Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Under the Mirabeau bridge flows the Seine
And our loves
Must I remember them
Joy always followed pain

The night falls and the hours ring
The days go away I remain

Hand in hand let us stay face to face
While underneath the bridge
Of our arms passes
The water tired of the eternal looks

The night falls and the hours ring
The days go away I remain

Love goes away like this flowing water
Love goes away
Life is so slow
And hope is so violent

The night falls and the hours ring
The days go away I remain

Days pass by and weeks pass by
Neither past time
Nor past loves will return
Under the Mirabeau bridge flows the Seine

The night falls and the hours ring
The days go away I remain

-La Pont Mirabeau, Guillaume Apollinaire

The feeling that is “love” is far too deep to be described as a word. The superficial kind can be described as such, but the feeling of needing someone’s entire being with you by your side is something that goes far beyond the boundaries of “love.” It’s neither desire nor longing. It’s something, a thing that has changed the very chemical structure of Ikki Niko’s entire being.

Within fifty days, the Ubers player didn’t simply just fall for the embodiment of mischief himself, the patron deity of an island of malice. He needed the blond boy to fuse his nervous system with his own, to feel everything in that mortal body and connect with that fascinating brain of his.

Charles Chevalier and Ikki Niko were polar opposites. As places on the globe they would be the North and South poles. Niko would be the brooding night and Charles, the beaming day. Niko was the sharp-toothed canine and Charles was the pointy-clawed feline. They were so out of rhythm that if they were a song played by a band, half of the band would be playing a ballad while the other instrumentalists would be producing the sounds of a fanfare.

Yet, these differences are what tied them together. Two puzzle pieces that are the same shape usually don’t fit together, and the shapes of Charles and Niko were too drastically different for that kind of issue to occur.

It’s dramatic, really, to describe a teenage relationship formed in the span of 50 days like the two have been together for much longer, but it wasn’t the duration of how long they’d known each other, it was the boys themselves. It was as if the universe decided that it was done teasing them with the curse of being too different for the people around them to understand them and decided to place the two odd ducklings in the same vicinity as one another so that they could finally have been seen for once in their lives before inevitably having to leave each other once more.

Ubers had lost 2-3 against PxG, so everyone was working hard to win the next match against the next team they’d go up against; including Niko, who’d been learning and figuring out tactical play himself (and hoping to play a role in the next match as well).

It’d be about 10 days until the team’s next match against FC Barcha, which was more than enough time to prepare.

For now, Niko would rest until, well, the morning came…

Well, he tried to rest, but his bladder didn’t allow him to. It kept nagging at Niko to get up and relieve himself, and no matter how much he tried to sleep the feeling off, it just kept coming back like a clingy kitten.

Niko had begun his silent descent after he decided that he couldn’t stand to lay there any longer with that urgent feeling in his abdomen. It was dead silent in the halls and the metal walls had brought upon a coldness that seeped into his skin. Nevertheless, he continued his trek towards his destination: the bathroom.

Now, Niko hadn’t thought that there would be anything particularly interesting about a trip to the bathroom, but he was sorely wrong, because halfway through the hallway, he was met with the sight of a familiar head of light strands, who looked like a lost, confused deer.

“Un autre être humain!” The figure in front of him suddenly exclaimed, though the words didn’t register in Niko’s brain. Not because he was deathly exhausted at this hour, but because he didn’t understand a word of French.

“Ah…Uh…” Niko sucked in his teeth, but even with Niko’s visible confusion, the boy in front of him didn’t stop talking. Foreign words rolled off his tongue rapidly and his mouth would need gorilla glue to keep it shut. Why did he keep on going? Did he seriously assume Niko spoke French?

“No…no…” Niko slowly shook his head, making an X with his arms. He knew a pint of English but that was basically it for other languages.

Charles briefly paused and scratched his head before imitating Niko’s pose and scrunching his face.

“Pas d’anglais, monsieur!”

Niko could only shake his head again, shrug, and hope that the other boy finally understood that he couldn’t understand a thing.

“Je suis perdu. Je sais pas où aller!” 

“No…?” Niko mustered up the energy to repeat himself. Where were a pair of translating earbuds when you needed them most?

“Tu me comprends pas, hein?” Charles frowned now, his lower lip jutting out.

Niko returned the frown, though not to the extent where he would be pushing out his lower lip like he was a pouting child.

“Ça craint à mort…” He mumbled, kicking at some invisible pebble at his foot. Then, Charles looked up and met Niko’s gaze from behind his bangs. 

Niko shifted uncomfortably. It felt like those piercing golden eyes were boring into his soul, judging him from the inside out. It was almost as if the boy was trying to dig through Niko’s very flesh to find the secrets that lay there.

Then, he had the audacity to laugh after that tense moment for Niko, asking, like Niko could understand, “Comment tu fais pour voir comme ça?” 

A playful finger was extended towards Niko’s face, though more specifically, to his thick bangs. He quickly dodged the action, which only seemed to provoke the other boy more.

“Ooh, il veut jouer!” He exclaimed, chasing Niko around like a cat would with a laser pointer.

Niko really wasn’t in the mood or physical state to continue this cat-and-mouse chase. He just needed to go to the bathroom, not get chased by some lost French boy.

Their speedy footsteps echoed through the empty, nighttime halls of the facility. Heavy breaths forced themselves out of Niko’s lungs while Charles, almost mockingly, laughed. He was enjoying himself too much for someone so close to throwing a tantrum just a minute ago.

Niko’s fingers finally reached a smooth, cool metallic surface and he pulled it back, almost falling back on his rear end as his momentum came to a sudden stop. His pursuer stopped just short of him, a confused expression appearing on his face in the darkness of the halls.

“Pourquoi on s'est arrêtés?” He cocked his head to the side as he spoke. He resembled a starving pigeon in this moment, looking up at the lady feeding him slices of bread to question why she stopped.

Niko ignored the nagging cream-colored bird beside him and entered the room. He was met with a bright flash of fluorescents and a smooth coldness underneath his feet. It was hard to adjust to such a drastic change in environment when Niko was already so tired from everything that had happened in the past twenty minutes, though he didn’t need to adapt, he just needed to find a urinal.

“Hé, hé, Monsieur Bangs, hé!” An annoying voice trailed behind him on his way to the nearest urinal.

There were many things that Niko hated in this world: relying on others, the taste of grapefruit, showing people his scary eyes, and Charles in this current moment.

Niko had dealt with bullies and bullying in the past, so he was familiar with it all. He was familiar with the prodding, the purposeful provoking, the taunting and the teasing. He was no stranger to it all.

And this boy next to him, pecking at the matter in Niko’s brain, was no different. It was only a matter of time before he too would tear something precious to Niko right in his face…

…Like his sleeping time.

“Bleh…Je suis fatigué…” Charles, who was standing too close to someone trying to use the urinal, croaked out near Niko’s ear.

“I don’t understand you.” Niko pulled his pants up.

“Ah, il parle!” Charles abruptly exclaimed, perking up like a parched flower in a desert.

“I need to get the earphones to understand, the Mikage ones.”

“Comme tu es bavard.”

“They should be where I sleep, in the dormitories. I will get them.”

“Eh?”

“Stay.” Niko gestured for the other to remain like he was training some mutt.

“Lavez-vous les mains.” He replied, putting his hands up almost defensively.

“I will get them.” He flapped his hands dry, water droplets flying around.

Niko raced down the halls, pushing past their suffocating darkness and cold embrace. The trip back was beginning to feel longer and longer the more Niko hurried and it felt like God had placed him in a maze to watch the poor boy squirm to absolutely nowhere like a hamster on a wheel.

He’d finally reached his destination after a few minutes and fumbled with his stiff pillow to reach the earbuds stashed underneath it. Once he’d taken a hold of them, he hurried back to the bathrooms and prayed that the French boy actually did as he was told and stayed in the restrooms.

“I got them, I got them…” Niko wheezed out, wrapping his fingers around the doorframe. He pushed himself into the room and was met with the sight of a light head of hair slumped down on the floor, back against the wall behind him. His arms were crossed and Niko was seriously trying to figure out if this guy managed to fall asleep in the span of time Niko was out.

Niko approached the napping figure and stooped down to his level. He laid a hand on a firm shoulder and shook the body once, twice before Charles was shaken awake.

“Hé…” He mumbled, rubbing an eye with the palm of his hand.

Niko held out his hand and waited for the other boy to take an earbud.

Charles took a moment to process the shapes in front of him, a pale hand, black circles, bright lights.

He eventually took an earbud and stuck it in his ear canal with Niko doing the same.

They held eye contact with one another for some time. Well, had their heads facing in each other’s general direction, and so Niko took the hint to ask him what his deal was.

“What did you need?”

Charles pursed his lips, giving the illusion of thinking.

“I forgot.” He shrugged.

“Huh? What do you mean you forgot? You followed me around.”

“Or maybe I didn’t forget.”

“What?”

“Who knows? You gotta get in my head to know. Good luck with that!” He snickered mockingly, though a hint of exhaustion remained there. 

“Quit joking around, I want to sleep, too!”

“Mmmm…” Charles stretched his limbs out, jaw unhinging as he yawned. “I got lost in these halls, actually…No, wait, I was…I was looking to get some water…Or a bathroom…”

“The reason isn’t relevant. So, you got lost?”

“Or maybe you got lost.”

“Do you see me laughing?”

Charles frowned. “Tough crowd.” He used the wall as leverage as he stood up. “I don’t remember where I came from, or where to go…”

“I’m pretty sure it should just be the way you came from.”

“I tried that already, I’m not an idiot!”

“Stop yelling!”

“You’re doing that too, Bangs!”

Niko huffed and scrunched his nose. “Just give me my earbud back. You clearly don’t want my help.”

Charles rubbed his eye again with the back of his hand. “I’m tired.”

“Not my problem.”

“I wanna sleep.”

“Give it back.” Niko held his hand out expectantly.

“Help me find my bed, Bangs.”

“What? No!”

“I’ll use your bed instead, then.” 

“Don’t do that either.”

“I’ll sleep here.”

Niko clenched his fist and released another frustrated huff. He didn’t even know what he was getting so riled up over. A bed? It wasn’t that serious.

“There should be an elevator somewhere around here that will take you to the floor your team’s on.”

“So…where?”

“We’ll look for it. Together.”

Niko never imagined his night going in the direction that it did, but it wasn’t like he could just reverse time and tell himself to go to the bathroom before it was time to sleep. For now, he would just have to deal with his poor life choices.

Every few minutes, Niko stole a glance at Charles to be sure that he was still there by his side and hadn’t wandered off to some other ward in the building, bothering Isagi on Bastard München or Bachira in FC Barcha.

Charles definitely took note of Niko’s excessive checking, insightful as he was, and curved the corners of his lips upwards, his fang somehow sticking out more prominently in this state.

“Careful, too much staring and your eyes’ll fall out.”

“What’s that even mean?”

Charles shrugged. “Something. Everything always means something.”

“I was just making sure that you don’t wander off and get even more lost, Socrates.” Niko let out a frustrated huff.

“You’re already doing a good job at making me more lost ‘cause I don’t see this elevator anywhere.”

“Just be patient.”

“I’m bored.”

“What do you want me to do, play ‘I Spy’? This isn’t a car ride-”

“You ever watch Alice in Wonderland?” Charles suddenly cut him off.

“Not my thing.”

Charles’ eyes widened and he perked up. “Wow. Your life is sad. So sad and boring…”

“...I just like other things.”

“And living a boring life, too.” Charles added, placing his hands behind his head as he switched to a more casual walking position. “These halls are like the ones Alice goes through. They really make no sense and they’re big and, if you look hard enough, there’ll be a potion that shrinks you down to the size of a germ to chase the rabbit.”

Niko could only make a face, a face of utter confusion at the direction of this conversation. He’d never watched the movie though it didn’t seem like he had missed out on anything significant.

“Are you normally like this or are you just sleep deprived?”

“Figure that out yourself.” He snickered, flashing his fangy smile in the process.

A silence fell between the two as they kept walking. It wasn’t awkward, but it wasn’t comfortable either. It was a stale quietness that wasn’t seasoned with any inside thoughts being released into the outside. It had yet to be flavored with the ideas and words that came from conversation.

Charles was quick to add his own black pepper to the mix.

“We should watch a movie. Let’s watch Alice in Wonderland.”

“It’s too late for that…”

“Boo, you!” Charles huffed.

“Go watch it on your own if you want to so badly.”

“But you haven’t watched it.”

“So? The world won’t end if I don’t watch Alice in Wonderland.”

“It will, though!” Charles whined. “The Earth’s core is made of explosives, y’know.”

They stopped in front of the elevator at last. Niko turned his head towards Charles.

“See? I knew where I was going.”

“Rub it in my face, Bangs.”

Charles examined the buttons for a while as if he actually forgot which floor he was on…which actually may have been the case. Niko was about to help him out until he pressed a button with a faint hesitancy in his movements, as if he wasn’t fully ready to leave, though Niko knew that Charles didn’t really want to spend another moment with him.

“You should really watch it.” He turned to Niko, lower lip just slightly jutting out.

“I don’t have time for that.”

“Then find some time for it.”

The doors opened.

“Good night, Blondie.”

“Ha.” A dry laugh came out of Charles, who clearly didn’t entertain the nickname. “Good night, Bangs. Don’t let the bed bugs bite!”

Naturally, Niko assumed that he wouldn’t see the other boy again physically for as long as he lived, and even if he had to, it’d be on the field in some distant future.

However, he had forgotten to ask for his earbud back yesterday, but he could live with just one. It wasn’t a big deal.

He’d spent the majority of his day training and looking over footage of the other team’s match and their own from the day before. This is how he was going to be spending his time until he got the opportunity to play.

Night soon draped her dark blanket over everyone, including Niko, who was much more comfortable in his bed tonight than yesterday night. There was no urge to take a midnight trip to the bathroom, no thoughts in his mind about his encounter yesterday, nothing like that. He would sleep without any disturbances today, and that was final.

…Yet he couldn’t. There was someone nagging at Niko’s mind almost to a physical extent. He didn’t know what it was, nor could he pinpoint whether or not the warm air blowing on his face was actually coming from a person next to him or if it was a part of his imagination. He quickly got his answer when he opened his eyes and was met with a familiar figure lurking in the dark.

Niko’s eyes widened and he would’ve screamed if he didn’t acknowledge his sleeping teammates in the 

room. He abruptly sat up in his bed, and at the same time, the French kid who was breathing down his neck stepped back just the tiniest bit, looking amused at Niko’s reaction.

“...What are you doing?”

“T’ai surpris?” He grinned before holding out something in the palm of his hand that Niko could barely make out in the darkness. “Tiens, ton écouteur.”

The earbud from yesterday. Had he come all the way here, to this part of the facility, just to return it?

Niko snatched the small, black bud from Charles’ extended hand and stuffed it under his pillow with such urgency that it’d make one question if he had somewhere important to be in that moment. The quickness of his actions was the cue for Charles to leave and return to his own part of the facility. He was gone as soon as he came there, and Niko was now wondering how he even knew which of the rooms to enter in the first place.

Well, now he was officially done dealing with that French boy and whatever he was up to, especially since Ubers was done with PXG.

And still, Niko couldn’t get him off his mind. His teammates were kind and acknowledged him as a person, though he never had someone like that who acknowledged him in such a playful manner. Charles was definitely annoying to those who couldn’t handle his energy, and he was that way to Niko upon their first interaction yesterday night, yet there was something about him that made Niko feel seen. Whether Charles did it intentionally or not, he treated Niko not as an outcast, but as one of his equals, someone he could mess around with just as much as any other person. It was something he did with every person from what he had seen, and Niko wasn’t special, but that was just fine.

Niko didn’t want to be special, he just wanted to be seen.

“Monsieur, psst.” A whisper warmly tickled Niko’s ear. “Je suis perdu.”

Niko blinked his eyes open and looked up at the now-familiar individual standing above him, staring down expectantly.

He sat up groggily and took the earbuds out from under his pillow. The language barrier between them didn’t stop Niko from understanding that he needed help finding his way back again.

It was oddly silent between them as they searched for the elevator. Niko expected Charles to fill it, the silence, though it’d been ten minutes already and not a peep came from him.

Niko assumed he was just tired, though his body language told him otherwise. The boy had his hands behind his head and was swaying his upper body left and right like he was an inflatable tube man. His attention was set on everything besides Niko at that moment.

Then, he finally spoke.

“Let’s watch a movie.”

Niko stopped walking and furrowed his eyebrows like Charles could see them under his thick bangs.

“What?”

“Let’s watch a mooooovie.” Charles repeated himself with slight irritation in his tone.

“I heard you, that’s why I said what.” Niko huffed. “I’m not watching a movie at this hour, and I wouldn’t watch it with you.”

“But you haven’t watched Alice in Wonderland yet!” Charles pouted, his arms dropping to his sides with fists tightly clenched. “We still have to do it!”

“Lower your voice!”

“You’re yelling now as well, haha!” He giggled, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Let’s go watch it.”

“Are you really just ordering me around right now?”

“Yeah, you gotta do as I say.” He stuck out his tongue cheekily and raised his arms up and back behind his head.

Niko had the chance to refuse the command outright and drag this little dictator down to the elevator himself, especially since he had more important things to do than waste what was meant to be his sleeping hours on watching a movie. However, he let himself be dragged along by Charles instead who was able to locate the movie room though had troubles with locating the elevator for some reason. Maybe this was part of his scheme and he just wanted to stay up and watch movies and talk to someone since his teammates were all asleep. Why it was Niko, he didn’t know, especially since Niko was the hardest to find. But that fact doesn’t deter someone like Charles; it only makes him more persistent.

He was seated on the couch which felt strangely comfortable right now with how restless he had been. Charles, meanwhile, searched for the remote for the TV.

“Huuuu…Where is it, where is it…” He mumbled to himself as he checked the crevices of the cushions.

“It’s on the table in front of you.”

Charles snapped his head back and found his desired object laid out for him.

“You could have told me that sooner, Bangs.” He stuck his bottom lip out and maneuvered his body in a feline-like way that allowed him to twist around and grab the remote.

“Hm.” Niko hummed. He didn’t have the energy to formulate a proper response right now.

Charles settled down and pressed the dull red (button) on the shiny black, leading the TV to illuminate the dark room with its vibrant glow and colors.

Niko blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the bright light. It really dawned on him then the direction his life was taking. He was here watching television with a member of another team late at night when he would have to get up early in the morning to train and prepare for the next match. Ikki Niko was here watching this French boy play around with the “next” button on the remote and rapidly change channels and streaming services as he tried to find what he wanted.

His search was over after a couple of minutes and now the both of them sat there watching a blonde girl chase after a rabbit. Niko could see now why Charles liked the movie so much, it was like someone turned the guy’s thoughts into a movie, wild and free. It wasn’t something that was really his cup of tea, but he wouldn’t complain about it. That would cost him too much energy.

For now, he just watched the old cartoon play on the screen, silently dozing off. He used his bangs as a curtain to close his eyes behind, and Niko was very grateful to have his overgrown strands be there to serve another purpose besides guarding what lay underneath it all. He almost fell asleep until a voice caused him to jolt up and straighten his posture on the couch.

“Let’s play a game.”

Niko grumbled and rubbed his face, trying to restore the blood flow there. “What? Why? I thought we were watching the movie.”

“You’re dozing off.”

“Am not.”

“Are too!” Charles retorted with a cheeky smirk like he did something with his response.

“And how do you know?”

“You were slumping down slowly…” Charles’ posture changed as he spoke, making him seem like he was mimicking the hunchback of Notre Dame. “And you were getting aaaall over me!” He suddenly flopped into Niko’s lap, pressing his body weight onto the other boy. Niko yelped and tried to shove him off, which did nothing but cause the two to start a round of MMA wrestling right there in that room.

Niko was trapped underneath Charles. Their legs were twisted like fuzzy pipecleaners around each other. Blondie, for whatever reason, was trying to elbow Niko in the throat and had his right arm shoved all up in his space while the other hand was focused on trying to loosen Niko’s defense against the elbow. They strained for some time until Niko got the upper hand and he attempted to roll himself up on top but instead rolled the two of them off the couch.

They both hit the stupidly cold and solid floor with a thud, both yelping when they made contact with the metal ground.

“I win that one.” Charles remarked with a breathy laugh.

“I would’ve smashed your nose in if I didn’t want to be electrocuted.” Niko snapped back as he sat up.

“Electrocuted?”

“Or maybe not electrocuted…”

Ego didn’t have a better way to break up fights between players besides shocking them with the mechanisms in their skin-tight suits, though Niko was wearing a more comfortable pair of blue pajamas rather than that suffocating leotard, so maybe he wouldn’t have been put through shock therapy or something if Sir Diamonds-In-The-Rough was awake at this ungodly hour.

Still, Niko had actually lied just now. He would’ve hit him regardless of the feature, it’s just that Charles is surprisingly better at fighting than he looks. Or it’s also possible that Niko’s exhaustion is inhibiting him from being the good fighter he knows he is.

“Getting shocked sounds fun to me. Is it not?” Charles sat up, still catching his breath after their rumble. He sounded like an overexcited golden retriever who just got done running laps around the house after witnessing his owner come home.

“Pain isn’t any fun when you get nothing out of it.”

“It can’t be worse than getting teamed up on by a group of 11 children.”

“What? What would need to happen for this situation to occur, anyway?”

“Your parents popping out 12 children.”

Niko sat up now, almost not believing what he was told.

“Are you telling another lie?”

“Am I telling the truth?” Charles snickered out a remark.

“You’re lying.” Niko frowned.

“Could be. Maybe I’m just a single child—an only kid.” He shrugged.

Niko bumped his shoulder into Charles’ as a warning to quit playing around. It was too late at night to be trying to solve brain puzzles with Mischief here.

Mischief, however, did not give up his antics.

“You probably have an older sibling. You don’t look like someone who’d be a ‘big brother’, y’know?”

“I’m an only child.”

“You’re lying.” He smirked.

“It’s just me and my parents at home…”

“And your older sister and younger sister at home along with the family dog…”

“I swear to God I’ll bite you.”

“You didn’t punch me earlier ‘cause you didn’t wanna get electrocuted or something though, no?”

“I lied—”

“And you didn’t really put up a fight.”

“—straight out of my ass.”

The movie had been entirely forgotten at this point. It was the entire reason Charles dragged Niko here in the first place: to watch Alice in Wonderland. But here they were, pointing fingers at each other and accusing the other of lying while laying on the floor like a gaggle of dumbasses. It almost made Niko forget how tired he was. It almost made him forget how badly he had just wanted to return to his bed in the sleeping quarters.

A content silence settled between them for a moment. The only sound really playing was from the TV, which displayed the movie at a rather low volume.

“Hey,” a voice penetrated the quiet.

Niko slowly turned his head to the profile of the boy beside him, his gaze examining the slopes of his nose, lips, and chin.

“I like you, Bangs. You’re one of the first people in a while to not bore me.”

The words hung in the air for a moment. Niko’s gaze shifted to the metal ceiling of the room, and he blinked slowly as the statement settled in his head.

Before becoming part of the Blue Lock program, Niko only ever had his Yu-Gi-Oh cards and himself. Nobody really wanted to be around him, let alone be his friend, especially when he had that crazed look in his eyes when talking about something he was incredibly passionate about. He always thought he was content with being a loner and not really knowing people like that. Most of the talking he would need to do was on the field.

However, right now, Niko felt different. He didn’t want to leave this boy’s side. No matter how annoying he was being right now, he didn’t leave him feeling depleted or exhausted. Charles was someone Niko could actually be around and not have to put up some kind of face, because, honestly, who would need to put on a face for someone who didn’t wear one either? Charles’ natural face was one that conflicted with what people expected of him, so he technically was just being himself.

“Wow. You must be reeeaaally tired,” Charles added on with a sleepy laugh of his own.

“So are you.”

I like being around you, too.

“I guess,” he paused, taking a deep breath. “I should return now, huh?”

“Hm,” Niko hummed softly, the sound barely vibrating in his throat.

Just a little longer, please.

“Yeah.”