Chapter Text
After three long weeks, the destined day finally arrives. Despite their hectic schedules, all seven managed to make the trip, and fortunately, none of them was late this time! Sae and Bunny were the first two to arrive at the Sandro Pertini Airport, despite being the pair who live the farthest from the designated location. It was around 11:00 when all six arrived, and Don came to pick them up in one of Snuffy’s cars half an hour later. The Zombie then took them into town to his favourite restaurant for lunch, and to everyone’s satisfaction, the food was amazing. It was a small place run by an elderly couple that tourists will never know exists unless a local took them there. Everyone agreed to come back to this place if they ever needed a place to eat during the trip, much to Don’s delight. They also made a quick visit to the local farmer’s market to pick up ingredients for tonight’s dinner, as they plan to do a barbecue. They arrived at Don’s place around 14:00.
“Benvenuti a casa mia!!” Don Lorenzo throws both of his hands in the air as all seven boys make their way into the living room. The place is huge, like, REALLY big. It’s a two-story mansion with a swimming pool located in the quieter parts of Torino, but also only half an hour away from the Ubers training grounds. Don said the place was designed by one of Snuffy’s closest friends, and his vision for the place is that it should remind him of his childhood home in Malta, while at the same time being modern and chic.
Don then gives his friends a quick tour of the place. The living room consists of a large white sofa able to fit up to 15 people, a 100-inch flat-screen paired with a complete set of surround sound system and game consoles like the Xbox and the PlayStation 4. Of course, the most eye-catching display of this section of the house is the ginormous crystal chandelier hanging above. A little further back are shelves displaying part of Snuffy’s and Don’s collection of awards and trophies, as well as a few family photos. To the left of the living room is a giant glass window and door that leads to the swimming pool, and to the right is the kitchen. Past the kitchen, a little deeper into the house, are the minibar, pool table and dining table. The second floor of the mansion, to quote Don, is not as interesting. It’s mainly just bedrooms and storage rooms.
“Damn, Snuffy’s got good taste.” Bunny whistles while checking out the liquor collection at the minibar. He’s silently grateful that everyone in the group is of legal drinking age (acting like he himself doesn’t partake in underage drinking) because it would be a waste not to drink anything from this fine display.
“Is this you when you were younger, Don? Pfft, I see that puberty hasn’t been so nice to you.” Julian sneers as he looks through Don’s childhood photos on one of the shelves, earning a loud “HEY!” from the Zombie.
“Don’t get distracted, you idiots.” Sae crosses his arms. “I thought you guys wanted to hit the pool.” He then starts giving out orders, still as strict as always.
“France. Go find the floaties and blow them up.”
“D’accord.”, Vivien and Julian said in unison.
“Iglesias, Michael and Don, put the tiramisu and raw stuff in the fridge. If any meat needs to be marinated or drinks need to be made, do it. It better not taste like trash.”
Sae specifically chose these three to handle the kitchen because he knows that, despite their antics and attitudes, Don, Michael and Bunny are really good cooks. He’d rather die than compliment them directly, especially Bunny, but he genuinely does think that the three of them could open a bar or restaurant once they retire or if their football careers went south.
“The emperor is cooking for you peasants. Be grateful.” Michael smirks as he makes his way into the kitchen, large bags of groceries in hand.
“Bossy as always, but you are right to trust me with the drinks.” Bunny winks at Sae, to which the Japanese give him a death glare in return.
“I’m thinking we could do Greek for the meat. Salad’s boring, but they go great with grilled stuff, so I guess we gotta make a bowl…”, Don follows Michael into the kitchen, rambling on about his recipe ideas.
“Teddy and I will go check on the grill. Meet at the pool when you’re done.” Sae turns to Teddy.
“Knight, go get the coal.”
“Yes, my liege." Teddy nods and makes his way back to the car to go grab the bags of coal.
It took all three parties an hour to finish their tasks before the seven of them gathered at the swimming pool, in their swimwear, ready to hit the water. The grill, fortunately, works, and Sae and Teddy have already prepared it on the lawn nearby.
“Wait, only three? I swear I had more in the storage…” Don gives Julian and Vivien a puzzled look when the two Frenchmen come back with only three inflated floaties.
“There’s more, but there’s seven of us. Didn’t wanna crowd the pool.” Answers Vivien, tossing the inflated pink flamingo and football into the water.
“There’s also a pizza slice, but that’s a bit on the nose…” Julian adds, and that earns a cackle from Michael and Bunny. He also throws the rectangular raft shaped like a band of 500 euro bills into the water.
“WHAT!? PFFT-HAHA THE PIZZA IS MY FAVOURITE! Go get the pizza, okay!?” Don bursts out laughing. Julian rolls his eyes but smiles as he walks back to the storage room to inflate said item. Don then connects his phone to the speakers they brought along and starts blasting music from his “Worldclass Bangers 🔥🔥🔥” playlist.
“LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!”
And with that sentence and a loud SPLASH! of a human cannonball hitting the water, the second New Generation World 11 summer vacation officially begins.
🕊⚡️🌹🧟♂️🐇⚙️🧸
Teddy Knight is sitting on one of the lounge chairs at the side of the pool, watching the others with his usual blank expression. Michael, Don and Bunny are playing a makeshift game of water polo with the inflated football as, to quote Michael, “Don sucks, and Bunny is a third-rate striker carried by his fourth-rate team.” Julian is enjoying himself in the jacuzzi built in one of the corners of the pool, and Vivien is quietly reading his blank book atop the floating 500 euro bill raft. To his right, Sae had on sunglasses and seemed to have fallen asleep.
Lunch was nice. Don’s house is nice. The weather is nice. The music is nice. He had on sunscreen. His friends are enjoying themselves. This trip has been pleasant so far, and yet…
“What should I do…” Teddy thinks to himself. He wants to join his friends, really, but isn’t quite sure how. He knows he’s not the most fun person at parties, so unless they actively invited him, he wouldn’t want to ruin their fun.
“At the end of the day, a puppet will always be a pupp—”
“Hey, shitty puppet! What’s with that pathetic face?” Michael’s voice snaps Teddy back to reality. The Blue Rose swims to the edge of the pool in front of him and props his tattooed arm up to rest his chin on it. Michael had his hair tied in a bun, which is now a little messy from the water. He looks attractive like this, not that he has ever looked unattractive before. They did not call him the ‘hottest’ NG11 for nothing.
“Yeah, amigo, are you not having fun?” Bunny adds, swimming right next to Michael.
“Of course not. I’m truly enjoying myself. I am, I am.” Teddy quickly declines, not wanting his friends to get the wrong idea. He pauses, then continues with a faint blush tinted on his cheeks.
“I was wondering if it would be alright if I joined you guys?”
“BAH! Marionetta, why’d you even have to ask? Come play with us, okay!?” Don shouts from atop the pink flamingo.
“Don’s right. Besides, water polo is more fun with even numbers. The shitty zombie can’t defend for shit- OW!” Michael was cut short when Don dunks the flamingo on his head with a loud thud. The German turns around and splashes a huge wave of water at the Italian.
“Or…” Bunny smiles, a little too wide because his ruby eyes are all crinkled. In one swift motion, Bunny pushes himself out of the water and heads toward the English boy.
“Grab his ankles, Micha.”
Once Michael understands what Bunny’s trying to do, he also pushes himself out of the water and does what he was told.
“What are you- oh...” Teddy couldn’t finish his sentence because the Spaniard already lifted him by both of his arms, with Michael securing both of his ankles.
“Bunny, may I ask what your intentions are?” Teddy looks up at the Rabbit who’s still smiling, then looks towards Julian and Vivien on the other side of the pool. Both of their attention is now on them as well.
“Oh, cariño, you’re adorable. I just wanted you to get some Italian sun, that’s all.” Bunny said in his most sickeningly sweet voice he could do.
“You’re like, fucking white, puppet. Even that shitty robot over there has a slight tan.” Michael adds. Teddy’s foggy eyes dart back to Vivien, who simply gives him his iconic “no. 2” hand sign in return.
Once the two made it to the edge of the pool, they started swaying the poor puppet’s body. That’s when Teddy finally understood what his friends were trying to do.
“Bunny, Michael, please. Maybe we could–”
“Uno!”
“I don’t think this is at all necess—”
“Dos!”
“Please put me dow—”
“TRES!!”
*SPLASH!*
The Rainbow Knight has been successfully thrown into the water, followed by the sound of polite clapping from the two French spectators and ugly hollers from the other three troublemakers.
It wasn’t long until Teddy resurfaced, gasping for air. The English boy is now officially soaked. His hair, once fluffy and styled with gel, is now wet and tousled. This is his first time being thrown into a pool by his friends. It was scary at first, but somewhat rewarding in the end. He will make sure he remembers this feeling.
Teddy wipes his face and pushes back his hair before turning around to face his friends. To his surprise, all 6 pairs of eyes are looking- no, staring back at him. No noise, no sound, just a look of awe on their faces. This makes Teddy mildly uncomfortable. He’s used to having eyes on him; it comes with being a rising football player. However, when it’s his friends instead of the fans or the press, the insecurity is much worse. One side of him doesn’t want to offend his friends and ruin the mood, but another side is telling him to speak up for himself. This time, as rare as it may be, Teddy chose the latter.
“Is… something the matter?”
Julian shakes his head and is the first to speak up.
“Ah, sorry for staring, Teddy. It’s just…I didn’t expect your hair to…”
“You’re a fucking disco ball, Ted.” Michael crosses his arms, a rare gentle gaze in his sapphire eyes.
“Disco ball…?” Teddy cocks his head to the side in confusion, before looking up towards the sky. When those foggy eyes meet the sun, Teddy understands what the Blue Rose meant.
From where Teddy is standing, the afternoon sun hits him at an angle that makes his hair shine like mirrors in the light. With each of the English puppet’s movements, those strands reflect a different colour, creating a sparkle of light that wouldn’t be too exaggerated to say that it blinds his friends.
“Oh…It does that. My hair, that is.” Teddy scratches his cheeks, less because of insecurity but more because of embarrassment. His hair has always been like this for as long as he can remember. No dye, alterations or anything.
“Damn, Vivi, you’ve been keeping this from us?” Don jumps off the pink flamingo he’s been sitting on and swings his lanky arm around Teddy’s shoulders, nuzzling his face into the crystal-like threads.
“Hands off, Don.” Vivien shoots back flatly, though when it comes to the ever-so-poised Vivien Hugo, there’s really no telling whether he’s just joking or there’s something burning deep within.
“Are you jealous, robot?” Michael coos, jumping back into the pool and wrapping his tattooed arm around Teddy’s other shoulder. His face is dangerously close to the puppet’s, and Teddy swears he can hear Michael’s breathing.
Vivien’s face is still unreadable. He sighs and points his index finger. The German and Italian follow the direction and are met with an embarrassed English boy, frozen in place with a face redder than a tomato. Aside from Vivien, this is Teddy’s first time meeting the other NG11s off the field, and he did not expect them to be this…touchy? Okay, he half expects it from Don; the Italian is self-explanatory, but Michael? He saw the German’s antics towards Isagi Yoichi during the Neo Egoist League (Fox made him watch it, but really he’s there for Agi and the others), and it was pretty clear that Michael did all that simply to get a reaction out of the Japanese boy. Right now he can tell Michael is just doing it to taunt Vivien, but if he were to lean in and kiss Teddy right now, the winger would not be surprised at all.
The weird part is, he actually doesn’t mind? It’s like how his teammates would ruffle his hair or hug him when he does a good job on the field, but at the same time it’s also a completely different feeling. With these six, why does it feel so much more…intimate?
“Sei così carino, mia marionetta!!” Don cups Teddy’s face with both of his large hands and starts kissing the puppet’s face all over, unable to contain the cuteness aggression anymore. That earns reactions from the others. Vivien and Julian look at each other before letting out soft laughs; Bunny whistles and Michael looks as if Don just called him a slur to his face.
“Fucking gross, you Zombie, get off him!” Michael quickly snatches Teddy away from Don. Now not only are their faces close, but their entire bodies are also close.
“You can’t just let people do that to you so easily, got that? Especially that discount of a defender over there.” Michael half-scolds Teddy. That earns another offended “HEY!” from Don, but it’s exactly what the German wants. Michael then gently grabs Teddy by the chin and places a soft kiss on the winger’s forehead.
“Dumme Marionette.” The Blue Rose whispers, low enough to be heard by only the two of them.
This earns another round of reactions.
“Never expect you to have game yourself, Micha.” Bunny snickers, crossing his arms.
“Mad that I beat you to it, hm?”
“Not at all. I’ll have my chances, isn’t that right, mi marioneta?” Bunny winks at Teddy, but the puppet doesn’t register, as apparently he’s still processing the entire situation.
“Okay, this is getting awkward to watch; cut it out, please.” Julian jokingly splashes water at the scene. The god sprinter does not wish to fourth-wheel, well, whatever it is that he just witnessed. Like a calm cheetah waiting for the right moment to strike its prey, Julian is willing to play the long game if it means his opportunity can be better.
Back at the Rainbow Knight, it seems like the gears inside his head started to turn again. He slowly raises a hand and places it on his cheek, where Don— okay, his cheeks are starting to burn again, so let’s try to not think about it. Teddy then places a hand on his forehead, over the spot where Michael—
“Calm. Down.” The English boy mentally scolds himself. This is normal for a boy's summer vacation, right? His new friends are just caring and a little bit touchy, that’s all. His face burning like a thousand suns is also normal. His heart beating as if it could explode at any moment is also normal. This warm, ticklish feeling that’s swelling up inside his chest also must be normal.
“Bloody hell, am I out of my mind?” Teddy lowers his hand to cover his mouth. Not wanting anyone to see that he’s holding back a smile.
“Theo, are you okay?” Vivien’s cool voice pulls him back to reality. Teddy doesn’t know when or how, but right now the French boy is already standing in front of him. Vivien reaches out to grab the hand that’s covering the puppet’s mouth. He wishes he could bring that hand up to his lips, but seeing how overwhelmed the boy in front of him is, he’ll settle for just a gentle squeeze and a thumb caressing those knuckles for now.
Teddy exhales before answering with a soft smile.
“I am Vivien, thank you. I just did not expect to be receiving this much affection. I truly am grateful. I am, I am.”
This made all five players present smile. It’s nice to have someone this endearing in the group when before that it’s mostly chaos and teenage boys, high on adrenaline, threatening to end each other’s careers every three business days or so.
“Although don’t you think this is a bit unfair?”
“Oh? And why is that, mi marioneta?” Bunny asks as he sits down at the edge of the pool, dropping his legs into the water.
“There’s still one of us who’s completely dry. Oh, what to do, what to do…” Teddy crosses his arms and brings one hand to his cheek, acting as if he’s a concerned mother worrying about her kids’ poor performance at school.
“What to do indeed…” Michael does his best impression of the British accent, putting heavy emphasis on the word indeed. He immediately understood what Teddy meant, and let out a wide, devilish smile. All six pairs of eyes are now fixated on the same target: Itoshi Sae sleeping peacefully on one of the lounge chairs.
Itoshi Sae, what a wonder he is, slept through everything. He slept through the loud music, slept through Teddy being thrown into the pool, and even slept through the “kissing session” (although if you ask Teddy, he’s glad Sae wasn’t awake to see all that).
“I’m on it.” Julian, as quick as ever, has already got out of the jacuzzi and made his way to where Sae is sleeping. He makes eye contact with Bunny, signalling the Rabbit to come help him out, before turning towards Vivien and mouthing “Get the camera” in French. Both boys, obviously, comply.
Julian gently takes off Sae’s sunglasses and places them to the side, revealing an extremely rare but adorable picture of the sleeping Treasure of Japan. Who would’ve thought that this angel-incarnate is an absolute beast on the field and dishes out insults as naturally as he breathes? He waves a hand over Sae’s face to check whether the Japanese midfielder is still sleeping, and to his relief, he still is.
“Damn, Sae’s out cold.”
Julian lifts Sae by both his arms while Bunny helps with the legs. Together they made their way to the deep end of the pool and slowly started swaying the Japanese boy’s body. Sae, surprisingly, is still not awake.
“Un”
“..........”
“Deux”
“.........”
Coincidentally, as if it is part of a scripted performance, the pizza slice raft made its way towards where Julian and Bunny were aiming to throw their Japanese friend, and in one fluid motion…
“TROIS!!”
“...なn—!?”
*THUD!*
*SPLASH!*
Itoshi Sae’s body hits the pizza slice, bounces off, and sinks into the water. Julian and Bunny are already losing it, laughing until they couldn’t even stand up straight. The three boys in the pool are no better. Teddy stands there dumbfounded, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Don and Michael, however, held onto the English boy for support as they laughed to the point of wheezing. Even Vivien, who is recording the entire thing, has to cover his mouth and turn away from the camera because he doesn’t want his small wheezes to be recorded, even when you can clearly see that his shoulders are visibly shaking.
Sae slowly rises from the water. He is now officially soaked, and the way he turns towards his friends is something straight out of a horror movie. He grabs the pizza raft and uncharacteristically yells in fury;
“YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING EUROPEANS!”
“SAE’S LOST IT! RUN!!”
The next few moments are of an extremely livid Itoshi Sae chasing his six friends around the pool, hitting them with the pizza slice raft.
“OW-OW! Why are you hitting only us!??” Bunny whines as he tries his best to fend off Sae’s assaults. For some reason, Sae is hitting him extra hard compared to the rest.
“Yeah! How come only Teddy is off the hook-OW!?” Julian can’t even finish his sentence when Sae whacks him in the face.
“OH, BLAME THE PUPPET NOW, ARE WE? THAT’S A NEW LOW.”
“BLAME HIM? HE FUCKING INSTIGATED THIS!” Michael shouts back while using the pink flamingo as a shield.
“WAIT, I GOT AN IDEA!”
Don leaps out of the pool and comes back with seven pool noodles of different colours and tosses them to his friends. Each of them grabs one, with Vivien grabbing the remaining red tube when he rejoins them in the pool.
It is now 18:00 (yes, they’ve been in the pool for that long). All six Europeans stand on one side of the pool, with the lone Japanese on the other. Sae raises his green tube and points it at them. The sun has already shifted behind Sae, making the scene even more dramatic.
“So which one of you losers is first?”
With that, the first-ever Rainbow-coloured Showdown in Torino: Knights, Musketeers and the Rōnin commenced.