Ryoma's Way of Compensation
by: RoyaleDeuce
Disclaimer: TeniPuri is not mine.
Warning: Crack-ish. Fluff.
"What?! You can't again?"
Osakada Tomoka and Ryuzaki Sakuno were standing alongside each other outside their classroom. The school bell had recently rung, indicating that classes were over for that day. Well…not really for Sakuno. Tomoka just asked her if they were going to cheer for the tennis regulars during afternoon practice that day and Tomoka got 'no' for an answer.
"I'm really sorry Tomo-chan… But I really do have lots of things to do for extra credit in Biology class…to make up for the absences I had when I got sick." Sakuno sincerely apologized while bowing to her friend. "Remember the time it rained so hard after grocery-shopping with Ryoma-kun?"
Tomoka nodded then sighed. "Kya, Sakuno-chan… What's with you and working with insects anyway? I understand the extra credit part, but why deal with them? Aren't you grossed out with them or something?" She asked with a quirked eyebrow, but nevertheless, still showed a smile.
Sakuno shook her head while smiling gently. "No. Uhm… they are pretty interesting," the girl reasoned out softly after which Tomoka chuckled.
"Ah, Sakuno-chan. Sometimes you're just so weird," Tomoka said jokingly causing Sakuno to blush. "But you know… sooner or later, they will notice you don't come to cheer anymore."
"It's only for now that I won't cheer, Tomo-chan," Sakuno smiled. "…and I'm sure they won't really notice."
"Did you notice that Ryuzaki-san doesn't go to practices to cheer for us anymore?" Momoshiro asked as he walked alongside Ryoma on the way home that day.
"…" The tennis prince continued to walk silently, having no intentions of answering his senpai's question. Though secretly, he really wondered why.
"Ah ochibi! See! See! See what you did to Ryuzaki-san by killing all her 'Fuji'!" Kikumaru suddenly appeared out of nowhere as he started walking with both Momoshiro and Ryoma, who were currently still surprised with the red-head's sudden appearance.
After self-composing, "What are you talking about, Kikumaru-senpai?" Ryoma mumbled indifferently.
"Oh you know what he's talking about Echizen." Momoshiro smirked as he looked at his kohai from the corner of his eye. "You know… how much you detest Ryuzaki-san naming objects 'Fuji' and the countless times you break those objects?"
Kikumaru snickered as Ryoma just scowled.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ryoma muttered, lowering the brim of his Fila cap, continuing to deny the truth both upperclassmen were pointing out.
"Oh you know!" Kikumaru placed his index finger on his chin while looking at the sky, "…the time you massacred 'Fuji the rabbit' by throwing it over to that scary bulldog which made Ryuzaki-san cry. Also, squishing 'Fuji the centipede' with your tennis shoes and flicking away 'Ryoma-kun the ant'…"
Ryoma twitched in annoyance as the red-head tennis regular narrowed down all the bad things he had done, getting the girl upset. He stopped listening once he realized that his senpai was just going to get into his nerves – thus, leading him to ponder over the situation instead.
Was it really because of that reason why Sakuno didn't show up in their practices anymore? He wasn't really blind. He too noticed the girl's absence during their practices for consecutive days. But the girl wasn't that shallow to have his way of showing affection (as in destroying those that grab the girl's attention away from him), be the reason of not cheering for them anymore right?
Ryoma sighed. I'll really never get her…
Interrupting him from his thoughts, both Momoshiro and Kikumaru continued giving the boy the 'guilt trip'. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I really think it's your fault Echizen… you just had to get jealousy overcome your sense of thinking." Momoshiro lectured.
Sense of thinking? Wasn't that supposed to be directed to Sakuno since she was the one naming random objects out of that weird habit of hers? He grunted annoyed for letting the older boy get to him like that. He shouldn't be affected because everything they were saying was false… well, in his point of view anyway.
"Yah! You should apologize!" Kikumaru exclaimed.
Ryoma blocked his ears from everything that the two upperclassmen were saying and were about to say. So what if Sakuno was avoiding him? It wasn't really because of him killing 'Fuji the rabbit', squishing 'Fuji the centipede', flicking away 'Ryoma-kun the ant'… okay. What he was currently doing was definitely not helping.
"Mada mada dane, Echizen! You still have a long way to go when it comes to girls!" Momoshiro said loudly.
Ryoma grunted as the two continued to blabber. It seemed like his senpai-tachi won't make Ryuzaki's absence easy for him.
Ryoma was lazily dragging his feet towards the tennis courts that day for afternoon practice. "Biology class is so boring," he muttered under his breath as he yawned, clearly fresh from sleeping in that class. Well, he'll get pumped up when he plays tennis anyway.
Just as he stifled another yawn with his eye closing a bit, he was bumped hard, well not really that hard, but he was bumped by someone. And that someone smelled familiar. Opening his eyes,
"Gomen, Ryoma-kun!"
Did his ears just deceive him? Or did he really hear the voice of the girl whose presence he had long sought for during practices? And well, also during class since the girl never really talked to him anymore…
Mostly with the teachers actually. He scowled.
Anyway, this was his chance to clarify things.
"Are you—"
"Fuji-senpai!"
Fuji-senpai?! Turning around to where Sakuno was frantically waving at, he indeed found Fuji approaching the tennis courts with Ryuzaki Sumire who was quietly talking to him. He growled in annoyance. Returning to who he was presently talking to, he found that Sakuno was already nowhere near him. What?!
"Uhm… Bye, Ryoma-kun! I really have to go!" The girl called as she was already running towards Fuji and her grandmother.
He narrowed his eyes and gripped his tennis bag hard. Now that was unexpected. Since when did Sakuno leave when he was going to say something? It was rare for him to start a conversation. And just when he thought that he was going to get answers, the girl had to run off to Fuji.
Fuji.
He mentally cursed.
He continued his way to the tennis courts in a bad mood.
If Ryoma did know that Sakuno was busy working with insects instead of usually cheering on them, he would have practically felt a lot more degraded, thinking that Sakuno would spend more time with the insects than him…and don't forget what he might do to show his 'way of affection'.
At least Fuji could have been a more worthy opponent...as he would have thought.
-
"Hey Echizen, Ryuzaki-san's not here again." Momoshiro approached the freshman regular who was currently washing his face.
"…" Here his senpai was again, trying to make things worse in the already bad situation. Of course he knew Sakuno was not there.
After being completely ignored by his teammate, the dunk-smash specialist literally dunked Ryoma's face in the puddle of water.
"Gah!" Ryoma immediately removed his face from the water and dried his face with the towel on his shoulder. He simultaneously glared at the smirking Momoshiro. "What's your problem?" he yelled annoyed.
"What? It seems like you don't care that Ryuzaki-san is mad at you!" Momoshiro reasoned out in the same volume of voice as Ryoma.
Ryoma huffed and decided to leave his senpai alone, obviously not in the mood for another bickering marathon. He thought it was absolutely pointless anyway since he knew he wasn't guilty of anything.
Suddenly, Momoshiro spoke up again, this time, sounding smug. "Fine then. Though just to tell you… I think Ryuzaki-san has found a new person to run errands with, and you're really not going to be happy when you find out who…"
Now this caused Ryoma to stop in his tracks. He pondered over for a while. He smirked. Good riddance not having Ryuzaki Sumire annoy the hell out of him anymore just to be a rebound to her 'supposed-to-be' jobs.
He resumed walking when he suddenly stopped in his tracks once more. It was only then Ryoma seemed to have registered in his brain the last few words of his senpai. And you're really not going to be happy when you find out who...
Who?
"Fuji-senpai," Ryoma growled.
That was it. He knew that it finally was time to take action… he just had to get Sakuno back.
"Thank you for lending me one of your cacti." Sakuno smiled and sincerely thanked her senpai who was currently holding the plant in his hand.
"No problem." Fuji returned the girl's smile and carefully placed the plant on the Science laboratory counter.
"…now Kirihara has a place to live." Sakuno petted the lizard on her hand and placed it on the plant Fuji lent for her Biology project.
-
"Oi! Ryoma! Where've you been?"
The said boy didn't turn around to acknowledge his father as he entered the Echizen household with a big scowl. "Mind your own business, oyaji."
A ghostly smirk appeared on the adult's face, clearly fascinated with the sudden thoughts that came in his mind. "Were you on a date with a really cute girl and got dumped?"
"Shut up," He managed to say before slamming the door of his room.
Annoying fathers was certainly something Ryoma didn't want to deal with at the moment. He was too exhausted bustling around town for some things he had to do to straighten certain ties up.
He cursed silently for having to have gone through being accused of being the boy who had phobias with vegetable when he entered a certain grocery again, in order to simply play with a 'toy machine' and get the stupid prize. Also, entering a girly store just so he could acquire something he had mercilessly killed without regret… well, he regretted the aftermath of that happening. Some other places to get things he accidentally broke; and, of course…how could he forget?
Just because the pet shop didn't sell them, doesn't mean he had to stop from what he was so determined to have. It was an important part of this whole 'trying-to-get-Ryuzaki-back' situation anyway. Minus, of course the fact, that what he was doing was completely just because of guilt and the wrong thought, and had nothing to do with the fact that Sakuno was indeed avoiding him.
In desperation, not bothering to get help to avoid adding to the embarrassment of feeling so utterly stupid, he just had to walk right into the park, head straight to the grassier areas, and well, do his business there; which in turn, led to one of the many reasons why he was cursing at the moment.
As he applied medicine on the bites he got from his hunt, he couldn't believe himself for actually using one of Sakuno's creations out of her weird habit, to actually add to the whole 'compensating' thing he was currently dealing with as of the moment. It wasn't like he didn't particularly like what he wants to happen. It was just that that was the only resort he could run to, while encompassing the prospect of actually 'compensating' for the things, in a manner that didn't suggest something deeper. Though that was what was going to clearly happen when Sakuno does take bait, which he absolutely sure she was going to take. He had to deal with this no matter how much he was against the idea of exactly how he did it, and of course, how incredibly stupid he thought 'how he did it' was.
"Sakuno! You have a package!"
"I'll be right there obaa-chan!" Sakuno immediately got on her feet and headed to get the package for her. She was currently interrupted from reading a book about insects for a make-up exam she had to take for Biology.
As soon as she reached the front door, she found a huge box in the living room. Her grandmother was by the door, possibly talking to whoever delivered the box to the house. Approaching the box, she immediately opened the flaps and gaped at what she saw. Sakuno practically squealed in delight as she took in everything that was in the box.
"What's all this junk, Sakuno?" Ryuzaki Sumire peered down at the package her granddaughter just received.
It was a variety of things that one never imagined to be in the same place for certain reasons. Everything seemed to be practically dumped together in complete randomness. There was a bunny stuff toy, a carrot with weird carvings, a ruler, a pencil, and all sorts of other things you would have no idea why were together to be presented to a twelve-year-old girl.
The auburn-head turned to her grandmother with a tiny pout. "They're not junk, obaa-chan…" Then instantaneously, she became all excited again. "This is 'Fuji the rabbit', 'Fuji the ruler', 'Fuji the carrot'…" Sakuno continued to 'introduce' the things to Sumire who just looked at her granddaughter queerly.
Before Sumire could say something in response to what Sakuno just did, the doorbell rang again. As soon as the elder woman left to get the door, it was only then Sakuno saw a piece of paper lying in the box. She opened it and read,
Ryuzaki,
Please don't name all these things 'Fuji' again.
Sakuno's eyes widened as she realized who had given her all these things. "R-Ryoma-kun?" Interrupting her from her surprised state, a loud crash was heard outside followed by Sumire calling from just outside the door.
"Sakuno! Please call the exterminator! I just dropped a jar of insects!"
Before responding to her grandmother's request, Sakuno decided to finish reading the letter.
If you've noticed, I didn't give you a centipede. One kind of insect is enough. It's in the jar I sent along with the others… now you've got lots of 'Ryoma-kun the ants'
Sakuno could here stomping outside the house. The girl continued reading the note as she noticed there were more words.
If you also want to see the other 'Ryoma-kun the ant' that was squished by sensei's car, you would have to appear in the rooftop every lunch in the succeeding days and cheer during practices.
A smile graced across Sakuno's face at the boy's way of showing he was 'sorry'…with a hidden agenda of course. Even if he didn't particularly have anything to be sorry about, at least he did show signs of feeling guilty, which was actually the whole process of 'reviving' all the things he had broken. Well, except for the fact that the objects weren't supposed to be named 'Fuji' any longer.
"Ryoma-kun…" Sakuno said softly as she admitted to herself mentally that the 'named objects' were nothing compared to whenever she was with the tennis prince. She blushed as soon as she realized that in order to get stuff toy 'Ryoma-kun the ant' back, she had to show up in the rooftop every lunch...
The girl's blush intensified.
…with Ryoma himself. Did that imply anything?
With the boy's 'deal', it would be a delight to go to the rooftop not because she will be getting another 'Ryoma-kun the ant', but rather spend time with the boy herself. Sakuno couldn't resist not smiling again.
And speaking of 'Ryoma-kun the ant', Sakuno suddenly remembered Sumire's order on calling the exterminator. It seemed that the boy's way of compensating for things went a little bit overboard. Before heading to the phone, the girl managed to make out the last few words in the letter, in a font that was way smaller than the previous parts of the letter.
P.S.: …and I am NOT jealous.
The End
A/N: So, what do you think? Thanks for reading!
[Edited]