AN: thanks everyone for the kinds reviews! they are wonderful

Chapter 7

When Ryoma got up to finally leave it was like everything he ever worked towards was running away before his very eyes. He had worked for this moment when he could finally meet Ryoma again and finally say the words he wanted to say and hold him again in his arms. He didn’t want to let him go. He was afraid that this was the last chance he had, so with those frantic thoughts he reached out for Ryoma’s hand, only to have him flinch and pull away, as if he had been stung.

“Excuse me,” Ryoma said in apology, casting his eyes to the ground as if the contact was accidental.

Tezuka shook his head, clinching his fists against his lap. They had grown sweaty in his nervousness.

“Echizen,” Tezuka said, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat.

This time the younger Japanese didn’t pull away as Tezuka’s hot hands encircled his. Tezuka’s heart, which hitherto must have stopped beating, began moving rapidly within its cavern.

“Maybe we should exchange numbers,” Ryoma said, finally. “That way you’ll have someone you know in the city… well other than your school mates.”

“Yes,” Tezuka said.

He let go of Ryoma’s hand, allowing him to reach for his phone. Tezuka gave Ryoma his number and then Ryoma gave Tezuka his.

“I guess there’s a lot of things you have left to talk to me about Japan,” Ryoma said. “Maybe another day.”

“And we can play too,” Tezuka noted.

Ryoma nodded, “Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

Ryoma nodded again, and Tezuka knew there was no use arguing.

“Bye, Buchou.”

“You can call me Kunimitsu now,” Tezuka said. “Everyone else in this country does.”

Ryoma made a grimace that looked so much like that of a child’s when being forced to eat natto.

“No way!” Ryoma spat. “That’s just too weird. Buchou is buchou and always buchou.”

Tezuka could only smile.

“Tadaima!” Ryoma called.

“I‘m in here,” Kevin said. He was still in the living room.

Ryoma slung his bag onto the recliner and then sat down on the sofa beside his boyfriend.

“How was tennis?” Kevin asked.

Ryoma gave an uncommitted shrug.

“You don’t stink at all. Must have been one sorry match,” Kevin noted. He closed his book and scooted closer to his boyfriend.

“My knee started acting up so I kind of just watched,” Ryoma stated.

“That’s weird.”

“I’m gonna go take a bath.”

Ryoma stood and headed for the stairs, leaving Kevin to his books.

Ryoma got to his bedroom and undressed quickly and then retreated to the bathroom for his much needed bath. Ryoma always did a lot of his thinking in the bath. Even that time when Tezuka had first beat him all those years ago he had found refuge in the bath.

Slinking into the warm water Ryoma found his muscles start to relax as his mind began its attempt to piece together the events of the day.

He tried his best not to show it, but he found being around Tezuka too awkward for his own liking. He hoped that Tezuka didn’t realize that he was constantly torn between crying miserably and/or throwing himself at the older man.

Both scenarios would not have been pretty. Crying would have been awkward for everyone and the second one would have surely been Gerard.

It was funny. He hadn’t seen Tezuka Buchou in years, but all of the old feelings were rushing back to him in such a fury. He didn’t want to admit either side of them. He just wanted to keep it simple. He wanted it to just be that he was merely happy to see his good old friend. However he couldn’t deny his strong emotions.

Ryoma felt pitiful. He had been feeling pitiful ever since his knee injury, but seeing his Buchou again just amplified it. To think he sees Tezuka again and to not even be able to play a good game of tennis with him at his very top potential. He would settle for nothing less than perfection for his Buchou. Buchou deserved that much, and it pained him to not be able to give it. It pained him to even play Kevin in his sub par state, but the feeling was amplified by a thousand fold when Tezuka saw him hit that ball into the net.

Ryoma felt like dirt just thinking about it.

Then there were the desires. The raw electric feelings coursing through his body as he watched Tezuka’s hard, lean frame twist and turn, chasing after the ball… it was just unbearable. He found himself torn between moping, felling sorry over his knee, and just wanting to lick the sweat off of the flesh of Tezuka’s neck and even the light expanse that peeked up under his shirt when he served.

Delicious.

And then he would think about Kevin and the guilt would settle in, but obviously not hard enough. Because even throughout their after practice talk on the bench, Ryoma couldn’t stop looking at Tezuka’s lips and wanting to indulge in them. He wanted to see if Tezuka gained any experience since last time. Ryoma sure did.

Ryoma sighed.

He was happy to see Tezuka. He really absolutely truly was. But there was those other feelings that just had to mar the beauty of their reunion.

It was a short walk from the tennis facility to Tezuka’s dorm, but even then it was unbearable. The emotions coursing through the normally calm and reasonable young man were so foreign and abstract he didn’t know how to put labels onto them. All he knew was that he couldn’t stop trembling.

With unsteady hands he finally entered into his dorm room. He managed to pour himself a glass of tea before heading to his desktop computer. He waited for it to boot up, and paced the carpet, happy that he occupied a single. He would hate to have to explain his erratic behavior to a room mate when he could barely make heads or tales of it himself.

He had seen Ryoma again. He really had. And he touched him, and held his hand again, even if briefly. Tezuka felt himself nearly bursting.

With the computer finally up he turned on Skype. It was extremely early in the morning Japan time but it was an emergency. He had to talk to Fuji and it couldn’t wait another minute.

-to be continued-

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