Gelly: So, before rewriting the last chapter, I thought I'd clean up the earlier ones first.

…I'm totally not just buying time, no wayyyy. *shot*

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PRINCE OF TENNIS

oOo

Unexpected Visitors

oOo

The view outside was beautiful. The flowers in her garden were in full bloom, the grass was as green as it could be, and the trees were slowly dancing to the calming tune made by the whistling wind. She could hear the younger kids screaming in delight as they played to their heart's content—today was the last day on summer break, after all.

It was beautiful, but she paid them no mind.

Inside her room, she stayed still, face and soul empty and longing. The chair placed in front of the window was her make-shift haven as she stared at the passing forms of children.

Haven was it?

No, it was nothing like it at all.

'Where are you?' a warped voice ringed inside her head. 'How long has it been?'

It was her own voice, asking rhetorical questions.

'Will we ever see each other again?

'Would you still recognize me?

'Would you accept me back into your life?'

A knock jolted her back into earth.

"Come in… Ah, Izumi-san, good morning, you seem to be in a good mood today," she greeted the visitor with a gentle but seemingly blank smile.

"Well, both of us should be!" The man was wearing a wide smile in his face, indicating that he was proud of an accomplishment that he had made.

"Really? And why is that?" She felt her heart skip a beat, she didn't know why but she suddenly felt revived by the man's previous statement.

Could this be it? Could this man be holding the answers to her previous questions?

"I've finally found them—her."

"You… have…?"

The man's smile grew even wider as he saw the expression she now held. It was a cross between utter shock and bliss. Pleased with her reaction, he handed her a folder to confirm his report.

She took, and opened it. After a few seconds of skimming through it, she continued to stare at the man and at the folder; no one could explain how she felt at that moment. The only way to describe it would be to say that her whole world had begun to lighten up.

There was a moment of silence as he let the young girl recollect herself and absorb the news fully.

"T-thank you." She blinked once, twice. "Thank you, Izumi-san, thank you," she repeated. She gave the man a genuine, sweet, wide smile.

The man nodded and felt his own smile incomparable to hers.

He knew he had done a good job.

After a few more words and transactions were made, he left, leaving the girl to gaze upon the window once more, but this time the smiling expression never left her face as she began to fully appreciate the beauty of the view outside.

She clutched the folder tighter to her chest, afraid it might disappear.

Slowly, yes, slowly the answers will come, and finally after all of these years, they can be together again.

She closed her eyes and breathed deep. She muttured a small prayer, ending it with a small wish.

"I hope you can still remember me, my Chibisaku… My darling Sakuno…"

oOo

"Oi! Get Up!"

Ryoma, aged 15 and still as hard as ever to wake up, responded eloquently with a groan before stuffing his head under a pillow.

"Hey! Chibisuke! Come on! Wake up already!"

The shouts reached deaf ears.

Annoyed, Ryoga, who was wondering why he volunteered to do the impossible (oh wait, he didn't. He was forced to do it) felt it was time to use his last resort. With a smirk, he took the ends of his younger brother's bed covers, and with the strength of more than ten years of tennis practice, he pulled.

A satisfying drop from the unrolled Ryoma was heard.

"Ouch! Hey! Why did you do that?!" Ryoma, who was now certainly awake, shouted.

"What? All I did was grab your blanket. You fell on your own." Ryoga leered and waved a finger in the air. "Mada mada daze, Chibisuke."

"You… What are you doing here?" Ryoma asked, shocked (Wait, no! He was not shocked. He was just… not curious but still decided to use his rights to demand an answer. Yes, that was it) that his brother was here when he was supposed to be in America.

Ryoga shrugged. "Why do you ask? Am I not allowed to visit my wonderful family in Japan? Chibisuke, are you implying that I should be forever confined in America, deprived of the presence of my sweet and living brother?! How sad you are making me!" he said, ending it with his hand clutching his heart to feign sadness.

However, he was so caught up in his dramatic monologue (he even shed tears, damn it!) that he did not notice the younger boy leave his room.

oOo

At the dining room, the smell of Japanese food lingered in the air.

Ryoma approved of his mother's choice of breakfast and decided that he might let his brother's rude style of waking him up slip. Might.

"Mom, why is Ryoga here?" he off-handedly asked as he sat down and began petting Karupin.

"Oh, Ryoma you're finally awake! Look, I made your favorite Japanese breakfast!" Rinko greeted the still-sleepy boy with a lively good morning and a steaming helping of his breakfast. "Ryoga's in vacation and came here to visit us, isn't that nice? He'll be staying here for a couple of months."

Ryoma just nodded (See? He was not curious and shocked at all) then proceeded to eat his food, ignoring his father who was trying to share his 'newspaper' and all the other perverted antics his father and brother did or discussed. The two managed to receive a blow from an annoyed Rinko and Nanako.

Breakfast thankfully passed by quickly enough, and soon Ryoma was ready for school.

"I'll be leaving now," he called out as he put on his shoes.

"Wait Chibisuke," Ryoga shouted from the dining room. Ryoma could hear him saying goodbye to their parents and cousin before Ryoma finally saw his brother exit the room with toast in his mouth. "I'll accompany you to school!"

As he approached Ryoma, the younger boy raised an eyebrow… and his head, because even though he grew a few good inches, he was still shorter than his brother.

Ryoga simply shrugged, grinned, and said, "Well, I don't have anything better to do, and your school has the same path as this place that I'll be going to later." Ryoma did not lower his raised eyebrow. "…And I also wanted to see all the cute girls in your school." The older boy's grin grew even wider as he revealed his true motive.

Ryoma rolled his eyes at his brother's statement and started walking towards the direction of his school. Ryoga, assuming that he had been given permission, followed after with an orange that he grabbed from the table near the front door.

oOo

A one-year-old Sakuno winced in pain as she tripped on her own feet. The scenery around turned even blurrier than before, and while she did not feel any real pain, she began sniffing.

"Chibisaku! Are you okay?"

A little girl that looked older than her rushed to her side and wiped her faced with a handkerchief.

"Did you get a bruise? Now, now don't cry! Don't cry, Chibisaku!"

Sakuno hiccupped and whimpered, making the older one frantic while trying to make her stop.

"No, no, no! Don't! Chibisaku, look! See, everything's alright. You didn't get any bruises! Please don't cry! Ah! I know, why don't we buy an ice cream to make you feel better?"

With this proposition the younger girl brightened up. The older girl, relieved, took her hand and led her to the ice cream man. They grinned at each other while enjoying their cones, the earlier accident completely forgotten.

But she dropped her ice cream cone. She bent down to pick it up but it kept getting farther and farther away from her. No, it wasn't moving away from her; she was the one being taken away from it. She could feel two arms wrapped around her, lifting her up, taking her away. Taking her away from the cone… away from the other girl.

"No, please! Why can't we stay together? No! Don't take me away from her!" The same girl, looking a bit older now, was trying to break away from the grasp of a woman. She was struggling to reach a two-year old Sakuno who wailing as Sumire held her.

"Your grandmother cannot take care of the two of you so you have to stay with us," the woman explained as she tugged on the girl's hand.

"But I can take care of Sakuno and myself!" the young girl retorted and tried to escape, again.

"No, you're still too young." The woman tightened her grip on the young girl. "You must understand! There is nothing else that you—we—can do."

And with that she took the struggling girl away.

"Chibisaku! Sis! I'll come back! I promise I'll come back for you! I promise, Sakuno!"

These were the young girl's final words to the baby. They reached out their hands to one another; both had their small tear-stained faces and tiny voices pleading to be with each other.

Sakuno pushed away from Sumire's chest. She wanted to be with the other girl.

She cried and cried and cried, but no one could hear her voice. The alarm bells all around her were too loud, engulfing all the sounds coming from the little girl. It was almost… suffocating.

A 15-year-old Sakuno woke up from her dream, gasping. She used her pale hand to run over her hair, feeling her own cold sweat.

She stared at the ceiling.

The dream felt so real. Could it have been an old memory of hers?

Sakuno tried to rack her brain into remembering the things she saw. There was Sumire, an unfamiliar woman, and another unfamiliar young girl. The young girl in her dream seemed very important and familiar, but Sakuno cannot remember anyone who had ever called her 'Chibisaku'.

Who was she?

Shaking her head to dismiss the thought, Sakuno quickly turned off her alarm clock, squealing when she realized that it was the third time that it had gone off.

Luckily she set the alarm earlier for the first day of class. She still had enough time if she hurried.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she quickly dressed herself and fixed her hair to its normal braided pigtail style. She was in high school now, but she still liked her hair that way. She knew what the others said about it, that it was childish and out of style, but it was her own choice and with the courage she tried so hard to grow over the years, she let the hairstyle stay.

By breakfast, she had already forgotten all about her dream.

She was too busy thinking about the day ahead that it had slipped her mind. She blushed as she recalled her real reason for setting the alarm an hour earlier. It was not so she could arrive early for her first day of high school, but rather, her real motive was to catch a certain Echizen Ryoma on his way to school.

"Ryoma-kun," she whispered to herself.

Yes, after all of these years, her admiration for Ryoma Echizen still had not faded. In fact, it seemed to evolve into something more akin to love.

She had not confessed before, despite Tomoka's urging. She, however, did try her best in dropping hints here and there. Tomoka told her it wouldn't work. Ryoma was also the prince of denseness, after all. But what was she to do? Confessing was still out of her league.

She sighed.

Mada mada dane, Sakuno.

Despaired by her own train of thoughts, she didn't notice the person walking in front of her. The impact of the collision caused her frail body to fall backwards. She shut her eyes, waiting for impact and pain.

It never came.

Instead, steady arms managed to catch her and break her fall.

"Are you all right?" the man asked her.

"Y-yes…Sorry…" She slowly opened her eyes to see who her 'savior' was.

oOo

The Echizen siblings were making their way towards Ryoma's school. All along the way Ryoga was trying his best to start a conversation with his brother, but like everybody else, he failed. The younger boy would just reply with very few words… if he replied at all; most of the time he would just nod, shrug, glare, or completely ignore his brother (he was still pissed about the morning incident in his room).

Their 'lively' conversation was interrupted, however, when they heard someone squeak after bumping into them. They quickly turned their heads in time to see Sakuno Ryuzaki falling backwards.

Reflex was put into work.

"Are you all right?"

"Y-yes… Sorry…"

"No need to be sorry."

When she opened her eyes Sakuno was shocked to see the man who rescued her.

"Ryoma-kun?" she nervously asked. Was this a dream? Ryoma had his arms around her in a sort of embrace to keep her from reaching to ground. Could this happen in real life?

The man set her down while giving her a questioning look after hearing the name.

Sakuno blushed at her error. It was no dream, but it also wasn't real. Ryoma did not save her. This man, Sakuno sneaked another look at his face, simply looked similar to her prince.

"I'm so sorry!" She immediately bowed to her savior. "I t-thought you were someone else," she stuttered while looking at her feet and blushing three different kinds of red from the embarrassment she caused herself.

It seemed the man did not hear her, though, as he was too busy shouting, "Oi, Chibisuke. Do you know this girl? I think she just mentioned your name."

She raised her head to see him talking to another more familiar face. She gasped. "Ryoma-kun!" she shouted, prompting another round of blushing.

"…Ryuzaki?" Ryoma hesitantly asked, not really sure if that was the girl's name.It was easy to recognize her (at least by face), the granddaughter of their former coach, she still wore the same long pigtailed hair, after all. He reassessed her. Long hair, check. Clumsy, check. Stuttering, check.

Yup. Most probably her.

Ryoga nodded. "So you do know her. Oh! Hey, Chibisuke, is she your girlfriend?" Ryoma asked while a cheesy perverted grin appeared as he mentioned the term 'girlfriend'.

Sakuno and Ryoma blushed (in varying degrees).

"Of course not," Ryoma managed to answer while trying to hide his blush behind his hat.

"W-we're just…Um… We're just…" Sakuno paused.

What were they? She would have said they were friends, but even that status was questionable. After all, Ryoma probably doesn't even know her first name.

"We're just friends," Ryoma decidedly answered.

Sakuno's eyes widened. Ryoma did consider her as his friend! It wasn't as that much of an acknowledgement on Ryoma's part, but it was certainly enough to make Sakuno happy. It meant she wasn't just another classmate or acquaintance.

She was his friend.

"Really, that's too bad Chibisuke," Ryoga tried to sound disappointed. "But since that's the case, you wouldn't mind if I take her then, ne?"

Sakuno blushed as red as she could.

"You know, you are very, very cute! Would you like to go out with me?" The smiling Ryoga lifted Sakuno's hand and kissed it.

Sakuno was at loss for words. Panicking, she looked at Ryoma as if the boy had all the answers. Unfortunately, the only thing she got from glancing at his was that she knew that he was now bored.

She was on her own, it seems. She looked at the guy again. He was really nice and good-looking (he looked like Ryoma, after all), she thought, and he did save her life, but there was one huge problem.

"B-but…I don't even know you…"

The guy's eyes widened a bit. He then released Sakuno from his grasp and laughed. How silly of him!

"You're right!" he said in between laughs. "Sorry about that!" When his laughter died down, he gave a stunning smile to Sakuno and said charmingly, "My name is Ryoga. Nice to meet you miss…?"

"O-oh! It's Ryuzaki Sakuno... Nice to meet you, too, Ryoga-san," she said while bowing. "And thank you for catching me when I fell," she added with a sweet smile. She was surprised at how Ryoga was easily able to make the atmosphere light. Maybe because he called Ryoma 'Chibisuke'. The charming nickname could make any girl amused.

Ryoma saw the whole scene and was laughing mentally at how stupid his brother was. Sakuno had been amusing, too, looking so shocked and embarrassed. It was cute.

…Hold it.

Rewind.

…Cute?

Cute?!

What was he thinking?!

It was definitely hormones, just the hormones of a regular, healthy teenager. Yes. Hormones.

The same hormones of a regular, healthy teenager that was currently making him feel jealous (god, why does he even know these kinds of emotions?) when Ryoga asked Sakuno out.

Ryoma frowned.

Stupid hormones. Go away. You do not help with tennis at all, anyway.

He looked at the smiling Sakuno.

And the stupid hormones started acting up again.

Annoyed, he walked away from them (figuratively and literally).

"Ryoma-kun is leaving," Sakuno gasped. Without any hesitation, she quickly toddled after him, leaving her conversation with Ryoga hanging. "R-ryoma-kun! Wait!" she tried to shout after him, but in reality, it was only as loud as a few decibels.

Ryoga was stunned at seeing a cute girl leave him in favor of his brother. How could anyone have resisted him?! He even put on his most dazzling act!

Then realization struck him.

Ryoga grinned. It was obviously a case of shy-girl-likes-oblivious-boy-who-secretly-tries-to-hide-his-own-growing-feelings-for-the-shy-girl.

He sniffed. His Chibisuke was (finally) growing up!

Oh, but he would definitely want to see more of this couple. He has already decided to be their stalke—er, that he shall bear witness to the growth of their love! Yeah! And then he'll make a script out of it and then send it to some Hollywood company to be turned into a movie.

He'll be rich.