Momoyama Predators, they're playing against Heavenly..

Aoto is clearly aware of Kota's threatening stare at him and he kind of enjoys it. It's obvious that he's going to go harshly towards him.

At first Kota is keeping his distance from Aoto. He's still glaring at him with greed, but he's not saying a word. He keeps his composure and stays calm, but the greed in his eyes is still obvious.

As they're playing, Heavenly gets the ball and Kota keeps a lookout for Aoto. As soon as he touches the ball, he immediately races towards him to try and steal it from him.

He makes swiftly moves with the ball. He's not gonna give in easily but Kota has a swift, too. So he successfully ables to stay right behind Aoto as he moves with the ball. Kota's not gonna make it easy for him to make a pass or score. He's putting a lot of pressure on Aoto. If he does try to make a pass, Kota will quickly intercept it or steal the ball from him.

Aoto knows he can't pass the ball instead he makes some artistic moves and tries to dribble it away.

Kota follows him as he starts to do some artistic moves to dribble the ball. He's keeping a close eye on his movements. Kota notices that he's not going to pass the ball at all, so he knows he has to act quickly.

As soon as he tries to dribble the ball with his left foot, Kota makes a swift move and steals the ball from him.

Bow they switch the roles! Kota has the ball and Aoto tries to steal it back.

Kota's keeping his body between Aoto and the ball. He's quick and nimble when moving with the ball. Every time he moves with the ball, he makes some twists and turns to try and trick her into thinking that he's going one way when he actually goes another way.

Aoto's not falling for this trick of his and moves the way he actually aims to go and manages to steal the ball. He turns around and passes him.

Kota is shocked when he sees that his trick didn't fool Aoto. His face shows annoyance, anger, and a bit of shock. He turns around and tries to take the ball back but fails to do so. Then Aoto passes him. His frustrations are boiling over, and he makes a harsh foul on him. He grabs and pulls him by his collar, causing her to fall to the ground.*

"you damned-"

Aoto grits his teeth but his swearing interrupts by their teammates. they come to help him once they notice he's injured.

Kota's look switches to one of indifference once he sees that he's injured. He remains where he is, watching him get treated. The referee approaches and asks what happened. Kota

says it was just a simple accident and that he didn't mean it. The referee seems to convinced it was just an accident but also mentions that it's not a such simple injury, yet not a broken bone.

"You can't continue the match or play a few days either, but don't worry, you'll be fine."

The referee says and turns to Kota

"You, number 7! Take him to the locker room for some rest, there also are ice spray and muscle creams."

"Okay, sir."

Kota reluctantly walks over to Aoto and helps him up. He doesn't look happy about having to take him to the locker room, but he's still going to do as the referee said.

Aoto gives him a deathly glare. Since he can't walk by his own he has to put his arm around Kota's shoulder. They walk slowly. As soon as they enter the little building Aoto pulls his arm back and pushes him.

"I don't need your help."

Kota looks stunned for a split second. He hadn't expected Aoto to pull his arm back and push him like that. He just stares at him with an expression that shows he's pissed of and annoyed.*

"Fine, be stubborn. I'm sure you don't care if you hurt your ankle even more, right?"

"I'm not the one who had hurt it, in the first place." He leans down the wall for support his body.

"I didn't intentionally hurt your ankle. It was just accident." Kota says this with a cold tone.

"accident my ass." Aoto almost whispers.

"Say that one more time and I'll..." He doesn't finish his sentence and just clenches his fist.

"What are you gonna do, injure me one more time?"

At this point, Kota's patience has completely run out. He lunges forward and grabs him by him wrist.

"Shut up!" He yells this with a lot of anger. It seems like he's gonna lose his cool completely this time.

"I wonder whether you know other words then 'shut' and 'up'?"

Kota's face is now full of rage. He squeezes his grip on his wrist, causing his arm to hurt. It's obvious that he's going to lose his cool completely.

"I'm warning you to watch your mouth!"

"And I'm warning you to watch your actions!" With plenty of strength he pushes him fastly that he hits his back to the other wall.

Kota looks absolutely stunned from this. This is the first time anyone has dared to push him back and make him back down since he was little. He's not used to this at all.

Aoto gives him another dreadful glare and walks towards the lockers by taking support from the wall. He takes the aid kit and sits down.

Kota slowly gets up and stands there for a moment. He's still stunned. His anger has diminished to annoyance. He's watching Aoto walk off to the lockers and take the aid kit. A part of him wants to go over to him and try to apologize, but the other part just wants to just ignore him and leave.

He takes off her shoe and reveals his ankle.. it looks damaged badly. Kota starts to feel bad while looking his bruised ankle. His facial expression changes. His look of annoyance is replaced with a look of concern. He takes a step towards him.

"Your ankle looks worse than I thought it would." He's now talking softly and with genuine concerned instead of coldly like before.

"thanks to you.."

Kota feels guilty and he knows that he caused this. However, he doesn't want to outright admit it, so instead he says.

"Let me take a look at it." He slowly approaches him, and his tone of voice is still gentle.

"I'll handle it myself." he says and sprays the iced medicine. then he tries to put on some cream but as soon as his hand touched his ankle he sights and Kota can see his eyes got watery. He's starting to feel really bad now. He knows he messed up earlier, so now he wants to make up for his actions.

He walks up to him and sits down next to him so that he can reach his ankle easily.

"I want to help you put on the cream." He says this with a concerned tone even though he knows he'll probably refuse him.

"I already said that I don't need your help."

Kota doesn't want to argue with her as she's already hurt. He just doesn't want to see him struggling like this, so he says with some determination.

"Just let me help you. I'm trying to make up for my actions." He says this with slightly more firmness this time.

"So you can question your actions?"

"I know I've messed up. I'm really sorry for my actions. I want to try and make up for what I did." He says this as he tries to place his hand on Aoto's ankle.

His whole body shivers as he touches his ankle. Kota notices how he shivered as soon as he touches her ankle. He realizes it must be hurting pretty bad if he's reacting like this even just from a touch.

"I'll make this quick, just let me apply the cream." He says this as he tries to pick up his ankle again.

"Just.. make it quick, please..."

Kota nods and finally picks up his ankle. He's going to do his best to help him. He's much more gentle with her now compared to earlier.

"Okay. Just try not to move as much as possible, okay? The more you move, the more it is going to hurt."

He nods her head and closes his eyes tightly as he applies the cream. It hurts him but he doesn't move at all.

Kota is extremely gentle as he applies the cream. As he applies the cream, he notices that his ankle is hurt more seriously than he thought. It's clear that he has hurt her ankle badly when he tackled him. He takes a couple of minutes before he's done and lifts his ankle from the ground.

"There. It should be better now. Can you walk?"

He opens her eyes and he can see how watery they are. Kotanotices how watery his eyes are and how she's holding back tears of pain. He immediately feels guilty and starts to worry.

"Are you okay?" He asks him gently. His voice is much softer than before when he was angry at him.*

"Why did you even do that?.."

He's silent for a moment. As he thought back to the incident, he realizes how badly he had messed up.

"I guess I was just so mad you got my position that I... I lost control." He answers, his voice showing that he is very remorseful.

"Does it worth it? The referee said I'll be fine but but if I wouldn't, what if I couldn't make sport any longer?.." another tear rolls on her cheek.

This is the first time Kota's seen him upset. He feels even more remorse and m an urge to comfort him, but he doesn't know if he should do it.

He slowly moves his hand and wipes away the tear on his cheek.

He pushes his hand* "Don't you dare to pity me."

"I'm not pitying you. I'm just..." He stops and takes a deep breath. He's trying to find the right words.

"I'm really sorry for hurting you. I didn't mean to do that, I just..." He's silent for a moment.

"it doesn't change a thing.."

"Please, I really am sorry. I didn't even realize how badly I would hurt you. I didn't think about the consequence... Can you just excuse me for one second?"

"I'm scared, okay??!"

Kota's eyes widen as he hears him say this. He didn't expect this at all and gets taken back by it.

"What are you... scared of?"

"I'm scared of getting a permanent injury, I'm so scared... What'd happen then?.. I'd have failed.. again.."

He's taken aback once again by his words. Aoto fears of getting a permanent injury. As in, not being able to partake in sports ever again? He's never thought about that as well.

"You'd have failed, again?" What kind of failure was it?

"They'd have left me in shadows once again.."

Kota looks down for a moment. He can't stand hearing her say that they would have left her in shadows if she were to fail.*

"Is that something that has happened before? Has someone... left you in the shadows?" *He asks this with a concerned voice. He can see all the pain in his eyes. There was something deeply engraved in him.

"... family stuff"

That made Kota realize that his family has put him through a lot. He was about to ask him for more details but held back.

"I'm sorry." He says this in a soft voice, showing how much he sympathizes with him. He knows that he can't undo the pain he has experienced. But he is trying to be more understanding now. He knows there is a lot of pain hidden underneath that rough and cold exterior of his. He now starts to see the real Aoto behind that exterior. It must be hard to have to deal with this pain alone. He's probably used to hiding it.

Kota just puts his arm around him and pulls him towards him. He wraps his other arm around him and holds him close to himself. He's trying to comfort him as best as he can.

Kota holds Aoto as he leans his head on his shoulder. His arm is wrapped around him back. He gently rubs his back. He's starting to realize just how much pain he has to live with.

He can feel that he's now crying. He feels so bad for him. Kota gently wipes away the tears on his cheeks while also still rubbing his back. He does this to try and make her feel better.

"T-thanks.."

"Don't mention it." Kota says this in a gentle tone and continues to rub his back. Now that he has seen the real Aoto, he understands that his cold and aggressive exterior is just a facade to hide his pain and trauma behind it.

"No. it matters to me."

Kota is surprised by this. He didn't think he would take his words to heart. He's always appeared as a very cold person, but he is showing another side now. A more vulnerable side.

"I don't know what happened, but I know it hasn't been easy for you."

"It's just... just.. I have to keep on playing football in order to become an better player than others.. So I can travel the world. Maybe then he'll see me even watch me.. It's hard to say but I have to do that so I can find... my farther. I've never really seen him since my early childhood.. No one cared about me beside Tagi, anyway.."

Kota's eyes widen as she says this. It's not just that he's lived separate from his father, but he doesn't even know him.. Also has been living feeling neglected, feeling like no one cares about him and with the fear that he'll always be living in his shadow. He can't believe he had never seen this side of him before.

"I care."

"W-what..?.."

Aoto turns his head towards Kota so now their faces are incredibly close. Kota gets a bit flustered as his face starts to heat up.

"I care. I care about you."

"why?.."

He wants to be completely honest with him, so he starts to talk. He should know the truth.

"Look, I may have started to dislike you the moment I met you because you scored so many goals against us. But... after that... I just started to get used to having you around. So, I care. I care about you. Is that a bad thing?"

"No.."

Kota can feel what little gap there is between their faces. He can also feel that their breath intermingling together.

Kota feels very nervous and it shows on his face. His expression becomes soft as he looks at him. He pauses for a second. He wants to ask him... but he's really nervous. However, he forces himself to ask the question instead of backing out at the last second with his tail tucked between his legs.

"Can I... kiss you?"

He waits a moment for the reply, though he's not sure he should have said this.

"W-why would you even want that?..."

Now Kota's s wondering whether he should have even asked him that. Was he stupid to ask him that? He just wanted... to show him that he cared.

"I-I just..." Kota says this in a very nervous and flustered tone. His stomach feels all butterflies as he can feel his heart beating way faster now.

"Why would you even like someone like me?..."

"I find you very interesting. I think you're a very strong person despite everything you have been through. I can see you're strong despite your cold exterior. I really admire you."

Aoto blushes slightly they're so close.. incredibly close.. they finally kiss

The moment their lips touch, Kota feels like a jolt of electricity going through his body. He can feel every fiber of his body tingling right now. His heart's beating way faster and his mind is blank. He's delighted by the fact that Aoto's kissing him back. It seems like he wants this, too. He can't keep himself from kissing him back. His hands wrap around his waist and he pulls him even closer to himself. He's enjoying this moment and wants it to last as long as possible…