Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Tattered Strips of Green ❯ Chapter 8

Tattered Strips of Green

 

Chapter Eight

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of the associated characters.

 

…

 

Fuji had chosen a fancy, American style restaurant. It was beautiful, with elegant décor and dim lighting that set an intimate mood. It was the perfect place for a perfect evening. Fuji seemed, impossibly, to be even more charming than usual, and Yukiko felt like her heart would burst with emotion. She had never been happier in her life.

 

Fuji smiled at her and lightly squeezed her hand before suddenly getting to his feet. “Could I have everyone's attention, please?” His soft voice somehow carried through the restaurant and brought instant silence. “I have an announcement I'd like to make.”

 

Yukiko's cheeks flushed with a sort of giddy embarrassment. He was going to announce their wedding date to a restaurant full of strangers. It was so wonderfully romantic.

 

“I'd like to tell you about this woman with me tonight.” He looked at her, and she began to feel the first stirrings of uncertainty and dread. His piercing blue eyes were fully open, spearing her with a look of cold contempt. “She is the most disgusting, pathetic person it has ever been my misfortune to associate with.”

 

Yukiko paled and stared at him in shock. She felt ill. This couldn't be real. Surely it was just some kind of sick joke. “S-Syusuke?” she whispered in a small, shaky voice. It wasn't a very funny joke.

 

“I don't recall ever giving you permission to use my given name, woman. Didn't you ever think it was rather presumptuous for filth such as yourself to address me in such a familiar manner?”

 

Her jaw dropped, then moved up and down a few times in failed attempts at speech. How could this be happening? It wasn't possible. “Syu-Syus-”

 

“Are you deaf as well as stupid and disgusting?” Fuji asked in a pleasant, friendly tone of voice.

 

“You…but…I…you love-”

 

He gave a soft, sweet laugh, the sound tinged with just a hint of dark mockery. “No one could ever love someone like you,” he said gently. He was still standing, but his voice was quiet and intimate. “You are nothing, and it makes me sick to look at you. Leave. Now.”

 

Yukiko fled, sobbing. Fuji watched her go with a small smirk, his eyes gleaming. Then those startling blue orbs squeezed shut as he flashed his usual smile. He bowed in sincere apology. “I'm sorry for that, everyone. Please forgive me.”

 

As he rose from his bow, he took two objects from his pocket. His cell phone and a strip of green bandana.

 

…

 

She wandered in a daze. She couldn't seem to get enough air, and her heart hurt. It was like someone had pounded a stake through her chest. What had happened? How had everything gone so wrong so fast?

 

She tried to hold it back, but a choked sob escaped her. She hurt so much. She had loved him with all her heart, and he had said those things to her. Is this how Kaoru felt when I….

 

She dismissed the thought. Her ex-husband was a strange, only vaguely attractive person. Surely people like him didn't really expect others to care about them. Just because he had decided to be melodramatic about it didn't mean he had hurt like this.

 

Her cell phone rang, interrupting her train of thought. Maybe it was Fuji, calling to tell her it had all been a mistake. Maybe he had thought she was doing more with Ryoma than she really was, had learned otherwise, and was calling to apologize. She dug her phone out of her purse.

 

“Syusuke?” she whispered brokenly, her voice thick with tears.

 

“No. It's me,” Ryoma said. “What's wrong?”

 

Ryoma. Ryoma was interested in her. He'd want her. She clung to that thought and the hope it gave her. The ache in her heart receded to a tolerable level. She hadn't been completely rejected. There was still someone who cared about her.

 

“I…Syusuke…he said…he said the most horrible things to me….” Her voice trailed off as she started crying. “He…he…he said I…disgust him…and….”

 

“Do you know the spot where the river runs near the park and under a bridge?”

 

“Y-yes.”

 

“Meet me there,” he said before hanging up.

 

…

 

By the river, Ryoma put his cell phone away. He lifted his arm to look at the scrap of bandana around his wrist. He'd been careful not to wear it around Yukiko. Now, though, it was important for her to see it. To know that the man she had so callously used and thrown away was dear to more people than she had ever imagined.

 

Fuji had chosen a restaurant near the river, so it only took Yukiko five minutes to arrive. Ryoma held his arms out slightly in a way that could be seen as an invitation for a hug, or possibly just a small, odd stretch.

 

Yukiko obviously took it as an invitation and flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and crying against his chest. In her grief, she didn't immediately notice that he wasn't holding her close. Wasn't, in fact, touching her at all.

 

“Are you almost done? You're getting my shirt wet,” he said in disgust.

 

She jumped away from him as if she'd been burned, her face a mask of confusion. While most of her mind tried to understand Ryoma's sudden change in attitude, part of her noticed something around his wrist. What was that?

 

It looks almost like a piece of one of Kaoru's stupid bandanas, she thought.

 

“Ryoma, what-”

 

“Were you actually stupid enough to think I really cared about you?” he asked in obvious disdain.

 

“I told you, Hanatori-san, no one can love a person like you,” said Fuji's soft, gentle voice. Yukiko turned and saw him approaching. Inui, Momo, and Eiji were with him. All four wore a strip of green cloth around one wrist.

 

“Nya, that's not true, Fuji,” Eiji quietly corrected. “There was one person who loved her. That's why we're all here.”

 

“Ah, but he didn't love the real her,” Fuji pointed out. “He loved the person she pretended to be.”

 

One person who loved her? The person she pretended to be? Those strips of green cloth….

 

“This is because of Kaoru,” she whispered incredulously. Her knees started shaking and refused to hold her up anymore. She fell to the ground.

 

Fuji had never loved her. Ryoma had never been interested in her. They had just been toying with her. Why? She was beautiful, charming, and talented. Why would they do something like this to her?

 

“Why?” she whispered. “Why would you do this to me because of Kaoru? Other than his tennis skills, he isn't special at all.”

 

“He's special to us,” a voice said from behind Ryoma. Yukiko looked back over her shoulder. Three more men had silently joined them. They, too, were wearing the strips of cloth.

 

“Buchou!” Ryoma exclaimed, whirling to face the man who had spoken.

 

“Oishi!” Eiji bounded past Yukiko and flung himself at his boyfriend. “What are you doing here?”

 

Oishi hugged him. “I got a phone call telling me to contact Tezuka and Taka-san and come here at this time.”

 

“Phone call?” Inui repeated. He was sure none of them had made the call. That left only one possible person.

 

“Who called you?” Fuji asked.

 

“I did.”

 

Kaidoh appeared from behind a tree and walked down the concrete slope to join them on the strip of grass along the river. Like all of the others, he had a piece of cloth tied around his wrist. On his head was the green and white bandana with the kanji for their names written in faded black marker.

 

Yukiko stared at him with desperate hope as he walked toward her. He had loved her once. He would forgive her for what she'd done, and they could be a family again.

 

She surged to her feet and grabbed his arm as he started past her. Obviously, he didn't realize she was willing to be with him again.

 

“Fsshuu~…. You're in my way,” he said in annoyance, glaring at her.

 

Her hand fell limply to her side, though she stayed close to him, her body in light contact with his. She was too numb inside to be frightened away by the look he gave her. Even he was rejecting her? How could he not want her?

 

Momo came up behind her and dragged her away from Kaidoh. “Stay away from our mamushi, lady. You aren't even good enough to kiss the ground he walks on, much less touch him.”

 

No one else was paying any attention to her. No one noticed as she staggered away, her sense of self-worth utterly crushed. She wasn't important. They were all, especially Inui, focused on Kaidoh. He had been looking slightly downward, his eyes hidden by his bangs, but he started to glance up as he approached Inui.

 

Inui momentarily forgot to breathe. In the past eight months, whenever he had looked into those eyes, it hadn't seemed to be Kaidoh looking back at him. Now though….

 

…The giant serpent had begun to shrink after swallowing the young man. It writhed, most of its greatly diminished bulk hidden by a thickening layer of mist. It stilled suddenly and completely vanished from view.

 

Soon, the mist began to fade, but the serpent was gone. It its place was the young man, standing with his shoulders slightly hunched.

 

“Fsshuu~….” He slowly began to sway from side to side, the hypnotic movement revealing the gleam of tiny, iridescent scales.

 

Kaidoh Kaoru wasn't the warm, vulnerable young man or the cold, well-armored serpent. He was both, and always had been…

 

Pain exploded through Inui's jaw, the force of Kaidoh's punch sending him staggering back.

 

“Keh. That's for being a dumbass and not just telling me the truth years ago.”

 

He waited a bit for Inui to recover from the shock of the unexpected blow, then reached into his pocket and held something out to him. It was a tootsie roll pop.

 

Inui took it with a trembling hand and slowly unwrapped it. One side had been licked, leaving only a thin layer of hard candy clinging to the tootsie roll center. The outer shell hadn't been completely breached, but it was close. It would only take a little work to get all the way through.

 

Inui understood the message. Things couldn't just magically go back to the way they had been seven years ago. He didn't have automatic access to everything Kaidoh was. He would have to earn that level of closeness all over again. But this time, he was starting much closer to his goal.

 

The moment between them was broken by Eiji suddenly leaping onto Kaidoh's back.

 

“Kaoru-chan!” he shouted happily, hugging him tightly. Then he placed one foot on the ground, hooked his other leg around Kaidoh's shins, and shoved.

 

“Gah!” Kaidoh's arms flailed in a futile attempt to keep his balance. Inui caught him before he could fall. They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Inui gave in to impulse and kissed him. Several of the others erupted into wild cheers.

 

“Go, Inui, go!” Eiji called.

 

Inui didn't break the kiss until the need to breathe forced him to. There was a seventy percent chance of Kaidoh pulling away from him, but he didn't. Instead, he pressed his face against Inui's chest, hiding the fact that embarrassment had turned his cheeks a brilliant crimson.

 

“I hate you all,” he muttered into Inui's shirt.

 

“We love you too, Mamushi,” Momo said, rubbing the top of Kaidoh's bandana-clad head in obvious affection. “We love you too.”