Yukimura would constantly visit the rooftop garden; during breaks, during lunch break, before school, between school and practice, any time he could. And because of this Sanada always had to climb four sets of stairs every time he had to speak with said guy, making him unnecessary annoyed at his constant running up and down.
Is it really that hard to not see flowers every time you get out of the classroom?
Apparently it was. Because Yukimura had once again disappeared from his classroom when Sanada made it there once the school day was over. Sanada sighed quietly as he turned towards the stairs that went from top to bottom of the school building, though he knew he should have been expecting it.
However, unlike every other day when Sanada would wait by the door patiently until Yukimura was done with whatever he was doing with those flowers, Sanada found himself pausing by the open door.
Yukimura was not alone today, Sanada noted briefly before he saw who was speaking to his captain and friend. It was a girl from Yanagi's class, 3-F, whom Sanada had seen around his calculating friend multiple times but never quite bothered with remembering her name. He had, on the other hand, noted her enough times to register that she had cut her hair from its previous waist-length to a more suitable (according to Sanada at least) shoulder blade-length.
He was debating whether to go back down or just wait until they finished speaking when the choice was made for him as Yukimura had spotted him. The tennis captain said a few final words to the girl before he excused himself and joined Sanada without a word as they headed towards practice.
.
For the next three weeks Sanada saw neither heads nor tail of the girl, not even when he went to talk to Yanagi and it struck him for the first time that why was he even noticing this? He convinced himself it was because it had to do with Yukimura, and everyone knew that when it came to Yukimura Sanada was very alert. Which sounded weirder than it actually was; Yukimura was the captain of the tennis team and if the captain would, for some reason, loose even the slightest of focus so would the rest of the team, thusly Sanada, as the vice-captain, felt it his mission to make sure that did not happen.
Which sounded even weirder, but honestly it was not; he was just looking out for his team.
So he convinced himself that it was for that reason that he intercepted her path when he saw her making her way towards the tennis courts three weeks later.
'May I help you?' he asked politely, clearly startling her as she stopped dead and looked up from the papers she had been reading.
'I wish to speak with Yukimura-kun, if that is alright?' she replied after a second of hesitation, her tone equally polite.
'Practice is about to start, can it wait?'
'I'm afraid it can't,' she had said just as Yukimura had stepped out from the lockers and spotted the two standing a bit off, he smiled and waved at them casually.
'Kobayashi-chan, did you manage to find the required papers I asked for?' Yukimura asked as she joined him.
'Yes, I just need your signature and then I can send them in,' she replied and offered him a pen.
As Yukimura scribbled his name on the paper and the girl, Kobayashi, thanked him and gave a slight bow to Sanada, said guy could for once in his life say that he truly felt like an ass for doubting her intentions.
Even more so when Yukimura mentioned that they were on the same committee, and that she had been appointed as the new secretary only a month ago.
.
By the end of the next month all the regulars had picked up on the new presence that was Kobayashi Nori, and her constant running back and forth between Yukimura and, what the rest of the regulars assumed was, the beautification committee's room.
She had even begun to come to watch their matches, apparently being the secretary meant being constantly at the command of the chairman, Sanada thought irritated as he saw her take a seat on the grandstand.
He wondered briefly why he was so annoyed with her presence but concluded firmly that it was because the rest of the regulars hade began to be familiar with her. He did not like it when someone stomped into their carefully strutted routines and made a mess out of everything.
And what made it all worse was that little voice at the back of his head that whispered that she really had not stomped into their routines that was definitely not structured and not made a mess of what already was a mess.
It made him extremely irritated for some reason to see her get close to the rest of the regulars so easily. He was so annoyed that he debated whether to slap himself or not to force himself to focus on the match that had already begun.
.
The three of them, Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi, sat down in a corner booth at Comet Coffee one Friday after practice during light talk. Neither of them drank coffee but it was their place since the start of Junior High and it had become a habit to visit it once in a while when all three of them had time.
'Nori-san seems to be visiting you frequently as of late,' Yanagi suddenly said to Yukimura after a moment of silence.
'First name basis, are we now, Renji?' Yukimura joked as he sipped his hot chocolate.
'We've been in the same class since the first year of high school, she was also the Student council treasurer until recently, we have been on four projects together, seven pair works and we were in the same group on last year's school trip to Kyoto, we are also sitting next to each other in class and she has borrowed my English book-'
'I get it, I get it; you know her,' Yukimura said with a smile. 'But yes, she is the secretary of the beautification committee so she has been trying to sort out the mess that the previous secretary left, so she needed to run a few papers through me.'
'A few?' echoed Sanada quietly as he stabbed a strawberry with his fork form the bowl in front of him and glanced at Yukimura.
'As said, the previous secretary left her quite a mess,' Yukimura repeated and took another sip from his chocolate.
'She has been coming to almost all of our practices and matches the last month,' Sanada said.
'And I believe I have accounted for at least fourteen sexual jokes from Niou in public, who knows how many he has made in private and Marui has shared three of his favourite cookies with her,' Yanagi provided and sipped at his tea.
'So they like her, what's the problem? It's not like she disturbs the training or anything,' Yukimura frowned.
'Actually, the average concentration level has dropped by five-point-three percent since she began to regularly show up,' Yanagi said offhandedly as he flipped through the notebook he had produced from his bag.
'What?' both Yukimura and Sanada exclaimed.
'How come you haven't said this before?' Sanada demanded, his annoyance with the girl growing by the second.
'Well, while the concentration level has dropped slightly, the energy level put into training has risen significantly.'
'How much are we talking about?'
'Nine-point-seven percent.'
'Now that you mention it, Akaya hasn't been complaining as much about the laps we assigned them,' Yukimura pondered and Sanada grumbled quietly to himself as he mirrored Yukimura's motion to drink from the cup in front of him.
'That might be because Akaya appears to have a crush on Nori-san,' Yanagi stated.
By some miracle Yanagi and Yukimura was saved from the shower of soda, which had befallen the table.
.
The next Monday Sanada had made up his mind to make sure that the girl would leave the tennis team alone and set out to find her the moment he arrived to school, hastily telling Yukimura and Yanagi that he had something he had to do.
Sadly for Sanada's determination and mood he was unable to locate the girl before he had to leave for his class, neither did he find her during the rest of the day.
His mood was positively night-black as he reached the locker rooms that afternoon and none of the regulars dared to ask the cause. If his mood was bad as he changed it was nothing compared to when he stepped outside and spotted the cause of it sitting comfortably on the grandstand by the court.
Though he would deny it for the rest of his life if anyone ever dared to say it, he practically stomped over to her and planted his feet firmly on the ground before her. As she looked up at him with a small smile in greeting Sanada had to fight to control his irritation with the girl.
'How may I help you, Sanada-san?' she asked politely and put the book she had been reading aside.
'I will have to ask you to leave the court, Kobayashi-san,' he said firmly.
She paused in what he assumed had been her prepared answer. 'May I ask why?'
'Your presence is disturbing the level of concentration during practice,' by now his voice held a hint of coldness, and her eyes seemed to harden at the discovery.
'And whose concentration is it that is decreasing?'
'The regulars.'
'Then correct me if I'm wrong, Sanada-san,' she began and stood up, barely reaching his shoulder. 'Is it not your duty to make sure it does not? During matches there are many different people watching, if they cannot keep their concentration because of a single person in the audience, is it not your guidance that is lacking? And not my presence that is disturbing?'
Sanada said nothing, because he knew she was right, and he hated her for it. She did not smirk at him like he had expected, to best Sanada Genichiro was not something people did every day after all, but instead she only gave a curt nod and returned to her book.
.
Yukimura had pulled him to the side after practice one day as the other regulars went to the locker rooms to shower.
'Why are you so against Kobayashi-chan?' he asked straight away, though not unkindly.
'She has a bad influence on the others.'
'Is that really all?' Yukimura asked after a few seconds.
'What? Of course that's all!' Sanada snapped, tired of being questioned by his best friend.
Yukimura nodded slowly and dropped the subject. With a final look at Sanada Yukimura headed over to the locker rooms.
Damn that girl, Sanada thought as he followed.
.
Kobayashi did not mention their previous talk after that day and for that Sanada was glad. When he had gotten home that evening and thought over what she had told him, and what he had said, he had felt ashamed with himself. So ashamed he had spent the bigger part of the night practicing Kendo feverously until he almost fell asleep in the dojo.
She continued to come to the practices for the rest of the week, though she had been silent and not interacted with any of the regulars except Yukimura. This had proved to Sanada that she really was affecting the team but not in the way he had hoped it would display.
By the end of the week the regulars' moods were down the drain and with it went their energy and enthusiasm. At first it had been Akaya who had been in a bad mood but it seemed to spread like a wildfire and as Friday came around Sanada wanted to either slap them all really hard or bang his head into the nearest wall, he was not quite sure which.
'Why do you come to our practices all the time?' Sanada asked during the practice the following week as he reluctantly swallowed his pride and sat down beside her.
She looked confused by his question. 'Yoshizawa-sensei didn't tell you? Due to the tennis club's advisor having to take sick leave, and no other teachers were available to take his place, sensei asked me to fill in until they find a replacement, as the teacher's representative in the Student council.'
Sanada did not know what to say to that so he merely gave a curt nod and left.
.
Yoshizawa-sensei had forgotten to mention that little fact, Sanada grumbled to himself as he left the principal's office. Which made it all worse because Sanada had been blaming Kobayashi for hanging around the tennis club for almost three months unnecessarily, even confronted her about it, and she was only doing what the principal had asked her to do.
Sanda felt like a real ass this time around.
.
Sanada had swallowed a bit of his pride when he apologized, which seemed to him that he had bowed down to her and offered her his head on a silver platter when he had really just grunted out a 'sorry' as he passed her on his way to the court.
Nevertheless did she smile as she walked over to her usual spot and watched the rest of the practice.
.
The regulars' moods were back to normal by the start of the next week and yet Sanada still felt annoyed about Kobayashi's closeness to the other regulars and for the life of him he could not understand why. He knew why she was there, he knew his teammates liked her and he knew that forcing her away from them resulted in a collective five-year-old-tantrum, so why could he not just get over it?
He slashed at the pole before him in his irritation and cleanly cut it in half.
.
Five months has passed since the first time she came to watch practice and Sanada's feelings regarding her had not changed; if anything they had intensified to the point where he did not know what to do with himself.
It did not really help that Yukimura and Yanagi had begun to invite her to their private gatherings at Comet Coffee either, nor did their smirks make sense.
.
He had bumped into her right before Christmas in one of Tokyo's many malls and for once he thought that she did not make him completely irritated, so he offered to help her find a gift for her brother when she asked. In turn she would help him find something for his annoying nephew.
.
As New Year's came around Yukimura invited everyone to his house as he would have it for himself over the weekend, his family visiting some aunt or similar. Sanada was not surprised when Kobayashi came through the door together with Akaya and Niou, each having an arm hooked with either of hers.
She had bought them all a gift card at each of their favourite sport shops; it was basic but well needed as all of them used up racket strings like they would change clothes.
The regulars had gone together and bought her a necklace Akaya had said he had seen her eying a while back, which proved that Akaya had been correct as she was rendered speechless.
For the rest of the night Akaya and Marui was consumed by various videogames, Jackal cheering them on in some kind of twisted betting-coaching style, Niou was sexually harassing Kobayashi anytime he could while Yaguu did what he could to restrain his partner. Yanagi and Yukimura were discussing some book they had been reading and Sanada seemed to float around the room, only making sure he stayed away from Kobayashi and Niou as he feared his head would explode by the sheer amount of energy it took not to smack the silver haired guy over the head for soiling the tennis team's name.
Towards midnight he, somehow, found himself seated on the balcony next to Kobayashi, looking up at the stars. It was a cloudless night and the stars were shining brightly next to the moon.
'Any resolutions, Sanada-kun?' he heard her ask from underneath her scarf.
Sanada thought for a few seconds before he sighed. 'To make Niou stop harassing people.'
She laughed. 'That's not a resolution; you'll need a miracle for that!' she was right of course but Sanada only shrugged.
'To win the Nationals this year too, then,' he said finally. 'You?'
'That's a good one,' she said and blew at her hands to gain some warmth. 'I'll have to go with "bringing that hard-headed guy I was stupid enough to fall for to his knees so I can kiss the living daylights out of him".'
Sanada said nothing, because there really was nothing to say; he just felt highly annoyed and confused at the same time. Why in the world would she say something like that as a resolution? To him no less? This girl was, is, and will always be weird he concluded as the clock struck twelve.
'Happy New Year, Sanada-kun, hope you win the Nationals again!' she said with a bright smile and he could not stop himself from smiling back slightly.
'Happy New Year, Kobayashi, good luck with whatever plan you have for your resolution,' he replied and looked up at the sky, utterly missing Kobayashi's wolfish grin.
.
'Pay up, brat,' Niou said as he turned to a horrified Akaya.
'But… But…'
'No, I betted they would end up making out during the night, you did not; pay up,' Niou said matter-of-factly and chucked his thumb at the oblivious pair on the balcony.
'Seiichi, the same goes for you; you lost this bet,' Yanagi said as Akaya pulled out his wallet.
'How did I lose, Renji?' demanded Yukimura.
'You said it would happen before the year was over, I said during the next year; it happened twelve seconds into the New Year, thus you lose.'
'You think they will stop anytime soon? It feels weird seeing Sanada-fukubucho practically jamming his tongue down my should-be-sister's throat,' Akaya said, his face positively green.
'Better get used to it, brat, because by the look of it, that will be the most innocent they will be doing this year,' Niou snickered and fled the room with Akaya after him.
First of all I did not start writing this oneshot with anything planned out, actually I didn't even know it was going to end up being Sanada-P.O.V-ish, even less it was going to be SanadaXOC... It just happened :O
Second of all I'm not all too sad that it ended up like this, because Sanada doesn't really get enough love, now does he?
And lastly; having a cold and staying up even though you know you shouldn't created this (probably) and the fact that I'm a lazy ass and this is just plotless fluff lead to me not really proofreading this, so sorry if there's any mistakes :S