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.

Hey! I actually remembered to update this time. It's because we're on Thanksgiving break and I have nothing to do. My brother came back from college today, which was nice. He doesn't look or sound too different, though. Anyway, on with the story. This chapter kind of ends on a cliffhanger, so I'm really sorry about that! Please read, review, and enjoy! PS: I think I might actually have another plot bunny in my head! I have to think of how the story is going to work though.

Chapter 8: The Journal of the King:

Fuji woke up to a dim light streaming through his window and a cool breeze blowing through. He heard the silence of the snow falling onto the trees outside and the serene feeling of a nice morning. There was a small lantern resting on his nightstand, and it was lit dimly. It was still early in the morning, since the sky outside was overcast and it was snowing moderately. The only thing that ruined this perfect morning was the fact that his head, and pretty much every body part, was hurting tremendously, and he couldn't figure out why.

Fuji lifted his fingers to rub or at least feel his head, but when he took a look at his fingers, they were bandaged up with white cloth. What had happened? Lifting his left hand, he saw that it didn't need to be bandaged, but it was still scratched up pretty bad. Feeling his forehead with his left hand, Fuji noticed that it, too, was bandaged under the hair that was still falling across it. There was also a bandage across his cheek, but strangely enough, that was the only place that didn't hurt.

Fuji stepped out of the bed, wearing some kind of white tunic that was tied at the waist. His right ankle and knee were bandaged, and his right shoulder was wrapped in the white cloth, also. He saw that his left side was still scratched up, and he was almost afraid to see what was under the bandages. He felt something under his tunic, and he then noticed that his torso was also bandaged up, and something on his back stung like crazy. He got out of bed and walked over to Atobe's room, trembling at the cold, shock, and fear of finding out what had happened to him.

Fuji knocked softly at Atobe's door, and almost instantly, it swung open, and Fuji was ushered inside, surprised. He felt something warm and soft being wrapped around him, a blanket, and he sat down on the bed (it wasn't like he had a choice anyway). All of that happened in almost less that a second. When Fuji got a chance to look up, he saw Atobe looking down at him, frowning. "Why did you get up so early?" he asked.

Fuji shrugged. "I just woke up?"

"From those injuries, you weren't supposed to have woken up until two days from now," Atobe said.

"When did I get these?"

"Yesterday evening."

Fuji blinked. "What happened?? I'm scratched and bruised all over, and half of my body is wrapped in bandages. Not to mention that there isn't one part of me that doesn't hurt, except for my face, other than my forehead. Something on my back stings like crazy, and my forehead feels like it's being hit with a rock repeatedly."

Atobe sat down next to Fuji. "Slow down. You don't remember what happened yesterday?"

Fuji shook his head. "All I remember is Ryoma, a challenge, and being hurt a lot by the little brat. And then I felt a ton of mana surging into me, and I remember not feeling any of my wounds anymore. I just felt…powerful. And that's all I remember."

Atobe sighed. "It's enough. Don't think too hard about it." He leaned in close to Fuji and carefully unwrapped the bandages that were around Fuji's forehead. The gash had gotten a bit better from yesterday, and it hadn't bled more. There was still a scab there, and a scar might stay there forever if they didn't take care of it quickly. Atobe ran his fingers across it gently, and as expected, Fuji flinched.

Fuji felt the scab on his forehead hurt more and more after Atobe had touched it. It was almost as if there was a curse or something in it. Fuji bit his lip and tears welled up in his eyes as the pain worsened. It was almost too much to bear.

"It hurts a lot, doesn't it?" Atobe asked quietly, almost a whisper. Fuji barely had the strength to nod his head as tears were streaming down his face. "It's a curse. I should've known. It must've been Ryoma's dagger that cut across your face yesterday. It was laced with something that affects the region near the brain, as long as it cuts across the face. Don't bite your lip."

"I—I can't…" was all Fuji managed to say. His lip was bleeding now. Atobe handed his cape to Fuji, who clutched at it until his knuckles turned white. It made the pressure on Fuji's lower lip a bit less, but Atobe could still tell that Fuji was in immense pain.

Just then, Yukimura came into the room and rushed over to Fuji, whose cheeks were now tear stained. Yukimura cursed at Ryoma quietly and dipped his index and middle fingers into a jar of ointment that he had in his hand at the moment and rubbed it over Fuji's wound.

Fuji could feel the pain lessen a bit, and then more and more, until it was completely gone. Fuji sighed, and breathed heavily after that. "Atobe, why don't you have this in your room?" Yukimura asked him. "You should've known that you'd be the first one that Fuji would come to. If you're going to speed up the healing process, at least do it right so that Fuji doesn't pass out from the pain first."

"So that's what it was?" Fuji asked. "Atobe's hand also sped up the healing process?"

Yukimura nodded. "In our world, wounds only hurt because they're healing or they're cursed. Yesterday evening, we put a spell on your wounds to keep them from healing at all so that you'd be able to get a good sleep. But if one's wounds don't get healed quickly enough, then the pain could spread to other wounds and get worse once it starts healing again. If the healing process is sped up, then the wound hurts more, too. I wasn't aware that you would awaken this quickly, though. But on the other hand, I was kind of hoping it, so that we could get to the healing quicker."

"So Ryoma will have to go through this, too?" Fuji asked.

Yukimura smirked. "Yeah, except a whole lot worse, since he's going to be waking up a lot later than you."

"Serves him right," Fuji said under his breath. "That damned dagger of his."

"That you pretty much destroyed," Atobe pointed out. "Who taught you how to lace things with flame?"

Fuji smiled. "You did."

"Didn't think you'd pick up on it so quickly," Atobe said.

Yukimura poked Atobe. "This is the reincarnation of the world's most powerful magician that we're talking about. He should be able to pick up on something as simple as that." Atobe shrugged. "Now, let's get to Fuji's back. There's a nasty wound there that needs healing." Fuji's face paled and Yukimura chuckled. "Come on, it won't be that bad."

"You sure?" Fuji asked.

Yukimura shook his head. "No, I'm not."

"That's convincing," Fuji said sarcastically and settled himself on the bed. "But it will have to happen some time."

Yukimura nodded at Atobe, who sat down on the bed behind Fuji and removed the blanket from around Fuji. He took off Fuji's white tunic, and then began unraveling the bandages that were around the brunette's torso. Sure enough, there was a large gash down Fuji's back going diagonally, and there were nasty scratches around it. Atobe ran his fingers down the edges of the scab gently, which caused Fuji to shiver involuntarily and clutch at the blanket, which was now curled up into a ball.

Fuji felt the pain become more intense, even as Yukimura quickly rubbed ointment onto the wounded areas. Atobe, meanwhile, was staring at the pale skin of Fuji's back with a raised eyebrow. Yukimura noticed this and coughed. "This is not the time, Keigo."

Atobe smirked. "How can you look at that and not think of it?"

Fuji, then getting what they were talking about, blushed hard. "H-hey…" he said weakly, though slightly accusingly at the same time. "It's not like you've never seen a guy without his shirt before." Fuji's breath could be seen puffing out of his mouth, looking like tiny icicles forming in the air.

"I've never seen you without your shirt."

Fuji sighed. "I like you and all, but I'm half dead. This isn't the time. You wouldn't jump Ryoma the minute he walked out of the shower, right? If he had a nasty scar running down his back?"

"That's sick," Atobe said.

"See?"

"No, not that. I meant that Ryoma is my cousin. That's sick. I don't even like him. He's not cute at all. He's just a little, annoying brat." Atobe wrapped his arms around Fuji loosely. "You, on the other hand…"

Fuji raised a hand a rested it on Atobe's chest, somewhat restraining him. "How can you not think Ryoma's cute?" he asked, trying to keep their conversation on topic. "He's as cute as a button."

"He's not related to you," Atobe pointed out. He pulled Fuji closer to him so that the smaller boy was practically sitting in his lap. Fuji sighed in relief just then as the pain in his back subsided. He arched his back ever so slightly. Atobe took that moment to wrap his hands around the back of Fuji's head gently and seize his lips in a tender kiss. Fuji was surprised at first, but didn't resist in the least. Yukimura had long since left the room. Fuji wrapped his arms around Atobe's shoulders, while the taller boy had his hands on Fuji's hips.

Atobe pulled away slowly. Fuji breath could still be seen in the room. Atobe wrapped the blanket around Fuji once again and smirked. "Are you warm now?" he asked, before leading Fuji down the stairs to get something to eat.

---------------------------------

"'What is mana? Mana is the source of life, and everything we breathe. It is in our atmosphere, and all around us. Without mana, life is impossible. Mana is existence. Mana is the air between our fingers, and the wind blowing our hair. Mana is energy, mana is everything we are. Mana is the language of the angels, and mana has been here since the beginning of time. Mana is time.'" Fuji finally finished reading the passage from the textbook out loud and he breathed a sigh of relief. He was currently taking lessons about the history of magic and mana from Yukimura, and much like Yukimura in Fuji's world, this one was relentless, and didn't give him a second for a break.

The reason the passage had been so difficult to read was because, like the book had said, it was written in the language of the angels, the creators of this world, and mana, and of course, you needed to expend mana to read it. So even reading a page was exhausting.

"Well done, Fuji. Many of the so called 'scholars' in our land wouldn't have been able to read that. However, you still have a ways to go," Yukimura said. Fuji didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult, and decided to just let it go. "But you're learning very quickly." Yukimura motioned around him. They were currently sitting in two armchairs in the main library of the castle. There were books all over, and the shelves were filled. Books were lying on the ground, on top of shelves, on tables at the end of shelves, and all over unused armchairs. Though the chairs were used for storing books, the library was used quite often, as Fuji learned, when the princes kept walking in and out of the room during his lessons.

"Is everything in this library free for me to read?" Fuji asked.

Yukimura looked surprised. "I guess, I mean if you like reading the ancient texts so much. I found it very exhausting at first, though."

"No, I was just wondering," Fuji said.

Yukimura smiled. "Even if that's just the case, I'm glad to see your enthusiasm. I'll leave you here to do some individual work, then." With that, he left Fuji alone in the library with a lantern sitting on the end table next to him, though the overcast light streaming in from the window was pretty much enough for Fuji.

Fuji walked back and forth through the crowded shelves, stepping over or between piles and stacks of books lying all over the floor. He trailed his left hand over some of the bindings of the books, since his right hand was still healing. Over the past couple of days, his injuries had been healing well. Ryoma had awoken, too, a day and a half after Fuji had, and Yukimura had been right; Ryoma had had it a lot worse than Fuji. Fuji smirked inwardly at that.

Suddenly, Fuji felt a strong presence in the shelves somewhere, and he whipped out his dagger as fast has his left hand could…whip it out. He quietly, almost silently crept along the shelves ducking under the books now and then. But something told him that the presence was not human, nor did it mean any harm. Fuji stopped being so cautious, and now just crept along the shelves curiously. He stopped at the end of one of the shelves where he thought the magical presence was the strongest. His hand fell over a certain book, but when he pulled it off the shelf, he saw that it was just a volume of an old encyclopedia of some kind. He flipped through the pages mindlessly and slightly disappointed when the page stopped and he saw something shining resting inside the book. He saw a key of some sort, and there was a slip of paper under it.

Fuji raised an eyebrow and picked the key carefully out of the book. He unfolded the sheet of paper and read it, though it was written in the angelic language. This key is of no use to anyone who finds it, unless you have a substantial amount of mana. It was a simply note, yet it was cryptic. Fuji kept the key anyway. Peaking around the shelf, he spotted something he had never seen before resting in between the shelves. It was a hardbound notebook with gold binding on each side and a lock on one of the sides to prevent anyone from opening it. Fuji wondered why he had never noticed it before, but then he remembered that he was in a magical world. The owner of the notebook probably sealed it so that only if one found the key they could see the notebook.

Fuji carefully picked up the notebook from behind the shelf and brought it back over to the armchair that he was previously resting in. He sat down in it again and stared at the book for a while, deciding if he actually wanted to open it or not. He decided to, since he wondered what the consequences would be. Yukimura had said anything in this library was free for him to read, anyway. But did Yukimura even know the book was there? Fuji shrugged and stuck the key into the keyhole anyway. He turned it, and all of a sudden, a strong wind blew through the window, blowing books open and scattering papers all over the place. As soon as the wind died down, Fuji pulled the key out and opened the book. Suddenly, Fuji felt exhausted. He realized that the book must have taken mana to even open. The writer had sealed it well.

Opening the book, Fuji noticed that it was written in the angelic language. Great. He fingered through the pages, and he could tell that it was some kind of journal. The first page he had enough energy to read, so he promptly did so. The first page was an entry from a man at least in his early twenties, distressed like no other man Fuji had ever read about. This person's style of writing instantly captured Fuji's attention, and it was even more than a journal in his mind. It was already a story, even though he had just read a couple of lines.

Fuji flipped back to the front cover and found out that the journal belonged to no one other than the king himself, who had died a while ago, from what Fuji found out from the princes. He knew he shouldn't be reading it, since it was probably a keepsake. No, it was a keepsake. Yukimura, he knew, if not the other princes, would kill him. Yet he couldn't tear his eyes away from the mysterious book.

The first page was introducing a young king. He was not yet the king, at least not until he married this aristocratic woman, an arranged marriage, of course. Fuji found out that this king was already in love with another woman, not as wealthy, but by all means as beautiful as the future queen and an amazing magician, and the king was distressed as to what he was going to do. Fuji knew it was a clichéd storyline, but the only thing was that it was no story; it was real. The king later did end up marrying the queen and keeping a secret relationship with the woman of his heart. The woman knew about his marriage to the queen and quite understood it, knowing that the king had his duties.

Later, both the queen and the woman had a boy, within a week of each other, though neither knew about the other. The son of the queen was a blue haired boy with a beautiful face and shining hair, as the king described it. The son of the woman was no less beautiful, with brown hair instead of blue. Fuji knew that the blue haired one was obviously Yukimura, but he wondered about the other son. How come he had never met this son? Fuji read on. He found out that these two boys often played with each other under the supervision of the king and the mother of the brown haired boy, since they were still a secret from the queen.

The queen later found out about the king's relationship with this magician woman and ordered the woman promptly executed, and she was. The son was kept a secret from the queen and was sent to another world for safety. This was the last entry in the king's journal, and Fuji wondered if he has used the last of his mana to send this boy to another world and protect him, while Yukimura was kept in this world. To Fuji, this brown haired boy was a mystery and completely entertained his thoughts. At least, until Yukimura walked into the library at that moment.

Fuji, with the journal still open in his lap, blinked at Yukimura, who stared at him. They looked at each other in such a manner for quite a while, until Fuji's face paled and Yukimura's eyes flashed dangerously. "What are you reading?" Yukimura asked, seemingly innocently, though both of them knew exactly what Fuji was reading.

Fuji got straight to the point. "You said anything in this library was open for me to read!" he said, standing up from the chair and setting the journal down on the armrest.

Yukimura stalked over to Fuji swiftly, anger evident in his eyes. "I hadn't expected you to find that. And when you find someone else's journal, do you read it? Of course not!"

"I didn't know it was the king's journal!" Fuji retorted back.

"And when you found out, you kept reading it?!" Yukimura shouted, now an arm's length away from Fuji.

"I—" but Fuji realized that he had nothing to say.

Yukimura took advantage of that opportunity. "Leave!" he ordered, and pointed to the door.

Fuji's eyes were now angry, too. He walked over to the door rapidly, turning around only once to say, "I will! And I won't come into this library again!"

Another cliffie!! Who's this browned haired boy? And will Fuji ever come back (again)? Keep reading to find out! And be courteous and review before you fave/alert! Thanks!