Hello anybody reading this! This chapter is pretty much entirely FujiTezu-centric. Sorry for those who wanted to see some other parts of the plot develop, but this has to come first!
Sakimi1014- Relax! Relax! Just read on, please!
Shemeno- Of course, please read on then.
Vierblith- I really get the feeling that people added me to their 'kill' list (Along with Ayame, I'm sure) but please understand that there was a reason, such as I can now bring out Tezuka's past, and a few other things. Please just read this chapter, and I hope that I am no longer on your hate list after.
Meino Nanako- Now, I realize that the last chapter was very confusing, but please just read on, as this chapter explains nearly every thing. I promise!
DarkDemonCat- Yeah, this chapter clear it up, really! So, please read on, and just ask if there is something you still don't get! Um, and about the YouheixHiyoshi pairing... Maybe... Hehehe, you'll just have to wait and see, I still have few surprises in store!
ShadowinRW- 'What' what?
Rei2480- Wahh! Demons? I would rather avoid all of that, so I hope the explanations in this chapter are suffice! If not, I'll have to flee the... Um... Universe.
Lucky.Syuusuke.Yukimura- Wahh! I just realized that I misspelled your penname on an earlier review reply! Sumimasen! But, jah, thank you!
Darknesswithinthebush- First, for the evil and sadistic comment- thank you! As for the rest, I'm very glad that you like it so much, and as for how long I plan for it to be... Goodness, I have no idea! This is the first story I've written... EVER... Without knowing for sure how it will end! I normally come up with the ending first, so that I have something to work towards, but for this one, I have no clue.
ForbiddenStars- Ikasu will not make an appearance this chapter, but he will be back soon, I promise. I love him too much to keep him out for too long!
Shimizu Miki- Okay. Hiyoshi and Youhei may or may not end up together. Their are other factors that might decide that, not in the story yet. And, also, if Hiyoshi realized that Youhei was in his bed (And yes, it was Hiyoshi's bed), do you really think that he'd protest? I mean, come on! Youhei's adorable! As for Kaido, yeah, he must have wanted it! -Laughs.- Eiji, by the way, seems to me as well that he would be an excellent listener, and I already know for sure that he is an extremely loyal friend (part of my puppyEiji theory.) Fuji is very lucky to have a friend like him, as many are not so fortunate. And, yeah, neither Yanagi or Jackal are in this story really, because, mostly, if I put Yanagi in it, I would be too tempted to put him with Akaya, and I don't really want that for this story (I like YanagixKirihara, but LOVE BuntaxKirihara). I have an opportunity to add them coming up, however, if you want to see them. The animals are mixed into their DNA, however I personally chose them by things that I thought either fit them, or were humorous.
ImmortalTigress- I am well aware that the TezuFuji scene was confusing, but please do not worry, as it is pretty much explained in this chapter.
RaiPheonix015- Oh, it was all a typo? Hahaha, well then, you are forgiven, and I apologize for spraying you with water! Your school is starting? Mine is ending! Yay! As for the American team, I have a REALLY good idea now... Fufufufu... It's great, I'm so proud... I can't wait to write it! As for Youhei and Hiyoshi, I never said that they were a pairing! They might end up as one, but there are other things yet to happen that will effect that! I actually love InuKai, especially lately, so there is no doubt that there will be a bit more of them then usual in the next few chapters. (Or until I hit my next obsession, which will probably come first!) As for Bunta, if Akaya died, he would probably either, A- kill himself, or B- eat so much cake in his depression that he became very obese and died anyway. Okay, do the second one was a horrible attempt at a joke, but still.
KiriharaAkaya- Then, by all means, read! I was very surprised at the short review, but it made me laugh.
Disclaimer- I do not own Prince of Tennis
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"Eiji, you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even Oishi," Fuji said. He expected Eiji to argue, but the other boy just nodded solemnly. Fuji smiled slightly, grateful for having such a good friend, and took a deep breath before continuing. "Remember that phone call I got earlier today?"
"Hoi, after the snowball fight."
"That was from Ayame Seikaku."
"Nya?! The one that stole your necklace?" Eiji tilted his head to the side, as if to ask 'Why would he call you?' or, perhaps 'How did he get your number?'
Fuji had no answer to the second one, except that Ayame had either gone through Ryuzaki's files, or had somehow found out during the time that he had followed him, so he answered the first. "He... Let me explain what else had happened first." Fuji gave the acrobatic player a quick run down of what else had happened, how Ayame had confessed before he and Kunimitsu had begun dating, how Ayame had talked to Kunimitsu, and about his own suspicions about Ayame's insanity. "So... He called me, and I'm not sure how he even got my number in the first place, but he called me and asked me to meet him in that park downtown. The one with the courts we used to practice on as second years, you know?"
Eiji nodded, and Fuji returned the gesture before continuing.
"He met me there and... Told me that I had to break things off with Kunimitsu." Fuji flinched at saying the name that had once brought him such joy. "He threatened me with... My past."
He knew that Eiji didn't know about the things that had happened in his family, at least, not completely, but he also knew that Eiji was very good at reading people, and probably had some idea. He knew that Eiji at least understood that it was bad.
"But I told him to go ahead and spread it," Fuji said softly. "I would rather people not know about how things were then, or who I was, or, at least, believed myself to be... But I could live with it, if I still had Kunimitsu--" Fuji flinched again "-- by my side. I could get through it." Fuji hesitated. "And, Eiji... Please believe me when I say I'd tell you if I could. I just can't... Bring myself to talk about it anymore."
"Hoi, Fujiko," Eiji smiled, "I can wait. When you're ready, you'll tell me. Someday."
"Someday," Fuji agreed, and Eiji's smiling eyes seemed to say 'I'll hold you to it'. Fuji felt dazed for a moment and tried to regain his bearings. "Where... Was I?"
"Your past, he threatened you with it," Eiji said, looking serious again. Fuji thought for a moment that Eiji looked almost angry. Almost, because Fuji really could not imagine a really angry Eiji, though Oishi had warned him that he was a terror.
"Ah, yes," Fuji remembered then. His mind kept wandering. He was worried about too many things to keep his conversation on one level. Mostly, he worried about Kunimitsu, knowing that he had said a lot of very hurtful things. He had had to, but that didn't make the pain in Kunimitsu's eyes any less condemning. It didn't make his heart ache any less, knowing that in the long run, this was best for the other boy. He wondered for a moment why that was, but brushed it aside as it just being his own selfishness.
"When I had made it very clear that using my past against me wasn't going to work, he..." Fuji took one shuddering breath, fight back both tears and anger, "He threatened to use his past. To use... Kunimitsu's.
"I didn't know... Because I had never asked... I mean, I knew that he was hiding something from me, but I didn't want to press... Still... Looking at him you'd never imagine... It's hard to believe even now, when it was proved true to me downstairs... That something like that could have happened to him..." Fuji didn't realize he was shaking until Eiji put his arms around him, holding him steady. He then felt that hot, angry tears on his cheeks.
"Eiji, this is the part you can't tell," Fuji looked at his best friend with steady eyes, despite his tears. "He... Kunimitsu... He was kidnapped, when he was around six, and raped..." Fuji saw Eiji's eyes widened, and Fuji added, quietly, "...By a man."
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Kunimitsu was devastated. He had feared that this would happen, but really hadn't let himself contemplate what would happen if Fuji reacted this way. Currently, he felt empty, as if his very heart had been torn out of him. Without his love... Nothing really made sense anymore.
Fuji was staying in Oishi and Kikumaru's room that evening, he knew, but he had still not been allowed to speak to the tensai. Every time he came near, one of the Golden Pair, normally Oishi, was there to block his path, telling him that he wasn't allowed in their room. Oishi always looked a little sad to say this to him, but Eiji's always gave him a look of outright pity. He didn't like the feeling, at all. One time he had tried, however, he had been sure that he could hear, and his sharp bird's hearing did not usually lie, Fuji crying.
It broke his heart, if he still had one. He quickly decided that his heart hadn't been removed, but rather it was now being slowly, deliberately, being scratched to pieces, as if by someone's fingernails. It physically hurt.
He had sat out on the front steps for hours in between attempts to talk to Fuji, but had soon given that up, as people kept interrupting him. Atobe, Sanada, and Ryoma had all asked for a tennis match, but he had merely shook his head at each of them when one came over. He didn't want their sympathy. He didn't need sympathy, or even redemption. What he did need, was to talk to Fuji. He desperately needed to talk to Fuji.
But he was not allowed to.
So, he sat on his-- their-- it pained him to think it now-- bed, and held Fuji's pillow close to him. He had picked it up, yearning for the tensai's scent, having it hurt even more knowing that Fuji was in the same house as him still, yet somehow still so far away. And would probably be that far, forever.
The worst part of it all though, was that the pillow did not hold very much of Fuji's scent. After all, Fuji had always used his shoulder instead of the pillow anyway. Still, Kunimitsu breathed deeply again and pulled the pillow closer to himself.
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"Nya! I won't tell anything!" Eiji insisted, looking round at his teammates with a pout on his face. "I promised Fujiko, and I'll keep my promise. I promised not to tell anyone, nya even Oishi!"
"Eiji," Oishi soothed quietly. "We're just worried about them. We just want to help them."
"They're falling apart without each other," Momo frowned. "Haven't you seen it."
"And neither of them has eaten anything," Ryoma added. Eiji sighed. He had tried to take some food up to Fuji, but the tensai wouldn't touch it, claiming not to be hungry, when it was obvious that he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and would be famished. Tezuka, on the other hand, they hadn't even managed to see, as he had locked the door of his room, and would answer none of them.
They were all worried, it was true, but what could they do? Even Eiji, who knew the entire situation, could think of nothing. He had run it all through several hypothetical's, as Fuji had taught him to do with his problems when they were freshmen, but nothing came through quite right. Either Fuji and/or Tezuka were still unhappy, or something went terribly wrong with the Ayame factor.
Eiji nearly seethed at the thought. That someone, anyone, would mess with his friends, who had done nothing worse than fall in love. It wasn't fair. Just how things hadn't been fair for he and Oishi before. Eiji just didn't understand why people always had to get in the way of love. It happen in movies and books, and sometimes the endings weren't happy. Eiji hated unhappy endings. Whenever he read a book, he always checked the end to make sure it was happy. There could be monsters, or obstacles of villains, but if things did not end happily, Eiji would hate it all. They should always be rescued, he had decided. They should always be happy. They should always be loved.
"What can we do?" Eiji asked. He shook his head soberly, surprising his teammates by acting serious, as they normally only saw him do during a tennis match or a competition. "We can only get in the way at this point. Even Fujiko doesn't know what to do." He looked around the circle, settling on Inui and Kaido, who had been so far silent.
"There is a ninety-seven percent chance that Fuji not only didn't mean the things that he said, but also did not want to say them," Inui put it, but knew even as he said it that this fact was already obvious. They had all seen the love in the tensai's eyes, whenever he looked at the buchou. They all knew that there was no way, regardless of situation, that Fuji would suddenly hate Tezuka.
"So, that would mean that someone is blackmailing Fuji-senpai," Kaido frowned. The others nodded.
"Fujiko... Wants to do this himself, I'm sure," Taka added. "If we try to help him now, he'll only push all of us away."
"We'll just have to be supportive, for now," Oishi said, "And help by giving Fuji a sense of backup, even if we are not able to do anything for him."
"Hoi," Eiji agreed, nods going around the room. "Fujiko needs to take care of this on his own." He glanced from the still worried faces to the window, watching the snow fall lazily to the ground. That, he reflected, must really be the life.
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Many people were awake until very late that night. Ryoma knew, because as he could not sleep himself, and had let his mind open, even to Momo's thoughts, for once. Yeah, Momo was one of the people who couldn't sleep, but Ryoma knew that Momo had hardly slept since they had been forced to separate to different rooms. Ryoma really missed him. Which was so stupid, because he was just across the hall.
The others that were awake, however, worried him even more. Fuji was still awake, for one, and worrying about their buchou; about the pains. Tezuka-buchou himself had gone to sleep not too long ago, his final thoughts being that Fuji would be upset if he broke his promise to sleep. Yuushi, just across the room, was a awake as well, though he pretended to sleep, and was trying to plan something to get him and Gakuto able to share a room. Ryoma silently wished him luck, as he knew that Gakuto himself could not sleep for fear the shadows would come again, without Yuushi to keep him safe.
Ryoma could also tell that Ikasu was awake, and he was sure that it was Ikasu, and pondering over his feelings for a certain junior. Kamio and Shinji were also awake, the freshman realized in that moment, each thinking of the other. Even Mizuki was up, longing after Yuta, though he made no sound, and Yuta himself seemed unable to slip into any kind of slumber. Ryoma didn't understand why they all had to be separated from those that they loved. Alright, so he did understand why the adults would keep them all apart, but that didn't necessarily make it right. In Ryoma's own opinion, and judging by the thoughts of all those awake around him, they would agree, the residents of the Trivial Property were more intent to simply share a room with the one they cared about, not what the teachers were worried about.
Ryoma frowned. Life was too unfair.
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Kunimitsu awoke, he felt determined. Fuji would talk to him today, whether he wanted to or not. The snow was nearly, miraculously, gone, he saw when he looked out the window, which meant that they had school again, and he had an opportunity. If they had stayed home another day, he knew, Fuji would just spend the entire day in Oishi and Eiji's room, and Kunimitsu would have no chance to talk to him.With school, however, there would be opportunities. Times when Fuji would be alone, or, at least, Oishi and Eiji wouldn't be right there to get in the way. He would talk to Fuji today, if he had to force his way into the tensai's path deliberately. He didn't expect Fuji to forgive him, and he didn't believe even for a moment that he had any chance at getting the tensai to love him again, but he couldn't just let it go like that. He had to try. He had to talk to him.
So, that in mind, Kunimitsu got dressed.
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Fuji was growing increasingly nervous. Kunimitsu had been trying to get near him all day, and it worried him that the buchou wouldn't just give up. If he would just let things go this would be so much easier. He didn't want to destroy the buchou again. If someone's heart had to shatter, Fuji wanted it to be his. He knew that once it sunk in that it was really over, it would break him. The same way his parents not loving him had broken him so many years ago, seeing as Kunimitsu finally moved on would break him as well. And this time he knew he would not be able to recover.
And he was okay with that.
He was fine with destroying himself, his own heart, if it meant that Kunimitsu could get through it all unscathed. That was what he wanted. He wanted Kunimitsu to get through this, to live on, as if Fuji had never existed.
He was so caught up in his own thoughts, that he never heard as Kunimitsu approached him from behind. Was not aware of his presence at all until he slipped tennis toned arms around him, not allowing him to move away. In an empty tennis locker room, while everyone else was at afternoon practice.
"Kun... Tezuka," Fuji said, using some effort to keep his voice calm and collected. "We have to go to practice." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw how his comment hurt the buchou, and cringed slightly inside.
"Shusuke," Kunimitsu practically purred in his ear, and despite his resolve, Fuji felt his legs start turning into jell-o. "Please, just talk to me."
"I don't want to walk to you," Fuji lied, though it was only a partial lie, because although he didn't want to talk to Kunimitsu, for fear of giving himself away, he had also been dieing to talk to the buchou ever since the day before.
"That's not what your body is telling me," Kunimitsu chuckled, "You can lie with your mouth, Tensai, but you cannot hide everything else from me."
"T-Tezuka, I--" Kunimitsu cut him off by whirling him around and capturing his lips in a kiss. Fuji, at first, tried to pull back, but found he could do nothing against the Buchou's strength, or the will of his own body. Slowly, then fiercely, he began to kiss the buchou back.
They finally parted, and Kunimitsu flashed him that smile, the one that he kept just for him, and Fuji felt himself melt, staying on his feet only with the help of Kunimitsu's strong arms.
"Why did you lie to me, Love?" Kunimitsu asked, though he didn't seem upset anymore, as he moved to sit on the benches, moving Fuji around so that he was sitting on his lap and facing him.
"I..." Fuji sighed, he finally told Kunimitsu about what had happened with Ayame. He did not mention, however, that the junior knew Fuji's own past as well, worried that his protective boyfriend would do something reckless, think that he was protecting him.
Kunimitsu, instead, held him close, and whispered softly, "Shusuke, you are much more important to me than keeping my past a secret." He smiled a small, crooked smile that Fuji rarely got to see. Kunimitsu always smiled at him with love, but this smile, somehow, was special. He couldn't explain it, but this was his favorite expression to see on the buchou's face. "I love you, Tensai."
"Ah," Fuji smiled, amazed that Kunimitsu could still love him, after all of the horrible things he had said. "I love you too, Buchou." His voice dropped, a little quieter. "I'm so sorry, Kunimitsu. For everything I said. I didn't mean any of it."
"Shhh," Kunimitsu said, rocking him slightly. "It's alright, Love. Everything is fine now. Everything will be just fine."
Fuji didn't say it at the time, but out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a flash that looked suspiciously like Ayame slip back around a corner, and he doubted that things were going to be 'just fine', for very long. Instead of voice his thoughts, however, he just let Kunimitsu kiss him, and kissed him back. For now, he just had to have faith that things would be 'just fine'.
Eventually.