Young Love
Ryoma finally discovers his feelings for the shy brunette cheerleader… Only, he doesn't know how to tell her or how to act. So Seigaku, Hyotei and Rikkaidai have to be involved, right? Of course!
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.
Chapter One: Crush
Ryoma yawned as he sat through yet another boring English lesson. Honestly, he didn't know why he had to even have this class when he practically knew everything. The freshmen trio sitting around him were looking stressed and flustered with the lesson. Why they did was completely beyond him. He glanced up at the clock; ten minutes until he could escape the classroom and walk onto the tennis court.
To pass the time, he started listing each member of the Seigaku Tennis Club and his likes and dislikes about them.
Eiji-sempai: Likes: determined, cheerful and optimistic. Dislikes: When he ambushes me and chokes me. Momo-sempai: Likes: ditto, Eiji-sempai. Dislikes: ditto Eiji-sempai.
He went through each member, then, once finished with them, started going through the Seigaku cheer squad.
… Osakada Tomoka: Likes: … pass. Dislikes: Too loud, talks too much, generally annoying.
Glancing up at the time, only a couple of minutes remained between him and tennis. The teacher was talking monotonously; even he seemed to want the class to be over. Ryoma wasn't the only person not paying attention.
Hn… who else…? Thought Ryoma, staring out of the window and thinking. Suddenly he recalled someone else.
Ryuzaki, thought Ryoma, Likes: not as annoying, kind, hard-working, good cook. Dislikes: …
Ryoma was a bit surprised as he couldn't find anything he didn't like about the girl. She did stutter a lot more than a normal human being but he wouldn't really count that as a dislike. He didn't mind it a whole lot.
Dislikes, dislikes… thought Ryoma, frowning impatiently. Everyone had to have one dislike for everyone, right? Everyone on his list had at least one from him, whether it was being too serious, annoying, choking him practically, snooping around him for data…
But Ryuzaki had nothing.
She's too… quiet? Thought Ryoma. Then he immediately took that back. Actually he preferred silence. Ryuzaki didn't ask him any irrelevant questions and didn't pry him for details or continually blabbered in his face. It was actually rather nice being around her, until someone interrupted them somehow.
Suddenly, the bell rang loudly, nearly making Ryoma yelp in surprise. Luckily, he kept it in. Now no one would ask any questions. He quickly packed up his books and walked to the tennis courts. Finally, the whole reason he even came to school was here. Apart from the Ponta vending machine of course.
As he entered the room to get changed into the Seigaku uniform, he got changed and was about to go out when a loud voice stopped him.
"Ne, ne, Sakuno!" it said loudly. Obviously Tomoka. Ryoma automatically pressed his back against the wall between the window and door so he wouldn't be seen by his apparent Fan Club President. He just didn't need Tomoka's fawning today. Ryoma decided he'd wait until the girl went away before coming out.
"Tomo-chan!" greeted a soft, cheerful voice. Ryuzaki, definitely, decided Ryoma. He couldn't figure out what the coach's granddaughter saw in her loud friend but who knows. Maybe they were seeing a different person.
"Hurry, Sakuno!" said Tomoka impatiently, "We have to get to the courts now to see Ryoma-sama play!"
Tch, thought Ryoma, is that the whole reason she comes?
"Y-Yeah," came the reply of Sakuno.
Ryoma heard their footsteps coming back in his direction towards the courts. Their voices were clearer too. Well, Sakuno's anyway; Tomoka's could be heard a mile away.
"Ne, Sakuno, I've wanted to ask for a while…" said Tomoka casually as they walked past, "What do you like about Ryoma-sama?"
Ryoma made a surprised sound at the random question but pressed his ear against the wall harder as he listened for Sakuno's answer. Oddly, he found himself curious as well. What did the brunette like about him? As far as he could tell, they hadn't had many encounters or built much of a close friendship.
"Well, I…" said Sakuno. Just then, the door opened and someone entered the room, "Eh? Echizen!" said a voice.
Ryoma stayed put, listening.
"Oi, Echizen!" repeated the voice. He could imagine his sempai glaring at him, "Is that any way to treat your sempai? What the hell are you doing anyway?"
"Shh…" said Ryoma, trying to listen again. But the only thing he could hear now was Sakuno, "I guess that's what I like about Ryoma-kun."
"Tch," said Ryoma, missed the opportunity. He turned and glared at his sempai, "Momo-sempai!"
"Nani?" said the second year, looking confused, "What were you doing, anyway?" He seemed to think for a second, "… Were you… eavesdropping on someone?" Momo seemed incredibly excited by the idea, "Hey, who was it? What did you hear? Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened!" said Ryoma, walking around his sempai and going out the door. He could feel Momo staring at him curiously as he left, "What is his problem?" Ryoma ignored him. Instead he thought about Sakuno. What was it she liked about him? Wait, why did he even care? She was just a classmate. Like he would care what she happened to think of him. As he entered the courts, Momo following shortly after, Tezuka yelled, "All right! Everyone, gather around!"
Everyone obediently listened and stood in front of the captain.
"We'll be holding practice matches today," declared Tezuka, "The regulars shall play matches with whoever they want." He spoke to the non-regulars now, "First years and non-regulars are free to watch. However, when the matches are done, either play matches with each other, run laps or practice your basic tennis skills."
"Hai," said everyone.
"Oi, Echizen!" called Momo, walking to his side, "Let's pair up and play a match."
"Sure," said Ryoma, not being one to refuse playing tennis.
"Oh, and if I win, you have to tell me what you were doing back there!" said Momo, obviously feeling confident.
"Fine," said Ryoma. He was quite confident himself and didn't have any worries. They walked quickly to claim a court. They had a court on the end, right next to the fence. Ryoma looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Tomoka eagerly standing there of course, already holding a large 'Ryoma-sama' flag and cheering loudly. Ryoma sighed. Then he noticed Sakuno standing next to her loud friend. She simply smiled and watched like a normal person would, not cheering for anyone in particular.
Ryoma smiled slightly, causing Tomoka to scream a loud fan girl scream and looked as if she'd died and gone to heaven. Sakuno smiled awkwardly at her friend, "Not so loud, Tomo-chan…"
"Come on, Sakuno, you cheer too!" said Tomoka, grabbing Sakuno's wrist and lifting her arm to the air, "YAY! RYOMA-SAMA!"
Poor girl, thought Ryoma, looking at the blushing Sakuno. He decided to speak up for her, "You don't have to cheer if you don't want to."
Sakuno immediately started up the stammering, "A-Ah… no… I want to…"
Ryoma realised after a second that she misinterpreted what he actually meant, "I mean, I'd still know you'd be cheering for me even if you didn't say anything."
"A-ah…" said Sakuno, her blush deepening on her face, "Okay."
She looks… adorable… thought Ryoma, looking at her with her wide eyes, pink-flushed skin and dark hair framing her delicate-looking face. He didn't even realise he was staring at her until Sakuno started stammering uncomfortably, "A-Ano… Ryoma-kun…?"
"OI, Echizen!" shouted Momo, "Are you serving the ball or not?"
"Yeah," said Ryoma, bouncing the tennis ball a couple of times on the ground before holding it. He threw it up and, about to hit it, the issue of what Sakuno liked about him and her delicate, angel-like face popped into his head. He swung the racket, hitting air.
The ball dropped and bounced a couple of times next to him.
"F-Fault…?" said the non-regular, refereeing the match.
"FAULT?" yelled Momo, wide-eyed, looking at him, "Since when did you get FAULTS?"
"ECHIZEN GOT A FAULT?" everyone shouted from across the courts. Everyone suddenly started running towards their court.
"Are you OK?" shouted Oishi, crouching in front of Ryoma, "How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Three," said Ryoma, "I'm OK, don't worry about it."
"What is the world coming to?" cried Taka.
"This is unnatural," stated Inui, suddenly producing some Inui Juice from out of nowhere, "Are you taking care of your body properly? Have some nutritious Inui Juice."
"No way!" yelled Ryoma, "I'm fine anyway! There's no problem!"
"Is everything at home OK?" asked Eiji.
"Did something happen to your cat?" shouted Kaidoh.
Everyone stared at him.
"What? Everyone knows he cares for his cat the most," said Kaidoh, "Remember when he lost him here?"
"Yeah, that's right," said Syusuke, "Is everything really OK, Echizen?"
"Yes," said Ryoma as everyone stared at him, "Why is everyone obsessing over one fault? I'm not perfect or anything…"
"Everyone, back to practice!" ordered Tezuka, the only one who hadn't come running.
"H-Hai!" everyone said, obeying his words.
Tch… really… thought Ryoma as he bounced the ball again. As he did, he noticed someone out of the corner of his eye. The freshmen trio had come running, hearing the commotion. They stood beside Sakuno and Tomoka, asking questions which Ryoma could clearly hear.
"What happened?" asked Katsuo.
"Well… Ryoma-sama made a fault," explained Tomoka.
"A FAULT? ECHIZEN?" yelled Horio.
"Impossible!" cried Kachiro.
Ryoma grumbled in his head. These people were making too big of a fuss over one single fault he made.
"Echizen, how could you?" shouted Horio, "This is terrible for the first-years!"
"Like you're one to talk!" shouted Tomoka, growing violent and waving her flag back and forth in anger, "What have you ever done, huh? Nothing, that's what! And let me tell you…"
"A-Ano… Tomo-chan…" said Sakuno, stepping back to avoid being hit by the flag and tripped as she nearly stepped into the freshmen, "Ah!"
"!" Ryoma's eyes widened and a surprised sound came from him much to his surprise. He was about to call out her name when Horio caught her in his arms, "Ow!"
"Ah! Gomenasai!" Sakuno immediately said. Tomoka, Katsuo and Kachiro all stopped and looked at them.
"Are you OK?" asked Horio. He was still holding her, Ryoma noticed and his eyes narrowed and he felt rather pissed off. Unknowingly, a light shone around him.
"T-That's—" said Katsuo, one of the many staring at the glow.
"Muga no Kyochi!" cried the freshmen trio all at once.
"O-Oi, Echizen!" complained Momo, "It's just a practice match for crying out loud! You must be really defensive on what happened back then!"
"I doubt he can hear you," observed Syusuke from the court beside them.
Ryoma clutched the ball tightly in his hand. Syusuke's eyes opened, "That serve…"
"Knuckle Serve," said Momo, taking a position to brace himself, this guy, really…
Ryoma threw the ball into the air and hit it. It spun on the court and Momo braced himself to dodge it when it came to his face. But surprisingly, it didn't. Instead in bounced to the side and hit the fence exactly where Horio was standing so it nearly hit him in the face if the fence hadn't been there.
"Ah!" yelped Horio in surprise, the others following suit.
"OI, ECHIZEN, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" demanded Horio, immediately becoming angry and releasing Sakuno. Ryoma smiled and the Muga no Kyochi disappeared.
"Sorry," said Ryoma, smiling at him, feeling as if he'd just won a mental fight with the classmate.
"You're not sorry at all!" said Horio, a vein popping on his head.
Kachiro and Katsuo twitched, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu. Ryoma looked evilly happy and sounded exactly like Kirihara.
"Is it possible for the Muga no Kyochi user to actually become the person?" asked Kachiro.
"N-No…" said Tomoka, though she seemed unsure.
"F-Fifteen love!" called the referee.
Ryoma turned back to the match but he noticed Sakuno out of the corner of his eye again. Opposite to his attitude right now, she looked rather sad or scared, "Ryoma-kun…"
After practice…
Momo was pissed at the entrance to Seishun Gakuen. In the end, he had narrowly lost and he didn't get to find out what had happened in the change rooms. Plus he had to run ten laps for losing. He had a good stamina but still…
"Momo!" called a voice. Momo looked up, "Fuji-sempai!"
"What are you doing?" asked Syusuke, smiling as always.
"Waiting for Echizen. We normally walk to the burger joint and then go home."
"I see," said Syusuke, "Well, I was curious today… How did Echizen activate the Muga no Kyochi? Did something happen?"
"What do you mean?" asked Momo.
"Normally, users only activate Muga no Kyochi when they are pushed past their limit," explained the prodigy, "As far as I knew, you two hadn't even started to play yet and he activated it."
"Well…" said Momo, thinking, "I don't know…"
"Was he angered past his limit mentally somehow?" asked Syusuke, "I suppose to activate Muga, it doesn't necessarily have to be physically in which you are pushed past your limit."
"Well, I made a deal with him but it's not like him to over-react enough to be that angry…" said Momo, scratching his head.
"I see," said Syusuke, "Well, perhaps I'm the one over-reacting. Anyway, I have to go home. See you tomorrow, Momo."
"Yeah! See ya!" said Momo, smiling. Just then, Ryoma came up next to him, "Let's go, Momo-sempai."
"Yeah," said Momo, going on his bike. But then, Ryoma started heading in the opposite direction, "Eh? Echizen! Aren't we heading to the burger place?"
"I'm heading home today," said Ryoma, "I have some stuff to ask Dad."
"O…K…?" said Momo. He was confused but shrugged it off, thinking it wasn't his business to prod into, "See ya then."
"Bye," said Ryoma before walking off. As he neared his house, Ryoma wondered. He'd never activated Muga solely for hitting someone in particular. Or nearly hit them, anyway. He wasn't an idiot and could figure out he had probably felt jealousy. Over Sakuno. For some reason.
"I'm home," said Ryoma as he entered the house.
"Welcome home," called Nanako from the kitchen. From the sounds of it, she was probably washing dishes. He went into the kitchen and found his father, Nanjiro sitting there. A rare thing, for him, anyway. Usually he'd lie outside reading his porn magazines.
"Hey, Oyaji," said Ryoma, sitting down in one of the chairs.
"What is it?" asked Nanjiro, reading a porn magazine, hidden under a newspaper to trick Nanako. Really, Nanjiro didn't care too much about what his son had to say at this point.
"When would you feel jealousy?" asked Ryoma.
"Huh?" said Nanjiro, looking at his son confusedly, but still didn't think too much of it, "I don't know, something you'd feel when someone's doing something you want to do or something like that. What? You are competing with a guy for a girl or something?" Nanjiro added on the last part sarcastically. It'd be the day if his son ever took even a little interest in girls like he had.
"Maybe Ryoma has a crush!" laughed Nanako, also being sarcastic. She and Nanjiro both laughed at that.
"What's a crush?" asked Ryoma.
"You have got to be kidding me," said Nanjiro, "You've got a lot to learn, my boy!"
Ryoma glared at him, waiting for the answer.
"When you love someone with romantic feeling," said Nanjiro, enunciating each syllable as if Ryoma were mentally handicapped, "Why are you asking this, anyway? Do you have a crush? That'd be the day! HA HA HA!" he laughed loudly and Nanako joined in.
"So what if I did?" asked Ryoma.
"Eh?" said both family members. Nanako dropped a dish on the ground and Nanjiro dropped his newspaper/porn magazine.
"AH! Uncle, you're reading porn magazines again!" scolded Nanako, pointing at said item on the ground, "I thought I told you last time! I'll definitely tell Auntie this time!"
"Ah… please forgive me!" yelled Nanjiro, staring at his son instead, "And YOU have a crush? Who is it, anyway?"
"I'm not telling you." Ryoma got up and left the room quickly, letting Nanjiro deal with the wrath of Nanako. He reached his room and saw Karupin had fallen asleep on his bed. He lied on it next to the cat and stroked his head gently as not to wake him, "I developed a crush today, Karupin."
On Ryuzaki Sakuno.