Disclaimer: Still don't own it and will never!
Summary: Refer to previous chapters.
A/N: Finally some interaction between the OC and Tezuka. Thanks to syahsyira for pointing out that out. Gomen-gomen! And again thanks for the alerts and reviews. Well hopefully it isn't too disappointing since I couldn't come up with interaction material...I had so many running in my head but at the end this one stuck to me. I've written this particular chapter over five times already and had a good amount, but re-started again last night so it might be a bit boring. Ah well enough of my blabbering...
This is thoughts.
This is English dialog.
VIII. Return Ticket
The street always seemed busy on Sundays, the people walked in and out of stores trying to enjoy their day off from whatever it was that they did. Two young teens walked about with scowls on their faces, each carried a few bags on their hands with food products, as they stopped to take a break; the young girl stare inside the book store with an awe it was a bit scary.
"Rio, what the hell are you staring?" The young boy muttered arching his eyebrow as he looked at what she was staring at.
The said girl pinched him in the cheek without looking at him. "It's the new volume of my favorite manga, Ryoma."
He scowled and pushed her inside the bookstore. "Then go and get it you big idiot, che." His golden eyes gleamed as he watched her indulge herself into books.
It had been quite a while since he had seen a better expression on her face, usually she spent scowling and frowning terribly to the point that it made everyone else angry, now though she was different. To him, it was comical seeing her act angry and then happy like a coin with two faces, at least she wasn't complaining so much.
"Ah, Echizen." Fuji called as he joined him on whatever it was that the dark haired boy was doing.
The said boy turned to look at the tensai. "Fuji-senpai?" Fuji waved and joined him.
"Uh, Tezuka is there too?" The tensai pointed at the stoic buchou browsing on the classic literature shelf that was close to where Rio was picking out books from.
"Eh, its bee a long time since the two have been in the same room or within close range." Ryoma commented as they stood there watching curiously--guess neither of them had anything else to do to kill time.
Inside, Rio browsed in the manga section picking out some new titles and suddenly she bumped onto a tall figure causing her to drop all the books in her hands. She growled getting on her knees to pick them up forgetting about the person she had bumped into, but slowly a shadow towered over her and a slender arms helped.
"Sorry." The monotone voice said. The girl looked to her front and looked at the stoic buchou.
"Tezuka-san?" The girl was startled by the sudden meeting with the person, whom she still found herself uncomfortable to be around. "Geez, its only been a few weeks since you kicked me out of the club and now knocking me down. Ah, whatever." Her remark was dumb, but she did not want to act nice to him.
He said nothing as he handed her the books back and walked off. It was impossible to deal with an Echizen even in public.
"That bastard, I'll get him!" She hissed stepping out of the store after paying for the books. "Fuji-san?"
Ryoma and Fuji were in a conversation, well Fuji was the one that talked the most while Ryoma simply answered with few words. While they were in their conversation, the young boy revealed that his parents were away but were forced to go to the market to get groceries for dinner, with that said, the tensai invited himself to eat with them.
"Ah, Rio-san." He smiled with a very bad intention behind it, which Rio noted to ignore.
"Yes Fuji-san, don't tell me he decided to invite himself?" The said girl asked her cousin glaring at him with squinted eyes.
"Hai." He groaned picking up the bags. "Tezuka-buchou?"
Rio jumped to the side trying to avoid being near the person she dislike the most--she was clearly in denial--glaring at him. The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward as they stood there in the sidewalk, it was growing, but none dared to break it at all for some reason.
"Tezuka, Echizen invited me to have dinner at his house, want to join us?" Fuji asked Tezuka, who cleared his throat.
"I don't want to intrude suddenly." He stated--more like avoiding the invitation since it was going to be along with the girl he didn't want to near.
Rio noticed his tone and her mouth twitched as a vein popped in her head. "You think I'll poison you? Trust me, there's someone before you who I must poison." Her eyes gave an evil glare as she turned to leave. "We are going, come one." The girl dragged the two by the arms, while Fuji dragged Tezuka with them.
The three boys followed the girl, who was cursing and muttering under her breath, she was obviously pissed off at the way that she was being treated lately, and from the looks of it she was even more pissed off at the stoic buchou. Tezuka and Rio were noticed by everyone to have an aurora of dislike for each other for a few days now, though no one knew exactly why, but at the same time none dared to ask at all either.
His fan-girls swooned him, trying to catch his attention in order to obtain whatever fantasies they had in their heads, but they were faced with the problem, Rio Echizen. All the fan-girls disliked her, not only was she the cousin of their famous beloved freshman, but she was also friends with most of the regulars, something they did not fair well with. Obviously they were jealous that they could not get their hands on the famous boys even if they tried, it all failed in the end when none really paid attention to them since some had girlfriends and the others didn't really cared for such affection.
To them, Rio was like a disease and everything they wanted to be at the same time, since most of the boys paid so much attention to her, why? No one clearly understood exactly, not even Rio understood it herself. Pretty much, it was a hindrance having girls ask a million questions at the same time about the regulars, and being stuck in the middle of that whole commotion made the whole world feel smaller in size.
Thirty minutes later, the four of them sat in the kitchen without saying anything enjoying the food that Ryoma had forced Rio to do. The tensai Fuji thanked and praised the western food, happily enjoying it while watching Tezuka eat silently. Dinner by far was one of the most awkward moments that either of them shared so far, unsure as to how many for Ryoma, but that wasn't counting for the time being.
"Echizen, care to have a game with me?" The tensai suddenly asked after finishing his food. "I heard from Nanjirou-san that he has a court up in the temple, you don't mind do you?"
Ryoma mumbled something and shrugged standing up. "Thank you, Rio." Both of the tennis geniuses walked out of the house carrying their tennis rackets. "Well be back later." They both said closing the door as they left. Fuji carried a very cunning smirk on his face, which went unnoticed by Echizen, who was still too bored out of his mind to even care.
The stoic young man and the pissed off young girl sat there in complete silence, none looking at each other or attempting to start a conversation. The air had suddenly thinned out as the girl stood and picked up her plate, completely ignoring the young man's empty plate, she stepped onto the kitchen to wash the dishes.
"Thank you for the dinner." The monotone voice broke the silence. He came behind and put his dish on the sink.
"Yeah, whatever." She replied washing the dishes. "You can join them up in the temple, I have other things to do."
"Aa." He replied picking up his book and continued to ignore her. An irritated look appeared on her face as she clutched the washing rag tightly on her hands.
The girl gave in throwing the rag on the side wanting to get out of the kitchen. She looked at him with anger gleaming in her steel grey eyes, a cold shiver traveled in his back as he suddenly looked up at her.
"You…make me…so angry." Her tone was poisonous and threatening as she smacked his book away. "Why? Why do you always pretend that I am not around and hate me so much?"
"I don't hate you." He stated bluntly keeping his composure reaching for his book, but she kicked it aside. "What are you doing?"
He looked at her breathing fast and her face turning red. "Ah, so pretending that I don't exist is okay then. That's nice." Tezuka was still trying to figure out what the problem was, but he kept his expressionless face on as always.
"What is it that you want me to say?" He suddenly asked as she was about to walk away.
"Don't know, you just annoy me." She chuckled menacingly turning her head. "You are a reminder of a person who treats me the same, and someone who I cannot forgive."
Tezuka stood up without knowing what to do or say at all, since he did not know what she was talking about at all but clearly noticing the hurt expression on her face.
"I apologize for whatever I've said or done." Tezuka bowed and picked up his book.
They stood there without saying anything again, without speaking or even looking at each other at all letting the clock on the wall tick endlessly as the sun began to sink in the sky. Rio had turned to look out at the door opening and closing her mouth, the sudden feel of sadness and despair fell on her like a rock, pulling her at the pit of oblivion. Comparing her relationship with the stoic buchou and her grandmother was nothing at all, simply the young girl was lying to herself to avoid getting hurt and face the truth at the same time.
"I'm sorry." She said suddenly turning around to look at him again. "Its nothing, never mind." A faint blush appeared on her face as she ran upstairs without saying anything else.
Tezuka stood there confused for a moment trying to decide whether it was a bad day, or just one of those complete weirdo days that people often talked about. The stoic buchou sank on a chair and continued with his reading trying to push the strange day away as he waited for Fuji and Ryoma to return before leaving.
Meanwhile, the said boys sat in the ground panting for air and drinking water after they had finished their game--the tensai had won at the end. Tiny clusters of stars began to appear on the indigo sky as they walked back to the house, but soon found that the only noise was the guitar coming from upstairs.
"What do you think happen?" Fuji suddenly asked Ryoma, who shrugged and headed upstairs. The tensai walked to the kitchen, where Tezuka had fallen asleep on the floor along with the cat. How long did our game take? He thought smiling to himself.
Upstairs, Ryoma entered the room and found Rio playing her guitar mindlessly, staring off in space and with no emotion to her face. He thought of it as strange since half the time she was so focused it was impossible to break it, this time it was different. He walked towards and tapped her on the shoulder to make her stop.
"Ah, sorry." She muttered smirking as she turned off the amplifier. "The game took long, its night."
Ryoma mentally kicked himself, but he had to ask. "What happen?" His voice was hard as he swallowed and avoiding looking at her with his golden eyes.
The dark haired girl put away her guitar silently, thinking of the proper words to convey a proper answer, but none came to mind. She took a seat besides him in his bed hugging her knees and laying her head on them to look at her young cousin.
"Don't worry, its nothing." She smiled and ran her hand on his dark green locks. "Having a conversation with buchou is very complicated, but it really was nothing at all just me overreacting."
Ryoma blinked and understood well. "Mada mada dane." He smirked as she pinched his cheek. "I'll go and say good night, but it seemed that buchou fell asleep."
Both stared at each other and started to laugh at the fact that the always composed Seigaku buchou had actually fallen asleep in their kitchen.
Fuji, who had stood outside Echizen's bedroom smiled to himself amused at how the whole day had turned out. He knocked on the door and heard a faint 'enter' as he opened the door slowly.
"Fuji-senpai." Ryoma looked at him. "I'm guessing that you're leaving now." The tensai smiled softly and nodded.
"I'll see him out, guess we should let buchou sleep." Rio teased trying to lighten the mood, but knowing well that it might not work.
As she jumped out of the bed, she knocked onto something and ignored it.
"Are you alright?" Fuji asked as she closed the door.
"Ha, yeah why wouldn't I be?" She smirked as they headed downstairs. "Can't believe he fell asleep."
On the other hand, Ryoma shook his head as he heard their footsteps fading down. He reached for the papers that had fallen and found what looked like a plane ticket, a frown formed on his brow while his golden eyes scanned the ticket. It was odd, he hadn't seen her make a phone call or anything like that to reserve it, but why did she have it?
"She's due to leave in a day?" He said out loud holding it still.
"RYOMA!" His name is called as he jolted up dropping the ticket on the floor.
"Coming." He answered nonchalantly closing the door behind him forgetting about the ticket.
In the floor, the ticket laid in the open. The destination was New York.
Kind of a boring chapter, guess early stages of writer's block. Very aware of the grammatical errors, but spelling should be fine. Planning on ending this one in the next two chapters probably. Also, it the characters with the exception of Rio, were slightly OOC. I have no clue whether to make Rio and Tezuka be a couple before ending it or not? The grandmother will no longer appear since I didn't like that character...(laughs at self)...and is Rio really leaving? Well, review/comment/etc. Flames will be ignored. Thanks for reading.
