Chapter 4: Partnering with Another's Significant Other

"Aren't you excited for the tournament?" Yukari asked, her bag in hand ready to head for the beach.

"Yea I guess. Should be fun to watch. Where's Kazuma and Nanase?"

"They went down early so they could sign up before hand. It doesn't start until 12:30, but I wanted to get a good spot at 12:00!" Yukari pulled Ayano's hand as they left the house.

Ayano couldn't help but feel strange as of late. Her thoughts confused her. Kazuma didn't seem to mind that she'd acted strange the other night. Maybe it was only in her eyes she acted strange… I mean either way, it still ended with her brushing him off…she just hadn't yelled at him like she normally would. Was she always rejecting him like that? Or was he just as guilty with his flirting and passiveness?

All the same, she wasn't going to waste all her time on Kazuma when she was supposed to be having fun with her friends. She wondered if it would have been best if Kazuma hadn't end up staying at Kenta's place. But then again, that was selfish. Kenta and Kazuma had a relationship from long before.

Whatever. It was time for Beach Volleyball cheering now.

"I'm going to find a good spot for us to sit in the bleachers!" Yukari woke her from her mind.

"I'll go see if anyone else we know is competing? We should at least tell Nanase good luck before." Ayano looked to the boards outside the roped off area.

"Good idea, we'll go find her after I put our bags on a bench! Go check out the Sign Up!" Yukari ran off to the benches.

Ayano calmly walked over. People were going to fill this place up soon. She looked to the list. No, not really any people she knew. Mostly kids from University, and a few lower years. She saw Kazuma and Nanase's names, last before a few empty spots.

Well Nanase was super good at sports, so if Kazuma weren't that great she'd make up for his slack. Then again, he could cheat if he wanted to with those wind powers. Not that he would. She felt the presence of someone beside her. She looked at him. It was the blonde haired university student from yesterday.

She coughed slightly.

His eyes moved to her and widened. "You're the girl from yesterday that my friend tried to –"

"Yes, I am. I'm Ayano, the girl he decided to prank by untying my swim top." Her voice was tinged with anger.

"I'm so sorry for Yuuta's actions. He's not here today I swear. And we really didn't encourage it. He's a trouble maker around campus all of the time." He bowed asking for forgiveness.

"It's okay. I forgive you, but not him." She nodded.

"I don't know how your boyfriend did that, but he's got some kind of power doesn't he? That like spiritual stuff isn't it?"

"He's not really my boyfriend but…You know about it?"

"No, but that wind...it was …crazy. Nobody flicks their hand and a gust of air just teams over! Even the water burned from that force!"

"Well tell your friend I can do that too but with fire so he'd better not do that kind of perverted stuff again."

"Can your friend Nanase do that?"

"No, she's just super amazing at sports. She's competing today."

"Oh, man…" He looked disappointed.

"Sorry, what's your name?"

"Kenji. I was honestly hoping to ask her to partner with me at the tournament today. I hope she doesn't think I'm anything like Yuuta."

"No, I don't think she does."

"She's partnered with someone else…"

"Kazuma is actually the guy that can use the wind powers." Ayano turned to him.

"Oh, they're not-"

"No, not like that." Ayano smiled.

"Oh...good." His voice was hesitantly truthfull. "Well I guess I don't have a partner so there's no point in signing up."

Ayano noticed he was really down about the whole situation. "If you want you could partner with me I guess. Kazuma partnered with Nanase because she needed a partner too, so it was just by default. But I'm not that bad at regular volleyball so I can try?"

"Are you serious?" His face lit up. "I play a few varsity sports at my university. I can definitely make up for anything you can't. Not to sound overly confident in any way!" His smile widened. She wasn't surprised. He was a tall and athletic builded guy.

"Plus, maybe you can show off your skills to Nanase." Ayano smiled cheekily.

"Uh- yea! Ha,ha." He laughed nervously and put his hand behind his head. "So shall we?"

"Sure." Ayano nodded. She was happy she wore her blue bathing suit today. It was more covered on the top and it was better for sports than her other two. She wanted to leave her black one for the last day. It was better for…relaxing on the beach away from vicious attacks on bathing suit strings.

He wrote his name and she followed.

"Let me just tell my friend so she knows not to save a spot for me on the benches." Ayano said and ran over to Yukari, just as the bleachers were getting filled.

"Yukari are you okay to sit on your own?"

"What do you mean Ayano?"

"Remember that guy Nanase was talking to yesterday?"

"Oh yea! He said he knew her father!"

"Yea…well he needed a volleyball partner so I told him I would help him out." Ayano said.

"Are you kidding me? If you compete against Kazuma that would be so cool! Lovers made rivals by the beach! Of course it would suck if you had to loose against Nanase but…"

"So?" Ayano's voice was irritated.

"Go ahead! I'll cheer you on from here!" Yukari smiled, and just as she did she caught glance of someone she waved to rather spastically.

Ayano looked back and saw that the Nori was rather timidly waving back. She sighed. Yukari would be just fine on her own.

She left and went back to Kenji.

"You ready?" He asked throwing a shirt on with his bathing suit shorts.

"Should I do the same?" She asked apprehensively.

"Well the sand can be kind of rough to fall on. Wouldn't be a bad idea."

She nodded and pulled out a t-shirt to wear over her bathingsuit.

"What's got you dressed?"

She turned to see Kazuma and Nanase.

"I'm competing in the tournament too actually. And what's so rare about me getting dressed?" She gave him a stare.

"Oh nothing. Oh, your one of the guys from yesterday." Kazuma looked at her partner.

"Kenji!" Nanase said surprised.

"Hey, Nanase." Kenji gave a smile.

"So do you have a thing for blondes now Ayano…" Kazuma smirked.

"No. And you know Nolan did nothing for me, so why even make that comment?" She said irritated, wondering why Kazuma would say that when clearly Kenji liked Nanase, and Nolan had been the opposite of her cup of tea.

"Fair enough." He looked at her a bit strangely before turning away. "If you're lucky maybe you guys will get to go against us before we win." He waved his hand before leaving for the court.

"See you guys!" Nanase followed.

"Is he always jealous like that?" Kenji asked, kind of apprehensive of going against Kazuma.

"Jealous? No that's just Kazuma trying to bug me."

"You think so? Frankly I read that as jealous, and a hint for me to back-"

Ayano wondered herself. "It's okay. You like Nanase, don't worry about him, he's not going to pull any stunts. He'll play fair."

"Good." He let out a small bit of air in relief. "I was kind of planning on winning though." He flashed a cheesy smile of confidence.

"Same here." She nodded. She wondered what she'd gotten herself into. Going against Kazuma and Nanase, if it came down to it, well that would be interesting.