Comedy much? - Prince of Tennis fanfic

◆ 8 ◆ A Clue

End of the year exams were finally over at Shitenhouji, welcoming the season of winter. And when one think of winter, '-vacation' is always attached at the end of the word but so is the closing ceremony.

Niko has mixed feelings about her current situation. A part of her is exhausted from the examinations that she suspects isn't done well due to her long term of abroad studies, another part is that she's still worried about her forgotten 'milk dilemma', and lastly about the upcoming tournament matches for the team.

What's more, it seems like the secretary of the student council has transferred recently so she was dragged into the student council by Mikoto with several reasons like keeping an eye out for her or spending quality time as friends since most of her time are occupied by the club. But she suspects the other reason of for her presence is actually the lack of manpower in the student council.

All in all, she doesn't think that she'll be able to enjoy winter vacation at all. But she doesn't minds it at all, it's not like she's made plans or anything. And her parents didn't make any notion of returning any time soon, her father especially. Which made her killing intent towards said person slowly dissipating as she's starting to enjoy her life at school with comedy as its core. Perhaps because she's starting to see comedy in a different light...

"Shiraishi, look! An imitation of Gin!" Kenya pronounced as he held his hands together and made a weird face.

"What are ya' sayin', that's an imitation of the Buddha statue!" Shiraishi retorts.

The other remaining students in the class and even those outside at the hallway started laughing, where else Niko frowned. She takes that back after all. Comedy is still stupid.

She opens her locker to find another box of milk again. Niko grimaced at the sight of it but pokes the straw in anyway. No matter what she thinks, the person responsible for the milks is still out there somewhere. Though, it's already been weeks since she just told Mikoto and the team about it. Not that she's really annoyed of the milk but she really wanted to meet this mysterious person herself. Even through out the duration of examination period, the milk is still bound to be in her locker, expected or not.

"Ah, your drinking it again." Mikoto noticed the lack of fan slapping on the two idiots performing their comedy act and went out to look for the short tsukkomi, only to find her sipping on milk on the rooftop. "You've really been patient with the comedy acts lately, huh?" The angle of her mouth increasing.

"...well, I don't really think it's that hateful anymore but," Niko mutters as she continues to sip on the milk, "I still don't see comedy as a positive subject." Niko's gaze turned to look off the rooftop. She said it so disapprovingly but her gentle expression betrays her words. Though, said person believes that it's because she's starting to adapt to her comedy-filled surroundings.

"Hmm, personally, I don't think it's bad," Mikoto said as she leans against the bar railing. "But compared to the time when you claimed you hate comedy, you're smiling more often now."

Startled by Mikoto's statement, Niko almost spit out the milk she was sipping on. The winter breeze blowing by doesn't help the situation too as it blew up her skirt. Niko was flustered as she pushes it back down, as for Mikoto, as expected of a sporty person, she wore shorts under her skirt which was a plus to her coolness, to her dismay. But it's different in the eyes of Niko.

"I wish I could be more cool like you, Mikoto. That way maybe I won't be bothered much by the idiotic comedy acts." Niko says almost in a whisper. But loud enough for Mikoto to hear.

"You're great as you are, Niko. Your fast response towards comedy is what makes you who you are." Mikoto assured her, then she sighs herself. "Unlike me, you're a very cute girl. If I was born a guy, I'd definitely fall for you."

Niko's eyes sparkle at Mikoto's words, then she tackled her to a hug. "Mikoto's cute too! Even though I'd like for you to be born a guy, Mikoto's the cutest as a girl!"

Mikoto's cheeks warms up at her raven head best friend and she returns the hug. "Thanks, Niko. Even though you're the only one who thinks I'm cute."

"What about Shiraishi?"

At the sudden mention of his name, Mikoto recalled the scene from some time ago when he called her cute and feminine as she is. Her cheeks flared up at the remembrance of it, in which Niko smirks at.

"W-What about that jerk?" Mikoto tries hard in her attempt to hide her fluster facade but it was pointless in front of Niko. They're not best friends for no reason after all.

But just as Niko was about to comment about her reddened cheeks, the sound of the opened door interrupted their conversation. And out came the group of comedy-, tennis idiots. (Niko doesn't even tries to cover up the idiot part anymore)

"Ah, there they are."

At the disruption of the awkward conversation (on Mikoto's part anyway), the pir of girls turned to the group of boys who approached them.

"Anything?" Niko's eyes squinted at the sight of them, not of annoyance or hatred or anything like that but of upset of their disruption. However, she wiped it off at lightning speed when she recalled the topic of the previous topic they had and smirked when she noticed Mikoto glimpses at Shiraishi as expectedly.

The group of tennis idiots didn't missed the look of upset in both Niko's eyes and voice, but decided to ignore it since she didn't further the sense upset. Well, mostly the avoid her hits anyway. Plus, her hits really hurts...

"We found a clue to Manager-chan's milk dilemma!"

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Shi-chan's notes:

Guys, it's been a long long long long long long long long long... time!

I'm sincerely sorry not updating in ages. Seriously!

I'm not trying to make excuses or anything, but I really was busy for finals and graduation exams last year. And after that, I had to take consideration of choosing a college. And then there was the period where I started my nightmares with car driving lessons for my license (in which I failed two times already). After that, it was the start of my college life. Which I was drowning in assignments and assignments and assignments and assignments...

...Right, they do sound like excuse. Let me just, sit at my dark corner, grow some mushrooms and draw some circles...

Anyway, I'm not officially back, but I'll try to throw out some updates when I get the chance (to breath).