The satisfying popping sounds of green tennis balls bouncing between two sides of the tennis court echoed throughout the relatively quiet neighborhood as Alex and Charlie smacked them around between each other, with a slight hint of aggression coming from the cream-colored mouse boy. Each time he hit the ball back to the tigress he let out a loud grunt and furrowed his brows as he watched the ball, hoping that he had hit it hard and fast enough for the tigress not to be able to hit it back so that he would score a point.

“Hyaaah!”

‘Thwack!’

The mouse felt himself almost fall over after that swing, but he managed to catch himself and only stumbled a few steps forward. He quickly turned his head to look at the bright green ball as it zipped over the net and bounced once on Alex’s side of the court. But the tigress was fast, only leaving Charlie with a couple moments of hopefulness that filled his eyes when it looked like the ball might make a second bounce and earn him the points. Charlie was sweating his ass off running around to catch up to the ball whenever Alex returned it to him, but Alex made it look so effortless. To her it must have felt like playing Wii Sports whenever she played with him, meanwhile, he felt like he was competing with an Olympian. It was far from a fair fight.

‘Thwack!’

And just like that, the green ball was flying toward Charlie again. He gripped the handle of his racket tight, ran over to where he calculated the ball would land and swung a backhand against the ball with just mere seconds to spare before it touched the green and gave the tigress points. Once the ball was in Alex’s court again, the mouse took a moment to very quickly catch his breath. When Alex saw that her friend was out of breath, she threw the round, letting the green ball bounce for a second time on her side and giving the mouse boy the points.

“Haaah!” Charlie threw his arms up in celebration, his tongue rolled out from his mouth as he had just been panting and gasping for air. After he glanced at his opponent and the ball and saw how close they were together, he realized that the tigress let him have it. “Why didn’t you return that?” he asked as he gestured his arm out toward the ball that rolled to the back of Alex’s side of the court.

Alex lifted her racket up, rested it against her shoulder, and put one hand on her hip. She flicked her hair off of her shoulder with her racket before she raised her brows and looked at the mouse who seemed a little agitated. The way his nose scrunched up as he shouted over at her made the tigress snicker. “I can see you’re out of breath, I’m just giving you a breather, I’d rather lose points to you than have to drag you off the court if you pass out.”

The tigress turned on her heels and skipped her way over to the green ball as it continued rolling away. “You need to take in deep breaths, slow ones, try exhaling as you hit the ball back. I can tell you’re holding your breath when you smack the ball.” She picked up the pace to catch up to the ball, bent over to pick it up, and blew on it to kick the sediment and dust from it before she turned around to face her mouse friend again. She found his huffy-puffy expression amusing and tossed the ball in her hand as she gave him some time to catch his breath.

Charlie rolled his eyes; as much as what the tigress was spewing made sense, it didn’t sit right with him how good she was and that any points he was able to score were those she let him get. It filled him with frustration he recognized from that one time he played Flappy Bird. He clenched his grip around the racket in his hand so tight that he could hear the rubber grip squeak, but then relaxed as he took in a deep breath through his nose and exhaled out his mouth. Beads of sweat rolled off his forehead and arms as he repeated his breaths and did his best to calm the fire that was building up inside of him. “She’s trying to help you get better, just do as she says, you’ll beat her in a game eventually…” he muttered under his breath. After a few minutes of catching his breath, the mouse wiped the sweat off his forehead, tried to mimic the racket twirling he had seen Alex do earlier, and jumped up and down a few times. He fumbled just a tiny bit but was able to mostly look pretty cool in his white and yellow tennis outfit. His racket whooshed through the air as he twirled it and eyed the tigress. “Alright, I’m ready,” he said with a soft smile.

While Charlie was catching his breath during the mandatory break that she had given him, Alex stood and watched him for the first few minutes before she started to do a little maintenance on her outfit. She readjusted her top, dusted off her skirt, and pulled the socks she had on further up her leg. When she heard the mouse say that he was ready to continue, the tigress raised her brow, adjusted the red sweatband on her head, and bounced the ball against the court a few times as she looked at him. “Are you sure? We can take a longer break if you want, I was serious about the over-exhaustion, you will pass out if you aren’t careful.”

“I’m good, c’mon, I want to beat you,” Charlie said with a huge aura of confidence that leaked all over the place.

“Hah…” Alex scoffed, tossed the ball up into the air, and then caught it without even breaking eye contact with her mouse pal. Oh how Charlie hated how cocky she was, while also striving to be her. “What?” Charlie furrowed his brow. “It’s going to happen eventually. Haven’t you ever seen any movie about the master and their student? The student always ends up being better than even the master by the end.” The mouse said as his aura of confidence spread across a wider and wider radius. Confidence must have played a part in being good at tennis, right? Maybe he could try to psyche Alex out a bit with his bright smile and strictly positive attitude, however long he would be able to keep that up. Alex was a cat, cats thrived off of negative angry energy, he needed to cut off her supply, and see who was laughing when he scored enough points to win a set.

“This isn’t even close to the end of the movie; we haven’t even done the training montage where you break down and cry yet.” Alex teased him further, which caused the aura of confidence and smugness that built up around him to fade visibly with his anger from earlier just shining through his amber eyes. He took in a deep breath through his nose and exhaled through his mouth once more before he looked at Alex with a calm and comfy expression. “Well, we should start that, shouldn’t we?” he smiled.

The tigress liked the newfound confidence that her rodent friend was displaying, but she found it peculiar that he was able to switch from being upset to being confident so quickly. She knew it was a facade he was putting up to try and mess with her, but she decided to play along. She nodded at him and got into her serving stance. “If you say so! Try not to let the ball get away from you, yeah?” the tigress bounced the ball against the court again, but this time once she caught it back in her hand, she tossed it into the air and swung her racket at it as it fell back down.

‘Thwack!’ and just like that, the green ball became a green blur again. It flew toward Charlie, who was more than ready for it. He gripped his racket tight, pulled it back as the ball approached, and swung forward the second the ball was within range. “Hyah!” he let out his tennis war cry and closed his eyes.

‘Thwack!’

He opened his eyes back up to see the ball flying over the net and bouncing once on Alex’s side of the court. Alex returned the ball effortlessly, only running for a brief instance before she was able to swing her racket and hit the ball right in the center. Alex’s pleated skirt swished and swirled as she ran and her paws pitter-pattered against the relatively soft surface of the court. She blew her hair out of her face once she corrected her stance and waited for the mouse to return the ball.

‘Thwock!’

‘Thwack!’

‘Thwock!’

‘Thwack!’ the green ball bounced in between the two tennis players for a significantly longer time this time around. Charlie was determined to get points on his own and Alex was determined to make that as hard on the mouse as possible, if not impossible. After two minutes of back and forth, the tigress was starting to show some sweat on her forehead that her sweatband missed. She let out louder and louder huffs each time she hit the ball back to the mouse. However, she noticed he wasn’t faring too well either, so she pushed on. She hit the ball back to the mouse harder, faster, and further in hopes that the squeaky cheese lover boy would fumble. While she wanted to help her friend get better at the sport, she also didn’t want to lose to him, ever, not even if it was just out of dumb beginner’s luck. As Charlie let out another one of those sexual tennis sounds escape his lips, Alex kept her eyes on the tennis ball as it came flying in her direction, whistled to get his attention, and took her eyes off the ball to look at him straight in the eye. “Hey, Charlie!”

Charlie’s attention turned to Alex immediately when he heard her whistle and his name. His big ears flickered, but his ready-to-go stance remained unchanged. “What!” he shouted back at her. He was sure this was another one of her distraction tactics she was going to use to throw him off his game.

Alex grinned, she had him right where she wanted him. “Catch this…” After the ball made its first bounce, Alex dashed toward it and spun around a full 360 degrees, the top of her racket catching the ball and slamming it back where it came from at an incredible speed. The ball shot across the court over the net, bounced on Charlie’s side of the court once, and then for a second time just as Charlie was running toward it to scoop it up last second.

“15-love,” Alex said with a smile while Charlie swung his racket against the air in front of him out of frustration.