Okay, first, to all the new faces and the loyal reviewers who've been with me since the start, thank you so much. My first story has only gotten so far thanks to you, and I love you so much!

That said, this chapter will quite possibly look like crap. First of all, I just wasn't really feeling this one. More importantly, though, my lovely beta Self is on break from school and has decided to drop off the face of the Earth, so this is (dun-dun-dun-DUUUNNNN) un-beta'd! Self, you can rip the chapter apart later.

Here We Go Again

Chapter Eighteen: Stir Crazy

Weak moonlight shone through the vast windows, bathing the room in a pale silver glow. Light colors in the space appeared to be bleached white, and even the darker tones had an ethereal luminescence. In the peaceful room, the sounds of two people breathing steadily were all that could be heard.

Suddenly, however, one of the occupants scrunched their eyebrows together and grimaced. The sounds of gritting teeth and slightly hitched breaths filled the room. On the large bed, a tiny figure trembled and jerked spasmodically. The person's mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound came out.

As the shudders and twitches escalated into full-blown thrashes and convulsions, another figure stirred across the room. They sat up in their bed, rubbing their eyes. "Ryoma…? Ryoma!" The person jumped off of their bed and quickly walked over to where the room's other inhabitant tossed and turned violently, trapped in the depths of a nightmare.

Trying to be as gentle as possible, the larger of the two teens pinned down the smaller teen's arms and brought them down to his trembling sides. Making sure not to hurt either of them, the conscious teen wrapped the small frame into a firm embrace and began stroking the shaking person's soft green-black hair. Soft murmurs began to replace the sounds of restless tossing.

"Hush… It's okay, you're fine now. Sh…"

Several minutes passed like this, the two thin figures entwined tightly while one soothed the other. After the shaking stopped, the taut muscles relaxed, and the creases disappeared from the small person's brow, the larger of them disentangled themselves with one last calming caress. As soon as they had broken contact, though, the tiny person's hand fisted on the sheets and their lips pressed together in a frown.

Slightly surprised at the sudden change, the standing teen smiled sadly. They lay back down softly and drew the little figure into their arms once more. A soft laugh echoed in the silent room as they noticed how the small person relaxed instantly. "I'll stay with you then. I fear you'll kill me in the morning, though…"

~X~

Ryoma stirred slightly, making the covers rustle. Sunlight was streaming onto his bed and making the space pleasantly warm. No… There's something else. His senses were slowly coming alive, and he was soon aware of the weight on his shoulders, the firm chest pressed against his, and the neck that he was nuzzling into. Oh, hell no!

The boy's golden eyes shot open and he jerked back as far as he could, mouth wide open and shaking slightly. He had been pressed up against Fuji, hugging him, and the brunet had been doing the same.

Fuji woke at the sudden movement, ever the light sleeper. He immediately felt like laughing at his boyfriend's incredulous face.

"What the hell?" mouthed Ryoma, who made it abundantly clear that he was "shouting."

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" asked the brunet complacently, sitting up and stretching.

"Why are you in my bed?" demanded the boy.

Deciding to have his fun, Fuji smiled devilishly. "Do you really want to know?"

At this, Ryoma paled. Trying to restrain himself and preserve some of his dignity, he stood up. "You know what? I'm wearing all my clothes so I don't care." He strode into the bathroom without looking back.

As he heard the door slam shut, Fuji couldn't help but laugh a little bit. He stood and walked over to his bed, which was the type that had drawers built into the bottom, got out his uniform for school, and placed it in his bag.

By the time he had gotten dressed in his tennis clothes and quickly run a comb through his hair, Ryoma had stepped out of the bathroom. Instead of the uniform, though, he wore a hoodie and jeans, and he had left his hair down. It had been decided yesterday (a quiet Sunday that everyone had used to catch up on sleep lost due to staying up at the party) that the boy would stay home on Monday so that he could go over the material he had missed. This arrangement would also mean that the staff could be informed in advance of Ryoma's special circumstances.

He would walk with them to morning practice as per usual, but instead of going to the courts, Fuji would accompany him to the principal's office and together, they would explain the situation. Afterwards, Ryoma would go back to the dorm to email his teachers and catch up on work.

It had taken a good portion of dinner last night to calm his complaints (after all, no one would want to be cooped up inside all day doing homework) and Momo and Kaidoh arguing in the background hadn't helped. On top of their usual yelling, the two had somehow managed to sweep Kikumaru's food onto the floor before being silenced by Tezuka, and the redhead had been complaining about it all night. It made Fuji want to sigh that last night's meal wasn't even their most chaotic.

When the brunet returned to his senses, he found Ryoma looking at him with one eyebrow raised in an "are you coming or what" manner.

"Ah, sorry, I spaced out."

The boy in the doorway shot him another look before turning and walking out into the hallway. He was shaking his head in a way that clearly said "weirdo."

~X~

Ryoma was not happy. It was absolutely gorgeous out; the sun was shining and there was a light breeze. It was warm, but not unpleasantly so. In short, it was the perfect day to be outside.

And then here we was, inside, doing schoolwork.

As it so turned out, missing school for two weeks on end can make for an absolutely huge pileup of work. He had received a nice healthy review packet from all of his teachers and killed several trees printing them out. Now the results were scattered over his bed, almost completely covering the midnight blue covers with white. The material in the packets was nothing he hadn't seen before, as he'd managed to get ahead of a freshman's ordinary curriculum during his time away, but his teachers had made it abundantly clear that if he slacked on these packets the way he did in class, he wouldn't be able to make up for his time in the hospital. If his grades dropped that much, it might just be enough to get him kicked off the tennis team.

So here he was, sitting alone in the dorm doing monotonously easy schoolwork on a gorgeous day. He had already gone downstairs and made himself a huge lunch about an hour ago, and he somehow couldn't force himself to sleep. Momo had told him (on the pain of having anything tennis-related taken from him) that he wasn't allowed to walk down to the tennis courts and exercise a little, as he might hurt himself. There was nothing to do.

I am so bored, he groaned mentally, flopping back on his bed. He flinched slightly as he felt his chest twinge. The very thought of the puckered, angry red scar stretching across his chest made him want to just go to sleep and shut out the world. He wanted it gone. Apparently there were a few treatments that could get rid of such scars, and the fact that the initial wound hadn't been very deep would only help the process. Therefore, the damn thing was getting removed as soon as he was healed.

Remembering the obscene amount of paper on his bed, he doggedly sat back up. Just one more pathetically easy section and his math work would be finished. After that, all he had to do was English and that wouldn't take long. He wanted this work done today. True, his teachers had given him a few days to finish, but he knew getting the work in earlier was infinitely less painful than doing it later.

After scrawling down the last equation's answer, Ryoma stood and stretched. If he couldn't play tennis, he would just have to settle for the next best thing. Over the past three years, his upperclassmen had accumulated a healthy amount of video games, no few of them centered on his favorite pastime.

Ten minutes later he was in the game room, sorting through the DVD cases. Settling on one, he got to work. He was still in the room playing Wii two hours later when his teammates got back to the dorm. Ryoma heard footsteps coming down the hallway, but paid it no mind.

"That bored, huh?" asked Momo with a grin as he walked in on the household's resident brat killing their Wii at tennis.

Moving deliberately, as if to show just how important his rebut would be, Ryoma paused the game and turned around. "Shut up."

"Hey! That's one of the phrases I can understand! It was the first thing Fuji-senpai taught us!" yelled the second year as he laughed. The little freshman just scowled and went back to his game, which he was currently winning five games to one. As the boy scored another point, Momo walked up to him and ruffled his hair (since it was definitely too soon for a headlock). "Okay antisocial, just wanted you to know that Tezuka caved for once in his life and he's letting us go out for burgers today. You can't miss that, no you can't."

"Go away. I'll be down in a second."

The trickster, who had truthfully only caught the rough meaning of Ryoma's words, laced his fingers behind his head and began to saunter off. "Now you're finally beginning to sound like a true teenager. Ah, youth."

Making his avatar serve viciously, Ryoma scored the final point. "Tch. Idiot," he said with a slight smirk. Shutting down the Wii, he walked out of the room.

Going out for burgers would be fun. After two weeks stuck in a hospital bed, he couldn't get enough of the outdoors.

Fifteen minutes later, after much chaos and disturbing of the peace, the nine tennis players stood outside Momo's favorite burger joint. They strode in with Tezuka's glares being the only thing keeping them relatively quiet.

Oishi went to order their food, since he was the least intimidating. The others went off to find a table large enough for them, and settled down as quietly as one could expect from them. Going out for burgers was a rare privilege, and no one would put it past Tezuka to make them leave because they were too loud.

A few minutes later, the mother hen returned with their food and Momo and Ryoma launched into one of their customary eating competitions. The second year managed to speak around a mouthful of burger, saying, "You're so going down, brat."

The boy only smirked and began eating with more gusto.

Around the table, the remaining teammates began digging in. There was next to no conversation as the teens wolfed down the food (Tezuka had chosen not to have a burger and prepare something more healthy for himself when they got back home, though). Ten minutes later, they were left with full stomachs, content smiles, and empty trays.

It was during this lull in activity that Ryoma turned to Fuji. The brunet sat up intently, noticing that the freshman had his "serious face" on. "Do you remember what I said the other day?"

"About?"

"The US Open."

Fuji nodded slowly, not liking where the conversation was going. "Yes, I remember. I don't suppose you've changed your mind?"

"No, I haven't."

Ryoma's eyes were sparking with determination, and Fuji knew that the boy wouldn't be deterred. "Try to see it from my point of view, Ryoma, please. I don't want you going to America when you're not fully healed yet."

"I don't have to go for a few more days," he stated plainly. "And I wouldn't actually have to try for at least another week after that. It's actually not a bad way to get back in shape."

It wasn't as if Fuji couldn't see where Ryoma was coming from, but he still firmly held on to his own opinion. That opinion was that, if left alone in a huge city in his state, Ryoma would end up getting himself hurt again. The genius knew how important winning the Open was for the boy, and he knew how much Ryoma wanted to continue life as usual. On the other hand, however, he also knew what cities were like, especially for someone so small and feminine, and therefore didn't want Ryoma leaving his side. As if the boy was reading his thoughts, though, Fuji found himself pinned by a glare that dared him to speak his mind. He sighed. I'm going to have to meet him half way, aren't I…

"What if I went with you?" he said, as it was the first viable compromise that came to mind.

"No way."

Well. That stung. Fuji was about to reply, and dramatize his slightly hurt feelings as much as he could, but Ryoma wasn't finished.

"If I go, then I'll be gone until the second or third week of September. The Kanto Tournament will have started by then, and the team can't lose both of us," explained the freshman in a characteristically blunt manner.

"Well, surely you're not planning on going alone," said Fuji. He might be able to let Ryoma go to the Open, if only because he knew how important it was to the boy, but he sure as hell wasn't letting Ryoma go alone.

"I know. I can take peroxide head."

The brunet's smile almost dropped completely into a frown as he found his logical arguments being taken down one by one. He was torn, unable to choose between what his boyfriend wanted and what he wanted. "Does it really mean that much to you?"

Ryoma stared levelly. He could see that Fuji was about to crack, and wouldn't mess it up now. He nodded seriously, trying to say with his eyes how important it was.

"But you'd be gone for two weeks. For you to be gone that long…" Though he would never admit it out loud, Fuji would miss the boy dearly.

"It's not that long," replied Ryoma. Swallowing his pride, he said, "Please?" The word was completely foreign on his tongue.

Fortunately for him, though, Fuji knew full well how much the word meant. He could count on one hand the number of times that he'd heard it from the boy sitting next to him.

The brunet sighed, finally giving in. "Excuse me," he said, catching his friends' attention. "Ryoma and I were just talking, and he wanted me to tell you something. The US Open starts in a little less than a week, and he wants to go with Kevin."

Silence fell on the table, and all nine faces focused on the feminine duo. Seeing the dead serious look on Ryoma's face, as well as the slightly resigned look on Fuji's, the team immediately broke into a debate.

The arguing carried on for a minute, until Tezuka cleared his throat. Instantly, all fell silent. "Why?"

Fuji began explaining, recounting Ryoma's reasons and plans for the weeks to come. The team watched and listened carefully, and Inui had been writing for the past few minutes. After the brunet finished, Kevin was the first to speak up.

"Sounds like a plan. When are we leaving?"

"Oi, oi, wait. It's not like I don't want you to go, but are you sure you'll be okay, Echizen?" interjected Momo, who was in one of his rare worried moods.

"Are you saying I wouldn't be able to protect him?" asked Kevin, half joking.

"I don't need you to protect me, peroxide head," commented Ryoma in irritation. He leaned back and crossed his arms, looking around at his makeshift, messed up family.

"But Ochibi, we'd miss you!" Kikumaru leapt up, looking distressed. "And what if something bad happens?"

"Nothing's going to happen to him, didn't I already say that, Eiji-senpai?" assured Kevin.

"Eiji," said Oishi in a soothing voice, pulling his lover back into his seat, "You have to think of what Echizen wants. This is very important to him, remember?" Before turning to calm down the redhead next to him, he spoke sternly to Ryoma. "Be careful, okay?"

The boy nodded.

"There's an 87% chance that everything will go totally smoothly and Echizen will win. I say he goes." Inui looked up as he spoke, nodding at his underclassman. "You should bring my new juice with you, it'll-"

"What do you think, Kaidoh?" intercepted Oishi nervously.

The junior looked up at Ryoma. "Go run all over them."

"Well then, I guess we just need one more person's opinion," announced Fuji.

Tezuka nodded, glasses flashing. "Don't let your guard down, Echizen."

All right people, put down the pitchforks (Kuro Neko Kyoko, I'm lookin' at you)! If it will help, Ryoma WILL get his voice back, but when Murasaki-sensei said it would take two months, he meant it!

If you thought the ending was kinda rushed, well so did I, but I had absolutely no time this week. Live with it. Either way, it's decided now, Ryoma's going. Now, final announcement:

*IF YOU SKIP THIS I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU NOT KNOWING WHAT I'M GONNA SAY!*

For the next two weeks, I'll be on Christmas Break. I won't be updating during that time *sob sob* but I'll be writing like hell so I can get ahead again. NOT. A. HIATUS. I hope you all have a good [regional holiday] and New Years (since most of you have New Years on Jan. 1) I'll see you all on January 6, 2012!

-Silver