Sakura Lain says,

"Wait. I'm sick and tired of saying this!"

…and so she insists on reading any of the previous two chapters for the disclaimer.

A/N: Eh, I'd just like to say that I've only watched some of the anime episodes and little of the manga, and so I don't know how Momoshiro calls Sakuno and Tomo… Maybe just simply Ryuzaki and Osakada… but feel free to correct me! I'm still a little new to the whole name thing…

Chapter 3: The Morning After

Sakuno opened up her eyes. She was lying on her back on something very soft. She looked around, realizing she was in a bedroom but she didn't know where. She sat up but then she felt an immense headache and fell back on the bed. "Ugh," she groaned.

"Finally, you're awake." She hadn't noticed Tomoka leaning against the bedroom door.

"Where am I?" asked Sakuno.

"Momoshiro's guest room," replied Tomoka and Sakuno noticed she didn't look too happy about where the conversation was inevitably headed.

But alas, Sakuno needed to know. "Why am I here? What time is it? What happened?" she blurted out, and Tomoka shook her head, walking over to Sakuno's side.

"You completely…" and Tomoka pressed her index finger hard against Sakuno's forehead, reprimanding her, "…conked out in front of everyone."

"Eh?!" cried out Sakuno, sitting up again but immediately falling back down against her pillow, remembering the headache. Then her memory began to slowly put the pieces back together. "Oh no. Oh no."

Tomoka waited for her realization to sink in. "You remember now?" Sakuno was too shocked to say anything, so Tomoka sighed and continued to speak, "It's 1:45 in the morning, everyone else is gone now. Momo offered us his guest room so that you can stay and rest off your hangover."

"I feel horrible…"

"You should, that was quite an amount of alcohol you consumed."

"That's not all I meant…" Sakuno frowned, "I feel horrible as a person. Passing out in front of everyone…"

Tomoka looked at her for a while, feeling a little sympathetic towards her friend. "Well, they'll get over it… eventually," she said. "It's not like it's happened before. It was one, simple mistake, that's all."

"Thank you for trying to cheer me up, Tomo-chan, but it's not working," said Sakuno, closing her eyes. Her headache was driving her insane. "Most of them haven't seen me in years and then they see me again, only for me to pass out in front of everyone, drunk… now they're going to think I'm an alcoholic!"

"Don't worry, Sakuno," said Tomoka, placing a hand on Sakuno's forehead. "Everyone has their moments… mind you, perhaps not in front of their old senpais like that, but still… Here, rest now, while I get you some pills to help with that headache."

"What I need is to hide myself from everyone, forever…"

Tomoka laughed softly as she left Sakuno in the bedroom.

The next morning did very little to ease Sakuno's mood. Though her headache had gone with the night, she didn't get up from bed until noon. She still felt a little queasy, however, even after taking a shower.

"Ohayo, Momo," she muttered quietly as she walked into the kitchen. Momo waved cheerfully from the dining table—he was reading a newspaper, something Sakuno would have never seen him do years ago.

"Ah, mornin', Ryuzaki-chan!" cried Momo. "Good day today, isn't it? How was your sleep?"

Sakuno mumbled an 'all right' to Momo as she piled breakfast leftovers on a plate. Ryuzaki-chan, she thought, her mood dampening a bit more, he hasn't called me Ryuzaki-chan since our middle school days. I must have really worried him last night… Good job, Sakuno.

"Oh, Sakuno's awoken!" Tomoka's loud voice infiltrated the otherwise quiet kitchen as she hurried to Sakuno's side. "You feeling better now?"

"A bit," replied Sakuno, forcing a smile. "I'm still so embarrassed, though…" she mumbled the last bit to Tomo, but somehow Momo caught the words.

"Don't worry about it, Ryuzaki-san," he said, setting down his newspaper, smiling slyly. "I remember the first time I conked out… it was with little Echizen on—"

Sakuno's heart skipped when Ryoma was mentioned, and suddenly she remembered seeing him last night before she lost consciousness. He was there! Which made Sakuno feel even more embarrassed about her situation last night. As if her heart skipping a beat wasn't enough… Ryoma walked into the kitchen then, his eyes narrowed toward Momo, and Sakuno had to look away so that Tomo wouldn't see her surprised and now reddened face.

"What about me?" she heard him ask Momo and Momo bit back laughter.

"I was talking about the first time I got drunk, that's all, Echizen," he said, waving his hand in the air dismissively. "Demo, please be careful the next time you do that, Ryuzaki-san. That was a lot of drinks you had and you really worried us last night."

"I know…" As if she didn't already feel bad about herself, they just had to keep bringing up the dreadful subject.

"Enough of that," Tomo cut in. Sakuno felt grateful. "I'm just surprised that Ryoma-sama's even here."

"It's Momo's wedding," said Ryoma, looking at Tomo with a semi-confused expression.

"Of course, he wouldn't miss something like that for the world!" piped in Momo, wrapping an arm around Ryoma's shoulders. "Echizen, this is truly touching."

Sakuno bit her tongue to keep herself from even chuckling as Ryoma's confusion slowly turned to suspicion.

She had really missed him. Seeing him there all of a sudden, after all these years, really brought back so many memories from their Seigaku days.

"Demo…" said Ryoma, struggling out of Momo's arms, "I didn't see a fiancée yesterday."

Momo stopped, exchanging a quick glance with Tomoka. Our Echizen seems to have gotten a bit smarter, his look seemed to say.

"She wasn't available yesterday!" Tomoka quickly threw in. "An… had some important things to do last night but you'll definitely be seeing lots more of her in the next coming days!"

"An?" Ryoma raised an eyebrow, looking back at Momo, slowly registering the new information. "You're really marrying… Tachibana An?"

Of all people, An. Sakuno was really amazed at how quickly her friend could come up with fabricated stories under pressure, but she wondered how they would manage pull that one off. After all, Sakuno really doubted An would oblige with Momo and Tomoka once she found out what the two of them had gotten her into.

Why couldn't they just come out with the truth, now that Ryoma was here?

"Momo and I are going to have a lot of fun with this."

Sakuno sweatdropped, remembering her friend's words last night.

"Osakada… a word with you, please?"

"Of course."

And just like that, Momo and Tomoka left the dining area to discuss their new plans elsewhere, unbeknownst to Ryoma.

Ryoma massaged his neck, which had red marks from Momo's grip on him. "Those two…" He didn't have to say anything further; Sakuno knew he was beginning to catch on to something.

"Don't mind them. Momo and Tomo-chan always have their moments like that," said Sakuno, though what moments, she wasn't sure, as she wasn't very good at fabricating stories like Tomo was. She had a seat at the dining table to finish the rest of her breakfast.

She was eating in silence, not bothering to look at Ryoma as she ate. The moment already felt awkward as it was and she didn't want to make it even worse with a sad attempt at starting a conversation. Although… she had so many questions to ask him…

"You look better."

Sakuno almost choked with her food, and she forced the food down her throat before asking, "Excuse me?"

"Yesterday you looked worse," he replied, looking at her from across the table.

Of course. That. "That's an understatement," she muttered darkly under her breath.

"I didn't think you were the sort of person to drink like that," he continued.

"I don't," replied Sakuno firmly. "It was the first time and it won't happen again."

Silence again. Sakuno had finished with her breakfast but she didn't want to leave Ryoma hanging like that, not after snapping at him like she did. It wasn't his fault if she went completely crazy the previous night and pulled a binge. She frowned inwardly at herself and looked back up at Ryoma to say something else, but was surprised to see that he was still staring at her.

"Er…" she started, trying to remember what she was going to say, "…Ano… are you like a tennis pro now? It's been a long time since you left for the U.S. Open."

"Not really." At this, he looked away, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Eh? Why not?" Sakuno couldn't hold back the surprise in her voice.

"I haven't… exactly done everything my agent's told me to," he replied.

"But you're really good!" said Sakuno. "You should be… extremely famous or something by now."

She saw him roll his eyes before he looked back at her. "Being a pro never interested me."

"Still…" Sakuno pouted. "It's a waste… you were so good."

Ryoma sighed. "That's what he keeps telling me," he said quietly.

"Eh?" Sakuno asked, but then Tomo and Momo reappeared and their conversation came to an end.

"Hey, I'm hanging out with Echizen later, would you girls like to join us?" Momo asked later, as Tomo and Sakuno put their shoes on and were getting ready to leave.

"I'd love to!" cried Tomo, "Anything to be with our Ryoma-sama!"

"Demo…" Sakuno spoke up. "I have work tonight…"

"Ditch it."

"Tomo-chan!"

"It's okay," said Momo. "We can do something else together another day. We can invite the whole gang, even. Ne, Echizen?"

"Aa…" came the bored reply from the living room.

"Great!" said Momo. He leaned toward Tomo and whispered, "We're gonna have to talk to An soon, too, I don't want Echizen getting suspicious."

"I will most definitely try and convince An to play along for now," replied Tomo confidently.

"Still…" said Sakuno, "Won't it be harder to do with An in the picture?"

They laughed nervously, thinking about An's bad tantrums.

"Well, we'll see you another day, girls!" said Momo, opening the front door for them. "'Til then."

"Bye, Momo," the girls replied.

Once they were in the car, Tomoka turned on the engine but took a long look at Sakuno.

"What?" asked Sakuno.

"Nothing," said Tomo, smiling, "just seemed like you had a nice little chat with Ryoma-sama, that's all. Cute."

"Tomo-chan… it's not like that anymore."

"Sure, sure…"

"And you're one to talk!" Sakuno laughed.

"What?"

"Ryoma-sama? I thought you were way past that honorific by now!"

"Oi, a girl's free to bask in her old youthful thrills every now and then!"

"Sure…"

"Sakuno, do not turn the tables around on me! Now, back to Ryoma-sama…"

"Oh dear…"

A/N: Hmm… it was a bit hurried towards the end, but I hope it's all right.

And Ryoma's so hard to freakin' write! XD

Ack, everyone was, actually, I was in a bit of a writer's block as I wrote this but I pulled through at least. shrugs On to the next chapter, then…