Thornless Rose
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or the original canon characters.
Summary: Dragons are the bane of the human race. The dragons nearly killed our ancestors. They are greedy for power. They are violent and cruel and do not care about humans' well-being in the slightest…but is that really true? Rewrite of Dragon's Master.
"Dragon" – Normal Speech
'Dragon' – Normal Thoughts
Dragon – Telepathy (thoughts only)
Storms Are Annoying!
"Well that was an interesting fight," Ryoma commented after laying Rose down on the towels.
"That was a good battle to watch," Sanada commented with a nod of his head.
"Glad to hear," Ryoma replied with a nod of his own head. "It looks like she is about to turn back," he commented as he stared at Rose's sleeping form.
"Wait! Turn back?" Marui questioned.
"What do you mean by that Echizen-kun?" Yukimura questioned as he also started to stare at Rose.
"When she is extremely tired, she will revert back to her true form of a dragon," Ryoma explained as he noticed a small light slowly spread over Rose's figure. "It happens only once in a while as she never gets too tired and stops what she is doing before it gets to this point. I guess that she wasn't paying attention today or she didn't really care how tired she was getting…"
"Is that so?"
"It's true."
"Why does she transform back into a dragon when she is extremely tired-desu?" Dan questioned leaning over the girl.
"The reason she transforms back into a dragon is because a dragon is her true form. She uses a bit of her magic constantly just to allow herself to remain in her human form. Just watch for yourself."
The light finally finished spreading over Rose's figure before it shattered and revealed her dragon form.
"She is huge!" Kirihara yelled as he noticed that the girl was at least six miles long with a three mile wingspan.
"Is this how big she really is?" Oshitari questioned as he ran his hands along her scales right next to her wings.
"Yeah. All of her forms that you have seen so far are actually smaller versions of herself. She compacted herself so that she would be able to fit any situation…especially fighting within a tennis court…" Ryoma answered walking up to her head and slowly running his hand over her muzzle.
"Her scales are a bit different than I imagined," Jiroh said petting along her scales.
"Oh? What did you think her scales were going to be like?" Ryoma questioned before laying down a towel next to her head and sitting on it to lean against her.
"I thought her scales were going to be more…I don't know…rough maybe?"
"A lot of people think that. They are sharp yes but only when they need to be used in a fight. Otherwise, they are pretty soft to the touch," Ryoma said closing his eyes.
"They are~," Eiji said happily as he pet her scales.
"Everyone just go ahead and sit down somewhere," Ryoma said as he glanced at them all from the corner of his eyes. "She won't mind in the slightest if you lean against her."
"Are you sure?" Gakuto said climbing up onto her back right in between her wings and lying down on his stomach.
"She won't. I'm positive that she won't," Ryoma said with a small smile as he stared at Rose's eyes. "Will you?" he asked startling everyone.
"Nah Ryo. I won't mind in the slightest," Rose said with a tiny blush on her face.
Ryoma smirked before glancing at everyone to see them with confused eyes.
"She likes to have friends near her," Ryoma explained. 'And you like to cuddle,' he added mentally over to Rose which got a slightly bigger blush on her face.
'Shush Ryoma. The others will laugh at me if they figure that out,' she replied with a sheepish smile. "Go ahead and do whatever you guys like," she said aloud to the others before curling her body a bit to be more of a circle surrounding them all.
"Thanks Rose-chan," Eiji yelled before jumping up onto her neck and lying right next to her mane.
The other tennis players found a spot to sit or lay down and did so. Several just stayed on some towels that they had brought out earlier during the sky fight and leaned against Rose's figure while others decided to climb up onto her back and lay down on her scales.
"Are you going to tire yourself out from being in your dragon form Rose-chan?" Oishi asked concerned as he seated himself next to Eiji.
"I'll be fine. This is my true form anyway, so it will not be any trouble to keep myself like this. However, if I compacted myself into a smaller size as I do for the fights within the tennis courts or earlier in the air during the flight here, then it would use some magic to keep my form like that. Just being in my true form will be fine," Rose answered him with a kind smile on her face as she turned her head a bit to look at him.
"That's good to hear," Oishi sighed in relief before lying down on her back and relaxing.
An hour later found everyone still in their same spots with only a few changing spots.
"Neh Ryoma-kun," Fuji said as he sat down next to Ryoma.
"Yes?"
"How do you feel being partners with a dragon?" he asked the emerald-haired boy.
"It's…different. It's definitely different."
"How does it feel to have the power to pair up with one?" Yukimura asked from above him as he decided to lay at the top part of her neck just above where Ryoma was sitting.
"It's powerful for sure. I have a feeling that we'll only grow stronger with each passing day right Ro?" he asked staring into the girl's slightly open eyes.
"That's correct Ryo. I'm sure that we will grow stronger," she answered calmly as she looked around the area.
"We've been here for an hour already. Should we be heading back in?" Kirihara asked while stretching his arms.
"It will be – never mind…" Rose said as she looked at the sky.
"What's wrong?" Tezuka asked looking in the same direction she was facing.
"Storm clouds…" she said, her eyes narrowing along with Ryoma's.
"Is something the matter you two?" Sanada asked out of concern. He noticed the narrowing eyes and felt that something must be happening for the two to be angry at anything.
"They are a pain in the neck, that's what the matter is," Ryoma answered with a glare toward the sky. "Let's get inside before we get soaked," he said getting up and gathering his towel.
"Is something wrong? We could always just stay outsi-"
"No!" Ryoma and Rose yelled startling the person who was about to suggest staying outside.
"Just get inside everyone," Rose ordered with another glare at the sky before she uncurled herself and spread her wings. "I hope you can run as fast as my slowest flying speed," she commented before floating into the air above everyone.
"Let's get inside before we get rained on!" Ryoma yelled before waving his hand over to the beach house and starting to run and being followed by the others.
Rose took the initiative to fly above them while occasionally checking up at the sky.
They weren't quite fast enough to get to the beach house on time as it started to rain on them. Luckily, the rain wasn't that harsh because Rose's wings made an umbrella-like cover over them as she flew only a meter above them to keep them dry.
As soon as everyone had reached the overhead of the beach house, they all ran under before seeing Rose suddenly slow down before her form practically shattered revealing Rose running right after them.
"That's cold!" she yelled before Ryoma threw her a dry towel. "Thanks Ryo," she said wrapping it around herself as she went inside.
"Everyone go inside your rooms and get changed into warmer clothes before meeting for dinner," Atobe ordered before snapping his fingers to get the workers in the mansion going to work for cooking their meal.
"Right," several of the players answered happily following the teen's order as they did not want to stay in their swimsuits for the rest of the time during a storm.
"We're done," Ryoma and Rose both said as they finished dinner before anyone else.
"So soon?" Kawamura asked staring at the both of them as they stood up from their chairs.
"Yes we are," Ryoma answered with a nod of his head. Taking a quick glance at Rose, he turned to Atobe and asked, "Hey Monkey King, where is a large room we can borrow?"
"How large?" he questioned back with a twitch of his eye at the Monkey King name again.
"Large enough for me to probably fit in if I went dragon," Rose said with a smirk. "I still feel tired," she said giving an excuse.
Atobe sighed before saying, "There is a large room in the western sector of the house. It's made to host the indoor pool. Feel free to use it as you please," he finished with a wave of his hand as a dismissal.
"Thanks," Rose said before grabbing Ryoma by the hand and leaving the room.
A few minutes afterward, one player started up a conversation.
"Wasn't that a little weird? Even for Echizen and Rose?" Momo questioned staring at the door they left through.
"Ochibi doesn't finish eating that quickly nya," Eiji commented as he leaned his elbow against the table and put his chin in his hand in confusion.
"Do you think that something could be wrong?" Tezuka asked with a little bit of concern for his freshman players.
"Maybe," Fuji answered as he stopped eating. "I saw something that many might not have noticed."
"And that would be?" Kirihara asked drawling out the question as he was getting a little bit impatient.
"You mean you didn't notice?" Tachibana asked with slightly wide eyes.
"Noticed what?" Kamio asked with a confused look on his face.
Kajimoto sighed before explaining, "When Rose was taking Echizen out of the room, she was limping a bit."
"Do you think she might have gotten that from the battle? She didn't treat herself after all," Youhei asked his brother.
"Maybe," he replied back with a shrug of his shoulders.
"We can all see what the two are up to after we finish eating everyone," Saeki commented before continuing to eat. "It wouldn't do us any good if they saw that we were too overly worried over them."
"And why not?" Gakuto asked this time not getting what he was implying.
"Do you remember the time about the blood?" Saeki asked before getting a nod from the acrobatic. "She didn't want us to worry. She doesn't want any of us to worry about her no matter how serious her problem may be."
"That's true!" Yuuta said nodding his head. "During the fight after Seigaku beat Hyotei, she had gotten hurt by her own attack, yet she insisted that Echizen-kun got treated first before anything!"
"That's true…" the acrobatic said with his head hanging low.
"But that's not fair to her either," Ryou said before finishing his meal.
"Explain your thoughts," Oshitari said with a curious glance in his direction.
"It's not fair to her because we are her friends now aren't we?" he questioned as he stared everyone in the eyes. It took a while, but he got what he expected as everyone nodded their heads in agreement. "She's our friend, yet she doesn't want us to worry over her. That's what friends do. If we can't worry over her, then who can? If it becomes too serious without us knowing, how are we supposed to help her if we don't even know what is wrong in the first place?"
"That's a good point…"
With those thoughts said, everyone was left in silence as they were thinking about the girl.
"Is everyone done eating?" Atobe suddenly asked startling the entire group.
Slowly, everyone nodded and watched as he stood from his chair.
"If everyone is done, then Ore-sama shall insist that everyone goes and see Rose and the brat and see what they are up to."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Sengoku said with a small smile on his face as he stood up along with everyone else.
"Where is that room you let Echizen and Rose borrow Atobe-san?" Tezuka asked walking up next to him.
"It's in the western sector. Ore-sama shall lead the way," he said before walking faster a bit to be in front of everyone so that they would not get lost.
Several turns and hallways later found the group in front of a large door.
"This is huge-desu," Dan commented as he stared up at the top of the door and nearly fell over from bending over to see the top.
"Sh!" Yukimura said waving a hand over everyone to be quiet. "I hear something."
They all listened carefully and heard what Yukimura was talking about.
"Ryoma~. This is hurting," they heard Rose whine aloud.
"I know Rose, I know," they heard him reply with a sincere tone which startled them until they realized that when he was around Rose, he would be full of new surprises.
"Is there anything I can do to help you Rose?"
"Not really…I just need…a bit of rest…" they heard her reply with what seemed like labored breaths.
"What are those two talking about?" Hiyoshi commented with a narrowed stare at the door.
"Only one way to find out," Fuji said with a smile before walking up and opening the doors startling the two inside.
"Fuji-senpai!" Rose said with wide eyes as she tried to stand up in her dragon form only to stumble and fall straight into the water.
"Rose!" Ryoma yelled in response before leaning over the side and gently grabbing her mane before pulling her head up above water.
"What happened?" several of the group members yelled before rushing over to the fighting duo.
"She's still injured from our fight earlier and the storm isn't helping," Ryoma commented gently laying Rose's head on top of the tiles outside of the pool and then slowly pushing the rest of her body into the pool water. "Thank god that you have a pool large enough for this Monkey King," he said with a sigh as he noticed that she fit in perfectly.
"Why isn't her blood network healing her? Is something the matter?" Jackal asked with concern for the girl.
"The storm…" was what they all heard Rose whimper under her breath.
"What about it?"
"The storm drains her magic, so even if her blood is constantly replenishing itself, like it is now, it's not doing a dang thing to help her," Ryoma explained before grabbing a wet towel and wading into the pool water to reach the nearest wound.
"Can't you heal her?" Momo asked with a confused expression on his face.
"Idiot peach-head!" Kaidoh said smacking him over the head. "Were you not paying attention? He just said the storm drains her magic, so it must be draining his magic too!"
"Don't yell at me Mamushi!" Momo growled back before they smashed their foreheads together about to start a fight.
Before anyone could even think of breaking the two apart, Ryoma yelled, "Will you two idiots just shut up and help before Rose completely passes out?"
This seemed to shock everyone in the group as they had never heard Ryoma tell any of them to shut up or even call them idiots before.
"He must be really worried about Rose," Yukimura whispered to himself before grabbing a towel and walking into the pool water along with Ryoma. "What can I do to help?"
"Just help clean the wounds that she got from the battle. She forgot to get them treated again," Ryoma said with a roll of his eyes before whispering, "more like didn't bother to get them treated again…stupid girl…"
Yukimura could only give a smile as he knew how much he actually did care for her. Even though he might be insulting her from what it looked like, there was still the hidden worry and care underneath his words that could only be figured out from the look in his eyes as he tended to her.
"Sorry…for all…the trouble…" they could hear Rose whisper as she moved her head slightly on the tiles in pain.
"It's no trouble at all Rose-chan," Fuji said also grabbing a towel along with several others and wading into the pool to help tend to her wounds.
"You don't…need to…do that…you know…" Rose whispered to them all as she glanced at them from the corners of her eyes.
"We want to though," Choutarou said with a calm smile on his face. "It's the least we can do for everything you have done in order to make sure that we remained safe."
"I haven't…done anything…though…"
"On the contrary," Yagyuu said pushing his glasses up a bit further on his face. "You have done quite a lot to help."
"Like…what…"
"You made sure that no weapons made it outside the battle field when you fought the hunters," Yanagi commented opening his notebook. "It must have been quite a bit of trouble to make sure that any of their ranged weapons did not get deflected back at any of us. There is also the fact that you are helping my team as well as your own with something."
"But that's just-"
"It's not normal sportsmanship. What you have done exceeds it all from fighting all the way to playing and then all the way to helping others out even when they have nothing to do with you," Mizuki answered knowing what the girl was about to say.
Rose's eyes drooped in concern before she took a deep breath and lifted her wings out of the water.
"What do you think you are doing?" Ryoma asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You…were tending my wounds correct?" she asked looking to the other side of the room as she made her wings closer to the people still out of the water. "I felt it would be easier to take care of them outside of the pool instead…"
Several players could only smile before they called for someone to bring several first aid kits.
When they came, they had to pick them up near the door so that no other workers in the mansion would come in and see what they were doing. They would not let out Rose's secret unless she wanted them to.
"Sorry I'm such a bother," Rose said with a sad smile as they all had finished tending to her wounds. She was still in her dragon form and floating on top of the water now that all of her wounds were patched up. Her wings were stretched across the entire pool and went from one side of the room to the other once she had them fully stretched out.
"For the last time Rose, it is completely fine," Ryoma commented as he sat on top of her neck and lay against the back of her head.
"If you say so," Rose said with a sigh before taking a look out the window. "About time," she commented which got everyone to look and see what she was talking about.
"The storm finally stopped," Shou commented before getting out of the water and onto the tiles again.
"We are all going to need to wash up again," Kouhei said looking at their clothes.
"Sorry~," Rose said before her dragon form shattered to reveal her human form again in her normal Seigaku regular jersey clothes.
"Will you need another patching again for your wounds?" Atobe asked getting out of the water along with everyone else.
"It will be fine, the bandages changed sizes to fit my human form now," she said lifting her shirt up just a bit to show the bandages wrapped around her waist. "Thank you all for everything."
"Thanks Atobe," Ryoma said putting his hands in his pockets.
"For what?" Atobe asked shocked that Ryoma used his family name instead of the dreaded nickname.
"For all the help with Ro," he said with a small smile on his face.
"Let's all get washed up again and get some sleep then," Tezuka said making his way out of the large pool room and back to his assigned room.
Once the two were in their room, Rose just sat next to Ryoma on his bed and looked out the window with him.
"Looks like the storm was a good thing for us after all," she commented with a small smile on her face as she looked out the window and at the beach.
"What makes you say that?" Ryoma questioned before raising one hand up to ruffle her hair lightly.
"Because it made us closer to the others," she answered before standing up from the bed and turning to face him. "Face it…we are a lot closer to the regulars now than we were before."
"That's true…it might just be because we are letting them see much more of our strengths and weaknesses," Ryoma said trying to think up other reasons. He didn't want to get his or Rose's hopes up for nothing after all. He didn't want Rose to suffer through betrayal ever again.
"If they were getting closer to us just because of that reason, I'm sure that they would be sick of themselves," Rose commented back reassuring him that his senpais were nothing like that. "They did help me with my wounds even though I said it was fine after all."
"That would be normal of anyone Rose," Ryoma said with a smirk on his face.
"Not unless people see me as a freak," she said looking to the side with a small frown on her face.
Ryoma sighed once again before reaching up and gently laying his hand on the back of her neck. Making a quick tug, he was able to get Rose to lay down on the bed right next to where he was sitting.
"You worry too much," he said laying down next to her and wrapping his arms around the girl. "Stop worrying and everything will be fine. They are not as superficial as we both seem to think."
Rose sighed as well before nodding her head and relaxing as Ryoma pulled the covers up over them. She giggled before saying, "It is funny...I used to tuck you in after training and now it's the other way around."
Ryoma just smirked at her slightly before saying, "Just shut up and go to sleep will you. You need it after what happened today."
"Alright Ryo. Good night and sweet dreams," she said before closing her eyes and relaxing. As soon as she realized that Ryoma was asleep before her, she said, "Thank you for everything Ryoma…"