Chapter 7 – Playing with Karupin
As soon as the door opened the two freshman were greeted by Ryoma's father. He was in his usual monk's attire bouncing a tennis racquet on his shoulder, a grin plastered on his face.
"Oi shounen, let's have a match" he called over to his son, already making his way toward the door.
"No" Ryoma replied simply, for once, shocking his father into silence. Nanjiroh just stared at Ryoma as is he were an alien or something, while Ryoma was nonchalantly taking his shoes off in the doorway.
In the kitchen, Rinko couldn't hear any noise coming from her husband. Getting slightly worried at the lack of noise, she went out to see what was wrong. The sight that greeted her was Ryoma untying his shoes, her husband staring at Ryoma, eyes wide in shock, and Sakuno standing off to the side looking slightly awkward. Deciding to deal with their awkward house guest first, Rinko turned to Sakuno with a kind smile.
"Welcome back Sakuno. Your welcome to stay with us as long as you need. Your grandma should be over here soon with all your things." Sakuno looked up at Rinko and gave her a small smiling in return and replied.
"Arigatou, Rinko-san" At the end of her statement Sakuno bowed to Rinko, her long braids almost touching the floor. Rinko, satisfied that Sakuno was alright, then turned to her husband.
"What wrong now Nanjiroh, you look like you've seen an alien?" Nanjiroh turned his head towards her, exaggerating every movement.
"I may as well have. Ryoma doesn't want to play tennis!" Rinko turned to her son concerned
"Are you alright Ryoma?" Rinko asked her son, signs of worry on her face.
"I'm fine" Ryoma replied. As he got up however, you could see him wince as he took his bag upstairs, avoiding his parents.
"The pain medicine must have worn off..." Sakuno thought as she watched Ryoma escaping up the stairs. "I wonder if it had already started to where of during practice..." The thought of Ryoma having to go through practice in pain made her feel guiltier than ever. Even if Ryoma told her not to feel guilty, she couldn't help it. Her guilt showed clearly on her face, causing Rinko to worry about the young girl.
"Sakuno, are you ok?" Sakuno quickly looked up at Rinko, her eyes wide in surprise.
"H-Hai. I-I was just feeling a little g-guilty, that's all" She said, lowering her eyes.
"Why are you feeling guilty Sakuno-chan?" She wondered. Sakuno sighed before telling the two adults what had happened earlier, and how Ryoma got hurt. Nanjiroh, who had gone suspiciously quiet, listened intently the whole time. Sakuno ended her story by saying how Ryoma told her not to blame herself, and that it was those thugs fault. After Sakuno finished speaking, Nanjiroh smirked and went off up the stairs while the girls were too busy talking to notice.
"Ryoma's right Sakuno-chan. It wasn't your fault at all, it was those thugs." Sakuno looked like she was about to say something, but before she could get a single word in Rinko continued. "Don't you even think about saying if Ryoma didn't save you he wouldn't have gotten hurt. While that fact is true, no one forced Ryoma to save you. He did it because he wanted to. Ryoma actually cares quite a lot about his friends and if he could take it back I doubt he would. Take it from his mother, he doesn't regret helping you and wouldn't want you to feel guilty." At the end of Rinko's speech, she smiled down at Sakuno, and Sakuno couldn't help but smile back.
"Arigatou Rinko-san" The two then continued to chat for a little while longer, about Ryoma's bruising and Sakuno's ankle, Rinko wanting to make sure that both the children were ok. When Rinko was satisfied that both the kids were fine she told Sakuno that she would still be staying in Ryoma's room and that she could take her bag up there.
"Ryoma can be so sweet" Rinko thought, once Sakuno had left. "Protecting Sakuno and telling her that it wasn't her fault. I wonder if he likes her..."
Meanwhile with Nanjiroh...
Nanjiroh poked his head into his sons room, a goofy grin on his face. Ryoma looked up from Karupin, who he had been playing with, to look at his dad.
"So, I heard you got hurt protecting Sakuno-chan huh? How noble of you" Nanjiroh said in a teasing voice, his grin getting wider. Ryoma sighed and lowered his eyes back to Karupin. Nanjiroh continued with his teasing. "You wouldn't happen to like Sakuno-chan would you?" he said snickering. "You did save her AND tell her not to feel guilty" Ryoma was used to his dad's teasing about girls, and his senpai's teasing about Sakuno but the last part of his statement surprised Ryoma, although he didn't show it.
"She told them I told her not to feel guilty?" Ryoma thought starting to get annoyed. Before he could get too annoyed or let his musings go further, Nanjiroh continued.
"You mustn't have done a very good job of that though, since she was still feeling guilty. But don't worry Ryoma, Rinko will sort her out" Nanjiroh waited for his sons reaction, but was disappointed. Ryoma was still in a bit of pain, seeing as the medication wore off during the walk home, and he wasn't in the mood for his dad's teasing.
"Che," Nanjiroh said, frustrated as he left the room. When the door closed behind him, Ryoma sighed in relief, glad his "baka oyaji" had left, however her couldn't get what he said out of his head.
"Ryuzaki was still feeling guilty?" He thought in confusion "I already told her not to, so why was she?" For once Ryoma decided to take his dads advice and leave it to his mum. She was, after all, way better at comforting people and dealing with emotions than he was. Hell anyone was better at dealing with emotions than Echizen Ryoma. Ryoma returned his attention back to the white fluffy ball in front of him. Getting his Karupin's favourite toy, which the cat loved so much it followed Ryoma to school to get it, and waving in front of the white ball of fluff.
A few minutes later the door opened once again. This time Ryoma decided not to look up, in case his oyaji had come back to continue teasing him, instead he waited for whoever it was to talk first. However, whoever it was didn't say a word. Ryoma could feel the person staring at him, and decided that he should look. He looked up to see Ryuzaki Sakuno staring at him. When she noticed that Ryoma had caught her staring she blushed bright red and turned her head away.
When Sakuno had walked into the room to see Ryoma playing with a cat, she had been shocked. She had never thought that Ryoma was an animal person, but he seemed happy playing with the cat. He had the same smirk on his face that he did when playing a tennis match against a tough opponent, but this smirk was somehow a little different. His tennis smirk was mostly cocky confidence and determination with happiness and enjoyment behind it. This smirk lacked the confidence and determination but was replaced with a teasing smugness that looked almost the same. They were slightly different however, and Sakuno could tell. This scene entranced Sakuno, causing her to stare.
To avoid even more embarrassment, Sakuno said the first thing that came to mind.
"I-I didn't know you had a cat R-Ryoma-kun." Sakuno put her bag down beside Ryoma's and slowly made her way towards Ryoma and the cat.
"Hn, he was hiding in Nanako's room last night" Ryoma stated continuing to play with Karupin.
"What's his name?" Sakuno asked taking a seat beside Ryoma and Karupin. Ryoma looked at her for a moment, surprised that she didn't stutter, and saw that she was staring at the cat.
"Karupin." Ryoma replied. He considered something for a moment before asking, "Do you wanna play with him?" Sakuno looked up at Ryoma, smiled and nodded shyly. Ryoma handed her the toy and watched as she waved it in from of the Himalayan cat saying
"Come on Karupin" He eyes lit up as Karupin went after the yellow toy.
"Hmm... Who would have thought Ryuzaki liked cats this much" Ryoma thought as he watched the girl get obvious delight out of playing with Karupin. After a while Karupin got bored and went over to Ryoma to lie in his lap. Ryoma stroked Karupin's fur as he purred in delight. Sakuno smiled brightly as she watched Ryoma stroking Karupin.
"He looks so... childish" This thought just caused Sakuno to smile more. The last thing she expected was for Ryoma to have a childish side.
"I guess he doesn't really show this side around people. I guess the senpai's already knew though." She thought as she recalled the time's she had seen Ryoma with the other regulars, mucking around and ganging up on Kikumaru-senpai with Momo-chan-senpai. Sakuno lowered her head as she thought this, getting a little depressed at just how much she didn't know about the young tennis prince. She heard a meow and looked up at Ryoma again. Seeing him looking so childish again, she couldn't help but smile. Even when she thought of all the times Ryoma had acted childish without her noticing, not once had he looked so much like his own age.
"I shouldn't get upset over what I don't know" Sakuno thought optimistically, "I should be happy about what I'm learning about Ryoma-kun." Sakuno's smile grew wider as she reached over to pat Karupin as well. He was a very adorable cat.
After a bit of stroking, Karupin started to get restless, so Sakuno and Ryoma stopped stroking and left Karupin do what he wanted. Reluctant to leave Ryoma, Karupin decided to climb all over him. When Sakuno saw Karupin start this, she laughed. The sight of the Himalayan cat trying to climb up Ryoma's arm was just too funny. Ryoma looked at her and scowled a little, moving Karupin away from his arm and back to his lap. However, Karupin wasn't finished. After failing to climb Ryoma's arms Karupin tried a different way of climbing Ryoma. Sakuno watched as the cat's eyes turned towards Ryoma's head. The two stared each other down for a moment, causing Sakuno to laugh more, before Karupin's eyes moved to Ryoma's chest. Finding his knew climbing path, Karupin started to climb Ryoma's chest. Sakuno had to hold her sides due to her laughter.
Ryoma stared at the laughing girl, he had never heard her laugh like this before. Sure she had laughed at his tennis matched when she was especially happy that Seigaku was winning, but never like this. This was Sakuno's laugh when she saw something funny, and Ryoma couldn't take his eyes off her, he had just never seen anything like it. Her eyes were lit up, and her whole body shook, a beautiful smile Ryoma had never seen before gracing her face.
"Wait beautiful..." Since when had he, Echizen Ryoma, started thinking of girls smiles as beautiful. Let alone Ryuzaki Sakuno. She was his coaches granddaughter. A sharp pain brought Ryoma out of his musings, causing him to completely forget what he was just recently thinking about. Karupin's paw had made it's way right onto the spot where Ryoma was hit with the tennis ball. Ryoma winced and pushed Karupin away from him. Sakuno saw the look of pain on his face and immediately stopped laughing.
"Are you okay Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked worriedly. Ryoma just nodded, causing Sakuno to worry more.
"Do you have any more medicine?" She asked, hoping there was some way to relieve his pain. Ryoma shook his head, and seeing Sakuno was about to continue to worry and try to get him to have more medicine, he spoke.
"It's hurting less now. It just hurt because Karupin stepped on the bruise." Sakuno didn't look convinced, but decided to let it drop. He had taken the medicine for her earlier, she didn't want to push him too much. Instead she decided to get something off her chest.
"W-when did the medicine w-where off?" she asked, hoping that it was sometime after tennis practice.
"While we were walking home." Ryoma said, picking Karupin up again and placing him on his lap. Sakuno sighed in relief, thankful that Ryoma didn't have to suffer too much during tennis practice. She smiled and started patting Karupin again.
"I really like this cat" Sakuno thought happily, scratching Karupin behind the ears. A few minutes later they heard a call coming from downstairs.
"Sakuno-chan! Your grandma is here!" Sakuno smiled and gave Karupin one last pat before going downstairs. Ryoma sat there for a moment more, considering whether he should follow or not, before deciding he was probably going to have to go down anyway. So Ryoma put Karupin down and went downstairs after Sakuno.
A.N. HEY! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm not sure if Karupin is a boy or a girl so I decided to make it a boy. I think I sometimes refer to him as an it so... sorry if that bugs anyone. If anyone knows what gender Karupin actually is please tell me. THANKS to those who reviewed! (I think there were 2) They made me really happy! Ummm... I think that's it for now... If you have any suggestions please let me know, I appreciate them.
Please Review! and Thanks for reading. Until next chapter,
Cya
