Chapter Text
The heat that day gave no mercy. The Blue Lock facilities felt like a greenhouse made of concrete and metal, and after hours of brutal training, even the toughest players were at their limit.
The air weighed heavily in their lungs, and to make things worse, the central air conditioning seemed to have given up the fight against the mass of hot air. Sweat glued the uniforms to their skin like a second, irritating layer.
Ness had been feeling unwell since the end of practice. His head felt too light, and his vision lagged by a second whenever he turned too fast. Even so, the heat of the environment was the least of his problems. The real hell was Kaiser’s mood.
“What kind of trash pass was that?” Kaiser snapped as soon as they stepped into the locker room. “If you’re going to play like that, don’t even show up.”
The pass hadn’t been bad. Not even close. But Isagi was on the field, and that alone was enough to put Kaiser in a foul enough mood to take it out on anything alive around him.
“Get out of my way.” He didn’t even look back as he threw the towel over his shoulder.
Ness took a step forward, almost on instinct. “Kaiser, I can explain—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Ness. And I definitely don’t want to see your face right now.” Kaiser stopped at the door that led to the Bastard dorms’ private showers. “Don’t follow me.”
The door slammed shut. The silence that followed was worse than any shout. Ness felt his blood boil, but not at Kaiser.
His eyes drifted to the corner of the locker room, where Isagi Yoichi was drinking water. He was watching him with a closed-off expression. Isagi returned the look, indifferent, too tired to argue.
It’s his fault, Ness thought, feeling a light dizziness. If that idiot didn’t exist, Kaiser would be in a good mood.
He scoffed, his head spinning. He needed a shower, but following Kaiser was out of the question. Resigned, Alexis ended up heading to the public Blue Lock bathrooms, which already made him uncomfortable by default. Being German and reserved, the mere idea of showering with other people made him shudder. It wasn’t a habit; it wasn’t something his body handled well.
So he waited. He waited until there were fewer footsteps, fewer voices, until the place was almost empty. When he went in, steam already filled the room. He chose a stall at the back and turned on the shower.
Hot water.
He tried to turn the handle.
Hotter.
He muttered under his breath in low German, irritated, and fiddled with it again. Nothing. The settings made little sense to him. Everything in Japanese, too many symbols, too little patience.
“Just a few minutes” he thought.
-----
Isagi Yoichi wasn’t in a hurry. He had stayed behind analyzing the scrimmage data on his tablet until his eyes burned. When he finally entered the bathing area, the place looked deserted.
“Finally, peace,” Isagi murmured, tossing his clothes into the basket.
He heard the sound of a single shower running in the distance, but ignored it. Probably Barou scrubbing his skin until it bled, he thought. Isagi wrapped a towel around his waist and headed toward the hot tub, wanting nothing more than to relax his muscles. He was just about to get into the water when he heard it.
THUD.
It was an ugly sound. The sound of skin and bone hitting wet tile. Isagi froze.
“Shit… is someone there?” he shouted. Silence. Only the sound of water falling.
Isagi’s mind, trained to anticipate danger on the field, blared a red alert. He ran toward the showers. As he got closer to the stall, he saw a body sprawled on the floor, water pounding mercilessly over it. He ran, but stopped abruptly two meters away.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” It was Ness. And Ness was, very predictably, completely naked.
“For fuck’s sake, it’s always something,” Isagi muttered under his breath. He looked around, grabbed an extra towel from a nearby bench, and rushed the last few meters.
For a second, he thought about calling for help, about leaving and pretending he hadn’t seen anything. But his body was already moving before his head decided. There was no time to think about rivalry; Ness was motionless.
Isagi shut off the shower in one quick movement and threw the large towel over the German’s body, covering the main parts.
“Hey! Ness! Wake up!” Isagi pulled him, propping him up against the tiled wall.
He didn’t know what to do; he’d never been in a situation like this. When someone passed out, it was because of a head injury, right? And the sound he’d heard didn’t seem like a harmless fall. Like any functional human being, the first thing he did was try to wake Ness up with a few slaps.
He gave a few light slaps to his cheek, trying to rouse him, but it didn’t work. The boy remained unconscious against the tiles. Then his brain registered a worrying fact: Ness’s skin was burning. Radiating an absurd amount of heat.
“Holy shit, you’re boiling,” Isagi murmured. He needed to lower his temperature fast. He grabbed a nearby plastic basin, filled it with cold water from a low tap, and slowly poured it over Ness’s head and neck.
The thermal shock worked. Ness moved. First a spasm, then another. When he fully woke up, he choked, his eyes flying open in total panic as he started thrashing, arms flailing wildly.
“Raus hier! Wo... Was...?!” Ness tried to stand up, but slipped.
“Calm down! Stop moving, damn it!” Isagi grabbed Ness’s wrists firmly before he could smash his head into the tiles again. “You’re going to hurt yourself!”
Ness blinked frantically, hearing rapid Japanese and understanding nothing. The panic in his eyes grew. Isagi realized the problem. “Wait. Stay still. Wait.”
Isagi released his wrists, made a “stop” gesture with his hand, and ran to his locker. He came back ten seconds later with his translator earbuds. He put one in his own ear and handed the other to Ness, who stared at him as if Isagi were an alien. With trembling hands, Ness put it on.
“Can you hear me now?” Isagi’s voice came through, translated, calm but irritated. “You fell in the shower. Passed out. Hit your head. I’m going to call the medical team.”
Understanding hit Ness like a punch. He looked at Isagi, then at himself, realizing he was wrapped in a towel, on the floor, with his enemy.
“Nein! No!” Ness shouted hoarsely. He grabbed Isagi’s arm with surprising strength. “You are not calling anyone!”
Isagi looked at him like he was stupid. “Are you an idiot? You passed out. You could have a concussion.”
“I don’t need help!” Ness snapped, his face turning a violent shade of red.
“Obviously you do, look at you!” Isagi tried to pull free to reach the intercom, but Ness dragged him back, desperate.
“I’m naked in a public bathroom, for fuck’s sake!” Ness hissed, shrinking back against the wall. “It’s humiliating enough that you saw me like this. I don’t need doctors or… or more people looking at me! Don’t call anyone, please!”
Isagi stopped. The guy who usually smiled psychotically and called everyone trash was now there: curled up, vulnerable, clutching the towel like a shield and red to the roots of his hair. Isagi couldn’t help it and let out a short, incredulous laugh.
“What’s so funny?!” Ness growled, dying of embarrassment.
“Nothing…” Isagi shook his head, sitting down on the wet floor beside him, giving up on calling the medics for now. “It’s just that you’re really stubborn.”
Ness relaxed his posture a little, adjusting the towel to cover his legs. There was an awkward silence, broken only by the sound of dripping water.
“…Thank you,” Ness murmured, so quietly the translator almost didn’t catch it. “For… covering me.”
Isagi turned his head to look at him. From this angle, without the arrogant posture and habitual venom, Ness looked… harmless. His magenta hair was plastered to his forehead, and the flush on his cheeks and ears gave him an almost childlike appearance. He’s kind of… cute when he shuts up, Isagi thought, surprising himself.
“What happened for you to fall like that?” Isagi asked, breaking the silence. “Training was heavy, but you have stamina.”
Ness sighed, defeated. “I didn’t fall on purpose. I just… shut down. Everything was too hot. The day, the locker room… and then the water. I think I blacked out.”
Isagi frowned. He looked at the shower where Ness had been. Steam was still rising from the drain.
“Wait,” Isagi said slowly. “You were taking a hot shower? In this hellish heat?”
Ness looked away, irritated. “Yes! Because that damn shower doesn’t have cold water!”
Isagi blinked twice. Then he started laughing. Not a chuckle, but a genuine belly laugh.
“You’re laughing at my misery?!” Ness exclaimed, offended. “I could’ve died of heatstroke!”
“I’m not laughing at that…” Isagi tried to catch his breath, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. “It’s just… Ness, you overheated. Hot day plus boiling water fried your brain. Of course, there’s cold water!”
“There isn’t!” Ness insisted, pointing at the handle. “I turned that thing every which way! All that came out was lava! I don’t understand the settings, everything’s written in this damn Japanese! Kanji is impossible!”
Isagi looked at the handle, then at Ness, and laughed a little more. The heavy atmosphere of rivalry had evaporated along with the steam from the shower.
“Ness…” Isagi said, an amused smile on his lips. “The kanji on top is ‘Stop.’ The one on the left is ‘Hot.’ And the one on the right… surprise… is ‘Cold.’ It’s universal, man. Blue and red.”
Ness opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. He looked at the handle. There really was a small blue line, almost worn away from use.
“Oh,” Ness said, his voice small. “The blue was… worn.”
“Uh-huh. Sure. It was the wear,” Isagi teased, without malice.
Ness covered his face with his hands, letting out a nervous, muffled laugh while muttering something in German too low to be translated.
Isagi didn't get up immediately; he remained there with his back against the cold tiles, feeling his own heart slow down. The dense steam was beginning to dissipate, but the air still felt heavy in his lungs.
Beside him, Ness was breathing more slowly now. Well, his chest still rose and fell unevenly, but it must have been from the heat he was feeling; perhaps he hadn't yet decided whether it was safe to stay awake or shut down completely. Isagi didn't realize he was staring at Ness until he had to look away at the ceiling, almost violently.
It wasn’t like he was trying to look. It was, in fact, a conscious effort not to look. But “Spatial Awareness” didn’t turn off just because he wanted it to.
He noticed the too-narrow shoulders, hunched forward in a defensive posture that didn’t match the aggressive athlete he was on the field. He noticed the tense arms, the poorly positioned towel covering the essentials, and the pale thighs against the dark floor…
Isagi squeezed his eyes shut. Focus, idiot. This is not the time.
Ness let out a low, short, humorless laugh that died before it could even echo. He pulled the towel a little higher, his long fingers visibly trembling. Isagi noticed the tremor, but pretended he didn’t.
“How long…?” Ness’s voice came out hoarse. “How long was I out?”
Isagi pretended to calculate, though he knew the exact seconds. “Long enough to piss me off. And long enough for me to slap your face to wake you up.”
Ness snapped his head around so fast it cracked. “You did what?!”
“Little taps,” Isagi corrected quickly, making a light gesture with his hand. “Polite. Resuscitation techniques.”
Ness brought a hand to his own cheek, indignant, searching for pain that wasn’t there. “I’m going to sue you. I’ll report you for assault.”
“Good luck explaining that in the report,” Isagi replied, his usual dry tone returning. “‘Cause of assault: passed out naked in a public bathroom because I can’t read ‘Cold Water’ in Japanese.’”
Ness groaned, a long, suffering sound, and covered his face with both hands until his forehead rested on his knees. “This is never leaving my head. I’m going to remember this on my deathbed.”
“It will,” Isagi said, with strange conviction. “The brain deletes extremely embarrassing memories as a defense mechanism so you don’t kill yourself from shame.”
Ness peeked through his fingers. “That’s a lie.”
“Scientific truth,” Isagi lied without blinking. “Trust me.”
Ness didn’t look comforted in the slightest. He just buried his face deeper into his knees. “My God. I’m an idiot. Kaiser is right.”
“Kaiser is an asshole, don’t listen to him,” Isagi said automatically.
Ness removed his hands from his face and looked at Isagi, surprised by the sudden defense. Isagi shrugged and stood up.
“Can you walk? We can’t stay on the floor forever. What if Kunigami comes in? Then you really will die of embarrassment.”
Ness shuddered at the thought. He tried to stand, but his knees gave out immediately. His body was still tingling. Before he could kiss the floor again, Isagi caught him. He slung Ness’s arm over his shoulder and held him by the waist.
“Come on. Lean on me,” Isagi commanded.
The contact was strange. Skin against skin (well, against the towel) and the smell of soap clinging to their bodies. Ness was very close and, for the first time, didn’t feel the urge to push Yoichi away. In fact, he wasn’t even sure he could.
“This is humiliating,” Ness muttered, limping as Isagi dragged him out of the wet area.
“Yeah, it is,” Isagi agreed, guiding him to the wooden benches in the locker room. “But it’s better than leaving here on a stretcher.”
Isagi carefully set Ness down on the bench. The German sighed in relief at the stable surface. He held the towel tightly around his body.
“Isagi?” Ness called, as Isagi stepped away to grab his own towel.
“What?”
“This…” Ness gestured vaguely between them. “This stays here.”
Isagi smirked, that confident smile he usually wore after scoring a goal.
“Relax, Ness.” Isagi winked. “Your ‘hot’ secret is safe with me. But next time… try the blue side, okay?”
Ness rolled his eyes, but a small, genuine smile slipped onto his lips. “Go fuck yourself, Isagi.”
Isagi sighed, running a hand through his damp hair and watching the German for a moment. “Do you want me to call someone?” he asked, his voice lower now as the weight of the situation slowly returned to his awareness. “That fall really was dangerous.”
Ness took a deep breath, trying to adjust the towel with what little dignity he had left. “No need… really.” He avoided eye contact, focusing on planting his feet firmly on the floor. “I’m fine.”
Isagi thought dryly: Yeah, sure, I’d be fine too after hitting my head, but to each their own, I guess.
Strangely, the atmosphere wasn’t uncomfortable, but he felt a sudden need to let Ness regain his privacy.
“Alright. I’ll finish what I came to do, then. Try not to pass out again on the way back to the dorm,” Isagi said, jerking his thumb toward the hot tub.
He turned his back and walked into the water, sinking in with a sigh of relief. A few minutes later, he heard the bathroom door open and close softly.
Man, what the fuck just happened? he thought, staring at the ceiling as the water relaxed his muscles.
---
When Ness finally managed to return to the dorm, the hallway was already quiet. His head still throbbed lightly, a pulsing reminder of the heat, but he felt strangely lighter.
He turned the doorknob as carefully as possible, holding his breath to avoid making noise. Kaiser hated being woken up.
But when he closed the door and turned around, the room wasn’t dark. The reading light above Kaiser’s bed was on. Michael Kaiser was sitting there, back against the headboard, a tablet in one hand. He didn’t look at Ness right away.
“You took a while,” Kaiser said, without taking his eyes off the screen. His voice wasn’t irritated, just… present.
Ness stiffened, his relaxed posture vanishing instantly. “Sorry, Kaiser. The bathrooms were crowded and—”
“And you look like a tomato.” Kaiser finally looked at him. His blue eyes scanned Ness’s flushed face with a mix of mockery and analysis. “What happened? Did someone hit you?”
Ness touched his face, feeling the lingering heat from the shower and the embarrassment with Isagi. “No. It’s just… the damn Japanese heating system. The water was too hot.”
Kaiser let out a nasal scoff, a sound that, coming from him, was almost a laugh. “You nearly cooked yourself alive because you don’t know how to adjust a shower? Pathetic, Ness.”
“It’s confusing!” Ness shot back, but without his usual bite. He just wanted to lie down.
Kaiser watched him for another second. The tension in the air shifted. The emperor’s gaze softened, just a fraction, something only Ness knew how to notice.
“The face you’re making…” Kaiser murmured, looking back at the tablet, a crooked smile forming at the corner of his mouth. “It’s funny. Suits you.”
Ness blinked, confused. Kaiser wasn’t yelling. He wasn’t telling him to leave.
“Go to sleep, Ness. I want decent passes tomorrow. Forget about today.”
It was the closest thing to a “sorry for being an asshole earlier” that Michael Kaiser would ever say. Ness felt his shoulders relax.
“Yes, Kaiser. Good night.”
He walked to his bed and let himself fall onto the mattress, exhausted. When he slipped his hand under the pillow to adjust it, his fingers touched something small and plastic. He pulled it out. It was a high-end chocolate bar, the imported brand Kaiser kept hidden in the room’s minibar.
Ness looked at the chocolate, then at Kaiser’s back, who had already turned off the reading light. A small, genuine smile curved his lips.