It had hurt, not being strong enough to help his friends, but he had the resolve to get stronger. He had practiced with the rest of the injured Raimon members, but it hadn't done much. They began recovering, but that was it. Their physical conditions prevented them from getting any stronger, so when Kenzaki Ryuuichi appeared and offered them a chance to get stronger, he made a decision that he would regret for a long time.

He accepted.

To him at the time, it was the best option. He could easily get stronger and rejoin Endou and the rest of his friends fighting Aliea. That was not what had happened, though.

Instead, he was forced to play on The Dark Emperors, a team made up of most of his injured teammates and a few other players. All of them used the Aliea meteorite, but that didn't make Kazemaru feel any less guilty. It had just gotten worse from there. They were forced to do hellish training in order to learn how to harness their new strength, and it often resulted in him and his teammates sustaining horrible injuries that were never treated. No matter how grave the injury was, Kenzaki would make the play anyways. It was horrible. Not only that, but it had weakened each players' immune system significantly because their injuries would often lead to infections and fevers, not like Kenzaki cared. He said that it strengthened them.

They had believed him, but now that they had been defeated, their belief had disappeared. Kazemaru found himself collapsed on the Raimon field just feet from Endou and his team. Without the meteorite, his body had been unable to handle the extreme exhaustion and illness that had coursed through it since he had joined The Dark Emperors. Endou had quickly rushed over to him and cradled him in his arms. 

By that point, Kazemaru was barely conscious, but he tried to stay awake for Endou. Endou had been ranting about soccer and how they would play it together again. So many thoughts bounced around Kazemaru's  head, but he only had the strength to utter one.

"Thank you... Endou..." And with that, he fainted into the arms of the goalkeeper he had secretly loved for so long.

~EnKaze~   

When Kazemaru awoke, he found himself in a bleak white room with a strong medicinal smell. He was exhausted, but he forced himself to stay awake, promising himself that it would only be for a little longer. 

Tiredly, he looked around the room. The first major things he noticed were the oxygen mask attached to his face and the array of medical instruments that were attached to him. 'Hospital,' he concluded as he removed the mask, deeming it unnecessary at the present time. 

He then glanced around the rest of the room. Nothing else really stood out besides that, or at least that was what he had thought until his gaze came to rest on a sleeping brunette sitting in a chair to the left of his bed. "Endou..." He breathed silently, shocked that Endou would still be here waiting for him to wake up when he could've been playing soccer.

"Kaze...maru..." The sleeping brunette mumbled.

Steeling himself, he reached out and shook the goalkeeper gently. "Endou?"

"Mmh? Wha?" The brown-haired boy yawned as he rubbed his eyes. Once he had done that, he blinked in shock. "Kazemaru?"

Kazemaru smiled tiredly, "Yes, Endou?"

Endou gawked. "You're awake..."

"Yeah, or I think so, at least. Endou?" Kazemaru hesitated.

Endou looked at him curiously, "What is it, Kazemaru?"

"What..." He stopped, struggling o find the right words, "What happened?"

The goalkeeper looked at him somberly, which was very unusual. "You don't remember?"

"No. I don't remember anything after you defeated my team," the tealnette told the other.

"Oh." The brunette looked disappointed but relieved at the same time.

Kazemaru nodded, "so are you going to tell me or not?"

"I..." Endou was distraught. He really didn't want to tell his best friend (more like crush) exactly what had happened to him after their match. "Are you sure that you want to know?"

Kazemaru looked at him determinedly. "Yes."

"Alright," Endou sighed. "After our match, you collapsed. You remember that, right?"

Kazemaru nodded silently and signaled for his best friend to continue.

"Well... It turned out that you had a fever, a really bad one, and we had to rush you to the hospital. They said that you had Bacterial Pneumonia or something. I don't really remember, but they said that you were really sick. You almost died a couple times. They didn't think that you'd live through the night," Endou explained with an obviously fake smile on his face, "but I'm glad that you did. I don't know what I've done if you died..."

"Endou... I..." He murmured as his brain attempted to process the new information.

The brunette looked at his with a somber smile, "don't worry about it. I'm just glad that you're still here." His smile brightened slightly, "I don't think that I could handle losing you, not with the way I feel about you."

'Feel about me? What does he mean by that?'  The tealnette thought. "Endou, what do you mean by-"

He was cut of when his bet friend crashed into his and kissed him forcefully. Kazemaru was shocked, but he kissed back within seconds of the contact. During the kiss, Kazemaru was careful not to open his mouth out of fear of transmitting whatever kind of diaease he had contracted. They broke apart a minute later, both gasping for breath, Kazemaru even more so due to his illness.

Endou looked at him slyly. "What were you going to say, Ichi?"

Kazemaru blushed heavily, "Nothing! Just forget that I said anything."

The goalkeeper chuckled and ruffled his hair. "Whatever you say, Ichi."

"Also, stop calling me that," Kazemaru huffed.

The brunetted just laughed again and kissed his forehead, "if it'll make you happy."

"It will. It will make me very happy," the tealnette purred.

"Good," Endou smiled happily at him as he pushed the sick boy back down onto the bed. "Now get some rest. I'll be here when you wake up, okay?"

"Okay," Kazemaru yawned as he snuggled into the covers of his hospital bed. "G'night, Endou."

"Goodnight, Ichirouta. I love you," he whispered to the exhausted boy.

"I love you too," Kazemaru smiled as he shut his eyes and allowed himself to submit to sleep's call.

Endou smiled fondly at the sick boy as he placed the oxygen mask back over the tealnette's mouth. "Get better soon, Ichi. Then we can play soccer together again."

~Fin.~ 

Mega: So what did you think? I wrote this on a whim because I like EnKaze, so screw it. I'm still open to request, so tell me what you want to read. Bye, everyone!