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The screech of old suitcase wheels echoed through the airport, surpassing even the noise of thudding footsteps. The horde against the white gridded floors resembled a graph with many overlapping lines, each one having a different equation–a different destination, purpose. The chaos of the crowds almost seemed coordinated from the outside, but Sae knew it would instantly turn into a dodging game once he stepped into the human traffic.
A sigh escaped him as he continued watching the masses move, trying to delay the uncomfortable inevitability of his participation. Many adults would say it’s inappropriate to send a 16 year old alone on a flight with no one but his manager to send him off–but he would say it’s quite normal. It’s not like he needs some shitty babysitter to sit next to him the entire flight anyway. He’d much rather prefer to just slide his headphones on, play some white noise, and sleep.
Of course, this plan was made under the assumption that his seatmate wasn’t a total bastard who was keen on ruining his life with meaningless conversation. A good part of The New Generation World 11 were meeting up once more today, and to Sae’s knowledge, were going to be seated together for this flight. Basically, all of the players in Europe had congealed in France so they could all be shipped off to a training camp in Asia, where the rest of the group would be.
He cringed in memory of all the…unique personalities he’d observed while hanging around them. They had certainly taught him that there was more than one way that a person could be fucked up. Till now, he’s seen 12, counting Rin, but there’s probably more to come in his life. Dabadie seems to have arranged all his documents, patting his shoulder and offering useless murmurs of staying safe and not panicking. Really, he should know better. They’ve known each other for years.
Finally, it’s time to join the throng. He drags his old, creaky suitcase–that he refuses to replace because it still works–across the floor, avoiding all contact as he follows the signs to Gate 8. He’s glad he’s doing it alone, because the other option was doing all this with Bunny, and he’d rather play for a middle school team in Japan than go through any more of that bitch’s company. He’d already suffered through more than enough for the 10 hour bus ride it took to arrive in France.
Any more of that smug piece of shit’s face would’ve made him want to hop out of the closest window. Why did all his coworkers have to be such repulsive assholes? Couldn’t someone just be hateful and calm like him? He laments his situation as the gate comes into view, accompanied by the sound of loud chatter. Of course.
Even while Sae purposely slows his pace down to prolong his moments of peace, Don Lorenzo still happens to turn his direction, a wide, smug grin growing on his face.
“Hey guys, look who it is!”, the boy calls, drawing the attention of the other new gen 11s as they all move to greet him, mock him, or do both. Hugo gives him a small wave with a blank face, which he returns. Loki does the same, but with a polite smile. He simply nods at him.
Out of the rest, Bunny is the first one to speak, his voice thick with fake care.
“You’re the last one here, Sae. You wouldn’t have had such a hard time if you’d have come with me, you know?” The words seem concerned to anyone who doesn’t know the guy, but they’re so obviously condescending.
“Shut up, Bunny. I don’t mind being late if it means escaping your hideous face for an hour” Sae hisses back, dragging his luggage over to the cluster made by the group.
The final, honey-like voice makes his scowl worsen even further.
“It’s been a while, ‘bangs’. Not even gonna say hi?” Michael Kaiser snarls at him with the sole intention of getting a reaction, which is positively pathetic, in Sae’s opinion. He’s still using that fucking nickname too? ‘Bangs’ had been what Kaiser called him when they’d first met, due to his asymmetrical front hair that he used to leave down at the time. Recently, he’s taken to hairspraying them up sometimes, but it seems the nickname had stuck through the alteration.
Honestly, it was jarring hearing the German boy talk in such clear English. Only months ago Kaiser’s accent invaded almost every syllable and rendered him basically incomprehensible to everyone but Hugo, who could understand his alien mutterings, for some reason. Sae chalked the drastic improvement up to him being a quick learner, although he filed the information into his brain for later.
He had a feeling that would be handy to recall, when he fought the boy on the field.
“You don’t deserve a greeting, manic pixie dream girl” He shoots back, pointedly ignoring the other’s gaze as they leaned closer, the action marked by the expensive scent of some high-end perfume. From their last encounter, Kaiser’s constant repetition of ‘achieving the impossible’ had been a recurring theme. Hence, the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ nickname, since that goal was just naïve, in his opinion.
Loki plays peacemaker once more, just as he has been doing for the time they’ve known each other. This bitch really likes acting holier-than-thou huh? Not that Sae’s one to talk about narcissism, but at least he doesn’t try to stick his nose in other people’s business.
“Come on guys, we have a flight to catch. Don’t start fighting already” His placating seems to work, as Sae doesn’t hear Kaiser shoot back a response from behind him.
The announcement of the gate opening aids Loki’s attempt to stop the fight, and the six move together towards the counter. It seems everyone’s will to argue has been dampened by the length of their journey. Except Hugo and Loki of course, however the two generally avoided needless confrontation anyway.
After a quiet check-in session, they finally enter the flight. Once they all start to move in a line to the same area of seating, it becomes apparent to Sae that his earlier hypothesis was correct. The six were going to sit with each other. Now, it was only up to fate to decide whether his life was going to be hell for the next couple of hours, or just mediocre. No way he could enjoy this flight with these bricks-for-brains as the options.
Since he’s at the back of the line, he can survey his options. Bunny, hell no. Loki, lukewarm. Hugo, probably the best option. Lorenzo, I would rather crash the plane myself. His gaze catches on the blonde head of hair in front of him. Kaiser…was a complicated choice. While Sae did often react badly to the other boy’s teasing, he wasn’t actually that bad to be around. He seemed to be fairly sane and just the right amount of hateful. It certainly wouldn’t be a shitty plane ride, if he could keep his mouth shut.
He glances back down at his ticket, seat 32A. It seemed he’d been gifted the window. With his luck, that probably meant he’d end up with shitty seatmates. At least he could ignore them by staring out at the clouds. Sae’s gaze flicks along the row number written above the seats as the line moves along. Finally, 32 comes into sight. He pauses in front of the seat, glancing down to reveal that Hugo has the aisle, and Kaiser has the middle.
Well. This wouldn’t be as bad as he’d thought, it seems.
The two move aside for him wordlessly, and he settles down, limbs relaxing involuntarily into the plush seat, finally freed of having to walk for the next few hours. Sae can tell that Bunny’s sitting directly in front of him from the tufts of white hair filling the gap between the seat and the wall. He has Loki to his right, and Lorenzo at the end of the row. At least that insolent brat can’t kick my seat when I was ignoring him, like he did on the bus here.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Kaiser who breaks the silence, “Have they released the room assignments for the camp yet? Or will we only know when we get there?”.
Hugo replies in his usual monotone, already fishing out earplugs and an eye mask from the small bag resting on his lap. The plane begins to move slowly as he responds.
“We’ll only know when we get there. But they probably used the same metrics for organising us in this flight too, so the room might just be us three.”
He shoves the foam into his ears and slips the eye mask onto his head, going on.
“I’m gonna sleep now. Don’t kill each other.” Sae scoffs and rolls his eyes at the demand, considering that Kaiser’s one of the only New Gens that he wouldn’t kill if given the chance. They lapse into silence for a brief moment as he redirects his attention to the tarmac, watching distant figures prepare for the taxi, although he can feel Kaiser’s weighted gaze lingering on him.
It’s fucking annoying, but he holds his tongue. He refuses to acknowledge the boy’s desperate plea for attention. Thankfully, it seems that Kaiser has no shame.
“Hey, you’re a midfielder now, right? Bunny told me so.” Sae doesn’t grant him a response, but his ruminating bitterness at the past was an answer in itself. Michael hums and nods, as if approving of this.
“Good. You’re more useful while passing to me rather than trying to score your own goals.”
Sae frowns at the blatant insult.
“Not everything’s about you, narcissist. Who says I’m even going to look in your direction on the field?” He seethes, finally turning his head to face Kaiser’s intense, but calm gaze.
“It’s a fact, dipshit. You weren’t going to be better than me as a striker, so you might as well help me by being a good little midfielder. I’m all for achieving the unexpected, but your mentality never pointed towards you being a striker. Your heart wasn’t in your dream.”
He hates that Kaiser is right. Sae had known, too, that he’d always thought this way.
“Shut it.” He mutters, since there’s not much else to say. He’d silently switched up his lukewarm dream, and that needed no further explanation to him of all people. The press, or Rin deserve an explanation, but that would be a problem for later. All he had to do was work towards his new goal, not linger on his pathetic past. Kaiser rolls his eyes, leaning closer as he lowers his voice.
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to help you through your ‘feelings’. I’m just letting you know that I expect you to be just as good in the new position. As you say, it would be ‘tepid’ as shit if all your talent withered away because of this.” The taxi has begun to start now, speeding up just like Sae’s heartbeat. Why the fuck was he so close? Words escape him for a good second, as his brain tries desperately to calculate whether to move away or move closer.
Embarrassingly, only “I didn’t know you cared about my performance that much” is forced out of his mouth. The reason why he’s so flustered seems to elude him, and it’s not his primary concern, since they have like 3 inches between their faces at this moment.
“I’ve always cared about your performance. You’re the most tolerable midfielder among the new gens” Kaiser replies, a strange frown on his face. He looked disappointed at having to explain that.
But Sae is unable to produce a rebuttal before the airplane starts to speed up for the taxi, and suddenly his hand that was previously resting on the arm rest between them is encased in warmth. His gaze darts down to find that Kaiser has grabbed his hand, and now staring at him with an expression that looks terrified and embarrassed at the same time.
“...Are you scared of flying?” He asks, and the other boy nods, clearly too embarrassed to admit it verbally.
Coming to think of it, Kaiser had probably not been on any flights during his childhood. He hadn’t talked about it much, dodging every question about his parents or memories, but he had admitted that he grew up poor. It wasn’t like Sae really cared about his anxieties, but he could pretend, just this once. He silently interlocks their fingers properly, settling back into the seat as the world starts to slide away outside their window, replacing solid ground with open sky.
He hears a soft intake of breath from beside him, but doesn’t question it. The key to nonchalance is pretending like your actions have no weight behind them. Even if his brain feels like it's turning slowly to mush, he’s going to look pointedly away from Kaiser, lest his facade be exposed. At the end of the row, Hugo sleeps undisturbed, oblivious to the rare softness being expressed to his left.
They remain in silence until the plane stabilizes in the air, which is probably when Kaiser’s fear begins to quell enough for him to talk.
“...We have really good chemistry, you know. On the field.” The last part sounds like enough of an afterthought for Sae to feel heat warm his cheeks.
“We just think of the same plays, that’s all” He mumbles in reply, still keeping his head turned to the left.
Although his gaze keeps darting back, as if trying to verify Kaiser’s statement through his expression.
“It’s not like it really matters, since we only play together in these camps.” Sae goes on, because being direct and saying I like being around you too is just too much for his low shame tolerance.
“You think I can’t get to Re Al? I’ll prove you wrong. Just wait for me.” It’s a truly ridiculous statement. One said with an equally ridiculous grin, too.
Sae really shouldn’t be this affected by it. And yet, he has to force himself to contain the fluttering of his heart. He struggles not to smile as he answers with “As long as you don’t turn lukewarm by the time you catch up.” Kaiser’s smile grows at the confirmation, and their intertwined hands are now gripped tighter from his side. It’s weird that we’re still holding hands…but I don’t want to let go, for some reason.
“I promise you, I won’t” The German boy vows, as they maintain the contact. It’s not like anyone will see them anyway. Their only possible witness is probably dreaming about gears five feet away, and the idiots in front of them are too wrapped up in their laughter to care. Hence, Sae indulges in his heart, just this once. They stay enveloped in their own world, a rare warmth growing in their hearts as their hands remain joined till landing.