Unusual Day

I'M BACK BABYY!

I guess none of you nice people think it's very funny that I took such a LOOOOONG break from this story…and you probably want to throw tomatoes and daggers at me. Sorry it took so long. I hit a writer's block and kind of gave up. But now I'm back with new ideas! YAY ME!

THANK ALL OF THE REVIEWERS SOO MUCH! To tell you the truth, I mostly write for you guys…

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from PoT…-sniffle sniffle-

Enjoy!

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What did this bitch know anyways? Sure, he'd never admit it; but he cared about her. If he didn't, Ryoma would not have been there, having a ridiculous confrontation with this useless, persistent, and stupid excuse of a girl. There are many things he'd never admit about Sakuno; like how she had always been pretty, how he found her bad sense direction and shyness to be quite cute, how she'd been the only tolerable presence around him, how badly his heart stung after seeing her get hurt, and how he was…

"In love with her…" the words slipped out of his mouth, barely audible. Shocked by the realization, the boy quickly recovered from his wide eyes and slightly gaping mouth.

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'What to do?' for probably the first time in his life, the calm prince of tennis was panicking—well, at least as close as it gets for him. Over the past few weeks, Ryoma has tried to ignore his newly-discovered feelings for the girl; it really didn't seem to work, although Sakuno was oblivious to any changes. After all, she couldn't see his sweaty palms, or hear his heartbeat grow faster. When all else fails, he considered fleeing to Mexico and start dealing drugs for a living, but that seemed a little extreme; however, it is less crazy than the second option: tell her.

"Echizen!" the man's voice broke through his muse, "were you listening to one word I said?"

"Nope." He could care less about what the teacher had to say, it was English after all.

"Maybe you should start now." the middle-aged man said with annoyance, but knew his words were in vain.

Mr. Asuka then restarted droning on about everything that the prince didn't care about, while his gaze drifted over to a confused brunette across the room. Her brows furrowed in concentration, while she chewed her bottom lip, trying to comprehend it all. And as much as Ryoma tried, he never looked anywhere but at the young Ryuzai girl for the rest of the period.

Sakuno was not getting any of this. English seemed like alien language to her, the pronunciations, the syllables, the antonyms, the homonyms, the thing where you have to…Oh. God. She was in a downward spiral towards failure.

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At the end of the day, a high-pitched, cheerful voice can be heard on the PA system throughout the school. It was an announcement for the spring dance.

"This year, students, we have come up with an exciting new way for you to get dates! (1) Red, white, and yellow roses will be sold at four stations within the school. Give your beloved a red rose, and if they returns you with a white one, then it means that they return your feelings and that you're going to dance together! But if they return with a yellow one, that is, if they care to respond at all, you're out of luck. And you've only got one week, so hurry up!"

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"Hey, Ochibi! Who are you asking to the dance, now that we know you were forced to go on that date to protect Saku-chan?"

The prince of tennis responded that question with an attempt to take out his senpai's head with a tennis ball.

"Hey! I'm just wondering…" the red-head pouted.

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"Ryoma-kun?" somehow, her voice always made everything better.

"Hmm?" he looked out of the corner of his eyes at her.

The girl was fidgeting, she wanted to know if her prince wanted to go to the dance at all, but she was scared to ask.

"Err, I-I was wondering if…" her cheeks turned red, "if you…had a good practice?" chickened out…

"Eh, just the usual, a few practice matches."

"Oh." She felt so awkward there.

"Why?"

"Umm…" she studied the ground as she walked, looking for something legitimate to say, "You-you look tired today…that's all."

"Well, it's hard work aiming tennis balls at both Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai. You'd think they'd be hard to miss, with those big, empty heads."

This statement made her giggle—music to his ears.

"What did they do this time?" the pretty girl asked jokingly, slowly relaxing.

Ryoma shrugged, and for a moment, he wished their walk home never ended.

"So…" she stood at the street corner. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Ryoma-kun."

"Yeah."

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'Seriously, what to do?' the prince pondered in his bed, while a ball of fur curled up against him comfortingly. He didn't run away from his feelings anymore, but Ryoma still hasn't fully accepted them yet. After all, he was someone with a lot of pride, someone who didn't like feeling weak.

Yet, every time Sakuno said his name, his walls of defense crumbled a little. Every time she smiled his heart beat a little faster. And every time she her cheeks tint pink, his breathing became just a little more shallow. He hated those moments where he felt so weak around her, yet he loved and cherished them at the same time.

Realizing such things really is exhausting, the tennis prodigy thought as his eyelids became heavy.

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Not too far from the traditional Japanese house, sleep didn't come so easy for Sakuno. If only she was just a little braver, then she would march right up to Ryoma and give him that red rose, and she would say those three words that replay in her head every time she saw the boy. If only she was, but she wasn't. It would take a miracle for her to do something like this, but it would take a bigger miracle for him not to reject her.

Sighing sadly, she closed her eyes, knowing there will be many failed attempts to sleep throughout the night.

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It was expected. So why didn't he of all people see this coming? Girls, a whole herd of them, were all he was seeing. They were holding red roses in hand, and were prepared to use their manicures on any others in the crowd.

Several hundred shouts, screams, and squeals of "RYOMA-SAMA" were heard. Stupid student council, this was worse than Valentine's Day, since they had to give the rose in person.

Ryoma was glad he was on the tennis team…where there was a fence, if he was on the basketball team, he would look like a giant piece of gum stuck to the floor right now.

Strangely, he found himself looking for a particular head with auburn-brown hair on it. Damn, she was much easier to spot with those stupid pigtails. Out of the blue, a tennis ball zoomed past his head.

"Focus, Echizen." The stoic young captain ordered.

"Hai."

Great, out of all the days of the year, all the days of their lifetimes, Tezuka decides that today might be a good day to play a match with the prince.

Samurai Junior served his signature Twist Serve, the motion was accompanied with earsplitting exclamations like "GO RYOMA-SAMA", "YOU'RE THE BEST" and the freakiest one of them all: "HAVE MY BABY!"

He was a little disappointed when he didn't spot her in the crowd, but he was also glad. If Ryuzaki were in a crowd like this, she'd either die of shock, or be trampled to death.

Practice flew by unusually fast, which meant going outside the caged in area of the tennis court and—the prince gulped—facing those freaky girls, he was scared, but he was also extremely irritated.

"Wow, Echizen, you're really popular with the ladies."

"Shut the hell up, Momo-senpai."

"Ooh, touchy-touchy."

'Well, it was fun while my crappy life lasted.' The prince took a deep breath, admitted defeat, and walked out to face death…

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'What happened to him?' Sakuno thought as her prince walked, or rather, wobbled into the classroom with a blank expression on his face.

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Throughout the day, a good thirty girls approached the prince during breaks. Sakuno watched them, eyes filled with hope when they go up to him, giving him the rose. Then, she saw their faces fall as he carelessly—and as the day went on, irritably—tossed each and every rose into the garbage can. And with every rejection the girl observed, her own courage and hope slowly reduced

By the end of the day, the trash was overflowing with red pedals.

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"You know, Ryoma-kun…"

"Yeah?" he side-glanced the petite girl beside him, she looked so sad.

"You should at least keep the roses those girls give you. They bought them with their money…" Sakuno murmured quietly.

He sarcastically snorted, "Riight."

"Really, you should—"

"They deserve it for annoying me all the time."

"Well, at least—"

"You're talking a lot more today, and you're not even stuttering."

He didn't like seeing Sakuno unhappy, but what had to be done had to be done.

Hearing what he said, the girl's cheeks were painted red. And as Ryoma saw it out of the corner of his eyes, his heart skipped a beat.

"Besides, why are you on the creepy stalkers' side anyways?"

"But they…they love—"

"Ha, Please." those stupid girls definitely didn't put him in the best mood.

Giving up, Sakuno pouted. 'What a jerk.'

Oh, if only she wasn't heart-brokenly in love with him, she would give him a good kick in the shin. But she didn't even know why she was so upset for those girls, she was just…upset. And no, it wasn't her "time of the month". Maybe it's because she was afraid that Ryoma might reject her like that, if she were to give him a red rose.

So, silence reigned, and not the usual comforting silences either. This time, it was a bit awkward, as if both of them expected the other to apologize.

Rarely does Sakuno act like this, the boy grasped; she was always so quiet and easy-going. Maybe he should…no. She could make his palm sweat all she wanted, but she was not making Ryoma Echizen apologize.

…Was she?

At the street corner, the Ryuzaki girl didn't even stop to say goodbye, drowning in her confusion. Yet, the prince refused to say anything either, he was still having a self conflict.

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The next day, they didn't say anything to each other, not that they could anyways. Girls were coming by the flock. Sakuno even now watched as the young prodigy rejected each and every one of the girls, this time breaking the stem of each delicate flower in half before deliberately throwing it right into the garbage.

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"Still mad at me?" his irresistible voice was beginning to wear down on her.

"Well," she was beginning to soften, "I don't know…I mean, today you still—"

"What if I made you a deal?" they stopped at the corner.

"A Deal?" Sakuno had a bad feeling about this.

"If you start talking to me again, I promise to love and cherish the rose you give me."

"EHH?" her face turned so red it could put a tomato to shame.

His signature smirk appeared, "Kidding."

Sakuno did not know what to say at that moment, but it seemed that Ryoma did.

"Well, see you tomorrow."

And with that he walked away, leaving the love-struck girl standing on the sidewalk blushing furiously for the umpteenth time.

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That night, Ryoma made a decision. He was sick of hiding, Ryoma Echizen, Samura Junior does not hide, not even from such a horrible thing as love. Besides, Sakuno was worth it.

Lying in bed, the prince sighed. Geez, he was going to have to waste money on a silly red rose just like everyone else now.

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To be continued…

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Hope you liked it! :)

The rose thing is not my idea…I got it from Imadoki!, a manga by Yuu Watase.

Sorry. I really tried to write longer than my usual chapters to make up for the long time that I didn't update for…but I just couldn't. :(

Please tell me what you think!

See you soon! I promise!