Break Him Out Of His Shell

Chapter 16: Mother Tenma

Then, Tenma left to the changing rooms, his head was pumping, he did not mind the celebration, his chest was aching so bad... he wanted to leave straight home and lay on his bed. He desperately needed a rest. No one payed much attention to the boy leaving the changing rooms so early, except one stiker in particular.

-Tenma's PoV.-

"Congratulations." Jack told him. "You seem less useless than usual." He continued with a tired voice.
"That's actually kind commubg from you." I said back. "Today I'm exhausted, too fed up to deal with you, so keep your voice down, you are giving me some major migraine."

To my surprise, he kept insulting me, whispering things such as "looser, burden, trash, waste of space..." into my ear, somewhat the fact that he wasn't shouting eased the killer headache.

I turned left on the second street, as it was the way home, when I saw a certain someone walking two meters ahead of me.
"Hey, Kariya, wanna celebrate the victory with me?" I suddenly ask him, making he jump on the spot and stare at me with killer eyes.

-Kariya's PoV.-

I had no idea what he was doing here, his smile was faint, he still seemed reassuring and trustworthy. I didn't want to return just yet, so, slowly I spoke up:
"Yeah, thank you for your invitation." I managed to smile at him, surprising myself as it was sincere.

He walked ahead of me but still having me close, we stopped in a block house of renting rooms, I was shocked. I thought he would live with his parents who would give him everything he wanted as he was always so cheerful and happy.
"Aki-nee! I brought some company over!" He yelled once he entered while taking of his shoes. I did the same thing, knowing how disrespectful it would be if I hadn't.

A young woman appeared holding a strawberry cake, I knew for a fact they weren't even slightly related.
"Tenmaaaa! Congratulations, sweetheart!" She kissed his cheek. "Oh! You were that defender who broke that defence, right? You did splendid!" She motherly rubbed my cheek while still holding the cake. I knew my face was burning.
"T-thanks."
"Well, I'll serve you some orange juice and a piece of cake, now wash your hands and go to Tenma's room, I'll be there soon!" She left, towards what I imagined was the kitchen.

We went to the first floor, the second door was Tenma's room.
I stood on the doorframe: a bunch of books on a shelf, a wardrobe, a bed, a football on a table... so simple. He put a tablecloth on the ground to sit on.
Some seconds later, Aki brought us the food and left with a "Call me if you need anything else."
She delicately shut the door.

"You are very habile, Kariya." He said. "Have you lost your parents?" I shoockly stared at him, his smile was nowhere to be seen, it was a totally diferent Tenma and his words were terribly accurate.
"Y-yeah..." That was all it took me to spit out my story, my heart was thumbing in my ears, my chest hurt, but I managed to rxplain to a person I knew nothing of. "My parents could't aford to bring me up, my father had no work and my mum was sick. It's not as if they were dead, to me, they are. I was six when I was left on a cold niggt at the doorstep of the Sun Garden orphanage." I started crying, out of nowhere, a comfotable hand rest on my shoulder and atracted me to a firm chest. I clinged onto the shirt, feeling as, for tge first time, I wasn't alone. "I... I lost faith on people and grew up in solitude..." A fine drop of water hit my hair, Tenma was crying.
He firmly tightened his arms around my slim body, making me feel protected from the world.
A kind and comfortable silencr formed between us.

"If you want, keep the act up, but never in front of me." I satared into freezing, dead eyes, they made me cowar away from the touch, but he pressed his hand on my back, lightly. "I just wabt you to be okay."

After that, we chat for a bit about the game, I loved that time with him.

Suddenly, it was dark, I stood up from Tenma's lap, we was so motherly and sweet. He waved me from his position and I left with the most happy grin I have had in a while.

-Third's PoV.-

If only Kariya had returned two minutes later, he would havr seen the wounds his fingernails had left on un-healed cuts Tenma had on his chest. Dark spots were starying to form on his shirt.
He quickly took care of them. Thank god, he had some time to rest.

On Monday, before practice started, a first year turned up to be following Tenma on the street.
"S-sorry to have been following ypu, I am terribly lost!" He unnounced frenetically looking for something.
"Well, you seem to go to Raimon, we can go toguether!" Tenma said pointing at their matching uniforms.
On tgeir way, the tiny one explained we wanted to enter the football team, making Tenma instantly like him.

"Oh, A NEWBY!" Shindou poubted out exitedly, waving at the nervoua first year.
Endou stared at the kid, he found something disturbing on his appearance. "Do you want to join, boy?"
"OBVIOUSLY! YES, I HAVE WANTED TO SINCE RAIMON WON THEIR FIRST MATCH!" He yelled energetically, practically bouncing out of joy.
Endou laughed so hard at his antiques. "Okay, then ,present yourself."
The kid made it to the middle of the room and bowed to everyone.
"Hi..." He started trembling, maybe out of nerves, he datarted muttering things and playing with his fingers, loosing all his previous confidence.

As everyone kept their eyes fixed on his figure, he slowly raised his vouce in the silence.
"I'm a newly transferred student, fisrt year... my name is Kageyama Hikaru."
Haruna let her carpet fall, Kidou had to sit down and Endou nearly fell on his knees, he had to support himself on the couch. Most of team was confused, why such a reaction towards a name? "I'm sorry... I-I should take my leave, t-thank ypu for the opportunity..." Slowly, Hikaru started his way to the exit wjen a firm hand stood on his shoulder.
"He loved soccer too." Kidou pointed out. "You are welcome to stay if you want."

Hikaru was awfully happy, nearly shed tears, when Tsurugi pounted out something...
"Hey, kid, how good are you?"
"I have been playing for..." The team was expectant. "... two months."
"A TOTAL NEWBY" Kariya said mockingly.
Kirino went strainght to the kid. "Don't make him bother you, everyone starts like you: not lnlwing exactly what to do with the ball."

With renewed confidence, training started. Hikaru was very lost, trying to dribble past Kirino, specially as he hit the goalpost because of Kariya, who told him: "You need to keep the ball on ypur feet, stare at the ground and you'll do fine." Now, the kid had a bruise forming on his forehead and Kariya was laughing hard from the bench.

-Hikaru's PoV.-

I am not stupid, a human grows by coping others, a teammate was about to shot, so I imitated him right after Tenma showed me how to dribble with speed.
"Okay, so we shoot like this!" I yelled right when I hit the ball with my feet, it was a great shoot to be the first one I do neately.
"Wow, good one, Hikaru!" The goalkeeper complimented me. "You have a lot of potential!" I felt my face hitting up, Tenma also made me a thumbs up sign.

Just then, a teammate made a shot with a giant snake, but it made a sudden turn to the left, it was a bout to hit a white haired man that was passing by, when he beautifully moved to stop it.

"Long time no see, Endou!"

"FUBUKI?" Four people screamed at the same time.