Unspoken Words

Chapter 1

Azuma's Pov

*After the last game shown in the series*

She was sitting quietly on the bus as she looked outside the window. "I wonder..." I heard her mumble, "What was that?" Asked lazily our ace, Kitamura Kou, (still rubbing the sore spot on his cheeks from Aoba's slap) "Nothing..." Replied the naive girl lost in thought.

There were still traces of her crying earlier. Suddenly she looked at me with that intense gaze of hers and spoke, "what are you staring at" she questioned challengly "you" I simply stated, that caught her off guard but she recomposed quickly and mittered something under her breath, "Oi! Aoba! You shouldn't say that!" Yelled Kou, now everyone was looking at the gloomy girl who just snarled at the shocked ace.

After a couple of minutes had passed, Aoba stood up and stopped that bus. Everyone looked at her expectingly but she just got off the bus without a word and started towards the opposite direction the bus was going. Immediately I followed. "What are you doing" I asked steadily, "Stop following me around, its annoying" she spat. Out of nowhere she stopped dead on her tracks, dropped everything she was holding and said something in a barely audible whisper. Than she ran. I just stood there. I had heard her whisper. I had seen her tears falling. "Happy birthday". Those words where drilled in the back of my mind. It was her birthday. No one remembered because of the game, because of the 159 mph pitch, because of Kou. But Aoba wasn't the kind of girl to get upset over something like that, something else was troubling her.

I followed the path Aoba had ran. After a good hour of walking I found a little cafe with just one costumer. A girl dressed in muddy baseball wear nibbling on a piece of cake. I made my way to the store's front door. And sat down next to her. "Happy birthday Aoba" I whispered as I wrapped my arms around her in a hug. To my surprise she didn't slap me. She actually returned the hug. "Why did you tell Kou to hug me" she muttered "who knows" I said as we pulled away.