minatozaki sana x soccer player!reader (pt.0) ; fluff
synopsis: below the starry night and flashing lights, alone on an open field, nothing else mattered in the world as you listened to sana’s words.
wc: 1.8k
a/n: prequel to the sana soccer series; takes place a month before the academy exit trials.
—
it was late.
you don’t know how long you stayed on the field after practice to get some extra shots in on the open goal.
to your teammates, it was pure craziness, but to you, it was therapy. there was something that relaxed your mind when you’re by yourself and nobody’s watching you. it’s just you, the soccer balls, and the goal. you rolled another ball up for a shot as you took your usual steps back before belting the ball into the net, heaving out a dull sigh as you walked back to get another ball. same setup, but this time the ball clips the bar and out, groaning at the effort you put in only to come short with your attempt.
you walk backward, lining yourself up with a ball just in front of you, envisioning a curved run up and the potential trajectory of the ball to the goal, only to feel a shift in the air–a sixth sense as you stop all motions as you hear a small patch of footsteps on the field.
“i didn’t expect you to be here, especially this late.” you say out loud before turning around to see your best friend sana, approaching you with a rolled up blanket in her hand along with her small backpack.
“how did you know it was me?” she asks, “you couldn't hear me walking from far away!”
“sana, i know the sounds of regular shoes on a turf field. besides how did you know i was here?”
“well rin and daniel texted me about you staying for a bit longer after practice today. considering how long it’s been since they told me, i got a little worried.” sana replies, tilting her head at you as you scoffed at her reason.
“you shouldn’t be out her this late, even worse is that you came here alone.”
“i drove here.”
“you did?” you ask surprisingly, the corners of your lips curling up at her efforts to get to you.
sana nods at your question, “gotta put some use to my license somehow!” shrugging her shoulders as you facepalm at her, smiling underneath as you lightly laugh into your hand.
“how long has it been?”
sana check’s her phone for the time, “i know that practice ended at 6:30-6:45, and rin reached out to me an hour later. so-”
“it’s 9:50.” you say checking your phone, eyes widely opening at the observation. you weren’t planning on staying here for that long, but with the endless cycle of getting the balls, shooting, and repeating the routine, it was easy to get lost when you didn’t have a sense of time playing.
sana sets herself down on the grass, wrapping her blanket around her, fishing her bag for a small pack of chocolate chip cookies she brought inside as you roll a couple more balls over to shoot after.
“are you almost done?”
“yeah, i’ll take these and i’ll take a break again.” you answer as you got back to business, in a few moments you made three balls out of a possible seven in the goal. not good, but at the same time you’re fatigued so it was bound to happen sooner or later. you turn around to hear a cheer from sana as she held her phone recording your shots as you look down embarassed by your performance.
trudging over to sana, you sit yourself down next to her, draping the blanket over you as you shift next to her more, nearly leaning as she feeds you a chocolate chip cookie she cooked at home before coming here.
“good thing you brought the blanket here.” you say in between bites.
“it’s cold y/n, ever heard of it?”
you laugh at sana’s question as she continues to finish up the last pieces of cookies before setting her bag down off to the side, leaning her shoulder to join yours as you look up at the stars above.
even if the floodlights are illuminating the field you and sana were sitting on, the stars were always more captivating to look at, even the moon was in it’s full form that took up a decent portion of the night sky as sana looks over to you in wonder, trying to read your eyes that peer into your mind even if it was hard to tell for her.
“you’ve been practicing a lot recently, you wanna tell me why?” sana asks you as you look over to her before looking down and kicking your cleats together.
“remember at the end of summer when i said that there was this big tryout happening in thanksgiving break?”
sana nods, recalling the time you told her about this significant thing that you would be practicing for a month and a half prior to the actual thing.
“it’s the exit trials, and the top 10 highest ranking prospects that get assessed will get offers from professional soccer teams.”
“does it matter where?”
“no, it could be any team, europe, asia, even back home over here!” you reply with an optimistic tone in your voice. sana knew that this was your lifelong dream from the beginning and she just wanted to see you succeed in what you set out to do.
“it may be a long shot, but i’m going to give everything i got to get a spot in the top 10 ranks and who knows, maybe a team will sign me.” the words you were affirming yourself in carried so much practice and sacrifice for you to have a shot at this opportunity. it’s the sheer determination and drive that you lived by that and your parents understood so clearly.
“so what happens if you do get the high ranks?” she asks, inching closer to you with the blanket.
“well, if all goes well, i don’t know actually. we won’t know until after the trials are done and over with.” you respond hushed, clutching your shins as you return your gaze up to the stars.
sana keeps her stare locked on you as you continue to mind your business before a thought stirs in her head, she always had a thing for speaking her mind regardless of the repercussions that came with it. it didn’t matter who or what it was about, it just felt right for her to say in that moment.
“i think you’re letting yourself get ahead a bit.”
you quirk your head immediately at her statement, slightly confused at the point she was trying to make.
“what are you saying?”
“i’m saying that you’re worried about something that will happen even before its supposed to.” she starts, “i’ve seen you play and practice your ass off to get results in games. you’re afraid of the unknown because you’re so pent up of the different possibilities your mind is giving you. the negatives are outweighing the positives and it’s not like you to be nervous about things like these.”
“sana i-”
“y/n, you are one of the closest people that i care about deeply. i mean seriously, if it weren’t for you i wouldn’t be this invested about soccer in the first place.”
you scoff at her point, realizing that she was right as you leaned in slightly closer. the breeze kicked in more abruptly as you kept your eyes on sana.
“you’re right.” you say admittingly, “i’ve been a little too introspective about how i view my performances, let alone trying to strive for 100%.”
“100% is nice bar to set for yourself y/n, but the constant motiviation driving you is only gonna consume you from the inside out.”
there was something about sana that you grew fond of recently. again, you don’t know when or how this came about, but at some point either now or back then, she really reeled you in without even realizing it. everything about her was just raw and genuine. the appearance and how she looks was one thing, but the biggest selling point was the personality in how she acted when you had troubling times like these with your own mind.
the words that came out of her mouth were comforting, much more like a slap to the face bringing you back to reality as you and her both got up from the floor, realizing that it’s already past ten, and the lights beaming down on the field would be turning off in the next five minutes or so.
“thank you sana.” you say as you scrounge up the balls around you to eventually put back in the ball bag. “i don't think i've stressed that enough for you to say these things, it sets my mind at ease."
she turns around with the blanket draped over her shoulders, mimicking as if she was divine royalty right in front of you, beaming a smile that radiated such happiness and hope that could literally kill you on the spot, but you stood tall.
“no matter what happens in that trial, i want to be there for you every step of the way. remember that.”
when she said those words to you, your heart panged, cementing the encouragement and reminding you of who you’re doing it for. your parents had supported you, your teammates and coaches supported you, even your friends including sana to be the latest addition, was now backing your dream.
five minutes pass as you finish wrapping up putting the last of the ball bags into the container, you walk over to sana who had your training bag next to her leg, picking it up and shouldering it over you, as you and her walk to the car.
“did you take my car?”
“you got a ride from rin, so your mom gave me the spare key code for your car.”
“i cannot believe she let you drive my tesla.”
“it is nice to drive! handles well.”
you and her share a laugh together, a moment that has happened so many times and will continue to happen no matter how long that will be.
“before i forget.” you say, sana glancing over to you again as you flash your cute smile to her, “you were there from the beginning sana, which techincally makes you my first fan."
"but i thought dex would be the first since you've known him before i met-"
"dex doesn't count, you'll always be my first fan." sana freezes at your proclamation, starstuck that you gave her such a title as you kept your glare firmly on her.
“good to know that i’ll be the first!” she says brightly as you bring her in for a hug, one that’s filled with so much care and intimacy and beneath it was the brewing love you had for each other.
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