Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ ◄:— S A K U N O Chronicles —:► ❯ Guruguru Mawaru (spinning round 'n round) ( Chapter 12 )

♥ 07/13/06 ♥

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

(o)-(o)
(-'.'-)
(")o(")

♂♀

 

Shishido Ryou shot his doubles partner a wry look. “Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on him whenever he gets close to that Suoh Tamaki guy from Ouran?”

 

Ohtori Choutarou had the decency to look extremely embarrassed. It wasn't like he was lax in the `duty' that Shishido-san appointed to him. “Suoh can be… really persuasive when he wants to. Really!” He reiterated, when Shishido-san didn't look like he believed him. “I think those rose petals that appear out of nowhere have some kind of brainwashing drug to them. Or some kind of technique to make you submit.”

 

“We told you to watch him.” Hiyoshi looked really disappointed at his teammate.

 

“And I did!” Choutarou was outnumbered. “And… and Kabaji should be there! He'd do a better job than me anyway!”

 

“Kabaji isn't required to attend all those parties, unlike you and Atobe, Chou.” Shishido spoke slowly, as if he was explaining it to a two-year old.

 

Gakuto vehemently nodded beside him. “So it's your responsibility!”

 

“But—”

 

“Atobe isn't the normal Atobe anymore. That Suoh guy changed him somehow.” Even Yuushi was in agreement. “Have you noticed how he's more—“

 

“Annoying?” Gakuto supplied before his doubles partner could finish his sentence.

 

Yuushi leveled a look on him and straightened his glasses. “I was going to say almost cheerful but that would do, too.”

 

“I'm beginning to suspect if some alien had taken over his body.” Gakuto added.

 

“Cut him some slack, senpai. Maybe he's just… in love or something.”

 

Yuushi shot Choutarou the most incredulous look he could muster. His amusement came out as a skeptical snort. “To which fangirl?” He asked, humoring his naïve kouhai. Atobe did not fall in love. It was impossible for Atobe to do so considering how he was already in love with himself.

 

Choutarou seriously gave it some thought before he answered his senpai's question. “Well… I did hear Suoh giving Atobe some advice… I only overheard flowers and such… After that, I know for sure Atobe had some flowers delivered to some girl because Kyouya-niisama saw to it. Apparently, Kyouya-niisama takes care of things like that for their club and Suoh was happy to help. I know it was for a girl because Suoh gets a certain look whenever he's doing something involving girls.”

 

Because he was still humoring his kouhai, he asked another question. “Do you know what kind of flowers he sent?”

 

Choutarou shook his head. “No, but I can ask Kyouya-niisama for the specifics if you want.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

If Eiji-senpai didn't stop teasing him, he was going to go to jail charged with murder of the first degree at the age of twelve.

 

“Ochibi and Ryuzaki sitting in a tree… k-i-s-s-i-n-g… First comes love—”

 

“Eiji,” Oishi was trying hard not to show his amusement at how Echizen was taking the teasing.

 

“— Then comes a carriage—“

 

“Marriage,” Oishi corrected, then stifled a laugh by biting the inside of his cheeks.

 

Kikumaru paused from wiggling his fingers in front of Ryoma's face. “Hoi?”

 

Ryoma was sorely tempted to bite those fingers off in a retaliatory act of childishness.

 

“Then comes marriage,” Oishi clarified for him. His face was hurting from trying to keep it from breaking out into a grin or full blown laughter. He didn't want to test Echizen's restraint even more.

 

“Stop egging him on, Oishi-senpai.” Ryoma growled out, clearly he was nearing the end of his patience. Eiji-senpai and Oishi-senpai passing by just when he needed them most was the worst thing that could have happened to him that day. Yes Oishi-senpai solved his problem of how to transport Ryuzaki by carrying her himself - he picked her up with no effort and put his long strides to work - but Kikumaru-senpai had been teasing him non-stop.

 

“Ochibi and Ryuzaki sitting in a tree…” Kikumaru started again, oblivious to the death glare that said Ochibi was giving him. “k-i-s-s-i-n-g…”

 

Non. Stop.

 

“First comes love, then comes marriage—“

 

Oishi took pity on the boy. Eiji's joking accusations about Echizen being a pervert and taking advantage of Ryuzaki when they found the two freshmen combined with his rendition of the childish rhyme were funny to him, but he didn't think Echizen would be as amused. “You need to go tell Ryuzaki-sensei that her granddaughter is sick.” He cut his doubles partner's song off before he could sing more.

 

Thankfully, the only students left to give them curious stares were the ones who were late in going back to their classrooms. There were only a few who pointed at them and whispered behind their hands. Bunch of gossips.

 

“Nyaaaah… I don't wanna, Oishi!” Kikumaru pouted. He was having fun teasing his Ochibi and he enjoyed seeing Ochibi squirm and get all red in the face. “How about I carry Ryuzaki-chan to the nurse's office and you go tell Ryuzaki-sensei?” He was already transferring the still unconscious girl from the fukubuchou's arms to his before he finished his sentence. “I'll take good care of her and make sure that she doesn't fall prey to Ochibi's perverted clutches of doom nyah! I'll protect your honor, Ryuzaki-chan!” He proclaimed to the sleeping girl in his arms, oblivious to the anger radiating from his younger teammate.

 

Unaware of it all and undisturbed by the noise, Sakuno snuggled into Eiji's chest comfortably. Ryoma frowned at this and then scowled at his senpai. He was, probably, the most harmless senpai out of all eight of them, so he didn't feel like kicking something, unlike how he felt when Fuji-senpai and the buchou carried her, but he was still irritated at Eiji-senpai for his teasing.

 

Oishi relented. The faster they got the girl to the clinic and the faster they informed Ryuzaki-sensei, the better. He offered Echizen some reassurance before he left. “I'll be back as soon as I can. You guys know where the clinic is, right?” At their nods, he turned towards the direction of the faculty room in search of his sensei.

 

Thankfully, Kikumaru stopped teasing Ryoma until they reached the nurse's office. He was only having a little fun at the expense of his Ochibi. It was sort of a well-known speculation (because no one actually confirmed the fact and there was no love confession that anybody knew of - yet) that the girl had a slight crush on the young tennis prince, but Echizen didn't seem to be interested in anything else aside from tennis.

 

In his opinion, the two chibis looked good together. If his Ochibi found a girlfriend, then the girlfriend would automatically become one of his chibis… but only if she was cute enough to be deemed his chibi. His first and only choice was Ryuzaki-chan, since she was cute enough to be considered as one of his chibis. Truth be told, he wanted to induct her into his exclusive chibi hall of fame way before he got a chibi in the form of one Echizen Ryoma. He just didn't know if scary Ryuzaki-sensei was going to like him claiming Ryuzaki-chan as his chibi or if that was acceptable. He didn't want anyone to misinterpret his intentions.

 

He just wanted a chibi; a chibi that would act as his very own live teddy bear. A chibi to tease and dote upon from time to time, since he had no younger siblings to shower love and affection upon, being the youngest in his family.

 

Kami must have heard his prayer, because Echizen transferred to their school just as he was about to graduate from middle school. But no matter how cute and cuddly his Ochibi was, he just wasn't as cute as Ryuzaki-chan. Now her… she was true chibi material.

 

If his Ochibi ever got around to it, Ryuzaki-chan would be his chibi, too. He saw how the girl chibi affected his Ochibi. She was the only girl capable of evoking non-tennis related emotions from his Ochibi. But his Ochibi was probably too young to consider things like love, relationships or helping him get a really cute chibi to add to his chibi army.

 

Aaah… but only if his Ochibi would realize it… he could imagine how ultra-chibily cute their chibi children would be in the future! And it would all be his! His chibis to dote and shower kawaiiness upon!

 

“Eiji-senpai?” Ryoma wondered why he had that dreamy look on his face. While Eiji was busy dreaming of chibis, Ryoma had explained what he knew of the situation to the school nurse.

 

Introducing herself as Nurse Michi, she prepared one of the beds and told the teenager who was holding the girl to put her down on the freshly made bed. That had been almost five minutes ago. The boy looked like he was busy with a very pleasant daydream before the shorter one interrupted it.

 

“Nyah, gomen!” Eiji set Sakuno down on the bed gently. Several items fell out of her pocket when he did. “Oops!”

 

“That's alright,” Nurse Michi assured him. She gathered the items and placed them on the side table. Two red hair clips, several colorful rubber bands, a few pieces of gum, a pink wallet, and a pink cellphone with an adorable little doggy cellphone strap.

 

As the nurse removed the girl's shoes and loosened her uniform to make her a little more comfortable, Eiji reached for the cellphone to look at the strap more closely. “Kawaii nyah!!! Ne, Ochibi, isn't this just the cutest little doggy ever?” Ryoma scowled at it. “You don't like it? Maybe you're more of a cat person, nyah? And Ryuzaki-chan is a dog person? Hmmm… I like both but isn't this just the cutest little doggy strap ever?!” The cellphone suddenly vibrated and then beeped once, startling him. He looked at the screen and almost screeched. “Ten new messages?! Who would be sending Ryuzaki so many messages?” The girl had probably been feeling too sick to even check her messages all morning, that's why they've been accumulating.

 

Ryoma was tempted to snatch the cellphone away from his senpai and delete the messages, but he didn't. Before he could say something, the door to the clinic opened and their coach came huffing in, followed by Oishi.

 

“Is my granddaughter alright? What happened? Where did you find her? Is she sick? I told her she didn't need to come today but she was talking about some test she had to take. Oh my god, is she alright? What's wrong with her?” The worried grandmother hovered by the bedside.

 

“She's sleeping right now, Ryuzaki-sensei.” The nurse on duty tried to assure her. “Can you tell me what happened prior to today? Did she show any signs that she was feeling ill that you could tell me?” Nurse Michi has never seen the tough tennis coach like this before. Among the staff members, most people both feared and admired the stern coach. She always looked so in control and in charge. Not right now though.

 

“She was absent yesterday,” Ryuzaki Sumire told nurse Michi. “She had severe rashes on Sunday morning and the doctor told her to stay home on Monday. She was allowed to take Tuesday off too, if she wanted to or if her rashes were still bothering her greatly, but she insisted on coming to school today because of some test, she said.” She frowned. As a teacher, she admired students who were determined to pursue their education no matter what. As Sakuno's grandmother, she was more concerned about her precious granddaughter's health rather than her grades. “She also said that her throat was kind of sore but we all thought it was because of the allergic reaction to the flowers.”

 

Nurse Michi removed the thermometer from Sakuno's mouth and read it. Quickly and efficiently, she had a cold compress on the child's forehead as the tennis coach explained the cause of the rashes. Nurse Michi frowned. Something didn't fit right. “I think that her rashes covered for something else, Ryuzaki-sensei.” As a nurse, she understood how symptoms could sometimes be misdiagnosed, even by the most experienced of doctors. Especially if there were factors that led you to believe that the patient was suffering a more visible illness.

 

“What do you mean, Michi-sensei?” Kikumaru was confused. Was Ryuzaki-chan severely sick or dying?

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Tomoka was worried.

 

Very, very worried.

 

The English test had come and gone but there was absolutely no sign of Sakuno. She took comfort in the fact that she had instructed her bestfriend to go to the clinic, so the logical conclusion she reached was that Sakuno was in the clinic resting.

 

When the lunch bell signaled the end of the morning classes, she dashed to the nurse's office but was met with an empty clinic. There was no nurse and there was no Sakuno to be found.

 

What happened to her friend?

 

Visions of Sakuno getting abducted by thugs or Sakuno injured and unable to get up somewhere in the school plagued her mind as she sought out the people who would probably know for sure where her friend was.

 

Thankfully, they were very predictable creatures of habit and she soon found them on the tennis courts.

 

“— So that's what happened nyah!” Kikumaru was finishing his tale just as Tomoka spotted her targets.

 

Ryoma's complexion was flushed. “I wasn't—“ He looked like he was struggling with what words to say, most probably trying to keep from hurling obscenities at his senpai who twisted the situation into ridiculous proportions. He felt like he'd just molested Ryuzaki even though he was totally innocent. “It was the braids, I'm telling you—“

 

“Suuuuuuuuuuuuure,” Kikumaru's tone was very condescending, “blame her braids, why don't you nyah?” He was having a lot of fun interrupting his Ochibi from defending himself. He has never seen the chibi so flustered before.

 

“But I honestly—“

 

“Next time,” The light bounced off from the surface of Tezuka's glasses, but it wasn't enough to conceal the hard look behind them, “you should go ask for help instead of doing something that could be considered inappropriate.”

 

Ryoma's complexion was rapidly turning from indignant red to barely contained purple rage. His teeth knocked together in an effort to keep from shouting at his captain who, he reminded himself repeatedly, he greatly admired and was prone to slapping insubordinate kouhais. “But I wasn't doing anything inappropriate—“

 

“Tezuka-buchou! Fuji-senpai!!!” The shrill noise was enough to create a supersonic boom to shatter windows. Yes, she was going to have a heartattack any minute now so forgive her if she can't control her vocal cords from being on max volume. She sprinted towards them in a hurry, garnering the attention of the students who were within the vicinity.

 

What was the president of the Ryoma Echizen fanclub doing now and why was she shouting?

 

“Osakada-chan, what's wrong?” Syusuke waited as the girl struggled to catch her breath. Most of the regulars and all the other members of the boys' tennis team were at the tennis courts, as usual. Ryuzaki-sensei was nowhere to be seen and Echizen, Oishi and Kikumaru were just explaining what happened when she came.

 

Or better yet, Eiji had just finished telling them an embellished version of the story while Oishi tried to tell it as accurately as possible and trying to calm the enraged chibi at the same time.

 

Story of my life
Searching for the right
But it keeps avoiding me
Sorrow in my soul
Cause it seems that wrong
Really loves my company

“Moshi-hoi-nyah?” Kikumaru took the ringing cellphone out of his shirt pocket and answered without thinking. Oishi explained the situation again, not only for Tomoka's benefit, but for Kikumaru's as well. Echizen looked like he was mad enough to start chewing on the acrobatics master's head.

 

“Who is this?” A familiar male voice asked from the other end of the line. He sounded startled.

 

“Who is this?” Kikumaru asked back, a little affronted.

 

“I asked you first.” The voice asked at the other end. Who was this person?

 

“But you called me first and I don't even know you!” Kikumaru was exasperated.

 

“I was calling Sakuno-chan.” The person on the other end was getting as irritated as him. Did he dial the wrong number?

 

“Ah!” Kikumaru then realized whose cellphone he answered. After the chaos of everything earlier, he had all but forgotten to give the cellphone and the other things back to Sakuno. When the phone vibrated in his pocket, he just absentmindedly picked it up without thinking. “Gomen nyah! Yes this is Ryuzaki-chan's cellphone but she's not here right now.” He didn't bother to read the caller ID before he answered the phone so he had no idea who he was talking to. “This is Kikumaru Eiji speaking, who am I talking to?”

 

“It's me, Kirihara Akaya.” Akaya was befuddled. “Why is Sakuno-chan's cellphone with you, Kikumaru-san?”

 

“Ryuzaki-chan is sick and was rushed to the hospital.” Kikumaru told him.

 

“WHAT?!”

 

“Ryuzaki-chan is sick and was rushed to the hospital,” Kikumaru repeated, thinking that the boy didn't hear him the first time. “Ochibi was getting cozy with her under the tree before Oishi and I found them then we had to rush her to the clinic and then her grandmother came and the nurse told her she had to go to the hospital so they did and I forgot to give her back her cellphone when it dropped from her pocket after she went to the clinic so I have it right now and I plan to return it when I visit her.” The amount of ands and run-on sentences in his statement would send any grammar Nazi rolling in his grave.

 

“Ochibi?” His explanation further confused Akaya.

 

“Yeah, Ochibi was hugging her and stuff!”

 

“WHAT!?!”

 

“Ochibi was hugging her and stuff!” Kikumaru repeated again. Boy, when did Kirihara last clean his ears? Couldn't he hear what he was saying?

 

Akaya had a vague idea of who this `Ochibi' Kikumaru was talking about and he wanted to question that hugging thing further but he was more concerned about Sakuno right now. Counting to ten really helped at times like these. “Is she okay? Why was she rushed to the hospital?” The last time he saw her was on Friday and aside from her foot, she seemed perfectly fine. “Was it because of her foot?”

 

“Her foot?”

 

“She was hit by Atobe on Friday and she was kind of limping. Did it swell?” Did her injury worsen over the weekend enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room? He was very confused.

 

“Atobe hit her?” Kikumaru didn't know this. He wasn't there on Friday. He heard bits and pieces about it, and he heard that Atobe— “Is that why he sent her flowers?” He frowned. He didn't like Atobe getting in the way of his plans to gain the cutest chibi of them all.

 

“Atobe sent her flowers?” Akaya almost growled into the cellphone. Why the hell was Atobe sending his Sakuno flowers!?

 

“She was allergic to them though. It gave her rashes.” Kikumaru added.

 

Akaya's brows furrowed even deeper. “So she went to the hospital because she was allergic to the flowers?” None of his conversation with Kikumaru was making sense. He was being fed bits and pieces that were further confusing him.

 

“Why are you calling Ryuzaki-chan anyway?” Kikumaru demanded, answering Akaya's question with one of his own. Was this boy trying to steal his potential chibi from his Ochibi? How many rivals did his Ochibi have?

 

Akaya answered, albeit a bit bewildered at how their conversation was turning out. “I've been sending her messages all morning and I haven't received any replies so I got kind of worried. I thought I'd wait until the lunch break to call her and check if she was okay.” Why was he explaining all this to Kikumaru?

 

Before Kikumaru could say or ask more, Oishi grabbed the phone from him. He'd heard enough and took pity on the poor boy who was probably confused with the information that Kikumaru gave him. He found it odd that Kirihara of all people was calling Ryuzaki-chan's cellphone during a lunch break, but if they were close enough for him to do that then he was probably worried about the girl and Kikumaru's confusing conversation was probably worrying him more.

 

“Kirihara? This is Oishi. Ah, yes. See, Ryuzaki-chan was rushed to the hospital because she had a really high fever.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Sakuno's rash that was caused by Atobe's tulips happened at a bad time and had absolutely nothing to do with why she was hospitalized right now. The rashes from the allergy had been severe, but were in NO WAY connected to Atobe or his flowers at all. Or at least that's what Sakuno believed.

 

It was just unfortunate that the weather probably broke down through her immune system and she was exposed to a sick Kazuma the day after that… and the flowers, of course, didn't help, because it gave her rashes… and then there was the stress for her English test and her lack of sleep… adding more to that, Sakuno didn't rest when she was specifically instructed to.

 

Everything just snowballed from one thing to another and now, on top of everything else, she was also severely dehydrated. Moderate dehydration may be treated orally, but severe dehydration requires intravenous fluids. Therefore, Sakuno had to stay in the hospital while she got re-hydrated through Intravenous therapy or IV therapy.

 

Parents worried too much especially if their child had to have a needle stuck in her arm to become healthy again. Thankfully, they were too worried to give her a sermon about how she should've taken better care of herself, so she didn't protest when she had to stay in the hospital until the doctor gave her a clean bill of un-dehydrated health again.

 

In an effort to console her, her parents brought one of her precious teddy bears to keep her company. It wasn't enough, but it was better than nothing.

 

Contrary to what Kikumaru believed or what was widely circulated in the gossip circuit, she didn't get her fever through Atobe's flowers. Tulips do not cause high fevers or dehydration. It was just really bad timing on Atobe's part that Sakuno's symptoms appeared right after the series of unfortunate incidents which started that Friday. Still, he made the perfect scapegoat, that when Kikumaru started blaming him, Tomoka jumped in as well and agreed with Kikumaru.

 

Given the perfect succession of events, even calm Syusuke was starting to believe it was the Hyotei's buchou's fault that the high fever had afflicted Sakuno. It was high enough to land her in the hospital.

 

Sakuno had an onslaught of visitors, even on the first day. Her fever was at its peak then, so she was half-incoherent during that time. The doctor advised them to return on the weekend, so as to give the girl some time to recover on her own before she had to entertain visitors, or if she really had to, to entertain only one or two at a time.

 

On the second day of her hospitalization, she woke up to a cheerful Kazu-nii by her bedside. Her fever had gone down from 103ºF to 101ºF. An IV was strapped to her arm to keep her hydrated. He explained how he was going to take care of her when her parents and grandmother weren't around. Her fever went down a couple of degrees, but the extreme headache, sore throat and some rashes remained.

 

On Thursday, Syusuke-nii came right after school to visit. It was partly out of the routine he had - Tuesdays and Thursdays without Sakuno were an alien concept to him - and he even brought her homework courtesy of Tomoka with him. He figured she'd be bored during the day and reading up on the material she was missing due to her absence wasn't going to hurt.

 

On Friday, her fever was gone and her very first visitor was Fujioka Haruhi, her long-time neighbor and childhood friend. She told Sakuno that her mom talked to her dad and told him about Sakuno's illness. Ranka, Haruhi's dad, was always busy with work, so when he voiced his concern about visiting the little girl in the hospital to bring her some fruit, Haruhi volunteered so that her dad didn't have to miss work.

 

It also gave her a great excuse to get away for the weekend at an earlier time, she explained to Sakuno. Apparently, Haruhi was a member of a club in their school and the other club members tended to pry into her more personal affairs. Visiting a sick friend in the hospital gave her a perfect excuse to be excluded from the club's shenanigans this weekend, and assured her a sense of privacy because it was going to be spent catching up with a friend.

 

She came straight from school and she was still wearing her uniform. Sakuno wondered why she was wearing pants instead of a skirt. Didn't girls in Ouran wear skirts like all the other schools? Since no one else was around, Haruhi confided to her the reason why.

 

School uniforms in the very exclusive private school cost something around three hundred thousand yen or three thousand dollars. Sakuno winced at the amount. Haruhi was able to go to Ouran because of a scholarship. As long as she kept her grades up and was the top student in her class, she got to go to Ouran free of charge.

 

The scholarship, however, didn't cover for the cost of the really expensive uniform. So, at the beginning of the school year, Haruhi wore pants and a shabby sweater that made her look like a boy. Especially when combined with her short hair and the thick glasses she was forced to wear earlier that school year.

 

See, the day before the school year started, a kid from their neighborhood stuck gum on Haruhi's hair. Her hair had been long and straight before, and Sakuno had admired it greatly. Haruhi thought it bothersome to painstakingly take the gum out of her hair, so she decided to just cut it all off. On her own. What it resulted to was a really shabby hairdo. Her father Ranka had also accidentally stepped on her contact lenses, so she had to wear these really thick eyeglasses instead. It covered her really huge, doe-eyes.

 

The whole school took one look at her short hair, thick glasses and shabby clothes and assumed she was a boy. Haruhi didn't bother to correct them because she didn't really care much about gender issues. So what if they thought her to be a boy?

 

While she was looking for a quiet room to study in one day, she stumbled upon the music room which was the base of operations for this club called “Host Club”. This Host Club, Haruhi explained to Sakuno, was composed of six really good-looking guys who entertained women who had a lot of free time in their hands on their free time.

 

Haruhi accidentally broke a vase that they had intended to auction off to raise money and in order to pay it, she had to work for the Host Club. They assumed her to be a guy at first, one thing led to another and soon, they provided her with a school uniform for males. She didn't complain because she wanted to pay off her debt. The Host Club was for males only and if the only way she could pay off her debt by graduation was to work her butt off as a male, then she was going to do it.

 

After Haruhi finished with her story of how and why she was posing as a guy in her school, Sakuno's mouth had turned into a small “o”. Haruhi then retold some of her adventures with weird rich people.

 

A little while later, the door opened and her cousin Kazuma came back. He brought with him a lot of bread and food. He was pleased to see that a friend of his cousin was visiting, so he listened with rapt attention to Haruhi's stories about this “Host Club”.

 

The life of the wealthy fascinated him even if he was also rich now. That was because he didn't consider himself rich. He just got rich because of a brilliant scheme that Kanmuri cooked up.

 

After Haruhi ran out of stories, Sakuno asked him to regale them of stories about his adventures in the Monaco Cup and the very recent Yakitate 9 competition. Haruhi, being a lover of delicious food, knew about him and was clearly interested in what he had to say, so he told them of what his team had to endure.

 

When he came to Tokyo to apply for work in the famous Pantasia bakery, it started the sequence of events that made him the super famous baker that he is right now. He got hired by a smaller branch of Pantasia instead of the main branch at first, then he participated and won first place in the newcomer's battle which then allowed him to participate in the Monaco Cup in Monaco. He went against the world's top bakers there and Japan's win made his fame skyrocket tenfold. Aside from that, they won a lot of money from betting every single penny they had on themselves and had, literally, hundreds of millions of yen upon their return home.

 

Having won the coveted MVP Award of the Cup had his pictures plastered all over news papers, television shows and billboards upon his return, and his fame reached a higher status when he won the Yakitate 9 challenge that was broadcast on television. The win also ensured them sixty percent of the stock in the Pantasia Group of Companies which are worth billions of yen.

 

Still, he never changed. Having to grow up in a farm in the country kept him grounded despite all the success he's achieved.

 

He looked at life and people and judged them by their characters after getting to know them instead of how big their bank accounts were. That attitude was also shared by Sakuno and Haruhi, that's why the three got along so well in Sakuno's little hospital room.

 

After they ran out of stories to tell to each other, throats kind of raw and parched from talking too much, Haruhi pulled out a stack of cards and suggested that they play some card games. The cousins weren't opposed to this, so they did.

 

They were on their second round when someone knocked at the door again.

 

“Come in!” Kazuma said, concentrating on the cards that he held in his hand and the cards already exposed on Sakuno's bed. Currently, he was sitting on the foot of the bed, facing Sakuno. He was only wearing his socks on his feet so as not to dirty the hospital bed. Haruhi sat on a chair to the right side of Sakuno, elbows propped over the same bed, the same look of concentration mirrored on her face. Sakuno was sitting Indian style like her cousin, feet under the covers and bear on her lap. She was wearing baby pink pajamas with a matching top, her back propped up by several pillows.

 

The two boys who came in were totally ignored as the three players sized each other up. It looked funny, since the three of them were probably the most harmless people in Japan yet they were trying very hard to intimidate each other.

 

Sakuno couldn't intimidate a cowardly fly even if she practiced for several hundred years. “Kazu-nii do you have any fours?”

 

Kazuma grinned maniacally… or at least as maniacally as he could afford to look, seeing as how he had such an adorable face. “Go fish, Sakuno-chyan.”

 

“Darnit!” Sakuno glowered and drew the top card from the pack. Then she remembered that they had new visitors. “Ah!” Her eyes widened in realization. “Atobe-san? Kabaji-san? Erm… what a surprise to see you..?” In the back of her mind, she was still a little wary of the Hyotei captain, but she was kind of used to him by now. He looked like he needed friends. Having a monologue with his tall shadow all the time must get old after a while. Kabaji, she sort of held a certain fondness to because he reminded her of a gentle giant. For a lack of anything else to say, she blurted out what was on her mind. “Why are you here?” Then she blushed, embarrassed that she asked such a rude question.

 

Atobe tore his gaze from her two visitors to look her in the eyes. “Ore-sama heard you were sick.” His genius brain cannot develop a logical explanation as to why the girl would be hospitalized because of his apology bouquet, but the proof was right there - sitting on the hospital bed and playing with her cousin and some unidentified boy from Ouran. He recognized the uniform; he has several friends who go to school there.

 

His eyes slanted as he looked at the boy again, sizing him up. He was short and he looked a little too girly to be considered a real man. If their looks were to be compared, it wouldn't even be a fair fight. He was manly, the boy was not. He was tall; the boy was a short little fox. Even if he had a baby face that some girls might find appealing, he didn't look good enough to complement the girl with his looks. Together, side by side, they looked really… pretty… together. Real men did not look pretty. Pretty is not a word that is supposed to be used to describe real men. What the little girl sitting on the bed needed was a guy who would be the yin to her yang, a masculine figure next to her feminine one, a winter to her summer, not another smooth baby face next to her already smooth baby face. He mentally coughed to clear his head. Like Tezuka, for example.

 

Yeah… he was getting worked up in behalf of his rival… that was all there is to it. After all, if someone tried to steal Tezuka's girlfriend away from him then it might affect his game. If that happened, who would he look forward to playing to then?

 

Haruhi blinked at the boy. He was glowering at her. Have they met before? Did she slight him on a previous occasion or something? She didn't normally care or even notice what other people were doing around her, but the cold stare through narrowed eyes that the new arrival was giving her was pretty hard to miss. And if she really did offend him in some way before, she thought it would be better if they cleared it up, since they were both friends with Sakuno. She smiled warmly. “Hi!”

 

Atobe's haughty scowl deepened.

 

Sakuno remembered her manners. “Ah! Atobe-san, Kabaji-san, this is my cousin Azuma Kazuma. I think you mentioned you've met him before?”

 

Kazuma turned to greet them. “You look familiar,” he said to Atobe. He was really bad at names and had difficulty remembering people he's met but the boy really did look familiar. The other guy sort of reminded him of Koala.

 

“And this is my friend, Fujioka Haruhi.”

 

Haruhi was confused. She could swear the boy's glower turned darker and darker every minute. She was starting to feel chills like the first time she met Nekozawa-senpai, the president of their school's Black Magic Arts Club.

 

“You go to Ouran?” Atobe inquired politely through gritted teeth. He can't stand the guy for some reason, and they've just met. He was sitting too close to the girl, in his opinion. He was practically sitting on her bed! Haruhi nodded. “Ore-sama has friends who go there,” he continued.

 

Sakuno stiffened. If he knew people who went to Haruhi-neechan's school and if he found that she was a girl, she was going to get kicked out of her club and would have difficulty paying her debt. Oh no! “Haruhi-niichan just transferred there this year. He's really smart.” The choice of masculine words to address the girl was deliberate.

 

Haruhi didn't mind, she was used to being thought of as a boy already and if this guy had friends in her school, it was probably best he didn't discover her true gender. “But it's only because of a scholarship,” she smiled even more warmly, filling the room with kawaii vibes that wrecked havoc to most people in her school, regardless of gender.

 

Was he trying to say that not only was he cute but he was intelligent as well? The nerve of this guy… Wait. Why was he acting like this? What did this girly-looking boy ever do to him to warrant his animosity from the get-go?

 

“Um, Atobe-san?” Sakuno asked, distracting Atobe from having a staring match with Haruhi, in her most polite tone.

 

Atobe shook himself from his stupor, wondering why he's been feeling so off-balance lately. It was so not like him. “Yes?”

 

“Would you like something to eat or drink?” She motioned to the assortment of food on the table at one end of the room.

 

Atobe looked from her face to the bear in her lap. “Thank you but ore-sama just ate.” She didn't look like she was mad at him for landing her in the hospital. “How is your ankle doing?”

 

Sakuno's head tilted to the right. “It's fine.”

 

Atobe knit his brows. “And your allergies?” He approached the bed cautiously and stood at the empty space across of the boy from Ouran. Kabaji felt it was safe enough to sit on one of the many chairs in the room.

 

“They've cleared up.”

 

His perfect brows furrowed even further. “Ore-sama didn't mean to send you to the hospital with his apology bouquet. It was supposed to make up for the accident last Friday, not cause you more trouble.”

 

Sakuno beamed at him. “That's alright, Atobe-san. At least now I know that I'm allergic to tulips.”

 

Luckily, for Atobe, all the other occupants of the room, except for Kabaji, couldn't correctly spot and interpret the meaning behind significant blushes like he was sporting right now. And Kabaji couldn't see his face, so he was safe. He cleared his throat. “Well, nonetheless, ore-sama would like to express his deepest apologies that you landed in the hospital. Ore-sama was hoping to make it up to you somehow.”

 

Sakuno looked confused. Haruhi slowly gathered the discarded cards and absentmindedly shuffled them while she listened to their conversation. Kazuma got off of the bed and walked over to get himself a drink. Then he took some of the bread he brought today and offered them to Kabaji.

 

Kabaji didn't want to be rude so he accepted. “Ossu,” he said, and Kazuma smiled at him kindly before returning to spot on the bed.

 

“But you didn't send Sakuno to the hospital.” Kazuma opened the soda can and took a full swig. Sakuno and Haruhi nodded in agreement. What was he talking about?

 

Atobe frowned. “Ore-sama heard from St. Rudolph's Mizuki himself who apparently heard from Fuji Yuuta who heard from Fuji Syusuke that you were hospitalized and apparently ore-sama is the culprit.”

 

. . .

 

The three people surrounding the bed blinked curiously at him. Sakuno voiced out what they were thinking.

 

“Huh?”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

When Tezuka arrived with Fuji more than an hour later, they were welcomed with a peculiar sight.

 

Kabaji was quietly eating bread while sipping tea in one of the seats, and four people were playing cards on the bed. Sakuno still had her teddy bear on her lap, Kazuma was still seated in front of her on the foot of the bed, Haruhi was still on one side as she gathered the cards and started to shuffle it, and Atobe was seated across Haruhi, beside Sakuno, slicing a pealed apple into small bite-size pieces.

 

“Mou! It's unfair how Atobe-san keeps on winning!” Sakuno pouted at the Hyotei captain. She tried her very best each time but it was like he had sixth sense.

 

Atobe smirked while he finished slicing the apples and then placed the plate on the side table beside the girl. He wouldn't normally do such a mundane thing because his greatness would be wasted, but for some reason, he wanted to do this and didn't mind doing it for her. “Ore-sama cannot help it if luck is on his side.” The truth of the matter was that his three would-be opponents were just really, really bad at hiding their emotions. He could read the expressions on their faces like an open book and he didn't even need to use his gift of insight to guess which cards they had.

 

“Arigatou, Atobe-san!” Sakuno took one of the slices and munched on it happily before she noticed the two new arrivals. “Mitsu-nii! Syusuke-nii!”

 

The ultra-pompous wall that was chipped away while Atobe was playing Go Fish with Sakuno returned with full force. He looked like a totally different person when he turned around and casually stood up. “Well, it's about time for ore-sama to get going then. Don't you think so too, Kabaji?”

 

Kabaji looked like he didn't want to go yet. “Ossu.”

 

“But we just got here,” Fuji exclaimed. “You're leaving already?”

 

“Ore-sama has been here for hours already,” he exaggerated. In truth, he didn't expect to have so much… fun… while visiting and he didn't want to encroach upon Tezuka's territory more than he's already had.

 

“Ah, Tezuka, you came!” Kazuma beamed at him. “I heard from Kanmuri about last Saturday. Thank you very much for what you did!” His cousin had some really great friends, in his opinion. He already had great respect for Tezuka before, but what he did last Saturday just placed him in a higher pedestal in his mind.

 

Tezuka inclined his head slightly. “It was no trouble at all, Kazuma-san.” He turned to greet Haruhi. “Fujioka-san.” He wondered why she was dressed in a boy's uniform but he guessed he could ask Sakuno about it later on.

 

“Konnichiha, Tezuka-kun!”

 

What the - Tezuka knew the boy? Atobe's face never faltered. His hand itched to pat the girl on the head for some reason, but his self-control won and he refrained. “You'll think about my proposal?” At Sakuno's nod, he bent his head in acknowledgement and walked towards the door. Kabaji trailed behind him. “Tezuka, Fuji.”

 

And faster than the speed of light, they were gone.

 

Fuji was curious. “Why was Atobe here?”

 

Sakuno ate another piece of the apple before she answered. “He heard from Mizuki-san and thought that he caused my hospitalization, so he came to see if I was okay… I think.” Her brows crinkled.

 

Tezuka looked from the apple to her face. “What was that `proposal' all about?”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“Stay away from him, Sakuno. He's nothing but trouble.” Tomoka announced in a serious tone of voice.

 

“He's not that bad, Tomo-chan. He means well. He's honestly a nice person if you think about it.” Sakuno argued. “Well... he is! You just have to give him a chance,” she added when Tomoka looked incredulous.

 

“He's bad news.” Ann, for once, was in total agreement with Tomoka. “He's the son of the devil.”

 

“Evil incarnate,” Tomoka interjected.

 

“Heir of Satan.”

 

“Fiendish barbarian.”

 

“Hellspawn.”

 

“The Omen.”

 

“. . .” Ann chewed on her lip thoughtfully, deep in thought, before she said “Prince of Darkness” and then smirked triumphantly. Tomoka wasn't going to have the last word, hah! Sakuno smiled painfully. Will the day when these two were going to get along peacefully ever going to come?

 

“He's evil,” Tomoka stated, “plain and simple.”

 

Ann nodded. “You shouldn't go and that's that.”

 

Sakuno sighed. It was Saturday. Ann and Tomoka were free today. They both got permission to spend the night over. “He's not evil.” Sakuno argued for the trillionth time. “He means well, he really does.” The other two girls were totally unconvinced.

 

“Just because he's a little good looking doesn't mean that he can't do anything wrong.” Tomoka took a sip of her coke. The only reason why she disliked Atobe right now was because he hit Sakuno with a tennis ball. He could be really arrogant at times, but that might be because he thought himself to be the most good-looking tennis player of all… or probably the best.

 

Ann shot her a disgusted look. “You think he's good looking? Ew.”

 

“Well he is! Don't you think so, Sakuno?” The more Ann was arguing against Atobe, the more her dislike was going away. Anything Ann disliked was supposed to be okay in her book. Switching gears, she decided a complete turnaround was in order.

 

If it were just the three of them, alone in the room together, she would have readily answered the question. But alas, they weren't alone. Her hospital room had turned into some kind of hangout central and currently, she had a lot of visitors.

 

Her cousin Kazuma had stepped out earlier, after Syusuke and Tezuka shooed him away. He looked really haggard and tired. The two boys assured him that they would take care of his little cousin, and coaxed him into going home to get some sleep. He still felt responsible for `infecting' Sakuno, even if it wasn't his fault, but the two boys managed to persuade him into going home to rest. He promised to return as soon as he awakened, but Sakuno insisted that he take a day off, so to speak. Her parents or grandmother kept her company every night, but they gave her a lot of space and felt safe enough to leave her during the daytime since she had a lot of young friends to keep her company. The adults didn't want to intrude upon the youngsters' fun time, and Kazuma was often always there anyway, so they felt it safe to leave Sakuno to his care.

 

In addition to Syusuke and Tezuka, Inui had also tagged along. He found that Sakuno's hospital room was a great strategic place to gather data and he planned to take full advantage of it. The amount of data he managed to gather so far was priceless, and he even brought a second notebook as backup just in case he ran out of space to write his precious data in.

 

No, she definitely couldn't answer that question truthfully. She couldn't lie either, so she kept quiet. “Anou…”

 

“Just admit it! He's cute.” Tomoka hedged. “Okay, so he's not cute like Ryoma-sama kind of cute, but he's good-looking.” She considered this for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Kind of like a ragged Yukimura combined with Tezuka-buchou, but with more ego.”

 

“A lot of ego,” Ann corrected.

 

“Yeah, but still…”

 

Sakuno wasn't the only one who had a large teardrop-shaped body of sweat hanging on top of her head. The lower part of Inui's face was hidden by his notebook and no one could see his eyes because of his glasses, so his barely veiled amusement was safely hidden as he scribbled away the data from their conversation.

 

Tezuka didn't know if he should feel insulted or flattered. Flattered because he was in the good-looking category or insulted because he was compared to Atobe.

 

Fuji was curious. “So who's more good-looking, Atobe or Yukimura?”

 

Ann answered without any hesitation. “Yukimura of course.”

 

Tomoka snorted. “That's because you can't stand Atobe.” Ann visibly shuddered in disgust. “If you look at it objectively though, he has a certain foreign flair to him. Yukimura looks too girly for my taste.”

 

“Girly?” Fuji couldn't help but ask. He never would have pegged Yukimura to be girly, so the girls' perspectives were interesting.

 

“Yeah,” Tomoka agreed, sighing dreamily. “I bet he'd look really good if he wore women's clothing.”

 

“T-Tomo-chan. . .” Sakuno was amazed at how gutsy her friend was sometimes. Like now, for instance, Tomo-chan didn't seem to mind that Inui-senpai was taking down notes from their conversation.

 

“You think so too, right Sakuno?”

 

“T-Tomo-chan. . .” She didn't really want to answer that question. She hid behind Ichigo the teddy bear for protection.

 

“Ugh, why don't you tell her that her tastes are bad already?” Ann insisted. “You must be cross-eyed, if you find Atobe attractive. Ne, Sakuno?”

 

The two girls looked at her expectantly. “Um. . .” How was she going to get out of this mess? “They're both cute, in their own way.” Okay so she decided to take the easy way out and not take sides. Who could blame her? “Atobe-san's attractiveness comes from his confidence.”

 

“You mean his over-inflated ego,” Ann interrupted.

 

Sakuno chose to overlook that remark, intent to defend the boy since he was kind enough to visit her yesterday. “He can't help being like that. He probably grew up to lots of people and servants used to calling him bocchama and thinking he could do no wrong.”

 

“Damn rich bastards,” Ann agreed. The only boys who were referred to as bocchama came from stinkin' rich families. Atobe was probably used to people waiting for him hand and foot all the time.

 

“But he's really a good person!” Sakuno hoped she was convincing Ann-chan, even just a little.

 

“You think that about everyone.” The two girls said dryly. The other occupants of the room silently nodded in agreement. Sakuno was too naïve for her own good most of the time.

 

“But it's true!” Sakuno's eyes were so full of innocent wonder that none of them had the heart to tell her she was really gullible.

 

“And what about Yukimura?” Inui prodded. Ii data!

 

Sakuno didn't really know the guy much, but she didn't want to say anything bad about Akaya-kun's senpai either. Everyone watched the play of emotions on Sakuno's face as she struggled to find the right words to describe the guy she hardly knew.

 

There was a very soft knock on the door before it opened and in came Momo with Kaidoh and Kawamura. Momo was motioning his hand for the people behind him to come in with them.

 

“I think Yukimura-san is very handsome.”

 

Several oranges and apples fell to the floor as Sakuno's statement hit him like a bolt of lightning. Sakuno's face flamed when she saw who the new guests were.

 

“A-Akaya-kun.”

 

. . .

 

Oh my god. She wanted to die. Why didn't the earth open up and swallow her whole when she wanted to?

 

Akaya stood behind Momo slack-jawed from what he heard. The rest of his senpai-tachi was behind him since they invited themselves again this afternoon. He had been so antsy, not being able to text her properly, that he had been fidgeting all week. He wanted to come yesterday but they had practice. They also had practice earlier this morning. He lost the drive to protest and admitted defeat when all of his senpais ganged up on him, ribbing him about the fruits he was carrying. The trip had been short. The next thing he knew, they were inquiring what room Sakuno-chan was in on the front desk and they met Momo and his senpais in the hallway. Momo lead them to the room and was the one who knocked softly. They all entered just in time to hear Sakuno's thoughts on Yukimura's good looks.

 

Akaya was torn between shaking Sakuno-chan and demand that she take back what she said or punching his buchou for having a face that Sakuno-chan would consider `handsome', just to see if she'd have the same idea if he was sporting a bruised chin and a cut lip. Since he couldn't do either of the two, he felt like screaming instead.

 

Yukimura was perfectly calm. Oh how his kouhai entertained him. Seigaku was a never-ending source for amusement as well. He didn't know what he did to attract the girl's attention though. He wasn't afraid of Kirihara going ape-shit bananas on him, but he silently prayed for one of the other guys on his team to say something to break the awkward silence.

 

Inui was having a field day and even though Renji was new to the drama unfolding, he was busy scribbling notes, too. All the Rikkai Regulars were curious about `Kirihara's little girlfriend' so they tagged along today.

 

Sakuno looked to her two bestfriends for help. “Anou. . .”

 

“Heh,” Tomoka said. “Hehehehehehe…” she tried to stifle her laughter by biting her bottom lip but it didn't help one bit. Soon Ann was laughing with her and Sakuno was as red as an apple. She had to admit it was funny, but she just couldn't find it in her to laugh right now. Tomoka tried to talk in between fits of giggles. “Sakuno, you have the worst timing ever. I told you that you should've picked Atobe instead!”

 

Sakuno didn't hide her face behind her palms like she wanted to, but she hugged her teddy bear tightly. She wanted to hide under the covers.

 

Akaya picked up the fruits he dropped on the floor and his senpai-tachi disbursed themselves in the room. It was getting kind of crowded and the tension was so thick, it was almost electric. If this was some anime like Bleach, Naruto or Dragonball, you would be able to see the fighting aura that enveloped some of the occupants of the room.

 

But it's not, so it's a moot point. It was still damn awkward, either way.

 

Kikumaru unwittingly broke the awkward silence a second later when he barged in with Oishi and an Echizen who looked more like his hostage than anything else. “Nyah Chibi-musume, how are you today?” He had one arm tightly gripping his Ochibi as he waved with the other enthusiastically.

 

“Chibi-musume?” Fuji questioned. It was the first time he's heard Kikumaru refer to Sakuno-chan as his chibi daughter. “Since when did Sakuno-chan become your daughter?”

 

“I got tired of waiting for Ochibi to make her my chibi so I'm taking matters into my own hands.” Nobody could understand his logic but they pretended like everything he just said made perfect sense. Luckily for him he seemed oblivious to the tension hanging in the air. “Would you like me to peel an orange for you, Chibi-musume? Ochibi, why don't you peel an apple for her and cut it into little pieces, nyah?” He approached the bed and sat down on one of the chairs nearest to it.

 

“Aaah… thanks, Kikumaru-senpai. You don't have to do that, Ryoma-kun.” Sakuno avoided looking at Ryoma-kun. She was in her pajamas, for crying out loud! Why was Ryoma-kun here?! This is so embarrassing!

 

“Yeah, Tezuka and I brought some pretzels.” Fuji unwrapped the package they brought and passed one to Sakuno, got one for himself and passed it to Tezuka who passed it around the room.

 

There was another knock on the door before a uniformed nurse peeked in. “My,” her eyes widened at the amount of visitors her patient had, “you have a lot of visitors today, Ryuzaki-chan.” She carried a shallow cup with some pills and was here to check on the patient's IV. “It's time for your medicine. Uh…” She paused, looking at the visitors in the room.

 

“I need to go to the bathroom.” Sakuno pinked considerably after making that statement.

 

“Do you need help standing up, Sakuno?” Ann asked.

 

“I'll do it,” the nurse volunteered. It was part of her job.

 

Sakuno shook her head. She was able to stand up fine with a little help from the hospital nurse. “No thank you, Ann-chan. I'll be right back.” They locked the bathroom door behind them, and the others couldn't hear much of anything, since the exhaust fan drowned out the conversation from the inside.

 

“So. . .” Fuji decided to break the silence.

 

“So,” Yukimura echoed. The hot glares that Kirihara were throwing his way were starting to get old.

 

“So,” Inui repeated for the third time, “you're all here to visit Ryuzaki-chan?”

 

“Yup,” Bunta answered confidently. This wasn't his first time stalking or imposing himself on Kirihara so there was no need for them to imitate foliage anymore. “We were worried Kirihara might fall asleep on the way here or get lost or something.”

 

Akaya glowered at his redheaded senpai but kept his mouth shut.

 

Ann and Tomoka started a decent conversation about their friend who was in the bathroom. Something about how only Sakuno could go from a sprain to extreme allergies to high fever and dehydration within a week. It then drifted into what Sakuno's finer points are, when Fuji intervened a little and inserted “But she's not always this unlucky. She's lucky, too, isn't she?”

 

The girls then began to sing their friend praises, almost as if they were in some kind of competition on who was capable of finding Sakuno's kawaii points best. They sounded like they were the ones who gave birth to Sakuno or something; like a couple of proud mamas.

 

Inui continued to take notes of their conversation, scribbling madly against his notebook. Renji was also taking notes, but more discreetly. Fuji ate another pretzel while Akaya got distracted from glaring at his captain. Tomoka and Ann's conversation about his Sakuno-chan were distracting him from his jealousy.

 

With nothing else to do, Ryoma also listened to Ann and Tomoka's talk. But it was only because he had nothing else better to do. And that was that.

 

Niou had a wicked look on his face; he was already imagining the things he could do to his kouhai to torture him. Bunta, Eiji and Momo found the stash of fluffy JaPans Kazuma brought earlier and began to eat them. Yukimura and Fuji ate pretzels, smiling all the while. Kawamura tried to engage Kaidoh, Yagyuu and Jackal in conversation, but they weren't very cooperative. Oishi was the only one who replied to any of his questions or laughed at his jokes.

 

Tezuka looked a little bored. His staring match with Sanada wouldn't be what you would actually consider `entertaining'. In an effort to distract himself, he picked up the remote and started surfing channels. He stopped at one channel where a familiar theme song was playing and put the remote back down.

 

Almost in synch, everyone turned to the respected buchou of Seigaku, then to the television show, and back to the buchou again. He didn't look like he was playing a joke on them. In fact, he looked really serious, like he always did.

 

“Uh. . .” Oishi couldn't find the right words to form the question he wanted to ask.

 

Kikumaru didn't have the same reservations. “Tezuka you still watch Power Rangers?” Momo and Bunta beside him looked just as incredulous. They weren't the only ones. Even Kaidoh was looking at his buchou like he'd just sprouted wings.

 

“No.”

 

Kikumaru looked at the television screen displaying the opening theme song of the popular children's show and back to Tezuka's face again. “Then why is it on TV?” Of all the shows to watch and all the channels he surfed through earlier, he had to pick this one why?

 

“Because it's Saturday.” Tezuka answered in a clipped voice.

 

The bathroom door opened and Sakuno stepped out, assisted by the nurse. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the TV screen and the smile that graced her face lit the room up. “Power Rangers!” You could hear the excited squeal in her voice as she clapped her hands together in glee before climbing back on the bed. The nurse rolled back her IV carrier to its original place and quietly left the room when she finished her duties.

 

“Oh yeah,” Tomoka said, almost as an afterthought, “Sakuno still loves to watch Power Rangers.” She didn't hate it, but she wasn't as obsessed with it like she was a few years ago. Her little brothers liked to watch it, though. That's why they got along so well with Sakuno.

 

Ann outgrew Power Rangers a long time ago, but she found it adorable that Sakuno still loved watching it. Sakuno, to her, was like a little duckie. She was still awkward most of the time, but she was cute all the same.

 

It's widely known in Japan that even though children and adults alike loved to watch anime, only the younger audience is targeted by live-action mecha shows like Power Rangers. People like Tezuka didn't watch shows like the Power Rangers. Sakuno clearly did. But the intrigue wasn't about Sakuno still liking Power Rangers at her age. Some of them (like Akaya) found that to be actually cute.

 

No, the question was did Tezuka know that Sakuno still loved to watch Power Rangers and purposely surfed through the channels for her sake or was he just bored and everything was just a coincidence? Tezuka didn't look like he was going to provide them any answers soon, so they had no choice but to drop the subject.

 

“So. . .” Niou didn't even contain the grin that graced his face as he spoke. He was looking at Kirihara specifically. “Power Rangers, huh?”

 

Akaya glowered at his senpai. “Yeah, so?”

 

“Do you like the Power Rangers, Kirihara?” Bunta couldn't help himself.

 

“I bet I know which Ranger is his favorite.”

 

Akaya didn't reply to his Niou-senpai because he didn't want to say that Power Rangers were for kids (it might hurt Sakuno-chan's feelings), but he also didn't want to defend the Power Rangers because he would never be able to live it down. He settled for glowering at his senpais instead.

 

“Oh yeah? Let me guess…” Bunta scratched his chin, as if he had some kind of imaginary beard. “Does he like… the Pink Ranger?”

 

“Hey that's Sakuno's favorite, too, isn't it Sakuno?” Ann added her input to what she thought was a serious conversation. Everyone who wasn't focused on the show discreetly coughed into their hands to cover their amusement.

 

Ryoma, who was all but forgotten at this point, (in favor of the Power Rangers), glared at all of them.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

The next day...

 

“Please, please, please, Kamio-kun?”

 

“No.”

 

“Pretty please with a puppy on top?”

 

It was difficult, but he managed to hold on to his stern frown. “Absolutely. Not.”

 

. . .

 

Oh gods no, please not the puppy dog eyes. Sakuno's hazel eyes widened some more, shining with hope.

 

“NO.” He repeated, more for himself rather than the big brown eyes pleading at him. “No means no, Sakuno-chan.” He crossed his arms across his chest and strengthened his glare for show. Hopefully, it was enough to intimidate her.

 

Apparently, it wasn't.

 

He could literally feel his resolve melting away. She blinked twice for effect.

 

Damn it! “No.”

 

Sakuno's bottom lip quivered. Her eyes began to water a little. Those two things combined with her vulnerable look in the middle of a hospital bed wearing nothing but her pink puppy night clothes was his undoing.

 

“Arg!!! FINE!!!” On the tennis court, he was the master of the rhythm. Faced with Sakuno's puppy dog eyes, he was nothing but a soggy piece of milk toast. “But you can't tell anyone about it!” He warned. He frowned fiercely to look intimidating but she didn't look one bit intimidated.

 

“I promise I won't tell anyone about it.” Sakuno was happy as a clam. “And you can't back out! You promised me and you have to fulfill it when I'm well enough.”

 

Kamio merely sighed in defeat and accepted his fate. He was no match for a little girl who was half his size in a hospital bed.

 

“We're going to have so much fun!”

 

He seriously doubted he was going to have any kind of fun, but he didn't dash her hopes. When Shinji finally returned from his trip to the vending machine, Kamio glared at him. It was Shinji's fault for leaving him alone and vulnerable to the pleading puppy eyes of Sakuno. If his friend didn't leave him alone in the room with the girl, he wouldn't have been so weak against it. Arg!

 

Shinji did a double-take at the fierceness of the glare that his friend shot him. He handed him his Dew and handed the grape Ponta to Sakuno.

 

“Arigatou, Shinji-kun!”

 

“Aa,” he replied, keeping an eye on Kamio at the same time. His friend looked like he wanted to jump up and strangle him. “Did I interrupt something?” He felt like he missed something significant when he went out of the room; significant enough to warrant Kamio being mad at him. He couldn't recall anything he did to irritate his buddy lately, so he was at a total loss.

 

“No,” Sakuno's Ponta sizzled as she popped it open. She looked perfectly content as she took a long sip.

 

Shinji frowned back at Kamio. He didn't know why his friend was mad at him but he wasn't going to let his unpleasant demeanor upset him. “So anyway,” he turned to Sakuno, “is it true that Atobe came here the other day? I heard from Ann-chan. Or was it this weekend? It was around Friday, so it was the weekend…” He mumbled off.

 

Sakuno nodded. “He thought he was responsible for my being here, isn't that odd?” She told them what she heard from the Hyotei buchou.

 

Shinji shook his head. “That's what he gets for listening to gossip. People shouldn't trust gossip so much. Most of it isn't true anyway…” Sakuno reached out to pat his hand as he mumbled about the injustices that gossip and gossip mongrels did to society today.

 

Kamio heard from Ann-chan that Atobe sent some `tulips of doom', as the younger Tachibana sibling had dubbed it, to their friend, causing her to break out in severe rashes before her fever and dehydration appeared. For a guy who liked to brag about his supposed-awesomeness and had legions of girls tripping all over their skirts to get to him, he sure didn't stand a chance against winning the affections of Sakuno-chan that easily.

 

Maybe he was secretly a piece of soggy milk toast, too.

 

That thought made Kamio feel a whole lot better. It was enough to get rid of that feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach for that promise he made earlier. Having reached a decision that the pompous peacock, as Ann-chan had dubbed him, was also nothing but milk toast, he immediately began to feel better.

 

“So,” Shinji said in that very unexciting tone of voice of his, “I heard you had to walk Osakada-chan that day. Did anything significant happen?”

 

Or at least his former friend turned on him.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

“Oshitari-senpai!” Yuushi paused and waited for his kouhai to catch up to him. “I have those details I told you I'd get from my cousin.” Yuushi looked a little confused. He didn't know what Choutarou was talking about. “You know… about Atobe and those flowers..?”

 

“Oh.” Yuushi suddenly remembered their conversation. And why was Choutarou telling him this..?

 

“Uh… let's see…” Choutarou pulled out the paper where he wrote the details he got from Kyouya-niisama last night. Since they surprisingly had practice this Sunday, he thought he'd wait until after the training to give them to his senpai. “Ah! There it is. Um… a dozen, no wait, TWO dozen tulips to one Ryuzaki Sakuno.” He read the contents of the paper to his senpai.

 

“Two dozen tulips?” Yuushi turned to look at Atobe who was currently talking to their coach. “Ryuzaki… why is that name familiar..?” His brows furrowed in thought.

 

“What are you frowning at, Yuushi?” Gakuto peered at his doubles partner curiously as he joined up with his partner.

 

“Does the name Ryuzaki ring any bells for you?” Yuushi asked.

 

Ryou, who managed to catch that question just as he joined their conversation, closed the cap on his water bottle before he answered. “Isn't that the name of Seigaku's coach?”

 

Choutarou also had an epiphany. “Oh… yeah… I wonder if she's related to Ryuzaki-sensei?”

 

“Does this mean that Atobe sent flowers to some girl from Seigaku and,” Choutarou swallowed, “he's courting someone from Seigaku? But… uh… why? What's so special about her?” Atobe had an army of fangirls in Hyotei alone. None of them received any two dozen flowers from him before. Or at least, not to any of his knowledge.

 

“Aren't you jumping to conclusions?” Shishido gently reprimanded him.

 

Choutarou looked guilty. “Ah… you're right, Shishido-san. I mean… Atobe sending a girl flowers doesn't mean he's courting her. I mean… it was Suoh's idea, so Atobe wouldn't uh… wouldn't really be courting anybody if Suoh was the one who suggested it… or something.” He looked a little confused at his explanation.

 

“Maybe we could ask Kabaji. He'll know, won't he?” Gakuto suggested. All four of them glanced at Kabaji who was standing off to one side, waiting for Atobe to finish his conversation with their coach.

 

Yuushi cleared his throat. Since he was the genius in their team, he figured it was his duty to inform his teammates about certain things in life. “Did you know that the significance of tulips in general mean fame, charity or,” he adjusted his glasses, “can be considered as a declaration of love?”

 

When the other three shook their heads, he continued. “Red tulips could mean `believe me' or a more specific declaration of love; variegated tulips mean that he finds the receiver's eyes beautiful; and yellow tulips signify a hopeless love.” He let his three companions process those before he went on. “Atobe sent two dozen. Chou, did your cousin specify what color they were?”

 

Choutarou was openly gaping at his senpai. “Um,” he turned to the list to see if it was there, “a mix of red and yellow. What does that mean?”

 

“Believe me, even if it's a hopeless love?” Gakuto snickered. “Maybe she has a boyfriend already.” Wouldn't that be poetic justice? Atobe finally falls in love but the girl is already in love with someone else. He who has legions of fangirls can't get the one girl that he finally fell in love with.

 

“Maybe he's unaware of the meaning behind what sending tulips meant.” Shishido was the voice of reason. He didn't know about the significance of the flower and flower color meant until five minutes ago either. What kind of guy cared about these things anyway? He looked at their team's genius.

 

Yuushi shrugged. “Perhaps,” he allowed. There was always that possibility. “If Atobe did it through Ohtori Kyouya through Tamaki Suoh's advice, there's that probability that he doesn't know about it.”

 

“We could ask him.” Choutarou suggested.

 

“You do it.” Gakuto prodded.

 

“No way!” Choutarou ardently disagreed. “You do it!”

 

“Why'd you suggest it if you weren't going to do it in the first place?” Gakuto raised a brow at him.

 

“I was just giving you an option…”

 

“Hush,” Shishido elbowed him, “Atobe's coming.”

 

“Hey guys,” Atobe greeted the other members of his team, Kabaji was behind him, an ever-present shadow. “I talked to Sakaki-sensei and he thought it was a great idea…” He never noticed the varying looks on his teammates' faces. “Do you have any plans for this coming Golden Week?”

 

(o)-(o)
(-'.'-)
(")o(")

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Musume - daughter (It's the Tamaki in me)

 

Thank you for saving the bunnies!