A/N: This fic is supposed to be submitted as an entry in the Summer Craze contest on Innocent Love RyoSaku fandom. XD You can check the link on my profile. :D But I decided not to, because I feel kinda lazy in doing the instructions. LOL. Plus, I feel that this fic's kinda random and insane. XD
It'll be my summer fic instead.
Warnings: As I've said, this fanfiction is random and insane, so expect nothing with it. XD I wrote this last month, and then I stopped and resumed it days before May 15 (due date of the contest). But then I really am lazy, so I just finished it this morning. XD Anyway, watch out for grammar and spelling errors. This fic also contains OOCness, sue me if you must. XD Beware of Ryoma, he's a pervert. :]
Disclaimer: I don't own POT. :P
Prompt: Summer Sickness
Become Fan
by Zero-onE001
Echizen Ryoma casually walked toward Seigaku, yawning slightly, eyes closed as he inhaled the almost non-existent gust of wind.
Today was one of those normal days when students go to schools, late students go to schools late, and tennis players have tennis practices. The only thing that kept the day from being normal was the fact that Ryoma wasn't late for school.
The Prince yawned once more; he never did like summer. It made him wake up at ungodly hours—if five AM can be considered ungodly.
"Oi, Echizen!"
As if on cue, a loud screech from Momoshiro's bike resonated, earning the attention of the Prince as he turned around, only to meet the rascal's hand swatting his trademark cap away.
"Momo-senpai!" he called, charging toward the senpai on a bike. The glaring heat of the morning sun doubled his annoyance and he gritted his teeth, seeing Momoshiro who had no intention of giving back his cap.
His eyes were trained on the senpai who was now swerving his bike to enter the school. His legs moved afterward, but as he rounded the corner, he found himself colliding on someone and falling on top of them.
He cursed.
Catlike orbs blinked as he realized who was underneath him. Ryoma sat up. Something's different. He studied Sakuno, who was fidgeting uncomfortably, wondering what was different with her, yet not coming up with any.
The braided-brunette was blushing, and it occurred to him that she hadn't seen him yet as her eyes were closed, therefore making another tab in the Prince's brain to wonder how she came up with such a blush.
The next thing Ryoma knew, he was on his butt, sporting a rather red cheek, thanks to Osakada Tomoka for punching him.
"Ryoma-sama!" the girl's reprimanding voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he watched as the president of his fan club—or so she said she was—supported Sakuno, who was panting heavily, on her feet. Tomoka then gave him a death glare, but it seemed to the Prince's vivid imagination that she was an angry dog threatening to tear him into pieces. "Don't take advantage of Sakuno-chan like that!"
Ryoma gave her a plain WTF look without moving any of his facial muscles, half his mind still wondering what the heck was different with Ryuuzaki.
And then he blinked, realizing that it wasn't his business anyway, so he padded away, thinking of a way to make Momo-senpai pay, instead.
O_O
Today was one of those normal days when Seigaku Tennis Club have their rounds about the courts, the Regulars have their eternal juice of doom, and when the said boys have to endure the loud squeals coming from the sidelines.
The normality of the day would've continued if the rookie of the team hadn't peeked into the sidelines to search for a certain female freshman.
Well, that was if he hadn't.
But he just did.
As he looked at her, he instantly realized what was wrong with Sakuno.
Her hair was braided higher than usual, one of the most noticeable change in the girl. But that was not what irked Ryoma the most.
Sakuno's skirt was hiked up to her mid-thigh, to the point that when she bent down, she could moon you. And her uniform's ribbon was also loosened, with the first button undone.
Is she… the Prince thought distractedly.
Her face was flushed, and she was still panting, with beads of sweat dripping from her forehead to her chin—not that Ryoma could see that, anyway.
Ryoma frowned. …flirting with somebody?
"Echizen! Look out!" Momoshiro cried worriedly. The Prince moved to do what his senpai said, but too late as tennis ball had already made its contact with his cheek—the same cheek that Tomoka had punched earlier. His hand flew to nurse the aching spot, all the while glaring at his burger-loving senpai.
Oh, Momoshiro's going to pay, all right.
O_O
"Gomen, Tomo-chan, for making you do all this," Sakuno muttered exhaustedly, lying with her back on the rooftop floor and an arm draped over her face. She wasn't flushing deeply like earlier, but her face was still glowing, and her breathing had long returned to its normal pace.
Tomoka grinned. "Don't mention it," she fanned the braided brunette with a folded sheet of cardboard paper. "Ryoma-sama wasn't in morning practice anyway, so you aren't bothering me," she added with a wink, knowing what her best friend would say.
"Really?"
"Aa," the pigtailed girl paused thoughtfully. "Momoshiro-senpai accidentally hit him with a Dunk Smash, so Ryuuzaki-sensei dismissed him immediately," she finished with a shrug.
"So how's Ryoma-kun?" Tomoka chuckled. It was so like her to ask that.
"I think he's doing fine."
"But you punched him earlier," Sakuno frowned. "And when you punch, it's really hard."
The girl was grinning lopsidedly. "I was protecting you."
"I know," a shy smile followed those words.
"He was harassing you."
"I don't think he was."
Tomoka stared at her meaningfully. "Because he's Ryoma-sama?"
Sakuno blushed. "Hai."
It was a bizarre thing, really, that Sakuno was convincing the Prince of Tennis' number one fan that the said Prince was not a bad person.
The pigtailed girl looked contemplative for a moment before huffing, folding her arms across her chest. "Fine. If you say so."
Sakuno smiled.
"But you better heal faster. We can't afford other men getting hot on their heels just because they got entranced by you," Tomoka grinned.
Sakuno laughed softly. The way the other girl said her previous statement made her feel like she was some sort of goddess or another. "I just left my fan, that's all."
O_O
Ryoma slowly descended the stairs, having just gone from the rooftop to take a catnap. He was awakened, though, by two familiar voices that belonged to the top two members of his fan club, and was forced to leave the two because of his sacred virtue to not meddle with other people's businesses.
But that didn't mean that he hadn't overheard them talking. He furrowed his eyebrows, forcing himself into a deep thought. The way they talked about him made his stomach churn uncomfortably—especially when it was the girl with enormous braids talking. It was as though…
As though…
The Prince frowned. He was being uneasy, yet he didn't know why.
Ah, and those weird conversations…
But you better heal faster…
Is Ryuuzaki sick?
And what's even weirder was Ryuuzaki's reply.
I just left my fan, that's all.
What was that all about?
And to think he had the virtue to not meddle with other people's businesses.
O_O
It bothered Ryoma, it really did, when the other boys in his year turned their heads to the braided brunette as she passed by them along the hallways. It wasn't the fact that they looked at her irked him; it was because they looked at her legs—or at the skin exposed by her unbuttoned uniform top—with an odd gleam in their eyes.
He watched the lone brunette of his thoughts as she walked along the corridor yet again. Frowning, he briefly wondered where her pigtailed best friend was, as he was certain that she'd knock some sense into the other men for looking at Ryuuzaki like that—like what she had done to him this morning.
A camera phone suddenly emerged out of the corner of his eyes and he realized that it was meant for Ryuuzaki as the girl was about to bend down to pick a coin that slipped out of her hands—a random student had accidentally bumped into her.
Ryoma cursed, hurriedly but calmly walking toward the brunette. It was one of those moments when he despised summer (not that he didn't already despise it in the first place); his gakuran was absent and he had nothing to use to cover the overexposed legs of the coach's granddaughter.
He reached Sakuno by the time she bent down…
And then he held the hem of the girl's skirt between his fingers, tugging the skirt down to effectively hide… those.
However modest he was for doing that, he still earned a scandalized cry from the flushing Ryuuzaki in front of him. "Ryoma-kun!" her chocolate-brown orbs were wider than ever as she stared at the Prince disbelievingly.
"They…" Ryoma started, inwardly swearing at the absence of his signature white cap.
Great, so now he developed the habit to swear.
"…were looking at you," as the you rolled out of his tongue, however, his golden eyes swiped downward to indicate what part of her was being looked at by the boys.
And if it was possible, Sakuno's face underwent spontaneous combustion. But when Ryoma mentioned 'they', she couldn't help but to feel relieved.
At least Ryoma-kun wasn't in on harassing her.
"SAKUNO!" the boys that were staring and catcalling ("Way to go, Echizen!", "Cheeky brat.", "I didn't know that Echizen has a perverted side in him.") immediately scampered away to go back to their respective classrooms, afraid to face the wrath of Osakada Tomoka—especially as it concerned her girl best friend whom she had developed a huge sister complex with.
Ryoma watched blankly as Tomoka darted toward them, fussing and fretting over the brunette.
"Oh my God, Sakuno! Are you okay? Are you hurt?""
Maybe the loudmouthed girl's somehow related to Oishi-senpai.
Tomoka, however, continued rambling. "Did they do anything against your will? Did they—"
And then she noticed it.
Tomoka's eyes slowly widened and her chest bubbled with anger.
Ryoma raised an eyebrow, diverting his eyes to where the pigtailed girl was looking. He gaped.
His hand was still holding the hem of Sakuno's skirt, but since the girl had already straightened up, the skirt was raised slightly above its previous mid-thigh level. The Prince instantly knew that the pigtailed girl mistook his actions.
He was right.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Tomoka exclaimed, eyes enlarged with rage. She continued to ramble about how perverted guys molested girls just because they were vulnerable, but Ryoma didn't bother himself to catch her words as she had thrown him an uppercut immediately after her first outburst. Eyes half-closed, he clutched the spot, wiping his nose to see if there was a nosebleed.
He dumbly watched as Tomoka yanked the braided brunette closer to her before throwing Ryoma a dirty look and stomping away, leaving the latter to tend to his injuries.
O_O
Ryoma was once again excused from the tennis practice as he was stuck in the infirmary for the rest of the afternoon. The boy wondered grimly whether the coach had excused him because of his injury (Honestly, he didn't like his broken jaw and swollen cheek to be called an injury.) or because he'd gotten on her nerves for harassing her dearest granddaughter.
He didn't even know if the pigtailed girl had told the coach yet.
Ryoma sighed softly, draping an arm over his eyes—only to wince in pain as his whole face hurt like hell.
What did he even do to deserve this? He was only helping Ryuuzaki with those boys earlier and he was punched? He never should trouble himself with other people.
He won't do that again.
Swear.
"She got you there, huh?" a brunet sporting a black eye announced with a chuckle as he marched inside with a tray full of bandage rolls in hands. The Prince looked at him, feebly wondering why he was familiar. The boy noticed it and chuckled once more. "Kaname Kyou. We share the same floor."
"Hn," Ryoma responded dryly. He just wanted him to leave so he could go on with his nap; after all, he was excused, and he could care less as to whom this guy was.
"Osakada-san's always like that," Kaname placed the tray on the nurse's desk before settling himself on a bed next to Ryoma. "We've known each other since grade school and she's always like that to Ryuuzaki-san; especially when summer."
That statement made the Prince somewhat interested, however, so he let the brunet babble on, with him pretending that he wasn't listening.
"She usually goes on a rampage during summer 'cause you see, Ryuuzaki-san's having her summer sickness, and…"
Summer sickness? Ryoma pondered over it. Sure, Ryuuzaki looked like she'd just faint then and there, but if she had sickness, would it not be better if she stayed home?
Great, now he was worrying about Ryuuzaki.
"What's this summer sickness you're talking about?" The freshman found himself asking. He blinked, surprised as his question flew freely out of his mouth.
Great, now he's being nosy too.
Kaname blinked in surprise. And then he scratched his cheek. "Oh, my bad. Of course you don't know about it yet." He saw Ryoma twitch, but he pretended he didn't. "I don't really know if there's a case like this, and I don't know if they do, either. But Ryuuzaki-san's sensitive to heat. So during summer, she gets really irritated to the point that she hikes up her skirt and braids her hair higher. But that's not enough." He shrugged, swinging his legs to entertain himself.
"She still sweats heavily and flushes deeply, and that gets some reactions to some boys. And that's where Osakada-san enters the picture," he paused thoughtfully. "Sure, Ryuuzaki-san's bringing a fan with her; but since it's Ryuuzaki-san, it's either she keeps forgetting her fan or she leaves it somewhere."
By now, Ryoma knew that an expression of Why the heck do you know this much? was clearly written in his face, but when Kaname looked at him, he got no explanation. Instead, the other boy grinned sheepishly. "Am being noisy, ain't I? Well, I'll take my leave now; maybe you won't even remember my name and hold a grudge against me for ruining your rest." He then chuckled. "Until then, Echizen-san."
The Prince watched as the other boy strode toward the door and shut it closed, leaving him to ponder over what had transpired between them.
I just left my fan, that's all.
So that's why. It became clear to Ryoma what was going on with Ryuuzaki. He frowned then, as though there was something he still hadn't understood.
His curiosity was already eased; but why was he still so bothered?
O_O
Tonight was one of those normal nights when the Prince of tennis arrives at home with the smell of American food welcoming him, when he's constantly being bugged by his father to play tennis with him, and when his Himalayan cat circled his legs with him patting the animal rather affectionately.
It was just the fact that his monk of a father was frowning at his injury made the night from being customary.
And yes, it wasn't normal because his father was supposed to be laughing his guts out at his face.
But he was not. In fact, the former pro was staring intently at him as though he were a test paper.
Focused.
"So it's true," Nanjiroh frowned, still studying his son like what he did to his porn mags.
Ryoma groaned, his father didn't even greet his Tadaima back before saying nonsense to him.
"You harassed Sakuno-chan!" Nanjiroh exclaimed accusingly, his own set of catlike eyes wide as saucers. Ryoma momentarily wondered if he should be glad because his father had not reacted anything like he was happy about what happened.
"How did you know that?" the freshman glared at his father from beneath his cap as he growled out the words. He realized then that he gave a wrong question.
The old man reacted.
"So it's true!" Nanjiroh let out a goofy grin. "That old hag gave me a news, all right," he ruffled Ryoma's hair, winking. "Way to go, seishounen. But don't hit on Sakuno-chan if you're not serious with her, or else that old coach will have our heads."
"Baka," Ryoma spat, slapping the hand away. "I'm going to my room."
"Young love, shounen. Young love~"
O_O
Ryoma harshly dropped his tennis bag before jumping on his bed, landing on it with a soft thump. It was not his best day. It was not his best day at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
He sighed, a hand absently rubbing his bandaged cheek and jaw.
What did he even do to deserve that?
The Prince buried his face against his pillows, cursing under his breath. This summer sickness is bullshit! He would never, ever, ever, never, ever, ever, go near Ryuuzaki again.
Ever.
"Meow."
Ryoma didn't even budge. Heck, he was in no mood to talk to anybody right now. And yes, that included Karupin.
He heard a soft rustling and shuffling noise before a loud crashing sound and a hurt hiss resonated through his bedroom. He immediately sat up. What is it this time? He thought grumpily.
Karupin was sandwiched between the floor and a large box, and it got the Prince to gape in concern. He darted toward his cat, freeing him from the box and hugging him against his chest rather affectionately, awhile glaring daggers at the box as though it were a possible cause of Karupin's death.
Several comforting pats and licks to the cheek later, the freshman finally let go of Karupin in order to put the box back in its original place. As he lifted the box, however, everything in it gushed out from the bottom, scattering everywhere on the floor.
Ryoma sighed, realizing that he had been sighing more often than normal. He sighed again.
Just what was happening to him?
Gathering all of the mess he can gather in his arms, he put them back inside the box (after fastening the bottom with a packing tape). He continued to do that until his eyes caught something familiar sitting a foot away from him.
Ryoma picked the thing up, automatically switching it on. He was anything but surprised that it didn't work, as it was years ago when he last used the object.
An idea cooked in his mind.
Batteries were the only things needed, and it was all done.
O_O
"Ryuuzaki."
Did he say he was not going near Ryuuzaki again?
No, right? Right?
Good.
The said brunette looked up at him. There wasn't any improvement in her at all compared to yesterday, so it's kinda obvious that she didn't bring her fan like what she had said. "Ryoma-kun," she mouthed breathlessly, making Ryoma twitch an eyebrow.
"Here," he handed her a blue battery-operated mini fan.
Sakuno blinked blankly. "Um… What is this…?"
"Can't you see?" Ryoma huffed impatiently, crossing his arms.
Sakuno squeaked, blushing, and it had nothing to do with her summer sickness. "T—Thank you."
The Prince rolled his eyes, bending down to switch the thing on.
Instantly, as wind started to hit Sakuno's face, she felt refreshed.
And she wasn't having her summer fit anymore.
O_O
"Eh? You've got a new fan, Sa-chan?" Tomoka asked during break time, licking her Popsicle as she stared at the blue mini-fan clutched around Sakuno's hand.
The brunette nodded. "Ryoma-kun let me borrow this earlier."
Tomoka gaped. "Ryoma-sama?" she grumbled. "So he still has the nerve to go near Sakuno-chan, eh?"
Sakuno sighed. "He helped me, Tomo-chan."
"Ohreally?" the pigtailed girl asked, biting every word. It was obvious that she didn't believe her.
"Yes, Tomo-chan," Sakuno wanted to chuckle at Tomoka's mother henning. And she did, not minding if she got an irritated look from her. "G—Gomen."
Tomoka sighed. "Fine."
O_O
Sakuno fiddled with the mini fan, smiling slightly. She was walking home, alone as Tomoka had to rush earlier to go grocery shopping. She wondered whether Ryoma was worried about her, letting her borrow his battery-operated fan like that. It didn't even occur to her how the Prince found out about her sickness.
She knew it was bad to assume something just because things happened. But she really didn't care right now, as she just relished Ryoma's gesture earlier.
Maybe he was doing it because he considered her as his friend. Or maybe was just irritated in seeing people acting like that. Sakuno frowned. Perhaps it was the latter.
A hand then slid to grab the fan from her. She tensed; she had actually depended on it already. Sakuno snapped her head to the side, seeing Ryoma, who was walking casually beside her and silently studying the mini fan.
She eyed the fan pleadingly. No way would the Prince get the thing back when they were in the middle of the street with their presence visible to the other people.
What if I suddenly have a fit?
"You didn't even bother to return this," the Prince suddenly said, watching as Sakuno flushed guiltily on the spot.
"S—Sorry…" Sakuno mumbled, finding her shoes suddenly interesting.
Ryoma refrained the urge to smirk. He was getting amused. He won't be bothered anymore even if the girl left her fan…
He bent down, blowing on the exposed curve of her neck.
… and he was even contemplating leaving his own battery-operated fan at home tomorrow.
Sakuno squeaked, a hand flying to cover her neck as she stared at Ryoma disbelievingly. She fought off a shiver. "Ryoma-kun!"
Because he was more than willing to be her fan. Ryoma smirked.
A/N: LOLOL. I said so. XD
R&R!