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Jack and Ryoma bond in their own way over having their fathers’ names constantly brought up in correlation with their careers. They are both sick and tired of being asked if they feel they’re living up to Bad Bob’s or Samurai Nanjiroh’s names or turning on sports talk only to have commentators saying whether they are or not. The talk of sports dynasties is bullshit to both of them.
Bitty and Ryoma constantly friendly bicker over what is better -- facing off against your lover as a rival (Ryoma) or playing alongside them as a linemate/teammate (Bitty). Tezuka and Jack share conditioning regimens.
Otherwise known as: The Meeting of the Two Couples
Part 1: ZimBits
The first time Ransom and Holster took it upon themselves to set him up with a Winter Screw date, Jack only went along with their choice to finally stop the constant battery of names and pictures being thrown his way. Camilla Collins was attractive -- most certainly -- and captain of the tennis club. It meant she was driven and hopefully on the more mature side of things. She had indeed turned out to be a like-minded individual and the two got along that night well enough that Jack had come crawling back to Haus in the early morning hours after sexiling her roommate. They had kept in touch after that. Neither was interested in a serious relationship, not with school and sports on the mind, but shared meals and pep talks/unloading and afternoon runs and study sessions (generally not the same subjects except for once when they shared a Gen Ed course) were not uncommon. It was casual and helpful and, while Jack would never say as much, fun. It also made it easy senior year to simply ask her again. When Ransom and Holster jumped at him with promises of the perfect date, he was glad to turn them down by saying he already had one. Their disappointment was appeased by the recognition that they had matched Jack so well last year, he was going with the same girl this year.
Communication stopped, for a while, when Jack started dating Bitty. Camilla was his friend, but the last thing he wanted was to leave Bitty feeling nervous or jealous or anything other than absolutely and utterly happy. Jack took it as his burden for forcing Bitty into a closeted relationship, even when Bitty waved him off and said he understood.
But he and Camilla had been friends and, as captains, had been there for each other at times. While he invites Shitty and the SMHC to a game first, he does want to invite her to one as well. So he explains the situation to Bitty and Bitty scolds him. “You do not just leave your friends high and dry like that, Mister. I don’t care what reasons you got for it. You saw her before we were even much of friends, Honey, and she’s your friend now, right? I trust you that much at least. Now, you invite her to a game and if it’s that important to you, I’ll go, too. Y’hear?” So Camilla attends an away game against the Capitals (Bitty is unable to attend due to distance), but for his own sake, Jack calls Bitty after she leaves to give him the run down of their after-game coffee conversation while Bitty laughs.
Time passes, Bitty moves up to being a senior. There’s a new manager, new frogs (Bitty finally had to give up on calling Chowder, Dex and Nursey frogs when a new group came in and not even the term tadpoles was available anymore -- he still complains about this to Jack regularly) and new residents at the house. Or at least, all this will happen when school starts. For now, it is summer and Bitty is spending a few weeks with Jack during off-season. For part of that, they are in New York to attend a few days of the US Open at Camilla’s invitation. It was last minute as she was not sure she’d make it to the brackets, but just as Jack had invited her, she wanted to do the same. To show a friend how much his support had helped and how she was now achieving her own dreams. When Jack mentions having a friend visiting at the time, Camilla sends him two tickets.
They are in the stands bright and early -- Bitty proud of himself for managing to slip a container of mini meat pies for them to eat past security and Jack trying to explain to him security is there for a reason (only half-heartedly, though, because those pies smelled amazing when Bitty had been baking them) -- when Camilla comes out to play against World’s #12 female player, Hannah Essenheimer, a redhead from Germany. After their warm-ups, the match starts with Essenheimer’s serve and Bitty whispers out a “Lordy” at the gunshot sound of it. He is lost after that and Jack is digging back into his memory for what information he managed to pick up about tennis that might have possibly survived the years. They are both woefully unprepared, however, and it only takes three games before Bitty pulls out his container of mini pies for them. “I might not know much about tennis,” he comments, “but with all this grunting I’m hearing, I’m glad I’m watching otherwise I might get a very different idea of what’s going on down there.” Jack chokes on his meat pie as does the person next to Bitty -- some Asian person who has been speaking with his own companion in what Jack is able to recognize as Japanese.
Bitty and Jack both turn to look only to see one bespectacled man, taller than Jack and definitely athletic, though lacking the hockey bulk, looking their way -- glaring, Bitty would later confide with wide eyes, though Jack was pretty sure it was their fault to begin with -- and his companion, a bit shorter than Jack, peeking around him and smirking at the two. “If you’re willing to share,” he says in perfect English with a nod at the pies, “We can explain it to you.”
“Echizen,” the taller man scolds and the two go off into Japanese once more, staring each other down before the taller one sighs and nods and the shorter one smirks.
“Well?” he asks again and Bitty and Jack share a glance before Jack shrugs. Bitty turns to the two men with a wide smile as he holds out the container, “I think I’ve got just enough, if you don’t mind giving us a hand. We’re here to cheer on a friend, after all. I’m Bitty -- er, well, Eric Bittle, if you please -- and this is Jack Zimmermann.” Jack nods.
“Ryoma Echizen,” the shorter one introduces himself while shoving one pie in his mouth -- pausing to let out a small moan of appreciation -- and another into his disapproving companion’s hand as he speaks around the second half of the pastry, “and this is Kunimitsu Tezuka.” Tezuka nods.
Since these little smatterings of ideas keep hitting me...Anything regarding the Check, Please/Tenipuri crossover that is Zimbits befriending Tezuryo will be tagged OMGTP (like omgcp from check please but with tp as in tenipuri).
