AN: frankly i dont even know what happened but have this

Unknown- hey man, thanks for reading. i do plan on continuing its just the issue of updating lol. i dont know about making dominic die. that seems a little overboard. but i do have a plan to get rid of him

Harukachan- you and i both, bud. i dont even know whats happening with taro and aya's relationship. no promises on updating tho. thanks for reading

HimeKanata- i dont know about the making her cry part lol. but misaki will probably try and not make her cry. he's... he thinks denial is just a river in africa still. thanks for reading though 3

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

Chapter 21: Why Don't You Stay at Mine Tonight

He was pathetic, he was sure. He was even positive Louis and Marie noticed his sudden gloomy attitude ever since Ayame left. They were just nice enough to ignore him. Well, Marie was probably. If she didn't have a close leash on Louis, Taro was sure that his teammate would have taken this chance to tease and annoy the hell out of him, which was something he didn't need.

It's just really agitating, knowing that Ayame was with her ex-boyfriend.

In all honesty, he didn't have a right to feel this way. It almost felt like he was a jealous boyfriend scared that his girlfriend will suddenly have her old feelings for an old flame be lit again (which he wasn't because he's not Ayame's boyfriend and will never be. Nope, he didn't have any feelings for her- fuck it yeah he did, does). Really, he had no business even worrying about this.

But the fact that she told him that they had a bad break up was doing things to his mind. What did she even mean by that anyway? Did they end things awkwardly or did he do something to her that she wanted out immediately? But didn't she say that if anyone even tried to do something to her, this Dominic would be the first one to hurt them.

And the way she talked about him, it didn't sound like she wanted to break up with him. It sounded like she still liked him, that she was still in loved in him.

Just thinking about it was enough to make his chest hurt, making him more adamant to ignore whatever he was starting to feel for her, whatever they might be.

It didn't mean he could, not when just one look was enough for his heartbeat to stop, when her touch on his skin felt like a spark wanting to light a fire inside of him, when just one second with her was enough for him to think that spending eternity with her seemed like the perfect way to live his life.

He groaned while throwing his head back and hid his face in his hands. This was getting more complicated every moment. Why was this happening to him? To them? Ayame was only there to be a friend and help him move on from Azumi, not for him to fall in love with her.

"What got you in such a twist?" He heard Louis's voice ask him. He removed his hands from his face just in time for his friend to set two cans of beer on the coffee table and plopping down to take a seat beside him. Louis got the remote of the TV from the table and turned it on.

"Nothing," Taro sighed. "Just thinking about stuff."

"Yeah right," Louis scoffed as he grabbed his beer can. "I've known you for how long now, I could tell that it wasn't just nothing. Besides, all your brooding here practically tells us you having a big problem."

He was not brooding!

...Okay maybe he was.

Louis continued to browse the channels, mindlessly sipping from his can. Taro only turned towards the TV and joined him in perusing for an enjoyable show. It was better to let his mind be taken by something instead of thinking about his best friend. It wasn't like he could do anything about it at this point. The only thing he could really do it was wait for her to come back, hopefully tonight, in one piece, and single,

Definitely single.

...God damn it.

"You know, it's okay to be jealous," Louis suddenly spoke. He turned his head to him in surprise, caught off guard by his sudden statement. Jealous, why would he be jealous, and more importantly, of what?

"I heard from Marie," Louis continued, setting his beer on the table. "That Iris is meeting with an ex-boyfriend. You can be jealous of him, bud. There's nothing wrong if you hate the guy right now for having a date with your girl."

"Jealous?" Taro scoffed. "Why would I be jealous of him? What is there to be jealous of? Besides, she's not my 'girl'. Aya can be together with whoever she wants." He turned away from his teammate, crossing his arms in annoyance. He's not jealous. He's just… worried. Yeah, he's worried for the wellbeing of his best friend.

Louis sniggered and placed the remote on the table close to his beer. Taro glanced at the TV to see that he settled to see a channel showing swimming competitions.

"Not jealous my ass," he laughed. "Everything that you just said screams jealousy. Come on dude," he looked at him, "Stop denying it. You like Iris, and the thought of her getting back together with an ex that doesn't seem to have completely buried their past behind only pisses you off. It's completely normal."

The thought didn't piss him off, just… irritated him, and enraged him.

Fuck, he was jealous.

God damn it.

"I mean I've had my fair share of being jealous with whoever Marie dates, really you shouldn't be ashamed of feeling this way," Louis added as he took a swig from his can.

Wait, what?

"What?" Taro mumbled in shock. Did he hear him right or...

"Hmm," Louis nodded, playing with his can. "Especially when the guy tries so hard to impress her. Then they find out she lives with me." There was an amused smirk on his face, but Taro was too busy processing what he just said and admitted. "Oh man, their faces are hilarious."

"You do know that you just kind of admitted to me that you like Marie right," Taro pointed out to him.

Louis turned to him with an eyebrow raised. "So?"

"You're not even going to deny it at all?"

Louis turned away from him with a shrug. "Why should I?" he replied. "It's the truth. Unlike you, who continues to ignore what's right in front of him."

Taro ignored his jibe. "Does Marie know?" he asked.

Louis gave him a blank look. "Would I be terrorizing her so-called 'dates' if she does?"

Taro returned his blank stare back, before Louis began to cackle and he could only roll his eyes in exasperation.

"Nah, she doesn't know," Louis finally answered seriously after calming down, his hand swishing the almost empty beer can.

Suddenly, he seemed different from the Louis he was used too. He didn't seem to be as hot headed as he usually was, not as annoying. He seemed calm, the calmest he had ever been.

"How," Taro suddenly blurted out. Louis turned to him puzzled. "I mean, how did you know? That you like her."

"Oh," Louis mumbled, then he chuckled. "Don't expect anything big. It wasn't that grand you know. We were 15 and get this, it was just after you guys defeated us. I was at home, sulking and all of the sudden she came barging in with her 10 month old nephew in her arms and a bag with baby supplies. She said we're on babysitting duty. Of course, it was technically just her, but you know how she could be. I told her to fuck off, but instead she just gave the baby to me and proceeded to the kitchen to make baby food for little Matthieu. So I got stuck with babysitting with her.

"And I'm grateful that she came to be honest, no matter how much I try to deny it to her," he chuckled once more. "Looking after Matthieu made me think less about France's defeat to Japan, about how humiliating it was that the host country was defeated by this country who was just budding in the soccer world, about how stupid I was to be defeated by you guys. But while watching a children's movie that caught Matthieu's attention, she began telling me how proud she was of me, that the match was the best she ever seen me play (of course, that's different now), and that that match does not measure my worth as a soccer player. I was going to be greater than this, and losing the match with Japan was just an obstacle I just had to get over."

Then a fond smile entered Louis's face. "And as I stared at her dumbstruck, I felt my heart skip a beat. Little Matthieu suddenly giggled and clapped his hands about what happened in the movie, Marie, clapping and cooing with him, and I realized," his face softened and Taro could realize what that expression meant.

"I love her," Louis said softly, his voice barely a whisper, but Taro heard it perfectly.

Silence came upon them, and only the announcer of the swim meet declaring who was the winner of the heat was heard around them.

It was- it was definitely something he didn't expect to find out.

"When are you going to tell her?" Taro managed to say after finding his voice.

Louis shrugged and finished the rest of his drink. "Who knows," he answered nonchalantly.

"You're not going to tell her?" Taro asked incredulously. All that for nothing?

"Oh I'm going to tell her," Louis said. "Just not right now. Marie's… She's not ready yet I think."

"Not ready?" Taro repeated.

"Marie's... a little confused about herself," Louis answered. "She's trying to break free of her sister's shadow, and it's been hard for her to discover who she really is. To be honest, she's only figuring out herself now. There was a reason she went to New York aside for school reasons. She went there to get away from… here."

The last word came out softly, and Louis's gaze lowered to his hand.

"And you just let her?" Taro asked.

"Well, yeah," Louis shrugged. "I can't do anything about it. Marie already decided to go. I didn't want her to, of course. But when I looked at her, I knew she needed to go, to finally discover who she was, to see who I see whenever I look at her."

"Did it work then? Does she finally see what you see?"

"Not yet," Louis smiled. "She's getting there though. It's fun actually. Because now, I see a different her, and she's more beautiful than ever. She's always changing Taro, and seeing her evolve is something amazing."

Taro decided that this suited Louis perfectly, love suited him perfectly.

But…

"But what if, you know," Taro tried to pass it off as nothing. "What if she found someone else?"

Louis managed to chuckle as he put his empty can the table. "That's not going to happen."

Taro raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Marie's mine," Louis turned to him with a smirk. "She just doesn't know it yet."

Taro stared at his teammate incredulously with with wide eyes. He was taken aback with his declaration. But, he didn't expect any less from Louis.

Slowly, his lips formed a grin and he felt a chuckle escape from his mouth. Louis's smirk softened and soon enough both of them were sharing chuckles between the two of them.

"Hey, I just saw a car pull up onto the driveway," a familiar voice entered their ears.

Both of them stopped laughing and froze, Louis even beginning to sweat as he stared with dread at Taro. Taro could only shake nervously as they stiffly turned towards the entrance of the living room.

Oh god, he hoped that she didn't hear any of that.

"I think that might be Iris. It looks like Dominic's car," Marie continued, her gaze directed at the hallway. She didn't seem to be have heard what they said, which was a good thing. But even then, it was still too early to relax.

"You want to welcome her back, Taro?" Marie said as she turned to them with a smile. "I'm sure that she'll lik- what's wrong? Why do you guys look like you've seen a ghost?"

Taro and Louis shared looks between them, before Louis cleared his throat.

"Nothing," he exclaimed, "Nothing. We just got done watching a horror movie. We thought there was the discombobulated body of the monster from the movie. Turns out it was just you, which isn't exactly any better."

Marie produced an offended gasp and started stomping towards her best friend, hitting him lightly and telling him to take what he just said. Louis's only let out an annoyed sound and started to tell her to quit hitting him.

Taro chuckled to himself as he watched the two of them banter. Just from his perspective, he was sure Louis didn't need to keep his feelings to himself longer than he expected, Marie was very much in love with him, even if she didn't know it yet.

He stood up from his seat, telling the two friends that he was going to see Ayame in. The two was too busy wrestling to even hear him, so he just left to go the door.

Just as he neared towards the door, he suddenly felt himself lighten up. Finally, she was back! At least now he knew that she was safe and sound.

Knowing if she was still single though, was another matter altogether.

Why was he thinking about that anyway. Ayame was back, that's all that mattered.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the door handle and opened it.

He wasn't expecting to see her right when he swung the door open. It didn't look like she was expecting him either. Her hand was up the hair, fisted as if ready to knock. She stared at him with wide eyes, probably surprised by his sudden opening of the door. He was expecting a smart retort coming from her, but instead she continued to stare at him with her eyes wide.

Smiling, he greeted her. "Hey! Welcome ba-" wait, something seems wrong. "Are you okay?"

Ayame opened her mouth to answer him, but before she could even speak, her lower lip trembled and a strangled gasp escaped from lips, and soon tears started to stream down her face.

"Aya? What's wrong?" he asked in worry, taking her face in his hands and wiped her tears with his thumb. "Aya?"

Her shoulders shook as she tried to stop her cries, but instead they began to turn into sobs. Quickly, he brought her into his arms and let her bury her face to his chest, muffling the sobs that broke Taro's heart. He started rubbing her back, trying to help her calm down.

Aya wasn't supposed to be like this. Crying didn't fit her, unless she's crying about that absurd movie she made them watch. Ayame wasn't supposed to be crying at all.

He directed his gaze at the silver SUV that brought her home and met eyes with the driver. He glared at him. Dominic, for his part, seemed to be guilty for making her like this. He could see it from his eyes. He was sure now that he was the reason why Ayame was sobbing uncontrollably. But Taro didn't even let him come down to do anything. He only closed the door slowly to let him that he wasn't welcome, and God knows how much pain he'll bring to that bastard for making her cry like this.

He swore that he will never make her cry like this again.

He leaned against the closed door as he tried soothing her again, but Ayame only clung to his shirt tighter and her shoulders shook even more violently. Seeing her like this was breaking his heart.

Slowly he felt the both of them slipping down as he tried soothing her more; Ayame still held onto his shirt, but her cries didn't waiver, it was as if they only became stronger.

"Taro?" Marie's worried voice drifted to his ears. She peered out of the living room. "Is everything oka- mon Dieu! What's wrong?" She quickly went to where they were, kneeling beside Ayame as she started rubbing her back in soothing circles.

Taro turned to her and only shook his head, tightening his hold on her.

Soon, Louis joined them, probably hearing the commotion. All three of them tried to their best to calm her down, but it didn't seem to be working.

Soon, Ayame's hold on his shirt lessened and her shoulders didn't shake as much anymore and he felt her slump her forehead against his chest, and finally Taro could release a relieved sigh from his lips.

Seeing him sigh, Marie got to work immediately.

"Iris?" she started calmly. "Ma chere? How about we get you changed out of those clothes? I'm sure you're just dying to get out of that stuffy dress and into comfortable clothes. And those shoes, mon Dieu, those must killing your feet at this time."

Slowly, Ayame stood with her as she sniffed. Her shoulders stiff shook, but Taro was sure she was trying to hard not to cry again.

He could only stare at her back as Marie led her upstairs, soothing her with her words as they disappeared into Ayame's room.

"Do you know what happened?" Louis asked him quietly.

Taro only shook his head. "I only opened the door and she started crying," he answered. "When I looked at the guy in his car, he seemed to know what happened. I'm even sure he was the reason why Aya was like this."

He felt his hands clench into fists. "I swear though, the bastard won't ever make her again. I won't let him."

He heard Louis whistle from beside him. "Remind me not to get on your bad side," he remarked.

Taro scowled at him with displeasure. Louis only shrugged and went back to the living room.

He sighed and went to the kitchen. He started to prepare some hot chocolate for Aya. For sure she wanted to some after such an event. It was the least he could do.

As he was going upstairs with a mug of the sweet drink, he met Marie who had a worried look on her face.

"She didn't say anything," Marie told him, "or well, she wouldn't. I didn't want to push her. Maybe she'll tell it to you."

With that, Marie continued down the stairs and joined Louis in the living room.

Sighing, he went up the stairs and continued to Ayame's room. He stopped just outside, taking this time to observe how she was doing.

She was sitting on the bed, already under the covers but her back was propped up against the pillows. Her hair was gone from their elegant curls and instead was put into one single braid down her back. She was staring at a spot on the wall, her chocolate eyes missing the shine he was used to seeing in them.

Taking a deep breath, he went in.

"Hey," he said softly. Ayame turned to his direction, blinking before giving him a tight-light lipped smile.

He moved to stand beside her bed. "I brought you hot chocolate," he said, trying to brighten her spirits. She only gave him a nod.

"Thanks," she said. "You can just set it on the table. I can drink it later" He followed her instructions, but he was starting to get more concerned for her. She never passed up hot chocolate.

Ayame moved to side, taking the signal, he sat down beside her. When he was settled, Ayame immediately set her head on his shoulder and released a deep breath.

Without him knowing, his hand entwined with hers and there was a thought in the back of his mind how they fit perfectly, but it didn't last long when he felt her hold him tightly.

"You," he started, keeping his eyes to the wall against them. "You want to talk about it."

"Not really," she answered honestly. "I kind of just want to sit here and stare at the wall, you know."

No he didn't know.

"Okay," he heard himself say. And then they were covered in silence.

He didn't know long they stayed together like that. He only knew how her hand grasped his firmly as his thumb rubbed soothing circles on her hands. He just knew that Ayame needed this, and that was all that mattered to him.

He took a quick glance at the clock and decided, even if it he didn't really want to, that it was time for him to leave and let her rest.

"I should leave," he said, slowly untangling himself from her. "You should sleep. You had a long day." He was about to stand up but he suddenly felt her grab his wrist.

"Wait," she exclaimed. He turned to her, puzzled.

She bit her bottom lip, looking away from him. "Can you-" she said. "Would you-"

She then looked at him, a soft blush on her cheeks. "Can you stay here? J-just for tonight?"

He stared at her surprise, not expecting her request.

"Okay," he heard himself say again. Slowly, Ayame loosened his grip on her as he repeated more softly, "Okay."

Gingerly he slipped under the covers with her. He could feel Ayame's eyes on him, and he could feel his heart beat loudly against his chest. He turned off the bedside lamp and slowly turned to face her, and even against the darkness of the room, Taro could clearly see her.

He wrapped his arms around her as she sought out his touch, and once she was settled, Ayame didn't even realize she was already asleep.

AN: lol what

yeah thanks for reading. see you sometime