Chapter Text
Things haven't been going great lately for Vivian Hugo. It's not that he is having a hard time, not at all; it's just that it seems that destiny isn't taking his liking lately.
Maybe it was already time for things to not go his way; meeting Julien Loki was far too much of a lucky strike. Since then, luck has always been out of the picture. Always having to rely on his own efforts.
Until he met Loki, nobody really understood Hugo’s plays, saying that they didn't make sense or they were inhumane. But Loki wasn't like those unsuitable losers; he was bold, arrogant, and maybe a little absurd. And above all, Loki was good.
And even if Loki was arrogant, he played like Hugo could only dream of, and he wasn't going to let that dream slip away.
Because only Loki could have a dream 'as adorably tyrannical' as his.
And it would be idiotic to stay at Arsenaly to play with people who didn't understand and couldn't achieve his plays. So naturally, Hugo joined PXG, because Vivian Hugo knows that being born in the same era and the same country and meeting Julien Loki was part of his destiny.
So, when it comes down to decisions, Hugo will do just as Loki pleases , because it’s his destiny, so when the coach told them about the Neo Egoist league, it was only natural for Hugo to do as Loki said. And Loki wanted Charles to improve, so things were settled.
The neo-egoist league itself isn't bad; it has its drawbacks, mostly having to deal with teenagers—stupid ones, at that—but it isn’t that big of a deal. He gets to improve, play with new people, and who knows, maybe they can even recruit some good players for their team; it’s not like they need them; they already have Loki, but as the saying goes, the more, the merrier.
At first impression, when he first saw the people who had joined their club, nobody really caught his attention. Well, there was a guy, Shidou Ryuusei, but it wasn’t much of a good impression; rather, it was leaning towards the bad; the guy was far too loud for his liking. Perhaps it was the way he put himself out there, or the obscenities; what struck his attention more than anything.
However, later that day, Loki decides, and makes Hugo come along, that he wants to know as much as he can about every player. The younger says that he just intends to know who is most compatible with Charles, but Hugo knows better and knows that deep down he is also feeling a little responsible for his position as the team's coach.
They spend a good part of their free afternoon; they had just arrived that morning, and Ego was kind enough to give them a day to settle, watching recordings from previous matches and analyzing as much data as they have from every player.
It irks Hugo that there are that many players trying to play as strikers when it’s, for most of them, unsuitable; just because you can doesn’t mean you should. But there had to be a reason for them being stuck here while he was already playing for a professional club, and that they couldn’t even compare to him, after all.
However, there seems to be a player who apparently catches Loki’s attention, which is rare because Loki is not one to care about anyone other than himself on the field.
They have been in a comfortable silence for a while when Loki decides to break his silence.
Loki doesn’t even look up from his tablet while he says, “Well, Rin can be an interesting player.”
“Who?” The older one says, as unbothered as always, not looking up either from his blank book. Hugo had already given up on acting like he cared about any of these people and got on with his business. Loki didn’t seem to mind.
Loki just turns his tablet around as an answer to show it to Hugo, the tablet screen displaying Rin Itoshi’s data profile. Hugo looks up at the tablet screen and takes it from Loki, not without first asking silently for permission with a glance, so he can have a better look.
There’s a display of various data about Rin Itoshi, his height, weight, age, and various ratings on abilities like dribbling, speed, or offense. From what he can see, Rin Itoshi is actually pretty good, but of course he can’t help but also notice the familiar last name.
Without thinking first, of course, Hugo asks, “Itoshi… Is he Sae Itoshi’s brother or something?”
Faking surprise, as in mocking the older, Loki says, “Did you come up with all that by yourself?”
“Well, they can’t be the only ones with that last name.” Hugo tries to defend himself, but he has already made a fool of himself.
“Sure,” Loki shrugs it off and lets the silence settle for a little, Hugo still analyzing Rin’s profile.
After a while, Hugo must have been able to memorize everything about the guy by now, Loki talks again, “Well, what do you think?”
Hugo takes a little before saying, “From what I’ve been able to see, he can be a great option for Charles to practice new passes while you aren’t available.” There’s a little pause. “And I think Charles is going to have a great time playing with Rin; the guy seems easy to tease.”
In agreement, Loki smiles, genuinely.
“We’ll keep a close eye on him then”
—
The next day, Hugo and Loki, sharing a room and, by association, an alarm, wake up early for morning practice. They get ready quietly, too early for conversation, and head off for the cafeteria right after.
At the cafeteria, Loki doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he is not here to make new friends, sitting at the same table as the rest of their stratum but not sparing them a glance. Even so, Loki still answers politely to questions coming his way from time to time. He isn’t interested, but he isn’t rude either.
Hugo, though he won’t admit it, is quite pleased with that, having Loki all for himself afterall.
They wait long, giving Charles all of breakfast time for making his appearance, but he doesn’t.
When they get to the field, right away after seeing that it is in fact empty except for themselves, Loki mutters to himself, “Of course Charles isn’t here yet” resignedly, sighing, not disappointed but annoyed anyway.
Hugo just hums in response.
The younger one turns his head a little to look Hugo in the eye and asks nicely, “Could you go get him, please?”
Hugo throws a thumbs up his way and just says, “Sure,” already heading off his way.
Hugo strides away, pacing quickly, knowing that if he takes longer than needed, Loki will reprimand him as well as Charles.
Finding Charles isn’t hard, his room being beside theirs. To Hugo, it doesn’t really make sense why Charles, a fifteen-year-old, gets his own bedroom and not him, or Loki, who is a mentor at that. It’s not a complaint, though; he enjoys Loki’s company, even if things may have been a little awkward lately.
As already expected, when Hugo opens the door, Charles is still soundly asleep in his bed, limbs all sprawled out and dried-up drool all over his face.
Charles sleeps in some quite interesting positions.
Hugo tries the most efficient way for waking up Charles, smacking him in the head. And it is efficient; Charles wakes up right away. Quite annoyed, but now awake nonetheless.
“Dude,” Charles whines, “Why would you do that?!” He says, while bringing a hand to his head, pressing where Hugo had previously smacked him and whining dramatically.
“Would you have woken up any other way?” It’s a rhetorical question; Charles doesn’t even try to reply, just sticks out his tongue and looks at him guiltily.
“Thought so,” Hugo adds. “You better hurry up; Loki is waiting for you, especially,” he says, emphasis on the latter, while heading off through the open door, “I’ll get going.”
“You won’t wait for me?” The blonde says, trying to come off as cute, putting on his kicked puppy face.
“No,” Hugo says loudly from the hall, and before Charles can even answer, the redhead is already gone.
—
Ten minutes later, Charles shows up to the field, out of breath, hair sticking out everywhere, and disheveled clothes. One of his socks doesn’t match; he mustn't have noticed since one is white while the other is a pale grey.
When Loki perceives Charles' presence, he stands up from the bench he was sitting on, watching over the players, and approaches the younger.
“You didn’t even brush your hair,” the striker says, while already starting to comb Charles' hair with his fingers.
They stay for a few minutes like that, the older getting knots undone, and Charles nodding off while standing. After a while, Loki’s finger gets stuck in a knot, and he pulls harder, purposefully to wake Charles up, bringing out a dramatic ‘ow’ out of the younger.
“All done,” Loki says, and then pats his head, sending Charles off to play.
“But I don’t want to!!” Charles says rather loudly, childishly, while kicking his feet on the floor.
“Charles, you’re old enough for this,” the older scolds, embarrassed. Then he proceeds to say, knowing Charles damn too well, “Who knows, maybe if you behave, I could give you some candies.” Blackmail always works.
“You will?” The younger one gets excited, eyes sparkling and everything.
“Only if you behave” Loki highlights.
And Charles, reluctantly, the candies can do so much, gets jogging to where the rest are already doing some drills.
Loki heads back to where he was sitting, already setting his gaze back on Rin, and occasionally, sneaking glances at Charles to see how he is doing. First he needs to know if Rin will be of use, then he’ll get all his attention back on Charles.
During practice, Charles and Hugo stick together at first, practicing passes and Hugo giving advice to the younger. However, Charles gets bored rather quickly and goes to bother the other teammates that he doesn’t know already.
That’s a way to get to know each other, for sure.
Hugo, not wanting to even associate himself with these people, calls it a day and just goes to sit beside Loki.
Since Hugo, after Loki himself, is the best player they have on their team, Loki just lets him do as he pleases.
“Bored already?” Loki questions knowingly.
Hugo just shrugs and plops his head down on Loki’s shoulder, unbothered, “It’s not fun with these people; they are too full of themselves and aren’t even that good”
“I don’t think Charles feels the same; it looks like he is having a good time.” Loki points his finger to where Charles is, in fact, bothering his new teammates.
“That’s ‘cause he isn’t taking it seriously; if he cared even a little, he would think the same as me,” the older states.
After that, they stay in silence for a while.
Out of the blue, Loki asks, “How are you seeing Rin?”
“What’s with you and that guy?” Hugo says, his words harsh, but his face and tone not giving away any sign of emotion, as if he were some kind of machine.
The younger just shrugs Hugo off, “I just think he could be of use, that’s it”
Hugo reluctantly answers Loki’s former question, “He’s mediocre compared to you, but among these hopeless players, he is the best one.” The redhead pauses a little, analyzing, “He is superb at scoring, I’ll give him that, and overall his physique is good, but he is way too self-centered. I get that here they are supposed to be egoists and all that, but that is getting him nowhere.”
“I’ll have to see that by myself,” Loki says, getting up from the bench and already heading towards Rin.
Why ask me, then? Hugo wonders.
Hugo just shrugs and pulls out his blank book, which had been sitting on the bench for the whole practice—always prepared for the occasion—, not bothering to care.
However, in the midst of his way-too-heated self-conversation, dammit, things outside his head start getting too loud. A little curious, Hugo sneaks a glance, looking over his book.
Everyone has stopped practicing altogether and is shamelessly staring at Loki and Rin’s little one-on-one. Hugo stares for a while, so he doesn’t realize when Charles plops down beside him.
“Yo, are you jealous or what?” The blond teases getting unnecessarily close to Hugo’s face, not that he cares, but, well.
“Why would I be?” The redhead answers, genuinely confused.
“Well, Loki is pretty interested in Rin; figured you’d be jealous" Charles says backhandedly, as if provoking Hugo.
Hugo, as confident as he is, just says, as a matter of fact, “Eventually Loki will realize that Rin is nothing but an unsuitable good-for-nothing loser.”
“You sure aren't jealous,” Charles says, ironically.
Hugo doesn’t bother answering. He doesn’t really care about what Charles thinks; he is just a kid after all. However, he knows he is jealous.
Hugo has always been self-conscious; he understands very well his place in the world—to be second best and make Loki the greatest. So, coming to terms with having a crush on his best friend wasn’t a hard task.
It was meant to be, if you asked him, because he is devoted to Loki in every aspect of his life, and giving his love to someone else wouldn’t be right.
And, most importantly, Loki giving his heart to someone else isn’t right either. But this doesn’t seem that much like the case; sure, Loki is giving Rin more attention than he normally does with other people, except from Charles and Hugo, but that doesn’t necessarily has to mean that Loki is in love.
But, again, lately Hugo assumes plenty of things that apparently aren’t that much ready-witted.
The thing is, after many self-conversations and much reflection on the topic, Hugo, formerly, had come to the conclusion that his feelings for Loki were somewhat reciprocated.
However, it seems he had assumed wrong.
—
Hugo had finished showering a few minutes ago, not taking as long as Loki did while showering, contrary to popular belief, and the fact that Loki was one of the fastest people on the field; Loki liked to take his sweet time while showering, making sure to scrub off every ounce of sweat that may have gathered in his neck or other difficult areas while training.
To be quite frank, that sweet time really paid off because, in Hugo’s humble opinion, Loki smelled the best. Always smelling of cologne, something like vanilla and cinnamon, and clothes softener.
Unlike Loki, Hugo didn’t take that much time while showering; he still took his time to make sure he was all clean, preferring to take more time in blow drying his hair.
However, he was now done with his hair too, and boredom overcame him, suddenly itching for something. Hugo could’ve headed to the dorms by himself by now; everyone had already left a while ago, but at some early point in their friendship, they just silently decided that they would always head together to the dorms, and Hugo wasn’t one for Irish farewells.
His fidelity to their unspoken agreement didn’t make the waiting less boring, so he decided to make some good use of this sudden spare time and pulled out a blank book from his bag.
When he had first pulled out a blank book in front of Loki, he naturally burst out laughing—Hugo didn’t really understand what was there to laugh at, whatever—when the laughter started dying down, with just a sudden snort here and there from time to time, Loki finally realized that Hugo was dead serious. Suddenly, feeling bad for laughing at Hugo, he put on a serious face, not wanting Hugo to feel stupid even if he had been laughing his ass off just a minute ago, and acted like nothing happened.
Hugo liked to call this ‘hobby’ self-reading, which is reading a book with blank pages. When he stared at the pages, he could converse with himself and get his thoughts in order.
Lately he was getting the urge to come clean and confess his feelings to Loki, so he considered that this opportunity actually came in handy, having some time to sort out his thoughts.
Hugo’s self-consciousness has always been twisted, making him feel too aware of everything, every thought, and every feeling, but it also helped to keep a clear mind.
There really wasn’t much of an internal dilemma on whether to confess or not; Hugo was pretty confident that his feelings were somewhat reciprocated. It was just that it was cumbersome, the least. While saying things was no complication for him, always saying what came to mind right then and there, baring himself that much to someone, especially Loki, wasn’t much to his liking.
No pain, no gain, right?
Hugo’s conversation with himself, or dissertation of his feelings, whatever, came to an abrupt end when Loki came out of the showers, still damp with a towel hanging low on his hips.
When Hugo saw Loki, some thoughts arose in his mind, thoughts that he’d rather keep to himself.
“You took your time in there; I almost thought the drain swallowed you,” Hugo joked, or tried to, because he said it with the most deadpan expression ever.
There was a short silence, not awkward but daring to.
“Was that supposed to be a joke?” Said Loki teasingly, bringing his fist to his mouth, trying to cover up the giggle that came out at the fact that Hugo was this bad at joking.
“I guess,” Hugo muttered, indifferently.
Loki headed off to the bench where his bag was sitting, already shuffling through the duffle looking for his clean change of clothes.
In a sudden high of confidence, and seeing the other almost naked, Hugo decided that he was in fact going to do it right now. Ripping off the band-aid quickly was better, right?
He just decided to go with whatever came to mind, hoping to put together some sort of half-assed confession. “You’re my best friend,” he said out of the blue, not an ounce of emotion slipping into his tone.
It took Loki out of guard—while putting his shirt on—it wasn’t a new occurrence; Hugo tended to say things out of the blue more than not, but still.
Hugo wasn’t one to say cheesy stuff to others, preferring to show his affection rather than explaining it. If he had to explain it, was he really being affectionate? It made no sense.
“I’d hope so.” Loki let out an awkward chuckle, quite not knowing how to answer that, irony bleeding into his words.
“I don’t think I’m wrong to assume I’m yours too, am I?” The question came out more insecure than intended because Hugo, in fact, knew that he was Loki’s best friend; he was just trying to come off as humble.
Confused, Loki stopped dressing completely. “Of course,” he reassured, given the awkwardness of the situation, trying to come off as nice as possible, which he was not.
“You know, our destiny was to meet. My destiny is to be your number two and for you to be the best,” Hugo said as if it was a matter of fact, as if destiny was really set in stone. Well, for him, it was. Whether Loki reciprocated or not, he was still going to give his all on the field for Loki to be the best; that could never change.
Hugo resumed, “I just think that our destiny being that intertwined should mean something in our relationship.” At this point, he had hoped that Loki had understood what was going on.
“Well, it means something. While I’m pretty good on my own, I can’t win World Cups by myself, can I? So, of course, you’re very dear to me.’’ The younger answered in puzzlement.
“No, it’s not like that. Of course my devotion to you on the field is important; my ego wants me to play for you.’’ There was a brief pause, as if in hesitation. “But my ego is greedy, and it wants you, overall.” Hugo feigned nonchalance while saying, coming from him, such sweet stuff. “I don’t think my destiny is just to play for you. I don’t think I’d feel like this if it weren't meant to be.” He just stopped himself there, not wanting to embarrass himself any further, and also because he didn’t know what else to say; he is a simple guy after all.
While Loki processed what was going on, there were a few seconds of tense silence.
Loki was moved by Hugo’s confession; he now finally understood what all this was about, which, given the quality of it, was probably all coming from him as of right now and not some already prepared speech.
Chuckling a little, he said, “Your destiny is asking me out while I’m getting dressed?” and arched his brow, questioningly.
“Well, the best outcome was you getting undressed,” Hugo replied in a completely serious tone, not any sign of it being a joke in sight.
Hugo went back to continuing his speech, ignoring the tears welling in Loki's eyes, the fact that his smile was getting broader, and his shoulders were trembling. “And it’s not like you're hard on the eyes either, so—”
Loki cut off Hugo, “Wait.” Loki couldn’t help but cut himself off too with a laugh, “You really, oh god—” he said, out of breath, giggling a little, “—plan to keep going after that?” and just gave in and burst out laughing. It wasn’t the most normal or considerate thing to do when someone was confessing to you, but since when had this conversation been ordinary?
“Is there anything wrong with it?” Hugo was confused; had he said anything wrong?
And why was Loki still laughing?
This confession was definitely going way worse than expected; Loki wasn’t supposed to laugh. All the times Hugo had conversations with himself on the matter, the outcome was either Loki showing his reciprocation in words or him, in fact, getting undressed. Which was less possible but a nice thought.
“You really are adorable.” The younger said teasingly, blushing a little. But still, not answering Hugo’s question.
Adorable? That wasn’t romantic at all. That was what someone said to a cute puppy, or a kid, not a lover. Was Loki making fun of him?
Was he gently letting him down?
Hugo was at a loss for words; he was confident that Loki felt the same. Of course, he had thought about a bad outcome, but it was more in a way to keep himself humble than anything. Their destiny was already written. They were meant for each other.
“Hugo?”
That made Hugo realize he had spaced out. Coming back to his senses, he stared directly at Loki, who seemed to have dressed up already.
Sensing the older's attention back on him, Loki spoke again, “Can we leave already, or do you need more time to stare at the floor?”
“Sure.” The; I'd better stare at my room’s ceiling in privacy, left unsaid.
And for once, Loki smiling at him genuinely didn’t make him feel better.
At all.