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 Fourteen
Important Author's note:
In this chapter you will see the Japanese phrase: Kaeru-no ko-wa kaeru. Which literally translates to: frog's child is a frog. I.e. the Japanese version of the English proverb, 'the apple does not fall far from the tree.'
"SAKUNO!" The reporters burst out in excited yells as Sakuno blinked back tears from the flashing of lights surrounding her in every direction.
"Don't say a word, don't nod, don't shake your head, just smile, and keep hold of my hand," She heard Ryoma whisper into her ear, as she obediently smiled into the flashing lights.
Then they were moving forward, and Sakuno didn't think she'd ever been so confused in all her life. She couldn't see, and she suddenly appreciated why she always saw celebrities wearing sunglasses. She wished she had hers on right now. She squeezed onto Ryoma's hand, terrified of losing his guidance as people pressed in on all sides of them. Ryoma held onto her hand tightly as he pulled her up against his side. They slowly pushed through the crowd as they walked a few steps and Sakuno's vision began to clear.
They passed through the throng of people yelling her given name to her and yelling to Ryoma, asking all sorts of questions she didn't understand because they were speaking in rapid English. Finally she saw through the flashing lights the hotel's glass doors directly in front of her with the large H for Hilton emblazoned on them. There were no reporters inside the hotel, Horio was holding open the door and Tomoka was just inside the door, watching them, surrounded by security guards, ready to keep the reporters out of the building on their behalf, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Ryoma's free arm shot out in front of her and took the door from Horio and then he was guiding her into the building, leaving the reporters behind.
"Mr. Echizen, we have your suites prepared for you and your guests," The hotel's manager greeted them in English.
"Thank you," Ryoma said to the manager.
Sakuno understood Ryoma's thanks and that the manager was addressing Ryoma, but she wasn't sure what he'd just said. Everybody was speaking so quickly it was all she could do to pick up a word or two! She assumed it had to do with getting them checked into their rooms and made a mental note to get back into her English language studies ASAP. She watched as a bellhop rolled past them with their luggage, no doubt on his way up to their room as well.
Ryoma gripped her hand and whispered, "Don't look back at them." Just as she was thinking about looking back out of the hotel's glass doors towards the reporters, wondering if they'd all left or not.
She bit her lip to keep from letting out a nervous giggle in front of the hotel staff as Ryoma whispered again, "They're still there, trust me, I've looked back enough times to know."
She bit her lip harder, making sure not to crack up at his commentary, and shot him a look conveying to him that he needed to be quiet if he didn't want her to burst out laughing.
Ryoma smirked at her, and gave her hand a squeeze as they followed the manager up to their suites. They stopped a few floors from the top, where Horio and Tomoka were given a room key and room number. The couple disappeared into the hallway as the elevator closed and continued to ascend towards the top floor where the manager escorted Ryoma and Sakuno out. They walked down the hallway a few steps before the manager pulled out another key, put it in the door and opened the door to a large suite for them.
Sakuno moved into the room and walked to the windows to admire the view as Ryoma received their luggage and keys, and gave tips. Sakuno heard them speaking a bit in English, but she didn't understand, so she paid it no mind.
The Melbourne city skyline was sparkling in all it's night lights glory and Sakuno was overwhelmed with a sense of awe at how large the world was and that she would soon see much more of it. As the door closed and they were finally alone, she turned from the window and smiled at Ryoma, "It's beautiful."
"I always enjoy coming here every year. This is one of my favorite tournaments," He shared as he sat on the sofa and slipped his shoes off.
Sakuno watched Ryoma flex his toes after he took his shoes off and then turned back to look out the window again, "So when does the tournament start? It's not tomorrow, is it?"
"The qualifiers have been at it for a few days, but the tournament starts on Monday," Ryoma answered.
She turned and faced him again. "So what are we going to do tomorrow?" She asked.
He rubbed his eyes with his hand and threw his head back on the sofa while answering, "Press conference, interviews, some practice out on the courts here. My first match will be on Monday, after that I'll have a match roughly every other day until the end of the tournament, with three days between the semifinal and the final match."
Sakuno could feel the waves of stress coming off of him and moved to stand against the back of the couch. She put her hands on his shoulders and tried to rub away the stress in little circles, "Is it always this stressful?"
Crap, Ryoma thought. How to answer that? He didn't want to make her feel bad by telling her the truth, that no, generally speaking tournaments weren't much of a stress at all. In fact, he looked forward to them, especially the Australian Open which was notorious for throwing in contestants he'd never played before, which always got him excited. The press conferences, interviews and time spent signing autographs were a bit taxing on his patience, but he'd learned to take in all in stride over the years. His stress this trip was almost entirely due to the People magazine article and ensuing paparazzi, dating claims and having Sakuno and her friend added to his entourage storm that had followed it. He simply wasn't used to it yet, but worse was that he wasn't looking forward to all the questions he didn't know how to answer yet that were already being thrown at them about their relationship. This was all new territory for him. He'd seen other players go through it, but he'd wisely avoided the mess in the past, now it was being forced on him so to speak. The only benefit of it all was that he did have Sakuno with him and that was something he liked very much.
Finally, he shook his head no and said lamely, "I'm just tired."
Sakuno clicked her tongue in disapproval, "Let's go to bed then. I'm excited, but I'm tired too."
Early the next morning Ryoma and Sakuno woke to the sound of Ryoma's cell phone ringing. Burrowed under the covers together the two blinked at each other for a few seconds, before Ryoma reached his arm behind him and retrieved his cell phone from his nightstand. Burrowing back under the warmth of the covers from the blasting air conditioning he kept his eyes locked with Sakuno's as he answered, "What is it Horio."
"Echizen. Press conference in an hour, main interview room," Horio said, immediately getting to the point.
Ryoma pulled his phone away from his ear for a second, and was surprised to see it was already 10 AM local time. An hour wasn't ideally enough time to get ready and get over to the media room across the park, but he knew he didn't have a choice on this. "Fine." He tapped the off button on his phone's screen and threw the covers off, getting out of bed.
"I have a press conference in an hour," He told Sakuno as he made his way to the bathroom to shower and get ready.
Sakuno sat up in the bed, and asked his retreating back, "Am I supposed to go?"
He stopped for a second, turned back towards her partially and answered, "You can if you want, but you have to stay with Horio and Horio's girlfriend. If you get into the crowd of the reporters, it could be a pain."
She nodded and bit her lip, wondering if she should rush through going or not. She'd seen press conferences before on the TV and thought it could be kind of exciting, but she also had never considered being on the receiving end of the camera's flashes before.
Not waiting to hear Sakuno's answer, Ryoma entered the bathroom and did a quick morning routine, took a shower, and got ready for the conference. As he came out, he found Sakuno out of bed, surfing on her laptop. Seeing the bathroom was open, Sakuno rushed past Ryoma with a quick shout that she'd be ready very soon. He suppressed a laugh at her rushing about just to go to a press conference with him, but admitted to himself he was pleased that she wanted to go with him. He grabbed his phone and checked the time noting that they had about forty minutes left before he needed to be there, so that gave her a little under half an hour. Hopefully it would be enough time.
Sakuno was ready on time, though she had her hair in long wet braids down her back, she'd been able to put on a minimal amount of make-up, a cute tennis dress, large sunglasses and a visor that hid her face.
Ryoma had to admit he was kind-of impressed that she'd been able to get ready so fast. She'd done well too, she was dressed low-key which should keep her off the reporters' radar, though she looked fine for the occasion if they did notice her.
Grabbing his room key and his phone, Ryoma slipped his shoes on and motioned for Sakuno to follow. The couple was met in the main lobby by Horio and Tomoka. The group left the hotel out of the side door to avoid the reporters that were still gathered near the entrance, waiting for any of the players to make an appearance. They rushed across the foot bridge that crossed the street and got them on the path that lead to Melbourne Park where the tournament was to be held all week.
Ryoma was happy to be outside walking through the park instead of cooped up in a limo or a car, it was a nice change. He wasn't excited about the interview, so he tried to enjoy what he could of being outside with his friends. Too quickly they'd made their way to the interview room and he could feel the dread building up in his stomach.
What would he say about Sakuno?
Ryoma and Horio entered through the door for the interviewees and quickly stepped up to the table where Ryoma sat with the blue board plastered with sponsors behind him. Horio stood slightly to the side, out of the shot for pictures, but close enough for Ryoma to ask him questions if needed. Sakuno and Tomoka ducked off to the side of the hallway behind the security guards where they were able to see a bit of the press conference through the interviewees doorway, but were mostly out of sight and out of the way.
Within a couple of minutes, the press conference had started. Ryoma smirked at all the cameras as they snapped pictures of him and the flurry of questioning began in English.
Q: "Are you expecting another big win?"
Ryoma's mouth twitched a bit in amusement, "Yes."
Q: "Is it your plan then to take away all four Grand Slam titles again this year?"
Ryoma leaned forward into the microphone and once again gave his one word response, "Yes." He wondered if anybody there would get around to asking him something interesting.
Q: "Two days ago your manager confirmed that you're dating a Miss Sakuno Ryuzaki, has that been a distraction for you from keeping up with your training?"
Ryoma maintained a disinterested look and answered, "No, I've been training as much as always."
Q: "How long have Miss Ryuzaki and you been dating?"
Ryoma gave a smirk, "The Australian Open is one of my favorite tournaments every year because of all the new players. I'm hoping to get a match this year against someone I've never played before."
The room went silent as everyone processed that by Ryoma's reply he was stating that Sakuno was a closed topic.
A Japanese reporter towards the back stood up and said, "We've all seen you dominate the world tennis scene for the last few years, and now you've suddenly got a serious girlfriend. So my question is, are you planning on retiring soon?"
Ryoma's mouth dropped and his eyes widened in surprise as the room began to murmur with those translating into English the shocking question.
"I have no plans of retiring anytime soon!" He exclaimed, also in Japanese. He'd expected a lot of questions, but he'd never expected anyone to ask him if he was thinking of retirement at 22!
The reporter scoffed, "Forgive me Echizen-san, but that's not what it looks like to me. Everybody might not remember Samurai Nanjiro, but I do. I remember that in the peak of his career, he got married and disappeared. How does that saying go? Kaeru-no ko-wa kaeru? Ne, Echizen-san?"
Ryoma hated being compared to his father the most. It had been years since anybody had ever tried to tell him he was like him since his career had far surpassed anything his old man had achieved. This reporter was doing a damn good job of riling him up about it though, so he shook his head and fell back on his favorite saying, "Mada mada dane." Switching to English he deadpanned, "I'm nothing like my old man."
The reporter smiled knowingly showing that he believed otherwise, "How does Ryuzaki-san feel about that? How many years has she been waiting for you to quit so you can get married?"
Ryoma grabbed the microphone in front of him and stated in slow English, "Sakuno is happy to come with me and I will never retire as long as I can keep playing."
At his statement, the room erupted into a storm of questions thrown at him all at once. Ryoma tuned out everyone to focus on the disruptor of his conference. Despite the noise all he heard was the lone Japanese voice questioning him again with sound reasoning. He mentioned the friendship of his father and Sakuno's grandmother, stating somewhere that Sakuno must have become impatient of waiting for him after years of being engaged by their families. He spoke of marriage and children, once again bringing Ryoma's father into it. Confused and disturbed at what the reporter was claiming, Ryoma decided enough was enough.
"I'll see you all out on the court," He said over the noise of the room at large and standing up, he left the room with Horio on his heels.
They were met by the girls immediately, "Ryoma!" Sakuno exclaimed as she grabbed hold of his forearm, stopping him from continuing further down the hallway. "What happened?"
The four of them huddled into a small circle behind the security guards.
"The interview was a circus," Ryoma complained to the group.
"Yeah, who was that Japanese guy?" Horio asked, his tone clearly indicating he was also caught off guard by the reporter from Japan.
Ryoma shook his head, he'd never seen the man before.
"What was all that stuff about Ryuzaki's grandmother and your Dad?" Horio asked.
Ryoma shook his head again, "I have no idea."
"Someone was asking about my Grandmother?" Sakuno questioned in surprise.
"Yeah, you didn't hear him Ryuzaki?" Horio asked.
"We couldn't hear much from out here," Tomoka explained.
"There was this Japanese guy asking Echizen if he was going to retire because he was going to marry you, Ryuzaki," Horio blabbed.
Sakuno's eyes widened in disbelief, "Why would...?" Her voice trailed off as she looked to Ryoma for answers. Ryoma shrugged.
Sakuno's eyes got a determined look in them. She dropped Ryoma's arm and stomped into the press room before the rest of the group realized what she was doing. They rushed after her and came to the interviewees doorway of the room as Sakuno picked up one of the microphones off the table, stand and all.
"Sakuno! What are you doing?" Ryoma hissed from the hallway through the door.
Sakuno ignored him and with a bow to the dissipating group of reporters she took her sunglasses off, tucked them into the top of her tennis dress and declared in quick Japanese, "Excuse me. I am Ryuzaki Sakuno. Ryoma will not retire because of me. I am going to stay with him everywhere he goes. If we get married, I will continue to travel with him, if we have babies, we will continue to travel with him. It is as important to me as it is to Ryoma that he continue to play tennis. Thank you very much for your time."
The microphone made the horrible ringing sound they make when they're mistreated as Sakuno thunked it back down on the table and rushed out of the press room.
She would never know it, but it was in that very moment, Ryuzaki Sakuno endeared herself into the hearts of tennis fans the world over.
"Ryuzaki! What the hell was that?" Horio asked her back in the hallway as the room behind them erupted once again in confusion. There was a great deal of "Who knows Japanese?" being yelled.
Sakuno bit her lip and worried over her impulsiveness to protect Ryoma from ridicule about his career for her sake. Did she just make a big mistake?
With a raging fiery inferno of emotion taking hold of him and threatening to combust in his chest, Ryoma grabbed Sakuno and yanked her into a near-by facility room. Slamming the door behind them, he yanked the visor off her head, dropped it on the floor, wrapped his arms around her, pulled her as tightly as possible against his body and kissed her hotly.
He'd never, ever, ever felt this strongly before about anything except winning at tennis.
Much much love to all of you that reviewed chapter 13 for me. xoxoxoxoxo ~ mae, animecouplelovers123, Maria-Reynne, MadClover-chan, Cookie, RockPrincess410, Ryo-senpai, [blank?], saratiger, wendydarling29, JulieBookLover21, SoshiGee, SinfulEmerald, ryosaku90, Strands of Ivy and Sakura, ELIZABETH-of-Darkness, nertz, foureyesfreak27, kawaii-witch181, ILoveSxS, and Samantha Fleur/Kelley Splash (name change on me, ack!)
Again, lots of new ones reviewing for the last chapter! So awesome to hear from so many of you! Thank you so much. *happy dance*
Also Harvey for the review for chapter 2. :)
And...last but not least saratiger for the new reviews for The Pirate and the Princess and The Graduation Caper. Thank you so much for checking out some of my other RyoSaku fanfics! I'm so pleased you enjoyed them. :D :D :D
MadClover-chan Thank you for bringing out the internal Ryoma dialogue. :D I'm so happy it was mentioned! I love it when readers notice these things. MUAH! Also? "Ryoma envied something Horio had that he didn't. A devoted girlfriend." SQUEE! OMG! Thank you for loving that part! /dies of happiness/ You totally got where I was coming from on chap 13, thank you thank you ILU! Oh and yes, I know I miss things here and there that the spell check misses, but I try really, really hard to catch everything, so thank you for the (very big) compliment that mine is the best you've seen. (I'm mada mada dane, IMO, but all the same, thank you for thinking I'm better than that. xoxo)
Cookie I love your character development observations, thank you so much! *gushes* Yes, I did get your email, I'm sorry I haven't emailed you back yet, just as you were emailing me I was getting caught up in the full-blown holiday season retail (special hell) madness, and things are just now starting to feel more "normal," but I relapsed again, and I've been uber sick the last few days so I haven't really had time to get back to projects I'd started up since before the madness. I'm getting there, you'll probably here from me very soon!
saratiger The story's speed is actually going to pick up soon. This first week / week and a half-ish has been kind-of establishing everything so the details have been really important, which is why it's been kind-of more drawn out, but we aren't going to keep at this pace much more. Also...I'm so thrilled that you loved The Pirate and the Princess! One of the best RyoSaku fanfics is really high praise...blushes...thank you. ^_^
SinfulEmerald You don't want mature images in your head? Then DEFINITELY stay away from the next chapter - chapter 15...because...hehehehehe. *evil grin* Are you ready? BWAHAHAHAHAHA. "Seriously though, I think this is one of the best, if not the best, older RyoSaku fic I've ever read - with the right amount of realism + maturity + humour. :D" Goodness, that's a huge compliment. Wow. Thank you so much. I hope it lives up to it to the end.
Strands of Ivy and Sakura What? No first love yet? Awww! You are in for good things in the future then. ...hearts... It's not that I don't adore reviews, I do. I cherish every single one of them, from short to long, from sassy to sappy, from demanding to begging, LOL, but I'm not one to force it out of readers either. If someone really wants to send me some sparkles, even if it's "gah! update this!" that gets me excited, because they must really be excited to bother typing up anything instead of being lazy. You know? :D Though, after having a story that's had enormous review counts it's probably easier for me to be so mellow about it. I would probably cry in a ball if I got NO review loving though. :/ eek.
ELIZABETH-of-Darkness "This is by far the most interesting RyoSaku fanfic that I have ever read! And you write like a boss too! You are super awesome!" Blinks. Wow! ...bows... I'm totally unworthy, but thank you, thank you, thank you. ^_^
kawaii-witch181 Yes, there are 19 chapters, but there is also an epilogue. I keep reading the epilogue and I'm just feeling like it's currently too fluffy for me, I'm thinking about chucking it and rewriting the whole damn epilogue. /sighs/ So there's actually 20 chapters total I guess if you count the epilogue. The new story needs a lot of editing before I can start posting it and since I'm still busy editing this fic to death I probably won't get it to a ready to post status until this one is all done and I can focus on that one. I *am* really excited about sharing it with you all though. Oh, I want to post it up SO BAD, but it's just NOT ready. /dies/ Hopefully the wait will be worth it in the end.
Everybody thank you so much! I wish I could reply to you all individually, there's a lot of loving and sparkles I want to send to you, so many of you said such lovely things, but I'm sick and I really want to get this posted up tonight, so I'm going to call it quits for now. I'll get you on the next chapter. Lots of love from me for all your support. Thank you all for continuing to poke me with your reviews so I feel the pressure to edit and update! Heheheh XD
Next chapter starts out pretty hot and heavy. You're forewarned. xoxo ~ Bunny