The Ultimate Stride | Prince of Stride Fanfiction |

11 | Confessions & Colds

   
    | {Kyouko's P.O.V.} |

    "Kyouko, are you okay?" Heath asked with the raise of a brow, his hair moving in coordination with the slight breeze that was weaving it's way through the crisp morning air.

I hate that question.

    "Would you like an honest answer?" I sniffled as I picked at the slightly dirtied shoelaces that hung freely from my training shoes, looking up at his towering figure with dull eyes.

    The club had migrated from the hotel we resided in the night before to a small park that was close to the location of the race, and we were properly warming up for the match that would be taking place sometime in the next hour.

    I was sitting in the grass with my legs pulled into a simple butterfly stretch as everyone else did their own little pre-race routine. Nana and Ayumu were there for moral support, all dressed up in the new uniforms Diane had made for us after our loss against Saisei.

We were very fearful that Diane would drop our team's sponsorship after we lost to Saisei by so little. But after the race, she showed up to our debriefing room with sparkly new uniforms and a fiery new goal to destroy her rival companies who also sponsored the other Stride teams we ran against.

The uniforms weren't that gloomy shade of blue anymore; they were a radiant white that reflected the sunlight brilliantly as we ran, and they were positively beautiful.

I'm wearing the uniform right now, but I don't feel like anything remotely close to radiant or beautiful.

"Umm, yeah? I would like an honest answer," Heath responded confusedly as he pressed his right foot against a nearby tree, working to loosen up his calves.

"Well, I feel like absolute shit," I grunted as I rolled onto my back like a sleepy armadillo, breaking out into another coughing fit soon afterwards.

    Everyone looked down at me with concern swimming in their eyes.

    It was true, I genuinely felt downright awful that morning.

    After hearing Hozumi's sneaky confession the night before, I had a hell of a time trying to fall asleep. Thoughts of him had fully taken over my mind the whole night, and it had driven me to the brink of insanity.

    I tossed and turned so much, even Nana had trouble sleeping.

    And on top of all that bull crap, I was developing this nasty head cold that was really throwing off my physical balance. On our way to the park, I walked into a fire hydrant (which was a truly painful experience) and somehow managed to bump into Heath's back about five times.

    He commented that it was 'pathetically cute' that I was throwing myself at him, and I smacked him over the head in response. I was too drowsy to come up with a witty comeback.

Runny nose, rattling cough, major congestion; I had it all, and it was putting me in a really bad mood with everything else that was going on around me.

    Why did I have to fall into that stupid hot spring? And why did Hozumi have to come over and confess to me the night before a race?

"Will you be able to race?" Nana asked timidly, pulling me from my mental brewing.

Nana knew exactly how jumbled up my feelings were at that time, because she was the only person I had honestly talked to about them.