Under The Mask - Prologue

"The Swiss Alps? Are you serious?"

Activity in the Hyoutei tennis Regulars' locker room ground to a halt, as the other team members looked at Atobe with varying degrees of surprise. Shishido's exclamation only put words to what they were all thinking already.

Their captain smirked back at them, running a hand through his hair. It was still wet from the shower after a hard practice - it might be winter, with no tournaments to play, but slacking off would be a form of suicide for any Hyoutei Regular who wanted to keep his spot.

Granted, the seniors were supposed to have retired already, but somehow Atobe had talked their coach - and the school administration - into allowing them all to continue with club activities, so long as their grades didn't suffer because of it. Ohtori didn't mind - it meant that much longer before he had to decide whether he was going to find another doubles partner for next season, or switch to singles.

"Indeed, why not?" Atobe said in reply to Shishido, shrugging eloquently. "My parents had arranged rooms in a first-rate lodge there, but business has caused them to have to be in America for the winter holidays instead. Rather than canceling the rooms, I suggested they let me bring the rest of you. It's no different than when you all came to stay in our summer cottage."

"Only you would consider flying eight boys to Europe for a week, and bussing them up to your summer cottage to be 'no different', Atobe," Shishido commented, snorting with laughter.

"Wow, the Swiss Alps... I hear they have the best skiing in the world there," Mukahi said fervently. The redhead bounced lightly on his toes, clearly enthusiastic about the idea. "Count me in! Yuushi, you're coming too, right? It'll be so much fun!"

"It would be foolish to pass up an opportunity like that," Oshitari acknowledged, shoving his glasses up higher on his face. His expression was thoughtful. "Perhaps we might do a bit of cultural sight-seeing as well, while we're there?"

"I don't see why not," the captain agreed. "It's not as if we can ski non-stop for the entire week. We went there last year, there's a lovely local village about an hour away by bus."

"Count me in!" Jirou exclaimed, for once wide awake. It seemed the prospect of a week spent skiing in the Swiss Alps was nearly as invigorating to him as a challenging tennis match. "Wow, it sounds great, Atobe-san! Your parents are so awesome, to let us do something like that!" Atobe inclined his head to acknowledge that praise.

"Anyone else coming?" the captain asked, as he slung his bag over his shoulder and got ready to leave. It was their last practice before the winter holiday began, and the last time they would see each other before school got in again, except for this proposed trip.

"I'm in," Hiyoshi agreed, shrugging into his winter jacket. "I've been there before, but they've got better double- and triple-diamond runs than you can find anywhere else. I wouldn't mind going back."

"I'll go," Shishido put in his two cents. "I won't get a chance like this again any time soon." That left Kabaji and Ohtori. Obviously nobody questioned whether Kabaji would be going or not - if Atobe was going, then so was his mountainous side-kick. "Choutarou?" Shishido said in surprise when Ohtori hadn't replied after a moment.

"I...er..." Ohtori looked back at them all, his brown eyes wider than usual as something oddly close to panic flitted through his expression. He swallowed hard, feeling the weight of their gazes. "I'll... have to check with my parents," he finally murmured, ducking his head so they couldn't see his cheeks flush as easily. "It's very generous of you though, Atobe-san."

"Ah," Atobe nodded. "You've got my cell number, call me once you've checked with them. If they ask, there will be plenty of adults present, as several of the upper servants will be coming with us to attend to us. The rest of you, I'll text-message you at some point in the next few days with the flight information. We'll meet at the Narita airport."

There was a chorus of agreement, followed by scattered farewells and holiday wishes as the Regular team began to leave the clubroom, heading off in various directions on their way home. Seeing that Ohtori wasn't done packing his bag just yet, Shishido hung back as well.

"Oi, Choutarou," he said after a moment, when it was obvious his partner wasn't going to start a conversation. "What's the deal? Your parents won't mind you going, and you told me yourself your family didn't have any plans for after Christmas because your dad has that big trial coming up." He studied his best friend curiously. It wasn't like Ohtori to hesitate; usually he was the first to jump in when group activities were suggested, since the silver-haired boy was a big believer in building team unity.

Still slightly flushed, Ohtori kept his gaze firmly fastened on his uniform as he folded it to put it in his bag, rather than looking at his friend. "I, um... I'm not sure I actually want to go, Shishido-san," he admitted after a moment. It was hard to force the words out; spending a week in Europe with the other Regulars sounded much more fun than sitting around at home with his mother and older sister. He'd spend the whole break listening to his sister complain about being away from her boyfriend and his mother tease him about when he was going to start bringing someone home for them to meet. His flush deepened slightly at the thought. He still had a few years' leeway before the teasing became serious questions, at least. Dating wasn't permitted until high school, and the last thing his parents wanted was for him to get kicked out of Hyoutei for dating before then.

"What?" Shishido was honestly shocked. That was the last thing he'd expected his friend to say. "Choutarou, are you crazy? How many chances will you ever have to go see the Swiss Alps, man? Why wouldn't you want to go?"

"Well, I..." Awkwardly Ohtori zipped up his bag and straightened, slinging it over his shoulder. He couldn't quite bring himself to look his partner in the eyes. "Shishido-san, the truth is... I've never been skiing before," he confessed quietly.

"You haven't?" Surprised, Shishido stared at him. "How could you not have been skiing before? It's part of Hyoutei's curriculum!" Every year in February, the entire school went on a week-long trip up into the mountains to a ski lodge. There were all sorts of traditions associated with the trip, and nobody could get through the week without having at least some competence in the sport. That was how Shishido had learned - his parents certainly couldn't afford to take their sons to the Swiss Alps.

"I guess you didn't know me well enough then to remember," Ohtori said, running a hand through his hair and sighing. "I was really sick last year, right at the time for the school trip. I had to stay home. And I don't have any other experience."

Shishido knew that Ohtori's family tended to stay close to home over the holidays, because of his father's job. There weren't many ski slopes close enough to Tokyo to make a day trip of it. If the younger boy really had missed the school trip in his first year, then it wasn't surprising he had no experience with the sport. "Oh. Well, that's no reason not to come," he asserted quickly. "They've got beginner slopes out there too, not just the hard runs."

"I know, but..." Ohtori shrugged helplessly. "I don't want to make a fool of myself in front of the others, Shishido-san. From the sounds of it, you're all good skiers."

That particular misgiving did actually have merit, Shishido had to admit. They were teammates, but Hyoutei's Darwinistic selection system for the Regulars ensured that weaknesses in others were pounced on and ruthlessly exploited. Technically this didn't have anything to do with tennis, but it was possible some of the others would see Ohtori's inexperience as a weakness, and treat it as such.

"Well, I might take one or two runs on the diamond slopes, but I'll be mostly sticking to the lower runs," Shishido said after a moment of thought. "Probably most of the others'll be the same. The diamonds are too challenging to be 'fun', really. So long as you just say you're keeping to the lower slopes, and don't actually admit you've never skied before, you should be fine." He shrugged. "Spend the first couple hours in a private lesson to get the hang of it, and then when I get tired of the challenging stuff I'll join you and we'll ski together. It'll be fun."

Slowly his usual bright smile returned to Ohtori's expression, and he gave his senpai a look of thanks. "Shishido-san, you're the best," he exclaimed. "That sounds great. Thank you so much! I'd have hated to miss out on a chance like this."

Now it was Shishido's turn to blush faintly at the enthusiastic praise. "Hey, no problem," he said, clapping his taller partner on the shoulder. "It wouldn't have been half as much fun without you there, anyway. Now c'mon, hurry up or you're going to miss your bus!"

Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

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