Chapter 10 – Fuji to the Rescue

The walk to Seishun Gakuen that morning was quite peaceful. Momo and Oishi spoke about what was probably in store for them that morning at practice. However, Ryoma and Sakuno were quiet. They only said the occasional response when one was needed. This was quite common for the two. With Sakuno's shy personality and Ryoma's cocky, aloof personality, the two didn't talk that much anyway. So Momo and Oishi didn't realise the true meaning to their silence, thinking it was completely normal for their two kouhai's.

In reality, the said kouhai's minds were still stuck in what had happened that morning. "How am I going to be able to face Ryoma-kun's family? Especially Nanjiroh-san." Sakuno fretted in her head. "It's just going to be so awkward." She thought forlornly. Ryoma meanwhile was having similar, but still quite different thoughts.

"Baka oyaji!" Ryoma thought in dismay. "Why did he have to read those disgusting magazines? Ryuzaki is probably going to... I don't even know." Ryoma halted due to his last thought. Why did he even care how the twin braided girl would deal with this information?

"Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked, seeing he had stopped walking and was being left behind. Momo and Oishi stopped their conversation and turned around to see Ryoma standing in the middle of the pathway. They looked at the young boy with expressions a mixture of confusion and worry. They still were not sure if Ryoma had completely recovered from the day before. "Are you okay Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno inquired as Ryoma hadn't seemed to have heard her the last time. Ryoma suddenly snapped back to reality when he heard her question.

"I'm fine." He said gruffly, pulling the brim of his cap down to cover his face, before hurrying to catch up to them, slightly embarrassed.

"Are you sure Echizen? Is your injury from yesterday still sore?" The mother of Seigaku questioned young boy. Ryoma had to reassure the group that his bruising had stopped hurting and that he was fine in every way, before they could continue on to school.

Once they reached the tennis courts the boys all went to change while Sakuno spotted Tomoka and hurried toward her friend. As soon as Tomoka spotted Sakuno, she ran straight at her.

"SAKUNOOO!" Tomoka yelled as she ran. Sakuno was shocked by her friends energetic greeting, before she remembered how they had parted the day before. "Ne, ne, Sakuno! What's it like staying with Ryoma-sama? Where did you sleep? What's his family like? Tell me everything!" The excited girl questioned Sakuno enthusiastically. Sakuno just stared at her best friend in shock. Not quite knowing how to answer her questions. "Well? Sakuno don't hold out on me!" At the saddened look on Tomoka's face Sakuno caved.

"What question do you want me to answer first?" Tomoka's face lit up like a light bulb being turned on. "She seems to have calmed down a bit now" Sakuno thought relieved when she saw the expression on her best friend face. Not many people would have noticed the difference, but after years of practice the two girls could read each other like a book.

"What's it like staying with Ryoma-sama? What's his house like?" Tomoka asked excitedly.

"Well, It's been really fun. He lives with his mum, dad, cousin and cat, Karupin. She is the cutest cat ever!" Sakuno revealed smiling before blushing as she remembered the night before, playing with Karupin with Ryoma. Tomoka was too excited to be getting new information about 'Ryoma-sama' to notice the blush adorning her friends face.

"He has a cat!?" She squealed in delight as she hugged Sakuno out of excitement. After a moment she stopped though. "Sakuno, you smell different." Sakuno turned towards her friend, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You smell different Sakuno. You usually smell like strawberry and vanilla and...girly, but now you smell..." A look of recognition crossed Tomoka's face and her mouth hung open in shock. "You smell like Ryoma-sama Sakuno!" Sakuno looked at Tomoka confused, before she remembered sleeping in Ryoma's bed. Ryoma's bed which smelt just like Ryoma. Sakuno's face flushed bright red, which Tomoka took no time to realise. "Why do you smell like Ryoma-sama?" Tomoka said slyly.

"A-anou, w-well..." Sakuno closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing exactly how her friend would react to what she was going to say. "I slept in Ryoma-kun's bed." Tomoka stared at her in silence for 3 whole seconds to let her brain process that information.

"WHAT?! OH MY GOD SAKUNO!" Sakuno flinched at the volume of her voice.

"T-Tomo-chan, calm down." Sakuno tried to quieten her friend, but to no avail.

"CALM DOWN!? How am I supposed to calm down?! You slept in Ryoma-sama's bed!"

"T-Tomo-chan..." Sakuno uttered quietly. As soon as Tomoka realised she was upsetting Sakuno she quietened down a bit.

"I'm sorry Sakuno," she said more quietly this time, "It's just that I was so shocked and excited. I mean, you slept in Ryoma-sama's bed. If anyone else knew..." She suddenly got a serious look on her face. "We can't tell anyone else Sakuno. Ryoma-sama's fan club would go after you, even though I'm the president I can't always stop them." Sakuno smiled at her friends caring.

"Don't worry Tomo-chan, I'll be fine." The two friends smiled at each other before Tomoka got back to questioning Sakuno.

"Come on Sakuno. Let's walk around. I'm so excited I can't stand still!" Sakuno grinned at Tomoka and nodded. The two girls walked around the Seishun campus while Sakuno told Tomoka all about staying with the Echizen's. Well... almost everything. She didn't mention Nanjiroh's magazines. That topic was just a bit too awkward.

"Ryoma-sama likes books?!" Tomoka exclaimed. According to her research Ryoma only cared about tennis and ponta. Now she was finding out about a cat and books!

"I'm not sure if he likes all books or just that book Tomo-chan." The two girls were approaching the tennis courts as they walked. From the looks of it today the tennis club had self training. Tomoka and Sakuno turned to walk between the tree's, not really wanting to be overheard. After they were about 5 meters into the tree's they heard the sound of a tennis ball being hit. Sakuno's eyes widened as she saw the ball speeding towards her and Tomoka. This time Ryoma wasn't there to save her. She shut her eyes, expecting to be hit by the ball. Except she didn't. Instead, someone came forward and hit the ball away from the two cowering girls. They looked up and saw Fuji standing before them.

"Are you two okay?" He asked and looked at them worried.

"H-hai" They both said in unison, relieved that he had come to save them.

"Come on let's get out of here." Fuji instructed, and the two girls readily complied. Fuji, keeping his back to the girls, and hit away any balls that were hit toward them as the group slowly exited the tree's. Once clear of the tree's the tennis balls seemed to stop and you could see the figure of a person escaping the tree's from a different place. Fuji looked down at the two girls and smiled at them.

"I saw you two enter the tree's and decided to follow you. It would be the perfect place for an ambush again. Luckily there were only four or five people this time. They were probably waiting for you to be alone Sakuno-chan, before they attack." Fuji explained to the two shocked girls. "I'm glad you two are safe."

"Arigatou Fuji-Senpai" The girls said in unison again.

"We should go find Ryuzaki-Sensei and tell her what just happened." With that the small group made their way toward the tennis court. When they got there the regulars had gathered up around Ryuzaki-Sensei. Fuji proceeded to tell Ryuzaki-Sensei what had happened and with every word her expression got more grim.

"Sakuno, you aren't allowed to go anywhere without one of the regulars around. Ryoma, you should be more careful too. Stay around the other regulars as much as possible. Both of you try your hardest not to be alone. At least be together. Understood?"

"Hai Obaa-chan" Sakuno replied immediately. All eyes turned to Ryoma. He lowered his Fila cap to cover his eyes and nodded his head.

"Un" Was his reply, and everyone knew that was the best they would get from him. Meanwhile, Ryoma was caught up in his thoughts. "They went after Ryuzaki when I was practising? Why didn't she stay and watch practise like always? Why wasn't I there to protect her?" The last thought caught Ryoma off guard. Why would he, Echizen Ryoma, be worried about protecting Ryuzaki Sakuno? It's not like she was hurt anyway, Fuji was there to protect her. Unfortunately that thought didn't make Ryoma feel any better. If anything it made him feel worse.

The rest of the day played out quite normally, however Ryoma was still unsettled. Instead of spending the lunch hour sleeping on the rooftop like he normally would, he stayed in the classroom and tried to sleep at his desk. It was quite hard to sleep when fan-girls were surrounding you. This, of course, didn't go unmissed by Sakuno or the other tennis regulars. So that afternoon, once practise was over Momo decided to confront him.

"Hey Echizen, what's up?" Momo called over to the freshman prodigy as they entered the change room. They were the only ones in there as the other regulars were chatting on the courts. Ryoma just ignored his second year team member and proceeded to get changed. Momo frowned at his reaction, before a grin crossed his face as an idea came to mind.

"Are you upset because Fuji saved your girlfriend?" Momo said slyly, with a devilish grin on his face. Ryoma, not comfortable with how close to the truth Momo was, glared at him for a moment before going back to changing. Momo's eyes widened at Ryoma's reaction. Usually he would just ignore anyone who implied that Ryoma had feelings for their coaches daughter. This reaction was completely different from usual, and told Momo he was right on target.

"So I'm right" Momo teased, a wide grin on his face. Ryoma looked sharply at his friend and team mate before he, once again, went back to changing. Momo's grin just got wider, "Don't worry Echizen, it's normal. Your jealous that it was Fuji-Senpai who saved her this time. Ah, young love, young love." Momo finished off his mini speech. Meanwhile Ryoma was just getting more and more annoyed. "I don't know why I'm so irritated but it's not because of that." Ryoma told himself. But that left the question. Why was he feeling so irritated? The young boy decided to just brush the thought aside and focus on what was happening now, and quickly continue to get changed. Momo was getting annoyed at his kouhai. "Why can't Echizen just admit he's jealous?" The sound of the door opening interrupted his musings, causing him to look up as the rest of the regulars entered the room. Momo smirked as an idea came to him.

"Hey Fuji-Senpai, why don't you and I take Echizen and Sakuno-chan home today?" Momo asked Fuji. Fuji looked at Momo and almost instantly realised he had a plan, and Fuji wanted in on it.

"Sure Momo, I'd love to" Fuji replied with a smile. However, Eiji could tell that a plan was cooking, and he wanted in on it too.

"I wanna come too nya!" He said as he went over to Momo and Fuji, before turning towards Ryoma. "I can come too right Ochibi?" But Ryoma was no longer there. He had already left the changing room. The three troublesome regulars looked at each other before hurrying to change. While they changed Momo told the other two his plan.

A.N. Hey Guys! Sorry there wasn't too much fluff in this chapter. This chapter was mainly to set up for the next chapter. I want to say THANK YOU TO MY REVIEWERS! I really loved the reviews. They made me really motivated to write this chapter. Please Review this chapter as well. I will be so happy.

Thanks for Reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Until next chapter,

Cya