Flash Effects

Summary: Before classes start for Fuji, Atobe, and Shiraishi, Fuji finds out something no one can predict. Then, all kinds of problems start popping up.

Warnings: Shounen-ai

Pairings: Shiraishi x Fuji, Tezuka x Atobe, Chitose x Yukimura

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine.

This chapter pretty much reveals more of the main plot. I seriously suggest you read it, if you want to know anything that will be going on in the rest of the story. xD;; Again, I don't know much about college, so don't yell at me. Not that anyone has yet, though. I was just saying. Anyway, please read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter 4:

After Fuji's first two classes, he was tired again. He just wanted to go back to Shiraishi's room and rest. He still had to go to Photography, though, before he even had a chance to go to lunch. Photography was his favorite class, though, even though he didn't know anyone in the class. The professor was nice, and everyone in the class was serious about what they were doing. It provided and challenge that Fuji was lacking throughout junior high school and high school.

Today was the day that the teachers said they would assign a project. The second day of classes, and already a project? If Fuji wasn't so caught up in what was happening with Tezuka and Atobe, he would've enjoyed it. But there were already too many things going on in his life right now, and a project was the last thing he wanted to work on.

He walked into his classroom. About half of the class was there, like normal. Fuji didn't like being the first person to arrive in the classroom, because then he felt kind of funny. It made him feel like people in the hallway were staring at him and thinking that he didn't have any friends to walk with or something. He didn't like to be the last one in the classroom either, though, since then when he went to sit down, he knew that people would be looking at him.

He just went and sat down in a seat in the back corner of the room. Normally, he would've chosen one near the wall, but still closer to the front, but today, he just wanted to be left alone.

During class, the teacher lectured them for a while. She was just telling the class about cameras, and all the parts and pieces of one. Of course, Fuji already knew all that stuff. Why were they teaching it again? People who applied for this college were serious about what they wanted to do, and they were probably already advanced in their skill. Yet some people were still looking at her and nodding every once in a while. Fuji almost smiled. Almost. Either they were trying to be teachers' pets, or they were just amateurs with luck.

Finally, she came to the part that Fuji wanted to listen to. The part about the project. "This project will be your first of the year, obviously," she was saying. "It will have something to do with a mythical creature, but the project is pretty individualized."

Individualized? What did she mean by saying that? Fuji sat up a little higher in his seat. This may be interesting, after all.

"Individualized meaning that every pair working on the project will have a slightly different assignment, but they will all revolve around the same thing. You're supposed to work with people majoring in different areas than you, or maybe the same and every combination will have a specific project. We have thought this out very thoroughly, and we've done this project were ever year we've been here. Every problem has been reported, and we've fixed it for the coming years. You don't have to worry about a thing."

Someone sitting about four seats to the right of Fuji raised her hand. "Will we get to choose our partners?" she asked.

"Oh, there's one thing I forgot to mention about that," the professor said. "You will all be working with your roommates."

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Atobe didn't believe it. He just didn't believe it. Here, he had to work on a project with another person, and of course, it just had to be his roommate. His ROOMMATE. The one who hated him. The one who didn't want to ever see his face again. The one who had a lot of friends who absolutely despised him, too. It might be the first project that Atobe was going to fail on. This was going to be absolutely thrilling.

The professor told everyone to line up at his desk to tell him who their roommate was and what project they would be assigned. It was finally Atobe's turn. "My roommate is majoring in photography," Atobe said.

The professor said, "Okay, then, you and him will be doing a project where he will have to take a picture of a scene. Your job is to edit a mythical creature into it and make it look as real as you can."

It didn't sound difficult, Atobe thought. At least, for the main part, they wouldn't have to work together. The hardest part about it was the working-with-Fuji-Syusuke part. "Does the creature have to be completely edited in? Or, let's say, if you want to do a unicorn or something, could you just get a picture of a white horse and add a horn to it?"

"You can just add horns to it, if you want. But good luck finding a white horse in the city of Osaka," the professor said.

"That's probably not the project I'm going to do," Atobe said.

"That's good, because I bet a ton of people are going to do something that has to do with unicorns. Especially the girls."

Atobe laughed and thanked him. He took his bag and started to leave for the cafeteria. The professor called him back. "You're Atobe Keigo, right?" he asked.

Atobe nodded.

"Oh, then I have something else to tell you." Great, Atobe thought. "You're rooming with Fuji Syusuke, right?"

Atobe nodded again.

"I'm sure you know of the…accident that happened to the boy across the hall from you. His roommate was left without a partner, and since both you and he are graphic designers, the professors thought it would be best if the three of you worked together on a project."

Atobe nearly paled. Working with Shiraishi and Fuji? Who both hated him? The news just got worse and worse, didn't it?

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Shiraishi, at the same time, was paling as well. He had just found out the news that the project would be that the partners were roommates. Atobe…and Fuji? Would they be okay? And he was worried about himself. He didn't have a roommate. He didn't mind that, but not having a partner for this project might prove to be a problem.

He raised his hand. "Professor," he said. "I don't have a roommate."

The professor looked at him, as did the rest of the class. "You must be Shiraishi Kuranosuke, right?" she asked. He nodded. "Ah, then I have something planned out for you." He sighed. "Come to my desk after class."

Shiraishi waited out the rest of the class while the teacher answered the other students' questions. He was wondering who his partner would be. Finally, the teacher dismissed the class. Shiraishi took his bags and walked up to her desk, which was in the back of the room.

"Okay, Shiraishi, I think I have your plans here somewhere…ah." She took out a little note and read it. "You're going to be working with the two boys across the hall form you, in room 1313."

Shiraishi blinked. Did he hear that right? He would be working with Atobe and Fuji? He would be working with Atobe and Fuji? Atobe and Fuji? This might be a problem. But he nevertheless thanked the professor and walked out the door.

Walking down the hall, Shiraishi thought about what he had just found out. He couldn't decide if it would be better or worse with him in the group. It would probably be better for him, since he would rather have a partner (or partners in this case) than not have one. But the only problem was that he was sure Fuji wouldn't want to work with Atobe, and Atobe probably didn't want to work with Fuji either.

Shiraishi himself had nothing against Atobe. Well, maybe that was an understatement. He actually had everything against Atobe for hurting Fuji, but if he had to, he would work on the project with him. Shiraishi obviously wouldn't mind working on the project with Fuji, since they were boyfriends and they were close. But both of them at the same time?

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Fuji really wanted to make this project work out. But he didn't know how he would do it. After finding out that he would be working with Atobe, he almost fainted. If he had fainted, finding out that he was working with Shiraishi, too, would've brought him back.

He wanted to do well on the first project of the year. He did NOT want to work on the project with Atobe, though. He couldn't forgive him for what he had done. Fuji knew that it was partly Tezuka's fault, too, but Atobe was the one who had kept it a secret. Fuji sighed. Today was going to be a long day.

He was glad, though, that it was lunchtime. He was standing in the cafeteria now, looking for Shiraishi. He saw him, waving his hand eagerly. Fuji walked swiftly over to the table.

Shiraishi started to say, "Did you hear about—"

"The project?" Fuji finished. "Of course. I'm glad I'm working with you, but Atobe…"

"Yeah, I was worried about that, too," Shiraishi said. "You two—" He was again interrupted as a hand came down onto their table lightly. "Oh, hello, Atobe. We were just talking about you."

"Were you?" he said nonchalantly.

"Yeah. You heard about the project, I presume?" Shiraishi said.

"Of course." Atobe sat down at their table. "How are we going to make this work?"

"I'm not working with him, and he's not working with me," Fuji said.

"You two have to pull this together and work on this project," Shiraishi said. He knew it wasn't going to work the first time, though.

"Let's try not to," Atobe said. "This isn't going to work. Neither of us wants to work on the project with each other."

"And I'm not going to do the project with Kuranosuke and have Atobe get the A without doing anything," Fuji said.

"And neither am I."

"Fine then. I'll go to my next classes and see if you guys change your mind by then. I'll see Syusuke the class after 4-D Design. I hope you guys rethink this," Shiraishi said. He got up and walked out of the cafeteria.

Atobe and Fuji sat at the table alone. Fuji threw a glance and Atobe. He could tell that he was really trying to make this project work, but he also didn't want to work with Fuji. He saw this torn look in Atobe's face. It was the same look that he had seen Atobe have many times since they moved to the college.

Atobe suddenly got up. He held out a hand to Fuji to help him up. Fuji looked up at him. His face wasn't happy, and it looked like he was forcing himself, but it was a step. Fuji took Atobe's hand.

Fuji's hand was soft, Atobe thought. He quickly shook the thought off. He didn't want to have those feelings come back to him. He was already tangled in too many messes to deal with another one.

Fuji could really mess with people, Atobe realized. Whether he wanted to or not. Fuji could leave anyone with any feeling that he wanted to, and even if he didn't want anything, he still left an impression on the people that he conversed with. That was a skill that Atobe also had. The only difference was that Atobe couldn't make people feel what he wanted them to feel, and Fuji could.

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His last two classes except for the evening one was over. It was afternoon now, and Atobe had just come back from his last class. Right now, he was lying in his bed alone. He picked up his cell phone and dialed a familiar number. The number who was owned by the one who had been the one to cause this mess (besides himself, of course).

"Hello?" Tezuka voice rang through the phone.

"Kunimitsu?"

"Keigo. More problems?"

"Unfortunately, yes. This one's pretty serious, if I want to graduate from this school," Atobe said and sighed.

"Alright, what is it?"

"Project. Partner. Roommate," Atobe said. Three words and Tezuka would be able to understand it. With his situation, though, most people who be able to understand it.

"And I suppose Shiraishi is working with the two of you as well?"

"How did you know?"

"If he wasn't, you probably would've torn each other's heads apart by now," Tezuka said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Which is why I called you."

"You want me to figure this out for you? It's your problem."

"Um, hello? You're the one who cheated on Fuji."

"And you're the one who kept it a secret."

"Well, I don't want you to figure it out; I just need your help."

"With what? What could I possibly help with? You're the one who doesn't want to do the project."

"No, wrong. That's Fuji. He's the one that doesn't want to do it."

"And neither do you, I'm assuming."

"This isn't exactly helping."

"So, basically, you want me to try to convince both you and Fuji to do the project."

"Not Fuji, just me. Fuji probably won't want to talk to you. He's only talking to his Osaka friends right now."

"Which is pretty much everyone except for you and I."

"You didn't have to put it that way, but I guess it's true."

"I guess the only thing I can say is to try to get it together and work on this project. This is your first one of the year. You don't want to leave a bad first impression. The decision is all yours, but I think you should definitely do it."

"That didn't really help, but thanks anyway."

"Mhm. Love you."

"Love you, too. Bye."

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"I don't want to do the project, but I also want to at the same time," Fuji said.

"You just don't want to do it with Atobe," Shiraishi said.

"Yeah, that's true, too. I really want to do well, though. But I can't forgive him."

"I don't blame you. I wouldn't be able to, either.

Fuji blinked. "Neh, Kuranosuke, have you ever had anyone lie to you before?"

"Of course. But normally when people lie to you, you don't figure it out ever. Even in movies and stories, the protagonist normally figures it out, that's not the way it is in real life."

"But has it been anything serious before? That you've figured out?"

Shiraishi sighed. "Yeah. It was pretty serious, but not like your's."

Fuji sat up. "Can I hear about it?"

"Of course. It involved me…and Senri."

Fuji's eyes opened. "Really? You two…"

"Yeah, at a time. But we broke up after a while; when we realized that we didn't really love each other."

"But what was the lie?" Fuji asked.

"I guess it was that when we called each other and stuff, we would always say that we loved each other, when we really didn't."

"I'm so sorry, Kuranosuke. How can you talk about something like that so easily? It's just like Tezuka and I…"

"I guess it was because we just liked each other as friends. I didn't feel your extent of sadness when we broke up."

Fuji felt a tear streak down his cheek.

"Syusuke, don't cry," Shiraishi said. He wiped the tear off with his finger.

"I can't help it," Fuji said.

"You're crying for me…that's just like you, Syusuke," Shiraishi said quietly. He leaned over and kissed his boyfriend on the lips.

Yay, fluffleness. :D Anyway, please review!