For Services Rendered
By: Bunny
Rated: Teen 15 and up
Genre: Romance, Comedy, AR
Summary: RyoSaku, AR. Ryoma is a world famous tennis player, but at 22 years old, the world has noticed his deficiencies in the romance department and they demand some action. Enter Ryuzaki Sakuno, a girl normal enough for him to tolerate as his pretend girlfriend.
Chapter Ten
For the second morning in a row, Sakuno was roused from sleep earlier than usual. This time instead of being awoken by a yelling Syusuke-kun it was Tomo-chan whom was knocking on their bedroom door, while singing about getting up for a big day of shopping.
Sakuno bit back a moan of frustration as she rolled to her back and opened her eyes. She was about to throw the covers off when a heavy, bare, male arm pinned her to the bed, "Ignore her."
Sakuno's heart started beating wildly in her chest as she once again realized this new life of hers wasn't some crazy dream, but she really was in bed with the current Sexiest Man Alive. She rolled her eyes to the side and made out a tuft of Ryoma's greenish black hair poking out over the top of their comforter as he pulled his arm and squeezed her towards him to cuddle.
Unconsciously, she held her breath. Oh. Oh. Oh. Somehow his shirt she'd been sleeping in had hiked its way up her torso during the night and she'd just realized Ryoma's bare arm was squeezing her bare midsection. Oh, he could just reach down and touch her panties at any second, her mind began to frantically panic. This was way too intimate too soon. Wait. Who even said intimate would be okay? Gah!
Tomoka was right! She needed to go shopping! She needed pajamas, and clothes, and oh...she needed something to keep her from falling in love with this man and breaking her heart in the process. How was she ever supposed to do that when they were always together and all this...this...kissing Ryoma kept instigating and how it made her melt inside and how much she liked kissing him. It HAD to be a bad thing, right? She wasn't supposed to really like him, she wasn't supposed to feel her heart jump and thump and beat faster whenever he looked her way. She wasn't supposed to have a brain meltdown every time he touched her, or kissed her. Why had Horio, no...why had Ryoma...oh hell for that matter, why had she thought this whole fake girlfriend thing was a good idea? Why had she agreed to do it? Why had Ryoma asked her? Why did they keep kissing when they didn't have an audience?
Oh and the scariest thing was, she already knew somewhere in her mind, somewhere in her heart, she had already decided she liked Echizen Ryoma before the subject had even come up. Somewhere in her mind she'd liked the fake girlfriend idea because she'd thought it was the only opportunity she'd ever have to spending time with someone like Echizen Ryoma. Somewhere in her mind, she'd been hoping that he'd ask her to do it, that he'd be her first kiss, that he'd...
"SA-KU-NOooooooooo! Get up already! The days are short my friend and we have MORE to do today than I think we can get done. So STOP making out with Ryoma-sama and get ready!"
Sakuno moaned out loud at Tomoka's embarrassing instructions while Ryoma snickered into her shoulder. She could feel his bare chest shaking against her side and it made her want to freeze time and savor the feeling forever.
"What a good idea, Horio's annoying girlfriend," he said lowly before he started planting butterfly kisses along the part of her neck that wasn't covered by his oversize for her shirt.
Sakuno pulled away, "I need to get up."
"No, no, you need to make out with Ryoma-sama," Ryoma mocked as he tugged on her arm, trying to keep her from getting out of the bed, but she was already halfway out. She planted her bare feet into the soft warm rug and wiggled her toes while she pulled her arm out of Ryoma's grasp.
Twisting her torso back to face him, she said, "Considering where we both were in the experience department when we met, you sure seem comfortable."
He pushed himself to sit up with the palms of his hands and leaned his larger frame over her. He brushed his lips against her chin before moving and whispering into her ear, "I like what I like."
She flushed and purposely refused to make eye contact as she fumbled to stand up and out of the bed. Just what the hell was that supposed to mean? She ran her fingers through her hair, smoothing down it's craziness as Ryoma grabbed her wrist and said loudly enough for her ears only, "My pulse rate is just as fast as yours."
Mortified, Sakuno whipped her wrist out of his grasp and covered her face with her hands as she felt her entire body blush with embarrassment from the tips of her toes all the way to the top of her head, "Mou! Why did you say that?"
Ryoma got out of the bed and put his two large palms over her shoulders, "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug as she kept her hands covering her face he continued, "It was the truth when I told you I've never done anything like this before."
She knew it, she really did already know it...his look after he'd first kissed her had told her everything. Her body shivered in remembered delight and somewhere in her mind she allowed herself to be excited at being the first girl Ryoma had ever kissed or touched. Oh, this was such a dangerous game they were playing.
"I know," she mumbled out through her hands.
"So, we're good?" Ryoma asked.
She finally took her hands off her face and looked up into his completely cute vulnerable look. Oh...my...she lifted up onto her tippy toes for a second and gave him a little peck on the mouth, "We'll always be good."
He gave her a surprised look and before he could hold his tongue blurted, "You kissed me."
She gave him an impish grin, "Well-"
She wasn't allowed to finish her thought though as Ryoma grabbed her and gave her a devouring kiss, "Kiss me again," he demanded between breaths as Sakuno grasped onto his shoulders so she wouldn't fall over at his force of emotions pouring over her. Oh...why did she do that? He'd given her that LOOK, that LOOK he'd given her the night in her apartment when she'd stupidly been compelled to promise him that she would stay with him and somehow she'd felt the need to reassure him again and WHERE did these crazy ideas come from? How was he able to do that to her? To get her to just blurt out these promises to bind herself to him that would guarantee a world of emotional hurt for herself?
Obediently she kissed him again and again, until finally their bedroom door few open and they jumped apart as Tomoka stood there with her arms crossed. She gave the two of them a scolding look, and said to Sakuno, "I told you to stop making out with Ryoma-sama and get ready!"
"S-sorry Tomo-chan!" Sakuno stuttered out before she grabbed the small bag of her things off the dresser and dashed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. She leaned against the door for a moment, blushing and caught her breath.
Wow.
She went through her morning rituals, bathed, and changed into a light sundress Tomoka had stuffed into the small bag. A sundress in January wasn't exactly ideal, but at least she had clean clothes.
Tomoka had a lot to get done today. She was already feeling pretty positive that it wasn't all going to get done and was very grateful she had a few other days (she hoped) to really get it all done before she would be helping Sakuno pack up for two weeks in Australia. Maybe she should go with her to Australia? Maybe she could get hired on as Sakuno's assistant or her stylist or manager like Satoshi was for Ryoma-sama. After all, Sakuno was going to need a lot of help being Ryoma-sama's girlfriend (and Sakuno was so cute for being completely clueless about it) and who more qualified than her BFF that was a complete expert on all things celebrity, fashion, and Ryoma-sama?
She was bored with teaching at the cram school anyways, and it was always easy for her to call in for a substitute when she needed one. It wasn't like she had some insanely wonderful career she'd be walking away from, right? Doing something like this though, like being part of an entourage for the rich and famous? Totally at the top of her Jobs I Would Love List! Not to mention she'd be able to be there for Sakuno and oh...she'd finally get to be with Satoshi all the time again. The annoying backstabbing prick that had left her to go pursue a better life in America.
...Who had also never submitted to breaking up and had come back to her with a large savings to show for it and promises of somehow figuring out how they could be together.
Well...here was an opportunity. If Ryoma-sama wouldn't hire her on direct (which, granting from how protective he was already being by looking out for Sakuno through the channel that was Satoshi which ended up in her lap) then maybe she could convince Sakuno to talk to Ryoma-sama about it. She was still pretty gobsmacked that her sweet, shy, completely uninterested in dating men at present BFF had ended up dating the world famous sexiest bachelor, and even more in shock over their quick physical progress of sleeping together and traveling together and...Tomoka's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Wait. Was it even possible? That Sakuno would have kept something so big like this from her a secret for such a long time? Was it?
As they entered the massive Ginza Matsuya department store, Tomoka curled her arm through Sakuno's and asked, "Sakuno, you wouldn't hold out on me, your BFF would you?"
Sakuno gave Tomoka a startled look, "Tomo-chan, what are you talking about?"
Tomoka pulled them both to a stop in the middle of the wide aisleway, "You and Ryoma-sama...have you been secretly dating him? Is that why you never went out with other guys? How long have you really known him and been together? I mean, I just can't figure out how you can go from a completely inexperienced ice princess to sleeping with the sexiest man on earth in less than 24 hours. It's just not something you would do, ever. There has to be something you aren't telling me."
Sakuno gave Tomoka a leery look as the other shoppers made their way around the two stopped friends, "Tomo-chan..." Sakuno finally opened hesitantly, "It's really complicated and I can't tell you more than that right now. I'm really sorry."
Tomoka pouted and grabbing both of Sakuno's hands within both of her own gave them an encouraging squeeze, "C'mon, Sakunooooo," She whined, "We're besties! I thought you told me everything!"
Sakuno's eyes began to water a bit and Tomoka instantly felt bad, and gave her a reassuring hug, "Sorry for pressing you, but you better tell me all the juicy details one of these days or I'll never speak to you again!"
Sakuno gave a relieved chuckle, "Okay, one of these days..."
Not really satisfied, but knowing that pressing Sakuno more now would only end up in an argument or tears or both, Tomoka decided to drop the topic and move on with their Million and One Things to Get Done Before Leaving for Australia List.
"Now then!" Tomoka curled her arm back through Sakuno's elbow and began dragging her towards an escalator, "We have a whole wardrobe to buy you, and all the stuff you'll need for Australia, and..." Tomoka paused as she noticed Sakuno beginning to look panicky. Wow...she'd almost forgotten how quickly Sakuno could become intimidated by these types of things.
She patted Sakuno's arm with her free hand, "Don't worry BFF, I'll be here to help you with all of this, and I'm thinking, I should get Ryoma-sama to hire me on as your manager, what do you think?"
Sakuno stopped and gave Tomoka a mouth-dropped in surprise expression of hope, "Really? You could do that? I can bring you with me and Ryoma and Horio-kun?"
Tomoka gave Sakuno a knowing nod, "Yup! You'll need to have an assistant or stylist or manager or whatever title Ryoma-sama or Satoshi want to give me and I can quit the school to help you out. There's no way I'm going to let those two stupid males cart my BFF all over the world without me!"
Sakuno let out of huff of relief, and pulled Tomoka into a bear hug, "Tomo-chan! You are the best!"
Tomoka grinned over Sakuno's shoulder at the shoppers and shelves of the department store, "I know."
"If you want the job, I will hire you. Call yourself whatever you want, I'm just so happy I don't have to do this alone. I have money," Sakuno blabbered away as they pulled back from their hug and began ascending the escalator.
"You don't have money for something like this," Tomoka interjected.
Sakuno looked down at the bustling shoppers and salespeople on the floor they'd been on as they got further and further away, "I...do."
"Since when?" Tomoka pressed.
Sakuno gulped as they stepped off the top of the escalator and turned right to go to the next escalator as the girls made their way to the fourth floor.
"Uhm, well, you see...I," She paused and bit her lip. The last thing she wanted to do was lie to Tomo-chan anymore than she kind-of already had about her relationship with the tennis prince. She wracked her brain for a compromise between the truth and a lie, "Ryoma and I set up some shared bank accounts for us yesterday so I could have money for traveling around with him and stuff. He said that being with him all the time would be very expensive, and you know, I refused to take it, but he insisted that it was necessary, and I still don't really know why, but it's a lot of money and I'm sure Ryoma would be okay with it so..."
She stopped herself from rambling on further and gave Tomoka a hopeful look as they arrived on the fourth floor and stopped again on the aisleway.
"Okay," Tomoka said and then gave Sakuno a conspiratorial grin.
"What?" Sakuno asked.
Tomoka pulled a three and a half inch piece of silver plastic from the back of her pant's pocket and held it up to Sakuno, "I think you're absolutely right about that, because Ryoma-sama instructed Satoshi yesterday to get you a high-class world-traveler wardrobe and get you set up with someone to take care of your hair and make-up for you," she paused and pointed to herself. "Good thing I had that phase where I went to beauty school, right?" Sakuno nodded in awe of her friend as she continued, "So Satoshi gave me Ryoma-sama's business credit card and told me to take care of it!" She squealed in excitement as Sakuno took the card from her friend's fingers and examined it.
"Wow Tomo-chan, I had no idea Ryoma told Horio-kun to make arrangements like this for me," She frowned at the platinum card before handing it back to her excited friend.
Tomoka took in Sakuno's frown as she stuffed the credit card back into her back pocket, "Sakuno, you aren't angry with Ryoma-sama are you?"
Sakuno's mouth twitched a bit, but she didn't comment.
"AWWWWW! Sakuno! Seriously? This is every girls' dream come true! To get a hot boyfriend that's loaded to take care of them! Why aren't you happy?"
Sakuno laughed softly at Tomoka's chiding and said, "Like I told you before, Tomo-chan, Ryoma and I...it's complicated. You know I don't like shopping and makeovers like you do either. Oh, and I don't care what Ryoma says about my hair, I'm NOT cutting it!"
Tomoka cracked up at Sakuno's speech, as she gestured for them to proceed to the women's designer clothing racks and begin browsing through the clothes. "Ah, Sakuno, don't worry! I'm not going to cut your hair. I can do so many pretty things with it for you with it being all long and wavy the way it already is. We just won't be doing your typical long braids or your work buns, that's all."
"Well...since I can't go home, I do need clothes, even if I don't normally come to really expensive department stores like this for them." She held up a dress and flashed the large price tag at Tomoka to emphasize her point.
Tomoka cleared her throat, "That's why I had to bring you...Horio-kun and I both knew you wouldn't shop appropriately for the type of clothes you're going to need. Sakuno...it's going to be all high-end designers for you from now on, otherwise you'll just keep ending up on the worst-dressed lists and become fodder for all the tabloids from here to London."
Sakuno bit her tongue from saying something idealistic about the type of clothes she should be able to wear as Ryoma's girlfriend as she obediently flipped through rack after rack of clothing and grabbed her size in anything she remotely liked. She knew Tomo-chan was right; she'd never been into those magazines and TV shows like Tomo-chan was, but she'd been exposed to enough of it to know that celebrities and their significant others and anybody else seen out regularly with them were constantly under the microscope. Especially ones like Echizen Ryoma that topped the sexist bachelor list. Ryoma was paying her to keep him from ridicule, so the least she could do is follow instructions on this small matter for him. She'd look her best to make him look good. In the end, that was what she'd signed up for, right? If she was going to make an issue about something, shouldn't it be all the physical liberties he was taking with her?
The girls spent a good two hours or so just going through all the racks and then with a mountain of clothes, they headed for the dressing rooms, found the biggest one and began going through all the outfits, dresses and separates. Making piles of 'for sure,' 'maybe,' and 'absolutely not' they worked their way through everything the store had to offer before the third hour was over. Taking their selections to the register, they paid for the goods with Ryoma's business credit card and with their hands filled with bags, made their way down to the third floor for the shoes departments. They enjoyed picking out shoes and having them brought to them to be tried on. Thankfully the shoes didn't take half as long as the designer dresses and outfits had on the floor above them.
After the shoes they paused to have a quiet lunch in the sushi restaurant on the eighth floor. As they took their seats at one of the tables, the massive amounts of shopping bags surrounding them like bath bubbles, Sakuno's phone started playing a familiar pop song indicating she was getting a call. Picking up the phone she noticed the caller ID and touching the screen to accept she took the call and greeted, "Hi Ryoma."
"Hey."
"..."
"When are you coming home?"
"I don't know, hold on," Sakuno looked across the table at Tomoka, and meeting her eyes, "Tomo-chan, when are we going back to Ryoma's house?"
Tomoka placed her head in the palm of her hand with her elbow on the table and frowned, "I'm tired as anything, but we still have a lot of stuff to buy, honestly we aren't even half way done. Though...we are getting to the point where we're going to have more bags than we can carry out of here and fit into the car. We haven't even gone to the lingerie section to get you bras and panties, so I think we have to at least do that before we leave for the day."
Tomo-chan had a good point. Sakuno was exhausted and super sick of shopping, but she did need fresh underwear for tomorrow and something to sleep in besides Ryoma's big t-shirts.
"I'm not sure when we'll be done, there's still a lot of things I need to get before we can stop for the day," Sakuno informed Ryoma.
"The days are short so if you want to practice your twist serve today you need to get back soon," Ryoma told her.
Well, darn. She was actually looking forward to playing some more tennis today, but by the time they finished up here and got back to the house and brought all her new stuff in, the sun would probably be setting.
"I really want to do that, but I don't know if it's going to happen again until I get all this shopping done," Sakuno told him sadly.
"Che, girls and their shopping," Ryoma complained.
"I'm shopping today because you told Horio-kun to take care of getting me everything I would need for this new lifestyle with you. So don't complain about it to me now! I'll quit!"
Ryoma's voice dropped low, "Quit what? Me?"
Sakuno drew in a startled breath as she realized he'd misunderstood her. Her heart flew into her throat and her face flushed slightly as she cupped her mouth over the phone and whispered furiously, "No! Ryoma! You need to stop saying stuff like that! I meant I'll quit shopping and then I won't look nice when I'm with you in Australia. Listen, as it is now I still don't have anything resembling a complete wardrobe."
Ryoma was quiet for a second, "Fine. I'll see you when you get home, I'll be on the tennis court."
"I'll get there as soon as possible," She offered.
"All right. Bye," Ryoma said. He stared at his cell phone in frustration and then stuffed it back into his tennis bag and resumed his lonely practice session with the court's wall. Was it really possible that he missed her already? How annoying.
Sakuno hit the red end call button on her cell phone and then stared at it in wonder. Wow. Ryoma had called her. What did that mean?
"You guys fight like you've been together for a long time," Tomoka commented.
Sakuno looked up at her friend and gave her a warning look, "Tomoka."
Tomoka threw her hands up in surrender, "I'm just saying!"
So...this next bit is for ALL of you that have reviewed this story so far. You're ALL in it. There's also a mention of another user in the sub-story. This is a fun CRACK! PoT and fans story and it's my present to you all. I hope you all crack up and enjoy it for the silliness that it's intended to be. It's probably got some errors, I just typed it up, but it's not supposed to be taken very seriously so please forgive me if you catch a typo or grammar or spelling error. I'll post up responses in the next chapter since this is long and I don't want to add even more. xoxo ~ Bunny
~ The For Services Rendered 100 Reviews Reviewers Party! ~
In the dark of night, Bunny, Cinpii, and OrangeAce sat around a campfire in a forest wearing full ninja attire accompanied with face masks settled atop their heads and conspiratorial smirks. Bunny traced a path through the ground with a kunai, purposely avoiding the small figures strategically placed along x's. She glanced up at her two companions and asked, "Well, what do you think?"
OrangeAce grabbed the kunai from Bunny's hand and traced an alternate route through the figures, "This might work too, or maybe as an alternate."
"MMMhmm."
Cinpii grabbed one of the figures off the ground and held it up to the firelight, squinting at it, "These sure are cute!"
The two glared and OrangeAce snatched the figure out of Cinpii's hand, resting it back in it's proper place.
"Did you make them Bunny-chan?" Cinpii asked as she poked another one, but wisely left it on the ground.
"Ah...no, Cookie made them for us," Bunny answered distractedly. She furrowed her brow and scanned through the diagram and figures once again.
"Wow," Cinpii said, "Cookie's really good at this stuff."
"Yup, we have Cookie on as comm support," OrangeAce explained.
"Oh yeah," Cinpii said. She tapped the comm in her ear, "Good job on the figures, Cookie."
The comm beeped for a second and then Cookie's voice came through, "Uh...Thanks."
"Can I have them when this is all over?" Cinpii asked.
"Hey!" Bunny exclaimed, "I was already promised Ryoma and Sakuno!"
Cinpii crossed her arms, "Oh, that's just no fair."
OrangeAce decided to add, "I would have liked some too..."
There was a tap from the other line, "It's fine you guys, I can make more."
Smiles all around.
"So what are we doing again?" Cinpii asked.
Three figures emerged from the darkness, "Ah, Bunny? Can we talk to you about this for a second?"
Bunny gestured for OrangeAce to cover the plan again with Cinpii as she stood up and made her way to the edge of the camp, out of the firelight where jerui, Maria-Reynne and foureyesfreak27 were waiting, all equally ninja equipped like Bunny, Cinpii and OrangeAce.
"So good to see you all, by the way!" Bunny gushed as she engulfed them all into a random group hug.
"All right, we think we have a good feel for this, we've set up some night video surveillance to feed back to Cookie and jerui has officially tracked down Ryoma-kun," Maria-Reynne informed as she send a thumb towards jerui whom was standing next to her with a smug grin.
Bunny rubbed her hands together and cackled evilly, "This is going to be puuuurfect! Good job you guys!"
The three grinned happily.
"I think this plan is brilliant by the way!" foureyesfreak27 added.
Bunny waved her hand as she made her way back towards the campfire, indicating the others should follow, "It was Cinpii's idea."
The three followed behind in Bunny's wake.
OrangeAce was by the tent now, chugging down an energy drink while Cinpii was moving the figures around on the ground, unaware of the others approaching.
She leaned the small Sakuno figure against the Ryoma one and said in a high pitched breathy voice, "Touch me down there, Ryoma-kun!"
Bunny, Maria-Reynne and foureyesfreak27 started cracking up, as jerui blushed and shook her head. Cinpii realized she'd been overheard and joined in the laughter. Playing with anime characters was so...fun.
"What are you doing to those poor figures?" Bunny asked through snickers as she wiped a laughter tear from the corner of her eye.
Cinpii gave Bunny a wicked grin and followed up with a wicked laugh, "It's perfect, right?"
"Yeah," Bunny nodded in agreement as she made her way towards the ice chest OrangeAce was hovering over. She opened the top and pulled out a handful of cold energy drinks and passed them around to the whole group. They gathered around the diagram again and as they finished sipping their drinks Bunny asked, "Well? You think we're ready to do this?"
The whole group gave affirmation. Bunny grinned. She stepped away from the plotting group and tapped her comm link.
"Team Sakuno?"
nertz answered back, "We already got her boss, we're at the spot."
faeriespark added, "She was soooo easy!"
"No kidding?" Bunny asked.
"Yup," nertz replied.
"Wow, you guys really are the best!" Bunny gushed.
"It was an easy target," faeriespark reaffirmed humbly.
"So do you guys have her...?"
"Yeah and she's out cold for now, faerie gave her some drug or something, but I don't know how long it will last, so get on with it," nertz replied.
"Gotcha. See you two at the rendezvous."
"Okay, Bunny," They said simultaneously.
Bunny shook her head in amazement as she pulled out her cell phone and checked off Team Sakuno on her list.
Opening the comm channel up again she asked, "Team Momo?"
"Bunny," Strands of Ivy and Sakura complained, "Why did you give me and SinfulEmerald the hardest of all the boys?"
Bunny smirked, "I trusted you two to get it done."
"Well, it's been really hard, I mean, he stalks Ryoma-sama relentlessly," SinfulEmerald explained.
"Yeah, I figured-"
"He won't stop going on and on about young love!" Strands of Ivy and Sakura added irritably.
Bunny bit her lip, "I'm sorry. I thought you guys would have fun with Momo."
"Next time we call Tezuka-senpai!" SinfulEmerald demanded.
"And this had better all be worth it!" Strands of Ivy and Sakura said.
Bunny giggled, "Oh com'on you guys know this is going to be worth it!"
"Yeah, yeah, so you keep telling us," SinfulEmerald said followed by a 'shut up, Momo!' in the background.
"nertz said faeriespark had some kind of drug she used on Sakuno," Bunny offered.
"I'll go get it," The two said at the same time. Bunny heard furious whispers before SinfulEmerald said, "I'm going, Sakura is staying, I'll check in again when I'm back. We'll see you at the rendezvous, okay, Buns-chan?"
"Okay," Bunny said. She turned her phone back on, and checked off Team Momo on her list.
"Team Kaidoh?"
"Ahhhhh Bunnnnnnnyyyyyyy-saaaaamaaaaaa," CeKhay gushed, "Can I keep him? Can I? Can I? Pleeeeeeeeaseeeeeeee?"
Bunny laughed, "Uhm...I guess so."
"Yayayayayayayayayayayay," CeKhay exclaimed as a loud fsssssshhhh sounded in the background.
"Speak for yourself!" sakuno echizen said, "I don't want to keep him."
"Awww," Bunny said, "Okay, well-"
"Though...he has been rather fun!" sakuno echizen added with a wicked cackle.
"Ah?"
"You see...CeKhay has been flashing pictures at him to get reactions, you know? It's been so funny! You should have seen his face when we showed him the kittens!"
Bunny was utterly confused.
"And then there was this-"
"Okay, it sound like you two have got things handled on your end, I'll catch you at the rendezvous."
"OKAY!" Two enthusiastic voices chimed back across the comm link.
Bunny tapped off Team Kaidoh from her checklist and smiled at the antics of her friends.
"Team Inui?" Bunny asked into the comm unit yet again.
"You know Bunny-chan," ohsobrilliant started, "Inui-senpai has been surprisingly difficult."
"Oh no! Are you guys okay?"
"We're fine," CathLuvbear answered.
"Are you sure?" Bunny asked, "I can send some of the Team Ryoma Back Up if you want. MR was mentioning to me that jerui has been really brilliant so far with this."
"Hmmm...who's on the Team Ryoma Back Up again?" ohsobrilliant asked.
"jerui, Maria-Reynne and foureyesfreak27," Bunny answered. "Why?"
There was a bit of whispering on the other end and then CathLuvbear said, "Actually...can you ask foureyesfreak27 to come? We've heard there's this thing..."
"OH. Oh you mean that thing?" Bunny asked.
"Yeah. That thing. It should be perfect for Inui-senpai, ne Bunny-chan?" ohsobrilliant said.
"Well...okay, let me ask."
Bunny made her way back to the group at the campfire. jerui was engrossed in watching a feed through a tablet, Cinpii, OrangeAce and Maria-Reynee were happily making up stories with the little figures and foureyesfreak27 was watching them in amusement.
"foureyesfreak27, Team Inui is requesting your assistance," Bunny announced to the group.
foureyesfreak27 stood up, "Oh...that sounds like fun."
Bunny somehow knew..."Okay, well, I guess we'll see you at the rendezvous?"
"Oh, Inui will only take a second, I'll still be able to help you all with Ryoma."
"Oh...well...that's good."
"We're going to need all the help we can get with that cocky prince of ours you know, Bunny-chan," Cinpii added.
Bunny nodded sagely. Stepping away from the group once again she typed a 'fixed' in next to Team Inui.
"Team Kawamura?" Bunny asked through the comm link.
"We so got this Bunny, don't you worry about a thing!" OilWar said.
"Yup. Like OilWar said, we got this," Muddy Writer added.
"Wow, that's great you guys!" Bunny exclaimed. Honestly, she hadn't been expecting Kawamura to be very difficult anyways, but it was good to hear her prediction had been correct at least about one thing so far on this operation of theirs.
"We'll see you in a few, go ahead and check in with everybody else," Muddy Writer said.
"Okay then, thank you guys."
She tapped off Team Kawamura on her cell phone.
"Team Eiji?"
The other side of the comm had a couple of bursts of static. A second later, a grunt followed by the sounds of struggles.
"Team Eiji? Come in!"
More bursts of static followed.
"Oh for heaven's sake!" Bunny exclaimed. She'd just KNOWN the redhead was going to be a problem. She should have assigned more than just DarknessFlameWolf and Tsukiei to Team Eiji from the beginning.
The comm buzzed again, "Bunny!"
"D? How's it going?" Bunny asked.
"Horrible!" DarknessFlameWolf replied.
"We're giving it our all Bunny," Tsukiei added panting, "He's too much for just the two of us, we're going to need an army!"
"Do you know how much Ryoma and Sakuno's love love adventure means to Eiji-kun?" DarknessFlameWolf added.
Bunny grimaced. Damn. "Yeah, I do. I'm going to call in the force, you two just sit tight. Keep an eye on him, okay? Besides Momo-chan he's our #1 complication target."
"Got it." The two said.
Bunny typed into the checklist, 'snafu' next to Team Eiji and then switched back to her home screen. She pulled up her text message program and typed out a quick call to arms message to take out Eiji Kikumaru by any means necessary and sent it off to kawaii-witch181, AnimeLover8797, AlphaSigma, henna994, and Umi. She debated on taking another Team Ryoma Back Up member off to go assist, but worried that if there were problems with any of the other boys, Fuji being the most likely of the bunch that she might not have the reinforcements needed to help. Seven people would be enough to take out Eiji Kikumaru, right?
God, she hoped so.
She flipped the comm on yet again, "Team Fuji?"
"Yeah, Bunny?" ai-chan97 asked.
"You guys good?" Bunny questioned.
"We're good," LeyCoo answered.
"Really?" Bunny asked. She really was surprised. She was honestly half expecting the genius to be close to the difficulty level of Momo and Eiji.
"Really. We're totally good," ai-chan97 reassured.
"O...kay...well, if you guys need help, I'm sure jerui would be happy to assist."
"Actually Bunny," LeyCoo said, "Uhm...jerui came earlier and took care of everything for us."
Oh.
"She did, huh?" Bunny asked. Her eyes flickered to where jerui was sitting by the campfire. Why wasn't she surprised?
"Yeah, jerui was really cool you should have seen her in action with him, it was...wow," ai-chan97 gushed.
Bunny nodded to herself. Go figure. She knew it, she just knew it.
"Okay, I'll see you two soon. Make sure you bring jerui's prize with you," Bunny said.
"Okay Bunny, thanks!" LeyCoo said.
Bunny tapped off Team Fuji from her checklist and then called through the comm, "Team Oishi?"
"Buns-chan, this was too easy, even for me," 2lazy2createAnAccount drawled through the comm.
Bunny giggled, "Well, that's what I was hoping for you two."
"Next time you could give us someone a little bit harder, you know," Kelley Spalsh added.
"If you want, I mean, Oishi is pretty easy and someone needs to handle him, after all he could always turn into a wild card like Inui did tonight," Bunny said.
"Oh please," 2lazy2createAnAccount said, "Inui's been trouble?"
"Yeah, him and Eiji."
"Well, we all could have told you Eiji was going to be next to impossible," Kelley Spalsh said.
Bunny let out a big sigh of frustration. Yes, yes, she knew she should have just handled the redhead herself, but she was the only one that could...ugh.
"I've sent in five more to help with Eiji, but if either of you want to help, just let me know," Bunny said.
"Let's bring Oishi with us too," Kelley Spalsh suggested.
"Nononononononono, we can't get him near Eiji, he'll turn on us!" 2lazy2createAnAccount said emphatically.
"Oh, that's right, well, I'll go help Team Eiji, Bunny-chan and 2lazy2createAnAccount can stay here with Oishi, we'll see you at the rendezvous when you get here."
"Sounds good, thanks you two."
"No problem," 2lazy2createAnAccount said.
Bunny tapped off Team Oishi from the checklist. One more and then...
"Team Tezuka?"
"Bunny!" wendydarling29 whined, "This is kind-of boring!"
"Oh..."
"He hasn't done anything!" blackberryloveitorhateit iza explained.
"But...it's Tez-"
"Yes, we know and we're so honored, really, to take down the captain, but he's so apathetic about it, there's been no excitement. He doesn't care about any of this at all," wendydarling29 said.
"Oh...yeah...I could see that," Bunny said.
Maybe next time she'd give these two Eiji...or Momo, after all Momo's team wanted Tezuka, right? Hmmm.
"Well, it's time anyways so..."
Excited squeals came from the other side of the comm, "It's time? It's time? Is it really time?"
"Yeah, I'm about to transform so..."
"This is awesome! We'll see you at Cookie's in a few then!" blackberryloveitorhateit iza said.
"All right, see you," Bunny said.
She checked off Team Tezuka from the list, pocketed her phone and made her way over to the group by the fire.
"Team Ryoma, you ready?" Bunny asked.
OrangeAce dumped dirt on the fire to put it out. Then Cinpii and OrangeAce pulled their masks down over their faces and gave Bunny nods.
"Team Ryoma Back Up?" Bunny asked.
In a flash jerui and Maria-Reynne disappeared off into the forest.
"Okay, let's do this," Bunny said.
She pulled her Disguise Pen from her subspace pocket and held it up towards the stars, "Moon Power change me into Ryuzaki Sakuno!"
OrangeAce and Cinpii watched in awe as lights and ribbons surrounded Bunny. A moment later, Ryuzaki Sakuno stood before them.
"Is it good?" She asked as she gave a little twirl for the other two.
She looked exactly like Sakuno.
Cinpii shook her head, her fox face mask waving back and forth in the dark, "Bunny-chan! Are you crazy?"
"Cin, we've been over this, it's the perfect bait for Ryoma!"
"Well, yeah, but..."
Bunny's Sakuno eyebrow raised in question.
Woah, that was weird. It was so weird seeing Bunny in Sakuno. It was...Cinpii shivered and swallowed audibly before she took a step to Bunny and whispered into her ear quietly, "What if Ryoma you know...tries something with you?"
Bunny took a step back, and her frightened expression really did look like Sakuno, it made Cinpii do a double take as Bunny protested, "No way! He won't!"
"I'm just looking out for you girl, what will you do if he does? I mean, you're a replica of Sakuno right now," Cinpii whispered quietly.
Bunny grimaced, "If he even...I will kill him."
"Bunny! You can't do that, you aren't thinking this through, he'll get the wrong message if you do that while impersonating her, and then he'll NEVER touch Sakuno!"
Bunny blanched, "We can't have that."
"We definitely can't have that!" Cinpii agreed.
"It's fine, it's fine, we're going to knock him out anyways, and nertz told me faeriespark put Sakuno out with some kind of drug. If he tries anything you guys jump him and we'll wrap him up with the drugged Sakuno and they'll wake up together and everything will be okay!"
"Fine just...if he tries anything and we aren't there right away, you gotta suck it up," Cinpii warned.
Bunny shook her head. Sure, she loved Ryoma same as the rest, but he was just a kid. That would be...ugh. Gross. You know...like maybe if he was 20 years older and if she wasn't already happily married to the man she'd been so in love with for over 1,000 years she'd died for him several times, and if there was no Sakuno, but with all those things...yeah it was just...ewww. There was just no way she would let it happen. Everything would be fine, jerui and Maria-Reynne and foureyesfreak27 were there for back up and Cinpii and OrangeAce were on it, she was getting worried over nothing. Her confidence restored, she gave a nod.
"All right, let's get this show on the road."
The three disappeared into the darkness.
Echizen Ryoma was easily enough sound asleep in his room that night. Bunny Sakuno tossed a small pebble towards his bedroom window on the 2nd floor of the Echizen's residence and waited. When the tennis prince didn't appear at the window within a few minutes, she grabbed another pebble off the ground and tossed it. It hit the window frame and bounced back towards her, and Bunny eep-ed quietly in surprise as she jumped out of the pebble's trajectory.
Still no Ryoma.
That brat, she thought.
She picked up a third pebble and tossed it with force towards the window. The window opened and a hand shot out and caught it mid-air. A second later a grouchy Ryoma appeared through the window. Seeing her, his expression immediately became worried.
"Ryuzaki?" He whispered down to her in surprise.
"Ryoma-kun, please help!" Bunny whispered, imitating Sakuno's voice.
"What's wrong?"
"It's the senpai-tachi!"
Ryoma disappeared from the window. Bunny moved against the house and lingered in the shadows so she wouldn't be easy to spot in case his parents roused. Within a few minutes Ryoma was quietly slipping out the backdoor of the house and making his way towards her.
Bunny gave a wave of her hand and started leading him up the steps towards the temple's tennis court. It was perfect, there would be plenty of opportunities for one of the girls to grab him and knock him out. She was grateful she was naturally clumsy like Sakuno, that had been the biggest concern for everybody that he'd see through her disguise if she couldn't walk like her, but Bunny was probably clumsier than the cute little brunette. She stumbled and Ryoma caught her by the elbow, steadying her. She quickly yanked her arm from his grip and then gave an embarrassed smile, "Sorry Ryoma-kun."
Woops. Probably shouldn't have yanked away so quickly. Bunny's eyes scanned the surrounding trees waiting anxiously for someone to jump out and get the tennis prince already.
"Are you okay Ryuzaki?" Ryoma asked.
Damn, he was right on her heels.
Bunny waved her hand to the side, "I'm fine, I'm fine." Her head moved from side to side, where was her team?
Then she saw a flash in the tree, and a second later she took in three of her teammates jumping on Eiji Kikumaru. Two others were yanking them back behind the treeline. Her eyes widened. Oh no! What if Ryoma saw?
She spun around quickly and wobbled on the narrow step. Ryoma's arms shot out and steadied her again.
Don't touch me! She thought.
She sighed. Oh, the poor kid couldn't help it. He thought she was sweet little Ryuzaki Sakuno right now and the purpose was to be a distraction, wasn't it?
She gave him a sweet smile, "Ryoma-kun-" She stopped and her eyes followed more dark movements behind the trees.
This was not good.
She dropped down a step to the one Ryoma was standing on, and as he moved to back away, she grabbed his hand and pulled it towards her chest, "Wait."
The tennis prodigy blushed. Even in the moonlight it was clear. Wow, Bunny thought, he must be really embarrassed. Awww! How cute! Well, at least he wasn't possibly looking into the tree line anymore, but those girls had better get a move on fast!
She faked a blush by recalling old personal memories and looked down at the ground, keeping Ryoma's hand in both of her Sakuno replica small ones. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and bit her lip.
Ryoma moved closer and whispered, "What?"
"I um...you see Ryoma-kun," She looked up at him and met his eyes, he was still blushing.
Good.
"I've been meaning to tell you this, but..." Her eyes widened as a dark figure emerged behind Ryoma with a cloth.
"I like you." His eyes widened and then he slumped against the black clad figure behind him.
In a flash of sparkles, Bunny detransformed, "It took you guys long enough!"
"Eiji was the biggest pain the ass, ever!" OrangeAce exclaimed while hefting up Ryoma from his armpits to keep him from falling on the ground. Bunny leaned over and grabbed the young man's legs to help.
"Where's Cin?"
"Oh, she's playing with Eiji. We should have put her on team Eiji to begin with. An army couldn't take him down, but you stick one Cinpii on him and he's a puppy."
"Un," Bunny agreed. The two struggled for a second awkwardly with the boy. "This is ridiculous, set him down."
They placed him on the ground against the steps. Bunny moved up a couple of steps and then grabbing his chest towards her own she said, "Get to Cookie's I'll drop him off and meet you there."
"More Moon stuff?" OrangeAce asked.
Bunny gave a nod. The kid was a heavy dead weight. This better be worth it!
She'd never tried this one alone before, but it should work. She was the Moon Princess. There was only the two of them.
She closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on her power and her chest glowed, "Sailor Teleport."
In a flash of white light erupting from Bunny, they disappeared from the steps.
A moment later, Bunny was dropping the unconscious Ryoma into the arms of nertz.
"Wow Bunny, I can't believe we're pulling this off!" faeriespark exclaimed gleefully as bodies were wrapped up together on the floor of the Seigaku boy's tennis club room.
Finishing their task, the two turned to Bunny, who took in the sight of the young couple cuddled up together. Yeah...it was worth it.
"They should be waking up any minute, so let's go," faeriespark said.
"We need to get to Cookie's right away, I don't want to miss a second of this!" nertz added enthusiastically.
Bunny held up both of her hands, "Wait a second you two."
The two paused and gave Bunny curious looks.
Bunny took a deep breath and flushed a bit in genuine embarrassment. Wow...this was a little harder than she'd imagined.
"You see...uhm..." She grabbed both of them and gave them a long hug, "I just!" She cleared her throat and stepped away, "Okay, let me try this again."
She pulled out presents from her subspace pocket and deposited them in their hands.
"nertz."
"faeriespark."
She gave them each a nod as she said their names.
"I want you two to know that I know how special you both are."
"What?" nertz asked in confusion.
Bunny nodded slowly, "Let me explain. I've been writing Ryoma and Sakuno Prince of Tennis stories since 2007. This is my sixth one. You two," she pointed between the two of them, "Are the only two that have been there and reviewed at least one time on every single one of them. From the oldest to the youngest, from the greatest to the smallest, from the one-shots to the long chaptered stories, you two have been there, supporting me every time. I just want you to know, that I know and I've noticed and that I really appreciate and love you both for always reviewing for me. Always. I consider you to be my special supporters. Especially you faeriespark because you have also added all six of them to your favorite's list and you've been with me since the beginning. You're one of a kind."
faeriespark blushed, "Aw shucks Bunny, it's not like we're-"
Bunny held her hands up, "No no, don't diminish it. Consistency is a really rare quality. I think it's admirable and it's really impressive to me that anybody has reviewed all of my Prince of Tennis stories. This is a reviewer's party. So just let me appreciate you two before we go join the others and get all RyoSaku WAFFy as we watch this," she gestured to the side of them where the young teens were wrapped up together, "cuteness unfold at Cookie's."
"Yeah, but-" nertz tried, but Bunny cut them off again.
"I know, I know. There are a lot of people that have supported me over the years, on more than one story, in more than one way, in fact there's one of other user - lechat23 that has also favorited all of my PoT stories, and yet never left a review." Bunny waves to lechat23 and bows, "I can only imagine you're reading this, so thank you very much for your silent years of support."
She turns back to nertz and faeriespark, "I know that reviewing is not the only form of support and there's probably a lot of people out there even that have read all of my stories and simply haven't told me so and I love them too and I love their support as well. I DO take things one story at a time, and there have been people that have reviewed one story one time and left me breathless with their words of praise. There are a great number of reviewers that have supported me through many stories, a lot of them are also in this party and they know that I love and adore them too. It's not like I think any less of a reviewer or someone that's added me to a fave's list even if this is the first story of mine they've supported. I just wanted to take a few minutes to give you two a special thank you for what you have done in it's unique way."
The two looked at Bunny and blinked a bit, overwhelmed by how much she'd just spouted off to them.
"Ah...well...hahahahahaha! I love you guys and everybody too and thanks, and let's get the hell out of here," Bunny rambled.
"Right..." faeriespark said.
The three quickly shuffled out of the building, locking the unsuspecting sleeping occupants inside.
At Cookie's headquarters a large group of 32 RyoSaku fans and eight confined Seigaku regular's tennis players gathered around a large projector of the sleeping Ryoma and Sakuno. There were snacks, food, drinks and take-home presents from Bunny being passed around and a happiness in the large room with an underlying current of excitement as they waited.
Finally, Cinpii said, "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! They're waking up! They're waking up!"
The room went silent as Cookie turned up the speakers.
"Ryuzaki? What happened?"