-Tsubomi gets up on a puppet show-like stage and clears her throat nervously, looking down at the chibi forms of her expecting readers. Some seem excited, beaming up at her. Others have their tomatoes in hand, waiting for an excuse to splat the author. Taking a gulp, she starts speaking.-
Tsubomi: H-Hey, guys.
Readers: ...
Tsubomi: I know you've probably heard this a lot from other people, but this is my first time writing and posting a fanfiction.
Readers: ...
Tsubomi: Ahahaha...ha...ha...
-Tsubomi whips out a gigantic poster board out of nowhere and hides behind it. In big, black, neatly handwritten letters it reads:
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PRINCE OF TENNIS.
-Quickly, Tsubomi takes out a permanent marker and scribbles underneath:
Read and rate please! All politely phrased compliments and criticism are welcome.
P.S. This story takes place when Echizen is in 10th grade. In Japan, that means he's a freshmen in high school. And yes, for the sake of the story, he's on the regular team, which is the same as in the anime...
-A tomato crashes against the poster board. Tsubomi lets out a yelp and madly dashes off of the stage, dropping the poster and dodging the incoming vegetables pelted her way.-
"No."
Nanjiroh poked at the large lump in the bed. Quivering seemingly in rage, a leg poked out and kicked in his general direction. He caught it and pulled, causing Ryoma, once hidden in the covers, to go tumbling onto the floor. Karupin meowed loudly and ran out of the room.
There was an eerie silence.
Nanjiroh looked in mock-innocence at Ryoma, who was glaring back at him.
"Come on. You know you want one." Nanjiroh took out his "reading material", sitting down on his son's bed.
"No, I don't."
"Do."
"Not."
Ryoma stood up and went over to his closet, grabbing a school uniform and trying to ignore his father. In his mind, he formed a plan. Today was Monday, which meant there would be school. If he could get out of the house fast enough, maybe he could get avoid this whole conversation.
He looked at his father and pointed outside his room."Get out."
Nanjiroh set down his newspaper and clapped his hands together happily. "All right, it's settled then." He raised his voice and yelled out, "Nanako-chaaaan...Ryoma-sama wants a paaarty!"
Ryoma froze.
A couple of girlish squeals and gasps of excitement from downstairs told him that apparently neither his cousin nor his mother disagreed with his father's idea.
"Ooh, I'll do the decorations!"
Ryoma cringed.
"Right then, maybe I can write out the invitations. Or maybe plan the games!"
Ryoma looked on in shock and horror at what was unfolding. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.
The talking from downstairs quickly took a direction that Ryoma didn't like at all. It began sounding more and more like an "it will definitely happen" tone. All the while, his father's annoying smile was just growing wider and wider. Fed up, he aimed the dirty magazine and newspaper that Nanjiroh had brought in his room at his father's head.
"I told you once already. GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!"
Nanjiroh ducked and ran into the hallway outside Ryoma's room. The door slammed shut behind him, his son's loud cursing filtering through. He grinned, picked up his magazine and tucked it into his robes. "Think of all the cute high school girls that will be here!" He laughed almost maniacally and fled downstairs.
The dreaded conversation was still going on as Ryoma sat down at the table. Rinko and Nanako were chatting enthusiastically about costumes. Eager to leave, he quickly ate the food that his mother gave him, grabbed his o-bento box and ran.
The next day wasn't any better.
In the beginning, he thought it had been good.
His father, who was still smug from his "victory", hadn't invaded his room.
His mother and cousin had quickly eaten their breakfast and went into another room, which was fine by him, because he was still angry about yesterday.
His school day progressed as usual.
It had all gone wrong during tennis practice.
He hadn't thought much about it at first. In fact, he thought it was a little bit of a good thing.
Sakuno had come up to him, carrying a wrapped up package, when he was resting on a bench.
After a stuttering "O-O-baa-chan asked me to give this to you" and a muttered "Thank you", he had taken the box from her hands, and she had sat down next to him, fiddling with the ends of her skirt.
It was strange that, while the gifts and shouts of appraisal from other girls annoyed him to no end, something from her had always made him...kind of happy. He had never minded her company; in fact it was a pleasant relief from the bratty 'freshmen trio' and the teasing senpais.
When he took off the wrapping paper around it, he groaned at the irony at it all.
Inside, on top of what looked liked hundreds of disgustingly cheery cards was a note in his father's handwriting.
Ryoma-chan, make sure to deliver these to all the cuties in your school!
His teeth clenched and he could feel his face beginning to redden.
Oh, and I guess you can give them to your friends, too.
Of all the people in the world, his father was the one who knew how to piss him off the best.
"A-Ano..."
Great. The person that he wanted least to see this was the one sitting right next to him.
"Daijobu, Ryoma-kun?"
He pulled his cap down over his face and prayed silently for this to end.
Perhaps if he left the stupid package behind, he could just tell everyone at home that he never received it.
The box was promptly handed back to him. He winced.
All of luck seemed to drain out of him when he wanted it most, and he could almost hear it laughing sadistically at him.
Sakuno felt bad for reading the note. She knew it wasn't any of her business, but after Ryoma had opened up the package, it was practically impossible not to see the writing.
Still, her grandmother had said that it was from Ryoma's father, right? And she had told her that Ryoma needed to keep the package. So when Ryoma looked like he was going to make a run for it, she scooped up what she knew was humiliating for Ryoma and gave it to him. She could practically feel the frustration radiating off of the boy next to her.
Becoming particularly interested in the lines on the tennis court and gathering up her courage to make her voice sound what she hoped was nonchalant, she said, "I could help you hand these out."
When she dared to look up, Ryoma was staring in surprise at her.
When all he did was pull down his cap, she began wondering what to do. Stay here or bolt away? Right now, she was favoring the second choice.
She was more than shocked when a card appeared, literally, right under her nose. She let out a loud 'eep' and closed her eyes. Trying to calm down her racing heartbeat, she opened her eyes.
"Jeez, you don't have to come if you don't want to. It's my stupid father's idea, anyway."
When she looked up to see Ryoma's face, his cap was down to the point of her not being to see his expression. Still, she blushed as she noticed that Ryoma was a lot closer than she had originally thought he was.
Her mind stopped thinking coherent thoughts.
"Eh?"
Something dropped onto her lap. Somewhat relieved for something to distract herself from Ryoma, she picked up what appeared to be a card.
On the front was a cartoon of several black kittens stuffed inside a jack-o-lantern. Above the picture, the words Happy Halloween! were written in sequined black letters. It was actually pretty cute. She opened it.
An invitation?
Sakuno was staring blankly at him.
Heck, he had basically said flat out that he wanted to her to be there. Okay, maybe he didn't say it. But he had just given her one of those stupid, mind-boggling embarrassing cards. He slapped his hand over his forehead. What the hell had he been thinking?
Sakuno murmured something.
Unfortunately, Ryoma couldn't hear it.
"Hn?"
Sakuno's voice was so quiet that he barely could hear her next words.
"I'll go."
And then, before Ryoma could say anything else, half of his cards were gone and he was alone on the bench. He saw Sakuno wave a quick goodbye from the other end of the court, then walk out with her friend.
He allowed himself a small grin and walked back onto one of the courts.
"Aww, O-chibi's blushing!"
In about three seconds, all of the Regulars were swarmed around him. In the background, he could faintly hear Tezuka blowing a whistle and ordering everyone to do thirty laps around the court. That still didn't stop Momo and Eiji from pinching his cheeks as they had in middle school and crooning about how he was 'so young', despite the fact that he was as tall as they were.
Ryoma scowled. At least Sakuno wasn't here to see this.
-Tsubomi wipes the sweat off of her brow.-
It's harder writing romance than I originally thought... and I don't know if I like how it turned out. I was trying to make how the two like each other subtle, because even in their minds, I doubt they admit their undying love for each other every time the other does something. Any tips for writing romance without making it sound pointlessly mushy or out-of-character would be great.
-sigh-
I know it seems kind of short, but I think it was a good point for the chapter to end...I'm sorry; I'm not one who is really great with descriptive details. (I would also love to receive tips on how to make myself better at writing these.)
But I have reasons (sort of) for at least some of the shortness:
A.) I think we all know what Sakuno, Ryoma, and the rest of the Prince of Tennis cast look like. It's redundant if I kept saying that Sakuno's 'auburn hair' was tied into braids or that her 'chocolate brown eyes' met Ryoma's 'golden gaze.' Psssht.
-Tsubomi laughs her head off. She quiets down as some rabid readers/authors start to growl at her.-
B.) I also think we know what the setting, a tennis court, looks like, and I don't think readers are fascinated by the Echizen's meal table and the appearance of Ryoma's room...or are you? 0.0
C.) Neither Ryoma nor Sakuno are really the overly talkative type, are they? I try to keep their conversations logical and teenager-like, so I kind of panic whenever there is dialogue because I'm trying to keep them in character and still have the story flow...which is really hard.
D.) I'm a first-time writer and poster of fanfiction. I know I might be repeating it a lot, and I'm even annoying myself, but I have virtually no experience writing this type of story.
-Sorry for depressing you all!-
In other news, I'm kind of slacking off on my math homework...Ugh...I wish I could bury it in the ground and that it would never come back, but it always comes back with a vengeance. Stupid semester exam packets...
Readers: This is your fanfiction, not the frickin' news channel.
-Tsubomi lets out a scared squeak and runs away.-