Title: Sketching
Fandom: Prince of Tennis: Fudomine Chuugaku
Characters: Tachibana An, Tezuka Kunimitsu
Prompt: 045 - Moon
Word Count: 963
Date finished: 04/30/2007
Rating: G
Summary: An goes to look at a favorite painting, and sees someone there she doesn't expect.
Author's Notes: Another of the Crack Generator pairings. This was "Tachibana An/Tezuka Kunimitsu - Art". Not too rough, I guess (some of the ideas we got were down-right scary). Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Konomi Takeshi, and whoever did the anime. At any rate, it's not me.

It was, maybe, a little strange for her to have a minor in Art, but it was something she didn't want to give up. She was majoring in Business, after all, and needed something to help her relax. This was relaxing to her, and so she didn't mind the people teasing her when they found out. Even Kippei had made fun of her at first, the gentle teasing she was used to from her brother.

The room she made her way to was emptier than most; it was a little out of the way, with no major painters there, but it had the most beautiful painting of a moonlit garden. She liked to start there, no matter where else her assignment might take her.

There was someone else sitting in her seat - not that it was reserved or anything - so she hesitated in the doorway. But she did want to start there, looking at the garden, so she moved into the room and around to see what the interloper was doing.

He was drawing, left-handed, sketching the painting with long slim hands that looked like they were suited to something different. She hesitated, then took a look at his face, too, and blinked in surprise when she recognized him. He wasn't in her class - had never even been in the same school - but she knew his face almost as well as her brother's.

She didn't know if he'd recognize her, though, and decided it didn't matter. She sat down on the couch - further away than she liked, but she could still see - and just gazed at the painting.

It was a dreamy as ever; she could imagine herself a princess - something she'd never quite grown out of, even if few people knew she had that dream - on the night of a ball, dancing with the prince even as the clock struck midnight. She was so lost in the dream she barely noticed when the young man on the other end shifted slightly.

According to her watch, she'd spent a good twenty minutes staring up at the painting when she finished her dream, and she turned to see if the sketcher were there still.

He was, but he wasn't paying any attention to the painting. "I hope you don't mind," he said in a quiet voice that seemed more appropriate for a library than a museum.

She smiled. "Mind what?" she asked.

He hesitated, then showed her the sketch he'd been working on. "You looked so content, I wanted to catch it."

She was surprised at how good it was. "You've been drawing a while. I never would have guessed."

His brow furrowed over his glasses. "You would never have…. Do I know you?"

"If so, only in passing," she smiled. "Tachibana An. And you are Tezuka Kunimitsu, right?"

He blinked and nodded. "Yes. I am. You're… Kippei's little sister?"

The irritation left over from Momoshiro's teasing - really, it had been long enough now! - made her stiffen, and she stretched her shoulders out before it became too obvious. "Yes," she said.

"I remember you."

She wondered what he remembered - the incident with Kirihara at the Junior Selection Camp, although she didn't know if he'd even known about that, or if it were something else in the years he'd played her brother. She's been around for most of the games.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, jerking her thoughts back to the here and now.

"I'm studying at the university," she said. "You?"

"So am I," he said with a smile, and gestured at the sketch pad. "I decided to take a drawing class to take some pressure off."

She chuckled. "My minor is Art. I usually come in here to start my assignments; I fell in love with this painting my second year in senior high."

"So you're here for an assignment?"

She nodded. "Yes, and I really should get to it."

"How long will it take you to do?"

She considered. "Maybe half an hour?"

He looked back at the painting. "I'd like to take you to dinner," he said and looked back at her. "Would you meet me back here when you're done?"

An blinked, startled, then smiled. "I'd love to. Will you be done by then?"

He shook his head. "No, but I'll be back tomorrow; I didn't plan on finishing today, anyway. I'll just work on it until you're finished."

"Okay." She got up, bowed to him, and strode from the room, utterly surprised. He was the last person she thought would ask her on a date.

The assignment went by faster than she expected, although it was still thirty minutes later before she got back to the room where she'd left Tezuka. He was still there, carefully sketching as he had been the first time she'd walked in, but this time he looked up when she came to a stop next to the seat. "One more moment," he said softly, and finished whatever he was doing. Packing up his pencil and pad was quick, and they walked out of the room and out the front door, talking quietly of their classes and what they'd learned that day.

It was so easy to talk to him; of all people, she hadn't expected that from him, and she realized that either she'd gotten the absolute wrong impression of him in junior high, or he'd changed in the years between then and now.

She wondered if she'd get the chance to find out - and then surprised herself when she realized that she hoped so.

At least she'd have something interesting to talk to Kippei tonight after she got home.

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