Way Back Into Love

A Ryoma & Sakuno from The Prince of Tennis romance fanfic

By: Bunny

Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis / Tenisu no Ōjisama is copyright Takeshi Konomi/Shueisha.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Seven – We All Fall Down

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty-two year old Ryuzaki Sakuno woke up to the sunshine caressing her face and letting out a big yawn, stretched her arms and legs out. Opening her eyes, she was met with a plain white ceiling and she frowned. Not again! She was just starting to adjust to being twelve and thinking maybe Ryoma was right and it was all some crazy long dream when she found herself back in her apartment. She sighed. It seems that instead of having a long crazy dream about growing up, she had a short sweet dream about going back to the past and falling in love again. Why couldn't that have been her reality?

She sat up and was quickly pulled back down by a strong, male arm.

"Calm down Ryuzaki, it's just your bedroom," she heard Ryoma mutter into his pillow.

"Why are you calling me Ryuzaki?" she asked, staring once again at her plain white ceiling in confusion.

Ryoma's half awake brain took a minute to process her question. He was expecting something like, "Oh, that's right. Good morning Ryoma-kun, did you sleep well?" Not a, "Why are you calling me Ryuzaki?" Wasn't that obvious? It was morning and she still wasn't used to being called Sakuno, so when she was still waking in the morning, he'd tried to adapt for her sake. Wait a minute. Did that mean his Sakuno was back?

Excited, Ryoma shot out of his pillow and was quickly leaning over Sakuno's form filling her view of the ceiling with his searching look.

"Sakuno, are you all better today?" he asked.

Sakuno blinked at him. Wait a minute. What was that supposed to mean? Had she been sick lately? Did all that traveling into the past stuff come from a bad fever or something? Ryoma was giving her a weird look. Not only that, but wasn't she pissed off at him? Hadn't she kicked him out of her apartment? What was he doing in her bed?

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"What do you mean, what am I doing here? I live here!" Ryoma exclaimed. He gave her a startled look, as if he was just as surprised at his heated reply as she was.

Sakuno blinked at his outburst. Feeling uncertain she asked, "you do?"

Ryoma looked confused for a second, "yeah, I do…" He held up his left hand above them both and examined the ring on his finger. He smirked down at her, "I'm your husband."

Sakuno's eyes narrowed into thin slits, "I think I would remember something as important as getting married, Ryoma. Last time marriage came up, you gave me the usual-" Sakuno stopped mid-tirade as she gave her left hand a look of disbelief. Ryoma was holding it up to show her a beautiful wedding ring set on her own ring finger.

She stared at the rings for a long time, just waiting for them to disappear. They simply had to be a figment of her imagination. How could she wake up one morning married? Or rather, perhaps the question at hand was, how could she go to the past and come back two days later married? If she really went to the past that is. She could have been dreaming. Right. Dreaming. Still didn't explain the sudden appearance of wedding rings. After a few minutes of the rings definitely not disappearing, Sakuno gave up and looked at Ryoma.

Ryoma shrugged at her and said, "It must have been something you did in the past."

Now she was really thrown for a loop. How did he know about that? "Ryoma! What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you being weird the last two days," Ryoma answered.

"I was being weird the last two days?" she repeated in obvious confusion.

"Completely bananas – you told me you were twelve and you couldn't remember the last ten years," Ryoma gave her an accusing look.

Sakuno looked astonished as her mind raced. Well…maybe her twelve year old self had come here when she had gone there? Wait...that would mean that she really had gone back in time somehow and, woah. The implications were incredible. Does that mean that she screwed up the time line? She came back married! Not that she was complaining about being married. She looked at the rings on her left hand again. Yep, still there. Wow...oh no...what else had she messed up?

"I can't believe it. I must be going crazy. Ryoma! This is all your fault! You told me it was all some weird dream and I actually started to believe you."

"Who, me? I didn't tell you that," Ryoma replied, giving her a look like maybe she was going crazy.

"Yes, you did!" she accused. "Wait. You...well you told me that, but I guess you weren't actually you, you. I mean, what do I mean?" Sakuno trailed off, a look of complete confusion adorning her face. How could this be? She tried to puzzle together the pieces, but there was too much missing information.

Seeing Sakuno's genuine confusion, Ryoma gave a short laugh of relief. He pulled Sakuno up on her knees on the bed, giving her a big, warm hug. "Whatever it is, I'm so happy that you're back. Not that you weren't really cute when you were twelve, but I sure did miss my Sakuno."

Sakuno took a few moments to grasp what Ryoma was telling her. So, she had come here as a twelve year old then? It sounded like she had, but then, why didn't she remember it? Ryoma though, he was happy she was there and they were married. Her situation finally starting to sink in, Sakuno smiled.

"Really? You missed me?" she asked, happy tears coming to her eyes.

Ryoma pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes, "Of course. I love you and I want to be with you forever. Even if you go crazy sometimes and kick me out and then turn into a twelve year old for two days."

Sakuno let out a half cry, half laugh. Ryoma really did want to marry her. Maybe she had to revisit the past to figure that out, but it was all worth it if it meant she could be this happy in the end.

"If it hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't ever think it was possible to switch places with my twelve year old self. Wow, you're taking this all really well. I mean, I'm sorry if I scared you, I must have been really freaked out, " she worried.

"You're really going to stick with that story?" Ryoma asked. He didn't look surprised, but he also looked a bit skeptical.

Sakuno sighed, "I don't blame you if you think I'm crazy. All I can tell you is that in my memories, I spent the last two days as a twelve year old. I actually thought you had come with me and took advantage of your twelve year old self."

Ryoma scoffed, "I must have liked that."

"You did, actually," Sakuno teased.

"Maybe that's how we ended up married today," Ryoma said, looking like he was putting a puzzle together in his head. "It sounds to me like we got started four years early."

Sakuno shook her head sadly, "I'm so disappointed, I missed my own wedding. I tried to warn you in the past that we could mess up the time line, but you just said 'mada mada dane.'"

Ryoma smirked at Sakuno's story. Well, that confirmed it. She really did have some kind of weird experience. All this time, he'd thought maybe she was just playing around because she was fed up with him. He wasn't sure if he should be happy about it or sad. He did need to apologize.

"Sakuno, I'm sorry."

"What's that?" Sakuno asked, startled.

"I got scared," Ryoma confessed as he looked down, suddenly embarrassed for his actions.

"What are you talking about? When have you ever been scared?" Sakuno asked, truly puzzled at this strange turn of the conversation.

"You were really mad at me the other night and then you didn't remember…" he stopped for a second and looked away blushing.

Wow. Ryoma was blushing. Sakuno didn't think she'd seen him blush at all in the last five years or so. Well, if you didn't count that his twelve year old self was blushing the other day.

He coughed and took a breath, "Sakuno, we got married yesterday."

Shocked, Sakuno said nothing. She just sat there on her knees blinking at Ryoma, waiting for him to tell her he was joking. He couldn't be serious! There is no way that she would have married him at twelve, was there? Her eyes widened in realization. Oh, who was she kidding? If Ryoma put his mind too it he could charm her into doing anything – especially when she was twelve. She had practically worshiped the ground he'd walked on back then. Taking that into account and adding on grown-up Ryoma's knowledge of her she must have been completely at his mercy. Not that things were much different now, she just knew him better. She gave him a glare of understanding.

Nervous, Ryoma plunged forward, "I couldn't stand the idea of you leaving me so I asked you to marry me, even though you insisted that you were twelve and you didn't remember anything. I was worried because you've never really been mad at me. I really thought you were just punishing me for taking so long. And if you really couldn't remember anything either then I needed to make sure you would stay with me…" he paused in his explanation and got a guilty look on his face.

The situation finally fully sinking into her brain Sakuno yelled in disbelief, "You married my twelve year old self yesterday?"

Ryoma shrugged, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

Sakuno gave Ryoma a scandalized look. "You better not ha-" she began, but the phone rang, interrupting her.

"Hello?" Sakuno asked. Why did she answer the phone? She was so upset she couldn't even think straight.

"Sakuno-chan? Are you feeling better today?" Tomoka asked on the other end of the phone.

"Tomo-chan? What are you talking about?" Sakuno asked. Her eyes widened and she glanced at Ryoma. He was looking at her, but pretending to be uninterested in her conversation.

"Well, you know...you and Ryoma-sama have always been the happiest married couple I know, but at the picnic you were both acting kind of weird and I just- I'm sorry if I'm being nosy, but I couldn't stop worrying about you. Are you guys okay?" Tomoka asked.

Sakuno put her free hand on her forehead, feeling a headache coming. Happiest married couple she knew? That didn't sound like she got married yesterday. Oh boy.

"Tomo-chan, don't think I'm crazy or anything, but when did Ryoma and I get married?" Sakuno asked.

That got Ryoma's obvious attention. He was suddenly looking at the phone and Sakuno strangely, his eyes darting back and forth between Sakuno's eyes and the phone by her ear.

There was a long pause. Finally, Tomoka let out a long-suffering sigh and then yelled, "Sakuno! What's wrong with you lately? Mou! This is the second time this week you've asked me a weird question. Two days ago you asked why Ryoma-kun would be kissing you and how old you were and NOW you're asking me when you got married? You and Ryoma-sama have been married since we graduated from high school! Now tell me what's going on or so help me, Horio and I are coming over there and demanding answers!"

Sakuno held the phone away from her ear during Tomoka's tirade as she and Ryoma gave each other shocked looks. Married for four years? Why…didn't either of them remember…did her trip to the past actually change their future? Why were they the only ones that didn't have these new memories? Was it because they were the ones that changed their past?

Ryoma gently took the phone from Sakuno's limp hand and found himself once again telling Tomoka that Sakuno would call her back.

Once the call was disconnected, Ryoma looked at Sakuno and stated the obvious question on both of their minds, "Why don't either of us remember this?"

Sakuno shook her head in puzzlement for what seemed like an hour, but was probably only a few seconds before she burst out into crazy, hysterical laughter. A minute later, Ryoma joined in and after a good long laugh, the two found themselves laying side-by-side staring at Sakuno's plain white ceiling, holding hands.

"What are we going to tell our kids?" Sakuno finally asked.

Ryoma shook his head, "We better come up with something."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twelve year old Ryuzaki Sakuno was startled to wake up to her alarm going off above the head of her bed. Wasn't she? Groggy and confused, she sat up and turned off the alarm. She sat there in her bed for a good ten minutes, staring at her back to normal body and wondering if the last two days of being in the future with Ryoma and getting married had really just been a dream. It sure was a nice dream. She could still remember his touch and his kisses and how big and strong grown up Ryoma was. Did that? Did all that really happen or was she just imagining it all in her head?

Not knowing what else to do, Sakuno got up and got ready for school, just as she usually did and wondered idly what day it was. Had two days really passed or not?

Two days had indeed past, Sakuno learnt as she got to the school grounds. Now she was confronted with an even worse dilemma. She couldn't even look at Ryoma without wanting to throw her arms around him and confess her undying love. She kept remembering what it felt like to be kissed by him and held by him. Even though he was smaller and less mature than the man that had just charmed her to marry him despite her better judgment, she wanted to be with him. She wanted to be with him bad. It was making her crazy. What should she do? Should she risk approaching him about their future too early? Future Ryoma had told her he'd liked her when they were twelve, but when exactly when they were twelve? Ryoma had also said they didn't start dating until they were sixteen. That was a big problem. No, no, she couldn't do anything, she had to wait for things to run their course. She would just have to suffer.

Every time she saw him, she quickly ran in the other direction, avoiding him at all costs. What else could she do? She couldn't act on her feelings. If it was too soon and Ryoma freaked out she would just die. He'd been hers and now he'd been taken away from her! Life was not fair!

The twelve year old Ryoma had no idea what she knew. No idea. She comforted herself as she ran from him that day that at least at twelve Ryoma had paid no attention to her. He wouldn't notice anything amiss with Ryuzaki while she got herself back to the shy girl that didn't really know him. How long would that take though? Why did she have to see her beautiful future only to be throw back to being twelve again? She didn't even feel like she was twelve anymore!

It was just after the final class as she was leaving the school grounds that Sakuno was grabbed forcefully and placed with her back up against the dividing wall of the school, just a ways from the front gate. She was confronted with a highly irritated twelve year old version of her husband. Yes, she said it! Her husband! Whether he remembered it or not, she had married him yesterday! Wow, she wasn't even nervous around him anymore. It's really amazing what a trip to the future can do for your confidence. Real or imagined, that is...wait...what was he doing here? He was supposed to be busy preparing for tennis practice, not kidnapping her on her way home. Why did he have his arms on either side of her to block her into the wall? Why was he looming over her so closely?

Before she could ask, he hissed at her, "Sakuno, why are you avoiding me?"

Sakuno blinked. That was...unexpected and weird. Did he just call her Sakuno? As in…not Ryuzaki? As in…I have a close enough relationship with you to address you by nothing but your first name, Sakuno? And did he really notice she was avoiding him? Was this really Ryoma that had chased her down and pinned her to the wall? Was this really Ryoma who looked so upset with her?

"Ano…Ryoma-kun, what are you talking about?" Sakuno asked, trying to figure out what was really at hand here. Surely, Ryoma wasn't really on to her, was he? She tried to glance over his shoulder, looking for a safe escape route.

"Ryoma-kun?" he echoed. "Don't tell me we're back to that. What about your graphic dreams?"

Sakuno's attention was quickly diverted back to Ryoma's face and seeing his teasing smirk, she thought she would die of embarrassment. Did Ryoma actually just ask her about graphic dreams? She felt her entire face flush red and tried to figure out what she was supposed to say now. She'd been had. Oh no. Oh nononononononono. She was definitely not going to have another conversation like this with Ryoma. Mutinous, Sakuno remained quiet.

Ryoma smirked at her, "You're blushing."

Sakuno wanted to escape, but Ryoma had her effectively pinned to the wall. Surely, this wasn't the same Ryoma she had married in the future was it? Had he had the same dream? Or were they really time traveling together? What was going on? Confused, Sakuno shook her head forcefully and gave Ryoma a nervous look.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" she exclaimed in desperation. She needed to get away, NOW.

"Oh hell no, you aren't taking it back!" Ryoma yelled back to her.

Eeeek! He was furious with her! Sakuno made to duck under his arm, not caring if she had a secure escape route or not, simply wishing to run away from this completely mortifying situation as quickly as possible. Sure she'd seen Ryoma angry before when he was saving her from some bully or another, but he'd never directed it at her. She didn't really know how to handle angry Ryoma. What was he so upset about? What was he talking about? Why was he even paying any attention to her? She was free for half a second before Ryoma had grabbed her from behind around the waist with both arms. She struggled in his arms, flailing her arms and legs out, trying to escape.

"Let me go!"

"No. Answer my questions!" Ryoma replied as he grunted with the effort of trying to keep her still.

A few struggling seconds later, they crashed onto the soft grass, a tangle of limbs. Scrambling in vain to get away, Sakuno tried desperately to crawl off, but Ryoma climbed over her and held her down with his entire body.

They lied there on the ground facing each other while panting from their tussle. Ryoma was positioned slightly above her, having a slight advantage, though neither of them could move much. He'd pinned her arms up above her head, and the lower half of her body with his, effectively ceasing her ability to wiggle free. Catching his breath, he gave a growl of irritation, "What is your problem?"

"You!" she burst out before she had a chance to really think about it. "You are my problem, what are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" Ryoma repeated his tone incredulous. "What are you doing? You're the one that's been running in the opposite direction every time you laid your eyes on me today! I think I have every right to know what's going on. I'm your boyfriend, aren't I?"

Sakuno's heart stopped for a split second at his declaration before its speed increased tenfold. Was he serious? Before she had her weird trip to the future, Ryoma had been treating her as he always did. What could have possibly happened the last two days to…oh. Oh. Ohohohohohohohohohohoh. A light bulb went off in Sakuno's addled brain. If she was in the future, then maybe her future self was here in the past with…wow…the implications of that sent her mind spinning. If Ryoma had any kind of interaction like she did with his future self with her future self, well…Sakuno flushed. She was the type that wore skimpy see-through red things to bed in the future, so there's no telling what her future self may have said or done to Ryoma.

Not quite sure how to give an answer, Sakuno hesitantly asked, "You are?"

Ryoma's face seemed to relax slightly at her cautious question. She wasn't struggling, well, he did have her pinned down, but the fight seemed to have left her and she didn't look horrified when he'd said he was her boyfriend. Those were all good signs, right?

"I am, aren't I?" he asked again suddenly needing reassurance from Sakuno. This whole "dating" thing was all so new to him anyways; he didn't even know if this was the way things were supposed to be. Did girls usually do weird stuff like this to their boyfriends? Was this some weird kind of game? He doubted it. He'd never heard stories about other guys having to chase their girlfriends down and pin them on the grass because they were avoiding talking to them. She was being rude. You don't kiss a guy the way she did yesterday and then run in the opposite direction every time you see him the next day. Well, unless the guy rejected you, but he hadn't done that. He was more into her than ever before. Sakuno was so weird. If she started saying she didn't know what he was talking about again, he was going to "jog her memory."

Sakuno gave Ryoma a nervous smile and decided to go with the truth, "Honestly Ryoma, I don't know because the last two days - I was busy marrying you in the future."

Ryoma's eyebrow twitched for a second in obvious irritation, "You were where? Doing what?"

Sakuno looked like she was going to bolt again for a second, but instead she explained, "I was in the future. Didn't the twenty-two year old me tell you what happened?"

If he thought they were dating after two days then he must have had some kind of serious conversation with her future self, right? Did she speak too soon? He wasn't giving her that "you're crazy" look his future self had, so this maybe it wasn't a new concept to him after all…

Ryoma let go of her arms and sat up, leaving his lower half still pinning the rest of her body to the ground. She had no choice but to lay there and stare up at him.

"Are you serious? You don't even remember yesterday?"

"I remember it all right, but I wasn't here with you," she answered.

He gave her an irritated glare, "I thought you were making all that stuff up about being twenty-two years old because you took advantage of me."

Sakuno blushed at the idea of Ryoma thinking she had taken advantage of him. Oh God, she knew it.

"I-I wasn't, I mean that wasn't me, well, at least not me, me. Ano...this is all so confusing," she muttered.

"Yeah," Ryoma looked pretty bummed out all of the sudden.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, mulling over this new insight into their situation.

"What did twenty-two year old me tell you?" she finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Ryoma looked decidedly put out, "You told me that we'd had this big fight about getting married."

"You told me that too!" Sakuno said, finally finding common ground with Ryoma in this completely messed up embarrassing situation.

"I did?" Ryoma asked.

"Yeah, you did. You didn't know that I was me yet though and you didn't believe me when I said I was twelve. Understandably, I guess. When I asked for a doctor you asked me if I was pregnant," Sakuno blurted out. Oh no...she didn't just tell twelve year old Ryoma...she covered her face with her hands. This was it, she was definitely going to die of embarrassment. Why did she say that?

Ryoma pulled her hands away from her face and gave her a sexy smirk, "Yeah, I'd believe that after the way you attacked me yesterday."

Sakuno groaned in further embarrassment, "Don't!"

"Don't what?"

"Don't tease me..." she trailed off, realizing she'd had a very similar conversation with older Ryoma just two days prior. "Wow, you haven't changed one bit!"

"The other you said that too. She said, she'd made a wish to be twelve again because life was less complicated and she'd woken up the next morning as twelve again. I guess she went back to the future and now you're back, I mean…you are my Sakuno, aren't you?"

Sakuno blushed. Did he just call her his Sakuno? Was he? Did he really mean that? Sakuno started melting into a puddle of goo.

"Yes…" she answered dreamily.

"Good. As entertaining as the last couple of days have been, I'm really happy you're back, I didn't really know how to handle her," he confessed.

Sakuno nodded in complete understanding.

"I know how you feel, I mean, I was the one that got talked into getting married!" Sakuno ranted.

"Are you complaining?" Ryoma asked.

Sakuno blushed, "Well, maybe a little bit. You don't know how scary it was for me to wake up in a bigger body with a bigger you in bed with me, okay?"

Ryoma gave Sakuno a shocked look, "That's what happened to you?"

"Yes!"

He smirked at her as he got up and put his hand out to pull her up off the grass as well, "Mada mada dane."

"No. You. You probably didn't even get past kissing me," Sakuno taunted.

Ryoma's jaw opened in shock. Was she challenging him?

He grabbed for her as she spun away from him and took off in a sprint through the trees on the border of the school. It only took a few old tree roots to trip her up and as she fell, Ryoma pounced on her.

"Oi. We really need to work on this running away from your boyfriend bit," he said as he leaned down and kissed her possessively. She kissed him back, but didn't start taking his shirt off like the older Sakuno had either. Maybe she didn't...wait what was he thinking? She better not have...

He broke away for a minute and gave her a firm look, "You didn't...?"

Sakuno smiled and shook her head, "Ryoma, I'm only twelve!"

Ryoma looked skeptical, "But you got married."

Sakuno smiled, "Well, yeah, but that was because you made me and you can talk me into anything."

"I'm going to remember that," Ryoma smirked as he bent down and kissed her again.

"Just promise me we'll never fight about getting married," Sakuno said as Ryoma released her for a second between kisses.

"Definitely not going to take four years, I know the rules," Ryoma agreed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End

AN: Well, that's it folks. It's been a pleasure. I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I did writing it all up.

I've been throwing around the idea of doing another chapter that would be after this one that goes back to tell about 12 Sakuno's 2nd day with 22 Ryoma and how he talks her into getting married, but I'm not sure if I want to or not. I had to skip that part because the story was better jumping over the second day for them and going right into 22 Sakuno being confused and 22 Ryoma "getting her back" in a way by showing her they were married now. The being married bit wouldn't work if you read about 22 Ryoma and 12 Sakuno getting married first. Anyways...I guess we'll see if I feel the need to write it up or not since it will pretty much be pure fluff as this point. The story is done, after all.

Thank you again to everybody that reviewed. I had so much fun reading your comments!

'kawaiihanah - I'm so glad you got what I was trying to convey in the way Ryoma would treat Sakuno if they were together. And yeah...poor 12 Sakuno dealing with those sexy clothes! I had way too much fun with that!

Izaquix078 - you're so sweet. I'm so happy you've kept with the fanfic.

Vivi-G Weasley - I love it when you tell me what lines you enjoyed. It makes it fun for me. Yeah, 12 Sakuno turned around. She just strikes me as the type that would be embarrassed. Obviously, she gets over it from the shock factor of being with Ryoma for another day (getting married and such) before she goes back tot he past but on day one in the future she was really out of her comfort zone.

meiyuri - I hope you enjoyed the extra long switch back chapter!

fire19 - I hope you don't miss your exams, or was that last week? XD

anonymous jane - I only do happy endings. XD I'm so happy you laughed so much last chapter because the fanfic is supposed to be a comedy.

animelover11368 - FFN's system doesn't seem to like something in your comment. You can email it to me though - bunny at princessserenity dot net