Title: Finding Home
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Renji-main, Inui, Mizuki, mentionings of Rikkai
Pairing: Data Pair (InuiRenji), NiouMizuki, slight NiouMizukiRenji, some other odd pairings involving Rikkai.
Rating: T+ for the first part, T for the following.
Warnings: Almost rape, a bit of a nicer (maybe more mature?) Mizuki. (Yes, that is a warning.)
Summary: Renji does love Sadaharu, but he can't take this anymore. Future-fic.
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and its characters belong to Konomi Takeshi
A/N: I just wanted to write Data Pair, but still not Data Pair, all of a sudden, and this just, came up in my mind... I was going to write the second and following in it's own story, but decided to put it all together as one.
Renji can't sleep. He lies awake in his bed, flat on his back and stares up into the ceiling.
Sadaharu is sleeping on the other side of the bed, face planted down in his pillow. His glasses rests on the bedside table, and Renji feels a sudden urge to smash them, so that the former Seigaku player would be temporarily blinded. But that would be of no use.. Sadaharu has too many exact replicas, just in case. He's always had them, after all.
He reach up to his face and rubs his eyes. He is so tired, but sleep does not want to take him. It can't go on like this, it has gone far too long. He doesn't hate Sadaharu, he does love him, he really does. But this silence, this painful knowledge that it can never be like before, it's suffocating him, eating him up from the inside.
When was it that they stopped talking? Well, they still talked, but never about important things. Sadaharu was almost always quiet, and when Renji tried to talk to him about anything, even tennis, Sadaharu would cut him off and say he had to do some thing or another. It isn't funny. It hurts. Sadaharu doesn't want to talk to him, and he don't know why.
Turning his head to look at Sadaharu, he sighs. He hasn't moved even the slightest. But he already knew that.
He sits up and slip out of the bed, realizing that he, yet again, will face the night sleepless.
Renji pulls on a sweater over his night-clothes, and walk through the empty halls of their apartment. His bare feet give off almost no sound, but still his steps echo against the walls. It is lonely, the house. It feels as if it is only him there, as if Sadaharu doesn't live there as well.
Pulling a hand through his hair, he sighs and lean against the wall. He slip down on the floor. He can't take it any longer...
When Sadaharu wakes up, Renji quickly rise from the floor and hurries into the bathroom. As he had thought, he haven't been able to sleep, at least not as he is aware of. He wash his face and pulls the comb through his hair. Then he straighten his clothes and step out of the bathroom, only to meet a tired-looking Sadaharu.
"Good morning, Sadaharu." Renji greets. Sadaharu nod and walk past him into the bathroom, probably to take a shower.
Renji turns to watch the door close, and he shake his head. No more...
"Renji?"
Renji turns around and see Sadaharu stand in the doorway, a confused look on his face.
"Yes, Sadaharu?"
"What are you doing?"
Renji closes his bag and the locks snaps shut. "I apologize, but I need a vacation."
Sadaharu frowns. "When are you coming back?"
"...I.." Renji turns his gaze to the floor. "I won't be... Probably.."
"Are you.. breaking up with me..?" Sadaharu looks confused, and a look of hurt cross his face.
"Sadaharu.." Renji slumps against the bed. "I'm sorry, but it's for the best. If this goes on..." ...you're going to break my heart..
Sadaharu take the few steps up to him and place his hands on Renji's shoulders, push him down onto the bed. Renji's eyes snap open and he tries to get out of the other mans grip, only to realize that Sadaharu's bigger build, and his own lithe frame, only helps Sadaharu, who is by far stronger than him.
"Sadaha-!"
Renji's protests are cut off by a pair of lips and his hands are pressed to his sides by Sadaharu's bigger ones. His cry is muffled and he tries to wriggle out of Sadaharu's grip. He gasp when one of Sadaharu's hands are shoved inside his pants, and Sadaharu takes the chance to push his tongue into Renji's mouth. At this intrusion, Renji reacts without thinking. His teeth buries in Sadaharu's tongue and he is finally able to free one hand. He slaps Sadaharu as hard as he can, and can soon feel his own cheek sting in pain. Sadaharu lifts him and all air goes out of him as he is slammed onto the bed.
Tears springs from his eyes and he feels fear. He has never felt fear for Sadaharu before, but now he does. The expression on Sadaharu's face are not one he is used to.
"Sadaharu! Please! Stop it!" he yells, then cringe as Sadaharu's tongue invades his mouth again. No!
He is turned around and Sadaharu press him into the mattress.
"Renji.." he breathe into the former Rikkai-players ear, causing Renji to shiver. "I won't let you leave me.."
"But!" Renji tries to protest, but his mouth is covered by a hand. "It's alright, Renji. I won't hurt you, you know that."
No! You will! This you will really hurt me!
He hadn't known this side of Sadaharu, didn't know he was like this.
"Sadaharu, no!" he shouts as he gains enough space to do so. He kick with his feet in hope of hitting him somewhere, anywhere. He finally come in contact with Sadaharu's stomach, and when Sadaharu's grip loosen somewhat, he kick again and struggles out of the other's grip.
When he finally come free, he is panting and his eyes are wide open. Tears are falling freely from his eyes now, and he is getting desperate. He runs across the bedroom and out the door, hears Sadaharu follow.
Discarding his shoes and leaving his jacket, he runs into the rain and the cold water mingle with his warm tears. Soon, he is freezing. He delves into the shadows and runs through the alley, runs up a crowded street and into another alley. Hides and waits.
When he don't see Sadaharu, he slides down the wall and lean against it. He's more exhausted than he's ever been, and he has nowhere to return to. He slips a hand trough his hair and sighs.
"Why did it turn out like this..?" he mumbles, his head tipping to the side. The exhaustion hits him full force over and over like a pounding hammer, and he can feel himself slip off into complete darkness as he falls asleep.
When Renji wakes up, he's laying on something soft, and something rough is brushing over one of his fingers repeatedly. His fingers twitch and something soft pats them. When he open his eyes and turns his head to look, his fog-clouded mind make him see through a haze. That is... a kitten..?
He hears footsteps and turn his head in that direction.
"You're awake."
It is a young man, probably around his own age, with curly black hair reminding of Akaya's. But this was definitely not Akaya, because his voice is too smooth, and the baby of Rikkai would never wear clothes looking like that, nor that colour. But he still looks eerily familiar.
"How do you feel, Yanagi-kun?" the black-haired boy says, and the mentioning of Renji's name is proof enough that they know each other some way or the other.
He is silent for a while, thinking of how to respond. His answer is an honest one. "Horrible."
"Well, considering you look horrible, it is only to be expected. Do you know that you need a bath?" the other says. Renji suddenly remembers who he is.
"St. Rudolph's Mizuki Hajime."
Hajime blinks in confusion, then realizes why his name was uttered so suddenly. "Yes. Haru brought you here, after he found you passed out somewhere by the bar." He waves his hand in dismissal. "He should be back soon."
It seems as if Renji's brain is incapable of figuring out anything at the moment, he is still dazed. "..Haru?"
"You should know, Yanagi~" an even more familiar voice says, and both men turn to the door.
"..Masaharu.." Renji says, staring at Niou Masaharu in disbelief.
"Yo!" Masaharu raises his hand in greeting. "Been a while, no?"
Hajime crosses his arms and puffs his cheeks. "He," he points to Renji. "needs a bath."
Masaharu smirks as he looks over at Hajime. "When that time comes, Me-chan~"
"I've told you not to call me that!" Hajime protests. Then he sits down on the bed with a huff, picks up the kitten and places it in his lap. Now that Renji can see clearly, he notices it's grey, still is fluffy and has that extra baby-fat that it eventually will grow out of.
"Now now, Hajime, don't be grumpy." Masaharu says and sits down beside Hajime. He looks at Renji. "Why were y' layin' over on the street, 'nyways?"
"Language." Hajime points out to the petenshi, then follow the kitten with his gaze as it climbs over Masaharu's leg and jumps over to Renji. "But I'd like to know as well, seeing as it's our bed you are in."
"I... got some.. problems... with Sadaharu.." Renji says as he caresses the kittens back. She purrs, and he smiles slightly. Then the smile falters. "I couldn't stay.."
"Ah, right, y're datin' that Inui-guy." Masaharu says, then winces as Hajime elbows him. "So ye're sayin' you've broken up with 'im?"
Renji can't help but sigh. "Yes."
"And you feel guilty over it?" Hajime asks. Renji looks up at him.
"I'm still in love with him. At least I think so.. After what happened this morning-"
"Yesterday morning." Hajime cuts off. Then he waves his hand on front of his face. "Continue."
Renji frowns, then does as he was asked to. "I'm not so sure anymore." He wraps his arms around himself and pulls up his knees to his chest. The kitten roll down from his lap and she snorts at him, turns and walk over to Masaharu.
"What happened?" Masaharu asks, laying down and toppling over to let the kitten climb over him as she wanted.
"He.." Renji hesitates and leans his forehead against his knees. "..tried to do things that I didn't want..."
Masaharu and Hajime stares at him, then exchanges a quick glance.
Renji hears footsteps, and feel the bed dip down when weight is added right beside him. A pair of arms are wrapped around him, and he can see stains of purple.
Mizuki?
Hajime rocks him slowly in his arms, and another hand brush through Renji's hair.
Masaharu?
Lips are pressed to his hair as Masaharu slips his arms around Renji, and the white-haired boy leans his head against Renji's.
"It's alright now." Masaharu mumbles.
"If he does such things, he doesn't deserve you." Hajime adds.
And Renji cries.
He isn't scared any more, he has a safe place to sleep at, and Sadaharu can't know he is there. In Masaharu's and Hajime's house. Or that he now is happier than he has been for so long.
He has people to talk to, really talk to.
Hajime is intelligent, and Masaharu always bring up things that had happened way back, when they still were students at Rikkai. They never lack topics to talk about. It's never boring. Hajime and Masaharu makes sure that he always is occupied with something, so that he won't have time to think about Sadaharu.
Renji is grateful for that, and is happy for the kitten Cookie –name courtesy of Bunta– who always notice when his mood is dwindling.
Any time he wants to, he can see his old friends and team-mates, something he couldn't when he was living with Sadaharu. He worked a lot, and when he didn't, he was just too tired to go meet anyone.
Akaya often comes to visit between classes – his university isn't that far away – and he often bring his boyfriend over. It showed to be quite interesting to talk to Rokkaku's Itsuki Marehiko. How Akaya had gotten together with him, was a mystery. As was Gen'ichirou's relationship with Fudomine's Ibu Shinji. Then again, Masaharu dating Hajime was also quite odd.
Renji had figured out that they all worked in their own ways.
The only one couple that wasn't really that odd was Seiichi's with the former captain at Shitenhouji, Shiraishi Kuranosuke. While Seiichi had not yet agreed on dating Kuranosuke –he had way too much fun watching him try– it was quite obvious to Renji that Seiichi liked the blonde.
As for Shinji, he never listened to Gen'ichirou's shouts, and always released a river of words at everything that the stern raven said. He always caused Gen'ichirou to pause for a moment to figure out what exactly it was that his boyfriend was saying, and in his attempts to catch up with Shinji's train of thoughts, his brain became overheated and he became incredibly flushed. He didn't manage to shout though.
Dating Shinji saved up a lot of Gen'ichirou's voice.
Akaya and Marehiko always brought up the most interesting conversations. They both seeked to know a lot, and Marehiko always asked odd questions which caused even Hiroshi to laugh.
Renji always did his best to try answering the questions, some even bringing him to look into things he never would have thought he would become interested in.
Hiroshi was uncertain just exactly where his heart was. Renji knew he had had a crush on Masaharu for a quite a while, but it seemed to have passed. He was not interested in anyone at the moment, he said, but Renji could see that it was a lie. Masaharu could also confirm his suspicions and told him Hiroshi had a crush on a girl at his office. Or, what Hiroshi thought was a girl. It was in reality Tanaka Youhei from Jyosei Shounan, and he was very much a boy. Apparently, Youhei's twin, Kouhei, was very annoyed over this. Probably mostly over the gender-confusion, but maybe also because he didn't really like Hiroshi for lusting over his brother.
Jackal was dating a real girl –Tachibana An from Fudomine– and seemed to be happy with her. They also seemed to be very compatible. Tachibana Kippei, An's older brother, also seemed to not have anything against the relationship. Even Shinji's best friend, Kamio Akira, agreed on it, saying it was good "As long as it isn't that annoying bike-thief."
As for Bunta.. He had three people courting him. Hyoutei's Akutagawa Jirou still, Rokkaku's Saeki Kojirou, and, for some reason, Higa Chuu's Chinen Hiroshi.
Bunta was both creeped out and flattered over the tall Okinawan's dedication, but of course, Chinen was still scary, even though Bunta said he was "a nice guy and all, but.."
Jirou had become more and more creepy in his ways of showing his admiration for the Rikkai volley-specialist. "It's nice getting candy and stuff, but I can't be sure he hasn't put any drugs in them."
Saeki was Bunta's favourite, though. Even though he apparently could be too much sometimes, too.
"Aagh! What do I dooo!"
Both Masaharu and Renji told him to go for Chinen.
All in all, Renji was finding it very nice to be with his fellow Rikkai-members again, even though their family had increased a lot.
Renji was happy.
~OWARI~