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Lark should not have agreed to coach Normal’s Timbits team, he sure as hell was not stable enough to watch and lead the 12, 6 and 7 year olds that were currently running around the pitch sending soccer balls flying in every direction. Really it should have been Grant who was coaching, but he shut that down almost as soon as Sparrow approached him at the parent meeting. Really it was a minor miracle he let his kid, Linc, stay in Timbits after he saw the Oaks and Taylor who they all strongly suspected to be Nicky’s long lost kid.
So that left Lark standing in a school field at 5pm on a Tuesday night watching as his nephew ran head first into Taylor, then proceeded to cheer on Linc and a blonde girl with pigtails, whose name Lark couldn’t place, he had started to pass with, rather than get up. Lark sighed to himself as he watched his nephew, he loved the kid he really did but there was a reason Hero played in the club teams and Norm only played timbits.
“Alright hustle up I have a few things we need to decide before practice can start!” As he watched the team trot up to him he started to pull out and unfold the team list he had unceremoniously shoved in his back pocket. “Ok, for those of you that don’t know me, I am Coach Lark” That felt weird on his tongue, almost as weird as Uncle Lark, like an ill fitting shirt that Sparrow insisted fit him. “I will be your coach for this season and we are going to start with attendance because I don’t know any of you little fuc- friends, friends.” He corrected quickly before any parents could overhear.
“Ok, Amir?” a small boy raised his hand, “Great, Clair?”
He went through the list of names on the sheet, checking them off as he went.
“Great, Um, Right” Lark looked down at his clipboard as he spoke, hoping to jog his memory of what little he had planned for the practice, having not played since he was around 14. Only to find all he had written on the page was: “Attendance, name the team, and pass the ball or something I dunno” Not helpful.
“Our next order of business is to decide on a team name, so, any ideas?” Lark asked the assembled kids somewhat lamely.
“Doodlers!” Normal shouted from his place next to Taylor, his cleats tearing up the ground as he jumped up and down in his spot.
“Nope.” Lark shut down as he made a mental note to bring that up with Sparrow when he dropped the kid off. Ignoring the dejected look on his face, Lark turned to the rest of the kids
“Anyone else?” Taylor raised his hand briefly, speaking quickly before Lark could prompt him again, “Team Rocket! Like in the anime, Pokemon!” He explained like Lark didn’t grow up in the 2020’s
“Huh, Team Rocket is too long don’t you think?” Lark said as calmly as he could as Taylor stared at him with indignation on his face
“No? It is only the best anime remake of an anime ever!”
“Sure, but, let’s see what other ideas we can come up with.” Lark said with an edge creeping into his voice
“There are no better ideas than that.” Taylor muttered darkly to Norm who nodded politely still staring up at Lark who was pointedly not meeting his eyes.
“How about the Panthers?” a girl in the back with pigtails asked standing on her tiptoes next to Linc. “You know, to strike fear into the other team?” a grin lingering on her face as she watched Larks reaction
“What was your name again?”
“Terry.” She muttered almost like she was expecting to be told off for her comment. Lark laughed to himself as he wrote “Panthers” down on his sheet.
“I like you.” He said pointedly as he turned to the rest of the group. “Alright Panthers.-”
“I thought we could be called The Lions, like Chelsea.” Linc muttered under his breath, looking at Terry who shrugged.
“We are going to start off easy with passing, so find a partner and a ball and have at it.”As he watched the kids run off he added “And make sure you use the inside of your foot, don’t just fire it at each other.” Lark sighed as he watched Taylor kick the ball at Normals chest.
~~~
“Linc! We gotta leave now if we don’t wanna be late for the game” Grant shouted across the house, shoving his feet into runners as he spoke.
“I’m here, I’m here.” Linc shouted back as he bounded down the stairs into his slides.
“You got your cleats?” “Yep.” “Water?”
“Yep, and, I have my shin guards” Linc grinned as he flung open the door into the garage. Grant followed suit muttering to himself and checking things off on his fingers “Lark has the balls and the net, Cass is on snacks this game, our chairs are already in the car, Marco is meeting us there after work, and Linc has all of his shit. Ok all I have to do is get him there on time and make small talk with Sparrow until Marco gets there. Easy.” He made eye contact with Linc in the back seat, as he started the car. “Ready bud?” Linc nodded so hard in the back it looked like he was going to knock his hat off.
“Hey Grant! You made it.” Sparrow said smiling as he watched Grant place his chair down next to the small crowd of parents growing around the pitch. “Is Marco coming?” He continued, seeming to actively ignore how measured Grant's movements had grown.
“Yeah, he’s just coming after work.” Grant replied, not unkindly but with none of the warmth that lingered in Sparrow's voice “Nice to see you two.” He nodded to Rebecca, as he turned his attention to warm up, where Linc and Terry were taking turns firing the ball at the same foldable net and just behind them Normal was sitting criss-cross on the ground picking flowers. He waved brightly, noticing Grant and his parents' gaze before turning back to the flowers in front of him. Grant couldn’t help but snort into the back of his hand as he watched Sparrow's smile falter for a moment as he watched his son.
They sat in silence as they watched warm up, Lark scribbling plays on a whiteboard with far more anger than any U8 Timbits coach had any right too.
“So Grant,” Sparrow turned to him as Rebecca started to pull rummage in their bag saying something Grant couldn’t catch to Hero. Sparrow's eyes had the look he had so often seen in the Oaks as they brought up something uncomfortable, half down cast and half burning in place.
“We are not doing this today, I will talk about anything else, but today, we get to watch our sons play soccer, no doodler-D.A.D.D.I.E.S bullshit. Alright?” Grant said firmly, meeting his eyes, Sparrow only nodded whatever words he had on his half opened mouth dying in place. “But” He nodded at Taylor who was clearly not listening to Lark and was pretending to sword fight with nobody in his place. “That's clearly Nicky’s kid right?” he said with a laugh in his voice. Sparrow smiled, surveying the kid
“I would honestly be more shocked if he wasn’t his kid, certainly uh, active imagination on those Close’s!” Grant slapped him gently in the shoulder as he leaned back in his chair, looking back on to the pitch as they ran out.
“Here we go, Linc!”
~~~
The metal on Lincs neck banged against his chest as he flew off the monkey bars, sand flying up into his jersey as he took off at a sprint away from Terry. He could hear Taylor and Normal screaming from the equipment, telling him to run as he slipped in his cleats on the hot sand. His grin was plastered to his face as he felt Terry’s hand on his back.
“Gotcha!” She squealed, tripping on her own feet as she bounded up the equipment to join the others who stood with sand sticking to their sweaty knees. Linc turned and ran up the stairs, giggling all the way as he heard the exclamations of “He’s coming!” from everyone but Taylor who stood looking at Linc like he was preparing to jump. Only to find his face against the hot plastic of the playground and a hand on his back
“You’re it!” and the sound of Linc bounding away from him.
“No fair, I almost had it!” Taylor groaned as he rolled onto his front and unstuck his cleats, and stood up to face Normal, who had just started to run away from Taylor only to trip over his own feet. Link watched from the ground as Taylor and Normal chased each other around their playground, grinning in the warmth of the sunlight under the weight of a championship metal on his neck.
~~~
Blood flaked off Lincs shorts as he sank on his bed, legs melting into the plush of his blankets for the first time in what felt like years. He surveyed the room through half closed eyes only to find the green walls and the bright posters that were now peeling felt wrong, remnants of a version of himself he didn’t recognize. One with no scars nor a dull hue to his eyes.
He started to move slowly, shrugging off cleats caked in sand, mud and god knows what else, pushing them into his open closet. As he turned to face his still closed bedroom door he noticed a photo sticking out from under his closet, it was small and untouched, clearly having sat there for years unnoticed by him. He picked it up with a steady hand, turning it over to read Grant's handwriting on the back. “Timbits soccer championship 2045: ‘The Panthers’”. Linc could only vaguely recall the first and only year he played community soccer rather than club, the memories mostly consisting of his dads voice in the stands and smiles on faces he couldn’t place.
As he flipped it over the first thing that jumped out was Lark in the place of the coach, his hair far more managed than it ever was when he saw him now, he had a half smile on his face as he stood next to a younger but still very tall Linc who beamed at the camera. Linc could feel himself stiffen as he stared at his own face, the face of a boy he couldn’t protect, a boy he no longer was. Next to him was a girl he didn’t recognize at first, blond hair tied up into pigtails that reached her shoulders. She had a bright smile on her face but her eyes were looking past the camera clearly searching for something. Linc knew that smile as he studied the photo, even if he had seldom truly seen it.
“Scary.” He whispered into the quiet of the room as he remembered her blond roots that she had so desperately tried to hide as they grew in. Linc couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Scary seeing this photo, knowing exactly how she would hate how not punk rock she was.
As he peeled his eyes away from Scary they landed on a young Taylor and Normal who sat on one knee in the front row, mouths open in a laugh as they looked at the camera.
Linc looked at the photo for what felt like hours, taking in all of their bright, unscared, unmarked faces, unaware of the ties that bound them to their fate, no idea what was sacrificed to allow them to have that moment.
He let his hands shake as he took a photo to send to his friends.