The Friend Zone
For OrangeAce
Canon Knowledge: Anime only
What you want to receive: Fic
Prompt: Nothing is interesting if you're not interested
What you want to see: Coming-of-age, Ryoma sees Sakuno in a new light, mixture of humor and drama, family, Nanjiroh's appearance, failed attempts
What you don't want to see: OOCness. That is all.
Chapter Eight
The next day at school, Ryoma was once again baffled at Sakuno's insistence on keeping him in the friend zone. She greeted him the same as she did every other morning as he'd plopped his stuff down at his desk catty-corner to hers.
Why wasn't she blushing at least? He'd totally kissed her last night!
"Did you talk to your parents about Friday?" She asked.
He gave a nod before asking, "What did the coach say?"
"Oh, she's very excited because it's been awhile since we've been over to your house."
"Hn."
Damn. What was he supposed to do?
During lunch, it was also the same. He was kind-of expecting her to bring him a homemade bento, you know...thinking they were together now that she was his girlfriend. But no...he was obviously still in the friend zone since same as most days, she happily waved him off as he headed towards the roof to take a nap while she had a girl-talk session over her own bento with her loud friend Osakada.
The only bright side had been hearing her convey to her friend that she "...wasn't interested in Yamada-kun after all..." As he'd walked away from the friends towards the classroom door.
It was after school however, that Echizen Ryoma was very displeased to find his previous teammate Kawamura Takashi hanging out on the benches outside of the tennis court with Ryuzaki Sakuno.
The two were sitting side by side talking, which was bad enough. Then she started laughing, and he suddenly had an urge to kill his former senpai.
She should not ever look so delighted by Kawamura's company.
Or anybody's company besides his own for that matter. Ryoma's eyes thinned into suspicious slits for a fraction of a second. Then, looking as cool and unfazed as ever, he made his way over to them.
"Oh, hi Ryoma-kun," Sakuno greeted as he approached.
Ryoma tapped his tennis racquet on his shoulder for a second and then swept his hat off of his head with his right hand. Just as quickly, he dropped it on Sakuno's head.
"Oh!" She exclaimed upon it's soft impact with her hair.
Not skipping a beat, Ryoma dropped his backpack unceremoniously on the floor at her feet.
"Ah..." She began, but trailed off as Ryoma handed her his tennis racquet.
Now feeling completely confused as to what in the world was happening, Sakuno watched with a kind of fascination as Ryoma pulled his Seigaku regulars jacket off and then proceeded to drape it around her shoulders. After that, he took his racquet back from her, paused for a moment to look blankly at his previous senpai still sitting at her side, turned around and headed into the courts.
"Wha-?" Sakuno said to nobody in particular. It simply escaped her lips in her utter bafflement.
"Sakuno-chan...are you seeing Echizen now?" Kawamura asked hesitantly.
Suddenly, it all came back to her...the conversation she'd had with Ryoma-kun just yesterday about Kawamura-senpai waiting to date her and how Ryoma-kun thought that was a stupid reason to date somebody. Oh! He must be helping her! Kawamura-senpai would obviously back down if he thought she was with Ryoma-kun! Half the people they knew thought they were dating anyway, so it was perfect for Ryoma-kun to pretend to be her boyfriend to help her get out of such an awkward situation! He was such a good friend! How thoughtful of him! She was going to have to make him a special thank you bento tomorrow.
Sakuno sent a smile towards Ryoma's back at her realization before turning to look over at her previous upperclassman.
"Well, you see-"
"Ne...Kawamura. Let's have a match," Ryoma called from the court, effectively interrupting Sakuno's floundering explanation.
Sakuno's head turned away from Kawamura and back towards the court where the tennis team had all finally gathered together.
Momoshiro was practically singing about "young love" while Kaidoh kept yelling at him to "shut up." Kikumaru was doing this odd little jig while Oishi tried unsuccessfully to calm him down. Tezuka was giving an interested look towards Kawamura, probably waiting to see if he would go ahead and take up Ryoma's challenge. Inui was, of course, scribbling away in his trusty databook, and Fuji was making his way over to where Kawamura and Sakuno were sitting.
Holding out his own tennis racquet to his former teammate Fuji said, "Here Taka-san, go play with Echizen."
"BURNING!" Kawamura exclaimed as soon as the tennis racquet was placed into his hand.
Sakuno tried to scoot away from Kawamura as he stood up and began to swing Fuji's racquet around in big sweeping loops of enthusiasm.
"Ano...Kawamura-senpai..." She made an attempt at protesting, but it came out too quiet for the older boy to hear her over his enthusiastic yelling.
"Ne...stop scaring Ryuzaki and get over here," Ryoma said loudly, interrupting another round of "BURNING!"
It was obvious from Ryoma's first service that he was trying to kill Kawamura on the tennis court that afternoon. The whole team stopped practicing in order to watch the match, and they huddled around Sakuno who awkwardly sat there with Ryoma's hat on, with Ryoma's jacket on, and with Ryoma's backpack settled at her feet. Thankfully, they were too engrossed in the match and commenting on it to pay too much attention to the weirdness that was their previous coach's granddaughter smothered in their freshman prodigy's belongings.
Naturally, Ryoma won by best of two sets. As it was that Kawamura wasn't actively participating in tennis anymore, and Ryoma had only continued to improve over the last few years since his previous senpai had to quit. Kawamura's strength as a power hitter which would have been quite a challenge to Ryoma in the past was easily overcome now that Ryoma was just as big and strong, if not stronger now than Kawamura seeing as how he was no longer the "chibi" of the team. Not that it stopped the team from calling him O-chibi, it just wasn't physically true anymore.
Kawamura was stretching his sore unused muscles in his arms after Fuji had fetched his racquet back from him, but he seemed in good spirits over being able to play a tennis match. Ryoma had a very self satisfied smirk while he gazed towards where Sakuno sat on the benches, still all decked out in everything...his.
The satisfaction...it was there...now he just needed to get her to understand.
"Finally making the moves on your girlfriend?" Momoshiro said as he stopped next to where Ryoma was standing. He crossed his arms and nudged at Ryoma with his elbow knowingly.
Ryoma scoffed.
"What? Everything isn't perfect in Ryuzaki-chan loves Echizen land?" Momoshiro teased.
Ryoma looked at Momoshiro from the corners of his hazel eyes before looking back towards Sakuno. With a wry smirk adorning his face he asked, "Ne...Momo-senpai...wanna see something really amazing?"
Momoshiro's eyes predictably widened with excitement, "Hell yeah I do."
Ryoma began to saunter over to where Sakuno was still seated, having been abandoned by the rest of the team to head to the locker room to shower and change back into their school uniforms. Even Kawamura had headed towards the team room to take a warm shower to ease the pain in his muscles.
Momoshiro quickly followed behind Ryoma, his mind racing with all sorts of possibilities of what the tennis prince meant by "amazing" when referring to their former coach's granddaughter.
Ryoma stopped as he reached the bench Sakuno was sitting on, "Oi."
Sakuno gave him a calm smile, "Don't you want to change before we head home?"
"Ryuzaki...I like you."
Momoshiro's mouth dropped open. He was pretty sure he just had the shock of his life! Echizen! CONFESSING! To RYUZAKI-CHAN! He never thought he would literally see it! Not with how private Echizen was.
Sakuno giggled as she waved her hand up and down, "Yes, yes, Ryoma-kun I know, I know. I get it already. You're really a good friend and I like you too. Mou...you really don't need to keep telling me. Oh and...thank you for today. Oh! Momo-senpai! I like you too, you know. It's so nice to have such good friends. I'm so happy we're all at school together again."
Momoshiro almost fell over.
Then he burst out laughing his ass off.
Sakuno nervously giggled along with a confused look on her face, not really sure what exactly was so funny, but unable to help herself from laughing along with her senpai laughing away like that. Even Ryoma snickered a bit before he turned towards Momoshiro and flatly said, "Amazing."
"BWHAHAAHA! Yes, Echizen! Amazing," Momoshiro agreed.
"Wait for me," Ryoma said to Sakuno before he left to head to the team's room to shower and change himself. A still laughing hysterically Momoshiro following behind him.
After showering, Momoshiro had calmed down a bit, though he was still prone to small bursts of laughter here and there. As Ryoma tied his shoes back on Momoshiro sat down next to him on the bench, "Ne...Echizen. You're in the friend zone."
Ryoma rolled his eyes, "I know."
"What are you going to do about that?" Momoshiro asked, barely containing himself from laughing about it yet again. It was really too funny.
Ryoma shrugged, "I don't know. I've already tried a few things, but..."
Momoshiro scuffed up his kohai's hair as he said, "You need to tell her it's not like that."
"I know, but how?" Ryoma grumbled as he quickly tied his other shoe. He stood up and quickly brushed his fingers through his hair, trying to calm it back down from whatever his senpai had done to mess it up.
Momoshiro shrugged, "Why don't you just leave a note in her locker?"
Ryoma's eyes widened.
Why hadn't he thought of that? It was so simple! He could be really clear! Then this whole friend zone mess could be well and over with.
"Thanks senpai," He muttered before he grabbed his racquet, spun it around and ran out of the team room, towards the school shoe lockers.
It was easy to find Ryuzaki's locker because he'd purposely chosen the one right next to it. It was how he was able to make sure nobody else was making the moves on his woman over the years. He rummaged through his pants' pocket and was happy to produce a scrap of paper and a pen.
He quickly scribbled away on the paper, and then promptly stuffed it into Sakuno's locker.
There! Now Ryuzaki would see his note in the morning and boom! Relationship officially started.
It was a flawless plan.
How fun is Ryoma. :D Gotta love him. Sakuno is so clueless. lol
Lots of love to all my reviewers for chapter 7: Miyu Takada, CrtcLkngThsStry, LOUi-SHii l'3'l, Guest, CMajalis, nekonomiko, Lovina, ryosakuaddictioneternal, D'cute, HungryChesire, Ryosaku90, secretlistener, Xanpluto, SinfulEmerald, Manga Bear, ulquihime7980, ILoveSxS, samika-37, toolazytologin, and JC-zala.
Miyu Takada - So happy you enjoyed Ryoma's little fantasy. XD
CrtcLkngThsStry - Thank you so much for your insightful review. I really enjoyed it. I'm so excited now. :D
LOUi-SHii l'3'l - So many lovely things you said all rolled into one review. Thank you so very much. xoxo
Guest - So happy to amuse you. :D
CMajalis - Thank you for your praises on my characterization. xoxo
nekonomiko - HOT! Awesome. :D Now I go do my happy dance.
Lovina - I love this fandom. Yep go hormones whoooo! o/
ryosakuaddictioneternal - Sakuno is slow though...he needs to spell it out. :P
D'cute - XD So happy you enjoyed the last line so much.
HungryChesire - lolololol ^/^
Ryosaku90 - They should just hook up. lol
secretlistener - hehhe so happy you're enjoying it so much. XD
Xanpluto - I know what you mean and that tends to annoy me too. This prompt was for 'failed attempts' so I ran with it and had fun. XD
SinfulEmerald - IKR! I totally want Karupin pajamas too. :3 I really wanna see Sakuno with her hair down too.
Manga Bear - Yep, he's a man with a plan. He muttered something like 'oh to hell with it' XD
ulquihime7980 - She is super dense. lol.
ILoveSxS - He blames his dad for it.
samika-37 - Ryoma is bold isn't he.
toolazytologin - Full out proper make out session...ok got it. XD
JC-zala - So happy you're back in our happy ryosaku land. :D
