A/N: As I promised this morning in the chapter 39, chapter 40 before the end of the day. Fuji's big time part 2!

Enjoy!

From last time:

And then, something happened that showed him Echizen Ryoma's true kind heart: Yuuta's behaviour toward him.

Yuuta started to talk to him again.

Fuji opened his cerulean eyes, watching Ryoma's sleeping face

Flashback

When they visited Ryoma's house.

'Ryoma, you did something wonderful for me. I owe you a big favour,' Fuji thought.

End flashback

'I knew I did something horrible to Yuuta and I lost the hope to have him to forgive me. Yet, you gave me the chance I never dared to beg for…'

Fuji was very protective over Yuuta. To protect him against sadness and pain, he had, for many years, drifted away all of Yuuta's friends. Yuuta was absolutely mad and angry at him, but Yuuta didn't know that his so-called "friends" were only scum, who were only interested into Yuuta's family name and the money behind it. Fuji chased all these scum away from Yuuta, but Yuuta didn't understand the hidden reason behind. When Fuji tried to explain to him, Yuuta refused to listen. Fuji knew he had to stop chasing away all of Yuuta's "friends", but he didn't. He rather had his brother be angry at him than having Yuuta be betrayed later. Eventually, Yuuta never talked to him anymore again.

And suddenly, Yuuta started to talk to him again. How did it happen? How did it start? What hade made Yuuta change like that? Fuji didn't know, but he was very happy. Grateful for that change, Fuji wanted to learn know more about what had made Yuuta change his behaviour towards him. From what Yuuta told him, it was because he met a new friend. And a girl.

A girl.

But what a shock for him it was when the mysterious friend-girl of Yuuta revealed herself into Echizen Ryoma, the freshman Fuji met everyday at school. And he had to understand that that friend-girl of Yuuta wasn't a money hunter. She didn't even know that Yuuta was one of her senpais' younger brother. Fuji still remembered her out-of-the-water-fish face when she learned Yuuta' family name. It was the last thing she expected from Yuuta.

After that day, whether he wanted or not, Fuji HAD to change his opinion about Echizen Ryoma. He had to remove the black veil through which he used to watch her. He must re-do all over again his observations about her, but without the veil. Fuji came to discover that under her tomboyish - and sometime reckless - way to be everyday, Echizen Ryoma could actually be a very nice girl. She was just clumsy when she was obligated to behave like a real girl in public, but she possesses a true kind heart. Fuji saw how close her big brother Ryoga and she were. Maybe that was a factor explaining why she was so tomboyish.

'And yet, you had me change another vision I had of the world.'

She had him change his opinion about women.

Fuji hates lies. And he hates people who pretended to be what they are not. The most blatant example; people who pretend to be close friends with him while they actually want to be close friends with his money and prestige. Because of the world of lies he lives in, because of all the greedy people surrounding him everyday, Fuji had lose faith in the world. For him, everything was lie and ugliness. He particularly lost faith in the female part of the human species.

There was once a time, during a social party, a girl bumped into him and got splashed over with his drink. Being the gentleman he was Fuji brought her into a room to clean her dress. But because her dress was completely ruined, Fuji had Shindou go to get her a new dress. Meanwhile, she changed herself into a bathrobe. Because it was not correct to leave a lady alone, Fuji had to stay with her in the room, chatting with her while waiting for Shindou's return. After a hour or so, Shindou returned with a new dress for her. She changed into the new dress and they returned to the party. The next day, the newspaper announced that Fuji Syuusuke had an affair. There were three sensational pictures: one of the girl when she arrived to the party, another of her but in a bathrobe, talking to Fuji Syuusuke and the last one, the girl walking next to Fuji Syuusuke, but in a different dress. It was easy to assume any kind of wrong ideas when people saw a picture of a woman in a bathrobe in a room with a young man.

Fuji instantly became the new target for the gossips and the paparazzi. On the other hand, that girl, a new rising actress in the show business world, immediately had her fame boosted. After that day, she was asked for many interviews and television shows everywhere. Newspapers fed the rumour that she was the future Mrs. Fuji and she was probably pregnant with a heir for the Fuji Corporation Group, because there was a picture of her leaving a gynaecologists cabinet. Fuji himself had to hide from the paparazzi and the sensational journalists. But he didn't let that girl had her way. He investigated about the photographer who took the three pictures and discovered that he and the girl were friends. And probably, they were accomplices in that dirty scheme to reach glory.

She wanted to be famous? Fuji would make her famous. After the scandalous pictures, she was invited into many television prime time shows and was offered many good roles by various dramas and movies makers. In no time, she became the number one in the show business world. Then, the number one movie producer of Japan offered her the main role for his next movie. The girl was overjoyed. It was much more than what she hoped to reach. Having the main role in a movie made by the number one movie producer of Japan would ensure her glory forever. She accepted. A conference press was hold to announce her new role throughout the country. Once again she became the honoured guest in many television and radio shows and was the front page of popular magazines and newspaper.

Suddenly, from a day to another, she lost her role to another actress. It seemed like the main sponsor of the movie - whose name was never mentioned - decided to withdraw from the project. The only way to have him continuing to sponsor the movie was to kick out the main actress. And so she lost her main role. The news that a famous actress like her lost such an important role couldn't be ignored. Bad gossips came up against her. What happened that the famous actress lost her role when the shooting of the movie had already started? Then, a newspaper published the truth behind the three scandalous pictures many months ago with a confession of the photographer. He and the actress were accomplices to nail Fuji Syuusuke.

Fuji Syuusuke.

The name one should never play with. That actress angered Fuji Syuusuke.

Fearing that they lost their sponsors if they continued to employ her - and mostly fearing that Fuji Syuusuke's anger would be directed at them too, all the drama and movie producers cancelled their contracts with her. In one day only, that number one actress of Japan fell into shame and humiliation.

She wanted to be famous, Fuji made her be famous - and made her pay ten thousand time the price. He was the one behind all the many jobs she got. He was the one who brought her to be the number one actress of Japan. And when she had reached the place where she wanted to be - and the place where Fuji Syuusuke wanted her to be - he threw her into doom. One should know to never play against Fuji Syuusuke, for his revenge is fearful and horrible to an unimaginable point.

After that day, Fuji changed. From being a very nice person, he became bitter and hard (A/N: Yeah, Fuji is a tad bit OOC here…) - but no one could tell from the outside. And he also became utterly disgusted by women. They only came to him for his fortune or to use his name for their profit. Because of them, Fuji had built a wall around himself, a wall to keep all the money hunter women from getting near him. His vision of the woman was stained. For him, all the girls outside of his family were only false living and unworthy creatures.

But Echizen Ryoma managed to destroy his wall.

Even after knowing that Yuuta was a Fuji - and Fuji Syuusuke's younger brother nonetheless! -, Echizen Ryoma didn't change her attitude in the way Fuji thought it would happen. She didn't try to use Yuuta to get closer to him. In her head, seeing Fuji Syuusuke everyday during practice was already too much. There was one time Fuji had overheard her telling Yuuta that one (sadistic) Fuji per school was enough. Two, it was the end of the world.

'Huhuhuhu!' Fuji chuckled at the memory.

Because she became wary of him, the Fuji number 2 of the school, Yuuta had to take over a week to convince her that even if he was a Fuji, he wasn't a sadist like his brother. She only accepted to believe him after that he brought her a cake from the best pastry of Tokyo. (Yuuta was very thankful to Yanagi and to Inui for providing him the tip of the cake!)

'Who would have thought that there is one girl who wasn't impressed by the name of a Fuji?'

Fuji hates lies, but it seemed that Echizen Ryoma wasn't a lie. She never pretended to be anything that she wasn't. She never hides to anyone that she likes to be left alone, even if her antisocial demeanour was very attractive to the regulars. She wasn't a pretty, graceful and well mannered young lady and she never pretended to be a pretty, graceful and well mannered young lady. Usually, this kind of behaviours was badly condemned at Seiyou Academy. But coming from Echizen Ryoma…

'…It is not such a bad thing after all…'

Actually, it was funny to watch her clumsiness and lack of manners and way-to-be of a lady. She made everybody laugh. And Fuji himself too. In his world, laughing and truly enjoying oneself with nothing was a luxury his friends and he couldn't afford, but Echizen Ryoma brought them all these good things for nothing in return. Fuji also discovered that laughing made him feel relaxed. It relieved from his stress, the burden he carried felt lighter. Watching Echizen Ryoma being her own failure of a true young lady was a refreshment to fight against a heavy mood. After laughing to their heat content at her clumsiness, the boys felt relieved - freed - from their stress and burden. They felt happy, even if some times (more likely many times!) she wanted to send them a ball in their face for laughing at her, which they often did too.

'Maybe Echizen Ryoma wasn't such a bad girl', Fuji's good conscience once told him.

Fuji closed his eyes, stopped thinking momentarily.

He had to face the truth. His defiance toward Echizen Ryoma was ridiculous and insignificant. It had to be stopped. In this battle of refusal to accept her, Fuji lost the fight. Fuji Syuusuke had lost a fight against Echizen Ryoma. He had been too arrogant and blind to the truth in front of him.

After that Kikumaru and Kirihara had chosen her over him, Fuji thought that Echizen Ryoma was his doom fall. Why did he worry so much about loosing his influence on Kirihara and Kikumaru? "It wasn't like it was very important to him", so he told himself. But he had to face the truth. It was very important. Because she disrupted the peaceful world he built around himself. She was a menace to the harmonious and perfect world he lived in.

'And you made me doubt about myself.'

His best friend Kikumaru Eiji had defended her against himself. Kirihara Akaya, who had always listened to him, now turned to her. Yukimura Seiichi had taken her under his protective wings. Yuuta, who hated him, spoke to him again after that he met her. And Touga and Sora, who never trusted anyone outside of the family, had immediately taken a liking to her when they had barely met her.

'You made me doubt about the rightness of my judgement and my discernment of people.'

She broke all his wall of defiance. She disturbed his harmony. She changed the people around her.

'And you changed me too…'

When he saw her going outside to cry alone, he went after her with the intention to cheer her up. At first, he did it only because he didn't want Tezuka to be dropped from the regulars. But he couldn't believe that his actions carried him further more than what he had previously intended. He took her on his lap and let her to cry in his chest. Fuji never intended to do that. But it was as if his hands had a will of their own, a will different from Fuji's own will. And when she fell sick, he clearly saw how much she was dear to the regular boys. He knew the regulars had adopted her as their little sister, but he never thoroughly measured how deep was their caring feeling was for her. Kirihara almost cried because he thought it was because of him that she fell sick.

From the beginning, Fuji wanted to keep her away from the regulars. He wanted to block her influence over the regulars so that the friendship between the regulars and her wouldn't grow too strong. But he failed. He lost against her. He lost this battle of power against her. He had fall from his throne.

Could it be that on the first day, he was mean to her because he had the intuition that she would cause his loss? That she was a threat to him? Probably yes. And today, he had the answer to his intuition. She really became a threat to him: she had destroyed everything, she disrupted the perfect and harmonious world he built, she crushed his wall of self-preservation and the ugly vision he had about the world and the women. She won the fight against Fuji Syuusuke.

Fuji opened his eyes.

'You turn the perfect world I built everyday of my life upside down…'

And now, Fuji realized that he also lost another battle against her, a battle he didn't even know that he got caught in. How did he got caught it? What had thrown him in? When did it start? How come he didn't see that he was already in the fight? But when he now that he realized the existence that fight, it was too late for him. He already lost the battle. It was already too late for him to run away. He had already fallen too deep in the trap, to the no-returning point.

And she won this fight too. She won against him. She won against Fuji Syuusuke.

Fuji gently caressed her cheek.

'Echizen Ryoma…'

He marvelled at how soft he skin felt under his fingers.

Fuji didn't want to fall. He had never wanted to fall for her. But he had fallen. And he had fallen very hard…

'I've fallen for you…'

How did he fall for her? When did he fall?

Was it because she was the first person who ever dare to stand against him? Was it because she wasn't scared of saying what she truly thought about him? Was it because she wasn't scare to say that he was a jerk in front of everybody when he was a jerk in front of everybody? Was it because she was the really first person who saw him as a person with defaults and qualities and not as the perfect Fuji Syuusuke, heir of the Fuji Corporation Group?

Fuji couldn't answer to any of these questions. All he knew was that what was done was done. He couldn't erase everything she did to him up to today and pretended that nothing had happened. The seed in his heart had deeply rooted and it had already blossomed.

'I've fallen in love for you… Ryoma…'

Ryoma stirred.

"Wa… wa…" Ryoma pleaded in her sleep. "Wa-water…"

Fuji snapped our of his thinking.

"Water… Water…"

Fuji looked around for water. He saw a carafe of water on the table. He poured a glass and made her drink. But the water overflowed. Fuji immediately put the glass away. He took the towel on her forehead and cleaned her. Ryoma bite her lips, frustrated. She wanted more water. She was still thirsty and the little water Fuji gave her wasn't enough to quench her thirst. With his left hand, Fuji gently lifted her head up. He took again the glass of water with the right hand and brought it to her lips. Ryoma was so happy to have more water that this time, she took a too much water in one gulp. She choked and coughed. Some water overflowed and ran down along her jaw, wetting her shirt. Fuji put the glass away and cleaned her again.

He frowned. Feeding her by the glass was really a bad idea. At this rate, she would be soaking wet because she couldn't properly drink. Fuji thought again.

'There is another way… But…'

Ryoma grimaced and gulped down her saliva, trying to help her dried throat. Seeing her painful face, Fuji made a decision. He took back the glass and drank in it without swallowing the liquid. He put the glass away, used his right hand to hold open Ryoma's jaw and…

He stopped, hesitating a moment.

"Wa-water… Water…"

Fuji's hesitation broke. He closed his eyes…

And slowly…

…Slowly, he ascended his lips on hers…

Time froze.

The full moon shone through the window, enveloping two people in its magic: a young man holding preciously a young sleeping girl in his arms. The young man's red string of fate appeared. It searched for the string of the immobilized young girl in its possessor's hold. It found it. It entwists itself with the girl's string. That night, under the spell of the wind, two young souls were bound by the magical and blessing light of the moon.