CHAPTER 90

Ryoma was in the clubroom with Inui. He had been crying for the last half hour. The data collector was hugging the cat feeling completely lost. He was not one of these touchy feely people. So it was awkward when the cat had collapsed in a heap on the floor crying his eyes out. He had done the only thing he could think of to comfort the boy and the was hugging him.

(Flashback)

Ryoma started at Horio. He felt scared. Sure he could easily protect himself and hurt the other physically in return, but the boy knew that he could get blamed. He had told the unibrow 'No'. Instead of leaving it there Horio glared at the cat.

"Fine." He gritted his teeth. "If you won't share with me then you don't get it either." Ryoma didn't react fast enough when the box was taken from his hands. The cat followed and stood up with one hand out.

"Please, give it back." What the boy didn't expect was for Horio to grab one and eat it. As he chewed on it he watched Ryoma's reaction. To his surprise the cat just stayed in the same spot with wide eyes and a trembling bottom lip. "Why..." He muttered. "I said please." Horio glared at the boy.

"Yeah, well sometimes it isn't good enough." With that he shoved Ryoma on the sofa and empty the rice onto his head. "Next time you should share when I ask."

"Oh, is that really what you think?" Horio felt his insides freeze looking over to the door and he saw Inui standing there with a camera in hand. Just as he was to carry on Ryoma stood and walked over to him grabbing the bottom of his shirt.

"Please don't tell. It's was my fault." Inui just looked at the boy with a hint of surprise showing on his features. "Besides I don't want to cause a burden." Inui lifted his head when he saw Horio look as arrogant as ever.

"Are you sure?" He watched as the cat nodded. "Do you have anything else to change into?" Once again the boy nodded. "Do you want to go there?" Getting a small 'yeah' from Ryoma. The boy grabbed Inui's hand and pulled him with him to the tennis clubroom where he had left his tennis equipment. And sure enough as soon as they had entered the clubroom Ryoma had collapsed in tears. Finally letting out all he was holding in. But Inui had a feeling that it wasn't just Horio's doing.

(End flashback)

"You know if this is upsetting you so much shouldn't you tell Tezuka? I'm sure he's worried." Inui as everyone knew took notice of everything. He had joined everyone at the beginning of lunch and they had all done the normal thing. Exchange words on different classes and what they were going to do in tennis practice. All of them had decided not to ask Tezuka how he had gotten the very noticeable bruise on his face seeing as the said person wasn't acting quite himself.

Normally during lunch he would just sit the on the end of the table and eat lunch, while adding input in once in a while to the conversation. But today Mitsu seemed to of assigned Eiji 40 laps and the rest of the third year regulars 20. After that everyone had quietened down and ate silently afraid that they would get an even worse punishment.

So the only reason the data collector could come up with was it being something to do with Ryoma and by the looks of the way the cat tensed at Mitsu's name he could only be more sure. "Unless that's another reason you're upset? Was it because something happened between you and Tezuka?" Ryoma pushed back slightly so he could looked Inui in the face.

"Can you keep a secret?" The cat had gone from upset to completely serious. Inui suddenly noticing the change in the boy and nodded. After all at the end of the day he got more information so it didn't bother him. "I got told that Mitsu loved me." Inui blinked a couple of times. In his opinion he wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be. In his own mind he kind of already saw this coming. After all Mitsu was a lot more lenient towards Ryoma than anyone else.

"Who told you?" But Inui had to admit this was interesting. Ryoma seemed really concerned about the fact. "And why's it bothering you so much?"

"Kei told me yesterday." The boy looked at the data collector wondering why it was so important about who told him.

"And my other question? Why's it bothering you? Isn't this a thing Tezuka needs to sort out. It's him that feels this way about you... Or maybe it's because you want him as well."

"What do you-" Just as he was about to ask the door slammed open and Seiichi stood there panicked and with worry written all over his face.

"Ryo-Chan." Sei made his way forward, but stopped when he saw the tear stained face of the boy, also the fact that he was sitting on Inui's lap. "What did you do?" He asked the data collector as he saw the bits of rice clinging to the boy's clothes.

"I did nothing. On the other hand." The cat slapped a hand over his mouth.

"I fell." With that he moved his hand from Inui and got up going over to Sei. "See, I'm okay." The blunette bent down and checked the boy over. Sneaking a glance at Inui only to see him shaking his head indicating that Ryoma was defiantly lying.

"Ryo-Chan you wouldn't be telling me a lie would you?" Instead of answering he brought his arms round the other neck and hugged him. Sei sigh and unclipped the boy's hood pulling it down. "Come on Ryo. You have you tennis uniform so you can change into that. We'll go back to the headmasters office after and you can sleep." The cat let go of Sei and nodded going over to his tennis things which were in the corner of the room and grabbing his clothes. He pulled at his hoodie and brought it over his head. Just as he was about to take the t-shirt he had on underneath off he looked to Inui.

Sei noticed Ryoma's look and gave the data collector a look of apology before asking if he would wait outside. Instead Inui said he needed to get back to the principles office. Since he had to tutor a freshman in certain subjects since he was failing. Before leaving he handed Sei a camera telling him to look at the most recent photo. With that he left the blunette and cat in the clubroom.

Sei looked at the picture and felt his blood boil. How could he not of guessed. As much as he wanted to beat Horio up he knew Ryoma wouldn't be happy about it. The cat after all thought that this was his problem and most likely would try to solve it himself. The only thing he could think of doing would be to tell his lovers and they would just have to make sure both Ryoma and Horio weren't left alone with each other. They would just have to hope that the cat would tell them eventually and then there was Syu. The tensai was the most likely out of them to do any physical or mental damage. He after all was extremely protective. Then there was also Mitsu in his current state. Even if Ryoma wanted nothing to do with him for now that didn't make the Seigaku captain anymore concerned in fact he was more so now then he was before. Sei could only guess it was because the amount of time Ryoma and him have spent apart so far.

Sei watched from the corner of his eye as the cat made his way back over to him. "So Ryo-Chan ready for you nap?"

As they were about to enter the office the door opened and out came Horio. Sei instinctively wrapped his arms round Ryoma and brought him to his chest, all the while sending a glare at the unibrow. The cat watch Horio pass. With his back to the blunettes chest and feeling Sei's head on his shoulder the boy relaxed.

Sei kept his eyes on the Horio. He had seen Ryoma tense when he saw the other. The blunette felt jealous, knowing that at the moment the boy's mind was filled with the unibrow even if it was bad. His arms tightened even more round Ryoma when he saw the look Horio gave the cat. He had the look of someone who was in love. It was a gentle expression. Behind that arrogant stance Sei could see it clear as day.

In that moment Sei had no idea what came over him, but he found himself turning the cat around so he was facing him. In that split second he smashed their lips together and only one thing went though his mind as he did it. 'Mine.'