Title: A painful past

By: Demonic kunoichiKagi

(Revised and rewritten)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot, OC's and anything else if stated otherwise.

Warning: AU, OOC. and mentions of violence, rape, child abuse, sadism and the use of strong language.

Summary: A past they never knew about. A hidden pain they never suspected he to have. When the past comes back to haunt them, he must fight back or be consumed in the raging flames that threatens to consume them.

Early return

and

A twin sister

"Echizen-kun?"

Turning to glance over his shoulder, Ryoma gave a slight nod of his head in greeting before moving away, his white Fila cap hid his face from few, confusing the group behind him, he never hid his face and he certainly never turned away from anyone, "How did you guys know I was back?"

"Atobe called us. Said he heard that you left America and was back in Japan but couldn't be sure where you were."

Ryoma nodded, soft grumbles escaped his lips, his words went unheard. "I see. And you guys just happened to know I'd be here, right?"

"We hoped you'd be here." Oishi took a step forward, his eyes glancing at the view in front of them, "This is the first place we went to as a group. It holds significants to all of us; we hoped it would be the same with you."

"This was the only place I knew that Keigo wouldn't be able to find me." Ryoma tugged at his cap, "I should've known he'd call you guys when it came apparent that he'd be useless."

Fuji opened his eyes, "Saa, Ryoma-chan, I didn't know that you and Atobe were so close? How is that possible? And why did you return so early. We weren't expecting you for at least another month."

The grip he held on the railing tightened, his knuckles turning a pasty white and alerting both Tezuka and Fuji that something definitely wasn't right with their youngest friend, with his eyes clenched shut, lips trembling just the slightest, they could tell something was troubling him,

The problem was getting Ryoma to tell them what it was.

Walking towards the younger boy, Fuji pulled Ryoma's hand free from the railing and held them gently within his own, blue eyes opened and peering into an ashen face.

Yes, something was most definitely wrong with Ryoma.

Rubbing the boys hand, the blue eyed tensai glanced towards the rest of the group as they walked closer, "We need you to tell us what's going on Ryoma-chan. We want to help you, but we can't if we don't know what's wrong."

Tezuka nodded, "Fuji's right, Echizen." Closing his eyes, the team buchou sighed, "Atobe hinted that there might be something wrong, but he wouldn't say what and told us if we wanted to know, we should ask you."

"Keigo, Yuushi and I are actually childhood friends. I've known them since I was about five or six. We were on a cruise, all the rich family were invited for some type of business meeting that was being hosted." The rest of the Seigaku regulars leaned in, "They had been our first real friends."

"Our?"

Ryoma lowered his head, "My twin and I. Kagome had been a few minutes older, thus she was really protective over me, even though I was the boy and should have been the one looking out for her, but she wouldn't have it. She'd been stubborn like that." Ryoma's lips trembled and Fuji reached out to draw the smaller boy into his arms, "Our parents weren't really what you'd expect, you know; they use to abuse us all the time."

The Seigaku regulars reacted to this with gasp, frowns and looks of outrage.

"Kagome and I" Ryoma sniffed, "We had to grow up faster then anyone else our age in order to survive. She would cook for us, and I'd do the chores around the house. And after a particularly bad beating when we were like three something, we learned to never wake our so-called parents up." tears washed down the princes face, a sharp sob escaped his lips and Fuji tightened his hold around the younger boy. "They never loved us, we were just perfectly made up dolls for them to show off at parties, but in the privacy of our own home, they would beat us."

Eiji sobbed and clunged to the equally shaken Oishi, while Momo had tears following from his eyes. Kaidoh and Take reacted the same as Oishi while Inui gripped his pen. Both Tezuka and Fuji looked murderous; it was expected from a sadist like Fuji, but what no one knew was that Tezuka was worse then Fuji, he just hid it better; though it peaked out everytime he issued his laps of doom or when he allows Inui to use the regulars as test subjects for the data mans newest concotion of poison drinks.

"Once when we were four, they decided to play a game with us." Ryoma shook his head, "We had been excited, Kagome was actually happy thinking that our parents were finally going to love us, but we were wrong." licking his suddenly dry lips, Ryoma glanced at the group around him, "Doctor is what they called it and it was far from pleasant." shakily Ryoma continued, "They ried us down to our beds and picked up this small thin knife, a scalpel, and began slicing at us."

The sobs became louder to Ryoma's ears but he continued, uncaring of the tight grip Fuji had on him or the tears that were soaking his face, "After that day playing doctor became a frequent treatment. Our mother took a liking for the whips after watching this show where the lead female was dressed in leather and her weapon was the whip, she thought it was hott."

Fuji gritted his teeth in angry, wondering how someone like Echizen Nanjirou, laid-back and goofy could actually be so cruel behind close doors. And he had seen Rinko on numerous occasion and someone has sweet looking as her, he couldn't believe how much they had been fooled.

"In all my data gathering, I never found any evidence of Echizen 'Samurai' Nanjirou being abusive." Inui mumbled, feeling horrible. If only he had found some kind of hint of what kind of man Nanjirou had been, then maybe...

"No" Ryoma shook his head, "Nanjirou is actually my uncle. My father was was Nanjirou's older brother. After finding out about us, Nan-ji-chan took them to court, to get full custody over Kagome and I, but like all courts, the case taking forever and by the time they actually relented and made Nan-ji-chan our legal guardian, it was too late." Ryoma shivered, "Kagome was gone."

Those words froze the Seigaku regulars. Uncomprehending, they stood stock still, while Ryoma silently cried into Fuji's chest.

Tsuzuku

)(To be continued)(

Kagi