Title: Your World; part 2 of 3
Pairings: Ryoma/Sakuno, (with some Momo/An and Eiji/Oishi in the background.)
Disclaimer: PoT is Konomi-sensei's, but the OC's getting pwned in this fic are mine.
Sum: At the very last minute, Sakuno gathers the courage to ask Ryoma to a school dance, and somehow, he ends up agreeing. But will he have more in store for her than some petty little date?
He said yes.
A contemplative Sakuno took a seat on her bed while slowly undoing her long braids. On the street, with the sunset painted behind his broad shoulders, he had looked right at her. She couldn't make out his expression; his face was a blur through the floodgate. Still, she could imagine that he was pretty surprised. It wasn't often that she just recklessly blurted out things like that, especially something she held so dear to her. She thought she might catch him off the court rallying against a stone wall, or eating at his favorite burger joint, or something. Anything was more romantic than the middle of the sidewalk, while she had tears running down her face, no less!
The spur of the moment had really caught her; though, and her emotions got the better of her. It was the most embarrassing, impulsive thing she had ever done, and when she got no immediate answer (even the blunt "no" she'd expected would have sufficed) she wanted to sink into the ground and disappear forever.
After a few grueling moments, he finally agreed, but his voice was as cold and blasé as ever. Yet he agreed. Had he really not been asked prior to their conversation? She couldn't believe that, he was far too handsome. Knowing him, he probably ignored and avoided girls as much as possible, since the moment the dance had been mentioned. That's just how he was.
What could have driven him to agree to this, though? The more she thought about it, the more it seemed very unRyoma-like. Surely he didn't pity her. He had seen her cry many times; hell, he'd even been the cause of it on more than one occasion. The most he'd ever done to make up for it was buying her ponta, which was more than she expected out of him. Sometimes, for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why she'd hung onto him so long.
But... he said yes. Not only that, but there was nobody standing behind him to force him into it. Her grandma didn't have to ask him for her, his dad didn't have to strand him there with her. This time, he decided to be with her all on his own. It was what she'd been waiting for, the reason why she held on so long.
The only problem she had left to face was finding something good to wear.
---
"Oi, Echizen!"
"O'Chibi!"
It was late, and Ryoma decided to go out. When sleep wouldn't come, and bath salts did nothing to calm his nerves, and heck, even agreeing (for once) to clean Karupin's litter box couldn't take his mind off of life's stupid mishaps, any distraction from his twisted world was welcome. No two people were better at being loud, obnoxious, and abusive as his senpai.
When Momoshiro and Kikumaru each wrapped loving arms around his shoulders and proceeded to choke the life out of him, it was the perfect distraction. After all, breathing was more important than thinking of how he had condemned himself to a night of certain misery tomorrow evening. Why did he have to say yes?
Wow, even the perfect distraction had its flaws. Ryoma frowned.
"That's strange. O'Chibi didn't complain, Momo," said Kikumaru, whose look of delight suddenly sunk into a look of amused confusion.
"Maybe I was too busy trying to breathe," Ryoma retorted, placing his protective mask of indifference back on as he headed into the burger joint. The two older boys behind him shared a chuckle as they followed the pint sized buchou to their seats.
Same old Echizen.
They ordered their trays of food, pinning all of the expenses on Ryoma. Now it was buchou's treat, despite the fact that he was only captain of the junior high tennis team, and the two boys sitting across from him were in high school. Still, a title was a title, apparently, and Kikumaru was saving up his money for new car anyway. After all the times the vibrant red-head had treated them, Ryoma was still skeptical to believe that Kikumaru was capable of saving money. Maybe he just used it as an excuse when Momo's diet of ten burgers increased to twelve.
"What'd you call us out here so late at night for, Echizen? I thought you'd be sleeping by now."
"You're still the baby in our group, you know. You need your rest, nya," Kikumaru and Momo snickered. Apparently, Ryoma was only buchou when he was paying for food.
When the two of them were done giggling like idiots, their eyes met his simultaneously, sharing an inquisitive stare. He ducked his head down. He even stuffed a huge bite of burger into his mouth, just to evade the rest of their inevitable questions. He didn't call them out here to talk about his problems. Hell, he didn't even call them out here at all! He just called Momo because he felt like it, and Kikumaru just happened to be over his house at the time. Momo was the one that suggested they all go out for burgers. Maybe Ryoma actually agreeing to treat, rather than hanging up on him and attempting sleep again, made them curious.
"Does O'Chibi have a girlfriend?" Kikumaru whispered to Momo, causing the boy across the table to almost choke on his food. Ryuzaki wasn't his girlfriend! She was just another problem he had to deal with, along with his crappy tennis team, and this burger he was having way too much trouble swallowing. His senpai must've been stupid not to see that.
"Don!" the powerhouse exclaimed, jabbing a finger toward Ryoma. "I think you hit the nail right on the head, Eiji-senpai."
"Hehe, of course. That's the same exact face you made when I outed you and Tachibana's sister."
Momo's face went florid and he slammed his hands against the table. "Like you and Oishi-senpai were any better!"
Kikumaru cringed with a creeping blush of his own. "At least it didn't take me a million years to admit I liked him!"
"Oi, Echizen!" Momo's voice froze the kid's body in place. His attempt at sneaking off, while his senpai duked it out over their own boring love lives, was an obvious failure. Kikumaru now attached himself to the shorter boy and started rocking him back and forth.
"You're not going anywhere, short stuff. Not until you tell us all about your girlfriend."
---
It was a groggy mid-morning Sakuno had awoken to.
Knowing that putting it off until the last minute would cause her to be late for the dance, Sakuno spent half the previous night raiding her closet for a dress. It was to no avail, however. She couldn't find a single dress she thought she looked good in. Some of them were too frilly, some were too long, some were too yellow, none of them really brought out her eyes. She didn't want to have to go out and buy a new one. That would take hours! Then she wouldn't have time to do anything special with her hair. Maybe Tomoka would have something.
"That's right! Tomo-chan."
She'd want to hear that her best friend finally bagged the cutest, most talented guy in Seishun Gakuen. Why wasn't that the first thing she did? She always confided in Tomoka, being the much bolder half of their little duo. The whole situation had been so overwhelming that she couldn't even think straight.
Sakuno dialed up Tomo's number, and when someone answered, she heard a strained voice on the other line say, "Sakuno, this isn't a good time. My brother just knocked over a shelf in the fridge and I- "
"Tomo-chan, it's about Ryoma-kun."
Suddenly, Tomo's voice switched from ghastly to utterly delighted. "Did you ask him to the dance! Did Ryoma-sama say yes?"
The shy girl shoved the phone away from her face, half out of being startled by the immediate, spot-on assumption, and half on a count of Tomo's voice blaring through the tiny receiver. She had no clue such volume was capable of coming through such a tiny speaker. She hoped she wouldn't go deaf by the end of this conversation.
"Yes, Tomo-chan, he did."
Again, Sakuno held the phone a few feet away from her face, as her best friend conveyed her shrill bout of rapture on the other end. She listened carefully as Tomo told her all the things they were going to do in preparation, and even claimed to have the perfect dress for her before she could even ask.
Well, that was easier than she thought it'd be.
---
Ryoma was barely into his breakfast when Nanako informed him that he had visitors.
"Hoi, hoi! G'morning, O'Chibi," said Kikumaru, the first to enter the house with Momo right on his tail. All of his other senpai; yes, all of them; even Kaidoh; even Tezuka; were all standing outside his house. This promised to be the longest day of his life, he just knew it.
"Eiji, don't you think it would've been polite to wait for Echizen to invite us in?" Oishi asked, still standing outside with the rest of the guys.
"And risk getting the door slammed in my face? I don't think so." He gave Ryoma a noogie, to which the smaller boy responded a groan and a pout of exasperation. That guy would never grow up.
"You might as well let them in, brat. They don't look like they have any other plans, heh-heh," Nanjiroh said from behind his newspaper (or dirty magazine, he should think.)
Thanks a lot, oyaji.
"... Whatever... "
One by one, the remainder of Seigaku's legendary Regulars entered the Echizen home. Kawamura was looking shy and quiet as usual, with a bit of stubble growing on his chin now. Fuji still had a creepy smile on his face, and undoubtedly had something weird on his mind. Kaidoh hissed 'hello' to him and still wore a bandana; he hadn't changed at all. Inui still carried around that damn notebook, and his hair was longer, yet unkempt as usual. Oishi must've apologized for Kikumaru at least three times upon entering, and Ryoma just stood there and nodded boredly. Tezuka was the last to step inside and hadn't said so much as hello. Well, all right, then.
Once the boys had been seated in the living room and Nanako served tea to all of them, Kikumaru took the lead in initiating a conversation amongst their group.
"Ahem. I, Kikumaru-sama, master of acrobatics and one half of the greatest doubles team Kantou has ever seen-"
"Just get on with it, Eiji-senpai!"
"Oi, Momo-chin! You're screwing with my moment!"
Fuji giggled, Oishi smiled, Inui scribbled down notes, Ryoma rolled his eyes, the rest did nothing. Kikumaru continued.
"Anyways, before I was so rudely interrupted- I've called us all here to celebrate our little guy finally getting a girlfriend, nya!"
"She's not my girlfri-" Ryoma attempted to justify, only to be drowned out by the murmurs of the other boys.
"Saa, so that's what this is all about. How cute." Fuji's smile grew just the tiniest bit, which caused Ryoma's blood to freeze.
"Echizen has inevitably discovered females. Given the data I've collected on him during our stay at Seishun, it's a 87.9 percent chance it's Ryuzaki-sensei's granddaughter, a 36 percent chance it's Osakada-san, a 23.1 percent chance it's Hanamura-sensei of Jyousei Shounan-"
"Don't even kid me like that-" Ryoma muttered.
Inui cackled.
"Che, my training was disrupted for this?" Kaidoh muttered with his arms crossed. Ryoma felt his pain.
"Oi, stupid Viper! Echizen getting a girlfriend is a big deal, okay!"
"No it's not," Ryoma uttered in vain.
"Shut up, bastard! Who asked you?" Kaidoh and Momo were in their zone now, arguing at the top of their lungs, until Tezuka intervened by merely clearing his throat. They shut up.
"Is Ryuzaki-san really your girlfriend, Echizen?" Fuji asked, getting more into this by the second. Ryoma wanted to hide, now. When Fuji got curious, things got dangerous.
"Of course she is," said Momo, grinning like a dork. "Those two have been madly in love since they were first years."
"Ano, Echizen, you don't look happy," Oishi said suddenly. The rest looked up at him like he was crazy. That's how Echizen always looked, but of course he was happy! He had a girlfriend now.
"You're exactly right, Oishi-senpai-" said Ryoma, shocking everyone into silence. All eyes were on him, now. "-I'm not."
Kikumaru was about to interrupt, then Fuji rested a hand upon his shoulder. He hadn't lost his smile, though. This was exactly where it was going to get interesting.
"You're all being too loud and stupid, and you're not listening to me. Ryuzaki-san is not my girlfriend."
The room fell deathly silent for a few moments, save for the distant sounds of Karupin eating in the kitchen and Nanjiroh ravishing his porn.
Momoshiro was the first to speak, looking embarrassed, yet serious. "An-chan wasn't my girlfriend either, until she asked me to go to with her to her school's dance. She was gonna go with Kamio-kun, but he couldn't because he sprained his ankle, I think-" he laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "-he hasn't forgiven me since."
For the first time that day, the look in Kikumaru's eyes went from fiery and ecstatic to... serene, almost. He sat beside Oishi and took his hand. "I've liked Oishi for a really long time, but I couldn't figure out a good time to admit it. And then I went to a dance with this girl, who ditched me five minutes after we got there, so I found Oishi and spent time with him instead." He smiled and lowered his voice to barely above a whisper. "He looked better in a tux anyway, and was a better kisser."
Oishi intervened nervously. "Yeah, that was... quite a night. We-"
"We've heard enough!" Momo and Kaidoh said simultaneously. It took all of maybe five seconds for Kaidoh to apologize for being disrespectful toward his senpai. Momo, however, continued to cringe. He didn't want to think about Kikumaru kissing anybody, let alone Oishi-senpai.
Fuji broke the tense air with his own two cents. "Saa, Eiji, you forgot to mention how Momo bet you a thousand yen that you wouldn't come clean."
"Thanks, Fuji." Kikumaru glared at Momo. "You still haven't paid me, you know."
"Hey, I thought we were even! You bet me that much that I wouldn't be able to get with An-chan."
Speak of the devil, that's exactly who was on the phone when Momo's cell went off. The rest of the discussion faded from Ryoma when he drifted off to sleep right in the middle of the floor, unbeknownst to his blabbering senpai.
Hearing about love lives was so boring. He wasn't in the mood to hear anymore stories today.
---
It was by late afternoon that the butterflies in Sakuno's stomach really began to tear it up.
"Tomo-chan... I'm not sure I can go through with this," she said in a hushed voice, as Tomo tugged at all kinds of snags in the shy girl's hair. She wiped her brow and placed the brush aside for a moment to observe her best friend.
"I think you should get your hair cut before going."
"W-what!" Sakuno stared up at her friend with horror plastered across her face. "I couldn't do that."
"But you said you wanted to do something special with it. It's too long for that!"
"Mou... " Sakuno looked miserably in the mirror at the sheet of wonderful, flowing hair she'd grown since childhood. She couldn't part with it now. She just couldn't.
"Hey, there you are, Sakuno-chan! I've been looking all over the place for you," said Tachibana An, cheerful as always, with a purse gripped in both hands. Tomoka and Sakuno turned toward the door, curious as to why they suddenly had a new visitor.
"Hello, An-chan," Sakuno greeted in a quiet, timid voice.
"Oi, oi, oi! This is a private bonding session between best friends before I give her to Ryoma-sama. Who said you could interfere?" said Tomoka, sounding annoyed that this uninvited visitor just happened to find her house. An glared at her in return. Sakuno was her best friend, too. Seishun's loudest fangirl needed to learn the concept of sharing.
Despite the Tomoka's furious demeanor, An entered her room in stride and grabbed a handful of Sakuno's hair. "I agree with Osakada. I think we should at least take off a few inches."
"DON'T TOUCH HER HAIR! I JUST... you agree?"
An smiled. "Yes, and I can make it look really good, too. I've been studying hair care in my spare time, haha."
"Ano... but it's... why are you here?" Sakuno asked, hoping the subject change would stray the two eager girls away from the subject of her hair. She loved her hair too much, no matter how many times it made her late for school when she took too long to brush it.
"Momo asked me to come help you girls out, while he and the others take care of Echizen-kun."
"The others?" Tomoka and Sakuno asked.
"Apparently, all of his former teammates from his first year are there with him-"
"Even Kaidoh-senpai?"
"And Tezuka-buchou?"
An giggled. "Yup, even them. They're giving Echizen-kun lessons on how to become a ladies man. Or they're just bugging him. Either way, it'll make him happy to see you when the time comes." She found that concept more amusing than serious, of course, but the fact that Echizen was dealing with it said a lot. Having so many great friends must've melted that frozen interior of his. It's about damn time.
Sakuno smiled genuinely for the first time all day.
"Ano, R-Ryoma-kun did tell me a long time ago that... my hair was too long. For tennis, I mean!"
An already had the comb, the scissors, and the waste basket prepared for it. "That's the spirit!"
---
Ryoma didn't need Inui's data book to predict that today was going to be a long day.
After waking up from his nap, he realized that he hadn't touched a tennis racket all day, and it was annoying him in the worst way, now. In his living room, he was still surrounded by eight decent tennis players, and not a one of them offered a match. Or a rally. Or anything pertaining to tennis. They just kept blabbering on about all the ways to treat a girl. Tezuka even had a few words of advice, something about being himself, and not being reckless. Kawamura said, if they wanted to stop by for free sushi after the dance, they were welcome to. Kaidoh was just itching to move, and since Momo and Kikumaru spent the majority of the day annoying the poo out of their kouhai, Tezuka advised them to hit the courts. Now the Golden Pair was up against the ever-quarrelling Momoshiro-Kaidoh Pair.
But did Tezuka even consider that Ryoma, just maybe, wanted to be out there playing tennis, too? Not at all. That surprised him, too. He figured his former captain was itching to play just as badly, but nerves of steel left that man eternally unpredictable.
A day without tennis was like a day without breathing to Ryoma. He'd get at least one match in before this date, or he was calling it off.
After the Golden Pair devastated Momo and Kaidoh six games to one, Nanjiroh decided to make himself known. In honor of his son finally getting a girlfriend, he showed Ryoma the floorboard he hid all of his best porn under. "In case your new girlfriend drops your dinky ass like a rock, you know where to go when you need to feel better."
The guys were all awed by the amount of profanity resting beneath their very feet. Inui remarked that it was illogical! Ryoma had never been so embarrassed in his entire life.
"Fsssssh, Echizen's father is a pervert." Kaidoh turned away with a disgusted blush on his face.
"Not even my brothers' collection combined could match that!" a wide-eyed Kikumaru exclaimed.
"How would you know, Eiji-senpai? Do you go poking through it yourself?" Momo said with a laugh.
"N-no! They were the ones who tried to force it on me. Honest."
"Yeah, right."
Kikumaru pouted and dragged his blushing, speechless boyfriend away from the floorboard scene before either of them had a chance to lose it.
"Oyaji. Tennis court. Right now." Ryoma growled. He'd already grabbed his racket and was ready to whoop this sorry old man's ass.
"Echizen, your dance is in less than two hours. Can you really finish a whole game before then?" Kawamura said, skeptical as always.
"Hold on," Ryoma tapped the gut a few times, then handed Kawamura the racket. "I'm going to get a better one."
"GREATO! ECHIZEN WILL TEAR DOWN THIS TIRED OLD MAN, BABY!"
---
Sakuno had never cried so hard in her life.
"Maybe... a little too short?"
It didn't look too short to An by any means. When it dried it would fall a few centimeters below her shoulders. She thought it was the perfect length for that kind of hair; it was the longest An ever let her's grow. With just a little less than two hours left before the dance, she and Tomoka simply couldn't allow Sakuno's pretty face to be stained with tears.
"You look really good, Sakuno. Honest," said Tomoka, patting her best friend on the shoulder, but to no avail. Sakuno buried her face deeper into her hands and continued to sob.
"You have a date soon, Sakuno-chan. Don't you think Echizen-kun will feel awkward if the first thing he sees is you crying?"
Sakuno moaned. "I'm not going. I can't let Ryoma-kun see me like this."
---
T B C
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Author's Note: Look at me, the sadistic author leaving you guys at a cliffy, and after all the awesome reviews you guys left me for the last chapter, too. I must've been taking Fuji lessons without even realizing it.
I thought it wouldn't hurt to mention that when Kawamura says Ryoma will "tear down" Nanjiroh, I did that on purpose. Burning!Taka speaks Engrish, after all, and that's why we all love him. :p
I know I didn't stick a shounen-ai warning at the beginning of the fic (because this isn't a shounen-ai fic), but I did mention that Oishi and Eiji would be a couple. I hope none of you missed that. They're canon (to me, anyways) so that's just something that must be dealt with. I don't have the heart to do the whole Regular/OFC thing. And c'mon, it's the Golden Pair! They're squishy, just like RyoSaku, so how can I possibly resist? -wibble-
Anyways, thank you, for those of you who took my request for con crit seriously. This fic is supposed to be a test, to see how firm a grasp I have on everyones' characters, since I'm very new to this fandom. I think I have a few down pat, and others... not so much. That's the beauty of being a n00b, though. I have people right here to yell at me until I get it right. -laughs- Continue to show me no mercy, please! Reviews and con crit will be treated with love, and flames will be doused with Inui Juice. That is all.
Thank you for reading!
