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The Blue Lock facility featured the most bland, unimaginative training grounds Barou had ever seen. Prior to their first real match, she’d nearly experienced an aneurysm due to how easy it was to spot anything dirty against the white walls of the training grounds. Blue Lock was also kept at freezing temperatures in order to maintain comfort for the players. What Ego didn’t account for was half of the girls losing their minds trying to find a decent heat source in the middle of the night. Barou could feel her tan fading away.
By the time the NEL started, the funding for the project increased dramatically. Like a reward, the quality of the services provided outside of training equipment improved dramatically, from simple toiletry to access to the outside world via technology.
It all came at the cost of their privacy, however.
After her match against Bastard Munchen, Barou got her phone back and was immediately confronted with a barrage of social media notifications and discourse surrounding her choice of haircut . As if it had anything at all to do with her being the unquestionable King of the field. This is when Barou realized that people are useless.
But those useless people were the reflection of public reception and attitude towards anything they saw on television. It’s vain and vapid, a mindset Barou detests, but she recognizes the importance of making sure that the greatest discourse surrounding a public figure is best left vain and vapid.
Oh. And despite all of the cameras, the facility walls are still white .
The fake grass is a vibrant, fake-plastic green. None of it looks clean , only minimal in appearance. The scent of musk and sweat constantly permeate the air and threaten to burn her eyelashes off. Most of the other players have gotten used to this environment, but Barou doesn’t think she ever could. She’s not the kind of player who flourishes in a cage.
Barou only ever bothers with her phone to check her messages from her sisters, so that’s what she does during her short break during training. Now that the NEL is over and the foreign players are gone, the cameras are lingering less on their training for the U-20 world cup.
But they never miss the chance to remind you that they’re still there.
Barou pulls a towel over her shoulders and pointedly avoids looking at the camera near her seat on the bench. Instead, Barou decides to watch the ongoing scrimmage. It’s a simple three-on-three with Chigiri, Bachira and Yukimiya against Hiori, Shidou and Isagi.
The press has been non-stop rattling on about Isagi for the past few weeks. She’s the gem of Blue Lock , or whatever her stupid nickname of the day is, so that means she’s been getting the most press coverage as of late. It’s infuriating .
Taking a swig of water, Barou stares only at Isagi (no point looking at the rest of the donkeys who hardly measure up) as she steals the ball from Bachira to score a goal. Since Barou just finished up in the gym, she’ll probably bully Isagi into another scrimmage once this one winds down, which seems as if it’s happening soon judging by the cheers from the other girls.
Just as she’s imagining the ways in which she can take down Isagi and devour her in a one-on-one, something catches her eye.
She doesn’t even know what she’s seeing until she intentionally looks for it again.
Isagi scores the final goal of the game with a grimace . But that’s not it, is it? No, there’s something else. The white walls make it easier for Barou to trace the outline of Isagi’s body in motion, from her deep inky blue hair to her tanned thighs, and—
There’s a light trickle of murky pink crawling down Isagi’s inner thigh, smearing just above her knee.
“You’ve got to work harder on your control if you want to beat me!” Barou shouts, projecting her voice so Isagi can clearly hear her from the field. “That match was too close for comfort, loser!”
“I totally kicked your ass last time we played!” Isagi shouts back, but there’s no real heat behind it. Still, Isagi must have caught the memo that Barou wanted to talk about her performance with her at least a little bit, because she ditches her teammates to talk amongst themselves to jog over to Barou.
Panting and wiping the sweat off of her forehead, Isagi smiles up at her. “Did you wanna do cool down exercises with me? I was able to get Rin to—“
Barou shoves Isagi in front of her despite her squawking protests and pushes her out the door. Isagi struggles the whole way out, nearly garnering the attention of the other girls on the field. Thankfully, none of them bother doing anything once Barou sends them the deadliest glare she can muster.
“Shut up, donkey, and keep walking. We’re going to one of the gyms.”
“Can’t we just do cooldowns here?” Isagi whines, but still stumbles to the door with Barou hurried shoves. “I’m sick of the gym!”
“They don’t have the right equipment in here, so quit complaining!” Barou admonishes her. Eventually, they make it out of the field and into a no-camera zone as she intended.
“What was that all about?” Isagi asks once Barou lets her go. “This isn’t even the way to the gym on this floor.”
Barou snorts at the offense on Isagi’s voice. “I just saved your ass if you haven’t noticed. Here I thought you were perceptive or whatever.”
“What are you talking about?” Isagi’s incredulity makes Barou roll her eyes.
“You’re on your period, dumbass.”
“What?” Isagi looks down at her legs, and immediately turns red from her forehead down to her neck. Who knew she got embarrassed so easily? “Holy shit. Holy shit, did they film that? Shit!” She reaches her hands up to frantically rub at her eyes which are quickly turning glassy. “I’m, like, two weeks early! What the hell!”
“I’ve got it, don’t stress your head off. Pretty sure nobody noticed but me anyway,” says Barou, but she’s certain her words went in one ear and out the other.
Isagi’s head snaps to attention, eyes wider than Barou’s ever seen them. Before Barou can say anything else, Isagi continues her stressed out ramble.
“Is there a bathroom around here?” She asks. “And— fuck, these are my only shorts — can you grab me a change of clothes? My room key is in my bag, I’m gonna—.”
“I said I’ve got it, so quit losing your mind about this already. You’re not the only girl in the world who’s gotten her period at an inconvenient time. Do you wear pads or tampons?”
“… Pads,” Isagi answers. “And don’t tell anyone, okay?”
Baroi scoffs at Isagi’s insistent tone. Who does she think she is? “There’s a bathroom with a shower just around the corner, I’ll meet you there. Got it?”
Isagi purses her lips, as though she’s contemplating saying something else before another cramp must hit her, so she grabs her stomach and rushes off to deal with her problem. She’ll take that for a yes .
Now it’s up to Barou to discreetly as possible attain everything Isagi needs without catching any attention from any cameras. It’s simple enough.
Barou heads back into the field training room to grab Isagi’s bag. She makes a b-line to the duffle with a Hello Kitty keychain sitting on a bench. It’s (distressingly) surrounded by the bags of the other Blue Lock girls, so Barou tries to grab it quickly.
Just as she slips her arm under the strap, Blue Lock’s very own spoiled prince Chigiri stops her. Sighing, she sends Chigiri the most unimpressed glare she can muster.
“What?” Barou demands.
Chigiri huffs a laugh, then runs a hand through her cropped short hair. “Just wondering where you dragged Isagi off too. I was curious if I could join in too, I think my legs could use the cool down.”
“Work it out on your own,” she says. “I only came back to grab her stuff.”
“Aren’t you a gentleman?” Chigiri smirks. Barou’s lips twitch into a snarl. “Fine, don’t tell me. I can take a hint. Don’t wear her out too bad, ok?”
Barou doesn’t dignify that with a response, hiking the strap of Isagi’s bag up her shoulder. Whatever Chigiri’s implying is going on, she full-heartedly rejects it. Isagi’s her rival, first and foremost.
“Whatever, shitty Prince,” says Barou. When Chigiri starts laughing, Barou speed walks away through the opposite exit towards the dorms. Chigiri is too nosy for her own damn good.
Reaching the hallway, she checks to make sure no cameras are pointed her way before rummaging through Isagi’s bag for her room key. In doing so, she spots Isagi’s phone (light blue case with stupid little hearts around the edges. It’s not practical in the slightest, so of course it’s what Isagi uses), towels, a hairbrush, and a pack of mint gum before she finds her key buried at the very bottom.
Just as she takes it out, a hand lands on her shoulder.
“Stealing from your rivals, hm? Pretty naughty, even for you.”
“ Excuse me?” Of course today had to be the day where nobody could leave her the fuck alone. Turning her head, she’s confronted by mismatching eyes and the dirtiest smile after Lorenzo’s. Aiku.
Aiku raises her hands in a mock surrender. “Easy, Barou. Just here to help.” Her eyes flicker down to the roomkey in Barou’s hands, and doesn’t suppress her snicker. “It’s a bit early to sneak into someone’s room after dark, isn’t it?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Barou snaps. She twists her body out of Aiku’s grasp. “And leave me alone.”
“No shot,” Aiku says. “I’m gonna help you get away with it. Who’s the lucky girl?”
Barou stares at Aiku, contemplating. As annoying as she may be, she might actually be helpful to her. Aiku has (distressing though it may be to admit) a lot of experience with women.
“None of your business,” Barou replies. “I just need to get in and out. Tag along, if you’re that desperate.”
“Aye aye, captain!”
Barou rolls her eyes, and Aiku follows her through the facility to Isagi’s dorm. Of course, it’s all the way on the other side of the damn building. Aiku pesters her with more useless questions that Barou gives non-answers to until they reach Isagi’s dormitory.
Now that they have their own designated rooms, they’ve been permitted to customize them a little bit. Eyeing the walls, Barou can tell Isagi’s taken advantage of that by hanging up a ridiculous Noel Noa poster. Other than that, her room is surprisingly barren and decidedly clean, much like Barou’s own. Aiku whistles when she strides inside, and Barou shoves down the urge to kick her out with brute force. Still, there’s nothing here that really identifies the space as distinctly Isagi’s so she doesn’t bother.
“Grab a spare uniform, and find a snack or something” Barou orders. “Don’t snoop or I’ll kill you. Just wait in the hallway when you're done.”
Aiku raises an eyebrow. “That’s oddly specific. For real, who’s this chick you’re running errands for anyway?”
“I’m not running errands .”
“Sure, sure,” Aiku waves her off. “Whatever you say.”
Barou moves to the bathroom to grab pads and shoves them down into the duffel bag. This would all be infinitely more easy if Isagi wasn’t so self-conscious for whatever reason. Most of the girls here get their periods, including Barou, on a regular basis. It’s not embarrassing unless you make it that way.
So why did Isagi care so much?
Hell, why does Barou care so much?
Barou meets Aiku in the hall, who’s holding the full-body blue lock training uniform along with a pair of shorts and a jersey. She deftly hands them to Barou who folds them as decently as she can before placing them in Isagi’s bag.
“She only had water bottles,” Aiku says. “No snacks. You know if this girl is just on her period you can say it, right?”
“Didn’t I already tell you that’s none of your business? ”
Aiku falls silent, contemplating. “You really like her. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I think that’s cool.”
“ Shut up! ”
She shrugs, entirely dismissive of Barou’s growing agitation. Aiku’s got an excellent way of pushing all of Barou’s buttons.
“Alright,” she agrees. “I’ll get out of your hair. Have a good time with your girlfriend, or I might just swoop in and steal her!”
Aiku laughs at her own stupid fucking joke, and leaves before Barou can even begin to yell at her. It’d be pointless if she did, she figures, because when has yelling at Aiku ever gotten her to stop being a sleaze? She’s just lucky that Aiku never realized that they were in Isagi’s room.
Barou begins the walk back to the bathrooms in the deadzone hallway. These particular bathrooms have showers and extra-large stalls, giving Isagi as much time and space as she needed to get cleaned up. By the time Barou reaches the bathrooms at least twenty minutes after she left, a faint scent of floral-oranges wafts through the air. She wonders, briefly, if it’s Isagi’s body wash or shampoo before she snaps out of those thoughts.
“Still in here, loser?” She calls out. A banging sounds from the furthest bathroom stall, dripping water creating a puddle on the ground and a towel hanging over the stall door.
“Still here!” Isagi’s voice sounds wracked, as if she’d been crying. “Did you get me clothes? It’s kind of weird hanging out in a stall. Um. Like this.”
An image comes to mind that Barou quickly dashes away. Now is not the time .
“I’ve got your stupid duffle bag, so open the door so I can hand it to you.”
Isagi opens the door and reaches her hand through the crack, making a grabbing gesture for her duffle before swiftly slamming the door shut again to change.
“Thanks!” Isagi chirps. Immediately, Barou starts feeling awkward. Now that she’s done what she could, she should leave, right? As she starts walking away, she hears Isagi shout for her to wait.
“What is it?” She asks, irritated. If it’s another errand…
“Just hold on!” Isagi whines. “I wanna hang out still!”
Barou snorts. “While you’re changing?”
“Yes!” Isagi demands. “This whole situation was really humiliating for me, so—“
“You need company ?” Barou drawls, finishing the last of Isagi’s sentence. “You’re acting as if this is the first time you’ve ever gotten your period.”
She can hear Isagi get frustrated through the door, based on just the way she breathes and shoves on her top.
“You don’t have to be an asshole about this!” Isagi shouts at her, clearly incensed. “I’ve been feeling so stressed out, so don’t make it worse!”
Isagi finishes changing, and slams her way out of the bathroom stall. Her hair’s a mess and her face is flushed a blotchy red.
“I hate feeling embarrassed,” she tells her, locking eyes. “Even worse, I hate feeling embarrassed on camera .”
Barou rolls her eyes. “So what? I wasn’t making fun in the first place, but you should give less of a shit about what some idiots might think about you.” Not when you’re better than anyone who does give a shit, goes unsaid. When Isagi tries to move past her to walk out of the bathroom, ignoring her, Barou grabs her hand. “If you still want to look like nothing happened, you should at least brush your hair.”
Isagi’s eyes widen, and she rushes to the nearby mirror to run her fingers through her hair, trying to make it look decent. Her nails get caught in the knots of the still-drying strands, to her growing irritation, so Barou helps out. Again.
She knows she saw a hairbrush in Isagi’s bag earlier, so she ignores the other girl’s protests as she digs for it without permission. Then, she takes her own hair out of its ponytail and hands it over to Isagi.
“Just take it,” she sighs. “It’s painful to watch you struggle so bad.”
Isagi gingerly takes the hair tools from her hands with a smug little smile, and skillfully yanks her short hair into a poofy, damp ponytail. It’s cute, against all odds.
She fiddles with the ends of her hair. “There,” she says, then turns to face Barou expectedly. “Look good?”
“It’s fine. Let’s just go; we’re losing time.”
“Right!” Isagi cheers, perky once more. Barou finds that she appreciates her joyful attitude more than the stressed out of her mind one from before.
Isagi grabs her duffle with one hand, and reaches for Barou’s with the other. Barou almost yanks it away, but Isagi’s more nimble than she gives her credit for, so they leave the dumb bathroom holding hands, of all benign things. She pointedly ignores the way her heartbeat quickens when they head to the gym for an actual cooldown routine. The way Isagi holds onto her fingers reminds her of the way Aiku tries to flirt with girls. The way she does when she has a crush , or whatever it is she calls her weird attempts at hookups.
What separates the two is that she’d know it if she had a crush, despite never having one before.
This is what she tells herself as she finds herself listening to the soccer analysis Isagi rambles on about. It's just an interesting analysis, even when Barou disagrees. They argue lightheartedly on the way to the gym— while Barou’s understood the type of soccer that Isagi plays for a while now, it wouldn’t be productive for either of them to let her think she’s getting away unchallenged. And in turn, Isagi challenges Barou’s own way of thinking.
Unlike most of the other girls in Blue Lock, Isagi at least understands what she’s talking about, and so Barou’s willing to listen.
She can take what Isagi offers and utilize it to devour her plays in the future; that’s all it is. Respect and rivalry.
Right?