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Martin slowly opened his eyes, feeling disoriented and confused. As he sat up in bed, he realized that something was wrong. He glanced around the room and noticed this was definitely not his room. Whose room was this? Paul?
“Fucking Peke…”
Martin groaned as he tried to remember what happened last night. Peke and Lauri insisted going out for a drink despite Martin’s protest. They went to a club, no, more like Peke and Lauri were glued to each other while Martin was sitting with Bora and Paul.
Then what?
Martin could not remember a thing as a massive headache was banging his head.
He could kill his teammates after a cup of water.
Martin stumbled out of bed and made his way to the kitchen. As he entered the kitchen however, he froze on the spot.
There were four guys sitting on the table, but Martin could recognize none of them. If Martin hadn’t seen a large Fnatic emblem on the wall, he would have thought this was not the Fnatic gaming house. But looking at it again, even the emblem looked different. Who were all these people? Where were his teammates?
A tanned guy noticed Martin silently standing at the entrance, and the guy’s eyes almost popped out as if he had seen a ghost.
“What is that face, Ivan. You look so stupid.”
The guys laughed at him and turned their heads to see what Ivan was staring at and they froze as well.
The whole kitchen fell into silence and Martin wanted the ground to open and swallow him.
“You’re Martin, like real Martin?” Ivan repeated the question for the 10th time, his eyes fully focused on Martin’s face. The youthful face of Martin was unbelievably beautiful and innocent. His skinny body even made Ivan feel like he wanted to protect the boy at all cost. Ivan just could not take his eyes off of the boy.
“Yes.”
Trying not to meet Ivan’s intense stare, Martin looked to the ground, fidgeting his index finger nervously. Feeling sorry for Martin, Advienne squinted his eyes at Ivan.
“Stop starting at Martin, Ivan. You’re scaring him.”
“But he’s MARTIN!”
Ivan’s shout earned him a hard slap on the back.
“I’m sorry for this idiot. Do you want some more soda?” Henk-Martin learned that he was his support-asked kindly, his face full of sincere concern for the Swede’s wellbeing.
“No, I’m fine. Thank you.”
Martin smiled politely at Henk.
The past hour was full of chaos and commotion. At first, they all thought it was a prank arranged by Pete and Martin, thinking he was Martin’s cousin or his unknown younger brother. They were all familiar with young Martin’ face since Martin “Rekkles” Larssin has been the face of LEC for so long, it was impossible not seeing his old photos on social media once in a while. But of course, it was totally unbelievable that young Rekkles just showed up in the Fanatic kitchen.
Then Ivan remembered something from last night. The players came back from the restaurant, everyone except Oscar a bit drunk. Ivan was the most drunk one. He stumbled on something in his room and saw this book on the floor.
“What the fuck?”
The cover of the book said ‘Yummi’s Spell Book’.
“Yummi? What the cat?”
Ivan hated reading but this book had ‘Yuumi’ in the title so it should be an awesome book, Ivan thought. His eyes shone brightly as he read the content of the book. It was full of magic spells! Excited, he brought the book to Martin who was in a better state than Ivan.
“Look, Martin! Look what I found!”
“Never thought you would read a book. What is it about?” Martin joked taking the book from Ivan.
He checked it but to him it was just full of silly magic spells that were definitely not real.
“Ivan, it’s fake. Just go to sleep.”
Martin said but Ivan took the book from the Swede and opened the random page.
“No, it’s real! Let’s try one.”
The spell on that page was ‘rejuvenate’, making someone younger.
“Let’s try this.”
“Ivan…” Martin sighed while Ivan read the spell out loud.
They both waited a full minute but nothing changed about Martin.
“See? Nothing’s happened. It’s just a silly book. Magic isn’t real.”
Martin took the book away from Ivan and put the drunk Spaniard in bed. Since Ivan took his bed, he had no choice but to sleep in Ivan’s room.
“Where is that book?”
“I dunno, Martin must have taken it,” Ivan shrugged, turning his head to Martin.
“Do you happen to remember anything about that book?”
“No, sorry,” Martin shook his head.
They checked both Ivan and Martin’s rooms but the book was not found.
How could this happen?
As much as the Fnatic players were surprised, Martin was also shocked that it was actually him who got younger, not a time travel or something. He just missed his teammates, especially Enrique.
“Peke, I’ll call Peke.”
Luckily for Martin, Enrique was in Berlin for some Astralis business, so the Spaniard hurried to the Fnatic gaming house after hearing that something happened to his old teammate.
“Martin!”
Enrique burst into the gaming house, looking for Martin.
“...Peke?”
There was young Martin looking at him, his eyes wide making him look like a cute puppy. Just like the time when the Swede joined Fnatic as a new ADC.
Enrique was surprised, but he was a veteran who experienced many things, even some supernatural stuff that normal people have never experienced in their lives. He was just surprised that this also happened to Martin this time.
While Martin was standing hesitant, Enrique, who already figured everything out, got closer to Martin.
“It’s me, Martiño.”
Casting that bright smile, Enrique called the Swede with his old nickname which got a visible reaction from Martin.
“Peke,” Martin quickly skipped into his open arms.
“It’s okay, Martin. I’m here for you,” Enrique said soothingly, hugging him tight in his strong arms. Same voice, same scent. It was Enrique he knew. As the familiar woody scent embraced him, Martin relaxed in his old teammate’s arms.
“It appeared once when I was in Fnatic, too,” Enrique explained to the group what the book was about.
That time, it was also Lauri who turned into a little puppy. Enrique cast the spell and Lauri actually turned right in front of him. The whole commotion ensued, and Lauri returned to human at midnight. The book was never found again.
“So Martin has to wait until midnight, then he will come back to the 2023 version of himself.”
“There’s no other way?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
They had 9 hours to go.
“Well then, let’s just hang out?”
Since Martin was curious about the current himself, the players showed some pictures of current Martin.
“What the fuck? Did I actually get a tattoo with so many faces? Why the fuck didn’t you say anything, Peke!”
Martin made a face checking out his instagram photos.
“What can I say, man. Even Lauri couldn’t change your mind,” Enrique said slung his arm around Martin.
“Really? Then I must have really liked them. Do I have any more tattoos?”
They checked out some more pictures, then moved on to his videos, such as games and interviews.
“Do you want to try the game?”
Looking at Martin’s eyes sparkling while watching the game, Oscar suggested.
“Can I?”
“Yeah, sure. Your account is auto-logged in so.”
“Peke, you motherfucker! Why you keep getting one shot?”
“You should set up the trap better, you little rat!”
“Suck my dick.”
As Martin and Enrique were cursing at each other while playing Flex queue, other players of the Fnatic couldn’t help but be surprised by his sudden change in demeanor. The Martin they knew was calm and reserved. However, this young Martin seemed totally different. The way he acted around xPeke was as if they were brothers, so carefree and friendly, that the Fnatic players had never seen from him before. It certainly made them feel a bit jealousy towards the Fnatic legend.
They won the game but Martin and Enrique continued the friendly flaming at each other.
“He’s so different with xPeke,” Henk whispered to Oscar who silently nodded in agreement. The whole LEC talked about how Rekkles looked so much happier than before in the current roster, but looking at Martin and xPeke talking, they realized there was something more they needed to work on to build an even stronger bond with each other, especially with Martin.
Enrique stayed as long as he could, but he had another business meeting to attend tomorrow so he had to leave.
“You’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, they seem like good people,” Martin shrugged.
“Come see me again, Peke. Okay?”
“Sure, Martiño.”
xPeke kissed on Martin’s both cheeks, winked at him and left.
Watching Enrique’s car drive away, Martin felt something weird in his chest. It was as if his own brother left him alone in the house. With a sigh, Martin closed the door.
“Hey, you okay?”
Oscar asked gently, just like Martin did when he felt down after a bad loss.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking,” Martin replied with a faint smile on his lips.
There was only 2 hours left and Martin knew he would survive.
“Let’s drink!”
Oscar shouted in the background.
“Oh no…”
He was not sure now.
Turns out drinking with them was quite fun.
The players tried their best to invite Martin into the conversation, especially Ivan with many pictures of his cat Syra worked out very well.
“She looks so adorable,” Martin cooed over the particularly cute picture of Syra in Ivan’s arms.
“You look adorable, too,” Ivan said, his alcohol-heavy breath tickling Martin’s ears, making him blush.
“Ivan!”
Another smash from Henk arrived, and the Spaniard was dragged away from the innocent Martin.
“3 minutes left,” Marek said checking the clock on the phone.
“Well, I want my Martin back but I like you, too.”
Sitting on the empty spot next to Martin, Oscar said.
“Thanks, I guess?”
Martin softly chuckled.
“Well, you guys felt like my team, too. Thanks for everything today. It was really fun.”
“10 seconds!”
10, 9, 8…3, 2, 1.
With a small puff and a faint meow sound, Martin was back to his true self.
“Welcome back, Martin!”
Ivan wrapped his arms around Martin in a tight hug.
“…What is going on?”
“What a day, huh?”
Henk said from the other side of the play room.
“Yeah, it must’ve been for you guys.”
After hearing what happened that day, Martin wished he remember something from the transformation, but sadly his memory was too clean for today as if he had just woken up.
“Does anyone feel sleepy? We can watch a movie or something,” Razork suggested.
“Sure, we can.”
The boys settled into their favorite spot in bed.
“What about we watch the very first game Martin played in Fnatic?”
“Pog! I’m down.”
“Oh, come on guys,” Martin protested but of course it was ignored by everyone.
“Let’s watch it!”
Watching the old game made Martin quite sentimental, but the current team also had a good atmosphere which he was grateful for after two years of suffering in a toxic environment.
Feeling nostalgic, Martin shared some interesting stories that happened in the old roster, which everyone loved listening to, and shared their stories as well. They watched some more videos of everyone’s old selves. With some snacks and even more exciting stories, they all felt relaxed.
After hours of fun, they finally called it a night.
“Young Martin was cute, but I like this Martin much more,” Ivan said wrapping his legs around Martin’s waist in a playful manner and Martin chuckled.
“I wish I could see younger self so I can give my opinion.”
“Maybe if that book reappears.”
“Yeah.”
Bidding goodnight to each other, everyone drifted off to sleep.