Chapter Text
Why was the room empty? Usually Nagi Chigiri and Reo shared a room, but Reo was nowhere to be seen. It was 10pm, he was always here this late. Chigiri had already passed out, and there was no use in waking the boy from his beauty sleep.
Nagi felt a small flush of confusion as he slowly paced around the room, looking for any notes or messages before checking his phone.
[one message from: Reo]
I’m just talking with the coaches, might be back later Seishiro.
Nagi was never one to worry but this, this made him feel ill. Was he okay? Why was he with the coaches? Which one? He always kept Nagi in the loop of what his plans are, so what happened? All thoughts he could not express with anything but a small thumbs up emoji, despite his concern.
⋆ ⭒ ˚ ｡ ⋆
The vibration of his phone was answered with it being put on silent, Reo setting his device down beside him. It hurt to not even look at the notification but he knew it would be nothing more than a dry response.
“He is dragging you both back, I mean, have you seen the rankings?” Agi pointed out the facts, both boys had fallen in the ranks, “I don’t know why Chris is still pushing for Nagi to be so important.”
“Because he has potential Agi,” Chris piped up, feet up on the table as he explained himself, “everyone has potential but his is just going to waste.”
“And whose fault is that Coach.”
Agi did not fear the coach, despite being number 2 in the world, he posed no threat other than taking them off the team next match.
“I do not know. Reo, any ideas?”
Reo failed to respond, his mind empty. Nagi had always had potential that he never lived up to, but always effortlessly exceeded him. He was happy that the white haired boy was so successful, but it left Reo behind constantly.
Even during the selections, Nagi opted to join Isagi and Bachira, suddenly caring. He only cared after losing. He only cared after seeing someone lower than him progress to beat him. Reo could never do that when he played by his side.
But now, they’ve lost match after match, and Nagi has fallen back to carelessness. Nothing changed. Reo put the effort in, tried to push the other to be better and it always seemed useless. But he didn’t know how to stop it, Nagi is all he had. Though, Nagi now has more than Reo imagined; the coach favours him, the other teams understand he is a threat, and all he does is brush it off.
“Reo?”
He couldn’t even remember what he was asked at this point, face emotionless as he realised how little he was compared to his friend. Just friends, and he was the lesser one.
“Sorry coach, what was the question?”
“Hey kid, are you alright?” Chris cared deeply for everyone’s state, not wanting to push Reo when it was already late.
“Uhm yeah just tired.”
“He’s lying,” Agi added. He forgot the player was so observant.
“Reo, we are a team. You can talk to us.”
The words failed to come out as the boy kept his head facing the floor, the only sound was a small sigh as a tear hit the floor. It felt embarrassing to cry infront of his coach, let alone over the boy ruining the team. But Nagi was important to him; even if he never saw it.
“Let it out kid, the cameras are off, and if you need a hug I promise you mine are better than Agi’s. I mean look at my muscles-“
“Stop talking Chris,” Agi cut off, hearing a small chuckle from the youngest, looking up to them both, “he’s special to you isn’t he?”
“He changed my life,” Reo finally spoke with shaky words, hands fidgeting with his clothes, “and I changed his, but I don’t want him to forget that. I don’t want him to forget me.”
There it was. He was scared. Nagi had left him for others and had only improved for others, never himself or for their friendship. During the U20 match, Reo simply watched as Nagi and Isagi cheered for their goals, seeing how close they had gotten without him. He didn’t want to mean nothing after all their years together.
Reo was unaware of the tears streaming down his face, he did not sob, he couldn’t do anything but let the sadness run out. His heart felt heavy thinking about it.
Agi offered some tissues, letting the boy cry as Chris debated messaging Snuffy for some help.
“People move on Reo, I’m sure you’ve seen Chigiri and his boy move on,” Agi tried to reason.
“I don’t want to move on, because then what? He kept my dream of playing football in tact, without him, are my skills enough?”
“Your skills are more than enough kid, don’t think any lower of them. You wouldn’t be playing otherwise,” it felt like Chris was telling him off, but he was trying to make a point, “Reo, you are just as capable without him as he is alone.”
“I’m sure I am, I just feel like I’ve wasted time. He plays best when he’s with people who challenge him, and I’m not that person.”
“Well that answers the first question,” the Brit added, “but you can challenge him. Agi I’m taking you up on your offer.”
“Huh?” The two players responded together, unsure of what their coach had in mind.
“Agi you keep complaining Nagi has too much support, Reo you don’t think you’re good enough. Chigiri is moving to Striker and Nagi will be pushed behind him, if Nagi wants the ball then it must be asked for or it must be for the purpose of success. I as a coach will not interfere unless absolutely necessary.”
“Coach are you serious?” What he suggested was out of character even in Agi’s eyes.
“Seems like a good way to fix it, if not I’m getting Snuffy to do something cause everyone knows he’s the best at this stuff.”
“But, won’t it look like you’re trying to ruin Nagi’s outcome by doing this,” Reo made a good point, but it didn’t seem like Chris cared.
Chris explained how it was just as bad having Nagi at the centre for all of the matches, so it would do no harm from this. And also how Agi could stop complaining and play as objectively as he wanted.
Reo was unsure of how to feel. Yes, he would finally show some form of improvement, maybe even get some more support in matches. But his best friend is being put down for this. There was no winning.
A small knock on the door alerted everyone of another coaches presence; turns out Chris wasn’t joking and Snuffy was here.
“Everything alright for you Manshine boys?” The Italian asked, turns out his English was good enough for the translators to pick up.
Chris replied with a shrug as Agi nodded, Reo staying motionless. That didn’t go unnoticed by Snuffy, seems he was just as observant as Agi.
“Prince im stealing your player for a bit, that alright?”
“As long as your little zombie doesn’t get to him the we are good.”
Reo wasn’t sure if they all failed to recognise that he understood their banter, but Snuffy gestured for the boy to follow him. Chris copied the gesture and let his player leave.
“You think he’ll be alright Agi?”
“I think Snuffy will deal with it better than you would have.”
“Harsh.”
⋆ ⭒ ˚ ｡ ⋆
There was nothing but the sounds of footsteps as the two wandered through the NEL institute. The place was massive, each team getting a separate block just for living and training; each corridor looked the same as the last, leaving Reo completely unaware that he had gotten to Ubers’ office.
Snuffy offered a new translator, one from Italian to Japanese to allow for easier conversation. As the boy changed the device, he glanced in the window, seeing his reflection. He looked as lifeless and lost as he felt.
“You depend on him too much. And I know Agi said the same thing, but he’s right.” Snuffy started, reiterating the obvious.
Reo simply sighed as he accepted the truth. Reo had put his everything into this boy who he only met because of his skills; they had spent years together and now he didn’t know what would happen if he lost him.
“I know coach, but, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who I am without him.”
“That is something you find out when you are left to grow by yourself. There is the chance he still appreciates you and wants you around just he doesn’t know how to show it, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be with you forever. Life moves on Mikage. Trust me, it doesn’t get any easier to watch the people you love fade away.”
Chris was never this meaningful or sentimental, leaving Reo at a loss for words. Though, it felt like none were needed. Snuffy was much easier to be around, strangely comforting even though they barely knew eachother.
“Will it hurt? Letting him go?”
“It will hurt letting him stay.”
He hated how right the coach was; keeping Nagi hasn’t done anything beneficial in months. He liked the company, having someone there and someone to talk to. But was that even mutual? Every match Reo tried to reason with the boy and everytime he was left with a sleepy answer before he passed out. It’s like Reo was only trying for him, not himself.
“It’s getting late Mikage, I’ll drop you back off so you can get some rest. Maybe sleeping in a different room from him is a good idea,”
Reo nodded slowly, letting his thoughts run though his mind, unable to process everything at once. With a yawn he stood up to follow the coach away, back to his own team. It failed to occur to him how tired he was until Snuffy found Chris and dropped him off, Reo almost immediately passing out as he sat on Chris’s bed. Chris let him, he knew the boy wasn’t in the right mind to do anything else, plus the coach had a movie running in the background anyways.
“How is he Snuff?”
“First please don’t call me that Chris, second, you’ll have to let me know in the morning.”
“Wow you’re helpful.”
“You asked for my help, you also said you wanted him back so-“
“Yeah yeah alright Pizza man go back to your own team”
“Night Prince.”
“Night Marc.”
With that, Chris threw a blanket over Reo, literally, before going back to watching his movie (it’s Barbie).
⋆ ⭒ ˚ ｡ ⋆
As Reo slept peacefully for the first time in weeks, Nagi couldn’t even shut his eyes.
He found himself staring at the message last sent, still no seen message or anything back. What did he do? Nagi spent all night scrolling though every social media post of them hoping maybe someone else could tell him if he had ruined their partnership, but it was all filled with advertisements of Chris and Yukimiya, as well as the clips of Kaiser and Isagi constantly fighting.
The last time he checked his phone was 2am, guess he spent the night wasting time, only to be twice as tired when he woke up. When he did wake up at 5am, not by choice, he stared at the empty bed beside him.
He’s still not here.
Nagi typed a small ‘sorry’ before deleting it, going back to bed for another hour.
This time when he woke up, his friend was there, sleeping soundly. Was he there all night? He checked his phone and saw that his reaction had finally been seen. Maybe lack of sleep was getting to him.
Regardless he felt relieved to see his friend back. His best friend back, as the routine always followed. Maybe the coaches were just asking him about his experience, since there were often interviews. Nagi presumed he had just overthought it, laying his head back down to wait for the alarm to ring, letting the day start again.
He was just glad his friend was back.