Three Years Later

A/N: I missed getting the rest of this chapter somehow. It is now complete so I hope its better and maybe someone might review! Hint hint! Please. :D

For now its just a plot introduction, please let me know if I should continue. Also I apologize for my grammar and punctuation errors. I'm sure there are a few I missed. My usual bata would probably freek-out if he knew I wrote slash so all I can do is apologize and hope someone would be willing to bata for me if anyone wants me to even continue. Anyway I hope its enjoyable. On with the show....


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It was almost the same as three years ago, almost. After Nationals had been graduation, the 6 third year regulars said goodbye to their kouhai and moved on to Seishun high school (Seikou *1*). Seikou wasn't know as a tennis school like Seigaku and their tennis team was structured differently rather than 8 regulars there were about 30 and the coach would decide which would be best to register for each tournament. They also allowed first years to be regulars, coming in off their nationals win Tezuka, Fuji, Oishi, Kikumaru, and Inui were all made regulars and often used in the tournament matches. Kawamura had stayed true to his word and quit tennis to focus on sushi although he occasionally still picked up a racket and played with his friends, particularly Fuji. At first they tried not to bring up tennis in front of him trying to be sensitive to his feelings, but he would ask how practice was and eventually convinced his friends that he was hurt more by them keeping him out of the important part of their lives.

Back at Seigaku Kaidoh had been made captain and Momoshiro vice-captain. At first Momoshiro caused problems for Kaodoh, but somehow they came to an understanding and became great leaders for the tennis club Kaidoh's strictness balanced by Momo's positive energy. They even managed to smoothly survive Echizen's parents divorce that sent him back to the U.S. with his mother just a few weeks before the district tournament. Seigaku didn't make it to nationals with only two of the previous years regulars but they did make it to regionals. Kaidoh and Momo even played doubles in the international tournament and won. The next year they joined their senpai-tachi *2*at Seikou and joined the tennis team. With so many regulars on Seikou's tennis team they branched out and made new friends but Seigaku's national team still spent most of their time together.

One early morning tennis practice Oishi and Kikumaru were playing against each other when Oishi watched the tennis ball sail past friends face his focus clearly distracted. Turning to follow Kikumaru's gaze Oishi saw a student speaking with the tennis coach. He was fairly short even for a freshman but the most disturbing thing was the white cap pulled down low. Kikumaru verbalized his thoughts "He almost looks like Ochibi, I miss him... " his voice trialled off and Oishi put his arm around his emotional friends shoulders. Every once in a while something would cause one of his friends to remember their former teammate and renew the sense of loss. As they watched the boy walk away Oishi tried to get Kikumaru's focus back onto practice but was unsuccessful. "Maybe you should e-mail him tonight, you haven't talked for a while have you? I'm sure he has some new story of rescuing pregnant women or stopping a thief with a tennis ball to share." A heartwarming smile spread over Kikumaru's face. "nya, I bet he has slain a dragon with his twist serve by now." Life was back to normal.

It was amazing how one person had touched so many lives just in the year and a half he was with them. It hit Momoshiro and Kikumaru the hardest but they spent the most time with the captivating first year. It has deeply affected Tezuka as well but he would never admit it. The reality of it was every one who had interacted with him had become stronger and more driven because of Echizen, he was just one of those inspiring people, like Tezuka.

Their group had started to sit together on for lunch just outside the tennis courts. They were talking about the morning's practice when Inui mentioned he noticed Oishi and Kikumaru's break in practicing. That led to them talking about the Echizen look-alike and the joke about killing dragon's with his twist serve. They started reminiscing on all the crazy predicaments Echizen had gotten himself into, and how he always seemed to use tennis to solve them. They were just laughing about how after everyone else attempted to stop it, Echizen's twist serve was what had finally stopped the "bear" who had cornered four of the the "Ryoma-sama groupies" as they referred to five first years who seemed to turn up everywhere Echizen was. Momoshiro had just commented, "Always showing us up, that kid."

"Mada mada dane, Senpai."

They all froze. Kikumaru was first to recover he leaped over the short wall they leaned against to where Echizen was standing, "Ochibi-chan, it was you! What are you doing here? Why didn't you tell us you were coming?!?" Echizen was struggling to get free from the arms of Kikumaru and Momoshiro who had also jumped over the wall to hug his friend.

"Ow, Kikumaru-senpai, Momo-senpai, that still hurts!" He managed to free himself enough to just have an arm from each of them slung over his shoulder. "My mom has to travel quite a bit this year, so I am staying with my dad for now. So I will be here at least this year, I hope to finish school here though I am tired of changing schools all the time." Lunch ended too quickly for the friends trying to catch up. Everyone was excited when Kawamara suggested that the all go to his family's restaurant and have a welcome home party for Echizen after they finished the afternoons tennis practice. They finally split up to go to their classes.

It was amusing to find his friends talking about him thinking he was still in America. He would never admit it but he was relived to find his friends still thought of him as fondly as he thought of them. He had never been one to make friends preferring to keep to himself more but somehow, from even the first day at Seigaku, Momoshiro had reached out to him, not to idolize like Horio, Katchiro and Katsuo, but as a competitor but one who was comfortable with who he was not trying to prove himself like Arai had been. As time went on he found that he enjoyed the playful banter between himself and Momoshiro and Kikumaru, the friendly, protective instincts of Oishi and Kawarara (when he wasn't holding a racket), the confidence in him and pressure to achieve even more from Kaidoh, Inui, Fuji and most of all Tezuka.

It wasn't until he had to move back to the U.S. that he realized how important those friendships had become. He had tried to find new friends but his 'sit back and observe personality' made it difficult. He had nothing in common with the American teens. To make matters worse his mom asked him not to play tennis. His parents divorce had been pretty messy and out of respect for her he stopped playing tennis so it wouldn't remind her of her ex-husband. The loss of tennis as well as his friend was rough on him but he tried to make the transition as easy as possible for both his mother and himself. In his infrequent e-mails to his former teammates he never told them he was no longer playing tennis. Their reactions would have been too much to deal with, and make it more difficult to pretend that he hadn't lost so much. As much as his father embarrassed him he was glad for the opportunity to move back to Japan when his mothers work schedule became to much to reasonably leave the now 15 year old alone. Tennis would be part of his life again.

Without tennis and his friends all he had done in the U.S. was study, he even kept up with his Japanese history. He would never admit that somehow it still let him feel connected to his first year in jr. high. He had tried to take up other sports but he never felt the same rush from the competition of it or joy in victory. So Ryoma settled for keeping active, going to the gym, running anything to keep himself in shape. There were times when he wondered if he out ran Kaidoh, or wished Inui was around to make a workout program for him. For the first time Ryoma discovered lonelines.

Hours of testing was not how Ryoma wanted to spend his first day made worse by his jet lag. His father said he could wait to register but it was friday and he wanted to be able to start school on Monday. Relived to finish all the placement test, Ryoma knew he would have no trouble getting into the school. Part of him hoped he would place high enough to skip a grade. In the U.S. he had been a freshman the year before he didn't want to repeat the experience but then again this time he would have friends and tennis.

Tennis. Ryoma was out of practice, he only came to Japan the day before so his father had only gotten one match out of him but even the excuse of jet lag didn't excuse his poor play. Hopefully playing tennis was like riding a bike, and all his training would come back to him. Soon. He got a small reprieve from his new coach, he wouldn't be allowed to participate in practice until he was officially enrolled in the school but he would be allowed to warm up with the tennis team that afternoon and watch the rest of practice. Just thinking about the people who previously admired his tennis skill seeing him so out of practice was embarrassing enough he wanted to prolong joining in as much as possible. At the same time being so close to tennis and not being able to play would drive him crazy. Deciding on the lesser of two evils he had asked the coach if he could practice first thing.

There was an uproar in the locker room as soon as Ryoma entered. "Ryoma-kun!" was all he heard before being tackled by Horio, Katchiro and Katsuo. It was a surprise to realize that he had even missed his classmates who always seemed to shadow him. Horio's arm slipped easily over his shoulder and Horio 'introduced his good friend Echizen' to the other tennis club members changing in the locker room. "Echizen went to Nationals with Tezuka-Buchou and the rest at Seigaku, and he was only a freshman!"

"Still bragging about other people eh, Horio?" Echizen wasn't surprised when Momoshiro's arm fell heavily across his shoulders from the other side dislodging Horio's. It reminded him of the old days, he was glad to be back.

Oishi popped his head in the door and reminded everyone that practice started in fifteen minutes and everyone's attention moved to changing and making their way to the courts. As Echizen changed Momoshiro commented on his muscle structure. "Did you change your tennis style? Your shoulders seem bulkier than they used to be." He was not ready to admit he hadn't played in two years so he redirected Momo's attention. "You were checking me out in Jr. High? That's pretty perverted Momo-senpai" Yep that worked. He pulled his shirt one and left Momo sputtering denials and made his way to the courts.


A/N: Please review!!!! I'm still not sure which pairings to follow through with. I have some interesting ideas and there will potentially be some changing or sharing of partners. When you review if you add the parings you would like to see I will consider them. Thanks!

A/N: I'm a little nervous about putting this up of AFF. My first POTfic didn't go over very well... Although I admit I didn't particularly like it. But for some personal reasons I changed my name so "new account new beginning" I hope!


*1* My very novice attempt at what Seishun koutou gakkou (high school) would be shortened as. I know Seishun gakuen is Seishun academy but I wanted to have it be a feeder school to a high school where all the former seigaku student's would meet once again. So please don't mind my creative license.

*2* Sempi-tachi - plural of sempi... I know in english you can make it sempis but it just seems odd to me so I'm going with the Japanese on this one.