Chapter Text
All things considered, college was going pretty well. Sena had been a little nervous about how his new team would come together-- they were all talented players, of course, and he knew he would gel right along with Monta, Kurita and Riku, but it was always hard to anticipate how people's different personalities would interact in tough situations in advance-- but, a year in, the Enma Fires were going strong. Unsui could be kind of scary, but not like, Hiruma-scary, and Sena liked Koutarou and was honestly already pretty used to him hanging around to challenge Musashi, and Mizumachi could always put a positive spin on things and meant well even when he was dragging the shrimp squad into trouble they had no interest being a part of. And after the Youth World Cup and Notre Dame, Sena might have had to (humbly!) admit that he was pretty used to integrating into new teams.
So football was great, and Sena was still relishing being back with his friends in Tokyo. America had been an amazing experience in so many ways, and Sena knew he was a much stronger player and person for it, but it had also been lonely at times. He'd had a lot of fun getting to know Panther better during occasional visits, but there was something to be said for home, and Skype calls and care packages just couldn't compare to actually getting to see Monta, Suzuna, Mamori and the others in person. Even now spread out across different universities, he still got to see his friends and former teammates fairly often, it felt like. There were always games, of course, but then there was also the occasional weekend arcade run with Juumonji, Kuroki and Toganou, or movie with Suzuna, Mizumachi and Kakei, or dinner with Mamori and Hiruma. (That Sena had thought was just "dinner with Mamori," but then Hiruma was just… there. He didn't ask.)
And then there was Shin.
Sena and Shin had had a pretty well-established routine, before he'd gone off to Notre Dame. On the weekends when their respective team practices were lighter, they would meet to jog and sprint train-- and then, over time, to have lunch afterwards. Sena had been nervous about this for a couple of reasons, the primary among them being that he didn't know if Hiruma would approve of this kind of fraternizing with the enemy while Sena was still representing his school, but Hiruma had just waved a hand dismissively and ordered him to "get what he could out of the fucking linebacker." But he had never actually asked for intel (which was good, because Sena had never actually dug for it), which Sena figured was probably as close as Hiruma came to giving his direct blessing.
(The other reasons Sena had been nervous were that he had no idea what he would talk to Shin about, meeting with him so regularly,and that he also had no idea if Shin's invitation was, in fact, an invitation. But Shin hadn't looked surprised when Sena showed up the next day in workout attire at the spot Shin had mentioned he often passed during his solo training, so with a rush of bashful pleasure, Sena had come around to the idea that it had been an invitation after all. And it turned out that his other worries were for nothing as well, as after a few times meeting in companionable mostly-silence, they had found quite a few things to talk about, and not all of them were even related to football.)
So, upon coming back to Japan, Sena had been a little worried that Shin would have moved on from their little training sessions. ("Dates," Suzuna had called them, and Sena had sputtered that it wasn't like that at all!) He'd kept in touch with Shin while he was in America, but Shin wasn't great even with the sturdy absolute brick of a cellphone that Hiruma had scrounged up for him during the Youth World Cup to keep in contact, so most of their correspondence had been passed through Sakuraba. "Say hi to Shin-san and Takami-san for me," "Shin says congratulations on the win and wants to know how you handled the other team's aggressive defense," that kind of thing-- nothing that really compared to their weekly conversations during their training runs.
But when he'd stepped off the field following the unexpected Enma vs Koigahama game on his first day back in Japan, Shin had been there to meet him-- him specifically, not just to dutifully gather information on an opponent. Along with the entire former roster of the Deimon Devil Bats, Sakuraba, Riku, his parents, and, at the surprise welcome home party at Kurita's place that he was abruptly whisked off to, what seemed like at least half the American football players in Japan. Even though he was only barely used to that level of attention in uniform, and not at all accustomed while out of it, it was still one of the best nights of Sena's life-- and it helped that, with the crowd being so huge, he got away with just saying hi, telling a few stories, and answering a few questions before his(?) guests split off into small groups to enjoy the provided snacks and drinks. It was easy, after an hour or two, to find a moment to step outside onto the engawa with Shin for some momentary relief from the party atmosphere.
Shin had greeted him with a small smile, which still made Sena's heart jump in confused delight, even though Shin had been smiling more for a while by then.
"Kobayakawa," Shin had said, nodding an acknowledgment.
"Hi, Shin-san," Sena had responded, feeling weirdly self-conscious. Well-- maybe not "weirdly," by then. But weirdly because it shouldn't have been weird anymore? He'd rushed ahead awkwardly to spare himself from his own thoughts. "Are you, um, enjoying the party?"
"Yes," with the absolute stoicism of someone who didn't even know what a party was, and then, "It's been good to see you. I would like to hear about your experiences in America. Will you tell me when we resume our training?"
And Sena had grinned and fallen all over himself to assure Shin that that sounded perfect, and wondered not for the first time why he was ever afraid of Shin's reactions when Shin had never let him down. But, well-- he knew why.
--So! So, college was going well. Football was great, and Sena's social life was great, and classes were-- fine. Everything was good.
And then second year came, and he started taking biology.