NOTE: Welcome~! I'm so glad you stopped by. This is my newest fic. It took me awhile to think up an idea, so I hope you'll like it. I had decided that I needed to start another fic for Prince of Tennis before I finished my fic "The Fallen Prince". Of course, with that being said, this is my newest FujiXRyoma fic (saying it ends with them being together). Before I forget…I do not own these characters or the Prince of Tennis. I just happen to be a crazy writer that has ideas and has urges to make certain characters suffer. I hope you'll enjoy this fic to the very end. If you don't…well, that's ok too~! It's not like I'm going to force you to read it (I'm not that mean!). Anyways, enjoy!

One Month Left

Echizen Ryoma walked down the hall of the high school. It was Friday, and luckily there was no school on Saturday. The 16 year old stopped at the doors that led outside. A sad look fell upon his friend. He had been fighting to hide the sadness deep inside his heart, but he was now at an age when he could realize the feelings he had and what they met. Before leaving this morning for school, he was given the news that his family would once again leave Japan for America. Maybe it was destined for him. Most of his friends were in their last year of high school, so they would be leaving for college. He could only wish for them to stay together forever in the happiness that is the tennis team. That happiness was only a dream. Ryoma couldn't hide above in a bed of clouds and pretend that reality no longer existed. He knew that there was only one month left. One month until he left for America and the third years graduate. In that one month, Ryoma would have to make sure he did everything he could so he could leave behind no regrets.

"Ochibi!" a cheerful voice chirped from a few feet away. The owner of said voice ran up to Ryoma and grabbed hold of the younger boy.

"Hi, Kikumaru-senpai," Ryoma mumbled. Looking up, he noticed a tall, skinny figure standing in front of him. "Fuji-senpai."

"You don't seem happy to see us," Fuji tilted his head to one side as a crocked smile formed on his face. "Is something wrong?"

"No."

"Girl problems?" Eiji guessed.

"No," Ryoma pulled himself away. "It's nothing."

"Eh? Don't be so shy, Ochibi. If you're having girl problems, we'll help you with them. Oh! Momo would probably be good helping you with girl problems. Lets go talk to him."

"It has nothing to do with girl problems or girls in general!" Ryoma was getting irritated by the older boy's pestering.

"Eiji, if he doesn't want to tell us, lets not push him. It probably has nothing to do with us anyways," Fuji began to walk out the door. "Lets get going."

"Right," Eiji made his way out of the school.

"Fuji-senpai…" Ryoma let out a sigh and tried to gather his thoughts. He managed to come to a conclusion: Fuji was wrong. There was a problem, and it did indeed have to do with him.

Ryoma walked into his house and was greeted by Karupin. Bending down, he petted the cat letting his cell phone fall out of his pocked. Karupin purred as Ryoma stood up and held onto the phone. He stared at it for a minute. He had received it for his 16th birthday. His father, Nanjiro, thought it would make the boy more popular with others his age. Though, he only had a few numbers in his phone. Those particular numbers being Fuji Syusuke, Kikumaru Eiji, Momoshiro Takeshi, and a few others from different schools. Flipping open the phone he scrolled through his contact list and stopped when he reached Fuji's number.

"I want to go back to being 12. At least I would be able to leave and be too stupid to understand what I'm feeling," he pointed the phone at Karupin. "What should I do?"

"Nya!" Karupin rubbed against Ryoma's leg.

"Yeah, that's probably what Kikumaru-senpai would say too," there was a sarcastic tone to his voice. "Girl problems? What was he thinking?" The cell phone began to ring. Looking at it he pulled it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, Echizen. Sorry to call you like this, but I just wanted to make sure you were ok," Fuji said on the other end.

"I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"We were supposed to meet at the tennis courts today, and you're not here. I thought you might be made at me or something. Well, the others are here to of course," Fuji softly giggled. "Maybe I'm just taking things too personally."

"I forgot," he took the older boy's words too seriously.

"Don't mind. Just get here as fast you can."

"I will," Ryoma nodded to himself and closed the phone. "There's only one month until we part ways. I have to make the best of everything. Right, Karupin?"

"Nya!"

"Uh…" he fixed his cap and looked away. "I'll see you later, Karupin!"

NOTE: First, if Ryoma seems slightly OOC, it's on purpose. He's four years older…he's not going to be the exact same as he was when he was 12. If you don't like how I made his character…um…I'm sorry? I don't know how often I'll update this story. Until "The Fallen Prince" is finished, I will probably just update when I feel like it. Once "The Fallen Prince" is finished, I will probably update every 1-3 days. Of course, it depends on how busy I get (I have other fics to work on as well as original stories I write…as well as my new Nintento DS. The DS is most likely going to be the thing that distracts me the most…).

Back on subject, I actually like how Ryoma acts in this fic. He still plays tennis, he still has his hat, he talks to Karupin, he understands things better, and he's as cocky as ever. Of course, I've always had Ryoma being his normal 12 year old self that doesn't understand certain…feelings. This is going to be interesting now that I have an older Ryoma I'm dealing with. Oh, oh, oh! Everyone understands why I wrote something about "luckily there was no school Saturday". Right? I'm too lazy to explain it here, so if you don't understand that, you can just ask me. Lets just say I try to keep things as close to how they would be in the Japanese school system (That sentence was poorly written…sorry.).

Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter. If you did, please do come back and read the next chapters once there is more. If this is your first time reading one of my fics, thank you so much for taking the time to read one of my fics. It means a lot to me. If you're someone who has read one of my other fics, thank you so much for coming and reading another one of my fics. It makes me feel like I'm actually doing a good job. Thank you~!