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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Four – Ryoma Knows It All

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twelve year old Ryuzaki Sakuno was having a bad day. She'd woken up in a strange bed, in a strange room, with a strange man kissing her only to discover she was also in a strange body. Sakuno had grown up overnight, and she couldn't remember anything in her life past being twelve. She was currently feeling very upset and vulnerable. Yes, very vulnerable. Of all the people to find herself with, why did it have to be the one person she had the hardest time being herself around? Ryoma-kun made her nervous. She really had to talk herself into just about anything with him, but she'd always made efforts to overcome her nerves around him. Perhaps she simply feared rejection, but that didn't seem to be her problem today. No, Ryoma was definitely insisting on being with her and while that would normally be viewed as a dream come true for her, today didn't count. Today she just wanted some explanations and she didn't want them from her crush turned into boyfriend/lover/whatever their relationship was, how did she end up old and like this again?

"Sakuno, you need to tell me what's going on," Ryoma reiterated.

Sakuno heaved a big sigh and steeled her nerves. Just tell him already! He already heard Tomoka screeching on the phone, so it's not like it will be anything new now anyways!

"I'm not sure how to tell you this…I…" Sakuno frowned. "I seem to have lost my memories. I don't know how I got here. I can't remember growing up at all. My last memory is getting ready for bed at Grandma's house…" Sakuno trailed off, unsure what else she should be telling him.

Ryoma sat on the edge of Sakuno's bed in her apartment and wondered desperately what had gone so wrong in his life the past 24 hours. Everything had seemed just fine. He'd been doing very well this year with his tournaments. He had a beautiful, loving girlfriend that had stuck with him since they were twelve. (Or rather since sixteen if you wanted to get technical.) He had a great support system of friends and previous teammates that were always there to help him out. He was in the process of buying his first home (though that part was a secret) and he was thinking that his future would be bright indeed.

Then last night, Sakuno had been determined to be angry with him. It was seemingly out of nowhere. Sure, she had mentioned marriage before, and sure it had usually ended with Sakuno's obvious displeasure, but last night there was no discussion. It was just accusations and yelling and "get out of my apartment!" He had wisely retreated and figured it was possibly some sort of stress thing, or hormonal thing and that his Sakuno would be back to normal the next morning.

Boy was he wrong. She was even weirder today. No kissing this, Ryoma-kun that, I need a doctor this, I have no memories that. How was he supposed to take this? Was she really being serious with him or was she still freaking out about whatever set her off last night? They never had fights, never. Sakuno never yelled at him. Ryoma didn't even know she was capable of getting so angry. Well, it's not like Sakuno would actually ever really leave him anyways. No, she was definitely stuck with him no matter what. This he was sure of, right? Sakuno would always stay with him, wouldn't she? Well, honestly the way she was talking was setting off all kinds of alarms in his system that he didn't like. It was actually making him nervous. If she couldn't even remember being with him, then what would prevent her from really leaving him?

Proceed with caution. That was the conclusion of the matter indeed. Okay, he could do cautious.

"Sakuno, tell me what I can do to help. You may not remember, but I'm always here to support you," he said. He was so proud of himself. What girl could resist that? Sakuno would definitely tell him everything now and then he could fix all her problems and his life could get back to normal.

Sakuno gave Ryoma a nervous glance. Who was this guy and what had happened to Ryoma? Oh well now then…it's not like she knew Ryoma all that well after all. She should just trust him, shouldn't she? He seemed to be the only one around, and Tomoka hadn't helped at all. Maybe he could at least set her straight on her age and what she was doing there…

"O-okay. Well let's see, how old am I exactly?" Sakuno asked.

Ryoma's self-assured smirk was back in full force. That's more like it. Talk to me Sakuno.

"We're twenty-two-" Ryoma began only to be cut off by Sakuno's shocked outcry.

"TWENTY-TWO!" Sakuno stood and walked back to the mirror to re-examine her body. She started with her face, yes, a bit older looking. Her hair – still long and in braids at least some things didn't change. She was probably close to a foot taller than she'd been last night, and woah…she glanced down at her chest again. When did those get so big? She covered them with her hands for a moment, trying to come to grips with her situation.

She turned back to look at Ryoma, who was now lounging back on her bed staring at the ceiling, looking tired and bored.

"So…" Sakuno began, but stopped herself because she was unsure how to proceed. What are you doing here? Why were you kissing me this morning? Do I have a job? Where is my Grandmother? What is Tomoka doing? How is the rest of the gang from Seigaku?

"What?" Ryoma asked.

"Well…" Sakuno paused again. Honestly, she just didn't know what to ask.

Ryoma sat back up and looked at her.

"You've been living in this apartment for four years, since you were eighteen. I usually sleep over when I'm in town, but sometimes you come over to my place. Coach Ryuzaki retired a couple of years ago and moved to a villa out in the country. She's really happy there. Tomoka-san got married two years ago to Horio after dating him for about six months. That's when you started getting upset with me all about getting married. Anything else you want to know about?" Ryoma asked.

Sakuno digested all the information while she tried to wrap her mind around Ryoma talking so much. She didn't think she'd ever heard him say so much unless it was about tennis, and even then it was usually mada mada dane this or mada mada dane that. She supposed though that in a ten-year sum up that he wasn't really talking all that much. Communicating with Ryoma was always 50 percent guess work, 40 percent body language, and 10 percent translating mada mada dane or un, umph, huff, sigh. She was starting to sound like Inui-sempai with all these percentages, and she wasn't being fair to Ryoma. For all she knew he was a regular chatterbox with his family. Well, she seriously doubted it, but she didn't really know. Maybe he talked to her a lot now since they were obviously in a serious romantic relationship. His run down on the past ten years of her life had definitely confirmed it for her. Her suspicions had already started with the kissing in the morning, the insistence on "Ryoma" instead of "Ryoma-kun" and the fact that he wasthere. What had really got her going though was when he'd been concerned about her being…well, being…ugh! She couldn't even think about that. If Ryoma and the older her were…well…if they were…she felt her face begin to flush and looked down at the floor her mind not being able to get past that one idea.

"I see," Sakuno finally said.

"You really don't remember any of that?" Ryoma asked.

Sakuno shook her head and bit her lip. "I'm sorry Ryoma-kun; I seem to have missed the last ten years of my life."

Ryoma got up from the bed and pulled Sakuno into a tentative hug. She allowed it, too overwhelmed to protest even if she'd wanted too, and honestly needing a bit of comforting as it was. It was...kind-of nice when Ryoma was like this.

"I...don't know how this happened to you if you're serious about this Sakuno, but I'm going to do my best to take care of you," Ryoma offered.

Sakuno gave a weak smile to the wall she was facing as she allowed herself to lay her head on Ryoma's big, strong chest. "Thank you. I do remember that you have always protected me, and I trust you," she said quietly.

Ryoma scoffed. "Heh. Well, at least you remember that much. I've always taken care of what's mine, and I might not have had it all figured out ten years ago Sakuno, but I know I've told you before that I already knew back then that you were the only one for me."

Sakuno let out a nervous, short giggle and said, "Ryoma-kun…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End Chapter Four

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: Yay! I'm happy that everyone is telling me they either aren't confused anymore or that they got it from the beginning. Grins...

'kawaiihanah, Izaquix078, FujixSaku0709, sakuno101, Moonlight19 - thank you all of you for your continued support by sharing with me your take on the story as it progresses and what you think about it. It makes me very happy.

'kawaiihanah - thank you for all your nice comments about the plot I really appreciated that. And no worries I'm just fine tuning each chapter as I post them up. I will probably end up doing a re-write later on, but I'm really enjoying writing this fic, so I'll be into it for a while.

Izaquix078 - Totally. You are so feeling me on this story. I love it. Again, thanks for sticking with me.

FujixSaku0709 - YAY for getting it from the start. That made me really happy because I was starting to think that maybe I wrote the story poorly since there seemed to be so much confusion.

drearymoments, The Gandhara, Anonymous, Vivi-G Weasley, Lanelly, MiNKy307 - thank you all for your comments and for joining the small number of those that read and review. (Seriously you all should see the read count vs. review count.) I really appreciate every comment even the ones that just let me know you are reading the story and enjoying it. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Vivi-G Weasley - your review made me SQUEE. Grins...

Everybody that's reviewed and that will in the future thank you, you are an inspiration to me and it is a joy for me to read your comments.