Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimers Applied

Title: Silent Treatments

Summary: //RyoSaku//One-shot// As they say, silent treatments are best served cold. And Ryuuzaki Sakuno knows exactly how to do this, or so she thought.

A/N: "Imperfections are important, just as mistakes are. You only get to be good by learning from mistakes, and you get to be real by being imperfect. . ." --Anonymous. Hoooyeah. My muse for writing suddenly came back for me. I-I can't believe it! Well, first off, if you just opened this page for reading, thank you. But, of course, it would be lovelier for you to read then review. I'm not the best writer you could find, so if you find any typos, grammatical errors, and/or wrong sentence construction, it's my fault for being so imperfect. Sorry. And it's not that long, so yeah.

And, sorry for the abhorrently long A/N. I missed this 'ya know?

WARNING: Fluff. So if you're not in the mood for one, better leave. This isn't good for your health. Also, this is pure RyoSaku, so yeah. And, changes in character/s might be visible. If you don't like it, I can't blame you.

THANKS TO: Mi-chan (for the sudden inspiration), OrangeAce's Ember (the story inspired me) and Polka-chan / Sai-chan / 'telle for editing and polishing stuffs.

DEDICATED TO: My ever dearest best friend, Raphaella Paula (OrangeAce/RoyaleDeuce). Happy happy HAPPY birthday, bishti/p0tchi! I love 'yah! :))

NOTE: 'quote' refers to thoughts; quote refers to flashbacks. This is in the canon timetable (after the Nationals), only that in this story, Ryoma didn't go to America and he and Sakuno's a 'couple.' XD

"The loud voice of a man really shocks and threatens a woman. But, the silence of a woman tremendously shakes the consciousness of a man."

• Anonymous •

• • • •


Echizen Ryoma had never been irritated in his entire life like he was at this moment. He didn't know why, but he had the sudden urge of having Horio Satoshi gulp mouthful of tennis balls for him because something (or someone) pisses him like hell.

Pok. The sound of a tennis ball being thrown back and fourth echoed through the deserted grounds of Seishun Gakuen.

And . . . the reason?

Did he just lose a match? Probably, but it would be highly unlikely. Why? Simple, because even before he entered the courts, he'd made sure that he would win. Besides, he had defeated most – if not all – of the strongest tennis players in their district, even Yukimura Seichi during the Nationals final match. And what more could he say? Mada mada dane.

Pok.

Did Kaidoh make him run laps? Running laps to him wasn't really a big deal. A piece of cake. He was, after all, a tennis player, and a prodigy no less.

Pok.

Maybe because of his annoying senpai-tachi? Might be the reason, but that wasn't it. Without the others around, such as Fuji and Eiji, his life inside the tennis courts wasn't that irritating as it usually had been. After all, he only had Momoshiro for him to exercise his patience fully. Oh, and he had to add Horio there, too.

The tennis ball was thrown hard as it hit the ground with bountiful force.

Or was that because of . . . Ryuuzaki Sakuno?

Bingo.

That's right. It wasn't because of any match, running laps, or the nosy senpai-tachi, but because of a certain auburn-haired girl with her hair kept in two absurdly long braided pigtails. Ryuuzaki Sakuno.

Oddly enough, the girl had been ignoring him for days. And, much to his dismay, he hated it. Not that he was really bothered or anything, but it bugged him to no end.

Well, he had been tutoring her on both tennis and English, not bothering himself on how the girl sucked at those. He was kind enough to walk her from her house to school, then afterwards, from school to her home, just to make sure she wouldn't trip herself over for whatever reason (that is, her clumsiness) or meet any unwanted bullies.

So, with those mentioned, what exactly did he do to deserve this treatment?

• P • O • T •

"G-Good morning, Ryoma-kun." She greeted him with a smile as she saw the lad approach the gate of her house one morning.

He's obviously not in a good mood. He was in deep thought that could put Tezuka Kunimitsu to shame. "Hn." He greeted back nonchalantly.

"A-Anou . . . R-Ryoma-kun, are you all right?" Sakuno asked worriedly.

"Yes." He answered absent-mindedly.

"A-Ah, Ryoma-kun?"

No answer.

"A-Are you sure you're all right? I-I mean . . . you . . . you could tell it to—"

"This is stupid." He suddenly blurted out as he looked on the small piece of paper he was holding. It says, 'You'd be our class representative this term. Good luck.' What's with Maki-sensei and those stupid-looking notes?

"Stupid . . ." she wasn't that dumb not to notice that there's something wrong with him. "I . . . I-I'm so sorry, I should've known."

"Maki-sensei sure gives people a hard time." And before he knew it, she was nowhere to be found.

Oh, so that was it. A big block of realization hit him. That was why he was getting the silent treatment from her. It was pretty abnormal for him to remember things such as those and it annoyed him, but what irritated him more was the fact that he was like a helpless oji who couldn't do something about it.

"Oi." His thoughts were cut short as he heard someone calling his attention.

Pok.

"Oi, Echizen."

Pok.

No answer. He was too busy venting his anger on the wall in front of him.

"Echizen." Oh, and there he was, Satoshi Horio, his know-it-all 'friend' with a massive three years of tennis experience, deciding to grace him with his 'ever-loved' (more like overlooked) presence. "Are you deaf or what?" And obviously, he didn't know what trouble he got himself in by tactlessly talking to Ryoma in his current state.

The said prodigy, on the other hand, agreed to stop from torturing the poor wall and face Horio. "What do you want?"

And being the smarty pants he always thought he was, Horio replied with utter confidence. "Kaidoh-buchou needs you. You two would be discussing matters I don't know. Well, probably to tell you that he chose you as the next captain of the tennis club. This is ridiculous, why would he pick you if he can have—"

"Tell him I'm not going." Ryoma replied without so much of a second thought. He then resumed persecuting the wall.

"Okay, I would—what?" Horio couldn't believe his ears. "Y-You're actually quitting tennis? Hah. It would seem that I would have to thank the gods for giving me such luck." Images of him wearing a regular's jersey made him flash a toothy grin.

"I'm not quitting." And there, Horio's face fell drastically. "Just tell him I'm not going."

"Hey, you know what?" The unibrow held his chin then spoke with utter curiosity. He had a sneaking suspicion that the lad in front of him had his reasons for not heeding what their buchou told him to. And these reasons must be interesting and controversial. He grinned slyly. "You look like you're having a bad case of constipation. Don't tell me Ryuuzaki dumped you?"

Horio had no idea that he hit the bull's eye – and without even a second try, at that. 'Dump me?' There's no way a girl like Ryuuzaki Sakuno could dump him. She was nothing but ordinary, not even that good-looking, sucked in tennis and English . . . a klutz, a bit cute—okay, that should be enough.

Horio halted when he figured out that he was not being funny, seeing that Ryoma wasn't really in a mood for jokes. Not that Ryoma ever got into such mood, of course. "H-Hey!" Horio flailed his arms defensively. "I was kidding alright?"

Ryoma eyed the unibrow boy with iciness that could instantly freeze hell. "And do you think I'm in the mood for one?"

'See?' Horio gulped. He knew he should've just shut his big mouth. "Y-You're right."

• P • O • T •

She ran as fast as she could just so she could avoid him. "Mou, now Ryoma-kun thinks I'm mad at him."

'This is stupid.' Those words played themselves like a broken recorder through her brain, and it was driving her crazy.

"Mou . . . Ryoma-kun's right. I'm really stupid," she said as she sat on her bed.

They had been treated a couple ever since they entered second year, and the thing had more cons than pros, much to Sakuno's dismay. Ryoma's fangirls from the class that they were both in had never failed a single day in throwing hateful glares and sending anonymous death threats to her locker (Sakuno at first couldn't believe anyone could go that far). If it wasn't for Ryoma, she would have been found dead, and with a strong motive, too (such as being one seat too close to the said prodigy).

She massaged her temples to calm herself down.

She had been ignoring Ryoma for days, and still, there were no signs of success.

"Wait, wait, wait . . . Am I hearing this right? What did you do?" Osakada Tomoka's booming voice seeped in from the other line and Sakuno had no choice but to remove her ear from the phone to spare her ears from further torture. She was starting to think that calling her best friend wasn't a very good idea. "Sakuno, are you nuts?"

She tried not to fall flat with Tomoka's thunderous reaction. "D-Do you…do you think what I did was wrong?"

"Hell yeah! What courage pushed you to dump THE Echizen Ryoma?" Tomoka wailed on top of her lungs. She couldn't believe that her best friend, the only female person who could talk to the tennis prince without being ignored, would actually think that being (or even talking) with the Echizen Ryoma wasn't a good idea.

"W-Well, he's mad at me. I don't see any reasons as to why I-I would . . . I would continue talking to him. And I didn't dump him, mind you."

"But still, you should—eh? Wait, he's mad at you?"

"Y-Yes. He said I'm . . . I'm stupid." A sudden pang pierced right through her heart as she said those words.

"And you know this how?" Tomoka asked curiously.

"H-He said so himself."

"Really?!" Sakuno realized a little bit too late that it could've been better if she hadn't said anything at all. "Wait until I get my hands off that jerk. Ugh!"

"W-Wait T-Tomo-chan." She was bothered by the sudden change of her best friend's attitude. "A-Aren't you just going crazy because I dumped the Echizen Ryoma?" she asked, stressing Ryoma's name. "Besides, I can't dump him. We're not even—"

"Oh boy, Sakuno. You sure are slow. You're practically a thing! And now here you are denying him. What's gotten into you?"

'A . . . A thing?' She furrowed her brows for seriously, Tomoka's talking all Greek. Yet, she had to stand firm. She and Echizen Ryoma wasn't, in any way, a couple. "N-No, we're not."

"Yeah, and who're you kidding eh?"

"I'm . . . I'm not—"

"Okay, ignoring him would be better then," Tomoka stated with confidence.

Sakuno felt that she was starting to lose her head. "E-Eh?"

"As they say, silent treatments are best served cold, Sakuno. You should know that." Sakuno cringed, for she was sure that at that moment, Tomoka was wearing her big, eerie grin along with her infamous light-bulb-moment wink. "I think I know what you should do."

"S-Silent treatments?"

And the rest was history.

• P • O • T •

"Practice dismissed." Kaidoh shouted to signal that the practice that afternoon was over the next day.

Momoshiro continued, on his 'vice-captain' mode, "The upcoming tournaments would be tough, so be sure not to tire yourselves up. We can't afford to lose, 'ya know. We just can't." He was sure that facing their defeat would also mean facing their coach's wrath. And that, definitely, wasn't a good idea.

"All right!" The club yelled in chorus. Then they bowed and went on their separate ways.

Ryoma was planning to escape the courts as soon as possible. But, as if the gods were trying to punish him for reasons he didn't know, a voice held him back. "Oi, Echizen."

Yes, Horio Satoshi was a punishment for him. "How is the prodigy-slash-the-guy-that-was-dumped-by-Ryuuzaki doing?"

"Whoa, Ryuuzaki dumped him?" Oh, and here came another retribution in the form of Momoshiro Takeshi himself. "Am I hearing that right, Echizen?"

"Shut up." It was the only thing he could say. And there he was, thinking he could have a 'free, peaceful' life by having the other regulars graduate. So much for that now.

"Oh, and come to think of it -" Ryoma seriously didn't know if his senpai was doing it on purpose "- Ryuuzaki-chan didn't come here for lunch like she always had. Oh, what a waste, I thought that Echizen and Ryuuzaki were—"

"Momo-senpai."And for some reason, Momoshiro gulped hard.

"Play a match with me." And there, the vice captain felt like he was regretting every word he just said.

• P • O • T •

They were seating partners the next day, as much as Sakuno hated it. How could she possibly do the 'silent treatment' if he's just beside her?

"Tip number 1," Tomoka said, "You should make him think that he can't manipulate you. Example there is that you wouldn't attend his practices, or make him lunches."

Well, the tip number one turned out great, according to Tomoka herself, and was laughing whole-heartedly when she was telling the whole story. That was, when she decided to sneak into the boy's tennis team the day Sakuno skipped the practice and the lunch, only to find a panting Momoshiro Takeshi.

"What happened senpai?" she curiously asked, approaching the gasping Momoshiro.

"That . . . that Echizen . . . is a monster."

Sakuno couldn't help but utter mental apologies to her poor senpai. She just knew that she had gotten this whole thing worse.

And, as Maki-sensei (their adviser and English teacher) blabbed about Subject-Verb Agreement, she fought the urge not to shout or blush in deep crimson.

"Ryuuzaki." The teacher called.

"Y-Yes, sensei?" She almost hit her thighs on her table for standing abruptly.

Sakuno spun around to see that all eyes, including Ryoma's, were on hers. She couldn't help but be embarrassed as her classmates continued watching her in amusement. "See me after class."

"Y-Yes, sensei." And then she sat down cautiously.

Maki-sensei moved his glasses and turned to face the bored Ryoma. "Echizen."

He answered with a jaded tone. "Yes?"

"I think I have to see you, too."

"Yes, sensei," he politely replied, before returning to his seat and propping his chin against his right palm.

Right then and there, Sakuno thought that jumping off a cliff wouldn't be such a bad option.

• P • O • T •

The moment of truth.

"Ryuuzaki, I'm afraid you really need a tutor for the upcoming tests. Your grades are extraordinary . . . extraordinarily dreadful."

"Tip number two," Tomoka continued. "If ever the teacher asked him to teach you in English, or even in tennis, find the easiest way out. Got that?"

"Wait, Tomo-chan, are you sure this would work?"

"Of course! My 'silent treatment' skills never failed me."

"I-I'm sorry, sen—"

Maki-sensei smiled. "You don't have to be sorry, Ryuuzaki. I'll just have Echizen tutor you."

"Ah, actually—"

"Isn't that all right, Echizen?"

A short pause.

"Fine. I don't mind."

"Sensei, I have someone else to tutor me, so you don't have to bother him at all." She managed to say that all without stuttering whatsoever.

"And who would that might be?"

"W-Well, uh—" Uh-oh. She hadn't thought that it would ever come to this point.

"Actually, I've been her tutor even before you asked me, sensei," Ryoma butted in.

"And tip number three, you have to have a back bone for you not to be a pushover. You should learn how to answer him in his own tone."

"No, actually, it was . . ." 'Sakuno, you have to think of the easiest way out!' "It was Horio-kun that would be tutoring me."

"Horio-kun?" the teacher repeated. "Are you…sure that you're alright with him?"

She replied, trying to mimic Ryoma's way of answering that kind of question. And boy, she was such a failure. "O-Of course, sensei. I-I will not want anyone better."

"Okay then, just make sure you will not mess up this time."

"Y-Yes, sensei." And she hurriedly made her way to the faculty room's exit.

• P • O • T •

It's been a week since he started receiving the silent treatment from Sakuno. And the annoying, unnerving feeling also lasted in Ryoma for about a week now, too. No lunches. No presence of her in tennis practices. And no Ryuuzaki to walk to and from school.

And all the while, he was wondering on why the girl insisted on having Horio – and not him – tutor her. Well, they both sucked in English, as far as he knew.

But anyway, he had to keep his cool. He was sure he wouldn't need to sacrifice his sanity along the way just to get things straight. Besides, the very object of his frustrations was right in front him at this moment. Wasn't this a great opportunity to patch things up?

A sudden feeling of regained overconfidence washing over him, he approached her and held her wrist commandingly.

"Ow!" A mixture of surprise and fright was evident in her tone.

"Ryuuzaki." Ryoma said aloofly before he could even think of more decent ways to call her.

She didn't have to look back to know who it was. Ryoma-kun. "Hn?" Sakuno answered back coolly. And she was amazed that she seemed to imitate the tennis prince himself.

He didn't want to be annoyed. Never would he allow himself to get pissed just because of a girl. 'Hn? Just when did Sakuno 'hn' me?' But he didn't let it get the better out of him. Not just yet.

"What exactly do you want?" he asked, making her face him.

"Shouldn't I ask you the same question?"

'Okay so, is this your game? Heh. Mada mada dane.' He smirked. "Not very Ryuuzaki."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked, trying her best to meet the intent gaze of the lad in front of her with as much boldness.

"You don't walk with me anymore." It wasn't a question. Now, she was certain he finally noticed that.

'What is he trying to do?' "A-As if you care." Sakuno mentally trembled when Ryoma finished his statement. She decided not to get carried away, yet failed miserably. "And, y-you haven't answered my—"

Ryoma didn't know why, but he suddenly felt that he was being way too talkative just to rub the topic in. Yet, he ignored her question, and continued his 'speech,' never letting his fixed gaze sway. "You have the guts not to attend my tennis matches and practices."

Sakuno was sure that she suddenly felt the hairs of her nape prickle. "S-So? Does that bother you?"

"You don't give me lunches."

'Hmm…but come to think of it, he never failed eating all the bentous I make.' Sakuno blushed at the thought, yet she decided not to give in. "They're not even that good. I know; you told me that a lot of times."

"And, to top it all," Ryoma continued, completely ignoring her, "you skip your tennis practices and English tutorials, even though you know how bad you are."

"I-I know. You don't have to rub it in." Sakuno chose to admit defeat. After all, she was indeed bad at tennis and English.

"You're ignoring me."

Her voice cracked. "You . . . you act as if it does concern you."

"Well, it does."

"I-I don't think so . . . E-Echizen-kun." She gathered up all her strength just so she couldn't go pear-shaped with the 'Echizen-kun' part.

'Echizen-kun? Now that's something.'

"Ryoma." He stressed the name, pointing out clearly that it was the proper way for her to call him.

"Echizen-kun, i-if you don't need me for anything, I-I should—"

He then decided to finally bring the topic out. "Is this because of what I said last week?"

"W-What are you talking about? We don't even talk that much." She pointed out.

He tried not to rub his temples, then answered, "You're right. And I don't talk that much to Ryuuzaki-sensei too, yet she's my coach."

"Ryoma-kun, I-I—" she tried to speak, and found out that she was at lost for words.

"I want you to walk with me everyday."

"EH?!" She fought the urge to turn completely red at his suggestive statement.

"I want to see you attend my matches and practices everyday."

And, needless to say, she was failing miserably. "I . . . I—"

"I want every lunch you make for me."

She couldn't take this anymore. She suddenly wished that the earth beneath her would crack and swallow her whole. "W-What are you—"

"Your tennis and English suck."

"Mou, Ryoma-kun's being mean!" But, she had to concede. It's enough for her to hear those 'words of endearment' just to know she was somewhat special. 'Was that even the proper way of saying sorry?' Oh well.

"And," 'She's back.'

'There's more?' For the second time of the day, Sakuno sensed the prickling of the hairs on her nape. "Y-Yes, Ryoma-kun?"

"Enough with the silent treatments." He smirked triumphantly, and with just that, he sealed their 'cold war' close with a kiss.

• • • •

A/N: Fluffy eh? Well, this had been my first fic for my upcoming comeback. Upcoming…you might ask? Well, this isn't the fic suitable for a 'comeback.' It's a one-shot, that's one, and the plot's really…uh, dunno. Well then, if you manage to get through here, then you rock! XDD And you might want to leave me a review, yes? Hahaha. Well, thanks for reading anyway. I hope you could expect more from me. :))

DATE SUBMITTED: April 14, 2009

EDIT:

.o. oji- literally means "old man" :)) Sorry for not putting that until now.

.o. Maki-sensei - I wasn't really aware that it was the Math teacher of Yuzuki and Tezuka from Onegai, Tutor! Sorry, I should've said that before.

.o. Tezuka graduated, I almost forgot. So Kaidoh would be the one ordering him to run laps.

See? As I told you, I'm not perfect. So, please, if there are any further errors missed, please KINDLY approach me. :) I just hope you'd do it in a NICE way.

Reviews are very much appreciated, much more, concrits. Constructive criticisms. But flames? I discourage you not to. That's not going to help. Not going to help in any way. Well, that's it. Thanks for reading. :))