Chapter Text
Home has been… regular. After the ride back Hiori has mostly kept his mouth shut; out of submission or revenge, he isn't sure. He hates how he can't help but try to please his parents, even if he hates them. Even if he wanted to fight, to yell at them, all he can do is seethe in silence. Keep the feelings inside and then fantasize about getting his revenge when he plays video games later. Healthy? Probably not, but it's the only thing Hiori knows how to do.
His dad keeps reminding him about his normal routine stuff, since he 'forgot to do them at Blue Lock'. In reality, he chose not to do some of the dumb stuff his parents want him to do regularly. The first few days he meticulously followed the routine his dad had drilled into his head, but slowly he started dropping certain tasks, like keeping track of his weight. Seriously, what has weight to do with soccer? He foolishly thought they would never know if he didn't do them, until the whole Blue Lock TV thing. 'Remember to stretch your muscles, Yo!', 'Remember to check your weight, Yo!' Everything his dad says reminds him of the cage he's locked in. The taste of freedom he had in Blue Lock makes everything ten times worse.
Luckily Hiori still has a way to connect with other blue lockers, his new friends. He isn't as completely isolated in his home as before.
To everyone's delight, Isagi made a Blue lock group chat so that they could stay in contact during their weekend at home. How Isagi managed to get everyones' phone numbers is beyond Hiori. Isagi is such a social butterfly that somewhere along the way he had befriended most of the players in Blue lock when Hiori wasn't looking. The chat is chaotic. People keep spamming memes and cat videos (cough, Nagi, cough), and Bachira keeps adding back all the people who try to leave the chat. When Saturday comes, the conversation finally turns from memes and dumb shit into planning something.
Isagi:
would you all calm down I'm trying to ask a serious question here
Bachira:
SHUSH ( ノ ^o^)ノ
Chigiri:
lol
Barou:
Kys
Isagi:
ok so we should meet up tonight
do something fun
Reo:
didn't we just leave blue lock
Karasu:
yah I've had enough of ur dumb faces
Bachira:
[ •́ ‸ •̀ ]
Chigiri:
I can feel bachira sulking through the screen
i'm in
Bachira:
(＾▽＾)
Otoya:
me and yukki too
Kunigami:
Me too!
Hiori:
sry can't my parents are being weird lol
Kurona:
:(
Isagi:
aw that sucks wish you could come
we could've gone to an arcane!
Hiori:
you can still go
Nagi:
im in
reo is too
Reo:
SINCE WHEN
Nagi:
:x
Hiori is just about to go back to his game when he gets a private message. He has to blink a few times to convince himself he isn't dreaming. It's Rin. Itoshi Rin has messaged him. What the fuck.
Rin:
What do you mean your parents are being weird.
Oh, Rin is in the groupchat too? Hiori didn't realize that.
Hiori:
oh theyre just rlly strict
dont let me go out unless its for football or something useful lol
Rin:
Did you wanna go out with the idiots today
Hiori stares at the screen in confusion. What is Rin getting at? Of course he'd wanna see friends outside of football for once.
Hiori:
well yeah
why
Rin:
okay.
give me your address
Hiori:
????????
WHAT
In an hour Hiori has paced around his room probably a hundred times. Rin didn't answer anymore, so Hiori just sent him the address. Is Rin coming to his house???? Why else would he ask for his address? What is happening??
He waits, restlessly pacing around, until he hears the doorbell ring. He freezes as he hears his mother open the door. Then there's a yell.
"Yo-chan! Come downstairs!" His mom yells.
Hiori freezes for a second, wide eyed, wondering what the hell could be waiting for him downstairs. Then he races down the stairs, heart in his throat.
When he rounds the last corner, he truly ponders the possibility that he is dreaming. Or in psychosis. Because no way in hell is there one and only Itoshi Rin standing next to his mother, in his house, waiting for Hiori. His mom is smiling excitedly and his dad is sitting at the kitchen table, brows raised and seemingly intrigued.
And Rin. Rin is standing there with his usual stoic face. But Hiori thinks there's a little something like uncertainty in his eyes.
"Uh, hi?" He breathes. It accidentally comes out with a questioning tint.
Rin frowns, unimpressed. "Hi. Where's your soccer stuff?" He asks, looking him up and down, like this is the most obvious, normal thing ever.
Hiori mirrors him and looks down at his sweats and hoodie. He is so fucking confused. "Uh, what?" He utters dumbly. This is when he notices that Rin is wearing something like a tracksuit with a backpack and football with him. He looks like he's going to soccer practice.
Rin purses his lips and glances at Hiori's mom, who is still standing next to him. Then he looks back at Hiori. "We were gonna go train today? Do some drills?"
"Oh? Ya didn't mention that to us?" Hiori's mom pipes up, turning to him. She has a weirdly excited tone in her voice, which Hiori thinks is because of the person who has come to get Hiori. If it was Karasu behind that door, his parents would've immediately said that Hiori is busy with something else. Hiori knows this from experience.
This is when Hiori processes what exactly Rin is trying to do. He quickly tries to catch up and help himself a little.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, it totally slipped my mind", Hiori apologises to his mom and Rin, trying to put on the 'lovely and obedient son' -act. "But is it okay if I go train with Rin-kun for a bit, since he came all this way?"
Now his dad stands up too. "But didn't ya already do the workout I made ya today?" He questions, already knowing the answer.
"Ya know I did, but I feel like trainin' some more. Isn't extra practice a good thing?" Hiori answers, trying as hard as he can to keep the attitude out of his voice.
"Yes and dear, and didn't we want Yo-chan to put more attention into striker practice?" His mom jumps to say before turning her eyes to Rin again and smiling pleasantly. "Who a better trainin' partner than Itoshi-kun here?"
Hiori nods enthusiastically, for once thankful for his mom. Rin quietly follows the exchange.
His dad's expression finally melts into an almost smile. "Ah, that is true. Itoshi-kun can probably help ya with that, so ya don't keep gettin' stuck to the midfield." His dad reasons, nodding to himself.
Rin nods when his dad shifts to look at him. Hiori feels very humiliated all of a sudden. His parents are so embarrassing, talking about Rin like that. Way to make it clear that Rin is everything they want Hiori to be.
His dad joins them in the entryway. Luckily his mom let Rin in and closed the front door, so they're not having this conversation practically outside.
His dad holds his hand out to Rin. They shake hands. "Nice to meet ya, Itoshi-kun. You're a great player from what I've seen."
"Nice to meet you too, Hiori-san." Rin answers politely.
Hiori kinda hopes he would spontaneously combust right at this second. He can't believe that Rin is seriously meeting his parents right now.
His mom smiles excitedly when she says: "Go on to change your clothes, Yo-chan! Don't want to keep Itoshi-kun waitin' any longer!" She rushes him.
Hiori casts one last glance at Rin before he goes upstairs. Rin looks back at him, and Hiori can't for the life of him figure out what he's thinking right now.
He puts on a track suit similar to Rin's and makes sure he has all his essentials with him before he rushes back downstairs.
There he sees his parents surrounding Rin. They have sat him down with a glass of water. Rin looks like he's suffering so Hiori guesses that his parents kept asking him questions about soccer. Hell, they might've even mentioned Rin's brother.
Hiori announces himself loudly. "I'm ready to go!"
Rin snaps his head back to him and gets up quickly. Hiori's parents barely have time to quickly quip goodbye before they're already out the door.
When the door closes behind them and they're a safe distance away, Hiori finally turns to Rin and opens his mouth. "What the fuck is happenin' right now? What are ya doin' here?" He questions, flabbergasted and still processing what just happened. "Oh my god, that was so fucking embarrasin'!" He then whines, bringing his hands to his cheeks in embarrassment.
Rin huffs and keeps walking. "Come on, we're going to meet the others in the city. It's gonna be an hour-long travel by train." He just says.
"Really?" Hiori asks. He hadn't even had time to think where Rin would actually take him. "Why?"
Rin scoffs. "Because you said you wanted to see them, idiot."
Hiori opens his mouth but doesn't even know what to say. He is officially speechless. There is no way that Rin came all the way to his house and convinced his parents to let Hiori out, just because Hiori said he wanted to see their friends. There's no way. But somehow it still seems that that is exactly what just happened.
The whole situation is just so bizarre in Hiori's head. They're not even properly friends, he and Rin. They kinda talked once about their families and that too was more like Hiori yelling at Rin and then almost crying in front of him. Why would Rin do this? Why would he do this for Hiori? It doesn't make any sense to him.
They don't talk much as they walk to the train station. Hiori can't think of anything to say. What is one supposed to say in a situation like this? They aren't friends, so Hiori can't suddenly talk like he would with Isagi and Ranze. It's bizarre what Rin did. What is Hiori supposed to do about that?
Rin seems unaffected as normal. His face is neutral unless he catches Hiori staring. When that happens, he glares and then goes back to neutral. Hiori still has no idea what he's thinking.
There's a noticeable crowd at the train station. Hiori's head is a bit fuzzy from the situation with his parents and the fact that he is doing something behind their back. He lied to them. It feels like there's a fundamental part of him that is programmed to do anything his parents want in the fear of being the reason they separate. That their family breaks. So anytime he does something rebellious (though he has never done anything like this ) there's a part of him that fills his body with anxiety and a tugging in his heart, that something is about to go wrong and it will be all his fault.
He's happy he got out of the house for a night. He's glad that Rin did something so weird and got him out. He's happy to see his friends soon. But somehow his head feels hazy. So he grabs on to Rin's sleeve in the crowd, before he loses himself either physically or mentally. Hiori isn't really thinking about it, since for some reason he can't really form thoughts through the fog in his head, but since Rin seems to know where they're going, it's probably okay. It's probably okay because Rin is here. He chose to do something no one has ever done for him: he succeeded in getting him out of the house. He chose to come all the way down to Hiori's part of town, knock on Hiori's family home, and convince his parents just to get Hiori out. So it's probably okay, because Rin is here. He's right next to Hiori, taking him away. So even though Hiori can't really feel his fingers anymore, he clutches to Rin's sleeve and trusts he'll take him away.
The next time Hiori's aware of his surroundings and can focus on forming thoughts again, he notices he's sitting in the train. He concludes that he can slowly feel his fingers again as he watches himself flex and wiggle them before his eyes. He takes a minute or two (no idea, his sense of time is fucked up when his mind gets hazy) to take note of where he is and what is happening. He's sitting on the aisle seat and Rin is next to him. Rin is close. Hiori can feel his shoulder pressing against his arm and it's kind of grounding. Grounding things are good. They remind him that he's not about to float away even if it feels like it.
The sun is shining and the scenery looks vibrant as it speeds past the train window. Seems like it's a beautiful day to disobey some parents.
"What's wrong with you?" Rin asks bluntly, rousing his attention away from the window. He's looking at him with a slight curve in his eyebrow.
Hiori huffs a laugh, going for a ' what are you talking about, nothing happened, you imagined it' type of gaslighting energy. "What kinda question is that?"
He's not sure he can explain what just happened to him. He can't even remember how they got to the train.
Rin's glare is intense as he waits for Hiori to answer properly. It's like he's telepathically yelling at him ' I'm not stupid, you idiot'.
But Hiori stays quiet. He needs to change the subject because he can't talk about this, whatever it is . So he sits quietly for a while before his thoughts go back to trying to understand Rin. He still can't wrap his mind around the why . He forms a question out of all his thoughts.
"Why… Why would ya do this for me?" Hiori mutters, turning to look at Rin.
Rin looks at Hiori and his (stupidly big, blue) eyes, then turns to look out of the window. Hiori swears he can see a bit of redness on Rin's cheek and that makes his chest react with a weird fluttery feeling.
"My brother is home so it's insufferable to be there right now", Rin offers as an explanation. When Hiori just frowns in confusion ( because that explains nothing!) Rin continues. "I couldn't imagine not being able to leave, is all", he grumbles.
Hiori's face suddenly feels very warm and so does his whole body. Is Rin just being… really nice to him? The answer makes the eternal why in Hiori's head get even stronger. Why would Rin act like this?
Rin probably sees the disgustingly genuine awe in Hiori's expression because he quickly adds: "But don't go thinking any mushy shit, it's nothing, I don't really care." That makes Hiori smile. Rin is such a strange person.
"You're so strange, Rin-kun", he says out loud with a happy laugh. "But thanks anyway. Seriously, I can't remember the last time my parents let me out with a friend. I guess they were so amazed by the Itoshi Rin that they couldn't say no." Hiori chuckles and bumps into Rin's shoulder lightly.
Rin scoffs. "Your parents piss me off." He looks genuinely annoyed when he says it, which makes Hiori feel strangely flattered.
Then Hiori winces, remembering how pained Rin looked when Hiori came back downstairs. "Sorry 'bout them. They probably bombarded ya with stupid questions?"
Rin looks out of the window. "Just something about soccer and Blue Lock", he mumbles.
Hiori isn't really convinced by the vague answer but he doesn't push. It doesn't even matter. Rin got him out of the house and he's free for the night. The earlier anxiety simmers down a little, as excitement starts taking its place. Hiori smiles, looking at Rin's sideprofile. The sunlight is blinding him so he's huffing and squinting. All Hiori can focus on is how the teal of his eyes shines under the sun.
For now, he has this night to himself. One night, when he can forget his parents and focus on having some fun.