Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine.

Note:

Thanks for Urchin Power for proof reading my work… I love you hehehe. Anyway, sorry for bothering you in your exam time. Good luck.

Chapter 3

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"Every child in this world is waiting for the day they feel good."

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Several days have passed since the elevator incident, and Tezuka started to become very curious about Fuji. He found out that he was very different and stood out from the other patients. Not only because of his beauty such as the slender figure, blue eyes, and soft red lip but also because of his behavior. He didn't goes berserk like other patients who started to throw anything that they could find or run around screaming, proclaiming that he's a super hero like that Batman wannabe patient. Tezuka never saw any of that coming from Fuji, but he did see some mood swings that Fuji was having when he was observing the sky, and the way that his blue eyes showed loneliness and grief in the same time.

What Dr. Takada said about Fuji's popularity in the hospital was right. Every doctor and nurse in the hospital knew about Fuji and they always talked about him. Some of the nurses even fell in love with Fuji, even though they never admitted to it. The nurses even fought to decide who would give Fuji his medicine. But the irony of it was that no one really knew Fuji. They barely know anything about Fuji's family, except that he has a little brother. He would always talk about how his brother would act and so on. However, he never told them about the rest of his family, their names, where did he live, what school did he went to and so on even though they always talked about him.

Tezuka tried asking Fuji about his family, but whenever Tezuka asked Fuji, he just ignored the question or he would change the subject. Tezuka never succeeded to dig out any information about Fuji's family. Fuji was just too clever at dodging questions. Even though Tezuka did not know anything about Fuji's family, Fuji knew about Tezuka's. Tezuka tried to ignore those questions but Fuji is Fuji. He will keep on trying until he gets the answer that he wants.

"Heee… So your whole family is in the medical field?" Fuji asked Tezuka, who was currently eating his melon bread quietly, enjoying the view of the rooftop until Fuji disturbed him.

"Yeah." Answered the annoyed Tezuka.

"Cool! So your grandfather and father own their own hospital? That is amazing! You must be really rich then."

"…"

"Hehehe." Fuji laughed. "Anyway, I've been wondering, do you have a girlfriend?"

Feeling a little bit uncomfortable with that question, Tezuka stopped eating to stare coldly at Fuji.

"Come on, I only ask whether you have a lover or not." Fuji shrugged.

Ignoring Fuji's comment, Tezuka said nothing and continued to eat his melon bread.

"Tell me."

"…"

"Please?"

"…"

"P L E A S E?" Plead Fuji, but this time with the help of his blue eyes.

"…"

"Come on Tezuka, no need to be embarrassed. I won't tell anyone, I promise." Swore Fuji.

Feeling that Fuji would keep on pestering him, Tezuka gave up and answer Fuji's question.

"Yes." Answered Tezuka, who was very disappointed in himself for giving in to Fuji.

Hearing the answer, Fuji smiled and replied, "See it's not that hard to answer my question. There are only two answers, yes or no."

Feeling very annoyed at Fuji, Tezuka continued to eat his bread. He decided to ignore Fuji's basic questions about his girlfriend such as "What's her name?" "Is she pretty?" "Where does she live?" "What kind of job does she have?" and other such questions. However, Tezuka ignored all of that.

Seeing that Tezuka kept ignoring him and would never answer any of his questions, Fuji gave up and started talking to himself in a small voice.

"Hmm… how nice, having someone to look after you. I wish I could also have someone to look after me."

Even though Fuji was talking in a very quiet voice, Tezuka, who was sitting near him, could perfectly hear what Fuji had said.

"Don't you have someone to take care of you?" Tezuka asked suddenly.

Hearing the question, Fuji closed his eyes and smiled, as if hiding the pain that was reflected in his eyes.

"Lunch time is almost over Tezuka, you better go soon."

With that, Fuji dismissed Tezuka.

……..

Arghh… that person totally annoys me, thought Tezuka in his office while sorting out files and checking the patient's data on the computer for any improvements on his condition.

The more encounters Tezuka had with Fuji, the more he couldn't forget and stop thinking about him. This is especially because of his personality and the mysterious aura that surrounded him. The way he would always put on a smile and a bright face, even though deep inside he was in grief and crying for help. The way he hid his blue eyes as if he was ashamed with them and did not want peoples to look at them. The more Tezuka thought about Fuji, the more annoyed he got for not being able to understand him.

As Tezuka moved to the next file, he came upon Fuji's data. As he began to read through it, Tezuka noticed that there was little information about Fuji. There was no information about his family (even his brother's name), no indication of where he could possibly had come from and it even stated that there were no visitors for him, ever since he arrived here. They don't even know when his birthday is! It was as if Fuji had refused to give any information about his past and himself.

As Tezuka continued to read, he found a section, which stated Fuji's condition when he first arrived to the hospital. As Tezuka began to read it, he was very surprised by what the information had told him. The doctor that was assigned to check on Fuji had found bruises and scars all over his body. Some wounds were old, but some were new. It seems that he had been abused ever since he was young. Additionally, when the doctor asked how these had happened, Fuji did not speak.

In the document, it also stated that even though Fuji was nice to everyone, he would never befriend with them and would always go to the rooftop alone. Whenever a doctor tried to talk to him, he would shrug it off or ignored it. It appears that Fuji did not want any help even though he came to hospital where peoples could get help. It was as if he was waiting for someone or something to hold on to.

While Tezuka was busy reading Fuji's data, he didn't even notice the trouble that was happening outside his office. As Tezuka continued to read, the door has suddenly slammed open by Dr. Takada, who was breathing heavily with exhaustion.

"Tezuka!"

"Huh, what?"

"Fuji is missing."

"WHAT?"

"Yes, he's missing." Dr. Takada paused as he caught his breath. "We couldn't find him anywhere. We had searched his room, the rooftop, cafeteria, toilet, but we couldn't find him anywhere."

"You could locate him with the tag, can't you?"

"Yeah, but the thing is, we found the tag in the rubbish bin near the exit door. Somehow he succeeded to release the tag from his hand." Dr. Takada explained.

Tezuka couldn't say anything and continued to rub his head with his hand.

"Now what?"

"Well, this is actually not the first time that it happened."

"What!"

"Well, this has happen before, quite often actually. The last incident happened around 3 months ago. He usually doesn't escape far from here, and last time we found him at a small city."

"I can't believe this."

"Well, that is why we decided to send you alone to search for him."

"WHAT?"

Tezuka couldn't believe his ear; he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Well, you see, he never really leaves far from here and we could always find him at that small city or he goes back on his own. But to be safe, we have to search for him and that is why we decided to send you to look for him."

"Yeah, I can understand that, but why alone? I'm still new here and I don't really know him."

"Well the thing is, even though you're new, you're the only person whom Fuji allows to get close to. Usually he wouldn't even let people to come up to the rooftop."

Tezuka couldn't believe his luck; it seemed that Fuji would only bring misfortune and trouble to him.

"Grr…" Grunted Tezuka. "Fine, I'll go by myself."

"Thank you." Smiled Dr. Takada. "Now if you take the car and go west from here, you will find a small city near the beach. The city is called Il Mare."

"I'll go now then." Said Tezuka as he stood up and grabbed his key.

………..

In the meantime, Fuji was enjoying the breeze of the ocean. Walking down the beach, he let the waves wash his little feet, enjoying the cold. Watching the sunset, Fuji saw or rather heard the tune of an ice cream vendor. Feeling a little bit hungry, he decided to buy a vanilla ice cream cone. Seeing a bench nearby, Fuji sat down to eat his ice cream, while relaxing himself. Enjoying the view, Fuji couldn't help but to let his guard down and let his mind wonder to the past.

It's your fault.

You're an embarrassment.

GO AWAY!

I wish you don't exist!

I'm sorry… Kaa-san.

"Fuji."

"Huh?" Fuji was surprised as he snapped back to reality. Looking up to see who called his name, he saw Tezuka who was walking towards him.

"You really like to trouble me, don't you?"

"What?"

Tezuka then sat down next to Fuji and continued, "Because of you, they send me here alone just to look for you. I actually could have gone home early today, but because of you," Tezuka paused as he stared at Fuji coldly, "because of you, I had to work late. Not only do I need to write a report about this, I still need to finish my work." Sighed Tezuka as he stared angrily at Fuji. When he was angry, his face was very frightening like a devil. Even Fuji felt scared sitting next to him. Noticing that Fuji has an ice cream, Tezuka, without much thinking, took it from his hand and ate it.

"Hey that's mine!"

"And now it's mine. It's your punishment for making me worry." Explained Tezuka.

As Tezuka finished his sentence, Fuji was very surprised that Tezuka was worried about him. Worry… he worries about me… heh. Amused Fuji. That's interesting.

"Then let me threat you dinner to make it up, hehehe." Smiled Fuji. "It will be my treat."

"And how are you going to pay for it?"

"I have money. Dr. Takada must have told you about the bag full of money."

With that, Fuji grabbed Tezuka's hand, which made him to drop the ice cream. Fuji then led Tezuka to a seafood restaurant not far from where they were. The restaurant was called Umi no Ame (The Ocean's Rain). It was small and there's only a few peoples dining there, but it was a beautiful restaurant.

The restaurant's interior was made to look like the sea; the wall was painted ocean blue and they stuck little shells and artificial fish on the wall. They also hanged fishing net on the ceiling, complete with artificial crabs and fish stuck on them. You could practically smell the ocean and hear the ocean's wave as they opened the window and door to the balcony to let the wind in. They decorated the table with a small candle and small shells stuck on together around the candle to protect it from the wind, and below the glass table they put sand and starfish as decorations.

As they both went in, Fuji chose to sit outside on the balcony, to enjoy the scenery and the breeze. After ordering the food, they both stayed silent, as they enjoyed the sunset and the gentle wind.

"Isn't it nice here Tezuka?" Fuji asked suddenly.

"Do you come here often?" Tezuka replied.

"Huh?" Fuji asked confused. "Why do you ask?"

"It seems that you know this place pretty well."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah."

"Aaa sou." Fuji said while nodding his head. "Well, I used to come to this restaurant with my family when I was little for holidays, but ever since my mother died, we stopped coming here." Explained Fuji as he looked towards the ocean with sadness in his eyes.

"I'm sorry about your mother."

"Heh? No need to be sorry, T-e-z-u-k-a-kun. It was a long time ago, I already got over it."

As Fuji finished his sentence, the food came.

"Jaa… let's eat. The abalone here is really good."

………….

After they finished their dinners, the sun has already gone out to be replaced by the moon and stars lightning the dark sky. As they walked down the beach, Fuji was in a happy mood, so he started to sing in a soft voice, while Tezuka remained quiet and watched Fuji from a distance.

"Aaa… I feel so happy today. Aren't you happy, Tezuka?"

"…"

Hearing no reply, Fuji turned around and faced him.

"Smile, Tezuka, Smile!"

"Why should I?" Asked Tezuka.

"Because today is my birthday." Fuji answered.

"Heh?"

"Well it's not really my birthday. Actually, my birthday is between today and tomorrow."

"Leap year huh?"

"Yap." Smiled Fuji. "I'm going to be 19 years old. Isn't it exciting? Hehehe."

"I see, happy birthday then." Congratulated Tezuka.

"Thanks."

As they walked along the beach, Tezuka spotted a person selling souvenirs. Getting an idea, he told Fuji to wait then made his way towards that person. He chose something from a quite large selection of souvenirs and bought it from the salesperson. Fuji, who saw this, was very confused and didn't know what Tezuka was doing. Once Tezuka returned he asked Fuji to hold out his hand. As Fuji flipped over his hand, Tezuka gave him the present that he just bought.

"It's your birthday present." Explained Tezuka.

Fuji was very surprised. Glancing down at his hand and he was in shock at what Tezuka had given him. Tezuka had bought him a starfish key ring for his birthday present. It was small, but beautiful. The starfish was made from glass and inside the starfish was a small pink colored shell.

Fuji was speechless as he saw the gift. He couldn't believe that someone had given him a birthday present. "I…I don't know what to say. I haven't received anything for such a long time."

"A 'thank you' will be enough." Tezuka suggested.

Fuji was so touched that he almost cried, "Aaa… Thank you, Tezuka."

Tezuka could see that Fuji was on the verge of crying. For this reason he grabbed Fuji's hand and started to walk to where Tezuka had parked his car. "Let's go back." Tezuka notified.

"Umm, let's go." Fuji agreed softly as he treasured his birthday gift.

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I hope you like it and I hope that the characters are not so OOC… So yeah… thanks to Urchin Power again and those peoples that has commented on the previous chapter.

Btw, my school is starting soon so it might take awhile for the next chapter to be ready.

Thanks peoples….. I hope my story doesn't bored you.. lalalala Sorry for the short chapter.