Ritsu's backhand had never been this bad before.

"Thirty-love." Said Tsubomi as the ball whizzed past Ritsu and hit the fence. It was loud, loud enough to startle Ritsu out of whatever he'd been thinking about. He got like that sometimes, when something important was on his mind….she had no idea what it was.

He used to tell her everything.

"Huh?" asked Ritsu as a tennis ball flew past his head. His racket hit the ground as he stepped back in surprise…he needed to get it together. He was fine. He felt…he felt fine. He wasn't a baby. He had known from the moment he saw Sho that he'd be leaving just as suddenly as he showed up. That was just the way things worked for now…the way they would work until…until something changed.

Until he, Sho, and Teru changed things.

"The score, it's thirty to love." Said Tsubomi

"Oh…right. Who's serve?" asked Ritsu as he picked up his racket. Things were going to change, Sho had said that his Dad was really ramping up his recruiting, so that meant….well it meant that something big was happening. Something that Ritsu and Teru…something that they needed to figure out how to stop. Later. Right now he had to hang out with Tsubomi…he had so much to do and he was only one person…well two, as soon as soccer practice was over…

Ritsu looked past Tsubomi. It didn't look like Teru's soccer game or practice or whatever was going to be over with any time soon.

"Yours." Said Tsubomi. Ritsu nodded and tried his best to serve…it hit the net. She put her hands on her hips and sighed. He wasn't even trying. When they had been little they used to be able to play for hours and hours, it was how she had gotten so good in the first place. She knew that tennis wasn't really his thing but…but they hadn't hung out in a while. Not like they used to and…and they didn't have much else they could do together. They used to play house, but they were too old for that now, and Ritsu probably wasn't into One Piece anymore so they couldn't play that…did he still like videogames? She didn't know.

Teru would have known…being his boyfriend and all.

"Sorry, it's just…sorry." said Ritsu as he walked over to collect the ball. Tsubomi walked over too, her eyes overflowing with concern in that Tsubomi way. He looked away. If he looked at her for too long then he would have maybe said something stupid or done something stupid…like tell her. They never used to have secrets before…but that was then and this was now. He couldn't tell anyone what was happening. He had to keep it to himself…he was just one person…and he wasn't even making progress…he had to stop thinking about this. About Claw and how big it was and how small he felt…how being in love was somehow even more lonely than the actual feeling of loneliness…how if things had gone differently in his life then he would have…he would have been able to serve the stupid ball…

But this was his life and there was no point in complaining.

"It might be the racket. Mom got me that one last week but it's too heavy. Do you want to try mine?" asked Tsubomi as she took a look at Ritsu's racket. It wasn't that heavy but she was giving him an out. She knew him, he didn't like to talk about what was on his mind. No matter what, bad behavior reports or lost library books, Ritsu had always insisted on dealing with it on his own. She knew what he was going through, or at least she had some idea of it, and it was too much to deal with on his own.

Tsubomi had never had a real boyfriend before, let alone one that cheated on her, but she knew how hard this must have been on Ritsu.

"If you think it'll help." Said Ritsu as he and Tsubomi traded rackets. He had expected her to go back to her side of the court but she didn't. She just stood there playing with her racket handle and looking at him…through him. He looked away.

"…you know, we don't have to play anymore if you don't want to." Said Tsubomi. Ritsu looked like he was about to cry, maybe, or he could have just been very sad. He had always been so closed off when it came to feelings like that even though he didn't have to be. She was his friend, nothing more, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to be there for him if he needed her.

"I want to I'm just…distracted." Said Ritsu with a shrug.

"About your boyfriend?" asked Tsubomi. She didn't think she had a tone when she'd said 'boyfriend'. Any tone that came out was purely accidental. She was happy that Ritsu had found someone he loved…even if it was Teru. She liked Teru, or she had liked him, before she had seen him sitting in Starbucks some girl from his fancy school. Ritsu had said that Teru hadn't been cheating on them, that it was something called an open relationship, something that adults had all the time…well sometimes adults could be wrong. That didn't look like any kind of relationship Tsubomi had ever seen. It had looked like cheating to her. If she had been Ritsu's girlfriend then she never would have even so much as thought about another boy…

But there was no chance of any of that, now was there?

"How did you-" said Ritsu

"It's obvious. You've been looking over at Teru all day and…and he kind of…." Said Tsubomi

"It's not Teru, we're fine." Said Ritsu. This was his fault. She had caught Teru and…well the open relationship lie wasn't working as well as he thought that it would have…he needed to do better to keep Teru busy.

"You know if you're ever not fine then you can always talk to me-" said Tsubomi

"I know! I mean…I know. I know that I can talk to you but I don't want to talk to…it's fine. It's stuff I have to deal with on my own." said Ritsu

"But you don't have to deal with it on your own, I'm here." Said Tsubomi. Didn't he get it? She was still his friend and…and maybe she wanted to be more than friends…he knew it. Maybe it was weird to him…but they had known each other for their entire lives. She had read enough manga to know that even if childhood friends didn't always end up together they at least had a bond…an unbreakable one and…and maybe all of that was best left to manga/

"I…I know. But you have enough going on with middle school and your mom and tennis practice…you don't need to deal with any of my stuff. So let's keep playing." Said Ritsu

"I don't really feel like it anymore." Said Tsubomi

"Why? You love tennis, it's your thing." Said Ritsu

"It used to be our thing. We used to…I don't know. I've just been thinking a lot about…about us and stuff…and before you say anything I know that there's no 'us'. I know that….I know that I'm being weird right now. I'm sorry." said Tsubomi

"You're forgetting who I hang out with. You're my most normal friend." Said Ritsu. He put a hand on her shoulder. He couldn't believe how he'd been treating her. He wasn't an idiot, he knew that she probably still liked him, and he knew how lonely those feelings could make you…he didn't like her back but he had been ignoring her a lot lately…he had been ignoring everyone.

It was easy to forget about your life when you were in love.

In love with someone. Sometimes it felt like every part of your life just …stopped. Like it was on pause. Like you could just go and be in the moment with the person you love that everything would be the same by the time you were ready to come back. Well, it wasn't. When you fell asleep in class, people called your parents. When you stopped hanging out with your friends, they got worried about you. When you stopped hanging out with your fake boyfriend, he went on a bunch of dates and then people started questioning your fake opened relationship. When you didn't visit the family with what might have been an esper baby, then clock could have been spying on them, ready to kidnap the baby at anytime. And then it would have been your fault that the baby got kidnapped and then you wouldn't be able to save it because-because-because-because-because-

Ritsu really needed to check on that baby.

"Then, please, take it from a friend. You deserve someone who doesn't want to be with other people, someone who doesn't-" said Tusbomi. A soccer ball flew over her head…and hit Ritsu on his. She turned around, ready to tell off whoever had done that. She had assumed that it had been another jerk trying to start a fight with Ritsu…she had been wrong.

She kind of wished, though, that it was just another jerk and not that…she didn't even want to think it.

"Seriously?" asked Ritsu as he caught Teru's soccer ball. These things were hard. How did Teru manage to bounce this thing off of his head all the time? Ritsu caught the ball as it ricocheted off of his head and tossed it back to Teru.

"You deserve that." Said Teru as he caught the ball. He offered a smile to Tsubomi who all but turned around and huffed…he didn't get her sometimes. If she hadn't been Ritsu's friend then he would have made more of an effort to get to know her but he knew better than to mix all of that up. The whole open relationship lie was big enough, pulling another person into it was just too many variables, and there were already enough variables involved as it was.

Thanks to Ritsu.

Not him. He'd made a mistake with Shigeko, gone into hiding, and then come out when the coast was clear and she'd forgotten all about him…not that he had any idea how she could have possibly forgotten about him. That had been…he wasn't going to think about this now. Not when he had to deal with Ritsu and his heartache or whatever. Sho was gone and with Sho leaving went any and all trace of the person Teru had come to call 'good Ritsu'. The guy who thought about things other than their two man takedown plan for Claw…not that he even needed Ritsu…but it was nice to have lives. To be able to pretend for a moment that they were normal people. It was hard, living like this, like they were the main characters in a shonen series or whatever. Sometimes he just wanted to blend into the background for a minute, to get a taste of what all the normal people took for granted.

Just a taste, though, since he was Hanazawa Teruki. He was anything but ordinary.

"For what?" asked Ritsu, making aural contact with Teru. Something that Tsubomi couldn't see and then ask him about later. She was already suspicious, Ritsu had been too busy going on real dates that he hadn't gone on enough fake dates with Teru, and he didn't want to make it any worse than it was now.

"I don't know, something you've done. I don't watch you twenty four hours a day." Said Teru, shoving Ritsu's aura off of his. Ritsu knew what he did. He had been reckless, again. He had spent so much time with Sho, in the middle of the night too, that people had been asking questions. A lot of questions. Reigen mostly, he thought that Teru and Ritsu were fighting again, and also…well Tsubomi had asked him point blank in the middle of Starbucks why he was out with another girl and not Ritsu….the rest of that date had been a complete bust….

Sometimes Teru felt like he was the only one committed to this fake relationship.

"No, you're too busy for that." Muttered Tsubomi as she gave Teru a look.

"What?" asked Teru

"We thought that you'd have been busy with soccer for a while. We were about to start a new game." Said Tsubomi, this time smiling. She didn't know what Ritsu saw in Teru, sure he was cute but that only went so far, but she couldn't ruin this for him. Who knew if he would ever find another boy like him ever again? Life wasn't like a boy's love manga…maybe that was what kept Teru and Ritsu together, the fact that there weren't a lot of other boys like him in Seasoning City.

"You can start and I can play winner." Said Teru, giving her a smile in return. This was…better. She was happier with him…or at least less pissed off. Not that he blamed her, of course, she was just being a loyal friend. Teru had tried to explain that he hadn't been cheating but that was exactly what someone who had been cheating would have said.

"One more game, it's getting late and we have stuff to do." Said Ritsu. They were definitely going to see the baby later. He hadn't seen it in so long it could have been a kid by now…and he had no idea how the act kids were doing with their powers. Madoka was definitely an esper, he just didn't know what kind, but Juro…well he might have gotten his powers by now….

Something else for him to worry about.

"Oh…you guys have a date…." Said Tsubomi softly.

"You can come too." Said Ritsu. It might have been better having a girl there. Moms trusted girls more with their babies than boys, he didn't know why. Boys became dads and girls became moms, girls didn't just find babies in the river like he'd thought when he'd been little.

"Three is a crowd, Ritsu." Said Teru. Nope. No way were they involving her in any of this. Ritsu was always saying that Teru was the reckless one…well what did he call this then?! Honestly. He knew the tone, the look, all of it. Ritsu had some plan or mission idea. Well the last thing they needed was to bring a normal person along. It was bad enough that Reigen knew about Claw. Too many people was too many variables and Teru could barely keep it together on his own…well there were two of them…but to be honest Teru knew he was on his own with all of this.

"Only if you make it that way, Teru." Said Ritsu. They were not arguing about this, not here. It was better to keep Tsubomi close, anyway, that way he could be sure that she was safe. He wished that he could have just had everyone he cared about followed so he could make sure that they were safe but that was some Claw stuff and he wasn't going to go down that route. He didn't even have enough people for that yet, he didn't even know that many people. He wished that he'd known more espers, that more people Awakened as kids, then he could have at least had someone besides Teru…not that he minded Teru.

Most of the time.

"I'm not making anything anyway." Said Teru

"No, you're making something into something." Said Ritsu

"There's nothing to make anything out of." Said Teru

"Really, because you just said-" said Ritsu

"Guys! Guys! Stop it, stop fighting! I don't want to be the reason you guys are fighting…" said Tsubomi. She didn't know why they fought so much, maybe it was a boy thing. Boys were always acting like that, like everything was a fight or a contest or whatever. She never would have treated Ritsu like that. She never would have…she wasn't his girlfriend. He wanted to be with Teru for some reason…because she liked him.

"You're not! We're fighting because Teru is an-" said Ritsu. Great, now Tsubomi was upset. Teru could be such an idiot sometimes. Ritsu wanted to knock the soccer ball out of his hands and…they couldn't fight, not here. Ritsu hadn't even had the chance.

"I'm very sorry, Takane-san, we shouldn't have been fighting in front of you and we both offer you our deepest apologies and regrets." Said Teru. He took her hand and kissed it. Girls normally ate that stuff up with a spoon. Tusbomi just pulled her hand back and gave him a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"It's alright, couples fight…but I really should be getting home. My mom…she gets upset when I'm out of the house for too long. I mean she'll get mad…madder than normal." Said Tsubomi as she picked up her racket. The two of them said goodbye as she walked away. She knew that she was being rude but…but it was just too weird, being in the middle of all of that. Mom had said, before, that friends drifted apart. That boys and girls couldn't ever just be friends and that Tsubomi was going to have to make some big choices soon.

Choices that….that had been made.

She was still friends with Ritsu but things had changed. Ritsu had a boyfriend now and…and he wanted to hang out with Teru now. That was just…that was just…she was happy for her friend. She was really happy for Ritsu, that he had found some kind of love, even if that love had been with someone who was…Teru. Who did things like…it wasn't her business. Ritsu was happy and that should have been enough for her and…and sure things had changed but it wasn't that bad. They were still friends, thing had just changed a little…

Though Ritsu's backhand hadn't ever been that great, now that she thought about it.