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“You’re insufferable,” Sae bit out. “I can’t stand you.”
“Oh, but you can stand me plenty well if it’s just the two of us,” Kaiser sneered back. “You’ve only got a problem with me when you’re around your brother and his little friends.”
“So what? At least I’m not fucking obnoxious.”
“So you’re a coward. Are you so afraid that people will find out about us? Or are you just saving your stupid pride because you’re afraid they’ll say I can do better?”
Sae’s hand fisted in Kaiser’s collar and yanked him down so their faces were inches apart. “I am the best thing that has ever happened to you, Michael Kaiser. Don’t you dare forget that.”
Kaiser bared his teeth in what was almost a grimace. “You are so full of shit, Sae.”
His words only incensed Sae further. He released his grip on Kaiser’s collar and reached up to his ear to pull out his limited edition Mikage Corp translator earpiece. He threw it at Kaiser and it bounced harmlessly off of his shoulder before clattering to the floor.
The conversation was over.
At least, it was to Sae. Unfortunately, his action had only succeeded in pissing Kaiser off more - as intended - and he had started yelling at Sae in rapid-fire German. Sae knew just enough to pick up the odd word here and there, but he was generally clueless without the translator.
Good. He wasn’t in the mood to hear Kaiser’s arguments.
He schooled his face into a mask of perfect neutrality and let Kaiser’s voice fade into the background. His boyfriend was used to hate and he was used to love but the one thing he absolutely could not stand was apathy. Unfortunately for him, Sae was a master of apathy. If Sae wanted to be cruel, all he needed to do was show Kaiser just how little he cared.
At some point, Kaiser had switched from German to thickly accented English. English was the only language they both shared, but neither of them were anywhere near conversational.
Still, when Kaiser’s voice lowered and his tempo slowed, Sae couldn’t help but strain to listen.
“Stop pretending that you don’t care, Sae.”
Sae narrowed his eyes. Something about the low, dangerous cadence with which Kaiser said his voice lit a fire in his chest. “Get out of my apartment.”
And that was that. Kaiser spun on his heel and left, the door slamming shut behind him.
It had been a bare three months since they had started dating.
The two of them knew each other, albeit distantly, through the New Generation XI. They had trained together on a few occasions, but most of their interactions had been silted by the language barrier between them.
Sae had always regarded Kaiser with a distant curiosity, as if peering at him from behind glass. Of course, he had never considered that Kaiser could be looking back at him.
The Neo Egoist League began, Bastard Munchen played Paris X Gen, and Kaiser had won the game with the most beautiful final drive and kick that Sae had ever seen.
After the game, Sae had picked his way down to the field to meet with Shidou Ryusei to discuss the game. He had said, just within earshot of Kaiser, that the final goal was “fucking incredible.”
Truth be told, Sae hadn’t known about the translators, and he certainly hadn’t realized Kaiser would hear him. But when Kaiser turned to look at him, faint recognition flickering over his face, Sae had held his gaze like it was a challenge.
Twenty minutes later Kaiser had Sae against the locker room wall. He had handed Sae a little white box with the earpiece inside, and when he slipped it in it was like his world exploded into color.
But instead of color it was the smooth, rough voice of this unfairly handsome man, telling him how he had been fascinated with Sae’s gameplay since the first time they had met as members of the New Generation XI.
The two of them made an ugly but charming pair. They were twin stars locked in each other’s orbit, two puzzle pieces that looked like they shouldn’t fit together but somehow did.
And they fought. To them, fighting came as natural as breathing.
Raised voices, clenched fists, cutting words, all a part of how Kaiser and Sae loved each other. Both of them were just fucked in the head enough that the line between passion and anger was fine and wavering. If they weren’t fighting, if they weren’t at each other’s throats, that meant they didn’t care. That was worse than any argument.
Neither of them had gotten enough hugs as a child, Sae figured.
They fought over everything; most recently, they had taken to fighting over the openness of their relationship.
Sae wanted to keep it quiet, Kaiser wanted it out.
Sae valued his privacy, and he valued having relationships away from the public eye that he was so aggressively thrust into. As much as he hated to admit it, what he had with Kaiser was special to him, and he thought that being public would only tarnish it.
Kaiser disagreed. On good days, Kaiser said he wanted to show Sae off without having to worry about repercussions. He would whisper praise against Sae’s back and murmur I want the world to know we belong together . On bad days, Kaiser was jealous to a fault. He would frown, brows furrowed and mouth pinched, spitting out cruelties about Sae’s apathy towards everyone, including him.
Today, Kaiser visited him at practice, showing up in front of the Japanese U-20 National Team. Kaiser had intended it as some sort of grand romantic gesture but to Sae it had been nothing short of a nightmare. He knew tomorrow he would have to field questions on why he was spending time with a rival striker.
He may have appreciated it, had Kaiser warned him ahead of time and waited until Sae was alone before showing up, but of course Kaiser had never been considerate of Sae’s feelings and Sae didn’t expect him to change now.
Hence, their fight.
It hadn’t been particularly bad, either. Of course, both of them had hurled biting words and curses at each other, but nothing more than usual. Occasionally their fights would end with one or both of them storming out.
It was normal.
It was normal.
So Sae wasn’t sure exactly why he was pacing around his living room, watching the time on the clock creep later and later as he waited for Kaiser to return.
He had already spent nearly an hour fuming over Kaiser’s inane complaint and had come to the conclusion that even if he firmly believed Kaiser was in the wrong, perhaps he shouldn’t have ignored him for the entirety of practice just to prove his point.
He had spent the next hour opening and closing the message app on his phone, waiting for the three dots next to Kaiser’s name to show up and indicate he was typing. It had been radio-silent.
But it wasn’t like Kaiser had to come back tonight, Sae told himself. Kaiser had an apartment of his own. He might just be taking the night off to cool down from their fight, and he would call Sae again in the morning.
Or, he could’ve decided that this wasn’t worth it anymore, and never step back into Sae’s life.
He grit his teeth. That would be fine, he told himself Kaiser could go fuck himself for all Sae cared. He didn’t need the bastard anyway.
So what if Sae liked to push. And so what if maybe, when Kaiser retaliated, it just made Sae push even harder.
But he couldn’t shake the dread that writhed in the pit of his stomach, the nagging fear that he had gone too far this time.
The bright ring of his doorbell gave Sae pause. His pulse quickened and he cursed himself for his eagerness as he made his way over to the door. Still, he put in his translator earpiece again, just in case.
Michael Kaiser stood just across from him at his threshold.
Sae could see the satisfied glint in Kaiser’s eye when he noticed Sae was using the translator.
But before he could make a snarky comment, Sae leaned up, dug one hand into Kaiser’s obnoxious blonde-and-blue hair, and kissed him.
It was rough, more a clash of teeth and lips than a real kiss. But they were rough - rough with each other, rough around the edges - so it seemed only natural.
Kaiser leaned into it, forcing Sae’s lips open to lick into his mouth. Sae fought back, of course he did, but there was less heat and anger in him than there had been all day.
“Eager, aren’t you?” Kaiser whispered against his cheek.
“Shut the fuck up,” Sae hissed back, dragging him inside.
Because at the end of the day they fought like their lives depended on it. But they would figure it out eventually, even if it took them a while to get there, because that was just how Itoshi Sae and Michael Kaiser were.
A few hours later, as Sae lay in bed with his mind in a haze, their argument already half-forgotten.
“You really don’t wanna be public?” Kaiser whispered, lips moving against the back of Sae’s neck.
“Mmm,” Sae murmured, face pressed into the pillow. “I don't. And I don’t like you showing up without telling me first. But we can talk about it tomorrow.”
Kaiser snorted. “As if. You’re a fucking instigator, you just like getting me mad.”
Sae huffed out a half laugh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said, lying through his teeth.