EGO CRUSH ; blue lock

𝟏𝟗 | kick-off

You stomped your cleats on the ground, headphones settled over your ears muffling the shouts of the stadium. You were clad in the Japanese uniform, your last name printed in bold, capital letters across your back. You were no longer Kamiya Kaede, but rather Y/n L/n, substitute forward for the men's team.

The week had sped by, your time being endlessly spent with the Japan team, training until you all collapsed each day. As always, Shuto and the others had a hard time connecting with Sae and Shidou. Although surprisingly, Oliver happened to get along splendidly with the famous redhead, linking together in their plays nicely. It made you pout in thought, watching the two during your practices. Though you always dropped the thought, as long as they were creating a chemical reaction and could win today, then it didn't matter to you.

A hand clapped you on the shoulder and you were quick to pull one headphone muff off your ear, raising an eyebrow at whoever just stole your attention.

"Lookin' good in that uniform, Shrimp." Shidou grinned, dragging his tongue over his teeth. You scoffed out a laugh, elbowing him in the rib cage. You'd both formed some sort of strange alliance (read as: friendship) during your time on the U-20 team, taking to teasing each other. While you were now on better terms, there's one thing that never seemed to change about the antennaed man: he was beyond strange. He still derived some weird sense of pleasure from playing football, you noticed. It wasn't just a onetime thing that had happened during your match against him. But as long as he kept you out of it, you had no problem dealing with it.

"I would say the same for you, but," You muttered, looking the man up and down, "you're still ugly, change of clothes or not." The taller man spluttered, knocking you on the head with a fist. You groaned, rubbing at your head, side eyeing Shidou as he threw a fit.

Shidou walked away, grumbling, and just as you were about to put your headphones back on, his spot was quickly filled next to you once again.

"Can I help you?" Sae stood next to you, pointedly not making eye contact with you. He huffed but didn't make any effort to respond to your question. You rolled your eyes and stomped your cleats again, stretching your arms in preparation.

The both of you stood there in awkward silence for a few minutes, but neither of you made any moves to move away from the other. As much as you had it out for Sae, still pissed over his untimely leaving and ditching both you and Rin, it was nice to be close to the man again. He had been a big part of your childhood and you can't help but feel that sense of nostalgia upon reconnecting with him. Although, you supposed he'd never be the same Sae as before Spain. But a girl could imagine.

"I wanted to," Sae started, and you startled over him staring into your eyes. You shuffled to pull your headphones down to your neck, so Sae knew your full attention was on him. "I wanted to say I'm sorry and good luck." You gaped, floundering for words. This was the Itoshi Sae apologizing to you right now.

"I shouldn't have dragged you into my brother and I's problems." Sae finished and you stood in silence. The man furrowed his eyebrows, expecting a response from you and you were quick to shake your head.

"No! I mean, uh," You struggled to gather the words, huffing out a nervous laugh. "It's alright. I guess. I'm just glad I had this opportunity to see you once again. Though, if anything, I think you should direct an apology towards Rin." Sae frowned, turning away from you again. You assumed he'd accepted your answer but wasn't planning on saying anything to Rin. You shrugged, laughing to yourself. It was a miracle enough that he apologized to you, so perhaps you should just settle for what you could get.

"Alright, team!" Oliver yelled, clapping his hands. All the talking settled down and everyone turned to look at their captain. "It's time for line-up, so let's head out."

⬠

The hallway was relatively quiet as your team talked amongst one another. You clapped your hands quietly, breathing deeply as you stretched in preparation. Your heart thudded loudly in your chest, and you struggled to decipher whether it was due to the match happening in ten minutes or the fact that you would be seeing your Blue Lock friends for the first time in a month.

"Ah. That's them." Someone on your team muttered and you turned around to see the mob of familiar faces. "Blue Lock."

"Oh, they're all here." You heard Bachira say and fought the urge to tackle the man in a hug. Though, you did make eye contact with him and watched as he stiffened before leaning over to slap Isagi on the arm and point towards you. With a nervous smile, you waved and Bachira grinned back ten times more enthusiastically. At least they didn't appear mad at you.

Conveniently enough, both teams shuffled around to straighten out their lines to walk out to the field and you were placed behind Sae, diagonal from Rin and next to Bachira. The multi-colored hair boy psstted in your ear and leaned over to punch your shoulder. You chuckled, ruffling a hand through his hair. In front of you, Rin glanced back, and his eyes widened upon seeing your familiar face. You just smiled bashfully at him and he physically relaxed, nodding to you. Your heart swelled, feeling as if the loose ends in your life were coming together. Well, at least some of them.

"So, what are you doing here, Kamiya-kun?" Bachira whispered and you choked on saliva at the name. You'd forgotten that everyone besides the Wild Card boys and Rin knew who you were.

"Guess you'll see." You joked, sticking your tongue out at the boy. He huffed out a laugh, shaking his head before focusing back on the line-up.

Then, the door opened with a loud hissing noise and your nerves skyrocketed. Kaiser's in that crowd, you brain helplessly supplied as you shielded your eyes from the bright lights of the stadium. You'd been expecting the numerous amounts of people, but it was still overwhelming to hear the screams of Sae's name and the wavering banners, painted in team colors.

"Are you watching, Japan? A match for the ages is about to begin!" The echoing announcers' voices flooded your ears as your team took their place at their bench. "The stadium's absolutely packed! What do you take of this? Natsuki-san?!"

"What can I say, it's absolutely nuts! What in the world is this...? But I mean, Itoshi Sae is going to play, after all! The man the world has their eyes on! Not to mention the addition of Y/n L/n from the women's U-20! What do you expect she'll bring to the team?" Upon hearing your name, some of the Blue Lock members looked over so fast, they might have gotten whiplash. You chuckled to yourself, turning around so they could see your last name on your back and pointed a thumb at it. Someone started yelling and you recognized the gruff, angry voice as that of Raichi's. You breathed out a laugh once again, endeared to finally see your friends after a while.

"And now, here are the formations for both teams! As expected, Itoshi Sae's the attacking midfielder!" That's right, you thought, I get to play with Sae once again. You were positioned left midfield, near to Sae and with some other guys on the team: Kozato and Shuto.

You smacked your cheeks with your hands, huffing out a deep breath and you walked onto the field alongside Sae. Your eyes skimmed the crowd as if you'd be able to recognize Kaiser in this swarm of bodies. Sighing, you turned to the opposite side of the field where your cousin and Anri sat. Anri grinned toothily at you, and you returned the gesture. Ego just nodded at you, and your chest filled with pride. This was it. This was happening.

Nerves taking over, you bent your knees, staring at the grass as you chewed on your lip. This was it, you repeated like a mantra in your head.

Then, your ears were filled with the sound of the buzzer ringing. Kick-off.

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FILLER CHAPTER i'M SORRY!!!!
i'm just a silly little girl writing a silly little story

i am single-handedly existing just for the drop of the melanie martinez album on friday rn

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