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Shifting, Ryoma pushed himself up into a sitting position, Tezuka’s eyes quickly turning towards him to gauge how the younger male felt. Ryoma scratched his head, peered at his captain and said “Hi.” A slight smile tugged at the corner’s of Tezuka’s lips, “Hi yourself.” He responded. “How do you feel?” Sliding back to lean against the headboard, Ryoma said “I’m still a bit fuzzy, but okay I guess.” This as he looked at his bandaged wrists. “You?” Holding them up to Tezuka’s eyes questioningly. Tezuka nodded. Eyebrows creasing, Tezuka tried to find a delicate way to approach the subject, but could find none, so he bluntly asked. “What happened to you? How did you wind up the way I found you?” Ryoma’s face darkened and he related how the nerdy boys from science club had confronted him 2 days earlier, his usual nasty response, and then the apparently planned attack where 4 of them tackled him and held a foul smelling cloth to his face which made him light headed then caused him to pass out. After that he assumed they had tied him to that chair. Tezuka listened quietly, not interrupting, but Ryoma repressed a shiver at the thundercloud that seemed to gather around his captain’s face. “Four of them on one?” Tezuka’s fierce look temporarily caused Ryoma to feel pity for anyone in his buchou’s crosshairs, as well as a surge of gratitude that it wasn’t him. He watched as his captain slowly got his reactions under control. Pausing in his narrative, now unsure of how to continue given the unexpected and intimate turn of events, Tezuka provided the help he needed. “Where did the girls come from? How do they figure into the equation?” Shifting uncomfortably Ryoma leaned forward “You saw them? Who was it?” Tezuka said nothing his eyebrows furrowed. Ryoma pursed his lips. “Why won’t you tell me?” “Because I am not 100% positive, I saw them from the back as they made their escape. Can you tell me what you remember?” Searching Tezuka’s face he knew that he would get no more from his stoic captain, preferring not argue about it, Ryoma began again. “I was knocked out cold, and I felt….. felt….. kisses on my lips and neck.” He paused blushing furiously, “But when I woke up and asked who it was, and why they had tied me I heard a girl whisper they hadn’t tied me, they found me like that, and wouldn’t hurt me, they had kissed me because they thought I was cute.” Ryoma fell silent for a brief pause, Tezuka patiently waiting him out, knowing it would be best if he got it all out. Eventually blushing, he tried to hide his face and explained, “They started touching me and I asked them to stop, but they wouldn’t. I don’t think they meant to hurt me, they seemed unsure, like they wanted to see what would happen, I kept hearing them whisper and argue…..like I was some kind of kinky science experiment.” He felt a soft hand on his hair, and when he looked up into hazel eyes, he heard Tezuka say “That’s enough. I’ve heard enough. It’s okay.” Reacting quickly, Ryoma turned his face into Tezuka’s hand, placing a kiss on his captain’s open palm. Embarrassed by what he had just done the youth tried to joke, “Well then you showed up and what they did was child’s play.” Ryoma meant it in the best way possible, as a complement even, but Tezuka’s face looked momentarily as if someone had punched him in the gut. “You are right Echizen. Gomen. It will never happen again.” He closed his book and placed it on the night table. Echizen’s face wore a look of confusion and fear. What just happened? Tezuka took this in the wrong way as well, believing that Echizen was afraid of him. Seigaku’s captain returned to his normal cool controlled exterior, attempting to give Echizen the space he thought the boy needed. He gave Ryoma the abbreviated version of what he believed had befallen his tensai. “I don’t think the girls had anything to do with your capture, I do actually think if I am correct, they meant only to help you and somehow wound up locked into that shed along with you. When I heard you and tried to get into the shed, it was locked from the outside, therefore they could not have accomplished that on their own. As for what happened while in there with you, I think the sight of you bound and helpless made fantasy too easily obtainable, and they took liberties with you that they shouldn’t have. Don’t worry about them, I will have an ounce of flesh so to speak from them when I catch them. As for those in the science club who attacked you, they will get their’s, I promise. For now it’s late, you should go back to sleep. We do have school in the morning. I’ll give an excuse to coach Ryuzaki for why you missed practice.” Ryoma was still stuck on the “Gomen” portion of Tezuka’s litany. What did he mean Gomen? Why was he sorry? Sorry for what the science club or the girls did to him? He was totally confused. What did he mean it will never happen again? Did he mean the kisses between Tezuka and himself? The thought made Ryoma’s heart sink. Ryoma watched the gentle play of emotions over Tezuka’s fine features wondering what he had said wrong to make Tezuka pull in on himself like that, returning unexpectedly to his untouchable stoic personality. It made Echizen angry to have Tezuka pull away from him after what had happened tonight. It also dawned on Ryoma that his captain meant to seek justice for him on his own. “Wait. Wait. What do you mean it will never happen again? Sorry for what??” Tezuka’s eyebrows furrowed as he made a complex study of the bed linens, refusing to look Echizen in the eyes. “Sorry for everything that happened to you. I am sorry for being unable to protect you, for not seeing this coming and preventing it. Keeping my team safe is my highest responsibility. No one will ever take advantage of you again……. That also includes me.” Echizen was stunned, he shook his head slowly from side to side, not wanting to grasp what he was hearing. “Includes you!?” He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t. How could Tezuka just forget what happened between them? What was wrong with him? “What if I want you to? What if that was the only good thing that happened to me?” Hard hazel eyes regarded him from under winged brows, “Echizen.” Ryoma’s eyes went wide. He sounds like he is going to give me laps. Where was the caring sexy man who had carried him all the way home and tended his wounds??? A slow and burning pain started to take shape in Ryoma’s belly. He wanted to play it that way?? Fine. “Forget it, CAPTAIN, I can handle it myself.” Tezuka sighed, but would hear no argument, “You have been thru a traumatic day, now is not the time to discuss this.” “Well when WILL be the time to discuss it?” another scowl, “Go to sleep.” Getting up from the bed, Tezuka stretched out long muscular legs, “I need a shower.” Turning a well shaped back to his teammate, the enigmatic captain left the room, leaving Ryoma with unshed tears gathering in his eyes.
Tezuka calmly went into the bathroom, locked the door and turned on the taps, waiting until he had fully undressed and climbed into the hot spray before allowing his own tears to surface. He had taken inexcusable liberties with his tensai. Ryoma’s words about the girl’s abuse of him being child’s play compared to Tezuka’s had hit home harder then he would have thought. He was right, what Tezuka had stepped in and done was far, far worse. How could he face Echizen as his captain? As his friend? Worse still, how was Tezuka going to deal with the desire he now felt for him or this tight band around his heart that bore Ryoma’s name on it? Pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes to quell the tears, he realized he would no longer have to deal with the raging hard on that had been present since he had found the half naked and bound boy that afternoon. It was completely gone now under the weight of his sorrow.