A/N: In the summary for the story it clearly says that Rayah's heart isn't in tennis and a few chapters ago, Yuki mentioned that Rayah had been arrested once before. Itching to find out where Rayah's heart is and why she got locked up?

Chapter 9

Where the Heart Is

It had been almost two weeks. Two weeks since she started sitting in her classes in silence. Her and Tezuka's senior project was on hold seeing as how both of them were planning to ask for a new partner. And she sat only with Yuki and her fan club at lunch.

It had also been two weeks since she quit the team. Ryuzaki sensei had stormed onto the court the day after the incident and announced what Rayah had done. Ryoma and Yuki knew. She had told them that she was leaving the team, but she hadn't told them something else…

"Is she coming today? We have a match." Eiji asked. He deeply wanted his friend to be there while they played.

Ryoma shook his head, "I think she went home."

A bus pulled up near the courts. The name on the side of the bus was the name of their opponents for the day's match, Hyotei.

They all piled of the bus, single file and lined up across the side. Atobe Keigo excited the bus with a huge smile on his face. He stood by the door of the bus as someone else got off. The entire Seigaku team, including Tezuka and Fuji, gasped.

Rayah stepped off the bus and let Atobe wrap his arm around her waist. He helped her walk and she walked with him as he surveyed his team before they stepped onto the courts.

Tezuka glared extra hard as they walked onto the courts. Atobe's arm was still firmly around Rayah's waist.

She glanced over at Tezuka and held his gaze for a moment before glaring back. Instead of her turning away, he did.

Rayah thanked Atobe as he helped her sit. She actually really liked him. Despite being big headed and annoying he was actually really funny, and ridiculously cute. And just as she liked him, he liked her. After picking his players he sat next to her.

"Is Ore-sama's princess ok?"

She glared at him playfully and laughed, "I'm fine." The laugh fell short as she looked over at her friends. Yuki gave her a pitiful frown.

Rayah closed her eyes and opened them, not the least bit surprised at who she was looking at. Atobe caught it too and glared. How dare Tezuka? Rayah was his. He won her fair and square, although he was willing to resort to playing dirty.

Atobe nuzzled her neck. Making Rayah blush and laugh a little. Trying to push him off. The new couple hadn't even had their first kiss yet but Atobe still liked to play with his "princess".

"Keigo s-stop it!" She said between giggles.

"Ore-sama will stop when he feels like it." Atobe said as he pulled away for a minute.

Rayah continued to giggle but pushed him away for real as her phone started to ring. "Hello?"

"What are you doing!"

Rayah looked across the court and saw Yuki on her phone. She sighed, "What does it look like?"

"Ray…Ray please don't. You can't do this…"

"Yes I can. Besides, I actually like him. Rayah that whole team hates me now."

"That's not true. They miss you, all of them do."

"Fuji wanted me off the team to begin with, he hates me and so does…so does Tezuka. Look, it's not like I'm transferring. I just need to keep my distance from the Seigaku team ok?"

"Fine, whatever Ray."

Tezuka tapped Yuki as she hung up the phone. The small girl shook her head. "Fine. She can be a traitor."

Rayah sadly hit the end button on her phone and looked at the ground. It hurt Atobe to see her like that. It really did. He gently took the phone from her. "Ore-sama permits his princess from doing anything that hurts her."

She smiled and put her head on his shoulder. Watching as Oshitari stepped onto the court. "Thank you Monkey."


A fry flew across the table and hit Kabaji in the head. The whole table got silent and Rayah gave Jiroh, the person who threw the fry, a wary look. After a few seconds Kabaji offered a smile and the table erupted into laughter.

On the other side of the fast food restaurant, the other tennis team was nowhere near as jolly. They all ate silently or didn't eat at all. Listening to the other team as they celebrated their victory.

Tezuka sat with his hands folded under is chin. It was sickening. The whole idea of Rayah not sitting with them, no, sitting with him.

It frustrated him because he didn't understand his feelings. He'd known her for a little over two months and became used to her nicknames, her witty and rebellious character. He glanced around the table; he wasn't surprised to see that the only person to seem unfazed was Fuji.

Another loud trickle of noise erupted from the table across the room. The Seigaku team looked over and saw what the Hyotei team was 'ooing' about. Rayah and Atobe were sitting at the table, kissing.

Tezuka whirled back around in his seat and stood, knocking over the chair. He grabbed his school bag and tennis bag and stormed out. Rayah and Atobe broke apart to watch him go. Atobe smirked and Rayah frowned.

Yuki balled her fist and stood abruptly from the table as well, except, instead of grabbing her things, she grabbed the nearest bottle of ketchup. She stomped over to the Hyotei table and poured its contents on Atobe's head.

Atobe let out a girly scream and yelled, "Why did you do that to Ore-sama?!"

"Because you stupid monkey! I hate you! And Ray you should be ashamed of yourself." Yuki went back and grabbed her things and left the restaurant, Fuji followed after her. Rayah abandoned her boyfriend to follow her best friend.

"Yuki! Yuki listen to me! What did I do?"

Yuki stopped and whirled around, "Tezuka likes you. How is it that you don't see that?"

"Not see it? It's not true! He hates me! Just like him!" She said pointing at Fuji.

Yuki looked at Fuji who just glared at Rayah. He decided to speak, "It's a good thing you went to Ryuzaki before I did. I was gonna get you off the team and away from my best friend if it killed me."

"Were you really?"

"Yes. I hated you from the moment you first opened your mouth. You're rude, loud, and everything else Tezuka doesn't need."

Rayah walked calmly over to Fuji and looked him right in the eyes, which wasn't hard seeing as how they were the same height.

"Fuji."

"Rayah." He said her name with disgust and she snapped. Both the Hyotei and Seigaku teams came outside when they saw what had happened.

Kabaji held Rayah back as she fought to get to Fuji who was being helped from the ground by Oishi, nursing a bloody nose.

"You don't know who your fucking with Fuji. I'm not afraid to do a lot of things. Don't temp me cuz I will hurt you."

Fuji looked the girl in the eyes and he believed every word she said.


Rayah struggled against the cop as he fixed the cold handcuffs tightly to her wrist. "I can't believe this Rayah. You were doing good until…"

Rayah struggled harder, "What! Say it! Until my father died!"

Rayah had always been a little rough. It started with her simply just staying out late, the cops brining her home to a father who would gently tell her to not do it again. She never was one for authority.

It got worse. Parties, vandalism, break-ins, car theft. Her father told her to find an outlet, something to put her heart into. He tried tennis, she was good, but her heart wasn't there. So he let her explore and she found her outlet, and she loved it.

It wasn't until her father died and her mother started to push tennis on her, that she reverted back to the old Rayah. Committing small crimes to the point where her mother was deemed as an unfitting parent and she was sent to her Aunt and Uncle in Japan.

But even that far away, her mother kept a lock and key on what she gave her heart to.


Tezuka smacked the ball with bone shattering force. He was so confused. These feelings wait until now to show up. He hit another ball. He didn't like her like that. There was no way.

He stopped swinging as someone caught his eye. It was Rayah. This was only a shock because school was long over. Great amounts of orange were creeping into the sky. The perfect time for him to practice and clear his head without any bother.

He set his racket down and thought about calling out to get her attention until he realized that she was going towards the sports building. He stopped in his tracks, why follow her? Tezuka sighed and straightened his glasses, he better follow. She might do something stupid. And he had a few choice words about her breaking his best friend's nose.

He was rite; she was going to the sports complex. She had a bag with her and she was clad in baggy sweat pants and a big t-shirt. She went straight to a window and pushed it open. She was breaking an entry!

Tezuka decided to hang back. This wasn't the kind of thing he got involved in. He was tennis and schoolwork all day long. So he went back to the courts and left it alone.

After about three days, Tezuka found himself waiting for Rayah as he practiced on the court. He hadn't told anyone that she had been "visiting" the sports complex after school, he didn't feel like explaining how he knew. As he packed up his things, the sun was down, so he decided to check on her. No one knew what she was doing anymore. She didn't talk to anybody, so everyone was oblivious to her life now, even Ryoma, who lived with her.

Tezuka wasn't expecting to see what he saw when he peeked through the window. There was Rayah, clad in a black and green leotard that came down and looped her middle finger. It was a bit on the sparkly side and it gave off the feel of green waves in the night sky.

She was standing infront of the uneven bars. Seigaku had a small gymnastics team, but none of them were looked up at the bars uneasily then closed her eyes, in one swift movement she jumped onto them and started to swing.

Tezuka was a bit mesmerized. She was extremely good. She swung, and flipped and moved with such balance and grace. It seemed perfectly practiced, natural. He held his breath as she swung to the higher bar without skipping a beat.

Tezuka took his glasses off whipped them clean. Why was he doing this again, this girl had tore his almost perfect team apart and now they were still falling apart and she wasn't even on the team! Then it hit him; that was the problem. She wasn't on the team.

Tezuka was now sitting in the wide-open window, watching with an intense gaze. She moved into a perfect handstand, completely still.

"So this is where your heart is?"

She fell with a thump onto the mat below and looked over her shoulder.

"Kunimitsu?" Rayah bolted as Tezuka ran around the building to head her off; she was heading to the exit by the pool.

"Rayah! Rayah!"

This was stupid, he was chasing some delinquent girl around a school building at night. But Tezuka was a leader, he did what he had to, and this was something he had to do.

He grabbed her wrist, "I ran track freshman year."

She turned to him glared, "I've outrun cops."

His grip tightened. "Tezuka let me go. Dammit what do you want? I'm off the team, isn't that what you wanted? I even leave you guys alone at school can't you leave me be?"

"No."

She looked up at him, "Why?"

"I believe I should be the one asking you that question."

"You know why." She glared at him and he did the unexpected.

Rayah grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer, trying to drown her feelings in the kiss, after a minute she pushed him away, blushing. "Oh my god."

She stepped back and lost her balance, grabbing Tezuka they both fell into the pool.

Both of them broke the surface and they crawled out. Tezuka watched her through his wet bangs and glasses before he spoke, "Why do you play tennis?"

Rayah wrung out her short hair, "Oh don't give me a 'buchou' speech."

He fixed her with a gaze and she sighed, "You don't want to hear my story Tezuka. You won't understand it."

"Try me."

Rayah gave him a saddened look at started her story. She told him about her mother, her father, Ryoma, her uncle, just everything. She just spilled her guts like her father used to allow her to do.

When she finished she was fighting tears. Tezuka just looked at her, thinking, he now understood her behavior, the things she said, all of it. Their goodbye was awkward but he had a good feeling about it.

He'd be seeing her in practice tomorrow. Another job done by the famous Tezuka Kunimitsu.

A/N: Well…that was good I guess. LOL they finally kiss! Geez it took me a minute to put that in. Not much of a reaction from either of them but that was a leap for Tezuka huh? LOL See you soon!