From Childhood [Prince of Tennis]

From Childhood

The first time they met was when they were just little kids: barely old enough to be alone at the playground but still both had been left on their own on the island. Four cottages stood on the large island, as far away from each other as they could to offer some privacy to their owners.

It was one of the many summerhouses the Atobe family-owned and Keigo had been sent there for the summer as his parents flew to Europe on business, leaving their son in the care of their many servants.

One of these houses belonged to her parents as well, the one furthest to the east, and she was much in the same seat as him, only it was her grandparents who acted as her guardians that summer.

They had found each other by the small river somewhere in between their individual homes purely by accident. She had been standing knee-deep in the chill water and collecting shiny stones from the sea bottom when he had been following the river to see where it led.

She had mentioned that she went there every day to find the perfect stone for each day, collecting a heap only to sort through them and decide on one to take with her home. Though his already mature mind had labelled her a commoner usually not worthy of his company, much due to his parents' characteristic upbringing, he found himself going there every coming day. He, of course, only said it was because he did not have anything better to do.

'You know,' she said one day when she was looking through her pile of stones, him sitting on a stone next to her with his bare feet in the water. 'I think you can make a lot of friends if you stop looking down on people.'

He blinked at the sudden change of topic. 'I only look down on people who deserve it,' he replied, sticking his nose in the air.

She simply hummed and continued to pick up stones, look at them and then put them into other smaller piles. He looked at her when she did, studying her facial expressions as it changed when she saw something she liked and when she did not. He had learned that she was sharper than the other children their age, as she could keep up with him when he chose to speak about some grown-up topic just to test her. However, he had also learned that she was either too dense to catch up on his rather harsh remarks about hers, and others, characters, or she simply did not care and filtered it away one way or another.

'I'm going back home at the end of the week,' she said towards the end of the summer, still collecting stones as he sat on the same boulder next to her. 'Mom and dad is coming back from America.'

He would have to stay another week after that at the island. He leaned back against his outstretched arms and avoided looking at her. 'I see,' was all he said and she just hummed once more as she continued to collect her stones.

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The next time they met was a few years later during a birthday party for her father. He recognised her easily enough, she still had the same carefree-almost-bored look on her face as she sat looking out over the sea of people gathered to celebrate her father.

His own parents had insisted on him staying with them to speak with every person that passed them by, saying it was a good thing to start early with creating his own network in the business world. He was sure they were right but sometimes even he, though he never spoke of it, wished to be treated like others his age.

'Your mother is nice,' she had said when he joined her by her table after finally fulfilling his parents' quota of people to speak with.

'She is,' he had agreed, looking over at his laughing mother.

'I like her dress.'

He had glanced at her then, seeing her look at his mother with the same approving expression she had held for the stones she liked years before. 'She designed it herself.'