Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis

Lady Monozuki: I am so sorry for such a delayed update, I had a lot of personal issues to work through and such. *bows deeply in apology* I had so much fun writing this chapter, I almost didn't want it to end. Sadly, it does. (And after you read this, you're going to think I'm strange because I enjoyed writing of the chapter.) Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing. You're all awesome! Enjoy!

Chapter Seven: Past

Gen had never seen Syuusuke so furious before. This conversation did not come at a good time for them, but it still needed to be done. With every passing sentence, he felt more and more guilty for not noticing what was going on in the house, adding more guilt for even being a part of their group. He had never known about all of the drama going on in their relationship. Of course, there were times where he could sense that someone wasn't telling him the full truth, but he never pressed. Perhaps it was his own fault. He had always been trained to be feared rather than respected and often gave this unapproachable air whenever he could. Maybe none of them felt comfortable with letting him know what was going on. It was taking all of his self-control not to get up and disappear from their lives. He had to wonder if he had not been there, how long they would have lasted. Did he only prolong their suffering? Did they continuously put up a façade just because he was the last to join the relationship?

He knew that the four of them had all be connected in one way or another before they had officially started this group, and so he could understand the closeness between them. He knew that out of all of them, Syuusuke and Ryoma had a special bond between them. They always seemed to be able to offset each others' personalities and were attentive to each others' needs. He distinctly remembered one day when Syuusuke came down with a fever, but refused to tell anyone. Everyone assumed that the sadist was telling the truth, except Ryoma. Ryoma hadn't even been home five minutes before he forced Syuusuke to go to bed. He never forgot how their youngest lover just had to look at the tensai's eyes to know that there was something wrong. Everyone else just believed the story. He knew that in spite of how close those two were, they did their best to include everyone. In fact, they were the ones who tried to make him feel comfortable with their relationship. However, he noticed that their efforts became more and more strained.

He did notice that the two of them preferred to go places. On several occasions, they had offered to take him out to go places without the other two. He most often refused because he wanted to spend time with Keigo and Kunimitsu. He wanted to smack himself for not realizing then that it was their silent cry for help. They had wanted to get away from the abuse, but he often refused and put them in the way of more. He wondered how many injuries they carried were due to him. He clenched the cloth to his pants as tight as he could, trying to conceal his emotions. There was so much going on at this moment. He could not believe that this all went on without him noticing. How could he have so stupid? Was he really that blind to their problems.

A bitter laugh brought him out of his thoughts. "I suppose that you should be happy for yourself, Keigo. You have one person to stick by you through whatever hell you decide to drag them through next," Syuusuke said.

He winced at the harsh tone. Syuusuke seemed to have switched from being semi-rational to trying to hurt the person that seemed to be the cause of their struggles in any way possible. He reached out at grabbed Syuusuke's hand. The sadist seemed surprised at the move and stared at him for a moment.

"Calm down," he said. "It's not going to do any of us good if we continuously try to hurt the other person. We're not even halfway through the problem."

The last sentence seemed to be enough to pacify the sadist for now. The fact that there was still so much ground to cover in their problems was obvious. Even though it was painful to admit that, they had to sort out the problems and allow the parties involved speak in effort to clear or deny anything that's said. He sighed. So far, it had all be true. Their words earlier were still ringing in mind. He wanted to hug them all for not even doing anything to stop it.

"Very well, Gen," Syuusuke growled. "Why don't you tell us then about what Keigo did to you?"

There was an unspoken "I know that you were hurt as well" at the end of the sentence. Really, had he failed to hide it? He wondered when Syuusuke had figured out that he too was suffering because of Keigo.

"He did not hurt me until after we came home from America last year," he admitted. "However, it was not near as bad as some of what you went through."

"It makes no difference," Syuusuke said. "He still hurt you. However, you did a fairly good job of hiding it. Ryoma was the first person to notice the fact that you seemed different and that was before that incident."

Ryoma had noticed his suffering? When? He was banned to the servant's wing not too long after returning to Japan.

His eyes went wide. He suddenly remembered the night before Keigo made Ryoma move out of their room.

He clutched his left hand and tried to conceal the bleeding hand from those he passed. He did not want to be asked any questions because he did not know how he would explain them. His lovers were all in different rooms of the house, trying to calm down. Tensions were at a high since returning to Japan and Keigo and Ryoma had yet to make up. There was something more going on between those two, if the state his hand was currently in was indicative. He still could not believe that Keigo had done such a thing to him. He walked into the bathroom and locked the door, not bothering to check before doing so. He stopped for a moment when he heard the sound of soft sobs. He frowned.

Who could that be?

He headed toward the bath and pulled back the shower curtain. What he saw shocked him. Ryoma was sitting in the bath, crying. He blinked. Tears continued to flow down his youngest lover's face. He had never seen Ryoma look so helpless and lost before. The golden eyes widened with fear for a moment before settling into realization. With a shaking hand, Ryoma reached toward him and pulled him down. He was not expected this to happen.

"Please don't tell anyone," he whispered. "Please don't tell Syuusuke. He will just worry."

He wanted to refuse, but those golden eyes that had entranced him from the beginning prevented him from doing so. Ryoma touched his bleeding hand, he winced slightly at the contact. He saw a brief flash of anger in Ryoma's face before it faded again.

"I won't tell anyone," Ryoma whispered.

Ryoma had noticed the change before that moment. Sanada could not find the words to speak.

"Did you know that before he asked us for sex that night that he and Keigo were fighting about you?" Syuusuke asked. "He confronted Keigo about him hurting you after? Ryoma tried to protect."

He felt his heart ache at those words. Ryoma had tried to prevent the abuse from happening to him. He was a terrible lover. Gen could not help but stare at Syuusuke. He could see the hurt in those sapphire eyes. He knew that Syuusuke loved Ryoma deeply and the fact that the latter was in a coma hurt all the more. They could do nothing to save their youngest lover, all they could do was point fingers and name who was to blame.

"It's true, Ryoma tried to get me to stop hurting you because he thought that you were already having trouble with this relationship and that if I started to hurt you that you would feel as though you didn't belong even more," Keigo said. "I ignored him though."

"In spite of how arrogant Ryoma can be at times, he cares deeply for everyone and puts everyone before himself. He didn't want you to hurt like he had," Syuusuke muttered.

He was trying to sort out all of his thoughts at these words. He could feel his heart hurt more and more. Right now, he just wanted to ravish Ryoma for everything that he did for him, but knew that it was not possible. There was no way that he could ever be able to express his full gratitude. Someone had noticed his blame and had tried to ease his mind. Even though he had not known about it then, he was still grateful for the chance that one of his lovers had taken notice. As elated as he was, he could not believe that Ryoma had put himself into a position in which he had to face Keigo. Ryoma had faced abuse from Keigo, but still went to him and confronted him about it. Not only did he do that, but it happened just a few short weeks after Ryoma had been raped. Gen could feel his anger start to rise. He could not blame Syuusuke for being mad at their rich lover now.

Yet Syuusuke remained silent and pretended as though nothing was wrong.

"What about when Ryoma was raped?" he asked. "Keigo seemed to be all for visiting Ryoma until he went to some business meeting. After that, he was mad and avoiding the hospital."

There was a brief silence. He knew that the only two people who knew what had happened were Ryoma and Keigo. He glared at the diva, who shifted uncomfortably at the all of the sudden attention he was receiving.

"I never went to a business meeting and I did go to visiting Ryoma in the hospital when you all weren't there," Keigo said. There was a slight pause. "I had gone to the police station there to find out all of the details of what happened and to ensure that whoever raped Ryoma ended up in prison for life. Even though I abused Ryoma, I still didn't want others to hurt him. When I was there, I overheard a conversation of those who raped Ryoma and they said that…that Ryoma planned the attack for attention."

"And you believed them?" Syuusuke growled.

"I did. It seemed to fit Ryoma's behavior at the time. He was demanding more attention from me and I thought that he thought of this plan so that I would go down there and save him just like I used to when we first started dating. We got into an argument where everything went unresolved. I accused him of cheating and planning this to try and get attention. He denied everything though and said that I was stupid. Of course, I didn't believe him. I tried to forget about how detailed they went into everything. That night he asked for us to make love to him, I was going to try and forgive him. However, he started to act scared and it brought back the conversation I overheard. That's why I threw him out."

"You think that Ryoma was acting?" both he and Syuusuke asked at the same time. They looked at each other for a brief moment.

"You don't realize how scared he really was then," Syuusuke said. "The first time we visited him in the hospital, he screamed at us to go away and to leave him alone. He didn't recognize us at first. It took us two hours to convince him that we were his lovers and that we weren't going to hurt him."

Gen nodded. "Not to mention after we returned home, I found him crying in the bathroom. He seemed to be afraid of me at first, but then recognized me. He was trying his best to forget, but couldn't."

"And as for Ryoma's behavior," Syuusuke snarled. "He only acted that way so that you would start to include the two of us more. He knew that you would probably break up with the rest of us soon, but he still wanted to spend time with you because he cared. He was probably the only one who cared deeply for everyone here. How could you even think that he would cheat on us? You know that he was nothing more than faithful! You knew that he would bend over backwards to try and make you happy. You intentionally pushed him away and accused him of cheating so that he would leave you!"

The sadist was not bothering to control his voice. Gen winced slightly. The words were true. Ryoma always placed them before himself. He tried his best in everything for them. It was never for him, it was always for them.

"You didn't see him after the attack because you buried yourself in your work! You didn't see how much he struggled to even hit a tennis ball. It took all of his will to even go back out into a match and play. He knew that you loved to watch him play, he was trying for you!"

He watched as Keigo seemed to shrink at every word that Syuusuke spoke. There was hatred in every word, not to mention truth. Gen had witnessed a practice not too long after they returned home. It was pathetic. Their youngest lover had been crying even before he picked up a racquet. Even though he was safe from any danger, the trauma was still there. All he could think at that time was "Ryoma was raped because of his tennis skills and now he will never be able to play again."

He had seen Ryoma struggle and wanted so much to help, but it was hopeless. The past always got in the way. It had reduced the one rising star of the tennis scene to nothing. The silence between them stretched, making him feel very uncomfortable. He knew that Syuusuke was still seething due to the fact that Keigo had actually believed the rapists.

"You didn't care at that point did you?" Syuusuke said at great length. "You didn't care whether or not you hurt Ryoma because you were planning on breaking up with us anyway. You just wanted to try and make it as painful as you could, didn't you? You knew that Ryoma cared for us far more than you gave him credit for, yet you wanted a reason to throw him out because he wouldn't leave you. He kept trying to fix the relationship and you just continued to treat him like trash."

"It's true, I didn't care," Keigo whispered.

To be continued…