Apologies for the long wait! Or at least what feels like a long wait. The semester is winding down so I've been in crunch mode lately and I'm not even gonna lie...I completely forgot I had this chapter ready to upload. My bad...
Anyways! Hopefully this shouldn't happen again but no promises lol. For now enjoy!
~*Reconciliation*~
"The doctor said I'm fine Jason." Mira griped as she glared up at her best friend.
"You're not stepping on to that court until you get your damn ankle taped. That's final." Jason growled back.
The two were an odd pairing walking side by side down the street. Jason looked like a punk who screamed nothing but bad trouble from all the piercings on his face, but Mira was the one who gave off the untouchable aura. It had been a week since Mira's injury. The doctor had finally cleared her, saying there was no damage in her ankle and that she could return to practice. Which is why Jason had taken her to the doctor's while the others had opted to meet them at the gym later on. After Malacai had let Mira a couple nights ago, Jason had banned anyone but him from watching Mira. The others knew the two would need a chance to cool down. They were in no hurry to interrupt their alone time.
"So, how'd the date go?" Jason finally broke the silence as they turned the corner and made their way to the sports complex.
"It was fun." Mira grunted back as she signed them in and rented out a ball.
"But?" The red head glanced over her shoulder to see Jason's piercing blue eyes on her.
"But until I sort out the mess in my head, I told Tatsuya I couldn't honestly respond to his feelings. That's all." Mira fessed up.
"And he's the one who originally broke your heart right?" Jason asked as they headed down the hallway.
"Yeah. I can understand why he did what he did back then. It's all just so confusing." Mira groaned loudly as she bumped into Jason. Resting her head against his muscly arm.
"Well, whatever you decide I'll back you on it. Only if I think it's a fool's errand will I stop you. I got your back no matter what though." Jason glanced down at Mira whose violet orbs were locked on him.
"Thanks. I just wish things weren't so complicated. I swear I hate being a female sometimes." Mira sighed dramatically before pushing herself off Jason and turning to head towards the gym entrance.
"Stop it! Let me go!" Mira's eyes widened when she recognized that voice.
She didn't know what compelled her to head down the hallway, but she ran towards another door. Mira slammed the door to the gymnastics room open to see Yuri struggling with two boys that had dark looks on their faces. She took the ball from Jason and chunked it hard at one of them. The boy let go and turned around, only to be met with Jason's fist in his face. The other guy turned to hit Jason, but had his nose broken by an upper cut by Mira. Yuri fell to the ground behind the two as the guys sat on the ground looking up at them.
"Takeshita-chan are you okay?" Mira asked without taking her eyes off the guys.
"I-I'm fine. Thank you." She said in a shaky voice.
"Who said you could butt in?" One of the guys shouted as Jason squared up to his full height. Both back off in fear upon seeing the huge boy before them.
"You just assaulted us buddy. You wouldn't want us to call the cops now huh?" the other threatened. Clearly trying to bluff his way out of a beating.
"Call an ambulance while you're at it." Jason cracked his knuckles threateningly at the two who froze up upon seeing he wasn't going to back down.
"That's if they can reach their phones before I snap their wrists." Mira warned in that deathly cold tone of hers. The two froze where they stood as Mira stepped up, looking from one to the other to show that she wasn't making idle threats. She meant business. "Leave. Now."
The two scoffed in disgust before heading out of there. Jason glanced down at Mira once the two were gone to see her look back at Yuri. It had been quite some time since the two females had been in the same vicinity of each other. He was interested to see how things would play out. The red head grunted in annoyance before walking over to Yuri. She lightly tapped the older girl and motioned to her stuff. Yuri slowly made her way towards her gear and pulled her sweats and sandals on before turning back to Mira. She motioned for Yuri to follow as the three of them headed into the basketball gym together.
"Knowing those types of guys, they'll be waiting around for you. Just stay here with us for now." Mira said as she took her jacket off and placed her bag down. Yuri moved to sit next to the girl as she changed her shoes.
"I'm going to get you some ice for later." Jason said after looking to Yuri. He could see that she had something that she wished to say to Mira. He would give the two sometime alone before returning. The punk just hoped that Yuri didn't piss Mira off too badly this time. He didn't think he'd exactly be up for 'trying' to stop Mira from getting revenge.
"I'm so sorry!" Yuri finally spat out after a few minutes of silence. Mira briefly glanced up before moving to put her other shoe on. "Yamato-san said that Kise-kun and I hurt you deeply. I need to clear the air for his sake. I know now what I did in the beginning was wrong and I don't want this misunderstanding to ruin what you two have."
"Does it have to do with those guys and why you flipped out on me when we first met?" Mira asked once she had her court shoes on.
"It does…..You were right. I was hurt by someone I once trusted." Yuri took a deep breath before finally telling her tale. "Back at my old school I was in the gymnastics club. I wasn't exactly very good till recently. My captain spent a lot of extra time working with me on my technique. I was happy to be of use to the team finally. We started placing better in competitions and I started doing better overall. I even won gold a few times. The better I did, the more time I spent with my captain. It made me happy to be noticed by him. To be of use to someone who was so great at what he did. I started to fall for him. My feelings grew as the year passed. It was during a big competition that I found out my teammates weren't too happy with how fast I'd grown and how close I was with the captain. I felt like I was losing my confidence, so I went to my captain to have him clear the air. He only laughed in my face and said he was using me. He'd known about my feelings and had played me for a fool. He told the others on the team he only wanted results. He could care less about me. He even said the others could play with me and he wouldn't bat an eye. I ran out that day and caused my team to lose. I was bullied, beaten, and threatened. I couldn't stay at my school anymore. I met Kise at an amateur modeling competition around that time. He gave me the idea to transfer schools and enroll at Kaijo. West-chan, I can't apologize enough for how I treated you in the beginning…..I just saw my past self in Kise and the others when I saw how they looked at you. I got scared history would repeat itself. I know now that isn't the case." Yuri fell silent once more as she stared at her hands in her lap.
"Kise told you didn't he?" Mira called out as she picked the ball up and began dribbling.
"He told me a little about what happened to you." Yuri said softly, watching the girl who refused to look her way.
"The first step to getting stronger comes with openly acknowledging where you went wrong. From there you can grow." Mira shot beautifully from the three point line and made the basket with ease.
"Can you ever forgive me?" Yuri finally looked up to see Mira walking towards the still ball.
"Fear and anger make us do some crazy things. The fact that you admitted you were wrong is enough for me. So, Kise was only protecting you then?" Mira said the last part more to herself as she dribbled between her legs while walking around the court.
"Yes. Something similar happened like what you just helped me with. And at the festival, I was looking for you to apologize." Yuri stood up and walked over to Mira who shot again. She retrieved the ball for the girl and passed it back. "Please don't be mad at Kise-kun. He cares for you very much. He was torn up all week when you wouldn't speak to him."
"I'm not mad per say. Annoyed would be a better way to describe it." Mira shot again as Yuri got her rebound.
"How come you won't respond to him then?" Yuri asked, passing the ball back to the red head. Mira dribbled the ball for a bit before deciding she may as well tell someone about what had been on her mind.
"My first love confessed his feelings for me that same night. And I agreed to go on a date with him. But I have feelings for Kise. As for how deep those feelings are, I don't know." Mira shot from the free throw line as Yuri's eyes widened in surprise. "And you could say that I don't exactly have confidence in the romance department. When I saw you two together….."
"Oh….I see." Even the usually cool and confident Mira had the normal female problems. "Well, you're the one who taught me that honesty is the best policy. Don't hold anything back."
"On the court that's easy. Off the court…" Mira glanced off to the side with a frustrated look on her face. "Ow!"
A sharp pain ran up Mira's leg. She glanced down to her ankle in annoyance. While she was technically cleared, she'd need to have it taped up and in a brace in order to play like she used to. At least for a few weeks. Running to Yuri's aid earlier hadn't helped it any either. Mira clicked her tongue as she figured she shouldn't put any more weight on it now. She glanced to Yuri before shrugging her shoulders and heading back to her gear.
"Hey, you were practicing earlier right? Care if I come watch?" Mira asked, surprising Yuri whose jaw dropped open. Knowing what she knew now, Mira couldn't bring herself to hate Yuri anymore. If anything, the two were kindred spirits. So why not attempt to patch things up between them?
"S-Sure!" Yuri's face broke into a wide grin as she eagerly gathered up their stuff and led Mira back to the gymnastics room.
_._._
Jason was very seriously considering slugging the three idiots behind him. Mainly because they were annoying the crap out of him. Yes he knew he'd messed up in letting Mira get involved with those two guys. But Jason knew better than anyone to try and stop Mira when she was pissed off. It was like asking for a trip to the hospital yourself. So, unless Jason absolutely had to….there was no way he was risking putting himself in her cross hairs. Especially since he didn't already care much for the reason of his friend's turmoil to begin with.
"It's a good thing we brought the tape Chance." Chase chortled from behind Jason.
"Yeah. Someone has to take care of Mira after all. If we left her to brutes, our poor girl would never get better Chase." Chance smarted off. The twin snickered together as Jason's irritation only grew.
"She just got released and you already let her get into a fight? You're slipping Jason." Malacai tacked on. It wasn't often the three got to tease Jason. They were going to take full advantage of it.
Figuring he could spare three cubes, Jason quickly stuck his hand into the bag and chunked them at the three. Somehow, he managed to smack them all in the face. Rather hard at that. Satisfied that they were now silent, Jason peeked into the gym only to see that Mira wasn't there. Before the three could pick up their taunting again he turned and headed for the gymnastics room. The minute he opened the door music met his ears as his eyes were drawn to the balance bar where Yuri was.
The silver haired girl was a natural. She moved with grace and beauty. There was no hesitation in her routine which only added to its appeal. Yuri was smiling softly as she performed a few spins before launching herself backwards into a slow motion hand stand. She performed a few more moves before moving into a dismount. Yuri launched herself high into the air, spinning incredibly fast before landing with only a small misstep to end the routine.
"Don't let your knees give too much when you land. Otherwise not bad." Mira praised from where she sat with her ankle propped up.
"I had the same problem on my floor routine too huh?" Yuri asked as she walked over. Mira tossed a water to the girl who barely managed to catch it.
"You're putting too much power forward instead of up. Give yourself more air and a chance to right your body. I may not know the technical shit to all this, but parkour has the same basic body control mechanics." Mira grinned.
"Legs are lacking, arms flail around a bit too much, and your core could stand to be strengthened a bit as well." Malacai called out. The two girls turned to see the four boys all moving to where they were.
"Hey! You're the resident parkour expert. I know it's not exactly the same, but can you give her some pointers?" Mira motioned to Yuri with her head, surprising both her and the guys.
"Sure…." Malacai motioned for Yuri to follow him as the twins trailed after them. They didn't want to push their luck around Jason anymore.
Yuri glanced over her shoulder to see Jason tending to Mira as he placed the ice on her now raised up ankle. The two were already engaged in a somewhat heated argument before Jason threw his hands up in defeat. This caused Mira to laugh, a sound the guys hadn't heard in quite some time. Yuri faced back forward as a familiar thought came to mind. Just how had Mira and Jason come to be friends? The two didn't seem like they'd run in the same social circles, let alone cross paths. Yuri opened her mouth to ask, but closed it immediately. Mira had just forgiven her. She didn't want to make the red head mad again.
"Don't worry. We all know they're an oddball pairing." Chase spoke up, surprising Yuri.
"We thought the same thing when we first started hanging around Mira ourselves." Chance added as they came to a stop near the area meant for floor exercises.
"How did they become friends?" Yuri decided to ask since the boys were okay talking about it.
"Those two became friends sometime in middle school. Believe it or not, they couldn't stand each other at first. But Mira saved Jason's life. So he's dedicated his to her." Malacai spoke up as he checked out the floor and kicked off his shoes in the process.
"West-chan did something to really help out Yamato-san?" Yuri asked, glancing back to the laughing best friends again.
"No. She literally saved his life." Chase said softly as his eyes darkened a bit.
"Those tattoos on his wrists are for more than decoration." Chance glanced over to Jason who was just pushing his long sleeves up.
Yuri's eyes widened when she saw two half sleeves on his forearms. From where she stood she couldn't tell what they were, but they were extensive and filled with quite a bit of detail. All she could make out was that the tattoos were of two figures. Jason normally wore long sleeves anytime Yuri had seen him. And any time she'd caught Jason messing around with Mira or Kise after school in the basketball gym, he'd always wore shooter sleeves similar to Mira's, but on both arms. Now she saw why. His piercings were already off putting as it was. Tattoos on a high school student were a big marker as a trouble maker. Yuri knew better of course. Jason always placed in the top during exams. The boy never failed to answer correctly when called on in class. Despite his looks he was a good person. And she'd seen first hand that his loyalty knew no bounds. If Mira had really saved his life like the others had said, Yuri could see why Jason looked at Mira with undying devotion.
"Come on. Let's go ahead and work on your routine. I'm not sure how much help I can be, but we'll see." Malacai flashed Yuri a confident grin as she turned back to what she was doing.
See all! Yuri isn't such a bad girl now is she? Even though she wasn't traumatized like Mira, she was just trying to do what she thought was right. Going about it the wrong way but nonetheless. And now that the air is cleared things will be better between Mira and Kise right? Hehehe...
I know this chapter was a tad short but trust me the next one is already in the works and I have plans to make it a bit longer than usual. For now I can't wait to see what you all thought!