Chapter 2

Momo was the first one to talk.

"Sister?!?!" he exploded, jumping up and giving Ryoma a noogie, "You never told us you had a sister!!!! And a hot one at that!!!!" Sweatdrops appeared on the backs of everyone's head.

"You never asked," Ryoma murmured grumpily, trying to pull out of Momo's hard grip. He was surly at being taken surprise by his sister like that. "And Momo-senpai, that hurts," he complained.

Ryoma's sister giggled. She walked over to Momo, and stuck out a hand. "Hi," she said cheerfully, "My name is Sakura Echizen. Pleased to meet you." After Momo stopped torturing Ryoma and gave her a handshake, she turned her eyes to her younger brother.

"That's just like you, not telling your friends you have a sister," Sakura sighed, hands on her hips. She was two years older than Ryoma, slender, and rather delicate looking, with long, dark emerald hair and large, expressive eyes. She wore a casual pink tank top with blue jeans, and her hair was in a ponytail.

"Like I said, they never asked," Ryoma retorted, "And what are you doing here anyways? I thought you were still in the US…"

"It was a surprise for you," Sakura replied, winking and sticking out her tongue at him, "I told Dad not to tell you I was coming to Japan. I've decided that studying art in the United States is well enough, but I'd rather be with my family."

"I'm touched," Ryoma muttered, "Now Momo-senpai, please let go of me."

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"I contacted Ryoga some while ago," Sakura told Ryoma. The regulars had just finished practice, and were getting ready to head on home. "He said he had met you recently. On some cruise ship…"

"Nyaaaa? Ryoga? Are you talking about Ochibi's brother?" Eiji butted his head in between the two siblings'.

Sakura frowned crossly, glaring at Ryoma. "So you tell them about your brother, but not your sister, eh?" she pouted.

"Nah, we didn't know about Ryoga until that cruise ship, when he was part of that plot to win money or get us chopped up," Eiji corrected in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Eh?" Sakura was appalled. "Chibi-Ryo, you're gonna have to fill me in on this; Ryoga wasn't very clear on what happened, just that you had gotten a lot better at tennis."

Ryoma scowled as the regulars burst out laughing at his nickname.

"Ch-chibi-Ryo?" Momo gasped between fits of mirth.

Sakura blushed, and lifted a hand over her mouth. "Oops," she said, "Sorry, Ryoma, didn't mean to call you that. It was just instinctive…"

"Nyaaa! Nyaa! So I call him Ochibi, you call him Chibi-Ryo, and that brother of his calls him Chibisuke!" Eiji laughed.

As for Ryoma, he continued to scowl, trying to ignore his laughing senpais. It was obvious it wasn't working, due to a blush that stained his face that would rival any one of Sakuno Ryuzaki's.

Speaking of Coach Ryuzaki's granddaughter, that girl was currently smothering a giggle with her mouth. She thought the name was cute, really, but by judging Ryoma-kun's tomato-red face, she was pretty sure he didn't agree with that.

"Why do you call him that?" Fuji chuckled.

Momo and Eiji noticed he was eyeing the girl with an unnatural amount and intensity of interest (for Fuji); an interest he usually only reserved for high-skilled tennis players that he was playing (or a new concoction made by Inui; of course, he had become a little more wary of Inui's juices ever since he fainted during that bowling incident…).

"Well, I always called Ryoga 'Ryo', and, well, since Ryoma here is… uh… smaller… I decided to call him 'Chibi-Ryo,'" Sakura grinned.

Momo and Eiji also noticed she was smiling at Fuji with more vigor than anyone else, and her eyes lit up when she talked to him…

The two nosy regulars smirked at each other, each thinking the same thing.

End of Ch 2

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Review, please!

Sorry about the cliché-ness of the name Sakura; truthfully, I don't know any other good Japanese names.

-Angelicat