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Michael Kaiser walked into the grand banquet hall as a man on a mission. The mission: locate a former midfielder of the “New Generation World 11” one Itoshi Sae.
Truth be told, Kaiser wasn’t really one for banquets. Sure, he attended them every so often to appease his manager and seek out sponsors, but they weren’t necessarily his idea of a fun Friday night. Overeager patrons tripping over themselves to shake his hand, tiny portions of opulent yet bland food, and boring speeches by the most irrelevant people? Kaiser couldn’t care less.
After all, he didn’t need to show his face at some banquet to prove he was one of the best in the world. He proved that on the field every single day.
The lights of the banquet hall were a touch too bright for comfort, and Kaiser felt stifled in the three piece suit his manager had bullied him into wearing. But that couldn’t distract him from his mission.
It had been three years since he’d last seen the other, three years since the training camp that quite possibly changed the direction of Kaiser’s life. Alas, all his attempts to contact Sae had been to no avail. No longer, Kaiser swore to himself. He would track that man down if it was the last thing he did on this green earth.
After a few hours of dodging would-be benefactors (and, admittedly, getting side-tracked by old friends and their pretty plus-ones), Kaiser began to wonder if this mission would, in fact, be the last thing he ever did. Sae was nowhere to be found.
Actually, that wasn’t quite true. Every so often Kaiser would see a flash of that reddish-brown hair out of the corner of his eye. As soon as he turned around, there was nothing. If he didn’t know better, he would think Sae was avoiding him.
Surely not, right? He’d seen Sae’s name on the RSVP list.
Kaser’s eyes widened, narrowing in on a figure on the other side of the hall. “Itoshi!” He called out, picking up speed until he was practically jogging. “Sae, I’ve been looking for you all night.”
“Oh?” The other man turned around, and Kaiser felt the breath practically punch out of his lungs. He was, somehow, prettier than Kaiser remembered. Perfect, porcelain smooth skin; soft, perfectly manicured hair; beautiful teal eyes framed by long eyelashes. Sae Itoshi looked every inch an angel from Kaiser’s dreams.
“Yeah.” Kaiser couldn’t hold in a grin. “Nice to see you. It's been a while, hasn’t it?”
Sae turned to fully face him, and Kaiser’s eyes drifted down his body. Ah, formalwear looked good on him.
“I’m sorry,” Sae said, cocking his head to the side. “I’m not sure we’ve met before. Who are you?”
Kaiser felt the life drain out of his body. “What?”
Sae just raised a single eyebrow.
“New Gen 11 training camp? London? Three years ago?” Kaiser couldn’t stop his voice from rising slightly with each word.
Sae’s expression didn’t change. “Ah. Forgive me, you must have slipped my mind. Your name?”
“Kaiser. Michael Kaiser, I was a forward at the training camp.”
“The name rings a bell. Quite skilled but,” Sae’s mouth twisted into a grotesque approximation of a smile. “Really nothing special without a team behind you, aren’t you?”
Kaiser felt as if his eyes would pop out of his head. Sae didn’t remember him. He had been chasing after this man for three years, and Sae didn’t even remember him. And not only did he not remember Kaiser from the week long training camp they had done together, but he also hadn’t been watching Kaiser as his competition, as an up-and-coming playmaker for the German national team. Kaiser grit his teeth. That liar! There was no way -
“If that’s all, please excuse me,” Sae said, inclining his head slightly. “I’ve got to be up early tomorrow, I think I’ll have an early night.”
--
Kaiser grimaced as he tipped back his third shot in five minutes. Who did this Itoshi brat think he was, forgetting THE Michael Kaiser like that? He felt anger bubbling in the pit of his stomach as he reached for the bottle of peach vodka again.
“Maybe it’s time to slow down,” his teammate, Alexis Ness, said, hand on Kaiser’s outstretched one. “I know you’re upset, but I don't want you to make any decisions you might regret.”
“I’m not regretting anything, Ness,” Kaiser groused, swatting his hand away and refilling his shot glass. “I’m just in mourning. Can’t you let a guy mourn in peace?”
The two of them had retreated for the night shortly after Sae had left Kaiser high and dry at the banquet hall. Thankfully, the event hosts had put up most of the guests in hotel rooms in the same building, otherwise Kaiser wasn’t sure he would’ve made it home in one piece. They were sitting around the table in Kaiser’s room, nothing but the complementary shot glasses they’d gotten from the event and a bottle of cheap peach vodka in front of them. Figures, a man with his salary and he still couldn’t bring himself to drown his sorrows in the top shelf. Old habits always die hard.
“It’s really not that bad,” Ness rationalized, “it’s been a while, it's only natural he may have forgotten. Why are you so hung up on this guy anyway?”
Kaiser made a face of displeasure. “He hasn’t forgotten, Ness. That boy’s a liar, I’m sure of it.”
“Okay,” Ness drew out the word, face still pinched. “But why do you care?”
“I don’t,” Kaiser grumbled. “I just think it’s stupid that he lied. I don’t know why he would lie about…” Kaiser felt his face flush, and buried his head in his arms.
“Oh my god,” Ness whispered as realization dawned on him. “Oh my god, you two fucked, didn’t you? That’s why you’re so upset he doesn’t remember you.”
“Mrrrgh,” Kaiser said, face still in his arms.
“I can’t believe you hooked up with Itoshi Sae” Ness continued, scandalized. “You bastard!’ He kicked Kaiser’s knee under the table. “With the enemy! You cheated on me with another midfielder!”
The last part was meant to be humorous, but Kaiser could sense the thin current of very real anger running under his words.
“I did not,” Kaiser tilted his head so that his cheek rested on his crossed arms. “We didn’t hook up, chill out.”
“But you did do something.” Kaiser knew that tone meant that Ness was not letting go of this anytime soon.
“We kissed.”
“What?”
“We made out, okay? We kissed at the end of that training camp.”
“Oh.” Ness sounded borderline disappointed. “That’s it?”
Kaiser sat up fully. “It was good, okay? And I asked him to come to my room after and I think he said yes but then he never showed.”
Kaiser could see Ness’s eyebrows move further up after each word he said.
“So this guy kissed you, ditched you, and forgot you? And you’re still hung up on him?”
“He didn’t forget me, that's the thing,” Kaiser said. “I don’t really care, it's just stupid he would lie about it like that, you know?”
Ironic, some small part of Kaiser’s mind realized, because he was definitely lying to himself about why exactly he was upset. Instead of acknowledging that, though, he just knocked back another shot.
“Okay, whatever it is, you need to stop taking shots,” Ness grimaced. “At least mix something. And drink some water, or you’re going to have a nasty hangover tomorrow.”
“Yes, mom,” Kaiser said, rolling his eyes. He got up and rinsed out one of the paper cups that he had used for coffee earlier. Nasty, but it would do. “Do you have any ice? I could get some mixers from downstairs but I don’t wanna keep drinking this shit lukewarm.”
“I can go get it,” Ness started, standing.
“Nah,” Kaiser waved at him to sit back down. “It’s fine, I’ll get it.” He picked up the ice bucket and made his way towards the door, picking his way around the dirty clothes strewn across the floor.
“Be back in a sec,” he called, and he exited the room.
“Don’t forget the-” the door swung closed before Ness could finish his sentence.
--
Kaiser had to admit, it was a little embarrassing how long it took for him to find the ice machine. Truth be told, he couldn’t even find the one on his floor, and opted to climb the stairs in hopes of better luck at the floor on top of his. After finally locating it, he filled the bucket and triumphantly made his way back to his hotel room.
Kaiser used his free hand to pat his pant pockets searching for his room key and came up empty.
Ah, that was what Ness had been yelling about when he left the room.
Kaiser knocked on the door. “Ness, open up.”
Silence.
“Ness,” He called again, knocking a little harder this time. “Let me in.”
There was some noise from inside the room, and Kaiser could hear footsteps leading to the door.
The door creaked open, and suddenly Kaiser was face to face with one Itoshi Sae.
“Um,” he said, eloquently.
“Can I help you?” Sae said. It suddenly registered to Kaiser that he was not only standing in front of Itoshi Sae, he was in front of an Itoshi Sae with a white sheet mask on his face and wearing a fluffy, light pink robe. Somehow, that endeared him to Kaiser even more.
“Um,” he said again, brain still working to process his current predicament. “Sorry, I thought this was my room.”
“I gathered.”
“Sorry,” he said again. “I’ll just be,” he gestured behind him.
Sae said nothing, just stared at him. Slowly, it dawned on Kaiser how he must look, walking around the hotel with his jacket and tie gone and shirt half unbuttoned (it was uncomfortable, so sue him), his hair disheveled and slightly damp (he hated hair gel and had rinsed out his hair the second he got back into his room), and carrying around full, albeit slowly melting, bucket of ice.
“I was just with Ness, Alexis Ness, he’s my teammate -”
“I’m familiar.” Sae cut in.
“- and we were just sitting around and talking, and I went to go get ice but I got lost,” Kaiser rambled, desperate to fill the awkward silence so he wouldn’t have to feel the weight of Sae’s judgment, “and I forgot my keycard and my phone and -” Kaiser paused, registering what he just said. He gasped almost comically and one accusatory hand flew up, pointing at Sae. “Ha! So you do know who I am!”
“What? I never said that.”
“You said you were familiar with Ness, and you wouldn’t know him unless you knew me!” Kaiser smiled, sure he had reached some sort of mental checkmate to whatever game Sae had been playing with him.
“Okay,” Sae said, neither confirming nor denying his accusation. His face hadn’t changed, though maybe that was just because of the sheet mask hiding his expression.
Kaiser fell silent again. “Why did you say you didn’t know me?”
Sae sighed. “Do you want to come in?”
--
Sae wasn’t entirely surprised when Michael Kaiser showed up at his hotel room door, but he also wasn’t not surprised. After Kaiser came into his room, Sae retreated to the bathroom to take off his sheet mask and finish his skincare routine. If he was going to have to deal with Kaiser, he would at least be well moisturized.
“So,” Kaiser called from outside the door. “Nice room.”
“It’s the same as yours, I presume,” Sae said, gently dabbing his eye cream in as he exited the bathroom.
Kaiser shrugged, scuffing his toe into the carpet. The bastard hadn’t even been wearing shoes when he was walking around the hotel. Disgusting.
“So,” Kaiser said again, then looked up at Sae.
This was not a conversation Sae was looking forward to having.
“At least put that down,” he said, gesturing to the ice bucket Kaiser was still clutching onto like a lifeline. Kaiser nodded, and hurriedly placed it on the desk in the corner. “And just,” Sae sighed. “Sit down. Somewhere. Please.”
Kaiser looked around, entirely out of place. He walked over to the bed and sat gingerly on the end, as if afraid to take up too much space.
“Okay,” Sae said, sitting cross-legged on the bed a few feet away. “Talk.”
“Huh?”
“Clearly you have something to say. Say it.” Sae wasn’t about to start talking first, not when Kaiser had traipsed into his hotel room. He wasn’t sure he entirely bought the whole mistaken room situation, but the ice bucket had been compelling enough evidence that he wasn’t particularly put off.
Well, at least not more so than he already was by Michael Kaiser.
“So, um,” Kaiser ran a hand through his hair. “Why did you lie and say you didn’t know me? That’s all I want to know.”
Sae shrugged. “Just seemed like a bother.”
“To know me?”
“Yeah.”
In truth, it was more than that. Part of Sae had wanted to reach out after the camp. But days had bled into weeks and weeks into months, and Sae had never quite convinced himself that he could allow himself that kind of a distraction. And, Sae thought, as he sat within arm’s reach of Michael Kaiser, what a distraction he still was.
Kaiser let out a theatrical groan and flopped back onto the bed, arms outstretched. His left hand knocked Sae’s knee on the way down. “Ah, this is so embarrassing, isn’t it? I’ve been hung up on you for years and all you say is I’m a bother.” He turned his head to look at Sae. “You’re a heartbreaker, Itoshi.”
“Yeah.” Sae couldn’t help himself from reaching out and fingering the blue tips of Kaiser’s hair. Three years, and he still did his hair the same way, as if dip dye hadn’t gone out of style a decade ago.
“Is that why you didn’t come to my room that night? I was a bother?”
Sae was silent, considering. His fingers moved up, carding his hand through the hair by Kaiser’s temples. “No, not really. I had to leave. My flight out was that night.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“If I asked you again, would you say yes this time?”
Sae made a face, pulling his arm back. “At least take me out on a date first, freak.”
Kaiser turned so his whole body was facing Sae, head propped up on his left hand. Gone was the despondent man from moments before, now he was the absolute picture of sleaziness. “So, if I asked you out on a date, you’d say yes.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I never said that.” Sae’s traitorous hand returned to Kaiser’s hair. “Besides, you already have your midfielder, and I already have my forward. No need to make it more complicated than it already is.”
“You’re dating your forward?” Kaiser sat up fully, his face suddenly inches from Sae’s.
Sae choked out a half-laugh. “God no, he wishes.” He could practically hear Shidou’s whining from here.
“Well I’m not dating my midfielder, so I don't see what the problem is. Besides, you didn’t actually say no.”
“You’re right, I didn’t,” and before Kaiser could say anything else, “I wasn’t kidding about getting up early tomorrow morning. I need to be in bed soon, and you’re not invited. Get out.”
Kaiser grinned, then launched himself to standing, a renewed vigor in his movements. He dashed over to the desk and wrote something on a piece of paper, folded it up, and stuck it down the front of Sae’s robe.
“Call me,” he said, picking up the ice bucket - mostly melted, at this point - and heading towards the door. “And you’d better remember this time.”
Sae frowned and fished the piece of paper out. Sure enough, Kaiser had scribbled a phone number on it, accompanied by the ugliest, most lopsided smiley face Sae had ever seen. He had half the mind to rip it up and dump it in the waste bin, but instead he just put it on his bedside table.
He’d figure it out tomorrow.
- (Three Years Ago) -
Sae knew that Kaiser was following him as he stepped out of the main dining hall on his way to the bathroom. He didn’t really mind. Part of him was surprised, actually, that it had taken the other a better part of a week to do this, when he had clearly been eyeing Sae since the first day of their training camp.
He came to a stop near the end of a secluded hall.
“Well,” he said, turning around to face Kaiser. “Some might say following people around like this is creepy.”
Kaiser grinned irreverently. “Good thing you’re not ‘some people,’ then.”
Sae just shrugged and leaned back against the wall, allowing Kaiser to walk forward and box him in.
“So what do you say?” Kaiser’s face was inches from his.
Sae leaned in, and allowed himself to melt. Kaiser was all around him; his woody scent in Sae’s lungs, his hands on Sae’s face, his mouth pressed firmly against Sae’s own. After a fraction of a second, he felt Kaiser’s tongue pushing into his mouth. Over eager bastard. He opened his mouth and sucked, swallowing Kaiser’s surprised nose. Kaiser tasted sweet, like the mango sorbet they had been served for dessert. Sae hated how much he liked it.
One of his hands came up and threaded through Kaiser’s hair, angling the other’s face to a more comfortable position. The pointer finger of his other hand hooked around one of Kaiser’s pant loops. Of course the bastard wasn’t wearing a belt, Sae thought absently, tugging him closer.
Kaiser moved to lay kisses across Sae’s face.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, laying a particularly gentle kiss on Sae’s cheek. “You’re so beautiful I can’t take my eyes off of you.”
Sae tilted his face towards Kaiser’s, seeking his mouth again. “Shut up,” he mumbled against Kaiser’s lips. He felt more than saw Kaiser’s smile.
They were interrupted by a persistent ringing.
“Oh, fuck, my phone,” Kaiser mumbled, pulling back for a moment.
Sae had to stop himself from whining at the sudden loss. How pathetic.
“Shit,” Kaiser said, looking at his phone screen. “My manager’s looking for me. I have to go.”
Sae took that as his cue to straighten up properly and wipe his mouth with the back of his hand.
Kaiser leaned in again, his breath warm against Sae’s ear. “Third floor, room twelve. Right next to the elevator, can’t miss it.” And like that, Kaiser was gone.
Sae pinched his lips together, and pulled out his own phone. He had a catalog of frantic texts and four calls from his own manager, all missed. He kept his phone on silent, like a normal person.
As expected, the taxi taking him to the airport was waiting out front.
He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little disappointed.