Alright! So this is chapter three… (not sure what to write here…)
Disclaimer: I don't own Inazuma Eleven/Go or any of its characters… though I wish I did…
Shindou tried to avoid Kirino for the rest of the day. Kirino knew that, but he didn't mind. Kirino didn't want Shindou to even get close to Julia and Sasha in fear of them messing with him. "Shindou's mine and no one can have him!" Kirino announced.
… ! Did I just say that out loud?!
Kirino looked around and saw a few girls standing in the hallway near him. "Kawaii!" they squealed in unison. They giggled and ran off, down the hallway.
Kirino stood there, shocked at what he had so shamelessly announced just a few seconds ago.
What was I thinking?!
It seemed very complicated and the fact that he didn't know why he did it or how he did it without thinking, made it even more complicated. So he dismissed the thought and tried to ignore it. He couldn't. Every single time he walked through that particular hallway, he thought of it. Every single time he saw Shindou, he thought of it. Every single time he heard someone say "Kawaii!" or even giggle, he thought of it. He couldn't get it out of his head. This was so embarrassing! Well, at least Shindou wasn't there when I said that…
After school was over, Kirino headed to the soccer-clubroom to prepare for soccer practice. Kirino walked rather quickly in order to avoid Julia and Sasha, although he knew it was all in vain. The first thing they did after school was let out, was look for him. As soon as they spotted Kirino, they ran up to him, dumped their bags and school books on him and left, knowing that they've done enough to let him know what they wanted finished.
Kirino sighed, "Bye, guys!" he said half-heartedly.
"Bye, Kirino-senpai!" Sasha said enthusiastically.
"Say 'hi' to Shin-sama for me! Kay, Ranmaru?" asked Julia, quiet demandingly.
Kirino turned towards them and forced smile, "Hai!" Then, he ran to the clubroom and threw all their bags on the floor, unable to contain his anger any longer,
"TCH! WHY CAN'T THEY LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONCE?!"
Kirino stomped to his locker and stuffed his bags and belongings inside. Kirino froze… I think… there's someone behind me… He turned slowly; there stood two frightened first-years looking straight at him with surprised expressions.
"Umm… Kirino-senpai, Are you Ok?" said the taller of the two first-years, "You seem… kinda mad…"
Kirino stood there, surprised that he didn't notice them ahead of time, "T-Tenma, Shinsuke… I'm fine… I think, um, I- um, just don't worry about it, Ok? I'll be fine!" Kirino said, hoping that they wouldn't question his untruthful words. He didn't want to feel guilty about not telling them the truth.
Shinsuke smiled, "So you're Ok? You're not hurt or anything?" Shinsuke gasped as a bizarre idea popped into his head, "Did a group of gangsters beat you up?"
Kirino looked at Shinsuke strangely, "What?" he asked. Tenma burst out laughing before Shinsuke could repeat his question.
"What kind of question is that?!" Tenma laughed so hard, he started to cry. Shinsuke's brain was still processing everything that just happened. Kirino smiled and joined in Tenma's laughter.
Shinsuke blushed, embarrassed, "Stop laughing! I was scared for Kirino-senpai! … Stop laughing! It's not funny!"
Shindou walked into the classroom and stood frozen at the door-way.
Oh great! Kirino's here… wait, What are they doing? What happened?
He watched them for a few more seconds when he realized something.
Kirino's laughing! He's actually laughing! How did they get him to laugh? He never laughs now days…
He silently walked over to his locker, trying not to attract any attention to himself.
Where did I put my phone?! I have to take a picture of this!
He dug through his bag, looking for his phone. His hand hit something hard and rectangular; he happily pulled it out. He wanted to capture this very, very rare moment; A rare moment where Kirino was actually laughing. He ended up taking countless pictures of the beautiful boy. After taking about 50 pictures, he was finally satisfied. Shindou slipped his phone back into his bag and walked over to his three fellow teammates, unsure of why he was doing so.
"Hey, guys…" Shindou said awkwardly, "So, you guys, uh, are early today…"
Tenma's laughter quieted down and he, not noticing Shindou's awkwardness, said, "Yeah, of course! Shinsuke and I always come early to practice! … You already know that, captain. Did you forget?"
Shindou silently scolded himself.
Baka! Why did you ask that stupid question? Tenma and Shinsuke come early every practice!
"I, um, I was talking to… um, Kirino…" corrected Shindou to cover up for his obvious comment.
Kirino, surprised to hear Shindou say his name, looked up at Shindou, "What? … oh, yeah… I'm early because… I… um, wanted to make sure that I'm not late…" Kirino said unsurely, his eyes now on the ground in front of him.
Ugh... Why do I keep on thinking about what I said earlier... in the hallway... What would I do if Shindou heard...
"uh, Ok…" Shindou said quietly, breaking Kirino's chain of thoughts in the process. He turned away and awkwardly walked back to his locker. Tenma glanced at Shinsuke to see if he could also sense the awkwardness and tension between the two. Shinsuke, clearly troubled by his thoughts, looked at Tenma and motioned for him to move his head closer.
"What's wrong with them?" Shinsuke whispered.
Tenma shrugged, "Maybe they're in an unresolved fight…"
Shinsuke shook his head in disagreement, "No, It's more like they… they like each other… or maybe they're acting like how you act towards Tsurugi…"
Tenma unconsciously blushed at the sound of his secret crush's name, "I-I, um, I don't think they like each other…" Tenma said, hoping that Shinsuke wouldn't make the connection between the two.
Kirino watched the two suspiciously whispering first-years in front of him, "What are you guys talking about?" Kirino asked questioningly.
"N-NOTHING!" Tenma and Shinsuke yelled in unison.
Tsurugi smirked, "Oh, really?"
Tenma, just noticing the dark striker's presence, blushed and turned away. "Y-Yeah… I-It was n-nothing…" Tenma stuttered.
Tsurugi, his mouth next to Tenma's ear, challenged "Then why don't you tell me what you were talking about?"
Tenma shivered, overwhelmed by all these feelings.
He's scaring me and forcing me to tell him, but I love it. But I don't want to tell him… AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Tenma looked up at Tsurugi, blushed, and ran out the door yelling, "It's nothing!"
Tsurugi looked around at everyone in the room. No one seemed to notice what he had done, so Tsurugi casually walked to his locker and prepared for soccer practice, thinking about the cute sakka-baka he just scared.
During soccer practice, everything went just as usual. They did a warm-up together, split up to do their individual drills, and came back together to work on teamwork skills. Shindou and Kirino were fine when it came to communicating while playing soccer, but the second practice was over, Shindou was back in his awkward state and Kirino was rushing again. They were all in the clubroom when Kirino decided that he'd 'wasted' enough time hanging out with his friends.
"I have to go now! Bye guys!" Kirino said hurriedly, as he jumped up from his chair. He was outside in a second, before anyone could protest. Kirino frantically hunted around the area, looking for the two sisters.
Where are they?! What if I don't have enough time to finish all our homework and do all the chores?
He was beginning to worry as walked towards the entrance of the school, hoping that they'd be there.
I'm not going to have enough time to finish our homework if they don't show up soon! …Why do I even do their homework in the first place?!
Kirino furiously stopped to the entrance, not caring what anyone else thought of the rarely fuming, ace defender of Raimon.
"What's wrong with them?! Why are they doing this to me?!" Kirino mumbled under his breath. He took a few deep breaths.
These immature actions could affect my status…
At that, Kirino put on a straight face and walked swiftly up to the sisters.
"Hey…" Kirino greeted, meekly.
"Oh, you…" Julia 'greeted' scornfully "Why'd you take so long, Ranmaru? I was right," Julia continued, not giving Kirino any time to answer, "I was totally right! Soccer practice is a waste of time. It always makes you late!"
"But-but I was looking for you! That's why it took so long! Don't make me cut practice! PLEASE, PLEASE!" Kirino begged.
"Look, Kirino," Julia said impatiently, "We've put up with you and your obsession with soccer for a long time now, but you-"
"Give him another chance, just one more chance!" Sasha pleaded.
Kirino turned to face Julia, "Please, I won't be late next time!"
"Fine!" Julia agreed, reluctantly.
They walked home in complete and chilling silence. Kirino had a hard time fighting the urge to run ahead or tell them to 'hurry up'.
Why don't they walk faster? They already know that I'm on a very tight schedule! Selfish brats!
When they arrived at home, Kirino didn't waste a second on getting started with all his work. He quickly finished all of Julia and Sasha's homework, skipping dinner in the process, and cleared the table. His mother was very worried and concerned about Kirino's health.
"Dear, I'll do the dishes for you. Go get some rest! You'll need it, Ranmaru." His mother told him.
Kirino asked, "But you don't have any time to do my chores! You need to work on your job so we can pay the rent money!"
His mother sighed, "Ranmaru dear, you mustn't work yourself too hard! I'm worried about all the extra and unnecessary work they're giving you! I can handle it. It's not that much more work for me." She gave him a small push towards his room door and went over to the sink to finish Kirino's chores.
"Okay. Thanks mom… I love you…" Kirino said awkwardly. He didn't know why he said that, but he felt like he owed his mother for helping him with his work.
His mother answered, "I love you too, Ranmaru! Now, go get some rest."
Kirino smiled and quickly ran to his room to start doing his own homework. It was 11:55pm when he finally finished all his homework, but that was much earlier than he was accustomed to so he was proud of himself because of how 'early' it was.
Thank you, mother! I finished so much earlier today!
He stood up, yawned, stretched and stumbled towards the bathroom. He quickly but very, very clumsily took a cold shower and went straight to bed afterwards. He fell asleep instantly, despite how hungry he was, for he was much more exhausted than hungry.
A few minutes later, Kirino's mother came in the room to check up on Kirino.
"Ranmaru, you work too hard…" his mother sighed, "You haven't eaten dinner… You skip dinner every single evening... And I don't even know how you finish all that homework and those chores…"
His mother stood uneasily next to his bed.
Ranmaru, you're starving yourself…
Ok… finally finished. I don't know why I added that Tsurugi/Tenma thing in there… I didn't plan that out. I was just feeling the urge to see some KyouTen at that moment hehe
I tried to make this chapter longer. Longer than chapter two… don't really know if it's that much longer though… Well, please leave a review for this chapter!
btw, I've been thinking... The story title's kinda lame... and I don't know what to change it to...