Chapter 4 – After all

Next day Fuji was back in the team as his resignation had never happened. Members were curious but they did not dare to ask Fuji himself or the captain, for the reason that, even if Tezuka currently considered himself powerless in his team, the truth was, he was still his captain and that title didn't carry a soft sound. What had happened in the lockers' room that had made Fuji change his decision no one new precisely. Some said Tezuka had made a deal with Fuji, others believed Fuji's true intention was never to leave, only to cause a commotion, and nevertheless, the most sensationalist version was that Tezuka had threatened Fuji with past secrets they both shared. Rumors were only that, a re-made version of the truth.

"You don't have much faith in your decisions; have you, Fuji-sempai?" Momoshiro said mockingly "I knew you wouldn't leave Seigaku this easily. It' still your team."

Fuji assorted even if he did not really believe in those words. Team? All that would disappear eventually, they would all grow up and forget each others. Perhaps some would pursue indeed a tennis career yet his name was not in that list. Neither in the list who claimed love for the team and the sport. The reason why he returned, and the reason why he played tennis would remain unknown some more time.

"I knew you could not betray him." Echizen looked through Fuji's blue eyes without any hesitation "Us, I say."

Then, Fuji knew Echizen's pronoun mistake was not a mistake at all.

"I just hope he had not given much up in order to have you back in the team. Liabilities as those won't take no one anywhere." The freshman whispered this time passing Fuji and walking away towards the courts.

Fuji smiled. Echizen was truly an acute person and there was no way in denying it.

What Echizen believed wasn't nonetheless the true of the events. Fuji didn't eat up his words or his compromise, he just mold them for Tezuka's sake.

And… the prettiest that may sound, nothing had ever really changed.

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"Why are you really doing this, Fuji?" he asked at least.

"I don't want to know anything about you anymore. Distance is the safest, and the safest is the rule from now on." Fuji answered looking to his feet. He was becoming weaker and weaker those days. What an idiotic waste.

Tezuka got up, unexpectedly grabbed his racquet which was lying as an object of no use in the floor and looked at it. The thoughts coming to his mind in that precise moment, Fuji could not guess, like he could not guess or predict anything any longer since their game. Tennis was, after all, a tool to bring them together and he had failed to realize that in the due time, Tezuka, however, as bright as always, had just accomplished to stop that infection of spreading any further.

"Why?" He was still looking at his racquet. Tezuka breathed out soundly.

"Intentions fade." He stated simply.

"Do they really?" The captain breathed out soundly again. And again, in a freaking compass. That must be difficult, Fuji thought, as if there was nothing with him. "And what are yours now?"

Although Tezuka knew how to speak Japanese exceedingly, the tensai knew what he really wanted to ask was "How many times are you going to change your stupid mind?"

"I am empty of intentions currently." He answered, knowing that was not the answer because that one wasn't the real question either.

"Are you really?" Tezuka sighed deeply. Fuji looked up. His captain looked tired and for a second or two, while he was sighing, Fuji found himself thinking how old Tezuka really seemed. How old Tezuka really was with only fifteen years.

He didn't feel any bad about how he had acted before though.

"I…need you." Tezuka expired again as if those words were stuck in his throat. His eyes were still fixed in his racquet; it must be the only object he felt truly comfortable with. He wasn't talking to the racquet, obviously as much as it looked like it.

"I can't be true with you Tezuka. And if I know that I can't accept to have you wishing me."

"I broke a string." That was not connected with anything.

"I will come back to the team."

Will you wait for me? Fuji felt an urge to ask… Yet that was just not like himself so he remained quiet. Silent suited him better.

Tezuka deviated his eyes from the object in his bare hands and glazed at Fuji for a moment, perhaps tasting his decaying reality. Then he sighed quietly and walked towards the door. He stopped middle way, turned back and hugged Fuji in such a brisk and warm way he couldn't really realize it until Tezuka was finally gone. However, he would bear the words Tezuka whispered in those immediate seconds.

The hell with life, he thought.

'Drop your guard. Unlock your heart. No one will stop you then.'

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Echizen was indeed smart… just not old enough. And Fuji himself wasn't old enough to understand what was happening and why everything could look so bright in a moment and drowned in absolute darkness in the next one. For in his opinion, love was still all about manipulation… only that time, Tezuka was persuasion itself.

Age. That should help. Future. That would bring him peace.

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Tezuka would continue guiding his team knowing that, even if Fuji wasn't ready to face it, he was already his. And they would belong together. Forever more.