Hi everybody! Sorry I've been so inactive lately. School finally caught up with me (pauses in typing to stoke fireplace filled with finals and notes). I hope to be posting some more stuff soon and get back to work on 'Monster'. I also have a few more oneshots one the way. My inspiration has been a little dead lately so if anyone has something they've been wanting to see, feel free to say so in a review. In the meantime, enjoy some more HiroMido! I've been itching to get this idea rolling^_^
Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now that I do not own Inazuma Eleven.
*~8~8~8~8~8~*
"Pass it here!"
Sakuma dove past Kidou and kicked the ball to Kazemaru. The tealnet jumped into the air and caught the ball with his chest and weaved around Hijitaka to speed towards the goal. "Go! Midorikawa!" Kazemaru shot the ball towards the green haired boy who slid under Hiroto to grab the ball. Midorikawa darted around the redhead and drew back his leg and fired his 'Astro Break' at the goal.
Goenji raced forward, wild flames igniting around him as he advanced on Midorikawa's shot. The flames surrounded the ball and the blond kicked it into the air. Midorikawa leapt into the air and Goenji flipped so he was upside down under the ball. The greenette's foot slammed into the ball as Goenji kicked it and they set it sailing towards Endou, the flames changing into 2 crossing rings around the ball as it glowed with the energy of Midorikawa's signature shot.
"Saturn's Rings!"
Endou winced as the force of the former Gemini Storm captain and the flame striker's shot slammed into his Fist of Justice. He gritted his teeth together. The shot was slowly pushing him back towards the goal, but Endou pushed back as hard as he could only to be thrown back into the goal moments later as the giant orange fist shattered and the ball crashed into his chest. Midorikawa cheered and his team jumped into the air. Hiroto helped Endou up off the ground and both turned to watch the other half of Inazuma Japan celebrate their victory. Aki blew her whistle and waved her arms in the air.
"Kazemaru's team wins! Way to go guys!" Haruna yelled as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands together. Tobitaka and Kogure high-fived (or low-fived, if you looked at it that way) and Tachimukai and Goenji pumped their fists into the air. Haruna smiled then cupped her hands around her mouth.
"That was great Midorikawa, Goenji. Italy won't stand a chance!" The rest of the team cheered their agreement. The greenette and the blond shared a grin briefly before everyone separated for individual practice. Midorikawa grabbed a water bottle from the bench and sat down against the chain link fence. Liocott Island was amazing. He hadn't been able to go last year because of his injury, but after being accepted onto the team for the second time he'd been determined to make it to the island.
The dark eyed boy looked up and smiled as Hiroto slid down next to him. "That was amazing." Midorikawa blushed and nodded. "It was Goenji-san's idea." Hiroto nodded mutely and tilted his head back to look towards the sky. "I'm really happy you could make it here this time. The team just wasn't the same after you left." Midorikawa nervously fiddled with the end of his ponytail, his blush spreading across his face. "Now you're exaggerating." The redhead dropped his eyes back to the boy by his side. "No I'm not. I mean it." He reached over and turned the dark eyed boy's face towards him. "I really missed you." Midorikawa felt his face heat up when he realized Hiroto had begun to lean closer to him.
"Heads up!"
The two Aliea students gasped and covered their heads and parted as a soccer ball came flying at them, ripping straight through the fence and crashing into the forest behind them. Hiroto and Midorikawa turned to regard the smoking hole with twin shocked expressions.
"Sorry!" Toramaru screamed from across the field. The team quickly ran over to the duo. "Are you guys okay?" Endou asked. Hiroto nodded mutely, both boys still staring at the hole. Turning his eyes to the greenette beside him, Hiroto reached out and hand to place over Midorikawa's, successfully gaining the boy's attention. "You okay?" Midorikawa tensed slightly and nodded quickly, trying to keep his face from reddening. Toramaru moved to the fence and threaded his fingers through the chain links. "Do you think the ball's alright?" he asked. "I should go look for it." Midorikawa quickly stood up, jerking his hand away from the paler boy's.
"That's okay. I'll go. You keep working on your shoot." Endou opened his mouth to say something but the greenette had taken off before he could utter a single word. Hiroto looked over his shoulder to watch the younger boy disappear into the woods. Endou bit his lip slightly and rubbed the back of his head. He wanted to say something but he wasn't sure what.
Aki and Haruna quickly ushered everyone back to their activities. Sakuma lingered behind for a moment, debating on whether to stay with his friend until a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to the brunet behind him and Kidou jerked his head towards the field. "Come on, I want to run Death Zone with Fudou one more time before lunch." Sakuma turned and started to follow him back to the partially bald boy.
"Are you sure we shouldn't pick someone else? Fudou keeps landing on his head."
"He'll be fine. He'll get it eventually."
"But last time he started babbling about penguins. What if he gives himself a concussion or something? He could really get hurt."
"Your point?"
"Kidou Yuuto!"
The conversation faded out, not that Hiroto was listening. His mind was still focused on the former Gemini Storm captain. Midorikawa had been acting strange around him, starting even before they left for the FFI. About a month before they received the call, Burn and Gazel had (finally) gotten together. After seeing everyone's happiness in regards to the new couple, Hiroto had attempted to step up his advances on the green haired midfielder. And Midorikawa had been on edge ever since.
Hiroto drew his legs up, keeping his eyes on the forest. He'd always thought the greenette had liked him back but he wasn't sure how to take the boy's rejection of his actions. Midorikawa wasn't a touchy-feely type, he knew that, but he wasn't sure it the rejection was just because of Midorikawa's natural insecurities or because he really didn't feel anything towards the redhead. Hiroto hoped to God it was the first option. He'd harbored feelings for the dark eyed boy since they were children and had held on to those feelings throughout Aliea Academy and the FFI. Even as Reize, he'd found him irresistible.
"Hiroto?"
Hiroto raised his head and nodded a greeting to the brunet as he approached. Kidou propped a hand on his hip. "Is everything okay? You look a little lost." The redhead gave a grin. "Yeah, I'm okay. I just…" Hiroto trailed off, not sure where to take the sentence. "How's Death Zone going?" he asked, deciding to change the direction of the conversation. Kidou sweat dropped. "Well…" he cast a look over his shoulder and Hiroto looked around him to eye the worried Sakuma kneeling next to a very swirly-eyed Fudou with a first aid kit. Hiroto turned his eyes up to Kidou. "Landed on his head again?"
"Yep." Kidou turned back to the redhead sitting against the fence and joined him on the ground. He leaned his back against the chain links and tilted his head to the former Genesis captain. "Is everything alright with Midorikawa?"
Hiroto turned his eyes to the strategist for minute before lowering them to the ground. "To be honest, I'm not sure. He's been so on edge around me lately. I keep trying to talk to him but he always runs away." Kidou watched the redhead for a minute then reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, drawing jade eyes to him. "Have you tried just telling him?"
Hiroto's cheek reddened slightly and he looked away. "It's not that simple. And you're one to talk." He finished, jerking his head towards the blunette trying to keep Fudou conscious. Kidou pulled his hand back and looked away, his own cheeks dusted lightly with red. "Point taken." They sat in silence for a moment, Hiroto casting another few looks over his shoulder towards the woods. Midorikawa was taking an awfully long time to retrieve that ball.
"K-Kidou! Can you come help me keep Fudou upright?" the burnet looked to the blue haired forward. "Sure. Be right there." He called. He grabbed the fence and pulled himself to his feet, turning to look down at Hiroto. "You know him better than the rest of us. I'm sure everything will work out."
*~8~8~8~8~8~*
Midorikawa sighed as he dug through the bushes. He felt bad about running away from Hiroto for the umpteenth time but he couldn't help it. Whenever he was around the redhead, he heart would leap into his throat and every muscle in his body would tense and his head would start feeling fuzzy. Maybe he was allergic to the redhead? Midorikawa sighed again and rested his shoulder against a tree. No, that wasn't it at all. He was in love, no, madly in love with the handsome former captain of Gaia, the shining star of Aliea Academy. And Hiroto quite possibly liked him too, but every time it looked like something was going to happen, that same overwhelming feeling of humiliating himself would set in and his 'Fight or Flight' response would kick in to high gear. And 'Flight' would always win out unanimously.
Midorikawa stopped in his thought train as his head lolled lazily to one side and rolled his eyes and reached down into one of the bushes, producing the deflated remains of the poor soccer ball. "Nice one, Toramaru." He muttered to himself. Not that he was really one to talk. During Aliea Academy, with the help of the meteorite, they'd all been forced to practice with industrial reinforced soccer balls (the black balls) because their own shoots would destroy the regular ones.
Midorikawa chuckled a little to himself as he fiddled with the soccer ball but his laughter was cut off by a low growl sounding behind him. Ever so slowly, the greenette turned around, locking eyes with a large gray wolf, poised in an attack stance. Midorikawa swallowed hard and began to slowly back away, not liking the way the wolf had begun to crouch to the ground, its yellow eyes locked onto him. Its growling had gotten louder and its teeth were showing as it snarled. There were no gray wolves in Japan (he knew this for a fact), so he reasoned that it must have wandered in from one of the other areas of Liocott, most likely America's area. Not that that particular knowledge helped him much at the moment.
The next few moments went by so fast, Midorikawa hardly remembered them. All that he knew mattered was the here and now, and currently he was running as fast as his legs could carry him through the forest. He could still hear the canine snarling behind him and that was enough to keep him running as hard as he could. He did not come all the way to Liocott just to get eaten. Unfortunately, as fast as he was, he did not know the terrain at all and was running completely blind through the brush and trees, hoping he would eventually happen on another team's area or a road.
Or a 7 foot drop. That worked too.
Midorikawa shrieked when the ground suddenly ended and he rolled down the side of the ditch. He slammed hard into the ground below him, nearly tumbling into the small creek just beyond the drop. Midorikawa winced sharply and slowly rolled onto his stomach, clenching his fist in the sand as he watched the animal carefully slide down the side of the ditch. He tried to push himself up but his head began to swim almost instantly and a raging pain flared up sharply and everything went black.
The wolf growled low as it slowly approached its prey. In his unconscious state, Midorikawa could do nothing to defend himself. As the large animal closed in it stopped, as something just barely breaching the surface of the water caught its eye. It growled loudly and began to advance again until a stream of water struck it between the eyes. The animal released a loud whine and raced off, whimpering the whole way.
*~8~8~8~8~8~*
Hiroto toyed around with his fork in his hand, every so often glancing back to the window of the cafeteria, the one that faced the woods. Something wasn't right. Midorikawa hadn't returned for lunch and now dinner had been served and he still wasn't back. The others had begun to worry too. Midorikawa was one of the fastest members on the team, rivaled only by Kazemaru and Sakuma. It shouldn't have taken him so long to return. 'What if he's lost? Kogure and I got lost easily the last time we went there. And it's getting dark.'
Kazemaru chewed his lip nervously as Endou joined him at their table. "Midorikawa isn't back yet. Hiroto's getting really antsy." Endou nodded. "I don't blame him. Maybe we should go look for him. I hope he's okay." Kazemaru nodded his agreement and passed another look towards Hiroto. The redhead was fidgeting nervously now, twisting his fork around in his fingers and bouncing his leg sporadically. His eyes were glued to the window and it wasn't long before his fork clattered to the table and he stood up sharply and made for the door.
"I'm going to look for him." He said curtly. Endou and Kazemaru shared a quick look before scrambling up. "Wait! We'll come with you." Endou called, but by the time they entered the hall, the redhead had already taken off.
*~8~8~8~8~8~*
"MIDORIKAWA!"
Hiroto cupped his hands around his mouth and called again, but still received no answer. It was already sunset and he hadn't even seen the slightest sign of the green haired boy. 'Please…please be okay.' He thought desperately. He followed the cucumber path from before to the field where he and Kogure had played against Kamezaki Kappa and his friend. The field was empty. Hiroto grit his teeth together and clenched his fists tightly by his sides. He should have gone after him when he first went to get the ball, then he would be safe back at the Inazuma Japan training facility, having dinner with him and the rest of the team.
Hiroto dropped onto his butt and rested his arms on his knees. He would not, could not leave this forest until he knew the greenette was safe and sound in his bed. He would stay in the forest again if he needed to but he knew he wouldn't get any sleep until he found the green haired midfielder. Hiroto laid back on the ground, staring up at the darkening sky. The sun had nearly set. Where could Midorikawa be? He'd searched for the last couple hours and there was still no sign of the boy.
Hiroto gasped when a familiar face leaned over him. "Kamezaki-kun!" Hiroto scrambled up quickly and spun to face to fan. "Please! I need your help!" he clapped his hands down on Kamezaki's shoulder. "My friend is missing. I think he's somewhere in…this…Kamezaki-kun?" the boy simply walked past him and jogged down the field a ways. After he reached the halfway point of the field, he stopped and turned to face Hiroto again and waved his arm towards the redhead.
"Come."
Kamezaki then turned and jogged into the forest. Hiroto followed without a moment's hesitation. They ran along a familiar path through the woods until the kappa finally reached the creek and began following along the strip of shore alongside it. Hiroto recognized it as the same strip that the kappa boy and his friend had led him and Kogure along after their 'night' in the woods, especially when they passed by the same spot they had slept at. Hiroto still hadn't fully decided on what had really happened that time, but he had more important things to worry about. Like finding Midorikawa.
Dusk had set in by then and Hiroto had begun to worry that he'd never find the greenette when he caught sight of Kamezaki's friend hunched over a figure with long green hair. "Midorikawa!" Hiroto raced over to the two green haired boys and Kamezaki's friend moved aside to let the redhead through. Hiroto frantically looked over the younger boy who was lying on his back, breathing a sigh of relief when he found no serious injuries. He gently brushed a stray strand of hair out of Midorikawa's eyes and wrapped the smaller boy in his arms, pulling the dark eyed boy tightly to him and pressing his face into Hiroto's chest.
"Thank you…thank you…"
*~8~8~8~8~8~*
Midorikawa groaned slightly and opened his eyes. His vision was blurred for a second before slowly focusing in on the room around him. His room. He was back at the Inazuma Japan training grounds. Midorikawa slowly pushed himself into a sitting position before bright red caught his vision. He turned to his left, finding none other than Hiroto sound asleep in chair. The green eyed boy was snoring quietly, one cheek propped up by a hand. Midorikawa blinked slightly. What was Hiroto doing there? Was he the one that brought him back?
"Well look who's finally awake."
Midorikawa instantly looked towards the door, finding Kazemaru leaning in the doorway, smiling softly at him. "You hit your head pretty hard and were out for a couple days, but the doctor said you only had a little bump and that'd you'd be fine." Kazemaru turned his eyes to the redhead sleeping in the chair. "He was out all night, you know. He was in such a panic when you didn't come back. The greenette looked surprised for a moment before turning to look at the redhead. "He cares a lot about you, you know. Try to give him a chance, okay?" The tealnet smiled and left the room, shutting the door behind him. Hiroto jumped sharply when he heard the door close and looked around frantically. After a couple moments of looking like a deer in the headlights, green eyes focused in on the boy sitting in bed and he calmed down.
"Hey, you're up." He said softly. Midorikawa nodded and fiddled with a strand of his hair. "Hiroto?" The redhead titled his head to one side, giving the boy a questioning look. The green haired boy clenched the sheets between his fists and looked down. "I'm sorry I ran off…keep running off. I just get so nervous when I'm around you and …I-I just…" the greenette jumped slightly when a pale hand rested over top his tan one. He turned his eyes to the redhead only for Hiroto to quickly close the space between them. Midorikawa's eyes widened at first before slowly closing as he relaxed into the kiss. Hiroto shifted to sit on the edge of the bed and brought his other hand to the tan boy's face to deepen the kiss.
"Bow chica bow wow!"
The two former Aliea captains scrambled apart and both looked towards the doorway to find nearly half the team watching them from the doorway. Tsunami made another catcall and stuck his tongue out. "It's about time you guys got together!" Kogure snickered loudly from his place behind the pink haired boy and Kidou sent Hiroto a smirk.
"Come on, One-Eye! I know you're faster than that!"
"Fudou Akio, give me back my eye patch!"
Kidou rolled his eyes and strolled out of the room after the two boys. Haruna and Aki appeared shortly after and dragged the others from the room, Haruna throwing a wink and a grin back into the room as she left. Silence quickly filled the room.
Hiroto and Midorikawa kept their eyes trained the floor, both trying fight down their blush and trying to find the will to speak. Midorikawa opened his mouth a couple times but always ended closing it when he found no sound coming out. Hiroto finally sucked in a breath and raised his head, taking hold of the greenette's chin to bring the boy's dark eyes to his own.
"I love you."
Hiroto couldn't begin to describe how it felt to finally say those words out loud, knowing the former Gemini Storm captain could actually hear him. Too many times he had whispered it as he watched the green haired midfielder from afar or thought it over and over again like a mantra as they talked, Hiroto cherishing every waking moment he was in contact with the younger boy. He couldn't have even begun to count how many times he had re-read the postcard he had received from the greenette during the last FFI. Even when he had returned to Sun Garden, he had kept the letter under his pillow, taking it out and reading at night when the dark eyed boy was only a couple rooms away.
Midorikawa, on the other hand, felt like his heart had stopped. His mind was reeling and he kept waiting to wake up in the woods again, cold and alone. But it wasn't happening. Hiroto was still there, sitting in front of him, staring at him with that beautiful jade gaze he'd always had. And he really had just said those three words Midorikawa had thought he'd only hear in his dreams. And he was kissing him again.
Seeing the greenette's shell-shocked expression had brought a smirk to Hiroto's face and he'd been unable to resist diving in for another kiss. He placed his hands on the younger boy's shoulders and pushed him down onto the bed, wrapping his arms around the small boy's waist and pulling back to press their noses together, locking onto the former captain's onyx eyes. "You don't know how long I've been waiting to say that."
'You don't know how long I wanted to hear that.' Midorikawa thought as a blush spread across his cheeks. "I love you too."
*~8~8~8~8~8~*
"Are you sure they'll be here?" Midorikawa asked as Hiroto led him through the woods by the hand. Hiroto looked back over his shoulder and gave the boy a gentle smile and squeezed his hand. "I'm sure they will. Come on." Midorikawa smiled back and gripped Hiroto's hand tighter. Not long after, they reached the soccer field. Two boys were kicking a ball around but stopped when they got closer.
"Hey Kamezaki." Hiroto gave a wave towards the boys and Midorikawa saw the kappa boy's eyes widen excitedly at Hiroto's approach. The greenette shifted a little farther behind Hiroto as the two boys came closer. He tensed a little when their eyes turned to him.
"Better?" the green haired one asked, tilting his to one side. Midorikawa nodded and edged out from behind his new boyfriend. "Ah…um…" Midorikawa took a sharp breath and bowed. "Thank you very much for saving me the other day." When Midorikawa stood straight again, both boys smiled at them and Kamezaki held out his soccer ball, giving Hiroto a hopeful look. The redhead grinned and looked at Midorikawa who nodded. Both kappas smiled as well and tossed the ball up into the air.