Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis
Lady Monozuki: You have the three-in-the-morning muse to thank for this story idea. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading! Please review!
For Fuji, he had never suspected that anything was out of the ordinary in their relationship. The five of them always acted like they were in love. So why was this happening? He had always been hailed as one of the most observant people, but he honestly had no idea what had been going on. It would not have bothered him so much if the reason why he didn't know was any other than the horrific sight in front of him.
Ryoma's usually creamy skin was marred with bruises and blood leaked from several cuts on the torso. He watched in mortification as another blow landed on the flesh. Ryoma looked at him with apologetic eyes. He saw something flying toward his direction and closed his eyes, but the object never reached him. Warm arms wrapped around him.
"Gomen, Syuusuke."
He heard the suppressed hurt in the gentle voice. He was shaking. This was too much to take in. What was Ryoma apologizing for? What was going on? And why was Atobe hitting Ryoma in the first place? They were the questions that he wanted to ask, but couldn't form the words out loud. Almost as sudden as it had started, the blows stopped. He watched as Atobe walked out of the room, slamming the door behind. There were a few moments of silence.
"Are you all right, Syuusuke?"
He snapped out of the replay of what had happened before and saw golden orbs staring at him. The look of concern was obvious and he reached out and touched a large gash on Ryoma's chest. Ryoma hissed slightly.
"I'll help treat your wounds," he whispered. "But I want to know what's going on."
Ryoma let him go and they both stood up and headed toward the attached bathroom. He didn't want to press Ryoma for information. On the other hand, he wanted to know what had caused Atobe to hit Ryoma. It was uncharacteristic for the diva to show such a violent reaction.
"What happened?" he finally asked. "Why did Keigo hit you?"
He glanced over to see Ryoma's reaction to his words. There was no change in expression. He frowned. This was going to be harder than he thought. He grabbed a rag and wet it to clean the excess blood off the wounds before he started to disinfect them. He winced slightly when he caught sight of the ugly bruises already forming on Ryoma's skin.
"Keigo was upset because he thought that you weren't serious about any relationship except the one between you and me."
He pressed the cloth against the skin and felt a twinge in his heart as Ryoma flinched. He wondered where Atobe had gotten such an idea in the first place. Of course he was serious about their relationship.
"That doesn't explain things, Ryoma."
"He thinks that you only care about me and not the others. That's all."
"So he hit you because of that?"
"He wanted to hurt you."
He looked up at that sentence.
"What? So he was angry at me?"
"Yes, but I tried to talk him out of his idea. He got angrier and started to hurt me."
"So when I walked in…." he trailed off.
"He was only taking out his frustrations."
"But it was meant for me," he bit out.
"He was just hurt. It's not a big deal."
"But those blows were meant for me," he repeated. He could feel his anger rising. How could he have not noticed it before?
"So?"
"Why did you take them?"
"Because I wanted to," Ryoma replied.
"Why did you want to?"
"Because it was for you."
~End~