Chapter Seven: Ryoma tells all

Sakuno found Ryoma in the boy's bathroom splashing water onto his face and leaning against the sink as the panic attack lessened. Sakuno leaned against the doorframe watching him but he still hadn't seen her when he began mumbling to himself. "Stupid why did you rise to the bait? Now it's going to happen all over again."

"What will?" Sakuno asked stepping further into the bathroom. Ryoma jerked up, eyes wide in surprise and hair dripping from the water as he turned to her. Sakuno started to move up to him but Ryoma's hasty retreat had her slowing her steps; "Ryoma-kun?"Ryoma turned around and grabbed one of the towels by the sinks and began wiping his face. Sakuno waited for him to finish before she moved closer to him. "Ryoma-kun please tell me what's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Ryoma said still turned from her and trying to distract himself by refolding the towel and finally dropping it into the dirty hamper. Ryoma turned to her and tried to smile but Sakuno just placed her feet apart and gave him a look that said she didn't believe him. Ryoma ducked his head and sighed. Sakuno saw that Ryoma was debating, so she sighed and touched his arm.

"Come on, it can't be all that bad." Ryoma looked up to her face as she smiled at him reassuringly. "Things always seem worse than they are. You can tell me anything, I'm your friend, remember?" Sakuno stared Ryoma in the eye and Ryoma stared back. Ryoma gulped and sighed before he turned to face her once more.

"Okay, it all started when my dad began teaching me tennis….." Ryoma continued his story about his training with his father, to the tennis classes in gym, about the attention and finally the ignoring and jibs from his 'friends'. Sakuno listened silently, awed over the fact he'd been training since he was a toddler, excitement for him when he played and anger towards his 'friends' and how the teachers had behaved and finally sadness over the loss of his confidence in himself and his love of tennis. When Ryoma finished he looked at her, and sighed in disappointment when he noticed the look of anger on her face. Immediately he began berating himself for giving up and telling her, because now she knew what he could do and she'd only think that he was a show off like the others. Ryoma tried to cover his disappointment and hide his fear of rejection when Sakuno stomped her foot.

"Those cruel little jerks, how dare they mistreat you like that, just because you had more talent than they did? It's wasn't your fault that your dad is the famous Samurai Nanjioroh and that you had already been training. It's ridiculous, shame on them." Ryoma was stunned; she was defending him even though she must know that he could play even better than he'd shown already, but she was still defending him. Sakuno turned to look at him and smiled as she touched his arm and once more Ryoma's heart thumped at the touch. "Ryoma it wasn't your fault, ok? You were all just little kids and little kids can a times be the cruelest people. You were different and they were jealous of you that's the only reason they acted that way. It was silly but because of that you've suffered and I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry, you didn't do anything?" Ryoma asked.

"Because I would have liked to see what you would have been like if you'd never stopped participating in tennis, what you could have accomplished. And I'm sorry that because of this you've become so shy." Ryoma didn't like that, so what if he was shy. Ryoma felt rejected as he tried to maintain his wall of defense again getting hurt, but Sakuno only smiled more. "But I like that you're shy too, they're both parts of your personality; the confident tennis player who gets swept up in his games and the shy person who is sweet." Ryoma blushed. Sakuno realized what she said and blushed a little too. So to cover it up she said the first thing on her mind. "Why not join the tennis club now and play," here she began to warm up to her subject. "Maybe you'll gain more confidence in yourself. I'm sure the senpais would like that, and they would understand if they knew about your past. I'm sure…"

"No!" Ryoma said startling himself and Sakuno.

Sakuno scrunched her face up, "Why not?"

Ryoma spoke more softly. "Because I don't want them to know about that, what if they don't understand and they come to dislike me." Ryoma shook his head. "I don't want to play publicly; I'd rather stay the assistant manager. That is if they'll still let me." Sakuno didn't understand, why Ryoma would stay so reluctant about the others knowing, but she knew that she didn't want to push Ryoma either. So she decided to stick with her original idea and let Ryoma be a manager and hopefully he gain the courage to pick tennis back up. So she smiled and nodded her head.

"If that's what you want Ryoma-kun. I'm sure everyone will be curious, but I'm sure when we say that you don't want to play they'll let it go." Eventually, she thought. The look of relief on Ryoma's face made her glad he couldn't read her mind. "Well I guess we should head back to the courts." Ryoma's face froze, he wasn't sure he could face them just yet. But when Sakuno looked at her watch he was saved.

"OMG, look at the time?" She said indicating her wristwatch. Ryoma obliged and noticed that technically tennis practice should have ended about ten minutes ago. "I better go out; they probably didn't want to disturb us and are waiting outside. Oh this is going to be so embarrassing."

"Why?" Ryoma asked he knew why he'd be embarrassed but why would she. Sakuno's look made him feel it should be obvious but it still took him a couple seconds to realize it. Sakuno was standing in the boy's bathroom, with him, and had been for about an hour. Ryoma blushed at this new realization.

Yep today was just getting better and better.

….

When Sakuno peeked her head out the door, the whole tennis club was running, except for Tezuka and her grandmother, who were watching them. Sakuno breathed out a sigh of relief, this would give them a chance to leave the boys locker room without being seen. She turned to Ryoma and waved him over to her, Ryoma obliged. "They're running laps right now, probably as punishment because of what Arai did." Ryoma's face blanched and Sakuno rushed to reassure him. "Don't worry it's not your fault, Arai started it and it wouldn't be the first time but maybe this time he'll stop making trouble for awhile." The regulars passed the locker door leading the group as they rounded back towards the courts to finish their laps. "Let's go." Sakuno opened the door wider and they walked out of the room and shut the door. "You go on home; I'll explain to the Captain that you were needed at home." Sakuno said. Ryoma looked at her and nodded.

"Thank you." He said lowly but Sakuno heard him and smiled.

"What are friends for?" She said. Ryoma smiled back at her, rounded the corner and out of sight. Sakuno on the other hand headed for the court fence door. About the time she entered the courts the tennis club members had finished their laps and were re-entering the courts. Sakuno walked up to Tezuka, his eyes moving toward her than back to the club members was the only indication that he'd acknowledged her presence. The members lined-up and after making some announcements Tezuka dismissed them to go home. After the others had left the courts Tezuka turned back towards Sakuno.

"Where is Echizen?"

"I let him go home." Tezuka lifted an eyebrow, so Sakuno explained. "Because of what happened earlier with Arai-senpai, Ryoma-kun was unsure that he'd still be welcomed in the club. I told him that if we explained why it happened that everything would be okay. But…there are things I've learned about Ryoma-kun's past that he has asked me not to tell anyone about."

"What do you mean?" Tezuka asked. He was curious if this could be bad or not and Sakuno picked up on that.

"Ryoma-kun did nothing wrong, I mean…" Sakuno wasn't sure how to explain without giving some detail about Ryoma's past. "If I tell you senpai than you have to keep this a secret." Tezuka considered and then nodded, Sakuno sighed. "I was talking to Ryoma-kun after the match with Arai-senpai and he confided in me about when he was younger..." Sakuno started her And that's why he became so shy, and when Aria-senpai picked a fight he was only trying to defend himself." Sakuno answered.

Tezuka thought about it, he'd seen from the upper windows how Aria had made Ryoma carry his things and how he'd kicked over the basket of balls. He'd also watched as Arai had moved Ryoma over to the courts and served the first shot. But Ryoma had participated and the others had let it happen, thus the reason for the punishment of running laps. So he made a decision. "I will not tell anyone about what you've told me, but Echizen participated in the match and that is against the rules. So I must give him a punishment, and I want him to come to me to explain himself and apologize for disrupting club activities. Am I understood?"

"I do." Sakuno smiled, and then she continued. "Tezuka-senpai, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened on the court earlier, I had some doing in starting of the game. Because I heard Arai-senpai making remarks about Ryoma-kun that I didn't think were fair or nice and I spoke without thinking. I'm not going to make excuses for Ryoma-kun's part, but I just wanted to acknowledge that in a way I egged Arai on to challenge him. I'm sorry." Sakuno bowed and then waited for her punishment. She was met with silence for a second before Tezuka answered with an "Ah," was Tezuka's acceptance of her apology. "Echizen may remain a manager, but both of you will pick up balls by yourselves for the next two days. And I don't want to hear or see any more arguments on the courts."

"Yes sir." Sakuno said and smiled, that was a lighter punishment than running had been, she was sure the club had been assigned at least 40 laps for not stopping the incident or in Arai's case participating and starting it. "Thank you." Tezuka nodded and headed to the locker room to change with the others and Sakuno turned to move towards her Grandmother, who'd been watching the interaction between Tezuka and her.

…..

Ryoma walked home, he was still thinking about all he'd told Sakuno. He was really embarrassed about it but at the same time he was really relieved. Sakuno had taken everything that he'd said and really seemed to understand his reluctance to play again. Ryoma sighed, "What am I going to do tomorrow?" Ryoma was in front of his house when he spoke this aloud, he wasn't aware of his father being there.

"What's up boy?" Nanjiroh asked, coming around the path from the temple. Ryoma looked at his father then sighed again. Nanjiroh looked at him sadly, he understood that sigh. "Did something happen at school again?" Ryoma nodded. Nanjiroh clucked his tongue as he rubbed the back of his head. "Come along Ryoma we'll talk at the temple, we don't want to worry your mother." Ryoma looked at his father and felt a sense of gratefulness to his father. Ryoma nodded and they walked in silence up to the temple.

….