The Fall of The Prince
Status: Beta-ed by my wonderful beta-reader! Windy Hurrice!!! Arigatou gozaimasu, Windy-san! You really helped me a lot!
Chapter 4Ryoma could hear the birds chirping from the outside of his bedroom. Dull sunlight crept through small spaces of the curtain's fabric, filling the room with a light yellow colour. The sun had risen, as if calling Ryoma to get up.
But, even though Ryoma couldn't sleep well in the night before, and though he had already woken up while the sky was still dark, he still didn't move from his bed. Ryoma's eyes were staring at the ceiling and his breathing was soft and regular. But his mind was filled with nothing but blankness.
He knew there were lots of things he had to think about. At least he knew he had to get up from bed now if he didn't want to be late for school. He knew he still had to worry about things that occurred around him. But this time, he had just want to stop thinking, wishing that he didn't have to feel anything.
Within the blankness in his mind, Ryoma reached to his bedside desk for something he put there the prior night, right before he decided to get in bed. He eyed the small medicine container on his hand and read the title expressionlessly again, like what he did since he received it.
Anti-cancer medicineRyoma still couldn't believe that his life was no longer free since the time he took that medicine container from Dr. Endo's hand. He still couldn't believe that his life was now depending on medicine, doctors, nurses and hospital treatment. He still couldn't believe the reality that what his family feared the most has now occurred.
Vaguely, Ryoma could still remember what he read on the lab test result. The words on it were strange since he didn't understand anything about the medical world. But from what Dr. Endo said, he positively got leukemia, though it's not as dangerous as his mother's. Yet.
Dr. Endo's voice echoed once again in his head and it gave Ryoma a disturbing feeling.
"Ryoma. I know this is hard for you. But you have to be thankful that your illness is still in a low stadium. Please don't put yourself in depression because all you have to do now is to fight this illness with all you've got.
For you to know, your illness can still be cured with a spinal-cord transplantation surgery. From now on, I'll try my best to search for a suitable donor for you. And I want you to cooperate with me by keeping your body healthy.
You're not allowed to get any bruises and wounds. Not a single one. If you feel any pain, take this medicine and please come to the hospital for a check-up if you feel something is wrong.
Ryoma, you have to tell you parents about this. You need their support. And don't force yourself to do any hard works. Take a lot of rest and please don't go practicing tennis anymore.
I know it's hard, Ryoma. For I know, tennis is part of your life. But this is for your own safety. If you still want to recover and to the able to play tennis in the future, please do what I tell you, okay?"
Ryoma took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and imagined himself looking at the other regular practicing while he could only stare. Another tightening feeling disturbed his heart again.
Then he imagined himself telling his father, mother and Nanako about his illness. But he didn't dare to continue thinking about that. His family had been worried enough with his mother's illness. They didn't need to worry about an addition infirmity right now.
With that thought in his mind, Ryoma got up from bed, washed his face, brushed his teeth and got changed into his uniform.
--
"Echizen, don't go running everywhere as if you're playing in a single game." It was Inui's instruction. He was actually evaluating the double match between Tezuka-Ryoma vs. Momo-Kaidoh.
Ryoma didn't really care about the game. All he wanted to do was just to answer every ball given at his direction as hard as he could. He almost hit Tezuka's head a few times and collided with the captain for more than three times.
"I don't care!" was Ryoma's answer. He didn't look at Inui at all. Instead, he kept continuing to hit every ball being given.
Tezuka looked a bit surprised from Ryoma's answer. The way Ryoma has answered Inui's instruction was actually Ryoma's habit when he was angry. Tezuka had seen Ryoma behaved like that a few times, but he always knew what caused him to be like that before. While this time, the air didn't seem to give any disturbance.
"ABUNAI!" Momo shouted, calling Tezuka back from his thought.
But before Tezuka realized what happened, Ryoma had thrown himself into him in order to catch a high ball that went above them. Since he wasn't prepared for anything, Tezuka lost his balance and both of them fell onto the ground.
The game stopped in sudden. Inui, Kaidoh and Momo hurriedly ran to Tezuka and Ryoma in worry.
"Tezuka, daijobu?" Inui asked as Tezuka adjusted himself with the pain caused by the collision between his back and the ground.
"Nah, I'm fine." Tezuka answered as he tried to sit up. Ryoma who was laid upon his chest also moved slowly. "Echizen, are you alright?"
"I'm fine." The smaller boy answered sharply then stood up and left without saying anything. The others could only stare after him in both puzzlement and anxiousness.
"What's going on with him?" Momo asked almost to himself.
"You guys continue the practice." Tezuka ordered. He had already stood up now. "I'll follow him." Then he left, following the path Ryoma took before.
"Shouldn't we follow him too?" Momo asked. He was still concerned with Ryoma's strange behavior lately.
"No." Kaidoh answered, representing what Inui would say. "Leave it to buchou. I'm sure our presence won't be needed there." He was worried too, but he knew it's better for them to stay where they were. And Inui added a nod for Kaidoh's words.
Ryoma was angry. He didn't understand what caused him to be angry like that. His mind told him that the accident was completely his fault. His mind told him that what Inui said before was right and he had no right to be angry for that. He knew he has no reason to be angry. But he just didn't want to think about that right now.
He entered the clubroom and banged the door behind him so he was alone in the small and silent room. He breathed deeply, trying to calm his rage down. Carefully, he checked his skin, wishing that his stupidity didn't cause him any bruise or wound.
He walked across the room to where he kept his bag when suddenly an unbearable painful feeling occupied his entire body. In a sudden, he fell onto the ground. Cold sweat wetted his forehead.
"Echizen!" The clubroom door opened and Tezuka's figure rushed inside. Abruptly he knelt down beside Ryoma. His face looked pale with worries. "What's going on?"
Ryoma answered nothing. The pain was so overwhelming that he didn't want to bother about anything else but how to ease the pain. He reached his hand to the direction of his bag, wishing that he could grasp it.
"What are you looking for?" Tezuka asked in hurry. His eyes followed the line directed by Ryoma's hand.
"Medicine…" Ryoma said with lots of effort.
Ryoma's voice was barely audible, but somehow Tezuka understood what he meant as he reached for Ryoma's bag and pulled it onto the ground. He zipped it open and searched for whatever looked like medicine. Soon, after stirring inside Ryoma's bag, he found the only medicine container there. Abruptly he took one pill from it, reached for Ryoma's water container and handed them both to Ryoma.
Ryoma drank it without saying anything. He didn't even bother to close the water container after he drank its content as he only crumpled on the ground, waiting for the medicine to take effect.
Tezuka watched Ryoma for a moment before turning to the water container and closed it slowly. He took the medicine container and about to put it back inside the back along with the water container when his eyes caught a glance of eye-catching words on it. He read it carefully.
Anti-cancer medicine
His eyes widened in surprise. He looked at Ryoma with shock. Why would a person as young as Ryoma need to drink such medicine?
He waited until Ryoma breathed regularly. He helped Ryoma to sit up before questioning anything. He even waited for a while before finally speaking up.
"Echizen." Tezuka called softly, trying not to speak too loud. "Tell me, Echizen? Why do you need to drink this medicine? What illness do you have?" Tezuka asked carefully. "You've been acting strange lately. What's going on?"
Ryoma lifted his head very slowly until his eyes met with Tezuka's. He stayed silent for a moment before finally spoke very faintly. "Leukemia."
Tezuka was shocked. He couldn't believe such a young boy could have such a serious illness. Morever, he couldn't believe that Ryoma, who seemed to be surrounded with living auras, had to face such a hard thing.
Ryoma said nothing after that. And Tezuka decided not to say anything else. He only stayed by Ryoma's side, waiting for him to shatter the silence.
And finally, after silence that felt like forever, tears slipped down from Ryoma's eyes. No voice was heard, but the tears kept streaming down soundlessly.
Tezuka didn't know what to do. He never knew how to calm down a crying person, moreover Ryoma was crying for such a hard problem.
The floor was wet with Ryoma's tears and his body was shaking softly. Tezuka really didn't know what to do, but he couldn't stand seeing Ryoma in that kind of stance. Carefully, only following his instinct, Tezuka pulled Ryoma's body into his embrace.
Facing Tezuka's kindness in this kind of unstable condition, Ryoma really couldn't suppress his tears. His silent cry turned into soft sobs before finally becoming a louder howl.
Suddenly losing all his life, tennis and freedom as a healthy young boy is really a hard fact that Ryoma had to face. Telling nobody about his illness made he felt as if he was all alone facing this problem. And after Tezuka finally knew, he decided to let all his tears flow away just for this time.
--
TBC
--
Notes: Okay2… I know I've been lacking of update! Really sorry! Lots of things to do, school stuff, and deciding faculty are really PROBLEMS for me! But sometimes I'm just lazy too… ;P
Then-then… been listening to a lot of mellow songs while writing this. I guess I've find a new Sasunaru idea. But I dunno when I'll start writing ;;
Special thanks to:
wadeva
TheSilentSenshi - the other won't know. Yet! evil grin
Kawaii Chibi Yami - Well... I guess it's Tezuryo... It just not that explicit as my other stories
babymar-mar
Thanks to you all readers… I wrote this story just for you… and please at least leave a note for me ()
Finished: 07/11/2004