Hey all! Hime-chan here!
Sorry for such a long time of not contacting you guys! I was kinda out of it for a bit. But I'm back! And with a whole string of stories to come! Thanks for all and any support by just reading my stories! (By the way, please check out my other story Eternal Snow if you have seen the anime/manga Full Moon wo Sagashite. It's one of the chain lyric fics that I'm beginning. The prologue's up, so please review or read! And if you haven't seen Full Moon wo Sagashite, you're totally missing out! It's so cute, so go get it!)
So as you all know, none of the characters belong to me, but just because I'm supposed to, let's get this over with:
Disclaimer: no characters from Prince of Tennis belong to me (although I'd be a happy fan if they did).
Please read and review!
Note: Everything is as the anime is in the beginning. Ryoma Sakuno FOREVVAAAA!
THANKS!
Chapter 1:
Crush
On a normal school day at Seigaku Gakuen:
"Senpaiii! Fight-o!"
"Ryoma-sama, go go go!"
It was once again time for the intraschool ranking tournaments, and as usual, each of the regulars was completely powning his opponents. (A/N: did I spell that right? 0_o)
"Game and match. 6-0. Echizen Ryoma." A hoard of girls nearby screamed in approval.
"Match. Oishi." "Hey, good work."
"6-0. Inui." (A/N: I'm pretty sure that guy just knocked his opponent out first thru some weirdo Inui Deluxe Special Excellento Juice beforehand. -_-)
"Game set and match. 6-0. Kikumaru Eiji." "Hoi hoi!"
"6-2. Fuji." (A/N: I bet Fuji let up a little on his opponent. 6-2? Unforgivable! ^_^ jk of course.)
"6-3. Momoshiro-Kaidoh pair." "Yahoo!" "Fssshhhh…."
"6-4. Kawamura." "BURNING!" (A/N: LOLLLLLL…)
And finally, "Game and match. Tezuka." "Do not let your guard down." (A/N: Honestly, does this one ever not say that line?)
Ryoma walked over to the net and held out his hand. "Nice job, Arai-senpai."
The elder male grunted and shook his hand with begrudging respect. After the handshake, the two males walked opposite ways.
"Wow! Another fantastic match, Ryoma-kun!" the freshman trio cried out in unison.
Ryoma nodded at them, acknowledging their praise. And then on the other side of the court fence, of course were…
"AAHH! Ryoma-sama, you were wonderful!" Tomoka cried out, swooning in front of the young prince.
Ryoma replied that he heard her by slightly tilting his head up and down one degree. The last thing he expected, however, was exactly what he got.
"Ah! Ryoma-sama acknowledged me!" Tomoka subsequently proceeded to pass out in front of the prince's feet.
Ryoma subtly rolled his eyes and stepped over the fanatic fangirl-aka-Sakuno's-friend-aka-Tomoka, not purposely trying to hurt his "number one fan," but... Does this girl never let up? He thought.
Another girl nearby noticed this slight facial movement and giggled. The prince heard, and turned, not having felt her presence beforehand.
Sakuno smiled and greeted Ryoma. "Congratulation, Ryoma-kun. That was a good match."
Ryoma nodded to thank her. "Thanks, Ryuuzaki." He then stopped and stared at her, puzzled. Is there something different about her today? He scanned over her appearance.
Ding-ding-ding! Shock rolled over Ryoma.
Sakuno had let her hair down today! (A/N: GASP! ^_^)
Ryoma continued to stare, completely and obviously unaware of the fact that said person of attention was becoming very confused by his unusual attentiveness.
"Hey…Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno waved a hand in front of his face. "Doushitano? What's wrong?"
Ryoma jolted. "Eh? Ah…sorry. Little distracted there."
Sakuno's POV
…Ryoma-kun's weird today. He usually doesn't pay that much attention to me, even if we say hi to each other in the hallway during break or in the cafeteria during lunch. So what's up with this?
I waved a hand in front of his eyes to wake him out of his zone. "Hey…Ryoma-kun? What's wrong?"
To my amusement, he jumped, startled. Seems like he had been in deep thought about something.
"Something wrong?" I asked in curiosity. It's rare for the prince to become so distracted when he's right next to a tennis court. The guy's nuts for tennis, I swear. Although that's a good point of his; he's so cool when he plays in matches, especially when he's enjoying some good competition like with Shinji from Fudomine.
Ryoma quickly shook his head no. "Eh? Ah…sorry. Little distracted there. Nothing wrong, per say….Ryuuzaki, is this the first time your hair's been down?"
Huh? I took out my compact mirror in my pocket and popped it open to check my appearance. Oh! That's right, I forgot my pigtails this morning…
"AHHHH! Oh my gosh I forgot to comb my hair! EEEK!" I shrieked. "It must be all messy now; I bet it looks like a haystack. Oh no…" I panicked. "This was the first time this year that this had happened! And all because of stupid obaa-chan…" I was on the verge of ranting but Ryoma tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey, Ryuuzaki."
I turned to look at him.
"Don't worry. It looks good," he told me.
I was stunned. What just happened? The prince…directly complimented me? Wait…WHAT? I couldn't help but stare in silence back at Ryoma. This had to be a dream, right?
Ryoma in turn looked right back at me, straight in the eyes. "What?" he asked.
"…R-r-really?" I stuttered. Oh jeezus. I thought I had gotten rid of my speaking handicaps in second year.
Ryoma POV
Ok, somebody had to calm this girl down. She looked like she was going to have a panic attack…Ah wait I take that back. She's already having one.
"Oi, Ryuuzaki." I tapped her on the shoulder and when she turned around, "Don't worry. It looks good." I told her.
It was a way of comforting her, but seriously, she was honestly quite pretty when she let her hair down like that. I really don't get why girls think pigtails are so "in" nowadays; they seem annoying to me.
I turned my attention back to Ryuuzaki. She was looking at me with that goldfish look, you know, the open mouth and big eyes thing? I didn't really get what had caught her off guard so much.
"What? Um…Ryuuzaki?" it was my turn to wave my hand in front of her face. "Oi, you ok there?"
Ryuuzaki nodded. "R-r-really?" she stuttered. I thought that was kinda cute.
Whoa whoa whoa! Wait, what did I just think? Cute? Ok, Echizen Ryoma has not ever thought of girls as cute; they're too clingy. Then it hit me; I had thought of her as pretty just moments before. All rightey, what is going on here? I asked myself.
But for the moment, I was still talking to Ryuuzaki. "Yeah," I replied nonchalantly.
She stood stock still for a moment, then out of the blue…
I felt something heavy land on me and I almost fell backwards onto the ground, but just in time kept my balance and instinctively grabbed onto the attacker, who happened to be…
Ryuuzaki cried happily, "If Ryoma-kun says so, I'll wear my hair down everyday!"
I realized that this heavy object was Ryuuzaki! Actually, as a person, she's quite light…and oddly enough, her hair smells really good.
I smacked myself mentally. What am I thinking?
All of a sudden, Ryuuzaki's oddly comforting weight was lifted, or more like dragged, off of me.
"Sakuno! What do you think you're doing?" I heard a screechy, unfortunately familiar voice shriek. I rubbed my temples. Guess she woke up.
"Ah! Tomo-chan. Oh—n-n-nothing!" Ryuuzaki was trying to deny everything.
Guess I better run before Ryuuzaki's friend launches herself onto me.
"Hey, Sakuno, I gotta run. So I'll see you around!" I called while running away.
"OK!" she shouted back, while multitasking and futilely trying to explain to her nutty buddy what just happened.
Then, as I rounded the corner to the boys' locker room and slowed to a jog, something hit me, once again, for what seemed like the millionth time today. I just hugged Ryuuzaki! Just thinking about it, some weird heat spread across my cheeks. I touched my face…what's this? I thought, puzzled.
Sakuno POV
I struggled with Tomo-chan while watching Ryoma-kun's figure jogging away.
Then something hit me. "OH MY GOD HE CALLED ME BY MY FIRST NAME!"
So, how do you guys like it? It's just the first chapter, so there'll be more to come, and I hope all you lovely readers can support me thru it! I've tried my best on stories before, but I guess no one really liked it because no one reviewed much (sad face).
Anyways, it's a new start to a new year! Please review now that you're done reading, and I thank all of you out there for coming thus far with me! Arigatou! Happy Belated New Year's to everyone as well! Go 2011!
~Hime-chan