Work Text:
Most of them had chosen their own names. It wasn’t really planned that they were going to assume nicknames of sorts, but when Kageyama suggested that they represent Zeus in the fullest way possible – “Don’t make me regret choosing you,” he’d said to them – their captain had agreed immediately and enthusiastically.
Aphrodi had chosen first, for the obvious reason of him being the second in command. Unlike everyone else, who took a fair bit of time to decide, his choice was fairly obvious. Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love. There had been a few small smiles when he made his choice, but the entire team agreed that it suited him, how could it not? He fit the description perfectly; he was beautiful and quick to laugh. More fearsome than the goddess had been, perhaps, but it was an inconsequential detail.
Thanks to Aphrodi’s insistence on whose name he was to take, Hera didn’t get to choose, but as much as that had made him boil with indignity he was far too loyal to Aphrodi to ignore his captain’s requests. No one had pointed it out (or rather, no one would dare to), but the jealous goddess’ name fit the envious forward to a T – which of course was exactly what Aphrodi had been planning. Hera probably noticed, he wasn’t stupid.
Hepai was the third to choose, out of luck more than anything. Like Aphrodi, it didn’t take him long to choose.
In mythology, Hephaestus was the hideous god of the forge, but that wasn’t why Hepai had chosen him to be ‘his’ god, if that term could even be used. His focus had been on the small blurb at the bottom of Hephaestus’ page in the mythology book that the team had pored over together before choosing their names. To anyone but him, it would have been such an inconsequential sentence, with no meaning besides some silly idea that the Greeks had thought up, but for the grey-eyed boy… it had been a hopeful sign, almost.
“Hephaestus was married to Aphrodite,” it had read. Perhaps it said more, but the dark-skinned teen’s eyes had simply glazed over when he read that line. Nothing else had really registered, not even the two green haired boys bickering about which names to choose. (Aporo won out, probably due to the fact that Arute doesn’t say a word from behind his mask, and the two chose names reminiscent of the twins of the Greek Pantheon.) But that didn’t matter to Hepai in the slightest.
It was a silly thought, a passing fancy, but part of him hoped that perhaps these names would mean something. Something besides a further sign of their power, something that gave a hint about them. Or more aligned with his hopes – something that would decide how the future played out for them.
The team as it was had been together for a short amount of time, as several new players were brought in for project Z. Hepai was not one of the new players, and he’d been a member for a year already. That year had been fairly uneventful, as they hadn’t participated in any tournaments and simply trained and adjusted themselves to the new power they possessed. Despite the short time, Hepai had already realized some things about the team.
One of those things was how everyone seemed to ‘click’. Not in a relationship sort of way, whether friendship or romantic (though both of those seemed to make appearances from time to time), but their plays were smooth, and powerful, and brought together perfectly by their captain. Aphrodi was the glue that held the team together in a way. Atena was the logical one with the tricks to make everyone’s power go beyond what they thought were their limits; and Herume was their source for strategies that couldn’t fail; but there was something special about Aphrodi’s leadership. He wasn’t the smartest on the team, nor the kindest or most encouraging, but his confidence radiated from him as strongly as light did from his shoots.
A few jabs had been made at the blond (usually by Aporo, the little jerk just couldn’t keep his mouth shut) and his arrogance, but Hepai never saw it the same way as them. It was never arrogance, he couldn’t be something so uncouth or lowly. In Hepai’s eyes, Aphrodi was a god, moreso than any of the rest of them could hope to be. Trying to catch up would be futile, so he quietly worshipped him in his own mind.
Hepai En was in love with Aphrodi. He was as perfect as perfect could be, there was no question about it. Everything about captain entranced him – his hair and the way it flowed when he ran, his eyes and those lashes, that smile that managed to be taunting and yet miraculously warm at the same time. Each time he looked at him, the defender’s chest tightened. He couldn’t compare, he couldn’t even try.
But he tried his hardest, if only to make Aphrodi proud. He didn’t give a damn about Kageyama, if he was being truthful. All that mattered about their commander was that he got his dose of the aqua of the gods each practice. Seeing the way that Aphrodi strived to please him made Hepai want to tear his hair out, purple strand by purple strand. The blond tried so hard even though his power was levels and levels above the rest of the team. Hepai wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him and tell him how perfect he was how he didn’t need to please Kageyama because his very existence was enough.
But he didn’t, of course. It wasn’t his place too, and there were bigger fish to fry.
And so time passed, and they finally began to conquer the Football Frontier, crushing team after team. They began to rely more and more on the aqua of the gods, but it was all to please Kageyama, wasn’t it? And if Aphrodi wanted to please him, then Hepai would follow along, but always hoping that his name would live up to his expectations.
Teikoku crumbled, nearly singlehandedly thanks to Aphrodi. The finals were drawing near, and the team was about on edge as they could be without losing the self-confidence they’d retained. Of course they would win, how could they not? “We’ve surpassed human limits,” Aphrodi had said, and he was right. The drink had made them more alert, stronger, and faster – it had made them gods.
Which made the look in Aphrodi’s eyes when he returned from a pre-game warning to Raimon even more disturbing. Their ace still smiled, but there was a hint of something that hadn’t been there before, a mix of interest and…perhaps a seed of doubt? But no, that couldn’t be right, and the team pretended that they hadn’t noticed.
And then they lost.
It hit all of them hard, but Aphrodi the hardest by far. It was easy enough to understand their captain’s reasons for feeling so low, but it was harder to watch. A few members left, and it was only by a miracle that the others stayed, most of them too reluctant to leave the only people they’d ever considered ‘friends’. Hepai wanted to hold him close and tell the taller boy that even if they weren’t gods (which he had accepted, as difficult as it was) that he was still divine in his eyes. But he didn’t. (Of course.)
When the life finally returned to Aphrodi, it was clear in his eyes and his movements how determined he was. The Aliea Academy incident had shocked all of them, but Aphrodi had seen it as an opportunity of sorts, a chance for redemption. “I want to fight, to help him.”
“Help who?” Aporo had asked, snide as always.
“Endou Mamoru,” Aphrodi answered, as though it were the most obvious answer in the world, as though wanted to help the one he had hated more than anyone else was normal.
So he trained. And they helped him, because, after all, he was their captain. They kept their god names at Aphrodi’s insistence (he’d always been remarkably tight-lipped about his real name even before choosing Aphrodi; as long as Hepai had known him he’d gone by one nickname or another).
When Aphrodi left Zeus for what the team knew would probably be the last time in a while, Hepai felt his heart break for the thousandth time. And he wanted to beg Aphrodi to stay, to take the captain’s band back from Atena and guide them because he was Aphrodite and he was Hephaestus and this was not how it was supposed to go at all.
They couldn’t stop him, of course. He was stubborn, and he wanted to redeem himself to the one he had so much respect for.
The day Aphrodi left to join Raimon (“It’s just temporary, so don’t get too used to Atena as captain, got it?”) most of the team left early. It didn’t feel…right, to put it bluntly, to practice without Aphrodi. Atena could tell nothing would get done with this mood, and called off practice for the day.
Hepai hung around, however. He didn’t feel like he could go home, nor did he feel like practicing. He sat on the bench instead, staring out on the field in silence.
“What are you doing here?” A voice asked from behind him. Hepai didn’t even turn around before responding. The tone was all too familiar, all snap and no tact. He narrowed his eyes and glared at a piece of grass in front of his feet.
“What do you want, Hera?”
“Who said I wanted anything?” Without being prompted or invited, the brunette sat himself down on the bench next to Hepai. He looked up from the grass for a second to glance at the other’s expression, and something clicked in his head, if only a bit.
“You didn’t feel right leaving either, right? Because of him?”
Hera tensed up immediately and looked away, his hand absentmindedly moving to touch his scar – a habit that Hepai noticed he fell into exclusively when he was hurt. On one hand, there was a slight sense of guilt at having been so blatant with his observations, but it was a little comforting for the defender to know he wasn’t the only one so unsettled by the changes.
“You know he would never love us, right?” Hera spoke suddenly, with more than a hint of bitterness in his voice. Hepai didn’t respond, simply looked away and fidgeted with the circlet that suddenly felt as though it was squeezing his head to the point of bursting. “Neither of us had a chance.”
“…How could you tell?” Hepai asked quietly, forcing his expression to stay as neutral as usual. He wouldn’t let Hera get to him. His pride wouldn’t allow it.
Hera let out a sad laugh, but didn’t smile. “You didn’t think anyone would notice?”
“I didn’t notice you.”
Hera was quiet for a moment, rolling a bit of hair between his fingers absentmindedly. Hepai did have a point, but it could be chalked up to a lack of observation skills. “I was a bit more subtle. I followed my orders, nothing more.”
They fell into silence for a few minutes. The stadium was eerily quiet, the grey stone around them feeling more melancholy then dignified and grand for once. It felt cold. Empty.
“Do you think he loves him?”
Hera looked down at Hepai, grey eyes slightly amused, but mostly questioning. “Love who?” he asked, though he was fairly sure he knew who his teammate had been referring too. (For once, he wanted to be wrong.)
“Raimon’s captain. Endou Mamoru.” Hera let out a deep breath, a sigh that sounded heavy and somehow not surprised at all.
He shot another glance at Hepai, and then looked away, staring across the field at the scoreboard. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t. We don’t have a chance, remember?”
The tone in his voice shocked the defender. Hera…Hera had never been one to show his emotions so easily, and his plays were usually stoic and if he was being frank, unimaginative. Hera had always followed, never led, and never had Hepai seen him being so open to anyone like this – not even when he talked to Aphrodi. He felt himself choke up a little, and for what he knew was an awful, selfish reason. He didn’t cry, he wouldn’t let himself. Hera noticed all the same.
“What’s your issue?”
“I had hoped…my name would help me. That it would make things happen like in the myths.”
“Your…name?”
“Aphrodite married Hephaestus.”
The look on Hera’s face changed immediately, from a contorted expression of bitterness to something that if Hepai didn’t know Hera so well, he would’ve called pity. “You never finished reading the page, did you?” His tone was still as harsh as usual, but with a hint of distress.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Hepai… Aphrodite cheated on Hephaestus. Their marriage was arranged. She didn’t love him. That’s how the myth goes.”
“Oh.” That was all Hepai could get out, he didn’t trust his voice to say anything else. An odd feeling had come over him, a mixture of sadness and raw pain and somewhere mixed in a bit of…relief, of all things. It felt as though while his heart was breaking, a weight had been taken off his back. As though his hopes that the name would give him what he wanted had actually been holding him down. Hepai took a deep breath. Cautiously, he reached over and took Hera’s hand in his own, a move bold for him and one that he never expected to play out with Hera. The forward looked over at him in surprise, but not with any hostility.
A moment passed, and neither of the players said a word. Hera gently shifted his hand, and for a moment Hepai worried that he had made the wrong choice, and the brunette was going to push his hand off. It wouldn’t surprise him.
Instead he felt Hera’s fingers entwine with his own. Hera gave his hand a small squeeze, but didn’t look over.
But when he looked up, Hepai could swear that he saw the hint of a smile on his face.