Chapter Text
Shidou groaned, drawing it out far longer than Sae would prefer. He paced around the room a couple times before flopping on the couch next to his boyfriend. “As much as I adore this hotel room — particularly the bed — we’re wasting away! We’re missing out on summer,” he whined, as if ‘summer’ was some mystical, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“Then leave.” Sae didn’t look up from the article he was absentmindedly scrolling through on his phone.
“But I wanna spend time with my favorite Itoshi,” Shidou pouted, squirming closer.
“Just be grateful I don’t spend summer binging horror movies with all the curtains shut like the other Itoshi,” Sae said with as little emotion as possible.
Shidou’s face lit up. (Like an explosion, Sae privately thought. Not that he’d ever voice that.)
“Hey, speaking of your little bro, he lost his other loverboy, don’t you feel bad…?” Shidou drawled. He poked at Sae until he looked up for a half-second. Shidou’s eyes were particularly sly, his grin a bit too innocent.
“No, demon.” Sae snapped. “Whatever stage of grief he’s in, I’d rather avoid it.” It had been about 2 years since a certain Isagi Yoichi had passed away after a short yet impressionable soccer career, leaving behind a devoted group of friends. Well, friends, and whatever Rin had been. Rival? Situationship? Soulmate? It didn’t matter, really, and Sae hadn’t given his death a single thought other than showing up for a couple minutes at the memorial.
Rin had called him that night (Sae blocked him after the third attempt, since he clearly wasn’t getting the message after Sae had rejected each one) and left several voicemails where he was quite clearly drunk out of his mind, something Sae would’ve found worrying, except he no longer spared a single braincell for that useless excuse of a brother.
“Well, speak for yourself.” Shidou puffed out his chest obnoxiously. “I, personally, am brimming with curiosity.” He gave Sae a wink, to which he received an eye roll.
“If you’d rather be spending your time with that lukewarm pest, be my guest.” Sae snorted, giving Shidou a look. Shidou just stuck out his tongue.
“Don’t you feel a sense of, y’know, brotherly responsibility?” Shidou needled. They both knew Shidou would happily murder Rin with his bare hands.
“Rin is an adult. He’s already behind enough in maturity without extra coddling.” Rin had always been a clingy kid. If he hadn’t been so childish in the first place, he wouldn’t have taken Sae’s absence so hard.
As if Rin somehow suffered more, while Sae had been in Spain working his ass off and getting his own dreams reshaped. (Not crushed.) Sae had grown as a soccer player, only to come back to the same annoying little brother who had the nerve to be upset.
“Great!” Shidou clapped his hands. “Guess we’re in agreement.”
Sae did NOT like the sound of that. He also didn’t like the look that spread across Shidou‘s face.
“…what exactly did I agree to, demon?”
“Since we’re all adults,” Shidou said with emphasis, “we can do super-fun adult activities.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“With my fucking brother?! No way in hell. Consider yourself dead if you try to pull anything like that. Ever.” Sae glared at him.
“Okay, okay!” Shidou laughed. “Only for you, lashes.”
“Why do you wanna hang out with my loser brother so bad?” Sae had thought—truly—that they really did hate each other, not just the half-baked hostility Rin flung at everyone or Shidou’s violent tendencies.
“My cells are telling me it’s the right thing to do. Don’t you trust my cells, hot stuff?” Shidou made weird little puppy dog eyes.
“Why would I trust your cells?” Sae looked at him skeptically. Shidou’s argument was weak. Even weaker than usual. If normally the things he said were just barely understandable, this one made Sae want to repeatedly bash his forehead into a wall. Cells. What the hell.
“You should trust my cells because they’re what led me to you!” Shidou chirped.
Sae made a series of weird facial expressions and pulled out his laptop to search for “things to do with brothers.”
—
“This is fucking hopeless.” Sae stared down at the list. He had narrowed it down to a few options: a nice dinner out, a therapy session, or a beach day. “None of this shit sounds worth my time.”
“I can’t imagine Bachira at a fancy dinner,” Shidou chortled. “He’s an embarrassment even in a public setting.”
“Who is Bachira?” Sae inquired, tone detached.
Shidou fake-gasped. “Oh, haven’t you heard? You’re going to have a little bro-in-law!”
“What the fuck.” Sae slammed his laptop shut and whirled around to glare at Shidou. “Rin got engaged? To some random guy?”
“Don’t tell me you’re protective of him…” Shidou said, a little smirk dancing on his lips.
“No, of course not.” Sae pressed his fingers to his temples, squeezing his eyes shut. He could already feel a headache building. “Don’t be stupid, demon.”
“Then why are you oh-so-worked up about this? Of course he was going to get over Isagi at some point. Besides, I’ve met the fiancé guy. He’s one of the Blue Lock boys.” Shidou waved his hand around dramatically as if implying some ancient nostalgia. “Funny dude. One of the silly ones.”
“I don’t care about his personality. I don’t care where he comes from. I couldn’t care less if Rin married his pet rock.” Sae buried his head in his hands.
“So what’s the big deal, then?”
A muffled “Parents” came out of Sae’s hands.
Shidou whistled. “Oh, shit, lashes. You know that’s not your problem to settle, right?”
“Rin has never been in a relationship,” Sae muttered. “The closest he’s ever gotten was Isagi. At least, if he has, he’s kept it away from the press. And the family. A wedding, though? To another soccer player? At age 20, the peak of his career?” He jolted upright. “How stupid can that fucker be?!”
“Almost as stupid as us,” Shidou answered softly.
Sae leveled a dead stare at him. “That’s different, and you know it.”
“Is it?” Shidou tilted his head. “Why? ‘Cause it was too late for your parents? Y’know Rin doesn’t have a choice, right? If he’s serious about this guy, he might as well rip off the bandage.”
“No, it’s too soon.” Sae’s frown deepened. “He’s a kid. And really fucking emotionally repressed.”
“And whose fault is that?” Shidou’s tone carried no malice, but Sae stood up regardless, ready to leave the room. “C’mon, lashes, this is why therapy’s on the list.”
“One day. That’s all. And there’s no way we’re doing therapy.” He turned around, but still didn’t meet Shidou in the eye. “You’ve got the fiancé’s number, right? Find a date that everyone’s free.”
“Aye-aye.” Shidou gave a mock salute. “One beach day double-date, coming right up!”
—-
Rin grabbed the phone from Bachira, staring down at it in disbelief. “No fucking way,” he growled.
“Think it’s a prank?” Bachira tilted his head to the side. Cute, Rin thought, before catching himself.
“I — I don’t know,” he said, trying to collect his thoughts. Things normally came easily enough to him — lining up emotions in logical order, analyzing, making decisions. When it came to Sae, though…
“Want me to block him?” Bachira offered, ever-loyal. Rin liked that about him. He liked a lot of things about Bachira, as he was slowly beginning to admit to himself.
“I don’t know,” Rin repeated. He kept looking at the screen.
Heyyyy there soccer boyz! Wanna hang at the beach w me and the big bro? Lmk date and time
Followed by a string of unnecessarily suggestive emojis, which Rin chose to ignore purely because this was Shidou. Somehow, that one simple text already had his blood boiling and his fists tightening. He could only imagine a day of being forced to be around Shidou. Again. Blue Lock had been hell enough.
“I like Shidou,” Bachira offered. He pinched Rin’s arm, who jerked away.
“I hate both of those lukewarm idiots,” Rin snarled.
“Maybe this is their way of reaching out! Saying sorry! In, y’know, their own way.” Bachira hummed tunelessly, dancing around a little, probably daydreaming about the beach. He loved the beach.
“No. No way.” Rin grimaced. “This feels wrong.”
“Chances like this don’t come along every day. Or every year. Or every decade.” Bachira glanced pointedly at his fiancé. “You literally haven’t even seen him in-person since the U-20 match.”
“I’m not exactly dying to repeat that experience,” Rin snapped, heat rushing to his cheeks at the memory of the humiliation he had suffered after the game. The split second where he’d had hope, again, before being beaten. By Isagi.
And thinking about Isagi opened up a whole entire other hole in his heart that was not a good thing to think about right now. Or ever.
“Isagi would go.” Bachira had the uncanny ability to read his mind sometimes. It felt like a slap in the face.
Rin let out a frustrated breath. “I genuinely can’t believe you’re comparing me to Isagi right now.”
Bachira laughed, a sweet ringing sound. “Once upon a time, the old Rin would’ve loved to compete with him in anything.”
“The old Rin was lukewarm.” The old Rin is dead, buried with Isagi.
“I liked the old Rin,” Bachira pouted. “I like the new Rin, too,” he added quickly, “but sometimes, it’s good to try difficult things, right?”
“Don’t fucking patronize me. You’re not an idiot, Bachira, don’t act like one.”
“You’re not a child, Rin, don’t act like one,” Bachira parroted. His smile was teasing, though, and Rin relaxed a little despite the insult.
“Lukewarm.” He scoffed.
“So that’s a yes, then,” Bachira says, humming to himself as he types out a response before Rin can continue to argue.