Ryoma stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. He traced the outline of one of the scratches below his right eye. Trying to pull at his hair to cover the marks, he let out a sign and placed his hat upon his head. No matter how hard he tried, there was no way of covering all the scrapes and bruises that painted his face.

The pain inflicted on me isn't a sign of my strength…it's a sign of how weak I truly am. If my tears could stop things from continuing down this path, I would cry until there is not a single drop of salty water left to drip from my eyes.

"Was I the only one that noticed Echizen acting a little different yesterday?" Momoshiro questioned the other boys in the room.

Fuji held onto his jacket with his natural smile on his face. "It seems like today is too warm to be wearing these."

"Ah, Fuji, you're not even listening, are you?" Eiji placed his jacket to the side and shook his head. "Ochibi wouldn't take his off yesterday even with how hot it was. There must be someth―" He let his words fade as he heard the door to the clubhouse open.

Ryoma, who had walked in, pulled at the cap that sat on top his head. Looking towards the floor, he shuffled around the other boys to an open spot in the room. Placing his bag on the bench he dug through it and took out his tennis outfit.

"It's another hot day, Echizen, you might want to leave your jacket in here," Inui tapped his pen against the pages of his green notebook.

"Right," he took his white hat and placed it to the side. Continuing to look downwards, he picked up his shirt and clenched his fingers tightly around it. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

"Ochibi, are you ok?" Eiji rested his arm on the younger boy's shoulder causing him to flinch and pull away.

"I'm fine," Ryoma looked up. Right when he met with Eiji's eyes, he quickly busied himself with his clothes.

"Those marks…"

"It's nothing."

"Echizen, what happened?" Fuji placed his hand gently under Ryoma's chin forcing him too meet with his gaze. "This is―"

"My cat scratched me."

"There's more than scratches on your face."

Ryoma managed to move away from Fuji's touch. "I fell down the stairs."

"Don't lie!" Kaidou growled as he pointed his racket at Ryoma. "If there's something wrong, you should tell your upperclassmen."

"There's nothing wrong," Ryoma mumbled as he began to change his clothing. Without thinking, he allowed those five that remained in the room to see the marks that covered his skin. Purple, black, brown, and blue; the colors painted his body from arms to legs.

"How did this happen to you?" Momoshiro instantly pushed the small boy up against the wall. He could see the fear that he held in his eyes. "Echizen?"

Ryoma shifted his eyes down to the right. "I've been clumsy lately…walking into the door and stuff…"

"Why are you lying to us?"

"It's not a lie."

"Just let him be," Fuji shook his head as if disagreeing with the words he spoke. "We need to get to practice." He motioned everyone out of the room. When they all left he turned back one last time to see Ryoma still against the wall. "Echizen, if you're being harmed at home, you have to tell someone."

"I told you, I'm just walking into things and falling over a lot," Ryoma slowly sat down on the bench. "It's nothing to worry about."

Fuji let out a sigh. "I can't help but worry when you're lying about the truth."

"...Fuji-senpai…" before he could utter his name, the older boy was already gone. Ryoma placed his hands on his knees as he leaned forward. Squeezing his eyes shut, he forced the tears that were forming to retreat. "Tears won't help me…"

I wish he knew how much he's truly hurting me. This person who hits me is the same person who first placed a tennis racket in my hand. He gave me something to love but is slowly making me fear it. This man, my father, should be someone I can always go to and always love me. In the end, he has become my enemy.

As tennis practice came to a conclusion, Ryoma stood outside of the door to the clubhouse. When he noticed his slim teammate walking by, he reached forward and pulled at the back of his shirt.

"Ah, Echizen, you didn't come to practice," Fuji acted as if the confrontation of earlier never happened. "Most of us thought you had left."

"Senpai, can I talk to you?" there was loneliness and lack of confidence within Ryoma's voice.

"Let me change," he retreated inside the room leaving Ryoma once again alone.

I need someone to save me…

NOTE: Sorry it took me so long to update. I have been in one of my horrible writer's block. All the cures for writer's block don't seem to really work for me. Anyways, this is the second chapter. After reading two chapters, does the genre seems to fit or should I change it to something else? I'm not that sure if "angst" is really fitting. Oh, sorry that this chapter is short, I wanted to separate the conversation Ryoma and Fuji has for…unknown reasons. I have no update schedule set up yet, so I'm unsure of when the next chapter will be out.

I have a poll in my profile, please vote in it. There are also pictures from the anime convention I went to a few weeks back if anyone wants to see them. I had a very childish moment back then when I met Kobayashi Yumiko. There are a lot of other updates I need to work on as well as some novel editing, so I don't have much else to say. Thank you so much for all the reviews on the first chapter. Please continue to read through this fic until the end. I will do my best to continue to improve my writing skills so they're not completely terrible. Thank you~!