MadokaKotone: Ohayo minna! Here's just a simple RyoSaku fanfic to lift up your spirits (if you read my other fic). It's taken place during Christmas time, so it's kinda out of place at the moment. I hope you like it still!
Kotone: Dis… (thinks twice) A-ahem…
Madoka: Yeah, yeah.
DISCLAIMER: Just read definition of fan-fic and it'll start to sink in.
Madoka: Read on, minna!
Simply Elegant
The girl just stood there on an empty boulevard. Her legs invisibly bound to the snow-iced sidewalk. She was just walking along the blanketed path when she happened to swerve her head ninety degrees to her right and peered into a shop-keepers window with snowflake-bannered panels. Inside the polished glass was a jewelry box, open wide at an angle to seemingly show off to the outside world what it was bearing.
A necklace.
A beautiful one at that; it was a genuine diamond-adorned sakura pendant suspended on a thin silver chain. Simple, but elegant in it's own way.
The petite girl slowly leaned forward and pressed her nose onto the sleek, glass window, reading the inscription that came with it on a piece of expensive-looking cardstock:
Give a special pendant to someone special this holiday.
Show them how you really feel.
Actions are better than words.
"Kawaii," she whispered. That was she thought, until she saw the price tag hanging from the indigo box. Her lips formed a slight pout, "That's a lot of zeros," the bishoujo sighed. I can't afford that, but at least I got something for Ryoma-kun.
"Sakuno-chan! Where are you, Sakuno-chan?!" Someone ran in the shocked girl's direction, accidentally bumping into someone, "Ah! Gomen! Now MOVE IT!!!"
"Oh! T-Tomo-chan! Daijoubo, daijoubo," The girl, Sakuno, said, trying to simmer her boisterous friend down, "I'm right here."
Her friend, as some people would call Tomoka, slumped her shoulders in exasperation, "Gomen, Sakuno-chan, I thought I lost you." She then adjusted her arms holding bushels of different bags to shift the weight of the lot according to her liking. Sakuno eyed the plentiful present-holders and thought back.
Flashback
The two girls were out for the seasonal-winter-shopping-spree for their friends and family, as were a lot of other people. They had just shopped at their sixth stop when Sakuno had to rest for a brief moment. Little did she know she wandered a bit too far out of her shopping buddy's sight.
While Tomoka had a mountain of shopping baggage, Sakuno only held one measly blue bag in her tiny fingers. Tomoka asked her who it was for, but she only said, "Oh, this? …L-look, Tomo-chan, Sanrio's!" Everything after that was just a blur to Tomoka. That's when Sakuno sauntered off.
Present-time
Sakuno smiled, then her gaze swiveled back to the shimmering necklace.
Tomoka raised her eyebrow, and then slowly trailed down Sakuno's line of vision to the necklace to stare at the necklace in wonder as well. She gasped and, with shopping bags garnished on both her arms, slapped both hands on the frost-bitten window and murmured, "Ah! Sugoi, sugoi! Is this what you ditched me for?"
"No, no, it's nothing like that, Tomo-chan!" Sakuno blushed at her friend's bad habit of swiftly believing horribly wrong conclusions.
"…Thinking of Ryoma-sama gain?"
Sakuno froze, "Uhh… eto… No, no! I just…"
Poor Sakuno-chan, she knows Ryoma-sama's still in America… She eyed a small package in her shy friend's scrunched up hands. But she got him a gift anyway… Tomoka decided to play along and gave her a sidelong glance, "Got lost again?"
Sakuno's second coat of red slapped onto her face with much speed, "H-Hai…"
Sakuno's ranting friend grabbed her hand and dragged her along the busy sidewalks of Tokyo while giving her a lecture on ways to get better with directions.
Before Sakuno submitted to letting herself be dragged by the loudest tow truck ever, she took one last glance at the wooly, sapphire-stained jewelry container with the simply elegant treasure inside and whispered to the chilly, winter wind, "Happy Birthday Ryoma-kun,"
PoT-PoT-PoT-PoT
"Achoo!" (Sniff) Che," He just sat there. Eyes glaring at a nearby Himalayan cat for something the cat didn't even commit. In fact, something nobody committed.
It's not that hard to do, all they had to do was say Happy Birthday Ryoma.
But alas, everyone was too busy worrying about the following day to worry about something as unimportant as some boy's birthday.
Especially a sixteen year old boy who actually decided to go home that particular holiday.
Of course, they were excited to see him, his parents, his former Seigaku team, and his former coach Ryuzaki; but one quick, "Hi, Ryoma!" and swirling kicked-up dust clouds from scampering feet disappointed him. He thought no one had the time for him.
Boy was he wrong.
Deciding on some fresh, wintry air, he grabbed his fur coat and yanked his bedroom door open.
Ryoma's parents were in the living room, decorating up the house for their Christmas party, "Oh, Nanjirou, where should we hang these? Up here?"
"No, NO! Don't look up-"
"-What the… NANJIROU ECHIZEN!!!"
Stomping down the wooden stairs, then forcing on his shoes, he muttered a faint, "Ittekimasu," He opened the sliding door with a look of dejection, "If anyone cares,"
-----
Ryoma strolled through the crowd of people with a look of pure annoyance. He needed to go somewhere private. He looked up at the store sign in front of him and frowned. Mental Note: Don't go within seeing distance of Sanrio's during Christmas time, he thought to himself.
After moments of pushing and shoving, the Prince of Tennis broke free of the rampaging crowd. He ambled further and turned the corner into an empty street.
He sighed in relief. Finally-
OOF! Suddenly someone nudged into him, "Ah! Gomen! Now MOVE IT!!!" The freight train then scampered off without a second glance.
"Che," He shrouded his emerald-reflecting hair in the fur of his hood. He kept his gaze on the rude passer-by's back, remembering someone with that same thrashing temper… … … … … …
But no one in particular came to mind. He tried harder and looked up at the night sky. Even though there was no starlight present, the lights adorning everything in sight illuminated all the colors of the rainbow. He walked on, looking at nothing but snow-covered cement. Sighing to himself, he remembered why he got out in the first place. He remembered the fact that no one even had the time or decency to say-
"Happy Birthday Ryoma-kun,"
The tennis prodigy looked up so fast that you would've missed it if you blinked. He heard it, he wasn't imagining things.
Someone remembered.
'Who' remembered was the question at the moment, though, because all he could see was snow descending from the cloudy sky in little groups of individual flakes onto a quilted-white sidewalk. Ryoma was looking dead ahead, but he was no people in sight. Left, right, behind- no one.
All he could remember was the voice speaking; gentle, but full of emotion. Sweet syllables that sounded nearly angelic to his frost-bitten ears. A voice that seemed vaguely familiar.
Ryoma stepped to where the tracks of two people seemed to pressed into the snowy path. He looked at the footprints and studied them. "So, they're pointing…" He turned his body towards the glass window that seemed to attract very many people that day, "…this way." He gazed up, and there he saw the necklace with the inscription.
Reading it over, he thought it over. Then he smirked.
Then his eyes glazed over the price tag.
His smirk just grew wider, and he strolled inside.
PoT-PoT-PoT-PoT
That night he tossed and turned. Who in the world was that? The tennis phenomenon gripped his blanket and yanked it over his sweaty body. He already narrowed the possibilities down to all the girls that knew that day as his birthday, because he heard a girl's voice. Well, it could've been Fuji-sempai…
He silently chuckled. He was definitely delirious. He knew his sempai wouldn't call him that now. He looked at the small, indigo package on his bedside table.
But who would? All the teenage fan-girls called him Ryoma-sama; with he loathed and forever would. He shut his eyes and repeated the phrase in his mind.
"Happy Birthday Ryoma-kun,"
Ryoma squinted. Wait a second…
"Ryoma-kun…"
Eyes closed even tighter, a name on the tip of his tongue. I remember her…
"-kun…"
After hours of thinking of all the possibilities of who that person that made his day could be, one tiny little jolt of nostalgia racked his brain.
Ryoma, son of Nanjirou Echizen, bolted upright in his bed, eyes wide with excitement, "It's her!" His chest rising and falling in sync with his steady breathing, "I'm sure of it."
Suddenly his bedroom door swung open, "Oi, shishounen, what's going on?"
Ryoma turned toward his father with the blank, emotionless mask hooked onto his features, "Betsuni,"
Nanjirou eyed the azure colored box, "…Right. Oyasumi," Then Nanjirou closed the door, smiling cheeky to himself. He's thinking about a girl… Heehee… He kept his ear parallel to the wooden barrier between him and his son.
"Oi, Oyaji! Go to bed!" Ryoma hollered from inside.
That just made the monk laugh to himself, and he walked off giggling like a schoolgirl. Little did he and Ryoma know was that they both shared their trademark phrases at the same time,
"Mada mada da ne."
Ryoma crashed back down on his bed, turned to his side, and smiled, "Oyasumi, Sakuno."
-----
"Achoo!" Sakuno sniffled and wiped her nose, "Ugh, this weather is not being nice to me." The petite-built girl got into her bed, pulled the down covers over her skinny figure, and stared out her window at the descending snowflakes.
"Tomorrow… will be the annual Christmas party," she sighed. Then she closed her eyes and whispered, "Oyasumi, Ryoma-kun. Hope you have a great Christmas in America."
-----
"ACHOO!!!"
"Oi! Shishounen! I said go to bed!"
"Mada Mada Da Ne!"
To Be Continued…
( A/N: ) Teehee, just a little something to relieve you guys from reading my other (over-dramatic) fanfic I Miss Your Smile. I think that one took a whole new meaning to the word overkill. (and I'm not even finished yet!)
So this is my way to saying GOMEN NASAI MINNA! clasps hands together and sinks to floor
(P.S.) This will be a double-shot (or more depending on you guys) and the next chapter will come soon!
See you guys soon!
R.E.
