Disclaimer: Totally do NOT own Prince of Tennis.
A/N: Special thanks to my Beta-Reader and Happy Birthday, Renji!!!!
Previous Chapters:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 | 6 |
VI. Moving Away
On October, in the middle of autumn, where the cold wind met the year; Sanada Genichiro happily
announced to his family that they soon will move to their own house. His happiness is of course none
other because he’d not be neighbor of the Tezuka family anymore; in short, there would be no
Tezuka Renji to disturb his little daughter, Ayaka.
He reassured Haruka and Bunta that they don’t have to transfer school since their new house would
not be very far from their old apartment; hearing this, Haruka and Bunta’s faces immediately showed
no concern of the topic, replying with simple “Oh”, and then returning to the magazine and the TV.
The one who showed interest was…
“Mommy, what does Daddy mean by moving?” Of course, their innocent little daughter.
Seiichi smiled as she gently lifted up the little girl and put her on her lap. “It means, we won’t live
here anymore, Ayaka,” she said, patting the little girl’s curly haired softly.
Ayaka seemed thoughtful for a moment before popping out the most expected yet unexpected
question: “Are Ren-onii-chan and the others going to move with us too?”
The mother of the family tried to give the most reassuring smile she could, as she rubbed her
daughter’s head again. “Sadly, no.”
“…Does that mean I won’t meet Ren-onii-chan anymore?”
“Of course, you can if…” Seiichi was cut off by her daughter, who suddenly shouted, “But he
won’t be next door anymore, right!?” Ayaka has never really understood the meaning of ‘next door’
and ‘neighbor’, but judging by how often she comes to her Renonii-chan’s place and vice versa, she
knew it’s the closest place to home.
Receiving a silent response from her mother, Ayaka’s lips turned to a pout as she jumped off her
mom’s lap.
“I don’t want to move!! I want to stay with Ren-onii-chan!!”
“Ayaka…”
“Ayaka, watch how you speak. You do NOT speak with that kind of tone towards someone older than
you,” Genichiro warned, stoically.
Instead of stopping, the little girl turned to her father; anger clearly showed on her face, “I HATE
DADDY!!”
Genichirou froze, shocked.
After yelling those words, the five-year-old girl ran to the front door (and dear God, who didn’t lock it
tonight?) and swung it open.
“Har…Ayaka? What happened?”, Tezuka Renji was surprised to find the little girl when he was about to
ring the bell.
“Renjionii-chaaaaaaaaaaaan!!” Ayaka wailed as she hugged Renji tightly, crying loudly. Tezuka
Kunimitsu and his wife went outside to see what was wrong.
“Oh my.”
“Renji, what’s this?” Kunimitsu asked, quite displeased, seeing his son make a girl cry.
“Ahaha”, Seiichi quickly went outside, laughing half-heartedly, “Sorry for the commotion, Syuusuke,
Tezuka, Renji-kun. C’mon, Ayaka.” She tried to tug the little girl away from the eldest son of Tezuka
but to no avail.
Sighing softly, Renji took the little girl’s hand away from his pants, and then carried her in his
arms. “There, there”, he rubbed Ayaka’s head softly as she cried more at his shoulder. As her cries
turned to sob, Renji turned to Seiichi, “Did something happen, Seiichi-san?”
“Ah…”
“If you don’t mind, we can talk about this together inside,” Syuusuke suggested smiling.
Or so the honey-haired woman thought until loud cries of babies from her place sounded.
“Ah, sorry, that must be, Sasuke and Sachiko.”
“That’s okay, Dad, Mom, you two just take care of Sasuke and Sachiko,” Renji said, smiling
reassuringly.
Kunimitsu and Syuusuke looked at each other before apologizing to Seiichi and promised the blue-
haired woman that their ‘Renji’ will surely help.
“Seiichi-san, since this seems to involve me, I hope it won’t be a bother to tell me what happened.”
Seiichi nodded, smiling softly as she gestured the boy inside.
The closed-eyed boy settled himself in a seat, still with Ayaka in his arms -and on his lap now- trying
to ignore the glare from the head of the Sanada household.
“It’s just…you see…we’re going to move soon.”
Indeed, Renji was quite taken aback with the news but he recovered quickly, “Oh, I see…To where, If
I may know?”
“It’s not that far. In a house just few blocks from here”, Seiichi explained smiling as she set down tea
for them.
“But this little one…” Haruka popped in, poking at her little sister’s forehead, “…doesn’t want to give
up the title of being your neighbor, it seems.”
“She’s really attached to you,” Seiichi giggled softly.
Ayaka raised her head, distancing herself a little to look at Renji, “I don’t… *hiccup* …want to…
*hiccup*… be away from Renji-onii-chan… *hiccup*…” she tried to say, wiping her tears away with
her hands.
Renji smiled softly as he took a handkerchief from his pocket, and helped her wipe her tears
away. “Seiichi-san, may I have some time alone with Ayaka?”
Genichiro, who had been silent the entire time, almost snapped when he heard that, but was stopped
by his smiling wife. “Of course.” And with that, Renji rose from his seat, asking Haruka if he could
borrow her shared room (because it’s basically Ayaka’s room too) for few minutes, to which she just
replied with ‘whatever’ and went back to reading her magazine, leaving Genichiro gaping.
-+-+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-+-
“Ssh… There, there, Ayaka…” the thirteen-year-old boy tried to calm down the crying little girl as he
wiped her tears away.
Her sobs gradually stopped but her face was still red; her small hands were gripping at the boy’s shirt
as if clinging for life, “Nii-chan… Nii-chan…”
“Hm?”
“Why does Nii-chan look okay? Nii-chan… won’t mind if… if Ayaka moves away?” She was gazing at
him with her teary green-orbs, eyes that were looking for hope.
“Of course I would. I would be very sad if I can’t visit Ayaka anytime as I like anymore.”
“Then…”
“But, Ayaka…you also don’t want to be away from Mom, Dad, Onee-chan-tachi, right?”
The younger girl went quiet for a while, “B-But…”
“Besides, I can still come to visit you.”
“Will you?”
“Of course.”
“But, Mommy said you are busy.”
“Did she?”
“Uhm-hm. When I wanted to visit Onii-chan, Mom said that I shouldn’t bother you too much since Nii-
chan must have something else to do.”
“Well then, she must have forgotten to mention that my schedule is also including visiting my Ayaka
every day.”
At the mention of ‘my’ Ayaka, the little girl blushed shyly.
“I’ll also come to pick you up from school anytime I can.”
“Really?”
“Did Renonii-chan ever break a promise with Ayaka-chan?”
“Nuh-uh,” the girl shook her head as negative answer.
Renji’s lips curved a smile, patting the lithe figure.
“Now, let’s apologize to Mom and Dad for shouting at them.”
Ayaka nodded weakly; her crush then stood up, taking her hand in his.
Click.
Seiichi greeted the couple with a smile, seeing that indeed Tezuka Renji had successfully solved the
problem as Syuusuke had said.
Renji gave youngest daughter of Sanada a pat.
Ayaka went to her parents, tugging at her Mom’s dress softly. When the two elders squatted down in
front of her, she spoke softly, “A-Ayaka apologizes for shouting,” she said, just as her Renonii-chan
had told her.
Her mother’s smile widened as she patted her, and her father nodded in approval.
“A-And…”
“Hm?”
“Can Ayaka sleep together with Renonii-chan today?” the curly-haired girl asked shyly, she was
technically blushing as her father’s jaw dropped and her mother’s eyes widened a little at hearing the
question.
“Can I, Daddy, Mommy?” Ayaka was looking at them with her big puppy-eyes.
The blue-haired woman tilted her head, looking at the thirteen-year-old boy as her husband was still
in shock behind her.
“I don’t mind as long as Sanada-san approves the idea”, Renji said, smiling.
“Of course I dis…mpmh…!!”
“I don’t mind at all~”, Sanada Seiichi said, smiling sweetly as she shut her husband up with her hand.
Ayaka’s eyes were sparkling. “Yay! Thanks Mommy, Daddy!!” she excitedly jumped around, giving a
peck on the cheek to both her parents.
That night, as Tezuka Renji watched Sanada Ayaka sleep in his embrace, he realized that his 53%
has risen to 55.67%.
Tsuzuku.
Drama... Yeah, I know >.> anyway, feel free to review =D