Chapter Text
After a hard day's practice preparing for the next international game, Inazuma Japan was enjoying a nice team dinner in the mess hall of their temporary home. Everyone was tired and they all smelled bad but practice had been good and spirits were high.
Mostly.
Kabeyama sighed and stacked his plate on top of the four emptied ones beside him. There was still some pasta left on it. He put his head down.
"Kabeyama-kun? Is everything alright?" Aki asked, the first to notice. "Its not like you to stop after only five servings." She leaned over him in a concerned hover. Conversations around the room slowed to a stop.
"Well, it's just…" Kabeyama looked uncomfortable with everyone's eyes on him. "I'm tired of the pasta. That's all."
"Tired of the pasta? But you told me you loved it!" Aki exclaimed, looking far more conflicted over this than she really should.
"Eh, it is the only thing we've eaten for the past week." Tsunami pointed out, waving his fork for emphasis. One of the noodles flew off. "I'm with him on this. Can't you make something else?"
"Uh, guys I don't think-" Kazemaru started, glancing at Endou, trying to do damage control as the girls processed this request.
"FINALLY I was waiting for someone to say something," Fudou cut him off. If one paid attention, they might see Sakuma rolling his eye. But why would anyone look at Sakuma. So it went unnoticed.
"Do you really all feel this way?" Otonashi asked, dismayed. Nobody spoke. "Kidou? Does everyone really not like it?" She desperately addressed her brother, looking for familiar sympathy in this confusing and frightening world.
Kidou shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Haruna, your cooking is good but I think they'd all like a little variety." Next to him, Gouenji nodded stonefacedly.
"Why don't you try feeding a bunch of soccer freaks every day?" Aki fumed.
"I-I'm sure we could learn something else...I'll find some online recipes." Fuyuka promised timidly.
"No," Aki stood her ground. "If they don't appreciate our efforts, they don't get more effort!"
Otonashi suddenly brightened. "Oh, I know! Why don't all of you each make a dinner? That way we all get what we want."
"Hm… each of us making a dinner…" Endou had his thinking face on. "We should all compete for who can make the tastiest." Ever since Coach Kudou had called him out on it, Endou had been doing the most to team bond. And this could be the perfect exercise.
"Like in a soccer bracket?" Hijikata spoke up.
"Yes! Exactly like in soccer," Endou answered cheerily. It would not, in fact, be exactly like in soccer.
"I don't know...wouldn't it be really long to do this with sixteen people?" Kazemaru said doubtfully.
"We could team up," Hiroto pitched in, "if we went in pairs there would only be eight competitors."
Voices instantly began clamoring over each other. The room exploded into a chaotic din.
"I want to be with Gouenji-san!" Toramaru piped up.
"I'll go with Kidou," Sakuma said. Everybody ignored him.
"I call Tobitaka!" Tsunami yelled. "I know he can secretly cook!"
"What? Then I wanna be his partner!" Kogure called out contrarily.
"Someoka-kun, would you like to partner up with me?" Fubuki asked.
"UHHHH Someoka didn't you want to partner with Gouenji?" Kazemaru interjected, trying to keep room for jesus.
Oh no. Endou's very cool very fun team bonding activity was quickly turning into a team breaking activity. They couldn't be arguing about this when everyone was friends with everyone else! They needed to get along!
"Guys, don't fight," he tried. But it was sure to be a losing battle. He needed a solution.
"Um, Endou-san," Tachimukai tentatively got his attention. "What if we did a lottery? Then it can't be unfair."
Perfect. "Everyone!" Endou yelled, throwing his arms wide in emphasis, "Stop fighting! We're going to do a lottery." The noise simmered down. "Aki, could you bring me some paper?"
"Oh, you don't have to do it, Captain, I can write the names," Fubuki offered, "You haven't finished your dinner yet, anyway."
" And we want it to be legible," Kogure snickered, and then promptly dove under the table to avoid Otonashi's glare.
Dinner was over, and the lottery was ready. Fubuki had printed everyone's names in a nice script and threw them all into a box.
Before anybody could ask how to go about doing the lottery, Someoka moved to the front of the crowd and spoke up.
"Fubuki should get to pick first, since he was the one who made them." Nobody found any reason to argue with that, so Fubuki stepped back up to the box to draw his lot. He put both of his hands in, and then tugged at the cuff of one jacket sleeve. He paused, and messed with it again. The sound of crinkling paper rang through the tense, anticipatory silence of the room. Fubuki pulled out a slip.
"Wow, I got Someoka-kun! What a crazy plot twist this is. Nobody saw that coming." He smiled, and showed the crowd the wrinkled paper with Someoka's name on it. Several people leaned out from behind Someoka to confirm that this was the truth.
Fubuki skipped back towards the crowd and high fived his new partner. Mission success.
"Let's just get this over with," Tobitaka grumbled, and made his way up. The cooking was something he might actually enjoy, but this? Excruciating. He snatched a slip of paper and snapped it open with annoyance. His casual posture stiffened.
"Who'd you get, Tobitaka-san?" Toramaru prompted, impatient.
Wordlessly, Tobitaka held up the paper. It had his own name on it.
"We should've figured something like this would happen," Kazemaru commented. "Fubuki's name is still in there, too."
"Maybe the managers can draw two at a time," Kidou suggested. "That way nobody can pick their own names, and everyone who's already paired up won't be an issue. But Tobitaka might as well just draw again."
So he did.
"Oh," Tobitaka said, "I got you, Kidou."
The drop in Kidou's mood could've influenced the temperature. He did not like Tobitaka. He did not respect Tobitaka. He did not want to work with Tobitaka. God knows how much shit he and Gouenji had talked about his hair and inability to play soccer despite being on an international team.
"Okay. I look forward to it," he ground out.
Fuyuka took Tobitaka's place at the lottery and pulled the next two names.
"Hijikata...and...Sakuma," she announced.
"Alright! Let's win this thing! It's gonna be great, don't you think?" Hijikata turned to his partner excitedly. Sakuma flicked his hair.
"Whatever."
"Next is Kabeyama…and Toramaru. And then … Mamoru-kun and…"
The room swelled with tension once more as several people held their breath, desperately hoping to be partners with Endou. It didn't matter that he had probably never cooked a day in his life.
"...Hiroto."
Hiroto could not believe his ears. How could he have been so lucky? Perhaps the very reason he had suggested partnerships was the off chance that this exact situation would happen. But we can never know. To his credit, Hiroto was able to keep his expression in a polite smile even as his face turned as red as his hair. Like a little tomato.
"Okay! Let's do it, Hiroto! We won't lose!" Endou cheered.
"Endou-kun…" Hiroto's smile widened and, after a second of blatant staring, he nodded decisively.
"Next is … Kogure and Gouenji...and then… Kazemaru and Tsunami…and Fudou and Tachimukai."
Everyone met their partners with different levels of enthusiasm.
"Listen up," Otonashi began, "We've decided on some rules for the contest. We are going to decide the dish of the day, and both partners must help make it within a time limit. Then we will try them all, and whoever does the worst job is disqualified. Got it? We start tomorrow."
There was a resounding cheer, and Inazuma Japan headed to bed.
The next day, the schedule shifted so that practice both started and ended earlier, in order to make room for the competition without losing their precious practice time.
Natsumi came to the field late that afternoon and was surprised to find it empty. The Raimon she knew would be out on the field well after Coach Kudou had ended official practice. And when she hurried to their lodgings in search of an explanation, what she found did nothing to lessen her confusion.
"A cooking contest?" On second thought, she might actually enjoy this. "I love to cook! Can I compete? My riceballs will totally be the best!"
"B-but there's an uneven amount of people," Endou protested. "Everyone's already teamed up."
"Well then, I'll just have to join a group!" Natsumi stated cheerfully.
Everyone glanced between each other in a panic. Nobody wanted to eat Natsumi's food, much less cook with her. But offending her would bring much more pain than those two things combined. Kidou subtly nudged Endou, who took the hint and tried again.
"UM- really, we're doing this to appreciate the managers more, so, you don't have to. We already really appreciate everything you do for us, Natsumi."
"Aww," Natsumi looked genuinely touched. "That's nice of you to say, but-"
"NO REALLY you help with cooking so much, you made us dinner every day when we were fighting Aleia, we can't make you do it more." Endou was trying so so hard.
"Okay...if that's how you guys feel, then I have to respect it," Natsumi relented. "But if I can't cook then I want to watch the rest of you make riceballs." She turned and went to find the rest of the managers.
Natumi's retreating footsteps slowly faded into silence. Endou turned around to face the rest of his team, who were still frozen in place, and nodded once. He had done it. They were safe now.
"Thank you. Thank you so much." Kabeyama gasped, sinking to the ground in relief as the team let out a collective breath.
"That was close," Kidou agreed, "We need to be more careful."
A few minutes later, the managers wheeled in a platter full of ingredients, "As Natsumi requested, the first challenge will be riceballs! You will have one hour."
The cafeteria tables had been converted into eight miniature kitchen stations. They were arranged around the room in a square, facing inwards. The managers set each team up, and the whistle blew to commence the competition.
***
"Alright," Someoka observed the set-up. "Where should we start?"
"There's no need to rush, Someoka-kun," Fubuki said, hopping onto one of the two stools at their station.
"Yeah, but I want to make sure we get it perfect." But he didn't move to start.
"We'll do that in a bit." Fubuki dragged the other stool closer to himself. "An hour is a lot of time just to make riceballs. So, what were you telling me about earlier?"
"Oh, yeah…" Someoka took a seat on the other stool and launched into conversation, the cooking momentarily forgotten. The only thing he was focused on now was Fubuki's peaceful smile.
***
"Alright! Defender squad!" Tsunami grinned at Kazemaru as they set up to start. "We're the only two with the same position, so our teamwork should be the best!"
"Sure," Kazemaru smiled at him briefly, then turned his focus back to the rice.
An awkward silence settled. Despite having worked in the same part of the field for so long, they had little to talk about.
"So….uh…." Tsunami cast about for a discussion topic. He didn't function well in silence. "How are you and Endou?" Kazemaru put the utensil he had been using down a little too forcefully.
"We broke up again." He said shortly, and very deliberately did not look at Tsunami.
"Oh. I'm sorry?" His attempt to make the situation lighter had only made it gloomier. He'd fucked up. Anxiously, he looked to the side of the room and tried to catch Tachimukai's eye in a plea for help, but Tachimukai was busy dashing all over his station as Fudou watched disinterestedly. What was Tsunami supposed to do?
***
The first thing Tachimukai did at their station was wash his hands. This was going to be so fun and exciting! Endou-san's ideas were always enjoyable. He was such a good captain.
"Isn't this so neat, Fudou-san?" Tachimukai turned to his partner as he dried his hands. This would also be a nice opportunity to become better friends with teammates he didn't often interact with. The two of them had sat together on the bench for matches before, but that sort of conversation was limited. Fudou could be an intimidating guy, but that didn't mean Tachimukai shouldn't try to be his friend. "Making food with everyone sure is fun!"
Fudou opened his mouth.
"You're so fucking stupid."
Tachimuaki wilted. He didn't know Fudou-san thought about him like that. It was disheartening, to say the least. He curled into himself, pulling his hands up to his chest to fidget, and looked down.
"Sorry," he murmured, and set about their task as quickly and quietly as he could. Maybe if he just didn't say anything, it would all be okay.
***
Someoka twisted around in his seat to peer at the clock. "Don't you think we should get started?" He asked Fubuki.
"Ah, don't worry, we have tons of time," Fubuki reassured him. "It's only been five minutes. Relax." It had actually been fifteen minutes, but Someoka didn't need to know that. "So where was I? Oh-"
***
Was it hot in the cafeteria or was Kogure just fear-sweating? He trembled all over like a chihuahua. Gouenji could punt him across the room at any moment. The silent treatment he was giving Kogure did not help to alleviate these fears. If they kept working together, Kogure would eventually give into his natural instinct and pull a fast one on Gouenji, who would then give into his natural instinct of kicking the shit out of his problems. The only solution was to make sure they didn't even make it past the first round.
***
...Goddamnit.
Fudou had not moved for the past three minutes. He kept his gaze firmly on the wall. Fight and flight were inappropriate for this situation, so he was left with one option: freeze.
He really hadn't meant to say that to Tachimukai. Why would he be mean to the underclassman that annoyed him the least? Fudou had been trying to say something like 'you're kidding me, this is so fucking stupid' but the wires got crossed somewhere in there. Now what? It's not like he could...apologize and explain the situation...no. Obviously not. Fuck.
***
Since Tobitaka could apparently handle himself in the kitchen, Kidou spared a moment of careful observation to look up at the clock. There wasn't much time left, but he wasn't worried about their progress. Kidou was confident that he and Tobitaka would not lose, even though the competition was still a mystery. He peered around the room curiously to monitor the other teams' progress. Everyone seemed to be in the final stages, or already finished. Hiroto and Endou were arranging their rice. Toramaru and Kabeyama were chatting amiably as they cleaned up. Kidou's gaze swept across the room and landed on Someoka and Fubuki.
Oh no.
Not even the smallest jesus could have fit between them. They were sitting far far too close. And their station looked the way the managers had set everyone's up. But there was nothing Kidou could do now. It was already too late.
***
"TIME'S UP!" Aki yelled over the noise. "Please present your riceballs!"
Each team had a serving dish at the front of their station so the managers had easy access when they came around. Everyone did passably enough, though there were some errors. Hijikata had portioned his and Sakuma's rice into a mountain of bite-sized snacks. Somehow, Gouenji and Kogure had managed to burn their riceballs into blackened crisps. And Someoka and Fubuki had absolutely nothing on their serving dish.
"Is it over already?" Fubuki blinked, the picture of innocence. "Sorry, I must've lost track of time." Someoka was much more upset about it.
"Since Someoka and Fubuki did not make anything within the hour, they are disqualified. The rest of you move on to tomorrow's round!" Natsumi declared.
The rest of the room exploded into cheers.