Drabble!Tsubasa from a scene in Volume 21~ yeah, it's sort of a SPOILER. *Flashing lights go off, sirens wail* but really, I wanted to convey something from that scene. I think we were let down a bit too easy with that particular plot line. so this is what I thought got Tsuba-tuba going again!

Tsubasa was enraged. There were plenty of times he was angry, and about sixty percent of them were during a game. But that didn't mean it ever showed; actually it only served to make his playing better, but he could not remember being this angry for a long time. The last time he'd even gotten close he'd broke the leg of some gangbanger and somehow ended up with a posse.

Oy.

Now, with said posse, he was falling apart during a game that could cost them the entire tournament if he couldn't pull himself out of this current black hole he was in. A small mental breakdown really, just a slight one.

"You really can't see the reason he's silently backing you up?"

Masaki chided him without even looking at him. Which was smart, since Tsubasa was ready to punch something.

"No, I don't even know why you're backing me up. What have I done for you that make you want to follow me? Didn't you use to hate me? Not all that long ago either"

Tsubasa wasn't really sure if he was talking to himself or not. It should have bothered him more, but he couldn't really bring himself to be concerned with anything other than the way that the field seemed to be spinning at the moment. It wasn't supposed to be doing that right?

"That's not like you

"Well no shit." was the obvious reply, but he was distracted again. The field swirled in his vision, and he wasn't sure, but he though the sky turned a little darker. Where had the sun gone?

"If you can't get back on you feet now, what kind of man are you?"

Said Masaki as he walked away. Minutes ago he'd taunted Sho for not having a comeback for him, but he himself watched Masaki walk away without a word. Tsubasa was acutely aware of the irony in this, but something was keeping him from responding.

"What kind of man am I?"

THAT made the field stop spinning. A rush of sound brought him out of his head and onto the field. He blinked as the sun glared directly down on his head as if saying, "Get your ass in gear, you've got to man up don't you?"

He hadn't been called that before. Tsubasa would know, as he'd had to go through most of his life hearing comments on what a 'pretty face that girl has' or what 'nice hair that girl has.' Hell, even his own Grandmother would forget, and that's hard on a kid.

Soccer made it better and worse. Worse for all the comments of 'Are you REALLY sure he's not a she?' type of questions and all the 'Oh, they I didn't know this team was Co-ed' comments he had to endure. But better for the expressions on people's faces when he had wiped their sorry asses up and down the entire pitch and left them laying in the dirt.

When he beat up Naoki, he'd been dubbed the 'Soccer Princess," and when he beat up that Yakuza he was 'That Tiny Captain.'

At home he was 'Shiina' or 'Akira's Little Cousin.'

At the select team he was affectionately 'Midget' or 'Hey You.'

He'd been a

boy

kid

child

teen

friend

enemy

youngster

juvenile

delinquent

genius

He'd been just about everything except a man. The gears in his head started to move again as his brain re-booted itself, and the clouds over his head went away for good, the fog dissipated in the sun that was now noticeably harsh. Tsubasa paid it no mind- he was a man- and he'd be damned if he let this chance slip through his fingers.

Ah! the end! .___.

R&R to tell me if you like it or not!