"That was unfair, Echizen," called someone from the street courts, loud voice carrying all the way down the stairs. "You're so cold."

"Sorry, Momo-senpai," said a second voice, not sounding very sorry at all.

Kamio and Shinji exchanged a look and kept climbing up.

"Yo, Fudomine!" said Momoshiro. He raised his racquet in greeting, and Echizen slammed in a shot, the ball lodging into the fence behind him. "Echizen, knock that off!"

"5-3," Echizen said.

Shinji grabbed Echizen by the shoulder as he passed. "Echizen, how's that grip tape?"

"Good," Echizen replied.

Kamio rolled his eyes. Every time they saw Seigaku, Shinji ended up obsessing about Echizen and his grip tape for days on end, and he was already hard enough to shut up on a normal day. Kamio couldn't see why Shinji didn't just knock the shrimp down and steal the grip tape right out of his bag if it pissed him off so much.

Echizen stretched up and served, hard, blowing the ball right past Momoshiro. Kamio let out a low whistle.

"Echizen has improved yet again," Shinji mumbled, though whether it was to Kamio or to himself wasn't clear. "He's completely dominating Momoshiro today, even though Momoshiro beat Akira to secure the city prefecturals for Seigaku again this year."

"Thanks for reminding me of that, Shinji," Kamio said sarcastically. Sometimes he really questioned his taste in friends. He watched Momoshiro rise up and up into the air and smash the ball, driving Echizen back to the baseline. Echizen managed to return it though, getting the point before Momoshiro even touched ground again.

"My win, Momo-senpai," Echizen called out. He wiped his forehead with the hem of his t-shirt, pulling it most of the way up. Next to Kamio, Shinji drew in a sharp breath.

"I wonder how much Echizen's grip on the racquet improves his game. I bet if I had that tape I wouldn't have lost to Echizen again this year. My palms got all hot and sweaty and the racquet kept sliding out of my hands. I hate it when my palms get all sweaty..."

"Shinji, it's been, like, a year," Kamio said, elbowing him in the ribs to shut him up. "He couldn't possibly be using that roll anymore. Just go and pick up some of your own stupid tape and shut up about it already."

"You could tape his mouth shut," Echizen suggested as he and Momoshiro wandered over.

Momoshiro laughed. "Hey, Fudomine, want to play doubles? Winners buy the losers milkshakes. I can't play another match against this guy."

"Can't," Echizen said. "I have to go. The stupid old man wants me to sweep the tennis court or something."

"Aw! Well, I could play one of you two."

"You play, Akira," Shinji said. "I'll walk with Echizen."

Echizen shrugged. "If you want."

"Are you sure?" Kamio glanced nervously from Echizen to Shinji. God, maybe he really was going to beat up Echizen and steal his bag.

"Why would I say so if I wasn't sure?"

Kamio opened his mouth to say something else, but Momoshiro interrupted him. "Hey, Kamio, are we playing or not? You can see how much better I've gotten since city prefecturals. The last time we played, Tachibana's sister told me she really liked my form."

"An-chan?! What are you doing, playing with her?" Kamio shouted, already pulling his racquet from his bag. He'd show that stupid Momoshiro. He'd show everyone!

Only Shinji and Echizen had already gone.

"Are we really going to your house?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Because you made up that thing about sweeping so you wouldn't have to play another game, so maybe the part about us walking home was made up, too. It's hard to figure out which parts are real and which parts are made up. Do you lie to Momoshiro often?"

"Do you ever shut up?"

"I don't know. I suppose if you really did tape my mouth I probably wouldn't be able to talk, but I could make sounds."

"You make sounds when you do other things with your mouth, you know."

"What other things? ...Oh."

"Heh. I knew I could shut you up."

Momoshiro was leaning over the counter at Kawamura Sushi, watching as Taka-san prepared something he was calling the Super Burning Surprise. Momo was just about to ask how much wasabi Taka-san planned to add when the bell jangled and most of Fudomine's regulars walked in.

"Momoshiro-kun!" Tachibana An greeted. "I didn't know you were going to be here today."

"Tachibana's sister! Yeah, I'm rewarding the club for all their hard work."

"Rewarding them with free food I got from my dad, Momo?" Kawamura waved his knife a little too hard.

Momo put up his hands defensively. "Sorry, sorry, Taka-san. I couldn't have done it without you. But how else would you get gossip about us, now that you're a big, important high school student?"

An giggled. It was pretty cute.

"An-chan, stay away from him," Kamio called from across the room. He stood with Ibu and glared at Momo, even though all Momo had done was stand around and eat sushi.

"Echizen-kun," said Ibu, looking down.

"Hey," Echizen replied.

"Oh, NO," cried Horio, slapping his palms against his cheeks. He shook his head from side to side as Kachirou tried to calm him down. "They're going to fight and ruin everything and Seigaku's tennis team will banned from Kawamura Sushi forever!"

Kaidoh looked up from his plate and glared at Horio. "You're too loud." Momo hated it when he agreed with that snake, even if he kind of had to now that they ran the team together.

Ibu was still staring at Echizen, apparently oblivious to what was going on around him. "How's that tape?"

"Grippy." Echizen smirked. "Do you want some eel?" Echizen asked Ibu, pointing at his food.

"I guess." Ibu knelt down next to Echizen.

That guy! Echizen never offered Momo any of his food. Momo loved eel.

"Momoshiro-kun, earth to Momoshiro-kun." An tugged on his sleeve.

Momoshiro blinked. "Oh, sorry! I must have zoned out there for a second."

"It's okay! I was just telling you that Fudomine is going to kick Seigaku's ass at Kantou." An smiled cutely again. Across the room, Kamio let out a strangled sob to rival Horio's, and Momo almost missed Ibu eating right off Echizen's plate.

Momo rolled his eyes. Those two were ridiculous. He couldn't see why they didn't just have it out every now and then like Kaidoh and him. Like normal rivals.

"I don't think it was a good idea for you to feed me with your chopsticks the way you did."

"Why not?"

"Because boys don't usually do that. I don't think Akira saw because he was too busy trying to keep An-chan away from your captain, but that boy with one eyebrow looked like he was choking on something. People will suspect something about us if we're not careful."

"So?"

"So...so, I don't know."

"Heh."

"Did you want to come over to my house? My parents will be home late tonight and I have to feed the cat."

"You have a cat?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I brought my grip tape with me."

"But I don't have a tennis court in my house like you do, though I wish I did. A tennis court at my house could really improve my game."

"It's not for tennis."

"Then why else would you need...oh. Oh."

"It's really good tape."

"Echizen-kun!" said An, surprised, jogging up Shinji's walk. Echizen looked as surprised as she did.

"Hello, Tachibana's sister."

"I have a name, you know," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"I know."

An took a good look at Seigaku's best player. Echizen had grown a bit and now he was at least a head taller than her. She tried not to pout too much; everyone she knew was taller than her now, even that kid with the headband from Yamabuki.

"I have to get going--"

"Were you visiting Shinji?" she asked, tilting her head.

Echizen blinked at An.

"Because he's been sick, you know. I just came to drop off his homework because Akira had to go to team selection for the Kantou Tournament. But you'd know that, since Momoshiro-kun and Kaidoh-kun would be there, too." She clasped her hands in front of her body and smiled.

"Er, right." Echizen rubbed his mouth. Now that she was looking, An could see his lips were a little red and swollen. Maybe Echizen had caught Shinji's cold. "I had to drop something off."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you around, Echizen-kun. Practice hard!"

"Yeah." Echizen hefted his bag up onto his shoulder and shuffled off as An ran up to Shinji's front door and knocked.

When Shinji answered the door, he was clutching something in his hand and looked a little bewildered to find An standing there.

"Hi, Shinji! I brought your schoolwork." An pointed at Shinji's hand. "What's that?"

"Just grip tape," Shinji replied, holding out his palm.

"I knew this wasn't a good idea. We're right out in the open where anyone can find us, and it was only a matter of time before someone saw us doing something we shouldn't."

"It was only kissing."

"Echizen, my wrists are taped behind my back and your hands were under my shirt. I don't know how good Seigaku's curriculum could be if that's only kissing. You see, boys our age have these hormones that kind of take over our brains. Tachibana-san explained it with diagrams once and he said that I was the fastest learn--"

"There was a tree blocking us. He didn't see anything. He probably didn't see us at all."

"But--"

"I'm going to shut you up one way or another."

"Are we going to kiss again now?"

"Maybe. But you have almost a whole roll of tape left."

"Oh. Er, he probably didn't see anything."

Kachirou and Katsuo exchanged a look and guided a pale-looking Horio away from the tennis courts.

"I--" Horio's eyebrow was going up and down. "Fudomine's...Ibu-san. Echizen."

"Ryoma-kun?" asked Kachirou worriedly. "Is he in some sort of trouble? Is he fighting with Ibu-san?"

"Tree...kissing...shirt."

"What is he talking about?" Katsuo whispered.

"GRIP TAPE," Horio cried, and promptly fainted.

END.