"Syusuke!" a woman's voice called from the hallway. "Don't you have tennis practice today?"

"Hmm?" Fuji slowly opened his eyes. Turning over, he stared at the clock. Noticing that there was only twenty minutes until he had to be at the school, he threw his covers off of himself.

"Nn!" Ryoma rolled onto his back. The shirt he wore was pulled up and let his stomach show.

"Echizen," the older boy softly nudged his shoulder. "We have to get going."

"Just five more minutes…"

"Tezuka's going to make us run laps if we're late."

Reaching his arms up, he rubbed his eyes. "I don't have my tennis outfit."

"Then, we'll have to stop by your house and grab it," Fuji got off the bed and headed for his dresser. "You're not getting up, are you?"

"I don't want to go back there," Ryoma sat up and watched as Fuji dug around the drawers of his brown dresser for the clothes he wished to wear. "I thought I didn't have to."

"You can't stay from there forever. Despite the fact that they don't believe what you have told them, they're your family."

"You are making me go back there," he faintly said as he bit his lower lip. "Fuji-senpai…I…please don't make me…"

"What are you going to do then, Echizen? Are you just going to run the streets with no place to live?"

"I was hoping that…that I could…stay with…you…"

Fuji stopped what he was doing and turned to the boy. "Why here, Echizen? Why did you pick to come to my house? Was it just the closest place to come?"

"I don't know," tears had begun to fall down his cheeks. "For some reason…I felt like you would…understand."

"Echizen," Fuji sat next to Ryoma. He was shocked when the boy instantly fell into his arms. "My mom will start questioning things if you don't go home."

"I'm scared," Ryoma voice was muffled from him having his face in Fuji's chest. "I don't know what others will think. I don't want them to think I'm weak. Please, senpai, just a little bit longer. It doesn't matter what you make up to have it allowed…I just can't go back there."

"Is there something else you haven't told me? Is there more to what happened to you?"

"…no…"

"You're lying," Fuji pulled away. Right when he looked at Ryoma, the younger boy avoided eye contact. "Echizen, you can trust me with whatever else happened. I won't hurt you like that man did."

"That man…he was…m―"

"Syusuke! You better hurry up!" once again his mother called to him.

Knowing what Ryoma was going to tell him, Fuji quickly went back to his dresser. He grabbed for a small pair of black shorts and a light blue shirt. "You can wear this for practice. I have a racket you can use as well."

"Senpai…" Ryoma mumbled as he took the clothes.

"If anyone asks, just tell them that your tennis outfit is dirty and you forgot to have it washed."

"Thank you," he replaced the clothing he was given the night before with the new ones. "What I was…going to say before…uh…"

"Don't worry about it," Fuji placed a smile on his face. "After practice, we'll go get you the things you need from your house. I'll figure out something to tell my mom later."

After the two of them finished getting ready for the day, they headed out the room. Saying their goodbyes to Fuji's mother, they left the house together. As Ryoma walked next to Fuji, he darted his eyes back and forth as if trying to make sure nothing and no one would come out of nowhere. Seeing the fear that Ryoma had, Fuji placed his hand on Ryoma's shoulder. Although he jumped at first, Ryoma seemed comforted knowing that the older boy was by his side. Though he seemed relieved at that point, Fuji wondered how he would react with the whole tennis team around. Ryoma wouldn't be able to hide his fears from everyone no matter how hard he was to try.

NOTE: That man…he was? Hmm…who knows? I know who the man was. If you ask if the man is -insert name here- in a review, I will not tell you if you're right. That would just ruin it. I mean, I'm sure you probably could all guess and get it right (Am I that predictable in my fics?). I do realize this chapter is short. I didn't want to start the part where they're at tennis practice because it would have become too long for my taste. Don't worry though. I changed the date for when I'll update this fic, so you only have to wait until Sunday (February 7th). That's not that long if you think about it. I could make you wait a month instead. Aww…that would be mean though!

I think I forgot to mention this in prior chapters, and I've been wanting to. When I first came up with this fic, Ryoma wasn't supposed to have been raped. Originally I was thinking he didn't want to go back home because there was indeed no one for him to go back to. Either his parents were in a car crash or his house burned down…things like that. Would you all like this fic if I had kept one of those ideas? I don't think I would have liked writing this as much if I did.

Also, this was pretty awesome to me. The chapter two and three had the same word count (from what Fanfiction says). I thought that was so cool. I don't think that has ever happened before. Ah...I'm easily amused...

There's a new poll up in my profile. I mean, it's new…as in I just put it up (right before posting this chapter). Voting in it would be a good idea because you'll be helping me decide on the pairing of the fics I'll be writing. Don't you like helping people? I know you do, that's why you should help me. I'm going to stop with that now. Thanks.

Okay, well, I'm done here. I'll be back soon with another update for this fic. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and I can't wait to see you back here for the next one. Thank you all for reading; it means a lot to me. Now, I'm going to go scan this picture of Niou I doodled in between writing this chapter (I have to put color to it…and I want to play with my Photoshop trial…). Thanks again, everyone~!