Ryoma scurried over towards an empty space in the room. As his fingers played with the buttons on his shirt, he felt everyone turn and busy themselves with other things. Placing on his tennis uniform, he slipped on his cap and let out a sigh. Being in that room was starting to make him feel awkward and almost nervous.

"Hurry up," Tezuka adjusted his glasses. "If you take any longer, I'll have everyone running more laps."

His warning caused all the boys to rush to change and run out of the room. Ryoma was left standing there; his hand clutching the end of his tennis racket.

"Echizen," Tezuka called.

"Uh!" Ryoma quickly looked up and let his eyes meet with Tezuka's. "Coming." He followed behind his captain as the two of them walked outside.

On the courts, Ryoma found himself lacking the ability to focus on the lecture Tezuka was giving. His mind continued to wander until a warm arm wrapped around his shoulder. The young boy snapped himself away and turned around in fight. He slowly backed away until he tripped and fell onto his back.

"Echizen, are you alright?" Momoshiro extended his arm hand forward in attempt to help the boy up. He gasped when Ryoma smacked his hand away. "What's wrong?"

Ryoma's gaze became cold as he stared up at Momoshiro. "I'm fine. I don't need any help. Don't touch me."

"…Echizen…"

He pointed his racket in Momoshiro's face. "You don't understand. You don't even realize that you could have prevented so much of this from happening!" Ryoma's body began to shake and he squeezed his eyes shut in attempt to keep tears from forming. "You didn't walk me home. You didn't stick around and play a match like you had said you would. If you were there…things would have ended differently. I wouldn't have ended up in that situation!"

Fuji, who stood back from the group that watched in awe, carefully listened to every word that flowed from Ryoma's mouth. He had to fight himself from running to the young boy's side. If he continued to help when he became scared, he would never learn to do things on his own. This wasn't his battle, and Ryoma's hand was not his to hold.

"Echizen, what's gotten into you?" Momoshiro lowered himself to the ground and pushed the tennis racket away. With every inch that he moved closer, Ryoma slipped farther and farther away.

"If you would have just came over…if only you would have…" Ryoma shook his head as he stood up. In his quivering eyes, mixed emotions that he couldn't get straight showed. Throwing his racket to the side, Ryoma placed his hands on his and allowed his fingers to pull at strands of hair. "He would have never raped me that night!"

Those words lingered around the group as there was only silence. Then, Tezuka made his way next to Ryoma with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Everyone, ten laps!" He shifted towards Fuji who began to walk away. "Fuji, you stay here. You too, Momoshiro."

"Buchou…" Ryoma's arms fell to his sides and he slightly swayed.

"The things that have happened to you over the course of the past week have been very stressful for you, Echizen. As a team, we had decided to look away from these events to allow you time to heal. If you wanted to talk about things, I knew Fuji was there for you," Tezuka moved in front of Ryoma and bent down to his level. An unusual soft look formed on his face to show sincerity. "You have to understand that none of us would have ever wished something like this to happen to you. You are just as important as everyone else."

"It's true though…if he had been there…" salty tears streamed down his cheeks. "It would have been different."

Momoshiro bit his lip as he thought about how to word what he wanted to say. "Listen, Echizen, if I could have changed how things happened, I would have come home with you and played as many matches as we could. We can't change what has already happened though. All we can do is let you know that we're here for you no matter what."

Continuing to stand alone, Fuji remained listening to the conversation. His heart begged him to extend forward and say something, but his mind insisted otherwise. He would remain there in the distance watching over Ryoma.

"It'll be best if you rest for the day. Do some practicing on you own tonight, alright?" Tezuka got back to his feet. "Fuji, take Echizen home."

"Righ—uh!" Fuji's eyes flashed open when he felt a hand creeping into his. "Echizen…"

"…lets go home…" Ryoma mumbled. His body leaned up again Fuji's.

"Okay," he let out a soft giggle as they walked away from the courts.

"Are you sure that he's going to be fine?" Momoshiro cocked his head to one side as he watched Ryoma wobbling besides Fuji.

"Echizen is in good hands," Tezuka nodded to himself. "Go run your ten laps."

Right when the two boys entered the Fuji residence, they were greeted by Yumiko's loving smile. Before they could get their bags off, she insisted that they followed her into the kitchen. On the table sat a deck of cards and three cups of warm tea.

"Echizen-kun, you must have had an interesting day," Yumiko pointed to two of the empty seats. "Lets sit down and do another reading."

Ryoma hesitated, but once he saw Fuji sitting down, he placed himself beside him. "Okay." He carefully picked out six cards from what she had spread out on the table.

"Things are a bit different this time around. This first card in The Sun and represents how you currently feel about yourself. It represents that you are feeling joyful. Though, I can see that this card has yet to come into effect. Be assured that you will soon enter a period of fulfillment; the end of difficulties is coming for you. Card number two, The Hierophant, represents what you most want at this moment. This suggests that you most want at this time is to have someone around you that you can trust and confide in; someone you know won't let you down," Yumiko shifted her view towards her younger brother before returning to the card. "This next card is The Moon and represents your fears. It seems that you are still feeling insecure. You are afraid of being deceived and feeling misled. You must understand that The Moon does help illuminate the way; in the end, this will be alright. Next, The Magician shows what is going for you. If you are considering any new enterprise or relationship, you will find the self-belief, confidence, and ingenuity to make it work. The fifth card, The Star, is what's going against you. This is a period of tension and frustration. You may feel pessimistic and fearful that your hopes will be dashed. At this time, you must have faith in your luck that things will change. The final card, The Tower, is the outcome. A period of dramatic changes and upheaval is to come, but this change will be the start of a new beginning for you."

Ryoma stared down at the cards. "These aren't wrong?"

"I've been told that my readings have always been accurate."

"I have homework to do," he pulled himself out of the chair. "Excuse me."

She watched as Ryoma trotted away from the table and up the stairs. "These results were interesting. Syusuke, give me your right hand."

"Are you going to read my palm?" Fuji questioned as he stretched his arm across the table.

"No," she held onto his hand tightly with her own. "Syusuke, I hope you understand that you are the only one who can help Echizen-kun find that new beginning. I do not need cards to tell me what feelings are building up in your heart."

"I can't continue to allow him to rely on me. If he does, he will never grow stronger."

"Your kind heart is needed to guide his way. Be his moon, Syusuke, and illuminate the right way," Yumiko smiled. "And you might want to think about showing how you really feel towards him instead of hiding them to yourself. The outcome might be better than you would think."

Fuji took his hand back and stood up. "I should get my homework done as well."

"Syusuke."

"I will remember what you said," he grabbed his bag and headed upstairs.

"Interesting indeed!" Yumiko giggled as she gathered her cards. She held onto one last card, smirked, and placed it in the center of the deck. "The future is a beautiful thing."

Fuji walked into his room to find Ryoma once again staring at the cacti sitting by the window. He gently placed his hand on Ryoma's left shoulder; causing him to slightly jump up.

"Sorry."

"Fuji-senpai," Ryoma pointed at the small cactus that he had dropped so many days ago. "It's becoming stronger, isn't it?"

"It just needed a little help; it'll be fine now," Fuji reassured the boy who seemed to have grown fond of the small plant. "Everything and everyone can use a bit of help at times."

"I needed help too," he let out a sigh. "I still do."

Fuji was shocked by how easily the young boy admitted to his helplessness. "Echizen, you should know that I'm here for you. You're my teammate after all."

"Senpai, I think I'm starting to understand things better. After everything that my dad did to me, I'm wounded. The memories are painful, but they are now mine to keep. I blamed Momo-senpai because I didn't want to admit my weaknesses. I should have been stronger, but I just allowed myself to be abused by him. He was no longer the father I remembered when I was younger. I didn't know why my body had come here that rainy night, but I think I've figured out why…"

"Echizen?"

"I knew that you would be there for me and wouldn't judge me even after I poured out everything that had happened. My heart…" tears dripped from his eyes, and he quickly covered his face with his hands.

Fuji wrapped his loving arms around the shaking boy and placed his mouth to his ear. "It's okay if you just need to cry sometimes. I'll always be here for you. I promise you that." He moved Ryoma's hands away and brushed his fingers lightly across the boy's cheeks. Ryoma slowly began to move closer, and reached up in attempts to touch his cheek against Fuji's. Fuji could barely utter a word when he felt Ryoma's warm breath tickling his skin. "I promise…"

"These things are scary," Ryoma whispered. His breathing became heavy. "My body is doing things on its own."

"Echizen, I—"

"Just a bit longer; let me stay like this…"

"We can stay like this forever if that's what you'd like."

Ryoma's tears dried as he continued to linger there in Fuji's arms. The warmth between their bodies calmed the young boy's heart. Even with all the chaos and confusion, being there together caused his heart to be put at ease even if it was just for that moment.

NOTE: I know, I didn't update like I said I was going to. I hope that this chapter was worth the wait though. It took me a total of about three days to write. The next chapter will be the last. I do not know the date that it will come out, but it will be before the end of October. It's been a long ride, but it's almost over (Kind of makes me sad.).

Some real quick things, I will be going on a month long hiatus starting November 1st for NaNoWriMo. I have a rather random poll up in my profile that you can go vote on. I was originally going to do a reading for Fuji as well, but I decided against it.

I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please, if you enjoyed this fic thus far, come back for the final chapter. Thank you for reading, reviewing, and just doing what you do.

Yes, I realize that Tezuka was given a rather odd line…I can make Tezuka nice too!