The Dark Days Are Here (boyxboy Fanfic)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 : Sickness~
Four days after the memorial, Aphrodi now stood by the field entrance, silently watching his team mates' passes connect as they kept the ball away from the opposing team. Zeus was leading the first half 3 - 1, doing quite well despite having only 10 players on the field. The blond boy smiled ruefully at his bandaged ankle; he had twisted it during practice the day before, when Deio used his new sliding move. Aphrodi hadn't been paying attention and his ankle suffered as the result. It was a hard decision to make but Hera managed to convince him that they would be just fine with 10 players.

The former god sighed, gripping the crutch tightly. He is usually very attentive to his surroundings but lately he had been getting distracted. Because for the last five weeks he had been thinking of Endou; where was he, what had happened, even wondered why was he thinking about Endou so much. Even when he tried to not think of him, memories of him would lurk in the back of his mind, sometimes jumping out whenever Aphrodi saw something that strongly reminded him of the fiery Raimon captain, like a soccer ball for instance.

Maybe going to the memorial hadn't been such a good idea after all; he still didn't get any closure and he just felt guilty since he has only been thinking about Endou. The others who had lost their lives so brutally hadn't even crossed his mind before then...

"Hey," a voice called out behind him, nearly giving him a heart attack; he hadn't heard any footsteps, hadn't even noticed the presence of another person.

He turned around, heart still beating hard. Standing right behind him, much too close for comfort, was Kazemaru Ichirouta. Aphrodi would have jumped if it weren't for his injured ankle. Instead he carefully took a few steps back.

"Kazemaru Ichirouta?"

"It's been a while, Aprodi."

Aphrodi blinked in surprise. He hadn't seen the teal-head since their match during the Football Frontier, but he knew that Endou had been totally in love with him. He wondered how Kazemaru must be feeling about all this. It was his friends and boyfriend who died after all. Said boy tilted his head slightly as he studied the blond, a small smile playing on his lips. His gaze was piercing Aphrodi, making him feel very uncomfortable. Those light brown eyes were moving down from his amber eyes to his mouth, to his throat, to his chest, even further down to his legs, and then back up, lingering on his lips before catching his eyes again. Aphrodi just stared at him, immobilised. What the hell was that? His grip on his crutch tightened but he forced a smile.

"So how are you?" he asked politely. Kazemaru was silent, still staring at him. Then his smile grew bigger and his eyes widened.

"How have you been?" the teal haired male replied, still smiling that smile that was really giving Aphrodi the creeps. "Have you been well?"

Gulping, Aphrodi replied that he was fine, thanks for the concern. Now please leave! He didn't like the way Kazemaru looked with that creepy smile on his face. Not only that, but looking at Kazemaru brought back another memory of Endou.

It was after the match with Choas. When he had been hospitalised for his injuries, Aphrodi had realized that this was his last chance to confess to Endou about his feelings. Who knows when they would see each other again? But he didn't know he was already too late.

When Endou came to visit him, they went up to the roof and then Aphrodi had asked if he knew what love was. He didn't really expect the soccer freak to know so it came as a shock when he smiled gently and answered that yes, he did. He then proceeded to chatter about this special someone while gazing at the sunset, so engrossed in his own dialogue that he didn't notice Aphrodi shaking.