Pairing: Fuji x Atobe

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis does not belong to me

Part: 3/?

Warning: Few background facts regarding the characters have been altered

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Color

Will that day ever come?

Lately, the nurses and the doctors all told me that I seem happier than before. It is strange how I never noticed my own actions anymore like how I smile more when Shusuke is around and how I feel safer when he is around.

How is that possible?

I forget when I started to rely so strongly on a complete stranger and on top of that Shusuke is my age too?

I feel weak.

I feel pathetic.

Father had always told me that being an Atobe means I can never be weak and that we, the Atobe, are born leaders.

Dr. Fuji had told me that my father will arrived sometime in the afternoon and the anticipation is killing me. I want to say that I am excited to see him and not dreading the visit but I can't. There are only two people in the world who have an effect on my emotions, Shusuke and my father.

When I was little, I remember staying at home with mother for all the major holidays and listening to mother telling me what a great person my father was. I used to ask mother why father was always away and she would smile sadly and said that father have to take care of important business matters. Pretty soon, I learn to stop asking because I want mother to be happy.

My mother always told me that father love us greatly and that I need to be a good child so father will come and visit us more. I used to wonder why I can count the number of times that I have seen my father with one hand till I overheard a phone conversation between my mother and my father. I knew that my father was a powerful man and it is common for powerful man to have mistresses in addition to having a wife.

My mother was a naïve woman who believed in fairy tale endings. When she first met my father, she was drawn to his charm and thought that she has met her prince charming. For years, she believed that father loved her and plan on marrying her. But mother's glimpse of hope was shattered the moment she saw father marry someone else. My father, Atobe Eiri married a woman that he didn't love for money and power. I remember mother hugging me tightly that night and whispered "Keigo, why can't your father love me like you do?"

I guess that was when mother finally realized that father can never love her the way she wanted him to. Is there really such thing as unconditional love? But by the time mother realized the truth, it was already too late for her. My mother had spent years being a pretty caged bird whose only purpose in life was to make my father happy. Ultimately, whether it was because mother still love father or because she saw no alternative way out, mother had decided to stay with my father as his mistress.

I was a child conceived out of wedlock, but father started paying more attention to mother and me when he realized that I was a gifted child with an especially high IQ. My father has many sons and daughters, but none of them can match my potential. I know that was the main reason why my father was giving me the best treatment that money can buy because he knows that I am the person to inherit the Atobe Company.

Sometimes I can't help but think that my accident wasn't really an "accident."

This summer seem to be passing by especially fast. Pretty soon, Shusuke will leave this place and fly back to Tokyo where he will soon forget about a guy named Atobe Keigo. I am just one of the many people that Shusuke will encounter.

…

"Atobe-kun?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, I am glad that you are in your room, Atobe-kun, your dad is here to see how you are doing lately."

"Keigo, as I had expected, you managed to adjust well in your current situation."

"Yes, father. I gathered that your trip here was pleasant."

"I have good news for you Keigo."

"Good news?"

"Yes, I had been funding a medical research in America and recently we had a break through. The government had given us the approval that we needed to go ahead with an eye transplant that will restore your eyesight. We will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning and after that you will be enrolled in the top private school in America."

America

Tomorrow

I know I have to say goodbye to Shusuke sooner or later, but not like this.

Not without any warning.

…

TBC