Author's note: Thanks to PynkPlayar, who is my beta reader for this fic. She's a prominent RyoSaku author herself and her fics are definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the romantic comedy genre. (AKA, what you're reading now.)

Anonymous review replying:

insert name here: Ha ha, yeah, expect this fic to be updated weekly, but I may push it up to fortnightly updates if I find it hard to cope with my own ridiculous deadlines.

Gabi: I have nothing to say to your review really... yep. On to the chapter!

Chapter 2 – Bend your knees!

The young gents who made up Seigaku's tennis team were, in a word, insane.

Despite the fact that the Nationals was done, dusted and of yesteryear, within a few days afterwards, everyone in the club was willingly attending gruelling practice again. Apparently, captain Tezuka wanted to prepare for the imminent winter competition. It was currently midsummer.

Ryoma could hear the cicadas chirping as he made his way to school early in the morning. It wasn't anywhere near noon, yet already the day promised to be unsettlingly humid. Just as Ryoma was starting to feel a little hot and bothered, he heard Momo's voice: "Oi, Echizen, want a lift?"

Momoshiro Takeshi was seated on his bicycle and cheerily waved to his kouhai. "Thanks," Ryoma muttered aloud, and he got on Momo's bike.

"I wonder what we're doing at practice today," Momo thought aloud as he started pedalling down the road.

Ryoma was silent for a moment, pondering something. Then he said, "Maybe I should learn doubles..."

The bike hitched and swayed because Momo was seizing up in laughter.

"You? Learn doubles? Don't make me laugh!"

Ryoma eyed Momo's back, annoyed. "You were bad at it too, Momo-senpai."

Momo tightened his grip on the bike handles so he wouldn't fall off. He reduced his hysterical laughter to an amused chuckle. "Yes, but I've gotten better, haven't I? I'm quite the all-rounder, if I do say so myself."

There was another thing about the young gents of Seigaku. They all had massive egos. Even Fuji, who pretended he didn't have an ego, was secretly the biggest show-off among them with his triple counters and whatnot. As for Ryoma, if one fancied romanticising about him, one would say: "Deep inside that little body of his beats a big, big heart, plus an ego twice the size." Yep. That was Seigaku.

And so the young protagonist and his companion arrived at the gates of that splendid school. As Momo got off his bike, he asked Ryoma, "What's your sudden interest in doubles, anyway? Did someone challenge you to doubles?"

"Sort of," Ryoma replied as he, too, disembarked.

Then he briefly explained the whole thing about the Ponta ad and him signing up for the mixed doubles.

For some reason, Momo seemed to find the situation side-splitting in its humour. Ryoma was not quite as amused.

"What?" he demanded, somewhat gruffly.

"It's you!" Momo laughed. "Playing doubles... with a girl! So who's the lucky one, eh?"

They were walking along the path towards the tennis courts. Ryoma was about to answer Momo when suddenly he heard a soft girl's voice beside him.

"Ryoma-kun... congratulations on winning Nationals."

Well, speak of the devil. It was Sakuno – his 'partner'. Ryoma had not spoken to her at all since the finals of the Nationals; he couldn't remember what she'd said to him so it was probably insignificant.

Then the thought occurred to him. Since he had pretty much never initiated conversation with her in all these months he had known her, he didn't actually have Sakuno's permission to play doubles with her, did he? That was a potential spanner in the works.

Momo caught the stare Ryoma was eyeing Sakuno with. "Ahhh, I see!" The boy nodded knowingly. "I see how it is!"

Sakuno blinked, confused. So did Ryoma.

"You're Echizen's doubles partner!" Momo pointed his finger dramatically at young Sakuno to home in his point.

Then he stopped.

"Wait... can you actually play tennis?" he asked.

Sakuno glanced at Ryoma.

"Yes," she said. "I mean, no, I mean... I've gotten a little better..."

Ryoma noticed that she was carrying a pink tennis racquet. And then he remembered just how much she sucked. "Bend your knees; your hair is too long," he said under his breath. Ohhhh boy, maybe this doubles thing wasn't a good idea after all.

He didn't notice Sakuno had heard him and was blushing.

"Momo-senpai," she said. "What were you saying about doubles?"

"You're playing doubles with Echizen," Momo explained, "at some tournament."

Sakuno keeled over and fainted then.

When Sakuno came to, she was in the infirmary and there were numerous people crowded around her. She counted the faces. Vice-captain Oishi, her grandmother, Ryoma...

...And that was it.

Sakuno felt a little groggy. She wondered why she had fainted. Then she remembered: she was playing doubles with Ryoma, according to Momo. She had been so taken aback that she had gone dizzy and fainted.

How could Ryoma acknowledge her so much that he would play tennis... with her? It didn't make much sense. She needed confirmation.

Sakuno sat up in the bed and asked, "Am I really playing doubles with you, Ryoma-kun?"

Both Oishi and Ryuzaki-sensei blinked in surprise. As for Ryoma, he had his hat covering his face and he was pulling it down further as he spoke.

"If you want."

Ryuzaki-sensei demanded, "What is this? Echizen!"

"Geez," thought Ryoma. "Can't we get to the tennis already?" Why did he have to deal with everyone's reactions first? Was it really that Out-of-Character of him to suddenly have a desire to play doubles with Sakuno?

Well, now that he thought about it, it was.

So Ryoma explained everything. Again. Oishi, Sakuno and Ryuzaki-sensei then burst out in varying degrees of laughter. Sensei was the most raucous with hers, while Sakuno gave forth a nervous titter and Oishi was somewhere in the middle. Oishi, being the sensible one, soon got over his laughter and said, "So you'll be wanting to practice with Ryuzaki, right?"

Of course. Ryoma looked at Sakuno, who looked at Oishi.

"Oishi-senpai, w-will you teach me how to play doubles?" Sakuno asked politely. It almost sounded like she was wailing, though. She sure lacked confidence in herself.

Ryoma sighed. He really didn't like to ask others for help but Sakuno looked like she needed it. (Ryoma didn't want to admit that he needed coaching in doubles too.) He glanced at Ryuzaki-sensei to see what she thought of it all. She was shaking her head.

"Sure thing," Oishi was saying meanwhile. "Eiji and I will be glad to help out."

So that was how Ryoma and Sakuno ended up on the tennis court with Oishi and Eiji at the other end of the net. When Eiji had found out about the Ponta ad, he had laughed too. In fact, all the regulars had laughed, expect for Tezuka. The poor guy hadn't even cracked a smile since the finals of the Nationals, probably because Inui was selling photos of… that incident… for 500 yen apiece. (Inui had already amassed over 100,000 yen in sales, but that was a story for another rainy day.)

The point was that it was difficult for anyone to take Ryoma and Sakuno pairing up as the serious issue that it was. Because of that, there was less pressure on Sakuno to impress; therefore, Sakuno surprised everybody by being capable of hitting the ball over the net.

She was actually bending her knees.

Even her own grandmother was somewhat bewildered. So Sakuno's lack of proper screen time was actually productive for her…!

And then –

"Oof!" Sakuno dived for one of Eiji's corner shots and missed it completely. Her only achievement was a scrape on her knee.

"Mada mada da ne," said Ryoma. Sure, a person improves the most rapidly when at a beginner or an intermediate level, but even so, someone like that would find it impossible to properly rally with one of Seigaku's regulars. That was Sakuno's problem. Basically, she was as good at tennis as those real-life people at the local tennis club, not at the standard of playing physics-defying anime tennis.

Ryoma wondered what on earth he was going to do with her then. The only thing she was doing for him was dragging him down.

… And then it hit him.

Of course! Sakuno was a liability – a handicap! Therefore, he had to win in spite of her. So it would be like two against one, with the one dragging a heavy penalty weight. This match against the Golden Pair promised to be an exhilarating, alternative challenge for him. If he could win in this uneven match, then he really was The Prince of Tennis.

Ryoma was so proud that he had analysed the situation so accurately.

Meanwhile, Sakuno felt little flustered at how she was unable to keep up and kept glancing at Ryoma to see if he was looking disappointed in her or not. His facial expression was entirely neutral, until he noticed that she was looking at him. Then he walked over to her.

"Ryuzaki," he said calmly. "Just stay behind the baseline."

"Oh... okay..." Sakuno replied meekly. Even though she could obviously see that Ryoma didn't want her participating in much of the rallies, she relented anyway. She was talking to Ryoma and he knew more about tennis than she did.

After that conversation took place, there was an instant change in the flow of the match. Oishi hit the ball towards Sakuno only to discover that Ryoma hit it instead, and the boy sure hit the ball deep.

… But Ryoma had left his entire side of the court open.

Oishi hit the ball directly into the open court, fully expecting to win the point. Ryoma took off from one leg and dashed to the ball. One-legged split step! And then he returned the ball easily.

The Golden Pair soon realised that no matter how open the court was, Ryoma could get to the ball. There was no doubt about it – Ryoma was trying to win the match through his own strength alone.

Horio, Kachiro and Katsuo, as well as numerous other non-regulars watching, gasped at regular intervals.

"There's the Cool Drive!"

"Aaah, the Twist Serve!"

"Drive B!"

"Samurai Drive!"

That's right. Ryoma was pulling out his big guns.

This was a source of irritation for the Golden Pair. They were used to playing doubles the correct way and to have o'chibi take on both of them at once and still put up a good fight was unsettling for them.

"Nya, Oishi," Eiji whispered into his partner's ear, "we'll have to use Synchro. We won't let o'chibi take another game from us."

Oishi nodded. That was how Seigaku regulars were; even among each other they never played half-heartedly. In fact, the rivalry between Oishi and Eiji, the closest of friends, was one of the most epic in tennis. They were all fond of epicness.

Hmm... Ryoma considered the latest development. If the Golden Pair was going to use Synchro, there was only one outlet that was left for him: opening the doors of the Muga no Kyōchi. All right... no backing down now.

He was getting ready...

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Ryuzaki-sensei got to her feet. She looked, for some reason, incredibly ticked off. Even her own granddaughter paled at the sight of her.

Ryuzaki gestured towards Ryoma. "Ryoma, come here." As he had no right to disobey a direct order from the coach, Ryoma slowly and unwillingly walked away from the court. The moment he was next to Ryuzaki-sensei she took him away to behind one of the buildings. There, they were alone.

"Echizen..." Ryuzaki-sensei sighed. "That wasn't doubles you were playing."

"I know," Ryoma replied simply.

"Geez...!" Ryuzaki had now adopted a resigned look on her face. "You say you want to win mixed doubles, right?"

Ryoma didn't say anything. Sensei took that as a 'yes'.

"Well," she continued, "then you should know that good pairs don't need to be siblings or the greatest of friends like the Golden Pair. All they need is respect for each other's abilities. And that," she said, looking sternly down at Ryoma, "is what what you lack." It had been so obvious that Ryoma had treated Sakuno as a burden rather than as an actual partner. Ryuzaki-sensei was upset by it because she was still protective of her granddaughter's feelings. In fact, she was more upset than Sakuno herself, who was used to being a supporter in the background. Playing doubles with Ryoma didn't change her relationship with the prodigy all that much.

It was rather painful to watch.

Ryuzaki-sensei said, "I suggest you get to know my granddaughter a little more before you choose to play doubles with her again. All right, Echizen?"

Wow. She sounded like she was setting her granddaughter up, Ryuzaki-sensei thought. But she knew Ryoma wouldn't take it that way anyway.

Ryoma looked at the ground. He wasn't ashamed, but he was deep in thought. On retrospect, he knew where he had gone wrong by turning the match against the Golden Pair into two-on-one. He hadn't been confronting the challenge of doubles; he had been avoiding it instead. It was a delicate matter... Ryoma suspected that this challenge would be as difficult if not more difficult than all of his prior singles matches beforehand.

But that was tennis. That was the feeling he got every time he stepped on the court to face a rival who was ready to push his limits. He'd do his very best to prove that he could overcome all challenges, and then afterwards, he wouldn't be so inclined to play those rivals again. It happened every time.

This was no exception.

Ryoma looked up, smirking, at Ryuzaki-sensei. "All right, I'll do what you say," he said. He wasn't sure at that moment quite how he was going to manage it, but for the sake of that challenge, he was going to get closer to Sakuno. Otherwise, he wouldn't be getting his Ponta.

Next chapter: Disappointed there's been a lack of fluff so far? Get your first (mild) dosage next chapter! The tennis match of the chapter will be RyoSaku vs. The Wall. As Mitch Hedberg said: "The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall." Are Ryoma and Sakuno up to the challenge? One thing's for certain: the next chapter will be epic! Put this story on Alert today!