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When Isagi settled in Munich, he rented a modest apartment in the city center for two years to be on time for his trainings, while Kaiser flaunted the huge mansion he had inherited from his paternal grandparents a couple of years ago. The disadvantage of living there was that it was almost an hour away from Säbener Straße, Bastard München's sports city.
Learning the basics of the language had been difficult for Isagi; in fact, he was still taking German classes in his free time. The schedule, the food, the weather—everything was different, and even his teammates used to make fun of him. But there was someone who helped him cope with the overwhelming changes as he started a new life in a distant country: Michael Kaiser.
They had been dating for several months, at the beginning they always taunted each other with insulting remarks, which led to frequent arguments. But as the days went by, in the midst of stress, adrenaline, euphoria, and fatigue, they ended up kissing. One afternoon, Michael simply decided to forcefully connect their mouths to silence the complaints of the Japanese while cornering him against the locker room wall, surprisingly Yoichi reciprocated. Soon, the kisses went from gentle touches to becoming increasingly fierce and demanding. One thing led to another and before they knew it, they were both naked and entangled under the sheets of cheap hotels, devouring each other's souls.
Both had decided not to make their relationship public in front of the media at that time. It was to be expected, Kaiser and Isagi were internationally renowned professional players, and bringing their connection to light would attract too much attention.
Their dynamics remained the same despite their bond; they competed, fought, argued, joked with each other, and when necessary, they were capable of working together to destroy their rivals.
Sometimes Isagi slept at Kaiser's mansion, and sometimes Kaiser would spend the nights at Isagi's apartment. Without realizing it, they already had a considerable amount of each other's clothes in their homes, ranging from shoes, shirts, jackets, pants, sports uniforms… to toothbrushes and red eyeliners.
Isagi tends to blush when he sees his boyfriend's clothes in his closet, neatly folded next to his own. The only problem was that Kaiser was one to two sizes bigger than him, so he could hardly wear his clothes without them being too loose or too long and big on him. But he didn't mind occasionally wearing his hoodies when it was cold.
It was normal to assume that they shared each other's clothes without any issues.
I.
The first time was when they were invited to an event and pre-gala party for the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony in Paris, and of course, both Kaiser and Isagi were nominated. That night, Isagi went to Kaiser's house first because he couldn't find any of his ties in his apartment.
"How strange… you said no one could know about our relationship, Yoichi," Kaiser responded on the phone as he pressed the button for his garage to open automatically, allowing the dark-haired man to enter through the back of the house.
"I can't find my ties, idiot; you probably have them," Isagi responded angrily as he hurriedly walked through the hallways he knew so well and climbed the stairs to reach the German's huge room, ending the call as he did so.
"Look in the wardrobe, Yoichi." Kaiser was still getting dressed and had on an unbuttoned white designer shirt. Isagi blushed when he saw his partner's toned chest and tried to look away, reminding himself that he hadn't come there just to be captivated by the attractiveness of that German. Without wasting any more time, he began searching.
"I can't find any of my ties here..."
"Take one of mine, we're running late for the event." Reluctantly, Isagi took one of Kaiser's luxurious and expensive ties and placed it around his neck, clumsily attempting to tie it but failing.
"Damn it..."
"Let me help you." Kaiser, who was already completely prepared and presentable, approached Isagi and took the navy blue tie he had chosen with both hands, tying it perfectly and adjusting it on his neck. "There. You look handsome."
"Shut up."
"I love you too."
Yoichi seriously considered looking for more of his belongings in Kaiser's room to take back to his apartment once the party was over.
II.
The second time was when winter arrived in Munich. Kaiser had many branded coats in his closet, but he was in the middle of his vacation and on snowy days all he wanted to do was cuddle with Yoichi under the covers, intertwine their fingers, and smell the shampoo in his hair.
And that's what they were doing together at that moment in Isagi's modest apartment. Cuddled up in the small bed while a snowstorm wreaked havoc on the streets.
"Kaiser..."
"Tell me..."
"Let me go out for a bit to buy us breakfast."
"I don't want to..."
Kaiser doesn't want to let his boyfriend go because one of the things he hates most in the world is feeling the emptiness that he will leave on the mattress when he's gone.
"I'll be back quickly." That's what Yoichi promises him as he gets up and kisses Michael's temple, who refuses to open his eyes and furrows his brow when the other puts on a coat and leaves the room.
When he hears in the distance that the front door opens and closes, Kaiser also gets up grudgingly. He feels an overwhelming cold to the bones once he removes the sheets from above himself; with lazy steps he searches among Isagi's things for something he can wear to warm up.
And he finds it.
It's a big red scarf, handmade by his dear mother-in-law. The best part is that it smells like Yoichi.
His Yoichi. He just left a few minutes ago and already misses him so much.
Kaiser looks at the clock on the small nightstand and realizes that it's past 9 in the morning. Normally both of them would wake up at 5 in the early morning to go jogging, but it was snowing and they were on their damn vacation. Fuck the routine training, Michael takes the warm scarf and wraps it around his neck as he returns to the warmth of the bed and covers himself with the sheets.
When Isagi returned, he saw Kaiser curled up like a little ball and with that red scarf around his neck that his mother gave him for Christmas.
The image simply struck him as heartwarming, so much so that he felt somewhat sorry to wake him up again.
III.
The third time was in the middle of a press conference. Fans had already started to suspect that the two of them 'had something' and they couldn't stop theorizing on social media.
But they didn't have any proof of it.
And it was Kaiser who was to blame for everyone finding out beforehand. Bastard München used to have personalized sports uniforms designed for each of their starters; Isagi had just joined, so he wasn't aware that everyone knew Michael Kaiser's sports jacket perfectly.
At first glance, all the jackets looked alike, but there were small and almost imperceptible details in German.
Starting with the crest, Kaiser's jacket had embroidered blue roses and vines with thorns, under, the team name and a player's signature phrase, in this case, Kaiser's: 《 The one who reveals what's impossible. 》 in German. Furthermore, the initials of his name were also embroidered on the right side.
Kaiser had left his jacket on top of Isagi's, so when both of them came out to give that interview after their training session, Yoichi took the first he saw and put it on in front of all those cameras that were broadcasting live.
Not to mention that he didn't realize it because that jacket fit him well, even if it felt a bit big.
After answering several routine questions, the last ones came as a shock: "Isagi Yoichi, why are you wearing Michael Kaiser's sports jacket? Are you two dating? When do you plan to make it official?"
Isagi didn't know how to respond. Kaiser was also somewhat stunned by the audacity and quickly looked at Isagi. That was when he realized that he was wearing his sports jacket.
Those damn vultures have the eyes of an eagle.
"No. You're mistaken, Kaiser and I..."
Suddenly, Michael interrupted a completely red-faced Yoichi and said in German, "Ja, es ist wahr. Wir sind zusammen, wir sind ein Paar, und wir haben jeden Tag Sex. Nächste Frage."
"What—"
Isagi blushed to his ears; his German wasn't perfect yet, but he managed to understand the man beside him very well. He looked at Kaiser with annoyance and then felt a bunch of flashes on them. Isagi took off the jacket and hit Kaiser with it while storming off the podium in fury.
"I think he's angry." Kaiser was trying to maintain composure.
"How can he not get angry when you said in front of hundreds of cameras, 'Yeah, it's true. We're dating, we're a couple, and we have sex every day. Next question.'?" Erick replied with laughter, accompanied by his teammates.
"The interview is over," Noa interrupted as all the players and the Bastard München team left the place.
Now everyone knew that the two most popular stars of the German team were a couple.