Title : Sorry seems to be the hardest word
Pairing : Manuel Neuer x Atsuto Uchida (Schalke Pair)
Author :
athasshirabu Rating : PG-13
Warning : uber cheese, over fussy Uchida, creepy timeline because I’m too lazy to think about the time difference and all XD
Summary : Uchida hates Neuer, occasionally.
Disclaimer : Ucchii is not mine, he’s Hasebe’s and Manu’s XD but I own this fic, really.
A/N : written for Manu and Ucchii’s birthday! OMG how can this pairing be so destined with each other?? XD I mean they have same birthday! <3 Thanks
megu13_yama for helping when I got stuck <3
Title taken from BLUE’s song, I’m just a pathetic lately. Just to make sure no one get confuse, Japan Football Association (JFA) cancelled a friendly match against New Zealand that suppose to be hold in March 26th due to nuclear radiation. JFA decided to play a charity match on March 29th instead.
*********************************
Uchida was alone in his room, sitting on the floor beside his bed. He had been playing games on his PSP for hours. A moment after he decided to save the game thought that he could not continue it for some reasons. He stood up, glancing at the nightstand beside him. Uchida glared at the poor calendar when he saw a red circle mark on March 27th, his and his boyfriend’s birthday. He sighed for the billionth times in the night. “I hate you, Manu.” Uchida mumbled, throwing himself to the bed.
Uchida had been planning about his and Neuer’s birthday since like forever, imagined how they would celebrate it, where and everything. Uchida remembered the first time he knew that Manu’s birthday was the same with his, he was so excited and bouncy like a girl. But now, all he could do was sighing and cursing why their birthday should be in March 27th.
If there would be no charity match on March 29th, it probably would be okay, somewhere deep in Uchida’s heart said. Uchida shook his head lightly, feeling bad for thinking like an asshole. He would love to play in the charity match, thinking that he could help the tsunami’s victims with the way he could do best. He just wondered why it should be play on that day not on the original date March 26th.
The sudden change of schedule forced him to join the training camp in Japan on March 26th, one day before their birthday. The original plan was they were going to celebrate their birthday together in Germany. Uchida even had booked a ticket for March 27th with the earliest flight he could manage to get, obviously wanted to go back as soon as possible to Germany once he had finished the business in Japan.
Uchida contacted Neuer soon after he had informed about the change of schedule but Uchida thought Neuer’s reaction was too flat and cold. Well, that could be Uchida’s imagination only, but Neuer never talked about it again. To put it worse, they barely talked to each other except some orders about the play in the field since then.
Uchida was still zoning out when his phone rang. He quitted zoning out and reaching out his phone on the floor from the bed. The Schalke defender frowned when he saw name on the screen. It was Neuer. There was this urge to ignore that call, but Uchida ended up picking the phone up. “Yes?”
“Uschi?” Said Neuer on the phone. Uchida fancied the way Neuer called him, a mix of German unique accent on his name and Neuer’s voice tone. He taught Neuer to call him properly, just liked he taught the other German Schalke fellows, but none of them could say ‘Ucchii’ properly. He gave up on that after he had taught them for almost 5 months without any progress.
“Hm?” Uchida was completely in a bad mood now, but he secretly told himself that he missed that voice in his ears very much.
“Were you asleep already?” Neuer’s voice sound worried, he clearly didn’t want to disturb Uchida’s sleep.
Uchida exhaled. “No I haven’t.” He lay on the bed again, staring at Makoto Hasebe’s Wolfsburg jersey - his favourite jersey ever- that he hanged on the wall. “What is it?”
“Umm, nothing,” The goalkeeper replied, making Uchida frowned. He was about to interrupt Neuer when the older one finishing his words. “I just missed you.”
Uchida’s heart clenched, feeling butterflies on his stomach. He admitted to himself that he was a sucker with that kind of sweet words and thus he hated it. He wanted to reply, but his brain ordered him to remain silent.
Uchida heard a ruffling sound of bed sheet, telling him that Neuer was in the bed too. “Were you asleep already?” Uchida asked the same question to Neuer, his tone softened a bit.
Neuer smiled to the phone, wishing Uchida could see it. “I haven’t,” There was a ruffling sound of bed sheet again. “I actually tried, but I can’t.”
“Moron, do you remember that we have a morning practice tomorrow?” The younger boy said, sounded more like preach.
Neuer laughed softly, Uchida frowned for the second times since Neuer called. “I know Uschi,” He cleared his throat. “But I thought I said that I missed you, so I can’t help it.”
Uchida blushed furiously, thanking God that Neuer couldn’t see him. He muttered a soft ‘baka’, making Neuer laugh. The German knew the meaning of it though, Uchida once told him. “What’s so funny?” Uchida shot, still blushing.
Neuer’s soft laughter calmed down gradually. “I always love to hear you speaking Japanese~” He said, almost like a sing-songed. “Even if it’s only a certain word.” He added, a bit teasingly. Neuer didn’t know that on the opposite of the phone Uchida’s face was almost purple because of it.
A comfortable silence occurred. Neuer was the first who broke it. “When will you leave to Japan?”
Uchida squirmed, obviously not wanting to bring that topic up. He didn’t answer it until Neuer called him. “Uschi?”
“I thought I’ve told you.” Uchida answered coldly, which Neuer noticed.
“Well, March 26th, yes you’ve told me,” Neuer stopped for a moment. “But you haven’t told me the exact time.”
“It won’t matter to you though.”
Neuer put his palm on his forehead, sighing. Uchida acted like this a few times, in their three months of dating. Not that Neuer hated it or disturbed by it, but he always had to keep his composure calm every time it came, and he could say that wasn’t easy. He figured out what made his boyfriend sulk though, and he was actually planning to fix it. “It will matter Uschi,” He said calmly. “I still can accompany you to the airport if your flight takes off before 11 AM.”
Uchida could see a light bouncing into him. He closed his eyes and opened it again. “The plane will take off at 10 AM.” He finally answered, rubbing his un-itchy cheek.
“Good, I can accompany you then.” Neuer smiled, almost wanted to sigh in relief.
“Un.”
Another silence fell. This time Uchida who talked first. “You better sleep now, else you would have panda eyes and everyone will laugh at you.”
Neuer chuckled, his boyfriend sure is the cutest. “I can say the same words to you, you know.” Uchida pouted, realizing that Neuer couldn’t see it. “Don’t pout, it will only make me want to pounce you.” Neuer said between his chuckles.
Uchida choked. How could he know that I was pouting! He thought, face hot.
“I know when you will pout, when you will smile and even when you will kiss me.” The taller boy continued, this time laughing loud.
If Uchida could blush harder than before, he blushed harder, covering his mouth with his hand in embarrassed. “Teaser.” A faint muffled sound came from Uchida, something that Neuer nearly missed.
“Can I say that I can say the same thing to you?” Neuer teased, still laughing a little. “Remember the last time on my car?” Uchida let out a whine, the blonde-haired boy amused with the reaction he got.
“Well, okay, I think I better sleep,” Neuer said after his laughter subsided. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning though so I think I’ll be okay.” He said in teasing voice.
Uchida wanted to pinch the cheeky face Neuer made or Uchida thought he made, but he ended up with a sigh. “Uh-um, you better sleep,” Uchida knew Neuer was about to interrupt. “WE, better sleep soon.” He added.
Neuer chuckled softly. “Okay, Ich liebe dich.” He added with smiley voice, kissing the phone as if he was kissing Uchida. Uchida felt his cheeks got warmer again, and his entire body. He replied it with a soft ‘baka’ before hung the phone up.
Uchida put the phone on the nightstand, glancing at the calendar on it. This time he smiled at it. He took off his glasses before turning the light from nightstand lamp off.
*************************
The next morning was March 18th, a week before Uchida left Germany. Neuer had already on the dressing room when Uchida stepped in. He remembered their late at night phonecall, blushing a little as a result. The Japanese ignored Neuer’s stare at him, as he always did in the last few days, walking past him without saying a word. He dropped his heavy bag on the box, rummaging into it to get his training jersey.
Uchida could feel Neuer’s stare stabbing his bare back when he took off his T-Shirt. The same time he felt a little embarrassed, knowing that Neuer was pinning his eyes on him and unfortunately, he was half-naked. The other defender, Metzelder, said something that supposed to be ‘see you outside’ to Uchida but he was barely paying attention to it because now there were only him and Neuer in the dressing room.
Uchida’s jersey slipped from his hand when he heard Neuer stood up, walking towards him. He bent down and up quickly, wanted to wear the jersey as quick as possible. However, Neuer was faster, circling his hands around Uchida’s shoulder. Neuer bent down a little, kissing the top of the shorter boy head. Uchida blushed, cursing himself silently because he leaned into Neuer’s hug.
Neuer clearly noticed that Uchida leaned into him, whispering ‘I missed you’ to his teammate’s ears. That was all Uchida need to hear. He finally gave up his pride, leaning completely to Neuer and sighing audibly. Neuer could feel the tense on Uchida’s shoulders lessened and he turned the younger’s body in a blink of an eye.
The German kissed Uchida fully on the lips, dragging his lips to deepen the kiss in a speed of light. He missed the soft lips of Uchida very much, the way his boyfriend replied eagerly despite his shy personality. Uchida couldn’t feel the floor anymore, the kiss was just too addicting, he drowned into the passionate kiss soon after. Neuer kissed him like there was no tomorrow, as if he hadn’t met Uchida for ages and the latter was no different. Uchida responded hotly, tiptoeing to make the angle better.
The fact that Uchida was half-naked and no one else were there adding the effect to the already hot situation. Neuer roamed Uchida’s upper body, wandering his hand to the latter’s neck to guide the kiss as the way he wanted. The German boy then pushed Uchida to the locker behind the smaller boy, a little too hard, producing a pained whimper from Uchida. The German pulled out almost suddenly, looking at Uchida’s eyes to make sure he didn’t hurt him too much.
“Was it hurt?” Neuer asked worriedly to Uchida who looked completely flushed, his upper body shimmering with sweats and his lips swollen pink.
Uchida didn’t answer, or more like he couldn’t answer. The kiss started just too sudden and it ended up too sudden as well. His breath ragged, eyes dark. “I missed you too.” Uchida finally said, looking up to Neuer. The taller boy sighed in relief, kissing Uchida’s top of head again, this time audibly.
“I can tell,” Neuer smirked, lips still on Uchida’s head. Uchida giggled softly. “I was afraid that you don’t want to talk with me anymore, by the way.” The Germany number one keeper continued.
“It was your fault…” The defender stated, grasping Neuer’s hand on his shoulder with his.
Neuer furrowed his eyebrows. “My fault?” Uchida faintly nodded. “How could it be my fault?”
Uchida tighten his grasp, sweeping Neuer’s hand away from his body. “You didn’t realize that it was your fault?” Uchida question didn’t sound like a question at all.
The Schalke captain straightened his body, hands on his waist. “Because we can’t celebrate our birthday together then it’s become my fault?”
This time Uchida furrowed his eyebrow together. “I didn’t say that.” He bent down to take his neglected jersey, putting it on harshly. He then pushed Neuer away from his sight, walking away voiceless.
“Uschi!” Neuer called. “We haven’t finished our talk!” The said boy pretended that he heard nothing, fastening his walk to the way out door. Neuer kicked a bench near him, before running to catch Uchida. Being taller and bigger sometimes did matter, he caught Uchida almost in no time. He grabbed Uchida’s left arm, turning the shorter to face him. “I said, we haven’t finished our talk.”
Uchida grimaced at the slight pain on his left arm. “It hurts…” He hissed. Neuer realized that he was hurting Uchida and releasing the black-haired boy’s arm with a soft ‘oh’.
“We should clear everything now…” Neuer’s voice softened a bit than before. “I seriously don’t get why it’s all become my fault.” He lowered his voice when he heard someone walked just outside the door of dressing room.
Uchida looked up to the older, trying to make him understand without saying any word if it was possible. “You actually don’t care with our, no, my birthday, don’t you?” He started, voice shaking. “I guess you don’t even care about me, too.”
“How could you say that?!” Neuer snapped unwittingly.
“Your reaction was all flat and cold,” He paused. “You didn’t even talk about it again since the first time I told you about the new schedule.”
Neuer sighed in disbelief. Uschi was completely thinking too much! He thought.
“Couldn’t say a word to object?” The defender said in mocking tone.
“You don’t understand.” Neuer flatly said.
Uchida slapped Neuer on the cheek. “I hate you!” Uchida couldn’t hide his anger anymore so he just blurted out what he’d been feeling. His breath was slightly heavy and Neuer froze with a slight horror on his face. Uchida soon realized that he did too much, fisting his palm until the knuckles went white.
“It broke my heart too, that we couldn’t celebrate our birthday together even though we had been planning it for a long time,” Neuer started after a while, voice broke. “Really, I couldn’t sleep that night,” He squeezed his gloved hands. “You know how excited I was to know that we have the same birthday right?” Uchida looked away, he probably hiding his blush.
“But it’s a country duty, and WE are professionals, so I decided to keep it down.” The goalkeeper continued. “I’m not saying that you’re not professional,” Neuer added when he saw Uchida opened his mouth to talk. “I thought by not talking about it for a while, it could be the best way to keep it down.”
Neuer took a deep breath before started talking again. “I was going to talk about it a day after you called me, but you had already avoided me and unfortunately we all busy with the training,” He took another deep breath. “So yeah, it finally ended up with this misunderstanding.”
Uchida looked taken aback, digesting what Neuer said. He’d been acting too much like a girl, and thinking too much like a girl too. The worst, he seemed had forgotten about his duty as a professional football player and a human being. Uchida couldn’t take it anymore, everything seemed all wrong, tears falling from his eyes. He cried without a sound, only tears drops were visible.
Neuer shocked, he never saw Uchida cried before. He put his hands on his head, clearly confused about what to do. This unusual occasion brought him into a place with nowhere to run. Since he had no idea what to do, he hugged Uchida in a tight hug, a little bit awkwardly, burying his face into the shorter boy’s flattened hair. “Sorry, Uschi..” Neuer’s expression mixed up, between guilt and confuse.
Uchida tears kept falling, but he still didn’t let any sound and so did Neuer. Time went so unbelievably slow, Neuer barely could hear the clock in the dressing room ticking.
“I’m sorry…” Uchida finally talk between his soft hiccups. “I’m so, I’m so sorry…”
Neuer didn’t need any more word, he hugged Uchida in almost a suffocating way, wanting Uchida to melt into him, kept him so he wouldn’t be frail anymore. “It’s okay Uschi, it’s okay…” He whispered to Uchida’s ears. “I’m sorry for not realizing your feeling…”
Uchida buried his face into Neuer’s jersey, nodding a little as an answer. Neuer smiled in relief, parting away only a little from Uchida. He lifted up the younger’s chin, so he was looking at him. “I should’ve said sorry earlier, sorry…” The captain leaned down and pecked Uchida on the lips.
Uchida still damped eyes blinked few times, surprised with what Neuer did. A slight blush creeping up to his cheek, he ended up buried his face into Neuer’s jersey again. Neuer laughed softly, caressing Uchida’s soft hair.
Neuer wanted the moment to last forever but when he glanced at the clock, he almost jumped from the floor. “Oh no! We’re gonna be late for practice!” He exclaimed, parting away from Uchida completely. The samurai blue defender whined at the warmth loss but then wiped out his evidence of tears with his sleeve to make sure no one noticed that he just cried. Neuer took Uchida’s hand, dragging him out of the dressing room.
“Manu, slowly!” Uchida couldn’t help but whined again, Neuer ran too fast for Uchida’s legs to match. Neuer made a big ‘O’ with his mouth and slowing his run. He looked back at Uchida who still left behind him. “By the way I’d booked a ticket to watch your charity match,” He grinned, leaning down to Uchida. “You better prepare for a late but ultimate birthday present from me.” He said in husky voice, licking Uchida’s earlobe in slow motion. Uchida went petrified, and still petrified when Neuer squeezed his butt and ran away laughing.
****************************
I enjoyed writing this fic very much! XD
I know I ship this pairing like hell but I didn’t think that writing a fic for a pairing who share the same birthday would be this exciting! LOL
I fall in love more and more to this OTP *sorry Hasebe!*
They’re just destined to be with each other *nods* XD