The owner of those eyes looked at Ryoma and asked: "Echizen? Echizen Ryoma?"

Eyes in the color of a dark blue ocean. Eyes, that pulls you closer and then never lets you go, his eyes.

"Atobe… Kei… go?" Ryoma asked, never letting go those piercing eyes.

Even after ten years he still held that aura of power around him, that aura that, just like his eyes, pulled you closer to him.

Atobe Keigo.

His face reflected his inner surprise and confusion, but only for a few moments. Then that well know smirk adorned his face. Just like the one he wore when they played countless tennis matches, but at the same time different. Scarred by the world truth and twisted by the darkness of people's hearts.

'But still… Not as much as me. My smile, smirk and laughs are gone. He still has them.' Ryoma thought to himself, as he once again looked at Keigo, just to print that face in his memory. To make sure he won't forget. So that he could still remember someone. So he could still dream of the days he was still happy.

"I never thought of meeting you here." Keigo said, looking into the empty, emotionless eyes and noticing the damp elbow-length hair, wrinkled clothes.

"I, on the other hand, never thought of meeting you again." His voice held something that slightly resembled a laugh, but disappeared too fast to be noticed.

They both stood there, looking at each other, remembering.

Ryoma finally broke the silence between them by saying: "I'll go now."

But just as he turned around to blend into the crowd and get another partner for this night, or was it morning already, Keigo grabbed his hand. Ryoma turned around and looked at him, asking without opening his mouth.

"Come with me." Was all Keigo said before dragging him to somewhere.

Ryoma didn't protest. He didn't try to escape. He couldn't.

They stopped at one of the many restaurants. Ryoma just looked at it for a moment before shifting his dead golden eyes to Keigo.

"Let's go." The voice that was so used to barking orders to the people around him didn't leave any place to objection. Whoever the order was directed to could only blindly follow it, without making a sound, without a single complaint.

Just blindly follow.

Keigo led them to the back of the restaurant. There was a single table that seemed empty at the first look, but once Ryoma looked more closely, carefully he could recognize one more person from his past. Someone he had looked up to. Someone he respected, but at the same time hated.

Tezuka Kunimitsu.

"Tezuka. Sorry I'm late. I happened to run into someone familiar and decided to take him with me."

Tezuka nodded his head in understanding and looked at Ryoma. When he recognized the handsome man in front of him, Tezuka's eyes widened. But that was the only reaction he showed on his face, what happened in his head, in his heart Ryoma could only guess. Tezuka, as always, could hide his emotion behind a mask. The mask would never crumble, never crack. It would cover his face as long as he himself didn't remove it.

He wasn't the only one who had hurt him, but that wasn't important at this moment.

"It's nice to see you again, Tezuka-san." He didn't try to smile, he didn't try to decorate his voice with fake emotions. He still felt hate towards the man that was sitting at the table. He still couldn't forgive him for the scars that would never heal. For the first push to the direction of the life he has now.

He sat down and Keigo followed him. They sat there, in the silence until Tezuka asked the one question that haunted everyone that knew Ryoma:

"Why did you disappear?"

Ryoma didn't answer, didn't try to come up with some lies and didn't try to make excuse for himself. He had to think about the answer before saying it for everyone to hear.

"I…" he started but then stopped for a moment "No. My spirit and my heart broke. I… just couldn't do it anymore." He said. His eyes were focused on the glass of whiskey in his hands.

Ryoma didn't see… More like, he didn't want to see the confusion on their faces and he didn't want to answer any more useless questions. He didn't want to let them know his want for human warmth, he didn't want them to find out his damaged self.

"I… Sorry, but I don't understand you." Tezuka said after the minutes of silence. Keigo shot him a well masked glare, but Ryoma saw it. His eyes may be emotionless and as good as dead, but they could still see the littlest things, the well hidden emotions.

'So Atobe understood my words…' he bitterly thought to himself. He shifted his gaze to Tezuka and opened his mouth to say the same thing once again. He wasn't ready to repeat it again, but he had to. He had to it so that everyone would leave him alone.

The call of someone stopped the talk that wasn't even started.

Someone placed a hand on Ryoma's shoulder and then that someone leaned closer to his ear and whispered quiet enough so that the rest of the people in the restaurant couldn't hear, but at the same time, loud enough so that Keigo and Tezuka heard every word that came out of his mouth.

"Ao-chan, are you free right now?" voice low and seducing.

"Depends." his voice the same as always.

"Hmmm.. You do seem to have company." A quick glance at the two and then back to Ryoma "But they seem too boring to you, Ao-chan. I could be able to, heh, entertain you just the way you like it." kiss on Ryoma's ear.

"Sure, why not." Ryoma doesn't try to remember his name, he just agrees like always. Agrees and obeys.

He notices the shock in Tezuka's and jealousy, or is it rage, in Keigo's eyes. He almost smirks as he leans closed to Keigo's ear and whispers his profession, fake name, and price and phone number before leaving them and following the man to another hotel to spend few hours in another's warmth. To feel the same alluring pain, to get same pleasure from it and to feel needed.

Ryoma saw jealousy that never left Keigo's eyes and somehow couldn't help but feel guilty and a little bit happy because of that. Be he soon forgot everything about those eyes, memories and feelings as warm fingers caressed his body and soft lips kissed his own and he lost his mind for the few fleeting moments.

Just for one night.

A/N: Well.. I don't really know what to say to you… Just wanted to ask you to leave a review and tell me your thoughts about this chapter…

Actually, I really hope you liked it and it was at least somewhat interesting and didn't let you down.