Never Forgotten
A RyoSaku romance fanfic by Bunny
Chapter Four– The Plan
Never, in all my life had I showered so quickly. Sakuno…Sakuno…Sakuno. Her name was Sakuno and she was finally, finally here with me. The last six months had at times seemed like an eternity. When she hadn't cropped up at the US Open, I had been crushed. Did she not like me anymore because I had failed to win Wimbledon two years in a row? Was I just a big loser? Was my feeling of her genuine care for me misplaced? I didn't know. I didn't want to believe it, but that summed up how everybody else treated me, so I didn't know what to think. I made up excuses for her in my head. It cost too much, or she's too busy with school, or her parents wouldn't let her – and then I got really into it. She was in a coma, or she got hit by a car and died, or her plane back to Japan crashed. I didn't really want any of those latter things to be true, but I was kind-of angry and I wasn't always rational when I was angry. Who did that stupid girl think she was falling into my life like that-like an angel coming to rescue me and then vanishing? And then not showing up like she should have at her very next publicized all over the world opportunity when she could see me again?
After taking out my anger on each and every opponent at the US Open and winning it without contest, I calmed a bit and I realized that maybe I was being a little selfish. Not that I knew any better. Did the world NOT in fact, revolve around me? Apparently it did not - just most of the world, most of the time. Smirk. The evening of the closing of the US Open I had a long chat with Karupin. She patiently listened as I moaned and groaned my girl troubles. She meowed back to me and I realized that yes, I was being a bit self-centered. But…I was entitled a little, I mean - what if I never saw her again?
I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it. I would see that stupid girl again.
So I hoped. I hoped that soon…that someday soon, she would reappear as quickly as she had disappeared and then from there, I formulated a plan.
Operation: Keep the long braided hair girl with the big brown eyes from disappearing again.
And then…just as planned, she appeared one day.
If I said I hadn't to a certain degree been expecting to see her here, I would be lying. In fact, I was pretty sure she would show up at my first match tomorrow morning, sitting somewhere in the spectator's stands. If something had kept her from the US Open and my assumptions about her living in Japan were accurate, getting to Australia shouldn't pose too big of a problem for her. I planned to arrive early for my matches and search through the stands for her in disguise. Once I found her, I would whisk her off to my hotel room and lock her here until my match was over. That way I could, at the very least extract a name and form of contact so if we should be separated again…I could find her.
So…I'll admit that I was actually a bit surprised when she appeared a day early. I was ready though, in fact this was even better. My plan would work out just perfectly and I wouldn't have matches getting in my way.
Getting her name out of her had been very easy. Getting her here to my room did prove a bit more difficult, but in the end my determination won out. Now, I just needed to shower as quickly as possible. That girl couldn't be let out of my sight – no matter what.
Only a few minutes had passed before I was making my way out of the shower. I didn't even bother to dry off, as I threw a towel around my waist and opened the bathroom door to check up on her.
She was sitting there on my bed, talking on the phone, but she looked up at the sound of the door opening. I watched as her cheeks instantly flushed red and she turned away from me.
Heh. So she was shy. I suppose I should take that to mean she wasn't used to seeing guys wearing nothing but a towel. Good.
I made my way over to my dresser to extract some clean clothes, all the while keeping my eyes focused on Sakuno's back. She was talking so quietly I could barely hear her.
"Yes."
"Yes Grandma."
"Okay, I will.'
"Really?"
"Tell Fuji-sempai, Kaidoh-sempai and Momo-sempai I won't miss the next match."
Who? I took a small step closer and stopped moving so I could hear better.
"Ah…well then tell Kawamura-sempai that I look forward to celebrating with him when I get home."
Twitch. Celebrating with him?
"Oh…only a 10 percent chance? That's not very good."
What are they talking about?
"Did he say he would do it?"
Who? Do what?
"Yes."
"Yes, I'm very happy here. I'm having a good time."
Oh, well, now…okay, that kind-of makes me feel like there are butterflies in my stomach.
"Okay, I will call you tomorrow, bye."
She placed the phone back into the cradle and turned back towards me.
"EH!??!" she exclaimed.
"What?" I asked.
"Ryoma-kun still hasn't changed!" she sputtered and turned her back towards me again.
I hadn't realized that I was so busy trying to listen to her conversation that I'd been dripping water all over the floor and standing there with my clean clothes in my hands like a complete idiot. Baka!
I went back into the bathroom, quickly threw on my clothes and gave my hair a quick comb-through. Opening the door again, I met the most beautiful brown eyes I would never forget.
"Is Ryoma-kun finished now?" she questioned.
"Let's go," I said as I grabbed my wallet, my cell phone and my room key and slipped my shoes on.
Sakuno was right behind me. Wow, it felt so good to be able to spend time with her. I opened the door for her and watched as she slipped out quickly, looking embarrassed yet again.
"Everything okay back home?" I asked as we walked through the hallway to the elevator. What? How was I supposed to find out more about her without sounding like an obsessed stalker if I didn't ask casual questions? It was all part of the plan.
Sakuno gave me a warm smile, her eyes lighting up in obvious delight as we entered the elevator.
"Yes! The boys are doing really well and Fuji-sempai promised to give me private lessons when I get back!" she said, her enthusiasm quite apparent.
"'The boys?'" I asked, completely confused about who she was referring to, and being instantly jealous of whoever these males were that made her face light up like that.
"Ano…sorry Ryoma-kun, you don't even know," she paused to laugh in obvious embarrassment. "My Grandmother is the coach for the boys' tennis team at my school," she explained.
"Ah," I see. So she's constantly surrounded by male tennis players our age. Great - more competition. Add to list of things to do: visit Sakuno's school and pound into these guys that I was the only tennis player Sakuno had eyes for. I'd defeat them all and make sure she kept her eyes only on me. "Are they good?" I found myself asking. No, no, no, I don't reallywant to talk about other guys in your life. Guys that get to see you every day if they want to.
"Oh yes, they're the best – on their way to the Nationals right now actually. I'm so proud. Grandma says they're the best team she's ever had. I wouldn't really know, but they do keep on winning, so they must be good, right?" she asked as the elevator dinged our arrival on the bottom floor and we exited into the lobby.
"Hn."
"They aren't as good as Ryoma-kun though," she added as we walked towards the hotel entrance.
I felt my heart speed up at her indirect praise. I don't know why I cared, I just did. Sakuno, God…the things you do to me. When you aren't around, when you are around; you make me completely lose all normal sense of thinking.
"Yes, Ryoma-kun would point his racquet and say, 'mada mada dane,'" she teased doing a pretty good imitation of my face and posture, even pretending to be holding a racquet out in front of her.
Well, well, well, maybe I don't need to go pound those guys after all. It looks like Sakuno already knows – nobody beats me at tennis.
I gave her a smirk as we hit the sidewalk outside of the hotel and took the hand she had just been using for her imitation. I steered her down the street towards the Japanese restaurant on the corner I had noticed when we had arrived yesterday driving from the airport to the hotel. I'd taken one look at the place and decided it would be the perfect place to take her. She would be familiar with the food, most of those there for the tournament would probably favor other restaurants in the area, so we'd have privacy – and I would be able to take her out on a date. However I was able to get her to go out with me, that is.
Entering the restaurant we were seated right away at a private table towards the back. Picking up the menu I quickly decided what to order and then realized that Sakuno might not be able to order if her English was still as bad as it had been at Wimbledon. I set the menu down and looked at her.
She had the menu laid flat on the surface of the table and her eyes were frantically scanning over it.
"Do you know what you want?" I asked.
She gave me a startled look.
"Ano…"
"Sakuno-chan your English is not very good, right?" I asked.
She frowned at me, "I have trouble with the language."
"Do you want me to order for you?" I asked.
"Ryoma-kun! This is a Japanese restaurant; they should be able to understand me!" she exclaimed.
"Hn." I must have embarrassed her again. Fine, be that way. We'll just ignore the fact that despite being a Japanese restaurant that most of the menu is in English.
A minute later, our waitress came and took our orders. Sakuno somehow fumbled through a guessing game of what was available and with our orders placed and our menus taken away I was suddenly confronted with a dilemma.
Now what?
Sakuno was looking at me expectantly, but I didn't know what to say. Sure, I had a lot of questions for her, I had a lot of assumptions I'd already made about her too, but I didn't want her to realize how much time I'd spent thinking about her either.
"A-ano…Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno finally broke the awkward silence.
What?
"Thanks for bringing me here, this is really nice," she said.
I smiled at her. It was completely involuntary, she was too cute.
"So, Sakuno-chan, you mentioned you live in Tokyo?" I asked now that the ice was broken.
She smiled back at me.
"Yes, I do," she said.
"So what's it like there? Do you like it?" I asked her.
"Well, yes, it's very pretty. It was snowing when I left, so it's weird being here where it's summer. And Tokyo is really busy, yes, it's very busy there. There are a lot of people and a lot of things to do, so I stay busy most of the time," she told me.
Hmmm…still haven't really learned much.
"My family owns a temple in Tokyo, but I've never been there," I offered.
Let's see what you do with that Sakuno. I was not disappointed.
Her eyes lit up, "Oh, Ryoma-kun you should definitely come and visit!"
Smirk. Now we're talking.
"I don't know anybody there," I began, but she cut me off.
"Ryoma-kun, you won't be lonely in Tokyo," she said.
"What?" Her statement gave me complete pause. I think my synapses actually shut down for a few moments.
"You don't have to be lonely anymore, Ryoma-kun," she said, her voice lowering from cheerful chatter to all seriousness. She gave me an intense stare. I'd never seen someone look so seriously at me saying something so kindly, as if they understood me on a different plain of existence. How did she know? I'd never been so caught off-guard in my life. Well, maybe with the exception of our last meeting when my eye was bleeding and there was a Japanese girl hauling me off the court at Wimbledon. I stared into her eyes for a moment. Sakuno…
My eyes caught slight movement and I watched her small hand reach across the table and softly touch the top of mine, "Ryoma-kun will always have me."
I turned my hand over and grasped her smaller hand in my own, "Sakuno," I breathed out in awe and disbelief.
She gave me that same smile she'd given me at Wimbledon and it nearly stopped my heart.
Vvvvvffffffttttt. Vvvvvffffffttttt. Vvvvvffffffttttt.
Vvvvvffffffttttt. Vvvvvffffffttttt. Vvvvvffffffttttt.
What the hell? Why is my cell phone vibrating NOW of all times?
"Sorry," I murmured to Sakuno giving her an apologetic look as I reached in my pocket and flipped open the phone. Normally, I wouldn't have taken the call, but during a tournament it was mandatory that I keep my phone with me and answer it. I silently cursed advanced technology in my head.
"Hn," I said into the phone.
"Ryoma! Where are you right now?" It was my mother, and she sounded rather frantic.
"The Japanese restaurant down on the corner," I answered.
"Are you with that girl from Wimbledon?" she asked.
What? What. The. Hell. How would she even...? Realization suddenly dawned on me. My stupid old man couldn't keep his mouth shut to save his life. Damn…
"Uh, yeah," I answered. What? What was I supposed to say?
"You need to get out of there RIGHT NOW, the both of you. There is a hoard of reporters waiting outside, Ryoma. The whole world is waiting to see the Prince of Tennis with The Japanese Girl that Saved Him," she informed me. The way she said it even sounded like a tabloid headline.
I held my tongue from letting out a list of choice expletives as I locked eyes with Sakuno who was looking across the table from me with curious concern.
"Okay, thanks Mom," I said and flipped the phone closed. I held back a growl of utter frustration.
"The press is outside," I said.
Her eyes looked startled for a moment, and then sadly resigned.
"I'm sorry for causing you problems again Ryoma-kun," she said dejectedly.
"It's not your fault, but we need to get out of here if we don't want to be the scandal of tomorrow," I explained.
She looked crushed for a moment before she dropped her face down to look at the table.
"I see. Okay Ryoma-kun can stay and I'll leave right now, that should be okay, right?" she said to the table.
"Hey, can't you look at me when you talk to me?" I said, slightly irritated at her sudden mood swing.
She slowly looked up at a slight angle.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing, I should go," she said as she stood from the table and began walking away. Damn, she was kind-of fast.
"Wait a minute!" I exclaimed to her retreating back. I stood up to follow her, only to be stopped by the windows surrounding the front of the restaurant giving me a good view of just how many reporters were outside. Completely defeated, I watched as Sakuno disappeared on me into the crowd of waiting reporters. That…was definitely not part of the plan. Tomorrow I was going to hunt that girl down out in the stadiums, how dare she just leave like that? What the hell?
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And so ends chapter 4. We're half way done! w00t.
Thank you so much to all the reviewers! Especially those that commented on the plot and writing style and AR that I'm using for this fic. It's nice to know that you are all enjoying the way I decided to write it out.
Kountry101 - I guess I wasn't clear enough in the beginning, so I'm really sorry. This is an alternate reality so Ryoma and Sakuno never knew each other before they "met" at Wimbledon. I hope this isn't too disappointing for you, the story is still juicy good, I promise. XD
anonymous jane - yep, that was Nanjiroh. You always get all my little "fan service" references. LOL. The stare down? I'm so happy you commented on it. BWAHAHAHAHA...that was actually where the whole idea for this fanfic originated from. It was all made for that one scene. And yeah totally, they aren't really kids so much anymore, so it's okay for them to breakout of their characterization shells a little bit. XD
Izaquix078 - ooooohhhhh...what part? Ehehehehehehe...