A/N: I have completely revised this story. I was bored, and it needed doing...I've changed some mistakes and taken some small things out of the story. And I have also added an extra chapter; which I had accidentally - not entirely sure how - missed out beforehand...which was troublesome...and I wanted to add it in...therefore you might want to read the story again; although you won't be missing overly much if you don't. Although I do like the story much better the way it is now...Thankies muchly to anyone who has reviewed in the past! :D WOopWoop! I love you all...and I hope you enjoy the new version of the story...

Song for this chapter: Two again: 1: Teardrops on my guitar - Taylor Swift, 2: Without you I'm nothing - Placebo

Chapter 11: Cracking

Three days after Tezuka had realised his affections towards his friend; Tezuka could barely contain himself. The last three days had been almost torturous for him, and he suddenly understood how people could 'suffer in love'. He now realised that love was certainly not all about bunnies, blue skies, and boxes of cheap chocolate. So far he had not smelled any roses, and he hadn't given any either. That was for sure.

Over the last three days, he had watched her, with an unfamiliar pain in his heart. Every move she made, he watched silently.

The day after he realised his affections for her was a Tuesday. On this Tuesday, he got to school after her, and they sat and talked before lessons together; just like they usually did. This time, however, Tezuka started to notice things that he hadn't noticed before; like the way her mouth moved as she talked; and the way she used her hands, in small gestures, to help explain things; even if she was just talking about how Ryoma's cat managed to trip him up on the stairs that morning, and how funny it was to watch him fall down to the bottom in a heap.

During that Tuesday, he could barely concentrate on anything; he was completely distracted by the person sitting next to him. He had almost got a question wrong just because he wasn't listening properly. Luckily, Ayame had managed to save him at the last minute by 'accidentally' falling off her chair, and whispering the answer to him as he 'helped her up'.

He was even distracted in tennis practice that afternoon. He'd almost managed to get hit on the head with a tennis ball during one of the exercises. He had a feeling that he would be central to the regulars discussions in the changing rooms tonight. He was, in fact, embarrassed about his few mistakes. He never normally made mistakes; and the couple he made today cost him. It cost him about a pint of Inui Juice.

As expected, after the practice, when Tezuka walked into the changing rooms; everyone suddenly fell silent. They'd unquestionably been talking about him. He opted to shower and change quickly, before making a speedy exit; managing to catch the earlier train for the first time in a long time.

Wednesday; the day of the English test, was just as bad. The English words for 'I am datable' were echoing through his head for most of the test. He was confident that he'd get his usual 100, however, he now had a headache as well.
As per usual, when she had done well at something, Ayame had turned to him after the test and given him a grin and a wink. This time, however, it just felt to Tezuka as if she were mocking him. But he got up and followed her to the cafeteria, even though all he really wanted to do was go and find some pills, water, and a quiet spot, for that lunchtime. That was when he realised he'd probably follow her anywhere – even if she didn't gesture to him, as she had when she'd skipped out of class, and towards the lunch area.

He supposed his 'reward' as it were, for following her, and not abandoning her, was to get squashed up against her in the lunch cheque. He was so close that she was pressed against his stomach, and he could smell her hair. As he knew she would take it as nothing more than a friendly gesture, he let his head fall and rest on her shoulder, and his arm rest on the side, so he was touching her slightly with the sleeve of his uniform. It wasn't much, but it let him feel closer to her. In retaliation, she had lent back onto him; it felt as if they were joined from the top of their bodies, Tezuka thought, and heard her sigh. He wondered if she felt the same way as him at all.

All too soon, the feeling was over, as the lunch cheque moved forwards; they bought their food and went to sit at their normal table; the one in the back left hand corner, and sat in wait for the rest of the regulars.
Tennis practice was a little better that night.

Thursday soon came, and with it another round of torture. The night before he had barely been able to sleep; as he argued with himself over whether or not he should speak to her about his feelings; and he paid the price in the morning. He was exhausted for tennis practice; but somehow he managed to make it through without any faults; 'thank God' he told himself.

Thursday meant that he didn't have the last two lessons with her, again, like on Mondays; they had games. Another lesson for which he was, annoyingly, exhausted; although on Thursday he had noticed that Ayame also looked quiet tired. They didn't talk much on that day because they were both so tired.

Every night his mother quizzed him on when he would be bringing her 'future daughter' home. Every night he realised that she wasn't the only one who wanted to know.

He cracked on Friday; he himself had wondered how long he would last. It was until Friday; the forth day since he had realised his feelings. He must be terrible at this stuff.

Because he was unable to talk to Ayame about this particular issue; because it revolved around spilling his feelings to her. Tezuka felt he had two options, these being: Telling Oishi, or telling Fuji.

His options were severally limited. In the end though, Tezuka decided that the mother hen of Seigaku, and his closest male fiend, Oishi, would probably be his safest bet. He had no idea what the sadistic side of Fuji would make of his predicament; but he was quite certain that he did not want to know. He would merely have to make it quite clear to Oishi that he was not opposed to using his power as the boy's tennis captain, if anyone; namely Eiji, were to find out what he was going to spill to him.

After a day of torture, Tezuka finally managed to get up the nerve to ask Oishi to join him after school, as he had something he wanted to talk to him about. He doubted that Oishi would know what hit him when he told him what his problem was. His co-captain probably thought that Tezuka wanted to discuss the line up for the next tennis matches; or who would be the next tennis captain for Seigaku. Tezuka grimaced, and internally groaned at this thought; he was so distracted, he hadn't even thought about it.

That was how, that night, Tezuka ended up sitting in an ice cream parlour, far enough away from school that no one from Seigaku was around, eating an ice cream that he didn't want, wrestling with his confidence, and trying to get up the nerves to ask Oishi's opinion on his dilemma.

Oishi was sitting opposite Tezuka, and was quite worried about his friend, and captain's behaviour. Oishi knew himself that he had always been the 'mother of Seigaku' since he fussed over the regulars, his friends, so much. And this was probably why – because all of them were insane. Tezuka had asked him earlier on in the day to meet up with him after school so that they could 'talk about something'. He had assumed, at the time, that this had something to do with tennis; and perhaps next years captain. He had assumed that Tezuka would chose Ryoma as the new captain; but it was a hard choice, especially when Kaido and Momoshiro were in the second year; and Ryoma was only in the first year.

However; Tezuka had brought him to a, quite far away, ice cream parlour; and was acting as Oishi would imagine him to do when talking to his crush. This thought made Oishi worry quite a lot. He may have been gay; not that Tezuka knew – he hoped. However, he did not really want to be the object of the tennis captain, and his best friend's affections. Especially when a bouncy, and very clumsy redhead, already held his own.

It was just as Oishi was about to ask Tezuka what he wanted to say, when the boy looked up at him; a pained expression on his face, and slowly started to tell him what his problem was.

Oishi managed to retain his laughter. He had been worried that Tezuka had liked him for a few moments of his life; but now he knew that Tezuka had, in fact, fallen for a redhead, just like Oishi had. It was rather cute when he thought about it. However; it turned out that Tezuka was straight.

He had to breath in and out deeply for a few moments, before picking at his ice cream, thinking over his reply. Finally, he sighed, and decided to get it over with; having chosen his next words carefully.

"Do you know if she likes you?" he asked gently.

"Not at all", Tezuka replied, sounding a bit upset.

"I think you should tell her", Oishi informed him; after all, he would never know how the girl felt unless he did tell her.
"Ah", Tezuka replied.

They sat there in silence for a while, eating their ice creams, until, eventually, Tezuka thanked him, got up, paid for their ice creams, and left.

Oishi sat there in silence for a while longer; pondering on what he had heard today, and decided that he'd better get home. He shook his head worriedly, and left.

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The day after she had been to his house, Tezuka had started to seem distant. He was still talking; but she felt that he was concentrating almost too hard on the conversation. She had let this slide, but later on in the day she had noticed that he wasn't concentrating on his lessons; this was very unlike him. He must have had something on his mind. Luckily, when he was asked a question; she saw that he was going to say the wrong answer; and managed to save his good reputation by ruining her own. Apparently falling off a chair was detention worthy in Japan. At least, however, she had managed to slip him the answer when he'd 'helped her up', which was what she had been aiming for. He was so happy about it, it seemed, that he'd even managed to spare her a rare smile; something that always made her extremely happy for some reason. 'Tezuka smiles' as she'd dubbed them, were rare, but they were always the best, and for some reason; always managed to give her a good feeling.

Because she was worried about him; Ayame had stayed to watch his tennis practice that afternoon; she'd asked the teacher if she could have her detention the next day, claiming that she had an urgent appointment to go to.
She had seen Tezuka play tennis before, many times, although most of those times he was not up to full health. But because of this, she could tell that he was without doubt not playing up to his normal standard. His form was off, and he made several mistakes. They were all very small mistakes, like hitting the ball just out by a millimetre; but they were still mistakes; and she knew him well enough to know that Tezuka Kunimitsu did not make mistakes.

Because she was concentrating on Tezuka, rather than her surroundings, due to worry; the missed the fact that she was about to get caught by the teacher she'd told she had a 'very important, un- miss - able appointment' to which got her another detention; and a very long winded, and boring lecture about 'watching boys play tennis', and the 'misconduct of youth today'.

She didn't mind though; as long as she was looking out for her friend.

Wednesday was an infinitely better day. It was the day of the English test; and she knew Tezuka would do well on the test, because everything that they had revised together had come up. Excluding of course, the proper way to say 'I am datable' in English; she chuckled at this thought. And, in her normal victorious way, she turned and winked at him after the test. She was pleased to note that he looked quite confident about it.

She gestured to him that he should follow her to lunch; she hadn't brought lunch from home today, so she headed to the cafeteria; he followed behind her as usual. Tezuka almost always bought his lunch at school, rather than bringing it from home; unless she brought him in a bentou; as she sometimes did for the regulars. She figured that he wasn't much of a cook.

The lunch cheque, as per usual, was a hustle and bustle of hungry students. She spotted Momo and Ryoma ahead, squished against the side, fighting each other to get to lunch first; and she laughed to herself. She herself was squished up against the side; her front was being pushed into a gaggle of first years; and behind her was Tezuka. She was pleasantly surprised when said boy leant his head down against her shoulder; his cool breath ran down her neck; getting rid of some of the heat of the busy room, and his arm resting on the side next to her. It felt good to have him there; sort of like a protective shell. She decided she liked the feeling quite a lot; and leant back into him, savouring the feeling of him against her back. Their position probably looked a bit intimate to anyone looking on; but she could just put it down to the squish of the cheque.

In all honesty, she was quite upset when the movement of the lunch cheque moved them apart. She hoped he would sitnext to her at lunch; but Momo and Ryomawere already sitting down; so the two ended up sitting onnext to each; opposite each other.

Tezuka looked quite distant during lunch, although he made some small talk with the regulars. She barely managed to catch his eye during the lunch hour; though she usually did whenever one of the other regulars said anything amusing; they would usually laugh together. Wednesday was different though; she didn't think she liked it overly.

That afternoon, she watched him fairly closely. He still seemed distant. She was very worried again; as she had been yesterday. She would have gone to watch him at tennis club that night again; however, she had a double detention to attend. Before she went, though, she managed to text Ryoma and ask him to keep an eye on the stoic captain for her. She knew he would; she knew the boy had a soft spot for the older boy; he was, after all, a very respected captain.

When she was through with her detentions, she met Ryoma outside; he had waited for her – she had told him, well, moaned to him a lot, about her double detention the night before. They walked home together, and he told her that Tezuka seemed better today; more on top of his game. Although he had noticed that the guy was not on top form still.
At least he seemed a little better, was the thought that they both consoled themselves with that night.

Ayame didn't manage to sleep very well last night. She had woken up many times in the night from strange dreams about some one she was very close to.

That someone happened to be Tezuka Kunimitsu. She couldn't really explain it, but somehow, every time she woke up, she really wanted a hug from him. It was an odd feeling; and indescribable. She went to sleep again a while after she had woken up though, telling herself that she would think upon the matter in the morning.

She had opted out of walking to school early with the regulars, who had tennis practice in the morning, that day, in favour of a lie in, after her hectic night. She got to school just before the bell rang, and sat down at her desk just before the man who had plagued her dreams walked in. He looked exhausted too; however, this was probably because he had just had tennis practice – although she noticed that the other tennis regulars in their class (Fuji and Eiji) looked nowhere near as tired as their captain. This caused her to worry again. She couldn't keep too much of an eye on him that day though, because they had games in the last two lessons; which meant that she would be running round a track, and he would be running around a forest for two hours.

During her running, she did, however, manage to get a lot of thinking done. She also managed to get another detention.

She had been running round the track, ahead of the other girls; because of her own personal training at home. And whilst she was running; she was taking into account the boy known as Tezuka Kunimistu. It was halfway through her last lap that she had finally realised why she was so worried.

It was because she was in love with him.

It was this thought that caused her to stop shock still in the middle of the track. It was also this thought, which caused her to stop in the middle of the track, which caused the inevitable pile up which happened when she stopped. And it was this thought, which provoked this inevitable pile up, which caused her to have another detention.
One day, she told herself, he was going to pay for this.

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And that was the reason that, on a beautiful Friday afternoon, the day after the thought, which caused the inevitable pile up, which caused her to have another detention; which she should rightfully have been enjoying with her friends, perhaps Ryoma and Momoshiro, outside in the sun; she ended up in a dull, dreary classroom, with a highly upset sports teacher. Damn.

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Reviews? xx This was two chapters...but I changed it ;) xx