'The Time In-between' for Ketchupblood

[kedi_kedi]

For: ketchupblood
Title: The Time In-between
Characters: Niou, Yagyuu, Yukimura, Kirihara, and the rest of Rikkai
Rating: PG
Summary: The time period between Rikkai’s two matches with Seigaku was filled with Yukimura’s plans for victory, Yagyuu’s standoffishness, and Niou’s desperate attempts to make someone change his mind.
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: I don’t

Comments

[monarchist]

The ending. Guh. This entire fic was like a sucker punch to the gut. I mean that in a good way! I felt for Niou and Yagyuu in alternating senses. I love your take on Nationals and why Niou wanted to play with Yagyuu so bad. It was slow-rolling and a wonderful build up. <333

[lucathia_rykatu]

...sucker punch to the gut? Well, I'm glad it was in a good way. |D

Thank you~. I was a bit worried about the pacing, so hearing your thoughts on the build up makes me happy. :)

[ketchupblood]

Haha, Yukimura always wants to take over.

But wow. This was absolutely amazing. The pacing was great and I love how you wrote all of them, especially Yagyuu. He plays things so close to the vest, he's lucky Niou's persistent enough to go after him without any encouragement, stupid boy.

“Whoever said I wanted to play singles?” Niou muttered.

...

“Whoever said I didn’t want to play doubles with you?”

These lines! These lines are the perfect summary of how awesome your characterization is for these two.

Also, I love your Yukimura and how he knows things and uses them to win, because they will NOT lose. The things he noticed about Niou and Yagyuu at the beginning was a really nice touch.

Thank you for the amazing fic!

[lucathia_rykatu]

I took the "Yukimura" part of your request, ran with it, and this was the result! I had to go...wait, this isn't a Yukimura fic, before I managed to lessen his appearances...but everyone was still referring to him all the time. The opening sure didn't seem like it was going to lead to a D1 fic until I realized that essentially, Yukimura was there to witness how close Niou and Yagyuu had gotten, haha. I hope that worked.

Yagyuu is really lucky Niou's persistent enough! Though I guess I have to hand it to Yagyuu for finally taking action at the end there.

I'm glad you liked their characterization. I was afraid that my Yagyuu and Niou would be too boring.

I used to be afraid of writing Yukimura since I didn't feel like I knew him very well, so it was pretty awesome being able to write him here. :) I actually, uh, visited your journal and was reading your ficlet of him in the hospital to get more into a Yukimura mood. I loved that ficlet. <3

I'm so very glad you liked this!!

[ketchupblood]

It worked beautifully. I personally think that this was the perfect way to write a D1 fic focused on tennis, especially while they're in middle school, but I'm just the teensiest bit biased.

They're not boring at all.

I'm glad I could inspire you to write an awesome fic. ♥

[lucathia_rykatu]

Yukimura was totally being a killjoy, ahahaha. |D

I don't know, I've always been told that we shouldn't always use red to correct. (Poor red, always getting the mean role). I can imagine Akaya might take it a step further and use crayons or markers instead of changing the color. |D But I don't think Yagyuu was thinking along my lines of thinking. XDD

Niou's plans didn't get anywhere at all. =/

I wish so too. ):

[everlind]

Yukimura chuckled. “Let me guess. You’d rather you were the one Yagyuu’s looking after?”

Yukimura was brilliant in this. I love the aura of sheer iron-clad leadership you've given him and the good dose of perceptiveness he'd have to have to manage a team such as Rikkai.

This was lovely insight as to how the whole lead-up to the Nationals. I love how we see so much of the team dynamic and so much of how they interact.

Very, very well done.

[lucathia_rykatu]

I'm really glad Yukimura came off that way. Before the nationals arc, I didn't feel like I knew Yukimura very well, but after his match, I started thinking, so this is Yukimura. It was great being able to write him here...even though this is supposed to be a D1 fic. XD;

Thank you for the kind comment!

[kedi_kedi]

Wheeeeee, naice ;D

Owwww, poor Yagyuu :( Of course I <3ed him in this fic, but towards the end when he was getting left out of the team it made me sad. Yukimura always getting the final say, pft. I still reckon if they were doubles 1 they would have won :<

I liked how regardless of this separation, his partnership with Niou still stayed strong, that final bit at the end had me smiling :) So yay for them still playing together in the future!

[lucathia_rykatu]

I wish Yagyuu hadn't been left out. =/ I stopped following PoT around the time when I realized Yagyuu was going to be the substitute for that last match. *sigh* I didn't pick it back up until way later. That aside, Yagyuu in this fic kind of just went with the flow and didn't do more to make things different. I wish he had. I was kind of glad that Niou and Yagyuu weren't doubles 1, since for plot purposes, they'd probably have lost...unless their opponents weren't the Golden Pair. But in my mind, they'd totally have won!

Hehe, I'm happy the final part made you smile! :)