-- Disclaimer: Tennis no Oujisama wa Yui no koto ga janai yo!

Melting [Into] You

I didn't believe in fate.

Everything in the world could be calculated. It just had to be. How could I count something as `real' if I didn't see it? How could I possibly believe the fallacies that ensnared by mind when night came? I didn't want to believe any of the dreams I had because, more often than not, they were nightmares. Every night, I went to bed, but I feared going to sleep. Childish as it may have seemed, I stared at the ceiling until my eyes drooped.

My dreams were always the same: I was searching for someone or something.

And now, it seemed very out of character on my part. Even I, `the ice cube', blushed slightly from the embarrassment of this particular dream.

Dreams were the opposite of what you wished, or they could be your true desire.
I didn't know how to interpret anything anymore.

I didn't want to believe in dreams. I didn't want to believe in beautiful lies… …not until that dream.

There I was on my bed sleeping. While I was waking up, there was someone who was touching my waist with their hands. I stirred because this was an unusual feeling.

It was warm and inviting. I almost kind of enjoyed it…

I blinked my eyes, but before I could do anything, that person's hands took a hold of my own wrists. Leaning closely to me, I smelled their hair as they whispered to my ear, "Hold onto the headboard."
"What?" I opened my eyes widely, but before I could protest more, I shouted in pain while he kissed my neck at the same time.

Waking up in a cold sweat, I took a deep breath.

"What the hell was that?!" I whispered harshly to myself.

Disgusted with myself, I immediately got up.

"Excuse me, you're not supposed to be here without permission."

Thwack!

He served a ball and turned around to me. Holding up a key, he said, "The coach let me. I guess you are Tezuka-san."

There was something strange about this boy. I couldn't figure out why the hell he was so familiar with me.

I knew he was my classmate, but something told me I recognized him beyond that.

"How would you know that?"
"She said I would find you here if I came early."
"Do you need to speak to me?"
"No, coach just told me to be aware of it."
"Ah."

I nodded my head and proceeded to walk to another court. As I was walking away, I heard the ball hit the fence with a big bang. I didn't know why, but I turned around to glance and see what had happened.
My classmate just stood there looking at the ball, but he sent a shiver down my spine as he turned to smile at me. It was his ever famous one in which you couldn't see his eyes.

The eyes that were so sharp I swore he wasn't lying with that bold look into my eyes.

"Oops," he finally said while smiling and nodding his head. Clearly, he had done it on purpose.

I turned around to go to the other court.

That was the first time I had spoken to Syusuke… …but it wasn't the first time I had watched him.

There was a strangeness that made him very charming. I watched him in science class as he interacted with his multiple lab partners, but they were harmless glances. At first, I had wondered what was there to smile about all the time. It was kind of annoying.
I hated being self-conscious about things such as that.

Then, there was talk about him being a tennis tensai. I watched him practice off at some remote corner of the city, somewhere where he thought no one would see him.
I never really went to any matches. It was funny because I really wanted to go, but I couldn't make myself go.

Caught between discretion of simple glances and the determination to make him my own opponent were both inviting to me. When you constantly practiced and slaved over something so much, you had to love it to death or else it wouldn't make sense to pursue it.
That's a simple answer to myself, but was it really true?

Had I loved tennis because I was good at it? Was it because of the elation it gave me? Elation to the point that I felt like I could fly and make it looks so natural? Was it because it was so mathematical that it was routine, yet variety came with each opponent I played with?

Or… Hidden within the recesses of my mind… …was it because you played it, Syusuke?

For weeks, I came to the courts at the same time I had always come. It was getting monotonous that way, except Syusuke would come too. To spite me, he practiced at different courts. He didn't like being in one place, that's why.
"They're all the same, Fuji-san," I told him with a sigh as he greeted me. "Why must you keep on changing courts?"
"It's fun," he told me. Smiling, he bent his head to one side like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.
"Besides, if I don't move, you won't move."
Taken aback by this blunt comment, I blinked at him while adjusting my glasses. Without a word from me, he plainly asked, "So, will you finally play a match with me?"

He wasn't too confident, but neither was he stupid.
That much I knew from the way he slightly twitched his eyebrow and opened his eyes a little with their seriousness.

I nodded my head and we began to play. But as we did so, his manner made me go through a series of dejavu's. It was as if I had seen this all before. And I never had a dejavu unless I had dreamt about a particular situation.

As he came forward and swung with all his might at the last round, I opened my eyes slightly wider than they were accustomed to.
"That look!" I thought for a split-second, but it was too fast for me to recall the memory associated with it.

I would have lost this challenge if it weren't for the fact that I regained my focus and was able to return it to him.

We met at the middle of the court. He held out his hand and I shook it.

For a second, I swore he held my hand longer than he should have.
And his smile still creeped me out because I felt like he was plotting behind those unreadable eyes.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked me as he pulled his hand away.
I shook my head. "No, nothing at all. Why do you say that?"
"A person's eyes aren't the paths to their soul. It's their hands."

I looked at him curiously. Was he really this strange? Why was he telling me something like that?

When we went to the locker room to change, Syusuke just took off his shirt right there in front of me. It should have been perfectly normal, but instead of leaving, he turned around and pushed his hands on my locker, at each side of my head.

"Get away from me," I told him calmly, giving him an icier look than the first time we had met.

"Why are you uncomfortable with me?" He pushed his hand on my chest and poked me. "Did I do something to you? Or am I violating your personal space?"

"Yes, in fact you are." As I was about to politely push him away, he put his hands down and pulled on my hands. Looking at them, I sighed out of frustration. With no discretion whatsoever, I said with an annoyed tone, "Let go of me."

Firmly, he held onto my hands and looked at them very carefully.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"How am I supposed to figure you out if you're always cold like that? I've resorted to reading your hand." As he was about to let go of it, he tricked me!

Pinning my hands to the locker, he leaned up.
Opening my mouth, I was about to shout, but instead of doing what I thought he would, he pursed his lips together and blew air into my mouth, close enough as if our lips were going to meet.

My eyes opened widely as I looked at his closed eyes. As he stepped back, he finally let go of me.

"What the hell was that?!" I found myself shouting. "Have you lost your mind?!"

I rarely got angry, but to have someone take a kiss like that… And a boy?! A boy?!?!

With a seductive eye and a clear evil grin, he was satisfied. "You tell me, Tezuka-san."
Then, he left me alone to watch him walk away.

You didn't play fair, Syusuke…

As I finished changing, I felt a tingling on my hands and I was at my wit's end even though I stood there emotionless. All the tumult was within me, but that's why they had named me `the Ice Cube'.

I could have been suffering for all they knew, but I'd rather die than show my weakness.

My hands continued to tingle.

"What did you see there, I wonder…" I thought to myself as I found myself looking at my hands.

That's why he played on my emotions.
He knew exactly where to get me.

Tennis made my eyes appear so unfeeling, but he knew that my heart was like a little boy's.
There was much I needed to know about life outside of myself.

Tsuzuku…

-- Author's note: I didn't know what to do at first. I thought I'd do dreams, even though that's been a big no-no last time I took a creative writing course. I don't know why I associate handsome Tezuka with dream sequences, but I guess I'll just have to discover that while I write more.
Unlike other shounen ai couples I've done, I wanted to do a simple love story between these two where the issue _is_ homosexuality. (Well, whatever I mean by `simple'. ^^;;;; Which will probably be `complicated' not too long within the story, right? * sweatdrop *)

if you'd like to leave feedback, please do so here: http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1587638&chapter=2 thanks!

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