Decisions
By: Bunny
Rated: T
Genre: Romance/Friendship
Summary: Sakuno had been ready to give it all away to make her aging grandmother happy until she found out who else was involved. Ryoma simply didn't take rejection well. Or maybe there was more to it than that. RyoSaku.
Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis / Tenisu no Ĺjisama is copyright Takeshi Konomi/Shueisha.
Oh and I MUST give a big shout out to Cookie, my beta reader, who began beta reading for me with this fanfic! I hope you all enjoy the improvements to having her help!
Chapter Four
Echizen Ryoma didn't get it.
He seriously didn't get it at all.
He was a good looking guy, right? All those girls weren't always trying to get his attention, and give him chocolates and bentos, and all sorts of other things for nothing, were they?
He was a cool guy, right? He was smart, he was good at sports, he knew a good joke when he heard one. He didn't have any weird or annoying habits that he knew of. He already had a steady source of income and a whole temple grounds and house in Tokyo to inherit someday.
As far as the wedding market went, he was quite a catch, right?
So why in the world wouldn't Ryuzaki Sakuno agree to marry him? Why was she so against their miai?
At first, when his old man had told him the miai was off, he had been shocked and wondered if it was because he wasn't good enough or if it was because she liked someone else. After thinking about it, he'd figured that probably wasn't the problem.
Sakuno probably just didn't want to force him into getting married. She was cool like that. That was why he liked her. So all he needed to do was make it clear to her that he was good with this whole arranged marriage thing and then that would be that. She'd agree to marry him and they would get married. Problem solved.
Wrong.
After confronting her on the subject, he was more confused than ever. He'd expected her to be as happy about marrying him as he was to marry her. Seeing as how he was going to take care of her and solve all her problems, he was actually expecting her to be happier about it than he was, after he told her he wanted to marry her that is.
Instead, she'd gone from confused, to angry, to kind-of mean, then she'd been all nice before she'd finally shoved him away and ran off.
What was that supposed to mean? Were they getting married or what? Did she really not understand that he was serious about marrying her?
Sakuno was going to get married if old Coach Ryuzaki had anything to say about it. His parents had pretty much laid it all out for him the other night after telling him that it was Sakuno they were arranging for him to marry.
The Coach wanted Sakuno married before she got too old to take care of her anymore. She wanted her to be safely settled down so that she wouldn't become a burden to her. At least, that's what his parents had said. It had sounded pretty serious to him. Which was fine. He had plenty of money to take care of the both of them. Once he went pro full time, he'd have more than enough money to take care of Sakuno and the Coach.
So the girl was going to get married and it would be soon. He had no doubt that with her yielding to the happiness of others personality that she would settle down with someone, maybe as early as right after her birthday next month.
She wasn't going to be able to find anybody better than him, was she? She had to get married soon, didn't she? So why did she still say no?
He was really shocked that she'd fought him at all on the subject. She'd never resisted anything he'd said before. Granted, they'd never talked about a super serious subject like marriage in the almost six years they'd know each other either.
Still...
Something in his gut was telling him that Sakuno would go so far as to get married if Coach Ryuzaki wanted her to. So why couldn't it be him?
If she was going to get married, he'd be damned if she married anybody except him.
So he supposed that meant...
Game. On.
Oh...it was on. It was so on.
He would make Sakuno love him and marry him if it was the last thing he did.
Even if he had no idea how to go about doing that.
Ryuzaki Sakuno didn't know what to think.
Had her world flipped over on it's head this weekend? First Grandma is wanting to set up a miai for her. Next thing she knows Ryoma-kun is insisting that they get married, no matter how many times she says no. What was next? Tomo-chan was going to tell her something shocking like that she'd really hated her all her life? Horio-kun was going to say he was a n00b at tennis that had zero years of experience? Kachiro-kun and Katsuo-kun were going to start fighting all the time like Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai used to?
She watched Ryoma warily as he entered their classroom a few minutes after she'd arrived, fearful that he would try to talk to her again. Thankfully, he took his seat that was only a few desks away from her and proceeded into his usual routine of laying his head on his desk to rest before their first morning lessons would begin.
Sakuno got out her cell phone and sent a quick text message to Tomoka.
Tomo-chan...I need to talk to you about something important at lunch. Let's meet up right after the bell outside my classroom.
As she put her phone away, the bell rang and roll call began.
Hours later as the lunch bell rang, Sakuno grabbed her wallet and her phone and shot to her feet. Making a beeline for the doorway, she was stopped in her tracks by Ryoma calling out to her.
"Oi, Sakuno!"
Sakuno spun around in shock.
Ryoma-kun hadn't just yelled to her across the classroom by her given name.
Their classmates all froze in their positions, even their teacher looked up in surprise. Goodness, it was suddenly so silent in their classroom one could have heard a pin drop.
Well you see, it was just that...Echizen Ryoma simply doesn't yell across the room and he never addresses anybody by their given name.
Sakuno could feel the heavy stares of everyone as Ryoma made his way across the room to catch up to her. Stopping a foot away from where she stood he said casually, "Let's have lunch together today."
Sakuno blinked. Oh...he was still there and this was really happening. She blinked again for good measure. Yup...still there. This was really happening.
"O...kay," She finally said slowly.
He stepped forward and slung an arm over her shoulders as he turned her back around towards the doorway and led the way out of the classroom.
Sakuno heard the noise of her classmates discussing the event as they entered the hallway and bemoaned internally the questions she would be bombarded with later.
Nobody would ask Ryoma-kun anything because they knew better than to ask the tennis prince personal questions. Not only did one receive a blank stare, but they never got anything out of him. Those that persisted became victims of his sharp wit. He could make you cry if he wanted to make fun of you. Needless to say, trying to get information not being offered out of Echizen Ryoma was more painful than pulling teeth.
She on the other hand was easy pickings. She would have no peace until the whole school was up in their business. How was she ever going to keep this silly miai business a secret from the whole school now?
"Ryoma-kun...what are you doing?" She asked lowly as they got a few feet away from the door.
"I just told you," He said.
She bit her lip to keep herself from screaming at him. Did he seriously not know what a stir he'd just created by calling out to her like that and then touching her in front of everybody!?
For that matter, he was still touching her. Every person in the hallway was staring at them!
"Sakuno!" Tomoka called as she ran up to them from behind. Quickly matching her pace with the couple she asked worriedly, "Is everything okay? Ryoma-sama, is Sakuno hurt? Are you taking her to the nurse's office?"
These being the naturally expected questions from Tomoka considering that like the rest of their schoolmates, she couldn't conceive of Echizen Ryoma touching anybody unless it was to assist them because they were hurt.
Sakuno turned her head away from the tennis prince to her friend that was now walking on her other side, "Tomo-chan. I'm okay. Ryoma-kun wanted to have lunch with us today."
Tomoka was surprised at her best friend's news, but squealed with delight all the same, "Lunch with Ryoma-sama! Awesome!"
Sakuno smiled while Ryoma scoffed under his breath.
"Wait a minute! I thought you wanted to talk-"
"SHHH!" Sakuno hissed abruptly.
Both of her walking companions gave her startled looks.
Embarrassed, she quickly covered it up, "Ah...Tomo-chan I just wanted to remind you that we're supposed to go to the music store after school today."
Her best friend forever didn't miss a beat and said, "Oh right! I did almost forget about that! I'm so glad you reminded me!"
Bless Tomo-chan for catching on to her ploy to keep the 'needing to have girl talk' away from Ryoma-kun so quickly.
They reached the lunchroom and Ryoma looked over Sakuno's head down at Tomoka, "Osakada-san, I want to have lunch alone today with Sakuno."
Tomoka's eyes widened at his words and she took a big step back. She sent a curious look Sakuno's way, who only gave the slightest shake of her head. Tomoka smiled up at Ryoma, "No problem, Ryoma-sama. I was supposed to share some notes with one of the girls for our next lesson anyway, so I'll head back to my class."
Sakuno desperately wanted to stop her, but Tomoka had ran off before she even had the chance to express herself. Ryoma told Sakuno to stay put for a minute as he braved the line and bought the two of them a couple of lunch breads.
As he left the lunchroom, he grabbed Sakuno's hand and pulled her outside. They walked around for a few minutes, hit up a vending machine for a couple of Pontas and then made their way over to the tennis courts. Sitting down on a bench by the courts, he set the food down between the two of them. He flipped open the tab on the grape Ponta and took a sip before he picked up one of the packaged breads.
Sakuno shivered a bit at the coldness from the bench as she sat down. Ryoma handed her the other bread and she thanked him. The two ate in silence for a few minutes.
About half way through his bread, Ryoma said, "I don't know how this works. Are you...my girlfriend now?"
Sakuno choked for a moment and then took a frantic swig from her cherry Ponta to wash her food down.
"Ryoma-kun-" She began warningly.
He locked eyes with her then, effectively stopping the speech she was about to launch into, "Don't I at least get a chance?"
Sakuno closed her eyes for a moment to break eye contact with him. A cool breeze hit them and she shivered again as the cold air whipped through her clothes.
On second thought, it was cold outside today! Maybe winter had completely arrived.
Ryoma moved their cans of soda to the side and closed the distance between them on the bench, "You look cold."
She nodded and scooted a little closer to him as well. Part of her wanted to simply cuddle into his warmth, especially since it seemed he was offering.
Oh, she would never get used to him acting like this.
Not that he hadn't always been a complete gentleman. However, before this morning's outrageous conversation he would have just escorted her back inside where it was warm, not offered sharing body heat.
She didn't know if she should faint, or swoon, or run for the hills.
"My parents said the coach wants to see you settled. If it's not me, then it's going to be someone, right?"
Sakuno wanted to shut him off like she could with a television or a radio. She didn't want to hear him talk about her love life so matter of factly. She didn't want to discuss her love life with Ryoma-kun at all actually! There was something so wrong about hearing these things from him. Anybody else would be bad enough, but hearing it from Ryoma-kun was like living in her worst nightmare.
He knew too much and he was going to use that knowledge against her apparently. She cursed the day her grandmother and his father met, sealing the fates of their families being long time friends. Anybody else wouldn't have had such inside information on her family circumstances.
What were Auntie and Uncle thinking sharing it all with Ryoma-kun? Were they trying to embarrass her for the rest of her life?
Ryoma nudged her and she realized she hadn't answered his question yet.
With a grievous sigh into her lunch bread she muttered begrudgingly, "Probably."
He turned to look at her, and she tilted her head up to meet his eyes as he smirked down at her and said, "You know me best."
Sakuno rolled her eyes and looked away from him towards the tennis courts. Of course she knew him best of all the boys she knew. She easily spent twice the amount of time with him as she did with any other boys. That wasn't the point of a miai though, and he knew that just as much as she did. She didn't see his point.
He jabbed her in the side with his elbow none too gently and said, "Take this seriously."
She glared at the tennis court at his jab and ranted, "I did, Ryoma-kun, and I said no. This morning, I said no a few times. I don't know how else to tell you no so that you understand that I mean no. It's not going to work, so it's not going to happen."
He scoffed at her heated speech and quickly rebutted, "You like me the best. Otherwise we wouldn't have stayed together all these years."
Sakuno stood up and spun on her heel to face him. Looking down at him with fire in her eyes as he sat there on the bench, giving her a challenging look as if daring her to call him a liar.
"That's completely besides the point!"
Ryoma shook his head, "Mada mada dane, Sakuno."
She leaned over him and said lowly, "Please understand me. I can't marry you!"
Before she had the opportunity to turn and run away from him again, Ryoma grabbed her wrist and yanked her down into his lap. She made a slight protesting sound as she floundered onto him and finally grabbed at his shoulders to regain her balance. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pinning her in his lap and said into her ear, "I don't believe you."
"That is Ryoma-kun's problem," She muttered back sourly.
What could she do to get him to stop it already?
"So who do you want to marry?" He asked.
Sakuno deflated at his question, "I don't know. Someone I don't know."
Ryoma muttered something under his breath in English and then repeated blandly, "Someone you don't know."
Sakuno wilted as the reality of her situation started to hit her. It was one thing to talk about things with her grandmother hypothetically and make promises when there was no face or name attached to a potential marriage mate. It was another thing to seriously consider getting married anytime soon, especially to some unknown person. For all she knew she could end up in a bad situation. It could be worse than someone she already knew, but all the boys she already knew...well, it just couldn't work...could it? As impossible as marrying Ryoma-kun would be, marrying any of their previous senpai was just as bad in another way. Her thoughts quickly travelling from frustrated to depressed, she unconsciously dropped her head onto Ryoma's shoulder and let out a big sigh.
"I don't want to get married," She finally whispered.
"At all?" Ryoma asked.
She nodded into his neck in answer, moving Ryoma's school uniform coat up and down against her cheek.
"Ever?" He asked.
She let out a small chuckle as she shook her head. "Well, of course I want to someday, just not right now. Ryoma-kun knows, I haven't even dated before. Getting married..." She trailed off, unsure how to put into words how she felt about it.
"Me too," He said, surprising her.
"You don't want to get married?" She asked.
He gave a huff of amusement, his chest bouncing against Sakuno's body moving her away slightly for a second. "I never thought about it until my parents told me about the miai."
Sakuno giggled, "This doesn't surprise me. Ryoma-kun only thinks about tennis!"
Ryoma's eyes looked away from the deserted dewy tennis courts and shifted to the side to look down at the side of her face as a wry smirk ghosted across his lips, "Un."
Sakuno giggled some more, moving her face into his chest she took a deep breath to stop giggling. Getting serious for a moment she said lightly, "Thank you for cheering me up. Ryoma-kun is a good friend."
His chest heaved with a deep breath and he tugged her outer leg closer to him, forcing her whole body to shift into his chest. Her side moved into him so that there was no distance remaining, "I want to take care of you."
She wrapped the arm closest to him around the back of his shoulders then and said with a confidence that she didn't feel she had, "I'll be okay."
With that, she pushed down on his shoulders and moved off of his lap, standing once again above him. Ryoma quickly stood up as well. As she turned back towards their school building to get inside before the bell rang his hand shot out and grabbed hers. Sakuno twisted her upper body around to look back at him, her head tilted to the side in confusion.
"I'm not giving up, Sakuno."
Her gasp was lost in the sound of the warning bell that lunch was almost over. Ryoma tugged her towards him and wrapped her up in a tight hug. She hugged back for a second as a tear escaped her eye, her heart breaking with want of something that she felt was really not truly hers, but rather a product of circumstance. Then she took a large step back and pushed against his chest hard, effectively putting him off balance so that he was forced to step away so that he didn't fall down. Wiping the tears now collected in her eyes off her face, Sakuno spun on her heel and dashed back into the school building.
Yay for another update! :D Feels good to be working on my fanfic updates again. I'm finally almost fully recovered from my pneumonia. :D Well then next update will probably be the next chapter of The Friend Zone. Love you all. xoxo
Thank you to all that left a review since chapter 3: ILuvAGdFanfic, asuna11, bowlfullofcherries, AnimeObsessedGirl, Unokahel, yuri-chan021, nekonomiko, Saphire122, heartluv, sandra x2, LollipopLawliet, yukina-chan15, yana19, aryaputra x3, DaphneAnimeGirl, Cookie, silverstargazer, RikuDai, Kurosaki Razhel, Abstract Obsessions, shajira, cityangelz, lechat23, Foureyesfreak27, LolaTheSa, SinfulEmerald, JC-zala, D'cute, sweetgirl123, cloudgoddess, Lady Light, ILoveSxS, Tnt24tryon, eeriesonata, reader713, SaKuRiMo0n, and michelle88222.
ILuvAGdFanfic - I like coconut water out of the coconut too! Yep, I've been resting a lot and I think I'm going to be all better soon! :D
asuna11 - It made me so happy to hear you read my fanfics with your friends! I love it so much! That's soooo fun! Never tried to get published, haven't had any interest and I'm not that good of a writer anyway. :)
bowlfullofcherries - Thank you :D
AnimeObsessedGirl - Trying to update ASAP. Love the excitement! ;D
Unokahel - heheh :D Thank you so much! I loved hearing all your comments and feedback. Well, Sakuno is a little older in this story, so naturally she's going to have a little more confidence and sense than she did as a twelve year old, since that's only natural. (And Ryoma will too for that matter.) I do enjoy writing them a little older with more grown-up tendencies. :D
yuri-chan021 - Happy to hear you're enjoying dense stubborn Ryoma. :D
nekonomiko - So happy to hear you're enjoying this story and thank you for the get well wishes. :D
Saphire122 - Yay! I love it that you said you could actually see this happening. How fun is that? :D Thank you so much!
heartluv - He is bold, isn't he? Gotta love those bold boys, am I right or am I right? XD
sandra x2 - Yay! So happy you're so excited to read more.
LollipopLawliet - A whirlwind of emotions? Awesome! :D I love that you enjoy the idealism of Sakuno's and Ryoma's stubborn determination. :D So crazy to hear it's already one of your faves! Wow! By all means rant away about feels all you want. :D I'll have to check out that manga. Thank you I'm feeling better with each day (most days.)
yukina-chan15 - Yes she is. Thank you. :D
yana19 - Yes well I think because of the sushi shop Kawamura seems like the "safe" type of choice, which is why I like to mention him in these type of situations. So happy to hear you enjoyed the RyoSaku time so much last chap! :D
aryaputra x3 - Yay for hot! Especially without kissing! I love it! ;D
DaphneAnimeGirl - Hehehehe so happy you enjoyed the RyoSaku scene so much!
Cookie - Yay Cookie-chan for possessive Ryoma. ;D
silverstargazer - Aww I love it that you're so hooked, but I'm sorry for keeping you from your studies. D: xoxo
RikuDai - So happy to hear you enjoyed (and found funny and different) Ryoma's persistence.
Kurosaki Razhel - So happy to hear you enjoyed chap 3 so much! Yay! xoxo
Abstract Obsessions - Aww your heart skipped a beat when you heard I had pneumonia? Awww. Don't worry I'm not gonna die on ya yet! hehe. Thank you so much for all your sweet kind words and I do love to talk with all you readers so thank you for joining in on the discussion after years of reading! I love it. ;D xoxo
shajira - Thank you so much for sharing your fave lines & parts of chap 3 with me. I smiled so huge. :D
cityangelz - I love that you're looking forward to the wooing process. :D I grinned like crazy. :D
lechat23 - I just love how many of you are using the word woo and pursue. I love it! Yep I can imagine a miai being a scary thing. :) Better in fiction of course! :D
Foureyesfreak27 - LOL! I know, right? :D
LolaTheSa - Hmm yeah she's just an idealist.
SinfulEmerald - I love it that her feeling old feelings resonated with you. :D Thank you for sharing that! YAY for squealing at Ryoma's opener! :D I love that his "pretty enough and not annoying" line got you! :D I love that you get so many feels thank you x million. ;D Yay for loving one-liners. XoxoxOxoXOXOXOXOX :D
JC-zala - I love it that you understand Sakuno's feelings. I think this is one of those scenarios where depending on each person they could easily go either way. Sakuno seems to me like more of an idealist for love, so this made sense to me as to why she would deny the marriage with Ryoma. Also this: "Ryoma has to realize that matters of the heart are important, especially to a girl." SO WELL SAID. :D
D'cute - It's true she needs to tell him that. She didn't because he really threw her off guard. You know in an odd conversation you don't always say the best thing. :D
sweetgirl123 - Isn't he? It's why we love him though. :D
cloudgoddess - So happy to hear you enjoy arranged marriage stories. I kind-of always wanted to write one, and finally got the idea for this kind-of different spin on it. So happy that you're enjoying the plot twist so much! ;D
Lady Light - Hehehe...she didn't cave in...but only because she loves Ryoma so so much. Poor guy won't know what's going to hit him!
ILoveSxS - YAY! So happy to hear it!
Tnt24tryon - I've never thought of publishing, no. I don't think I write well enough for that. :/ This has always just been a guilty pleasure-fantasy hobby for me. I don't know if I could write a normal romance novel. Maybe some day I'll try. No idea. :D Thank you for the high compliments all the same. :) I'll try to let you know if I ever do something original, who knows maybe one day I'll get some weird idea. :D
eeriesonata - Yes he is forever dense. ;D lololol.
reader713 - ROFL. Omg...totally!
SaKuRiMo0n - Hehe, it's so true!
michelle88222 - So happy Ryoma is driving you crazy I think that's a good thing? :D lol ;D
Okay everybody see you on the next update! xoxo Bunny