AN: Cuteness time with Daichi! and review answers, er, answer.

SoccerGirl- I'm glad my updates cheer you up! It's nice to know that this little thing can make someone happy. And also, yeah Tsubasa's getting there, but I don't think any of them would be making any moves soon. They're too stubborn for their own good. Thanks for reviewing and continue reading!

yeah i don't own captain tsubasa.

Chapter 10: Make it Count

They sat in the Oozora's living room, celebrating. The three boys got in as regulars and would be playing as starters in their next game. Seeing that this was amazing news, they all decided to go to the Oozora household to celebrate their hearts out.

She and Ayame were invited to go with them. She was about to decline, but Ayame was faster than her and agreed wholeheartedly.

"But we wouldn't want to impose," she tried to reason out.

"Don't worry," Tsubasa comforted her. "Besides, as they say, the more the merrier!"

"And if we didn't hear you back then," Misaki added. "I don't think we could have won."

They all laughed as she blushed another shade of red and looked down. These boys always wanted to see her flustered.

So here they were now, all sitting on the floor watching a current game of soccer of Shimizu S-Pulse* against the Yokohama Marinos* on TV. There were lots of food all around them, mostly junk food.

The celebrating quickly ended in favor of the match. The boys were all engrossed on the match, being huge fans of S-Pulse. Ayame, just to spite them, was cheering for Yokohama even if she was a little bit of a fan of S-Pulse herself. Her cousin has the weirdest humor she ever knew.

She was sitting by the very back of the group, not really wanting to add to the noise they were already making.

She changed back into her uniform. She didn't really feel comfortable wearing her jersey outside of a match. She just didn't get a chance to change because she was in a hurry to watch their game anyway.

Watching him score the last goal for the team was nostalgic. It reminded her of their games back when they were young. He always did manage to win the most impossible games. Cheering for them felt amazing as well. She could feel the rush in her bones as she screamed her hearts out for him.

She missed it.

"Anee-chan!" she heard Daichi sing as he immediately gave her a hug. This kid would always latch her the moment he saw her. She was surprised he only did that right now. Well, she guessed the big hug he gave her when they arrived. It was more amusing to see him latch on Tsubasa instead. Plus, it was so cute seeing them interact.

"Hey, there squirt," she said as she returned the hug. "Finally missed me? I thought you would have replaced me with your brother," she teased as she bopped his nose.

"No!" he said. "Anee-chan is Anee-chan, and Onii-chan is Onii-chan! Onii-chan can never replace Anee-chan!"

"Ouch, Daichi. That hurt Onii-chan."

They looked up to see Tsubasa beside them, who immediately took a seat beside her. He had a teasing grin on his face, but of course Daichi didn't know about that.

She could feel her heart beat fast again, and a blush to form on her face, but she willed them to calm down.

"Oh, u-um," Daichi frantically stuttered. "I-I mean, Anee-chan is, Onii-chan is-"

Tsubasa then laughed and ruffled Daichi's hair. "I'm just teasing you, little man," he said. "I know what you mean. Sanae-chan is pretty irreplaceable.

Oh, be still her beating heart. She looked to see if anyone heard that, and so far, it seemed like every one was still watching the watch. Thank goodness. She was dealing with all their teasing.

"Mou, Onii-chan is so mean!" Daichi exclaimed as he hugged Sanae again and buried his face on her shoulder. "Anee-chan is so much nicer."

They both chuckled as she stroked the boy's hair. "There, there Daichi-kun," she comforted. "Your nii-chan just wanted to have some fun. Don't worry about it. He didn't mean it."

Daichi separated from her and looked up. "Really?" he asked with huge eyes.

"Really," she confirmed. "Now why don't you give your nii-chan a hug?"

"Okay!" the boy went to his brother and gave him a huge hug. Tsubasa squeezed him tight and blew a raspberry against Daichi's cheek. The boy gave a delighted cry of "Onii-chan!" as he tried to separate himself from his brother.

She chuckled as she watched the two brothers interact. It seems so nice to have a little sibling. Since she was an only child, and Ayame was too old for those kinds of things, Daichi was the little brother she always wanted.

Daichi finally got out of his brother's clutches and proceeded to run away from him, something about him being thirsty.

"You guys have such a cute relationship," she said to Tsubasa as they watch Daichi run out of the roof. "You're a good brother."

"You and Daichi have a pretty great relationship as well," he replied. "He did say you taught him soccer more than the guys did."

"I figured that would be the best thing to do to past time while I looked after him, considering who his brother is," she joked.

They both shared a laugh from it before Daichi returned with his sippy cup and proceeded to sit directly on her lap, already watching the game as well.

"So," he started. "Not going to join in cheering? I would have thought you would be louder than all of them combined.

She laughed and lightly punched him in the arm. "I resent that," she complained. "But really. I don't really like S-Pulse that much. I'm more of an Iwata* fan."

"Go blue?" Tsubasa asked cheekily?

She chuckled again and nodded, "Go blue."

"So when am I going to get my match?" Tsubasa inquired as he took a piece of potato chip from one of the bags on the floor. "I did get onto the team now. I hope that's good enough."

She tilted her head and pretended to think. "Hmmm," she hummed. "Maybe in a few more weeks."

"Weeks?" He exclaimed in mock dramatics. "But that's so long. Why in a few more weeks?"

She giggled and said, "It's not that long. The girls versus boys match will probably come a few days before the tournaments start in June."

"Girls versus boys?"

She nodded as wrapped her arms around Daichi. "As the name suggest, it's a game between the girls' team and boys' team. We had one last year when we were in Junior High. One of my friends in the same year as us told it to our senpai-tachi in the team and apparently they liked the idea and wants to make it a yearly thing."

"That's cool," Tsubasa answered as the guys roared when S-Pulse scored a goal. "So who won the match last year?"

"It was a tie," she answered. "And we were too lazy to do a penalty shootout, so we left it at that."

"But Anee-chan could have won that game easily, ne?" Daichi interrupted.

"Shush, Daichi," She said. "I couldn't have won that easily. Ayame was missing, remember? We couldn't exactly win with a missing person."

"But that's what Mamoru-nii-chan told me," Daichi argued as he looked up from his seat on her lap. "Even without Aya-nee-chan, your team was good enough without her."

"Well, then Mamoru-nii-chan is a liar, therefore someone you can't trust," she declared.

"Eh?"

Tsubasa chuckled as he watched those two interact. It was fun to see their banters and chats. They were so natural together, you couldn't take your eyes off of them. It's like when you think of a perfect family, they were the first one to pop into your mind. At least, to him anyway.

Sanae leaned down towards Daichi as she closed her eyes and rubbed their noses together.

"I'm just joking, squirt," she laughed as she separated from him. "You can seriously trust your Mamoru-nii-chan."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I am very much sure. Your Anee-chan just likes to pick on all of your nii-chan," she grinned.

"Okay!" then the child went back to drinking his sippy cup.

"Wasn't that kind of mean?" Tsubasa asked. "Izawa-kun didn't even know about that happening."

She chuckled again. "Maybe," she said, "But it's fun to pick on them because they tend to get worked up about everything. I usually do it with Ayame most of the time. Why do you think she's cheering for Yokohama?"

They laughed again together. Then a comfortable silence befall on them. They only watched as their friends cheered on their team of choosing.

"Man, I missed a lot didn't I?" he said unexpectedly. She turned to him with a confused expression, to which he only chuckled at when he saw it.

"I mean this," he gestured around the room. "I missed Daichi being born, being part of my friends' games, your first game."

"Well, you missed them for a reason," she tried to counter. "And we don't want you to miss an opportunity for you to achieve your dream. We know how much it's important for you."

"But still, these things are important as well," he argued. "And I wasn't there to see it happen."

She remained silent for a while. She knew that she could never change his mind about this. Once he thought of it, he never changed.

"If you're really guilty of missing all these events," she started. "Then you have three years to make it up." Then she patted his arm and gave an encouraging smile.

"Make it count."

Tsubasa widened his eyes, but that didn't last long as he returned her smile and nodded.

"I will."

Her phone beeped to tell her she had a message and she immediately grabbed it. It might be her mom, but only chuckled when she saw who it was.

"Who was it?" he asked curiously.

"Just Yayoi-chan," she replied.

"Yayoi? I thought you guys didn't get along with each other," he remarked.

She rolled her eyes. That was because she chose not to get along with the girl because she was jealous of their relationship. Not that she would tell him that.

"That was then," she answered. "Now, we're great friends."

"So what did she want?" he said as he took a swig from a can of soda.

"I told her about you guys trying out for the regular spots," she told him. "Now she wants updates."

He laughed, "Well, tell her that we got it easily."

Then she snorted. "Right, because for the most part of the game the score was 1-1," she teased.

"Hey, we scored three more times by the last ten minutes," he defended.

"Which you should have gotten in the first half," she countered. "If that was my team, we would have scored eight goals by that time."

"Oh yeah, wait until I play against you guys. Then you'll be eating your words," he said hotly.

She smirked towards him. "Was that a challenge, Tsubasa-kun?"

He returned her smirked with one his own. "So what if it was?" he drawled.

There was a sudden spark in her eye and Tsubasa couldn't help but like it.

"Bring it, Tsubasa-kun."

They stared at each other before Ayame's voice destroyed it.

"Will you two quit flirting?" she asked, irritated. "I'm trying to watch here."

She immediately turned away from him as she felt her face flush. Goddamnit Ayame, really?

"We were not flirting," she denied vehemently. "We were only talking."

"Uh huh. And S-Pulse isn't sucking so badly right now."

"They do not suck!" One of the boys denied.

"Take that back!"

"Oh yeah? Make me!"

"Why you-"

She sighed as her cousin got into another scuffle with the boys. Her cousin is too much of a sadist sometimes.

She gave a furtive glance to the boy beside him, who didn't seem to mind what her cousin said. He was laughing at the guys as the match on TV continued to prove Ayame's statement to be true.

She was getting excited when he said that he was challenging her. She was not going to deny it, but she thought of going against him before. Back when she organized the first girls versus boys match, she had a thought that if he was there, he would have been captain and they would have gone head to head. The same position, the same numbers, the same everything.

It would have been a great match.

But, now he's here and he said he'd make up everything he missed, the year's girls versus boys being one of them. Her hopes to play against him will finally come through, and judging from the game she watched this afternoon, he was strong.

Anyone would be excited to play as his opponent.

So, she took a discreet picture of him with her phone and sent it to not only Yayoi, but to the soccer players she knew the number of with the caption:

Guess who is back in the game?

End chapter

AN: Isn't Daichi just adorable? I always love writing it. That child would be the death of me. And did that count as fluff between Sanae and Tsubasa lol.

Anyway * notes

Shimizu S-Pulse is one of the professional Japanese soccer teams back, originating in Shimizu, Shizuoka. Since Nankatsu is in Shizuoka, I thought it would be awesome if I had them cheering for them.

Meanwhile Yokohama Marinos, officially the Yokohama F. Marinos, are back in Yokohama, Kanagawa. They, along with Kashima Antlers, Shimizu S-Pulse, and Jubilo Iwata have this rivalry going on in J-League 1.

Jubilo Iwata located in Iwata, Shizuoka are the biggest rivals with Shimizu S-Pulse. As I stated, they have a rivaly going on too with the other two. I had Sanae support them because reasons

I think that's about it. Thanks for reading and hope you drop a review. See you next chapter!