Title: Welcome Home
Summary: Why is his stuff here? He disappeared years ago and hasn't contacted us since? Did something happen to him? I don't know. Do I think I'll see him again? With how clingy he was to me in the past, I'm pretty sure he'll find some way to come back. What am I going to do when he does? Probably smack him for disappearing. But I still love him either way.
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. The anime and its canon characters belong to their rightful owners.
A/N: There is a poll on my profile that I would like some people to answer just in case I manage to find some time to work on my fanfiction while school is going on. And also, there is a question I would like people to answer when they review. Who should I pair Hanako up with if I should pair her with someone at all? I already have an idea of who she could be paired up with, but I want some reviewer's input please.
"One, two, lift!" Tezuka grunted as he and Sanada lifted the box up from the basement of Ryoma's house and up the final half of the staircase.
"What is in here?" Sanada questioned as the two moved the box into the living room.
Ryoma just smiled as the two placed the box down onto the table for him to reach. "It's full of stuff from back when I lived in America," he said, already digging through the contents. "I don't really remember what's in here… so I think it's time to dig through it. It probably has stuff from when I was a baby to probably four years ago, before I officially moved here and got into Seigaku."
"Hmm," Fuji smiled as he sat down next to Ryoma on the couch, Tezuka and Sanada both sitting on the armrests. "So. Think you'll find anything interesting Ryo-chan?"
"Maybe, maybe not," Ryoma answered, smirking as he dug further into the box, pulling out item after item and placing them somewhere on the table or on the floor.
"Hmm? What's this?" Fuji questioned, spotting something that Ryoma placed onto the table. "A journal?"
"Excuse me?" Ryoma questioned, raising an eyebrow as he picked up the journal. "Huh. I don't recognize this at all… I don't think it's mine…"
"But it has your family name on it," Tezuka pointed out. "Echizen."
Ryoma blinked a few times, staring at it before opening up the journal and taking a look at what was written.
After a few seconds of speed-reading the pages, Ryoma's eyes snapped open as the journal fell onto his lap.
"Why…"
"Why what Ryo?" Sanada questioned, a little worried from the reaction that Ryoma had.
"Why is it… that his stuff… is with my old stuff…" Ryoma muttered to himself, shooting up from his seat and digging through the box some more. Instead of just placing things down randomly, he seemed to be separating the objects between two piles, one pile with the stuff from earlier and the second pile starting with the journal..
"No… no… not mine… why is that here… of course he'd have something like that," Ryoma kept muttering, placing one item down after another.
"Ryoma?" his three boyfriends questioned, worried for their youngest. What had Ryoma so panicked all of a sudden?
"Done," Ryoma said, placing the last item down in the smallest pile, the one with the journal they had first found.
"Ryo-chan. What were you doing just now? You had us kind of worried," Fuji said, placing a hand on Ryoma's shoulder.
"Oh. Sorry about that," Ryoma chuckled nervously.
Okay, now that was a first. What had his so nervous now?
"It's just… I never expected to find Ryoga's old stuff with me."
"Ryoga?"
"Oh uh… I guess I never really told you about him, did I?" Ryoma said, smiling sadly. "He was… no, is my adoptive brother."
"Adoptive brother?"
"He's older than me, maybe a little older than you actually," he continued to explain. "When I was small, my baka oyaji just walked up with him and said he was going to be a part of the family. Didn't tell us where he came from or anything, just brought him home like a stray," he chuckled, sitting back down on the couch between his three boyfriends.
"What happened to him?"
"He stayed with us for a few years. Baka oyaji was teaching both of us tennis, and considering he was older and bigger, baka oyaji trained him a lot more than he trained me to be honest. I would always ask him for a match. Tended to lose a lot of the time," he admitted with a chuckle.
His three boyfriends couldn't help but laugh a bit with him. They knew how often Ryoma had lost in tennis to his dad, and now apparently, the younger had admitted that there was another he regularly lost to.
The three knew not to make too much fun though. Mainly because Ryoma would most likely smack them or at least ignore him. He still didn't like losing in tennis after all.
"Meow," Karupin interrupted, jumping on Ryoma's lap and snuggling into his stomach.
"I actually got Karupin from him," Ryoma commented, scratching Karupin behind the ears, earning a purr from the feline.
"Your older brother gave Karupin to you?"
"Yeah," Ryoma smiled, still petting the purring cat on his lap. "He was out late, and we were getting kind of worried. When he came back, okaa-san gave him a scolding while baka oyaji put him into a headlock for worrying them so much."
"Why was he out so late?"
Here, Ryoma smirked at the memory the event brought up in his head. "It turns out that he was walking home, and he heard something from under a bush. When he went to look, he saw a little kitten that was stuck in some thorns. Ryoga spent a lot of time trying to get the kitten out without hurting her more or getting hurt himself from all the thorns."
"Was the kitten Karupin?" Tezuka questioned, reaching over and playing with the cat who started batting playfully at his hands, keeping her claws sheathed.
"Yeah," Ryoma smiled, gently gripping Karupin's paws and lifting the cat up slightly, so it looked like she was dancing around a bit. "He found Karupin, and when he brought her back, he was hiding her in his jacket. After getting scolded and caught in a headlock, he walked up to me and opened the jacket.
"The next thing I knew? A little kitten pounced out, and I caught the little thing before she hit the ground. Almost immediately, she started cuddling up to my chest, and my brother was telling me to name her because she was a gift to me."
"When did he get her for you?"
Ryoma's smile widened a fraction. "Today actually…"
"That's a nice birthday present," Fuji said, wrapping his arms around Ryoma's shoulders and resting his forehead on Ryoma's head. "By the way, did you enjoy your birthday today?"
"The party with the other teams was quite fun. I'm surprised that you managed to find everyone we faced during middle school and brought them together to the amusement park."
"It was difficult, I'll admit to that," Tezuka sighed, leaning back on the couch and toward Ryoma. "But it was worth it to see you happy," he added, leaning more and gently kissing Ryoma's forehead.
"Thank you for that," Ryoma said, leaning forward and kissing Tezuka on the lips before the older male could pull back.
"Hey, what about us?" Fuji whined, chuckling as he earned a swat to the back of his head by Ryoma. "Now that wasn't very nice," he chuckled, smiling when Ryoma rolled his eyes and leaned forward, giving two kisses to Fuji and Sanada as his thanks to them.
"I'm just surprised that Hanako didn't show up," Sanada admitted, leaning back against the couch. "Come to think of it… We haven't seen her ever since she disappeared for Thanksgiving. She hasn't even come back to take the key to her house or even messaged us to see how the entire party went…"
"I was surprised to see that she had nothing to do with the party this time around," Ryoma admitted, leaning back against the three males. "She's had a hand in all the parties for the past two or three years now… so it's a little weird to be honest… Having a party that she isn't involved in…"
"Do you think she's going to be angry about that?" Fuji chuckled. "I don't think I've ever seen her angry before, and I'm not sure I want to start."
"Who knows," Ryoma sighed, tilting his head up toward the ceiling as he lifted Karupin above his head and stared at the cat's eyes. "She's so perky, she'd probably find a way to make her next party even bigger and better than the last to make up for it…"
"Or she was busy with the festival that was in the next town over," Sanada said, taking out his phone which had started to buzz.
"I didn't know you got her number," Tezuka said, blinking at the phone.
"I don't know how, but a few weeks ago, I opened my phone, and her name was on my contacts' list. She either managed to give her number to someone to had access to my phone, or she actually managed to snatch it and add it herself…"
"Weird," Fuji and Ryoma drawled, chuckling as Karupin waved her tail, brushing their foreheads with the tip of it and tickling them.
"Come on. Let's finish this up," Tezuka said, straightening up and gesturing to the items lying around the room. "What do you want to do with all of this Ryoma?"
Ryoma hummed in response, straightening up and looking around the room. "I guess I could just go through them and see whether I want to keep them or not," he said, gesturing to the pile of his old stuff.
"And Ryoga's?"
"Keep them. Maybe… Maybe he'll come back," Ryoma said, smiling sadly as he stood up and started sorting through his things.
Tezuka and Sanada already brought out a cardboard box which they opened up in order to place Ryoga's things inside. Fuji was helping Ryoma sort out his own stuff from years ago.
The three older males knew that Ryoma was just waiting for his older brother to return. Ryoma may not have mentioned the boy before to them, but it was obvious that Ryoma loved his older brother. It was just a matter of time until the two were reunited, and the three couldn't wait for it to happen.
Ding dong!
"Okay, who would come this late at night?" Ryoma questioned, scowling as it was almost ten o'clock at night. "Honestly, couldn't they have come earlier in the day? And why would they come this late anyway when tomorrow's Christmas for crying out loud…"
"Someone's grumpy," Fuji chuckled.
"I just want to go and get some sleep," Ryoma groaned, leaning into Tezuka's side when his former tennis captain threw an arm over the younger boy's shoulder.
"I'll go see who it is," Sanada volunteered, standing up from his seat and walking to the front door. "Who is it?"
"Do you not have a peek hole in the door or something?" a familiar voice called out, making everyone blink their eyes in surprise.
"Okay, we were all correct," Tezuka deadpanned, slumping in his seat. "There was no way that she wasn't going to have a part in someone's birthday party celebration, no matter how late it apparently is…"
Fuji couldn't help but giggle as he gestured for Sanada to open the door.
"Hello Hana – who is that with you?" Sanada greeted, opening the door and raising an eyebrow at the tall male that was by Hanako's side.
Sanada looked the new figure up and down, narrowing his eyes as he analyzed the other figure.
He was nearly as tall as Tezuka and himself, give or take an inch or so. He also had black-emerald hair, the emerald being seen easier in the lights of the house. Golden eyes were narrowed in amusement, probably at the girl practically hopping on her feet right next to him.
Sanada couldn't help the gears turning in his head at all of the similarities he was able to see. Was this boy-
"Would you believe that I ran into him at the train station and kind of interrogated him on why he looked so much like Ryoma?" Hanako interrupted Sanada's thinking, dragging the unknown person with her and into the house.
"No way…" Ryoma breathed, narrowing his eyes at what Hanako had said. "There's no way that he-"
"Hey there Ryoma!" the unknown figure greeted, walking (actually being dragged) into the room sheepishly with Hanako in front of him (dragging him by the wrist).
Palming his face, Ryoma couldn't help but groan even though his eyes lit up in amusement and happiness at what was going on. "Of all the ways you have to come back," he chuckled, a smirk slash smile on his face. "Welcome home…. Ryoga."