Disclaimer: The original ideas behind Prince of Tennis can never be mine. I am as always amazed at Takeshi Konomi's ability in creating this wonderful series.

Title: His Jacket

Timeline: a few months into the 1st year of high school, most of the old regulars are reunited again.

Word Count: 918 words

"Stupid, you'll get a cold," Echizen Ryoma said as he discreetly dropped his regular's jersey jacket around the shivering shoulders of Ryuzaki Sakuno.

"E... Eh? Arigatou Ryoma-kun," Sakuno said quietly to her boyfriend's retreating back as he walked away to the boys' changing room. She, on the other hand, left the tennis courts to head back to class.

So engrossed was she in her work as the student on duty for the week that Sakuno had no idea of the buzz she created in her class with the jacket she had on.

"Isn't that a tennis team regular's jersey," someone whispered.

"But... wasn't Sakuno-chan a tennis team regular for the girls' team in junior high," somebody else asked, quietly, at the back of the class.

"Yes, but that jacket says Seigaku High Tennis Team, not junior high. And I know for sure that Ryuzaki-san is not a regular on the girls' team yet because if you are a first year, you don't generally get to be a regular on any of the sports teams until spring," another student muttered.

"Besides, that looks more like the boys' team jacket then the girls'. The girls' team jacket looks just a little bit more, well, girlier," yet another voice murmured.

"The boys' team? Whose..." the current speaker stopped in the middle of asking his questioned when Ryoma walked into the classroom after changing out of his training attire. The sight of the only freshman to make it as a regular before spring triggered a series of understanding nods from those who were talking and those who were actively listening. Giving each other glances of comprehension; they dispersed and went back to their own seats, getting ready for class. But that did not mean they weren't still actively watching to see what's happening at the front of the class. They were thus titillated when they saw Ryoma stopping to say a few things to a blushing Sakuno before walking to his own seat.

"Hmm... Since when were they in that kind of relationship?" that question rang in the heads of their curious classmates, but was a question that, unfortunately for them, remained unanswered.

"Ne, ochibi! It's such a cold day today. Why aren't you wearing your jacket?" Kikumaru Eiji's voice rang across the tennis courts as he spotted his kohai walking in with just his polo-tee, shorts and the quintessential cap.

"Urusai, sempai. It's not that big a deal. I'll get warmed up after playing anyway," Ryoma answered irritably. His hand fiddled with the bill of his cap, pulling it lower down to cover his face.

Eiji gave a huge sigh. "Momo-chan! Maybe ochibi doesn't need his jacket coz his attitude is so cold already," he said, pretending to whine to Momoshiro Takeshi.

"Hmm, I think you are right Eiji-sempai, so very ri...," Momoshiro stopped in the middle of replying his sempai as he pointed excitedly at a figure walking pass the tennis courts.

All eyes followed his finger and silence reigned over the court as his teammates' jaws literally dropped at the figure walking by them. Oblivious to the situation she caused, Sakuno hurried pass the boys' team courts to make her way to the courts that the girls' team is training at, a boys' team jacket still hanging on her shoulders. Since Ryoma was the only one among the regulars without his jacket, it didn't take long for the whole club to come to the correct conclusion that the jacket on Sakuno's shoulders can only belong to Ryoma.

"Why are you all not practicing? Everyone, 20 laps around the court," Captain Tezuka Kunimitsu ordered. Just as Eiji was about to protest, he ordered Ryoma to run an additional 10 laps for causing such a fuss among his teammates.

At the absolute order in Tezuka's voice, nobody else tried to voice a protest but instead proceeded to start their run.

"But she was feeling cold. Did he seriously expect me to ignore that," Ryoma muttered to himself. Unfortunately for Ryoma, Tezuka heard what he said.

"Echizen! Run an extra lap around the girl's courts now. Make sure you get your jacket back too," Tezuka shouted his additional order, as punishment for Ryoma's talking back.

"Eh," Ryoma answered, surprised at the instructions. Seeing the scowl on his captain's face though, he had nothing else to say but yes. And so, he broke from the line and ran towards the girls' courts attempting to catch up with Sakuno. Many pairs of interested fellow tennis teammates' eyes followed him, eager to see the interaction between the two.

"Yo. Give me back my jacket will you? I'm in trouble because you walked pass the courts while still wearing my jacket," Ryoma said.

"Eh? Ah. Gomen," Sakuno said apologetically.

"Cheh. And now I have to run an additional round around the girls' court too. It's all your fault you know."

"Iie. It's Ryoma-kun's fault coz he forgot to take the jacket from me," Sakuno retorted.

"I didn't forget. Couldn't find you when I wanted to take the jacket back."

"Fine then. Nah, here take your jacket back."

"Thanks Sakuno." Ryoma then shocked, delighted and scandalised a lot of people when he bent down to give her a quick kiss of the lips. "Ja ne." With that, he ran back to rejoin the boys' team, with a loud squeal of "Ryoma-kun!!!!" following him.

"That…" a flustered Oishi said, struck speechless by Ryoma's actions.

"I should make him run another round for that display," Tezuka muttered.

A/N: Ryoma is always so cool and aloof so I think people would immediately suspect that there's something between them if she is wearing his jacket. I mean seriously, would Ryoma lend his jacket to any random girl who is feeling cold? Haha. And of course, the kiss just confirmed everybody's suspicions =)

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review =) A virtual macadamia nut cookie for whoever who reviews.

Seriously though. Thanks a lot to everyone who reviewed this and all my other fics. I know I probably don't thank my reviewers enough but please continue reviewing coz it's the reviews that drives me to write more and better quality stories. So yes. Thanks all for reading and especially for reviewing.

And I'm looking for word prompts too. I have the idea for the next chapter already (yet to be written. Probably wait until after exams) but I don't know what to write for the next "Our" story. Just drop me random word prompts. I'll try to find a way to use them. The more people dropping me prompts, the more stories I can add to this collection.

I'll also be wrapping up my current multi-chaptered fic (The Beginning at the End) by mid-December after which I'll probably post up my next RyoSaku multi-chaptered fic. The idea for the new story has been ringing in my head for a few weeks now. I don't know what to title it though. Argh!

Cheers!

(oops. this turned out to be a rather long author's note. haha)