The weekend had soon came. Inui, Kaidou, Eiji, and Momoshiro stood at Ryoma's door. Eiji was the one who finally decided to knock.
"Eh?" Nanjiro opened the door and stared at the four kids. "You must be the four that Ryoma said were coming over. He's upstairs getting ready to go out," he moved out of the way. "Come in."
"Thank you," they slightly bowed and entered the house.
"Nya?" Karupin rubbed up against Kaidou's leg.
"Kitty," he mumbled as he reached down to pet the cat.
Momoshiro looked around at the boxes. "So he wasn't lying. Echizen really is moving."
"I was hoping he was just joking," Eiji turned his attention to Nanjiro. "What made you decide to move like this?"
"Ryoma didn't tell you the reason?" Nanjiro tried to scoot his way into the kitchen.
"He didn't tell us anything other than he was moving to America at the end of this month," Inui said as he took out his notebook and wrote down things about Kaidou.
"America?" Kaidou stood up and looked at the older boy. "Is he really moving to America, Inui-senpai?"
"Why all the way to America?" Momoshiro's voice became demanding.
"There's better opportunities for him in America. If he wants to become better at tennis, the place for him is where I will be taking him. It will be hard for him at first, but I just want what's best for my son," Nanjiro left the room.
Ryoma made his way down the stairs as knocking came from the door. "Maybe he just wants me to continue where he left off."
"Echizen…" Kaidou picked up the cat and looked at the younger boy.
"Please take care of Karupin while I'm out," he opened the door to see Fuji smiling down at him.
"Are you ready?" Fuji peered into the house. Seeing the mess of boxes and newspaper made him not even want to look in anymore.
"Of course," Ryoma slightly waved his hand as he left the house. The door closed behind him with a slam.
"He didn't even greet us," Momoshiro let himself fall to the floor.
"Ochibi must like Fuji more than all of us," Eiji pouted. "That's why he's going out on a date instead of spending time with us."
"Date?" Inui moved closer as he jotted down things in his notebook.
"That's what Fuji said. They're going out."
"Echizen said he's the one who asked Fuji-senpai out, but Fuji-senpai's the one that said it's a date," Momoshiro explained.
Kaidou continued to hold Karupin. "It's Echizen's choice."
"What do you mean, Kaidou?" Inui wondered as his writing became more like scribbles.
"If Echizen wanted to go out with Fuji-senpai instead of staying here with us, he should be allowed to without us acting like it's a big deal," he put the cat back on the floor. "He asked me last week if I ever liked someone and was too afraid to tell them. I think I understand why he asked me that."
"Ah, so Ochibi really does like Fuji," Eiji grabbed onto Kaidou's arm. "What did you tell him to do?"
"I just told him that I thought everyone feels that way at least once in their life. He then thanked me and invited me over."
"What a weird kid," Momoshiro sighed. "When do you think he'll be back?"
"You can play some tennis outside until Ryoma gets back," Nanjiro came back into the room. "I'll lend you his rackets."
"A few matched will pass the time up quickly," Inui closed his notebook and fixed his glasses.
"Not a bad idea," Eiji agreed as they ran outside.
"Wait up!" Momoshiro stood up and followed them.
"May I talk to you for a second?" Nanjiro stopped Kaidou.
"Sure," he nodded.
"What's your name again?"
"Kaidou…Kaidou Kaoru."
"Kaidou-kun, Karupin seems to like you a lot."
Kaidou's face began to turn red. "I guess."
"Would you like to keep her?" Nanjiro looked down at the cat rubbing her head against Kaidou's leg. "I don't plan on bring Karupin with us when we move. If she goes with you, I know she'll be with a loving person."
"I couldn't."
"Sure you can. Just ask your parents tonight."
"Karupin is Echizen's cat. I think that she should go with Echizen. If she didn't, then he'd be left there in America with no friends at all."
"I see."
"Excuse me," Kaidou bowed and walked away.
"Nya?" Karupin looked up at Nanjiro with curiosity in her eyes.
"I'll just have to find some other family for you to go to."
Ryoma and Fuji walked down the busy street. They didn't say anything to each other. They just walked along not even knowing where they were going. Then, Ryoma stopped and pulled at the older boy's arm.
"Fuji-senpai, there was a reason I wanted you to come out with me today," Ryoma couldn't get his eyes to focus on the taller boy.
"A reason different from wanting to get out of the house?" Fuji became interested in what he had to say.
"Yes, I want to tell you something…I just don't know how to."
"Really? Well, there's something I need to tell you too."
Ryoma let go of Fuji. "I…"
"Lets tell each other at the same time. Maybe it'll make it easier on both of us."
"Ok…"
They counted to three and said at the same time: "I like you."
Ryoma's cheeks began to heat up. "That is…wait! What did you say?"
"I'm glad this feeling is mutual. It still seems too late though," Fuji looked into the window of the building they stood next to.
"Too late?" the younger boy let his arms drop to his side. "That's right…because I'm moving…"
"Maybe this is what was destined for us all along. Lets make the best of the time we still have. Ok?"
"What do you mean, senpai?"
"There's still three weeks until this month is over. Even if it'll end soon, I want to spend the rest of this month with you."
"I'll make as memories with you as I can until the time comes for us to go separate ways."
"Me too," Fuji let his fingers intertwine with Ryoma's. "Lets go get something to eat."
"Ok, Fuji-senpai."
"It's getting late," Inui noticed that the sun was beginning to set.
"Ochibi really does like Fuji over all of us," Eiji shook Momoshiro.
"Maybe we should head home," Momoshiro tried to break away from the older boy.
"We'll have to wait until Monday to talk to Echizen," Kaidou began to pick up the tennis balls they had used.
"I guess it's ok as long as they had a good time," Eiji crossed his arms. "Lets get home."
"Yeah," the other three agreed as they left the backyard and headed back inside. Telling Nanjiro that they were leaving, they went their separate ways.
NOTE: The long needed update is finally here! Sorry about how long it took me. I was out of town for a little bit. I didn't have my laptop at that point, so I couldn't do any writing. Anyways, the reason I was out of town was a little more important than my fics. That's weird saying that. I almost always put my fics before everything else.
Now, in this chapter we had both Fuji and Ryoma admitting their feelings. I know that we're only 7 chapters into the fic, but there is a reason why it happened so soon. Actually, I have this feeling that this fic is only going to be a couple more chapters longer. I'm not sure. I just hope that everyone is enjoying this fic so far.
Well, that's really all I have to say. I will try my best to update like I normally do. No more of this one month stuff. Until the next update, bye bye~!
