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Aoi kicked at the concrete path, absentmindedly mulling over whether she should go ahead with her uncertain idea or not.
There was still plenty of time left until she was due to meet up with the rest for the fight against Ai, and she wasn't sure how well it would go. None of them were.
Which brought her to wait at the school gates, idling while she waited for Yusaku.
Playmaker. Yusaku. She was still getting used to the fact that they were the same person, but it made a lot of sense when she thought about it. Many of his odd actions were explained by it.
She sighed, then shook her head. She shouldn't bother him at such an important time, but… What if?
What if she didn't come back after this fight.
What if he didn't come back after this fight.
Both were possibilities. She would be deluding herself if she thought everything would work out perfectly. She didn't actually expect him to not fight, as she suggested.
Of course he would fight.
She blinked, and then her head shot up as Yusaku passed her. He was absorbed in thought, so she reached out to grab his jacket.
"Fujiki?"
The boy flinched, then turned with a questioning look on his face.
"Zaizen. Did you need something?"
A few other students gave them half minded glances as they walked past, so Aoi chose her words carefully to not give anything away.
"I… wanted to talk to you. Can we meet at the place from yesterday in, say, an hour?"
Yusaku frowned, but slowly nodded. "Sure."
"Sorry for startling you."
"Don't worry about it. I'll see you later."
She nodded, letting go of the jacket, and he continued walking.
She set off in another direction at a brisk pace. She wanted to pay a visit to Miyu before their meeting.
---
She checked the time as she entered the small park. There was still ten minutes before the agreed time.
Anxiety filled her as she took a seat in the same place she had the day before. This had been a bad plan, but she'd gone for it and now she couldn't back out.
Time passed as she tried to go over what she would say, but she was startled when the ground crunched several minutes earlier than expected.
Had someone else appeared? Her head shot up, and she breathed a shaky sigh of relief as she saw it was just Yusaku.
"You're early," he said. "Did you wait long?"
She shook her head, a lump growing in her throat now that it was time. She took a few deep breaths as he sat down on the other end of the bench.
"What did you want to talk about?"
Her body froze for a moment, and she slapped a hand to her forehead, pushing against it, then brought her head back up.
A deep breath. "Why couldn't you have told me earlier?" She asked, and Yusaku tensed.
"It wasn't necessary. You didn't need to know. Nobody needed to know. The less people that knew, the easier it would have been to put everything behind us after all."
She knew that. She understood that. It didn't stop her from feeling unreasonable about it.
"I thought we were teammates, and, I guess, something like friends, too." The words choked out of her mouth.
Yusaku was silent, so she continued on.
"I wanted to spend time with you."
"What?" Yusaku stared at her.
"I-" She coughed, and as if on cue, some tears fell out of her eyes and she shot up, turning abruptly. "I like you, okay?!"
He reeled back, as if the four words had physically hit him, and groped for a response that wasn't sputtering, but she wasn't quite finished.
She gripped her skirt, looking at the ground. "It's stupid!" She spat. "It's shallow! I know that! I know that and I like you anyway!"
She released her skirt, gesturing wildly. "And you're always so distant! I know it's because of who you are, but…"
She fell back to sit back down on the bench, head in her hands. "But you treated me so differently to everyone else. You treated me like a person, and not someone to use to get at something."
She stopped to breathe, and noticed Yusaku open his mouth out of the corner of her eyes.
"Sorry." He said. "I just wanted to put everything behind me."
She shook her head again. "It's fine. I was just… chasing an ideal, I guess. I think I knew that from the start."
"I wasn't going to tell you, but after I found out that you're Playmaker, I couldn't stop thinking about the fight ahead."
".."
"When we fought the Knights, I- We could have died. Same with when we fought against Lightning and Bowman." Her heart clenched. "We're about to go into another fight, and I can't stop worrying about it. What if it happens again? Worse, what if it's for good this time?"
"..zen."
"After the fight with Bowman, everything seemed like it was over, so I was content to just try and slowly close the distance between us, but then this happened, and I-"
"Aoi!" Hearing her name called shut off her ramble. Yusaku was sitting right next to her, and she blinked.
"You… you used my name…"
"That was the third time I tried to call out to you."
"Sorry… I started rambling." She hung her head, and he laid a hand on her shoulder, surprising her.
"I should be the one apologising. I don't hate talking to you. At the same time, though…" Her heart sank slightly. "I don't know if I can give you the answer you want to hear."
"That was what I was afraid of." She said sadly.
"I was staying away from everyone, not just you. I'm not sure how I feel at the moment, and I don't really have the time to think about it."
Aoi blinked, then raised her head again. "Then, after this is over, if we're both still here… Can we maybe try to go on a date?"
Yusaku fell silent for a minute, and she hurriedly added onto the question. "You don't have to! I know I'm just being selfish in asking you."
But, Yusaku gave a small nod. "I… we can try. I don't know if it will work out the way you want it to, but I still want to start spending more time with the people closest to me."
Aoi blushed slightly. "Thanks." She stood up from the bench, then span and pulled Yusaku up with her.
Before he could react, she planted a quick kiss on his cheek. His hand shot up in shock.
"What was…?"
"Think of it like a good luck charm… and a memory. In case something goes wrong."
She breathed a huge sigh, trying to release all the tension in her body, then smiled brightly at him.
"Yusaku, I'll see you after the battle, alright?" She turned, raising a hand in farewell, and began to walk away.
"Bye… Aoi." He said, and her steps faltered for a moment before continuing.
If she'd turned around, she might have noticed he was smiling, just slightly.