She moved with grace as she dribbled the ball down the court. Her steps were completely in sync with the bouncing ball. However, when she finally reached the half-court line, she fell out of rhythm and right onto the floor. Not before taking a Hail-Mary shot, though.

"Ugh, Koizumi, are you even trying to get this right?"

"Of course I am!"

"Well it sure doesn't look like it!"

Koizumi Risa was irritated. She had been in the gym with Otani all day, trying to learn how to play basketball, and he kept on insisting that she wasn't doing her best. It was really annoying and it was bordering along the lines of being hurtful.

"Well pardon me for not being an all-star like you!"

Otani rolled his eyes and picked up the ball as it rolled to his feet. He dribbled it a few times and shot it from the sidelines. He made it, of course. Risa glared at him and then tried to get up. As soon as she put her weight on her left foot she cried out in pain and collapsed back onto the floor.

"Koizumi?"

Risa sat up from her spot on the ground and gripped her ankle tightly. She had felt a wave of pain when she stood up and now it felt like her ankle was throbbing. She must have landed on it wrong when she tripped. She didn't notice the pain until now because Otani was distracting her with his criticism.

"Hey, Koizumi, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just landed wrong."

She tried to stand up again, and this time she didn't put her full weight on her foot. She tried to move around without limping so Otani wouldn't notice that she was actually hurt, but she failed. It was pretty obvious that she was hurt.

"Hey, is your ankle O.K.?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Like I said, I landed wrong."

"Here, let me see it."

Otani started walking towards her and then he kneeled down in front of her. He grabbed her foot and began removing her shoe and sock. Once her foot was exposed, Otani let out a small gasp.

"What, what is it?"

"Your ankle is completely swollen and red. We need to get you some ice."

Risa looked down at her foot and saw that he was right. It looked like a baseball was sticking out of her ankle with how swollen it was and the redness made it look she got a bad sunburn.

Otani stood up and began looking for ice. There's some in the school's cafeteria, but it was Saturday. Everything except the gym was closed. The only option Otani could think of was to get her to his house and get her ankle taken care of.

"There's nowhere around her that we can get ice. We'll have to go to my house."

"E-Eh! Your house? Why your house!"

"Because my house is closer than yours!"

"S-So! There are plenty of restaurants and other places around here that have ice!"

"Koizumi, you need more than ice! Your ankle needs to be wrapped too!"

She gave up arguing at that point. He was right: she needed more than ice. Her face turned red from embarrassment. It was partly because she tripped and got this badly wounded in front of him and the other part of it was that she made a big deal out of going to his house and lost.

Why am I so worried about going to his house? Well duh, it's because I've never been there before! I don't want to embarrass myself in front of his family. It's bad enough that I do that in front of him!

"Hey! Earth to Koizumi, we're leaving now."

Risa looked down to see that Otani had all of their stuff packed up and was waiting by the doors for her to follow after him so they could go. She made an attempt to walk over to him, but nearly fell again. Before she actually did fall, Otani rushed over to her side and steadied her.

"Man, you can't even limp right. This is going to take forever."

Risa's eyes widened for a moment and started to become glossy. She could feel the tears forming and the last thing she wanted was for Otani to see her cry.

Normally things like this wouldn't bother her so much. This is the way they always were around each other. They were never really serious and sarcastic comments were their way of communicating. She knew Otani was just being himself, but Risa felt like he was taking it a little too far today.

Risa tried to walk again, this time putting her full concentration on her balance. She was moving slow, but she wasn't falling all over herself. She was headed towards the gym doors with Otani by her side, but she refused to look at him. If she did, she knew she'd cry. If she could, she would have run off, but her ankle prevented her from doing so. So instead she kept herself calm and focused on other things to avoid another embarrassing moment.

After twenty minutes of slow and steady walking, Risa wondered why Otani hadn't said anything. She was expecting him to whine about how long it was taking to get to his house and start saying other such harsh things to her, but it never came. She glanced down at him and noticed that he was completely calm and relaxed.

They stopped before the crosswalk and Otani pressed the button for the light to change. All they had to do now was wait.

"My house isn't much farther. We'll be there two blocks after we cross."

Risa nodded her head and faced forward. She was looking at the sign and waiting for it to change from 'Don't Walk' to 'Walk'. When it finally did, she began moving slowly, just like before, across the street. Otani stayed by her side as they crossed, but Risa stopped for a moment.

"Hey, Koizumi, why'd you stop?"

"I thought I heard someone call my name."

"Tch, you can't just stop in the middle of a crosswalk, the light will change soon. We have to keep going."

But it was too late. The light changed again and both Risa and Otani were still in the middle of the street. Cars started honking at them, and some of the drivers even poked their head out the window and yelled for them to get out of the way.

"Shut up! Can't you see she's injured? We're going as fast as we can!"

Risa was surprised at Otani. He was sticking up for her. He wasn't the one who was injured, so he could have just gone ahead and let her get yelled at. Instead he stayed with her all the way until they crossed the street. People gave them mean looks once they finally got back on the sidewalk, but after that everything calmed down.

She wanted to ask him why he stood up for her, but decided not to press the issue. Not right now, anyway. They walked the two blocks to Otani's house and went inside.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!"

Otani waited for a response, but got none. He set their bags down and looked around the downstairs part of his house.

"I guess they aren't home yet."

Otani looked up at Risa and saw a blank, calm look on her face. He raised an eyebrow in both confusion and suspicion. Risa was never this quiet and it was starting to freak him out.

"Hey, Amazon, what's up with you?"

"Huh? What?"

"Why are you being so quiet?"

"Uh, I don't know. I didn't know I was being quiet."

Otani gave her a questioning look, but said no more. He walked into one of the rooms of his house and started digging around for something.

"Why don't you try and make it into the living room. I have to find the first aid kit, real quick."

Risa hobbled her way over to an open doorway. She looked inside and saw a couch, TV, coffee table, rug, and a big chair. She assumed this was the living room.

Right across from said room was the kitchen. She looked in there and saw Otani digging through some cupboards for the first aid kit. She looked back over at the living room and pointed inside.

"Here?"

"Well that is the living room, so yeah."

Risa nodded and made her way over to the couch. She sat down in the middle and let out an audible sigh. It felt good to finally sit down. It wouldn't have been a long walk if she weren't injured, but because she had to take it so slow it felt like it took ages to get here. To be standing for that long killed.

Risa heard footsteps and then saw Otani walk through the doorway. He had the first aid kit and some ice wrapped in a towel. He sat on the coffee table and grabbed Risa's leg. He propped it up so her foot was in his lap. He opened the first aid kit and pulled out some gauze. He gently wrapped her foot all the way around and tucked the end of the bandage into a fold. Then he took the towel full of ice and placed it over the wrap.

"When the swelling goes down I'll re-wrap your foot. In the meantime you need to keep the ice on it."

Otani stood up and moved Risa's leg so it was completely on the couch. Risa pulled her other leg up so that her entire body was on the couch. The ice was still on her ankle and now that she was on a level surface she wouldn't need to hold it in place.

She saw Otani go and sit in the chair beside her. He grabbed the remote and flipped on the TV.

"What do you want to watch?"

"Uh…"

She didn't know what to say. One minute he was being sarcastic and rude, and the next he was being gentle and kind. She knew that's why she hadn't said anything. She didn't know whether to be sarcastic or serious right now.

"Well?"

"Um, it doesn't matter. We can watch whatever you want."

Otani had an annoyed look on his face while he flipped through the channels. He stopped for a moment on the sports channel. They were showing the final few minutes of a basketball game. He watched for a moment and then changed the channel again.

"Ah, there's nothing on TV. Now I gotta find a movie."

He pulled himself out of the chair and walked over to a small shelf by the TV that had some movies on it. His eyes drifted over the movie titles as he tried to find one that Risa would like. He looked through three times until he finally settled on one. He pulled it off the shelf and put it in the DVD player.

"You should like this one."

He went and sat back in his chair. He grabbed the remote and hit 'Play'. All of a sudden a crowd of people was displayed on the screen and they were all chanting. Then some music could be heard and the crowd roared. It took Risa a moment to figure out what exactly they were watching.

"Oh my gosh, you got the live performance DVD from the Umibozu concert! I've been dying to see this!"

"Ha, I figured you'd like this. I just got it a couple days ago."

Risa had a big smile plastered on her face and her eyes were glued to the TV. Her and Otani sat and laughed and talked about the movie. They even sang along with a couple of the songs. When it was over, Risa was laughing hysterically and grabbing at her sides. Otani was laughing while he got up to put the movie away.

"That was amazing, Otani! Thanks for letting me watch it with you!"

"Not a problem, I knew you'd like it."

"Hey, Otani, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead."

"Why… why are you acting so weird today?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, one minute you're telling me what a horrible basketball player I am and whining because I'm moving to slow and the next you're sticking up for me and tending to my injuries and watching movies with me. I don't get it."

"What's there to get? You're not a horrible basketball player; you just lack grace and have no aim. I was only messing around like we always do. And those people that were honking and yelling had no right to, so of course I yelled back. And I couldn't just leave your injuries as they were. I'm not heartless."

"I never said that you were heartless, you're just usually not this nice to me."

Otani got a sour look on his face and looked away from Risa. He sat there for a moment and stared at the wall. Then he got up and sat back on the coffee table, right in front of her. He looked her square in the eye.

"Look, I make all those sarcastic comments because you do too. It's the relationship that we have. But I do know when to be serious and I do care about you. I don't like it when other people are mean or rude to you and I was really worried when you got hurt."

"Really?"

Otani's face was starting to turn red as he continued.

"Well, yeah. We are dating, after all. Its one thing to be sarcastic and mess around, but it's another thing entirely to be mean and rude about things. And of course I was worried when you got hurt. Why wouldn't I have been?"

"You didn't look worried to me."

"But I was. I was worried when you cried out in pain and fell down again. You didn't see it because you were too busy looking at your ankle. I only continued to be sarcastic because it was the only thing I could think to do. I was trying to lighten the mood and distract you so it wouldn't hurt so bad."

Risa was shocked. She didn't know Otani really felt that way. She was so happy that she could feel the tears forming in her eyes again. When Otani saw her eyes glisten, he started to freak out.

"H-Hey! Why do you look like you're about to cry?"

"B-Because… because… because I'm happy! I didn't know you cared so much!"

Risa threw her arms around Otani's neck and hugged him tight. Tears were streaming down her face as she was smiling. She was just so happy, she couldn't contain herself.

"H-Hey! K-Koizumi, let go!"

Otani tried to push her off of him and back onto the couch, but she wouldn't let go. He finally gave up and relaxed his body. Then he wrapped his arms around Risa and gently rubbed her back. The blush that he had acquired was finally starting to go away and a smile tugged at his lips.

"So are you O.K. now, Koizumi?"

Risa nodded her head as she pulled away from Otani and repositioned herself on the couch. All of her wiggling around caused the ice to fall off of her ankle and onto the floor. Otani reached down and picked it up and placed it back on her ankle.

"Good, I'm glad."

Risa wiped away her tears and smiled sincerely at Otani. Otani's small smile got a little bigger as he leaned in and gave Risa a small kiss. It was quick and sweet, but full of love. Once they parted, they both heard a small tapping noise. They looked over in the doorway and were completely taken back. Both of Otani's parents were looking at them.

"Something going on here, Otani?"

Otani's mouth hung open and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

"N-N-No, Mother! Nothing at all!"

Risa blushed, but continued to look at Otani's parents.

"Who's your friend here?"

"Uh, uh, well, Mom, Dad, this is Koizumi Risa. She's my… my…"

"She's your what, son?"

"My… girlfriend."

Risa beamed happily upon hearing Otani refer to her as his girlfriend. They might have been dating for awhile, but he rarely actually called her his girlfriend. They still acted like they did when they were just friends, so it was weird to actually say that they were a couple.

But Risa smiled none the less and watched as Otani explained their situation to his parents. She actually found him rather cute when he was frazzled. But then again, she always found him cute.

"A/N: So, this is my first Lovely Complex fan fic. I had this urge to write a story for this pairing since they finally added a list of characters to the section. I tried really hard to keep both Risa and Otani in character. It's been awhile since I've seen the anime, but I remember that they were always being sarcastic to each other and they never really showed their serious and sensitive sides. Those were rare moments. Eh, I did my best. I would love it if you would review and let me know how I did. I would love to write more fic's for this category. =)"