Wheels of The Heart

Hello, and my sincerest apologies for not updating this fic for more than a year. I know, I know…why update just now? Well…"writer's block" is the main culprit as I mysteriously lost interest, but after my country's anime channel re-aired Overdrive last month, and an 8th review posted his review (among one of the reviews being in Spanish, that is), this gave me a motivation to try and continue this fic.

So now I'm facing a prospect of whether to continue or not depending on this new chapter's reviews. I hope this would at least attract more readers and get the inspiration to write more. So here it is…the next chapter.

Now on to the story!

At the shopping district, Yuki stood there as she saw her ex-boyfriend there in front of her. And the guy saw Yuki in front of her, yet he gave no facial response at first but then he approached her and smiled, while she gave him a cold stare as she is about to ignore him and move on when he gently took her hand and spoke to her in a polite manner which surprised her. He remained composed and smiled kindly to her yet she could sense this facade and tried to ignore him.

"Hello, Yuki..."

"Giru..."

"Let's talk..."

"After you dumped by through text message? Now let go of me!"

"Don't be like that...we should mend our..."

"I SAID NO! NOW LET GO!"

As Yuki struggles to get her wrist away from his hands, the teen, who is said to be her ex-boyfriend traps her in a hug and tries to "serenade" his way to get her back but she managed to push him away and slapped him hard, and gave her some harsh words before leaving, which seemed to have little effect on him.

"I don't want to do anything with you!"

"That's too bad..I liked you...even until now..."

"If I see you're face again... you won't be smiling like that again!"

"Really..."

After that Yuki left as he watches her by, but then another person came to his side, who turn out to be Yousuke's old biking coach who formed his own team and had them joined the recent bicycle race contest, which Yousuke eventually won.

"Giru..."

"Hello, coach..."

"Is that Yousuke's sister...?"

"Eh? He's the champion's sister...? I didn't know that..."

"Well...we'll talk about that later...right now we'll be meeting later..."

"Okay..."

-x-

At the cycling club, Yousuke gives Mikoto an endurance test as he brought a portable cycling machine (which can be found at gyms everywhere) and tells him to cycle for about 30 minutes, which after he started pedaling, Yosuke adds some "weight" so as to make adjustments on increasing Mikoto's stamina. By then Takeshi Yamato arrived, having joined the club and observes the training and comments on how to make better adjustments on increasing Mikoto's resolve, much to Terao's chagrin.

"Yousuke...I have a way to increase his stamina..."

"Okay...tell me..."

"Bzz...bzz...bzz..."

"Really...? Will that work...?"

"Yes..."

"Okay..."

Reluctant at first, Yosuke eventually agreed and puts on a fishing rod behind Mikoto's seat and then puts on Yuki's two-piece swimming suit photo attached on a fishing hook and hovers it in front of the boy's face, and Mikoto saw it, and starts to pedal faster, dramatically increasing his speed and his stamina started to slightly increase. Yousuke is pleased which Takeshi gives a "thumb's up" while Koichi is apprehensive at the kind of "method" they are using, worried that if Yuki came and saw this she would definitely get ticked off.

"What the...?"

"It worked...like I said, right...?"

"I don't like it...but it did work..."

"Captain...Yamato...you guys wouldn't...!"

"If it works, then it's okay..."

"It's for Shinozaki's benefit..."

"Hahhh...haahh..."

"Let's see if I can put Yuki's picture when she's showering..."

Kaho Asahi, who recently joined the cycling club, also arrived and aired her concerns about this method, but yousuke told her that this is fine as long as it would help increase Mikoto's stamina, as wll as Yuki doesn't see this, but that all changed when Yuki arrived at the club, and is rather appalled at the sight before her and began to "clock" Mikoto and demanded some answers as to who made the set-up, in which Asahi is hesistant to answer but Yamato urged her to keep silent while Yousuke stepped forward and is ready to give the answer.

"Asahi...shh..."

"But...but...Yamato..."

"Let the captain handle this..."

"But..."

"Yuki...about what you saw..."

"Yes...who did that...?"

"Shinozaki did it..."

"What? That hentai!"

Yousuke made it appeared that Mikoto installed it himself and there she proceeded to "clock" Mikoto again and both Koichi and Asahi stared wide-eyed at the "lie" Yousuke made, and they restrained Yuki while telling her the truth, and now Yuki is even more pissed as she steered her anger towards her elder brother while the elder Fukusawa sibling "comically" evaded her attacks while Asahi and Terao tries to wake up Mikoto, who is now knocked out with lots of bruises on his face.

-x-

At an unspecified place, where a training camp is taking place, Yousuke's old cycling coach is with Yuki's ex-boyfriend, Giru, and there he boarded his bicycle to commence his training with his new coach boarding his car to begin the training, as he is sending a text message to Yousuke to challenge him to another bicycle race that would give him the opportunity to get even after the humiliation he got from the recent race, and with Giru as his "trump card", he will surely get the chance to humiliate Yousuke.

"So...that girl you were with was your ex...and you dumped her just like that..."

"She was so easy to deal with...but I lost interest in her...but I had no idea that she is the sister of your ex-charge..."

"But...seeing this...it would give me an opportunity to make him get humiliated after what he did last time..."

"So you would use me to exact payback...? I don't mind if it would bring my ex in to the fray..."

"Let's begin the training first...then if the training goes well...then we talk about what to do with those two..."

"Okay...you're the boss..."

"Now on your mark..."

"I'm on it!"

And so the coach began the training and Giru began peddling which took the training towards the road and the streets which they went on for more than 30 minutes, and surprisingly Giru appeared to be fine, his stamina seemingly strong and well enough to be a threat to any racing participant, including Yousuke himself, and the coach couldn't wait to make his former charge suffer the worst humiliation yet, and is now awaiting Yousuke's response to the challenge.

-x-

At the Fukusawa residence, Yousuke is at his room with Terao, and Terao is using cotton and alcohol and ointment to treat the bruises Yousuke has, and he is "lecturing" his "captain" for the incident and is worried about Mikoto taking the most brunt, though Yousuke assured that Mikoto would be fine with this and expects him to train after sending the cycling machine at his (Mokoto's) home to begin the training, so as to strengthen his stamina.

"Geez, Yousuke...don't do something like that again...!"

"Don't spoil my mood, Koichi..."

"I mean it! You're lucky you only got that...but Mikoto;s situation is a bit different..."

"He'll survive...plus I gave him instructions on his training..."

"But...him carrying the cycling machine by himself?"

"He'll take the taxi..."

"Geez..."

"Ouch! Careful, Koichi!"

By then Yuki came in and berated her elder brother for the what he did, though he began teasing her which she indirectly gave hints about her feelings for Mikoto, and there another shouting took place, and things would go on had Yousuke's cellphone had not rang and there he read the message and the trio realized that Yousuke's old coach issued another challenge, and this made the "captain" "fired up", which Terao wondered why the "bald octopus" wouldn't and couldn't take the defeat gracefully and get over the fact that Yousuke doesn't want to do anything with him.

"That guy...!"

"He sure wouldn't accept defeat that easily..."

"So he wants another crack at you, onii-chan?"

"Yup...but...I guess another racing event wouldn't be that bad..."

"Okay...be heading home...see you on Monday..."

"Okay..."

"Be careful!"

"I will!"

As the night sets in, Terao decided to head home while Yousuke and Yuki prepares to retire for the night and promises to discuss the details at school in two days' time, seeing that it is Saturday today, and the trio bid their goodbyes, unaware that something unexpected would come by at any moment now.

To Be Continued…

Hope the wait is worth it...and a bit of comedy in the end...

Kaho Asahi and Takeshi Yamato appeared, as near the end of the anime they joined the club and will appear more in the next upcoming chapter, as they would be doing more support roles for our main protagonists...

Preview:

Something bad will happen to the Bicycle club, and this would affect the morale of the club members, especially Yuki...while more about Giru will be shown...and why he became Yuki's "thorn"...