Yo--
Enjoy this chapter guys.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke to the sound of Ryoma's alarm, and yawned. Feeling something around me, I looked down to see his arms around my waist, and he was still asleep. I sighed, slightly amused. He still hugs things in his sleep? I poked his nose, and he opened a sleepy eye.

"Wake up, we've got school in..." I looked back to the clock, and my eyes widened.

"Right now!" I yelled, and he looked from me, trying to get out of his hold, to the clock, that now said 8:00. He sighed and let me go, before flopping back down. I shook him.

"Ryoma, we've gotta go!" I said, and he groaned.

"Yuki, can't we just skip?" he asked, and I shook my head.

"No. Now hurry up, I'm in the shower. It would be faster if we took one together, I know how long you take." I said, and he stuck his tongue out at me, but got up anyway. I was stripping and got into the bathtub that was now filled with water. I shiver. Geez, it was cold! Ryoma got in, still looking half asleep, and we scrubbed each other's backs. I giggled.

"This reminds me of when we were younger." I said, and he smiled, remembering as well. When we were done, we got dressed. He had his things all over the place last night. He's lucky I tidied them up, or we'd be even later.

We were out of the door by 8:30.

"We're off to school!" Ryoma shouted as we skated/skateboarded to Seigaku.

--AFTERSCHOOL--

I waited outside the changing room for Ryoma, because Horio, Kachiro and Katsuo were in there as well. (Kachiro and Katsuo were the two first years other than Horio present at Momoshiro and Ryoma's match)

The boy from yesterday, Arai, I think it was, was coming towards the building with three others behind him, while Ryoma and the others were coming out.

"Watch it, monkey!" he said, and Horio jumped back in surprise. Ryoma walked out and picked up my tennis equipment...which I could have done myself, took my hand and went straight past Arai.

"Hello." we said together as we passed. I couldn't help it, Arai looks funny when he's mad.

When they were practicing, Ryoma was looking around, as if searching for something. I whistled our secret whistle, and he looked to me.

"What is it?" I asked, ignoring the confused and surprised looks I was getting from the rest of the club.

"What's wrong, Echizen? Did you forget to bring your racket?" Horio asked, and Ryoma shook his head, his eyes still trained on me.

"No, not-  No, not really." he said, switching so that Horio could understand him.

"You've got guts, not bringing your racket to practie!" Arai's voice said.

"Trying to skip practice just because the captain and co captain aren't here?" he asked, and I tilted my head slightly in Arai's direction. Ryoma, who still hasn't looked away from me, sighed and shrugged. I nodded.

"If you're that confident, and we're having matches against each other as if they were real matches, I would have liked to play a game with you." Arai continued as Ryoma and I continued to converse through the tiniest of gestures.

"But since you don't have a racket..." Arai trailed off.

"Arai!" one of his friends called out to him and threw a dusty racket in this direction. Arai caught it and handed it to Ryoma.I stood and went over to them. Examining the racket, I smirked. The strings were really loose, and the frame makes a clattering sound. Ryoma could take him on with the racket, but I kind of felt bad for him, so I spoke. "Arai-san, this isn't fair. You're a second year, and Ryo's just a first year. How could you play Ryo if he's got a racket like this?" I asked, loud enough for everyone who knew what was going on to hear. Arari cussed under his breath.

"What do you suggest then?" he asked. I smiled sweetly.
"Switch!" I said, and there was silence. I frowned.
"No? Okay then, Ryo can use one of my rackets." I said, and took out the one I always had on my back -like a sword- and handed it to Ryoma, taking the dusty racket from him.
"Ryo, be nice." I said. He smirked and nodded, ruffling my hair and heading towards the courts.

"Ready?" he asked Arai, who had paled slightly, but nodded and went over to him.
"What should we do, stop him?" asked one of the regulars.
"The captain and the co captain are going to come out soon. Neither of them will let this go when they see this." another one said.
"Yeah...let's see how this turns out." another one said, and I giggled, making them turn to me. I smiled.

"Hello." I said. The one who suggested watching gave me a wave.
"Hi there. Who are you?" he asked.
"Koyuki. I'm here for Ryo, as you've seen." I said, and he nodded.
"Why aren't you at the female's courts?" he asked. I smirked."Why aren't you and the captain at the regionals, Genius?" I asked, referring to his nicknames, 'the prodigy' or 'genius'. He looked surprised, but smiled again.

"Fair enough." he said, and went back over to the others he was with.
The match went on as it should; with Ryoma winning. When it was almost done, he looked over to me, and the regulars all followed his gaze curiously. My nose still in my book, I gave him our 'All Out' handsign. He smirked and did the twist serve, though with his right hand. It signalled the end of the match 

Not too long after, there was still silence from everyone in awe of seeing Ryoma do the twist serve, and the co captain from before came out. Oishi, I think his name was. He made everyone do laps, even the regulars. I giggled and joined them.
"Yuki, you don't have to." Ryoma said. We were the only ones talking.
"I want to. It was partially my fault, since I didn't stop the match. Actually, I did quite the opposite, offering you my racket." I said, chuckling nervously and rubbing the back of my head sheepishly.

After we finished our laps, Ryuzaki-san came out.
"Koyuki, come over here, please." she said. I did, and she smiled at me.
"Koyuki. I'm aware of your background with tennis." she said, and I froze, then looked around.
'Have you told anyone?" I asked. She shook her head. I sighed, relief flooding through me.
"Thank you. The papparazzi get rather overbearing after a while." I said, and she nodded, smiling.
"I have asked permission from...a few connections I have, and you now have the option of jioning the club." she said. My eyes widened and my mouth was left hanging open. She laughed.
"So is that a yes?" she asked. I nodded vigorously, and then ran to Ryoma.

"RYOIMAPARTOFTHETENNISCLUBNOW!!!!" I squealed. He blinked.

"How?"

"Ryuzaki-san asked some people...I don't know who." I said. He laughed like he used to when he were kids and pulled me into a hug, spinning me around. I was laughing too, so happy. Then the captain came out. He sent me a curious look, and I grinned, then ran over to him, now over my initial fear of him.

"I'm in the tennis club now." I said, smiling. He looked at Ryuzaki-san, and she nodded. He looked back at me, gave a very -VERY- small smile and nodded, then pat my head.

"Good job." he murmured, and I nodded, grinning. Then I went back over to Ryoma and glomped him again. I spent the rest of the day getting to know Horio, Kachiro and Katsuo, as well as the one regular who I spoke with earlier. Fuji, I learnt his name was. He was a nice person, but if he didn't fake his smile as much, we could be even better friends. 

I went home with Ryoma after practice with a huge smile. Nanjiro and Rinko-san have got to know this. I'm just happy I can stay with Ryoma. I haven't seen him in such a long time. I thought he'd changed, but he hasn't. Not at all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Another chapter.

 O.O

 No, there's nothing wrong with me, thank you very much. I'm just bored, and Anna's working on her new chapter for her fanfic, so I figured I'd work on ours. Hope you liked.

 ^.^

~Akira

 FAN

 VOTE

 COMMENT