Seven

Rin still hadn't texted Bachira back by the time he got home, because he was waiting until he stopped feeling stupid about it to do so, and that hadn't happened yet. He didn't think it would happen any time soon, either.

When he did get home, he wasted no time going upstairs and closing himself up in his bedroom. Once he was in the clear, he opened his hand where he was holding the blue flower that didn't quite match his eyes but would have to do that he'd plucked out of his coat pocket before hanging it up. It was a little wrinkled from the trip, but it was still pretty.

It felt wrong to get rid of it. He'd considered it. The whole way home. It was organic, he didn't need it, it didn't mean anything, so he could have tossed it in a bush or something. But he hadn't. He hadn't wanted to. He'd held onto it.

What he decided to do with it was to stick it onto his corkboard. He was meticulous about where he stuck the tack right in the stem to hold the flower up and not damage the petals. There, it could dry and stay there. It was stupid, but he liked it.

He'd all but gotten it hung up when he heard the dreaded pompous steps coming up the staircase. Rin rolled his eyes. It was just reflex at this point. At least he could be grateful it was just one of set of footsteps.

Rin thought Sae might be having a great old time after his stupid date with his stupid little pet Isagi and walk right into his own room to think about it or sharpen his horns over hellfire or whatever it was that he did in his spare time, but of course not. The Itoshis didn't have locks on their doors and a closed door had never stopped Sae.

"Get out," Rin said as soon as he heard the door handle turning.

This had never stopped Sae either, who swung the door open and leaned against the door frame. He had his phone in his hand and was looking down at it, like his intentional bothering of Rin only deserved the minimal amount of his attention.

"You have fun on your fake date today?" Sae asked.

Rin didn't bother defending himself. "I said get out."

"Looks like it," Sae continued. "Nice new profile picture, loser."

"How do you know about that?" Rin's head snapped up. "I thought I blocked you."

"I have a burner account, obviously," Sae said.

"Yeah, and I'm the loser," Rin scoffed.

Rin headed back over to the door, fully prepared to give Sae another shove into the hallway and slam the door in his face, but halfway there, he saw his brother's eyes focus on a spot over his right shoulder and his face morph into an expression that Rin loathed.

"What is that?" Sae asked, eyes focused right on the flower on the cork board.

"None of your business," Rin told him, deciding to add some extra force into the shove for good measure.

But he didn't make it. He stopped when Sae looked back at him and said, "Don't tell me you're actually falling for your fake boyfriend."

Then, he just balled his fists to keep his hands from trembling.

"Get out," Rin said.

"Oh god," Sae said, obviously very satisfied with himself. "You are."

"We're not fake dating, idiot," Rin suddenly found himself defending. "What the hell do you know anyways?"

"I know that it's less pathetic if you're fake boyfriends," Sae said.

"Oh, right," Rin said, horribly sarcastically. "How stupid of me."

Sae smiled and continued anyways. "Because Bachira is obviously using you to make Isagi jealous."

Rin knew that was true, fundamentally, and he knew that he'd offered it, but hearing it out loud struck him anyways. He tried to rationalize that this discomfort that had lodged itself in his chest was just dread that Sae might be on to them, but he wasn't. He didn't know anything.

"Sounds like Isagi is jealous and you're all pissed about it," Rin challenged back. "Focus on your own relationship and stop worrying about mine."

"Your fake relationship?" Sae said again.

"Get out of my room," Rin told him. "You don't know anything."

"I know that the only relationship you could get is a fake one," Sae said, raising his hands in surrender and stepping back into the hallway. Rin reached for the door to slam it in his face anyways. "Because you are a fundamentally unlovable human being."

The door clicked shut, but that phrase had snuck its way in before it did, and sat hanging in the air around Rin.

He tried not to let it bother him. It didn't matter that his relationship was fake or that it had been enacted to fuck with Sae and Isagi. He was plenty capable of being in a real relationship. If he wanted one, that was. He was an excellent fake boyfriend. He'd be an even better real one. Eventually. When he found someone he liked. And someone who liked him back. Which he would. Sae was just playing his stupid fucking head games. He wasn't a fundamentally unlovable human being.

Right?

The next time Rin and Bachira spoke a couple days later, it was once again Bachira who called. Rin had yet to stop feeling stupid about any reply to Bachira's flower jail text and therefore still hadn't said anything. But he picked the phone up without a second thought.

"Hey," Rin answered.

"Hey, Rin-chan!" Bachira sounded awfully chipper and Rin found himself grateful this conversation was off to a non depressing start. "I tried to wait three days like you, but I guess I'm not a very good boyfriend!"

He was clearly joking, but still, Rin felt weird about hearing it. He didn't know whether he should fight him on it. No, you're a great boyfriend. Would that be weird? Rin didn't think he could frame it as a joke and didn't think the insecurity sounded all that genuine, so he didn't.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"You want to do something today?" Bachira asked.

"Like what?" Rin asked.

"Mm-mm," Bachira hummed in the universal sound for I don't know. "But my mom's in paint mode, so I could stand to get out of the house."

"Your mom's what?" Rin asked.

"In paint mode," Bachira answered, as if this was a perfectly reasonable answer that made sense to any human being.

"Okay," Rin said, still wondering if he fundamentally needed to know what paint mode was or if he should ask after it. Eventually, he figured he didn't. He also figured he didn't have anything better to do. "Sure. Where do you want me to meet you?"

"The station by my house, I guess," Bachira answered. "That way I'll probably be on time and not get lost!"

Rin almost laughed. It surprised him. He caught himself, took a breath and then said, "Alright. I'll text you when I leave."

Rin had indeed texted Bachira when he was leaving the house, finally ending the torment of feeling stupid and guilty about not responding to his prior text. He also didn't see Sae on his way out. The day had barely started, and Rin would take the wins.

When he got to the station, he found Bachira had already gotten there and was waiting for him. They waved at each other. Bachira waved so excitedly that Rin was halfway convinced he was going to hug him hello. He did not.

Rin gave him a bit of a shrug and said, "Where to?"

"I don't know," Bachira said, shrugging back.

"You don't know?" Rin asked. "I thought you were kidding."

"We'll figure it out," Bachira said, entirely unbothered by Rin's annoyance.

The two of them walked through the city a while. Bachira was happy to look at things and point things out, but every time he did, Rin was quick to ask, do you want to see that or is that what you want to do? and Bachira would shrug and say eh, not really, like he wasn't really all that interested at all. It stressed Rin out.

"Well, what do you normally do around here?" Rin asked.

"I don't come here all that often," Bachira said.

"Then why'd you wanna meet here?" Rin asked. Bachira shrugged, still smiling. Rin's brow furrowed. "This is the worst date ever."

"I guess I'm really not a very good boyfriend," Bachira joked again, but it sounded distinctly smaller. This time, Rin was about to backtrack and defend him to himself, but Bachira smiled before he could. "Or I could make the argument that I don't care what we do, as long as we're together, and I think that has you beat."

"You wish," Rin scoffed.

He was competitive, and he had this dire need to be the best at whatever it was he was doing, and that's all he meant by the comment. But Bachira gave him a very clever smile that suggested he thought a lot more by it.

"Hey!" Bachira grabbed Rin's arm in one hand and pointed across the street with the other. "You wanna do that?"

At the end where he was pointing sat an ice cream shop proudly boasting 101 flavours every day! Rin didn't really feel either which way about ice cream or the ungodly amount of flavours humans could dream up for it, but he was thrilled Bachira had finally picked something, so he said, "Sure."

They crossed the street and went inside. Bachira wasted no time widening his eyes in awe, like he just couldn't soak up enough of the sight. On three of the four aggressively pink walls, there were rows of glass cases with buckets and labels. There was an entire cart of toppings from sauces to candy pieces to fruit. Rin had been grateful for the choice being made, but he regretted agreeing.

"How are we going to decide?" Bachira eventually asked Rin, like this was an incredibly crucial decision. "There's so many options."

"I don't know why they advertise a hundred and one flavors," Rin said, having long made his decision, which hadn't wavered since childhood. "All you need is one."

Bachira gasped. "No. Don't tell me you're a vanilla guy."

If there was a double meaning there, Rin didn't care to investigate.

"Vanilla's the best flavor," Rin said. "It's sweet, it's simple, it doesn't insist upon itself or try too hard. It's perfect."

After some consideration, Bachira turned back to the display cases. "Wow."

"Shut up," Rin said. "I bet you're one of those freakshows that likes cotton candy."

Bachira turned back and shot him a look. "Rin-chan, everyone likes cotton candy."

Rin didn't want to believe him, so he crossed his arms and kept on convincing himself of his own rightness as Bachira ditched him to keep moving around the shop to peer into the glass like the rest of the children who were in the shop with them. Rin didn't really care much of what anyone thought about him, but for some reason, Bachira's mocking stuck in his head. Enough, apparently, than when his companion decided he was ready, he decided to disprove his point by ordering his second tier choice of chocolate.

"Really living life on the wild side, huh, Rin-chan?" Bachira asked.

"Shut up and order," Rin told him.

"Um, can I get a scoop of tiger stripes, and then a scoop of mint chocolate chip on top?" Bachira asked, before adding, "Please. Thank you."

"Oh my god," Rin said, utterly horrified.

"In what kind of cones?" she asked them.

"I'd like a bowl." Rin said like it should have been obvious. "And a spoon."

"Oh my god," Bachira said, matching Rin's horror. "Can I have one of the dipped cones with the butter toffee stuck to it?"

"Toppings?" she asked.

"No," Rin said.

"You're not even going to get sprinkles?" Bachira asked, as if he was very concerned about what a lack of sprinkles would do to Rin.

"No, I'm not going to get sprinkles," Rin snapped back at him. "I'm not five."

"I'll get extra sprinkles," Bachira decided. Rin was becoming more horrified with every step in this process. "And could you just put one strawberry on top? Thank you so much."

The woman nodded and walked away to oblige these requests.

"I'm not paying for that monstrosity," Rin told Bachira.

He just grinned up at him. "I didn't expect you to."

"Shut up," Rin told him. "Obviously, I'm kidding. But know it pains me to do so."

Rin was no less disturbed by the time they got back outside. If anything, he was more so, because he had to watch Bachira fight the constant dripping of his multicoloured monstrosity by taking long licks of it and turning it every which way. Rin hadn't even been kidding. It was physically painful to watch. Especially after a single block of walking when Bachira had somehow gotten a green smear on his cheek and seemed to have no idea at all.

"Oh my god," Rin said again, taking one of his napkins and wiping it off for him. "You're a monster."

"I told you that," Bachira said.

Rin sighed. Fair point. "You're worse than the five year olds."

Bachira didn't seem to mind though. He just kept on walking and smiling. "You know I'm older than you, right?"

Rin didn't respond. Of course he knew. Everyone was so keen to remind him how young he was in almost every circle he'd ever stepped into.

"Not that you'd know it," Bachira said, laughing. "I'd like a bowl. How long have you been mentally sixty?"

"I don't like when my hands get all sticky," Rin said.

"But it's part of the fun," Bachira insisted.

"You and I have very different ideas of fun."

"Oh yeah?" Rin could hear the mock before he'd even said anything else. "What's your idea of fun, Rin-chan?"

Football. Scoring goals. Winning. Crushing Itoshi Sae. Making Itoshi Sae miserable in any context. When Rin couldn't land on any answer that wouldn't get him more mockery, he just said, "Shut up and eat your ice cream."

"Let's find somewhere to sit," Bachira said, licking another quickly descending drip before it fell down the cone. "It's hard to walk and eat at the same time."

They found themselves a wide, quiet staircase sandwiched between two buildings and took a seat. It was slow going enough that nobody bothered them to move, but there was still plenty to see. Rin abandoned his ice cream cup at his side and let it slowly melt into gross, brown soup. Chocolate. What was I thinking? Bachira on the other hand was still having a great time, but he'd since abandoned the licking and had started taking full bites of ice cream. It never failed to make Rin cringe.

"So," Rin said after a while. "What's paint mode?"

"Huh?"

"You said your mom was in paint mode," Rin said. "What is that?"

"Oh," Bachira said. "She's a painter."

"Oh," Rin said, wondering if that was all the explanation he was going to get.

But Bachira was just pausing to take another bite of tiger stripes and butter toffee cone. "And when she's working on something she's really into, she goes into something I call paint mode. She gets, well, I don't really know how to explain it, but it's really intense. She has a studio, but I just like to leave her to it."

"What?" Rin said, not really sure he understood. "She's mean to you when she gets like this?"

"What? No!" Bachira turned to Rin, eyes displaying shock that put anything Rin had felt towards ice cream choices to shame. "No, not at all. Never. No. I just know she's in the middle of doing something she really loves and I don't want to distract her from it."

"What's your dad do when she's like that?" Rin asked.

"I don't have one of those," Bachira answered, just as casually as if Rin had asked him if he had a certain game console, or a trampoline in his backyard.

It struck something in Rin he couldn't quite identify and didn't care to. "So, why'd you call me?"

"Because you're my boyfriend, silly!" Bachira said, laughing.

Rin looked over his shoulder and down both sides of the street. When he saw nobody he knew, he felt confident enough to ask again. "Seriously, though. Don't you have other friends?"

Bachira paused. The moment was suddenly a lot heavier than Rin had intended to make it.

"Yeah," he eventually said, but it only added to the weight of it. "But all the friends I have are from Blue Lock. I didn't have any before."

Rin wasn't necessarily surprised, but he found it saddened him anyways.

"And Isagi was my first friend, so all the friends I have are our friends, and they're better friends with him than they are with me," Bachira continued. "Except you."

It's not like Rin had any friends of his own to speak of, so he could hardly judge, but he didn't really know what to say to that.

"So, I guess what I'm saying is." Bachira turned to him then, giving him this horribly painful fake grin, complete with laughter than was the saddest sound anyone could ever hear. "You're all I've got, babe!"

Rin sighed and held an arm out in Bachira's direction. "Come here."

"No, I'm fine," Bachira said, shaking his head. "Really. I was just kidding."

"No, you weren't," Rin said, still holding his arm out. "Come here."

Bachira didn't fight him any further. He just shuffled himself and the last remaining bit of his cone over to Rin, leaned his head onto him, and let him put his arm around him.

"The worst part about this whole thing is not only am I alone again," Bachira said, his voice so suddenly small. "But I'm alone after I actually know what it's like to have someone."

"You're not alone," Rin found himself saying. "You have me, don't you?"

"Yeah," Bachira said, but Rin could tell he didn't actually believe it. "But how long is this really going to last?"

Rin did in fact hear the phrase as long as you need me pass through his mind, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. He couldn't bring himself to say anything. Everything he thought of made him feel either stupid, or like he was going too far, or both. So he just tightened his grip on Bachira's shoulders and hoped that conveyed the message well enough.

A few silent moments passed between them before Bachira lifted his head and pulled away. "I should probably finish this monstrosity."

"Or you could respect yourself and throw it away," Rin said. It was kind of a joke, but he mostly meant it.

"Nah," Bachira said, shoving the rest of the ice cream dripping cone into his mouth. Rin grimaced. It was an automatic reaction, but he stood by it and therefore committed to it. "Oh, come on. At least try it."

"Try it?" Rin asked. "You just finished it."

Bachira didn't answer. He just opened his mouth ever so slightly and leaned into Rin. Rin thought he was going to make some insane joke and part of the bit was leaning in to whisper it, but when he realized what Bachira was actually doing, he shoved him off. So hard he went toppling down onto the stair below them in a fit of laughter.

"What the hell?" Rin yelled at him.

Bachira just kept laughing. "It was worth a shot."

"Stop it!" Rin said, panic starting to flush through him. "Why the hell do you keep trying to kiss me anyways?"

"I'm curious," Bachira answered unapologetically. "I want to see what it's like."

"Well, keep wondering," Rin snapped. Bachira was looking at Rin with a look he didn't quite understand, but it made him want to explain himself regardless. "That's a terrible reason to kiss someone."

"Huh?" Bachira tilted his head to the side. "What's a better reason? Wait. Rin-chan, don't tell me you're a secret romantic and you're waiting for the one?"

"Do I look like a Disney princess to you?" Rin spat at him. It was the truth. It wasn't anything that stupid. "No. But when I kiss someone, it'll be for a better reason than my fake boyfriend being curious about what it's like."

"Hmm." Bachira thought that over. "Alright. I'll try again later."