Chapter Text
Every so often, when the constant yelling between the Blue Lock members, harassment from Ego, and the stress of their lives being aired to the entire world got to be too much, the professional players and masters from each stratum alike decided to take a break in the cafeteria.
No one really bothered to think about the consequences, as they were currently the driving force behind this entire project.
So, when Lavinho snuck something in his soccer bag that looked a little too big to be a water bottle, Ego pretended not to notice. When Snuffy said he “had a few extra cups if anyone needed them”, Ego didn’t bat an eye. When Chris said he had internationally shipped items from sponsors, Ego let it slide. When Loki had shut down the entire French stratum 2 hours early because he had to “finish his reports”, Ego, after a glance and a talk, looked the other way.
But Ego knew it was serious when Noa blatantly denied anyone access to his room. Noa closing his room wasn’t initially what tipped him off, but when Isagi Yoichi tried knocking on his door, and he said he was too busy to talk, Ego knew something was up.
Ego had seen the shared calendar, it had every event, football related or not, written on it. It was constantly being modified by Anri, that’s the only reason he could keep up with the JFC’s brain-dead demands. He checked again, and what do you know?
Suddenly, for that night specifically, every master and some professional players had turned in early and closed their stratums early.
Shit.
Ego thought, somehow forgetting about their rather untimely gatherings. He knew this is one of Isagi’s scheduled days, and thought about inviting him to his office in a last- ditch effort to try and not let the disaster that was waiting to happen, happen.
He sighed and pushed his glasses up, not quite reaching the tops of his eyes. A smile, wide as the amount of hatred he held for the JFC spread on his cheeks. Slightly laughing as his head dropped to rest on his knees.
“Well,” His smile grew wider, “at least this’ll be interesting.”
_____
Lavinho, typically arriving fashionably late to any and all gatherings, was the first in the cafeteria, bored while waiting for the rest for the stratums to arrive. He was so incredibly bored that he went on twitter to post about his boredom and, hopefully, get some entertainment out of the replies.
With the alcohol bottles formed in a weirdly shaped semicircle in front of him, he tilted his phone on one of them, the case getting slightly wet due to the forming condensation, and took a picture of his face resting on the table, frowning as he looked at the camera.
Just as he was about to check the replies, he heard a familiar pair of voices from down the hall.
“どうして今夜はカフェテリアに行けないの?” He heard someone’s distant voice, not close enough to pass through the translators.
“You can’t go tonight. Unless you want to get yourself in trouble, then by all means, Isagi, go take your little break tonight.” He hears Ego’s voice in perfect Portuguese, immediately shooting his head in their direction, suspicious. He tried listening more closely, but his translators couldn’t seem to pick up on what Isagi was responding.
“...それは私の質問の答えではありませんでした, Ego.” Complete gibberish running through his ears, as not knowing half of the conversation was really starting piss him off.
“Isagi, how about we make a compromise…” Ego said, sending shivers down Lavinho’s, and he presumed Isagi’s, spines.
Lavinho got up from his seat, slowly and somewhat quietly making his way towards the opening in the wall to rest against as his translators were finally put to full use.
“Hmm, I know if it’s you, you’ll keep up your half of the deal, but your compromises are never… normal.” Isagi’s voice, finally coming to him in Portuguese, sounds unsure and half suspicious himself. Lavinho breathed a fast breath out of his nose so as to not get caught, a smile apparent on his face.
“If you go tonight, I have to supervise you the entire time you are there.”
He heard Isagi take a sharp inhale, slowly exhaling as his voice slightly held a semblance of a chuckle.
“Sure,” hearing the smile in his words, Lavinho knew he was going to ask Noa later about what the hell was going on with Isagi Yoichi. “that’s not half as bad as I thought it would be.”
What Lavinho didn’t know was that, actually, quite a lot was going on with Blue Lock’s stricker.
_____
Walking to the cafeteria, Chris and Loki meet halfway, as their stratums are adjacent to each other. Wanting to make normal conversation, Chris looks over to Loki, forming the most common Blue Lock question he could.
“So, you somehow figure out a way to make Rin and Shidou not hate each other yet?” He asked, slightly wincing as he watched the French striker’s eyes close shut with a sigh.
“Not yet, sadly. Separating them is the best I can do right now.” Loki responded after a thought, turning to look at him. “Find a way to make Nagi want to practice?” He asked, slight chuckle in his words as they continued down the path towards the Italian stratum.
“Weirdly enough, yes I have.” Not elaborating for the sake of the other’s sanity, he decides to pat Loki on the shoulder, resting his hand there, shaking his head. “They stuck you with the worst of the worst at seventeen, I wonder how you do it.”
“I do, too. I don’t know what Ego was thinking, allowing them to be together after what happened at the end of the second selection.” Loki replies stiffly, another long breath stringing along after the sentence.
“I’m pretty sure he did it for his own entertainment.” An unexpected third part joining their conversation.
“Ah, Snuffy! About time you joined the group!” Chris said, slapping him on the shoulder as he fell into step with the other two masters.
They talked until they got to the cafeteria, seeing Lavinho already sitting at one of the tables in the corner, pouting at them. As more were placed onto the tabletop, the bottles had been rearranged to form more of a deformed oval than a semicircle. The other, just arriving masters had noticed that Lavinho had been quite a bit quieter than his usually loud self, but brushed it off as tiredness as the rest of them piled into the middle of the table.
The professional players who had been invited started showing up, a bit later than the expected time as the blue lockers had gotten a bit rowdy. They all take their seats, and cups, and start talking about their teams back at home and parties they’re going to throw when they get out of Blue Lock.
Though, the party had really taken off when Noa had actually shown his face, knowing they would be tipsy and feeling he probably shouldn’t have come to it in the first place. With none of the Bastard stratum invited, all of the other members were cheering as he had been poured a heavy drink. Noa visibly cringed as Lavinho grabbed the 40% vodka and started pouring it straight into his, now barely, light soda drink.
However, Noa could feel something happening in the back of his mind that he has forgotten about. As he took a sip of the mixture Lavinho concocted, he gasped a breath through his nostrils, jaw clenching at the taste. After the little time he had been there, he could already tell it would be a long night.
_____
“I can’t believe you have to supervise me.” Isagi said as he walked from the medical center to the cafeteria, messing with the lighter in his hand as Ego flicked from screen to screen in the hallway of TVs, keeping up with Isagi’s slower pace. “I mean, you’re acting like I haven’t done this a million times before.” His words slightly caught together, gulping a huge sigh when Ego didn’t respond immediately.
“I don’t know if I can trust you.” Ego said, no form of happiness present on his face.
“Yes, yes, I understand, I’m a child and all,” Taking another puff of his joint, breathing in slightly to keep the relaxing smoke in his lungs for just a second longer. “but why are you all of a sudden supervising me?” He spoke while exhaling the smoke, the fog wafting in his face as he quickly closed his eyes, blinking away the glossiness of his eyes.
“Because, there are clashing schedules tonight, and I don’t want to miss out on the discourse.” He said, a slight smile appearing as he talked.
The hairs on Isagi’s arms stood up and he felt something off about the whole situation.
“And by discourse, I assume you mean entertainment? Anyway, has anyone told you that you are insanely creepy? I think it’s the eyes.”
“Well, I have been told I have a quite… remarkable smile.”
As the duo continued their conversation, Isagi walked into the cafeteria, eyes closed while cracking his neck as he went to his special corner, adjacent to the unseen eyes staring in his direction.
“Maybe it’s the fact you look like Ryuk from Deathnote.” Isagi pondered, head tilted as he walked to the table in the corner of the large room. “I mean, same body language, same sense of humor - if you have that - and even the same posture.” He heard Ego chuckle as he hopped up on the table, sliding further back onto it to rest his legs. “Do you take inspiration from him or something?”
Isagi brought his feet up, knees swaying and lightly tapping each other as he made his own Newton’s cradle. He yawned as he brought the joint back to his lips, lightly sucking the smoke in.
Isagi glanced at the TV on the wall and his lips curled upwards as he saw Ego’s face scrunch up in annoyance. Just what he was hoping for.
“I’ll ask one more time, why the supervision?” He laid his head back once more on the table, looking at the TV screen behind his head on the wall.
“Maybe if you used your big boy eyes, you’d know.” Ego answered before the TV turned off.
Isagi blinked, tilting his head, and pouted.
“You know blind without my contacts.” He tilted his head to the side, glasses falling down from his head. He blinked several times before blowing out the rest of the smoke in horror.
“Oh,” a drawn out silence filled the room as the other party realized he saw them. “shit.”
_____
The party was honestly going well, drinks being refilled even stronger than before as they split into talking groups, laughs and chuckles filled parts of the room, while whispers and theories filled the other.
Most of the party got quiet, however, after hearing Ego’s voice from down the hall, echoing into the room.
“I don’t know if I can trust you.” Everyone stopped to listen in on the conversation happening. Most of the players can hear the sound of a slightly higher pitched voice speak back in Japanese, most not being close enough to translate. However, with the exception of Lavinho and Charles, being sat near the entrance, they heard in the faintest of voices, “Yes, yes, I understand, I’m a child and all but why are you supervising me?” Lavinho instantly realized that the conversation earlier was going to come into play very soon.
“Because, there are clashing schedules tonight, and I don’t want to miss out on the discourse.” Noa could practically hear the smile in his voice as he talked, as a sharp bolt of realization shot down his spine.
Isagi is scheduled for tonight.
“And by discourse, I assume you mean entertainment?” Isagi snapped back at him, as if knowingly.
As the professional players and masters alike stopped talking and stared at the door, they all saw the heart of Blue Lock walk in as he was talking to Ego. They watched as they bickered, and as Isagi sat on the table and smoked.
Smoked.
Smoked?
Smoked?!