It was a peaceful Sunday afternoon. Blue sky, with a light breeze in the air.

Hyotei's regulars had just finished their afternoon practice and were hanging around to chit-chat a bit.

"Atobe, I thought you were going to the tennis championship game this afternoon?" Shisido asked.

"Changed my mind." Atobe answered, a bit annoyed at the question. He did not wish to be reminded of the rejection earlier.

"Eh? Why? I thought you were looking forward to it?" Choutaro asked in surprise.

"Maybe he got turned down by his date. . . " Oshitari snickered.

Atobe gave both of them a glare that delivered a clear message: the discussion on this topic was closed.

"No need to be so touchy. . ." Oshitari smiled, "By the way, Atobe, did you remember the 2nd year student called Tareda?"

Atobe threw him a bored look: Who do you think I am? Am I suppose to know let alone remember a guy called Tareda?

"Looks like you don't have the slightest idea. . . Not that it's surprising. . ." Oshitari continued, "He is the guy you were screwing in tennis club last weekend I think. . . or was it just a few nights ago?"

"Oh ok," Atobe tried to recall what did that guy look like, but failing. "Yeah, what's up with him?"

"Well, it seemed like he actually had some connections with gangsters. I saw him with a group of yakuza looking people this morning. . . Overheard them saying that they are going to 'teach somebody a lesson'. 'Beat the person to pulp' at some old abandoned tennis court is the more exact version of their plan." Oshitari said, "Do you think the target is you? Maybe he is angry at being dumped by his dear senpai."

"Oh please~ As if they would dare to do anything to me." Atobe shrugged. He was from an influential family who had good connection with the most powerful yakuza in the area.

"Yeah, I know you have background." Oshitari sighed, "I don't think their target is you anyway. They mentioned they are going to revenge against a guy who had seduced Tereda's lover. I don't think you have been doing that lately. . ."

"Why in the world then did you even bring this up as it has nothing to do with me?"

"I was trying to see if you will actually get worried over your own safety for once." Oshitari grinned.

"This Tareda guy sure found a new love interest quick." Gakuto remarked absentmindedly, "I thought he just broke up with Atobe less than a week ago."

THAT suddenly gave Atobe a bad feeling.

"What did you just say?" He asked.

"Huh?" Gakuto looked at Atobe, "I mean, a few days is very little time to find a new lover then get dumped and planned for revenge, don't you think? Of course, it may be different in your world, Atobe."

"CRAB!" Atobe abruptly stood up and started running towards the gate.

"What's wrong? Where are you going? Atobe? Atobe?" All the Hyotei's regulars stared at him incredulously.

Atobe didn't even hear them calling him. He just hoped that his gut feeling was wrong.

X X X X X X X

"WHERE IS TEZUKA?"

Oishi had a surprise of his life when he was suddenly grabbed by the collar and the question was roared against his ears.

"What. . .?" It took him a minute to realize who was in front of him. "Atobe?" The captain of Hyotei looked like he just ran a hundred laps.

"Hey, stop that." Eiji who had been gaping finally came to his senses and tried to break off Atobe from Oishi.

"TELL ME WHERE TEZUKA IS THIS INSTANCE!!"

"Or what? Face death? Geez~" Momoshiro joined in.

Atobe wanted to scream. Why aren't they listening to him? And why are they always together? He was surprised when it was Fuji that came to his rescue.

"Why don't you release Oishi, Atobe?" The smiling tensai calmly requested, "tell us what's wrong."

Knowing he was not going to get his answer without answering some questions first, Atobe released Oishi's collar reluctantly and tried to calm down his breathings. He had ran all the way here.

"A few students at Hyotei, who had connections with gangsters, might be targeting Tezuka, I'm afraid."

"Targeting Tezuka? But why?" Momoshiro asked in disbelief. "That guy lost to you, what more do they want?"

Atobe couldn't tell them the true reason; that it was because of him. His careless and thoughtless affairs had caused this. He closed his eyes briefly and came up with a reason concealing the truth, "They are my admirers. . . and they can get pretty crazy sometimes. You know how admirations go. . . when it turned into obsessions and more. Anyway, they have this strange notion that many people view my winning over Tezuka as unfair as he was injured. . . I guess they were angry that people are saying I took advantage of the situation. . ."

"What? But you DID!" Momoshiro exclaimed. "And they are blaming Tezuka for being injured AND blaming Tezuka for you taking advantage of his injury?"

"Yeah, weird isn't it?" Atobe almost wanted to laugh, "that's the logic."

"Alright, we have to find Tezuka. Oishi, called Tezuka's cell phone first." Fuji opened his eyes briefly, revealing the sharp orbs behind.

/The number you dial is not receiving calls right now./ Oishi ended the call and turned to his teammates, "His cell phone is not turned on."

"Why don't we spread out to look for Tezuka?" Eiji suggested.

"Good idea." They all agreed and were walking in different directions. Atobe was the last person to left Seigaku. He wasn't familiar with all the places Tezuka normally would go, so Oishi assigned him to check out Tezuka's home.

"Give me a call if anyone find him, ok?"

XXXXXXXXX

The traffic in Tokyo was bad. It took Atobe almost an hour to locate the neighborhood. None of the Seigaku regulars had given him a call during this time.

"Maybe they already found Tezuka and he is ok. they just didn't think it would be important enough to give me a call." Atobe thought, "Damn them all!"

But the unsettling feelings deep down was telling him something else.

Tezuka Residence.

Atobe was finally there. Raising a finger to ring the door bell, his palm was suddenly wet with sweat.

Nobody answered the door. After waiting for a few minutes, he pressed the door bell again. And again. Getting more agitated every passing minutes.

"Tezuka Residency." A deep voice answered over the speaker just as he was about to give up.

"Tezuka!" Atobe was so relieved to hear that voice. Tezuka was ok!!

Getting a grip on himself now that his worse fear was over, he used what he hoped was his normal, seductive voice, "Hey Tezuka, it's me. Atobe."

There was long pause before the gate slowly opened, and Tezuka walked to the gate.

"Hi." Followed by a brief nod.

It was almost 6 p.m. now so it wasn't very bright outside, but he can still see Tezuka. //He looked ok.// The first thing he checked was Tezuka's arms. //It wasn't broken.// He was relief. Maybe Oshitari heard it wrong. Maybe they had meant to beat up some other guy, not HIS Tezuka.

Atobe then realized Tezuka was still waiting for him.

"Well, I just decided to pay you a visit. See where you live and stuff." Atobe lied. He knew the Seigaku's regulars were going to tell Tezuka about it tomorrow anyway, but that's ok, at least they would be laughing behind his back, not right in front of his face. Although he seriously doubted that Tezuka would burst into laughter even if he did tell him that he, Atobe, had been searching frantically for him, was almost scared out of his pants thinking Tezuka might be in danger.

Tezuka looked at him for a moment before inviting him in.

Following Tezuka through a long corridor, he was surprised that Tezuka did not turned on the main light. He had no problem seeing where he was going in the dim light, but that seemed a bit strange to him.

"Tezuka. . ."

Before Atobe could ask the question, Tezuka answered, "I have been studying for the whole afternoon. The bright light will hurt my eyes right now."

"Oh ok." Atobe nodded in understanding and followed Tezuka. The younger man carried a fresh scent with him. //He must have just showered. He smells so good. . .// The Duan- Juan side of him was starting to imagine any possibilities between him and the stoic Seigaku captain.

"Here, have some tea."

"Oh, thank you Tezuka." Atobe smiled and was about to accept the offered tea when something caught his eyes. Ever so slightly, Tezuka's hands were trembling. The shaking would have been invisible to normal eyes, but Atobe had the eyes that could see through a lot of things.

Slowly accepting the tea, Atobe walked towards the windows. "Hey, let's turn on the light!" Without giving Tezuka any chance to object, his hand dashed out as if trying to save a slam dunk, and flipped the switch.

Nothing could hide under the bright lights. He saw.

Bruises, on Tezuka's left cheek bone.

Split lips.

Letting his eyes scrolled down further, he saw a set of thumb prints on Tezuka's pale neck, as if somebody had tried to choke him dead earlier. And. . . what was that?

Atobe's eyes widen. Unable to believe what he just seen, he reached out to grab Tezuka's chin, trying to tilt his face so that he could get a better view of Tezuka's exposed neck.

"LET GO OF ME!"

It was a violent reaction. Tezuka shoved Atobe away from him until Atobe slammed into the opposite wall. Atobe's back hurt but his body couldn't even feel the pain. His mind had gone numb.

Those were bite marks on Tezuka's neck.

Bite marks. The violent reaction to a light touch. The shower. It all made sense now.

"They raped you."

TBC