The Sun Will Come Up

Surprise Visit @ PXG

"Hi, Paris X Gen!" Rin heard from the door. "How are Blue Lock's innovative up and comers?"

It had been a few weeks since he'd heard that voice, but he'd never forgotten it, and he would have known it anywhere.

He and Bachira had come to an agreement. Rin had been hesitant to bring it up, but it was Bachira who'd said to him, out of the blue, before any information about the new Blue Lock had even been revealed, "Don't think I'm going to let my feelings for you stop me from becoming the best."

It was a distinctly dark tone. A serious one. If Rin hadn't been taken so off guard, he might have laughed.

"You can try to pry the top spot from my cold, dead hands," he told him. And that was that.

When it came to team selections, Rin had had this moment of pause. Of course he'd thought about it. He was dedicated to his goals and hell bent on being objective, but he was only human, after all. Just as capable of emotion as anyone else. Contrary to popular belief. He knew the second they announced the teams and their spiels where Bachira would go, and he had the briefest fleeting thought of it could be fun to play together.

But it wasn't what he wanted. Rin liked the idea of a fresh slate team where he could shine. He never regretted his choice. He never even second guessed it. Especially after their master striker was revealed to be Julian Loki from the five, one year older than him, Bachira's age, and it was someone he wanted to learn from in an environment where he could thrive. Not even having Shidou Ryusei on the same team ruined it for him.

Which wasn't saying much. It took exactly one reminder that Sae had effectively given him his number and immediately blocked him to shut him up.

The one downside was that it was intense and busy, as he knew it would be, so his contact with Bachira had gone from hours of face to face day after day to a few texts here and there, between games and practices and training and meals and yoga and meditation and sleeping off the constant exhaustion.

But then, here he was. Standing in the doorway of the PXG team common space, waving and looking right at him.

Rin felt the corners of his mouth rise at either side. Slightly. Another thing that had happened for the first time in weeks. And he didn't even try to fight it.

Bachira took no more than a single step into the room before he was swarmed. Rin flinched, wondering what the hell everyone might want with him. He hadn't thought to go exploring through the other teams' areas, but he didn't know if there were any explicit rules against it.

It turned out, he had nothing to worry about. Something he had forgotten about Bachira was that he knew everyone and got along irritatingly well with most people he met.

"Yo, bee boy!"

"Salutations, Bachira!"

"Lavinho better not have sent you over here to gather any intel," Loki joked with him even, despite never having met him before.

"He didn't," Bachira said, putting a hand on his chest like he was swearing. "But he did tell me to tell you that we don't need the intel because we're not worried if I was accused."

Loki just shook his head and laughed. "You can tell him I said we'll see."

"But no, really," Bachira insisted. "I'm just here to-"

"Come hang, dude," someone said, pulling him further into the room. "We never get to see any new people and we're getting sick of each other."

It was then that Rin begrudgingly lifted from the spot he'd come to occupy most of the time they spent in this room and, for the first time since they'd arrived, made his way over to join the group.