A/N:
~Hii guys! This one ended up taking a bit longer than I had anticipated but I have finally done it. I hope you guys like the story so far, I may end up finishing it up in a couple of more chapters since I have some other stories I want to write, but thank you so much for the reviews and keeping up with the story, and my inconsistent upload times. Anyways, I don't own PoT and I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors. Hope you guys like it. Ja!
"Why was he so hot in the morning?" Sakuno practically screamed in her mind while she ran towards the change room to prepare for her practice. Her face felt very warm and it took a lot of her woman power to bring her temperature to a normal human being's. The gym doors were already unlocked when she had arrived and everyone who was there was already chatting with one another.
"Ah Sakuno-chan, come over here!" Sakuno heard Ann-chan yelled as she waved her hand. Tomoka looked up to see her best friend making way towards her, she got up from her squat and tackled the auburn haired girl in a hug. Sakuno almost tumbled under the weight and the force from her light haired friend. Ann on the other sighed at her behaviour. It seems like age would never correlate with maturity. "Like some peach I know." Ann thought. Sakuno just laughed at her friend's reaction to her. The three then erupted into a conversation.
"Eh? Ryoma-sama thought you were dating Tokugawa-Senpai?" Tomoka yelled, her voice echoing throughout the gym.
"SHH! Someone might hear you!" Ann warned the excited girl.
"Eh? My little Sakuno-chan dating Tokugawa-senpai?" A red headed man appeared behind them.
"Eh? He's your senpai, Mori-senpai?" Sakuno asked.
"Only by a year or so. I thought he was dating Sakura-senpai though…" Mori thought aloud.
"He is senpai. Sakura is my nee-chan." Sakuno confirmed. Mori's eyes grew wide and a smile grew on his face.
"AH! Ne, ne, Sakuno-chan your sister is a god sent. No wonder why you looked familiar when I selected you." He yelled aloud. Sakuno tried her best to calm down her coach as Ann once more confirmed her correlation theory.
"Oi! Let's start practice, we don't have that much time left and training camp ends soon." A loud voice was heard through the gym. "Ah, the serious coach, Ochi-senpai…" Ann thought to herself. The 3 players scattered towards the respective courts and began their individual drills. This would last a good hour and a half before they would get a break and then do some reevaluating to where they were at in respects to their weaknesses.
"Since it is only the second day, everyone is still relatively the same but there are some minor improvements all around. Congratulations!" Akuto clapped after analyzing the data he had collected. "Now then let's go into games." He finished and all the girls beamed at the good news they had received from the blonde coach. But now they had to focus on trying to beat their coaches in a best of 3 single match.
"Rough or smooth?" Sakuno heard her coach ask as they stood at the net. She replied "smooth" and ended up winning the first serve. The two parted after wishing one another good luck. Sakuno stood on the baseline of her side and took in a few deep breaths. "What service do I even start with?" and then it hit her. She remembered that the first few games could always be used to test out the opponents' strengths and weaknesses. She brought the ball up, bent her knees and swung at the ball hitting the sweet spot of her racket. The ball flew over the net and straight to the far right corner. Mori smiled as he received it, knowing exactly what his student was doing. Hitting deep then going short to expose his weakness, his back steps.
"Ne, I'm not going easy on you." He teased Sakuno.
"Hai!" Sakuno replied. "Please don't!" She really wanted to get better and better and the only way was to fight against stronger players. Luckily for her, Mori had returned it nice enough for her to perform Sakura tsuisuto doroppu. However unfortunately for her, her coach had already read it and received it perfectly with no struggle whatsoever. Sakuno sprinted towards the ball and ended the point with a smash.
"15-love" His voice rang in her ears. She took a deep breath. It was going to be a mental game and she had to stay focused on her objectives. She got ready on the baseline and sent out a twist serve, surprising Mori.
"Eh? The Echizen kid's serve?" Sakuno sighed, of course she picked up a few things here and there from watching him. Mori smiled, a proud one that is. He knew his student was observant, but to a point that she could replicate skills? That was new.
"30-love!" Mori said as Sakuno once more prepped herself at the baseline for another serve. Sakuno ended up winning the first game against her coach, however, the second game was easily won by Mori. Sakuno did not falter under the loss of the game. After playing for the last couple of years, she had realized that there was much more to tennis than just the physicality of the sport. It was also a game of mental stamina and strength, the first to get underpressure from their opponent simply loses. Tennis was never easy for her, but that was what she loved about it. Sakuno loved seeing her own improvements and the pride she felt when she either won or accepted that she had played her best. It was fun.
"Game, match, won by Jazaburo Mori 6 games to 2." Sakuno heard Mori say through his broken breaths. Sakuno was not much different in shape. Sweating and panting hard she approached the net and thanked her coach.
"Arigato, Mori-senpai." She bowed to her red head coach.
"Domo!" He replied cheerily once more, scruffing the hair on her head. She then turned over to watch her friends' games and cheered.
"Ganbatte! Tommo-chan! Ann-chan!" She happily cheered. It didn't end up echoing throughout the gym and nor did it seem like her friends heard her. She gave out a huff of breath and rested.
It wasn't long until Tomoka and Ann's games had concluded when Sakuno decided to get up for a can of cherry ponta. It was funny at first that she would always question the Prince's addiction to the drink, but it didn't take long for her to follow suit.
"I could barely hear you when you cheered." Sakuno heard a voice say from behind.
"Ah! Gomene, Tomo-chan." She quickly apologized to her friend.
"But we still heard ya!" Ann quickly said before Sakuno could turn and apologize to her.
"Seriously, one day we need to invest in a megaphone for you. How else would Ryoma-sama hear you during a big international game?" Tomoka teased the chocolate-eyed girl.
"Mou Tomo-chan! I'm pretty sure he'll ignore me anyways…" She replied, turning as red as the cherries on her can.
"Hehe, Sakuno-chan you're so easy to tease! Kawaii!" Ann beamed as she lunged towards the cherry faced girl for a hug.
"Ne, Ne, Ne! Let's do another doubles game!" Ann continued dragging the two girls back into the gym.
"Eh? I don't think we have time for that…." Sakuno muttered looking at the time displayed on her phone. "We need to prepare lunch…"
"AH! There you are!" The three girls stiffened at the sound of a female voice. They rigidly turned towards it, afraid that they had gotten caught for being late for lunch duties. Their scared eyes were met with a familiar figure.
"Ah, nee-chan! Don't scare us like that!" Sakuno scolded her older sister.
"Hai, hai, demo I'm here to tell ya that the coaches decided to train in the mountains today so you got all afternoon off until 5pm when dinner starts." Sakura started and the three girls just nodded along. " Make sure you eat before the players' dinner since cleaning will be done during their dinner time."
"Hai! Arigato, Sakura-chan/nee-chan!" The three girls chorused and bidded Sakura a goodbye.
They arrived back at the gym to see their coaches rallying against the walls trying to outcompete one another.
"Loser pays for a barbecue tomorrow!" Mori yelled as his racket made contact with the neon ball. There was fire in his eyes as he was determined not to pay for the amount of meat that he was about to engulf. It wasn't long until Mori and Mitsuya were left. Ochi stopped half way muttering in the silliness of his fellow coaches.
"We are going to do a doubles match after the children finish their game." He said.
"E-eto, that might take a while, senpai…" Ann wearily said pointing at the two determined players hitting a fuzzy ball against the wall.
"Not for long." Ochi replied by picking up two yellow tennis balls and hitting them towards the two coaches, hitting them square on their heads.
"Itte!" Misuya and Mori yelled at the impact of the foreign objects and not even a second later they got pummeled by their own balls resulting in a tie.
"Itte!" They both hissed at the second impact on the ball.
"Even the players are more focused than you two" Ochi scolded.
"Research says that one must have fun to be in the right mindset to coach." Mitsuya stated blatantly, pushing up his glasses that were slipping down the bridge of his nose. "Plus I refuse to pay for Mori-san's black hole of a stomach." The girls let out a giggle as the scene did remind them of their own school's tennis teams.
"Yeah, yeah, let's get started with the rest of practice." Ochi said, dragging his doubles partner to the center court. Ann and Sakuno followed along behind.
"Since we have time, and Tomoka-chan is doing her own singles training with Mitsuya-san, let's go to 3 sets rather than games." Ochi suggested. Sakuno looked at Ann excitedly, while Ann began to worry if her stamina could hold off the long rallies that were looming over her. Seeing her friend worry, Sakuno approached her and said "I can play back court this time." Ann nodded at her friend's suggestion. The two grabbed their weighted racket which no longer felt heavy to them and trudged towards the net where their coaches or opponents were waiting. The game started with the Mori-Ochi pair serving.
-Time skip to end of the match-
"Ne good game Sakuno-chan!" Ann cheered as they happily sipped their water.
"Mn! We did really well today, it was a good idea to have you play front court." Sakuno noted. The game had ended 2-3 with the girls winning 2 complete sets. The coaches were panting but not like they had put 150% of their efforts into the games, yet even in their attempts to be stoic, the girls could see the pride in their eyes.
"We will change your racket weights tomorrow, since it appears all of you did some extra practice and have gotten used to the weighted racket." Mitsuya stated nicely as he looked through his data book. All three of the girls looked at one another, surprised that the latter had done the same thing as them and practiced during their break.
"But remember to rest too, practicing too much can strain your bodies and joints." Mitsuya warned and the girls nodded. After Mitsuya's little lecture the girls thanked their coaches, cleaned the gyms, and immediately went to hit the showers.
"Ehh, I didn't know you guys practiced too. Where did you guys practice?" Sakuno asked her friends as they stepped out of the shower.
"The gym. We were going to ask you to come too, but you weren't in your room last night." Ann replied as she shrugged on her uniform.
"About that… Sakuno-chan WHERE WERE YOU?!" Tomoka yelled.
"A-Ah, I was practicing with nee-chan outside on the courts…" Sakuno replied, attempting to calm down Tomoka who was fired up.
*Ding*
'Sa-chan, tonight same court and time. It's doubles time! ;)' Sakuno read the message on her phone. It took her a good minute to figure out the two sentences. "Eh? Doubles? With who?" She thought. And then it clicked. "I have to play tennis against Ryoma-kun!?" She freaked out in her mind.
"Eh? What's wrong, Sakuno-chan?" Ann asked as she peered over her friend's shoulder to take a look at the screen of the phone. "Oooo, if you're gonna go practice. Where's our invite?" Ann smiled.
"Ah, Nee-chan and Kazuya-nii-chan would be there. I guess you guys can come." Sakuno replied, finally regaining her composure.
"Eh, Nani, nani?" Tomoka asked, trying to catch up with what was going on.
"Ano, meet me outside my room at 7:50 pm." Sakuno quickly arranged. "Tennis."
-Time skip-
"Ne, Sakuno-chan… hurry up." Tomoka knocked on the door of her best friend's room.
"H-Hai, Gomenasai!" Sakuno opened the door to reveal two brown haired girls waiting impatiently but smiling.
"You told us to meet you here, and you're still somehow late." Ann scolded the poor girl who was dragging her bag.
"Hai, Gomenasai, Ann-chan. Tomo-chan. I couldn't find my socks…" She trailed off avoiding the fact that she was cleaning up her appearance to be presentable for Ryoma. Luckily for her, her friends bought it. They trio then met up with Sakura who was waiting halfway since she knew her sister was directionally challenged.
"Mou I know my way there…" Sakno argued weakly as her sister guided them towards the court.
"Yeah and Kazuya is going to dye his hair pink." Sakura remarked sarcastically, earning a pout from her sister and tons of giggles from her friends. They had reached the tennis courts and were instantly greeted by Kazuya in his tennis gear.
"The brat left to get a drink." He said as he sighed and sat down.
"Why do you keep calling him a brat?" Sakura asked.
"Because he is Saku-chan, your taste in men is terrible." Kazuya sighed.
"That means mine is too." Sakura laughed aloud. Kazuya looked up at his girlfriend, offended by her comment.
"Come on, he's pretty much you." Sakura insisted.
"Yadda."
Sakuno, Tomoka, and Ann all stood there third, fourth, and fifth wheeling as the older couple bickered and teased one another.
"SHUT UP MAMUSHI! YOU ARE SO IRRITATING TO BE WITH!" A voice erupted from behind the court.
"OH YEAH, I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO COME WITH ME!" Another voice yelled back. The trio of girls instantly knew who those voices belonged to and as a result sweat dropped by the sound of the fight.
"Ne senpai, shut up. I never asked you to follow me." Another voice broke and at that instant Sakuno knew that she would be in for a long night because standing at the entrance of the court was her opponent, the prince of tennis. Hand in his pocket, smirk plastered on his lips, tennis bag shrugged over his shoulder, and of course a can of grape flavoured Ponta in his other hand.