No, I'm not dead. See? Look at me updating. I just have been very busy with social life and working and such. So try to bear with me until I hit my stride or the summer ends. Whichever comes first.
Pain Inside
Part 9
"Why do we have to attend this horrid event?" Haruka sighed melodramatically as she let an arm drape around Michiru's waist while they looked over the already-filling bleachers for an empty spot.
"I thought you loved sports, Haruka-san." Big red eyes turned on the blonde, innocent and clearly worried about forcing the young woman to accompany her to the match. "You have always been very athletic. I was surprised to hear cousin Michiru say that you were not on the soccer team at all."
"Haruka gave up soccer, Kakyuu." Michiru explained to the redhead. "She decided that it wasn't for her."
"A sport at which you don't excel?" Kakyuu asked. "Is that possible?"
"I used to play, when I was a kid." Haruka pointed out a few empty seats and they made their way toward them. "But then I realized the fatal flaw to almost every team sport."
"What is that?" Kakyuu wanted to know, even though Michiru was shaking her head as though she had heard this story before and did not want it repeated to her cousin.
"Too many half naked men." Haruka explained with a broad grin. "And far too few women worth looking at. So then I saw the infinite appeal of track."
"Haruka has a one track mind." Michiru giggled slightly as they sat down. "And you know, she'd still play soccer just to know that all those women in the stands were cheering for her as well, but for the fact that she got in serious trouble when she tried to take off her shirt at the end of a certain match."
"I had a sports bra on. I don't see what the big issue was." Haruka rolled her eyes and Michiru tried to hide an amused grin.
"If I knew that you had such a sordid past with soccer…" Kakyuu sounded utterly devastated, but Michiru gave her a quick, one-armed hug and shot a look at Haruka before speaking to her cousin in comfort.
"Don't listen to all that. She doesn't mind at all, do you, Haruka?" Michiru turned her full gaze on the sheepish blonde, who shook her head slightly.
"No, it's fine. Actually, I'd kind of like to see…what kind of team we have, you know." Haruka invented quickly. "Show some spirit and all that. Was that why you wanted to come, Kakyuu?"
"Something like that." Kakyuu couldn't admit that she'd come to watch a sport she knew next to nothing about simply because Seiya Kou had told her in class that he'd really enjoy it if she came to see him. He was…interesting. She had yet to make up her mind concerning him. She was afraid that maybe he was teasing her, as she'd never had a boy approach her before, so she was being rather cautious about the entire thing.
"Oh no, not them." Haruka heaved a sigh heavier even than her earlier protest as she spotted two young men making their way up the stands. "Look who it is, Michiru. The Kou boys. Their ringleader must be on the team. I should have known."
"They aren't all bad, you know." Michiru told her patiently. "Taiki seems rather nice to me. And Yaten has yet to cause any disturbances in choir."
"Well, without Seiya, they're like a chicken with the head cut off, just running around aimlessly. But when the fearless commander is with them, those three are nothing but trouble, I'm telling you." Haruka nodded to both girls as though this was important information they should keep close to them. "I was in grade school with those brats, and I'm sure they haven't changed one bit."
"Honestly, Haruka, boys will be boys. If they picked on a few kids back then, well then, let bygones be bygones. I'm sure they've matured and seen the error of their ways by now." Michiru lectured her girlfriend, who snorted lightly. "Don't listen, Kakyuu. They're really normal boys, I'm sure."
"Well, they're in class with us…they seem okay." Kakyuu's composure abandoned her as she considered the possibility that Seiya Kou was really as horrid as Haruka was making him out to be.
"Haruka doesn't like them because they're so popular with the girls." Michiru explained. "She wants a bigger fanclub, and they're stealing her crowd."
"That is not the issue, Michiru." Haruka sniffed primly before glaring at the boys seated a few rows in front of them in a large empty space with plenty of room on eith er side of them. "They are not trustworthy boys, Kakyuu. You can take my word on that."
"Oh, please." Michiru rolled her eyes. "Stop trying to hit on my cousin, would you?"
"I don't know what you mean."
----------
"This is the best spot." Yaten insisted as he set down the jacket he brought in case of rain and sat on it rather than being directly seated on the cold metal bleachers. "Look, do you see any people within ten feet? No. Very good spot."
"That's because of the soda all over the bench." Taiki indicated the spill that did not reach quite to where Yaten and he were seated. "You're such a sociopath sometimes, Yaten."
"I take offense to that." Yaten shot Taiki a sharp look as he opened the bag of supplies he had brought for the game. "I hate people in general at any given time, not just sometimes, as you say."
"In any case, you aren't fit for polite society." Taiki eyed the contents of the bag. "What, is there an entire meal in there?"
"For your information, yes. I will not miss dinner just because Seiya likes chasing balls around and wants us to watch him do it." Yaten opened the bottle of water he had just pulled out of the bag and took a drink from it as Taiki considered this.
"There are vendors just down there." He pointed at the large stands below them, and Yaten snorted as though Taiki had just made a very poor joke.
"I am not eating dirty vending food, thank you." Yaten told him pointedly. "I made a salad."
"Not one of your four hour unholy crusade salads?" Taiki shook his head slightly, and Yaten's back stiffened as though completely offended by this description.
"Good salads take time. It isn't an…unholy crusade. It's perfect." Yaten pulled out the neatly sealed Tupperware bowl and opened it so that Taiki could admire his handiwork. "Spinach, lettuce, green cabbage, just to start it off."
"Please, if you list the ingredients, it will wilt before you can eat it." Taiki told the young man, who resealed his bowl and frowned at the brunette for a few moments before speaking.
"You're in a mood tonight, aren't you?" Yaten asked. "You're supposed to be the stupidly nice one. What gives?"
"I know what you did today." He told the silver-haired boy. "I know why Seiya and you were late to gym."
"Oh, that." Yaten snorted slightly. "Don't get your panties in a twist, it wasn't like we killed a kitten or something. Just a little milk."
"It was cruel." Taiki insisted. "And do you want to know what bothers me most? That you'd agree to do something like that to her, of all people."
"She's just a little book-dork loser with no friends." Yaten pouted. "What makes her so special?"
"You tell me." Taiki answered cryptically. Yaten was about to ask what that was supposed to mean when he heard his name called out, turned, and saw her. Hotaru Tomoe was rushing up the bleachers and waving at him happily. He didn't realize he was smiling in return until he saw the way Taiki's eyebrow was raised, at which point he tried his best to return his face to a respectable Sneer of Disgust at All Existance.
"Yaten." Hotaru was apparently not the most physically fit of girls. She seemed exhausted by her short run up the stairs, and Yaten wondered if she'd collapse or finish saying whatever she had to say first. "I thought…you might be here. Can we…sit here?"
"We?" Yaten asked suspiciously just as Taiki answered "yes" without notifying Yaten of the decision at all.
"I'm here…with some friends." Hotaru told him as she struggled to catch her breath. "Not…really, actually. I kind of just…met most of them…but my best friend is dating…one of them, and so…"
"Okay, sit down before you keel over." Yaten decided he was very irate about this whole arrangement. Obviously. He hated sitting with loser girls like this, but he couldn't just let her run off again, as she'd clearly die, and then her death would be on his head. That was really the last bit of bad karma he needed. "Next to me, there's soda all over the bench by Taiki."
"I wouldn't want to force you, Yaten, I can clean this up with some paper towels." Taiki gave Yaten a look that he supposed he was expected to translate into some sort of stern statement. Probably he was doing something Taiki thought was wrong, as that was almost always the case with such unintelligible looks.
"Well, do that then." Yaten shrugged as if he could care less. Hotaru sat beside him, anyway, and Taiki let out a long-suffering sigh before leaving for the towels.
"Thanks…for letting me sit." Hotaru was not only out of breath, her cheeks were pink from her brief exertion, and Yaten found himself wondering if they were as chilly as the autumn air or warm to the touch, heated by the blood so clearly rushing through them.
"Whatever, I don't care." Yaten decided that he would turn his attention to his salad, as that was the only presence that he felt completely comfortable with at the moment.
"Great seats!" the voice was familiar, and it caused Yaten to nearly spill his salad in distress as he realized that for some horrible, unbelievable reason, the friends that Hotaru had brought to sit next to him were none other than the girls that followed Usagi Tsukino around, complete with that lapdog boy she had so quickly secured after being dumped by Seiya. And of course, Minako Aino was there, rushing up to sit in Taiki's spot, clearly ecstatic at the chance to rub herself beside him.
"Please, no." he mumbled slightly. Then, a bit louder. "Taiki is sitting there already. Move, as you're clearly too heavy for him to attempt lifting, and I doubt he'd enjoy a spot in your lap."
"Yaten!" the scolding sounded like it was in stereo as it was issued both by the dark-haired girl seated beside him and Rei Hino at exactly the same time.
"What? He was sitting there." He attempted his look of Utter Innocence with Rei, but as she was clearly not impressed, he turned it on Hotaru, who was still looking at him in vague annoyance.
"It's…okay, I can just move." Minako smiled brightly as though Yaten had not just insulted her, claiming the spot on Hotaru's other side, as it was clearly the closest she would get to Yaten. The other girls filed past, all claiming spots, most of them far from the soda spill, except for Ami, who had decided to salvage a seat beside Taiki.
"Is that your dinner, Yaten-kun?" Minako was clearly making an effort to lean over Hotaru as though she were not blocking the blonde's access to her target, and it was obviously making the shy girl rather uncomfortable. "That's so cool. Did you make that salad?"
"Um, Minako-san, did you want to trade seats with me?" Hotaru did not see the look of glee that lit up Minako's face at this suggestion, because she was trapped by the look of utter horror on Yaten's own face.
"Hotaru was there first." Yaten spoke up quickly. "So no." he leaned in and whispered in the dark-haired girl's ear. "I really don't like her. She's too…obsessive." Hotaru looked completely uncomfortable, but she still gave him a slight nod before biting her lip and turning to face him again as Minako pouted.
"That is a really nice salad." She spoke up after a while, feeling utterly foolish, but also unable to think of anything better to say. "Is that feta cheese?"
"Yeah, it is." Yaten looked utterly pleased at this correct identification, and so Hotaru persisted.
"Mushrooms…spinach…do you have two kinds of cabbage in there?" she asked him.
"I use the red cabbage for color. Otherwise salads get monochrome very quickly." Yaten explained in a superior tone just as Taiki returned, greeting Ami. "I don't mean to brag, but my salads are really the best."
"Stop being such an egotistical princess, Yaten." Taiki told him. "No one cares about your salad but you."
"Hotaru likes it." Yaten defended.
"So do I!" Minako immediately leapt in, but Yaten clearly ignored her support of his creation, stabbing a forkful and eating it as though in mutinous answer to Taiki's criticism of his food.
"I see that I missed the beginning of the match." Taiki shifted subjects neatly, clearly not wanting an all-out argument in front of Ami and her friends.
"Oh, that's right, it just started." Ami seemed completely fidgety, and she was looking at everything but the field. "But Zoicite…I haven't seen him yet. You don't think he'd forget to come, do you?"
"He's just there." Taiki pointed down to where their friend was leading a brunette boy toward them, having just spotted Ami and Taiki himself. "See?"
"Oh, good, I was so worried." Ami flushed and then covered her face, flushing deeper still.
"You! You're that friend of his!" Rei's voice suddenly rose over the gentle chatter of the rest of her friends from where she was situated between Makoto and Usagi. "I've seen you with him." She was pointing at Nephlyte in an angry, accusing fashion.
"Rei?" Minako was clearly perplexed. "What are you even…"
"If you mean Jadeite Akahito, yes, I must apologize, we are friends." Nephlyte gave her a slight bow. "But I think you should know that we're on your side in this case. I would love to see one of Jadeite's plans come crashing down on him, and this seems the perfect chance."
"Oh…really?" Rei seemed struck by this answer, utterly lost as to how she should continue. "Well, it's nice to meet you then…I suppose."
"Nephlyte Midoroshi, at your service." He gave her another slight bow and turned to address Zoicite, who had already left his side to sit next to Ami, where both seemed content to blush and refuse to meet eyes. "And Zoicite Aoseishi, my other, less foolish friend has apparently abandoned me. Would you mind if I sat here?"
"Um, no, not at all." Makoto answered for Rei, who was still rather confused about whether to kick this boy or not. Before she knew what was happening, he was sitting next to her, and she was so flummoxed by this turn of events that she decided the best course of action was clearly to turn her attention to the game.
"Who's winning?" she asked after spending nearly five minutes trying to determine whether she could figure out what exactly all the kicking and yelling meant. Nephlyte helpfully pointed to a scoreboard and spoke up once more.
"We're winning by two goals, which really means you're losing, I suppose." He told her in a voice that was pitched low enough so that only she could hear it, which she rather appreciated. She did not relish explaining her sudden urge for soccer viewing to her friends. "Just watch the scoreboard, or if you can follow the game at all, our team is the blue and black guys. The green and white team is the one you want to win."
"Thanks." She gave the word up grudgingly before turning her attention to the complicated workings of a sport she had never bothered to learn a thing about before this moment.
"Yaten, do you know the rules?" Hotaru spoke up after a time had passed. "Since…you know, your friend plays."
"Seiya?" Yaten shook his head and laughed slightly, pausing his forkful of salad on it's way to his mouth. "Yeah, he plays, but I don't really care about the rules. I just want to see him get knocked on his ass."
"Don't listen to him, he's all bark." Taiki interrupted whatever astonished comment Hotaru was preparing. "He actually does care for Seiya's welfare. Yaten treats those he cares for most the least humanely."
"Well, he's nice enough to me." Hotaru replied after a pause for consideration. "So then, do you hate me?"
"That's stupid. Don't listen to Taiki. He thinks he's smart, but he's full of it." Yaten stuffed the salad in his mouth and chewed irritably.
"Says the boy who eats homemade salad at a soccer match." Taiki sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Do you know the rules, Taiki-san?" Hotaru asked him hopefully, and he gave her a measuring glance before answering.
"As far as I've gathered in my time attending Seiya's matches, the goal of soccer is for well-liked boys to run around in front of their adoring acolytes until the exertion heats them to the point that they must tear their shirts off, thus impressing girls with their finely toned soccer player physiques." Taiki explained in a calm tone, uncaring of the way that Yaten was gaping at him all the while. "Or perhaps I've missed the entire point, and that is really Seiya's personal goal."
"Whoa…Taiki…that's probably the funniest thing you've ever said!" Yaten managed to get the words out before breaking into unrestrained laughter. Hotaru's brow furrowed as she watched this for a while before speaking up once more.
"You guys…are friends?" she asked finally.
"Yeah, of course." Yaten waved the inquiry away. "Since we were kids. We joke around sometimes, but we're close."
"Okay then." Hotaru decided that the game was far less confusing than the Kous, so she returned her attention to that. It was easy to figure out which team they were supposed to cheer for, since any time the blue and black uniformed side got the ball in the net, everyone surrounding her cheered and jumped around in excitement. After a while, she was even fairly sure she had spotted Seiya, who she couldn't decide if she should cheer for since he was Yaten's friend, or if she should root against him because of the milk incident, which she still suspected him of having involvement in. Also, she was rather confused as to whether Yaten was being serious when he uttered hopes of Seiya breaking a leg or kicking the ball so hard it bounced back and broke his nose all throughout the game, or if he was truly just teasing. She had been friends with Mamoru seemingly forever, and they never joked about the other getting horribly injured. Maybe it was just different when it was two boys, and not a boy and a girl. That could be it.
"I hate this game." Rei jumped up near the very end of the match and stormed away in a rage, causing everyone a good deal of confusion.
"But…aren't we winning?" Minako asked Hotaru after a while, and the girl could only shrug. She felt like she couldn't be sure of anything anymore. It was all rather aggravating, and she wondered where her simple life had gone, and when it would return.
The End (Of Part 9, That Is)