Author’s Note: A lot of people have requested a sequel to "Just What The Doctor Ordered" so here it is. Already, there are a potential two more sequels to this chapter in the drafting stages. And once again, please submit a prompt soon if you want me to post it here. Finally, please let me know of any errors so I may correct them.

Warning:Alternative Universe; shirtless!Ryoma; Follows chapter three – Just What The Doctor Ordered

Summary: Sakuno was a professional. Just because Ryoma was a difficult patient didn’t mean she couldn’t handle him. So what if Ryoma looked good without his shirt, it didn’t mean anything right? So what if she couldn’t stop staring, that didn’t matter either. Let's face it, Sakuno was doomed from the start.

Prompt: #23 Candy

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine. If it was, Sakuno would banter with Ryoma. (And by banter, I mean flirt.)

Kiss Kiss
#23 Candy
Utterly Doomed

Sakuno looked at the clock for the fifth time in the last two minutes. The minute hand seemed frozen, a fact that Sakuno found both relieving and distressing. For the last hour, she had spent her time dreading the upcoming appointment: Echizen Ryoma. The man was absolutely infuriating. He had the unusual gift of getting on her nerves faster than anyone she had evermet. But that wasn’t what bothered her. What Sakuno found truly upsetting was that she liked it. She liked it when they bickered. She liked it when he sent her that charming smile in order to get his way. She liked it when he continued to flirt with her despite her protests. Put simply, she liked him. But she wasn’t supposed to.

She had put the rules there for a reason. The rule against forming personal relationships with clients was there to ensure her own credibility. When she first opened the small practice, most people said that it would never work. She was too young, too fresh out of school, too much of a girland everyone ‘knew’ that girls couldn’t separate their professional and personal life. But though Sakuno had struggled at first, she had eventually put a stop to such rumors. She showed everyone that she belonged in the professional world just as much as they did. And then Echizen Ryoma strolled into her office one day and suddenly she found herself wanting to break all the rules she had set.

She glanced at the clock again, sixteen more minutes until Ryoma showed up. She shook her head, silently chiding herself for acting like some common schoolgirl with a crush on the boy in her class. She was a professional. She could handle this.

“I hope you don’t mind but I’m a bit early.”

Startled, Sakuno’s eyes darted to the doorway where the object of her thoughts now stood. Her eyes darted to the clock.

“I still have fifteen minutes!” she cried.

Upon noticing the panic in her tone, Ryoma smirked – a sign that Sakuno had privately categorized as Extremely Dangerous. Not that she thought enough of him to put his gestures or smiles into categories or anything.

“I’m sure we can find something to do in those fifteen minutes,” he said flashing her an innocent grin that was undermined by the wicked gleam in his hazel eyes.

Sakuno blushed to a bright cherry red. She was doomed.

The appointment that followed went like all the others leaving Sakuno torn between the desire to bash him upside the head for his blatant flirting and innuendo and the desire to encourage him to follow through on some of his promises. Sakuno decided the best course was to do neither. The first would only serve as encouragement that his words had an effect on her and the latter she feared would scare him enough that he stopped entirely. Instead, she alternated between blushing and barking out orders. Both of which Ryoma decided to interpret as enormous sources of amusement. It didn't help matters much that even innocent actions like touching his wrist to measure his pulse sent her heart racing.

“If you could just take off your shirt for a moment Ryoma-san,” she said absently while marking some notes on her clipboard.

When she heard a muffled laugh, she looked up to see Ryoma grinning. Quickly thinking over her last words, she realized what was about to happen. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop it.

“Well Sakuno,” he said, shaking his head in mock disappointment, “I didn’t know you were that type of girl.” The combination of his words and her name used so familiarly on his tongue sent shivers down her spine and color to her cheeks.

“I’m just going to listen to your heart!” she shouted, embarrassed that he had managed to fluster her once again.

Ryoma made a dismissive noise as if he didn’t believe her and then had the audacity to wink, “of course you are.”

The reddish hue to her cheeks rose to new heights. She took a breath trying to calm down. “I’m going to listen to your heart, that’s all,” she said evenly.

He sighed, “what a pity…”

But before Sakuno could retort, Ryoma had began to slowly peel off his shirt. He started at the bottom, slowly lifting the edges up and up until she could see the six pack of his abs, the lean but muscular chest, and the smirking twist to his lips. “Should I go again or was once enough,” he asked continuing to smirk.

Sakuno floundered for a moment like a fish on dry land before finally giving up. “You’re impossible!” she shouted.

Ryoma laughed and eventually the humor of the situation won her over and Sakuno gave in and laughed as well. “You’re impossible,” she repeated with a smile.

Something in her expression or in the tone of her voice must have caught his attention because suddenly his eyes focused solely on her. His intense hazel eyes fixated solely on her as if looking or waiting for something. The laughter died in her throat. Her breath caught in her lungs and her heart began to pound at full speeds. She stood waiting for something, anything to tell her what she should do or how to react to this unknown feeling. Then it happened. Ryoma took a step forward. And Sakuno fled.

As she ran out the door, she passed Inui in the hallway. “Could you take Echizen’s heart rate for me, I think I forgot my stethoscope in one of the other rooms,” she shouted in passing.

“Sakuno-san, it is around your neck.”

“Thanks, I’ll be back in a bit.”

Leaving a bewildered Inui to deal with the confusing Ryoma, Sakuno raced into an empty training room at the end of the hall. Closing it tightly behind her, she leaned against the door and sank to the floor. With her hands, covering her warm face and lit red cheeks. She groaned. She was so doomed.

It took a full five minutes for her to convince herself to get back on her feet and another three before she mustered up the courage to head back to the other room. The only thing that drove her was the fact that it wasn’t Inui’s responsibility to take care of Ryoma. It was hers. She had a job to do and she wasn’t going to let a minor crush affect her in such a way. Even so, her hand wavered before she managed to finally open the door.

“I’m back,” she said.

Inui nodded and didn’t say anything. Ryoma on the other hand, grinned. “You gonna hang around this time, doc?” he asked with a cocky grin.

She took a breath and tried to remember every lesson Tomo had told her about dealing with unruly children. Lesson One: never show fear. Putting a hand on her hip and forcing a confident smile on her face, Sakuno didn’t back down. “You’re my patient, aren’t you?”

He smirked, hazel eyes twinkling, “so I am.”

The rest of the session went relatively smoothly. Ryoma continued to try his best to fluster her but he kept things within reason as if sensing that too much would send her sprinting from the room again. Also, the fact that Sakuno refused to let him unsettle her again, ensured that she gave as good as she got. She took a lesson from Tezuka’s former training method when he attended Seigaku High School; anytime anyone questions authority, make them face a consequence. When Ryoma’s comments became less than professional, the number of exercises he had to do magically increased. Eventually, he got the hint. And eventually, the sheer amount of required exercises caused him to hold his tongue more. It didn’t however stop him from smirking though. And as Sakuno was reluctant to admit, that smirk did more to her insides than any of his comments did.

“That’s all for today,” she said, watching in part fascination and in part amusement as a tired Ryoma greedily gulped down some water. A part of her wondered if she went too far, making him work harder because he embarrassed her, but that was soon dismissed. Ryoma seemed the blunt type; if he was upset at something, she had no doubt he would vocalize his displeasure. Not to mention that despite his injury, Ryoma-san was still fairly in shape she thought with a blush as she glanced at her patient who had kept his shirt off during some of the difficult exercises.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, what’s with the dish?”

Startled and worried about being caught ogling his body, Sakuno was relieved to follow his line of sight to see a small candy dish sitting on one of the counters. She gave a dismissive shrug and willed the color in her cheeks to die down, “this clinic treats patients of all ages, including children. Sometimes kids need a bit of an incentive to encourage them to work hard at the exercises. The suckers are all sugar-free but they still manage to do the trick.”

“How come I’ve never gotten one?”

She laughed. “They’re for kids!”

“So? What if I wanted one, could I have one?” he asked reaching out his hand. Quickly, she snagged the dish from the counter and turned so her body shielded it.

She shook her head, at his disappointed look, still giggling. “Sorry, Ryoma-san, the candy is reserved only for the good kids.”

He smirked – the dangerous looking one that had the tendency of turning her insides to mush. “Oh, I can definitely be good,” he said.

Stunned by richness in his tone, Sakuno had no time to react when reached around her body to snag a piece from the candy dish. He quickly popped the sweet treat in his mouth and gave her a light peck on her cheek as he did on the first day they met.

“I’ll see you on Thursday,” he called before grabbing his shirt and walking out the door. Dazed, Sakuno set the candy dish back on the counter and looked around the room before she glancing at the doorway at the doorway. Blushing, her hand absentmindedly touched her cheek as she smiled. She was learning that when it came to Ryoma-kun, she was definitely doomed from the start.

But truthfully, she didn't mind one bit.