Chapter Text
Blue Lock wasn’t somewhere people went to play around. If you were still here, after countless eliminations, it was because of your skills and your resolve – your ego, as the organizers put it.
However, as much as they were bombarded with speeches about the importance of individuality and proving your own ego, Isagi had noticed how certain pairs would stick around even off the field, and not precisely for discussing tactics or being friendly – he didn’t need his Metavision to see how Nagi clung to Reo daily before their separation, or how Chigiri kept looking out for Kunigami even though they were in different teams in the current league.
… And of course, he’d also be dumb to not notice the way Bachira kept clinging to him despite being in different teams that oddly resembled those two circumstances.
“Isagi!” Bachira yelled, draping himself all over Isagi’s back like a monkey, startling Isagi as he didn’t see him coming.
“Bachira!” he yelled back, still surprised but with a certain fondness in his voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Isagi keeps replaying our matches in that room, right?” he pointed at the door Isagi had come out from. “So I thought I could surprise him!”
“And you sure did…”
They chatted a little while they walked down the hallway, but frankly, Isagi had no idea where they were supposed to be going – he was initially going to return to his room and go to sleep for the night, but with Bachira on his back, perhaps he should drop him off at Barcha’s stratum first.
That should have been the most logical option, and yet, Isagi couldn’t bring himself to go through it completely. He’d made fun of Nagi before for constantly clinging to Reo, but now, he sort of understood where he’d been coming from. Bachira’s presence was warm and comforting, and thankfully for him, Bachira must have thought the same, sort of, judging by all in those moments in which he gave Isagi a hug after scoring, draped his shoulder around him when walking around or held his hand when Isagi complained about the cold one night. And Isagi hadn’t let go of him a single time.
So he settled for his second option: asking Bachira what he’d like him to do.
“Hey, Bachira.” He called, stopping momentarily. No response. “Bachira?”
A snore broke through the silence. Bachira had fallen asleep on him.
Suddenly, Isagi panicked. Well, not panicked , but he would have to come up with an excuse as to why Bachira had snuck out of his stratum (when they weren’t exactly allowed to do that). Another idea crossed his mind, though he didn’t know if it could be practical.
What if he brought Bachira to his room instead?
It wasn’t just his room, of course – Hiori, Kurona and Yukimiya also slept there, but he figured they wouldn’t mind. In fact, they probably wouldn’t be surprised, taking into account the looks the three of them had given to Isagi whenever he expressed how he missed the other boy. He hoped they didn’t tell Bachira that, however.
With those thoughts in mind, he came back to his room. It was empty, which meant his roommates were out training or still having dinner, and that thankfully he’d been able to save himself some embarrassment.
He placed Bachira, still asleep, as gently as possible on his bed. His friend seemed reluctant to let go of him even in his sleep, though, and Isagi had no way of how he was pulling this off without waking him up. Once he was finally on the mattress, Isagi sat down next to him on the edge of the bed, sighing in relief.
That relief didn’t last long, though, as Bachira immediately took hold of his waist and pulled Isagi closer to him, making Isagi lose his balance and lay in bed instead of sitting. All of that, still asleep.
Isagi was embarrassed – really embarrassed, actually – and yet, he couldn’t help but still give in to Bachira’s touch, and hugged him back. They were pretty much the same height, but Bachira seemed much smaller curled up on himself, and Isagi took advantage of that by setting himself just a little higher than him so Bachira’s head could rest on the crook of his neck. They matched perfectly.
Slowly, Isagi could feel himself getting tired and closing his eyes, so he made one last use of his force to wrap them both with the bed’s blanket and quickly gave Bachira a kiss on the forehead (the cameras were still rolling, after all).
He knew he’d get funny looks from his friends the next day, and that if they got found out, they’d likely be penalized and Isagi would have to take the fall. But knowing he might be woken up by Bachira still cuddling him made it not be so bad, in the end.