Decisions
By: Bunny
Rated: T
Genre: Romance / Friendship
Summary: Sakuno had been ready to give it all away to make her aging grandmother happy until she found out who else was involved. Ryoma simply didn't take rejection well. Or maybe there was more to it than that. RyoSaku.
Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis / Tenisu no Ĺjisama is copyright Takeshi Konomi/Shueisha.
Oh and I MUST give a big shout out to Cookie, my beta reader, who began beta reading for me with this fanfic! I hope you all enjoy the improvements to having her help!
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was a good thing that the doctor assigned to care for Echizen Ryoma at Mercy Private Hospital in Melbourne Australia was fairly quick about making his way to his charge. Otherwise he may have very well walked into his patient's room to an entirely awkward situation. As it was, it was still bad enough to find the young tennis star on his bed with a woman straddling across his hips. Even worse, the two were kissing in a way that would make one believe they certainly didn't think anybody would be walking into the room in the near future.
The poor doctor cleared his throat twice before the couple had realized he was there and stopped kissing. Approaching the bedside where the two remained in their compromising position he reminded himself he was a doctor and to simply ignore the fact that the wife was still on top of the young man. Reaching the bedside he held his hand out to the young lady and said with all friendly professionalism, "You must be Mrs. Echizen."
The woman gave the doctor a deer in the headlights look before she held her hand out to him and nodded saying, "Yes, Mrs. Echizen me."
So the missus apparently didn't speak English as well as the young tennis prodigy. Fair enough...hopefully he'd be able to get through the instructions on her husband's medical needs so he could release the young man already. It was really wreaking havoc on his whole ward to have the young good looking tennis star here at all. The nurses had all been terribly preoccupied with spying on the poor guy all evening and night, even the older nurses. It was downright embarrassing.
"Your husband has a head injury so it's important that he sleeps as much as possible, however, you need to wake him up every two hours to make sure his condition hasn't worsened. When you wake him, ask him simple questions such as 'What is your name?' or 'How old are you?' and then let him go back to sleep. Do you understand?"
Sakuno blinked at the doctor for a minute as she tried to process the long instructions just given to her in English. Was she really supposed to understand all of that?
As the silence continued, Ryoma finally took matters into his own hands. Poking her slightly in the side he said in Japanese, "The same thing I did when you hit your head and I stayed with you all night."
Sakuno looked at Ryoma for a moment and then back at the doctor and answered in English, "I can do."
"Excellent!" The doctor exclaimed. He took his pen from his pocket and quickly scribbled his signature and then handed the clipboard and his pen to Sakuno. Pointing to a line on the form he said, "If you could just sign here that you understand the care he needs I can release him into your care from here out."
Sakuno hesitantly took the pen from the doctor and then wrote her name out in English on the form, hoping she did everything correctly since she didn't understand everything the doctor was saying.
The doctor shook both of their hands, gave Ryoma a pep talk and left the room. Sakuno watched the doctor leave the room and then looked back at Ryoma.
He gave her a grin.
She blushed.
"Let's go," He said as he lifted her off of his lap and got out of the bed.
Sakuno smiled with the relief from the stress she'd had the last 24 hours of worrying about Ryoma. It was over. He was okay. They could leave the hospital.
It only took Ryoma a few minutes to change back into his clothes. Grabbing his tennis bag and his cell phone he led the way out of his room, back out to the lobby and to the curb.
He gave the street a frown wondering how they would get back to his hotel. He'd never been to the hospital before there in Melbourne and had no idea how far away Melbourne Park and his hotel were. Even worse, there didn't seem to be a cab in site. He turned to walk back into the hospital to make arrangements to get a ride when Sakuno handed him a business card.
"This is the taxi man," She explained.
Ryoma gave the card a quick look.
Well now, that was pretty impressive for Sakuno. Maybe she wasn't quite the lost little girl he always pictured her as being. Sometimes...she was sort-of...really amazing.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and quickly dialed the number. After a brief conversation, he ended the call. Within minutes the cab was at the curb to pick them up.
"WELL MISSUS! You found your tennis husband, did ya?"
Sakuno gave the cab driver a big grin as she climbed into the cab and responded, "Yes I find Ryoma okay!"
"Wonderful! I'm happy to hear it! So where to this time?"
Sakuno blinked at the quick English and then looked to Ryoma for guidance.
"The Melbourne Park Hilton hotel," Ryoma instructed.
A few minutes later, they were being deposited at the drop off for the hotel. Ryoma paid the man while Sakuno and the cab driver exchanged a few more expressions of happiness and gratitude over their successful mission and then the friendly cab driver was on his way to his next fare and Ryoma and Sakuno were facing the lobby entrance to their hotel.
Sakuno blinked at the large windowed doors and scooted closer to her husband asking unsurely, "This is our hotel?"
"Un," Ryoma responded just as a flash of a camera shot their direction.
Ryoma cussed under his breath as Sakuno's eyes swam with flashing bulbs. She tried to blink away the bright lights burned into her retinas with little success as Ryoma grabbed her hand and dragged her into the hotel.
As they entered the hotel and Ryoma dragged Sakuno towards the elevators to go up to their room she asked, "Was that paparazzi?"
"Maybe, or just some reporter. So annoying."
"So is my picture going to be in the newspaper?" She asked as their elevator dinged its arrival.
Ryoma frowned for a moment before he said curtly, "Get used to it."
As the elevator doors closed them into the small moving room Sakuno crossed her arms over her chest, "What does that mean?"
Ryoma looked straight at her, "It means you married me."
She instantly flushed red again. Ryoma was seized with the temptation to continue to throw the word married at her because his wife was pretty damn cute when she was so embarrassed. His wife...
That just sounded all sorts of good to him.
FINALLY. They'd only been fighting about it for the past couple of months, but it was worth it. It was all worth it...because in the end, she signed the papers.
She was all his now. Forever.
It was time to start the rest of his life.
He closed the small distance between them and simultaneously yanked on the two ties holding the ends of both of her braids.
"Hey!" Sakuno protested, putting her hands on the tops of her braids where her hair roots had been pulled.
Ryoma had already began to unweave her hair with his fingers, making quick work up her long braids as he leaned over her and pushed her against the elevator wall with a heated kiss.
The elevator chimed their arrival at their floor, and the two figures inside quickly disembarked. Ryoma tugged her behind him by the hand as his fished his room key out of his back pocket with the other hand. Sliding the plastic through the doorway he waited while it beeped for them to enter and then pushed the door open with force. He pulled her in behind him with haste, her hair a half braided mess, her face flushed, her lips slightly swollen and wet.
"Ryoma? What-?" She was unable to finish her question as he swung her around him and onto the large bed in the middle of the suite. She landed with a bounce and giggled as Ryoma yanked one shoe of hers off and then the other.
He kicked his own shoes off quickly before he climbed on top of her with a grin at her giggles. She scooted back against the pillows and he quickly followed, his hands finding the ends of her hair, he continued to pull her braids out as their lips met once again.
As he pulled away from her to lift his shirt up off his head Sakuno protested, "Ryoma! You're supposed to be resting! Your head is injured."
He tossed his shirt on the floor and then grinned down at her as he began to pull on the bottom of her top, "I told you, it's nothing."
She reached her arms up and held the bandage that was wrapped around his head at his temples, "You have a bandage wrapped around your head, and you were in the hospital, that's not nothing!"
Ryoma rolled his eyes and then putting his hand up to the bandage, he gripped the front part of it that lay against his forehead into his fist and yanked on it until it pulled free.
Sakuno gasped at the angry red gash in his forehead as he dropped the bandage on the floor and said frustratedly, "See? I'm fine."
Tears sprang into her eyes and Ryoma groaned impatiently as she lightly touched her fingertips across his wound while muttering about how she should have been there with him to take care of him.
Well, THAT was worse.
Maybe he should have left the damn bandage on...
He grabbed for her wrist to remove her hand as her eyes locked with his and she asked brokenly, "What happened?"
Ryoma heaved a sigh as he dropped his hand from her wrist. Resigned, he decided to explain what had happened yesterday.
"I was distracted," He began.
Sakuno blinked, "Distracted? You're never distracted."
His mouth quirked up wryly as he said, "You know that's not true."
Sakuno flushed.
"He put me in the spot."
Her eyes widened with understanding at the term, but her forehead quickly puzzled with disbelief, "Ryoma, you know how to overcome the spot, that shouldn't have happened."
He rolled his eyes, "I told you I was distracted."
"Why?" She asked, her tone clearly upset, ready to go off and fix whatever had distracted him for good. It simply wouldn't do for her husband to get injured like this...
He gave her an irritated look before he said, "It's your fault. I was waiting for you to come here to see me. It was almost a week as of yesterday. You knew I wanted you here. Why didn't you come?"
She looked away before she said sheepishly, "I'm sorry."
Now that he was thinking about it again, a small part of him wanted to shake her and demand answers, but the larger part of him was simply satisfied that they were finally married and ready to get on with the future and forget the past. He shook his head, "Whatever. It's done now. At least my racquet didn't get my eye this time."
Sakuno's whole body shuddered underneath him.
He raised an eyebrow.
"I'll never forget that day." She paused for a moment before scolding, "Ryoma. You promised not to get hurt anymore."
He shrugged as he shot back, "I told you to come with me to Australia."
"So what happened after that?" She asked, flushing once again as she thought of all the reasons why she hadn't...it had just taken time to think about how...
"I was still able to play, so I won the match, but regulations require that all head injuries be monitored for at least 48 hours. You weren't here to watch me, so they forced me to go to the hospital."
Sakuno's mouth formed a small "o" of understanding as everything began to fall into place as to why she'd heard her grandmother on the phone, and why Ryoma's condition wasn't as serious as she'd imagined when she'd heard he was in the hospital and family was being notified. Her eyes softened as she slid her fingers from his forehead down to the side of his cheek and cupped her hand against his face. "I'm so happy you're okay."
"Hn," He acknowledged as he lowered his face into the side of her neck. She let out a happy sigh as he nipped his teeth against the underside of her ear and slid his hands down the sides of her body.
It was time...
...and the world could blow up before he would stop again.