I thought this would make a good episode, so just pretend it was stuck randomly in the series, okay? ;p

OXOXOXO

"We'd love to come. Little Sakuno will be there, right?" Nanjirou glanced into the living room where his youngest son sat watching TV. "Well, see you there, old hag." He hung up before she could refute him. "Hey Ryoma!" His detached son turned his head.

"Yeah?"

"We're going to a cook-out tomorro at one of my old friend's."

"Why?"

"Because I want to go and show off my cute son!" He pounced his son and began the cheek pinching.

"Okay, okay! Just get off of me already! Jeez, all you had to do was ask nicely."

"But that's no fun," he said seriously. Ryoma rolled his eyes and threatened to get his raquet if his lazy father didn't get off.

oxoxoxo

"Grandma, who all is coming? Didn't you say the tennis team?"

"Yeah, but not the current one. I invited all my old players I could find. And I suppose their families will come, so you should ahve some company your age."

"Oh, that should be nice." Sakuno looked over their backyard-turned-party in distress. She wasn't very good with new people. She looked at her watch. "I guess I better go get changed."

"Alright. But hurry up, they should be arriving soon."

"Kay," she nodded on her way up the stairs. Up in her room, the outfit she'd already picked out lay on her prim bed. She had a three quarter sleave yellow shirt and a white pleated mid-thigh skirt.

"Sakuno, some on down. Our first guests are here."

"Coming!" Sakuno threw a clip in her hair to keep the worst of it out of her face and headed down stairs. Before she could open the back door she saw a middle-aged man with a much younger wife and two children still in diapers.

"Oh my, your granddaughter is so old. She's practically grown." He smiled pleasantly as Sumire ade the introductions. Appearantly, he was one of her first regulars.

"Pleased to meet you, sir," Sakuno said and bowed.

"Sakuno," her grandmother caught her attention, "would you mind checking the cooler? For some reason I guess I forgot the drinks."

"Sure." She ran back into the kitchen just as the occupants of the car Sumire saw pull up piled out.

"That's your old friend?" Ryoma looked up at his dad in exasperation.

"Sure is. Didn't I mention she was my coach in middle school, too?" His father faked innocence and looked at the sky while scratching the back of his head.

"No, you conveniently forgot to mention it." He glared at his toying father and followed them inside the gate.

"Don't be mad at your father, Ryoma," his mother said quietly. "You know how scatter-brained he is" She patted his shoulder and went to greet the hostess. Ryoma stood back and watched as his father called his coach an old hag and earned a lump on his head for his efforts at reminiscing. He shook his head sadly and pulled his cap down as he surveyed the yard. He sighed. Another Saturday gone to waste. Or maybe not...

He saw a familiar figure tugging at a very large ice chest. Sakuno stopped and calculated her progress. Her shoulders slumped momentarily before she squared them and grabbed the handle again. Ryoma felt an odd urge to smile. Of course, he smothered it before he walked over.

"Want some help?"

"Ryoma?" Her head shot up and her cheeks reddened. He stood there calmly for a moment while she regained her composure. "Um, yeah." He silently grabbed the other handle and helped her man-handle it over to the table of food. Once accomplished, he snagged a can. Sakuno shuffled her feet for a moment. "Um, Ryoma?" He didn't say anything but looked at her to show she had his attention. "I don't mean to sound rude, but what are you doing here?"

"My dad," he said and pointed to a man in black robes scratching the back of his head and talking to a very pretty woman.

"Oh, I didn't know my grandma coached your father, too."

"I didn't either until yesterday." They stood there for another moment, Sakuno akwardly and Ryoma boredly, until Sumire called her away.

"Sakuno, come meet one of the best doubles players I ever trained."

"Coming, grandma. Well, thank you for helping with the cooler," she said and bowed to him.

"No big deal." Sakuno would have been mildly offened if she wasn't already used to Ryoma's cool exterior. She smiled sweetly and ran over to her grandmother.

Ryoma watched her being introduded to an old mand and a boy about two years older than him. He soon lost interest and went to find a good place for a nap.

Old tennis champs soon had Sumire's yard crowded. Escaping offspring gathered aroudn the edges, unconsciously falling into age groups. Sakuno floated around them trying to be a good and social host. She did pretty good until it came to a group of boys a few years older.

"Hey, you're Sumire Ryuuzaki's granddaughter, right?" He had a very bad hair dye job and dwarfed Sakuno.

"Y-yes."

"Do you play tennis, too?"

"Well, I-I just started. I'm not any good, though."

"Got a park around here? I could show you some moves." He ran a hand throught his hair and smiled smugly. "I happen to be a Fugimoto Jr. High Regular."

"T-thank you for the offer, b-but-"

"Oh, come on. Who could it hurt?"

"I realy should s-stay and help out."

"Just say yes. You know you want to." Sakuno tried to back up but hit the fence.

"I'm sorry, b-but I can't."

"You don't know what a good offer you're getting, you little-"

"Hey Sakuno, got a trash can around here?" Ryoma stood behind the guy holding an empty can.

"Uh, sure." She was about to point it out when she caught the meaning ful look in his eyes. He'd lost the friendly if distant expression she'd seen earlier at the cooler. "Why don't I show you..." she said and started forward. THe older boy put his hand on her shoulder to restrain her. She stopped and looked helplessly at Ryoma.

"Look Shorty, we're talking here."

"Oh, is that what you call cornering a younger girl? I'll have to remember that." He smiled slightly under the brim of his had, knowing he'd angered the older boy.

"Mind your own buisness, Shrimp." The commotion finally caught an adult's attention. Sadly, however, it was Nanjirou who would rather watch his son take up a fight for a girl than intervene.

"You're just being annoying. Why don't you knock it off?"

"Are you going to make me?"

"No, I reserve that pleasure." Nanjirou stomped his foot in frustration with his old team mate for dragging his son off. The other boys scattered like roaches. The two first years watched his receding back to avoid each other's eyes. Ryoma was the one to break the silence.

"Are you alright?" She couldnt' take looking at him so she looked at her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. He was just annoying."

"I heard." Ryoma stretched big. "Well there goes my entertainment. Thought I might get a match out of it." Nanjirou smacked his forehead and ducked back behind the hedge.

"I-is that why you stopped him?"

"Partly." Nanjirou watched the young girl battle with herself as his stupid son started to walk away. He could have sworn he heard something close to 'masachist' before catching Ryoma.

"Hey, Ryoma." He turned back around. "What was the other part?"

"Huh?"

"You said you stopped him only partly because you wanted a match. What was the other part?" Her ears were the color of cherries.

"He was bothering you, wasn't he?" He said it so honestly and matter-of-factly, like it was the most natural thing in the world to defend a girl he ignored most of the time. Nanjirou smiled.

'Good job son, now keep it up,' he thought to himself.

"Yes," she said nodding. "Um, do you have your tennis gear with you?"

'Well this should be interesting,' Nanjirou commented silently.

"Yeah." Ryoma cocked his head to the side slightly.

"Well, there's a court about two blocks that way," she said and pointed west. He seemed to consider that for a second.

"Cool. I'm gonna tell my mom I'm taking off. Can you be ready in five minutes?"

"M-me?"

"Yes."

"I-I didn't mean you had to put up with me. I just thought that if you were bored you could practice."

"You're not having any fun here either. And it would give me someone to practice with."

"But I'm terrible!"

"That's why you practice."

"Well..." She looked around at all the strangers and felt slightly sick at the prospect of saying goodbye and trying to remember all the names she'd learned that day. "Yeah, five minutes." He started for his parents and she started for her bedroom.

It took her three minutes to shove some shorts on under her skirt and grab her head and wrist bands. She snatched her bag and sneakers on her way out the door. Out back she looked around but didn't see him. Panic set in for a fleeting hearbeat but subsided when he appeared through the gate with his bag. He must have gone to get his bag from the car. He was watching her. She held up a finger to indicate she needed one more minute and searched the crowds for her grandmother. When she finaly spotted her, she caught her eye and held up her bag. Sumire nodded her understanding and permission, then returned to her guests. Sakuno jogged to Ryoma and fell into step with him as they headed for the old courts.

The chain-link fence surrounding the ancient court was rusted and the gate gone. The lines were barely distinguishable and the net had dwindled to a single rope between two posts. It was completely empty as Sakuno and Ryoma went in and layed their stuff on a rotting wooden bench. They sat and pulled their sneakers on.

"Do you have a speacialty yet?" Ryoma twisted his foot to settle his shoe on.

"Specialty?"

"Like Eiji's is acrobatic play and Momo's is strong net offensive."

"Oh, no I don't. How do you find out what you're best at?"

"Just try a little of everything and it's whatever you're best at."

"What's yours?"

"I do all of it." That would have sounded arrogent from anyone else. Sakuno had already surmised as much, though.

"I don't think I'm good enough for a specialty."

"No, I guess not." He stopped and started stretching as Sakuno sweat dropped and Nanjirou anime fiented. "Not yet anyway. You'll get better if you stick to it." Nanjirou thought that was just as insulting, but Sakuno blushed and smiled to herself as she started her own stretches.

Nanjirou hated to think his own flesh and blood was so dense, but surely the kid would grow out of it. The little girl obviously liked Ryoma. And unlike the annoying girl with the pigtails, Nanjirou liked her. He supposed it might have something to do with her being the old hag's granddaughter but refused to acknowledge it.

"Try to bend your knees a little more." Ryoma was watching Sakuno warm up hitting against a wall. "I told you not to lock your elbow like that."

"Sorry." Nanjirou could have slapped his son just then. The way to a woman's heart was not through slave driving.

"Look, like this." Ryoma came up behind her and put his hand over hers. He helped her hit the ball a couple times before backing off. "Much better," he commended.

The ball went wild when she forced her elbow to stay loose. She reached high to get it and heard something pop in her elbow.

"Oh, ouch, ouch, ouch. Dang that hurts." She dropped the raquet because her fingers went slightly numb.

"Let me see. You probably just pulled or strained something." Ryoma stepped over and pushed her sleeve up her arm.

"So you'll let the baby teach you but I'm not good enough." Sakuno paled slightly at the new arrival while Ryoma turned to face him head-on. He didn't even realize he'd placed himself between the older teen and Sakuno. "Look kid, I'll make this easy. Just run on home and I won't have to humiliate you." Ryoma only flashed his cocky grin. The older boy's eyes widened and his viens popped out. "You little snotty-"

"How about I make this even quicker." Nanjirou said and came out of hiding.

"Dad?" Ryoma's surprise caked his face.

"Hi son. As I was saying, why don't you two settle this like mature players? Have a match. The winner gets the girl!"

"What?!?" Sakuno blushed scarlet and headed for her bag. "I think I'm just going to go home..."

"You can't leave now!" Nanjirou said dramatically and grabbed her around the shoulders. "These two brave lads are about to duel for your heart and you want to go?"

"Um, yes."

"Isn't this shy little girl just so cute?" he said and hugged her neck.

"Get a grip, old man," Ryoma said and puffed an anime sigh.

"So how about it, you two?" Nanjirou said and slackened his grip.

"You're on!" the teen said enthusiastically.

"I'm not much for prizes," Ryoma said shrugging. "I just want to play."

"Then it's decided! One match will decide the winner of this blushing beauty! Take your places."

"We don't need a ref," Ryoma said coldly.

"Don't be silly! Of course a match as momentous as this need a ref!"

"Have fun boys," Sakuno said quietly and grabbed her bag. She started for the gat but saw it was blocked. Eiji, Oishi, Takashi, Fuji and Momo all stood in the way of her escape. Momo saw her first.

"Oh, hey! What's up with Ryoma?"

"What?" He looked normal to her.

"Ryoma doesn't usually start anything but tournoment games with such ferocity. Aren't you Ryuuzaki's granddaughter?" Oishi explained and questioned.

"Yeah, that's me. I still don't see what you mean. He looks the same to me." Sakuno leaned forward slightly and squinted. Nope, same Ryoma.

"His whole posture and attitude says he's very serious about this one," Eiji told her. "Why are they even playing, anyway?" Sakuno crossed her arms in a huff.

"Because that guys's a jerk and Ryoma's dad made use of Ryoma's love for playing and made this whole stupid match about male egos." The boys shared looks but didn't say anything. Something had made the girl fairly ticked off and they didn't want to test it.

"Hey! I know him!" Momo shouted randomlyand pointed to the man pretending to ref.

"Ryoma's dad?" Sakuno asked.

"His dad?" Momo jumped like a snake had bit him.

"Yeah... You alright?"

"I'm fine!" He brandished a more than enthusiastic smile and stood himself up straight. 'Well that explains a lot,' he thought to himself.

Neither had managed to score a point by the time Sakuno put her bag down and decided to stay. One of the teen's serves had gone out and hit the fence.

"Stop goofing off," Ryoma told him. Sakuno stopped. Was this guy actually good and just messing around with Ryoma because he was younger? He made a face close to a snarl and hit the ball again. It hit at Ryoma's feet and went between his legs and curved around, hitting Ryoma in the back of the head.

"What?!" The other Regulars present sounded like an indignant chorus.

"Huh?" Ryoma had his classic look portraying his surprise at a world outside of his tennis. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Ah, your friends are here! Perfect! They can watch your humiliation. The move you all just witnessed was my own creation, the Snake Twist Serve. I made it from observing the Seigaku Regulars and they're the best so there's no way you can beat me." Ryoma just pulled his cap lower and rotated his right shoulder, the arm currently holding the raquet. "See that baby?" the smug idiot said pointing his own raquet at Sakuno. "The game's in the bag. And then you're mine." The look on his face had her retreating to the security of the Regulars. The game resumed and Momo turned to Sakuno.

"What on Earth is he talking about?" Sakuno didn't have a chance to answer. Nanjirou opened his big mouth.

"This, boys, is a match to win that little beauty's heart!" he shouted boistrously and pointed to Sakuno. The boys blushed and looked at Sakuno who was burning her collar.

"Well, that explains Ryoma's vicious expression," Momo said while grinning ear to ear.

"Calm down, Ryoma doesn't think of it like that. He just wanted a match. It's his father that blew the whole thing way out of proportion." She crossed her arms again and looked away but still couldn't beat down the red creeping up her face.

The teen scored two more shots, and Ryoma's team was beging to get antsy. He'd better make his comeback soon. He went to serve again and once the ball was airborne, Ryoma spun in place and took a step back. His friends all cheered at his score.

"I know your game now. You're done." Ryoma smiled at the teen. He, however, was far from intimidated.

The group to the side held their breath waiting for Ryoma to serve. Obviously, his kick serve wasn't going to work. It was his favorite right-handed serve, and since he hadn't switched to his left hand, it was exciting to see what his reserve would be.

The ball went up and Ryoma pulled back... and rocketed the ball across the court. He had managed a Bullet Serve with his right hand.

"Way to go!... That's the way!... That's our baby!... Keep it up!" Eiji and Oishi high-fived as Momo punched the air and Fuji smiled pleasantly. Takashi clapped but spared Sakuno a glance of pitty. If Ryoma won this, which was a sure thing, she and Ryoma would never hear the end of it. The score was tied.

"You think that's the only trick I have?" he sneared at Ryoma. The ball pinged back and forth a couple more times. "What this, you little brat!" He charged the net and slammed the ball into the ground. "Whatcha think about that?"

"Hey, that's-" Eiji elbowed him and cut off the rest of Momo's sentence.

"Nice Smash," Ryoma said calmly. The other boy looked taken back slightly. "I've also seen a couple of Segaku moves." Ryoma smirked and pulled his cap down lower. The next Dunk Smash was Ryoma's, and much more impressive.

"Who are you?"

"Echizen Ryoma, Seigaku Regular." He smiled cockily as the other boy's eye twitched. "If you'd watched the Seigaku team as closely as you say, you'd have noticed our audience." The teen slowly looked over at the impressive group standing there watching. Eiji winked at Sakuno as he took her raquet and handed it to Takashi.

"The minute you challenged Seigaku was the minute your fate was sealed!"

"Oh, give that back," Sakuno said and snatched her raquet back since the other boy looked like he was about to wet himself.

"I give, I give!" he said and made a dash for the closest exit.

Ryoma walked over to the group and stretched over his head. "Well, that was hardly a good warm up. I didn't even get to use my left hand."

"Ryoma, I'm so proud!" Nanjirou said and put his son in a head lock. "Now it's time to claim your prize!"

"Get off, you old geezer!" Ryoma pulled against his cracked father but was soon swept into the air on Momo's and Oishi's shoulders. "What are you guys doing?!"

"Oh, please don't!" Sakuno was being pushed onto the old bench by Eiji. Once she was standing up on it Momo and Oishi depositied Ryoma on it. Eiji not so subtly pushed Sakuno's knee and knocked her into Ryoma. He caught her automatically and glared at everyone else.

"Knock it off already!"

"Oh, how adorable!" his father gushed. "He's embarrassed! Anyone got a camera?"

"Maybe..." Fuji dug through his bag and came up triumphantly. "Here!" Two raquets came up and puched them together. Nanjirou caught the perfect picture of his son's first kiss.

Sumire's head came up as she listened intently. It sounded just like Ryoma yelling at his father... She shrugged it off. Must be hearing things.

OXOXOXO

How'd ya like it? Should I write more 'episodes'?