Sweets Talk, a prince of tennis fanfic

STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLIED.

Happy Birthday Echizen Ryoma-sama! And Happy Christmas Eve to everyone! :D Well, if it wasn't for him and Him, I wouldn't have passed a fic today. I really want to take this as some writing exercise, but of course with caution. (Don't sue me!) Ah, sudden inspiration hit me when I finished reading two chapters of xMeme's Close Encounter of the Foreign Kind (a Prince of Tennis/Axis Powers Hetelia Crossover). You should read it too, *nods* if you want to see Ryoma's priceless reactions when he's being jealous, which includes Nemo, PUTTUN and the billboard g-ow, yes. I'm spoiling it.

WARNING: FLUFF. NOT beta-ed, and rushed, so expect rushed results, too. And too much cheesiness, I can tell. But, okay. You can read it somehow though.

OH! Well, by all means read on.

Echizen Ryoma couldn't believe this.

There was no way in hell that he would believe this.

"Good afternoon sir!" A woman on her late teens greeted him with an amiable smile. "Are you meeting up with someone?"

"Aa," he curtly replied. "A table for two please."

"Right away sir," she responded cheerfully and motioned him to follow her to the table he asked for. After he found his seat, the waitress handed the menu to him and politely asked if he wanted something at the moment.

"Water please," he answered feeling weird as the girl looked at him with fluttering eyelashes, that he almost wanted to ask if she have something on her eyes.

"Yes sir."

Yes, Echizen Ryoma didn't mind dates. Actually, he secretly wanted it, though he wouldn't outwardly show it of course. But this one seemed to cross the line of his dating history.

"Oi Echizen," Momoshiro Takeshi called him with a toothy grin, "I heard you and Ryuuzaki will go out this Saturday. Mind if we go on a double date?"

"No."

"You're kidding right?"

"No."

To be honest, it wasn't such a bad idea. Double dates, that is. Actually, it could've been a lot better if it were a double date. It could totally lessen the awkward air, and of course, meals in groups, such as ordering a tray of sushi, would be a lot more practical than buying snacks and tickets-for-two to watch a movie. But he almost did a double take as he overheard the girls on his class talking about the same place that Sakuno mentioned to him sometime earlier.

"Hello? Otakuchiin Maid Café (1)! How may I help you?" He overheard the girl with a cheery voice by the counter, seemingly talking to a costumer on the phone.

My, how convenient. A maid café.

Right, screw the double dates. He was so dead. Dead in more ways than one.

First off, he couldn't imagine on how his old man would laugh at him, knowing that he had gone to a maid café for a date. Seriously, if Ryoma let his father's will be done, the old man would "whole-heartedly" suggest that they should go in a motel or something for a change. For as he would always say (he claims that it's one of his 'Words of Wisdom'), 'High school is high school. You can never turn back time, son.' Add a loud, conceited laugh to that and you'd pretty much get the whole scene.

But of course, like Ryuuzaki-sensei would even approve that.

Speaking of the devil, there was Ryuuzaki-sensei. She had been informed of their many dates, but never disagreed to any of them. Well, that shouldn't be surprising since he knew she always wanted him for her granddaughter. Yet as much as he sounded egotistical and self-centered at the thought, he silently hoped that Sakuno kept her mouth shut this time.

And then there were his brother and his senpai-tachi, namely Echizen Ryoga, Momoshiro Takeshi and Kikumaru Eiji. He didn't mind to take note the other regulars, for he just needed the masterminds to do the job. Which reminded him that he shouldn't be alarmed if this maid café date was a part of their many dirty schemes. Well, he wouldn't care about their snickers and wolf-whistles if it was a normal date on a normal day. Actually, it was a habit that seemed to haunt him on a daily basis, so he didn't bother complaining. But the fact that it was not a normal date on a not-so-normal day made an unpleasant sensation that he came to realize he just did another instant subject for the others to laugh about.

Besides, the sole idea of him being inside a maid café was plain strange. Girls in maid costumes weren't really such a sight for him. For Ryoga, it was, but not for him.

So, with all that in mind, a question hit him.

Why would Sakuno want a date on a maid café?

Initially, it wasn't the most suiting place for dates. Actually, it could be the least place you could think of, simply because it wasn't the place for such. All the while he thought that it was the "haven" for those manga artists-wannabe and the… simple otakus alike.

Not that he had been into a maid café before.

Oh of course, he didn't like the sound of free clicking pens. Free clicking pens with anime character heads as its clicker.

Also, he knew that she was aware of their senpai-tachi as well. No questions about that, because even if Sakuno was that dumb when it came to sensing stalkers, they were being way too obvious not to spot. So, that roughly means that she wouldn't even consider a maid café. But of course, that's not how it happened.

Huff, huff.

Third was that, the menu came a bit too sweet for his liking. It was composed of cakes and drinks with fancy names he didn't even feel the need to remember. He even want to consider liking the names of his Inui-senpai's "toxic" juices more than the cafe's 'Love-love Chocolate Cake' or the 'Yum-yum Chocolate Drink' which, as they say, would make a couple marry on the next day or a poor man win his lottery ticket if they eat it the day before.

Blah, busted.

Looking at the fancy names written on the café's menu, he then remembered his Ryuuzaki being totally into sweets. He knew girls shouldn't be that conscious with their figures or a food's calorie count, for 'true love,' as they would call it, wouldn't crumble with a waistline a little out of twenty-four(2) (though, most men prefer the twenty-four, as Ryoga would point out).

But her so-called "addiction" to sweets brought her no good.

One time they decided to have a movie marathon on her house. True, their snacks were ready, for a bowl of popcorn and chips were present, but so as three boxes of Toblerone and Babe Ruth. Three boxes each.

"Chocolate's a good depressant, Ryoma-kun. It gives the body happy hormones, making someone calmer," she reasoned out. "Know what? We should try watching horror movies with these."

And then they started their movie marathon with Saw II.

Despite the "happy hormones" of the chocolate she was talking about, her Toblerone and Babe Ruth did nothing when she saw the woman on the screen swimming on a pool of syringe. She only needed a big pillow to cover her face and a teddy bear hug, Ryoma mentally noted.

Another time was when they were having a supposed-to-be normal lunch on one normal day. They were walking their merry way to the cafeteria when her loud-mouthed friend Osakada pulled her, causing her to almost fall from the school's staircase.

"Sakuno-chan! They're selling Stawberry Ice Cream today! Hurry!"

And that mere statement took Ryoma's chance to have a peaceful lunch that day. It could have been so much better to eat onigiri or Korokke(3) of the school's canteen than to be forced with Strawberry Ice Cream, just because Sakuno insisted she was on a "diet."

He glanced and all the while furrowed a brow at the fancy Pikachu clock hanging on the café's pink wall. It read 4:00 PM. Great, now he had been waiting for two hours…and counting. Yet surprisingly, he almost didn't notice it until he looked the distracting clock.

And then it hit him. Ryuuzaki Sakuno had been missing for two hours too.

He was about to stand up to start finding her when a familiar voice made him turn to the direction of its owner.

"Ryoma-kun!" she waved at him, panting as she arrived the café's entrance and reached where he was. "I'm sorry…I'm…late."

"It's all right. Didn't have much to do anyway." He replied as he turned to his seat again, yet mentally wished it to all end.

"H-Have you been waiting that long?" she frowned while sitting on a seat across him, knowing that she brought him to something she thought he disliked.

"No," he replied with an amused expression, "I just got here." He couldn't seem to get how her face and expressions flush all the irritation he have in an instant.

"Oh, I see," seeing that her companion wasn't, in any way, mad at her being late, she smiled then continued, "by the way, Ryoma-kun, you have to taste their Raspberry Cheese Cake, it's really delicious, and healthy too!" she paused, yet her eyes continued to scan the café's menu.

Of course, just as he expected. It was the Raspberry Cheese Cake that brought the two of them here.

And so they began to order when Sakuno called the waitress who weirdly giggled at the sight of them. Ryoma was about to ask what the heck was wrong when Sakuno cut him with their orders.

And as they were eating, Sakuno put out a box from its paper bag and handed it to him. "Open it," she ordered meekly.

Oh, and what do you know, it's a…cake. A cake with his face on the center, to be precise.

"Happy birthday Ryoma-kun!" now, it was her turn to give him a teddy bear hug, "Sorry, I waited that to be made on the store just across here. You can bring that at home though. It's raspberry!"

Ryoma then had his infamous smirk dripping on his face.

Opps, Sakuno. Wrong move.

He placed his lips on her right ear and whispered, "Mada mada dane, Ryuuzaki."

Talk about spending his birthday on a maid café. Anyway, he didn't mind as it wasn't that bad at all.

----

Meanwhile…

"So, do you think he's enjoying it?"

"Your eyes won't fool you, Ryoga-chan. Look! Hah, of course, I suggested the maid café to Ryuuzaki-chan, so that's just to be expected."

"Hah, you're talking too much, Momo-chin. Do you even realize that you're late on your date with Tachibana-chan?"

"Ow, shoot!"

-owari-

(1) – Yes, I made it up. *shot* Lame huh? Well, whatever.

(2) – In case you'd wonder, twenty-four is the perfect waistline measure for females. Or, at least that's what I know.

Thank you for reading! Comments, as always, are lovely and highly appreciated. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Date Submitted: December 24, 2009. :)