Hey so I thought I'd try another one shot.
If this is well received I might turn it into a full story.
Maybe one happy ending and one 'true' ending.
Though i feel bad doing that since it doesn't do the story justice when the 'true' ending isn't followed.
Hope you guys enjoy it!
Thank you~!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything. Just the storyline and the OC.
ooo
Lost Time - As Bright as the Sun
He watched the match below him, but it was not the game he was focused on. His eyes were trained on the young boy with bright orange hair. It was a colour he detested, yet he could not bring himself to hate the boy.
His whole appearance was like his fathers', but those blue grey eyes as well as that kind and gentle disposition was something he took from her. His talent for soccer surpassed both his parents.
Closing his eyes, he remembered the day they first met, each stolen kiss, through to their final day together.
O
It was a clear day with very few clouds in the sky, yet it wasn't too hot. The sun was shining brightly, but he couldn't feel the joy that everyone else felt from it. Rather, it was nice and cool, a perfect day for playing some soccer.
But he could not bring himself to play. Especially after the incident with his little sister. He couldn't play another round of soccer, when it was his fault that she ended up like that.
As he was walking home from the new school he had transferred to, Raimon, he saw the school's soccer team practicing on the field.
Unconsciously, without realising it he had walked towards their match, and lay down below the shade of a lone tree, hiding from the rays of the sun. Closing his eyes, his thoughts brought him back to his sister, and he felt that cloud of guilt and despair looming above him.
"You know, if you wanted to join the soccer match, all you had to do was say so."
Startled, he lowered his arm and opened his eyes. Leaning over him was the girl from his class. If he recalled correctly, her name was Serena or at least somewhere along those lines; A foreign name. He had noticed that she was always with the soccer team, though he had never seen her play. In fact, she was one of the only girls besides two other. Since they didn't really play much, he doubted she did as well. She sat down next to him and watched the soccer game. Why she felt she was welcome to was beyond him. He thought his scowling face had scared away the others. If people got too close to him what if they ended up like his little sister.
"I never said I wanted to." He replied, avoiding her eyes as he sat up.
"You say one thing, but your eyes tell me a different story."
From the corner of his eye he could see her facing him directly.
"Gouenji Shuuya, was it? I can see the desire to play in your eyes. So, why don't you? You should do everything you want. Treat it like it's the last time you'll ever do it. That way, you don't lose time, and every moment is worth it."
For a moment, he saw a flicker of sadness upon her face, but then she smiled again gazing up at the sun, as though it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. They shared the silence together until she broke it again.
"Actually, I heard that you were a very talented-."
"Shut up and leave me be." He had replied before letting her finish, as his head whipped around to glare coldly at her.
Sharp black eyes met endless depths of blue, and the way the wind stirred her long, pure white locks of hair made him think that she was rather pretty.
A pretty face like that wouldn't understand anything about him, or the pain he had gone through.
So he stood up and left, without saying a word but he heard her whisper a sentence that was carried away by the wind, so he wasn't sure if he had heard her correctly.
"I'm sorry. Things may be difficult now, but I'm sure they'll get better with time. Someday, you'll be able to smile again. And I bet that smile is brighter than the sun."
He turned back to look at her once more.
Her back was to him and she was gazing at the sunset, as though each one was her last.
After that, she had approached him on numerous occasions.
And soon after, he realised he could not find it in himself to turn her away.
O
It was after he joined the soccer team that they spent much more time together. In fact, they were inseparable.
He learned that she was a part of the soccer team, though she never played much. But when she did, he was always amazed by her playstyle.
She wasn't as strong as the boys of course, but she was light and quick. Whenever he played against her he could never take the ball.
No one could.
And what else amazed him was her secret technique. 'Mirror image', she had called it, and he remembered the first time she used it against him.
She had perfectly copied his own technique and used it against him.
Then, when they played together, they were unstoppable. With his offence and her speed, opponents never knew what hit them, until it was too late.
O
It was several years later when they found themselves in a relationship.
He supposed it was natural that two people who were always spending time together end up like this.
She had asked him one day which one he preferred; A sunset or a sunrise.
He didn't like any since they both look the same, but she told him her favorite one used to be a sunrise, because it meant the start of a new day, and a new beginning.
But her favourite one was a sunset now. Because the sunset on the day that she met him, was the end of one chapter in her life, and the start of a new one.
The best part was that he was in it.
He remembered their first date, their first kiss, and their first time together.
The way she moved below him, moaning his name made his heart ache with so much love.
He remembered the morning after, how she had been so sore, and how he had apologised for being a bit too rough.
She simply gave a soft laugh and hugged him.
"If it's you, then it's ok."
But their time was not to last.
O
When he found out why she rarely played soccer with the others it was because she was sick.
She had a weak body and playing soccer placed a heavy physical strain on her, and she had kept it from him.
And so had the others.
He was not angry at her, rather he felt lost and hopeless.
Why had she kept something so important from him?
Whenever they played she would always disappear to somewhere else after. It was because she was in pain, but she had loved soccer too much to stop.
That's when he started to distance himself.
He loved her with all his heart, it had killed him to do so.
But if she stayed with him, she would get hurt. Playing soccer with a team required him to move around a lot. She needed to stay in hospital where she could get better. He had considered quitting soccer to stay with her in the hospital, but she got mad at him for even thinking such a thing.
"You love me… But you also love soccer. I would never ask you to sacrifice one thing for another."
He knew the world of soccer was dangerous. There were so many hidden agendas and daunting conspiracies.
So if she was too close to him, what if she got hurt the way his sister did. If that were to happen he knew he would never recover from it.
In a way that distance was to protect the both of them.
O
He was there at her wedding, when he watched her walk down the aisle with another man.
He watched the woman he loved, walk down, hand in hand, with a man she didn't love.
It was not a wedding that she didn't want. It was one planned between her family and another. It was not made of love, but one that was forced due to business reasons. When they found out the only daughter of that family was unmarried, they rushed in and began making plans.
It took him everything to hold back. To not pull her to his side and kiss her the way he used to. Inside he was being shredded apart, but he simply turned and walked away.
That was the last time he saw her.
O
She had died giving birth to her son. Amemiya Taiyou. But everyone knew that she would have loved him and cherished him like nothing else. The way she would hold her belly and hum, softly with that sweet voice of hers.
She never even got to hold him. Her physical state was already so weak, and giving birth to a child would have strained her body beyond its limits.
When he heard she was pregnant, his heart was constricted and he could barely breathe. Her, with another man's child.
When he heard that she was in labour from Endou and the others, he had rushed there too late. He was a great soccer player, yet he failed as a man. He had failed her.
She was already gone.
The nurses told him that the last thing she said, was able to whisper out in her weak state, was his name.
She had called out to him, and left this world with a smile on her face.
By his side was the safest place she could have been.
If only he had chosen to stay by her side, she would still be alive.
Her husband had come but at that time, and he could see that the other man had been crying. However in his arms was a bundle with a small ball of orange fuzz upon its head. The baby was also crying.
"She loved you until the end you know. It was always you." He said.
"Here, hold him. It's what she would have wanted."
When the small bundle was placed in his arms, it open up its scrunched eyes. He had stopped crying and was regarding him with those blue grey eyes.
Eyes that belonged to her.
And that was when he broke down.
O
His eyes had clouded over in thought for most of the game, but it was now in the final moments, and her son was about to score another goal.
If he could.
The opposition was strong, and many of his kicks had been countered.
As he performed his final kick he shouted out the name of a technique, different to the ones he had been using before;The techniques that were his fathers.
This one was like hers. Or, almost like it.
"Reflection of the sun."
And for a split moment, he thought he had seen her again. Embracing her son from behind, with the brightest smile upon her face. Her eyes were closed, but she turned her head upwards.
He might have imagined it, but he could have sworn that she was facing him, with that beautiful smile of hers.
And he felt himself smile back.
ooo
The End.
Thank you to all reviewers!