A/N: Can I just say that I love love love Lovely Complex! (even though I may be jumping on the bandwagon several years too late...) After I marathoned the anime and devoured the manga, I found LoveCom Final and read that too. As much as I loved it, I felt that Otani still had some stuff to make up for- I mean, he screwed up pretty bad. So I wrote this little fic to remedy that... I hope you enjoy!

As I hope you've already noticed, PLEASE READ LOVE COM FINAL BEFORE YOU READ THIS. Otherwise it will make no sense ;)

Apology

After the last firecracker explodes from Otani's hands with a sizzling flash, the group of friends slowly begins to part ways. Suzuki and Chihauru say their goodbyes, polite and sweet as ever, and head off down the beach. Next, off go Nakao and Nobu, both shooting Otani a significant look over their shoulders. He gives them a half-hearted glare back, but can't deny that they have a point. He needs to do something.

Koizumi takes a step forward, as if to follow Nobu, oblivious to the silent communication going on between her best friend and boyfriend. He has no choice but to grab her arm and pull her aside, waiting to turn to her until the others are a safe distance away. She stands there patiently, regarding him with a curious expression.

He bites his lip, shuffles his feet, rubs his forehead- and finally forces the words out:

"Look, Koizumi, I- I just wanna say I'm sorry, okay?"

"Sorry? For what?" As usual, she's completely baffled. He runs a hand through his hair and draws a not-quite-frustrated breath.

"That should be obvious."

She's still wearing that wide-eyed, blank look, with her head tilted to one side.

Otani gives up. "For forgetting. You know. I'm really sorry, and I-"

Now the baffled look has adjusted slightly: her eyes are narrowed, but not with anger or annoyance. "You already apologized, Otani. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. Let's go catch up with the others."

Is this some sort of avoidance tactic or does she honestly believe what she's saying? You'd think Koizumi's lack of- well, academic intelligence- would make her less complicated to read, but after knowing her for three whole years Otani still can't figure her out. Either way, he can't just let things go like this-

"Wait, Koizumi."

She turns back towards him. Her red hair, ridiculously tangled by the ocean breeze, falls in front of her eyes, so she roughly yanks it behind her ear. It's a little hard to make out in the moonlight, but he thinks he can still see a faint redness around her eyes, the last traces of dried up tear tracks tracing down her face- except, as he watches, her cheeks flush from pale to a deeper and deeper red.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're still wearing your ugly crying face." He says that without thinking, in the spirit of their usual banter- but Koizumi's face goes a whole shade redder- if that were possible- her expression tightens and then she whips around and starts marching away from him, her sandaled feet kicking up miniature clouds of sand in her wake.

Otani takes great pride in the fact that no, he actually isn't an idiot- he passed the exams on his first try, thank you very much, and didn't that prove something?

But as he stands there on the beach and Koizumi walks further and further away, he wonders if maybe he's reached a whole new level of idiocy. Insulting your girlfriend- on her birthday- when she's already been crying- because of you-

"Wait, Koizumi! Wait up!" He sprints to catch up with her, grabs her hand- she tries to shake him off, but he gets in front of her (reflecting happily for a brief instant that the slope of the beach puts him almost at eye level with her) and holds up his hands.

"Wait. Ignore me. I'm sorry. I didn't mean that- I'm just an idiot and I'm sorry."

He anticipates her reply: "Yeah, you definitely are an idiot! The biggest one around!" with maybe a punch for good measure- but instead, her lower lip quivers, and further tears well up in the corners of her eyes.

Now, he expects her to start bawling, maybe ranting at him between sobs- but once again, she surprises him, by taking several shuddering breaths and putting her hands over her face so he can't read her expression at all.

"What are you doing?" he asks stupidly.

There's just a snatch of Koizumi's familiar fire in her tone when she answers: "Sparing you from seeing my ugly crying face."

"...Koizumi…"

Before he can think of a million reasons why he shouldn't (dying of embarrassment being #1), he grabs her wrists, pulls her hands away from her face, and wraps his arms around her shoulders. As she stiffens in surprise, he places one hand at the back of her head and pushes down until her face is nestled in the crook of his neck.

"If you're trying to hide your face, this is a much better way to do it, don't you think?" he says roughly.

Koizumi sniffles for a moment- then she nods roughly against his shoulder and her arms clamp around him like a vise. He tightens his own grip on her, and reflects that hugging is rather beneficial to both people- he also gets to hide his red face from view.

He could just keep holding her, not saying a word, and when they'd part ways she'd no doubt be smiling again, all his trespasses long forgiven. It doesn't take much to make Koizumi happy. As her boyfriend, maybe he should be grateful for that- his university buddies are always complaining about their "high maintenance" girlfriends. Doesn't it make things easier that she doesn't seem to want much- that she doesn't seem to expect much?

She should expect more, he thinks suddenly, fiercely, and he knows he has to say something, as much as he'll probably regret it in thirty seconds.

"I… messed up a lot today, and I'm really sorry." He pushes her head back down onto his shoulder even as she tries to lift it up. "I've got no excuse. So, um, I'd understand if you feel the need to use your 'Idiot's Punch' on me again, or if you just wanna yell at me, that's okay too. Or whatever you wanna do, I- well, I promise I'll make this up to you. I'll give you a real birthday present-"

"But you already gave me one…" Koizumi mumbles into his shirt.

"Flowers don't count as a real present! That was just a- uh, apology… present…"

"But you gave me another one too," she says.

"Huh?"

Her voice turns sly. "Remember, Atsushi?"

His face is burning.

"Th-th-that's not a present! That was just- I mean-"

"Mhmm."

"Whatever! Anyway, I'm just saying that I'll make it up to you, so tell me what you wanna do for your birthday. I'm off work next weekend, so maybe we could go out together, or..."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I'd like that." She lifts up her head, and this time Otani doesn't stop her. Her eyes are still a little puffy, her face blotchy- but when she smiles, it occurs to him that even her so-called "ugly crying face" is rather cute.

Then he quickly looks away again as the part of his brain that is still working notes the embarrassing nature of this thought.

"Well, good."

He clears his throat, looks at Koizumi's shoes, and grabs her hand in a sudden motion. They walk up the beach together, and when Otani finally glances over from the corner of his eye, he can tell she's smiling again.

The amount of times he's made her smile have got to outweigh the times he's made her cry, right?

Well… probably.

But, he thinks, bumping her shoulder gently, even if he's behind now, he's got a whole lifetime to tip the balance.

Until eventually, he won't have to use so many 'sorry's.

FIN

A/N: Let me know if you enjoyed (or didn't) or want to see more Lovely Complex fic from me (or want me to disappear off the face of the earth...) :D I feel like Otani was a lil OOC... but let's face it, Otani is OOC anytime he actually talks about his feelings. But I love him anyway ;)