Hey all!

I've kept you waiting! I swear this is the fastest I've ever updated…

Anyways, so here's the regular thing: PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Disclaimer: I only own Moriyama Kimiko, not Prince of Tennis.

Now, please enjoy my newest piece! Chapter 2 of "The Empress!"

Regular POV

Kimiko gripped her head in frustration, staring at the sheet of practice math problems in front of her. This was not working; her head was swimming just looking at these. She glared over to the person on her right, trying to burn a hole through him for giving her all of these.

Said guilty person felt her eyes on him and turned, saying nonchalantly, "Are you done?"

Kimiko's hands balled up into fists, and she glared even harder at the boy. If only looks could kill, she thought to herself, then turned to her tutor, "Sanada, you jerk! You can't just give these to me! I don't get a single one!"

Kimiko POV

He simply stared at me stoically; his gaze was kind of unnerving. It didn't move from my face, and then it was so deep, I felt like he could see through my very soul. I was like a deer in headlights, and all I could do was glare back.

Eventually, Sanada won the tacit glaring contest, and I resignedly returned to my math problems. Well, returned to staring at them blankly, was more like it. So, let's see, 2x + y equals…wait what?

I looked again. "2x…plus…y…equals…equals…equals…" I was doing my best, but I HATE MATH! CURSE THE BLASTED PEOPLE WHO INVENTED THE STUPID SUBJECT!

Sanada sighed, and came over to me. I jumped when I heard his deep voice resonate in my ear, "I can't believe you don't know how to do these. Tarundoru." I heard him added under his breath. Wow, he remembered that it doesn't work on me, so he didn't bother yelling it. (A/N: fufu…poor Sanada)

He grabbed my pencil, which I had laid on the side of the paper and began scribbling down the process and final answer neatly on the sheet. But that wasn't the problem! (A/N: LOL no pun intended!)

The problem was that he was practically on top of me! When he came over to help me, he had looked over my shoulder, and then just started writing so that his head was practically on my shoulder, his chest on my back, and his right arm half hugging me!

Eeek!

"-yama" I heard. Eh? "-riyama!"

"EARTH TO MORIYAMA!"

"AH!" I was shocked out of my already shocked trance.

"Aa, I see you've returned to this dimension," Sanada said drily.

"Gomen," I apologized, "I blanked out for a second there."

"Clearly," he scoffed. "Now get started on those other ones. I've finished the first for you, so treat it as an example."

I looked at him closely. Now that I thought about it, Sanada wasn't a bad person. Smiling to myself, I continued on the other problems. Maybe, just maybe, the next month would be fun, after all.

Sanada POV

After that episode, Moriyama actually worked faster than I expected her to. The weirdest thing about her was that the entire time, her face had this small smile on it. It wasn't the smile I saw in class when she was being the sarcastic, uptight her; it was gentle, and kind of…angelic.

No, not angelic. Angels don't exist, and this rude excuse of a woman was definitely not going to become one.

Moriyama finally finished and handed me the sheet. "Here, Sanada. Can you check them for me?"

I nodded. I suppose it's fair for me to do that; otherwise she doesn't know if she got them right or wrong. That wouldn't help her. My eyes flickered from answer to answer. …For someone who is failing math, she picks up pretty quickly. Not that I'd admit that to her.

I glanced over at said person, who happened to be sleeping on the floor of my room. Her long hair was splayed out behind her, and she was taking in deep breaths, that same peaceful smile on her face.

When I saw a wrong answer on her paper, I felt somewhat (mind you, somewhat) guilty I'd have to wake her, but this was my job as a tutor. I poked her, "Oi Moriyama. Wake up."

"Hnn?" she grunted in response. "What?" she asked sleepily.

"You got number five wrong. It's x = 2, and y = z = 3."

"No it's not, it's no solution you idiot. When you put it in a matrix and do row operations, you'll see that 0 = 12 and that's impossible, so it's no solution." With that, she rolled over onto her side and fell asleep again.

I looked at her. …What nonsense was she spouting? Just to see where she went wrong, I tried putting it into a matrix. It was obvious she got it wrong; we hadn't even taught this in class yet, so there was no way she…Hold on a minute.

My eyes scanned over my work again and again in disbelief. She was…right? I turned my head back to her on the floor. Who was this girl? I thought she was failing math, not accelerated!

Again, like that day in class, I was itching to talk to her, but afraid of rudely interrupting her sleep, I let it go until she awoke.

Regular POV

At her mumbling signal that she wasn't sleeping anymore, Sanada poked her until she was wide-awake. "Oi, Moriyama. Get up."

Kimiko sat up and glared at Sanada. "Yes? How were the answers?" she asked warily.

Sanada looked at her, examining her. Slightly uncomfortable at his unwavering gaze, Kimiko continued glaring. "What are you looking at?"

He shoved the paper at her. "You understand this…even more than I do," he added quietly. "How can you be failing math?" Sanada couldn't help but be curious. Sure, he didn't like the girl at all, but he supposed it wouldn't hurt…to just know why.

She glared at him for a few seconds, also wondering why he wanted to know, then decided he didn't mean harm, and looked down at her hands, letting go of her cold facade. "It's just me. When I get home from school, it's really late, and I hate math, so after I finish student council, I do everything but math, and then…"

"Tarundoru," Sanada said quietly. "You have the potential, yet you shove it below everything else. That's a waste."

Kimiko turned her face back up to him. It was the first time she'd ever heard Sanada compliment anyone. Well, she supposed this was the closest he would ever get to complimenting someone directly.

She shrugged, a simple lift and drop of her shoulders, effectively ending the conversation. An awkward silence ensued, neither knowing what to say, when all of a sudden, a knock came from outside the door of Sanada's room.

"Gen-chan?" a voice called, causing Kimiko to jump in surprise.

Sanada visibly stiffened; Kimiko had to cover her mouth to prevent her laughter from escaping. "Yes?" he bit out in response to his mother.

"Lunch is ready. Why don't you invite your friend to eat with us?"

Sanada's "friend" glanced at her watch. Wow, it was already 12? Her stomach growled in response to her realization. And so did Sanada.

"Mother, we'll be down in a few minutes, so could you give us a bit of time to finish?"

"Okay," Sanada's mother replied, and left. The two middle schoolers could hear her footsteps fading away, and when they could no longer hear them, Kimiko immediately unclasped her hand from her mouth and burst into a fit of unstoppable giggles.

"Gen-chan?" she cried out in her mirth. "Oh my gosh…" and she collapsed on the floor again in giggles, unable to speak.

Sanada growled. He mentally took back that statement about tolerating the next month. If this was just the first day…he shook his head; he could feel a migraine coming. "Just come with me. Since my parents want to meet my first 'student,'" Kimiko stuck her tongue out at him at his word choice, "I guess there's no choice." He stood up and opened the door wide, glaring at the girl. "Hurry up, let's go."

She sighed. "Hai, hai, sensei," she snickered, walking past Sanada, her hair flowing behind her as she dashed down the stairs. He put his hand to his head; oh yes, there was definitely a migraine coming at this rate.

Kimiko POV

The two of us approached the dining table together. Sure, I hated the guy's guts to the depths of…well, you get the point, but as I was a guest, I might as well tolerate him for a meal and try to be approachable at least to his family.

Reaching the table, I immediately stepped forward and bowed deeply as my parents had taught me when I wore the kimono as a little girl. "Thank you for allowing your son to teach me." Not, I thought to myself. "I am indebted to all of you, and am further grateful for your offer of such a fine meal." There, that should give a good impression.

I straightened back up, and was immediately horrified by the looks of the people who greeted me. Sanada's mother was in front of me, giving me a blank look. An elderly man (I'm assumed it's Sanada's grandfather?) next to her displayed a shocked face, and his father had a similar look on him.

"Um…?" I ventured.

And out of the blue, the grandfather began clapping his hands, subsequently followed by Sanada's parents. It was my turn to be shocked. Did I just do something brilliant or stupid? I looked at Sanada, but he had the usual unemotional mask of his on his face. Just by glancing I could tell that asking for clarification from him would be equivalent to talking to a brick wall. I stuck my tongue at him quickly and turned back to his family.

His grandfather beamed brightly at me. "That was an excellent execution of the ojigi (A/N: that's the Japanese term for bowing) and manners, my dear child! Where did you learn it?"

"You're like a princess from the old fairy tales," his father added.

"With long flowing black hair, and those pretty eyes and white skin," his mother tacked in dreamily.

"Uh…" I was dumbfounded. No one, and I repeat, no one, had ever complimented me so much in my life before, not even my parents! Oh, well Mitsu-kun sometimes did…but this was a first. Definitely.

Finally, Sanada sighed from behind me and stepped in. "Grandfather, mother, father, you're troubling her."

"I APPROVE!" the grandfather crowed, causing both Sanada and I to take a step back. Even his parents looked over at the elder one in surprise.

"She will do," his grandfather said, nodding contentedly to himself. I looked at Sanada for help again, What? I hoped my eyes communicated the right message. I guess they did. He looked back and me and subtly rolled his eyes, replying, Later.

Finally, after lots of confusion, and one heck of a lot of chaos, the five of us sat down to a full-course Japanese lunch. Hoo boy, it looked and smelled and…WAS delicious! My lord, I hadn't tasted proper traditional Japanese food since my parents left for Germany!

(A/N: Yes, she lives alone. I explain later.)

Halfway through my as-lady-like-as-possible wolfing of the meal, Sanada's grandfather began asking me questions, such as the basic "What is your name?"

I almost choked, and immediately put all my utensils down, doing a makeshift bow while sitting. "I'm very sorry I haven't introduced myself. I am Moriyama Kimiko, and am same grade as Sanada…-kun," I added with second thought. I definitely couldn't let down my polite façade too much around strangers…or were his family still strangers? Hm…

"…Moriyama?" his grandfather thought for a bit. I bit my lip, desperately wanting to return to my lunch.

His father then entered the conversation, even though for the most part, he and Sanada's mother had been silent the entire time, just like their son. "Could you possibly be the sole heir of the Moriyama Dojo Group?"

I nodded.

"Your parents recently went to Germany to help with the dojo branches, am I right?"

Sanada POV

At hearing this, I stiffened. That's why when I first met her I thought her name was familiar!

You've got to be kidding me…that famous group of professional martial artists? She was the heir to that legendary dojo group?

Then the second part hit me. "You live alone?" I turned to her.

She looked back at me, "Yes, and…?" she prompted, as if waiting for me to challenge her personal life. I narrowed my eyes; I could tell this had ruffled her feathers slightly. So, I backed down, not wanting to make a commotion in front of my family.

Then, my grandfather posed another question, which piqued my interest once more: "Do you do any of the arts?"

Moriyama immediately answered, "Yes, aikido." I raised an eyebrow. This girl? Aikido? She seemed to stop and ponder for a moment, before quietly adding, "And traditional dancing."

I couldn't help but scoff at this, while my mother nudged me as if to say, "Gen-chan, that's rude!"

I nodded my head in acknowledgement, but turned back to Moriyama, curious. "You do know that there is no way dancing is a type of martial art?"

She visibly turned pink, with fury or embarrassment I didn't know, nor did I care. The words that came out of her mouth next were absolutely ridiculous: "You're ignorant, you know, Sanada-kun," she addressed me, adding a sickeningly sweet honorific at the end that I knew she didn't mean with respect.

I scoffed again, "No, you are. Dancing requires no focus of the mind nor the dedication that the martial arts do. Take a look at kendo, judo, and even your own aikido. For a martial artist like yourself to not recognize which are and which aren't, you should reorganize your values." I said to her.

At first I thought she was going to cry, but she faced me and spat, "Sanada, you have no idea what you're talking about. Dancing requires just as much focus and dedication as the martial arts you seem to love so much. Every step and routine, every breath and facial expression are carefully planned and thought out by the choreographer and dancers. Those who can't appreciate that effort 'should reorganize their values,'" she viciously threw my words back in my face.

Losing in anything is unforgivable. Yet, that day, I lost pathetically in an argument to that girl.

After the longest speech I ever heard her say (even her opening speech at the beginning of the school year was shorter than that), she turned to my parents, bowed, said "Thank you for the meal. I am sorry for the intrusion. I will take my leave now," and immediately left the table. I was frozen stiff to my seat, but could hear her grab her jacket and shoes from the hallway and run out the door.

So much for not making a commotion, I thought wearily.

"Genichirou, you overdid it." My grandfather said gently.

"But grandfather…!" I protested, but he held a hand up to stop me.

"We'll leave it at that, my grandson. Make it up to her when you can."

Suddenly, my mother nodded, "Yes, Gen-chan, make sure to. She's a good girl." She paused, and then mused, "But isn't it interesting? She acts just like her name."

This puzzled me. "Mother, what do you mean?"

She smiled and faced me, "You should know, Gen-chan. Her name means the empress child, or noble child, depending on which kanji you take. But either way, it fits her…doesn't it?"

Father slowly nodded his head. "That's true, the way she walks, the way she talks. Her every movement seems proud, yet elegant…just like an empress."

Now that caught me by surprise.

An empress, huh…

Hey all! Yeah, I know it's shorter than Chapter 1, but please forgive me! I'm trying to update as fast as possible, and it's difficult to cram everything in because my brain's on high and my typing is on low.

Anyways, please give me your feedback! As always, yoroshiku—I'm in your hands! Like, or no like, please do tell me! Or PM me!

BIG QUESTION: Is Sanada in character? Or should I adjust it a little?

Ah, and there's the new poll on my profile as well! And please read my other stories too! Aaaah, must write new chapter now! Ok, bye bye! Love and bear hugs for all!

~Hime-chan

P.S. Just for those who don't know me well enough, that's the very hyper version of me when I freak out. Just to let you know. :) Thanks for reading!