A/N: Hi everyone! After so much advertising in the Whistle! Needs! More! Love! forum, here it is: my Shige/someone/someone fic! This chapter was written between eleven and five in the morning yesterday/today, and I did a quick revision this morning. Hopefully there won't be any dreadful mistakes in there, but I wouldn't take my word for it. Sory fora ny possibl typhos, ti cant be helepd. =D

The title of the fic means hopefully "When in Rome", and the chapter title is "The Secret". I won't lie to you and say I'm an expert in Italian, but I can tell you that this fic is pretty much an excuse to use some of what I've been learning in the five months I've been taking lessons in the Uni.

And lastly, because I know my notes are annoying and you guys can't wait to get to the real thing, I wanna say that I have some idea of where this story is going, but my conviction is not so strong as not to be changed by coherent and interesting opinions of my readers. So you guys can happily review this afterwards and give your most sincere opinions and suggestions - flames included! Ha! - and know that they will be considerated and very much appreciated.

Allora leggiamo, sì? =D

(Whistle! is not mine, I'm just borrowing Higuchi-sensei's characters while I can't create something just as amazing on my own)

QUANDO A ROMA…

CAPITOLO 1 – IL SEGRETO

You know, there is someone I like very much.

But…

That someone likes a girl already.

I moved to Barcelona and I though I would learn to live with it.

But then Lazio got me… and then got him too.

And now life has put us on the same team again after 2 years barely speaking to each other.

Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun!

Shigeki Fujimura, 21st June 2002

…And he was their teacher. Ok, so he wore glasses now, but in return all the people he knew - his friends, former teammates, coaches and even his parents – were under his control. He could tell them all the rubbish he wanted and they would believe him. He could drink Coca during practise and no one would find it weird. It was just great, really, and he was enjoying his power immensely.

'Tatsu-bon, stand up and come to the front!' he ordered, smiling when his old friend did as he was told. When Tatsuya Mizuno's voice came out, however, it was not from inside the dream:

'Shi… Shige?! Wha… What…?'

The blond opened his eyes slowly, not yet making sense of the situation. He was in his bed, the door to his bedroom was wide open and the real Tatsuya Mizuno - older and taller than his dream counterpart – was standing right in front of him, looking somewhat shocked and scared. Tatsu-bon, scared? Why? It was not like the Tatsu-bon he remembered to be scared by things. Shige shifted uncomfortably at the sight, just to have his body making contact with something warm and solid cuddling against him.

Norick.

Fuck.

'Tatsu-bon, this is not…' the blond begun saying, slightly panicked, no longer asleep. He was going to tell his friend what he had been telling everybody else for the last two years; that Norick had come to his house after practise and stayed because he lived too far away. It was a lie that they had made up together when the younger male first stayed for the night. Shige's ability to conceal the true under a charming grin guaranteed that the lie stuck. But not this time. This time he felt like telling the true, for reasons that even for him were still quite unexplainable. He sat up, getting closer to Norick as his trade-mark grin re-appeared in his face. 'No, actually…'

'Shige, what is going on?' asked Tatsuya, alarmed by the abrupt change in his friend's expression. There was something in the way the blonde's eyes sparkled that rang a series of bells in his head and scared him somewhat. Tatsuya involuntarily stepped back when Shige's hand absently caressed the other boy's back. He was not wearing pyjamas; he noticed, and neither was Norick.

'Do you really want me to explain this to you?' Shige laughed a little. 'Tatsu-bon, I thought you were a little bit smarter than that…' the grin turned into an all-out smile. To his surprise, Tatsuya found his face heat up a little. He had to look away. 'I know you know what is going on here; I don't intend to insult your intelligence by lying to you now.'

'How…?'

'Look at me, Tatsu-bon, I don't like feeling like I'm being ignored.'

Tatsuya looked, but instantly wished he had kept his head down. Shige was trying to wake up his friend, kissing his face and neck in a rather noisy way. The former captain of Sakura Josui's football club wanted to look away again; or rather run away from this whole thing. When his plane arrived earlier than scheduled, he thought it would be a nice surprise for the friend he hadn't seen for so long if he spared Shige the trouble of having to pick him up at the airport. It was almost midday and it was a Saturday, he was not expecting said friend to still be in bed, much less with someone else.

He was expecting Shige to run to the door upon his arrival and grin at him, make some funny comment about his appearance or his lack of manners or whatever. He would pretend to be annoyed and Shige would laugh, and then they would sit together and talk about his trip and about Lazio, the team that had recently called the two players under its wings. This was how their first meeting in two years should be; no surprises, no shock and no… company. Tatsuya had not seen this coming, and his pragmatic mind was having a very hard time adjusting to it.

'I…'

'Oh, my, this is awkward…' Shige blinked, his head moving left and right to look at both his companions. 'Norick doesn't take this long to wake up, I wonder what's got him…' the blond leaned over the sleeping boy again, preparing another series of kisses. Tatsuya's voice stopped him, however:

'That's Norick? The Norick from the Kansai Senbatsu?'

'Yeah, he is in the team too, didn't you know? Or you just didn't recognise him?'

'He is a bit different than what I remember…' "a bit" was probably an understatement, but Tatsuya didn't need to tell Shige that. Norick's hair was longer, shoulder-length, and had some purple straps in it. He was also bigger – not as big as him or Shige, but definitely bigger than the 5' 3'' of three years ago – and less childish-like. He looked comfortable in his sleep, though, and Tatsuya tried not to wonder if it was related to his proximity to Shige.

'We all are. I, for one, was not expecting you to come here completely out of the blue and sort of forget I was supposed to pick you up in about…' Shige glanced at the alarm-clock in his bedside table, taking some time to calculate the rest of his line 'an hour and a half. The Tatsu-bon I remembered would've probably phoned or waited for me like the good boy he is…'

'And the Shige I remembered would not sleep with other guys!'

Tatsuya covered his mouth with his left hand, taken aback by his own outburst. Shige stared at him for no more than two seconds before turning his head away. It was brief, and Tatsuya could probably have imagined it, but he had the impression that the light in his friend's eyes faded when they faced him at that moment. The brunet wanted Shige to say something back, give one of his smart replies, but the blonde did not speak or looked at him. The room was completely silent; immersed in tension, fulfilled by guilt and shame, and by the uncomfortable feeling of breaking something very private and secret, exposing a world that should have been kept hidden away. The silence was eating him, making his heart beat faster as he waited for his friend to break it. Had he gone too far? Was Shige upset with him now? The Shige he knew would probably just shake it away and make fun of him; he would just be waiting for the right moment to smile again and take him by surprise. As much as Tatsuya wanted to believe that, however, he was also very aware of the fact that maybe he did not know Shige anymore.

'Are you bothered by it?' asked a steady and controlled voice. It was so unexpected and so sudden after the long silence that Tatsuya almost didn't hear it. He hesitated for a moment; Shige was still not looking at him, keeping his hands busy playing with Norick's hair. What would he answer? What could he answer? It is not like he caught old friends in bed with other males every now and then, he didn't know how he was suppose to act and what he was suppose to say to not to make the situation worse. In the end, he decided to go with what he thought was the less harmful truth:

'I… I don't know. It is not like I saw it coming.'

'You still have time to change roommate if you want.' Tatsuya took another step back, repelled by the cold tone used by his friend. He wasn't even thinking about the fact that they were suppose to share the flat from then on, his mind was still very much in the present, very much in the scene unfolding in the bedroom.

'I wasn't thinking of it.'

'Then what were you thinking?'

'Nothing. I was just… surprised, I guess. You didn't give me much time to think.'

'Then do it now. And you might want to look away, because I'm not staying in this bedroom anymore.'

Tatsuya find himself obeying before his brain could even process the order properly. He turned his body as to face the only window in the room, admiring the quiet neighbourhood in the northern suburbs of the Italian capital. He heard the shuffling of clothes being put on and tried to think of something to say, but his mind was blank. He tried to process what was going on, but the last minutes kept playing in his head in a way that just made him more confused. Two years ago he would probably have noticed if something was going on with Shige; they were best friends and something as huge as this could not simply go unnoticed. Instead of thinking about whether he still wanted to live with him, Tatsuya begun to wonder how much they had drifted apart since the blonde's move to Spain, and also what other things his friend might be hiding from him.

'Tatsu-bon, come here. You don't want to be there if Norick wakes up.' called Shige from somewhere else in the flat. His bedroom was the first room after the front door, so Tatsuya had not yet explored the rest of his new home. He crossed a short corridor and ended up in a wide room with a sofa, two armchairs, a table and a tv. There were no pictures or decorations in the walls, the place seemed bare and impersonal, very different from what he would expect from the place Shigeki Fujimura had been living for at least two months. Shige was occupying the entire sofa, so Tatsuya took one of the armchairs to sit, facing the blond. 'Is there anything you wanna ask or the trauma was so big your brain was permanently affected?'

'I can still think, thank you.' The change of ambient seemed to have a positive effect in the duo: Shige's grin was back and he was more relaxed, and his friend felt the air around them lighten a bit. It was not like he imagined it would be yet, but they were getting closer to it. 'And I do have a few questions, but…'

'But…?' lying down, Shige crossed his legs and narrowed his eyes, giving his grin a more dangerous outlook. Tatsuya knew this expression, though, and that familiarity amidst all the surprises encouraged him to carry on:

'But I wonder how much you would be willing to tell.'

'You have a good point! I hadn't thought about that yet…' the grin became a smile, and Tatsuya almost smiled as well. 'So we will see where your questions are going; and then I'll decide whether I feel like answering them or not!'

'You didn't use to keep secrets from me before.'

'I've changed.'

'That much I can see.'

'Yeah, I know. You've changed too.' The smile was still there, but there was something different in his eyes. He looked… sadder? Or maybe… nostalgic? It was hard to tell.

'Are you really…?'

'Gay? Queer? Fagg? Fruit? Cock-sucker? Pillow-bitter? You can say it, you know? I won't be offended.'

'Then it is true…?'

'Yeah.'

Silence again. Tatsuya looked away, feeling inexplicably embarrassed. He felt his face heat up and wondered what Shige would say about it. He did not know his friend was doing his best to hold his laugh, but probably would not be surprised if he found out.

'Since… since when? And how?'

'Since always. And as for the how, I don't think you wanna know.' Tatsuya was by now looking at Shige again, and if the blonde's expression was anything to go by, his former captain probably didn't.

'It can't be since always! At Josui…'

'At Josui I didn't really care about that stuff yet. Nor did you, I reckon.' He was right. Tatsuya was too busy with football to worry about lesser things such as romance. He felt ashamed of that now.

'Who else knows about this?'

'Apart from Norick? No one related to football, I'm afraid. It is my little secret; though in Barcelona I was able to screw a few guys without being noticed.'

'And how did you and Norick…?'

'I found out about him in the Senbatsu. We shared a room and he was… well, he was muttering another guy's name while "treating" himself. Quite the give-away. We found out we had a few more things in common after that and we thought it would do no harm to hook up for the time being.'

For some reason, Shige was not lying down anymore. He was sitting at the very edge of the sofa, only a few inches away from Tatsuya. There were no perceptible changes in his voice, though his eyes reflected for a moment that look of sadness and nostalgia that the brunet could not really interpret.

'What things?'

'Ah, you know, basic stuff: we were probably the only queer players around, we were both forwards, from Kansai, loved football…'

'That is stup…'

'…and we both liked someone we knew was totally out of our reach.'

Tatsuya, who was annoyed by the first part of the reply, was taken aback by the last revelation. He looked at Shige and saw that the feelings reflected in his eyes were not an enigma anymore: he was sad; even with a small smile still playing in his lips it was pretty obvious. Shige was not looking at him anymore, but to somewhere far away, not in the living room, and not in the present. It was not like Shige to be like this, but then, it was not like Tatsuya knew what was and what wasn't like Shige anymore.

'Who?' he asked after sometime in silence. When Shige didn't reply for some time he tried asking again, this time grabbing his friend's shirt to call his attention. The blonde pulled away in surprise, jumping as if Tatsuya's hands were made of fire. When their eyes met again, Shige had put up a cold glare designed to keep people away from him. He stood up and stopped at the doorway, his back to Tatsuya:

'A nobody. I'll wake Norick up; he's slept for too long already.'

And Shige left the room. Tatsuya stood up too, but went instead to the hallway to retrieve his forgotten suitcase and take it to his room. He didn't need to be a genius to figure Shige did not want to talk anymore. They had reached the line that separated their old friendship at Josui and the Toresen from their new relationship as roommates and players for the Società Sportiva Lazio. In this new relationship, differently from the one they had in the past, Shige did not want to share everything with him. He had the right to do so, but it didn't make Tatsuya feel any better. He wanted to unlock this new secret like he did with the others, but at the moment he was not sure if he knew how to.

A/N: (again) Ok, folks, end of chapter 1. There is more to come, but before that I would like to know your opinion about this one. It didn't turn out quite as I expected - much more angst and drama, quite dark and heavy - and I can't be entirely sure whether I liked it or not. I was hoping for something lighter, maybe with some humour, but when I got down to it there was no way I could make that plot into comedy.

I want to make this into something more or less realistic (people who know me know I a few problems with the concept of "reality"), give some emphasis on the theme of homophobia in group sports as well as in the changes in Shige and Tatsu-bon's relationship. I'm kind of sick of fics in which the characters just suddenly "turn gay" and it is all right with everybody else, so this is my answer to these fics in a way. ò.ó

But I'm really hoping it won't have only drama and angst (because I actually suck at writing drama and angst, as you can probably tell by now) and that I'll be able to carry on with this plot with a bit of fluffy and a few laughs now and then.

Lastly before you guys review (pleeease??? *puppy eyes*), I was planing on putting Kojima and Sho to be their roommates as well, but now I think it would make it too crowded and a bit too much to have Lazio hire 4 of the Toresen members, so I'm not sure about it. I know I'll need to put more characters as the story goes on (Kojima will definatelly appear at some point), but I'm really reluctant in giving too much emphasis in OCs - they will be necessary, though, because I can't have an Italian team made only of Japanese Toresen players O.o - and having them occupying too much space. Another solution would be to put other Japanese players in Roma (Lazio's rival team), or having them meeting in European tournment or something. I tend not to like OC infested stories, so I'll do my best to keep a certain number of original characters.

What do you guys think? Too bad? Too dark? I might consider re-writing it if I receive too many complains. And I'm considering suggestion regarding the plot, even if for now it might not be clear what the plot really is... =D

And so this humble (!) author finishes by asking the amazing readers (=D) to leave a review for this humble (?) first chapter.

Ciao,

James Hiwatari