~~~~

Axel's POV~

Silence hung in between us as we both made our way to Alexi's place. It was a bit awkward for both of us and I couldn't stand it. I am happy for the opportunity, but it'll be totally wasted if I let it stay like this for the whole trip.

Thankfully Alexi spoke up first, "I didn't get the chance to say good bye to your parents by the way. I hope they won't think I'm rude or anything."

I looked at her and saw her looking at me too; it was one of those moments when things like these completely gets you off guard and you don't know how to react to it.

We just stayed like that, staring at each other for a while until I got a hold of myself. "Don't worry about it." I said as I turned slightly away, "My dad's at work and my mom is... well, she died when me and Julia were still young. She got sick and never recovered."

I heard Alexi gasped and turned to her only to see her look down, "I'm... so sorry I asked. That was insensitive of me."

"It's alright. You didn't know." I said. I then stopped, held her arm and bowed a little so she can see me and then smiled. She looked surprised, making her eyes widened a bit. I couldn't blame her; the action came in involuntarily that it even surprised me.

Even so, she smiled back at me and nodded. I let go of her arm and we continued walking along the path. I was afraid that we might go back to that awkward moment of silence, so I decided to start up a conversation.

"It looks like Julia really likes you." I said while transferring the bag I was holding to my other hand.

Alexi nodded then smiled, "She's a really sweet kid, and smart too. I'm glad I was able to meet her." she then looked at me, "And it's all thanks to you."

I could feel my face get warmer because of how she looked at me, "It's no big deal. Besides, it looked like you both had fun today."

"Yeah, Julia's really fun to be with. She has such an adorable smile and she's really polite." A wave of relief washed over Alexi's face once again. "I'm glad she turned out to be such a wonderful kid; so energetic and full of life, like she wasn't even in a comatose before."

Then, Alexi started to look disappointed yet again as she looked forward, "She's really a great kid... and she has this smile that could brighten up anyone's day. She reminded me of Austin from when he was her age." She then smiled a bit as if she was remembering a sweet memory. But then, her smile turned into a slight frown as she continued to look forward, "You know, while I was with Julia, I felt the warm feeling of joy... the kind of happiness an older sibling can feel whenever their younger sibling is happy."

"Then I realized how hard it must've been for you during the times when she was still in her coma. I was told that you temporarily stopped playing soccer because of what happened. I saw how much you and Julia treasure each other; like you two were all each other has." She then let out a deep breath and brushed some of her hair from her face, "It must've been painful for you to see your sister motionless on a hospital bed; wondering when can you get to see her sunny smile again or hear her call out to you as her big brother." Her voice cracked a little as she tried to hold back her tears, "If the same thing happened to Austin... I don't know what I'll do. Just imagining how it must've felt like breaks my heart."

We both stopped walking and her gaze borrowed into mine as tears fell from her eyes, "Axel, I'm really sorry. I-I'm sorry for making you go through that kind of pain. Even so, I want to let you know that I admire the strength you had and the passion you have for soccer that lead Raimon to multiple victories."

I was at a loss for words.

I was surprised at how she was able to come to know and understand what I felt those times. I thought no one can ever understand the true pain I felt during that time.

But she did.

She perfectly understood each morsel of pain I had to go through back when I used to visit Julia in the hospital every day, hoping that she'll wake up at any minute; back when I'd gaze at her pale face and expected her eyes to flutter open as she gives me one of her warm smiles; back when I was desperate to hear her voice just so I can remember how the word 'home' felt like.

Julia was the only connection I had to the family that I once had. She's part of the joy I felt every time I think of the word 'family'. Ever since mom died and dad became a bit distant, she was the glue that kept our family together. And even at times when dad and I couldn't see eye to eye, it was clear for both of us that Julia was our family's light.

But when our sweet little angel got caught in that accident that day... the family's light seemed to dim and falter. All I thought, I was the only one who knew what it felt like to struggle in that sort of darkness; but I was wrong. I was so wrong.

Hearing the feelings I couldn't even voice out from a person I hardly even knew made me... speechless.

I doubt Alexi knows me that well, but she knew and understood the pain I felt. She had this genuine understanding and compassion that moved me and rendered me utterly astonished.

Before I could even think of anything to say, she smiled at me with a mixed feelings of respect and regret, "Axel, you're an amazing person. You've gone through so much and yet here you are, standing as strong as ever... and I..." she took a deep breath, "...I hope you can manage to forgive me and the things I've done. I know I can't change the past and that my apologies can't take back the pain you've already went through, but I sincerely hope that you can still forgive me."

Unconsciously, a sincere smile crept up my face as I took a step closer to her and wiped the tears that fell from her eye with my thumb.

She looked surprised at what I did and just like before, my body seemed to just move on its own. When her tears were gone, I smiled at her. "Do you really want to be forgiven?"

Alexi nodded. "I'll do anything to make it up to you."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Alright, I'll forgive you under one condition." I said as I bore my gaze into hers, "Stop blaming yourself for the crimes you never committed. I want you to stop thinking that it's your fault why Julia got into a coma because it's not. It was never your fault Alexi."

"But-"

"– no buts." I said with a smirk. "Stop thinking that it is. I don't think I can live with myself thinking that I somehow made you feel like this. I mean, you're right; you can't change the past, but you have an eternity of tomorrows to make up what you did yesterday and what you failed to do today."

I then made a few steps forward and then looked back at her, "I don't know if I'm making any sense, but the bottom line is that you have to learn to forgive yourself before you can ask others to forgive you. You have to realize that who you are doesn't solely depend on what you did in the past; it all comes to what you do today and what you plan to do tomorrow."

"Axel..?" she said as a smile slowly made its way to her face, somehow making her more beautiful than before.

"Y-yeah?" I answered, loosing my composure as a blush crept on my face.

"Thank you... for everything. I really needed that."

Once again, I found myself staring into her sapphire blue eyes and getting lost in them, "No, problem."

~~~~

We kept walking and talking until we found ourselves in front of a two-storey house with a garden up-front and a backyard; it was totally something you'd find along a normal run-of-the-mill neighbourhood.

Alexi led me inside and asked me to make myself comfortable in the living room while she got her stuff. As I waited for her, I noticed a lot of paintings – really good ones – hung all over the house. I'm not much of an art enthusiast but I do know that the one who chose them had great taste. Aside from the paintings, framed pictures were placed on top of the mantel and the tables. Some of them were of a family of 4 – the parents and two girls who were obviously twins; the others were pictures of Austin and Alexi and another kid who looked strangely familiar.

I had to smile at a certain picture where Alexi was playing soccer with Austin at a park; she was smiling ever so sweetly at her brother with her black hair tied in twin-tails and was wearing blue sundress.

I continued to look around when I heard Alexi's voice from behind, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's alright, I didn't mind." I turned around and smiled at her, "Nice painting by the way."

"Thanks. My Grandparents chose them. They –"

"– have great taste." We said at the same time making us both laugh at the jinx. I loved the way her laugh made her look care-free and relaxed. Lately, I've noticed that she might've been stressing herself too much and I just couldn't bare seeing her like that.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked as she made her way towards me.

"Yeah, I'm just fine." I answered, reassuring her. I took the bag she was carrying with her, and shushed her before she could even protest, "Remember what Julia said, I have to help you out as much as possible. We wouldn't want her getting mad at us, right?"

She sighed in defeat then smiled, "I guess you're right."

We exited her house and called for a cab back to the training grounds. It was about 4:15 when the cab arrived and it'll take us about 30 to 45 minutes to get back.

Just a few minutes after we boarded, a call came from Alexi's phone.

"Hello? Austin?" she said. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on their conversation but I didn't have much of a choice considering we're both inside a cab.

"Yeah, I just left... Did you get a change of clothes too?... Alright, great.... Are you sure you didn't forget anything?... Ok... What? Oh, Axel and I are on are way back now...Huh? Uhm, ok..."

Alexi then turned to me and handed me her phone, "Austin wants to talk to you."

I took her phone warily and held it close to my ear, "You wanted to speak to me?"

"Thank the gods you're with her Axel." Austin voiced said from the other line, "What time will you be getting back?"

"Well, we are taking a cab, so about 30-20 minutes tops."

"Ok, please make sure nothing bad happens to my sister. I'd like to see her safe and well when she gets back please."

I smiled at how respectfully demanding Austin was acting and how protective he is about Alexi.

I wonder if Julia's the same when it comes to me.

"I'll make sure she gets back before dinner, all safe and sound." I assured Austin who gave out a sigh of relief from the other line.

"Thank you. Can you please give Alexi back her phone?"

I handed Alexi her phone in which she gratefully took, "Alright then see you soon. Stay out of trouble while I'm gone ok?... Bye. Love ya Tiger."

She then smiled to herself and kept her phone in her pocket.

"'Tiger'?" I asked, giving her a smirk.

She let out a giggle and nodded, "Its Austin's pet name. I'm used to calling him that."

I laughed a little, "Why 'Tiger' though?"

"Well..." she then scooted a bit closer to me and asked me to lean a bit closer to her. It was kinda cute how she acted as if someone else might hear what she's about to say even though it was only the two of us in the backseat.

"You see," she started in a whispery voice, "when Austin was still a kid, we found out that he makes these cute little purring noises when he's asleep. We thought it was adorable so I thought of calling him 'Kitty'." She then laughed a little and leaned back, "He didn't like it, so I changed it to 'Tiger'. Luckily, he liked that name. He also reminds me of a tiger sometimes, so why not call him that?"

I smiled at her and for the nth time that day, I was starting to get lost in her eyes. But before I did, she looked away and tucked her hair behind her ear. It was then that I noticed that she was wearing a pair of quaint earrings with a sparkly blue gem at the middle.

"I never noticed that before." I suddenly blurted out.

Alexi turned to look at me again, "Never noticed what?"

"T-that you're wearing earrings." I stuttered.

"Oh these? They're gifts from Austin for my 12th birthday. The gem in the middle isn't as shiny as before, but that doesn't matter to me. Austin had to work really hard on his chores, weeks before my birthday so he could earn some extra money to buy me these." She then smiled, "Imagine my surprise when I found out from my grandparents that they had to drive him all the way to the jewellery store across town where he bought them just for me. Of course, it was supposed to be a secret between them, but they couldn't help telling me about it. It made me so proud of my little Tiger that I actually cried."

I couldn't help but smile as she laughed at how embarrassing it must've made her feel to tell me these kind of things. But I'm glad that she did. I was getting to know her more and more and it just gives me more reasons to like her.

"What's wrong?" she said waking me up from my thoughts.

"Sorry, did I do something wrong?" I asked.

"N-no, you were just looking at me funny." She said with a slight tint of crimson splashing across her pretty face.

"Oh sorry, I was just thinking to myself." I paused, "You really love your brother, huh?"

She gave me a sincere smile and nodded, "I love and treasure Austin just as much as you love and treasure Julia. Austin is my world and I'd do anything for my little brother. When Austin was born, I couldn't wait for my parents to get home from the hospital. I was so happy when I saw him for the very first time. He looked like a little angel that the gods blessed our family with. He's so innocent and pure, since then I promised myself that I'd take good care of him. Even when our parents had to work abroad, I did my best to be a good sister to him."

"Well, considering how he is now I'd say you did an great job." I said, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but how did Austin became interested in soccer?"

"It's a long story."

"Well, it's a long ride. We have plenty of time."

She finally gave in and started to tell me the story, "Well, our parents had to work abroad because of their jobs. Mom was a civil engineer and dad was a doctor. They left when I was about 7 years old. Anyway, on Austin's 6th birthday, he was really looking forwards to seeing our parents again, but on the day of his birthday, they called in and apologized because something came up and they couldn't make it back home. He was really sad about it even though he claimed he was alright. I knew how much he misses them and seeing my little brother sad during his birthday was unacceptable. So that day, I took him out and we played all over his favourite playgrounds. Then we bought some ice cream from before we headed back home. It somehow made him happy but I knew it wasn't enough."

"What do you mean it wasn't enough?"

"Well... you know the feeling you get when you wanted to do something special for someone, but it somehow feels that it isn't enough even though you did your best? That's exactly how I feel. Austin needed something, but I knew it's something that I couldn't give."

"Oh. So what happened after that?"

"We were on our way home walking hand in hand when we passed the riverbank where a soccer field was. There, we saw a bunch of high schoolers playing soccer. I could still remember how Austin tightened his grip on my hand as his eyes shone with interest while we watched them play. He was still a kid and he didn't know what soccer was, so he asked me. 'Onee-san? What're they doing?'. I smiled at him and answered that they were playing a sport called soccer. Austin's eyes grew bigger as he repeated the word. He then looked up at me with a huge smile and said, 'I saw daddy playing soccer in one of the photo albums at home! Tiger wants to play too!'. He then pulled me towards the field and boldly asked one of the players if they could kindly teach him how to play."

Alexi and I laughed as I tried to visualize Austin as a kid asking a bunch of high schoolers to play soccer with him.

"What happened next?" I asked, eyes still glued on Alexi. Unconsciously admiring how she looked as she told me the story; she looked so relaxed and better than the state she was in last night which ultimately makes me glad.

"I thought they were going to get angry at us for interrupting their game, but instead they laughed and said they'd love to teach us. So we spent the rest of the afternoon learning how to dribble and pass – you know, the basics. Then at around dusk, we headed home just in time for Austin's party. During that time I knew he was really happy with what he just experienced. Soccer was the special link we had with our parents and so I decided that I'll support Austin as he continued his new-found passion for the sport. That night, our cousin – who we weren't aware that he played soccer – gave him a soccer ball as a gift. Since then, I tried to learn everything that I could about the game and helped Austin get better at it."

She then stopped and looked away, "I worked hard and trained him as much as I can; then, I somehow developed this weird skill. All I wanted was to see Austin be happy with what he's doing. That's why I..."

Her voice trailed off and I knew exactly where this was going, "That's why you agreed to Ray Dark when he proposed to train you. You didn't know he was using your skills because all you cared about was getting better for Austin's sake, am I right?"

She nodded.

"Well, with that aside, I think you did an amazing job training him." I told her, "But there's one thing that's been bothering me since we started playing together."

"What is it?"

"He tends to hesitate whenever he's in front of the goal. Why is that?"

Alexi sighed and looked worried, "Austin has a natural talent for soccer. He's really good... but I guess I can say that he's a bit too good. He used to be the score king at his school and their team always wins when he's playing. But apparently he was too advanced for his level and his team mates felt intimidated and sometimes didn't want to play anymore. It was one of the reasons he quitted soccer for a while."

"'one of the reasons'? You mean there's more?"

"Yeah, the other one was because you stopped playing soccer as well." She said with a sad smile, "Austin's a huge fan of yours Axel. He really looks up to you. There was a time when he told me that, if he manages to play just as good – if not, better than you, our parent's might get so proud of him that they just have to come home to congratulate him. But when his teammates didn't want to play with him and his idol temporarily stepped off the field, he felt like there's no use of him playing soccer anymore. When you came back into playing soccer for Raimon though, that's when he finally decided to start playing again. It took a lot of time and persuasion before we got him to play soccer again, but his plays were never the same."

The look of worry in Alexi's eyes were enough to convince me that I should something about this dilemma. Besides, something tells me that solving this issue with Austin will do our team some good.

"Don't worry, I'll find out what's wrong with him and help him get through it. I promise."

Alexi shot me a grateful look, "Thanks Axel."

"No problem."

"You know something?"

"What?"

"You've done nothing but help me out ever since we first met. I feel like I owe you a lot." She said with a smile in which I smiled back in return.

"I just want to help out as much as I can."

"I knew you were gonna say that." she then let out a small giggle before the cab finally stopped in front of the school gates.

"Would you look at that, we're back already." I heard her say.

We got off of the cab and paid the driver. I was holding both of our bags as we made our way inside the training grounds, the taint of the orange sky hovering above us.

We then spotted Austin by the front door who immediately ran over to meet us as soon as he saw us. He tackled Alexi into a hug with an extreme look of worry on his face.

"Thank goodness you're safe!" Austin said as he hugged her tighter.

"Why wouldn't I be safe Austin?" Alexi asked as she patted her brother's head.

"Well, who knows what could've happened to you with that Ray Dark person on the loose. Remember Alexi, you need to be careful at all times." Austin said while he pulled away from the hug.

Alexi caressed Austin's face and placed her forehead on top of his, "I'm sorry for worrying you Tiger." She then placed a kiss on his forehead and smiled.

Austin smiled back and nodded, "Alright, I'll forgive you."

He then turned to me and bowed slightly, "Thanks for keeping her safe the whole time. I'm really glad you were with her Axel."

"There's no need to thank me." I said as I ruffled his hair. I turned to both of them and smiled, "Come on, let's get inside."

So the three of us headed inside the building after Austin asked if he can carry his sister's bag for her.

I have to say, this was turned out to be a great day for me.

~~~~

And that's the end of chapter 19!

I hope you guys can forgive me for the alterations I've made from the original anime *bows*. I also hope you guys are enjoying the story progression.

Alrighty, so next week will be our school's University week, it's kinda like a huge school festival and the Grade School and High School department will be taking part in some of the events that'll transpire during the celebration. There'll be games, food stalls and all kinds of fun activities for the students to enjoy.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some free time during U-week so I MIGHT be able to update a few times next week. MIGHT.

Basically, it still depends on how many hours I have to work on MERT. I mean let's face it, there'll be tons of games going on and about and accidents are bound to happen so we (the MERT) have to be there just in case something bad happens to one of the players etc.

Anyway, thanks so much for being patient and supportive guys! I really appreciate it!

Please check out my other books like "So Many Possibilities" and "Wildest Dreams" and stay awesome :3

Watch out for the next chapter!

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