A/N: I'll probably continue this.
Whistle! © Higuchi Daisuke
(i.)
She's mad at them on a matter of principle; after all, she did have to stop practice and yell at them for their incessant, married couple's bickering. But she can't help smiling when they've wordlessly handed her an ice-cold, blue raspberry popsicle-stick, her favorite.
(ii.)
They're lying down in the grass one day, staring up at the blue sky and watching the clouds roll by, when Yuki says, "I love soccer." There's silence for a moment before they both reply in unison, "We know." And she smiles.
(iii.)
They're at the sidelines, waiting to start practice, when Seiji off-handedly remarks that Yuki is cute. Shige grabs him a little too roughly around the shoulder and drags him onto the field. Tatsuya gives him a cold, calculating glare. When he relays this to Shibusawa, the older teen is just glad that Seiji is still in one piece.
(iv.)
When they were younger, around eight or nine, they used to play make-believe: the princess, the prince, and the dragon. Their roles were largely undefined; one day the dragon would be the green loveseat that sat in the middle of the living room in the Kojima household. Another day it would be Tatsuya's dog, wrapped up in Shige's favorite green blanket. There were also times when Tatsuya and Shige would fight over who got to be the prince. On days when Tatsuya was the prince, Shige was an old, ugly peasant. On days when Shige was the prince, Tatsuya would be his noble, if cranky, steed.
And one day when Yuki was so tired of their fighting, she forced Shige into a blue dress and white kitten heels two times too big – not-so stealthily taken from her mother's closet – and told them both that she was going to be the prince. They stopped fighting that day because it was an unspoken agreement that she would always be their princess.
(v.)
They're back from Korea, jet-lagged, disappointed, and overall devoid of any energy, when they see her. She's nervous and a bit out of place, looking through the crowds for a familiar face. They notice that her eyes are a little red and her cheeks, a little pink. She spots them and her lips curve into a smile.
Welcome home.
Somehow, they feel a little less tired.