You're In Ruins (KaiNess/IsaNess)

Chapter 2

Around the time Ness was placed on an infirmary bed, his dreams started to sour. They turned from distant memories of his and Kaiser's friendship to recent memories of Kaiser's disgusted face calling Ness pathetic. Maybe the rough texture of the bed sheets triggered this switch in his subconscious thoughts, or perhaps the loss of another person's body heat from Isagi putting him down. Either way, Ness's mind was filled with every time Kaiser pulled his hair, or forced him to bow to Yoichi, or called him pathetic. It was all playing on loop in his dreams.

Isagi looked at Ness, tossing and turning under the white infirmary sheets. He had absolutely no clue what to do. All he knew was that he didn't like the sight of Alexis Ness lying in an infirmary bed, brows furrowed, tossing and turning. Something about it made him feel like there was a pit in his stomach.

Isagi sat on one of the vacant beds and watched Ness's fitful sleep. He wasn't sure why he didn't just leave and go back to practice, but he felt like staying with Ness was the right thing to do in the moment. Plus, even though most of the words he had traded with the midfielder were insults, he still felt a strange warmth whenever he was near him. At first, he dismissed that warmth as rage or annoyance, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was something different. Something pleasant.

Isagi became hyperaware that he was staring at Ness when he started to notice him mouthing words. He had no idea what he was mouthing because no matter how good his translater buds were, they still couldn't make Ness's mouth move in Japanese. So, he got closer to Ness, jumping off the vacant bed and kneeling right in front of Ness's face. He could barely decipher the words 'Kaiser,' 'sorry,' and 'pathetic' from Ness's sleep-talking, but it painted a clear enough picture for Isagi to be sure Ness was having a nightmare.

"What do you do when someone's having a nightmare?" Isagi asked himself, trying to distract himself from how pissed off just the mention of Kaiser's name made him.

"You get the fuck out of their face," Ness said, eyes slowly opening and then closing once again to adjust to the light. When Ness opened his eyes again, Isagi was standing at the foot of the bed.

"S--Sorry," Isagi stuttered sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

Ness sat up on the bed. He looked around and was disappointed to find that only he and Isagi were in the infirmary. What else did I expect? No one cares about me; I don't even know why Yoichi is here. Ness thought.

"Why are you here?" Ness asked, standing up and stretching.

"I was, um, worried about you." Isagi looks away, a slight blush on his cheeks.

Ness's face scrunched up in disgust; he had absolutely no interest in making Isagi Yoichi worry about him. The last thing he wanted was the source of his problems pretending to care about him.

"Well, don't," Ness said with an air of finality and stood up from the bed, preparing to make his way back to practice.

"Wait! How could I not worry about someone who just threw up and passed out during practice?" Isagi grabbed Ness's arm to prevent him from leaving.