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Well Ran wasn't expecting this.
“Did you invite someone over?”
“Uh- I don't think so,”
Yamamoto pouts and shrugs his shoulders, his eyes closed all the time. “Maybe it's Yuki lol,”
He giggles and shyly smiles away. “Maybe it’s Ogawa,”
“Well, that could be a problem for you,” Yamamoto wiggles his eyebrows.
Ran rolls his eyes and exaggeratingly scoffs at the thought. “Whatever. I'm off to sleep anyways,”
Turns out, it was Mattia, standing at the door's entrance with a handsome smile and waving at Ran from afar once their eyes locked. It made him sit upright on his bed, heart jumping in excitement for the surprising visit. He saw Yamamoto standing next to him, observing the taller man who immediately gave him a polite bow with a small, confident こんにちは, one that sends Yamamoto in a giggle fit. He gave Mattia a pat on his back for that, Ran can see how the other was proud of himself. Yamamoto's smiles mimic a Cheshire cat, one that stretches widely and curls at the end of his lips. “Come in! Wasn't expecting you guys, but it's okay!”
Ran laughs gently and watches how Yamamoto softens up with Mattia, laughing and making jokes as he welcomes him in. They were shaking their hands for quite a long time. Mattia was enthusiastic with Yamamoto's cheerfulness despite the hour of the situation. “Bottolo-kun, right?”
Mattia nods and scratches the pinkness of his cheeks, sheepishly smiling at the friendly run Yamamoto had added with his name. It suggests that they're in a friendly manner, Mattia thought. Anime was worth watching. “Call me Mattia,”
Yamamoto's signature kind of smile always has his eyes closed and shoulders tense in a comforting manner. He behaves in a welcoming way even when he doesn't often talk to other players. Ran can see the way Mattia settles in with Yamamoto's hospitality. “Sorry, for bothering you guys at such late night,”
“Oh no! Not a problem,” Yamamoto laughs it off. Squinting eyes resembling a fox is a contrast to Mattia's sleepy eyes. Ran wonders what goes on in Mattia's head right now.
Yamamoto turns to look at Ran. A smile on his face as he changes back to talking in Japan. “Isn’t this the guy you were with in Padova?”
Mattia stutters and looks back and forth between them. He almost looked like he's sweating at the lack of grasp with the language barrier, but the word Padova caught in his ears as quick as how he shifts in his behaviour. “P-Padova? Sorry? ごめん?”
Ran holds his laugh back and brushes it off, signaling Mattia that he has nothing to worry about. A relief expression washed over his face, yet the man was still towering in cautiousness over Yamamoto's teasing. As in fact that would have been amusing, Mattia didn't want to make a fool of himself and Ran takes note of this with gentle eyes. “Tomo-san, you shouldn't be teasing him like that. He means good. You know that right?”
“Well, of course I do! He's one of your friends in Padova after all. He's Yuki's friend too-” Yamamoto whips his head towards Mattia and gives him a thumbs up. A cheeky and toothy grin consoles Mattia's insecurities. “Not to mention, he's pretty cute. Didn't you say he was a total ikemen? I can totally see it,”
Ran furiously blushes and flails his hands around at the bold words coming from Yamamoto's mouth, a playful remark of his feelings when he first met Mattia. “Y-You don't have to say that in front of him!”
Mattia stands, unwavering, in between them with hands tucked to his sides and lips pursed into a thin line. He amusingly watches how Ran gets grumpy and all pouty, perhaps even blushes under this soft table light, that he had to look down to his kicking feet just to hide the warmth in his cheeks. “I'm sorry to bother you guys at this late night. I wanted to see Ran and check up on how he’s doing,”
Yamamoto stares blankly at him before giving him a knowing look. Mattia was slightly taken aback as he felt restless from the hint of mischief coming from the person. “Bother? Not at all!”
“Are you sure it isn’t? I can still see Ran at breakfast tomorrow,”
“Ah it's okay! You’re here already, no need to trouble yourself more,”
“Right. Thanks a lot. But-”
“Are you here alone? Is there anybody else with you?”
Yamamoto was asking him too many questions that could potentially make him feel uneasy. Considering how chirpy he can get, Ran doesn’t sweat it out too much and instead watches Mattia’s body language in silence so that he knows if he is passing the border or not. So far, they’ve been on the same length and that gives him comfort. What Ran doesn’t know though is the fact that Mattia wasn’t alone, and Yamamoto knows this. Had the roles been switched between them, Ran would probably be standing on weak knees to see Mattia and this exact someone who he has yet to know.
“Ah yes. About that. I was going to tell you!” He snaps his fingers and pats both of Yamamoto’s shoulders in an impressed way. He laughs, Yamamoto laughs. Ran gets more nervous about this.
“Well, I’m not sure if you remember but I did invite you to come and have dinner together after the ceremony, Ran. I wanted to catch up with him, but because it was too late, I couldn’t, so here I am instead. And yes, I brought someone along with me,”
Ran doesn’t get a time to lay out all of his guessing options until the person himself walks into the room with a thin smile and wide, bright eyes.
Oh… it’s-
“Ah! If it isn’t Michieletto himself,” Yamamoto sounded delightfully surprised by the sight of a shy Alessandro, coming into the room- a hand scratching the back of his neck and a sheepish yet toothy smile he’s putting on. The usual expression of his.
“I can come in?” Alessandro asks. He was already standing besides Mattia. The difference in height comes clear when they’re closer and next to each other. With Mattia's calm, composed and friendly manner, he made Alessandro’s tall figure look meek and shy as if he was his dog.
Yamamoto was a fox in this situation- he doesn’t fear the tall men in front of him, instead, he takes advantage of his mischief and plays it around with them. “You're already in. Why ask more?”
Alessandro embarrassingly chuckles before he scoots closer to Mattia. Even with his tall height, being next to the older, acting all embarrassed made him look like a kid. “I was alone out there. Too long- so I come in to see for myself,”
Mattia lets them have their own conversation before turning his attention to Ran once again. Ran, who is frozen on his bed, stutters and looks at Mattia with a confused expression. The other doesn’t say anything, only smiling at the sight of the boy- the gentleness of his eyes along with the soft smile on his lips took Ran’s breath away until he locked his eyes with Alessandro, standing right behind Mattia- still talking with Yamamoto.
Ran looks away almost immediately and hides the wild expression of his face from him. He touches his cheeks, feeling the warmth slowly creeping to his skin as he tries to block out the sounds coming from them. It’s almost impolite to do so, but Ran couldn’t keep his mind straight from how hard his heart is beating right now.
“Like I said-” Mattia begins. Ran doesn’t remember his voice being this close to him before. “I just wanted to check up on Ran,”
Yamamoto plops himself next to Ran and dangles his legs from the bed. He gives Ran a nudge to his shoulder. “So~ You missed him?”
He pushed the older away. His voice almost broke from the heat. “T-Tomo-san! Stop it! You're making no sense right now. Stop embarrassing me!” Yamamoto laughs and tries to defend himself from the playful punches by Ran. “Oh come on! You know it's true,”
A laughter comes from Mattia. Ran doesn't dare to look at him even when his ears tingle at the sound of it. He couldn't look at Mattia with the knowledge that Alessandro was right behind him- he didn't dare to look at him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but yes. Yes actually. I missed him,”
Ran pauses and waits for anyone to say something. Yamamoto looks at him from the corner of his eyes- the older one notices how red Ran’s cheeks are looking right now. He doesn’t trade anymore and gets straight to the point. “I see. Well, what about Michieletto-kun?”
“Oh him? He wanted to see Ran too,”
The words didn’t do anything to help Ran in the current state. He can hear the blood rushing to his ears and Ran slowly, shyly, finally looks at them. His eyes wavering, his lips pursed and cheeks burning hot once he finally sees Mattia in his vision. Alessandro had the same look as him. His heart skips a beat.
“M-Me? This is surprising,”
“Well. He's been wanting to do so. He just didn’t know how to approach you,”
“Did you know about it, Mattia?”
“Not at first. I mean- I guess I had a hunch. After all, Ale can be quite transparent with his feelings,”
“No! Hey, that’s not true,”
“It is-” Mattia rolls his eyes. It’s like answering an obvious question. He was stating the fact. “You keep on asking me about him,”
Alessandro stutters with his words and doesn't say anything to retort back. This made Yamamoto laugh while holding his stomach from having to see Alessandro all flushed out and shaking like a puppy.
Ran on the other hand was too stunned and shy to even say anything. He carefully looked at Alessandro’s face, and the man was understandably flustered when they locked eyes for a second. He covers his face, switches to Italian and pulls the hem of Mattia's shirt. “Mattia, I'm going to kill you if you continue to embarrass me,”
“Chill. You know he’s been doing the same thing too, right?”
“Really?”
Mattia gives him a look. Alessandro shrugs his shoulders and begs for an explanation, but Mattia pushes him off and instead directs his attention towards Ran again. “How have you been doing?”
The boy sits upright and clears his throat. His cheeks pink like cherry blossoms, Mattia adores it silently. “G-Good. I was about to sleep, but I’m surprised to see you here. Him especially,”
Mattia laughs at himself and the thought of Alessandro standing beside him like a pole. He gives the other a slap on the back, it caught him off guard and he was glaring at Mattia the whole time. “How’s your hand? It looks pretty good to me. Just needed some patching up, right?”
“Yeah,” Ran shrugs his shoulders and inspects the bandages covering his hand. “It’s going to take a while for it to heal properly, but nothing serious though, I’ll be fine,”
Yamamoto gives the two Italian men some space to sit. Mattia places himself right in front of Ran, immediately grabbing his hand and inspecting the clean wrapping of his injury. The texture feels rough against his palm, but he caresses them gently- eyes moving up to look at Ran’s doe ones. “It’s impressive how you can still play even with this condition,”
He shakes his head, embarrassed and arguably really happy to hear it from him. “Like I said it was nothing to worry about. Only a slight hurt in my pinky,”
Mattia does the unexpected- he looks at Ran straight into his eyes and gently places a kiss on the back of his hand. “You were really good out there,”
Ran bites the inside of his cheeks and looks away from him. Too much for him to handle with how handsome Mattia is and how gentle he’s being with him. He mutters out a small appreciation. “I’m quite happy to see you here to be honest,”
Mattia quirks an eyebrow. “Yeah? Do you miss me?”
“A lot. You can’t imagine it,”
Yamamoto was clearly stupefied by what’s happening in front of him. He doesn’t say anything though, he knows that this is a moment for them alone so he’s trying to be respectful and understanding about this situation.
But he couldn't ignore the sulky air Alessandro was letting out right next to the unbothered Mattia who was still flirting with Ran. He tries to hold back his laugh, Alessandro is crossing his arms right now and acts all annoyed with Mattia. Should he do something? Or maybe he should just let this scene unfold by itself because after all, they wanted to see Ran. He’s not part of anything that’s going on right now and perhaps, it kinda looked like Mattia was doing this on purpose just to tease Alessandro. He’s definitely telling Yuki about this whole thing.
“Michieletto’s spikes are good right?”
They turned to look at Yamamoto- he was wearing the same sly fox face as always. Alessandro is lost for words and Yamamoto laughs at how oblivious and flustered he can be. “I mean it can be quite hard for me to pick up his serves. Even when I trained with Yuji, it can be really different you know,”
They remained silent. Inside, Yamamoto was tired with how slow they can be, he had to facepalm himself. Still, he gives a knowing look to Mattia. “That’s why I’m glad Ran is in our team!”
It clicks inside Mattia’s head like a lightbulb. “Yeah! Ran can be pretty dangerous sometimes. No matter what we do, he’s always there to pick them up again. It can be pretty tiring. Even Ale keeps on targeting him whenever he gets the chance too,”
“Yeah! I think Mich-kun should be more careful about him instead of me,”
Mattia pauses and looks at Yamamoto for a confirmation. He raises an eyebrow and immediately plays along again. “Y-Yeah. You should pay more attention to him, Ale. he can be quite nasty sometimes,” he’s not sure if the world has a different meaning to it, but Alessandro glances to his side to see the look that Ran’s having right now. To his surprise, Ran had his eyes on him for a long time, it made him jolt a little. Not that it mattered but he’s blushing again. They both are. He can feel the empty spaces in between them and it’s begging to be closed. The pull was intense, Alessandro looks at his bandaged hand and wonders if it feels the same as holding him.
“I mean, you guys are totally two sides of the same coin, no?”
Alessandro bugs out and tilts his head, imitating a confused puppy. Ran only looks at Mattia- full of curiosities, like a cat. He leans back and props himself by the elbows. Yamamoto does the same and leans into the palm of his hand right next to Mattia, laying on his side. They turn to look at each other with playful smiles- it made Alessandro and Ran tense in anticipation, feeling skittish in this situation.Why are they acting like a duo?
“Ale- he’s good on offense. It’s not like every day we get a left-handed player who is as exceptional as he is,” he says, his hand gesturing to Alessandro’s whole side and retracts back with a dead looking face once he realises that the boy is soaking it all up. Yamamoto just nods along with him, enthusiastic about the approach and that he was right about it. “It’s scary to be going up against him!”
Alessandro grins loudly and swings to his sides, clearly happy with compliments. Ran observes him from the corner of his eyes and dampens a bit. He didn’t realise that Mattia was looking at him, the man understands the current pressure on the boy. “But! It’s going to be hard when you’re against Ran, Ale. You know this, right?”
The two boys looked at each other- so sudden but it feels like the moment is calling for it. “I know,”
Mattia raises an eyebrow. Yamamoto watches closely. “And why is that?”
Alessandro looks deeply into Ran’s eyes. He can see his reflection in him. He looks utterly timid and overwhelmed by this eye contact they’re having and Ran somehow decides to amp it up by tilting his head to the side as he flutters his eyelashes. Alessandro gets fucking hard and starts sweating heavily, cursing all profanities to calm himself down. “U-Uh… I mean. We were one of the younger players in the Tokyo Olympics. Of course it means that he’s good to fight with,”
“Huh? Th-that’s not-” Mattia sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose. “That’s not the point,”
“It’s not? I think it’s important to add in there,” Yamamoto does absolutely nothing except to encourage the other three in this room. God knows how bad it would have been if he wasn’t there to help break the tension- several times. “I mean, I saw an article where they said that Mich-kun is the Italian version of Ran which makes Ran the Japanese version of him, yes?”
“What really? They published that?”
“Yeah! I think even the world knows,”
Mattia whistles teasingly as he wiggles his eyebrows to Alessandro. The boy was as red as ever- he tried to shove him off the bed but was too shaky to do so. “It’s the fans. You know how they sometimes want to see their favourite players play together, right?”
Both Yamamoto and Mattia agree with Alessandro’s words. It’s shocking to see how in sync they’re being with each other right now- it throws Alessandro and Ran off guard. “You also can’t deny the fact that you were one of the reason why Ran wants to play in Italy,”
Now this was something. Immediately after Mattia spoke those words, Ran gets all flustered and tries to cover it by adjusting his hair and looking at Yamamoto for help. His eyes are blown wide by the sudden change of attention towards him, and poor Ran does not know how to deal with this stuff especially when Alessandro is right next to him. This feels like a couple therapy where Mattia and Yamamoto are trying to get them to know each other better. Ran wishes that he was already sleeping hours ago.
Alessandro on the other hand is clearly stunned to hear it. He had to make sure that he wasn’t listening to some of Mattia’s lies so he turned towards Ran to see his reaction. Surprised to say, by the way Ran is pretending to be unfazed about it even when he can see how red his ears are right now, Alessandro feels like his feelings are reciprocated. Only that he didn’t know it has been going on for a long time- back when he was still oblivious to Ran’s presence and how he thinks he was one of the best young talents out there.
“I think you two would make a good… hm. How do I put this?”
Yamamoto shakes his head. “I don’t know. A good coin,”
“Yeah. A good coin,”
Alessandro furrows his eyebrows and looks at Ran. “What does that even mean?”
“Not sure. Maybe a good duo?” he says it ever so bluntly that it caused Alessandro to choke on his breath, almost sputtering out from the shock he felt.
Mattia snaps his finger and goes in for Ran’s head to give him a gentle pat. Ran takes it like a good boy. “You can say that. I know how you two wanted to be the better version than each other and that sometimes, you guys despise one another. To be fair, it’s more of that, but it’s a friendly rivalry, right? You two realise what you’re lacking in and coincidentally, you complement each other. It feels like it’s part of your destiny to be here,”
Ran has always thought that, if anything, he would want to beat Alessandro just like how he had beaten him in the Olympics. It left a major impact on him. He doesn’t like volleyball like how obsessed Alessandro is with it, but the matter of fact is that playing against him was one of the many things that made him want to be more than him. “I want to beat him. I’ve always wanted to be better than him,”
He doesn’t step back from the strong gaze Alessandro has on him, instead, Ran challenges him by giving a playful smirk- one that made Alessandro clenches his jaw before smiling widely. “If anything, today is only just the beginning of it,”
It feels like a declaration of war. It feels like they’re confessing out to each other and Alessandro has never felt this much adrenaline, joy and motivation inside of him- coursing in every part of his body. “That’s brave. You took the words out of my mouth, Takahashi,”
“Can you just say his name?”
“Fuck Mattia stop ruining the moment ! I-I can’t!”
“What why? Are you shy? You’re shy?”
Alessandro blushes heavily and throws a pillow to Mattia as he flashes him a middle finger out of spite. Ran couldn’t help the giggle coming out from his mouth because Yamamoto was helping Mattia recover from the impact without being serious about it.
“Ran,”
Ran shakily breathes. “Alessandro,”
“Even if we lost today, I’m definitely going to be better than you,”
Ran gets a goosebump, his nerves tingling upon hearing his words. He smiles and looks at the bandage covering his hand in total silence- heart beating too loud for him to realise that Alessandro is slowly trying to hold them, but doesn’t cross the line. Ran secretly finds this cute. Adorable actually. Like a total high-school kind of love where they chase fleeting moments to be kept in their hearts forever. With his other hand, he pulls Alessandro’s larger ones into a handshake and smiles brightly. “You wish. I’m going to pick up every spikes you hit, and I’m not going to miss out on any of them,”
Alessandro licks his lips and watches Ran with full on interest. “Then I guess I have to hit it until you’re tired, huh?”
“Only if you can keep up with me,”
This feels right. They feel right and it feels like they’re leaning closer into each other, slowly and steadily as their heart races to get closer than this.
“Well! That’s one way to put it,”
Alessandro could almost punch Mattia right in his face had it not been for the warmth of Ran’s petite hand. “You always ruin the mood,”
“Fuck I don’t want you to get in the mood in front of me and Tomo? Hell no bro. You’re in their room. Plus, I saw him first so I’m allowed to be jello,”
“I saw Ran first,”
“Aren’t you his big brother?”
“You too, no? Actually Yuki is the real first person to see him,”
Mattia nods and lets out a sigh. “Yeah. if we’re going to put Yuki in the convo, you know there’s not going to be any competition left, right?”
“It’s fine~ I won’t tell. Everyone just loves Ran-chan so much,”
“Tomo-san, so creepy,”
He happily laughs.
“I think we’re done here already! Come on, let’s get some sleep,”
Alessandro visibly pouts and looks at Ran for the last time. The grip in his hand gently tightens before he lets them go, all while looking deeply at Ran. He mutters out a small bidding of farewell underneath his breath- smiling gently at the sight of Alessandro in his eyes. Mattia steals his attention by patting his head again and telling him to be careful with his injury. It got him giggling and gently caressing his cheek in a soothing way, one that brings back memories of them together. “I’m happy you came,”
Mattia kisses his hand. “I’m happy to see you,” he leans in for a kiss on Ran’s cheek. Such a normal thing to do that they didn’t bother to hide it from the other two in the room. Mattia smiles widely as he watches Ran for the last time. Somehow, before he left, he elbows Alessandro and urges him to go and do the same thing to Ran. Obviously, this got him feeling all jittery once Alessandro excitedly faces him again.
They didn’t say anything except that Alessandro is holding Ran’s injured hand in both of his palms and giving it a gentle squeeze. His attitude playful as ever, Ran couldn’t help the laugh coming out from him. “This just shows that you’re better than me,”
Ran can feel his heart flutter before it explodes once Alessandro kisses him on the corner of his eyes. He lets him bury his face in his neck for a while, enjoying how breathless Alessandro sounded by this- their breaths seemingly in sync as Ran’s chest rises up and down to the feeling of the warm breath tickling his skin. He giggles when he watches how Alessandro practically jumps as soon as he pulls away and starts skipping to Mattia. They waved at him before Yamamoto courteously walked them to the door.
Ran couldn’t believe that what had just happened is in fact real. Now that he’s finally laying down and looking up at the ceiling, he can still feel how Alessandro’s breath felt real on his skin and that somehow, his heart blooms at the thought of him going up against Alessandro in the future. He can’t hide his smile and how happy he feels.
“You know what, Ran?”
Ran hums out, still deep in his dreams.
“That should’ve been Ogawa,”
“Mannnn, shut up Tomo-san,”