Title: Mori: Finding Freedom
Fandom: Prince of Tennis: Fudomine Chuugaku
Characters: the first years
Prompt: 094 - Independence
Word Count: 1678
Date finished: 04/19/2007
Rating: PG
Summary: Mori Tatsunori finds freedom within the rules.
Author's Notes: This did not turn out like I expected it to. Had hoped it would. And I hated the ending when I finished it. Eventually, it grew on me. In my mind, freedom and independence are interchangable - I think it has something to do with being American.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Konomi Takeshi, and whoever did the anime. At any rate, it's not me.

Mori Tatsunori did not like rules. He felt hemmed in by them, constrained, constricted, and that was never a pleasant experience when he disagreed with them. His mother understood that much, and so there were few rules at home, and he managed - somehow - at school.

He had a stronger dislike for authority - although it bordered on enmity - which his mother also understood and, in fact, shared. She rarely pulled rank on him, preferring to work out their differences, or at least being very gentle when she had to put her foot down. School was much more difficult in this, but he managed with a minimum (hopefully) of punishments.

The problem, however, was that he was a first year at Fudomine Chuugaku, and none of the after-school clubs he tried suited him. This was mostly because of the older students, who insisted he do as he was told without giving him a reason. He left as many clubs as he was kicked out of.

"Tatsu," his mother said with a sigh when she came home one afternoon and saw the mulish look on his face - and the familiar letter from the administration on the table. "I know this is hard for you." She sat down next to him. "You have to find something you like."

"But they always…" he started in frustration, and she covered his hand with hers.

"I know," she said gently. "I know."

He relaxed a little, because she did understand, and he knew it. "You still need to find a place to fit in." She tilted her head. "Make sure your next choice is a good one, and stick with it, whatever it takes. Can you do that?"

He hesitated, thinking it through, then nodded. "Yes, I can," he said. She smiled, and he smiled back at her as worry left her eyes.

Finding a club he could join proved harder than he thought it would, until nearly a week later. Usually, he dashed out of the school room and off campus as fast as he could, but today the teacher had asked to speak to him - a congratulations on a paper he'd turned in - and so he witnessed a small gathering of kids he at least recognized, including Ibu Shinji, who was in his class. They stood just outside the classroom door, talking quietly. Mori stopped nearby, brow furrowed, watching them.

Sakurai Masaya turned to him first - someone he knew only a little, but he thought fairly highly of the other boy. "What do you want?" he asked, without sounding antagonistic.

"What… what club are you in?" Mori blurted - he'd really meant to ask what they were discussing so intently, but realized that was probably rude.

"Tennis," Ibu said, his face as impassive as always. "You want to come?"

"Possibly," Mori said warily.

"I could use a warm up partner," Uchimura Kyosuke said from next to him. "It would be nice."

"I don't have a racquet or anything," Mori said, somewhat surprised to find that they wanted him to join them.

"We'll find you something," Kamio Akira said finally. "But you'd better try it before you actually join."

Ishida Tetsu grimaced. "He's right. But come on, anyway," he said, nudging them all into motion. "If we don't hurry, we'll be late."

It was as bad as Kamio alluded, and possibly the worst club for him to join. The Regulars of the school tennis team were probably the worst upperclassmen he'd dealt with so far. They were rude and flirted with abuse, created work, and they definitely didn't teach Mori anything. And yet, as he followed the others off school grounds, he found himself seriously considering joining the club. Because the rest of the team - the five he'd… interrupted - were all he'd ever wanted in friends.

So he did sign up the next chance he got, and only managed not to hit any of the senpai-tachi on the team because he really didn't want to lose these new friends.

It was sheer luck that Mori was a fast learner; with the others around him, he quickly picked up on the physical movements, the technicalities of playing tennis. But the rules… those were practically impossible.

He and his mother had found a second hand racquet - and with it, a book, well-read and dog-eared. Mori spent hours pouring over that book, trying to get the rules into his head, after his homework was done.

It was no good.

He needed to work them out physically, and there was simply no way. They were never allowed even a practice match on the courts at school during club time, and the coach locked up immediately afterward. Kamio's request to leave them open one night was met with a sneer - and ridicule and anger from the team the next day and throughout the week. Mori lost count of the number of balls that came close to hitting the redhead, who merely grew more and more determined with each day.

It was frustrating for all of them, watching the half-hearted practices the Regulars performed but unable to learn anything. The rules didn't make sense if Mori couldn't get on the courts and actually experience them, and he grew more and more frustrated as the days went on.

Until Ibu showed up one afternoon and told them about some courts he'd found, not so far away, open to anyone and free. Every one of them perked up with that news, and Mori was surprised how much he could ignore with that hope. They were anxious to get there, all of them acting odd - and the upperclassmen noticed. One of them actually asked Ibu why they were so itchy (well, in much less pleasant terms), and Ibu said simply that it was none of his business. Luckily, the older boy didn't press it, and so Ibu didn't descend into the muttering he was known for.

Apparently, they didn't know how much Ibu could give away if they'd pressed him - and that might have been disastrous.

The courts were pretty much deserted by the time they got there right after club, and they split up into pairs. Ibu watched over Mori and Uchimura while Kamio watched over Ishida and Sakurai, and they began to play.

Mori hadn't felt this stupid in a long time. It was so frustrating, too, because he'd been studying that book and he'd had people tell him, and… it was just killing him. Luckily, though, both his partner for this match and the line coach (could he call him that?) were patient, and slowly, as the days passed, the rules sank in and he began to make less mistakes.

It helped, too, watching the singles matches; he was good at singles, but better at doubles, and best with Uchimura. The two of them had become pretty good friends - but then, he could say that of all of the freshmen in the tennis club.

At the end of the summer, after the first tournament had been lost, Mori was surprised to find two things.

Now that he understood the rules, there was a definite freedom within the lines and what he would have called restrictions before now. To know exactly what he could do - and then to be able to do it well - was the most freeing thing he'd ever encountered. That freedom bled into the rules around the school; there was a freedom there that he'd never have believed.

The second thing was that, in watching one of the matches that the older boys were playing, he realized that he was better than they were.

They all were. They put in half the time, since they only had one hour before everyone had to be home for dinner, but their practices were intense and they never slacked. That realization seemed to hit them all, when Ishida turned to Sakurai and told him exactly why the last point they'd seen hadn't been valid.

They all stared at him, then at the players - Ishida was quiet usually, but when criticizing his senpai-tachi, he nearly whispered - who hadn't heard, then at each other.

Kamio suddenly grinned. "Oh," he said, a soft whisper of realization that they all echoed. "I think maybe we can do something with this."

And so they tried. Ibu spoke to the coach, asking that if they could defeat one of the second years - any of them, in singles - that they be allowed to play. Mori wasn't there, but apparently the coach agreed, and so they challenged them.

And won. Easily.

Mori was surprised, even though he was prepared for it. They had a tournament coming up, and they wanted to be ready, wanted to show they were good - and the coach went back on the agreement, telling Ibu quite flatly that he'd never made the promise.

And then, apparently, he told the rest of the team.

Life in the club was much worse after that. They spent hours trying to find tennis balls in the weeds outside the courts to the laughter of the rest of the team. And when Ibu protested, stepping out of their protective circle, the captain of the team back handed him down.

They were all frozen in shock, unable to move, and then someone else did.

Mori didn't know the boy who walked onto the courts - late - but he drew the attention of the upperclassmen when Kamio went to help Ibu back on his feet.

The stranger's words made them all stop and stare as the upperclassmen walked off the courts, muttering angrily, and then he turned to them. "If you think you're better than me, step forward."

Mori stared at him, aware that everyone around him was doing the same, the same wariness in their faces he knew was in his.

But then Kamio stepped forward, and the rest followed, because they were used to following him and Ibu -

That, too, was one of the more freeing things he'd ever done. But the reason, and the feeling, came much later, when they promised themselves - and Tachibana - they'd make it to Nationals next year.

Glossary:
senpai - upperclassman
senpai-tachi - more than one of them

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