CHAPTER 13

The next morning Syu and Sei where at the table eating breakfast when Shan came though the door.

"Hey, anybody up?" Shan walked into the kitchen and saw the two 18 year old at the table. Not long after, they heard a one man stampede from upstairs and a second later Shan was on his back on the floor with Ryoma hugging the life out of him. "Hey, Ryoma how was the tournament?"

"It was fun. I even got to play tennis." Ryoma carried on talking to Shan as he noticed the injury on his head. Bring his hand up and moving the hair to inspect it. "Oh, and the dogs boyfriend fix my head after it got hurt." Smiling slightly at the boy he asked.

"So does that mean Sei's the girl?"

"Yep, he was being topped by Fuji." You could hear someone choking and another hitting his head on the table. Shan sat up as Ryoma got off. Both sat at the table as Syu tried to recover from a coughing fit and Sei found the table still a nicer view than looking up. "They where being really loud last night and I walked into the room because I was curious and they where both making love to each other. I forgot to cover my ears and tail and Fuji found out that as well." Shan took all the information in and nodded. He looked at the two very embarrassed people from across the table.

"You know..." Shan said slowly making the two look at him. "If you wanted the house to yourself you could of just phoned and I could of got Ryoma to stay with someone. After all I have at least 5 people who would be happy to look after him on such short notice." Sei and Syu looked at each other before looking at Ryoma who seemed more concerned with drinking the ponta that he had found in the cupboard.

Syusuke had gone home around midday and Shan had decided to get some sleep. So now Sei was sitting in the lounge watching Ryoma. Ryoma was just staring at a wall.

"Ryoma what are you doing? Nothings there." He got no answer. Standing up he walked over to the boy and saw where his eyes where looking. He had finally answer when Sei waved a hand in front of his face.

"I'm thinking."

"About what?"

"I don't know." 'Well, that's helpful.' Sei thought.

"Doctor Oishi is going to be here in about 10 minutes." The boy gave him a wide eye look of disbelief before running up the stairs and into Shan's room and under the covers with the sleeping man.

5 minutes later Shan was walking down with messed up hair and a Ryoma under one arm. Sei looked at the two as he sat on the couch. Just then a knock was heard on the door. Shan not caring he was only in sweatpants and nothing else answered.

"Hi Shan. You okay? You looked tired." Getting a nod from him and mumble of a come in he lead Akitaka to the lounge and finally put Ryoma down in his corner.

"Stay." He said to the boy in a firm voice. Ryoma knowing not to push his luck especially with a grumpy Shan did just as he was told. "Coffee? Tea?" He asked giving off a yawn.

"Tea please." Doctor Oishi checked over Seiichi first and injecting him with his medicine. Ryoma as soon as seeing the needle went to the kitchen and sat with Shan. Akitaka came and join them along with Sei. "Right Ryoma. I need to check your back and I need to hear your heart."

"Why?" Ryoma asked slowly getting up and stepping near the back door.

"Because I was just wondering about one of the scars on you back. It seems deeper than the rest." Ryoma knew exactly what one he was talking about. All three noticed this and so the doc asked. "Unless you already know what I'm talking about and you haven't told anyone?" With a nod the cat just said he didn't want to talk about it. "What are you so scared of Ryoma?"

"That I find out I'm more animal then human or that more of me is missing." They stood in silence.

"If it helps your animal side is definitely less than half I can ensure you." The boy looked at him to see if he was being truthful and sat back down on his chair.

"How would you know?"

"Because your speaking." It was then Ryoma remembered. The scientists where shock to find him speaking and decided to do a few more tests on him after.

"They said the same you know. The scientists said that it was amazing that I could speak the human language still."

Doctor Oishi left after 2 hours. He made no progress with Ryoma. He couldn't exactly force the boy.

It was getting late in the day and Ryoma had wondered off somewhere in the house. He was looking forward to tomorrow as the ranking tournament was meant to start. With curling up under Sei's bed he fell asleep wondering which regulars he would get to face.

The next day Ryoma was bouncing around the house getting ready.

"Shan are we going to leave now?" The said man walked down the stairs still not dressed. "What's going on? Why aren't you ready?"

"Ryoma. Syu phone yesterday afternoon once you had gone to bed and seeing as he practically walks this way to school he asked if you would want to walk with him. He also meets up with someone else on the way."

"Ok." He said as he put his stuff at the front door. Shan stood there stunned.

"Your alright with this. I thought you hated walking with people you don't know that well."

"I do. But he answers my questions." Shan let out a sigh. How could he not of guessed that. "Besides he knows. So it doesn't matter right?"

"Guess not." With a goodbye he waited at the front of the house.

"Hey, Ryo-Chan." Walking with Fuji was nice for Ryoma. They didn't talk but it was a comfortable silence. Both of them had just turned a few more corners when they met up with the other person.

Tezuka was waiting on the corner. He had gotten a text earlier from Fuji telling him he was taking a small detour to go pick up Ryoma. He saw them walking up to him.

"Echizen, Fuji." Ryoma nodded but let his head stay low.

"Hey." With the greetings out the way Syusuke and Kunimitsu walked to school talking about random things while Ryoma did what he did the other day and kept his distance behind them. Fuji once again took note of this. At the school Ryoma wondered off straight away without saying anything. Both of them saw this and decided to leave it. The two of them both went to the tennis club room to meet the other regulars.

Everybody was already there and Sumire was sitting on a chair behind a desk with a smug smirks on her face. She was looking directly at Fuji and he knew she knew something which was possibly blackmail. Instead of a greeting she asked.

"So I heard on Saturday you had a fun day." His eyes opened slightly in shock. 'She knows about that.' Was on his thoughts.

"I have no idea what your talking about, Sumire." He let himself smile. The regulars watch with interest.

"Who said you can call me by my first name?" She looked to the others and back to Syu. "After what you did I'm surprised you didn't call someone to look after the boy. It would of been the smart thing to do." She let of a fake sigh. "And here I thought you where a genius."

"Nya! Fujiko what's she talking about? Which boy? What did you do?" Ignoring Eiji, Syusuke spoke.

"I thought we where meant to be discussing the up coming ranking matches?" Letting off his best smile and trying to act calm.

"Ah, yes we where. It was like I was discussing with Shan across the phone about all the details of the events that took place. I'm surprised Ryoma saw so much."

"What's this got to do with O'chibi?" Fuji froze and all he could think was that this was going to be a very long day.