When eyes say it all, a prince of tennis fanfic

Disclaimer: Prince of tennis is not mine, probably never will be. So I have to settle for slashing them up in fanfics.
Rating: K+ (not sure if I have to make it higher though ^^)
Pairing: TezukaXRyoma
Summary: Some would call it love, some would call it admiration and others would call it an unspoken challenge. Whatever it was it was there for both of them, that one moment between the sakura trees in full bloom. TezukaXRyoma
Authors note: Happy valentine's day all(actually early happy valentine's day would be more appropriate). Below this one-shot I have a longer A/N, I made this mostly to thank all the readers that have either put me on their alert list or favorites. I was actually planning on a different fic, but within a day I went over 7000 words and it's not finished yet hehehe.

So again, all happy early valentine's day.

When eyes say it all

"Are you going pro?" asked the young man.

"Ah I am." Answered the man.

"I'll wait for you Bouchou." Said the young man.

"Ah I'll be there, Echizen." Answered the man.

All this was said with little emotion and still if you could have seen their eyes you would have known there was more emotion than there could be spoken of. Some would call it love, some would call it admiration and others would call it an unspoken challenge. Whatever it was it was there for both of them, that one moment between the sakura trees in full bloom.

XxX

"Echizen." The man in question turned at the sound of his name, not because someone called him, but because he could remember that voice anywhere.

"Bouchou." Was the simple answer but eyes said so much more than words could ever say.

"I'm here." Tezuka said, for the rest of the world he seemed impassive but those that knew him saw that he was showing so much emotion.

"What took you so long?" A deep voice, a smirk making it way to his mouth, it was an unspoken challenge, but not just a challenge there was more in those eyes than just a challenge.

The photo of Echizen Ryoma and Tezuka Kunimitsu challenging him covered the front of the newspaper. People weren't sure what to think of it, an unseeded player challenging samurai junior.

XxX

"How have you been?" without the press around they could talk easier.

"Mada mada dane." Said Ryoma as he took a sip of his ponta. "You?"

"I've been busy." Answered Tezuka, "Fuji's married." Ryoma's eyes widened slightly not sure what this brought on.

"Who's the lucky girl?" asked Ryoma mostly to be polite.

"You remember Sakuno?" asked Tezuka but Ryoma shook his head as a no. "Ryuzaki's granddaughter?" Some recognition flickered over Ryoma's face.

"The girl who was always around with that loud mouthed girl?" Ryoma asked.

"Yes."

"oh well I guess, congratulations on Fuji then." Ryoma said.

"Ah." Said Tezuka, he didn't even know why he brought it up. A part of him just wanted to hear Ryoma's voice, to be slightly closer. But this was as close as they could be with a safe distance between them.

"I'll win this one Bouchou." Said Ryoma suddenly.

"Ah." Said Tezuka back with just as much challenge in his eyes as Ryoma showed. "I'm no longer your bouchou so don't call me that."

"What should I call you then?" Ryoma looked amused challenging and hopeful. What was he hoping for? Tezuka knew but he couldn't.

"Anything will do." Said Tezuka.

"Then it stays bouchou, since bouchou is bouchou after all." Ryoma smirked a still challenging but somewhat disappointed smirk.

XxX

"Game set match, Ryoma wins 3 sets to 2." Announced the umpire.

"I lost." Said Tezuka as he put out his hand for the handshake.

"Mada mada dane." Said Ryoma as he shook Tezuka's hand. There was a heat in Tezuka's eyes that Ryoma could feel, but there was a unspoken challenge in Ryoma's eyes that Tezuka could read.

The crowd was awed by the tennis they were able to witness, suddenly Tezuka was the one who got all eyes focused on him.

XxX

"Echizen are you going back to Japan?" asked Tezuka.

"Yeah, I guess I should see them all again." Answered Ryoma with a small smile.

"Ah, you should." Said Tezuka.

In the plane back to Japan they sat next to each other, they didn't talk but were fully aware of the other. Both their arms on the arm rest, not touching the other but fully aware of the warmth the other emitted.

XxX

"Ochibi!" Yelled Kikumaru as he happily glomped Ryoma.

"Eiji, you're making Echizen feel uncomfortable." Said Oishi as he pulled Kikumaru off. Some things never change, thought Ryoma as he watched the scene unfold.

"Arigatou Oishi-sempai." Said Ryoma he no longer had his cap to hide behind

"No problem, we saw the match it was a great match, too bad we couldn't have been there." Said Oishi.

"Yes yes, It was great, it was school all over again." Kikumaru jumped around.

"Ah it was a good match." Said Tezuka who was standing behind Ryoma.

"I thought you two would have gone pro too by now." Stated Ryoma bluntly.

"Well," Oishi was a bit taken back by the turn of the situation but as a real doubles partner Kikumaru grabbed his hand and squeezed it slightly, "We found something more important."

"Oh." Was all that Ryoma was managed to say since the other former regulars were entering Kawamuru's sushi restaurant.

"Echizen?" asked Tezuka. Ryoma looked up and saw Tezuka's eyes asking, 'Are you alright?'

"I'm fine." Said Ryoma with a small smile on his lips as if he had just found out about something.

"Ah." Answered Tezuka with a rare smile of himself.

The old regulars were thrilled to see Ryoma again, it had been years since he attended one of the reunions. Everybody had changed in one way or another, but their personalities still seemed the same to Ryoma. The loud and brash Momoshiro, the shy Kaidoh, the data collector Inui, the double personality Kawamura, the mother-hen Oishi, the overactive Kikumaru, the playful Fuji and as last the stoic captain who wasn't as stoic as he seemed.

"Echizen, now you've won the Australian open which tournament is next?" asked Fuji as he looked at Ryoma strangely, he couldn't exactly what it was and why it was that Fuji looked strange at him he just did.

"BNP Paribas Open." Answered Echizen.

"And you Tezuka?" asked Fuji.

"I'll be doing mainly ATP Challengers and some bigger matches." Answered Tezuka as his pushed up his glasses.

"Really mainly ATP Challengers?" asked Ryoma

"Ah."

"Mou that's such a shame, I wish I could see you two play against each other soon again." Complained Kikumaru.

"But maybe since Tezuka did so good at Australian Open that they will be meeting at Wimbledon." Answered Inui.

"I don't know about that." Said Ryoma while the others looked dumbfounded. "It's not that I don't want to play Bouchou, but I'm skipping the Wimbledon this year." Explained Ryoma.

"Eh!" were the shocked reactions.

"Wimbledon has some peculiar rules and I'm not the first to skip it and I won it last year anyway." Said Ryoma waving the objections and shocked reactions away.

They hadn't expected Ryoma to skip a grand slam tournament ever. They were more thinking along the lines the more matches the better. But they saw how wrongly they judged that.

XxX

The evening had been fun for Ryoma, as the evening passed by he had almost wished it didn't go so fast.

As Ryoma opened the door to his hotel room he left key hanging in the lock while the door slowly opened by itself, "Is it so wrong for me to like you?" he wondered out loud.

"Echizen?" the question was obvious and left little to guess about, but still it pained them both.

"Nothing." Said Ryoma fast as he made his way to enter his hotel room only to be hugged from behind.

Ryoma put a hand on Tezuka's arm, "We can't, you know that right?" asked Tezuka, Ryoma just nodded, but he wasn't planning on letting Tezuka go.

"I have to go to my room." Said Tezuka as he released Ryoma.

"Don't leave." Said Ryoma.

"You sure?"

"Yes." In this time Ryoma still hadn't turned around and when he heard the closing of the door he was almost sure Tezuka had gone to his own room that was until the warm arms were around him again. "You stayed?" wondered Ryoma.

"I did." Tezuka slowly turned Ryoma around and kissed him.

Yesterday we kept a safer distance
We walked a borderline that seemed so clear
We crossed that line last night
It vanished with the morning light
Now I wanna know, where do we go from here

"This won't be easy." Said Tezuka.

"I know." Answered Ryoma with a small smile while Tezuka's lips were still on his. Even though they kissed now, they've taken the next step it didn't feel weird at all. It was as if he was right where he was meant to be.

Tezuka pushed Ryoma towards his bed, tonight they would have nothing to hide, but tomorrow it might be an entire different story.

"Call me Kunimitsu tonight, Ryoma."

What does your heart say now
Now that we've touched, now that we've kissed
What does your heart say now
Now that it's come this
Is it the same, or has something changed
Now that we've let our guard down
I just want to know, what does your heart say now

Ryoma opened his eyes he'd never felt more comfortable then in this very moment a pair of strong arms were holding him close. At the same time a wave of insecurities hit him.

"Good morning." Said Tezuka while he was getting used to the light in the room.

"Do you regret it?" Ryoma slapped his hands over his mouth, he voiced his inner thoughts without thinking.

"No." was the most definite answer that came from Tezuka's lips.

"Good." Ryoma didn't expect the relieve that washed over him.

Last night we said things one soul to another
In ways that spoken words could not express
No room was left for doubt
But I don't know where I stand now
Don't leave me in the dark
Don't make me guess

"And now what?" Tezuka was the one that voiced the question in their heads. They both were seated on the edge of the bed next to each other.

"I think we both already know what now." Said Ryoma defeated.

"You're right." Tezuka sighed.

"And who knows in a few years." Said Ryoma as he let his head rest on Tezuka's shoulder.

"We'll still love each other." Said Tezuka with a certainty in his voice as he held Ryoma's hand.

"Ah."

And so they continued for a few years, only loving each other when nobody saw. Sometimes months a part of each other always anticipating the next meeting. But always longing for more.

XxX

"Ryoma!" yelled an angry voice.

"What?" yelled Ryoma back.

"You're just going to quit? Is this all worth it?" the voice sounded defeated but at the same time sad.

"Ah, Kunimitsu is worth it." Said Ryoma most definite.

"Okay if that's what you want then I won't stop you." Said the voice.

"Oyaji, Thank you." Said Ryoma.

XxX

"Can I please ask a question?" a voice said.

"Go ahead Inoue." Said a different voice.

"Tezuka, what would be your biggest regret?" asked Inoue.

"Ah, if I didn't give it my all." Answered Tezuka.

"Last question, yes you." The man next to Tezuka pointed to a female in the crowd.

"My name is Tomoko, Can I ask you for a comment on Echizen suddenly retiring from the Tennis world." The female asked.

"What?" This was the first time he heard of it.

"Yes it's been alleged that he's been forced to quit because he's in a relationship with a man." Explained Tomoko.

Tezuka was shocked, but his first reaction was wanting to go to Ryoma and hold him. He didn't care about anything else, Ryoma shouldn't have to face this alone.

"No comment." Then Tezuka turned to where Inoue was standing, "I do however want to rephrase my answer to your question."

There was a lot of murmur in the hall, why would Tezuka suddenly want to rephrase that answer.

"My biggest regret would be if I didn't go home to my lover to support him."

There was a silence in that hall when the words were out that couldn't be successes by anyone. It only lasted ten seconds and then it hit and new questions were fired at them. Those questions were never answered since he left the press-conference all he could think about was to be with Ryoma.

"What does your heart say now?"

"That I only love you."

The End

Authors note: This is going to be a long note for those who read it, I've been a long time fan of slash, whether Yaoi or Yuri it really doesn't matter to me as long it's written well. I do tend to favor long stories since they tend to have more to tell then just fluff or pwp. And as a slash fan I have no problems with slashing up real life people, like Nadal and Federer. Anyway because I tend to go on overkill with my obsession with slash I sometimes end up at interesting pieces of reading materials, like "Homophobia in Sports: addressing the needs of lesbian and gay high school athletes", I read that suicide is more likely to be committed by someone who's gay or a lesbian then someone who is a heterosexual. Which in my eyes is odd, since I see love whether it is with the same sex or not as long as it's consensual as the best there is. So at valentine's day I gave you a story that is for me partly fluff and partly heartbreaking as well, I first want to let one die but I couldn't. I wish to see more athletes to be open about that preference and also wish that people would just accept it. So that tragedies like Thomas Berling quitting football(soccer) because a widespread homophobia or Justin Fashanu a British football player hanging himself because bigots attempted to destroy his career, those things are not needed at all. I think football has the biggest homophobia and is unlike the tennis community not able to accept it at all. I'm not saying the tennis community is perfect, 'Big Bill' Tilden is a perfect example of that, but as I looked at the list of 100 names that came out of the closet in the sports history it seems 100 is really a low amount. And if you count the genders it feels that there have been far more women coming out of the closet then the men have. Some of those in the list haven't even been open about their sexuality and some of them have already died. I do know some have been able to come out of the closet without it effecting their carreer, look at Ireen Wust(dutch ice skater) or Johan Kenkhuis(dutch swimmer), but in the end far more stay in the closet. Don't you think it's a waste and very sad that some people will never get the respect they deserve because of their sexuality?

Valentine's day is the day of love in every form, I do not like this day nor do I hate this day, but on this day I feel I can give love to those who need it. Remember that there is always someone loving you even if it might not be the love you wanted or expected, as long as it keeps your heart warm. Love is in every relationship, family and friendship, when it's over you cry, feel sad and you'll find love somewhere you didn't expect it. Crying over something or someone you lost is just as important as loving someone, but mainly love yourself. Embrace love don't let it scare you to death whatever form it might take.

Leave a review if you like it and happy valentine's day.