[He knows how difficult the topic of soccer is now for her. She'd been the one who'd lashed out the most in Aliea. She'd been the one to command everyone to use the limiter. She'd sacrificed the most, and paid the price of guilt for it. While Hiroto would never hold it against her for striking him, it'd taken her some time to be able to look him in the eye after it.
He'd always been trying to look at her, though
And this...this was his chance to really help her cross that chasm that separated her from the soccer she deserved to play.]
There's nothing I want more.
[A way to truly express how he feels about her in a hissatsu...that couldn't be any more perfect.]
[It had only been three months between the fall of Aliea and Hiroto's departure for FFI. It has only been three months since her arrival here. It wasn't that she left soccer completely untouched over that time. She played with her siblings from the Sun Garden, and she touched the soccer ball from time to time with the children here, too.
But she never developed a single technique over that time. She didn't dive into it like the others. She refused to take the forward position no matter how strong her kick was compared to the others -- or rather, especially because she knew better than anyone how strong, and how dangerous, it was.
Her chest feels tight. It's suddenly hard to breathe as she finds herself holding it, afraid that if she does now it'll come with another flood of tears. Was this happiness? Relief? Sadness, fear? She couldn't tell. But her eyes drop to the front of Hiroto's body, remembering the last time she had allowed herself to hit the ball with the same amount of force they'd need for a hissatsu...]
But, [she finally starts, her voice strained,] but... I'm...
[His hands leave hers for the moment, reaching up to cup her face in them. They were cool from the outside still, but gentle against her skin as his fingers brush her hair away from her eyes. Thumbs brush against her cheeks and he tilts that head up, making sure that no matter where she looked, her eyes would meet his.]
Don't let that memory grip your heart, Reina.
[His voice slips between them like a soft melody, leaning forward to press their heads together.]
You're free from it now. And we can make the hissatsu we were always meant to have.
[Once, Hiroto said that she was like the sea and sky. In this moment, her eyes are truly like the sea, swimming with emotions and wet with unshed tears as he looks into them. Yagami Reina always held back her sadness, often stepping up to be the stronger sister of his siblings at the Sun Garden, and Ulvida held back even more of her emotions, determined to be the unshakable ace of Gaia and Genesis so that she could keep the crushing weight off of her teammates.
But when it's Hiroto, when he looks into her eyes and tells her that she's free, he seems to snatch that tight resolve out of her grip.]
... Could I do it? Someone like me.
[When Aliea ended, Ryuuji dropped his act like he was simply changing his clothes. She'd been worried about him whenever she saw him as Reize, but when it was all over he was back to smiling as warmly and brightly as he always had. Even Osamu, Haruya, and Fuusuke, who never seemed to get into the acting as much as Ryuuji, had a different air about them. Fumiko, Izuno, Kimiyuki, and Ruru, too -- they all shed their Gaia uniforms and moved forward.
Maybe it was just how they seemed on the surface, but to her, Aliea stuck like a something that had been welded to her, melted and stuck to her like a second skin she couldn't shed, covering up who she was before she accepted this strange mission from her father. It didn't feel right speaking the way she used to anymore. Some of the kids still blurted out her Aliea name from time to time. And while she could live with those changes, it had felt almost wrong, like reaching out with unwashed hands to eat.
Don't let that memory grip your heart. She felt more like she was drowning in it, letting it fill her lungs.]
[His answer is immediate, shedding away any doubt in Reina's sentence without hesitation. Hiroto was a gentle soul, even when he had been Gran. His orders he gave as captain were not without their own gentleness as well, as if he were gently extending the offer to his teammates for their assistance. Here...it wasn't like that.
It was strong.
His words pierce the darkness of her insinuation, the metaphorical sun she always compared him to parting the clouds that darkened her sky.]
Could someone like you? That doesn't seem like the right answer.
[His head leans in closer, enough for him to gaze into those blue eyes, showing just why it had been him that was chosen for captain outside of his resemblance to another boy. Why it had to be him to help her come out of her chrysalis and become the beautiful butterfly he'd always known she was.]
[It was rare for Kiyama Hiroto to speak sharply or firmly. As Gran, he didn't show the same warmness but Ulvida always one-upped it with an even cooler attitude, and for all the clipped words and flat tones she spoke to him with, he never tried to match it. Truly, this is the first time that Hiroto is speaking to her in this way, making her freeze, robbed of any desire to wriggle out of his grasp, unable to look away.
Like a key to unlock tightly shut doors. A rope bring thrown for her to catch. A hand reaching out for her through the darkness to pull her into the light. Something gives, and the first drop of tear rolls down her cheek and onto his hand.]
... I want to play. [The words drop quietly, like tentative rain, into the space between them.]
I want to play, with you. Like everyone, I want to find my own soccer too.
[His thumbs catch those tears, brushing them away from her eyes as to not stain her cheek.]
That's just the answer I was hoping you'd say, Reina.
[She loved soccer, he knew she did. No one as good as her...as loving as her could not play soccer without loving it as well. His own eyes seem to well up with tears, happily streaming down his face as he pulls her closer, burying his face into that sea of blue hair that had he'd compared to the sky.
[She hears the tears in his voice before she can see them. He's buried against her before she can see them. But she can feel the wetness fall into her hair, and her chest tightens, realizing that she'd made him cry again. Whether it was for sadness or happiness, the knowledge that she was the cause behind it...
Her arms slide around, palms pressing to his back before she curls her fingers in the fabric of his shirt, head dropping to his shoulder where she nods against him.]
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no subject
He'd always been trying to look at her, though
And this...this was his chance to really help her cross that chasm that separated her from the soccer she deserved to play.]
There's nothing I want more.
[A way to truly express how he feels about her in a hissatsu...that couldn't be any more perfect.]
no subject
But she never developed a single technique over that time. She didn't dive into it like the others. She refused to take the forward position no matter how strong her kick was compared to the others -- or rather, especially because she knew better than anyone how strong, and how dangerous, it was.
Her chest feels tight. It's suddenly hard to breathe as she finds herself holding it, afraid that if she does now it'll come with another flood of tears. Was this happiness? Relief? Sadness, fear? She couldn't tell. But her eyes drop to the front of Hiroto's body, remembering the last time she had allowed herself to hit the ball with the same amount of force they'd need for a hissatsu...]
But, [she finally starts, her voice strained,] but... I'm...
no subject
Don't let that memory grip your heart, Reina.
[His voice slips between them like a soft melody, leaning forward to press their heads together.]
You're free from it now. And we can make the hissatsu we were always meant to have.
no subject
But when it's Hiroto, when he looks into her eyes and tells her that she's free, he seems to snatch that tight resolve out of her grip.]
... Could I do it? Someone like me.
[When Aliea ended, Ryuuji dropped his act like he was simply changing his clothes. She'd been worried about him whenever she saw him as Reize, but when it was all over he was back to smiling as warmly and brightly as he always had. Even Osamu, Haruya, and Fuusuke, who never seemed to get into the acting as much as Ryuuji, had a different air about them. Fumiko, Izuno, Kimiyuki, and Ruru, too -- they all shed their Gaia uniforms and moved forward.
Maybe it was just how they seemed on the surface, but to her, Aliea stuck like a something that had been welded to her, melted and stuck to her like a second skin she couldn't shed, covering up who she was before she accepted this strange mission from her father. It didn't feel right speaking the way she used to anymore. Some of the kids still blurted out her Aliea name from time to time. And while she could live with those changes, it had felt almost wrong, like reaching out with unwashed hands to eat.
Don't let that memory grip your heart. She felt more like she was drowning in it, letting it fill her lungs.]
no subject
[His answer is immediate, shedding away any doubt in Reina's sentence without hesitation. Hiroto was a gentle soul, even when he had been Gran. His orders he gave as captain were not without their own gentleness as well, as if he were gently extending the offer to his teammates for their assistance. Here...it wasn't like that.
It was strong.
His words pierce the darkness of her insinuation, the metaphorical sun she always compared him to parting the clouds that darkened her sky.]
Could someone like you? That doesn't seem like the right answer.
[His head leans in closer, enough for him to gaze into those blue eyes, showing just why it had been him that was chosen for captain outside of his resemblance to another boy. Why it had to be him to help her come out of her chrysalis and become the beautiful butterfly he'd always known she was.]
It's because it's you, that we could do it.
[We.
You're not alone, Reina. Not anymore.]
no subject
Like a key to unlock tightly shut doors. A rope bring thrown for her to catch. A hand reaching out for her through the darkness to pull her into the light. Something gives, and the first drop of tear rolls down her cheek and onto his hand.]
... I want to play. [The words drop quietly, like tentative rain, into the space between them.]
I want to play, with you. Like everyone, I want to find my own soccer too.
no subject
That's just the answer I was hoping you'd say, Reina.
[She loved soccer, he knew she did. No one as good as her...as loving as her could not play soccer without loving it as well. His own eyes seem to well up with tears, happily streaming down his face as he pulls her closer, burying his face into that sea of blue hair that had he'd compared to the sky.
Where the sun belonged.]
Let's play soccer, Reina. Together.
no subject
Her arms slide around, palms pressing to his back before she curls her fingers in the fabric of his shirt, head dropping to his shoulder where she nods against him.]
Mm. Together. I want that.