{Drifting Apart}

Even if Miyasaka left the stadium with a smile after the match against Sengoku Igajima, he couldn't shake off the sudden feeling what overcame his heart right after he stepped out on the door. This pain slowly penetrated into his soul, acting like a slow poison, infecting his head with tons of negative thoughts. He accepted that it was better for Kazemaru to become a member of the football club, yet somehow he couldn't truly live with this fact. Miyasaka couldn't let go of the person who gave him so much inspiration.

-I just want to laugh it all off. He found a better place; I should be happy, right?

He was still scared of how empty the track club will be without Kazemaru. As if they take away the air to somewhere else and maybe more people will leave them after the disappearance of the most faithful member. Even if they rarely talked to each other and it was mostly Miyasaka, who praised Kazemaru for being the best runner in the team.

Now he stood there alone and said his farewell to the stadium with a long sigh.

"Don't sigh like that" said someone behind him. Miyasaka quickly turned to meet... Hayami Maya's eyes. "They say the happiness goes away if you are sighing too much." he explained with a half-smile.

"W-What are you doing here, Hayami-san?" asked Miyasaka in a surprised tone.

"The boys wanted to watch the game. You were so fired up about it... We thought this will be a good chance to see how good Kazemaru on the field is. Too bad we could only get place far back. It was more like watching ants playing football."

Hayami wanted to hit himself on the forehead for his disability to strike up conversations like these. They really sat up there for the whole match. Even if those were the highest available places. However football wasn't exactly his kind of sport and he didn't know what he should say about it.

But he couldn't praise someone who was his rival until now easily. That just won't do. His ego forcibly prevented him in this action, but he had to because this was one of Miyasaka's favourite topics. Like he was an idol or something.

"Well the team will be strange without him" Miyasaka finally admitted as he stood beside him. When Kazemaru went to help out the football club, he hasn't spoken a word about staying there forever and permanently leaving the track team. But he eventually never came back. He stayed. "Why...? Why doesn't he come back?"

This was the last word. Tears flowed down his face.

"It's not that-" he tried to say it, but his words were swallowed by a fit of sobbing.

Hayami was speechless. Miyasaka just stood there and cried like the whole world was against him - but then why Hayami couldn't ease his pain? He'd like to embrace the boy in a huge bear hug, but he was a coward. Too scared of the reaction and the consequences that one action would bring. Instead doing so, he only smiled and ruffled the blonde's hair.

"Don't cry, Bunny-ears" Hayami had said cheerfully and accidentally called him on the nickname he came up with in his head. There was no way to undo that. Miyasaka looked up with wide eyes at Maya's . "Life goes on, but you still attend to the same school, so there should be no problem, right? Besides we have a lot of amazing athletes!"

"What?" he asked between a few tiny sniffs. One word was caught up in his mind. "What did you just call me?"

Hayami looked like as if nothing could be more embarrassing as he was searching for his luck on the ground. That word… Just slipped out of his mouth.

"Nooothing. Really. It was just your imagination. " he shrugged.

But Miyasaka couldn't believe it. He heard Hayami call him "Bunny-ears" he would never imagine that, right? So the boy decided to nag Maya about it for a while, forgetting about his problems entirely.

"Hayami-san! I'm not deaf! Tell me, please! I promise I won't be angry and I will definitely won't laugh at you, just please tell me!"

There was always a moment when Hayami couldn't bear it anymore, thus he became an obedient puppy and fulfilled Miyasaka wishes. He couldn't resist cute things for too long.

"Bunny-ears..." he mumbled under his nose.

"I can't hear it."

"Bunny. Ears." Maya repeated with a slight embarrassment in his voice when he saw that sly smile on Miyasaka's face he backed angrily. "Miyasaka please don't make me repeat myself!"

"But Hayami-san, I don't know why are you so embarrassed about it."

"Don't tell me you don't have any problem with me calling you like that!?"

"Nope. It's adorable." he shook his head, the he added a bit shyly "Just don't call me like that in front of the others. Okay? I would hear no end of it." Hayami nodded still not understanding all of this „It's a promise then!"

Miyasaka smiled bashfully. It was a pretty smile what could always lift Hayami's mood.

Two birds with one stone. He not just got the blonde-haired boy's smile back, but he got the privilege to use a nickname for him. It will take some time until he realizes that there is no room in Kazemaru's heart for him.

But he will be definitely there, in the same place, together with Miyasaka…

A/N: And this time it's a story about another scout pair, Hayami and Miyasaka! I bet everyone knows the little green-eyed blonde from the anime, but actually a very few of you knows Hayami. (Who, no matter how weird it is, appeared in the anime too) :D He is the member of the track team too, and in the games he usualy shows up in the same place as Miyasaka! :3 He is a bit arrogant and thinks that he is the fastest in the whole universe. (Which is true, he is even faster than Kazemaru.)
:)