Halrloprillalar

My other santa_smex story, written for hikaridonya. This is the story that I stressed about all autumn. I thought I might have to fake my own death for a while there, but I got it worked out in the end. First time writing this pairing and I'm pretty happy with it, all told. :)

Many, many, MANY thanks to kestrelsan and to the Boy for listening and suggesting and helping and not telling me to shut up already. It was above and beyond, guys. And Momoshiro, thanks for letting me use you for cheap laughs.


Big in Japan by Halrloprillalar / prillalar
Prince of Tennis, Atobe/Ryoma, R, 5500 words
Being a pro isn't all fun and games.

( there are three exhibition matches )

This is your last chance to read while the authors are still anonymous and to guess who wrote what. There's a guessing post up at the comm if you want to go public. I'm not a public guesser myself, mostly due to my deep fear of being wrong about anything at all, no matter how trivial.

Since we're so close to the end, I will go so far as to reveal I have two stories in the fest, which is why I haven't had any substantial fic to post here for a while. If you can guess both, you will win a fabulous prize. Or maybe some fic.

Comments screened for your protection.

ETA: Reveals are up! (so, guessing is over)

Previous round-ups: here and here. Up to Dec 24 with this one.

My reading:

Seven Forty in the Afternoon - InuKai - Crack, crack, sweet InuKai, and crack. Also Horio. ♥

Rematch - Fujicest - Fucked-up and amazing, it hurts like incest fic should.

Two Places at Once - Inui/Yanagi - Freaky Friday, Data Pair style, and oh how sweet it is!

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Atobe/Tezuka - past and future, so well done.


Pairings I didn't try, but you might want to:

Tezuka/Ryoma
Oshitari/Atobe
Sanada/Kirihara
Inui/Fuji
Saeki/Ryou

Item: The upside of the whole political debacle was that The National, in their "man on the street"-type interviews, brought to my attention an artist who does paintings of hockey brawls. Only. In. Canada. I am totally updating my holiday wishlist to include one of those.

Item: Writing fic on my iPhone in a moving vehicle is difficult but less difficult than I imagined. And it's starting to auto-correct "Kaisoh" to "Kaidoh" now. ♥

Item: santa_smex, the Prince of Tennis holiday fic exchange, has been posting for a few days now. I'm not reading pairings that don't interest me, but I'm reading a bit more widely than I might usually. Stories I've enjoyed:

+ The day Ryoma came back and what happened next - Horio/Sakuno with Tomoka, Dan, Katsuo, Kachiro, and Ryoma.
The kids are all grown up at 20. I enjoyed seeing how they were all a bit different and all a bit the same. And, OMG, HORIO. ♥

+ Rules of Attraction - Atobe/Mizuki, Mizuki/Atsushi
I giggled throughout! Mizuki is just a ball of charming, scheming, frustrated fun. Fantastic dialogue!

+ What a Wonderful World - Ryoma/Kevin
Christmas in New York. Kevin was damn cute and Ryoma was nicely surly.

And there's been some Yagyuu/Niou and Atobe/Ryoma. If you're into that sort of thing. :D

Item: I realised the other day while we were re-watching the first Rikkai matches that the only reason I don't read Yagyuu/Niou is Niou's terrible, terrible hair. That's so shallow that I'm deeply ashamed. But I Just. Can't. Deal with the rat tail. Not at all. I mean, if Kaidoh grew a rat tail like that, I'd drop him too. (He'd be darling with a mullet, though.) So sad. :(

Item: What would you buy Kaidoh for Christmas?