Mirror, Mirror

Summary: Fuji falls through a mirror one day and lands in a complete different world. Sometimes, while doing a favor for someone else, you realize that they're actually doing a favor for you.

Warnings: Shounen-ai

Pairings: Atobe x Fuji

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine.

ZOMG! I almost forgot to update today since I was so busy! My parents forgot to pick me up from school, so I had to wait outside for half an hour to an hour, and finally, we (my friend and I) just called her parents to pick us up. That wasted a bunch of time that I could be practicing violin, since I had a lesson tonight. So I was practicing all evening, pretty much, and we ate dinner at about 9:00PM, which is late for us. But it's a good thing I remembered. xDDD;; Please read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter 6: The Secret of Atobe:

Fuji felt his arms give out under him, though breaking his fall slightly, and he turned so that his left shoulder hit the ground, but not hard enough to do much damage. Fuji gasped at the impact, not remembering that there were people around him, staring. He stood up shaking angrily, with his head down. The princes were still staring at him, some of them curiously, some of them somewhat amused, and some just plain scared to death.

Fuji finally looked up darkly at the princes. "Alright," he said. "I give up. Somehow, I just can't avoid this place." He worded his sentences slowly and carefully. "You guys get what you want. I'll come back whenever you want." His eyes were still dark, and seemingly full of hatred or distaste.

Yukimura, knowing all he did about the legend of the magician who created the orb, had the courage and heart to smile brightly. The reason was that Fuji reminded him so much of his own conjecture of what the magician would've been like. Stubborn, mysterious, determined, and yet, he hid it all under his cheery façade. "That's our little Fujiko," he said quietly. "Our little magician, living to serve us…" It was rare to see Yukimura trail off as he did then. Jiroh, one of the only ones that heard him, gave him a you're-creepy-and-you're-scaring-the-crap-out-of-me-so-please-stop look, and Fuji, the other one that heard him, gave him a look that no one could comprehend. It was something like a mix of a bunch of emotions all in one look.

Atobe walked up to Fuji and stroked his soft cheek. "Fuji…" he said. "We really didn't mean to make you detest us so much. We just missed you and wanted you to come back. If you really don't want to be here, then by all means, just go back…"

Everyone nodded at Atobe's statement. "If you're going to hate us for it, then you might as well just go back and break the mirror," Ryoma said.

Fuji glanced at everyone, surprised. He then smiled warmly. "You guys…"

"Our purpose wasn't really to scare you," Yukimura said, returning to his resolute, almost commanding self again. "We just wanted you to come back. We didn't really mean to scare you, or make you paranoid. At least, not to a point that you were going to shatter the mirror." He sighed jokingly and smiled. "I can't believe we actually had to resort to force to get you to return."

"WhatI can't believe was the face that Fuji was scared by something so small," Oshitari said, smirking. "I thought you were stronger than that."

"That's no fair," Fuji chided lightheartedly. "You guys live in a world of magic. You probably wouldn't blink an eye if a sword came crashing through our window now and narrowly missed your head." He turned to face the rest of the princes again, and his smile turned sweet and dangerous at the same time. "Now, who's bright idea was it to put me to sleep, make me dream of Atobe, and then pour water on me?"

Everyone backed away one step, except for Yukimura, and naturally, they all pointed at him, and he just continued to smile. "S-Seiichi thought of it…" Jiroh said hesitantly, with a finger still pointed accusingly (at least, as accusingly as he could muster) at his older brother.

Fuji walked up to the blue haired boy, who still stood proudly in front of everyone else. "So, it was you, huh?" he said, with an icy gleam in his eye.

Yukimura smirked down at Fuji. "I'm surprised that you figured out the strange events were lead by us so quickly."

"Well, who else could it be?" Fuji looked around and saw Kikumaru standing behind everyone else, when he wasn't there before. "And how exactly did you get into our world?"

Kikumaru took a tiny step back. "Well, uh, I can teleport and stuff, so I teleported there and entered my body there…but I can't bring it back…because…I don't have the…orb…nya." He was trembling on the outside, because he was the one who had pushed Fuji into the mirror before the brunette had broken it. So there was no doubt in his mind that Fuji would be madder at him than at anyone else. Except for maybe Yukimura, since this had all been his idea.

"Ah," was Fuji's only reply. He turned once again to look at Yukimura and the other princes. "Well then, I supposed I'll be staying here again. At least for a little while."

"Yaaaay!!!" Jiroh shouted, pouncing on Fuji again. "When you leave, will you promise to look for our orb?"

Fuji laughed. "Of course I will."

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Fuji sat in his room, with only a lantern and the moon for light. He was just staring out the window contently, happy to not have to worry about school, tennis, or anything. This place was almost like a paradise for him, though he knew in the back of his mind that there was danger everywhere. But it was a different kind of feeling, different than the stress of studying for a test. It was almost like the danger here was thrilling, like your life was on the line. That was the kind of danger that Fuji liked.

Fuji stared out into the moonlight. He had promised everyone that he'd find the orb, but would he really be able to do it? He had no idea what this orb thing would be like, and he had no idea how he was going to find it. Round, with shatter marks all over it? How could it have shatter marks all over it and not be shattered? They didn't have that kind of paint back then. And did it have a color? It obviously wasn't white, since Shizuma had said that there were two white streaks across it. What was the size of this thing? It couldn't have been too big, since it was an orb, and he was supposed to be able to bring it through the two worlds.

While Fuji was racking his mind for anything that had to do with the existence of the orb, there was a soft knock at his door. "Who is it? Come on in," Fuji said, not waiting for an answer.

Atobe walked into the room. "It's snowing outside," he said, pointing to Fuji's window. Fuji hadn't even realized it. "It's our first snow of the season."

"How can that be?" Fuji asked, not realizing (either) that he had actually said that out loud. "It's May."

Atobe shrugged. "It's normal for it to start snowing in May. Sometimes it comes in April or June, though."

Fuji blinked. "But it's almost summer."

"Our seasons must be opposite of yours," Atobe concluded.

"Yeah, that could be true."

There was a silence, but then Atobe said, "If you're not busy, do you want to walk outside with me for a bit?"

"Sure," Fuji said. He got up off of his bed and followed Atobe down flights of stairs and through the door. As soon as he got outside, he immediately felt the cold wind, and he pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders.

"You okay?" Atobe asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Fuji replied. He looked around the outside and at his surroundings for the first time, and then he realized that he wasn't even on the lowest floor of the castle yet. They were merely standing outside on a balcony, about three floors off the ground. "Wow; everything's so quiet when it's snowing."

"Yeah, it is. Do you have a lot of snow where you live?"

"Sometimes," Fuji said, and then he laughed. "But it normally starts around November. We're an island country, though, so we get the lake effect snow a lot in the winter. Our weather is kind of jumpy. Sometimes we get snow in, like, April, though, or October, and that's kind of creepy."

"Sometimes we gent random snows, too, like in January or December, which would kind of be like snowing in June or July for you, I guess. It's normally the work of a mage somewhere, but we don't really care."

Fuji smiled. "Must be exciting to wake up in the middle of summer and have it snowing."

"Most of the time it is, but sometimes it's scary, if we're at war with another country or something. Kojiroh can always stop the snow, though, if it turns out to be too much."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone in our family has a special kind of power. And Kojiroh just happens to be the mage of our family, so he can negate almost any elemental thing that comes at him, unless the magician that's causing the event is stronger than him. But there should be no one in our country that is stronger than him at magic, except for the rumored 'Most Powerful Magician'."

"Who's that?" Fuji asked.

"Every time new princes are born, then a new magician is born as well, and that person is always the most powerful magician in the land. They are born to only serve the princes, in case an exceptionally strong magician from another country attacks us. He was also the one that created the orb and cursed us."

Fuji tilted his head slightly, suddenly very surprised. "Born…only to serve…you guys? The princes?" He then remembered why those words hit him like a rock. He remembered what Yukimura had said earlier that day, when he had been pushed into the mirror. "Our little magician, living to serve us…" Fuji's eyes widened. "Excuse me for a moment," he said, turning away from Atobe and walking back into the house quickly. What he didn't notice was that when he turned, his cloak billowed out and hit Atobe. It hit him, and did not go through him.

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Fuji found his way clumsily through the large castle, trying to retrace his steps. He was surprised that Atobe wasn't following him. Finally, after what seemed like hours of searching (in reality, it had only been a couple of minutes), he found the hallways that he had been looking for. He counted the doors until he reached his own room, and then counted a couple doors back to Yukimura's room.

Fuji walked in, too caught up in his own curiosity to remember to knock. The light was still lit under the door, anyway. As soon as he walked in, he didn't even have time to think before a hand came at his face swiftly and covered his mouth. And the hand was cold. Very cold. Fuji jumped up in surprise, though he didn't say anything. Yukimura, the owner of the hand, turned in surprise as well.

"Oh," he said, removing his hand. "Sorry, I thought you were Keigo." Fuji started to say something, but Yukimura cut him off. "If you want to talk, let's go outside. Jiroh's sleeping here."

So the two walked out of Yukimura's room, closing the door quietly, and stepped a couple paces down to Fuji's room. They went inside and closed the door once again. Fuji followed Yukimura onto his own balcony, which was much smaller than the one in the front that he had been standing on with Atobe.

"Okay, we should be far enough now," Yukimura said, after he closed the door to the balcony. The balcony was indeed much smaller, and Fuji felt slightly cramped, but the nice cold air pretty much counteracted that.

"Couldn't we have started talking right after your door was closed?" Fuji asked.

"All of the princes have acute hearing. Even when they're sleeping. Which makes them exceptionally light sleepers. I don't know how Jiroh is in your world, but here, he wakes up quite easily."

Fuji laughed. "It's exactly opposite in my world. One of his teammates had to wake him up with a bullhorn."

Yukimura leaned up against the railing. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Fuji then remembered. "Something Atobe said." Yukimura smirked, and Fuji immediately said, "It's not what you think. He said something about a powerful magician living only to serve the princes. And it was like something you said about me today. What's the connection?"

Yukimura's face then turned solemn. "I think it may be better for you not to know."

"What?"

Yukimura backed away, reaching behind him and opening the door. "You really shouldn't know about it until you have to. None of the other princes know much about it except for me."

"Wait," Fuji said, reaching in front of him to grasp Yukimura's hand, but the taller boy jerked it back forcefully.

"Don't touch me," he said, the phrase coming out much more bitterly than he had originally intended it to. He then turned around and walked swiftly back into Fuji's room. Fuji reached out again and tried to grab Yukimura's cape, but it slipped between his fingers. What he didn't understand, though, was how he had felt a bit of the fabric of the cape before Yukimura had been out of reach. It hadn't merely passed through his hand.

Fuji was at a loss for words. How had he been able to take hold of Yukimura's cloak for a split second? Any clothes that they had on could not be touched as well. Then what had just happened? He had better check with…Atobe? What had made him think of Atobe? Fuji shrugged and, following his instincts, walked the direction of the balcony he had left Atobe on not too long ago.

When he got to his destination, before opening the door, he glanced outside through the window. Atobe was leaning over the railing slightly, with his head resting on his hand, or so Fuji presumed because Atobe was facing away from him. The prince was staring into the night sky, and Fuji desperately wanted to get a closer look at him.

Fuji opened the door slowly, not making the slightest noise at all and crept outside into the cold, crisp night air. His cloak was lighter than the princes', so it didn't make any noise, but on the other hand, he was still cold. He knew he was being impressively quiet, and he also knew that even he, if he had been creeping up on himself, would not have been able to notice him. And of course, Atobe didn't, either.

Fuji was now within an arm's reach of Atobe. Without thinking, he reached his hand out and stroked the soft fabric of Atobe's cloak. He didn't make any sound, but he knew Atobe could feel the gentle tug of his hand. Atobe whipped around, and Fuji kept a tight grip on Atobe's cloak. "So this is how it is," he said quietly. "I see…but I don't quite understand."

"Since when did you get here?" Atobe asked, annoyed, but seemingly calmed down a bit.

Fuji still clutched at the hem of Atobe's cloak, as if letting go would make it disappear. "Since a couple moments ago." He shook Atobe's cloak slightly so that it rippled. "How exactly did this come about?"

Atobe sighed. "Guess the secret's out, now. Who let their guard down?"

Fuji motioned behind him to where Yukimura was standing now, with a troubled expression on his face. "I'm sorry," the blue haired boy said.

Atobe shrugged, seeming a lot calmer than he should've been. "I guess it couldn't have been helped with Fuji here, after all."

Fuji took a step forward. "But why just you two? And how did you do it?"

Atobe moved his hand to cover Fuji's, which was still holding the hem of his cloak. "Have you ever heard of the art of summoning, Fuji?"

Fuji chuckled. "Are you kidding?"

"Good. Then this will be easier to explain. I told you earlier that we all have special powers. I can summon people. I have been practicing at this technique for years, and I finally managed to summon my body from the real world recently. And so now, I am a normal person again. And I helped Seiichi, too, because he is very close to me."

"You haven't answered my second question yet," Fuji said.

Yukimura looked down. "Perhaps it's because he doesn't want to."

Fuji looked up at Atobe with glittering eyes. "Why?"

Atobe looked away, though his hand was still covering Fuji's ever so slightly. He glanced at the full moon and turned back to Fuji. The snow fell steadily around the three boys, and it was getting colder by the minute. "Maybe we should go inside."

Atobe started to walk past Fuji, but the smaller boy stopped him. "You can't evade this question, Atobe."

Atobe turned back to Fuji. "The closer you are to someone on a personal level, the less energy it takes to summon them. I am myself, and I will always be. It requires skill to summon myself from the real world, but not too much energy. Yukimura is virtually my twin. It takes almost no energy to summon him as well." And with that, Atobe left the balcony, pulling his cloak out of Fuji's hands and taking it with him.

Yukimura looked at Fuji's puzzled face and decided to help out with the translating. "Keigo's a bit distant from the other princes. He's a bit distant from everyone, despite his arrogance. He keeps his heart locked away, and he will never get close to anyone. That is a fault in his personality, though he is a summoner. When he was young, he was always outgoing, and everyone thought that summoning would be the perfect power for him. But no one knew that no matter how outgoing he was, he still wouldn't get friendly with many people. As he got older, he kept his distance even more from others, so much that he didn't even retain the outgoing mask. The only person that he will open up to is me. Not even his own brother and almost identical twin, Eiji.

"It takes an immense amount of energy to summon someone that you aren't close to. But as you get closer to that person, the amount of energy it takes depletes rapidly. Atobe is always summoning me places, and it gets quite annoying, but I know well enough that it's his way of renewing the bond between us.

"Also, the more powerful a person is, the more energy it takes to summon them. So if Atobe tried to summon one of the other princes who he isn't close to, and they are also very powerful, then a large amount of energy would be required, and he might lose his life in the process," Yukimura finished cryptically.

Fuji hung his head slightly, though it was barely noticeable. Yukimura saw that Fuji very well understood his explanation, and he didn't need to repeat it. He didn't even know if Fuji had actually been listening to the actual explaining part, but he knew that Fuji had heard the last part.

Yukimura glanced up at the moon once more, just as Atobe had. No matter how many people told him that the moon had some kind of power that was supposed to renew your energy and make you feel better, Yukimura still didn't feel it. The moon was just a moon to him, nothing more. He didn't feel a special presence in it, or anything comforting, inspiring, or powerful coming from it. He had always hoped he would feel it as he got older, but somehow, nothing ever happened when he looked at the moon. He had always been looking at it, though, hoping for something, even the slightest difference in his mind or heart, but he had never felt it. It made him wonder if there was something wrong with him.

Fuji followed Yukimura's gaze. "Is there something in the sky?" he asked finally.

Yukimura pointed. "It's a full moon," he said.

Fuji looked at him. "So? It's just a moon."

Yukimura looked back at Fuji, surprised at what he had said. "There's nothing celebratory about a full moon where you come from?"

"Sure there is, a lot of times, but I never see the point of it."

Yukimura smiled at Fuji appreciatively, though Fuji didn't know why. "It's getting colder and colder out here. Why don't we go inside?" Yukimura walked toward the door, and Fuji followed him without a word.

Secret's out! Atobe and Yukimura are normal, though the other princes don't know it! I think this explanation was a bit easier to understand than some of the other ones I have given previously. xD;; Anyway, please be courteous and review before you fave/alert. Thanks!