Chapter 11 – A Plan Put Into Action

While the tennis club was in the change rooms, Sakuno and Tomoka got a chance to talk. The day had been so busy that neither of them had really gotten a chance.

"Thank god Fuji-Senpai was there to save us this morning. I was so scared I couldn't even move." Tomoka said as a small shiver ran down her spine.

"You're right Tomo-chan. I couldn't move either. If it wasn't for Fuji-Senpai who knows what would have happened to us." Tomoka nodded her head in agreement. Then an idea popped into her head, causing her to smile.

"I know Sakuno! Why don't we make cookies to say thank you!" Tomoka's face lit up at the thought of making cookies for Fuji with Sakuno. At Ryoma's house of course. "I could come over to Ryoma-sama's house so we could bake them together. We wouldn't want to bake them at my house. My brother's would ruin everything..." She trailed off as a look of disappointment crossed her face. "Oh no! I have to baby-sit my brothers this afternoon!" Sakuno couldn't stand to see Tomoka's disappointed look.

"Don't worry Tomo-chan, I can make them and we will give them to Fuji-Senpai together. We can tell him we both made them." Sakuno smiled warmly at Tomoka, who couldn't help but give a small smile back. "I actually just wanted to see Ryoma-sama's house..."

"Gomen Sakuno, I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow. Ja ne." With that said Tomoka rushed away before Sakuno could even say goodbye, leaving Sakuno to her thoughts. "If we are making cookies to thank Fuji-Senpai, what should I do to thank Ryoma-kun? It would have to be something much better than cookies... Maybe Rinko-san would have an idea, I'll ask her when I get home..."

Ryoma left the change room in a very mad mood. Anyone who saw him could immediately tell, and Sakuno was no exception. Taking tentative steps she slowly made her way over to him by the school gate. The closer she got the more clearly she could see his scowling face. His mouth was turned downwards; his usually bright, curious, golden eyes were narrowed into a glare which he was directing towards his feet; and his eyebrows were slightly closer together. This was his angry and annoyed face. Sakuno wasn't quite sure what to do. "Hmm... I wonder if I should talk to him or ask him what's wrong..." In the end the quiet young girl tentatively spoke.

"A-Anou, Are you okay R-Ryoma-kun?" Ryoma looked straight at the nervous girl, right into her eyes, his expression unchanging. Sakuno waited patiently and hopefully for Ryoma to answer her question, but he just stared. As his stare continued Sakuno started to shift her weight from foot to foot. Finally Ryoma broke his stare and returned to glaring at his feet. A soft sigh escaped Sakuno's lips. "I guess he doesn't want to talk to me..."

The truth to Ryoma's silence however was much more interesting. After seeing Sakuno he was more confused than ever. Lately whenever she was around, or even mentioned, Ryoma would have trouble thinking. His mind would go all haywire, with so many thoughts and feeling running around in his head he couldn't make sense of any of them. If anyone ad known this information and asked him when it had started, even Ryoma wouldn't be able to tell you. Before, when his coaches granddaughter was around or mentioned, it had no effect on him. She was just another annoying girl. Another classmate who happened to be his coaches granddaughter. He would be polite(ish) to her and help out with her tennis (she really was awful at tennis, but she tried so hard. Ryoma admired that) and after a while Ryoma started to consider her tolerable and didn't care if she was around or not, he started to consider her as a friend. Now he doesn't have a clue what he thinks of the clumsy girl. The change had been so gradual he didn't even notice it. Until now that was, and the events of that afternoon had only amplified this mixture of thoughts and feeling swirling around in the young tennis prodigy's head.

"Why am I so confused? Am I really jealous that Fuji-Senpai saved Ryuzaki?" Ryoma mentally shook his head at this train of thought. There was no way it was that. "What is it then..." After a little while another thought popped into his head. "Maybe I was worried... I have saved her many times, and I really don't want her to get hurt, she is my friend after all... And I am supposed to be looking after her, she can't protect herself" Ryoma finally came to the decision that the reason he was irritated was because he hadn't been there to protect Sakuno. He was upset because if Fuji-Senpai hadn't been there then Sakuno would have been hurt. With this revelation, Ryoma finally knew how to make himself feel better.

"Gomen Ryuzaki," Ryoma started, his gaze still directed at his shoes, however Sakuno quickly looked up towards Ryoma. "What is he apologising for? He never apologises!" "I wasn't there to protect you this morning," Sakuno's heart started beating faster. "Maybe there is a chance he likes me..." "Sensei is trusting me to protect you and I wasn't there. So... Gomen" Sakuno's heart dropped. Of course it was because her grandma asked him to protect her. Why did she think any different? She was just the coaches granddaughter to him."Still..." She thought, trying to be optimistic, "Ryoma-kun sees looking after me important enough to to apologise if he doesn't do it right" This thought made the young girl feel a little better.

"Don't worry Ryoma-kun. Fuji-Senpai was there to save me, and obaa-chan asked all the other regulars to protect me aswell. It's not just your responsibility, besides you're being targeted too." Sakuno replied with a small smile. It still hurt that Ryoma-kun still thought of her as just the coaches granddaughter, but she shouldn't take that hurt out on Ryoma. "Obaa-chan wouldn't blame or be mad at you if I got hurt Ryoma-kun. You can't make them stop targeting us." The young girls last statement confused Ryoma. Why would he be worried about the coach? Ryoma looked at the young girl in confusion.

"Of course coach would be mad and blame me. I wouldn't blame her, I would be mad at myself. I'm supposed to protect you" Sakuno was starting to get a little frustrated now. She was okay if Ryoma didn't care for her, but he should at least listen to her and not make her feel bad about it.

"You don't have to go so far to protect me Ryoma-kun, just because I'm the coaches granddaughter." Sakuno said, her voice had a slightly venomous undertone to it. By this point Ryoma was extremely confused. "What is she going on about? Doesn't she realise that I'm protecting her because I want to yet?" Ryoma sighed.

"I'm not protecting you because your the coaches granddaughter. I'm doing it because I want to. Your my friend and I don't want you to get hurt." Sakuno looked up at Ryoma in shock. Not only had he said she was his friend, but he actually told her.

"G-Gomen Ryoma-kun. Thank you for protecting me. I'm lucky to have such a wonderful friend" Sakuno smiled sincerely at Ryoma, her heart lighter than it had felt in a while. "He sees me as a friend! I can't believe it. And he actually told me. I've never hears Ryoma-kun say something like that to anyone before." Ryoma smirked at the girl, appearing as nonchalant as ever.

In actuality Sakuno's statement had quite a large effect on the young man. Ryoma's heart rate sped up noticeably, he got butterfly's in his stomach and crazy unintelligible thoughts were racing around in his head. Most of said thoughts were about the girls last sentence, although he couldn't figure out why. It was a pretty self explanatory sentence, yet it was causing him such a confusing mixture of thoughts and feelings. Instead of trying to filter through these thoughts and feelings, Ryoma decided to set them aside for now, seeing as the rest of the regulars were approaching.

"Ochibi! Sakuno-chan! I'm coming with you today nya!" Eiji called from about 5 metres away. The rest of the regulars waited until they were a little closer to speak to the pair.

"I'll be coming along too Echizen, if you don't mind." Fuji revealed with a smile.

"Yosh let's go minna" Momo cheered as the group of 5 left the school grounds.

"W-Why are there three of you this time senpai?" Sakuno inquired. She was sure that only two of the senpai needed to come.

"Well that's easy Sakuno-chan. I wanted to be with you and make sure your okay." Fuji said, looking down at the young brunette, his expression unchanging. Sakuno lowered her head, blushing a little. She didn't know that the senpai cared so much. Momo and Eiji watched with delight. They were watching Echizen very carefully and could see that Fuji had gained his interest. The three seniors shared a discreet look at each other, conveying an unspoken message. Plan "make Echizen/Ochibi jealous" had started.

The group started walking down the street, having a very interesting conversation.

"Ne Sakuno-chan, what were you doing walking through the tree's? If Fujiko hadn't been watching you who knows what would have happened, nya" Eiji asked the shy girl.

Sakuno's face turned a delicate shade of pink thinking about why she ad Tomoka had started walking around. "W-Well, Tomoka wanted to go for a walk and that's just where we ended up."

"It's a good thing Fuji-Senpai keeps an eyes on you." Momo added, emphasising the fact that Fuji was watching her.

"Are you sure you should have been walking around Sakuno-chan? Your ankle still isn't healed after all." Fuji said, a concerned look on his face.

"I-I'm okay Fuji-Senpai. As long as I don't run or put much pressure on it I will be fine."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want you to make it worse." Fuji added. All three of the seniors kept Ryoma's figure in the corner of their eye. With every sentence his shoulders were getting gradually more and more stiff.

"What's wrong with me?" Ryoma thought to himself. "I shouldn't be getting irritated or annoyed right now. There is nothing to be annoyed about." As the group continued to walk Ryoma's just continued to become more irritated, however when Eiji decided that Sakuno shouldn't be walking and Fuji started to carry her (all the while said girl was trying to convince them that she was perfectly capable of walking) Ryoma thought his irritation could not get any higher. Ryoma just kept his head down, covering up his scowl, and began to walk faster. If Sakuno wasn't walking there was no reason for them to walk slowly then.

"Hey Echizen, wait up!" Momo called as they all hurried to keep up with the young lad, smirking all the way. They were definitely getting to the young boy. "Heh, see if you can say your not jealous after this Echizen"

Sakuno meanwhile was decidedly uncomfortable. If, a few days ago, someone had told her that in a few days she would be being carried by Fuji to Ryoma's house where she was currently staying she would have thought they had gone mad. But here she was getting a piggy back by Fuji. She was very uncomfortable with the current situation. With every step she was jolted little. She could tell that he was trying very hard to make the trip as smooth as possible, but no matter how hard he tried she was still being jolted around. Along with being jolted about, she was also worried that she was too heavy for Fuji to carry. He was, of course, stronger than he looked, but he was so skinny she couldn't help but worry. There was also the added fact that Fuji had a very bony back. But no matter how much she tried to get him to let her down, nothing worked. Sakuno sighed in resignation. "Looks like I will have to deal with being carried until we get to Ryoma-kun's house. I wonder what is wrong with Ryoma-kun actually... He was fine when we left school..."

The rest of the trip home was filled with comments to make Ryoma jealous of Fuji. "Ne Fujiko, why don't you have a girlfriend yet?" "I just haven't met the right girl yet" Followed by a pointed look at Sakuno which she was oblivious to, but Ryoma wasn't. "Hey Sakuno-chan, why don't you have a boyfriend yet?" To which Sakuno responded by hiding her face in the most convenient way possible which, considering her hands were busy holding onto Fuji's neck, was in Fuji's hair. This one had gotten Ryoma very mad. Finally they made it to Ryoma's house where Sakuno was finally let down.

"A-Arigatou senpai" Sakuno thanked Fuji keeping her head down. Fuji smiled at the young girl.

"Your welcome Sakuno-chan. We wouldn't want you to be hurt now would we." With that said Sakuno and Ryoma entered the Echizen house. The three tennis regulars left outside all looked at each other and smirked.

"Mission complete."

A.N. Hey Everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I think I did well with this one but I would LOVE to hear your opinions so please review. I also have a question for you. What does Fuji call Ryoma? Echizen or Ryoma? Everytime I write Fuji I don't know what to put and spend about half an hour trying to look it up and racking my memory before I finally say to myself "Screw it, it's fanfiction I can have it whatever the hell I want" But I really do want to know... So if anyone knows I would be happy if you could tell me. Oh and I know that Ryoma's jealousy in this chapter might be a little let down for some of you but don't worry. The best has yet to come. I'm still taking any suggestions so if anyone else had any I would love to hear. I've got great plans for some of the suggestions I've gotten. (When I say great don't expect anything too great though... I use the word great very loosely. If I say amazing you can get excited because you know it will be good. I only occasionally use that word and only for the best things) I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I really enjoyed writing it. Not necessarily because I think it's a great chapter but just because I got into a really good writing zone. I'm not sure if other people use the term writing zone... but anyway, I'm rambling again.

Thanks for reading and Please Review (It's really worth your while) Until next chapter,

Cya