Title: Little Goodbye
Author: a1y_puff
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Pairing: Tezuka/Fuji
Genre: Kinda hurt/comfort… I guess?
Word Count: 1746
Rating: PG
Summary: Sometimes, it is needed to let your tears out, so that you’d be able to let go.
Warnings: unbetaed, and umm.. A little bit of blood? Dying animal. And kind of random.
Disclaimer: Konomi owns Tezuka and Fuji.

A/N: Because I just lost another cat. Yes, again. *sighs*. Bear with me a bit for this one, ne? Anyway, took the title from Zegapain’s soundtrack, “Little Goodbye”. Also for isumi_ilde, who is mourning over her lost wallet and ‘freedom’. Isu, I know it’s not the prompt you gave me, but… enjoy? :D
And umm.. I hope I haven't lost my TeFu touch... *crosses fingers*.


~ LITTLE GOODBYE ~


Tezuka could only stare in horror when the tiny fluff ball with white fur and light brown dots on its head and either side of its stomach, grabbed on his leg. Its tiny claws anchored into his jeans in its attempt to climb onto his lap. Last time he came to Fuji’s house, he didn’t remember the tensai had any pet other than his cacti. Unsure of what to do, Tezuka sat rigidly on the couch and merely observed when the kitten had successfully claimed his lap as its playground.

Tezuka was never a cat person — that would be Kikumaru, his mind deadpanned — and yet he nearly smiled when he watch the kitty started running in a very small circle on his lap, chasing its own long, brown tail. Suddenly, the little feline looked up at his shirt, and started reaching up to paw at his buttons. At that, Tezuka’s eyes widened, hands hovering around the kitty without knowing what to do.

“Oh my,” a chuckling sound was heard, and Tezuka raised his head to see Fuji who walked from the kitchen’s direction, a tray of cold drinks in hands. “She seems to like you.”

“...hn…” Tezuka grunted for not knowing what to comment

“Her name is Miu-chan, by the way. Yuuta picked her up a couple of weeks ago, but since he’s mostly at the dorm, I volunteered to take care of her for him, and now she’s so attached to me,” Fuji cheerily explained as he set the tray and cups down and settling beside his friend. He then lifted the kitty from his Tezuka’s lap.

There was something different on Fuji’s smile, Tezuka noted, as the lithe boy cooed at Miu with is eyes open. The captain could see a certain fondness in the exposed blue eyes, and the affection shone in them nearly made him smile.

“Tezuka, you’re smiling,” Fuji said suddenly, and it was then that Tezuka realized he really did smile. “I never knew you had a soft spot for cats,” the prodigy teased, and Tezuka awkwardly cleared his throat.

Not that he could say it was Fuji who made him smile.

Soon, they were immersed in their homework, the reason why Tezuka was there in the first place, but the presence of the little kitty did make a little difference. Not only because she was distracting them from their homework, what with Fuji would occasionally tell a tale or two about Miu, and how the kitten kept chewing and scratching at anything and everything, including their books, which they had to occasionally save from Miu’s curious claws.

Normally, Tezuka disliked distractions, but just this time, he loosened up. It wasn’t like their homework was particularly difficult; a little distraction wouldn’t affect the result. Not to mention even without the feline, Fuji would normally find many form of distractions anyways, so it wouldn’t be that much of a difference with their usual study sessions.

And besides, the kitty had managed to make Fuji smiled the warmest smile he had ever seen graced the Tensai’s lips. It felt like Tezuka was given a peek on another side of Fuji he hadn’t noticed was there, and that had warmed his heart. It was definitely not something unpleasant.

Silently, he wondered how it would feel like to be the receiving end of that smile.

Time flied by without them noticing, and before they knew it, the sky was getting dark. Having finished their homework, Tezuka decided it was time to leave it he didn’t want to miss dinner at home, so he put his books back into his backpack and excused himself.

“I’d love to offer you to stay for dinner, but I don’t really have anything to feed you. Neither Yumiko-neesan nor Mother would be back anytime soon. I’m sorry,” Fuji gave him an apologetic smile.

“It’s okay,” Tezuka waved it off as he walked with Fuji to the front door, followed by a hyper Miu.

The sun was setting when they stepped outside. Tezuka was about to say goodbye when the reddish shades of the setting sun illuminated Fuji’s pale feature, somehow making him seemed otherworldly beautiful—Tezuka had long since stopped questioning himself for dubbing his male friend with the word ‘beautiful’—and the sight captivated his eyes, like he couldn’t take his eyes off of Fuji.

Instinctively, he stepped closer.

And closer.

“Tezuka?”

Only a few inches. Their faces were so close that Tezuka could feel Fuji’s breath on his face. He wasn’t really sure what he was doing right now, it was like his body was moving on its own. He reached out a hand to cup Fuji’s cheek, before slowly, ever-so-slowly bringing their face just a little bit closer, and…

A screeching sound was heard, followed by a high-pitched squeak and they immediately jumped away from each other. The sound of a motorbike was quickly fading, and when they turned to look at the road, they saw a pool of blood, with Miu’s trembling body in the middle of it.

And then there was silence.

Tezuka gave Fuji a quick glance, seeing how the blue eyes widened, before he quickly approach the injured kitten on the street right in front of the Fuji’s household. He crouched down, left hand hovering above the still trembling Miu without knowing what to do. There was a lot of blood flowing out of the feline’s ears and mouth, Tezuka didn’t dare to move the kitty for fear worsening the injuries. Miu’s ragged breathing and the occasional spasm froze Tezuka to the spot, and his heart clenched from the sight.

Could she still be saved?

He really didn’t know what to do.

“She’s dying.”

Tezuka immediately looked up and found Fuji standing next to him, his expression eerily calm. The younger boy then took off his outer white button-up shirt and crouched down, draping the material on the kitten before gently scooping her up and walked to the steps before the front door. There, he carefully laid Miu down and crouched before the kitty, and gently wiped the blood from her face and ears, and body… but it kept flowing out.

The dark haired youth decided that he should make himself useful—being powerless was something he was not used to—and so he dropped his backpack near the front door and walked to the nearby valve, turned it on and stretch the hose ‘till it reached to the gate and sprayed water to the bloody road, washing away the blood into the gutter.

When he was done, he walked back to his friend who was softly caressing the weakened feline, his eyes hidden behind his hair and bang. Tezuka watched as Miu’s breathing got slower, weaker, and with one last gasp, it ceased to be.

For a moment, Fuji stayed silent as he closed the cat’s eyes with his hand.

“Fuji…”

“I’ll wait until her body’s temperature goes down,” Fuji replied, face still looking down to the small body of the kitten.

Tezuka understood that his friend wanted to make sure his pet really died, so he sat down beside Fuji and said nothing for he didn’t know what to say, nor did he know what Fuji wanted to hear at the moment. He resented whoever it was running Miu over with their motorbike and just ran away.

Moments later, Fuji was touching Miu’s pale paws, before wordlessly wrapped her tiny body in his white shirt and stood up, carefully cradling the bundle in his hand.

“I’m going to burry her in the backyard,” the lithe boy informed him with a closed-eyed smile that was obviously fake, but Tezuka wisely chose not to say anything about it.

“Let me help,” he said instead.

Fuji gave him a nod before walking inside the house, and Tezuka grabbed his bag and closed the door before following his friend to the backyard.

* * *

They were now sitting on the couch in the barely lit living room. Fuji hadn’t said a word since they buried Miu, and Tezuka decided to keep him company for just a little bit longer.

“I’m sorry to keep you, Tezuka. Thanks for helping me, but you can go now.” Fuji said suddenly, giving him that fake smile again.

Tezuka opted not to say anything and stayed in his seat. Instead, he gave his companion that look, silently demanding Fuji to drop his pretense and just let it out.

“Aah, Yuuta would be upset. I wonder how I should tell him about this,” the smaller boy began again, in a light tone as if talking about the weather.

He was being stubborn, Tezuka noted.

The older teen sighed. He remembered a trick his mother always used on him whenever he was too stubborn and act all strong when he really was breaking down inside, like when his arm was injured. His mother told him then, that sometimes, it was okay to cry, before doing that to him, and she had successfully made her son’s tears come out.

So he decided to try it on Fuji.

Without warning, he reached out one arm and pulled Fuji’s head to his chest. He could feel Fuji stiffened for a while, but the next moment, warm liquid seeped through his shirt. Tezuka’s eyes soften and he gently patted Fuji’s head, and the other boy moved his hand to clutch at his shirt.

Death could be really unexpected. It could come so suddenly when you least expect it. One time you are alive and kicking, but the next second, you just… die. That was what Tezuka and Fuji learned the hard way today. Just a few hours back, the kitten had been alive, healthy and hyper, no one would expect it to die a sudden and tragic death, but it happened anyway.

Tezuka knew Fuji was unprepared for the sudden loss. He had seen it in Fuji’s eyes, how the boy really did love his pet so much, how—despite it had only been two weeks—he had been emotionally attached to Miu. Tezuka himself was really upset, he couldn’t imagine how Fuji was feeling right now.

And that was why Tezuka thought Fuji needed to cry, to express his grief. Crying wouldn’t bring Miu back, he knew that.

But, as he gently cradled Fuji’s head to his shoulder, Tezuka thought that maybe, after he let his tears out, after he let his sadness and grief out…

Maybe, Fuji would be able to let go.


~NeverEnding~


A/N: …Okay, forgive me if it’s lame because it was written on a whim. But uh… tell me, am I losing my touch? Honestly I’m not really sure with this, and it's rather random too… *headdesks*.
And um… my cat, Mocca, died this morning, and well… I felt the need to let it out because my cats keep dying on me. But actually, when I found Mocca, she was already dead, so I don’t know how she died. It was her sister, Skippy, who died a painful death like Miu in there a few months back. I did watch her dying. I watched the blood, the spasm, and well.. yeah, I’m pretty sure I was accurate in describing Miu’s death.

Anyway, please review and let me know what you think of this fic, and if I can still write TeFu or not. *bricked*.