Title: The Un-Romantic Kiss
Rating: PG
Characters: Prince of Tennis – Ryoma, Sakuno
Disclaimer: If I were Konomi-sensei, I'd make Sakuno appear more on PoT manga. There! One of my three magical wishes.

Everyone knew. The first time that they kissed was definitely not romantic.

It was right after Seigaku had won the nationals, and the team plus the entire Seigaku tennis club were celebrating in the Kuwamura Sushi Shop. Sake were passed about like napkins (one-time courtesy of Taka-san's father), and trouble only became more pronounced as cups were drained faster than Kikumaru's Seal Step.

It's strongly advised not to go to Ryoma for details on what happened that night. Aside from the possibility of being murdered, he could really say nothing as the young tennis prodigy had fallen asleep on the counter even before Taka-san could take his order. Sakuno, being the other party involved, is also not much help on the matter; as the only sign of her being somewhat more alive than Ryoma is the alarming amount of rouge in those usually pale cheeks that night.

In fact, they didn't even know what had happened until the next morning.

Amidst all the hoots and whistles (intercepted with the occasional glare), Ryoma and Sakuno walked into Seishun Gakuen with question marks hovering above their heads – well, Sakuno did, Ryoma had initially assumed that they were simply celebrating Seigaku victory – that is, until Horio and Tomoka respectively led them to the school notice board.

Two bags had dropped to the floor. And everyone just knew.

Momoshiro and Kikumaru were dead.

There, decorated ludicrously with pink hearts and some incoherent writing (which Inui later deciphered to be the kanji for 'love'), was a blown up photo of Ryoma and Sakuno laying faced down on a table, heads turned towards each other, eyes blissfully closed and lips touching.

Oh yes, Momoshiro and Kikumaru were most definitely dead.

Sakuno had burst into tears. Her hands flew to her face as she wailed loudly. The sound of sobbing followed her down the corridor as the masses stood around, perplexed. Perhaps Echizen had dumped her already? Gossip continued, immune to the situation. A few girls cheered up considerably at that.

Ryoma's reaction, on the other hand, was slightly different.

There was a long silence.

…

Which carried on.

…

And on...

…

And on…

"Echiz-"

A demonically misshapen hand shot out from nowhere (rumours had retold), and Horio stumbled back in alarm. It tore the photo from the wall in one violent action and balled it into a fist.

"Where," Ryoma spoke, "are the upper-year classrooms?"

The voice was calm and controlled, but the fury radiating off Ryoma's frightening still body exceeded that of Taka-san's – Horio had insisted. He weakly pointed to the right and stuttered, "O-Over there."

Indeed. By then Inui had already predicted that Kikumaru and Momoshiro would suffer four bumps on the head each, two black eyes, one bleeding lip and an overall hospital stay of five days. His data proved to be wrong however, as both sportsmen attained seven days in hospital on their own, as well as a school absence record of three extra days. An embarrassed Inui admitted he had forgotten to take Tezuka, Oishi, Kaidoh and Ryuzaki-sensei's share of damage into his report.

However, redemption was at hand. The validity of his data was displayed to all scorners as he announced the probability of Echizen Ryoma and Ryuzaki Sakuno starting a love relationship had increased to 98 percent. It was, of course, proved to be true.

The other 2 percent, he later stated, was if Echizen had been gay.

This landed him two tennis balls on the head, although of course, it was all within calculations.

All in all, their first kiss was not romantic in any way, shape or form. Ryoma didn't care much. Who would? He thought, when all the other kisses after that were absolutely fine and consciously-made. Oishi scolded him for thinking in such a way, and gave him a long-winded lecture that lasted for two hours on the importance of such things to a girl. By the end of it, Ryoma was bored, sleepy, and still didn't understand. Oishi sighed heavily, and thought to himself perhaps it would've been easier if Echizen was gay…

In the other corner, Sakuno did mind. Her puffy eyes after Tomoka finally dragged her out of the toilets proved that. It was her first kiss, and to be taken like that, then displayed before everybody… with her drunk no less! (Sakuno shuddered, remembering her grandmother's anger that night) But, on another note, she was also thankful for it. For without the "incident" – as Tomoka now refers to it by – who knows when she would finally pluck up the courage to ask Ryoma out on a date (if asking him to coach her tennis indeed counts as a date).

Come to think of it, she should be extremely thankful that it was Ryoma and not some other guy. Who knows what would've happened then…

Ryoma had also considered this possibility, and his face soured each time he thought about it. If he had been forced to kiss a girl he didn't even know (or even worse, that Osakada girl), he was sure Kikumaru and Momoshiro would have been in the hospital for a month. And if Sakuno had been unwittingly paired off with another guy, let's just say no amount of surgery will be able to reacquaint the world with either of the sempais' faces.

The story finished, and Kikumaru and Momoshiro cried unfair.

Ryoma pointedly ignored them.

They whined for credit in his love life, and moaned for him to thank them properly.

Fuji smiled as an anger tick marked the young boy's head.

They wept dramatically and wailed that Ryoma will remain a virgin forever without them.

Sakuno blushed, and Ryoma kicked both sempais out, cheeks aflame; Fuji only smiled broader.

Mada mada dane... Things have only just started getting interesting.

Author's Note:
Gosh, what a lame ending. I'm really sorry, but I couldn't think of any way to end it without it dragging too long.
I'm going to make this into a drabbles collection, a series of one-shots. It's easier to update that way. But what should I call it? "Drabbles collection" sounds dull, "30 kisses" is overused, but I suppose it'd be okay. Suggestions? Or maybe I shouldn't continue at all :(
I hope you like this, it's my first time writing a PoT story. I just think this pairing (like so many of my favourite pairings) deserve more love!!