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90. "you can tell me anything."
Hiori was feeling uncharacteristically antsy, and had accidentally allowed himself to grow reaccustomed to having his games to get the excess energy out during the break.
Going to the pitch and practicing was probably the only way to get everything out of his system, but part of him dreaded it—he didn’t want to follow his parents’ parting words of Practice whenever possible, Yo-chan!
Hiori didn’t end up practicing either way, because when he walked out onto the pitch he was met with the sight of Rin Itoshi.
Now, if there were two things Hiori had always known about Rin Itoshi, it was that the younger man was insanely talented and that he was the most beautiful person Hiori had ever seen. He was intriguing, and complicated, and so fucking damaged.
Hiori was fascinated by him.
This fascination only strengthened after Blue Lock’s game with Japan’s U-20 team. Upon noticing Rin’s absence from the team bow, Hiori had gone searching for him. He found him in the locker room, curled up on the bench with his arms around his legs and his head resting on his knees. Similar to how he looked now.
Hiori walked over to him, cautious and silent, to where Rin was sitting. Rin kept his head facing forward and barely even reacted to Hiori’s presence, not even when he slowly walked over and stood above him. He waited for Rin to say something, to say anything, but he didn’t.
“Is everything okay, Rin?” he asked.
Rin said nothing—he just kept his eyes forward.
“Alright,” Hiori said indulgently. He was very careful to keep his voice from sounding condescending. “Well, do ya mind if I sit with ya?”
Hiori waited for an answer. He felt, oddly, as if he would wait forever; anything to be able to comfort Rin, at least a little bit.
Eventually, thankfully, Rin nodded, and so with a small smile Hiori slowly sat down.
He pulled his legs up and rested his elbows on his knees. He fiddled with his fingers as he let the silence reign—the only thing that could be heard was their breathing. After a little while he couldn’t stand it anymore, if only because of the way Rin’s breath would audibly catch in his chest every other minute.
It was making Hiori’s heart ache.
“Wanna tell me what’s wrong, honey?” he asked gently.
The endearment slipped out, completely unbidden, but just when he was about to backtrack he heard Rin’s breath catch in his chest; though this one was different than before. Hiori bit back a smile.
“No,” Rin muttered. He seemed to realize the indirect admittance a moment later because he was quick to revise: “Nothing’s wrong.”
Hiori hummed. “I dunno,” he said, allowing the slightest hint of teasing to bleed through his tone. “Ya sound the same way ya do if our characters die in Let’s Starve Together after we reach the two-week point.”
The only difference was that Hiori didn’t have to actually be concerned about how Rin was doing whenever that happened; now he did.
Rin huffed. “At least I don’t sound like I’m going to break my console.”
Which… was kind of fair, actually.
“Don’t change the subject, Rin,” he admonished lightly.
Rin swallowed. “I don’t want you to call me that,” he whispered, voice unsteady.
Hiori frowned. “Call ya what? Yer name?”
A beat of silence. “Yeah,” he said. “I like the other one better.”
It took Hiori a second to process what exactly Rin meant, but when he did, his heart sang. “Ya like it when I call you honey?” he asked.
Rin shivered slightly. “Yes,” he agreed quietly, sounding almost ashamed.
“Yeah?” Hiori asked, sounding almost breathless.
Rin swallowed audibly. “Yeah,” he whispered. “But only when it’s just us.”
Fuck—Hiori wanted to cradle this boy in his arms and never let him go.
“Okay,” he said, trying and probably failing to bite back a smile. “When it’s just us.”
Rin nodded definitely, promptly ending the conversation and plunging them back into silence. This time it didn’t feel as heavy.
“Ya can tell me anything, yanno,” Hiori said eventually, unable to keep quiet anymore. He stuck his legs out in front of him and leaned back against his palms. “I’ve been told I’m a great listener.”
Rin hummed but said nothing. It wasn’t a dismissal, though—that Hiori knew for a fact.
“Blue Lock won against Japan’s U-20,” Rin said after a moment, and there was so much hidden in that one sentence that Hiori couldn’t even begin to try unpacking it.
After all, other than their conversation in the locker room directly after the game, Rin never talked about what happened; not once during the two-week break had Rin so much as mentioned that game, and there had been plenty of chances to do so; they spent more time than Hiori wanted to admit on voice calls as they played.
“Blue Lock won against Japan’s U-20,” Hiori echoed in agreement. “Ya got yer face kicked in real good that night, didn’tcha?”
Hiori remembered the way Rin minutely leaned into his touch instead of pushing him away when he ran to check on him.
Rin scoffed. “I still can’t believe he picked that insect,” he said, and there it was—the over me was audible, as was the underlying hurt that Rin had tried to hide behind annoyance.
Then Hiori heard a sniffle—Rin was crying.
Hiori had never really been the type of person to enact violence himself; he didn’t take joy in personally hurting a person on a physical level. And yet…
And yet, he still remembered that night in the locker room. He remembered how, hidden behind the anger and fury, just how devastated Rin was. No words had been spoken then, not really—the only words spoken were Hiori’s constant whispers of comfort as Rin fell apart in his arms.
Somehow, this silent crying was so much worse than the unreserved crying he exhibited that night.
Hiori had held him while he cried that night, which was something he wasn’t able to do now. Not to mention that back then he knew that Rin wasn’t purposefully holding himself back; he wasn’t muffling his cries. Not like right now.
Almost anything—having his leg broken, getting stabbed in the chest, fucking any kind of physical pain that could be inflicted on Hiori—would hurt less. Hiori wished he could take the pain on himself.
Suddenly, Hiori couldn’t help but wonder if this was what being in love was like.
He was torn from his thoughts when Rin suddenly slumped against his shoulder. He turned to look at the younger boy, mouth open to ask him what was wrong, but was shocked to find that he was fast asleep. He must’ve tired himself out while Hiori wasn’t paying attention. How long had Hiori even been zoned out?
Once he got over his initial shock and pleasant surprise, he immediately kicked into action.
Unwilling to wake him up, Hiori slowly and gently maneuvered Rin so that he was laying down on his side and so that Rin was resting his head on Hiori’s thigh.
Rin looked so calm in his sleep, so unbothered and unstressed, that Hiori felt his heart stop in his chest for a minute. He looked so at peace, even with the tear tracks sticking to his cheeks.
Hiori refused to wake him up. He absolutely refused.
He reached down and placed his hand on Rin’s head and just rested it there for a few moments before slowly carding his fingers through his hair. “My pretty baby,” he whispered.
Letting Rin rest for a few hours wouldn’t hurt, would it?