EXTRA - Tis the Season?

Surprisingly, Ego Jinpachi had given them a break for Christmas.

Everyone had a week and a bit, able to go home in that time, leave and come to the Bluelock facility as they pleased, or even go travelling. Y/N had wholly been expecting to spend Christmas alone - for the 18th year in the row. Not that he minded, really. Christmas had always been something for other people.

You know. People with friends. People with loving families. People that could afford to spend a bit on presents, or lights, or decorations, or the hundred other things that suddenly became a necessity around December time. Y/N was more than happy to just sit by himself, maybe eat a cupcake or something. A lot of the world didn't celebrate it, so it wasn't like he was being left out or anything.

What he didn't expect was that even with the Bluelockers being free to do literally anything they wanted for the next 10 days, a majority of them returned to the compound daily. Bluelock's interior walls found themselves covered in cheap lights or weird decorations, and Y/N saw more than one friendly face over the first few days leading up to the 24th.

Not many had the time for him, though.

Y/N turned the corner, and nearly ran into Anri, who was busy on the phone organising something.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Midway through scribbling something on a notepad, she nodded. "I have fifteen twelve piece Winter Packs, eight burger sets, thirty medium drinks-" Y/N ducked to one side, barely avoiding her. Anri's eyes widened, and she silently mouthed an apology as she continued to write.

Y/N tilted his head, and listened. Anri continued. "Coffee? Uh... we can make that ourselves. I'll grab a hundred nuggets too. Man, I think I'm late to order..."

She hung up, immediately scrolling on her phone. Y/N curiously approached, peeking at her screen. "What are you doin'?"

"Ordering KFC." Anri murmured, scrolling through the app. "I might call them directly... It's probably better for such a large order."

"Oh." Y/N frowned. "Who's eating it?"

"The Bluelock gu-" Anri paused, face reddening for a second. She hesitated. "Uh. Me."

"You?"

"And Ego."

"I only caught a hundred nuggets." Y/N muttered. "But I think that's a little too much for two people."

"Don't doubt Ego." Anri laughed. She placed a soft hand on Y/N's hair, patting it twice. Y/N stared up at her. "Don't worry. Why don't you just go lie down or something?"

"It's all I've been doing for the last few days..."

"Then do it some more." Y/N opened his mouth to protest, but Anri was already moving away, engrossed in whatever she was doing on her phone. Y/N sighed.

"I'm bored..."

When he caught Chigiri in the cafeteria, hanging ornaments on a huge tree, Y/N immediately rushed over. He stood at the base of the tree, Chigiri above him on a small stepladder.

"Chigiri." He stood below, trying to get his attention. "Hey. Chigiri. Hyoma."

The princess's head immediately looked down. He spotted Y/N, eyes softening. "Hey."

"Hi." Y/N glanced at the tree. "Whatcha doing?"

"Just finishing up the decorations here." Chigiri smiled. "It's soccer themed, sort of. Instead of a star on the top I'm just gonna stick a burst ball."

"Creative." Y/N deadpanned. He grinned. "Wanna do something?"

"Something?"

"Wanna go anywhere." Y/N fidgeted, shifting from foot to foot. "Shopping? I don't know."

"Ah, maybe some other time." Leaning over to hang another ornament on the tree, Chigiri looked down from the ladder. "I want to get this done first."

"Later?"

"I'm going back home to have dinner with my family." Chigiri apologetically replied. "Some other time."

"Oh. Okay." Y/N nodded, slowly at first but more confidently after. "Can I help you?"

"You can pass me the next box of ornaments. Just down there." Chigiri pointed. "But apart from that, nothing really for you to do. Maybe Ego has something for you?"

"Not really." Y/N sighed. He picked up the box, straining to hand it to Chigiri. The other boy smiled, patting his head twice by way of thanks and placing the box on one of the steps of the ladder.

"Ah, at least you get a break then." Chigiri returned to hanging ornaments. Y/N hesitated.

"I've had enough of a break-"

"Do you think-" Chigiri stopped. "Sorry, you go first."

"Um. I was just thinking, I've had enough of a break. I want to do something."

"There's a lot to do." Chigiri responded. "Lots to prepare."

"What for?"

Pausing, pursing his lips, Chigiri shrugged. "It's Christmas. There's always a lot to prepare."

"Oh. Right." Y/N could've slapped himself. Of course there was a lot to prepare. It was one of the busiest holidays, of course people put effort into it. Of course people enjoyed it, worked hard to make it good.

Y/N wanted in. He wanted to celebrate it for the first time, see what it was like.

So he backed off. "I'll... let you get on with it then. See you some other time?"

"Yeah, of course." Chigiri smiled. Y/N turned, heading down the corridor with nothing but his lone footsteps to accompany him.

The next day, Y/N was again, wandering through the Bluelock hallways. He hadn't done a thing, lying in bed or just continuing to train. There was a lot to do, he knew. Tokyo had multiple Christmas fairs. There were a lot of events, activities, things to do in the city, Christmas related or not.

And instead, he was inside. He'd had breakfast alone in the huge cafeteria, and after, had managed to hear the echo of a ball being kicked down the corridors. Y/N had searched for the sound. Finally, he'd reached the source.

Itoshi Rin stood leaning against one grey wall, kicking the ball repeatedly at the other. It always bounced back to him. He did it once, twice, three times, dead eyes set on a point on the wall Y/N couldn't see.

For a few seconds, Y/N stood there, just watching. He tracked the movement of the ball. Bounce off wall. Bounce on floor. To Rin. Back to the wall. He thought Rin hadn't seen him - but after a few seconds, Rin let the ball roll away. Without looking towards him, he raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?"

Y/N blinked. "What are you doing?"

"Kicking a ball."

"Why?"

Rin stopped. Y/N watched his hand curl into a fist at his side, watched the muscles in his neck tighten. Spinning, Rin slammed his foot into the ball, terrifyingly hard. It ricocheted off the wall, the ceiling, a deafening bang echoing down the halls. Y/N flinched. Rin exhaled. "I was at a Christmas event, something for famous Japanese players. Sae was there."

Y/N gulped. "D-did you talk?"

"What do you think?" Rin muttered. "I swear, every word out of his fucking mouth makes me sick."

He viciously lashed out a second time, sending the ball bouncing off down the corridor. Y/N stared after it, wide eyed. "Are you okay?"

"Dandy." Rin ground out."

"Can I help...?" Y/N swallowed. "Do you want to meditate like before-"

"Meditate? What are you, a therapist?" Rin snarled. Y/N flinched again, paling. "You're so buddy buddy with Sae anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Rin sighed, pressing both fingers to his shadowed eyes. They came away wet with water. Y/N's heart clenched.

"Really, Rin. What can I do?"

"Nothing." He replied, voice hollow. "Nothing."

And so, Y/N left.

Beep.

"Hi, you've reached Julian Loki. I can't get to the phone right now, but if you need to speak with someone immediately, contact my assistant, Gabriel at..."

The day after seeing Rin, Y/N lay on his bed. Again.

For Christmas, Julian had flown back to France, in order to spend time with his team, his family, and the majority of his friends in Paris. He'd spent a lot longer in Japan than any of them had expected, so it would be good for him to see everyone again. Still, he'd invited Y/N to come with him.

Y/N had declined though. He wanted to experience Christmas, but he definitely wanted his first to be in Japan. It would've felt weird, knowing what a French Christmas was like but not a Japanese one. So he'd stayed.

Not bothering to give a voicemail, Y/N disconnected from the call. He sighed heavily, swiping through his contact list. It was pretty early in France, due to the timezones. That was probably why he hadn't answered.

His eyes alighted on another person. Kaiser. The man was in the same timezone as Loki, but Y/N knew for a fact that he woke up at ungodly hours each day. As he sometimes sent Y/N in the form of strange memes, he was 'rising and grinding'.

Y/N tapped the call button. It rang only once before it was connecting, the icon lighting up green and a crackle coming through the speakers. Y/N's face lit up, and he sat up in bed instantly. "Hi?"

Lots of crackling, some weird noise like wind blowing directly into the microphone. Kaiser's voice, albeit a little poor quality, came through ."Y/N!"

"Hey-"

"I can't talk much right now." The screen lit up, Kaiser turning the call to a video feed. It showed his legs, standing in a foot of snow. Y/N winced. Kaiser lifted the camera, showing the Bastard Munchen training field completely covered under a full layer of snow.

A few dozen people in heavy coats, gloves and hats were hard at work. Shovels in hand, they were working their way through the snow, clearing it off. Around the pitch, more people were trying to clear pathways, salt nearby roads, and get some of the snow off the building roof before it caused a mini avalanche. Kaiser stepped forwards, sinking up past his ankle. "We're trying to clear this out."

"Wow." Y/N murmured.

"Wow indeed." Kaiser replied. "It's not all bad. I look great doing manual labour, especially with a shovel."

"I can't say I've ever seen that."

"Come to Germany, I'll show you-" Kaiser grunted. A few particles of snow flew in front of the camera. "Hey, no snowballs! I'm on a call!"

Another dull thump sounded. Kaiser yelled. Then he turned the camera on himself, showing his blond hair dusted with white, nose red, and coat covered in snow. "Got to go, L/N. Do you think I could toss an ice ball at someone I don't like and call it an accident?"

Y/N opened his mouth to answer, but the call flashed red.

He sighed, and flopped backwards in the bed.

Everyone was busy.

Y/N knew that it would be so, but he didn't like it. Over the next few days, he tried to find someone - anyone that would do anything with him.

Niko's parents had taken him holidaying in America. Gagamaru was nowhere to be seen (but that was expected). Otoya was on a Christmas date. So was Karasu, off seeing a girlfriend. Shidou was... the one person Y/N hadn't asked, for obvious reasons. Yukimiya was busy modelling a new set of winterwear. Kiyora was seeing family.

When he did see people in and around the Bluelock facility, they were always, without fail, busy. Decorating, organising, preparing... every single one of them was too busy to talk to Y/N for more than five minutes.

So he found himself, for the most part, alone.

He'd visited Sae's apartment, too. It'd been a nice change of scenery, lying in his bed there instead of his Bluelock room. The view of Tokyo was nice. More than nice, actually. It was beautiful.

But again, like everyone else, Sae was busy. In the day Y/N spent there, he spent exactly an hour in the apartment - twenty minutes in the morning to get dressed and eat breakfast, and forty minutes in the evening to take a shower, prepare for bed, and then go to bed. He barely spoke to Y/N, too busy dealing with an endless list of phone calls, (reluctantly) receiving and giving gifts, and attending a trillion social events.

Y/N knew he shouldn't have been bothered. He'd spent every Christmas alone, what was another one?

Right?

Yet, he longed.

People flooded into Tokyo in droves, doing their shopping, attending festivals or events, going on dates. They all looked so happy. Very, very few walked alone on the street, most with a partner, a family member, a friend, or group of friends. Even work colleagues met up, filling bars to chat over a drink or two.

Y/N didn't go anywhere with anyone.

Instead, on the 23rd of December, he went around Tokyo alone. He popped his head into all the shops, turned over last minute presents and boxes of wrapping paper in his hands, looked at the exorbitant prices of special Christmas foods and acted shocked like everyone else. He marvelled at the lights, cheered for the buskers on the street, smiled at the little boy dressed in a Santa outfit that stared open-mouthed at him from a restaurant window.

Y/N could've convinced himself it was okay.

Then he saw them.

The majority of the Bluelockers seemed to have gathered. Y/N paused, squinting, trying to make sure he was seeing it right.

Barou, Bachira, Isagi, Reo, Nagi, Hiori, Aryu... Igarashi, Kurona, Nanase... Y/N wouldn't have noticed them, if not for Nagi slumped against the window of a shop, hair smushed against the window. The rest of them moved around the interior of the small shop, smiling, grinning at different things. Isagi nudged Hiori to point out something that made them both laugh.

Y/N tilted his head to one side. He fished his phone from his pocket, checking the group chats.

y/n_l/n

im bored

anyone free...?

wanna do something

[Read by 12 people, 11:05 a.m.]

The time was 4 in the afternoon. Five hours, and nobody had even bothered to reply to him. When he'd asked them individually, everyone was too busy, too occupied with important things to do anything. Nobody could afford to do anything with Y/N.

And yet... they were out here? As a group?

They weren't working, that was obvious.

Had they lied?

"Ah."

Y/N managed. They're busy, of course. All of them are busy. Too busy to do stuff. He sighed, watched them ogle over whatever in the shop. Busy meeting up. Without me. Course.

He returned to the Bluelock facility, alone.

🥕🥕🥕

"I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need..."

Christmas Eve.

Out in the city, people would be visiting markets. They'd be looking at the fancy lights, the trees, or scrambling very last minute presents. Lots of food, lots of romance, lots of everything Y/N couldn't be bothered to think about.

"I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree..."

He'd found himself a little room, in one of the most obscure places of the Bluelock compound. It'd taken him a full fifteen minutes to get there, walking up random staircases, along corridors that progressively grew smaller and smaller, transitioning from large training rooms to small storage cupboards or offices.

"I just want you for my own

More than you could ever know..."

Eventually, he'd reached an empty room. It was probably someone's office, with a wooden desk in the corner, a tiny window looking out of the building, and a small plastic chair. Y/N sat down, and placed the three items he was holding onto the desk.

"Make my wish come true..."

One, a water bottle. Two, a cupcake. Third, his phone, notifications turned off so he wouldn't see the 'Merry Christmas' messages everyone was sending each other. It was playing Mariah Carey, the sound tinny over the cheap speakers.

"All I want for Christmas is you..."

He slumped back in the chair, took hold of the cupcake, and raised it in a sarcastic toast. His smile was bitter on his lips. "Merry Christmas, Y/N." He spoke to himself.

The cupcake didn't taste good. Y/N chewed and swallowed a bite anyway, sipping from his water bottle as he stared out of the small window. It was pretty cold, his breath clouding in the air. Does this part of Bluelock not have heating?

Y/N was fully expecting to spend the rest of the night there, in that office.

Maybe he would've, if the door hadn't clicked open at that exact moment.

Y/N sighed, not even bothering to move from the chair. "Before you scold me, I know I'm not supposed to be here, sorry. I can get going if you want, but I'm sure you have better things to do than evict an 18 year old from an office room."

"I don't think you know what evict means."

Frowning, Y/N spun in his chair. Ego Jinpachi came striding into the room, dressed in the exact same black outfit he normally did. Y/N raised an eyebrow. "No festive sweater?"

"I think we both know I would never wear one of those." Ego replied flatly. "Get up."

"I don't wanna."

"Y/N, get up."

"No."

"Now."

"Why?" Y/N gulped, looking away from him with an annoyed scowl. On the surface, he looked like a kid being stubborn over nothing. If Ego looked closer, he could see the slight tremor in his hands, or the glossiness of his eyes. "I like it here."

Ego opened the window. Even colder air rushed in. Y/N sneezed. Ego fought a shiver, but remained in the room nonetheless. "Let's go."

"Where?"

"Anywhere." He waved a dismissive hand. "Get up."

"I'm good." Y/N sighed, reaching out to grasp his cupcake. He forced a smile, looking up at Ego. "See? Cake, water, Mariah Carey. What more do I need?"

"To come with me." Ego replied. He stared at Y/N with unimpressed eyes.

Eventually, Y/N let the cupcake fall to the desk. "Fine."

He stood up. Ego didn't even wait for him before he was blowing out of the room. Y/N hurried after him, trying to keep up with his long legs.

They headed through the compound. Ego took a right, then a left, then another right. Down a few sets of stairs. Their footsteps echoed off the hard walls.

Finally, they reached the cafeteria.

Ego stopped outside the entrance. The decorations were incredible, Y/N had to admit. The entire door frame was wreathed in some dark green leaves, red berries poking out of them. The door itself had a plastic glow in the dark Santa stuck to it, but through it, there was nothing but darkness.

Y/N hesitated. "Hmm?"

"Go in."

"I don't want to."

"Y/N." Ego chided. "Trust me."

It was such an unexpected statement that Y/N froze briefly, eyes flickering to Ego's. The man didn't react, just shrugging.

"Okay."

Y/N stepped in.

The world exploded with colour.

All at once, the cafeteria lit up. Last Christmas began to play over the speakers Ego usually used to give announcements. Y/N stopped dead in his tracks, eyes widened as a huge tree in the centre lit up with coloured lights, reds and greens and blues and yellow flashing, curling around the individual branches and leading up to a punctured soccer ball at the very top.

The grey columns of the cafeteria had been decorated too, lights shining alongside hundreds of stickers. Smaller trees were dotted around the place, each one decorated with their own set of themed ornaments.

Y/N spotted one tree that was half toppling over, with plastic leaves of white and only a few ornaments on it. Another tree, bright pink, was decorated with glittered tinsel. One tree was slightly taller than the rest, decorated with pictures of soccer balls and Itoshi Sae?? One was completely covered in glitter and sparkles, one was yellow with knitted bumblebees, a pair of trees placed right next to each other looked like faces, with dark eyebrows and matching frowns made from tinsel. Did every player make their own tree...?

His eyes landed on one specific one, undecorated as of yet, with multiple boxes of ornaments waiting at its base.

Beside those, there were inflatable reindeers, a sleigh made from lights hanging from the ceiling, and a massive table in the centre groaning under the weight of a whole store's worth of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Y/N was blown away. So he didn't react, when half a dozen party whistles blew, and Bluelock players waved their hands with a resounding, out of sync "Surprise!". They crowded round, all smiling faces and crinkled eyes and excited cheers.

Some of them did it enthusiastically, laughing like Bachira. Others, like Karasu, were heading for the food in the centre of the room before the echo of the whistles had faded, complaining that 'we waited ten minutes for you, holy shit I'm starving'. Y/N was swarmed, people wishing him well over and over again, talking to him about presents, trying to get him to go to the food.

Y/N stood there in shock as players crowded the huge table in the centre, taking their seats. Chigiri grinned, hurrying over to him to take him by the elbow. "Happy Christmas, Y/N!"

"W-what...?" Y/N managed.

"It's your first time celebrating with people, isn't it?" Chigiri laughed. "We wanted to make it memorable. So, you've got a tree there you can decorate for yourself, there's a lot of food, and we've got party games and stuff lined up after. Alcohol too, just don't tell Ego."

"What?"

"We're giving presents tonight too, so if you have anything, just put it under the respective person's tree. We're going to open them all tomorrow though." Y/N spotted a small pile of wrapped objects gathering under his undecorated tree already. "Sorry that I couldn't do anything with you, I've been busy setting it up, and well-"

Y/N cut him off with a smile, a butterfly stirring in his stomach and an injection of warmth in his chest. "No, no... it's fine. Thank you." He was at a loss for words. How was he supposed to describe it? It was incredible. Beyond anything he'd ever seen before.

Chigiri's eyes brightened. "Wait, don't tell anyone, but I have a sort of early gift for you."

"Um."

"Hold out your hand, close your eyes."

Y/N did so. In the darkness, two soft hands clasped around his own. Cold metal touched his finger. Chigiri exhaled, and he could feel the cool air against his face. "Okay."

A simple ring sat on his finger. It wasn't an expensive one, that was for sure. But it looked high quality nonetheless, a band of grey metal with a slight pink tint to it. Y/N swallowed hard, breathless. His heart pounded. He glanced up at Chigiri, noticing the exact same ring on the other boy's finger.

"Shh, don't tell. If they know I gave you an early gift, they'd freak." Chigiri murmured cheekily. Most of the Bluelockers were headed for the dinner table, their chattering filling the entire cafeteria. "Food first? You can make your tree after."

Y/N scanned the room. Virtually all the players were there. Even Anri and Ego, the former biting into a nugget, the latter playing video games on his Ipad. He spotted Shidou already trying to snag a two litre bottle of cola to himself, Barou screaming at everyone to use cutlery, Aryu mid faint as Igarashi and Zantetsu tried to see who could fit more of a burger into their mouths without swallowing.

He saw Reo trying to spoon feed a Nagi engrossed in a video on his phone, he saw Otoya trying to sneak a chip from Rin, he saw everything and everyone. Y/N ducked his head, and laughed. His cheeks hurt with how wide he was smiling.

"Yeah. Food first."

Y/N and Chigiri raced for the table, ignoring Barou yelling at them to stop running in the cafeteria.

Y/N was practically glowing. The past few days, it'd all been preparing for this? For him?

Well.

He thought, stealing a nugget from Bachira as he passed to get to his own chair.

Happy Christmas, me.