This is a reload, the edited and modified version. You may like it better, or worse, if you read the before-version, but this is the way I want it. I want to thank all the people (wonderful and lovely people) that supported my brief stray off and to say I'm back with even less time than before, but… I'm on summer holidays! I'm awesome. That means slightly more and slightly less time, you know.

Please enjoy my rising back from the dead and I hope it's not too rusty.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I doubt I even own the plot. All the Prince of Tennis characters and references belong to Konomi Takeshi. Also, I do not make any profit out of writing this, either.

Remember:
F. Syuusuke = Fuji
F. Yuuta = Yuuta

-Echizen: 15 / F. Yuuta: 16 / F. Syuusuke: 17

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

Chapter I: Arranging thoughts

He couldn't hide it, not from him... not from Fuji Syuusuke. After all, he was one of the few people that knew him best, he was his boyfriend. But how could he tell him? How to confess to Fuji that he had fallen hopelessly in love with another man? And that said man returned his feelings, that they loved each other? But worst of all, how to tell his boyfriend that the man that now occupies his heart is not just another guy, but his very own brother? How on earth could he tell him how Fuji Yuuta confessed to him in the balcony of his own house?

Echizen Ryoma paced around his bedroom. He was waiting for his soon-to-be ex-lover, Fuji Syuusuke, to come see him as he had asked, and slowly he was starting to panic. It didn't help his nerves, all the questions and the doubts came rushing down and hitting him like bricks. He had never been this nervous, heck, he was nearly scared. The Echizen Ryoma, tennis prodigy, was scared of what could happen.

He really needed to calm down.

"Shh! Ryoma, relax please. I'm sure everything will turn out fine," came the strangled reassuring voice of Fuji Yuuta, who was sitting on the bed watching his beloved pace nervously, concern etched across his normally scowling face.
Fuji Yuuta wasn't very good at comforting, but he realized that with the prodigy he could loosen up easily, which usually surprised him. Right now, though, he embraced the sympathy and tried to hold on to it, trying in vain to control Echizen's as well as his own anxiety. What would his brother say? Would he get mad and seek revenge? Or would he accept them? With the older boy you could never tell. The only thing he knew, the one thing he was certain about was that he truly cared about the younger boy, though sadly, he realized it a tad bit too late. When Syuusuke introduced Echizen to him as his boyfriend, Yuuta felt torn with what he later realized was jealousy. From that moment onwards, it was like a snowball effect, where the kid would occupy his every thought at times. The moments they spent at the street tennis courts, during St. Rudolph's holiday, they were strange times. Yuuta felt weird at first, playing with his brother's boyfriend, but as their games continued, he couldn't help how much he enjoyed the company of the younger teen. Without knowing it, he came to long for those matches, for those rare occasions when Echizen would smile in triumph after winning a difficult point, for the small-talk while walking back home- which did not come easily with Echizen, etc.

That's why it hurt him so much to see Echizen and his brother holding hands, or kissing, or hugging. It made him want to punch the older Fuji, and made him wish he could be in his place, kissing those lips instead of him.

Yet, it appears Syuusuke was better; he always got what he wanted. And in occasions - 'like this one', he thought, through clenched teeth- what Yuuta wanted. It made him so angry, a bitterness that had blinded him for years, fore ever it seemed.

He wanted Echizen with him, forever, for them to be like that one time when he confessed to the boy. Everything had seemed perfect there and then, meant to be if you want to put it that way. When he remembered, he allowed himself a moment of peace amongst the chaos.

"Ryoma, come here" he called the boy with a surprisingly gentle voice. Curious, Echizen stopped pacing and walked towards the dubbed "lefty killer".

"Huh?" Yuuta just lifted him up and sat the prodigy on his lap, embracing him, while Echizen's back rested on the older boy's chest, tensed up.

"Hey!" Echizen tried to struggle a bit, not wanting to fall in the warmth that irradiated from Yuuta, enveloping him. He managed to mumble a "Fuji might get here any second now".

"Oi, brat, stop moving." Yuuta held him closer, strong arms holding the boy in place. His boy.

"Che…" Echizen stopped trying to break free and settled for snuggling in his lover's chest while trying to make it seem as though he wasn't, relaxing instantly. Yuuta, in response, chuckled in a low voice; the boy in his arms was so warm and cute. 'Like a cat' he thought fondly.

"Ryoma, do you remember the time I confessed to you?" Yuuta lent down and murmured in Echizen's ear, with a low drawl in his voice that send tingles down the Echizen's spine. That was the voice Yuuta only used on him; he loved him when he used it, and it made him want to forget the entire problem with Fuji and just hug the boy tightly.

He used to believe Yuuta was just a bad-tempered boy, frustrated because he was always referred to as 'Fuji Syuusuke's little brother'. Then he realized that what he really wanted was to beat, for once, his brother at tennis, he wanted to be recognized not as 'Fuji Jr.' but as Fuji Yuuta, and Echizen could definitely relate to that. He, as well, wanted to beat his father, an annoying old man whose bickering and taunting he's had to put up with for years. Echizen was not interested on fame, fan girls or interviewers, but he still didn't exactly appreciate being called 'Samurai Jr.'. He played his own tennis now, and he was going to become stronger by himself, using his own techniques. He was going to rise above all others, and above the old man. That was what he wanted. That was the reason he took interest for the first time in Fuji Yuuta, the first time he saw him.

He had to admit he only started noticing Yuuta in that way, after he started dating Fuji, since he saw the boy on an almost regular basis. St. Rudolph gave their students three weeks off when everyone else had school, since it was a boarding school and all, and during that time Fuji insisted they spent every evening in his house. So sometimes they talked, not much but still, sometimes they just sat in silence watching as Fuji chatted away with her sister, Fuji Yumiko. Then, they started playing tennis, out of boredom, and soon started a routine of playing each other on the street courts twice or thrice, finally playing just about every day.

When the three weeks were over, and Yuuta and Echizen barely saw each other, he realized he may have feelings for the older teen. He suspected he missed Yuuta, since every time he and Fuji went to the latter's house, he would strain his ears, unconsciously waiting to hear a groan or a grunt of the easily annoyed Fuji Yuuta.

It wasn't automatic, god no, it was a gradual thing. First, he thought he missed the constancy of playing with someone every day; he was a good player who had managed to get it through his apparently thick skull that the damages his tennis produced far outweighed the advantages. Not thanks to that Mizuki guy, Yuuta now had his own, pain-free techniques that still managed to cause trouble in the courts. Sometimes, he would remember their conversations on the walk home, which never were too fluent but they got along fine, as neither of them were the chatty type. They didn't goof off and mess around, but their talks would always carry a thin sense of importance and wariness, even when they finally warmed up to each other enough to start bickering.

He liked the older boy, Echizen had realised; being him he never delved into the depth of that liking, or the reasons behind it for that matter. He just... liked him.

That's why the day Yuuta confessed to him was such a fond memory. He had thought there was next to no chance he could pick up his relationship with Yuuta. He had wanted to, without actually admitting it, he just couldn't see a way around it. He didn't exhaust himself on the topic, though, as was his custom.
So not only did that day mark the start of something nice, with a boy he could relate to, who knew exactly what he was feeling, but finally, his heart and mind were at ease, knowing the man he came to care so much about was his. For what? He hadn't been sure at the moment, he only knew that he was willing to find out.

His relationship with Fuji was a very nice one too, but apart from tennis, they didn't have much in common. They were attracted to each other like North seeks South, polar opposites, and he couldn't deny that their relationship was interesting and simple. A good combination.
The bad thing was, though, that

Once, he was complaining about his father beating him at tennis, again, and Fuji just laughed, saying that he was being cute. He just ruffled the boy's hair and kissed him, then said he was being foolish and childish and whatnot, it was really frustrating and saddening. He treated Echizen as a kid, and that annoyed the prodigy.

Yet, he still cared for the sadistic tensai, only his heart was not Fuji's anymore. Damn, Echizen's heart was not even his own anymore. It belonged to a grumpy, stubborn teenager, with a cross-shaped scar on his forehead, and a pretty bad attitude. And his heart swelled with joy when he thought about it.

"Of course I remember, Yuuta," he warmly remembered every single detail, "it was just a month or so ago." And he was lost in thoughts once again about Fuji and the upcoming discussion.

He was brought back to reality by Yuuta's thumb rubbing soothing circles on Echizen's arm, sensing how the boy had gone somewhere far away. Echizen felt a burst of love within him, and on an impulse, he turned around and kissed Yuuta's lips. Said boy widened his eyes in surprise, and still being a bit shy, blushed and looked anywhere but at Echizen's half-smirk half-smile, but then surrendered and brought his face near, and kissed the younger man with all his might, hoping to put into it all the feelings he had so much troubling expressing. After a while, and very content, the two teenagers went back to their previous position, Yuuta's back on the wall and Echizen's on Yuuta's chest.

Somehow, even though the threat of Fuji was hanging in the air, they felt at ease with each other. They drifted, together, into a world of remembrance, and like joined minds, they delved in the memory of that first day at the balcony, where it all begun.

End of Chapter 1