Please do note that I don't own Prince of Tennis or the respected characters. Nor do I own Konomi Takeshi, if you were wondering about that as well. XD

Please enjoy!

"The doctors say they can't find anything wrong with him," the nurse said fretfully, wringing her hands and trying to look anywhere but at Echizen, who was staring at her as if she had grown two heads. "I'm sorry, there really isn't anything I can do at the moment."

The nurse obviously was a new addition to this hospital, Echizen decided, since she seemed nervous and at her wits end. "Can I see him now?" he asked, unsatisfied with her answer.

As the nurse led him to Fuji's room, Echizen was reflecting on what the nurse had just said to him. Since when did people faint out of the blue with no explained reasons? And what did the doctors mean that Fuji wasn't exactly unconscious, but, rather in a deep sleep? So many questions swimming in his head, but none of them had been answered.

The nurse opened the door slowly, as if scared to find a corpse lying in the bed. She opened the door wider after she had decided there wasn't anything that was going to explode in her face, and allowed Echizen to enter as well.

Fuji was lying in the bed, sleeping peacefully as if he hadn't just fainted while having a phone conversation with his boyfriend.

"Are you sure you don't know what's wrong with him?" Echizen asked the nurse once again, but not expecting a helpful answer.

The nurse looked helpless. "The doctors say he's just in a deep sleep," she repeated, as if she couldn't really believe it herself, sneaking glances at Fuji. She looked at him questioningly. "Maybe it's shock?"

Echizen rolled his eyes. "Why are you asking me, I'm not a doctor."

She looked embarrassed, and quickly left the room, leaving Echizen alone with Fuji. Echizen took a seat beside Fuji's bed. A few moments passed in silence, since he really didn't know what to say. Or, rather, if he should say anything at all, since Fuji was still 'sleeping' and it wouldn't really make sense to talk to someone who couldn't even hear anyone at the moment.

"There's nothing wrong with you, right?" Echizen asked anyway, trying to reassure himself. "You were just too tired or something, so you just collapsed. You'll get better in a few hours, and then we can go to a bookstore or something and get that book you wanted."

Silence.

"Mada mada dane," Echizen said, rolling his eyes. "Being in a hospital isn't like you, Fuji-senpai. You're supposed to be at home taking care of your cacti and lecturing me on how to take care of plants properly."

Unbeknownst to him, Fuji was in a totally different world at the moment, unable to hear him.

--dreams--

"Why did you do that?" the boy said tearfully, pulling on Fuji's sleeve, looking at him with hurt and questioning eyes. "My cat…"

Fuji looked into his gold eyes, the boy's gold eyes that seemed to have an endless depth to them. "Your cat was in the way," he said coldly, brushing the boy's hand away. "My driver had no way of controlling the car when she jumped out like that. Perhaps, I could give you a compensation." He took out a few bills and handed them to the boy.

The boy glared at him, tear tracks glistening on his face and whacked Fuji's hand away, causing the money to fall on the ground. "I want my cat back," he spat out. "I don't want your filthy money. Give me back my cat! You killed my cat!!"

"It's your loss if you don't accept the money," Fuji answered him. "And I can't just give you back a life. It's out of my hands." With that, he got back into his car and ordered his driver to drive away, leaving the boy out on the road, bills scattered around his feet and a bloody blob in what used to be his cat, lying dead.

Somehow time passed very quickly, as if he was being teleported into another scene. Fuji realized he was in a courtroom at the moment, with hysterical woman who was pointing at him and shrieking. "He killed my son!" she screamed, her whole body shaking, tears pouring down her face. "He killed my son!"

The judge looked at him with cold eyes. "Fuji Syusuke, you are sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment for murder. Case closed." And with that, Fuji Syusuke, a respectable businessman, was imprisoned for lifetime.

A few years passed in merely a few seconds and Fuji found himself in a cold cell, all alone. He sat on his damp bed, eyeing the moss on the wall emotionlessly. A few years ago, he probably would've looked at the moss in disgust, but now, even the fact that roaches shared the same bed with him didn't disturb him anymore. If the guards didn't know any better, they would've labeled Fuji as dead by now.

There was a creak, and Fuji slowly looked up at his ceiling. A menacing face stared back down at him, laughing, blood trickling down his face and one arm missing, a bloody stump in its place. "Look at you now, all alone in a prison cell," the boy said, cackling. "You deserve it, Fuji Syusuke, for killing my cat years ago. And killing me."

Fuji looked into his eyes. "Who are you?"

The face glared at him, and the boy jumped down from his place on the ceiling, and came face to face with Fuji. "Don't you remember me?" he spat out, grabbing Fuji's chin and grinning madly. "You're that bastard who killed my cat. You didn't even apologize for it."

The grip on Fuji's chin felt like fire, and he tried to escape from the deathlike grip in vain. The boy cackled. "No getting away from me this time, Fuji Syusuke," he taunted, his grip on Fuji's chin strengthening. "Think of this as revenge for running over my cat and then killing me!"

The room suddenly went black, and the boy tackled him, causing Fuji to fall back in horror as he felt his skin burning, burning, unbearable heat surrounding him. He couldn't breathe…his lungs were burning…

He was suffocating…

Haha, sorry, it's kind of…a ending that doesn't really make sense. I think most of it will be explained in chapter three, so stay tuned!