Hello people, wow, thanks for the reviews!

neko11lover: That's okay, to be honest, I wasn't out of my crummy mood until about a couple of days ago, when the World Cup started! Really happy, Argentina won their first match! Yay! And Ecuador too! Yay!

peek-a-boo: thanks so much! Here's the next chapter, and yes, don't worry, this will be completed!

jhydl: will finish this, don't worry. all the chapters had been uploaded and just waiting their turn!

zhen: Er, what about Kira's name? Do you know something I don't?

hala: i think both are correct, i'm not sure, but i thought that what i wrote made sense...english isn't my mother tongue either.

Sabrina: Buongiornio! I knew I got that wrong! Grazie, er, right? Anyway, thanks for the review! Keep reading, k? Ciao! (Now, I know when to actually use ragazzi, i thought it meant everyone)

Guys, thanks so much for reading. If there are any errors, grammatical or typos or something, let me know, cause after the story's finished, i'll be editing everything. hopefully, that second read would be much more interesting cause everything's correct okay?

Here's the next chapter!

You mean, Rukawa has a best friend?

Chapter Fourteen

"I miss Kaede, Kae-chan."

The lion looked on curiously. Kira's face was reflected in the lion's eyes, but it wouldn't respond to her pleas. It just looked politely interested.

She sighed and looked out the window. Sunday afternoon, the sky was perfect, baby blue without a cloud in sight. The perfect day was mocking her. She should be out there, especially now that the weather was starting to warm out.

She thought of what Rukawa may be doing right now. Probably playing basketball somewhere. She thought most likely in his favorite court in the world. The one by the park. He's probably singing praises to the gods for getting rid of the snow.

If he dares to sing, that is, she thought, smiling a little.

The phone rang. She sighed with relief. Someone to talk to, someone who can actually talk back.

"Hello?"

For a fleeting moment, she had hoped that it was Kaede, but -

"Can I talk to you now?"

"Akira," she sighed, determinedly hiding her disappointment. She had been extremely unfair to him, refusing to talk to him - or to anyone else for that matter - ever since her blow up with Rukawa a couple of days ago. Spring break was upon them, and she pictured these two weeks a whole lot differently than what she was appearing.

"I take it you're glad to hear my voice?" he asked.

Kira smiled, and said, "Of course. I'm really sorry."

"That's okay."

"I've been really unfair to you." her voice was small, achieving that guilty voice that she was targeting.

"Don't worry about it," he answered airily,"You can just make it up to me."

"Really?" asked Kira, her voice perking up. Shestood up straighter,"How?"

No answer came for a few seconds. Kira thought that he was thinking. "Well," he said, "you can start by coming out of your house."

Kira looked out the window. She refused to get out of her home ever since Saturday, after the match, no matter how many times Sendoh asked. He had called once every couple of hours, only to be told that she didn't want to talk to anyone any time soon, much less leave her house.

Kira smiled, though Sendoh couldn't see. "Okay," she said, "it's a beautiful day, why not?"

Finally, Sendoh thought as he put the phone down.

He looked at the phone for a few seconds before grabbing a new change of clothes. After a couple of days of coaxing and the occasional prodding, Sendoh had finally managed to get Kira to do something apart from moping in her room.

He knew that she was extremely sad, to the point of depressed, but he thought that moping around the house wasn't going to help her situation. He thought that the best way to get her to forget her depression was for them to do something.

He rushed towards Kira's house, jogging all the way. He thought that the best way to get rid of any depressing thought was exercise, and lots of it. At the same time, hemade sure that none of those exercisesinvolved basketball.When he reached her house, he rang the doorbell eagerly and a minute later, Kira answered the door.

He was grinning widely as he waited for Kira to open the door. He was just excited to be doing something with her again. She was quite fun to hang out with, more so to kiss, but, he thought, that could come later, when she was really out of her depressing state. His smile disappeared however when he saw the Kira that he would have to deal with.

"Kira," he said slowly, "you look –"

"Terrible, I know," she said in her most depressed tone. She pulled the door a little wider. "Come in."

Sendoh came in, all thought of exercising driven out of his mind by the sight of Kira.

She didn't really look terrible, but there was definite room for fixing up. Her hair was in a loose ponytail that didn't exactly catch her entire hair. She had not done a good job of getting rid of the make up in her face, though he didn't know why she even had make up on her face, she didn't go anywhere after all. Her clothes were rumpled and looked too large for her.

Her eyes were puffy and red which meant –

"Have you been crying?"

Kira looked like it was pointless to lie. "Yes." She answered dully.

Sendoh felt exasperation rising. "But…why?"

"Because it's my perogative." She answered coolly. "I'm gonna get ready."

He sat down, feeling extremely incredulous still, and cursed Rukawa into oblivion. This, he felt was entirely his fault. Why the hell does he have to mess things up with his anger issues and possessiveness?

He really wanted to cheer Kira up, to tell her that Rukawa Kaede doesn't deserve her for a friend, much less a best friend, and he's probably suited more as dung for the plants of the earth.

Upon reconsideration, he thought that this would only depress Kira more.

Still, he wanted to do something special for her, but he couldn't think of anything at the moment, because Rukawa's words were still ringing in his ears.

If you only care for Kira, then she doesn't deserve you.

Upon later reflection, and constantly asking himself to be honest with himself, he had concluded that he really did care for Kira. There was no 'only' to it, he thought with a frown in his face, he cared for her deeply, and would do most anything to make her happy.

However, he could never say that he loves the girl.

This was what Rukawa wanted to know. He wanted to make sure that he, Sendoh Akira, loved Yamato Kira. But no answer like that came from his lips. He knew that he would not be able to say it, much less mean it, and he thought that Rukawa knew that too.

Maybe that's why he's so against me dating her, he thought.

Then there was another sentence that rattled him.

I've just lost someone I love to an idiot like you and I just made it worse for the her and I.

At first, he didn't understand. It was only when he reached his own home when Sendoh suddenly realized the impact of the words that Rukawa let loose from his mouth.

Someone he loves.

All weekend he tried to block that one single sentence from his mind, but it kept coming back to him, like some ghost bent on haunting him until he finally cracks.

Rukawa loves Kira.

The words had more impact on him that he ever thought that it would. Finally admitting it had finally stopped the constant repetition of the sentence in his brain, and he sighed of relief for that. Kira must know nothing about this, he thought. Well, she would know that he loves her, but in the platonic best friend sort of way.

At first, he thought that this was the way that he loved her. He was trying to convince himself that this was the way that he did love her, but as the sentence kept repeating itself in his head, he knew that it was not in the platonic way that he wanted it to be, but rather, the romantic way, the way that suggested that he, Sendoh, now had competition for the heart of Kira.

He knew he was fighting a losing battle.

Sendoh stopped thinking about it. It was depressing him, and he looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Kira had been up there for a full half an hour now, and there was no sign that she was coming down anytime soon. Sendoh stood up.

"Kira?" he asked tentatively.

There was no answer.

He made a way for the stairs, each step taken cautiously, as if he was gonna get caught sometime soon. When he reached the top of the stairs, only one door was slightly ajar. He saw a hint of pink in that room, and immediately went there.

He had the sinking feeling that Kira was not up for any day outside, no matter how perfect the day is.

He opened the door more widely, and immediately his heart poured out to her.

"Kira…"

She had not made any move to change, or fix her hair, or even leave her room. Her hair was still a mess and her clothes still the same clothes, too baggy for her. She wasn't sitting on her bed. Rather, she was leaning on a large stuffed lion that had a spot all to itself in the far end corner of the room. Kira looked at him for a brief moment, as he leaned on the frame of her door. She sighed and then looked up on top of her.

Sendoh's eyes also went to where she was looking. They were looking at a cork board, filled with pictures. Most of them were her and Rukawa. When he looked closer, he saw that in some pictures, there was actually a small smile in Rukawa's face.

He must really love her, he mused. For him to be able to smile.

Sendoh walked towards her, and sat next to the her, also leaning on the lion. He instinctively put a hand over her shoulder, and she leaned on his chest. She wasn't crying, and she didn't show signs of having cried. She was just extremely depressed.

"I miss him, Akira…"

Sendoh knew he had lost.