Part seven: Awaiting our next date

For the rest of the week more people began to notice the different relationship between Sakuno and Ryoma. But when either was asked about it both denied anything beyond friendship. This caused some frustration for the upperclassmen, who to say the least were not happy about the non-dating relationship of their juniors. After all they'd been watching the slowest progression of a romance ever! At least that was how Eiji and Momo put it as they complained to Oishi and Taka during tennis practice. It was Thursday, the day before their tennis match, and they were all there to do some last minute touch ups on their game strategies.

"Look at him; he just doesn't get how horrible this has been on me." Momo cried in annoyance as he pointed his racket towards Ryoma, who was practicing with Fuji. Momo brought his hands towards his chest and growled in frustration. "Does he not understand that this is the perfect time to start a romance with Sakuno-chan?"

"I know that. That ochibi, he has no appreciation for a good thing in front of him. Oishi!" Eiji dramatically cried as he grabbed hold of Oishi. "Oishi can't we do anything to speed this up! I'm going to graduate and become an old man before Ochibi does anything." Eiji sobbed into Oishi's chest. Oishi just smiled and patted his friend's back as he replied.

"Eiji we can't do anything, they'll just have to find their own way."

"Who will?" Ryoma asked as he walked up behind Oishi. Eiji jerked his head up, tears in his eyes before he rushed Ryoma and grabbed him in an enveloping hug.

"Ochibi will be so wrinkly, too." Eiji sobbed as Ryoma gave him a very confused, and annoyed, look.

"Oishi-sempai, what is he talking about?" Ryoma asked. Oishi just gave him a motherly smile as Taka blushed and twiddled his thumbs; Momo was bursting with laughter behind Taka's back. The image of an old looking young Ryoma was just too much, and the laughter couldn't be subsided.

Ryoma only continued to look at Momo weirdly as he tried to untangle himself from Eiji. Luckily he was saved by Tezuka. "Echizen, come here." Eiji's attention was caught as Tezuka called for Ryoma; he let him go and stood to watch with the others.

"Is ochibi in trouble?" he asked his doubles partner.

"I don't think so." Oishi answered, watching Tezuka talk to Ryoma. Ryoma nodded his head before grabbing his tennis gear and heading to the boys' locker room. After several minutes more of the regulars came together for a short break, but when Ryoma came back out he was redressed in his school uniform instead of his club jersey and was heading towards the front of the school. Tezuka went back to patrolling the club, so that meant Momo and Kaidoh started fighting the moment his back was turned. Oishi tried to break it up, but Eiji and Fuji were betting to see who would grab whom first. Inui popped up and scared the daylights out of Eiji and said the statistics would be that they would do so at the same time, which they did. Taka was just watching the mess from the sidelines trying to figure out which fight to end, since Eiji was fighting with Inui, who was trying to get Eiji and Fuji to drink his newest batch, since Sakuno had brought back his thermos yesterday.

She'd apologized for not getting it to him earlier but when she'd brought it home to share with Coach Ryusaki and Tomo. But when she'd gone down for dinner she couldn't find it in the refrigerator. She'd looked for it for two days before finding it in the trash bin while shorting it for recycle day. Figuring she'd being klutzy and knocked it into the bin instead of putting it into the refrigerator like she thought she did, she reluctantly emptied the bottle and began cleaning it. She'd asked for some more but Inui hadn't made his next batch yet, but he'd promised her the rest of his newest concoction after tennis practice; thus resulting with Inui trying to force it into the boys, as usual.

As Eiji ran past Tezuka in a frenzied attempt to get away from Inui, Momo and Kaidoh's fight, Oishi's attempt to calm the two down and Inui's voice commanding Eiji to return to try his drink had finally severed Tezuka's last nerve. He reached out in quick reflex, catching Eiji by the collar and turning him back in the direction of the other regulars, and he barked out, "Be quiet! 30 laps now for disturbing practice!" Thus the sempais were distracted from their quest to intervene in Ryoma's love life, find out where he was going and how to get away from Inui. Their quest, failed.

…

Ryoma on the other hand was thankfully oblivious to all of this and was on his way to do his second day of cleaning. He'd apparently been signed up twice this week because of missing one last week and so here he was going to clean the chalkboard erasers and mop the classroom floor instead of being at practice. It was a drag. Ryoma hated clean up duty, every time he got stuck with Tomo or Horio and they never shut up. So they were friends, but one person can only take so much of being stuck in a small classroom with one or two of the loudest people you knew before a chore became a punishment.

Ryoma sighed and finished making his way up to the first floor where the freshmen classrooms were. Reaching to open the door Ryoma heard a bunch of voices and slowed down, one of those voices was Sakuno and they were talking to him.

"Sakuno you're so lucky, you get to do clean up duties with Ryoma-sama. Now I wish I'd signed up for today instead of tomorrow." Said one voice, Ryoma thought it sounded like Kyori, one of the girls from his class.

"If I didn't have to baby sit my annoying little brothers I would be too." That voice was definitely Tomo's. Ryoma's thoughts were definitely lifting, Tomo was leaving and Horio was still in practice, which meant he was alone with Sakuno. Ryoma felt a smile tugging on his face, but he pushed it down. He wasn't sure why the thought of being completely alone with Sakuno made clean up duty suddenly tolerable but they really hadn't had a chance to talk alone since Monday and it was Thursday now.

"Well we have to go now, see ya Sakuno, and good luck with being alone with Ryoma-sama." Kyori said as her and Tomo giggled, Ryoma straightened himself away from the doorframe he'd been leaning on and entered just before the girls passed him to go out. They both looked at him and giggled before leaving. Ryoma just shrugged that off and continued into the room. Sakuno didn't notice him at first since she had her back to him as she swept the floor. Ryoma went to the piled desks and chairs to put his school jacket across it, it was really warm this afternoon and after practicing he was already burning up. The sound of his jacket buttons clinking against the chair and desk brought Sakuno's head flying around. Noticing it was Ryoma she smiled at little and greeted him.

"Ryoma-kun, you're here early I haven't even finished sweeping yet." Sakuno said indicating the floor. Ryoma nodded before heading to the chalkboard.

"I'll just start cleaning the erasers." Sakuno smiled and nodded before continuing to sweep. They were both silent as Ryoma smacked the erasers together as he held them out the window and Sakuno finished sweeping. When she was done she leaned against the broom for a second and smiled at the small pile of dust she'd collected, before she turned to check Ryoma's progress. He was just turning around with the now clean erasers when Sakuno's sudden burst of laughter caught him off guard. She was looking at his face in particular, which caused Ryoma to touch his face to check it, but that only caused Sakuno to laugh harder. Ryoma was getting very curious and very annoyed with Sakuno's continued enjoyment so he barked out a "What?"

Sakuno was unable to answer as she continued to laugh and shake her head. Ryoma repeated his question but it took Sakuno a few moments to calm down long enough to answer him. "I'm sorry Ryoma-kun, it's just…it's just your face." She fought another burst of giggles.

"What about it?" Ryoma said now placing the erasers down to touch his face with both of his hands. But Sakuno rushed forward and grabbed his hands in hers as she smiled and shook her head some more.

"Haha, Ryoma-kun I wouldn't do that if I was you, it's only making it worse." Sakuno said as she pulled Ryoma forward and towards her own bag. She turned around and let go of Ryoma's hands to start looking through her bag. Ryoma just stood there and watched her, gripping and losing his hands in reflex from the warmth they suddenly had. Sakuno made a noise of accomplishment as she found what she was looking for, before turning around to hold out an open pocket mirror. Ryoma took it from her hands and looked into it before his own bark of laughter escaped him, Sakuno joined in. Ryoma's face was covered in smudges of chalk dust, and smears where his hands had been, had only added another coat of it onto his cheeks and chin.

They laughed for several minutes before finding themselves leaning against the desks, their stomachs aching from the laughter.

After a while they calmed down, looking at each other they smiled. The atmosphere around them had a warm feel to it. And the feelings they felt arching between them was softer, more comfortable, yet exciting. It was something new that was growing in them. Feeling embarrassed all of a sudden the two turned from each other and continued with their work. They soon finished their work and left the classroom. They had passed over the awkwardness they had felt and had started a small conversation about their upcoming paper for history. They'd moved onto other topics and finally fell on the topic of Ryoma's tennis game tomorrow. Sakuno had asked how Ryoma felt about it, and had gotten the expected confident answer that they would of course win. This only made Sakuno laugh. It brought back their previous conversation during their 'date'. They'd talked once before about it, and then she remembered they had a 'date' tomorrow.

They were almost to their stops when Ryoma thought about the gold bracelet still in his bag. And then he thought about the fact that he and Sakuno had a date tomorrow and he still hadn't thought about what they were going to do. They could just walk around like the week before but he felt as though he should have some specific idea about were and what they could do; and then another idea came to mind. "Sakuno, when is your birthday?"

Sakuno looked at him, before answering. "It's on January 14th, why?" Ryoma shook his head.

"No reason." Ryoma looked forward and away from Sakuno's curious stare. He'd planned on giving her the bracelet for her birthday but that was months away. It was only the beginning of September, the start of their second trimester and the mid-closing of their tennis season. So he was wondering what to do with the bracelet that even now was in his pocket. He'd had the item on his person for just over a week and he was starting to feel itchiness about it. He'd bought it thinking of Sakuno, and he'd had a plan that was now backfired. He couldn't just give it to her. It meant something.

Ryoma's pace stuttered, for a mere second only, but Sakuno had noticed it. 'Just what is he thinking?' Sakuno wondered. She was curious about Ryoma's actions today. They'd been having such a nice week, as being friends. But with the atmosphere in the classroom and now this, she was wondering about him. Sakuno continued to watch him, as she'd been doing for what seemed forever but Ryoma just continued on his way. Sakuno adjusted her bag, before trying for his attention. "Ryoma-kun, this is my stop." Ryoma looked at her and nodded in a distracted way. "I'll see you tomorrow at your game. I'll be cheering for you." Ryoma looked at her and nodded again. Sakuno stared at him for a second, he seemed to want to ask her something else but he was holding himself back. Finally Ryoma nodded again. Sakuno was a bit disappointed but pushed the thought away, she was probably being silly anyways. Waving Sakuno said her goodbye's and headed on her way to her house. Ryoma continued on his way too.

He had to think of something.

She wondered once more if everything was okay. Would this affect their budding friendship?

He felt like something was tugging him towards a new direction, and he wasn't sure were that direction led, or how its outcome would be.

She hoped that they'd still be friends.

He hoped that whatever was happening was for the better.

They hoped that their date tomorrow would go smoothly. After all they couldn't wait to meet up once more with their new friend.

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Note from the Author:

Hey everyone sorry for the really late update. My life has been one hectic problem after another, and after a seriously long stretch of writers block. I decided to scrap the chapter I had started and start from the beginning once more. So I hope this chapter doesn't confuse anyone and if it does I'm open for some critic about it. I also hope the flow that I'd established through the rest of this story is still going. But if it does not I'm, once more, open to ideas on how it could flow better.

Sorry for any typos and mistakes, my beta-reader has quit on me and I'm in the process of finding a new one. So please don't burn up my account with how horrible I spell . Believe me I already know.

So anyway. Thanks for reading and I'll try and update as soon as possible.

BlackDove of Blessings