Mine

By: Pan-chan13

Disclaimer: I do not own the character of Prince of Tennis. I just think they're so adorable!

Author's Notes: SakunoxRyoma One Shot. Ryoma walks Sakuno home. Please leave a review and let me know what you think! I have a full story coming out for this anime and suggestions are always welcome!

"Ah, thank you. Doing inventory is always a pain!" The elderly woman wearing blue and white track clothes sighed and sat on a chair. Her job as the coach of the high school tennis team wasn't as easy as watching a bunch of young punks play tennis. On top of dealing with scouts and the media, she also had to account for the school's equipment. If anything went missing, the blame always seemed to land on her.

A young girl wiped the sweat and dust off her brow after she had put down the box of tennis balls. "236 tennis balls in good condition!" She smiled. She took off the bandanna that held her hair up, unraveling a long brown braid down her back. "I had no idea you spent this much time on inventory every year!" Sakuno half scolded. "You should have asked for help sooner."

Sakuno's grandmother merely smiled back. "That I should have. Anyway it's getting late. Don't you have some homework to do?"

The girl's large brown eyes looked up to the ceiling and a thoughtful finger went to her chin as she mentally shuffled through a list of her classes in her head. "Let's see. I don't think so." The girl proceeded to look at the clock. "Ah! It's that late already? I didn't notice the time going by so quickly! I don't want to walk home in the dark!" She ran around the room, gathering her things, earning a chuckle from her grandmother.

Sakuno was about to push the door open when it just happened to open itself. The petite girl fell through the gap that the door used to fill and into the arms of a smug looking boy who was a good foot taller than her.

His hazel eyes gazed down at her, as if not surprised at her fall. His black hair seemed wild under the white cap that he donned. His expression was as indifferent as a cat's.

Sakuno took note of the feeling of the muscled chest hiding underneath the black school uniform blouse before looking up in confusion.

"Oi, how can we trust you with all the tennis supplies when you're this clumsy? I hope you didn't break everything." His deep voice seemed to purr, causing the girl to go pink in the cheeks.

Sakuno gasped and stood up straight, embarrassed that such a scene occurred in front of her grandmother, or rather, occurred at all!

"Eh? Ryoma! What are you doing here?" Sakuno tilted her head slightly to the side. She thought their practice had ended a while ago.

Ryoma looked at her passively with his usual apathetic look, a trait he and the former regular captain Tezuka shared. He then turned his handsome face to look to the side, something he did often. "The sun's setting." His words contained little emotion. His eyes wandered back to her though his head was faced a different way. A blush paid a visit to the girl's face again.

"I thought you went home. Sorry if I kept you waiting all this time." She looked down at her shoes and fidgeted a bit.

"Don't worry about it." Ryoma's eyes softened a little bit. She looked adorable that way. He could never stand it when she said sorry. The girl didn't have a selfish bone in her body. He purposely left out the fact that he was walking home, though painstakingly slow, hoping she would catch up since their houses were in the same direction. The sun was already hanging low when he realized she was either still at school and going to walk home at night or she was already walking and would have to walk part of the way in the dark. Regardless of the case, he turned around and double-timed it back.

"Then, you'll walk me home Ryoma?" She smiled gently at him a smile he really appreciated.

"I'll be walking home. You'll just be coincidentally walking back in the same direction." He turned his back to her.

Sakuno nodded and waved a goodbye to her grandmother before catching up with Ryoma, who had already started walking. As she caught up, her hand locked onto his. It felt rough from years of holding a tennis racket and doing weight training.

As soon as he felt her small hand in his, his fingers intertwined with hers.

A comfortable silence engulfed them for a while and Sakuno couldn't help but wonder what she did to deserve Ryoma's attention. As captain of the tennis team, he garnered so much attention from other people. Various sports companies wanted to endorse him and he had already appeared in several commercials. Though it seemed to start out as a silly idea on Tomoko's part, the Prince Ryoma fan club was now a huge fan base for girls who adored her Ryoma.

My Ryoma.

But it wasn't long before they were interrupted by rough male voices they were approaching. They began throwing catcalls at Sakuno, who had developed nicely since she was 12. "Hey, you're not really with this scrawny guy are you?"

Sakuno blushed, but a sense of mischief tempted her. "No. I'm just coincidentally walking back in the same direction." She said sweetly. She then felt Ryoma's grip tighten slightly around her hand.

Ryoma didn't like the way these guys looked. Their uniforms told him they were from another school and probably of a younger class. Some find strength in numbers, which explained why they didn't back off when he stepped forward to block Sakuno from their sight. He always knew their school's skirts were too short! It always attracted unwanted attention to his Sakuno.

My Sakuno.

"Hey, who do you think you are? She said she wasn't with you." One of them stepped up to him.

Ryoma didn't move a muscle, but stood protectively still. Behind him Sakuno tugged at his shirt.

"Ryoma, let's just go home soon, okay?"

The gang of boys returned to school the next day with unexplainable tennis ball shaped bruises in both seen and unseen places on their bodies. No one had told them that the guy with the tennis racquet had monster strength and speed. They were lucky the girl had stepped in to stop him.

When he was done he pulled the girl from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist, his chest to her back. He then nuzzled the base of her neck while she blushed and placed a petite palm on his cheek. Looking at the fallen boys, both smiled and had said the same thing simultaneously.

"Mine."

Author's notes: Something short for all the SakunoxRyoma fans. Feel free to let me know what you think =)