Archive of Our Own ^beta

Yuuma thought it was hilarious that the princess of their club wasn't looking for a prince. But Yuuma thought everything she did was hilarious, from her dream of coaching, to her self-study, to her watching their practices. So, she'd long-since learned to block out his teasing voice.

Still, while Anri never thought about romance, that didn't mean she was immune to it. And a part of her had always known that if she was going to fall for anyone, it would be a football player. After all, wasn't that why she dreamed of being a coach?

Because she got to watch him play. And then, years later, got to watch him coach. (And was equally mesmerized by both.)

Part of Anri knew she could have gone pro. She had the background and her parents the money, that they could have found her the greatest coaches. But going pro meant playing football in the women's league.

And that wasn't her dream.

Her dream was to face him on the same stage. To coach a team even better than the one he was creating. So going pro wasn't an option, but falling for a football player? An inevitablity.

Still, she hadn't expected her first crush to be on Ao of all people. Not that he wasn't a perfectly acceptable first crush, just that, well, he wasn't exactly who'd she'd have picked out for herself.

Then again, when it came to romance, Anri was very quickly learning that logic went out the window. After all, if Ao wasn't who she'd pick for a first crush, then her first love was, well...

...not who she'd have imagined.

It had snuck up on her, this love. At first she'd been soely focused on football, on learning to coach. Then Ao had crept into her thoughts and she'd split her focus on coaching him and football. Then she'd picked up on Hana's feelings and suddenly her focus was split between football, jealousy, and Ao. She wasn't lying when she told Hana she was a distraction, but she also wasn't speaking as an aspiring coach.

Those were the words of a jealous girl, no coach (aspiring or not) would speak to their players' friend that way. They'd have spoken to the player, told him to keep his focus.

It took her awhile to make that realization.

It wasn't until Ao was red-carded and Hana broke down that she'd realized her mistake. Ao had been too reckless, he had been one play away from major injury, and had ended the play with a basic foul. To not only handle the ball but to handle it to prevent a goal? That was elementary school stuff. She'd made the assumption that distracting a player from football would be detrimental to their growth, and in doing so had forgotten the most important thing.

They weren't just players, they were people.

If Ao hadn't felt that enormous pressure to succeed in this game, in this moment, would he have been able to keep his head? If he'd allowed those closest to him to ground him, would things have turned out differently? Anri didn't know but she did know this was her failure. Both as an aspiring coach and as a woman.

She'd felt bad Ao had been ejected from the game, but she hadn't felt a fraction of what Hana had. Still, it had hurt, to have Ao's mother put to words the truth of the matter.

"You love him, don't you?"

What Anri'd felt for Ao wasn't love, but it had been something and to realize that something wasn't enough, would never be enough? It had stung.

That was the moment she first saw him.

Togashi Keiji.

Well, no, she'd seen him before. They'd spoken, exchanged quips. But her mind had been filled with Ao at the time and so had blinded her to the truth. It wasn't until she'd accepted what she felt for Ao that she'd truly seen him.

Togashi was an interesting player. At first glance he seemed like a brute, the kind of player to just plow through his opponents. But Anri had noticed from day 1 that he was far more technical than that. He was very aware of his plays, of his techniques. He was much smarter than people gave him credit for, a truly theoretical player.

As opposed to Ao, who would hear Anri's words and get confused, Togashi would instantly grasp her meanings. He didn't often agree with her assessments but he understood them. Besides, a part of Anri had always been glad that he'd bite back at her.

It was what won her respect, after all, that throw-away comment, "if you're going to coach guys you can't be scared by something as small as this." He hadn't pampered her, hadn't backed down, hadn't apologized for intimidating her, he'd treated her like an equal. He'd treated her how a player would treat a coach they disgreed with.

It had been terrifying to have to stand her ground, but also exhilarting. Togashi had won her respect in that moment, but later, when he'd turned to her and apologized? Had acknowledged her words to be true? That's when he'd won her admiration.

Still, there were a lot of people Anri admired, so she'd never thought it meant anything. But then he'd found her after that match, he'd seen her tears and he'd called her out.

"What's up with this? Were you just lying when you said becoming a coach was your dream?! I thought it was admirable of you to come and watch matches. But if you're only coming to cheer on your crush..."

Anri'd had a choice in that moment. She could have brushed Togashi off, could have told him it was none of his buisness and to leave her alone. But the part of her that admired him rebelled at the thought. Here was someone who actually believed in her dream, would she really let him think that she wasn't serious?

"...I come to study, I record the matches so I can go over them in my spare time."

No, no she couldn't.

It had been a brief conversation, hardly worth mentioning. But in that moment Togashi had transformed from a player she admired to a friend. A fact that was strengthened over the next two months.

"...I noticed he'd lean left so my thought was if I pivot right he'd be a step too slow, and..."

If you asked Anri how she'd gotten to the point where she'd be on the phone with Togashi for hours, disecting his games, she wouldn't have an answer. Not that the 'how' mattered, not when this was invaluable experience for the her aiming to be a coach. Still, for all that she was truly greatful to Togashi-

"Thank you so much, Togashi. Sorry for always asking for your analysis after matches."

-a part of her was equally resentful of his directness.

"About Ao...you know he only has his eyes on football, right? Any girl would be miserable standing next to him."

It wasn't that Anri wanted to be with Ao. Not really. Not at that point. It was the fact that she hadn't even tried to be with him. She'd just had too much pride to accept defeat without even putting in an effort. It was a stupid rationale feeding more off of competitiveness than romance, but it's where she'd landed. And having Togashi point out how stupid it all was only strengthened her resolve to do something about it.

So she'd confessed.

And she'd lost.

Not to Hana, who turned out to be much nicer than Anri could have ever expected, but to Ao's unwavering love of football.

The very thing Togashi had warned her about.

That was the moment Anri truly let go of Ao in her heart. Oh, it still stung to see him. She still had that instinctive thought that she should speak to him. But those thoughts became less frequent, the stinging less sharp. And before she knew it she was able to let Ao go with a glance and turn to cheer on-

"Yo, lecture attendee. You're passionately watching a live football match today as well, huh? How admirable."

-the rest of Esperion.

"Hmm, I suppose you were giving lectures...thanks again, for taking your time to explain things to me."

"Eh? No problem, princess. It was helpful for me too."

Anri had never thought about romance growing up.

"It was?"

But had you asked her what she imagined the guy she'd fall for would be like...

"Yeah, somehow. So, thanks...and don't miss what's about to happen in the start of the 2nd half!"

...she'd have guessed dead wrong.

"A-amazing. He's holding the ball for that long in that position? No. More impressively; he's sending really difficult passes! His vision is...Togashi, you've really improved, huh?"

---

Togashi was not an idiot.

People thought he was, whether it was his size or the pompador he didn't know, only that his whole life people thought he was stupid.

He'd learned to use that to his advantage, growing up. If people limited their thoughts about you then they became very predictable. It'd been helpful in his biker gang, and equally helpful on the field.

That's why Kaido Anri had gotten under his skin.

He'd spent so much of his life being misjudged that he never imagined he'd do the same to another. Not to Anri herself, he hadn't been expecting that her goal was to coach men's football, but he'd taken her at her word when she'd said as much.

No, it was Ao he'd judged, and it had been Anri who'd pointed it out, which was just so many levels of frustrating.

Togashi wasn't stupid, he'd not known who Anri had been crushing on, but he'd known it'd been someone. Hadn't he said as much when she'd offered him that bento?

"This wasn't meant for me."

That's what had made her advice so frustrating. In his soul Togashi knew he wasn't the one she was watching during practices, during games, and yet she'd still called him out. Worse still, she'd been right.

Togashi wasn't stupid, he knew himself, knew what he wanted in life, knew what he valued. So he knew the second Anri had met his glare head on, had gone toe-to-toe with him, that he was in trouble.

It wasn't instant love or some sappy crap like that. No instant spark, or connection, it'd just been a slight shift, a new awareness of Anri. Admiration - if he had to put a word to it.

But Togashi wasn't an idiot, he knew what admiring a pretty girl led to. Especially one who was so devoted to football. He didn't have issues with liking someone, some of these Esperion guys had odd hang-ups about things like that. As if Pros couldn't have families or some shit. That wasn't the problem at all, no, the issue was that Togashi was prideful, he just didn't do second best.

Second place is just first at losing and all that, right?

Sure, loss was inevitable. It was what you took from that loss, what you learned, that made it worthwhile. Any athlete worth their salt knew that. But he just didn't think he had it in him to be second when it came to something like this.

In the end, Anri wasn't looking his way so he was just gonna live his life...and then he had to go and learn that. Of all the people she could have chosen, she'd chosen Ao, the one guy who'd never look her way.

It wasn't jealousy talking when he'd advised her to move on. He really was talking as her friend, he'd meant what he'd said - Ao was the type to make his girl miserable. Not on purpose, he was too nice for that, but...

Well, Togashi knew that whoever Ao ended up with it'd have to be someone content to fade in the background every game. Something that Anri was painfully unsuited for.

He'd really had no intention of pursuing Anri, but she'd looked so pitiful crying over a guy that he couldn't just do nothing. So he'd challenged her dream, and then offered to help her achieve it. It had been pure luck - or maybe karmic retribution - that explaining his choices had translated to better game-sense on the field.

Really, he'd just been trying to distract her, to get her to take enough of a step back to let herself heal.

And yeah, okay, maybe part of it had been born from that core need to be noticed. To be the one she watched during games, the one she immediately looked to and commented on.

He was doing his best in football for himself, for his dreams of going pro. But, he was also doing his best for her, so she could see her dreams in action. See that her advice, her dissecting of his game, had real, physical returns.

Keep your eyes on me. Watch my game. Watch what I can do with this expanded vision that I owe to you!

Togashi wasn't stupid, not on the whole. But when it came to Kaito Anri, he also wasn't smart. Still, he'd keep playing his game, and maybe one day she'd wake up and look his way.