Bring him back

chapter 13

Tsurugi didn't know what to do in a situation like this, in his honest opinion, for him it has been a long time since his brother last hugged him and his mind was in a complete wreck of emotions, much like Yuuichi's mind when he was in isolation. But after he got over his shock, he began crying and he eventually latched onto his brother's shirt, almost as if he's burrowing his nails into his skin, although he persisted to be very careful not to hurt his brother in any way, most importantly because that would be the very last thing he'd wanna do in a situation like this.

Hikaru and Tenma simply watched them from one side, leaving the two brothers enough space to savour their precious and memorable moment

"I'm glad you managed to convince him." Tenma looked towards his left hand side from the corner of his eye, not exactly sure why when he was fully expecting to only see the purple headed forward, but in order to mask it off and not make him look like an idiot, he simply shot him a gaze with a slight hint of curiosity in it

"It was nothing, all it took was to mention Tsurugi's name, after all, nothing can really break family...bond..." As soon as Tenma reached the word family, his voice began fading away and his ghost heart suddenly sank into the abyss. Hikaru looked at him worriedly while raising a questioning eyebrow

"Tenma? Are you ok?"

"Uh, yeah, um, it's nothing." It was a long shot and Tenma knew it, he knew that it was very naïve of his part to try and cut the conversation with such an unconventional answer, but he prayed and hoped that the young forward would just leave him alone, after all, he didn't want to talk about Aki's betrayal right now, the woman who he saw as a second mother. Hikaru on the other hand, seeing that Tenma was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the unknown topic, decided to just leave it as it is, not wanting to make the whatever matter worse.

After a few minutes of crying and emotional wreckages, Tsurugi and Yuuichi finally let go of eachother, with the older one demanding an explanation of the whole story.

They ended up settling down on the couch and Tsurugi began explaining the entire story, from when they first met Shiro to the point where they are now.

~'0'~

After a while of explaining, Yuuichi finally understood everything, and Hikaru was amazed by the fact that Yuuichi didn't even bother to question the part where Tsurugi talked about the aliens, but then again, considering that the ace striker was part of Earth Eleven, it shouldn't be all that much of a surprise to him honestly

"Well, as far as I can see, based off of your description, his scars have lightened quite a bit." Tenma hates(?) to admit it, but Yuuichi is right. He didn't even pay much attention to it before, but now that it's brought up, he finally noticed it, his scars have lightened severely in colouration, but there was a big difference this time

'Is this... Good or bad?' Unlike when he first noticed it before, this time around he wasn't sure wether if this was a good or bad thing. If this was him a couple days ago, there's no doubt that he would've been angry, maybe even disgusted and frightened, but this time, he was just unsure.

He can't help but admit that these past couple days he hasn't recalled any of the horrible memories from the past, but even so, that didn't mean he has forgotten about them, but perhaps, it is the reason why his initial anger has died down majorly.

After the explanation, Tenma stayed there until it was time for him and Hikaru to head back home, and for the time being he was there, he pretty much only talked to the older brother while Hikaru was talking to Tsurugi about class assignments and some other stuff he didn't really care for. But what the ghost boy didn't notice, and maybe should have, is that Tsurugi kept glancing- not only over to his brother, but also to him, and occasionally blush while seeing him so much at ease as well.

While Tenma might've been oblivious about the glances and blushes, with Hikaru was a whole other story, the purple headed player was shocked after connecting the loose dots in his mind. The time where Tenma told him about his first kiss with Kariya was already enough to get him fainted on the floor, and now Tsurugi's also in love with him!? What in the name of soccer was going on!?

'It's like they've only realised that they're in love with him when they- no, we all lost him! Although, I guess this kind of proves the saying 'You don't realise what you have until it's gone'.' Hikaru was kinda impressed at his teammates stupidity and blindness, but at the same time, he felt kind of bad for them in a weird way.

~'0'~

"Do you have to go...?" Tenma was slightly amused at the sight of it. Just a few hours ago, Yuuichi seemed like the most miserable person on Earth, yet now he just looks like a child begging for his mother to not go to work

"Sorry Yuuichi-san, I have to go. But if you want to see me, you can always make Tsurugi come and tell me to visit you." As much as Yuuichi didn't want Tenma to go, he had no other choice, besides, there wasn't a spare room or a proper place for Hikaru to sleep in their apartment

"Alright..." And with that said, they finally said their goodbyes to eachother and Tenma and Hikaru went back home.

It was really dark outside and their only source of light was provided by the moon and street lights, and Hikaru was honestly a little frightened to walk along the streets at a dark time like this, but to be fair, he has gone out during midnight to hunt for a ghost, so a simple walk along the streets wasn't that big of a deal to be frankly honest

"Yuuichi-san really didn't want you to go."

"Yeah, and he almost looked like a child pouting like that." Hikaru slightly giggled at Tenma's statement, because it was exactly the same thing he thought about the older teen back at their apartment

"True."

~'0'~

At Hikaru's house

"Welcome back, honey. Where were you?"

"Hi mom, hi dad. I was just at a friend's house."

"Did you have a good time there, son?"

The first year forward smiled at his dad and nodded his head

"Yes, I did, dad." And it wasn't a lie. Sure, it was nerve-wracking when Tenma had to convince Yuuichi to come out of his room and all, but other than that it was actually pretty good, at least nothing else went wrong after that

"Well, I'm glad you had a good time there, but I think you should go and take a shower now."

"Ok, mom."