#im curious if people can pin down the approximate ILB season this is in

[cmlbcommish]

CMLB: Nagomi Seraph, Management, 3

In the not-so-distant past…

Nagomi and Parker together are considered a bit of an enigma.

They’re a strange team, the woman who has enough money to start her own splorts league and has the most deadpan of stares and the colour palette to match the vibe, paired with a boy who’s family and origins are so prolific it doesn’t really matter who he is as a person and dresses like a book nerd. Everyone knows what Nagomi is like, and nobody cares about Parker past his family status.

They make a good team, in all honesty.

They're in the Commissioner's office in the Sharks stadium, filling out some paperwork for one of their newest players. The room is damp and a little cold, but Parker has enough leftover restless energy that he refuses to sit down, so he hands Nagomi papers to sign, while highlighting everything he deems important.

Parker has gradually found himself in the role as her co-commissioner by this point, because sitting still and doing nothing at home makes him antsy and herself or Eli can't always be around, what with the season starting up soon, he spends a lot of his time with her while she's doing Commissioner Business to stave off his own boredom and also he's very good at doing paperwork for some reason, hence why she now lets him help and take responsibility for half of her workload, instead of her coming home to him having done something ridiculous like organized all her spices by colour palette and somehow twisted his ankle in the process.

Today’s paperwork is just as boring as all the other paperworks. You’d think by owning her own league she would be able to decide how much paperwork she would like to do but nope, she forgot about how ‘legal people’ function, and is forced to make sure everything is in order legally. 

Paperwork is so goddamn boring that Nagomi starts Thinking. About her league, and about Parker and how he hates being called Parker.

She catches the way he flinches whenever someone refers to him, notices the way his body tenses up, the way his eyes grow distant. He is good at hiding it from ordinary people, but Nagomi isn’t ordinary people.. She doesn’t know exactly why he would have this reaction, but she can hazard a guess, with the guess relating to why the current commissioner of the ILB is ‘Parker MacMillan IIIII’

Part of the conundrum of being known for your name being ‘Parker MacMillan’, is that everyone knows about Parker MacMillan 3, 4, and 5. The naming scheme implying there was a 2 and a 1 but no information on either of them leaves a lot to the imagination.

Her Parker is not fond of this connection, so she starts making up nicknames in her head, funny or cutesy little things like 'Parks' or 'Pmac' or 'Milly'. She honestly doesn't know if he would prefer to change his name entirely, so she never actively calls him any of these, just observes.

Once they finish the paperwork, Nagomi gives a sigh of relief and stretches her arms behind her head with a yawn, the wings on her head flapping restlessly and shifting a few of the paper stacks. 

Parker finishes organizing everything, including the shifted papers. His body seems to realize that he has pushed past his limit, he lets out a small gasp before his muscles seize and his knees buckle and he falls hard to the floor, though he manages to keep himself from fully falling by catching his left arm on the edge of Nagomi's desk. 

Nagomi makes a squawking sound, quickly jumping out of her chair, kneeling beside Parker, she wraps an arm around his back, and slowly leverages him to sit on the floor, instead of trying to stand again like he was trying to do.

“Easy, Parks, easy…” Nagomi soothes, she squeezes his shoulder reassuringly as he lets out a pained noise.

But wait, she used a nickname, Fuck. Hopefully he doesn’t notice.

“I'm always good for taking a break on the floor, you know how I feel about you overdoing it.” This one is a bit of a pointed jab, Nagomi still has no idea how Parker can manage to ignore his pain til it makes him collapse, though she also tends to go into a similar hyper focused state. They're both very bad at this 'health' thing. Nagomi considers herself lucky she has no lasting injuries from carrying out the family business for so many years.

Parker lets out a shaky sigh through gritted teeth, and Nagomi can see him flexing his toes through his shoes. The little watch that he wears lets them both know that he's in a significant amount of pain, based on the fact that it starts beeping out his heart rate, which it only does when it's elevated or slowing down.

Parker swats at his watch, rolling his head across his shoulders and attempting to breathe deep and even, but it seems he's shocked his system to the point where it's not going to be as easy a fix as breathing deep.

They gradually maneuver Parker over to a couch where he can lay down. Take the pressure off his legs for a while. Nagomi flits around, grabbing a blanket, dimming the lights, fetching some water, all that good stuff. 

Parker sighs from the couch, "Stop hovering." he mutters, "I'll be good in a minute." 

“Yeah, bullshit. I’m gonna call your bluff. Take some pain meds and take a nap for a while.” Nagomi rolls her eyes, taking a small pill out of the bottle, she makes sure he takes it with water and sits on the floor next to him. 

Eventually he stops breathing so hard, the beeping of his watch quiets down and eventually he falls asleep.

Nagomi sighs, shifting up to a kneel as she looks over his sleeping form. His face is still slightly pinched even in sleep, the gray stitches on his face making him look even more pained somehow, even though he had told Nagomi that they don’t hurt him.

She gently pats his hair a few times, fondly. The sort of emotion only certain people are allowed to see her have.

“I wish I knew how to help you, but I still can’t figure you out., not really.” Nagomi mutters. After a little bit of staring wistfully at Parker, she resumes her original position sitting on the floor.

They stay there for an hour or so before Parker wakes up. He looks around dazedly for a bit until he spots Nagomi. Despite her protests, he manages to plunk himself on the floor next to her.

“How long was I out?” He asks, and Nagomi hates how often he has to ask that.

“Bout an hour or so? Not like it matters, we were done for the day anyway.” She shrugs.

“Ugh” Parker wrinkles his nose. “Now I’m not gonna be tired later.” Nagomi snorts.

“It’s fine dude, we gotta get home before we worry about something as menial as sleeping tonight.” She stands up and stretches, but when she looks back, Parker is staring at the floor and worrying his bottom lip. 

“Something wrong?” She tilts her head. 

“I don’t know if I can… Walk, right now.” Parker whispers. He’s still avoiding her gaze.

Nagomi nods. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll go get the chair.” and she promptly turns on her heel and heads out of the room.

When she gets back, wheelchair in tow, Parker has apparently been attempting to stand up, using the couch as leverage. Nagomi rushes to his side. “I thought you said you couldn’t walk, dumbass!” She uses his attempt to ease him into the wheelchair. 

Parker covers his face with his hands and lets out a huge sigh. Nagomi kneels in front of him and looks at him questioningly. “Is… something wrong?” She tries. She doesn’t want him to force him, but it seems like something else is in play here.

“...You shouldn’t have to take care of me like this.” He starts, and she is about to protest when he continues on. “If my body would work like it's supposed to, I wouldn’t have all these problems!”

Nagomi can tell he’s frustrated, that's usually the reason he covers his face in a situation like this. He doesn’t like people to see his emotions. She takes a deep breath.

“I don’t mind having to care for you, and I’ll tell you over and over until you believe it.” Nagomi says, in a very no nonsense way. Parker uncovers his face a little and looks at her, his eyes are a little teary, but she isn’t sure if it's from emotions or pain.

She rests a hand on his knee. “Both myself and Eli, we don’t mind. I promise you Parker.” and there's the tiny flinch at his name. Now is not the time to get into that can of worms however.

Nagomi stands up. “Let's go home, okay?” Parker sighs, but nods. “Ten minutes, right?”

She grins, “Ten minutes.”