Way Back Into Love

A Ryoma & Sakuno from The Prince of Tennis romance fanfic

By: Bunny

Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis / Tenisu no Ōjisama is copyright Takeshi Konomi/Shueisha.

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Chapter Three – Let's Play

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Twenty-two year old Ryuzaki Sakuno was having a good day. She'd woken up once again to her old alarm clock, only this time she wasn't surprised. She'd got dressed and braided her hair into two long streams down her back and had practically skipped the whole way to school. Oh yes, life was grand at twelve and today she would find out if her Ryoma was with her or not. It was nice to be truly happy again. Happy without the cares of being an adult, happy to not have the pressure of knowing you had been dating the same man for six years technically and for ten years respectfully and that you still hadn't convinced him to make an honest woman out of you. Happy to be a kid again, with the cares of a kid, and oh, she was very excited. She was excited about playing with Ryoma.

She had purposefully missed the afternoon tennis practice yesterday afternoon. She knew that her Ryoma, that is, the twenty-two year old Ryoma would definitely notice her absence. He took their relationship very seriously for a guy that wouldn't marry her yet. If she ignored him, he would throw the biggest fit. Twelve year old Ryoma probably wouldn't care, if he even noticed.

As expected, it didn't take long for Ryoma to seek her out. As soon as lunch period had began he'd joined her up on the roof of the building and gave an irritated huff as he'd plopped down next to her on one of the benches up there. He was clearly irritated with her. That was a good sign since twelve year old Ryoma hadn't even given her the time of day. The time had come to truly test him out though.

"Hello, Ryoma," Sakuno said. Test one: drop the –kun that would have been used back then.

"Where were you yesterday?" he asked.

Test one: pass.

"I had something to do," Sakuno answered. Test two: pretend he has no claim on your whereabouts because there is no serious relationship.

Ryoma gave Sakuno a put-out glare.

Test two: pass.

"What were you doing that was so important?" He finally asked.

Sakuno gave a big sigh and rolled her eyes, pretending to be bored with the conversation. "Oh, nothing you need to worry about," she answered. Test three: provoke him.

Ryoma glared out at the horizon and then standing up said, "get it out. I know you've got something you want to say to me."

Test three: pass.

It seemed like there was a very good possibility that this was her Ryoma after all. Sakuno couldn't decide if she was happy or disappointed, but she was pretty sure that the real twelve year old version of Ryoma wouldn't pay this much attention to her.

"No, not really," Sakuno said and gave Ryoma an intentionally knowing smile. Test four: let on that there might be a secret you share.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," Ryoma exclaimed, pointing an accusing figure at Sakuno's face. "THAT LOOK! You gave it to me yesterday too. What's got into you?"

Test four: fail.

Sakuno frowned. Okay, maybe this wasn't her Ryoma after all. "Ryoma, why don't you have a seat? I made you lunch," Sakuno said. Test five: invite him to spend time with her.

Ryoma sat down and took the lunch box Sakuno was holding out to him and began to eat in silence.

Test five: pass.

Sakuno was puzzled. From her estimations, Ryoma wasn't acting like his twenty-two year old self, OR his twelve year old counterpart. She didn't get it. He was showing way to much interest in her for him to be twelve, though, in his defense she had been too shy the first go round to really test that theory. She did have the advantage here if he was twelve since she knew him rather intimately and twelve year old Ryoma barely knew her at all. In the same vein, he hadn't responded as she'd expected him to with her secret look. Her Ryoma definitely would have pounced on her at that point instead of accusing her of giving him weird looks.

Perhaps this called for a more direct approach? Maybe she would need to really provoke him in the unique way that she could, being his object of romantic affections his whole life.

Finishing her own lunch before Ryoma did, Sakuno stood and cleaned up her small lunch mess. Test six: pretend you aren't interested.

Sakuno turned to walk away only to find her wrist grasped by Ryoma. "Oi. Where do you think you're going?"

Test six: pass.

Hmmm…something more direct was definitely needed. This was getting her nowhere.

"I'm leaving," Sakuno answered.

"I thought we were having lunch together," Ryoma countered.

"As you can see, I've finished eating," Sakuno explained.

"Mada mada dane," Ryoma muttered as he let go of her wrist, making as if it was okay for her to leave, but still voicing that she wasn't supposed to.

Sakuno sat back down and decided the time had come to call him out.

"Ryoma, it's not like there is anything else to do up here," Sakuno began.

Ryoma gave her an unimpressed glance.

"That is…well, at least until about four years from now," Sakuno baited.

That got his attention. Ryoma put his lunch down next to him and gave her a searching look, his mouth half open in shock. He was starting to put things together, that was for sure. He had that look like he was thinking about saying something important. Sakuno reasoned that these were all good signs and decided to proceed.

"You take forever before you do anything, you know that? FOUR YEARS!" Sakuno emphasized her point. Knowing for a certainty that after their fight two nights ago, the four year reference wouldn't be lost on him – it had been four years since they had left high school and they were still unmarried and going nowhere in their relationship. Sakuno noted the irony that it had also taken him four years of liking her before he had finally kissed her too, but that was at least a thing of the past for her. Or rather, in her current state a thing of the future, but at least she was over it now and knew it was coming. Besides – starting a relationship is different than being in a committed one forever and not doing anything with it. She had every right to be upset with him.

Ryoma gave her a strange look that she wasn't able to read. "Oh? What happens in four years?"

Oh, now he was just messing with her. Fine, if Ryoma wanted to play like that, then she could too. Exasperated, Sakuno scooted closer to him and made quick work of the distance between their faces. Half an inch from contact she paused.

Ryoma froze.

"Let me jog your memory," Sakuno breathed out huskily as she tilted her head to the side and closed the remaining distance between their lips.

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End Chapter Three

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IMPORTANT AN: Okay, so I'm getting a lot of "I'm confused but intrigued" reviews, so let me explain the basic premise:

Twenty-two year old Sakuno is now in twelve year old Sakuno's body AND twelve year old Sakuno is now in twenty-two year old Sakuno's body. They did a mind-swap basically, for lack of a better explanation, but neither of them is actually sure what's going on – though you as the reader SHOULD be sure of what's going on. I hope this clears up all the confusion.

A big thank you to all of you who have left reviews for me about the story, I'm really enjoying reading your comments.

'kawaiihanah, Izaquix078, FujixSaku0709 - thank you for sticking with the story and reviewing again. grins

mariku-chan12, animelover11368, pontaalover, Moonlight19, rose12136, angel-of-darkness1012, anonymous jane, and sakuno101 - thank all of you for taking the time to review the story. I really appreciate your feedback and comments. The chapter sizes do vary a lot on this fanfic, but I am able to update regularly because I already wrote up the rough draft of everything. I've been making final adjustments as I can and posting up the next chapters as quickly as possible. There are seven total. I hope you all enjoy the rest and keep me informed if you are still enjoying it (and not confused anymore) or not. grins