AN: Well, there it is. Lesson number three; hopefully this one pushes the romance a little more. Sorry for anyone who thinks this is too fast/ slow. Reviews/suggestions please I love them!
Lesson Number Three
The third lesson did indeed feel different. They were a little more familiar with each other, but in an awkward way. Ryoma had brought his textbook with him and stayed silent while Akari just lectured without either of them mentioning the button incident. Any thoughts of that monday made both of them even more awkward. There had been another embarrassing encounter where Ryoma's mom had forced him to return the button with thanks. Akari didn't carry the button around anymore, because seriously, how weird was that?
"Okay, we can take a five-minute break now," Akari said, deciding they had covered more material than they had for the whole first and second lessons, due to the awkwardness preventing them both from hitting snide comments back and forth at each other. She was feeling progress. She felt good about herself until Echizen pushed his chair back, stood up and went out the door.
"Echizen, where are you going? It's just five minutes- no time to do anything." Ryoma did not even look back while answering, "sleep." As the Seigaku regular members would know, Ryoma would take the time out of anything to sleep. Eiji teased him a lot, asking if sleep wasn't supposed to make short people grow more.
Akari sat, dumbfounded, as she watched the boy walk out of the classroom. How could someone possibly have the guts to go outside and- and sleep during a tutoring session? He was probably going to the grassy patch right outside, she knew. She also knew that the stubborn boy would ignore her if she went to wake him up before the five minutes was over, but he would also never come back in time by himself.
Akari sighed and played with her phone. Most of her notifications came from Ryoma's fan club, which had somehow figured out that Akari was giving him lessons and pressed her for details. She sighed- this had been happening ever since last week's first lesson. She tried to round off the answers to all the questions, mostly 'haven't noticed' or 'I don't know' or 'nothing much happened', until the five minutes was over. She then dragged herself up to a standing position to go look for Echizen.
Sure enough, he was lying down, eyes closed, on the grass. His head was rested on his own locked hands, leanly muscled legs crossed. He had his hat off right beside him, and it was the first time Akari had a plain view of his hair. She pushed her soft, brown bangs out of the way to see better. The sunlight caressing his locks made the dark-green tint stand out even more. His mouth stayed slightly open, and his jacket rose and fell, rose and fell as the grass around him bowed to the wind, or simply to Echizen… Akari found herself mesmerized in the dark green hair. The breeze blew all around them, and her red ribbon danced to the rhythm. She snapped out of it once she realized they needed to get going.
"Hey, Echizen," she said, nowhere near to waking him up. She carefully nudged his elbow with the toe of her shoe. "Echizen," she said, this time louder. Ryoma's eyebrows furrowed, not wanting to wake up but already have done so.
"I know you're awake, Echizen, just give up, let's go," Akari said. Ryoma reluctantly opened his lids and sulked.
"…If you buy me a ponta," he said. Echizen had once more knocked Akari into disbelief. What kind of a guy was this? But Akari knew he would get what he wanted in the end, so she trudged to the vending machine.
When she was back, he was gone. She grumbled and started the search for him, going in circles all around the campus, but he was nowhere to be found. She got the idea that he might be on the roof, she was sure of it, but it was empty. After fifteen minutes of searching, she gave up and went back into the classroom, just to find Ryoma there, smiling with his textbook open like a perfectly good boy.
"Hey, what's wrong, teacher, late for class?" He walked over to the still Akari, and slipped the ponta into his own hand.
"Hey, thanks," he said. "You know, I was waiting to start the lesson, but I couldn't find you, so what could I have done?" He smirked and opened the ponta. He took slow sips, savoring every bit of the grape-flavored drink, knowing Akari would have no more energy left but to conclude the day's lesson here. He loved winning- in tennis or not. And as soon as Akari called him a baka that first time they met, he knew he would have to step up his game a little- she would be defeated soon. And sure enough, one more victory for Echizen.
That guy is seriously talented- and not just in tennis, Akari thought. And, of course, that's not necessarily a good thing.