Tongue Tied

One

Sae stood in the middle of the bright airport's waiting area, wishing his hands would just stop sweating. He hadn't been to the airport in months, not since he'd arrived in this country for the start of his new contract. He was nervous. Airports didn't make him nervous, per se, but he had no suitcase with him, and he wasn't going anywhere. If that was the case, he would have been fine. He knew full well the song and dance of leaving and starting over.

But, no. He was standing at the gate for international arrivals with his hands balled up into fists in his pockets. He could have sent a car, he supposed, or offered to pay the cab fare. But that felt a little weird, all things considered.

He hadn't told anyone Shidou was coming to visit him. Not that he really had anyone to tell. But he did catch up with his parents every once in a blue moon and he and his teammates sometimes shared small anecdotes about their lives, and he hadn't mentioned it. He didn't even really like admitting it out loud to himself. He didn't understand quite why, but it felt overwhelming when he thought about it. Not painful, not even necessarily negative, but overwhelming.

The two of them were friends, he figured. Or dating. Or something in between.

Not that they'd ever defined it or acknowledged it or talked about it in any respect, but Sae knew how to read between the lines. They might not have talked about what was happening between the two of them, but they had been talking. Quite often, actually.

Shidou had talked him into handing over his number after the U-20 match and he had. He wasn't sure exactly why, but it quickly became besides the point. Shidou texted him a lot the first few days. Sae mostly ignored him, or tried to. But eventually, he started to find it kind of nice to feel the reliable buzz of his phone, of someone going out of their way to tell him they were thinking about him. On the third day, when Sae had arrived in Spain for his new contract and the rate of Shidou's messages started to slow, it triggered this awful anxiety in him, and the thought of losing this new comfort he'd found terrified him deeply.

So, he'd started texting back.

At first, they hadn't talked about much. Sae had barely talked at all. He sent one message for each of Shidou's five or six. It mostly revolved around what they were doing or thinking about. Shidou asked Sae any question that crossed his mind, and then when Sae answered, he'd provide his own answer without prompting. They got to know each other quite a bit that way.

Shidou got to know Sae's schedule from this, and started to send him requests to tell him when he'd finished whatever he was doing or had gotten to where he was headed. He thought nothing of this, and did so. So when he got a message that said let me know when you get home, he'd thought nothing of this either.

I'm home, he'd typed back.

Cool, Shidou sent. Can I call you?

Sae thought about this request strictly logically. He didn't have anything to do. He'd have dinner eventually, but he wasn't hungry yet. His laundry was done and the place was clean.

Sure, he sent back. I guess.

It didn't take long for his phone to start ringing.

"Hi," he answered.

Shidou let out this long sigh. "Fuck, it's good to hear your voice."

"Thanks," Sae said, fairly sure that had been a compliment.

Their phone calls went the same way as their texting did for the most part. Shidou did most of the talking, rambling on and on about whatever happened to run through his mind. Sae didn't mind, and he listened. He often tuned people out when they did this, but he heard Shidou's every word. He found him kind of interesting, actually. Funny too.

And every so often, he'd ask Sae something about himself, or what he thought about something. When Sae answered, it was Shidou who was listening. He stayed quiet, and because of this, Sae often found himself going on longer than he normally did when answering questions, finding memories or thoughts he'd forgotten about or hadn't even known existed. It was very strange.

"What team are you on now, anyways?" Shidou asked him. "Real Youth Madrid still?"

"No," Sae said. "I'm eighteen now, so they let me join their U-20."

"Shit," Shidou said. "How do you find it?"

"They're all pathetic," Sae answered honestly. "But whatever. That's nothing new."

"Hmm." Shidou was quiet for a second. "That means you're on a team with Suarez, right? I bet you hate him."

"I do," Sae said, surprise slipping into his voice as well as onto his face. Suarez was easily his least favourite teammate on the Spain U-20 team. He was a big talker with no skill to back it up. Sae's least favourite type of person. "Every time he opens his mouth, I want to shove my cleat in it just to shut him up."

Shidou started cackling at the other end. It went on a long while before another sigh came.

"You're funny, Itoshi."

Nobody had ever called Sae funny before. Not that he gave most people the time of day to figure out whether or not he was, but it's not something even he considered himself. Hearing that said gave him a very overwhelming feeling indeed.

"Thanks," Sae said. Before forcing himself to add, "So are you."