Tatami Mats - Prince of Tennis - Oneshot

There is something about the tatami mats in the Sanada household that intrigues Shiwasu Satsuki. Maybe it’s the way they sing to her when she glides over them. She remembers Kuririn ever mentioning that each house have their own song. Something she had learned from a novel. To Satsuki, the song the Sanada house sang was a very sweet and memorable one. Every single square of mat in that house reminded her of one thing or another.

Like this one she was standing on, third mat from the left and fifth from the front in the kitchen. She once baked a cake with the younger Sanada son and she had been standing right here, washing the utensils and creaming the cake. Genichirou had wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her. It was a memorable kiss, because it was the first Valentine’s Day kiss she shared with him.

Satsuki moved to the family room. She sat on the floor in front of the couch. This was the second tatami mat directly in front of the television. Whenever she cuddles up with Genichirou to watch a movie (much to his protests) they always end up sitting on the floor instead of the couch. Satsuki patted the mat and stood up. He went up to the second floor and entered a room. Genichirou’s room.

She stood over to the mat under the window. They had made out here once. Genichirou even went through all the trouble of setting up candles. This was unlike him, but surprises like these make her happy once in a while. They had been careless, or just too passionate, and had knocked a candle over. There was a flurry of activity following after, a lot of panicked yelling and water dousing. If someone looks at the tatami mat, they would see the burnt mark where the candle had fallen.

Genichirou learned the hard way to never play with candles anymore.

Satsuki traced each mat in his room. From every important memory to the pointless ones. It was even right here in this room where he had first asked her out after a home tutoring session. More specifically, the third mat from the left and the second from the door. She stepped on the next one. Genichirou read a book on kendo here once. The next one, he slept here by accident once and came down with a cold the next morning, chastising himself for being so tarundoru. The next one, and the next, and the next. They all reminded her of something.

“Satsuki?” Genichirou asked when he entered his room to see her there, doing nothing, just standing.

“Genichirou!” she chirped happily and bounded over to him. “Welcome home, you’re late today.”

“Sorry, practice ran longer than it should. Have you been waiting long?”

“For over an hour,” she pouted. “You promised to spend time with me.”

“Did you do something significant while waiting?” he asked and moved over to sit on the floor, leaning on his bed. Satsuki sat next to him.

“Nothing much, just reminiscing,” she replied.

“Did you?” he asked and leaned down, pressing his lips against hers.

“Yeap,” she said and kissed back.

That’s one more mat with one more memory for Satsuki to keep.