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 Six – Old Friends, New Sensations

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Twelve year old Sakuno was nervous. This whole situation was very weird and she didn't think it was a good idea. Not at all, nope, this was definitely a bad idea. She was about to meet all of her friends, as adults. Her nerves were a total wreck. She needed to go to sleep and forget this nightmare. At the very least, she needed some time and space to reorient herself and mull her life over. The ten years of her life that had just been taken away from her specifically. What she did not need right now was the pressure of pretending everything was okay, and acting like she had been dating Ryoma-kun for the last six years. Oh and he wasn't Ryoma-kun, no…just Ryoma. Ryoma. Ryoma. Ryoma. This was insane!

After Ryoma had summed up the last ten years of her life for her, he'd told her about their plans for the day. She was definitely not ready for this! He'd promptly helped her find some clothes and get dressed, rushing her through the process. Sakuno had been beyond embarrassed with him helping her find her under things. To add insult to injury, he'd noticed and teased her about it.

"It's not like I haven't seen it all already," Ryoma had said to her with a wink.

Sakuno had blushed ten shades of red and protested, "Don't."

"Don't what?" he'd asked.

"Don't tease me like that, I can't even imagine Ryoma-kun," she had tried to explain, but was overwhelmed with embarrassment.

Ryoma shook his head at her.

"Made made dane. It's Ryoma. If anybody else hears you call me Ryoma-kun, there will be more of what Tomoka-san said on the phone," Ryoma explained.

Sakuno gave a nod of understanding as she combed her hair out and began re-braiding it. To be so intimate with Ryoma-kun! It was almost unbelievable, but she'd experienced a little of it herself that morning. It was a fantasy of hers, but she was only twelve! The idea that she had not only been dating Ryoma-kun, but that they were also...it made her whole body flush with embarrassed curiosity.

"Why do we have to go to this picnic?" Sakuno asked him again.

"It's our annual gathering of all the old Seigaku gang. If we don't go, we're going to have problems explaining," Ryoma informed her again patiently.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Sakuno weakly protested yet again as she tied a ribbon on the end of one long brown braid.

Ryoma let out a frustrated sigh as he finished twisting the end of her other braid, "I know, but we don't have a choice. We have to go to this."

"Ryoma, I'm really scared," she complained.

Ryoma pulled the other ribbon from her hand and tied it on the end of the braid he'd just finished and said, "We'll leave as soon as possible. You'll probably feel better once we get there and you see everybody. Don't be scared, I'm going to be with you the whole time."

He was giving her an encouraging smile that she found too endearing to resist. She was a sucker for him alright. Didn't matter how old they were, apparently.

Sakuno let out a sigh, remembering their conversation. If only she had the same kind of power over Ryoma as he did over her. She wouldn't be here at all! Arriving at their "old" school she made her way out of the car onto wobbly, nervous legs and tried to convince herself that everything really would be okay. Ryoma came around the car and without a word grabbed her elbow; pulling her along with him in the direction she assumed the picnic was taking place. She glanced at her watch and wondered how quickly she would be able to get Ryoma to take her back to her apartment.

Ryoma gave Sakuno a side-ways glance and wondered once again if she was being serious about losing her memories since she was twelve. If she was acting, she was really good at it, and if she wasn't - well, truth is either way he was in trouble. A lot of trouble.

Sakuno needed her memories back, specifically her memories of them. If she was twelve in her mind, there was no telling what she would do. Yes, right now she was staying with him, though things weren't exactly normal, she hadn't told him to leave her alone either. That didn't mean much as he was the only person around that she had known at twelve, so she was stuck with him at the moment. They were about to meet up with their old friends though, and what would prevent her from asking Tomoka and Horio to take her in for a while? Nothing.

Besides that, would she really be comfortable dating him at her age? How long would he be able to deal with her reverting to the mentality of a twelve year old? He was used to the older, mature, sexy Sakuno, not shy, nervous, self-conscious Sakuno. She was cute, but...this was making him feel like his dirty old man and that was never a good thing. Never mind that Sakuno wasn't twelve in body...if she was twelve in her mind, that made him…bleh. The thought made him sick. More importantly, what did she think about him? Specifically, what did she think about them?

On the other hand, if she was pretending to lose her memories, she was so going to get it! How dare she treat him this way? What did he ever do to deserve this kind of treatment from her?

Either way, he just wanted his girlfriend back to normal. Damn...she looked really nervous. He gave her elbow a squeeze and whispered, "Breathe."

Sakuno startled, but obediently took a deep breath as their friends came into sight.

"Sakuno-chan! Ryoma-sama!" Tomoka's loud yells came first and were soon joined with the calls of the rest of the old team, their old friends, and families.

Sakuno couldn't help but smile at the scene. Everybody was older, yes, but seeing all her friends and being on her school turf was pretty comforting after all.

"You're late!" Tomoka scolded as they finally arrived at the area and sat on the spread out blanket under the blooming cherry trees.

"Sorry Tomo-chan," Sakuno said to her long-time best girlfriend. Before settling, she gave her a quick hug. Tomoka was real. She was really there and older - yet another confirmation that this wasn't some bad dream, it was really happening.

"Are you okay, Sakuno-chan?" Tomoka asked right away, sensing Sakuno's unusual behavior.

"She's fine," Ryoma answered for her.

Sakuno looked at Ryoma, who was sitting on the other side of her, leaning around her to make eye contact with Tomoka. Then she looked back at Tomoka, who seemed to still have a worried look on her face.

Dropping her voice down to a whisper, Tomoka said, "Hey, Sakuno-chan, what was that phone call about this morning?"

Sakuno let out a nervous giggle, "Oh it was nothing."

Tomoka gave Sakuno an unconvinced look, but dropped it.

A couple hours later as they were making their way to the tennis courts to play a few friendly matches, Sakuno realized that there were two Ryomas. That morning, she had mistakenly thought that Ryoma had changed or that maybe she didn't know him very well, but after spending time with all their friends, she figured out the truth. There was the private Ryoma that talked to her, took care of her, and woke her up with kisses in the morning. Then there was the public Ryoma that everybody else knew. He was quiet and self-assured. He wasn't very openly affectionate with anybody, but he still made it very clear by his few words and actions that he was her protector.

Then it hit her. She knew a side of Ryoma that nobody else knew. She was one of the few people he opened up to, and that meant she had to be very special to him. He trusted her not to share all of his secrets, and he trusted her not to push him to be someone else in front of others. Realizing this, Sakuno suddenly felt overwhelmed with emotion. Her heart was overflowing and bubbling up in her and she felt like she was going to explode with happiness. Before she knew what she was doing, she had broken away from Tomoka mid conversation and caught up to Ryoma who had been walking slightly ahead of them. She took his right hand in both of hers, gave him a winning smile, a quick peck on the cheek and whispered, "Thank you."

Ryoma stopped walking at Sakuno's sudden actions and gave her a startled look, but didn't comment.

Sakuno was okay with that though. This was public Ryoma after all, and that meant that he wouldn't be open in front of everybody and that was okay. It was just one of the many things she loved about him. That's right, she loved him. She loved Ryoma and he really did care about her. Grandma always said actions speak louder than words, and his actions said that he loved her too. Maybe being twenty-two wasn't so bad after all.

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Later that evening, as they walked back into her apartment Ryoma asked her about the spontaneous "thank you" she had given him that afternoon.

Sakuno almost immediately became embarrassed, but quickly reminded herself that this Ryoma was a man that had been dating her for years. He was not the young tennis prodigy she knew that barely paid attention to her. She should open up to him in the way he did with her. He loved her and he deserved that from her. Even if she didn't remember the past, he was her future. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves.

Ryoma noticed her nervousness and commented on it, "You really don't remember anything, do you?"

Sakuno nodded her head.

"I haven't seen you acting this shy around me since we were in Jr. High," Ryoma gave her a warm comforting smile.

Sakuno looked down at the dark blue carpet of her living room and blushed. So he had noticed she was weird around him back then. Oh, she was really embarrassed now.

"Don't be embarrassed, I always thought it was cute," Ryoma shared.

Sakuno's eyes widened a bit and she looked back up at him with hope in her eyes.

"Don't look so excited, that all happened years ago," he dead-panned.

Sakuno shook her head, "You don't understand. For me, that was yesterday. I don't even know how we got from that to this," she said gesturing with her hands between the two of them.

Ryoma chuckled, "Yes, I suppose I see your point." Closing the distance between the two of them, he ran his warm hands up her arms and rested them on her shoulders. "And…are you okay with this?" he asked.

Sakuno gave a delighted shiver. Ryoma sure had a way of making a girl feel all grown up. Well, she supposed she was all grown up and this actually shouldn't be anything new to her, but it just was. She blinked at him, trying to reel in her out of control senses and give him a response, but it just wasn't coming to her.

Ryoma smirked at her knowingly and leaning in a bit closer gave her a slow, lingering kiss on her bottom lip.

Unable to help it, she moaned out his name and he deepened the kiss immediately, pulling her all grown up body flush up against his. Sakuno gasped at the contact, breaking their kiss. Her whole body was tingling with excitement. Wow, that was, wow...

He was pushing her away, "I better leave."

Sakuno panicked and grabbed onto his right arm with practically her whole body, effectively stopping his retreat. Ryoma stopped and gave her a stunned look as she slowly shook her head back and forth. "Don't go, please. I can't stay here all alone in this big apartment!" she begged.

Ryoma let out a completely frustrated sigh. "You really are twelve years old aren't you?"

He extracted her from his arm and pulled her towards her bedroom.

"I already told you I was!" Sakuno exclaimed, just as frustrated. Was this what they called unresolved sexual tension?

"Well now, that sounds more like the Sakuno I know," Ryoma shared as he began pulling clothes out of the dresser drawers for them both.

What was that supposed to mean? Sakuno gave him a put-out look as she caught a skimpy red garment Ryoma tossed to her. She gave the garment a baffled look. Did she not wear anything to bed but skimpy red see-through things at twenty-two? She flipped it around a couple of times, giving it a hard look. It was different from the one in the morning, but just as scandalous. Just what kind of woman did she turn into?

"Need some help with that?" Ryoma asked as he kicked his shoes off and lifted his shirt over his head.

Sakuno got one look of bare chest and promptly turned her back to him, blushing like mad. She headed for her bathroom, determined to figure out how to put on the skimpy red see-through thing while stuttering out a, "n-no."

This was going to be a long night.

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End Chapter Six

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AN: So that's chapter six. Just one chapter left. XD

Thanks:

FujixSaku0709, 'kawaiihanah, Izaquix078 - you three are just the best. You've faithfully reviewed every chapter and I just want you all to know how much I appreciate that. Sparkles... You all have such nice comments too. It makes me all WAFFy. Yay...

fire19, Vivi-G Weasley, disneyrulz23, faeriespark, mariku-chan12, phoe2k, meiyuri, sakuno101, pontaalover, animelover11368 - thank you all for your reviews as well. I'm so happy to hear your thoughts on the story and to get confirmation that those reading it are enjoying what they are reading. Grins...

'kawaiihanah - Oh heck yeah Ryoma is vulnerable. He wasn't expecting 22 Sakuno to come on so strongly, of course. Considering his knowledge of 12 Sakuno, 22 Sakuno scared him a little, but you know Ryoma - he's an adapter. LOL XD

Izaquix078 - I think it's all about perspective. Ryoma is pretty assertive when he wants to be, (he just doesn't care most of the time) and I think he would be very confident with Sakuno after the kissing hurdle was over with. Naughty grin...Though, I could definitely see some viewing him as OOC...that's okay though, I did try my best to keep everybody in character, but that's not always possible to the degree of each fan's personal interpretation of each character. And you think the fic is romantic? Sweeet...my work is done here. Bunny wipes her hands and walks away. Just kidding! I have one chapter left...

Vivi-G Weasley - you are awesome. I just love your reviews. I think I read them at least 5 times already because they make me SQUEE. Oh and yeah...22 Ryoma isn't sure if he's buying 12 Sakuno's story. But when guys are feeling vulnerable, they are usually cautious like that, especially if you consider it's Sakuno, who probably doesn't have a mean bone in her body. 22 Ryoma is confused as heck! She freaks out on him one day and she's acting weird the next, so 22 Ryoma is actually completely freaking out. (This part was developed a bit more in this chapter though I did imply it a bit in chapter four.)

fire19 - you made me ROFL. Do you not like happy endings, or you just want more fic so I need to add in problems? LOL. XD

meiyuri - I get what you're saying. Incidentally, this isn't my first time-traveling fanfic, so I'm familiar with the ideas of past affects the future, etc. All I can tell you at this point is...you'll see.

animelover11368 - All I can tell you at this point is...you'll see. And yeah, emotional Ryoma is so awesome! XD

Everybody else - thanks for your comments about the kiss and about enjoying both "couples" and your interest in the time dilations. It makes me excited to share more of the story with you.