As the day's tennis practice came to a conclusion, Tezuka asked for Oishi to lock up the clubhouse. Leaving, he pulled out his cell phone as dialed the number to Ryoma's house. Pushing up his glasses, he listened to the ringing, but there was no answer.
"No one's home?" Tezuka questioned as he placed the phone back in his pocket. He found himself slowly walking down the path that led to the Echizen residence. See the house, Tezuka noticed that there wasn't a single light on. He knew that Fuji hadn't taken the young tennis player back to this place. Slowly, he walked up the door. Knocking on it, it creaked open. "Hello?" Tezuka peeked inside only to see the mess. Letting the door open more, he went inside to get a better look. There was glass broken on the floor and a chair turned over in the living room. Continuing around the house, he went up to Ryoma's room where he picked up the magazine the boy's father threw at him. With just a glance, he dropped it out of his hand. "What's been happening here?"
"Don't you know you shouldn't come into someone's house uninvited?"
Tezuka quickly turned himself to see a man standing in the doorway. "You're Echizen's father."
"Smart kid, aren't you?" Nanjiro laughed. "You wouldn't happen to know where my son is, would you?"
"What's going on here? How could you let your son live in this type of condition?"
"Punishment," he made his way closer to the composed boy and grabbed the magazine from the floor. "He's such a filthy child."
Tezuka took a few steps back and reached for his phone. "What happened to Echizen? He's not himself."
"So you do know where the boy is," Nanjiro pushed the boy against the wall. Tezuka cringed in pain from the pressure going onto his left arm. "Why don't you tell me where he is?"
His face stayed completely blank. There was no sign of fear to be found. "No."
"You're a stubborn one."
Tezuka took his phone a dialed a number into it, as he was about to hit the 'talk' button, the phone was dropped to the floor. Nanjiro placed more pressure against Tezuka's left arm causing him to yell in pain. As he fell in agony, Nanjiro raced to the door. Tezuka clutched onto his shoulder and watched the man flee.
"That man…" he rose to his feet with his phone. Hearing a sound from under Ryoma's bed, he removed the covers to see a ball of fur. "You're Echizen's cat."
"Nya," the cat weakly looked up at Tezuka.
Taking the cat in his right arm, Tezuka walked out of the room. Leaving the house, he didn't dare to look back.
At the Fuji residence, Ryoma sat at the kitchen table with papers spread out in front of him. With a pencil in his left hand, he scribbled down answers to his homework. Across from him, Fuji smiled as he watched the boy working.
"Fuji-senpai," Ryoma looked up from his papers. "Are you good with math?"
"I'm not the best, but I can try and help," Fuji moved himself to sit next to the young boy.
"Too bad Yuuta isn't here; mathematics is one of his favorite subjects," Fuji's mother placed two glasses of tea on the table for the boys. "Ryoma-chan, next time if you're not feeling well in the morning, tell me. There's no reason for you to push yourself too hard if you're ill."
"How did you know?" Ryoma turned to Fuji who just shook his head. "Then?"
"It was Yumiko," the woman busied herself at the stove. "I'll make sure to cook something that won't upset your stomach."
"Thank you," he mumbled and focused back at his homework. "Fuji-senpai, your sister is a little odd."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," Fuji laughed as the two of them went back to work.
After their homework was finished and dinner was eaten, Fuji and Ryoma made their way up to the second floor of the house. Fuji placed himself on his bed while Ryoma just stood there staring into his blue eyes.
"Why are you giving me that look, Echizen?" Fuji tilted his head to the left. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No," Ryoma's voice was soft. "Tezuka-buchou is going to start questioning things now that I said a stupid thing to him."
"I don't think Tezuka is like that. You shouldn't worry about it so much. We're all friends, right? Even if the team figures out what has happened to you, I don't think they'll judge you."
"Senpai, I don't understand it…"
"Don't understand what?"
Ryoma walked towards the window. He let out a sigh. "Why did I react like that when Kikumaru-senpai hugged me? I told myself he's my friend and that he wouldn't do bad things to me, but I still screamed like he was going to hurt me. I don't understand why I do those things with other people…but I don't even think twice about running to your side. Why do I feel it's ok for you to touch me but no one else?"
"I'm like a security blanket to you," Fuji laced his fingers together. "I don't know why you came to me out of everyone else…but I feel as if you feel safe around me. Maybe it's because I was able to stop your father before he went too far once again. It's really unclear to me."
"Senpai, what's going to happen to me? What if I can't control what my body does?" Ryoma wiped his eyes. "I keep having these images flash in my head…and the nightmares I have at night make me sick to the stomach."
"I'll continue to be here to pull you out of that darkness, so you don't have to worry."
Ryoma wobbled his way to the bed and plopped himself down on his stomach. "My whole body aches when I think about what he did. Even though I know what he did was wrong, I can't help but feel like I'm supposed to forgive him."
"Why's that?" Fuji laid down next to the young boy.
"Because he's still my dad in the end. He taught me how to play tennis…and without him, I wouldn't be here."
"Echizen, don't ever think that that man deserve your forgiveness. The way he treated you shouldn't be given anything other than a life in jail. Anyways, you're loved more here."
"Loved more here?" he repeated.
"It's nothing…"
"Senpai, sometimes you confuse me too."
"It must run in my family."
"Yeah…" Ryoma laughed as his eye lids closed and he drifted off to sleep.
Fuji gently rubbed Ryoma's back to relax him. He pulled the covers over the small body and went to his phone that began to ring. "Hello?" There was a pause as Fuji shook his head. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, Tezuka. Bye." He placed the phone off to the side and gazed down at Ryoma. "The real nightmare might have just begun…"
NOTE: Hello reader, thank you for finishing this chapter. How did you like it? Were you expecting it to start with Tezuka? Yeah, I know I wasn't until I got this random idea at some point today. I don't know, I kind of like what happened.
So, I have a few random things to talk to you about! First, I was bought seven new books. They're from the 1980s, and they're all in Japanese. I love the way they look on my bookshelf. Second, I found the university I would more than love to go to. Sadly, it's in Japan. I would just love to go to Waseda University though (Random fact about this university; Minami Keisuke, who was the 3rd generation's Tezuka in the musicals, went to said school.). I don't think I'll ever get to go to this university though. Third, I have special side projects that I'm going to be working on. They're all a secret though…meaning no one knows about them (They are all Prince of Tennis related though.). Fourth, my website isn't loading for me. It's really annoying me because I'm trying to do updates. I wonder if it's just on my end or something else.
Okay, just a little more to say. As you all should probably know, my writing goes beyond fanfiction. I currently have some ideas for new novels to write (original, not fanfiction novels that is), but I don't know which one to start first. If anyone is interested, I'm looking for a few people who are willing to read my ideas (which are more like a few sentences) and possibly give me your thoughts on what you think of them and such. Just like in my fic writing, I focus on maleXmale relationships. I would also like some feedback on some of my current works (most of these are scripts that I would have animated…). If any of you are interested in giving me some feedback, please message me. I don't read much, so I have no clue if these things are overdone or anything. I need help…thank you~!
To end, I would like to say that I found a song that, to me, fits this fic. It's called "End of the World" and it's by Blake Lewis (Don't hate me for liking random artists. I mainly listen to Japanese music, so I'm not really up to date with music in English nor do I want to be with the subjects most music here in the States talk about.). I really want to draw something with this fic and that song…so lazy though. I'm going to try and do some art for this fic though (not much if any). Next update should be March 11th. Oh, I know what song I'm going to listen to over and over while writing the last chapter. It's "Your Guardian Angel" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. That's another song that I feel goes well with this fic. I know that was rather random. I've gone on way too long with this note. Thank you so much for reading this chapter. I hope you'll come back for the next chapter and continue until the very end. Thank you so much for your support~!
(Chapter 10! We hit chapter 10! We should celebrate~!)