Disclaimer: If I owned Prince of Tennis…hohohohoho….there would be sooooo much yaoi action. But seeing as to how there's not, it is easy to conclude that I don't own it.

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Chapter 2: Coming Home

His mind groggily came into consciousness as he was being shaken awake. He blinked and looked up at the stewardess, "Sir, please wake up. We will be landing in a few moments."

Ryoma tiredly nodded his head and stretched out his limbs. Damn that was a good sleep, he thought to himself, and it was. He hadn't had one like that in a few months, then again that was probably due to him staying up late waiting for them, if it wasn't that, it was him crying himself to sleep over them. So truly, that long sleep had allowed his too recharge and refresh himself, especially since he no longer had to wait up and wonder if they were with that second-rate copy when they were supposed to be with Ryoma.

Within minutes, the plane touched down and it took another 10-15 minutes to finally exit the flying metal trap. Ryoma quickly went through customs, and got to baggage claims. He took out his phone and turned it on. His eyes widened at the sheer amount of missed calls, voicemail and text messages. He scrolled through his missed calls, most of it was from Jin, Takashi-senpai or Kazuya-senpai, and a few from his brother and father. His closed out of that and went to his text messages. Once again they were all from the five of them, the majority of the contents were them asking him, more like demanding, where the hell he was, what the hell he was thinking and why the hell he hadn't told them sooner. It stung his heart, and he would deny it if asked, that none of them called contacted him.

Ryoma shook his head to clear himself of such thoughts. He looked at his phone again, he would called the three of them back once he reached his house, but for now he would call his wonderful brother and ask him where the hell he was. He touched Ryoga's name, held it to his ear and listen to it ring. Surprisingly on the fourth ring the phone was picked up, "yo Chibisuke! Where are you?"

"I'm at the baggage claim right now. Where the hell are you?"

"How you gotten all your stuff?"

"I'm waiting for one more suitcase. Now stop dodging my question! Where are you?!"

"Chibisuke...I'm stuck in traffic right now...so..I'll be there in...thirty minutes?"

"...Aniki. Are you telling me or asking me?"

"Asking?"

"Aniki!"

"Chibisuke! It wasn't my fault! I left the house on time! Apparently some tractor-trailer collided with something or another and now there's a huge pile up! I've been in this for the past hour and a half!"

"Fine." Ryoma hung up the call and sighed, he couldn't blame his brother, but still, this meant that he had to wait in he airport for another half hour or more knowing traffic? Damn it! Ryoma 'tsked' under his breath, oh well, he thought, on the brightside, he could call them while he waited instead of when he got home.

With that silver lining on the dark situation, he turned his attention back to the conveyor belt. Where the hell was his-oh! there it was. He let out a low sigh of relief, he hadn't lost a single suitcase, now wouldn't have to wait by the belt with the crowd any longer. Within a few moments the suitcase was in front of him. He grabbed onto it and pulled it off. He put it with his other suitcase on the cart and wheeled it to the entrance. It took him a bit, but he was able to get there without any incidence.

Thankfully no one but his closest people knew where he was. If the news had gotten hold of the fact that he had left Japan and came back to California...Ryoma let out a shudder, the paparazzi would have swarmed the airport.

Ryoma had won his first Grand Slam three years ago when he was fifteen. Since then he had decided to stay out of major competitions so that he could focus on his studies. It was thanks to that decision that he was able to graduate at the top of his class. He had been invited to go to Tokyo University( or Todai as it was also called) on a full scholarship, though that wasn't going to happen now. He had, fortunately, also sent out applications to other universities in California such as UCLA, Stanford, and Berkeley, among others, and he had gotten positive feed back from them all.

His final choice was Stanford, he would start the coming semester, but he would probably only be able to two or three classes a semester. With what his soon to be training schedule would look like, even that was a stretch. Not to mention the other competitions, not involving his second Grand Slam title, that would take place in the time to come.

He did know what he wanted to study though, it was a tie between either majoring in business or in literature. To be honest either worked for him, maybe he would major in business and minor in lit. or vice versa, or perhaps a double major.

Ryoma found an empty seat on the side, got there and sat down as quickly as he could. There was no way he was going to stay standing for god knows how long. He leaned forward and slid his phone out of his back pocket. He scrolled through his favorites and dialed the name that came first. Unsurprisingly, the phone was picked up on the second ring.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing brat?!"

Ryoma pulled his phone away in time and held it away from his ear and on Akatsu Jin sang profanities at his as f it was his job. It took about two minutes for him to shout out enough curse words(among other things) for him to calm down.

"Jin, can I talk now?"

"No! Let me conference in Takashi and Kazuya."

In a few minutes, Ryoma sat back in his seat, holding the phone back away from his ear. He listened as the three of them yelled at him about his ridiculous impulses, for not thinking things through and for worrying them so much, not that Jin said that but, Ryoma could infer.

He quickly got tired of the yelling, "are you guys going to stop so I can explain to you what's going on or should I drop this call and call you back next month?" That, thankfully, got them to quiet down.

"Thank you. So here's what's happening. I have left my...lovers. They were cheating on me, and with some kid too, It's apparently been going on for quite some months now. I couldn't take it anymore, so I left. I need to get my life back in my hands. I've decided to join the U.S. Open that's happening this August. And I'll be taking classes at Stanford.

I'm sorry for doing thing without telling any of you but...if I stayed there any longer-I-I probably would have broke. I couldn't stay there and pretend like everything...like everything was-" he voice cracked as he unwillingly released heart wrenching sobs, "like everything was okay." He took a few moment to reign in his tears, "I needed to get away, if I saw them before I left, I don't know if I could leave. If they were there and had asked me to stay...I probably would have. And I-I can't do that anymore."

There was a tense silence on the other side. None of them could say anything for awhile. It was Kawamura Takashi who spoke first.

"Ryoma, where are they?"

Ryoma let out an empty laugh, "last I heard they went to Hokkaido with the kid."

"THOSE SONS OF BITCHES!" Jin yelled, "just wait til I get my hands on them! I'm gonna beat them so badly not even their mothers will be able to recognize them!"

"No. Jin don't."

"And why not brat?"

"Don't stain yourself with something like that. I want to let it all go. And if you hurt them, that will just bring my mind to them and I can't have that."

"He's right Jin," Kazuya spoke up, "There's no need for them to be in Ryoma's thoughts any longer. Don't talk to them, don't look at them, just ignore their existence completely."

"But guys...I-"

"Takashi-san, we understand how difficult that will before you..but still-"

"No. Don't even do that guys. You'll be going out of your way to ignore them, and buy doing that, it just make you even more conscious of them. So just...don't worry about them, just act like you normally do and don't worry about it."

"'Don't worry about it'? How can we not worry about it?"

"Please just...just drop it and don't say anything. If they ask you where I am, tell them that we are through, to not try to contact me, and to leave me alone."

"Hold on Ryoma-kun, I thought you said you broke up with them. Did you tell them that or...?"

His question was met silence.

"Ryoma-kun!"

"Takashi-senpai please..."

Takashi sighed in compliance, "very well, Ryoma-kun, we'll tell them. But that's it. No more. No less."

"Thank you. Oh and also, I'm planning on changing my number with in the next few days so look out for that."

"Going to such far lengths brat?"

"I gave them four years of my life and they threw it back in my face like it was no big deal. I want to forget them completely. I want to forget all the feeling I have for them. I will forget it all. Nothing will stop me. If I ever seem them again, I will be able to do so without any sort of ill feeling."

"Good riddance I say."

"I agree."

"Jin, Kazuya-san, it's like he's running away."

"Senpai, I am running away. I'm going to keep running til I can look at them and not start crying, I'm going to find new, better love, or maybe not. It doesn't matter, I have nothing to do with them anymore and likewise they have nothing to do with me anymore."

"Ryoma-kun."

"Ah! I have to go now. My brother's here. I'll text you with my new number. Bye."

"No! Ryoma call us tomorrow."

"Goodbye guys." He hung up the phone, just as Ryoga came running up to him, making a spectacle of himself, "Chibisuke!"

Ryoma shook his head at his older brother. This giant man-child was so embarrassing, "finally here, huh? Took you long enough."

"Shut up chibi. How is it that you're already eighteen, but you're a midget."

"I will have you know that I am a healthy five feet seven inches, thank you very much!"

"So? I still way taller."

Ryoma clenched his teeth, no, he would not stoop down to Ryoga level, "shut up. Let's get out of here already."

"As you wish, my princess," he shot back, swooping down into a low, exaggerated bow, one arm across his stomach and the other, up behind him. Ryoma couldn't bite back the groan this time. He walked quickly past Ryoga, there was no way he was going to stand there with that embarrassment any longer.

"Chibisuke!" Ryoga called after him, quickly catching up to him, "you wound me," he said placing a hand over his heart, "how could you just leave me there like that?!"

"Easily, and I'll do it again if you do something like that again." He scowled at his brother, really did he always have to be like this?

"Oh calm down, Chibisuke. You know I love you!" Ryoga shouted as he took the cart from Ryoma's hands, "come on. The sooner we're back on the road, the sooner we'll be home."

Within a few minutes, the two of them had loaded all the luggage into the car and were heading back onto the highway.

"So Ryoma," Ryoga started, his voice taking on a serious tone, "what's happening? What made you decided to come back all of a sudden, and most importantly, where the hell are those lovers of yours?"

Ryoma sighed, he knew that the question would come up, but he hadn't thought it would be this quickly. Ryoma closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, held it and released it, his nerves and heart-rate had calmed down. He opened his eyes and looked straightened ahead at the car in front of them, "I left them."

Ryoga's necked snapped to look at him, his eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, "what? why?"

"They were cheating."

Ryoga stepped on the brakes so fast that the car screeched to a halt. Ryoma rubbed at his chest from the burn from the seat belt doing its's job. "Ryoga! What the hell is wrong with you?!" He yelled as the cars behind them honked like crazy.

"What do you mean 'they cheated'!?" He demanded, throwing up his middle finger at any car that honked at the.

"I'll tell you. Just drive."

Ryoga took his foot off the brake and sped down the highway, "talk."

"Where do I begin."

"How about from the beginning," was his sarcastic reply to Ryoma's rhetorical question.

"Shut up. About six months ago, I started to get the feeling that the six of us weren't as close as we were before and I truly tried my hardest to do things together, but everyone as always too busy to do anything. Then they started fighting with each other, which was mostly Fuji and Yukimura, but Tezuka and Sanada usually ended up taking sides, and Atobe was barely ever there enough to be involved. I tried to get them to stop, but they rarely listened. And then one day in the middle of I fight, i got fed up and yelled at them," tears started to rolled down his cheeks, "they told me I was useless and unnecessary in the relationship and accused me of cheating on them with Jin and Kazuya-senpai."

"Did you?"

"No...not then."

"But you did."

"Ryoma slowly nodded, "I called them crazy and told them that I would never do that to them and that I loved them." He let out a huff of breath at the ridiculousness, "they gladly told me that they no longer loved me. I-my temper flared up and I told them to go screw themselves. I left the house for the night. Atobe, Tezuka nor Sanada stood up for me. None of them came after me. I stayed with Jin that night. I know what you're thinking, but we really didn't do anything. I cried and he lent me his shoulder. I came home the next afternoon to find that all my stuff had been moved to a separate room.

"It was volatile for a while. I even told the two of them that I forgave them for falsely accusing my of cheating and they just ignored me. Then all of a sudden, two months later, everything settled down. They went back to being as nice and loving as before. I thought we had moved on, but I could still feel that the distance was still growing. Soon the five of them were barely home again. I found out that the five of them were spending time together in Atobe's office. I foolishly though nothing of it for almost two months, that's when I started to notice that they started to smell differently, they had these bite marks that didn't match any of their teeth and it definitely wasn't mine.

"I got this nagging feeling that they were cheating, but of course, I didn't want to believe it, so I hired a PI to trail them. Turned out that my nagging feeling was spot on. A week later he gave me pictures of the five of them on dates with some kid. And I know it was dates because they...they were kissing him. I didn't know what to for a week. I was a mess, I stayed at home and moped around, and they never once asked if anything was wrong. The next week I decided to confront them about it and of course they weren't hpme, so I went to the company instead. I was stopped at security, even though they knew who I was, they kept telling my not to go up, and it that it was best if I just went back. And the that nagging feeling came back, I told them not to tell anyone I was there. I ran past security and got into the elevator and road it to the top floor. I got to the top and I went into the waiting area. It was weird because there weren't any secretaries there and they're usually two to three of them. I ignored it though and pulled to door open, and there they were...my lovers on the desk fucking this kid. All of them. They were all there fucking him.

"I'm not really sure what happened next. All I remember was that I somehow got out of the building and ending up at Jin's front door, wet, cold and crying. He took me in and I cried. I cried until I had no more tears left. Then I asked him to have sex with me. He, of course, said no and that I wasn't thinking clearly. I told him I was and eventually I worn him down. We made love. He was sweet and kind and gentle. Th-that was the first time I had sex in more than half a year.

"For the next week we had sex, on any surface, at anytime, I didn't even go to school. It was great, I hadn't felt so loved and wanted in so long. That Monday we sat down and talk, I didn't tell him what happened. And I apologized for making him do something he didn't want to. He waved me off and didn't ask questions, but he told me that I should go back and to try and fix what's wrong. So I did. The next day I went back to mansion, I hoped to see that they were worried about me, but they weren't even there. I found out from a maid that they had all gone to Milan the day I saw them and they wouldn't return for another two days.

"Funny isn't it? The ones who were supposed to love me, protect me and not hurt me, did all of those things. So yesterday I decided that enough was enough and I left. I'm going to compete in the U.S. Open, and going to win. Then I'm going to win every other competition and I'm going to live a fun and happy life without them. I will live without them."

"Ryoma...did-did you tell them it's over?"

Ryoma scoffed, "they'd have to be there wouldn't they? Apparently the six of them went to Hokkaido, sad isn't it?"

"Ryoma..."

"And you know what's even funnier, they didn't even try to find someone else. That kid is Atobe's secretary's sixteen year old assistant! The soon to be president was cheating on me with his secretary! How cliche is that?!"

Ryoga stared ahead of him, he had no idea what to say to his little brother. What was he supposed to say? I'm sorry? Get over it and move on? I never liked them anyways? None of that would make him feel better. Damn. If he could, he would go to Japan and beat the shit out of those fuckers, but even that wouldn't make him feel better. And what would their parents say?

"Ryoma...what are you going to tell mom and dad?"

"Nothing. We all broke up cleanly."

"But Ryoma-"

"Aniki, please. Don't tell them."

Ryoga sighed, "I don't agree with it, but if that's what you want."

"Thank you," he said as he relaxed back into the seat. In another thirty minutes(stupid traffic), they had arrived at their home. It was the one that their dad had bought with the money he won from tournaments. It was a large six bedroom, six and a half bathroom, one story house. It had two acres of surrounding land. Behind the mansion was a large pool, and behind that was a tennis court and after that was Ryoma's own personal soccer field. Of course there were a whole bunch of orange trees littered around the field.

The gate opened and they pulled into the driveway. Ryoga popped open the trunk and within moments their parents had ran up to meet them. Before he could say anything, his mom pulled him into a tight hug, "I missed you so much Ryoma-chan! You stayed away for far too long."

She put her hand and his shoulders and pushed away, "oh my beautiful baby," she said cupping his face, with a large smile plastered on her face. And for the first time in a long while, a genuine smile appeared on Ryoma's face., "I missed you too, Mom." She was as beautiful as always.

A slap on the back pulled him out of his thoughts, "it's good seeing you again seishounen."

"You too, Oyaji." He said as he allowed himself to be pulled into a small one armed hug by his father.

The three male each took a piece of luggage and head to the doorway where their mother or wife stood. With a smile on her face, she looked at him, "Welcome home Ryoma."

"I'm home."

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R&R please.