Author's Notes (1): Still takes place before Hyotei arch.
Author's Notes (2): No real hard Japanese words used.
Title: Hair by Oishi
At the tennis courts, Sakuno ran as carefully and as quickly as she could to her grandmother, she clutching to the end of one of her braids. "Obaachan! Obaachan! Obaachan!"
Sumire Ryuzaki turned from her conversation with Oishi to look at her granddaughter. "Eh? What's wrong, Sakuno?"
"Excuse me, Oishi-sempai! Obaachan! One of my rubber bands broke and I have swimming class today!" Sakuno said as she looked at her grandmother with huge eyes. "Do you have an extra rubber band?"
Her grandmother winced. "I'm sorry but I'm wearing the only one I have. Can't you borrow one from your classmates?"
Sakuno shook her head. "They have swimming too- and only brought enough for themselves."
"Oh dear," her grandmother sighed as she scratched her head. "I suppose that we'll just have to put it into one braid for today."
Sakuno scrunched her face. "But it'll be messy, right?"
Her grandmother shrugged. "We haven't got a choice not unless you have a lot of pins to keep your hair in place or you could wear the swimming cap for today."
"Why don't you put it into a French braid?" Oishi suggested as he looked at the two females. He felt a sweat drop coming off of him when they stared at him. "Or-ah- not?"
Puzzled, Sakuno looked at him. "What's a French braid?"
"Do you know how to do a French braid?" Ryuzaki sensei asked. When Oishi nodded, she smiled in satisfaction. "Then I'll get a comb and you can do it for her- Sakuno, start unraveling your hair, Oishi will braid your hair for you."
"Ah-Hai, Obaachan," Sakuno stammered as she started untying her hair. She looked at Oishi-sempai who looked extremely red and really uncomfortable. "Ano- Oishi-sempai? You don't have to braid my hair if it makes you uncomfortable. I could tell Obaachan that I'd be happy with a plain braid."
Touched by her thoughtfulness, Oishi smiled. "No, I'm fine with braiding you hair. It'll be no different than braiding my little sister's hair. Yours is just longer."
"I'm sorry it's so long," Sakuno said as she bowed.
"You have nothing to be sorry about," Oishi said as he took a lock of her hair. "It's very nice- your hair has a lot of body and there aren't any spilt ends. And it doesn't seem to tangle easily."
Sakuno blushed. "Thank you, sempai….Ano- What exactly is a French braid?"
"It's basically a braid that starts at the crown of your head and you pull the hair on the sides into the braid," Oishi tried to explain. At Sakuno's lost look, he sighed. "It's easier to do than to explain it. I'll show you and the next time you can try to do it yourself, okay?"
"Okay sempai," Sakuno asked as she looked at him with wide eyes.
"Here's the comb," Ryuzaki-sensei said as she gave the comb to Oishi. "I'm going to go and get more copies of the attendance charts; we seem to be running low on them."
"Hai, sensei," Oishi said as he started to comb Sakuno's hair. "Now I need you to stay still, all right? Because if you start moving around, I can't get all of your hair, okay?"
"Hai, sempai," Sakuno said as she stood still. "Obaachan still says the same thing."
"Does she now?" Oishi asked as he started to separate Sakuno's hair at the crown of her head.
"Hai, because I used to move around so much but I'm older now," Sakuno said proudly. "And I can stay still even longer so Obaachan doesn't say it as often."
"That's good to hear," Oishi said as he started to gather and braid her hair a little it at a time while adding more and more hair. "Is this too tight?"
"No, not tight at all sempai," Sakuno answered back.
"That looks very intricate, Oishi," Inui said as he looked over Oishi's shoulder.
"Ah!" Sakuno cried out, startled then gasped in pain as she felt her hair being pulled. "Ittai!"
"Oh, sorry, Ryuzaki-chan!" Oishi apologized as he looked down at her and loosened his grip on her hair. "Inui! Don't do that!"
"Sorry," Inui said as he adjusted his glasses. There was a gleam at the corner of his glasses as he looked at Oishi. "You're very good at making braids, but that doesn't seem to be a standard braid, Oishi."
"Tilt you head down slightly, Ryuzaki-chan," Oishi ordered he looked over his shoulder to see Fuji and Tezuka coming towards them. "Fuji! Tezuka! Sensei went to make more copies of the attendance sheet. This is a standard braid to an extent, Inui."
"Oishi-sempai said that he's giving me a French braid," Sakuno answered Inui as she tilted her head down even more.
"Nya! Nya! Oishi! What are you doing?" Kikumaru cried out as he leapt on to Oishi's back causing him to inadvertently pull on Sakuno's hair once again. "What are you doing with little Ryuzaki, Oishi?"
"Ittai!" Sakuno cried out as she put her hands to her head.
"Eiji! Stop!" Oishi called out as he loosened his grip on Sakuno's hair. "Sorry, Ryuzaki-chan."
Fuji put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Eiji- Oishi's hands are a little busy right now."
"Oishi, are the schedules for today and tomorrow ready?" Tezuka asked as Oishi braided Ryuzaki's hair.
"They're ready for you to look at," Oishi said as he continued to braid Ryuzaki's hair. "Plus I also have some notes for you to look at."
"That sounds fine," Tezuka said. "I'll see to them as soon as you're done here."
"Do that move slowly," Inui said as he watched Oishi braid Ryuzaki's hair. "So you gather a little bit each time and you weave it in?"
"Ah, yes," Oishi said as he looked at Inui curiously. He nodded at Kawamura who had just arrived. "Morning, Taka-san!"
"Morning, Oishi," Kawamura answered with a sleepy nod. "Oh, you're giving Sakuno-chan a new hairstyle today?"
"Just for this morning," Oishi answered. "Inui, step back please."
Kawamura looked at Inui curiously. "Why are you taking notes about French braiding?"
Straightening, Inui zeroed in on Kawamura. "And how do you know it's a French braid that Oishi is making, Taka-san?"
"Ano- it's because he taught it to me when I messed up my younger cousin's hair?" Kawamura answered slowly. "But why are you taking notes?"
"Because it's data," Inui replied as he scribbled in his notebook again.
"So why is Oishi braiding your hair this morning, Sakuno-chan," Fuji asked as he knelt down to look at her.
"Because one of my rubber bands broke and Obaachan doesn't have any more for me to borrow," Sakuno said as she looked at Fuji. "And today we have swimming."
"I see," Fuji said as he smiled at her. "So now you get a new hairstyle by Oishi, Sakuno-chan."
"Who would have thought that Oishi-sempai knew how to do a girl's hair, eh, Echizen?" Momo said as he looked at his kohai.
"Mada mada dane," Ryoma said as he looked at Oishi-sempai braiding Sakuno's hair. He had a small frown on his face as he saw his sempai's fingers buried in those auburn tresses. "Aren't you going too slowly, Oishi-sempai?"
Blushing deeply, Sakuno turned her head to look at Ryoma. "Oh! Good morning Ryoma-kun!"
"Ryuzaki-chan, don't move yet," Oishi ordered as he took another lock of hair and braided it with the rest. "It'll be too loose if you move! I'll be done soon! And no, her hair is too long for me to braid it quickly. It'll get tangled."
"Sorry, Oishi-sempai," Sakuno apologized as she blushed fiercely.
"Oh," Ryoma said as he watched Oishi's fingers go through Sakuno's hair again and frowned. Oishi-sempai was still going too slowly for his liking.
"Nya! Momo! What do you mean that you never knew that Oishi knew how to do hair, nya?" Kikumaru demanded. "Oishi knows how braid hair even though he looks like an egg head, nya! I see him braid his sister's all the time, nya!"
"Eiji!" Oishi called out his cheeks red with embarrassment.
"Sorry, sorry, sempai!" Momo said with his hands up in a placating gesture. "Seeing this is as shocking as somehow finding out that the Mamushi suddenly likes fuzzy animals."
"What did you say about me, porcupine head?" Kaidoh demanded as grabbed Momo's shirt.
"It's exactly as I said, Mamushi," Momo snarled back as he grabbed Kaidoh's shirt.
"Mada mada dane," Ryoma said as he stepped away from the two and stepped closer to Oishi-sempai and Sakuno. "Sempai, you'd better move away before they come this way."
Before the two could get into it more, Tezuka ordered, "Both of you have too much energy- twenty laps!"
"Good morning sempai-tachi," Kachiro greeted as he, Katsuo and Horio came up to them. "Morning Ryoma-kun and Ryuzaki-chan!"
"Ano- Oishi-sempai, what are you doing with Ryuzaki's hair?" Horio asked curiously. "Are you two dating? Ow! Echizen!"
"Sorry, Horio," Ryoma said as he resumed to take off his regular's jacket.
"What? What are you talking about?" Sakuno exclaimed as she lifted her head up suddenly to look at Horio. "Ittai!"
"What? What? You're dating Ryuzaki-chan and you never told me, Oishi? Nya!" Kikumaru exclaimed as he poked Oishi in the ribs. "So Ryuzaki-chan, you like Oishi instead of Ochibi now, nya? Ow!"
"What? What?" Sakuno blushed deeply as she stared at Kikumaru-sempai. "No! No! It's nothing like that! Ittai!"
"Sorry about that," Oishi apologized as he blushed fiercely. He glared at Horio. "What are you talking about, Horio?"
Horio blushed deeply and made a small triangle with his fingers. "Ano- it's from my experience that- well-" He took a deep breath. "I heard that girls only let guys they like to touch their hair and guys will only touch the hair of the girls they like."
"Ano- and what does this have to do with dating?" Kawamura asked curiously.
"It's part of the grooming mating ritual," Inui explained as he looked at Kawamura. "Part of societal mating rituals include-"
"Mating ritual," Sakuno gasped as her face grew to a deep red.
"This has nothing to do with that, Inui!" Oishi exclaimed as his cheeks grew red. "Ryuzaki-sensei just asked me to braid her granddaughter's hair."
"That's right!" Sakuno exclaimed as she looked heatedly at Horio. "This is embarrassing, Horio-kun! Where are you getting these- these-"
"Stupid?" Ryoma supplied helpfully with a smirk. He tried to look innocent as Sakuno looked at him sharply.
"Ah- thank you, Ryoma-kun, where are you getting these stupid ideas, Horio-kun?" Sakuno demanded as she put her hands on her hips. Then a thought occurred to her. "And are you the one that started that dumb rumor that I went food shopping with my 'boyfriend'?"
Ryoma looked sharply at Horio as Fuji frowned, "What rumor is this, Sakuno-chan?"
Sakuno sighed heavily. "There's a rumor that I'm going out with a really tall guy and I went food shopping with him, Syusuke-oniisan. And all I did was to help him pick vegetables for his family's shabu shabu because he helped me in the market."
"Hardly anything to start a rumor with," Fuji said cheerfully as he looked at Horio with his eyes wide open. "Unless someone has some malicious intent behind it, eh, Horio-kun?"
"Who me?" Horio sweated as he looked at Fuji-sempai. "I would never! Really! All I wanted to know was if anyone knew who Ryuzaki was seeing- and I might have asked just Kachiro and Katsuo here!"
Katsuo nodded his head while Kachiro shook his head. "Yes, you asked us- while we were in the middle of the lunch room with all of our classmates around us."
"Mada mada dane," Ryoma snorted as he looked at Horio.
"Horio, since you seem to have a tendency to open your mouth and doing things without thinking," Inui coughed. "I think that I shall have to work on a special juice for you to correct that habit. In fact it might be two juices that I might have to make…"
Horio started to shiver. "No- that's okay, Inui-sempai! I'm sure that I'm cured by just the thought of it! I wouldn't want to trouble you at all!"
"It wouldn't be any trouble at all," Inui said as his glasses gleamed evilly. "In fact, I would only be too happy to make this for you. As a reinforcement strategy."
"And while Inui is making that for you, you can go run thirty laps to increase your stamina for it," Tezuka added. He looked at the other freshmen. "And the two of you may join him."
"Ha-Hai," Katsuo and Kachiro said as they started running laps with Horio who was bemoaning his fate.
Kawamura shook his head. "Poor Horio."
"Mada mada dane," Ryoma shrugged. He looked at Tezuka-buchou. "Buchou, you're lucky that he didn't see you and Ryuzaki in the fish store."
"Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno cried out as she looked at him with hurt in her eyes. "You know that nothing happened while we were there!"
"I didn't say anything happened," Ryoma mumbled as he pulled his hat down.
Fuji's ears perked as Inui looked at Tezuka. "Really! You two were shopping together?"
"What? What's this? Tezuka and Ryuzaki-chan were in the fish store together?" Kikumaru demanded. "Why?"
"I told you why last week, Eiji," Oishi said as he looked at his doubles partner. "Because we were eating over Ryuzaki-sensei's house because of an important meeting and Ryuzaki-chan was cooking dinner."
With a sinking feeling, Ryoma refused to look at his captain and definitely avoided Sakuno's hurt gaze. "It's not like it was me who said that you two looked like a cute couple."
"Ehhh? Someone said that Ryuzaki-chan and Tezuka look like a cute couple?" Kikumaru demanded in a loud voice.
His eyebrow twitching, Tezuka commanded, "Echizen, twenty laps now!"
"Hmm, I think that I had better make the same batch for Echizen as well," Inui mused as he wrote in his book.
"Hai," Ryoma said as he started off to jog. And all the while cursing his smart mouth.
"There done!" Oishi said as he finished braiding the tail. "I need the other rubber band now, Ryuzaki-chan."
"Here you go, sempai," Sakuno said as she offered her rubber band.
As Oishi took it, he stretched it out a bit around his fingers and then it snapped. "Oh dear, your other band snapped."
"Oh no, I don't have another one," Sakuno grimaced.
"Ano- I have a rubber band," Kawamura said as he reached into his jacket pocket and took out a pink band. He sheepishly scratched his head. "It's my sister's- I was holding it for her when I picked her up from school yesterday."
"And now you're all done," Oishi said as he finished tying her hair up.
"Thank you, Oishi-sempai," Sakuno bowed as soon as she was free. She bowed again to the gathered sempai-tachi. "And I'm sorry for disturbing your practice."
Inui smiled. "It's all right- it provided us with some morning entertainment."
"If you say so, sempai," Sakuno said as she shook her head. "Have a good practice!"
"All right, everyone, let's do laps as warm up," Tezuka ordered as soon as Sakuno left.
As everyone started to break up into groups to head towards the courts, a lone voice could be heard.
"Does this mean that Tezuka is dating Ryuzaki-chan or will be dating Ryuzaki-chan?"
"Kikumaru- thirty laps!"