Author's Note: Don't worry... we're almost there... it's almost over... I apologize for the length of this chapter. I had trouble ending it while I was writing it... anyways, reviews much appreciated. Enjoy!

Eiji's Point of View

Talking with Oishi and arranging another visit had made me forget about the little bell. Honestly, I didn't want to remember that I'd lost it. I just wanted to spend the rest of the day enjoying my best friend's company.

At the moment, I was more concerned about how long I would be staying. What if he asked me to stay the night? Shoot. I didn't bring any pajamas… Never mind. That wasn't a problem. He could always lend me something. I started going through all the possibilities in my head. What could I ask to borrow? Maybe that grey sweatshirt of his. I liked that thing; it was cozy. I remembered one time he'd lent it to me. It had been an unexpectedly cold day, early in fall. He'd caught me shivering and insisted that I wear his sweatshirt. That was so like him. Always worrying about—

I heard some church bells ringing in the distance and stopped dead in my tracks.

Shoot.

I sighed and hung my head, walking more slowly now. I'd been doing so well, too, not thinking about the lost bell. I'd actually forgotten that I'd been upset. But now that I remembered, of course, I couldn't not be upset.

Oh, man. Now I had to face Oishi like this. There was no way he wouldn't notice.

Wait, I'd forgotten about it once; I could do it again. I tried really hard to think about other things…

It was no use. Nothing could get my mind off that little bell. I felt like it was ringing in my ears. I quickly covered them and shook my head. No, no, no! Stop it!

I came to his street, realizing that I must accept my fate. Doomed, I rang the doorbell, which Oishi promptly answered. I tried my best to smile. "Hey."

"Hey!" He smiled brightly. "Why don't you come in? We don't have to go play right away…"

"Oh, right," I stepped in, a bit flustered. Then I followed Oishi upstairs to his room.

Once inside, Oishi closed the door behind him and asked the dreaded question, "Eiji, is anything wrong? You seem a bit down."

"It's nothing," I lied as I set my stuff down.

"You sure?" his mouth said. What he really meant was, "Don't lie to me, Eiji…"

I sat on the front of his bed, slouching. It took me a while to say anything. I really didn't want to tell him.

"It's stupid," I finally said. Trying to keep cool about it wasn't working, though. For the millionth time that day, I felt like I was going to cry.

"No, it's not." What an Oishi-like reply. "What's up?"

I covered my face. I didn't want him to see me cry. I just knew I was going to cry. Why was it so hard not to? "I lost something," I squeaked.

For a minute, Oishi didn't answer. In my mind, I imagined him mocking me. We just cleaned your room, Eiji! Even though I know he'd never do that.

"What did you lose, Eiji?"

I looked up at him now, knowing there were tears in my eyes. "The bell!" I cried. "The bell Captain Yamato gave me. Do you remember that thing? I kept it…" I rubbed my eyes, calming down a bit. But then I burst into sobs. "But it's gone!"

Oishi just stood there. I didn't look at him. I was still sobbing into my hands. I hated the silence. It just made me cry more. I tried to fill it, but it was hard to continue. "I know it was really stupid, Oishi, to keep that thing… I really don't know why I did… But I thought it meant something to you! So I kept it… And I was going to show you again someday, you know, that I had kept it… But I lost it! Why do I have to lose everything? I'm so stupid! I mean… why… why… Oishi?"

I looked up. He was no longer standing in front of me. I turned around. He was opening a drawer in his desk and pulling something out.

"What are you doing?" I sniffled.

He held up the thing he'd pulled out.

It was my bell.

I felt my eyes get wider. I couldn't connect the dots. "Oishi… how…?"

He walked back over to me, never breaking our eye contact, taking the bell tenderly into both hands so it wouldn't ring. I couldn't quite read his expression.

"I'm so sorry, Eiji," he began. "I took this when I found it in your closet yesterday… I didn't think you'd miss it." He chuckled softly, kind of unsure. "I really had no idea. I mean, it was mixed in with some old clothes of yours… "

"Yes, but why did you take it?" I grabbed his arm. Get to the point!

This was obviously harder for him to answer. He looked down at the bell in his hand. Then he looked back at me. He stared into my eyes for forever until answering.

His voice was really quiet. "This bell… is something really precious to me."

I felt like I couldn't move. That was what he said… But what was he really saying? There was something really deep in this moment, like an ocean maybe… I never did well with things like that. I felt like I was drowning. I couldn't breathe.

Oishi's face lightened a little, and he placed the bell in my hand. "Anyway," he smiled. "It's yours, and I shouldn't have taken it. Sorry…"

"No, it's…" I couldn't find the word. "Ours", maybe? I felt like Oishi wanted (maybe needed) this thing more than me. I probably should have told him he could keep it. All I said in the end was, "It's okay."

I didn't get up. Oishi didn't walk away. We both felt that we couldn't leave it at that.

Once again, Oishi was the one to brighten the mood. He put his hands in his pockets. "The last time you wore that thing was, what, a year and… nine months ago? It seems like longer…"

"Huh? Oh… no…" I looked up at him and grinned. I don't know if I was blushing or not, but I felt a little silly. "Actually, the last time I wore it… was only about a month ago…"

My friend cocked his head. "When?"

I chuckled. "Oh, nothing special. I just took it out to look at it, and I put it on, nya." I gave it a little ring. "It's fun to remember sometimes."

Oishi smiled and sat next to me. "Yeah," was all he said.

"I don't really know how it got in my closet," I continued. "Oh, wait… Yeah, I do. I was looking at myself in my closet mirror with it on, and then I heard one of my brothers opening the door. So I pulled it off really quick, stuffed it under some old clothes, and slammed the closet door shut. I couldn't let him laugh at me, nya."

We both laughed a little at that, both relieved that we'd found common ground in our memories after all. Neither of us thought it was ridiculous, like we'd both feared.

"Remember when Yamato-senpai first showed us this thing?" I remarked. "I'll never forget the dumbfounded, blank expression you had on your face, nya."

This made him laugh. "I'm surprised that's what you remember. You were really embarrassed when you had to wear it…"

"Oh, trust me. I remember that. How could I forget, nya?"

"Weren't the upperclassmen teasing you to no end?"

"Oh, yes." I blushed a little. "They showed me no mercy. Actually, that was only the first day… They didn't bother me after that."

"Oh, really? Why'd they stop?"

I laughed. "I think Tezuka shut them up."

Oishi found that really funny. We kept talking, for over an hour I think. And we laughed, and it was just how I wanted it to be. But eventually, we ran out of memories. Still, I got the feeling Oishi didn't want to go play tennis just yet.

I held up the bell and looked at it. It was super shiny. "You cleaned it, nya," I observed. Then I tossed it to Oishi and leaned against his shoulder, feeling a little sleepy from sudden boredom. "What now?"

He hesitated. I could tell he wanted to ask something, but didn't know how. He was staring at the bell in his hands.

"What is it?" I sat up.

A weird smile crept across his face. "Could you humor me?"

"Always have, nya." I grinned.

A self-conscious laugh followed from my friend. "You don't mind?"

"Nah. What is it?"

He dangled the bell in front of my face. "Could you… put it on?"

I blinked twice. It was an odd request. But I smiled. For nostalgia's sake. "Okay," I said. "But you have to tie it, nya." Then I turned around so he could do so.

I found myself curious to know what thoughts were going through Oishi's head as he tied the black ribbon around my neck. He didn't say a word. In retrospect, it was maybe a little creepy. But I refused to let it bother me.

When it was secure, Oishi gave my shoulders a little squeeze. I turned around to face him again, and the bell gave a happy little "ding!" It was home again.

We just stared at each other. There was something awkward about this moment… but beautiful. I felt the warm fuzzies return as I gazed into Oishi's turquoise eyes. Carefully, he slid the palms of his hands onto my cheeks and lost his fingertips in my hair. My heart started beating a little faster. Then he leaned in and gave me a long, gentle kiss on my forehead.

That time, it was weird.

When he pulled back, he looked into my eyes again. I blinked. Why did he do that? He looked like he had no clue himself.

After an uneasy pause, one word escaped from Oishi's mouth. "Tennis."

"First one to the courts gets to serve!" I took off running, glad for the chance.

He chased me the whole way there. I didn't let him catch up, but I didn't get too far ahead, either. I don't know what it was about him chasing me that I liked so much. But I knew I couldn't stand to be too far.

I won the little race, of course. When we got on the court, I turned and ran backwards, claiming victory as I tossed my tennis bag aside. I didn't see a tennis ball that someone had left on the court, and I stepped on it, causing me totter backwards and give a little yelp as I fell.

"Eiji!" Oishi called, running. He threw his things on the ground, dove underneath me, and caught me in his arms. It ended up so he was lying on the court, holding me, and I was sort of on top of him. "Gotcha," he sighed, relieved.

I was laughing. I got up halfway, keeping my hands on the ground near his shoulders. Giggling, I apologized. "Sorry, nya."

"Don't scare me like that." He smiled at me and propped himself up on both elbows. "You didn't twist your ankle, did you?"

"No." After a quick breath, I started to laugh again. Then I tackled him back down. "You're okay, right?"

"I'm fine," he laughed, wrapping his arms around me again.

I forced myself to pull away and stand up. "Tennis?"

Oishi followed suit. "Tennis."

I got my racket and some tennis balls and started walking to the other side of the court to serve.

"Are you going to play with that bell on?" Oishi asked, out of the blue.

I had forgotten I was still wearing it. But I grinned and gave it a little ring with my finger. "You still can't beat me, nya."

Well, it actually turned out that Oishi did beat me. He really could read me better when I was wearing the bell. But I had fun anyway. It certainly brought back the memories we'd brought up earlier, back in Oishi's room. I started to wonder why I hadn't kept practicing with the bell. It was kind of scary what a difference it made in Oishi's playing.

By the time we were on our way back to Oishi's house, it was dark. I didn't have the bell on anymore; I'd stuffed it in my pocket. One gets tired of the "ding, ding, ding" all the time.

I'll never remember what we talked about. Whatever it was, it didn't matter. We just liked talking. And listening to each other. It used to be that I only enjoyed talking, and Oishi mostly enjoyed listening. But now Oishi talked more, and I came to like listening, too.

We abruptly stopped talking when we got to the doorstep of Oishi's house. He turned his key in the lock of his door in silence. Before he opened it, he turned back to face me. "Would you like to stay over?"

I smiled. I knew he'd ask that. "Sure, I'll just have to call my parents really quick…" Why was his face so serious looking?

"Oh, no problem." He finally opened the door. "Do you need to use our phone?"

"Nah, I'll use my cell." I pushed past him to go upstairs. Oishi was so slow sometimes. He followed me into his room. I mentioned the fact that I needed to borrow pajamas.

"Oh, of course," he responded, gesturing towards his closet. "Pick out anything you want." As always.

"I need to take a shower," he said nonchalantly. Then he disappeared out the door.

I called my mom. The conversation lasted about two seconds. She never cared if I wasn't home, as long as I was at Oishi's house. It was basically my second home at this point.

After that was taken care of, I turned to my friend's closet and started searching. What looked cozy? I picked out some green, plaid pajama pants and started looking for that grey sweatshirt. I had trouble finding it.

Suddenly, my ears picked out a very foreign sound coming from the wall. Actually, I'd heard this sound before, but only once. I never thought I'd hear it again. You're kidding, I said to myself as I put my ear to the wall to make sure.

Oishi was singing.

I figured it was my duty as a nosy best friend to listen. I had nothing else to do anyway. So I sat by the wall and listened to Oishi sing. He didn't have a bad voice; it was really very nice, very rich-sounding. I half expected him to bust out into Italian. Well, maybe not. Never mind. In any case, I enjoyed the performance. He was singing about… What was he singing about?

I tried harder to listen. It was hard to hear words through the wall. After a while, though, I'd heard enough to assume he was singing a love song. What else does one sing about, anyway? I closed my eyes.

The song abruptly stopped and the water turned off. Just as abruptly, I remembered that I should have been finding something to wear. I darted back to Oishi's closet and continued looking for that sweatshirt. It was probably somewhere obvious, and he would make fun of me for taking so long to find it, and then he would figure out that I really hadn't been looking that long…

"What are you looking for, Eiji?" he asked when he came in.

I turned around and discovered that Oishi was wearing the sweatshirt I'd been searching for. This was both a relief and a disappointment. "You're wearing it, nya." I smiled at him. "I'll look for something else…"

"Nah, you can wear this." Oishi promptly pulled it off and tossed it to me, leaving him in a white, sleeveless undershirt. "I always take it off before I go to sleep anyway."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, nya." I hugged the sweatshirt closer to me, wondering when he got to have such toned muscles. Before it got awkward, I left to go take my shower.

When I was done, I came back into the room to find Oishi sitting on his bed, staring at the bell again, which I had taken out of my pocket and set on his nightstand. He didn't look up when I entered.

I tapped him on the shoulder. "Oishi?"

He looked up. "Oh, sorry, Eiji." He offered the precious item to me, silently telling me to go ahead and take it back.

Instead, I held both hands up. "No, you keep it, Oishi. It's yours."

"Oh, no, Eiji, I couldn't—"

I leaned in close to his face and put a finger to his lips. With the other hand, I closed his fingers around my bell. "I was keeping it for you," I whispered.

Oishi blinked. I stood back again and put my hands in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. "Besides, I'd just lose it again, nya."

I got into his bed and pushed my way under his covers. Then I sort of started building myself a little nest with his sheets. Oishi walked around to the side to ask me what the heck I was doing. I poked my head out. "Nya?"

"Silly." This was practically his pet name for me. Randomly, he started tickling me under my chin with his fingers. What did he think I was, a cat? Yeah, pretty much. The warm fuzzies came back with a vengeance, but I really couldn't say I didn't like it. I found myself wishing he wouldn't stop.

When he did stop, he crawled in beside me. Reluctantly, I let him have some of his covers back. Then I pushed my way under his arm and got comfortable. As always, I wrapped my arms around his warm body. After my shower, I felt chilly, so it was nice to be kept so warm.

We breathed in perfect rhythm. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.