Chapter 2 – Staying the Night
They soon arrived at the Echizen house. As soon as they went through the front door they could heard Ryoma's dad yelling.
"Shounen, where have you be-"he stopped mid-sentence when he saw Sakuno draped over Ryoma's shoulders. "Finally Shounen," he said, a grin creeping over his face," I thought you would never bring a girl home. Have fun you two" he said with a wink and started to walk away. Sakuno blushed so hard she could put a tomato to shame. Ryoma just sighed but called out when he saw his dad was leaving.
"Wait, Oyaji, she's hurt." He called to him, but he had already left. "Baka Oyaji" he muttered. Sakuno stared at him in confusion, not used to hearing Ryoma speak like that. Luckily Ryoma's cousin, Nanako, came in to see what they were talking about. A shocked, worried look came over her face.
"Oh, what happened? Are you ok?" she asked Sakuno as she came over and took the bags from Ryoma and led them into the kitchen/living room. As soon as they entered Rinko saw them and rushed to get the first aid kit.
"Nanako, can you finish dinner please?" Rinko asked, flustered. Nanako quickly agreed and went to the kitchen to finish making dinner, while Ryoma sat Sakuno on a chair and Rinko started looking at her ankle.
"How did this happen?" she asked both Sakuno and Ryoma. Between the two of them they told Rinko all about those boys and what happened to Sakuno's ankle.
"I hate people like that" Rinko said sadly, "At least your ankle isn't too bad, it's just severely bruised and slightly sprained. You shouldn't walk on it tonight and should take things easy for the next week or so." Rinko instructed and went to put the first aid kit away. Nanjiroh then entered the room.
"Your still here?" he asked Sakuno, but then started to look closer at her. "Hmmm… You look familiar… What's your name?" he asked her suspiciously. Ryoma, who was watching smirked at this and waited to see his father's reaction.
"R-Ryuzaki Sakuno…" she said hesitantly. Nanjiroh's reaction was instantaneous. He jumped up and ran to the wall.
"You're the old hag's granddaughter?" he asked incredulously, and then he turned on Ryoma. "You brought her here on purpose didn't you? That old hag is going to kill me for letting her granddaughter get hurt!" Ryoma just smirked at his father as Rinko came in, having heard Nanjiroh from the other room.
"You're Sumire's granddaughter? Well we will call her to come and get you. Nanjiroh go give Sumire a call and tell her what has happened." Rinko ordered
Nanjiroh looked at her incredulously. "WHAT? There is NO WAY that I will call that old hag!" he yelled and turned his back on them all like a petulant child.
"Oh really Nanjiroh?" Rinko's voice is low and threatening. "Ryoma, Nanako, shall we have a bonfire with Nanjiroh's magazines tonight?" Immediately Nanjiroh ran to the telephone to call Ryuzaki sensei.
"A-anou, what magazines are you talking about? A-and w-why would you burn them?" asked Sakuno innocently, cocking her head to the side. Her questions however were greeted with silence as no one was willing to tell the girl what exactly they were talking about. Luckily, after just a few seconds yelling was heard from the phone, giving everyone an excuse not to answer.
Sakuno sweat dropped at the sound of her obaa-chan's yelling.
"G-gomen, obaa-chan worries a lot and…"
"Oh don't worry dear; Nanjiroh deserves a good yelling at. It's really sweet she cares for you so much." Rinko replied to Sakuno's attempted apology. Ryoma chose now to speak up.
"Sensei is probably worried because of the road work going on down the street. No one can get in or out until tomorrow morning." Ryoma's statement was met with silence. Everyone had seemed to forget this very important fact, until now. Another set of yells, this time from Nanjiroh, broke through the silence and caused Rinko to go and stop her husband from smashing their phone against the wall. This left Ryoma and Sakuno alone in the living room together.
"R-Ryoma-kun, your dad sort of strange isn't he." Sakuno giggled out. Ryoma's eyes glanced out at her from under his hat momentarily before resuming their place behind the brim.
"Che," Ryoma muttered "Baka Oyaji" This just cause Sakuno to giggle again. She liked this side of Ryoma. The side only his close friends, like Momo-senpai, and family get to see. She was glad she got to see it. In truth it was kind of cute. Ryoma just looked back towards the door, away from Sakuno, just as his parents came back in. They both looked pleased.
"Oh no" thought Ryoma, knowing his parents all too well "What now?"
Rinko smiled broadly, yet sweetly. While Nanjiroh smiled deviously.
"Sakuno's going to stay here tonight" Rinko announced cheerfully. Ryoma's head spun towards his parents, while Sakuno who had already been looking at them blushed excessively. "Since Sumire can't get here tonight, Sakuno will stay here and go to morning practice with Ryoma tomorrow morning."
"Where will she sleep?" Ryoma wondered aloud. Although as soon as the words were out of his mouth he regretted them, seeing the smirk on his father's face widen.
"Why in your room Ryoma" he said chuckling. Sakuno's blush increased tenfold, but Ryoma, used to his father's nonsense, simply turned to his mother with a questioning look.
"I'm afraid it's true Ryoma. Nanako has to study for her exams, and we promised Sumire she wouldn't sleep anywhere near Nanjiroh" she said with a sidelong glance at her husband. "Don't worry we will set up a futon in there. Sakuno will have to sleep on Ryoma's bed, it will be too hard for her to get down to and up from the floor with her ankle the way it is. I hope you don't mind if we don't change the sheets Sakuno, it's quite late and you both have an early start tomorrow." The thought of sleeping in the same room as Ryoma, and in Ryoma's bed no less, caused Sakuno to blush so much anyone could mistake her for a tomato. She turned her head away to spare herself more embarrassment.
"Th-that's f-fine. Th-thank you so much for letting me stay. S-sorry for the inconvenience." Sakuno replied
"Oh it's no inconvenience at all, right Ryoma?" Rinko said looking sternly at Ryoma. He thought it was a very big inconvenience, but for some reason he didn't seem to mind as much as he should.
"I'm probably just tired" he thought.
"Right" Ryoma said in answer to his mother's question. Rinko smiled at his reply, and a light bush crossed Sakuno's face, which had only just returned to its normal colour.
Nanako then came out with her arms full of delicious food filled plates. Everyone in the Echizen household then sat down to eat.
After Dinner…
"Arigatou Nanako-san, Rinko-san" Sakuno said when the meal was finished.
"You're welcome Sakuno. Now why don't you and Ryoma go off to bed. You two need your sleep." Rinko stated "Ryoma make sure you help Sakuno up the stairs. She won't be able to walk properly until the morning." With that said, Ryoma went and helped Sakuno to stand and slowly make their way up the stairs, Sakuno blushing all the while.
"I don't think I've ever blushed as much as I have tonight in all my life."
When they were out of earshot, Rinko turned to Nanjiroh and Nanako.
"Aren't they adorable? They are so cute together" she whispered, her voice rising in pitch in her excitement.
Nanjiroh smirked at this about to make an inappropriate comment but Rinko quickly stopped him. Nanako looked on fondly, agreeing wholeheartedly with Rinko.
A.N.Thank you soooo much to everyone who followed and/or favourited. Also a special thanks to my 3 reviewers. I love them so much. Now I know why authors always bug the readers to review. So please please please (must do everthing in three's) review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I also forgot the disclaimer last time so...
I don't own prince of tennis and I never will.
I'm not going to do anymore disclaimers. This is it for the whole story. I don't see the point in them. Okay... I think that is everything... Oh also thanks to Nike-chan for telling me about my mistake. If anyone finds any mistakes don't hesitate to tell me and I'll fix them up asap. I think that really is it now so thanks for reading and until the next chapter
Cya.
