So there's a slight connection to the previous chapter, not much though, and please don't kill me for putting Yuuta as a not-so-perfect guy in this chapter! x_x I actually love him dearly as a character, but it was necessary for this one to make sense! =_=

Hope you all enjoy! (And please review, too!) this was for iwha! Hope this was to your liking :)

The rain poured down in unrelenting sheets, and the skies warned of incoming ear-paining thunder. But she couldn't care less as she stared out into the gray world, her usually bright and flawless face now drained and puffy from all the teary rubbing. Her glassy-eyed gaze followed the occasional passersby rushing to get to the train or an overhang to wait out the rain.

But she was alone, under this awful leaky awning, in this awful rainstorm, on this awful day...awfully, horridly alone. As another tear came sliding down her cheek, a bright flash of lightning cracked the dark sky in two, followed by a rumbling growl of thunder. Sakuno thought bitterly, wow, Zeus, way to be sympathetic.

And as if in reply to her sarcastic thought, a second flash ripped through the blackness, accompanied once more by its ever faithful and loud companion. She simply rolled her eyes upwards like she was in search of some divine guidance.

Divine guidance was asking for a bit much, but as in on cue, her phone buzzed beside her, vibrating slightly on the short wooden bench she was seated on. Without even taking so much a glance at the caller ID, Sakuno flipped it open tiredly and spoke into the receiver, "Obaa-chan?"

"Sakuno!" Sumire bellowed, "Where are you in this pouring mess? School ended hours ago!"

How about alone, crying, and wallowing in self-pity? Sakuno bit her lip. "I'm sorry, obaa-chan. I'm all right." Although she tried to keep a happy tone, a sniffle escaped her throat; she immediately clasped a hand over her mouth to silence any noises that would clue her grandmother in.

But being Sakuno's grandmother, of course she would notice. With a much softer and more worried voice, she pressed, "Sakuno? Come sweetheart, what happened?"

She tried denying it. "Nothing," she said while unconsciously shaking her head, despite her grandmother not being able to see. It had to be nothing, or she'd make it turn to nothing, or she would inevitably go crazy. "Nothing," she repeated, her voice cracking in desperation. "I'm fine."

In her attempts to distract her grandmother and convince her, or rather both of them, that she was all right, Sakuno missed the sound of ever nearing footsteps, the light splash of tennis shoes in the ever growing puddles outside her "leaky awning." Her alone awning.

She raised her hand to her face to scrub at her eyes again, her index finger rubbing at a wet tear trail beginning at the corner of her right eye, when another hand grabbed her wrist and effectively halted any movement of her right hand.

Her head snapped up to look at the person who had come just to stop her furious abuse of evidence that she was falling, breaking, deep deep down. Alone, indeed. Now next to her, there was this person who was looking at her sadly; the same person who had just taken her phone away and, in the meantime, was speaking to her grandmother like it was everyday conversation for him.

Well, which it was.

"Good evening Coach Ryuzaki. Yes, I've got her with me."

"Yes," he shot her a brief sideways glance, "she will be all right."

He added softly, so softly that Sakuno couldn't be sure if she had imagined it or not, "I'll make sure of it."

"Yes."

"That is fine."

"Okay, then it is settled. Thank you," he said finally before lightly snapping Sakuno's phone shut and returning it to her, offering it out to her in an outstretched palm.

Sakuno didn't know how to respond. Of all people, and times, and places, he was here. Here, in the middle of nowhere; and why was it him? She gaped, trying to grasp the reality. Why wasn't it...Her eyes, though still horribly swollen and dry, were wide with surprise, a tinge of confusion. But she finally registered what he held in his hand, and delicately took it from his grasp, delicate fingers immediately wiped at imaginary water on the sticker at the bottom, the painfully memorable one that had "Yuuta and Sakuno" scrawled across it in elegant kanji.

He just looked at her. Looked and looked until her eyes finally met his, and he gave a wry smile back in reply, the usual unchanging expression he always made. "That's a great welcome to give to someone who's sitting here in the rain with you, Sakuno-chan."

Sakuno sat up, ashamed and embarrassed. "Sorry, Fuji-senpai!"

Fuji Shuusuke, drenched in rain and resembling a bit like a wet dog with a splash of brunette on its head, absentmindedly waved a hand to calm her. "I was just joking; don't take me seriously."

Then, there was silence.

Sakuno, being not the most talkative or gossipy girl in town, knew a lot about silence. She knew awkward silences, comfortable silences, mutually waiting silences, respectful silences between strangers, tense silences between teacher and student.

But this...this silence was one she had never experienced before.

She was impatiently waiting-for something, anything, fidgeting every few seconds while the rain tapped away above them. But all he did was sit there peacefully, with that ever-undisturbed grin on his face.

It was like, a chess silence. Those types of hushed moments when your partner or opponent was confident, and just going to sit back and wait for you...for you to make your move, to which they always responded accordingly.

But what was she supposed to do? And what game were they playing?

There was silence.

And Fuji thought that it wasn't going to help anybody by pressing Sakuno to hurry up with deciding. So he sat there, trying to enjoy the sound of the rain and imagine happy thoughts with his cactus and camera and family at home. He sat there, waiting for the broken girl beside him to temporarily piece herself together and tell him what she wanted.

She would make the first move of this guessing game; he'd be there to receive it.

"How did you know?"

Fuji leaned back on his palms, his head lolling up towards the almost pitch-black skies. "Yuuta told me to come find you."

"Yuuta-kun...did?" Sakuno looked at Fuji, startled. She couldn't believe her ears at first, but then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. After all he said to her, rubbed into her brain and stepped on her, he told his brother to come find her?

What was he trying to do? Prove that she was his and that he could play around with her and drag her around like a rag doll?

"With all due respect, then, senpai. Please go home," Sakuno kept her voice even and cold, trying to hold off Fuji at arm's length before he broke through this shield she was drawing around herself tighter and tighter with each passing second.

"No, Sakuno-chan. You misunderstand." I'm not here for him. I-

"Senpai, please." Before I break down, before I lose control, before everything I've done up until now to stay in my shell goes to waste. She stood and tried to push him out of the awning, but her voice cracked again as she begged him to leave. They ended up in a situation with Fuji getting soaked by the rain, Sakuno with him, her trying to force him out, him not planning on budging a single inch further.

With her sopping wet hair draping across her face looking at the ground and her extended arms still exerting all her force on his back in her attempts to push him, Sakuno pleaded. "Go. Please, just go." She locked her knees, planted her feet hard, shoving and shoving and shoving, despite knowing that she was too weak. So weak.

And during the single moment where her legs buckled, in a flash, he turned around and grabbed her, embracing her tightly while burying his face into the top of her head. Sakuno was too stunned to move at first, but then began to futilely pound her fists against his chest.

"Fuji-senpai, let me go!"

"No."

Sakuno froze again, one fist dropping from its mid-air position. What?

When had she ever heard him use that deep tone of voice? When he had faced Shiraishi? Tezuka? When Mizuki pissed him off by training Yuuta into using that shot?

When it was with tennis. When he faced serious tennis opponents. When he had faced himself.

With girls...never.

But she hadn't heard wrong.

"I won't let go." His voice was slightly muffled by Sakuno's hair, but she heard him, loud and clear. The vibrations from his speaking and hiss breathing reverberated down her neck and caused shivers to run down her back.

"Yuuta knew he hurt you, and he won't take it back. You and I both know that. But I won't stand here and just watch you as you break into pieces like a porcelain doll dropped on the ground." He lifted his face from her head and tenderly lifted a wet lock of brunette hair between his fingers, letting it slip out between his long fingers. "It's as if you're going to shatter into a million shards."

He held her at arm's length, eyes wide open and observing her with an almost piercing gaze. Yet in the sharpness of his look, a tiny hint of something, something Sakuno couldn't put her finger on, was there-almost hiding, only peeking out a tad bit from the corners.

"I don't care if you still love him. I don't care if it takes days or weeks or months for you to forget both the happy and the sad with him. I don't care if I have to wait years before your eyes turn to me."

"Because I'll wait."

"I'll piece you back together."

And as she took in that puzzling smile of his, she let herself forget time and be swept away by the almost-innocent questioning look in his eyes and that slight dimple in his cheek...

She felt someone stretch out a hand and lift her out of the abyss she had been drowning in.

As she looked into those deep pools that were his eyes, Sakuno saw herself clearly reflected in them; and as he flashed her another characteristically enigmatic smile of his, she relented and let herself fall just a bit out of despair.

Just a little out of despair... and perhaps just a little bit in love, with this boy in front of her and those blue, blue eyes.

A/N: So...FujiSaku! XD this was a bit depressing in the beginning I think, but listening to Send Me an Angel (Zeromancer) and Mozart's Requiem weren't exactly the best selections?

Please do REVIEW, PEOPLE! and iwha, hope you liked this!