Title: Uchimura: Fighting Dirty
Fandom: Prince of Tennis: Fudomine Chuugaku
Characters: Uchimura Kyosuke, Sakurai Masaya, the other Fudomine Regulars
Prompt: 024 - Family
Word Count: 1248
Date finished: 05/21/2007
Rating: G
Summary: Uchimura moves to a new school.
Author's Notes: It totally took a left turn from where I thought it would go. Typical Uchimura, frankly. But it was still fun.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Konomi Takeshi, and whoever did the anime. At any rate, it's not me.

Uchimura Kyosuke showed up his first day of his new school small and dirty, having found what was probably the only mud puddle between the school and his house. Like any normal ten year-old boy, he took the chance to stomp in it. His teach, appalled, called his house and left a message on the voice mail before sitting him down in an out-of-the-way corner until he dried.

He ventured outside at recess, keeping to himself, unsure of his reception by the other kids; certainly the teacher hadn't given him a good one, and he didn't know how closely the class would follow.

It turned out that his classmates left him alone, but some of the older kids smelled fresh blood and pounced.

Tried to pounce. The little - somewhat undersized - ten-year-old saw them coming and smirked. He didn't do anything so obvious as crack his knuckles - that would ruin the element of surprise, which he really needed - but he did shift a bit so his back was secure against the wall of the school.

The older boys - five of them - surrounded him, glaring down at him with what he took was supposed to be intimidating expressions. "You're not allowed to stand there," one of them said.

Kyosuke was unimpressed. "Why not?" he asked, looking up at them with the innocent expression that had disarmed even his mother at time - although not so much any more.

"Because we say so," another said, smirking at the other boys.

Kyosuke shrugged. "I don't know who you are, and I don't know what your authority is, to tell me I can't stand here."

They all stared at him, and it was all he could do not to laugh. He did, however, smile at them, and that was enough.

Three of them struck at him at once, and he ducked under their fists, striking back with deadly accuracy. Two of the three fell back, gasping for breath, stunned. He knew he'd left the safety of the wall, and at least one of the boys still standing knew enough to move in behind him. Someone else grabbed his arm, trying to twist it behind him, but he knew how to get out of that, too, and another one fell back, holding a sprained wrist.

The last two grabbed him at the same time - but one was closer. He lunged at him, biting into his arm, and the boy actually shrieked in pain, letting him go. He only turned to the last one, who had been the leader, and that boy let him go with a curse, turning to go after his friends, who had all retreated. They shot him what they thought were death glares - he'd seen better - and vanished out of his sight.

They were back almost immediately, a teacher in tow, and she glowered at him. "I understand you started a fight," she said.

Kyosuke rolled his eyes - but hid it from her. "No," he said. "They hit at me first."

She tilted her head. "Were you struck?"

"They missed," he told her easily.

The five protested as soon as she turned to them, one eyebrow raised, and Kyosuke figured he was going to be in trouble again - although hopefully not so badly this time that he'd get tossed out of the school. His mother would ground him from video games - or worse, tennis practice - for sure.

"He didn't hit anyone until they tried to hit him," a new voice said, and the five bullies fell silent.

Kyosuke looked at the boy - just a little bigger than he was - and wondered why he'd bothered to say anything.

"What do you mean, Masaya-kun?" the teacher asked, sounding almost relieved.

"I mean, he was just standing there, and they came over, and then they tried to hit him." Masaya sounded almost angry, and Kyosuke wondered what they'd done to him. Considering what they'd tried to do to Kyosuke, he could guess.

One of the older boys turned a glare on Masaya. "Shut up, little bug," he snapped.

"See?" Masaya said, but the expression on his face showed he knew he was going to get it later for this.

"Yes, I do," the teacher said, gathered the five before her, and swept off with them, not listening to their protests.

Kyosuke turned to the other boy and bowed. "Thank you," he said.

Masaya shrugged. "I hate being the new kid," he responded.

"Yeah." Then, after a moment. "My name is Uchimura Kyosuke."

"Sakurai Masaya." He seemed to relax a little.

He turned out to be in Kyosuke's class. He'd arrived at the school three days before Kyosuke and had already had the run-in with the bullies. "I don't know how to fight," Sakurai said during lunch while they talked. "I tried to fight back, but they just laughed."

Kyosuke grinned. "I'll teach you," he said. "It'll be fun."

They found, as well, that they walked most of the way home together, and that made Kyosuke grin in delight. "Want to come over tomorrow after school?" he asked, then stopped. "No, wait. Tomorrow is my tennis lesson."

Sakurai stared at him. "Tennis lesson?" he asked.

"Yeah." Kyosuke felt himself blush. "I just started playing. Mom says it's better I learn to hit a ball than to hit people." He rolled his eyes. "It's too late for that."

Sakurai laughed. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" he asked.

"The docks in Sapporo," Kyosuke told him. "My uncle taught me. Said I needed to learn if I wasn't going to get any bigger." He made a face. "And I haven't yet."

"And your mom allowed it?" Sakurai sounded amazed.

"Well, not so much as she didn't exactly know about it," Kyosuke said. "I was living there with my uncle while my Mom and Dad tried to get settled here. It took them longer than they thought."

Sakurai paused at the corner. "I'm off this way," he said, pointing down the street to the left.

Kyosuke nodded. "I'm that way," he said, indicating the direction they'd been going. "See you tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah," Sakurai said, and the two parted ways.

It was a promising beginning, Kyosuke thought as he walked home.

A yell of pain distracted Kyosuke, and he glanced toward it. He laughed - a strange sound on this home-made tennis court-turned battle field - at the sight of Sakurai with his teeth sunk into the arm of the senpai who'd hit him earlier. Then he turned back to his own fight, driving his forehead into the nose of the boy in front of him. 'Teach you to mess with us,' he thought furiously.

When it was all over - the rest of the team having fled moments before - the seven of them just tried to catch their breath. "Where did you learn to do that?" Mori asked Sakurai when he could speak again.

"Do what?" Sakurai asked.

"Fight like that? You bit him!"

Sakurai shrugged. "I saw Kyosuke do that once," he said.

Tachibana sat up. "When?" he asked.

"We were ten," Kyosuke said with a grin. "Bullies at school."

"Things haven't changed much," Ishida said, and Sakurai laughed.

"Nope, not really," Kyosuke agreed.

But there was a difference, he thought as they all trouped to the nurse's office some time later - Tachibana had insisted, and he was probably right. But the difference was that he and Sakurai weren't alone any more, and his own, personal family had grown again.

And he couldn't find anything bad in that.

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