Befriending My First Love
(By: ShortFingerNails)
#4
"Nii-chan! Wakey, wakey!"
Seventeen-year old Ryoma groaned as a fifteen-year old girl stormed into his room and pulled the curtains. He used a pillow to block the blinding sunlight from his eyes and another pillow was tossed carelessly towards the brown-haired girl jumping on the edge of his bed.
"C'mon, nii-chan! It's my first summer in high school!" She dodged the pillow and pulled away his covers.
"Five minutes," Ryoma mumbled as he rolled onto his stomach.
Echizen Yuya pouted and decided to pull the pillow he was drowning his face into.
"Wake up! It's Japanese breakfast!"
Ryoma growled as he finally sat up in his bed with a laughing Yuya exiting the room.
"Close the door, damn it!" He slammed his door shut and started towards his bathroom.
"Thanks for the tips, Ryuzaki-senpai! We'll be off now!" The first-year club members gave the single-braided Ryuzaki a quick hug before they dashed out of the kitchen.
Some of the sophomores gave polite bows as they left the large headquarters of the Home Economics Club before they fired away towards the tennis courts, all the while squealing out the Tennis Captain's name. Sakuno hummed a nursery rhyme as she waited in the kitchen for her cake to rise. Anyone within a five-mile radius could see that the girls were crazy for the Himura Tennis Regulars not just because of their extraordinary talents, but also because of the players themselves. Especially Echizen Ryoma. Or Ryoma-sama as the fan girls called him. And seeing the annoyed look on his face whenever he runs into a bunch of rabid fan girls was just pure entertainment. Both to her and Taichi.
The smell of the vanilla butter cake rising in the oven wafted through the empty kitchen. It was always like this, ever since she took part in the club. She would stay back in the kitchen to check on anything missing or anything out of the place, with the president of the club helping her. When the third-year president graduated, no one stayed back with her. But she was okay with that. The kitchen had been her sanctuary after a busy day at school. It was a place where she could chill herself from the guys hitting on her.
She put on the brown mittens and carefully took out the cake tin from the hot oven. She smiled dreamily as she inhaled the delicious smell of vanilla and butter.
"Heaven," she said to herself and turned around to place the cake onto the cooling rack on the icing counter behind her.
Then she gulped.
It was all she could do to keep herself from shrieking like a banshee as a pair of amber orbs stared back at her. She nearly dropped the piping hot cake tin as the pair of eyes glinted with such glee.
"Oh, sorry! I'm Echizen Yuya! Nice to meet you, senpai!"
The cheery voice startled Sakuno for a moment. As she felt the mittens getting warmer, she broke out of her trance and clumsily put down the cake tin onto the counter. Struggling out of the mittens, she mentally cursed herself for being such a klutz.
"Nice to meet you too, um…"
The third-year brunette thought of a name to call the first-year girl in front of her. Yuya giggled and took Sakuno's hands in hers.
"Just call me Yuya!"
Startled again from the friendliness of the girl, Sakuno managed to nod. Yuya noticed the cake.
"Wow, you made a cake. It smells good, nee-chan!" she inhaled the scent given off by the still warm cake.
"U-Um, it's a vanilla cake. I'm about to put icing on it. But it needs to cool down, so…"
Sakuno looked at the cake now sitting innocently on the cooling rack to avoid any eye contact with Yuya.
She'd heard about Yuya from Taichi, but never in a million years would she have thought about the real Yuya. The girl was far from looking like Ryoma, except for the amber eyes. She was more like a miniature Rinko, with shoulder length brown hair that was left down. Blue flower hair clips kept her bangs out of her face as she bent down again to take another whiff of the cake.
"Ne, Ryuzaki nee-chan," the female Echizen smiled at Sakuno.
"Yes?"
"Can I join this club?"
Ryoma rested his red racket onto one shoulder and adjusted his cap as he observed the other members practice on court 1. He already sent some of the other regulars to check up on the other three courts.
"Ne, Ryoma." Taichi stood next to him holding his notebook.
"Hn." The Tennis Captain nodded and took a swig of his water.
"Well, the Kantou Tournament is coming."
"Anything new?"
Taichi grinned and flipped through the pages. "Lots of them, desu!"
The girls outside the courts squealed as Taichi conversed with Ryoma, his goofy smiles lighting up the atmosphere in the court, a clear contrast to Ryoma's bored - if not scowling - face.
"Gosh, they look SOOO good together!"
"Yeah, but I think Ryoma-sama's better off with himself!"
"God, those arms and legs! He's gorgeous!"
"RYOMA-SAMAAA!"
Said name winced as he heard those squeals. Taichi laughed and put an arm around his shoulder, causing more squealing from the fans.
"Dan-kun, you're so cute!"
Taichi winked playfully at the girls and laughed again as Ryoma grumbled something along the lines of 'you sound gay' and 'annoying screams' and also Taichi's favorite; 'I'm not a faggot'
"Maa, maa, Ryoma! Have some fun while you're at it desu!"
Ryoma shrugged off Taichi's hand. "It's easy for you to say that. You're not pressurized by the press."
Taichi grinned. "Well, I have my own press desu!" And he pointed towards a bunch of girls snapping pictures and some of them holding up all the ridiculous gadgets to get a glimpse of what the two friends were talking about.
Ignoring the screams from the sidelines, Ryoma changed to another racket and motioned towards an empty court.
"Come on, Taichi. Work on your backhand this time."
Always the energetic bunny he was, Taichi replied with a cheery 'Okay desu!' and followed Ryoma.
Yuya smiled as she observed the third-year icing the cake beautifully. Sakuno nee-chan, as she learned from her new classmates, was as beautiful as she imagined.
The moment she stepped into the high school, all she could think of that time was to check out all the clubs there. And she'd tried out volley ball, but she was as bad as Ryoma in that sport. Then she tried the science club, but she was not as clever as Ryoma to name the chemicals in the lab. The last club she tried was the shogi club, but she grew up in America for most of her life and it just wasn't in her blood. Plus, she was kicked out of the club because she'd offended the high and mighty brown-eyed president who claimed he was better than her brother in the muscles department; by saying Ryoma was a shrimp compared to him.
Then Ryoma had talked to her about the tennis club, but he didn't force her to try out. And the moment she decided to watch Ryoma play against a sophomore, she quickly gave up the idea of joining the Tennis Club. No way was she going to enter a club where most of the members finished their time squealing after the boys' side. No way. Besides, she wasn't so passionate about tennis as Nanjiroh and Ryoma were.
Seeing her enthusiasm die out, Ryoma's best friend, Dan Taichi-kun had recommended her to join the Home Economics Club, because their other best friend was the president of the club. She'd asked her friends who'd joined the club and they did a good job in promoting the kind, sweet, beautiful president of the club. While all of the members of the HE Club adored this Ryuzaki-senpai, some other girls hated the brunette. They said that she wasn't popular but she was seen talking to Ryoma and Taichi most of the time.
True, Ryuzaki Sakuno wasn't all too popular, even though she became the president of the HE Club. It was because the club itself wasn't that popular. And Ryoma nii-chan talking to a girl? It was news to Yuya. She had never seen her brother talk more than three words to a girl. Even the prettiest girls had been talked to by the same way he'd treated any other girls.
"Nee-chan," she called out.
Sakuno looked up from the fully coated cake, a satisfied smile on her face. "Yes?"
"you're nii-chan's friend, right?"
"Yes, of course. Why?"
Yuya frowned. "No, it's just that nii-chan never had a female friend. He never talks a lot when he's with a girl. Well, except me and okaa-san. Nanako nee-san too."
Sakuno washed her hands and laughed shyly. "Well, Ryoma-kun does talk a bit. Just not much."
This piqued Yuya's interest. She sat herself on the edge of the counter top. "How did you get to know him?"
Flashback
"Ne, thank you, for saving me in the train just now…" she blushed, embarrassed at the fact that the boy turned out to be the one to buy the Ponta she was holding, instead of her.
He turned to her, the blankest face she'd ever seen plastered on his face. "Hm? Where were you sitting at?"
Sakuno didn't know what to do; whether she should be mad at him for not noticing her, or should she laugh out because it seemed that he was such a clueless boy. She settled on pouting.
How could he? Was she really unnoticeable?
End flashback
They laughed as Sakuno finished telling the first-year about the time when Ryoma didn't recognize her.
"Really? How can nii-chan forget about your name?"
Sakuno nodded as she wiped the counter top clean.
"Well, that's Ryoma-kun for you."
Yuya helped Sakuno shut the windows and pluck off the plugs before they walked out of the kitchen.
"Ne, who's that cake for?" She asked, and then realizing her mistake, she closed her mouth with a hand.
Sakuno looked at the box with the cake inside. Usually she'd eat the cake with Taichi at his house, and sometimes Taichi would drag Ryoma too.
"Usually we'd eat this at Taichi-kun's house."
Yuya blinked. "We?"
"Taichi-kun and your nii-chan. Well, Ryoma-kun doesn't always come… But you can join us if you want to."
The younger Echizen clasped her hands in delight and skipped towards the tennis court. "Of course! I'll ask nii-chan to come along too!" She turned around suddenly and gave Sakuno a bone-crushing hug before she left the third-year brunette on the verge of passing out.
Sakuno giggled as she watched Yuya skip her way towards the lockers, hurriedly replacing her pin soles with her black shoes. The first-year really made a good impression on her. She liked the girl's cheerfulness, and that reminded her of Tomoka.
Echizen Yuya…
She liked that name.
A/N: Sorry for posting another short chappie. I just hope you like it. I kinda feel that this chap isn't one of my favorite. Oh well, did my best didn't I?