Author's Notes: Another idea that was spawned while trawling through the archives.
Suzuno Fuusuke, or Gazel as he was known in his Aliea Academy days, sighed as he wandered through the Sun Garden Orphanage for what would probably be the last time that year. His thoughts briefly turned to the letter and plane ticket for Korea that sat inside the bag he'd left in the room he'd shared with Mikoori (Frost) and Kadomichi (Droll).
He'd only announced that he was leaving earlier in the day despite receiving the letter a solid week ago, the mixture of congratulations and sadness on his friends' faces making it a decidedly difficult and bittersweet moment. Especially those damned, torn orange eyes…
"I can look after myself."
Speak of the devil, Suzuno thought at the sound of the familiar, annoyed female voice. The expected, calm male voice followed soon after.
"It's already dark out; it's too late to go out practicing. Especially by yourself."
Touchi Ai stood in her Diamond Dust uniform (no sense in throwing out good clothing), glaring at her brother who was lying against the doorframe of his room with a disapproving frown of his own.
"Come on Nii-san, I'll be careful," Ai pleaded, Shuuji's unimpressed look prompting her to try a different tactic. "I'll tell you where Clara's favourite restaurant is~."
"That's not going to work," Shuuji said while looking largely unaffected despite the defiant pink on his cheeks.
Ai glanced off to the side opposite the eavesdropping Suzuno with a contemplative expression. Remembering he could speak, Suzuno shrugged his shoulders and took a step forward.
"Would it make a difference if I practiced with her?" Suzuno asked while the two turned to face him, their surprise limited to their eyes as they held their calm. The old Gazel would have been proud of that control.
"Well, if it was Suzuno-sama…" Shuuji trailed off uncomfortably. "What do you think, Ai?"
"Huh?" Ai asked, seemingly having come out of a trance. "Me… with Suzuno-sama… of course! I mean, eh, yes."
Shuuji and Suzuno blinked at that reaction before sharing a glance, the older brother giving him what Suzuno assumed was the usual warning glare guys with Ai received. Eventually Shuuji said goodnight to the two and wandered back into his room, leaving the two alone together.
"We should probably get to the pitch before it gets even later," Suzuno hazarded after a moment of silence, Ai just nodding mutely as they started walking.
Suzuno considered changing into his own full kit but settled for the old shorts and hoodie he was wearing at the moment as they grabbed the soccer ball. Realising he wasn't sure what Ai had in mind, he turned to her with a curious glance.
"So, what are we up to?" Suzuno questioned while enjoying the slight bend in Ai's brow as she was seemingly caught off guard by the question.
Suzuno had always thought of her as a fairly dependable sort and she'd been very quick when adapting to new tactics in the middle of matches or taking odd orders. Maybe she was angry at him for springing his departure on her so late, she'd have every right to be annoyed.
Ai's voice shook him out of his thoughts, "Just a general workout… like the one the Chaos used."
"But don't we need more players?" Suzuno asked before offering the goalposts a glance. "At least a goalie?"
Ai gave her head a little shake in the negative, "No, Nii-san came up with a less complicated version of the practice you guys used. It' not as good, obviously, but it will work."
Suzuno smirked at the pride in Ai's voice at the mention of 'Nii-san' before enquiring into the specifics of the training.
Suzuno had totally lost track of time by the time they finally wrapped up the impromptu session, both of them breathing hard from the exertion, although Suzuno seemed a little better off. He was a year older than her and a prospective national player after all, he thought proudly before internally wincing at the reminder that this might be the last time he played on Sun Garden's pitch.
"What time is the flight?" Ai asked absently, pointedly avoiding Suzuno's eyes.
"Eleven… so, I'll be leaving early enough in the day," he answered calmly, noticing the slightest of drops in her expression as she responded with a flat, "oh."
"It's a big opportunity, huh," Ai said quietly after a while, Suzuno having to strain to hear her. "I didn't even know you qualified to play for another national team before you announced you were leaving."
"I've been in Japan since I was a small child, so I never thought too much of my heritage," Suzuno admitted easily, having never felt the same confusion about his origin as some of his orphanage compatriots.
Ai hugged her knees close to her chest, seeming even smaller than normal as she said, "You would definitely have been on the Japanese team otherwise."
"Is that so?" Suzuno said somewhat teasingly, worrying slightly when Ai treated the comment seriously with a flat agreement. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Ai answered dismissively, waving her hand through the air lazily as she did so. "You're leaving tomorrow, so what."
"Right," Suzuno said disbelievingly, his blank expression causing Ai to run a hand through her purple locks while pointedly looking anywhere but Gazel's eyes.
Gazel realised what he was doing and quickly glanced away as the uncomfortable atmosphere continued to thicken between the two former teammates. Gazel wasn't exactly sure what to do about that either, he was mostly unfamiliar with conflict with his former Diamond Dust peers. They'd had enough rivals elsewhere in 'Aliea Academy' to distract from that.
It was especially awkward when it came to that certain girl, wasn't it.
"I didn't mean to spring it on you so late," Suzuno defended himself after a moment's hesitation, earning a scoff in response.
"Sure you didn't."
"It just seemed hard to explain, Nagumo was the same way," Suzuno tried to deflect some of the blame away from himself. "It just… took a while to settle in. I didn't think I'd be playing on that level again so soon… or what it actually meant to move abroad."
"I suppose you'll forget us when you're there," Ai muttered, her out of character behaviour worsening as time went on.
"Is that what's bothering you? That's stupid," Suzuno scolded lightly, receiving a cold glare in response. "I've been here for the majority of my life; of course I'm not going to forget it."
Ai sighed, "I know but…"
Ai trailed off, Suzuno's eyebrow raising curiously at the reaction. Suzuno's hand began nervously pawing at his own hair as he did whenever his alien self had grown frustrated.
"You know I have regrets too," Suzuno remarked casually as Ai turned to stare at him. "There are a lot of things I never got to do."
"Like what?" Ai asked, her curiosity mixing with her annoyance, a defensive mechanism he'd always found mildly adorable. She'd probably have been pretty angry if she knew about those thoughts.
"We never did become the Genesis… my pride still stings a bit after that," Suzuno admitted, drawing an amused smirk from Ai. "I never did figure out who dyed my hair pink three years ago."
Ai's giggles slipped out from her mouth as she tried desperately to supress them at the memory of cool, level-headed Suzuno screaming bloody murder while shaking down anyone he could get his hands on, all the while his hair was just one trim away from being a bubble-gum pink afro. Even Hitomiko couldn't even keep a straight face while trying to scold him for making such a racket in the morning.
After a moment, Suzuno looked up at the sky and let out a sigh, "We should probably get in soon. It was pretty late when we got outside."
Ai's expression soured as soon as the words left his mouth and she stood to her feet, her hand pulling her hair out of her eyes to draw his attention to her displeasure. Suzuno growled lowly in his throat at the sight, growing irritated at her odd mood. She could be standoffish with other guys but he and Shuuji were supposed to be exceptions, at least Suzuno thought they were.
Ai crossed her arms as she walked away from him, forcing him to jog to catch up to her and furthering his own tiredness with her antics.
"Look, I'm sorry about not telling you earlier but why are you taking it so hard? It's not like we were best friends or anything," Suzuno knew he'd said the wrong thing when Ai stopped and turned so quickly that he was stuck nose-to-nose with him.
"I know that but I… it doesn't matter," Ai's shouting quickly dialled down to a hushed whisper as she tried to turn away.
However, Suzuno's peaked curiosity (and guilt) caused him to grip her wrist and gently tug her so that they were facing one another again. They were so close that he could feel her breath on his nose as she stared up at him with a slightly startled expression.
For some reason, Suzuno realised in that moment that this would be the last time he'd be in Sun Garden for the longest time. More so, the upside to that that he'd missed while pondering the ramifications of living abroad.
This was his last chance to do anything here and come very early in the morning; the consequences would at least be distracted long enough to sweep the screw-ups beneath the carpet. He could do something he'd always wanted to and he was sure Nagumo would be coughing up a lung in glee if he realised how long he'd been too nervous to make a move.
Ai's cheeks flashed a faint pink as she was held against him and he retreated into his own thoughts for a moment.
She forced her face into a scowl and tried to protest, "Let go- hmpf!"
Her plea was silenced by a pair of lips covering her own, forcing the words back down her throat (which sounded far more unpleasant than she found the action) as the two teens were caught up in the moment. Her eyes drifted shut as a pleasant sensation coursed through her at the contact, putting a little more pressure into the position to deepen the kiss.
Their sense of time was lost by the time they'd pulled apart, both of them blushing faintly as they stared into one another's eyes.
"Um, that was, eh," Ai struggled, the words not coming together.
Suzuno was equally distracted and responded with an ambiguous, monosyllabic hum that could have meant just about anything.
The two were left standing there uncomfortably, neither quite sure how to comprehend what had just happened, even as the chilly night air began to whip at their skin. Eventually, it was Suzuno who broke first.
"I've… wanted to do that for a while," the white haired boy muttered, his hand reaching up to paw at his hair again.
More delicate fingers reached it first however and Ai's digits threaded through the white fringe with an oddly gentle curiosity.
"I've...," Ai gulped before grinning up at him, "wanted to do this for a while as well."
The two… smirked at one another they supposed, their nerves forcing their faces into the default position.
The two were soon leaning in closer for another round of tonsil hockey, the night drifting away as the two explored their new feelings.
Clara awoke the next morning to find her roommate missing, the blue haired girl quickly noticing that her bed didn't look like it had been slept in. Not ready to panic over the purple haired girl's disappearance just yet, she quickly got herself dressed and decided to go see if Shuuji had any idea where she'd wandered off to.
She was rehearsing ways to ask the question without setting off the team strategist's older brother instincts when she noticed said teen poking his head into Suzuno's room while Nagumo crouched beneath him so they could look in together.
While Nagumo was snickering obnoxiously, Shuuji's fists were clenched at his side and his stone faced expression was cracking to reveal a genuine rage. Knowing Shuuji as well as she did, Clara quickly pieced together what had occurred and felt a sisterly smile growing on her delicate features.
"Way to go, IC," she thought somewhat jokingly as she easily inserted herself between the two boys and wrapped an arm around Shuuji's.
"Let her have her fun," she argued gently while tugging him away from the doorframe before a bigger crowd could gather.
Clara gave one last pleased glance into the room, wishing her younger friend could see her teasing expression. It seemed appropriate as Ai lay in Suzuno's arms atop his bed.
The warmth shared between the two fully clothed teens must have been something as it had already made the usually punctual Suzuno dangerously close to missing his ride out of Sun Garden that morning and yet he still showed no signs of stirring.
Author's Notes: Meander as it does, I kind of like it. I'd still appreciate it if someone could pinpoint the flaws of it though.