Hybrid

By: Dyaoka

Disclaimer: I don’t own the Prince of Tennis.

Warnings/Notes: *gasps* Of all people in the world…Stormy 1x2?!?! *bows* I worship the ground you walk upon…I love all you GW fics! Now, for the REAL notes/warnings…*cough* I think a lot of you have noticed that I like writing AU fics! And usually, they’d center just around one person! *laughs* I write fics dedicated to my favorites! 1) Ryoma [Impossible Fantasy] 2) Eiji [Hybrid] 3) Shinji [Can See the Light]. Originally I had planned Hybrid out as a trilogy! But I don’t think I’ll be getting to writing the other two…>.< And again, this fic will be finished in about…two chapters? *shrugs* I never meant for this to get past 7 chapters anyways. Well, enough rambling. Enjoy the fic!

Part Four

Eiji moved, subtly and slowly forward. Distinctly, he heard the humans start to walk toward him. Maybe…if they moved quickly through this claimed territory, they’d be able to make it. Quickly, Eiji started to sprint towards the end, hoping that the creature wouldn’t show up. Maybe he’ll just let them go freely, but Eiji was doubtful.

“O-Oi! Wait up!” The humans were starting to run now, following his example. Good. The quicker they were out of his territory, the more chances they’ll be safe. Eiji was sure that he was almost at the other end of the territory when suddenly something tackled him, sending him flying several feet from where he was originally. The horrible stench he smelled yesterday came stronger than ever.

“Wh-what the hell is that?!”

Eiji looked up at the creature that the territory belongs to. It wasn’t human, but neither was it an animal. It was another hybrid. It was large, towering over Eiji completely. It had to be part bear seeing that it was able to stand on its hind legs, but no for very long. But…what was the other part then? Giving a cough as Eiji tried to get up, the half cat-half human hybrid found that his legs wouldn’t support him. In the end, Eiji resorted to use all fours instead. The bear hybrid gave a roar, one that sounded hoarse but threatening at the same time.

“A chimera?” one of the humans gasped.

“No, not a chimera. A hybrid.”

The larger hybrid lumbered towards Eiji, who had his ears flattened completely against his skull, but did nothing else. The hybrid came forward, bold and undaunted, at Eiji. The bear hybrid didn’t seem like it was going to eat him…Eiji thought dejectedly. He certainly didn’t want to end up dead!

But it was quite a surprise to Eiji when the bear hybrid buried his muzzle into Eiji’s hair, smelling the half cat-half human hybrid. It moved its muzzle lower to Eiji’s cheek before withdrawing. With an almost silent huff, the hybrid walked off, decided that Eiji wasn’t at all dangerous to its territory. Eiji released the breath he as holding and signaled to the humans to immediately get out of it’s territory.

Leading the way was Eiji as he immediately dashed for the other side of the place. He didn’t want to be here anymore. It stank, had no places for naps, and most of all—that stupid bear hybrid! No, he didn’t want to be here anymore and couldn’t wait to get away from the place. Sprinting as fast as he could, Eiji finally made it to the other end of the marked territory. It was quite a slanted hill downward, but he’ll probably make it out alive. Without a second thought, the red head jumped and raced downhill, but in the end, he was sliding downhill on his feet. Though it hurt his feet a lot, it was fun! Suddenly, without warning, he was tossed into a deep spring. Having been caught off guard, the half human-half cat hybrid couldn’t do anything more than splash around for a few moments, trying to find a ledge or something. There was none—and something seemed to have grabbed a hold of his foot and tail.

“Nyaaa!”

There was no response. The humans were still up there. Eiji couldn’t help it—he panicked. He tried his best to stay afloat, but he was suddenly brought down under the surface. This was bad, Eiji undoubtedly decided as he watched the sun beneath the water. It was so bright and pretty…and so far away. Suddenly, the view of the sun was blocked. He saw it was one of the humans that had come to retrieve him…but did humans have tails? No…they didn’t. Distinctly Eiji was aware of the person freeing his entangled limbs from whatever it was his limbs were caught on and started to swim upwards. But he lacked air and before he could even try to see the face of his rescuer, the hybrid blacked out. 

~*~

“Oh, look! He’s awake!”

Eiji cracked open an eye to spot the humans around a fire, all looking at him. Eiji just gave a slight yawn and then snuggled down into the blankets that he was given. They were warm…He looked around at the humans, trying to figure out who it was that saved him. Well, no one looked wet…and there was only his own clothes that were hanging to be dried. There was a small chuckle and Eiji looked up at the smiley-faced human—correction: Fuji.

“Nya?”

“How are you feeling?” Fuji asked. Eiji only smiled up at him and started to bat around his shoulder length hair that was dangling about his face. Eiji giggled, more or less. Then, the giggling subsided and the azure eyes that seemed to glow no longer held their playfulness nor did it hold any happiness. Only endless depths of sadness as they stared up into Fuji’s own deep blue depths.

“Nya…” Eiji’s hand came and rested on Fuji’s cheek, to everyone’s surprise. But the hand quickly retracted and Eiji rolled over, turning away from everyone and curling up, with his tail wrapping around him. Just like that, he fell asleep. Though the humans weren’t sure, they knew there was something wrong.

“He seems tired.” 

“Ah…he is” Fuji answered. “He’s been so intent on helping us, the kitty…it’s about time we helped him in return. By the way, Tezuka, what was that thing you saw down there?”

“I don’t know” was the curt reply. “Just that something is there and I don’t think we should stay all that long…”

Later that night, Eiji awoke again, this time he was hungry. Crawling out of the warm blankets silently, Eiji snatched his dried clothes from where they hung and quickly dressed. None of the humans even noticed him; they were all too engrossed in their conversation. Since the half cat-half human hybrid didn’t exactly want what the humans ate (what was that? Bread? Something like that…), Eiji cautiously walked over to the other end of the spring, where all was dark. But his superior night vision allowed him to see…and what he was seeing was that they weren’t alone.

As silently as he could, Eiji focused on the figure that sat on the top of a rock near the shallow area. Without giving a warning, he pounced, knocking both of them over into the water in a loud splash. The humans were instantly alert at this and noticed that Eiji had disappeared from his makeshift bed.

“What is he doing now?!”

Suddenly there was another loud splash and a loud gasp.

“Get off of me!” came an unexpected voice. “You stupid cat!”

“Nya!”

Before Eiji knew what was going on, he was thrown onto shore when whatever he was riding on just stopped when it was going at such a high speed. “And stay away from me!” the voice said again, rather panicked and out of breath. With a splash, the figure that Eiji saw was gone.

That night, Eiji just stood by the shallows of the spring, waiting to catch sight of whoever it was earlier. Several times he was aware of a pair of glowing golden eyes peering up at him from deeper parts of the water, but in an instant, those eyes disappeared and there was nothing but darkness again. This was slowly getting on his nerves, but the hybrid did nothing about this but continued to watch. Slowly, one by one, the humans went to bed, but to sleep…Eiji wasn’t sure. He only knew that they curled up under their blankets.

When the stars had started to fade, the sun’s rays already chasing away the dark night, fire had finally started to die out and the humans eyes started to close, there was a small sound near the shallows of the spring. Eiji looked up to see the face of a human looking at him. But it was no human—after all, the skin was so pale that it was almost a sickly green color. The boy’s hair was also a greenish color, if the light hit it at the right angle, they’d be able to see that the hair wasn’t really black. Golden eyes peered tentatively at Eiji.

Not wanting to scare the hybrid in the water, Eiji stayed as still as possible. He was rather…fascinated, so to speak, by the hybrid. He was a fish! Yet…he was not. Slowly, whilst making as little sound as possible, the hybrid in the water swam forward to Eiji. Tiny ripples went through the water, slapping gently at the earth it met. Eventually, they came face to face.

“You’re a strange one” the golden eyed hybrid said, seeming to be just as fascinated by Eiji as the other was with him. Human-like ears, but yet not since they were so pointed and…webbed, for a lack of a better term, the golden eyed hybrid really did look strange. In a way though, he also looked ethereal. Placing both webbed hands onto the earth, the hybrid pulled himself up…and revealed that he had no legs. Eiji cocked his head to the side, examining the fish-human hybrid. He looked like…what was it called? Mermaids? Mermen? Yeah…that’s what. He looked like one of those. “What are you doing here? I rarely see any hybrids just wandering around these days…”

Eiji just yawned, not really understanding what the other was saying. Then, suddenly, something just…clicked in his mind. He looked over at the golden-eyed hybrid in surprise. It was sort of…a clickety-click thing that he somehow understood, though Eiji knew he just shouldn’t have been able to. However, all his new companion did was smirk in a sort of arrogant way. “You can speak” the golden-eyed hybrid said pointedly. “Yet, you don’t. Why?” Eiji threw the other hybrid a dirty look before contemplating whether he should push the other hybrid into the water. “Hn. Suit yourself.”

The fish-human hybrid just flipped his fins carelessly over the water, causing small waves to form. It completely mesmerized Eiji, something the other hybrid was completely aware of. To Eiji though, it wasn’t often that you’d find a fish (if you would call him that…) with silverish-golden scales. It sparkled enchantingly as he created wave after wave. Then, Eiji tore his attention from the beautiful fins to the hybrid before him. What was he doing here anyways? He couldn’t have come here on his own, since he had no feet. And didn’t fish had to be in water at all times?

“Nya” Eiji said as he pushed his head under the other’s chin, nuzzling the other’s neck. The golden-eyed hybrid smelled like…rainbows? But what did rainbows smell like? His skin was slippery and smooth, like a fish. But it was also…rough, as one could say, when rubbed the wrong way. It seemed like the scales near his neck, which glittered silver, caused the roughness.

“Wh-what are you doing?” the fish hybrid said, muscles immediately tensing up. But then Eiji got off of the other and curled up into a ball beside him and continued to watch him as he created wave after wave, watching the light bounce off of his colorful scales. “You are…very strange” the fish hybrid said after a short moment of silence. “You don’t speak. You don’t act…human. Yet, you don’t think like a cat.” Again, this time a click went into Eiji’s mind and the cat-hybrid knew that it was the other that caused it.

Eiji just swiped at the fish playfully, but the golden-eyed hybrid continued. “You have a name, yet you don’t acknowledge it. I think it’s time that you should.” Eiji narrowed his eyes dangerously as he slowly rose to his haunches to back away. The arrogant smirk reappeared on the fish-boy’s face. “Relax. I’m not going to hurt you. If it’d be anything, I’d say it’s the opposite, cat. You may call me Ryoma.”

But Eiji was already thinking of another name for the fish-boy in front of him. It was…

“Brat” Eiji said softly with a smile.

“Oh. So you do speak,” Ryoma said smugly. “I thought you didn’t understand speech.”

Eiji only stuck his tongue out at the Ryoma childishly. A sudden noise sounded out from behind the two hybrids—it was small, but loud enough for Eiji’s sensitive ears to pick up. The two hybrids snapped back to attention, finding that the humans that were previously asleep were now awake. They were watching the two with curious eyes. Ryoma didn’t wait another second before rushing back into the water, cursing his curiosity the whole way. As soon as he got away from the shallows, he dived down, his fins flipping through the air as he did so, leaving a memory of a silver-golden color disappearing under the water.

Then, all attention went to Eiji. The red head suddenly wished that he was like his new friend and was able to dive under the water like so to escape such scrutiny. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. Finally, the silence was broken by Fuji.

“You spoke,” he said simply. “Why didn’t you speak to us earlier?”

Eiji didn’t look at them, but turned and stared at the opposite direction of where Fuji was—the ground. The ground suddenly seemed very interesting…

“You understand what I am saying” Fuji stated. He didn’t ask—he was pointing that fact out. But Eiji shook his head, understanding only a bit of what was being said. He knew the humans were accusing him for ‘understanding.’

“Fuji, that’s enough” said the gentle-faced human.

Eiji wanted nothing but to disappear.

…To Be Continued