The Sun Will Come Up

Eight

"Rin, you didn't tell me were seeing someone."

It wasn't what he was expecting to run into as soon as he got home and it wasn't necessarily something he wanted to get into with his mother either. He was taken off guard.

Rin sighed. "There's not much to tell."

She peered at him. An irritating part of this statement was the suggestion that he might have told her if he actually had been seeing someone. Rin knew that their mother felt well entitled to know all about their lives but had very little genuine interest, which is why he didn't tell her much. He was about to brush it off, to say he wasn't really, and leave it at that, but the shittiest brother in the world was standing in the kitchen with her, wearing his version of a grin, just waiting to catch him in a lie.

"It's new." Rin gave in. "We're taking things slow."

"Oh," his mother said back, like even that was too much information. Which it was.

"Yeah."

"Is she," she started.

"He," Rin corrected.

"Oh," she said again. She looked at Sae and then back at Rin. "Both of you are...well, isn't that...good. Great."

Rin fought the urge to roll his eyes. In an unfortunate moment of empathy, he knew Sae was doing the same. It wasn't great to her. She didn't feel any which way about it, because that meant genuinely caring about either of them, which she did selectively and in minimal amounts even then. It sounded like she was most concerned what her friends from her walking group and book club might think of her two gay sons.

"Well, if you want to invite him," she said, emphasizing the word in a fake attempt at support that might have done better if she'd asked for a name or finished the question she never really intended on asking about whoever she was. "To the cabin this weekend, you can."

Rin considered it impressive that he fought off the urge to roll his eyes, but his self control was finished and he groaned. Audibly. He'd forgotten all about the fun family trip to the cabin they'd planned during the break between Blue Lock and Sae's contracts. Rin wished they'd just stop it already. He knew they didn't do it for any reason other than to send a few aesthetically pleasing photos to their friends to act as if they were very involved parents but would spend the entire trip locked away in their respective offices if they didn't have a sudden work emergency that they'd need to return to the city to take care of.

"I'm good," Rin said.

"Scared he wouldn't want to spend an entire weekend with you?" Sae asked.

"Sae," their mother warned in a sharp tone.

She didn't care much about how they tore at each other either, as long as it was in private. She put an end to it in front of her simply because it gave her a migraine. Her words.

She let out a sigh and looked at Rin. "Sae's boyfriend is coming with us."

A trip to the cabin was bad enough, but the concept of Sae's boyfriend really solidified Rin's distain. It didn't soften the blow any that she obviously hadn't bothered to learn Isagi's name either.

"Gross," Rin couldn't help but say.

"Rin," his mother warned him. "Just let me know if you're planning on inviting him."

"Will do," Rin answered, by which he meant fuck that.

Sae was making a full time job of barging into Rin's room to torment him whenever the fuck he felt like it, apparently. Because no sooner than Rin getting upstairs and into his room did he hear the footsteps approach and stop, followed by the door handle.