Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.

The willow tree could be seen from where Sakuno sat.

The sky was a beautiful light blue colour. The yellowish sun cast a glow against the white clouds that sat amongst the sky. It was warm out yet Sakuno felt cool down at her lower half that sat on the hard pavement.

It was lunchtime and the pigtailed girl found herself at the school rooftop. She had been coming to this spot lately to work on her art. Tomo-chan had told her that her lines were becoming more distinct making the object clearer.

Because she was a determined girl, Sakuno wanted to improve more on it. She reached over to her brown side bag and removed a green sketchbook, white eraser and a lead pencil.

After placing the said items down, she squirmed around to make herself more comfortable in her surroundings. The door that led to the rooftop was to her right and she edged away a bit. She had a tendency of hurting herself frequently.

Sakuno stretched her legs out in front of her and tried to touch her toes. After doing her normal routine, the girl picked up her things and started to draw.

About 10 minutes later, she found that something was not right with her drawing. Biting her lip, the pigtailed girl looked back and forth between the sketch and 'the place'.

Since the metal wire gates surrounded the rooftop – so no one could fall – Sakuno couldn't see the scenery clearly. She could connect the lines easily…but it wouldn't seem right. Like she thought before, improvising could work but she'd rather not. For if she did, Sakuno knew that she would get carried away with it, making it a figment of her imagination.

"Mou…"

She placed the sketchbook to her other side and brought up her knees to her chin. She couldn't continue the drawing because before she would know it, there would be pineapple trees and candy cane bushes…Did pineapples even grow on trees? She didn't know.

The thought caused her to frown and she sighed. So much for a great day.

Sakuno tilted her head back and let it rest against the wall. The sun let its warmth travel down to her neck and she sighed. It felt good on her skin and it saddened her when she realized that the days to come wouldn't be so warm anymore. The autumn season was coming and the leaves would be changing…

The scenes in autumn were the most beautiful ones to draw in her opinion. She closed her cinnamon eyes and thought about the things that had been said earlier that day.

'Become good friends with him!'

That particular sentence had been haunting her sine Tomo-chan let them out of her mouth. She could talk to him – Ryoma-kun – whenever she wanted in class, if he had even been the slightest bit interested.

Both pre-teens sat beside each other at the back of the classroom. Sadly enough, Ryoma-kun had the privilege of sitting next to the window. Maybe it was a good thing because he would be constantly looking out the window during their English lesson. That gave her time to sketch out a rough draft of him…well the back of his head anyway.

A small grin was plastered on her face and her heartbeat sped up a bit. Even thinking about the boy made her blush.

As Sakuno spent time on her thoughts, she didn't hear the door open and shot out of her little world when it hit her shoe. She blushed when she found the object of her affection poking his head around the door to look at her.

Echizen Ryoma. His golden eyes seemed to have little interest for the brief moment they caught hers. Even though the moment was brief, Sakuno's heartbeat had quickened.

He pulled his head back around and stepped out of the doorway. After, he closed the door, the young tennis player made his way to the right of the doorway.

Sakuno took a deep breath; it was now or never.

Ryoma tucked his arms behind his head and lay against the pavement with a yawn.

It had been a long and boring day again. For some reason, all the teachers had been repeating themselves over and over again…or was it just him? No, no, it couldn't have been him, most definitely the teachers.

He didn't have any practices later on during the day, which was a little odd but good just the same. Because his plans were cancelled today, he was free to do what he wanted.

That he would think about later because right now, darkness called out to him. Ryoma opened his mouth again to let out another yawn.

"Ano…"

Wow, he really must have been tired since he already started to hear things.

"Ryoma-kun…"

He felt his eyebrows wrinkle, how come he wasn't seeing any images but hearing voices? A really quiet one too.

"Ryoma-kun…"

Okay, he was sure that he wasn't dreaming. His eyelids opened and revealed hazel eyes. The irises jumped around to find the source of the voice. They finally landed on a girl with long braided hair. What was her name again? Alice? Mina? Chizuru?

"A-ano…umm…well I-I was wo-won-ndering…ano I-if…"

A few fragmented sentences later, Ryoma really wished that he had worn his white Fila cap. That way, he would have bee able to use it to cover his eyes. Even though the girl could not form a sentence properly, it would be rude to simply close his eyes…at least, that what his perverted oyaji had told him. Now if he had that certain item, he was sure that he would be able to get away with…

"F-friendship?"

He blinked, what did the girl say? "What?" It was noticed that she had come closer to him but still was not in hearing distance.

She, in turn, blinked as well before averting her eyes to the ground. He then tilted his head to the side to take in a larger portion of her.

The girl sat with her legs tucked in underneath her. Her back was slightly hunched over as she looked down at the gray floor. Her hands clutched her knee length skirt and her eyes were now shut tightly.

Again she tried to speak but it was an effort that went to waste since he couldn't hear her. When he crept in closer to try to hear her, he finally heard some words even though they were spoken softly. What he got so far was:

"A-ano Ryoma-kun…would…something…friendship?"

"…Whatever." In doubt, always use that word. It neither meant yes or no and sounded better than maybe. Well, it did to him anyway.

He turned his face back towards the sky in hopes of getting some sleep. It was then Ryoma heard a quiet whimper, kind of like the kind Karupin made. His eyes tore open and the boy shot up. Was his cat here?

When Ryoma looked to his left, he found that girl looking at him with a hurt look. What was her problem?

"I-I'm so-sorry for tr-troubling y-you…" She spoke so quietly and he couldn't hear her.

"What?"

"Eh…I-I said…that I-I'm so-sorry for trou-troubling y-you…"

"What?"

His face now played host to a tiny frown with an annoyed look to go with it. Was it so hard for her to speak up? What he didn't expect was her face to lost colour and eyes to display annoyance.

"Ryoma-kun no baka! I'm telling you that I'm sorry for troubling you!"

During her outburst, the girl had risen to her knees and her hands were turned into little fists in front of her.

His eyes widened slightly and he backed up a bit. Fangirls he could handle but an angry girl was definitely something else he knew he couldn't. This wasn't part of his training. The pigtailed girl seemed to have realized what she did for the next thing he knew she was back at her normal position and apologizing frantically.

It hit him. The girl in front of him was the coach's granddaughter, Ryuzaki. Her first name was something he didn't know. So as he watched her head bob up and down repeatedly, he wondered if she was in danger of breaking her neck.

"Oi, you can stop now."

She completely froze, not making any kind of movement. He starred at her for a while longer and curled up onto his side.

"Whatever means sure in America."

Hopefully she received the message and would leave him alone now. He had missed out on 2 hours of sleep just to get to practice this morning. He cat-like eyes closed and the next thing he saw was Karupin playing in a sandbox.

A/N: Hehe, I'm taking UndyingMelodies' advice and taking breaks in writing this fic. This story is one where everyone needs to be in character so it might take awhile. Thanks for reading and next time:

Tachibana An: The flirt