Title: Defying the Facts, All Over Again
Disclaimer: The day I own Prince of Tennis is the day I die XD Okay, I want to die.
A/N: Nya? A sequel, you ask? Well, I decided to continue this and be happy! Yay for boredom! Read and err…review! Enjoy, da ne!
Fact no. 5: Ann Tachibana hates the rain.
Ann Tachibana hastily packed her things up and ran away from the tennis courts. Hanging out on the courts alone in a bad weather wasn't such a great idea after all. The sky was dark and she was aware of it. She just had to be Ann Tachibana and be oh so stubborn and insist on staying there.
She was so unlucky.
The rain had begun to pour already. She was getting really wet. Droplets of water continued dripping from her hair as she ran to find shelter. She almost even slipped while running down the stairs. It irritated her. The rain was turning into a downpour. And she was soaked.
She ran down a slope. It was weird. Why was she the only one there? It was only six in the afternoon…Was her weather senses that bad that all predicted that a downpour will be happening to be the only one getting soaked in the rain? She didn't even bring an umbrella. Oh the joy.
While running down, she spotted a small booth at the end of the slope. It was sort of foggy so everything seemed obscure. She narrowed her eyes and spotted the sign that read: Telephone booth. Lucky! She could use that as shelter. A small smile appeared on her face as she neared the place. Finally, somewhere to dry up and rest from running! Good thing such a booth was there to—
"Talk about being unlucky…The gods really do hate me." She whined as she slowly stopped from running. She stared at her supposed 'sanctuary'.
There was already someone in there. And she was already tired of running.
Someone whom had caused her trouble. A certain gum-crazed boy who put gum on her precious hair and made her pay for a certain blueberry cheesecake. Him. Yeah, him.
Fact no 6: Marui Bunta hates the rain.
"What do you mean you're leaving me here?" He shouted on the phone. "I don't even know how to go back to Kanagawa! Hey!"
"It's your fault that you ran away to find sweets. We're going home."
"Hey, wait! Niou! Don't leave me here!" He shouted again, stomping as he gripped on the phone harder.
"Where are you then?"
"Umm…" He paused and looked around. As he did so, he noticed a figure outside from where he was. Was that a girl? And was she stomping? Remembering that his friend was talking to him, he disregarded his thought on the figure and answered, "I'm at a telephone booth. Somewhere near a slope and it's kinda abandoned…I'm alone here."
"Very helpful information…That's great…bye."
"Niou! It's raining! I don't even have an umbrella with me."
"I'm kidding. I'll try to find you. Later."
"You'd better." Marui grunted and hung the phone. He leaned on the glass wall and waited for his friend, Niou to find him.
He sighed. Why did he have to run away from the others and find some cake?
Fact no. 7: Marui Bunta is an insignificant, uncaring maggot…with a gum
"What's taking him so long?" Marui Bunta whined as he tapped the floor continuously. "Five minutes is long enough! It's getting colder here." He began to shiver.
He stared out the glass wall and remembered what he saw a while ago. He blinked, then opened the door a bit and looked for it. Marui spotted her. She was soaked, he can see that.
"Hey!" He called out to her. She turned to look at him and frowned. He blinked again and realized who she was…Ann Tachibana.
"You…" He muttered and paused. He remembered her, she was the one who treated him cake some time ago. She was the one whom he insisted to cut her hair the way he liked. He snapped out of his thoughts and called out to her again. "Hey, are you gonna stay there forever or are you going in here?"
"Why would you care?" Ann shot at him and tried to ignore him. "I'm fine."
He snorted a bit, then sighed exasperatedly. He then went outside and grabbed her wrist. Then dragged her inside the booth.
"You're soaking wet." Marui said as he observed her. Ann smirked.
She looked away and replied, "Gee, I wonder why?"
"Che, you're pretty sarcastic." He said and looked away as well.
"Oh am I?"
"Whatever. Here." Marui said as he removed his jacket and handed it to Ann. She looked at him with a puzzled look. "Wear it. Your shirt is too wet and you look cold."
"No thanks." She refused and squeezed her hair, removing the water from it.
"Just wear it, okay?" Marui chastised and placed the jacket on her. Ann looked at him seriously.
"This'll sure help me a lot. It's not wet and heavy." Ann rolled her eyes. Marui felt a nerve pop on his head.
"Don't you even know how to say thanks?" Marui mumbled and turned away, not bothering to receive an answer.
They ignored each other for a few good minutes and tried to busy themselves. Ann tried to dry her shirt and hair while Marui drew on the glass. It wasn't quite spacey so they kept on bumping on each other.
"You still owe me money you know. That cake was expensive." Ann suddenly said as she continued drying herself. "And you said that you'll be the one to pay for it."
"Well…it's because I ran out of money." Marui excused. She rolled her eyes.
"And you ran away." She spoke and eyed him. "You left me to pay for it."
"Because I saw my friend." Marui answered. "Then, I'm sorry."
It became silent once more…
"Why are you here anyway?" This time Marui was the one to break the silence.
"I should be the one asking you." Ann replied. "You guys keep on going here in Tokyo nowadays."
"Well, it's bec—"
"Oh, let me guess. It's your friend's fault that you're here. And you accidentally got lost because you were searching for something to eat."
"Actually, that's what happened." Marui told her. She slapped her forehead.
"It's only been at least two months since I last saw you and now you're in front of me again." Ann said.
"That is where you are wrong. It'd been two and a half months since then." Marui said and smirked. Ann sighed.
"You still remember, huh." Ann muttered and stared outside.
"How could I forget?" Marui laughed a bit. "It was the first time I put a gum on a girl's hair."
"Really now?" She rolled her eyes.
To Marui, it seemed like Ann Tachibana was an uncaring person and he found it rather challenging to make her smile.
Fact no 8: Marui Bunta and Ann Tachibana are very observant persons.
Marui stared at her. "Hey…"
"What?" Ann grunted and turned to him, rather annoyed.
"Your hair. It's like your old one again."
"Oh. It's because it was annoying." Ann answered. "I told you I didn't really like bangs."
"And you're wearing that." Marui added. Ann's face turned a little bit red.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I wore this ribbon because I had no clips on today. And I found this on my bag." She said and touched the ribbon. "You're pretty observant, huh."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Marui grinned. Ann smirked again.
"You're not chewing on gum today, I noticed." Ann told him.
"I ran out of it a while ago…" Marui told her. "You're pretty observant as well."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Ann smiled. They started to laugh.
"Good thing the sun shone again." Marui suddenly said out of the blue when Ann smiled. Ann arched an eyebrow at the boy.
"What are you talking about? It's nighttime." Ann asked. Marui shrugged and laughed at her clueless gesture. "You Kanagawa people are weird."
"Oh, really?"
They now found themselves laughing at each other and having nice talks. Their conversation was really good, even better than they had with their other friends. Marui was sure amused at how Ann talked, her finger always raised up high as if she was making important points. And Ann, she sure was entertained at how Marui nodded every time she spoke. She also found his laugh rather contagious because when he did so, she'd laugh as well.
They hadn't noticed that the rain had already stopped pouring a long time ago. Observant indeed.
Fact no 9: Ann never owed anything to anyone.
"Hey, it stopped raining already." Ann looked outside and found that the rain had already weakened.
They then looked at each other and realized how close they were. Both stared at each other's eyes.
"Umm…You know what, I've got to go." Ann hesitantly said. "I think my brother's looking for me."
"Is that so?" Marui asked and scratched his head. He opened the door and stepped outside, Ann following him. "I'll see you then."
"I think…It was nice seeing you again." Ann said and smiled warmly at him. Marui nodded. She giggled.
Marui waved his hand goodbye and started to walk away. Ann watched him go and suddenly felt a heavy weight on her shoulder. It was the jacket.
"Ah! Marui-san, wait!" Ann called out. Marui turned to her. "Your jacket!"
"Return that to me when you have strawberry ice cream with you!" He shouted and continued walking.
"Strawberry?" Ann muttered.
"So…alone, huh?" Niou grinned as he looked at his friend, who was seated in front of him on the train. They were on their way home to Kanagawa. "Who's she?"
"What?" Marui asked him innocently. He put up a thoughtful look on his face, trying to figure out what his friend was saying. "Ah…her?"
"Yep, I saw you two on the booth a while ago." Niou said. "So, what's her name?"
"S.S." Marui smirked. Niou looked confused.
"What kind of name was that?" He asked. Marui shrugged.
"The name of an idiotic sarcastic girl."
"And where's your jacket?" Niou asked knowingly. Marui smirked again.
"I left it on the sun." Marui smiled and looked out the window.
"You're insane." Niou concluded.
Fact no. 10: The sun can never be sarcastic. Well, maybe except Marui's new found sun.
A/N: This fic will now be a series of one-shots of how Marui and Ann got close to each other and became friends…or even more than that. XD Kya! Please review! –being random again-