FASH: This took a little long than I thought it would because I've been working a lot lately (falls over from exhaustion) but at last here's Sakuraba's happy ending! Mizumachi's should be up before I start school on Sept. 4th. Hopefully...

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena pursed his lips together and gave Hiruma a hard look before sighing. "Sakuraba-san." He said, wincing a bit when he thought about how Suzuna would act if she heard he'd chosen the former idol, he could imagine it now, she'd just skate up beside him and ask where his Sakuraba shrine was hidden, which posters he owned, did he listen to his CD every night before he went to sleep.

"So that's the way the bullet flies eh." Hiruma cracked his knuckles and Sena took a cautious step back. "I guess I'll have to start mentally preparing you for the next step."

The next step? Was Hiruma going to make him take a test or something? "What am I being mentally prepared for?"

"The next time you see Sakuraba, you're going to let him know that you know about his crush on you." "W-why would I do that?!" "Because if I left you to your own devices you would take too long." "So what am I supposed to do, just go up to him and say: Hey Sakuraba-san, I know that you like me because Hiruma-san told me that you do and my team captain thinks I should tell you this so that our relationship can progress at a rate that satisfies him."

"I'd rather you didn't mention me, but that's fine." "And why are you forcing me to do this?" "I'm not forcing you to do anything, you could easily just not do it, it's not like I'd kill you for not telling him." Hiruma smirked at Sena in his usual evil fashion. "So in the end, you are doing this of your own free will." "Alright, if you say so." "Good, now that we're on the same page, let's begin your mental preparations." Hiruma turned around and started rummaging through some boxes, Sena peered over his shoulder curiously.

"One quick question before we go onto this. Why exactly do I need mental preparation?" "Because if we don't prepare you for it you know you'll just run away the next time you see him and avoid him for the rest of your life." "Ah, I see."

But how would Hiruma be able to help him prepare for that?

"You're not going to prepare me with a video again are you? I don't think I'll be able to approach Sakuraba-san if you tried to boost my confidence like that." "No, we're going to be doing this face to face." Hiruma leaned in a bit closer, grinning widely when Sena attempted to lean back.

"Hiruma-san, do you have to be this close for the mental preparation?" Sena asked nervously, suddenly fearing that his second first kiss might be stolen.

"Yes, I have to be this close, and you have to proclaim your undying love to me." Sena managed a weak smile, praying that Hiruma was joking. "Excuse me?!" "If you can't do it to me, how will you be able to do it to Sakuraba?"

Sena decided to not remind Hiruma that he and Sakuraba were very different and that Sena wasn't going to be announcing his undying love, just his interest and knowledge that Sakuraba was interested.

Hell, if he could confess to Hiruma of all people, anything was possible.

"Umm, why do I have to announce my, uh, undying love?" He asked nervously, gripping at the hem of his shirt. "Well," Hiruma began, looking like he was enjoying this far too much. "Sakuraba isn't the type who'd date someone after they said 'I know you like me, and I think I like you.' The guy's had multiple marriage proposals and proclamations of true love for a couple years. He's not going to start a relationship with someone he isn't absolutely sure is serious about him." Hiruma put is hands on his hips, glancing down at Sena in boredom. "Well?"

"Umm, Hiruma-san, I l-l-li-like y-y-" "Don't confess like a pansy! Be bolder! And remember undying love!" Sena nodded, blush quickly spreading across his cheeks.

"Hiruma-san, for a while now I've really-" "Don't stall, just come out and say it." "Um, right." Sena took a deep breath, not noticing the clubroom door was slowly opening.

"Hiruma-sanIamdeeplyinlovewithyou!" "Eh?! Really? Really?!" Suzuna skated forward and grabbed onto Sena in a bear hug. "Really? You and Yo-nii?" "Ah! Suzuna, it's not what you think! It's just practice! Right Hiruma-san?"

Hiruma, who had taken a step back to avoid being crashed into by an over enthusiastic Suzuna, nodded his head. "Just practice for when he actually does have to confess."

"Oh." Suzuna loosened her hold on Sena, looking a bit depressed before perking up again.

"Can I watch?" "Yeah, sure." Hiruma said lazily, much to Sena's astonishment.

"What? But it's hard enough doing it without an audience." Sena whined, throwing a dark look at Suzuna out of the corner of his eye when he saw that she had retrieved a camera from only-God-knows-where.

"Exactly, if you can do this with the damn cheerleader fangirling around you can do it anywhere." "Oh, wonderful." "Yay!"

It took two hours, two god forsaken hours for Sena to 'get it right' by Hiruma's standards and by then the sun had already begun to set.

'My parents probably expected me home hours ago.' Sena sighed and stepped out of the clubhouse, shivering a bit. 'I hate it when it's cold.'

And then Suzuna came rolling up behind him, a grin spread over her face and he just knew what the next words out of her mouth were going to be.

"So, do you have a Sakuraba shrine hidden in the closet of your room? What posters do you have? Is there one on your ceiling?! There is isn't there! Do you have his CD?! Do you lis-" "No Suzuna, I don't listen to his CD every night before I go to bed." "But you own it?!" "No. Nor do I have posters or a shrine." He said, hoping there wasn't any other merchandise Suzuna would try and convince herself that he owned.

'Poor Sakuraba-san, he probably still has to deal with stuff like this all the time. I wonder how he's kept his sanity...' Sena tilted his head curiously as he walked forward, ignoring Suzuna as she rambled on about something beside him.

There was no doubt in his mind that now that he had been 'prepared' by Hiruma any day now he would 'coincidently' run into Sakuraba, hopefully in a secluded area, and then he'd confess nervously while he had the strangest feeling that he was being watched from the shadows by his captain.

'Hiruma-san says I have to claim I love him, but I don't know Sakuraba-san well enough to love him, I like him and all, but love is such a strong word.' Sena sighed.

"Hmm, what are you sighing for? Huh? Huh?!"

Ah, he had nearly forgotten Suzuna was there, he turned to look at her. "It's nothing, I'm just kind of tired. Shouldn't you be getting home? I'm sure your mom is worried." Suzuna opened her mouth to retort, but snapped it shut, eyes widening as she looked ahead at something before quickly stuttering a goodbye, skating away before Sena could so much a mumble a 'good night.'

'Well that's weird.' Sena turned to start walking again, pausing when he saw the figure waiting by his gate. 'No, Hiruma-san wouldn't...'

The tall blonde figure suddenly looked his way and appeared to perk up a bit, waving at him shyly.

'Okay, so maybe he would.' Sena took a deep breath and walked forward quickly, trying to shake off the extreme nervousness making itself known in the pit of his stomach.

"Um, hello Sakuraba-san." "Good evening Sena-kun." Sakuraba looked just about as nervous as Sena felt, and the brunette was pretty sure he knew why.

"Your captain called me up and told me that you needed to talk to me about something."

Damn Hiruma was a fast worker, and Sakuraba came over pretty damn quick, a lot quicker than it would normally take.

'Wait a minute, how can he be here already? Hiruma couldn't have called him until fifteen minutes ago... Was Sakuraba-san already hanging around my neighborhood before Hiruma-san's call?' Well, that was a kind of creepy thought, but there was no time to be thinking over stuff like that right now.

'I know Hiruma-san told me to pronounce my undying love, but I can't just lie like that.' Sena took a deep, calming breath before blurting out. "Sakuraba-san, I know you like me andIkindoflikeyouback." Sena closed his eyes and took a small step back, not sure if he wanted to see Sakuraba's reaction.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence later Sena opened one eye cautiously.

Sakuraba looked as though he was going to die from the blood rushing to his face.

"Can you run that by me again?" 'Aw, but I don't wanna say it again.' "Do I have to?" "Yes." He replied firmly, the blush starting to fade from his cheeks.

"Sakuraba-san, Hiruma-san told me that you like me, so I know that it's true, and I like you too... And that's about it." Sena finished and dashed into his house before Sakuraba could react.

'... Maybe I shouldn't have run away.' He thought as he closed his bedroom door behind him, biting his lip in thought, jumping when his cell phone began to ring a couple seconds later.

"Hello?" "... Hello Sena-kun." "S-Sakuraba-san? How do you know my cell phone number?" "You're captain told me... I swear it's not because I'm stalking you or anything creepy like that!" "Uhhhhh..." "... That sounded kind of bad didn't it?" "Yeah, just a bit." Sena replied, the corners of his mouth turning up into a smile.

"So, why did you call?" "Well, you sort of ran away before I could ask you if you... If you wanted to... You know..." "Go out sometime?" "Yeah, that's it. Do you?" Sena blushed and nodded before remembering that he was going to have to verbally answer. "Yeah, I'd love to." "R-Really? Great? Did you want to do something on New Year's Eve? Or do you have plans already?" "New Years sounds great." "Really? Awesome, I'll call you tomorrow to make some plans, or, could I come over to make the plans? Or is that-" "You can come over Sakuraba-san, at noon?" "Noon it is, see you then." "Goodnight."

Sena flipped his phone shut, realizing rather belatedly that his heart was beating faster than it should have been and his face felt rather warm.

Sena quickly changed into his pajamas and nestled under the covers in his bed even though it still wasn't very late and he hadn't even bothered to eat anything for supper yet.

He had to go to sleep now before he completely understood the immense gravity of the situation he had just put himself in. Besides, it couldn't hurt to get an early start the next morning. 'I wonder if I'll end up waking up before my parents again...' He thought before drifting off and when he opened his eyes again light was already streaming in through his window. Way too much light for it to be morning. He quickly turned to look at the alarm clock, blinking rapidly to make his eyes less blurry.

It was eleven thirty six. 'Of fuck!' He dashed into the bathroom and took what was probably the quickest shower of his life before running back to his room, a towel slung around his waist and pulling on whatever clothes happened to by lying around without bothering to completely dry off first.

"Sena! Someone's here to see you!" His mother called from the bottom of the stairs. 'Damn, he's seven minutes early.' He rushed back to the bathroom to put away his towel. "Send him up mom!" He called down the stairs before rushing back to his room.

Darn it all, he had wanted to at least clean it up a bit before Sakuraba came over, not that he was a slob or anything, but he would have felt better about letting Sakuraba into his room if he had time to make his bed, put away some of his laundry and pick some of his videos games up off the floor and put them back in their cabinet.

But no time to worry about that right now, his door was opening.

And thus his first words face to face with Sakuraba as a couple were: "I'm sorry my room's a mess."

Sakuraba blinked at him in confusion before smiling nervously. "That's okay. It's, uh, nice to see you." "Yeah, nice to see you too." Sena replied nervously, running a hand through his still soaking wet hair. "So... Now what?" Sena peered up at Sakuraba. "Well, we could sit down." The other boy suggested. They both sat down on Sena's bed awkwardly.

"So..." "Yeah..." They both looked at each other shyly, Sena looking away immediately and Sakuraba blushing a bit before leaning forward a bit.

"Can I hug you?" He asked boldly, even though his cheeks were tinged red. "Wh-what?" Sena looked back at him, twiddling his thumbs. "Sure, I guess."

Sakuraba slowly took Sena into his arms, holding him very loosely against his chest. Sena took a deep breath, the older boy smelt like really nice aftershave or cologne, Sena wasn't sure which He liked it, but he figured telling Sakuraba that he thought he smelt nice would be kind of weird.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Sakuraba pulled away, still keeping his hands on Sena's shoulders.

"So, about New Year's Eve... Did you want to come over to my house and we could do something? Or did you want to go to a shrine and get some good luck charms for the new year? Or see a movie?" "Um, I'm not sure, I've never been on a date before. I'll just do what ever you'd like." "But what if you don't like what we end up doing?" Sena thought about it for a moment before grinning. "Then I guess I just have to choose what we get to do next time."

The brightness of Sakuraba's smile after Sena said that could have probably rivaled the sun on a clear day at noon.

They began to chit chat about small things, slowly starting to become more comfortable with and learning more about each other. They had just begun a conversation on their middle school days when Sena's stomach decided to interrupt with a rather loud growl.

"Would you like some lunch?" Sakuraba asked, stifling the chuckle that wanted to make itself known.

"Oh, I can just get something from the kitchen to snack on, I'll be right back." The brunette said reassuringly as he pushed himself up off his bed, but Sakuraba just followed right behind him.

"I haven't eaten yet, did you want to go out for some lunch?" He questioned, looming over Sena's shoulder in a mother-hen kind of way.

"Uh, sure. I'll just run back upstairs to get my wallet." "That's okay, I'll pay for it." Sakuraba took Sena's hand and began pulling him along, quickly slipping on their shoes and coats, moving out the door before Sena had a chance to call out to his parents and tell them where he was going.

He shivered a bit when his first stepped outside, his damp hair making him more cold than he should be and ahead of his Sakuraba was marching onward, bot looking back. 'Well, he's eager.' "Sakuraba-san, you really don't have to pay for me." "But that's what boyfriends do right?" "If that's the case, then I'm a boyfriend too." "Yeah, but..." Sakuraba trailed off, clearly not able to argue his case any more. Sena almost felt bad for opposing Sakuraba's ideals, almost.

"I'll go back and get my wallet, I won't be long." He coaxed gently, as if speaking to a small child, but Sakuraba's hand still didn't let go of his own, and the older boy didn't stop walking.

"I'll tell you what, I take you to lunch, and in return you can stop calling me Sakuraba-san."

The brunette pressed his lips together, puzzled. "What am I suppose to call you then? Sakuraba-kun?" "Haruto, you should call me Haruto." "Wi-without an honorific or anything?" "Umm-hmm. And I'll call you Sena." Sakuraba's hand tighten around Sena's and the younger boy was almost completely sure than if Sakuraba turned around right now he'd be blushing.

'Well, I guess it's only natural that we'd call each other by our first names, although everyone seems to call me by my first name anyways...'

Sakuraba lead him to a café and ordered for the both of them since Sena didn't seem to have any idea about what he wanted.

"You can go grab a seat and I'll bring everything over when it's ready." "Sure." Sena wandered off toward a rather secluded bunch of seats, hardly visible due to all the fake, or maybe they were real, plants that were there as some sort of interior design thing. He figured they'd both appreciate the privacy.

Having lunch with Sakuraba was blessedly un-awkward, although sometimes Sena had the oddest suspicion that he was being watched.

Oh well, it was probably just Hiruma lurking around somewhere, nothing new.

"So, about New Year's Eve, do you want to come over to my place and watch a move and then we can go somewhere to do a count down?" Sakuraba asked as he sipped at his apple juice. "Sure what time did you want me to come over?" "How long did you want to hang out before we watch the movie?" "Hmmm." Sena nervously ran a hand through his now dry hair. "A couple hours I guess, so I'll come over around eight?" "Eight sounds wonderful." Sakuraba replied enthusiastically.

If this was what going out with Sakuraba would be like all the time Sena could totally handle this.

When they finished eating Sakuraba walked Sena home diligently as though he had done it many times before and Sena couldn't help but vaguely wonder if Sakuraba had been wanting to walk him home like this long before Hiruma told Sena all about his 'blonde pattern.'

Which eventually lead Sena to wonder why Sakuraba even liked him in the first place, since he never really got a good answer out of Sakuraba when he'd asked him what his type was. So when they reached the gate to Sena's house the brunette collected up all his courage and asked:

"Sakur-I mean, Haruto. Why do you like me?" He asked nervously because Hiruma had never really explained to him why Sakuraba liked him and he still didn't quite understand why the older boy would have a crush on him of all people.

"Well, first of all, because you're not freakishly obsessive over me." Sakuraba said with a nervous laugh. "You face all the obstacles on the field with unwavering determination, you're so strong willed, always evolving-" "I'm really not that great." "Yeah you are, and not only that, you're very nice and loyal. If Takami-san made me do some of the training your captain put you through I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be very fond of football at all." Sakuraba paused and blushed a bit before adding. "And you're really cute."

Well, that cleared up a couple of things.

"See you later Haruto." Sena said, lifting himself up onto his toes and pecking Sakuraba on the cheek before dashing to his front door, waving back at the other boy shyly, giggling to himself when Sakuraba had a delayed reaction and didn't wave back for nearly half a minute.

"See you at eight in a couple days." "Yeah, eight... I can call you before then though right?" "Of course." Sena, grinning from ear to ear, stepped inside his house, already thinking that maybe he should go shopping with Mamori since he had no fashion sense and tended to throw on whatever was lying around.

He wanted to look awesome for his date with Haruto after all.