how to get a date and nationwide fame - a fail safe guide by Makoto Sakai
rugbymangaweek day two: otp
Okay so this is set in an au where Makoto and Hiromi and Chisato weren't childhood friends and met at the start of high school. Word count: 1602
When Makoto first met Hiromi, his face was covered in blood and he was staring up at the sky, re-thinking his career plan of becoming a rich and handsome professional soccer player.
“Makoto? Hey, Makoto! Are you okay?”
“You’re too loud,” Makoto groaned, sitting upright and clutching at his face. As it turns out, it was his nose that was leaking blood at an alarming rate and hurting like a bitch. Fuck, did it hurt. Owwww fuck fuck fuckity shit on a stick, was it broken? Was his nose going to be crooked and ugly for the rest of his life?
“Makoto, the coach wants you to sub out!”
“I can still keep playing,” Makoto said, his head still reeling from the shock. “The bleeding’s stopping now, see?”
Makoto’s teammate shook his head and grabbed Makoto’s arm, almost forcibly dragging him over to the sidelines where his coach and manager were waiting with icepacks and first aid kits. His friend, Nakamura, was on the bench as well. His grin was extraordinarily wide. A real shit eating grin.
“That was the worst header I have ever seen,” he said, punching Makoto’s arm as he held an icepack to his nose. “What were you even trying to do, kiss the ball?”
“I guess I kinda leapt into it, huh?” Makoto laughed shakily.
Nakamura leant forward, his chin in his hands. “Man, you look like shit.”
“Thanks.”
“Your face is covered in blood.”
“Oh, really!?” Makoto perked up. “Do I look like someone in a movie?”
“Yeah, a horror movie!”
They both laughed, rather painfully in Makoto’s case, trying to forget the fact that without Makoto on the field, there wasn’t much chance of their team making that last crucial goal. Makoto was their key striker, after all. There wasn’t much the offence could do without him.
“Do you reckon we’re going to lose here, Nakamura?” Makoto said gloomily, touching his nose and wincing in pain.
Nakamura shrugged. “How ‘bout taking your mind off it? If we lose here it’s not your fault.”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” Makoto said, gesturing to his nose and pulling a face. Pain shot through him like a hot knife again and he winced.
Nakamura scanned the watching crowd absently, apparently lost in thought.
Finally, he spoke again. “Hey, I have an idea.”
Makoto perked up.
“I’ll give you a thousand yen if you ask out that chick over there while you have your broken nose.”
Makoto squinted. “Which one?”
“The one with her back to us. In the large cardigan with the shoulder length hair. She’s cute, right?”
Makoto nodded. Her frame was pretty small and slight, but she was talking animatedly to her friend in a way that could definitely be considered cute.
“And I can’t wipe the blood off my face or anything?”
Nakamura shook his head. “Come on man, if this works you’ll get a thousand yen and a girlfriend! Win win!”
Makoto wasn’t the kind of boy who thought things through properly. A girlfriend? Money? The broken nose he was sporting could become a trophy in its own right! Just as well he had attempted to head that ball. That ball was his new best friend.
Makoto puffed out his chest. “Okay, I’ll do it! Just watch me!”
He bumped fists with Nakamura and slid off the bench, depositing his icepack on the ground and shoving his hands in his pockets. He had only just started at high school, so getting a girlfriend would definitely get him status. He was confident the entire walk over to where the girl was sitting with her friends, but when she turned around he was speechless.
For one thing, he was pretty sure the chick wasn’t actually a girl. Actually it was a bit hard to tell what gender they were, but Makoto found to his surprise that he didn’t care. The real reason why he was rendered basically mute was because this person was the cutest individual he had ever seen. Their soft hair fell messily over their forehead and neck and their face was the very picture of mischievous charm. Their cardigan was a few sizes too big on their frame but they hadn’t bothered to roll up the sleeves. Instead they brought both sleeve covered hands to rest their chin on and smiled at Makoto so sweetly he thought he might implode. They’re like a fairy, Makoto thought distractedly. Or a pixie. Yeah, definitely a pixie.
However, their smile changed into a shocked kind of laughter when they saw the amount of blood that covered Makoto’s face.
“Uh, hi!” They said, watching his face with eyebrows raised. “Um, who are you?”
“Go out with me!” Makoto blurted out, even dropping down onto one knee as if he was proposing. What the fuck, Makoto? Stand up, you big lummox, you are the embarrassment of the century. “Please?” he added as an afterthought.
Behind Makoto’s pixie, their uber-buff friend started laughing uncontrollable. Pixie slapped him on the leg, but they were obviously on the verge of laughing themselves. They certainly looked shocked.
“You’re really cute and pretty and it would be great if you went out with me? I promise I’m not always covered in blood I’m actually quite good looking underneath-“
Pixie kid interrupted Makoto before he did any more damage. “Are you feeling okay? Did you hit your head too hard when you tried to head that ball?”
Makoto’s shoulders drooped. “Oh… You saw that, huh?”
“I sure did~ It was pretty funny. We had a great view.”
“Ah…”
Pixie kid was about to say something else, but their buff friend leant over and tapped their shoulder, whispering something in their ear. Pixie’s eyes lit up in a way which made Makoto’s heart contract, and they whispered back to mr muscles enthusiastically. Makoto stood there for a while, fidgeting and really wishing that he had wiped the blood off his face. Thank god pixie didn’t scream or anything. He wouldn’t be able to live that down.
“Chi-chan and I have a proposal for you,” Pixie kid declared finally, bringing Makoto out of his brooding.
“Oh yeah?” Makoto said, noticing the crafty expression on the kid’s face with dread.
Pixie smiled, and it was as if the sun had come out and flowers started blooming and puppies and kittens were playing gullibly around their head. “I will consider your offer, but only if you join the rugby club.”
Makoto’s mind went blank. “Eh?”
“We practice tomorrow morning,” Pixie said, throwing Makoto a wink, yes, a real wink. “I hope to see you then!”
They got up and left, leaving Makoto to stand alone, slightly shell shocked. Rugby? What was a perfect pixie babe like them playing a sport like rugby? And would they really go out with him if he joined the team? Maybe if he became the ace… If he became the ace of the team there would be no way they would refuse.
“That’s decided then,” Makoto said to himself.
“Hey, how did it go?” Nakamura had wandered over, his hands on his hips and a teasing smirk on his face. “Did she say yes?”
“I’m sorry Nakamura, can you put that thousand yen on hold?” Makoto said distractedly, fiddling with his broken nose, “I might need some time.”
“Huh?”
Makoto turned around to face his friend and smiled a smile of a man with a goal mapped out perfectly in his in mind on an unchangeable path, with a smiling, gorgeous face waiting for him at the finish line. “I’m joining the rugby team.”
EXTRA
The expansive grounds of Hanazono could no longer be seen under the faces of Makoto’s teammates, upraised in pure jubilation. Tears were being shed, sounds were being flung out towards the sky, bodies were slamming onto each other from all sides and the entire team of fifteen players launched themselves into each other’s arms, yelling out “WE WON! WE WON WE WON WE WON!”
“And this year’s champion,” the announcer said over the loudspeakers, drowning out Komugi and Mao’s loud sobbing and Yuu and Madoka’s yells of pure joy, “Is Meisetsu industrial tech high school!”
Makoto fell to his knees, crying silent tears. A hand reached down and grabbed his, pulling him to his feet before crushing him into a massive hug. When they pulled away, Makoto realised that it was none other than Hiromi, the person he had been in love with for the past three years.
With a bellow, Makoto wrapped his arms around Hiromi’s middle and swung him around in circles, laughing and crying and laughing even more. They had won, won together. This was all he had ever wanted.
Well, almost…
“HIROMI!” Makoto yelled, still lifting his teammate in the air, “HIROMI! WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?”
Hiromi’s eyes winded, and their grip on Makoto’s neck contracted. They opened their mouth and yelled back even louder than Makoto, “YES! YES I WILL!”
Hiromi grabbed the back of Makoto’s head and kissed him hard, wrapping his legs around Makoto’s waist and clinging onto him tightly. Their teeth clashed and they were smiling too much to make the kiss anywhere near perfect, but neither of them cared. Makoto just held on and kissed Hiromi back with every feeling he had been harbouring since had first met them, all that time ago.
Just as well I’m not bleeding this time, was all Makoto could think before Hiromi let go of his head and raised his arms to the sky, whooping for the entire world to hear. I just got a thousand yen richer.
Imagine that Makoto and Hiromi have a habit of holding hands wherever they go and cuddling whenever they sit down. The juniors think this is really cool and soon meisetsu is known to be the closest, cuddliest team in the prefecture.
/delighted dolphin noises
But imagine when it wasn’t an habit but something they did on impulse or idk and they would jump far from the other because people are not supposed to know they’re dating
