AN: hello i updated. do you think i should post this in deviant art?

yeah i dont own captain tsubasa

Chapter 32: Close

Their grandfather decided that they didn't need to go to the manor for Golden Week, thank the lord. Instead he would be the one visiting them this year, so he could see how Misaki-san was doing with his paintings. But really, their grandfather would just really be at their home most of the time.

She was happy that she didn't have to leave Nankatsu for the week, but ugh she had to go to practice. Don't get her wrong, she still loved to play soccer, but unfortunately for her soccer obsessed friends, she could live without the ball, for a few days.

Just kidding, sooner or later a ball would find its way to her feet. She couldn't live without at least kicking it once.

So here she was, dribbling a ball back and forth with Ayame, all geared up for practice today on the first day of Golden Week. Man, she couldn't wait to come today. They had a training match against the boys, since most of their official matches are starting after Golden Week, they decided a game between them wouldn't be harmful. Besides, they're not playing an official match exactly, unlike the annual Girls versus Boys one they do before Nationals start (they decided that this would be Nankatsu tradition ever since they started this last year. Why they liked this idea, she didn't have a clue). This was all for fun, to see what both teams needed to work on before starting tournament season.

And there's also the event that she could play against him. That's always fun. Kicking his butt had always been an enjoyable event for her. But then again, he could always kick her ass this time. Like hell, she was going to let him.

"Last one!" she screamed as she kicked the ball passed the school gate, to where Ayame was already there waiting for the ball. When she ran passed the gate only then Ayame passed it back to her.

"Nice pass run," Ayame said to her as they high fived. "I'm sure that we can beat those boys to the ground today."

She beamed in confidence. "Hell yeah we are."

They laughed together before she dribbled the ball again and the two of them proceeded to run to the boys' field.

Once she saw everyone, she grinned and kicked ball, before sprinting and jumping onto his back.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed as he instinctively wrapped his hands behind her knees to support her. She wrapped her arms around him, grinning cheekily. She gave a wink to Izawa-kun and Misaki-kun as greeting to them.

He looked behind him and beamed when he saw her on his back. "I figured it would be you," he chuckled.

"Well, who else would it be but me?" she countered. He was about to retort when Ayame arrived.

"Okay, love birds," she said. "Let's stop with the flirting and get going to field."

"We are not love birds," she complained, but she still didn't get down from his back. "We're not even dating."

"Yet," Misaki-kun sang as he started to walk away from them, Izawa sniggering away as he followed Misaki-kun.

The both of them blushed, but didn't say anything. They just looked at each other and smiled. Well, both of them knew something that their friends didn't and they would rather them not knowing.

They chuckled before proceeding to where everyone was.

Unfortunately for them, there was someone who saw their not so secret looks that they shared between them. Ayame had a pleased expression on her face, nodding to something she thought she must have figured out. But she didn't dwell on it and ran after everyone else.

She was surprised to see who was there talking with the former Nankatsu SC members. She didn't think Roberto would show up for a match like this.

"Ah!" Daichi exclaimed as he saw them. "Anee-chan! Onii-chan!"e hE H he ran towards them. She jumped off Tsubasa's back and dashed towards the little boy, a gleeful smile on her face.

"Daichi-kun!" she cried out in joy. She welcomed him in her arms and carried him up, spinning themselves. Daichi laughed out in glee, clutching her neck tightly. She stopped her spinning and nuzzled his face. "Oh I missed my baby."

"You guys just saw each other yesterday when we came by to buy some cookies," Tsubasa remarked as he reached them.

"But that was too long ago!" She and Daichi answered heatedly. Goodness, this guy just had no idea between the bonds between kid and babysitter.

He looked shocked by their answer, and could only raise his hands in surrender.

She only cheekily stuck her tongue out at him.

"Sanae-chan?" she heard her name being called and she turned to see who it was, but she should have known who it was. Roberto still didn't know she played soccer.

"Hey, Roberto!" she greeted him as he walked towards them. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Well, I didn't expect for you to be here either," he retorted light heartedly. "As part of the girls' team no less. Someone," he gave a pointed look at Tsubasa, "forgot to mention this little bit of information to me."

Tsubasa cried out a clueless "What?" but Roberto only sighed and shook her head.

She chuckled as she ignored Daichi making faces with his older brother over her shoulder. Ugh boys. "Surprise I guess?" she said sheepishly.

Roberto gave out a hearty laugh before the three of them went to the bench areas, where everyone was already gathered. They were all chatting as they help each other warm up and stretch. It always made her feel happy to see both boys and girls doing stuff together. Their team wasn't like one of those other schools who scoff at the other gender's team. They like the same thing, so why try and segregate each other.

Roberto patted her back and excused himself to go and try giving advices to the people on what they should do to stretch and warm up so they don't feel as sore after the game. Daichi jumped down from her arms, following the Brazilian to hang out with the others.

Now that she thought about it, it's actually a good thing that Roberto was here. They never had a coach, the girls didn't anyway. Ever since junior high, they never had someone coaching them and the only reason they managed to survive was Nao-buchou's perseverance to research and make the right training regime for them to follow. It also greatly helped that she wanted to be a soccer coach as well as a chemistry teacher. The boys though, did have coach back in junior high, but he wasn't that great, so they basically just coached themselves. Once high school came, they had an advisor who was an avid soccer fan, but he wasn't someone who knew how to coach, so it was just them again.

It's really a miracle they managed to win Nationals like this.

And watching Roberto helping them and giving them advices was enough to make her heart swell in happiness, because finally, finally, they had someone to guide them in playing the sport they all loved.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to look behind her. He was giving her a smile, and she couldn't help but return it.

"It's great isn't it?" he remarked as they turned back to everyone as Roberto talked with Chieko-senpai. She could just see the how Chieko-senpai was taking it seriously and how enthusiastic she was receiving tips on even the simplest thing. "How everyone looked to be more excited to be doing this compared to before."

She shrugged halfheartedly, the smile on her face never fading. "Well, we finally did have someone to coach us, even if it's just for today. But, hey. It's better than nothing. Plus, it's the Roberto Hongo who's coaching us. How awesome is that?"

He chuckled at her statement. "Well, Roberto didn't have anything planned today so I told him about this practice match and may or may not have dropped some hints for him to help us."

She gasped, "You didn't?"

He gave her a barely nonchalant shrug, trying to stop his smile from widening.

"Oh, Tsubasa," she cried as she tackled him with a huge hug. She heard him chuckle before she separated from him, beaming all the way. "That's so sweet."

"I thought it was time we had ourselves some proper coaching," he said. "I mean, we did awesome all on our own, but sometimes it's just not enough you know. So I asked Roberto if he was alright helping us for today. He was more than willing. He did say he wanted to see how everyone was doing and this is the perfect chance for it. Besides," then he gave her a mischievous smirk, "he was pretty excited to see you in action on the field. Especially how you fare against me."

She gave out a hearty laugh and patted his back, as well as joining her in laughing.

"Come on," she called out to him. "Let's go run some laps around the field." She then gave him a wink. "We don't wanna disappoint him, do we?"

He beamed again and the both of them started their laps, their smiles never fading.

Their 80 minutes of game time ended, and damn did the boys improve. With Koizawa-kun as their main striker, their defense had some trouble keeping up with him. Plus, since he was a natural midfielder and game maker, the boys' formation could change from 4-3-3 into a 4-4-2 in a blink of an eye. It didn't help that no matter how much Tsubasa and Koizawa-kun had some issues communicating off the field, they had one hell of a teamwork on the field. She didn't know who to mark once Tsubasa or Koizawa-kun had the ball. Ayame was already busy with Misaki (who she was shouting profanities at in French and English, to the amusement of the guy), and everyone else was being marked by the other boys.

Praise god for Rika-chan. She was the best sweeper, hands down. Sorry Takisugi-kun. Also, their first years were heaven sent. They managed to make the tying goal in the 79th minute when she tackled the ball from Tsubasa's feet and sent it to her, which she passed to Shiori and punted the ball lightly instead of kicking it so Wakabayashi-kun, who was about to grab it.

Could she get a hell yeah for creativity? Hell yeah.

Who said it was just the boys who improved? They didn't use all that time doing nothing.

She wiped the water from the corner of her mouth. That match definitely made her parch and she could see that she wasn't the only one. Miho was complaining about how her water bottle seemed to have been empty after she took just about four sips on it. Good thing their managers was there to hand them extra ones, with Daichi helping them out.

After that, the 22 of them that played as well as the other bench members started their talk about what they each noticed about the team as well as what they needed to improve on. It went well, seeing that they all are civilized people who could accept constructive criticism.

Right now, they were sat in front of Roberto, waiting as he read through his notes and go over what he thought on their match. She could feel the tension from everyone. It was the first time they were getting a feedback from a real coach in years. They're all both anxious and excited about what he's going to say. Did they do great or did they flunk? It's not every day you're being observed by the Roberto Hongo.

Ayame sat behind her, braiding her hair. Her cousin might not look like it, but she was as nervous as everyone was. Apparently playing with her hair was one of her coping mechanisms, or rather her favorite coping mechanism. Since it grew past her shoulders now, she started experimenting with hair styles and thought her hair was the perfect guinea pig.

Tsubasa sat beside her, talking to Misaki-kun about something. It's amazing how no one was pointing out how close they were. They couldn't help it okay. It's just instinct to sit with their shoulders touching because they've been doing this ever since they began spending their (some) nights on Hikarigaoka Park.

But she's not complaining. This way they could be as close as they want to be without thinking about the nosy people they call friends.

"Ow!" she exclaimed as she felt her cousin tug on her hair harder than necessary. "Dear lord Ayame, would it hurt to stop pulling my hair harder than necessary?"

"I told you to stop moving!" Ayame retorted, still playing with her hair.

"I haven't moved for 15 minutes," she answered.

"Well, continue not to move then."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Her cousin could be too much sometimes. "I should probably cut my hair soon. See what you'd do when that happens."

"Ugh," Ayame sighed. "Fine, I'm done anyway. You're lucky I don't have hair pins with me."

"Finally," she cried in relief. She didn't exactly know what her cousin did to her hair, but it left half of her hair free. She was quite happy with her ponytail. This would just fly all over her face later.

"You know what, I'm going to Shiori," her cousin said as she stood up. "At least she would appreciate my hard work."

She could only roll her eyes again as Ayame stopped childishly away from her.

She was fiddling with a lock of her hair in her right hand, a small pout of her face as she looked down on it.

"Well, that's a nice change of view," she turned to look at him in surprise. She looked behind him to see that Misaki-kun was talking to Kisugi-kun this time. Huh, she must have been so into despairing her change of hairstyle she didn't notice anyone around her. "Never really see you with your hair like that. You usually just have it up or not." Then after a short silence he added, "It looks good on you. Your hair, I mean."

Man, could this guy just stop making her heart beat fast even for just one day.

"Oh," she said as she felt her face flush lightly. She unconsciously looked down and hug her knees. "Thank you," she mumbled. "I was thinking of getting it cut…"

"Why?" he asked in confusion.

"Well," she started, looking up to see Roberto still looking through his notes. "It gets in the way of playing."

"Ayame and Shiori both have long hair and they managed," he remarked as he took a uhGHlock of her hair in his hand. "Besides, I think long hair suits you."

Again, her face heated up.

"Urghhh!" she exclaimed as she hid her face behind her hands. "Oh my god Tsubasa, you'll be the death of me when you keep saying things like that."

He only answered by laughing at her embarrassment and wrapping an arm around her.

She had to admit though, if he would always hold her close like this, she would be very much alright if he continued to say those things.

Roberto coughed and got their attentions. He praised them first for the match. It was apparently the first time he saw a match like that between grown boys and girls. After that he started to tell the things he noticed.

All of them listened intently, soaking in all the information and criticisms he had.

Roberto continued to talk, they stayed close with each other. And his arm never left her.

AN: i like to think that im writing their relationship as realistically as possible (actually these are the things i would like to do if get a boyfriend lol jk)

anyway hope you liked this chapter and cya next time