Upon opening the door, Sanada was quite taken aback by what he saw. It was Saturday, and Ellen Kimihiro was in front of his house to complete their poster.
He was quite sure she was the same girl that he saw at school every day, but she looked so very different in casual attire. She stood there, at his doorstep with her long raven hair tied loosely in a French braid, wearing black skinny pants and a loose beige sweater and somewhat long feathery earrings.
Sure she looked nice in her school uniform. But today she looked stunning. Not that Sanada would ever admit that. Not out loud at least. He stood there contemplating what he should say, but the girl beat him to it. With a bright smile she said, "Good morning Sanada san." Replying with a nonchalant 'hn' he let her in.
Once inside his home, Sanada led her into the living room to introduce her to his family. "Finally Genichirou," said his mother. "You've brought a girl home. I'm so proud of you." Sanada wanted to bash his head against the wall but chose to let it slide. After he was done introducing his parents, he then stirred her attention towards his grandfather. She greeted him very politely and introduced herself. Who knew this nightmare of a girl could be so…..different. Sanada's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of his grandfather. "Call me ojisan, Kimihiro." Sanada and Kimihiro both stared at him for a while before Kimihiro smiled warmly and squealed "Ojisan!" she even got a pat on the head.
Sanada could not believe this. If it were him, he would've received a few bashes of his grandfather's cane and quite a few lectures on how to behave properly. Not that he would want to behave in such a manner. But still. Maybe it's just because she's a guest, he thought. Or maybe they too cannot see through her pretenses. I have to look out for them. He huffed.
Sanada's mother cleared the dining table for them to work on their poster. They concentrated on the work at hand. From the living room though, Sanada's grandfather eyed his grandson and his friend.
She's polite and wise. She is not the least bit scared of Genichirou's strict nature. In fact, she seems to handle his temper rather effortlessly. She can guide him and support him. He seems to listen to her too. He thought deeply. Yes, she would do. Only if Genichirou would stop restricting himself and be more aware of his surroundings.
Kimihiro and Sanada were sitting at the dining table still working on their poster. They were cutting colored papers to write their points on and sticking them to the poster. Sanada tried to cut acceptable circles out of a peach colored paper and ended up using all of it without being able to achieve his goal. He started wondering how Kimihiro would react.
Kimihiro, on the other hand, was busily cutting perfect circles out of the colored papers and writing away her points on them, hoping to stick them after they were finished writing. She looked to her right to see her partner's progress in the matter and almost screamed bloody murder. Her partner, aka the vice-captain of the Rikkai Dai tennis team, had managed to destroy all of the peach colored paper without cutting one proper circle and was now trying to escape his crime by giving her an 'I'm very busy right now' look. Boy, was he going to get it.
"What do you think you're doing?" Kimihiro asked between gritted teeth. Sanada gave her a hard stare as if she was asking a very stupid question. But seeing her expression he was starting to second guess his choices. "I-I'm working. What does it look like?!" he said, stuttering slightly. Must not let her get to me. Must not let her fear sink in. He kept chanting in his mind. But it didn't seem like it was helping the situation very much.
"You managed to finish my peach paper without cutting one proper circle." She said in a very calm voice which really made Sanada rethink about his opinions on teamwork. "W-well, I was trying…" he tried to think of a way to validate his blunder. But there was no way out. "Trying what?" she asked. "Conveying your strictness to the paper?" she said tauntingly. "The great Sanada Genichirou, one of the three monsters of Rikkai Dai, cannot cut a paper circle." She said pretending to announce it to others. Sanada immediately put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming but she bit him and jumped out of her chair upon freeing herself. "This is what you get for committing crimes and trying to conceal it." She said pointing an accusing finger towards Sanada. He pressed the bridge of his nose with his fingers as he felt a severe headache coming. Here we go again, he thought. I take back my opinion from before. She's still a complete nightmare.
From behind them, sitting in the living room, a certain grandfather smiled at the bickering of the two kids working together. Yes, he thought. She would do perfectly.
To be continued…
A/N: I am obsessed with Sanada Genichirou. I don't really know why. Please review.