Disclaimer: POT doesn't and will never belong to me

Chapter 9: a new start

"Kunimitsu, tomorrow afternoon, I want you to meet me in the café outside your company."

Tezuka mumbled an okay before the door closed gently behind him. He sighed; he was sure what his mother wanted. Another matchmaking session, he was most sure of it. This few months, he had been traveling to and fro, meeting ladies and girls too young for him. His mother wanted him to get married, every girl his mother had deemed appropriate he had met.

And his mother was fast losing patience with him. Every girl he had met, he managed to find some faults with them, no matter how beautiful, no matter how demure, and no matter how gentle, he couldn't seem to find the right one.

Every girl and lady he met, either they were too tall, too short, too beautiful, too ugly, too thin, too fat, too soft, too loud, too generous or too self-centered.

Fuji had spoilt his taste for others. No matter whom he met, no matter who he found charming enough, Fuji would appear in his mind and spoilt the image of the girl. No one could be Fuji…Fuji was his everything once, but he had forgotten all about Fuji, didn't he? If he did, why did he search for a hint of him whenever he looked at another person?

Pushing from his oak desk, he loosened his tie. He needed to take a break from all this work. The man he was working for, the mysterious boss and his mother's friend was an ambition-driven son-of-a-bitch. Everyday he had endless work to complete, everyday he had bring his work home, everyday he was happy.

He didn't want others to think that he was relying on his mother's connections, no, he wanted to prove himself to everyone, he wanted to prove his worth to his mother, his colleagues, his friends and he wanted to prove that he could survive, to his… no Mr. Tezuka. Most of all he wanted to prove to himself, all the years of sheltering had created an illusion, he wasn't as strong and as capable he believed himself to be.

When Fuji left him, he remembered the despair, he remembered the heartache, but still he was confident, he was confident of his entire life, he was confident of his family. But when Fuji returned to him, he had lost more than anyone. He lost Fuji, he lost his father and he lost… he lost himself. He lost himself to unknown darkness lurking around in this world.

Never had life seemed so bleak, never had he been so uncertain of his life, his future and himself.

Shaking himself and berating himself mentally, he shrugged away the insecurity which seemed to be waiting in the darkness to pounce on him and devour him. He didn't want to think back on those days when he had lost everything he had believed and held true, he didn't dare.

With a kick, he turned to face the room-length windows. His office was on the fifty-sixth floor, being one of the president's top executives gave him certain privileges, having a private and spacious office which offered a overview of the city was just one of them. After working for a few months, he hadn't seen his boss, although, he might be able to see that man next week. All the top executives were informed that the president wanted to have a meeting with them.

In this meeting, it would be his chance to show the rest that he wasn't a rich playboy. His degree in business and management hadn't been a fluke neither did he graduated with honors with his… with that man's money or influence.

When the digital clock on his desk flashed 4.00pm, he stood and straightened his tie.

Family duty calls.

Fuji sat quietly at the table. Across the silk-covered table top, a similarly silent girl sat in her chair. Fuji was comfortable with the silence, after all, all these months without Tezuka, the only sound he found comforting was silence. Even the soothing music of the piano no longer calmed the pain boiling within him.

"Go…gomen ne…watashi wa…watashi Sakuno desu!" Fuji was jerked from his stupor when the girl practically shouted at him.

"Saa…Sakuno-chan, pleased to meet you. Watashi Fuji Syuusuke desu ne." he smiled as an apology for his lack of attention. His smile visibly relaxed the girl, she sat less stiffly in her seat and reached for her wineglass. She seemed satisfied with the exchange of their names, and desisted in any form of pleasantries. Her calm silence allowed Fuji to lapse into his musings again.

Images flashed in his mind, images of Tezuka smiling at him, images of Tezuka complimenting his photography, all tortured his soul, so much so that when Sakuno called him again, he saw his love instead of the confused girl. He reached for the face which was so achingly beautiful to him. He caught himself in time and managed to conceal it by lowering it to his wineglass.

He was almost grateful when their food arrived. With food to occupy his thoughts he could at least temporarily block out the painful memories of his lost love. He busied himself with the food, never looking up to see the girl's clear adoration.

The door of the restaurant opened, held wide by the doorman. A handsome couple came into the expensive diner, the tall and handsome man was none other than the disinherited heir of the Tezuka's corporation, currently the charming rogue of a bachelor. The lady by his side was the famous daughter of the powerful oil monarch, Ann Tachibanna.

Fuji never noticed the door opening, but the moment Tezuka stepped into the room and scanned disinterestedly around, he sensed him. Fuji's head jerked up and he twisted to see Tezuka staring at him. His heart fluttered painfully in his chest, a fist of grief gripped his throat when Tezuka looked past him and saw his dinning partner, and then looked back at his companion and smiled at something she said.

He didn't know what to do, what to think, in the past, he was always able to see what Tezuka was thinking, but now, when he looked into the blank eyes of Tezuka's, he saw nothing but a bottomless pit. No emotion and no hint of what he was thinking or feeling. He didn't want that, he wanted to see the real Tezuka again, but he knew he was too late, again.

He returned his attention to his food.

They sat at a table right in front of him.

They laughed happily.

They flirted outrageously.

They looked into one another's eyes with clear adoration.

Fuji's heart shattered into a million pieces, like the stars both of them used to love gazing at, it shattered and flew into the black vacuum.

He forced himself to stop gawking at them. He should be happy for them, he should be happy for Tezuka, he should be happy that Tezuka had found his true love, he should…but his heart told him another story.

Tezuka was exerting all his charms on the girl sitting in front of him. He wanted to hurt Fuji, he wanted to hurt him like he had hurt him when he crushed his life, like when he had tipped his world off its axle, like when he enjoyed another's company so much that he barely spare him a look.

After so many months, after so many self-deceiving thoughts, he had finally realized that he had never forgotten Fuji, he had never stop loving him. Once he had said that he wanted to remember Fuji, so he will never forget his hatred for his ex-boyfriend, but then, lately, he wanted to forget and move on. He didn't wanted to be locked within the dark abyss of hatred.

Angry with his inability to ignore Fuji, he decided to bring out the big guns, so to speak. He smoothly took out the diamond ring his mother had insisted that he bring for every matchmaking session.

"Will you marry me?"

"Huh?..."

No!