Slipped Away

Drop 1: Warning

Summary: I never once forget that feeling, of when we're still together. But now you're gone… to someplace I can't ever reach. All I've wanted… was to be by your side, forever, but… it's not possible anymore.

Disclaimer: If I own Tenipuri, Hyotei'd so be the main school, & Jirou'd have WAY more screen time!

Hi there! As I was laying around at night thinking up ideas for stories, it stuck me that I've never made a really sad/tragic story before, so here it is! And Fuji & Ryoma kinda fits the role, so yea. Read on to see how I did at attempting to write a sad story.

"Game set: 7-5, won by Fuji Syusuke!" a light brown hair boy declared, smiling happily at his opponent.

"Che…" the other boy pulled his cap down, muttering some curses under his breath.

"Ah, that was a nice game, isn't it Ryoma-kun? Sadly you're still mada mada dane, though." The boy who won grins slightly and sat down on a bench, gulping down some water from a bottle.

"Urg… Fuji-sempai!" the shorter boy shouted out, obviously flustered at the fact that his own catchphrase is being used against him.

"Haha… well, I must say, even though I won, it was a fairly hard win for me. You've improved greatly since last year, Ryoma-kun."

"Of course." Said boy smirked, head lifted up to gaze cockily at his sempai. "I'll beat you in no time, just you wait and see. It won't be too long from now."

"Oh? I'm looking forward to it then." Fuji said, then started to stand up and turns around. "I'm going to the bathroom, be right back."

"Okay." Ryoma then make his way towards the vending machines not too far off. What should he get today, grape ponta, his ultimate favorite, or the new flavor, called tripleberry mix ponta?

-o-o-o-o-

Just a few yards away, Fuji had just gotten out of the bathroom and was in the middle of washing his hands. Suddenly, he feels the need to start coughing. Figuring it must be due to the wasabi sushi he ate earlier today, he shrugged it off and reach for the heat machine to air-dry his hands. Just when he was done and was about to head towards the exit, he has this urge to start coughing again. This time, his throat feel soar, and when he's done, he swears that he can taste something… odd yet familiar in his mouth, he reaches over to the sink to spit it out when he saw himself in the mirror…

There was something red on a side of his lips, like a drop of liquid of some kind. Eyes widening at the realization, Fuji bend his head down and spit out that liquid inside his mouth…

Red started to drizzle out across the sink and slowly creep its way down to the bottom. Fuji stares in shock for a few second before turning the knob quickly and watch the crimson liquid flowed down the hole. Then he proceeds to wash his mouth which was now colored by a red darker than that of a normal color of his lips.

Okay, so I cough up blood… the Seigaku tensai thought to himself, no big deal. People cough up blood all the time when they're exhausted. It's probably due to the stress of the end of year coming up and studying for all those final exams-exhaustion, they said. Content with his reasons, he wipes his now-wet mouth with a tissue before discarding it into a nearby trashcan and heads outside.

Though he knew deep inside that he was not stressing out at all about any exams because he has been fully prepared for them. It was not exhaustions at all.

-o-o-o-o-

"What took you so long, Fuji-sempai?" Ryoma asks, sitting on a bench, contently sipping his ponta.

"Nothing." The brunette replied. It is probably nothing, coughing up blood wasn't that big of a deal, he told himself. "By the way, Ryoma-kun," he switched topics, hoping the younger boy would not find out there's anything wrong with him, "when are you going to stop calling me that? We've been going out for more than 2 years now. It's about time you call me 'Syusuke', hmnn?"

"W-What…? You want me to call you 'Syusuke'…?" Ryoma stutters out.

"Yeah. We've known each other well enough now, don't you think? And next year we'll finally be in the same school again! I feel sad that I call you 'Ryoma' while you still refer to me as 'Fuji-sempai'."

"W-Well, if that's what you want, Fu- I mean, Syusuke, then I guess that's fine." Ryoma mutters out, pulling his cap way down. Fuji can't help but smile at seeing his boyfriend obviously blushing like that- he looks too cute!

"I'm really happy, Ryo-" he suddenly stopped his sentence, making Ryoma puzzled and lift his head up to see. Fuji was holding his stomach on one hand and the other hand was covering his mouth. He looked like he was shaking.

"Syusuke? What's wrong?"

"Noth-" Fuji was unable to finish his sentence once again as a barrage of coughs disrupted the still of the park. He now remembers why he stopped his sentence in the first place-it was to restrain the coughing fits he can feel happening as he spoke and therefore promptly shut his mouth close. It's too late now though.

"S-Syusuke, are you okay?" the young boy was starting to worry now. Fuji seems like he was coughing nonstop. "Do you want some water or something."

"I-I'm fine." Fuji tried his best to restrain his coughs. Finally he was able to stop. "Must've been something I ate, that's all…" Fuji was about to say more but he was struck speechless when he happens to look down to his palm, the one he was covering his mouth with as he coughed, to see it fill with blood.

"Nee, Ryoma," he quickly clenched his fist, "I just remember nee-san told me to come home soon today to help her cook dinner. Let's hang out tomorrow, okay?" with that, Fuji did his best to put on that smile, the true smile, for no doubt Ryoma can tell his fake ones from his real one.

"All right." Ryoma eyes him cautiously, "I'll see you tomorrow then. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, of course I'm fine." again, with the smile, please don't notice, please don't notice.

"I'll be going then. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Bye!" and with that, Ryoma turned around and left, leaving Fuji to sit alone on that bench. The tensai sighed as he leaned back towards the backrest. Despite his outer appearance, Ryoma does tend to get really worried when it's involving someone close to him, and the last thing Fuji wants is to have Ryoma worries over him when it's just something… this trifling.

He closes his eyes for a few moment, then when he opens it, he stares at his palm, now soaked in red, and a few of them had dripped down his wrist. Has it really been that much blood? Tiredly, Fuji made his way to the bathroom-again-to clean out his hand. Guess he should go to the doctor sometime soon to have a check-up, just to see if there's anything wrong. Though really, what are the chances? He was a perfectly healthy 17-years-old boy, if just a bit on the skinny side. He plays tennis and thus exercise regularly, doesn't smoke or drink, and his family doesn't have a history of anyone suffering a terrible and incurable disease. What are the chances he'll have it, out of all people?

As he later thought back to this moment, he bitterly admits that the chances that it'll happen to him out of all people are, indeed, very low, but it's not like it's impossible, either. No, not impossible at all, and when he found out about it, it was already too late.

There goes chapt. 1! I have the whole story planned out already, down to the ending. Probably around 3-4 chapters or something. This story has 2 of mah 1sts: my 1st thrill pair fic, & my 1st tragedy ever! Whaaahhh!!! (I don't even know if that's good or bad…? -.-) So feel free to review away and tell me how I did! Next chapt.'ll be release pretty quickly since I already have it half-done, so please look forward to it.

Until then, ja-ne!!