Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis? Not mine. Got that? Great.
Warning: There will be OOCness due to circumstances invented by my imagination. Just a short chapter for today. I haven't been feeling too well lately. :(
We've come along a long way so here it goes, the fourteenth chapter!
Chapter 14: Things are not always what you expect.
"This mansion was built before I owned this area, which my grandparents had bought for me as a Christmas and birthday present a few years ago. Most of the furniture you see here are from the previous owners. I had only replaced some furniture and equipment. I added some stuff around inside the mansion and had some flowers planted outside. The tennis courts and pool are from my parents. I had most of the whole mansion redesigned." Ryoma told them in a bored tone.
They never expected such grand gifts that Ryoma had received on both Christmas and his birthday. It was something they more or less expected to happen to Atobe, or any other regular of the Hyotei team. "Ore-sama wants to know who designed this grand mansion." Atobe suddenly said. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Monkey King, but I personally redesigned this place." Ryoma replied with a smirk on his face.
"Stop calling ore-sama with such a horrid nickname, brat." Atobe ordered in an annoyed tone. "Yadda, Monkey King." Ryoma retorted with a proud smirk. Atobe was about to retort back, but a sudden crashing sound from the kitchen distracted all of them. Ryoma didn't spare another moment and headed straight to the kitchen. The rest soon followed only to stumble on a very unusual situation.
Sachiko was lying on her back, unconscious, with Ryoma fretting over her like a worried mother. Needless to say, this caused a small chorus of chuckles from the teens, temporarily ignoring the fact that Sachiko was unconscious.
"Instead of laughing, maybe you guys should help me take care of Sachiko. She's badly wounded." Ryoma told them in a harsh, angry tone. It was then did they only notice the small pool of red liquid beside the unconscious female. Izumi, being the first one to snap out of her stupor, approached them and was about to lift the Sachiko.
"Don't touch her!" Ryoma suddenly hissed, making Izumi pull back her hands as if she was burned. The male did not notice what he had just done and simply continued what he was doing before, checking the unconscious female for any more wounds, just to check if it was okay for her to be carried by a person normally and not in a stretcher.
The other males were shocked at Ryoma's sudden reaction, but were easily shaken out of their shock by Izumi's voice. "Could some of you please help me clean up this mess?" It was only then did they notice the numerous shards of colored glass on the white tiled floor. Some of them ran out of the room to find some cleaning materials while the others accompanied Izumi in picking up the larger pieces of glass.
"I'll bring Sachiko to her room." They heard Ryoma say before the said teen walked out with the unconscious female in his arms. They could only stare at the door which he disappeared to. When they looked back to where they found Sachiko lying on the floor, they noticed a few droplets of the same fluid, which were a few inches away from the main pool, were mixed with some small shards of glass.
'Otouto must've-!' Izumi's line of thought was cut off when she and the others heard Ryoma's pained scream. She instantly rushed towards the source of the scream only to see him lying on the foot of the stairs on the second floor, his eyes closed in pain and his face frozen in a grimace. His arms were wrapped around the still unconscious Sachiko.
"Otouto! What happened?" She worriedly asked. "I just lost my footing, nee-san." He answered, but when he tried to stand up, he winced. Ignoring the increasing pain in his legs, he stood up with Sachiko still in his arms. "We'll continue our conversation in her room." Ryoma told her before he started climbing the steps.
Izumi sighed dejectedly. 'Otouto is just so stubborn.' She lightly thought which was laced with both humor and worry. She went back to the kitchen to inform the other teens of what Ryoma told her. They cleaned up the kitchen and went to the third floor as fast as possible, but they only stopped in front of the staircase for they did not know which room was Sachiko's.
"Sempai-tachi." They turned their heads to the right to see Ryoma in front of a door that was much different than the others for unlike most doors, the wood used was a darker and deeper brown. They didn't notice it at first for it was the farthest room from the staircase. Soon, they were sitting in long, lush couches inside the majestic room. The inside of the room was just as different as its door.
The walls were painted a pale lilac color with widely-spaced vertical violet pin stripes. The ceiling was painted a slightly darker shade than the one used on the walls. The cloth used was smoother than the ones used in other rooms. The furniture was like the door, made with wood that had a darker and deeper brown.
"This is Sachiko's personal room." Ryoma told them when he noticed them gawking at everything in the room. The teens nodded in understanding, finally knowing the reason why the room was so personalized compared to their shared rooms. Ryoma sat down on the lush brown club chair nearest to the queen-sized bed.
"Ask anything you want to know about this place." Ryoma told them. "Are there interesting facts and rumors about this place?" Inui asked. The younger teen looked thoughtful for a few minutes before his features turned dark.
"I have heard some weird tales about the previous owners of this place."
A/N: I hope I didn't make the characters too OOC. I might have been a little excited when I typed this so... Please tell me any typos and inconsistencies, even grammar mistakes (being the "Grammar Nazi" that I am).
Constructive criticism is appreciated in the form of private messages and/or reviews.