Prince of Tennis: Ibu Shinji, 064: Fall
Title: Red and Gold
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Ibu Shinji
Prompt: 064: Fall
Word Count: 681
Rating: PG
Summary: Fall is Shinji’s favorite and least favorite season
Author's Notes: Shinji is 18.
I was asked by someone to just why Shinji seemed to have such difficulty with his choice between Echizen and Oishi in Truth of the Heart, and this is my attempt to explain that. Thank you to andersenmom for reading this over and giving me a helpful suggestion on how to make it better!
Main table can be found here and here.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Autumn always made Shinji think of Echizen.
Part of it was in the changing of the leaves. The golds that flared to life from the trees reminded him so much of Echizen’s eyes that it almost to hurt to look at the leaves sometimes. But it wasn’t just the golds. The reds, too, reminded him, of Echizen, of blood, and of passion and warmth that people rarely saw.
And the bite in the air, the crispness that reminded Shinji of Echizen’s rather sharp personality, how he could be so cool and uncaring, but rarely cold. At least, not when it had been the two of them together.
Fall made Shinji happy, and at the same time it made him sad.
It hurt, to be reminded of Echizen.
Outside of Akira and Tetsu, Echizen was the first person to make Shinji truly happy. He understood Echizen, and Echizen understood him. With Echizen, Shinji never felt the need to hide behind his words, but could be silent with him. Shinji could relax in his presence, and just be. And that was a very nice thing for him.
Echizen had saved Shinji from himself and a path to self-destruction. For that alone, Shinji treasured Echizen, but there were so many other reasons for him to reach out to Echizen, so many that he could barely understand them, but, oh, he felt them.
But Echizen was in Japan so rarely nowadays.
Shinji understood it, he really did. Echizen’s destiny was a great one, and Shinji wasn’t going to hold him back. Echizen had opponents to best, tournaments to conquer…even if Shinji could believe that, maybe, Echizen would give it all up for him, he would never ask it.
Every time they saw each other, the unsaid words passed through Shinji’s mind. But Shinji never allowed them to be spoken. He wasn’t sure why, exactly. Perhaps he was afraid of giving his heart fully to someone who was gone so much, to someone who literally had the world at his fingertips. Perhaps he didn’t want to tie Echizen down to someone while he was still so free. He had never been sure exactly why he had never spoken the things in his heart.
All Shinji knew for sure was what the feelings in his own heart were, and the ache they caused in him. All he could feel was the hole that Echizen had ripped into his heart completely unintentionally and just by being himself.
Shinji safeguarded fall in his heart, because fall was when some of his most precious times with Echizen had happened.
An impulsive moment of passion on the courts. A birthday that stood out more than most. Echizen’s arms around a sobbing figure in the pouring rain, pulling Shinji out of his self-imposed darkness and back into light.
Shinji knew that he had to move on, that Echizen had moved far beyond his reach. The time for them had passed; he had let it slip through his fingers. No matter how hard it was, no matter how much Shinji wanted it, he couldn’t hold onto that dream he had barely even begun to admit to himself.
Echizen Ryoma could never be his. Shinji had to admit this to himself, to come to grips with that fact.
Shinji just did not want to. Both because of his feelings for Echizen, and because he so desperately didn’t want to be alone. Shinji was almost willing to break his heart over a memory, an impossibility, just to keep that feeling at bay.
Shinji might have needed to move on, but he wasn’t ready to. Not yet.
One day he would. Shinji knew that with the same certainty that had guided him throughout his entire life. One day, Shinji knew he would find the thing, the person that would help him recover from the spell that Echizen had put on his heart. Until then, though, he had a picture of gold eyes and a slight smirk surrounded by fall leaves and an unspoken wish of more autumns together that could never come true.
--The End--
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Ibu Shinji
Prompt: 064: Fall
Word Count: 681
Rating: PG
Summary: Fall is Shinji’s favorite and least favorite season
Author's Notes: Shinji is 18.
I was asked by someone to just why Shinji seemed to have such difficulty with his choice between Echizen and Oishi in Truth of the Heart, and this is my attempt to explain that. Thank you to andersenmom for reading this over and giving me a helpful suggestion on how to make it better!
Main table can be found here and here.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Autumn always made Shinji think of Echizen.
Part of it was in the changing of the leaves. The golds that flared to life from the trees reminded him so much of Echizen’s eyes that it almost to hurt to look at the leaves sometimes. But it wasn’t just the golds. The reds, too, reminded him, of Echizen, of blood, and of passion and warmth that people rarely saw.
And the bite in the air, the crispness that reminded Shinji of Echizen’s rather sharp personality, how he could be so cool and uncaring, but rarely cold. At least, not when it had been the two of them together.
Fall made Shinji happy, and at the same time it made him sad.
It hurt, to be reminded of Echizen.
Outside of Akira and Tetsu, Echizen was the first person to make Shinji truly happy. He understood Echizen, and Echizen understood him. With Echizen, Shinji never felt the need to hide behind his words, but could be silent with him. Shinji could relax in his presence, and just be. And that was a very nice thing for him.
Echizen had saved Shinji from himself and a path to self-destruction. For that alone, Shinji treasured Echizen, but there were so many other reasons for him to reach out to Echizen, so many that he could barely understand them, but, oh, he felt them.
But Echizen was in Japan so rarely nowadays.
Shinji understood it, he really did. Echizen’s destiny was a great one, and Shinji wasn’t going to hold him back. Echizen had opponents to best, tournaments to conquer…even if Shinji could believe that, maybe, Echizen would give it all up for him, he would never ask it.
Every time they saw each other, the unsaid words passed through Shinji’s mind. But Shinji never allowed them to be spoken. He wasn’t sure why, exactly. Perhaps he was afraid of giving his heart fully to someone who was gone so much, to someone who literally had the world at his fingertips. Perhaps he didn’t want to tie Echizen down to someone while he was still so free. He had never been sure exactly why he had never spoken the things in his heart.
All Shinji knew for sure was what the feelings in his own heart were, and the ache they caused in him. All he could feel was the hole that Echizen had ripped into his heart completely unintentionally and just by being himself.
Shinji safeguarded fall in his heart, because fall was when some of his most precious times with Echizen had happened.
An impulsive moment of passion on the courts. A birthday that stood out more than most. Echizen’s arms around a sobbing figure in the pouring rain, pulling Shinji out of his self-imposed darkness and back into light.
Shinji knew that he had to move on, that Echizen had moved far beyond his reach. The time for them had passed; he had let it slip through his fingers. No matter how hard it was, no matter how much Shinji wanted it, he couldn’t hold onto that dream he had barely even begun to admit to himself.
Echizen Ryoma could never be his. Shinji had to admit this to himself, to come to grips with that fact.
Shinji just did not want to. Both because of his feelings for Echizen, and because he so desperately didn’t want to be alone. Shinji was almost willing to break his heart over a memory, an impossibility, just to keep that feeling at bay.
Shinji might have needed to move on, but he wasn’t ready to. Not yet.
One day he would. Shinji knew that with the same certainty that had guided him throughout his entire life. One day, Shinji knew he would find the thing, the person that would help him recover from the spell that Echizen had put on his heart. Until then, though, he had a picture of gold eyes and a slight smirk surrounded by fall leaves and an unspoken wish of more autumns together that could never come true.
--The End--