Pairing: ZukaFuji
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
"You're not going?"
"It was never my dream, Tezuka. It always was yours."
"I thought it was ours."
"Yes, you thought. But what we think isn't always right." He paused, unsure how to continue, knowing that Tezuka wouldn't be the one to continue the conversation. The sun was setting behind the apartment complex across from their own, turning the sky a gorgeous melody of red and orange. At any other time, he would've grabbed his camera and gone out onto their balcony to start taking pictures. Tezuka would join him, perhaps gently holding him from behind. Maybe Tezuka would just stand next to him, cup of tea in hand, and he'd turn and try to capture the way the light seemed to make Tezuka glow with a brilliance surrounding only the rarest of minerals.
"Tezuka, I'm not saying I won't go, but I'm only going as a spectator. I've never been pro-level - we all know that. I played for fun - I played to challenge myself, to challenge you." He still called his former captain "Tezuka". He'd thought about it once, why even as lovers, he never called him Kunimitsu. Maybe it was just this - the lack of communication between them.
He'd thought it was just natural. Tezuka rarely spoke, so it was natural that they weren't the most loquacious of couples. Maybe it was time to reexamine that thought.
The fact that they were a couple was just that - a fact. It'd been expected since their years in middle school, and no one was surprised when they took to spending more time with each other than everyone else combined. It also wasn't a surprise when they roomed together in college. He hadn't been surprised when Tezuka had kissed him goodnight that first night in the dorms, and their relationship had just sort of grown from there. They weren't like the other couples they knew, who went on actual dates and talked about their dreams, likes and dislikes, childhood, fears and joys.
It had to shatter sometime, this glass shell of a world they lived in. It was kind of like a toy he once had. His dad had gotten it for him from Hokkaidou, when he was four. There were two little people inside a sphere, skating on a frozen pond of plastic. When he shook it, little white flakes, also of plastic, would stir and fall lightly around the two, like snow. The day after he'd gotten it, Yuuta had wanted to touch the people or something, and thrown it on the floor. It shattered into hundreds of bright, shining pieces of jagged glass on a pool of water. A piece of glass had slashed the entwined hands of the two little figurines inside.
"Ah," Tezuka replied.
He went to the tournament, like he promised. Tezuka's debut as a pro tennis player was a jolt to the pro world, as expected. They spent less and less time together on their balcony. Tezuka traveled more and more for tournaments, and he busied himself with his company.
At some point, Tezuka stopped coming home after tours ended.
He unlocked a little treasure chest Yuuta had given him on his seventh birthday. Picking up a plastic toy inside, he closed the box and put it back in his desk drawer. He thumbed the delicate piece, rubbing their joined hands for a few moments before squeezing it tightly between his fingers. The already weakened bond snapped easily in his strong hands, and he threw away the two pieces.
Unfortunately, unlike with "Connection", there is no sequel planned for this fic (so if you want a happy ZukaFuji angst fic... go read that. :P /shameless plug). But comments are still loved and welcome. :)