Living Together, a prince of tennis fanfic

Please R&R. (Full A/U at the end, please read.)
Disclaimer: I do not own the whole Prince of Tennis series, the wonderful Takeshi Konomi does:D

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ATTENTION: I'm in need of a BETA, someone who is willing to stick up with me and help me sort out my scrambled writings. Someone who is willing to support me and someone who will hopefully grow to love "Living Together" just like I do. If you think you are the right person to do that please P/M about it and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

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Happy reading. Enjoy!

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Chapter 1

"Ah Sakuno-chan! Wait up!"

A loud shriek snapped 14 year old Sakuno Ryuuzaki from her deep thoughts of him.

"Eh? Tomo-chan?" Sakuno turned around to see her pig tailed best friend running and shoving people out of the way, pretty ferociously, to get to her.

"Finally! You left without me I thought I told you to wait up for me because I'm sleeping over at yours! How could you leave me?" whined an out of breath Tomoka when she finally reached her.

"Ah. I'm so so sorry Tomo-chan, I completely forgot!" Sakuno bowed her head in shame. She truly forgot about their plans!

Tomoka merely huffed, "I was shouting you for 10 minutes but you didn't even turn around!" she accused. The pig tailed girl finally gained her composure and now instead of trying to collect her breaths, she had a frown on her face.

"Oh. I'm so sorry, I was just lost in thought" the quiet girl explained. Trying to appease her best friend.
However, Sakuno immediately regretted what she said as she saw a sly smile take over the girls frown.

"Lost in thought eh? I wonder about who..." The girl said slyly.

Sakuno perfectly knew who she was thinking about.

"Er... about no one...I was just thinking about the new house"
Sakuno mentally slapped herself. "Gosh, that's the stupidest excuse ever, thinking about a house?" It sounded stupid even to her own ears!

"Yeah right, the house." said Tomoka unconvincingly, "You don't need to lie to me you know Sakuno, I can read you like a book. We HAVE been best friends since kindergarten!"

Tomoka knew Sakuno was lying. Firstly, her face was as red as a tomato, actually no, even redder! Secondly, what a lame excuse thinking about a house! Even the stupid "Mr. 2 years experience" could tell that was a lie. Finally, the only person that could possibly make her best friend go into a trance was the handsome Ryoma-sama!

Sakuno fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. It was true the only person that could read through her was Tomoka even her grandmother couldn't read her as well as her best friend. She was practically transparent to Tomoka!

"You were thinking about Ryoma-sama weren't you Sakuno?"
It wasn't even a question, it was more like a statement.

"No. Of course not!" denied a flushed Sakuno.

"L-i-a-r!" Tomoka wiggled her finger at Sakuno. Whenever Sakuno acted like that of course she had been thinking about him.

Sakuno sighed, shoulders slumping. She didn't even respond, no use. Tomoka already knew. There was no point denying it, specially to her best friend. Shame ridden Sakuno bowed her head conceding to her best friend's correct assumption.
Smiling triumphantly Tomoka took hold of her best friends arms, linked it with hers and lead the way to Sakuno's house.

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"I'm home!" shouted Sakuno as she and Tomoka entered the newly built house.

"Ah welcome Sa-chan, Tomoka-chan" Sumire Ryuuzaki smiled at her grand-daughter and her best friend.

"HI, RYUUZAKI-SENSEI!" exclaimed a hyper-active Tomoka.

The old lady only smiled tightly"Looks like I'm not going to be getting any rest tonight." she thought, she knew very well about Tomoka's extremely loud and big mouth.

How her Sa-chan coped she would never know.

In the Evening

"Nee Sakuno, when are you planning on telling Ryoma-sama your feelings?" That question popped out of nowhere.
Tomoka who was laying stomach down on Sakuno's bed, looked up from her magazine and looked at her best friend questioningly.

"EH? Wh-what do you me-mean?" Sakuno sat straight up in her bed, back rigid and straight staring at her best friend with a stupefied expression.

Sakuno was surprised. Tomoka never asked her that question, never for the 4 years she knew Ryoma Echizen, had she ever asked herthat question. Ever.

"Well, it's been 4 years and don't you think it about time to confess your feelings?" reasoned Tomoka.

"B-but I know what he would say!"

He'd reject her that's what he would do. He would probably do it by either just ignoring her or saying "Mada mada dane". Ryoma-kun's life revolved around tennis and tennis only. There would never be any room in his life for her, Sakuno already knew that long ago and already came to terms with it, she would rather just admire him from afar.

"No, you DON'T! You never know what he might say! Ryoma-sama is quite unpredictable." exclaimed Tomoka.

Was she crazy? Sakuno ded know what he would say, she'd already seen him do it to other poor girls whose hearts he crushed. She wasn't going to let her own heart be trampled on.

"Hm..." Sakuno decided to not really answer, she knew Tomoka would keep contradicting her every word on the subject, so it was better to move on.

Tomoka studied her best friend for a moment, her long loose brown hair framed her small face perfectly. She no longer had her hair in her old braids, the braids were cute but letting them loose suited her far better, it made her look more mature. She then moved her eyes to study her face, she had a petite nose and mouth, quite full pink lips and big warm chocolate orbs, she paused, Sakuno was beautiful!

Why did she always put herself down?

Tomoka smiled a little as she recalled the fated day in which the two best friends met.

It was a sunny day when a little pig-tailed Tomoka lost her doll. Sat in a corner huddled and crying in despair over her lost toy Tomoka was then approached by a young girl with long, thick braids whom although a total stranger, comforted and helped her look for the doll all day.
Her actions made Tomoka feel a special attachment and loyalty towards the girl, Sakuno.

From that day on she promised herself that she would always be there to protect her. She wasn't very confident, was very clumsy and put herself down far too much. So Tomoka would be there to help her pass those obstacles in her way and confessing to Ryoma was a major obstacle that she knew Sakuno would have to get over, either by heartbreak or mutual love.

She was broken from her thoughts by Sakunos gentle voice.
"Oh, it's 11:00pm already, we have to go sleep as we're supposed to help Grandma finish furnishing the kitchen in the morning!" exclaimed Sakuno. She had been watching uncomfortably as her best friend eyed her that she forgot the time.

After a brief exchange of goodnights both girls lay on Sakunos warm bed and slept.

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A/U:

Thank you for reading! please review too, as I would love some criticism and some good comments too!

Thank you guys for sticking with me, if you're reading this and you've followed this story since the beginning I'm sure you would have noticed some minor changes. If however you're new to this story, welcome! I hope you stick around and enjoy the ride with me.

I feel as if I owe you all and explanation for a sudden reappearance and that is well... I gained new belief in this story.
I miss writing and I think that in order for me to be able to move on and write other stories I should complete this first. It's the first story I had confidence to actually publish on here and I'm so ashamed of myself for giving that up 3 years ago.

3 years ago I was 13 years old and new to the world of fan-fiction and writing, now I think I have significantly improved (which I hope you can see in this improved chapter!). I don't think that at 13 I was ready for the commitment of writing a full blown story now at 16, I hope I can do much better.

I thank you all who have read my stories, who waited and who are giving this story a chance. By reading this not only are you giving "Living Together" a chance but me as well, as a writer you're giving me a chance to show you my skills and my commitment into completing this story, for that I thank you.

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