Chapter Text
"C'mon. I think having some social interactions will be good for you."
Rin raised his eyebrow in doubt.
"And I should fly to Germany for that?"
It made no sense. If Loki wanted him to have social interactions there was no need to fly him out to Germany.
"They rarely meet up and this time it's in Germany. I'm sure it would help your teamwork."
"Fine."
He didn't know why he'd agreed.
⋆˚꩜｡⋆
The flight was long and annoying. When he's arrived in Hamburg he had to hail a taxi and after a bit of awkward communication in English the taxi was on the way to the address.
The house was gigantic. It looked like a vacation home. How many people would be here? Rin hadn't bothered to ask. He'd figured it out.
He paid the driver and rang the doorbell. The door was opened by Ness.
"Oh, you're quite early. I'm still setting up."
The man had his hair pulled back with a zigzag headband.
"Well, you get first pick for rooms then."
Rin was let in and immediatly noticed that the house had pretty high ceilings. There were multiple bags filled to the brim. Probably groceries. He may not know how many people were coming but if Ness was hosting in this house for half a week he probably needed to get a lot of stuff.
"Just claim any room upstairs besides the one at the end of the hallway. You might have to share though. We'll see. Come back down if you're too bored or need anything."
Rin just nodded along. It felt weird with Ness being so casual with him after their game. They'd never interacted outside of that.
He climbed the stairs with his suitcase. The hallway was pretty long with five rooms. He decided on the one at the back right. The room was bigger than expected. It had a closet, two beds and a couch. There was also a tilted wall with a big window.
He started sorting out his clothes into the closet. It was just a few jeans, T-shirts, shirts and sleep clothes.
"Itoshi."
Rin whipped around.
"Just Rin."
It was always so awkward to explain why he preferred his first name-
"Rin then. You hungry? The others will probably come soon and I'm not gonna have time to get anything proper then."
He did feel pretty hungry and not having to organize food to some vacation home in Germany sounded great.
"Yeah, actually."
He sat up from before the closet.
"Come with me then."
Rin did as Ness told him and soon enough he sat at the table with a plate full of pan-fried potatoes. He'd never tried them before but he had agreed to try some German food. It tasted pretty good. Maybe he'd have it back home too.
A melody echoed through the house. A glass of water was placed before him.
"Here's some water."
Ness got out his phone and he pressed a button and typed in some code.
"He knows his way through this house."
So they did always meet in the same house and the next guest was here.
"Sorry, Alexis you know how my flights never alig-"
Sae?!
Why was he here? And he was calling Ness by his first name? Were they close?
They held eye contact for about 4 seconds. Sae looked at him in what Rin could only describe as utter horror.
"Alexis."
His brother immediately turned his attention to the host.
"Sae."
"Why is my little brother here?"
Of course his brother didn't want him here.
"Julian asked if he could join us. What? Nervous?"
"What is he completely nuts? Go die at the foot end of your masters bed."
Ness just laughed. Sae had never behaved particularly polite but telling someone to go die would've been very out of character for the brother he remembered. But Sae wasn't that brother anymore.
Sae's gaze wandered to the stove with the pan and the potatoes in it.
"Can I have the rest?"
"Obviously. Told the others to eat before they come here. I'm gonna go get ready. Keep an eye on Rin."
"I hope you stab yourself in the eye with your eyeliner."
Rin watched in confusion as Ness just stuck out his tongue which glinted in the artificial light before leaving.
⋆˚꩜｡⋆
After having awkwardly sat at the table to eat for a while Ness had come back in an off the shoulder T-shirt, jorts and makeup.
Rin hadn't expected Ness to have a non-basic sense of style but he didn't really know anyone off the field.
Sae's phone rang. He checked the screen and Rin watched his face shift into disgust.
"I'm taking a nap. Be back in two hours. Tell him I'm not here yet."
The phone flew towards Ness.
"We both know he won't believe that."
"I don't care. If he's that upset he should try suicide."
Rin watched the whole interaction confused but Sae rushed up the stairs as Rin could hear steps enter the house.
"Baby Itoshi's here? This'll be fun."
Bunny Iglesias, he played on some Spanish team. Maybe Sae and this guy had met in Spain?
"You ate?"
Ness asked. Why was he so insistend on everyone eating?
"Yeah."
"You know where everything is."
Rin decided that this was enough social interactions for now and spent a few more hours in his room just scrolling Instagram. He could occasionally hear the door ring. A total of three times actually.