echizen smiled softly and reached into the box, grasping the object within and pulling it out. Yanagi's frowned when he finally had a view of the object, which Echizen placed carefully on the table and put the box on the floor.

"A teapot?" Yagyuu wondered out loud.

A teapot. A fairly large blown semi-transparent glass tea pot with a dainty spout and handle. Yanagi cocked his head at the object curiously. This was Genichiro's gift? He'd expected something more... interesting. The rest of the room looked at the object curiously, and the silence lasted for a while.

Echizen looked up to Genichiro and made signs with his hands, and Yanagi frowned, as did the rest of the team. Genichiro's eyes widened ever so slightly, and he hesitated before replying.

"You do?" he asked hesitantly, and Yanagi turned back to Echizen, noting the soft and warm smile on his face. Did Echizen really like the gift? Why? It was just a glass teapot, you could buy them anywhere.

Echizen made more signs with his hands. Genichiro hesitated again.

"Of course"

And Echizen was suddenly gone, and everyone blinked at how he suddenly disappeared like that.

"EH?" Akaya cried, "Where'd he go?"

"I've never seen Echizen move so fast" Yagyuu noted, completely ignoring Akaya.

Yanagi turned to Genichiro curiously.

"What did you say to him?" he asked, genuinely curious. Genichiro just looked at him flatly despite his previous hesitation, and the team collectively leaned forward.

"Just wait" were Genichiro's only words. Yanagi frowned, but nodded.

As if almost on cue Echizen reappeared, holding a kettle and a box of tea bags, and Yanagi's eyebrows rose in curiosity.

"Eh? What are you doing, Echizen?" Akaya asked curiously, but Echizen didn't even glance at him, opening the box and dropping a single tea bag into the pot, and then took the kettle and poured the boiling water into the pot. Yanagi just watched as the water turned a misty colour of purple, gradually darkening, and the colour started to almost spread outwards.

Yanagi's curious gaze faltered as he realised that the colour was spreading outwards. As in the glass was almost changing colour to match the tea. The content of the pot was dark purple, whilst the glass was slowly dimming into a lighter shade of purple like a mist.

Yanagi just stared incredulously at how the teapot changed colour, everyone else seeming to have similar gazes of incredulousness.

"The light in the teapot is being refracted by the glass" he stated suddenly, keeping his gaze locked on the teapot.

"Eh? What does that mean?" Marui asked curiously.

"Specialist glass that refracts the light rays around the teapot to give off the illusion that the glass is changing colour" Yanagi stated, and half-glanced at Genichiro from the corner of his eye, "Similar to stained glass, but this is a rare and difficult glass to make, and so it is expensive"

Genichiro pointedly ignored him, looking at Echizen, who was staring at the teapot with the widest smile Yanagi had ever seen Echizen make. He almost looked like a child at Christmas in that moment.

Yanagi frowned as his now questionable first position in the Great Gift Race was promptly ripped from him. This was definitely the best gift by far.

Sanada Household

Sanada gave a mental sigh of relief at Echizen's smile. It felt like he hadn't taken a breath for hours, since he had doubted whether his gift would be feasible. He didn't understand why he was anxious about it, but he was, and the sight of Echizen's wide smile as he watched the glass change colour made Sanada feel so relieved he almost gave an audible sigh of relief, but he would never do that of course.

When he had read up on it, Sanada was convinced that such a glass was not real and it was just a scam. But no, it was real; a glass that refracted light in such a way it turned a faint colour, resembling a mist. It was technically stained glass, but since stained glass involved mixing metals to make their colours, it was different when it was to be colourless. In essence, it was white glass, and white glass was difficult to make because tin oxide had to be mixed with the molten glass. The reason that was difficult was because if the temperature was too high, the compound in the glass would soften and make the glass too opaque. If it was too low then the compound would not mix properly and green flecks would appear. Only proper glassblowers could make it, and so it was rare.

There were several drawbacks however, the first being that the glass was difficult to replicate, and so it was expensive. The second was that even if it could refract the light, it was still glass, and so most of the light rays were lost, and so the misty colour could only appear if a dark colour was used. That meant that only dark teas like the fruit tea Echizen often drank could replicate the colour.

Which made it perfect for Echizen. Sanada knew that he preferred to drink fruit tea rather than green tea. It wasn't that he didn't like green tea, but Echizen liked to try different flavours of tea and experiment. It was a rather odd hobby to have, but Sanada didn't really consider it one, since it gave him the best opportunity for a gift.

And after seeing the look of awe mixed with a genuine warm smile on Echizen's face, Sanada could say he had succeeded.

"Is this stuff real?" Akaya asked incredulously, still looking at the teapot.

"It is" Sanada answered, understanding his question, "But it's rare and very fragile"

Echizen looked up at him and cocked his head at a slight angle, and Sanada could tell from that one gesture that Echizen was concerned about how much it had cost.

"It's fine" he stated bluntly, "I could afford it, and that's what's important".

"Genichiro" Yanagi said, looking at him peculiarly, "I've never seen you so caring before"

Sanada glared at him annoyance, but Yanagi's gaze did not falter. Did he really have to put it like that?

"Anyway" Yanagi said, turning back to Echizen, "Shall we move on? We were planning to watch a movie, if you're interested?" he offered, and Echizen cocked his head at the slightest angle curiously before nodding.

Sanada Household

Jackal smiled softly as he absent-mindedly shifted into Echizen's blanket. He'd been joking when he asked Echizen to bring a blanket if he visited Kanagawa, but the fact that he actually did was rather touching to him.

Of course, the fact that Echizen refused to yield it to him without sharing the blanket kind of took away the touching atmosphere, but Jackal didn't mind. He was pretty short anyway, so he didn't take up much of the blanket, and it also helped that Echizen was curled up into a ball on the sofa, taking even less of the blanket. Jackal had to wonder how he could be comfortable curled up like that, but Echizen seemed fine, and so he left it. They were practically touching with how close they were sat together, which made him feel kind of awkward, but if Echizen even noticed he didn't show it.

They were seated on the large sofa in Sanada's second living room. That's right, his second living room. It was located at the back of the house, and was a much more family-based living room than the Japanese-themed room with just a table and cushions. It had plain cream-coloured walls, a small oak coffee table, the large sofa, a TV and two smaller arm chairs. The room was decorated with framed pictures of the family on the walls, and generally had a more relaxed feeling to it.

Jackal wasn't entirely sure why they had a second living room, but if he had to guess it was because of Sanada's mother, who was a lot less stoic than the rest of the Sanada family. Jackal supposed he'd want a more family-based atmosphere if he lived in such a traditional house as well, and the fact that the only person who could stop her was her aging father; it was pretty much the perfect opportunity.

Jackal was cuddling into the blanket with Echizen almost cuddling into him, with Yanagi and Sanada also sat on the sofa. Niou and Yagyuu took up the two armchairs, and Kirihara and Bunta sat on the floor uncaringly.

As for the movie they were watching, it was a new action movie that had released recently. It was called 'Underworld', based on the Yakuza criminal gang and the main character was a spy planted in the gang by the Japanese police, intent on shutting down the gang. It was pretty racy and there wasn't any real plot to it, but Jackal didn't mind, and Niou, Marui and Kirihara seemed to like it a lot. Yanagi and Yagyuu were too expressionless and polite to express dislike for the movie, and Sanada was just... Sanada. Echizen didn't seem to mind it either, watching it with his passive expression, but Jackal could see the slightest smile from the corner of his lips.

He turned back to the film, watching it with his own soft smile.

The main character, as totally expected, had been discovered by this point in the movie as a spy, and was currently running for his life through the streets with the occasional sound of a gun shot behind him. He kept running and running for a while, until another guy appeared in front of him, again as expected. Kirihara and Bunta gasped lowly, and Jackal just rolled his eyes. The guy raised a gun and pointed it at the main character, who moved quickly and knocked the gun out of his hands. They ended up wrestling on the ground for a while before the main character was knocked against the wall, and the other guy stood over him with a knife raised.

And then the assailant's chest erupted as a bullet went through him.

He grasped his chest and gasped once before he fell to the ground dead, and the camera panned to his dead and lifeless body.

Jackal felt a nudge on his arm, and he turned curiously to see Echizen snuggling into his torso whilst still staring at the screen, his one visible eye wide in fear. Jackal immediately realised that they had forgotten Echizen's haemophobia, and he stared sympathetically at him for a moment before he looked up and opened his mouth to speak.

He immediately felt a sharp rap on his side, and he flinched and looked back down at Echizen, who sent him a look that communicated a single word: 'Don't'. Jackal frowned at him, and Echizen just moved closer into his torso, and Jackal understood what Echizen wanted from him. He wrapped one arm around Echizen comfortingly, and Echizen leaned into him and smiled ever so softly, looking back at the blood on the screen with an impassive expression.

How could they have forgotten about his fear of blood? Jackal suddenly felt extremely guilty, having never even considered that one big factor. He didn't know what to say, and he really wanted to say something, but it was clear that Echizen didn't want him interrupting the film. Maybe it was because he didn't want the film to end for the other who were enjoying it - some more than others.

Jackal decided he should ignore it and just watch the movie like nothing had happened, Echizen wrapped comfortably in his arm. It was easy to forget that he was just a kid, and Jackal felt a soft smile spread across his face, despite how wrong it was in the situation.

Kanagawa Town Park

Roko had no idea why they were here, since no one would tell him. After the movie Marui had leapt to his feet and declared they were going to the park, everyone nodding in agreement except Roko himself. It was clear they had plotted all of this in advance, but he didn't mind, since he felt kind of touched that they were putting in effort for him.

Touched. That's how he felt. He could see that they all cared for him, which for Roko felt rather alien. His life had been endless streams of 'mute boy' over and over again, and people looking at him like he was a freak. Ever since he had been diagnosed with speech disorder he could say he'd never had one real friend, other than Ryoma, though he didn't really count.

But today he could see the genuine care that everyone had. From their gifts - which he would definitely use in the near future - to how Jackal allowed him to rest on him. It was rather embarrassing, and looking back on it Roko wondered what had honestly possessed him to do such a pathetic thing, but the fact that Jackal allowed it erased all other concerns. He could see as clear as day that they cared about him, and that was something Roko rarely experienced.

"Here we are" Marui chirped suddenly, and Roko stopped with the rest of the group and raised an eyebrow. They were at the top of a short hill, underneath a large but leafless tree with a single park bench in front of it.

"It'll be a few moments now, we timed it well" Yanagi stated, and Roko raised an eyebrow at him as the rest of the group moved to sit down on the bench, and Roko followed. It ended up with Sanada sat at the end with Roko next to him, followed by Kirihara and then Niou on the end, with the rest of the team standing behind the bench as they watched the horizon.

It occurred to Roko in that moment that New Year would be soon, and he immediately felt like an idiot for not realising that before.

"Five" Yanagi suddenly said, and Roko's eye widened. It was happening already?

"Four"

"Three". Roko forced the irrational anxiety from his face and put on his passive mask as he watched the horizon.

"Two"

"One"

And exactly on cue the first streak of sparkling light shot up into the sky like a shooting star, exploding in the air in a colourful array of reds and yellows, quickly followed by another, and another and another, and suddenly the sky was lit up in a dazzling array of all the colours in the rainbow, and Roko smiled softly, keeping his cool expression in place. The sky continued to light up with dazzling blues and reds and greens and all sorts of colours that made the dreary winter park light up in colour.

"Happy Birthday, Echizen" Kirihara said from next to him, and Roko glanced at him from the corner of his eye with the warmest expression he'd ever given.

He was here on his birthday with his teammates on a park bench watching the sky light up in all the colours of the rainbow without a care in the world, and for the first time in a long time Roko was truly happy, all other concerns forgotten.

Dad was right after all. Japan is different

A good different? His consciousness asked, and Roko scanned the people around him, all watching the lit-up sky with looks of awe and happiness, all here for him.

Yeah, was Roko's only mental reply. No more needed to be said.

Time skip to start of new term next chap :) Tennis times ahead!