Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

Eiji's POV

I had no idea what was wrong with me but seeing Oishi and Alex together just made my blood boil. Something had passed between them in these last couple of days and it was like they were going to keep getting closer and closer until…

I shook the unhappy thoughts from my mind and tried to concentrate on the book I was trying to read. We were all sitting around in the foyer to the school. It was pretty cold outside so now we had to practice on our own time on inside courts. One of the worst things about winter.

I risked a glance across the space of our group to look at Shuichiro but it was obvious to me that he was distracted. Every time the double doors would open he would quickly glance up and see who was coming in the door. I felt that familiar feeling of my blood beginning to boil. Couldn't he at least try to hide how smitten he was with her?

I tossed down my book and everyone looked up to stare at me. I glared at Shuichiro until he registered that I was even looking at him. Once he saw the look on my face I could tell that he groaned internally.

"Not now Eiji." He said, standing up when he saw Leon come through the front doors. I also stood up and saw that Shuichiro and Leon made eye contact and something passed between them but Leon just strode right by us without saying anything.

"What was that?" I tried to ask casually.

"I don't know." Shuichiro said, running his hands through his hair. "I think it was about the fight they had last night." I didn't need to ask who because it was obvious to associate Alex with Leon but there was one thing that bothered me.

"How do you know they were fighting last night?" I could hear the anger evident in my own voice and I cursed at myself for not being able to keep my cool. Shuichiro closed his eyes and I knew that he was sorry that he let that one slip.

"Well, I was with them last night." He said through gritted teeth.

"With them?" I asked dangerously. "Or just her?"

"Ryoma and Leon were there the entire time too." Shuichiro said, now turning on me. "How could you think that I would do such a thing to you?"

"You have been spending a lot of time with her." I told him, looking down at my nails so that I didn't have to see the look on his face. "And I saw the way you looked at her all day yesterday. Something has changed with you 2 and there can only be one explanation."

"On what wavelength?" Shuichiro shouted at me. I almost took a step back at the anger and hurt in his voice but I decided this was one fight we had duke out.

"Are you going out with her or aren't you?" I shouted back, equally angry.

"Of course not." He said. There was another gust of wind and instantly he looked at the door to see if it was her.

"You can't lie to me. You care more for her then you ever did in the past." I shouted, closing the distance between us quickly.

"It's true that I misjudged her." Shuichiro shouted back at me. "And I'm sorry for what she's going through and that I forced her hand."

"So the other day…" I said, leaving the rest open for him to fill in the blanks.

"The other day when we skipped school I went with her and she told me what happened with her." He told me carefully and tried to explain more. "I had no idea that it was that severe. I thought it was something petty."

"And what exactly did she all tell you?" I asked. He studied me for a moment and I could tell that he was calculating.

"I can't tell you." He said after a minute of staring into my eyes. "It isn't my right to tell you and by all fairness I shouldn't even know myself."

"Bullshit." I said, my blood returning to boiling point once again. "There is something going on between you 2 but your just not man enough to tell me yourself."

"Man enough?" Shuichiro shouted. "Man enough. This is not about my pride or your feelings this is about what's best for Alex."

"What's best for Alex?" I asked, almost laughing. "Cause you would know so much about that. You never cared about her feelings until 2 days ago. What has changed that made you so sympathetic to her case?"

"I've had enough." Shuichiro scoffed.

"Yeah?" I asked as he was turning away. "Well I'm not done with you." I grabbed him by the shoulder to make him face me and tell me what was going on once and for all.

He took a step away from me and pushed my arm away so rough that I was caught off balance and almost fell to my left.

"I said I've had enough." Shuichiro said dangerously.

"Not until you give me some straight answers and not this half ass bullshit." I spat, trying once again to grab a hold of his arm. There was no real reason for us to fight but I could already tell that that's where it was going to end up anyway.

Shuichiro took a swing at me but I dodged it and stepped to the side. I made for a left hook but he was just as fast and also dodged. Without warning, I felt all my weight as Shuichiro grabbed me around the waist in a massive bear hug and picked me up and slammed me into the wall. Instantly all the air was knocked out of me and I was completely winded. He took this moment of weakness to his advantage and hit me so hard in my jaw that I swear he had just broken it.

"Hey." I heard Momo shout from somewhere far away. "Break it up."

Without really thinking I lashed out, hoping I got him somewhere that would count when all this was over. I felt a small pang of joy as my closed fist hit soft flesh and his bear hug seemed to lessen. That was all I needed and with my catlike reflexes I wriggled free of his bear hug and hit him in his left side that was open and defenseless.

"Hey." Shusuke also tried to stop us from fighting but I wasn't having it. I was going to get answers from him one way the other.

I felt another pang of joy as I actually saw my fist connect this time and I knew that I had hit him good.

"Why won't you just tell her how you feel?" He shouted at me, which seemed like the logical thing to do in this situation.

"What does it matter to you?" I shouted back. "You never cared." This time he grabbed me by my T-shirt and slammed me into the wall behind us.

"Because she loves you." He shouted back. "Why are you so blind that you can't see the obvious?"

"How would you know?" I shouted, trying anything to get out of his grip and get back at him for causing me so much pain.

"Cause she told me." He shouted. Now that got my attention and I instantly stopped trying to fight him.

"What?" I whispered.

"You were so mad about me and her getting close that you looked past her feelings for you." He shouted, still infuriated at me. "She thinks she doesn't deserve you because the accident that killed her twin sister and older brother was her fault."

"Let him go Shuichiro." Instantly my body seemed to come to attention as Tezuka stood there before me and Shuichiro. Obviously it caused him great difficulty to do it but he let me go and stared death at me nonetheless.

"What's going on here?" He asked in that voice that no one dared refuse to answer. Shuichiro looked away and I was in no shape to answer either as I worked my jaw, making sure it wasn't broken.

"She loves you, you know." Shuichiro said softly. "But you're just too dumb to see it."

"Dumb?" I asked stepping forward but Shusuke was too fast and stepped in between us.

"Yeah." Shuichiro shouted at me, trying to get around Shusuke too, so much so that Momo had to jump in and him back. "Didn't you just hear what I just said? She honestly doesn't think that she deserves to be happy. Her twin sister and older brother died because of her. How would you feel if that happened to you? How would you cope with something that tragic?"

"I would.." The strangest thing happened to me right then. I lost my voice. The weight of what Shuichiro was saying came crashing down on me and I was too stunned to say anything then.

"I didn't want to tell you." Shuichiro said, anger still lining his voice. "Since she loved you I thought it was only fair for her to tell you herself. These past 2 days I've been trying to get her to talk to you but she won't listen to me."

"You were trying to get her to talk to me?" I almost whispered to myself.

"Yeah." Shuichiro said so angry that in that moment I felt so small and insignificant. "And what do you accuse me of doing?"

"I'm.." I started but Shuichiro waved me off.

"I don't want to hear it." He shouted. "How could think that I would do that? To you of all people? I love you like a brother and that's what you think of me?"

"I didn't mean to…" I tried again.

"Forget it." Shuichiro shouted his face flushed red and his eyes cold and unforgiving. "I've had it with you and your ridiculous assumptions." He threw one last glare at me and I felt in that moment that he hated me more than he was ever capable of hating anyone and that he was never going to forgive me.

It was silent as we all stood around, no one saying anything. No one coming forward to tell me that it was going to be alright and that Shuichiro was going to get over it in an hour because the truth of the matter was that he probably wasn't going to get over this one so easy.

I hung my head and was tempted to slide down the wall and just sit there for the rest of the day and not go anywhere or do anything.

"Let's get to class." Tezuka said after a few minutes had passed. I gathered my stuff up and headed in the general direction I had hoped my class was. How was I ever going to fix this.

Ryoma's POV

I sat there and paced back and forth in the living room, not being able to sit down in one spot for very long. If I knew Alex half as well as I thought I did, she was going to call any moment now. She had to call. I was going out of my mind with worry at the current moment.

I slowed my walk down and counted 12 steps to the other side of the room right where the window was. The phone rang and in an instant reaction, I flew across the room in 2 seconds and answered it.

"Hello." I asked, almost afraid to breathe.

"Hey Ryoma." I heard a happy voice on the other end. "Is your father home?"

"Yes." I said letting out a pent up breath. I handed the phone to my dad and even though he talked for no more than a minute, to me it seemed like he talked for a half hour. He got off the phone and sat down on the couch next to my mother.

"It's alright." My mother said, looking at both of us in turn. "She's going to call." My dad continued to sit there next to her and I couldn't help but start pacing back and forth again. It seemed like she took a lifetime to call and it was a miracle when the phone rang 15 minutes later.

Once again, I raced across the room and answered in one breath.

"Hello." And nothing but silence followed so I tried again. "Hello."

"Ryoma?" Came Alex's voice on the other end, so soft and careful.

"Yes." I said, relieved that she was o.k. "It's me."

"I'm sorry." She said. I knew her so well that in my mind's eye I could see the tears that were forming there already.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." I told her, holding onto the phone and trying to reassure her of that fact.

"You're not a very good liar." She half laughed, half cried.

"I'm not lying." I told her.

"You and I both know that what Leon said last night was true." She said in a quiet voice.

"No." I said, angrily. "Don't you dare listen to Leon."

"Why not?" She asked me forcibly. "Why not listen to him when he's right? He's right about the way I've been acting. I've been acting selfish and only thinking about myself and it's not fair to you, or Nanjiro or Rinko." I closed my eyes and I could almost see her standing there in a beat up old phone booth somewhere downtown and crying like she was, undoubtedly, right now.

"Look. Leon maybe right and he may not be right. But we can figure this out. Together." I willed her to tell me where she was so that dad and I could go and pick her up and I could sleep sound tonight knowing that she was alright.

"No." She said quietly and it felt like a cold hand gripped my heart and squeezed it so tight that I could no longer breath.

"Alex." I said carefully, already knowing what was coming in the back of my mind. "Please don't do anything stupid."

"It won't be anything stupid. I'm just not coming home until I come face to face with you and tell you just how much I miss them."

"No. No. No." I said, frustrated. "We can work through this together. Let me help you. Please." The last word came out choked and I hated myself for being so weak.

"You deserve more then what I'm giving you." She told me quietly on the other end. "We will talk about this when I get home. I promise." There was a click on the other end and the time seemed to freeze for me.

"Alex?" I asked experimentally. When there was no answer, I slammed the phone died and buried my head in my arms. "Ahhh.."

I screamed and flipped over the whole stand that the phone was sitting on. The lamp and everything came crashing to the floor.

"She's not coming home until she faces the accident." I said in small voice.

"Don't worry Ryoma." My dad said softly. "She's a lot stronger then you give her credit for." I shook my head. I just hoped beyond hope that she was going to be alright. There was something in the back of my mind that told me something wasn't quite right.

I shook off the momentary feeling of foreboding and I went to my room. I quickly put on my running shoes and decided that I would run my anger away. How long that would take… I had no idea nor did I care.

A/N: So the fight in the beginning was something that just came into my mind. I've learned from experience that no matter how close you are to someone, if you're stubborn enough and think your right you'll go to any lengths to prove your point sadly =( I hope you enjoy and until next time…