a short rabble

Injury

"Echizen."

The 15-year-old teen turned around and faced the other man who was staring down at him. Even though Ryoma had reached his growth spurt in the last few months, he was not taller than his ex-captain.

"Ryoga called me this morning."

That perked Ryoma's interest. He looked up into the Tezuka's eyes and saw nothing but discontent. That threw him off.

Did I do anything that warranted that look…?

"What did nii-san say?"

Tezuka pursed his lips and sighed before beckoning the younger boy to sit beside him on the sofa. The younger teen complied, though he looked doubtful and somehow, confused.

Tezuka said nothing for a while and the younger teen started to fiddle with the soft material the sofa had - he knew that he would get the question when Tezuka was ready.

A slender finger reached over and pushed hard into Ryoma's knee caught him off-guard. He hissed in pain before realising that he did, then belatedly realising that the cat was out of the bag. Looking up with a sigh, he was met with a disappointed face from the other man.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted to…" Ryoma paused before dropping all pretense that his knee did not hurt - because it did hurt and it was throbbing and it was taking all of his self-discipline to not tear that knee off.

"What happened?"

The two words made Ryoma smile - the ex-captain was a man with little words. He went straight to the point.

That got Ryoma to recount the incident - of how he was in the boarding school completing his dreaded homework when his manager called him to arrange a quick match with another famous tennis player that was visiting the area. How Ryoma was dead tired when he caught the flight over to the nearby state to play the match he did not want to play but was forced to. How the other player insisted to play in the rain - and of course, he did not want to stop when he was winning. About how he slipped on the court when he was attempting to return a hard ball - how the racket had slipped out of his grasp and the sudden off-balance had his foot lose grip on the slippery court - how his ankle twisted the wrong way and his whole weight slammed into his knee as he felt something tear in his knee and groin.

"You twisted your ankle as well?" Tezuka eyed said ankle warily and noticed subtle swelling in the outer bone.

Ryoma harrumphed and replied, "yea but that was the least of my problems. It was a simple sprain and it stopped hurting after the first few days."

That night, he was rushed off to the nearest hospital to be told that he was lucky he did not tear his ACL, but he did almost definitely tore the muscle near his groin. His knee was over-strained and if he does not rest in the next month, he would be experiencing early ageing in his right knee, and he might not be able to play tennis to his full potential.

Tezuka was silent and Ryoma stole a glance over at the brunette. His eyes were locked on the obviously swollen knee. The older man suddenly stood up and headed straight for the kitchen. Ryoma was confused but did not wait to follow the other man.

Tezuka went straight for the fridge and took out the ice - Ryoma felt his heart thundering in his chest. A soft smile graced his lips as he tip-toed back onto the sofa.

The brunette pressed the ice onto the swollen knee and Ryoma hissed - he closed his eyes as the ache in his knee - something that he had gotten used to in the past three weeks after the injury - started to thump heavily, seemingly to echo his heartbeat.

"This will teach you to play carefully next time!"

Ryoma smiled, "of course, buchou."

As Tezuka changed the ice, Ryoma grabbed onto the other pro player's wrist, "the doc had given me medicine. It's in my bag."

Tezuka eyed the boy before heading over to the black duffel bag and dug out the medicine. Twisting open the cap, Tezuka applied the medicine carefully over the knee and asked, "I suppose you were to wear some knee guard for this?"

Smiling sheepishly, Ryoma nodded and pointed out that the brace was in the same bag. Tezuka could only sigh at the younger teen's antics - the lack of brace, and the pretense that it did not hurt, the random spurts of "I don't feel like tennis today - I need to finish my homework", and the overly exaggerated bounce in his walk were all a cover to make him not worry.

"Well, buchou, if I wasn't a pro tennis player, perhaps I could have gone to be an actor - I think I'll do quite well, considering I managed to cover this up for three weeks."

It was taking all of Tezuka's self-control to not throw the bag at Ryoma's face.

"Echizen."

"Ah, so we are going back to surname basis now, huh?" Ryoma teased.

Tezuka threw the bag of ice into his face.