Zentauria is a bit stuck at her other story right now, so she decided to do something else.

Oh my, talking about oneself in third person is contagious! Thank you, sis'... not.

Anyway, this story is ages old. The idea was created when a friend of mine said Yuuichi and Yuuka should be around the same age. Now YuuichixYuuka is one of my favorite pairings~
But this isn't a romance story, because it's older than Zen-romance. And it's pretty short, but I still love it and maybe there are some who will love it as well, so I don't want to hold it back

Disclaimer: I do not own Inazuma Eleven, nor it's characters, and I do not earn money with this story!

The door creaked. Yuuichi, who sat in his bed, dug his nose out of his book and looked up. He expected to see his brother, but he also knew this visitor pretty well.

"Hello, Gouenji-san!", he greeted the new arrival, who replied immediately in a similar way. Behind Gouenji, a girl entered the room, she was around Yuuichi's age. He saw her only one time up to now, but he knew who she was.

"Oh, good afternoon, Yuuka-san!"

"Hello!"

After that short conversation, Yuuichi turned to the older one again. "What brings you here?"

"Nothing special, we just wanted to ask about your condition. Did the operation go well?"

"Yes", Yuuichi answered and looked out of the window. "It will take a while until I'll be able to walk again, but I can't complain."

Gouenji smiled. "Of course it won't show results in the blink of an eye, but we came a whole lot nearer to the goal", he stated encouragingly, then his gaze fell on the clock hanging at the wall. "Oh snap! Kidou wanted to make a call! Excuse me, I'll be right back!" With these words he bolted to the door and disappeared.

Yuuka chuckled. "Honestly, nii-san!"

"Does that happen frequently?", Yuuichi asked a bit puzzled.

"Constantly!", Yuuka replied amused and sat herself down on a chair. "He wasn't that dopey when he was younger." She pondered a short while. "Well, he hadn't so much to do back then. But he did other crazy stuff instead!"

Yuuichi couldn't help cracking a grin. During childhood, he always looked up to Raimon's ace striker. Did he miss something? He would have loved to ask, but he didn't want to be impolite.

Yuuka glanced around and seemed to make a decision, because as her eyes landed on Yuuichi again, she told him: "You know, when I was hospitalized as well once. I was still young and my brother had a soccer match at which I wanted to cheer him on. But I got hit by a car on the way to the stadium."

Yuuichi's eyes widened, but he held himself back.

Yuuka continued talking: "I fell into a coma and my brother vowed not to play soccer again until I'd wake up. He blamed himself for the accident. He permanently persuaded himself: 'If I wouldn't have gone to that match, she wouldn't have been hit by the car!' or something like that. That was pretty dumb of him, I would have preferred him continuing. And thanks to Endou-san, he did at last and his team became national champion!" Yuuka smiled proudly when she remembered how her brother came to her to the hospital and told her everything. "He talked to me really much back then, although I lay in a coma. And I could hear him. It made me so happy every time he talked about his matches. He was such a dimwit for even coming up with the idea of quitting!"

While Yuuka got all worked up, Yuuichi had to smile once again. "That reminds me strongly of Kyousuke", he said, now the seriousness in person. "He always blamed himself as well, no matter what I said. He constantly reproached himself. And he did everything to make me recover... even betraying our soccer. I was grievously disappointed when I learned what he did behind my back. What, I suppose you know better than me." Yuuichi clenched his fists. "Kyousuke always came to visit me. He acted totally normal. I became sceptical the first time when Tenma snowed in and I saw how Kyousuke treated him. Then he missed one of his matches. His team needed him and he came here instead. Shortly after, I watched him talking to a person from Fifth Sector, and it became too much for me to take. I guess I threw him off track back then, but now he plays real soccer again and has many friends. And it makes me happy for him."

Both the teenagers locked gazes and suddenly break out in laughter.

"What do we learn from that? Raimon's ace strikers are nut jobs!", Yuuka snorted.

"Our beloved nut jobs!", Yuuichi agreed.

"Don't say that too loud, they'll hear you!"

Two heads span around. Without them noticing, a third voice joined their chorus of laughter.

"Tenma-kun! That was a start!", Yuuichi called out, but he was glad to see the captain nonetheless.

"Sorry, but I thought I should warn you!"

"What's going on here?"

Tsurugi walked into the room, armed with three cans of ice coffee.

"Nothing!", Tenma replied and the three burst out laughing again. Tsurugi managed a perplexed blink.

"Ah, yeah, I guess I'll go get another ice coffee...", he drawled and vamoosed.

Soon after, he returned and had Gouenji in tow, with whom he met in the hallway.

"Now, get a grip! I think you had enough time!"

As no one wanted to comply with the navy-haired forward's demand (or couldn't, he wasn't sure about that), he turned to the confused Gouenji.

"You don't happen to know what is going on here?"

"No, I have no idea...", the blond adult with the red jacket murmured without tearing his eyes away from the kids in stitches. Tsurugi just shrugged and looked back at his comrades as well.

"Hmm, those nut jobs!"