AN: Another chapter, and it didn't take me nearly as long as last time. Of course having 6 projects at once also means I don't update some things as fast as I should. Thanks for reading, and remember, like all writer's, I enjoy reviews. Again, I'm not one with the beta'ing, though I do give a brief scouring before posting. It's amazing how difficult it is for me to write this fic. Hard to maintain interest.

Disclaimer: I still don't own the characters. Ain't life a bitch?

Chapter Five:

Mitsui took a deep breath as he stood outside the Akagi household door. After eavesdropping on the conversation between Ryota and Ayako he was having problems controlling his temper. In all reality, he knew he shouldn't be here, but he had promised Kogure that he would pick him up from studying.

It wasn't something he could put off, he just new that if he saw Akagi he would probably lose his temper. He sighed and shook his head and then knocked on the door. Hopefully he would be able to settle for a few sarcastic comments after bringing the situation out into the open.

It was opened a few moments later by Akagi's mother and he bowed politely before removing his shoes and stepping inside.

"I think they're almost done studying," Akagi's mother said, ushering him up the stairs towards Akagi's room. "Feel free to go on up."

Mitsui hid a grimace and started to politely decline, when Kogure popped his head out of Akagi's door. "I thought I heard someone. Come in Mitsui, we're almost finished."

Knowing that there was no way that he would actually be able to escape now Mitsui obediently followed Kogure into the room and shut the door behind him.

"We should just be a few minutes," Kogure said, squeezing Mitsui's hand before letting go and going back to the desk where Akagi was working on a few physics equations.

Mitsui nodded and leaned back against the door, while Kogure sat back down and checked the problem that Akagi had just finished.

"Did you have a good time helping the team practice?" Kogure asked, while correcting something on the paper.

"Yeah," Mitsui said, looking at the floor.

"Has there been any improvement?" Akagi asked, as he worked on the next problem.

"No. There probably won't be any improvement until Sakuragi and Rukawa get back, if then even," Mitsui said, finally raising his gaze so that it fell on the other two.

"What do you mean, even then?" Kogure asked, looking up from where he had just finished correcting Akagi's last physics problem.

"It's probably nothing I should talk about, but fair warning, I wouldn't cross Miyagi soon if I was you, Akagi," Mitsui said.

"Why would I want or need to avoid Miyagi?" Akagi asked being drawn into the conversation.

"Oh I don't know," Mitsui started sarcastically, "Maybe the fact that you and Ayako have been pretty much lying to him for the past year."

Akagi's pencil stilled on the paper as the words sunk in. "I wasn't lying to him," Akagi said in his defense.

"Not telling him and sneaking around are pretty damn close, Akagi. How the hell could you do that to a team mate, to someone you consider a friend? Was getting to the nationals that important to you? Was getting to the nationals important enough that you could possibly ruin the friendships that you made with others?" Mitsui pushed off of the door he was leaning against and clenched his fist. "You shouldn't have done that Akagi."

Kogure stood quickly and put himself in Mitsui's line of sight, slightly blocking his view of Akagi. "Calm down, Hisashi. It's not your place to become involved in this."

Mitsui looked at Kogure. "Not my place to become involved in this? What the hell are you on about? He's my friend!"

Kogure put his hands on Mitsui's shoulders. "Akagi is your friend too."

Realization dawned on Mitsui as he shrugged Kogure's hands off his shoulders, "You knew about this. You knew about this all along and you didn't say anything. How could you, Kogure?"

Kogure looked Mitsui in the eye, "Because it wasn't my place to do it then, and it isn't my place to do it now. Did I like or agree with it, of course not, but I was asked to not interfere so I didn't."

"You're an asshole sometimes. Always playing both sides," Mitsui said, glaring at Kogure.

"Let's talk about it later, please," Kogure asked Mitsui softly, not wanting to continue the argument in front of Akagi.

Mitsui gave a brief nod and put his hand on the doorknob. I'll be waiting outside. Try not to take too long. We need to talk."

Kogure sighed as Mitsui shut the door behind him and reluctantly went to gather his things.

"He shouldn't have accused you like that," Akagi said, putting down his pencil to help Kogure gather his papers. "I don't know why you put up with his attitude."

"He doesn't have an attitude," Kogure said. Then he thought about it and chuckled. "Okay, so he does have an attitude, it's one of his qualities. Besides," Kogure looked knowingly at Akagi, "he had every right to say those things. I didn't hear any words come out of his mouth that were not at least a little bit true."

Akagi looked uncomfortable, but didn't say anything.

"You know you're going to have to find a way to fix this, don't you?" Kogure said, with a small amount of sympathy in his voice.

Akagi sighed and nodded. "I know, Kogure. I'll figure something out. In the mean time, you should probably go comfort your drama queen."

Kogure rolled his eyes at Akagi. "I hope he never hears you say that about him. I wouldn't stop him from hitting you." Putting his bag over his shoulder he gave a wave and walked out.

There was an uncomfortable silence between Kogure and Mitsui as they walked in the direction of Kogure's house. Like Akagi, he was still staying at home while going to school. It was a bit of a commute on the trains to get to school each day, but since he wasn't dependent financially, Kogure didn't have much choice in the matter.

Kogure tried to think of different ways to break the unresolved air of discontent that seemed to be radiating off of Mitsui, but couldn't come up with anything. So he did what he normally did when Mitsui was upset with something that he or someone else did, he waited for the inevitable explosion.

They hadn't been walking more than 15 minutes, when Mitsui let out a loud breath and rubbed his hands over his face. Kogure knew that his boyfriend was finally calm enough to talk about the situation and listen to his side of things.

"How could you go along with that charade, Kogure?"

Kogure knew he was in trouble, since the only time Mitsui used his last name was in public with others around, or when he was upset with him. "It wasn't like that," Kogure defended himself. "What would you have done? Akagi is my best friend, yes Ryota is my friend too, but he's not my best friend. I've told Akagi before that he should come clean, but he wanted to wait. Once I found out I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. You know I can't break my promises."

Mitsui sighed, knowing that what Kogure said was true, but still, "You shouldn't have made the promise in the first place, Min. It was a stupid promise to make."

"Just like when you quit basketball?" Kogure mused, glad that Mitsui was already back to using his pet name.

Mitsui looked at Kogure from the corner of his eye. "Not quite, but still rather stupid of you. I'm worried about how it will affect Miyagi."

"Well, how did you find out about it?" Kogure asked, curious.

Mitsui relayed the story of how Ryota and Yohei had confronted Ayako and the reactions that had happened, "And then he walked away. Yohei said a few words and took off after him." He shrugged.

"Well, if Yohei is with him, he should be fine for now. Yohei won't let him do anything stupid," Kogure mused.

Mitsui found himself nodding. He had great respect for Yohei, more so than he did for a lot of people. It might have been because of the help he had provided him and Sakuragi in the past, or it might have been the way he was always there, leading people with support, but it really didn't matter. There was something about Yohei that was evident. If he cared about someone, no matter how little, he would do what needed to be done to protect that person.

"I guess you're right," he said reaching over to grab Kogure's hand as they turned the corner onto Kogure's street, "But I still can't help being a bit worried. Miyagi doesn't seem the type to be strong mentally, or he would have given up on Ayako a long time ago."

Kogure didn't say anything back, choosing instead to just squeeze Mitsui's hand.

Friday had come and gone and Yohei wondered why Hanamichi had not returned his call. True to his word, Yohei had called Hanamichi on Friday afternoon, to talk with him and find out what the doctor had said. However, Hanamichi had not been in, so Yohei had left a message for him at the receptionist desk.

When he woke on Saturday, he stayed in that day, waiting for Hanamichi's call back. By that afternoon, he had still not received a call so he called again. Again there was no answer so he left another message and began to worry a bit.

By Monday morning he had called six times, trying to get a hold of the red head and to his dismay he still hadn't been able to reach him, or had been called back. He left one final message before he left for school that day, telling his mother to call the school if Hanamichi called. His mother, understanding how important this was to him, told him that she would.

After classes he had not received a call from his mom, so he called home hoping that perhaps she had just forgotten. When she told him that Hanamichi had not called he became frantic. He had no way of going to see and was at a loss as to what to do. He thought desperately, trying to think of away to contact him when he realized that someone else could do it for him. Rukawa.

He hurried to the gymnasium and once there, immediately searched for Ryota's small form. It didn't take long, as he spotted him with the other players in what looked to be a meeting. He hurried in that direction, already starting to call out to Ryota.

Ryota had noticed Yohei enter the gym and had seen him make a beeline toward the meeting. It perplexed Ryota greatly since Yohei normally went into the bleacher seats and just quietly observed practice. Ryota knew that he was coming over to talk to him, since there was no one else on the team that Yohei would want to talk to. He was already breaking away from the meeting when Yohei called out to him.

Ignoring the whispers and the glare that Ayako was giving him, he hurried over and met Yohei half way.

"What's wrong?" Ryota asked as soon as he was close enough that their conversation wouldn't carry. He had never seen Yohei act with such a small amount of composure. Even in the middle of a fight he seemed composed. As much as it intrigued Ryota, it worried him a little as well. Whatever was wrong had to be something big.

Almost incoherently Yohei started. It had been a long time since he was this worried, and his was scared for his best friend, which was why he was panicking instead of thinking rationally.

"I need your help trying to get in touch with Rukawa," Yohei said, getting straight to the point, but not the reasoning behind it.

"What?" Ryota said confused. He couldn't figure out why Yohei would need to contact Rukawa. "Why?"

"I can't get in touch with Hanamichi. I have to get in touch with Hanamichi."

"Calm down," Ryota snapped, not used to seeing Yohei like this and not liking it one bit. "You're more controlled than this. Tell me what's going on. Why do you need to get in touch with Hanamichi?"

"I've been trying to reach him since Friday. I've had to have left at least eight messages for him. He never answers and he hasn't returned my calls." Yohei wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Ryota the entire truth as to why he was worried. He didn't know if Hanamichi wanted other people to know his secrets.

"Didn't he have an appointment with the doctors' on Friday?" Ryota asked, still trying to figure out what the huge problem was.

"Yes, he did. I was supposed to call him to see how things went. He hasn't answered since then and I'm afraid that he might have gotten bad news."

"Maybe if he did get bad news, he's just trying to deal with it before he talks to you," Ryota said rationally.

Yohei looked meaningfully at Ryota. "Hanamichi doesn't deal well in those types of situations, especially if he's isolated." He shook his head, "I can't tell you everything Ryota, it's not my place to. All I can really tell you is that I'm very worried that my best friend might not be thinking rationally. Isn't that enough?" he asked pleadingly.

Ryota believed that Yohei was serious and so he nodded his head, motioning for Yohei to follow him as he headed back to the group. This would need to be done delicately, because Ryota knew that whatever was worrying Yohei would need to be kept silent. Perhaps he could just talk to Ayako and Anzai-sensei keeping it less public.

"Ayako, can we talk to you please?" Ryota asked, not looking directly at her. In actuality, this was the first time he had spoken directly to her since he had confronted her.

Ayako knew how upset with her Ryota was, and so while she was still angry at practice being interrupted, followed Ryota and Yohei quietly over to the bench.

"What's this about, Ryota and why is he here?" she asked, gesturing at Yohei.

"It doesn't matter why he's here, we just have a favor to ask you." Ryota was glad that Yohei was being quiet, because for some reason, Ayako seemed to be angry at him. It probably had to do with the fact that it had been Yohei who had spilled the beans to Sakuragi, who had spilled the beans to him, which caught Ayako in her lie, or something similar. It wasn't something that Ryota wanted to dwell on right now, since he still wasn't over the whole incident to begin with.

"Apparently Sakuragi had a meeting with his doctors' on Friday and Mito-san has been trying to reach him since then, with no luck. He's left numerous messages all of which have not been returned. Yohei feels that perhaps Sakuragi received some bad news from the doctors', but we can't contact him to find out," Ryota said, still not looking at Ayako.

"Well if he did, then he probably just needs time to calm down before he talks to anyone," Ayako said. "I only have the hospital number, like everyone else, so I can't contact him if he doesn't want to be contacted either.

"Mito-san feels it's very important that someone contact Hanamichi," he looked at Yohei with a question in his eyes and saw a slight nod of permission given. He continued, "We were wondering if you had a way to get in touch with Rukawa?"

Ayako raised her eyebrows and stared at the two boys. "Why would you want to get in touch with Rukawa if you're looking for Sakuragi?"

For this part Ryota shrugged and looked at Yohei.

Sighing Yohei looked Ayako square in the eyes, "Rukawa has been to see Hanamichi more than once." He gave her a pointed look before he continued, "If he knows that there might be something wrong, he'll definitely go and check."

Ayako looked confused, but Ryota's eyes widened and he gave a startled laugh before saying, "So that's why Rukawa looked like he wanted to beat the crap out of me when he saw that I had a fight with Hanamichi!"

Yohei smirked a little, finding the thought of an overprotective Rukawa amusing.

Ayako looked between the two boys for a moment before the truth dawned on her. Her lips formed a little 'o' of surprise, before she bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. There was one thing she needed to know though, before she would give out the number.

"Mito-kun, is it really necessary to go that far to check up on Sakuragi? Why are you so worried?"

Yohei grimaced and avoided looking at Ryota or Ayako. "Yes it's necessary and it's not my place to tell you why. All I can tell you is that it is important. Hanamichi hides a lot of things under his mask."

Ayako studied Yohei for a moment. She was still pissed off at him for butting into business that wasn't his own, but he had never treated her with anything less than respect, even on the night of the confrontation. "You've been friends with Sakuragi a long time, haven't you?"

Yohei nodded, "Since he was eight years old, well before his father died."

Ayako sighed, but nodded. "Alright, let me go get my phone. In the mean time, find something to do with the rest of the team, Ryota."

Ayako left to get her phone from her bag. She knew that she was doing this favor partially because it was a good way for her to start her reconciliation with Ryota, but also because she could sense that something wasn't right. That Yohei had good reason to be worried.

By the time she returned with her phone, Ryota and Yohei were sitting down on the bench, watching as the rest of the team ran drills. She sat down with them and pressed the speed dial button, which would connect her to Rukawa's cell phone. As team manager, it was her obligation to be able to contact any of the members in case there were extra practices or any emergencies came up.

To her amazement Rukawa picked up the phone on the first ring, "Do'aho?"

Ayako rolled her eyes. Apparently Yohei had been correct. Especially since it seemed that Rukawa was waiting for Sakuragi to call.

"No, Rukawa-kun, its Ayako."

There was silence on the phone line for about thirty seconds before Rukawa asked, "What?"

"Listen, I don't know what's going on, but Yohei wants to speak to you about Sakuragi. He seems a bit worried. I'm going to give the phone to him, okay?"

Silence greeted her question, so she just handed the phone over. Yohei glanced at the two as he held the phone, knowing that his conversation was going to be overheard. He sighed, but started talking to Rukawa since he knew that there was no way to stop the others from listening in. "Rukawa-kun?"

Ryota was watching Yohei closely as he took the phone. He was surprised when Yohei wasn't able to do more than say Rukawa's name before he stopped talking.

Yohei seemed to be listening to the call intensely, which left Ryota in awe since it meant that Rukawa was the one doing all the talking. After a few minutes Yohei began to talk.

"Yes, I know. I've been calling him since Friday. Did you go by to check on him?"

He listened for a moment before seemingly interrupting Rukawa. "When was the last time you saw him? What do you mean there was something different about his room?"

"What?" Yohei stood reflexively as he almost shouted the word. "What do you mean his pills were gone? Wait, how do you know about those?"

Ryota could tell that Yohei wasn't even aware or simply didn't care that they could easily hear his conversation. Whatever Rukawa had said seemed to multiply his stress level in the span of a few seconds. Ryota wondered what these pills were that they were talking about.

Yohei pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "You have to go find him Rukawa. I don't care what you have to do, but just go look for him. If his pills are gone it's either because he ran out or," Yohei swallowed, "or he took them all. How full was the bottle when you saw it?"

Yohei sat down limply, all his energy leaving him in a rush. "Shit," he said softly, his voice full of fear.

Now Ryota was getting worried. From what he was hearing of the conversation, perhaps Yohei had a right to be as worried as he seemed. Ryota was starting to worry too, especially since he understood what the conversation implied.

Ayako was quickly turning a pale grey as the implications of the conversation dawned on her.

"Keep your cell phone on you Rukawa. Call me if you find him. I'm going to try and find a way to get down there. If he's in his right mind and lucid, keep talking to him. Do whatever you need to do to find out what is going on. Since he's not in his room, you should check any parks in the area and check the beach carefully. He likes to be active when he's upset."

He listened for another moment before hanging up the phone and handing it back to a stunned Ayako. Standing up, he quietly thanked them both and headed out of the gym.

Ayako and Ryota looked at each other. Ryota was of two minds. He really wanted to follow Yohei, first because he was worried about him and second because he wanted to be of some support to him, to repay him for all the support he had been given. He got a weird feeling in his stomach seeing Yohei in the state he was in. He had enough money for them both to easily take the train to go up to the hospital.

He face hardened and he was about to tell Ayako that he was leaving practice early when she said, "You better go with him. He trusts you more than anyone else here. Besides," she looked at him with a bit of understanding, "he needs you more right now than we need you. I can handle having the team run drills and such today."

"Thank you," he said quietly as he hurried into the locker room to quickly change back into his school clothes.

It couldn't have taken him more than three minutes to change and throw his things in his bag. Ignoring the confused stares he was receiving from the rest of the team, he hurried out of the gym and looked around the area for Yohei. He didn't expect to spot him right away, so was surprised when he saw that Yohei had barely managed to make it as far as the school gates.

Using the speed he was so well known for, he quickly caught up to Yohei. "I have enough money for us to take a train up there if it's that important to you, Mito-san," he said without preamble.

Yohei mumbled something unintelligible.

"What?" Ryota asked, not hearing what Yohei said.

"Don't worry about it. I'll find a way to get there. I don't want to use your money since I don't know when I can pay you back." Yohei said, looking off to the side.

Ryota put a comforting hand on Yohei's back. "Don't worry about that. My family has plenty of money, and the cause is definitely worth it. Besides," something in his voice made Yohei look at him, "I don't like to see you this stressed out and worried. You're not like yourself and it freaks me out. Maybe if you go see with your own eyes that Hanamichi is fine then you'll calm down."

Yohei nodded and Ryota watched, amazed as Yohei visibly rebuilt himself, seeming to gain back his collected demeanor now that he was able to actually do something other than worried.

It was at that moment that Ryota saw who Yohei really was and what defined him as a person. Yohei worried about others more than he worried about himself. Yohei tended to be a mother hen, more so than Kogure, but went about it in a different manner. A day probably didn't go by when Yohei didn't do something nice for someone, even if he didn't know them. Even though Yohei was considered a ruffian, he was probably only that way because of protecting others.

It was like a door had opened in Ryota's mind and through that door he could see what it was like to be so good. If he thought about it, wasn't that what Yohei had been doing all this time? Yohei liked him, but didn't want to pressure him, so kept silent even though it had to hurt. Yohei spoke up, when no one else would have, to stop Ryota from being even more hurt in the long run. A little pain compared to a lot of pain.

Yohei weighed the rights and wrongs of everything he did, and even if the rights didn't outweigh the wrongs of society, he still did it because to him it was the right thing to do. Yohei always had a direction that he moved in, and Ryota wanted to be a part of that and learn how to do it too.

The first step in doing so he realized, would be to seriously analyze his feelings for the other boy to figure out exactly where he stood.

"The first thing we should do," Yohei said, tearing Ryota from his thoughts, "Is buy the train tickets. There should be a train going out in a few hours and we need to make sure we're on it. Once we have the tickets, we'll probably want to get overnight bags, since there is no way we would be back by the morning," here Yohei paused in his thinking and looked at Ryota. "You don't have a problem with skipping school tomorrow, do you? We probably wouldn't make it back in time, even if we caught the earliest train."

Ryota didn't even have to think of an answer to that question. He was being given a chance to miss school with a good reason behind it? "Missing school isn't a problem. My parents are out of town so even if the school calls, I'll get the message before they do."

"You're parents are out of town? I thought they just worked long hours?" Yohei said looking at Ryota. He remembered their conversation from the previous night and realized how lonely Ryota must get sometimes. It was no wonder he had a tendency to get into trouble.

Ryota nodded, "Yeah, there's a medical seminar taking place in Beijing. They both flew over to China to attend it."

Yohei whistled, imaging how much money that must of cost, before getting back on track. "All right then, we'll go get the tickets now, if you have that much money on you, and then go grab some things before catching the train. Does that sound all right to you?"

Again, Ryota was surprised at how quickly Yohei's mind grasped things when he wasn't panicking. It was probably why Yohei was always at the right place at the right time. "Sure, that's sounds like a plan."

They hurried off to make the most of the time they had left available in order to get everything done in time.