Saburo nodded with exuberant enthusiasm. "Not like, hugely famous or superstar level," Saburo replied, worried he might freak his older brother out, send him running back towards that great Egyptian river or something. "But he could be considered as something of a next generation face of the sport..." not to mention body. "Oh," Ichiro said, in an expressionless tone. Well it would explain how the man had come to find him through Livvie, a fairly well known journalist and editor in her circles. A silence descended over them and the boys quickly finished their drinks, intending to run before Ichiro roped them into unwanted chores. It was the weekend and Ichiro had classes starting soon. Unfortunately, Ichiro figured out what they were up to, despite the distraction of his own thoughts. "Don't even think about escaping! I have bills due and need you two to hand out leaflets again!" The boys groaned in unison. It would have been better to help entertain the children's mothers. "And Saburo," Ichiro added as he began cleaning up their cups. "Yes, Ichiro?" "I'm confiscating that magazine," Ichiro mentioned, carelessly. "You are too young to be going about ogling men's bodies." Saburo grinned, happy to be punished, this time. "No problem, Ichiro." ***** Zandre closed his eyes as the hot spray from the shower hit his skin and began to rinse the sweat and dust from the day's training from his body. His muscles felt warm with the slight ache that indicated they'd been well used today, but not so much that they hurt. That would be an indication of strain from overwork or injury, neither Zandre suffered from, for which he was grateful. The team had a game later this week and the coach had decided on their positions. "Much like the last game," he told them, calling out names and positions, with just a couple of adjustments. "Connolly, you're playing right wing, while Cheng will be positioned in Outside Centre, I think those explosive legs of yours would better serve here. Of course, if neither of you can handle it, we have plenty of experienced bench warmers ready to take over." Zandre was usually in the position of the Flanker, mostly blindside, but due to his big physique, he'd taken on the role of Lock's in his university days. But in the professional leagues, not only were there more talented players than himself, there were up and coming younger players waiting to steal his spot as well. The pressure was always on all sportsmen, but Zee kind of liked it. A little competition was an excellent motivator. Of course, not everyone thought so. "Oh look, the rising rugby star has been benched, again," Dan Bowler jeered. Zandre turned his head just a tad to look at him, briefly, before returning his attention to the coach's training plan, written on the reverse side of the white board with their positions on it, for the strength workout they had scheduled in a couple of days. Dan was excellent went it came to playing rugby and a reliable Fly-half, but in part due to his obsession with the game, he stopped being a team player the moment he walked off of the field. Of course, his fans didn't know about his shit off-field attitude. The man had issues with most of the team, with their gameplay, their throws and such, but he seldom was overly obvious about it, just squeezing in snide comments here and there when the coach wasn't about. However, when it came to Zandre, the man had no filter whatsoever. Zee was used to ignoring it and didn't bother to let it get to him now, either. Other players eye-rolled the clear provocation, but left it be. Dan happened to be the coach's favourite player on the team as well and listened to the man's 'humble' opinion on the players. It wasn't worth their effort crossing him. Lewis Griffin, another frequent bench warmer, wrapped his smaller, but no less muscular frame about Zee's shoulders. "We're just being kept in reserve for when the coach needs some real talent on the field," he laughed, jokingly, although Dan did not see the funny side of it and stormed off. "You'll be benched for the rest of your contract," Zee pointed out, not bothering to glance over his shoulder. "But that guy irritates the fuck out of me!" Lewis grumbled. "I know I'm nothing special when compared to others on the team, but you are a good player! Why the fuck are you still benched?" "Haven't you realised it yet," Connolly Davis pointed out as he grabbed his sweater from the back of his chair, having earlier forgotten it after the coach dismissed them. "Zee's been benched practically ever since that beach shot image came out in that magazine, when he also got dubbed as a rising star in the game." "The paparazzi were after shots of 'Lani," Zee sighed, recalling that they'd travelled to a small, private beach or at least, it was supposed to have been private. Some of the images shot of her in that string bikini were provocative enough to have looked staged, but she had cried upon his shoulder most of the evening when they'd shown up in cheap magazines and in the daily gossip newspapers. He'd done his best to comfort her, reassure her that it wasn't her fault. But from those images, he'd gained a small following, people wanting to know who he was. So her agent had insisted that they announce his identity and who he was in relation to 'Lani to the public to help her retain some of her image. It wasn't as if as a rugby player that he was completely out of the public's eyes, so he hadn't thought much about it. He'd even allowed himself to be convinced to sign up with their entertainment agency and was assigned his own managing agent. Who knew that he'd put a certain other player's nose out of joint when things blew up outside his control? At least the team's manager seemed happy with all the extra attention to the team and sport in passing. "Your girl won't want to come to a game to see you on the bench again," Lewis mentioned as they grabbed their coats, heading out of the stadium. Zee shrugged; "Doesn't matter, we broke up." And he had no plans yet to invite Ichiro; he doubted his skittish Omega would even come. Lewis was startled for a moment. "For real? When? Recently?" "About a month now," Zandre replied, honestly. "Dude, I think you better remind her then," Lewis sighed and flickered through a couple of webpages to bring up the young soap-star's most recent interview. Zandre brows furrowed, instantly.