Accidental Reverse One-Shot Collection

A Place To Belong

Hey guys!

This one-shot is different from the ones before this. It's not Tenma-centric and it's a little sad, but I really wanted to write something like this so I decided to just go with it. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: don't own

~'0'~

Kariya Masaki, despite all his complains and teasing, loves his team.

When he joined Raimon, he never would've believed what they would become. He remembers, oh, how he remembers, the loneliness and fear from before his friends. When he was all alone.

He remembers his parents. His father, his eyes a bright golden and his hair the same teal color as his son's, found handsome by many. His mother, with brown eyes and locks, at first sight not very special. People always wondered how his popular father ended up falling in love with his plain mother, until they see her smile.

He remembers their love. His father, despite having many admirers, fell for a girl with a beaming, loving smile, with brown eyes that could see beauty in even the saddest things, always happy and cheerful.

His mother, who never thought she stood a chance with the handsome neighbor. Who managed to break down his walls, reveal the mischievous man underneath, someone who had been hidden for far too long.

He remembers how much they loved him, their only son. How his father would come home after a long day of work yet still manage to play games with him. His mother, always ready with a gentle yet exasperated smile when he played another one of his pranks.

More than anything, he remembers their deaths.

Car tires screeching, his mother's yell and his father's shout of ''Masaki!'' as he pushed his only son out of the way, the fire burning only a few feet from his face.

He remembers their funeral. Gloom and grey. In the Kariya household it would be a day that would usually be spent watching old movies and eating homemade cookies. That day, though, it was filled with condolences and suits. The scent of lilies filled the air yet Masaki hated it – his parents shouldn't be buried with lilies, they had always loved the bright yellow sunflowers, which always reminded him of his mother's smile and his father's eyes.

He remembers coming to Sun Garden. The other children were different, too different. Some were too young to remember how their parents died. Some were older or had more time to get over it. They would try to make him feel better, but they just didn't understand. Didn't understand what it was like to see his parents' bodies, to know his father protected him at the cost of his own life, to never see his mother's sunshine smile again.

He remembers soccer. How Hitomiko told him about Raimon and all their accomplishments. How she gave him a soccer ball, trained him personally. How he grew and blossomed under her tutelage. How the skills he acquired set him even more apart from the other orphans.

And as he watches his teammates, laughing and shouting as they practice the soccer that connects them all, he sighs softly.

It's a bright and sunny day, one that reminds him of sunflowers and lemonade, of swimming in the small stream behind his old house.

A shout brings him back to the present and Masaki turns his gaze to his team again. They're in the middle of training, some kind of practice match, it seems. Usually he'd join them, but today he told coach Endou that he wasn't feeling well, so he was allowed to sit this one out.

It's not a lie, technically. He's just not sick.

Masaki shoots a look at the managers. They're busy with preparing water bottles for when his teammates take a break, while Otonashi and coach Endou are discussing something.