Chapter Text
Rin sometimes wondered if the universe had it out for him.
After Blue Lock, Bachira had somehow managed to get Rin to exchange phone numbers with him. Mostly he sent Rin random photos, updates about his day, and links to things he thought Rin would like. Initially, Rin had simply read the messages without replying. Eventually, though, he started sending the occasional reply or a picture of the sun setting during his evening run. He’d even found himself taking Bachira up on one of his many offers to get lunch together, which had ended up becoming something they did once or twice a month. Rin supposed that he and Bachira were technically friends, though the idea of admitting so out loud made his stomach turn.
They went to a different place every time and Rin thought that the cafe Bachira had picked for today was one of the better ones they’d gone to. The food and coffee were good, and it wasn’t busy. He appreciated that Bachira always made sure to pick smaller, quieter cafes. Rin would even have said that he was having a good time up until Bachira decided to open his mouth and suggest what was probably his stupidest idea yet:
“Rin let’s date!”
“What the fuck?”
“Not for real, obviously .” Bachira rolled his eyes like Rin should’ve known that. “For the press!”
“I’m not entering a PR relationship with you.”
“Why not?”
Rin wondered if the barista had slipped some kind of drug into Bachira’s coffee. “Because it’s stupid? And I have no reason to?”
“But aren’t you tired of the reporters asking about your love life? Those people are fucking relentless. It’s like they’re expecting me to reveal that I’ve secretly been engaged this whole time or something.”
Rin had to agree. He thought it was stupid that reporters asked about their personal lives instead of exclusively talking about their soccer careers. He ignored them every time they tried to broach any topic that wasn’t soccer related, but it didn’t seem to deter them much. That didn’t mean he was on board with Bachira’s idea. “Wouldn’t they still ask questions though? Except it would be about us and not just general “Are you seeing anyone?” questions.”
Bachira shrugged. “We could just say we want to keep it private.”
“No. Plus isn’t the goal of a PR relationship to get more press coverage? What you’re suggesting is more like the opposite of that.”
“Yeah! It’d be more like an anti-press relationship!” Bachira nodded enthusiastically.
“My answer’s still no.”
“Aww come on, it’ll be fun!” Bachira waved his spoon around.
“I highly doubt that.”
“What if I pay you?”
Rin just stared him down.
“Pleaseeeeeeeee,” Bachira pouted.
“How long would we need to keep the act up for, anyway?”
“Uhhh I dunno, probably a few months? A year?”
“A YEAR?!” Rin had to resist the urge to tip his coffee onto Bachira’s head to try and get some sense back into him.
“And then after our “breakup,” we would probably get a few extra months of peace to "grieve the relationship" or whatever.”
“Your plan is dumb.” Rin glared at Bachira, who didn’t even bat an eye.
“Oh come on, what’s the worst that could happen? We don’t even have to do anything other than like hold hands in public a few times and be spotted getting dinner every now and then. Maybe the occasional kiss.”
That sounded like doing quite a lot if you asked Rin. “If you want to do this so bad, why don’t you go ask Isagi or something instead?”
“Isagi is a terrible actor.”
Bachira wasn’t wrong. “You know plenty of other people.”
“Yeah but I want to do it with you, you’re the one they’d find the most believable out of the non-Isagi options.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Pleaseeeee. Pretty please! I’ll do literally whatever you want.”
“I want you to leave me alone.”
“Boooo.” Bachira pointed his spoon at Rin. “Will you at least properly think about it? Please?”
Rin didn’t say anything in response and Bachira seemed content to leave the topic alone for the remainder of their outing.
Rin forgot all about it until he checked his phone later that evening and saw that his brother’s boyfriend had posted a picture of the two of them. Rin wrinkled his nose in disgust at the image. One time, he had asked Sae why he was dating Shidou, of all people, and Sae had responded that Rin was in no place to judge Sae’s choice of partner when he didn’t even have one of his own and that he doubted that anyone would ever be willing to put up with Rin long enough to go on a date with him.
Rin scowled at the memory and thought about what Bachira had proposed. Rin contemplated his options. On the one hand, Bachira’s plan was incredibly dumb and would humiliate both of them if they were found out. On the other hand, he wanted to see Sae’s face when Rin proved him wrong. Even though it would be fake, Sae would have no way of knowing that.
Would agreeing to fake-date someone just to spite his brother be stupid? Undoubtedly. But still…
He picked up his phone and called Bachira, who answered almost immediately. Rin started talking the second he picked up. “Fine.”
“Fine? Fine…. what?”
Rin sighed heavily, he’d probably regret this. “I’ll do it. Your stupid fake-dating plan.”
Rin heard what sounded like someone falling off a bed followed by a slightly dazed-sounding: “REALLY?!”
“Yes. There will be rules though.”
“Of course, of course. Wait, let me write them down.” There was rummaging on Bachira’s end as he presumably hunted for a pen and something to write on. "Ok, ready."
“First: I’m not kissing you.”
“That’s fine, I ’ll just kiss you .”
Rin scowled. “That’s not happening either.”
“Not even on the cheek?” Bachira whined. “We’ll need at least one cheek kiss for the publicity, won’t we?”
“Fine. No mouth kissing. I suppose we’ll have to do PDA but not too much and if I say it’s too much you have to stop.”
Bachira made a noise in agreement. “We’ll need to agree on the story of how we “got together” and we have to memorise it so we don’t get caught.”
“Why can’t we just say that we mutually agreed to start dating one day?”
“Because that’s boring? No one with more than half a brain cell is gonna buy that.”
“You’re overestimating how smart people are.”
Rin could practically see Bachira sticking his tongue out at him. “We still need a proper story.”
“Fine.”
“Hmmm…” Bachira was silent for a few seconds. “Oh-oh! We could say that we’ve been harbouring feelings for each other since Blue Lock, but because it was such a highly intensive and competitive environment we weren’t able to properly understand our feelings until we got out of there and started casually hanging out! Then we realised that we're madly in love and BOOM! We started dating! That’s pretty believable, right?”
Rin nodded before remembering that Bachira couldn’t see him. “I guess so. How long do we say we’ve been dating?”
“Hmm… like four months?”
“Fine with me. No one can know that it’s fake, so keep your mouth shut.”
“Well duh!” Bachira hummed quietly to himself. “What else? Oh, obviously we’re not allowed to fall in love for real.”
“Why does that need to be a rule? That would not happen.”
“You never know. You might fall head-over-heels in love with me because you were seduced by my beauty and undeniable charm.”
“Gross.”
“You’re no fun. Actually, that could work in our favour. People love an opposites-attract couple.”
Rin was reminded of how the media had reacted when Shidou accidentally posted a picture of him and Sae kissing. People had been saying stuff like “an unlikely pairing, but they’re actually so good together” and all kinds of nonsense along those lines. Sae had been pissed, which Rin had revelled in, but his glee had quickly worn away as reporters started asking him how he felt about the fact that his brother was gay and had a boyfriend. Rin thought it was stupid that they were so concerned about his thoughts on the matter. He couldn’t give two shits about Sae’s sexuality; his issue was the fact that his boyfriend was a nightmare to be around.
“How do we even start?” He asked.
“Well,” Bachira said, “Obviously we go on a date. Next week? Wednesday?”
“You pick the place and send me the details,” Rin replied. “I’ll choose next time.”
“Next time? Very presumptuous of you to assume you’re getting a second date,” Bachira teased.
“Ha-ha,” Rin said flatly. “I’m going now.”
Bachira laughed at his abruptness. “Talk to you later, baby!” He said before hanging up.
Rin gagged. They were going to have to have a discussion about pet names.