Title: New love?
Author/Artist: lj user"jgal87" or lj user"landoffics"
Pairing: Niou/Sakuno Theme: #37, pigtails Disclaimer: No, I do not own Prince of Tennis.

Ryuzaki Sakuno stood outside the gate of Rikaidai Junior High patiently, as she awaited the arrival of her supposed 'date' for the day. Her mother had taken the liberty to matchmake her with one of her colleague's son, and had told her to wait for the boy outside the school gate of Rikaidai. Somehow, the sheer notion of her 'date' being a student of Rikaidai itself, must have never crossed her mind. Henceforth, she was stunned speechless when the trickster of Rikaidai tennis club, Niou Masaharu, stood before her and introduced himself.

"I'm Niou Masaharu, I supposed you are Ryuzaki-Sakuno?" Niou introduced himself, with a smirk playing on his lips.

It took Sakuno quite some time to remember where she'd seen the person before, and she responded to Niou's introduction with a sudden exclaimation. "Aa! You're one of the players who played Seigaku's golden pair during the doubles 1 between Rikaidai and Seigaku!"

Niou had appeared stunned by Sakuno's sudden reaction to his appearance, before responding to her statement with a frown. "Yeah... so?"

Upon realization that she had been over-reacting, Sakuno apologized in embarrassment. "Aa... sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

Niou eyed Sakuno for quite some time, causing Sakuno to fidget uncomfortably under the sharp piercing gaze. "Maa... it's fine, it is the truth after all..." he said, after some time of silence.

An awkward silence hung between them as neither knew what to make of the situation. Finally, Niou decided to break the ice.

"So... since you know of that match, I take it as you're student of Seigaku?"

"Eh... Yeah... I'm a first year in Seigaku..." Sakuno responded, a blush tainting her cheeks.

"Hm.m... so, do you play tennis as well?" Niou continued, finding the sight of Sakuno's uncomfortable state, amusing.

"Huh?" Sakuno blinked, before the question registered itself in her mind. "Oh... yeah, sort of..." she mumbled.

"Sort of?" Niou raised an eyebrow in question.

"Well... I'm not very good with it..." Sakuno muttered, her embarrassment clearly represented by the unmistakenable blush on her face.

"Aa..." Niou made a knowing sound, before asking. "So... would you like to learn?"

"Eh?" Sakuno looked up at Niou in surprise, before asking. "You're going to teach me?"

"I don't see why not..." Niou commented, keeping his eyes ahead to where he's moving.

"But...I'm very slow..." Sakuno replied.

"So?" Niou eyed her strangely, "That's why you are going to learn, isn't it? After all... it's not as if we know how to play tennis when we were being born..."

"Well... if it's not much of a problem for you ..." Sakuno responded hesitantly.

"Problem?" Niou arched an eyebrow in question, "Why should it be a problem?"

"Well... you're in Rikaidai, I'm sure you'll have lots of practise session... and then there's schoolwork as well..." Sakuno replied.

"Aa... well, it won't be any trouble. It's not as if I'm going to teach you everyday, isn't it?" Niou smirked.

Sakuno blushed, but didn't respond. Somehow, Niou had found Sakuno's tendency to blush and the way her braids would bounced whenever she apologized, adorable. The idea of Sakuno's bouncing braids somehow reminded him of a puppy wagging its tail happily. /Now I know why braids were being refered to 'pigtails' in the past.../ he thought. He found it hard to resist the temptation to tease the latter, hence, he had taken every chances to tease the girl mercilessly whenever possible. That started off their possibility of having a friendship, which might blossom into something more, given the chance.

owari

date started: 23/08/05

date completed: 23/08/05

date revised: 24/08/05