Game and Match: Sakuno?
A/N: Uh… hi? Fufufu… I'm really REALLY sorry for not updating for like, such a long period. I just had so much to do, now that I'm working from 9 – 5 pm. While the nagging guilt eating up inside of me drove me to update this story is one of the many reasons to update, there's also the fact that I've been complaining that some authors don't even bother to update their stories and made me realize that I'm one to talk. So here I am, and while the word GUILT is still plastered onto my forehead like a permanent tattoo, I should present you with something worth reading. (I think.)
Ah, before I forget, I also decided to update two chapters because I remembered those who have painstakingly left their reviews and those who put me in their list of favorite stories and authors. Also for those who had put my story on alert. Love you guys! Muwah! Hugs and kisses! Special thanks to:
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Ch10: Falling Deeper
Pink Sakura petals fluttered around the old floor of the temple as the early breeze of spring visited and swirled around to form a small harmless cyclone, bringing along the faint scent of flowers. Lavenders. The light tap of a pair of small black Doc Martens barely did any disturbance to the silence around that time of year and time frame, the distant sound of the bell somewhere behind the temple was the only indicator that the temple was not empty. A small hand was brought up to touch the Sakura flower-shaped hairpin keeping the brown locks out of her forehead. Her pink lips, coated with a thin film of cherry lip gloss curved up into a warm smile as she spoke, her voice hushed.
"Konbanwa, okaa-chan, obaa-chan."
A few silent minutes passed as she walked towards the back of the temple, to a flight of stairs leading up to the cemetery. She stopped in her tracks as the corner of her eye caught something moving by the giant bell. A monk in a black hakama was lying on his side, reading something that resembled a newspaper. She cocked her head as she realized that he was using his leg to swing the log to make the bell sound swing. She turned her shoulders and decided to give the monk a greeting while visiting the large bell which had been her favorite hiding place when she was a child; when she'd played hide and seek with Tomoka while her daddy was doing errands around the temple.
"Konbanwa…" she greeted, making the monk to look up from what he was reading while a leg stopped in its previous ministrations in an awkward position.
Sakuno stopped in her tracks as the monk replied with a laid back 'Uissu' and a familiar grin.
"C-Coach Nan-Nanoji?" She blinked, her words laced with surprise and probably amusement a minute after the unexpected encounter.
"Drop the coach, Ryuzaki Sakuno-chan. As you can see, I'm just a monk right now." He put aside the newspaper and sat upright.
Sakuno giggled as she plopped next to the space beside the monk. The silence came back again, this time without the sound of the bell and the tapping of her boots.
"What is a world-renowned coach- slash -living legend doing here alone; while humbly offering his service as a monk, Echizen Nanjiroh-san?"
Said name laughed sheepishly at her choice of words. "I'm nothing like a legend, Sakuno-chan yo. What about you, walking around such a silent place looking like a living doll?"
This time it was her turn to laugh sheepishly. "N-Nanoji-san… S-Surely you've seen the wrong person… ne?"
Nanjiroh grinned as a reply. He couldn't help it. There were two reasons he'd addressed her as so. Firstly, he had been the one to place those calls before to annoy her and he was also the one who left the dried mouse, giving him a whole two months of guilt on his shoulders. A little flattery would get some guilt off his shoulders. Secondly, he was true to his words. Sakuno wasn't alluringly beautiful, that he knew. But she had something about her that made people look twice into her direction whenever she walked into a room. The girl also had been the only girl who got the gall to stand up to his idiotic of a son and call the amber-eyed thirty year old man a kabocha with all the courage one could possibly muster. He grinned again and laughed out loud as he remembered those moments.
"Nanoji-san? Why are you laughing?"
The old man took ten whole seconds to regain his composure, and with a finger wiping off the tears from the corner of an eye from over-dose laughing, he shook his head.
"Nah, just remembering the time you called my son kabocha."
Her cheeks reddened at the memory. "W-Well… he was being… rude…"
Nanjiroh patted her head. "No harm done! He was kinda shocked though, because you called him a pumpkin. Did he let you keep that name for him?"
At this, he poked Sakuno's shoulder with a finger, earning a raised brow from the woman. "E-Eh? What do you mean?"
"You still call him that before every game, right?"
Her cheeks blushed deeper, and she avoided the legendary samurai's mischievous eyes. How did he know that? She thought that no one took notice of her calling the Samurai Junior a big dumb kabocha before every game, because the other players were so fired up after her pants-dropping speech. Well, it seemed that her conversation with the younger Echizen didn't go unnoticed after all.
Nanjiroh, being the know-it-all mister he was, wiggled his eyebrows. "I have feline eyes, and although I'm old –I'm not telling you my age-, I can see that my son had actually talked to you. To a reporter. A woman reporter."
Sakuno cocked her head as she looked at the monk, a dark brow raised and her blush toning down to a faint hue of pink.
"You're fifty four years old."
Nanjirohs jaw dropped. "Hey, how did you know? Was it Inui again?"
"Yes. A-And… what does being a woman reporter got anything to do with this? It's not… rare… right?"
Ignoring the new revelation of his age, Nanjiroh returned to the mischievous monk he was. "Don't you know?"
"Know… Know what?"
Nanjiroh held up three fingers.
"Firstly, he never, I mean NEVER talked to a reporter ever since he finished his rehab. Reporters always walked away from him with nothing more than a grunt from him or if they're even lucky, walk away with his 'Mada mada dane'. That brat is the team's captain, for god's sake. He should use the media attention to promote himself, and the team of course, and get himself a bunch of BUSTY hotties!"
Sakuno laughed as the monk made imaginary breasts when he emphasized the word 'busty'. The man was funny, she decided. And she felt bad for suspecting the monk that time when she found the dead mouse.
Ah… the wonders of secrecy.
"Secondly," Nanjiroh said, his voice full of enthusiasm. "…he has this thing about not taking as much as a glance towards any women carrying a tag name that read 'reporter'. But look at you, you even managed to make him to at least look at you for more than three seconds!"
She nodded slowly. That was true. Maybe Ryoma even bothered to look at her because he thought she had lesbian spectacles.
Her eyes blinked as she noticed the suddenly silent Nanjiroh as he looked at a spot just above the end of the flight of stairs leading to the cemetery. An uncharacteristic tiny smile replaced the wide grin he had on earlier as he turned to her, his eyes seemed distant.
"And lastly… You're the second person to call him a pumpkin…"
Sakuno adjusted the flowers in the small glass bottle for both her mother and grandmother, and soundlessly knelt in front of the two marble stones, with the brown folded blanket beneath her protecting her knees from the chill of the early spring. As her hands clasped in a praying manner, she closed her eyes. A small smile decorated her lips as she spoke in hushed tones.
"Hello okaa-san, obaa-san. I'm fine, as usual, and Tomo-chan said hi. I'll bring her here again someday. Otou-san told me to get married and have cute children… for the fiftieth time this year…" she laughed slightly at the last statement.
"I got a nice job, and I'm thinking about quitting 'Sweet Sakura'… I've made friends, and they treat me so nicely as if they were my brothers…"
A blush colored her cheeks as she opened her eyelids. "And I've met a man…He's… interesting. He likes Ponta so much that it worries me… he wears a cap, and he looks good with it. He looks good even without his cap. He's actually kind, but he never shows it…"
She could hear faint sobs from a distance. There was someone else there, crying. She closed her eyes again, her hands still clasped and the faint blush was still there.
"And I think I'm in love with him."
Her previous conversation with Nanjiroh stirred in her head, the muffled sound of the sobs breaking the silence of the cemetery.
- FLASHBACK -
"The only one to call him pumpkin was his mother. That Ryoma never showed it, but he misses her every day. Ever since the first time he walked away from Rinko's tomb… he had talked even less to me. And when he did, it always concerns tennis."
Sakuno wondered if she should tell the monk about Ryoma's knees. Why would Ryoma distance himself from his dad, when it was clearly the old man loved his son.
"Why would he talk less?" she asked, her voice a hushed tone.
"I thought he was angry at me because I divorced his mother and married Sayuri's mama. But I was wrong. That brat wasn't mad at me, he was mad at himself. He blamed himself because he had been to a tournament when Rinko died of a sudden aneurism."
Silence enveloped the two, and Sakuno felt that similar pain in her chest when she found out her mother had died of cancer. It felt so painful, that it made her hard to cry.
"No one could've known about the aneurism… Ryoma-kun shouldn't blame himself."
Nanjiroh sighed as he folded his legs, sitting Indian-style.
"I told him the same thing. But Ryoma wouldn't take any of it. He said if he had been there with her, he could have at least sent her to the hospital earlier when Rinko collapsed in the middle of a market. That idiot of a son didn't even look me in the eyes when he said he knew I was mad at him."
Sakuno scooted closer. "Were you?"
"I wasn't. I was never mad at him. Sure I loved Rinko, she was my first wife, and I still loved her when I remarried with someone else… but things happen for a reason… and I realized that the reason I remarried was because the woman had the same qualities as Rinko. I loved Sayuri's mama for who she was though, and that's why I love my daughter too… despite the fact she hates me to bits."
Nanjiroh laughed, and it came out bitter. "God, the two women I loved ended up dying before me."
Sakuno squeezed his shoulder slightly with her small hand and flashed him a smile.
"I'm sure your children will open up to you. I know."
It was a few minutes when they stayed silent. Sakuno's small hand was a contrast to the wide expanse of Nanjiroh's shoulder as she kept it there, as an act of reassurance. Another minute passed when suddenly Nanjiroh laughed out loud while scratching the back of his head.
"Why am I being such a pathetic old man today! This is so not me!"
He was right. He wasn't acting like the usual perverted and energetic Coach Nanoji everyone knew. Because those eyes of his did not have even a glint of happiness in them, despite his loud laughter.
- FLASHBACK -
A tear trickled down her cheek, she wiped it away. She hadn't cried in a long time, and she'd thought her tears were dried up when she cried herself to sleep 22 years ago. Somehow after hearing Nanjiroh's story, she fell deeper into her feelings for Ryoma.
"His name is Ryoma-kun. Echizen Ryoma-kun. His surname is weird, right? He's arrogant but I can sense something else from him whenever I look into his eyes…He likes to call my glasses 'lesbo', and he called me an archangel of gloom and doom… and he hates my shoes… But he's kind… Obaa-chan…I know you'll be mad at me for falling for a guy as… rude and as sharp-tongued as him… But I can't help it…"
The sobs were getting louder, or had it been that distinct when she was there? She turned to her right, and saw a young girl praying in front of a tomb, her eyes closed but she was crying. Poor girl. Sakuno had long stopped crying when she was that girl's age. Having long silky brown hair made her an easy target for jealous girls, and she had grown resistant to the insults and sometime beatings to not even shed a tear.
Ending her prayers, Sakuno quietly stood up from her position and walked towards the crying girl. Her hair was black, and something struck Sakuno as she neared the sobbing girl.
"S-Sayuri… chan?"
The girl popped open her eyes, and stared back at Sakuno with brilliant amber eyes, traces of tears still there.
"O-Onee…chan?"
The Ryuzaki smiled warmly at the girl, and sat next to her, before she wrapped an arm around the petite sixteen-year old's shoulder to give a little reassuring squeeze.
"Your mother?"
To Sakuno's surprise, the youngest Echizen shook her head and wiped off the tears. Her voice was hoarse as she replied.
"No. It's Rinko baa-chan's tomb."
"Oh. Why are you crying then?"
Sayuri shook her head again, and her head dropped. "I feel guilty."
Sakuno kept silent, not interrupting the young girl's thoughts. And the silence prompted Sayuri to tell everything to the reporter, not even once thinking about her reputation as Echizen Ryoma's sister.
She told Sakuno about her rude attitude towards Ryoma's mother even though she never met her daddy's first wife. She'd blamed Rinko for stealing Nanjiroh's love for his second wife, she'd blamed the dead woman's tomb to be the only thing getting in her way for achieving a complete family. But then when she'd seen the old albums Ryoma had kept tucked safely in the deepest part of the bookshelves, she saw the real Rinko holding a smiling child, her nii-chan; and she saw the happiness in the boy's amber eyes that it made her feel like such an ass. Then she'd noticed the small picture of Rinko smiling brightly inside a small thin frame tucked safely under the pillow next to his own, and realized that he had missed his mother as much as she missed hers.
"I-I'm just beginning to like him as a brother, and because he was so secretive, I never knew he misses Rinko baa-chan every single day. I'm… I'm a really bad person, nee-chan."
Sakuno squeezed tighter and let Sayuri-chan rest her head onto her narrow shoulders.
"I don't judge people, Sayuri-chan… but I do know that you're a good person."
She could feel Sayuri shaking her head slightly. "No, I'm not."
Sakuno remembered the days when her dad would sit her on his lap while stroking her hair to make her stop crying. He would tell her that okaa-san was in heaven and watching over 'my little angel' as her dad put it. She smoothed the strands covering the girl's face and smiled warmly at the poor girl.
"You're not a bad person if you came all the way here to apologize to his mother, right?"
Sayuri blushed as Sakuno gave a gentle pat on her head, and her lips tugged up into a wobbly smile. The woman was really beautiful up-close. Sayuri never noticed that.
"U-Um… you're right… I guess… Thank you, onee-chan…"
"You can count on me."
Sayuri kicked a pebble as they both waited for a cab to take. Sakuno had told her something about repairing her car so the sixteen-year old had thought about inviting Sakuno over to her house. She liked the reporter, it felt as if Sakuno knew how she felt when she lost her mother, as if she had also gone through the pain.
"Nee-chan, do you wanna go to my house?"
Sakuno smiled apologetically. She had other plans tonight, including sitting in front of the t.v. with a tub of popcorn watching a new ghost movie she'd rented.
"I'm afraid I have to decline, Sayuri-chan."
The teenager nodded understandingly, her eyes glazed, as if she was a bit disoriented. Noticing the pale complexion Sayuri's face had at that time worried Sakuno. She gently squeezed the younger girl's shoulder.
"Sayuri-chan, are you okay?"
Said name laughed it off, her smile was wobbly as she shrugged the matter off. She focused her amber eyes to the road as a puppy trotted happily across the street, oblivious to the passing cars honking at it. A mini cooper honked and swerved away, the small tyres screeching slightly as the dog carelessly hopped to a spot.
And the black Labrador puppy stayed there, looking transfixed at something just above Sayuri's head.
Sayuri thought that the dog looked so cute staring at a spot above her head, its beady eyes glazed and its muzzle slightly wet with Sakura petals sticking onto it. She cooed and clapped her hands so that the dog would eventually do little hops towards her.
The dog yipped, and as it started to lift a small paw, Sakuno knew something wasn't right.
It was then a second too late to realize when a big truck ran over it.
Both girls stood shocked at the pool of blood in the middle of the road, a bit of scattered flesh here, bits of bleach-white bones flying over there… it was mess. What made the sight more gruesome was the fact that the puppy was groaning… or was it croaking… as most parts of its head disintegrated into nothingness, and it's miraculously in-severed tail still wiggled. The damn lifeless heap of a dog still had its tail wiggling.
Sayuri fainted then and there.
The smell of something familiar made her stir. Something was being fried. The strange sweet smell of a familiar brand of rice wafted through the small apartment. Faint giggling and hushing sounds were heard as Sayuri struggled to open her eyelids. She tried to move her fingers, and her muscles flexed as she shakily fist her right hand. The hushing and giggling abruptly stopped as she opened her eyes.
"Sayuri-chan? You okay?"
Beautiful brown eyes greeted her sight just as immediately as she opened her eyes. "O… nee…chan?"
An unladylike groan escaped Sayuri's lips as she sat up, a palm pressed against the side of her head, as if to stop her brains from spilling out her hard skull. A warm hand belonging to Sakuno rested against her back, the small hand gently caressed the girl's spine as the mattress Sayuri was lying onto shifted a bit when the older female sat next to her.
"You passed out… a-at the um… at the temple… after…um… you know…"
As if being doused by a bucket of cold water, Echizen Sayuri's head snapped up and her eyes widened.
"Th-The… p-poor puppy…" she whispered.
Then she fainted again.
Sakuno quickly got up from the bed and shook the girl's shoulders. "Sayuri-chan!"
Tomoka blinked as she neared Sakuno's bed, which now accommodated Echizen Ryoma's sister. A hand shakily tucked a strand of black hair behind the girl's ear, and as quick as lightning, she lifted an eyelid and neared her face to the fainted girl's own face, taking a better look at the amber orb. Sakuno quickly swatted away Tomoka's hand with her voice squeaking out 'Tomo-chan!'
"What were you doing, Tomo-chan?"
Ignoring Sakuno's antics, Tomoka crossed her arms beneath her well-endowed breasts. She hummed as if she had solved something that bugged her head for a while. Then she nodded.
"Yup, yup. She's the sexy Echizen Ryoma-sama's sister after all. Same eyes."
Sakuno didn't notice the extra adjective her childhood friend added, she was busy worrying over Sayuri whom just passed out for a second time.
"Tomo-chan, you shouldn't force open someone's eyelid you know."
Said name shrugged and sat Indian-style onto the floor next to the bed. She couldn't understand why would Sakuno act vehemently at something as simple as taking a peek at Sayuri's eye. She didn't see the wrong in that, though she admitted she was a bit rough when she practically yanked open Sayuri's eyelid.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
Sakuno ignored Tomoka's nonchalance and walked into the kitchen. She sighed contentedly as she opened the lid of the rice cooker, the sweet smell of warm rice greeting her nose. Her stomach growled, and with a little peek behind her, thirty-year old Sakuno popped some rice into her mouth using a spoon.
That didn't go well. She burned her taste buds.
Tomoka laughed out loud, amused that Sakuno got something in return for sneaking some hot rice into her mouth before it was even dinner time. The sudden burst of laughter immediately woke Sayuri from her deep slumber.
"That's what you get for sneaking around! What are you, five?"
Sakuno pouted as she chilled her burning tongue with an ice cube. "Thirty," she managed to mumble.
Tomoka's laughter stopped abruptly, making Sakuno to turn around, eyebrow raised. When she saw Sayuri popping her head into the kitchen with a weak smile on her lips, she sighed.
"Oh, Sayuri-chan…. Tomo-chan, you scared me. I thought somebody came in, one of the Teletubbies maybe."
Sayuri laughed as she heard Sakuno saying the last sentence with such a serious face. The brunette put her hands on her hips, a serious face on her undeniably cute façade.
"Really, those guys are creepy. Especially Dixie. He's too… blue."
The youngest Echizen laughed harder and pinched Sakuno's cheeks, squealing as if she just found something entertaining.
"Nee-chan, you're so cute!"
Said woman blushed so hard it made Sayuri pinch her cheeks a little bit more. Tomoka sniggered and picked up her purse from atop the television, preparing towards the front door.
"Well, since Sayuri-chan is awake, now you have company, Sakuno. Bye!"
Before Sakuno could react to the whole unexpected situation, well not really unexpected - Tomoka had left her with some other weird people so many times- the door was closed with a loud bang and then the small home was left to a red-faced Sakuno and the sister of her new crush. Well, 'crush' was an understatement.
"S-Sa-Sayuri…chan… l-let's… eat… ne?"
She tried to use food to distract the girl from her reddening cheeks, and it worked. Sayuri quickly abandoned the cheeks and swirled around in delight as she took a whiff of the warm rice.
"Yay! Japanese food!"
Sakuno didn't know what happened to the timid and meek Echizen Sayuri as she witnessed the girl stuff her mouth with rice and gobbled up every side dish her chopsticks touched. Brown eyes blinked helplessly as Sayuri practically inhaled the food from her bowl and the small dishes, stray grains of rice stuck to the corners of her mouth and her chin. It was as if the girl had diminished into a five-year old.
"Umai, umai, umaaaai! This is so good, nee-chan!"
A heartbeat passed when finally Sakuno smiled warmly at the girl sitting at the opposite side of the small table, her small hands rubbing her belly in a contented gesture. Sayuri was happy again. Maybe not fully, but she was being more relaxed than when she'd first met Sakuno.
Then Sayuri burped.
Okay, the girl was a little bit too relaxed. Seeing Sayuri laugh it off, Sakuno couldn't help but laugh along too.
"Nee-chan…"
Sakuno looked up from her bowl to meet with Sayuri's amber gaze. The girl wanted to say something, she knew it. But somehow someone's cell phone rang. Reluctantly, Sayuri averted her gaze and answered her phone.
Then her face immediately lit up again.
"Nii-chan!"
Ryuzaki's hand froze in mid-air as she heard Sayuri's squeal. It was Ryoma who called. Somehow, she felt as if her favorite rice was nothing more than sandpaper going down her windpipe. She coughed, bad. Sayuri turned to Sakuno and while she patted Sakuno's back, her mouth was on full chatter mode.
Sakuno was about to calm down from her nerve attack when suddenly Sayuri said the inevitable.
"Um, pick me up at Sakuno nee-chan's house."
The world felt as if it was spinning when she tried to stand up. God, no way this was happening to her. Why did the mention of his name brought queasy feelings in her tummy? Of course she knew she was in love with him, she wasn't stupid. But having a guy, a hot guy nonetheless, come to her house at just about anytime made her nervous as a cat in a tub of freezing water. No, make that a cat in a tub of freezing ICE water.
She silently finished her own dinner when Sayuri sauntered towards the television. The younger girl picked up a CD case, and examined the title of the ghost movie.
"Nee-chan, you're watching this?"
Sakuno nodded, her head still thinking about Ryoma coming over to her place. Then she realized. Why was she so worked up about Ryoma coming over anyway? It wasn't as if he was coming over because he wanted to see her. Pfft. Tough luck. He was going to pick up his sister.
Sakuno relaxed a bit.
The hell with it all.
She washed the dishes as quickly as she could, and cheerily brought out the tub of popcorn to share with Sayuri while they sat and watch the movie together. They didn't forget to switch off the lights.
Ryoma didn't know knocking on the door of a woman was hard. It never felt difficult for him before. But it was different at that time, because he was bringing along a friend for the owner of the shabby-looking apartment. A friend with an orange body and black stripes, and had beady little black eyes with long eyelashes and whiskers.
Who knew tigers have eyelashes?
He lifted a hand, and hesitated. He should've just left the plushie in his car parked at the curb because he'd never given a gift to a girl before. But when he'd seen the little tiger he thought of nothing else but Sakuno and her nick name. He cursed inwardly at this uncharacteristic gesture of his, and rapped at the door twice, and waited. He could hear screams from inside, and he considered barging through the door, in case something bad happened to Sakuno and his sister. A nanosecond after, however, the door opened a fraction and Sakuno's brown-head popped out.
Her shoulder-length hair was let down and tousled, with some strands sticking out and covered an eye, her exposed eye was glazed as if she had just woken up from a deep sleep, and her pink lips appeared fuller. The dimmed light from the doorway lit her head from behind, creating a soft glow around her, and when she smiled sleepily at him, it made him check his vital signs to see if he had actually died and gone to heaven.
Pinch.
Nope. Still alive.
"Ryoma-kun, you're here."
Never in his life had he heard a voice so soft and warming as hers. Even when he'd known some deal of women in his life, he had never heard any voice like Sakuno's when they were…ahm… uhm… in the deep throes of… ahm… uhm… passion. Truthfully, her mere voice made his sex-deprived body respond weirdly yet pleasantly. Or was it just because he'd been deprived for like, three months ever since he laid his eyes on Sakuno after he'd seen her in her cow pajamas?
Okay, he needs some intervention here.
"Of course I'm here."
He said, keeping his voice as neutral as he could muster.
"Come on in, we were just finishing a movie."
She led him inside to the dark living room, a half-asleep Sayuri greeting him half-heartedly while her eyes were trained onto the t.v. screen. She had a blanket draped over her head. Ryoma's eyes glanced at the glowing screen.
"A ghost movie?"
Sakuno nodded. "How did you come here? I didn't see your bike."
Without looking at her, Ryoma answered as he went to the kitchen and switched on the lights. "My car's repaired."
This made Sakuno frown. "Why is it that your car's repaired first? I won't get mine till the end of July."
He smirked as he leaned against the counter, and the tiger was safely placed on top the microwave, still unnoticed by Sakuno.
"Because I'm Echizen Ryoma." As if that explained everything.
Sakuno rolled her eyes and her frown was gone. Her smile replaced the frown as she noticed the tiger perched atop the microwave, its little beady eyes looking back at her innocently.
"Hey you. How did you get here?" She walked towards Ryoma and picked up the tiger.
"Obviously I brought it here." He replied as he let his eyes fall on her.
Sakuno blinked as she turned to him. "Why?"
He wished he had his cap with him as he cleared his throat. God, this was hard.
"I saw it on my way here… and I remembered the guys calling you that."
A blush colored her cheeks as she smiled up at him. "Thank you."
He couldn't help but stare and swallow. No one had ever thanked him sincerely. Sure, the guys had thanked him before. But no one had actually looked at him in the eyes and thank him properly. He had never done anything really worth thanking for anyway. Yet Sakuno had thanked him so sincerely even though it was just a plushie. He let his eyes stay on her as she fussed over the little tiger as if it was a living kitten. He noticed that she wasn't wearing black, instead she had on a pair of pink cotton pajamas with small red strawberry prints. She was even wearing a pair of cow home slippers. He began to wonder if she had a fetish towards cows. He could live with that.
"Do tigers have eyelashes?" She asked, while a finger twirled a strand of the fake whiskers.
"Who knows." He answered off-offhandedly.
After a few moments of checking out the toy plushie in her hands, Sakuno thought about her talk with Nanjiroh and Sayuri about Rinko. As she contemplated whether to tell him about it or not, his deep voice stirred her thoughts away.
"Sayuri told me about the cemetery. How did you bring her here?"
"I hailed a cab, and the driver helped me carry her."
Ryoma looked down at the tip of her slippers before he replied hesitantly. "Thanks for bringing her here."
Sakuno laughed it off. "It was no biggie. She was good company anyway."
He nodded. True, Sayuri was good company. Even when he found it annoying that his sister loves to talk non-stop and chatter about weird stuff. But it was he himself he was unsure of. No matter how hard he tried, he could never be a replacement for Sayuri's mother. He could never make her tell him what a brother should hear about a sister. He never knew her favorite dish, her favorite color or even more importantly, her size. It kind of worried him to see her squeezing herself into small jeans and dresses.
"She's always moody."
Sakuno's laughter died as she saw that same glint in his eyes as they turned to her. It was sadness. Hopelessness. She knew his problem. She knew that he was trying very hard to be a good brother to Sayuri despite going against his own ways.
"Why are you saying that, Ryoma-kun?"
His lips tugged up a fraction.
"She misses her mother. I don't know what to do."
With that, Sakuno placed the tiger on the counter and wrapped her arms around his lean figure. He stood there transfixed as he felt her warmth seep through her clothes into him.
"There's nothing you can do. She lost her mother. I lost mine too and I know that it hurts. Just be there for her when she needs you the most."
Her breath was warm when she spoke against his chest.
"I'm not the greatest brother."
She giggled and looked up into his eyes. "You're just fine the way you are. I can see that you're a good brother. Sayuri-chan told me that."
It took a moment for her to stop hugging him and she quickly backed away, apologizing to him. He fought the urge to pull her against him and feel her warmth again. He didn't know why, but she made him feel better.
"Is Sayuri asleep?" He asked as he walked to the dark living room.
"I think so." Sakuno whispered as she checked up on the sleeping girl.
She turned off the television, letting the lights from the kitchen and doorway to illuminate her small apartment. Ryoma had carried the sleeping Sayuri into his car and came back into the house after he locked the doors of his Land Cruiser. He didn't know why he came back, but his legs were acting as if they had a mind of their own.
Sakuno had her back turned to him as she sorted the books and papers on her working table by the window overseeing the small shops he'd drove pass just a few minutes ago. The tiger was still in one hand as her other hand sorted out the clutter on the table.
"Ryuzaki," he called out, still unsure of what to say as she turned around to face him.
"Yes?"
"I'm going now."
She hesitated for a while before she turned around to see him off with the best smile she could muster.
"Okay. Thanks again for the tiger."
Ryoma nodded as a reply, and with the foreign heavy feeling in his chest, he turned around towards the door. It was a few seconds later when he heard Sakuno call out to him and he turned around. She walked to him and tiptoed to speak into his ear.
"Be careful."
Then she gently kissed his cheek. It was nothing too passionate like the kiss he shared with her before, it was just a peck.
But it was enough to make him realize.
He was in love with the archangel of gloom and doom.
A/N: Yosh, that's it for the tenth chapter. Hope you guys liked it. It's not much, but I'll promise to try to write better chapters. Just tell me if there's anything wrong in here. Hugs and kisses!