They were young and adventurous and much to young, but what would be the youth without a few sins and the desire to do the forbidden?

It was Someoka's birthday, 16 was the age he had finally reached, one of the very first of their grade that reached one of the "big" birthdays. The age came with more responsibilities but also new privileges which had to be savoured immediately. Someoka had planned two different parties for the occasion, one with the entire team, right after Training when the players just came out of the showers with lots of cake and lemonade and juice, the other at the weekend which only the older ones of the team attended. Whereas they kept it down on Gouenji's birthday (his little sister had been on the party aswell), all of the members knew that this party would be the first one where they would try the drink the popular kids at school talked and told stories about. Embarrassing experiences that were apparently connected with lots fun.

Someoka's parents had taken off the weekend and had decided make a short vacation. That left behind an empty house – which left the kids by themselves, a perfect setting for a first, for some still forbidden gulp of alcohol. Everyone had given some money before Someoka and Gouenji went shopping with their brand new licenses. Both had been quite nervous when they had entered the bottle depot but the look they wore when the came back out again, clearly showed a tiny spark of pride. Finally being adults.

The goods were carefully placed on the couchtable, the colourful bottles shone brightly at them. Nobody wanted to be the first to drink and so a few hours passed with oafishness and bad jokes until Someoka bursted out and shouted: "Hey! I didn't buy that stuff for nothing, this will definitely be drunken today!"

Shortly after, all of them sat in a circle with a bottle of beer each, the bitter smell lingered around the room. Handa looked at his own bottle sceptically. The only experience he had with alcohol had been the children's grog his grandmother always made on new years. It was terribly sweet and easy to drink, but more than one he still never had gotten. "You can't tolerate that much", his grandma had always said.

"All together!", Endou shouted and held up his bottle in the air, enthusiastic as always.

The others followed his actions and raised a toast. Handa watched the others, as they brought the dark bottles to their lips and took a more or less tentative gulp and did the same. The beer was in no way like the children's grog. It was bitter and got stuck in his throat, also the gulp had been to big for Handa's taste but he managed to get it down without attracting too much attention. Aki started to cough very unladylike – everybody knew how she felt but nobody said anything.

It was dark. It felt like sitting on top of these spinning tables that you could find on playgrounds. After a few minutes of reflection Handa noticed that he was not in the living room anymore but in the room that Someoka had tiled with lots of futons and was supposed to be sleeping room for the party guests. When did he get here? He guessed that one of the Raimon players had probably brought him over. As Handa sat up he noticed that they had not even bothered to cover him with a blanket but just let him lie there. His head felt incredibly light, combined with the spinning sensation in his head Handa felt terribly miserable. He just hoped that he did not need to throw up, that would be simply embarrassing. Luckily, it was not that bad.

It was dark outside but Handa did not know what time it was. His head ran on high speed but at the same time he was not able to grasp a clear thought. What exactly had happened anyway? Handa remembered that they had all sat together, made jokes and here and there a few gulps of beer that somehow did not even taste that bad anymore. Somebody had poured shots... and then? He believed to remember that Megane had suggested to play Mia. From that moment on his memory became too patchy for Handa's taste. He had never been good at games where you had to lie. And if that was connected with drinking if you got caught – well, there was no way that this could have turned out well.

From the hallway Handa could hear the others partying, apparently the mood was great. But he himself felt not like joining them again – who knew what he did that had made his teammates get rid of him. Additionally, he still felt really weird. Handa lay down onto his back and tucked himself in (the blanket was pink, for some reason Handa knew that this was no coincidence). He hoped he would fall asleep again soon.

The door opened a small fraction and a thin line of light brightened up the dark room before it was closed again. The futons cushioned the person's already light steps. Handa did not make an effort to check who it actually was, hopefully whoever it was left him alone and went to sleep themselves.

But apparently this was too much to ask for as the person stopped right next to his pink Futon and bent down. "Hey, Handa, are you awake?", they whispered. The voice revealed that it was Max who had just come in.

Handa sighed defeatedly. "Yeah", he finally grumbled.

"You okay?", Max inquired.

Sluggishly Handa opened his eyes again and looked at Max questioningly (Max was too close for his taste).

"Well, you gave Kageno a bit of a scare when you tried to tie back his hair all the time so you could see his eyes. That I'm living to see that! You scaring Kageno and not the other way around!" He chuckled. "You were pretty lagered up."

That was what Handa had feared. With a grunt Handa rolled onto his side, so he did not have to face Max, he would rather not know such things. He would live a happier life not knowing.

But lying on his side did not help his stomach in the slightest. It rebelled and Handa swallowed the rising bile. No, not that too! He already made a fool of himself enough without throwing up.

Instead of leaving the room like Handa had hoped, Max lay down directly next to him and snuggled in one of the other blankets. Max' Hand slowly and softly ran throw Handa's hair and petted it. What the-? "You should do something with your hair. This looks too normal."

Handa rolled his eyes. "Shut up." The two words were a lot more slurred than Handa would have actually liked. How much had he even drunken? And how much exactly had Max drunken that he played with his hair?

Again his stomach made itself known which is why Handa rolled back into his former position. Max pulled back his hand and lay it down on the other's chest. Unsure the brunette glanced over at his friend. As Handa looked closer, Max himself did not look entirely sober himself, his eyes were glazed and his cheeks were adorning a nice blush. Oh God. Did Max' hand just travel? Since when was his hand actually beneath the blanket, let alone beneath Handa's shirt?

Handa had to admit, it did indeed feel nice as Max drew irregular patterns across his stomach and slowly played with his bellybutton. The only question was if Max actually knew what he was doing. Handa himself was not at his best anymore but this was simply... strange.

"Max", he whispered breathlessly.

The other's lips spread in a nearly lustful grin. Max leaned closer to Handa's ear and whispered: "Shhh, we're all alone, no panic."

No panic? One of his best friends just tried to hit on him and that just because had probably had a beer too much. What did one do in such a situation? Push him away? (Sadly, Handa had no experience with people trying to hit on him up to this point.) Handa did not want to hurt Max if he was indeed serious about this – wait. Did he himself even want that? It did feel really good and a seductive Max was something for sleepless nights, oh God, did Handa really just think that?

While Handa had been wrapped up in his own thoughts, Max had crawled out of his blanket and onto Handa whose shirt he had already pushed up to his armpits and now scattered gentle kisses on every muscle. Handa could not hold back a moan, to which Max quietly chuckled and sealed his lips with a kiss.

It was no romantic kiss at all. Max had banged their noses together and their teeth had clashed loudly, it hurt but in their current condition all that was secondary. Max' hands had clawed themselves into Handa's hair and somehow this was... really hot. Apart from the fact that this was his best friend who just sucked on his neck and decorated it with a hickey. Max' traveling hand played with his nipple before taking it into his mouth and slowly sucking it – slowly but surely Handa's jeans became uncomfortably tight.

"M-Max, I don't think that's a good idea", Handa finally got out which was a taunting task as Max moved his hips in a circular motion on top of Handa's lap.

"Hey, we're all alone, the others won't know about this."

Actually Handa would not have protested if somebody accidentally found them and saved him. Well, maybe 'saving' was a bit exaggerated but still, this situation was still a bit fishy to him. But before Handa could come up with a retort, Max kissed him again but this time with tongue. Handa decided that now it did not matter anymore if he did resist or not and kissed back. If he knew how to. This was his very first French kiss and before this moment he had not particularly cared how that worked, how should he have known that he needed this knowledge now? Tongue in the other's mouth and now? He simply imitated Max. Tentatively he rubbed his tongue against Max' and noticed how the other grinned into the kiss. That little...! Now he even made fun of him!

"Could it be that cute, little Handa has never really kissed anybody before?", chuckled Max when they broke apart, "Care about trying something else new?" With his fingers Max stroke Handa's chest down to his Jeans and slowly unbuttoned them. During this Max held eye contact to make sure that Handa was okay with it. Was Handa okay with it?

"Handa? You can tell me if you don't want-" Promptly Handa pushed the other off him and fled the room, the slipping futons made him loose his balance more than once. He held his hand in front of his mouth while trying to remember the layout of the house and to find the sought room. He could hear the other calling after him.

Handa rushed into the bathroom and clapped open the toilet lid. Noisily he threw up into the toilet bowl. He gagged a few times until really everything that he consumed that evening had left his body. Not a nice sight. The taste of bile still lingered on Handa's tongue and his throat burned.

Immediately he flushed down the vomit and let himself sink down against the tiled wall of the bathroom wall. It was cool and calming, just what Handa needed right now since he suddenly felt weak and sickly. A heavy shudder ran down his spine. Was that not what he had tried to avoid? Just because he had not been able to check himself, it had come to this.

And how could he look Max in the eyes now? He had simply pushed him away and ran off (well, that might have been a better solution than throwing up all over him but still).

In this moment Handa heard footsteps in the hallway, apparently Max did follow him after all. But as the bathroom door opened he did not look into Max' face but Someoka's who threw him an irritated glance that told Handa that Someoka knew exactly that he just vomited and was not exactly happy about it (Someoka had told them before the party that they would please control themselves and that he did not want to clean up pools of vomit the next morning).

Nevertheless he walked a few steps into the bathroom and kneeled down next to Handa. "Hey, you okay?"

Handa smiled weakly and nodded.

Raimon's striker tousled his hair and sighed. "Where's Max? He wanted to check on yo- wait a moment. Is that a hickey?" He took Handa's chin into his hands an turned it so that he could better examine the area. Only now he noticed Handa's unbuttoned pants and his crumpled up t-shirt. Slowly Someoka's jaw dropped. That was when Handa noticed Someoka drew a completely wrong conclusion. Max had not simply taken advantage of him (well, maybe, but Handa had not been entirely antipathetic either).

"Stay here." Someoka got up and left the bathroom.

Oh God, what had Someoka in mind now? Hopefully he did not do anything to Max, Someoka had not been very pleased. Handa would have followed him but he was still shivering and did not want to risk throwing up again. Again footsteps were heard outside but it could not be Someoka that would have been too fast. The door opened a small fraction and Max slipped in, looking guilty. Oh great, now he had hurt Max accidentally! Max sat down on the blue rug that decorated the floor a meter away from Handa. "You could have just said that you did not want to. Not run away and lock yourself up in the bathroom", said Max, his voice quiet.

Stop, stop, stop! That was not how this was supposed to go!

"Max-"

"I'm really sorry! I knew you had drunken something before and I really should not have taken advantage of that! I really don't know what had come over me but... I really like you. You need to believe me!" Max voice started to sound panicked.

"I was just sick. That was why I ran off."

A pause followed, in which Handa simply grinned embarrassed and Max stared at him wide-eyed. Max snorted.

"That's not funny!"

"It's hilarious, it's so typically you!", laughed Max and rolled onto his back. But exactly in that moment the door opened again and banged against the back of Max' head who rolled back into sitting position and clutched onto his head. "Ouch!"

Someoka entered the bathroom (slowly but surely it got cozy in the small room) and spotted Max. Immediately his expression darkened. "Max", he growled. (It was the same voice he always used when the younger ones from the soccer club made pubertal jokes.)

The addressed turned around and looked at him cluelessly. "What?"

"Out."

"Ha?", Max uttered a bit unintelligently.

Handa decided that this was the best moment to clear things up. "Um, Someoka, I think you're misunderstanding something here..." He paused, how exactly should he carry on? Should he simply tell him that he had consciously made out with his best friend? Handa gave an embarrassed grin.

Someoka looked back and forth between the two and suddenly appeared to be uncomfortable. "That means, you two are...?", he trailed off. Promptly Handa turned beet-red and Max threw him an insecure glance. "Ah, okay. Good. Okay." Someoka grumbled something incomprehensible and shoved the cup he had brought with him into Handa's hand. "It's tea that calms down your stomach, it should help." With these words he left the bathroom and loudly banged the door shut.

The two of them stared after him wordlessly.

"What the fuck", Max finally said.

Handa took a tiny sip of his tea which had cooled down a bit in the meantime (it tasted terrible and if he had been in a different situation, he would have said that it made him sick). "I guess, Someoka thought that you had assaulted me."

Max played with the rugs long fuzz. "Well, it is true somehow, since I still don't know if you like me back. I already told you that I'm in love with your normal, plain and uninteresting self, but what about you?" A grin had spread across his face

Handa huffed. "Well, I guess, I do like you", he grumbled into his terrible tea.

The other chuckled. "But I won't kiss you now after you barfed all over the place."

Handa choked on the tea.

The next morning Aki served the remaining pieces of birthday cake for the tired soccer club members. Strange to say, in Max' and Handa's slices was a little paper-flag which said "Congratulations". Somehow Handa knew that this was no accident.