Ultimatum
Summary: the ultimatum that starts it all;Ryoma's curiosity,Tomoka's evasion and Sakuno's development. Ryuuzaki is proactive,Tomoka is keen on masking her real feelings and Ryoma is pre-occupied with un-masking Tomoka. Eventual RyoTomo. RyoTomo feels right from the beginning.
Disclaimer: not mine, else I would have given Tomoka way more screentime and made her the main love interest.
Ch 0: a pique of curiosity
He was wedged between Osakada and Ryuuzaki, one chattering brightly at him while the other quiet and withdrawn. They had stayed back to cheer for him and ended up walking home together as a result.
He was trudging along, looking straight ahead, not bothering to respond to either, yet very aware of the "chattering girl's" repeated attempts to draw the "quiet girl" into conversation with an "indifferent him".
Osakada was wasting her breath and energy. He couldn't care less. He had no desire to make conversation with Ryuuzaki.
Nor did he desire to make conversation with Osakada , not that she ever tried to talk to him or get to know him like Ryuuzaki did.
She only ever talked at him with no break in sight. She didn't ever bother to consider if he might want to cut in, not that he ever did, but she might have let him 'not talk' to her, instead of just her talking at him and not talking to him.
Either that, or she made random attempts to involve Ryuuzaki in one-sided, conversational mixes with him. Odds of making the conversation two-sided as far as her friend was concerned were zero.
He wasn't interested in knowing more about Ryuuzaki, not in the context she was hoping for.
But that was typical Osakada around him.
And "indifferent him" was oddly affected; not by Ryuuzaki, but by Osakada.
Maybe not precisely affected, but merely a little put off, and, a little puzzled.
She was a bit of an anomaly.
Despite expressing her adoration of him more than half a dozen times, she expressed no interest whatsoever in furthering their acquaintance. Not that he cared. Her behaviour merely piqued a tiny bit of his curiosity.
He needed to get home and start swinging his racket soon.
He didn't care to think about endlessly talkative impossible to blank out girls who randomly pop up to flirt with him, nope, bother him, and then don't bother to show further interest in him to only end up piquing his curiosity.
Tennis conveniently blocked all unwanted - -
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrghf!"
What the hell?! What was with her?!
Of course, he didn't say that aloud.
He merely jerked to a halt at Osakada's out-of-the-blue, frustrated yell, as did Ryuuzaki, eyes widening for a fraction of a second before narrowing, an eyebrow raised pointedly in Osakada's direction.
She was a step ahead of them as she had kept walking through her yell. She turned around abruptly, proceeding to completely ignore him, while gesturing and pointing at Ryuuzaki.
Several incoherent noises and frustrated gestures later, she threw her hands up in the air, and made a sudden grab for Ryuuzaki, who only had time for a startled, "T-t-tomo-chan?….?.." before she was forcibly dragged a few paces away to be heatedly whispered at by her friend.
He couldn't hear them from where he was standing (she'd made sure of that) but he could guess it was obviously about him by the way she kept jabbing her finger in his direction.
He was annoyed. He could even guess the content of her pep-talk.
Was he supposed to wait until she was done talking? Hmph, he just wanted to get home.
He resumed walking, casually stepping around them, before continuing ahead to his destination in complete non-reaction…. despite catching a snippet of their conversation when walking past them.
"…if you don't start pursuing him seriously, like now, then I will go after him with all I've got …"
"…g-go after him, you say?...but Tomo-chan, d-d-do you even seriously like him?.. "
"…."
/
The pointless exchange crept back into him much later, hazy with sleep and tucked snugly under his warm comforter, with the odd, stray thought that he would have liked to hear more.