The two boys stared at each other, both not saying a word. It was kind of awkward, to say the least. One person had witnessed his friend's secret and broke his promise of not telling anyone about it. The other was hurt at how his friend betrayed his trust and went behind his back without telling him. And now, both of them are facing each other to try and solve the problem at hand.
Tenma was the one who broke the almost uncomfortable silence. "I won't forgive you that easily, either." He muttered, looking away.
Tsurugi's eyes softened and he shook his head, seemingly not bothered. "It's fine. Take your time." The striker sent him a genuine, grateful smile.
"And..." Tenma bit his lip. "I'm sorry for my behavior at the clubroom."
Tsurugi's eyes widened, taken aback by the sudden, and needless, apology. "Why are you sorry?"
"I overreacted." Tenma stated matter-of-factly.
"Hardly, your reaction was understandable. I'm sure anyone else would've done the same." Tsurugi reasoned.
"How about the others?" Tenma questioned, glancing at him. "How did they..." The brunet trailed off.
Tsurugi already knew what he was trying to say. "Admittedly, they were a little surprised. But, they understood pretty quickly as well."
Tenma didn't answer him. He merely stared at the floor.
"...Did you mean everything you said?" The brunet asked after a few silent seconds.
"Yes." Tsurugi answered him instantly. It saddened him that Tenma thought he was lying. Then again, he did lie and broke their promise. Tenma widened his eyes at how fast and how determined the striker replied.
"And, I'm sorry if our approach to your situation was a bit too...straightforward." Tsurugi added with an apologetic expression. Tenma finally looked up to his friend, surprised at how sincere his tone was. The brunet realized that Tsurugi really did mean everything he said, and he wasn't lying to him again.
Touched by how much his friend actually cared, Tenma finally gave the striker a genuine smile. "It's fine. You guys are kind of idiotic in the first place."
Tsurugi knew that it was far from fine, but he still felt a ton of weight lifted off his shoulders. At first he almost wanted to hug or at least say thanks to the brunet.
But then, he realized that Tenma just told a joke.
Tsurugi was surprised, to say the least, at how fast Tenma could act like himself again. But he hid his shock; instead he raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but smile himself. "Really? I'm an idiot, then?"
Tenma gave a small shrug. "Yeah. We're all idiots, for taking our first steps a little too quickly." Tenma snickered, chuckling slightly.
Tsurugi chuckled. "I guess you're right."
Tenma half-grinned at him. But then, his smile faltered a little and his eyes showed a small hint of sadness – which Tsurugi absolutely despised.
"I-I'll tell you everything...later." Tenma stuttered, smiling nervously. He turned away from the striker and murmured, "I'm still mad at you, so..."
"Alright, I understand." Tsurugi nodded. Tenma haven't completely forgiven them yet, and he didn't trust them with any of his secrets. Tsurugi knew that it would take time for Tenma to open up to them, but he was prepared to wait as long as he needed.
Tenma turned back to him and smiled. Then, he took a few steps forward until he was standing in front of the navy-haired boy. Tsurugi almost backed away in confusion when he saw Tenma coming near him. Tenma stayed silent, before he quickly flicked Tsurugi's forehead with his finger.
"What the-" Tsurugi almost shouted in surprise at the sudden action. His right hand went to rub his forehead, which stung from the hand flick. Tenma chuckled and simply said, "That's your punishment for breaking our promise."
Tsurugi stared at the brunet with a surprised look. But, his eyes softened and he accepted his 'punishment'. "I thought you would give a harder one."
"Oh, I will." Tenma said with a mysterious glint in his eyes. "I don't have what I need yet, though. So, that flick would have to do for now."
Tsurugi regretted what he said once he heard that. "I don't even want to know."
"Good, it won't be fun if you do." Tenma smiled. The captain quickly glanced at the manor door for a split second, before he turned back to the striker. "Did you come alone?"
Tsurugi blinked at the random question. "Yeah, I did."
"Huh." Was Tenma's answer. Tsurugi furrowed his eyebrows, curious at what he was up to. "Why do you ask?"
"Nothing." Tenma gave him a wink and quickly walked over to the door, not making a single sound. The brunet glanced at Tsurugi one last time before he pulled the door fully open.
To Tsurugi's surprise, a bunch of boys suddenly fell onto the floor before him. All of them groaned, as they landed on top of each other hard. The striker then realised that they were actually his friends from the team.
"Ouch..." Shinsuke scratched his head.
"Kariya, you're heavy." Kirino groaned, earning a nervous chuckle from the first year.
"W-What happened?" Shindou opened his left eye, scanning his surroundings.
Tenma chuckled at the heap of bodies. Apparently, they were still too surprised and shocked to notice the brunet standing in front of them. Tenma leaned on the door and looked at Tsurugi, his finger pointing at their friends. "Define alone, Tsurugi."
When the team heard that one voice, everyone came back to reality and turned their heads around to the source. "Tenma!" They half-shouted.
The said boy gave them a small smile. Then, he slowly crouched down to their level and asked, "What are you guys doing here?"
"U-Um..." Shinsuke stuttered, smiling sheepishly. "We just wanted to..."
"Know more about my past?" Tenma guessed, tilting his head to the side innocently.
"No!" All of them shouted simultaneously at their captain. Tsurugi winced at the sudden rise of volume. But, Tenma didn't seem to be fazed.
"Then, why are you here?" Tenma asked once more.
Everyone glanced at each other, not knowing what to say first or who will say it. Meanwhile, Tenma finally took in their position and had to stifle a laugh. "You might want to get up first. I can't take you seriously when you're like that."
The team was a bit taken aback at how...normal Tenma looked and sounded. Just minutes ago, he was glaring at them with the fiercest death glare they had ever seen and stormed out of the room. And now, if they didn't know better, they would think that nothing actually happened and Tenma was back to being his cheery old self.
But of course, that was not the case.
Putting that matter aside for a minute, everybody finally noticed their uncomfortable position, sending awkward glances everywhere. Tsurugi himself sweat-drop at the sight of them.
"...I guess you're right." Shindou slowly pulled himself up, forcing the others to follow suit. It took a while, since they were pretty much a tangled mess, but everyone eventually got up from the floor. Tsurugi had walked over to them when they were still getting up, so now he was standing beside his teammates.
Tenma didn't say another word. He just kept silent and watched his teammates with an almost blank expression. The others squirmed under his gaze, even though Tenma didn't show that much expression.
"So," Tenma finally said. He slowly closed the manor door, waving at a few neighbours that saw him, and turned back to his teammates with his arms crossed. "What brings you here?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
Nobody said anything. Tsurugi didn't need to answer, since he already told the brunet. Seeing as no one had the courage to say anything, Shindou decided to step up and do it. "We felt bad for leaving things the way they were." He replied. "We want to help you, but I guess we got off to a bad start."
Tenma scoffed slightly. "To say the least."
Shindou frowned but he didn't object. "So, we wanted to apologise to you. Tsurugi got a head start ahead of us, though. Ran to catch up to you minutes after you walked out." The senior glanced at the navy-haired boy, who merely furrowed his eyebrows and looked away. Tenma followed his gaze and also looked at Tsurugi, his mouth forming an amused smirk as if he's saying "So that's what happened."
"I'm assuming that he already told you most of it." Shindou turned back to the team captain. "He probably already explained his own reasons too. But, we'd like to explain ourselves to you as well."
"Explain why you went behind my back too?" Tenma raised an eyebrow, looking a bit bemused. Shindou slightly winced at his tone, but nodded anyway.
"Yeah, that too."
"No need." Tenma waved it off dismissively. Everyone widened their eyes at his statement. Shindou gasped, taken aback. "Why?"
Tenma shrugged. "I figured out what you'd say anyway. And, Tsurugi here took his sweet little time to explain it to me also." Tenma smirked sarcastically, gesturing to the striker before him. Tsurugi, on the other hand, was a bit surprised yet also annoyed at how Tenma described him.
"Besides, you were here when he explained it to me." Tenma stated matter-of-factly, averting his gaze to the others. Once again, the team was surprised, especially Tsurugi. He didn't even notice that someone eavesdropped on him and Tenma. How did Tenma know?
"H-How did you..." Kariya stuttered, mirroring everyone's thoughts exactly.
"I told you, I have sharp hearing." A pause. "Well actually no, I told that to Tsurugi and Shindou-san but I don't know if any of you heard it."
The team just stared at him, dumbfounded. Tenma noticed and gave them a slight smile. "So, you obviously heard our whole conversation. What else is there to say?"
"We're sorry." Shinsuke said out of the blue.
Tenma blinked while the others turned at him with a puzzled look. None of them expected him to say something, especially that. But, Shinsuke ignored them and merely continued. "It was your own situation and we invaded your privacy without permission. That's why we want to say sorry."
"Sorry isn't going to be enough." Tenma said, half-glaring at the small defender. Shinsuke bit his lip at the glare but he still managed to give a slight nod. "...I know."
"But, we're going to do our best." Hikaru added. Tenma turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Do your best? To do what?"
"Earn your forgiveness and trust." Hikaru replied with determination. Tenma's eyebrows rose in surprise. It wasn't the actual sentence that surprised the brunet, since Tsurugi just told him the same thing minutes ago. No, it was the amount of determination in Hikaru's voice that surprised him. Tenma hadn't seen him this determined since...a long time.
"He's right." Kariya stepped in, which Tenma didn't expect. "We kind of broke your trust, too. So, we're going to do our best to show you that we won't betray you again." Tenma furrowed his eyebrows, and was about to say something when Kirino beat him to it.
"You won't forgive us that easily, we know. You said it yourself." Kirino frowned. "You also won't trust us for a while."
"But, that's okay." Sangoku smiled. "Because it was our fault for going behind your back in the first place."
Tenma stared at them with a sympathetic face. He already heard all of this from Tsurugi, he didn't need to hear it again. "Guys..."
"But please, Tenma." Kurama furrowed his eyebrows. "Let us help you."
Tenma almost did a double take. Kurama never begged, especially to him. He knew that his situation was serious, but was it so serious that Kurama had to beg?
"Please, Tenma-kun." Hikaru said with teary eyes. "We don't want to see you hurt."
"It's okay if you don't forgive us." Shindou finally said. "But, please let us help you. We want to repay you for everything you've done."
"Please!" Shinsuke begged, the others doing the same. Tsurugi looked at him with sadness and desperation, as if he was saying, "Give us one more chance."
Tenma stared at them, not saying a word. His expression was unreadable; no one could guess what he was thinking. Everyone looked at him expectantly, hoping that Tenma would answer. But he merely stared at them with a straight face. Some were starting to think that he didn't believe any of them.
But deep inside, Tenma wanted to cry. He really did. Sheer willpower was the only thing holding the tears from coming out. What his friends said. What his friends meant. What his friends intended. Tenma wasn't an idiot; he could tell that they meant everything. None of them lied this time.
And it made him want to cry.
"...How?" He muttered. Everyone's heads perked up and they widened their eyes. Tenma's body was slightly trembling, the walls he put up his whole life was starting to crumble. Tenma was staring at them with sad, desperate eyes. His face looked like he believed everything they said, but there was still a small hint of doubt. He seemed like he couldn't put on his straight face anymore.
For the first time, the team could finally see the real Tenma. The one that was hidden in the dark for so long.
"How are you going to help me?" Tenma asked one more time. Everyone's hearts broke when they heard how broken he sounded.
No one said anything for a few minutes. It's not that they didn't have an answer, because they had tons. They already discussed it back at Okinawa. But when Tenma questioned them himself, it felt like they had nothing to say. As if all of those plans were all thrown out the window.
Tenma frowned when none of them answered. He knew it. They didn't know how. Tenma slightly slumped his shoulders in disappointment. He was about to tell them to just forget it and kindly leave when suddenly there were arms wrapped around him.
Tenma was snapped out of his thoughts and he looked up. The brunet was surprised, to say the least, when he saw all of his friends wrapping him in a hug. Even Tsurugi and Kurama joined in.
"That's simple." Shindou replied. The senior let go of Tenma and slightly lowered himself to Tenma's height and looked at him in the eye.
"We'll always be by your side."
Tenma gasped and widened his eyes. That final sentence finally broke through his walls and the tears he had held broke out, streaming on his cheeks.
"It's okay, Tenma." Shinsuke said, looking at his sad friend. "We're here."
That made Tenma cry harder. He couldn't hold it back anymore.
His sadness.
His pain.
His loneliness.
His guilt. He just couldn't hold it back anymore.
Tenma let out a broken sob and he instantly felt his friends hugging him tighter, whispering soothingly to his ear. His instincts took over and he quickly hugged Shindou and cried on his shirt. He didn't even notice that his friends were crying too.
A few feet away from them, Aki and the managers silently cried, watching the emotional scene unfold. Sasuke was wagging his tail, happy that his master was finally opening up a bit. Haruna wiped a few tears from her cheeks while Endou nodded with a proud smile.
Tenma had a bunch of great friends by his side.
He would be all right.