Two for One

Distressed

He didn't understand a thing. After his conversation with Fuji in the bathroom yesterday Momo has been lost in his thoughts. The things Fuji said in his unguarded state didn't make sense.

"I may be the worst of the worst kind of person."

Momo raised an eyebrow "What do you mean?"

Fuji sighed and remained on the floor, turning his head away from momo. "I betrayed him Momo; he hates me now."

"Fuji, what happened?" Momo asked while leaning against the bathroom wall near Fuji. He didn't want to sit down, that was just disgusting and he didn't understand why Fuji of all people was still sitting there, but he wanted to stay with his teammate to figure out what was going on.

"I" Fuji hesitated "I tired a theory out without thinking, and it seemed to have pissed Ryoma off."

Momo tilted his head in confusion. "Theory? for what?"

"To cure him, all I ever wanted was to help him." Fuji sighed and got up from the floor. "Now I'm back at the very beginning." He walked over to momo and looked into his eyes.

His eyes portrayed all his regret for what he has done, but there was something else there that Momo couldn't identify. It worried him; Fuji seemed to have lost it. Cure Echizen? Why would the brat need any help? Was he sick? What Theory? It didn't make sense. Momo opened his mouth to ask, but Fuji merely smiled and left the bathroom before he could get any words out.

That whole situation was so unlike Fuji, and Momo had been spaced out for the rest of that day and up to now. Currently, at practice, he has been watching Fuji and Ryoma for any signs what happened the day before.

It seemed as if Fuji was hesitating on getting close to their youngest teammate. Anytime Fuji got near the brat he would freeze and turn back away like he changed his mind. Echizen, on the other hand, seemed perfectly normal and acted like nothing ever happened. Well, for the most part. He was avoiding Fuji but, in Momo's opinion, it almost seemed like an unconscious act. Momo believed that Echizen himself was not aware of the fact that he would move away from the tensai anytime he got nearby.

It could have been on purpose, but from Echizen's expression, Momo didn't think that was the case. Echizen would even look at Fuji with confusion before the boy would shake his head and ignore it.

Momo groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. Seems like he will just have to do some investigating.

-

-

-

-

Ryoga followed closely behind Ryuzaki-sensei and the newly introduced Captain Tezuka. He was both excited and frightened at the thought of seeing his sister.

Excited, because it's his sister and that's always a good thing to be happy about. Frightened because of two reasons. One, it is his sister, and she will kill him for exposing her secret. Two, what if something happened like he initially thought.

Th fact that she ignored him the other day was strange and unheard of. Even if she was mad at him, never had she flat out ignored him. Ryoko always acknowledged his presence and would just give him a hard time if she was mad. She knew how much she meant to him and how he would continuously worry if she ignored him. That's why Ryoko always made it a point to come out and talk to him whenever he was nearby.

Ryoga blamed himself. He always thought that if he had just been there for her. If he hadn't run away, then maybe his sister would never have gone through what she did. If only he had seen the early signs, he could have saved her.

He knew there was nothing he could have done though; he was only a kid. Still is but he advanced further than anyone would have thought so that he could do something for his sister. He graduated early, went to college at a young age, was called a genius. All of that was not for himself but rather for his sister. He wants to be able to help her, to be there for her. To atone for his sins of abandoning her in the past when she needed him most.

Of course, Ryoko doesn't blame him. She had said to him many times that none of this was his fault, that he had nothing to atone for. How she appreciated the fact that he was here now and that's all that mattered. However, Ryoga didn't think that way.

He saw how 'Ryoma' didn't like him and assumed that because technically 'Ryoma' is still a part of his sister that there was still a part of her that resented him. That's why it hurt; it pained him to see 'Ryoma' ignore his presence. He tried getting along with 'Ryoma' but the boy never gave him the time of day, and that just strengthened his beliefs of how some part of Ryoko did hate him.

However none of that mattered, he believed he deserved that kind of treatment no matter what Ryoko said. He accepted that.

Ryoga was brought out of his thoughts when they had arrived at the tennis courts. Captain Tezuka had brought his teammates to attention and instructed them to listen to Ryuzaki.
"Alright, so I'll be away today for some urgent business. I was going to leave Tezuka in charge, but fortunately, A guest arrived and agreed to coach for me. Everyone meet Ryoga, he is an excellent Tennis player and coach, I expect you all to treat him as you would me..."

Ryoga took a step forward when Ryuzaki had said his name so the team could identify him. However, he wasn't focusing on the team before him like he should have been. Instead, he was watching his sister, or more accurately 'Ryoma.' It was obvious that the brat was currently in control. One could easily tell just by the stance and facial expressions, or lack of thereof. When 'Ryoma' heard Ryoga's name, there was no shine in his eyes, or a small smile like Ryoga had expected, just a clicking noise as if he were annoyed. Which with Ryoma that was probably the case. There was no other reaction after that either, causing Ryogas concern to grow. Is his sister okay? Was she mad? It couldn't have been that she didn't want to be exposed because all she needed to do was make an expression to acknowledge him. An expression would be quick, no one but him would notice, and more importantly, it was easily explained if someone did see. Anything to portray that his sister acknowledged him would set his mind at ease, and boy did he need to be reassured. So the next thing he did was look at the person who would most likely have an idea of whats going on.

Although, that might not have been smart either, once he looked over to Fuji Ryoga's bad feeling intensified. Fuji was smiling as always, but upon closer look, the Tensai was white as a sheet and sweating nervously.

-

-

-

-

A/N: Sorry guys this chapter is really short, Mainly because the next part cant be cut in half.

So Its been so long since I updated and there's a reason for that but I can not say.

Also a few things I would like to mention. Even if It has been very very long since I updated, I will never abandon the story. I will for sure finish this baby, and no one can stop me. So rest assured that even if I disappear for awhile, I WILL be coming back.

Another thing is a few changes I made. Yeah, this story is supposed to be thrill pair. However, after rewriting and coming up with a plan for this story, I discovered that there might be a different possible ending. You know how stories can just write themselves sometimes even though there was an outline in the beginning. Kinda like that :P Its technically because of a particular scene I wrote out that I want to put in this story. Oh well!

Anyway thanks for sticking around with my flaky self, and till then, see ya next update :)