Chapter Text
niko felt sweat drip from his neck as he sprinted in front of a rival member, relishing at the sight of his despair as he stole the ball from him.
he always loved bringing pain and anguish to his opponents, something that had stuck with him ever since he played a match against his bully during junior high.
he waved at the member as he ran past him, watching shock fill up his eyes. it was a look niko craved every game. after a few seconds of sprinting to make sure he was clear of anyone who would stop him, his foot stopped the ball, eyes snapping up to search for anyone to pass to or a free space that he could kick from.
the blazing summer heat beat down on him, making him regret keeping his hair so long. he mentally cursed whoever decided to make the stadium roofless. niko was sure to be sick after the game ended.
he panted, internally cursing at the sight of sendou being marked by two guys on his right. he looked to the left, finding the same for aiku. the two looked annoyed, eyes flickering toward niko before looking back at each other. he could tell they were silently communicating, something he found weird to watch. it was understandable, however, because they had been playing together long before niko and barou joined the team.
niko tore his gaze away from them to look at the goal. very few of his other teammates were in front of him, not even lorenzo or aryu. he cursed aloud, hoping he wouldn’t have to take the kick for himself at this distance.
then he noticed their most powerful player. barou was just in front of the goal, nobody near him. it was a sight he hadn't expected, because those his team played against always made sure to crowd around barou to prevent him from scoring.
how dumb, niko thought, you’re leaving the strongest one on our team free. how stupid are you people?
he made up his mind, his left foot reeling back before snapping forward, passing the ball to barou. he stared as it flew through the air, and above the athletes attempting to intercept it with no results other than failure. nobody was a match for barou, at least on the team they were playing against. he could see the victory coming, and through his vision he knew exactly how barou would kick it, as well as exactly where the ball would go before striking the net.
the older boy watched it with a devouring glint in his eye, preparing to kick the ball into the goal. the other team began to panic, realizing they had marked the wrong players instead of the powerhouse of their team.
niko grinned, watching the desperation in their eyes as they tried running toward barou, but no—they were too late, and too stupid. the tall man was in his perfect range, and as the ball landed in front of him, he kicked.
the sound of his foot meeting black and white echoed throughout the stadium, the crowd silent as they watched with interest—would it make it into the goal, he was sure they were thinking.
it flew just before the goal, curving around the screaming goalie, who was flailing around in an attempt to block it, before slamming into the white netting. a whistle was blown as their scores were updated. 3-4, it read, just as the timer reached its last second.
everyone went silent. niko fell to his knees, exhausted from the game. his eyes felt heavy underneath the sun. he breathed, trying to regain his breath. as he did that, aiku sprinted to barou, ready to celebrate their win. he watched with a small grimace as barou scowled at aiku’s attempt in rustling his gelled hair.
the crowd started to cheer, aiding in worsening niko’s head pain which was caused by his exhaustion and the heat. he gagged, dropping forward onto the fake grass, his weak hands not stopping him from hitting the ground.
“niko!” he heard somebody shout, somebody near him. as gentle hands held him up, he realized it was sendou. niko stared up at the salmon-haired boy as he looked down in fear and concern. the man began talking, but niko couldn’t register what he was saying. was this how isagi felt when he passed out after his first match with bastard münchen?
he relaxed in his hold as he felt his consciousness slip away, falling victim to the darkness around him. he shut his eyes, hardly hearing sendou shout to aiku. “i think he passed out!”
everything went black after that, and he felt nothing else.
he had woken up with a blurry vision and a pounding headache. he didn’t think that he would react that poorly at the end of the game–he had felt fine during it, really, it wasn't until the end did he really start to feel the exhaustion catch up to him. when asked, his doctor told him he had over exerted himself and that he’d have to drink more water to make up for it. luckily, he was still able to play against the paris x gen match his team would be having the following month.
he wasn’t excited to see the reactions of his older teammates once he was free to go.
the staff kept him in for a bit longer, maybe an hour and a half, to make sure that his head was fine and that he wouldn’t collapse again. it was annoying, because he was not fragile, but he understood that they were just doing their job. when it was almost time for him to leave, he shot off a text to aiku to let him know they were about to let him go. by then his headache had weakened, and with some water, it had gone away completely.
“make sure to drink a lot of water, okay?” a sweet nurse smiled at him before leaving with his chart.
once he had been discharged, he found aiku and sendou waiting for him in the parking lot. aiku stared at him with disapproval whereas sendou looked thankful to see him awake and healthy. he could tell exactly which one had panicked over him and which one comforted the other through their panic attack.
“you’re lucky you didn’t get a concussion, ikki. you hit the ground pretty hard,” aiku told him, shaking his head. niko didn’t respond, choosing to roll his eyes as sendou wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “i haven’t seen anyone collapse like that since isagi-kun did during his first german game.”
“it was just the heat, i’m fine,” niko groaned, leaning into sendou’s side. “i’m not that blue eyed bastard.”
sendou sighed, looking at him with a frown. “we’ll be hosting at least two more games before we start traveling. the heat isn’t going to let up anytime soon.”
the youngest grimaced because a part of his excuse was true. he hated the heat, and enjoyed the cold much more. he couldn’t wait until the cold months came. those were always his favorite (mainly because his opponents got distracted while attempting to warm themselves up during games). "the doctors said i'll be fine and to drink more water, okay?
sendou seemed to relax at that, nodding his head. as aiku walked them to his car, he continued to talk in an attempt to fill the awkward silence. “i heard that we’ll be meeting some of the pxg players next week in preparation for our game next month. i think coach snuffy just wants an excuse to figure out their strengths and weaknesses before we play them.”
sendou nodded, opening the back door for niko. niko grit his teeth, but not because of the team gathering, but rather because of his dislike of being taken care of (especially by oliver aiku). “i think a few of them are japanese, including—ah, that demon.”
shidou ryusei, niko recognized. sendou absolutely loved to shit talk him and itoshi sae, much to his annoyance. more than often the older man was telling him about a crazed demon and his heartless master. he knew sendou had a bad backstory that included the two, something about nearly losing his football career before ubers saved his ass, but damn--he was incredibly dramatic about it.
“they’re a strong team,” aiku pointed out, starting the car. “there’s a big chance that we’ll lose, but it doesn’t hurt to try.”
sure, niko thought, time to get embarrassed on our home turf. i’m sure sendou would love that.
he didn’t know why he accepted the contract with ubers when he had offers from other teams. it might’ve been because of his familiarity with barou, as they had played college football together. it was there he met isagi, the person he absolutely hated—he supposed sendou was right in his hatred of shidou ryusei and itoshi sae.
“i guess,” niko shrugged. “if we lose, though, don’t expect me to stay around to hear their cocky bragging.”
the last time they had lost, which was quite a while ago, was against manshine city. one of the players with purple hair (niko forgot his name) had looked at them smugly, and it took three people to hold sendou back from getting into a fight. sendou was benched during the next game, which gave them a disadvantage (although they still won). under no circumstances did he want to relive that again.
“i’m sure they won’t be that bad,” aiku laughed.
next to him, sendou very clearly disagreed. “i promise they will. especially that antennaed piece of shit—,”
“shuto!” the oldest gasped, although it was definitely feigned. “language! there are children back there.”
niko scowled, kicking his seat. it was definitely proving aiku's point, sure, but he didn’t care. “shut the hell up, old man, before i report you for kidnapping this ‘child.’”
sendou giggled, turning around in his seat. “now there’s our ikki niko.”
niko bit back a smile, instead rolling his eyes. as much as he hated aiku’s nonsense, he was thankful for him and sendou. if it weren’t for them, he wouldn’t be out of his comfort zone and instead would’ve been wallowing in self pity, all alone without a single care in the world.
maybe meeting the french players wouldn’t be so bad?
niko was wrong. of course it was bad.
it was a tuesday night, around 20:00, when a selective amount of ubers players were gathered (including niko himself) to meet the same amount of paris x gen players. they were all sat together in a restaurant, with the french team on one side of the table and the italian side (consisting of coach snuffy, aryu, barou, himself, sendou, and aiku) on the other. to say it was tense was an understatement. the opposite team seemed like they had little to say to them, only two or three members actually talking. itoshi rin, niko assumed because of his resemblance to sae, had been staring at his menu with a grimace on his face.
shidou, the tanned one, did engage in conversation with sendou, but only to tease him. when he wasn’t teasing him, he was talking to a shorter boy with a fang. the boy was blond and pretty, his voice loud and cheerful as he spoke. every so often, loki would say something to him, and the boy would quiet down. niko assumed that he was telling him he was being too loud. the fanged boy snuck glances toward niko every so often, as if he were curious and wished to talk to him, but niko could tell he didn’t speak japanese. unfortunately, niko couldn't speak french, so the boys were separated via language barriers.
niko turned to his right, watching aiku conversate with someone with gelled hair that stuck up behind his head, as well as a beauty mark underneath his eye. they were talking calmly and hushed, enough so niko couldn’t hear it. after a moment, he got annoyed of reading their lips, so he then shifted his attention to sendou, who looked like he was two seconds away from exploding. he figured the older man was holding himself back from jumping across the table to stab shidou in the eye with his fork.
"are you okay?" niko whispered, leaning close to the salmon-haired man.
sendou looked back at him, his glare softening. "don't worry about it. just don't like the other players."
niko had opened his mouth to reply when he was hit on the side of his face with a crumpled up straw wrapper. his mouth snapped shut as he frowned, narrowing his eyes. when he searched for the person who threw it, he found that both shidou and the fanged boy were looking at him.
shidou began speaking.
“hey, you’re the one who passed out at your last game, right?”
niko scowled, crossing his arms. “so what if i was?”
at his reaction, shidou laughed. next to him, the fanged boy watched them with furrowed brows—niko could tell he was dying to know what they were saying. shidou turned to ask him something in french. the boy brightened up at that, enthusiastically responding.
after a moment, shidou smiled at him, nodding.
then he looked back at niko.
“he says he can’t wait to kick your sorry ass in the next game and remove you from the competition.”
wow, okay.
now i understand exactly what sendou was talking about, niko thought, standing up from his chair. he had heard enough from shidou–he was starting to piss him off. without responding, he made his way to the bathroom so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the annoying pair. he ignored the fanged boy’s frown as he watched him go, slamming the door behind him.
had he waited a bit longer before leaving, he would have heard loki’s disappointed sigh before the captain told shidou in japanese, “that’s not what he said and you know it.”
niko stayed in the bathroom for about thirty minutes before sendou walked in to get him. the older man explained that the curfew loki had made for his team had been nearing, so they decided to leave to their hotel early. after hearing that, niko sighed in relief, following sendou back to their table so he could finish his own dinner and leave.
sendou was right, they were assholes.