Part Three. Wow. Um, please review if you like it, because this is my first fic with 10k+ words, and I love you both, Ken and Sopita, so... like before, some are interconnected, some are slightly different versions of each other, etc. Review if you like it! I love everything and everyone.

Most of the people here think Horio/Ryo is crack, but hey, give the guy a break. He talks too much, but he's a nice person too!

But really.

Part Four will be the last chapter in the 100 themes series, and I hope you like it, because I want people to like it and appreciate the pair for who they are, because Ryoma is a unique individual with every person that he's paired with. Especially Horio. He cuts Horio a lot of slack (in my mind, don't know about reality).

51. Sport

Ryoma's life is tennis. He lives, eats, sleeps, drinks, walks around tennis. Always thinks about it. It isn't like tennis is his life, but it is.

If he could, he'd wish for inexhaustible stamina for himself and one other amazing tennis player so both could play tennis forever, but then, inexhaustible stamina's like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. (There isn't any. People search for it, work towards it, but there isn't any.)

Horio comes to him on his last day in Seigaku (Japan) and tells him he loves him, and all Ryoma can think is you're too late.

But even so, he kisses Horio as a goodbye gesture but neither of them's ready to pull away just yet so they keep touching the other's lips and tongues and noses and foreheads and hands till they can't anymore.

In the US, he doesn't go near a tennis court or its locker room till a year.

52. Deep In Thought

Ryoma walks toward the water taps to cool his head. He takes off his cap and shakes his head roughly, freeing his hair from the hat-head condition. He gets to the taps and soaks his hair, sighing softly. He wraps a towel around his head, the towel he'd taken from the locker room, and turns around.

He'd thought he was alone, but Horio's sitting there, thinking. Thinking.

Ryoma is eternally thankful that the blood doesn't rush to his cheeks because it's not used to being needed there. He wants to say mada mada dane but the trance Horio seems to be in is captivating. He stands there, staring at Horio.

Later Horio tells him he looks beautiful without his cap, but Ryoma (who still doesn't blush) won't stop wearing it, anyway.

53. Keeping A Secret

Tomoka's never been good with secrets. She's a gossipmonger at heart, and she knows she physically can't hold a secret in for more than two days. Also, if she suspects something's up, she won't stop snooping until she gets the whole thing.

Ryoma knew it was all going to be fucked up the moment Osakada followed Horio to Ryoma's home.

They extracted all sorts of promises and oaths and vows of secrecy from her, but she doesn't even trust herself. Ryoma begrudgingly allows her to tell Sakuno, and as if the shocked, hurt, devastated look on the girl's face isn't enough, Tomoka finds it suitable to tell one more person about it, and one more, and then one more, until the whole school knows that Horio and Ryoma are boyfriends.

Momo can't stop laughing about the whole thing.

54. Tower

I'm going to fall.

Horio leans over the fourth-floor railing of the ancient tower they're visiting on a school trip, and thinks that he wants an accident to happen, right there.

Ryoma comes up beside him and says, "If you're going to fall, you'd better catch my hand and pull me down with you."

Horio looks at Ryoma who's smiling the ghost of a smile and says, "I'd rather not. I think I'll stay up here with you and watch the tiny people move around on the ground."

"How do you think it'd look if we were watching a tennis match from up here?"

"Two ants throwing a piece of sugar around."

Ryoma laughs, and it's the most beautiful sound Horio's heard in a while.

"Mada mada dane," Ryoma says, and they go higher up the tower with the rest of the class and the two teachers, touching hands.

55. Waiting

Ryoma's not punctual. Horio is the most punctual person in the school, besides Tezuka and Oishi and some of the teachers.

"I'll be there at five," Ryoma says. He means five-twenty, but Horio turns up at the lake at five on the dot.

At five-five, he calls Ryoma. "I thought you said-"

"Just a couple minutes, I'm pulling my clothes on. Do you want to be here and take them off instead?"

"No, thanks. I'd rather drown in the lake."

Ryoma doesn't say anything. Horio knows he just insulted him badly.

"OK. Go drown in the lake, then. Mada mada dane." A click, and Horio understands that Ryoma just said he's not coming anymore.

He still sits there, and a small grin appears on his face when, at five-thirty, Ryoma comes and sits beside him.

"Fuck you."

Horio smiles wider.

56. Danger Ahead

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die," Horio cries out.

"It's just a stupid rollercoaster, Satoshi, calm down."

"It's gonna turn upside-down, it's turning upside-down it's-" Horio wants to gag but something is holding everything in.

"Wimp. Mada mada dane."

The name of the rollercoaster and the symbol had been enough to put Horio off, but of course, Ryoma was gleefully dragging him along. Apparently the words Danger Ahead and the skull with the crossed bones didn't scare him all that much. They look at the photos later and laugh, but Horio's still scared out of his mind.

57. Sacrifice

Horio knew what he was getting into, what with Ryoma being a world-famous tennis player with a very recent break-up with singing superstar Ryuzaki Sakuno (he wonders what people would say if he said he'd known them since Junior High, and that their supposed relationship was a farce from the start) but with everyone abandoning Ryoma because of it, he didn't know if he really wanted this for himself and for Ryoma.

Ryoma came home with a tired smirk on his face and tears threatening to fall from his eyes, and Horio decides he's going to leave Ryoma, too, just like everyone else.

That's not what Ryoma wants, as he curls around Horio at night and whispers love confessions into his ear and kisses the soft skin where his neck and shoulder meet. His hands roam over Horio's body and Horio pretends the wetness everywhere is sweat.

It's like watching a train wreck, watching Ryoma come home from yet another person who abandons him because of who he is and who he is with.

Horio packs his bag the moment Ryoma leaves for Wimbledon, and doesn't pick up the phone anymore.

58. Kick In The Head

Horio likes the song 'Ain't That A Kick In The Head?' The Dean Martin version, for Ocean's Eleven (1960. He likes old movies. Really old movies). He mouths the words because he can't speak English all that well, and when Ryoma finds Horio mouthing 'him' in place of 'her' his face lights up and they kiss slowly, arms around each other and swaying to the beat, pressing against each other.

59. No Way Out

Fuji locks the doors from the outside, and makes sure the windows are latched, too, before going to a vantage point from where he can see Ryoma and Horio inside the locker room.

He's always found the pair interesting; because they only have one thing in common, tennis, and otherwise, they're from entirely different worlds. How can they survive with each other?

So he takes photos, and he learns from them, and one where Horio is laughing while Ryoma pounds on the door is especially dear to him, so he gives it to a scowling Ryoma and keeps the rest for possible future blackmail.

60. Rejection

There are three things going through Horio's mind at the moment, and all three are related to Ryoma.

Ryoma's smirk.

Ryoma's cold eyes.

Ryoma's voice saying you have to be kidding me. You?

It was just a confession. "I love you. Please be mine." Then it turned into something of a public spectacle, and Horio isn't sure if he wants to go out of his room for the next two years.

But he goes to school, anyway, and everything's normal. No one's staring or pointing and laughing, and Horio ducks into class, avoids the eye of anyone who might be looking at him, and sits just as the teacher enters. They all say the prayer and start homeroom. The teacher gives Horio the duty of cleaning the class after school for the week. Horio accepts and opens his notebook, the one he uses to take notes in every class. There's a piece of paper placed in it, and it's blank. Horio decides to write something on it.

Ryoma is looking at Horio, and then hurriedly averts his eyes when Horio turns around and places a note on his desk without looking up. Ryoma reaches for the note and opens it to find a word written on the top left corner (Horio is obviously expecting a reply, seeing all the space he left): Why?

He picks up a pen and begins to write. You could never be mine. You're too flawed. Annoying and talkative and mediocre at tennis. Why would I want anything to do with you? Don't reply, I'll only tear it up without reading it.

He gives it back and blatantly makes sure that their fingers don't touch.

Horio reads it and wants to cry. His heart twists itself into a knot and there's this choking pain in his neck and his eyes are burning and his lips are trembling and he excuses himself and goes to the infirmary. The nurse takes one look at him and forces him into a bed, and gives him some glucose, and offers to call his family, his parents to pick him up. Horio refuses. He's going to be fine in the next ten minutes.

The nurse leaves, after making sure he'll be fine. She has to go to the Principal to negotiate a salary raise, and it will take some time, so if Horio goes before she returns, he's to sign the slip she gives him. Horio nods his way through it all.

He sighs as the door closes. Ten minutes later, he's nothing close to fine, so he stays. The door opens again, and it's not the nurse.

Horio is paralyzed with shock the moment he sees Ryoma sauntering over to him with the coldest glare he's seen on his face.

Ryoma climbs onto the bed, straddling Horio's hips. Horio can't move. Ryoma leans down and places a soft kiss on Horio's face. "I don't love you," Ryoma says softly. And then he walks away.

61. Fairy Tale

When Ryoma hadn't yet turned into the cocky imitation of his father and was still an innocent boy who mispronounced 'tell me mother', Rinko used to love narrating stories to him. She still imagined him as the little girl she'd always wanted, and used to read Cinderella and Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and other stories by the Brothers Grimm to him at night. Ryoma used to listen eagerly, without interrupting his mother. Rinko then lost her little 'girl' to Nanjiro, who put a tennis racquet into his boy's hands and told him to hit the ball when it came to him.

One day Horio comes down with fever and misses a few days of school, so Ryoma stays over. He says it's because Horio's English would fuck up in the five days he wouldn't have a teacher to guide him, but Horio knows Ryoma cares.

Horio turns and tosses in his sleep. He's uncomfortable in the heat and sweaty blankets. His eyes open and suddenly he can't sleep anymore. He sighs, and then freezes as he hears a voice in his ear. Ryoma rolls over beside him and whispers, "Once upon a time, there lived an unhappy young girl. Her mother was dead and her father had married a widow with two daughters who were fair of face but black of heart. Her stepmother didn't like her one little bit..."

Horio listens.

62. Magic

"It's not my fault!"

"It's not your fault, of course it's not your fault! You're maaagical!" Momo cheers Ryoma on as Ryoma, horrified, watches the spoon floating in front of him bend over backwards.

Ryoma tries to back away, terrified like hell, but Eiji prevents him from taking even one step backwards.

The entire tennis club is celebrating the win at the Nationals, and Ryoma's the guy everyone's looking for. Horio watches from a corner, sees the thin white strings and the not-shine of the rubber. He laughs and shifts his eyes to Ryoma.

63. Do Not Disturb

As a child, Ryoma had been taught very strictly by Nanjiro, that, when he and Mommy hung that sign on the hotel room door, Ryoma was not supposed to intrude on them as they were playing video games that were too bloody for a child's eyes.

Now that Ryoma had himself started hanging those signs on the doors, he knew better.

He smirks as he closes the door, and turns to Horio.

"How about we play those video games now?"

64. Multitasking

Horio can really talk. Whether he's walking and playing a video game on his Nintendo, or if he's brushing his teeth and washing Ryoma's back through the gap in the shower curtains, he can chatter on about a completely unrelated topic at the same time for as long as anyone'll listen. Ryoma is bemused about this particular talent of Horio's, because it sometimes interferes when Ryoma would rather let only unintelligible words slip through Horio's lips.

"So, today, I saw Kachiro jogging in the park," Horio starts up as they're riding their bikes around the very same park.

"When?" Ryoma's not at all interested, but today he's decided he's going to let Horio listen to the sound of his own voice.

"Just a minute back," Horio says pleasantly. Ryoma chokes. "Did he see us?"

"Of course not. I have two years of experience in being invisible."

Ryoma wants to roll his eyes, but he's too busy trying to keep the bike handles from jiggling side to side. He's not ridden a bike for a long time, so it's bound to be uncomfortable.

They stop near a sort-of hidden park bench. Horio takes both the bikes and lays them down on their sides beside the bench, and he and Ryoma sit down on the cool stone. "Mada mada dane, Satoshi," Ryoma says, taking his cap off.

And then Horio's talking about the etymology of the phrase, and eating his sandwich, and listening to some obscure song at the same time.

Ryoma tunes him out and spends the evening peacefully.

65. Horror

They don't really celebrate Halloween much in Japan, but Ryoma dresses up anyway. Horio hates zombie movies.

He spends a lot of time letting Nanako put on the makeup (he can't help but fidget, but Nanako knows a threatening technique or two to keep him still) and then pulls on the clothes stained with "blood".

He ventures out of the house to go to Horio's house, and he hasn't crossed a hundred meters when someone screams and someone else calls the police.

Thankfully, the arresting officer's lived in the US before and knows the joy and satisfaction coming out of scaring a person, so he personally gives Ryoma a ride over to Horio's house and watches, chuckling, as Horio shrieks and slams the door in Ryoma's face.

66. Traps

Horio is out for revenge. The zombie on his doorstep had given him nightmares for days, and Ryoma wouldn't stop ribbing him about it. His cousin Anko has two years of experience in pranking people, so he calls her. "Anko-chan, I need your help in pranking a friend of mine."

When Ryoma comes to the tennis court the next day, he trips over some wire pulled over the gate. He gets up, suspecting nothing, and then walks again, and sees Eiji running around in a bear costume. Ryoma freezes. He's always had a fear of bears. He tries to run away in the opposite direction, when someone throws a bag over his head and says, "I'm going to break your legs."

Ryoma starts trembling. Suddenly the bag is off, and Ryoma runs into the yard behind the locker room. Horio is standing there, and laughing.

Ryoma wants to kill him. He takes a step forward, onto a suspicious patch of leaves, and falls into a pit.

The scream could be heard till the far tennis court D.

67. Playing The Melody

Horio had no experience in playing the piano. More than that, he'd wanted to learn the violin because he thought it was so cool, balancing a fragile wooden instrument on your shoulder and making music come from it.

That was five years ago. Before he got into tennis, and forgot all about the violin.

Then, one day, over at Ryoma's house, he sees Ryoma quietly pick up his cousin's violin and start to play something that sounded like 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' to Horio and Horio wants to smile very badly, but Ryoma would think he was laughing.

68. Hero

Ryoma would die before telling anybody, but he has always wanted to be Batman.

Horio has made it clear that if he had the opportunity to be someone he admires, he would be Wolverine.

Tezuka wanted to be Superman when he was a little child. Not anymore.

Momoshiro wants to be Captain Japan.

Eiji would love to be Spiderman.

Horio and Ryoma one day dress up as Batman and Robin for a costume party in their school, and no one laughs at them.

69. Annoyance

"Stop annoying me, okay, you need to shut up," Ryoma mumbles, pulling down his cap to hide his face from Horio, who is talking about something random and boring.

Horio becomes quiet quickly, and realizes he's not really going to mean anything to Ryoma, ever.

He slowly bleeds away from Ryoma's side and doesn't say anything to Kachiro or Katsuo about what happened, but a fake smile comes on his face and he starts boring them instead.

Ryoma doesn't even notice.

Then he does, when he doesn't hear Horio talking for three days straight. Horio's just sitting there, watching Eiji and Oishi play a match. Ryoma goes up to him and asks, "What happened to your motormouth?"
It was apparently the wrong thing to ask, because tears form in Horio's eyes and Horio turns to him and opens his mouth to say something harsh and ragged and hurting but nothing comes out because his lips are trembling too much to make shapes that will show Ryoma what he's done. And then he chokes out, "I'm not a joke."

Ryoma gets the feeling he just broke someone.

70. 67%

Inui likes his data cold and hard. But then, because he considers everything, he also factors improbability into his calculations, and what once comes out of the calculator is law.

But he can't imagine, he really can't imagine Horio and Ryoma together, even if the calculator says that there's a 67% chance they're dating. 67 isn't 100, but hey. It's more than half.

71. Obsession

It is unhealthy. Horio should be spending the rest of his life in a mental hospital in solitary confinement and he doesn't know what to do about this, because contrary to what people think, obsessive people don't want to be obsessive, especially when they know they have no chance. He thinks about Ryoma all the time, partly because it's his obsession, and partly because of the effect he knows he has on Ryoma. Ryoma's fucking scared out of his wits because of Horio and the love letters and the relentless calls and the I'm-outside-your-window-open-up thing.

So one day he ends his obsession and Ryoma can leave his window open as much as he wants, but Horio's not going to climb out of the grave and crawl into his room anymore.

72. Mischief Managed

All Ryoma knows about Harry Potter is that Harry's got a map which is activated by a promise of being up to no good, and which can be de-activated with the confirmation of intended mischief being done. How fucked-up. They didn't even have tennis there. So if Hogwarts existed, Ryoma would've fought tooth and nail against being admitted.

And all Horio knows about Harry Potter is that it outshines just about every fantasy novel in existence in every way possible. He really loves the Marauders' Map and wishes he could have it. Ryoma wouldn't like it if Horio saw his name and footsteps in the bathroom but hey.

73. I Can't

Too late. Ryoma can only look at Horio and think you're too late, I can't.

Horio knows that very well. He purposely waited till the moment was too far gone to confess, and he knows the answer that Ryoma's going to give, but Ryoma knows that Horio needs to hear it.

"I can't," Ryoma says slowly, expressionlessly, not looking at Horio but looking at Horio.

Horio nods, feelings folding up into a square that he banishes into oblivion quickly. He can't cry. He had expected this, for Kami-sama's sake. He says, "Thank you for listening patiently to my confession, Ryoma-kun. I hope you lead a satisfying life in the US." He turns to walk away, and Ryoma just can't let him go like this. He grabs Horio by the crook of his elbow and says, "Don't you want to kiss me?"

"Why should I have memories of you that are going to hurt me when you're gone?"

But Horio wants it, wants to remember him so bad. He involuntarily reaches for Ryoma and Ryoma lets him pull him in close and they breathe in each other's air and the cap's getting in the way so Horio pushes it off and cards his fingers through the sweat-slicked hair with his eyes half-closed, trying to memorize every detail, and Ryoma comes closer so there's not even an inch between their lips and he's waiting for Horio because there's no way he's forcing him and Horio closes his eyes and a tear he never wanted to fall falls and there goes his first (french) kiss.

Ryoma holds him close because this isn't some lovestruck first crush of a girl who saw him and thought he looked cute.

They're welded together in almost every sense, and they're actually kissing in public, where someone could see them. Neither of them cares at this point. Their lives are ending in a few days, anyway.

74. Are You Challenging Me?

It's their umpteenth fight, and Horio's just tired of this. Tired of this charade, because it was all real a few years ago, the love was real and the touches and kisses were real and every night Ryoma's curled form around him was real but now Ryoma wants his trophies and Horio wants Ryoma to not want his trophies and want Horio for a change.

"You won't even fucking look at me anymore!" Horio shouts, knocking a glass award off the table. Ryoma lets it fall, standing there, watching with narrowed eyes. "Am I a trophy boyfriend or something to you now? Wearing expensive clothes and walking around holding your hand like a model and getting photographed watching you win tennis matches and having my name appear in the newspapers every time I'm seen somewhere at a goddamn charity dinner?"

"Well, kind of, yes." Ryoma shrugs, and even then he's just standing there, immobile.

Horio wants to cry. Where did Ryoma Echizen go? Who was the bastard standing in his clothes and smirking his smirk?

"I'm done with this!" he screams. "I'm done with you now! I'm leaving!"

"Yeah, right. I'll see you soon, so be on the bed. Maybe I'll fuck you and actually call out your name." Ryoma turns around with a laugh and goes into his study.

Horio breathes in once.

Ryoma comes back out an hour later, expecting to find Horio crying on the sofa. But he finds Horio nowhere. For the first time in a long time he panics; he grabs his cellphone and calls Horio.

He can hear the faint strains of a song playing somewhere, and he follows the sound till he comes upon Horio's cellphone on their bed, ringing with the song that was playing on their first date in some café. He opens the closet to find all of his clothes there. He whirls around like a madman, trying to search for something missing. But the only things that are gone are Horio, and the clothes on Horio's body.

He collapses.

75. Mirror

It's been a month since Horio walked out on Ryoma, and Ryoma doesn't even blame him anymore. He used to, when his ego prevented him from seeing anything as his own fault, but now, he regrets everything. He hasn't left tennis, but he abandoned all the publicity. The media, of course, has been going crazy about their breakup, discussing every time they'd appeared together, whether Horio Satoshi had ever been seen unhappy. Ryoma doesn't watch TV anymore, doesn't go out anymore.

On the day of the finals of some tournament whose name he doesn't care to remember, he wakes up and takes a leisurely shower. As he steps out, he catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror, and let's just say he's not looking too good.

He sighs, knowing he was to blame for every fucking thing that went wrong. He puts on his favorite t-shirt and his most comfortable pair of shorts, but leaves his cap in his room as he locks the door and gets into the waiting cab.

He feels the familiar thrum of the eager spectators before he sees them; he hears the roars from his fans and his opponent's. As he walks into the court, the deafening roars magnify, and Ryoma looks up, trying to smile. He's not smiled since a month.

Everyone's standing and applauding and cheering, and extending their arms to him and screaming his name. He waves a bit and then the match starts.

Struggling at first, he starts losing to the opponent, 2-3, when he closes his eyes in despair, and Horio comes to his mind.

No matter how much Horio might hate him, he wouldn't want Ryoma to lose, right?

Right?

He serves, and then methodically starts shutting his rival down. He wins the match, 6-3, and falls to his knees, continuing the tradition of every winning tennis player. He prays, prays for Horio to return to him and then gets up, walking over to the rival to share a bitter smile and a solid handshake, and then the same with the umpire. He throws his towel into the roaring crowd, and starts signing autographs. After some time, he walks back to the court, because he's not allowed to go yet, he's got to accept the trophy. Ryoma wants to go back to his home and curl up on Horio's side of the bed and cry like a newborn baby.

He's made to step out onto the podium and he gets the huge silver trophy and he smiles for the hungry cameras, and then looks towards the spectators.

Everyone's moving, onto the court, off the benches, surrounding the winner, and then there's no one on the benches in a few minutes, save for one person.

Immobile, Ryoma and Horio stare at each other in a mirror-like repeat of his Junior High Nationals win.

Then Horio gets down from the stands and comes over to Ryoma and kisses him. "Congratulations." Ryoma wants to say sorry but there's no words coming out of his mouth.

They go home together.