Right when Fuji opened the door to his home, his mother greeted him with a warm smile. Though, when she noticed that the small boy who spent the night was still glued to his side, she let her concern show.
"Syusuke, is something going on?" she questioned as she eyed up the bag he held.
"I hope you don't mind, but I told Echizen he could stay with us for a little bit," Fuji looked down at Ryoma who continued to stare forward, emotionless.
"What happened?"
"Let me bring him up to my room. I'll come back down in a few minutes to explain everything," he rested his arm around Ryoma's shoulder and guided him up the stairs.
Up in his room, Fuji told Ryoma to sit down on the bed. Right when he turned around to leave, he felt his shirt being pulled at. Turning to look, he saw Ryoma's left hand clinging to the cloth.
"Senpai…"
"Stay here, Echizen; I'll be back," Fuji patted the top of Ryoma's head making him flinch. "I have to talk to my mom."
"Don't tell," Ryoma let go of the shirt. "Please."
Fuji lowered himself to be at eye level with the young boy. "I have to explain to her why you have to stay here."
"Lie."
"I can't, Echizen."
"Please, senpai! Don't tell her!" Ryoma's begging began to sound more like whining.
"I know that you don't want others to know what your father did to you, but if I don't let her know, you won't be able to stay here. If you can't stay here, you'll be sent off to a family that will have to be told what has happened. I promise you that she's the only person I'm going to tell. She won't bring it up to you; she won't ask you questions…I promise."
Ryoma averted his eyes. After a moment of staring down at the ground, he turned away and sat back on the bed.
"Echizen?" Fuji, not given a reply, walked out the door.
Left alone, Ryoma once again returned to his feet. He went to touch the cacti that laid on the window sill but remember what happened last time. Cringing back, he fell down with a thud. Darting his honey-brown eyes back and forth, the memories of the past few weeks quickly flashed through his mind. Pulling his arms around his knees, he vigorously shook.
In the living room, Fuji sat down next to his mother. She watched as he looked down at his hands. Letting out a sigh, he turned to her.
"Syusuke, what's going on?" she questioned. "Your friend, why will he be staying with us?"
"I promised that I'd only tell you. Mom, Echizen's father is a bad person…the type of person who would blame his son for things he couldn't have possibly done. That man," Fuji shook his head, "he raped Echizen."
"You're lying."
Fuji stared right into his mother's eyes. "I would never lie about such a thing."
"I see, but where is his mother?"
"Not sure; Echizen doesn't seem to know either."
"Is his father in jail?"
"No, he ran for it."
The woman put her hand on her son's back. "Syusuke, make sure Echizen-kun knows he can stay here as long as he needs to."
"Thanks M―"
"Aaaaahhhh!"
Right when Fuji heard the shriek coming from his room, he instantly jumped up and ran up the stairs. Almost tripping up them, he regained his balance as he threw open the door.
Peering in the room, Fuji saw Ryoma swinging his arms in front of him as if trying to defend himself from something that wasn't even there. His piercing screams continued as tears streams from his eyes. Trying to get to his feet, he fell right onto his face. This only made his screaming louder.
"Echizen!" Fuji flung himself beside the boy. Lifting him up, he pulled him close and wrapped his arms around him. "It's ok, Echizen…you have nothing to worry about. I won't let anyone hurt you. I promise!"
Losing all senses, he put all his weight against Fuji, forcing him to fall backwards. Placing his hands on Fuji's chest, Ryoma pushed himself up and stared down at the boy with rage in his eyes. "I won't…I won't let you get me…this time!"
"Echizen―!" Ryoma's fist made contact with Fuji's right cheek causing him to flinch. Confused by what might have caused the boy to act this way, Fuji knew he had to take action quick. Though, he could only do the first thing that came to him mind. Reaching his slender hand up, he swiped his palm against Ryoma's face.
"…senpai…" Ryoma wiped away the tears he cried with the back of his hand as he looked around.
"Feeling better?"
"I felt it…all of it as if it was happening again," he stood up with a frown painted on his face. "Sorry…"
"You don't have to apologize. Things are going to be hard, but lets do our best to get through it together," Fuji rose to his feet and poked at his red cheek.
"Our best?" Ryoma repeated.
"As long as you need someone by your side, I'll be there. We're friends, right? So it's only right for me to do such a thing."
"Sure."
"Mom should be cooking up something for dinner. Afterwards, I'll show you to the bathroom so you can clean up. Since Yuuta doesn't come home very often, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you stay in his room."
"Fuji-senpai…um…" Ryoma turned away as if shy about what he was going to say. "I'd rather not be alone…"
"I don't mind sharing my room either," Fuji smiled as they headed out of the room and back down the stairs. How long can we continue like this? That incident…that flashback you had…they could become dangerous. After seeing you, Ryoma, becoming some toy because your father can't handle the things that have happened, my mind is made up. I never want to see you be hurt in that way again. I promise…if there's nothing more I can do other than support you, I will.
After eating and bathing, the two boys found themselves once again in Fuji's room. Ryoma, wearing an overly large shirt due to not packing his own pajamas, placed himself on the bed. Without realizing it, he found himself on his side with his knees close to his chest. Noticing the small boy already asleep, Fuji pulled the covers over him. Sitting down on the empty side, he listened to Ryoma's rhythmic breathing. He couldn't help but wonder how things at school would be like after all of this. Now that the realization of what happened was set in Ryoma's mind, Fuji doubted he would be able to act as if nothing had ever happened. He could only wait for the next day to come and see what the it might bring.
NOTE: Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a day late for updating. Hey, at least I've been updating this fic (all the other fics have been neglected). Writer's block is terrible…especially this time around for me. Oh, but that's okay. I'm sure I'll get back up and running like I normally am soon. I do have an awesome scheduler on my laptop now, so I have dates set up for six more updates. The next update will be March 1st. Before I forget, I'd like to mention that in April I will be a little busy. I have Script Frenzy that I'm participating in, and I want to make sure I make the deadline. I'm guessing that this fic might continue on into April, so I'll do my best to update when the time comes.
Anyways, I got an external harddrive. This is very exciting for me because I was running out of space on my laptop. Now that I think about it, I have to write that fic for Fuji's birthday. Also, I noticed that the game I preordered comes out on March 14th. I better start writing my White Day fics early.
I remember what I wanted to mention. I received a review, but the person didn't sign it. It asked why my chapters are so short. So, if you're reading this, here's the answer. The chapters I write are usually 2 to 3 pages typed in Microsoft Word (Times New Roman, size 12). I don't like to bring in too many ideas per chapter, so I usually cut chapters between each day. Other times I stop a chapter before other events happen. I don't want to write too much per chapter, and I believe the amount I do write is good enough. I hope that helped answer that question (I enjoy answering questions.).
I wanted to say something about this chapter…uh…what was it again. Oh, right! When Ryoma punches Fuji, I was leaning towards two things that could have happened. One was where he hits Fuji and the other one was where Ryoma tries to seduce Fuji (thinking that it'll help him cope with what happened to him). Hmm…maybe I'll use that later on. I don't really know. Well, next chapter will be a school day. That means the Seigaku tennis team will be coming back into the fic…and Horio might have a brief moment too. I'm not too sure yet.
Okay, that's enough from me. Thank you all for the reviews. It always makes me happy getting to wake up to all of your nice reviews. I'm going to continue to work hard on this fic and all of my fics to come. I hope that I can become better at writing (and maybe one day shock all of you with some amazing writing skills). Please continue to support me~!