Pain

By: Darkwings09

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, but I sure like it…)

Summary: A heavy rain. A secluded place. A heated struggle " You're wrong. I know the meaning of pain" (RyomaxSakuno)

5:30 pm within the Seishun gakuen campus. It was raining cats and dogs.

She sat there, all lost in her own imagination, shivering.

The rain poured endlessly as she huddled in the corner, trying hard to protect herself from the violent weather. She, Ryuzaki Sakuno, thought of herself as a weak girl.

All she wanted at the moment was to stay away from everybody, from her senpai-taichi, Tomo-chan and even her obaa-san. All she wanted was to find a secluded place to pour all her frustrations out. And, yeah, Kami-sama is kind enough to giver what she wanted and needed right now.

Fear and pain, all rolled in one mean, horrible day.

She huffed. She slowly turned her gaze and stared blankly at the wet ground, listening to every 'pitter-patter' sound the rain made. She finds it hard to stick with reality, needless to say. She was holding all her tears back, but to no avail.

A tear made its solitary way down to her flushed cheeks.

" I am…crying?" she murmured to no one in particular as her hand traveled to her cheek. Heck, it was already obvious.

She was crying.

Why struggle if you can never hold your tears back? Yeah, it's logical.

She held her knees up to her chest, burrow her head in it, and cry her heart out.

One by one, she tried to reminisce over what had happened.

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Flashback

Sakuno ran in dismay, clutching a box of homemade obento, searching for the so-called "prince of tennis".

"Ryoma-kun! Where are you?" she called everywhere in despair. She glanced everywhere.

She saw him sitting on a bench, having lunch with Hikaru, a girl from her class. She was shocked, completely lost in a train of thoughts. He with another girl… She just can't believe what she's witnessing.

"Ryoma-kun?" she murmured helplessly as she unconsciously dropped the box of her homemade obento.

In disgust, she harshly picked up the box and ran away with a few tears in her eyes.

End of flashback

The pain he had caused her felt like a stab straight to her heart.

It was like a double-edged sword piercing through her weak body.

And her fragile heart broke into a million pieces.

' He doesn't even know what pain means' she thought, angrily staring at the dark skies.

That's it. She wants to say goodbye to his world, which she knew she never existed at all. She wanted to say goodbye to his pride and to his debatable self, an arrogant and cold self.

As she opened her auburn eyes, dizziness had conquered her tired mind. Her vision wobbled dangerously.

All of a sudden, she passed out; alone and miserable in her own cruel world.

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Ryoma Echizen stayed at the teacher's office until 6:00 pm. If it wasn't for the lazy, bald-headed (hehehe…) teacher who gave him the task of checking their English test, he should have arrived at home by now, playing with Karupin and listening to all his baka oyaji's nonsense babbles.

Also, tennis practice was cancelled that day due to the heavy rain.

" Saa. This day is more boring than I thought," he said to himself as he double-checked the test papers in case of any corrections.

After finishing, he neatly piled them up and placed it inside the teacher's drawer.

He stared through the window and frowned at the dark skies and the heavy rain.

Boy, was he stranded within the school's campus.

A heavy sigh escaped from his lips.

He pushed off the light switches and walked hastily through the dark hallways.

"Are? Who's that?" he muttered to himself as he stepped out of the front door. He glanced sideways to see if there's anybody else. No one.

He gently rubbed his eyes to see if he was hallucinating or something like that. But he wasn't. This was sure reality.

He approached the body as his feline eyes grew wide.

There she is, Ryuzaki Sakuno, lying helplessly on the wet and cold ground as the rain poured mercilessly. ' She…fainted?!'

Regret and pity took over his mind and body as he ran to her aid.

" Oi, Ryuzaki?!" he cried in dismay as he touched her hand. It was freezing, and the very thing triggered him even more.

"Ryuzaki!" he cried once again, hoping that she will somehow wake up, but all in vain. He sighed as he took off his jersey jacket and covered her frail body with it.

He had no choice but to carry her, to the tennis locker room.

He mustered all his remaining strength and carried her (bridal style…) to the said room.

In frustration, he angrily slammed the door behind him as they entered the small and deserted room.

He laid her gently on the dry floor as he dried himself up.

After doing it, he sat on the floor beside her and placed his hand under his chin.

He stared at the poor figure from head to toe. She was dripping wet as her long freakish braids tousled on the floor.

He was a worried sick. Why didn't anybody, and he meant, everybody took pity on her? Che

He was damned angry, damned angry of himself.

Subconsciously, she moaned. "Ryoma-kun…"

He felt a loud pang in his chest. His stomach began to churn a bit.

He just couldn't comprehend the feelings now overwhelming him. All he knows was that he felt sympathy and concern about her status now. Or was he denying his own feelings? The fact that he has a cold façade didn't actually helped to answer it at all.

It took time before he completely realizes that he was staring at her and she was moving slightly. His heart began to pound.

What the hell? Why is he feeling this way? Stupid rampant hormones.

He allowed his hand to touch her forehead to see if there are some improvements.

Suddenly, his touch made her open her eyes and awoke. She stared at his golden orbs in shock.

"Ryoma-kun?" She stammered as she backed a few inches from him

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To be continued

Hello! Thanks for the reviews for my recent stories!

Hope you like it, anyways…

Ja!