Tennis no Ohjisama Halloween Special!
by Suke

3. About a Kiss and Ghosts

This instalment: the kiss ^_^ and how could I write a Halloween fic without any ghosts? Actually, Suke-san was about to do just that because the whole ghost thing had completely slipped my mind until hellen (arigato hellen- san!) mentioned it.

Hee, just to let you know that your reviews do make a difference, Suke-san is having exams soon and decided not to update for a month but, uhm, it's only been a week and I'm updating. Yes, Suke-san is so SOFT.

Also, gomen everyone, I wasn't able to end the story so, no, sigh it doesn't end here. I estimate one to two more instalments, plus an epilogue if Suke-san feels sappy.

Hope you like!

Instalment two and one third of three

*****

The boy was going to kiss him!

He should do something. He should stop the boy. He was a boy! They were both boys! Instead, Ryoma felt himself tilting up on his toes and leaning towards the enigmatic, beautiful boy.

And it was just a kiss. There's no big deal about a kiss. It's just lips meeting, right? In that case, Karupin's kissed him hundreds of times. Ryoma hadn't exactly kissed another person before but he was sure kissing in movies and manga was just overrated. Then, why did Ryoma want to kiss the boy so much?

It was true that he was gorgeous. It was true that his lean body was perfect. It was true that he was a beautiful male specimen and his lips looked very kissable. In fact, Ryoma had to admit to glancing at those lips over and over again tonight while they were dancing. Somehow, they looked really yummy. So many reasons for Ryoma to kiss him.

No! He couldn't kiss a boy. Not a boy! But he wanted to kiss this one! He didn't even know the boy! They had only just met an hour ago. They were complete strangers.

And at that thought, Ryoma paused. He didn't know the boy and the boy didn't know him either. In fact, nobody knew it was him, except his few sempais who were definitely too busy to notice. No one would know. It would just be for tonight.

And this was his one last chance to kiss this perfect person!

Their lips met. His lips were soft and gentle. His taste was sweet, a mixture of honey with the slight bitterness of chocolate. His long fingers slid along the edge of Ryoma's jaw, making the smaller boy tip his head up closer.

Ryoma sighed, now leaning completely into the other boy. The boy took the chance to slide his tongue into Ryoma's mouth, tentatively at first as though requesting permission. But Ryoma only invaded his mouth hungrily in return with his own tongue, grabbing the front of his shirt for more leverage.

Ryoma wasn't sure what he was doing but it felt so good.

And then, the kiss ended, both boys panting softly and flushed.

"Gomen", the taller boy whispered. "I should have asked."

Ryoma shook his head slightly to mean that it didn't matter but something in that voice was so familiar to him. It was, it couldn't be but it was --

*****

"It's -- it's a ghost!" Kikumaru shouted with triple exclamation marks, eyes closed and pointing wildly.

A girly squeal followed and all eyes turned to a certain pretty acrobatic player clinging on to his doubles partner for all he was worth. Ooshitari looked pleased, but only for a moment. A deathly pallor came over his calm face; he lifted a hand to point at something and then promptly passed out.

"Yuushi! Yuu-chan!" Gakuto grabbed the taller boy and shook him frantically.

"Aa, I see it too. It's a ghost. Should I be afraid? No, it's just a ghost. It's not doing anything. But somehow I feel very afraid. Oh, I see, everyone else must be really scared too." Predictably, Ibu Shinji was talking to himself again.

"Shinji! Get a hold of yourself! It's okay! Nothing will happen!" Unexpectedly, his captain, Tachibana Kippei was not handling the supernatural appearance well and was beginning to do a 'Shinji'. "It's okay, Shinji-kun. It's okay! Don't be scared. Nothing will happen. At least, I think nothing will happen..."

Tachibana is grabbing hold of Shinji now, hysterically comforting him despite the other boy's calm expression.

"Aa, Kippei, I'm not really scared, I think. You don't have to grab me. It is nice though..."

Beside the two top Fudoumine players, each talking to himself, the national youth player, Yamabuki's Sengoku affixed himself to his manager's arm.

"It's okay, Kyo-sempai. It's just a ghost." Taichi Dan grinned at him in what he hoped was a comforting manner.

Behind them, the Jimmies sweat dropped.

"He really isn't afraid of anything," Minami said with something akin to awe in his tone.

"I guess nothing is scary after Akutsu-san," Higashikata agreed.

"IIE! Get it away from me! Ryo! Ryo! Ryo!" Choutaro was standing on top of the sofa pouting cutely at his double's partner on the ground.

"Chou-san, it's okay." Shishido tried to calm the blond boy down.

"Get down at once, you wuss! It's not polite to stand on your host's furniture." Atobe said crossly, trying to look dignified while standing on the sofa next to Choutaro.

"But it's a ghost!" Mizuki whined, also on the sofa while Yuuta tried, in vain, to get him off.

"Mizuki-san -- Hajime-kun, Oka-san won't like it." And I don't see how standing on the sofa is going to help. It's not like it's a rat or something, Yuuta thought, but Hajime really was very cute when he was freaked out.

So, in summary, pandemonium broke out in the room as ghostly apparitions appeared on all sides to the party-goers. At the centre of the room, however, there seemed to be an oasis of calm.

"I trust this isn't your doing," Tezuka eyed the blue-eyed tensai suspiciously, looking sceptically at the ghosts.

"Ghosts? I don't see any ghosts." Fuji looked about him curiously.

"As usual, Fuji-san is not affected by the juice," Inui's dry voice was heard together with the rapid scratching of a pen across paper.

"Juice?" Fuji asked, smiling enthusiastically now. "What juice is this?"

"Ah, of course, it is the Inui deluxe remix Halloween Special Juice," Inui's glasses glinted as he adjusted them. "It makes people see ghosts."

"Hmm, Tezuka's face is still showing no expression. Kamio-san is being comforted by Tachibana Ann, and Jiroh-san," Inui paused in his writing, pulling at the long ears of his bunny suit contemplatively, "Jiroh-san is still able to sleep despite the 40 decibel noise around him, ii data."

"Oh," Fuji let out a disappointed sigh as something near the door caught his eye, "my game."

Tezuka looked at Fuji's pout and then towards the front door as Echizen Ryoma made his escape, shutting the door quickly behind him.

Fuji was still looking at the door, the cogs in his head obviously turning, plotting what he could get out of this new situation. Poor Echizen and Momoshiro. Maybe he should distract the scheming tensai and help his kouhais out a bit.

Fuji started from his calculations when he felt an arm slide around his slim shoulders. Tezuka leaned in towards him.

"Tezu, what are you -- there are people around here," Fuji's eyes widened in surprise. He knew of his boyfriend's dislike of public shows of affection.

"So? No one's looking," Tezuka indicated the largely preoccupied crowd and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.

The smiling tensai might have answered, might have mentioned Inui or the unruffled Banji or someone else, but he was already too distracted but the soft, gentle lips of his lover as they covered his own.

*****

"Ah, it is Halloween after all," Ryoma had muttered, looking at the apparitions floating around and not understanding all the fuss about seeing a ghost.

But his dance partner, a moment ago so suave, now with his eyes wide and hiding under the table. Ryoma almost smirked at the adorable display.

"A ghost! It's a ghost! I'm too young to die!" The gorgeous boy clinging to a table leg wailed unhappily.

The voice was too familiar to mistake now. It was a voice Ryoma had heard everyday these past months, in all its moods and emotions, with all its inflections. Ryoma recognized that voice almost as well as his own. It was, it couldn't be, but it was --

Even as the identity of his dance partner registered in his mind, Ryoma felt a strange sense of elation run through him. He didn't understand it but finding out that he had just kissed Momo-sempai didn't feel weird, or wrong, or terrible.

It felt perfect.

*****

There were just too many things that he hadn't understood! Ryoma raised his arm above him and studied the back of his hand. Karupin mrreowed at the objectionable movement and shifted on Ryoma's stomach for a more comfortable position.

Before the party, Ryoma had been determined to leave the moment he had a chance to. They only said that he had to go for the party dressed like a girl. No one had said that he had to stay.

So when chaos had broken out, Ryoma had taken his chance and left, despite his poor sempai hiding under the table, despite the strange but really nice feelings he was beginning to have and despite that odd urge to just stay.

Ryoma had run halfway to his house before he remembered that he was dressed as a girl. Thankfully, he had managed to get into his room and out of those disgusting clothes before Nanako or, worse, his baka oyaji had seen him. After which, he had quickly taken a bath, quite repulsed at his previous girlishness.

But there was one thing about being a girl that Ryoma hadn't totally hated. In fact, if he was being honest, he had really liked it.

Momo-sempai.

Could he have liked his sempai all this while and not even know it? That was ridiculous! His sempai annoyed him. Momo-sempai was loud and noisy and pushy and embarrassing and stupid and kind and friendly and always so cheerful and funny and interesting and sexy and hot and -- wait, where did that come from?

He had to stop it! It had only been for a night and now it was over! His sempai had gone gaga over yet another cute girl yet again. That was nothing new. Ryoma was a boy and as much as he wanted to be a girl and even if he actually endured dressing up as a girl again to get his sempai's attention, it wouldn't last. Momo-sempai only liked the cute girl, not Echizen Ryoma.

Woah, he was sounding incredibly mature tonight.

Ryoma bit his lip as fresh thoughts began to invade his mind.

Ryoma hadn't been attracted to guys before this, or at least he hadn't noticed that he was attracted, but now he was attracted to a guy. So these things could change, right?

And if Ryoma, as a cute girl could get his sempai's attention, surely the boy Ryoma, being the cute, smart, amazing person that he was, not to mention one of his sempai's best friends, would doubly be able to get Momo- sempai. Right?

All Ryoma had to do was to enlighten his idiot sempai on how attractive Echizen Ryoma was. And that couldn't be very hard now, would it?

*****

Did you know that Sengoku's name is Sengoku Kyosumi?!! And does anyone know if Jiroh is his last name or first name? Trying to write a Jiroh fic but I don't know if it's Akutagawa Jiroh or Jiroh Akutagawa (family name first).

Next instalment: How is Ryoma going to make his sempai notice him in a new way? What about Momo's feelings for that cute girl he met at the party? Will he be willing to give that up for what his kouhai has to offer? And will he ever find out the true identity of the cute girl? Or will Ryoma end up wearing a dress again to get his sempai's attention?

To my lovely, wonderful reviewers: Thank you! Thank you all for your reviews!

Amona-san! JMJV! hellen-san! Joanne-san! Hirame-san! firedraygon97! Anon (is that your name or are you being anonymous? -_-)! Kaye-chan! Suke-san would kiss you except you probably won't like it!

Regatto: Regatto-san!!! Once again, you make me so happy! I love reading your reviews!! Like a romance novel? Oh no! Is my romance novel-reading past catching up with me? Haha, arigato! Slight Tezu-Fuji in this fic was written for you ^_^!!!

simonw2000: Ha? The link was at the end of the previous chapter. If there's a problem, you can go to my bio page. It's the link at the bottom of my bio! Thanks for being interested!

Yami no Tenshi: Hee! More couples here! Very slight ToriShishi although I really like them ^_^ especially Choutaro.

ryoma_sama_fan: Hello! I got your email and sent a reply! I hope you received it!!!

Kikumaru*starr: Hee, thanks and no problem. I only review for you because I really like your stuff and Suke-san is quite picky too ^_^ glad you read my stuff too.

And, of course, Becca-san! I love the fanart! Did you get my email? And because Suke-san is so generous, here's a link to go see a pretty pic of cute girl-ryoma by Becca-san that belongs to ME heheh: paste in address bar and delete spaces. http:// phoenix-song. com/ waya/ peachyryoma. gif