Misery Loves Company

Rin is not used to losing, to taste the sting of defeat. It's something Tabito noticed right away once they became teammates. Losing never feels good, but Rin takes it as if it's a personal affront on his character. Maybe that has something to do with his brother; it's hard to say. This particular loss seems to strike a nerve in him. No one has seen Rin for hours and they're starting to worry. Blue Lock is a massive facility. There are plenty of places to hide when you don't want to be found. It's a good thing Tabito has taken to exploring the compound in his free time. He snags a bottle of sports drink and a sleeve of crackers, then begins to make his rounds.

Since they moved onto the third selection, some of the spaces they previously occupied are now left empty—abandoned to collect dust. They're not allowed to go outside and if Rin was in one of the training rooms, someone would have found him by now. Tabito searches the empty dorm rooms. There are so many of them after drastically dwindling their numbers down from 300. A half hour into searching and Tabito wants to give up, he's tired from the day they had but he knows the others will whine all night if they can't find Rin.

He pushes one of the doors opened, resigned to finding it empty like all the others, but stops dead in his tracks when he realizes the lights are on and there's a person sitting on one of the bed. Rin has his head resting against the wall, eyes shut and chin tipped up to the ceiling. He doesn't look to see who is bothering his solitude. Tabito shuts the door so that no one else can find them and locks it for good measure. He crosses the room and takes a seat on the bed beside Rin, brushing shoulders.

"Thought ya' might want some company," he says, and taps Rin's arm with the bottle of sports drink.

Rin rolls his head to the side and glares. "What could have possibly given you that idea?" Despite the cold tone to his voice, he takes the bottle and cracks it open.

"Ya' didn't lock the door, for starters." Tabito smirks. He sets the sleeve of crackers down between them. Rin bats his long lashes at Tabito and he pushes on. "You wanna talk about what's eatin' ya'?"

"Not particularly." Rin shuts his eyes again. The tension is still there. He's all hard lines and rigid posture. There's a scowl on his forehead that threatens to etch itself permanently to his face.

Tabito wants to kiss it away, to relieve the tension and unwind his fellow striker. He wraps his fingers delicately around the nape of Rin's neck, drawing him in. Rin bristles, eyes snapping open with surprise. He realizes their proximity and his lips press into a hard line, turning the plush pink skin a pale white. Tabito breathes, heart fluttering, and says, "I can make ya' forget."

Rin seems to debate it internally for a minute, then nods his head once. It's all the permission Tabito needs to close the distance between them and press their lips together. He'll kiss Rin until he forgets or it'll be the last thing Tabito ever does—forget about his brother, the rest of Blue Lock, the pressures of the world around them. He'll kiss Rin, then he'll kiss him again, ingraining himself deep within Rin's very core until the only thing that fills his mind is Tabito, Tabito, Tabito.