Title: Call
By: ExquisitelyInked
Summary: Atobe calls Tezuka to confess his feelings, and in the process breaks his own heart. One-sided Imperial, one-sided Royal.
Rated: T
Disclaimer: I don't own PoT. If I did, maybe Atobe would've been in Seigaku and Oishi would've been in Rikkai. Kidding. About Oishi… Sanada would've been in Ginka. =_= Sorry. My idea of humour.
Atobe sometimes wonders whether he can let go of Tezuka. He stares at the white paper in front of him. Four lines are written on the pristine white surface. Atobe reads those lines he has written – Not a chance/you were already gone/Let go of me already/or is it me hanging on? He picks the paper up and finds the ink blurred at some places. He finds the answer to his question.
In his room, he is not alone. Echizen is spread out on the bed, lazily flipping through a magazine. Atobe sniffs quietly, and Echizen's ears hear that. He promptly gets up and flings the magazine aside and says to his Keigo, although Atobe doesn't know that yet—'Call him. Call him now.'
Atobe shakes his head miserably. Echizen gets angry. His anger makes his pain increase tenfold, but he ignores that. He screams, 'Atobe, you're dying. You're so depressed you're going to jump off a cliff any day! Please, tell him about your feelings already.'
Atobe laughs—Echizen can discern the bitterness dripping from it—and says that jumping off cliffs is at least better than hearing Tezuka's voice and breaking down.
Atobe doesn't know why he is hurting himself like this. Maybe he is in pain that Tezuka hasn't noticed his feelings, maybe he is angry about that and taking it out on himself. He might be punishing himself for falling in love with Tezuka in the first place. How many hours has he spent discovering things they had in common?
Countless. Both their names start with K. They're the captains of their respective teams. Both nationally-ranked players. Heck, they both play tennis.
Atobe doesn't know when he lost himself in Tezuka Kunimitsu. He is not accustomed to falling in love. Used to others falling for him, but not the other way. Used to reigning over everything—just not Tezuka unknowingly ruling him.
Whatever happens, he is not going to call his unrequited love and make a fool of himself.
Echizen's cell phone hits the back of Atobe's head and the white-capped boy threatens him for a bit before Atobe knows he has no choice. He picks up the phone, goes over to Contacts. He scrolls through it and finds Tezuka at B. He laughs humorlessly at that, and he doesn't know why. He doesn't know why he has the energy to even laugh.
He selects the "call" option and shakily brings the phone to his ear.
The dial tone brings a strange comfort to Atobe and he is content listening to it until it is cut off abruptly. Atobe inhales sharply.
Tezuka has picked the phone up.
'Hello, Echizen.'
Atobe bites his lip at hearing the stoic captain's voice. Unshed tears shine in his eyes as Echizen watches him anxiously. He then realizes that Tezuka thinks it is Echizen on the phone, so he stammers, 'It's—it's not him. Not Echizen.'
Echizen's eyes cloud over in hurt as he notes the last-name address. He couldn't expect anything more. Shouldn't. Atobe didn't notice. Just like for Atobe, Tezuka didn't notice.
Atobe waits. There is deathly silence on the other end for a while. Atobe thinks Tezuka has put the phone down and is about to hang up himself when the husky voice says, 'How have you been, Atobe?'
Completely horrible, and you caused it, Atobe wants to yell into the phone but he forces himself to provide a positive reply. The team is doing well, they'll definitely beat Seigaku at the nationals next time albeit without him—Atobe and Tezuka make small talk.
All through this while Echizen Ryoma watches all of his Keigo's reactions. The room is silent, so silent everything Tezuka speaks can be heard to him. There is no limit to the pain that Echizen can and will have to endure if he loves Atobe. If he wants to love Atobe.
Atobe silently prepares himself for what he is going to say, and then he interrupts Tezuka's comment on the rainy weather in Germany and shouts into the phone—'Tezuka, I love you.'
Echizen closes his eyes in pain. His mouth trembles and he tries not to let tears enter his eyes. He fails miserably at that, and he doesn't care.
In Germany, Tezuka is so shocked he cannot even blink. Receiving a phone call from Echizen, it turning out to be Atobe… There is none of the arrogance and cockiness that is the trademark of an Atobe in those simple words that Atobe just said, and so Tezuka knows Atobe said it with a straight face; he knows that he meant it.
The deafening silence envelopes the phone again, and this time Atobe sheds tears for real. Echizen jumps out of the bed and puts his arms around Atobe's head and cradles him against his chest in a way that Atobe will not see his tears. His cap was lying, forgotten, amongst the pillows.
Echizen acknowledges Atobe would never be his. He is tied to Tezuka for the rest of his life. With Atobe's muffled and painful sobs against his chest they both are forced to hear the long-duration beeping from the phone. It stops after a while but the hard truth continues to relentlessly hit them in the face.
Tezuka has hung up.
Author's Corner: I was planning to make it short and bittersweet, but now it's long. Sorry. I've never tried Imperial Pair before (obviously) and because I mainly write and love Royal I had to put Echizen inside this. One-sidedness rocks... I mean, it doesn't, but come on. Please review for Atobe's sake.