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Behind a carefree and sometimes sloppy pose, as if Lorenzo were the king of carefreeness, there still lived fragments of the boy he once was, because the trauma blocks some memories but the most striking one was still crystal clear to him.
The day was tiring like all the others. He trained, played a friendly match against some boys from Blue Lock and spent the rest of the afternoon at the gym, his mind barely having time to search the boxes for a thought that was outside the "high performance, victory, focus, strength" line. However, as our mind always finds a way to betray us, he remembered something thanks to a trigger.
The boys talked about family.
- I have a great relationship with my parents. I get along well with both the Japanese and Swedish sides of the family. - Aiku showed them a photo on his cell phone, from last year's vacation, and everyone was beaming.
A beautiful family, Lorenzo thought; he also pondered what it would be like to have a so-called "normal" family according to society's standards. Father, mother, two brothers and a dog. I wish I was an older brother. He sighed and focused on the sprawls he was doing, counting to twenty. Finishing the exercise set, he walked over to his bottle and took a big gulp. He wiped the droplets that ran down his lips and neck with the back of his left hand, stopping in the middle of the act when he heard Sendou call him.
- And your family, Lorenzo-san?
- You know, Marc raised me. - He smiled. - That's it. It's been just the two of us since he took me off the street when I was fifteen.
- It was very kind and brave of the old man to adopt a teenager like that out of nowhere. Especially when his career wasn't going so well. - Even focused on his sit-up set, Barou infiltrated the conversation, showing solidarity.
And Lorenzo stopped everything he was doing. He thought. Because he himself hadn't thought about that yet: Marc Snuffy adopted him after his best friend's suicide, at a time when his career was falling apart and he didn't even have a club to work... Everything was going to go wrong. Every detail of that situation was asking for it not to work out. Lorenzo asked for the gold teeth as a challenge, mockingly; but he got them without any protest. He received them willingly. Snuffy was happy to give them to him.
They're not cheap, that's a fact, because nowadays the young defender takes care of his teeth with his own money.
I made him waste money on nonsense.
- Guys, I'm going to my room. If anything happens, call me and please don't kill yourselves. - He laughed nasaly and managed to get out of the gym as quickly as possible. Personal matters didn't appeal to him, so he avoided them whenever he could.
...
He locked the door and pressed his back against it, his gaze searching for a place to focus. He found a photo frame, in it a picture of himself and Snuffy. They were both smiling. It was his first day with the Italian u-20 team.
His only problem was not the struggle he had undoubtedly given Snuffy years ago. He was also thinking about his biological parents and the hell they were living in; Lorenzo remembered the drugs, the gambling and the prostitution of his mother. Were they to blame? Was she to blame? Why had they left him? Did they die?
Had they ended up in that situation because I was born?
If I had not come into the world, would they have a house in a good part of Milan?
When the defender least expected it, hot tears fell down his thin and now sad face. It was impossible to avoid them when the whirlwind of thoughts could no longer fit inside him. He sniffed and let himself fall, weak, sitting on the ground like he had done years ago, alone in the street, asking for a few euros from whoever passed by.
Knock knock.
- Lorenzo, how are you? The boys told me you left the gym looking strange. Did something happen? - There was only one candidate. Who else could it be at that hour, on the other side, worried about him?
- It's okay. - Maybe he couldn't hide the flaw in his voice very well, which trembled an octave lower. Strange. Weak.
- I know you well, boy. Open the door, then we can talk. Talking is good. - Snuffy didn't need to insist for another second. The door opened and there he was, the defender called "zombie" living up to his nickname because his face wasn't at all good. The older man frowned.
- What made you like this? - His right hand went to one of Lorenzo's shoulders, touching it briefly.
- I-I didn't mean to be that weak.
- Weak?
- They... The boys talked about family. Barou said how brave you were to adopt me and I realized that I was always a hindrance to you. You had no duty to stay with me, Marc Snuffy. - the renowned player laughed a little at the deplorable situation his adopted child was in, but with respect. The concern was valid. He sighed before saying anything, waiting for a few more sniffs and for the other person's breathing to stabilize.
- I adopted you because we are opposites. You represented everything I had forgotten a long time ago: humility, fragility, struggle. There was a time when everything came easy to me, like an infinite source of resources... But resources are not infinite. When we met, I was reconnecting with these simple values and you were the best example of them, in addition to demonstrating an incredible talent and intelligence that I felt should be directed towards football.
- ... - Lorenzo froze for a few moments while absorbing what he had just heard. Did he really deserve these words?
- Since we started living together, I have also become a better human being, both for the world, for myself, for my team and for my son. - he said with his hands in the pockets of his blue sleep shorts, the thin tank top falling over his body delicately as his words fell between them. He smiled. And his smile was the peak for Lorenzo to cry even more.
- I'm sorry. I'm a jerk for doubting your affection for me. - in a deliberate act, the youngest hugged the man who was once only his legal guardian, but now is and always will be none other than his father. His only father. Forget the biology that says their DNA is not the same, because their hearts are. And that's what matters. - I love you, dad.
- I love you, son.