Author's Note: It's been a while, minna-san! I'm so sorry for the late update. But, it's here now and I hope you enjoy reading it :) And thanks for you who have reviews, favorited, and/or alerted this story. I'm truly grateful of your supports. Thank you~ *bowing

And for you who had guessed who called Ryoma correctly. Congratulations! It's really great how you knew what's on my mind, really ^^"

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Prince of Tennis

CHAPTER 10

The Date II, Unexpected Meeting

Seiichi slide the door opened, making everyone inside quieted down and looked in their direction. The man on the counter, most likely the chef, parted his mouth and said, "I'm sorry but we're clos―, "before he could finish his sentence, one of the guests interrupted him.

"Ryoma-chan?"

Ryoma turned to the person who called her, when she saw the brunette, her eyes widened in recognition. She walked up to the brunette all the while ignoring the call of her buchou. She raised her left hand and put it on top of the brunette's head as if to make sure that that it was no illusion. The brunette's eyes immediately opened to reveal crystal blue like the ocean. Ryoma patted the brunette's head and smiled a bit. She was oblivious of Seiichi's confused look of her action.

"It's really you," said Ryoma, surprised. The brunette smiled his trademark smile before hugging her. In a matter of seconds, a cough could be heard and Ryoma and the brunette took it as a cue to be separated. It turned out that the one who coughed was a spiky black-haired guy, looking confused. It was in that moment that Ryoma realized all of the people in the room was looking at her and the brunette. When her eyes landed on her senpai, she knew something was amiss from the unreadable expression on his face; she immediately made her way close to him before grabbing his hand to the table which was occupied by the brunette and his friends whom wore blue and white jerseys.

That was also the moment the occupants of the room noticed the infamous Rikkaidai's tennis buchou. After a while, a red-haired guy asked what's on everyone's mind to the tensai beside him.

"Who's she, Fuji?"

"Saa…."

"Nyaa!" exclaimed the red-haired guy dramatically, hearing his classmate's reply. Well, it was to be expected from the tensai, but he really looked forward to the answer that he actually believed the tensai would reply clearly.

"Fuji!" said a dark brown-haired guy in a warning tone. Probably to warned him not to play around. And it seemed he had noticed Seiichi's darkened aura when the girl was hugged by the tensai.

Ryoma then turned to look at all the occupants of the room. There were eight people, including Fuji, the spiky black-haired guy, the red-haired guy, and the bespectacled dark brown-haired guy. She observed each of them, though she suddenly remembered to introduce her Syuu-nii to Seiichi. But before she could part her lips, someone beat her to it.

"Yukimura-kun, she is?" asked a guy with a moon-shaped hair. His eyes were on Ryoma. Now Ryoma didn't see that coming. It seemed that they knew each other.

"Oh, she's Echizen Ryoma," Seiichi said as he put his hands on Ryoma's shoulders. Ryoma blushed pink, not expecting the movement. This, of course, didn't go unnoticed by our resident tensai. "Though I didn't know she knows you, Fuji-kun." He continued and met Fuji's ocean blue eyes which had opened immediately.

"Fssshhhhh…. That's right! What's your relation with the girl, senpai?" asked a guy wearing a bandana as he hissed like a snake.

Everyone looked at Fuji expectantly which was returned with a smile, "Well, if you want to know that bad, I'll tell you," he said with playful tone. Ryoma suddenly felt something's going to happen and she wouldn't like it. Very much so.

Fuji's smile widened which made Ryoma more suspicious, " Actually," Fuji started, a bit of mysterious tone in his voice, "Ryoma-chan is my fiancée."

….

….

"WHAT?"

...

Ryoma's face turned pale, she's frozen on the spot, but regained her composure after a while. She then looked at Seiichi which had a blank look. Alright, she wasn't expecting that! Definitely not. She really didn't expect Fuji Syuusuke to say such a thing! And right in front of Seiichi-senpai. She groaned inwardly, 'This can't be happening!' from the corner of her eyes, she could see Seiichi tensed at the statement, she winced.

She looked at the other occupants who had been clearly shock, even the bespectacled dark brown-haired guy who had a respected aura and expressionless face, had his eyes widened and mouth slightly parted. The bandana guy who hissed like a snake had turned from pink to red as the words sank in his brain.

She then looked at a guy wearing glasses who wrote down something furiously and fast on his notebook. She didn't get to see the others' reaction as the red-headed guy from earlier had burst into tears and wailed like a 5 year-old whose candy was stolen. Ryoma sweat dropped at the sight.

"NOOO! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME FUJI!" exclaimed the red-headed loudly as tears wetted his cheeks, "I thought I'm your best friend!" the crying now turned to sobbing after he was comforted by the moon-shaped headed guy who was seriously concerned by his partner's outburst.

Suddenly the occupants of the room (by the way, the chef had walked away from the room to give the youngsters some space) heard soft chuckles which immediately turned to laughter. All eyes landed on Fuji Syuusuke as he clutched his stomach and palmed his mouth, trying to hold in the laughter which of course, he failed miserably at.

The red-headed sniffled, "It's not funny, Fuji!" he shouted, staring at his friend like he was an alien.

"I'm sorry, Eiji. It's just a joke," Fuji said, looking at the red-headed, Eiji, meaningfully. He didn't mean to hurt his friend like that.

Although that last statement was meant to comfort the red-headed which succeeded, but it caused another problem.

After processing the words to sink in their brain, something dawn upon them. Realization hit them hard on the head. Ryoma sighed as she looked at all of them in utter disbelief. Beside Ryoma, sat Seiichi who had heaved a sigh of relief after the statement sank deep in his head.

Syuusuke looked at his teammates in amusement. Though he regretted it a bit after Eiji's outburst, he couldn't help but smiled in clear joy as he watched their reactions.

"Wait a moment, senpai!" exclaimed the spiky black-haired guy, a look of disbelief and slight shock on his face, "What do you mean?"

"Now, Momo, Ryoma-chan is not my fiancée," Fuji explained calmly.

"Demo, Fuji, you just said that she is," said another brunette with a look of confusion on his face.

Ryoma sighed again. Why were all her ni-sans weird? She never knew the answer to that question. "You sure are having fun, Syuu-nii," said Ryoma, drawing all the attention to her.

"Syuu-nii?" repeated the moon-shaped haired guy, confused.

Ryoma raised an eyebrow, "Hmm, Syuu-nii," she said again while pointing to Syuusuke.

Syuusuke chuckled again. The bespectacled dark brown-haired guy's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "Fuji, explain!" he demanded.

"Oh, well, you can say, Ryoma-chan will be my sister-in-law of some sort," he said innocently.

"What? Sister-in-law?" asked a black-haired guy, his glasses glinted as he mumbled what sounds like, "Ii data."

Ryoma sighed wearily once again, "Hmm, Yumiko-nee is Nii-san's fiancée,"

"Now that it's over," the moon-shaped hair guy said as he turned to Ryoma, "It's nice to meet you, Echizen-san! I'm Oishi Shuichiro. I'm the fukubuchou of the Seishun High's tennis club." He smiled as he introduced himself; the others took this as a cue to do the same thing.

The bespectacled dark brown-haired guy who had this commanding aura around him fixed his glasses as he said, "I'm Tezuka Kunimitsu. The buchou."

"I'm Kikumaru Eiji nyaa! Yoroshiku!" exclaimed the red-headed.

"Fssshhhhh….. Kaido Kaoru," said the guy wearing a green bandana.

"It's Momoshiro Takeshi! Just call me Momo-chan!" said the spiky black-haired guy as he grinned widely.

"I'm Kawamura Takashi. It's a pleasure to―" A light brown-haired guy said as he smiled sheepishly, but he was interrupted as Momoshiro Takeshi handed him something.

"Taka-san, here." Momoshiro said as he handed him a tennis racket. Kawamura looked confused at first, but after he held the racket in his hand, his facial expression changed from shy and sheepish to the complete opposite as he shouted, "OOOOHHH! BURNIIIING! I'M KAWAMURA TAKASHI! YOROSHIKU!"

Ryoma sweat dropped at the weird change of attitude. She guessed it had something to do with the racket and immediately took it off of his hand and put it on the floor beside the table. Kawamura then apologized sheepishly from making so much noise but the others only brushed it off as they were used to it.

"Tch, such worthless thing to do," mumbled Kaido, unfortunately he was heard by Momoshiro.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, MAMUSHI?" Momoshiro stood up, and his knee on the table.

"YOU HEARD ME, MOMOJIRI!" Kaido did the same thing as Momoshiro, as he shouted louder than him

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!" shouted Momoshiro, ready to launch at his rival.

By now, everyone had covered their ears by the loud noise while Oishi and Eiji trying to calm the two rivals fighting though it didn't work to well as their voice couldn't reach their ears. Tezuka's eye twitched as his glasses glinted.

"ENOUGH!" Tezuka yelled loudly, making the two rivals stopped their childish argument, "Momoshiro, Kaido! You will run 50 laps tomorrow at morning practice!"

Momoahiro and Kaido groaned in despair as they put their head down in shame, accepting their punishment willingly. They didn't want to upset their captain any longer.

Ryoma watched the scene in amusement. She stared at Tezuka in wonderment. Her eyes shone with something akin to respect and awe. Syuusuke saw this and chuckled. As for Seiichi, let's just say he seriously didn't like the shine in Ryoma's eyes towards Tezuka, if the frown on his face was any indication.

"Now that it's quiet, let's continue the introduction, shall we?" said Syuusuke, smiling his ever present smile.

Another bespectacled guy, but with a black hair stopped writing the new data that he just got and pushed his glasses, "I'm Inui Sadaharu. If you want to build up your energy, I can give you one of my juices," in his hand was a glass of red liquid that's bubbling due to who-knew-what since he held it with such ease that it couldn't possibly due to heat.

The Seishun's tennis club members looked at the red liquid in pure horror, except for Syuusuke who kept on smiling and Tezuka whose eyes were hidden by his glasses while Seiichi was staring in mild amusement. He had heard of it. The Juices From Hell, or so the rumors said.

Ryoma looked at the glass of red liquid in wonder. She knew it couldn't be good for her health immediately from the reactions it was received, especially Syuu-nii whose smile, she realized, had widened a tiny bit which definitely wasn't a good thing.

"Do you want to try some?" offered Inui.

Ryoma gulped. 'There is no way that I want to drink that!' she screamed inwardly.

"Hmm, no, but thanks for the offer, Inui-san."

"Why? Even though it's so good," disappointed, Inui drank the juice himself.

Seiichi sighed. He tensed when Inui had offered the thing to Ryoma, he was ready to interrupt but it seemed that Ryoma knew what was good for her.

"Just to let you know, we are all the regulars of the tennis club," said Syuusuke.

Ryoma's eye lit up, "Really? Then, are they strong, Syuu-nii?" she asked.

"Well, we're all quite strong, Ryoma-chan," replied Syuusuke in amusement as he saw Ryoma's eyes shone brighter.

"Stronger than you?"

"Hmm, well, you'll have to figure that out yourself, don't you think?"

Ryoma nodded, that just made it more interesting.

The lunch with the Seishun's tennis club was comfortable and fun. Though it was really loud due to Momoshiro and Kaido's fighting over and over again. But it was definitely fun. She laughed when Eiji stole a sushi from Syuusuke's plate, it turned out that it was a wasabi sushi. He screamed and asked for water which he then got from his double partner in tennis, Oishi.

After having their lunch, Seiichi and Ryoma excused themselves to go home because they didn't want to miss the train.

"Then we'll leave now, minna," said Seiichi while smiling. Ryoma stood next to him.

Tezuka nodded while the others said their variation of goodbyes to the pair.

Syuusuke watched them from the sideline, his eyes opened. He then smiled gently, 'it seemed Ryoma-chan has found love,'

"Syuu-nii, see you later. Come by our house with Yumiko-nee and Yuuta-kun next time, Nii-san hasn't got the time to meet you, after all," Syuusuke smiled warmly at the other meaning behind her words, since Nii-san is really busy, he didn't have the time to see Yumiko-nee, I hope you don't mind bringing Yumiko-nee to our house.

"I will, Ryoma-chan, be careful on your way home! Ah! And don't worry, I won't tell him. For now," Syuusuke replied.

Ryoma blushed a bit due to the fact that Syuusuke had hinted that he knew that she and Seiichi were on a date. Nothing escaped the tensai's eyes, of course.

The group watched the two walk away silently before going inside the restaurant, except for Syuusuke. He continued to watch Seiichi and Ryoma with a soft smile. He then took out his camera which actually he had used to take pictures since earlier. He positioned the camera and zoomed plus the lenses before taking the picture at the right moment.

The camera showed that Seiichi was holding Ryoma's hand tightly and stared at her affectionately as Ryoma stared back with a tint of pink on her cheeks.

Ayano: Tell me what you think and just ask me anything regarding the story. I'll reply to the best of my ability :) I really hope you enjoyed reading it :) See you in the next chapter!