Decisions
By: Bunny
Rated: T
Genre: Romance/Friendship
Summary: Sakuno had been ready to give it all away to make her aging grandmother happy until she found out who else was involved. Ryoma simply didn't take rejection well. Or maybe there was more to it than that. RyoSaku.
Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis / Tenisu no Ĺjisama is copyright Takeshi Konomi/Shueisha.
Oh and I MUST give a big shout out to Cookie, my beta reader, who began beta reading for me with this fanfic! I hope you all enjoy the improvements to having her help!
Chapter Ten
A mostly healed Sakuno stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom, quadruple checking her outfit. She turned to the side, and looked carefully from head to toe, then shifted again, so she could see as much of her back as possible while craning her neck over her shoulder. She turned again and examined herself from the front, while pulling at the ends of her cashmere sweater, tugging out creases that didn't exist in the soft, warm fabric.
Nervously, she ran her hands down her long and wavy chestnut brown locks that she'd released from their braids a couple of hours prior. Her hair looked good down, she noted. She looked older, more grown-up. It was perfect...for a miai.
"Sakuno? Are you ready yet?" Her grandmother called from downstairs.
"Coming Grandma," She called back before she grabbed her purse and her cell phone and left the room. Trotting down the stairs, she gave her grandmother a soft smile that conveyed much more ease at the whole situation than the older teen actually felt.
Her grandmother beamed at her, "You look lovely. Just like your mama."
Sakuno flushed with pleasure at the compliment.
The two women made their way to the entryway where they put their coats and shoes on before exiting their warm home into the crisp winter night.
In the back of her mind Sakuno continued to obsess over the slight brush of lips she'd shared with Ryoma-kun that morning. She really wanted to know how amazing a real kiss would be...
The next morning, Sakuno had her hair back up in its usual braids and she was frowning at Ryoma as he stood by her front gate. She wasn't ready to see him yet. She still had that slight brush of his lips on her mind and it took all of her energy not to kiss him just so she could satisfy her seriously piqued curiosity.
"Morning," He greeted as she made her way over to the gate.
Sakuno opened the gate, and stepped off her property. As she turned and closed the gate behind her she said, "Good morning, Ryoma-kun."
"Did you miss me last night?" He teased.
Sakuno flushed, "Don't tease me!"
He grabbed her hand, enveloping it in his own, his warmth instantly spreading into her, "Don't be sad. Soon we'll be together every night."
"Ryoma-kun!" She exclaimed, completely scandalized. How dare he talk to her that way? Even worse, she still found herself fantasizing for about the ten thousandth time since the previous morning what it would really be like to be like that with Ryoma-kun...
He snickered to himself for a few seconds and then asked, "How was the meeting then?"
Sakuno frowned as her thoughts shifted to the meeting the night before with Fuji-senpai and stared at the ground as they walked along on their way to school.
Seeing her frown, Ryoma sent a triumphant smile at the gray clouds overhead.
"You turned him down," He stated as he looked to her for confirmation.
Part of her was hoping he would give up on marrying her and to her horror a much larger part of her was terrified that he would as she reluctantly shook her head no.
"You didn't tell him no?" Ryoma asked.
She shook her head again.
He squeezed her hand, "Why not?"
She looked up then and meeting his eyes said, "I have to try for Grandma."
Ryoma made a sound of disapproval and pulled them to a stop. Sakuno looked up at him, wondering what it would be this time.
He grasped her other hand and pulled her towards him. Holding both of her hands with his between their chests he said, "Try with me."
Sakuno blushed and shook her head, looking down at their hands. She furiously tried to stamp down the mounting feelings welling up inside of her that wanted to just love him and be with him.
"I can't," She whispered.
Ryoma rubbed her hands for a moment and said, "Why? Because you really like me?"
Sakuno's head shot up, her eyes meeting his with panic showing clearly behind them. She could swear she felt her heart drop into her feet. Her whole face displayed utter shock and disbelief.
Surely, Ryoma-kun hadn't just said to her that she liked him.
Stunned, Sakuno stood there like a dummy, her mouth dropped open, her eyes blank, her mind spinning out of control, her heart racing frantically.
There's no way he knows...
Finally, Ryoma sent her the self confident smirk he would send to an opponent just before he would beat them.
HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS HE KNOWS
It scrolled across her mind in a big bright neon marquee. As her heart dropped out of her body with dread and her mind whirled around like she'd been flying around on a merry-go-round at top speed, her legs turned to jelly and she dropped onto her knees.
The shock of the impact with the rough uneven concrete broke her from her panicked stupor. "Ouch," She hissed under her breath. Her knees were on fire, she was positive she'd just scraped them up something terrible. She yanked her hands from Ryoma's grip above her head and tried to push herself up slightly to get her knees off the pavement.
Ryoma looked down in surprise at Sakuno's slumped over form, "Sakuno? What are you doing?" This girl of his was so clumsy, she even managed to fall down when he was holding on to her.
That was when he heard her soft sounds of pain. He knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Oi, are you hurt?"
He was met with a teary-eyed face and instantly sprung into action. He reached his arms down and easily lifted her up from the ground.
"Ryoma-kun! What are you doing?" She asked as she threw her arms around his shoulders, frightened that he would drop her.
He looked at her bloody knees and grimaced. Only his Sakuno could manage to hurt herself so effortlessly. "I'm taking you home so we can fix those scrapes. Why did you fall down?"
Sakuno pouted at her legs, "Ah..."
Not waiting for an answer, Ryoma turned around and started briskly walking back toward the Ryuzaki residence.
Sakuno tried not to think too much about the fact that Ryoma-kun was carrying her home, and even more so not to think about the question he'd asked her that caused her to fall down.
Unfortunately for her, his question still whirled away in her mind on repeat.
Because you really like me?
You like me...
like me...
like...
Arriving back at Sakuno's house Ryoma pounded on the front door once again with his foot. Once again Ryuzaki Sumire opened her door to the sight of her granddaughter in Ryoma's arms.
"Oh what is it this time?" The older lady asked.
Ryoma cracked a slight grin as he nodded in the direction of Sakuno's bloody knees.
Sumire shook her head as she moved out of the way. She led the couple into the living room as she procured a towel from the linen closet. She began tucking the towel on top of the sofa as she fussed, "I bet you fell down because your head is still not right from hitting it the other night. I knew you should have stayed home today. It's a good thing Ryoma was walking with you to school, what would have happened if you'd passed out and been on your own? Huh?"
At the end of her rant, Sumire turned towards the couple and gestured for Ryoma to place Sakuno down on the sofa she'd just prepared as a makeshift bed.
"Sorry Grandma," Sakuno apologized softly, her voice sounding sad and defeated as Ryoma gently placed her down on the sofa. Sakuno allowed her mind to briefly regret the loss of Ryoma's warmth. It had been nice having his arms wrapped around her as he'd carried her the fairly short distance back home.
Sumire was already off to get the medical kit to clean up Sakuno's scrapes, so she barely registered Sakuno's apology.
Sakuno sighed as she fixed her skirt and then glanced above her where Ryoma hovered.
Their eyes locked.
The corner of Ryoma's mouth quirked up.
Sakuno flushed at his subtle reminder that he thought she liked him and looked back down at her scraped up knees. Giving one of them an experimental poke, she hissed and commented, "I hurt them pretty bad."
Sumire bustled back into the living room and shoved the medical kit into Ryoma's hands. She started listing off instructions as she went into the kitchen to retrieve a couple of ice packs.
"I have to get to work, so Ryoma..." She paused to look at the young man that had just settled on the edge of the sofa below Sakuno's knees.
Ryoma had just opened the medical kit, but he looked up at hearing his name called.
Knowing she had his attention, Sumire continued calling through the house, "I'm counting on you to take care of Sakuno for me today. She needs to rest. Keep some ice on her head." She closed the freezer and began making her way back into the living room, "Make sure her head is okay like you did on Saturday."
"Grandma, I'm fine!" Sakuno interrupted irritably.
Sumire ignored the protest and placed one of the ice packs on Sakuno's head as she pushed her shoulders down, trying to get the young woman to lay back. Sakuno eased onto her back at the subtle push, and grabbed at the ice pack with her hand that was closest to the couch's back, but protested again all the same, "I swear, I'm fine. This is really too much!"
Sumire ignored Sakuno's protests yet again and instead placed the other ice pack near her granddaughter's knees and gave further instructions to Ryoma, who was in the middle of meticulously cleaning her wounds, "After you get her knees bandaged up, try to get her to sleep, but wake her up every couple of hours or so. I'll let the school know that neither of you will be in today, okay?"
Ryoma nodded distractedly as he dabbed some hydrogen peroxide on one of Sakuno's knees.
Sakuno let out a hiss of protest at the stinging coming from her leg.
Sumire turned back to Sakuno and dropped a kiss on her forehead, "Don't worry child, Ryoma will take good care of you today, you just focus on resting. Try not to think about everything, it's probably part of it, the stress of making these decisions, and for that I'm really sorry, so no miai thoughts today, okay?"
Sakuno's jaw dropped in shock. What was that supposed to mean? Before she could even formulate a reply, her grandmother had left the house, locking the door behind her. She heard the car start and drive off down the street, and then hissed and sat up once again as Ryoma dabbed hydrogen peroxide on her other knee, "That hurts!"
Ryoma snickered a bit before he blew gently on the wound, speeding up the drying process of the hydrogen peroxide that he knew was the source of her pain. Satisfied that it was dry enough, he dabbed a bit of antibiotic ointment on her knee and covered it with a large bandage. He grabbed the ice pack and placed it across her knees and then leaned back over Sakuno's calves and admired his work. Both of her knees were now clean and bandaged. Much better.
"So...why did you fall down?" He asked yet again.
Sakuno similarly flushed again, remembering his question about if she really liked him and then pouted, "I lost my balance."
"I was holding on to you."
She crossed her arms over her chest and said, "My legs gave out."
An eyebrow quirked up, "Ah."
Sakuno looked away from him, and glared at her blank television screen, wondering how she could get out of having this conversation. She laid back against the sofa arm and moaned, "Maybe Grandma is right and it's my head."
"Hnnnn," Ryoma stood slightly and took a step closer to her head before he sat on the top of the kotatsu. He grabbed the end of her braid that was laying closest to him. Yanking the tie on the end off, he began to unbind her hair.
"What are you doing?" Sakuno asked as she watched his fingers wind though her hair effortlessly releasing the braided strands.
"If your head hurts, you shouldn't have your hair bound so tightly, right?"
"Ah...un..." She agreed. Grabbing the end of her other braid she made quick work of undoing it as Ryoma continued to take his time with her other braid.
He got closer and closer to her scalp and she watched his movements out of the corners of her eyes, wondering why he was working his fingers through her hair so slowly, and yet enjoying the sensation more than she could have ever imagined she would enjoy a man touching her hair. Finally, he moved his fingers back and forth against her scalp, releasing the last strands from the weave she'd done up so tightly that morning. Sakuno closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep herself from moaning aloud.
Wow...that felt amazing. She felt like she could nod off into a blissful dream state...
"Sakuno..."
"Hmmm?" She cracked her eyes open and observed how close his face was to hers.
His hand grasped the side of her head, her hair splayed through his fingers as he gently massaged her scalp, "I'm going to kiss you now, so don't move away this time."
Hmmm? Kiss...? As her mind finally registered his words, his mouth had already connected with her slightly open one. Her world tilted on it's side and melted away as she felt the pressure of his lips increase. Before she knew what she was doing, she'd pressed her lips back against his and grabbed onto his shoulders, pulling him closer. She felt his tongue brush against her bottom lip and without even thinking about it she opened her mouth to him and reveled in the myriad of sensations that overtook her body, mind and being.
It was like magic.
As Ryoma felt Sakuno's mouth open for him with invitation, he greedily delved into her mouth, savoring every corner of it as if the world was ending. She started making these cute sounds in the back of her throat and he pushed further, instantly wanting more.
Why had he waited so many years to kiss her?
He moved off of the kotatsu, and onto the couch. Slightly lying over her, he cupped the side of her face with his hand and continued to kiss her like his life depended on it.
More, more, more he wanted more. He wanted so much more.
As his left hand moved from the top of the back of the couch where he'd placed it to lever his body above hers and towards her chest, he caught himself and pulled away from her. He moved to the opposite end of the couch, catching his breath, his mind going a mile a minute from start to finish. Things he'd never really thought of much before suddenly becoming a reality that he wanted desperately.
This...this...was more complicated than he'd considered.
Sakuno had her fingers against her lips as she stared across the sofa at him, barely even blinking, her mind obviously a million miles away as he furiously fought himself to calm down.
It was both of theirs first kiss as far as he knew, the last thing they needed was for him to rush the rest. He grabbed at the front of his shirt as his heart squeezed.
Maybe he shouldn't have kissed her. If she didn't agree to marry him now, he might die.
Everything...everything...had just become...oh...so much more.
Finally! They kiss! :D I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Sorry for taking so long to update. :(
Thank you to everybody that left a review since chapter 9: Reineyrein, arh, cutepuff, LOUi-SHii l'3'l, Eira, ILuvAGdFanfic, MoguriLea, Megingjoro, Deathly Jester, youare-who-youare, findingwhimsy, SinfulEmerald, shajira, Manga Bear, ILoveSxS, SaKuRiMo0n, J Luc Pitard, heartluv, nekonomiko, YourBuddyBJ-Z, ryosakuaddictioneternal, and asuna11.
I really want to leave individual responses to you all, but this update is way overdue already. I've been out on the east coast for a couple of weeks and I won't be heading back home to Cali about a week from now or so which is keeping me busy busy busy. So I'll leave extra replies with the next chapter. I love you all! xoxoxoxo ~ Bunny
oh and kisses to hinate