"Idiot. Are you crying?"

"Eh Ryoma-kun? What do you want?" I ran the sleeve of my jacket over my eyes trying to get rid of all the tears. Ryoma would simply make fun of me. He would smirk that irritating smirk of his and call me a baby for crying over a boy. A simple rejection. Why was I crying anyways?

He had his hands in the pockets of his Seigaku regulars' jacket as he leaned down to peer at me. I could barely see his eyes hidden under his hat. When did he get so tall? He was a second year, just as me. We had always been almost the same height. "Stupid. Why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" I protested as I sniffled, my eyes were tear-filled despite my protest. He shook his head and took his hat off his head and pushed it down on my head gently.

"Liar." He muttered. I sniffed and pulled the tip of the hat so it hid my eyes to hide the tears that were falling. Typical Ryoma, he knew I would never want to be seen crying and his hat promised the perfect cover for now as we stood on the outside by the tennis courts. I sniffed again and rubbed my eyes with my jacket sleeve.

"Sorry." I said. I took a deep breath trying to stop my crying. Ryoma would not want to be seen with a crying girl. He hardly wanted to be seen with girls at all; it always started some sort of rumor about him and said girl. The only reason he made an exception for me was because we had known each other so long. "Stupid emotions. Like I didn't know Touji-Senpai wasn't going to reject me?"

"Is that why you are crying?" Ryoma sounded surprised and I could imagine his eyes rounding ever so slightly. Ryoma Echizen was hardly ever surprised and if he was it was only for a split second. "Idiot girl." Ah, there was that insulting that I had expected.

I sniffed and craned my neck to look up from under his hat. I managed a glare. "You've never been rejected, Ryoma-kun. Only ever rejecting girls, even poor Sakuno-chan."

Infuriatingly Ryoma's lips twitched into a grin. What was he grinning at? My tears had finally stopped. "Hey what's so funny?"

He looked to be holding back a laugh. "You should see yourself, Hika-chan." That stupid nickname. He was the only one besides my brother who could get away with calling me that. Ryoma used his fingers to push the hat up, so it sat more evenly on my head. I could finally see him properly, "Anyway…relationships are just distracting. If you weren't so focused on it, maybe your tennis would be better."

"My tennis is just fine, thank you very much." I snapped at him. "I am a regular too, you know?" I pushed my hair over my shoulder and glared up at him. Sometimes he could be so infuriating! Everybody let him get away with so much because he was Seigaku's star player, especially since Tezuka-Senpai left. All of his classmates were in utter awe, and most of the girls were infatuated with him. His attitude got far too cocky, sometimes.

He smirked at me. "Touji-senpai…he's in the tennis club isn't he? He's not very good. Why do you like him?" Ryoma's hands still sat in his pockets. I huffed and crossed my arms.

"It's not all about tennis, Ryoma-kun." He gave me a look and I relented, "Yeah okay, he sucks. His serves are slow and his returns are kind of sloppy…but he's very sweet and he's cute."

"Pft," Ryoma snorted. "Bad choice, Hika-chan." Did he have to mock me? Obviously it was a bad choice since he had rejected me. This guy could be such an arrogant ass sometimes…yet I still liked to hang out with him….most of the time.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't you have practice, Ryoma-kun?"

"Yes. You distracted me," His eyes were straying towards the courts. Probably checking to see if his captain had yet arrived. He would be in trouble if he was too late.

"Sor-ry. You didn't have to stop," I replied snarkily. I had completely regained my composure now. Now I was just annoyed. Annoyed at myself for crying in front of Ryoma. Annoyed at Ryoma for being such an ass sometimes. Annoyed at Touji-Senpai for rejecting me. Mostly…I was annoyed at myself.

Ryoma huffed. "Sorry for being concerned." Did Ryoma actually sound annoyed? Ryoma-kun never got annoyed…he was always infuriatingly calm. It was almost impossible to get him angry at someone.

"Sorry." I said pulling the hat down again to cover my eyes, feeling bad at being upset with him. He hadn't rejected me, and the fact that he had stopped at all to see what was bothering me was surprising. Ryoma didn't do the "sappy-emotional stuff" as he has said before. He could stand being such good friends with me only because I was almost as entirely focused on tennis as he was.

"Hn," was Ryoma's reply. I glanced up at him from under his hat trying to gauge if I was forgiven. He looked like he always did, stoic. I swear it would be impossible to get a rise out of him. "Now, you're going to make me late."

He reached over and pulled his hat off my head in one swift movement. "No more tears okay?" He placed the hat back on his head and grabbed the tip with his thumb and two forefingers. "Touji-senpai was stupid. So, don't cry." He pulled the tip of the hat down to cover his eyes, but I swear I saw a faint blush rise to his cheeks for a second.

I grinned. "Okay! Go to practice now, idiot, or you'll be running laps!"

A small smirk graced his lips and he nodded. He strolled passed me muttering, "Later."

I couldn't help but smile as he headed to practice. I felt so much better now. It was kind of amazing…Ryoma was stoic and clueless when it came to people. However…he always managed to make me feel better when we were in these kinds of situations.

I let out a breath. I had a practice to get to myself. Perhaps I could pretend the ball was Touji-senpai's face…

As I began to walk away I heard Ryoma's voice from the boys' tennis courts. "Hey, Touji-senpai wanna warm up together?"

I laughed out loud. Ryoma Echizen was surprising sometimes.

Very short one-shot of my OC from Prince of Tennis. I have been reading the Prince of Tennis manga recently (I have finished most of the anime) and thus my love of Prince of Tennis has been renewed. This character has been floating in my head for quite a while and I have yet to decide what she is to Ryoma. Normally when I create OCs they always have a pairing, with Hikari (the girl in this short one-shot) I am not sure. What do you guys think? Are she and Ryoma destined to be friends? Or is there something more? I am very curious to see the vibes you all get from this...because honestly it could go either way.

Don't think this will go anywhere, but it has been in my head for a while and I wanted to get this little moment down on paper. I thought it was cute. Hope you all enjoyed it! If you did, review! If you didn't you can still review. I like hearing feedback! :)

-Late Night Angel