Part Five: Being friends

When Ryoma lay down for the night, he remembered the bracelet in his pocket. Getting up, he picked his jeans up and pulled the bracelet out. The light from the moon shown through the open curtain window, glinting off the gold and making it twinkle. Dropping his pants into the dirty laundry Ryoma lay down and studied the bracelet. He wondered why he'd brought it, but as he continued to look at it he remembered his day with Sakuno, smiling at some of the subjects they'd talked about. He was still thinking about Sakuno as he drifted off to sleep.

…

The next morning Ryoma groaned, as he felt something digging into his palm. Looking down he noticed the gold bracelet clutched tightly into his palm, as though unconsciously he hadn't wanted to lose it in his sleep. Getting up Ryoma laid it on his desk and grabbed his clean uniform and headed for the shower to change and head off to school.

Finished his shower Ryoma headed back to his room, when he heard his mom coming up to check on him. When she noticed him at the top of the stairs she smiled.

"Well you're up early; I came to wake you up once I noticed your clock was still in the living room. But your already awake. Hurry and come down for breakfast." Then turning she headed back down the stairs. Ryoma entered his room and grabbed his school bag, placing his homework and school supplies into the bag. Before heading down the stairs he put the gold bracelet into his pocket. He didn't want his father, Nanako or his mom to find it in his room; he'd never live it down. Placing his bag with his tennis gear once he was downstairs, Ryoma walked into the kitchen and sat down to the table. He finished his milk, toast, and eggs off and saying goodbye got up to leave.

After he'd grabbed his stuff, put his shoes on Ryoma exited his house and headed towards the school. Momo had stopped coming to pick him up, once he had his own bike, but they usually met up at the corner.

When he arrived and Momo wasn't there Ryoma figured that Momo was running late today so went ahead to school, he didn't want to be late and have to drink one of Inui's Vegetable Deluxe 2000 energy drinks. He was ill just thinking about the last time he'd had to drink one. Ryoma shuddered in disgust.

…

Sakuno was not having a good morning. She'd woken later than usual, so had rushed thru her shower, and breakfast thankful she'd made her bento the night before. She'd grabbed her bag, and headed towards her bike, only remembering that the chain had broke, and that she hadn't fixed it yet. As she'd begun to walk she noticed that her back was unusually cold and damp feeling. Looking around Sakuno knew it wasn't raining, so she touched her head and realized that her hair was completely down, and still wet from her shower.

'Great now it's going to get all curly and frizzy, and I don't have any hair ties to push it back with.' Sakuno hoped that Tomo would have one and a brush so she could at least put it up.

She was about two blocks from the school when she heard the tall tale sound of a bicycle, so she moved over to get out of the way for it to pass. When she heard the bike breaks squeal as it came to a stop Sakuno turned to see who it might be.

It was Ryoma; he'd seen Sakuno as he came around the corner. She'd been mumbling something to herself, and he stopped to see what she was up to. When Sakuno turned to look at him, he placed his foot down to balance himself. She didn't look like she was having a good day, and she kept fiddling with her hair, he noticed was down again and very wet. Ryoma couldn't help but smile, he thought she was cute.

"You okay?" he asked. Sakuno blushed but nodded. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot to dry my hair, and now it's all wet and I don't have a ponytail to put it up with. I hate it when my hair is wet. It dries all frizzy and until it does dry I look like a drowned wet cat." Sakuno mumbled to him once again moving to fiddle with her hair. Turning her attention from her hair she noticed that Ryoma was thinking about something and she wondered what it was about when Ryoma smirked.

"Get on." Ryoma moved his bags to one side so she could sit on the back of his bike. Sakuno's face blared with a red blush. Ryoma smirked as she began to stutter something out, but he cut her to the chase. "Come on, we're friends now right?" Sakuno nodded. "Then it should be fine, besides I can get you a clean towel from the tennis locker room and you can dry your hair. So it works out for you. So get on." Sakuno couldn't think of a way to politely refuse, but the temptation of having a dry towel for her hair tilted the scale as she let out a sigh and climbed onto the back of Ryoma's bike. Ryoma smirked, and started pedaling again. They made it to the school in record time. Ryoma parked his bike on the bike rake, then he and Sakuno headed for the boys tennis locker room.

When Ryoma arrived, he told Sakuno to wait outside as he entered the locker room to get her a towel. When he entered he saw that all of his sempais were already there. Even Momo was getting dressed at his locker. When they saw him, they were surprised that he was so early. Saying hello they asked him what was up with him being so early. He just shrugged his shoulders and headed towards the towel rack for a clean, dry towel. Picking one up, he said he'd be back. Then he leaned out of the door and gave Sakuno the towel.

"Just give it back to me when you're done okay." Then he leaned back in, thankful that he's sempais were completely dressed now. But they were all staring at him really weird now. Ryoma headed for his locker and began to undress for practice. His senpais crowed around him.

"So how was your date yesterday?" Momo said as he plopped down next to Ryoma to catch his attention.

"It was okay." Ryoma answered as he pulled his tennis shirt on.

"What did you do?" Eiji asked as he placed himself on Ryoma's other side, effectively trapping him in. Ryoma sat down to pull on his tennis shoes, tied them, and moved to get up. Sighing when his continued silence didn't seem to deter them, but bring them closer to his personal space.

Moving he faced them all squarely. He answered, "We went to the stringers, ate lunch, and walked around, picked up the rackets and came back home. That's all." Ryoma grabbed his racket and stood.

"Is that all!" Momo and Eiji cried. "Sheesh Echizen, you have to be the most boring date ever." The door opened and they all turned towards it. Sakuno stuck her head in, her now dried hair in a mass of curls. Looking around Sakuno spotted her upperclassmen standing around as she comes in. She bowed then looked around for Ryoma, until she noticed him towards the back of the group.

"Ryoma-kun, thanks for the towel, I'm finished using it now." Sakuno started rolling the towel into a ball as they stared at her, and when nothing happened she began to blush. She didn't know what to do with the towel and she didn't want to just leave it after Ryoma was nice enough to get it for her. Finally Ryoma stepped forward, and she handed him the towel. "Thanks for letting me borrow it." Ryoma nodded and tossed the balled up towel into the dirty laundry basket in a corner.

"No problem, what are friends for." Ryoma smirk smiled, Sakuno smiled back in response.

"I guess I should head to class, I have class duties today." Turning to her senpais she bowed and said good-bye to them, then turned and said goodbye to Ryoma.

"Bye Sakuno." Sakuno turned and left thru entry way. Moving to leave too, Ryoma turned and arched a brow at his senpais. "Aren't you coming, practice should be starting soon." Then he too walked out the door, leaving it open for his senpais to walk out behind him.

…..

Ryoma collapsed into his seat, practice had been rough, but the worst part was how his senpais kept bugging him about his date with Sakuno, and then about the incident this morning. He'd just told them the truth, he'd met her, she'd needed a dry towel, they were both going to school and so he had given her the towel. It wasn't anything special. Of course his upperclassmen had completely ignored all this and focused their efforts on his comment about being friends, and when did he start being so informal with Sakuno, and when she'd become so comfortable with him period. Ryoma fringed innocence, and hadn't answered them, then rushed off to class as soon as possible.

….