Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Tennis.

At an older, more substantial age.

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I see love beyond reason.

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Sakuno knew something was amiss when she could feel Ryoma's stare glaring from behind her. She was in the shopping district, looking for new china and kitchenware when, out of the blue - Sakuno guessed boredom, Ryoma decided to tag along. With the silverware still on her hold, she turned to face the young man with a questioning brow.

It took Ryoma less than a second before speaking his mind, something he's gotten accustomed to when with the doe-eyed lady.

"If I told you 'I'm in love with you.'" Sakuno's eyes slowly widened. "Would you hate me?" Calculating Chesire eyes looked at her in odd resignation before turning away, tinkering the tableware around them.

Smaller and softer hands suddenly draped over his uneasy one, cautiously- then gradually tenderly, causing him to turn back to find affectionate hazel eyes.

"Why would you think I'd hate you?" Sakuno whispered gently, her emotions caught on her throat. There was this odd glint on Ryoma's eyes that made her wary.

Then, the young man pulled away from her hold and smirking, in lieu of a self-pitying frown, said, "That wasn't an answer." before leaving. [1]

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He thought that he was over it. He thought he has grown confident.

But no. He did not. At least, not in the way he needed to be.

When he was younger, it never occurred to him that his leg would hinder him in a quest other than rising in the professional tennis arena.

And now, he believed he's lost time to adapt to this new want, this new dream.

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The green pea fell as Ryoma raised his fork to his lips. With his eyes narrowing and lips thinning, he proceeded to stab the circle green thing with one of the prongs of his fork.

In front of him, Nanako frowned, brows furrowing in growing annoyance towards the young man, less from his improper handling of food and more from his evident display of distance.

"How's Sakuno?" The blue-eyed beauty inquired with a sticky sweetness to her tone, effectively shadowing her erring irk.

Before her, Ryoma shrugged, disinterestly placing the leftover peas on the side of his plate, before looking up to face his cousin with a bored look on his face.

"Still annoying." He said after a while.

"Well," Nanako prodded. "Did you tell her?"

Ryoma's brow twitched. Then, clicking his tongue, told the woman on the edge of her seat, "Yeah."

Instantly, and expected enough for the young man before her, her eyes shone in absolute glee. With her hands clasped together, as if to glorify Kami-sama, she cried in excitement. "I knew you could do it!" Then, prodding on, as she always did, "So, what happened? What did she say?"

"Nothing of importance." came Ryoma's stoic reply as he looked away from the glitter in Nanako's eyes.

"What?" The typically grounded woman cried. "You confessed! Why would her reply be," making air quotation marks, continued quickly, "'Nothing of importance?'"

Ryoma glared at her. After what seemed like forever, which was just three seconds, Nanako pinched her annoying cousin.

"Tell me!"

With cheeks tinting red, Ryoma's cheeks puffed in disbelief as he rubbed his throbbing shoulder.

"OK." He gritted. "I didn't confess as much as tell her."

"What?" Nanako cried. "What does that even mean?"

"And," Ryoma continued, rolling his eyes. "I didn't tell her as much as ask her."

Nanako was out of her seat.

"And I didn't ask her as much as I left before talking things over."

"WHAT?!" The ebony-haired young mother cried, involuntarily slamming her hands on the table from frustration.

"Is everything alright out there?" Nanako's husband suddenly asked groggily, his head floating from the opening of their bedroom door as he peered outside.

"Yes. Sorry, honey." The beautiful woman flushed, seating back down. With the click of the door being closed, their conversation continued in a softer tone. "You left?" She groaned. "Why would you do such a thing?"

Sighing, Ryoma turned to look at his cousin now in all seriousness.

"It's not like everyone's looking forward to being confessed to by a one-legged man." Finally came Ryoma's true and most honest reply. "I won't be the one to put her in that position of turning down a handicapped man." He grimaced. "She's too kind for that. It'll be like coercing her into a deadend affair."

"Kami-sama, Ryoma-san." Nanako blinked back her tears of frustration. Her tone, hushed, as she tenderly held Ryoma's hand in hers. "You are not handicapped. You are not a one-legged man." Ryoma was about to retort angrily when his cousin continued, refusing to back down. "Even if you are physically, don't let yourself be defined by it. Kami-sama, Ryoma-san. I thought you were stronger than this. You've been winning the most competitive tennis tournaments for crying out loud!" A moment of silence fell upon them when a tear escaped her eye. Softly, she asked him. "How can you say this about yourself when the world's in love with you?"

"Sakuno isn't the world, onee-chan." Ryoma uttered dryly. "And she doesn't love me, I'm sure." Then, thinking over it, added. "Not in the way I want her to at least."

Then, they both grew silent, the atmosphere dark and heavy.

"How can you say that?" Nanako couldn't help but let out a sob. "How can you say that so surely, Ryoma-san?" She said, crying. The Ryoma before her blurred with her vision. "That she's not in love with you. How can you be so insensitive, so cruel?"

Ryoma stood up. His heart, he hardened, not anymore wanting to understand, not anymore trying.

"I am just." Then, giving his cousin a straight face, said. "If we won't be together because of my leg, I'm sure as hell she doesn't deserve to be stuck with someone like me."

At that time, he left Nanako weeping for him and for Sakuno, the girl that she knew has loved her cousin for over a decade.

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That late night, Ryoma shifted on his bed, his prosthetic leg carefully laid on the rack, ignoring the calls of Nanako throughout the night.

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Ryoma stood listless as he waited for Sakuno to open the front door of the house she inherited from her grandmother. The chains clang before the door swung open, revealing a petite girl, with a pale, sickly face and frazzled hair, wrapped in a thick colorful comforter.

"Come in." Sakuno coarsely said, stepping aside as Ryoma entered and immediately headed to the kitchen as if it was his own home. The young man was already boiling water when Sakuno got to him.

He glared down at her weary eyes when she stopped by his side. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"What are you cooking?"

Ryoma's brow twitched.

"Get to bed, Ryuzaki."

The young lady sniffled before squinting, initially trying to glare.

"Hai, hai, okaa-san." She mumbled in annoyance before turning away to head upstairs.

After adding uncooked rice grains into the hot pot, Ryoma decided to check on Sakuno in her room. It was when he was in the living room, about to climb the stairway, that his eyes widened. His sick ward, wrapped in all her comforter's glory, was sleeping on the cold steps.

"Mada mada dane."

Carefully, he took her into his arms, his limbs trembling for a moment from her weight, before taking her to her bedroom.

It was past six in the evening when Sakuno came to. Groggily, she sat up, feeling the weight of the whole world on her head as she swayed to and fro. Once, twice she swayed, before suddenly taking a low dip and falling back on bed. The shakes woke Ryoma up and, finding the ill girl awake, leapt to get a cold towel. But before he could leave, Sakuno coarsely called to him.

"Stay." She said, a hot hand holding his.

Ryoma's jaw clenched. He turned away, doubtfully and in thought. Then, turning back to her, found Sakuno smiling.

"You told me you loved me."

The young man nodded, returning to her side, keeping his hold onto her limping hand.

"So stay." came her hoarse voice as her eyes gradually filled with unshed tears. "Don't leave me. Never leave me again." She started to cry.

Ryoma shook his head, leaning down towards her. Hazel eyes seemingly golden captivated her.

"Alright." He kissed her cheek. "Alright." He kissed her temple. "I'll stay, as long as you'll have me."

A tear escaped the side of her face as she reached out to pull him closer by the nape.

"Promise me, Ryoma," She whispered, almost desperate. "Promise me, forever."

Golden orbs looked into hers, as if in search. Closing his eyes, the young man nodded, entranced by having her close, by the touch of her breath on his cheek, by the trail of a single tear by his temple.

"Alright." He mimicked her whisper, capturing her lips in a gentle kiss. His touch as light as a ghost but tender and filled with all the love he kept in secret.

"Alright."

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In the decade that followed, Sakuno could be seen reprimanding a child embracing a temporary prosthetic leg. Ryoma was standing beside her, a smirk on his face as he shook his head.

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The end.

Leave a comment below! :)

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[1] This is a vital scene so I'll explain it in case you didn't catch it.

Ryoma is in love with Sakuno. And she was likewise in love with him, since the moment they met she knew she always had. But because of Ryoma's accident, the loss of his leg didn't cripple him the way it normally did- because he did succeed in the tennis arena. His mind succeeded over his body's supposed limitations. But his leg crippled him, his confidence in allowing himself to love someone in fear of not being good enough because he was an incomplete version of who he should've been, who Sakuno had first known, and who he believed she initially deserved.

He's known for a while that he loved Sakuno, maybe even longer than he knew. But he's never told her, fearing it would break what they had, fearing she would pity him, fearing he'd be asking too much of her- to fall in love with a handicapped man, and fearing she would leave. So he doesn't. He never does. Even when he does in the first seen. Instead of telling her he loved her, he indirectly mentioned it in a question, then gauging how she'd react.

Now, enter's a new fear- Sakuno, being all kind and loving, accepting him, in his offer to be with a crippled man. He sees this in the way her eyes looked into his, in the way the corner of her lips eased and creased, and in the tenderness of her touch. It would ruin her, he thought. This all went through his head in less than a millisecond. So, even before she utters the words, he brushes her off and walks away. Passing off her kindness and love as indifference, which he subconsciously prefers.

The thing with Sakuno was that she gave him hope for this love he wanted, for this life he wanted with her. And if anything, he just wanted closure. He just wanted to be shot down to end his agony. But she didn't. So he did it for her.