Summer had drawn to a close.

It had gone by faster than Kaidoh anticipated. Every day of summer had seemed so far away from the impending autumn when all the previous Seishun Gakuen 3rd year students would leave to attend their respectively chosen High Schools, but here it was, right in front of him now.

Tomorrow, he and Momoshiro would officially be the only former Regulars left at SEIGAKU. He'd spent the whole summer avoiding the thought, and now, he couldn't ignore it anymore.

Echizen had separated from them all already, gone back to America indefinitely, and although he missed what he felt like was the only person on the team that might have looked up to him, he was no longer really sad for the loss. He was sure they'd all meet Echizen again some day in the future. Someone that that didn't simply disappear.

He would miss Buchou. For all his stern glances and lack of words, Tezuka had always been a role model to be looked up to, had always given his all for the team, even when others didn't realize it. Tezuka was one of those people that would change the world someday, and it was sad to see him go.

He would miss his other senpai - Fuji, Kawamura, Kikumaru, and Oishi. They were all so very different, but had been always helpful, energetic, and encouraging to their kouhai. Fuji's bright, eerie smile would only be a faint memory. The courts would be quiet without Kawamura's blaring engrish and energetic cries. And there would be a definite empty spot on the team without SEIGAKU's Golden Pair, who had met, grown, and worked so hard together.

And Inui.

He would definitely miss Inui-senpai.

That was why he'd avoided thinking about this all summer. He'd concentrated on training. Training meant spending more time with Inui. It meant not having to think and not having to worry about the future. Inui created all his menus, tailored them to Kaidoh's constantly-growing endurance and strength, worked alongside him to help Kaidoh become the best he could possibly be.

And as tenacious as Kaidoh was, sometimes he wondered if Inui ever actually rested or took a break. He seemed to be always working. If he wasn't physically training, he was creating training menus, coming up with new exercises, evaluating new data. He was always going. He admired that of his senpai. Inui never quit. Even when his data failed him.

He wanted to tell him that, but he never got the courage.

He was sitting on his bed, wondering what things were going to be like, staring blankly at the floor in a very un-Kaidoh melancholic state.

/ Snap out of it, you're stronger than that/ he chided himself. He hadn't worked so hard to strengthen himself in body and mind just to let something like this get him down. He could run until he had no breath left, until his lungs were on fire, until his kneecaps threatened to give out, and it didn't faze him. Why was something this small bothering him?

His senpai were still around. He could still see them. He just wouldn't see them every day, at school, during lunch, during club practice.

There had been a going-away party. Kaidoh had not attended. Inui had called.

"Are you not feeling well, Kaidoh? Your presence is missed."

"I... fssshuuu... Yeah. "He nearly stuttered into the phone. He wasn't feeling well, but it wasn't the kind of 'unwell' that Inui was talking about. He didn't want to go and say 'goodbye' to his senpai. Goodbye seemed so final. Goodbye hurt.

He'd managed to blurt out a few words about being sick and then hung up before he could embarrass himself further.

That was a few weeks ago. He hadn't brought the subject up again, and no one else had dared to ask.

He hadn't realized he'd grown so attached to his teammates. He had always been in the background somewhere, off to the side. The freshmen gave him scared glances. The seniors indulged his quiet intensity, and encouraged him to further develop his play style. And Momoshiro provided a catalyst of rivalry to make him want to always do more, be better, and succeed. He couldn't lose to that guy. He just couldn't.

He scuffed his foot along the floor and sighed, closing his eyes. Tomorrow was just another day, but everything would be different.

He was scared.

He slid off his bed and looked around his room.

On his desk lay a month's worth of training menus. Inui had predicted what Kaidoh's needs would be for a month in advance, and had made him menus to hold him over in case Inui became busy with classes and life in High School. He'd promised to meet up with Kaidoh on the weekends and assess his progress. Kaidoh had responded with a nod and a quiet, "Thank you, senpai."

He must be important. Otherwise Inui wouldn't invest so much time and energy on him, right?

He looked at the menus and blushed, thinking about the time he'd refused to play doubles with Inui-senpai. He'd actually refused a senpai's request. That was something he would normally never do. Even if he hadn't wanted to be Inui's doubles partner... but that hadn't been the case at all.

He didn't want to hold Inui back.

And then they'd finally played together, and it was just as he suspected. Inui was playing with him to help him. To give him the chance to hone his skills, perfect his moves. He'd thought it before, and he'd think it again, and again... Inui was not a doubles player. He'd seen Inui play at both doubles and singles, and his singles were definitely a formidable thing. His Data Tennis was eerily precise on its own, but when his data failed him...

Kaidoh had always thought that Inui-senpai was rather cold... aloof... and off in his own world. Like Kaidoh, he never showed his feelings. ... But when he played singles like that... it was different.

Despite that, Kaidoh had continued to play doubles with Inui. He felt guilty. He should have confronted him, should have told him to stop patronizing, stop helping, and stop sacrificing his own skills. This was his last year; Kaidoh still had time to improve, to get better. Inui would go on to be recruited for High School, a much more demanding thing.

So why didn't he confront him?

Kaidoh hissed at himself. Trying to get his mind off the matter wasn't helping. A sudden knot formed in the pit of his stomach.

He wasn't going to play doubles with Inui ever again.

He felt like someone had injected ice into his veins.

The chances of him going to the same High School as Inui were probably close to nothing. Inui was an academic genius as well, and Kaidoh's grades next year would never be good enough to get him into as good a school as Inui would be attending. They wouldn't be on the same team, in the same club...

Kaidoh bit his lip.

He looked at the clock. It was 7:30 PM. It wasn't too late, yet.

He slipped out of the house with a quiet word to his parents that he had forgotten to return something to a senpai and would be home soon. His parents didn't particularly notice that their son had gone out without his trademark bandanna plastered to his head, but instead clutched in his fist.

He reached Inui's house out of breath and sweating. He knocked on the door, and waited. There was no answer. He knocked again. Waited. Nothing.

He sank down on the sidewalk, refusing to acknowledge that his lower lip was trembling. He was resigning himself to going home when the door to Inui's house opened, and Inui himself stood in the doorway, looking out. It took him a moment to spot Kaidoh, sitting on the ground. It took him another moment to realize that it really was Kaidoh, because he was not wearing his bandanna.

"Kaidoh?"

At the sound of Inui's voice, Kaidoh jerked upright, standing back up, anxiously dusting himself off.

"A..h! Inui-senpai!" He cleared his throat. His voice wasn't hoarse. It wasn't.

"Can I do something for you, Kaidoh? Are you all right?" Inui thought Kaidoh looked a bit strange sitting there on the ground, having not called ahead or said anything about coming over, and it was getting later into the evening. Kaidoh wasn't prone to doing such spontaneous things. He pushed his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose.

Kaidoh walked up to the door, still clutching his bandanna in his hand. "I... “He swallowed.”I wanted to wish Inui-senpai good luck tomorrow," he said quietly.

Inui chuckled softly. Kaidoh looked like a skittish deer ready to bolt at any moment. "You could have called and told me that, Kaidoh..." He knew things were probably difficult for all of them right now, being separated from each other with the new school year coming, and although Kaidoh never outwardly showed it, he had quite keen emotions of his own. He was never obvious, but Inui was an expert at noticing nearly invisible nuances in people's behavior.

Kaidoh nodded and looked at the ground. "Fsssshhuuu..." he hissed softly. "I thought Inui-senpai might like to hear it in person..." His voice was so low it was nearly a growl. He brought up the hand clutching the familiar green bandanna he nearly always wore, nearly thrusting it at Inui.

Inui blinked a moment. He made no move to take the object being thrust upon him by his kouhai. "Kaidoh?" he asked, curiously.

Kaidoh's face scrunched up with visible emotional effort. "Please take it, senpai." He was proud of himself for keeping his voice steady.

Inui knew better than to ask Kaidoh to explain himself. He could figure it out quite well enough on his own, and Kaidoh was never very forthcoming with explanations anyway. He'd probably shove it into Inui's hands and run away before Inui could do anything else. Inui's fingers clasped gently around the colored cloth, lingering for just a second on Kaidoh's before his Kouhai pulled away quickly and shoved his hands in his pockets, hissing softly. Inui smiled just a little.

"Thank you, Kaidoh. I shall see you this weekend?"

Kaidoh said nothing, simply nodded. He stood there for a minute awkwardly in silence.

"Good night... Inui-senpai."

"Take care going home, Kaidoh." Kaidoh nodded again in response, turning and starting to jog down the street. Halfway down the road, he looked back, and Inui was still watching him from the doorway, bandanna held in his hand with his fingers wrapped loosely around it. He looked like he was smiling. Kaidoh stopped running. He called out.

"Inui-senpai!" He saw Inui cock his head in acknowledgement. He tried to yell, "thank you", but his voice failed him. He could only mouth the words. / Do your best, Inui-senpai/ he thought, fiercely.

Inui seemed to know what he meant. He nodded and smiled.

Kaidoh ran home without looking back again. He was quiet when he arrived back home without his bandanna in hand, went up to his room, and crawled into bed. It was early, but he was going to have to get up earlier than usual. He wanted to train harder than he ever had before.

He had to live up to Inui-senpai's expectations. When they met again, he had to show him how much he could improve. He fell asleep with that thought, and a smile on his lips.

Miles away, Inui was sitting in bed, a notebook on his lap, with the piece of green cloth still in his hand. He put down the notebook and pen, reaching over to the bedpost nearest his head on the bed frame. He wrapped the bandanna around it, tying it in a loose knot. He suddenly felt tired himself, and tomorrow was going to be a long day.

He slid the notebook and pen aside, slipped off his glasses, and tucked himself into bed. He touched the green cloth with his fingers for a moment before falling asleep, smiling and murmuring softly. "Thanks, Kaidoh..."

If anyone had looked in on Inui as he slept, they would have seen a small, green piece of cloth clutched between his fingers.

NOTES:

A 'senpai' is an upperclassman. For example: If you are in 9th grade, a 10th or 11th grader is your 'senpai'. Respectively, that would make you the 'kouhai' or 'underclassman'.It is used at other times, but this is the primary definition for terms and name suffixes are difficult to translate, so I left it in its original Japanese.