Idyllic Dystopia

The final chapter. It seems like so long ago that I had started this story, and ... I am actually very glad to have it finished XD It's just a short epilogue to add on to the last chapter, which didn't have the happiest ending xD

x coda

Ryoma watched the tennis players, feeling irritated. Some of the grips - the first thing that any tennis player should have learned - that they had were a bit off, and they were supposed to be at national level. He wanted to yell at them and tell them that there had been junior high school students playing better than them. But he refrained from doing so.

The job came with quite the high salary, and Ryoma was not willing to give that up yet. He needed the money to pay for his apartment, even though he wasn't in it over half the time anyway.

'Oi, you two!' Ryoma shouted, pointing at one of the doubles teams, who were volleying back and forth carelessly. 'Stop slacking off!'

Really, the team had no discipline at all. Did they have no drive to win?

'And you!' Ryoma continued to shout, now pointing at their supposed top player, who was sitting on the bench. 'Go run ten laps!' Tezuka was way better than them, Ryoma was sure, but Tezuka had gone on to become a doctor so that he could save people. Ryoma couldn't help but agree that Tezuka had a good point, thinking immediately of one person that he would give anything to help.

He had been training the team for a year now, and had watched them improve - though they still sucked, in Ryoma's opinion. He himself had not been able to play professional tennis, but had decided that he would help others who wanted to play. He was sincerely regretting that decision now as he looked at the hapless tennis players.

'Ah, Echizen-san, come over here for a minute or two, would you please?'

Ryoma turned to face the team's manager, who had a wide smile on his face. Ryoma nodded and followed the manager a little ways off the courts.

'How do you think they're doing?' the manager asked seriously, smile slipping off like water.

Ryoma replied bluntly, 'They could be doing better, Hayashi-san.' Not could be, Ryoma corrected himself mentally, but should be.

The manager sighed. 'Of course they could. They're all slacking off because they don't think they have a chance to win. Could you motivate them? Show them some of your-'

'No,' Ryoma said bluntly, frowning. 'If they don't have the motivation, they shouldn't play at all.' And they really had no discipline at all either. Ryoma had once told them about the wrist weights that he had worn before and they had outright laughed at the notion of wearing them, the idiots. To think that Japan had been reduced to sending dunderheads like these into the international tennis world...

'Echizen-san,' the manager started, 'you really don't mean that, right? These are all-'

'Players who should be trying harder,' Ryoma finished. If only they had even a quarter of the mindset of his old senpai Kaidoh... He sighed. 'I'm going to leave for today.'

'What?' Hayashi squawked. 'Practice hasn't ended yet!'

Ryoma shook his head. 'I don't see the point in staying here if they aren't going to put in the effort, Hayashi-san.' And it was obvious they weren't going to any time soon, Ryoma thought uncharitably.

With that, Ryoma left, intent on grabbing a nice meal - meaning a hamburger and Ponta, and then returning to the hospital - his usual routine.

However, he was stopped halfway through his burger eating when a classical ring tone sounded from his pocket.

Quickly finishing the burger he was eating, Ryoma pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open. 'Moshi mo-'

'Ryoma-san!' The breathless voice was that of ever-polite Nanako. It had to be something serious if Nanako had interrupted Ryoma. 'Come quick!'

'What?' Ryoma asked, bewildered.

'The hospital! He's awake!'

The phone slipped out of his hand and hit the ground, resulting in a thump and a nasty crack down the cell phone's screen, but Ryoma paid it no heed. Leaving it on the ground, he started running towards the hospital with legs that had been training in anticipation for this very moment when they would be most needed.

Flying in through the hospital doors, the receptionist paid no attention to him, so used to his coming in and out of the hospital by now, though she did raise her eyebrows a bit at his running. Ryoma went straight for the elevator, following his usual route to the hospital room, though the route this time would have a different finish point. At least, that was what Ryoma was hoping.

He soon found himself at the hospital room that he had frequented for so long to talk to somebody too comatose to reply.

'He's inside,' Rinko said softly, standing outside with Nanako and Atobe's mother, as if speaking too loud would break the magic. Ryoma nodded back.

He opened the door a crack, giving it a slight push so it opened the rest of the way itself. He took a step inside and readied himself for whatever he would face.

'Keigo?' he said hesitantly. It seemed too good to be true. After all those years...

And then he saw them. Those deep blue eyes that had stayed hidden beneath eyelids for too long, sharp and aware and completely open.

'You're back,' Ryoma whispered quietly, golden eyes staring into Atobe's own.

And before Ryoma could stop himself, he had walked over and kissed Atobe.

In the brief second following, Ryoma could feel Atobe's confusion as to what was happening, and Ryoma wondered if he should stop - if he should pull away. Then Atobe raised his arms awkwardly to wrap them around Ryoma's shoulders and began to kiss him back.

The kiss went on for a few more moments - or was it a minute, an hour, a day? Ryoma didn't know - before both pulled back.

Ryoma opened his mouth to tell Atobe what he had wanted to tell, all that he had held in for so long, all those things he had said to Atobe whilst he slept - but found that it was so unnecessary now, so pointless. 'Everything is all right now,' he said simply.

Atobe echoed him, lips forming a slow smile. 'Everything is all right.'

And everything was.

xxx

And there's the end. You can expect a new chapter story to be up shortly, probably a FujiRyo or another Royal. If you have any questions or comments or complaints, all the reviews will (for once) be answered XD Thank you for sticking with me for this long. -awinchan