(-) (approximately three years later)

Tezuka smiled to himself as he finished making his one thousandth paper crane, in a dark shade of orange. "There. Done," Tezuka said.

For the past three years, Tezuka had gone to college, and stayed in touch with Fuji via emails, internet, and video chatting. But he didn't exactly like it. The emoticon with a smiley face that looks like it's hugging you just made him want to hug Fuji. And he could say the same for the kissy-face emoticon, and the blushing one, too. And the smiles on the chat screen could never compare to the smiles (sometimes fake, sometimes genuine, and sometimes plain creepy) that were actually on Fuji's face.

He sighed, and added the last paper crane to the desk.

The brown haired ex-captain of the Seigaku tennis team had been inspired by what Fuji did. So…

He decided to make his own paper cranes. Without telling Fuji. One per day.

Tezuka didn't know how the myth worked EXACTLY, so whenever he made a paper crane, he'd just repeat the same thing over and over again in his head.

I wish Fuji would come home.

(-)

Later that evening, Tezuka looked himself over in the mirror by his closet.

It seemed that Eiji had organized a reunion for the regulars (during their time) and wanted to get together. They'd be meeting at the restaurant that Takashi partially owned… Although Tezuka didn't understand why Eiji, Eiji of all the regulars, would have a reunion without Fuji.

In fact, Fuji had known about their reunion before Tezuka did, since Eiji told Fuji before Tezuka, to ask if it was okay if they had a reunion without him.

In Fuji's words… 'Why would you wait another three years for me to come back?'

Sighing, Tezuka just walked out of his room and out the door.

(-)

"BUCHOU!"

Seven voices greeted Tezuka, and his eyes softened up at that.

The first regular he saw was Echizen – you couldn't miss him now. The short freshman that Tezuka had come to know wasn't exactly short anymore. Then next to him was Momo, who hadn't changed a bit. Oishi was seen with Eiji, the former actually having a decent haircut, for once, and the latter seeming less… bouncy. And hyper. Kaidoh had grown up, too. He didn't look as snakelike as he did three years ago, and, well, Kaidoh actually knew how to smile genuinely now. Kawamura was also a bit taller now, but as far as Tezuka could tell, that was the only thing that had changed. Inui was still wearing those glasses that never seemed to show his eyes (at all), and he still had his green notebook.

Some things never change, Tezuka thought fondly. He walked over to Oishi and Eiji.

"Tezuka!" Eiji's face lit up. "How have you been doing?"

"Just… fine," Tezuka said, wondering why he thought there was something, well, missing, in Eiji.

"Oishi and I are in the same college," Eiji said. "I'm gonna be a doctor, and I think Oishi wants to be a molecular biologist."

"No, I don't," Oishi sighed, exasperated. "I'm going to be a teacher who teaches biology."

"Ohhhh," Eiji grinned impishly. "Right." He turned to Tezuka. "And you, what are you taking?"

"Something involving architecture," Tezuka said, shrugging.

"You'd be a good architect, since you're always looking at things and trying to improvise them, ny-" Eiji clamped his lips shut, and that's when Tezuka realized what Eiji was missing.

He nodded, and turned to Oishi to give him a raised eyebrow. "What happened to his 'nya'?"

"He just stopped saying it after we graduated," Oishi said, shrugging. "Although it might have something to do with what his teacher told him in first year college… he said that future doctors don't say 'nya' or something like that- ohmygod."

"What?" Tezuka looked confused at Oishi's expression. He noticed that the whole room had gone silent, and were facing in the direction of the door. "What are you-"

"Saa… it's a good thing that your restaurant is getting popular, Taka-san," Tezuka's heart stopped at the calm sounding voice. "It was very easy to find your restaurant, since a lot of people know where it is." Tezuka turned around.

Standing there, in the doorway, was Fuji Syusuke. As if taking no notice of everyone else, he continued talking. "I was stopping by Japan, and then Eiji told me about your reunion, so I just decided to drop by…" Fuji smiled at all of them. "How are you guys?"

"F-F-F-FUJIKO!" Eiji cried out, running towards his former classmate and hugging him. "You said you couldn't make it!"

"And I did." Fuji smiled, and returned Eiji's hug. "Like my surprise?"

"Fuji-senpai!" Ryoma was next to approach him after Eiji.

The tensai looked up at Ryoma. "What kind of vitamins have you been drinking?" Fuji asked, amazed. Then he looked at the rest of the regulars. "Looks like I'm the shortest one now, right?"

"Yup," Kawamura said, grinning. "Welcome back, Fuji…"

"You have no idea how much everybody missed you," Momo said. He grinned, and bent down to whisper in Fuji's ear. "Especially Tezuka-buchou."

"Ii data. Fuji can surprise people," Inui pulled out a notebook and scribbled down something. He pushed up his glasses, and let a hint of a smile show on his face. "Hello, Fuji."

"Ne, I heard you made it to captain," Fuji said, turning to Kaidoh. "Congratulations."

Before Kaidoh could say anything, Momo stepped in. "Yeah, but everyone was practically frightened by mamushi whenever he'd look at them… but once he figured that out and started being nice, everyone started liking him."

"Fshuuuu…" Kaidoh had a dangerous look on him. "Fuji-senpai, Momo is still an idiot."

"Which means nothing has changed much!" Eiji chirped.

"Eiji?" Fuji had noticed the 'nya' thing by now. "What happened to you? You're not saying nya?"

"He grew up," Oishi muttered under his breath. Somehow, he looked annoyed.

"Saa… so Oishi-san liked the happier Eiji?" Fuji asked with an innocent smile. He hadn't yet realized (or had realized already and just wanted to wait for the right moment) that one person had yet to speak.

Oishi gave a noncommittal phrase of unintelligent murmurs.

Momo snickered. "Mother hen's always had an eye on one of her chicks, anyways."

"Momo!" Oishi protested.

Ryoma shuddered.

"I saw that, Echizen," Fuji said, smiling at his kouhai. "And don't tell me that everyone was wrong when they said that you finally hooked up with Ryuzaki-chan?" The way that Ryoma seemed to turn a ruby red was enough evidence.

"Fuji." Tezuka spoke up, speaking in his usually monotonous voice.

Dead silence.

"Err…" Oishi, always trying to make things better for everybody else, gave meaningful looks at the others. "I was going to go to the kitchen. It seems we're out of those wasabi rolls."

"I'll go with you," Takashi said hastily.

"You might need help carrying the boxes," Ryoma said in his low voice.

"I can help too," Momo cut in.

"Fshuuuu…"

"Let me help! I'll help!" Eiji said cheerfully, following everyone. After a brief silence, an exasperated Ryoma went back out, grabbed a notebook-prepared Inui by the shoulder, and dragged him towards the kitchen, and ducked inside.

"You didn't tell me you'd be coming…"

Fuji smiled at him. "But aren't you happy?"

"No."

The tensai looked genuinely confused, as his eyebrows bunched together. "Huh?"

"I'm ecstatic." Tezuka looked down at Fuji, wearing his serious, unsmiling face, that totally contradicted his previous sentence. Fuji burst out laughing, and hugged Tezuka around the waist.

"Unfair," Fuji said after a few seconds. "Has everyone grown taller since I've left?"

"Think of it as karma," Tezuka said. "Fuji, I have something to confess."

"Hm?" Fuji looked up at Tezuka.

"I've been making paper cranes."

A perfectly shaped eyebrow lifted. "Oh? And how many have you made?"

The edges of Tezuka's mouth lifted. "As of this morning… one thousand. One per day."

Fuji looked surprised, and wondered what on earth the love of his life had been wishing for. "What have you been wishing for?"

This time, Tezuka allowed himself to smile, before he leaned down to be face-level with Fuji. "That you'd come back."

"Saa…" Even though Fuji was trying to act passive about it, he could do nothing about the slight blush and the genuine smile that had spread across his face, and the opening of his eyes. "So it seems that your wish came true, then?"

"Yes…"

And that was when Tezuka leaned forward to close the gap between their mouths. Fuji wrapped his arms around Tezuka's neck and drew him closer, one thousand days worth of being apart in their kiss.

(-)

"Seems like your plan worked out, Eiji," Oishi said, impressed, as Tezuka and Fuji kept going at it. Everyone was watching them through that little window in the kitchen.

Eiji simply smiled. Ever since he'd accidentally walked in as Tezuka had been folding paper cranes in the classroom, he'd been trying to make Tezuka's wish came true. A lot of investigations had helped Eiji in determining what number Tezuka was on, and 'coincidentally' held the reunion on the 1000th day.

"So… Eiji-senpai did all of this?" Ryoma drawled.

"I just wanted those two to be happy," Eiji said, a small smile on his face.

(-)

The two had briefly stopped kissing, and Fuji had a contented look on his face.

"What's with that look?" Tezuka asked, cocking his head.

"You still taste like mint," Fuji said, before standing on his tiptoes to kiss Tezuka again.

(OWARI)

It's done! Hahaha! Hope you enjoyed!

CREDITS TO MY ANIKI SAMA, WHO HELPED ME MAKE THIS.

We talked on the phone for like thirty seven minutes just discussing this thing.

Hope you enjoyed it, 'niki-sama.

Ja~