Title: Never Ending Evergreen

Author: DnKS – giRLs

Rating: T (now we get it right in standard, yay!)

Pairing: TezuFuji

Disclaimers: first, The Prince of Tennis is not, has not been, and will never be ours. Second, this story was inspired by the sweet romantic story "La Dame aux Camélias", which, sadly, is not, has not been and will never be ours. It shall belong to its respective owner, Alexandre Dumas, forever. Now… what do we own!

Warning: AU, a bit of …. over romantic and OOC (sigh…)

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O, the dream that thou art my love, be it thine,

And the dream that I am thy love, be it mine,

And death may come, but loving is divine.

(The Curtains Now Are Drawn by Thomas Hardy)

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Prologue

(Tezuka's POV)

There are evergreens, surrounding me in silent, shadowy forms. There are evergreens, when I stop and draw some air to my lungs, feeling a strong scent emerging my nerves, travelling far and deep. There are evergreens that give me the sight far sadder than any cypress can cast on me.

Evergreens are shadowing his grave in defiant silence that one could not abide. One of those tall trees is standing so very near to the place where that epitaph marks whose body lies underneath its earthian bed until I can pretend its willowy branches are indeed caressing that sad piece of grey stone every time a wind whispers in that land of death.

Does he feel lost? Lost as I feel when I stare at the last reminder given to me about him. Else than that silent grave under the evergreens, I have none, spare my memories since I too cannot say that my memories all are belong to me. He was the one who had engraved those lovely memories in my mind, with ink that will not be faded by time. Indeed, he has engraved so many lovely memories in so many people's mind. For evermore shall he be remembered as one of the most charming creatures has ever been created, but that was all and nothing more.

He was treasured in his life; now he is deserted in his death.

So sad is a fate of a man who in his life has been loved by numerous of people yet now that he is dead, not even a single glance spared for him. For how many years he has spent with countless number of his lovers. But now, how many of them dare to seek his grave? So sad is his fate, a fate of someone whom I have promised to protect without end, but now, as I see that soundless grave, I feel that even those evergreens can defend him far better than what I have done.

Speak his name in any street and people will fill your curiosity by talking about his stunning face, his gentle attitude, his delightful smile, but those are the most you can get for they know none other than that about him. In their estimation, he is merely a beautiful creature, without any emotion, without any obsession, without any predicament. They had only heard him laughing but they turned their ears once he cried out his sadness. They had only seen him smiling without knowing what pain he kept behind his facade of smile.

Nevertheless, I, I have heard him crying and in my behalf I have tried every mean to dry his tears. I have seen him in pain and I too have put my every attempt to ease his pain. I might know him only for a brief of time, but I dare to say that those times I had with him were my most lovely memories.

Therefore, I kneel before his grave. I have promised him a peaceful serene place for him to rest his drained body and sleep in eternity, and that place is the best I could find for him, situated under the evergreens, the place where I first met him.

I still remember that time, the first time his sight dared to infiltrate my mind and nested there without any intention to go. His face, his expression that I saw under the evergreens stayed forever from that time on until when, I did not now.

If I said that I loved him since the very first time I met him, that would be a lie. I did not have any thought of falling in love with him when first time I saw him, simply because I thought I could not be in love with an imagination. And his figure at that time was far lovely than any living creature I had ever seen. Am I wrong if I thought that he was merely my imagination back then?

I remember that time I was just standing there, petrified by his aura of beauty and grace. The sun was shining through the branches of evergreens and it too shone on him, making a perfect display of different shade of green on his body. He then sighed and before I could avert my gaze from him, he turned his head and his face met mine.

His face, it was the fairest face I had ever seen, yet also I saw something there, some kind of mystery that attracted me to him.

He stared at me – or so I thought since he had never opened his eyes – as I too must have been staring at him at the time being. Many seconds passed without us doing anything but staring at each other.

Then he smiled and spoke, "Such a lovely weather, don't you think so?"

I just looked around nonchalantly and answered, "Yes."

He laughed and walked toward me. God knew what power was in work to keep my legs from shaking violently seeing him coming closer and closer to me.

"I'm Fuji Shuusuke," he said, extending his hand in a welcoming gesture to me. "Nice to meet you."

Should I seize the hand? Should I speak my name? There were so many confusions in my mind. Maybe that was the worst part of me; I had always let my logic rule over me. I spent too much of my time to think without doing anything.

But that time, my logic did not work, for I seize his hand in an instant and spoke.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu… nice to meet you too."

You might think this was impossible, but I knew when our hands touched that my life would not be the same again. Indeed my life has never been the same again ever since that time. The six months I spent with him afterward pretty much has changed my life so drastically, and that is all due to one person whom I met under the evergreens that day, the very person that now lies under the grave in front of which I kneel with its gravestone bearing one name.

Fuji Shuusuke.

And now I shall speak this story, our story, so that when you meet someone on the street who asked you if you know someone named Fuji Shuusuke, you will able to answer not only for his beauty's sake, but also for his suffering. Many a year will pass and by that time, I might have got rusty and crumbled. Nevertheless, if I speak this to you now, his story will always live. And whenever his name spoken and memories about him told, there my heart will remain with a smile.

– end prologue –

(A/N : ummhh…. review, anyone? Flame? Death sentence? Marriage proposal? Rotten vegs? Rotten fruit? Thrash, nuclear waste, poison, whatever… just give them to us and we will praise you without end (now you can see how stressed we are) just tell us about this fic and your words shall be our command)