Chapter 5! Bon Apetite!

Ryoma woke slowly as the morning sun's beams burned a hole through her eyelids. She raised her arms above her head and arched her back off the bed. The weight on her chest quickly disappeared when Karupin jumped off the bed wake up himself.

Ryoma twisted so she could shut off the alarm clock above her bed.

For some reason, she had an odd feeling about today.

--

Tezuka woke up as he did every morning. He rose out of bed and went through his morning routine, blind, and then got dressed, blind, before putting on his glasses, not blind.

He did this however, with a distant mind.

Let's take look, eh?

'I can't go to school! Ryoma will be there. Wait! When did I start calling her by her name? I hate Ryuu, he planted some type of bomb in my head to make me panic like this. What am I going to do?! Is she going to confess? Gosh, I sound like Oishi. Whew, calm down Kunimitsu. She's probably going to act like everything is normal. If she could do that, so can I! Put your CAPTAIN FACE on and fight! Fight! FIGHT!'

Tezuka glanced in the mirror and saw an emotionless face staring back. Inside he smiled, he could do this. He knew he could.

--

Ryoma was excited to go back to school, why? Well, there was tennis practice of course!

She went into her closet to get out her uniform, and screamed bloody murder once again. This time, Ryuu crashed into her room.

"What is it Ryo!? Are you hurt!? What-"

"Where are my uniforms!?"

Ryuu paused, "Say what?"

"Where are my uniforms? My black ones!?"

"Um, well you ARE a girl, did you forget it?"

"Who took them?"

"Ryoma-honey, I got you those uniforms on my way home last night." Rinko stood in the doorway; she was drying her hands on a hand towel. Her mahogany hair was pinned in a slightly messy bun with a few strands framing her gentle face.

Ryoma looked at her mother.

"Why?"

"Now that Ryuu is here, you don't need to pretend to be a boy anymore."

Ryoma was going to say something, but then Rinko opened up her normally half closed eyes, like Fuji. Sharp cinnamon eyes silenced any protests immediately.

"Hai, mama, I understand."

Ryoma bowed her head in defeat before going into the bathroom. Ryuu looked at his mother.

He was already dressed as he, unlike his twin, was indeed a morning person.

"Are we having omelets?"

"Yes dear," Rinko smiled before leading her son out of the room and downstairs.

Ryoma was not a happy girl, but that feeling still stayed with her.

--

"Run thirty laps for warm ups!" Tezuka barked as he stood, tall and proud, in the tennis courts at Seigaku.

Everyone ran their laps as Inui whipped out his new 'SUPER HYPER REMIX EPITOME OF HEALTH INUI JUICE'. No way was a gray and blue swirling juice healthy. It looked like mercury.

Ryoma and Ryuusuke walked onto the courts, already changed and both in their uniforms for practice.

"Buchou," They said in unison as they walked past him and joined in the run for life.

Kikumaru shouted at the sight of his Ochibi's white cap.

"Ochibi~! You're back!" He shouted as he glomped her. Ryoma choked and gasped for air as soon as his grip loosened up.

"Yes I am back, Kikumaru-senpai."

"Echizen, how are you! Are you okay? Did you get hurt while you were gone?"

"Oishi-senpai, I'm fine." Ryo's acute hearing picked up on a slight hiss and looked out of the corner of her eye.

Ryuu and Tezuka were involved in a fierce battle of who could burn a whole through the other's head the fastest. Ryuu had a slight snarl on his face and once again he made a hissing sound. He sounded like a pissed off cat.

Momo was holding Ryoma in a headlock, but his hands seemed tense. As a matter of fact, everyone seemed tense and was very careful of where they touched her.

Wait a minute, could they possibly know?

She looked at them. And by 'looked', that meant peering into the depths of their souls and turning them inside out. Atobe wasn't the only arrogant person with fabulous insight.

They knew. The way Kawamura and Kaidoh looked away when she looked at them was enough.

Ryoma was angry with them. How could they know about her, and then go ahead on acting like nothing's wrong!? What they Hell is wrong with them!? They should be angry with her, they should drag her somewhere and slap her for lying.

"Well, aren't you, you know?" She inquired curiously.

"Aren't we what, Echizen?"

"Angry with me," She simply said.

"Why would we be angry?" Momoshiro played it off. Kikumaru shook his head.

"She knows, Momo. Nothing escapes her."

The non-Regulars looked on in curiosity. Tezuka and Ryuu were off to one side in a staring contest. The others were huddled in a circle.

"What are they talking about?" Horio asked in his loud voice.

"Shut up, won't you?" Arai seemed irritated by the new turn of events.

Inui continued writing info down as he watched the captain and twin fight it out.

"There is a 90% chance that Tezuka and Ryuu are fighting over something involving Ryoma."

Everyone in the circle stopped what they were doing and looked toward the data man.

"Why would you say that, fshhuu?"

"Ryuu is over protective of Ryoma and Tezuka is like a teacher to Ryoma. They must disagree on something about her."

"Is it true?"

"I wouldn't know, both of them are private people." Ryoma shrugged her shoulders.

--

Golden eyes met hazel in a fierce clash.

Your not going to win.

Don't tell me what I can and can't do!

You'll never win.

You don't know that.

Oh, but I do. I know I won this round.

Che, yeah, THIS round, but not the war; you'll never win my sister over.

According to your last statement, I already did.

Ryuu's eyes widened at that last telepathic statement.

He blinked slowly.

"Don't you dare, I'm serious."

"What? It was your Freudian slip."

Tezuka walked away and ordered everyone to practice their backhands.

--

It was lunch time and Ryoma was on the roof top, contemplating.

'I should tell buchou how I feel, shouldn't I?'

Ryoma sighed before gathering up her wits.

'I am blunt; I'll just tell it straight to him.' She hoped that she was making the right choice.

--

"Buchou," Ryoma said softly into the nearly empty room. Tezuka was sitting there, going over some papers. Ryoma had told Ryuu to go with Momo, with the threat of replaying the tape, of course.

She decided to do it right then and there.

Tezuka looked up from his papers and blinked at the sight of Ryoma.

"Buchou, I like you."

Tezuka blinked a few times. Had he heard right?

"What?" His voice was quiet, he needed to hear it once again.

"I…like…you." Ryoma said it nice and slow as if he was a little tot.

"Thank you." Ryoma's face fell before it became completely emotionless.

"Now," Tezuka continued. "I don't have to search you out to tell you. I'm positive your brother could kill me despite his height."

Ryoma thought about it. 'Why would he need to search for me?' And then it came to her. 'Oh, he likes me too. WHAT!?' Ryoma beamed before going to sit next to her buchou. She could call him that now. 'Her' buchou; it had a nice ring to it.

"So, what does this mean?"

"What do you want it to mean?"

"I don't know; does this make us boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Tezuka thought about it before a small smile lit his face up.

"I guess it does."

Ryoma smiled before stretching. She peered over to see what type of papers Tezuka was dealing with.

Math stuff, stuff about math and tennis and physics, that's what it was.

"Is this 'Captain stuff', 'Class stuff', or what?"

"It's a project for physics."

Ryoma made a sound of agreement before leaning back in her chair.

Until she realized, she didn't have a chair to sit in.

"AAAAAHHHH! Ack, ouch, that hurt!"

Tezuka picked her up. He was surprised at just how light she was.

"Thanks buchou," Ryoma looked for a seat before she realized that all of the other desks had already been turned over by the janitors.

"Don't, it's too heavy to flip over."

Ryoma sighed, she could stand. But then she realized that there was a seat right in front of her. She walked up to Tezuka and plopped herself right in his lap.

"You make a very good chair."

Tezuka froze when Ryoma sat in his lap. Oh my starry eyed surprise, Ryoma was NOT doing that, was she? He 'subtly' tried to get her off, he couldn't see the papers with her in the way. She just gripped his pants' side and stayed seated.

"I can't go anywhere. Ryuu said to stay here so he could pick me up after burgers with Momo-senpai."

Tezuka sighed and realized that her mind was set. Even before Ryuu and this whole love crap, he knew that Ryoma was one stubborn asshole when she (at the time he thought this, 'he') was not going to back down.

He wrapped his arms around her thin waist and under her arms and rested his head on her shoulder so he could see.

Ryoma inhaled quietly and smelled Tezuka's hair. It smelled like apples and cinnamon.

--

Ryuu returned to school to pick Ryoma up. She had told him that she had to do something that could've taken a while.

Ryoma waved to him and ran up to him in her new girl's uniform.

When he was about to say hello, a punch caused vibrations to travel up and down his arm.

"Ouch! What was that for!?"

"Why did you tell Buchou that I liked him? Over the internet, no less, I can't believe you!"

"What? It was a Freudian slip! I didn't mean to say it. It just came out!"

"Saying something and typing a whole sentence are two different things."

"Anger gets the best of me. How did you find out?"

"Kunimitsu told me."

"Oh, wait, wait, wait- 'Kunimitsu', when did you start calling him that!?"

"I started to when I became his girlfriend today!" Ryoma laughed and ran away.

"WHAT THE- RYOME GET BACK HERE!"

--

Ryoma sighed as she got into bed. Karupin snuggled up close to her and she fell asleep immediately.

Ryoma's short, thigh length nightgown fluttered as she appeared before a large library.

A shadow appeared behind her before passing through her. A woman walked up to the doors with intricate carvings in the massive, dark brown oak.

Her stomach was swollen, she was about six months pregnant.

Ryoma was shocked to see herself, an older version of herself. She watched the older Ryoma open the doors and walk inside. Ryoma followed.

In a circle, in the center of the humongous room, were four people. One was a four year old, one was seven, one was a year old, and the last was a man in his thirties.

Ryoma gasped as she realized that in this dream, Tezuka must've been her husband.

The older Ryoma walked up to them and picked up the baby. The other two were already sleeping, each with their head in Tezuka's lap.

"Honey, can you carry them?"

"Of course, you should be in bed. The doctor said to be careful with the twins."

Twins, Ryoma was going to be pregnant with twins.

"Kunimitsu, I'm pregnant, not deathly ill."

Tezuka picked up the two kids and held them carefully while he gave her a kiss.

Ryoma followed them as they walked down a long hall to a large room. Inside, the room was broken down into three parts. One was peach, one was blue, and the other was pink.

"Mitsu, where are Ryoko's pajamas?" The older Ryoma whispered. She was holding the baby and looking around for the night clothes of the four year old in her husband's arms.

"Under her pillow, Ryoma," was the other hushed reply by Tezuka. Ryoma threw the clothes to her husband and placed the baby in her crib in the peach colored section.

Tezuka place the boy in the bed in the blue section and changed both kids into their night clothes before placing them in their respective beds.

The couple stopped at the doorway.

"I love you, Kunimitsu." Ryoma whispered as Tezuka kissed her.

"I love you, so, so much, Ryoma." They kissed again before closing the children's door and heading off to bed.

--

Ryoma woke up the next morning with a slight smile on her face. She liked the future her dream showed. But she wasn't sure if having THAT many kids was healthy.