A/N: This chapter took longer than I thought. Well, hope you enjoy.

Echizen had arrived before him and by the looks of his sweaty forehead, had already warmed up. Tezuka, who had jogged to the court, simply stopped to get his racket and remove his pants to reveal his shorts before taking his place across the boy on the other side of the net. Echizen nodded to him and Tezuka took out a ball from his pocket.

Tezuka pounced the ball, "you want to pounce Echizen," Atobe whispered next to his ear in a purring voice.

Tezuka threw the ball, "you want to throw Echizen to the ground."

Tezuka smacked the ball with his racket, "you want to smack Echizen on the butt."

The ball hit the net, "that's a difficult one. Hit on Echizen?"

Tezuka took another ball and served. Thankfully, this time he was spared from Atobe's narration. Maybe the guy didn't believe in repeating himself?

They rallied for a while and then Tezuka lobbed the ball and Echizen jumped, preparing to hit a smash. Tezuka was ready to return the smash when Atobe spoke, "Oh yes, that's what I'm talking about. Look at that, how his shirt rises up when he jumps, revealing those gorgeous abs. Don't you just ache to trail your tongue along those muscles?"

Despite himself, Tezuka looked. And couldn't tear his eyes away. He completely forgot about the ball heading towards him in high speed, eyes locked on Echizen's revealed stomach, from where his gaze travelled to his thighs, arms, neck, lips-

SMACK

"Buchou!"

Tezuka pressed a hand on his eye, glaring accusingly at Atobe with the other one. If only Atobe was real, he'd be dead. "You wound me, Kunimitsu-kun," Atobe smirked, toasting him with his pink drink.

Tezuka grunted and tried to get up, but then Echizen was there, kneeling beside him. "Buchou, you alright? I'm sorry, I…" Echizen frowned. "Well actually, it was your own fault. Are you sick? You've been weird."

Echizen pressed a hand on his forehead and leaned in closer. Tezuka gasped and took hold of Echizen's wrist, wrapping his fingers around it. He felt Echizen's rapid heart beat under his fingers, no doubt from the game, and Echizen's breath was warm against his cheek. "You don't…" Echizen cleared his throat, a blush rose on his cheeks. "You don't have a fever. Buchou," the boy breathed the last word like it was an intimate nickname between lovers, and all Tezuka could manage to get out was,

"Grmph."

"Buchou," Echizen breathed again.

"Hmh?" He was mesmerized by the intense look in the boy's eyes. It felt good to touch the boy, even if it was just the wrist. Still it was more than he had hoped for, more than he knew was safe.

"Maybe you should go home," Echizen suggested and tried to get up, but Tezuka's hold on his wrist kept him kneeling. Echizen looked at the fingers around his wrist and at Tezuka. "Buchou?" he asked, licking his lips.

Tezuka released his hold. "I'm sorry Echizen, I… You are right. Maybe I should just go home," he said and got up, hurrying to his bag, not bothering to put his pants on. He just stuffed his things on his bag as quickly as possible.

Echizen kept staring after him. Tezuka knew that, because he felt the boy's gaze on his back as he left, right up until he turned a corner. The pressure of the eyes now gone, he leaned against the wall of a building and clutched his pants that he'd been dragging behind him. He couldn't do it, betray his friendship with Fuji, but neither could he stand being so close to Echizen anymore and not have him. What other options did he have?

"You have none," Atobe decided to speak up. "If you keep this up, he will eventually think you do hate him."

That was it then, wasn't it? He could bare it. At least he wouldn't hurt anyone.

"I wonder if even you believe that."

Tezuka decided he should avoid Fuji. And Inui. Too bad he shared his classes with them. A fact he seemed to have forgotten when he made his decision to avoid them. Not to mention the fact that they were both members of the same tennis club.

"Are you avoiding Fuji, Tezuka?" Kikumaru leaned over to ask in the middle of the class.

"No. Why would you say that?" Tezuka asked, eyes on his notebook where he was drawing Echizen in various poses, not taking notes on history.

"You think he can actually bend that far?" Atobe was hovering behind him.

"Because I saw you run away when he waved to you this morning," Kikumaru told him. "Wow, you're pretty good! Is that O'chibi?" Kikumaru asked and Tezuka shut his notebook with a snap.

"No, it's…" Tezuka didn't know what to say. "It is not."

"Very articulate, Kunimitsu" Atobe commented. "You really need to increase your vocabulary."

"It looked like O'chibi," Kikumaru insisted, reached over and tried to grab the notebook from his hand. Tezuka took it in his other hand, extending his arm and taking it far away from Kikumaru's reach, only to have the notebook snatched from his fingers. Tezuka turned to look at the person that had taken it. His teacher.

"What are you two doing?" he asked, frowning. "Exchanging notes during class? Drawing funny pictures of the teacher? Reading porn?"

Tezuka considered his options. If he told the truth, the teacher would look inside his notebook and see the drawings of Echizen in funny positions. He was actually pretty proud of his own skills in drawing. That still didn't mean he wanted the teacher or anyone else to see them.

"Kikumaru was attempting to copy my answers, sensei," Tezuka lied with out blinking.

"Kikumaru-kun?" the teacher blinked. "That is not like you, but if Tezuka-kun says so, it must be true."

"Whaaat?!" Kikumaru wailed. "Tezuka, nya, why are you lying? Is it because I saw O-"

"And it is not the first time either, sensei," Tezuka interrupted Kikumaru, who was staring at him with his mouth hanging open.

"But that's not true sensei, nya, Tezuka is lying, lying! Oishiii, help meee!!" Kikumaru yelled, pleading to his doubles partner who seemed to be in shock.

Oishi turned to the person sitting next to him. "What did you give him, Inui?"

The teacher heard Oishi's comment and turned around, dropping Tezuka's notebook on the floor. Tezuka quickly picked up the notebook, stuffed it in his bag and then turned to glare at Kikumaru, who gulped when he saw Tezuka's furious expression. "Not a word," Tezuka hissed.

"Who are you, you demon, and what have you done to Tezu-chan?" Kikumaru whispered, paling.

"Are you dealing drugs in my classroom, Inui-kun?" the teacher demanded to know in a loud voice. "You and Kikumaru-kun will go to the principal's office right this moment. I will not stand for this kind of delinquent behaviour in my class."

"But sensei!" Kikumaru jumped up from his seat.

Inui simply stood up slowly and after pushing his glasses up, answered, "Very well, sensei."

Tezuka heard muffled laughter and turned to his left where Fuji was sitting. Fuji had both his hands in front of his mouth, trying to stop himself from laughing out loud. He turned to look at Tezuka and his eyes were sparkling with mirth.

"You are going to tell them Kikumaru wasn't really cheating, aren't you?" Fuji asked.

"Of course," Tezuka answered, not sure if he was lying again.

"I didn't know there was such cruelty in you, Kunimitsu," Atobe moved to stand next to Fuji. "Maybe it's his influence. But not even Fuji would do something like that to a friend."

Tezuka knew it was wrong to falsely accuse Kikumaru, but he did not have a choice, if he still wanted to keep his secret. Kikumaru could ruin it all by telling Fuji what he had seen. He would speak with Kikumaru later, explain, and ask him to keep quiet.

"What's really in your notebook?" Fuji asked, clearly curious.

"Porn," Tezuka said, not lying.

"Fine, keep your secrets," Fuji smiled. "I'm going to find out eventually."

"And that's precisely what you're afraid of," Atobe's smile mirrored the one on Fuji's face so perfectly that Tezuka shivered. It wasn't at all comforting to think the Atobe in his head had some Fuji qualities in it. "Actually, it's all you," Atobe chose to point out. And that fact wasn't comforting in any way.

When the teacher dismissed them Tezuka quickly gathered his books and hurried out off the classroom. He'd seen Oishi's worried glance, but didn't want to speak to him. He didn't want to speak with any of his friends, and wanting to be alone, he picked a section of the building he knew none of them had any today. He wondered if he could convince his parents to let him transfer to another school, where no one knew him. Where he wouldn't have to see Echizen, or Fuji, or Oishi, or Inui, or Kikumaru, or-

"So this is your answer? Become a hermit?"

It was better than getting abandoned by his friends because he wanted his best friend's boyfriend.

"It's practically the same thing. And when exactly did Fuji become your best friend?"

Fuji had always been a very close friend of his.

"But he managed to climb up to the status of best friend only when it was angst worthy. Seriously Kunimitsu, you worry me sometimes with your strange way of thinking."

A guy in a pink suit was hardly the person to tell him he had a strange way of thinking.

"Let us all think long and hard on where did the guy with the pink suit appear from."

"Oh, shut up," Tezuka muttered darkly.

"This is getting old. Can't you think of something else to angst over? Look, there is a stain on your shirt! Angst over that, will you? And why the hell are you checking out that guy's ass? We can't cheat on Echizen!"

"I'm not-! What do you mean cheat on Echizen? And we?" Tezuka still found it hard to remember that Atobe in a pink suit wasn't real and received some strange stares from the other students that were passing him in the hall. To his dismay he recognized Momoshiro amongst them.

"Tezuka-buchou," Echizen wasn't the only one who insisted on the buchou. The former second years still called him that, to the annoyance of the current tennis team captain. "Is Fuji-sempai cheating on Echizen?"

"No. Why? Did you hear anything?" Tezuka was disappointed at him self as he heard the hopeful tone in his voice.

"No, but you just…" Momoshiro's voice trailed off. He gave Tezuka a nervous grin and scratched the back of his neck. "Echizen said that you've been… Are you alright Tezuka-buchou?"

"Would you like me to call the psych ward for you, is what he meant to add at the end of that sentence."

"No," Tezuka said as he was suddenly struck with a brilliant idea. "I'm not alright. I'm sick. Very, very sick. I think I'm coming down with something. Contagious. So I'm going home now and would you tell everyone not to come and see me because this is a very contagious and dangerous illness."

Momoshiro took a few steps back. "Sure Tezuka-buchou. What is it?"

"The flu," Tezuka said and when Momo looked disbelieving gave a fake cough.

"Hardly worth an Oscar, that performance."

"Shut up!" Tezuka yelled, walking away from Momo. He was starting be good at ignoring the weird looks people threw at him when he talked to himself.

Thankfully there wasn't anyone at the house when Tezuka came home. It was the first time in his life he was skipping school and the news would no doubt reach to his parents at some point, but not today. And by then maybe he would have thought of a better excuse than a fake flu. He just hoped it wouldn't be that he was seeing a man dressed in pink.

His parents were both working and today they wouldn't come back until very late. It was their anniversary and like every other year they went out to a restaurant and a movie. Some years they didn't come home at all until the next day. When Tezuka had been younger he'd always had a babysitter on those nights, but since Tezuka started high-school, they'd decided he was old enough to manage on his own.

"You know it's not unthinkable that he might like you back. You saw how he looked at you like you were a can of Ponta and he'd had an unsatisfied craving for years." Tezuka wondered if an apparition could be delusional.

"I am not the crazy one here! You were the one that twisted a drug that was meant to keep you straight and narrow in to me!" Tezuka lifted an eyebrow at that and Atobe flipped his hair and took out a small hand held mirror to gaze at his own reflection. "Not that it is a bad thing having me. You are very lucky, to have a shining being such as myself in your head."

Tezuka flopped down on the couch, opened the TV and sought the noisiest channel he could find, hoping he could drown out Atobe's voice. "Echizen will come and visit, you know. He's going to be worried about his Buchou. And so will Fuji. They will probably come together, as a couple, holding hands, smiling at each other as lovingly as a newly wed pair." Tezuka increased the volume even more.

He sat there for what felt like hours, the TV only getting louder and louder until he finally gave up and turned it off. Once he did he heard the frantic ringing of the doorbell. Who ever was at the door might have been there for who knows how long, but Tezuka hadn't heard it because of the TV's yelling and Atobe's nagging.

Tezuka looked up and was surprised when he didn't see Atobe anywhere. Maybe the drug had worn off already?

Tezuka opened the front door and wished he'd stayed at school. He hadn't noticed it started raining, so focused he'd been on blocking out all the voices he heard.

In the rain stood Echizen, drenched, the clothes clinging on the boy's body, hair flattened on his head, lips trembling and blue from the cold, his whole body trembling, fingers gripping the straps of his bags so tightly they'd turned white. "Buchou," the boy whispered and smiled at him, swaying on his feet.

Tezuka grabbed Echizen before the boy fell, picked him up on his arms and carried the boy to the living room. Frantically looking around he saw a blanket on the arm-chair, grabbed it, sat on the couch, Echizen still in his lap and draped it around the boy.

Why was he there? Why had he stood in front of Tezuka's door so long and risked getting sick? It didn't make sense and Tezuka was mad at him for doing so.

He looked down when he felt a tug on his shirt. "Buchou," Echizen whispered. "You're not sick."

Tezuka opened his mouth to respond but could think of nothing to say. Had the boy risked getting sick simply because he thought Tezuka was sick. "You didn't answer the door so I was worried," Echizen whispered and closed his eyes.

Tezuka was shaking. Every part of his body trembled as he held back from screaming, crying, laughing, doing it all at once. He lifted an unsteady hand to gently stroke Echizen's cheek. The skin beneath Tezuka's fingers was cold, but still so wonderfully smooth. Even if Fuji had been standing there now that wouldn't have stopped Tezuka as he bent down and kissed the boy's cold lips.

Tezuka jolted when a hand went around his neck and the lips moved under his. He had thought Echizen asleep. But when Tezuka opened his eyes a pair of golden streaked brown ones stared at him.

Tezuka made an attempt to release Echizen, but the boy placed both his hands on Tezuka's neck and when Tezuka sat up, Echizen rouse with him so that the younger boy was sitting on Tezuka's lap, straddling him. Echizen seemed pleased with him self, smiled eyes half lidded and nuzzled his face against Tezuka's neck. Tezuka pulled him closer, buried his nose in the boy's wet hair, inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. He'd been dreaming of this for so long. To be able to hold Echizen when even looking at him felt like a mortal sin was heaven.

He soon felt Echizen's breathe even out and realized the boy had fallen asleep. He still didn't know what the boy was doing here, but was too content to ask. So he drew the blanket tighter around them and lay down on the couch, Echizen still tightly held in his arms.

Tezuka woke, not realising he'd fallen asleep. He looked down to his lap to see Echizen resting his head on it, hand grasping on to Tezuka's shirt, eyes closed, probably still asleep.

Happiness spread through Tezuka and he trailed his fingers through Echizen's still damp hair. His hand froze in its movements when the boy opened his eyes, revealing he wasn't sleeping.

"You're finally awake, Buchou," the boy said with a smile, lifted his arm and curled his hand around Tezuka's neck and pulled him down for a kiss. Tezuka didn't fight and allowed himself to drown in the feeling of Echizen's lips on his. When Echizen pulled away Tezuka let out a sound of protest and pulled the boy back. He was surprised when he found his lips pressed against the palm of the boy's hand.

"We should talk, Buchou," Echizen said and in an instant Tezuka remembered why he shouldn't be kissing the boy and pushed him off his lap and on to the floor.

"You should leave, Echizen," Tezuka said, standing up and refusing to turn and look at the boy even when he heard a sound that indicated the boy had been hurt by the fall.

"I'm not leaving and you can't make me," he heard the all too familiar stubborn tone from the floor and tried to suppress his smile into a frown.

"No, I suppose I can't," Tezuka said and saw in his mind the pleased and smug smile on Echizen's lips. "Lock up when you leave," he said and headed to the hallway where he put on his shoes.

"Buchou!" Echizen yelled after him but Tezuka ignored it and fled from his own home to the rain that was still pouring outside.

"You just can't help but ruin everything." Atobe had returned the moment Tezuka reached the end of their driveway.

"Go away!" Tezuka snapped and when Atobe's figure melted in to the rain, it revealed Echizen standing there in his stead. The boy looked shocked and hurt.

"I won't," Echizen muttered in a voice so low it was almost a growl. "It isn't just my fault, you kissed me too! You can't just run away!" He grabbed Tezuka's arm in a grip so forceful Tezuka grimaced from the pain.

"There is nothing to be gained from this, Echizen. We shouldn't-"

"Why not?!" Echizen was angrier than Tezuka had ever seen him and the rain that trickled down his face made it seem as if he was crying.

"Fuji," Tezuka thought the name would snap Echizen to his senses. Instead it only made him angrier.

"He's an idiot with a brother complex," the boy growled. "He hasn't talked about anything other than Yuuta since the accident. He doesn't have time for me, because he has to be there for Yuuta in case Yuuta needs anything."

Tezuka winced as Echizen grip around his arm tightened, but it didn't hurt as much as hearing that he was nothing more than a replacement for Fuji. When Echizen had come he had hoped for more. It was a ridiculous dream after all.

"Come back Buchou," Echizen eased his grip on Tezuka's arm and twined his fingers with Tezuka's. He smiled and nudged Tezuka towards the house.

Tezuka shook his head. He couldn't, not when it was obvious it wouldn't mean anything to Echizen.

"Why?!" Echizen yelled.

"I won't… I refuse to be used like that. And Fuji is a friend," Tezuka said.

"What are you talking about? I'm not using you, Buchou." Echizen sounded so sincere when he said it that Tezuka wanted to believe him, but the boy had just said it himself.

"You only want me because you can't have Fuji. I'm sorry Echizen, but being second choice… I cannot, will not settle for that, no matter how much…" Echizen was shaking his head frantically and kept tugging on his hand. Tezuka pried the boy's fingers from midst his own and stepped back from the boy. He fisted his hands to his sides so he wouldn't envelope the boy in his arms.

"I want you to leave," he said as his last words before turning his back on the boy. He didn't know where to go, but he could not go home. Echizen would have to go inside to get his things, and he feared that if he spent anymore time with the boy, his resolve would waver.

His clothes were no protection against the rain and he was soon shivering from the cold. He finally stopped once he realized he did not know where he was. He hadn't walked very far it seemed. The houses were still recognizable, and the street he was in was not that far from his house.

"You're not going to tell me I should go back?" Tezuka asked out loud though he knew he would not need to bother.

"No."

Tezuka sighed. "This never occurred to me. That he would see me as a… substitute."

There was no witty remark from Atobe and the apparition continued to simply stare at the rain with Tezuka.

When Tezuka came home he was alone again. Echizen was gone, only the damp blanket was left as proof he had ever been there. Tezuka found himself wishing for Atobe's company, despite the fact that he would have given almost anything to be rid of him when he was there.

His parents didn't return until very late but Tezuka still heard them, lying awake in his bed, trying to force sleep to take over his mind. He heard them laughing happily, couldn't help but wonder if he would have had the opportunity to achieve what they had if he had accepted to being a substitute to Echizen. Maybe he would have been able to make Echizen love him as time moved.

Tezuka had never minded solitude or craved for the company of others. But he'd never before felt lonely.