Yo! I'm back again~

J: And she's happy to have survived the second week of school!

I don't own IE or any of its characters. They all belong to Level-5.

Tsurugi: This is a... TakuTen! /snickers/

Tenma: What?!

Tsurugi: It's your turn to get tortured. I feel your pain! /pats Tenma on the back/

Distractions

The flowers were blooming, the grass was green and everything was just a perfect spring day. Except for one thing.

Matsukaze Tenma was finding difficulties in concentrating on the black and white ball in front of him.

Every time Tenma tried to look up, his eyes drifted automatically to his captain. The second-year brunet would sometimes be directing the players to another attack formation, or running forward with a determined look on his face.

It wasn't fair. Shindou looked really cool without even trying. Either way Tenma looked at Shindou, his heart rate increased so much that he could hardly breathe.

Shindou hadn't been paying special attention to him throughout the practice, save for occasionally directing him to a spot to receive the ball.

Tenma's initial reaction would be: brain freeze, 'omigod did he just speak to me' and total denial. Then Shindou would shake his head slightly and continue on with what he'd been previously doing.

Because of that, Tenma had been slipping through his Soyokaze Steps, sending sloppy passes that soared wide of their target, and shooting balls that didn't even manage to touch the frame of the net.

"Tenma!" shouted Tsurugi.

Tenma jerked his head up, just in time to meet heads on with a soccer ball, courtesy of the ace striker's powerful pass. He staggered a bit, and resorted to sitting down on the grass.

"Oi, Tenma." Shindou said, striding over to his junior. "You've been weird all practice. Try concentrating, will you?"

Tenma nodded mutely. He was still sitting on the grass, oblivious to everything else around him.

Tsurugi sighed. "What's wrong with him?"

After practice, Tenma had rushed through his bath, muttered an incoherent, hurried excuse to Tsurugi and he'd ran off, seemingly anxious to get away from school.

Tsurugi had then shot his friend a confused glance, trying to call him back, but Tenma had already left the shower room, and Tsurugi wasn't too willing to chase after him when he was wearing nothing but a body suit made out of soap bubbles.

In fact, Tenma had been acting that way for a few days already. Everyone had been wondering about what was bothering him.

"Maybe he's worried about something," suggested Shinsuke.

"But he'd tell me, you or Taiyou, wouldn't he?" asked Tsurugi, frowning. Tenma wasn't the type of person to keep secrets from his best friends.

"Have you noticed any other abnormal behavior from Tenma?" Kirino asked the first-years.

"Oh, I know! That day we were talking about poems, and we learnt about one that described what love was…" Shinsuke said excitedly.

"Tenma was blushing and tittering like an idiot when the teacher called him up for a question," concluded Tsurugi. "So maybe…" he trailed off. "Tenma has a crush on someone here in the soccer club."

"What was that?" said Shindou suddenly. He looked bothered by the news.

"Tenma probably has a crush on someone here in the soccer club," Kirino told his best friend.

"Ah." Shindou looked disturbed. "I've been wondering about that too. I should go dig around more for a bit…"

With that, Shindou left the clubroom, leaving a stunned silence behind.

"…Kirino-san…" Tsurugi muttered. "Is it normal for Shindou-san to do that?"

Kirino shrugged. "I don't think so. Maybe it's his obligation of duty, to make sure that all of his team members are healthy, both mentally and physically."

"By the way, where's Tenma?" Kariya looked around. "I thought he walked home with us first-years every day."

"He said something about finishing the homework that was due tomorrow," Tsurugi mused. "That's why he left early."

"There isn't any homework due tomorrow!" Hikaru confirmed.

"He lied to us. What for?" Aoi felt curious about her childhood friend's whereabouts. "Where do you think he is now?"

"I don't know." Tsurugi shrugged. "He shouldn't be in school, though."

A light breeze blew through the streets of Raimon Town. A certain curly-haired midfielder shivered as he walked towards the Steel Tower Plaza.

Tenma sighed. What was he going to do with his feelings for his senior? Surely he couldn't just turn away from them. That wasn't going to solve anything.

Sitting on a lone bench, Tenma gazed into the horizon. The sky was now colored a dark orange, with wisps of red, gold and yellow resting alongside the sinking sun.

Tenma submerged himself into his thoughts. About how his heart felt like it was being pierced when Shindou hurt his leg near to the finals and had to go through an operation. Tenma had cried, his voice cracking as he begged the doctor to make his crush better.

When Shindou had given the post of captain to him, he couldn't believe his ears. As if Shindou trusted someone as clumsy and naive as he was! But Shindou had encouraged him on, reassuring him that everything would turn out well.

Tenma hadn't believed him at first, but Shindou's prediction turned out to be true. After the Holy Road competition, Shindou had even allowed him to keep the captain status. Tenma refused immediately, pushing the captain's band back to the prodigy.

The two had engaged themselves in a pushing competition, each of them shuttling the band between the two sides of the table.

Finally, Shindou gave in. Giving the younger one a smile, he'd picked up the captain's band, and patted Tenma on the head, leaving a tuft of the brown hair sticking up.

From that moment on, Tenma fell totally and completely in love with Shindou.

He'd tried to ignore the feelings, but they just got stronger. So strong, Tenma just stopped restricting himself from thinking about Shindou.

"Tenma."

In fact, he thought about the older one almost every second of the day.

"Tenma!"

He often daydreamed about Shindou in class, during soccer practice, and in every possible moment.

"Tenma!" A heavy hand came to rest on Tenma's shoulder.

Tenma jumped, only to look into a pair of dark eyes. "Shindou-san?"

The brunet smiled. "May I join you?"

Tenma noticed that the sun had fully set, and the street lights were lighting up the streets. "S-sure."

Shindou sat down besides Tenma. The two sat there silently for a while, before Shindou spoke up. "What's bothering you?"

Tenma froze. Oh no. He'd rather talk about this with his friends than face the truth with his crush. "Nothing."

"Something's distracting you." Shindou continued. "You hardly paid any attention in practice recently."

"I-I'm sorry, Captain." Tenma bowed his head down.

"Tell me. What's on your mind?" Shindou adopted a relaxed posture. "It's not doing any good for you."

"I keep on getting distracted by something," mumbled Tenma absent-mindedly.

"Oh," was all Shindou said before he leaned in and kissed Tenma.

Tenma's eyes widened. This was not happening to him. It was a dream, wasn't it?

But Tenma could feel the warmth from the senior's lips, and the weight of Shindou's hands on his shoulders. It was real.

Slowly, Shindou drew away. "Did that take away the distractions?" he teased.

Tenma blushed. He turned his head away. "Shindou-san…"

"Call me Takuto." Shindou kissed Tenma again, one of his hands moving down to Tenma's waist.

When they broke away from each other, Shindou slid an arm around Tenma's shoulders. "You'll be normal in tomorrow's practice, right? No more avoiding my eyes?"

Tenma nodded slowly. "Hai, Ta…Takuto." Tenma's blush got even deeper at the sound of the other's first name come out of his mouth.

Shindou chuckled. "You're so adorable."

Tenma didn't answer, and just grasped Shindou's hand tightly.

"You what?!" Kirino and Tsurugi shouted at the same time.

"I'm dating Tenma," said Shindou calmly.

Tenma was hiding behind his boyfriend shyly, not wanting to meet the gazes of his team mates.

"Geez…" Tsurugi glared at Tenma. "You could've at least told me."

"Shindou," Kirino shook his head. "I should've known that you were acting weird yesterday."

"So, how is your boyfriend going to act in practice today?" asked Kurama, smirking.

"All distractions removed," replied Shindou before dragging Tenma out of the clubroom.

I find myself typing up random one-shots instead of updating my regular stories... /sweatdrop/

J: Maybe you should try to pay more attention to your multi-chap fics.

Maybe. Reviews, please! Just tell me what you think of the story~