Edited: April 7th, 2013.

HEY GUYS! I know it's still pretty short but I'm trying to figure out the relationship between Sakuno and tennis and everything else. I have a rough idea of how I want the story to go but it's still pretty foggy.

Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Prince of Tennis.


Sakuno put her pen down as the bell rang and her teacher addressed them good-bye. She sat down again and started to slowly pack her books into her bag. While putting her pencil case inside, her hand came in contact with something round, hard, yet had a fuzzy outer layer wrapped around it.

It was the gift that Ryoma had given her – the tennis ball. Within half a second, Sakuno was once again entranced in one of her precious memories.

~Flashback starts~

A delicious smell floated around in the air. It belonged to the cooking of Sakuno's mother. She smiled as she looked at the beautiful sight of lunch placed in front of her on the table – potato salad, ham and cheese sandwiches, macaroni and her daughter's favourite brownies. Homemade and self-decorated, just how Sakuno liked them.

"Mama!" Sakuno shrieked. Sakuno's mother's head shot up, alarmed at the call, but immediately broke out into a smile when she saw her husband carrying her daughter down like a bag of tissue paper rolls.

"Mama! Papa scared me again!" Sakuno wailed as she ran over to her mother as soon as her father put her down. Sakuno's father let out a heart-warming laugh.

"I just thought I'd save you the trouble of walking down the stories and help you fly down to the beautiful land of Mama's Cooking! Sakuno, you can't possibly blame Papa for that!" he said. He laughed even more when Sakuno puffed her cheeks at her father.

"Hmmmmm…seems like I'm still not forgiven. Alright then! How about I give you a little gift?"

"What is it?"

"Close your eyes and hold out your hands," he responded as he reached into his pocket.

Sakuno obediently shut her eyes and held her hands out eagerly, cupped together, her fingers itching to grasp whatever her gift was going to be. For the first few seconds, she could only feel a blanket of air wrapped around her fingers. Then, she felt it. A hard sphere that was protected with a fuzzy layer landed into her hands.

Sakuno opened her eyes and looked into her hands.

There it was.

An ordinary tennis ball.

Except, it had a little cartoon resembling Sakuno drawn onto it. Sakuno carefully rotated the sphere and found that it said anata wa aisa rete imasu.

You are loved.

Sakuno smiled and gave her father a huge hug.

"Ahhhhhh am I finally forgiven?" her father asked. Sakuno looked up at her father.

"Yup. You're forgiven!" She said as she beamed at her father. The father and daughter exchanged a smile and then proceeded to sitting at the table for their lunch."

~Flashback ends~

Sakuno took deep breaths as she felt the slight sting in her eyes because of the moisture that wished to break free.

Why was she trying so hard not to cry?

She could cry. Everyone had already left the classroom and Tomoka had left school an hour earlier for a dentist's appointment. She was free to put her guard down and just cry like she wanted to every day. Every hour. Every minute. Every second.

Another second and Sakuno actually would've cried, if it weren't for the fact that she heard the faint sound of the classroom door sliding. She quickly blinked back her tears and put on her mask again, as she turned around, all ready to greet the cause of the noise.

It was Shusuke Fuji.

"Gomen, Sakuno-chan. Did I interrupt something?" Fuji asked with obvious worry in his tone. Sakuno broke out into a gentle smile.

"Nope, not at all Fuji-sempai. What are you doing here? Is there something I can do to help?" Sakuno asked while packing the remainders of her bag.

"I was just wondering if you'd like to come and watch our first tennis practice of the year, Sakuno-chan," Fuji asked. Sakuno sighed as she tucked her chair under the table.

"Fuji-sempai, are you going to ask me every day like last year and the year before and the year before that?"

"It's worth a shot."

"You know you're just wasting your time, Fuji-sempai."

"Sakuno-chan, you trust me, don't you?"

"Fuji-sempai, you fully know that I think of you as family. You're the older brother I never had. Of course I trust you."

"Then are you ever going to tell me what happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Sakuno-chan. You know what I mean. 8 years ago, you suddenly bore a deep hatred towards tennis, a sport you whole family loved. Why is that?"

Silence answered him.

For Sakuno, the classroom seemed to grow smaller and smaller by the second. Why did Fuji-sempai have to bring it up? Sakuno knew she wouldn't be able to bear much any longer.

"I've got quite a bit of homework today, Fuji-sempai. See you tomorrow!" she said, a smile plastered onto her face. Then she walked out of the classroom calmly, pulling a Sakuno like she always did.

Fuji just stood there motionless.

Sakuno-chan…am I not worthy enough to be allowed into the depths of your heart?

Sakuno walked slowly and steadily on the grass towards her way home. As she passed the tennis courts, she couldn't help but steal a glance at the practices going on.

They had just finished jogging around the court and were now doing their stretching. Although the members came from many different backgrounds – and Sakuno knew this very well since she was good friends with them all, despite her hate for something they loved – Sakuno noticed they all had something in common: if not shown by a bright smile, their eyes emitted a unique happiness that was only shown when they were playing tennis, the hobby they loved.

"To profess in something, is to give it your all, even giving up something else for it if necessary," Sakuno said to herself.

Sakuno understood their feelings towards tennis. It was how she felt towards piano and music. She loved it. She loved how she got lost in her music when she was playing, enchanted whenever you listened to music…if there was anything she gave her all in, it would be piano.

But Sakuno knew there was an urge in her to pick up a tennis racket and give it a try again.

And play tennis like she did 8 years ago.

Sakuno reached into her pocket and felt her fingers touch the tennis ball again. She was about to bring it out and look at it. Heck, she felt like she was even ready to just walk into the tennis court and watch them practice in public, maybe even play a little.

But something stopped her.

It was that feeling again.

The feeling that she would never get rid of.

Loneliness.

Tennis always made her feel lonely.

Sakuno sighed and slowly turned around to keep walking home.

I'm not worthy to pick up a racket ever again. It's as though tennis and I have a mutual hatred towards each other…if not, what happened 8 years ago, would never have happened.

Ryoma's eyes silently followed Sakuno as she left. He was surprised she hadn't noticed he had been watching her.

Something's definitely on her mind if she's so out of it.

He adjusted his cap and cleared his thoughts while he picked up his racket and got ready to practice.

The last thing he thought about was the eternal sadness he seemed to catch in Sakuno's eyes every time he looked closely.


Did you guys like it? I sure hope you did! And thank you so much for all the reviews! You all have NO IDEA how much they mean to me!

Also, I plan on starting up another FanFic. Like most of my others, it's going to be a rewrite of another anime series I really like - Inuyasha. I'm going to follow the anime timeline, and add in the movies as well. So review and tell me what you guys think about Fallen Angel and this new, possible FanFic! :D

Signing off,

Samika~