By Your Side: Part 4

watched Sanada silently as he gazed out towards the sea. By mutual unspoken agreement they had both found a seat on one of the tall rocks scattered about the sand.

To 's surprise, Sanada had chosen to sit on the same rock as she had although he was almost facing her since the rock curved like the letter C.

Neither talked for long minutes. Both were reluctant to break the comfortable silence that had wrapped around them.

thought ruefully that all good things must come to an end. Hesitantly, she spoke, "Ne, Sanada-senpai? Thank you for inviting me."

Sanada turned to find her gazing at him with a smile curved on her lips. He almost smiled back at her. "It was nothing. I just wanted to thank you for helping out Kirihara."

"Oh." 's spirits dropped a little. See, it wasn't a date… Sanada-senpai just likes you as a friend. Nothing else… She thought to herself. Anyway, why do I care if he likes me as something more?

The fukubuchou of Rikkai looked at his kouhai thoughtfully. She seemed a little sad about something. "Are you alright -chan?"

She flushed and her head jerked up to meet his gaze for a brief moment before looking away. "Ah. I'm fine, thank you. It's just…"

"Just?" Sanada pressed.

took a deep breath and decided to go for it. She stood up and faced Sanada. "I just wanted to know if you really just invited me because I helped Kirihara-kun."

Sanada paused and remembered Yanagi telling him to make the most of his opportunities. He replied slowly, "No. That's not all."

Her breath caught in her throat and her heart beat faster. Could he… hardly dared to think.

Sanada stood as well and looked down on her upturned face. Was there a spark of something else there?

felt like she couldn't breathe. She hadn't been so close to him since that time she had thrown herself into his arms. She was sure that her cheeks couldn't get any redder.

"I…" Sanada cleared his throat and looked away. "I didn't invite you just because you helped Kirihara. I…"

At that crucial point, a loud splash was heard. Both and Sanada moved away from each other quickly and turned around to find Kirihara and Marui spluttering and coughing out water. The boys had overbalanced and fallen into a shallow pool of water.

Both of the boys looked up to find their fukubuchou not looking very happy at all.

"MARUI! KIRIHARA! Both of you are to run 100 laps around the courts at the next practice." Sanada managed to ground out.

Kirihara and Marui breathed out a sigh of relief. Laps they could handle. As long as it didn't ruin their fun today.

But Sanada hadn't finished. "For now, you'll make do with picking up all the rubbish on this beach. NOW!"

The two who had been spying jumped up and started to protest.

"But Sanada!" Marui popped his gum loudly and groaned, "It's our day off."

The fukubuchou merely crossed his arms and glared. "You should have thought of that before embarking on this foolishness."

"But…" Kirihara looked to for some support. To his surprise, his friend was no where to be seen. "Where's -chan?"

Sanada looked around as well and spotted her heading back to the club's small area on the beach. He turned back to his two errant players. "I want this beach garbage-free by the time we head back."

With that, he turned and stalked off in the opposite direction that had taken. He needed time to think and reflect a little.

**********

"It was a pity about today." Yanagi spoke softly as they sat in Sanada's room the beach outing had finished some hours ago. Sanada had invited the Master over to finish the project they were working on for Cultural Studies.

Yanagi wasn't fooled. He knew that Sanada had wanted to talk about what happened today. In fact, he had gotten the story off Marui and Kirihara already. Added to the bits and pieces he had managed to drag out of Sanada, Yanagi had a good idea of what occurred.

Sanada stiffened a little and his brush paused in mid stroke before he continued on, "Hmm…"

Yanagi suppressed a smile, instead he continued talking, "Next time, don't let a chance like that go to waste. It was such a pity."

"Hmm…" Sanada was still being non-committal.

Undeterred, since he knew his old friend was listening carefully, Yanagi ploughed on, "Next time, make sure you take her out without anyone else from the team hanging off the sides. Take her to a park or something… According to my data, -chan enjoys going out to places like that."

At the last sentence, Sanada looked up, "You have data on her?"

When Yanagi just raised an eyebrow, Sanada sighed and dropped his brush and the pretence of disinterest. "Maybe you could take her out to the big park near Rikkai dai. It has some nice scenery…"

Yanagi bit back another smile and nodded instead, "That's nice. It's somewhere where you aren't completely alone, but you have enough privacy for whatever you plan on doing."

The usually stoic fukubuchou flushed red at that and turned away. However, he managed to mutter a "Thank you."

Yanagi let the smile out, "You're welcome, Genichirou."

**********

was smiling softly to herself as she thought about the trip to the beach yesterday. She had realized then that she liked Sanada as much more than a friend. He's so perfect. Tall, handsome, strong. But he can also be kind, gentle and sweet when he's relaxed. thought to herself.

She only had a half day today since she was the events coordinator. was using her time to just check the Rikkai stalls for any last minute disasters before the festival tomorrow.

She didn't even notice that someone was in front of her until the collision. "Ittai!"

"Ah. Gomen, -san! I'm so sorry." Aoi Kentarou stood in front of her. He rubbed his head sheepishly. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

bowed in reply, "No, Aoi-kun, I should be the one saying sorry. I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings."

smiled at the first year Rokkaku captain. They knew each other from the Festival Organization Committee meetings. He was Rokkaku's representative. found Aoi to be quite funny and easy to get along with.

She noticed the papers that were now scattered all along the ground. "Gomen, Aoi-kun, for making such a mess. I'll help you clean it up." Bending down, gathered the papers and started stacking them neatly. "Are these the final arrangements from Rokkaku?"

Aoi was also picking up sheets of paper that flapped around, "Yep. I've just scanned a copy for the Committee and these are for the file in case something happens."

Working quickly together, chatting quite amiably, the two of them gathered all the sheets in a short amount of time. "There, that should be it. Have you counted them yet, Aoi-kun?"

Aoi nodded and accepted the last sheet from . "That's it." He grinned, "Ne, thanks for helping me gather these papers up, how bout I buy you a coffee to say thanks?"

smiled in return and was about to accept when a familiar voice spoke out from behind her. "Aoi. You should take more care when handling important information like that."

spun around and her smile widened, "Sanada-senpai, what are you doing here?"

Sanada nodded at her before turning back to Aoi, "You should know better than to have them hanging loose like that. You should have at least put them into a folder or something." His voice was cool but had a slight edge to it.

frowned a little at how stern Sanada sounded. "Ne, Sanada-senpai, it wasn't Aoi-kun's fault. I accidentally bumped into him and made him drop everything."

"That's no excuse. Aoi is a captain and therefore should know his responsibilities well." Sanada's tone brooked no excuse.

She looked closer at Sanada and realized something, "You're not in a good mood today are you? You're a bit cranky." shook her head at him, "It's not nice to take your bad mood out on someone else…"

turned to the young Rokkaku captain, "Forgive Sanada-senpai, he's been under too much stress lately."

Aoi blinked and took his own evaluation of Sanada. He realized something else and his eyes opened wide. "Ooh. Sanada-san, you're not jealous are you? That's really hard to believe…"

Sanada's cheeks darkened a little, "Nonsense. I'm merely concerned at your duty as a captain."

The first year grinned, "Of course. Well, ja ne then -san, Sanada-san, I'll see you later."

"Ja, Aoi-kun." smiled and waved at him. She watched as Aoi walked away before turning back to Sanada.

"Ne, Sanada-senpai?"

He turned to her with a question in his eyes.

"Ah…" wanted to ask about Aoi's comment but decided against it. "Don't worry…"

Sanada looked at her again but didn't say anything except for a simple, "Lunch?"

's smile was almost as bright as the sun. "Sure."

**********

Looking around, felt a little breathless. Not only had Sanada bought her lunch but he had invited her out for a walk in the local park.

Currently, they walked closely side by side and spoke of little things. Unable to believe that he was talking with her like a friend, smiled happily and felt like she was on top of the world.

Unnoticed by her, Sanada observed her happy mood and couldn't suppress a gentle curving of his lips at it. It was gone almost as suddenly as it appeared but he couldn't help but be infected by her good mood.

"-chan?"

tucked her bangs behind her ear and tilted her head to look up at him, "Hai, Sanada-senpai?"

He looked away for a minute before looking back, "I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to the festival tomorrow night."

Her wide-eyed look and the slow blush that spread across her cheeks almost made him smile again. "With you?" The words just popped out of her mouth and as soon as they were out, wished she could shove them back again.

There was a pause before Sanada did smile, a full smile, "Yes. With me."

"You should smile more…" was the only thing could think of to say. Then she flushed again and answered his question properly, "Yes. I'll go."

**********

had to remind herself to breathe. She had just arrived at the festival grounds and her nervousness was forgotten as she took in the atmosphere of the festival going at full blast.

There were real amusement rides on top of the hundreds of student made and manned stalls. Food stalls, dessert stalls, memorabilia stalls and numerous other types of stalls competed for her attention. Walking past the Rikkai tennis team's stall, she smiled and stopped.

Marui looked up and grinned, "-chan! What are you doing here tonight?"

Jackal turned around and smiled at the second year, "Hello -chan."

bowed politely to both, "Konbanwa Marui-senpai, Jackal-senpai."

She turned to Marui with an innocent smile, "Of course I'm here to enjoy the festival. Why else?"

Marui snorted but said nothing. He waved a hand at her, "Come back later and we'll let you have some free games."

The second year grinned at that, "Thank you! I'll see you later then."

Humming to herself happily, she didn't even notice when Sanada appeared behind her.

"-chan."

Stopping herself from jumping, looked back and let out a breath, "I'm sorry Sanada-senpai, I didn't notice you there."

He smiled at her and felt her heart beating faster. "No problems. I just arrived. Have you been here long?"

Shaking her head mutely, followed her senpai as he walked on through the throng of people, greeting some along the way.

They didn't stop until they reached a particular stall and a tall man turned to greet Sanada. recognised the area as the place where Seigaku had set up their stalls. Turning to look at the man properly, she realised that he wasn't much older than she was. Third year at the most.

The familiar greeting that he and Sanada exchanged just confirmed it.

"Tezuka." Sanada nodded.

"Sanada." The nod was returned before hazel gold eyes focused on her. "This is…?"

bowed politely, " . I'm Rikkai's events coordinator."

He bowed in return. "I'm Tezuka Kunimitsu. Yoroshiku."

"Yoroshiku, Tezuka-san."

Tezuka and Sanada talked for a while. listened with half an ear as they discussed Nationals and she figured out that Tezuka was the Seigaku tennis team's buchou. suppressed a laugh as a group of boys peeked out from inside the Seigaku tennis team's stall.

However, Sanada still turned to her with a questioning look. She shook her head in response and tipped her chin towards the stall and its curious occupants.

Sanada ignored the onlookers and shook hands with Tezuka before bidding him goodbye.

"It was nice meeting you, Tezuka-san." bowed and received a nod from the Seigaku buchou in response.

As soon as they were out of earshot, laughed softly. When Sanada questioned her, grinned, "Tezuka-san reminds me of you at times. So strict and unsmiling."

"Oh." Sanada said no more and concentrated on getting the two of them through the crowd unscathed.

Feeling crowded by the amount of people, took hold of Sanada's sleeve. He glanced down, surprised and then smiled, remembering Yanagi's advice. Gently detaching his sleeve from her grasp, Sanada took her hand in his instead.

He didn't meet her gaze as she looked up at him. "It's easier this way." Was all he said.

said nothing in response; her heartbeat was so loud that she was almost certain that Sanada could hear it as well. She let her hand relax in his and smiled at the ground. Maybe, just maybe… allowed herself to hope just a little.

"Sanada-senpai? Where are we going?"

He looked back at her slightly amused and gripped her hand tighter, "You'll see."

"Sanada-senpai?" was a bit confused but followed him anyway.

They continued until they reached a grassy field filled with couples and groups of friends. There was a paved area in the middle on which a band was playing and a few couples were dancing.

"Look…" Sanada pointed upwards, still retaining his hold on her hand.

looked up and gasped. The fireworks that lit up the night sky were beautiful. Ever since she was a little girl, she loved watching fireworks. Her eyes met Sanada's and she smiled, "Thank you."

He seemed a little embarrassed but said nothing. Instead, he tugged her down to sit with him on the grassy slope and they watched the fireworks together.

When it finished, sat back and sighed. It was so lovely. The fireworks. And to be able to sit next to Sanada while she watched it.

Looking around, realised for the first time that she and Sanada looked like a couple sitting next to each other so closely and with him still holding her hand.

Colouring a little, she kept her head up and met the amused gaze of Renai Sara, the Hyoutei representative, who was sitting a couple of meters away with…

Unable to believe her eyes, blinked several times to make sure that the person sitting next to Sara and who had an arm around her waist was none other than the King of Hyoutei himself, Atobe Keigo.

With a grin, winked at Sara who smiled back. The other girl nodded towards Sanada and mouthed the words, Is he yours?

flushed and Sara smiled knowingly. Both girls shared one more smile before turning back to enjoy the music and the company of their respective 'partners'. was somewhat glad that Sanada was oblivious to the exchange. She didn't know how he would have taken it.

It wasn't long after this that Sanada turned to , "-chan? Do you…" Here, the tall third year flushed visibly despite the darkness, "Did you… want to dance?"

's face went pink for the umpteenth time that night but she managed a smile and nod.

Wordlessly, Sanada led her to the dance floor. could almost feel all the looks being cast their way but she didn't care. Sanada didn't care about the whispers and looks they received either, all he could think of was how it would feel to hold her again. Ever since the last time he had held her when they had gone shopping together, it had been present in his mind.

The band was playing a popular number and and Sanada slipped into the rhythm. At the beginning, Sanada held her carefully by the waist, while held on to his shoulders. He was a bit too tall for her to be able to look up at him all of the time so she contented herself with an occasional glance and the smiles which he sent her.

After a while, the music slowed and both of them relaxed little by little. Slowly, they moved closer until had her arms around Sanada's waist and her head rested against his shoulder.

Unwilling to move her away, Sanada leaned down and spoke in her ear, "?"

He heard her murmured "Hmm?" and smiled.

"I love you."

Surprised at what he just said, looked up at him wide eyed and stumbled over her reply. "I… I… L… love you too…"

He leaned down a little more and brushed his lips across hers. "Be mine, … I swear that I'll protect you."

Feeling short of breath and rendered speechless, could only nod.

She believed his every word. When Sanada Genichirou swore he would do something, nothing could stand in his way. Resting her head on his chest, smiled to herself. It looked like Sara was right. Genichirou was hers.

Epilogue:

At that point, the music stopped suddenly, abruptly. All the couples on the dance floor, Sanada and included, looked up at the stage in surprise. 's surprise doubled when she saw Atobe Keigo, the King himself, onstage with the sole spotlight illuminating him.

He waited calmly for silence and looked out imperiously at everyone. He picked up a microphone when silence had fallen. Or mostly fallen. A few die hard fanatics could still be heard screaming his name in the distance.

Ignoring the distant commotion, Atobe switched on the microphone and spoke. What he said was enough to shut anyone up.

"Ore-sama originally hosted this night in the hopes of promoting friendly relations between rival schools and rival teams. However this night is also a special one for me and several others." At this, he let his gaze travel across the paved floor, lingering on Sanada and with a smirk.

Letting them go, he looked out again and brushed a hand through his already perfect hair, "Ore-sama is introducing you tonight to ore-sama's girlfriend." The screams multiplied at this.

With these words said, he turned to the darkness of the stage and pulled a highly blushing Renai Sara into the spotlight. "Sara is ore-sama's girl and ore-sama expects all of you to acknowledge that. If any harm befalls her, you can expect ore-sama to get to the end of it." His ice blue gaze swept the area again, this time lingering on several groups of girls who had been screaming the loudest earlier and were now looking mutinous.

"In fact, if ore-sama gets wind of any ill talk about Sara, ore-sama will personally make sure that that person pays the consequences. Got it?" All the girls nodded emphatically as Atobe's gaze bored into them.

With a lazy grin, Atobe took hold of Sara's waist and kissed her in plain view of everyone. Several wolf whistles and yells of encouragement sounded but the couple onstage ignored it all.

Sanada and glanced at each other before bursting out in laughter. Sanada was sure he hadn't laughed or smiled so much in years.

"That is so typically Atobe," Sanada grinned and held close.

"Poor Sara. She must be so embarrassed…" murmured, lips still twitching with suppressed laughter.

Sanada sent a wry glance onstage and muttered, "I don't think so." He hadn't felt so carefree in so long. He found that he missed the feeling.

followed his gaze and concurred with a smile, "I guess not, since she's still up there with him." She looked up and met his gaze and they shared the smile.

"Come on, Marui-senpai promised me some free games…" tugged him away from the dance floor.

Sanada stopped dead. He hadn't planned on facing his team mates so soon. "Uh… We can go see what else the festival has to offer first. Then we'll see…"

Happy to just be with him, smiled and nodded.

Hand in hand went to explore the festival. As they moved from one stall to the next, Sanada turned to in all seriousness, "I'll take you to meet my parents tomorrow. Then, you'll have to introduce me to yours."

couldn't help the blush, "Genichirou…"

The look he gave her warmed her. "Promise me that you'll be at my side," asked, half-teasingly.

Sanada turned her to face him, "I promise that I'll be by your side. Forever."

##########

April 15, 2007
Written by: Linc
Edited by: Rikapyon!