Prince of Tennis (RyoSaku) Non-yaoi

Notes: Manga based, Ryoma is probably a little OOC (to me is seems like he ALWAYS is, sigh), other chapters to be posted soon, hopefully. Set sophomore (1st) year of High School.

Thank you if you are someone who voted in my poll! A total of 18 people voted, that is more votes than I thought I would get (granted one of those votes were me, heh). This story was the winner of the poll (because of my vote, lol) and so I hope you have all been looking forward to it. I meant to have it done before Christmas but I learned something about myself- I don't work well in a no-pressure environment! Lol. I also don't like to post stories until they are complete or near completion so that is why I waited to post this one.

Please read the notes before each chapter. The point of view changes and there is a flashback chapter as well. I'm pretty sure people can catch these on their own but I don't want any "Why are they suddenly here doing this?!" flames.

Info:

THE JAPANESE SCHOOL YEAR: School in Japan BEGINS in April. It typically runs April through July and then there is a 1 or 2 month summer break (depending on the school). School is then attended usually September through December and then (beginning before New Years mind you) there is a short winter break. It begins again in January and goes until March. This is all the same school year (same grade). At this point (in March) people graduate and those who still go to school change to the next grade in April. School is also in session Monday through Saturday.

THE JAPANESE CURRENCY: I use the word "en" instead of "yen" because that's the word. We just say "yen" because "en" sounds too odd to say as a measure of currency. The word "yen" actually does not exist in the Japanese language o.0 I wanted to just use the symbol for it, like the dollar sign for the US, but you have to insert it as a symbol and it would not have shown up here on 1 USD is close enough to 100 en, so something that was 1000 en would only be 10 dollars!

NAMES: You can't exactly call first and last names "first and last" correctly in Japanese because the last names are usually said first. But I didn't want to keep saying "family name" or "personal name" or something lame like that, so I just said first and last name. Forgive me bows

Thank you, and hope you enjoy.

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"It's time to start getting all my Christmas gifts bought," Tomoka said grabbing a box of pocky. "I know most of what I'd like to get. I can go grab some of it now. How about you?"

Sakuno looked longingly at the pocky and sighed.

"I do need to get Christmas gifts but I don't get very much for allowance. This is the first time I've thought you were lucky for having to baby-sit your younger brothers- at least you get paid for it sometimes."

Tomoka picked up another box of pocky and bumped Sakuno on the head with it.

"Whatever," Tomoka said, "I'm going to go grab some stuff ok?"

Sakuno nodded and Tomoka ran off to a different section of the store.

Sakuno looked longingly at the rest of the candy but shook her head. That extra box of pocky was probably for her and… well she should be spending her extra money. The 650 en she did have left wouldn't buy anything suitable for a Christmas gift for anyone… and she wasn't likely to get much more. She only got about 15 en a week. Even if she did save it and combine it with the next couple of week's allowance there were so many people she wanted to buy presents for! Her mom and dad of course, and her grandma and Tomoka and- oh, so many of the girls in her class were nice- and the girls on the tennis team too, how could she forget about them? And of course… Ryoma. Not a lot of people knew that his birthday was December 24th. She'd known him four years and only barely found out on the third… she didn't even remember how she'd dragged the information out of him in the first place. It always turned out that she couldn't end up buying all of the presents she wanted and judging by the lack of funds this year would be no different. But she had to get something for Ryoma! It was Christmas and his birthday, after all.

Sakuno walked down the aisles and watches as things got less and less fancy- 'Premium Christmas Items,' 'Cute Christmas Corner,' 'Christmas Specials" … and after that they stopped trying to associate things with Christmas. Sakuno stopped at the bin marked 'Sale.' There was nothing spectacular and nothing under 10 en either. She sighed and went to wait for Tomoka by the door. She was ready to give up looking at this store- she liked it but she couldn't afford anything. She leaned back and heard a slight clatter as she felt a distinct poke in her ribs.

"Ow!"

She's leaned back a little too hard against a bin marked 'Clearance.'

Sakuno was used to digging through the clearance bin for herself but not for other people. Still, the sign said something about under 10 en and that looked promising.

Everything that the store couldn't sell was in the bin. Plastic sandals… yeah, who would want those in a foot and a half of snow? Broken ornaments… ugly ornaments… a scary doll that's package was damaged…

Nothing was looking very promising. She usually could at least find barrettes but not this time. On the other side of the bin there were books… Hmm, maybe a discount manga for someone? Let's see… these shojo manga not even Tomoka would be interested in. Hmm, what else…

Sakuno was going to just back away- she wasn't too good of a judge of manga since she didn't read them much any way- but at the bottom of the pile of books she felt something… cushy.

Sakuno reached down and pulled out a clear plastic bag. Inside of it were two skeins of yarn and knitting needles and a book entitled "Learn How to Knit."

Sakuno turned the package over to examine it… blue and white yarn! Hey, school colors, perfect. She could make a scarf and give it to…

Sakuno's face turned red. If she made a scarf could she really give it to him? Would he like a scarf or were they too feminine? Or… would it just be too embarrassing to wear something she made? But… he did hate the cold. And a scarf was a nice personal gift if it was hand made. It was also kind of typical for girls to give scarves to the guys they liked so maybe he'd realize… No, that was expecting too much from him. But he might at least like it.

Sakuno sighed. Maybe he would. She counted her money again really quick to make sure she still had all of it and began her search for a price tag. 1600 en marked down to 1200 en marked down to… 800 en. Ah! She still couldn't afford it! She could buy it next week with her allowance but it would be gone by then. The only other thing to do was ask Tomoka to borrow 150 en but Tomoka was already buying her candy and besides, she needed the money herself. Everyone needed money around the holidays. But still, it was only 150 en and she'd pay it back. Ah! But still, just asking for it was…

Sakuno shifted her weight back and forth as she tried to decide what to do.

"You look confused," a male voice came, interrupting her thoughts.

"Eh?!" Sakuno said, looking up with a start.

"Hello there Ryuuzaki-chan!" a tall curly redhead said beaming at her.

Sakuno smiled but found herself in a bind- she wasn't sure she knew his last name. She knew everyone's name on the team, yes. After all, she'd watched their matches occasionally since junior high and she'd learned a lot from them. Most of their names were easy to remember. This one, however, everyone called by his first name so she didn't hear his last name much. And in official matches where she might have the opportunity to hear it he mostly played doubles and even the announcers called him and Oishi by their nickname, the golden pair, and not their real names. Sakuno tried to dig down in her memory but she didn't know. Was it something like Kikimeru? No, that sounded like some lame magical girl. It wasn't that she didn't have a name for him; it was just that he was a senior and she was only a sophomore so was it really ok to call him by his first name? It looked like she would have to.

Sakuno's frantic attempt to remember didn't take more than a couple of seconds in reality, so no one would have noticed, but she herself was embarrassed about it so her cheeks turned a little red as she bowed, flustered.

"H-hello Eiji-senpai. Wh-what are you doing here?"

There was a loud noise behind the magazine rack nearby that prevented her from actually hearing what he said but when he held up a bag of groceries it was pretty obvious.

"How about you," he asked, "what you got there?"

"Uh-um, it's," Sakuno wrapped her arms around the package a little tighter. On occasion when she did hang around the Seigaku tennis team she sometimes heard the regulars teasing Ryoma about her when they thought she was out of earshot.

If Eiji thought she was going to make the scarf for Ryoma they'd probably tease him about it and then he would like her even less. Or Eiji might even tease her about it here and now and she didn't do well with that kind of thing.

"It's a kit to learn how to knit. I-I've been wanting to learn how for a while now."

It wasn't a complete lie, or Sakuno would have never been able to squeak it out.

"Oh," Eiji said slyly with a little chuckle, "going to make anything for anyone in particular?"

Sakuno could almost feel her face getting redder but she knew she couldn't stutter or it would give her away.

"No," she said a little too loudly. She cleared her throat. "No, I just wanted to learn how to knit. I thought if I could get this I could learn how and make scarves for people for Christmas because buying yarn is less expensive than buying gifts for everyone and it would be home made too, so…"

"I see," Eiji replied. "So you're going to buy it?"

"Um, actually," Sakuno said setting it down again, embarrassed about her small rant, "It's 800 en and I only have 650 left. So, um, I can't afford it right now. M-maybe it'll be here next week."

"Probably not," Eiji said cocking his head to the side.

Sakuno looked back over at the kit- yeah he was probably right. It would have been nice to make scarves for her family too, though. Would have saved her some trouble.

"Hey how about this," Eiji said juggling his sack as he bounced towards the kit energetically, "I'll buy the kit for you if you make me the scarf, ok?"

"Ah, n-no, I… I couldn't have you be the one to buy it. I mean, I would feel bad, so…"

"It's no problem, really!" Eiji said. "I was going to buy a scarf that was 1300 en any way, so this will save me some money. Plus, nya, this way I'll get a scarf from a cute girl."

Sakuno was too caught up in blushing to say anything more.

"Do you think you can finish it before school gets out for break?"

Oh that's right. Winter break was fast approaching. And the seniors would be taking big tests and getting ready to graduate and things like that.

"I'm pretty fast with crafts so I can probably get it done way before then," Sakuno said hoping that she didn't regret her words.

"Ok then," Eiji said heading off to the registers.

"H-hey I don't need you to buy it for me," Sakuno said following, "just giving me the 150 en is more than enough!"

"Naw, you're going to knit it all by hand. I insist!"

Eiji bought the kit while Sakuno looked on helplessly. She'd been around the regulars a lot and on occasion she would make them food so they seemed to like her well enough but she wasn't sure they were really friends or anything- especially with the seniors since this was only her second year around them. Eiji must just be a nice guy.

"Here you go," he said handing her the bag.

"Thank you very much," she said bowing deeply.

"No problem. I'm looking forward to it, nya!"

Sakuno managed a smile in her nerve-wracked state.

"See you around Sakuno-chan!" he said skipping out the door.

"Y-yes," she said waving awkwardly.

Sakuno tried to let a deep breath out then but she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Sakuno jumped and the hand pulled away.

"Ah, Sakuno, you're jumpy!" Tomoka said.

"S-sorry."

"Were you talking to Eiji-senpai just now?"

"Yeah, that was him," Sakuno said pointing in the direction he'd run off to.

"Lucky," Tomoka said fishing around her bag.

"Here's this," she said holding out the box of pocky.

"You don't have to get me things like that," Sakuno said.

"Well duh, I know. But you're my friend and I could tell you wanted some."

Sakuno smiled and accepted the box.

"Thank you."

"So what did you get?" Tomoka said glancing at her bag.

"Uh, a knitting kit," Sakuno said.

"Oh. Are you going to make a scarf for Ryoma-sama?! How cute! How did you afford it though? How much do you have left?"

"Um I still have 650 en. Actually, the scarf will be for Eiji-senpai since he um… bought the kit for me."

"What?" Tomoka said as Sakuno hurried her out the door since she knew Tomoka would only get louder.

"LUCKY!!!" she said about three times as loud just outside.

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Sorry if there are minor errors, it was typed up fast and still no proofreader. I am having trouble with the title, so is this one ok? And also I'm not sure about the rating, it could probably be K, should I change it? I dunno, I guess it doesn't matter. Please tell me if you are looking forward to the next chapter! It'll make me type it faster, lol. :)