Summery: Ryoma Echizen has lived his life with an illness that has left him with nothing but tennis and his cat. This has been his reality since he was small and he doesn't think it will ever change. When he moves to Japan however, things start changing alright. Thanks to one Yukimura Seiichi who can't seem to mind his own business.

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis and I made up the illness I gave Ryoma. Please do not sue/hate me, thank you.

Chapter Four: Enlightened Denial

- POV Echizen Ryoma -

"They've been saying that for seven years now right? He's perfectly fine."

"He is not 'perfectly fine' Anata! How much longer are you going to pretend that he is? It's destroying him even faster you know that!"

"Of course he's fine, he's playing tennis isn't he? Those stupid doctors are just making a big deal out of nothing, so what if his heart's slightly weaker then average! He grew out of that!"

"It's more then just a weak heart-"

Ryoma closes the door softly behind him as he flees the place that will soon become a battleground. Karupin's full food and water dishes were safely stored where she could get to them in his room, his uniforms were in his tennis bag with his medicine and ponta/meal money, and he had a destination in mind. The only thing that could stop him now was either an attack or a rain storm and since he was expecting neither tonight his only hope was that his hiding place was still uninhabited.

There was no way he was staying here tonight. Fights like that usually escalated and he didn't feel like dealing with the consequences of being in the line of fire...

The golden eyed preteen sighs as he makes his way to Seigaku, forcing a rather bitter laugh at the thought of buchou's face tomorrow morning when the brunet realizes that for once someone has actually beaten him to practice. At least he'll be on time for once. A yawn escapes him, the tiredness of it all closing in on him and he can't help but wounder if Sagamoto-sensei was right in her hypothesis. After all, summed that way it seemed so... simple, easy to fix, laughable even.

Apparently his problem was that his mind revolted against his father's decision of him being a tennis player and he had (unconsciously mind you) decided to fight back against it the only way he thought he could at the time...

... by shutting off.

But that couldn't be. First of all he liked tennis. Really, it was the only thing he was capable of doing somewhat right and if he stopped playing then the old bastard would probably lose interest in him faster then Karupin could shred a porn magazine. Besides, he was an Echizen, tennis was his life. He'd never picked up a hobby, unlike the others he didn't have the time for it. Also what five year old mind comes up with the idea that since he didn't want to do something? Which he had. He'd really wanted to play that match and prove to Oyoji and Ryoga, who had been Tou-san and Aniki at the time, that he was worth more then just the songs he made up on the sidelines while they practiced together. Even if he'd preferred rhythms and lyrics Ka-san had taught him while he sat on the kitchen table watching her cook dinner every night to the barbaric and aggressive tennis the rest of his family played that had scared him until he was... well... until it hadn't anymore. Anyway, he had wanted to play that match even if the boy across the net had been twice his size. He wasn't useless. Finally that couldn't be his problem because even if he hadn't wanted to play tennis when he was younger he obviously did now and the disease hadn't gotten better as he grew older but worse. Besides, Voluit Mortem was a hereditary neurological disease, it had absolutely nothing to do with his wants subconsciously or otherwise.

It didn't.

right?

- POV Yukimura Seiichi -

"I'm sure I would know if one of my teammates had been..."

"Hakase? Are you alright?"

"Why hasn't this turned up in any of my broad searches?"

"Are you alright Hakase?"

"I'll call you back Renjii... there's something I need to do." With that the Professor's line goes dead and he seems startled for a second before he reaches for a notebook, not pausing when I cut in.

"So Seigaku doesn't know?"

"Aparently not..." I ignore the seemingly endless list of statistics that begins to spout from my Data player. I'm actually surprised at this. If there was one thing that team was proud of it was the fact that they were a close knit "family". Which apparently gave them permission to never keep their noses to themselves when it came to a teammate's business. However, my respect for Tezuka as a captain decreases, the very idea that someone would be so ignorant of the state of the players under their charge is disgraceful. But at the same time my respect for the first year as a tennis player increases. To be in the same ward as I was he had to have something serious yet he still managed to play well enough to beat Gen. Besides...

... Even I had trouble keeping things from Syuu-chan.

Thinking of the blue-eyed brunette I get an idea and pull out my phone. For some reason Renjii seems nervous when I say goodbye but I pay it no mind, my fingers already dialing an all to familiar number. Ryoma-kun was really good at hiding it seems...

... This was going to be fun...

Hello Everyone! It's been a while since I updated this one hasn't it? I know it's a bit short but I hoped you like it. On the bright side I do believe that Seigaku will be finding out in the next chapter. I have a question for all of you, should the point of view remain being solely Ryoma and Seiichi or should I start adding other people's view points as well? Reviews, comments, and suggestions are always welcome. Until Next time!

Bye!