Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis…

Chap.2

Ryoma continued to go to school after that first day. His body was there…but his mind was elsewhere. He spoke a little more than he did in the beginning to the people around him. Though it was only a simple "yes" or "no", but that was a start.

Ryoma was completely aware of the people trying to cheer him up, but he thought it was useless without Karupin. He didn't know what to say to anyone, his mind was a mess and he wanted his beloved cat back.

The tennis team regulars were all extremely worried about their Buchou. They wanted to do whatever they could to help him get over his loss of Karupin. Including challenging him to many matches to try and occupy his mind. Nothing they did seemed to work though. As they all lost their matches miserably and Ryoma didn't seem to notice he was playing in the first place, so they gave up on that part of the plan. The next part would be set into motion by Momo.

"Echizen!!" Momo yelled as Ryoma began to walk through the school gate. It was getting late and practice had just ended.

"Hmm?" Ryoma mumbled with a somewhat tired expression on his face.

"Are you free tonight? I was hoping you could go somewhere with me." Momo said with a poorly hid mischievous smile on his face.

"…" Ryoma remained silent and gave his senpai a blank stare.

Momo seemed to take that as a Go Ahead as he grabbed Ryoma's arm and began to drag him down the street. Ryoma was in no mood to argue so he just silently followed his senpai.

They hadn't walked to far when Momo came to a stop. Ryoma looked up and he looked slightly confused as he read the shop sign that said "Kawamura Sushi".

"What are we doing here senpai?" Ryoma asked. Momo went slightly wide eyed and then smiled. It had been quite a while since he had heard a full sentence come from his kohai's mouth. With that he knew he had made the right choice bringing Ryoma here.

Momo just continued to smile and ignored Ryoma's question as he pulled him into the sushi shop. Ryoma's eyes went wide as he saw the former Seigaku regulars seated at a table near the front of the shop.

"Senpai-tachi what are yo-" Ryoma was suddenly cut off by shouts from two of the ex-regulars, those two being Kikumaru and Oishi.

"Ochibi!!" Kikumaru glomped Ryoma adding to Oishi's many worries, and to all the people present's surprise Ryoma didn't even attempt to push Kikumaru off.

They all stared at Ryoma with wide eyes. Momo was right, Ryoma had been extremely effected by Karupins' death. If he wasn't pushing Kikumaru away the world must be ending.

"Echizen?" Came Oishi's worried voice.

"Hmm?" Ryoma drawled.

"A-are you alright?" Oishi stuttered not being used to Ryoma's passive behavior. He didn't know whether or not to pull Kikumaru off of the young boy.

"Hn." Ryoma gave a short reply.

Kikumaru slowly released Ryoma. He was more confused than anyone else. Ryoma not pushing him away messed up his entire routine. He would hug Ryoma, Ryoma would push him away, and he would complain, but now he didn't know what to do.

Ryoma threw a glance over the room. Once he spotted who he was looking for he began to trudge forward. Ryoma sat down next to Tezuka and then wrapped his arms around him. At this practically everyone was sent into panic mode. This had to be some kind of alien that had taken over Ryoma's body, because a public desplay of affection was about a un-Ryoma-ish as a person could get.

They were in for another shock as Tezuka gave a small hug back and then patted Ryoma on the head. That seemed to temporarily do the trick as Ryoma let Tezuka go and began to eat the sushi that Kawamura had set on the table before him.

All around their teammates were giving them confused looks. They knew the two had been dating since after nationals last year, but they had never seen tem show any sort of affection, and they all felt relieved that Kawamura had closed the shop early for their little reunion to take place.

If this kind of thing was happening, then Ryoma was definitely in a low state of mind. They had heard a little about it from Momo, Inui, and Fuji. Inui being Seigaku's coach and Fuji occasionally visiting the tennis team. Though seeing their Kohai's state with their own eyes was a truly upsetting sight. At that they all made a silent agreement to do whatever they could to cheer up their dear Kohai.

To be continued!!

Read and review! Hope you enjoyed!

~Mizuki-sempai