Holiday

[xyan]

The training staff and coaches demanded a few days off from the players at the club. Of course, that doesn't fit into Sei's normal routines. To remedy this issue, Sei decided to both listen to the demands of relaxing and enjoying some time away, while also not avoiding the game or being attentive to his body. A plane flight later, Sei finds himself in familiar territory.

To his surprise, he wasn't the only one who decided this was the best course of action. As Sei walked the streets of New York where family lived, but also where an important locale was, Wolfe was there already. 

Their usual self, Wolfe was being confrontational with objects; making a racket with slamming a locked fence and screaming at a new wall. Not at the courtyard behind an apartment building where we once played our sport, but in the front of an extension of the building that was constructed since then, like a hotel that's been built over where a park used to be.

Like magic, Wolfe knew Sei was there without needed any words being said. "Can you believe it? They erased our childhood." Sei was quiet but they were in agreement with that statement.

After a while, they spotted a new community center down the road, and saw old mates there as part of the staff. Some younger ones were also there, older now, but as visitors in a special part of the facility. An indoor room for ball; while small, it was a picture perfect representation of the old courtyard ball game, but with gym design.

Hours later, the two of them left with nostalgia, triumph over a large group of visitors, weariness from intense play, and hunger in their stomachs. It would be over an hour of arguing over what what food to go eat, as if splitting up wasn't a possibility. Eventually, they stopped at the first place they walked by that had tvs inside playing the continuation of the Liffeyside-Catalunya promotion match. While it's a match that went from crazy and insane can't be missed football, it is now on like day 20 of penalty tie-breakers and seems like it will never end. However, it is SSL football, and that means this spot is more important than any other food they could go eat.

Sei ordered grilled trout and a primavera veggie salad. It was good, but obviously this hole in the wall was more feel good food than pure culinary stardom. After their meal, and the game on tv being put on hold for the next day continuation of penalty tie-breakers, the two of them unquestioningly went back to the community center. The choice was right, as the after-work crowd was huge, and far more skilled in experience than the teenagers plus a few staff earlier in the day. It was like another day of academy matches, but the teams were more diverse and coached by instinct. On a smaller indoor court, it was chaos, but it was also another step in the growth for Wolfe and Sei. This neighborhood ate, breathed, and bled this sport; and the two of them were now legends in the making.

Another day and a half of this before parting ways. No holiday vacation could have been better for Sei. This was his life, this was his future, this was everything. A day off just has a different look to it than a day with the team.

[Bloodless]

Wolfe was taking a bit of time off at the request of his own coaches. Something about "resting the mind is just as important as resting the body." Given Wolfe's lazy personality he had no issue with either of these things ... he just hadn't actually realized how hard he'd been trying as of late until his teammates told him to take a break and he went to bed, then woke up feeling good. He wasn't sore or anything from training, his feet didn't ache. It was blissful in a sense ... then everything began feeling sore again and he realized he did need to rest a little more. Given he was just rather bored, he visited New York. He could have returned home and visited his family in Canada, but instead of distracting himself with that Dante had the urge to head back to where it started ... where his talent blossomed into something entirely different and he found something he could truly give his all to.

Looking at the building which now stood in place of the concrete courtyard where he used to kick a ball around ... Dante felt something. Was it sadness? Not quite. It was more of a longing for the simplicity of that time, when all he had to focus on was kicking the ball well. By all accounts Dante was having a good season for a young rookie, contributing an attacking point in over half his teams matches thus far. But it certainly wasn't enough. Without someone helping to push him further along at Istanbul ... without the competitiveness of fiery rivals ad enemies he was hitting a bit of a wall in terms of producing on field. 

Dante didn't know how he knew that Sei was nearby, but he could just feel it. After wandering around for a bit with Sei they came across a community center, and naturally gravitated towards the soccer field. He was able to really see how much Sei had improved on one particular pass. Dante ran forwards before pivoting to the side and weaving around one defender, placing a hand on the man's back to slow his turn. Getting into his usual shooting range Dante was expecting a high ball from Sei with a fast dip at the end ... but Sei instead fired a rocket low between the legs of the defender approaching him. Although he was surprised, his instincts completely took over and like a man possessed he trapped the ball by tapping it ever so gently with the back of his heel. Two more defenders approached him, one from directly in front, one cutting off his angle to shoot. One way to get past them both popped up in his mind. A simple pass, a one two in order to open himself up for a shot ... but where was the fun in that? He flicked the ball upwards and over his head, watching as the defenders eyes tracked the ball and froze in place for a moment. That moment was all he needed to rush forwards between them while they were beginning to turn towards the ball, tap it forwards gently, then set up an easy shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

After their easy win Sei suggested they go eat, and of course Dante was plenty content to follow along and get some good food. Once they had finally succeeded in their little side quest they returned to the field once more, except this time it was much more crowded. During the time Dante spent in New York, Sei and himself didn't lose a single game they played. It was exactly what he needed, to return to his origins and remind himself why he was putting in all this effort instead of just getting some easy office job. Because he was chasing something he loved. Next game, he would make sure to score one for Sei as well, as a thank you for helping him center himself.