Deafening Silence ( prince of tennis) (#wattys2016)

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"Ne, Echizen, who's Ann-chan?" he asked curiously, and the rest of the team frowned, while Roko's forehead twitched in annoyance.

"Who are you talking about, Bunta?" Jackal asked, and Marui's smile grew.

"When I snatched Echizen's phone I got a glance of the name, I saw 'Ann' but I didn't get her last name" he explained, and Roko mentally groaned at how the eyes of Kirihara, Yanagi and Niou suddenly shone with mischief that he recognized.

"Oh, Echizen has a girlfriend?" Niou asked teasingly, and Roko shook his head in response. As if almost on cue his phone chimed again, and the entire team smirked, and Roko scowled, digging out his phone.

By the way, it won't be a date

From: Tachibana Ann

Roko's eyebrow promptly disappeared into his hair, and the team seemed to notice this, and Niou leaned forward, reading the message quickly.

"He's going on a date" he stated, his voice filled with amusement, and Roko glared daggers at him, and fortunately Niou had already suffered enough times at his hand to back off, but the rest of the team had already heard. Yagyuu and Sanada seemed to not care, but the rest of the team - even Jackal - were grinning like cats.

"Eh!?" Kirihara cried, "Echizen's going on a date!?" Before Roko could shake his head Jackal leaned forward, his caretaker complex visible on his face.

"Echizen, you're way too young to be going on dates" he said, much to Roko's annoyance, "Don't you think you're rushing things?"

"Jackal!" Marui scolded, "Don't put him off his hot date!"

Roko could feel himself twitch, and Sanada thankfully noticed this.

"Leave him alone" he stated once, and the entire team turned to him incredulously, except for Roko, who quickly replied to Ann's text while no one was looking.

I know. And thanks for that, my friends now think I'm going on a date

From: Echizen Roko

"But Sanada!" Marui cried, "Our kouhai's going on a hot date! We have to know what's going on!" he protested, and Roko was suddenly thankful that he was meeting Ann in Tokyo rather than Kanagawa, where his team could potentially follow him. He shuddered at the thought.

"Marui's right, you know" Yanagi added calmly, much to Sanada's confusion, "If our kouhai is indeed going on a date, the least we can do is chaperone him" Roko may have imagined it, but there was the tiniest grin on Yanagi's lips as they made eye-contact, and he glared daggers at Yanagi, whose face did not falter, probably due to his years of experience with Sanada.

"He's right, Sanada" Niou added with a large grin, "Our kouhai will need all the support he can get" Niou wrapped his arm around Echizen protectively for emphasis, and Roko just glared at the arm like he was going to bite it off, and Niou quickly got the idea and moved it away.

He tried to ignore their conversation, and Roko opened his bag and dug out his bento box, opening it and quickly digging into the food.

"Ne, Echizen, where are you going with Ann-chan?" Marui asked, and Roko didn't make eye contact or change his expression, continuing to eat his food like he hadn't heard him. Marui frowned and leaned forward.

"Oi, Echizen, don't ignore me" he demanded, and Roko continued to ignore him.

And then his phone chimed again.

Suddenly the team were grinning like cats again, and Roko irritably retrieved his phone, looking at the new message.

Oops! Sorry about that, but I wanted to make it clear. If it makes you feel any better my brother would think the same if I told him about it. Sorry :(