Surprise Visit @ PXG

"Hi, Paris X Gen!" Rin heard from the door. "How are Blue Lock's innovative up and comers?"

It had been a few weeks since he'd heard that voice, but he'd never forgotten it, and he would have known it anywhere.

He and Bachira had come to an agreement. Rin had been hesitant to bring it up, but it was Bachira who'd said to him, out of the blue, before any information about the new Blue Lock had even been revealed, "Don't think I'm going to let my feelings for you stop me from becoming the best."

It was a distinctly dark tone. A serious one. If Rin hadn't been taken so off guard, he might have laughed.

"You can try to pry the top spot from my cold, dead hands," he told him. And that was that.

When it came to team selections, Rin had had this moment of pause. Of course he'd thought about it. He was dedicated to his goals and hell bent on being objective, but he was only human, after all. Just as capable of emotion as anyone else. Contrary to popular belief. He knew the second they announced the teams and their spiels where Bachira would go, and he had the briefest fleeting thought of it could be fun to play together.

But it wasn't what he wanted. Rin liked the idea of a fresh slate team where he could shine. He never regretted his choice. He never even second guessed it. Especially after their master striker was revealed to be Julian Loki from the five, one year older than him, Bachira's age, and it was someone he wanted to learn from in an environment where he could thrive. Not even having Shidou Ryusei on the same team ruined it for him.

Which wasn't saying much. It took exactly one reminder that Sae had effectively given him his number and immediately blocked him to shut him up.

The one downside was that it was intense and busy, as he knew it would be, so his contact with Bachira had gone from hours of face to face day after day to a few texts here and there, between games and practices and training and meals and yoga and meditation and sleeping off the constant exhaustion.

But then, here he was. Standing in the doorway of the PXG team common space, waving and looking right at him.

Rin felt the corners of his mouth rise at either side. Slightly. Another thing that had happened for the first time in weeks. And he didn't even try to fight it.

Bachira took no more than a single step into the room before he was swarmed. Rin flinched, wondering what the hell everyone might want with him. He hadn't thought to go exploring through the other teams' areas, but he didn't know if there were any explicit rules against it.

It turned out, he had nothing to worry about. Something he had forgotten about Bachira was that he knew everyone and got along irritatingly well with most people he met.

"Yo, bee boy!"

"Salutations, Bachira!"

"Lavinho better not have sent you over here to gather any intel," Loki joked with him even, despite never having met him before.

"He didn't," Bachira said, putting a hand on his chest like he was swearing. "But he did tell me to tell you that we don't need the intel because we're not worried if I was accused."

Loki just shook his head and laughed. "You can tell him I said we'll see."

"But no, really," Bachira insisted. "I'm just here to-"

"Come hang, dude," someone said, pulling him further into the room. "We never get to see any new people and we're getting sick of each other."

It was then that Rin begrudgingly lifted from the spot he'd come to occupy most of the time they spent in this room and, for the first time since they'd arrived, made his way over to join the group.

By the time he got there, Bachira was already flanked and surrounded, so he took a spot more or less across from him. He didn't really mind. They weren't the kind of couple that needed to be all over each other constantly. In front of other people. Who were they, Sae and Isagi? He was fine where he was. At least then they could look at each other.

They asked him about Spain. He gave them all the details Rin had slowly been fed over the past few weeks, so Rin didn't feel any need to ask questions or even seem all that interested. Everyone was socially depraved, it seemed, because Bachira could hardly get five words out to answer any one question before the next one was coming.

It went on like this a while.

"So, are you just doing the rounds or what?" someone asked him, and then finally, there was a pause in the conversation where he was finally being allowed to answer.

"No," Bachira said with a smile. He wasn't looking at the person who'd asked. His gaze was fixed forward. "I came to see Rin-chan."

And it was a good moment, a full moment, one covered in sunshine, until of course, someone asked, "Him? Why?"

Bachira's face fell in slow motion.

Rin had, in fact, not told any of his teammates that he and Bachira had started dating over the break. His reasoning for such had been because it wasn't soccer relevant and also none of their fucking business. It's not like they were friends. They were teammates. Personal matters weren't relevant. Not to him anyways. It had been sound reasoning.

But he hadn't expected him to show up for a surprise visit. He might of said something, not because he owed them anything, but simply to avoid this moment, because he understood that Bachira was putting so much effort into hiding his hurt because he thought Rin hadn't mentioned it because he was ashamed of him.

"Because we're dating," Rin said plainly.

It felt like every single head in the group whipped around to face him simultaneously.

"That's hilarious, underlashes," Shidou said before turning back to Bachira. "But seriously. If you're coming to settle our beef from the second selection, you can just say that."

He wasn't the only one carrying some heavy doubt. And Rin didn't have the need to prove anything to any of them. He did, however, have a need to prove to one individual that he was not and had never been ashamed of him.

"Seriously," Rin copied. "He's my boyfriend, you insect freak."

"But we can throw hands if you want to," Bachira added quickly. "I'm not scared."

He was ever less ashamed of him in that moment.

"Well, then it's just kind of weird," the bird looking one said. "That we all just sat here and neither of you said anything."

Rin didn't bother mentioning about how the lot of them had barely let Bachira get a word in to say anything. It was, admittedly, a decent point.

"Come on," Rin said, cutting in, ignoring absolutely everyone who was irrelevant. Which was all but one. "Let's take a walk."

The suddenly off putting thing about the new Blue Lock was the cameras everywhere. Rin had always known it. They all did. He also knew most people only tuned in for the games and sometimes for practices, but he also knew full well that this place was in part being funded by fans and foes alike who subscribed to watch Japan's newest soccer elite anywhere and everywhere while they were in the establishment.

He would of, if he'd been outside instead of inside.

Mostly, this was irrelevant to him. He liked the idea of showing off to a wider audience on his way to reach his goals. They all did. It was one of the main points of the damned place. He didn't much like the idea of handing over his private post training routine to a bunch of irrelevant nobodies, but he settled this with the thought that it didn't matter what anyone else saw. If they copied him, so be it. He would be better than they were regardless.

Right now, though, for the first time, he really loathed it.

Bachira seemed to understand. They went into the France training gym. It was after hours and designated down time, so it was abandoned. Regardless of their mockery, everyone on the team knew better to follow them. Rin kicked a loose ball onto the field. Bachira seemed to understand this too.

There were cameras, sure. And there was general audio, yeah. But they didn't wear personal mics, so it's not like they could hear what they were saying to each other at a distance of a few feet.

They scrimmaged with each other masterfully enough to make it look effortful, but lazily enough so they could talk to each other. They hadn't even had to practice. It had taken two weeks of spending time together to find themselves on the same wavelength.

Or, maybe it had taken longer than that.

"How are you?" Rin asked him, in a very strategic moment of passing by him close enough.

"Oh, I'm excellent," Bachira said, extending a foot to steal the ball. Begrudgingly, Rin let him. "I'm the heart of Spain's team, in case you didn't know."

"I think you mentioned that," Rin said. "Good for you."

What he did not say was: Sae wishes. If Isagi and Bachira and devil incarnate himself Itoshi Sae were trying, he could too.

"How are you?" Bachira asked back.

But before Rin could answer, he jutted off with the ball. From a soccer perspective, Rin was pissed, and he coped with it by running after him and intercepting, something easily enough done with how much longer his legs were. From a question perspective, he was grateful, because it had given him some time to think about it.

"I'm good," Rin said.

It was more or less the truth. This team was fine. No more or less annoying than any other he'd been stuck on. Both the master striker and his teammates recognized and utilizes his talents. But it felt such a lukewarm answer, and he struggled with what else to say.

Bachira smiled at him. He took him off guard for a half second. In the next, he leaned in towards him, and Rin watched his feet, not about to allow him to get away with the same trick twice, despite the fact that this game was all for show, but they didn't move the way he thought they would.

He should have been watching his face. Because suddenly, it was very close, and Bachira said, "I miss you."

It was soft, just barely above a whisper, but it was close, and that's what he'd focused on. In that split second, it immediately flooded him with to all these moments of closeness they'd shared, being on the couch that first day, the nap in Rin's bed, all the beds they'd shared really, including all the rolling around in Bachira's the last few days before they'd come back here, and it brought with it the sudden realization that Rin missed him too. Very much.

He'd done very well at compartmentalizing his feelings since returning here. It wasn't as easy to do when it wasn't out of sight, out of mind.

"I," Rin started. Bachira didn't let him finish. His grin turned mischievous.

And then he stole the ball. This time, Rin hadn't even had to let him.

It was hitting the back of the net with an aggravating smack before Rin had even processed what had happened.

And by the time he had gotten over that, Bachira was looking up at the closest camera, winking at it and flashing his stupid fucking hang loose hand signs.

"Nice," Bachira said, giving himself a nod before looking back at Rin. Grinning. "I hope that goes viral."

"What the fuck was that about?" Rin hissed, getting close enough to do so. He very narrowly resisted the urge to grab the front of his shirt. "You'd better not pull any of that shit during the real game."

"You'd better get your head out of the clouds, Rin-chan," Bachira said, laughing. "I thought we'd agreed not to mix business with pleasure."

Now Rin was the one who was a bit hurt. Not that he really realized it beyond his much more frequented feeling of anger. "Is that seriously what you came here for?"

"It's not really my ideal way to spend time with you," Bachira admitted. He was still smiling, but it was different. It told Rin immediately what he meant. "But."

Those botanical garden flower coloured eyes flicked up towards the closest camera. Rin understood and tried not to sigh. Of course they'd agreed not to mix business and pleasure. You couldn't. It was a fucking god awful line to have to walk.

"I do miss you, though." Bachira said.

"Yeah," Rin agreed.

And he left the sentence open ended as if he'd meant to continue, but instead, he swiped a leg out and grabbed the ball that had stilled in their pause.

Two could play at that game.