Ok, I just want to tell everyone that I won't be here from the 8th through the 14th because I'm going on vacation. That means I can't update! (The house I'm staying at doesn't have a computer, so don't blame me!) Anyway, I just wanted to inform you all of that, so that way if it seems like I'm not updating often enough, then you know why. Well, on with the story!

A New Game: Chapter 2

A couple of days went by after Sora had moved in next door. Not much had changed, except the fact that sometimes in the afternoon you could hear her playing her music just a little too loud. Other than that, life seemed to go on as normal.

Akira found it very nice to have a neighbor his age to talk to. Since he was an only child, it got kind of lonely during summer vacation (because his parents were at work), so he was thankful that he had someone to talk with. Sora seemed to like talking to him too. Also, he was starting to get more comfortable around her. He wouldn't get as flustered anymore, and he could now have a good conversation with her without embarrassing himself. Speaking of conversing…….

Akira was sitting on a chair next to the window that was hanging wide open. He was having another one of his 'window-chats' with Sora. Since the houses they lived in were so close to each other, it was easy to have a conversation without having to be on the phone. They could just sit and talk from their windows.

"So you're a pro Go gamer?" Sora looked shocked, "Wow, that's so cool! Do you earn money or…..?"

Akira laughed, "No. That would be gambling, which I would get arrested for. I just play for fun."

Sora smiled, "That's cool," she rested her head on her hands, "I wish I could be a pro at something. Maybe not Go, but……something……"

"Well, I'm sure you have some talents. What kind of things do you like to do?" Akira asked.

She sighed, "Just music, drawing, and stuff. You know stuff like that. Oh! And I'm also good at washing the dishes." She grinned.

Akira huffed, "I'm sure you'll become a pro at that. Maybe you should enter a dish-washing competition. You'd probably win!"

"Haha, very funny." She said sarcastically, "I'm sure you could win too."

"Well, I'm sure I could." Akira replied with pride sounding in his voice.

"Oh, so now you think you're all that?" Sora lifted her head, "Look at me, I'm Akira and I can play Go AND wash the dishes!" She was imitating Akira's voice, "Everyone thinks I'm so cool, and I think I'm cool too."

Akira blushed a little and laughed, "Shut-up! You know I'm not like that!" He tried to hide his face so she couldn't see him blush.

Sora put a hand to her ear, "Oh, do I hear a little arguing going on? Haha! I'm just kidding with you! No, you're not like that. In fact…" she put her finger on her chin, "…you're nothing like that. You don't talk about being a pro at all." She looked confused, "Why's that?"

Akira rolled his eyes and sighed, "It's just not that big a deal to me. Sure, I do love being a pro, but I don't like to go and brag about it. It actually gets kind of annoying sometimes."

"Annoying!" she was shocked, "How could being a pro get annoying? You should love to be a pro!"

"Well, it's not as fun as you think," Akira explained, "Since I'm a pro, I have to attend special conferences, and there's a ton of Go competitions I have to go to…..There's a lot of stuff that goes along with being a pro." He rested his head in his hands.

"I see…." Sora said softly, "Well, since you're a pro, do you think you could tutor me sometime? I mean- that is- when you have time?" she looked at him with hopeful eyes.

Akira tried to avoid her eyes as he shifted in his seat, "Umm... sure of course. In fact, I'm free right now." He blushed a little.

"I think I can see that." She replied, "So, then you don't mind tutoring me now?"

He looked up, "No, not at all."

"Great!" she said, pulling her legs half-way out her window, "Then you don't mind helping through your window either?"

"What!" Akira exclaimed. He stood up from his seat, "Are you sure you'll be all right?"

Sora laughed a little, "Actually I'm not sure, but you never know until you try!"

Akira held out his hands to grab her, "You shouldn't try to get yourself hurt."

"I'll be fine. Jeez, you're starting to sound like my mother!" She said. Now she had both of her legs hanging out of her window and one of her arms was stretched out to Akira's hand. Akira didn't have to reach far, since their houses were so close together, but it was still difficult to get her from one house to the next.

"Don't you think that it would've been easier to just go to my front door?" Akira asked with some strain in his voice. His body was half-way out of his window and his abdomen was killing him from leaning on it.

Sora groaned from reaching, "I guess, but this way is a lot quicker, don't you think?"

Akira decided to let go of her hand and he grabbed a hold of her waist, "….I guess….."

He lifted her out of her windowsill and onto his. Surprisingly, she wasn't that heavy. It was quite easy getting her to his house. Once he got his balance, he pulled her half-way into his room. Akira still had a tight grip on her waist. He was about to place Sora down on the floor, but then he felt something tap his foot. He looked down. There was the chair that he had been sitting on before. Not sure what to do, he pulled Sora into his room the whole way and tried to place her in front of the chair.

"Akira, you can put me down now," she said.

Akira groaned, "I'm trying, but the chair I was sitting on is in the way."

Sora looked confused, "Well, can't you move it?"

"I can try." He said as he attempted to push the chair to his left, "….Oh, crap…." He whispered.

"What?" Sora said worried.

'Oh, no. My foot is caught in the chair! Now what do I do?" Akira thought.

Since the chair was somewhat out of his way, he gently placed Sora down on the floor in front of him.

"Thanks." She said with a sigh of relief, "Wow, that was exciting!" Neither of them had noticed that Akira's hands were still on her waist. Akira looked up at her and then finally came back from la-la land. He quickly removed his hands from her waist and looked down blushing.

"S-Sorry….I didn't mean to….well…" Akira became flustered again. He was going to have a hard time tutoring her after this.

Sora smiled, "Oh, no, it's fine…." She said, also slightly blushing.

They both looked down at the floor and laughed the whole experience off.

"I guess we should start then…" Sora said.

"….Yeah…." Sora walked ahead into his room. Akira followed. Or at least, he tried to follow. Before he knew it, he was falling forward right into Sora. He completely forgot that his foot was still caught in the chair.

'Oh, no. My foot!' Akira thought. Sora turned around just before he hit her.

CRASH!

Akira landed right on top of Sora. Time seemed to stand still. It seemed like they had been laying there for hours when it when it had only been about 5 seconds. His head was only inches away from hers. Sora's head was buried in Akira's chest. They both groaned. Akira lifted his head a little.

"…..Oh…..I-I I'm so sorry!" he said, pushing his body off of hers. Sora rubbed her head.

"….ouch…" she said softly, "That's okay…."

"H-Here, let me help you up," He offered. Akira gently grabbed her forearm and pulled her up.

"Thanks…." She replied. They both looked at each other for a moment and blushed a little. Then they quickly turned away.

"..Umm…." they both said.

"I guess I should start tutoring you….?" Akira asked without looking at her.

"…Yeah……" Sora answered. Akira stood up, "Wait!" She stopped him, "Before you move you…um…hehe...might want to…hehe… remove that chair from your foot. Haha." She laughed. Akira looked down. His foot was still stuck in between the rings of his chair.

Embarrassed, he didn't reply, but simply removed the troublesome chair from his foot.

'Finally, I'm free!' Akira thought, "So I guess I'll go get the Go board."

"Good idea." Sora said. Akira quickly left the room. While he was gone, Sora looked around his room.

'It's so clean…' she thought, 'and there's hardly anything in it! He doesn't even have a TV!' While scanning the room, she spotted a small picture on his nightstand. 'What's that?'

She got up and wobbled a little bit, still fazed by Akira falling on her. Once she got her balance, she walked over to the nightstand and picked up the picture.

'It's a picture of Akira and Hikaru.' She thought.The picture had Hikaru smiling and giving the piece sign with Akira slightly smiling next to him.

Sora smiled.

"That was the day Hikaru and I stopped being rivals." Sora jumped. Behind her was Akira, who saw her looking at the picture when he came back in his room. The picture flew out of Sora's hands when she jumped. Before she could catch it, Akira stepped in and grabbed it before it hit the floor.

"Oh! Jeez, don't scare me like that!" Sora said, putting a hand on her chest. She gave a sigh of relief.

"S-Sorry, I thought you knew I was behind you." Akira said. He put the picture back on the nightstand.

"No, I didn't know." She answered, still breathing heavily from the shock, "…So, you two were rivals?"

Akira looked at the picture, "Yeah, but we decided to stop after we both got up to the same rank. Or at least, when we seemed like we were at the same rank. Hikaru is a couple levels lower than I am, but that's because he skipped some games. Actually he skipped A LOT of games, but he should really be at the same level I am." He explained.

Sora looked up at him, "I didn't know you both were THAT good. I'm glad I have such a good teacher." She smiled at him.

He blushed, "Well …um…" he was at a loss of words again, "….I-I guess…I actually have never taught Go before, so I don't know whether or not I'll be a good teacher..."

Sora put a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure you'll do fine."

Akira quickly glanced down at her and gave a shy smile. She could see him blushing, but she didn't say anything. Actually, she was blushing a little too. But, she let it go and continued with the conversation.

"So, should we start?" she asked. She took her hand off of his shoulder.

"Yeah, I have all of the stuff," he answered, pointing in the direction of the Go board.

"Great! Then let's get started!" Sora walked over next to the Go board and sat down. Akira followed.

"Okay, so how do we get started?" Sora asked.

"Well, first……"

And so, they continued talking about the basics of Go. Their tutoring session continued on for the rest of the afternoon. They talked about different strategies, where to place what, and what to do where. Both Akira and Sora forgot about all of the 'incidents' that happened before, and were becoming very comfortable with each other. Unfortunately, it was soon becoming dark, and their talks were about to end. Footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs from Akira's room.

KNOCK KNOCK

"Honey…?" Akira's mom slightly cracked his door open, "Honey, it's getting late. You should…" she opened the door the whole way and saw Sora sitting next to Akira, "-Sora! It's nice to see you." His mom said sweetly.

"It's nice to see you too." Sora replied.

"What are you doing here so late? Aren't your parents worried?" his mom asked.

Sora sat up straight, "Oh, there's no need to worry. I called them a little while ago and I told them where I am," she shrugged, "Their both out anyway."

His mother's mouth dropped, "You mean neither one of your parents are at home?"

"…Nope."

"Oh, my! Well, will you be all right by yourself?" she asked worriedly.

Sora smiled reassuringly, "Don't be worried, I'll be fine. They go out all the time." Her smile faded as quickly as it came.

"Are you sure, because if you want, you could spend the night here…" His mother looked at her hopefully.

"…Mom…" Akira tried to protest.

"As great as that offer sounds Mrs. Touya, I think I'll be okay by myself. I don't want to be a burden… Thank you so much for caring, though." Sora replied.

"Oh, honey, you wouldn't be a burden," his mom rested a hand on her shoulder, "What ever gave you that idea?"

Sora shrugged, "I don't know….but that doesn't matter. I think I'll be okay." She looked up at her.

"Well, okay." His mom took her hand off of her shoulder, "But, if you want, you can come over for breakfast tomorrow."

"That sounds nice!" her smile returned, "What are you having?"

His mom laughed a little, "Whatever you want."

Sora turned to her, "Really! Then you can make a four-layer chocolate cake with sprinkles?" (a/n: …yum….that's making me hungry….my sweet tooth is kicking in….)

They all laughed, "Let's not get carried away." His mom replied. (a/n…my sweet tooth…too…….strong……..can't hold on…..)

Sora giggled, "I was just kidding. Anyway, I would love to have breakfast with you. What time do you usually eat?"

Akira finally spoke up, "We usually eat at 8:00."

Akira's mom interrupted, "Akira!" she scolded him, "Don't worry about waking up. Just call us when you're ready. I'll start cooking then."

Sora was surprised. Akira's mom seemed to really care about her, "…Um…okay…I'm usually up around 8:00 anyway, so you might as well just start cooking then. But I will call you……YAWN…..oh, excuse me…." She held a hand over her mouth to keep from yawning again.

"You look exhausted. Why don't you head on home." Akira's mom suggested.

Sora stood up and stretched, "Yeah, I think I will."

Akira stood up as well, "I would go out our front door this time, though."

Sora turned to him, "Haha…you're right." She went to the door and stopped, "Just how do you get to the front door from here…?"

Akira smiled, "Here, let me show you the way." He led Sora through his house to the front door.

Sora turned back to Akira before leaving, "I enjoyed spending time with you today."

"I enjoyed it too." Akira said.

Sora smiled, "Goodnight."

Akira smiled back, "Goodnight."

She turned and left. Akira shut his front door and was about to go back up to his room when he heard a knock on the door. Surprised, he once again opened his front door and saw Sora.

"Yes?" he asked.

"What's your phone number?" she asked

Yah! The end of chapter 2! I hope you guys liked it. I don't know if it was any longer, but hopefully it was funnier. (The last chapter wasn't funny at all!) Anyway, I hope I can get ch. 3 up soon, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Suggestions are still welcome. Also, I am VERY thankful for the reviews. They keep me motivated. KEEP SENDING 'EM IN!