36 Drabbles

30: Unexpected

Sakuno was always a very shy girl. Her parents died in an accident at a very young age, and she's been living with her working grandmother (Ryuzaki Sumire) since she was about three (the time of the accident). Sumire, a little shaken up about the death of her child, then worked hard to make sure her granddaughter would never have to experience hardship in her life. As a result, Sakuno was a very sheltered child, having things done for her and being drilled to be extremely careful. She never had to endure emotionally scarring things, like bullies picking on her because of Tomoka's loud mouth and over dramatized personality, and her grandmother being a teacher of the school. Which kind of made her think how her grandmother was always in a school she attended, but never really dwelled on that thought until now.

So it was completely unexpected when her face was plastered over every tabloid magazine in Japan, the words "plain" and "boring" underlined at the bottom.

The school was in an uproar, every single person heatedly debating Sakuno's credibility to be Ryoma's girlfriend. Aimi was smugly recounting all the reasons Sakuno was unsuited for the famous young tennis player, and Tomoka was fiercely arguing in Sakuno's place, coming close to punching the girl out a few times. Horio wisely chose Sakuno's side, not particularly feeling like running from a barrage of flying tennis balls (or at least, that was his excuse). Kaidoh didn't have any particular preference, but when one of the girls rudely insulted the "plain" Ryuzaki, he had sent them a glare so chilling one of them needed to attend therapy to stop the nightmares they kept getting. Momoshiro was purely on Sakuno's side, cornering anyone who spoke against Sakuno and recounting how much the young girl had affected the cocky tennis player. Ryoma had taken the liberty to attach himself to Sakuno, never letting her go anywhere alone and making it an effort to shower her with as much PDA as he could stand.

Sakuno? She acted like the entire female population wasn't glaring daggers at her, and Tomoka wasn't guarding her like a hawk. She acted like Ryoma had always shown her public displays of affection, and she had always responded in a ditzy, giggling kind of way. She acted like it was the norm to find many of her school notebooks riddled with bolded, red words like, "plain" and "boring" and even the occasional "slut". She acted like there was no such thing as "negative".

Key word: she acted.

The door closed with a soft click, Sakuno seated primly on Ryoma's ruffled bed sheets as Karupin purred, rubbing her body around Sakuno's legs. Ryoma stood inert at the door, his hand resting on the wood as he turned his head to look at her with his eyes partially hidden by his messy bangs. Sakuno pretended to pay him no mind, reaching down to stroke Karupin leisurely; the cat greeted her enthusiastically by jumping into her lap and curling into a little ball. Ryoma's eyes narrowed, not amused that she was ignoring him in favour of his cat. He took a few brisk steps forward, lightly slapping Karupin's posterior and scaring his cat out the door (which he opened and then closed after the cat left). Sakuno was sitting with her mouth agape at him; a little shocked he was being so mean to his pet.

"Ryoma!" She scolded, not getting up. "Mou… you are so difficult to deal with when you're in a bad mood." Sakuno jested lightly, huffing. Ryoma whirled on her, having shut the door again by pushing it closed. His eyes blazed furiously, and Sakuno avoided the golden glow of them by averting her eyes to her fiddling fingers.

"And you're not?" He asked harshly, almost a little bitingly. With his honed eyesight, Ryoma could see the flinch his words had drawn out. Sakuno looked at him, her eyes not directly looking at his. Ryoma took a few steps closer to her, the pace of her fiddles increasing with every step that drew him close to her.

"Of course not." Sakuno said lightly. "Why would I be?" Ryoma's eyes softened, and he reached forward to touch her cheek, caressing it. Sakuno's bottom lip quivered ever so slightly. Ryoma bent down, leaning forward to envelop her in a heartfelt embrace. Sakuno's smile began to look a little strained.

"You don't have to pretend anymore." Ryoma whispered tenderly, one of his hands rubbing soothing circles in her back. She began to quiver at first, very lightly that Ryoma almost couldn't feel it, but that quiver soon turned to trembling, which turned into violent shakes until Ryoma could feel the shoulder of his t-shirt become soppy and wet. Her feeble hands clutched the front of his shirt, making harsh wrinkles that his mother would scold him about. At this point, he didn't really care about anything except the tears running down Sakuno's face, and the anguished sob that threatened to rip out of her throat. It was so unexpected for her, realizing finally that everything the tabloids said was true.

And for hours, Ryoma just held her as she cried.

A/N Sorry its a little late, but here's the thirty-first drabble! Please expect two drabbles tomorrow, to make up for my lateness. =D

My inspiration for this chapter was mainly Sakuno coming to realize that now that she was Ryoma's girlfriend, she would be a main target for the tabloids to exploit, especially since she was quite a normal girl and not used to the thick-skinned lifestyle of the celebrities. I wanted the chapter to be a bit angsty, seeing as all the other ones were very positive and happy. Sort of... a change of pace. Like it?

Review for some crème brûlée!

Snowflake Flower