Disclaimer: I'm tired, see previous chapters

Notes: Yay, another chapter done… it just occurred to me after reading the whole fic over that every character is drastically OOC, but hey, nobody's complained yet except my little sis. Sorry for the long wait, I had a high school violin audition coming up…

-x-

"Aniki went for a walk, Sae-san." Yuuta opened the door and dutifully informed his brother's current boyfriend off his brother's whereabouts, "He told me he'd be back in a half an hour or so."

"That's a pretty long walk, knowing Syusuke." Saeki Koujiroh arched a mildly curious eyebrow as he shrugged off his jacket, "Strange, I thought he had class, though." He sat down on the couch, reaching for the remote; but catching sight of the younger Fuji's expression, he put it down again, "Did something happen?"

"Well…" Yuuta glanced toward the phone, wondering how much he should tell about last night's episode, finally, he said, "Well…aniki called Tezuka-san yesterday. And, I don't think it went too well."

"I figured." Saeki gave an uncharacteristic sigh after a moment's pause, suddenly, he seemed much older than twenty, "I could never keep him for long."

Yuuta had never been the type to meddle in others' businesses, but when it concerned his aniki, even though he tried not to admit it, he was worried. "What happened?"

In answer, Saeki hauled himself off the couch and disappeared down the hallway into his aniki's room, only returning a moment later with an envelope in hand, "Read." He said simply.

The piece of paper inside was yellowed with age, slightly crumpled around the edges. Yuuta read:

Keep this, for me, Syusuke, so you'll remember not the heartless monster you have caused me to become, but the captain that you loved, hated, tormented, and betrayed as a parting sentiment. On my part, I will treasure the prodigy who taught me to laugh, to suffer, and always, that he was truly happy with me. There will always be a part of me that thinks of you, longs for you, but that part is deep within myself, where no one will ever see again, except us. –Tezuka Kunimitsu

Yuuta put down the letter, though he was unaware of it, he had paled to a light shade of green, "…What is this?" he managed to say.

"It's a letter." Saeki replied, obviously stating the obvious, "From Tezuka to Syusuke, when they broke up for the third, and probably final time."

"Third?"

Saeki reached for the letter and placed it carefully back into its original envelope, "I've always liked your brother, but unfortunately, I didn't tell him until the week before you guys moved to Tokyo. You were in sixth grade, Syusuke was in seventh. He didn't say anything, only a promise that we were going to keep in touch."

Yuuta nodded to indicate that he understood.

"He met Tezuka in the Seishun Gakuen tennis club. Syusuke described him as, 'a really, really old fashioned-ish sort of guy with no sense of humor whatsoever'. But despite what he said, Tezuka impressed him, because Tezuka was formidable even then. " If talking about all this bothered Saeki in any way, he did a very good job of not showing it.

"When Tezuka was injured by a senpai somewhere in the middle of the first year, Syusuke told me that he had later challenged that senpai to a match and won, obviously. Syusuke was always fighting battles that weren't his. I guess that was when Tezuka started to notice him for real."

"But aniki didn't like Tezuka-san at first." Yuuta intervened, feeling the need to say something, "You know that, right?"

"I know." Saeki turned the envelope over and over in his hands, "But in the beginning of their second year, they officially started dating."

If the conversation did not contain the characters it did, (namely, his aniki and Tezuka-san), Yuuta might have laughed at the absurdity of it. This story was almost like one of those pointless soap operas that Yumiko-neesan liked to watch.

"Syusuke didn't tell me at first though, he later claimed he forgot. I met Tezuka during winter break when he came with you guys to visit. I didn't think about it much, I didn't even remember feeling jealous, I was feeling happy for Syusuke, believe it or not. And plus, they were going to break up sooner or later. Tezuka just didn't seem Syusuke's type, you know.

But they didn't break up, they even kept in touch over the summer, which was something even he and I don't do. So all things were well until the start of their first year, when Tezuka started devoting a lot of time training this freshman." Here, Saeki paused again.

"Echizen Ryoma." Yuuta supplied, I played him in my second year. I lost, and Mizuki-san almost had me skinned for that."

"Oh." A faint smile creased the other's lips, "Well, anyway, you know how Syusuke is, he thought Tezuka was secretly dating Echizen, though, of course, Tezuka wasn't. But Syusuke broke up with him, and came back to me.

For a whole month, he called me everyday, mostly complaining about Tezuka and the way he ran practice. Even though the conversation was about Tezuka most of the time, I was happy, because I got to hear his voice, and that in itself was enough."

Yuuta smiled a somewhat sour smile, "Mom got really mad about aniki hogging the phone all the time."

"But after a month, the calls just stopped, no explanation, no nothing. I had my suspicions, though I couldn't anything about it. I think it was a week or so after the match with Hyotei. Syusuke wrote and told me how he whipped this guy 6-1. There was no mention of Tezuka whatsoever. And then, three days after the postcard, Tezuka came. He literally showed up on my doorstep." Saeki lost interest in the envelope and put it down on the table.

"Tezuka-san came here…?" Just how twisted was this documentary going to get?

"He came." Saeki confirmed heavily, "He took me out to coffee, and said he wanted to talk. I haven't the slightest idea even now how he got my address but…well…"

"I'm back."

Saeki instantly shut up and crammed the envelope behind a cushion. "Hello, Syusuke, how was your walk?" his voice, Yuuta noticed, was rather strangled.

Fuji sat down on the couch, close enough that his knees were touching Saeki's, "I didn't realize you'd be back this quickly, Sae."

Saeki said simply, "I wanted to see you."

Yuuta decided it was time to leave. He certainly wasn't going to get the end of that story anytime soon. He didn't even know if he wanted to hear the ending.

-x-

"You play beautifully."

Tezuka flinched, but allowed himself to relax when he realized it was a different voice. He took his hands off the keys and asked, without turning, "How did you know I was here?"

Kajimoto shrugged, "I called your place, your roommate told me you were here."

"I see." Tezuka scooted over to make room for the other boy, "This is a private building."

"I knew the security guard, I told him that I was an acquaintance." Kajimoto answered the unspoken query, not at all bothered.

That stopped Tezuka in mid-flinch, he had half expected for Kajimoto to say that he was his boyfriend. No, wait, that sounded like something Fuji would say, wait, what did Fuji say to get in the building? He knew for sure that his ex did not know the security guard.

"Is something wrong?"

"Hn."

Kajimoto ran a hand over the keys, "I used to play piano in grade school, but I had to quit in junior high because it conflicted with tennis practice. Hanamura-sensei was going to kill me if I missed one more practice."

Tennis. Did everyone on the face of this planet play tennis? "Hn." Tezuka said as calmly as he knew how, right now, it wasn't much. "I'll be right back."

"Okay." Kajimoto smiled easily.

Tezuka liked Kajimoto's smile, it hid nothing, unlike Fuji's smile. In fact, every time the tensai smiled, Tezuka had the feeling something bad was going to happen. He closed the door.

A dull beep informed Kajimoto that a cell phone was going off somewhere. After a minute's search, he found Tezuka's cell phone tucked neatly inside his jacket pocket. It was just like Tezuka to have such a monotonous ring tone, "Hello?"

"Hello, this is Fuji Syusuke." A rather feminine voice answered on the other end, but make no mistake, it was a male speaking, "Is Kunimitsu there?"