A/N: Two fics in the same day! It must be some sort of miracle!

Anyway, here is the first of the (hopefully) many one-shots of crack pairings in Whistle!, which were determined by my cap and 72 pieces of paper. It is totally random, and it is about love. =D

This first one is a Masahiro Suo/Kazue one. It ended up being more "serious" than I thought it would be. I wanted to do some utterly non-sense crack thing, because that is what the pair suggests, but in the end I gave in to the challenge of creating something that looked serious. And it also was longer than I expected. Hopefully the net ones will be shorter. Still, I hope it didn't go too far from the original proposal of this thing, and I hope you will like it still. I can try do a crack version later if the demand is high enough...

HIguchi-sensei is luck I failed to own Whistle!, because if I did I'm not sure I would be able to keep it strictly about football... =D

Enjoy!

RANDOM LOVE

THE BALL, THE BABY, THE BOY

Little Masahiro was tired of being picked on by his bigger classmates. They all made fun of him because he looked like a Primary School kid even though he was already in second year of Junior High and because he liked to play football and wanted to be a professional. He was so pissed with them, so pissed with their last prank – taking his football and putting it in the highest shelf of the classroom, which he could not reach even aided by a chair – that he decided to skip classes that day and go to the park to play alone.

He was kicking the ball against the wall when he missed one kick and the ball went high above the wall. He tried looking for it, but the ball had vanished. Desperate because it was his only ball and his parents would not buy him another anytime soon, he did the only thing he could do in that situation: sit down and cry.

'Oh, my dear boy, why are you crying?'

Masahiro looked up to se an old woman dressed in a pink kimono looking at him. She was caring a little boy – no older than three – in his arm and seemed worried about him like a grandma would worry about her favourite grandson.

'I lost… my ball… I lost it… and I can't find it! I can't play football anymore!'

'Oh… is this your ball, boy?' the old woman put the child she was caring on the ground, revealing he was holding a ball almost as big as himself, covered in dirty and close to complete disintegration. 'Little Ryoichi found it in the sandbank and I think he liked it.'

'It is mine!' Masahiro stood up and took his ball from the toddler's grip. Ryoichi gave him a devious glare before erupting in the most annoying baby cry. Determined not to lose to him, Masahiro started screaming too.

'Now calm down you too! You are all big boys; it won't do to have you behaving like babies. Now Ryoichi…' the old woman picked the baby up again, accommodating him comfortably in her arms. 'The ball is not yours. This boy lost it and he wants it back.'

Masahiro smiled as the old woman. He liked her. She was the first one to defend him against other boys – even if the other boy was a three year-old – and she seemed nice enough. He felt nice being cared by others for a change, so he wanted to do something nice to thank her for that:

'We could all play together! I could teach Ryoichi to play football too! And we could have fun!'

And indeed, they had. For about a month Masahiro, Ryoichi and the old woman would meet at the park to play football. After four weeks, however, the Suo's found out their son was skipping school and blew his football as payback. Depressed, Masahiro stayed at home for yet another week, sulking in his bedroom. Until…

'Masahiro-kun, are you sleeping already?' The boy could not believe his eyes when the old Kazue – the old woman – appeared in his window, holding a round package under her arms. Her smile as kind as ever, warming his cold heart. 'Ryoichi was so sad when you didn't come to the park, we wondered if you were alright. He loved playing with you so much! He is even talking about becoming a football player like you now! Ryoichi brought you a present and asked me to tell you that he wishes you will get better soon…'

Masahiro tore the wrapping paper at lightning speed, revealing a brand-new, perfect football. At that moment he thought his heart stopped beating, it was the happiest moment of his life! He could play football again! And his parents would not stop him this time! He was free! Free!

And behind it all was the nice old woman named Kazue. He wanted to thank her a million times over, but didn't know how. She was like his grandma, but much better. He wished she could be his grandma. He liked her more than he liked his real grandma, in fact.

'Thank you, grandma' was all he managed to say in the end. Kazue smiled at him and left. They never say each other afterwards, but Masahiro would remember her for the years to come as the person who helped put him in the right path to his dreams. For that he would be eternally grateful, and for that he loved her.

A/N again: Ok, so it was not the "love" everyone was expecting. But it is still love, people! =D

I can do the crack version still. With the "Valentine" sort of love and all. That would be utterly bizarre, but that was what this collection of short stories was suppose to be about.

And I though young Masahiro would be better to write than the old one, since in canon Kazue died before he appeared in the story. Oh, well, hope you guys liked it anyway.

Review, please? *irresistible Sho-like smile*