"My fellow Blue Lockian's you're in luck we are inviting you to play against us...every time they run away scared. My poor heart can only take so much rejection, but defeating players that run away from us wouldn't be very glam though. This is Blue Lock, they will get weeded out soon enough."

The newly formed team of Akira, Aryu, and Bachira, were in the cafeteria while Rin was off doing god knows what. As another attempt at trying to get a team to play against them fell through, that wasn't a surprise though as no one wanted to play the top three players and Bachira. So the moment any other team saw them they seemed to run for the hills knowing that they had zero chance of beating them.

"I don't wanna play any of the teams here anyway, I'd rather wait for Isagi's team to reach the fourth stage," the dual-coloured teen said as he sat scoffing his food at lightning speeds, "Do you really think it's wise to wait on him, what if he doesn't make it?" the long-haired teen asked in genuine curiosity.

"Don't you worry, trust me he'll make it here!" Bachira said with a smile as he took another bite of his steak. "You nails are pretty," The attention of the two turned to Akira who was eyeing Aryu's black-painted nails in awe, "Why thank you my darling Akira, would you like me to paint yours?" the long-haired teen asked smiling at the compliment.

A shy nod was all Aryu needed as he took the boy by his hand and dragged him back to their shared accommodations, seating Akira on his bed while the long-haired teen gathered the supplies he needed. Taking his seat across from him the glam teen quickly got to work, gently but efficiently painting the bronzed teen's nails like a pro. In the same shade of noir black as his, they were matching, with the end result nothing short of perfect.

"Pass me your hand," Aryu said before blowing onto the nails to help them dry faster, "so do you like them?" the teen asked looking to the golden-eyed boy who gazed at the finished product. "I love it, but me feel bad I can't return favour," the curly-haired teen said looking up to the taller through his thick lashes. "Well, you can...I would love it if you could do my eyeliner, I see you do yours every morning and it's so glam"

"Okay!" And with that, Akira scampered off the bed to grab his eyeliner pen before bringing his friend to the edge of the bed and placing himself in between his legs. "meu amigo, stay still" their faces were now inches away, as the curly-haired boy was fixated on not fucking up Aryu's eyeliner, while Aryu was focused on him. Taking in his features as if he was a work of fine art, which in some ways he was. He was so out of this world, he looked more angel than man.

"I never noticed your beauty spot," the long-haired teen broke the silence lifting his hand to gently stroke the mark, his fingers tracing it ever so slightly as he handled Akira's skin like delicate china. "Ah yeah..." the curly-haired teen mumbled, face flushing red with embarrassment as he put the final touches of eyeliner on. "Done! Do you like?" Akira asked nervously handing him a small compact mirror, the anticipation as to how he had done killing him slightly.

"I...Love it! Oh how I look more glam than I normally do, I should let you do my eyeliner more often." The golden-eyed teen breathed a sigh of relief, happy that Aryu liked his work. The two allowed themselves to be enveloped in a comfortable silence, as neither moved to break their closeness faces still dangerously close to one another. Leaving no room to assume there was even a hint of platonic affection in the act, it was romanticly charged for certain. But it wasn't as if Akira would notice, he was far too oblivious for that.

The two of them stayed like that, with Akira standing between Aryu's straddled legs. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a cold butter knife. "Hey, Akira! Wanna—oh, am I interrupting something?" Bachira stood at the door, as he observed the situation before him. Akira, his darling Akira, in the arms of another, someone who was not him. Safe to say he was far from a happy bunny, jealousy-rearing its ugly head as he tried his best to stay calm.

"Wanna come and train with Rin and me?" the dual-haired teen asked, his eyes still fixated on the pair whose personal space was still nonexistent, "Um yeah sure vamos. See you in bit Aryu okay?" to which the long-haired teen nodded, silently mift that their closeness had been disrupted by one Bachira Meguru. The two changed into their training clothes before leaving towards the pitch, where Rin was already hard at work firing shot on shot at the goal flawlessly.

As the teal-eyed teen walked placed another ball in the centre of the pitch ready to take another spot-kick, when Bachira decided to make their presence known. "Let's do this bring it on" the dual-haired teen yelled as he attempted to snatch the ball from Rin, failing miserably as the Itoshi anticipated the move with ease and simply moved out of the way. Leaving Bachira face-planted on the floor, "Even better than last time, so you're finally getting serious" the yellow-eyed teen laughed looking up to the teal-eyed boy.

"Shut your trap your still half-baked bob cut" the Itoshi rebutted "You can't deny it was fun playing with me" the the dual-haired teen laughed brushing off his harsh response as if it was water under a bridge. "Your dribbling relies on instinct alone, like an amateur. So don't expect it to work on me"

"You say that but you'll never no-till you give it a try" Bachira suggested now fully comfortable on the floor while Akira stood behind him watching the conversation unfold. "Here's what I know, you may think your enjoying kicking the ball around. But you are just afraid to fight alone, you're looking for someone with your football. Your half-baked ego doesn't excite me, not in the slightest" Rin's words seemed to trigger the yellow-eyed teen as he silently stood up and exited the pitch, sitting himself off to the side as he allowed himself to fall deep into thought.

Now left alone once again Rin went to resume his shot practice but stopped at another voice he had yet to acknowledge, "go head to head with me meu amigo" Akira's words hung in the air like a dark cloud, as the Itoshi slowly turned to face him with a look that was clearly saying 'are you sure you want to try me' and in fact he did.

Leaving the teen no time to react the curly-haired boy snatched the ball from his feet, running to take a shot but Rin wasn't going to let him have it easy. The two danced back and forth with Akira shrugging off Rin's attempts like they were nothing, till he could get a shot away. Which the Itoshi seemed silently impressed about, as he kicked another ball forward offering up another round of one-on-one combat which the bronzed teen gladly took.

The two went at it for what felt like hours, engaging in a snake and mongoose-like dance that was mesmerising to watch. Leaving no room for debate, they were on each other's level. Something Rin quickly acknowledged and respected finding himself looking at the golden-eyed teen in a different light, 'he's better than the rest of those npc's, that's for damn sure' the teal-eyed teen thought as the two stopped to take a water break.

"guess you can be fast" Akira laughed as he took another gulp of water, paying no mind to the look Rin was giving him figuring it was just another heated glare. But that was far from the truth, if anything it was a look of admiration mixed with something else Itoshi couldn't quite understand. Finally, he had someone on his level, now normally he would feel threatened but for some reason, the teal-eyed teen liked that Akira could keep up with him.

The Itoshi allowed his eyes to greedily trail over the tanned teen's form, lapping up every curve and inch of skin from head to toe. Admiring his flawless skin that gleamed from the thin layer of sweat it was now covered in, to his toned slim physique that rivalled his own, he was perfect, the perfect companion to partner him, in his quest to outdo his bastard brother.

While Rin's focus was fixed on Akira he hadn't noticed how Bachira stood up from the side of the pitch and walked towards the pair with a dark look in his eyes. 'stop looking at my Akira, or I'll let my monster eat you' the yellow-eyed teen thought as "Hey Rin, how could you tell I was looking for someone here? What you said, you saw right through me. I have a monster inside of me" the dual-coloured teen's words were met with a brief silence as the teal-eyed teen attempted to comprehend what he had just said.

"Meaning what?" Rin asked, wanting to get to the point as fast as possible "I guess it's like a vision of the football I want to play, The truth is I came to Blue Lock to find that monster in real life and I think I have" Bachira said looking from Rin to Akira who was more focused on drinking his water than the conversation that they were having. Looking back at the younger Itoshi, the look in his eyes sent a clear message. 'Akira's mine so back off' which was received loud and clear by the teal-eyed boy, but he had no intention of taking that direction. Whatever Itoshi Rin wants, Itoshi Rin gets.

"I don't care, these childish fantasies of yours are holding you back. I bet all of your moves are as half-baked as your dribbling. Play football with your imaginary friend if you want, but what if the monster in real life doesn't want to play with you? Meanwhile, I'm going to become the best in the world."

With that the black-haired teen turned to walk towards the door, Akira and Bachira trailing behind him. Rin's message was clear, he wouldn't back down. Not when it came to Akira, so the monster having freak better be ready to fight because an Itoshi never goes down easy.

As the trio exited the pitch, they were met with a surprise leaning against the wall across from the door. "Yo Akira Bachira, been a while" And there he stood, Isagi Yoichi in the flesh. "Olá Isagi" Akira greeted with a smile pushing a strand of hair away from his face happy to see the blue-eyed boy he had come to call a friend. "You're here," the dual-coloured teen said in disbelief, eyes wide at his former teammate while Rin was silent as he merely looked at the teen with mild interest as to what he could want.

"Like I promised I'm going to steal one of you back, so let's do this"