Chapter 3 – The Senpai's Get Suspicious

Sakuno woke up to a ringing coming from the table beside the bed. She drowsily turned to see what the noise was, only to be met by hand hitting her face. She bolted upright to be met by the sight of two drowsy catlike eyes starting to open.

"Why hasn't that damn clock stopped ringing yet?" Ryoma thought as he opened his eyes to see why the clock was still ringing. What he saw was Ryuzaki Sakuno looking at him in shock. It didn't take long for Ryoma to piece things together and realise he had hit Ryuzaki instead of his alarm clock, as he was now sleeping on a futon on the floor instead of his bed.

"Gomen Ryuzaki" he said drowsily and stood up and walked around to the alarm clock. Sakuno's eyes followed him all the way, wide in shock. Never before had she seen Ryoma apologize to someone so easily and without being bitter about it.

"I guess Ryoma doesn't really wake up straight away." Sakuno thought as she fell back on the pillows, she wasn't really a morning person either. She took a deep breath as she prepared to get up for the day, but as she did so stopped short. The sheets, the pillow, everything smelt like Ryoma. She looked down at the clothes she had borrowed from Ryoma to sleep in. They smelt like Ryoma as well. Sakuno blushed as she remembered Ryoma throwing the clothes to her the night before. Due to sleepiness she hadn't reacted the night before, but had just gone to the bathroom to change. Now however, she was blushing ten shades of red.

"I can't believe I'm wearing Ryoma's clothes" She thought. She looked down at the oversized white shirt and red shorts she was wearing. They were very comfortable to sleep in, much more comfortable than she though they would be. In fact, Sakuno didn't want to get out of them. She heard footsteps, and suddenly remembered she wasn't alone in the room, and looked up to see Ryoma walking back to the futon. Sakuno looked on puzzled as Ryoma laid back down on the futon to go back to sleep.

Sakuno didn't know what to do. Should she try to get him to get up or just leave him? Luckily Rinko chose that moment to enter the room.

"Ohaiyo Ryoma, Sakuno-chan" Rinko said cheerily. A groan could be heard from Ryoma as he turned over to look away from the door. "Sakuno-chan, I've got your uniform here" Rinko said holding out said uniform. Sakuno was quick to get out of bed and over to Rinko to take her uniform.

"Arigatou Rinko-san" Sakuno thanked Rinko. She just smiled back at Sakuno before asking what was really on her mind.

"How is your ankle feeling this morning?" Sakuno had to take a moment to contemplate her answer.

"It's feeling a lot better, just a little tender. Thank you Rinko-san." Rinko smiled upon hearing this.

"You should be fine to walk to school with Ryoma then. I'll strap your ankle before you leave, and you'll have to walk slowly."

"Ariatou Rinko-san" Sakuno replied shyly, and walked off to get changed. Rinko then turned her sights on Ryoma.

"Come on Ryoma, get up." Her only reply was him turning further away from her. Rinko then had a devious idea.

"Okay then Ryoma, I guess I'll just have to show Sakuno some of you embarrassing baby photos." This got Ryoma to turn to face his mother. Even if the reaction was small, she still got him to react, which was a win in Rinko's books, and she now knew he would in fact get up, so she could leave.

A few minutes later…

Sakuno was first to come down for breakfast met Nanako and Rinko in the kitchen. Seeing that they were cooking breakfast Sakuno offered to help, she was actually quite good at cooking despite what Ryoma said. Together they made a great breakfast in no time, with a mixture of western and Japanese food. Due to this they decided to have a buffet instead of making dividing the food into meals. The three of them took the food out to the table to see that Nanjiroh had come to sit and was reading the newspaper. Ryoma still had not come down, Sakuno noted.

Just as the food was all set out Ryoma came in still looking slightly drowsy. They all then sat down and began to tuck into the food.

Sakuno, who had only ever rarely had western food, tried all the western dishes that Rinko had prepared. She was enjoying the toast and bacon and eggs and waffles that Rinko had made. As she was eating however she noted that Ryoma didn't even touch any of the western food, only the Japanese food.

"Shouldn't you two leave now? You're going to be late if you don't." Nanako said, referring to Ryoma and Sakuno, while looking at the clock. The rest of the table then followed her gaze to see that it was about 20 minutes until morning practice started. The two started towards the door; however Rinko stopped them before they could make it.

"Hang on. I have to bandage Sakuno's ankle. She can't go to school without it being strapped." Ryoma just looked at the clock and Sakuno sat back down to allow Rinko to bandage her ankle. After about ten minutes Rinko had finished and informed Sakuno of what she can and can't do, and the two were heading out the door.

"Ryoma, make sure you walk slowly for Sakuno!" Rinko called as the two made their way out the front gate.

"Hai" Ryoma called back and the two were on their way.

They walked in silence and soon Sakuno started to feel a tad awkward.

"G-gomen for m-making you late for p-practice R-Ryoma-kun" She said to break through the silence.

"Che, Buchou will make me run laps again." This just made Sakuno feel worse, so she just decided to stay in silence. As the walked however, Sakuno kept trying to think of a way to help Ryoma. It wasn't his fault he was late, it was hers. Suddenly an idea popped into her head.

"Ne, R-Ryoma-kun, I'll tell obaa-chan that it's not your fault we're late, it's mine. Hopefully she can get Tezuka to let you off easy." Ryoma just looked at her and nodded in agreement. This caused Sakuno to smile, knowing that she could help Ryoma out, after all he'd done for her last night.

They entered the gates of Seigaku ten minutes after practice had started. It wasn't an odd occurrence for Ryoma to be late, but what caught the eyes of the regulars was that he arrived with Sakuno. If she wanted to watch morning practice she usually came with her grandma. The regulars being themselves, of course, came up with many wild ideas as to why they had arrived together and couldn't wait for a chance to question Ryoma about it.

"Echizen, 50 laps!" yelled Tezuka in his commanding captain's voice. Sakuno was quick to reach her grandmother and started talking to her as Ryoma started to run. Sakuno quickly explained what happened this morning to her grandma and asked her to ask Tezuka to lessen the punishment. By the time the coach had had a quick chat with the captain Ryoma had just finished his fifth lap. Tezuka's voice once again rang out through the courts.

"Echizen, that's enough, start practicing with the others." Now this got everyone to look up and stare. Never before had they seen Tezuka take back or shorten a punishment. If anyone ever argued, even with a valid excuse, he only just increased the punishment. It took a whole minute before practice returned to normal, with the help of a lot of scary stares from Tezuka.

After the shocks that they had all received during practice, the regulars practically jumped on Ryoma as soon as the entered the change rooms.

"Ochibi!" Eiji yelled as he wrapped his arms around Ryoma's shoulders. Momo came up to him net and copied his senpai's actions.

"Echizen!"

"What now?" Ryoma thought.

"Ne, Ochibi, why did you arrive with Sakuno-chan this morning?" Eiji inquired in a voice which said "I know exactly why I just want you to admit it"

"Yeah Echizen, why?" said Momoshiro, mimicking Eiji's voice. Ryoma who seemed dense to their implied accusations simply relied with the truth, not seeing the need to hide it anyway.

"We walked to school together. Why wouldn't we arrive together?"

"And why did you walk together Echizen?" Momoshiro took up the line of inquiry.

"She stayed at my house last night." Ryoma stated bluntly, without any hesitation what-so-ever. Eiji and Momoshiro's arms fell from Ryoma's neck in shock, allowing Ryoma to start getting changed, and the attention of all the regulars was now on Ryoma.

"WHAT!" Eiji yelled, causing Ryoma to flinch.

"Ryuzaki stayed at my house last night" Ryoma repeated starting to get annoyed.

"Where did she sleep?" Momoshiro, still in shock, asked the first question that came to mind.

"In my bed" Ryoma replied, nonchalant. Everyone's, except Fuji's, jaws dropped at what Ryoma had just said, their minds having been overloaded from his last statement. Fuji smiled his characteristic smile and continued the questioning, as everybody else's minds seemed to have run too far ahead of themselves and they seemed to forget who they were talking to.

"Where did you sleep then Echizen?" Fuji asked. Ryoma looked up at Fuji as he answered.

"On a futon on the floor of my room." He replied, as nonchalant as ever. The rest of the regular's minds then started to work again and they all visibly relaxed. Oishi was the next one to ask Ryoma a question.

"Why did Tezuka reduce the number of laps you had to run Echizen?" Ryoma had to think for a moment for the answer to this question. He didn't actually know what Ryuzaki or the coach said, or what Tezuka was thinking, so he just said what he did know.

"It wasn't my fault we were late." He said simply. None of his senpai's seemed to believe this answer, as they all stared at him with looks saying "yeah right"

"Come on Echizen, we want to know how to get out of running laps as well." Momo whined. When Ryoma just looked at them blankly Eiji turned to Inui, who always seemed to know everything.

"Inuii! How did Ochibi get out of running laps?" Eiji whined to Inui, looking at him hopefully. Inui just looked at his trusty notebook and said,

"I have insufficient data to answer" It was then that they knew they would probably never know. If Inui didn't have any data on this and couldn't come up with anything, then what hope was there? Eiji turned to his trump card, his last hope.

"Fuujii! Do you know?" Fuji smiled his knowing smile and replied

"He must have had a good reason" Smile still gracing his face. This just confused his team mates even more.

"But Ochibi never told Tezuka a reason. And excuses only make Tezuka give even more laps" Eiji contradicted his friends notion.

"Ahhh, but I never said Ryoma was the one who gave Tezuka the excuse. Also if you try to give Tezuka an excuse yourself he will give you more laps, but what if other people stand up for you. People he can't punish?" This caused everyone, even Inui to think.

"Who gave Tezuka the excuse then? And what is it?" asked Oishi, just starting to put the pieces together.

"The coach's granddaughter told the coach who told Tezuka. As for the excuse, let's just say Ryoma can be very gallant." Everyone turned to Ryoma to see his reaction to what Fuji said and see if he was right, however when they looked their kohai was already leaving the room, having already changed while they were talking. The others quickly changed so they could try and catch up to him.

A.N. Hey everyone. First off, Thanks to my followers and reviewers. Every new review I get make me so excited I jump around and dance and tell anyone who is around me "I GOT A NEW REVIEW" They make me so hay so lease continue to review. Second, this chapter seems to have a lot of filler to me but I feel it is necessary. I have the story line planned out to a certain point in my head and this is an important part. Not in relation to the story in any way, just to my brain. So sorry if anyone gets bored in this part. Third, this is a RyoSaku fanfic and I want to have some RyoSaku moments and eventually get them together, I'm just not sure how. So if anyone has any idea's they are very much appreciated. Also for them to actually get together please wait until I have posted all the story up to where I have planned it until you give me idea's for that, coz something might change and I won't be able to use an idea that I might really like sooo... yeah. Anyway I'm gonna try to add more RyoSaku. Please tell me if you agree or disagree to this so I know. I wanna write a story you will enjoy reading. I think that's all now... Thanks again to my followers and favouriters, it really makes me happy to know you like the story and the people who take time to review. It really makes me so happy and I love to know what you think. OK ENOUGH OF MY BLABBING!

Thanks for reading and until net chapter,

Cya.