The sun rose from the sky letting light into Ryoma's room. He tossed around trying to find Karupin. When he realized the cat was no longer there in the house, he quickly sat up. Looking at the clock that was next to his bed, he noticed that it was barely 7:30 in the morning. Yawning, he got out of bed and stumbled to his dresser. He heard chatter outside his room. Out of confusion, he opened the door.
"Shh! He's going to hear us!" Eiji's voice was almost too loud.
"Kikumaru-senpai?" Ryoma wiped the sleep from his eyes with his right arm. "Am I still dreaming?"
"Huh?" Eiji turned to see the shorter boy. A nervous smile formed on his face. "Morning."
"What is everyone doing here?"
"It's a surprise," Oishi nodded to his own statement. "You should get dressed. We'll be waiting for you."
"Right…" Ryoma closed the door but peeped back out. "Could you at least wait downstairs?"
Everyone laughed as Oishi scooted them towards the stairs.
As Ryoma walked down the stairs, he noted everyone who stood waiting. There was Kawamura, Oishi, Kikumaru, Tezuka, Momoshiro, and Kaidou. Inui and Fuji weren't any where to be found.
"Were is Fuji-senpai and Inui-senpai?" the young boy's voice was almost demanding.
"It's a secret," Momo giggled.
"Why?"
"We can't tell you if it's a secret."
"Ugh!" Ryoma started to become annoyed at this whole 'surprise'.
"Lets go, they're going to be waiting," Tezuka flicked his wrist to motion everyone that they were leaving.
"I'm not going anywhere!" Ryoma protested.
"Come on," Kaidou grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the house.
"I sure hope Echizen won't be mad," Fuji stared at a banner that was tied to a fence. "Inui, what do you think?"
"There is a 14 percent chance he will not like this surprise," Inui pushed up his glasses.
"Huh?" Fuji shook his head. "I meant, what do you think about the banner?"
"Oh! I think it was placed nicely."
"Maybe this is going too far."
"Fuji, stop thinking so much. It'll be fine."
"…I don't think you're the one that should tell me that…"
"Here they come. Put on the ribbon," Inui threw a red bow towards Fuji.
"This is silly," he smiled and placed the bow on his head. He sat down on the bench.
Inui watched as the group came closer and closer.
"My surprise is Inui-senpai and the tennis court we play at?" Ryoma mumbled.
"Look up," Kaidou let go of the younger boy. "Surprise."
"We'll miss you…" as soon as he uttered the words, his eyes became teary. He made his way past Kaidou and Momo, but was stopped by Tezuka.
"Don't hold it in," Tezuka held his composure as he placed his hand on top of Echizen's head.
"Where's Fuji-senpai?" the childish rage was building inside of him. "What is this supposed to be? I don't…I―"
"Calm down," the older boy looked up. "Momoshiro, Kaidou, go get him."
"Right!"
"Echizen, don't get so upset. We thought, as a team, that this would be a nice little surprise. We wanted to show that we'll support you no matter how far apart we are."
Ryoma clenched his fist and began to shake. As soon as he felt the tears falling from his eyes, he let his arms pull around Tezuka. The older of the two placed one of his arms behind Echizen making him stop shaking.
"Do you understand?"
"Yeah," Ryoma softly said.
"Cheating on me?" Fuji's voice was playful.
"Uh!" he quickly pushed himself off the older boy. "It's not like that. Tezuka-senpai was just…um…"
"It's cute when you're all flustered."
Ryoma scanned Fuji. "What's with the bow?"
"Inui's idea."
"It's pretty!" Inui yelled from the background.
"Hey, if Ochibi doesn't want to have a party, can we play tennis?" Eiji looked at the tennis courts.
"Tennis sounds like fun," Ryoma let a cocky smile form on his face. "Want to place against me, Kikumaru-senpai?"
"I was thinking of playing some a little easier…"
"Fshuu…" Kaidou held out a racket. "Echizen, play against me. I've been meaning to beat you."
"Mada mada dane!" he took the racket and ran over to the court. "This will be my win."
Kawamura watched as the two of them hit the ball back and forth. "They look like they're having fun."
"Yeah, Echizen quickly bounced back from being sad," Oishi softly laughed. "Maybe Eiji's rubbing off on him."
"This is great! Mamushi is actually putting up a good fight," Momoshiro's head flung left and right trying to keep up with the rally.
A little bit further down, Tezuka sat next to Fuji. Fuji played with the red ribbon almost as if he was avoiding contact with the other boy.
"Fuji," Tezuka looked over at him.
"The weather sure is nice today," Fuji held out the ribbon.
"Fuji."
"I really didn't understand the point to the ribbon."
"Fuji!"
"I really don't want to talk about it, Tezuka."
"Talk about what?"
"The conversation we had on the phone a while ago."
Tezuka crossed his arms. "Seeming that you brought it up, I want to talk about the things you said."
"Did I say I didn't want to talk about it?" Fuji sighed. "You sure have a way with words, Tezuka."
"What do you have planned?"
"Don't worry, I'm still going to a nice university."
"Fuji, don't you think you're making a mistake?"
Fuji stared into Tezuka's dark brown eyes. "If falling in love was a mistake, then I guess I'll continue to make them."
"But is the feeling the same for both of you?" Tezuka became overly stern.
"How will I know if I don't continue to be with him?" he titled his head to the left. "Would you rather me just let him slip right through my fingers?"
"I never said that. I can see I can't change your mind. My support will be here for both you and Echizen. Remember that."
"Thank you," Fuji stood up and looked at Ryoma. He was still going all out against Kaidou. "Come on, Echizen! You can win!"
"Huh?" Ryoma turned to see Fuji. Right as his focus left the tennis match, the ball flew past him.
"That's the win!" Eiji cheered. "Kaidou wins! Kaidou wins!"
"What?" Ryoma was shocked by the result.
"Good game," Kaidou reached out his hand.
"Stupid Fuji-senpai," Ryoma shook the older boy's hand. "At least you can say you beat me…once."
The day continued on. As the sun finally decided to start setting, everyone made way to their own homes. Fuji had walked with Ryoma to his home. As they reached his door, the older boy smiled.
"Echizen, sorry about you losing."
"It'll give Kaidou-senpai something to boast about for awhile," Ryoma placed his hand on the door. "You should probably get home."
"Is it ok if I kiss you first?" Fuji wondered as his face grew closer to Ryoma's.
"I think you would even if I said no."
Fuji snickered. "You've figured me out."
"Is Karupin doing ok?"
"She's fine. At night, she likes to curl up next to me and sleep."
"Yeah…she does like company while sleeping."
"Are you going to be alright?"
"I think so," Ryoma stared at Fuji's bright blue eyes. "You should remind me one of these days to tell you how I got enough courage to tell you that I like you."
"Why don't you tell me on your flight to America?"
"That's not possible…"
Fuji lightly pressed his lips against Ryoma's. "I'll see you at school." Quickly, Fuji walked off leaving Ryoma confused.
"Senpai is confusing," he shook his head and went into his house.
Ryoma wished he could tell him Fuji the reason he was able to tell him his feelings on the flight. It was impossible because he would be at his graduation ceremony. The younger boy wanted to watch Fuji graduate. He wanted to congratulate him and give him a hug. All of the dreams he had were impossible because he'd be in America while Fuji stayed in Japan. The pain was growing, and there was no way to make it stop.
"A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person…" Ryoma held open his dictionary. He was on his back on his bed. "…I love you…Fuji-senpai…"
NOTE: Chapter 10, chapter 10! Yay~! It's taken me forever to get this far.
This chapter is a little lame…I will admit it myself. I just feel so bad that I haven't been updating at all. I don't even know what's wrong with me anymore. It's horrible. I hope you could enjoy this chapter. Also, for the last thing Ryoma says, I literally looked the definition up for love. I feel silly.
Can anyone figure out what's going to happen? Haha…probably. This fic will be ending soon. Probably two or three more chapters. When that happens, I will probably focus on my other fics until I get my FujiXRyoma/FujiXEiji game all finished (all that's left is the art, yay!). Though, "Without Sight" will be the next FujiXRyoma fic that I'll throw on here. I think once I get enough time, I want to start my KaidouXRyoma fic ("I'm Not Broken"). I don't know though. Maybe I'll work on "Where You Happiness Lies" (TezukaXKaidou) instead.
Enough rambling though. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I will try my hardest to get another chapter up soon. I want to write a story with a different school…
Okay~! I'm going now. Bye bye~!