AN: just kidding this chapter is my fave

SoccerGirl- this is chapter will be Tsubasa's respond

yeah i dont own captain Tsubasa

Chapter 21: Wait for Me

"I'm absolutely, irrevocably, in love with you."

He was not expecting her sudden confession, nor was he really expecting like that at all. The only thing he found he could do, was gape at her with wide unbelieving eyes.

"And I know that this is pretty sudden," she admitted, "and you only want to focus on soccer for now. But, I guess I just really had to say this to you before, I guess before I regret never telling you."

She gave him a smile, and he could only gulp. "I'm not expecting you to give me answer right away, because I'm really not expecting you to you know, return my feelings back." She chuckled shyly as she scratched her cheek. "I mean I'm just me, everybody's Anego that always hanged out with you guys. I'm not even that good looking and not that great of a soccer player. The only thing I can really do is probably cook alright and scream my lungs out for you guys. I don't even know what you would see in me. You probably even have someone you like in Brazil that's definitely more talented and gorgeous than me."

That's not true, he wanted to shout. She's their biggest supporter and she cooked the most amazing food and she's so beautiful-

"Oh god I'm rambling," she said as she twiddled with her hands. She then ran a hand through her hair. "Just, just don't think hard about this, okay. I just needed to get that off my chest. You don't need to trouble yourself about giving me an answer. You have more important things to do. Of course you do, you're going to Germany tomorrow and then to France for the International Junior Youth Tournament and here I am taking up your time when you're supposed to be resting for your flight tomorrow. Oh my god, I need to really shut up now."

He watched as she ran her hand through her hair again and took deep breaths to calm herself down.

He wanted to tell her that this was important, that she was important. But he didn't know what to say to her because even he didn't know what he felt and he didn't want to say something he didn't mean just to have her hurt in the process.

"I know this was a bad time to say that," her voice interrupted him from thinking. He didn't even notice that she moved near him. "But please, don't think about this for now and just think of the tournament okay?" her hand reached for his and she gave it a light squeeze as she peered up to him. "And no matter what you decide, promise me we will always be friends because having you in my life is the greatest thing that happened to me and being your friend is better than becoming a stranger to you."

He felt his heart skip a beat.

Then she gave him another smile. "Let's go home."

He nodded and she let go of his hand, and started to walk before him.

He suddenly began to think how warm her hand was and wished that she didn't let go, but he didn't tell her and only walked after her.

They didn't speak all the way home.

When he got home, the lights weren't on, just like how he left it. He didn't exactly tell his parents that he would be gone for a while. He did leave a note in his room that he would be going to Hikarigaoka Park to pick her up from there and will be right back as soon as he dropped her off home.

His plan was when he got home, he would go straight to bed a little amused with what kind of excuse she would give him about why he was there this late at night.

Instead, she confessed to him and now he was confused.

He went inside the kitchen and turned on the lights. He got a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water. He didn't even take a drink from it, and instead just stared at it. The water showing him his face, and he didn't even mind that he was wearing a confused frown because that's just how he felt, confused and upset because he has no idea what to feel at all.

"Tsubasa?"

His mom's voice snapped him from his thoughts.

"Is that you?"

"It's me Kaa-san," he answered back. "I'm in the kitchen."

He heard his mom's footsteps coming to the kitchen and he quickly gulped down his glass of water.

"Did Sanae-chan get home safely?" his mom asked as he turned around to face her coming from the doorway, in her pajamas. She must have read his note in his room.

"Yeah," he nodded as he tried to give a smile, but he was sure it looked more of a grimace than anything.

"Uh-oh," his mom exclaimed. "I don't like that look."

"What look?" he tried to feign innocence, even though he already knew what she was talking about.

"Oh, don't try to deny it," his mom told him. "I'm your mother and even if I didn't see for three years, I would still know what's bothering you. Now, go and have a sit while I make us some tea."

"A-alright," he hesitantly followed and sat on one of the chairs around the table. He didn't really know whether his mom could help with… whatever this is. But he'll take whatever advice he could get.

There was a mug of tea being put in front of him and he gave her his thanks. She sat across from him, also with a mug of hot tea in her hands.

"So," his mom started, "want to tell your Kaa-san what's wrong?"

He thought of how he was going to tell her what happened with them. He couldn't just exactly tell him that she confessed to him and he had no idea how he was going to approach this.

"H-have," he licked his bottom lip as he stared at his reflection on the tea's surface, "Have you ever had a close friend tell you they like you, and you don't exactly know what to do, but at the same time you don't want to hurt them?"

His mom only stared at him for a long time, and he gulped by how intense she was looking at him, but he was surprised when she only grabbed her mug up to her lips and took a sip of the tea.

"So Sanae-chan finally confessed, huh?" she sighed. Then she chuckled, "She finally found the courage."

He gave her a shock looked. "What do you mean, Kaa-san?"

She chuckled again, "She's been smitten with you for years now, my oblivious son."

He gave an embarrassed laugh and moved one of his hands to the back of neck, kneading it. "Is that so? I never, I never known."

"Well, she never did tell you," she replied. "Nor did she tell anyone for that matter. You were gone for three years, but all the while she never stopped liking you. And everyone but you noticed it. How can I have such an oblivious boy for a son, I never know." She said as she sighed dramatically.

He found that he couldn't say anything to that.

"She tried to, you know," his mom told him. "Tried to move on from you."

That took his attention and he looked up to face her. Instead she was calmly sipping her tea.

"Whenever you were mentioned, she would suddenly be quiet. She tried to go out with some boys who asked if they could date, but that didn't often considering your friends were very protective of her and thought they were unworthy to be Sanae-chan's boyfriend. They would try and intimidate all those other boys who tried to think of even laying a hand on their Anego. But I think deep down, they could only see you to be only one for her."

For some reason, he felt eternally grateful that his friends did all of those things.

"I think she even took up soccer again just to forget about you," his mom added.

For the first time, he found himself resenting the sport he loved with all his soul.

"So," his mom started again. "Did you give her your answer?"

"I-" his voice got stuck in his throat. "I haven't said anything to her." He peered down to the tea again, refusing to meet her gaze.

He heard her click her tongue, "We can't have that now, can we?"

"I know," he replied as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "I tried to say something, but I didn't know what to tell her and she never gave me a chance to talk because she fully believed that I'm never going to like her back."

"Is she right then?"

He pursed his lips together and sighed, running his hand through his hair again. "I don't know," he mumbled. "I don't know because this, this was too sudden and she just told me to push this off my mind to focus more on the tournament because she thinks it's more important than all of this."

"What do you think you should do then?"

He didn't answer her, because both of them knew that he really fucking didn't know what to do.

He heard his mom sigh and he could understand her.

"I think you should follow her and think about the tournament first," she told him. He whipped his head up to look at her with shock.

What was she talking about? Was she telling her to completely ignore her feelings and pretend that nothing happened?

He was about to complain, but she stopped him as if already knowing what he'll say.

"I'm not saying to ignore what she said," she assured her. "But Sanae-chan is a strong girl. She knew what she did and she also knew how much soccer is important to you. That's why you need to respect her decision to let you make your dreams come true first."

"I know," he muttered in defeat. "I just, I don't want to leave her hanging like that."

"If you really think that," his mom stood up and walked towards the sink to put her mug in there. "Then tell her what your answer is after the tournament."

He nodded hesitantly as she walked towards him and patted his shoulder.

"Now, why don't you get some sleep," she told him. "You have a big day tomorrow after all." She patted his arm and went out of the kitchen, reminding him to turn off the lights when he goes back to his room.

He nodded again and after putting his mug in the sink as well as turning off the lights like his mother ordered, he went back to his room.

But he knew he wasn't going to sleep that night.

He left his house early in the morning to catch the bus that was headed for Shizuoka Airport in Shizuoka. His parents, along with a sleepy Daichi already said their goodbyes to him before he left the house. He felt bad that his brother had to wake up so early in the morning just to tell him bye, but he was touched when Daichi was the one who wanted to wake up early just to see him off.

He was right though, he couldn't sleep last night. Her words were stuck in his head all throughout the night and whenever he tried to close his eyes, he could only see her smile as she told him how much she was in love with him. He tried so hard to get the image off his mind, but nothing worked. So instead of sleeping, he thought of what happened, and his feelings for her.

He liked being with her, really. She was funny, and she was a good person to talk to. She could keep up with all their soccer talk and it was no question that she cared about everyone she's close with. She could also play soccer quite well, no matter what she tries to deny. She was quite beautiful too, even if she tries to tell people otherwise.

Yes, he liked her, but he didn't know whether it was enough to be worthy of her, worthy of her love.

So, he decided that he will tell her what he thought about the next time they meet.

"Oi, Tsubasa!"

Ishizaki's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

He saw all his friends waiting for him by the bus stop. They were all waving at him and he couldn't help but smile.

"Guys!" he exclaimed as he ran up to them.

"What took you so long?" Ishizaki asked irritably. "We've been waiting here for ages."

He laughed and kneaded the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Well, I didn't think you guys would see me off."

His other friends took his side and gave jibes at Ishizaki, who only screamed at them to shut up in embarrassment.

He took that time to look around his group of friends that wanted to see him off. Almost everyone was there, except of course those that were in Europe.

And her.

She wasn't there at all.

"Is Sanae-chan," he started as he licked his bottom lip, "Is Sanae-chan here?"

His friends all stopped their bantering and looked at each other before shrugging.

"Well, we did try calling her phone," Morisaki said. "But she wasn't answering at all."

"Oh," he mumbled dejectedly. "I see."

"We could always try again," Takisugi suggested as he took out his phone.

"No, no," he told them. "It's alright. Don't call her. She's probably still sleeping. It is still too early in the morning."

"Are you sure?" Ishizaki asked him.

He nodded in confirmation. "I'm positive."

They heard the bus nearby and looked to see that it was about to arrive.

"Well, here's my bus," he told them as the bus stopped right by them.

"You take care out there okay?" Ishizaki told him. "And make sure Japan wins, you hear?"

His other friends exclaimed in agreement.

"I will," he chuckled as he got up the bus.

"And tell the other four that as well okay?"

He chuckled again and said that he would tell them that.

He waved to them as the bus started to move and he could almost hear their screams and well wishes through the window.

When he couldn't see them anymore, he found himself frowning.

He took his phone out of his pocket, trying to decide whether he should call her or not. He knew what he wanted to say, but he didn't know whether she would listen.

Oh, fuck it.

He quickly found her number and pressed the call button.

He waited for her answer, but she didn't and it only led her to her voicemail. He was disappointed that she wouldn't answer, but he needed to tell this to her.

"Hey," he started and he suddenly found his throat dry. "It's, it's me Tsubasa." He took a deep breath. "I know you told me not to think about what you said last, but I- I couldn't sleep after what you told me. And I guess, I just wanted to tell this to you because, because I think it's unfair that I have to make you wait again."

Then he found himself chuckling. "Actually I think it you're the one who should be called unfair. You told me you're in love with me when you know I have to fly to Germany today."

Then he stopped his chuckles. "But that's not why I called. I called," he stopped to take another deep breath. "I called because I just want you to know that, I can't really give you answer right now, because I don't know what to do yet. I- I think I might like you back, but I'm still confused. But, please wait for me. Until after I realize what I'm feeling. Wait fo-"

"I'll wait."

He widened his eyes when she heard her voice from the other line, just as the bus stopped because of the stoplight.

"No matter how long, I'll wait for you," he heard her voice shake. "Look outside your window," she lightly ordered.

He turned to look out his window and he felt his heart stop.

She was there, and she was just in cotton shorts and a hastily put on sweater and her hair was in a disarray and her eyes was sparkling with tears and she never looked more beautiful.

The light turned green and the bus started to move, she raised a hand to him just as he pressed his palm against the glass. He tried to keep looking at her as the bus moved away from her and she just gave her a smile.

He clenched his hand into a fist as she faded from his sight.

Wait for me.

End Chapter

AN: I absolutely adored writing this chapter! Even though writing Tsubasa's thoughts was hard. You might be wanting to strangle me about Tsubasa's answer, but I figured he would be quite confused because for all his life, soccer was his number one. I don't even think he thought of relationships at all. That's why I was surprised when he asked Sanae out in the manga, because the guy never showed any signs at all. Matsuyama and Jun showed even more signs than he did! There first kiss didn't even happen until the end of World Youth when he proposed. So yes, he would try and figure out his feelings for quite some time as he gets jealous of other guys getting chummy with Sanae.

Right rant over. thank

Anyway. thats it for now. thank you and please review!