Archive of Our Own

Isagi looked around the bright and lively restaurant in Spain, already letting the familiar mood and activity to fall into the background. The country was not unfamiliar to Isagi which was why his parents were alright sending him alone despite the offer from Ego to cover their flights as well. It had still been a while since Isagi had been to the place so he found that he was rusty on their usual cuisine. 

A particular dish caught his eye, something that reminded him of warmer days and family, and he grinned. Even if his Spanish was a bit disjointed, he was confident in his ability to communicate anyway. 

“Ah, hello?” He greeted in Spanish, stumbling over his pronunciation a bit. “What dish is this?”

“I'm disappointed in you, Yoichi.” Isagi jolted at his name, eyes widening when he realized the mysterious man had spoken in fluent Japanese. Then, he froze when the voice processed in his brain and the man looked up at him. 

“… Bunny?” He whispered, a touch horrified as his voice shook. He was rooted where he stood and he pressed his lips into a thin line. 

“Do you hate me that much that we're back on first name basis? Or should I be glad you’re not calling me Iglesias?” Bunny laughed, something sharp and mocking, as he leaned back. He crossed his arms over his chest and Isagi was struck even more at the sight. It had been years since he last saw Bunny, a little shorter since he last spoke to him. Just the sight of him in front of him was like cold water dumped on him. “Well?”

“That's...” Isagi lost any and all words to refute Bunny. It was hard to communicate that he didn't hate him, never did and never would. It was even harder when Bunny looked at him with cold eyes — the same eyes he'd always look at everyone else. It was so much harder when Bunny’s smile wasn't even real, like he wasn't happy to see Isagi at all. Isagi couldn't even blame him for that.

“Don't be a stranger. Sit down and have a bite.” Bunny smiled, empty, as he held out a clean spoon. Isagi hesitated and took a seat but he stared at the spoon with a considering frown, unsure if this was some kind of trap or something. When the silence stretched further, Bunny’s smile slowly dropped alongside the spoon, “Unless we are strangers now ever since you decided to cut me out of your life.”

Isagi winced and ducked his head down, his hands fiddling with the edge of his shirt. The words were sharp but not unfounded. After all, just a few weeks when Isagi entered Ichinan High, he had stopped answering calls from Bunny and practically cut contact between them both. No excuse, no reason, nothing. Just radio silence from Isagi’s end. He had seen Bunny try to contact him for the first few months before they tapered off and went quiet as well. 

The decision had been impulsive and looking back, Isagi regretted it deeply. Still, he had reasons for it no matter how silly or illogical. He just wasn't prepared at all to confront Bunny about them right then and there, face to face to boot. 

“Really, Yoichi, you hurt me.” This time, Bunny dropped the mocking tone and actually sounded sincere in his words. Isagi wasn't sure what was worse — the mockery or the genuineness. “You cut me off from your life for no reason, no message. You left me wondering what I did wrong for you to hate me — if I even did something wrong. Now, you're acting so cold like we're not even brothers anymore-” 

“I’m sorry.” Isagi rushed out, hating every word that Bunny spat out casually. He swallowed at the silence and breathed out, “I'm sorry… About everything.”

Bunny merely raised an eyebrow, staying silent. Once again, Isagi wasn't sure what was worse. He fidgeted in his seat and breathed out. The realization finally completely sunk in that there was no more running from this. Bunny probably heard of his trip here because of their parents — if not now, then he would've found and confronted Isagi some other time or way. 

“I just didn't want to disappoint you.” Isagi looked at Bunny meaningfully, “I didn't want to destroy our dream. Not only were you scouted by a great international club but you were considered a New Generation Eleven Striker. I was happy for you, I always will be, but that didn't erase the fact that I was stuck. I was on the verge of being benched every match, my own playing style was trashed and I never caught the attention of any scouts. You were so far ahead in our dream and I was practically in a different universe… I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me.”

“You already disappoint me.” Isagi wilted at the words, his shoulders slumped forward. There was nothing to refute at Bunny’s words, even as he was right now. He had hoped that by the time they met again, Isagi would be on the same level as Bunny — the same stage. Even if he was getting there, having bested Kaiser in a match, he still couldn’t say they were equals. Not yet. "But not in the way you think you did.”

Isagi looked at Bunny, disbelief and confusion flashed in his eyes. Why wouldn’t Bunny be disappointed in Isagi in those ways? Isagi had changed his whole play style and if it hadn’t been for Blue Lock, he would've continued on as a no-name striker who couldn’t even reach the professional stage.

“I’m disappointed in you for thinking that way of me, idiot.” Bunny pinched the bridge of his nose and Isagi winced, shoulders raised as he looked at Bunny. He hadn’t meant to paint his brother in a bad light — no, Isagi had thought that way because he was disappointed in himself, why wouldn’t Bunny be too? “Honestly, you should use your brain for something other than thinking for once before you think yourself to an early grave.”

“But-”

“No. Do you honestly think I care, Yoichi?” Bunny dragged his hand down his face and all Isagi could do was stare at him. When the silence stretched, Bunny rolled his eyes and shoved the spoon into Isagi’s hand, “You're embarassing. Please eat before we both lose our appetite.”

“Sorry...” Isagi muttered again, just to hit it home. Bunny huffed but his gaze softened, just a little bit. It seemed that Isagi lost the plot again — he thought that Bunny cared more about their dream than him, he couldn't be more wrong. 

“Idiot.” Bunny leaned back and shook his head. This time, he spoke with less heat and bite but rather with more fondness than anything. Bunny had missed his bright-eyed little brother. Even if it meant shelving their big “argument” just to spend more time with him, he’d do anything in a heartbeat. “So, where are you headed after?”

“Ah, Ego gave me tickets for your match later.” Isagi gave a shaky smile, producing the ticket and handing it over to Bunny. He had known the match would feature Bunny, it was hard not to when Isagi kept a close eye on his brother even if they weren't talking. He had hoped he would be able to fuck around and avoid his brother a little longer but fate (or his parents) had other plans. 

“He gave you this ticket?” Bunny snorted with a roll of his eye. He waved it around flimsily before grabbing his phone. “Let me call up my manager. Seems like Japan lacks funds to train their only chance at standing on the professional stage.” 

Isagi blinked and then flushed at the praise from Bunny, not at all expecting it from him. At the sight of Isagi’s look, Bunny rolled his eyes and pointed at him.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook.” Isagi tensed a little but there was a bit of playfulness in Bunny’s tone. "You work best when you have the full view of the field, so I’m capitalizing on that. We’re still going to talk about all… this when the match is over.”

"Right…“ Isagi scratched his cheek and continued to eat while Bunny spoke briefly with his manager. No doubt he was about to pull strings just for Isagi to get the perfect seats to see the entire field. He was still taken aback that Bunny had been aware of his ability to make use of his wide vision of the field to his advantage. He even went as far as to assume that was why Isagi was there to watch the match in the first place.

Even when they hadn’t spoken in years, Bunny still seemed to know a lot about Isagi.

“There, I got you VIP tickets and you get to sneak inside the locker rooms after the match. You are not going to be a flight risk on me this time.” Isagi laughed nervously, having considered the idea merely to avoid whatever serious talk Bunny wanted to have with him. Neither of them were the type to enjoy conversations like that but it seemed Bunny was adamant about it. “Plus, you played against Lavinho in that little League of yours. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

“You didn’t have to go through all that.” Isagi already had a ticket and Bunny went above and beyond, pulling strings that Isagi didn’t need pulled. He appreciated the thought and effort behind it all but he couldn’t help but feel spoiled again. Just like old times, when Bunny used to drag Isagi around and practically purchase whatever held his attention long enough. 

“I wanted to.” Bunny raised a challenging eyebrow and Isagi huffed, crossing his arms at the sight. Maybe that was where he got his mean streak from — it certainly didn’t come from either of their parents. “Now, the few hours we have before the match starts and I want updates from you since the last time we spoke. Make it quick.”

“That-”

Isagi was cut off from the fact that both his and Bunny’s phone rang simultaneously. At the look of the caller ID from Bunny’s end, his face scrunched into minute annoyance before he smoothed it over with a small and empty smile. Isagi glanced at his own phone and beamed at the caller ID — it was Rin. 

“Rin! I’m at Spain and-”

“Isagi Yoichi.” He froze at the tone and voice. That wasn’t Rin. That was Sae. Isagi pulled the phone away and checked the caller ID again, in case he switched it up. Then, his eye twitched when he realized he didn’t even have Sae’s number saved on his phone. 

“Yes?” Isagi was a little more hesitant in his response now. He wasn’t blind or unaware of the tension Rin and Sae had, even before Rin confided in him about it all. How Sae managed to get Rin’s phone, Isagi wanted zero part in it.

“You are in Spain, correct?”

Isagi held back the urge to tell Sae that he quite literally greeted him with the fact that he was in Spain. It was tempting but nothing good came from antagonizing any Itoshi, so Isagi settled with a simple, “Yes.”

“Be smart, stay away from strangers.” Isagi blinked and his face pulled into a frown. He was not close enough to Sae to warrant any kind of concern from him. If anything, Sae should be more like this with Rin than he was with Isagi. Across from Isagi, Bunny pulled a similar face of confusion and disgust. Whoever he was speaking to must be as equally confusing as Sae was.

“What brought this on?” Isagi broke from the monotony of answering in single words by going straight for the throat. Sae was acting weird and if this was some weird elaborate prank… Well, it might not be. Isagi couldn’t imagine Sae pulling a prank.

“Whatever Ego wants you to do, stay away from Bunny Iglesias.” 

Almost simultaneously, Bunny and Isagi's gazes met and in chorus they both asked, out loud.

“Why?”

Isagi wondered just who Bunny was speaking to and what exactly the conversation was like. Somehow, it seemed like they were having a similar conversation — just with different people. Isagi blinked when Bunny smirked and gestured for Isagi to lean in and when he did so, Bunny pressed his phone against Isagi’s ear and a familiar voice, speaking in stilted English filled his ears. Automatically, Isagi pressed his own phone against Bunny’s ear and they both ended up eavesdropping on each other’s conversations.

Isagi knew this voice belonged to Kaiser, even when he was speaking in English and without the aid of the translation buds provided by Blue Lock and Mikage Corp. He also knew what Kaiser was talking about, considering he brushed up on his English lessons even with the aid of the translation buds (it helped a lot that his boyfriend was decent at the language already). 

“He is a nuisance and someone you don’t even want to deal with.” Kaiser spat through the other side of the phone and Isagi’s eyebrows rose, almost mirroring the amused expression on Bunny’s face just across from him. “You should be grateful I’m even warning you in the first place. An animal like you deserves to be put down.”

Isagi’s face twitched a little at that. He must have been scowling based on the raised eyebrow Bunny shot him but Isagi merely shook his head. He’ll just find a way to drag Kaiser through the mud later — he was fine getting trash talked by players on the field but anything off it and regarding his brother of all people was something Isagi took personally. 

“Yoichi…“ Isagi winced a little, thinking that maybe he was caught and Kaiser called out to him. Yet, “He’s an opponent best crushed on a proper battlefield. Not something as useless and forgettable as a practice match.”

Isagi was a little touched at that, an expression that was not mirrored by the way Bunny scrunched his nose and leaned back, bringing the phone with him. Isagi snorted and brought his own phone to his ear, listening as Sae continued to chatter on about —

“-say anything that wasn’t true.” Sae’s voice sounded a bit further, as if he was away from the phone as he spoke. 

“Such a shit brother, you could’ve just asked for his number instead of taking my phone.” Now that was Rin’s voice that hissed through. Clearly, he had enough of whatever Sae was saying and stole his phone back. 

“Rin? What was that about?” Isagi feigned ignorance as he tried his best not to reveal that he heard literally nothing about what went down with Sae. 

“Nothing important. Don’t listen to him.” Rin scoffed and from then, Isagi didn’t hear Sae in the foreground or the background. Rin must’ve either chased him away or moved somewhere else. “Remember, only I am allowed to crush and destroy you.”

Isagi laughed at Rin’s words, feeling his entire chest warm at the sentiment. Rin could be quite possessive sometimes but it wasn’t like Isagi was any different, “And you’re only allowed to look at me.”

“Come back soon.” And it was soft, the softest Isagi had heard Rin ever. He both hated and loved how he melted at that. “It would be bothersome to find another rival amongst these lukewarm idiots.”

Isagi grinned and he was sure that Rin was aware based on the scoff that came from him on the other side. Isagi shook his head fondly at Rin’s roundabout way of telling him that he missed him. Even if the tone and words were a bit harsh, Isagi knew how to read between the lines when it came to Rin, “I miss you, too.” 

Bunny shot Isagi an incredulous look, one eyebrow raised in surprise, as Isagi said his goodbye to Rin and ended the call. It seemed like Bunny had ended his call much earlier than Isagi had. 

“’I miss you’?” Bunny repeated with a mix of amusement and Isagi’s face flushed. Bunny laughed and leaned forward, head tilted to the side as he continued, “Were you talking to Sae?”

“No.” Isagi shivered at the thought of being cutesy with Sae. “It was Rin, Sae’s brother. It was his phone that Sae used.”

“Huh." Bunny narrowed his eyes at Isagi. 

Isagi swallowed and realized that this was probably something majorly important for Bunny to know, “Uh, well, I met Rin in Blue Lock and we started off as rivals but we got closer and I sorta, maybe, confessed after the match against Japan’s Youth Team and-”

“Calm down, Yo-chan.” Bunny snorted and waved his hand, as if that was enough to wave away Isagi’s concerns and worries. He smiled softly and leaned back, gesturing at the plate, “We have time. You can tell me all about it.”

“Right.” Isagi relaxed a bit and returned the smile. Maybe it had been a long enough time that he had a harder time reading Bunny than he used to. What used to come as easy as breathing to Isagi, was already something he struggled to do. Or maybe he struggled trying to reconcile what he thought Bunny was thinking with what he was actually thinking.

He had already been wrong once, when he thought Bunny would be disappointed in him, who was to say he couldn’t be wrong again.

It was still contrary to what they wanted to achieve if Isagi just kept being tense around Bunny. So, Isagi tried his best to relax again. To slip back to old habits when he was around his older brother. His dependable, protective brother that always knew what to say, what to do, to make everything okay. 

Isagi hated to admit it but he missed this feeling. He missed rushing into things because he had a safety net behind him. He missed turning around and seeing the constant smile and presence of his brother. He missed having an anchor to remind him of what was real and what wasn’t.

More than anything, Isagi just missed his brother.

“Oh my god.” Isagi hid his face in his hands as Bunny’s ever present and grounding arm was thrown over his shoulder, both a comfort and a curse. 

Except for times like this.

“Wow, you don’t look anything alike.” Ignacio commented with a large grin. Picasso, the other Barcha player who Ignacio had an arm around, snickered at his side. “Are you sure you’re brothers? You sure Bunny didn’t just pick you up from the side of the road, Yoichi?”

Isagi really wished Mikage Corp hadn’t allowed the international players to keep their damned earbuds. Even if he had given one half of his earbud to Bunny just to make things easier for him, it didn’t mean he wanted to hear all the jokes and teasing the Barcha team had in store. Maybe if they didn’t have the earbuds, he could’ve roped Bunny into speaking Japanese and keeping them out of the conversation but that was out of the question now.

“What kind of person do you think I am?” Bunny scoffed but it wasn’t harsh. Either Bunny was in a good mood or he was softer with Isagi close by and in his arms because Bunny was always so sharp and sarcastic with others. 

“Questionable.” Picasso answered while Ignacio peeled away to lean in close to Isagi and whisper.

“If you need any help, just say.” Ignacio winked at him and before Isagi could laugh and respond, Bunny tugged him back and gave Ignacio the darkest glare ever. “Alright, I’m backing off. No need to go and bite my head off for it.”

“If Yoichi wasn’t such a flight risk, I wouldn’t have showed him off to any of you.” Bunny scoffed but loosened his hold to approach the rest of his teammates to shove them around. Isagi snorted and shook his head at the sight, beaming at the fact Bunny was just being a prickly asshole but he was actually close to them as well.

“So you two know each other.” Isagi jumped at a familiar voice and turned to see Lavinho waving at him, slowly putting the buds into his ear. “You never mentioned it.”

“Ah, nii-yan wasn’t with your team that time so I didn’t see the point.” Isagi waved his hand around sheepishly. He didn’t want to seem presumptuous and there was the added factor he was acting like Bunny didn’t exist at the time. More than that, he wasn’t sure if Bunny even spoke about him to his team and no one would’ve believed him considering neither of them looked like the other. 

Worse yet, Isagi wasn’t even on the starting eleven. He didn’t want to stain Bunny’s reputation by association — the New Generation Striker and his failure of a younger brother. 

After their talk in the restaurant, Isagi came to realize that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Bunny cared for him and not his title or his skills. Whether Isagi kept playing soccer or straight up quit — Bunny would’ve paraded him around either way. For all he knew, he could suck at the sport and Bunny would still look at him with immense love and care.

“He probably didn’t want to be associated with an asshole.” Ignacio piped up and that prompted both laughter from the rest of the team and for Bunny to pounce on him and drag him into a short scuffle. 

“Well, whatever the case, you enjoyed the game, yeah?” Lavinho threw an arm around Isagi and he laughed. He didn’t have that much interaction with Lavinho during the Neo Egoist League and it wasn’t either of their fault. Their match had been the first of many and Isagi was only a part of the game, truly a part of it, after two goals had already been scored. Even Lavinho’s brief stint in the field wasn’t long enough for him and Isagi to have gotten any meaningful interaction from, the fact they were in different wings notwithstanding. 

“I did.” There was no lie to tell here either. Isagi had enjoyed the game thoroughly. He forgot how much he enjoyed watching his brother play — analyzing and dissecting his every move was an incredible treat for him. “Nii-yan really improved since the last time I saw him! His vertical clearance is still a step up from everyone as usual and the efficiency of his moves only got better with more training and time. I also noticed that he got a bit more freedom in his plays, definitely because of the way Barcha operates and-”

“Woah, are you really sure you two are related?” Gomez butt in, an amused smile on his face as Isagi blinked. He then flushed at the realization that everyone in the locker room had stopped what they were doing and stared at him in slight wonder. 

“Ah, sorry, I can get a bit carried away.”

“Don’t apologize kid.” Bos snorted as he nudged Gomez with his elbow. The other player merely muttered an apology under his breath but kept smiling at Isagi. “You’ve got a keen eye there, got anything more to say about the match?”

“Bos is right.” Ruiz approached with a bright grin and Isagi almost shrunk at the sudden attention. He had been used to it in Blue Lock, more so in the Neo Egoist League, but this wasn’t Blue Lock. This was Spain — he was in the heart of the Barcha team as they all looked at him. He wasn’t just facing his usual teammates and friends but internationally well known stars. “Don’t get shy now. You probably saw something we missed.”

“Oi, watch it.” Bunny shouldered his way closer, merely wrinkling his nose at Lavinho as he laughed. “Don’t overwhelm him.”

“I’m fine, actually.” Isagi waved his hand around, hoping to assure Bunny that he wasn’t being shoved around. God forbid Bunny found out what was going on in Blue Lock and the amount of times he was tossed or shoved around by his much taller and usually stronger teammates. 

Bunny narrowed his eyes at Isagi and he held up his hands in surrender. Bunny merely rolled his eyes and reached out to ruffle his hair, the action incredibly fond and soft, “Fine, don't say I didn't warn you.” 

Bunny stepped aside, the same time that Lavinho did so, and immediately Isagi was swarmed by the rest of the Barcha team. He floundered at the sudden attention and struggled to keep up with the energy of the people around him. Bunny snorted as he hung back, watching everything with a satisfied smirk on his face. It had been a while since he had the chance to tease his brother. He was well aware that his teammates in Barcha were a rowdy bunch, much rowdier than whatever Isagi experienced in Blue Lock — he was sure. 

“You're just going to let them go at him?” Lavinho turned to him with a grin, an eyebrow raised in confusion. The sudden shift must've caused a whiplash considering Bunny had initially been so hissy and protective over Isagi. 

“He could hide it from me all he wants but I watched every single episode of BLTV that featured Yoichi.” Bunny grinned, a horrible mix of sadism and amusement. He loved his brother but it was fine to screw around with him every now and then — more so if he wanted revenge. “He's used to being shoved around. I'm confident he can stand his ground.” 

“So you were just posturing a while ago?” Lavinho’s grin only widened and Bunny turned away, just so he could avoid that knowing grin on the other striker’s face. 

“Wipe that grin off your face, it's making me want to kill myself.” Bunny scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He had gotten soft and open, more so when the tension and weight of Isagi’s sudden radio silence had been lifted. He could probably attribute most of his bad attitude towards that but if anyone asked Isagi, he'd say that Bunny was always an asshole. “I'll be going with Yoichi.”

“Hm?” Lavinho tilted his head. 

“I already cleared it with my manager.” Bunny was only informing Lavinho because it would be rude not to. Especially since he was usually the one in charge of keeping watch over the U20 team every now and again. If Bunny just vanished into thin air, no doubt he'd cause unnecessary worry and get multiple calls. “But Isagi’s training from that maniac has something to do with watching live matches. So, I'll be going with him.”

Lavinho laughed and slapped Bunny on the back, causing him to grunt, “Don’t let me stop you from reconnecting with your brother. Just come back, yeah?”

“Who knows, maybe I will run off.” Bunny smirked as he shoved Lavinho’s arm off. Lavinho merely snorted and flicked at Bunny’s head. 

“Where are you two headed next, anyway?” Bunny hummed instead of answering. Even he hadn't had the time to ask Isagi where they were headed to next. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” 

Maybe Bunny should have asked. It would've made this entire meeting both funnier and at least anticipated. He turned around, head tilted as he merely have his usual empty smile at Kaiser — his fellow New Gen Striker. 

“Surprised?” Bunny wouldn't have bothered with English but Kaiser started the conversation that way. He probably didn't know Bunny had one half of those useful translation earbuds courtesy of Isagi. 

“You don't have any reason to be here.” Kaiser grunted as he glared at Bunny. The other striker merely hummed and noted the fact that Ness was still at his side, though less in his shadow and actually by his side. He smiled at the sight, wondering if he could play around while waiting for Isagi. “The match is between Bastard and Royale, not with Barcha.”

Bunny blinked at the coincidence. He was sure that Isagi mentioned Sae contacted him through his brother’s phone, which would've meant he was in Japan. Then again, it wouldn't have taken long for him to fly out to Germany when the match was due. Still, Bunny found it a little amusing that the two people who sought to warn him and Isagi were in this stadium together. 

Unknown to him, just at the other end of the stadium, Isagi bumped into two familiar faces. 

“If it isn't Blue Lock’s little hero.” Isagi stiffened like a rabbit caught by a predator, his hands full of snacks and two bottles of water he had promised he'd get for him and Bunny. Once more, Bunny pulled some strings to get them a VIP room, but he hadn't thought he'd meet anyone before the match even started. 

“Ah, Leonardo Luna and… Itoshi Sae.” Isagi internally cringed at the sight of Rin’s brother. This time, it wasn't even because of Rin or anything in that line. Oh no, it was definitely because of whatever was going on between Sae and Bunny. His brother hadn't revealed much to him when he asked but he was able to connect some dots based on the half-baked narrative. “I didn't think...”

“We were just roaming around.” Sae shrugged but kept an obvious distance from Luna. Isagi chose to ignore whatever was going on there because that was a tension that didn't involve him in the slightest. “This is your next match?”

“Yeah...” Isagi chuckled as he tried to juggle the things in his hands to free up at least one of them.

“Are you here with someone?” Luna’s smile was bright and empty and entirely too sharp for Isagi’s liking. He was half glad that Rin wasn't here — he hadn't liked the way Luna treated him during the small interaction they had. Even before Isagi got together with Rin, he found it a bit underhanded of Luna to drag Sae into the whole issue. “Is Sae’s little brother with you?”

Isagi tried to ignore the fact that Luna probably knew he and Rin were together by finding a way to answer the question without looking like a suspicious cheater, “Yeah. I'm with family.”

“Rin didn't mention that.” Sae narrowed his eyes at Isagi and he wished that Sae actually showed this side of himself in front of Rin more often. Rin needed to know that his brother was like this and not the usually dismissive and almost borderline indifferent one he got to know after his trip from Spain. It would definitely save both of them the hassle and emotional pain but what can Isagi do? 

“It was a little impromptu.” Isagi shrugged one shoulder, tilting his head in a “what can you do about it” sort of gesture. This response didn't erase any suspicion from Sae at all and it only seemed to fuel the asshole meter in Luna. 

“Then it's a real shame you didn't invite Rin.” Luna’s face was incredibly punchable right now and had Isagi not been holding snacks and water, he would've done so. Maybe his snappy attitude came rearing its head again since he got exposed to his brother. After all, they both had a bad habit of enabling each other. 

“It is.” Isagi looked away, already figuring out some form or way of escape before he said or did anything he'd regret later on.

“By the way,” Luna’s eyes were calculating and suddenly, Isagi felt like he was being stripped bare, “your Spanish is almost natural. I'm surprised, considering you barely spoke up the last time we met.”

Isagi internally cursed himself. He had been meticulous to act and look clueless when the visiting strikers spoke in English and now he just absolutely failed at keeping his proficiency in Spanish a secret. He really should've just defaulted to English, then maybe he could’ve commented on how good a teacher Rin was. 

Except that Isagi had stowed away his translation buds in an effort to brush up on his English and Spanish while he was away. After all, he enjoyed speaking to Bunny in Spanish — especially when Bunny looked far more relaxed and sassy in the language. This also meant that when Luna spoke in Spanish, Isagi hadn't even waited for Sae to translate or given himself a chance to look confused at Luna’s words before he answered in conversational Spanish back. 

Maybe staying with Bunny was a hazard to Isagi. 

“The match is almost starting.” A blatant lie considering the star players were right in front of Isagi, “I should get going to my seat. Bye.”

Isagi dodged away from the two and disappeared into the crowd before they could question him further. He huffed out a sigh and rearranged the food in his arms. Bunny will owe him for this — he practically looked so suspicious to Sae and if this got back to Rin before he could say anything… 

“Hey, Rin!” Isagi beamed as Rin answered the phone right when he dumped the snacks on the chairs of their VIP area. Bunny raised an eyebrow from his seat, having stopped fiddling with his phone the second Isagi entered. “Sorry if I bothered you on anything but can you video call? I have to introduce you to someone.”

After he received an affirmative from Rin, Isagi hung up and waited for the resulting call. At Bunny’s raised eyebrow, Isagi shrugged. Bunny rolled his eyes and scooted over, giving Isagi space on the couch as he commented, “About time.”

“Nii-yan!” Isagi hissed exasperatedly but that was the end of his admonishment when his phone rang. Isagi glared at Bunny for the briefest of moments before he schooled his expression to a bright smile as he answered Rin. Bunny looked at him and mouthed ‘faker’ to which Isagi responded with a quick middle finger out of the camera’s view. “I wasn’t bothering you, was I?”

“No. What is this about?” Rin’s voice answered back as he was seen squinting through the phone screen. Isagi laughed a bit as he fell back on the couch.

“Things happened during the trip and I sort of got an impromptu reunion with my brother.” Isagi pressed his lips into a thin line, wondering how exactly to proceed. Out of everyone in Blue Lock, Isagi had been, surprisingly, the most tight-lipped about his family. He shared details about his ambition, his dream, even his few likes and dislikes, but he never quite shared anything in relation to his personal matters and life. So, the slight surprise in Rin’s eyes wasn’t too unfounded.

“Brother?” Rin spoke slowly, as if he was testing the word and Isagi felt just a little bad. He had hoped to tell Rin all about his issues with Bunny before introducing them but it seemed life had a different plan. “You never mentioned one.”

“It’s… complicated.” Isagi winced and Rin probably saw something in his expression that his narrowed gaze softened just the slightest bit. Ever since they started dating, Isagi had constantly imagined and reimagined how he’d introduce Rin and Bunny to each other. Even if Isagi hadn’t spoken to Bunny at the time, it didn’t mean that he planned on keeping it that way forever.

“Why now?” Right after Rin asked the question, Isagi caught Bunny nodding along as if he agreed with Rin’s sentiment. Isagi’s face twitched at the sight of it and he hoped the annoyance didn’t show on his face. God forbid Rin thought it was directed at him instead of his good-for-nothing brother. 

“I may have fucked up?” Isagi tilted his head to the side, face twisted in a grimace. Better the news came from him than whatever twisted and completely lacking version from either Sae or Luna. “Well, not really. I just- wanted you to hear it- meet him- ugh.”

No one told him that introducing his boyfriend to his brother was going to be this difficult. Maybe Isagi was overthinking this or maybe the meeting with Sae and Luna had actually rattled him. Whatever the case was, Isagi had a harder time doing this than he had introducing Rin to his parents. Hell, when Isagi met Sae it wasn’t as awkward or weird as this. 

“Isagi-”

“This is my older brother, Bunny.” Isagi cut in immediately, ripping the proverbial band-aid off. He dragged Bunny into the frame of the camera by looping his arm around his shoulders. This meant their faces were squished as Rin stared at them in stunned, or would it have been incredulous, silence. “Bunny Iglesias. Yes. My brother.”

“I’m sure he got that.” Bunny had sweetly switched to Japanese to tease Isagi. Isagi squeezed just a little tighter, a small warning.

“Barcha’s forward? That Bunny Iglesias?” Was the first thing out of Rin’s mouth. Incredulous but with a tight edge to his voice. 

“Is there any other Bunny Iglesias out there?” Bunny raised a challenging eyebrow at that and Rin scowled on the other side of the screen. Somehow Isagi’s horrible hope that the two of them would’ve gotten along went down the drain. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A Bunny Iglesias that had nothing to do with itty bitty Sae?”

Isagi watched in real time as Rin’s scowl deepened and Bunny dug his grave equally as deep. Oh, this was a mess. He was sure it’d have been a bigger mess if they met face to face, but this was already a big mess. Maybe he should’ve called Rin earlier, without Bunny in the same room. Maybe he could’ve warned him about Bunny being an absolute asshole beforehand. 

“Isagi…“ Rin’s voice shook in a way that showed he was both threatening and restraining himself. Sae was Rin’s sore spot in a way that Bunny never was for Isagi. 

“Ah, crying for- Yoichi!” Bunny choked off his reprimand when Isagi tightened his grip just a little more, a threatening smile on his face.

“Nii-yan, I am introducing you two because I love you both. Not because I want to see you fight.” Isagi turned his disappointment to Bunny because Rin was just a victim of all of this. Then, he turned back to Rin because he couldn’t let this one interaction taint his view of Bunny forever, “Rin, he’s just being an asshole because he’s jealous. Give him a minute.”

“Jealous?” Bunny hissed, face thunderous at the insinuation that Isagi set forth.

“Jealous?” Rin raised an eyebrow, interest now leaking into his voice at the reaction Bunny gave.

“Yoichi, I told you that in confidence-”

“And I introduced you to Rin in confidence.” Isagi shot back just as easily. Bunny clicked his mouth shut and then proceeded to pout. He proceeded to pout as if his own sharp remarks didn’t cause this whole problem in the first place. “If you’re going to keep pushing it, I’ll bring it up again.”

Bunny stared at Isagi for a long moment before he turned to the screen with the fakest smile Isagi had ever seen, “It was nice meeting you.”

“You can’t be any faker.” Isagi deadpanned and shoved Bunny’s face away with a snort. He gave Rin an apologetic smile as he continued, “Maybe I should’ve given you a better warning but… I’m with nii-yan for the rest of my matches because he insisted.”

“You never mentioned a brother before,” Rin repeated his words and it sounded less like disbelief and more like something else. 

A part of Isagi wanted to keep that part of his past locked up. He wanted to keep it out of the light and hoped that it would never be mentioned outside of Bunny and himself. The fact that their situation mirrored what happened between Sae and Rin but in the worst way possible, only made things worse. 

Another part of Isagi wanted to stay honest, to be real with Rin. He wanted to bare his entire soul to Rin the same way Rin had when he opened up to him about Sae. Isagi wanted Rin to be a part of his life more than just what he’d shown — he wanted Rin to see even the worst parts of him.

If Rin hated him for it, so be it.

“That’s because I pretended like he didn’t exist for a year,” Isagi spoke slowly, deliberately. He didn’t want to seem like he was rushing the explanation. He didn’t want to seem like he was hiding anything. From the look Bunny shot him from the other end of the couch, it looked like he hadn’t even expected that from him.

“Why?”

“I…“ Isagi hesitated, just slightly, because no one in Blue Lock ever had the chance to hear his own insecurities. The Isagi Yoichi in Blue Lock was confident and self-assured, constantly improving and getting better. This Isagi Yoichi, who was Bunny’s little brother, always felt like Bunny deserved a better brother. “I didn’t feel like I was a good brother for him- not with the way I was playing before Blue Lock.”

It was quiet, horribly quiet. 

“Call me after the match.” Were Rin’s last words before he hung up. Isagi never even got the chance to see Rin’s face or get a word in. He slowly lowered his phone and breathed out.

“You love him,” Bunny stated the fucking obvious. As if Isagi hadn’t just practically ruined his relationship with Rin by admitting that he acted similarly to Sae. 

“Was it that obvious?” Isagi shot back sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he shoved his phone on the couch. He didn’t even want to look at anything on it anymore, not when his home screen was one of the few photos he managed to steal of Rin sleeping. 

“The match is almost starting.” Bunny turned away after scanning Isagi’s face for a long moment. Isagi jumped in his seat and tuned back into the announcements, catching the exact moment the ball was in play. He glanced at Bunny and opened his mouth just to be cut off, “Don’t get distracted now. You want to get better, don’t you?”

“Right, right.” It was a bit low for Bunny to use Isagi’s love for soccer and winning to trump his love for Rin. If he hadn’t, then Isagi wouldn’t have focused on the game as sharply as he did. If he hadn’t, then Isagi would’ve sabotaged himself in this important training regime that Ego 

Plus, as Isagi had said, it was Bunny’s fault — somehow. 

“I’ll be right back, need to do something real quick.” Bunny watched as Isagi absentmindedly nodded, already focused on the game and the strategies that unfolded before his eyes. Too focused on the game to notice Bunny grab his phone as he slipped out. 

He really should berate Isagi for not having at least a passcode or fingerprint lock on his phone as he fiddled with it. Though it definitely worked in his favor at this moment. It also meant that Bunny had no trouble navigating through the contacts and finding Rin’s number. He hummed as his thumb hovered over the button, considering his options. It didn’t really take him long to decide as he pressed ‘call’.

“I thought I told you-”

“I’m not going to apologize for anything.” Bunny cut Rin off immediately, not exactly keen on being on the end of Rin’s tirade that was meant for Isagi. He didn’t even mention the fact that Rin answered pretty quickly for someone who wanted to give Isagi the cold shoulder. “And I’m hoping Yoichi won’t either. He did nothing wrong.”

“Why are you talking?” The words were gritted out, like it was balancing between disbelief and harsh anger. It only took a single misstep before everything came crashing down. 

Bunny was horrible at things like this — comfort, assurance, all that sappy love stuff. But for Isagi, he’d do and be anything.

“Because I want you to know two things,” Bunny leaned against the wall and he hoped that Rin wouldn’t be a snitch to his brother or he’d just go ahead and off himself for even trying. “One, Yoichi loves you very much and he might’ve fucked up on this point but don’t let that define your relationship.”

“The second?” Rin grunted and Bunny smiled a bit. Isagi chose a good one because that was a reluctant agreement. Reluctant but an agreement nonetheless. 

“I loved your brother just as much, might still love him,” Bunny’s voice lowered, like it was a secret not meant for anyone but himself, “but I fucked up and said some things I didn’t mean. Probably fucked him up a bit because I’m a real nasty asshole if I wanted to be, take it from Yoichi — he wasn’t exactly exaggerating about that.”

It was almost horrifying to admit it to someone other than Yoichi. Worse yet, it was to Sae’s little brother. Estranged but a brother nonetheless. It was a past that he was quite satisfied keeping buried, even with the occasional mention of it to Yoichi. The kind of past that lingered in the back of his mind before he squashed it and moved on. The kind of past that haunted him and he wondered if it haunted Sae back. He hoped it did.

“What's the connection here?” There was suspicion but Bunny wondered if Rin was slowly starting to see the connection. Or maybe he didn't and just wanted Bunny to end the conversation right then and there. 

“The connection here is that I said those things because I wasn't thinking. Every single time I look back at it, it makes me want to die.” Bunny paused and closed his eyes. It was incredibly hard to admit he was wrong but goddammit he'd do anything for Isagi to be happy. “And your conversation with Yoichi… Reminded me of that. He loves you, don't make this one mistake he did fuck it all up.”

“This isn't about Isagi saying the wrong thing.” Rin snapped and Bunny remembered the icy glacier that was Sae’s anger. The way Sae shut down and put up walls so no one else could enter. The way Sae glared so coldly that Bunny wondered how he didn't freeze to death. To Bunny, Rin’s anger was red and hot. “This is about him not telling me he had a brother.”

“Because he didn't see me as a brother that time.” Bunny listened, slow and steady, as Rin scoffed on the other end. It sounded like an excuse but it was the truth. Kind of painful on Bunny’s end but the truth. “He cut off all contact with me. This isn't me defending, Yoichi. This is me explaining him to you.”

“Then why are you-!” The retort was cut off. A flower nipped at the bud. Wings clipped before they could fly. An accusation stopped before it could've even been brought before the jury.

So why are you defending him?

“Because he's my brother.” Bunny answered the unspoken question. Maybe he was wrong about what was supposed to be said. Maybe Rin meant something else. Maybe- Maybe- Maybe— 

Far too many ‘what if’s, it was driving Bunny crazy. 

“That's it?” His words were flat and Bunny chuckled. Maybe there was some saving grace in interacting with the younger Itoshi. He wasn't as easily dismissive as Sae was — no matter how hard he wanted to try to emulate it. 

“Should there have been more?” Bunny shrugged to no one but himself. “Yoichi’s my idiot brother. That's all there is to it. He hurt me, I hurt him back. In the end, we're still brothers.”

There was an undercurrent of something that brewed at the other end of the phone. Then, Bunny heard a sigh and he marked that as a victory. Tentative, because Isagi still had multiple chances to fuck up but at least Bunny tried.

“I'm still mad.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You're fucking annoying.”

“Not the first time I heard that.”

“Nii-chan was right to warn Isagi of you.”

“Eh, a bit too late. I'd say, years too late.”

“Don't talk to me.” 

That marked the end of the call. A man of many words, Itoshi Rin was. 

But he was undoubtedly Sae’s brother.

Bunny smiled and stuffed the phone and his hands into his pockets. He's a bit jealous of Isagi. For having someone who matched his freak just as bad. Bunny wished Sae wasn't so prickly and evasive to match his freak but he guessed that no one can get everything. 

“How's the game?” Bunny tossed the phone back on the couch, confident that Isagi wouldn't notice. 

“It's a tie, so far.” Isagi’s eyes were glued to the field and Bunny wondered just how far until he was practically kneeling on the glass and pressing close. Just a few more and Bunny was thankful that they were far from the field or else he'd have found Isagi playing on it by now. “Royale’s team is well built — focusing on both attack and defense. The same can be said about Bastard München but I think Kaiser changed a little. He's sharper and he's working more with the people around him rather than Ness alone.”

“Eh? The grumpy emperor?” A smile tugged on his lips as he sat beside his brother. “What did you do to him, Yo-chan?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar.”

“Really! He issued a challenge and I won!” 

It's the ease and nonchalance of how Isagi said the words that stole a laugh right from Bunny. He snorted and shook his head in slight disbelief. It had been years since he last played with Isagi on the field, both against and with him. He was sure that his brother had improved, had grown much further than he had last seen him. Still, it wasn't just anyone who could say they defeated one of the New Gen Eleven Strikers in their own team. 

Maybe he should take a watch back to those Blue Lock TV clips. Even when he watched all of them for just the smallest hint of his brother, he hadn't actually paid too much attention to everyone else around him. There had to be a reason Kaiser was so adamant in warning him of his own brother.  

Bunny never really got the chance to watch back on those clips now. Not when the match finished with Isagi’s analysis of everything that happened playing as a backdrop. At the time, Bunny’s manager had mentioned offhandedly that their VIP tickets also allowed them a chance to visit the locker rooms of the teams. A courtesy, considering they were fellow soccer players and not just random fans. Bunny had waved the thought away at the time, since he wasn't all that interested. 

After all, it was PR suicide for Bunny to be caught fraternizing with anyone in Royale. Even if he was so flippant about his desire to die, he wasn't ready for that commitment yet. 

“Ah, I really learned a lot this time,” Isagi muttered under his breath as Bunny helped him pack up. “Ego really had the right idea to let me see these games live and up close.”

“Don't get stuck in the clouds, Yoichi.” Bunny tossed Isagi’s phone his way. He caught the flying object and Isagi blinked down on it. “Did you forget you had a date?”

“That-!” Isagi fumbled with the phone for a minute, and Bunny resisted the urge to laugh and tease him about it. Then, he unlocked the phone and Bunny remembered just why Isagi worked best with his eyes on the whole field, “Why is there another outgoing call to...”

“You're welcome, by the way.” Bunny was not going to apologize. He had done his best and he's leaving Isagi with the rest of it. 

“Nii-yan!” Isagi squawked but that was the end of it as he rushed out the room, phone already pressed against his ear. 

He really loved that kid. 

Bunny turned away from the door, almost seeing a ghost of someone in the form of Isagi. The past was best left buried and stayed haunting. There was no reason for him to dig up a grave that had long since been sealed off. He hummed and tossed the last of their garbage away, dusting his hands as he straightened. 

“What are you doing here?” It seemed like he thought about the past and that grave for far too long that he'd summoned the ghost. 

“It's been a while, Sae~” Bunny remembered to speak in Spanish, knowing that it both irked Sae to no end and because the other only knew him to speak two languages. There was no need to reveal any secrets while they were here, after all. “Did you miss me so much that you came sniffing around to try and find me?”

Sae, typically, ignored his comments in favor of scanning the room and asking again, “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Bunny merely laughed as he stalked forward, “And who says I'm not? I can go anywhere and watch any match I want. You're not someone who can control me anymore.”

The last comment must've stung, with the way Sae finally snapped his gaze at Bunny. They held each other’s eyes in appraisal for a brief moment, more than a passing glance but less than something more.

“You're uncontrollable.” Sae snapped, and Bunny refused to liken his tone to the same one Rin had used previously. Something about “You're uncontrollable” and “This isn’t about Isagi” rang a familiar tune. It's a shame that Bunny preferred dancing to just one of them. “It’s a miracle if someone could control you.”

You could’ve. You had.

“I thought that was the part of me you liked.” The smirk came easily, just the same way taunting Sae always had. This time, it just had a little more bite to it. “I'd be lying if I said I didn't see your little stunt against Blue Lock.”

Bunny would be a liar if he said he hadn't destroyed the remote control at the sight of that pesky blonde-haired, pink-tipped, asshole clinging to someone that wasn't his. Sae should be thankful that Isagi winning the entire thing soothed Bunny over enough to not storm into Japan himself and wrench the pathetic demon off what was his.

“Enough.” There it was again. The same cold and clipped tone. The same tune that sang whenever Bunny stepped too close, spoke too sharply. 

Oh, and Bunny loved it. He loved every second of it. He wanted to press further. To push buttons that never should've been pushed. To shove Sae against the very edge and watch as he either scrambled to grab onto him to save himself or to fall to the depths with that nasty glare of his. 

It was beautiful. 

It was dangerous.

“Nii-yan, what are you-” The timing couldn't have been more diabolical. The once tense and icy atmosphere splintered at the presence of an outsider — a third party not at all involved with their horrible dance between love and death. 

“Isagi?” Sae narrowed his eyes, suspicion more than coldness seeped into his very being. 

Isagi, in turn, looked at Bunny as if he had all the answers to the universe. Bunny merely shrugged. 

The sight of it made Isagi’s face twitch. He wasn't sure if it was out of annoyance or panic but it twitched and he switched to glaring at Bunny. Isagi had just come from a semi-disastrous talk with Rin that thankfully didn't end with them breaking up. Now, Isagi had to walk in on whatever dick measuring contest the two toxic exes had going on inside the room. 

Nothing could make this entire meeting worse.

“What are you doing here, Yoichi?” Isagi slowly turned, his neck creaking like an overused door, as his eyes locked with the last person he wanted to see: Michael fucking Kaiser.

“Fuck.” Isagi cursed in English because there was only one proper way to verbalize what he was feeling at the moment. He also needed everyone in the vicinity to be fully aware of how much he hated this situation at the moment. Translation earbuds or not, he wanted the very essence of what he felt to be projected into the word. He didn't want all of that wasted on deaf ears just because they didn't understand him. 

“Well, look! The gang’s all together!” Bunny had the audacity to chirp over all their heads, grinning like the maniac that he was. He was definitely enjoying this, the fucker. Isagi wished he had the benefit of wringing the other’s neck with his bare hands. 

He loved his brother, very very much, and he deeply regretted ever ghosting him to that degree in the past. However, this alone was enough to make him reconsider ever reconnecting with the monumental asshole that was Bunny Iglesias. 

“Shut up.” Sae turned around and glared at Bunny. The very action seeped with untapped sexual frustration that Isagi had no business considering had Bunny not regaled him with his horrid narration of how his relationship with one Itoshi Sae crashed and burned by his own hands. 

“What are you doing here?” This time, Kaiser’s question was aimed at Bunny but the way his eyes flicked back to Isagi showed that the sentiment was still more or less directed at him. “What are you two doing together?”

Isagi narrowed his eyes at Kaiser for the way he emphasized the last word. It was weird, and Kaiser was looking at him strangely. Even Sae suddenly switched his glare to Isagi. There was some nuance in the sentence that Isagi wasn’t able to catch and when he glanced at Bunny, he didn’t either.

Silence.

Then, Isagi pinched the bridge of his nose while Bunny snorted into his fist. Isagi glared at Kaiser and Sae and ushered them both inside the VIP room that, by all intents and purposes, should've been vacated by now. Once Isagi managed to manhandle them both to sit down, he turned and slapped Bunny behind the head.

“You are the worst.” Isagi deadpanned.

“Is that how you treat me after a few years of radio silence?” Bunny rubbed at the back of his head, pouting. Isagi’s glare and stance faltered a bit. When Bunny winked at him, Isagi regained some of his confidence. Enough to lightly kick Bunny in the shin for that comment, no matter how true.

“You know each other,” Sae spoke, eyes narrowed at them both before he glanced at Kaiser with a frown. He had spoken in Japanese, more in an effort to keep Bunny out of the conversation. Kaiser merely scoffed and pushed the translating earbud into one of his ears.

He gestured around at them with a smug smirk, “Go on. I don’t know about that asshole but I’ll understand you perfectly fine.”

Bunny’s face twitched at Kaiser’s look. Bunny had hoped Kaiser didn’t even bring those damned earbuds, maybe then he could’ve easily kept the arrogant prick from the conversation all he wanted. Instead, he rolled his eyes and gave a smirk of his own as he tapped his ear.

“Don’t worry,” Sae jumped when the voice that naturally spoke in a low timber of Spanish instead pronounced Japanese words with a finesse he hadn’t expected. Of course, the sentiment was lost on Kaiser, who merely frowned at him, but at least his little show surprised someone. “I can understand you just fine.”

“You’re acting like he can understand you.” Kaiser raised an eyebrow in return. “Unless you're speaking English, too.”

“Of course he can.” Bunny turned his gaze towards Sae, catching just the right moment when Sae let the realization actually sink in. That Bunny actually knew conversational Japanese fluently. “More than that, I could understand him even without the earbuds.”

Kaiser could be a prick and a smug bastard rolled into one but he wasn't stupid. Understanding dawned in his eyes before they narrowed suspiciously at Bunny. While all of the New Gen Eleven Players understood a base form of conversational English to communicate with each other and internationally, there was still a limit to what they can express in a foreign language. So, Kaiser reluctantly extended one of his earbuds to Sae, much to the other’s confusion. 

“You're a real piece of trash, not a surprise there, but you're even worse today.” Kaiser paused and turned his piercing gaze to the silent party during the entire exchange, “Or maybe I should be calling you the piece of shit here.”

Isagi bristled at the insult, unsure where it was even coming from. He snarled at Kaiser, “Huh? Do you want to fight? Why are you dragging me into this?”

“Such a cute, innocent act.” Kaiser sneered as he leaned forward. His gaze would have pinned Isagi to freeze in his place had there been any semblance of guilt. Instead, Isagi merely narrowed his eyes at Kaiser like the problem in this room was him. “Clearly, you two have been sharing this room the entire match and not to mention Bunny using the other half of your earbuds.”

Isagi’s eyebrows lifted incredulously at Kaiser’s drawlingly mocking tone. He sifted through the facts that Kaiser presented and then came up blank. The way he spoke was as if he were accusing Isagi of some heinous act. As if the fact that he was with Bunny was a crime rather than just a weird coincidence. “What?”

“You said you were with family, Isagi.” Sae butted in and Isagi looked at him. Before he even had the chance to reconfirm his words, Kaiser barked out an incredulous laugh. 

“Lying? I didn’t know you would stoop this low.” Isagi had it up to here with Kaiser’s bullshit and he turned to glare at him sharply. It was one thing when they argued and butted heads on the field, but it was another for Kaiser to keep insulting him about something he didn’t even know about.

“Okay, what are you even talking about?” Isagi hissed and he would have been halfway to Kaiser to pull at his ugly rat tail had Bunny not grabbed his shoulder. When Isagi turned, just a little betrayed at the action, he noticed the dark look Bunny sported. Isagi blinked and realized that Bunny had probably stopped him because he wanted to punch Kaiser himself.

“Here I thought you couldn’t be any more of a prick but you surprise me every single time.” Bunny had the darkest smile ever on his face and it had Isagi a little disturbed. He thought he’d seen the worst of Bunny, but apparently, he could go lower. "You better not be insinuating that Yoichi and I are dating.”

Isagi gagged on reflex, a mix of disgust and the familiar brotherly derision. He loved Bunny, of course — it had been repeated over and over ever since he saw his brother again, but not like that. Just the thought of it made Isagi itch and he glared at Kaiser for even trying to speak it into reality.

“You thought what?” Isagi screeched and it was only the firm grip on his shoulder that kept him from lunging at Kaiser. “That’s disgusting!”

“What else were we supposed to think?” Kaiser raised an eyebrow. He gestured around vaguely as he continued to speak, each word making Isagi’s get a bigger and bigger headache, “You’re sharing the same room, which by the way is under Bunny’s name, you shared the same translation earbuds unprompted, and it sounds like you told Sae some bullshit excuse. Not to mention, this asshole here was super dodgy about explaining why he was even watching the match in the first place.”

“You said you were with family, Isagi.” Sae repeated again but this time his gaze jumped between Isagi and Bunny. 

“Yeah, because I’m his older brother.” Bunny scoffed incredulously. He gestured at Sae all the while glaring at Kaiser, “Was that not obvious, smartass?”

“Fuck no?” Kaiser scowled right back, straightening in his seat to point at Bunny and then Isagi. “Look at you two, you’re practically night and day. Who the hell would think, yes these two are brothers.”

“You really are being a smartass about it.” Isagi muttered under his breath, just to be petty. 

There was a beat and then Kaiser dropped his arm, “No, nevermind. I can see the resemblance.”

“I called you to warn you about Bunny.” Sae deadpanned, the reality sinking in silently as opposed to Kaiser’s loud exclamations. 

“Yeah, it was a coincidence that we were having lunch that time.” Isagi coughed as he recalled the rather humorous chain of events. It didn’t help that something like recognition flashed in Kaiser’s eyes before he stood up and sneered at Bunny.

“I warned you about this egoist.”

“He heard you complimenting him.” Bunny’s bad habit of taunting and poking at the sleeping dragon reared its ugly head. He snickered as he pointed at Sae, “I heard your little comments, too. Such high praise from my favorite New Generation Players.”

“Bullshit.” Cold and cutting, that was from Sae.

“Fuck you.” Snarled out, that was from Kaiser.

“Okay, now that that’s out of the way. Can we leave now?” Isagi pointed at the door. He wasn’t quite sure what Sae or Kaiser had come up to the VIP room for in the first place but that was thrown out of the window now.

“Absolutely not.” When Sae stood up, Bunny’s grip tightened ever so slightly on Isagi’s shoulder. It seemed his brother hadn’t quite moved on like he liked to say he had. “There’s a story behind this. You never mentioned a brother before.”

Isagi was struck by the similarities of Sae’s words. It was like playing back a broken record — something different but altogether the same. Based on the way Bunny raised an eyebrow, he seemed to think the same way. 

“You kept talking about your brother enough for the both of us.” Bunny answered smoothly, a redirection and a snipe at the same time. Isagi rolled his eyes at the comment. He wasn’t sure what Bunny had talked about with Rin but it had to have been about Sae. Something about not repeating the same mistakes.

If only Bunny could take his own advice and stop digging into the wound he made.

“Oh, so there’s history here.” Kaiser should have really left a long time ago. Isagi wasn’t even sure why he stayed. He didn’t have that much of a stake in this whole ordeal. 

“It’s none of your business.” Isagi snapped because Bunny was busy eye-fucking Sae. Which Isagi really shouldn’t have seen and he would be complaining about this to Rin later. Sometimes, big brothers can be incredibly annoying.

“It became part of my business when that prick is involved.” Kaiser pointed right at Bunny and Isagi dragged a hand down his face.

“Whatever, just- can we leave?”

“No.” Three different voices chorused and Isagi buried his face in his hands. He really should’ve just invited Rin. 

That sentiment followed him for the rest of the day, because what do you mean the four of them ended up in one of Germany’s fine dining restaurants (Ness had somehow tagged along as well). 

“You know, I’m more surprised that Yoichi took that long to catch up to you.” Was supposed to be a passing comment from Bunny after Kaiser reminisced about the days Isagi wasn’t such a thorn at his side.

“What is that supposed to mean?” The fork scraped against the plate and Isagi rolled his eyes at the dramatics. He was surrounded by egomaniacs who belonged more in a theatre than on the soccer field.

“What?” Bunny paused, setting his fork down slowly as he took in three incredulous stares. “Yoichi played against and with me for most of his childhood. Do you really think he didn’t learn anything from that?”

“He wasn’t that impressive in the Barcha match.” Ness mused, though it was more teasing than sharp and pointed. Isagi was a bit relieved that Ness somehow got over his pointed hatred of him and instead looked back on the experience as something amusing. 

“He was just getting started.” Bunny retorted and Isagi shot his brother a look. Bunny shrugged in response and Isagi sighed.

He didn’t need Bunny to defend him. He had rewatched his previous matches and admitted — he did suck. But that’s how improvement went — you had to lose before you could win. Isagi had to have a base foundation before he remade himself into something better. You couldn’t fix something if it didn’t exist first.

“I lost most of my previous playstyle because of Ichinan High.” Isagi admitted because it was something that he had never quite explained to Bunny just yet. He didn’t care that Kaiser, Ness, or Sae heard how he felt because the only person that mattered at that whole table was Bunny.

“Japanese soccer was always built to fail.” Sae added lightly and Isagi stared at him. He wasn’t quite sure what Sae’s damage was, considering he only had bits and pieces of the incomplete picture based on what he heard from Rin and Bunny. What he was sure about was that Bunny played quite a large role in Sae’s insecurities. Whether he liked that fact or not.

“Then, you should count your lucky stars Blue Lock exists, right?” Bunny leaned on the table and beamed. It wasn’t sarcastic or sharp but Isagi couldn’t help but think it was still rather pointed. “Just in time, too. For the World Cup.”

“Blue Lock’s still far from polished.” Kaiser scoffed and leaned back, abandoning his food in favor of pinning Isagi with a stare. “You got a lucky break that Bastard München was as disjointed as it was when you played. If it wasn’t, none of you would stand a chance.”

“Even the other clubs weren’t at their best,” Ness added, always an afterthought to Kaiser. Isagi wondered if he had grown out of that phase yet. “Blue Lock hijacked a perfectly oiled machine."

“Blue Lock itself isn’t a perfectly oiled machine, either.” Isagi hated how Kaiser was right. Aside from the match against the Japanese Youth Team, they hadn’t had much time to actually play together as a team. “You still have a long way to go if you want to stand on the world stage.”

“Why else do you think we’re going through training?” Isagi raised an eyebrow in return, always seeing Kaiser’s words as a challenge. Yet, he also saw some truth in them. If Blue Lock couldn’t work together as a team before the World Cup, their efforts would have become a waste. 

Isagi wondered lightly just how Ego hoped to achieve this. While they had managed something against the Youth Team, the skills and abilities of those on the world stage were different. They'd have to come up with different strategies and chemical reactions, not to mention how Ego planned to get the egoistic strikers to work together for once. After all, they were all greedy for goals.

Though Isagi had come to learn that some of them far preferred the glory of winning overall — himself being one of them — that still didn't change the fact that the others were a bit more self-centered. It was what made them great strikers but slightly horrible team players.

Then again, if Isagi looked back at how each striker played in the Neo Egoist League, he could note down how most, if not all, the once selfish strikers managed to implement teamwork into generating their own self-serving goals. Out of all of them, Shidou shocked him the most but that could be excused by his lack of understanding of the striker. Barou was another surprise but with the right motivation or framing of the scenario, he was capable of teamwork as well.

“Earth to Yo-chan, are you there?” Isagi blinked when fingers snapped in front of his face. He glared at Bunny for the blatant use of his nickname in front of the other players. “Ah, there you are. Done dissecting everything?”

“You're the worst.” A fact that Isagi spoke of with confidence, even when his cheeks flushed with slight embarassment. He hadn't meant to drift of like that — all too used to being inside his own brain to realize what he had done until Bunny pointed it out. 

“Ah, but I'm right. Aren't I?” Bunny smirked and had Isagi been a little less shameful and a little less triumphant, he would've smacked the smirk right off his face. “You figured out the answer.”

“Not telling.” Isagi looked away smoothly and stuffed his mouth with steak to avoid answering even further. 

“Stop being a brat.” Bunny scoffed and flicked Isagi’s cheek. Isagi merely rolled his eyes at Bunny’s petulance. Sure, he was being petty too but he had every right because Bunny started it.

“Well, you-”

“Bunny.” The sharp tone cut through their banter easily and Sae stood from his seat. His eyes were narrowed dangerously at Bunny and Isagi was sure if looks could kill, Bunny was dismembered and thrown into an incinerator by now. “Outside.”

“If you really wanted me-” In a flash, Sae grabbed Bunny’s arm and dragged him out before he could even finish. Due to their height and weight difference, Isagi was sure that Bunny let himself be dragged. 

Out of everything, Isagi wasn’t sure what it was that made Sae snap. He had been doing fine with Bunny’s presence since the stadium. There could be the reason that Sae had reached his “Bunny limit”, by which Isagi couldn’t even blame him. Though he wasn’t sure why he had reached that limit when Bunny had focused solely on interacting with Kaiser and Isagi. 

The table was silent and it dawned on Isagi. He was left alone with Kaiser and Ness. Bunny had left him alone with Kaiser and Ness. 

Isagi looked at the German across the table and their eyes locked. For the briefest moment, something like mutual realization flashed in their eyes before it melted into something more heated. More dangerous. After all, Isagi had used Bunny as a buffer to interact with Kaiser the entire time — the same way Kaiser used Bunny no doubt.

Now, their little buffer was gone.

“You will not speak to anyone about anything I said in that phone call, Yoichi.” Kaiser leaned forward as he hissed and Isagi laughed. He laughed at Kaiser’s face and for once since he met the two, Ness merely hummed and looked away. Good, he should preserve his dignity and brain cells for this conversation. 

“I found it a little sweet.” Isagi spoke slowly, enunciating each word properly just to get under Kaiser’s skin. By the way his eyes twitched, he was winning. “That you think Bunny should go against me in a real match.”

“You’re useless in a practice match.” Kaiser sneered right back and Isagi’s eyes twitched. He was not. While the stakes were much lower than in any other match, Isagi also preferred to experiment during a practice match. Come up with ideas and strategies that he wouldn’t have the time to think of during a proper match. That or he wouldn’t have the balls to actually execute because he wasn’t sure whether the odds were in his favor.

“I’m practicing in a practice match. Ever heard of that?” Isagi wished that Bunny would come back to Kaiser still alive.

“Only clowns like you need practice.”

“Oh, but who was the clown that won against you in the match against PXG?”

“You’re only proving my point further, dumb Yoichi. You didn’t practice any of what you did in that match.”

“You can’t be so sure of that!”

“Oh, I’m sure.”

Bunny wasn’t quite sure what he expected when he let Sae drag him right out of the private room they got, but it was definitely not to be dragged into the single stall bathroom, have the door locked behind him, and almost get a fist to his face. He laughed and caught Sae’s fist before it could make his entire night hell and tightened his grip around it until Sae grunted.

“Are we doing this now?” Bunny teased, lowering Sae’s hand so he could lean closer to the other. This was a familiar song and dance that Bunny almost missed. Almost because he missed a different dance much more. Like this, with Sae just inches from his face, he could maybe pretend like it was that dance. 

“You’re lying. Somehow.” Sae spoke through gritted teeth and Bunny had to force himself to stare into his eyes rather than his lips. Because if he had, he might not be responsible for his next actions.

“About what?” Bunny smirked and traced the way Sae’s lashes framed his face perfectly, even when his eyes were narrowed into near slits. If any of this gets back to Isagi, he would never be able to live it down. 

“You two could never be brothers.” Sae hissed and for a brief moment, Bunny was distracted by how pretty Sae looked. He really should give Luna an earful for getting Sae into this dumb hairstyle. He enjoyed brushing the bangs out of his eyes and- wait what?

“Excuse me?” Bunny unconsciously tightened his grip on Sae’s fist, his other hand raising to press against Sae’s shoulder. It was one thing for Sae to take offense at anything Bunny said or did. That was just the norm between them both, sharper now after what Bunny did. It was another thing for Sae to go after his relationship with his brother. A relationship that was rocky at best for two years before they just barely fixed it. A relationship that Bunny would rather die than lose or see disrespected. “What did you say?”

“Stop acting coy, Iglesias.” Not even the switch to his last name, spat out like venom, caused the familiar hurt to surface. No, Bunny was far too laser-focused on what Sae was insinuating. “I don’t care what kind of game you and Isagi are playing but it stops now. I’m not going to let you hurt Rin like this.”

“Hah?” Bunny let out an incredulous laugh, the sound forced out of his breath as everything came crashing around them. Of course. Of course. It always came back around to this. To Sae’s insecurity. To Sae’s horrid inadequacy. It’s a shame — had they been together, then maybe Bunny would’ve been kinder with his next words. Maybe he wouldn’t have. Whatever the case may be, Bunny was sharp when he spat out, “Don’t project your inability to reconnect with your brother on me. Not all of us are touchy about not being good enough for their little brother.”

Sae’s eyes widened a fraction, something like hurt flashed through them. Bunny internally purred at the sight, relishing in the fact that he hurt Sae. He relished the truth that he was better than him. He always would be. Spain’s genius striker, a member of the New Generation Eleven. Something that Sae could never hope to be.

“Unlike you,” Bunny sneered and there was no mockery, no sarcasm, no amused tilt to his voice as he spoke, “I could barely give a fuck about whether Isagi is good or not. he could be shit and he’d still be my little brother. Not lukewarm, not tepid — not like you.”

This time, Sae flinched at his words. His clenched fist faltered and he stumbled back. It was only Bunny’s tight grip on him that stopped him from getting far. Bunny scoffed under his breath and let go, watching as Sae stepped away like he burned.

“You can have a problem with me all you want, Itoshi.” The nuance was not lost between them both — not when Bunny was all too familiar with it and weaponized it. “But you don’t have any room to judge or assume what kind of relation Yoichi and I have. Think we’re lying all you want but don’t ever drag Yoichi or Rin into your bullshit. I think you’ve used up all your privilege as a big brother.”

It didn’t take a genius to see the way Rin stiffened whenever Sae was mentioned to give a hint of their current relationship. It didn’t take an idiot to see the way Rin glared heatedly at Bunny as if he was the core of the problem. The problem was that Rin was wrong. Bunny might have lit the fuse but the bomb was already crafted, careful and meticulous, by Sae himself. It had always existed and Bunny merely brought attention to it — something he’d always come to regret. 

After all, Bunny was hurting that time, too.

“Nice talk.” And it was back, the mocking and knowing smile. This time, there was an undercurrent of something that made Sae hesitate. Bunny felt a headache coming as he turned to leave. Here he thought he’d have a little fun teasing Sae and maybe get the small hope in his chest that they’d get back together to come true. Except, it was the complete opposite. Now, he didn’t have any chance with Sae, not after that.

“You were projecting.” Sae grabbed his arm and both the words and action caused Bunny’s thoughts to screech to a halt. He turned and stared at Sae dumbly.

“What.”

“Your little speech that night. You were projecting.” Sae straightened and looked Bunny in the eyes. Bunny gaped at the idiot in front of him. What the fuck?

“What gave you that idea?” 

“You talked about big brothers and needing to be there, to be heard.” Sae narrowed his eyes and crowded Bunny against the door again. Bunny was too speechless to even do anything against that as he looked at Sae like he was crazy. What? “You ranted all over the place about always being there for little brothers. Everything else was a jab at me but this sounded personal. I didn’t get it at the time, not when I thought you were a damned only child — talking like you know shit.”

“Sae-”

“Your relationship isn’t as rainbows and sunshines as you pretend it to be.” Sae spoke like he ingested venom for the pure reason to spit it right back at Bunny’s face. “Don’t you dare look down on me like you’re perfect. You’re the reason everything’s like this.”

“Blaming me now?” He had every right to, but Bunny didn’t voice that out. Not now. Not ever. “You had every chance to fix things or did I not see you two interact after that match against the Japan Youth team?”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do. Everything’s fine.”

“You’re pretending.”

“I am doing what’s best for Rin. He needs an obstacle to overcome before he could stand on that stage. He can’t grow if he keeps going the way he is.”

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe he needed a brother more?” Sae clicked his mouth shut and Bunny knew he got him — hook, line and sinker. 

It was a question that Bunny constantly asked himself. If Isagi had ever stopped needing a brother and instead wanted an idol, an obstacle, a goal. It haunted him everywhere he went before he cornered Isagi in Spain. The idea that Isagi stopped seeing him as a brother, as his dependable nii-yan, and instead wanted to see him as that unattainable goal. The idea that Isagi looked at Bunny the same way he looked at Noa — with cold detachment and admiration. 

“Aren’t you tired of being on a pedestal, Sae?” They were back to the issue at hand. That damned pedestal that Sae insisted on being on top of. The damned pedestal Japan crafted and Sae ensured stayed standing, no matter what. The damned pedestal that Sae was so stubborn to get off of. The pedestal was more like a ball and chain than anything else. It was also the noose that wrapped around the relationship Sae had with Rin. 

The silence stretched on and Bunny sighed, running a hand through his hair. He watched Sae and how he moved, the slow blink, the emptiness that overtook once bright green eyes. Bunny missed that light. He wondered just when did they both mirror each other far too much. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. 

“I hate you.” Sae whispered and Bunny leaned back, a lazy smirk on his face.

“I know.” Because he told the truth. He spoke of things that Sae wanted to ignore. He made what was hidden come to light. He pulled when Sae pushed, and god did he push. 

And wow, when did they start kissing?

“What.” Bunny pushed Sae off, keeping him at arm’s length. It wasn’t foreign for them to argue and then make out after. But that was before. That was before the breakup. That was before the blow-up. That was before they tore at each other’s skins and walked away from each other as ghosts that haunted the shadows. This was not before, this was now and Bunny was not about to rush back into things when Sae was broken into pieces. Not when they were both so fragile. 

Bunny didn’t have the excuse of Isagi not paying attention to him anymore. Not just that but Sae was- Sae was-

“You make me make the worst decisions,” Sae announced like he hadn’t just lunged forward and smacked their lips together messily. 

“Can you not make those decisions right now?” Bunny wanted it so bad but not now. Not when he just told Rin his most vulnerable secret. Not when Isagi was on slightly shaky terms with Rin. Not when the wounds were torn open and exposed again. 

“You want this.”

“I never said that I didn’t.” Bunny dragged a hand down his face. They made each other choose the worst paths and it was a bad idea to do this right now. Specifically right now. What even happened to get them to where they were? This was a mess. Bunny was a mess.

“What is stopping you?” Sae narrowed his eyes and god, did he have to be so tempting when Bunny was trying to be a good person? He should really stop trying later. Later, his mind reminded him when he found himself leaning close. 

“Fix your fucking issues first,” Bunny muttered and when exactly did they get close enough for him to whisper those words to Sae’s lips? Teal-green met blood red and it was just them for a moment. “I’m not getting with you when you’re gonna look at me and Yoichi and see your own mistakes.”

“A stupid ultimatum.” Sae had every chance to lean in close or lean back but he did neither. They stayed like that for a moment longer, lingering and yearning, until Sae turned away with a frown. “No.”

“Then, no.” Bunny straightened and turned away.

“I already told you not to tell me what to do.”

“Oh, is that because you tell me what to do?” Bunny threw the retort over his shoulder as he unlocked the door. He was walking away from something so good but it was a necessary sacrifice. If it ever drove any wedge between him and Isagi again, he’d throw himself off a skyscraper. He turned around just as he opened the door, “I’m not forcing you, Sae. I need you to want to fix things on your own but… until that happens, we can’t do anything together. Not when it’ll only hurt them more.”

And Sae watched him go. He watched him leave. Of course, he did. It was always Bunny who left, it was always Bunny who moved. It was always Sae that stayed stock still, like he was frozen in time and immovable. 

“No one died yet, right?” Bunny grinned as he reentered their private room. He stopped, glancing back when he felt Sae just behind him. Then, his gaze traveled back to the sight that caused him to stop in the first place. Ness was halfway over the table, which was thankfully dished out mostly, and reaching for Isagi while Kaiser leaned back and smirked. Horribly, Isagi was smirking up at Ness as well, which was already a pretty bad sign. “I was joking, Ness, get off the table and don’t kill my brother.” 

“Maybe if he stopped talking about things he didn’t understand.” Ness smiled terrifyingly, all the while he had his hands wrapped around Isagi’s throat by now. Isagi, the fucker, was still smirking like a smug little cat and Bunny wondered where he got that attitude from. 

(Sae and Kaiser would say he got it from Bunny but he disagreed.)

“But I do understand what’s going on! It’s that Kaiser’s too big of a pussy-”

“Excuse me?” Now Kaiser slammed his hands on the table and glared at Isagi like he was the bane of everything on Earth.

“Yoichi.”

“What?” At least Ness wasn’t actually strangling Isagi with the clear way his words came out. “They made Rin a little jealous during the Neo Egoist League, so I thought it would be fine to return the favor.”

“Return the favor?” Bunny was not sure what exactly went through that brilliant mind of Isagi’s. He really didn’t want to know, either. Sometimes, Isagi can be a touch too diabolical in his thought process. More than Bunny was, sometimes.

“Clearly, these two are going through-”

“Nothing.” It was a miracle that Isagi managed to get both Ness and Kaiser to screech out the same thing in chorus. Even when Ness was following Kaiser like some loyal dog, he was always a touch too late or behind when it came to Kaiser’s thought process. Bunny heard a sigh from behind him and he snorted. 

“Well, let me take Yoichi off your hands for the night.” Bunny smiled and grabbed Ness’s shoulder to shove him off. He dusted Isagi off and pulled him to his feet, ignoring the way he smirked at Kaiser and Ness. 

“I retract my earlier statement.” Kaiser scoffed and sat down roughly, glaring at them both. “You two really are related. Both insufferable little thorns at my side.”

Bunny merely rolled his eyes while Isagi snickered under his breath. He didn’t even give Kaiser a response as he dragged Isagi away, and completely bypassed the counter for payment. Isagi blinked at the action and raised an eyebrow at Bunny.

“I’ll let those two settle it, they’re the ones who insisted anyway.” Bunny shrugged and by no time, the two managed to make it back to their hotel. Bunny found the entire day far too tiring and unnecessary. 

Neither Sae nor Kaiser had any reason to demand answers from either of them, but Bunny decided to humor them. That and he was sure Isagi felt a little guilty from his earlier call with Rin — too guilty to say no to Sae. As Bunny lay back and stared at the ceiling, he brushed his bottom lip with his thumb absentmindedly. Maybe the meeting didn’t actually leave him as empty-handed as he thought it would have. 

He was being truthful to Sae when he insisted that they do nothing until Sae got the stick out of his ass and actually tried to talk things out with Rin. He was an asshole but when it came to things that affected Isagi, he tried his best not to make things… worse. The whole Sae thing was him going off the rails and getting drunk on the feeling of not being an older brother anymore. Yet, when he looked at Sae — when he heard of the way he muttered about his brother being lukewarm, it snapped something in Bunny. 

He didn’t particularly know that Isagi and Rin would be involved with each other in that way, not at that time. What he did that time was something he couldn’t walk away from — at least, not proudly. The words he said were sharp and angry and poisoned. But they were words better said to a mirror than to Sae. Not when Sae was, admittedly, trying his best to be a good brother. The wrong kind of “best” but everyone had their own shit standards. 

“Did something happen?” Bunny turned his head to Isagi, changed and was ready for another night of analyzing clips.

“How many more matches are you watching live, again?” Bunny asked, pushing himself off the bed. This kind of issue, beyond it being an “ex” situation, was more of a “big brother” thing. Isagi, as a little brother, should be spared from the details. Actually, Isagi should be spared from all of the details regarding Bunny’s love life. That was his job as an older brother to stick his nose into Isagi’s love life, not the other way around.

Isagi narrowed his eyes, catching the blatant and obvious topic change, but answered nonetheless, “I have three more tickets. I think that’s the most matches I could watch, realistically, before we’re supposed to head back and practice as a team.”

“That’s enough time.” Bunny smiled. It was enough time, at least for now. Enough time for them to get caught up with one another and heal whatever wounds they got. Enough time to relearn how to be brothers again. 

It was also enough time for Bunny to glean any details he had missed by being a mere spectator to the happenings in Blue Lock, as opposed to being actually in the facility. 

“You’re awfully optimistic.”

“Oh, we can’t always be together,” Bunny smirked and ruffled Isagi’s hair, much to the other’s chagrin. “I’m going to get sick of you. Or we’ll try to kill each other again. Whichever comes first.”

“You wish you could get sick of me.”

“You want to bet?”

If, by the third match they watched, Bunny received a single text from Sae — that was his own issue to deal with later. Maybe right after his brotherly bonding with Isagi. They did have two years to play catch-up.

If, by the fourth match, which was just shy of one match a few days before Isagi returned to Blue Lock, Isagi had to take a call from Rin during the match’s halftime — that was an issue he’ll bring up the next time he’d see Bunny. After all, he needed to see if Bunny was going to fess up about something or the other. If he didn’t, then Isagi can nag him about it all he wants. 

If, come the U20 World Cup, Isagi finally had the chance to go against Bunny and measure himself up against his big brother again, he’d smirk at him across the field and score as many goals as possible. At least as many goals as he could score with a team like Blue Lock. 

If… 

If…

If, by the end of it all, Isagi wanted so badly to give his brother the largest hug possible when he finally won the U20 World Cup for Japan and exclaim —

“I finally caught up.”

“Of course you did. I always knew you would.” A smile, a squeeze, and — “Welcome to the top, Yo-chan.”