Spicy alert (not that spicy) < do you really need this warning? Doesn't it ruin the suspense?
——————————————
Three days later
"Shidou Ryusei, red card."
The girl sighed, sitting on the ground and casting a glance at the boy on the ground with a bloody nose, the victim of one of the tan boy's merciless kicks.
Nicole looked up at Shidou as soon as he appeared in her line of sight with an annoyed expression, evidently little surprised at how the match had turned out.
This was not the first time their match had been cancelled because of a red card. In fact, it was actually the third time.
Three, number of matches they had started, number of matches they had never finished, number of candidates who had ended up in the infirmary.
However, thanks to the many red cards the boy was receiving, and thanks to the many interrupted matches, the girl had had to exert less effort than normal.
So although not totally healed, her injury was clearly improving.
Shidou grabbed her arm, pulling her hard and making her stand up.
"Let's go, these bitches are boring." he stated, holding his hand around the girl's wrist and pulling her toward the exit.
Nicole shook her head, shifting her gaze to one of the teams of two who was to enter after them.
Her red eyes met Reo Mikage's purple ones and Kunigami Rensuke's autumn ones.
The latter opened his eyes wide as soon as he recognized the figure.
"Nicklaus?" he asked more to himself than to him, forcing Shindou to stop as soon as he heard that someone had called his teammate.
His hostile pink eyes focused on those of the orange-haired boy, whose eyes, however, were fixed on the figure of the red-haired girl.
This one smiled slightly, raising her free hand and waving at the boy.
"Hey there, handsome." she greeted him, not caring much for the blush she had just caused to appear on his cheeks.
Her attention then shifted to Reo, and it didn't take long to notice the moodier, gloomier aura surrounding him. She raised an eyebrow at the purplenette's attitude, then raised the corner of her lips as well as soon as she came to the one obvious reason behind his depression.
"Oh, is our rich boy missing his treasure?" the redhead asked mockingly, seeing the boy's eyelids tighten with rancor.
The girl tightened her own eyelids with equal mockery, stepping forward and bending her head slightly to one side.
"Perhaps it was stolen from you by a certain Isagi Yoichi mhm..."
Kunigami moved in front of Reo, deciding to keep them both from jumping on each other.
He had not forgotten their last encounter, when the purplenette had grabbed the redhead by the collar of his shirt. If Reo was already easy to instigate before, Kunigami could not imagine how easy it was now.
Shidou stepped forward, flanking the girl with whom he had not yet broken physical contact and carelessly observing the two boys in front of them.
"Wanna play agains us?" He asked defiantly, scrutinizing the taller one among the two in particular.
Kunigami seemed to sense rancor on the blonde boy's part, and he thought twice before agreeing. After all, he had just seen the aggressiveness with which he had hit that poor boy until he broke his septum, and the idea of playing with a person who played dirty was not appealing.
His uncertain eyes shifted to the redhead's silent, attentive ones, almost as if seeking an answer from him.
Nicole approached Shidou, placing a hand on his arm and squeezing it lightly.
"What about we leave these two for tomorrow, mhm?" she asked softly, lifting her intense red eyes into the boy's pink ones, suddenly brighter than before.
Shidou looked at her intently, then sneered. With his free hand he grasped the one the girl had laid on his bicep, squeezing it lightly just as he was squeezing the other.
Kunigami's eyelids tightened, Reo raised an eyebrow.
The redhead seems to be way too friendly with a someone who just five minutes earlier was beating up a poor guy.
"I'm gonna take a shower. Join me later." the blond-haired boy said aloud to her before leaving, not sparing himself from casting a victorious grin at the other two.
Nicole stayed behind, shifting her red eyes to the unexpected duo only when Shidou disappeared behind the corner.
Kunigami was the first to speak.
"That guy's a psycho, you good?"
Reo was the second.
"A psycho with a psycho, what a duo."
Nicole rolled her eyes, passing the two and heading toward the cafeteria. They followed her.
"You have to know how to handle him, and I happen to know how to handle people." the redhead stated quietly, throwing a glance at the purplenette, who almost felt offended at the indirect insult implied in the sentence.
"I know how to handle Nagi. Right now we're just having disagreements." he self-defended, and the girl could not help but smile slightly.
"Oh no, a couple's quarrel."
Reo clenched his teeth, and Kunigami sighed at the redhead's defiant attitude and decided to change the subject to prevent a possible second fight between the two characters.
"You look better than at the beginning of the second selection." affirmed the autumn-haired boy, inspecting him from head to toe and noting the lack of sleepiness with which he had left him four days earlier.
"I guess I just had to find a way to... release my stress."
With Shidou's head between her legs.
She smiled, thinking back to the smart choice she had made in revealing her identity to that very one.
She had immediately delineated Shudou Ryusei's character the very moment she had seen him: eccentric, overly passionate, evidently isolated.
After all, when they finished their first stage, there was no one in the room waiting for him, a sign that he had no one to really count on.
And the confirmation had come as soon as they had their first match: Shidou was aggressive, violent, lacking in empathy, considered insane (probably because he was) by the others, and for that reason pushed away.
Perfect for her.
Perfect for giving the responsibility of her secret to someone else.
In fact, if he ever wanted to tell people who she really was, he would find no one who would believe him or come close enough to hear him out.
So not only did Nicole find someone unable to reveal her secret, she also had an outlet whenever she felt like releasing some libido with a guy now obsessed with her.
And it wasn't like that guy didn't have a lot of libido to release himself.
"Happy for you, I thought you were on the verge of a breakdown." Kunigami's voice rang out from behind her, distracting her from her thoughts.
She turned her face, casting a glance over her shoulder and turning an innocent smile toward the duo behind her, who merely cast a confused glance at the redhead's attitude.
"Breakdown? Doesn't sound like me."
Skip time
Following morning
The grip on his hair became even stronger as, with her arched back, she pressed the back of her head against the mattress.
She bit her lip, holding back sounds for which even the deities would have judged her, as her eyes rolled back in ecstasy.
The unconscious attempt to close her legs was totally futile: the hands around her thighs were too strong to let them move even an inch.
"Cazzo..." whispered the girl, concatenating her feet behind the boy's shoulders, whose head was nestled between her legs and whose tongue between her most intimate lips.
She opened her mouth wide as soon as the blond's voraciousness became almost unbearable, but not a single thread of air could escape from her throat.
The pink irises rose slightly, watching the girl's ribs become evident from beneath the layer of skin and her breasts rise along with them. He watched her stomach dig in and stiffen in response to the arousal he caused, and he admired the few traces of sweat gently caressing her tanned skin.
Almost as if the sight aroused him even more, his tongue sank between her lips and his nose disturbed her clit, making her jerk at the sudden increase in intensity.
He was devouring her like a fucking animal.
Her red eyes met the boy's pink ones, and her grip on his hair became so powerful that it almost caused pain to the other.
Pain, what an extremely turn on for him.
Her pupils widened and, now almost blind with passion, she tightened her thighs around the blond man's head, causing him to sink even deeper and increase his pace.
Her eyes rolled back, her legs imperceptibly began to tremble, her sweat became cold sweat.
After a few more seconds, her body and mind gave out.
"I think I'm addicted to your taste." affirmed Shidou after pulling away from her, bringing an arm under his chin to remove the residue.
Nicole just nodded, bringing an arm in front of her eyes and trying to catch her breath as she ignored her teammate's ravenous eyes on her naked body.
Shidou licked his lips, following the line of her open thighs with his gaze, then moving on to her waist, to her ribs still rising and falling erratically, to her round, firm breasts finally free of the compressing top, to her neck and to her lips.
It was not the first time the two of them had ended or started the day that way. It had honestly become a subspecies of routine for both, young adults in need of releasing their frustration in the healthiest of ways.
Shidou sat beside the girl, lightly touching her wound no longer covered by gauze. Since it had begun to heal, the two had decided to apply a spray band-aid. It was certainly more practical and easier to use than bandages.
As for the hand mark on her neck, that still was slightly evident. Not for nothing did the girl keep walking around in high-necked compression shirts.
The blond man's lips brushed her collarbone, and then lightly went up and carelessly bit her delicate neck.
Nicole gritted her teeth, violently grabbing his hair and pulling him backward just enough to pull him away from her skin and force him to look into her eyes.
"Now, don't be a bad boy..."
Shidou licked his lips as his pupils widened from the excitement caused by the redhead's deep, sensual tone.
Before he could even approach her to start with the second round that morning, the voice of the system resounded through the room.
"Nicklaus Vinciguerra, you are needed in Ego Jinpachi's office."
Shidou and Nicole released a grunt at the same time, and as one threw himself like a child onto the bed, the other was forced to get up.
"I swear, he's obsessed with you." stated the blond with pink locks as he stared at the ceiling, knowing that this was not the first time in those four days that the girl had been called.
Nicole grinned slightly, leaning for a moment over his body and looking at him from above.
"Aren't you as well, punk?"
Skip time
Team red vs team white
Team red: 111 and 111
Team white: 50 and 10
The starting whistle resounded within the four walls of that room, and Reo sprinted forward with the possession of the ball.
His violet eyes focused on the red-haired boy for a moment, intending to understand what he was going to do.
But nothing in his body or in his gaze allowed him to predict him.
In fact, it seemed to him that those red eyes had never been emptier and darker before.
And he was not the only one who thought the same thing.
Shidou raised an eyebrow at the girl's strange attitude, but decided to totally ignore it and snap toward the purple-haired guy.
She had been like that ever since she returned from Ego's office.
Reo, as soon as he saw the blond figure appear before his eyes out of nowhere, instinctively passed the ball to his orange-haired companion.
"KUNIGAMI."
"On it."
Kunigami grabbed the ball, casting a quick glance at the aggressive psychopath who was already watching him with that unhealthy grin of his, heading toward the opponent's goal.
His left leg throbbed at the mere idea of shooting the goal.
5 more meters... 3...
"Just one more step, right?"
Someone suddenly crashed against his shoulder, and his gaze immediately shifted to that as focused as it was amused by the boy with the light hair.
"Your footwork makes it all obvious." irritated him Shidou, stealing the ball from in front of his eyes and kicking it away from him with a directionless kick.
Kunigami grunted, annoyed and surprised by the guy's speed of reaction.
Reo took advantage of the loose ball, regaining possession of it and running back, hoping Kunigami's muscular and imposing body could block Shidou's fast one.
Unfortunately for both of them, the peroxide blond sprinted away and went behind the purplenette, behind him the orange-haired boy.
"So we've got little purple bun here, whose overall specs are high but tediously balanced..."
He stole the ball from under his feet again, grabbing it with the toe of his shoe and pulling it toward himself.
His pink eyes shifted to the boy who instead stood behind him, an irritated and bewildered expression on his paler face.
"And then mister hero who only thinks about his left power shot..."
The joker smile disappeared from his face, giving way to a disappointed and bored expression.
"That's not gonna make my heart explode, y'know?"
Kunigami's eyes went wide as soon as he understood all the words that had left the madman's lips, unable to believe that a person like that had pointed out their traits in such a short time.
"You guys are just trying to play a game of football..."
Suddenly Shidou clashed his body so as to set up a powerful right kick, alarming Kunigami and forcing him to sprint in front of the psycho.
"...there's no way you'll be able to figure me out. What I do on this field isn't for the sake of playing football."
If Kunigami thought Shidou was crazy before, he was now extremely certain. The way in which his pink eyes shone, the bored expression hiding the excitement he felt inside, the aura of pure madness.
The orange irises lowered on the ball, and only then did he notice something he perhaps should have noticed earlier.
The heel.
"It's a biological necessity."
Shidou had never wanted to shoot his goal. That was not his purpose. No, his purpose had always been...
"I kinda thought your biological necessity was to fuck me." said another voice, and the time stopped.
It all happened in slow motion.
Shidou sneered.
Kunigami looked up.
Reo opened his eyelids wide.
And Nicole?
Nicole simply looked at the ball and, once she met the autumn haired boy's gaze, hit it.
—— 1–0 ——
And she scored.
"HOLY SHIT AH AH, THAT WAS FUCKING HOT, GUYGAL." exclaimed Shidou enthusiastically, quickly turning away from the losing duo and running toward the girl.
Nicole did not detach her gaze from Kunigami's for even a moment, not even when Shidou hugged her from behind by encircling her waist with his arms and placing his hands over her ribs.
A little too close to her boobs.
"Who knew you had such power in your sexy body uh?" the blond man stated wryly, causing her to roll her eyes.
It was in fact the first time in four matches that the girl had touched the ball. It had never been necessary before that moment since as soon as the match started Shidou did something to take the red card and cancel the game.
And he had never seen such a powerful kick executed with such a neutral and effortless expression. And that ball had traveled from one end of the field to the other with absurd speed.
"Wanna know what else this body can do, punk...?" asked the girl with a hinting grin, immediately feeling the boy's grip intensify around her, and one of his hands rise slightly toward her under boob.
"Yo Nicklaus-"
The red eyes met the orange ones of the boy, who was approaching cautiously, eyeing the blond from time to time.
He was little too close for his liking.
The girl did not respond, merely staring intently at him as he approached her. The depth of her eyes as his figure grew closer became more and more intense, so much so that Kunigami for a moment thought it best to turn back.
The blood-red eyes, the very ones in which he sometimes found himself lost, now made his unconscious tremble. The pressure, the heaviness, the darkness of her gaze was too much to bear.
Kunigami immediately averted his eyes from his, taking the opportunity to cast once more an uncertain glance at the blond, and in particular at the hand resting just below his right breastplate.
He let a grimace escape.
Nicklaus didn't like to be touched too much. At least not everywhere. In fact, the only part that was seriously off limits was his chest or any frontal torso in general: whenever someone had tried to pat his chest, or to hug him from the front, he had always found a way to pull away.
Which he wasn't doing with the blond psychopath behind him.
"That goal was cool, I didn't know you could do something like that." he told him, getting just close enough to stay in his living space.
Nicole looked at him, while in her head Ego's words resonated like a summer hit.
Nicole smiled, but everyone could see the eerie darkness in her eyes. The autumn haired boy in particular let a small grimace escape at the unusual attitude of his red-haired friend.
His left leg moved back slightly, as if his body had an instinct to move away. Something wasn't right.
"There's a lot you don't know about me, hero." said the girl, looking him straight in the eye and forcing him to take a step back.
Kunigami looked at her with a lost look, remaining still and motionless even as she began to walk away toward the center of the field to resume the game.
His orange eyes met the purple ones, which had witnessed the scene as a spectator.
Reo tightened his lips, turning his back on his teammate and walking back to the center court. He did not know what was going on, but he already had his own burdens to think about.
And Nicklaus was too complicated a person to even try to understand him.
What he did know, particularly after seeing that frightening goal, was that redhead was a threat.
A threat too dangerous to ignore.
"It's okay Kunigami. Just keep your eyes on him." he whispered to the 'autumn haired boy, the latter still shaken by the emotions he had just felt.
The second whistle sounded and the match was resumed. Now the team white was even more anxious than before, their eyes fixed on the still figure of the redhead waiting for him to move and do one of his magic tricks.
Their hearts throbbed, their bodies were on alert, their brains melted as they continued to stare into the glassy, blank eyes of the devil himself.
But the devil's team also consisted of two people, and they had forgotten about the other one.
"SUCCESSFUL PENETRATION-"
Successful what-
—— 2–0 ——
Reo and Kunigami's eyes went wide, noticing only at that moment how the oxygenated blond had suddenly stolen the ball from them and shot the goal.
Focused as they were on the redhead, they had not realized that their distraction could be an advantage for the opposing team.
Reo grunted.
"It's okay, we can keep up."
Unfortunately for them, the rest of the game went exactly like this.
The Italian's unpredictability was driving them crazy. Either they were exaggeratedly on alert about him, or, as soon as they looked away, there he would appear and steal the ball from them by scoring a goal.
—— 4–0 ——
Only one goal left, and the devil and demon team would win.
The hero and the rich boy were sweating. And they were not even sweating from physical exertion as much as from psychological and mental exertion.
The constant thinking, the constant fear that one of the two monsters might take advantage of their moment of distraction to devour them, the constant state of alertness that made them toil more than they should...
Reo was feeling sick.
He knew that if they lost, and they would lose, the girl would choose the hero.
He had seen the way they looked at each other when he had first met them and had immediately recognized their relationship. And he had recognized it because he had a similar one with Nagi.
Just as Nagi was his treasure, in the same way Nicklaus was Kunigami's treasure. The way he paid attention to him, the constant following him wherever he went, the kind always fixed gaze on him....
The only difference was that Nicklaus, unlike Nagi, was completely aware of this attention and obviously adored it. It was evident in the way he looked at the orange-haired boy, as if he always expected something from him, as if he was comfortable seeing the slightly obsessed look the hero had for him.
"Yo Reo, let's try to make a goal. We can win this-"
"Just shut up." he interrupted Kunigami, keeping his purple eyes fixed on the synthetic lawn below him.
Kunigami puzzledly raised his eyebrows, not understanding what he had done to provoke his teammate like that.
"Are you feeling all right Reo? You can tell me if you can't take it anymore, I'll try to help you." the hero said thoughtfully, making Reo grit his teeth even more.
The purplenette suddenly threw a fist against the floor, subsequently raising his furious gaze toward his powerful left-kick teammate and aggressively grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND KUNIGAMI?" he yelled at him with desperation in his voice, drawing to him the pink and red eyes of the opposing team as well.
Shidou raised an eyebrow, while Nicole merely had the same blank, analytical expression on her face.
Kunigami clenched his eyelids in confusion, trying to calm his friend by putting his hands on his shoulders.
"It's okay dude, calm-"
"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN WHEN YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THAT WE'RE GONNA LOSE AND YOU'RE GONNA BE THE ONLY ONE GOING FOWARD." cried the purplenette in despair, causing the orange-haired boy's eyes to widen in shock.
Nicole remained with her gaze fixed on the pair, hearing everything and saying absolutely nothing.
"What makes you say that? You know you are good as a striker..." the orange-haired boy said confusedly, not understanding what was happening and why it was happening now.
Could it be one of those bouts of low self-esteem he had since Nagi had left him behind? If so, it was not the right time.
"Don't you get it, Kunigami? You're his favorite, of course he's going to pick you." he explained this time in a more surrendered tone, dropping backward and sitting sluggishly on the synthetic ground.
Kunigami squeezed his eyelids shut, not understanding what his teammate was babbling about.
"What are you talking about man? I-"
"How can you be so blind-Nicklaus adores you and hates me. You are the one he's gonna choose after our lost." he affirmed, as his voice grew dimmer and emptier.
Kunigami's eyes went wide as his orange irises glowed selfishly at the mere thought of him being the red-haired boy's primary choice.
Instinctively, his pupils widened as his face turned so that he could meet Nicklaus' gaze.
He quivered when he saw that he was already looking at him, with those obvious deep, enigmatic ones of his that he would never be able to translate.
"I give up..."
Kunigami immediately turned toward his teammate, unable to believe what he had just said. But before he could do anything to fix it, it was already too late.
The microphones had already recorded his words.
"I gave up, I don't want to be a striker anymore..."
Ego's eyes went wide as soon as he heard from his earphones that dim and faint statement.
It was impossible for someone who had gone so far in a place like the Blue Lock to give up so suddenly. Especially not if it was Reo Mikage, who still had his treasure inside that place.
His black eyes moved across the screen, stopping on the motionless figure of the girl. Even from behind the screen he could sense the aura of cruel victory surrounding her: with that pitiless look of hers, that serious, lifeless expression, those eyes with the color of pain and blood.
Nicole Vinciguerra had just won one of the most difficult challenges: she had made an egotist surrender and lose his own ego.
"Team red wins." exclaimed the mechanical voice, and Shidou burst out laughing at the realization.
Nicole said absolutely nothing, much less flinched from her position. The heart inside her bed was beating wildly, warm blood coursing through her veins, adrenaline in her brain.
Oh victory- how good it made her feel. And the look of an underdog who had always believed he was a winner- pure ecstasy.
Her blood-red eyes savored every inch of Reo Mikage's sorrowful, blank expression, the same egotist who had so bragged that he could win over the remaining 299 people along with his treasure.
Her mind tried to register as much as possible the pain of the person on whom she had just won, on the person who was on the ground in front of her, who was suffering under her winning aura.
"Team red please choose a player to save."
But she had not completely won.
She had only won on one of them: and that person, it was not Kunigami Rensuke.
Her red eyes met the orange eyes of the hero of the old Team Z. A gentle expression on his face as he looked intently at the girl in front of him.
"That was a good game Nicklaus."
Nicole looked at him.
Kunigami had not lost to her.
He had not lost his dignity, his confidence, his happiness or his selfishness. No: Kunigami had withstood her attack, and was still standing.
His ego was still standing.
"So, who're we choosing?" asked Shidou with total meekness, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at the two as if they were flies in his path.
Nicole did not respond, keeping her eyes fixed in the boy's orange ones.
Reo remained with his gaze fixed on the ground, without energy or the capacity of being able to meet the gaze of the one who had defeated him as much physically as psychologically.
The red eyes sank into the orange ones, and Kunigami's hearth lost a beat at seeing how the girl was looking at him.
He took a step forward, feeling himself drawn back by her eyes, her person, her aura: it almost seemed as if she was silently commanding him to go behind her and never break away.
Almost as a royal guard does for his king. As a hero does for his god.
"Reo Mikage, stand up."
But that day, the hero had not been accepted by his god. And that guard was no longer among those in the front row for his own king.
Reo looked up abruptly from the ground, aiming his weeping red eyes at the red blank, unmindful ones.
His still scandalized and lost face immediately shifted to his old teammate, seeing his body stretched forward locked like that of a statue after seeing Medusa's eyes.
"What... I don't..." the purplenette's voice was quiet as he stared at the orange's gaze, which the more seconds passed the more it seemed to turn into a look of pure fear and betrayal.
Nicole cast a glance at Kunigami. She read his eyes as if they were the pages of an open book, a book she had read over and over again.
Turmoil.
Restlessness.
Horror.
The once bright orange of his eyes lost color and brightness, becoming the same tone as a fallen autumn leaf.
She bent her head over one shoulder, slowly approaching the boy until she was only a few inches from him.
"You're gonna survive, Rensuke Kunigami."
Kunigami could not believe what was happening. Those eyes that so many times had looked at him as if they had known him all his life, as if they were talking to his soul, now scrutinized him as if he was not even worthy of being considered a person.
That voice, once light, disinterested and sometimes joking, now stands cold, serious, bored.
What had he done? Why was he looking at him like that? Why was he talking to him that way? What had happened to Nicklaus to make him change so much in so little time?
"I don't- I don't get it." he whispered more to himself than to the redhead, making himself heard anyway.
Nicole watched him in silence, reading every symptom of uncertainty.
He was crumbling, but not enough.
And unfortunately, a person standing up was of no use to her.
"Maybe when I'll see you again, I'll tell you my secret." stated the girl, noticing the boy's eyebrows furrowing.
After all, how could he understand what she was talking about if he was totally convinced that he had just been disowned by the one person he trusted completely.
"That is, if you are willing to destroy yourself to come back to me."
Kunigami opened his lips wide, trying to say anything. But his mind was bereft of words that could be said, bereft of thoughts that made sense.
And so he said nothing, watching Number 111's back move away from him without ever turning around even to give him one last goodbye, to comfort him, to tell him one last thing.
No, she disappeared behind that door without acknowledging him.
Kunigami fell to the floor, on his knees, his pupils trembling as he stared into the void. His throat dry as he tried to hold back that yell that would have scratched his vocal cords.
The hero had just lost his god.
And he had lost himself too.
____________________
It was Ego who told the girl to reject Kunigami. She would not, but when she saw that the boy persisted in not losing to her, she decided to reject him.
Shidou saw the way Kunigami looked at Nicole, and was happy when she chose the other one.
Ego would never have bet that a striker chided by him could fall apart so soon cause of the Nicole cruelty.
If Nicole doesn't TOTALLY win, she doesn't consider that a win.
____________________
Author
Spicy moment (I admit that I wrote this chapter being a bit drunk, which is probably also why it is not the best)
Oh well, I don't know what to say because nobody responds anyway (I complain so much yes)
Bye bye