[Fic] Discretion 1: Infatuation
Nov. 25th, 2006 05:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotus_beautyTitle: Discretion
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lotus_beauty
Rating: PG-13 (to NC-17 eventually)
Pairings: Keita+Ryo(+Ryu eventually)
Warnings: AU, angst, slash
Summary: Keita(21) is a young soccer buff who decides to try out for the team of his idol—and longtime crush—Ryohei(22). He makes it onto the team, but can he make it into Ryohei’s heart?
Notes: I know nothing about how soccer players are picked/practice/play in Japan, so tough nuggets. And Ryohei is blonde again!
Disclaimer: w-inds. are not mine. Woe.
Discretion 1: Infatuation
Keita leaned on the metal railing that separated the stands from the expansive field before him. His eyes slipped closed as the wind brushed over his face and through his hair, cooling him in the warm afternoon sun. As the sound of a kicked ball entered his ears, he opened his eyes and followed the ball as he watched the soccer team on the field practice. He could be one of them. He might be one of them later on today. He shook his head—he will be one of them.
Keita Tachibana had been invited to tryouts for the team the week before. He’d gone head over heels when he found out the team had been looking for new players and that someone had actually thought he was good enough for the team. He had practiced day and night before the tryouts and come the day, he was so nervous that he nearly left before the event began. But, being the naturally optimistic person that he was, he told himself to have confidence and went out the play the best soccer drills he’d ever done in his life. He only wondered if he was really that good, or if he’d just been in the zone for the day and might suck terribly after that. Keita reminded himself he couldn’t think like that though, because if he really was good enough to get on the team, he was damn well going to stay on that team.
Keita loved soccer. He didn’t do it because he wanted to stay in shape or something as trivial as that. He just loved the sport, and nothing could make him happier than taking a step toward his goal of being a professional soccer athlete. His mother had wanted him to be a model… or a singer (she never could decide). It wasn’t that he didn’t like singing; it’s just that he didn’t really care to be honest. He just wanted to play soccer.
As Keita’s eyes followed the ball on the field, he wondered why they needed an entire week to deliberate who would get onto the team. His mischievous side told him, he was so good at tryouts that they’d needed a whole week to discuss how awesome he was before informing him he was on the team. A smile graced his lips at the thought—how cheeky.
His dark eyes strayed from the soccer ball when a certain young man’s feet made contact with the ball. He absently told himself to get a haircut as he brushed his too long brown hair from his face to let his eyes wander up the young man’s body to his face—Ryohei Chiba. A light blush took over Keita’s cheeks and he looked away from the other man, slapping his cheeks lightly. Saying Ryohei was another reason he wanted to be on this team was an understatement. Keita had told himself over and over, it was because he loved soccer—and he did!—that he wanted to be on this team. Ryohei was a constant, though not unwanted reminder that Keita had another reason for trying out.
Keita wondered if Ryohei would remember him. All through high school, he’d always liked Ryohei. Despite being one of the shortest guys on the high school soccer team, he was always one of the best. Keita had always looked up to him. …figuratively speaking. Though he’d joined soccer every year in high school, he never made the main team until his senior year, and by that time Ryohei had graduated, since he was a year older than Keita. The young man’s only regret was not speaking to Chiba the way he’d wanted to when they were still in school together. He had been surprised and pleased to hear the shorter man had been scouted. Since then, Keita’s admiration grew into a crush and attraction he soon realized he couldn’t squelch.
“No wonder I was never interested in girls,” Keita mused aloud. He suddenly found himself remembering the time one girl had worked up the nerve to confess her feelings to him and he’d admitted he didn’t know her and was more interested in his video games than girls. It had been very awkward and she had run away crying; all the other girls told him he was so dense and looking back at it now, he was. Later that afternoon he found out the girl was in his class—he felt like a jerk and apologized. At least he didn’t have girls throwing themselves at him like Ryohei did. He did however recall that Chiba hadn’t had a girlfriend in high school and later heard rumors about why.
Yelling across the field pulled him out of his thoughts as he realized there were other men standing or sitting near him, also watching the players on the field who were now walking off. Ryohei and another player obviously weren’t finished however, and were still battling for the ball that Ryohei was now dribbling. Keita watched as the shorter man faked left and moved right before taking aim and kicking the ball straight past the goalkeeper and into the net. Everyone around Keita, including himself laughed as Ryohei ran around with his hands in the air and his companion fell to the ground on his back, mocking anger.
“Chiba! If you have so much energy, go fetch the rookies over there!” the coach yelled and pointed at the group of men Keita was with. Ryohei saluted and jogged toward the group, looking quite happy in his element, not wanting to quit playing the game.
“The coach will probably want you all to meet him outside the locker room. You all remember where it is, right?” he asked to receive nods all around. “Hopefully I’ll see some of you at the next practice!” With that, he waved and was off running across the field, his light brown hair with blonde streaks atop bouncing as he ran. Keita tilted his head and watched the young man run as everyone started to file away. Ryohei’s current hairstyle made it look like someone picked him up by the feet and had dipped only the hair at the top of his head into bleach. With a smirk, he picked up his backpack and followed everyone as they made their way to the locker rooms. Somehow it seemed plausible that a person could pick up Chiba by his feet and do that. He found himself wondering if that’s how the man got that hairstyle.
He sighed and kept following the men who had tried out for the team with him, and listened to their conversations about the tryout and getting on the team. It was then that nervousness started to set in. What if he didn’t make it onto the team? He hadn’t really planned for that. He honestly hadn’t wanted to think about that. He realized he would feel like a fool if he didn’t make it. Sure there was always next year, but would he really want to come back after failing the first time? Was it worth it? Had it been worth all the work he put into it? Keita looked up as the group slowed and stopped outside the locker room. Yes, he decided. It had been worth it just to get this far. And if he couldn’t get any farther now, he would go farther next year.
He sat on one of the chairs in the hall as he heard the players inside chatting and recognized Ryohei’s voice. Well, there was an upside to not making it onto the team—if he didn’t, he could always ask Ryohei for some one on one practice to hone his skills. And that’s not all you want, his devious side retorted. It didn’t have time to embarrass him more since the coach stepped out with a few others and announced he was going to call the names of the men who made the cut. Keita found himself gripping the sides of the chair to keep himself from bouncing with nervousness as the coach called out various names.
“Tachibana-san?”
“Huh?” He looked to the man at his right, who had said his name.
“Tachibana Keita,” the coach repeated to finally hear Keita respond to his name.
After his initial response, he was stunned speechless. He made it in? No way.
“Congratulations!” the man next to him said and clapped him on the shoulder as the coach announced he was finished and when the next practice was. “See you at next practice!” he said to Keita and got up to leave.
Keita just sat there in disbelief. All that hard work and training paid off!
“You didn’t think the coach would ignore you just because you were quiet, did you?”
He blinked and looked up to see Ryohei smiling at him. He watched as the shorter man’s smile faded into a thoughtful frown.
“Tachibana? Tachibana Keita from Seishun?” A smile burst onto Ryohei’s face. “You were in soccer when I was on the team in high school, right?”
He remembered! “Yes!” Keita jumped up to shake Ryohei’s hand as he offered it. “I wasn’t sure if you remembered me.”
“I thought you were familiar, and when I heard your name, I had to make sure it was you.” The blonde grinned. “It’s great to have you on the team, Tachibana-san. You were one of the top picks from the tryouts last week.”
Keita found himself blushing under the praise, especially when it was coming from Ryohei Chiba. “Top pick?” He shook his head in disbelief again. He couldn’t be that good.
“Really! I’m not joking! You were one of the best! And you’ll only get better now that you’re on the team,” Ryohei assured him. “You weren’t half bad in high school if I recall, but you always seemed to let others take the glory instead of yourself. Good to see you’re aiming higher now.” He winked.
A laugh escaped Keita and he ran a hand through his hair nervously. This was too much. He almost laughed even more at the aiming higher comment when Ryohei was shorter than him. “I’ll certainly do my best,” he managed to reply through a grin. He was finally looking at Ryohei now. The young man wore baggy pants and an oversized shirt as well as a cap that was put on haphazardly sideways. Keita had never seen Chiba outside of school so he hadn’t realized what kind of clothing style he liked. Though he sort of resembled a petulant child wearing oversized hand-me-downs, the style seemed to suit him.
“You’re all so lucky, having tall genes,” Ryohei mused aloud as his eyes wandered over Keita. “Everyone has longer legs so they don’t have to work as hard as me to run all over the field.”
“Don’t say that!” Keita defended. “You’re better than half the team and you know it!” He gasped and covered his mouth, realizing he might have offended any other players who might have overheard. “Ah! I’m sorry.” He bowed to Ryohei.
“Ah, you don’t have to apologize,” Chiba sounded a little embarrassed and Keita couldn’t stop the blush the spread over his face. “Coming from someone like you, I know you really mean it.” He smiled.
“Someone like me?”
His smile deepened. “You always mean everything you say, especially things like that.” Ryohei looked down, obviously pleased by the compliment and Keita felt a flutter in his chest as the blonde looked back up. “You always were a nice guy, Keita.”
The taller man could feel himself turning redder by the second and found himself stuttering to try to find something to respond with until Ryohei laughed and stopped him.
“It’s the truth, so don’t you dare fight with me about it!” Ryohei waggled a finger at him and Keita nodded. “So, would you like to go somewhere to celebrate your joining the team?”
“I’d love to but, I think my family has a celebration dinner planned,” Keita replied sheepishly.
Ryohei laughed again and Keita had the cheesiest thought about wanting to hear the other man laugh all the time. “Alright, well, some other time then. Make sure to tell me how delicious it is later so I can wish I was there.”
“I will,” Keita saluted.
“See you at practice!” Ryohei waved and jogged off as his cell rang and he answered, making his way to the subway.
He’d always wanted to hear Ryohei say that to him. The younger man watched his teammate make his way into the subway and sighed contented. Teammate—they were teammates now. Suddenly, Keita felt more determined than ever. He had to prove to this team that he wasn’t just some fluke who got in by chance. He was going to practice, and hard. And now that he knew Ryohei remembered him, he felt certain that even if his infatuation didn’t go anywhere, they would become very good friends. If it did go further, it would no longer be an infatuation, and that’s exactly what Keita hoped for.
Keita suddenly sighed defeated. This wouldn’t be easy.
~***~
End notes: Since it takes place in Japan, I’ve been asked to use honorifics. If you don’t know what those are, please comment and I’ll add an explanation ^_^ Because of this, I’ve decided to use the Japanese way of saying names (family name, first name) when characters are speaking and then regular when its internal or descriptive (since I would find it rather cheesy to write Mr. in front of character’s names all the time when they speak XD). I don’t know the names of high schools in Japan, so I used the one called ‘Seishun’ from a particular anime. 10 points to whoever can guess the anime!
Author:
lotus_beautyRating: PG-13 (to NC-17 eventually)
Pairings: Keita+Ryo(+Ryu eventually)
Warnings: AU, angst, slash
Summary: Keita(21) is a young soccer buff who decides to try out for the team of his idol—and longtime crush—Ryohei(22). He makes it onto the team, but can he make it into Ryohei’s heart?
Notes: I know nothing about how soccer players are picked/practice/play in Japan, so tough nuggets. And Ryohei is blonde again!
Disclaimer: w-inds. are not mine. Woe.
Discretion 1: Infatuation
Keita leaned on the metal railing that separated the stands from the expansive field before him. His eyes slipped closed as the wind brushed over his face and through his hair, cooling him in the warm afternoon sun. As the sound of a kicked ball entered his ears, he opened his eyes and followed the ball as he watched the soccer team on the field practice. He could be one of them. He might be one of them later on today. He shook his head—he will be one of them.
Keita Tachibana had been invited to tryouts for the team the week before. He’d gone head over heels when he found out the team had been looking for new players and that someone had actually thought he was good enough for the team. He had practiced day and night before the tryouts and come the day, he was so nervous that he nearly left before the event began. But, being the naturally optimistic person that he was, he told himself to have confidence and went out the play the best soccer drills he’d ever done in his life. He only wondered if he was really that good, or if he’d just been in the zone for the day and might suck terribly after that. Keita reminded himself he couldn’t think like that though, because if he really was good enough to get on the team, he was damn well going to stay on that team.
Keita loved soccer. He didn’t do it because he wanted to stay in shape or something as trivial as that. He just loved the sport, and nothing could make him happier than taking a step toward his goal of being a professional soccer athlete. His mother had wanted him to be a model… or a singer (she never could decide). It wasn’t that he didn’t like singing; it’s just that he didn’t really care to be honest. He just wanted to play soccer.
As Keita’s eyes followed the ball on the field, he wondered why they needed an entire week to deliberate who would get onto the team. His mischievous side told him, he was so good at tryouts that they’d needed a whole week to discuss how awesome he was before informing him he was on the team. A smile graced his lips at the thought—how cheeky.
His dark eyes strayed from the soccer ball when a certain young man’s feet made contact with the ball. He absently told himself to get a haircut as he brushed his too long brown hair from his face to let his eyes wander up the young man’s body to his face—Ryohei Chiba. A light blush took over Keita’s cheeks and he looked away from the other man, slapping his cheeks lightly. Saying Ryohei was another reason he wanted to be on this team was an understatement. Keita had told himself over and over, it was because he loved soccer—and he did!—that he wanted to be on this team. Ryohei was a constant, though not unwanted reminder that Keita had another reason for trying out.
Keita wondered if Ryohei would remember him. All through high school, he’d always liked Ryohei. Despite being one of the shortest guys on the high school soccer team, he was always one of the best. Keita had always looked up to him. …figuratively speaking. Though he’d joined soccer every year in high school, he never made the main team until his senior year, and by that time Ryohei had graduated, since he was a year older than Keita. The young man’s only regret was not speaking to Chiba the way he’d wanted to when they were still in school together. He had been surprised and pleased to hear the shorter man had been scouted. Since then, Keita’s admiration grew into a crush and attraction he soon realized he couldn’t squelch.
“No wonder I was never interested in girls,” Keita mused aloud. He suddenly found himself remembering the time one girl had worked up the nerve to confess her feelings to him and he’d admitted he didn’t know her and was more interested in his video games than girls. It had been very awkward and she had run away crying; all the other girls told him he was so dense and looking back at it now, he was. Later that afternoon he found out the girl was in his class—he felt like a jerk and apologized. At least he didn’t have girls throwing themselves at him like Ryohei did. He did however recall that Chiba hadn’t had a girlfriend in high school and later heard rumors about why.
Yelling across the field pulled him out of his thoughts as he realized there were other men standing or sitting near him, also watching the players on the field who were now walking off. Ryohei and another player obviously weren’t finished however, and were still battling for the ball that Ryohei was now dribbling. Keita watched as the shorter man faked left and moved right before taking aim and kicking the ball straight past the goalkeeper and into the net. Everyone around Keita, including himself laughed as Ryohei ran around with his hands in the air and his companion fell to the ground on his back, mocking anger.
“Chiba! If you have so much energy, go fetch the rookies over there!” the coach yelled and pointed at the group of men Keita was with. Ryohei saluted and jogged toward the group, looking quite happy in his element, not wanting to quit playing the game.
“The coach will probably want you all to meet him outside the locker room. You all remember where it is, right?” he asked to receive nods all around. “Hopefully I’ll see some of you at the next practice!” With that, he waved and was off running across the field, his light brown hair with blonde streaks atop bouncing as he ran. Keita tilted his head and watched the young man run as everyone started to file away. Ryohei’s current hairstyle made it look like someone picked him up by the feet and had dipped only the hair at the top of his head into bleach. With a smirk, he picked up his backpack and followed everyone as they made their way to the locker rooms. Somehow it seemed plausible that a person could pick up Chiba by his feet and do that. He found himself wondering if that’s how the man got that hairstyle.
He sighed and kept following the men who had tried out for the team with him, and listened to their conversations about the tryout and getting on the team. It was then that nervousness started to set in. What if he didn’t make it onto the team? He hadn’t really planned for that. He honestly hadn’t wanted to think about that. He realized he would feel like a fool if he didn’t make it. Sure there was always next year, but would he really want to come back after failing the first time? Was it worth it? Had it been worth all the work he put into it? Keita looked up as the group slowed and stopped outside the locker room. Yes, he decided. It had been worth it just to get this far. And if he couldn’t get any farther now, he would go farther next year.
He sat on one of the chairs in the hall as he heard the players inside chatting and recognized Ryohei’s voice. Well, there was an upside to not making it onto the team—if he didn’t, he could always ask Ryohei for some one on one practice to hone his skills. And that’s not all you want, his devious side retorted. It didn’t have time to embarrass him more since the coach stepped out with a few others and announced he was going to call the names of the men who made the cut. Keita found himself gripping the sides of the chair to keep himself from bouncing with nervousness as the coach called out various names.
“Tachibana-san?”
“Huh?” He looked to the man at his right, who had said his name.
“Tachibana Keita,” the coach repeated to finally hear Keita respond to his name.
After his initial response, he was stunned speechless. He made it in? No way.
“Congratulations!” the man next to him said and clapped him on the shoulder as the coach announced he was finished and when the next practice was. “See you at next practice!” he said to Keita and got up to leave.
Keita just sat there in disbelief. All that hard work and training paid off!
“You didn’t think the coach would ignore you just because you were quiet, did you?”
He blinked and looked up to see Ryohei smiling at him. He watched as the shorter man’s smile faded into a thoughtful frown.
“Tachibana? Tachibana Keita from Seishun?” A smile burst onto Ryohei’s face. “You were in soccer when I was on the team in high school, right?”
He remembered! “Yes!” Keita jumped up to shake Ryohei’s hand as he offered it. “I wasn’t sure if you remembered me.”
“I thought you were familiar, and when I heard your name, I had to make sure it was you.” The blonde grinned. “It’s great to have you on the team, Tachibana-san. You were one of the top picks from the tryouts last week.”
Keita found himself blushing under the praise, especially when it was coming from Ryohei Chiba. “Top pick?” He shook his head in disbelief again. He couldn’t be that good.
“Really! I’m not joking! You were one of the best! And you’ll only get better now that you’re on the team,” Ryohei assured him. “You weren’t half bad in high school if I recall, but you always seemed to let others take the glory instead of yourself. Good to see you’re aiming higher now.” He winked.
A laugh escaped Keita and he ran a hand through his hair nervously. This was too much. He almost laughed even more at the aiming higher comment when Ryohei was shorter than him. “I’ll certainly do my best,” he managed to reply through a grin. He was finally looking at Ryohei now. The young man wore baggy pants and an oversized shirt as well as a cap that was put on haphazardly sideways. Keita had never seen Chiba outside of school so he hadn’t realized what kind of clothing style he liked. Though he sort of resembled a petulant child wearing oversized hand-me-downs, the style seemed to suit him.
“You’re all so lucky, having tall genes,” Ryohei mused aloud as his eyes wandered over Keita. “Everyone has longer legs so they don’t have to work as hard as me to run all over the field.”
“Don’t say that!” Keita defended. “You’re better than half the team and you know it!” He gasped and covered his mouth, realizing he might have offended any other players who might have overheard. “Ah! I’m sorry.” He bowed to Ryohei.
“Ah, you don’t have to apologize,” Chiba sounded a little embarrassed and Keita couldn’t stop the blush the spread over his face. “Coming from someone like you, I know you really mean it.” He smiled.
“Someone like me?”
His smile deepened. “You always mean everything you say, especially things like that.” Ryohei looked down, obviously pleased by the compliment and Keita felt a flutter in his chest as the blonde looked back up. “You always were a nice guy, Keita.”
The taller man could feel himself turning redder by the second and found himself stuttering to try to find something to respond with until Ryohei laughed and stopped him.
“It’s the truth, so don’t you dare fight with me about it!” Ryohei waggled a finger at him and Keita nodded. “So, would you like to go somewhere to celebrate your joining the team?”
“I’d love to but, I think my family has a celebration dinner planned,” Keita replied sheepishly.
Ryohei laughed again and Keita had the cheesiest thought about wanting to hear the other man laugh all the time. “Alright, well, some other time then. Make sure to tell me how delicious it is later so I can wish I was there.”
“I will,” Keita saluted.
“See you at practice!” Ryohei waved and jogged off as his cell rang and he answered, making his way to the subway.
He’d always wanted to hear Ryohei say that to him. The younger man watched his teammate make his way into the subway and sighed contented. Teammate—they were teammates now. Suddenly, Keita felt more determined than ever. He had to prove to this team that he wasn’t just some fluke who got in by chance. He was going to practice, and hard. And now that he knew Ryohei remembered him, he felt certain that even if his infatuation didn’t go anywhere, they would become very good friends. If it did go further, it would no longer be an infatuation, and that’s exactly what Keita hoped for.
Keita suddenly sighed defeated. This wouldn’t be easy.
~***~
End notes: Since it takes place in Japan, I’ve been asked to use honorifics. If you don’t know what those are, please comment and I’ll add an explanation ^_^ Because of this, I’ve decided to use the Japanese way of saying names (family name, first name) when characters are speaking and then regular when its internal or descriptive (since I would find it rather cheesy to write Mr. in front of character’s names all the time when they speak XD). I don’t know the names of high schools in Japan, so I used the one called ‘Seishun’ from a particular anime. 10 points to whoever can guess the anime!
