Underneath the Orange Tree
by kawaii-witch181
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched; they must be felt with the heart."
Echizen Ryoma smiled. More like a small smile formed on his lips. A tiny photo was clutched in his hands as he remembered that time. That time when he first met Ryuzaki Sakuno.
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The Echizen Family recently moved to Tokyo, Japan and settled in their now temple-like home. A five-year old Echizen Ryoma was reaching for an orange. A tennis ball came flying out of nowhere that made the orange fruit fall from the tree.. But a hand caught it before it touched the grassy ground.
"Mada mada daze, Ryoma." A ten-year old Echizen Ryoga said and bit the orange. He immediately ran away.
"Give me back my orange, Ryoga!" Ryoma chased his brother all around the garden.
"Ryoma! Ryoga! Time for your snack." Their mother, Echizen Rinko called.
"Hai." were their only reply. Ryoma hurriedly went in the house, their orange chase now forgotten. Man, he was hungry!
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-Dining Room/Snack Room-
Sweets and cakes greeted Ryoma's sight. A circular sachertorte chocolate cake & a strawberry pound cake which is topped with slices of strawberry and light pink icing were set on the table. For Japanese food, taiyaki (fish shaped Japanese sweets filed with red bean paste or custard) was set. As for the drinks, we have the hot chocolate tea. Rinko thought that the children need to drink tea just this time and they'll eventually love it since it is chocolate flavored.
Amber feline eyes stared at their guest. A girl about his age with two long auburn braids was seated there in front of the table. A bright smile was plastered on her face as she ate her strawberry cake.
"Hey! That's mine!" Litte Ryoma yelled. (He still didn't recover from the orange chase) He went to little Sakuno and got the plate from her. The said girl began to tear up.
"Ryoma! Apologize!" Rinko demanded.
"But okaa-san!" Ryoma began in reasoning out.
"Ryoma." Rinko silenced him with a glare.
The young tennis prince turned to the girl who was now wiping her river-like tears in an attempt to stop it.
"Gomen, here." Ryoma offered her plate.
Sakuno sniffed. "A-Arigatou."
Rinko smiled. She's sure the two will be good friends….or perhaps something more..in the near future.
"Ryoma, where's Ryoga?" She asked.
"Playing tennis with baka oyaji. He said he'll eat later." Ryoma replied, while munching on a taiyaki.
Rinko suddenly clasped her hands as if she has just remembered something.
"Sa-chan! Meet Ryoma. And Ryoma meet Sakuno. Her grandmother will be busy for today so she left Sakuno-chan here for a while. Play with her okay?" Rinko then left the two, after awhile. Silence engulfed the two youngsters.
"A-anou, you play tennis?" Sakuno started a conversation.
Ryoma nodded. "Though, not that good to beat baka oyaji nor that baka Ryoga yet."
Sakuno smiled brightly. "I'm sure you'll be really good at it, Ryoma-kun."
"Hn."
Hours have passed as the two spent their time together in the garden. They would have a conversation but Sakuno will do most of the talking. One time, while the auburn girl and the dark green haired lad ran around the garden, Sakuno stumbled forward, resulting to a scraped knee.
"Ittai!" Little Sakuno began to cry.
"O-oi! Don't cry." Ryoma began to panic. He doesn't know what to do!
A bright idea came to his little mind.
"Wait here." He said to little Sakuno-chan who waited under the orange tree.
Chocolate brown orbs followed the disappearing figure of the tennis prince. A few seconds after, Ryoma came into view. A band-aid can be seen in his little hand.
The young tennis prince blew at Sakuno's scraped knee. The auburn girl winced. Ryoma wet his index finger with his own saliva and began using it to treat Sakuno's wound. Sakuno blushed but soon winced again as the pain came back and then began to falter away. Ryoma placed the band-aid on her knee afterwards.
"A-Arigatou, Ryoma-kun."
A thought suddenly crossed Sakuno's mind.
"Ne, Ryoma-kun..Do you have another band-aid?
"Naze? (why)"
"Because….I think I scraped my knee again…falling for you." Sakuno once again beamed brightly at him. Ryoma tugged his white Fila cap down as he blushed furiously.
"Ne, you want one?" Little Ryoma asked as he pointed at the orange fruit above.
"Demo…we can't reach it." Sakuno reasoned out.
"I can try to aim at it." Ryoma said.
He got the small tennis racket hidden in a nearby bush along with the neon tennis ball. He served. Sakuno's eyes watched closely as the ball hit two orange fruits beside one another.
Sakuno clapped. "Sugoi, Ryoma-kun!"
"Hn."
He gave her the other orange.
"Ryoga's not around..I finally got one orange for myself." Ryoma mumbled. Sakuno giggled when she heard it.
The two bit on their oranges.
"It's sweet." They both said.
After a while, as the two leaned on the trunk of the orange tree, Sakuno began to yawn. When Ryoma looked at her, she already has fallen asleep. Unknowingly, Ryoma placed her head to his lap. A small smile can be seen on his face. His small hands got a fallen orange fruit nearby. He used it to touched Sakuno's cheek and then bit on it.
"Oyasumi, Sakuno-chan" Little Ryoma smirked.
Hiding behind the luscious green bushes, Ryoga captured their scene together and then ran inside the house to search for a photo album. When he found one, the quickly developed picture was placed inside.
"Mada mada daze, chibisuke." Ryoga smirked.
"Ja ne, Ryoma-kun! Arigatou, ne." Little Ryuzaki Sakuno bid farewell. The young tennis prince can't help but feel sad. His bangs started to hide his amber cat-like orbs.
Ryuzaki Sumire, Sakuno's grandmother, arrived at the front gate of the Echizen household to get Sakuno.
It's time to bid goodbye to your beloved damsel…tennis prince…
"Ne, don't be sad…I'll definitely come back to play with you again, Ryoma-kun!" She cheerfully said before the most unimaginable thing happened, she leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. With a bright light in the background, Ryoma blushed furiously.
As the car in which Ryuzaki Sumire and Sakuno were in vanished from sight, the young tennis prince touched his cheek.
"Awwww..Chibisuke is in-love!" Echizen Ryoga whistled.
He and Nanjiroh began in teasing.
"Ryoma and Sakuno sitting under the orange tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" They both sang in unison.
"URASAI!" Little Ryoma blushed in all shades of red as he went inside the house.
The two (Ryoga & Nanjiroh) kept on singing.
Ryoga suddenly paused. "Oh wait…They already did that!" He said thoughtfully and begun grinning like an idiot.
"Chibisuke! Tell me what happened!" Little Ryoga also ran inside the house.
Nanjiroh stood there like a proud father. "Mada mada daze, Ryoma. Lots and lots to work on." He said, mimicking Ryoga's catchphrase which is also just the same as Ryoma's and started grinning like an idiot, too.
-A week later-
"Ryoma! Sakuno-chan's here! Her obaa-chan said that she'll be sleeping over tonight." Rinko announced from downstairs.
"Hear that, Karupin? Sa-chan will be sleeping over!" Ryoma told Karupin excitedly and then went downstairs.
/ ~nya! This will be a fun weekend indeed. / Little Karupin thought.
"Meow! Meow!" and began following her master downstairs.
Ryoma began smiling again as he remembered those days. Eiji began to creep out at the sight of his little kouhai's smiling face with no reason at all. His cute blue orbs shifted to the photo in Ryoma's hand. Quietly, he went behind Ryoma and looked over his shoulder.
/ Eh? A photo of Ochibi and Sakuno-chan? / He thought. Being the loud and nosy senpai as he is, the redhead announced it to the whole team behind who's busy in gathering their things.
"Ochibi has a picture with Sakuno-chan ~nya!" He yelled.
Being the other curious senpais, minus Tezuka of course, they began looking at the said picture. Momo got the hold of it and it gave way for them to look at the picture closely.
"I didn't know you and Ryuzaki-chan met and fell in love with each other at such a young age, Echizen." Fuji began the teasing.
The other regulars nodded in the background and started grinning.
"Don't you know that when people get romantically attached to each other since in their childhood days, they are bound to be together forever and ever..until death do them apart." Inui said.
"Translation in much simpler words?" Eiji tried.
"In other words, Echizen and Ryuzaki-chan will be together until the very last moment of their lives, until the day when they get old." Fuji explained.
"Ah..Young love indeed." Momo made his comment.
"Tsk. Senpai-taichi are so nosy and troublesome as always." Ryoma mumbled and walked away but not after getting the photo from Momo's grasp.
When he was out of his senpai-taichi's earshot…
"Maybe…we're really destined to be together, Sakuno-chan." Ryoma smirked as he took a sip to his Ponta and looked ahead at the now fiery orange sunset…
.Owari.
A/N: A recent idea who popped in my head. A picture is my inspiration for this. Check it out in my profile. The link is there. That's the photo Ryoma's 's so cute! Really, really cute! Btw,the wiping of saliva part is really true. It can ease the pain for awhile. Otou-san told me that. ;D
..Hope you like this…Leave a review, ne? Arigatou!
~Matta ne!