Tennis no Ojou-sama: A Prince of Tennis Fan Fiction

CHAPTER 138: Reservation

On the second floor of the Echizen residence, Ryoma awoke on the day of his birth, opening an eye tentatively at the light coming from the window. Throwing the blankets aside, he hopped off his bed and had a look at the world outside. It snowed the night before, making everything in sight covered in pure white delight. Snow is still fluttering from the sky in a very calm manner, as if someone is lightly sprinkling soft, sweet powdered sugar on a pastry.

Ryoma stretched his arms as he felt the cold breeze on his cheeks. It seems like they're going to have a White Christmas. It's quite fortunate, for he and Ryouko were both born on the eve of a White Christmas. As they would be celebrating their birthdays together after several years, he hoped for the circumstances to be as favorable and perfect as possible.

Yesterday was quite hectic and even with a few disturbances after morning classes, he was able to make it in time to purchase a birthday gift before going home. Puchasing the gift was a simple task but coming up with the idea for the present was more challenging. He thought of it whilst he was helping out on the decorations for the Christmas party, making a lot of mistakes along the way like almost swinging a ladder at Horio's head and unintentionally destroying props.

After initiating a domino effect from absent-mindedly pulling on the end of a wreath and bringing the whole alley of decorations raining down on the heads of the people who had just finished putting them up, he was demoted to handicraft work so he wouldn't be able to destroy anything else. But even while crafting simple decorations, he was still thinking of Ryouko's birthday gift thus he ended up contributing just three badly-cut paper stars.

His classmates were at the end of their wits and just wanted him gone from the room but they kept their mouths shut, reminding themselves that his birthday is near and thus, they should be more patient with him. When he almost crashed the Christmas tree, Kurumi very considerately pulled him out of the room and told him as politely as she could that he may go home earlier if he wanted. Ryoma was more than delighted to have more time to choose Ryouko's present though he didn't let his excitement show on his face.

Before he took his leave, he went towards Ryouko and informed her about his early dismissal. Ryouko merely nodded and urged him to go ahead for she has to stay and overlook the preparations as one of the representatives of Class 1-2. Thinking that she has no suspicion of him purchasing a special birthday gift for her, he quickly vacated the scene. Afterwards, he spent the next two hours circling the town's Christmas bazaar and finally decided on the ideal gift. It snowed heavily on his way home and he was quite tired but otherwise perfectly satisfied.

Meanwhile, he strolled towards his bedside table, opened the top drawer and extricated a small box covered with red-blue gift wrap and a silver ribbon. He smiled slightly before placing the box inside the small grey bagpack he planned on taking to the Christmas party. Then, he picked up his phone and typed out a birthday greeting for Ryouko but halfway through his composition, he remembered what usually happens during their birthday and he abandoned sending the text. If his memories serve him right, Ryouko must be incredibly busy at the moment.

While Ryoma's date of birth is starting out just like his past ones, simple and unceremonious, the same cannot be said for his poor Sweetie. The hype of Christmas eve always turns out to be Ryoma's birthday celebration so he doesn't really have to throw a party. However, even if his birthday didn't turn out to be an annual festivity, he wouldn't have desired a party anyways. In his opinion, parties are a waste of money and just plain noisy, and he's also more of a party-goer than a party-thrower.

On the other hand, in Ryouko's case, it was usually Christmas eve that ends up getting buried under the merry-making for her birthday. He reckoned that she might have been busy even before the sun rose, receiving countless birthday greetings from family and near-strangers affiliated with the Fujiokas. Ryouko often complained about it when they were young and she wished that she could spend her birthday peacefully like a normal person. Similar to Ryoma, she's not exactly fond of parties, but unlike him, she cannot avoid them. It's considered an official duty of hers to attend the parties and socialize with people from the upper classes. It's quite a good thing that she doesn't have to be forced to do that this year but he reckoned that he should lift her spirits since she's probably exhausted keeping up with answering all the birthday greetings.