Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Singing Juices: A Tenipuri Musical ❯ The Final Scene ( Chapter 13 )

This is the last chapter! I can't believe I actually finished a story. Thanks for all the reviews and for reading it. And because this was so much fun to write I was actually thinking of doing another musical for another fandom. Maybe Yami no Matsuei or CCS. I don't really know. If you're interested or have any preferences, tell me!

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Chapter #13: The Final Scene

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Now that his issues with Kaidoh had been settled, Inui was able to concentrate his full attention on finding a cure. He and Kaidoh had decided that it would be better if the talk the two of them needed to have was put off until they were sure that they would not be breaking into song in the middle of it. But only if the antidote wasn't long in coming. Which it wasn't.

Inui had been close to an antidote even before they had gotten back together. It didn't take much for him to successfully complete it.

Momo eyed the almost neon green juice he held warily. “And this will fix us?”

“Yes.” Inui nodded, pouring out a few cups for Eiji and Ryoma. Kaidoh already had his and was staring into it with the same amount of dubiousness as Momo.

“Are you sure?” Momo asked, looking up at Inui, not meaning to doubt his senpai but not wanting to drink anything Inui had made and not have it work. Or worse, have it double his symptoms with some new horrible thing.

Inui turned to him calmly, not insulted by the question. “There is an almost 73 percent probability that it will work.”

“Oh,” Momo said and looked back down at his drink. Then he turned to the others. He was damned if he was going to be the first one to try it.

There was a pause as the four originally afflicted members of the Regulars looked at each other, each not wanting to be the first to try the drink.

“I assure you,” Inui said when the pause had gone on for too long. “I have already tried it and suffered no additional symptoms. The juice is perfectly safe.”

Eiji looked at Inui dubiously but then looked down at his drink. Deciding to trust the other boy for once in his life, Eiji said, “Well okay . . . Here goes,” and quickly downed his portion. Taking the cup from his mouth, there were tears in Eiji's eyes as he stared into space and slowly forced himself to swallow the revolting drink. The juice reaching his stomach, Eiji abruptly brought a hand to his mouth and choked on air for a moment, looking like he was about to regurgitate his lunch, then quickly turned and ran off.

“I'm gonna be sick!” they could hear him wail as he ran.

“Eiji!” Oishi cried, looking after him worriedly.

Fuji smiled and eagerly turned back to watch the others' reactions.

As one, the three remaining boys looked at each other. Then they looked down at their drinks. Finally Momo shrugged. “Well if it works . . .” And with that he tossed back his own portion, cup coming down to reveal Momo's face puckering up in disgust and looking like he was forcing back tears. Then he too abruptly turned and fled for the bathroom.

Obviously worried, Oishi watched Momo go.

Fuji's smile got wider.

Tezuka remained stoic.

Ryoma and Kaidoh turned to each other almost in challenge. Then both abruptly tossed back their drinks. Dropping their cups on the ground, they stood, stubbornly refusing to run off before the other though Kaidoh looked like he desperately needed to throw up and Ryoma looked like he was in intense pain, his eyes squeezed shut in concentration

Finally Ryoma swallowed and took a deep breath, and then another, before opening his eyes. He was fine. Seeing this, Kaidoh forced back his own nausea, breathing deeply.

Notebook out, Inui had been taking notes on their behavior and he looked at them somewhat curiously. “Are you alright?”

Still breathing deeply past his nausea, eyes falling closed in concentration, Kaidoh said, “Yes, senpai.”

Ryoma grunted what sounded like an agreement.

“Good,” Inui said then closed his notebook with a snap. “And I trust that if any of you find that you are still singing you will tell me?”

Ryoma and Kaidoh nodded, Kaidoh saying again, “Yes, senpai.”

“Good,” Inui said again then nodded at Tezuka, indicating that he could take over from here.

Tezuka nodded and took control of the situation. “Everyone to the clubhouse,” he ordered, “Practice is over.”

 

“I haven't sang anything all day!” Eiji said, smiling excitedly as he bounced around Oishi while they were walking to lunch.

“Does that mean it's over?” Oishi asked, looking curious. “I mean, you've gone days without singing before, haven't you? I remember it took you a while to start singing in the first place.”

“Yeah, but I really think it's done this time! I can feel it! Now that it's gone, I can tell. I was feeling a little off the entire week last week. It was so little I barely even noticed it before, but it was there!”

“And it's gone?”

“Yeah!”

Oishi smiled. “Well, that's a relief.”

“I know,” Eiji said, smile, if anything, growing wider, “No more singing!” he cheered. “And I even got a B on my English test. This day is going great!” Then he turned to Oishi eagerly. “We should get ice cream after school.”

“Don't you have a big history test tomorrow?” Oishi asked, looking at him in obvious amusement, “I remember you complaining about it for almost an entire lunch period last week.”

Eiji waved that off as nothing. “Bah. I'll do fine. We need to celebrate!” Then, having a thought, his sudden cheer abruptly evaporated and he frowned.

“What?” Oishi asked, looking concerned by the sudden mood swing.

Eiji turned to him seriously. “Do you think we should invite Buchou and Fuji? Maybe it would help them get over their fight.”

Oishi blinked. They had finally gotten outside and were now walking towards their usual bench to eat lunch. “They had a fight?” he asked. He had noticed that Tezuka had been a little colder than he usually would be towards Fuji that morning, but he hadn't had the time to ask why.

“Yeah,” Eiji said, nodding his head, “Fuji told me last night. He apparently went over to Tezuka-buchou's house the other day and got really mad at Buchou's family. I think he may have said some things and now Buchou is angry with him.”

“Did Fuji say why he got mad?”

“Buchou's family apparently said some not very nice things and you know how Fuji is when people he cares about are hurt.” They had gotten to their usual bench and Eiji set his lunch down on the table before sitting down himself.

“Maybe I should go talk to Tezuka alone,” Oishi said, hesitating before sitting down across from Eiji, looking concerned about this whole Tezuka-Fuji situation. “Get his side of the story.”

“And get him talking to Fuji again.”

“Of course.”

 

“I just don't see why you're so angry about this,” Fuji said, following behind Tezuka as the two made their way to lunch.

Tezuka grit his teeth, not wanting to deal with Fuji right then. “You threatened my family,” he said coldly.

“And I'm sorry I did it,” Fuji said, almost sounding believable, “I won't do it again.”

“Of course not. You won't ever see them again.”

“Good,” Fuji said, suddenly smiling, “Then we can pretend it never happened.”

Tezuka shot him a glare out of the corner of his eye “No.”

It was taking Fuji some energy to keep the smile on his face now. “And why not?”

“I ask you to do one thing,” Tezuka said, going back to looking straight ahead, “A simple thing. And you can't do it.”

Now Fuji frowned, his eyes opening for a brief moment as he said coldly, “Then I apologize for caring.”

They walked on in silence after that.

 

 

Seated in an empty classroom away from prying eyes, Inui and Kaidoh ate their lunches in companionable silence. Finishing up first, Inui sat and waited for Kaidoh to finish. Finally he did.

“Would now be an appropriate time for that talk?” Inui asked, looking at Kaidoh curiously.

Kaidoh frowned. “We should get it out of the way.”

“Alright,” Inui said then got out his notebook, opening it to one of the back pages. He looked up at Kaidoh in readiness, pen poised to write.

Kaidoh frowned again, looking confused. “What's that for?”

“For my notes.”

“You're taking notes?” Kaidoh asked, a touch of incredulity there.

Inui just nodded calmly. “Of course.”

Kaidoh just looked at him for another moment then seemed to shrug and just let it go. “Then I guess I should start.” He paused, looking unsure how to continue.

“How about you begin with what you don't like,” Inui suggested, seeing him struggling, “With what you would like me to change.”

“Right.” Kaidoh nodded then paused again as he got his thoughts in order. “Well I don't like it when you spend days and days in your lab making your juice or gathering data on other players.”

Inui looked up from his notebook with a frown. “But that is necessary.”

“I know and you can do it all you want.” Inui's frown turned confused so Kaidoh tried to explain. “I'm not going to force you to do stop doing the things you like or need to do. I just want you to take breaks or something.” Kaidoh looked at him with what would be a pleading look on anyone else's face. “Come have dinner with me and my family once and awhile.”

Inui still frowned but he eventually nodded. That was acceptable. “Very well.” He jotted this down in his notebook.

“And I want you to stop breaking our dates,” Kaidoh ordered with narrow eyes as he started to get into the conversation, “Things come up. I know that. But I'm only going to let you have so many times when you need to stay and watch your juice so that it doesn't boil over before I get angry.”

Inui nodded and quickly wrote this down as item number two.

“And stop treating me like I'm only your tennis partner,” Kaidoh said sharply, “We used to do things outside of tennis, remember?”

And so things went. It was a long lunch period.

 

 

Finished with his lunch, Momo put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the tree he and Ryoma sat under. Next to him, Ryoma poked at his lunch with a chopstick uncertainly. Nanako had recently been going through an experimental phase and you never really knew what you were going to get. Friday's lunch had been really good, but today it was a strange wasabi and squid combination that just, well, sucked.

“Want this?” Ryoma finally asked, offering his lunch to Momo.

Rearing back from the meal, Momo shook his head, looking disgusted. “You should give it to Fuji-senpai,” he said. “He actually likes that wasabi stuff.”

Ryoma made a noncommittal sound and went back to poking at the meal. There was another comfortable silence.

Finally the silence was broken by Momo. “Hey, I was thinking.”

“Did it hurt?” Ryoma asked blandly.

Momo gave him a look but otherwise ignored him. “We're together now, right?””

“Mm,” Ryoma said unenthusiastically, more interested in the interesting color his food was turning as it cooled than the conversation. Momo decided to take that as a yes.

“So we should go on a date,” Momo continued, undaunted. He looked over at the younger boy. “Where do you want to go?”

Ryoma finally looked up at him with a bored expression. “Does it really matter?”

“Of course it does,” Momo said, “It's a first date. This'll set the standard for all other dates.”

Ryoma shrugged and went back to his meal. “Then surprise me.”

“But that's too hard,” Momo said, a faint trace of whine in his voice, “Can't you just tell me so I can get it right?”

“Tennis,” Ryoma said, eyeing him flatly.

Momo groaned, hands going down to his sides. “That's what you always want to do. Be a little more creative. It's a first date.”

“But I told you what I wanted. Tennis.”

“But don't you want to do something different? We always play tennis. It won't be very date-like unless we do something different.”

“I don't care,” Ryoma said, remaining stubborn, “I like tennis and we always play it. Why do things have to change?”

“Because . . .” Momo trailed off, unsure of how to answer that. “Because they just do, okay? How else would we know things are different?”

“The fact that I'll let you kiss me could be a good sign,” Ryoma said, bored. “Do you really need more then that?”

Momo looked at him for a moment then looked down at his lap with a frown. “I guess not.”

Ryoma was glad that was settled. “Good.” Closing his bento, he put it to the side and leaned back against the tree, closing his eyes. Settling against Momo, using the older boy's shoulder as a pillow, Ryoma ordered, “Wake me up when lunch is over.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” Momo grumbled, shifting so he was more comfortable. Looked like he wouldn't be moving for a while.

 

 

Later, after school, Oishi walked out of Tezuka's house with a frown. That hadn't gone well.

He'd come by his friend's house after going out for ice cream with Eiji, determined to help him, but he might have done more harm than good.

Still . . . He had to call Eiji to tell him how things went. Reaching into his bag, he fished out his cell phone and pressed speed dial 1 as he continued to walk.

“Hello?” Eiji answered.

“Eiji,” Oishi said.

“Oishi!” Eiji exclaimed, happy to hear from him. “How'd things go?”

“Not good,” Oishi said, remembering it with a frown. “He's really mad.”

“Really?” Eiji asked, sounding as though he somehow found it hard to believe. “What did Fuji do?”

Oishi shrugged. “He said some things. Threatened them a bit. Basic Fuji stuff, really.”

“Well I just got a call from Fuji and now he's mad. Him and Tezuka-buchou had another fight at lunch and now Fuji doesn't want to apologize anymore.”

`That's not good.”

“You're telling me. What are we gonna do? I'm not Fuji. I'm not good at this planning and manipulation stuff.”

“I have no idea,” Oishi admitted. “Maybe we should just give them some time. I'm sure once they cool off things will be fine.”

“You really think so?” Eiji asked, sounding like he needed reassurance.

“Yes,” Oishi said, but then rethought that. “No.” He rethought again. “Maybe. I really don't know. They're both really stubborn people. And you wouldn't think so but Tezuka can hold a grudge for a long time.”

Eiji sighed. “So can Fuji.”

They were silent for a moment, each trying to think up something to help their friends.

Finally Eiji spoke. “Well this just sucks.”

 

The End.