"As seen from the outside"
Author: Maria
Characters: Tomoka Okusada, Sakuno Ryuuzaki. Allusions to Ryoma Echizen and the rest of Seigaku.
Pairing: Hints of onesided Sakuno Ryuuzaki/Ryoma Echizen.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine. Konomi-san's!
Summary: Sakuno tells Tomoka what happened to Ryoma in the Seigaku/Fudomine match. Spoilers for the Fudomine arc (until episode 20).
RIIIIIING!
"Hmmmm... I shouldn't have come, it seems...", Sakuno murmured, tightening her left hand's grip on a plastic bag, as she used her right one to ring the doorbell for the third time already. Tomoka wasn't able to go with her and the tennis team to the first preliminary round played some hours ago, so Sakuno thought she should go to her house and tell her what happened there...
"Maybe she's already in bed...". The girl checked her wristwatch. "But's it's not THAT late! Oh, well. Taking care of the...".
The door slowly opened, and Tomoka appeared on the doorstep. She looked pale, her long hair was down instead of in the usual girlish ponytails, and her clothes were all messy. In few and straightforward words, she looked like shit.
"Oh, Tomoka...!", Sakuno gasped, shocked at how miserable the poor girl looked. "Maybe you should rest...".
She tried to leave, but Tomoka was faster. She grabbed Sakuno by her free hand and pulled her in so quickly, that the pigtailed girl barely had time to take her shoes off before Tomoka almost dragged her to the living room and made her sit down on the couch. Then she sat by her side and placed her hands on Sakuno's shoulders.
"Tell me what happened, Sakuno", she demanded. "Everything, from the beginning to the end, PLEASE".
"Yes..." Sakuno stretched her uniform skirt and looked at Tomoka. "But first... are you okay? You look terrible".
This seemed to slightly calm Tomoka down, since she sighed ruefully and nodded. "Well, this was a terrible day. Twins here, twins there, twins everywhere... Phew! You know them. They just fell asleep around an hour ago, but I had to clean up my house and...".
She got even closer to Sakuno, eyes now gleaming and apparently forgetting how tired she was until some minutes ago. "I've been waiting anxiously for the news! Sakuno, I'm so dying to know how Ryoma-sama and Seigaku did today" Please tell me everything you know, please do so, pleaspleaseplease...!".
The other girl blinked, surprised at Tomoka's mood swing. "... Yeppers. I will. But...". She stared at the bag, which was on her lap. "But be more careful. The sushi bag may get squished...!".
"Huh? You brought sushi for me?".
"Lookie". She opened the bag. "After the match, we went to Kawamura-sempai's dad's restaurant. And he allowed me to grab some sushi and bring it to you..".
"Mmmm, looks tasty...", and Tomoka happily smiled. "There's a bottle of raspberry juice in the kitchen, so it seems we'll have a fine light dinner while you tell me everything. Nice way to finish this hectic day...".
"WHAT!".
"Yes...".
"Bu-bu-but Ryoma-sama was hurt? How!".
Sakuno did think that Tomoka would react like this upon knowing about Ryoma's injury in the match against Ibu, but even THEN she couldn't help but gasping when she slammed her hands on the dinner table, almost knocking down her juice.
"Well, Tomoka... In the middle of the game, his racquet was broken and one of the pieces hit him on the face...".
"Like this?", and Tomoka slammed her own palm on her forehead.
"Yep... kind of".
"Oooooh... how horrible! Did he bleed too much? Did it hurt him? Ah, and I wasn't there to help him, how frustrating...!".
As Tomoka blabbed in frustration for not being there, Sakuno closed her eyes and remembered those moments. Those were minutes of anguish and pain, she could recall; Ryoma was the last one playing, all of Seigaku's hopes were placed on him, but right then his arm failed him and, as a result, he accidentally broke his racquet... and a piece of it hit him on the face and caused him a pretty serious cut on his eyelid, very close to his eye.
Sakuno had tried to help, of course. That included even trying to interrupt the match and offering him her own school scarf to stop the bleeding. She had completely forgotten that such a conduct, as well-intentioned as it was, was borderline offensive to a player, so her grandmother even scolded her for doing so.
Well, those were the rules. But she still felt they weren't very fair. What if the wound was located even lower? What if the bleeding was even more profuse? Or if he actually injured his hand? She had even yelled at Horio and the other kids for whining about it...
However, Sakuno's grandmother and Tezuka-sempai allowed Ryoma to keep on playing after his eye was bandaged - with a single condition. If the cut started bleeding again in ten minutes, he'd be taken out, and Fudomine would win. Sakuno herself was anxiously waiting, all the time with her heart on the edge, fearing that he would have problems again and this time she wouldn't be able offer him any kind of help.
But he DID win. He DID manage to get his rhythm back, and finally defeated Ibu and scored the last point that Seigaku needed to win the round. All thanks to his determination to score and get the victory for the teammates and friends who fought before him.
"... Sakuno?".
"Mmmmm?".
Tomoka had managed to calm herself down, and was staring into Sakuno's eyes. This got Sakuno out of her thoughts and back to the world. "Is... is Ryoma-sama okay? I mean...".
Sakuno blinked and smiled a little. "Yep, he is", she said. "The doctor said his eye and wrist should be healed soon. I suppose that my grandmother won't let him train for some days...".
"Whew... you really scared me, girl. I thought he was blinded or something", and Tomoka sat back on her chair, sighing loudly.
"If he was, Tomoka, we would've have NOT celebrated at the sushi bar...", Sakuno said, smiling.
"So...", Tomoka finished, "Seigaku won. Ryoma-sama helped to save the day. Seems it was a good afternoon for the tennis club, eh?".
"Yes...".
"Okay, then!", and Tomoka stood up, eyes bright. "Tomorrow we'll have to cheer on Ryoma-sama in the morning and afternoon practices, whether he plays there or not! And we'll do it louder than ever, so it gets to him enough to get well sooner! We'll need him to be okay so that he becomes our star player, don't you think so Sakuno?".
And Tomoka happily laughed. Sakuno looked at her, and decided that she had a very important point. The whole Seigaku team had quite the debt with Ryoma Echizen, thanks to his determination and will to play and win...
So, even if he didn't admit it, Ryoma would need their support. Even if it was from the outside of the tennis court, both she and Tomoka would do their best to help him.