As the sun rose from the horizon, Ryoma found himself waking up. Sitting up, he pulled his knees up against his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. Taking a quick glance over at Fuji who still slept peacefully, he decided to stay there quietly. Though, in the silence, Ryoma could feel himself begin to shake as tears formed in his honey-brown eyes. The memories of the night where his body was completely broken into flashed into his mind. All of the thoughts of him screaming for help and being pushed to the ground to do things against his will were things he just couldn't get rid of. No matter how hard he tried to forget, they still managed to creep their way back. Placing his head onto his knees, Ryoma tried the best he could to keep his sobbing silent.

"Echizen?" Fuji's eyes opened as he turned to face the boy. Right as he saw Ryoma clinging to himself, he sat up. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," his voice was muffled from how he sat.

Reaching next to him, Fuji let his hand gently lift Ryoma's head. With the thin fingers from his right hand, he brushed the salty tears from the boy's cheek making him flinch. "How can you say that when you're crying?"

"My whole body aches, Fuji-senpai, and no matter how many times I wash myself, I still feel so dirty," he looked up at Fuji but quickly averted his eyes towards his hands. "Did I do something to deserve this? I just wanted to get home safely…I didn't think anything would happen. Am I to blame? Was there something more I could have done to make him stop? Were my screams not loud enough? I kicked, I screamed, but it was useless. He wouldn't stop."

"You can't blame yourself, Echizen. There was no way for you to predict this to happen. The only person to blame is the sick man who thought it was right to rape a twelve year old."

The words that came out of Fuji's mouth made Ryoma cringe. "Just hearing that word makes me quiver. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"If you don't express the way you feel, you're just going to get yourself hurt," he stopped for a second as if trying to figure out just the right thing to say. "I won't force you though. Just remember that I'm willing to listen to you. I can't possibly know how it would feel to be in your position, but I want you to know that I will support you. No matter what, I'll be here for you."

"I just wish there was something we could do…something…anything, but I can't even remember what the man looked like. No matter how hard I try to remember his face, I can't picture anything other than the hard, cement ground."

"Why didn't you go to the police? Even if your family didn't believe you, you could have gone on your own."

"If they didn't believe me…I didn't think anyone would."

Fuji shook his head in disbelief. "Right when I saw you standing outside my door in the pouring rain, I could tell your weren't the same. You're their son…how could they not believe you?"

Ryoma didn't reply to the older boy. He only closed his eyes and let himself fall back in the bed. Placing his hands over his stomach, he let out a moaning sound as if something was wrong.

"Are you ok?"

"I feel like I'm going to be sick," he mumbled.

Getting off the bed, Fuji hurried to the other side. Helping Ryoma up, the two of them stumbled their way down the hall and into the bathroom.

Ryoma sat on the floor near the toilet and continued to hold his stomach. Fuji placed himself behind the boy and let his hand rub lightly up and down his back. When he heard Ryoma beginning to cough, he got up and filled the small cup that sat on the sink with water. Handing it to Ryoma, he swished the water in his mouth and spat it out into the toilet.

"Do you feel a little better now?" Fuji questioned as he took the cup back.

"I guess," getting onto his feet, Ryoma cleaned off his face at the sink.

Fuji touched his hand against Ryoma's forehead. He could feel that the boy was warmer than usual. "Maybe you should rest a little bit more."

"I'm not tired."

"Echizen, it's barely morning. You haven't slept that much at all. With you being out in the rain all yesterday, right now you need rest," he stared into Ryoma's eyes and noticed the loneliness in them. "I'll be next to you the whole time, so there's nothing you need to worry about."

"Maybe you're right…"

Both of them returned to the hall and into Fuji's bedroom. When they laid back in the bed, Fuji made sure to face the younger boy. He watched as Ryoma curled himself into a ball as if trying to protect himself from the world around him. Seeing him in this state placed an ache in Fuji's heart. There was no reason for a person Ryoma's age to feel so broken, alone, and scared. This made him all the more willing to stay right by his side until he knew Ryoma was ready to return to the life he once lived.

NOTE: Chapter three is complete. For some reason, I feel bad for saying this, but I felt really comfortable writing this chapter. I don't know why, but writing things like this seems to come natural to me. I mean, I could easily make this fic fifty plus pages if I wanted to. I don't know how long this fic will go onto be, but I'm just saying that it could be my longest thus far (I wonder if it might even become more popular than "The Fallen Prince" because nothing has beaten that it seems.).

I want to mention something real quick. I've gotten some reviews basically saying that you all like how I've given Ryoma all these emotions and such. I don't remember getting anything saying he's out of character. If anyone even starts to think he is, it's not true. Yes, it's true that he's not his normal, cocky self, but what I'm doing to his character actually fits. If you don't believe me, go look up rape trauma syndrome (RTS). Believe me, this might be the first time I brought this subject up in a fanfic, but I've written with the subject of rape…um…I think I'll be going on my fourth time when I write one of my next novels. Though, if you don't trust that I know what I'm writing about, go look up RTS.

Now, is this fic ok with just being rated T? I mean, I don't plan on going into complete detail of the rape. If you guys think I should raise the rating to M, could you tell me? I'm really unsure about it.

Again, please don't hate me or send me rude reviews about the topic. No one said anything against it, so no one who has read the fic so far seems to mind. It's life. Things like this happen all the time. I'm actually going to quote part of EchizenRyomaLover's review: "Rape is a reality, even if we don't want to accept it. Perhaps this fic can help in making us more aware of it." That actually, to me, defines basically what I want to do with my writing (not my fics, my novel writing). I don't want to hide behind sweet love stories. I want to show that we can't hide from reality. We live in a cruel world and we need to accept the things that are happening around us. If we just hide from it, how can we make anything better? I'm rambling about that. I should save it for my blog.

I do have a new poll up in my profile. If you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. I also have a new fic called "I'm Not Broken" out (KaidouXRyoma). If you're interested, you should go read that as well. The next update will be Monday (February 1st). Also, an update might look a day late, but that's just because I'm posting it at one or two in the morning (I write better at night.). Oh, quick, for those that couldn't figure it out, yes, Ryoma did throw up in the bathroom. I just couldn't get myself to go into detail about it.

I'm looking forward to writing the next part, so I sure hope everyone is looking forward to reading it. You all have given me a great confidence boost, and I am personally perfectly happy with how this chapter came out. Thank you all for supporting me. I can't even express how it makes me feel knowing that people are reading and enjoying what I've written. Thank you for everything~!