AN: kesese im excite for next chapter

SoccerGirl- thanks for still liking my story even if tsubasa is still dense but i promise the next chapters will bring us to his thoughts and the big reveal. this chapter doesnt is kinda eh because i was so busy when i was writing this. i dont even like it that much :( thank you again for still reading!

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa.

Chapter 19: Celebrations

They just announced the winners of both the Girls' Tournament and Boys' Tournament. Since they, well, her mostly, high tailed out of their stadium right after their match, they couldn't announce the winners of the Girls' Tournament. When the association figured out that they went to the Boys' match, well this happened instead.

"And now, here are the players chosen to represent the U-16 All Japan International Junior Youth Team in France are:" the announcer spoke.

Well, that was new. She wasn't exactly keeping up with soccer politics so she had no idea that they have were going to have that this year. But she was sure that the association was scouting for young players all over Japan. She have that one man watching some of the boys play since they were in junior high (or maybe even earlier). If she remembered correctly, he was called Katagiri.

He then listed off the people joining the team.

They weren't exactly surprised when they heard who were chosen. It was a little surprising to hear that Tsubasa-kun and Misaki-kun were chosen, since she was sure they would have picked those they were scouting ever since their junior high. Well, judging by how they played in this tournament, they did play splendidly.

What shocked them though, was that Wakabayashi-kun didn't get chosen at all. She turned towards the goalkeeper, who seemed to be calm about this. She saw Tsubasa doing the same thing, but she shrugged after a few moments. Wakabayashi-kun probably had a reason why he wasn't quite surprised at all.

And he did. When the ceremony was the over, they were quick to drill him of questions about what he thought of the decisions and why he wasn't chosen.

"My team back in Germany asked me for a favor," she remembered him telling them. "I told them I can play for them for a short time, just until summer ends. I asked them to wait until Nationals was over and I can go back to them. I'm leaving in three days."

The others seemed to have believed his reason easily, but when she turned to Shiori, she didn't seem convinced.

See, she might be their team's bubbly center forward, but her judgment and instincts were sharp. If it wasn't for her quick decisions, then the team's chances for Nationals would have dropped greatly.

That's why when the girl looks skeptical about something, they usually trusted it, along with the ball.

Well, Shiori did have the tendency to ignore what she's feeling sometimes, and only shrugged her skepticism over Wakabayashi-kun's reason.

So after that, they finally decided to celebrate their victory tomorrow afternoon, just before they all go back to Nankatsu. It was a good thing they were all staying near to a hotel that their (Ayame and hers) grandfather owned and got them a reservation at one of the restaurants in there. The yakiniku place which they both loved when they spent summer in Tokyo last year at their beloved grandfather's request.

He reserved the whole place for them seeing that both teams of the school two of his grandchildren attends, won the both National titles. Of course, as usual it was exclusive to family and really really close friends (meaning the other members of "Anego's Boys").

She was about to complain about the whole reservation of the place to just them, since the restaurant would probably lose customers (and money) from having to ignore all the other reservations made before theirs were.

"Nonsense, Sanae-chan," their grandfather waved her concerns off from the other line on her phone. "They wouldn't lose money. I'm paying for it."

Again, she was about to complain for him paying for their lunch, but he replied by telling her that he didn't get the chance to spoil his grandchildren when they were young, and this would finally be his chance.

She finally let him win. She knew that he was just showing that he still loved them, even if he couldn't find any time to spend with his children and grandchildren.

Besides, when she thought of it, it was a good idea that they got the whole place reserved, considering how rambunctious they could be when they celebrate winning a match. Just imagine how much crazier it would be when they won Nationals.

So here she was with her cousin, standing outside the building where the 24 representatives of the International Junior Youth Team were having a small meeting about their plans, waiting for the three people picked from Nankatsu to come out of the doors so they could go to restaurant and start eating meat.

Hey, shopping with a fashion-obsessed cousin was tiring. Especially when everything she tried on looked perfect on her, but wasn't satisfied with just one outfit and had to try on at least 13 more outfits and 18 pairs of shoes. Ayame even dragged her to change into a floral dress, which she did find cute but no effort to try it on. But, Ayame being Ayame, had to try it on with a navy blue cardigan and some brown boots. When her cousin thought it was pretty acceptable on her, she ordered her to buy it, to which she could only follow just to get her cousin off her back about wasting such a perfect outfit for her.

In the end, Ayame managed to collect four bags worth of new clothes (she had to stop her from buying more when she reminded her that they still need to pick up the three from the bulding. Ayame stopped, though with a pout) while she only had one.

Thank god for that.

The automatic doors opened and she turned towards them, and not locating the three from the huge group of boys going outside. Huh, what happened to them?

"Yo J-BOYS!" Ayame exclaimed at them. She almost hit her face with her palm. Her cousin lacked tack so much.

See, that was the nickname she came up for them last night when the team all talked and ate so much junk food right before bed. She didn't know what came into her cousin, but she suddenly said that they should start calling them that since they graduated from being "Anego's Boys" and was now "Japan's Boys". Her teammates agreed wholeheartedly and from then on they called them "J-Boys."

She just didn't expect Ayame to call them that in public.

What made it worse was that those idiots would turn around to face them.

"J-Boys?" Hyuuga-kun said in disbelief.

"Is she talking to us?" One of the Tachibana twins asked Wakashimazu, who shrugged his shoulders in confusion.

"Yes, I'm talking to you," her cousin retorted as she marched towards them in annoyance, she could only follow behind as she tried to massage her head to stop the incoming headache her cousin will put her through.

"Honestly, who did you think I was talking to?" Ayame huffed as she reached them. "You're the only huge crowd of boys here."

"Well, excuse us," the other Tachibana (she thought, she could never tell them apart) replied. "We just didn't know whether this short girl that we have no idea who she could be was talking to us. Besides we just didn't notice you by how tiny you are."

The other twin gave the other one a high five.

Oh boy, Ayame was going about to explode.

"Why you-"

"Okay," she interrupted before Ayame could go boom. "Hey everyone," she greeted pleasantly as she walked in front of Ayame. "How's it going?"

"Oh hey there Anego," Hyuuga-kun greeted her.

"Hello, Nakazawa-san," Matsuyama-kun said to her.

"Woah, you guys know her?"

Matsuyama nodded his head. "Nakazawa-san's a close friend of the Nankatsu team."

Ayame snorted from behind her, "Close friend? More like their mom."

She glared at her cousin. "Shut up," she hissed, but Ayame only smirked at her. She rolled he eyes in exasperation and turned back to the guys.

"Just ignore her," she told them. "Anyway, how was th-"

"Where are her boys anyway?" Ayame interrupted. "We've been waiting for them for ages and I'm hungry."

She did not have the right to complain! She was the one who had to wake her up so early in the morning and only gave her enough time to change from her pajamas and eat a donut for breakfast.

The other guys looked at each other in confusion again, puzzled about what she was talking about again. How the hell should they know who these boys are?

"Oh," Matsuyama exclaimed in realization. "Izawa-kun, Taki-kun, Kisugi-kun, and Misaki-kun all stayed behind to wait for Tsubasa-kun. Coach Mikami wanted tell him something."

"How is it that you know who she was talking about Matsuyama?" Jito asked the Furano player.

"The Nankatsu players showed us this one charm they were wearing right before our match, since we were wearing headbands that time, they just thought it would be right to show theirs to us," he explained calmly.

Oh my god, those idiots had to them to other people? Someone bury her now.

"It had 'Anego's Boys' written on it," he added, "I figured that what was Kiseki-san was talking about."

"'Anego's Boys?'"

"Specifially her boys," Hyuuga pointed at her as she jumped from the sudden attention given to her. "Those guys couldn't function without her."

"T-that's not true," she denied. "They can function without me."

"Right and Ishizaki's not bald."

She was about to retort back, but the boys decided to finally arrive at that time.

"Ah, Anego!" Izawa-kun's voice drifted to their ears. They all tuned to where his voice came from and saw the five of them walking towards them.

"My point exactly," Hyuuga-kun smirked as he and Ayame shared a high five.

She only glared at them and stuck her tongue out before turning her attention back to the three who just arrived.

"Hey," she greeted all them.

"What are you guys doing here?" Izawa-kun asked them.

"Picking you guys up, duh," Ayame answered. "You probably don't even know how to get to the hotel without u-"

She smacked her cousin upside the head, who only swore loudly at her.

"What Ayame's trying to say is," she started, "We just got done shopping and since we were just close by, we thought we could go to the restaurant together."

"That's nice of you guys," Misaki-kun told them gratefully. "Thanks."

"No problem," she replied pleasantly.

"Restaurant?" Wakashimazu-kun asked.

"We're celebrating today," Izawa-kun responded, then he puffed his chest out proudly. "Because in case you guys forgot, Both Nankatsu Girls' and Boys' Soccer Teams won Nationals."

"Both of you are in the Girls team?" one of the Tachibana twins asked in disbelief.

"Got a problem with that, Tachibana #3?" Ayame challenged.

"No," he answered. "Hey how can you tell I'm usually wearing the number 3 jersey?"

"I have a twin sister," she answered as if it was simplest thing in the world. "I know how twins work."

Before this could escalate even more because Ayame just didn't know when to shut up, she stopped Ayame from saying anything more.

"Anyway," she interjected. "It was nice talking to the representatives of Japan, but we really need to get going. The others are probably getting hungry waiting for us."

She said the last bit while looking at the other four from Nankatsu.

The other guys started to say bye to them and said their congratulations, before leaving as well. They all finally separated and the five of them started their walk to the hotel, excitedly chatting and ready to celebrate.

When they arrived, they were met by impatient teammates, friends, and family who were grumbling about how late they were and how much they're starving. They apologetically explained how they got held up. Of course, they still didn't care and just said that they should start eating.

With that, her mom signaled for the servers to bring out the meat so they can start to cook their food. They were all surprised to see great the quality of the meet was, and all they could say was that their grandfather wanted to spoil them and bought them all the highest quality meet for their celebration.

They all then started to praise their grandfather and promised that they wouldn't waste all these food.

She could only smile in embarrassment as they started their happy but crazy celebration.

Almost all of them were done eating, and they were just talking and laughing around, merrily reminiscing their exploits in Nationals. They were even comparing on who had tougher opponents. She could help but smile when Chieko-senpai retorted to Taki-kun that they had to play against Kitagawa and Hiyazaki-san, the female soccer prodigy.

She swept her eyes around the restaurant, happy to see that every one of her friends were enjoying themselves. They deserved it. They worked hard to achieve this goal. It's time they took a rest and have fun, even if some of the boys did have the All Japan Junior Youth coming up.

Then her eyes landed on him. He was sitting all alone on a booth, smiling as he watched his friends try and trump the girls over their silly competition. But, his smile didn't reach his eyes and she knew that something was wrong.

So she discreetly stood up from her seat and made her way to him.

"Hi," she greeted slowly as she slid into the seat across from him.

"Hey," he greeted back, albeit not as lively as hers.

"Why aren't you joining in the fun?" she asked teasingly. "You guys just won Nationals. At least look like it."

He gave her a look to which she only smiled at.

"I am happy that we won Nationals," he defended, but then his mood deflated again. "I just... I just have a lot in my mind right now."

She gave him a concerned look. "Is it your shoulder?" she asked carefully.

"Sort of," he answered.

"Does it still hurt a lot?"

"Not that much," replied as he unconsciously reached for it. "It's just that… Coach Mikami said that I don't have to do the training in Tsumagoi. I should be focused on having it healed more."

So that was it.

"If that's what he wants," she started. "I think you should follow it."

"I know," he admitted. "But I don't want to miss all those training. I want Japan to win in the tournament."

"Hey," she reached for his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry about missing training okay? Sure it would be a bummer, but it would be even worse if you injure it even more and had to be taken out completely."

Then she gave him a wink. "Besides, there's only one person who deserves that number 10 jersey for Japan."

She felt her heart skip a beat when he gave her the most beautiful smile she'd ever since.

"How is it that you can always lift anyone's spirits so easily?" he asked genuinely.

She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "I guess it comes with the job description of being me."

He only laughed, but she was happy that he was back to his old self.

Tsubasa didn't have to worry about anything, because she knew she'll recover just in time for them to compete, and whatever happens, she'll always be by his side.

End Chapter

AN: im not even gonna lie i hate this chapter because i was more focused on writing the next chapters. so im not even going to have a long not here

thanks for reading and please review! see you next chapter.