Prince of Tennis: Ibu Shinji, 025: Strangers
Title: Don’t Look Back
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Ibu Shinji, Kevin Smith, Echizen Ryoma
Prompt: 025: Strangers
Word Count: 1,829
Rating: PG
Summary: The last match for the U.S. Open, and another last match as well.
Author's Notes: I’ve had this in mind since this arc started, both because the setup demanded it, and because I’ve been wanting a proper resolution to Shinji choosing Oishi over Ryoma. And I’m taking MASSIVE liberties with the U.S. Open here…sorry! All dialogue in Japanese is underlined.
This follows And We Don’t Say Goodbye.
Main table can be found here and here.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“It’s good to have connections, isn’t it?” Kevin couldn’t help smirking as he watched Shinji stare at the venue in front of them.
“I’ll say…center court for the U.S. Open!” Shinji couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice, even if he tried.
“For the final match, too,” Kevin added with a smirk. “Look…I know you’re not…alright.” He swallowed. “Some shit went down between you and Ryoma. I know that. But you have to admit…Echizen versus Nadal is a once in a lifetime event!”
Shinji nodded slowly. “I know that, and I want to see it…it’s just….” He sighed. “He doesn’t know you’re here, right?”
Kevin shook his head. “Never talked to him, never even dropped a hint,” he promised. “My personal trainer got me the tickets, and we’re sitting in his box. There’s no reason Ryoma should even know we’re here. Of course, I’ll call or email him or something after the fact, but it won’t matter, then.” He chuckled. “I’m not even sure he knows you’re in the country.”
“He knows.” Shinji thought about a folder of emails, read but never replied to. “I just don’t think he knows where I am.”
Kevin eyed Shinji, not liking the shadow that had fallen over his friend’s face. “So don’t worry about it now, right? Come on!” He grabbed Shinji’s wrist and pulled him towards the gates, Shinji laughing and offering fake protests the whole way.
Neither of them saw the figure that watched them from the practice courts nearby.
*~*~*~*
Shinji hadn’t been able to tear his eyes from the court from the first serve of the first set. He had known that any match between Rafael Nadar, number one in the world, and Echizen Ryoma, up and coming star intent on taking the throne, would be a sight to see and remember for ages. Shinji hadn’t been ready, though, for the sheer beauty of the play, the way that power and speed combined to create a type of poetry in motion that had Shinji enraptured, barely forgetting to breathe with each thwack of ball against gut against court.
He had known since their first match in junior high, that Ryoma was destined for great things. Every game of Ryoma’s that Shinji had watched since that moment, every time he had faced Ryoma across the net himself, Shinji had become more and more aware of that. However, it wasn’t until that moment that Shinji realized just how much Ryoma had been holding back in his play.
Shinji felt like the Ryoma in front of his eyes now was a stranger.
Watching Ryoma battle in front of him, Shinji had a hard time reconciling this warrior with the boy he had waged wars over grip tape with. He couldn’t see anything of the teenager he had lost his virginity to in that lean form. He couldn’t see the man that he had fallen in love with, the man he had let go of eight months before.
Shinji couldn’t believe that this Ryoma could have ever loved him at all. He knew in that moment that he had been right, that this stranger with Ryoma’s eyes could never have been happy with him for long, and that Oishi’s love was the far better thing.
That didn’t stop him from wishing with all his might, though, that Ryoma would come away the victor.
It was a hard battle, neither Ryoma nor Nadal giving an inch. It was the first time they had faced each other, and they were clearly intent on making the most of the opportunity in front of them. What followed was a match that would be talked about for ages, its every shot debated and analyzed…but ending with Ryoma as the victor, taking his final point in the fifth set tiebreak that was graceful even in his exhaustion.
Kevin and Shinji had hugged tightly, their awed silence fading into an excited chatter about some of Ryoma’s newest shots, comparing notes on this volley or that smash in a pidgin mix of English and Japanese that might’ve gone on for hours if it weren’t for a strange-to Shinji-man tapping Kevin on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry to interrupt you, Kevin.” The man did actually look sorry. “But there’s some people I want you to meet. They might be invaluable when you start playing again next season.”
“Now, Jake?” Kevin rolled his eyes and stood. “Sorry, Shinji. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Shinji nodded at his friend, already wandering over to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the box and gazing down at the court. His eyes followed the maintenance staff, but he wasn’t really seeing them, his mind following a thousand different trains of thought.
“Wondering what it would’ve been like if you had been there?”
The question, asked in a strange voice, had been in Japanese, and Shinji unconsciously answered in kind. “No…tennis doesn’t have that role in my life anymore.” He kept gazing down at the court. “I love it, but it doesn’t possess me like it does them.”
Shinji heard a dry laugh that almost sounded familiar. “You’re a hard man to pin down, Shinji. Will you at least turn around and look at me?”
It can’t be…. Slowly, Shinji turned around, trying hard to keep the shock off his face. “Ryoma….”
Up close, Shinji again had the feeling of seeing a stranger. There were some things that were familiar, yes. The hat, pulled low over Ryoma’s eyes. The slight slouch to his posture that seemed to advertise his boredom with the world.
There was so much different about him too, though. His hair was shorter, his muscles more defined, his skin tanner. To Shinji’s eyes, Ryoma was a bit taller, his secondary growth spurt finally having kicked in. His eyes, while still the same amazing golden color that could, even after all this time, still make Shinji’s breath catch, were also calmer, burning with a steady glow instead of a bright flame. Even his voice was different, slightly deeper, filled with a cool confidence instead of cocky arrogance.
An all-too familiar smirk twisted Ryoma’s lips as Shinji’s silence stretched on. “I can still make you speechless, Shinji?”
“I’m surprised…I didn’t expect to see you….” Shinji took a deep breath, steadying himself.
“I didn’t think I’d see you here. I saw you with Kevin. He your boyfriend, now? What happened to Oishi-senpai? And why are you here anyway?” Ryoma crossed his arms and came to lean against the glass next to Shinji.
“I’m here for a semester of study abroad…and I’m still with Shuichiro. Kevin’s my friend, and roommate.” Shinji looked at the ground, unable to meet Ryoma’s eyes. “You knew I was here.”
“Kevin never told me he had a roommate.” Ryoma moved a little closer to Shinji. “I saw the two of you, outside. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Kevin’s connections got you guys here, or where you’d be. I had to see you, Shinji.”
Shinji’s head whipped up and he stared at Ryoma, surprise etched on his features. “Why?”
Ryoma snorted, an eerily familiar sound in a stranger’s voice. “You have to ask? Ever since you told me that you loved Oishi-senpai more, that you couldn’t be with me, you’ve avoided me. You’ve ignored my emails. You changed your number, your address. We need to have this out, Shinji.”
“There’s nothing to have out.” Shinji’s tone and gaze was firm. “Nothing’s changed, Ryoma. I love ‘Chiro, and I’m planning a future with him. Our time has passed, if there ever was a time for us, but I don’t think there was, because if there was, it would’ve happened long ago, and since it didn’t, then I can only think that things happened as they did for a reason. ‘Chiro is my reason, and that won’t change.”
“Shinji….” Ryoma pressed closer, and Shinji couldn’t hide the hitch in his breath, the way he trembled faintly. “There’s still something there. You feel it, and I feel it. I…I’ve never stopped loving you. I can give you the world, Shinji. Don’t you want that?”
“Mr. Echizen?” A tall blonde woman came up to them. “There’s a reporter from the Times with a few questions….”
As Ryoma was led away, Shinji’s gaze was drawn back to the court below him. He thought about Ryoma’s world, the world that he could offer Shinji: the tennis, the travelling. The fast pace of life, the money, the prestige. He thought about the press hounding them at every step, thought about how hard it would be to settle anywhere, for anything. A world where Shinji would forever be second to tennis.
He thought about the world Oishi could offer him: a world of affection and steadfastness. A world where they could love in private, a world where their lives were only their business. A world where they could settle, raise a family if they chose. A world where their love would never be second to anything else.
For Shinji, it was no choice at all.
He waited patiently for Ryoma to come back, then picked up the conversation as if it had never been interrupted. “I don’t want your world, Ryoma,” he said, his voice steady. “I don’t want this world, in the public eye. I don’t want a world where tennis will be the mistress…no. Where I will be the mistress to tennis, because that’s what’s first in your heart. You love it, and that’s right. This is the world you’re meant for, Echizen Ryoma. But it’s not my world. You’re not my world. You were once, but not anymore.”
Shinji looked around, not seeing Kevin, but knowing he would have to leave, soon. “I did love you, Ryoma. A part of me still does, but I’ve moved on. I have my world, and it centers around Shuichiro. You have your world. Conquer it. I…I do hope that, one day, we can be friends, though.”
Shinji’s gaze found Ryoma’s again seeing the boy he once knew superimposed over the stranger Ryoma had become. “Find happiness, Ryoma. It isn’t me. It never will be me.”
Shinji’s hand cupped Ryoma’s cheek gently, one last time. He ignored the tears in his own eyes, pretended not to see the way Ryoma’s eyes shimmered-another strangeness, but one Shinji was glad to see.
“I’ll always be in your world, Shinji,” Ryoma promised. “One day I’ll come back in it, as your friend. Be happy, please?”
“I am happy.” Shinji smiled as he thought of Oishi.
Shinji drew back, letting his hand fall away. “Goodbye, Ryoma.” He turned away, intent on heading to the train station and getting back to where he could be alone for a bit. He’d text Kevin, but he couldn’t wait around for him
Ryoma watched Shinji go, feeling like he was watching his childhood walk out the door, but he was still smiling as he said to the retreating figure, “Until we meet again, Shinji. Mada mada dane.”
--The End--
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Ibu Shinji, Kevin Smith, Echizen Ryoma
Prompt: 025: Strangers
Word Count: 1,829
Rating: PG
Summary: The last match for the U.S. Open, and another last match as well.
Author's Notes: I’ve had this in mind since this arc started, both because the setup demanded it, and because I’ve been wanting a proper resolution to Shinji choosing Oishi over Ryoma. And I’m taking MASSIVE liberties with the U.S. Open here…sorry! All dialogue in Japanese is underlined.
This follows And We Don’t Say Goodbye.
Main table can be found here and here.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“It’s good to have connections, isn’t it?” Kevin couldn’t help smirking as he watched Shinji stare at the venue in front of them.
“I’ll say…center court for the U.S. Open!” Shinji couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice, even if he tried.
“For the final match, too,” Kevin added with a smirk. “Look…I know you’re not…alright.” He swallowed. “Some shit went down between you and Ryoma. I know that. But you have to admit…Echizen versus Nadal is a once in a lifetime event!”
Shinji nodded slowly. “I know that, and I want to see it…it’s just….” He sighed. “He doesn’t know you’re here, right?”
Kevin shook his head. “Never talked to him, never even dropped a hint,” he promised. “My personal trainer got me the tickets, and we’re sitting in his box. There’s no reason Ryoma should even know we’re here. Of course, I’ll call or email him or something after the fact, but it won’t matter, then.” He chuckled. “I’m not even sure he knows you’re in the country.”
“He knows.” Shinji thought about a folder of emails, read but never replied to. “I just don’t think he knows where I am.”
Kevin eyed Shinji, not liking the shadow that had fallen over his friend’s face. “So don’t worry about it now, right? Come on!” He grabbed Shinji’s wrist and pulled him towards the gates, Shinji laughing and offering fake protests the whole way.
Neither of them saw the figure that watched them from the practice courts nearby.
*~*~*~*
Shinji hadn’t been able to tear his eyes from the court from the first serve of the first set. He had known that any match between Rafael Nadar, number one in the world, and Echizen Ryoma, up and coming star intent on taking the throne, would be a sight to see and remember for ages. Shinji hadn’t been ready, though, for the sheer beauty of the play, the way that power and speed combined to create a type of poetry in motion that had Shinji enraptured, barely forgetting to breathe with each thwack of ball against gut against court.
He had known since their first match in junior high, that Ryoma was destined for great things. Every game of Ryoma’s that Shinji had watched since that moment, every time he had faced Ryoma across the net himself, Shinji had become more and more aware of that. However, it wasn’t until that moment that Shinji realized just how much Ryoma had been holding back in his play.
Shinji felt like the Ryoma in front of his eyes now was a stranger.
Watching Ryoma battle in front of him, Shinji had a hard time reconciling this warrior with the boy he had waged wars over grip tape with. He couldn’t see anything of the teenager he had lost his virginity to in that lean form. He couldn’t see the man that he had fallen in love with, the man he had let go of eight months before.
Shinji couldn’t believe that this Ryoma could have ever loved him at all. He knew in that moment that he had been right, that this stranger with Ryoma’s eyes could never have been happy with him for long, and that Oishi’s love was the far better thing.
That didn’t stop him from wishing with all his might, though, that Ryoma would come away the victor.
It was a hard battle, neither Ryoma nor Nadal giving an inch. It was the first time they had faced each other, and they were clearly intent on making the most of the opportunity in front of them. What followed was a match that would be talked about for ages, its every shot debated and analyzed…but ending with Ryoma as the victor, taking his final point in the fifth set tiebreak that was graceful even in his exhaustion.
Kevin and Shinji had hugged tightly, their awed silence fading into an excited chatter about some of Ryoma’s newest shots, comparing notes on this volley or that smash in a pidgin mix of English and Japanese that might’ve gone on for hours if it weren’t for a strange-to Shinji-man tapping Kevin on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry to interrupt you, Kevin.” The man did actually look sorry. “But there’s some people I want you to meet. They might be invaluable when you start playing again next season.”
“Now, Jake?” Kevin rolled his eyes and stood. “Sorry, Shinji. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Shinji nodded at his friend, already wandering over to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the box and gazing down at the court. His eyes followed the maintenance staff, but he wasn’t really seeing them, his mind following a thousand different trains of thought.
“Wondering what it would’ve been like if you had been there?”
The question, asked in a strange voice, had been in Japanese, and Shinji unconsciously answered in kind. “No…tennis doesn’t have that role in my life anymore.” He kept gazing down at the court. “I love it, but it doesn’t possess me like it does them.”
Shinji heard a dry laugh that almost sounded familiar. “You’re a hard man to pin down, Shinji. Will you at least turn around and look at me?”
It can’t be…. Slowly, Shinji turned around, trying hard to keep the shock off his face. “Ryoma….”
Up close, Shinji again had the feeling of seeing a stranger. There were some things that were familiar, yes. The hat, pulled low over Ryoma’s eyes. The slight slouch to his posture that seemed to advertise his boredom with the world.
There was so much different about him too, though. His hair was shorter, his muscles more defined, his skin tanner. To Shinji’s eyes, Ryoma was a bit taller, his secondary growth spurt finally having kicked in. His eyes, while still the same amazing golden color that could, even after all this time, still make Shinji’s breath catch, were also calmer, burning with a steady glow instead of a bright flame. Even his voice was different, slightly deeper, filled with a cool confidence instead of cocky arrogance.
An all-too familiar smirk twisted Ryoma’s lips as Shinji’s silence stretched on. “I can still make you speechless, Shinji?”
“I’m surprised…I didn’t expect to see you….” Shinji took a deep breath, steadying himself.
“I didn’t think I’d see you here. I saw you with Kevin. He your boyfriend, now? What happened to Oishi-senpai? And why are you here anyway?” Ryoma crossed his arms and came to lean against the glass next to Shinji.
“I’m here for a semester of study abroad…and I’m still with Shuichiro. Kevin’s my friend, and roommate.” Shinji looked at the ground, unable to meet Ryoma’s eyes. “You knew I was here.”
“Kevin never told me he had a roommate.” Ryoma moved a little closer to Shinji. “I saw the two of you, outside. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Kevin’s connections got you guys here, or where you’d be. I had to see you, Shinji.”
Shinji’s head whipped up and he stared at Ryoma, surprise etched on his features. “Why?”
Ryoma snorted, an eerily familiar sound in a stranger’s voice. “You have to ask? Ever since you told me that you loved Oishi-senpai more, that you couldn’t be with me, you’ve avoided me. You’ve ignored my emails. You changed your number, your address. We need to have this out, Shinji.”
“There’s nothing to have out.” Shinji’s tone and gaze was firm. “Nothing’s changed, Ryoma. I love ‘Chiro, and I’m planning a future with him. Our time has passed, if there ever was a time for us, but I don’t think there was, because if there was, it would’ve happened long ago, and since it didn’t, then I can only think that things happened as they did for a reason. ‘Chiro is my reason, and that won’t change.”
“Shinji….” Ryoma pressed closer, and Shinji couldn’t hide the hitch in his breath, the way he trembled faintly. “There’s still something there. You feel it, and I feel it. I…I’ve never stopped loving you. I can give you the world, Shinji. Don’t you want that?”
“Mr. Echizen?” A tall blonde woman came up to them. “There’s a reporter from the Times with a few questions….”
As Ryoma was led away, Shinji’s gaze was drawn back to the court below him. He thought about Ryoma’s world, the world that he could offer Shinji: the tennis, the travelling. The fast pace of life, the money, the prestige. He thought about the press hounding them at every step, thought about how hard it would be to settle anywhere, for anything. A world where Shinji would forever be second to tennis.
He thought about the world Oishi could offer him: a world of affection and steadfastness. A world where they could love in private, a world where their lives were only their business. A world where they could settle, raise a family if they chose. A world where their love would never be second to anything else.
For Shinji, it was no choice at all.
He waited patiently for Ryoma to come back, then picked up the conversation as if it had never been interrupted. “I don’t want your world, Ryoma,” he said, his voice steady. “I don’t want this world, in the public eye. I don’t want a world where tennis will be the mistress…no. Where I will be the mistress to tennis, because that’s what’s first in your heart. You love it, and that’s right. This is the world you’re meant for, Echizen Ryoma. But it’s not my world. You’re not my world. You were once, but not anymore.”
Shinji looked around, not seeing Kevin, but knowing he would have to leave, soon. “I did love you, Ryoma. A part of me still does, but I’ve moved on. I have my world, and it centers around Shuichiro. You have your world. Conquer it. I…I do hope that, one day, we can be friends, though.”
Shinji’s gaze found Ryoma’s again seeing the boy he once knew superimposed over the stranger Ryoma had become. “Find happiness, Ryoma. It isn’t me. It never will be me.”
Shinji’s hand cupped Ryoma’s cheek gently, one last time. He ignored the tears in his own eyes, pretended not to see the way Ryoma’s eyes shimmered-another strangeness, but one Shinji was glad to see.
“I’ll always be in your world, Shinji,” Ryoma promised. “One day I’ll come back in it, as your friend. Be happy, please?”
“I am happy.” Shinji smiled as he thought of Oishi.
Shinji drew back, letting his hand fall away. “Goodbye, Ryoma.” He turned away, intent on heading to the train station and getting back to where he could be alone for a bit. He’d text Kevin, but he couldn’t wait around for him
Ryoma watched Shinji go, feeling like he was watching his childhood walk out the door, but he was still smiling as he said to the retreating figure, “Until we meet again, Shinji. Mada mada dane.”
--The End--