Chapter Text
Thrashing and rolling around recklessly on his bed, Sendou contemplated if he should really be doing this..
His phone was lying open right next to him, bouncing and shifting around with every dip and movement the mattress made as Sendou flipped himself over before groaning into his pillow.
He eventually pushed himself back up, lifting his upper body with his arms before turning over and sitting up on his bed and reaching for his phone.
The familiar dark layout of Twitter was both ominous and comforting, to his eyes at least. But the blinding, bright white of the text had him grimacing and squinting at his phone under the room’s dim lighting.
He reluctantly clicked the tiny magnifying glass and opened the search bar, before typing the dreadful tag; #Aikusen.
His newfound curiosity had gotten the better of him, and just a few moments ago he was nervously asking Niko how he even found this part of social media to see what he’d have to search up.
It was just fanmedia, right? At least that’s what Aiku told him. That was a good thing, no?
It was fanmedia about him. Plus Aiku, he guessed—But mostly him!
Then, he was instantly greeted by suggested accounts that had the tag in their bios, fanart, and ship polls? The hell was a ship poll?
Sendou decided not to question it and kept scrolling. There were numerous posts detailing how cute people thought Aiku and Sendou were, followed by clips from their matches and interviews from all the way before they even learned about Blue Lock, to the ones after their recent NEL matches.
Some posts in particular really caught his eye, as they were insanely common opinions and phrases that he saw as he scrolled;
‘Aikusen nation!!’
‘They were so adorable here!!’
‘Aikusen can't keep their hands off each other!!’
“What the??..?? He was just helping me get up…?” Sendou muttered to himself, dumbfounded.
As he scrolled, he even found fanart of the two of them engaging in more couple-y behavior, and he screamed and even almost threw his phone across the room when he saw artwork of him and Aiku full-on making out.
He hesitantly reached for his phone again, it now lying face down against his bed.
He immediately scrolled past that horrific piece of work, too stunned to notice how his face had been burning by that point.
There was just no way… No way were people actually serious about this stuff, right??..??
It was just one big joke. Just like how that cyan-haired guy on Bastard tormented Isagi with Kaisagi art.
Yeah, it must be.
He went back to the search bar, and decided to search himself up to cool off, maybe even inflate his own ego to feel better about himself. That’s what he was planning on doing anyway; He needed it after all of those crushing losses.
He quickly typed his own name into the search bar, before instantly frowning.
‘Sendou’s such a fraud.. Couldn't even score. Thought he was a striker??’
‘Sendou doesn’t do much except stand there and look pretty. Someone get him off the field smh.’
‘lowkey I kinda forgot ab sendou lololol’
What the hell???! What was this shit??
Sendou hated reading anything negative about himself, especially on social media. How dare they?? He used to be the U20’s star player!
He paused for a moment, clenching his jaw and feeling his eyes grow hot as his stomach sunk. He used to be the star player.. He hadn’t done much to contribute to that old title, so how could he even call himself that anymore??
He pursed his lips together in a tight line, gripping his knees so tight his knuckles had turned white.
“Goddamnit, why do I get like this so easily?!?” He thought before taking a moment to quickly suck in a deep breath.
This was exactly why he hadn’t opened Twitter in a while. He couldn’t take a single negative comment or criticism, especially from people online—Who didn’t even know him!
A heavy, disappointed sigh from a few steps in front of him made him jump, before he looked up to see who it was.
“Man, I keep forgetting how sensitive you can get over a few hate comments..”
It was Aiku, standing in the doorway of their shared room, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head.
Sendou wanted to reply with something, but the moment he opened his mouth, Aiku started to speak;
“Should’ve known you would’ve immediately gone to check yourself out on social media.. That’s kinda my fault.”
He said while walking up to Sendou, before resting his hand on his shoulder. The simple action almost made him flinch, but he just looked up at him.
“Our whole team hasn’t been doing too well, it’s not just you getting hate. If that makes you feel any better.”
No, it didn’t make him feel better. In fact, he felt even more pathetic now. Crying over something everyone was receiving shit for is a really good look for him, thanks Oliver.
It was like he could instantly tell what Sendou was thinking, because he spoke up again;
“It’s fine to get emotional once in a while, Sendou.” He said, gently patting Sendou’s shoulder.
He sniffled once before removing Aiku’s hand from his shoulder.
“‘M fine.”
Aiku took one look at his glossy eyes before rolling his own, taking out his phone.
“What are you-“
“Hold on, I’m looking for something.” Aiku responded sharply, taking a seat next to Sendou on his bed.
He was immediately shut down, and in turn immediately shut up.
A few moments later, Aiku handed his phone to Sendou, open to a fan page…
For Sendou??
A.. Fan Page?? For him?? How could he have missed this??
He looked to Aiku in disbelief, his sour expression slowly morphing into a stupid grin. Only to receive a reassuring nod from Aiku, before he pointed back to his phone.
He scrolled through the entire profile, reading the positive comments they made about him, and all the positive comments he got in return. Sendou was sure he had a stupid smile plastered across his face right now, but that didn’t matter.
Aiku was right, people did like him. Not everyone was out there calling him washed or a bum, but people were actually complimenting his plays and performance!
Well, the majority of the comments were actually just about how he looked, but that was an added bonus!
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As he redirected Sendou to look back at the fanpage he had pulled up for him on Twitter, he couldn’t help but grin at the way Sendou beamed reading every positive comment the fanpage had.
Had Sendou really not known about this? It’s existed since he started playing in official U20 matches.
Still, he couldn’t help but watch how Sendou’s mood instantly brightened. He was glad to be able to cheer him up so fast, just as he’d done multiple times before.
He didn’t even realize he was staring until his eyes suddenly met Sendou’s, the beautiful carnelian hue making his throat go dry.
“When were you gonna tell me about this, Oliver??”
Sendou asked, sounding a lot more cheerful than before; That was good.
“Uh, I assumed you already knew.” He chuckled lightly.
“No?? I had no idea!”
There was a beat of silence, Aiku just giving Sendou a deadpan stare.
“What???!”
“I just thought, with all of the time you spend online to boost your ego.. You would’ve known… About it??” He said, trying his best to not laugh in his face.
“Well-” Sendou sputtered, his nose crinkled and scrunched up before he gave up on trying to form a comeback.
He sighed and tilted his head down, his long side bang swaying with the movement before he brought his head back up to look Aiku in the eyes again.
“Thank you, Oliver. I kinda needed that.” He said with a small smile, his face relaxing.
“Glad to help. Hopefully this will keep you from throwing another fit over stupid internet comments.” Aiku responded, giving Sendou another pat on the back.
“Hey-!” Sendou whined, trying to think of something to say back to him.
Aiku chuckled, before removing his hand.
“I’m just playing with you, ‘Sen.”
Aiku was met with a light, playful punch to his shoulder.
“You dick.”
“I’ve been called worse.” Aiku shrugged.
“Whatever man.” Sendou grinned.
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After a few moments of silence as they hung out, Sendou spoke up first;
“So, y’know those Aikusen posts?”
“The ones you also had a fit over?”
Aiku was instantly met with a sharp glare from Sendou, whose nose had scrunched up once more as he furrowed his brows.
“Alright alright, damn! Yeah, I know. They’re kinda funny.” Aiku responds as he leans back on his arms, causing the mattress to dip slightly behind Sendou.
“I guess they kind of are, yeah.” Sendou responds back despite not truly meaning what he says.
But… sure, originally the whole idea had been… jarring, to say the least. For Sendou, mostly. Aiku clearly didn’t care about it.. Did he? Sendou hadn’t really thought about his sexuality outside of the fact he definitely wanted to marry a Hollywood actress after deciding that idols wouldn’t cut it during the U20 match..
But he knew Aiku had. He’s seen a few of his story posts where he was out on a few dates with both women and men, so what did he think about all of this?
“What do you think of it? The idea of us being together?” He says without thinking about the question before saying it.
He definitely didn’t mean to word it like that, but it gets a small laugh out of Aiku.
“Wow, definitely not what I was expecting to hear today.”
“Oh shut up, you know what I meant!” He said, turning a bit to face Aiku behind him.
He instantly jolted back a bit, suddenly acutely aware of just how close Aiku had been.
“Do I though????” Aiku teased, acting clueless.
Sendou gave him a deadpan look, before Aiku waved him off and spoke;
“Sorry, sorry.”
“I don’t really have an opinion on it, to be honest.” Aiku replied, pausing by the end of his sentence.
“And…?”
“That’s it. It just.. exists.” He shrugs.
“C’mon, you were gonna say something else! I know it!” Sendou fully turns to face Aiku now, propping his elbow up on his knee and placing his face in his hand as he sits in front of Aiku.
“You really won’t let this go, huh?” Aiku sighs, and Sendou nods.
“C’mon Oliver, you can’t just pause mysteriously like that!”
“Fine.” Aiku sighs again.
“It wouldn’t work out.” He says simply, and Sendou gives a confused look.
“What do you mean?”
“It just.. wouldn’t work..? You don’t like men, remember?”
“Uh.. Yeah, you’re right…” Sendou nods.
What a stupid question, of course it wouldn’t work.
So then why did he feel his heart sink?