Chapter Text
Rin had settled onto the couch as Shidou hovered around Sae who was making breakfast. Since no one was bothering him, Rin took the rare moment of peace to go on his phone and check out what horror movies were coming out soon. To his pleasant surprise, the trailer for a movie he had been anticipating the release of was available to watch on Youtube. Rin wasted no time opening the video and watching with the volume of his earbuds turned up high.
Rin had always found gore and violence intriguing, especially when human life was held in the balance. Maybe it had something to do with how he was as a child, with little to no regard for his own safety. In fact, while his parents and Sae chalked Rin’s dangerous behavior up to him just being reckless, the truck was that he was addicted to the adrenaline rush he felt when teetering on the edge of death.
Rin enjoyed toying on the line between life and death, but as he got older, he learned that his impulses and desires were not shared by his peers. Eventually, he tried to suppress them altogether; lock the unhinged part of himself away before anyone else could see how insane he really was.
The only problem was that soccer always managed to bring that side of him out all too easily. It’s part of the reason why he never got along with his teammates as a child, and the situation only got worse when Sae left for Spain. Ever since then, Rin had learned to expect little to no cordiality from the other kids.
Though he can’t deny that Bluelock was different.
There, it seemed as though just about every participant was a little bit crazy. I mean, sure, they didn’t idolize dying on the pitch in a bloody showdown, but they had weird quirks of their own!
Maybe that’s why Rin felt so comfortable on PxG– he didn’t have to go through the tiring ordeal of acting normal every hour of every day. Instead, he was free to be as sick and twisted as he wanted to be without fear of judgement- though that may not be the case in regards to a certain pink-eyed boy.
…
With the loud background music and screams of terror in the trailer video, Rin failed to see Shidou trying to sneak up on him. All of a sudden, Rin felt two hands dig into his shoulders. While unfazed (likely due to dealing with jumpscares in horror games all the time), Rin was still extremely irritated. As soon as he glanced to the side and saw the neon pink fingernails, he knew the hands belonged to Shidou.
Quickly yanking out his wired earbuds and turning around, Rin opened his mouth to yell at Shidou when all of a sudden he stopped himself. The older boy had gone extremely pale, his eyebrows raised on his forehead and his eyes wide with fear. Noticing that Rin was now looking at him, Shidou moved his attention from the gory video on Rin’s phone to Rin himself.
“What the fuck are you watching!? Give a guy a warning would you?”
“Give a warning? You’re the one who decided to try and creep up on me!”
“So?”
“What do you mean ‘so’?”
“You still should have warned me?”
“How the actual fuck was I supposed to warn you? Stop asking me lukewarm questions, you're seriously ticking me off.”
“I just wanted to see what you were up to~ There’s nothing wrong with that!”
“Be so fucking for real Shidou. I bet you were looking to see if I was watching something embarrassing.”
At this point Rin was extremely irritated. The ambiance of suspense he had previously been submerged in while watching the trailer was now shattered.
“Something embarrassing? Rinrin, what could you possibly be talking about? Were you watching something naughty~”
“Ugh gross! Get the fuck away from me you perv!”
“Oi, stop harrassin’ him, Shidou. Its too fuckin’ early fer ya to be botherin’ him.”
Rin and Shidou both snapped their heads to the staircase where Karasu was currently walking down while harboring an unimpressed expression on his face. His usually gelled-up hair was instead down, cascading in soft layers of dark purple around his face, framing his striking features and making him look more domestic and, in Rin’s humble opinion:
Ahhhh he’s so hot-
“Well well well~ I wonder why crow-chan is here at the Itoshi’s house? Could he be here on request of a certain drooling puppy?”
Drooling puppy? Who the fuck is he calling a drooling pupp-
oh.
Shidou howled with laughter as Rin lunged for him after quickly swiping the drool that had escaped his lips. The feral grin on the older boy’s face only irritated Rin more, resulting in Shidou’s forearm being bitten.
“Ouch! What the fuck Rin!? Did you just bite me?”
“You’re the one that called me a dog,” Rin responded flatly, though he was grinning ear to ear on the inside after landing such a bruising bite on the other boy.
“First of all, I called you a drooling puppy, not a dog. There’s a difference-”
“Like hell there is! You’re so fucking-”
“I thought I told the two of ya to stop fightin’,” Karasu’s calm yet already weary voice chimed in. While the other boys were bickering, Karasu had made his way over to the couch, where he promptly hoisted Rin off of Shidou by his underarms, and held him tightly so as to limit his wiggling around.
“Let go of me!”
“Nah, I like keepin’ ya close.”
Rin’s face went red as he watched Shidou snicker at Karasu’s words and the way Rin went limp in his hold. Despite wanting nothing more than to yank Shidou’s teeth out of his mouth with a blunt pair of pliers, Rin relented and instead chose to focus on the strong arms holding him. Slowly, the fight drained from his body, and Rin even let his head rest against the firm chest behind him.
“Ugh, cut it out lovebirds,” Shidou grimaced with his nose scrunched up in disgust. Rin simply rolled his eyes, while Karasu narrowed his own eyes irritation.
“I know ya aren’t talkin’ Shidou. You of all people can’t yell at others for PDA with the kinda shit ya pull on a daily basis. Ya don’t hear us complainin’ when ya go on rants ‘bout yer dearest “Sae-chan” in vivid detail.”
“What!? You guys do complain though! That’s why I’m complaining now-”
“Ugh shut up antennae freak. Just listen to what Tabito says,” Rin cut off Shidou’s rambling with an exasperated sigh. Rin had long since closed his eyes while letting himself be slowly rocked by the other boy behind him.
“Tabito? Since when were you guys on a first name basis~”
“None of your damn business.”
“Why are you so grumpy so early in the morning? I don’t know how crow-chan puts up with you-”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Andddd that’s enough of that!
Karasu swiftly lifted Rin up from under his arms and carried him off to sit on the armchair in the corner of the living room. After sitting him down, he rolled each of his shoulders before scooching Rin over to shove himself into the leather chair next.
“Ugh, why would you have us sit here if you wanted us to sit together? There’s barely enough space for us,” Rin whined, growing increasingly irritated this exhausting morning. To Sae or Shidou, it might look like Rin was just pouting, but Karasu knows that he’s actually just becoming increasingly present in the moment; becoming a bit…too aware.
If Rin stays drowsy or unalert, then there won’t be any issues. No destroyer subspace, no violent threats, and no homicidal or suicidal ideation. And yes, Karasu has to deal with Rin daydreaming about killing others and himself.
The other thing Karasu has noticed is that Rin isn’t actually the cold emotionless soccer star the rest of Bluelock believes him to be. The reality is that at his most conscious state, Rin is extremely unstable and emotional. It’s hard to console him during spirals, and anything could set him off. But, Rin rarely unleashes that side of himself off the field- Rin’s too self aware to be letting others see him vulnerable like that. So, the truth is that Bluelock sees a restrained version of Rin; he’s normally dull in the sense that he doesn’t want to feel anything because it’s too much.
Now? With Sae here? The other side of Rin rears its ugly head more often than Karasu would like.
Then add Shidou and his provocations into the mix and you’ve got yourself a fucking disaster.
So then the question stands: what can Karasu do to fix this situation?
Not fuckin’ much, that’s fer sure.
Karasu knows that eventually Rin will have to work through his deep-rooted issues, preferably with a professional therapist as Karasu has been bullshitting his way through comforting Rin during breakdowns. But in the meantime, Karasu has no problem holding shit down until Rin is at a point in his life where he wants to address his issues.
“Oi! If your gonna sit on top of me and fucking fall asleep then move to a bed you jackass,” Rin sneered, brows scrunched up in irritation. His arms were vibrating from the effort he was expending to push the other boy off of him, but it was to no avail. Karasu was dropped on Rin like dead weight, and while their builds were very similar, Rin focused on leg training a lot more than he focused on his arms, and since Karasu was leaning against his whole upper body, Rin was essentially powerless.
“Nah, I think I’ll take ma’ nap right here. Whadya think Shidou?”
Shidou snorted at the argument, flashing the couple a toothy grins and a thumbs up to show his approval. Unfortunately for everyone in the room though, the fun police had officially arrived.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Sae stood at the entryway of the living room with one hand on his hip. He quickly surveyed the three boys in his home and his face showed that he was not impressed with a single one of them.
“Oh helloooooo dearest sae-chan~”
“Shut up devil.”
Karasu rolled his eyes at the exaggerated flirting while Rin made vomiting noises from underneath him. Having to deal with Shidou talking about his brother in Bluelock was already hell, but having to watch the two of them flirt right in front of him?
I’m gonna fucking hang myself in the living room.
Empowered by sheer disgust and disdain, Rin managed to successfully push Karasu off him, and onto the floor, before stomping his way past Sae and into the kitchen.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Sae called out for his little brother over his shoulder, snatching his attention away from the blond boy drooling over him.
Karasu snickered as he watched Rin flip Sae off from behind his back, though he quickly stopped when he saw Sae’s glare flick to him instead.
Ahhh fuckin’ shit.
“Since Rin did the honors and excused himself, perhaps this is the best time to have a little chat. You wouldn’t mind coming out with me to fetch the mail would you?” Sae’s voice carried a dangerous tone, one that made Karasu scramble to his feet and nod his head before he even realized he had stood up.
“Well if you’re going with senior lashes then I guess I have to go find out what mini-toshi is up to~ have fun you two!”
And with that Shidou was gone.
Ma…Pa…nee-chan…don’t forget me once I’m gone…