A Kiss to Remember
Summary: Fuji collapses one day and wakes up five years later to a world where no one remembers that he ever existed.
Warnings: Shounen-ai, swearing
Pairings: Ryoma x Fuji, Tezuka x Fuji
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine.
Here's the last dream thingy. I was going to do Yuuta's Dreams, too, but I didn't have any more ideas for dreams. Saeki and Fuji are so cute together, at least I think so. I don't find this pairing much, though, sadly. But oh well! Here's a chapter dedicated to these two wonderful friends! Please read, review, and enjoy. Oh, and there's this thing in this chapter that they do (jumping from trees, to be specific) that I don't think is possible, but I put it here anyway. For fun.
Chapter 10: Saeki's Dreams:
"Syusukeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!" shouted an excited voice that rang loudly through the bright sun. Fuji stood innocently on top of a hill where he was to meet Saeki and suddenly out of nowhere, the said boy jumped out and on top of a surprised Fuji. With the force, Fuji fell backward onto the grass, causing them both to tumble down the hill. Saeki wrapped his arms around Fuji and Fuji held onto Saeki's shirt, as if for dear life. It was pretty much for dear life, anyway, since it was the only care the two first-graders had on their minds.
When the two rolled to the bottom of the hill, Saeki ended up on top of Fuji once again. He looked down at the brunette and planted a soft, innocent kiss on Fuji's nose. "Syusuke!!! I missed you!"
Fuji chuckled. "Kojiroh, I saw you yesterday, remember?"
"Yeah, but that's a long time!" Saeki shouted. Fuji smiled. "Now come on! Let's go into the forest!"
"You know we're not supposed to be there. Our parents said by the hill," Fuji reminded him.
"Who cares? Besides, the forest is by the hill, right? We always go there!" Saeki said.
"Yeah, and we always get yelled at when our parents or Yumiko find us lost in the forest," Fuji pointed out.
"They never really punish us, right? Besides, it's so worth it!" Saeki said with a mischievous glint in his dark blue eyes.
Fuji sighed. "Alright."
Saeki cheered. "I wasn't going to let you say no, anyway," he said, pulling himself and Fuji to their feet. He took Fuji's hand and literally dragged the smaller boy the direction of the forest.
The two young boys ran through the forest excitedly, not even caring whether they got lost or not. They knew their parents would find them soon, anyway, and the thrill of not knowing where in the world you were or what you were doing was enough to fuel them on.
Saeki suddenly reached his hands up and swung onto a tree branch. "I bet I can climb higher than you, Syusuke!" He scrambled up the tree as fast as his legs would carry him, and Fuji was right behind him.
They were about halfway up when Saeki started panting. "I'm tired," he said. "How about you?"
"Not so much," Fuji said, smiling. "That means I can climb higher than you." He started up the opposite side of the tree that Saeki was on and reached the branch above his.
"Oh no you don't!" Saeki said, gathering energy out of nowhere and passing Fuji again. Fuji started climbing after Saeki, just as competitive as the white haired boy was. Soon enough, the two were at the top of the tree, and both of them were really starting to feel the extent of their exhaustion now.
The tree wasn't the tallest in the forest, but the two, as they rested on the same branch, still found staring out through the canopy of the forest fascinating. Since it wasn't every day that they were lucky enough to pick out one of the tallest trees, but not the tallest. Most of the time when Saeki and Fuji climbed trees, they got unlucky and picked out a relatively short one.
Fuji leaned his head on Saeki's shoulder and was still breathing deeply. Fuji would feel Saeki's shoulders rise and fall and he could hear the sound of the older boy's breathing quite well.
"Saa, we got lucky this time," Fuji said, voicing his own thoughts.
Saeki could only nod and look up at the sun shining through the leaves remaining on the branches that were too small to support their weight. After a long while of just hearing the rustle of the wind blowing the leaves throughout the forest, Saeki finally said, "Are you ready?"
"Ready when you are, Kojiroh." Saeki took Fuji's left hand in his own and they both stood up steadily on the branch and felt so much higher than they were before.
"1…"
"2…"
"3!!!!" they both shouted and jumped from the tree. They both spotted the nearest branch of the tree next to them, and of course they were looking at the same branch because they knew each other so well. Fuji reached up his right hand and Saeki his left and they grabbed onto the branch together, expertly.
Not even swinging once from that branch, they let go again and grabbed another branch, one after the other, until they reached the ground. They hit the soft grass together and collapsed in giggles. This was routine for them, but they normally didn't do it from so high.
There was really no point in jumping off the tree other than the thrill of freely falling through the air, with nothing restraining them. It was a lot quicker than climbing down the tree anyway, and required much less effort. They knew to break their fall by swinging from the branches because of the first time they had jumped from a tree about ten meters off the ground. Fuji had emerged with a broken arm and Saeki a broken leg. And they had both received a good, long lecture from their parents.
"Did you bring lunch?" Fuji asked. Saeki shook his head.
"Why, are you hungry?"
"Kind of," Fuji said regrettably. "Do you know which way we came from?"
Saeki again shook his head and Fuji sighed jokingly. "You know I never keep track of it."
"That's right," Fuji said. "Well then, someone will find us sooner or later." Fuji had to admit, it felt terribly conceited to say something like that, making himself feel like a pampered prince, but it was the truth. He knew enough by this age that most parents loved their children too much to leave them there. And the two weren't scared by anything. Rather, they were excited by the thrill.
It was all the thrill. That was where Fuji's strange way of playing tennis came from; the thrill of everything, of pushing his opponent to the limit. To Fuji, and even Saeki, if it could be thrilling, it was. They weren't scared by anything that provided them with the satisfactory feeling of their hearts beating quickly, knowing that they were hanging onto not being injured, or even life, by a thin, thin wire.
Saeki got up and helped up Fuji and they continue to trek through the forest, after that tiring yet exciting tree ordeal. The two suddenly came to a river. "Neh, Kojiroh, I don't remember this river. We've never been here before," Fuji said.
"All the more reason to go on!" an excited Saeki shouted, and Fuji laughed. "But where can we cross?"
"Let's just walk along the river, and if we find something, we'll cross there," Fuji suggested. Saeki nodded, turned and started walking. Behind Saeki's back, Fuji eyed the river warily. He remembered where he was this time. He was in a forest by his house, when he was six years old. Something happened here, but he couldn't remember what. If he didn't remember, it shouldn't be important…right?
"Syusuke!" Saeki shouted. Fuji realized then that he had stopped walking and ran over to Saeki. But that didn't seem to be what Saeki was shouting about. "Syusuke! I found a way to cross!"
Fuji looked in the general direction that his best friend was looking and saw a log conveniently fallen across the river. "Want to go first?" he asked Saeki.
"Why, you scared?" Saeki teased. Fuji glared at him. "Kidding; I'll go." He first tested the log, and in Fuji's eyes, it seemed to be very sturdy. It must've recently fallen. Fuji helped Saeki up onto the log and he walked over with ease. He jumped off at the other end and beckoned for Fuji to come over. Fuji stepped onto the log carefully. He had been right; it was sturdy.
Fuji always had good balance. He was always secure on things that were attached to the ground somehow, or flat things, like a balance beam or a seesaw. But what he was crossing now was a fallen log, not attached to the ground and cylindrical. Fuji walked across it slowly, not scared, but downright terrified. He, of course, didn't let it show, and focused all his attention on the part of the log where he was going to take his next step.
"C'mon, Syusuke! If you walk faster, it's not so bad!" Saeki said, but there was no way that Fuji was going to walk any faster than he was now. Slowly but surely, Fuji crossed to the other side. "See? That wasn't so bad, was it?" Saeki said when Fuji was about a meter from the edge.
Fuji breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head. Suddenly, though, as if on cue, his foot slipped. Oh yeah, he thought. Now I remember what happened. It should be no matter, if I make my movements exactly as I had on that day, Saeki should catch me. I remember this day clearly now, Fuji thought. Another day from his past. He tried to steady himself, but it was hard on one foot, and he lost his balance and fell into the river. He screamed loudly and with surprise.
"Syusuke!!!" Saeki shouted and grabbed Fuji's hand. See? Fuji told himself. Fine, like usual. But the river's current proved to be too strong, and Fuji felt himself slipping from Saeki's grasp. W—What? What's going on?! This isn't how it happened in the past!
"Kojiroh!!!!!!" Fuji cried as he watched Saeki struggle to keep his grip, but to no avail. Fuji's hand slipped away from Saeki's as he was carried down the river.
"SYUSUKE!!!!!!!!!" Saeki shouted and ran after Fuji as fast as his could. The last thing Fuji heard was Saeki's frantic, six-year old voice before he was plunged under the top of the water. Fuji tried to swim to the top, but the current above him wouldn't have any of it. He felt his lungs giving out on him and saw black spots in his blurred vision. The last thing he thought was, it wasn't supposed to turn out this way…and everything went black.
Fuji sat up, gasping for breath. He looked around the room. It was his room, in Ryoma's house. He hadn't gone to Ryoma's room for bed tonight, because he still hadn't made up with him yet.
What had just happened? All he could remember was the terrible burning feeling in his lungs, which had of course gone away. Fuji could still feel his heart beating quickly, though, and he put his hand over the left side of his chest, as if it would slow it down or something.
Fuji was still panting. Another nightmare? This time, about Saeki instead of Yumiko? All of his dreams so far had been about something that had happened in his past gone horribly wrong. In this dream, Saeki could see him, though, since Saeki already remembered him again, and Yumiko didn't. But this dream was even worse than the last one, since not only was it mentally terrifying, it was also physically terrifying.
Fuji was still sitting up in his bed when he heard a soft knock on the door, and then it clicked open. It was Saeki. "What are you doing here?" Fuji asked him earnestly.
"Just…just checking on you, to see if you were alright," Saeki said quietly. "What are you doing awake?"
Fuji looked down. "I just had a nightmare. And I always wake up after nightmares and I can't go back to sleep."
Saeki looked at him understandingly. Fuji felt his cheeks becoming wet. He was crying. He hoped Saeki couldn't see him as he reached his hands up and wiped away the tears. But Saeki had seen him. He walked over to the bed and embraced Fuji tightly as Fuji's body shook with silent sobs. Saeki felt tears in his own eyes, too, and wiped them away while still keeping one arm around his friend.
They had been friends for so long. No words were needed for each of them to know that the other had just had the exact same dream.
Awww...Saeki and Fuji are cute. Just...cute. :D And I always like writing dreams, even though it may be a pain to read because it's in italics. But whatever. Please review before you fave/alert! Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! I can't thank you guys enough! I'm almost at 10 reviews per chapter, which is really, really exciting! And thank you to all the anonymous reviewers, too. Just letter you know that I'm reading your reviews, even though I can't reply to them, and they make my day! So thanks to all reviewers!