He's not interested

By: rennomiya

There were a lot of things that the great Echizen Ryoma had no interest about. In fact, everything else in the world disinterest him save for tennis, his cat and Ponta. Other than those three, he wouldn't take a glance on anything.

First, he was not interested in fashion.

"What are you wearing?"

"O-Oh… uhm… Tomo-chan… S-She bought me this and forced me to wear it today…"

He observed her figure again from head to toe. Short shorts and spaghetti-strapped top that only reached her belly button—was what she was wearing.

"I'll buy you new clothes. Get rid of that when I get you some," he commanded as he turned around to lead her the way to a random clothes store.

"Eh? Why?"

He thought of an excuse. Then, he remembered his cousin's words whenever she's talking about what people wear in television. "That outfit… is sooooo five minutes ago."

The girl's jaw dropped. She didn't hear him say that, did she?

Second, he was not interested in reading books.

"Nee, Echizen…" the unibrowed freshman called as he lazily rested his head on the library table, "What book should we pick for our book report?"

"Not interested."

"Eh?"

"You go choose what book," Ryoma said.

"No, you go… I'm too sleepy to do it," Horio complained.

Ryoma tch-ed then stood up to pick a random book on the shelf.

He found the thinnest book (still approximately 100 pages) on the shelf and placed his hand on it, only to get blocked by another hand taking it. "Oi, I saw it first."

"O-Oh! I-I'm so sorry… here," the girl with twin pigtails bowed to him as she handed him the book. "Please take it, I'm so sorry!"

Ryoma raised a brow after he identified the girl. "Ryuzaki…"

She had tints of red all over her face while she avoided his piercing gaze. "A-Anou… that book… I-I didn't know you like to read books… A-And it's Howl's Moving Castle, too."

"Oh," Ryoma took the book from her hands, "I'm not interested in—"

"Anou… I… I think that people who read books are amazing…" she said with a dazed look, "I like it when I see them getting sucked up on the book's world," she smiled sweetly.

Ryoma stared at her.

"Oh I'm sorry," she bowed, "Y-You were about to say something to me… A-Anou… what is it?"

Ryoma looked away then walked past her. "Nothing. It's just… I've read tons of books already… But I'm still interested in re-reading…" he looked at the book he was holding to see the title, "Howl's Moving Cattle."

Sakuno giggled. Ryoma raised a brow curiously. "What?"

"It's Howl's Moving Castle, Ryoma-kun."

"Oh," he said stupidly and walked away, "I knew that."

All the time, he watched her a few tables from them as she indulged herself from whatever book she was reading. And when he felt like she was going to look at him, he would pretend to be indulged in the book he was reading.

Third, he was not interested in video games (although he had some at home).

"Really? Wow, that's so cool, Kirihara-san." Ryoma heard a familiar female voice somewhere close. He was currently in an arcade with Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai. He walked away from the two since they were beginning to get a little heated up from the DDR game a few meters away. That wass when he heard her voice saying his name.

"Yeah, but it took me a lot of practice to perfect this move!" another familiar voice replied.

"But still, for you to be able to beat the high score… It's really cool!"

"Well, that's me, hahaha," he laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

Kirihara was sitting on the Tekken Game Machine with Sakuno standing next to him. She was staring at the character the second year used to beat the previous guy that challenged him. As if on cue, just when Kirihara was about to brag something else to her, the screen changed and it informed them of a new challenger.

"Oh, a new challenger, I see," Kirihara confidently said and proceeded on placing his hands on the buttons. "Just, watch me beat this guy into a pulp, Sakuno-chan!"

Sakuno smiled at him.

After three seconds…

Kirihara gaped in shock. He, the video game master, was beaten within three seconds, without even letting him move his character from his position, using some kind of a combo move he didn't even know about.

He quickly stood up and walked towards the other side of the machine to see who had beaten him. Only to see the cocky freshman tennis prodigy of Seigaku smirking arrogantly at him. Sakuno followed Kirihara and was surprised to see Ryoma, too.

"Ryoma-kun! What are you doing here?"

Ryoma kept on smirking at Kirihara. "Well… I was just interested with this game. It's the first time I played it."

Fourth, he was not interested in pictures of girls wearing bikinis and stuff, like his Oyaji's magazines.

"Oi, Seishounen!" the man wearing a black robe called loudly while stomping towards his son, who was on his way to his room.

"What?" Ryoma asked impatiently.

"Where did you hide my precious magazines?" he yelled panicky.

Ryoma smirked at him. "Somewhere where kaa-san would see."

"ARGH!" Nanjiroh pulled his hair out. "If I didn't know it any better, you just took it so that you could read it!"

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like that's ever going to happen," he said sarcastically. "I'm not interested in that garbage."

"Garbage? GARBAGE? And you dare call yourself my son?" he grabbed Ryoma's shoulder and shook it violently.

"Yeah, that fact is pretty unbelievable to me, too," he said as he wrapped his hand over the doorknob.

"But that's the Summer Special Issue!" Nanjiroh whined again.

"So? Pretty disinteresting if you would ask me. Now, leave me alone," Ryoma said irritatingly and opened the door.

Then, he felt his father's aura changing. The old man grinned at him knowingly and mischievously. "Oh, so you're not interested in girls wearing bikinis, huh?"

"Nope," Ryoma answered and was about to enter his room when his father grabbed his shoulder and turned him around.

Nanjiroh showed a bunch of pictures to his son's face.

Specifically, Ryuzaki Sakuno's pictures.

Ryoma visibly stiffened at this, which made Nanjiroh smirked victoriously. "The old hag and her granddaughter are on a vacation in Hawaii for three days. The old woman sent me this pictures, along with a postcard. I honestly couldn't believe the grandma sent me pictures of herself wearing bikinis; I almost puke while looking at them. AND THEN I saw her CUTE GRANDDAUGHTER'S pictures wearing different bikinis. That made my day!"

"Hn."

Nanjiroh grinned again. "So, let's trade! I'll give you Sakuno-chan's pictures if you return my magazines!"

"I told you, I am not interested in that," Ryoma persisted stubbornly.

"Really? And you're fine with your father handling these pictures of your girlfriend?" Nanjiroh asked aggressively.

Ryoma's brow twitched while maintaining his straight face.

Nanjiroh and Ryoma challengingly stared at each other for a while. Then, Ryoma pointed to something behind Nanjiroh. "Look, Kaa-san's glaring at you!"

Nanjiroh immediately turned around, feeling cold sweat that his wife found out about this. But when he turned around, his wife wasn't there, much to his relief. And when he turned back around to see Ryoma, the prince was already inside his room. "O-Oi, shoune—AH!" he yelled when he found out that Sakuno's pictures disappeared from his hands. "Oi Ryoma!" he knocked angrily at his son's door. "Return that to me this instant!"

"Nanjiroh…" he heard a woman's voice calling him with a freaky voice.

"R-R-R-R-R-RINKO!"

Then, Ryoma heard Nanjiroh's distant pleas to his wife not to burn the magazines she found on their bed.

Ryoma smirked triumphantly at that. Then, he looked at the pictures that he stole from Nanjiroh. All of it was Ryuzaki's pictures in different poses wearing different sets of bikinis. He looked at it with an unreadable expression. After that, he safely tucked them inside his pocket.

Fifth, he was not interested in doing his homework—especially Japanese Literature.

Ryoma propped an arm on his head in boredom. He stared at the girl sitting across him on the table. They were currently inside his room, with Sakuno tutoring him about Japan and its history of literatures. It was her compensation for him having to always tutor her in English and tennis.

"So, Ryoma-kun… do you get it now?"

Ryoma raised a brow then nodded. "Uh… yeah. Sure…"

Sakuno pouted. "Mou, you weren't listening, were you?"

"I was listening."

"Okay then… what is the last thing I said?"

Ryoma stared at her with his usual straight face. "If I understand whatever you're tutoring me about."

Sakuno sweat dropped. "Ryoma-kun… (sigh) Fine, let's take a break."

"That's the best thing you've said to me today," Ryoma stood up and sprawled on his bed.

"Ryoma-kun," she said while looking at him, "aren't you interested in what we're doing?"

"No," he replied bluntly.

Sakuno sighed again. "But today's topic is really interesting…" she said sadly.

Then, Ryoma stood up and sat back on his previous position across her. "Let's continue. I love how the main character in this historical literature beat the bad guy," he said as he began skimming the book on the table.

Sakuno raised a brow at his actions. "But didn't you just say you were not intereste—"

"And it was a nice portrayal of ancient Japan," he continued.

Sakuno laughed weakly. "Mou, Ryoma-kun… there were no fights in there. And the setting's not in feudal Japan."

Ryoma rolled his eyes sideways. "I knew that. I was just testing you."

And sixth, he was not interested in relationships.

Ryoma watched as she bowed deeply in front of an unknown guy. The guy scratched his cheek unhappily and bowed respectfully after a while. Then, the guy walked away as Sakuno kept on bowing apologetically at him.

That's when Ryoma decided to show up. "You were mean, Ryuzaki. You just dumped a... an interesting… guy."

Sakuno stared at him with a forced smile. "I really feel sorry for him… But I'm not interested in relationships yet…"

"Hn."

"Oh, what are you doing here anyway? And why were you eavesdropping?" Sakuno asked while she pouted cutely.

"I wasn't eavesdropping. I just accidentally heard your conversation."

Sakuno sighed then said, "Anou… did Tezuka-senpai dismiss you yet?"

Ryoma nodded.

Sakuno smiled. "That's good to hear. By the way," she took her bag and got something from it, "here," she showed him a ball of yarn, "I bought a toy for Karupin."

Ryoma stared at it for a while and took it. "Thanks."

"I better go now. Tomo-chan's waiting for me."

"Wait."

"Hm?"

"You said you weren't interested in relationships yet… So… to tell you the truth, I'm not interested in relationships either."

Sakuno smiled again. "So I guess that makes two of us. Well then, bye."

Ryoma pulled down the brim of his cap lower. "Yeah… so that means… since we're both disinterested in relationships, it only makes sense for us to be in one."

What was he talking about? That TOTALLY did not make sense.

A question mark popped on top of Sakuno's head. "… Eh…?"

"Ja. I'll pick you up tomorrow."

And so, even though he was a normal teenager, there were a lot of things he was not interested in that normal teenagers found interesting. He was unique and… interesting… But maybe, according to some witnesses, he would instinctually find interest in things that a certain twin-braided auburn head find amusing. Maybe it was because things would get interesting once that girl was doing it with him.

.OwArI.

A/N: This is my 30th fic yay \^u^/ Hope you guys like it ;) Review if you found it *ahem* interesting ;D Feel free to point out the grammatical errors b^^

Prince of Tennis © Konomi Takeshi.