AN: hullo, another chapter here hi

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

Chapter 35: Resolved

Nationals for girls this year was earlier than the boys' tournament, being starting a week earlier than theirs. As usual, it was the same teams who duked it out on the field, and basically it was a repeat of the showdown they had in their second year of junior high, and it ended quite the same too. They won for the second time. And Nao-buchou was glowing by the end of it. That was the first time she saw their captain smile that big since the time she got the captaincy last year. She's even not that pessimistic anymore. Even Chieko-senpai and Rinko-senpai was celebrating in their own way. There were tracks of tears on Rinko-senpai's face and Chieko-senpai was laughing and crying at the same time

But she could see why they would feel that way. It was just like with the third years last year. It was their last year in high school and they won Nationals. This meant something even more for Nao-buchou and the others, they won it twice. Even if the last match ended with a PK shootout for them against KitaGaku. The three of them wouldn't stop thanking all of them, their underclassmen for letting them win Nationals.

Of course, they them that it was their hard work that let won them the tournament.

They could only laugh as they continued to celebrate.

Well, they're not exactly celebrating yet. Their boys' team still need to defend the title from Toho. No surprise there. Hyuuga-kun seemed to be more amped up to get gain the title just for Toho this time.

Unfortunately for him, Nankatsu wasn't giving it to them easily. Not when their team was stronger than ever.

Sucks to be them.

Anyway, since they got their tournament early, they figured that they would show up at the boys' training field and give them one last help in preparing for their last match tomorrow. And what's surprising about this was that it was Nao-buchou who was the most eager to train them. She definitely believed that this has something to do about them embarrassing Nankatsu if they didn't win at all. She's actually pretty scared for the boys because Nao-buchou could be quite ruthless when it comes to, um… punishment. Her "Anee-chan" episode wouldn't be able to compare to it.

So here they were, watching as Nao-buchou was shouting for them to pick up their skirts and move it, you pansies. Ayame, being who she was, was also joining in with Nao-buchou's fun. She was just really there to insult the boys. Even their first years was joining in, to the boys' chagrin. They're probably thinking how demoralizing this is to their egos, having first years' call them lame.

Poor them.

She heard Nao-buchou telling them to take a break, actually feeling a little bit relieved for them. They've been doing drills and exercises since an hour ago and she knew how tough those could be. If those weren't needed to prevent injuries she would skip them all together.

She got up from where she sat on the floor and proceeded to walk towards the boys, carrying a case full of water bottles.

"Great job surviving the dreaded drills everyone," she greeted the group of panting boys on the ground, sitting tiredly. "Be thankful that she's not exactly going to train you hard today since you have the match tomorrow."

"This isn't hard?" Ishizaki-kun whined. "I feel like dying, again. This seemed worse than yesterday!"

"Agreed," Kisugi-kun said before squeezing the life out of his water bottles. Man, they sure were thirsty.

"Really?" Tsubasa remarked as he wiped a trail of water from his lips. "I think today was easier."

His friends could only look at him blankly.

"It's you Tsubasa," Izawa-kun said. "You're opinion doesn't count."

"Hey!" he cried out, offended. The boys could only laugh at him while giving each other high fives.

"If you have time to laugh your asses off then I'm guessing you're done with your break," Nao-buchou hollered behind them. "Well, in that case, move it wimps. You have a match to win."

Nao-buchou's directions were met by groans and whines, but they followed anyway. They knew that this wasn't for nothing, that this was all for them. So they continued to practice so that they could be ready for tomorrow's match.

"Don't injure yourselves," she called out to them. She was about to sit down, deciding to watch the boys a little closer. Besides, Nao-buchou will probably call her over soon to referee for their practice match. Or if her teammates show up, then maybe they would be the one the boys will be playing against. Where were day anyway? They should be helping the two of them instead of gallivanting along Shibuya's street.

"Sanae-chan?"

She looked up, surprised to hear someone calling for her. It was even more surprising to see Subaru-kun interrupting her thoughts. Shouldn't he be on the field along with the other boys?

"Oh, hey there Subaru-kun," she greeted him as she stood. "Can I help you with anything? Do you need any taping? A water bottle? Some Band-Aids?"

She started to rummage through the random bags her boys owned. She's sure they wouldn't mind her looking through them, she just had to find-

"No, I'm fine," he told her frantically. "I'm fine. I just- I- Can I talk to you?"

She stopped looking through the bags. She didn't feel right about the way he said it.

Oh no, oh no, oh no. Please not now. In fact, please never say what she knew he was going to say.

"Oh," she mumbled, "Oh. Sure. I-I guess."

"Thanks," she heard him mutter.

Suddenly, they found themselves lost for words. Well, he was. She really didn't have anything to say to him. They were just standing there, trying to not meet each other's eyes. This was really becoming awkward.

She opened her mouth, about to ask what he wanted but he beat her to it.

"I like you," he declared.

Damn it.

She found her throat dry, and her voice didn't want to come out. She knew this was coming, and she was prepared for it, a little. It's just that, it was still nerve wracking to hear someone you treated as a friend confess to you. What's even worse was that knowing this friend didn't have a chance because she was honestly and fully in love with someone else.

"Oh," she said. "I-I'm sorry Subaru-kun. I- I-"

"I know," he replied. "I know. You're in love with Oozora."

That caught her off guard.

"I've seen the way you guys act," he continued as he took steps towards her. "I've seen you guys move around each other. I've seen the way you guys look at each other. I know. Someone has to be blind to not see how much you guys are into each other."

"Oh," she mumbled dumbly. For reason, this made her more uncomfortable that she already was.

"But," he added as he stopped a few feet away from her. "I- I wanted to say this to you for a long time now, because I just wanted you give me a chance, to give me a chance."

She didn't know if she could because her heart only belonged to one person and she didn't think it wanted to be anyone else's.

"I know that, that might be impossible," he said. "But Oozora didn't seem to be thinking about anything but soccer right now. Though I don't know what happened between the two of you that made you seem closer, but please," the way he pleaded made her look at him suddenly. And her chest felt tight and painful when she saw his face.

"Please give me a chance."

She could only look down, scared that what she might say will already break his heart than it already was.

She heard him sigh.

"After Nationals," he started. "The association will be picking the members for the World Youth coming up next year. But it's not about the players. It's the scouts. So the association will really be picking between my scout's team, and Oozora's scout. There will be a match between our teams.

"I know that you'll be rooting for Oozora," he pointed out calmly, as if he was sure that she was going to do that. "But, if we win against him, I- I hope you'd be okay to just go on a date me. Just one date."

Again, she didn't say anything, only stared down.

"T-thanks for listening to me," Subaru-kun said. There was small silence between them and the next thing she heard were ruffled footsteps and felt a chase kiss on her head.

She looked up in surprise, but the he was already gone, running back towards the field. She watched him join in and put a hand on her chest.

Her heart was beating fast.

If she looked towards the other side of the field, she would have seen Tsubasa frowning from what he just saw.

She was going all out in Nankatsu High's colors of light blue and white, wearing a shirt with the school's name on it that Ayame made. Apparently it was some kind of thing in American schools to be wearing the school's colors whenever a prominent sports team of the school were having an important match to support their athletes. So Ayame made it a thing in their school and convinced everyone to wear light blue and white for today. And it worked. Their side of the stadium was littered with the colors of their school they look like a sea of Styrofoam peppered with light blue sprinkles. Yeah, it was that terrible.

But damn were they supportive. She could see it in the boys' eyes. The way they were laughing and waving at everyone. She could see that they appreciated every single person who wore their colors and went to support them.

The Toho players and supporters could only stare at them in disbelief and confusion. Hyuuga-kun even looked towards them in the stands mouthing "What the hell?" to which she answered by sticking her tongue out at him. He could only roll his eyes while she laughed at his reaction.

Then her eyes met Tsubasa, and she noticed there was something bothering him amidst this rowdy people. She knew that by now, fighting against Toho and Hyuuga-kun, he would be the most excited amongst everyone. But right at this moment, there was something in his eyes that told her that he was thinking deeply about something.

"What's wrong?" she mouthed to him. Hopefully it wasn't anything big, because he really needed to focus on this match.

She saw him open his mouth, as if he was about to mouth something back to her, but he closed it and shook his head. Instead he looked at her intensely, as if saying something to her with just his eyes. And she understood it. She couldn't exactly describe it, but with just that one stare, she knew what he wanted to say.

So she gave him an encouraging smile and a salute. She felt her heart flutter once he returned her smile, laughing as well as he saluted her back.

She watched him as he turned towards the field and ran towards the other boys, joining them for warm-ups. Whatever was bothering him was gone for now. He knew his priorities and whatever he was thinking, she was sure that he would tell her after this.

So she was going to trust him to know what to do the best, and if by the end of the match he was still bothered by something, then she'll listen to him and support him.

Even if someone else wanted her support. But no matter how she tried, how much she thought about it, how much she tried to convince herself to give Subaru-kun a chance, she couldn't because Tsubasa has it till the day she dies.

She took the charm she gave him out of her shirt, taking it off her neck.

"Tsubasa!" she screamed. He turned to her direction, along with the other boys surrounding him. She held out the necklace by the chain. She gave it a few seconds, before suddenly bringing it to her lips and giving it a kiss.

She could only laugh as he flushed brightly while everyone of the boys started teasing him. But when their eyes met again, she knew that he would be alright.

Yes, Subaru-kun was an amazing guy, but her heart could only belong to one person.

End Chapter

AN: sorry subaru but sanae's sure about her man, so yeah sorry man. see what i did with the charm? its like kissing tsubasa but not really.

hahaha thats it for today, thanks for reading and please review cya soon