Can I Lie?

by Apple Syder

"Ugh! Idiot. Fine, I…like you…because…you can pitch 160km." He broke out laughing. "Well, it's a good thing I can pitch 160km, otherwise I'd be out of luck, huh?" He shifted to face her better. "Why do you really like me, Aoba? Why did you choose me, instead of waiting for some other guy who could pitch faster?" "...Can I lie?" An epilogue full of fluff and stuff.

A/N: Don't own anything. An epilogue for Cross Game by Mitsuru Adachi.

---

Can I Lie?

"Can I lie?"

"Sure."

"We're going to the Koshien. I'll pitch 160km. And…I love Tsukishima Aoba more than anyone else."

—

"I've always hated you. I hate you more than anyone in the whole world."

"…I know."

—

Click.

"Hm?" Aoba turned to look over her shoulder.

A few steps behind her in on the train platform was the rest of the team. Finally. What on earth had taken them so long? It was mid day on a Wednesday in August. The roads from the hospital couldn't have been that busy. Technically, they didn't need to be in Nishinoyami until Friday, the day before their first game, but Coach Maeno had called in a few favors and gotten them a time slot on the practice fields for Thursday. So six and a half hours by train, with two connections and an hour wait halfway, and they would be in the same city as Koshien Stadium. They had actually made it.

Her whole family was ecstatic about it. Her father had been stocking up on Seishuu High merchandise, and Momiji had been telling every customer at the café, and Ichiyou hummed to herself. And, somewhere in Heaven, her mother and sister, Wakaba, would be happy, too.

So why in the heck she had to wait around for these lazy idiots when they were the ones who actually got to play and she couldn't even sit in the dugout was beyond her. How dare they make her wait?

With a quick glare she snapped her mouth open to yell at them all, when she noticed the undeniably smug looks on their faces. Then her eyes zeroed in on the phone in Nakanishi's hands, pointed in her direction.

No. Not her direction. Their direction.

Immediately, she yanked her hand out of Kou's.

Dang it all. She'd almost forgotten that it wasn't normal for him to be standing next to her, holding her hand. After the first ten minutes of grueling anxiety and sweaty palms, she'd realized that he was holding her hand back, firmly but gently, with no signs of letting go. When had she relaxed? When had the presence of his sturdy figure beside her calmed her down? When had she settled into a sense of peace and security, forgetting that they were standing around, holding hands in public? And for just how long?

With her hand suddenly free, feeling cool with the loss of his touch in the summer heat, she found herself staring up at him. He was looking back at her with the same look of surprise and embarrassment that she was sure was mirrored on her own face.

She couldn't. She still couldn't look him in the eyes. Gosh dang it, she'd been looking him in the eyes since birth. When had it become so hard? This, whatever this was between them now, was still too new. Still too much like a dream. Something impossible.

She quickly turned from him, her hands curling into fists.

"Uh-oh," Nakanishi said good-naturedly, pulling his phone back, "She looks mad."

"What the heck do you idiots think you're doing?" she snapped.

Akaishi, who towered behind Nakanishi's plump figure, pointed simply at the phone. "Ah. Documenting evidence. So we have proof."

"Proof for what? Proof of what?"

Akaishi and Nakanishi looked away from her innocently, and she knew she wouldn't get much more out of them. They'd known her too long; they'd known Kou too long.

But the sniffling second years behind them were another story. She rounded on them and they jumped, in the middle of wiping their tears and blowing their noses.

"And just what are you morons crying about?" she demanded.

"Who, us? Oh, n-nothing."

"We're not crying."

"Not at all."

"We're happy, really. We couldn't have asked to lose to a more worthy opponent than Kitamura senpai."

"Lose?" she snapped again, ignoring the heat rising in her face. She wasn't used to this. She wasn't used to being this vulnerable. She wasn't used to being accused of being with Kou, and having it be true. She didn't dare look back at him to see his reaction to all this. "What the heck are you talking about losing? You can't lose if there's no game!"

"She's right."

Everyone turned to Azuma. The tall, power house batter stood at the back of the group, his face serious as always and his arms crossed.

"It's not a game if you know who the winner will be from the start," he said.

"Eh?" Aoba started.

The second years turned to Azuma with reverence and respect. "Azuma senpai…you're just like us…you got dumped, too."

Without looking at anyone, Azuma turned and walked away, saying calmly, "I'm not like you."

The second years called pathetically after him and Nakanishi and Akaishi laughed. Aoba immediately stomped toward them, effectively scattering the second years and yelling at them to organize their luggage before someone tripped on the platform. The team manager, Hiroko appeared along with Coach Maeno, and they stood by and commented on everyone's excitable energy for the upcoming tournament. Senda finally showed up, calling to them all too loudly and making a fuss about what seemed to be going on, which was when she turned on him for being later than everyone else.

With Senda apologizing to her profusely and the second years around her telling her that they would be supportive of her, no matter who she dated, she felt her heartbeat for the first time. It was hard. It was fast. Just like it was every time something that had to do with Kou came up in a conversation lately. Like every time he looked at her.

Dang it. She wanted to turn and look at him. She shouldn't. It would just give all these idiots more fuel for their fire. But before she could stop herself, she was glancing over her shoulder.

He wasn't looking at her. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed. He was surrounded by Akaishi, Nakanishi, and Azuma now, like he almost always was. He was looking at Nakanishi's phone.

Over the drawl of Coach Maeno rounding up the second years and scolding Senda, she heard Kou's familiar voice drift to her, "You're going to send that to me, right?"

Then he turned and caught her eye. And smiled.

Stupid cheeky smile. Stupid mischievous undertone that accompanied it every time he teased her. Stupid other emotion that was always there, which she had only recently begun to recognize was affection.

Her face was warm.

---

Ten days of games, practices, private trainings, and interviews could take its toll on professionals, Aoba assumed. The Koshien tournament was hitting her team of seventeen and eighteen year olds twice as hard.

She was almost as exhausted as they were. Practices and trainings were her home ground, her territory, her battlefield. They played so hard every time they were on the field, so it was her job to make sure that every time they went out there they were prepared for anything. She couldn't show her fatigue—she had to be the example. She had to be the backbone. She had to show them that her support wouldn't let them fall easily.

It was working, so far. With two games and two wins under their belt, they were doing incredibly well for a first time team in the Koshien tournament. Akaishi said they were lucky—all of their opponents so far were from smaller regions than where they were from. Fewer competitors, easier wins. But the small regional teams had held their own, and her boys were all bushed because of it. She'd already passed three hotel rooms where her teammates snored loudly, some of them still fully dressed, not having the energy to shower and change. Aoba had a key to all the rooms. To her surprise Coach Maeno had given her a key as well as Hiroko, saying he trusted the two of them not to lose them over anyone else. Kou had teased her, calling her their mother. She had smacked him.

She checked in on the last few rooms, making sure everyone was doing all right. A couple of the boys were still awake, and she passed out the painkillers and IcyHots, which they thanked her for gratefully. She did the complete rounds before coming back to the door she had skipped. Kou's door.

They were bunking up, of course, three to a room. Hiroko and Aoba were together at the end of the hall, across from the Coach's room. Azuma had quietly snagged Akaishi and Nakanishi before Kou could have, leaving him stuck with Senda and a second year, Haruto. Kou had complained, Senda had been melodramatically offended, and Haruto had shrugged. But it hadn't really mattered. They barely spent any time in their rooms except to sleep.

She stood outside of Kou's door, key in hand, but frozen. This was a routine check. It was normal. All she had to do was open the door, peek in, and make sure that all three boys were accounted for. Then she could report back to Hiroko. That was it. Normal. Her job.

Gosh dang it, why was it impossible just because it was Kou's room?

Well. Aoba Tsukishima was never one to let boys stop her from doing anything. She was the only girl on an all boy team that had made it to the Koshien tournament, for heaven's sake. She grit her teeth together, a new flame of determination burning in her chest, and aggressively grabbed the door handle.

"Hey, Aoba."

She had to bite down on her tongue to keep from screaming as she practically jumped out of her socks. She whirled around, a glare already prepared for the owner of the voice she knew too well.

"Kou, what the heck are you doing? Are you trying to scare someone to death, walking around these dark hallways?" she said in the best whisper-shout she could.

"Oh. Sorry." He blinked back at her, scratching his side. He was in a tank top and shorts, a towel slung over his shoulder and his hair still a bit damp from the showers he was evidently returning from. How he still had energy to stand while the rest of his teammates were passed out in the rooms around him was beyond her. She herself had been looking forward to crashing on her own bed, until this new bout of adrenaline had entered her system, that is.

"What are you doing?" she asked, still trying to whisper but not doing a great job of it.

He held up an end of the towel. "Coming back from the shower."

"I can see that," she huffed, pretending that she didn't find herself asking stupid questions when he was around. "Why so late? Everyone's asleep."

"Ah, I was looking for Hiroko. She said she would rub my shoulders and pitching arm for me, but I think she's busy with Azuma. His wrist was still pretty swollen from when he fell earlier."

"Ah. Well, I can do it, if you want."

"Yeah?"

"Sure. We wouldn't be in good shape if your pitching arm gave out on us now. We barely made it past the first two rounds, and our next game is tomorrow…why are you smiling?"

"No reason."

She led him to the end of the hall, where there was a small alcove away from the rooms with some chairs and a coffee table. There was only a window with the moonl and streetlamps to cast blue light and shadows on them, which she was grateful for. She didn't need him seeing her pink cheeks when she sat him down in a chair and started rubbing his shoulders. And heaven knew she didn't need to be turning on any lights that might wake someone up and cause them to be found. They'd never live it down.

It was quiet while she worked. His head lolled back and forth, and she would have thought he was asleep if he didn't ask for a certain place to be rubbed harder every once in a while. She tried to focus on the most helpful things Hiroko had taught her and not on the boy in front of her. The boy who was an all-star pitcher who had almost single handedly taken his team to the Koshien national tournament. The boy who could pitch like lightning and who had told her less than three weeks ago that he loved her.

Sort of. In a round about way.

His voice startled her coming out of the silence. "Did Akaishi get ahold of Akane?"

"Yeah. I talked to her for a minute, too. She's been out of the hospital for a week, and the doctors say her body is accepting the surgery perfectly. She wants to take a train down here for the game tomorrow, but even if she somehow convinced her parents, I don't think Akaishi will let her."

Kou chuckled quietly. "I'm glad she's doing better," he said.

"Me, too. She told me to tell you that she's been watching our games and you look super cool on the mound every time. Next to Akaishi, that is."

"Oh, really?"

She rolled her eyes at the smug sound of his voice, but let it slide.

Honestly, she couldn't believe that it wasn't Kou who was with Akane. Akaishi and Akane seemed to be getting along better and better, but every once in a while Aoba had to stop and squeeze her eyes shut. It was wrong to see Wakaba with anyone but Kou. But, then, Akane wasn't really Wakabe, even if she seemed just like her dead sister. And for some bizarre reason that Aoba didn't understand, Kou didn't want Akane. He wanted…

"Me. But why?"

"Hm?"

She almost died when she realized she had said that out loud. Stupid idiot. This was all his fault. He'd made her dumber than ever.

"Did you say something?" he asked.

"Nope. You're imagining things." She avoided his gaze as he turned to look at her, and instead made herself busy bustling around to kneel beside him and take his right arm. She was careful with it, aware that it was the instrument that they would be using to crush all the other teams. When had he gotten so tan and muscular? Her own hands were plenty calloused from her fair share of hard work, dirt, and pitches, but for some reason his looked different. It made her fingers more hesitant than normal.

She hadn't held his hand since that day at the train station. She had hardly talked to him alone since then, either, even though everyone kept joking about "giving them space". She kept yelling at them that they were idiots who talked about unnecessary things. Really, though, she did want to talk to him. About a lot of things. About how he felt about the tournament. About Akane and Akaishi, and about Azuma's confession of his feelings towards her not long ago. About Wakaba. About why her over someone else cuter and more girly and nicer to him.

She was just Aoba. Just the girl who was more boy than anything else. Just the girl who could never play in a real game. Just the girl who wasn't Wakaba. She was pretty sure she had only ever been "not Wakaba" to him when Wakaba was alive, and maybe even more after she had died. And Wakaba—

"Hmm."

The gentle sound reminded her that Kou wasn't just in her thoughts, but was actually in front of her as well. The sound had been somewhere between a hum and a laugh, and she glanced up to find him looking down at her, the moonlight showing a small smile on his face.

"What?" she asked.

He blinked, as if surprised to find her addressing him. He turned away. "Ah, no, nothing, I was just…" He stopped scrambling for words, seeming to make up his mind about something. He turned back to look at her, and she found herself forced to look into his eyes again. Dang it. When had he become so attractive? Stupid eyes and smile and jawline and unruly hair.

He left his arm where it was in her hands, but with his free hand he reached up and tugged a piece of her short hair, the back of his fingers brushing her cheek. They were warm.

She froze. No one ever touched her like this, and if they tried, she smacked them away immediately. To have that person be Kou was so surprising that she didn't even think to push his hand away.

He paused, as if thinking again, his eyes moving from her hair in his fingers to her eyes again. "I was just thinking that sometimes you can be pretty cute."

What.

What.

Cute.

Pretty cute.

He thought she was pretty cute.

Kou Kitamura thought she was pretty cute. Cute enough to touch her face.

…Sometimes.

"Sometimes?" she echoed. Even she wasn't sure why she had to fixate on the one negative thing, instead of everything else about this moment. "Sometimes?"

He turned away from her again, hiding that stupid smile. What was he smiling about this time?

"I'm kind of hungry," he said, "You have anything to eat?"

"What do you mean, sometimes?"

"But if it's anything you cooked, I'll pass. I don't need to be sick for the game tomorr—ow, ow, Aoba!"

---

The summer didn't seem to be cooling down very much. It was halfway through September, but the heat persisted. She couldn't believe how many people still came in to the Clover Café to order coffee every day.

"Don't they know we sell iced tea?" Aoba complained, scrubbing off the counter before wiping off her forehead with the back of her wrist. "I'm going to start saying we're out of coffee. I won't be held responsible if someone passes out here."

Akane giggled behind her. She'd been back to work for three days now, having mostly healed from her time in the hospital. Aoba still didn't let her do any lifting, though. She made it a point to show up right when Akane was picking up a box of new mugs, right when she was taking out the trash, right when she needed to stand on a chair to clean the windows. Ichiyou scolded Aoba for treating Akane like a china doll, but Akane always said thank you anyway.

"It's fine. A cup of warm coffee won't hurt them." Akane said.

"It might in this heat!"

Momiji ran in then, fanning herself with a paper fan. "Hey, Akane, Akaishi's here. He told me to tell you that he'll be over after a round in the batting cage."

Akane's cutest, sweetest smile lit her face. "Thank you, Momiji."

Momiji returned and Aoba watched as Akane resumed washing the dishes, her humming brighter than it was before.

"So, things are still going well with you and Akaishi?" Aoba said. It was more of a statement than a question.

"Mmm!" Akane responded. "He's still far too concerned about my health, but I keep telling him I feel fine. He won't let me go anywhere alone or very far. So we compromised—he's going to take me on a date, but I agreed that we'll go to a movie. Then I won't have to walk around too much."

Aoba smiled. "Good. You should still take it easy."

Akane returned the smile. "You worry almost as badly as he does."

Aoba couldn't help it. She'd become very attached to Akane. She was like the sister she never had. Well, actually, she was like the sister she did have, but who was gone. And Aoba didn't know if she would have been able to handle losing another sister. She would have done anything for Akane. She would have given her the world if she could. As it was, she'd given her friendship, a job, various gifts for her family for their support. And she'd tried to give her Kou.

Although, that had been more for Kou's benefit. Akane was so like Wakaba that Aoba had thought for sure she was meant to be with Kou. Certainly it would have healed all the holes in his heart from Wakaba's loss.

But.

He hadn't taken her. He had stepped back and let Akaishi have her. He had settled. For…

"Me. But why?"

"Hm?" Akane said, turning to her. "Did you say something?"

"No. Just your imagination."

Akaishi rounded the corner then. The smiles on Akane's and Akaishi's faces when they saw each other made Aoba's heart skip. Wow. It was amazing to see, no matter how many times she had seen it before. With Akane and Akaishi. With older sister, Ichiyou, and her fiancée, Junpei. With Kou and Wakaba when they were kids.

"Hey, Akaishi," Aoba greeted.

"Hey, Aoba. So are you mad at Kou?"

"Huh? No. I haven't seen him all day." She put her hands on her hips. "Why? What has he done?"

"Oh, no. He's just sitting outside the building." Akaishi jabbed a thumb in the direction of the entrance. "I just thought you were probably mad at him and were making him sit outside or something."

"Of course not!" she said indignantly, although she knew that was something she would probably do. But only to Kou. Because he was an idiot.

"Well, you should tell him to come in," Akane said cheerfully. "It's too hot for him to be out there."

Akaishi turned obediently, but Aoba held up a hand. "Ah, wait. Don't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because…" Aoba sighed, picking up a mug to dry it off. "If he hasn't come in already, then that means he doesn't want to talk to anyone."

"Eh?" Akaishi said. "Then why's he here? Or why isn't he in the batting cages?"

Aoba scraped at a spot on the mug, not looking up at them. She felt a flood of emotion, of what Kou must be feeling.

The Koshien tournament. They had lost. They'd made it past three games, and then lost the fourth. Badly. Their team had ridden home in bitter sweet silence—they had made it to Koshien, after all, and done not bad, so at least there was that. Kou had barely said a thing to anyone the whole way. That had been four days ago. Practice for the fall tournaments had been postponed for the week so everyone could get some rest and get over their mourning.

"He's here," she said, "Because he also doesn't want to be alone."

"Ah." Akaishi blinked at her. "So should I go sit with him, then?"

"If you'd like," Aoba shrugged. "Or maybe Akane. Both of you are calming people to be around. He likes you."

"I think," Akane said, placing a fresh glass of iced tea in front of Aoba with a smile, "That he'd prefer the company of someone else."

Aoba looked back at her blankly, but before she could ask who, she realized the person Akane was eluding to.

"Hurry," Akane said, still smiling. "It's hot out there."

Aoba carefully picked up the glass. She inhaled deeply before letting it all out, trying not to make a big deal of it, although Akaishi and Akane were the last two people who would probably tease her. Then she walked out the front door, feeling the same tunnel vision she did when she walked out to the pitchers mound at the start of a game.

Kou was out front, sitting on the short curb in the shade and leaning back against the side of the store. His eyes were closed, so he didn't notice her until she was crouching down next to him.

"Hey," she said, and he jumped so hard he almost knocked the glass out of her hand. She snorted. "Calm down! Does my face scare you that much?"

"When I open my eyes and you're suddenly right there, it does!" he snapped back.

"Shut up! I don't have to be out here you know! You can just sit in the heat by yourself!" She shifted as if to stand, but he reached out quickly to take the glass, his fingers brushing against hers.

"Thanks," he said, tipping his head back to take a long hard drink. She curled the fingers he had touched into the fabric of her apron, watching a drip of sweat slide down the side of his face as the ice clanked in his drink. He lowered the glass with a sigh, then noticed her looking at him. She quickly looked away.

"Do you want to come inside? Akaishi's in there waiting for Akane," she said.

"Yeah, I saw him go in. I saw Azuma leave earlier, too."

"Hm? He left hours ago. How long have you been here?" Why hadn't anyone else seen him and told her? She would have made him come inside earlier if she'd known he planned on boiling in the heat all day.

"A while," was his response. "Did Azuma talk to you?"

"He said hi. But he was in the batting cages and I was in the café."

"Hm," Kou said with a nod at nothing in particular. What was that? Did it bother him that Azuma had been there? Azuma came a lot and he hadn't seemed to care before. Or, at least she hadn't noticed if he had cared before.

Why me?

But that was a question she wasn't about to ask now, if ever.

"A lot of the guys have been around the last couple days," she said instead. "Blowing off some steam after all that stress the last couple weeks at the Koshien."

"Oh, yeah?" He smirked. "You gave them pointers, right?"

"No," she responded, "It's…not time yet. It's still too fresh." Which was why she had refused him when he had asked her to pitch with him two days ago. He was asking out of frustration. His pitches wouldn't have been any good, and any critiques she would have had wouldn't have been useful.

For now, they all just needed to know that they had done an incredible job. She had told Azuma that yesterday when he'd come, although she didn't mention that to Kou. And she'd told Akaishi, and Haruto, and Takasa, and all the other guys that she had seen. But she hadn't told Kou yet. It had always been harder for her with Kou.

She reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the heat that had soaked into his black t-shirt. "Kou," she started, trying to sound comforting. Trying to sound like Akane or Wakaba, or someone he needed. "You should know that everyone's incredibly proud of you. Your family, the team, Wakaba…they all thought you were amazing out there, and so did the rest of Japan. So don't be down too long, ok? Everyone's rooting for you to get back out there and keep being amazing."

He was quiet as she spoke, and she was aware he was probably looking at her. But she was looking down at the glass in his hands. When she finished she let the silence reign for a moment, let the cicadas and a passing car fill it.

Then she stood up, smoothing out her apron and turning back to the door. "I better get back in there. Akane's off soon, so I have to cover the café."

She was reaching for the door handle when he called, "Aoba. What about you?"

She turned, finally looking him in the eyes.

"Are you proud of me?"

She raised her eyebrows at the question. Never once in the seventeen years she had known Kou had she told him that she thought he was amazing. Well, because usually she thought he was an idiot. No, that wasn't true. That's just what she'd been telling herself her whole life. She knew that there were plenty of things that he did that were amazing. Geez, all of this was confusing.

Well, what did she say now? He was looking at her like he wanted a real response this time. Like he needed her to be proud of him.

"I…expect you to…keep being you." Dang it. That was as close as she could get. It was taking a lot out of her the last couple weeks to change how she thought about Kou, how she talked to Kou, how she felt about Kou.

But it seemed her answer was enough. His face lit up as he looked at her. The way Junpei looked at Ichiyou, the way Akaishi looked at Akane. The way Kou used to look at Wakaba. Like she was the only thing he could see.

Then he asked, "Was that hard for you?"

She blinked, acutely aware that the heat on her face wasn't just from the summer sun. "Sh-shut up!" She swung the door open. "I hate you."

His laughter and last words followed after her, "I know."

---

"She sure seems to be making a fuss in there," Akaishi said.

"What is she going on about now?" Nakanishi mused, munching on a chip from the bag he was holding. "Did someone insult women's baseball again?"

Next to them, Kou leaned closer to the classroom door. It was Aoba's classroom, which he knew all too well. He'd "just so happened to" pass it a hundred times in the last few months. This particular day it had been Akaishi and Nakanishi who had purposefully led him by, since apparently it was frustrating them how slowly Kou and Aoba were progressing. Azuma was with them, but despite his feelings for Aoba he had been cordial about the whole thing. He still talked with her at practice, although not as often as before, and when Kou had tried to talk to him about it at home, he had only said, "Just don't screw up." Kou had assured him he wouldn't.

Inside, Aoba was stomping around and yelling at a group of her classmates, but they didn't seem to feel too threatened. In fact, they seemed to be egging her on, teasing her and giggling behind their hands. One of them said something, and Aoba's voice could be heard out the door, "He is not my boyfriend!"

Akaishi and Nakanishi groaned and Kou made a face.

"Nope," Nakanishi said flatly, "It's about Kou."

"Ah," Azuma said, and they all turned to him. "She's coming."

They scrambled back just as she slammed the door open. Kou found himself face to face with her shocked expression.

"Um, hey," he said lamely.

She just looked back at him, seemingly unaware of the students in the hallway, who were watching them. That was one of the issues with being as famous around the school as they both were. Kou shifted, wondering if she would yell at him next. But to his surprise he saw the color rise in her face before she wordlessly turned on her heel and walked the opposite direction.

"Tsukishima," a tough looking guy said hesitantly as she marched toward him, "Are you really not dating Kitamura? Because I heard that this time it's really for real—"

Kou flinched when she rounded on the guy. That poor idiot. Kou knew all too well what he was about to be on the receiving end of.

"What the heck are you doing, talking about unnecessary things?" Aoba barked, "You should be concerned about failing your college entrance exams, not about who I'm dating!"

The guy shrunk away from her, as did several other students, clearing her path down the hallway.

"See?" Nakanishi said after she'd been gone a minute, "This is exactly what we were talking about. It's October, and it's still like nothing's changed!"

"That's not true," Kou said, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in since he'd come face to face with Aoba seconds before. "She's just…not all in yet."

"Sure she is," Akaishi said, "She just doesn't know how to switch gears."

"Mm," Kou acknowledged. It was weird for him, too. He couldn't help teasing her like he always had. And she still couldn't help taking the bait every time. They had just been the way they were for so long it was difficult to step out of that childhood rivalry-friendship and into a real relationship. Although he was definitely doing a better job of it than she was. "She could at least calm down a little."

"That's not her style."

With his hands on his hips, Kou sighed. "No kidding. She could be the cutest girl in the world but it wouldn't make her any less of a pain in the butt."

"Oh?" Azuma said, also still looking down the hall where Aoba had disappeared. "Don't think you can handle it?"

Kou glanced up at him, a little surprised at the challenging tone of Azuma's voice. The familiar feeling of protectiveness sprung up in Kou's chest and he clenched a fist before saying calmly, "I didn't say that. I can handle it."

Behind them, Nakanishi and Akaishi looked between them. Nakanishi leaned closer to Akaishi and said quietly, "Is it just me, or did it just get a little tense in here?"

"Guess Azuma is still getting over it," Akaishi responded just as quietly as Azuma turned back to join them.

But Kou didn't turn back with him. He cupped a hand to his mouth and called out, catching the attention of everyone in the hall. "Hey, guy!"

The boy that Aoba had yelled at looked around and then pointed at himself questioningly.

"Yeah, you! It's true—we're together!"

The entire hallway was silent. That didn't seem to bother Kou. He just stood their unabashedly with his hands in his pockets.

"S-so," A first year girl spoke up, "You're finally boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Instead of answering, Kou just held a finger to his lips with a smile. The girl blushed and Kou said, "It's a work in progress." Then he turned down the hall, surpassing his surprised friends. They followed after him as the students behind them turned to each other excitedly.

With a small smile to himself, Azuma said to Kou's back, "She's going to kill you later, you know."

"Yep," Kou said brightly without turning around, "I know."

---

"Why me?"

"Heh?" Kou said, turning to her. "Why you, what?"

Oh, holy heck, how had that question just slipped out? Stupid, stupid, stupid! Aoba bit her cheek, staring at the ceiling and wishing she could disappear into the floor beneath her.

They were at her grandparents' house for the weekend just after New Year's again. Apparently his parents had enjoyed it so much last year that her father had invited them along for the trip again. It was pleasant so far. She had only fought with Kou a few times, and they could barely be called fights, anyway. Over the last few months, she had just found that there wasn't much to fight about. That didn't stop him from teasing her, though, and her from smacking him upside the head sometimes.

Earlier in the day they had gone to see the tree where Kou and Wakaba had carved their names as children. Aoba had seen it a hundred times, but it was different seeing it while standing next to Kou. More distant. Less painful but perhaps a little more sad? She wasn't sure. She felt like she was constantly trying to figure her feelings out. Kou never seemed to be. Everyone was always telling them how they were so alike, but that just made the differences between them all the more obvious. While Aoba still struggled with letting her emotions show properly, Kou seemed to be getting better at it. He claimed that it was just because she knew him so well—he said he could lie all day long and she'd always be able to tell. But she felt like it was more than that. She could see that Kou was growing up into a young man who wasn't easily fazed by things around him. He knew what he wanted and it gave him a cool head. He was more like her sister in that way. More like Wakaba.

It was dark outside now, and dark in the living room, too. The movie they had been watching had ended, and Momiji was asleep on the floor on the other side of the room. The voices of their parents laughing and drinking a few rooms over floated towards them pleasantly, and a light in the hallway gave them something to see by. The rest of their light came through the sliding door windows, reflected off the snow that was falling quietly.

Aoba lay on the floor, all twisted up in a blanket. Kou lay next to her, covered by a smaller blanket, since he had lost the battle over the blankets earlier, although she had a pretty good feeling that he had let her and Momiji win. He wasn't too close; his shoulder didn't even brush hers. But between them their hands hand somehow found each other, fingers gently intertwining. That seemed to be normal, now. Her hand seemed to seek out his when he was nearby, sometimes before she even noticed.

They had talked quietly for a while, about family and school and baseball and Wakaba. It was nice to talk about Wakaba now. The more that they had talked about her over the last few months, the less Aoba's chest seemed to hurt when her name was mentioned. She knew it was the same for Kou, even though he hadn't said as much. He didn't need to.

They'd fallen into a companionable silence, which, of course, she had just ruined with her blurted out question, "Why me?"

Part of her wanted to take it back, but the greater part of her needed to know. The greater part of her had been asking herself the same question for months. And no matter how often Akane told her that she was amazing and that Aoba needed to learn to see it herself, part of her just really wanted to hear it from Kou himself.

So, fine. She wouldn't take it back.

Dang it.

She turned her head so she could meet his eyes. "Why did you pick me? Why not Akane? Why not someone else?"

In the low light his face was shadowed, but she could still see his eyes trained on hers, the gentle rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, the quirk of his eyebrows at her question.

He looked back at the ceiling, and for a second she was afraid he would say he didn't know. Then he turned back with a smirk on his face.

"I'll tell you," he said, "If you tell me why you like me."

Her brain screeched to a halt. "No."

"Then I'm not telling, either."

She glared at him, a growl in her throat. He just smiled back at her. They held each other's gaze in an unspoken no-blinking contest, which wasn't unusual for them. She gave up after a second and sat up, keeping hold of his hand and using her free one to keep the blanket around her shoulders. He followed a second later, looking at her and quietly waiting.

"You go first," she said finally.

"You go first."

"I asked first."

"Yeah, so you go first."

"Ugh! Idiot. Fine, I…like you…because…you can pitch 160km." He broke out in a laughing whisper, and she rounded on him with red cheeks. "What are you laughing at, idiot?"

"Well, it's a good thing I can pitch 160km, otherwise I'd be out of luck, huh?" He shifted to face her better. "Why do you really like me, Aoba? Why did you choose me, instead of waiting for some other guy who could pitch even faster than I can?"

She glared at his stupid cute smile before she had to look away again. She was still figuring out why she liked him every day, blown away constantly by how he'd had and was still affecting her life. She never told him, not directly. She just kind of hoped she'd never have to, but now she was faced with the terrifying opportunity. She wanted to back down, but more than that she wanted to be someone who never backed down.

"…Can I lie?" she asked.

She could hear the smile in his voice. "Sure."

"Well," she started in a small voice, still not looking at him, "I like you because you can pitch 160km, but it's not the number that's important. I like you because you worked hard and never gave up and smiled when you lost and then worked harder because you hate losing. I like you because you made me work harder, which made me a better pitcher. I like you because you know me better than I sometimes know myself. I like you because you love my family as much as I do." Her voice was wavering a bit. This was harder than she was hoping. She was only lying, after all. "I like you because I want to like you, and I've liked you longer than I should have liked you."

That caught his attention. "Really? How long?"

"Well, I also hate you don't forget! So I didn't notice, not for a long time, that beneath my annoyance that you always spent time with Wakaba, there was also an annoyance that she always spent time with you."

She could feel him shift in surprise at that, and wondered if he would let go of her hand. Wondered if he would be mad at her because of her stupid, petty jealousy of a beloved sister who had been gone for eight years. But he was as quiet as the dead.

There was no stopping now. Gosh dang it. Now she was getting emotional, but he'd asked for it. He had opened the flood gates. She kept going, "She used to talk about you and about how great you were and it would annoy me so bad, you weren't that great, and finally one day she asked what kind of boys I like, and I said boys who could pitch 160km, just to avoid the subject. She was adamant that you could do it. We used to fight about it." She was crying now. And he was still quiet. Dang it all. "She believed you really could be the best. She almost convinced me a few times. Well, now I don't have to believe because I know you're the best. But I still tried really hard to do what she asked—she asked me not to take you from her. Did you know that? As if I ever could. And I tried really hard to keep hating you. Even with Akane, I thought for sure she was here for you, and I did everything I could to stay out of the way and help you two. It didn't work, though. In the end you still ended up pitching 160km."

She stopped, biting down on her lip to ease the tears. He just watched her cry for a minute, but she hated that. She cleared her throat and quickly wiped at her face, saying, "Haha, what a show, right? You're not the only one who's a good liar."

She jumped when he grabbed her other hand, holding both of them tightly on the edge of her knees. In her surprise she looked at him, and saw the expression on his face. It was an expression she knew well. She'd seen it a hundred times at the batting center as he stood with bat in hand, just before he hit another homerun.

"I love you, Aoba Tsukishima, for all those same reasons."

"Huh?"

"I love you because you're strong, and a hard worker, and because you inspire me every day to give it all I have. I love you because you understand me better than anyone. I love you because you don't settle for second rate, not because you don't think I'm good enough but because you know that I am good enough and I can do better. I love you because I love it when you laugh and the way you look when you're on the pitcher's mound. And I love you because you love my family, and you let me be a part of yours. If I didn't love you for all those reasons I wouldn't have tried so hard to pitch 160km. All I cared about was pitching. 160km only mattered to me because it mattered to you. And Wakaba," His gaze dropped to their hands, where he carefully ran his thumb along her knuckles. His voice lowered, too, taking on the reverent tone they always used when talking about her sister. "I think she's ok with it. I think she has already given us her blessing. Don't you think that's one of the reasons she sent Akane to us?"

He peeked up at her, but she just stared back at him, the tears dry on her cheeks. His confident expression all gone, he shifted uncomfortably, looking back down at their hands. Behind him, snow continued to fall steadily, only adding to the quiet around them. Even their parents' laughter had dropped to quieter tones.

"Heh, I forgot to add anything about your terrible cooking being good," he said, "Although, let's face it, I can't lie that well." Her hand shot forward and grabbed him by the front of the shirt and he quickly looked rueful. "Just kidding, just kidding! I just thought I might've come on a little strong, I didn't want—"

But she couldn't think of anything to say to the stupid idiot so she just kissed him instead.

It was their first kiss. It was her first kiss ever, in fact, besides Mizuki when they were like five. She was certain she wasn't doing it all that right, with her lips just pressed against his, but they were Kou's lips, and that was more right than anything.

It only lasted a few seconds before she pulled away, clearing her throat and making a futile effort to tuck a strand of her short hair behind her ear. Mostly it was just to give her hands something to do. She looked back up at him from under her eyelashes, feeling every bit like the shy girl she most certainly was not. Was he embarrassed? Was he happy?

The look on his face gave her pause. Not because she had never seen it; it seemed to be on his face more and more often recently when he looked at her. She hadn't know what it had meant, but it had made her nervous.

She swallowed when he leaned back down to her. He moved much slower than she had, so there was plenty of time for her heart to panic as his hands moved to take her face. She watched his face closely as he neared, every inch, every piece of him. It was terrifying and exciting all at the same time. His lips finally reached hers, softer this time, like what she imagined a real kiss should be. It was longer, too, which she didn't mind at all. He pulled back but she followed, her hands moving to rest on his chest. That seemed to encourage him even more, and the next thing she knew his arms had slid around her waist to pull her closer and he was kissing her again, even deeper than before.

Her brain hardly knew what to make of his lips and his hot breath and his strong hands on her back. She supposed she didn't really need to make anything of it, other than that she liked it. A lot. She liked him a lot. And he loved her.

He pulled away again, but still held her close, like he didn't want to let her go, his breath mixing with hers.

"So," he breathed, barely above a whisper, "How was that?"

What, he was already talking again? And expecting her to come up with a coherent answer? This stupid kissable idiot.

"It was fine," she breathed back.

"Yes," he said, with the smallest of fist pumps.

"I said it was fine."

"Yeah, but you know that coming from you, that's better than good."

"Shut up."

"Ok." He leaned down for her lips again, and this time she knew full well what that expression meant. Neither of them noticed when Momiji snuck out of the room with a gag, but shut the door behind her with a smile.

---

"Whoo! Whoo!" Kou yelled loudly, a hand cupped around his mouth, "Go Aoba! Strike him out!"

She was too far away for him to see her face, but he was sure she had just rolled her eyes. "Shut up!" she shouted back from the pitcher's mound, "This is just practice!"

Azuma was at home plate, shaking his head at Kou before he bent his knees and readied his bat.

He never got tired of watching Aoba pitching. It was like she was completely in her element, like nothing else existed but her and the ball. So, of course, he also loved making a racket and distracting her, reminding her that he was there, that he existed. It was obnoxious to everyone on the team, but to mostly her, and the team sure liked to tease her about it.

Besides, it wasn't like he could actually throw off her game. He didn't think anything could do that.

Aoba pitched, and Kou marveled at how the ball broke perfectly, just at the right time for Azuma to miss hitting the center, sending it into a high foul.

"Is it just me," Nakanishi said as he came up beside him, "Or is she still getting better?"

"It's not just you," Kou said with a smile, watching her pick up another ball as she teased Azuma and he smirked and dared her to do it again.

Kou leaned against the fence from the outside, sweat dripping down the back of his neck and into the collar of his baseball uniform as he cooled off from his run. He didn't need to be here—none of the third years did, not with school ending in barely over a month. But they all still made time for it, of course.

Nakanishi let out a low whistle. "Man. I bet she passed the All-Japan test without any trouble."

Kou laughed. "She worked her butt off before that test. Besides, it's only been two days so she doesn't know if she made it yet. They're calling people this week."

"You know she obviously made it."

"I know. But she's still unsure. And she's worried how the high school team will do without her."

"They wouldn't be half as good."

"I know."

"Geez. Sometimes I wonder how we all got so lucky to be in the same place at the same time. Like how did I come to play ball with all these crazy awesome prodigies? Do you ever think that?"

"Yeah. I do."

"…You know you're one of the prodigies I'm talking about, right?"

"What, me?"

Nakanishi groaned, letting his head roll back. "Seriously, Kou. You're one of a kind." He pushed away from the fence. "I'm gonna change and head back to the school. Yoko's going to help me study for a bit."

"Have fun with that." Kou said.

"Speaking of studying for the future—have you decided what you're going to do, yet?"

Kou clenched his jaw, watching Azuma smack the ball out of the park, to the awe of the junior high students who would be joining the team come April.

"No," Kou said simply, "I haven't."

"Don't you need to make a decision soon?"

"Ah. I'm going to go run some more."

"Again? Uh, ok."

Kou took off around the ball field, circling past the team as they called out to one another, obeying the orders of Coach Maeno and the assistant coach, Junpei. He broke from the path and followed a smaller path through the trees around the school. He passed some members of the track team as they jogged in the opposite direction. Their leader saluted him, but a few of the younger students whispered excitedly when they saw him. He waved at them.

For the most part, his path was quiet, and he used the time to think, as he usually did.

Nakanishi had gotten into the same university as his girlfriend, Yoko. He had plans to get a basic business degree to help his father out, while playing on the industrial team in the area. He'd already been on the phone with the coach, who was happy to have him.

Azuma was almost all packed up at Kou's house. He was moving to Tokyo to play for the giants, and there were reporters at the high school constantly, trying to get interviews with him. Kou was sad to see his roommate go, his old rival who had become his close friend. But they would always be friends, and they had already made promises to be on different professional teams so they could go up against each other.

Akaishi had been recruited to the professional team in Osaka, where Coach Maeno's old friend was one of the sponsors, and they were looking forward to having his quick eyes and know-how on their side. Akaishi himself was excited, but not half as excited as his girlfriend, Akane, was for him. She told practically everyone she met how amazing her boyfriend was and how great he was going to be. Akaishi was just dreading the fact that Osaka was going to be two and a half hours away from the art school Akane was going to.

Kou understood Akaishi's feelings completely. His gut twisted just thinking about it.

Kou had been approached by half a dozen of Japan's professional baseball teams. It was overwhelming and mind blowing, and he constantly had Senda and Nakanishi, and Junpei, and his father, and Aoba's father, and Momiji, and the neighbor down the street, and his mother's hairstylist…basically everyone was trying to help him pick a team, but really they were all pretty biased toward their favorite teams and players in the first place. The only ones whose opinions he really considered were Coach Maeno's, Akaishi's, and Azuma's.

Aoba refused to give him an opinion. "You decide what you want. Whatever team you pick will be my new favorite team. Unless you pick Sapporo. I hate Sapporo."

So, of course, his running joke was that he was going to Sapporo, to her endless annoyance, but the team hadn't even tried to recruit him anyway.

"See?" she had said, "That's how stupid they are."

Everyone had waited around patiently, letting him take his time making a decision for the last few months. But now it was getting down to the wire, with him graduating high school in a matter of weeks, and people were beginning to wonder if he would ever make a decision.

Unbeknownst to everybody, Kou had made a decision. He just hadn't told anyone yet. It wasn't time.

The spring sun was lower in the sky and the school was mostly empty and silent when Kou turned around to head back to the baseball club's clubroom. He passed Hiroko coming out on his way in, and she greeted him happily and told him most everyone was gone already. That was fine with him, especially since the only person he wanted to see was the only one left.

"Hey," Aoba said from the other side of the room when he walked in.

"Hey." His breathing still returning to normal, he glanced up at her before heading to his locker, pulling his shirt up to wipe the sweat off his face. "How long has practice been over?"

"Not that long. We just barely finished, but everyone was eager to get out of here. I was just about to head home myself."

Kou glanced back at her, giving her a once over. Her hair was ruffled from playing hard, but there wasn't a drop of sweat on her, and she was already back in her school uniform. He turned back to his locker, smiling to himself. By the looks of her, practice must have been over for at least an hour. But he wouldn't call her out for waiting for him and ruin the moment by embarrassing her and getting her mad.

He yanked his uniform shirt off to replace it with a clean black t-shirt, trying not to laugh at the way Aoba looked at the ceiling until he was dressed again. He sat on the bench to slide his shoes on, a half smile on his face still, until she said, "What's wrong?"

He looked up at her. She looked back. He returned his attention to his shoes. "Nothing's wrong."

"Liar."

He sighed, finishing his shoes and leaning his elbows on his knees. He heard her stand up and walk over to him.

"You only ever run like that when something's bothering you," she said.

He didn't respond, and when she was close enough she stretched out a hand to graze the hair on the side of his head. He immediately fell into her touch, leaning forward until his forehead rested against her stomach. She hesitated only a second before carefully combing her fingers through his hair down to the back of his neck. His hair was gross, he was sure, but a little bit of dried sweat and dirt had never bothered Aoba Tsukishima. That was one of the things he liked about her.

He closed his eyes and exhaled, allowing himself a minute to just feel her fingers in his hair and hear the evenness of her breath. It calmed him to have her so close. He didn't want to imagine what it would be like to have to be away from her. He'd lived only three blocks from her his whole life. He'd already been unwillingly separated from one girl he loved in his life; hell would freeze over before he'd let that happen with Aoba.

Those thoughts and her touch made the tightness in his gut soften. He exhaled again before saying sincerely, "I'm fine. Just tired."

"Hmph. Then you should go home and sleep on your own bed and pillows instead of passing out here in the locker room." She flicked his ear gently.

"Mm-nn," he responded, tugging lightly on the hem of her skirt by her knee, "The only pillow I need is Aoba."

She was quiet, and he smiled just imagining the light blush that had probably come up on her face.

"Well, don't fall asleep just yet," she said, "I have something to tell you."

The tone of her voice made him pull back and look up at her. "What is it?"

She looked serious. "The coach of the All-Japan Women's team called me before school this morning. Their ace pitcher, Takanaka, is retiring after next season. They're hoping I can replace her. Training starts at the end of May."

Kou held his breath in anticipation. "And? What did you say? Did you accept?"

She bit the inside of her lip, her eyes wandering a bit in uneasiness before looking into his own. She seemed anxious as she carefully searched him for a reaction. He didn't give one to her, he just waited.

"I…told him yes."

Kou jumped to his feet so fast it knocked her off balance, but it didn't matter because he caught her in his arms and hugged her so hard he lifted her feet off the ground.

"Yes!" he said, "That's amazing!"

She laughed, her breath tickling his ear. "I thought you said you didn't care either way!"

"No, I said I would support you either way." He set her back down so he could smile at her. "But obviously I wanted you to take it. You deserve this, Aoba. I can always represent you out on the field, and if you wanted me to I would do it until the day I died. But you being out on the field, showing the world how amazing I know you are, is what you should be doing. You don't need me."

She leaned up to knock her forehead against his. "Yes, I do. So hurry up and pick a stupid team to join, you idiot, so I can figure out just how far away you'll be."

"56 kilometers."

"What?"

"Forty five minutes by car, an hour by train. That's how far your stadium will be from the Fukuoka Hawks' stadium."

She pulled back and stared at him with wide eyes. "The Hawks? You finally picked a team?"

"I narrowed it down to two teams months ago, actually. The Hawks, if you decided to join the All-Japan Women's Team, and the Tigers, if you decided to stay at Seishuu High. That way I'd be as close to you as possible. I just didn't tell you because I figured you'd be mad and tell me not to worry about you and just go where I wanted to. Kind of like you are right now." He watched her open mouth open and close as she tried to figure out a way to yell at him through her shock. "And I didn't want it to affect your decision, either."

"I—you—I…" She shook her head to focus her thoughts. "I can't believe you kept six of Japan's national baseball coaches waiting on a stupid decision your girlfriend may or may not make! Kou! What were you thinking? Do you even like the Hawks or the Tigers?"

"Sure. I mean, the Tigers are better overall, but the Hawks have a good coach, and maybe I'll be able to help make their team great, like we did here. Like you did here. Besides," he shrugged, "You told me to do what I want. And I want to play baseball and be with you. So this is what I decided." And he was serious. All his worries that he had been running from earlier in the day were suddenly gone. He knew where he would be in four weeks when he graduated, and it was still right next to Aoba.

She searched his face carefully before hugging him around the neck. He buried his face in her shoulder, taking another deep breath with her tight against him.

Her voice sounded a little choked as she said, "You're so dumb. I kind of hate you."

He smiled. "I know."

Pulling away only slightly, he trailed his nose along her cheek to her mouth, because he was pretty sure if he didn't kiss her right now he might go crazy. She was tilting her head to let him, right when a voice burst out in the room:

"Ah-ha! And just what are you doing to my sweet little sister, Kou Kitamura?"

Kou groaned as Aoba drew away with a roll of her eyes. Kou turned to glare at Junpei, who stood with his arms crossed triumphantly in the doorway, like he'd just discovered a big secret.

"I'm not your sister until you marry my sister," Aoba said.

"And she's anything but sweet," Kou added, earning him a smack on the shoulder and a glare.

"Tsk, tsk," Junpei said, wagging a finger as though he had more authority than he did. "You two should know better than to be making out in the clubroom. Don't you know it's bad luck before a game—hey, where are you going? Your coach is talking to you!"

Aoba walked past Junpei and out the door without a second look. Kou grabbed his bag and slammed his locker shut, following a second later. He said to Junpei, "You're the batting coach. I'm the pitcher. Aoba's my coach."

"That's right," Aoba called from outside, "So hurry it up, Kitamura!"

Junpei shook his head with a smile. "Those Tsukishima girls are something, huh?"

Kou shared a knowing smile with him. "Yeah. They are." Then he ran outside to catch Aoba's hand.

---

Aoba opened her eyes, her shoulders feeling stiff and the rest of her feeling hot. Ugh. Why was it so hot still? It was the end of September. It should have cooled down by now.

Oh, that was right. She wasn't at home. She was in Fukuoka. It was further south and closer to the coast. Would she ever get used to the humidity?

Ah, but wait. These walls were new. That coffee table and secondhand TV weren't hers. The view out the window was of the towering skyscrapers of downtown Fukuoka. And the warm, tight blanket around her wasn't actually a blanket at all.

She looked down to see Kou's tan arm wrapped around her waist, holding her back against his chest so she wouldn't roll off the couch. His breath on the back of her neck was even and slow, indicating he must still be asleep. Slowly she shifted, barely enough so she could see his face out of her peripheral. He was so cute when he was sleeping. His face became relaxed and innocent, and his hair stuck up in crazy ways. It always reminded her of when they were kids.

She smiled, and it was the sort of soft, sappy smile she tried to hide from him when he was awake. She watched him for a few minutes, her fingers lightly tracing circles on the back of his arm. Then with a sigh she shifted away, trying to carefully untangle herself without waking him.

Immediately, his grip on her tightened. He grumbled groggily, eyes still closed, "Where you going…"

"Just to the bathroom," she whispered, "I'm not leaving."

He made an unintelligible sound in the back of his throat which made her grin. She laid a swift kiss on his temple, after which he loosened his hold on her. She slid off the couch and padded into the other room, smoothing her wrinkled clothes from yesterday that she had fallen asleep in.

She spent longer in the bathroom than was necessary, looking at all the little things around—the toothbrush, the razor, the towel sloppily hung over the rack. All signs of Kou's life. She liked seeing them, for some reason.

She left the bathroom and looked around the living room. It was decently clean for Kou, and she suspected he had tidied up before going to pick her and her family up at the train station yesterday. Her father and sisters had wanted to bring her to the city themselves, leaving a mournful Junpei behind to run the Clover café and batting cages. They helped Aoba drop her things off at the dorms she would be staying in with the other new recruits, and then they wanted to see the stadium where she would be playing on the All-Japan team, and the stadium where Kou would be playing for the Hawks. They had ended up back at Kou's apartment, where he made them dinner and they sat around and laughed and talked about baseball and all the famous players Kou had met. There were still cups and plates on the coffee table in the living room, the last signs of her family. They had left early in the evening with sly remarks about how Kou and Aoba hadn't seen each other in person in three months and would probably want some "alone time".

Aoba had scoffed at them, but she couldn't be too mad. It's not like they had been wrong.

With another smile at Kou asleep on the couch, Aoba wandered into the kitchen, and directly to the key sitting on the counter. It was shiny and new, with a baseball glove charm hung on its keychain. It was the spare key to his apartment. Her key.

Kou's apartment wasn't large, which it didn't need to be. He was just one nineteen year old, after all, and it was only because he was a professional athlete that he could afford an apartment on his own, anyway. She had scolded him at first, telling him he should have gotten some roommates and saved his money. Until he had surprised her by pulling out the extra key, that is. She would be living in the dorms, of course, which were about an hour away from his apartment, but he had told her to take the key anyway.

"It's not home if you're not a part of it," he'd told her last night while bashfully scratching his nose. "And I hope you put that key to good use."

She'd kissed him long and good for saying that, and he hadn't minded one bit.

With the key still in her hand, Aoba wandered around the kitchen, checking for ingredients. He didn't have a lot, but what he did have was useful. She wanted to make an omelet for breakfast. She'd been practicing while he'd been gone, and Momiji said her cooking wasn't half bad if she paid really close attention while making it. That would be a shock for Kou, and the thought made her grin smugly.

She pulled out several things, but when she took the eggs out of the fridge she paused. On the fridge door were taped three photos that must have been from Kou's old room back home. The first picture that had ever been taken of the two of them was there—her stupid look of surprise and his cheeky grin. That day in the cafe felt like so long ago, now, although it had been barely over a year. The well-worn picture of Kou and Wakaba as children was there as well, a picture she'd seen so many times she was sure it was carved into her memory. Next to it was a picture of the three of them when they were young. Where had he gotten this? Someone in her family must have given it to him. In the picture both she and Kou were covered in mud. She had Kou in what looked like a headlock, and he was pushing on her face. Wakaba was next to them, but she was looking off into the distance, her chin in her hand.

Aoba touched the picture carefully. Somehow she felt like this picture was a representation of how they were now—the wistful Wakaba off in some other world, while she and Kou were together. Well, they were fighting, but they were together.

The fridge was missing something, she felt. She tapped her chin before going to find her backpack by the door. She ruffled around in it until she found what she was looking for—her own pictures from back home. She went through them quickly—mostly they were pictures of her family, another one of her and Wakaba, her deceased mother, the same picture of her and Kou in the café a year ago…

She pulled out the two different ones and brought them back to the kitchen, where she opened a few drawers until she found the tape. Then she put them both on the fridge.

The first was a picture of the Seishuu High team, the first day of the Koshien tournament. They all had huge, hopeful smiles, none of them bigger than Kou's. To her embarrassment, her eyes in the picture were the only ones not looking forward: they were looking at Kou. She had threatened the second year team members when they had seen the print and mourned over it.

The second picture was of Kou alone. It was a newspaper clipping of Kou at the baseball finals just before the Koshien last year. He was standing on the pitcher's mound, his hands raised triumphantly in the air. Over the top of it was the heading: Lightning Fast Kitamura! The Boy Who Can Pitch 160km!

"There," she said, "That's better."

"What's better?"

She turned to see Kou in the entrance to the kitchen, still looking half asleep as he scratched his stomach beneath his shirt.

"I see you're finally up," she said.

"What do you mean finally? It's not even ten yet."

"Don't you normally get up at like seven?"

"When I have practice I do. But I told Coach Gitzen that I needed a couple days off."

"Oh?" She frowned slightly in worry. "Why's that? Your arm's not hurting you, is it?"

He snorted, poking her forehead gently. "No, dummy, because I knew you were coming and I wanted to see you."

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh." How could he still surprise her sometimes? She figured she should be used to him by now.

He was looking around the kitchen. "You're not…cooking something are you?"

She raised a challenging eyebrow. "And if I am?"

"Ah, well, I mean…oh, look, you put some pictures on the fridge!"

She ignored his obvious avoidance of the cooking subject and turned to the fridge. "Yeah. I feel like it represents you, now."

"Represents me?"

"Sure. Now anyone who visits will know who you are, what you've done, and who's important to you. I didn't have a picture of you parents, otherwise it would be perfect."

Kou looked at the new fridge decorations. Then he turned from the kitchen. "Hold on a sec."

She watched him disappear into the bedroom, but he was back almost immediately. In his hand were two other newspaper clippings, and she watched with curiosity as he broke off some tape for them.

"Are those from the article about you joining the Hawks?" she asked, "I had that one, but Momiji kept stealing it to show her friends."

Instead of answering, he simply hung them up. Then he stepped back to look at them, his hands on his hips.

They were both pictures of her on the pitcher's mound in her All-Japan uniform. One was an action shot, just after she had thrown the ball, her arm stretched out in front of her. The other was her standing with the ball in her glove, sweat dripping off her face, her eyes fierce. She blinked up at the pictures, up there on the fridge with Kou's amazing accomplishments and the pictures of Wakaba. They didn't seem to fit. But she didn't want to say that.

"What," she asked dryly, "Did you just have those sitting by your bed?"

"That's not important."

She paused. "Wait. Did you?"

"That's not important. What is important is that everyone in this house is represented now."

Aoba looked back at the fridge. There was now equal numbers of pictures of her as there were of him. Her life was there—her high school team she had worked so hard for, the new team that she had high hopes for, her boyfriend that drove her crazy and who she was crazy for, and Wakaba, whom she loved. And all of those same things were represented for him.

Her heart felt so full she was afraid it might explode. She turned to him with all that feeling, not knowing how to express it, but his smile told her he already saw it. She hugged him, holding him tight around the waist and taking a breath of him.

"Thank you," she said.

"I know," he said cheerfully to the top of her head, "I hate you, too."

She smiled up at him then, but when he leaned down to kiss her, she stopped him with a finger on his lips. "If you think this means I'm not cooking breakfast, though, think again." She left him frozen in place as she turned back to the ingredients she had gotten out. "Don't worry, it will be good."

Well, she had hoped it would be. When it was finished, it was edible at best. The yoke was still runny on top, the bottom was burned, and the onions weren't chopped fine enough.

Aoba sighed in frustration.

Kou ate it all.

---

The train ride back from Wakaba's grave was done in silence. It was comfortable silence, for the most part. Aoba watched out the windows, nostalgia sweeping over her. The streets she had roamed as a kid, the parks she had played in with Wakaba, the late night walks with her family, the early morning fights with Kou. It seemed like an eternity ago, although it had been less than a year since she had moved away to play for the All-Japan Women's team.

Kou sat next to her, his hand lightly in hers. He watched out the windows, too, and they didn't have to talk to know they were thinking and feeling the same things. They just thought and felt them and took comfort knowing the other was doing the same.

A little boy in a baseball cap across the train spotted Kou and began tugging on his sister's hand excitedly. Aoba smiled as Kou waved at him and the little boy gasped, waving back shyly. He began walking towards them, but his sister caught him, telling him not to wander off. Then the girl saw who he was looking at and she gasped, too. But she wasn't focused on Kou—she was looking at Aoba. Aoba picked up her hand and waved as well.

The siblings watched them the rest of the way, whispering to each other. Kou looked at Aoba and they shared a laugh. The children got off at their same stop, swallowing nervously, and Kou tugged on Aoba's hand, nodding his head toward them.

She thought the two kids might die from happiness as Kou held out the girl's camera to take a selfie of the four of them together.

"Think you'll ever get tired of that?" Aoba asked on the road back to her family's house.

"Eh, if it's adults or reporters, yeah. With kids, no. I'll never get tired of that."

"Good," she said, "One of them could be the next you, after all."

"Or the next you."

They smiled and walked the rest of the way in silence. And out of the corner of her eye Aoba could see that Kou had his free hand carefully tucked into his pocket, making sure that Wakaba's birthday present didn't fall out.

It was June 10th. Kou and Wakaba's twentieth birthday. A month ago they had planned the trip home, to see family before baseball summer tournaments started, and to visit Wakaba's gave. They hadn't missed one year since she had passed away, they weren't about to start now. Especially not when it was an important birthday—Aoba knew full well what present was in his pocket. It was the last gift on Wakaba's list. It was the ring.

A few weeks ago Aoba had been thinking about it and asked Kou if he would get Wakaba a present this year. No one else knew that he continued to fulfill Wakaba's last wish list, except for Aoba, and part of her would have been surprised if he had said no.

But he had said, "I have to. It's the last one."

She had nodded. And she hadn't been surprised when he had brought the box full of Wakaba's gifts for the last ten years with them on their trip home.

She hoped he hadn't spent too much on Wakaba's engagement ring, and then scolded herself. She wouldn't have wished that if Wakaba had been alive. In fact, she probably would have told Kou that her sister was worth the biggest ring in the world. So she let it go, knowing that Kou wouldn't have been skimpy. It was probably a very pretty ring. Too bad it would never be worn.

It had hurt her heart a little bit a few weeks ago to think about him choosing a ring for someone that wasn't her. To think that, if Wakaba were alive, it would be her with Kou's spare key, her in the reserved seats at his games, her resting her head on his chest at night. They wouldn't be visiting a grave today—they would have been getting engaged. And Aoba would have been…where?

But then she had felt bad for thinking those things. They weren't fair to Kou, Wakaba, or her. It was useless to think about "what ifs". Kou loved her and she loved him, and they both loved Wakaba and she was somewhere watching over them, loving them, too.

Kou was still so much better at this whole relationship thing than she was. He was so much better at being open with his feelings, at doing little things for her, at surprising her by showing up to her practices or buying her things she needed. Aoba felt like he had done so much and still did so much for her that she had no room for feelings of selfishness. He was so important to her, and he was so worthy of being loved that she felt a new resolve to be a little better, a little kinder, a little more open, and a little more selfless. She would spend her days supporting Kou the best she could, the way he deserved. And Aoba would be ok to know that Wakaba would always be Kou's first love, that she would always have a special place in his heart, that he would keep a ring in a box under his bed for her for the rest of their lives. And that would be ok.

So now, Aoba's chest felt nothing but warm. For the sister whose grave they had just left. For the large sign of a clover that indicated she was home. For the man who stood next to her. She thought about how much she had grown and wondered how much of that she owed to him. Most of it, probably. She should probably tell him that. It would make his day, and he could spend the next whole year boasting about it. She shook her head, catching Kou's attention.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing. You're an idiot."

"Hey, what? Where did that come from?"

She just shrugged. He rolled his eyes.

Ichiyou welcomed them home in the café. She still worked there, although not for much longer. Her pregnant belly was getting larger, and soon she'd have a little baby to be looking after. Junpei and Aoba's father were both over the moon with happiness about it. It was fun to watch them fuss over Ichiyou all the time until she would kick them out so she could work.

Kou sat at the café bar next to Junpei and asked him how Azuma was doing while Ichiyou got him a drink. Aoba wandered off to the batting center, where her father was at the reception desk. They talked about Wakaba and baseball and business for a few minutes before Aoba stole a token from him and went to hit a few balls.

Her swing had gotten better. She'd always been decent with the bat, although she didn't have anywhere near the speed and control that Azuma did. Osaki, the star slugger on the All-Japan team had become a close friend, and time with her had helped Aoba improve greatly. So she cracked at the bat, sending any stress she had left flying into the net along with the ball.

She grinned when the homerun buzzer went off.

Then she heard another buzzer go off.

She turned to see Kou in the next cage over.

"Most homeruns in half an hour wins. Loser buys dinner next weekend," Kou said with a cheeky smile. "What do you say?"

She grit her teeth. He was a better batter than she was, but she never backed down from a challenge. Which he knew of course, and was probably banking on that stubborn streak in her, but she said anyway, "You're on."

The next half hour was filled with the sounds of the pitching machine, the crack of the bat, and the homerun buzzer. Every time Kou's buzzer sounded it ticked her off, and she swung the bat harder. Slowly she caught up to him, and on the last pitch of the machine, she sent the ball straight to the homerun target.

"Ha!" she said triumphantly, throwing her fists in the air.

She turned to Kou's cage and saw him looking at her as his last pitch whizzed past and hit the mat at the back. They both looked at it in surprise as it rolled to his feet.

"Did I just win?" Aoba asked a second later.

Kou tsked, tossing his bat against the net and crossing his arms. "Hardly! I call a rematch! You had an unfair advantage."

"Unfair advantage!" She put her hands on her hips. "And what, exactly, was that?"

"You were distracting me!"

"As if! You're a professional player, how on earth were you distracted?"

"Well, I normally don't play against beautiful women, ok?"

She started. "S-shut up. You're just making stupid excuses."

"Who's making excuses?" he said, hooking his fingers in the net in order to smirk at her through it. "I'm just saying what happened. So do you agree to a rematch or not?"

She snorted, stepping closer to glare up at him, not letting his stupid widening smirk throw her off guard as he looked down at her with an expression she knew all too well now. "I won fair in square. So shut up, Kitamura, or I'll come over there and make you shut up."

"What, in your dad's batting cages?" he dropped the false shocked tone and said in a lower voice, eyes drifting to her lips. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time, would it?"

They both jumped when someone said loudly, "Oh my gosh, no, please! I'm still scarred from the last time!"

Aoba turned to see her little sister, Momiji, on the outside of the cages, in her junior high uniform. "Momiji!" she said excitedly, rushing out to give her a hug, ignoring Kou laughing behind her.

Momiji hugged her back tightly, and it surprised Aoba that the girl had grown since Christmas. They would be the same height before next Christmas, probably.

"I missed you guys!" Momiji said as she hugged Kou next.

"Aw, we missed you, too, kid," Kou said, patting her head fondly.

The three of them walked out of the batting cages, leaving the Clover businesses and heading back to the Tsukishima's main house.

"I'm so glad you guys were able to get away!" Momiji said, "If we had known that those baseball teams were going to steal your souls away, we never would have let you go. When do you have to go back?"

"Akaishi and Akane are coming for lunch tomorrow," Kou said, "We'll catch a train after that."

"So soon! You just got here this morning," Momiji complained, tossing her backpack onto the ground before they sat around the table on the floor in the living room.

"Sorry, Momiji," Aoba said, "We really only came for Kou and Wakaba's birthday. We'll see you when you come to some of our games this summer, though. I'll send you extra tickets for your friends."

"Awesome!"

"Ah, speaking of birthdays and gifts," Kou said, bopping a fist into his palm, "I've got something for you, Momiji."

"Eh? But it's your birthday."

"I know. Hold on a second."

Kou left and Momiji looked at Aoba, who shrugged. He came back a minute later with a box in his hands that Aoba recognized immediately. He set Wakaba's box down in front of Momiji, who glanced at the name on the lid, confused.

"What's this?" she asked.

"These are all of Wakaba's birthday presents for the last ten years. I figured it was time for them to come out from under the bed."

Momiji looked conflicted. "Eh, but…you can't give them to me."

"Why not? I think Wakaba would have liked that." Kou smiled gently. "As she would have grown older and grown out of those things, she would have passed them on to her little sister anyway, right?"

"But…but…" Momiji turned to Aoba with a concerned look.

Aoba smiled at her. "It's ok, Momiji. Those things aren't really my style, so eventually I would have passed them on to you, too. So they're yours."

Momiji reverently opened the box, looking into the assorted objects and wrapped birthday gifts. She cleared her throat a few times, sniffing a little, before she leaned over to hug Kou. "Thank you," she said.

"Of course," Kou replied.

Then Momiji stood up, carefully lifting the box. "I'm going to go put these in my room."

Kou and Aoba shared a grin as she solemnly shuffled out of the room.

"That was nice of you," Aoba said. Then she remembered something. A gift that Wakaba never would have grown out of. "Ah, wait, Kou, you didn't leave the ring in that box, did you?"

"Heh?" Kou stiffened.

"Momiji doesn't need something that fancy. You should probably just hang onto that."

"W-what ring?"

"Wakaba's ring," Aoba said exasperatedly, "You know, the one you bought for Wakaba? The 20th birthday present?" She began to stand. "I'll just go get it back real quick."

His hand shot out, grabbing her arm and stopping her. "No, uh, it's not there…it's, uh…" He stopped before reaching into his pocket, pulling out a small box that he set on the table.

"Oh, you did hold onto it." Aoba settled back down. She blinked at him when she saw him looking down at it uncomfortably. "What's wrong? You're not sure what to do with it now? We could leave it next to her picture on the shrine. Or we could find someplace in your apartment that's safe—"

"It's not a ring for Wakaba."

"Hm? But you said you got her a present."

"I did, but it's not, it's…Geez. There's no lying about this." He stopped to rub his face, before peeking over his hand at her. She just looked back, confused. He sighed. "This isn't how I was going to do this. I was planning on talking to your dad about it while we were here."

She wasn't sure what he was talking about. Then he reached out and popped open the box. Inside was a thin silver band, with tiny little diamonds inlaid in the metal. Aoba carefully picked the box up and watched the ring sparkle in the light, feeling her chest constrict at how beautiful it was.

"It's pretty," she said encouragingly, "Although, it's not what I expected. It's different than Wakaba's usual style."

"It's not for Wakaba."

She looked back at him, and he looked strangely reserved. "Hm? What do you mean?"

He chuckled quietly. "You're hard to shop for. You know that? It took me forever to find something you wouldn't hate."

The room was quiet as that sunk into Aoba. She looked down at the ring again, and all at once she felt her heart speed up when she realized what she was holding. Her eyes snapped back up to Kou, and the realization must have been apparent on her face because he smiled shyly at her.

She stammered, "This…I…but Wakaba…"

He shifted closer to her. "I did get a present for Wakaba, like I said. I told her about it earlier when I asked for a minute at her grave by myself. I showed her the ring and told her that I had bought one for her birthday, just like I had promised, but that it wasn't my present for her. My present for her was something that I know she wanted more than anything."

Aoba stared up at him, having absolutely no clue what he could be talking about. She was barely aware that her hands had started shaking a little bit as she held held the ring box, and Kou put his hand on hers, steadying them.

"What was it?" Aoba asked, hardly knowing if she was really talking or if it was in her head.

"It was a promise. A promise that I would look after her family for her. A promise that I would do whatever I could for them." He cupped Aoba's face in his hands and said with the softest voice she had ever heard from him, "A promise that I would always take care of her precious little sister, for as long as we both lived, because that sister is the most precious person to me in the entire world. And that's the number one thing I want to do with the rest of my life."

And there it was. Aoba's blurry vision suddenly spilled over, hot tears falling down her face. Dang it, Kitamura. How was he always the only one who could make her cry?

A small smile curled Kou's lips. "And then I thanked her for telling me that the only way to get you to like me was to pitch 160km. Because I needed you to like me. Because I needed you."

A sob escaped her, and she tried hard to get it under control, but there wasn't much use. "I…y-you…"

"I know." His smile widened, and he brushed her tear away with his thumb. "You hate me."

Whatever had been holding her back snapped, and she threw her arms around him, catching him off guard and knocking him to the ground. She held onto him tightly, letting her tears drop onto his shoulder, and said with a shaking voice, "No, you idiot! I love you. I love you more than anyone else." Then she cried some more.

He was quiet for only a minute before he whispered in her ear, "Marry me."

She stopped mid sob to pull back and look down at him. That look of determination that she loved so much was on his face.

"Marry me, Aoba," he said again. "Marry—"

She kissed him, her tears getting in the way but not stopping her. "Stop asking, stupid. Of course I'm going to marry you. You can't get me not to."

"Well, good." And then he kissed her again and it felt like strength and warmth and love and she couldn't for the life of her believe that she was still gripping a ring box tightly in her hand. A ring box with a ring for her. With a ring that he had bought with only her in mind.

Her father's surprised voice disturbed the moment: "Ack! Really, you two? In the living room? You're worse than Junpei and Ichiyou, I swear."

He was leaving down the hall again with a blush on his face when Aoba shouted at him, "Dad!" He poked his head back around the corner, pointing at himself. Still leaning over Kou, one hand with the ring box, the other tightly fisted into Kou's shirt, tears dripping down her face, she said, "Kou wants permission to marry me! Give it to him!"

"Heh?" said her dad. Then again, "Heeeh? Are you…are you serious?"

Kou sat up, one arm around Aoba, the other behind his head bashfully. "Uh, heh, yeah. Sorry I didn't ask formally—"

"HA!" Aoba's dad shouted, making them both jump. Then he ran into the room laughing, sliding on his knees to throw his arms around them. "I'm so happy! Of course you have my permission, Kou, my son!"

Ichiyou and Junpei came in, wondering what the racket was about. Aoba's dad jubilantly told them, and soon they joined them on the floor as well. Ichiyou held Aoba tightly with a tear in her eye, and Junpei complained that Kou already got to be called "son" while he had had to wait until he was actually married. Momiji found them next, screaming at the news and flinging herself into the hugging fray. Nomo, the cat, ran circles around everyone, not knowing what was going on but excited regardless. They were all still on the floor, laughing and congratulating, when Kou's parents came in, expecting to join the family for dinner. When told, Kou's mother held him and Aoba together so tightly they knocked heads, and Kou's dad and Aoba's dad cried on each other's shoulders, calling for drinks.

Somehow in the madness, Kou managed to take the ring out of the box and slip it on Aoba's finger. She took hold of his hand tightly, and no matter who else was hugging them, or kissing them, or talking to them after that they were always still connected.

And Wakaba's picture sat and smiled at all of them from her place on the mantle.

---

La Fin. Leave a review. ;)