Are you really that surprised? - soppytartlez (2024)

Chapter 1: Well, that was unexpected.

Chapter Text

Chapter 1 - Well, that was unexpected.

He got picked, and Kunigami didn’t.

Kunigami – who was good and kind and talented, who worked hard and played fair since he was a child, who held Reo up when at his worst – was gone.

Reo – who was a petulant brat, who was pushy and overbearing, who was always aware he was both too much and never enough at the same time - Reo had somehow survived to fight another day. Was completely on his own now.

He should have been grateful to have yet another chance to redeem himself.

Instead, he had snuck off alone late at night to cry in the showers, sounding for all the world like he was the one who had been eliminated.

Reo gave himself full marks for being a weepy waste before letting out a water-logged laugh.

The sound of someone’s slides slapping against the bathroom tile interrupted Reo’s shower time sad sesh. Reo swallowed his last hiccuping sob and scrubbed his face in preparation for telling whoever it was to just give him a minute, only to see— Shidou Ryuusei rolling up to the shower next to him, casually jerking off with one hand.

The blond gave Reo a passing look, casual as can be, while turning the knob to get the water going - which, seriously, what the f*ck? What—

Reo’s brain broke. No, actually though, Reo was pretty sure he must have cried so hard he had blacked out and given himself a concussion or something because, again, what?

Shidou got the shower running just as Reo’s eyes glazed over from hitting a mental blue screen of death.

Right when Reo’s brain started to reboot, it promptly broke again when he heard Shidou make some…some kind of low growl of discomfort at the first spurts of cold water that went streaming onto his bowed head, steadily flattening his gravity-defying hair.

Reo couldn’t help but gape as Shidou tipped his head back to catch more of the quickly warming spray into his slightly parted mouth. Water made its way past the edges of Shidou’s lips, traveling in rivulets past his cut jaw and sliding down the corded muscles of his neck.

Feeling awkward about the heat of his own gaze, Reo frantically tried to look elsewhere. But as his eyes darted left and right, in a panic, he reflexively glanced downwards as well, only to note how Shidou’s co*ck had somehow gotten /even bigger/ than when he’d first strolled over. (Reo had already been plenty impressed by its size before.)

Shidou slid his hand up and down, generating a wet, rhythmic noise with the friction, occasionally bringing his thumb up to graze the tip of his glans.

Reo’s eyes widened again, to a near-comical size at the obscene image presented before him.

A sharp laugh echoed through the bath hall.

Reo’s head shot up as if someone had just given him an uppercut.

“Hi~, purple bun.” Shidou tilted his face towards Reo, smirking, his near fuchsia-colored eyes half-lidded. “Like what you see?”

Reo could feel himself flushing, and he still couldn’t figure out whether he was shocked, mortified, aroused, or some inexplicable combination of all three.

All Bluelockers were fit. Reo himself was lean cut with impressive muscle definition throughout his entire body.

But Shidou was exceptionally physically blessed even in their pile of young athletes. The blond’s entire body rippled with muscle. He had perfectly symmetrical, chiseled abs leading down to the sharp jut of his pubic bones. Water traveling down Shidou’s pronounced v-line kept drawing Reo’s eyes back down to what he desperately wanted to avoid staring at.

Reo’s brain reconnected. His 17 years’ worth of social conditioning had prepared him for this moment—he indignantly spluttered calmly asked, “What the hell are you—what are you even doing?”

“Getting ready to explode, hun. But you-,” Shidou panted lightly, “already knew that.”

Reo balked. And was thoroughly disturbed to find his libido (recently all but shriveled from heartbreak and repeated blows to the self-esteem) suddenly taking an acute interest.

With his makeup off and his hair down, Shidou looked a lot less like a violent (potentially flesh-eating) alien invader and more like some jacked gyaru-o p*rn star. The words gyaru-o p*rn star automatically triggered Reo’s scumbag brain to generate p*rnographic images of Shidou pressing his golden-tanned body over Reo and slotting his long, flushed red co*ck between Reo’s thighs and rutting against him.

But unfortunately (or fortunately? depending on how you looked at it?) Shidou (1) was a weird perv who, you know, casually started yanking on his dick in front of a veritable stranger, and (2) could probably destroy anyone in a fight if called out on his deranged behavior.

This would be way less weird and horrifying if they were total strangers instead of people who met 24 hours ago and had just become “teammates” after Shidou brutally crushed the dreams of one of Reo’s only allies in this godforsaken supermax soccer prison. And, actually, this meant Shidou was, not so incidentally, a major reason for Reo’s midnight shower room pity party. Christ.

Reo considered various responses to Shidou's corny double entendre but concluded discretion was the better part of valor. In truth, Reo also needed to get the f*ck out asap because he was not going to get hard in front of this freakish new teammate who probably belonged on a sex-offender registry. (Even if the would-be sex offender was confusingly hot. Reo couldn’t adequately process his very conflicted emotions at the moment.)

“…whatever,” he mumbled, getting ready to go.

Just as Reo reached for the shower knob, however, a large hand shot over to circle Reo’s right forearm.

“Hey, help me finish.”

Shidou’s voice overlapped with another, more familiar languid tone for a moment. And just like that the purple-haired boy was mentally transported to months back, the first time Nagi had said precisely those words to one flushed and stunned Mikage Reo.

Little flashes of sense memory came back unbidden. The heat of the home sauna in Reo’s Aoyama house, the sweat that dripped down the tip of Nagi’s perfect nose, the smooth glide of Reo’s hand over the length of Nagi’s lightly colored co*ck, only a bit darker than Nagi’s normal skin.

Reo’s pupils shrank to pinpricks then blew out.

Shidou smirked, taking Reo’s silence as consent, particularly since he could see the amethyst-eyed boy getting half-hard himself. (So much for not getting hard, Reo.)

The blond took a step closer while simultaneously yanking the other young man against his body.

In that half second of Reo’s distracted reverie, Shidou’s left hand had already directed Reo’s right onto Shidou’s fully erect, almost angry-looking dick.

Reo couldn’t believe he was actually turned on by this. (He never really thought about other men and had assumed it was just Nagi who did it for him. Guess it wasn’t just a Nagi thing. But, for f*ck's sake, did Shidou even know Reo's name?)

This was unhinged. This was wildly inappropriate.

...Reo felt electric. More alive than he had in weeks.

And this was an excellent diversion from all the despair spiraling.

Reo decided to go with it, expression morphing into a once familiar manic grin.

And soon, Reo started to really feel it, especially when Shidou slid a hand down Reo’s shoulder, skimmed down his side, and placed a large, calloused palm under the younger man’s ass to pull their lower bodies even closer to one another.

Shidou’s other hand was still wrapped around Reo’s, teaching Reo how fast to move and how much pressure to apply to Shidou’s thick, slightly-curved co*ck. (Reo was a quick study.)

All the while, Shidou kept nosing against the side of Reo’s face, grazing Reo’s cheeks with surprisingly soft lips and whispering filthy encouragements into the blushing boy’s ears.

The hand gripping Reo’s ass migrated again and began to fondle Reo’s balls, causing Reo to gasp. The hand that was jerking Shidou off faltered.

Shidou laughed and started using his other hand, the one that had enveloped Reo’s before, to grip Reo’s dick and started returning the favor.

Reo bit back a deep groan at the sudden attention greeting his, by now, achingly hard member. He bit his lip to prevent any embarrassing sounds from leaking out, but it was difficult with Shidou working his dick with one hand and circling Reo’s rim with a thick finger, teasingly pressing against his hole with the blunt tip without ever going all the way in.

The younger man was overwhelmed by all the physical (and emotional) stimuli. He came with almost a whimper when Shidou gave him a particularly rough tug, quickly swiping his entire palm over the head of Reo’s weeping co*ck, following up with another firm squeeze when his hand was wrapped solidly around the base once more.

Reo’s legs nearly gave out as the world went blindingly bright white the moment he peaked. He took harsh, panting breaths trying to suck in more air.

Shidou pressed his face into Reo’s neck and finished himself off using Reo’s cum as lube.

As if able to tell the slighter man was on the brink of collapse, Shidou placed both hands on Reo’s hips and steadied the other boy.

Shidou’s slowly spreading smile could be felt against the sensitive skin of the embarrassed young heir's neck. Reo's stomach did somersaults at the aggressive striker's next words.

“I think we’re going to get along great, bunny~”

After turning off both showers, he teasingly pinched one of Reo's nipples before patting Reo a bit forcefully on the cheek a couple of times. Then without any additional fanfare, the man strode off completely naked, whistling a jaunty tune.

--

Reo was able to confirm, at some point (the 4th Stage of Second Selection, in fact), that Shidou actually knew his name, but it was well after the two of them had started doing sketchy sh*t pretty regularly. Shidou was casual as casual could be - the blond's thoughts remained a mystery. Quite happily, Reo decided they didn’t need to talk about it.

(After all, not talking about it was something Reo had plenty of experience with.)

Chapter 2: Some of this could have been expected

Chapter Text

Chapter 2 - Some of this could have been expected

It was really only a matter of time before they got caught. Shidou got off on taking risks after all, and Reo tended to let the other have his way after putting up token resistance.

Reo thought he probably liked blaming Shidou for things he was too embarrassed to admit to liking himself. Or maybe he found something weirdly charming about how Shidou always took the initiative to rope Reo into scenes lifted from trashy p*rn or Shidou’s even trashier imagination. (Initiative! What a wonder!) Either way, Reo didn’t care to explore. (Thinking too deeply about any of it was a hassle.)

(Ah, just had to f*cking think of Nagi again. f*ck.)

In any event, Shidou was seated on a benchpress with two of his fingers in Reo’s open mouth and a dick up his ass. The blond kept a near bruising grip on Reo’s hip to facilitate bouncing the other boy on his co*ck.

Reo’s sweat-slick back was pressed against Shidou’s equally slick chest, and Reo had one arm bent back to keep a hand in Shidou’s hair, ready to tug at pink-frosted strands at a moment’s notice. Most of Reo’s own hair had already escaped his hair tie. (He’d learned after the second time he hooked up with Shidou to keep his hair up – these were activities as strenuous as any scrimmage.)

The purple-haired boy’s legs were spread wide open, one of Reo’s long, finely muscled legs hooked over Shidou’s elbow. Precum wept down Reo’s flushed pink arousal, and below that Shidou’s thick dick pushed in and pulled out of the younger man’s straining rim.

Shidou bared Reo’s entire body to the closed training room door. The mirrored walls reflected the Mikage heir getting split on Shidou’s girth from every angle.

Not that Reo could see, since Shidou had blindfolded him before they began their nighttime activities. (One Bluelocker’s sleeping mask was another’s blindfold for a p*rny good time.)

Shidou whispered about how Ego could probably see how Reo loved getting wrecked on Shidou’s co*ck and was probably jerking off to all the desperate, needy sounds Reo kept making.

If he weren’t so busy trying to get Shidou’s goddamn dick to brush against his prostate again, Reo would have ripped into him for bringing up Ego. The thought of the Slender Man reject was almost enough to make the younger man’s erection flag. (Although the prospect of being watched did do something for the Mikage, who wondered what it would be like to have a spotlight exposing this version of himself.)

The lower half of Reo’s face, the part that wasn’t obscured by the blindfold, glistened under the harsh lighting – reflexive tears had dripped out of the gaps of the mask, and they met with the saliva that escaped every time Shidou’s fingers f*cked into Reo’s mouth.

The blond grinned wolfishly when he felt Reo tighten around him and bite his fingers for talking about Ego.

Shidou could always bet on getting a rise out of the easily embarrassed boy. Reo’s thin skin and pretty face kept the explosive teen entertained between all the unsatisfying matches against dull, spark-less participants of the program. (Here, it might be important to note that Shidou failed to recognize that he also harassed Reo after exciting games and satisfying practices as well.)

(Shidou would come to regret missing that key detail later, but that was a problem for a future antennae freak, not the one currently railing his ‘buddy’ or something from the 7^th Clear Team.)

He pressed a kiss against Reo’s sweaty temple and praised the younger man for taking his co*ck so well.

Then, of course, the training room door opened.

—

It was a bit past 4 in the morning, and they’d made it a point to find a training room in one of the now basically empty wings of Blue Lock. Honestly, even Shidou was a bit surprised when the door opened.

But once he saw who was at the door, the aggressively competitive young man recovered his shamelessness. His filthy mind seized on a new idea for fun.

Reo frantically thought about how to hide. He wanted to die from mortification (an increasingly common wish while at Blue Lock) the moment he heard the hydraulic sound of the mechanical doors sliding open. The Mikage heir scrambled to get off of Shidou.

But Shidou wouldn’t let him.

He roughly lifted Reo up with both hands, until the still struggling boy could only feel the ridge of Shidou’s hard co*ck right at the very edge of his rim. Then the other man let go with a laugh, allowing gravity to spear Reo on his length.

Reo couldn’t suppress a drawn-out moan at how deep into him Shidou had gone. It felt as if the outline of Shidou’s co*ck should be visible from the outside of Reo’s body, just like in the smutty manga Reo occasionally found when cleaning under Nagi’s bed. (Time to add more money to the “Stop thinking about Nagi, especially during sex” fund.)

(Also, f*ck, it was amazing how good Shidou was at all this sex stuff. Seriously.)

Shidou had to groan at how tightly Reo was squeezing his shaft. “Stop squeezing unless you want to break my dick off, top-knot.”

A bit less frantic than before, now that he was seeing stars even under the darkness of his eye-mask, Reo couldn’t help snapping back. “I’d be doing the world a favor, asshole. Let me down.”

Reo pointedly did not remove the blindfold at that moment, even though he could have, because the intruder (there must have been one since the doors don’t open on their own), had yet to announce themselves, and Reo wasn’t sure he actually wanted to know who had finally caught them f*cking around. Also, he maintained an unrealistic hope that maybe they wouldn’t recognize him. (Purple hair, Mikage. Purple. Hair.)

As was custom by now, Shidou decided to annoy Reo.

In a cloyingly sweet tone, completely out of alignment with his appearance, Shidou refused.

“Hm, but I don’t want to let go~. Reo~ is so good at keeping little Ryuusei warm,” he punctuated with shallow thrusts that he knew would make Reo beg and plead under other circ*mstances.

Reo’s anxiety shot through the roof with the way Shidou said his name. Shidou hadn’t officially met Nagi yet and had never seen Reo interact with his treasure (because Reo still couldn’t help but think of Nagi in those terms, as something precious, priceless). But something about the dragged-out syllables of Reo’s own name made his blood freeze when he considered the small possibility it might be Nagi standing in that doorway, watching Reo get debauched by some strange man. Nagi probably wouldn’t care, Reo was sure, but suddenly he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Shidou wasn’t sure what had happened to make Reo renew his struggle with such intensity, but he broke his eye contact with the other person in the room and turned his focus to the panicked youth in his arms.

“Hey. Calm down,” he ordered, tone not unkind. He wrapped his arms around Reo’s chest to keep his arms from flailing.

Nosing along Reo’s ear, “Whoever’s at the door hasn’t left yet, so they obviously like what they see.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Nothing bad can happen,” Shidou half-whispered, now rubbing his cheek against Reo’s.

The blond lifted his head up and signaled for the third person in the room to leave.

“You can get the f*ck out now.”

After a beat.

There was the sound of the hydraulic doors sliding shut.

Shidou quirked a brow. Their uninvited guest hadn’t left.

Reo had yet to let out the breath he’d been keeping in, when Shidou announced, “Our ‘visitor’ hasn’t left yet. Guess the little pervert wants to take a looksie.”

“I can understand why, since my purple bun is so pretty and pink,” Shidou teased, bringing a hand down to give Reo’s (somehow still hard) co*ck a soft stroke.

More precum leaked from Reo’s tip.

Some basic reasoning skills had returned after resurrecting past the point of utter, complete mortification. Reo would, if pressed, admit he trusted Shidou enough to believe that the older boy didn’t want to truly humiliate him. So, whoever was in there wasn’t someone who would or could tell tales.

(And it couldn’t be Nagi, because even if Shidou hadn’t formally met the lazy genius, the fake monk on their clear team had pointed the silver-haired man out before, annoyingly joking, “Oh look, it’s your ex-boyfriend, Reo—are you going to go give him a piggyback ride?” Reo had responded poorly. But even mid-poor response, he noted that Shidou had given Nagi an appraising stare. The blond’s expression communicated how he found the slacker wanting. Shidou’s “biological drive” hadn’t activated, for which Reo was vaguely grateful.) (Not that he’d ever admit it.)

Plus, it could very well be the case that there was no one left in the training room at all. It wasn’t unimaginable for Shidou to lie for the sake of more ~*explosive*~ org*sms.

Reo dropped his head onto Shidou’s shoulder, conveying his surrender. Shidou snickered, “You’re such a little attention whor*, bunny.”

“Well, it can’t be helped. Time to put on a good show for our guest.”

Shidou smiled, baring his teeth at the boy still hovering near the door.

—

Rin stood frozen in the doorway. Unvarnished surprise stuck on his customarily impassive face.

Of all of the things he expected to see while wandering around unable to sleep, some—some kind of sex thing featuring the antennae freak and some other Bluelocker wasn’t even on the list.

This had been Rin’s preferred training room throughout 2^nd selection, and it was all the more important to Rin now that Isagi knew his preferred yoga studio.

His favorite f*cking training room was now desecrated by two cretins literally using it as a f*cking training room.

f*ck.

But also. Rin’s feet were rooted to the floor. He couldn’t bring himself to scoff in disgust and leave.

He could feel his neck getting hot and his ears turning red. This was disgusting and inappropriate and watching this loser reject trash no. 2 f*cking a rando (whose co*ck was indeed pink and very pretty and who looked good with a full body blush on his pale skin) should make him want to hurl.

Instead, he stood in place and let the doors close behind him even when Shidou explicitly told him to get the f*ck out.

Rin would later blame his contrarian impulses for his bizarre, socially inept, and absolutely creepy decision to remain in place.

The shameless pair resumed their activities after Shidou announced Rin had decided to stay.

The brunet wondered if Shidou’s partner actually got off on this like Shidou seemed to say. At first, they had seemed quite eager to leave immediately, but now, based on the soft groans leaking out and the sounds of flesh meeting flesh echoing in the cavernous training hall, Rin supposed it didn’t matter anymore.

Searching through his memories, Rin began to vaguely recall who the other boy was. The purple hair had briefly caught his attention when the final clear team had made its entrance. He was the fake-baked weirdo’s teammate and the son of Blue Lock’s main sponsor.

Rin wondered how daddy dearest would feel about his precious baby boy getting absolutely railed by another soccer player in the program. It made his lips twitch a bit.

His growing erection was posing to be a pressing problem though. He couldn’t help it. Especially with Shidou refusing to shut up about how good it felt to be inside Reo (so that was his name).

The purple-haired boy spoke up for the first time since the awkward younger Itoshi brother had arrived. Gasping, he demanded Shidou to let him change positions.

(Reo thought he could feel someone staring, but he still wasn’t sure whether there was really someone watching or if it was his own imagination filling out the fantasy. Either way.)

Shidou groaned in protest (“I was close, bunny.” “I wasn’t,” Reo lied) and then obligingly helped Reo off of his lap.

After steadying himself, Reo carefully ‘looked’ around, somehow trying to spot the stranger without removing his mask. Shidou stared at Reo, pink eyes narrowed and hard dick still in hand, waiting for the other boy to decide what he wanted next.

Rin let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. The exhalation seemed louder than it should have been, now that the sounds of sex had paused.

Reo’s head swiveled towards the sound, and, had he not had a blindfold on, would have been staring right into Rin’s blown-out teal blue eyes.

Shidou’s shamelessness had rubbed off on Reo, who now figured that he was in for a penny, in for a pound. This third guy was on the same boat now, anyway.

Reo grinned, adopting the bravado he once was well-known for, and taunted, “The least we could do is give Mr. Voyeur over here a little scene change. He must be desperate after all.”

Then, using Shidou’s shoulder for balance, Reo smoothly stepped over the bench. (Reo had great spatial awareness, and it came in handy when moving blindly. He would have died from embarrassment if he tripped over the bench or banged a knee when attempting to be ~sexy~.)

Safely settled on the opposite side of the benchpress, blindfolded eyes still facing Rin’s direction, Reo proceeded to bend over and grab the edge of the bench, making it clear where he expected Shidou to go next.

Amused by the little bunny’s exhibitionism, Shidou shot Blue Lock No. 1 a pointed look, eying the bulge at the boy’s crotch.

“Yeah, it looks like he’s enjoyed the show so far.”

“Don’t be shy. Feel free to whip it out, Pervert-kun, it must be feeling stuffy in there,” Shidou continued, feigning concern.

Reo made a sound between a laugh and a snort before settling into a smile. “Just don’t get your ji*zz anywhere,” he added.

Then he had no more room for speaking after Shidou (who had essentially vaulted off the bench to get behind Reo) plunged his dick back into Reo’s still eager hole.

Rin was offended, even though he had no right to be. He was the offender here, committing an obvious faux pas, probably much worse than the two having sex in a public place.

Possessed by the spirit of competition and unwilling to back down from what was obviously a challenge to see how much of a pervert he could be, he actually pulled down the band of his sweats to free his erection. He glared at Shidou.

Shidou’s cat-eyes widened for half a second, but his thrusting continued without interruption. If anything, he became a bit more forceful with his insertions, taking pains to hit Reo’s prostate with every stroke.

Reo’s dripping penis touched his abdomen. He was so hard it nearly hurt. He desperately wanted, needed to come.

Rin started matching their rhythm as he stripped his dick watching the other two f*ck. Long past his staring contest with Shidou, Rin was now intently focused on the expressions Reo made while getting tossed by the darker-skinned man.

Shidou now seemed to be the one who was a little offended (for reasons he couldn’t quite understand but chalked up to biological instincts – generally, animals didn’t like others eying their prizes after all). He took a hand off of Reo’s hip and almost gently threaded it through purple hair, in contrast to the frenetic activity below. The hand stilled for a moment.

Then he proceeded to pull Reo’s head back by the hair, and snarl about how Reo needed to be a good boy and show their guest how much he loved taking Shidou’s co*ck.

At that point, Reo gave up on staying quiet and the room was filled with louder moans and groans than before. Shidou released Reo’s hair and brought his hand to Reo’s dick as a reward.

One touch proved to be all Reo needed to get release. He came all over Shidou’s hand and what cum escaped from Shidou’s hand splattered onto the bench and the training room floor.

Shidou briefly admired the movement of all the muscles on Reo’s back as the other boy arched his back when coming. It was a pity he couldn’t see Reo’s face. He loved seeing arrogant, pretty faces reduced to a teary mess after getting f*cked silly. It was one of Shidou’s (bad) hobbies.

Even without seeing his eyes, Rin could tell that the purple-haired boy was blissed out and probably unconscious of the world around him. Reo was still panting hard, mouth wide open and spit glossy lips slightly swollen from his own biting from earlier.

It was unbearably hot.

Rin wanted to see his full face. Wanted to see if he could f*ck different sounds out of the pretty mouth.

Shidou spanked Reo and then came with a roar.

Slightly annoyed after regaining some of his reason, Reo pulled down his blindfold and got ready to nag at Shidou about the whole spanking thing. (Reo liked it in some situations but found it a bit cringe in this particular instance. Not entirely sure why, but probably because the roaring seemed a tad theatrical for Reo’s taste.)

—

Rin came the moment he saw Reo’s full face. The org*sm had snuck up on him, and it was a bit embarrassing, timing-wise. It wasn’t as if he thought Reo was earth-shatteringly beautiful or anything like that (though Rin did secretly acknowledge the other boy was pretty good-looking).

There was just something really erotic about the purple-haired boy removing his mask. Even more so when red-rimmed amethyst eyes (framed by long lashes still wet from tears) met Rin’s own lust-filled teal gaze, and Reo’s mouth made the smallest “oh” of surprise to see Blue Lock’s No. 1. The way Reo’s eyes seemed to shine with still unshed tears did something for Rin, made him feel heat in his groin.

Rin didn’t have a crying kink, as far as he knew, but he also didn’t realize he had a thing for watching other men f*ck in person until now either, so, go figure.

He tucked his now shrinking peen right back into his sweats, ji*zz be damned, and turned right the f*ck away from the scene of the crime. The doors couldn’t open and shut fast enough.

(Shidou thought, very smugly, that he’d won.)

Reo didn’t expect to learn the younger Itoshi brother was a voyeur when he snuck out that morning, but okay. He’d seen the guy twice, maybe? The first time was when the surly striker made his grand entrance into the 2^nd Selection, and the next time when he’d gotten extremely agitated when Ego announced the plans for 3^rd Selection tryouts. This was quite the third impression.

It wasn’t clear to Reo who between the two of them ought to be more embarrassed the next time they met. (He decided not to think about it, because thinking too much was a hassle.)

(This was the best lesson Reo learned from Nagi, after all.)

Chapter 3: “Get off my dick” (An Epiphany)

Chapter Text

Chapter 3 - “Get off my dick” (An Epiphany)

Reo chose Rin and Shidou, Team A, for his U-20 try-out instead of Nagi’s Team. At the last minute, he scribbled over his original choice right before dumping his selection sheet into the box.

Reo assured himself that this wasn’t running away. In fact, this was a commendable effort to challenge himself (and not just by seeing how much dick he could pull, nope).

By choosing Team A, Reo was going to be testing his mettle alongside players that were at an even higher level than Nagi.

Look at him, he was brave enough to set aside all the supremely awkward, unsolicited carnal knowledge he had gained re. Itoshi-the-Younger a couple nights ago. Hopefully, Rin was as good at compartmentalizing as he was at looking constipated.

Reo wasn’t letting fear of failure dictate his decision-making. (He just really, really hoped that he wouldn’t be in a Team A v. Team C match-up.)

—

Then of course, as fate (or more likely Ego) would have it, Reo’s try-out wound up being Team A’s scrimmage against Team C.

Lovely.

—

Halfway into the match neither Team A nor Team C had scored a single goal. While Team C was certainly doing great work defending, friction between the two powerhouses of Team A contributed a great deal to the lack of movement on the scoreboard as well.

Thus far, Reo had made a moderate showing as a defensive player but was mediocre (at best) on the offensive. He couldn’t stop thinking about how he was, inevitably, messing up in front of Nagi after all. He regretted his original impulsive decision to change tryout teams. Couldn’t help but think about how this was probably the last time he’d even get to see Nagi up close instead of from the other side of a LED screen.

Still. He had to keep trying.

Team C’s afro-sporting Tanaka aggressively crowded Reo as the purple-haired attacker hesitated about where to direct the (very recently stolen) ball. Reo originally planned to pass to Rin, who had run further ahead towards the left to make his way towards Team C’s goal. But Yukimiya was now marking Rin too closely for that to be a viable option, especially with Nagi hovering not too far away, well-positioned to spring into action whatever Reo might decide to do.

Reo spared a second from defending against Tanaka to scan the field and re-evaluate his options. But, of course, in that second, Reo made accidental eye contact with Nagi.

f*ck.

It wasn’t as if Reo hadn’t had to interact with Nagi in the first half of the game. They just hadn’t really looked each other in the eye.

There had been zero eye contact since the day Nagi abandoned him on the field after telling Reo he was a pain and that Nagi was past caring anymore.

Until this moment, Reo had managed to keep his sight studiously fixed on anyone and even anything besides Nagi. (See, Reo all but gluing his eyes onto Blue Lock’s sparkly concrete floors when the 7th Clear Team’s gate opened.) (See also, Reo magically never being around where Nagi might theoretically appear and camping out anywhere and everywhere else.)

So, now, despite all the reminders that he needed to be on his best game, despite all the mental prep work he had done to avoid an overly emotional response to seeing Nagi on the field again, Reo was helpless against the narrowing of his field of vision to Nagi and Nagi alone.

Nagi in his element was every bit as beautiful as Reo remembered. Reo never could take his eyes off him.

The soccer prodigy’s grey eyes were clearer than ever before.

Reo’s pupils shook. He sank into paralyzing memories of Nagi’s eyes filling with wonder because of Isagi, Nagi casually crushing Reo, then walking away with no remorse, leaving with better companions for the exhilarating life that Reo had wanted to be the one to share with him.

All the while, Team C’s Tanaka kept up his efforts to bodily interfere with Reo’s stilted attempts to move the ball forward.

Any moment now Reo would be swallowed up by the earth. This was his last chance to prove his worth.

He felt increasingly overwhelmed by the sound of his own pounding heart and racing thoughts. He didn’t want to humiliate himself, not in front of Nagi, not again, but he could barely breathe—

Then suddenly, Shidou’s voice cut through all the noise. “HEY PURPLE BUN – QUIT EYE-f*ckING YOUR EX AND PASS IT HERE.”

Startled, Reo nearly gave Tanaka a chance to steal the ball.

Jerking his head to look back at Shidou, Reo gave a smile that was more of a snarl than anything else when he shot back, “How about you get off my dick?!”

Shidou cackled, “Only if you hop on mine, bun!”

Reo rolled his eyes. (Honestly, he probably would later. Shidou deserved zero thanks, since his help was entirely unintentional, but Reo was still grateful.)

The goading had given Reo the jolt he needed to restore his composure.

And, fortunately, Reo hadn’t been the only one surprised by Shidou’s shouting. Ishikari, the giant guarding Shidou, and Tanaka had also been momentarily stunned. In that half-second pause, Shidou managed to slip out ahead of Ishikari from their jostling match and started speeding his way up from behind Reo, towards Reo’s right.

Team C defenders fully expected Reo to pass to the right now that Shidou had broken free, and the defenders had started to readjust their positioning accordingly.

Reo drew his leg back as if he really would be passing the ball over to Shidou, but at the last second Reo instead threw his foot up and over the ball to let his outside foot tap the ball to the left. After performing a soccer training vid perfect scissors fake, Reo was off to the races, leaving Tanaka scrambling to catch up.

Nagi began speeding towards Reo, grey eyes intent on the ball shuttling between the other player’s feet.

Reo honestly hadn’t expected to go head-to-head with Nagi quite so soon. Still didn’t want to reconcile with the fact Nagi was now out of his league and that Reo might never catch up.

But the purple-haired spare suddenly, inexplicably found everything about his predicament strangely…hilarious. Shidou’s distant shouts about explosions and greedy bunnies helped add to the mood.

The nonsensical yelling was funny. Reassuring, even.

Shidou’s last ejacul*tion (ha!) served as a well-timed reminder to Reo of exactly how much of a cringe-inducing lovesick loser he was to anyone with eyes.

And that in turn was a helpful cue to reconsider what business Reo had taking himself so seriously.

This was Blue Lock. This wasn’t the Mikage Reo show. No one was looking at him (unless he was hogging ball or, in a recent exceptional case, getting railed in a public place).

No one cared about Mikage Reo (again, that is unless they needed the f*cking ball, jesus, Mikage what the f*ck some people want to score goals here).

Nagi didn’t care about him, so it didn’t matter how pathetic Reo was (whether as a soccer player or as a person).

Through some truly impressive sad-boy with Big Feelings logic, Reo had applied the Law of Syllogism to come to a conclusion that was simultaneously extremely wrong and fairly accurate at the same time: If Nagi didn’t care about Reo, then no one cared about Reo, meaning Reo was free to do anything. (Reasonable minds could disagree about which parts were right or wrong about that statement.)

Staring at Nagi getting ready to tackle him dead on, Reo felt like a clown for all of his lingering affection and regrets. But, if he was a clown, he was part of a real f*cking big clown show.

(What else do you call teenaged boys trapped behind concrete walls with strict instructions to foster their egomania and “devour” each other? He supposed it could also be considered the premise for somewhat interesting prison p*rn, but nothing that was anything short of absurd.)

Reo, refocusing on the situation at hand, saw Rin ready to smash Yukimiya’s goggles with his elbow based on how aggressively the two were *still* jockeying for position. The actively calculating attacker also registered the flailing mess of limbs that was Ishikari (tallest guy in the program) and Shidou (not exactly a small man himself) that also looked mere moments away from a full throw down on the pitch.

Out of the corner of his eye, Reo tracked the progress of a small shadow trying to loop around the Ishikari-Shidou dumpster fire while using the two, very large men’s conflict to keep himself out of Nagi’s field of vision.

A laugh bubbled up in Reo’s chest as he threw himself headlong into a direct confrontation with his once and likely permanently (much to Reo’s own disappointment) beloved treasure.

—

Nagi immediately noticed Reo’s amusem*nt. Wide grey eyes took on a suspiciously bright sheen. Nagi nearly breathed out a soft, “Reo,” at the sight.

But, as Nagi witnessed Reo’s expression cool and his amethyst eyes dart left and right, looking anywhere but him, Nagi’s face shuttered. Nagi knew he needed to take this seriously. Reo had always wanted Nagi to take soccer seriously.

The lanky defender fully returned his attention to the task at hand, although a careful eye would find a slight furrow in the taller boy’s brow and a minute downward turn at the edge of his lips.

Not too long ago, Reo would have noticed something like that. He made it a point to notice even the smallest things about Nagi.

But maintaining control over the ball took so much of Reo’s concentration that he never even registered Nagi’s momentary distraction.

The two young men seemed to dance around each other as Reo kept trying to press forward and Nagi kept trying to regain possession. Just when Reo turned his back to Nagi to shield the ball from the taller boy’s advances yet again, right at the moment Nagi seemed to have Reo caught in some parody of an embrace, Reo used his back heel to pass the ball backwards between Nagi’s legs and right into the path of one very excitedBuddhist.

Nagi whipped his head around to check where the ball went. Igaguri looked like he could hardly believe his own luck, pumping one fist into the air before darting off to get away from the incoming crush of Team C members who were ready to set on this new target from all sides.

By the time Nagi turned back to look at Reo, he had slipped out of Nagi’s arms and had already sped off in another direction. With a squint Nagi could faintly make out Reo’s expression as the purple-haired boy threw him a backward glance.

Reo’s sticking his tongue out at me, Nagi observed. Is he having fun? he wondered.

—

Everything that happened next was a blur.

Igaguri tried to avoid Gagamaru coming at him from the front of Team C’s goal but Tanaka and Ishikari were also coming after him from two different sides. Not wanting to risk getting wrecked by these much bigger dudes if he were to fake a foul, Igaguri elected to shoot his shot even though an actual goal was highly unlikely.

The ball ricocheted off the Blue Lock goalie and flew back towards the pitch.

Gagamaru kicked the ball further out to shift the field of play towards Team A’s goal. Nagi prepared himself to trap Gagamaru’s pass mid-air only to find Aryuu flashing in front of him.

Aryuu took full advantage of his extra height to intercept Gagamaru’s pass with a header that sent the ball careening back towards Team C’s end of the field.

Rin and Shidou were racing towards the end of the ball’s trajectory from different sides of the field, looking every inch like ravenous beasts who had spotted fresh prey. Neither monster got a chance to take a bite though, because the fastest to seize the opportunity was one Mikage Reo who flew in seemingly from nowhere.

Nagi’s eyes widened; his pupils dilated to a near comical size as he watched Reo perform a hauntingly familiar series of motions, first trapping Aryuu’s pass before fluidly performing a bicycle kick that sent the ball straight into the net before anyone on the field could react in time.

—

Reo landed solidly on his ass with a thump. He was too winded to make a sound. No matter, because Aryuu, Igaguri, and Shidou immediately began to make more than enough noise to compensate. Even Rin let out an inelegant snort and spit out a low “lukewarm.”

The perpetually sulky striker paused to think. His face contorted a few times. (His brain supplied him with very, very intrusive thoughts of Shidou stretching Reo apart so widely Rin had half-wondered if the purple-haired boy would tear. Then, Rin’s brain also decided to remind him that he had come immediately at the sight of Reo’s full-face before running away.)

(Rin did not know what to do with this information.)

Nevertheless, he reluctantly made his way towards his (ideally temporary!) teammate as well. A couple of the Team C guys begrudgingly gave a “nice goal” or two.

—

Nagi, still wearing a look full of wonder, reflexively started jogging towards Reo. Nagi wanted to check if he was alright, tell him how cool he looked when he made that kick over his head, and—

The other members of Team A reached Reo before Nagi could even get close.

More distressingly, Reo hadn’t looked his direction even once. This was a stark contrast from the way they always looked to each other first, right after either one of them scored.

They were partners. They were supposed to share each other’s triumphs. Reo was the one who insisted this was the case. At first, whenever Nagi pulled off a hat trick or something, the lazy genius had found it bizarre for Reo to get so worked up. Was it really necessary for Reo to be so proud of him when Nagi didn’t care at all?

But Nagi eventually got used to it, and then he even came to expect Reo’s eyes to sparkle when they looked at him. Nagi mustered what little enthusiasm he had for life and directed that limited reserve of energy towards doing things that made Reo light up like Nagi was the best. They were partners.

Nagi’s jog slowed to a walk when he saw Shidou sidle up to Reo to offer a hand up. Nagi’s walk then slowed further to become an abrupt, full stop as he watched Shidou, ever so casually, slap Reo’s ass. Hard.

The blond man with pink-frosted tips sported the world’s largest sh*t-eating grin. Reo looked stunned. Nagi was stunned.

Most of the other guys on the field had expressions of varying degrees of surprise and confusion except for Igaguri, who just face-palmed as if this were an exasperatingly common occurrence, and Rin, who looked a tad more murderous than usual.

Rin had happened to arrive on the scene just as Shidou was winding up to give Reo’s backside another hearty slap. Some sense of responsibility compelled Rin to intervene. (In truth, the reasons for Rin’s intervention were, listed in ascending order of priority: [1] a sense of public decency, [2] a general dislike of Shidou, and [3] shame at being reminded of what he’d peeped at the other night.) (One surnamed Shidou would like to call bullsh*t on the public decency bit, because people who cared about public decency didn’t treat acquaintances having a good time as a live sex show without being explicitly invited to do so.)

The 16-going-on-ageless-rage-monster-incarnate used one hand to firmly grab Shidou’s wrist and another to yank the blond away from Reo by the jersey.

—

Unconsciously, Nagi’s back had straightened, and his fists had clenched. He registered something that he guessed was some type of anger. It burned inside like when Barou or anyone else tried to bully Reo in the past.

There seemed to be another unpleasant sensation as well. One that felt like all his internal organs were being soaked in acid and squeezed at the same time.

Nagi didn’t have a sufficiently well-developed emotional vocabulary to describe exactly what he was feeling.

He could only stare, face blank, lips pressed into a severe line. Only watch as Reo’s cheeks turned bright red. Witness Rin and his stupid, lemon-sucking face come to Reo’s defense when Nagi could only stand to the side like a stranger.

Igaguri kept muttering into his hand. Nagi couldn’t hear what the bald kid was saying but judging by Aryuu’s gestures and the movement of his lips, it seemed as if Aryuu was asking whether this was something that they did often. (They presumably being Reo and Shidou, the two of whom Aryuu had specifically pointed to before looking askance at the baldie.)

Nagi wanted to know the answer to Aryuu’s question too. (Nagi had never done anything like that to Reo in public. He knew better – Reo always cared about looking perfect and untouchable in public.)

Separately, Nagi also wanted to know why Reo only faked punching Shidou in the shoulder and yelled at him after he unfroze. Nagi couldn’t understand why Reo hadn’t punched the snake-eyed creep in the face or sent a knee to the other man’s crotch.

Nagi had seen Reo get angry, seen Reo when he was serious about fighting someone. Reo wasn’t mad at all, just a little offended but mostly embarrassed.

Nagi felt another mysterious twist in the gut when Reo gave one last huff and switched to giving all his new teammates a 1000-watt smile. Shidou wrested himself away from Rin’s chokehold and put both hands up in mock surrender. Nagi could see Reo laughing, but Nagi still couldn’t hear what was said as Reo threw an arm around an extremely disgruntled Rin’s neck and extended his other arm to half-pat, half-slap the top of Igaguri’s head.

It was a surprisingly warm scene, given the parties involved.

It made Nagi acutely aware of the sweat cooling on his skin.

The slacker stopped hesitating and finally approached Team A’s little circle of players so that he was close enough to hear.

“Hey Reo, that was a nice goal. You’ve gotten better.” Nagi ignored the varied expressions on the other boys’ faces and stared straight at Reo. The silver-haired youth felt a vague sense of urgency even if it wasn’t reflected in his tone. He became acutely aware of how much he was slouching and straightened up again as he waited for a response.

Reo let go of Rin, who immediately started dusting himself off like an angry cat but who somewhat uncharacteristically declined to immediately stomp away to prepare for the next play.

“Ah, Nagi. Thanks. I was copying you,” Reo replied. He smiled, but the wattage had visibly dimmed. He looked at Nagi, without saying anything more.

Nagi couldn’t understand what he was seeing in Reo’s expression, couldn’t figure out exactly why Reo was still so dissatisfied with him. Reo was still being a pain, and it frustrated Nagi to not understand why.

The confused striker opened his mouth to say something else but drew a blank for how to continue. Reo had always been responsible for moving conversations along.

There wasn’t exactly a long pause or anything, but, for one of the first times in his life, Nagi couldn’t ignore taking in the overall mood. (Nagi could seldom be bothered to read a room before.)

It was awkward. Reo wasn’t trying to engage with Nagi at all. It was awkward between the two of them, and everyone else in proximity could feel it.

Before Nagi figured out how he could make Reo look at him again, instead of looking through him, Aryuu pointed out they needed to get back into the game. “I still haven’t had my chance to be ~glam~. Let’s get to it.”

--

Reo’s goal seemed to pump both teams up. The rhythm of the match changed.

Nagi had been unsettled by Reo’s cold treatment (because that was it, Nagi was certain now that Reo exchanging pleasantries with him just now was colder than when Reo had slapped his hand away or even when Reo had told him he’d changed).

Counterintuitively, Nagi’s discomfort guided him into a flow state shortly after play resumed. He scored the next goal.

It brought him a twinge of satisfaction that he’d gotten one over on Shidou, in particular.

Still, that sense of satisfaction dulled when he looked to Reo for praise and got a flash of surprise followed by a placid smile. It was as if Reo hadn’t expected Nagi to turn his way.

Reo didn’t come closer either. He just gave Nagi a little wave before trotting over to Rin, likely forcing the younger man to listen to some strategy, if Reo’s gesticulations were anything to go by.

--

In the end Team A won, 5-4. Gagamaru scored one of Team C’s goals; Yukimiya, two.

Rin and Shidou scored two goals apiece. But Rin’s normally surly expression was exceptionally stormy after he scored the final, game-winning goal. You would think Team A had lost if you were only judging by his face.

It was really Reo’s fault. It all circled back to how Reo had started treating the rest of the match as an opportunity to workshop a new playstyle and test his dexterity. He attempted several other “copycat” moves to study the limitations of his mimicry without paying mind to Rin’s mounting agitation.

Rin’s final goal was actually a rebound from Reo experimenting with Shidou’s high-spin drive shot. (Reo had watched Team A’s first match up against Team B.) After receiving the ball with his back towards the goal, Reo had backed into Yukimiya and used Yukimiya’s body weight to rotate on the spot and rise into a shooting motion. The whole sequence looked insane, but it was a pity it didn’t become a goal. Reo had been a bit short on power in his kick.

So anyhow, that’s where Rin came in with his clutch positioning to save the day.

Reo couldn’t care less about how pissy Rin looked. The purple-haired striker was ecstatic. He sped over to put the younger man into a sweaty headlock. (What was a little skinship between people who’d seen each other’s cum? Nothing, that’s what.)

Rin fended off an attempted noogie, shocked and appalled to find Reo impervious to one of his most severe “I will f*cking kill you if you touch me” expressions.

Figuring that maybe Reo just wasn’t getting the memo because he could only see Rin’s profile (what with how Reo had escalated to essentially hanging off Rin’s neck), Rin tried to forcefully elbow Reo off.

“Don’t. f*cking. Touch. Me,” Rin bit out. “Watching some talentless purple mime trying to imitate a dumbass antennae-ed freak is like being forced to eat dogsh*t.”

“D’awww is someone a cranky baby ‘cause he didn’t get to run the whole show? Don’t be so petty and give the peons a chance to try. You’re already a genius!” Reo cooed.

High off finding a new path for his future game, Reo was completely undeterred by Rin’s rough treatment and audaciously went for another noogie.

--

If Nagi were closer to where the two were standing, he would have noticed the tips of Rin’s ears getting red. (No one had dared to be so physically affectionate with the sixteen-year-old in years – not even his parents.)

As it was, Nagi felt weird about what he was seeing and a bit upset that he was once again a distant spectator without an invitation to join Reo’s fun.

All the other Team A guys were gathering around, and Team C started migrating as well. Yukimiya urged Nagi to hurry over so that they would have some time to recuperate before meeting with the next three trial team members for their next scrimmage.

Nagi slowly walked away from his vantage point, casting one last look at the raucous crowd of boys from Team A. Lifting his legs was more of a hassle than usual. He vaguely wondered if he would be able to ride the Reo limousine again sometime soon.

--

Team A, apparently possessed by chaotic evil spirits, made zero progress towards the exit. Rin and Shidou were lunging at each other (again) for one reason or another, but some of Aryuu’s long hair had unexplainably gotten caught in Shidou’s gold chain. This in turn resulted in very glam manly screeching.

Reo was still hanging around Rin’s neck like a particularly long scarf, except now he laughed hysterically at Aryuu’s plight while half-heartedly trying to shove Shidou’s face away from Rin’s. Igaguri tried his best to untangle Aryuu’s hair from Shidou’s necklace. Alas, the little monk had gloves (w some Velcro) on that he hadn’t thought to take off before applying his hands to the task that was Aryuu’s snarled hair. It wasn’t long before he had introduced a whole new set of complications.

Team A finally got out of each other’s hair, (literally) just as Ego’s unamused voice projected from surround sound speakers. “Kindly quit dawdling on the pitch. Also, do remember to keep your hands to yourself, both on and off the field. Forcible touching is prohibited at Blue Lock.”

Shidou gave a dismissive wave. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your panties in a twist, four-eyes.”

Just to be spiteful, he yanked twice on Reo’s ponytail and stole the younger man’s hair tie. “I doubt our little Came-reo-n minds.” Reo rolled his eyes (for the 100th time that day), not bothering to dignify Shidou with a response.

Amused by his own pun, Shidou snickered and leisurely strolled towards the exit with both hands in his pockets. Rin stalked past him at a faster clip and shoulder-checked the blond, presumably just to be a dick.

Chapter 4: Okay, should have guessed

Chapter Text

Chapter 4 - Okay, probably should have guessed

Reo had gone from feeling great about successfully copying Nagi’s bicycle kick (among other players’ various tricks) to feeling pretty garbage. A lot of it was probably the adrenaline from the game fading now that he was in the locker room.

More of it was embarrassment creeping in about how he had been ecstatic about being able to mimic a trick that came to Nagi instinctively, as easy as breathing and with just as little conscious thought or effort.

Reo was now a person of (*maybe*) middling talent who was excessively pleased to achieve a pale imitation of someone who was actually great.

Blue Lock was exacting divine retribution for Reo being an asshole to normal people who didn’t find everything boringly easy to excel at.

So.

Now he felt sh*tty.

Being lame and uncool felt crappy.

Avoiding Nagi (who wasn’t even his ex, f*ck you, Shidou) felt sh*tty.

But being around Nagi also felt f*cking terrible. The fact that Nagi could blithely say, “You’ve gotten better,” without thinking it might sound harsh, made Reo feel like so much hot garbage. It was another cutting reminder that Reo hadn’t been good enough.

And it forced Reo to confront the fact he was so small-minded and petty he couldn’t just be happy for Nagi. Reo should be happy that Nagi was able to be as brilliant and beautiful and good as Reo always believed he could be, even if Reo wasn’t part of the picture.

Reo hung his head in his locker for a moment so he could wallow.

When it got oddly quiet, Reo finally discovered that he and Rin were the last ones left in the changing room. (Awkward.)

Reo also noticed that Rin stood one locker away from him to the right, which meant that he probably saw Reo looking absolutely insane for the past however long Reo had been maybe crying (v little & quite prettily) and laughing (v. v. uglily) to himself with his head in a locker. (Distasteful.)

Reo momentarily regretted the fact neither Shidou nor Igaguri were around. 2nd Selection had already inured the two to Reo’s bipolar bullsh*t. Aryuu was a space cadet living in glam-land, so he would have been a good buffer too.

Blue Lock’s No. 1 striker was a relatively unknown quantity, and their only real interaction wasn’t even a conversation - just indecent exposure.

Deciding to save them both from any further discomfort, Reo gave Rin a watery smile and told him to go on ahead without him.

Rin turned stiffly.

He looked pissed-off at Reo for whatever reason and said abruptly, “You should quit.”

“Pardon?”

“You should give up soccer. Quit playing.”

Reo blinked.

Rather than finding the right words to express just how unbelievably, shockingly insulting he found Rin to be, Reo attempted humor.

“Are you this charming to all the Bluelockers you whack off to?”

That pissed Rin off even more (and by that, Rin actually meant the slight wobble in Reo’s voice rather than the content of Reo’s statement).

“You should be grateful I’m wasting my breath to tell you this.”

“You have well-rounded skills and decent physical stats, but you’re still a trash player with none of the psychological qualities necessary to succeed.”

Continuing in the same breath, “Soccer is a death match, and *you* are destined to die every time you go onto the field because of how you half-ass your way through the game.”

“Anyone can see that you play like you’re begging someone to look at you.”

Reo had been holding up well under Rin’s onslaught until Rin’s last line. The weak smile he had on his face cracked.

“I assume, from the sh*t falling out of Shidou’s mouth all game, it’s that moron with the white hair you’re chasing after.”

Reo’s whole body flinched. He had to momentarily bow his head and let his hair obscure his expression.

“You’ve already been left behind. Don’t drag other people down.”

“Quit.”

The younger man prepared to stride to the exit, gaze steely, and brows furrowed.

He was stopped before he could get more than a step in.

Reo had reached out to roughly grab Rin’s bicep. (Note, Reo’s hand did not actually manage to contain the entire circumference of Rin’s bicep, b/c guns. Rin’s got them.)

Rin looked offended by Reo’s audacity to manhandle him. He tried to shrug him off only for Reo to squeeze harder, leaving white indentations around his fingers.

Reo glowered at Rin. And, although Reo’s eyes were red-rimmed and shiny (distressingly like the image that Rin had found so arousing just the night before but now found enraging at the same time), they also bore a burning resentment that Rin found all too familiar from looking in the mirror.

Upon closer inspection, it would be more accurate to say Reo’s violet eyes were staring through Rin rather than at him.

Rin bristled at being regarded as a substitute for anything or anyone.

But Reo refused to let go and he bit his lip so hard Rin half-expected it to start bleeding.

Rin thought about exerting more force to fling off Reo’s arm so he could leave.

Instead, he found himself asking the other boy a question (surprised to find that he was genuinely curious about what Reo’s response might be).

“Why make yourself miserable?”

A long pause.

Reo sincerely looked Rin in the eye for the first time since they had initiated what was shaping up to be a truly awful first conversation.

Then, as if he didn’t like what he saw, Reo smiled meanly, reminiscent of the way he’d sneer at people who didn’t “know their place,” so to speak, back when he ruled the halls of Hakuho Academy. (Generally, people who didn’t know their place were people who commented unflatteringly about Reo’s relationship with Nagi. Which, in essence, Rin had basically just done. At least from Reo’s presently quite sensitive perspective.)

“Why be a f*cking edgelord?” Reo jeered. (Recall, Reo was, not long ago, the Blue Lock equivalent of a Mean Girl – only cool and interesting guys could sit at his table.)

“What does my being pathetic trash have to do with you, since you’re god’s gift to soccer and Blue Lock’s just one little stepping stone?”

“You act like you can see through everyone else’s bullsh*t, and you’re so ~wise~ to all the harsh realities of the big bad world of soccer.”

“First off, your whole worldview is immature as f*ck.”

“But, more importantly, you’re just as full of sh*t, just as needy and pathetically desperate for approval as every other emotionally stunted idiot who was dumb enough to come here.”

“Oh wait,” Reo exclaimed with feigned astonishment, now sounding a bit gleeful, “You’re actually a bit worse than the average dumbass here. You’re a little freak who likes watching other people f*ck. Uninvited.”

“Who hurt you, that you’re so f*cked up?”

It was a very grand “thanks very much for your unsolicited concern – kys,” from one triggered teenaged boy (Reo) to another (Rin) (who was, as one might expect in such a situation, now also triggered).

He hadn’t anticipated Reo would be kind of an asshole. Unclear why Rin hadn’t expected this outcome though, since Mikage was a billionaire trust fund baby and even Rin had to admit he had been rude to Reo.

The dark-haired boy still maintained that everything he said was the truth, and being stuck alone in the changing room listening to Reo basically cry into a locker was extremely off-putting and really. f*cking. annoying. For many reasons. (Including, but not limited to, the fact that it had been…pleasant, when Reo had been so nice(?) on the field, so this whole locker room thing was turning out to be a bit of a let-down. Maybe.)

Rin had been in much more tense and unpleasant verbal altercations than the one he found himself in right then. He could easily punch Reo in the face, because f*ck this guy – he was a dilettante who wandered in here after, what? Just a year of playing high school soccer? Clearly no time going through the youth club circuits (otherwise they would have met before) like any of the more serious contenders here.

And instead of taking the fact that Rin (who has dedicated his whole f*cking being to this f*cking game that he hates now) bothered to recognize his talent (very begrudgingly, wedged in between many extremely offensive words), Reo was going to get all butt hurt about Rin advising him to quit while he was ahead, instead of wasting his time chasing an impossible f*cking ideal?

Reo didn’t know the first thing about Rin. And Rin was telling this f*cking annoying, poor little rich boy who had actual options in his life to do something else, something Rin wished a single f*cking person besides his backstabbing sell-out brother ever told him.

Rin wanted to break this ingrate’s face.

Instead, he did the completely normal, totally not a rom-com cliché thing where he tried to shut Reo up by smashing their faces together. (Because he was so mad.) (But also because the wires in his brain went wonky and he remembered how badly he wanted to f*ck Reo to tears the other night.)

It was a cross between a headbutt and a kiss. Honestly, more the former than the latter.

Their teeth clacked together painfully, and, with mounting horror, Rin realized he had both tried to do an extremely weird thing and had also failed spectacularly because one or both of them were now bleeding, if the taste of copper in his mouth was any indication.

The eyes that Rin had screwed shut when preparing for impact (i.e., when Rin let his face painfully meet Reo’s) flew wide open.

(There was never better proof that Itoshi Rin was a 16-year-old edgelord with no real social experience than this moment of heretofore unmatched cringefail.)

Reo saved Rin from his own ineptitude by, eventually, sliding his tongue past Rin’s teeth and licking into his mouth. The purple-haired boy started giving Rin the domineering kiss treatment that Rin had originally intended to initiate. Reo let go of Rin’s bicep (which Rin had not been flexing, thanks), and sent one hand through Rin’s short, dark hair while having the other press up against Rin’s cheek to adjust the angle of the other boy’s face.

Recognizing he should just take the L for earlier, Rin didn’t resist Reo taking control. The teal-eyed boy, instead, still had his eyes open and seemed slow to fully comprehend that this was his first time kissing someone. His first time making out with anyone. And he was doing something weird. Again. sh*t.

He closed his eyes and started responding to Reo’s overtures, copying what the older boy did with his tongue and exploring Reo’s mouth. The kiss didn’t taste like anything, but it felt incredibly warm, sending little bolts of electricity down his body. He didn’t know where to put his hands, so they were still being held stiffly at his sides with fists clenched.

Rin had carefully cultivated his stoic public persona for years, and now his sexual inexperience was blowing everything up. (Currently, he wouldn’t mind blowing up his public persona if the person in front of him would blow him.)

As if he knew Rin was distracted, Reo pulled away a small distance and looked into slightly dazed teal eyes.

Rin noticed a small cut on the edge of Reo’s upper lip and internally winced while externally remaining mostly expressionless.

Eyes half-lidded, Reo lazily carded his fingers through Rin’s hair and let the hand on the younger man’s cheek skim down to the back of Rin’s neck. They were far enough apart that they could map each other’s features but still close enough that they could feel each other’s breath on their skin.

Rin wondered why he could faintly smell bergamot and cedar wafting from Reo when they weren’t supposed to be able to bring in any of their own toiletries. He was tempted to bring his nose closer to Reo’s neck to see if he could identify any other scent notes (Rin had never thought of himself as a smell guy but here was yet another new fact to add to the list).

It felt extremely intimate. All the unpleasantness from before seemed past them.

Rin held his breath as more heat pooled in his groin. His hands unclenched and he was almost ready to start touching the other man in front of him.

Then the delicate moue of Reo’s lips turned into a more mischievous expression. He gave Rin a quick peck on the lips—

Before he proceeded to none-to-gently pull Rin towards himself by the hair, using the hand he’d placed behind Rin’s neck to prevent Rin from easily pulling his head back. (Learned that move from Blue Lock’s one and only resident explosive maniac.)

The teal-eyed boy was not pleased with this development.

Despite yanking Rin over (by his f*cking hair), Reo didn’t actually pull him in for another antagonistic kiss (which would have at least been some small consolation).

Reo stopped Rin’s lips just short of his own and murmured, “You know, I wasn’t expecting you to be a huge dick.”

Rin was annoyed, ashamed, and aroused all at once. With no social script to turn to, Rin just let rage take the wheel.

“And you’re a little asshole. Might as well make yourself useful and suck my dick,” Rin shot back. He smacked the hand Reo had in his hair away and grabbed Reo by the nape of his neck with the other hand.

Reo’s eyes flashed. Too much time spent with Shidou made Reo accustomed to treating the trade of low-brow come-ons as foreplay. The violet-eyed boy’s interest was piqued.

Rin was a prick, his relative inexperience obvious, and he was indisputably attractive – Reo decided, given Rin’s earlier (and current) rudeness, this could double as teaching him a lesson.

Rin had thinner skin than Reo, he was pretty sure.

Reo sported an impish grin when he started to grope at Rin’s crotch. “I just might. Depends how big of a dick you are.”

Rin was only wearing a towel, and Reo was shirtless but still had his pants on. Given that they were in a locker room, post-scrimmage, the typical order of operations, here, would be to strip down, go to the showers with your bath things, maybe soak in the communal bath a bit before coming back to change into clean clothes.

A good deal of time had passed already between their first few rounds of antagonizing each other, so they clearly needed to hurry if they planned to finish here.

Rin had already been half-hard the moment their teeth clacked, so at this point his towel wasn’t doing much. Reo pulled it off to fully admire Rin’s body. He and Rin were similar in coloring, both very fair-skinned. Their builds were both on the lean side as well.

Rin’s dick, though. That was an entirely different matter. A bit of a shock, really, because despite the owner’s sharp features and heavy lashes that made for a portrait of a moody beauty, Rin’s co*ck looked anything but effete. (Not that Reo’s was feminine or anything – he was pink but plenty well-endowed.)

Rin’s happened to be a dark reddish-brown color, a noticeably darker red at the tip, slightly curved to the right, with very accented veins. Rin clearly didn’t trim and shave the way other guys did (*cough* Reo *cough* Shidou), so the purple-eyed young man was duly impressed that Rin’s dick could still look so imposing nestled in full bush.

Reo wanted to nose along the veins and follow up with tracing around them with his tongue. His mouth already started watering a bit at the thought. But he moved to push Rin’s back to a locker first, so that the pretty boy could admire the view from above if Reo actually got around to sucking him off.

Unfortunately, Rin still seemed a tad peeved from before and didn’t recognize Reo’s kindness for what it was. Rin immediately reversed their positions, shoving Reo against the lockers and trapping Reo between his arms so he could nip at Reo’s lips and rut rudely against the other boy’s body.

The two were nearly the same height, Rin a bare centimeter taller, so their groins were in near perfect alignment. He just wanted more friction between them, even if his bare flesh was sliding against the synthetic fabric of Reo’s Blue Lock kit. If anyone were to walk in right now, the two of them would make for a sight – Rin’s naked body enveloping Reo, all of the muscles in the lower body of the angry younger man straining to bring him closer to Reo, as if he could crush him into becoming a part of his own body.

Reo turned his head away from Rin after a moment so he could spit into a hand. Without Reo’s lips to chase, Rin settled for doing what he’d imagined before, resting his head in the smooth crook of Reo’s neck and breathing in. Calming down for a second.

Rin ultimately wasn’t able to recognize any other scents because he grew quickly distracted by Reo’s spit-slick hand squeezing his shaft. There was a noticeable drag wherever the parts of Reo’s hand that hadn’t been wet landed. The inconsistent textures made for interesting sensations. Rin made a low hum-like groan. (So much for being mad.)

Even though it felt amazing, incredible even, to have someone else’s hand on his dick, Rin couldn’t help looking back up again at Reo’s mouth – eyes greedy. (Now he was a puppy.)

Reo glanced at Rin’s red face then up to the clock on the wall.

Ultimately, they would be cutting it close, and Rin hadn’t necessarily done anything to deserve a reward yet. But out of a spirit of generosity, and because Reo found Rin’s eager clumsy pawing charming, Reo flipped their positions against the lockers one last time before dropping down to his knees. He tucked his loose hair behind his ears before looking up towards the standing man.

The expression of near wonder on Rin’s face made Reo smirk a bit. Ever concerned with maintaining his cool, the younger boy’s face quickly closed off at Reo’s knowing look. The slight cant of his hips and his transfixed stare gave Rin away though. He positively vibrated with excitement.

Reo deliberately blew a small gust of air at Rin’s tip, and the whole length shuddered before bobbing up a bit. A bit of precum leaked from the crown, but not quite as much as Reo had expected. He let his fingers trail softly along the silky shaft from top to bottom before settling into a firm grip at the base.

Making eye contact for a last time before starting his work, Reo teasingly circled his tongue around Rin’s glans before taking in the whole length.

A strangled noise escaped from Rin, who had his hands clenched again.

Reo’s free hand groped up along Rin’s tense quads and felt around for Rin’s fist. Reo gently teased apart Rin’s fingers, took the other boy’s now open hand, and brought it to his own head.

Pulling his lips off of Rin’s co*ck with a pop, Reo’s bright, violet eyes came into Rin’s lust-stained sight once more. Rin’s co*ck twitched in Reo’s hand. Reo grinned, and gave Rin’s hand (the one now resting along Reo’s temple) a little squeeze.

“You can grab my hair. Keep it out of my face.”

“Or pay me back for earlier,” he said, sticking his tongue out a bit. Then he licked his now slightly puffy lips before returning his attention to Rin’s dick, like it were some type of prize.

Emboldened, Rin brought his other hand to the crown of Reo’s head. He was rewarded with a pleased hum around his co*ck.

Rin nearly came.

It took tensing every muscle in his body to prevent.

Anything Shidou could do, Rin could do better. He was sure of it. So he could not, for the love of god, be a minute man. Even if this was his first time, even if the suction and wet heat of Reo’s mouth was driving him insane.

Rin couldn’t help involuntarily tugging at Reo’s hair when the other man’s tongue would intentionally tease at the opening in Rin’s glans, before swishing around the edge of his crown then swallowing him all the way down again.

Eventually, he gave up all pretense of politeness and just tried to hold Reo in place. Rin had no idea what expression he was making when he f*cked roughly into Reo’s mouth, watching the other boy’s mouth straining from the thickness of Rin’s co*ck and purple lashes getting increasingly wet from tears every time Rin’s length made him gag.

Rin looked like a fiend, some type of abyssal creature. There was some molten, violent feeling growing inside him.

He wanted to trap Reo on his knees for the rest of time, so Rin could watch as the older boy just had to keep taking his co*ck. Rin was panting harder now than he had during their game against Team C, he was so close.

He gripped Reo’s hair harder, sure that it was probably hurting him now. (He’ll apologize later. He swears.) (He doesn’t want him to be mad.) (How could his mouth feel so good.)

So f*cking close.

Then there was the sound of the door opening.

Both Rin and Reo’s eyes widened.

Reo was already pulling off, thinking about what he would need to say, depending on who came in.

The whole changing room was open space, with all the lockers lined up on either wall, more like a very wide hallway than a room-room. So, in short, there was absolutely no hiding the moment a door on either side opened. They were definitely exposed.

Of course, naturally, this is the moment Rin came.

And come hard, he did.

Right when Reo’s lips made their final brush against his tip, Rin—

Straight emptied his balls.

All over Reo’s face.

Oh god. He’s going to be mad. Rin thought.

Next thought. /f*ck./ How was it possible for someone to look good with cum all over their face?

“I’m hurt you decided to play without me, bunny~ ❤️” Shidou said, wearing a smile that wasn’t a smile when he looked at Rin, who was still panting against the lockers.

The fact that it was Shidou who came in first was an enormous relief.

Reo wiped the stunned look off of his face and licked his lips. It let him taste some of Rin’s cum. Confirmation – just like all three other flavors of cum Reo’d tasted before (i.e., his own, Nagi’s, and Shidou’s).

He stood up and caught the (slightly damp) towel Shidou threw him, taken from around the freshly showered boy’s neck.

“Roughhousing went wrong?” Reo asked, tilting his face towards Rin with a grin.

Rin was still mostly non-verbal at this point, co*ck still half-hard, sem*n still slowly dribbling out and down his tip. He grunted noncommittally and looked down at his dick, telepathically communicating to it his sense of betrayal.

Reo, once again filled with the spirit of generosity, took pity and grabbed a clean towel from one of the bins above the lockers and handed it to Rin before stepping away. Were Reo a less kind soul, he could have left Rin completely exposed to Blue Lock No. 2’s critical eye, without any covering.

Knowing Shidou, there would be dick jokes at Rin’s expense for days. As it was, there’d already be plenty. More visuals would have made the experience for Rin way worse though, especially given what Reo now knew – which was that Rin was an awkward child.

His natural resting bitch face made it easier to camouflage. Almost any socially maladjusted behavior could be attributed to intentional rudeness because he had the face and the body of a much cooler(?) kid than he was at the core.

But Reo knew Rin’s honestly-not so secret-secret now. And Reo was a bit of an asshole, but not a monster. He could understand awkward creatures, sort of. After all, his precious was—

Right.

So anyway, Reo wanted to be nice to Rin, because he was a flailboat with a prickly exterior.

Wiping off all the spunk that was trying to dry on his lashes, Reo walked back to his locker and tried to will away his erection. Pretty easy feat for him most days because, lol, depressed.

Shidou had recovered from his initial surprise and mild discomfiture. Resumed his normal course of business changing with the occasional smarmy remark here or there about the smell.

Rin stood there for a moment with the towel Reo gave him wrapped around his waist and tried to decide whether he wanted to leave immediately, since that had originally been the plan before this possibly life-changing detour, or brave the social pain of waiting around for Reo even though Aryuu and Igaguri would likely be back any minute now.

He made his way to the door.

Then he stood by it until Reo was also ready to go, studiously ignoring Shidou’s occasional jabs.

When Reo noticed he had someone waiting, he kept a small smile to himself as he thought, Cute.

--

Sometime later, when it was just Reo and Rin in a locker room again, Reo uncomfortably revisited their first conversation without prompting.

“Just. To answer your question. From before.” Rin froze, scowling at the reminder and still not sure how to treat what happened earlier.

“It’s probably because I hate myself.” Here, Reo gave a little self-deprecating laugh.

“I hate myself for being, like you said, a trash player. For being deadweight.”

He breathed.

“But I can’t help wanting to stick around anyway, because even if I’ve been left behind, even if I don’t have the confidence to realize my dreams anymore, I-just,” at that point Reo’s voice cracked.

“I want to be better.”

“I want to be able to say, ‘Okay, go ahead,’ knowing that I can be good enough to meet again on the other side.”

“And I—”

Rin’s default frown disappeared by this point, replaced by a carefully neutral expression and slight darkening of the eye.

“I’m not stupid enough to think that I can compete with monsters like Isagi, much less you or Nagi.”

“But just going away would be letting him off too cheaply for abandoning me.”

Reo ground into his now tightly shut eyes with a wrist and grit out, “I hate him.”

“And I hate myself.”

“I can’t stop feeling angry.”

“So that’s why.”

“That’s my answer,” Reo declared, eyes finally focusing on Rin. Reo lifted his chin slightly and met the other boy’s impassive stare with his own defiant gaze.

Reo fully expected to be scoffed at for being maudlin or mocked for being some kind of sad stalker after divulging these thoughts, and he was annoyed that he managed to avoid crying through his unprovoked confessional only to start cracking now.

He couldn’t f*cking stand how he kept crying all the goddamn time in this sh*thole of a soccer program. (Before all this stuff with Nagi, he hadn’t cried-cried since he still wore a randoseru and yellow hat to school.)

Was Ego seriously just selecting for the most emotionally stunted Japanese soccer players under 20? Reo himself fit the bill, in some ways, since he could acknowledge his attachment to Nagi was unhealthy, and he was essentially sociopathic towards all other living beings. But. Still.

He had kind of felt like sharing because. Thinking back to earlier, Rin was a huge dick (haha) but he seemed like he had actually been trying to be nice in (what Reo was now learning) his really socially-inept way.

And Reo had been mean. Or well, mean to a degree that stepped slightly over the line that new-and-improved Reo had established for himself, now that he was trying to form healthier relationships with other human beings. Besides Nagi.

Because Nagi deserved to be treated like his own person, and Reo couldn’t keep blaming someone who never asked to be a Mikage’s entire world. Reo was going to grow the f*ck up. (…maybe Nagi would like him then.)(Oh, f*ck off.)

Silence seemed to drag on forever. Until—

"Don’t lump me in with lukewarm garbage like Isagi and that other loser.”

Rin opened the door to leave, then held it open without looking at the still half-dressed boy behind him.

“Now get out. I still have another tryout match with the antennae freak later.”

Cute.

Chapter 5: What do *you* know

Chapter Text

Chapter 5 - What doyou know

Nagi laid in bed, absentmindedly playing a random rhythm game as he dissected his interactions with Reo from earlier that day. He dedicated an uncharacteristically large amount of mental energy to the task. But it couldn’t be helped when everything seemed off somehow.

Instead of reuniting once they’d both gotten stronger, Nagi, puzzlingly, hadn’t caught even a glimpse of Reo’s shadow since their release from the 2nd Selection clear gates. He had thought Reo would have immediately wanted to see how well they could work together now that they’d both leveled up.

When Nagi saw the team assignments, he figured Reo must have wanted to prove he’d grown on his own. He probably wanted to make up for how things had gone during the 3rd Stage, since he hadn’t been able to prove Nagi made the wrong choice with Isagi back then.

Nagi understood, in a way few people could, how Reo had thin skin when it came to mistakes. Once they became partners, Nagi found himself learning more and more about who Reo was beyond his superficial charm and charisma. The Mikage heir was so used to being perfect, and he so very rarely made errors, that the tiniest hiccup could lead to overreactions.

It was funny because while, on one hand, Reo was frustrated by how boringly easy it was to excel at every task that was set before him, on the other, he could very well lose his mind if he couldn’t conquer every kingdom.

Nagi had once introduced Reo to a fighting game at the arcade and wiped the floor with the dandy little novice. (No mercy for noobs. Especially ones who trashtalked as much as Reo.) Reo threw a hissy fit then proceeded to camp at the game center daily until he ranked.

In the top 10. Nationally.

Nagi, after being conscripted as soccer partner and gaming trainer for so long, was pleased to finally have real competition available on call. Then he learned that Reo had no interest in ever playing again once he’d met the arbitrary goal of top 10 that he’d set for himself. No need for nation’s no. 1 because an arcade game wasn’t worth that much additional effort. (Reo calculated out the precise number of add’l hours required.) They annoyed each other about it for a week before agreeing that Reo wasn’t allowed to play video games Nagi liked anymore, to avoid any future conflicts.

All of that’s to say that Nagi understood Reo always needed to make a point. And, historically, once Reo had redeemed himself, he’d calm down, apologize for overreacting, and then they’d be back to normal.

Anyone could see that the perfectionist had gotten better since Barou and Isagi had picked Chigiri. Nagi knew Reo was annoyed that he had endorsed the pick, too, but Nagi was absolutely certain that Reo knew Chigiri was the better choice at that time. It was why Nagi had reacted the way he did that day – because Reo was being unreasonable and dramatic when he already knew Nagi was going with the best strategic option. Reo had been being bratty about Nagi doing what Reo always told him to do. And just.

It was annoying that the whole thing made Nagi feel uncomfortable then and kept forcing him to do the kind of thinking that he hated doing the most now (i.e., putting words to feelings). So Nagi still kind of felt aggrieved about Reo being a pain.

But since Reo had gotten the chance to make himself feel better about his minor error in judgment re. splitting up, things should have been slotting back into place.

That was why Nagi really couldn’t understand why Reo hadn’t spoken to him immediately after the game and why Nagi felt confused(?), maybe, about why he still hadn’t spotted Reo in the wild yet. It was like the purple-haired boy suddenly became a mythical Pokémon.

Nagi idly wondered if he needed to throw a master ball or something, the next time he saw Reo. He was pretty sure Reo would think it was funny, if he really did throw a fake pokéball at him – Reo always thought Nagi’s lamest jokes were the funniest.

The thought cheered up the listless young man for a moment before he couldn’t help doubling back to why Reo had looked almost afraid for a moment, when they first made eye contact. It made Nagi’s chest constrict uncomfortably. He thought he might need an antacid or charcoal tablets or something.

--

Amid Nagi’s considerations of acid reducers, Isagi popped into the room Nagi shared with the rest of the 2nd Clear Team and started chattering away.

Nagi hmm-ed as if he were listening while he lay on his stomach and tapped away at his screen.

An open bottle of lemon tea perched precariously on top of a hardcover English textbook right next to Nagi’s head. The lazy young man would periodically turn to mouth around for the straw sticking out of the bottle to take sips without taking his eyes off his phone. Heaven must have been smiling upon him for the whole bottle not to have just spilled all over the bed by that point. Nagi also had no business being that close to a full combo in his game given his horrifically contorted resting position.

Nagi finally missed a couple notes after he caught Isagi say something extremely disconcerting mid-monologue—Isagi claimed he had hung out with Reo in one of the video rooms before 3rd Selection Tryout Teams were settled.

Does drinking lemon tea make heartburn worse? Nagi wondered if he needed to google that. He also wondered if it’d be worth the trouble to find out where to get antacids or something.

The other boy spent time with Reo. Isagi had hung out with Reo days ago. When Nagi barely got to see Reo for the first time in weeks, today. Isagi. Who Reo had seemed to irrationally despise the last time they'd all seen each other.

Through the fog of his disbelief, Nagi caught snippets of Isagi going on about how happy he was that the other boy didn’t seem as hostile to him as before and how nice spending time with Reo could be, when the purple-haired boy wasn’t out to get you.

Nagi sometimes (oftentimes) found other people talking about Reo annoying, even if they only had good things to say (which honestly, they all should, because Reo was great, except when he was being bratty—but still, Nagi’s point stood).

The normal mild irritation started feeling less and less mild as he listened to Isagi prattle on about Reo being really smart and really insightful and how Isagi should probably go compare notes with Reo again sometime.

Nagi groaned, “Isagi, stop being a pain,” to signal his desire for Isagi to quit talking. The mobile game-addict then switched from his rhythm game to an FPS, and the tinny report of firearms discharging filled the air.

Isagi huffily stopped his soliloquy and went back to looking for things he’d left behind in the toxic dumpsite that was Chigiri and Nagi’s combined junk.

--

After playing for a few minutes, Nagi revisited the previous topic as if Nagi himself weren’t the one who terminated the conversation.

“So did you guys talk about which team to join?”

Isagi revealed that they had, since he’d been breaking down film for that precise purpose when Reo showed up.

Then, shifting into an unnaturally casual tone, Isagi mentioned, “Oh yeah, and Reo had seemed pretty conflicted.”

“When I told him about how I thought he’d go straight to your team, he said that he originally wanted to but had second thoughts.”

Isagi sort of felt he owed Reo some privacy, given how he helped Isagi reach his decision about what to do for his own tryout. Their time in the video room had seemed like it was meant to be private, and the contents of the conversation probably weren’t meant to leave those four walls.

Still, considering how Nagi had bothered to ask (even if the lazy genius never moved his eyes from his touchscreen the whole time), Isagi decided to forge ahead with addressing the elephant in the room.

“You know, Reo said a few things that kind of made me think he’s still pretty upset about stuff that happened during 2nd Selection.” A pause. “It’s probably not really my place to be saying this, but did you guys ever talk about it after?”

Isagi waited for a response, or even an indication that Nagi had heard. More sounds of rapid gunfire from Nagi’s game filled the void.

Just as Isagi was ready to wash his hands of the whole affair, Nagi spoke—“It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Taken aback by Nagi’s response, Isagi changed his mind. He now felt duty-bound to make a point. “I get why you’d feel that way, and I probably would, too, if I were in your position. But what I’m saying is that Reo doesn’t seem to see things the way you do. He thinks you left him behind, and it sounds like he didn’t just mean in terms of soccer.”

Nagi abruptly put down his phone, propping himself up to stare down Isagi, “What do you know about Reo.”

Isagi couldn’t be sure if Nagi knew how intense he looked right now. It was rare to be on the receiving end of the other boy’s full focus, much less when he had a flinty look in his eyes that seemed to say he wanted to crush you to dust.

Still, Isagi was no stranger to crazy eyes, being one of the most notorious examples of them himself. Isagi’s been told he looks like a serial killer from time to time. But it’s fine since some people also say that he and Bachira’s combined crazy eyes make for a lovely pair of murder-husband faces. (No one has ever actually said that. Besides maybe Bachira’s monster.)

Undaunted, Isagi shot back, “I know what Reo told me, which is apparently more than you.”

Before Nagi could retort, Isagi continued, “We all heard what you said, man, when you called Reo a pain and said you were past caring. It was pretty harsh.”

“Based on how you sound right now, you obviously haven’t spoken to him.”

“Reo said he didn’t know if he had the confidence to play beside you. He said it feels like you’ll get even further away from him if he messed up playing with you.”

Nagi frowned. “We aren’t even really apart.”

“Like I said, you might think about it that way, but clearly Reo doesn’t.”

“You should talk to him,” Isagi advised. Then, without leaving room for further discussion, the blue-eyed boy grabbed his laundry hamper and made his way out, shutting the door behind him.

Nagi dropped back onto his stomach like a puppet with its strings cut. In his head he grumbled, I would if I could even see him.

Still, Nagi couldn’t imagine a universe where Reo wouldn’t eventually get over it. Once Reo thought it through, he would understand that they were still on track to fulfill Reo’s dream and that Nagi was finally starting to maybe see it as his own too.

Part of what made them so unique, after all, was how they understood certain things about one another intuitively, even when they were outwardly so different.

--

Contrary to popular belief, Nagi was a bit emotionally stunted as applied to himself, but not socially stupid.

He was an astute observer of emotional expressions when he wanted to be (key part here) and could make sound inferences based on who it was he was observing. You really couldn’t do as well as Nagi did in both Japanese and English Lit courses (second only to Hakuho’s proudest son, Mikage Reo) if you were incapable of analyzing social dynamics and the human psyche. He simply didn’t care what social information he was picking up IRL, 90% of the time.

The 10% of f*cks given (ha) was a relatively new thing and honestly just reserved for Reo (ha x 2). (He didn’t even spare any attention to his own interior life. Which proved to be a major cause for many of his past, present, and future woes, especially as pertaining to a certain purple-haired partner.)

Nagi’s Reo-observing had, in truth, started as soon as Nagi began his 1st year at Hakuho, well before Reo even knew someone named Nagi Seishirou existed. The ghost-boy had already been peripherally aware of his soon-to-be partner. It was difficult not to, given the commotion that followed Reo everywhere (even at an institution jam-packed with imperial relatives, heirs and heiresses to great fortunes, and every other variety of nepo baby). Reo’s admirers tripped over themselves to catch his attention, sometimes literally – Nagi had seen more girls and even guys trip in front of Reo than was statistically possible, especially in a campus as fancy and legal liability-averse as theirs.

The lazy genius remembered wondering why everyone bothered when it seemed so obvious that Reo didn’t genuinely like other people, despite how personable he appeared – the perfect equality of his treatment had allowed Nagi to conclude (correctly) that the uber-social, super-popular heir to the Mikage family’s multi-billion-dollar fortune wasn’t any more invested in the people around him than Nagi was, checked out and half-napping in his corner.

Later, Nagi learned that just like how he could tell the difference between Reo in full bullsh*t mode despite his sounding absolutely sincere, Reo could tell the difference between when Nagi was genuinely puzzled by someone’s behavior and when he was just pretending he didn’t understand the finer points of human interaction to get in a few sick burns. (Classmate A: “It would be petty to take offense B-kun, Nagi-kun’s on the spectrum.” To be clear, Nagi probably was on the spectrum, just nowhere near to the degree he was reputed to be at Hakuho.)

But Reo, even more impressively, could interpret Nagi’s micro-expressions and intuit what Nagi wanted or needed without Nagi having to complete full sentences. And then he would spoil him to Nagi’s heart’s content.

Once that sank in, a weird bubble-like feeling would start expanding in Nagi’s chest at the thought.

It wasn’t just a bubble in his chest that would expand though – random Reo boners became more and more of a thing (also less and less “random”). Back when Nagi hit puberty and started growing like a beanpole, he hadn’t had anywhere near as many wet dreams. Well actually, he didn’t seem to have any that he could remember – he just woke up in wet patches on rare occasions.

Post-Reo though, Nagi had to deal with frequently sticky sheets and extra laundry. It was an especially annoying development because, after fourteen years of chores on a near Spartan military timetable living with his grandfather, Nagi felt like he was well-entitled to just not anymore. Which was why the whole wet dreams about Reo-situation was a supreme hassle.

He had to buy extra sets of sheets to get a rotation going because he couldn’t get around to washing anything until he got home from practice but he didn’t have a drying machine. And things wouldn’t always air dry completely overnight. He was too tired to even put his sheets on the bed most days. Even when he skipped practice, he couldn’t be bothered with his backlog of chores.

Sometimes he just ended up passing out on a pile of stuff over a bare mattress. And that…caused its own set of problems.

Choki had gotten pretty embarrassed on Nagi’s behalf. The whole apartment smelled p. gross.

The whole laundry thing was tangentially related to how Reo got mad at Nagi for the first time (and incidentally how the two of them ended up living part-time at one another’s respective places). They hadn’t known each other very well then, but it had been a couple months since Nagi agreed to play on Reo’s soccer team. Slacker that he was, Nagi skipped out on practice (and class) a lot, but he had promised he would be good with attendance that week since there was a game against some good soccer school that Reo had set up.

When Nagi ended up missing practice for the third time in a row, Reo had gone to Nagi’s apartment in a rage only to find Nagi feverish and miserable, curled up on a pile of damp bedding laid (mostly) on top of a stained mattress. (Fortunately, the musky odor was attributed to the damp laundry.)

Reo went from being pissed that Nagi hadn’t gone to practice to angry (and distraught) that Nagi hadn’t mentioned being sick even once. Nagi had sent a couple :x faces, a couple “k sry,” and, in one instance, a keysmash in response to Reo’s increasingly irate LINE messages over the last three days. (It was the last :x that triggered Reo’s storming of Sendagaya.*)

However, true fury was only known when Reo discovered: [1] Nagi had consumed all his remaining cold medicine; [2] the cold medicine had actually been expired and really there had only been one tab left anyway; [3] there was no solid food in the apartment; and [4] all Nagi had consumed were energy gel packets since he started feeling sick because moving was a hassle, especially when sick. (Note, Nagi had originally planned to ditch school and practice just for funsies on Monday but got sick because of maybe karma.)

Nagi didn’t understand why Reo was so angry, and all the lecturing at that volume was kind of making his head hurt.

So, he’d asked Reo if he could just maybe s h u t. u p. because he was being a huge pain and that he’d go to practice once he got better. It all came out sharper than Nagi had expected.

Reo had gotten all quiet.

Then he left, and Nagi was relieved it was quiet again. (But it felt uncomfortably cold and quiet, so that was another pain.)

Nagi fell asleep.

While he was sleeping, he dreamt that he’d been a sad little bug cooking on hot sand. Then right when the sand was about to become hot lava, he became a big bug in a manga café with A/C in the summer. The people in the café were really chill about him being a bug, so that was pretty cool. It was like a HE-version of Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

When he woke up, he realized there was a cooling gel sticky on his head, an unfamiliar (clean, nice smelling) blanket over his body, and a glass of water next to some antipyretics on his nightstand. He could also smell rice cooking.

Nagi couldn’t remember the last time he’d been taken care of like this. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever been taken care of like this. (He vaguely recalled maybe some wrinkled and weathered hands checking his temperature when he was small, but he’d been so small his memories were fuzzy.)

He sat up and felt a little dizzy. Reo came over with a bowl of something that was steaming. It wasn’t rice actually – it turned out it was okayu that he’d smelled.

Reo sat on the edge of his bed because there wasn’t anywhere else to sit. Nagi had a decent-sized 1LDK apartment, but he hadn’t furnished the place even though he moved in when he was 14 so maybe two years ago by that point. Anyway, Reo sat there. Nagi was finally fully sitting up. They just stared at each other for a while.

Reo still looked kind of mad, so Nagi started to feel more and more uncomfortable the longer Reo kept looking at him like he was upset. Nagi wasn’t sure why he didn’t want Reo to be upset when he’d never really minded Reo being annoyed before. (Boners aside, Nagi didn’t do things he didn’t feel like doing.)

“I’ll go to practice tomorrow,” he rasped out. “Even if I miss class. I’ll go afterschool.”

Nagi couldn’t read Reo’s expression because he’d never seen a face like that before. Reo’s face was all scrunched up and he wasn’t glaring at Nagi per se, but his eyes were all shiny and accusatory, and Nagi needed a chart or something to match up against all the different emotions Reo seemed to be expressing at the same time. The still feverish boy felt a little exhausted by the whole thing. He supposed he’d just stare at Reo until he did something.

Finally, Reo scooted closer to the head of the bed and huffed out, “You’re so stupid.”

Then, changing subjects without finishing the previous thought, “I don’t really know how to cook, so I boiled some okayu and got some shiozake from the Lawson’s downstairs.”

Nagi stared some more, less uncomfortable now but just a little puzzled by Reo’s jitteriness.

Reo clumsily tried to spoon-feed Nagi. Nagi took the first spoon to the chin like a champ, completely unbothered. Reo got red but did better the second time. His patient obediently accepted the sick food without complaint.

"I asked a life assistant to get a bunch of stuff for your place. So you have basic necessities and stuff for the future. But,” Reo looked around at all the dirty clothes on the ground, the mound of moldering laundry, and the wastebasket containing a concerningly small number of gel packets considering Nagi’s height and the number of days that had passed.

“If you’re feeling up for it, Baa-ya can come pick us up, and we can stay at a place I have nearby.” Sounding a bit cajoling, he tacked on, “I promise it’ll be more comfortable, and it’s just until we’re sure you’re better.”

A bit more hesitantly, “And Nagi, I need you to tell me when you’re not feeling well. Who cares about practice – you don’t even need it.”

“What would I do if you got really sick?” Reo sounded genuinely lost at the thought. Nagi gave a little hum and kept letting Reo spoon feed him even though he was perfectly well enough to use his own hands.

That bubble in Nagi’s chest started expanding again. It felt especially nice when Reo checked his temperature and fussed. Reo spoiled Nagi like the kids Nagi had seen on TV or in manga growing up. He kind of understood why people had like, weird mom-complexes now.

So, anyway, one day, Nagi just decided to kiss Reo. They were hanging out at Reo’s house in Aoyama, and he was sleeping over for the nth time that week. Nagi played it off like it was a totally ordinary thing to do and something he did all the time. (Smooth. Super smooth.)

Then he kissed him again. At school. And again. When they were cleaning up the pitch.

Then on yet another day, when Nagi popped another not-so-random Reo boner, he just nonchalantly asked Reo to help him with it.

And Reo did. Because Reo was the best.

Reo could always pick up what he was putting out there – confessing was too much of a hassle (awkward, made his gut twisty, Nagi wasn’t a fan of the thought). Also, just saying, “I like you – please go out with me,” the way little kids or shoujo manga characters did seemed not only too cringe, but too petty(?) for the way Reo filled up Nagi’s life.

This way, they could stay Nagi and Reo the way they were always Nagi and Reo, just now with an action expansion pack.

Nagi got to be all of Reo’s firsts.

Which was frankly incredible because everyone wanted Reo, and Reo chose him. Mr. Perfect wasn’t interested in being “Everybody’s Reo” anymore. Reo would still go along to get along with other people when it made it more convenient for Reo to maneuver, but, for any choice, no matter how big or small, Reo would proudly and loudly choose Nagi over anyone (and everyone), every time.

Sometimes, when Nagi was reminded about just how incredible that was, it made that bubble in his chest feel a bit too big, which, truthfully, kind of stressed Nagi out.

When it got like that, Nagi always started feeling like Reo was a bit much, and Nagi would need to get away.

Or when Reo didn’t understand him - it made Nagi feel something he wasn’t sure he knew how to describe (the descriptions in books and manga and dramas never seemed to apply or adequately capture emotions as he experienced them). But either way, it didn’t feel good, especially when Nagi had gotten used to Reo just knowing. It was a hassle to think too hard about why there was a disconnect, and since the source of the uneasiness was Reo, it kind of made Nagi find Reo stressful during those times too.

And, sometimes, when Reo was upset (the way he was during 2nd Selection) and Nagi couldn’t help but respond, some of the things Nagi reflexively said when reacting to the moment wouldn’t come out quite right. But Reo always understood, eventually. Just like that first time when Reo got mad, and Nagi told him to shut up but he didn’t really mean it. He hadn’t wanted Reo to leave. Reo magically knew, without Nagi having to say anything. Reo came back and took care of him, and it was just like he could read Nagi’s mind.

Everything would be better if they could just be around each other again. Nagi was sure that Reo missed him by now, and Nagi missed him, too. These things naturally worked themselves out. Isagi didn’t get them. Other people rarely did. The tryout was a fluke.

Also.

f*ck my life, Nagi groused.

The slacker smashed his face into his pillow. Willing away an erection was such a pain.

He needed to see Reo soon.

Chapter 6: Wow, busy day, huh?

Chapter Text

Chapter 6 – wow, busy day, huh?

Apparently, Shidou had goaded Rin into (maybe) joining the two of them for this evening’s festivities (i.e., a torrid affair in some empty workout room de nuit).

The blond offhandedly mentioned this to Reo while the purple-haired young man was checking to see if the motion sensor cameras were really turned off. Taking legal action to ensure no compromising videos of *ahem* minors (perhaps including a certain heir) ever leaked would be quite bothersome. Reo hated the thought of explaining to the Mikage family’s personal legal team why there was a need for them to step in. (Death before dishonor.)

Reo turned and raised an eyebrow at the smirking man lounging on several yoga mats laid out on the open floor.

“I wasn’t aware group sports were on the itinerary.”

“Added it this afternoon, just for you~♪”

“You seemed to like it well enough the other night,” Shidou sing-song-ed. “At least enough for the sh*tty brat to get head in the locker room today.”

His grin turned feral. “Sharing is caring. How could I, as an elder, deny my juniors a teachable moment?”

“Oh, so you’re an elder now? Do I call you Mr. Shidou like a teacher or Nii-chan~ like an older brother?” Reo started taking off his shirt, revealing pale skin stretched over well-defined muscles. His oversized sweatpants sagged, and you could see the jut of his pelvic bones peeking just above his waistband. A slight bulge was apparent through the grey terry underneath.

“Hmm, let’s go with teacher, for tonight.” Pink eyes lit up as more and more skin was exposed.

Shidou stood up to strip and quickly made short work of all his clothing. He sidled up to Reo, who had his arms loosely crossed (a bit judgmentally) under his flat, lean pecs. He clearly had his thinking face on, and Shidou would say the odds on Reo calling him Shidou-sensei were actually increasing the longer Reo thought about it. Generally, this was an indication the younger man was a bit troubled by the idea he actually liked what Shidou was proposing.

The would-be educator smirked some more. “Be a good boy, Mikage-kun. I’ll need you to lay down so that your teacher can begin your instruction,” Shidou wheedled, while sticking a finger under Reo’s waistband to snap it.

Reo’s contemplative frown morphed into an earnest, wide-eyed expression, before he inquired, “Is this part of an anatomy lesson?”

Shidou put on mock stern face to reply, “No, this is going to be a biology lesson. Today, Shidou-sensei will explore the reasons animals engage in non-reproductive sex through practical demonstration.” Then he dropped down into a seiza position and gestured for Reo to drape himself across Shidou’s lap.

“Ohhh, I see. Should I place my head in your lap?” Reo asked innocently, eyeing Shidou’s growing erection. The violet-eyed boy nearly broke character as he watched Shidou’s co*ck swell in real-time. It was difficult to suppress the urge to laugh at their bad role-playing.

“Mm, maybe some other time, Mikage-kun. For now, I want you to rest your torso across my legs – could you be a good boy and do that for me?”

Reo gave up on not laughing and stretched himself out across Shidou’s hard, tanned quads. Despite the deep tan, Shidou’s skin felt smooth and velvety soft against Reo’s washboard abs, and the younger man couldn’t help but raise a hand to flutter lightly across Shidou’s chest and pat the now leaking tip of his reddening penis. Shidou tsk-ed and smacked Reo’s hand the way an old-timey school marm might have punished a naughty student.

“Hands to yourself, young man. Do as you’re told,” Shidou chided, before bringing a hand to Reo’s still cloth-covered backside. The fake teacher gave a stroke before sliding the sweats down until they were resting just beneath the boy’s plump cheeks. Then he gave Reo’s ass a healthy slap.

Reo’s balls were still trapped in his sweats, but his co*ck had already escaped above the waistband when Shidou pulled down the sweats. The fully erect pink co*ck twitched at the smack, which made the rough elastic of Reo’s pants grind against the shaft and give a bit of frustratingly inadequate friction. Reo inhaled sharply and tried to channel his neediest inner schoolboy, “Then could you touch me instead? It feels strange down there, it’s hot and, and swollen.”

Giving up on staying in character, Shidou jokingly criticized Reo’s acting, “Your little boy voice is creepy as f*ck. ‘m afraid I’ll go soft when you start crying about how it hurts.”

“You were the one who wanted to roleplay, Mr. Shidou, sir.”

“I’ve been a good boy, so hurry up,” Reo complained petulantly. Much amused, his pink-eyed f*ckbuddy gave Reo’s ass another swat before grabbing the bottle of lube that’d been sitting in arm’s reach.

Shidou squeezed some straight above Reo’s crack in addition to applying a generous amount to his own hand.

The cold made the younger man squirm.

Shidou spread his knees wider to give his balls room to breathe and to better accommodate for the amount of support that Reo’s body would need in another second. Incidentally, this allowed the knee that was previously resting next to Reo’s dick to press up against it, making Reo reflexively attempt to rub himself against Shidou’s knee to just get at least some sort of pressure for his aching hard on. He made a small grunt of dissatisfaction.

Voice dropping to a gravelly bass, Shidou ordered the other boy to separate his cheeks with his own hands to give Shidou better access. Reo suppressed a shiver and complied immediately, precum dripping. (Reo was a weepy boy, in more ways than one.)

Relying on Shidou’s strong thighs to keep his body propped up, Reo reached behind to expose his quivering hole to Shidou. Lube got all over Reo’s hands as it dripped down from the little divot above his crack.

His opening was so small that it was hard to imagine Shidou’s fingers stretching him wide enough to accommodate a co*ck of any standard size, much less Shidou’s. Still, it was certainly nothing they hadn’t accomplished before.

Right as Shidou got Reo to make a desperate whine and buck against his torturer’s leg, the yoga room door opened to a flustered, panting Rin, who had clearly run over there after freshly showering.

Shidou decided to shove in a second finger, in its entirety, at that exact moment, causing Reo to jolt and cry out more loudly given how Shidou hadn’t bothered to let him ease into it. The sudden fullness was overwhelming.

Rin’s brain immediately clouded with arousal, and his mouth fell open at the picture presented before him – Reo was still trying his best to spread himself open for Shidou, but he had been so urgently seeking more pleasure that his sweatpants had now been dragged down to only slightly above his knees. It was evident that Reo was trying to open his legs and give himself more leverage to take in more of Shidou’s fingers, but still being trapped by the elastic was making things difficult. Rin could see Shidou’s fingers shoving in and out of Reo’s hole, and all Rin could think was how he wanted to try, too.

“Thought you weren’t going to make it, RinRin,” crowed Shidou, thrusting more vigorously now.

Reo was panting hard and couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge the newcomer’s presence. “Go deeper, asshole,” the aggrieved boy gasped, “It’s not like you-don’t already—ngh.” Mid-complaint, Shidou scissored his fingers just so, so that he gave Reo’s prostate the long-awaited attention that its owner had sought. Reo gave an almost pained moan.

All the clothing on Rin’s body flew off as he made his way over, eyes locked onto the fingers buried in Reo’s body. The teal-eyed boy crouched down awkwardly opposite Shidou and took a look at Reo’s body writhing on the tanner man’s long legs.

Gathering what presence of mind that he could, Reo lifted his head, turned a bit to face Rin and blurted out, “You—P-ut something in, too.” His violet irises were reduced to narrow rings around near completely dilated pupils.

Not needing Reo to tell him twice, Rin took a quick glance at an incredibly amused Shidou (who was checking out Rin’s goods) then looked left and right for the lube. (Note: Shidou hid his surprise well, but he was just as shocked as Reo had been about Rin’s incongruous package.)

Rin briefly touched Reo’s straining rim before sliding his own finger in alongside Shidou’s two. It was difficult to get the hang of the rhythm, but Reo didn’t seem to mind, based on the sounds he kept making.

Really, there was a great deal of psychological satisfaction that Reo had from the fact that there were two very fit, very hot naked men fingerf*cking him at the same time. Rin kept looking back and forth between his own finger plunging into Reo’s body and Reo’s needy face. At some point earlier on, Shidou’s smarmy expression had been replaced by a rather solemn one instead. Shidou would occasionally flick a glance at Rin’s fascinated expression but spent most of his time carefully examining the movement of Reo’s features, as if he were timing something.

It seemed as if he didn’t need to wait long, because during a particularly rough and uncoordinated thrust of the two mens’ fingers, Reo let out a small whine before he started to babble and beg for someone to just f*ck him already. That was the precise moment that a joker-like grin spread across Shidou’s face.

He raised his eyebrows at Rin, who looked like he was ready to trip over himself at the chance to get in there.

Shidou smirked.

“Rin-chan can go first ♪~”

Reo crawled off of Shidou’s lap, pushing Rin back a bit to make way. The youngest in the room moved a bit woodenly as he tried to back off.

Lust-addled and single-mindedly looking to be filled, Reo glanced at both men before he got down on all fours and waited to get f*cked, not standing on any pretense of dignity. Incredibly shocked at how this was all working out (Rin went from getting his first kiss, his first make out session, and first blow j*b just that afternoon to having his first time and first threesome in one go), the slightly stunned-stupid young man lubed up his dick and got ready to go in—

Only to find that Reo’s hole was still pretty tight, and he wasn’t exactly sure what to do. He kind of slid around outside of Reo’s entrance for a second or two, dying internally because he wanted to get inside the tight, wet heat that his hand already knew but also because he legit did not know what he was doing and was horrifically embarrassed.

Shidou, because he was a f*cking dick, started laughing his ass off.

Rin went bright red and also saw red, once he realized that Shidou 10,000% expected this to happen.

Blue Lock’s No. 2 striker and No. 1 f*ckface mercilessly mocked the little (but really not little) virgin for not knowing what to do with Reo.

No longer completely mindless because of how jarring Shidou’s laughter was, Reo got up looking annoyed. The bottom fell out of Rin’s stomach as he thought that this might be it for him, and he steeled himself to be brutally shut down (because his life was pain, darkness, and despair - of course something like this would happen his first time) (oh shut up rin, you f*cking emo edgelord).

Reo shoved Shidou very roughly, told him to shut the f*ck up, and then pulled Rin into a lotus position. Then, guiding Rin’s hand, Reo taught Rin how to loosen Reo up some more. The purple-haired boy rode on Rin’s hand for a bit (Rin’s erection was now hard as a diamond, thanks), and then grabbed the lube to add more to Rin’s co*ck.

He then, promptly, sat on Rin’s co*ck and nearly let Rin die a second humiliating social death.

Thankfully, Rin’s carefully cultivated self-control from years of sport saved the day, and he was able to stop himself from coming immediately.

Given their position, Reo was the one setting the pace and largely running the show.

Rin was indulging in Reo’s tightness and marveling at how sex was actually f*cking amazing when Shidou, once again, decided to be the bane of Rin’s existence.

Bored of the Rin and Reo skin show, now, the older boy had stood up and started to hover behind Rin (making all the hair on the back of Rin’s neck stand up), apparently in an effort to get Reo to give his (Shidou’s) dick some attention.

Reo, who also did not appreciate the distraction, shot Shidou a slightly unfocused glare. But when the blond faked a woeful sigh and said, “Well, I guess I’ll stand here and jerk off. I can just think about how I’ll get my cum all over your sweaty little face and on this killjoy’s bad hair,” Reo leveled him with a truly unimpressed look…before promptly tapping Rin on the shoulder to signal that they would need to change things up. Shidou was enough of an asshole that he really would do what he said. And even if he didn’t do precisely what he was threatening, Reo knew his expressions well enough to know that Shidou would definitely persist in being annoying.

Rin’s expression management faltered, and it almost looked like Itoshi Sae had shat all over their shared dream again (i.e., like someone killed a small child’s puppy).

He quickly recovered, however, when Reo made it clear that he wasn’t ditching Rin just to hop on Shidou’s dick. The very hard and very exasperated violet-eyed young man slapped Shidou’s far too smug, smiley face away and scanned the room for something. When his eyes landed on the stack of foam vaulting boxes in a corner, his whole face lit up. Rin might as well have had question marks floating above his default displeased expression.

But Shidou, after catching sight of Reo’s eyeline, enveloped Reo from behind with his thick arms and kissed his sweaty temple twice with a gleeful giggle, “Ah, our little purple-bun is always so clever~!”

He strode over to the vaulting boxes and pulled them out towards the middle of the room. Then, he looked down at his own junk before looking Reo up and down and then finally checking out Rin. The youngest reacted like a cat with exploded fur and was a second away from starting a naked brawl with Shidou (that Rin would lose, since this would not be Shidou’s first naked brawl and he always fought to win).

Fortunately, Shidou promptly proceeded to remove a couple layers from the vaulting box and gestured to Reo. Once Reo had gotten into a comfortable position, Rin figured out what was going on – basically, they were trying to find some way they could keep f*cking while making sure Shidou was ah, also stimulated.

Reo sighed happily when Rin sank back into his body and managed to achieve a different kind of satisfaction with this new depth and angle. Not to be left out, Shidou rudely brought his now quite leaky penis to Reo’s face.

Reo’s eyes, wet with physiological tears, glared up at Shidou, who stared down with a charmingly lopsided smile. Reo was about to say something snarky when Rin pounded against his prostate, causing Reo’s arms to give and his mouth to fall open in a long, drawn-out moan. Shidou happily took that as his cue to shove his dick into Reo’s open mouth and to the very end of his throat, giving off a contented groan when Reo gagged around his tip.

Shidou brushed the stray hair alongside Reo’s face behind his ears and proceeded to f*ck his face until it was covered in spit and tears.

Just looking at Shidou’s face infuriated Rin, but he also couldn’t deny being aroused by the sight of Shidou holding Reo’s hair and forcing him to gag. Watching a massive co*ck disappear into Reo’s face and the other boy’s aristocratic nose getting smashed into the coarse blond hair that circled Shidou’s dick added fuel to the wildfire raging in the young man’s chest and sent molten lava through his veins.

Rin reached down to strip Reo’s dick, trying his best to apply some of the techniques that he thought felt the best when he touched himself. Apparently, that did the trick for Reo too, who had to spit out Shidou’s length and make a keening noise as he came hard into Rin’s hand.

The way Reo spasmed around him made Rin follow the other boy over the edge not long after. Before Rin could pull out, he’d already shot inside. The way white viscous liquid dripped out of Reo’s hole and down his thighs when Rin pulled out already had his dick reviving (even though it hadn’t even fully softened yet).

Shidou, though, was still completely hard and impatient to have his turn, so to speak.

Reo looked like he’d been wrecked, with his org*sm-glazed eyes, swollen lips, and drenched face.

But Shidou loved looking at that type of face the most. It stimulated his basest instincts – he wanted to make it so that all the beautiful little birds he played with could never fly again.

He lifted Reo up and over the vaulting boxes, which was no mean feat – Shidou definitely had more mass and muscle, sure, but he carried Reo like the athlete weighed nothing. And then, he proceeded to set Reo at the very edge of a box, just so that he could slide his co*ck into Reo’s cum-soaked hole.

Once his length was firmly sheathed inside, Shidou slid his hands under Reo’s long, sinewy legs and stood up, gravity helping to all but impale Reo on his co*ck.

Reo’s head fell backward as he made a sound that filled both Shidou and Rin’s minds with absolutely filthy thoughts of what they could do next.

Rin, whose dick had already started rearing for round two right when he finished round one, sprang to full attention.

Shidou didn’t seem like he’d ever tire of walking around with Reo crying as every step taken sent Shidou’s co*ck ramming into Reo’s core. But Reo started slapping Shidou’s back to let him down because he was quickly becoming overstimulated. Reo was erect again, but his whole body was trembling.

The blond agreed to stop carrying Reo, but, laying down, Shidou levered Reo up and over so that the slighter man could ride his dick.

Reo’s eyes were ever more glazed than ever before as Shidou pistoned into him from below. Rin had gotten down on his knees and couldn’t resist coming in between the two, to bite Reo’s lip and then lick into his mouth. Shidou growled at Rin for blocking his view but just received a middle finger to the face and not even a backward glance.

Annoyed, Shidou gave Rin a flick to the balls, which – Rin did not appreciate. He’d flipped around and was half ready to use Shidou’s face as a handrest when Shidou abruptly sat up and looped his arms under Reo’s, so that there wasn’t any room for Rin to wedge in anymore.

Reo’s brain was muddled, but he was still able to laugh breathlessly at how f*cking stupid the two of them were. This, of course, signaled to Shidou that Reo was still too sober and needed a much harder dicking, so he put Reo onto his back and went to town. The blissed-out boy beneath him had long since lost his hair tie, so purple strands spread out like a halo around his ruddy face.

Rin, still standing on his knees, took in the sight and couldn’t help but want.

Reo met his lust-clouded teal gaze and gave Rin a little laugh between panting moans. Feeling competitive, Shidou started mouthing off about how much dick Reo needed to fill him up before he was satisfied, how he was a hungry little co*ckslu*t and needed a dick to choke on at all times before he could be satisfied. The oldest in the room could tell that Reo loved every minute of this, that the more obscene the image he painted with his words, the tighter Reo would hold on to him, both inside and outside of his body.

As Shidou got closer to finishing, he could tell that Rin was almost going to come a second time, too. He instructed the other man to crouch down close enough so he could shoot on Reo’s face. Rin readily complied with the instruction (though he did give Shidou a guttural growl when the other man addressed him as “f*cktard”).

After a particularly forceful series of thrusts, Shidou leaned down to bite down on Reo’s shoulder and shot inside of him. Reo reached for Rin’s co*ck to give it a couple tugs, which was enough to have the younger boy nut all over his face (also, partly in Shidou’s hair, which…definitely caused some conflict later). The combined internal stimulation, the fierceness of Shidou’s bite, and the wet warmth of the cum splattered on his face was enough to send Reo headfirst into another climax.

It felt so incredible that Reo’s vision whited out for a moment.

Well.

…today was productive, he supposed.

Chapter 7: Y’all are really bad at peopling

Chapter Text

Chapter 7 – Y’all are remarkably bad at peopling

Everyone in Blue Lock heard the loudspeaker announcement about how Shidou was being “sent to the Punishment Room” for excessive violent behavior.

But even the members of Team A and C who were on the pitch didn’t know what would become of Shidou – they had been shooed away while he was still unconscious on the grass. (Tokimitsu: “C-c-can they d,do that?! Is he d-dead?!”)

Reo, Igaguri, Kurona, and Sokura, as Shidou’s roommates, were the only ones to receive a slightly more detailed report concerning Blue Lock No. 2’s fate.

Anri stopped by that afternoon to calmly mention, “Special measures had to be taken, so Shidou-kun won’t be coming back to the dorm for the foreseeable future,” before bidding the rest of them a good day.

The four weren’t particularly surprised by that news, considering Shidou’s propensity for violence. But they were surprised when Bachira (the busiest busy bee and busybody in Blue Lock) sped in, immediately after Anri left, to breathlessly relay how Ego used an anti-riot shock on the rampaging striker. And that medics probably had to wheel him out of there since he was still twitching and drooling, totally passed out on the field when they all left.

Those details, which had been excluded from Ego and Anri’s respective announcements, were real jaw-droppers.

Reo, as the first to recover, proceeded to laugh so hard he nearly fell off his bed. Bachira’s gold-eyes widened a second, slightly surprised at Reo’s immediate recovery from the shocking (teehee) news. Then he, too, started to giggle uncontrollably.

Between wheezing laughs, Reo asked, “Wait, wait, so do you think there’s a recording?”

“Aa~h, I hope so~!” Bachira enthused. “Maybe if we check the other cameras in the video room? They cut the live feed for you guys, but there are usually so many back-up cams! We need a replay, a replay!!”

Reo was still cracking up at the thought when Igaguri jumped in, perplexed, “Weren’t you two like, uh, ‘buddies’ or something?”

“Not that I don’t find it hilarious that whack-job Shidou got tased, but I’m just surprised that you do.”

Even Kurona and Sokura, who typically kept to themselves, conveyed a hint of curiosity in their silent stares when they looked towards the still smiling purple-haired boy who was brushing away tears from laughter.

Bachira, glancing back and forth, positively glowed with excitement, sensing gossip. There were near visible question marks floating above his head.

Reo paused for a moment to consider how he and Shidou got along. It was a bit difficult to hide the fact that he and Shidou were semi-regularly sneaking off at all hours of the night – especially from the people who lived with them.

It made him seem a bit cold-hearted, but Reo decided to go with the truth. “Mm, well, I wouldn’t really call us ‘buddies.’ We just happen to understand each other.”

“That doesn’t mean we like each other, though.”

“I’ll maybe check if he’s alive?”

He shrugged, adding, “I’d find it funny even if Ego tased a friend, if they were as big of a jackass as Shidou.”

“They’d have it coming.”

Then he promptly resumed gossiping with Bachira about how Blue Lock might be trying to hide the evidence of the whole riot shock thing. Multiple laws must have been violated, especially if the tasing capabilities were hidden in all their Blue Lock-issued sportswear.

Reo’s answer didn’t really compute for Igaguri, nor did it make much sense to the remaining two roomies (not that you could tell much from their blank faces) – to them, it looked like Shidou and Reo uh, liked each other plenty. And, like, you’d think they got along well enough for Reo to at least be slightly concerned Shidou got electrocuted within an inch of his life. Instead, the guy was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe.

It was ultimately chalked up to another “quirk” of the two biggest weirdos of their clear team. Reo and Shidou were very different kinds of moody and psychotic, but they were both pretty moody and both pretty psycho.

--

Reo thought his answer made perfect sense.

The truth, as Reo understood it, was that he and Shidou had an excellent ‘working’ relationship built upon mutual apathy with a smidge of contempt here or there.

Possessive as Shidou might seem during sex, it was evident to Reo that it came from a place of instinctive competitiveness more than any particular attachment to Reo himself.

Shidou could direct come-ons towards anyone (and really anything) if the inclination struck him. While he might have fondness for Reo’s physical appearance, Shidou was a committed hedonist whose sole loyalty lay with the beautiful game. Without soccer related stimulation, he would settle for fighting or f*cking (in some cases fighting while f*cking).

And despite how hot-blooded and rooted in the flesh Shidou might seem, he operated with a near clinical coldness when it came to other human beings. People, to Shidou, were no different from vending machines – inanimate objects he approached because he wanted some specific output.

He could remorselessly bang away at a machine (pummel the sh*t out of someone) if it refused to dispense what he ordered (an exciting game, one that actually got him tingling), or he could keep coming back to one until he eventually got sick of the beverages on offer and moved on to the next machine.

Reo knew that Shidou ultimately didn’t have any genuine affection (or probably much respect) for him because, to Shidou, Reo’s soccer was uninspired, insipid even. The pleasure-seeker deigned to pay attention to Reo in the way that you would settle for drinking bad tea when thirsty.

And Reo didn’t mind this, because that meant he didn’t need to feel any guilt about thinking of Shidou as a giant dild* (in more ways than one). Shidou served as a stopgap supplier of oxytocin and endorphins while Reo tried to ween himself of an addiction. (A night of insomnia-driven research told him that heartbreak was neurologically no different from cocaine withdrawal.)

If Shidou were permanently expelled from the program, Reo would just move on to the next placeholder. Reo had always been very good at disregarding the shared humanity of people he interacted with – even his closest family members weren’t “real people” to him.

Empathy was not required learning for children of the Mikage line. Generations of family heads cultivated their successors to believe they were natural-born superiors responsible for managing those less than themselves. Other people weren’t “real” per se, their thoughts and feelings were just important as levers to be pulled as needed.

It’s really no wonder that Reo would be a bit warped in personality as a result. And he had started to realize that failing to break from this mindset might have doomed his first “real” human connection (his bond with Nagi) to the fate of being smothered by his own hands. (Reo was utter trash. He had wanted Nagi to fail, just so Nagi would come back to him.)

Thinking twice about Igaguri’s question, Reo supposed he should shoot Shidou a LINE message to see if there was lasting nerve damage sooner rather than later. Might make fun of him a bit too, since gunning for Rin seemed to have finally done him in.

True, Reo wanted to work on the whole empathy thing, but it was really f*cking funny Shidou got tased for his deeply concerning lack of (violent) impulse control. Reo stood by his (maybe still a bit mean) sense of humor.

--

In the evening, Ego made his announcement about the Blue Lock 11.

Reo didn’t get chosen to be a starter.

He already expected it.

It stung anyway.

Well before Ego announced the starting line-up, Reo had analyzed the recordings from his tryout. He’d also scrutinized each of the other four tryout matches. Reo was abundantly aware of how uneven his performance was and how it compared to others’ (Isagi’s).

Reo received an extremely valuable (albeit scornful) critique from Rin beyond their original locker room “talk,” and Shidou couldn’t help but toss in a couple annoyingly insightful “jokes” of his own.

It was obvious. Why choose an imperfect copy when you could have the superior original?

Reo could see how each of the others chosen had managed to gain recognition as someone irreplaceable, impossible to ignore on the pitch. (Unlike Reo, who suddenly found he was both easily replaceable and readily ignorable on and off the pitch.)

He could accept that this was the outcome of the 3rd Selection. Force himself to accept it with grace and humility.

This would be another step towards becoming the kind of person that he wanted to be. (Reo shockingly left the “for Nagi” unsaid in his mind, which could be considered progress.)

—

Breaking from his recent practice of going to the least populated dining hall at the latest possible hour, Reo went to dinner in the preferred hall, at a normal time, so he could congratulate some of the starters.

Even though the time he’d spent on the same team as Chigiri had been relatively brief, Reo felt he owed the younger man a huge debt of gratitude and wanted to genuinely celebrate the redhead’s great achievements. He more than deserved to be in the Blue Lock 11.

The violet-eyed boy had a moment’s hesitation before entering the hall though, suddenly a bit anxious about how his well-wishing might be received.

Reo hadn’t spoken with Chigiri since they’d all been let out of their clear gates.

Avoiding Nagi also meant fewer opportunities to encounter the other members of Nagi’s clear team. Reo bumped into Chigiri a few times in group settings, but they were such brief run-ins that Reo spent most of the time thinking about how to run out before he spotted Nagi.

Steeling himself, Reo strode through the dining hall doors.

He had great luck – Chigiri spotted him immediately and waved him over to his table. It seemed like none of Chigiri’s usual companions were around. A purple head bobbed to signal he had seen Chigiri waving.

Reo exchanged some points for a light dinner and trotted over to the redhead’s table.

Chigiri eyed the tray suspiciously, narrowing deep pink eyes at the fare before carefully inspecting Reo’s face.

“Well, you don’t look too terrible,” he concluded. “Your eye bags have improved, but you still need to gain some weight.”

“Many thanks to her highness for magnanimously considering this lowly subject’s health,” Reo simpered, with the air of an obsequious ancient minister.

Amused, but bent on being prickly, Chigiri criticized, “You looked like sh*t the last time we saw each other, so you shut up, you.”

“I’m glad you’re doing better,” he continued more seriously.

Reo froze.

It was such a simple statement. But he found himself surprisingly overcome with thankfulness.

Chigiri was openly expressing concern for him, even though the red-headed striker could have just as easily decided to hold a grudge against him for Kunigami’s elimination.

Kunigami was very obviously Chigiri’s real friend, whereas Reo was a former temporary ally at best. Worse yet, Reo had remained in Blue Lock but had little to show for it. (A waste.)

Besides Chigiri (and Kunigami, Reo thought guiltily), no other person had offered even superficial concern about how Reo had been doing, not even when Reo’s skin went grey, and his body fat fell well below 6%.

Reo still played well enough, after all, and a lot of guys at the facility were bulking then cutting to varying degrees. (Nagi couldn’t be blamed if Reo refused to see him. Even if Nagi didn’t care for Reo the way Reo wanted him to, he still would have noticed. Probably.)

Moved by Chigiri’s care and consideration, Reo earnestly wanted to call someone his friend for the second time in his life.

He settled for saying, “Thanks.”

But following that, Reo gave Chigiri one of his most heartfelt of smiles.

“So, that’s enough about me. I came because I wanted to congratulate you for becoming a starter. I broke down the film for your match - you killed it out there.”

Chigiri preened before pushing a much coveted (in Blue Lock anyway) cup of pudding towards Reo.

While Reo puzzled over this offering, the sharp-eyed redhead signaled, with his eyes, that a certain silver-haired striker was *not* allowed to come over.

--

Nagi wanted to ignore Chigiri. It was the first time he had seen Reo in the dining hall, and it had already been days since they played against each other in a tryout. What right did Chigiri have to delay his reunion with Reo?

But Nagi’s instincts told him that he should heed Chigiri’s silent instruction. The young man slouched harder than before and reluctantly sat at the table he was already next to, directly behind Chigiri and Reo’s.

Nagi tried to sit at an angle so that even if Reo’s back was facing him, he could still sort of see the side of Reo’s face, especially if he slumped down.

Chigiri nodded in approval at the lazy genius’s choice. Reo had been in the middle of saying something about Chigiri’s game and assumed the redhead was nodding in agreement.

They moved on to discussing the upcoming match against the U-20 team.

At some point during that conversation, it occurred to Reo that Chigiri was from Kagoshima, all the way down in Kyuushuu. The Mikage heir broke off what he was saying to ask, “Hey, wait, so will your family be coming up to watch the game?”

“Probably not - it’s a lot to ask, even if it’s two weeks from now. Taking the Shinkansen, it’d be like an 8-hour ride. Plus, they’d have to figure out where to stay. It’ll be a whole thing.” Chigiri reported this matter-of-factly, making it clear that his family had already discussed and settled the matter.

The gears in Reo’s mind turned.

“How about we fly them out and have them stay at one of the hotels under Mikage Corp.? They could stay for as long as they want, too.”

Chigiri paused seriously for a moment and gave Reo a slightly judgmental, searching look. “You know you don’t need to do stuff like this for us to be friends, right?”

“Obviously,” Reo scoffed.

Reo was generous, but not an easy mark – the Mikage family didn’t establish their multi-generational fortune by showing off their largesse willy nilly. (He also felt a little flutter at the fact Chigiri called him a friend.)

“I’m offering because I just want to make sure your family can see the Pink, oops, I mean Red Panther, run in person,” Reo teased.

Expression not as somber as before, but still serious, Chigiri snorted. “Yeah, but I want you to know that I’d spot you at the gym and roast you for your garbage taste in loser boys regardless.”

A mop of silver hair lifted from its owner’s arms to reveal a pair of exceedingly large (and in Chigiri’s opinion dead fish-like) eyes.

Nagi had deigned to stop staring at the back of Reo’s head (plus the hint of his profile) to look at Chigiri.

Chigiri met Nagi’s dead-eyed stare with a raised eyebrow, as if issuing a challenge, before returning his full attention to Reo, who was still smiling but taking a moment to think about his next answer.

(Reo hadn’t even registered the fact Chigiri had said garbage taste and loser boys at a slightly higher volume because he developed a Chigiri-insult filter since 2nd Selection. If Reo had turned around, he would’ve gotten to see Nagi’s x-like pout turn into more of a frown.)

--

Deep in thought, Reo was trying to carefully consider things from Chigiri’s perspective. It wasn’t as if anyone hadn’t politely demurred Reo’s sometimes extravagant generosity, citing how it wasn’t necessary. Reo just never cared too deeply because he’d always predicted what the recipient’s response would be, well in advance. Past offers were typically extended as part of a social strategy with a specific goal in mind.

Here, Reo cared enough to want his own innocent, good intentions to be understood as just that, and he also wanted to reassure Chigiri that Chigiri’s pure intentions were understood in turn.

He gave Chigiri another heartfelt “Thank you.”

But, this time, he added, “That really means a lot to me,” and positively beamed at his new(est) real(?) friend.

Reo didn’t want any more confusion in the future, with people he wanted to be sincerely good to (and wanted to be good to him in return). He was still in the process of learning from his mistakes and still needed to unlearn everything he’d been taught about how to relate to other people.

He knew, now, that he couldn’t overwhelm the other person with aggressive, one-sided attempts to insert himself into their life, to force them to accept him, rely on him, and eventually grow dependent on him. (See, the tragic defeat of his best laid plans with Nagi.)

He also knew, now, at least in theory, that healthy, meaningful relationships (friendships, romances, whatever) with actual living, breathing people required establishing some baseline level of emotional reciprocity so that two people could continue to build on the relationship in an active conversation with each other. (More internet research.)

Tl;dr - he needed to learn how to use his f*cking words and expect the same of the other person, too.

—

Chigiri’s eyes got a little soft when he looked at Reo. Reo’s expression was pretty delicate, too.

Then the purple-eyed boy jumped straight back into levity.

Grinning, Reo clapped Chigiri on the shoulder and declared, “Her royal highness, the Princess, has been separated from her kin for far too long! This is only the glorious Chigiri line receiving its due!”

Chigiri squinted at Reo, then inspected his cuticles while affecting his most imperious tone, “Hmm, well we’ll be sure to judge the Mikage Prince’s hospitality accordingly. Some of us have standards after all.”

Reo half rose from his dining hall chair to give a showy bow and an even toothier grin.

Chigiri groaned and told the other boy, “Put away those teeth, for christssake, they’re so white they’re blinding.”

Reo immediately straightened up and said with the utmost seriousness, “My most sincere apologies, Princess. I was too captivated by your highness’ beauty.”

“Oh, shut UP. I think I preferred you in your emo phase.”

“Ah, but now the Red Panther’s set my heart ablaze, I am locked in a hot-blooded pursuit! I can’t rest until I’ve captured the beautiful ninja princess’ heart!”

“…I’m going to kill you.”

“Step on me, Chigirin~,” Reo dramatically panted, while fake pawing at Chigiri’s chest. “Crush me under your cleats, and I’ll die happy.”

Chigiri threw a dinner roll at Reo’s face in retaliation, but it was a net victory for Reo because of how red and distorted Chigiri’s face got trying to hold back his laughter while staying “angry.”

Reo‘s heart warmed. This whole dynamic was new, substantially and substantively different from what he had with Nagi. (He didn’t have any nefarious schemes about making Chigiri Hyouma his personal property, for one.)

But he felt really good about it.

Thinking back, he’d probably had the chance to make friends at countless different nodes of his life, but he had (arrogantly, stupidly, immaturely) thought he was better than everyone else and didn’t need anyone beneath him.

Then, he was blinded (and blindsided) by Nagi’s brilliance.

In retrospect, he could see now how his own arrogance and inexperience made it near inevitable for things to end in disappointment. Reo had been dazzled to meet someone who was naturally better than him for the first time in his life. He took that to mean this treasure was meant to be his.

Nagi was incredible without even trying. (Even Reo had to try to be No. 1, but Nagi could sit a point away from overtaking Reo without studying or even going to class.) If Nagi didn’t want to try, then Reo would polish him until the whole world could see his shine. They’d be a perfect pair.

And, with absolute confidence in his ability to control every situation, Reo had believed for the longest time that he’d already made Nagi his. (They were already doing everything life partners did together.)

It was just a matter of time before Nagi would fully appreciate this, he thought.

(Reo was wrong. Nagi had always been his own. Reo tricked himself into becoming Nagi’s.)

Reo was all up in his feels about hubris and the hero’s journey and so on. (Recall, Reo had main character syndrome but was, lol, also depressed. Ruminating is w i l d .)

Some of the long-tangled threads of anger and resentment he felt towards Nagi were slowly pulling away from the ugly knot in Reo’s chest. He was learning to forgive and going to start trying to forget.

Reo smiled happily at Chigiri again and got a massive eye-roll in return. Yay, for the healing power of friendship!

So. Of course, this would be the moment Nagi himself came to f*ck it all up (unintentionally).

—

Nagi knew Reo well. Nagi had a good sense for when Reo was treating someone sincerely well. Up until now, that sincerity had been reserved almost exclusively for Nagi (& Choki by extension). Sometimes Baa-ya. But that was honestly it.

The rest of Reo’s kindness was, in essence, noblesse oblige towards mob characters.

An alarm bell rang when he saw Reo and Chigiri interacting just now. He didn’t have enough time or space to think about what he was feeling or why he felt compelled to do something, but he urgently needed to act.

Something made his body move immediately towards the two boys having their moment.

“Reo.”

Nagi sat down next to Reo and planted his head onto the other boy’s shoulder. His birds’ nest of silver hair brushed softly against Reo’s sharp jawline.

The purple-haired boy stiffened. His hands twitched a bit.

Chigiri thought, Oh no.

Then fine-boned fingers very slowly and hesitantly began combing through some of the tangles on Nagi’s head.

Nagi shut his eyes and hazily noted that Reo’s shoulder felt harder than before. Reo needed to eat more, he thought.

“I’ve missed you,” he mumbled.

Chigiri breathed an internal sigh of relief and almost wanted to say aww. The scene in front of him looked a bit like a giant baby sloth reuniting with its favorite trainer.

“Have you been really busy lately?” Nagi asked, face buried in Reo’s shoulder.

The other boy made a noncommittal noise and stopped sorting out the messy silver tangles.

Nagi’s questioning took on a slightly deeper tone, “…is Reo still mad that I picked Isagi? Is that why you haven’t come to see me?”

Violet-eyes darkened until they were near aubergine.

The hand retreated from Nagi’s hair.

Nagi, in turn, had lifted his head from Reo’s shoulder. He stared intently at Reo’s profile, while Reo faced forward, now resolutely staring at some midpoint of the table.

Chigiri took back every thought he just had about the scene being cute. He was now 100% worried something bad was about to happen.

“I’m not mad about Isagi.”

“Then are you still upset about the team choosing Chigiri?”

“Is that why you won’t even look at me? Because we chose Chigiri?”

Nagi had now said more words than Chigiri had ever heard him say in one sitting. (It still came out at a slow pace, with little inflection, but that was only prolonging the secondhand pain.)

The younger man really wished Nagi just wouldn’t. Or would at least keep Chigiri’s name out of his mouth.

“But Reo would have chosen Chigiri, too. And isn’t the fact you’re congratulating him right now proof that it was the right choice?”

Yikes.

“You mean the fact that Chigiri’s a starter and I’m not?”

Please for the love of god, Chigiri complained internally. I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.

He could not understand why Nagi would choose *now* of all times and *this setting* of all places to interrogate Reo about these things. Time and place, loserboy, for f*ck’s sake.

Nagi didn’t even blink.

“Reo knows that’s not what I meant.”

“I already said it the other day. It was a nice goal.

“And copying the weapons of great players is such a you thing to do, with your dexterity and all.”

“It’s really cool.”

Chigiri, who wasn’t the most sensitive of people, wondered for a moment if Nagi’s phrasing couldn’t have been a little moretactful.

Given the tension in the air, it really wasn’t clear if the lazy genius was delivering a sincere compliment or trying to dunk on Reo by implying he wasn’t great like the players he had imitated.

Having been teammates with the overgrown brat and knowing how often he would bring up Reo this and Reo that whenever he spoke at all, Chigiri was inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. But he desperately wanted to tell Nagi to just shut the f*ck up now.

Right as Chigiri opened his mouth to say exactly that, Reo finally looked up and turned to face Nagi.

“But it’s not enough, right? For the football you want to play.”

Don’t f*ck this up, Nagi, a redhead silently prayed.

Nagi scanned Reo’s face, as if he were looking for something. Amethyst eyes looked into gray without wavering.

Aura condensing, Nagi looked Reo dead in the eyes when he said, “Yeah.”

“Hah,” Reo breathed, as he bowed his head.

“Then don’t bother with me…you just keep waiting for me from above.”

He didn’t look up again, even though Nagi still stared, waiting for Reo to look at him again.

Chigiri covered his eyes. He really couldn’t bear to watch anymore. This was an unmitigated disaster. He could not understand what their f*cking problem was. (Seriously though, their relationship status was one big question mark to Chigiri, tbh.)

He did *not* buy tickets to this drama.

Breaking the uncomfortable silence at their table, an extremely grouchy voice cut in, more nasally sounding than usual.

“Hey. Dumbass copycat. You left your sh*t in training room 3-Z.”

Reo looked up towards the approaching speaker with surprise, his face suddenly full kilos lighter than before. “Oh, right – my bad.”

He picked up his tray. Then, after standing up, he tipped his head apologetically at Chigiri before turning back to Rin.

Examining the taped-up nose, he broke into a grin.

“Shidou got you good, didn’t he?”

With more venom than usual, Rin hissed, “Don’t mention that f*cking co*ckroach to me,” before he stomped off.

“Touchy, touchy,” Reo projected loudly.

Nagi caught Reo’s sleeve when he tried to follow Rin’s retreating figure.

“I’ll keep waiting for you,” he said softly.

This time Nagi was the one staring at the table, avoiding eye contact.

Reo looked at the hand on his sleeve with an unreadable expression before flashing that same look at Nagi’s profile.

“Got it.” And then he slipped away.

—

Neither of the young men who remained at the table spoke. Only the sounds of other diners rang through the air for the next several minutes.

Chigiri let out a huge sigh.

“Nagi, you are truly a f*cking moron.”

—

Reo was pissed.

Chapter 8: Suprisingly said yes to the mess

Chapter Text

Chapter 8 – Bit surprised he said yes to the mess, yeah

So.

On the fourth night after becoming roommates, Reo found himself buck-naked, hovering above Barou Shoei’s face with his lower legs caging in the other man’s head.

Reo tilted his body slightly backward so that he could look down at the tyrant’s crumbling resolve.

Reo’s fingers went between fiddling with the other man’s long hair to occasionally brushing against a cheek or skimming the edges of prone man’s thin lips.

The veins on Barou’s temples visibly throbbed, and he breathed heavily, the way you’d expect when the guy was about a second away from hulking out. He might as well have been trembling with rage.

But, unlike usual, the self-proclaimed King’s eyes were screwed tightly shut, and there was an incredibly red flush that extended from the man’s ears all the way down to the center of his very well-developed chest. The blush could very well have been creeping further south.

Barou still had on a pair of briefs. The enormous wet patch at the crotch did nothing to preserve the man’s dignity. (But Reo also didn’t really think Barou had much dignity to begin with. King? Seriously? Other people decided to call Reo a prince – even Reo wasn’t pretentious enough to dub himself royalty.)

The younger man was completely unbothered by the fact that there was a very eager, recently resurrected penis straining against elastic fabric behind him. He gave Barou a lazy stare, indicating that he could wait all day if need be.

Barou broke.

“Please,” he gritted out, eyes still screwed shut. His fists were clenched so tightly the knuckles were white, and you could almost hear the grinding of his teeth.

Reo hummed. He didn’t actually want to humiliate the other man (more than he already had anyway), so he made sure the slightly rising intonation in his non-reply indicated he had given Barou his blessing to proceed. The King opened his eyes at long last, looking up at Reo as if he wanted to eat him alive.

The muscle-bound man unclenched his fists. His nails had left deep crescent marks in his palms.

Large hands with rough skin slowly came up to envelope Reo’s ass (those were seriously some big hands) and tugged the slimmer man forward, so that he was finally situated directly above Barou’s face. Then, the self-proclaimed King gently spread the Mikage prince’s cheeks—

And began to desperately eat him out.

Barou was rewarded with a sharp inhalation followed by a small but approving groan for his enthusiasm. Reo gripped the back of Barou’s head with both hands and didn’t let the man pull away. (Not that the prone man had tried.)

Taking a step back, the origins of what unfolded on the fourth night of Barou and Reo’s cohabitation could be traced back to about maybe a year ago.

--

Nagi lay sprawled out on a couch that might well have been the size of his apartment’s entire living room. He lazily tooled around on PUBG mobile, missing the days teamkills were easier to get away with. (Nagi was sometimes an asshole.)

Soccer practice had ended at a reasonable hour today, but the distance between Reo’s bedroom couch and the actual bed was still too much for the lazy young man to consider traveling on his own steam. Plus, Reo would probably get mad because Nagi hadn’t showered yet. No napping in Reo’s bed without at least rinsing off. Those were the rules.

When they had gotten back maybe about an hour ago, the prodigy’s partner had firmly declined to shower together, sternly instructing Nagi to use any of the (six other full-size) bathrooms to clean himself up. Reo then trotted into his own bathroom without a backward glance.

Nagi, sloth-personified, was obviously not going to drag his sore, aching body to one of the other rooms. Reo’s Aoyama house was enormous, and the layout was a bit annoying in Nagi’s opinion, because the high-vaulted central atrium meant sometimes having to go up and down sets of stairs or walking along pointless interior walkways just to get to the other side of the same floor.

Apparently, those extra steps were worth it because of how aesthetically pleasing all the lines were, when the mostly glass construction was viewed from a distance. Query then why the Mikage family also erected large walls and planted tall trees around the perimeter so that no one could even tell they had a glass house from a distance.

Most people, walking past the home on the ground level, tended to assume there was an ancient temple or some other historic heritage site behind the walls. Not so. Just a ridiculous, recently(-ish) constructed testament to capitalism.

In any event, Nagi was slightly disappointed he didn’t get a chance to see if pouting would have changed Reo’s mind about showering together. The silver-haired striker had wanted to test the :x pout’s effectiveness – he recently discovered that it seemed to work more than half the time he tried. He still didn’t have enough data to be sure whether it was the pout itself or just the fact that Nagi bothered articulating a demand. (He later learned that one or the other was equally effective on Reo.) (A gross Nagi-simp.)

Did Reo fall down or something? the boneless boy wondered. It was rare for Reo to take so long, even if he was getting ready for some of their extracurricular activities. And had Reo been prepping himself, it made no sense to refuse Nagi’s request to shower together. Nagi had explicitly asked to help with prep, after he found out that was what Reo had been up to before they’d had sex last time. There was no way Reo would forget something Nagi had asked for. Reo remembered everything.

The moment Reo’s precious treasure began his journey to the bathroom, using no less than his own two legs to walk over (!), the heavy wooden door slid open.

Nagi had just tumbled off the couch to get up and was crouched a bit awkwardly on the shaggy area rug.

Backlit by the bathroom lights stood Reo.

All 185 cm tall of him. (6’1” for any Americans.)

Wearing a ruffled, black pinafore apron with white stitching that barely covered the tops of his thighs.

Reo’s well-muscled legs were encased in semi-sheer white thigh high stockings. A thick black ribbon with frilly white trim was tied around his neck. And, as a finishing touch, a silly black and white French maid headdress with fuzzy grey nekomimi sat atop his sparkly violet hair.

Even backlit, Reo’s face was for sure bright red – Nagi was certain. Every detail of Reo’s body language confirmed this.

The grey-eyed boy gave up on the crouch and opted to sit on the floor to gawp.

Reo turned to slide the door shut behind him.

And that was when Nagi realized that there was more to the outfit.

The cross-back pinafore was tied with a voluminous bow, but the bottom half of the apron didn’t extend around Reo’s backside.

It made it immediately apparent to Nagi that Reo chose to wear a jock strap in lieu of his run-of-the-mill boxer briefs. Immediately.

Once Reo completed the action of sliding the door shut, he turned to fully face Nagi again.

Nagi stared.

Reo stared back, flustered, but he refused to look away. Expectant.

Crickets.

Eventually, feeling ridiculous, Reo spoke first.

“Well??”

Silver-hair fell to the side as Nagi co*cked his head as if confused.

Red spread further down from Reo’s face to his chest as his mouth opened and then closed again as if he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say next. Mikage Reo had never, in his sixteen and a half+ years on the planet, ever felt more disconcerted than at that very moment.

“Didn’t you—didn’t you have a thing for maids?!”

Nagi tilted his head even more to the side, as if he were some bewildered puppy in a pet food commercial.

“You left all those tabs open? On my tablet??”

A blank stare.

Reo was ready to kill himself.

No, actually, he was going to kill Nagi first and then kill himself.

The young scion of the Mikage family had dressed himself up as a ~sexy maid~ for his treasure’s entertainment only to find that he seemed to have been terribly mistaken about the other boy’s hobbies.

f*ck.

Reo was going to implode.

“I--,” he paused. “I’m going to go change now.”

“We are going to pretend this never happened.”

Nagi finally reacted. He tried to get up and move towards Reo, but despite being uncannily physically gifted in most circ*mstances, he managed to trip over himself and fall chin first onto Reo’s rug. (At least it was soft.)

Alarmed, Reo immediately ran over to the lounging area, kneeling down to check if Nagi was okay. The heir’s humiliated red flush had completely receded in response to his partner hurting himself. Supple fingers swooped under Nagi’s chin to lift his head and softly feel about, checking for damage.

Nagi looked up, unblinkingly, at Reo’s smooth, faintly pink face and traced the worried boy’s pursed lips before looking still further up at the slight crease between Reo’s brows.

Reo was so pretty. (Look at those lashes. Look at that cupid’s bow.)

But, also, handsome. (Look at that jaw line. Look at his sculptural, distinctly masculine form.)

Nagi could understand why everyone swooned over Reo, regardless of orientation. Reo fit most anyone’s taste. (Nagi firmly believed this to be a universal truth.)

“’m okay,” he mumbled. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell, but Nagi was now embarrassed.

Fortunately for Reo’s wounded ego, Reo could tell, so he felt slightly better about his little wardrobe malfunction.

Treasure’s safety confirmed, Reo got up to go back to the bathroom to change.

It was a little careless of him to forget just how defenseless certain parts of him were, in his current get-up.

Nagi just wrapped his long arms around Reo’s legs from behind and tugged Reo back to him. The long-limbed man was able to plant a wide palm across the front of each thigh. While bringing Reo to him, Nagi didn’t forget to fiddle with the tops of Reo’s thigh highs at the same time. The smooth, slightly cool tips of his fingers stroked the warm bare skin in the gap between Reo’s socks and the ruffle of his apron. (Nagi would rate this an A grade zettai ryouiki – no, definitely at minimum an S grade.)

Reo’s squawk turned into another sound entirely when Nagi trailed his nose up along Reo’s cleft before sliding back down and slipping his tongue between Reo’s cheeks to search for the embarrassed boy’s puckered entrance.

Shocked by the unexpected sensation, Reo reflexively tensed his muscles, revealing that the bubble-like first appearance of his pert ass was misleading. Reo had, in fact, a good deal of muscle in his bustle, so to speak. When he flexed, deep dents appeared on either side.

Clenching like that made it harder for Nagi’s tongue to explore, even if the different visual was equally appealing.

He continued his tongue’s ministrations, settling for lapping at the skin along the fold when it was too difficult to reach Reo’s entrance anymore.

But Nagi felt some corrective measures were in order. He dragged his cool palms from the front of Reo’s thighs until they rested on the elastic straps that supported Reo’s buttocks. The grey-eyed boy tested the firmness and weight of each cheek along the space between his thumb and forefinger.

Then Nagi quickly and quite forcefully used his thumbs to pry apart Reo’s ass cheeks to give his tongue better access.

He felt a trill of pleasure when he heard Reo gasp.

Encouraged, Nagi went to town experimenting. He’d never rimmed Reo before, and he relished the opportunity because Reo had always prepped himself whenever they f*cked in the past.

The tip of Nagi’s tongue licked around the small ring of muscle, occasionally darting in. Everything very quickly became wet.

He sent one hand between Reo’s legs to start fondling the other man’s balls through the jock’s cup. By that point, Reo was biting one of his hands to keep from moaning too loudly, and his knees finally started to give.

Nagi paused in his exploration to keep Reo from falling over. With his arms wrapped around Reo’s bottom half, the silver-haired young man marveled at how he could feel Reo’s entire body shaking from each heaving breath Reo took.

Reo couldn’t understand why he was having such a strong reaction. Were there really that many nerve-endings back there? Or was it more the fact that it was Nagi kneeling down and licking his asshole, completely unprompted?

Reo’s mind was fuzzy, his shame intense, and his co*ck was absolutely weeping through the jock.

He wanted Nagi to put something inside of him, so, so badly.

When Nagi stood up and hugged him from behind, Reo stopped biting his hand. He held onto Nagi’s forearms instead and shamelessly grinded himself against the bulge in Nagi’s tracksuit. Then he let out an embarrassing needy noise when Nagi gave a little experimental thrust against him, in their upright position.

Reo couldn’t stand it anymore. He flipped around to loop his arms around Nagi’s neck so they were face-to-face. They kissed and let their tongues tangle briefly before Reo pulled back. Pressing his forehead against Nagi’s, Reo proposed they find the lube and start doing things in earnest. That was enough foreplay for him, thanks much. Time to get to some f*cking, please.

Nagi’s lips quirked.

“Okay, Reo.”

(Nagi was a liar.)

The lanky young man disentangled himself from Reo (who felt cold, suddenly, without Nagi next to him) and went to find the lube stashed in Reo’s nightstand.

Reo followed behind him, pulling at his stupid pinafore while wondering when he should take off his neck ribbon. It felt like a collar, and it made it hard for Reo to breathe. (Embarrassing. Because he might kind of like it.)

Contemplating the removal of his various maid-cosplay accessories, Reo didn’t notice that Nagi had already retrieved the lube and had a strange glint in his eye.

It was too late by the time Reo noticed because his back was already pressed against the cold, cold glass of the floor-to-ceiling window closest to his bed.

Nagi’s lube covered hand fiddled between Reo’s legs. After a minute or so of Reo desperately trying to get Nagi to put at least one f*cking finger inside or at least let him thrust against him, Nagi interrupted.

“Do you mind if we take this off? It looks like Reo’s dick is uncomfortable.”

Nagi pulled away, and Reo f*cking whined because he was needy and down bad and, “Yes, fine, anything. Nagi.”

(Reo didn’t like saying please.)

“Okay, Boss,” Nagi said innocently.

(Recall, Nagi was sometimes an asshole.)

He slipped a hand back under Reo’s apron and started pulling down the thick waistband of Reo’s jock.

Then, once half of Reo’s rock hard, precum covered dick was out, the f*cking monster known as Nagi Seishirou snapped the waistband right at the middle of Reo’s shaft. Reo made a sound between a groan and a whimper as he folded in half, and his whole body trembled. Nagi didn’t let him fall forward and shoved him roughly back against the glass.

Reo looked up at Nagi, betrayal written all over his flushed face.

Violet-eyes narrowed with suspicion when Nagi smiled.

(Nagi seldomly smiled, and, in Reo’s Nagi-expression-translator, this particular kind of Nagi smile meant Nagi was about to do something that would end in tears for Reo.) (Tears of the sex variety.) (Nagi never made Reo cry sad tears until much later. In Blue Lock.)

Nagi, who was a bit of a perv and who loved getting Reo riled up, proceeded to pinch the head of Reo’s co*ck while sticking his entire middle finger up his ass. Nagi found Reo’s strangled moan deeply satisfying, and it was especially gratifying to have Reo chasing after his finger when he pulled out.

Ever one to please his boss (a lie), Nagi set a torturously slow pace to start. Reo squirmed and started yelling at Nagi to get on with it, but the taller boy just crowded Reo against the glass and pressed him so that he wouldn’t be able to move well enough to do anything Nagi refused to allow.

Reo got so frustrated his eyes started to water.

And that was when Nagi abruptly shoved in a second finger and started thrusting at a much faster pace, to the point where Reo had to start begging him to slow down. Nagi ignored him and kept aiming for Reo’s prostate until Reo had his head slumped against Nagi’s shoulder so that his open mouth and glassy, blown out eyes were hidden from the room.

No one was there, but Reo still cared about his face. Nagi found it cute how shy the ever confident, always perfect Mikage Reo could get.

Reo’s thin skin also happened to bring out a tiny mean streak in the lazy genius.

He started whispering, in that low, slow voice of his, how anyone outside the house could see Reo getting f*cked with Nagi’s fingers until his legs shook. And wasn’t that why Reo was so excited?

Nagi slipped his other hand through the side of the maid apron and first gently stroked the soft skin of Reo’s nipple before harshly twisting it between his fingers. He timed it with a hard stroke against Reo’s prostate and a particularly filthy description of what people must be seeing from the outside, right then.

Reo came all over the inside of his apron and couldn’t hold back a few tears when he tried to swallow his moan.

Nagi didn’t let Reo catch his breath though.

The closet sad*st gently pet the abused nipple one more time before he rudely flipped Reo so his face was up against the window. Then he shoved three fingers into Reo and took him apart.

Overstimulated, Reo was actually crying and drooling at this point. Especially given how Nagi had resumed alternating between gently stroking and painfully tweaking Reo’s chest, occasionally pushing one of his well-manicured (thanks to Reo) nails hard against the center of the hard nub.

But Nagi appetite for Reo’s shame and arousal seemed to grow as Reo’s self-control and self-consciousness frayed. Nagi pressed his chin over Reo’s head and made sure the other boy couldn’t move from the glass. Then, the surprisingly silver-tongued young man started describing Reo’s own face to him. How Reo seemed so eager he to let the world see his lewd expressions. How messy and desperate Reo’s wet-faced panting must appear to the outside while he got stretched wide open in a slu*tty little maid uniform.

The two of them hadn’t ever really done anything like this before. (Although Nagi did tend to use more words during sex than during almost all other situations combined.)

Originally, Reo never let Nagi help stretch him.

Reo now regretted everything.

Actually, he regretted nothing because he was rock hard again and burning from the inside out with his own desire.

He’d just come once but now he was really pleading with Nagi to please just touch his dick or actually f*ck him or to please, please do both.

Nagi got Reo, his partner, his boss, to say please. (And mean it.)

Nagi was pleased. He stopped abusing Reo’s chest and gently pet Reo’s hair before releasing him from the window.

Reo slid down. Nagi let him collapse to the ground so he could enjoy the view. Reo’s legs were splayed out, his still partially trapped erection lifted the bottom of his stained, wet apron, and his face was covered in spit and tears. It felt incredibly satisfying for Nagi to see. He almost wanted to just come all over Reo while standing above him to complete the scene.

But then Reo looked up at him with his incredibly beautiful doe-eyes, and Nagi felt weird. Like that bubble in his chest had grown too big (again).

Nagi managed to ignore the discomfort and refocused on Reo. He knelt down to kiss him and in between long, lingering kisses as well as some short fluttering ones along his face, he’d mumble into Reo’s ear about how he was so good, so perfect, and Nagi wanted him so badly it hurt.

Reo looked (and felt) incandescently happy.

Nagi, for once, did the carrying. (IRL, that is. Nagi carried when gaming all the time and used to make some pocket money that way.)

He brought Reo over to the bed, where they resumed their previous activities. (They ditched the ears and the collar but kept the apron. The apron was good. The socks got lost at some point.)

Everything was perfect.

—

Everything was dogsh*t.

Reo thanked Rin for the save and wondered briefly how much of a scene it must have been for someone like Rin to know Reo had needed the assist. (Actually, it wasn’t much of a scene, Rin just happened to be looking.)

Eventually all that needed to be brushed aside so Reo could focus on tamping down his rage (and, of course, ever-present grief).

For a moment there, when Nagi had put his head on his shoulder, Reo thought that he could handle a transition to simply being friends. Reo would do his f*cking best. The utmost. To be Nagi’s best friend. He would respect Nagi’s personal agency. Everything would be fine as long as he still had Nagi in his life.

Then Nagi opened his mouth.

And reminded Reo why he, Mikage Reo, was a f*cking clown.

To be fair, Reo understood why Nagi would assume that his teaming up with Isagi and Chigiri was the problem. It was a natural assumption to make based on what Reo verbalized during 2nd Selection. Reo sounded petty and jealous. He was selfish in demanding Nagi hold himself back just because Reo couldn’t keep up, vindictive in lashing out when Nagi refused to comply.

Reo would concede those points. And he’d go beat himself up about it some other time, when he wasn’t quite so hurt.

Because right now he needed to suppress the anger he felt towards himself. About the fact he couldn’t explain what he was most angry (and truly heartbroken) about out loud. Because saying it out loud would make him feel even smaller and more pathetic (and so, so incredibly lonely). Even in his head, he felt ridiculous for thinking in these terms, but—

Nagi didn’t care about him.

Reo had never lit up Nagi’s world the same way Nagi lit up his.

That dining hall exchange with Nagi drove home the point that Nagi may have gotten used to Reo being around enough to miss him, but Nagi wasn’t interested in Reo. When it came to Reo, Nagi didn’t have any of the innate curiosity that drove his interest in Isagi, in Isagi’s soccer.

Because if Nagi had even the smallest spark of genuine interest in Reo (interest that wasn’t born from Reo’s insistence on being acknowledged), then Nagi would have at least been able to tell that Reo had been hurt by Nagi, he wasn’t mad at Nagi.

Nagi was astute. Nagi was brilliant. Nagi picked up on everything – it was just a question of whether he cared enough to bother. (Or at least that’s what Reo believed.)

So, if Nagi cared about Reo at all, he would have thought just a little bit about how Reo felt during his first experience with doubt re. his own invincibility (even if those feelings were dumb). He would have soft-pedaled the idea of splitting up.

Instead, Nagi triggered what was now the *greatest* crisis of confidence that Reo had ever experienced. Nagi fundamentally reordered Reo’s universe (for the second time).

Because Nagi had shown no reluctance to part with Reo. And that meant that Reo giving Nagi his all—Reo doing everything he possibly could to understand what Nagi thought, to intuit what he needed, and to give him anything and everything he could possibly want—all of that wasn’t worth even a single backward glance.

Reo was forced to realize that Nagi didn’t think that Reo’s everything was worth anything.

And Reo didn’t even have a right to be mad at Nagi, because Nagi never asked Reo for anything. Reo was the one who insisted on making Nagi the center of his universe.

Nagi confirmed, now for a third time, that Reo wasn’t a “real person” to Nagi. It was the same way most other people (aside from Nagi) weren’t “real” to Reo.

Reo now knew that, to Nagi, Reo’s feelings only mattered to the extent they made Nagi’s life (in)convenient.

They were levers.

It was nothing personal.

Ha.

--

With that sort of an emotional backdrop to work against, it’s really a wonder that the first three days of benchwarmer battle royale had gone by as peacefully as they had.

Reo and Barou grimaced upon receiving their room assignments, but, thankfully, given the significantly reduced numbers of Bluelockers still around, they only had to sleep two to a room these days.

Both silently agreed to keep to their respective sides of the room and made themselves scarce. Each noted, with mild surprise, their new roommate was quite clean.

Minor pleasant surprise aside though, Barou was still seeing red. Everything had taken on a permanent red cast after Ego’s Blue Lock 11 announcement. The facility had been a hair’s breadth away from a mass casualty event because Barou wanted to go King Kong on some f*ckers.

He settled for going massively overboard with his personal training instead.

On top of the 5-6 hours of mandatory training all players were expected to do daily, Barou had been adding what most pro athletes and their trainers would consider to be far too many extra hours working out until total muscle failure. Not super advisable for adults, much less a still-growing 18-year-old body.

Barou had been running on fumes by Day 4. And on Day 4, Barou and Reo had wound up on the same five-man team for their afternoon practice game.

They lost.

And, unsurprisingly, it was more Barou’s fault than anyone else’s. He was clearly in the wrong headspace. But far be it from the overgrown ape to acknowledge his deficiencies. King Kong was straight gunning to get shot down by military biplanes (i.e., get electro-shocked by Ego-chu and packed off to the Punishment Room).

He went apesh*t (for the nth time) and blamed Reo for being absolutely useless without his stinky slave boy. Reo took that bullsh*t shockingly well at the time, even as he had to wipe a bunch of astroturf off of the road rash on his knee (courtesy of Barou aggressively checking him because he was a f*cking sh*thead who ought to get carded during games way more than he did, f*ck you Ego).

So, all of that was to say, Barou had it coming that fourth night.

The man had returned to their room shirtless, hair down and slightly damp. He had an overloaded duffel with some extra gear that he probably intended to clean. Somehow, Barou managed to be in a fouler mood than during the afternoon, because he practically chucked his duffel from the door to clear across the room.

The force was enough that things flew out of the bag from some of the loosely zipped compartments.

Reo was trying to be polite when he happened to start gathering the things that had flown over to his side of the room.

He grabbed a palm-sized bottle that was threatening to roll under a dresser. Feeling a little snarky about the unnecessary force, Reo took a quick glance at the bottle he’d grabbed. He vaguely registered the shape of the bottle before drily joking, “Oh so, this is why you’ve been so ‘roid rage-y lately.”

Blue Lock was strictly drug free, so Reo knew that couldn’t have been actual steroids. He just hadn’t expected it to be a small bottle of lube.

Any guilt he’d felt about maybe making fun of something Barou might have been sensitive about went out the window when Barou charged over at him to wrench the bottle out of his hand. Reo was incredibly taken aback when the musclehead physically crowded him and gave a series of rough shoves while yelling, among other things, how he didn’t need Reo touching his stuff, and if he liked being a maid so much, he could go find his filthy bug-eyed boyfriend and pick up after him.

Well, it turned out the “scary gorilla” wasn’t the only one with a bad temper. Reo just hid his well.

Or, at least, he used to when he had better emotional regulation. The conditions at Blue Lock (its programmatic emotional terrorism) had shot Reo’s control to sh*t, so it was Barou’s “lucky” night (in a couple senses).

Reo used both hands to grab Barou by the shoulders and hit him with a nasty clinch takedown by way of a lightning fast inside trip. When the more muscular man smashed back first onto the ground, Reo immediately tried to pin Barou down. The older of the two began thrashing, trying to use his superior mass to dominate. They wound up grappling on the floor in a tangle of limbs until Reo emerged victorious. He finally locked Barou down with a knee to the stomach, a hand pushing one shoulder down, and another wrapped around his neck. (Reo was a judo champ. Another line under activities on his resume.)

Barou’s one free hand was busy trying to pry Reo’s right hand from his windpipe, but every time he got too unruly a pair of dark violet eyes would flash before the pressure being applied to his neck would increase and the oxygen reaching his lungs would decrease.

After a beat, both men seemed a bit stunned by the turn of events. The sudden bout of violence had snuck up on both of them.

Reo recovered first. “Ready to stop being a sh*thead now?”

Barou said something that will remain censored, for now.

Reo used the hand around Barou’s neck to slam his head against the floor. Just a little bit. Not too hard.

Barou said more things that should remain censored.

Completely done, Reo just gave the foul-mouthed man a heavy-handed slap across the face.

Slender eyes became almost almond-shaped with surprise at the slap.

Reo sneered, “You deserve more than one slap.”

When Barou growled low in his throat, it made Reo give a snort.

“Oh. Do you think barking a little louder makes you any less of a whiny bitch?”

He squeezed tighter and stared straight into furious red eyes.

“You’re a f*cking reject.”

“And you better get used to it, since you’re a bad dog who can’t stop sh*tting the carpet. You get dinged for doing the same f*cking thing every single time.”

“Soon you won’t even have a chance to warm the bench for a bush league football team.”

“Learn a new trick, asshole.”

With that final imperative, Reo finally felt relieved of *much* of the rage that had built up over the past several days. (Some of what he said to Barou he may have meant for himself, but that kind of thing usually came out best if it came straight from the heart, right?)

Reo was just about to release Barou from the pin when he noticed something odd after he took a look back.

Huh.

Honestly, Reo should have guessed the control-freak with anger management issues would have a submission kink.

Based on how the furious control-freak suddenly went completely still, Barou must have realized that Reo noticed his physical response. Barou flushed but put on a brave front.

The purple-eyes of a certain young man started to sparkle with a mischievous light.

He released the chokehold so Barou could breathe a bit more easily again. Then, he leaned in close to the muscle-bound idiot who was trying to swallow big gulps of air.

“Guess you do know some other tricks,” Reo teased, sticking his tongue out.

Then he scooted backwards a bit so he had enough room to drag his knee down Barou’s abdomen until it was right above the tent in Barou’s pants.

When Barou refused to say anything and just glared unhappily, Reo took that as the closest thing to a yes he’d likely extract from the man.

He pressed his knee down on Barou’s bulge. Gently at first, but then he increased the pressure until he heard Barou hiss. Reo stared intently at Barou’s face, making sure they were looking each other in the eye when he increased the pressure again, sure that it must hurt now.

Right when Barou prepared to shove Reo off, Reo harshly grabbed an erect brown nipple and twisted. At the same time, he swooped down to flick at the other with his tongue before biting. He stopped pressing down with his knee, but Reo’s campaign against Barou’s chest intensified.

He could feel Barou’s breathing get heavier and heavier.

Reo traced along Barou’s 8-pack with his tongue, and it made the man shiver. His responses were cute.

—

The King reluctantly cooperated when Reo tugged down his sleeping pants. Barou was slightly confused about why Reo didn’t take off his briefs as well, but his question was answered when it became apparent Reo was going to keep teasing him through the cloth.

At times, Reo would take his hand to gently stroke Barou’s length through the cloth so that it felt like an itch he couldn’t scratch, and at others Reo would tug at Barou’s dick roughly, using the friction caused by the fabric to drag at his co*ck uncomfortably.

All the while Reo just kept running his mouth at him, saying that maybe Barou had always just needed a spanking to stop being such an angry f*ck, his dirty dick deserved punishment for its owner’s misdeeds. The impromptu dom declared what was now very obvious - Barou Shoei got off on being degraded. Humiliation made him horny. And then Reo would laugh before exploring Barou’s body some more.

Barou had knocked out people for far less. His tormentor kept bringing Barou right up to the edge of coming before he’d crudely rub the fabric of Barou’s briefs against his tip hard enough to make it hurt. Barou wanted to die.

Especially when Reo abruptly got up and told him he was bored now and wouldn’t bother continuing until clean-freak Barou asked if he could please kiss Reo’s ass and lick him clean.

Barou sat up and was an inch away from picking another fight with Reo for his cheek when the other boy turned around with an impish grin and set a foot on the center of Barou’s naked chest.

“Knew you’d get mad about that one.”

The skin of Reo’s feet had no business being as soft as they felt sliding along Barou’s heavily muscled chest. Barou should be disgusted – Reo’s bare feet had been all over the dirty floor with no house slippers, and Barou was on the floor after bathing. It should have been an awful nightmare.

Instead, Barou was harder than before and he wanted to just pull his dick out to jerk off with the purple-haired freak’s foot on his chest.

Reo dragged a toe across one of Barou’s nipples before traveling even lower, until he reached the tent of Barou’s briefs.

Then he stepped on Barou’s groin and laughed at him for being a pervert. Said pervert’s mouth watered as he watched Reo’s immaculately maintained foot press against the base of his dick and attempt to contain the shaft between his toes.

A bit clumsy since the younger man had never actually, you know, stepped on anyone’s dick before, Reo decided he wanted to finish up here sooner rather than later. He decided to try something with that in mind.

Reo leaned down to tilt Barou’s face up. After checking to see that Barou seemed sufficiently interested in the proceedings, Reo smiled, gave Barou a quick peck on the lips that seemed to surprise him a great deal, and then—

Slapped Barou across the face while trying to step on the man’s whole shaft with a bit more force than Reo would personally be comfortable with (theoretically, if he were to have someone step on him).

It seemed to do the trick because Barou came in his pants with a long and low groan that sounded as if it had been dragged out of a beast dying in the dark.

Reo felt incredibly smug about his guess.

5 gold stars.

Never thought he’d see the day he’d be playing BDSM-lite with Barou Shoei of all people.

Fun as it was though, it was time to get Barou to do something for him.

And so while Barou fell back to the floor so he could look dazedly at the ceiling, reviewing all of the life choices that had led him to coming hard from getting slapped and stepped on by a kid whose calves were thinner than his forearms, Reo got naked.

“Why are you stripping?”

Barou’s voice was gravelly. It sounded like he hadn’t spoken in weeks. Reo felt a small twinge of guilt but figured he’d make it up to him later.

“Because I’m about to f*ck myself on my fingers while you watch,” the now, fully nude Mikage stated, matter of factly.

“My offer still stands,” he quipped.

“I’ll let you eat my ass if you say please.”

Then he put on a show for poor little Shoei, who had no idea what he was in for.

(He did end up saying please. See, above.)

Shortly after his first face-sitting experience, Barou also learned the joy of a prostate org*sm that same night. Mikage rimmed him until he made sounds he’d never heard before. Then fingered Barou until he came harder than he ever had in his whole goddamn life.

They went through the whole sample-size bottle of lube. Which is, unfortunately, why they didn’t get around to sticking their dicks in anything. Probably for the best though, since they had seriously considered wrestling to see who’d get to top.

(Barou might have been down to throw the match. But alas.)

—

When Barou Shoei woke up the morning of Day 5, completely clean and in fresh Blue Lock-issued sleepwear, he felt more well-rested than he had in—well, in a very long time. It helped that it was also the first time he’d had a full 8 hours of sleep in weeks.

Reo popped his head into the room.

“Oh good. You’re awake.”

Barou still hadn’t wiped his face clean of his confusion. The look, coupled with his hair down and in a serious state of disarray, was a serious case of gap moe. His narrow eyes were widened not because he was in the middle of a rage-fit, for once, but due to an almost maiden-like amazement. (Insert jokes about meeting Prince Charming here.)

Acting as if he hadn’t essentially dommed the sh*t out of Barou (and made the man come hard not once, not twice, but thrice the night before), Reo strode over with a medium-sized brown paper bag. He deposited it on Barou’s nightstand.

“Grabbed breakfast to-go in case you didn’t wake up in time. I think I got what you usually get?”

“It’s 7:15, so you still have enough time to wash-up before eating,” Reo reported.

Then he walked off without another care in the world.

When Barou checked the contents of the bag, he found that, packed neatly in separate containers were all of the high-protein traditional breakfast items he usually got himself accompanied by a green smoothie. The takeout utensils were stored in a small kraft wax paper bag so that they didn’t touch any of the containers’ exteriors.

His heart might have skipped a beat.

Reo had organized things exactly the way Barou would have, if he’d gone to get breakfast himself. The mysophobic man hated his silverware flying around loose in the bag and touching the dirty exteriors of to-go containers that had touched Blue Lock tabletops (did you know how *disgusting* those tabletops were?). Barou shuddered every time he thought of Bachira’s eating habits or the way f*cking Stinky would smear his face all over the counter.

(Interestingly, as Barou went through a long list of the dirty, he neglected to include Reo, who, on more than one occasion, rested his bare feet on many a cafeteria table. What a mystery.)

‘The King of Villains’ behaved more agreeably on Day 5 than anyone could remember having seen before. He was still selfish AF and intense about dominating the field, but his murderous intent was significantly lower. Also, no one got banged up trying to guard him all day, too. (A record!) Reo, however, never saw the most dramatic results of his handiwork, since he’d been shuffled off into another group of Bluelockers for practice.

The dorm room situation was pleasant over the next few days. (Ngl, the previous red haze filter got replaced by sparkly bubbles. The same kind liberally splashed all over the pages of Barou’s little sisters’ monthly shoujo anthologies.)

A certain purple-eyed roommate seemed to have brightened up considerably. So, while Reo wasn’t necessarily all-smiles, he didn’t sit in sullen silence whenever there was any downtime or respond to Barou being bitchy by being even bitchier.

Reo would remind Barou when it was time to go eat and check in to make sure he remembered to get enough sleep. And when Reo overheard Barou complaining under his breath about the sh*t cleaning products Blue Lock supplied players with, Reo generously offered the other man some of his private stash of Quickle wipers, [insert name brand] laundry detergent, and a top-of-the-line stain remover that Barou never knew existed. (Barou did not blush.)

One problem.

Reo (who Barou would now admit, if only under pain of torture, cleaned well, smelled nice, and looked really…good) never made a move on Barou after that 4th night. The svelte younger man was friendly, nice to Barou, even. But it was as if nothing had ever happened.

Barou certainly wasn’t about to directly broach the subject – he had far too much pride to be like, “Step on me (again), Mikage~!” And whenever he just kind of hung around to maybe consider bringing it up (and asking to do something again) in a totally roundabout manner, Reo seemed to have a preternatural ability to completely distract Barou by flashing him a totally disarming smile before engaging the slightly starstruck man in a conversation about pro-soccer players, this past season, the current season, soccer tactics, soccer training, soccer this and soccer that.

Barou would engage. He’d fall for it, hook, line, and sinker, every time. Because Mikage Reo was an excellent conversationalist when he wanted to be.

Barou despaired.

Barou had far too much pride, when in his right mind, to beg.

So, Barou Shoei, the King, the King of Villains, the Predator, was reduced to silent pining.

Because the more time he spent in close quarters with Mikage Reo, the more annoyingly attractive he found the f*cking bossy little rich boy to be. And while Barou kind of wanted to fight him for being such a, a f*cking scumbag (insert angry young male bare-knuckle wall punch here), he also (shamefully) didn’t want Reo to go back to looking at him no differently than he would some paint on the wall.

Which was why, by the time Barou and Reo rotated back to the same practice group, Barou was essentially as ‘roid rage-y as he was before. He’d try to run over Reo just as much, too, when Reo was marking him, because those were times Barou had a pretty good excuse for venting the frustration that he couldn’t vent in their off-field daily interactions.

Secretly, Barou added 10 more black marks under Stinky’s name in the King’s Book of Crimes Deserving Capital Punishment. Because f*ck that dirty slob. He’d had it good for so long and didn’t even know how to appreciate it. (Barou would happily be Mikage Reo’s slave now) (x 10,000.)

--

Barou would have dedicated a full 10 chapters’ worth of black marks to Nagi’s account if he’d known the real reason Reo didn’t feel like sitting on his face anymore.

(Because, initially, Reo had considered fooling around some more, given the convenient set-up. It seemed fun.)

It’s just that Barou had groused about Nagi’s sh*tty sense of humor while he was eating lunch with Reo on Day 6.

Reo laughed easily at Barou’s complaint. Grinning wolfishly, the younger man pointed out how it sounded more like Barou was bitter about how Nagi never missed, when he went for the King.

Barou fumed.

Reo felt a little guilty. The specter of Nagi seemed to have steered most of his interactions with Barou.

Oh well.

Bad timing.

--

“Flat is justice,” Nagi deadpanned.

Reo, despite his sweaty, sticky, and generally f*cked-out state, still mustered enough energy to prop himself up and slap away Nagi’s wandering hands on his, Reo’s, very flat, very male chest. He gave his dweeby partner an incredulous look. “Were you waiting to use that catchphrase this whole time?”

Nagi nodded, “Flat chests are delicious.”

Further, “There’s a research paper to support this.”

“The tab’s still open if you want to see.”

Reo blinked a few more times. Nagi took this opportunity to sneak a hand back onto Reo’s pec. A soft fingertip circled around a still slightly puffy nipple that was now ringed red. Nagi thought it was cute how a little brush could make his partner shiver.

Reo kept trying to think unsexy thoughts but struggled mightily because pale, long fingers (with pronounced knucklebones he found distressingly attractive) kept fluttering along every inch of exposed skin.

The red-faced boy swatted Nagi’s hand in a (mostly futile) try to stave off another erection. If a boner made itself known now, Nagi would immediately assume they could “get back into the bone zone.” Reo’s ass could not take another pounding. His balls were emptier than empty now.

Finally, he resorted to grabbing Nagi’s wrists to put a stop to the teasing.

Nagi pouted :x

Reo’s heart melted. (Gross.)

Then, he started laughing. It started as a giggle before turning into a classic Mikage Reo (in the presence of Nagi Seishirou exclusive) full-body maniacal cackle before settling into joyful laughter punctuated by the odd, desperately needed gasp of air.

“You—,” Reo started, before collapsing into giggles again, “are so,” a cough, from inelegantly choking on spit, “lame.”

Nagi pretended to look blankly confused for a second. Then he gave a very slow, small smile before starfishing on top of Reo. (Nagi knew it. Reo thought Nagi’s AGC cultural fluency was adorable.)

The pancaking (starfishing, whatever) produced a great deal of protesting, but they ended up falling asleep that way.

When they woke up, Reo was mad about how he ended up squashed with a sweat and cum-soaked black(-ish) apron wrapped around his torso, leaving uncomfortable deep red creases on his skin.

Nagi claimed he was too tired to move, so it couldn’t be helped.

(Truthfully, he just liked sleeping on top of Reo.)

Chapter 9: Some things you can’t unsee

Chapter Text

Chapter 9 - Some things you can’t unsee

When Reo got around to asking Shidou if he was still alive, Shidou responded with a dick pic.

That said everything Reo needed to know.

Shidou, however, decided to graciously supply more unsolicited material whenever he was bored. It seemed Reo’s polite inquiry opened the floodgates. Following that first exchange, Shidou would sporadically send random observations (typically of the crude variety).

Plus more pictures of his penis. In various states.

Reo wondered if he should delete their chat history and block the guy before he got Reo into trouble.

But Reo left the chat log intact, because Shidou’s DPs had good composition. Not in a oh what a nice penis way (though honesty would require Reo to admit there was a bit of that in play) – Reo meant in terms of shockingly refined aesthetic sensibilities.

The tanned menace would also periodically report: “Itoshi Sr. is 🥵🥵🥵🔥”

That was typically followed up with: “Gimme Rin-chan’s contact. Have something v important to tell him.”

Reo would ignore those messages (like most of Shidou’s others) because he was fairly confident Rin would lose his mind if Shidou the sh*t-Stirrer directly contacted him.

The older boy had a grudge for the Punishment Room.

And, during the past few days of training, it also became evident Rin had found a new depth of hatred for Shidou since Rin learned Shidou was Itoshi Sae’s pick.

That thought reminded Reo he should have amended his previous statement. Rin was already well on his way to losing his mind and probably didn’t need Shidou’s help to completely lose the thing.

Barou wised up and stopped with the excessive training early on (not so coincidentally post-Day 4, hmm).

Rin on the other hand just couldn’t seem to stop himself (especially when he thought no one was looking).

Reo inadvertently eavesdropped on Rin’s exchange with Isagi on Day 1 of what Ego dubbed Blue Lock’s “Last Training Camp.” Reo had decided, when Rin launched into an Uchiha Sasuke-level declaration of vengeance against his brother, he should stay outside until the two were done speaking.

When Rin took Isagi’s extra water bottle, Reo assumed the young ‘avenger’ had sobered up. The pent-up rage in Reo’s body (thanks dining hall Nagi!) had yet to find an outlet at the time, so he didn’t spare much further thought for the Itoshi brothers’ revenge drama.

But now it was 2 am on Night 6 (or more like Day 7), and Reo found Rin practicing goal shots against the Blue Lock goalie in an indoor training field.

A training field in the 5^th Stratum.

Team V’s old training field, to be exact.

All Bluelockers’ new dorm assignments were in the 1st Stratum, for convenience’s sake. Rin had, at a minimum, 5 different training fields to choose from. Instead, somehow, he wound up in the now completely depopulated 5th Stratum, practicing on precisely the field that Reo was hoping to have a good mope on. (It was the last field that saw Reo and Nagi as teammates instead of competitors.)

Rin had the devil’s luck when it came to his training room picks. He always managed to catch Reo at a bad time. (Never mind that Rin got there first.)

--

Reo let out a bemused huff.

“You’re going to feel like sh*t tomorrow.”

Rin startled, in the middle of trapping the ball after a harsh rebound off the virtual goalkeeper’s hand. A momentary surprise wasn’t enough to prevent Rin from making his rebound shot though. The striker only turned around once the ball settled in the net.

“Why are you here?” Rin ignored Reo’s statement of the obvious.

The closer the purple-haired insomniac got to Rin, the more apparent it became that the other boy suffered from a similar affliction. The younger man’s eyes were bloodshot. Perhaps blessed by superior genetics, Rin’s eyebags looked more like namidabukuro (i.e., aegyo-sal) than panda-eyes. It’d almost pass for natural if past up-close encounters with Rin’s face didn’t say otherwise. Reo was confident that Rin’s under-eye area had not been so puffy the last couple occasions.

“Wanted to do some solo drills.”

“But you seem available—how about we do some Brazilians? Or, if you want, we could 1 v 1.”

Rin’s eyes narrowed as he performed his own visual inspection.

Reo clearly lied about why he’d shown up. He wasn’t even wearing training gear – he had on a loose Blue Lock zip-up over his sleeping clothes, and his footwear (a pair of slides with socks) wasn’t exactly ideal for any individual technical training.

“There are easier ways to break an ankle,” Rin snarked.

Reo raised an eyebrow. “And there are easier ways to hurt yourself, yet here you are.”

“What the f*ck is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you look like you’re trying to punish yourself with all this extra exercise, for whatever reason.”

--

Were it almost anyone else, Reo would have left the other person to his own poor life choices with a polite pardon me for having intruded.

Reo paid attention to Barou because Barou overdoing it made Reo’s life more difficult.

Reo checked up on Chigiri because he was his friend (which made Reo feel warm and fuzzy to think about).

And, Reo couldn’t help but care about Nagi, because Nagi would always be Nagi (a.k.a., the reason Reo was up this late at night trying to take a trip down memory lane like the sad sack that he was).

Reo could hardly care less about the unhealthy habits of other Bluelockers.

But when Reo thought about his past interactions with Rin, what they’d “talked” about (more like fought about) before, and what Reo involuntarily overheard the other day, pieces of a puzzle slotted together.

The specifics of Rin’s fallout with Itoshi Sae were unclear. But Rin’s obsession with crushing his brother seemed more intense than run-of-the-mill sibling rivalry. It was evident Rin wasn’t a cold-blooded person, no matter how much he pretended. Rin seemed a little silly, naïve even, whenever he was caught off-guard. This, in Reo’s estimation, meant that Rin fundamentally could not be the kind of person who would develop a near-pathological hatred for a sibling simply because he envied Sae’s talent or fame. Reo would bet his entire inheritance.

The question, now, was whether Reo cared enough to do anything.

A quick gut check told Reo he did care enough to do something. If only because Rin had heard him out before. (Weirdly, the fact that they’d had sex did not figure into Reo’s care equation. This would prove problematic for future Reo, but with someone other than Rin.)

So, in any event, when Rin still hadn’t responded to Reo’s statement, he followed up.

“Am I right?”

“Are you making yourself miserable on purpose?”

Everything said on the field had an eerie echo that was eventually swallowed up by the cavernous space of the training hall. What would normally have been two separate floors had been combined into just one to facilitate high ceilings for audience stands and an indoor pitch roughly half that of a regulation-sized pitch. (Blue Lock, enormous as it was, only had one field that met the 105m x 68m dimensions prescribed by FIFA, and that outdoor pitch sat in between all five stratums.)

It didn’t escape Reo that there was a strange symmetry to their current situation.

Before, it had been Rin boorishly confronting Reo. Now it was Reo doing the same. Rin seemed just as uncomfortable as Reo had been back in the locker room. The younger man bowed his head, and dark, nearly black, green hair hung over his eyes. Reo had no idea what expression Rin might have had on his face.

The violet-eyed boy decided to chance a potential punch and crept into Rin’s personal space bubble.

By the time the two were only two feet apart, Rin looked up. His teal eyes were stormy, full of resentment and a mix of other emotions difficult to put into exact words (but all negative).

Reo wondered if this was what Rin had seen when they were in the locker room.

“Guess that means I was right,” Rep said breezily, with a faintly crooked upward tilt to his lips.

Rather than elaborate on his speculations, Reo settled for brushing some of Rin’s hair behind his ear. The younger man briefly stiffened and his hands spasmed, as if he considered stopping Reo. But when Reo continued brushing Rin’s damp hair and occasionally running a thumb across a sharp cheekbone, Rin found himself leaning into the touch. Amethyst eyes faintly sparkled under the harsh stadium lighting. The smooth, dry hand felt cool across the younger man’s sweaty brow.

They stood there like that, for a minute or two, Reo just gently stroking Rin’s face and petting his hair before Reo decided that they’d be better off sitting on the fake grass. He grabbed Rin’s forearms and brought him down.

Rin complied without protest, but he still looked deeply unhappy. It also seemed like he wasn’t about to start explaining what he was up to.

Reo considered directly asking Rin why, the same way the other boy had rudely asked him. But it seemed the route least likely to produce results given how Rin looked like he was getting lost in unpleasant memories.

Thinking about what he himself might have wanted, back during 2nd Selection, Reo scooted around so he was sitting almost side by side with Rin.

Then the purple-haired boy threw an arm over Rin’s shoulders and rested his head against Rin’s (honestly kind of sticky and gross) temple.

He didn’t say anything for a while.

--

What 2nd Selection Reo (and, let’s be honest, current Reo) wanted most was for Nagi to magically appear by his side. For nothing bad to have ever happened between them. For the two of them to be on track to achieve their dream together. But Reo didn’t really want to reunite with Nagi after forgiving and forgetting. Reo wanted a return to a state of innocence—to a time when they were perfect.

Naturally, what Reo wanted was impossible. (How could they have ever been perfect if they never even really shared a dream?)

But barring that, given how Reo had felt so incredibly alone in his anger (at himself, at Nagi, at everyone and everything), pretty much anyone offering their silent support could have won his eternal gratitude (still could, maybe).

Reo spoke a lot, but he specialized in talking about the trivial and/or superficial. He was constitutionally allergic to discussing his personal affairs, much less exposing anything close to genuine vulnerability. (It was why all the public crying and repeat losses of composure at Blue Lock had been so much humiliating torture.)

Unsurprisingly, Reo hated the idea of detailing his painful abandonment for all and sundry to hear, so he never wanted a listening ear.

That was probably what made Chigiri (and Kunigami, Reo thought again, with the usual guilt) feel so incredibly important. Because Reo hadn’t (and still didn’t) feel entirely comfortable admitting the extent to which he’d been injured by his own stupidity (this ultimately wasn’t really Nagi’s fault).

The two other boys hadn’t pried – they were smart enough to have gotten the gist of the situation anyway, just from looking at Reo’s miserable face, and that was that. That was enough for them. They stuck around. Didn’t try to talk too much about it.

And maybe because Reo had been abandoned (by the person he deemed most important in his life, no less), it had been _nice_ for there to be some tangible reminder that someone, anyone, wanted him around. It was the one (and seemingly only) thing that felt good. He had still been trapped in his own negative emotions and an absolute mess; any outside observer would be hard-pressed to see any tangible benefit to his state of mind. But, in retrospect, Chigiri and Kunigami offered the one tiny slither of something that didn’t make Reo wish he were dead. (Yes, yes, he was very dramatic, he knew that already.)

Anyhow, that’s why Reo decided to try out the whole empathy thing now.

Right now, Rin looked as angry, lost, and lonely as Reo remembered feeling (and sometimes still felt).

--

After a couple minutes, they started to look a lot more like two people wrapping around each other. The hand Reo had on Rin’s shoulder eventually moved up to play with the shell of Rin’s ear and card through Rin’s hair.

“You know, there’s a select few in this world that the super-elite Mikage Reo deems worthy to voluntarily touch, so consider yourself lucky.”

Teal eyes darted to the side, clearly communicating their owners’ skepticism.

“You f*ck Shidou.”

Reo considered it a victory that [1] Rin responded and [2] his frown was substantially less intense (Reo could tell from the corner of his eye).

“And he should consider himself lucky.”

Rin sounded unimpressed, “Hn.”

“Are you trying to imply I’m anything but a man of discerning taste, RinRi~n?” asked Reo, voice saccharine sweet but carrying an edge. “I’m going to be very offended.”

For a second, Rin almost made a sarcastic remark about the gangly loser that Reo allowed to get all close but then basically ran away from last week. (Rin had incidentally seen everything, which was why he came to the rescue.) (Also, Rin knew Nagi’s name – he just rarely used names when pejoratives worked just as well.)

The data publicly available to Rin had shown Reo’s “select few” consisted of the antennae freak, the bug-eyed guy, the fast redhead, and Rin himself. Of the four, only the redhead didn’t seem to have a sh*ttier than average personality. (Rin could admit he was a bastard.)

Fortunately, Rin thought better of specifically calling out Nagi. The stricken look on Reo’s face, when the slacker got mentioned during Rin’s first real conversation with the older boy, still bothered Rin. (And Rin didn’t want Reo to really leave him alone right now. Which is absolutely something Reo could and likely would do with provocation.)

Rin settled for saying, “Your taste seems questionable.”

There. The brunet patted himself on the back. Got in his point about not feeling in good company without going too far, was a little self-deprecating so the comment was clearly playful – good job. Great work. Really showed Reo that Itoshi Rin’s got jokes.

Reo bumped him with an elbow and snigg*red, “Fair point.”

Rin elbowed him back because he was petty like that.

A quick and absolutely stupid round of shoulder bumping and elbowing ensued before Reo put a stop to it by plopping his face into the crook of Rin’s neck.

Despite the drying sweat, Rin didn’t smell unpleasant. The heat emanating from his body was nice, too, since Reo had gotten a bit cold during his slow trudge from one stratum to the other. Heat wasn’t turned on in the (theoretically) unoccupied 5th Stratum. Rin made for a good personal space heater. (The red tips of said space heater’s ears went unnoticed.)

Reo was starting to think that this “comfort” session was more for his own benefit now than Rin’s – sitting with Rin was better than what Reo originally had planned, which was to stare out at the field thinking about better days with Nagi and to imagine how things could have gone differently. The super elite sulker expected to zone out until he got sleepy or until he absolutely had to return to his dorm to avoid Barou realizing he snuck out during the night.

Reo would have been hot garbage during Day 7’s training if he’d done that; though, as it stood, he might still be doomed to a poor showing.

Ignoring the fact that his moving lips were probably tickling Rin’s neck and the fact that this was definitely too intimate to be an offer of simple companionship (oops), Reo mumbled, “Isagi was right, you know. It’d be a problem for Blue Lock if you got hurt.”

His red-faced companion gave a snort.

“You were eavesdropping?”

“Yeah, sorry I listened in on you getting all cute with your little rival.”

Rin made an annoyed sound.

Reo pulled his face out from its warm hiding spot and looked serious, “What he said about pushing yourself too hard was right though.”

“Beating your brother is obviously important to you – I’m not trying to dismiss your ambition or pretend I know what your story is.”

After a short pause, Reo switched gears. He adopted a tone of mock-agitation for his next series of remarks. It was quite like the tone he might have used for lecturing dummy-Zantetsu, (or, once upon a time, lecturing Nagi about the importance of this or that strategy for their glorious future soccer careers).

“Now! Before I say what I’m about to say next, I need you to understand that it is extremely annoying for me to have to say this – probably as annoying as it’ll be for you to hear it.”

“But! Breaking down from pointlessly overworking yourself is completely different from not being good enough to make your dreams a reality.”

“I mean, I guess, being too much of a moron to see the difference might mean you really aren’t going to be surpassing anyone. But I just wanted to make it clear that I think you’re plenty capa—"

Rin abruptly squeezed Reo’s side.

Caught completely off-guard, Reo jerked away from Rin with a squawk. Violet eyes widened to the point they may well have taken up half of the older boy’s face.

When Underlashes Jr. smirked (someone wasn’t in a foul mood anymore~), Reo’s eyes narrowed.

Reo, like Rin, was a petty creature.

Rin squeezed Reo’s side. So Reo promptly went for Rin’s armpits, post-work out grossness be damned. Could getting some pit-sweat on his hands be any more gnarly than getting post-scrimmage ballsweat all over his face? No. Obviously not.

The two of them ended up tussling on the floor because they were [1] dumb and [2] they pretty transparently wanted to work their way up to PG-13 (or higher) activities.

Reo kindly allowed Rin to win, since Rin was the one who appeared to have actually been in crisis earlier.

Lol at Reo taking advantage of someone in their time of need to score. (Guess he really had spent too much time with Shidou. sh*t. Was he Shidou in this situation? Was Rin him?)

The idle chatter in Reo’s brain shut off when the ever so slightly taller boy ended up laying on top of Reo, with his arms on either side of Reo’s shoulders.

Reo looked up and couldn’t help smiling.

Rin noticed that Reo actually had faint dimples on his cheeks.

“If you did a push-up, you’d be able to feel my boner,” Reo quipped.

Taken aback, Rin’s mouth fell slightly open as he considered his next words.

That consideration flew out the window when Reo brought his hands to bracket Rin’s face and reached up to kiss him.

More familiar with the drill now, Rin’s eyes fluttered shut as he gave Reo’s full lower lip a tentative swipe with his tongue before gently sucking. Reo returned the favor, treating Rin’s upper lip to some light suction before slipping his tongue into the other boy’s mouth. A broad hand slipped around to cover the back of Reo’s head as Rin gently pushed Reo back down onto the green without ever letting go of the other boy’s mouth.

Soon, the two of them were slowly grinding into each other. Rin’s other hand (the one that wasn’t protecting Reo’s head from the hard ground) brushed its way down from the exposed skin of Reo’s neck down to the hem of Reo’s hoodie before wandering underneath the Mikage’s waffle-knit long-sleeve.

The tips of Rin’s fingers skimmed over the ridges of Reo’s abdominal muscles and crept along his pectoral muscles until they found the soft velvety skin of the areola. Rin kept gently sweeping the pads of his fingers back and forth along Reo’s hard nipple, causing the boy beneath him to tremble.

Eventually, Reo wrenched his mouth away from Rin’s. The violet-eyed boy was panting lightly, and he hissed when Rin decided, the moment they fully separated, to scrape the edge of his nail straight across the raised nub on his chest.

“Dick,” Reo muttered.

That was Rin’s cue to insert (ha) some juvenile humor.

“You asking for mine?” he breathed into Reo’s ear.

An eyeroll.

“I guess.”

Rin shook his bangs out of his face to stare into Reo’s eyes.

Reo smiled again, eyes crinkling and dimples faintly reappearing, when he met Rin’s laser-focused teal gaze.

“Let me up, the ground’s uncomfortable.”

With one last lingering kiss, Rin got up and off.

Reo sat up quickly and stretched his back, instructing Rin, “Start taking off your gear.”

“Actually, wait, never mind. Leave it on.”

Now standing and in the middle of taking off his pants, Rin looked askance at the boy still seated on fake grass.

“There’s not much we can do here – I didn’t bring any lube since it wasn’t like I expected to see you.”

Reo stuck out his tongue as he thought for a moment about logistics. Teal eyes followed the progress of Reo’s tongue across slightly puffy red lips. There was a bit of pride in Rin’s stare, since Reo’s lips had been pale pink with the cold not too long ago.

“Crouch down, and I’ll get up on my knees too. We can just- - kinda pull our pants down.”

Meeting Rin’s confused stare, Reo gave an exaggerated sigh of exasperation and tugged Rin down so that his knees met the turf but he didn’t sit down. Reo stood on his knees as well and sort of dragged himself closer to Rin.

The director of the evening (more like early morning) festivities roughly palmed Rin’s bulge through his workout gear and slid his hand into Rin’s pants to grope around a bit. Rin grunted.

Reo eventually stopped copping a feel and pulled down Rin’s pants so that his dick was out in the open. Then Reo did the same for himself.

He displayed a well-cared for hand in front of Rin, gave a cutesy little wiggle of his fingers before placing them on Rin’s pursed lips. Itoshi-the-Younger looked almost cross-eyed for a moment, as he peered down at the three fingers resting on the seam of his mouth.

Cracking up at Rin’s face, Reo eventually choked out, “I need you to suck a bit, so my hand gets wet enough to start jerking us both off without rugburn.”

“I mean, I could also spit on our dicks,” he seemed momentarily taken by the thought. “But that seems rude without exploring another method first.”

“Also, I just wanna see you with my fingers in your mouth.” Reo took his other hand to give Rin a little pat on the cheek before sticking out his tongue teasingly. They looked at one another for a beat.

Rin, eyes smoldering, proceeded to lap at the soft pad of Reo’s middle finger. Teal eyes never wandered from the other man’s face even when violet eyes darkened to a deep indigo and shifted their focus to Rin’s mouth rather than the other man's eyes.

Somehow, just with Reo’s intent stare, Rin felt a tingle under his skin throughout his entire body. He swept his tongue up and over Reo’s middle finger then made a little loop over the index before sucking both fingers into his mouth.

Reo’s lips parted without him even realizing. The electric charge from the feeling of Rin sucking on his fingers went straight to his groin. Reo stuck his ring finger into Rin’s mouth as well, relishing the feel of the other man’s tongue flattening to accommodate the new width of all three digits.

It became pretty obvious that as wet as Reo’s fingers were getting (and as hard as both Rin and Reo were getting from the simulated fellati*), they weren’t exactly producing enough spit to smooth the way. Reo reluctantly extracted his fingers from the wet warmth of Rin’s mouth and brought them down to tease at Rin’s angry red crown and slide along the pronounced veins on the reddish-brown shaft. Reo moved closer and swiped the palm of that same hand over the head of his own dick to catch the precum.

Generally satisfied with the amount of slick coating his hand at that point, Reo aligned their co*cks so they were parallel to one another and began to stroke up and down. The task proved a little difficult given how his hand (which wasn’t tiny by any means) struggled to contain both of their girths.

Rin wasn’t complaining though. By this point he was resting his head against Reo’s and appreciating the picture below. He couldn’t help but marvel at the contrast between their dicks, and he greedily took in the sight of Reo’s elegant hand straining to contain the combined width of their co*cks.

It really wasn’t enough though. With a small noise of frustration Reo let go, pulled back a bit, and told Rin, “You take mine, and I’ll take yours.”

The teal-eyed boy gave a low laugh before he complied (looking about as happy as Reo had ever seen him). Rin licked a wet stripe across his palm, sucked his own fingers for a second, before he began tugging on Reo’s (quite pretty if Rin were to be honest) length.

They ended up setting a rapid pace for one another. At some point, Rin lifted a well-sculpted arm up to grab Reo by the nape of his neck so that he could be maneuvered into a greedy kiss.

Reo let the younger man seize control and relished the feeling of being plundered as if he were some sort of treasure Rin was desperate to claim.

Then it occurred to Reo that he very seldomly kissed with Shidou, couldn’t really remember one at all, despite how many times they’d hooked up. And with Barou, Reo had given him a quick peck as a little pre-apology for the hard slap that came next.

Huh.

Now that he thought of it, Rin was the second person Reo had ever kissed like this since Nagi. Not that pressing lips together was hugely symbolic or anything. It was just an odd piece of information.

Rin seemed to sense his distraction.

Annoyed, he gave Reo a bite on the lip and gruffly reminded him to keep going. Also, well-aware by now that Reo liked getting his hair pulled, Rin brought the hand at the nape of Reo’s neck up into the silky smooth purple strands and wrung his hair.

Reo groaned and was brought back to the present. It was kind of amazing how far Rin had come from his original (disastrous) fumbling. This was good. Reo could feel himself getting close, especially when Rin pulled him in for another bruising kiss.

Reo was about to come all over the astroturf of the last field he played on with Nagi, as teammates, and it was going to be with Blue Lock’s notoriously pissy No. 1.

And funnily enough, Reo wasn’t thinking about whether this would be the last field he’d ever play on with Nagi.

He wasn’t thinking about Nagi at all anymore, not after Rin drew him back in.

All Reo could think of was how, sh*t, Rin was really f*cking hot. And, damn, he got really good at this.

Had Rin known Reo was having these thoughts, Rin probably wouldn’t have been able to control himself and would have shot right then and there. (Un)fortunately for the eager boy, he didn’t have the ability to read minds.

Reo came all over Rin’s hand in spurts, and Rin went tumbling into his own climax right after.

They made a mess out of Rin’s gear and Reo’s zip-up.

Both of them looked at each other. Reo started laughing breathlessly. Even Rin was sort of chuckling. They tucked themselves in and got up.

The getting up part was a bit tricky, given how long the two had been on their knees. Reo leaned down to brush off the rubber crumbly stuff from his knees when all of a sudden Rin was trying to lift his head up again, with a hand under Reo’s chin.

Reo looked up at the other boy. When he caught the odd glassiness in his eyes, Reo thought, Oh.

So then he wrapped Itoshi Rin – the angry, sad, lonely, and bereft younger brother of Itoshi Sae – in a full hug. He enveloped Rin in the kind of full-body hug that Reo would never admit wanting himself. He gave Rin the odd kiss at the temple here or there, and he felt Rin brush his lips against his face from time to time. Rin hugged him back.

They just stayed like that (gross clothes forgotten) for a bit longer.

Then Reo opened his eyes—

And saw Nagi in the stands, by one of the entrances to the indoor field.

Nagi just stood there.

Face blank.

Eyes fixed.

He looked at Reo expressionlessly.

And Reo—

Reo closed his eyes and buried his face into Rin’s shoulder.

By the time he looked up again, Nagi was gone.

f*ck.

Chapter 10: Senpai, please notice me

Chapter Text

Chapter 10 – Senpai, please notice me

Nagi thought he heard Reo’s voice from the hall. It was distorted because of all the weird acoustics of the indoor training field, but it was unmistakably his partner’s voice.

Nagi wondered, for a moment, if he was hallucinating.

But maybe it was that uncanny, almost telepathic connection they had sometimes, where they both ended up gravitating towards the same thing without any prior discussion.

Maybe Reo had missed Nagi as much as Nagi missed Reo. Maybe Reo couldn’t sleep, either, so he was waiting for Nagi to join him on the pitch.

Nagi stepped into the stands, where he could see the field.

Oh.

Reo didn’t want him anymore.

(The bubble popped.)

--

Reo didn’t know this.

But Nagi grew up in silence.

His parents were married, but they lived separate lives. Nagi’s dad did a lot of traveling because of his work for a foreign oil & gas company; Nagi’s mom worked out of a prestigious North American university where she engineered custom medical devices dreamed up by cutting-edge researchers. For as long as he could remember, Nagi had seen their faces through phone screens for routine check-ins.

It was his stoic paternal grandfather who took care of him. Though calling the old man stoic was a bit of an understatement. The old man treated his words like gold and never said anything aloud when a gesture might do. There was never any idle chitchat around the home, and it was a wonder Nagi ever learned how to speak properly. (There’s that genius, again.) Nevertheless, it could still be said that the elderly man met his basic obligations. He made sure the boy adhered to a strict timetable and raised him to become a disciplined member of society.

Nagi remembered a grandmother being around when he was very, very young. (The owner of the weathered hands that tested his temperature, maybe.) But she passed away early on.

When Nagi was 14 going on 15, his grandfather passed away. It was on the cusp of springtime, not long before Nagi’s birthday. It also happened to be the 10th anniversary of his grandmother’s death.

The old man had been uncharacteristically chatty the night before it happened. Nagi had been reading the latest issue of Jump, enjoying the crisp breeze from his window as he burrowed under a kotatsu, when his grandfather asked him to come sit outside with him.

They lived in a relatively undeveloped part of Kanagawa, in an old, very traditional house. People from the city would probably consider it quaint, perfect for a retro bed and breakfast.

Seated on their wooden porch, the old man patted Nagi on the shoulder and uncharacteristically asked his grandson a rather philosophical question.

“What do you want most in life?”

Nagi hummed as he thought about it for a while. He’d never gotten an open-ended question like that from his grandfather before. The preteen drew a blank. “Nothing really.”

His grandfather gave him a long look and cracked a smile (a rare thing). “You sound like your grandmother. She—,” he paused. “She’d always parrot those old Buddhist monks. ‘Desire is the root of suffering,’ she’d say.”

“'Let go of all attachments.’”

He looked out into the yard. “Seishirou, your grandpa isn’t a very good Buddhist.”

“But you’re a very good boy.”

“I hope you don’t suffer.”

Nagi nodded, absentmindedly noting the peculiarity of the exchange. Then he asked to be excused. The old man nodded back and waved him away.

--

Nagi found the old man dead the next morning in the interior study. The smell of charcoal became much stronger once Nagi opened the study door.

His grandfather was curled around the urn containing his grandmother’s ashes. The old man must have removed it from the butsudan.

Nagi hadn’t known what to do.

He hesitated between calling 119 and #7119 – after all, was it really an emergency if the person was already dead? He called his parents. They were both in different time zones so he didn’t expect they would be able to get back to him any time soon. But, just in case.

Nagi’s father called back 10 hours later and told him that Nagi’s mother would come to settle affairs.

Nagi’s mom asked if he wanted to go to the states with her. When he declined, Nagi could see the faint relief in her expression. (Nagi was quite capable of observing emotional expressions, after all.)

It was a bit unorthodox given how young Nagi was, usually the kids with their own apartments were at least a year or two older, but Nagi’s parents set him up with a 1LDK in Tokyo, citing how it would be easier to check up on him. (They never came in person to check.) They also said the prep school they enrolled him in would give him far better options than staying at a public school out in the boonies.

None of it made a difference to Nagi, really. His life didn’t change much. (Remember, he’d grown up in silence after all.)

Now Nagi didn’t have to do any chores, didn’t need to eat at the same time every day (or even eat at all), and he didn’t need to sleep or wake up at any particular time, either, as long as he went to enough class to skate by.

He could play games for as long as he wanted.

So, he did.

He was still a ghost, and life was just as boring in Tokyo. Maybe even a bit more boring than before.

But then Reo found him.

And everything changed.

Nagi never got around to telling Reo any of this. The perpetually half-sleeping boy never thought too deeply about the past or future if he could help it. And he didn’t like to reflect on his feelings if he could avoid it.

Nagi forgot that Mikage Reo (“The Perfect Person”) didn’t truly know everything there was to know about Nagi Seishirou (“The Unremarkable Slacker”). Reo might have been magical (in Nagi’s eyes), but he wasn’t an actual mind-reader.

It was such a shame, because if Nagi had at least told Reo a bit about what his life was like, pre-Reo, his partner probably would have still been spoiling him to high heaven. Reo would have expected his treasure to do even less emotional labor than the very little Reo originally asked of him.

And, notably, Nagi would have never had to share Reo’s favor with other people.

(It was all really for the best though, because now they could both be heartbroken.)

--

Rin noticed Reo go still, after a while, and he figured that meant it was time to pull away. The younger man looked at Reo, who seemed a bit lost as he stared out into the distance. Glancing backward Rin didn’t see anything but the empty stands and one of the entrances to the field.

The violet-eyed boy snapped out of his daze and reminded Rin they needed to get going if they still wanted at least a few hours of sleep before practice. Rather than chattering the whole way back to the 1st Stratum, Reo seemed a bit subdued. Rin decided not to question it. It wasn’t his place (yet).

Still, the silence was companionable, and the hallways seemed less cold walking shoulder to shoulder.

They were both grateful for the company.

—

Whatever Reo expected, it wasn’t absolutely no reaction whatsoever.

A part of him had vaguely looked forward to a confrontation. Maybe then he’d get some inkling that Nagi cared more than he had let on. (…pathetic.)

When he saw Nagi at practice the next day, from a distance, it was clear the lazy genius looked a bit more tired and out of it than usual, even for an early morning workout. That meant that Reo’s brain hadn’t just conjured up a Nagi-like apparition just to f*ck with him.

But that was it.

There was nothing else.

Nagi didn’t seek him out during breakfast. Didn’t ask a single question during a break.

Sometimes Reo imagined he felt a stare coming from Nagi’s direction, but whenever he mustered enough courage to glance over, Nagi would quite obviously be doing something else.

Reo had stuck to what was now his usual routine, and that meant he didn’t go out of his way to seek Nagi out, slid past him as smoothly and naturally as the way water went around a rock in a stream.

It was just wishful thinking, on his part. Nagi would never initiate a tricky conversation if he could help it, the whole dining hall thing was a fluke. (Reo was wrong about this point, but no one could be blamed for that besides Nagi, who had never shown that much initiative before now.)

Not talking about anything was such a Nagi-move. Just like they never talked about them doing whatever it was they’d been doing before.

Old resentment started crawling out from the tiny compartment that Reo had tried his best to keep sealed shut.

Every good memory was slowly getting overwritten by Reo’s present sense of shame and embarrassment. Because Reo had felt guilty for, for what? Probably none of it mattered to Nagi.

Reo’s current emotional turmoil made him doubt everything he thought he knew, every judgment he’d ever made, especially whatever he’d ever guessed about how Nagi felt about anything (but primarily about how Nagi felt about him).

And he knew he was backsliding right now. He’d been doing so well for a while there, but here he was—-

Reo was so up in his feelings that he nearly ate sh*t during a passing drill. He all but tripped over the ball while dribbling. (Not a Bachira move.) Miraculously, it was ultimately someone else’s fault that the other team won possession.

Still, the whole safety pass rondo was a bit of a mess. Raichi Jingo just could not shut up, and his shouting made Tokimitsu stutter enough that even sweet little Nanase got a bit exasperated.

The post-drill review was harsh—Reo was first among the players ordered to publicly critique their own performance. He did get one surprising bit of praise though, and it was for communicating well on the field, making play predictable for supporting defenders.

Huh. Communicating well with others.

Reo cast a glance at the other end of the field, where a group mostly consisting of the starters was still mid-exercise, a 7 v 7 scrimmage. Nagi seemed to be controlling the flow of his team’s play. It was a close game, down to the last point for victory.

Reo managed to tear his eyes away.

Well, Nagi didn’t need him for that anymore.

—

Actually, Reo was quite mistaken.

Nagi was, miraculously, showing some initiative with playmaking, sure.

But it was primarily because he suddenly found he really, really wanted to beat the other team. Rin’s team.

During tryouts, Team A, Itoshi Rin, won every match.

Nagi didn’t want to lose to Rin today.

Isagi could understand the play Nagi was trying to develop, but Nagi was annoyed at how most of the others weren’t quite as quick to understand what he was aiming for.

When he played with Reo, Reo made sure everything was always in perfect alignment. That became harder and harder in Blue Lock, but at least Reo had always been able to make sure their own teammates didn’t get in his way.

It was all a little too easy, before, but Nagi really missed that now. Now that he was actually playing the game, trying to learn more about soccer, he started to appreciate just how much Reo kept in his head every single match.

Thinking about Reo made something in his chest hurt like it’d been dug into and hollowed out. All of his muscles, already straining to keep him moving, seemed to suddenly give out on him.

He lost possession. The other team successfully countered.

Rin won.

Nagi’s mind was blank. (But his eyes were scary.)

He was glad he saw Reo leave earlier. He’d wanted Reo to see him win, but now he felt something like relief that his partner hadn’t seen him lose. And yes, he was still his partner—he had to be. It had to be Reo.

Since Reo chose him for his talent, he’d just have to remind Reo why he should still choose him.

Reo, please notice me.

Chapter 11: Life's a beach, bruh

Chapter Text

Chapter 11 - Sleeping together does not guarantee you will be friends forever

Nagi spent days 7, 8, 9, and 10 of Blue Lock’s Last Training Camp trying to let his lizard brain do the thinking. (It was his lizard brain that tried to devise plays to defeat Rin.) (His lizard brain wasn’t much of a playmaker, apparently.)

If anyone asked, Nagi wouldn’t be able to tell you how he got from Point A to Point B. The only reason he robotically got out of bed and went to practice every day was because he still held on to a promise that kept floating to the top of the mess in his mind. A promise that he made with Reo.

To win the World Cup.

Together.

But the fuzzy image of them holding up a trophy together kept getting distorted by memories that just wouldn’t go away. They were like p*rnographic pop-ups on an illegal streaming site. And Nagi had no ad-block in his brain strong enough to suppress the onslaught—

There were images of Reo laughing with someone other than Nagi. Images of Reo kissing someone other than Nagi.

Images of Reo doing much more than kissing with Itoshi Rin, who wasn’t just a prodigy.

Rin, who wasn’t human. Rin, who was supernatural.

Rin who kept beating Nagi.

Even when Nagi was trying now. Trying his best.

Every time his brain produced these intrusive thoughts, Nagi felt like his skull was shrinking, his skin was too tight, and the frustration from losing was nothing in comparison to whatever emotions were roiling through him now.

Nagi realized he was probably angry.

And he had no idea where to put this alien emotion, because it felt fundamentally wrong to be angry at Reo.

But then, Reo still wouldn’t look at him.

Reo didn’t find Nagi to explain what happened the other night. And it’s not like Nagi even needed an explanation about what happened – Nagi saw what he saw.

Reo was supposed to at least try to explain why, not bury his face into Itoshi Rin’s shoulder and continue avoiding Nagi afterward.

Nagi couldn’t put his mind on mute – why hadn’t Reo noticed he was upset by now?

--

Reo, conversely, pulled a Nagi after Day 7. The young heir of the Mikage family typically engaged in so much self-reflection that it might be better to regard it as more of a form of self-obsession. Image control was critical, after all.

But his habitual introspection (and retrospection) had given him nothing but a near debilitating case of sad brain since 2nd Selection. So, in light of recent emotional stimuli, he was just going to shut it all down.

Ego would be announcing who made the bench in four days. Then it was going to be game day.

All of Reo’s shame, guilt, and outrage would just be wasted emotion if he didn’t do anything to fix himself, first and foremost. Approaching Nagi right now to try to explain things would be ‘a pain’ when Reo didn’t even know what he would say. Besides, he might as well be pissing into the ocean for all it meant to Nagi. (Right?)

Reo wasn’t planning to get left behind anymore – he didn’t need to waste time thinking through what he might be feeling or how he ought to frame things.

New-and-(maybe)-improving Reo tried to quiet his mind with surprising success.

—

Thusly so, on Day 11, Reo rotated into Nagi’s practice group.

Envision an ignorant little purple-haired surfer paddling out to meet Nagi, just as the typically imperturbable prodigy’s long-suppressed emotions crested like one of the f*cking massive waves at the Mavericks Surf Contest.

Nagi and Reo were both about to wipe out.

Super gnarly, bro. (lol)

--

Reo blanched when his name got called right after Nagi’s for the Red Team.

Nagi noticed.

He pretended he hadn’t been looking, but he was definitely looking, and he definitely saw that.

The grey-eyed boy’s neutral expression remained perfectly in place. Nagi’s eyes got just a tad bit darker.

When all seven members of the Red Team gathered, several sets of eyes turned to Nagi. Ego had given them free rein to decide what formation they’d use. It was an exercise in both formal tactics and creative thinking. Nagi was the only starter who wound up on this team, so most of the others were receptive to his opinion.

Nagi took the opportunity to look to Reo instead.

His partner hadn’t been paying attention, having chosen to busy himself with scanning their competition. One of the guys next to Reo gently elbowed him. Violet eyes blinked rapidly once their owner realized the de facto team captain decided to defer to him.

Reo was a bit astonished Nagi solicited his opinion when the caliber of his play outstripped Reo’s by this point. In Reo’s mind, he wasn’t needed anymore. Nagi was plenty capable of working with strangers now (soccer Jesus Isagi seemed to have taken care of that), and it was Nagi himself who said that Reo’s current level wasn’t enough for the soccer he wanted to play – what was this supposed to mean?

Nonplussed, Reo took his first real look at Nagi since their brief run-in at the 5th Stratum. The silver-haired boy genius’s expression was bland as ever, perhaps mildly expectant as he waited for Reo to present a general game plan.

Something felt a little off. But then again, there was plenty wrong already. Now wasn’t the time to dwell. Reo couldn’t keep falling behind.

He quickly started divvying out roles for the team. The Red Team’s conscripted strategist took into account the fact Barou was on the other side. Regardless of whatever formation either team might start with, it would end up turning into a good deal of improvisation once the King got into the swing of things.

--

Things proceeded smoothly. And that was part of the problem.

Reo managed to tamp down on all his Nagi-related stomach-churning fear and anxiety (at first). There was only the (sad, pitiful) elation of being able to play on the same team again – to have absolute confidence that even the trickiest of passes would make it to their intended target, who was always exactly where Reo needed him to be.

But, naturally, all the surviving Bluelockers weren’t anything to scoff at. Barou was well familiar with what the Nagi-Reo combination could achieve. (It pissed the King off even more now than it did the first time around.) The White Team eventually gained an advantage.

And eventually, Reo couldn’t ignore it anymore –

Nagi wasn’t having fun.

Reo turned a blind eye to it, at first, because he wanted to relish the joy of sharing a field with Nagi again. Reo knew, even more so now than before, that there was no guarantee of a next time, not with someone who ‘had been chosen by football.’

But. It was obvious. Reo didn’t need to hear Barou mocking Nagi about how f*cking boring his last two goals were. (Reo was a bit of a masoch*st, in a lot of ways, but he wasn’t an emotional masoch*st in this way – ykinmk, Barou.)

Nagi hadn’t denied how boring the goals were, back during 1st Selection, but at least he’d seemed proud of their partnership when he clapped back. Somehow it felt sadder for Reo, this time around, when Nagi didn’t even bother to respond to Barou’s goading.

Granted, it honestly didn’t feel like there was much of a partnership at present, though – Nagi wasn’t acting like he was his own person. He had completely subordinated himself to Reo’s vision of the field. He mechanically did whatever Reo directed him to do.

And the more Reo was forced to see it, the more it sucked all the joy out of playing together again.

Reo was the weak link. Any and all limitations in Reo’s strategic vision directly impacted Nagi’s performance. Reo stifled Nagi’s growth just by being there.

These practice games were all first to 5 goals or highest points when time got called. The Red Team’s fourth goal let them catch up to the White Team, and they were down to the game point.

Screwing his courage to the sticking place (and sick of the bored look on Nagi’s face), Reo decided to do something different and outside of his comfort zone – he was going to bet on another striker.

This wasn’t going to be like, say, for instance, begrudgingly believing in Zantetsu because Nagi told him to. It would be an intentional gamble. He’d learned a lot from his last gamble, after all, with the 3rd Selection tryout.

Right now, there was the tricky, near-impossible pass that he instinctively knew Nagi could receive. And Reo set it up so it looked every bit like he was going to count on Nagi again, like Reo had defaulted to, so many times before.

But then, in a remarkable show of skill as well as blind faith in an unfamiliar teammate, he feinted a kick and, without even a backward glance, gave a backheel pass to Saramadara Kairu, Shonan’s Predator. It showed either remarkable prescience concerning movements on the pitch or was extraordinary luck, given how there was no guarantee Saramadara would appear in time.

He did though – Saramadara seized the day and scored, right as Barou came barreling over to tackle Reo. Violently. There would have been no way for Reo to complete the pass if he’d actually meant to send the ball Nagi’s way.

Barou and Reo ended up tangled in a heap on the turf. Had the game still been going, that would have gotten a yellow card at a minimum.

The victim of the King’s sliding tackle picked himself up, ready to chew his roommate out for almost putting him out of commission when all of a sudden there was an almost whoosh-like sound next to Reo’s ear.

Next thing he knew, Nagi had already pulled Barou up roughly by the collar of his jersey and punched him in the face.

No one expected that one.

Barou and Nagi were both bloody-mouthed by the time they got pulled apart. Usually, Reo was the fastest to respond to situations, and as the closest person at the time, it would’ve been logical for him to be the first to get between the two.

Reo, instead, reacted only after he heard all the other guys on the pitch yelling for the two to calm down. The slow response could be forgiven, though, since Reo had never, ever seen Nagi like that. True, Nagi had been plenty annoyed by Barou during the Team V and Team X match, and Reo had needed to de-escalate the aggressive posturing then.

But Nagi displayed almost scary levels of aggro, just now.

He wasn’t like Shidou, who liked stirring sh*t up by swinging punches with little to no provocation. Or even Rin, who Reo’d taken to thinking of as a little hedgehog with a sh*t temper. Nagi literally sped over to get into a face-punching contest with Barou. For no reason. Unless it was the tackle? But that was just part of the game. (Reo didn’t want to give himself too much credit anymore.)

It took Reo and a couple other guys to finally get them off each other. Over the loudspeakers, Ego also threatened to tase them if they didn’t stop. Some of the guys on different teams looked over at the mention of tasing. (Not every day you got to see a guy electrocuted.)

The Mikage heir, lay-legal expert extraordinaire, yelled back that Ego better not even think about it or he’d have lawyers up Ego’s ass in a heartbeat, not to mention the actual police. (Arguing with Ego meant Reo missed some of the things Barou said to Nagi.)

Taking a quick glance over at Barou, the violet-eyed boy confirmed his roommate seemed fine. Then he dragged Nagi off the pitch.

(It’d be a lie to say Barou wasn’t a bit put out by Reo’s lack of serious concern for his well-being. But if Reo had heard a few of the things Barou said, he might not have even bothered to take a look back at all.)

--

The duo ended up going to Nagi’s room because that seemed better than a potential run-in with Barou if they went to Reo’s place.

Reo had always thought Barou and Nagi were pretty good friends after they wound up on the same clear team. His treasure was a pacifist. What the f*ck was that?

Beyond the heretofore unseen display of aggression, Nagi looked entirely too calm for someone with drying blood on his chin and a cheek that was starting to swell. Every Nagi-sense Reo cultivated since they first met told Reo something was very wrong. He couldn’t read anything from his genius’s expression.

If Reo were able to read Nagi’s mind, the blank gaze wouldn’t be so surprising – Nagi’s brain was full of static.

Nagi prided himself on being a pacifist. He didn’t get into fights. He didn’t get angry.

But Nagi found that he was suddenly angrier than he’d ever been in his entire life. He wanted to break things. He wanted to break a lot of things.

He felt he had already been plenty patient when Barou revisited old taunts about his relationship with Reo. The silver-haired boy was hanging onto his cool by an extraordinarily thin thread, but Barou getting physical with Reo (again) proved enough to make Nagi snap.

If Nagi were more adept at examining his own emotional responses, he would have realized that there had also been an additional trigger, precipitating the outburst. He had felt a twinge of hurt Reo chose to pass to whoever the hell it was who scored that last goal. Nagi could’ve done it. Nagi had been expecting the pass, already thought of how he’d get through the circling defenders. Reo never would have gambled on someone at random like that before. (Never mind that Nagi himself had been the one to school Reo on his own predictability and overreliance on Nagi.)

The instinct-driven genius wished he’d tried harder to break Barou’s face at the end there. (“What? You mad ‘cause Reo doesn’t need a sh*t-for-brains like you to score anymore?” “You always were a f*ckin’ parasite.”) Reo would never abandon him.

Meanwhile, Reo fell back into old habits and carefully checked Nagi for damage. Slightly damp hands gently felt around Nagi’s cheek and chin before gently dabbing at the dried blood with a towel that had been dipped in cool water.

Reo would never touch Nagi’s bare face with dirty hands – he’d made sure to wash with soap and water first. He felt a little pang when he looked down at the redness on Nagi’s porcelain skin.

Lost in thought, Reo was a bit surprised when Nagi broke the silence first.

“So, are we good now?”

“What?” Reo startled and pressed a bit too hard on Nagi’s cheek. The white-haired boy hissed.

“sh*t, I’m sorry. How bad was it? I should have gotten an ice pack from the nurse.”

“Ah – wait, I didn’t get to check earlier. Are your teeth okay?”

The static (and anger) slowly receded the more Reo fussed over him. It was really nice to have Reo taking care of him like this. The seated patient wondered if this was all it took – listening to what Reo told him to do on the field – to get Reo to pay attention to him again.

A part of Nagi felt uncomfortable with the thought that his obedience might really be the condition for this treatment, but he suppressed the discomfort to focus on the fact Reo was finally taking care of him again. Nagi missed this.

At that moment, Nagi thought he could pretend he hadn’t seen anything that other night, for the rest of their lives, if it meant they could stay just like this. Sweeping it all under the rug would be easier, anyway, than having to discuss—that.

Nagi tried to ignore the sudden unpleasant throbbing feeling in his chest. He seized on an impulsive idea as a distraction.

“My teeth are fine,” Nagi said. He pulled his mouth open with a long finger so Reo could inspect his teeth.

There was still a bit of blood around some of them, which made the violet-eyed boy frown. Reo internally debated the wisdom of a closer inspection. Taking Nagi to the infirmary made more sense, probably.

Still pulling at the edge of his mouth, Nagi’s speech slurred as he continued, “Yerr kern check more crose-rii erf yer wan’oo.”

“…” Reo stared.

Nagi didn’t blink.

It suddenly occurred to Reo that a familiar version of Nagi had reappeared before him. The interactions felt warm and cozy, like being enveloped in a well-worn and much-beloved sweater. Okay, it felt warm in slightly less domestic ways, too, because Reo was always weak to Nagi's charms. Reo had a *type* - he'd even thought Kira Ryousuke was tall and handsome, alright? And Nagi was obviously better. 9 cm (in height!!!) made a huge difference.

If he set aside the violent outburst that preceded this, Reo could imagine that they’d never had any period of estrangement. He thought that this was probably as close as they could possibly get to his oft-dreamed-of state of innocence.

Reo hated that his unbelievably stupid, lovelorn teenage heart swelled at the (ridiculous) sight of Nagi trying to talk around his own finger. There was literally drool threatening to drip out. That sh*t was not cute. There was something deeply wrong with Reo for finding it cute.

“You’re reopening your wound! Cut that out, you idiot!”

“Wernted chu ‘heck tho,” Nagi – the idiot savant – insisted.

Rolling his eyes, Reo relented with a muttered “fine” and sat next to Nagi on the other boy’s bed. The amethyst-eyed young man fought a faint blush and a little flutter of nervousness as he moved closer to inspect.

(Why the hell was he blushing when he’d been in far more up close and personal situations with this same exact person? They gave each other their V-cards! Moreover, they had issues! Serious ones! Reo needed to get it together, Christ.)

This was naturally the moment Nagi pulled his saliva-coated finger out of his mouth and used it to paint a clear stripe across Reo’s cheek.

Reo scrunched up his face in annoyance. And before he could yell at Nagi for being gross, Nagi had stuck a hand under Reo’s chin to bring Reo close enough to softly press their lips together. It felt—right.

--

If Mikage Reo were to be frank with himself, he would admit that he vaguely anticipated this development and had already tacitly agreed to it when he sat down on the bed. There were many, many reasons this was a bad idea, not the least of which was the fact that he was once again just going with the flow with Nagi, even though he had no idea where they stood.

Did this mean that Nagi just wanted to resume their previous relationship?

But what was their past arrangement anyway? It could be anything between best buddies who f*cked around with no particular rules or, theoretically, a traditional couple in a committed (monogamous) relationship.

The latter would have required some discussion, though, which they never had – Nagi never so much as said he was having fun when he was with Reo, much less that he liked Reo. At most, Nagi would say that it wasn’t a pain to be around him. That it was “fine.” (Couldn’t avoid the little stab of sadness at that, nope. Not getting over that anytime soon.)

Nagi would, however, say things about how he liked stuff they’d do together in a sexual context. He was quite communicative in that way. And so, the scales tipped more towards the first category.

Reo wasn’t melodramatic enough to claim that Nagi had no affection for himself whatsoever – not at this point in time anyway – but it was more like, Nagi just did whatever occurred to him because Reo was the first (and only) person around, and because Reo was obviously down. For whatever.

Nagi passively reacted in response to things that the world threw at him. (See, one extremely desperate Mikage Reo.) The lazy genius moved on instinct and likely didn’t feel the need to label their ‘relationship’ because he never thought too deeply about it or envisioned any future for the two of them. Basically, to Reo’s understanding, the whole Rin thing probably surprised Nagi, but it didn’t get in the way of Nagi trying to get his dick wet if he ~felt frisky~

Just like right now.

Only an actual idiot would think that he needed to “more closely inspect” Nagi’s teeth for damage. Reo wasn’t a dental professional. A closer inspection would, at best, be Reo making sure none of his treasure’s teeth were loose.

With his tongue. In Nagi’s mouth.

Reo shortly set about doing just that, because Mikage Reo entered into agreements in good faith. He would honor the terms and thoroughly inspect each of Nagi Seishirou’s stupid, bloody teeth, so help him God.

(Bad idea, right?)

—

Recalling how Nagi had very recently been /punched in the face/ and had a swollen lip-cheek combo to contend with, Reo exercised restraint and used only the lightest of touches, even though he’d missed the other boy enough to want to meld their bones together. (Disturbing image. But definitely the vibe.)

Nagi had no such compunctions. He used both hands to grab Reo by the face to pull him closer to deepen their kiss. The taller man moved with a ferocity that communicated just how badly he wanted to devour his long-absent partner. It didn’t matter that his lip had started to bleed again because of how fiercely he’d pressed up against Reo’s lips. In fact, some part of Nagi liked the idea that Reo had no choice but to swallow his blood. Nagi wanted to imagine that a part of him could live inside of Reo, in some way, because of it.

Both sets of hands had started to wander. Nagi had one squeezing the nape of Reo’s neck and the other snaking its way down the back of Reo’s pants; Reo had one hand tangled in Nagi’s hair and another insistently rubbing against the hard-on in Nagi’s training bottoms.

They were almost ready to get horizontal when the sound of the dormitory door unlocking caused both to spring apart.

With lightning-fast reflexes, Nagi grabbed a loose shoe from the floor and threw it at the door as if he were pitching a fastball. Whoever was about to open the door seemed to think better of it after the impressively solid thunk sound.

Nagi’s eyes homed in on Reo’s slightly swollen pink lips, thinking about how they should pick up where they’d left off. Nagi didn’t think anything more needed to be said since a soccer cleat to the door ought to have made things clear enough to whichever playdough-faced mob character lurked outside. (Nagi still hadn’t bothered to remember who he was rooming with, because Nagi was both a space case and a bit of a dickhe*d.)

Reo seemed to feel otherwise. The red-faced young man cleared his throat and projected his voice to say, “Just a second. Sorry.” He then readjusted his junk, tucking his erection behind his waistband before making hand-motions for Nagi to do the same. The silver-haired striker uncooperatively sulked in place.

Giving Nagi a mostly joking eyeroll of disgust, Reo got up to go get Nagi’s door.

A freshly showered Saramadara Kairu stood on the other side of the door frame. The slightly shorter young man with grey dreads looked a bit startled to find a flushed and bright-eyed Mikage Reo answering his room door. Confused, Saramadara opted to nod politely in greeting.

Then, thinking about how practice went, he figured he’d add on, “Thanks for the assist earlier, dude. Really let me make a wave.”

Reo pulled up the edges of his lips into a practiced smile and prepared to exchange niceties when he noticed Saramadara looked more alarmed than before.

“Leave.”

Standing up to his full 190 cm height, a visibly peeved Nagi appeared behind Reo to shove Saramadara out of the doorway by the surfer bro’s shoulder. (So, it was this little sh*t Reo let score that last goal. Oh.) The door shut before Saramadara could say anything else.

He settled for asking through the door. “Bruh, when can I come back?”

“Don’t bother,” the silver-haired striker replied.

Reo twisted backward to look at Nagi incredulously.

In response, Nagi took off his shirt and tugged Reo back to the bed. The ganglier of the two wrapped his arms around his partner and flopped them both onto the mattress, on their sides. Enormous, deep grey eyes looked searchingly into Reo’s dark violet. Finally, with a slow blink, Nagi buried his face into Reo’s neck and breathed.

It hurt a bit, to press his slightly swollen cheek against Reo’s collarbone. Nagi noticed it before, but he could now confirm that Reo was bonier than he’d been two months ago. This wasn’t just what working out a lot would typically do. Nagi made a note to bring it up later.

But for now, he wanted to greedily suck in more of Reo’s essence. Nagi hoped that breathing in more of Reo would put a stop to the spam that kept trying to flood his brain.

He felt a sharp stab at the temple when a snippet broke through – Reo giving Rin a heartfelt motivational speech about not overworking himself only to be interrupted by Rin f*cking tickling Reo then rolling all over the ground with him.

The memory made Nagi bite Reo’s neck hard enough to make Reo hiss. The other boy tried to pull away. As if to make up for it, Nagi gently trailed his lips along the nape of Reo’s neck before returning to where he’d bitten to plant an open-mouthed kiss and gently worry at the skin with his tongue.

Trapped in the circle of Nagi’s arms, the slightly shorter young man squirmed at the sensation. He received a small nip on his shoulder to remind him to behave. Never one to be bossed around, Reo responded by making trouble – he slid a hand between their lower bodies that were pressed tightly against one another. Nagi’s erection was still as hard as ever, so Reo wiggled his hand around trying to find his way to Nagi’s waistband so he could touch bare skin.

Another series of mental video clips popped up, entirely unbidden. Reo’s soft panting as Rin sucked his fingers into his mouth. The sight of Reo’s fine-boned fingers wrapped around another man’s dick, slick and shiny under the artificial lighting of the indoor training field.

Nagi yanked Reo’s hand out from between them and rolled over so that he was on top of Reo. The wiry muscular man brought Reo’s captive wrist up and over the other boy’s head then quickly caught Reo’s other hand as well.

Nagi pinned both of Reo’s hands above the halo of his aubergine hair and trapped Reo’s body beneath him. Reo’s pupils were blown and his face bright red. When the pouted lips fell slightly open, Nagi actively conjured memories of having that seductive, silver-tongued mouth suck on his co*ck and felt himself harden some more.

He thought of all the things that Reo had done with him, had done for him, and reassured himself that no one else mattered. The important thing was that they were here, they were together right now. Nagi knew Reo’s body as well as he knew his own. They had history.

And despite the filth that filled Nagi’s mind, his expression was deadly serious. His eyes took on that strange cast they’d have on the pitch, sometimes, as if they belonged to an ancient death god eager to sap all the light of the living. He darkly wondered if it would be so wrong to just tie Reo up and keep Reo all to himself, so he didn’t need to worry about any other surprises.

The train of thought was interrupted when Reo bucked up against Nagi’s crotch, annoyed that Nagi kept staring without any other movement.

In response, Nagi ground down slowly on Reo’s arousal, making sure that the slow drag was enough to make Reo thrust up even more forcefully in response.

A small smile replaced the silver-haired boy’s somber expression. Giving Reo’s wrists a sharp squeeze, Nagi brought his other hand down to palm at Reo’s crotch before yanking the pants down to the middle of Reo’s thighs.

He only needed to glide his palm across Reo’s tip a few times to get his hand slick enough to start jerking Reo off without too much friction. It always felt good to see Reo’s co*ck so wet so quickly. He stopped briefly so he could lick a stripe across his palm to taste Reo’s watery precum.

Truthfully, he also wanted to hear Reo’s needy little whine from the loss of attention. Before resuming his hand’s ministrations, Nagi swooped down to lick into Reo’s pillowy lips and smother any other sounds the other boy might hope to make. Grey eyes slowly opened as their owner pulled away from his partner’s mouth – a thin silver wire stretched between the two before eventually breaking.

“Do you have lube?” Reo asked.

The host gave Reo a falsely wide-eyed expression of innocence. “Lube?”

Nagi got an annoyed palm pushing his face away for his bad acting.

Getting up, Nagi rifled through a drawer while Reo stripped. The tube was tossed over to Reo, once it’d been secured, and Nagi dove onto the bed once he’d stripped down himself.

Half-lidded, dark purple eyes took in the changes to Nagi’s body – the once spindly young man bulked up considerably since they’d last seen each other naked.

Dense muscle wrapped around Nagi’s long limbs, and an increase in the muscle mass around his shoulders made his v-taper more pronounced than before. He wasn’t as broad-shouldered and veiny as Shidou, but Nagi had definitely grown in size and was noticeably more vascular.

The physical transformation marked just how long they’d been apart from each other (and served as a reminder of the unpleasant reasons why). But it also made Reo feel hungrier than ever to explore the new dips and planes on his treasured prodigy’s body.

Taking a look at the taller man’s length, Reo’s eyes almost sparkled. He gave his old friend an affectionate pat on the silky smooth shaft. And, yes, Reo liked to anthropomorphize Nagi’s penis. Nagi’s dick apparently dug that, because it bobbed up in response, making Reo laugh.

Reo got as far as giving the crown a gentle suck before he was pulled off and found his hands pinned above his head a second time.

Nagi hovered above him, inspecting the expanse of perfect skin spread over hard muscle. Then he slipped a lube-covered hand behind Reo’s balls and started to lazily run the tip of a finger back and forth from the perineum to Reo’s entrance.

When he finally slipped a finger inside, Reo let out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately for Reo, Nagi had no plans to bring him any relief. The wirier man ordered Reo not to let go of the headboard under any circ*mstances. He then applied every bit of knowledge he’d gleaned from their time together to bring Reo to the brink again and again with just his fingers.

Reo felt an electrical tingle throughout his entire co*ck. It felt as if he was being stimulated from inside of his sex. Slowly that sensation spread throughout his entire body, leaving him suspended in a state of being seconds away from coming seemingly for hours.

In truth, it had only been about 20 minutes. Nagi was rock-hard throughout, intent on capturing every minute movement of Reo’s features. He wanted the satisfaction of being the one to slowly take Reo apart. This moment was his.

A thin stream of milky fluid kept leaking from Reo’s glans, as he begged and babbled through as the sensation of having an org*sm kept pulsing through his body again and again without reaching that final release of tension.

Only when it was clear Reo couldn’t take it anymore, Nagi fed his thick co*ck into Reo’s greedy hole and f*cked into him. Nagi’s movements carried with them the passionate intensity of everything he didn’t know how to put into actual words. He couldn’t seem to express himself verbally, so he tried his best through his actions.

Reo’s responding moans came from deep inside his chest. Hands scrabbled at Nagi’s back and Reo’s long legs wrapped around Nagi’s waist. Reo felt as if part of his mind had flown away from his body because of how he was now getting rocked by org*smic convulsion after convulsion at about every third stroke.

When Reo finally came with his dick, his cum splattered all across his chest and even hit Nagi’s chin. He was completely wrecked, reduced to a glassy-eyed mess.

But Nagi still wasn’t done. He didn’t want to leave the tight wet heat of Reo’s body. Bending down to kiss the man beneath him, Nagi also adjusted their position – he hauled one of Reo’s legs over his shoulder and started f*cking him even faster. Silver hair a bit damp with sweat, Nagi pistoned in and out, letting out a restrained groan with each thrust.

The new position allowed him to hit Reo’s prostate more forcefully from a different angle. Reo had barely caught his breath from the head rush of his recent series of org*sms. But with Nagi stimulating him like that, again, leading him up and down peaks and valleys, Reo lost control completely – his entire body convulsed so hard he would have pushed out Nagi’s dick if it weren’t for the other man’s persistence.

Nagi came with a strangled sound—the spasms inside of Reo drove Nagi over the edge.

Reo joined him shortly afterward. Much to Reo’s horror, though, he didn’t just come this time. Reo pissed himself. He came so hard that he ended up peeing. It sprayed out involuntarily because everything felt so incredible that his entire brain and every muscle in his body let go all at once.

If he wasn’t on the verge of fainting, he’d cry from embarrassment. As it was, the entire experience had been so intense that he felt overwhelmed by all his—his f*cking feelings for Nagi. (Reo was able to avoid using the l-word.)

Reo wanted to drag his exhausted body out of bed so that they could maybe spare the mattress some damage (the sheets were a lost cause). But Nagi clutched at Reo to bring him closer and closer.

The almost desperate hold wasn’t released even when his softening co*ck started to slip out of Reo’s cum-soaked hole. Nagi just wanted them to stay together like that, forever. (Reo had no idea.)

It would be difficult to hide the total mess they’d made of the bedding as well as one another’s bodies. But those details seemed insignificant at the time.

The two boys just held onto each other, in a daze for a while.

It was really nice.

—

Post-sneaky disposal of evidence and furtive showers, they were back in Nagi’s room dealing with the remaining clean-up.

Reo wondered if he was going to sleep over, if this meant they’d made up, if they’d have to talk about feelings, define their relationship(?). Post-org*smic bliss, he sheltered a fragile optimism in his chest.

But he also still worried about what had gotten into Nagi, earlier that day, for him to lose his cool on the pitch with Barou. The two of them hadn’t been in communication for so long, Reo didn’t know if there was something troubling Nagi that he wasn’t aware of. (The irony was strong in this one.)

On Nagi’s end, given his preference for simplicity, he assumed they had made up from whatever their recent weirdness was. They could just ignore the past few months and go back to being Nagi and Reo (a single entity). He would finally be able to mute all the overly complicated thoughts (and feelings) he’d been having. The two of them were back on track to achieve Reo’s dream of winning the World Cup. And Nagi was now maybe buying into the dream himself. Everything would be fine now.

—

Things were, very predictably, not fine.

The two boys were seated on the fresh bedding as Reo toweled dry Nagi’s hair. There was something tentative (but still a bit hopeful!) about the atmosphere in the room now that they didn’t have their dicks at the wheel.

Tone soft, Reo finally tried asking the question that had been on his mind, “Can we talk about why you picked a fight with Barou earlier?”

The hopefulness suddenly dissipated for Nagi, who bristled at the way Reo phrased his question. It made it sound as if Nagi had needlessly made trouble when Nagi never wasted his energy on pointless things. Reo already knew that.

Nagi spoke a bit more quickly than he normally would when he replied, “I don’t know.”

“Anyway, he was violent first. He hurt Reo.”

“Why is Reo blaming me?”

Well-able to tell that this tone meant Nagi was getting snippy with him, Reo lost the softness he had previously. Nagi wasn’t the only one annoyed to find that their expectations disappointed.

“I can fight my own battles, okay? I don’t need you—”

Nagi uncharacteristically cut Reo off. “What do you mean? You don’t need me because you don’t care anymore?”

“What?”

“You don’t care about winning the World Cup together – you don’t care about our promise anymore.”

Reo was astounded. “Why on earth would you even say that? I just meant that I don’t need you to potentially hurt yourself trying to protect me when I don’t need it. Fights could really f*ck up your career, you know?”

Nagi’s reply fell back into a flat monotone, “You’ve been ignoring me, on purpose, for a long time now.”

The underlying questions (Why would you do that? Aren’t I your treasure?) went unasked.

“I’m—” Reo paused because this was precisely the conversation that he’d wanted to avoid.

Reo was caught flat-footed without having sorted out what to say. Even when he’d lashed out at Nagi on the pitch after Chigiri was chosen, everything Reo said was a venomous thought that had been nursed in his mind for a long, long time before it was spat out.

“I—," Reo still couldn’t do it. This conversation required a level of emotional honesty (and vulnerability) that Reo often failed to achieve even in the privacy of his own mind.

“What? Are you sick of me now that I don’t just play football while only trusting you?”

“Because I don’t just listen to whatever you say anymore?”

Blue Lock’s HVAC system always hummed loudly in the background, so it must have been their imagination when it seemed as if the room had gotten quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

Reo looked as if he’d been slapped.

Nagi’s conjecture was wrong. But, in a way, it also wasn’t far off the mark.

Reo wasn’t sick of Nagi because Nagi stopped listening to him – Reo was too ashamed to face Nagi because Reo really had wanted Nagi to only believe in him, wanted Nagi to look only at him while the two of them rose to the top, together.

Telling Nagi the truth about why he was ashamed meant revealing all his ugly, mean thoughts to the one person he wanted to think well of him. It made Reo feel ill to imagine confessing his sins to Nagi, to say out loud, “I wanted you to fail, so I could prove you needed me. And I wanted to snuff out that first spark of real joy I’d ever seen in you because I wasn’t the one who brought that to you. I need you to need me, so I can feel like I’m worth something.”

Pride (and fear of Nagi’s disgust) made Reo’s ego choose violence.

“You were the one who said I was a pain, that you were done with me, you were past caring.”

“And you were also the one who said that I’m not good enough to play with you—not good enough to play the soccer you suddenly seem to find fun.”

“I’m glad that, thanks to Isagi, you care about something enough to finally, for once in your life, show some f*cking initiative,” Reo bit out. “But that doesn’t mean you can turn around and make me sound like a villain for avoiding someone who keeps putting me down.”

Nagi’s ego seemed to be on the same page as Reo’s.

Words rushed out, faster and louder than ever before. “Oh, so Reo’s throwing a fit because I told the truth? It’s my fault even when Reo is the one who isn’t playing well enough?”

“You tried to prove a point about how good you are at everything, and now that you’re finally getting challenged, you can’t handle it.”

“But Reo can never be wrong, right?”

“So, since you can’t just ‘lose interest’ in soccer and drop it the way you do everything else in your life, you’ve decided to take it out on me? Lose interest in me?”

At this point, Reo was livid, near spluttering with rage, “Are we even talking about the same thing here? I’ve been working my ass off every day to catch up to you.”

“If you weren’t being such a selfish prick, you would see that. It sounds like you’re the one throwing a fit over the fact that I have f*cking feelings, like a normal person, and I don’t feel like babysitting an asshole.”

“What? Everything’s too inconvenient without me waiting on you hand and foot?”

“You want me to be your mommy or something?”

Nagi felt deeply misunderstood, maligned, and hurt.

Reo was saying these things to him, Reo who had been the first and only person to offer him unconditional love and affection, the same Reo who looked at him like he hung the moon and said, again and again, “I’m going to prove to the world that you’re the best there is.”

Reo was a f*cking liar. He never planned to stay together until the end.

Suddenly, it was as if 17 years’ worth of anger manifested in Nagi’s body, and his next words carried the weight of all of it.

“I was perfectly fine by myself until you showed up and decided to be a f*cking pain.”

“I don’t need you for anything.”

Nagi’s arrow flew straight, and his aim was true.

In Reo’s insecure, guilt-laden mind, Nagi had Reo dead to rights – Reo forced his way into Nagi’s life, and Reo made Nagi’s life worse by being in it.

Just like how Nagi’s soccer was worse when he played with Reo.

Reo had imposed himself on Nagi, selfishly forced Nagi to accept him because Reo gave him no other option.

These were facts.

When Nagi met Reo’s eyes, Reo understood, at that moment, Nagi cared a lot more about their relationship than Reo had been telling himself. Nagi cared enough to pick a fight, cared enough to feel upset.

Reo wasn’t used to emotionally fraught arguments. He had never been emotionally invested enough to feel much of anything whenever there was a dispute with another person. Even disagreements with his parents were, in essence, faintly hostile, business-like negotiations.

Reo got most of his first emotional experiences from Nagi, he supposed.

“Alright. I’ll stop bothering you then,” Reo replied with false cheer.

“We can end things here.”

This was the confrontation that Reo had secretly looked forward to, the confrontation that would confirm that Nagi felt something about ‘them.’ (In his mind, tiny cartoon versions of the two of them waved pitchforks at each other squeaking, “Come on, let’s hurt each other!”)

It felt way worse to actually experience it in real life.

(There wasn’t a little cartoon reconciliation in the end.)

There was no sense of satisfaction from finally seeing Nagi feel bad. This didn’t make up for all the nights Reo spent crying himself to sleep.

Now Reo just felt bad he’d made Nagi feel bad. Fighting like this felt especially f*cked up considering how intimate they’d been not too long ago.

The whole room still smelled like sex.

“Okay, sounds good.”

“Reo always does whatever he wants anyway.”

Reo needed to go.

Chapter 12: I'll text ya later, lord and savior

Chapter Text

Chapter 12 – Text ya later, lord and savior

After Reo left, in yet another uncharacteristic show of rage, Nagi grabbed the nearest object and hurled it at the wall in frustration.

The nearest object happened to be the bottle of lube, which, luckily for Nagi was mostly empty, but, unluckily for Nagi, still exploded over his freshly made bed.

Just what he needed—more housekeeping now that his head was hurting again and there seemed to be some kind of persistent high-pitched screech in his ears. With a mumbled, “Ah, sh*t,” Nagi sat down, wet patches be damned, and buried his head in his hands.

Despite managing to avoid too many deep thoughts and too many complicated feelings for the past decade plus, Nagi suddenly couldn’t help thinking and re-thinking everything again.

Nagi recalled, with perfect clarity, what he’d said to Reo as they walked through Blue Lock’s doors.

“But what if there’s someone better than me?

Teaming up with him instead would be better, right?”

“Hah, I won’t do something that heartless.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t mind though.”

Reo lied, Nagi thought. He was that heartless.

But Nagi had lied too, even if he hadn’t fully realized it at the time.

He minded. He minded a lot.

That thought – the thought that Reo could easily replace him in a heartbeat – had probably bothered Nagi even before Blue Lock. And maybe that was yet another reason Nagi never got around to confessing and putting a name to their relationship, beyond the pettiness of titles and the cringe-factor of confessions generally.

Reo was the first person who had ever been interested in a slacker like him. But Reo never had to choose Nagi in the first place. Reo was popular. Reo was constantly surrounded by people clamoring for his attention and willing to do nearly anything for a fraction of his regard. He could manipulate people as easily as children could mold playdough. There were plenty of other talented athletes out there, and Reo could easily have anyone he wanted. (Just look – didn’t he have Rin now?)

It was pure luck that had given Nagi the chance to impress Reo in the right place and at the right time. In his heart of hearts, Nagi knew that.

Reo’s affection was for Nagi’s potential, not Nagi himself.

It’s just that Reo had spoiled Nagi so much that he let it get to his head. He’d forgotten that there was nothing unique to himself that guaranteed Reo’s sustained interest. Nagi’s only advantage was Reo’s belief he could mold Nagi into what Reo needed him to be.

Nagi felt incredibly stupid for having forgotten something so basic, especially after seeing time and time again how quickly Reo got sick of things once he’d figured them out. He never touched that game at the arcade after making it into the top ten. Reo never looked back with nostalgia even once after he decided he was done.

The grey-eyed prodigy might have been more important than anyone else for a while, for what could even be considered a long time, but that didn’t mean Reo couldn’t live without him. Nagi’s luck had run out.

It was ironic. Nagi had been trying to “show some initiative” for Reo. Nagi had wondered if he could become good enough to be Reo’s *real* partner – someone who stood on an equal footing, instead of Reo’s latest shiny new toy that he would soon lose interest in.

That was, apparently, Nagi’s first mistake.

Nagi never thought he was the kind of person who could get worked up over the tone of someone’s voice, but Reo’s tone, laced with contempt, was enough to get him all messed up in the head. It just felt so unfair.

Reo had ignored everything Nagi tried to communicate, on purpose, just like he’d avoided Nagi for so long, on purpose. On some level, Nagi wanted to get back at Reo for how the other boy had clearly been trying to punish him. That was probably why Nagi said those things that he knew weren’t true even as he said them. (Reo wasn’t a pain, and Nagi wasn’t perfectly fine before Reo came along.) Nagi had instantly realized that he’d f*cked up.

But then, right before Nagi could take back everything he’d said, Reo’s airy, “We can end things here,” opened a tear in space that threatened to suck Nagi back into the dark, silent world he originally came from.

And now, Nagi had stupidly, impulsively, angrily agreed to jump right into the black hole himself. Said it sounded good when it hadn’t sounded good at all. Because Nagi didn’t know what to do when he was angry, and he didn’t know what to do when he was scared.

He was still mad at Reo, but a near existential horror bore down on Nagi as he contemplated a future without him.

--

In Nagi’s mind, Reo controlled his own destiny. Nagi never doubted Reo’s ability to achieve whatever Reo wanted. The heir always dramatically declared Nagi was “a chosen one,” but it was obvious to Nagi that Reo was the one who was a master of the universe from birth.

This absolute confidence in Reo contributed, in large part, to why Nagi failed to recognize Reo’s various crises of confidence for what they were. If it were a foregone conclusion Reo would always get everything he wanted in the end, then it was hard to see Reo’s bouts of anger (fear) or frustration as anything other than a spoiled young master’s occasional display of willful petulance.

There was a lot that Nagi assumed just came naturally to Reo, like that “amazing” power he had, as a “popular person,” to “manipulate everyone.”

It would never have occurred to Nagi that Reo had learned how to please people as a matter of necessity.

Nagi never imagined Reo needed to please anyone at all.

So even when he’d seen how alone Reo could be in a crowd, from Nagi’s perspective, Reo held himself apart because the people around him were boring and not worth his attention. Reo was self-sufficient and self-driven. He didn’t need anyone. People needed to earn their keep if they wanted to stick around Reo. (Only one of those statements was even a little bit true.)

But Nagi couldn’t really be blamed, having grown up in silence. There weren’t ever any people around.

Reo grew up in a cacophony of voices.

From birth, he was always surrounded by people—nannies, life assistants, instructors, extended family—the list goes on. They were all little more than fleeting figures, though, because Reo was never given a chance to form a strong attachment to any one person.

This was intentional.

Reo’s parents couldn’t afford to have anyone manipulating the affections of a child who stood to inherit large fortunes from both sides of his family. That oft-mentioned 5.4 billion U.S. dollars was an estimate of Reo’s worth alone.

Throughout his childhood, Reo’s family established careful checks and balances in an ever-rotating roster of caretakers to ensure that Reo wouldn’t form an excessive attachment to any one person in particular. (Baa-ya only came into the picture later.)

Even the appearance of attempting to gain Reo’s affections would be viewed as overstepping. Employees faced immediate termination without exception; relatives faced reductions in economic cooperation or outright excommunication, depending on the seriousness of the perceived transgression.

Reo had no lack of exposure to people, no shortage of conversation partners, but he seldom had even a hand to hold when sick, much less sad.

His parents were busy.

Reo’s father, Mikage Eiichirou, was the youngest son in a long line of businessmen. Eiichirou built upon his family’s legacy and transformed the Mikage Corporation into a true multinational, multi-industry conglomerate to be reckoned with. He fought his way to the chairmanship by spearheading innovations in Mikage’s consumer electronics division, eating up competitors through a series of skillful M&As, as well as, of course, marrying well.

The ambitious expansionist fully intended his only (legitimate) son to ascend the throne. Mikage Eiichirou didn’t scrap his way up top only to relinquish all the treasure he’d hoarded to the progeny of his hyena-like siblings.

“Even family can’t be trusted,” his father often explained, “Only common interests.”

Reo’s mother, Ishibashi Akie, always nodded in agreement. (If she was there.)

Akie was the second daughter of a prominent political family and a virtuoso performer in all respects. She ran a clean energy investment firm separate from the Mikage family’s industries, and she ran it very well. She sat on the board of directors for several different major philanthropic organizations, and she fundraised for them very well. When Ishibashi Akie had time to spare, between her duties as a CEO and international philanthropist, she played the role of a doting mother.

But it was, at the end of the day, like many of the other roles she played – a performance.

Akie’s truest passion was proving her own perfection, perhaps a pathological need born from a childhood living in the shadow of her (previously) more excellent older brother and sister.

In her younger years, she placed her bets on the youngest and hungriest of the Mikage siblings, secretly supported Eiichirou’s various gambits, and ultimately saw her gamble pay off. Now her elder statesman father and excellent older brother and sister owed their power and positions to her, the most unassuming of her generation.

An actress as talented as Akie had a critical eye for the performances of other players. She reared Reo to be her protégé.

“You can’t believe what people say,” his mother explained, “People say and do things they don’t really mean.”

“You can only trust what you can control – that includes people.”

Reo’s father always agreed. (If he was there.) The two were kindred spirits.

Reo learned early on not to ask after his parents. Whenever he did, they showered him with lavish gifts to make up for their absences, and then they would schedule him for more activities, classes, social engagements, and the like to take up more of his time. His days were an unending blur of sound and color meant to cultivate him for his destiny as someone who would stand above the rest.

Reo wasn’t an ingrate. He understood he was lucky. He understood this was their very generous way of expressing their care.

Eventually, he understood his parents’ life lessons applied to themselves as well –

His parents couldn’t be trusted, either.

Reo was flattered when his 6^th grade teacher asked him to consider her a good friend, delighted when she said that he could use her first name in private. For months, Reo reveled in the unfamiliar closeness. He cherished every pat on the head and blushed uncontrollably when given the occasional hug.

She was so smart and so beautiful and so very kind. Reo took comfort in the fact that she had excellent credentials. Her job at his prestigious private school was safe in a way his poor nannies’ were not – his handlers couldn’t fire this teacher the way they fired the nanny who gave Reo a stuffed toy (originally meant for her nephew, Reo had tried to explain) when he was seriously ill (and incredibly lonely) at age 6.

Still, Reo couldn’t help but notice how the closer it got to the end of the school year (and the closer he got to graduating from elementary school), the more effusive she became in her praise about Reo’s maturity; her hands started to linger too long; and she always had some reason Reo needed to spend time alone with her. The skepticism his parents had drilled into him from an early age began to kick in.

His parents’ assistants (Eiichirou and Akie’s first lines of defense against unwanted distractions) all seemed unconcerned when he mentioned feeling uncomfortable. The teacher had excellent credentials – Reo must have been a bit put-off by her more Western pedagogical approach, they asserted. He needed to grow up and get used to interacting with people who had different backgrounds. That was the whole point of going to an international school.

In the end, he took his parents’ lessons to heart and took care of the problem himself.

Reo made sure that a classmate tailed him on the day the teacher was expected to reveal her feelings. A recording of the love confession and his (mostly fake) wide-eyed horror wound up on the school message board. (Aforementioned classmate’s bothersome tendency to surreptitiously photograph and record Reo finally came in handy.)

The tabloids all said the woman was after the Mikage family’s money before the family lawyers had gotten the articles withdrawn. Reo’s maternal grandmother insisted on assigning Baa-ya to Reo after the whole scandal. (“Clearly, he needs more consistent adult figures in his life. This was a dangerous oversight.”)

By this point, Mikage Reo concluded he was better off alone.

But then he met Nagi.

And everything changed.

Reo quickly realized that Nagi’s apathy was so strong that he had only the faintest of attachments to life itself.

It was an unconscionable waste of the many blessings bestowed upon the other boy, Reo thought. And sometimes, when the true extent of Nagi’s disregard for his own well-being caught Reo by surprise (like that first time Nagi had gotten seriously ill but didn’t think it was even worth mentioning), it broke Reo’s heart.

(But it also meant Nagi was safe—Nagi couldn’t want something from Reo if Nagi barely had the will to live.)

And so, Reo directed all the love and affection that never had an outlet for over 16 years towards another emotionally stunted and likely (very severely) depressed boy.

Nagi Seishirou wasn’t just Mikage Reo’s first love; Nagi Seishirou was the first (and for a long time the only) real person in Mikage Reo’s world – a world that had been filled with so much noise, so many vaguely sinister spectral figures, but never any actual people.

Reo had no idea what loving another person looked like. He really only knew people who loved themselves, after all. But Reo believed in Nagi with near-religious fervor. This included believing Nagi always told the truth (which proved problematic, for obvious reasons).

It was so sad, because if Reo had explained more of this earlier on, then he’d have spared them both a lot of heartbreak. Maybe then, Nagi would have really, truly understood he wasn’t just the rich kid’s newest passing fancy. Nagi would have understood that they were both groping around in the dark, and he would have tried a lot harder to use his words properly (instead of not at all).

Really, if either of them had tried just a little harder to explain where they came from, the two of them could have held hands while they slowly figured out this whole feelings thing, together, just the two of them.

But, on the bright side, after being devastated by his first love, Mikage Reo’s world finally started to have quite a few more real people in it.

(And dicks, we can’t forget the additional dicks.)

--

There was no way in hell Reo was going to afternoon practice. It was already 3:30, so at most he’d be showing up to get yelled at while doing some lethal combination of bear crawls, burpees, and full field sprints for the remaining half hour as punishment.

Neither his physical condition nor his current emotional state could tolerate any of that, much less the looks Chigiri would be shooting his way.

Reo had already gotten a few LINE messages from the concerned redhead that started with a “wtf was that?” followed by a “where are you two?” during lunch, then “are you seriously skipping practice today?” about 3 minutes into noon warm-ups before the other boy left off with a “god why do you lose all your braincells for that moron.”

Since going back to his room seemed off the table, too, given the possibility Barou might return before Reo composed himself, he supposed it was time to skulk off to a remote training room.

A voice in Reo’s head (that sounded suspiciously like Chigiri) scoffed at Reo for being a masoch*stic idiot when Reo’s feet reflexively brought him back to Team V’s former block in the 5^th Stratum.

He should at least be working out right now. He couldn’t afford to lose any opportunities to prove why, yes, he, Mikage Reo, was indeed worthy of planting his ass on the sidelines. His ass was very nice, and he’d be an excellent backup player, pinky swear. There were only three days left before Ego’s next big announcement.

But instead, he was sitting on a leg press machine with his hands around his knees, moping.

The purple-haired boy’s lips quirked up into a rueful smile. He’d be a top pick for most improvement in managing personal misery. It was nothing short of a miracle for him to have kept it together earlier. And it was no mean feat for him to have yet to shed a tear.

Except now his face kept involuntarily twitching whenever Nagi’s furious (and hurt) expression came to mind.

Reo had never seen that much emotion on Nagi’s face before.

Not very long ago, Reo thought he would have done just about anything to get a rise out of Nagi, just so Reo could prove he still had some kind of control.

Even if Reo couldn’t evoke the same joy as Isagi; even if Reo couldn’t bring out the same child-like wonder that had taken Reo’s breath away when he’d first seen it, because finally, finally, something was enough to hold Nagi’s attention; and even if it was someone other than Reo who could actually make Nagi want something, make Nagi affirmatively choose to stay, instead of always looking like he would just float away the moment Reo let go—

Seeing Nagi really, truly feel something (anything) because of him – because of Mikage Reo – would be enough, he had thought.

Because Reo might as well not exist if he was irrelevant to Nagi. Because somewhere along the way, on the path to fulfilling his World Cup pipe dream, Nagi had become Reo’s dream. Reo said as much when he declared how making Nagi the world’s best striker was his ego.

(The World Cup had been an arbitrary goal he set for himself to begin with. Soccer, totally random.

If what had been on TV that fateful afternoon had been ballet or basketball, some news about a criminal investigation or a soapy romantic drama, becoming a ballerino or a baller, a detective or an actor would have become Reo’s “dream to prove his existence.”

But because it was soccer, Reo met Nagi, and then the rest was history.)

After his little lightbulb moment during tryouts, Reo thought he’d maybe figured everything out. He thought he’d come to terms with the fact that it was all just too bad, so sad, Nagi didn’t give a sh*t, but that was okay. Reo could be okay without Nagi.

Reo still existed, even if he was just a minor footnote in Nagi’s story. Reo still had a right to be here. He had seen the light, could start fixing his f*cked-up self and his very misguided ideas about how to get people to like him. He didn’t need to do anything besides exist, and he didn’t need someone else’s approval or even acknowledgment for that (even if it’d be nice). Every moment was a chance to start over.

He was going to be okay.

Lol.

That was, apparently, a f*cking stupid thought because Reo was, apparently, f*cking stupid and couldn’t learn anything new.

Reo couldn’t trust his own feelings or his own thoughts. He couldn’t control himself, which was the absolute bare minimum he should have been able to control. He didn’t know what the f*ck he was doing or why he was even alive, and he knew he was so lucky to have so much more than someone as stupid, sh*tty, conceited, small-minded, and selfish as him should ever have, but he was still so spoiled and so f*cking entitled that he felt like he didn’t have anything he wanted andnoonewouldeverlovehimheshouldjust d i s a p p e a r hewouldneverbehappyhedidn’tdeservetoexistsomaybeheshouldjustgo d i—

A barrage of message alerts came in just before Reo could finish his thought.

The sound jarred him into realizing he hadn’t been breathing, and he’d been gripping his knees so hard he may even have broken skin at a couple points.

After taking a deep breath, the wan-faced boy reached for the phone he’d dropped next to the weight machine earlier. His hands were a little shaky for some reason. And by “for some reason,” he meant his hands trembled because an eensy-weensy tiny little part of his heart held a small shred of hope that maybe it was Nagi.

Maybe Nagi had messaged him to say he was sorry for everything he said earlier, he didn’t mean any of it, he didn’t hate Reo at all.

Reo let out a sharp bark of laughter after unlocking his phone. There was no texted apology of course. (It was ludicrous to have even dreamed of one. Reo knew Nagi never wasted his energy on pointless things. And Nagi had nothing to apologize for, anyway. Reo’s reactions weren’t normal, weren’t remotely socially acceptable.)

Instead, a series of high-resolution, black & white DPs from Blue Lock’s biggest freak-in-exile proudly touted their subject’s goods on Reo’s screen.

Shidou not only had impeccable timing when it came to dramatic pronouncements about exploding on the field. He also had perfect timing for interrupting purple-bun’s angstiest moments.

The village degenerate had outdone himself with that afternoon’s unexpected amateur p*rn submission –the first photo depicted a can of coffee resting on Shidou’s groin, right next to his still ‘sleeping’ co*ck. Then with each successive swipe, Reo watched as the familiar member took a ‘sip’ from the can with its little LINE camera stamp of a mouth before ‘waking up,’ standing to full attention, and finally blowing its load. The canned coffee was evidently there for scale. Naturally, that meant the slim can didn’t stand a chance in any comparison against Shidou’s dick.

Reo silently gawped at his screen as he considered the effort Shidou must have put into his most elaborate penis pictorial to date. If he were in a different frame of mind, Reo might have been able to appreciate the fact that these were quality pics of an SSS-level dick.

Presently, however, he was just morbidly fascinated by this peek into Shidou Ryuusei’s strange brain circuits. The more he thought about Shidou “staging” each shot, interrupting his own jerk-*ff session to take artsy photos before plugging all of them into a photo editing app so he could add a filter and stick f*cking face stamps on his penis, the less he could suppress the laughter bubbling up his chest.

Like. What even?

Reo gave up and flopped backward onto the supportive backing of the seat, laughing wildly and possibly sobbing(?) hysterically(?) as he stretched out his legs and did his first real leg press since he got onto the machine god knows how long ago. His legs remained in their extended position as he let the hand holding his phone dangle loosely at the side of the machine and flung his other arm over his face to cover his eyes.

If you ignored the unhinged laughter (and extreme bizarreness of the whole bawling-mid-leg-press-with-piss-poor-form thing), Reo in repose was pretty enough to be some modern (and male) rendition of the Sleeping Ariadne from classical antiquity. (That was admittedly a lot of really weird things to ignore though, so maybe not.)

The emotionally exhausted young man inhaled deeply and brought the footplate back to its starting position. He scrubbed at his face with his free hand, feeling generally grubby from the bout of explosive ugly crying and pretty gross for touching his face after putting his hands all over gym equipment that hadn’t been cleaned in god knows how long.

After taking another minute to calm himself, curiosity triumphed over whatever it was in Reo’s bad brain that kept trying to kill him with sadness. (Praise be.) Reo proceeded to respond to Shidou faster than he’d ever replied to him before, asking precisely how much time this work of art had taken the other man.

Distractions were good. And Reo didn’t fail to notice the strange serendipity that characterized the course of his acquaintance with Shidou. That boy’s dick was like Reo’s very own personal Jesus or something.

--

Leaning back and balancing his modern-looking but extremely uncomfortable chair on its hind legs, Shidou sent back a question mark.

He was surprised by Reo’s near immediate response to his photos, and even more surprised when he saw the little read receipt pop up next to his “?” making it clear Reo was still in the chat window. Shidou vaguely knew Reo’s phone use habits after coordinating many a late-night rendezvous. His boringly strait-laced purple bun didn’t even read most messages sent during the day, and the earliest he’d been known to respond (to Shidou at least) was after he finished with free training in the evening.

Whenever Shidou teased Reo for being a goody two shoes (“Checking your phone between sets isn’t a crime, bunny. It takes two seconds.”), Reo usually leaned in to being a Miss Prim and insisted workouts required his full, undivided attention.

(On one such occasion: “Nothing you send is ever that important.” “That’s not what your slu*tty lit—,” Reo tried to clap a hand over Shidou’s mouth, but Shidou caught the smaller man’s wrist and merrily forged onward, “—tle hole says when I’m sending in my co*ck.” Reo tried to yank back his hand only to get dragged into the tanned striker’s arms instead. Shidou bit the red-faced and fuming boy’s nose lightly before giving Reo’s ass a good squeeze. “See you later ♪~!” The blond menace then sauntered off with pink eyes narrowed from the self-satisfied smile plastered across his face.)

A near-instantaneous reply mid-afternoon implied something made Reo break from his routine. Huh. Shidou had a passing thought about asking Reo if anything significant happened over at Blue Lock today. But he almost instantaneously decided he actually wasn’t that curious. He managed to catch a live Reo for once, so Shidou intended to alleviate his boredom by trying to agitate the other boy:

“looking at my dick during practice?”

“naughty”

[rabbits shaking & screaming ‘perv~!!’ stamp]

[DO-sukebe huge text stamp]

“u should know how long it took to finish”

[creepy old man leering stamp]

“Shidou-sensei can kindly offer a remedial class over zoom tho”

“u can relearn how the cream for ur coffee gets made”

[blushing carton of milk wriggling & writhing stamp]

The blond smirked as read receipts popped up one after another (query why he was so pleased just to see his msgs got read), and he snickered when Reo uncharacteristically replied with a stamp of his own.

[creepy Picasso-painting brain with the letters N O stamp*]

Shidou was even more tickled by the follow-up:

[sanrio’s kuromi turning her nose up and saying “hmph” stamp]

“But fwiw thank you”

[thick eyebrowed man holds out chili pepper saying Ariga-TOUGARASHI stamp**]

[disturbingly long-limbed bear says farewell before disappearing stamp]

Quirking an eyebrow at all the oddly nice (for Reo) and weirdly cutesy replies (again, by Reo’s standards), Shidou idly wondered if this meant he should try video calling later. His cute little topknot had even said thank you – how could that be anything other than a green light for more of the D?

That brief exchange took all of maybe three minutes, but it had given Shidou more entertainment than any of the in-person interactions he’d had for the last few days. The blond menace had essentially been under house arrest for the past 10+ days with only Japan’s current totally trash U-20 for company. Shidou didn’t particularly enjoy stewing in garbage. There was only so much time Shidou could spend at the gym or jacking off in increasingly inappropriate places and in increasingly weird ways.

Itoshi Sae rarely deigned to grace group practice with his presence, since they were largely useless to him. That, in turn, meant the practices felt like a waste of time for Shidou, too, since, without Itoshi Sr.’s aura imposing order, Shidou always found himself in some type of minor verbal and/or physical altercation with the official U-20 guys. It wasn’t even Shidou starting sh*t sometimes either. But the result was always Shidou getting benched, which was bullsh*t.

Shidou had been bored enough to create a stop-motion slideshow with his dick, okay. That wasn’t something Shidou had ever considered doing, much less actually did, before this excruciatingly dull training camp. So, convincing the Mikage heir to get naked on camera for him (or at least have some phone sex) would be a welcome side quest. He fiddled with his phone as he considered how he’d go about getting his way.

From the lectern, an assistant coach for Japan’s U-20 team demanded Shidou put away his phone and pay attention to the current counterstrategy analysis. Shidou slowly looked up and fixed his gaze on the lecturer. The blond let the front legs of his chair smash back onto the ground. A bit unsettled by Shidou’s slit-eyed pupils, the assistant coach flinched slightly at the obnoxiously loud sound.

Shidou hadn’t listened to most of the lecture, especially given how the analysis focused heavily on improving their defense (boring), but—"I have eyes. And I can see that you had a 5-3-1-1 set up, but whoever the f*ck was playing wingback over there on the left, the butterface with the bad hair, ran himself into the ground.”

“He doesn’t know sh*t about positioning, and the other team exploited that knowledge gap until they scored through build-up on the left flank.”

“Maybe find a wingback with some eyes and a half-working brain.”

Shidou played largely based on instinct, and he lacked the formal training in analyzing gameplay that kids who had gone through the football academy pipeline received. But his keen intellect let him keep up with the best of them.

The assistant coach wanted to remind Shidou his crappy attitude was doing him no favors (even if his observations were spot on), but he had to swallow his anger when Itoshi Sae finally bothered looking up from his phone to build on Shidou’s rude remarks with his own scathing critique.

These teenagers were f*cking assholes. It took every ounce of willpower not to throw the f*cking remote he was using to go through the powerpoint presentation.

Shidou tucked his phone back into his pocket so he could leer at Sae, but he fully intended to circle back to bothering Reo once Underlashes, Sr., finished up. Mikage was going to be in for a treat tonight.

--

Saramadara tried going back to his dorm room around 10 something, closer to 11 pm. He hoped he wouldn’t really have to crash in a buddy’s room, because he wasn’t sure-sure if that was actually chill at Blue Lock. Would Ego give demerits or something? He hadn’t heard of anyone else getting, like, sexiled or whatever, so it was hard to say. (Shonan’s Predator was a shark on the pitch but kind of a slow bro on dry land.)

He was relieved when the door opened without issue.

He felt substantially less relieved when he saw how his roomie was sitting on a wet(?) comforter with random splatter, looking like someone killed his entire family and then some.

Out of politeness, Saramadara checked in. “Hey, dude, you okay?”

Nagi didn’t say anything, just slowly lifted his head to stare at Saramadara. Enormous, unblinking grey eyes bored holes into Saramadara’s face until Saramadara finally looked away and tried his best to busy himself with his pre-sleep routine without disturbing Nagi, who had switched from sitting with his head in his hands to blankly staring at his smartphone.

Saramadara, out of the corner of his eye, saw Nagi typing and deleting something into a LINE message window before typing and deleting something again. Occasionally, the expressionless young man would stop, put his phone to sleep, and stare at a black screen for 5 to 10 minutes before restarting the type-and-delete cycle.

It was uh, pretty unsettling. Especially because the guy persisted even after Saramadara turned off the lights in the room around midnight. Saramadara slept facing the wall that night because, after an hour of catching the eerie glow of Nagi’s phone lighting up his face, he decided he had enough nightmare fodder, thanks.

For the remainder of training camp, the surfer avoided Nagi as much as possible. Bro decided the Roomie gave off some serious Ju-on vibes after receiving what he dubbed “The Stare.” Best to steer clear of the bad juju.

Chapter 13: There's someone at the door...

Chapter Text

Chapter 13 – There’s someone at the door…

All four men in the room heard, “Show daddy your bumhole, bunny boy ♥︎,” before they saw anything. Barou choked.

What a pity for Reo’s sanity that he could see what sprang up on his phone screen a fraction of a second before anyone else. Every neuron in his brain proceeded to fire at once, leaving him physically paralyzed and completely helpless as he watched his phone clatter to the floor in slow-mo.

Face-side up.

This was not what he had in mind, when he’d idly hoped for something to break the awkward tension earlier.

Shidou Ryuusei’s dick was not the salvation he sought at this time, alright? They were in the middle of leaving the room already!

Three other pairs of eyes zoomed in on Reo’s phone screen before he could kick the cursed object away.

The still frozen Mikage spared a moment to review some of his current regrets.

If Reo had been paying just a little more attention, he wouldn’t have fumbled the pass from Chigiri.

If Reo hadn’t fumbled the pass from Chigiri, Reo’s finger wouldn’t have slid across the little bar that accepted the video call.

And, of course, if Reo hadn’t accidentally accepted Shidou’s video call, there would not be a topless, wet Shidou Ryuusei leering through Reo’s (far too large and far too HD) phone screen, while sporting a VERY OBVIOUS BONER that was barely covered by a FAR TOO SMALL towel.

Alas, Reo hadn’t paid more attention; he undeniably fumbled the pass; and he had, indeed, accepted Shidou’s video call.

He deeply resented being trapped in this stupid timeline; almost as much as he resented the dumb blond across the screen who seemed to be slowly realizing that he had not caught Reo at a good time for a sexy time.

From the tiny self-view box in the corner of the screen, Reo could tell that both he and Rin were in frame, but their faces were blessedly difficult to see because they were both looking down at the camera from their full standing height.

Reo was v glad he couldn’t see Rin’s expression (or Barou and Chigiri’s).

But Reo was v v sad that Shidou was still there, still very muscular, and still mostly naked even after Reo blinked and wished 3x his friendly neighborhood sex offender would disappear.

Shidou paused and adjusted his camera angle so that his bulge was no longer visible. He didn’t seem embarrassed per se – just mildly surprised it wasn’t only Reo on the other end.

Taking a deep breath, Reo reached down to grab his phone. He needed to end this call as soon as humanly possible. “Hanging up now,” he announced in an admirably level voice.

A more sober expression replaced the original rakish grin on the caller’s face.

Thankfully Shidou wasn’t in the mood to troll. (Because that was the thing – Reo learned Shidou’s horny behavior wasn’t because he was some type of nymphomaniac. Shidou liked explosions. Sex was explosive. Outrage was explosive. Consequently, sex-based trolling was super fun, explosive entertainment for Shidou.)

Reo, sadly, misread Shidou’s expression and misunderstood how bored Shidou was in the other training camp.

“Hand the phone to Rin-tan so I get his POV when y’bang.”

T H I S S O N O F A B I T C H.

—was the mortified boy’s last conscious thought before he blacked out from rage, yelling, “KORA, SHIDOU,” rolling that R rulll hard like a real og.

What followed was a string of threats(?), curses(?), and insults(?) that Reo would never be able to recall and no one else in the room (or on the receiving end) could accurately repeat with much confidence. (Barou, Chigiri, Rin, and even Shidou unanimously agreed it was pretty impressive though. Typically, Reo was kind of…bad at trashtalking. See, Times New Roman Reo meme.)

Reo regained consciousness in the middle swiping left on Shidou’s contact in LINE.

Amethyst eyes blinked owlishly at the device.

Then, the young man’s thumb hit the red “block” button with great prejudice.

Business sorted, Reo finally braved the eyes of the other boys in the room: Chigiri, impressed; Rin, constipated; Barou, brain broken. Very well then.

“Everyone still down to kick a ball around?”

Cue Reo’s bestest ever little tongue-out smile.

Earlier that evening—

Rin stabbed his notepad with a pen.

Teal-blue eyes impatiently scanned the footage from the day’s practice games. A few other guys were using other displays in the monitoring room to review their own performances as well.

Everyone kept to themselves, but Rin still felt agitated by every quiet exhalation. Even the texture of Rin’s innocent notepad managed to annoy him.

This level of irritation notably exceeded his usual baseline. So much so that he was barely able to focus.

It had started in the afternoon.

Well, actually, it started during the latter half of a.m. practice, when the crackle of the loudspeakers (coupled with the threat of electrocution) caused everyone to still. It was only then that Rin registered a ruckus on the other side of the pitch.

He spotted Reo trying to pull an overrated ‘prodigy’ away from a fight. The distinctive, violet-capped figure strained to keep his arms wrapped around the taller boy to prevent any more fist swinging. Other Bluelockers tried to hold back Barou Shoei or physically get in between the two brawlers.

Rin vaguely made out some of the choice threats the Mikage heir hurled towards the closest drone hovering above the scrum. After the incensed young man stopped yelling at Ego through the drone, he got up on tiptoe to say something into Nagi’s ear.

Whatever Reo said must have worked because the tension in the silver-haired man’s body visibly dissipated. Reo then readjusted his hold to slip one of his arms under Nagi’s, allowing the taller boy to use his body as a crutch, before half-dragging the human-shaped sandbag towards the nearest exit.

There was no legitimate reason for Rin to be as annoyed as he felt when he saw the two leave. But Rin’s eyes had narrowed at the sight, nonetheless.

Rin had enough self-awareness to identify and very reluctantly acknowledge what he’d been feeling –

Displeasure. With a (very small) side of jealousy.

Working backwards, he determined that seeing Reo leaping to that mediocre amateur’s defense was the initial trigger.

Rin had grown even more displeased after noticing how Nagi bonelessly draped himself all over Reo. It was ridiculous. The loser had been punched in the face, not shot in the knee. There was no need for assistance walking.

The displeasure reached the point of actual distraction when, during the start of that afternoon’s group practice, he realized both Reo and the overgrown stick bug were (still) absent.

He zoned out during a water break, peevishly thinking about how he never exchanged LINE IDs with Reo. If he had, he could have communicated, in writing, exactly how it was an incredibly stupid choice to miss any training, given the official match fast approaching. Bug-eyed guy might be a starter, but Reo certainly wasn’t.

Rin was able to focus on practice (and dominate, as per usual) because Rin was nothing if not self-disciplined. But he couldn’t afford to waste energy suppressing distractions at this critical juncture, right before his long-anticipated showdown against Sae. Adding new displeasure to his ample preexisting dissatisfaction with life, the universe, and everything (i.e., soccer and Sae) could prove costly.

Logic and reason required that he eliminate the possibility of future disruptions.

But. How was he supposed to do that when he had no business expressing any opinions about who Reo chose to follow around?

Rin learned his lesson from the first time he gave Reo his unsolicited advice. (Reo had been an asshole.)

Bluntly telling Reo to cut that sh*t out was no longer an option. (A shocking development! Either Reo’s tears could produce miracles or Rin’s character grew when his penis did during bb boy’s first bj. Coin toss between which.)

Rin left ink blots that bled through multiple pages as he cast about for a solution and kept stabbing at the poor pad with his pen. He really should have been reviewing his performance.

A flash of purple seized Rin’s attention before he could refocus.

Through the monitor room’s wide paned interior windows, Rin caught Reo’s figure quickly retreating down the hallway. The other boy was probably making his way back from the 5^th Stratum, based on the direction he’d come from.

Huh.

Rin checked in with himself, assessed his state of mind, and swiftly decided that he would go find Reo after making an earnest effort to review footage for another 30 minutes. Analyzing the practice tapes hadn’t been particularly fruitful for the past half hour because he’d been so irritable. After he’d spotted Reo, however, the solution to his most immediate problem—the excessive irritability—became obvious.

He would just go and speak to Reo directly. Rin could figure out how to address his Reo-related issue(s) then. (And he could also get Reo’s LINE. Which he needed. For reasons.)

It was much easier to focus once he’d made up his mind to see the other boy.

Even if Rin still wasn’t sure precisely what he was going to say or do, he believed there was no point hemming and hawing over something for too long. Rin showed the decisiveness of a professional athlete in all matters. He was a man of action, because, in sport, you really only make progress if you just do the damn thing and see what works.

Rin always did the thing.

This was why Rin, for all his surliness, knew how to use his words. He readily verbalized his opinions and vocalized his preferences. Most of his opinions weren’t particularly kind, and his preferences were typically along the lines of “go die in a fire.” But the boy definitely used his words. (Possibly to a fault. Because Rin was a huge dick.)

(No one said he used his words well.)

--

Reo looked a little squirrely when he popped his head into his own dorm room. He froze in the doorway for a moment, after making eye contact with Barou, who was seated at his desk. The tense young man briefly noted how Barou’s cheek was a bit swollen. Not as noticeably as Nagi’s but it probably hurt to touch.

Instinctively, Reo felt the urge to apologize for that morning. But he reminded himself Nagi didn’t want or need him doing things on his behalf. This wasn’t Reo’s problem anymore. It never really was in the first place. That was why he was such a pain, ha.

The two roommates stared at each other. There was a minute widening of Barou’s eyes once he took in how atypically awful Reo looked.

Reo had his hair down, and it must have air-dried poorly given the odd hair bumps and dents all over. Purple strands stuck messily to the sides of Reo’s slightly sweaty, noticeably worn-out face. Given how puffy his eyelids already were, Barou guessed the Mikage’s eyes were probably going to be swollen shut tomorrow.

There was an immediate switch to an apologetic smile once Reo registered Barou’s presence. That smile, which might otherwise have been note-perfect proportions of charming and contrite, didn’t work so well when the usually immaculate boy appeared both unwashed and unkempt. The smile also manifested itself a tad too quickly to be convincing.

After a beat, Reo let the door shut behind him and strode over to his side of the room, casually tossing his phone on the bed as he pivoted to grab a few things from the dresser. He internally lamented coming back to his room before washing up. Sure, the water heater in the 5^th Stratum had been turned off (Reo checked), but what was a cold shower compared to being seen in his current state?

Reo finished rifling through his dresser, grabbed his shower caddy, then moved to fish for something in his desk drawer.

Barou rubbed the back of his head, unsure of how to proceed. It seemed like Reo planned to go to the shower room after getting his things, so he should probably speak up. Opening and closing his mouth a couple times, the King was uncharacteristically hesitant. He couldn’t decide what he wanted to say. The whole situation was too frickin’ weird now that he couldn’t just start yelling at his roommate.

He’d been *extremely* annoyed (read: fuming mad) when Nagi went berserk and punched him in the face. And if that weren’t infuriating enough in and of itself, then Reo grabbing the overgrown stinkbug and hightailing it out of there was certainly enough to drive Barou up the wall. Those two weren’t even on speaking terms when Barou last checked. (Barou heard from Isagi, who heard from Bachira, who had it on good information from Chigiri.)

The King wasn’t finished administering justice, goddammit.

But his quick inspection from a second ago showed how Reo didn’t need anyone to give him any more grief. Basic deductive reasoning pointed to Nagi as the cause of Reo’s current state of distress. The modicum of good-will born from being part of the same clear team disappeared, and Barou’s antipathy towards the lazy prodigy intensified.

However, so too did Barou’s frustration with the mess of a human puttering around in front of him.

Barou felt some type of way about how Nagi had walked away from his so-called “partner” during Second Selection, now that Barou was—let’s face it—a bit smitten with Reo.

Still, Barou’s little crush didn’t mean his contempt for Nagi and Reo’s disgusting dynamic had disappeared. It probably grew, tbh.

And Barou also continued to believe Reo’s response to losing during the Third Stage was disgraceful.

But Barou couldn’t just scoff anymore, whenever he remembered how gut-punched Reo looked when Nagi had said he was done with him.

Something in Barou’s chest would constrict, because—

Why the f*ck did Reo let that scrawny bastard affect him this much?

It felt pretty f*cking bad right now to see Reo so obviously…sad. Barou still wasn’t sure what to say even after thinking this long.

Ultimately, he settled on awkwardly asking, “…want me to go punch him a few more times?”

The big ‘tough guy’ started turning red as soon as he finished asking his question out loud.

Reo didn’t help matters by declining to respond right away. Instead, he seemed to be cleaning his face with the wipes(?) he fished out of his desk drawer. Barou couldn’t be sure, since the Mikage still hadn’t turned back around. He just started tying up his hair and pulling more stuff out of his drawer. Some kind of container with wet(?) circular pads(?). (Barou wasn’t familiar with any skincare products. This accounted for why the teenager looked prematurely 30—too much sun, zero care. His sisters despaired.)

After letting the seated man stew in silence a bit longer, Reo finally turned to look at Barou. The purple-haired boy stayed standing, leaned back against his desk, and raised an eyebrow.

He looked a little more normal when he shot Barou a sharp smile that didn’t seem entirely friendly.

“I could handle that myself,” Reo said.

The ‘as you should know’ was left unspoken but strongly implied. Barou’s spine might have stiffened at the memory of getting unceremoniously flattened.

Reo continued in a deceptively light tone, “You and Nagi must both be knights from the same order. He didn’t like your slide tackle at the end there.”

In Barou’s defense, the offer extended was completely sincere and not only because Barou already wanted to beat the sh*t out of Nagi earlier in the day. Barou swore he wasn’t trying to copy the awkward second male leads of his little sisters’ shoujo manga. (He was leading man material, excuse you.)

But Barou now understood what prompted the (still completely unjustified!) assault. And he hadn’t missed the subtext in Reo’s statement either. The younger man took umbrage at both Nagi and Barou for what he saw as their presumptuousness – Reo resented the implication he couldn’t handle his own sh*t.

The hostility from Reo made sense, once Barou thought about it for a second. He’d wanted to show Reo there was someone in his corner, but he had chosen a dumb way to go about it. Barou felt a little guilty for doing the kind of white knight bullsh*t he usually sneered at.

Still sucked to get his attempt to console Reo shot down like that though. Should’ve just left his asshole roommate to his nervous breakdown if Barou was just gonna get made fun of and compared to Reo’s sh*tty whatever-the-f*ck. (Barou refused to acknowledge the fact that Reo called Nagi “his treasure”—it was gross, and Reo had bad taste.)

Reo-with-the-Bad-Taste took another long look at Barou before his expression softened to something that seemed genuinely fond. Barou’s tensed muscles relaxed a bit in relief when Reo started laughing.

It wasn’t a particularly big or loud laugh, but he sounded decently entertained. He also looked a little less on the edge of collapse. (Barou had noticed how Reo gripped his desk hard enough for his knuckles to turn white, when he mentioned Nagi earlier. It was as if that was all the ponytailed youth could do, to stay upright.)

The King generously allowed a bit of fun at his own expense. Or well, he allowed it by spinning his chair around so that he didn’t need to see Reo laughing at him as he indignantly told Reo to shut the f*ck up. Barou included a few bleep-laden complaints, but they quite considerately didn’t reference Nagi at all – just variations on the theme of Reo being a dumbass. Barou closed his remarks with a final embarrassed and much put-upon, “Just. Forget I said anything.”

Then he peeked over at Reo’s face to gauge the mean-ass pretty boy’s reaction. Reo looked like he was about to say something when he was interrupted by several insistent knocks at the door.

He looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

When it seemed Reo wasn’t about to move and the knocker wasn’t going to give up, Barou went to answer the door.

Outside stood Chigiri Hyouma, with a slight frown and a hand poised to knock again. He nodded at Barou before looking around the other boy’s large frame to inspect the room.

Spotting Reo, Chigiri’s frown deepened. He stomped over, bypassing Barou without so much as a by your leave. The King of Villains tsk-ed at the redhead’s lack of manners and returned to his desk chair.

Chigiri sat on Reo’s bed at an angle and leaned back to give the standing boy a slow once over. The swelling and redness around Reo’s eyes did not go unnoticed.

“I take it something happened? That was big enough for you to skip practice?”

Reo tried to give Chigiri a cutesy “teehee, silly me – so sorry” expression, but it was too bad Chigiri was on the receiving end. The redhead was unmoved. His pink eyes stayed trained on Reo’s violet and refused to give him an out. Reo appeared flustered by the scrutiny – surprised and shy for some reason.

But before Reo could be browbeaten into explaining himself, his stomach growled. Loudly.

Chigiri’s brows furrowed. “You haven’t eaten yet?”

“Ah, no- -o…?” came a dragged out, sheepish reply.

“Did you eat lunch?”

Silence.

Barou, who’d been sitting around this whole time, started to feel uncomfortable. Reo seemed to be getting a little more watery in the eye and quivery in the lip with each concerned question lobbed his way. The musclebound King decided to make himself useful and get the hell out of there.

Chigiri got out the “Wh—” for his next query before getting interrupted by Barou.

“I’ll get you food,” the brunet announced as he stood up.

Reo turned his head to look at his roommate.

When Barou was hit by the full force of Reo’s too sparkly eyes and too bright smile, he felt the tips of his ears heat up. “Quit staring, stupid. I was gonna go get something anyway.”

This was a bald-faced lie, because everyone knew Barou ate as soon as the canteen opened for dinner. Chigiri stopped staring down Reo for a moment to frown at Barou in confusion.

The notoriously selfish self-proclaimed monarch never volunteered to fetch food for ‘peasants.’ He threw sh*tfits about every ‘favor’ he’d ever had to do for people on the Second Clear Team.

“Well then, safe travels, sire,” Reo joked appreciatively, spirits lifted at the prospect of food. “Need me to write down my order?”

Barou refused to look directly into Reo’s eyes anymore. “You get the same sh*t every Tuesday. So. No.”

“Okay—thank you, Barou!” Reo shouted as the older boy briskly left the room.

Chigiri, whose eyes were obviously as sharp as his legs were fast, caught how Barou turned red down to the back of his neck. The speed demon also picked up on how Barou, all blushing aside, appeared practiced in this exchange, like he’d gone to fetch food many times before.

There needed to be a discussion about how Reo had, apparently, trained the Tyrant King to run errands for him in a little over a week.

But first things first - now that he had Reo cornered.

Chigiri let out a loud “ahem,” and slowly patted the free space next to him on Reo’s comforter.

The purple-haired boy planted himself at the very end of his own bed, maybe two feet away from where Chigiri sat cross-legged, instead. Reo adopted a fairly defensive posture with his arms wrapped around his legs. But he didn’t avoid Chigiri’s gaze. Reo even had a little grin on his face as he stared into a pair of bright pink eyes.

Chigiri made a little sniffy sound that communicated how he’d allow Reo his waywardness just this one time. Then, after confirming Reo was settled in, Inspector Chigiri continued his previous line of questioning.

“So, were you planning to skip dinner, too?”

Reo looked a little startled that Chigiri still stuck to the subject of food. He hesitated before answering honestly, “I lost track of time. But I wouldn’t have missed another meal on purpose.”

“What were you even doing this whole time?” groused Chigiri.

“Actually. Don’t answer that.”

“I don’t need to know what you and Nagi were fighting about. It’s obvious you guys had another fight.” Reo flinched.

“I just want you to take care of yourself and remember what’s really important, okay?”

“You should’ve known better than to ditch today. The assistant coaches are assigning roles for the full-scale practice games. What position you get is probably what they’ll consider making you a backup for in the U-20 match.”

“If you even get picked to be a reserve player.”

Resting his cheek against a knee, Reo tried to shoot Chigiri a winsome smile. “It should be okay. I play well in every position. That’s my whole thing, remember?”

“Yeah, sure, you’re the Chameleon. Got it. But that’s different from wanting to play any position.”

Reo looked a bit dazed at that statement.

The way he hugged himself a little tighter made Chigiri reconsider his tone. Stripping away all sternness and reproach, the younger man said his next words very carefully.

“I want you to get what you want.”

“Whatever that may be.”

“As your friend, I want to support you. So, if you’re fine playing any position, then I can accept that. The same goes for non-soccer things too. I’ll respect your decisions.”

“But I’m going to need you to tell me what you’re looking for.”

“Otherwise, when I think I’m doing the best I can to be there for you, I might f*ck up.”

“…like I’m f*cking up right now.”

Earlier on during Chigiri’s serious talk, Reo had gone from resting his cheek on a knee to uh, resting his eyes on his kneecaps. Chigiri tried to power through since half the people in his family didn’t like to make eye contact during serious conversations either. (The other half, which included Chigirin, specialized in stare downs.)

The alarm bells had finally gone off when Chigiri noticed Reo’s shoulders were shaking.

“sh*t, Reo. f*ck. I wasn’t trying to make you cry. Oh, sh*t.” Panicked, Chigiri frantically looked left and right for tissues. Why did neither of these guys have tissue boxes on their nightstands? They were f*cking animals.

(Fun Fact: Barou and Reo liked keeping their nightstands bare since the surfaces were so stupidly small. Both boys kept their tissue boxes in their nightstand drawers.)

The guilt-laden man continued apologizing with his pink eyes wide, “I’m so sorry, sh*t. Reo. Are you—”

Reo abruptly lifted his head.

And then, he tried his best to communicate just how *happy* he was, despite the snot and tears streaming down his face for the second time in one far too long day. (Even Nagi, who once upon a time elated Reo just by existing in his proximity, even Nagi had never made Reo feel quite like this.)

Unfortunately, Reo’s efforts resulted in possibly the ugliest smile he had ever given in his entire camera-ready life. Every time Reo started to speak he’d let out a hiccupping laugh/sob instead.

Chigiri was extremely confused. (But also relieved because it looked like he hadn’t completely ruined everything.)

Reo gave up on trying to form a coherent sentence.

Instead, he unfolded his legs and then spread out his arms in a universally recognizable gesture.

Reo hadn’t made a serious request to be held like this, purely for his own comfort, since 6^th grade.

Chigiri froze for a moment. But he recovered almost immediately. Then by the next second he’d crawled the few feet left between the two of them and enveloped Reo in a bone-crushing hug.

--

Looking out into the room with Reo’s hair pressed against his chin, the redhead thought about how funny it was for him to (finally) let Reo cry on his shoulder.

Chigiri had sometimes heard quiet sniffling at night, back when they were bunkmates (and Kunigami got to snore the night away on the only single in their cramped triple). Chigiri told Reo to “go to sleep already” in an irritated hiss the second night he’d heard him.

The sniffling stopped immediately. But Chigiri ended up sleepless anyway, because he knew (and felt a bit sorry) about how Reo had just held still and tried not to breathe for as long as possible.

At the time, Chigiri briefly considered clambering up to drag the big crybaby down to the bottom bunk so Reo could just let it all out and be done with it. The stressed and sleep-deprived Princess needed his beauty sleep. Plus, he’d seen his big sister through enough break-ups to know the routine.

Chigiri had decided against it, in the end, because they didn’t know each other like that back then. Case in point: Chigiri’s total stupefaction, after joining Nagi and Isagi’s team, when he learned Reo and Nagi hadn’t even been dating. It’d been kind of hilarious.

The redhead smiled faintly at the memory, then glanced to the side in surprise when the purple blob smooshed into his shoulder eventually managed to get out a few words between hiccups and water-logged sob-like laughs.

“Th-thank you. Chi, giri. I’m-, -m ss-sor, ry.”

Chigiri loosened his grip in order to gently smack the back of Reo’s head before switching to gentle pats.

A strange thing happened after that.

Chigiri Hyouma was, as might have been mentioned before, not the world’s most sensitive person despite being, like, super pretty. Historically, he wasn’t particularly touchy-feely with his friends either.

Yet, somehow, something about the intensity of Reo’s crying—how shame-faced and apologetic he was about it while simultaneously insisting he was shedding happy tears—made Chigiri feel tears prick his eyes, too.

Once Reo’s shoulders were no longer shaking convulsively, a red-nosed and *bashful* Mikage Reo backed out of Chigiri’s personal space.

Then, when Reo earnestly tried to explain why he had been so overcome with gratitude in a still nasally voice, when this clever and charismatic new friend kept apologizing profusely in embarrassment for alarming Chigiri by “overreacting like this”—

Chigiri Hyouma started straight up bawling.

Because—

Reo’s standards for basic care and affection were tragically low.

Reading between the lines of Reo’s explanation, Chigiri realized that, just moments ago, Reo felt more valued, appreciated, and well-cared for than he ever had in pretty much his whole life, to date.

Well-cared for, just because someone remembered a couple very easy to remember things – like how Reo was a f*cking sad boy who barely ate when sad but clearly needed to because, hello, he was an athlete.

Well-cared for, because someone went out of their way to ask a few utterly unremarkable questions and said some of the most basic sh*t people say to their friends, like “I support you,” which might as well be an empty cliché.

Reo hadn’t understood why Chigiri suddenly became a blubbering mess, and Chigiri never planned to tell him. So when Reo asked what was wrong, in a panic much like Chigiri’s own from before, Chigiri just yelled, “I don’t know! I’m crying because you’re crying! f*ck off!” Then he dragged Reo over and wrapped himself around the other boy like a koala.

As he sniffled and smeared gunk onto Reo’s collar, Chigiri thought—

The bar is in hell.

…explains Nagi.

(Tbf, that’s only partially true.)

--

Because Nagi never explained himself, poor Nagi’s occasional shows of thoughtfulness now came to be regarded as figments of Reo’s narcissistic imagination. And, well, if Reo couldn’t see through Nagi’s intentions, literally no one else could. Rightly or wrongly, the general public of Blue Lock would forever view young Nagi Seishirou as an inconsiderate jackass. (V v sad :x )

--

Chigiri eventually shoved Reo away and punched him in the shoulder while ordering the purple-haired boy to stop crying. Reo’s tears were contagious and Chigiri Hyouma would *not* allow further damage to his (Chigiri’s own) beautiful face. This perfect face was going to get him all the endorsem*nt deals.

The two young men didn’t revisit what happened earlier in the day. They talked about tomorrow, instead. They speculated about assignments, shared evaluations of other Bluelockers’ performances (as well as appearances), and generally had a steady stream of gossip going.

Reo offered Chigiri some facial cleansing sheets to tidy up, toner pads, hydrogel under-eye masks—the works.

After examining Reo’s drawers full of contraband goods, the Red Panther politely informed the Mikage heir that he planned to raid his stash at a future date. Reo had very nice things – the kind Chigiri’s big sis taught little Hyouma to stab people for (e.g., a certain 50,000 yen hairdryer or 81,000 yen fermented sea kelp moisturizer). This information led to Reo peppering Chigiri with questions about the redhead’s family and his childhood.

Mid-meandering conversation about the Chigiri household, there was a knock on the door. And then nothing happened.

Exchanging slightly confused glances about why Barou didn’t just come inside with his key code, the two boys simultaneously shrugged. (Very in sync, these two.) They stared a little longer, a bit reluctant to get back into upright positions.

Reo eventually got off the bed, not bothering to take off the gel patches beneath his hopelessly swollen eyes or the dumb-looking white circles on his cheeks.

Projecting his voice, he asked, “Did you need help holding stuff, Barou?”

But before Reo hit the button to open the door, it sprang open by itself.

Barou held a big bag from the canteen.

He was not, however, alone. A surly-looking Itoshi Rin stood stiffly to the side.

“Oh—hey,” came Reo’s surprised greeting.

Chigiri (who quite sensibly removed his mask when Reo went to get the door) propped himself up from bed on his elbows to see what was going on, and his brows all but did the wave when he clocked the two men at the door.

Rin obviously hadn’t shown up for Barou, based on the way he studiously ignored the other man standing next to him.

Blue Lock’s best only perked up ever so slightly upon seeing Reo.

But after taking a good look, the younger man’s teal eyes took on an icy cast. The air pressure around Rin noticeably dropped with each second he had to take in Reo’s appearance.

Chigiri entertained a stray thought about how Rin (and his facial paralysis) did a great impression of an angry icicle.

Then he wondered when the team captain had gotten on such good terms with Reo. Rin seemed quite unhappy about how terrible Reo looked fresh off another round of crying—or at least, the fellow starter assumed that was what prompted the arctic chill in Rin’s demeanor. (He could also just hate skincare.)

There seemed to be a lot more Chigiri needed to grill talk to Reo about.

First, his purple-eyed little buddy made Barou blush and fetch dinner. Now he had Blue Lock’s No. 1 come a-calling?

Interesting.

--

Just moments ago—

Rin arrived in front of Reo’s door seven minutes after completing his review session. He gave the door three solid knocks before shoving his hands into his pockets to wait.

Striding down the hall came the first obstacle in Rin’s “talk to Reo in person” plan.

Rin turned his head to give the incoming King a faintly unimpressed look.

Barou Shoei eyed Blue Lock’s No. 1 with great suspicion.

He had no idea why the green-haired guy was standing in front of his place.

Rin didn’t do social calls. The most ‘socializing’ he’d been known to do was, on a few rare occasions, commanding nearby Bluelockers to fill roles that required real bodies, not just AI holograms, if/when he wanted to do drills during free training. The misanthrope made it abundantly clear that he considered all Bluelockers to be undifferentiable and interchangeable tools for his purposes.

Naturally, Barou, who was similarly arrogant but didn’t have quite the same record to show for it, acted like Rin didn’t exist 95% of the time and privately regarded Rin as a f*cking hateful Second Isagi to be surpassed the remaining 5% of the time.

They were locked in a staring contest that seemed likely to end in a head-on collision.

Rin didn’t seem inclined to move because Rin was a dick like that. Note, also, that Rin didn’t know Reo roomed with Barou. Rin only knew this room was Reo’s because he’d walked the other boy back a few nights ago, in the wee hours of morning.

Barou didn’t seem inclined to stop, either, because he was also a dick like that. There was already a foundational level of animosity for Rin, on Barou’s part. So Barou wasn’t about to stop and take a step back right in front of his own territory. As a result, Barou kept right on walking up to his own door and straight into Rin’s personal space bubble.

Seconds before impact, Rin scoffed and took a step to the side.

Score 1 for Barou.

Smug from his petty victory, Barou hung what he considered to be a welcoming ‘smile’ on his face before asking what business brought Rin there to, you know, Barou’s dorm room. (The smile looked more like a baring of teeth, and it was not welcoming in the slightest.) He kept his hand hovering above the keypad, seemingly waiting for a response before he’d start entering the code.

Another staring contest ensued.

Finally— “Need Reo for something,” Rin replied tersely.

He took a hand from his pocket and readjusted how the strap from his gym bag sat on his shoulder. Incidentally, because of how damn close the two were still standing next to each other, Rin wound up elbowing Barou. The elbow already counted as a gentle reminder to get out of Rin’s space.

If the overgrown ape wanted to start something, so be it. Rin was always ready to go. No one matched Shidou’s appetite for violence, but Rin was second when it came to actually throwing hands when riled. (Admittedly, he was a distant second. Their bodies were their entire livelihoods after all. Rin wouldn’t jeopardize his career.)

Barou considered what would happen if he shoved Rin by the head. But he quickly thought better of it after he heard Reo calling from inside. Fighting with this stick in the mud wouldn’t do him any good. They could square off after beating the U-20 team.

Seething, the King punched in his room code with a bit more force than necessary.

The door opened.

Reo hadn’t said anything beyond hello before Rin dialed up his natural RBF to his I’m-actually-angry face. Thrown off by the abrupt switch, the ordinarily smooth Mikage heir failed to follow-up on his initial greeting. He instead looked back and forth between Barou and Rin, confusion evident.

Recall: Reo just experienced the violent murder of his self-worth, at the hands of the very person—Nagi—who formed its foundation. Though Reo’s exchange with Chigiri functioned like a “revive" spell for Reo’s self-esteem, Reo’s confidence wasn’t at the level where he’d think that someone like Rin would get upset on his account. Rin didn’t owe Reo anything, after all, and he didn’t depend on Reo for anything, either. Reo’s emotional state should therefore be irrelevant, according to the Mikage’s logic.

Reo simply felt lucky that, sometimes, wonderful people (like Chigiri) didn’t mind picking up trash (like Reo).

That was good enough for him.

(Ooo, high-functioning depression!)

--

Chigiri had, however, been correct in his speculations—Rin was unhappy about how terrible Reo looked.

If Barou had been able to guess the cause of Reo’s distressed (and distressing) appearance, Rin could draw an inference just as well. (Through more frequent contact, Rin learned the redhead was mean, but it was doubtful he could be mean enough to make Reo cry.)

It started feeling like a throwback to how he and Reo had their first real conversation.

Rin remembered what happened in the locker room very clearly. Not just the sex stuff.

He couldn’t forget Reo’s brittle smile crumbling when he told him he’d already been left behind. And he wouldn’t be able to forget how forcefully Reo ground his wrist into his eyes while trying not to cry. It all made Rin (whose wounds from his own abandonment still festered) feel a corresponding phantom pain, even when he recalled the exchange now.

Which meant, Rin, who’d originally calmed down at the prospect of finally seeing the violet-eyed boy, found himself getting all pissed-off again.

But the gruff striker wanted to at least try to conduct himself well here. Reo had been good to Rin, in a lot of different ways. For a moment, when Reo had wrapped his arms around Rin the other night, the world had felt kind and warm again, like it had when he still loved soccer (and his family).

So, for once, Rin didn’t just immediately say what he wanted to. (Which, for the record, went along the lines of ‘that guy’s a piece of sh*t who abandoned you. what did he do this time and why the f*ck would it be worth crying about? what’s wrong with you? stop wasting your time. do better.’)

He awkwardly hovered instead.

f*ck dignity. It’s not like he cared what the musclehead gorilla or pink princess thought.

--

Three men stood around the doorway without saying a word for just a second too long for comfort.

Noting how Reo’s sight settled on Rin and the two now looked like they were getting lost in each other’s eyes (!!!) (vomit), Barou broke the silence. Pointing to the unexpected visitor with a thumb, he explained, “This guy was at our door. Said he needed you for something.”

The King wasn’t sure why he added slight emphasis to the “our” to his statement, but, whatever, it was their shared dorm. He shot Rin a sidelong glance before handing Reo his dinner.

“Weren’t you hungry? Hurry and eat your f*cking food already,” Barou grumbled.

“Ah…right,” Reo responded. Snapping out of his momentary stupor, he chirped, “Right! Thanks again for getting it.”

The violet-eyed young man retrieved the bag from Barou and hurriedly pulled the patches off his face as if he only just remembered them, before turning to Rin. “So, what’d you need me for?”

Rin’s glower seemed to dial down a notch once Reo’s attention returned to him. A fraction of the aura of doom and gloom receded.

Barou shifted to lean against the doorframe, clearly assuming Rin just wanted a quick word with Reo. If it were a quick word, there was no need for the prick to contaminate their room. (Chigiri storming in without ceremony was bad enough already.)

The larger man folded his (totally jacked) arms across his chest and ‘casually’ looked to Rin as if he were also quite interested in the answer to Reo’s question.

Back to ignoring Barou’s existence, Rin directed his response to Reo, “I can wait while you eat.”

“Yeah, sure. Come right in. Chigiri’s here, too.”

The redhead gave a casual “ussu” while leaning back on his elbows atop Reo’s bed. From his bland expression, most would never guess he was, in fact, observing the proceedings with keen interest.

Maid Barou stared at Rin with great vigilance, looking very much like a household manager who didn’t want to let an unsavory character into their estate. A muscle in Rin’s jaw twitched.

Taking mental notes, a little diagram began to materialize in Inspector Chigiri’s brain.

“Move,” came Rin’s brusque order.

With a backward glance, Reo realized Barou still hadn’t given way for Rin to get inside.

Reo stared at the side of Barou’s face with “what the f*ck?” written all over his expression. And when Barou didn’t seem to notice (he was too busy squinting at Rin), Reo glanced backward at Chigiri to telepath a flabbergasted, “Do you see this sh*t?”

Chigiri shrugged and gave a slight nod of his chin in Barou’s general direction as if telling Reo to just deal with it.

Rolling his eyes at Chigiri’s unhelpful response, Reo proceeded to activate ‘good host’ mode.

“Come on, we shouldn’t just stand around here.” Reo smiled at Rin and clapped his roommate’s shoulder perhaps a bit harder than necessary.

Barou reluctantly moved inside.

But then he immediately communicated the bed and chair on his side of the room were off limits by, inexplicably, upending a basket of laundry onto his bed, and then seating himself on his desk chair.

Why.

(Honestly Barou wondered the same thing after doing that, because he then had to refold laundry when he could have just told Rin to not to touch his sh*t. f*ck.)

Chigiri rolled his eyes at Barou’s bizarre behavior and huffed a little sigh before making room so that Rin could, theoretically, sit on Reo’s bed too.

Surprising everyone, Rin decided to, instead, stand next to Reo’s chair and lean against the desk. He even took off his gym bag, implying he wouldn’t just be in and out.

The Princess would have been offended at Rin’s refusal to sit next to him if he didn’t find Rin’s behavior downright fascinating.

Rin just stayed there, with arms folded, staring down at Reo, as if it were totally normal for Rin to voluntarily stand within less than two feet of someone in a non-soccer context.

And Mikage Reo, social butterfly that he was, tried to take it all in stride and started chattering about highlights from yesterday’s Premier League matches (which seemed safer than talking about their current training camp) as everyone watched him eat.

This fortunately opened a door to a much more wide-ranging conversation that allowed Reo to showcase his remarkable recall for historical stats, formal theory, tactics, and techniques.

It was incredibly impressive for someone who only got into soccer a year ago, but he still didn’t have quite the same depth and breadth of knowledge as the other three, who all started playing pee wee soccer when they were three or four years old.

Once that vast treasury of practical experience was exposed, Reo began to aggressively question the other three about everything that came to mind—the conditions for the failure/success of various tactics and/or techniques in past games that they’d observed, how information could or should be communicated to other players on the field, and more.

Reo’s amethyst eyes practically glowed as he soaked in the others’ anecdotes.

And this was the moment that presented Rin with a potential solution for several problems at once. He instinctively recognized that providing Reo with advice for leveling up his soccer would [1] give Rin an excuse to talk to Reo alone later; [2] ensure that they spent more time together in the near-term future; and [3] reduce, if not altogether eliminate, the future recurrence of annoying scenes like the ones from today. (Again, why the f*ck had Reo been crying, when he ought to just hate the lukewarm loser who’d left him behind?)

Rin was obsessed with Sae, yeah, but he wanted to (and was going to) crush that bastard. Reo’s desperate desire to please (and protect) Nagi really irked—no, actually, enraged the revenge-minded younger man.

In Rin’s professional opinion, Reo wasn’t outclassed by Nagi.

Some of Nagi’s specs were better, but Reo’s weren’t significantly worse. He was just hobbled by the way every f*cking thing he did revolved around making himself more compatible with Nagi. Even on other teams with completely different players, the skills Reo chose to hone weren’t necessarily skills that played to his unique strengths as an all-rounder. They were the skills and techniques that would complement Nagi and showcase Nagi’s strengths. Reo treated everything as if it were practice for a future where the two would be reunited on the same team.

It was disgusting.

Decisive as ever, Rin determined he would try to help.

It wasn’t something he’d ever done before, because the weak only wasted his time. Truthfully, Reo was still a work-in-progress, incapable of even serving as a whetstone.

But maybe because he’d been forced to think about Sae so much lately and perhaps because he could easily see another version of himself making the same choices, Rin couldn’t stand the thought of Reo remaining so utterly pathetic. It made Rin feel sick.

Rin did his best to choose his words wisely.

--

Rin suddenly offering constructive feedback came as a huge shock to Chigiri, who had spent more time on the field with Rin than the other two.

In Chigiri’s experience, the younger Itoshi brother only ever trashed other players without offering a shred of useful information. But here he was, answering relative soccer noob Reo’s every question. Even some that ought to feel inane for anyone who had gone from club soccer to the academy.

The teal-eyed boy sounded pissy the whole time, but Chigiri couldn’t help but note that Rin volunteered guidance.

Reo-specific guidance, to be exact.

And Chigiri found all previous expectations regarding Rin completely thwarted when he said he could provide Reo with some practical demonstrations if Reo wanted to go to a training field in a few minutes.

Rin had not only hung out with other Bluelockers of his own volition, he offered to take even more time out of his own night, right before a big practice game, to help another person with stuff that wasn’t even critical to his own success.

Inspector Chigiri added a few notes to his mental diagram.

Rin and Reo were meshing well, and the general vibe of the room seemed okay – much, much better than when Rin and Barou first arrived.

Or, well, okay until Barou invited himself to Rin and Reo’s little private training session.

Rin’s expression turned ugly for a moment until it evened out, his lips becoming a flat line.

Barou raised an eyebrow as if asking Rin what he planned to do about it.

By this point, Barou recognized that he was right to have found Rin suspicious—he was there to poach. Not that Reo was anything other than his roommate at the moment, or that dibs were a thing…but. Whatever.

Their soccer talk earlier got Barou fired up, too, so it wasn’t all about thwarting Rin’s bid for alone time. At the end of the day, Barou cared more about soccer than anything else, after all.

A strange silence fell over the room.

The stiff expression on Reo’s face could be the cover of a light novel— “Help! I’ve Just Discovered I’m a Jilted Ex Whose Tears Trigger Shuraba!”

Rin finished whatever he had been debating internally and looked to Chigiri, who was desperately trying not to burst into laughter at Reo’s pain.

“You come, too,” Rin ordered.

Chigiri: ???

Barou: ???

Oh, thank god, Reo thought. If Rin hadn’t invited Chigiri, Reo would have, himself, because he’d have to have zero braincells not to notice how f*cking cringe Barou and Rin’s interactions were. He didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to make everyone play nice. But he also knew he should seize the chance to get Rin’s help while he was in the mood.

Reo got out of his chair to join Rin, who’d already stood up and slung his gym bag over his shoulder again. Barou was already by the door.

Chigiri was about to get going as well when he felt something buzz against his hip.

“Hey, Reo – your phone.”

Chigiri gently tossed the device, “Catch!”

Chapter 14: I WILL PLAY THE MAGIC CARD, POT OF GREED.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14 – I WILL PLAY THE MAGIC CARD, POT OF GREED.

Somehow, Rin’s excellent solution for resolving his unpleasant Reo-related and/or -adjacent feelings resulted in a scenario that could easily be pulled from one of Rin’s nightmares.

Bad enough that Reo’s sh*thead roommate with the fauxhawk invited himself along, but one thing led to another and suddenly their numbers had swelled to ten. Ten people.

What should have been time alone with Reo, where Rin could sort out what he’d wanted to say (and maybe figure out what it was he even wanted from the older boy), turned into a party of TEN with more than one asshole he never wanted to see outside of a professional context (if even that).

Rin himself was responsible for roping in the Princess, but that was because if the Gorilla King was going to third wheel, they might as well have a fourth so they could 2v2. That meant more avenues for demonstrating certain points for Reo.

But that became an entirely different proposition when Isagi and Bachira, with Nanase in tow, sprang out of nowhere to demand to know what their (admittedly very odd) group was doing.

Naturally, Isagi, ankle-biter that he was, immediately insisted on joining, whether he was welcome or not. Rin noted, with some unhappiness, that Reo seemed to tense up at Isagi’s self-invitation, and some of the earlier tiredness had returned along with a strange wariness in his eyes.

The effort required to block out the excruciatingly painful secondhand (and firsthand) embarrassment generated by Shidou’s video call had let Rin (and probably Reo) momentarily forget about everything else that happened before that. Like Reo’s tears (which Rin still didn’t know the precise cause of, but that he generally knew who to consider responsible for).

If tortured, Rin would begrudgingly admit that Isagi wasn’t completely hot garbage, as Rin had initially assumed. But that still didn’t mean Rin wanted lukewarm Trashsagi to f*cking follow him everywhere. Especially not if it seemed to make Reo uncomfortable(?). Copying Rin’s yoga routine wasn’t going to suddenly let Isagi grow 11 cm in height and magically develop identical muscle mass. Isagi needed to stop being so obsessed with him, ffs.

In any event, Barou and Chigiri became Barou and Chigiri plus Bachira, f*cking Isagi, and Nanase which suddenly turned into Barou, Bachira, Chigiri, Isagi, Nanase and Tokimitsu, because Nanase’s (nauseating) niceness met with Tokimitsu’s tendency to broadcast his negative self-talk led to Nanase insisting that everyone would enjoy Tokimitsu-senpai’s company. (Untrue.)

That in turn resulted in Tokimitsu returning from grabbing his kit with Yukimiya and Karasu in tow. Apparently, because, per Karasu’s gleeful retelling, Tokimitsu cracked under their ‘brutal interrogation techniques.’

Meaning, when Tokimitsu walked past their open dorm room door, Karasu had asked, “Hey, whatcha doin’ there, Tokki?”

It was mostly as a greeting more than out of any genuine curiosity. This, however, proceeded to send Tokimitsu into an anxiety-induced tailspin of epic proportions. In the end, the only way to assuage Tokimitsu’s various and sundry fears about including/excluding people from social activities was by tagging along.

It was a wonder they didn’t end up with all 35 remaining Bluelockers at the facility by the time they made it to the closest training field.

Rin’s private tutoring plan had gone completely to sh*t. (Rin was irate.)

They ended up playing a 5v5 game, using the usual holos as goalies. (None of the non-regular guys thought they’d be unlucky enough to be tapped to sub in for Gagamaru, lol.)

Rin, Reo, Barou, Nanase, and Tokimitsu were on one team, with Isagi, Bachira, Chigiri, Karasu, and Yukimiya on the other.

Given the circ*mstances, the most Rin could do was quietly ask Reo to try to pay a bit more attention to him during the games.

It was easily one of the most grossly cringeworthy things Rin had ever said out loud. He couldn’t help the light dusting of pink that spread across his face as pulled away from the older boy’s ear.

Reo turned a bit to face the younger man with a little half smirk and whispered back, “It’d be harder not to, ‘Master’ Rin.” Rin suppressed the strange urge he had to brush some of the stray purple stands obscuring Reo’s eyes behind his ears.

Letting the violet-eyed boy turn to chat with someone else at a normal volume, Rin quickly hid his embarrassment. The teal-eyed young soccer ‘master’ observed, with some relief, that there was a slight easing of the tension in Reo’s shoulders.

It escaped Rin’s notice that his default frown had become less pronounced after they finished speaking.

(Several pairs of curious eyes didn’t fail to capture those details, though.)

--

The game, unsurprisingly, got a tad more serious than it ought to have been.

In the second half, Barou and Yukimiya wound up in a one v one duel. The bespectacled model relied heavily upon his powerful physique despite his mild-mannered, docile appearance. He made for a surprisingly even match-up against Barou who also relied heavily upon his physicality in confrontations, albeit in a much more straightforward (some might even say brutish) fashion.

Yukimiya chided Barou for his aggressive charges, “Now, now Barou. There’s no need for so much force during a friendly game. Injuring one of us here won’t earn you a spot on the roster.”

“I’m sure things will work out if you work harder to improve.”

Despite Yukimiya’s placid tone, it wasn’t difficult to sense the knives hidden behind the ever-so-pleasant, so-very-refreshing smile he shot Barou.

Reo took a moment to applaud Yukimiya’s strategic needling – the mobile striker was quite slick with timing his quips to give him a slight edge when battling it out in close quarters. Praise given where it was due, Reo focused once more on sneaking into what he surmised would be Yukimiya’s next blindspot.

Yukimiya stole the ball in the split second an agitated Barou prepared to retort.

But Reo had timed his entrance for the same moment Yukimiya had gone in for the kill. Reo sped in to get close just as the One-on-One Emperor turned to shield the newly stolen ball from Barou.

Reo made eye contact with Barou and quickly jerked his chin to signal that he needed Barou to back away from crowding Yukimiya. As the King dropped his assault on Yukimiya to rapidly drift backward and create some distance, Reo arrived at the exact same time, from the other side, right in Yukimiya’s blindspot, to replace the King.

The moment Yukki craned his neck to check where Barou went was the same moment the dexterous Chameleon snuck a foot between the model’s long legs to gently hook the ball and flick it back to the King in one smooth motion. Reo was so extremely close to Yukimiya’s body at this point he was all but giving the slightly broader (but 1 cm shorter) man a hug from behind.

“Wow~, Mr. Model Specs, condescending and disingenuous. Nice,” Reo teased. Then, immediately after that, he leaped several steps back to put some space between himself and Yukimiya.

Reo needed to ensure the goggled man couldn’t simply shake him off and return to marking Barou. Maintaining a little bit more than an arm’s length between them, Reo could block off more potential escape routes.

Thanks to Reo’s maneuvering, the King was now able to handle the ball unmolested. Barou readied his dominant leg for a powerful middle shot.

But Karasu swooped in from God knows where to do his own ball-thieving.

Chortling at Reo’s remarks, Karasu crowed, “Yukki, the Business Boy’s seen right through ya! Ca-caw!”

“f*ck.”

“~Language~, King Kong!”

“Gonna stop cawing now, sh*tty crow?” Rin sniped, as he came over to contest possession. Isagi was hot on his heels.

“Whoa, no. How’dja get there?,” the black-haired boy asked, ‘stumbling’ with the ball in feigned surprise. “Caw,” he added as an afterthought.

Familiar with the trick that Karasu was trying to pull, Rin simply barked out “Tokimitsu.”

The nervous striker intercepted Karasu’s long pass to Chigiri in an explosive burst of speed, thereby restarting another offensive. Tokimitsu sent his own long, lateral pass to Reo, who quickly trapped the ball.

“You should go to Hollywood, Karasu!” Reo yelled while fending off Bachira’s challenges.

“Gonna bankroll my debut, Mi-caw-ge?”

Barou tossed in his contribution as he ran over to either support (or more likely poach a goal from) his teammates, “Shut up, birdbrain.”

“Caw, caw, ya’ scrub.”

Reo cracked up.

He felt surprisingly okay. (And not just because he forced Karasu to make crow noises all game. Though that did contribute.)

--

The teams were tied at 2-2 when the timer went off signaling the end of the match. Some of the boys were eager to keep going to the next point, but Chigiri, ever mindful of his old knee injury, pointed out that they shouldn’t overdo it. Tomorrow was guaranteed to be the hardest training day left before the U-20 match itself on Saturday. It was time to call it.

Reo smilingly volunteered to stay behind to clean up while saying his goodbyes to the other guys, assuring them that he’d just be a couple of minutes behind them. Rin didn’t say a word but leaned against one of the moveable goalposts while sipping from his water bottle. Barou looked ready to run interference (again) before Chigiri punched him in the arm and reminded him it was going to be past his designated bedtime if he didn’t hurry. OCD man that he was, Barou ran off at that point.

(Rin added a point of approval to the redhead.)

Isagi, who had his usual game-induced crazy-eyes thing going on, seemed to also want to linger when he realized Rin was planning to stay. But Bachira started shoving Isagi off the field from behind like Isagi was a household appliance getting wheeled out on a hand trolley.

As Isagi half-heartedly protested the treatment, Bachira looked back to Reo and then Rin to give them both long looks with his enormous, unblinking golden eyes, conspiratorial smile wide the whole time.

After Bachira and Isagi disappeared down the hall, Reo rested an elbow on Rin’s shoulder and took a few sips of his own water. “Bachira’s kinda creepy sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Rin agreed, glancing to the side.

Taking the look as a hint, Reo took his elbow off Rin’s shoulder and grinned. “So, did you have wisdom to impart to your new ‘disciple?’”

Teal eyes gave Reo a careful once over. “A couple things.”

“And?”

“I’m…thinking about how to say it without pissing you off,” Rin replied honestly. A strange emotion flashed across Reo’s face too quickly for Rin to identify. The violet-eyed boy’s expression finally settled on surprise, which automatically drew Rin’s eyes to Reo’s mouth.

Whenever Rin saw Reo’s mouth fall open that way, his teenaged brain couldn’t help but recall Reo’s plush pink, spit-slicked lips forming that exact same ‘oh’ when the Mikage had removed his blindfold to scold Shidou only to meet eyes with Rin for the first time.

Rin’s insomnia had brought him quite a few good things lately, all things considered. But then he felt a bit of shame for how his thoughts had trended towards the obscene. His flush, originally from exertion, grew a bit deeper.

Reo simply assumed Rin was still hot from the game earlier.

After getting past his surprise, Reo returned to smiling at his younger, would-be ‘shifu.’

Using the extra purple hair tie from around his right wrist, Reo reached up to grab Rin’s damp bangs and tied them in a ridiculous tiny green ponytail.

Reo’s eyes crinkled in delight at his own handiwork, “Well you can think it over while you cool down. I’ll start stacking cones and things.”

Rin knew Reo was up to no good when he’d taken the tie from his wrist, but he’d thought that Reo planned to snap the band at him – not give him a dumb little lopsided unicorn horn.

It made the younger man blush harder and scowl (pout). This time he couldn’t really say why he was blushing.

Rin pulled off the hair tie and ran a hand through his hair, to slick back his bangs. Then he silently pocketed the hair tie.

Back when Rin was in middle school, he remembered getting distracted by his desk mate playing with a nondescript black rubber band-looking thing around their wrist all morning. The person’s friends came over during lunch to roast them for being gross and treating Matsuda from Class 2-A’s hair tie like it were some kind of treasure. Matsuda had, apparently, left it in the pocket of the PE jacket borrowed from Rin’s desk mate.

If memory served, the desk mate started dating Matsuda not long after that. Rin wasn’t sure and hadn’t really cared since he’d already been on a compressed 3-day academic schedule to accommodate his soccer training at the time.

Rin kind of understood his former deskmate’s behavior now.

And at that thought, much of Rin’s rational mind worried about his own behavior. Warned him that he might be losing sight of his goal by allowing himself to get even more entangled in these amorphous, shifty new feelings. He’d originally set out to reduce distractions, not increase them.

Rin set aside those concerns, for now, while he cleaned up alongside the other boy. And, very slowly, he began to say aloud some general improvements that Reo ought to consider.

He felt uncomfortably guilty at moments when Reo’s body language communicated no small amount of stress and anxiety. But he kept going because Reo never stopped him.

The two of them were standing back-to-back by the time Rin finished speaking (and they were done tidying up the field). A bit unnerved by the extended silence, Rin awkwardly circled around to stand in front of the purple-haired boy who had his head bowed.

A tentative hand reached over to tilt Reo’s chin up. The usually callous 16-year-old found himself worried that even his best effort to be sensitive resulted in hurting Reo’s feelings anyway. Rin had to steel himself before lifting his own eyes to examine Reo’s face.

There weren’t any tears, much to Rin’s relief. But evidence of Reo’s emotional difficulties from earlier in the day still stood out, eyes heavy with exhaustion despite the grateful smile Reo tried to show Rin once they were actually looking eye-to-eye.

A pang of sympathy, or something like it, made Rin want to move in closer, to cup Reo’s cheek.

But the moment Rin leaned forward, dark violet eyes widened, and Reo’s body reflexively jerked backward.

The unexpectedly sudden violent movement had Rin flinching back himself.

Reo immediately recovered and tried to smooth things over, “Sorry! I—I didn’t mean to do that just now.”

He grabbed both of Rin’s forearms so that the younger man couldn’t run away. It was pretty obvious that Rin was planning to run, given the speed of his heel turn. (Rin’s brain told him to LEAVE. RIGHT. NOW. after interpreting Reo's recoiling as a resounding rejection of Rin’s entire existence.)

Rin tried to free himself.

He wasn’t sure why he felt so humiliated right now. It’d been obvious that Reo had a sh*t day. The night probably had been even more draining, since Reo ended up dealing with more people than originally anticipated. Even Rin felt exhausted, and he hadn’t gone into it looking like he’d already been through the emotional wringer several times.

It was completely normal for a person to be taken aback by someone trying to make a move on them under those circ*mstances.

Rin understood he definitely seemed like he was making a move on Reo just now. And, even if that hadn’t been his aim, he should be ashamed of himself for even appearing to take advantage.

He was. Very ashamed, in fact. That was why he would very much like to crawl back to his man cave to die. Right this instant.

But also, he felt, maybe, disappointed that he wasn’t special enough to be an exception to the knee-jerk response. (The way Reo’s comfort had strangely been an exception to Rin’s own reflexive defenses.)

f*ck, Rin felt like a creep after realizing he thought that. (But he also felt a bit lost at sea.)

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Felt even worse now. Because he was making Reo comfort him when it should’ve been the other way around. sh*t.

“Oi, Underlashes, Jr., stop looking at your lower lashes and look at me,” Reo commanded, giving Rin’s arms a strong squeeze for emphasis.

Rin sullenly looked up at Reo through his very thick upper lashes because Rin was still going to hang his head down. This sh*t was embarrassing as f*ck, and Rin was liable to lose his temper any moment now if this miserable experience got drawn out any longer. He was going to snap if Reo didn’t let go in 5, 4, 3–

--

Unbeknownst to Rin, Reo had been frantically trying to figure out how to salvage the situation immediately after he’d first pulled away. Rin’s stunned (and hurt) expression made Reo feel like he’d kicked a puppy. Reo couldn’t handle feeling responsible for causing another person pain today, especially not Rin, whom Reo wanted to protect from harm with an odd intensity. Perhaps because Rin was (also) an awkward creature. (That wasn’t fair to anyone. Least of all Rin.) (He needed to stop thinking about that right this instant.)

For now, Reo just needed to make sure Rin knew that he didn’t mean to spurn his kindness and that he didn’t suddenly hate Rin’s touch. He needed to fix this.

The purple-eyed youth took one of Rin’s wrists in each hand and guided Rin’s hands to either side of his face. Reo then smooshed his own cheeks using Rin’s hands.

“Sheee?” Reo said through his squished cheeks, blinking at Rin dramatically. “It’s not a problem with you.”

(The solution Reo landed on was…clowning.)

Reo kept using Rin’s hands like they were face massagers, the kind you rolled around to get a pointier chin and/or bouncier skin. (Not that Reo needed any help in that department—Rin could attest to how Reo’s palm-sized face was collagen-rich and baby-soft, even when slightly sticky from sweat.)

The ridiculous facial contortions and extended voluntary skin-to-skin contact left Rin with no choice but to ease up. Reo’s antics had done the trick. The younger man snorted gracelessly and lifted a corner of his mouth in a tiny private smile.

At that, Reo released Rin’s hands.

Reo continued seriously, “Thank you.”

“For trying to help me. And for trying to make me feel better.”

“You’ve helped a ton.”

After pausing at length, Reo said his final piece in baby talk, pinching one of Rin’s cheeks as he cooed, “You’re such a cute little tsundere~ ♥”

Reo then shoved Rin in the chest pretty damn hard to give himself a head start running for the baths. After he reached a safe distance (through the exit archway), Reo turned around, stuck out his tongue, and pulled down his lower eyelid to taunt a shocked and confused Itoshi Rin who was still standing stock still on the pitch.

(Things had been getting too sentimental for Reo’s comfort. The extended eye contact was too much. More clowning had been required.)

When Rin and Reo arrived at the bath hall, most of the other guys were still soaking in the communal baths, so the two boys rejoined the group.

Rin had to save his revenge against Reo for a later date because Chigiri made Reo sit next to him in the bath and dismissed Rin with an imperious wave of the hand.

(Rin took back the point of approval he’d previously awarded the Princess.)

Seating himself elsewhere, the dedicated yoga practitioner closed his eyes and tried to meditate while blocking out Bachira’s conversation with his monster, Isagi (who could also be considered Bachira’s other monster), and one of Bachira’s imaginary friends named Rin. (The antisocial striker maintained Bachira must have been conversing with another imaginary friend, because real Rin did not consider them to be ‘friends’ and real Rin was also v v pointedly not engaging.)

Rin’s ears couldn’t help but perk up, though, when he heard Chigiri’s barely suppressed screech of, “Jesus, is he a f*cking dog?! Did y--,” which got interrupted by the sound of a lot of splashing and flesh slapping from Chigiri and Reo’s corner of the bath. By the time Rin’s eyes opened, Reo and Chigiri had already returned to their original seated positions. Reo just happened to be tightly holding on to both ends of the towel he had hanging around his neck. (Hm.)

All told, the playmaker probably had about 15 minutes alone with Reo, in total, that night. Hardly enough time to say much, especially for as clumsy and unschooled a tutor as Rin. There was no way Reo’s soccer could change drastically with just a few words.

But, as Rin laid in bed waiting for sleep to come, he found himself hoping some of what he said got through to the other boy.

If Reo kept playing soccer out of spite and still lingering attachment, then Rin wanted—no, he expected Reo to excel. Reo needed to thrive on his own and show the whole world that he was even better than that sh*thead. Maybe then, he’d stop being haunted by his past failings. And maybe then, he’d be able to cut off those attachments that made him suffer so much even now.

(Query whether Rin was talking about Reo or himself.)

Rin was invested. He was rooting for another soccer player’s success for the first time since—

Since he had rooted for Sae’s success overseas.

(Something about that thought made him feel uneasy.)

--

The next morning, all 35 Bluelockers gathered at the facility’s central stadium, home to Blue Lock’s full-size pitch.

Ego explained that the 24 prospective bench warmers would be divided into two groups of 12. And each group would play against the Blue Lock 11 for 45 minutes apiece. Because the numbers didn’t allow for three groups of eleven, some players would need to be substituted for all the would-be reserve players to get a shot at playing.

Any of the 24 prospectives might get subbed into a different position on any of the three teams during the test matches so that Ego, his algos, and his minions could explore whatever combinations they considered to be of interest.

The regulars would be allowed to head to the gym and then the baths for an extended cooldown once the matches were completed.

All the others would still need to do possession drills and different small-sided games on a larger pitch than usual, to get the distance and workload into their legs.

With the day’s itinerary laid out, all 35 boys were sent off to complete their warm-ups.

Nothing at Blue Lock was ever just about soccer though.

Besides cultivating the aggressive striker(s) needed for Japan’s glorious soccer revolution, Blue Lock also produced excellent dating reality show content.

And by excellent, Teieri Anri, Blue Lock’s biggest stan, meant delectable t r a s h that appealed to both reality TV aficionados and dating sim lovers the world over. (God, she hoped Blue Lock Phase Two would become a thing. They needed to win this match, if only so that Blue Lock TV could launch.)

Cue ominous music.

--

Nagi had gotten up earlier than usual that morning.

Mostly, this was because he hadn’t been able to sleep.

His eyes snapped open well before the first of his three alarms went off.

During 2nd Selection Isagi refused to personally wake Nagi up on principle. Regular member of society that he was, Isagi was aghast when Nagi reported that Reo woke him up every morning and that Reo would typically carry him to the bathroom and then to the dining hall.

Isagi demanded that Nagi set an alarm, so he could get up himself.

Nagi (im)politely declined, stating that it was a pain. It wasn’t like 2nd Selection was going to last forever—Reo’d be back to giving him wake-up calls soon.

Once Isagi accepted the reality that Nagi really couldn’t be arsed to set an alarm and that Nagi really could just sleep through practice if left to his own devices, the thoroughly exasperated ‘normal’ person simply stole Nagi’s phone and set three alarms with increasingly urgent alert tones. Nagi had sighed, too lazy to even roll his eyes, and called Isagi a pain.

An incensed Isagi argued that Nagi was the one who was a pain and declared it was nothing short of a miracle that someone volunteered to be Nagi’s keeper. (Nagi had privately agreed.)

Now Nagi wondered if Reo had resented having to do things for him this whole time. The way Isagi had been annoyed about having to set some alarms.

Standing in front of a sink and brushing his teeth, Nagi stared blankly into the mirror.

He considered apologizing last night.

As he spat foam into the sink and watched it slowly filter down into the drain, he continued to consider apologizing.

He (still) didn’t know where to start apologizing, though.

Did he start by promising he would take care of himself? That he didn’t need Reo to “wait on him hand and foot,” he just needed Reo to look at him again? To care about him again, even just a little bit?

Nagi didn’t want to say that because it wasn’t true. He didn’t want that.

After Reo had said those (hurtful, haunting) things, Nagi began to seriously doubt his understanding of his partner.

And himself.

He looked into the mirror, again, and wondered what Reo saw now.

Somewhere along the way, Mikage Reo started viewing Nagi Seishirou as a burden, felt Nagi weighed him down, and began thinking Nagi felt sh*tty to be around.

Nagi liked to think he remembered everything about Reo. But, somewhere along the way, Nagi missed the sign things were going wrong.

All his memories of Reo seemed soaked in sunshine, vividly colored by Reo’s joy and excitement for life, for soccer, for Nagi.

That meant Nagi couldn’t trust his memory anymore, because if Reo had been that happy, as happy as he’d always claimed to be when he was with Nagi, then Reo wouldn’t have looked as miserable as he had recently, and he wouldn’t have been as angry, as intentionally mean as he’d been yesterday. He would’ve gotten over the frankly stupid thing with Isagi. Reo would have understood that Nagi had done everything so that they could get stronger and earn the right to be considered the best.

Nagi truly couldn’t understand why Reo couldn’t indulge Nagi’s selfishness in this one instance, this one time Nagi wanted to reach for something himself when Reo habitually tolerated demands from Nagi that were far more ridiculous.

To Nagi’s understanding, Mikage Reo unwittingly gave Nagi a habit, had made a formerly desireless boy form a dependency as powerful as any opiate addiction. (Funny how wrong Nagi was about this. It had been, in many ways, quite intentional. Reo just didn’t quite realize to what extent his plot had been effective and hadn’t understood that it wouldn’t lead to the specific outcome that he wanted.)

Reo probably had no idea how addictive his care and consideration had been for someone like Nagi. (True.)

Reo couldn’t possibly understand how he’d fundamentally reordered Nagi’s universe the moment he looked at Nagi with glittering eyes and told Nagi he was perfect just the way he was, that Reo guaranteed the world would soon see Nagi’s greatness the same way Reo did.

But then how could Reo understand how meaningful that was, Nagi mused, when there are so many people who think he’s perfect. (Ouch.)

Reo was the first and only person who made Nagi Seishirou feel like he existed and that his life mattered to someone.

After Nagi had lived so long in his humble, quiet little corner—the same abandoned corner he expected to continue living out the rest of his life alone—Mikage Reo, a sparkling son of heaven, suddenly decided to bestow upon Nagi his complete and undivided attention, the very peak of affection, and frankly overwhelming levels of the very best care imaginable.

Nagi never even dreamed of receiving any of these things (at least not consciously). Then by some random accident, he had suddenly been awarded a fortune beyond the dreams of avarice.

Someone like Mikage Reo couldn’t possibly comprehend the sheer depth of Nagi’s newly wrought greed.

Nagi never wanted anything before Reo, not even his own life; Nagi wanted everything now.

Nagi wanted the world to know he, Nagi Seishirou, was the best. He wanted to prove that Reo had been right to choose him first and that Reo was wrong to have ever doubted him. Nagi needed to demonstrate how he was absolutely right to have chosen to *temporarily* walk away, and that Reo was dead wrong to try to abandon Nagi after he’d made Nagi want so many things. He made Nagi become like this.

Nagi didn’t want to apologize for anything.

Nagi wanted everything he had before and more.

He wanted fame and fortune and Reo—all of Reo, until the very end.

(There was no way Nagi could be satisfied with letting things end here.)

Recently, when Nagi looked into the mirror, he saw greed.

And that was why he still couldn’t decide whether to apologize or not.

--

In no mood to chew and with nothing better to do, the silver-haired striker grabbed a protein shake and went to the regulars’ locker room to change. He figured moving around might help him clear his head.

Itoshi Rin had, unfortunately, gotten to the changing room even earlier.

When Nagi stepped through the door, Rin was seated in front of his locker, lacing up a boot. The younger man glanced up to see who came in, and when he realized it was Nagi, teal eyes stayed fixed for longer than usual.

Nagi stared right back. (Saradamaru—or was it Saramadara? Whatever, Plate Guy Roommate would’ve recognized this stare. Straight horror movie stuff right there.)

They held each other’s gaze for a moment.

Then Rin expressionlessly turned away and went back to what he was doing before.

Nagi wasn’t going to say anything about how f*cking lame it was for Rin to pretend he didn’t feel hostile towards Nagi. Calling Rin out would be picking a fight. Nagi was a pacifist. He didn’t pick fights.

But it wasn’t as if this was Nagi’s first time encountering Rin. The pretentious little pissant constantly scoffed and scowled like a brat who couldn’t wait to let everyone know how mad they were about literally everything.

The fact Rin suddenly wasn’t making faces at Nagi’s arrival was out of character. It was fake.

Nagi wasn’t personally offended, per se (a lie), but it was offensive for Rin to even try to pretend when he was so sh*t at feigning indifference. No one could beat Nagi when it came to looking unbothered because Nagi sincerely didn’t give a sh*t.

(Or, at least he didn’t in the past.)

Nagi was about to go on his merry way to finish his shake elsewhere when he caught a flash of purple.

There was a purple hair tie.

On Rin’s wrist.

Rationally speaking, many Bluelockers had hair long enough to require hair ties.

Just because it was purple didn’t mean it was Reo’s.

Other Bluelockers probably had purple ties.

It was just a hair tie.

There were plenty of reasons Rin could have a purple hair tie. It didn’t have to be related to Reo at all.

Nagi should just chill.

…Nagi had no chill.

(Before Blue Lock, Reo offhandedly remarked, once, that he liked to think the purple hair ties stood for him, and the black ones stood for Nagi. Then the purple-haired boy gave Nagi a toothy grin and used two hair ties—one black and one purple—to put up his hair that afternoon. Reo used either color on any given day, but the extras he stashed for himself in Nagi’s gym bag were always purple.)

“What’s that on your wrist,” Nagi asked without really asking.

Immediately after he spotted the purple on Rin’s wrist, Nagi walked even closer to where Rin sat.

Rin spared the looming striker a brief glance, one that faintly communicated disgust, before going back to lacing his other boot.

He clearly didn’t intend to dignify Nagi’s non-question with a response.

Nagi persisted, with slightly more inflection in his voice this time, “Hey, what do you have on your wrist?”

Nothing. Not even a look this time.

“Can you not hear me?”

“Are you deaf?”

“Hey.”

“Answer.”

Fed up, Rin popped his head up to snap, “Are you f*cking blind? It’s a f*cking hair tie.”

“Now get out of the way. You’re blocking the light.”

Teal eyes narrowed at Nagi, who looked down at the still-seated boy from his full height, casting a shadow over Rin’s shoes.

Nagi pointed out the obvious, “You don’t use hair ties.”

Rin shot him a look of even greater disgust.

“Is that Re—”

Nagi got out the first syllable of Reo’s name when Bachira bounded in followed by several other starters, including Chigiri.

The redhead looked at Rin then Nagi, and he half-seriously wondered if there’d be another fight to break up today.

“Wow, so early, Nagicchi~~!”

“You should have come out last night! You missed so much!!!”

Bachira’s smile bloomed like a beautiful flower. His expression looked so friendly, so earnest and innocent that most people would assume he never meant to start sh*t. (Chigiri knew better.)

“Rin-chan got together with Reo-cchi!” Bachira proclaimed.

(Chigiri knew Bachira was a primordial chaos monster.)

Nagi’s mouth became a hard line. His eyes snapped over to Rin.

The younger boy pulled a face at Bachira’s phrasing. But he dipped his head briefly and seemed to have looked down at the purple band on his wrist. It was hard to tell from Nagi’s angle, given how the other boy’s dark green fringe fell over his eyes. The tips of his ears are f u c k i n g r e d, thought Nagi.

Anyone looking at the usually laidback prodigy could see how Nagi’s eyes had darkened to near obsidian. It was a total cliché, but if looks could kill—well, Rin would be a bloodstain on the locker room floor.

(Goddammit Bachira, thought one suddenly quite anxious redhead.)

Barreling forward as if he hadn’t inserted a gratuitous pause, Bachira tacked on, “Tokki, little Nanase, and the King! I had Isagi, Chigirin, Karasu, and Yukki on my team!”

“We tied in the end, which was kind of a bummer. But you know, Reo-cchi came up with a super funny bird bullying maneuver!”

“Reocchi bet Karasu that if he made the next goal, Karasu had to caw anytime he said something. Then Reo went whoosh, whapucha and Rin-chan was all grrr pewpew. Finally, Reocchi went dadaaaan. Everyone else was like??? But in the end, Reo really scored!”

“Now Karasu has to do a dare for every time he forgot to caw!”

Nagi’s face became totally devoid of affect.

Because he was mad again.

Really, really mad.

At Reo.

f*ck apologizing.

--

Reo focused on his form and his breathing while only half paying attention to the first group’s game on the monitor. He tried to clear his mind and block out all unnecessary thoughts. (He had a lot of unnecessary thoughts.)

He passed out right when he got back to his room from sheer exhaustion.

Then he slept in (by Reo standards) and only had enough time to scarf down some carbs before running to change.

He still hadn’t figured out how he was going to conduct himself, going forward.

Despite having been the one to propose ending things, Reo didn’t actually know what that meant, now that he wasn’t in full fight mode pumped full of stress hormones. (Thanks for nothing, amygdala. Reo’s prefrontal cortex—you know, the part of the brain responsible for making good decisions—was still under construction.)

Yesterday, the day that seemed like it would never f*cking end, Reo had gone on a f*cking emotional journey.

He’d started from a moderately unhappy “Well, Nagi’s being f*cking weird,” to a breathless, almost giddy, “Christ, this stupidly brilliant hateful glorious perfect dickhe*d is so f*cking hot. Please let this mean we’ll be okay. Please, please, please universe, let this mean we’ll be okay” that quickly sent him right over a cliff, into a dark, yawning chasm that (somewhat) well-rested Reo could now jokingly consider the “Oh, guess I do deserve death” hole.

Then, after Shidou threw him a dick-shaped parachute mostly by accident, Reo was reminded, once again, how he was probably born under some really lucky star or had some sweet, sweet fairy godmothers. Because, despite being the useless crying sack of sh*t that he was (and still is), life rewarded him with a chance to experience the grace of human kindness, lifted him to previously unknown heights of joy and gratitude and (gasp) emotional security(!!!).

He was shown that he had people, in the plural(!), in his life who took the initiative to show him that they wished for his success.

Instead of wailing in the ashes of the Nagi+Reo=Partners4Life funeral pyre, he got to end perhaps one of the most emotionally traumatizing days of his life feeling as if, maybe, he wasn’t alone in the world. He just needed to be more open and honest with himself and sincere with other people. He had made new friends (some of a slightly more nebulous category of friend than others). He could even make more.

Reo *truly* believed Nagi wasn’t the only source of happiness in his life anymore.

So. Yeah.

Reo had made some big breakthroughs, now that he’d gotten to sort some things out during his workout.

But.

Yeah, okay, whatever, he was still scared sh*tless because—

What was Mikage Reo’s ego, without Nagi Seishirou at its core?

Reo never had an answer to his original question, “Who is Mikage Reo, if not the Mikage Family’s legacy?” That was why he f*cking picked up soccer and forced Nagi to fill the f*cking void in his self-worth in the first place. So, Reo was damned if he knew how to answer this newest question.

All Reo knew, presently, was that he still very stupidly, very problematically, very toxically regarded Nagi as the most important source of happiness.

He wasn’t ready to let go.

And…

With that thought, Reo was startled by Anri calling for him to return to the technical area. She informed Reo that, in another 5 minutes, he would swap with Karasu and play as a center midfielder.

Reo wasn’t going to get the promised full hour to hide out before seeing Nagi again.

Ego Jinpachi seemed to love forcing Reo into uncomfortable situations with Nagi at maximally inconvenient times. (It’s almost as if Ego was their #1 Anti-Fan.)

It made a lot of sense for Reo to be a midfielder, given his abilities.

This should have made Reo happy, since it meant they were likely quite serious about assessing his suitability as a substitute. He probably would get a spot on the bench, right? They were picking 12 guys to hangout in a dugout. Reo couldn’t possibly fail to make the cut, right?

He reassured himself by repeating that he just needed to do okay. He wasn’t a monster like Isagi, a prodigy like Nagi, or Blue Lock’s No. 1 like Rin, but Reo still counted as some type of a genius. He just needed to remember that.

--

Ego & Co. wanted to shuffle around some positions, players, and formations, so they’d have maybe 5-10 minutes before they resumed play.

Reo only threw fits during special Nagi-related mental breakdowns. Today was a new day. With sober-minded, (somewhat) mature, and responsible Reo now at the wheel, he strode into the technical area and made his rounds greeting all the regulars who were hydrating during the quick timeout.

This included casually saying hi to Nagi, who was sporting that newfound focus and intensity he’d begun developing since his Isagi-inspired enlightenment. It was a good look for him. (Reo thought most looks were good looks for him, but Nagi looking *alive* tended to really do a number on Reo, in many different senses.)

Reo made sure to turn down the degree of pathetic lovesickness, hero-worship, fear, and heartbreak. Prior to extending his greeting, the bright-eyed boy already schooled his expression into something perfectly warm and friendly.

He wasn’t going to make Nagi uncomfortable with his inexplicable overreactions like during the Third Stage. He wasn’t going to be nasty. And he wasn’t going to beg and plead for Nagi to take pity and let him hang around for old time’s sake. (Reo still had a spine after all. He)

Reo was his father’s son and his mother’s protégé – he could (superficially) carry his own and conduct himself well around anyone, at any time, if he set his mind to it.

Cutting ties didn’t equate to making ugly scenes every time you saw someone.

They were still (hopefully) going to be in the same professional circle in the future. Collegiality was important. (Hiding guilt and shame even more so. Because hiding those ugly things had been why Reo allowed the weak façade of their friendship to crumble yesterday. He wanted the rubble to bury Reo’s many crimes against Nagi.)

He was going to make this easy for everyone involved.

But.

Lol.

After Reo did a bunch of waxing poetic about how he was going to put his best foot forward? After Reo made sure to look his best and show off those pearly white teeth of his with what Reo knew was one of his most charming, amiable smiles???

Nagi publicly snubbed him.

If Reo were any less well-trained, he probably would have completely lost his image and lost his sh*t.

Now, granted, the snubbing wasn’t obvious to any of the people who hadn’t seen what Nagi and Reo were like before their first fallout. To most of the others, Nagi was never super chatty, always kind of space-y, and not big on saying much.

It’s just. The guys who knew them were like, “Uh, whoa……..what happened there?”

Because Reo had innocuously swung by to smile and say hey to a circle of familiar faces from the 5^th Stratum. Nagi just so happened to be with Isagi, Chigiri, and Gagamaru. It wasn’t as if Reo had interrupted Nagi in the middle of anything. But after Reo said hello, Nagi turned to look at him dead in the eyes and gave the Nagi equivalent of a f*cking sneer.

Again, to the unfamiliar it was just Nagi looking a little sleepy, maybe, it was like, a sleepy frown to the uninitiated.

Reo, however, was a f*cking expert when it came to interpreting Nagi-face-speak.

That was a big ol’ gfy.

Reo hadn’t even flinched at being so soundly rebuffed, because, while he absolutely did not expect Nagi to hold a grudge or go through the hassle of expressing enmity, he did always expect the worst now when it came to Nagi. His fears seemed to all inevitably be realized, so. Yeah. Okay. Nagi, apparently, resented Reo enough that he felt it was worth it to communicate how much he disliked Reo’s mere presence. Cool cool. Reo was totally fine. Not shell-shocked in the slightest. No.

If Isagi had pearls to clutch, he’d be clutching them at that moment.

Especially since Nagi proceeded to do a full body turn toward Isagi to speak as if he were like, (the Nagi version of) excited about something. He was widening his eyes to their full freakily large size.

FTR, Isagi would readily testify to how Nagi had not been particularly interested in what they’d been discussing earlier. He’d been weirdly stony all morning, albeit pretty damn good on the field today.

Even Gagamaru, who might as well have lived on the moon, didn’t love the vibe, much less Chigiri, who seemed to have put something together.

The redhead proceeded to shoot Nagi the dirtiest look known to man.

Nagi, unphased, dared challenge the Princess by giving him a flat stare.

Nagi’s challenge was accepted.

Chigiri interrupted Reo’s small talk with Gagamaru to drag the slightly startled purple-haired boy over to the farther end of the dugout, where Rin and some others were.

Reo, ever the social chameleon, integrated himself into new conversations quickly. As the Mikage prince demonstrated how much he’d leveled up his compartmentalization skills, another royal demonstrated their contempt for Nagi’s bullsh*t.

Isagi and Gagamaru might not have guessed, but Chigiri had enough data points to tell.

Nagi was being a jealous piece of sh*t.

Well okay then.

Chigiri Hyoma received his first confession as a first grader. His entire first-grade class confessed to him in the middle of a school day after one girl’s confession set off a chain reaction.

Let it be noted, for the record, Chigiri only turned down half of them in one go. The others…Chigiri let compete for a bit.

Even at age 6, the Princess had many ways and means. His powers only grew over the past 10 years.

Chigiri planned to start keeping a ledger, and, should things get to a certain point, the Princess was not above being mean.

He gave Nagi a proper sneer.

Alas. The Princess’ sneer did not have a magical deterrent effect.

Nagi and Reo both loved doing dumb sh*t.

(But it’s okay, because only some of it involved their dicks.)

(Then Reo made some other dick appointments.)

Chapter 15: These men are dogs

Chapter Text

Chapter 15 – These men are dogs

Reo’s fifteen minutes as a center midfielder were pretty much a disaster.

If one were to credit Reo for the various psychological obstacles he’d overcome to hold steady, then Reo deserved an A for effort. But that was inconsistent with Ego Jinpachi’s philosophy. If Blue Lock’s little seedlings couldn’t bloom in adversity, they’d best be fertilizer.

Ten minutes in, Reo was unable to assert his presence on the pitch. Meaning he was pretty much sh*t by Blue Lock standards.

He tried to put himself out there, despite being (v stupidly) emotionally off-balance. He loathed the weakness in his voice when he asked Yukimiya to use him.

But even under pressure with two defenders trying to pen him in, Yukimiya ‘politely’ demurred, citing how he had things under control. (Reo felt Yukimiya was implying something. He might have read into it too much, but probably not because Reo was familiar with Yukimiya’s type.)

Reo’s greatest contribution during his little mini-audition seemed to be serving as just another body crowding the midfield.

And that would have been, whatever, another lackluster showing if it weren’t for one thing—

The fact Nagi kept f*cking with him. Intentionally.

Nagi.

The Lazy Prodigy. The Sleepy Slacker. The Chronic Underachiever.

That Nagi proactively devised plans and ran plays—good plays that advanced the ball but also, not so coincidentally, either left Reo out in the cold or treated him as little more than a silly-looking scarecrow.

Reo knew that Blue Lock had changed Nagi. Changed him for the better, as a person, even if it made Nagi worse for Reo, as a partner. Blue Lock had been good to Nagi, because it finally let him see how exciting life could be.

But Reo hadn’t expected Blue Lock to make Nagi bad to Reo. He hadn’t anticipated Nagi changing into someone who would want to toy with him when they were playing on the same f*cking team.

This was not fair.

If Reo hadn’t recently gained some faith in humanity (shout out to Chigiri), he would have collapsed into a heap instead of maintaining a straight face and moving with decent athleticism across the pitch.

It was not fair for Nagi to do this to him.

Because there was no way any of this was just a coincidence.

In the past, whenever Reo bragged about how his Treasure shat gold and farted rainbows, Reo was also kind of bragging about how great he was to be able to follow along, connecting the dots between the gold and the rainbows. Or, in less figurative, less hyperbolic terms—Reo felt proud of Nagi’s genius, nursed a silly amount of self-satisfaction about being able to keep up with the mental processing power of his precious prodigy. (Nagi’s instincts were basically Nagi subconsciously figuring out the optimal next step almost instantaneously.)

Reo’s ability to follow Nagi’s thought process was what made it painfully clear that Nagi had been applying his mind to ensure Reo had no part in any of the action.

Nagi’s blatant antagonism reawakened Reo’s sense of righteous indignation. (And that long-smoldering sense of being aggrieved finally had enough fuel to become a forest fire.)

He would never deny that he treated Nagi like his little marionette for a long time. (Mikage Reo was his parents’ progeny—he had been doing what he was taught, which was by no means an excuse.)

But Nagi could have cut those strings at any time. Reo had stupidly thought he could, like, f*cking incept Nagi with the idea, “You should love Mikage Reo for being Reo and spend the rest of your lives together!”

But he clearly failed. Nagi very ably cut his strings the very moment he found something he wanted for himself, proving Reo had never been in control.

And so, Reo had already faced the consequences of his own bad acts. The red thread had been cut; the romance, or whatever it had been, was dead.

Fine. Fair enough. Reo was working towards being okay with that.

What was NOT ever going to be okay, however, was Nagi further “avenging” himself against Reo.

Sure, Reo got a little too cozy with playing director. Sure, it was probably annoying to get called Reo’s slave or his dog or whatever.

But, Reo felt that, at the bare minimum, they had really been friends, right? At least for a little while? And, overbearing as he was, he was still...good to Nagi a little bit, right? That should count towards something.

Hadn’t he done enough to show that he cared about Nagi?

Even now, poor, pathetic, absolutely f*cking disgracefully down bad Reo still found himself captivated by the new Nagi’s performance. (Even though new-Nagi apparently hated him and wanted to make a fool out of him.)

As soon as Nagi moved, Reo was awed by how beautifully Nagi’s mind and body worked together.

Every wonderful detail about this new, remarkably present Nagi also felt like it sent another needle stabbing into Reo’s f*cking eyes (which were not watering).

And he still didn’t want to look away. Reo still found everything Nagi did f*cking mesmerizing. He still wanted to capture every second, no matter how much it made his heart ache.

But as a testament to how much he cared about Nagi—

Yesterday, Reo officially bowed out.

Reo cared enough about Nagi to set aside his own selfish possessory instincts. He agreed to stop being an impediment to Nagi’s future success and happiness.

Despite being a self-serving, manipulative little sh*t through both nature and nurture, he accepted that he was bad for Nagi and stepped aside even though he wished he didn’t have to.

Reo was going to leave Nagi alone, just like he wanted.

That deserved some f*cking credit. (Right?)

The world (i.e., Nagi) seemed to disagree. (Or at least, that’s what Reo soon came to believe.)

Because—as Isagi took the lead for a super-cool shounen sports manga play? As he and Nagi engaged in some form of silent communication that only complete soccer idiots could understand? After Isagi somehow telegraphed what the next step needed to be, to Nagi, with his eyes, the way Reo used to be able to do?

Nagi f*cking looked over to Reo, who had just been doing his assigned work like a good boy.

Nagi looked over and deliberately made eye contact with Reo—

Before jerking his head back in Isagi’s direction to shout, “YES, BOSS.”

Reo’s eyes became comically large--

(Anri and Ego, because they are sincerely awful human beings, later zoomed in on Reo’s face to see what expression Reo made after Nagi said that.)

Reo’s eyes became comically large, and it was a wonder he didn’t run off the pitch to throw himself in front of moving traffic or the nearest rapid express train. (Good thing Blue Lock was built in bumf*ck nowhere.)

It shouldn’t have been a big deal. The phrase was so common. It shouldn’t have affected him like this. It shouldn’t.

But. Nagi made sure Reo knew he said it on purpose. Nagi did a petty, stupid, pointless thing that could only be explained in one way.

It sank in, fully, then, that Nagi wanted to hurt him. Nagi sincerely wanted to hurt him.

Nagi who had been safe. Nagi who meant everything to Reo.

Ha.

Haha.

Reo looked f*cking deranged as he watched his now-former Treasure get closer and closer to scoring.

Nagi had said, “Yes, boss,” to Isagi, making a mockery of what (at least Reo had long thought) was their cute little inside joke. It was as if Nagi wanted to drive home the point that he’d found someone better, more deserving of his loyalty than Reo.

Nagi wanted to hurt and humiliate him.

And Nagi had achieved his goal perfectly. (Reo always knew Nagi could do anything, if he ever bothered to try, even a little bit.)

Reo watched Nagi send the soccer ball careening into the net with only one thought running through his mind—

Nagi had no right to be this mad.

The Mikage heir, for the first time, ever, felt truly angry at Nagi.

True, unadulterated rage started filtering through his veins.

In the past, Reo had been hurt, he’d been disappointed, but his indignation and resentment were always tempered by guilt and shame and love and longing and myriad other complicated emotions.

Not so, at this moment.

Reo acidly wondered if Nagi remembered how he had to be f*cking dragged to school, literally carried to the field on Reo’s back—how he had to be begged, bribed, sometimes f*cking bedded just to even f*cking t o u c h the ball, much less score a f*cking goal. (Reo needed to stop saying f*ck. But also, f*ck.)

For all that Reo may have made mistakes, he at least introduced Nagi to this sport, furnished the conditions for Nagi to find a person who actually lit up his life.

For a second, Reo wondered if maybe he actually hated Nagi. If maybe, Reo had just been doing a weird jedi mind trick on himself, and he, in truth, perhaps just hated and envied Nagi with extreme, passionate intensity this whole time. Maybe he just wrapped it up in things he didn’t know or understand like love and affection so that he could romanticize his ugly emotions and not feel like a bad person for wanting to snuff out this other person’s brilliance.

That thought lasted all of a second, though, because even table-flipping-level angry Reo knew that thought was just him trying to retcon his history with Nagi so he could hate him in peace. (Pathetic.)

…Anyway, Reo got swapped out after Nagi scored the goal and couldn’t really remember much about what happened as he left.

He was fairly certain he didn’t say bye to anyone or even make eye contact, which was really a sign things were not good because he never forgot social niceties in quasi-professional social situations like that, not even when he was a kid.

Whatever.

He needed to find a bathroom stall to take deep breaths and stop seeing red.

--

Nagi sought out Reo’s eyes immediately after he sent the ball straight into the net. His heart was still pounding from making one of the best shots he’d made all week. It was nothing short of an amazing goal.

But Reo wasn’t there.

The adrenaline from scoring had briefly dispelled the feeling that suffocated him since he and Reo argued (and probably a lot longer, if Nagi reflected further on recent events). Nagi felt anger rising up his chest and filling his head to the point it felt full to bursting.

Right, of course, Reo wouldn’t be there. He didn’t care about Nagi anymore.

Nagi didn’t need (or even want) anyone but Reo, but that clearly wasn’t the case for Reo. They’d never been apart for more than two maybe three days since they first met, but Reo had no difficulties avoiding Nagi for far longer than that.

And after Nagi spent all night agonizing over whether to apologize for things he didn’t even really do wrong (except perhaps the two lies he wished he’d never told…), Reo had been out having fun with other people. With Rin.

It was just that easy for him. (Nagi suppressed the voice that tried pointing out how obviously swollen Reo’s eyes had been or how tired he looked.) (It wasn’t as if Nagi’s eyes weren’t swollen, and it wasn’t as if Nagi didn’t look just as, if not more, tired.) (Nagi didn’t know how to manage all the mess of thoughts and feelings swirling through his aching head.)

When Reo had tried giving him the same charming, empty smile that he gave to all the background characters in his life—that carefully calibrated smile Nagi caught Reo practicing in the mirror sometimes—Nagi could only respond with derision. He wasn’t acquiescing to living on the other side of an invisible wall. Not when he knew what it was like on the opposite side.

Winning the World Cup was why Reo had first asked Nagi to lend him his talent and call him “boss.” Reo had stalked, wheedled, cajoled, and even outright bribed Nagi to get him to play soccer. Everything started from there.

So, as Nagi had already hazily intuited days ago after he’d first discovered Reo may have replaced him with Rin, Nagi just needed to remind Reo why he should still choose him. Nagi reassured himself that Reo and that asshole weren’t together (Bachira…was annoying). Rin had not replaced him. And Nagi would never let that happen. Rin was a f*cking eyesore who just happened to be around. There were plenty of bugs like him hovering around Reo all the time.

Nagi just needed to focus. But the problem was that becoming the very best required more time, whereas Nagi needed Reo to pay attention to him now.

He reached a conclusion more through instinct than any articulable, logical thought process—even if he couldn’t get Reo to look at him with stars in his eyes (for now), Nagi still knew Reo well enough to know how to, at a minimum, start a fire. Just 15 minutes on the field proved his theory. Reo couldn’t stop looking at him. Nagi got Reo to pay attention to him. And Nagi knew that he was kind of being an asshole. But Reo was also feeding the troll.

It was just right for Reo to be angry and upset, too. It was only fair, after he’d introduced Nagi to these feelings—they were a huge pain. They could both be unhappy (for the time being, until Nagi won).

(…F in the chat for Nagi…)

--

Sometimes, in anime and manga or movies and TV, there’s like, that dramatic moment where someone snaps. And it results in some huge power-up as if all it took was some emotional stimulus to make someone a Super Saiyan.

Reo had, in fact, had several of those moments where it kind of felt like something snapped and rearranged itself in his brain.

However, exactly none of those moments had given him a win. Sometimes, he was left with, maybe, a clearer idea about how to do better in the future. Or he’d have an even stronger resolve to stick to this honestly nonsense World Cup plan instead of resigning himself to the (pretty cushy albeit v stressful and p banal) fate of becoming the sinister chairman of a massive multinational conglomeration. None of his “snaps” ever gave him an immediate, concrete, tangible, externally recognizable personal victory though.

That changed, thanks to how Nagi f*cked up big (unbeknownst to Nagi) earlier that morning.

That anger was the last element required for Reo to form chemical reactions with other Bluelockers on the field.

Reo’s forty-five minutes as a defensive midfielder were nothing short of an absolutely, positively incredible personal best.

This was also thanks, in no small part, to Rin’s 10-15 minutes’ worth of advice.

--

The younger striker started with a fairly safe, general observation, “You have a logical and predictive style of play. But the bulk of the ‘data’ you’re relying on, in your predictions, comes from studying pro soccer games and absorbing tactics and theories ‘by the book.’ You just don’t have the same experience and instinct honed from years of playing hundreds of games with different people.” Reo nodded along in agreement.

“And that’s obviously not something that can be addressed overnight. But…”

“But?”

“There is in some ways another, larger problem. But it’s also potentially easier to immediately address—you don’t seem to think of your teammates or opponents as real people.”

“That’s kinda funny coming from Mr. Lukewarm,” Reo joked, as he turned to fiddle with some cones and hide his faintly uneasy expression.

Rin rolled his eyes at Reo’s remark, even if the older boy couldn’t see it. Frowning at the need to use more words than his unofficial daily quota, Rin spat, “I’m being serious. I’m saying this because my playstyle is also heavily predictive. I wouldn’t be able to force out plays the way I do if I don’t accurately grasp the abilities of both my teammates and opponents.”

“You don’t seem to take into consideration players’ unique idiosyncrasies, which makes it harder for you to build reliable game models. You label opponents or teammates as ‘explosive speed type’ or ‘dribbler’ and then fill in most of your mental model with the generically applicable tactics and techniques.”

“And that’s fine to start with, for new people, but you don’t seem to be reliably fine-tuning or updating even with repeat exposure.”

Staring up and to the far left of the stadium, looking at nothing in particular, Rin tried to nonchalantly acknowledge how impressive Reo’s accomplishments were (for someone who’d only played for one f*cking year) without sounding too complimentary. “You’ve been able to get this far using your paint-by-number predictions because your exceptional motor memory and semantic memory have been enough to deal with most lukewarm players.”

“Wow. I’m honored.”

Reo’s face wasn’t visible, so it was hard to tell whether he was being facetious or not.

Rin assumed Reo was being facetious, “Shut up.”

“No, I’m being serious now!” The violet-eyed boy was, in fact, a bit moved(?) by how much thought Rin had put into analyzing Reo’s playstyle. He wondered, for a moment, if Rin had watched some of his old games. Then he cringed, hard, for obvious reasons. He flushed with embarrassment and maybe a bit of something else, too.

He turned to look at Rin for a moment, just so Rin could see he meant it.

Rin took a quick glance at Reo’s face and started staring at the high ceilings again, “…whatever. But…a piece of advice—about the los-…lazy guy.”

“…Nagi.”

“Whatever. You should try applying the same principles you use for analyzing and modeling his game to other people on the field…He’s the only guy you seem to treat like a ‘real person’ during games. You’re far more flexible in thinking about his movements.”

“Oh.”

It’s not just during games, Reo thought to himself. He turned around again, ostensibly to disassemble one of the goalposts.

After a short silence, “…and don’t take this the wrong way,” Rin started uncomfortably.

Reo hummed to indicate he should continue.

“You only seem to be looking at him or looking around for him. On the pitch.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“You’re…good enough on your own.”

There was nothing Reo could say in response to that.

--

But it turned out Rin’s advice had given Reo the building blocks he needed. (No matter how deeply unsettling it had been to hear at the time.)

Reo finally experienced the mythical flow state that Ego hyped so much in his dinky PowerPoint presentations.

Fueled by fury, Reo finally did something that, in retrospect, should have been what he had done back during the Third Stage of the 2^nd Selection—

Reo challenged Nagi.

There was no point in targeting Isagi. It had been a stupid division of labor, honestly, when he knew Nagi’s abilities the best, just like Nagi knew his. Isagi hadn’t meant to be a home-wrecking hussy, no matter how much Reo couldn’t help but think that whenever he saw the little soccer psycho. It wasn’t like Isagi wanted Nagi’s D. (Reo could read normal people quite easily, so he was p sure re. Isagi.)

Even if Reo had proven himself to be better than Isagi, Nagi probably still wouldn’t have come back to Reo.

It had never really been about Isagi being a better footballer than Reo. Isagi just had personal qualities that Nagi genuinely found fascinating. Isagi was inspiring in a way Reo was not. Reo was out there trying to win Nagi’s love and attention in a battle through soccer when Reo had already lost as a person, a long time ago.

Reo knew that Nagi didn’t love Isagi (yet). But Reo had obsessively observed Nagi long enough to have realized, the moment Nagi got that light in his eyes—Nagi, whether he knew it or not, was experiencing the kind of amazement and admiration that Reo felt every single moment he saw Nagi move through the world. Nagi had been inspired by Isagi the way Nagi inspired Reo.

And that was that.

Honestly, Reo should have just salvaged his pride by beating Nagi into the dirt and moving on. Nagi was the one who hurt him, whether he meant to or not (Reo wasn’t sure it had been unintentional anymore). Nagi deserved Reo’s anger.

But the idea had been far too radical to even cross Reo’s mind at the time. It was akin to sacrilege because Nagi Seishirou was “chosen” by soccer and Reo was not. Reo was supposed to be an acolyte.

But so what if Nagi had been chosen by soccer?

Thinking about it again. It wasn’t as if people would say Isagi was “chosen” by soccer. He certainly wasn’t preternaturally gifted the way Nagi was, and yet Isagi still managed to become a monster. Isagi chose soccer. And his condescending parting words about being the one to choose? It had been offensive because it wasn’t anything Reo didn’t know already. His whole life was about control. Gaining control. Exercising control. Controlling himself; controlling other people.

It was all annoying as f*ck. (The way Reo focused on Nagi had, maybe, actually been a form of ceding control, disavowing responsibility for managing his own life.)

But fine.

Reo was mad enough, today, to try to defy fate. (And wasn’t that the essence of Reo choosing soccer? To set aside his destiny to become head of the Mikage clan?)

He was going to say f*ck it and tear down the altar that he’d built for Nagi, knock Nagi off the pedestal that Reo himself had set him on. Reo was going to bring Nagi down to the dust that Reo had humbly prostrated himself in, out of awe for Nagi’s genius.

Reo still truly believed Nagi was the very best and that the whole world would know that someday.

But that didn’t have anything to do with Reo anymore.

Reo had a much wider world to explore.

By himself, now.

And, with that goal in mind, Reo earnestly set out to apply the same observational principles he applied to Nagi to everyone else on the field. He was so angry that it actually became a little easier to tear his eyes away from Nagi.

Steadily through the game, it was like the map in Reo’s mind had begun to light up with so many more possible trajectories. The players represented by various lights were all still quite a bit dimmer than Nagi’s star, but it felt as if Reo was seeing a universe that he’d never seen before. (He still always knew where Nagi was, never needed to really look in the first place.)

But. Yeah. Suddenly, Reo had, like, 360-degree vision. He was really a chameleon now, bish.

He was right on the money 100% of the time when it came to any play that involved Nagi. It was a bit dicey when it came to others (definitely Rin), but he still had a remarkable degree of accuracy when it came to figuring out where he ought to be at the right time.

After he had started getting used to being so very wrong so very often, he had a newfound appreciation for getting anything right at all. He’d missed this feeling. He appreciated it so much more now, knowing it wasn’t a given.

Suddenly, soccer was fun again. It was still challenging, and Reo still struggled in many ways. But Reo hardly needed to make a tackle the whole game, because he was able to snuff out so many attacks before they could really develop.

He most certainly made sure to f*cking strangle any Isagi and Nagi combo play while still in its infancy.

The non-regulars didn’t win (womp womp). But the score was very respectable 1-0. Reo took great, great pride in the fact that he’d been able to annoy the sh*t out of, well, essentially all the offensive players in the Blue Lock 11 at least once in the game. He even got Yukimiya to straight up snarl at him once. (Reo fouled him to put an end to a promising move. Defense had time to regroup, and then they successfully countered.) (Very ni—ice.)

--

Freshly showered, Reo wrapped a towel around his hips and made his way to the changing room. All ingress and egress between the showers and the lockers for this particular training block required passage through the water closet, which contained a couple rows of bathroom stalls and urinals to one side and sinks on the other.

Reo exchanged greetings with a couple guys who were headed to the showers, other stragglers who played on the same team as Reo earlier in the day.

Most of the afternoon shower traffic had already died down by this time since lunch had started a while ago. Reo needed to hurry if he still wanted to meet up with Chigiri and the others.

The purple-haired boy was mid-thought when he was abruptly grabbed from behind and hauled into a bathroom stall.

Were it not for the too-familiar scent accompanying the body behind him, Blue Lock would have been short of an offensive midfielder on Saturday. Reo seriously contemplated taking down his would-be kidnapper, anyway, despite knowing it was Nagi.

That the thought crossed his mind for even a second showed just how much of a paradigm shift occurred in the course of a single day.

Reo let his better angels prevail. Instead of repeatedly hitting Nagi in the crotch or throwing him to the ground as Reo might have had anyone else grabbed him from behind, Reo instead just smoothly broke out of Nagi’s hold, grabbed the collar of his shirt and turned to shove the taller boy up against the now closed stall door.

The stall was fairly cramped for two men of their size, so they really only had about maybe a foot of standing space between them.

They stared at each other under the strange shadows cast by the WC’s harsh fluorescent lighting.

Deep-violet eyes took in the other man’s severe expression. Reo decided not to let go of Nagi’s shirt, so he had to just use his other hand to hold up the towel that threatened to fall if he made any other big movements.

Reo found it annoying how calm Nagi’s breathing was when Reo himself had to take short, quick breaths. Nagi clearly hadn’t worried that Reo would hurt him, at all.

That Nagi had assumed correctly annoyed Reo even more.

“Do you have some kind of problem?” Reo snapped.

Then, thinking better of speaking at that volume given their current (somewhat compromising) position, he switched to a furious whisper, “Why did you drag me into a f*cking bathroom stall?”

Nagi didn’t seem to mind Reo’s tone or the fact he was still pinned against a stall door. He remained impassive as he stared darkly into Reo’s eyes.

Reo still had no idea what set Nagi off. And once upon a time (meaning less than 24 hours ago) Reo might have been deeply concerned to discover Nagi was actually angry, if not absolutely terrified to discover Nagi was angry at him.

But in light of recent events, the angrier Nagi seemed, the more outraged Reo felt. Because this was ridiculous. Nagi was going out of his way to be spiteful when Reo hadn’t done sh*t. There wasn’t anything Reo said yesterday that was any worse than what Nagi said.

And since when had Nagi been someone who could dish it out but couldn’t take it? Nagi regularly spat well-timed burns with aplomb—the lazy prodigy might have been a pacifist, but he wasn’t above dispensing a diss or two. (He played first-person shooters…Nagi was an able sh*t-talker. His capacity for brutal takedowns was one of the things Reo found used to find so charming.)

Reo had the displeasure of witnessing incidents where people had said far worse to Nagi, with much greater ill-will. Nagi was completely unperturbed, and he never seemed to even remember who they were, much less what offensive things they said.

(Even if Nagi won every verbal altercation, Reo always felt additional recompense was required for the insult. Reo made them all grovel and beg forgiveness from Nagi in person. Later everyone at Hakuho knew Nagi was Reo’s reverse scale.) (Reo didn’t know this, but Nagi didn’t need Reo’s protection—he often proved to be scary enough on his own, in places Reo couldn’t see.)

“Well?”

“Since you have nothing to say, I’m going.”

Reo released Nagi’s collar and tried to shove him to the side so he could open the stall door.

Nagi grabbed the arm that Reo sent towards the door handle.

“You blocked me on LINE,” came a sullen accusation.

It took a moment for Reo to realize Nagi had tossed that out as an explanation for trapping Reo in a stall. Which. Seriously what the f*ck. That was no explanation at all. (False imprisonment was against the law. Look it up.)

Nagi understood the incredulity on Reo’s face for what it was, so he continued, “You avoided me before, too.”

“So, this was the only way.”

“…ah,” was all Reo could manage in response, as he tilted his head back to examine the ceiling.

He covered his tired eyes with a hand, inhaled for a count of four, and exhaled for a count of eight.

Only then was he able to meet Nagi’s grey-eyed stare once more.

“I’ll unblock you. So, you can say what you want to say through text.”

Nagi had been doing fine, seemed to have lightened up once Reo said he’d let Nagi say his piece, if only via text.

“I’m late for lunch already. I was supposed to meet Chigiri and some other people.”

But at the mention of other people, Nagi’s eyes narrowed, and their color began to resemble the dark blue-grey of an arctic storm.

Instead of communicating with words, like any normal, well-socialized human being would, Nagi surged forward to try kissing Reo instead.

Nope. Not a chance in hell. The still angry Mikage was not about to get swept away again.

Dark purple eyes did their own narrowing, and the now even more agitated young man quickly pushed Nagi so his back was flush against the door once more. The stall door shook.

“You’re joking.”

The corners of Nagi’s mouth pulled down, “No.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Why the fu- -," interrupting Reo before he could continue, Nagi tried again.

This time Nagi put his back into it—rushing forward and snaking an arm around Reo’s waist while tangling his other fingers into Reo’s hair.

Their mouths crashed together.

And, for one brief moment, it seemed as if Reo would refuse Nagi entry. The proud young man kept his jaw clenched and lips sealed.

But Nagi only needed to insistently trace along the seam of Reo’s mouth and nip at the soft flesh of his lower lip before Reo abandoned all self-control. (He still wasn’t good at refusing Nagi anything, even when he was angry. Livid, even.)

Reo cursed internally, then screwed shut his eyes, and roughly grabbed the side of Nagi’s face. He began to respond to Nagi with equal vigor. The back of Nagi’s head thudded painfully against the door, but Reo didn’t seem to care about his precious Treasure’s comfort anymore. (He wasn’t his Treasure now.)

Reo channeled all his (still abundant) anger into the wanton clash of lips and tongues and teeth. He wanted to make Nagi’s frozen, expressionless face twist into something as desperate and full of desire as Reo’s own. Reo wanted Nagi to burn.

And, truthfully, the silver-haired boy did feel a scorching heat throughout his body. Nagi’s breathing grew labored. His heart pounded in his chest, and all his blood rushed south. He responded to Reo’s aggression with his own attempts at conquest, greedily devouring Reo’s lips. The hand that had been around Reo’s waist began to travel down to the curve of Reo’s ass.

But when Nagi’s mouth parted from Reo’s to begin traveling down the flushed Mikage’s neck, Reo abruptly disentangled himself from his former partner.

He took a half step backward as he tried to catch his breath. (That half-step was all the room the huge Toto washlet would allow.)

Nagi looked up at Reo with heavy-lidded eyes and slightly messy hair. His usually pale lips had become a wet, dark coralline red. He stood up straight (an increasingly common thing Reo noted) and crudely wiped his mouth with a wrist, never breaking eye contact with Reo.

Reo tried to meet Nagi’s stare, but he soon had to look away from Nagi’s pink tongue testing the sluggishly bleeding cut on his lip from yesterday’s fight.

Perhaps Reo would have been better off maintaining eye contact with Nagi, though, since his eyes landed on the massive tent that had appeared in Nagi’s shorts.

And it made the much more exposed tent in Reo’s towel grow a bit more.

This was a hate boner.

This was for sure a hate boner.

He f*cking hated how the asshole in front of him always made him lose control. Reo could never keep up appearances around Nagi, and, while that might have seemed acceptable before, when Reo trusted him implicitly, that was certainly not the case now, when Nagi’s motivations were unclear.

Reo would have once given anything for Nagi to want anything, and he’d have been thrilled if that anything was remotely related to himself.

But Nagi’s newfound wants seemed threatening to Reo now. He wanted nothing to do with them anymore.

(Or so he kept repeating to himself, even as he got increasingly turned on by the thought Nagi still wanted him, at least in this limited, physical way.)

“I’m leaving,” Reo announced, voice a bit hoarse. “Don’t do this again.”

He cleared his throat, and, when Nagi showed no sign of moving, he was able to speak more smoothly. “…Move.”

The sounds of sandals on tile and boys chitchatting with each other entered the hall.

Nagi silently moved to the side, towards the stall door’s hinges as if he were letting Reo through.

But before Reo was able to open the door, Nagi had grabbed Reo’s right shoulder and pinned him against the opposite wall of the bathroom stall. There was a thud accompanied by a small rattling sound.

The boys in the hallway had stopped briefly.

“What was that sound?”

Nagi’s entire body kept Reo pressed against the wall, conveniently keeping a leg between Reo’s. His thigh could touch Reo’s bare skin (and other things) beneath the towel.

The pinned man stared at him, eyes wide with shock and outrage.

Reo wasn’t about to walk out of the stall with his dick fully erect now, especially when he wasn’t sure Nagi would have the sense to wait inside to leave.

Taking advantage of the situation, Nagi buried his face into the junction between Reo’s neck and shoulder. His tongue glided across the marks that he’d left yesterday, and he trailed kisses along the slope of Reo’s shoulder, occasionally biting down. Reo couldn’t help but make a small noise at one particularly hard bite.

“Stop biting me. You’re not a f*cking dog. It leaves marks!” he complained to Nagi in a suppressed shout-whisper.

In response, Nagi sucked another hickey onto the area around Reo’s clavicle. Reo bruised surprisingly easily so it wasn’t difficult to leave marks behind if one acted with the intent to do so.

Before Reo could shove Nagi off, the silver-haired striker lifted his head, resting his smooth cheek against Reo’s and simply said, “Wan,” in a husky voice. Nagi simply accepted the “dog” label and took it as license to continue his previous ministrations.

Reo’s new canine companion left a few other marks here or there, as Reo’s nails dug in to Nagi’s back and shoulders hard enough to leave their own marks. Nagi eventually turned his attention to Reo’s ear, mouthing at it and occasionally nipping with a sharp incisor.

The towel had pretty much fallen off at this point, and the only reason it was still there was because it was pressed between Reo’s junk and Nagi’s thigh.

Reo breathed heavily and cursed his own stupidity before he rudely pulled Nagi over by the hair so he could reach the other boy’s mouth.

There was another frenzied clash, and Reo had started rubbing up against Nagi’s hardness of his own volition.

But then suddenly a voice cut through the feverish haze in Reo’s brain.

“Hey, have you guys seen Reo around? Is he in the bath?” came Chigiri’s voice.

sh*t. Reo forgot. Oh sh*t.

His erection flagged.

Chigiri was going to be so annoyed. And, actually, probably disappointed in Reo if he found out he’d skipped food just to f*ck around with Nagi (again) after witnessing yesterday’s mess.

“We just saw him earlier. He was about to change.”

The guys from before must’ve left. It was now a different group of guys speaking, the ones Reo said hi to on their way in, earlier. f*ck. He’d been in here with Nagi long enough for people to finish showering. Just how late was he?

Reo shoved Nagi off. If he waited until Chigiri and the other people left, he might be able to catch him by going around the other hallway.

Great thinking, Reo.

Yes. Perfect plan.

Probably would have worked too, if not for one unexpected development.

Rin’s presence.

“Let’s go back to the cafeteria,” came a familiar tenor. “We probably just missed him.”

Suddenly Reo found himself lifted off the ground, completely naked in midair because the hanging towel dropped the moment Nagi’s leg moved away.

Reo was so startled he reflexively flailed, scrabbling for purchase, and hit the stall walls a few times on accident. The walls shook and there was that rattling noise from the stupid locks and hinges again. (Reo was not a fan of those locks and hinges right now.)(Though he was grateful there were lockable stalls.)

Nagi had lifted the now fully nude Reo and placed him, standing, on top of the toilet lid. (Thank god for ceiling tall stalls.) (But also, it was f*cking annoying how easily Nagi could lift Reo, sometimes even with just one arm. It wasn’t exactly easy for Reo to carry Nagi around. Reo had his trainer add more lifting to his routine for the express purpose of hauling this f*cking asshole from place to place.)

Reo felt incredibly exposed, despite the fact guys walked around fully naked in these rooms all the time.

Obviously, his situation was different.

Reo’s body weight, on the lid, activated the washlet’s functions, and there was the tell-tale sound of water flowing through as the smart toilet prepared to do its thing for whoever might need a butt-washing.

Reo did not need a butt-washing. He needed a brainwashing so he could forget this horrifically shameful experience of standing fully naked with his half-hard dick out on top of an oversized toilet with unnecessary ‘smart’ functions. Smart functions that might give away his current location and scandalous circ*mstances.

f*ck.

He glared down at the party responsible.

Nagi seemed unrepentant.

Reo desperately wanted the people in the hall to stop talking and leave already.

Offended by how Reo kept glancing over at where the voices came from, Nagi did what he’d planned from the moment he lifted Reo.

He wrapped his mouth around Reo’s co*ck.

Reo made a sound of surprise.

The people in the hall paused in conversation for a moment.

Why of all times had people decided to be social? And in the bathroom thoroughfare no less. Chigiri and the others, Reo could maybe understand, but it didn’t seem like Rin had left yet either. Just. Why.

Fighting to ignore the sensations flooding through him (and failing), he used an arm to brace himself against the back of the stall as he tried to lean away from the wet warmth of Nagi’s mouth. He tried to pull Nagi’s head away (by the hair bc Reo wasn’t playing nice with Nagi anymore) using his other hand.

Nagi allowed himself to be pulled back, but he kept sucking the whole time. When he reached the head of Reo’s dick, he resisted any further pulling. With Reo’s glans in his mouth, he sucked even harder as he teased the hole up top with the tip of his tongue.

He looked up at Reo in challenge. Nagi’s hands, which held Reo’s hips in place, exerted pressure, and a thumb slowly stroked the jut of Reo’s hip bone in provocation.

Reo bit his lip to suppress the sounds that threatened to escape.

Seeing Reo struggling to keep quiet, Nagi proceeded to take Reo deep into his throat. There was an obscene slurping sound as he traveled down Reo’s rock-hard length until only two fingers-worth of flesh remained exposed. That portion of Reo’s penis was soon taken care of by Nagi’s fingers quickly circling the base.

Suppressing sounds through sheer force of will became a lost cause. A groan escaped.

“Hey, you okay over there?” asked one of the guys in the hall, half-laughing.

Reo gave up the hand bracing him against the wall. He brought it to his mouth to bite instead. And the hand that had originally been pulling Nagi’s head away stilled.

Thoughts racing, Reo tried to decide whether to respond or not. If he did, there would be no mistaking his voice—Chigiri and Rin would stay for sure. Then that meant they’d be waiting for him to come out, and that in turn meant they’d see the f*cking nutjob currently sucking his dick (far too well) come out at the same time. His brain did the equivalent of a keysmash. The combination of lust, pleasure, shame, and panic made coherent thought nigh impossible.

The decision was made for him.

“Haha, guess he’s shy,” said one of the others.

But before Reo could breathe a sigh of relief, Rin’s voice sounded out, “I’ll go back to the caf to check.”

That seemed to do something to Nagi, who began deep-throating Reo with renewed vigor. And now a hand had released Reo’s hip to fondle Reo’s balls. Nagi also shallowly shoved his middle finger into Reo, up to the first joint.

As if he could predict exactly how Reo would moan, Nagi hit the courtesy button and somehow managed to push it to max volume right in time to mask the sound.

Reo admitted defeat. (Yet another victory for Nagi after Reo seemed to have finally broken his streak, earlier in the day.)

He placed both hands in the tangled mess of silver hair and held Nagi’s head in place as he f*cked into the other boy’s mouth. Reo could feel Nagi’s hum of satisfaction at Reo’s now active participation.

It wasn’t long before Reo needed to come.

Reo briefly contemplated being rude and just pulling out to come all over Nagi’s f*cking (annoyingly beautiful) face.

He didn’t get to make that choice though, because Nagi just insisted on swallowing every last drop of Reo’s cum rather than letting Reo pull out.

Reo tipped forward, a bit lightheaded from his release.

Nagi just grabbed Reo’s hips, set him back onto the ground, and enveloped Reo in his arms.

Reo’s body went rigid. Post-org*smic bliss dissipated with every second he spent in Nagi’s embrace.

Reo wasn’t even sure who the Nagi in front of him was anymore—he certainly wasn’t the same boy he’d first met (the one who had been safe, the one who made up Reo’s entire world).

And it’s quite possible that original Nagi never even existed. That Nagi might just have been the lovely awkward creature conjured up by Reo’s fantasies. Reo just happened to have borrowed the face of the person in front of him right now. (The person who wanted to hurt him.)

“Why are you doing this?” Reo asked, staring blankly at the stall door.

—

Nagi buried his face in Reo’s hair. After a while, he responded, “Because I want you.”

Nagi was still hard, because he hadn’t dealt with his own erection when he’d been sucking Reo off. It hadn’t occurred to Nagi how his statement might be misconstrued when his dick was still rubbing up against Reo’s naked body.

“Why this all of a sudden? What do you mean when you say you want me?” the stone-faced Mikage asked, appearing unmoved.

Taken aback by Reo’s tone, Nagi answered Reo’s question with a question. “What does Reo mean by that?”

“I mean why are you suddenly saying this?”

“You want to sleep with me? You want to be f*ckbuddies? You want to date me?”

“What does it mean when you say you want me?”

The rapid-fire questions coupled with Reo’s harsh tone seemed to leave Nagi at a loss. He hadn’t anticipated his confession would be taken so…poorly. And he thought it was a given he just wanted to be with Reo.

Much of Nagi’s anger had left his body during the last game when playing against Reo because it had been so fun, so exciting to see Reo having so much fun. Reo was burning bright again, like before. He was so cool. It was this liveliness, this magnetism that Nagi always wanted to be able to match.

But Nagi’s sixth sense had told him, that even though the game had been fun and exciting, it had been dangerous. Something weird, something bad was happening. And it was annoying how Reo had stopped paying attention to him so quickly.

He was in an even worse mood when he discovered that he couldn’t message Reo, to figure out when they could talk.

He needed to try something else. Which was why he ended up waiting for Reo in the non-regular’s bathroom.

“I…”

Reo kept going, “Do you actually know what you want from me?”

“And why you want whatever that is?”

“Reo…”

The violet-eyed boy gave Nagi time to finish.

“Reo was the first person,” Nagi said slowly, “The first person to see something in me.”

“I don’t want you to ab- -to leave me.” His hold on Reo became uncomfortably tight, and he refused to let Reo move or look him in the eye.

“I need you.”

The extended silence was filled with toilet music. It seemed fitting because both boys were feeling increasingly sh*tty in the course of what now both of them considered to be a confession if not necessarily the traditional kind that used the words “like” or “love.”

“I see,” Reo said dully. That raging fire, all the anger that fueled his interrogation seemed to have been snuffed out by Nagi’s answer.

He hugged Nagi back, hugged him tightly like he never wanted to let go.

And then Reo let go.

He gently pushed Nagi away but didn’t avoid Nagi’s attempt to still hold onto his arms. Reo wanted to make sure he looked Nagi in the eye for what he was going to say next.

“I don’t think you need me, Nagi.”

Silver brows started to furrow, and Nagi opened his mouth to protest. “Last time, I didn’t mean it. I was ly—"

But Reo smiled and continued without letting the other boy finish explaining, “No, I don’t think you were wrong, though."

"You’re used to me. Because, like you said, I was—I was your first friend.”

“But you’ll make more, and you’ll be able to see the difference. You don’t really want or need me.”

Watery eyes wide, Nagi insisted, “You’re wrong."

"I need Reo.”

There was another long pause. And Reo felt a bit ridiculous. His long-awaited confession from Nagi was coming in a toilet stall after a sordid bathroom blowj*b instigated by both of them being pretty pissed off. Nice. Well. Guess their sexual relationship started with an unceremonious handy in a sauna, so this might really be full circle.

“It means a lot to me to hear you say that. It really, really does."

"But I don’t want things to be the way they were before, anymore,” Reo replied firmly, lips pursed, “I don’t want to be needed the way you seem to need me.”

At that, Nagi’s eyes narrowed, and there wasn’t a trace of the sad-puppy aura from moments ago. “Why? Because Reo doesn’t need me anymore? Because I’m not the best?”

The way Nagi accusatorily shot out his questions made it seem as if he were a completely different, much more hardened person.

Reo didn’t take the bait, “I’m not going to fight with you about this right now, okay.”

“You don’t want to talk to me, period,” came Nagi’s immediate reply, somehow managing to convey the speaker’s bitterness despite the lack of modulation in tone.

“Don’t do this.”

“Why not? I need Reo to explain."

"Why is Rin okay but I’m not, anymore?"

"If I’m better than him, will you pay attention to me again? Is that it?”

“Okay, first of all—that’s f*cked. I’m not some type of f*cking—some f*cking soccer groupie. What the hell, Nagi? I can’t even—,” Reo spluttered, completely stunned and thoroughly offended. He let go of Nagi completely and put a hand on his hip while basically face-palming with the other.

Reo ran a hand through his now dry purple hair. After taking a deep breath, he replied with barely suppressed irritation in his tone, “We’ve been in a f*cking bathroom stall for I don’t even know how long. I need to eat. You starters get recovery for the rest of the day, but the rest of us normies are getting our heaviest workout for the week this afternoon.”

“We can talk about this some other time.”

Then he picked up the towel from the ground to cover up, grossed out he had to wrap up with something that fell on the bathroom floor but definitely not about to borrow anything from Nagi now.

The clearly dissatisfied lanky young man moved out of Reo’s way and the two of them left the stall in complete silence.

--

5 minutes after Nagi and Reo left, poor little Niko Ikki finally came out of another bathroom stall.

Niko wasn’t just self-conscious about his forehead. He also had major bathroom anxiety, and he didn’t like using the urinals. He was younger than most of the other guys here and still developing. It was embarrassing for him to pee next to some of these guys who just whipped out scary-looking monster dongs. Niko had been on soccer teams for ages and in communal showers plenty—the number of outlier willies in Blue Lock would make most people feel uncomfortable! It wasn’t normal!

But. Anyhow, he’d been minding his own business, taking a leak, when there was a commotion in the stall next to his.

He could recognize Mikage Reo and Nagi Seishirou’s voices anywhere. That pair had been the first to make Niko realize God wasn’t fair. There was no mistaking them.

And once he realized what was going on next door, he once again wondered why God wasn’t fair, albeit for entirely different reasons.

…he couldn’t figure out how to leave.

So, he ended up having to stay.

The whole time.

He heard pretty much everything.

So. Many. Things.

Niko’s face was red as a tomato. Thank god for his bangs—he was never looking either of those guys in the eye, ever again.

—

The next two days were…interesting.

Nagi and Reo suddenly sat at the same tables for meals again. Or well, Reo wasn’t going out of his way to avoid Nagi, and Nagi would make it a point to sit at the same table if he learned Reo was eating in the cafeteria.

But instead of sitting next to each other (or more like on each other) the way they used to, they would sit diagonally from one another so that they never *had* to make direct eye contact and had plenty of plausible deniability for all the side-eye they kept giving each other.

And instead of grossing everyone out by acting out mama-bird-feeds-baby-bird every meal, they now roped many an unwitting Bluelocker into, effectively, witnessing random total eclipses of the sun.

Someone would say something, and there was a 33% chance it would set off either Nagi or Reo. Then one or the other would start throwing shade.

Bachira *loved* it, because, well, primordial chaos monster.

Isagi was torn between hating it, because sober-off-field Isagi hadn’t stopped faking decency, and loving it, because he was, in his heart, a great lover of bloodsports. He wondered if Nagi and Reo’s scalps hurt—they kept dragging each other left and right like little kiddy sleds.

Chigiri, too, felt torn because rationally speaking this could not be good for Reo’s mental health.

But also? Chigiri felt newfound respect for the overgrown sloth. Reo, Chigiri had already known was clever. It was a surprise to learn that Nagi was genuinely funny. His conduct over the last couple days proved that his burns for Barou actually weren’t lucky accidents. The boy had talent.

After making this observation to Reo, Reo managed to thoroughly disgust Chigiri by expressing offense at the idea anyone could doubt Nagi’s talent for comedy (or anything at all) and then launching into a tirade about how Nagi was such a f*cking piece of sh*t for x, y, z reasons (again). The redhead couldn’t tell, between all the backhanded compliments and intimate knowledge embedded in the ridicule, whether this meant that Nagi and Reo had made up or not. Both Nagi and Reo had good poker faces during spars. Nagi looked completely indifferent, and Reo looked amiable and unruffled.

(Barou appreciated the validation re. Nagi being a little sh*t but did not enjoy being singled out for exceptionally caustic remarks.) (Nagi caught on to Barou’s little crush and now believed Barou deserved to be crushed.) (More so than before.)

--

The night before the U-20 match, Reo's entire body buzzed with irritation after a particularly annoying exchange with Nagi over dinner. (They scheduled their serious talk for after the official game, and they were now, still ‘friends.’ Thus, a Cold War had commenced.)

Reo’s eyebrow twitched when he saw a notification that Igaguri, of all people, had added him to a chat group. Reo and Igaguri? Were not on very friendly terms. Reo saw no need to be friendly with the fake monk. (Reo held a grudge or two from the guy flopping during the game w Kunigami and for a few Nagi jokes the baldie cracked way back.)

When Reo pulled up the group member’s menu to check who Igaguri pulled him into a chat with, he decided that he disliked Igarashi Gurimu even more than before.

The nickname of the third person was nonsensical, but the profile photo gave Reo a clue. (Hint: It was an explosion.)

Those suspicions were confirmed when the sticker Igaguri sent was a big sorry, and the third group member sent—

“very rude to block ur daddy like that”

“fyi the u20 team’s here”

“cum 2 the 2nd strat”

Igaguri, the little turd, then left the group.

Rolling his eyes, Reo checked the time. It was still pretty early.

Christiano Ronaldo (Reo’s personal fave) firmly advocated for having sex before matches. Separately, Ronaldinho was also pro-before game sex. Who was Reo to refuse the wisdom of tried-and-true footballers of the highest caliber?

He unblocked Shidou’s main account and messaged him.

“When/where?”

“wow so eager”

“they gave me a single bc im that special <3”

“block y room 203”

“come over now”

--

So.

Recall that Reo grossly misunderstood how bored Shidou was over at the U-20 training camp. Reo never bothered thinking about what the conditions were for Shidou to be part of the squad, and, though Shidou mentioned punching one of the U-20 starters in the face on Day 1, Reo hadn’t put two and two together.

It wasn’t until he was met with the reality of a Shidou Ryuusei who’d been under-stimulated for two weeks that he came to deeply regret his thoughtlessness.

Shidou had been housed with a bunch of hostile invigilators (the official U-20 team members) happy to rat him out for sneaking out of the facility or stepping a toe out of line. They had been extremely motivated to make life difficult for the co*cky little sh*t who tried to fight everyone on Day 1, yet somehow had Itoshi Sae’s stamp of approval.

This meant, of course, that Shidou had nothing but his right and left hands for company. (He was ambidextrous.) Actually, Shidou tried some other things out, too, because he was very flexible. It’s just that those other things were not v successful.

Anyway. Point being, the moment the door to Shidou’s single opened, a very hard, very naked, large tan man all but leaped onto Reo to start denuding the scandalized young man of his clothes.

Shidou also basically began groping and grinding against Reo immediately as well, resulting in a very alarmed Reo asking, quite seriously, for Shidou to, “Please stop humping me like a dog in heat.”

Without missing a beat, Shidou just gave a very realistic-sounding bark and growl, which made a recent memory flash across Reo’s brain before being quickly sent back into the void.

That memory, of course, quickly resurfaced when Shidou managed to get Reo’s shirt off and gave a loud whistle.

“Seems like you’ve played with another puppy recently. RinRin’s into biting?”

“Guess it makes sense for a chihuahua to like to bite,” Shidou mused, adopting a theatrical thinking pose with a hand under his strong chin.

Reo internally debated telling Shidou that no, in fact, it wasn’t Rin who’d mauled him. But then he figured Shidou didn’t actually care, so he just started laughing about Shidou’s nude detective gimmick.

This would come back to bite Reo in the ass, because Rin would later point out that, no, actually, he was not the one to have left the ring of markings.

Blue Lock did not produce any ‘beta bitches,’ so to speak. As a result, these v v territorial would-be top dogs (haha, top) bit the sh*t out of Reo, who regretted everything. (He often regretted everything.) (Also, one of them did literally bite his ass.)

But. More on that later.

Chapter 16: Undecided on the whole instinct thing (Pt 1)

Chapter Text

Chapter 16 - Undecided on the whole instinct thing

Laughter subsiding, Reo decided it was time to return to previously scheduled programing. Letting Shidou speculate further seemed like asking for trouble. Everything about the topic made Reo want to find a hole to hide in. For the past two days, he took his showers at odd hours and avoided the baths entirely. It was a pain. (Just like everything else related to Nagi right now.)

Reo needed a distraction. (He learned, from 2nd Selection, good dick would do.)

The younger man reached for Shidou and tugged the tanned hand out from under the other’s chin, pulling the blond out of his thinker pose.

Sliding a thumb along the soft skin on the inside of Shidou’s captive wrist, Reo redirected Shidou’s hand downward. The violet-eyed boy only released his hold after the other man’s broad palm rested solidly on his hip.

“Aren’t I here for a booty call?” Reo asked. He looped his arms loosely around Shidou’s neck as he spoke, “The clock’s ticking.”

Shidou placed his forehead against Reo’s before replying, with a rakish grin, “Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?”

“What if this was just a social call, hm?”

The blond couldn’t exactly see Reo’s expression, but he could feel the other boy’s forehead wrinkle as Reo made a little grimace.

“Social calls don’t usually start with the fully naked host aggressively stripping their guest at the door.”

The statement lost some of its bite when Reo couldn’t help ending his sentence with a sharp inhalation. (Shidou had absent-mindedly stroked an erect nipple with a rough fingertip during Reo’s retort.)

“Ah, but sex is a social activity, so all booty calls are social calls. It’s just that not all social calls are as fun,” came the blond’s smarmy reply.

Reo scoffed, “Is that so.”

“Mn, just so,” Shidou replied, pleased to see Reo had been annoyed by his pedantic remarks.

Getting with the program, Shidou splayed out his long fingers to squeeze the side of Reo’s ass. And the long pent-up striker seemed to feel that it was his turn to glide his thumb along soft skin—the rough pad of Shidou’s blunt digit traveled along the band of Reo’s pants, ghosting over exposed flesh and gently rubbing against the sharp jut of Reo’s hip bone.

Shidou’s deliberate, slow strokes on the thin skin caused the muscles in Reo’s groin to clench.

Smirking at how he could feel Reo involuntarily flex, Shidou pulled the slimmer man close to himself again, realigning their hips to slot a muscular thigh between Reo’s legs as he joked, “What if I was just curious about who made the team, hm?”

That made Reo pause.

“Oh. That’s right. You left before the announcement, huh?”

Reo kept his hands clasped behind Shidou’s neck, but he pulled back a bit so he wouldn’t be quite as distracted by Shidou’s wandering hands and too hard everything. (Thighs, dick, abs, arms—did Reo mention dick? You name it, Shidou’s was hard. All diamond-grade no less.)

Refocused, the Mikage responded seriously to the question Shidou had posed largely in jest, “So, you already know who six of the starters are, since Bachira was already a given.”

“But Chigiri, Gagamaru, Niko, Aryuu, and Isagi were chosen to fill the other slots,” he finished. Reo was proud he didn’t wince when he listed Isagi. And even if Shidou had probably predicted Reo wouldn’t get picked to start, Reo was even more proud of the fact he readily revealed his non-selection without any major emotional fluctuations.

He braced himself to be made fun of for his failure. Shidou never minced words. He said whatever came to mind with no filter. And while Reo knew that Shidou wasn’t actively trying to alienate people, the things that came to Shidou’s mind were often pretty damn mean—the fact he found himself hysterically funny compounded the problem. (What were other people’s hurt feelings weighed against Shidou Ryuusei’s entertainment?)

Contrary to Reo’s expectations though, Shidou didn’t casually crack a joke at his expense.

Shidou instead gave a smile slightly different from his usual shark-like grin. There was still a sharpness to it, but it seemed somewhat lacking in Shidou’s typical manic energy.

“Guess we’re both on the bench,” he said with a snort.

Reo couldn’t hide his surprise. “But you’re Sae’s pick?”

“Their raggedy-ass captain made some bet with Underlashes, Sr., about how his sh*tty team could win without me.”

Shidou’s smile turned mean, “Guess it’s good little ratdog RinRin’s not just all bark.”

Reo quietly examined Shidou. The blond wore yet another unfamiliar expression. He looked…brooding. Maybe even a bit bitter. He seemed a far cry from the extraordinarily co*cky, gifted asshole of a footballer Reo had grown acquainted with. This was the first sign of interior life that Reo had ever gotten from the bombastic alien life-form known as Shidou Ryuusei.

So, it turned out Shidou was (probably) human. Huh.

“That sucks,” the violet-eyed boy said sincerely.

“But you’ll get to play.”

“Blue Lock’s not going to go down that easily. So, you’ll get your national debut.”

Grinning, Reo added, “You’ll even get to make a dramatic entrance—your favorite.” He punctuated the word favorite by scrunching his fingers into the hair at the nape of Shidou’s neck.

Reo figured he was probably projecting since he knew next to nothing about Shidou besides a bit about his “playing style” when it came to soccer, sex, and sh*tty humor.

But the Mikage heir felt he could imagine how disappointing it must be to have so much talent and no place to show it. He wasn’t even as good as Shidou (the freak of nature really did deserve the spotlight), but a part of Reo still felt aggrieved about not being able to start and about not knowing if he’d ever even get a chance to play.

It must be that much worse for Shidou, who had truly earned the right to be out there. Who would have been out there had things played out a bit differently. (Though, that’s not to say Shidou didn’t do anything wrong—Reo thought Shidou was a moron to fight Rin. Blue Lock only allowed punching down. Literally. Hence the total lack of consequences for Shidou seriously f*cking up other, lower-ranked, Bluelockers in the past.)

Reo tried to gauge the other boy’s reaction. Who knew if Shidou found sympathy triggering—the man was a loose cannon, after all.

Shidou didn’t seem like he took the encouragement badly. He even smiled.

Looking into Shidou’s eyes, the Mikage found himself strangely captivated by the flecks of gold and slashes of deep carmine scattered throughout the bright pink irises. He’d always thought Shidou’s eyes looked pretty, even when they seemed to permanently bear a trace of contempt for the rest of the world.

Right now, though, there wasn’t a trace of ridicule. Shidou managed to communicate pure amusem*nt through his jewel-tone gaze.

A bit flustered, Reo thought the word gorgeous – maybe even beautiful – might be more apt a descriptor for the other man’s eyes at that moment.

“Hm, I’ll take your word for it,” the blond replied.

“And, given the line-up you just listed, you’ll probably wind up on the field at some point, too.”

A smirk spread across Shidou’s face, “For fairness’s sake, I won’t breed your ass tonight.”

Reo was surprised yet again.

“That’s…very considerate of you,” the bemused boy settled on saying, single eyebrow raised.

Reo’s surprise (and confusion) flowed from two separate but related ideas.

First, Shidou never bothered with social niceties like reciprocating compliments. That meant that he honestly believed Reo would be swapped in at some point. Reo was flattered(?)the other man thought he’d make the cut despite all the (frankly cruel) criticism he casually doled out on a regular basis, when they were on the same team.

But more surprisingly, Shidou had just announced he was going to (not) do something for Reo’s benefit. The blond never concerned himself with how getting railed by a dude with a monster dick might impact Reo’s in-game performance—quite the opposite. In the early days, Reo discovered (the hard way, badump tsss) Shidou would just go to town on him if Reo didn’t explicitly state Shidou was not to do this or that thing. After some trial and error (meaning, a few bouts of semi-nude to nude brawls that were, surprisingly, instigated by Reo), Shidou now declared whatever he personally wanted to do seconds before doing the thing, and it was up to Reo to respond accordingly.

The dick never seemed to bother with listening to, much less remembering, Reo’s reasoning either. He just expected a yay or nay after his announcements. Reo stopped offering any explanations pretty much after the first time they ran into this particular issue, since Shidou had seemed genuinely confused re. why he should care if Reo’s comfortable range of motion were impacted. The general vibe of Shidou’s response was like, “Mm, your game kinda sucks anyway, but sure, okay,” just a bit more Shidou-y. (It wasn’t great for Reo’s self-esteem.)

Considering other people’s feelings apparently didn’t to come naturally to Shidou (hence the development of Reo’s vending machine analogy). But once Reo understood this fact, he found interacting with Shidou pleasantly hassle-free. Shidou was reliably self-interested and straightforwardly transactional.

“Exactly. I’m very considerate. Which is why I get carte blanche next time.”

Ah, there it was. Reo’s response was tongue-in-cheek. “Greedy much?”

“Says the billionaire brat still making daily stock picks,” Shidou snarked. “Don’t be stingy—you’ve never not enjoyed my ~explosive~ creativity.”

The tanned man snigg*red, clearly tickled by his own comeback.

“Tru-ue,” Reo supposed as he watched Shidou’s face transform.

Oddly charmed by Shidou’s nearly gleeful giggling, the Mikage heir pressed a soft kiss onto Shidou’s mouth.

It was an exceedingly rare, sweet gesture for the prickly younger man to direct towards Shidou.

Perhaps the unusual affection sprang from residual gratitude for Shidou’s many past saves. Reo felt a bit sentimental on the eve of the match that could very well put an end to all his soccer dreams. (He wondered if Shidou – and the official U-20 team – would be saving Reo from his own absurd ambition if they won, thereby eliminating Blue Lock.)

Or perhaps it was because of how Shidou’s unabashedly lecherous pawing had cleared the bitter taste left in Reo’s mouth after yet another unpleasantly passive-aggressive meal with Nagi. To Reo, who was stuck at this particularly confusing crossroads in his life, Shidou’s bawdy demands could almost be considered sweet because of how straightforward and uncomplicated they were.

Whatever the reason, Reo’s own jewel-like, amethyst eyes crinkled from laughter. And when Reo pulled back from the kiss, he still wore a wide smile. Even his dimples were showing.

Reo believed that only the exceptionally stupid would consider Shidou as unserious of a person as the man’s pink-frosted tips. (Absurd packaging couldn’t hide the fact that Shidou was an extremely troubled individual.)

But two weeks apart, plus all the sh*t that happened in between, managed to make Reo feel almost fond of Shidou.

It helped that the most genuinely off-putting aspect of Shidou’s personality – i.e., the seemingly random bouts of violent temper that often resulted in property damage and/or physical injury to others – couldn’t carry over to text.

Reo fuzzily realized he had even kind of, maybe, missed his big ol’ human dild*.

--

For a fraction of a second, when Reo kissed him, Shidou’s slit pupils became almost as round Reo’s own before almost immediately returning to their original shape.

Shidou hadn’t expected Reo to give him a little peck. This strayed from their usual script. Actually, it strayed from pretty much all of Shidou’s social scripts. The unprecedented softness in Mikage’s expression gave Shidou some pause. He briefly suspected he might have wandered into some kind of unfamiliar territory.

Shidou often felt violent impulses when he smelled weakness—he couldn’t help wanting to put pathetic creatures out of their misery. Around the second or third time he and purple bun hooked up, there’d been a moment the violet-eyed boy had looked at him strangely, maybe even vulnerably(?) and asked what they were doing in an annoyingly small voice. Shidou recalled finding everything about the exchange aggravating. He’d teetered right on the edge of outright stomping on Mikage.

But after Shidou had given a direct answer (“I’m dicking around. Dunno what you’re doing and don’t really care as long as you don’t annoy me.”) Reo responded satisfactorily. He immediately seemed to have regained some semblance of a spark (as Shidou understood sparks) by ditching the pathetic reedy voice and showing some of the sharpness that made the purple bun mildly interesting off-field.

There was never any weirdness like that again. Later, Reo jokingly said, “I figured you weren’t angling to become Mr. and Mr. Mikage, but you know.” He pointed to himself with a little smirk, “Trust fund baby & all. It’s an occupational hazard.” (Shidou would, in the future, think back to that conversation and wish he could go back in time to punch himself in the throat. Lol.)

Shidou vaguely wondered why, on this occasion, he didn’t feel as repulsed by the strangeness as he had in the first instance. But maybe it was because it wasn’t really vulnerability that Reo was displaying at the moment. It was more like tenderness(?) or gentleness(?)—in any case, something Shidou wasn’t familiar with.

It made the darker-skinned man take a slightly closer look at the Mikage.

Same patrician features. Same fine grooming of the wellborn. Pretty. Still a bit prickly.

From his quick game of spot-the-difference, Shidou determined that Reo also didn’t seem as tightly wound as usual. The younger man’s shoulders weren’t hunched defensively, the way they often were whenever Reo wasn’t attending to his posture, and there was no deep furrow between his little eyebrows.

Shidou wondered, momentarily, whether Reo’s sudden good humor and lack of tension had anything to do with the yappy mutt that left its marks all over his skin. To Shidou’s mild surprise, he found the thought a bit annoying. Hm.

But, quickly turning back to business, Shidou let his hands migrate across Reo’s body as he ground himself against the younger man’s increasingly hard member. He gave Reo’s ass a healthy grope (or two, or three) before letting his hands wander some more.

Reo clearly felt this was not enough. So, he opened his mouth, half-ready to start making demands, when out of nowhere, Shidou lifted him off the ground. The blond ignored the purple-haired boy’s sharp squawk of indignation and quickly brought his hands under Reo’s thighs to support his weight.

Left with little choice, Reo held onto Shidou’s shoulders. He gave Shidou a sulky bite at the junction of his neck and shoulder, which the blond (rudely) laughed at for being ineffectual. (“Bite me again. Try harder, so it doesn’t just tickle, bunny.”)

This was hardly the first time Shidou lifted Reo, but the thin-skinned heir still took offense at how easy it was for Shidou to hoist him into the air.

Judging by how the broad-shouldered striker moved so effortlessly with Reo in his arms, a bystander could readily (and incorrectly) assume Reo weighed nothing at all. Shidou’s unwilling koala buddy felt this was a grave injustice to the muscle density he’d worked so hard to achieve.

Within seconds, Shidou had traveled to the bed with his precious booty and tossed Reo onto the too small mattress.

Before the Mikage had a chance to regain his bearings, Shidou had already removed the last articles of clothing on Reo’s body and unceremoniously tossed the pieces into some corner.

Things escalated quickly.

Reo felt the cold air against his now achingly hard dick for about a second before being distracted by Shidou manhandling his lower body and all but flipping him upside down.

One of Reo’s sinewy legs rested on Shidou’s shoulder while the other remained bent in midair.

The tanned man buried his face into Reo’s cleft, sucking and teasing Reo’s hole as Reo’s entire body twitched from the abrupt, unexpected stimulus. Shidou’s ropey arms wrapped around Reo’s waist to keep him from wriggling away. As Reo struggled and flailed, all the muscles in his sculpted abs tightened.

Despite his many outrageous exploits with Shidou (including things he hadn’t had the courage to even imagine doing with Nagi), Reo still found his current position shameful. He was, after all, balanced on his neck and upper back with his entire lower body in the air, completely exposed to Shidou. Reo was both embarrassed and terrified to be so aroused by his own helplessness.

The violet-eyed man’s field of vision was dominated by the golden skin of Shidou’s strong forearms restraining his flushed pale pink body. His leaking arousal stood prominently above the arms that kept him in place. Unable to escape Shidou’s hold, Reo endured as his co*ck sluggishly dripped precum onto his own face. And there was, of course, Shidou’s feral gaze—the glowing eyes that took in every lewd detail.

(In the early days of their acquaintance, at times when Reo couldn’t help but be insufferably waspish, the older boy would look at him just so, and Reo would feel his hair stand on end. Every instinct in Reo’s body would tell him that he was testing the patience of a volatile predator, much like the big cats that Shidou’s eyes so resembled.)

(To be clear, Reo was never exactly afraid of Shidou—he simply recognized Shidou was, in fact, dangerous, and despite his better judgment, Reo found Shidou’s volatility v v hot.)

The wet sounds Shidou made as he ate Reo out were obscene. And they made Reo strain harder against the other man. It was unclear whether Reo wanted to escape from Shidou’s tongue or if he wanted Shidou’s tongue to breach the tight ring of muscle and get inside of him.

Reo screwed his eyes shut and raised his arms up to cover his face and avoid Shidou’s too-knowing eyes.

But this avoidance seemed to rouse Shidou’s more perverse nature. Shidou ordered Reo to look at himself. And he vulgarly told Reo that closing his eyes and pretending didn’t make him any less of a desperate slu*t. The blond tsk-ed when Reo refused to do as ordered, but the shark-like smile on his face suggested this was actually his preferred outcome.

Wrapping Reo’s co*ck in a large, calloused palm, Shidou gave it a few crude strokes before swirling his fingers around Reo’s dripping wet tip. The blond then brought his precum stained fingers down to Reo’s face and smeared some of the fluid on Reo’s eyelids before jamming his thick fingers into Reo’s mouth.

Reo made a choking noise of discomfort even as he felt an electric tingle throughout his whole body from the rough treatment.

Shidou didn’t give a sh*t. He roughly simulated f*cking Reo’s face with three fingers until saliva began to run down the sides of Reo’s lips and soak his chin. The older boy warned that he would only promise to stop if Reo behaved.

Violet eyes finally flew open with their pupils completely blown. Shidou seemed magically capable of inflicting just enough shame and pain that it made the pleasure he brought that much more exhilarating.

Once he met his goal, Shidou immediately took his fingers out from Reo’s mouth and resumed rimming the other man. As a reward for being a good boy, Shidou quickly stuck his tongue inside of Reo. He eventually had a spit-soaked finger join the fun too. Reo could only let out the occasional whimper and moan in response to Shidou working him open.

Before Shidou had time to make Reo take in a third finger, his pretty purple bun already seemed as if he needed to come.

Reo bit his own hand to avoid making too much noise. (Even if Shidou had a single, that didn’t mean the walls were thicker than any of the other dorm rooms.) The resulting muffled sounds actually aroused Shidou even more, since it was so clear Reo couldn’t fully control himself.

The blond briefly considered being nice and covering Reo’s tip so that Reo wouldn’t get cum all over himself.

But then Shidou decided that, truthfully, he’d much rather see Reo with cum splattered all over his naturally haughty features. Shidou’s instincts clamored to make a mess out of Reo. He wanted to destroy all the young heir’s careful cultivation and reduce him to such a debauched state that there were no traces of his genteel upbringing.

Shidou’s co*ck twitched upward at the thought. Inspired, he decided he would add his own cum to his human canvas later. (It was sure to be explosive.)

The hot-blooded striker plotted out his next steps a bit mean-spiritedly all while thinking, Mikage’s just so pretty when he gets all dirty.

Shidou used his index and middle fingers to insistently knead against Reo’s prostate at a much faster tempo while sucking at the junction of Reo’s balls and his perineum.

Reo gave one final, strangled moan around his fist as he proceeded to come all over himself, eyes rolling back into his head from the force of his org*sm.

At least somewhat considerate, Shidou quickly readjusted Reo so that he could more comfortably rest on his back. If Reo were to remain in his previous stress position any longer, he would doubtlessly experience a world of neck pain tomorrow no matter how flexible he was.

Shidou admired his handiwork to the sound of Reo’s soft panting. Pleased with how Reo was still non-verbal and glassy eyed, Shidou generously brushed some of the cum off of Reo’s long lashes with a smile.

True to form, Shidou was still a dick though, so he proceeded to smear that cum onto Reo’s bitten-red lips. His thumb might have slipped past Reo’s lips to brush against Reo’s tongue a bit as well, to force Reo to taste his own ji*zz. Shidou was feeling a bit handsy, so sue him. Reo wasn’t complaining.

Really, the whole picture would have been perfect but for the unsightly ring of hickeys and bite marks along Reo’s shoulders and collar. The patches of red and purple kept catching Shidou’s eye.

His smug smile changed a bit, morphing into a bit more of a sneer.

In the past, Shidou and Reo tacitly agreed not to leave behind traces of their extracurricular activities. No discussion had been required. There’d only be the occasional accidental bruise (because Reo was such a delicate little hothouse flower) and some scratches here or there. But whoever left the current constellation of hickeys and toothmarks had clearly taken great pains to do so.

Shidou internally rolled his eyes at the thought of the surly brat sucking at Reo’s skin like a leech just so he could stake some imaginary claim. How pointless and boring, he thought. At the same time, though, Shidou’s angry-looking red dick somehow got harder (and angrier-looking). (Srsly, more veins became visible.) This really shouldn’t have been possible, given how hard Shidou had already been when he went to greet Reo at the door.

(Reo was so f*cked. He had no idea.)

Staring blankly at the ceiling, a still-panting Reo tried to regrow the brain that had just exited through his peen.

Shidou gave Reo another few seconds to bask in his afterglow. While grabbing a bottle of lube with a pump, the larger man picked up a phone from the floor and set both the phone and lube within arm’s reach on the bed. He quite evidently had plans for the phone.

If Reo’s brain weren’t mush, he might have noticed that the phone in Shidou’s hand was actually his own phone. This oversight would come back to haunt the younger man.

Instead of looking out for his future self, post-org*smic Reo’s dark violet eyes were still a bit glazed. He muzzily propped himself up on an elbow to figure out what on earth Shidou seemed to be doing. The man was clearly busy with something, based on all the movement at the foot of the mattress. Reo observed a concerning sparkle in the other boy’s pink eyes as they roved around. Shidou seemed occupied with mental calculations of some sort.

Reo braced himself, “What are you plotting now?”

The tanned athlete oh-so-very-kindly gave Reo a condescending pat on the cheek or two. “Don’t worry your cute little topknot about it.”

Shidou received an aggressive eyeroll in response. However, Shidou would not be Shidou if he let petty things like Reo’s disgust deter him.

The last thing Reo saw before being flipped onto his stomach was Shidou’s wolfish grin.

He then felt Shidou’s hands roughly pulling up his hips so that he was in a puppy pose with his ass in the air. Before he could turn his head to look back at Shidou, the other man had already slapped his ass and ordered him to bring his knees closer together.

Although, the order hadn’t even been necessary since Shidou manhandled Reo and forcibly repositioned the other man’s legs at the same time he’d given the instruction. He made Reo’s knees touch so that Reo’s thighs were pressed together.

Shidou knelt behind Reo before liberally pumping lube all over Reo’s ass and thighs using the pump dispenser. He made a quick note to himself to get more from the same brand—the way the viscous fluid shot out of the pump and splattered on Mikage’s body made for good visuals. (Shidou had some new ideas.)

Naturally, the next order of business involved a different type of pumping. Shidou enthusiastically shoved his dick between Reo’s thighs and began thrusting like mad. It felt as if all the blood in his body was pulsing through his co*ck. Shidou held onto Reo’s hips so firmly that it wouldn’t be a surprise if there’d be bruising tomorrow, even with obliques as ripped as Reo’s.

f*cking Reo’s thighs clearly didn’t feel the same as Reo’s hole desperately trying to suck in his co*ck, but the thigh job was more than satisfying after two weeks of being grossly under-stimulated. f*ck.

Reo cooperated as best he could by pressing his thighs as tightly together as possible. Even with Shidou holding him in place, Reo still squirmed and tried to meet Shidou’s thrusts. With the slight coolness of the lube, the heat radiating from Shidou’s thick erection felt hot enough to burn. There were signs that Reo’s dick was regaining interest in the proceedings as Shidou’s member kept rubbing against Reo’s co*ck and balls with each pump of Shidou’s dick.

Shidou felt Reo’s growing arousal as well, and it made him feel even more excited than before. One of Shidou’s hands traveled from Reo’s hip over to Reo’s crack. Ever an aggravator, Shidou started thumbing at Reo’s still slightly puffy rim. He moved around some of the cum-colored lube and never quite provided enough pressure or depth of penetration.

When Shidou heard Reo make a low, almost whine-like noise of dissatisfaction and a gasp at a particularly forceful thrust, Shidou could acutely feel the veins in his neck bulge. He watched in rapt fascination as Reo smashed his sweaty face into a pillow to muffle the sounds he was making. And, as he noticed the fragile skin at the nape of Reo’s neck peeking out beneath Reo’s loose hair, Shidou acted on instinct straight away. The tanned blond bent down to mouth at the creamy, unmarked skin, and he stopped harassing Reo’s cute little asshole to play with his once again dripping dick.

Reo’s entire body shuddered at Shidou’s touch. That involuntary reaction ignited something akin to blood lust.

Shidou abruptly bit the back of Reo’s neck.

And before Reo could fully yelp in surprise, Shidou had flipped Reo onto his back again. Reo’s hair was a scattered mess, his eyes misty. He could barely think, but he could feel how fierce Shidou was at that moment.

Shidou ran his hands beneath Reo’s thighs and lifted both legs up so that Reo’s calves could rest on Shidou’s shoulders. Then Reo’s knees were brought together so that Shidou could continue f*cking into his thighs.

Being able to make eye contact made Shidou piston between Reo’s thighs even more violently than before. The change in friction provided by the new position, the way that now different parts slotted together and came apart, seemed to drive them both closer to a cliff’s edge. In what was often Reo’s go-to move in overwhelming situations, he covered his face.

The longer Shidou looked at the willowy, well-muscled body writhing in front of him, (the more those f*cking bruises littered across Reo’s chest seemed to taunt him), the more he felt like picking a fight. The fact Reo had covered his face made Shidou’s work even easier.

An adept multi-tasker, Shidou kept thrusting away while jerking both of them off with one hand, and, with his other hand, Shidou reached for the phone that he’d tossed onto the bed earlier. Reo had no idea Shidou figured out what Reo’s passcode was a long time ago. (And Shidou had no idea 0506 was Nagi’s birthday.) The pin was entered one handed; without so much as a single stutter in the movement of his hips, Shidou navigated to Reo’s LINE app and scrolled through Reo’s chats in search of one, very specific name—Itoshi Rin.

No scrolling was required, really, since Rin’s chat was the fifth chat listed. Oh goodie, Shidou thought, the little sh*t messaged 5 minutes ago. Perfect.

--

Note: Rin had just sent, “Thanks,” with a period, in response to Reo sending him several goofy looking stamps wishing him luck for tomorrow’s game. Shidou was not (consciously) jealous, at all. Seriously. Shidou was an uncontrollable force of nature, an explosive free-spirit who couldn’t be tied down. (So, what if Shidou always messaged first and the petty little prince liked to leave him on read.)

--

Reo quickly flung his arms from his face and (tried to) shoot up the moment he heard the LINE ringtone. Having fully anticipated this, Shidou had already clamped Reo’s legs tightly to his chest with one extremely chiseled arm.

He cut off Reo’s verbal protestations by shushing him loudly and asking, “Do you really want them to hear you yelling? You’ll give yourself away. I might not even be using the rear-facing camera.”

Furious, but forced to accept Shidou’s reasoning and well-aware that this could just be a sh*tty fake-out, Reo simply tried to buck his way out of this situation instead. If he couldn’t escape, he could, at a bare minimum, try to break Shidou’s dick that was, incidentally, still wedged between his thighs, even though all pelvic thrusting (on Shidou’s part) had come to a stop.

The Mikage heir’s panicked brain lamented how he was a horrible judge of character and that conventional wisdom re. Shidou being a total psychopath had always been correct – Reo was a f*cking idiot for thinking he had a decent read on the bounds of Shidou’s psychopathy. But then again Reo was just a f*cking idiot, period. (See Nagi.)

Reo sent a wish out to the universe that whoever Shidou called (if anyone at all) wouldn’t pick up. He could unsend any voicemail or whatever after he got free of Shidou (and beat the ever-living sh*t out of him.) Reo still hadn’t forgotten that Shidou owed him a blood debt for his last f*cking video call. Now he was adding another one. Shidou Ryuusei was going to f*cking die. Reo took back any gratitude or fondness he might have felt not too long ago.

Though, if Reo were entirely honest, he was as usual caught between several competing emotions. Shidou was without a doubt absolutely insane, and Reo wanted to kill him for subjecting him to this kind of psychological torture...But on the other hand, maybe because Shidou had f*cking trained him into becoming some—some kind of braindead character in a trashy p*rno, some part of Reo relished every second of this torturous uncertainty and indecent behavior.

Where Reo’s emotions would land depended on a variety of different factors.

His stomach dropped when someone picked up the call.

Then, it promptly picked itself back up but tied itself into knots when he heard Rin’s all too familiar voice through the speaker.

God. f*cking. Dammit.

(For the record, Reo’s erection had faltered for all of like 30 seconds when he heard the phone ring before it went straight back to standing nice and tall because he was now a depraved exhibitionist.)

“Hey, f*ckwit. Long time no see,” Shidou greeted, as he started to f*ck Reo’s thighs again.

Reo couldn’t even. Just.

What. Why. No.

Also. Fuuuuuck him (meaning Reo himself) for getting excited at the sound of Rin’s extraordinarily annoyed voice.

“f*cking die, you disgusting roach.”

“Why do you have Reo’s phone?”

Shidou laughed unpleasantly, and, due to an accidentally well-timed buck from Reo, let out a clearly sexual groan when their parts rubbed against each other just so.

(Reo couldn’t see, but Rin looked revolted.)

“Don’t—hah, hang up,” the antennae-ed freak panted. “Someone, ngh, still needs to say, mn, hi.”

Shidou tapped the reverse camera button, somehow managed to put the camera into the hand trapping Reo’s legs without losing control of either Reo’s legs or the phone and freed up one hand to start really ruining (or some might say wildly improving) Reo’s night beyond his wildest dreams.

Reo could only cover his face with his arms again.

But now that Shidou had a hand free to deal damage, he’d somehow managed to finagle more cum-like lube from the pump and liberally drip it from his hands onto Reo’s torso.

“Look RinRin. It’s so cute he still gets shy.”

Shidou started jerking both of them off again, in time with his thrusts. Reo bit his lips and tried not to whimper. (Shidou made sure the angle of the phone camera could capture just how hard Reo was biting himself.)

Looking for a bit more dramatic effect, Shidou paused to none-to-gently run his nail across the tip of Reo’s glans.

Reo’s entire body spasmed and an extra spurt of precum leaked from his v distressed penis. He couldn’t hold in the needy moan. Reo gave up the ghost and began to fully cooperate with Shidou again, the way he had when they had been building towards their respective climaxes right before the call. Shidou savagely redoubled his efforts to get them both off.

Reo felt significant guilt for subjecting Rin to this kind of harassment. But he also got off on the idea that maybe Rin was just as turned on. Maybe Rin might even come over. And maybe both of them—Rin and Shidou—would take turns f*cking him again.

Reo was going to hell. He was sure of it. He was far, far too greedy. (He only vaguely remembered there was the big game tomorrow. Oops.)

He no longer had any brain cells. It was great.

But then—

“Very rude of you to,” pant, “f*ck up such—pretty skin with your, ngh, teeth.”

“You—”

Before Shidou could finish, Rin’s cold voice interrupted, “I didn’t.”

An emergency generator for Reo’s brain kicked in at those words. There was insufficient charge in the aforementioned generator to give Reo any ideas about how to fix his predicament, but there was justtt enough juice to let him know he was about to be in a big(ger) bind.

Shidou stopped moving. He switched the hand holding Reo’s phone and flipped back to the front facing camera so he and Rin could see each other’s faces. Rin’s face and ears were red. It was a weird contrast with the intense frown he wore at the same time.

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. I didn’t give Reo any of those things.”

“Oh,” Shidou said, with a frighteningly large smile, “so there’s some other ratdog running around.”

“Where are you two?”

“Block Y, Room 203, in the 2nd Stratum.”

Rin hung up.

Shidou tossed Reo’s phone to the side. He leaned over, pressing Reo’s legs down closer to Reo’s own body while bringing their faces closer together. For a moment there was just the sound of heavy breathing.

“Since you like playing with puppies so much, maybe I was wrong about the breeding thing,” Shidou pondered aloud.

“What do you think, hm?”

The manic blond rubbed their noses together.

“Does my little purple bun want to get pumped full of cum? Hm?”

If Reo weren’t so flexible, the way Shidou folded him in half and boxed him in would probably hurt. A lot.

He blurrily wondered if maybe he had a humiliation kink or something. That’d check out.

Man.

He was so f*cked.

Chapter 17: Undecided on the whole instinct thing (Pt 2)

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

“Since you like playing with puppies so much, maybe I was wrong about the breeding thing,” Shidou pondered aloud.

“What do you think, hm?”

The manic blond rubbed their noses together.

“Does my little purple bun want to get pumped full of cum? Hm?”

If Reo weren’t so flexible, the way Shidou folded him in half and boxed him in would probably hurt. A lot.

He blurrily wondered if maybe he had a humiliation kink or something. That’d check out.

Man.

He was so f*cked.

A bit earlier in the evening—

When he heard Shidou making a commotion, Aiku briefly worried Sae’s horny adopted demon managed to convince someone in the U-20 to f*ck him.

Aiku couldn’t imagine any other reason for Shidou to sound so enthused about answering the door.

Shidou never had guests.

Aiku knew this because:

[1] The rest of the guys had wanted to ostracize the interloper – sadly, said interloper didn’t give a sh*t about their social acceptance (*womp womp*), and

[2] Aiku’s dorm room in the training complex was also next to Shidou’s. Only management reps ever visited, and even then, it was because Shidou had made trouble.

The co*cky little sh*t made no friends for himself over the past two weeks. He spent a good chunk of training camp antagonizing anyone who crossed his path instead.

Most of the U-20 (Aiku and a handful of others being the exceptions) were quite conservative and, in some cases, veritable blushing maidens. (See Sendou, that sweet summer child.)

This likely accounted for why Shidou’s first choice for provoking the other players tended to be crass (and mostly mean-spirited) sexual overtures. Generally, the flustered boy(s) would shoot back with a (v bad, p sad) retort, and Shidou would then propose something that would further infuriate and/or humiliate his victim(s). (This often ended in a fight.)

Shidou seemed to get a real kick out of the horrified look he’d receive whenever a squad member realized Shidou was more than half-serious about his invitation (read: threat) to, for example, shove his fist up their ass.

In a few notable instances, however, Aiku caught a bit of (morbid) curiosity in one or two of his boys’ eyes. Which was why Aiku now fretted over the possible identity of Shidou’s unexpected guest. God, he hoped it wasn’t someone from the squad.

Aiku debated whether saving a teammate from sticking their dick into crazy (or maybe letting crazy stick its dick into them?) fell within the scope of his duties as team captain.

He regretfully acknowledged that, even if it didn’t, his history with these guys probably required it.

V. v. fortunately for Aiku’s evening, though, before he started co*ckblocking for the safety of his people (and their parts), he caught a distinctly unfamiliar voice responding to Shidou. Murmured conversation filtered through the wall. Most of the stranger’s words were muffled because they spoke at a normal, civilized human’s volume.

…Unlike Shidou, who seemed to be intentionally projecting as he bitched about getting stuck on the bench. Actually, it was more like he specifically increased his volume when he whined (Aiku’s words) about how “Their raggedy-ass captain made some bet…”

Aiku concluded it must have been someone from Blue Lock who had gone to see Shidou. Color Aiku surprised—guess Shidou was capable of making at least one friend and holding an actual conversation.

Still—

Raggedy?

A corner of Aiku’s mouth dipped, transforming the man’s perpetual mild smirk into a slight frown.

He wasn’t raggedy—his scruff was carefully maintained to maximize his rugged masculinity and advertise his laid-back sensuality. All the ladies (looking to fix a f*ckboy) instantly fell for his charms.

But thanks to Shidou’s dogsh*t interpersonal skills and insane troll logic, many a fair lady had been deprived of Aiku’s attention. (And vice versa.) (Aiku’s balls were navy.)

Management had kept a close eye on the training complex (especially its exits and entrances) for the past few weeks to ensure Shidou’s compliance with the many and various punishments they’d imposed on him for fighting with teammates and mouthing off to the coaches.

That meant even dutiful team captain Aiku couldn’t randomly sneak out or break curfew very easily. (jk re Aiku being ‘dutiful’—Aiku only stepped up when it mattered & most days didn’t matter.) (Trying hard was a young buck’s game.)

If Aiku were a petty person, he would’ve cut short Shidou’s fun that night just for the inconvenience.

But instead, he magnanimously decided to just let Shidou and his visitor carry on. He assumed they were going to 👏👏👏 soon because, well, what else? The other kid snuck over to do last-minute soccer drills with JFA’s next big sex scandal? I mean I guess it could just be a friendly visit…

At the end of the day, Aiku honestly didn’t care what Shidou got up to, because the freaky extra wasn’t playing tomorrow – not if Aiku could help it.

It was a shame because Shidou seemed quite gifted.

But Sae’s blunt criticism and casual dismissal had roused Aiku’s long-slumbering sense of selfish competitiveness.

Who gave a sh*t if another young talent had to step aside for Aiku to get a win?

Aiku had had to, time and time again, “for the team’s sake.”

That was why Aiku wanted to win this wager. He needed proof he had made the best possible choices to form the best possible team out of Japan’s pool of talent under 20. Japan could win with this team if Sae were willing to commit to playing – Aiku would win – even if he wasn’t in the starring role he dreamt of as a younger, greener player.

Aiku’s reverie was cut short when he began to hear (and feel) rhythmic thumping against the shared wall.

Ah, so it was what Aiku’d expected.

He figured he’d let them go at it for a bit. They’d probably finish well before lights out. Aiku considered this to be awarding Shidou an early consolation prize for missing out on his chance to shine tomorrow.

With a wry grin, the U-20 team captain put on his noise-cancelling headphones out of courtesy.

--

Picking up where things left off--

After a final, dramatically elongated ‘hm,’ Shidou nosed along Reo’s cheek and blew into the shell of his ear. Reo flinched, and Shidou gave an amused snort before continuing to trail his lips up and down, up and then down Reo’s neck again.

The way Shidou nuzzled Reo like a particularly affectionate household pet belied the blond’s unpitying treatment of Reo’s lower body. Humming a bubblegum pop song slightly off-key, Shidou maintained a vice-like grip on the underside of Reo’s thighs. He continued exerting downward pressure on the slimmer man’s legs.

Shidou seemed to have little to no concern for whether a human body could stretch and bend the way his hands insisted. (Reo’s knees were pretty much next to his own head…)

Then again, Shidou was already oh-so-generously restraining himself despite having yet to come even once. (Note: Most of Shidou’s sexual partners would be v surprised to hear Shidou hadn’t gone straight to inserting tab A into slot B—Shidou wasn’t exactly known for holding back.)

The uncharacteristically patient man gave a long, slow roll of his hips as he waited for Reo’s response. His eyes practically glowed with unholy light.

“Not going to answer?”

There was, of course, no chance Reo would or even could answer any of Shidou’s loaded questions to the smirking man’s satisfaction.

Reo bit his lip. He tried his best to ignore the heavy drag of Shidou’s dick against his own.

This was an exceptionally difficult proposition, especially when Shidou slid a broad palm down Reo’s thigh to briefly fondle the younger man’s balls before he began stroking their co*cks together in a too-loose grip.

“There’s a meal right here and delivery on the way,” Shidou teased, punctuating his embarrassing dirty joke with a light squeeze. “Isn’t our little co*ckslu*t hungry?”

The man’s lecherousness was palpable through his tone alone, but, funnily enough, Shidou mostly intended to honor his previous guarantee and ‘exercise restraint.’

It was just that if his purple bun happened to start crying about how much he needed Shidou’s dick inside of him, then surely Shidou was obliged to comply with the request.

Shidou was oh-so-considerate, after all.

🙃

(He wanted to see the Mikage beg for it before he wrecked that cute little asshole and rearranged Reo’s insides.)

Making Mikage fall apart beneath him was almost as satisfying as scoring a hat trick. (Perhaps that was why, lately, unbeknownst to himself, Shidou tended to prioritize getting Reo off first.)

Shidou felt the fever in his body strangely intensify as his eyes inexorably drifted lower. The bruises and bites around Reo’s neck were mildly annoying from the start, but now that Shidou knew they weren’t Rin’s doing, they began to offend Shidou’s eyes more than before.

He failed to notice how, for a moment, his eyes narrowed, and his veins became exceptionally pronounced from the way he clenched his jaw.

“Hm…or could it be that you’re still full from whoever gave you these?” the muscular man asked dangerously, looming over Reo.

He crudely shoved three fingers into Reo before rapidly curling them so he could hear Reo gasp.

Shidou giggled because he was an asshole.

“No, that can’t be it—you’ve got such a big appetite.”

He crooked his fingers again while pressing down on Reo’s leg a bit harder.

“You must’ve had so much fun playing before,” the blond growled as he yanked his fingers out as roughly as they’d first gone in.

Grinning with sharp incisors on display, Shidou swooped down to gift Reo with another imprint of his teeth.

‘Incidentally,’ the hot-blooded striker planted his second mark atop the most prominent example of Nagi’s handiwork.

Reo hissed at the sharp shock of pain.

--

Fun fact: Had Shidou done pretty much anything else (srsly, like just applying a little more friction on Reo’s co*ck) instead, Reo probably would have given in to the urge to tell Shidou yes, yes, he would love for Shidou to stick his big thick dick in him—please and thank you.

But Shidou, of course, only did what Shidou wanted to do. And what he (instinctively) wanted at the time was to cover up the unsightly mark(s) on Reo’s neck with his own brand.

So, he did.

As a result, Reo lost interest in going along with the course Shidou charted. (This was undoubtedly a better outcome for Reo’s career.)

--

For a moment there, Reo was genuinely tempted to throw all caution to the wind, but then--

Well. Okay.

Never mind.

Because Shidou went and bit him (again) where Nagi had done the worst of his weird vampire-werewolf neck-biting bullsh*t.

Reo’s hiss of pain transformed into a moan against the heir’s will as Shidou continued his tender ministrations.

Even though some part of Reo enjoyed certain aspects of the physical sensations (the stretch of his muscles as Shidou manhandled him or the heat of the other man’s tongue against his skin), agitation that Reo had tried to contain for days (if not weeks) broke out. The ache radiating from Reo’s abused neck helped cut his lust-induced brain fog.

Reo had never really been big on biting.

…so why the f*ck was he letting dickhe*ds gnaw on him like he was a human chew toy now?

Reo acknowledged he was, apparently, a f*cking masoch*st in addition to being f*cking stupid. But that didn’t mean Reo could just let Shidou walk all over him.

Shidou was not his Treasure. Shidou was not *safe* by any stretch of the imagination. (Neither was Nagi, it turned out.)

The man acted on instinct and cared f*ck all about whether the person on the receiving end of his treatment liked it or not. (Never thought he’d put Shidou and Nagi into the same category, but—huh. Not thinking about that. Nope. Just no.)

Reo’s eyes fluttered shut to collect himself. There should be no memory of Nagi here, not now.

This rendezvous was supposed to take the edge off. He expected this to be a fun f*cking diversion, goddammit.

So, hand to God, Reo was going to make it one. (Just like Diego Maradona got Argentina that World Cup with the hand of God, lol.)

Goal now firmly in mind, Reo looked up at Shidou with his amethyst eyes cloudy and half-mast. The younger man panted lightly; his plush, bitten lips opened slightly, giving the other man a hint of pink tongue. Reo struggled to crane his neck upwards, as if desperate to bring his face closer to Shidou’s.

(The Mikage knew, instinctively, this was a good look for himself.)

Amused, the darker-skinned youth gamely leaned forward. A very small part of Shidou wondered if Reo was about to kiss him again.

Reo almost did.

His lips pressed against Shidou’s briefly. But, at the last minute, Reo tilted his head to the side and instead trailed his mouth across Shidou’s cheek. Reo ultimately rested against Shidou, cheek to cheek, so that his lips could brush against the other man's ear with each breathy word—

“You sound insecure.”

A beat.

“It’s okay, buddy,” Reo cooed.

Maintaining his stage whisper, the bright-eyed provocateur continued with fake sympathy, “Your little guy’s ju-st fine. There’s no need to get jealous.”

Their faces were so close that Reo felt Shidou’s sharp inhalation. The sly heir knew the blond had held his breath for a second too long after Reo’s first words.

The proximity meant Shidou must have felt Reo’s little huff of laughter against his ear too.

Reo pulled back to get a good look at the expression on Shidou’s face.

Their eyes met.

The blond’s grin widened into an almost grotesque facsimile of an amused expression.

A beatific smile bloomed across the younger violet-eyed man’s face in return.

Shidou, who seemed disproportionately riled up by Reo’s smugness, drew his body backward as if preparing to f*ck Reo into the mattress right there, all previous ideas about slow seduction be damned.

Having gotten a far better reaction than he expected, the well-trained heir took advantage of Shidou’s impatience to flip the script. Moving with incredible speed, Reo hooked one leg around Shidou’s neck and slipped another under the larger man’s arm.

It made for quite the sight as the fully naked Mikage attempted to perform a triangle choke on an equally naked Shidou, sinewy legs forming a figure-four in the air. (…dude, martial arts are so gay.)

Instead of expressing any consternation about his predicament, Shidou let out a gleeful laugh, sounding a tad breathless and maybe a bit strangled (since he was, quite literally, being strangled between Reo’s thighs). He clearly wasn't caught off-guard in quite the same way as Barou had been when Reo applied some actual technique in their tussle.

The blond shamelessly groaned as if he were aroused by the pain when Reo tried to lock his legs together. Shidou let his usually silky-smooth voice get a bit raspy towards the end knowing full well that it’d distract his purple bun. This was hardly the first time they’d gotten into a fight like this after all.

(“You perv,” Reo complained.)

With that, the seasoned bedroom brawler managed to break free from the hold before Reo could sink in the choke. It was really very fortunate that, like Reo, Shidou was a flexible man himself, or he would have been in quite a bit of pain.

Next ensued a round of nude wrestling that would do the oiled up ancient Greeks and Romans proud. (Honestly, there was definitely too much biting to be considered in line with the rules for greco-Roman wrestling.) The two fell off the bed and took their fight to the floor, where they banged into the desk chair, bed, and dresser in that precise order as they rolled around each trying to get a leg up on the other.

Victory was finally in sight when Reo sat astride Shidou’s torso, heart-racing, in the middle of the room.

co*cksure (ha) in both expression and tone despite his heavy breathing, Reo baited the other man, “Did I touch a sore spot?”

“You seem awfully worked up.”

Shidou tried to buck him off or, barring that, rub his still proud penis against Reo’s ass.

“Down boy,” the Mikage mocked, as he bravely flicked Shidou on the nose.

The pinned man snapped at the air, playfully trying to catch Reo’s slim fingers between his teeth.

Reo stopped to consider whether to crack another dog joke or to let the belabored analogy rest.

His deliberation was interrupted by an agitated knock on the door.

Before Reo could react, Shidou shouted out his key code and told Rin to get his ass in there.

Goddammit, Shidou.

--

A furious Itoshi Rin stood outside of Shidou Ryuusei’s temporary single, his normal brain functions completely overrun by expletives, outrage, and p*rnographic images.

He had no idea why he decided to come running – it wasn’t as if he had been told to go over.

Rin had the whole trip between strata to question his (once again absolutely deranged) decision to insert himself into whatever kinky sh*t Reo was getting up to with the pink freak.

It was, frankly, one of the most embarrassing walks of his life. Rin’s confused boner refused to calm the f*ck down. When he left his room, he’d tucked it into his band and basically made a run for it. But the waistbands on Blue Lock-issued sleep pants weren’t exactly the most constrictive since they were, as suggested by the name, meant for sleeping.

As a result, Rin had to live with his dick very inconveniently and somewhat painfully flopping around.

He’d only gotten his junk to calm down and shrink to a much more manageable half-chub by the time he heard Shidou’s obnoxious voice yell out his room code.

Scowling even harder than before, Rin punched in the six-digits with more force than might have been strictly necessary.

Then the doors opened.

Purple eyes shot up to meet smoldering teal.

Rin’s half-chub promptly became a full tower.

--

The sight that greeted Rin was Reo’s fair, well-muscled figure atop Shidou’s golden-skinned brawn at the center of the dorm room floor. Reo had frozen in place, with a hand on Shidou’s chest and the other caught in Shidou’s grip. (Reo had yanked the blond’s dirty paw off of his hip but ended up letting Shidou capture his wrist in a moment of distraction.)

Shidou tried to turn to give Rin a looksie despite being laid out on the ground and in no real position to move.

Rin spared him a glance before he reflexively tuned out whatever nonsense the man was spouting. Instead, Rin’s eyes roved across Reo’s features, took in the startled, wide eyes, and the high color on his cheeks.

A thin sheen of sweat covered Reo’s entire body, making the Mikage’s smooth skin look like polished stone. The pleasing lines of his bare chest and chiseled abs could compete with the best exemplar in any museum’s collection. But Reo was very obviously full of life, unlike the cold marble sculptures whose models were long gone. Messy strands of violet hair stuck to the other boy’s cheeks, and his flushed chest heaved from exertion.

On his ‘hard’ walk/run over, Rin briefly entertained the wild and extremely out-of-character thought that magic and monsters must exist bc he had obviously been cursed. But no matter how strangely Rin found himself behaving around the heir, Reo was undeniably made of flesh and blood. The patches of red and purple on Reo attested to this. Rin noted there were a couple new additions to Reo’s collection.

Something twisted in Rin’s gut as his eyes traveled along Reo’s body. When they finally landed on Reo’s crotch, the weeping wet penis bobbed up twice before it seemed to droop under the weight of Rin’s scrutiny.

--

Between all the biting and ‘banter,’ Reo had nearly forgotten about the problem of what to do if/when Rin showed up. Fun fantasies about revisiting their little adventure in 3P-land aside, Reo had no idea what to expect from Rin’s guest appearance.

And now he was here.

Reo’s brain unhelpfully supplied memories of getting fingerf*cked by Blue Lock’s Nos. 1 and 2; a snapshot of Rin looking drunk from the briefest brush of Reo’s tongue; and the phantom sensation of being stretched open by Rin’s beastly co*ck. (Hot.)

But that was all disturbingly (and even more unhelpfully) followed by memories of Rin with his taped-up broken nose waiting for him just outside the cafeteria, the green-haired boy shooting him a glare for taking so long to catch up before grimacing from pain because he’d moved his face too much; Rin’s flawless form shooting with his non-dominant foot; and teal eyes widening, cute blush spreading across his face as Reo fiddled with his hair. (f*ck.)

Rin was a real person.

And despite being so close in both age and build, Reo felt Rin looked painfully young at times. It made Reo want to-... -to be good to him. Because he was a good boy.

Reo thought of Rin—…

Realizing who was in the weight room, Reo decided to hang back and wait around the corner for a minute. He had to admit he was a bit nosy, too, even if he didn’t plan to jump in or anything.…The conversation lasted for longer than he expected.

“…the hell? Your leftover drink?”

“Don’t need it.”

“Thing is, if you get hurt, Blue Lock’s done for. That’d present a problem for me…and I don’t want any f*cking problems.”

“So drink.”

“Hmph."

"It’s lukewarm.”

Isagi had gotten through to him—he was good at that kind of thing.

Reo left.

Reo thought of Rin as a person. A person who was probably his friend.

And, tbh, Reo didn’t want to spend anymore brainpower redefining and recategorizing his social relationships. It was kind of stressing him out.

Fortunately for Reo, he didn’t have the time to re-anything because Shidou took advantage of Reo’s distraction to escape from Reo’s mount.

Reo, for the nth time that evening, had one thought.

Goddammit, Shidou.

(But also, bless you, you conveniently chaotic freak.)

--

While the other two silently assessed each other, Shidou was bored. (Unacceptable.)

So after maybe 5 seconds of that--

Shidou knocked Reo off balance and sat up so that Reo wound up in his lap. The Mikage’s legs wrapped around Shidou’s waist, and his free hand had settled on Shidou’s shoulder for balance. Shidou still had Reo’s other wrist in hand. Really, it could have passed for a romantic love scene if it weren’t for how Reo started trying to wriggle away almost immediately.

Aware that his window of opportunity narrowed the longer he stayed on the floor, Shidou stood up, carrying Reo in his arms for a second time that evening.

There were more protestations this time around and a lot of red-faced Reo pointedly refusing to look in Rin’s direction.

Unmoved, the impatient older man proceeded to throw Reo onto his mattress. Shidou quickly joined him in bed, crawling over his hissy purple bun and holding down both of Reo’s wrists to make him behave.

The blond looked over his shoulder to address Rin, who was still standing in front of the door.

“You just here to watch again, voyeur-san?” Shidou snarked.

“I don’t mind, but topknot over here will be very disappointed.”

Leering down at Reo now, “Isn’t that right?”

“Shut up, Shidou,” the Mikage gritted out, no longer bothering to struggle. He was afraid he’d make accidental eye contact with Rin when he still hadn’t figured out how to face him.

“There’s no need to pretend, Mi-ka-ge-ku-n~ ♪,” the blond sing-songed. “Rin-chan’s seen everything before.”

“Plus, shouldn’t I play well with others, so bunny won’t accuse me of being insecure anymore?” Shidou asked in a whisper next to Reo’s ear, tone turning sour once he reached the word insecure.

“I was kidding,” Reo complained, annoyed with Shidou’s pettiness.

Shidou didn’t bother responding—he nipped Reo’s ear and reached down to play with Reo’s penis instead, trying to bring it back to full hardness.

--

Reo might not have been serious when he’d made his remarks about Shidou’s insecurity (mostly because Reo never thought much about Shidou’s emotionally investing in anyone, much less himself), but Shidou took it very seriously, even if he wasn’t fully aware of just how much it bothered him (and how much more it’d bother him in the future).

The thing is—Shidou historically had no problem with any of his sex friends f*cking other people. More accurately, he never even thought about their actual lives enough to have an opinion either way.

He clearly didn’t have any real issue with Mikage f*cking other people either (right?), since he literally watched Reo ride ‘Itoshi Junior’ on his maiden voyage—Shidou had been the one to arrange for it to happen in the first place.

Still, for some reason, Shidou had noticed he started to feel a bit…miffed once he’d learned about the hickeys.

Maybe it was because, even though he had never been interested in marking Reo previously, Shidou also knew, instinctively, the little prince would have fought tooth and nail to avoid something so déclassé.

Waltzing around with a load of lovebites, for someone like the posh and perfectly put-together Mikage Reo, would be considered cheap and tacky.

Shidou knew this kind of person.

Shidou knew.

Even the weepiest version of Mikage, the one whose choked little sobs echoed in the showers (and made heat pool in Shidou’s groin even before Shidou had actually seen Reo’s naked body) that first night—even that Mikage Reo, whose pride was deeply damaged from his public defeats, would never have let someone like Shidou openly brand him like this.

People like Reo, people from that world, were fussy about their dignity, extremely sensitive about public perception, and they all maintained strict limits on who could do what and when. (It was why Shidou liked taking liberties with their oh-so-precious bodies and f*cking them silly.)

Were the hickeys Itoshi Rin’s handiwork, then, knowing what Shidou knew of them both, he could consider it the result of Reo humoring an awkward, pissy little brat the same way people show sympathy to small animals.

(Shidou seemed to have forgotten how even that had already been enough to make him want to pick a fight earlier.)

But now Shidou didn’t have a clear read on what he was seeing. (He subconsciously regarded the ring of red and purple as evidence of submission.)

And so, he kept wondering about who else could take apart Mikage Reo. He wondered how they were able to make the Mikage submit to such a brazen claim of sovereignty.

Unknowingly, everything in his field of vision began to take on a tinge of red the more Shidou found himself wondering who else had seen Reo lose himself that way. Shidou wondered whether they were also able to take the Mikage apart, piece by piece, until all that was left was a lewd creature, weak to pleasure, and devoid of any modesty or virtue.

Shidou wasn’t sure why he cared, really, since f*cking Mikage was just a surprisingly fun way to kill time. It must have been his competitive instincts. But, alright, challenge accepted. He could supplant whoever it was who tried to leave their mark on his prickly bun’s pale skin. He’d leave even more.

This was just a pride of conquest type thing. And goading RinRin was always a good time.

(He didn’t notice he clenched his jaw again.)

--

Surprised by the rough touch, Reo gasped and turned his face to avoid Shidou’s intense stare.

The violet-eyed boy, of course, unthinkingly turned his face towards Rin, who seemed a few steps closer than before but by no means close. Blue Lock’s best striker stood stock-still with his hands balled up into fists and his eyes trained on Reo.

Reo still didn’t know what he could possibly say to Rin, so he didn’t say anything.

He held Rin’s gaze, half-afraid and half-hopeful, wondering what Rin was thinking as he stared. The heat in Rin’s gaze sent an electric tingle up Reo’s spine.

Shidou, however, was never one to be an extra in any scene. He’d noticed Reo’s inattention and took immediate action. Despite being the oldest in the room, he chose an incredibly juvenile method of retaliation—Shidou grabbed a handful of Reo’s hair so he could yank the heir’s head to the side then proceeded to suck a hickey obnoxiously high on Reo’s neck.

Needless to say, the two of them wound up grappling on the floor again.

--

Rin really did feel transported to the first time he’d walked in on the two of them f*cking.

He had no idea what to do then (Shidou dubbed him Pervert-kun), and he had no idea what to do now (Shidou called him Voyeur-san).

Fully clothed with a throbbing hard-on, Rin felt out of place, socially inept, and completely creepy. (Those were sh*t nicknames, sh*thead-Shidou.)

He hadn’t even figured out why he was so pissed earlier, but a lot of the rage dissipated during all the awkwardness. Now he didn’t even have anger as a security blanket anymore.

He was literally standing in the middle of a room watching two super-ripped 185cm tall men “fighting” on the floor, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world.

The actual objective of the fight was obscure. One second the two would be jabbing at one another with elbows and knees. Then the next second, they’d both just be trying to do actual sex things instead of just highly hom*oerotic fight things.

At that precise moment, for example, Reo slid his hand over Shidou’s co*ck and jerked him off with a vengeance (“Just f*cking come already, you piece of sh*t!”) while Shidou mouthed at a nipple and groped Reo’s pec, groaning loudly at the mix of pleasure and pain. Rin could predict that the blond would inevitably try to bite Reo and then they’d be at it again, ‘fighting.’

By all appearances, they seemed lost in a type of particularly violent foreplay. There were sporadic bouts of laughter – maniacal cackling for Shidou; incredulous scoffing for Reo – between a good deal of snarling. It was f*cking ridiculous.

This is probably what the internet meant when it warned him threesomes in real life were awkward and someone always got left out. It hadn’t been this bad the first time around. But this time Rin felt…genuinely envious of their easy rapport—he could see that Reo never held back in the slightest around Shidou. There wasn’t a hint of the cautiousness he’d always show when interacting with Rin.

The moment he came to that realization Rin retracted his previous thought re. rage dissipating. It rapidly rematerialized along with an intense impatience for Shidou more generally. Rin was suddenly thinking of all the other things that Shidou seemed to be able to get easily just by being a f*cking shameless roach that refused to just die already. (Chief among these things would be Big Bro Itoshi’s approval.)

Rin’s baser instincts seemed to be urging him to drag Reo away from Shidou. Rin wanted to pay back Shidou for the broken nose with interest. He wanted to break his face, his feet, his legs, and his arms. Rin wanted to plop Reo onto his co*ck while advertising his claim to the rest of the world (but specifically Shidou and Nagi-f*cking-lazy-loser-Seishirou), and he wanted to recreate the scene from that very first night—to f*ck into Reo from behind with the older boy’s long legs draped over his arms. (He also, instinctively, wanted to clean him up afterwards and maybe just hang around a field somewhere with their arms around each other play some soccer or something, though maybe not in that order.)

His instincts told him all of these ideas were real winners—totally surefire methods of getting what he wanted. (What he wanted was still unclear to him, but Rin was aware that some of those suggestions seemed to have life in prison as the only possible ending.)

Still, in any event, for a very, very long time now, Rin had been told his instincts were not enough. He'd taken this teaching to heart.

Moving on instinct alone wouldn’t bring him success—every step taken needed to be supported by data and logic, careful reasoning and attention to detail.

He wasn’t lukewarm trash like a certain overrated prodigy who relied on “instinct” to play, but who truthfully just relied on other people spoon-feeding plays to his unstudied ass.

He wasn’t allowed to couldn’t just seek excitement like Shidou Ryuusei. He didn’t get to just do what felt good.

He had to be like Sae. He had to know exactly what he was doing and why. (Like how he knew exactly how he was supposed to play soccer and why.) (It had nothing to do with personal pleasure or excitement.)

Right now, he wasn’t even on the pitch, but, subconsciously, Rin still felt his instincts weren’t enough. There was no data to apply to this situation, no social experience to draw from and apply by analogy. Rin had woefully few relationships of any sort to draw on, if he wanted to get closer to someone (much less in this context).

He was stuck in quicksand.

--

Right as Rin was about to hit the climax of Boner-prompted Existential Crisis No. 2 of the evening (Note: there would ultimately be one more before midnight and two the next day), the ball of tangled limbs formerly known as Mikage Reo and Shidou Ryuusei crashed into him. The shock yanked him away from the edge of a massive downward spiral. (Yay for very convenient coincidences!)

A pair of amethyst-colored eyes locked onto his teal again. Reo looked up at him from the floor, where he was laid flat on his back and had Shidou in maybe(?) some type of headlock(?). It seemed as if Reo was (finally) going to say his first words to Rin of the evening when spawn of Satan Shidou managed to wrest his head free from where it had been smashed against Reo’s chest.

The 'most mature' of the three used all his strength to drag Rin to the ground.

Rin came crashing down on the two of them.

(Thank God none of them got injured by any of these shenanigans. They’d be in so. much. trouble.)

--

Sometime later, in the room next door—

There was about an hour and a half before lights out, so Aiku was going to just go find somewhere else to be for a bit.

He seriously underestimated the length of Shidou’s Blue Lock Welcome Home Party of Two. (He missed the part where it became a party of Three due to B*se's very powerful noise-cancelling function.

He hadn’t taken off his headphones at all (despite the temptation to figure out what on earth was going on over there), but the wall shaking from all the banging and crashing next door was still making it impossible to unwind. The bed was too heavy to move as well.

He planned to come back in an hour and hoped to god they’d be done by then. He really didn’t want to be the asshole who broke up a good time, but this was fast approaching “contact your doctor immediately for prompt medical treatment to prevent serious and permanent damage to your penis” territory.

Christ.

Chapter 18: Smells like teenaged boy stuff

Chapter Text

Chapter 18

Rin didn’t notice Shidou grabbing his arm until it was too late.

And although Shidou let go of Rin’s arm fairly quickly – thanks in no small part to the fact that Reo had violently shoved Shidou to the side the moment he realized what the blond was trying to do – Rin had already started to tip over.

For a second, the green-haired boy teetered dangerously above the two men on the ground.

It was incredible how much went through their heads as Rin (quite embarrassingly) flailed in a futile attempt to right himself.

Reo, for instance, (quite literally) tried to calculate the impact force of Rin’s fall. Different visions of how Rin might land shuffled rapidly through his mind. (icyww, Reo guessed it’d be a force of about ~67.6kg or ~99.8kg in the two most likely scenarios where he failed to get out of Rin’s way. It really depended on how Rin’s weight was distributed. See diagram for reference.) Reo also briefly (and quite morbidly?) contemplated the plastic strength and deformation capacity of his own abs. He ultimately concluded that, whatever the case, the impact force of a f*cking knee to the gut would be too damn high. It only took a fraction of a second to reach this v v obvious answer.

Sadly, it wasn’t like Reo could just roll away either, since having their ace’s knee explode from smashing onto solid concrete wasn’t ideal. Reo irritably thought to himself about how Shidou’s soccer was likely his only redeeming quality. Sought-after conglomerate heir that he was, Reo had on good authority that dick – even really good dick – was cheap and plentiful out there in the wider world. (That was probably even more true inside Blue Lock. Reo just hadn’t realized it yet.)

Our boy Shidou, on the other hand – notorious fake-baked weirdo who lived naked & rent-free in the minds of many, much to their dismay – Shidou…wasn’t really thinking-thinking. Or at least, he certainly wasn’t ‘thinking’ in the same way Reo went about it with visualizations and a voiceover’s running commentary.

There weren’t usually many words involved with what went on in the ol’ pink-frosted noggin in the first place. But perhaps because Shidou had gotten so over- (or maybe under-) stimulated by recent proceedings, the part of his brain responsible for translating feelings into sentences - occasionally even contemplating the consequences of actions(!) - had decided to f*ck right off by that point, ending its brief cameo for the evening.

Shidou shifted into a more ‘hands-on’ approach when his brain’s translation service closed shop. Dragging Rin down illustrated the phenomenon quite nicely. Shidou’s arm shot out to give Rin a hard yank at the same time Shidou’s relatively mild buzz of irritation began to feel more like the sharp, shrill screech of acoustic feedback.

There’d been no premeditation. If asked, he’d have no articulable reason for doing so nor any consideration of what might have resulted. (No visions of exploded knees or internal injuries, that was for sure.) Shidou just grabbed what he grabbed and there was nothing to it.

Shidou would never have connected the impulse to what had happened seconds before, after he and Reo rebounded off of Rin’s legs—to how Shidou saw Underlashes, Jr., making dog eyes at his purple bun, felt Mikage’s headlock grow weak and the heir’s chest heave under Shidou’s back as he prepared to speak to the younger man.

Shidou would never reflect on the moment long enough to think that it had anything to do with wanting Reo to stop getting so f*cking distracted when, jfc, Shidou still hadn’t even gotten to come yet. /f*ck./ That emotion(?)/desire(?) or thought(?)/feeling(?) only temporarily manifested as an uncomfortable suffocating sensation in Shidou’s chest—the one that usually popped up right before Shidou just got up to start doing something.

--

Later, when Reo developed a genuine interest in Shidou as a human-being, cared enough to consciously put some effort into understanding the explosive man, Reo would realize this was another thing Shidou and Nagi had in common—neither had inner voices. (Or at least, what voices they had very seldom spoke.) They went through life completely submerged in an ocean of feeling.

Shidou, like Nagi, needed to make a conscious effort to ‘translate’ what he experienced inside to communicate outside of his head. And despite the fact Shidou might use more words in 10 minutes than Nagi’d sometimes use in an entire day, Shidou, in essence, did p much the same thing as Nagi—he never actively tried to communicate.

It wouldn’t make a difference if he tried after all.

So, Shidou didn’t need anyone to understand him. Shidou Ryuusei just needed the world to know his name.

--

Thanks to years of catching wayward boys and girls mysteriously tripping and falling in his general vicinity, Reo managed to catch Rin when he fell.

Well, catch might be an overstatement. The sequence of events went more along these lines: Reo all but threw Shidou off of him, which resulted in Shidou rolling over to Reo’s left. Once free of Shidou’s dead-weight, Reo immediately sat up, turned (or maybe even spun?) himself around with remarkable speed so that he could stick out his arms just in time to get flattened by roughly 82 kg of solid muscle.

Shidou got to serve as extra cushioning. The head and shoulders of Rin’s heroic prince thumped onto Shidou’s washboard abs, forcing an involuntary oomph from the blond. Rin sprawled on top of Reo, their legs in a tangle. Reo’s arms had reflexively circled around Rin earlier and his hands had yet to retreat from the younger man’s broad back. One of his hands may, in fact, have unconsciously migrated from its original position at Rin’s shoulder blade down to Rin’s narrow waist (sadly still cloth-covered).

Zoomed out, the three of them looked a bit like an ugly capital T written by someone with extremely shaky hands and a thick marker.

Moments before, Rin had also spared a thought for Shidou as he braced for impact. But, in contrast to Reo’s mild to moderate annoyance, Rin spent his seconds willing a thick blanket of rage to envelop his body, hoping that (re)directing his anger at a live target would melt away his previous apprehension. Envisioning how he was going to rip Shidou limb from f*cking limb the same way sad*stic children ripped the legs off of large bugs was nice—it was familiar. It was certainly better than sinking slowly into a tar pit, suffocating as the shame of his deficiencies, both personal and professional, clung to his skin.

(What was his awkward inexperience but a reminder that soccer was all he had? And what was Shidou’s participation in this match besides confirmation that, despite everything he’d given up, his soccer still wasn’t good enough?)

Rin planned to immediately go for Shidou’s throat the moment he was able.

Except—

Another one of those things that shouldn’t happen in real life happened.

The “falling down and landing in a sexually suggestive position” thing. The kind of trope that belonged in a trashy coming-of-age story for the archetypal wimpy every-boy.

Rin’s life was a slice-of-life horror movie, maybe a family revenge drama if he was lucky.

Yet here he was, falling in slow-motion, staring into wide amethyst eyes that f*cking sparkled under Blue Lock’s prison-couture lighting. Rin caught his own reflection in Mikage Reo’s thrice-damned shiny glass orbs. He saw Reo spread out his arms to catch him, and he felt the other man’s arms slide under his before they crashed together.

Rin mashed his face into the side of Reo’s neck.

He studiously tried to ignore the (pink) elephant in the room (pressing against his navel) and furiously tried to will away the stiffie in those loose ol’ pajamas of his so he could get up to exact his righteous revenge.

But it was hard to pull away with Reo’s arms still wrapped protectively around his back. Extremely difficult because Rin had wrapped his own around Reo as well. (Rin’s arms were, actually, partly crushed against Shidou’s side, too. But that was beside the point.) Rin’s focus was on the palm laid flat on Reo’s warm shoulder blade, the fingertips that touched the bare skin of the older boy’s spine, and the other hand that clasped the delicate nape of Reo’s neck.

Things that weren’t supposed to happen kept happening. Things like getting invited to join a threesome after catching a couple having sex or playing a pick-up game with a bunch of lukewarm extras to help someone out, for ‘fun.’

The former was at least something that might have popped up in a wet dream. (Rin was a healthy teenaged boy, okay? f*ck off.) But the latter was near unimaginable until just maybe a week ago.

It had been over three years since his last spontaneous game—the 1v1 against Sae during his big brother’s first trip home from Spain that had completely upended Rin’s life. Ever since, Rin directed pretty much every waking hour towards beating his sh*tty brother.

Rin dispensed with all superfluous activities. (Not that he ever had many of those in the first place.)

When 13-year-old Rin withdrew from his peers, stopped speaking with anyone who wasn’t at least enroute to going pro, and ignored all but those who’d promote his advancement in sport, the Itoshi brothers’ guardians – their maternal aunt and her husband, both former pros – had commended Rin for finally ‘putting away childish things.’

So, the more Rin thought about how pointless, out-of-line, and impulsive his current conduct was – how absurdly out-of-character most of his recent behavior had been – the more his anger burnt. Every part of his being seemed to have met its flashpoint and simultaneously burst into flame, emptying his brain of all thoughts beyond how, really, this was actually all Reo’s fault.

Shidou’s penchant for causing injury was whatever. He was obnoxious the way the sky was blue.

The real concern here – what truly threatened to upset the status quo in Rin’s life – was Reo.

Reo had already thrown things into disarray. Because Reo was the common factor in all the impossible things that kept happening in Rin’s life recently.

Rin – who knew himself, who knew that original flicker of curiosity had only grown ever since Reo had called him an edgelord – Rin knew he was interested in Reo.

And his interest in Reo had nothing to do with soccer.

He liked him.

He liked Reo.

Rin inhaled deeply.

Then, after a beat, the green haired boy surged upward to capture Reo’s lips in a sloppy open-mouthed kiss. He shoved a hand into Reo’s hair while another hand moved to grip the other boy’s shoulder. Rin held him down hard enough to leave marks that would take hours to fade.

Rin was always some type of angry. But right now, he was angry he had been forced to come to this realization. Angry at Reo, who was a f*cking asshole, who was too f*cking nice, who was so f*cking weak, who quite evidently had way too many options and was certain to be way too much work. Angry at himself for adding more angst to his stupid crappy life and for dropping his guard so that this unbelievably huge distraction had snuck in and taken hold.

All of Rin’s anger and aggression channeled into an urgent, near frantic effort to get Reo’s body closer to his own.

Rin’s tongue begged for entry to the wet warmth of Reo’s mouth. He completely disregarded the other boy’s noise of surprise and pressed down harder, with his whole body now, to take advantage of how Reo squirmed under him. Reo’s body began to react as the fabric of Rin’s clothing scraped against his sensitive skin.

When Reo started responding to Rin’s kiss, even shoved a hand under the eager younger man’s shirt, Rin felt a sense of relief wash over him. Reo wanted him, too, even if he still hadn’t said a word to him all night. A wave of pure want consumed Rin when the man beneath him bucked upwards to meet his clumsy thrusts. Rin chased the shock of pleasure that shot straight to his dick whenever their tongues met, or whenever he felt the scrape of Reo’s teeth.

Neither of them cared about their awkward positions. They paid no attention to the fact that they were, in essence, treating Shidou’s torso like it was a rug to make-out on.

Shidou had propped himself up the moment Rin started getting at it. Laughing, but without much mirth, he reached over to grab a fistful of Rin’s hair and yank him off Reo.

Rin caught Shidou’s forearm in one hand to stave off major hair loss, not bothering to so much as shoot a glance at the man leaning over from behind Reo. The pain did little to distract Rin from his mission. He poured everything into continuing his messy exploration of Reo’s mouth, acting as if his life depended on kissing Reo.

But with a man of above-average strength still trying to haul him up by the head, Rin inevitably had to detach from Reo from time to time. (Shidou, vaguely interested in testing Rin’s persistence, experimented with shaking Rin’s head around once or twice.) The two younger men’s kiss became more of a messy smearing of mouths. Rin and Reo exchanged humid panted breaths in the small gap between their lips when periodically forced apart.

Deciding that carrying on this way made no sense, Rin finally cooperated with Shidou’s effort (in practice if not in spirit) and allowed the other man to pull him into something of an upright position on his knees. It’s just that Rin’s free hand still gripped the nape of Reo’s neck. So, Rin dragged the other boy up along with him—not that Reo needed to be forced, given the way Reo chased Rin’s lips whenever they parted. Pupils blown and lips swollen, Reo held on to Rin and refused to let go.

Sneering at their clingy performance, Shidou relinquished his hold on Rin’s hair without warning. Rin briefly drew back from Reo in surprise. That gap proved enough for Shidou to catch Reo by the chin and force the other man to turn his face up towards him.

Shidou’s almost unnaturally luminous cat’s eyes bore into Reo’s.

Even with his pupils dilated, the heir’s irises revealed fine details and strange patterns that came in different shades of violet, purple, indigo – even a bit of pink – under bright light. The moment Reo’s natural tears caught the light just so, a long-forgotten memory flittered across the back of Shidou’s mind – the cloying scent of cigarettes and heavy perfume accompanied by dazzling purple gems dangling from a faceless woman’s ears – before promptly winking out of existence.

Shidou’s lips twitched, caught somewhere between a smirk and a smile that was difficult to describe.

(It wasn’t as if he had some rule against kissing or anything, so why not.)

He dove down without warning to, basically, eat Reo’s face.

Shidou’s feverish kiss matched Rin’s earlier passionate intensity. But something about the way he moved gave off a different flavor. His fervent touches weren’t raw expressions of a desire for closeness. Something about Shidou’s ardor suggested there was something fiercer, more destructive at its core.

Maybe if he hadn’t been so dazed by Rin’s blitz, Reo would have recognized Shidou’s competitiveness for what it was and responded with a bit more fight. But Reo never stood a chance against Shidou’s surprise assault. Caught in the haze of lust, Reo was slow and pliable, openly desperate and needy—in some instances (with certain types of people), he was even extraordinarily easy to bully.

Shidou growled into Reo’s mouth when the other didn’t immediately let him enter. The hot-blooded man gave a punishing bite to Reo’s lower lip and tightened his hold on Reo’s chin, making Reo hum with discomfort.

Shidou followed up with a placating sweep of the tongue as if to coax the Mikage with (uncharacteristically) penitent behavior. He sucked lightly on the still sensitive flesh and let his fingers gently stroke Reo’s cheek. Compared to his initial onslaught, Shidou suddenly acted with a near alien tenderness.

But not a moment after Reo relented and let the seam of his mouth part, Shidou set out to devour Reo without any delicacy. A calloused hand gripped the cut of Reo’s jaw to prevent Reo from moving away. Shidou licked and bit, sucked and swallowed each of Reo’s hitched breaths and little whimpers. He took in the texture of Reo’s tongue and savored the taste of Reo’s mouth, sure, but in the same way an invader enjoyed the offerings of a new conquest.

Shidou’s hand crept down the small of Reo’s back, towards Reo’s cleft, and spread the younger man’s cheeks.

When Shidou pulled away sharply, Reo couldn’t help the faint noise of disappointment that slipped out. But it soon became very obvious why the blond had needed to take a moment. Rin looked mad enough to blow a gasket and he had caught Shidou’s arm in an iron grip, preventing the older man from using the full range of motion required to finger Reo in earnest.

Laughing with substantially more genuine amusem*nt than before, Shidou looked positively delighted by Rin’s obvious frustration.

“Mm. Is lover boy jealous?”

“Good boys should know how to wait for their turn,” the blond chided. He flexed his arm, making it difficult for Rin to maintain a firm grip on Shidou’s biceps.

Rin (obviously) did not release his hold. (It’s not like Rin wasn’t ripped. Plus, Shidou - at 18 - was pretty much done growing. Rin was only going to get bigger. He’d be f*cking jacked. Rin was going to be an absolute unit at 18.)

“…Go f*ck yourself,” came Rin’s uninspired response.

“Mm. Why would I do that when I’ve got my cute little bunny here to help me with that?” Shidou simpered.

He casually leaned forward to rest his chin on Reo’s shoulder and draped a golden, sun-kissed arm across the front of the paler man’s chest. This conveniently let Shidou pull Reo’s body even closer to himself (and thus a little further away from Rin).

“Oh, f*ck off, Shidou. Stop trying to annoy Rin on purpose,” he snapped turning towards the blond, thoroughly unimpressed. (Reo had two braincells again.)

The violet-haired boy looked away from Rin, taking for granted that Rin would respond like a reasonable person and ignore Shidou’s dumb taunting. This action had been premised on the (incorrect) assumption that Rin was more mature than Shidou. (Oops, Reo only had one brain cell.)

Rin was not more mature than Shidou.

Rin gladly took the bait. (Although, to be fair, Rin was younger. This was the bigotry of low expectations.)

The teal-eyed boy growled and used the arm he had looped around Reo’s waist to try hauling Reo back, closer to himself, glaring at Shidou all the while. Rin even tried to squeeze Shidou’s arm harder—the veins in the angry angstlord’s forearms bulged.

This level of engagement tickled Shidou’s funny bone all the more.

A couple add’l rounds of dragging Reo back and forth in both directions resulted. Reo protested the manhandling with little success, unable to do much when Rin was kneeling in front of him and Shidou twisted around him from behind.

Only one thought went through Reo’s mind the whole time—a very flat, very dry, “Why.”

He had been having a perfectly good time before this reminder that he really, truly probably had sh*t taste and exercised poor judgment. See The Epic Tale of Reo’s Doomed Love for Nagi.

This current uncomfortable, somewhat annoying set of circ*mstances was Reo’s fault because he was the one who decided to f*ck multiple unneutered dog-men who were, surprise(!), very territorial. Id.; accord Chigiri’s Comprehensive Assessment of the State of Mikage Reo (observing that the greatest problems in Mikage Reo’s otherwise extraordinarily charmed life were largely byproducts of Reo letting his dick decide what to do). Maybe he should get them all fixed. (Oh no, cried a Greek chorus, sensing tragedy.)

Reo couldn’t even find it in himself to be flattered by Shidou and Rin, two v attractive specimens of masculinity, competing over him.

First and foremost, he was certain that this had p. much nothing to do with his affections and probably everything to do with their Blue Lock rankings. (Reo was right and wrong at the same time, per usual, whenever it came to these kinds of assessments.)

Second, people fought over Reo constantly; it would happen until the day he died—probably even long after, because there was sure to be conflict over the ultimate disposition of his estate.

On good days, Reo didn’t care. On bad days, it was a bit nauseating.

Today was a mid day, borderline bad. Being maybe, kind of, probably a little sweet on Rin didn’t count for anything at that moment, because recall: Mikage Reo was a billionaire trust fund baby—a self-centered brat at his core. As well-socialized as he was and as nice as he could be, when push came to shove, Mikage Reo’s preferences were paramount.

He already tried not to be so bratty, did his absolute-f*cking-best to put another person above himself, and—oh look! A Nagi-thought. f*ck.

Reo just wanted to turn his brain off. The longer the pause in the sexcapades, the greater the chance of engaging in some unwanted self-reflection and thoroughly unhelpful rumination.

“Hey, dickhe*ds—I’ve been leaving a snail trail of lube anywhere I’ve sat for more than a second, so it’d be great if you guys stopped sliding my bare ass across the f*cking concrete floor, yeah?” Reo asked snippily.

In the same breath, he also roughly removed Shidou’s arm from around his chest.

Rin’s eyes brightened. His dour expression started lifting, right up until Reo reached around to remove the hand Rin had planted on his waist as well.

Shidou snickered. A prissy, prickly purple bun was the most fun for Shidou to play with, and there were better correctives for RinRin getting too big for his britches. Which was why, on that note, just as Reo withdrew his legs from between Rin’s and started trying to stand, Shidou pulled his bun up with both arms.

Rather than letting Reo go once he was on his own two feet, however, Shidou hoisted Reo over his shoulder like he was a sack of flour ignoring Reo’s v v dignified squawking. The position left Reo incredibly vulnerable—his pucker (still faintly shiny from the residual lube) had no cover, his pecker really got to know Shidou’s shoulder, and his balls were just flopping out there. Shidou tickled his taint to add further insult to injury.

Reo tried to address this infuriating(!) issue with Shidou by pounding on his (beautifully muscled) back as well as kicking his legs around.

Nonplussed, Shidou tightened his hold on the Mikage’s legs so he could no longer flail effectively. The blond then gave his booty a resounding slap on the bootie for his troubles. Following that he gave Reo’s poor balls a fondle and proceeded to do a loopdeloop around Reo’s leaky bumhole with a finger.

“You’re right – your bussy’s still wet, bunbun,” he cackled examining the residue on his hand. “We really need to get more of this sh*t. This stuff’s great.”

“Back to bed we go~! Time to stuff more things in Re-o’s cumho-le~🎵”

Turning slightly to address Rin, the blond jut out his lip in an exaggerated pout, “Rin-chan’s not going to try to stop me again, right?”

“That’s not very considerate to our Chameleon, you know.”

“Do you even know how to make him come without touching his co*ck?”

At that, Reo, who was red in the face from all the blood rushing down to his head, renewed his struggle and spitefully shouted, “Oh, like you’re so good at that?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Shidou. Y—"

Reo never got to finish his thought. The blond bounced him on his shoulder a bit, ostensibly to readjust his grip, but in reality, just to knock the wind out of the spitting mad violet-eyed boy flopping around over his shoulder.

“Aw~, RinRin, I think Reo-chin feels bad for you. He probably thinks I’m being too mean.”

Channeling Alex DeLarge, Shidou hummed the Second Movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as he casually stroked the sensitive skin between Reo’s thighs and caressed the curve of his ass.

Rin clenched his fists and struggled to tamp down on the loss and confusion that kept threatening to overtake his angry expression.

Shidou narrowed his eyes happily at the sight as he continued to hum, spinning around the (not particularly large) room in a messy circle. He tilted his head up as if he were trying to appreciate a full musical ensemble, swishing his free hand around in the air as if he was the conductor of an orchestra.

Every time Reo tried to do something about the unceremonious treatment, the blond would just smack Reo’s bum like it were timpani and bounce him so he couldn’t catch his breath. Lying limp and waiting for this whim to pass seemed to be Reo’s best bet.

By the same token, every time Rin tried to get Shidou to “stop being such a deranged freak” and put Reo down, the blond would also give Reo a little jolt and a little spin. As a person capable of some basic causal reasoning, Rin felt he couldn’t take a more physical approach to stopping the headcase in their midst. He worried that Shidou would feel compelled to toss Reo around even more. In the best worst case scenario, Reo’d puke or something. In the more likely worst case scenario, Shidou’d f*cking drop Reo and/or cause some major injury.

Once he completed his last circle and arrived in front of the bed, Shidou stopped humming. He waved his hand with a flourish, signaling the audience to applaud. The audience, i.e., Rin and Reo, were absolutely not going to applaud.

Shidou remained steadfastly unbothered and rubbed his face against Reo’s baby-bottom smooth butt cheek with a blissful smile in place, “Alright bunny—I’ll put you down in a minute.”

“I could carry you around all day, but I know you get sensitive about how easy it is,” he lamented with far too much cheer. Instead of rubbing his face, he’d switched over to gently palming Reo’s ass cheeks.

The indignant ‘bunny’ had drawn in a breath and was clearly about to rage.

Feeling Reo angrily suck in a breath (with some difficulty given his position), Shidou shot Rin a sh*t-eating grin and put a finger to his mouth to signal the need to shh.

Reo’s field of vision mostly consisted of Shidou’s thick ass, the bed, some wall, and, depending on how much Shidou let him(Reo) squirm, parts of Rin.

As a result, Reo was completely unprepared when Shidou casually sank a finger into his puckered hole.

Switching topics, “The truth can’t be mean, can it? ♫♪” Shidou half-sang.

He added another finger and slowly stretched the small ring of flesh while he reached for that familiar spot that made Reo’s breathing go haywire.

“My little purple bun over here is a greedy slu*t,” Shidou pronounced with a small smile, eyes dark and lacking any warmth as he stared down Rin.

The younger man cycled rapidly between murderousness and lust. (So, this was how people ended up getting into NTR. f*ck.)

He saw how Reo’s whole body stiffened and then went slack. Even above the grinding of his teeth and the blood pumping loud in his ears, Rin could hear every small gasp and bitten-back whimper.

Rin could only imagine what Reo’s face must have looked like. Just the sounds Shidou extracted with every nonchalant thrust of his fingers made Rin feel like his co*ck was going to explode.

When Reo seemed to involuntarily spasm again, Shidou stopped playing with the shaking boy and turned to toss him onto the bed.

Reo sprawled out where he landed. He looked like a mess, barely propping himself up on his elbows with hair sticking to sweaty temples. His legs were spread apart, granting a clear view of the leaky co*ck flushed such a dark pink that it was nearly red. He didn’t shy away from Shidou’s gaze. Dissatisfaction had made him brave.

Shidou leered. The bright pink of his irises seemed almost an infernal red as his eyes roamed freely up and down Reo’s body. When their eyes met, he playfully batted his thick blond lashes at the other boy.

“Both of Mikage-kun’s mouths need to be fed, it seems. ❤️”

Glancing at Rin, “Since he seems to have so much faith in your abilities, grab some lube and make yourself useful.”

“Also, take off your clothes already. You look like a f*cking idiot.”

--

Not long after, the room, which was typically drafty and cold like all the other prison cells they called dorms, began to feel more cramped and humid. Filthy wet sounds and the smell of a certain flowering tree filled the air.

--

Shidou had been in the middle of trying to shove his purple bun towards his recently revived erection when the sound of a default phone alarm went off.

At that, Reo bat away Shidou’s hands in earnest and leaped from the bed. He grabbed his phone, turned off the alarm, and immediately set about picking up clothing from the floor. Anything that was Shidou’s, he tossed into a corner. Everything else, whether it was his or Rin’s, got draped over an arm.

(Shidou did not notice this and would not have been offended if he did.)

“Rin, we need to go.”

The teal-eyed boy looked up, and, even though he didn’t make a sound, it was as if he’d replied with a giant, “??”

His eyes seemed like they could barely stay open, and his usual frown looked a bit more like a pout. The way his hair stuck out all over the place added additional charm to the picture.

Cute, Reo couldn’t help but think. It seemed like Rin was not a post-nut clarity type of guy—based on his current appearance, he was more of a…sleepy baby(?). He filed away this tidbit for future reference.

Neither of them had worn much over to begin with, so he quickly identified Rin’s things from the stack on his arms and tossed it towards Rin’s head.

Even drowsy, Rin was able to reflexively catch the multiple items tossed his way.

“You set an alarm?” Shidou finally asked. He threw on a pair of trackpants without bothering to find his underwear and started doing a few stretches.

Ever a pest, Shidou managed to get in the way of Reo getting dressed with every stretch. Hip flexor? Right in front of where Reo needed to lift a knee to put on his boxers. Shoulder stretch? Somehow managed to pull up the shirt Reo just pulled down.

This humor was consistent with Reo’s (dubious) idea of what was funny. But also, now was not the time.

“Not for you. It’s a new daily alarm so I always know I have 30 minutes before lights out.”

“Now please, for the love of God, let me put on my pants. Please, pretty please?”

They had max 5 minutes to get dressed here, 10 minutes to get back to the 1^st Stratum, 10 minutes to shower, and 5 minutes to run back to their respective dorm rooms.

Shidou hummed speculatively and proceeded to do his best slavic squat to the side.

Checking to see if Rin was ready, Reo observed the other boy seemed far more awake than before but incredibly tense. It actually looked as if all the blood had drained from his face. His rosy glow from a minute ago disappeared as if it’d never been there in the first place.

“Ready to go?”

A terse nod and clenched fists.

Reo thought about it. He started to reach for Rin’s hand but then redirected at the last minute. He clapped Rin on the shoulder instead before he turned to Shidou with a grin.

“I won’t wish you luck. But see you out there tomorrow.”

Shidou’d been in the middle of getting up (right when Reo went for Rin’s hand, actually). So, he just gave Reo an “Mm” in the affirmative before playing the good host and opening the door.

His face had gone blank much like when he’d first walked out of the 7^th Clear Gate or when he’d been behaving himself at the start of his first U-20 squad meeting. It was hard to say whether he was thinking about something or just bored.

Reo didn’t care to guess either way, so he patted Rin’s back and got ready to go.

They only managed to get about three steps from the door when Shidou noticed Aiku Oliver and Itoshi Sae coming over from the other end of the hall.

In an affected drawl, the U-20 team captain exclaimed, “Well lookie here, we’ve got ourselves a couple trespassers.”

“What brings you two to our neck of the woods?” Aiku asked with a subtle emphasis on the word two. He considered a number of different explanations and found them all very funny. An attaboy smile crossed his face as he evaluated the two figures.

Rin and Reo turned around. Rin somehow became stiffer and paler than before.

Sae, in a well-worn Re AI t-shirt and sweats, looked at them silently.

There was no mistaking him for Rin’s brother—the teal eyes and dense lashes were near-identical. But the resemblance ended there. To Reo’s eye, the two couldn’t be further apart from just a glance.

Rin’s pupils shook, and he seemed to be barely holding it together. His knuckles were white and his jaw set. He positively vibrated with pent up energy.

Sae on the other hand was completely flat, expression shuttered. His eyes skimmed over the two of them as if they were no different from Blue Lock’s bare walls and over-engineered doors.

Actually, no. Sae seemed to have intentionally let his eyes flit over Rin for less time than he’d spent inspecting Reo’s face. And that meant Itoshi Sae was actively pretending not to notice or care that he’d run into his younger brother.

Not bothering to wait for a greeting or engage with the two other boys in the hall any further, Sae turned to Shidou, “You should be in bed by now.”

“Ooh? I’ll go to bed right now if you come tuck me in~ Sae-chan,” Shidou flirted reflexively.

When Sae raised a corner of his mouth in a half-smirk, which was far more of a reaction than Shidou ever expected, Shidou found his eyes darting quickly over to where Reo and Rin were standing, not too far away.

He felt a little trill of excitement at how he caught a whiff of blood in Rin’s furious glare—his instincts also told him that with a little push there might even be tears. (How exciting!) (That was almost enough to occupy his attention more than Reo’s look of concern at Rin’s reaction.)

Rin went from pale and withdrawn to near apoplectic with rage. Reo could literally see his veins twitching and, if he wasn’t mistaken, a small bloody crack form because of how hard Rin had bitten his dry lips.

Reo knew he should let Rin decide what he wanted to do right now, and he knew it wasn’t his place to interfere. But he also had this whole new thing about how he didn’t believe in needless suffering. (He hadn’t fully applied that philosophy to himself, but whatever.)

f*ck it.

He stepped in front of Rin.

The hand that was hidden behind him latched onto Rin’s tightly clenched fist, broke apart Rin’s fingers and took Rin’s hand into his.

Despite the fact that you could actually (embarrassingly) smell the scent of ji*zz wafting over from Shidou’s open door, Reo offered an impeccably polite smile to everyone in the hall.

“If that’s all, we’ll be heading out now.” Aiku was most certainly not getting an answer to his question.

Sae glanced over as if he wondered why Reo had bothered to speak. Reo brightened his smile a bit more while blocking even more of Rin from view.

Aiku looked on at the four of them, amused by the strange dynamics.

“Good night,” Reo bobbed his head after addressing each of the seniors by their name and titles.

He squeezed Rin’s hand one last time, where no one could see, before casually throwing his arm around Rin’s shoulder. The purple-haired boy shepherded Rin down the hall and didn’t drop his arm even as they made their way to the stratum’s exit.

They never looked back, so neither knew that the three other men down the hall stared at their retreating figures.

Rin got less stiff the further they got from Shidou’s. There was a slight tussle as Reo seemed to playfully shove Rin’s head down at one point to ruffle his hair.

Sae’s frown became much deeper than his default.

Shidou looked at Sae speculatively.

Aiku eventually broke the silence, “Hey ‘squirt,’ you might wanna do something about the smell.”

“It reeks.”

“Good job though,” Aiku gave a lazy thumbs up. High praise from one dirtbag to another.

Sae shot Aiku and Shidou eye daggers.

Shidou sneered at Aiku, gave Sae a toothy boyish grin, and whistled as he retreated back into his room.

He stopped smiling once his door closed.

Chapter 19: Have you tried melatonin?

Chapter Text

Chapter 19 – have you tried melatonin?

For the past three years, Rin had fantasized about what he’d say to Sae the next time they saw each other. He spent an unhealthy amount of time coming up with different scenarios.

Sometimes, he envisioned punching his sh*tty brother in the face and saying, “You’re a f*cking asshole.” Then they’d get over it, the way they got over the rare fights they’d have when they were kids.

Other times, he imagined sneering at Sae and saying, “So much for being the best midfielder in the world,” after soundly beating him in an internationally televised game. Then Rin would say, “Admit it. You need me. We can still make our dream come true.” Sae would ugly cry, apologize for being a dick, and Rin would get to be the bigger person, stoically lending his brother a shoulder.

The scenario he imagined the most often, though, was running into Sae at random. It wouldn’t even be after a game. Rin would just coincidentally cross paths with Sae on the street or in a shopping mall, and Rin would act like they were complete strangers.

Rin liked to imagine catching Sae’s devastated expression from the corner of his eye. But, in this imaginary world, Rin wouldn’t pause at all, wouldn’t even think twice about walking away. (Sometimes he even had teammates or friends with him. A new family, even.)

This was Rin’s most commonly revisited fantasy because, in this scenario, it was clear Itoshi Sae didn’t feel regret because he lost to Rin. He felt regret for having lost Rin, his brother.

And Rin—Rin wouldn’t feel a thing – not even smug satisfaction – because Sae was just that irrelevant.

…Naturally, the fact that he was fantasizing about any of this meant that Sae was anything but irrelevant.

And, of course, this was also why it was so incredibly easy for Sae to crush years’ worth of Rin’s dreams in one go. Again.

In an affected drawl, the U-20 team captain exclaimed, “Well lookie here, we’ve got ourselves a couple trespassers.”

“What brings you two to our neck of the woods?” Aiku asked with a subtle emphasis on the word two. He considered a number of different explanations and found them all very funny. An attaboy smile crossed his face as he evaluated the two figures.

Rin and Reo turned around. Rin somehow became stiffer and paler than before.

Of course, Rin would run into his brother when he was entirely off guard, looking super sus sneaking out of a known nympho sh*thead’s room right before curfew. Of course, Sae had to get the drop on him. The universe would have it no other way.

Rin had already been silently panicking about how he was going to get enough sleep when Reo led him out of Shidou’s room.

Rin was a sh*tty sleeper, had been since he was a kid. (It ran in the family.) And, surprise, surprise, Rin’s ritual “universe-let-me-f*cking-sleep” struggle grew in direct proportion to the significance of any upcoming game. The more he needed to be at peak physical fitness on the pitch, the more Sisyphean his efforts to rest.

Spotting Sae in Rin’s panicked state resulted in regressing to habits formed by years and years of conditioning. Sae, in his capacity as big brother, used to take it upon himself to police Rin’s sleep (despite being a terrible insomniac with horrible sleep hygiene himself).

Rin froze, immediately hit with the reflexive fear of a younger sibling getting caught doing something naughty. His first thought was a child-like, sh*t, I’m in so much trouble. (Though, he probably wouldn’t have cursed as a kid.)

Then he was quickly reminded of how that was a long dead dynamic...because Sae f*cking ignored him.

Sae’s eyes glossed over Rin like he was some f*cking nobody NPC.

Rin’s piece of sh*t brother acted like Rin was a stranger he’d encountered in passing and f*cking ignored him.

He did what Rin was supposed to do.

To add further insult to injury, Sae made it obvious that Shidou getting enough rest was more important than sparing a second to acknowledge his brother.

All of Rin’s waiting, all his planning, all of his self-improvement over the past three years was reduced to nothing in seconds.

Sae wasn’t even curious enough to take an actual look at him.

Sae’s behavior confirmed Rin’s worst fears what Rin already guessed—Sae’s kindness was contingent on Rin’s usefulness. Sae constructed a lie so he could have a training partner.

Rin never had a nice, caring older brother. Beating Sae wouldn’t give him back his brother.

Sae already told Rin not to get full of himself just because they happened to be related.

He should have believed what Sae told him. _{(Nii-chan was always right about everything.)}

Why would Sae feel differently about Rin when he turned his back on the couple who, whatever their faults, all but raised them?

For some reason, Rin foolishly imagined that his bond with Sae was somehow different from everyone else’s. _{(Maybe because Nii-chan was the one constant in Rin’s life since he could remember. Maybe because of all the hours they’d spend together, talking about their shared dreams, when they both couldn’t fall asleep at night.) (And maybe because it seemed like Nii-chan didn’t have anyone else, either.)}

Turned out it was all Rin’s wishful thinking.

Rin could taste copper on his tongue now, even though he couldn’t feel his face. Couldn’t feel most of his body really and had no idea he was trembling.

Sae ruined his life.

Rin hated Sae for ruining his life.

Rin hated himself for making his whole life about Sae. (He was using Sae as an excuse. He was just as lukewarm as Sae said he was.)

He’d clung to the hope of revenge for so long. _{(He’d stupidly thought they’d become a family again.)} But now Rin knew he could never hurt Sae as much as Sae hurt him. Not if Sae never cared in the first place.

Rin had nothing but soccer.

Rin barely even cracked open a real ‘textbook’ since maybe, what, the second or third grade? In between workouts and practice, matches and training camps, he had two top-tier JLeague coaches grilling him on tactics and forcing him to dissect his own performance analytics at home—it was already a f*cking miracle Rin could do basic algebra and wrote with proper grammar and punctuation. (English, they set aside time for him to learn because it’d prove useful for his football career overseas.)

Rin wasn’t even enrolled in a real high school—just one of the bullsh*t correspondence schools that waived through ‘student’ athletes so they’d have high school diplomas in the event their pro-careers went to sh*t.

There weren’t any real options for Rin besides soccer. Too much time and money – especially other people’s money – had gone into ensuring he’d ‘make it.’ He had to go pro. He had to play this f*cking sport. (If he wanted anyone in his pointless f*cking life to care about him even a little bit, he had to be super-f*cking-human.)

Rin had nothing but soccer.

(So that meant Rin had nothing and no one.)

Rin felt as if he’d been dropped into an icy lake. Cold stabbed into him like thousands of needles. His breath caught in his chest, and his muscles seized up. Rin’s life was completely f*cked. Nothing could be clearer.

Sae didn’t give a sh*t.

NoonecaredabouthimatallHislifewasalreadyoverHewasstuckforeverHewasso—

completely

f u c k e d.

And then Reo took his hand.

It felt like he’d been fished out of the water right before he ran out of air.

Rin realized his palms hurt, and he still couldn’t seem to move.

But the warm hand that enveloped his clenched fist began to, very slowly, return feeling to Rin’s body. The heat transferred from Reo’s palm seemed to thaw the ice in his veins.

Rin focused on the sensation.

Applying gentle pressure, Reo massaged Rin’s knuckles until the younger man slowly loosened his grip. Clever fingers worked their way between Rin’s, prying his fist open with a combination of firmness and gentleness.

Rin was able to still the slight tremor in his body. But he couldn’t restrain the quivering of his lips even as he bit down; the muscles around his eyes and mouth were pulled tight, with the occasional involuntary twitch. A burning sensation crept into his eyes that he rapidly blinked away.

There was a strange, sour contraction in Rin’s chest when Reo stepped up to block him from view. And when Reo squeezed his hand, it felt like Rin’s heart was getting squeezed at the same time.

What was wrong with him, Jesus f*cking Christ.

Before he got too caught up in answering his own (unkind) rhetorical question and spinning out again, the younger man returned his attention to whatever Reo was doing.

(Focusing on whatever Reo was doing was fast becoming a new grounding technique.)

The Mikage heir was exchanging pleasantries with Aiku and Sae. (lbr, mostly Aiku, bc Sae was doing his utmost to be a catty b-word at the moment.)

Rin noted how odd it was to hear Reo speak politely, especially with such a disarmingly friendly, squeaky-clean smile on his face.

Reo’s normal speech patterns tended to fall on the rougher end of the spectrum. And all the smiles Rin had ever seen from the purple-eyed young man tended to range from charmingly mischievous to downright mean and sort of villainous(?)*^{if evil why hot?}

Upon reflection, Rin realized that way back when he’d directly addressed Reo for the first time, Rin had kind of expected Reo to sound like how he sounded right now, as Reo gave his formal greetings to their seniors.

All Rin knew about Reo before their 3rd Selection tryout (besides the fact Reo seemed to like taking a fluorescent co*ckroach’s dick up the ass and looked really good doing it) was that Reo was stupid rich and fairly well-liked even outside of the 5th Stratum.

These details led Rin to assume Reo would be polite, really nice and friendly for some reason. Without realizing it, Rin seemed to have imagined Reo was some kind of wholesome campus prince (like Kazehaya from Kimi ni Todoke or something—not that Rin was familiar with that title).

Thanks to personal experience, Rin would never underestimate Reo’s capacity for assholery again. But, also thanks to personal experience, Rin knew Reo was all those things, albeit seldomly.

Moreover, Rin knew that whenever Reo decided to be nice and friendly, there was always a slightly different flavor from the vanilla he was serving Rin’s brother and the creepy old guy from the U-20 right now. (Wow, poor Aiku catchin’ strays out here 💀💀💀)

Rin’s heart did the weird constricting thing again.

When Reo let go of his hand, Rin worried that he’d lose his composure. But after Reo threw an arm around his shoulder, Rin surprised himself by finding the wherewithal to offer the tiniest inclination of his head (f*ck bowing or even nodding to Sae). He gave a clipped, “Good night,” of his own to the people in the hall.

Then, he left.

He kept it together.

--

Rin still hadn’t looked up from the ground since they’d turned to head for the door, and Reo could feel the tension in the younger man’s shoulders.

Even if he weren’t a proven super genius with high IQ and EQ, Reo knew full well that Itoshi – “I will crush my brother” – Rin probably needed to work through some Big Feelings re. the unexpected run-in with Sae.

The look on Rin’s face earlier felt painfully familiar.

Reo wasn’t sure what expression he made on the field that day, when Nagi said, “Yes, boss,” to Isagi, but Reo was pretty sure it was a close relative of the expression Rin wore—the one that Rin was still wearing, albeit to a lesser degree right now.

It made Reo uncomfortable.

Reo always understood how other people’s feelings worked—he could draw accurate conclusions about how Person A might respond to something Person B did or why Person C behaved in some way to what Person D said. Reo had made plenty of inferences to get what he wanted in the past.

But Reo never imagined what it’d feel like to be in someone else’s situation. Reo never looked at someone (not even Nagi) and thought, ‘Wow, they must feel like sh*t,’ because, if Reo were in their shoes, he would feel like sh*t—what use did he have for thinking about that?

After all, no one could possibly feel what Reo felt or think what he thought—Mikage Reo was a singular, unique, and unparalleled existence. (Or so he imagined.)

Several epically humbling experiences later, Reo felt like he’d opened his third eye or something. Because now he was empathizing left and right. He might also have been projecting—it was hard for Reo to tell. (But that was another can of worms.)

Either way, Reo’s newfound superpower - i.e., the basic empathy that most people developed a lot earlier in life - made him feel bad about how Rin seemed to feel bad.

Reo even found himself a bit annoyed, angry even, that Sae snubbed Rin, tried to make Rin feel small. (Previously, Reo’s indignation had only ever been reserved for either Nagi or himself.)

The Itoshi brothers’ bad blood was none of Reo’s business, but since he’d already intervened earlier, he might as well keep jumping around in front of Rin to distract him. Reo himself was a big fan of distractions from distress. (See Reo’s entanglement w. Shidou. And Rin, for that matter.)

Reo figured Rin would make it clear if he considered Reo an imposition. Reo knew well enough to take no for an answer, now, when someone turned him down or tried to set a boundary.

He wouldn’t push his way into anyone else’s life. Not like how he barged into Nagi’s.

(But to be honest—past-, present-, and sadly(??), even future-Reo never really wanted to be in anyone’s life, not the same way he wanted to be in Nagi’s, anyway.) (This remained true even after he all but rejected Nagi a few days ago.)

(This truth would continue to cause quite a few problems in the future.)

(Apparently, there were some other people who’d love to be Reo’s new toxic codependent. 💀)

Reo abruptly took his hand from Rin’s shoulder and shoved the green-haired boy’s head down.

He considered giving Rin a noogie but decided to show mercy because he felt a bit guilty for the earlier unpleasantness. Reo was partly responsible for plague-god Shidou darkening Rin’s door, after all.

Rin fought the downward pressure on his skull to grimace at Reo. It took great effort for Rin to crane his neck while simultaneously resisting Reo’s hand. Rin strained so hard his face was giving some serious Disney’s Hunchback from Notre Dame as he stared up from Reo’s chest level.

Reo (a dick) directed his eyes towards the ceiling, pretending to be prim, proper, and totally above physical humor even as he f*cked around with Rin’s dark strands, scrunching them up and making a mess of the other boy’s hair.

Before Rin could get Reo off him, the childish heir lifted his hand and returned it to its previous perch on Rin’s shoulder. Reo noted, with some satisfaction, the reduced tension in Rin’s muscles.

“That’s what you get for dragging your feet,” he explained with a lopsided grin and a hint of tongue. “Let’s get out of here.”

Rin stared at Reo’s profile for a moment before picking up the pace.

Reo pretended not to notice how Rin suddenly didn’t know what to do with his arm. It seemed as if Rin had just become aware of his arm wedged between their two bodies. He tried stiffly moving the appendage, trying not to let his hand touch Reo too much.

The poor boy made a few abortive gestures towards slipping his arm behind Reo’s back. But Rin seemed unable to take the final step towards setting his hand on Reo’s hip or putting his arm around Reo’s shoulder.

Rin’s arm ended up staying awkwardly stuck in place. His jerky stiffness a far cry from his usual elegant economy of movement both on and off the field.

Reo tried to keep his amused smile very, very small, but Rin noticed it anyway.

--

Once they crossed the door between the 1st and 2nd Strata, Reo removed his arm from Rin’s shoulder and casually started doing some overhead stretches.

“We really don’t have much time,” he observed. “We should use the shower room instead of going all the way to the main bath hall.”

Rin made a small noise in the affirmative as he trailed behind Reo. He watched the small ponytail bob along with its owner’s steps.

The two maintained a companionable silence all the way to the bathroom, right up until they were washing up next to one another, under the spray of their respective showerheads.

When Reo was mid-lather, Rin finally spoke up. He took a quick peek at the other boy before staring straight towards the wall.

“Thanks.”

Reo gave the younger man a sidelong glance as he rinsed off his foam-covered hair.

“What was that?”

“…thanks,” Rin repeated, turning his head to face Reo fully.

Their eyes met.

Perhaps because of the length of Rin’s upper lashes, Rin’s eyes seemed darker overall.

Their intensity reminded Reo of another pair of eyes—wide and watery grey eyes full of awe at Isagi’s victory (Reo’s defeat). Reo’s maudlin little mind simultaneously conjured up another picture. He remembered how those same emotional grey eyes had ultimately narrowed and grown flinty when facing him.

Without responding, Reo shot Rin a small smile before he straightened up and went back to washing his hair.

The teal-eyed man continued to observe Reo’s profile, only turning back around when it was clear Reo didn’t plan to follow up.

Rin wasn’t sure whether he was grateful Reo didn’t pry or strangely disappointed not to be met with a barrage of questions about his brother.

He finished showering first.

There was an unpleasant squeak when Rin turned off the water.

Startled, Reo turned to look.

He was just in time to meet Rin’s lips.

Two hands broke through the curtain of water to hold the stunned violet-eyed man in place. Water cascaded down both men's faces as Rin joined Reo under the spray.

He gave Reo a long, lingering kiss.

Somehow, the jets of hot water felt cooler than the heat that came from their bodies. Rin’s tongue left a trail of fire in its wake as he kissed and licked his way down Reo’s neck before burying his face into the crook of Reo’s shoulder. He took care to avoid the side that Shidou (and Nagi) had bitten.

Reo carefully wrapped his arms around Rin, planning to offer only a brief hug. He readied himself to lighten the mood before casually slipping away.

But the soft-hearted young scion of Mikage Corp. found he couldn’t bring himself to ignore Rin’s moment of need, couldn’t smoothly brush Rin off the same way he usually brushed off other people’s (inconvenient) emotions.

Reo didn’t have the heart to do that. Not when he could feel Rin tensing, as if he anticipated getting pushed away.

So. Instead, Reo relaxed and waited.

Mumbling against Reo’s neck, Rin began slowly, “I started playing because Nii-chan said I was incredible.”

“He said, ‘Play football with me.’”

“‘The two of us will become the best in the world.’”

“‘And then we’ll win the World Cup.’”

With each word, Reo tightened his hold, feeling his heart twinge at the glaringly familiar phrases.

Voice steady, if a bit muffled, Rin continued, “When he got scouted by Re-Al, he said he was going to go ahead and that I had to come after him.”

“But then Sae saw the world and found a new dream.”

“So, I wasn’t necessary anymore,” Rin finished dully.

The sound of water splashing onto the concrete floor filled the silence.

“Pathetic, right?”

Reo gave a drawn-out hum in disagreement as he rested his cheek against the younger man’s head. He rubbed Rin’s back in slow, soothing circles. The younger Itoshi brother was standing completely still, and his breathing was even.

Water dripped from long purple lashes as Reo looked down. Rin wasn’t even crying. But Reo felt a sharp pang in his chest and couldn’t fully explain all the reasons why.

Reo felt bad for Rin. And he sincerely wanted the other boy to feel better—feel happy, even.

But it also unsettled the Mikage to feel so much heartache for another person. He was alarmed by how much he wanted to make all the bad things in Rin’s life go away. Because Reo knew that way lay danger. (Especially with soccer Jesus Goat-sagi running around, collecting loyal disciples left and right.)

Reo couldn’t tell how much of this emotional response to Rin was just feeling bad for himself—their tragic origin stories were laughably similar, down to their cliché lines about shared dreams.

He gently pushed Rin away to cut the water.

“We need to get going,” the Mikage reminded. “Ego’s time-locking the doors tonight, remember?”

(The freaky bolo tie lover had given some speech about how unpolished gems needed something-something-something thus curfews would be enforced that night something-something. Reo tended to ignore everything Ego said that wasn’t a concrete instruction, and Reo also got the sense that their skinny raccoon of a prison warden was trying to subtweet him. Which 🙄💅💅💅)

Rin swiped at the soaking wet hair plastered against his forehead and wiped away the water dripping into his eyes. He gave an ‘un’ and a nod before obediently toweling himself off to follow Reo.

--

Reo – who was still actively trying to empty his head so he would not [1] meltdown over Nagi and/or [2] transfer inappropriate feelings onto Rin – just realized they had a problem.

Rin (very likely) lacked a change of clothes.

Not everyone stashed extra clothes in basically every single locker room at the facility. In fact, very few people did that. Most Bluelockers just used their assigned lockers in the central bath hall changing room, given everyone’s overwhelming preference for the baths.

Reo, however, played nanny to the world’s laziest genius, and old habits die hard. He laid (semi-)permanent claim to one of the general use lockers in each and every conveniently located set of lockers so that he always had a stash of basic toiletries and extra clothing (clean underwear included) anywhere he(they) might theoretically work out. That way, when Reo was exhausted from a hard workout, he didn’t still need to play errand boy and fetch Nagi’s things from their room. (Nagi obviously never bothered bringing anything with him other than his phone. Not even his duffel.)

Rin would probably have to wear his dirty clothes from earlier unless Reo loaned him his extras.

It’d be inhumane to force Rin back into his dirty clothes when they’d been strewn across Shidou’s floor while all sorts of things had happened to and happened on that very same floor.

But on the other hand…

Reo couldn’t let Rin wear Nagi’s clothes.

Yes. Nagi’s clothes.

Even when Reo and Nagi weren’t speaking, when all remaining Bluelockers moved into the 1^st Stratum, Reo never stopped including a set of things for Nagi in the little go-bags Reo strategically stashed everywhere. (We can all pretend it was just because Reo was too lazy to repack.) (That was obviously untrue.)

“Do you have extra clothes here?” Reo asked. It was doubtful, but who knew—Rin might’ve been prepared for emergencies.

Rin, in his still damp and half-naked, towel-wearing glory, scrunched his brows in confusion, “Why would I?”

“Why do you?” Rin asked reflexively. He used the same tone people often used to ask Zantetsu why he was so mentally deficient.

(RinRin might’ve had a crush, but that didn’t mean he always thought about his tone before he spoke. And thanks to Itoshi Sae, Rin’s default tone trended towards dickish.)

“Never mind.” Reo gave Rin a tight-lipped smile and a quick once over.

Repeating to himself that this wasn’t a big deal, that he was the only one making it weird, Reo keyed in his combination and pulled out the extra clothes.

He paused after a brief inspection. Then, looking like he’d figured something out, he handed Rin the set on top—Rin was only a smidge taller (and broader) than Reo.

“D’you mind going commando? I have extra underwear, too, but I don’t know how you feel about wearing someone else’s shorts.”

The green-haired boy turned a bit red in the face before swiping the set from Reo’s hand with an embarrassed, “’s fine.”

Reo shrugged, turning his attention back to the remaining set. He gave a small sigh mostly to himself.

--

Rin tugged at the collar of his borrowed loungewear. It was all a bit tight and sat more snugly on his torso than he preferred. (Rin didn’t typically wear henleys that were tight enough to show off his six-pack.)

He automatically looked to Reo after dressing.

For some reason, Reo suddenly looked deceptively small. Rin realized it was because Reo’s shirt and pants were both a tad too loose and long.

The purple-haired man busied himself with folding up one of his sleeves. But the other sleeve extended past Reo’s fingertips and slid down his forearm whenever he moved his arm up or down. It made Reo seem dainty despite all his wiry muscles and above-average height.

!!, supplied Rin’s brain, very helpfully.

Underlashes, Jr., had yet figure out why what Reo wore was oversized and why what Rin himself wore was too tight. He was too busy appreciating the ‘boyfriend shirt’ phenomenon for the first time.

Given how Rin was unacquainted with the concept of the boyfriend shirt, the effect was exceptionally powerful. The strong visual impact contributed to why Rin was slow to realize that, in a way, Reo was actually wearing his sort-of/kind-of/pretty much ex-boyfriend’s shirt.

(Elsewhere in the 1^st Stratum, Nagi Seishirou’s Grim Reaper of an Ego flared for reasons unknown.)

Reo interrupted Rin’s mental floundering with a loud, “sh*t.”

“Two minutes left,” he announced. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Reo started to make a run for it.

“Good luck,” he threw over his shoulder.

Rin started to run, too, quickly catching up before eventually overtaking Reo. (RO:😒)

As they booked it down the hallway, Rin grew increasingly annoyed by his too-tight clothing.

And, right when they were about to reach Rin’s door (which came up before Reo’s), the surly striker finally put two and two together. Oh, he thought, less pleased than before.

Rin’s realization probably contributed to what happened next.

As they came up on Rin’s room, Rin skidded to a halt so he could enter his room code with lightning speed. Door now open, Rin's arm shot out to catch Reo before the older boy could get too far. Without really thinking, Rin proceeded to drag Reo into his room.

A flabbergasted Reo stared at Rin, who still held his arm, as the door to Rin and, apparently, Kurona’s room shut behind them. Rin looked just as confused to see his hand wrapped around Reo’s bicep.

After a beat, they heard the locking mechanism of Blue Lock’s ridiculously over-engineered doors.

Reo would be spending the night.

💀💀💀

--

Back in the 2^nd Stratum—

He stopped smiling once his door closed.

Shidou looked at the mess left behind in his room with no expression.

His blank face could (surprisingly) give even the most stoic Blue Lock boys a run for their money. In private, Shidou’s trademark flamboyance only emerged when he engaged in text- or image-based harassment.

(But really, who smiled at nothing in particular or kept up a steady stream of chatter when by themselves besides Bachira? Arguably, even Bachira didn’t do that, if you consider the fact Bachira had his monster hanging around at all times.)

Running a hand through his hair to slick back his bangs, Shidou set about getting his bed into some usable state. The soiled comforter was tossed into a corner. A quick inspection revealed the flat sheet was also past saving, so that got balled up and kicked across the room to join the other bedding. He ripped the fitted sheet off the bed to use as a blanket.

Satisfied, Shidou got onto the bare mattress.

The blond stared at the ceiling with his arms crossed behind his head. There was only the hum of the HVAC and the faint electronic buzz of the room’s too-bright lights to fill the silence.

He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t turned off the lights and gone straight to sleep.

Shidou could fall asleep on command—this was especially the case when there wasn’t anything more interesting to do. (It was a skill cultivated since he was a small child.)

That night, though, he stared into ceiling lights for an indeterminable length of time.

Shidou still felt wired.

Blowing his load should have relieved much of his pent-up frustration.

--

Earlier—

The blond seized on his opportunity to continue fully occupying Mikage’s attention, Rin now a largely forgotten prop in Shidou’s mind.

Shidou leaned over to capture Reo’s lips in yet another hungry kiss, biting him hard enough to sting. He gave no quarter when Reo tried to flee. A bronze hand gripped the nape of Reo’s neck, preventing the leaner man from moving too far.

Reo stood his ground and decisively threw himself into the act. He worked his mouth against Shidou’s, tongue engaged in a battle for dominance. Shidou couldn’t help laughing into his purple bun’s mouth at the newfound enthusiasm.

The tanned blond received a tart bite to the lip and a cautionary squeeze of his balls in retaliation. With one last amused scoff at the Mikage’s pettiness, Shidou wrestled the kiss into something less angry and more lingering. The filthy wet slide of their tongues made an unfamiliar heat slowly spread throughout his body. This activity Shidou once found a bit of a chore suddenly seemed much more appealing than before.

Shidou was accustomed to the kind of concentrated desire that burned white hot and burnt out quickly. Once his need for release was met, he went on his merry way until he encountered new fuel for a flame.

At that moment, though, the desire that spread from down low felt like the slow crawl of lava that had escaped from the earth’s molten core. The heat felt as if it could persist indefinitely without ever cooling.

This feeling triggered something in Shidou’s lizard brain. (An alarm maybe.) The hand at Reo’s neck abruptly moved up to crudely fist the younger man’s hair. He roughly lifted Reo’s head, drawing a grunt of discomfort.

Shidou looked down. His eyes skimmed over Reo’s swollen, spit-slick lips before drifting further up Reo’s face.

A palpable spark ignited as their eyes met, charging the air between them.

It was hard to tell whether the hint of ridicule in Reo’s expression was directed at Shidou or himself. His eyes seemed to say he’d wondered what had taken so long for things to take this violent turn. He seemed to expect nothing less (nothing more) from Shidou.

Smiling (sneering) at the knowing look, Shidou stroked the other man’s cheek and ghosted his fingers across Reo’s mouth.

On the Mikage's own initiative, a pink tongue came to greet Shidou’s fingertips.

Not more than a second after, glossy red lips sucked three of the blond's fingers, taking them in right up to Shidou's knuckles. Reo circled and teased the calloused but still sensitive pads of Shidou's fingers with his tongue, and he coquettishly treated the captive digits to his mouth's strong suction, taking them smoothly down his throat when he swallowed.

Amethyst eyes peered up, full of challenge. The co*cky glint in the heir’s eyes seemed to say he looked forward to seeing Shidou explode.

Mikage clearly believed he’d be impervious to the blast if he made Shidou lose control. And this arrogance was precisely what attracted a powder keg like Blue Lock’s resident explosive maniac.

But.

Right as Shidou loosened his grip on Reo’s silky strands, extracted his fingers from Reo’s generous mouth and prepared to choke the younger man with co*ck to test that confidence, Reo’s eyes widened.

His head swiveled sharply to look elsewhere.

Shidou, none too pleased, also turned to look for the source of the disturbance.

Elsewhere turned out to be the general vicinity of Reo’s crotch, where a now-nude Rin seemed to have made his face a new home.

‘The disturbance’ still had his head between Reo’s legs and his hands under both of Reo’s knees, holding them apart.

Rin slowly lifted his face up from the scene of his crime. Hair slightly mussed, chin shiny from spit, Rin made eye contact with first Shidou and then Reo.

Rin didn’t bother wiping his chin. He responded to the unspoken question in Reo’s surprised, perhaps even slightly scandalized expression, with a deadpan, “What.”

Judging by tone alone, Rin seemed entirely unfazed. He even sounded a bit annoyed to have been interrupted. But the red tips of his ears begged to differ.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shidou watched as Mikage’s expression lost all sharpness. The haughty sexpot from a mere second ago had been replaced by a silly topknot.

Reo let out a slightly confused, “Ah?” and let his mouth stupidly open, close, then hang open again as he tried to formulate a thought, little brows furrowed.

The purple-haired boy’s jaws clicked shut when he seemed to think better of what he originally planned to say.

Shidou saw how a schoolboy’s blush bloomed across Mikage’s cheeks. He caught the way Rin’s shifty eyes betrayed his nervousness and hopefulness.

“I uh—I wasn’t expecting you to do that for some reason.”

“Oh.” Rin didn’t even blink, but the corner of his lips drooped downward ever so slightly.

Shidou grimaced. A person would think Rin had just burst into tears based on how flustered Reo became in response to the tiny muscle movement.

As if in a hurry to make sure Rin’s precious little feelings didn’t get hurt, the troubled pout Reo sported immediately became a sheepish smile. The violet-eyed boy tossed out a self-deprecating quip about how he (Reo) was giving serious KY DT* vibes and laughed at himself before he playfully nudged Rin with a foot to get him to react, too.

*空気読めない童貞 kuuki yomenai doutei – a (male) virgin who can’t read a room

“Hn,” Rin grunted, somehow managing to sound mollified at the same time. Reo laughed again.

Shidou looked on with mounting disgust.

What was this sh*t?

It was Reo playing schoolboy crushes with Rin even with Shidou’s dick a centimeter away from his face.

Shidou watched as Reo’s smile became a bit mischievous once Rin seemed to unfreeze, and the heir’s foot began sliding along the hard muscle of Rin’s thigh.

Shidou saw how Rin caught the wayward foot before it reached more sensitive territory, and, after a pause, slid his hand up to the sensitive underside of Reo’s knee.

After flicking a narrowed eye glance in Shidou’s direction, teal eyes returned to looking into deep purple.

This whole situation was Rin being coddled (being treated gently even when he didn’t deserve it). Shidou could tell. Shidou could see – from the way Rin gripped Reo’s thighs, hard, to the enmity in his f*cking pondscum green eyes – Rin had the same vicious, possessory impulses as Shidou, the same destructive desires.

Rin was just too f*cking awkward and repressed to act on it.

Rolling his eyes at this farce, Shidou interrupted. “That was the bunny’s polite way of saying you’re sh*t at eating ass,” he drawled.

“Do better, Junior.” A hand shot out to shove Rin’s head down toward Reo’s crotch. “Let’s see if you can suck co*ck.”

Rin took great offense (per usual), but the green-haired man became too distracted by the involuntary twitch of Reo’s hips to be bothered to do more than flip Shidou the bird. (Rin flipping Shidou off because he had no retort was clearly going to just be a thing whenever they met like this.)

Dick hard and mouth-watering, Itoshi Rin determined his time actually would be better spent learning how to get Reo off. It was a better use of time than fighting with a dipsh*t like Shidou.

Said dipsh*t-Shidou proceeded to shove his dick deep down the throat of a slightly embarrassed Mikage Reo and began to f*ck his face. Muscle rippled as the tanned striker snapped his hips and said whatever filthy thing came to mind.

The more Shidou got to see the younger man struggle with the emotions that Shidou provoked – the hunger and(for) humiliation, the deep resentment and helpless temptation – the more the reward system in his brain lit up.

Later, Shidou yanked Reo off his co*ck by the hair and shot all over the dazed younger man’s face.

Shidou finally made good on his promise to himself to add his own ink to the canvas that was Reo’s body.

The blond’s only regret was not being able to instantly replay how he painted Mikage’s tear-stained cheeks with thick ropes of hot, white cum. He wanted to rewatch those misty eyes widen as the first spurt caught Reo’s still open mouth. And he especially wanted to capture, in slow-motion, the way a pink tongue extended to catch more of the milky fluid.

Weekslong agitation exited Shidou’s body at the same time he vacated his balls. Post-nut clarity gave the man another excellent idea, one that would demonstrate (to both Rin and Reo) that Rin’s desires were no less savage than Shidou’s—Shidou just happened to be much better when acting on his (at least in the sexual arena).

To Shidou’s mild disappointment, he didn’t get to execute his full plan. He did goad Rin into biting Reo’s ass though, and Reo did freak out. But things just didn’t get around to the pièce de resistance despite multiple climaxes.

--

Blowing his load should have relieved much of Shidou’s pent-up frustration.

And it had.

But left in its wake was a different kind of restlessness—a close relative of the nervous energy that drove caged animals (especially lions and tigers and bears oh my!) to silently pace around their enclosures.

It was strange.

Because Shidou Ryuusei (historically) never felt pre-game jitters—only fever-like anticipation.

However, that night before the U-20 match-up, a blend of fantasy and memory – disjointed scenes from Shidou’s past, present, and future – floated through Shidou’s mind. Some were real (and some doctored by his imagination for reasons he half-understood but had no intention of exploring).

// He tripped and fell when he tried to kick a soccer ball for the first time. Flustered and annoyed, he hurriedly dusted off his knees and the hem of his pleated grey shorts. Then he tried to tidy up his navy-colored blazer, forgetting his chubby little hands were dirty too. Impatience got the better of him. He yanked his uncomfortably tight uniform tie loose, ripped the stupid hat off his head, and stomped both into the dirt for good measure.

// “Sei-chan can bear with it because he loves Mommy, right?”

// The skin on his knuckles stretched and tore as his fist collided with the piece of trash’s face. (It didn’t even sting. He couldn’t have been happier.) He punched him again.

// “This is your fault,” she murmured. “This is all your fault.”

// She’d been in the middle of tucking him in when a loud ring sounded. She immediately reached into her bag to get her phone. The screen lit up delicate features marred by a slight frown. Her tastefully decorated nails made an audible click when she tapped the screen to turn off the alarm.

She began rapidly typing.

After what seemed like an eternity, the soft clicking sound finally stopped. She patted Shidou’s head twice before grabbing her purse and heading for the door.

(“Mommy will be back sooner this time,”) she turned around, backlit by the light from the hall. Her jewelry sparkled. (“There’s some more cash on the counter. Spend carefully, okay, Sei-chan?”)

Then the door shut. He was, once again, in a dark 1R apartment by himself. The smell of molding tatami resurfaced as the scent of perfume and cigarettes began to fade. She hadn’t finished tucking him in (but that was alright since 12 was too old to get tucked in anyway).

He dragged his futon closer to the door. Then he curled up and stared at the small sliver of light at the bottom of the door until he fell asleep. Cold air came in from the gap (but that was fine, too, since he ran hot).

// The two recruiters reassured them that Shidou’s tuition, room, and board would be covered by the Academy. They had high hopes for him making the national team. If all went according to plan, he would represent Japan in the International U-15 Tournament next spring, and there might even be room for him on J*ventus' youth team.

// He woke up to the blindingly bright lights of a strange ceiling with fiberglass casts on both his right arm and left leg. (A cold hand cradled his face, and he could feel warm tears on his neck. “Mommy’s so sorry, baby. Mommy’s going to make things right.) It’ll get better, (I promise.)”

// (Blood rushed in his ears as he scored a goal, completely unable to distinguish his own heartbeat from the roar of the stadium. He felt every cell in his body sing as he showed the world what he was—who he was—as he scored goal after goal.) He was Shidou Ryuusei. He was alive. (He was invincible. He’d live forever.)

Shidou felt far removed from the pictures streaming through his head. Their detail and the amount of dialogue were a sharp contrast from what usually filled his brain. It was a bit like watching a sh*tty movie with a try-hard director.

He shifted onto his side to face the wall.

The world faded to black.

--

Reo woke up first.