Main Pairing: Itoshi Reina (OFC) x Isagi Yoichi (Blue Lock).
Background pairings: Nagi x Reo courtesy of ichiruki41. Others TBD. If you want to see one, let me know and I'll see if it's doable! : )
Disclaimer: I own none of the original characters nor plot of Blue Lock.
Warnings: cursing, Yoichi having (many) teenage boy thoughts, embarrassing parents, possessive thoughts
TIMELINE SO FAR:
Pre-high school: Reo (12) & Reina (11) meet at party at Itoshi residence
End of August:
Isagi – Saitama Prefectural Final
Reina – Annual Social Event between Hakuho (kf business; Reo and Nagi's school), IMS (kf Social Studies/Law and Soccer; the school Reina attended for a month before transferring), Shibuya Academy (kf math; the school Reina currently attends at their girl's only campus.) To clarify, Reo/Nagi & Reina do NOT go to the same school, but these three elite schools (Tokyo Trifecta) have a social event once a year for their students.
Early September: Blue Lock starts, cannon happens up until U-20 game.
Mid-late November: U-20 game. Itoshi "family dinner," where Reina says Sae praised Isagi's performance in front of Rin.
Late November:
Day 1 – Boys freed from Blue Lock
Day 2 – Bowling in Shibuya. Isagi meets Reina (Rin & Sae's half-sister) and Megumi-san (barista), then meets up with Tada-kun (old teammate)
Day 3 – Isagi (17) and Reina (16) meet up for a second cup of coffee, Iyo (his mom) helps him with laundry, he and Issei (his dad) have a mini-heart to heart.
Day 4 – Reina's late to the duo's third meeting because of an interview, Isagi asks Bachira/Nagi/Chigiri for girl advice. Iyo gets more curious about his 'new friend'
Day 5 – YCA volunteering (Mei the cutie-pie introduced), on his way walking Reina back home they encounter Reo (17).
Day 6 – Reina and Isagi meet his parents. While dropping her off home, they save Melissa (an exchange student from Spain) from a drunk salaryman and Isagi saves Reina from going splat because of a wayward tool box.
Day 7 – Festival
*The non-Reina OCs are really not important, just listed above for clarification since for some reason I picked all the MHA character names that started with M's? Sorry friends.*
BIG
HUGE
GINORMOUS
THANK YOU
TO MY BETA
Alchazar
AND TO MY REVIEWERS:
Perseusdiangelo007, ErlanggSIOC, Guest, Magika Wizard, uzu i-sa, The King of Anachronisms, HyenaFan12, NoodlyNoodle, IkkiNiko, Bilal189, EikampJJ5, NotJamesHoffmann, Sp8cefluff, 102602, Isagi loves thighs.
Any reviews with questions I answered in detail below!
Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to review, it honestly makes me so happy and so motivated to keep posting.
Name Votes:
Isayo – 1
Isa-ichi-1
Yosagi – 1
Yocchan – 3
Yo-kun – 3
Yo-tan – 3
Isacchi – 4
I was going to end voting today (Feb 20), but the scene where she / he talk about which name to use was moved to somewhere it fit better and will be in chapter 10(ish) so you have until I post that scene to vote if you really prefer not Isacchi : )
A/N: Here come two full chapters of teenage awkward romance and slightly possessive MC. Blame Blue Lock for teaching boys "if you want it, you better take it/steal it from someone else." That's my reasoning, and I'm sticking with it (even though I really just wanted to write possessive/jealous Isagi tbh lol). Also, I was told that posting the profile (as chapter 10) so shortly after posting chapter 6 (as chapter 9) may have left some people not realizing there was a chapter 6.
So please read chapter 6 before reading this chapter!
Onikko
{鬼っ子}
chapter 7 – diablo
"Shh." She interrupts his greeting, totally absorbed by her laptop. "I'm in the middle of an important self-reflection quiz. I need to see what kind of villain-confection mix I am."
'Huh?' Yoichi blinks. "A what?" He's honestly exhausted right now from how early he woke up to train, so maybe he misheard her?
"I'm only six questions away from figuring out which Wisney villain and Japanese dessert I'm a perfect combination of. Now, shhh, Isacchi! Let me concentrate."
It takes a few seconds for the striker to fully process her words.
"Seriously?" He deadpans. 'Did you actually just shush me for something so stupid?'
"Don't worry," her eyes haven't left the screen as she clicks away. "I'll let you try the quiz next."
'You're so off the mark, genius.'
"No thanks." He pulls out the chair next to her, while glancing at their café table that's (in predictable Reina-fashion) currently littered with books, paper, and (this time) scattered stacks of different coloured cue-cards.
He hears a musical tone and then a loud groan of displeasure. "I'm Wasabi ice-cream." She pouts. "Gross. And who's Malicious again?" She bites her lip. "Oh! She's the villain from that movie where the princess is cursed to sleep until death or something, right? Hmm." She frowns. "What crummy results, I'm playing it again. Maybe if I change that one answer from snorkeling in Bora Bora to painting a hillside in Romania… "
'Ridiculous.' Yoichi pulls her laptop towards him. Then he parries both her grumbling and her half-hearted attempts to retrieve the device with his unimpressed brow. "You're really wasting your time with this?"
('And you're wasting my time with you on this?')
"Excuse you, grumpy-san. But learning if Ruzzfeed can really," she glances at the screen, "guess my deepest, darkest middle school secret based on how I design a bathroom," she looks back at him, "is vital knowledge. Vital."
The striker remains entirely unmoved by her half-assed plight. "And what are you actually supposed to be doing?"
She points guiltily to one of the cue card stacks. "Language practice. But Yo-kun, I've been at it for one and a half hours." Reina whines. "I deserve a break. There's only so many times I can quiz myself on plusquamperfekt and Future I without questioning if I'll live to see the future." She scowls. "Besides, all I've accomplished in the past hour is learning that the sole rule in German tenses is that every rule has an exception, and every exception has three more!"
His eyes widen. "You speak German?"
"No, Isacchi, I suck at speaking German. Hence, the Ruzzfeed quizzes to distract myself from my frustration." She sighs, slouching into her seat. "I've been practicing for over two years and I still can't get it."
'Japanese, English, Spanish, German…' He mentally counts, struggling to remember them all because of how tired he is. "How many languages do you speak?" He asks, curious.
She pulls at the cord on her red hoodie, as flustered as always whenever he asks her more about herself. "Well, I guess I'd consider myself fluent in English and Spanish. Well, and Japanese, obviously. But I grew up with those, so I'm not sure if those even count. And because I knew Spanish, learning French was easy. So again, not much of an achievement there. But German," she groans, "German is too hard."
"Why bother with German?" Yoichi's curious. English seems useful for traveling and all that. And he supposes Spanish and French are commonly spoken abroad, right? But learning German seems out of left field.
"One day, when I'm a super cool astronaut working on the International Space Station," she grins, "I'm going to be able to speak the five big space languages, which includes?" She raises a brow.
"German?" he guesses.
She nods. "Also, currently, the most competitive mathematics and aerospace engineering programs are in Germany, France, England, and America. The best research journals, too." Her voice quiets in contemplation. "Well, actually, the program I'm most interested in is at NIT in America… but the other programs sound interesting too. Germany's MunichU program is a pretty close second choice for me, I think. Their website says the university has courses in English and German. But, I'm absolutely not living in a country where I can't speak the language, not ever again." She slams her face into her hands, letting out a groan of frustration. "Which is why I need to get better at this impossible language. But I have no one to practice with, and I only have one more year before entrance exams!"
The striker tilts his head, his exhausted brain working hard to focus on her words. Honestly, he kind of missed the latter half of what she was saying. But he did notice there was one country not in her initial list. "Didn't hear you say Spain. So why the Spanish?"
"Other countries speak Spanish too, you goof. But, well, to answer your question… it was actually my first language." She bites her lip, eyes darting to the side as her voice quiets. "At least I think it was, it could have been either Spanish or English. Technically both, I guess. I like to think I would have tried to keep up with them regardless when I moved here… but, either way, our father made all three of us learn English and Spanish. He made Sae-niisan learn Mandarin too. Otousama said that it's an important business language to know, along with the other two, for when Sae-nissan retired from soccer and worked with him." She frowns. "Initially, Otousama tried to have Rin and I learn Mandarin too, but neither of us was very good with it at all." She twirls the string of her hoodie around her finger, looking back at him. "Honestly, Mandarin was even harder than German, since it was based on an entirely new character system."
Yoichi guiltily holds back a yawn, and ignores her weirdly formal 'otousama,' for now. (He's pretty sure Tousan would burst out laughing if the striker ever tried to address his dad so properly.) Yoichi glances at her messy scribbles on the cue cards, picking up a few. "And you learned all those languages with cue cards?"
Reina shakes her head. "Nope. Cue cards are just for vocab review. Tutors taught my brothers English and Spanish, and taught me Japanese. I learned French through cue cards, Wye-Tube, movies, and watching French-dubbed anime. Oh and sometimes I read novels in…"
Honestly, Yoichi feels a bit bad for drifting off, but he's so tired. He woke up an extra two hours early today to make up for the practice he missed last night by walking her home. This was in addition to the already two hours early he had planned for in order to make up for being strong-armed to attend Momoji tonight. In other words, he's been practicing since 5:00AM, it's already past 1:00 PM, and she's saying words to him, but all he can register are the stray fly away hairs that burst from the messy knot atop her head. 'Seriously, does she know how to use a hair brush?' And she's getting a bit blurry now…
*Smack*
Both her palms end up smushing his cheeks.
"I said are you okay?" She tilts her chin, with hands still pressed against his face. "You're so spaced out. And now I think you feel a bit warm, too? Do you have a fever?"
'Fucking oblivious.' He clasps one of her wrists, gently moving it away from his flaming face and bringing it down, unconsciously keeping a hold of it atop his knee. He lets her other hand stay where it is against his cheek.
"Just a bit tired from training this morning." If he maybe leans a bit into her hand, it's fine right? 'Just for a second… if I can close my eyes just a little…'
Even though she's getting more blurry, he makes out her worried expression. Her lips start to move, ready to say something else, but another voice interrupts.
"Oh, barf. Get a room."
"Megumi-senpai!" Reina immediately yanks her hands away from him, wholly flustered. His head wobbles, off balance for a moment, as if missing her support.
"Or better yet, get a drink." Megumi-san says pointedly to Yoichi, who's rapidly blinking himself to attention, as the barista slides Reina's order onto the table. "You look like death." The barista quirks a brow at him.
The drained striker requests the same order as last time. He readily agrees to Megumi-san's suggestion to add a caffeine booster alongside the creatine booster. 'Hopefully it'll help me power through the morning without keeling over.'
"Yo-kun, are you sure you're o-"
"Can we just go over the rest of the plays from yesterday now?" He interrupts curtly. 'I don't need your pity or your coddling.' The striker's fatigue makes his thoughts more irritable and his tone more brusque than he's ever been with Reina before. 'I just need you to help me analyze those games.'
("Good boy." The voice coos. "Don't forget what she's for.")
Reina pauses, and gives him an odd smile. "Yeah," she replies, her voice noticeably quieter. "Okay."
He looks up the French league games on her laptop, and starts going over them with her.
About thirty minutes in, it's like he's hit with a sudden burst of energy. That caffeine booster works amazingly. He starts to understand Reina's addiction to the stuff. 'I feel like I can run a marathon.' They continue to analyze some reruns together, and before he knows it, three hours pass. They finish all the games he wanted to review with her. And thankfully, the initially awkwardness after he'd snapped at her also resolves.
"Looks like it's past four." He says, eying the time on her computer. "We should start packing up."
"Good idea!" She chirps. "I don't want to be late." Reina puts away her laptop. "Oh, and before I forget. Here's your coat!" She grabs a bag next to her backpack, handing it to him. "Thanks for letting me borrow it yesterday."
He eyes the fancy plastic bag in confusion, raising a brow at her. She rubs the back of her neck. "I wasn't sure if it would dry in time if I washed it, so I just had it dry cleaned this morning instead."
Yoichi sighs. "You really didn't have to waste your money. You only wore it for a few hours last night." He's assuming she didn't wear it this morning since it's been an unseasonably warm day. All he wore on his way to the café was a crew neck. He'd left his usual coat and scarf at home. "And it's my old jacket, anyways. You could have just left it as is." The striker slots the unnecessarily fancy bag under his arm, having brought nothing else other than the wallet and train pass in his jean pocket. "Come on. Let's start heading over to my place."
Reina nods excitedly, grabbing her backpack and turning her head to look behind them. "I just need to…" she grimaces, "change."
He turns as well when she pauses, and notes the five or so people already in line for the sole bathroom in the café. Reina heaves a sigh and steps towards that direction, but he immediately puts a hand on her bag to stop her. "No way are we waiting. You can just get ready at my place."
"What? No, absolutely not." She immediately objects. "I'm in a hoodie and jeans. I can't see your parents dressed like this."
Yoichi doesn't even bother wasting his time arguing. He simply snatches her backpack from her grip ("Hey!"), catches her wrist, and drags her towards the exit. ("Isacchi, no! Let me change! I'm serious!")
She immediately stops her protests once he pulls her onto the public street, but refuses to talk to him at all the entire way to Shibuya station. ('What a stubborn brat.') Only once they're inside and in line does she quietly start whining again, as she tries to covertly pull her wrist out of his grip. "At least let me fix my hair a bit while we wait for the train."
He loosens his hold, and she breaks herself free from him. Reina releases her hair from its loose, drooping bun. The wavy mess of half-curls and half-knots drop past her shoulders as she sticks her elastic band between her lips. ('So unsanitary.') The striker watches, intrigued, as she braids her hair by using the reflection from a nearby poster that she's turned into a makeshift mirror. While she's distracted with weaving her strands to one side, he tries not to be too distracted by the newly exposed skin at the back of her neck… and how smooth the bare skin looks.
The striker roughly shakes the thoughts out of his head. 'Don't be creepy,' he chastises himself. Yoichi readjusts her backpack – still on his shoulders and surprisingly heavy. But he supposes it has her clothes for the festival as well as her school supplies, so it makes sense. 'At least I don't have to worry about dragging around her jacket too.' Unlike the past week, today's been unusually warm since around eleven (much to his annoyance because he was sweating buckets doing sprints earlier).
Reina finishes snapping the elastic at the end of her braid just before the train rushes into the station.
They step aboard, and there's a low enough density of passengers that the pair aren't pressed against each other, like they were last night. The striker feels slightly… unhappy with that. And for more than a moment, he kind of wishes the train was more crowded.
The pair enter his home (he gets to actually use his key this time), only to see his parents already watching TV on the living room couch, completely overdressed in formal attire.
Reina's immediately bowing, the idiot. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't realize we were supposed to wear kimonos." The genius has a horrified expression on her face. "I… I only packed a dress. I'm so sorry." And down she goes.
"It's fine." Yoichi tries to reassure her, tugging her upright using the back of her sweater. "Lots of people go in everyday clothes." He doesn't move his hand from her lower back. "Dressing up is only an option. I'm definitely not."
His mother immediately rises from the couch. "Oh yes you definitely are, Yocchan! This is one of our last Momoji festivals with you before you become an adult because of that silly law change*!" His mom immediately softens when she turns to the nervous girl at his side. "Don't worry about it dear, I can just find you one of my old kimonos - one with all those bright, youthful colours."
"Your old clothes won't fit her Kaasan," he says (admittedly kind of thoughtlessly, he'll reflect on later.) Yoichi feels her go rigid beside him. "She's like, half a foot taller than you."
His mother frowns at him. "I am a seamstress, Yocchan. And at one time, I was also a fashion designer. I can make it work." She turns to Reina and smiles warmly at her. "Now, come along with me, dear."
Reina steps forward, but Yoichi immediately holds her back by her sweater, scowling at his mom. "No way am I leaving her alone with you again."
"Oh, Yocchan." His mother coos as she smiles sharply, an expression which never bodes well for him. "Are you asking to supervise her changing? I'm going to have to decline. You're not married to her quite yet."
The intentionally explosive comment leaves Yoichi frozen with mortification, allowing his mom the opportunity to pull an equally embarrassed Reina away from him and up the stairs with her.
The devious woman stops at the top floor, cheerfully yelling down. "Oh, and Issei! Get your son ready!"
His dad finally rises from the couch, chest shaking with chuckles. The older man walks over and has the nerve to put his palm on the striker's head. "Need any help changing, champ?"
"No," Yoichi hisses out, cheeks still fuming. 'What I need is for you to reign in your wife.'
They both turn towards the stairs when they hear a door bang open on the second floor. His mom's voice echoes down once more. "We'll be an hour or two!" She announces, before they hear a door slam shut.
Yoichi heaves out an exasperated sigh. "Can you at least try to control her tonight?"
His dad snorts. "Why would I do that?" The man has the nerve to grin. "I'm having a blast already."
Yoichi glowers. "Thanks a bunch, Tousan."
"Anytime, kiddo." His dad moves to pat his shoulder, then makes a considering sort of sound as he pats it again. "Make sure to try on that yukata pretty soon. You've grown over the past few months, so you might need your kaasan to make some alterations."
Of course his dad is right.
After a quick shower, Yoichi finds that his yukata, which he only bought back in May for Kanda Matsuri, is uncomfortably tight around his arms and shoulders. The striker sighs, not looking forward to asking anything from his mom at the moment.
'Then again, maybe I can at least use this as an excuse to check in on what's happening with those two.'
He approaches the closed door of his mother's workroom, just about to knock, when he hears his mom's voice.
"…have more curve to your bust and hips than I did back then, of course. But if we wrap it at a bit of an angle, and combine the two fabrics, oh a couple of pins-"
"Ouch!" Reina squeaks.
"Straighten up darling, or I'll poke you full of holes! Now, just there, and there, and voila!"
There's silence for a moment.
"I agree! Yocchan's jaw will drop when he sees you! You're absolutely stunning! Now that I have the spots marked with my pins, let's get you out of all that, so I can sew it up properly-"
He knocks loudly, cheeks flushing at the idea of Reina undressing behind the door. "Kaasan can you loosen my yukata a bit?"
The striker hears a yelp from Reina, some rustling, and then his mother opens the door just enough for her to slip through, with measuring tape hanging around her neck.
"Of course, Yocchan." The woman mumbles through some pins held in her mouth. "Show me where you need it loosened."
He points while she measures and prods. A few minutes later, she nods as she tells him to go take it off and then bring it back for her to adjust. He does as she says, and then realizes his mom's retreated back into her workroom again by the time he returns. He pauses before knocking.
(It's not technically eavesdropping if he just overhears, right?)
"How were you going to do your hair?" He overhears his mom say through the door. "I have some lovely hair clips I think would go just beautifully with that kimono we put together."
Reina's surprised voice comes through next. "I couldn't, those are yours!"
"Nonsense. I don't have a daughter or niece to do any of this with. Trust me when I say I'd absolutely love for you to wear them." He hears some rustling. "And honestly, I'm truly jealous of your mother. To have such a lovely, polite, and brilliant daughter. Is there a way she usually does your hair for these kinds of festivals? Do you prefer the more traditional or modern styles?"
At that moment, Yoichi knows he should knock. That he should spare Reina from having to answer his mom, who's now prodding into an area Yoichi knows is sensitive for the girl. (She hasn't mentioned her mother once outside of that time in the alley. He took that as a pretty clear sign she had no desire to mention the woman, and regrets not cautioning his mom against it last night.) But the striker takes too long to make a decision, and the next thing he knows, he hears his mom again.
"Oh, honey. That's entirely their loss. All those formal sorts of things never mattered much to me, but I'm happy to teach you what I know. Come now, in front of the mirror again. I have the perfect idea of how to do your hair with those clips."
Yoichi feels a deep appreciation for his mom at that moment. Obviously he knows his parents are kind, but it's moments like this that remind him that, despite their embarrassing ways, they really are the best type of people.
And then his mother, true to form, keeps talking.
"Besides, when you marry Yocchan, you'll be my daughter for real!"
'Fucking. Hell.'
Yoichi bangs loudly on the door.
"Kaasan, I brought it!" He yells unnecessarily loudly, failing to control his flushed cheeks.
The third time he comes to the door, it's to pick up his altered yukata.
He hears Reina's voice first, this time.
" …believe you did so much so quickly!"
His mother laughs. "I was quite the little hotshot designer back in the day; I still have some of those skills."
"You're so amazing. If… if you don't mind me asking, what made you decide to change jobs?"
"My family." He can hear his mother's smile. "Designing was fun, thrilling. Shows and deadlines, the rush and creativity was always so invigorating. It was my dream job. But it also meant that I had to leave for long trips for the company I worked for. There weren't as many options to work remotely back then like there are now for your generation. And once I had Yocchan, I couldn't bring myself to leave my child. I wanted to be there to watch him grow up." He can hear his mom's smile. "I guess you can say, my dream changed."
There's a pause.
"What do you mean?" His mom asks, seeming surprised. She's clearly responding to something that Reina said, but whatever words the girl had spoken, they were too quiet to cross the door.
Reina must be speaking but since he can't hear anything, he decides to knock.
"Kaasan, is my yukata ready?"
After some rustling on the other side, his mom slips through the door. The woman slides through the smallest bit of open door she can, refusing to let him see into the room at all. She hands him a familiar navy blue fabric, but he's surprised by the sash on top. It's not the green one he gave her…
"Kaasan… where's my obi?"
She points down. "Right there, silly."
"… Why is this one pink?"
"Wrong, Yocchan," his mom tsks. "It is apricot with a cerise shine, and it matches near-perfectly with her kimono."
"It's pink." He doesn't think she adequately appreciates his distress over the matter.
She pats his cheek. "You'll live. I want my cute, matching Momoji photos."
Of course his mom is right.
Yoichi literally just stares, jaw halfway to the floor.
He isn't blind; he knows Reina is attractive. But she always wears baggy hoodies, and usually keeps her hair in a messy bun. She readily gives off the impression that she doesn't want him to think of her in any sort of physical way.
But now it's different.
Now she has a kimono that doesn't hide her figure. She has her hair pulled up into a style that showcases her long neck and delicate jaw. Dark curly strands intentionally frame her face and her round cheeks. Her wide eyes and long lashes stand out dramatically with whatever his mom did to her. Her lips shine with colour, drawing his gaze to their plump shape.
Now it's different. It's like she's welcoming his attention, inviting his appreciative gaze. (Even as she looks at her feet, fists clenched in the fabric wrapped around her).
A loud snap makes him tear his eyes away from her.
"That is going in the scrapbook for sure," his father smiles smugly, waving a camera in his hands.
"I knew I married you for a reason." His mother beams, while Reina uses his parents' theatrics to covertly move closer beside him. "Nice one, Hanii! His face was priceless!"
Yoichi immediately regrets any charitable thought he'd ever had about the two conniving demons who sired him.
After giving his dad a high-five of all things, his mom swings back around to face her son. "Oh, Anata! Anata! Get his little cute pout too! Aww, he's so embarrassed!"
Reina bursts out laughing from his side.
He turns to tell her to stop fucking encouraging them, but the words get lodged in his throat. Yoichi just stares.
'…Wow.'
He hears another snap.
It's the third time he stops Reina from falling, and they just entered the festival grounds a few minutes ago. He's honestly starting to wonder if it's intentional.
"Are you okay?" He keeps hold of her arm this time, despite the very uncomfortable, very inconvenient, and very noticeable presence of his parents just a few paces behind them. 'Mom wouldn't go so far as to trip Reina to test if I would catch her, or something stupid like that, right?' The striker's not entirely sure of his answer, which is a terrifying thought.
"Yes! I'm fine!" Reina blurts out, as she steadies herself next to him. "Sorry, I, it's," She stares hard at the ground, flustered. "The shoes." She sighs. "I've never worn geta* before." She looks up and gives him a half smile. "The balance on the platforms is a bit tricky?"
He could respond with something empathetic like, 'don't worry, it took me a few tries to get the balance right as a kid,' or something gallant like, 'it's okay, you can hold onto me.' But because of how he'd held her arm to stop her from stumbling, when she raised her head to respond, it put her face really close to his. ('Too fucking close! Why are her lips so close!') So instead of being empathetic or gallant, he panics and quickly blusters out, "you're just clumsy!" Then he abruptly pulls her arm more securely into his, cheeks aflame as he averts his gaze. "Just keep your arm here until you get your balance, or whatever."
"They're so cute, they're so cute!" Kaasan very not-quietly whisper-squeals behind them. "Take another photo, Issei!"
'Please leave,' he tosses a desperate look over his shoulder to his dad. "Tousan," he begs, darting his eyes meaningfully towards his scheming mom.
His dad chuckles again, but thankfully (finally) musters some semblance of mercy towards his son. "Neh, neh, Iyo. How about we check out the shateki* stall? I think I heard someone say it's by the ikayaki* & sake stalls?"
Yoichi cringes. 'Kaasan, alcohol, and guns will make a terrible combination… should I try to send her somewhere else?'
His dad starts tugging his mom away, but not before the meddlesome woman gets one last jab in. "Make sure to be a gentleman, Yoichi. If I see any of my work undone by your grubby teenage boy hands, I promise I'll post those photos you're so sensitive about all over Wye-Tube."
'Nevermind.' He'll gladly sacrifice bystanders to his mom's drunk aim, as she's far away from him and Reina.
"Kaasan!" he hisses, looking around to see if any of the other festival goers around them overheard her. "For the love of… we're in public."
His dad snorts (loudly), but finally turns his wife and guides her towards the other direction. The older man yells back over his shoulder: "We'll catch up with you guys after the fireworks. Make sure to text us where you are then!"
Yoichi lets out half a breath after he sees his parents finally walk away. He lets out the other half when he checks over his shoulder and doesn't catch them 'subtly' spying behind a stand or something equally fucking embarrassing.
Yoichi turns to Reina, who's already distracted by the stalls, wide-eyed like a kid. He stares at her expression of wonder, almost innocently, until her glossy lips draw his gaze to her open mouth… and then the delicate curve of her jaw… and then down to the curves of her bre-
"Oh, oh! Let's go there first!" She abruptly turns towards him. Luckily, her words had given him just enough notice to drag his eyes back up before she caught the wayward direction of his gaze.
"Which one?" He asks, since she's animatedly pointing at an entire isle of stalls.
"Maybe yo-yo fishing? Your mom said that was fun!" She's literally buzzing with excitement. "Or, look, there's a stall with goldfish scooping! Or, no, maybe-"
He hears her stomach give a loud growl. He raises an amused brow, while she gives an embarrassed chuckle. "Or… umm… maybe some food, first?" She brings her free hand up to the back of her neck, which only serves to draw his attention to the long expanse of bare skin. He wonders if it feels as soft as it looks. "And maybe something to drink too." She continues, blissfully unaware that he's imagining how it would feel to bury his face in her neck. "Are you thirsty?"
("He sure is. Just not in the way you're asking, little miss distraction.")
Yoichi just nods in response, trying desperately to pull his mind out of the gutter. Objectively speaking, he's seen prettier girls, on television and in school, and he's never been so affected. So why is she making his mind go fuzzy? Why is she making his heart stutter and his gut swirl? Why does he want to grab her and never let go? Is this what feeling drunk is like? 'Oh,' he realizes. 'It must just be the caffeine booster from earlier.'
("Yeah," the voice snorts. "That's it.")
"Looks like there are a bunch of standard drink options at each of the food stalls nearby." She swivels her head back and forth. "Oh, that takoyaki looks so good. I'm already ready to devour it." She turns again towards him, squeezing his arm with her hands. "What did you want to eat?"
'You.'
Yoichi has just enough self-control to stop that crazy shit from spewing out of his mouth. ('Never having a caffeine booster again.') He forces his thoughts to get into order so he can form an actual response that she won't slap him for. "I ate while you were getting ready." He answers. "The only stuff available at this festival is either fried, candied, or both." Knowing that, the striker already ate some fish and vegetables (courtesy of his dad) while he was waiting for his mom to finish with Reina. 'You took two whole hours to get dressed. I had the time.'
She pokes his cheek with her free hand. "Surely you're allowed one cheat day, superstar athlete-san?"
"If I see something I want, I'll let you know," he compromises. "Let's get you some takoyaki first."
She beams at him, undoing all his hard work to control his emotions as his chest stutters, and he's back to thinking about how pretty she is, and how much he wants to hold her, and...
'This is going to be a long night.'
"Give it some time to cool down, genius," he pulls the paper dish holding the takoyaki balls away from her, sliding it along the picnic table until it's in front of him.
"Don't be so mean." She stubbornly reaches over from where she's sitting beside him to stab a ball with her bamboo fork.
He deftly moves the dish further away from her reach, steadfastly ignoring the way her stretching pushes her chest against his shoulder. "You'll thank me when you can still use your tongue."
("Bet you're hoping for that, huh?" The voice snickers. "For her to thank you with her tongue…")
'Shut up, shut up, shut up!' He internally growls at the voice, smothering it, and trying his best to not let his errant thoughts show on his face.
"Well since you're so gallantly protecting me from getting burned, Isagi-oji," she smirks, the little demon, drawing his eyes to her lips. "How about you test it out?" She craftily sticks the fork into the octopus ball, waving it near his stubbornly sealed mouth. "Now, now. Don't be so obstinate, Yo-tan." She coos at him, very intentionally using the childish moniker. "Aww, did you want me to blow on it for you?"
("Oh, I'm sure he'd absolutely let you blow h-")
Yoichi suddenly chomps down on the offering, regretting it instantly when the steam erupts from the ball and hits the roof of his mouth. His jaw immediately opens back up, to cool it down. "Phuck! Dhat's hawt, phuck!"
Reina bursts out laughing, barely controlling herself enough to hand him his water. "I didn't think you actually would!"
He'd be angry at her for her stupidity, but she's holding onto his arm again and smiling so brightly. So whatever, it's fine.
The first game they play after he recovers from his fourth-degree burns (okay, so maybe Reina's dramatics are rubbing off on him), is ring toss.
"Stop acting so smug, Isagi." She all but snarls.
"What do you mean?" He raises his hands in mock-innocence. "I'm not."
'I totally am.'
He's one-hundred percent smugly watching as she misses every single one of her ring toss throws. Normally, he wouldn't be taking so much delight in her failure. But she had thrown the first hit, teasing him over missing only five of his twenty rings.
"After all," he baits, "it's just angles and rotation, so how can you miss any? It's so basic. Right, Reina? Those were your words." She definitely used some fancier words too, but those ones flew over his head. 'In the same way that her last shot flew over the stall owner's head.' He snorts to himself as she misses her twentieth and final ring.
Her cheeks puff up, hands on her hip as she buys another round from the (clearly hesitant) stall owner. "It is just physics, okay? It's just math, and I'm good at that, so this is totally doable for me, okay?!"
His palms open in a blatantly goading gesture. "Well, go ahead then, genius." He fails to bite back a smile that looks exactly like a challenging smirk.
"I just have to think it out." She scowls. "So would you stop laughing!"
She takes a good solid eight minutes to think it out, before tossing her first plastic ring. It sails by the target, at least two meters to the left of the mini posts.
Yoichi erupts into laughter again.
Reina spitefully flings her second ring at his chest.
"That might just be your closest shot yet," he snorts, picking up the fallen ring from the ground.
She turns away from him, all huffy and maybe a bit cute too.
"Oh, just shut up okay!" She crosses her arms. "How is someone supposed to get twenty of these rings on those pegs? It's rigged, I tell you. Rigged."
Yoichi eyes the stall owner at the other end of the stall, who's monitoring some kids as they shoot their rings. (Even the ten-year-olds were getting at least some on the pegs, much to Reina's increasing frustration.) After her first round nearly decapitated the owner, the man warily gave her the second round's worth of rings, and then aptly proceeded to maintain a wide berth. But, the man probably wasn't so far that her frustrated voice couldn't reach him.
Yoichi comes closer to her. Approaching from behind, he leans forward to murmur quietly into her ear. "Don't let the stall owner hear you say that," he whispers.
Her back goes rigid. He frowns. "What's wrong?" he asks, bringing a hand to her arm. "Are you cold?"
"N-nope!" She squeaks. "H-hot, no not ho-, I mean warm. I am warm."
She turns towards him, flustered. Her eyes resolutely remain looking down as she quickly plucks the ring from his hands and then turns back to face the pegs placed about ten meters away. "Physics." She mutters determinedly to herself. "Inertia. Angular velocity. Rotational motion. Central Axis."
'Fucking dork,' Yoichi thinks fondly, as he watches her miss another nineteen rings in a row.
She chews on her lip, hands on her hips. "Hmm… but maybe if I went again, and I accounted for the wind pressure…" She starts reaching for her wallet.
"Nope." Yoichi grabs her waist with his hands, turning her away from the ring toss stall. "You're a lost cause, genius. One with truly horrible aim."
"I have great aim! It's just rigged." She pouts, turning over her shoulder towards him as he frog marches her away. "Rigged."
"Mhm," he nods indulgently, totally not biting back a smirk. "Bet my 'lackluster' 75% success rate is looking pretty good to you right now, huh, Miss 0%?"
She digs her heels into the ground, bringing his chest crashing into her back. She turns to him fully, with her puffed-up chipmunk cheeks. "You're such an absolute butthead." She pouts, as he starts to register how his hands naturally lowered from her waist to her hips when she turned. He's never held her like this before. "You know," she continues, entirely oblivious to his thoughts, "there actually is a way to calculate…"
And she's speaking and speaking, but he can't focus on her words at all. 'You're so warm,' as he presses his fingers deeper into the fabric wrapped over her hips. He realizes how close her lips are to his. He becomes utterly entranced by the full shape and inviting red. 'Such a pretty mouth,' he muses, as he unconsciously begins to lean forward…
And then a stranger helps him. More specifically, a kid crashes into the back of his legs, pushing him forward and sending his chin smack into the bone of Reina's cheek.
"Ow," she groans, eyes closed in pain as she puts pressure on her cheek.
"Shit, sorry."
He reflexively reaches for her face but he's interrupted, again. By the kid that's still at his legs, who loudly gasps. "Hey! That's a bad word!"
'I'll show you a bad word you little brat.'
Yoichi knows that he and Reina were totally out of the way of the crowd, huddled off to the side of the stalls. This collision is totally on the clumsy kid. Clearly sensing Yoichi's building anger, the kid steps back. But the motion tilts the shaved ice in the boy's hand, and makes most of it plop to the ground. The child looks to the dropped treat, then immediately changes gears from being afraid of the fuming teenager, to mourning over his fallen dessert.
'Well-played, karma.' Yoichi doesn't bother holding back his satisfied smirk. 'Well-played.'
The brat's chin starts to wobble.
And the striker's entirely fine with leaving the careless brat to his own devices. He's not so young that it earns him any default consideration from the striker. The kid is his parents' problem. But when the striker reaches to pull Reina away, she's already moved on her own.
"There, there." Reina bends down to the kid's level, her hand still rubbing over where Yoichi's chin had hit her cheek. "It's only a treat. Where did you get it from?"
The brat sniffles as he points to the kakigori stall about ten stands down.
"Well, that's not far at all!" Reina smiles, removing her hand from her cheek. "Why don't we clean this mess up and then we will get you another one, okay?"
"You will?" The boy asks, wide-eyed.
'We will?' The striker grimaces.
"We will." Reina nods.
They grab a few tissues. He hands a bunch to the kid, intent on making the brat clean up his own mess, but the little nuisance proceeds to just spread the shit around even more, and Reina ends up having more work, so the striker ends up just exasperatingly pulling the kid up and helping her finish up.
After he and Reina clean up what they can of the fallen shaved-ice, she turns back to the kid. "All done! Let's head to the kakigori stand. I wanted some too anyways, so this works out well!"
The brat persists on being an irritation. "O-okay. Can you hold my hand while we walk?" The boy asks, reaching for her.
Yoichi snorts. "It's literally ten stalls down, kid. I think you're old enough to walk without-"
Reina's gaze quickly darts to send Yoichi a look that firmly instructs he play along, before returning to the boy as she smiles kindly and holds her hand out for the brat.
The kid beams, now looking all starry-eyed at Reina.
Yoichi tries to not be too peeved about it. (That's the hand he usually holds).
A few minutes after cleaning up the brat's fallen kakigori, the trio are nearing the shaved-ice stall. Yoichi rolls his eyes, annoyed at both the ache in his chin and the bigger annoyance in front of him. Namely, the snotty little second-grader that usurped his position at Reina's side. The brat greedily holds her hand and her attention, rambling on about some random shit that Reina clearly doesn't care about but is nodding politely at anyways.
'Fucking annoying. It's like Mei 2.0.' Only it's worse, older, speaks in a prissy little voice, and is named Yuga Aoyama.
The brat finally gets his shaved ice, but doesn't get lost.
'Seriously?' Yoichi mentally (mostly) snarls. 'What do you want now?'
The kid looks up at Reina, tugging at her kimono sleeve. "Hey, hey. Onee-san?"
"Yes," Reina indulges, because she apparently doesn't know how to say no.
The kid motions for her to lean closer, then proceeds to whisper (loudly enough for Yoichi to hear). "That angry-looking guy," the little shit points towards the striker. "Is he your boyfriend?"
Reina stutters. "W-what?"
"You're nice and you're pretty, just like Princess Elaina from Avalon!* Can you be my girlfriend instead? Then you can keep holding my hand and buying me lots of kakigori!"
'Nope. This ends now. The fucking nerve of this brat.'
"Don't you have friends?" Yoichi scowls, attempting to pull Reina back from the demon shaped like a boy. 'Or parents? Or siblings? Or literally any-fucking-where else that you could be right now instead of between us?'
The kid frowns. "I did, but they left me."
Yoichi can literally see Reina melt for the kid. 'Shit, no. Abort!' If the striker doesn't do something soon he knows he's going to end up stuck with this kid as a tagalong for the entire night.
The boy's cheeks puff out. "Even though I told them to stay in line for me at the yakisoba stand and the taiyaki stand, but Ojiro said he didn't like yakisoba and Satou said he wanted to play ring toss. But I wanted yakisoba, taiyaki, and kakigori, and I didn't want to wait in three long lines. So I told them to stay in the lines for me. But when I was done at the kakigori stand, they weren't in the lines anymore like they were supposed to be! So I couldn't get yakisoba or taiyaki!"
'I knew the brat was an asshole.' Yoichi feels so validated at that moment. 'You see it too, right Reina? Can we ditch the arrogant little shit now?'
But before they have to deal with the brat any further, they hear his name being yelled by a pair of boys two stands down. The brat waves and runs towards the other two, loudly yelling at them for not waiting at the lines they were "supposed" to be stationed at.
Reina tilts her head. "Well that was… certainly something?" She's clearly more amused than annoyed, to Yoichi's frustration. "Now, now, don't be so angry-looking," she gleefully mimics the brat's words. "Besides, he's just a kid." She takes a bite of her kakigori. "Bhwe duh bwigger pwerson," she mumbles around her spoon.
"Let's just find a table," far away from that little leech, "so you can finish that."
Reina nods brightly in response. But then obliterates any plans for a stealthy escape as she cheerfully waves her spoon and says good-bye to the pest that was trailing them. Thankfully, the boy merely waves back and shouts a grating, "thank-you for the kakigori Princess Elaina and frowny guy," before running with his friends towards the candied strawberry stand.
'Annoying. Little. Shit.'
But at least the unwanted hanger-on is finally gone. The striker releases a breath "Come on," Yoichi nudges her gently with his shoulder. He would reach for her finally pest-free hand again, but her left is busy holding her shaved ice cup, and the right holds her spoon. So he settles for softly placing a hand at her lower back. 'Just to help guide her through the crowd,' he justifies to himself.
As they walk, he watches, amused, as she continues to eat her treat as they move through the crowd. "You're going to choke," he warns.
"It'd be a good way to die." She replies sagely, happily taking another bite of her cherry-flavoured treat.
He snorts, pulling her just a bit closer to avoid an incoming family of five. "Idiot."
By the time Yoichi and Reina find an empty bench, her treat is already half eaten.
"You're so impatient," he shakes his head, before his tone turns more solemn, remembering how hard he had slammed into her face. "But seriously, is your cheek okay?"
She nods around her spoon. "Ohw, bwefore I fworget." She keeps the plastic utensil between her lips as she pulls a rolled up tissue out of her obijime, unfolding it to unveil an extra spoon. "I bwought wone jwust fwor ywou!"
He takes it from her. "I don't like sweets."
"Liar, liar." She sing-songs, after pulling the spoon out of her mouth. "Your mom totally ratted you out." She points her used utensil at him accusingly. "She said you were always super happy when she brought you sweets before Blue Lock."
'Kaasan,' he internally grumbles. 'Why do you always have to interfere?'
"After an entire night of denying yourself, surely just one taste is okay?" She smiles deviously. "It'll be our little secret."
He concedes, taking the second spoon and a single bite. It's sweet, and yeah, it's good. ("But winning is better," the voice reminds him. "Don't forget the frustration of losing.")
She frowns when he puts the spoon down. "You're not having any more?"
He sighs. "I'm not physically able to hold my own against most of my teammates. During the U-20 game, before Barou's goal… your brother used that to completely annihilate an opportunity that I had spent an entire game trying to create."
She hums. "So that's why you've been so stingy with sugar." She tilts her head. "You know, instead of just depriving yourself of everything sweet, why not just see a nutritionist! I mean, I'm sure athletes are supposed to abide by something more inclusive than the no sugar, high protein route you're going." She brightens. "You know, I think Melissa mentioned that her brother was studying to be a nutritionist! Hmm. Or maybe it was a dietician? Hmm, is there a difference? I can see if she…"
Considering that what she's saying is good advice, and she's going out of her way to think of a way to help him, Yoichi knows he should be paying attention. But instead, all he sees is how the syrup stains her lips an even brighter red.
Instead of listening to her, he wonders what would have happened if he had been more forward at the ring toss stall. If after he had whispered in her ear, he had done what he wanted so badly to do… and slid one arm around her waist… and trailed his other hand down her arm, before wrapping his fingers around her own, as he told her that he could teach her how to throw. He wonders what it would have felt like to have held her so close to him. (The incident with the toolbox doesn't count. He was too stressed and furious to appreciate having her in his arms). But then again, since she already let him hold her that close once before, maybe she'd let him again?
'Or maybe she'd let me do more...'
Yoichi wonders, if that brat hadn't interrupted, if Reina would have let him kiss her.
The next game is one he knows he can win.
It's a stall where you have to kick a hacky sack into a sideways wooden Bushel Basket, but you have to do it five times in a row. Specifically, you have to hit five hacky sacks into five progressively further away and more severely angled baskets to win the game and receive a prize. Based on the nicer quality of the prizes, ('nice' being a relative term at this sort of event), it seems like this is a game not many people win. Normally Yoichi wouldn't care too much over the game, he'd just kick the little bag and if he didn't go in, whatever. But he sees something out of the corner of his eye when they arrive. In the prize case, there's a bracelet with a star and a moon dangling off it. It's stupid and probably plastic, but he… he suddenly wants to win it for her.
While Reina fails at the game, (she truly does have terrible aim – she doesn't even get past the first basket), he plays around with the weight of the small round bag for a few minutes. Finally getting a sense for it, he takes his time and shoots five of them into the five baskets. Reina claps and cheers for him when he wins, which definitely makes him stand a bit straighter. Even the stall owner (an older woman) seems impressed. "The first winner of the day!" She beams. "What would you like to claim for your prize?"
"The bracelet," he says without needing time to consider. "That one," he points. "The one with the star and moon on it."
"Hmm, looks like you knew exactly what you wanted when you started playing." The woman's eyes dart to Reina, who's gone quiet behind him. The stall owner proceeds to give him a wink, of all things. 'Are all women this meddlesome?' The older woman finally hands over the trinket to him, and Yoichi immediately passes it to the girl behind him.
Reina's voice softens. "For me?"
"Well, I'm not going around wearing jewelry, am I?" He mumbles with one hand rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed.
She holds the bracelet with both her hands, just staring at it for a few seconds. 'Does she not want it?'
"You like space," he blurts out, nervous. "So I thought maybe…"
She looks up towards him with a warm smile that makes his heart thud, thud, thud violently against his chest.
"There's a latch." She says sweetly, and he almost doesn't hear her because of the blood rushing by his ears. "Can you help me put it on?"
"S-sure." It takes him a couple of tries to get the thing on. 'Shitty quality piece of junk.' But he finally snaps the clasp and hook together. That's when he notices that alongside the star and moon charms, there's also a… "Oh, I didn't see the bird." He mumbles. 'Weird. It doesn't really fit the theme, does it?'
She pulls her left hand away from him, bringing it up closer to her face to admire the trinket.
"I think that makes it even more perfect! I love birds. Hmm, this one looks like a raven. I'll call him… Diablo!"
She gives a quick knowing glance at him before her gaze returns to the bracelet, as if the name is supposed to mean something. It doesn't. Yoichi raises a confused brow.
"It's the raven sidekick slash best friend slash pet of Malicious," she explains, as if that clarifies anything.
"Of who?"
"The villain I'm most like according to the quiz from this morning, remember? She's from the Wisney movie where the princess is supposed to die but falls asleep instead. Malicious was the name of the witch who put the curse on her." She explains. "And the witch had a pet raven named Diablo."
"How did you even know that? That's so oddly specific."
She giggles, still staring at the bracelet on her left hand. "I learned it while your mom was doing my hair. I was telling her about the quiz and my answers. She didn't know who Malicious was and honestly I didn't know the details of the story well enough to explain it to her when she asked. So I coogled the movie summary on my phone for us. And that's where I learned that Malicious had a pet named Diablo." Reina finally turns her gaze from the bracelet and back towards him. "Oh, and your mom did the quiz too."
Yoichi shakes his head, entirely unsurprised his mom did something so stupid.
"She got chocolate mochi and Druella de Vil," Reina continues. "Such a cooler combination than my results," Reina pouts.
Yoichi rolls his eyes. "So that's why you guys took two hours to get ready?"
She gives a self-deprecating chuckle, tugging at her sleeve. "Guess I just needed that much work. Sorry?"
"You looked fine before and you look fine now," he mutters, glancing away from her as his face heats.
("Liar." The voice snickers. "You like her better like this. All dressed up and pretty, and all just for you.")
"Come on." Yoichi grabs her right hand in his left, pulling her closer than before. "What do you want to do next?"
"Hmm…" He watches her look around as she brings her left hand up towards her face. His eyes lock onto the three charms on her wrist, and how they shimmer from the festival lights. Something pleasant curls in his gut at the thought of her wearing something he gave her. "Too many choices…" She brings a finger up to her lip in consideration, oblivious to how the harmless action captures Yoichi's attention, drawing his eyes once more to her mouth. "That one!" She chirps, quickly turning her gaze back towards him as she points to something in the distance. "Those look so yummy, I want to try those next!"
"Sure," he says reflexively, ignoring the heat in his cheeks as he wonders if she caught where he had just been staring.
In a few minutes, he swiftly regrets his mindless agreement to her request as he watches her lips circle around the choco-banana.
'Don't be a creep, don't be a creep,' he sternly and repeatedly reminds himself, forcing his eyes to look literally anywhere else. But she tests every vestige of his self-control when she makes a soft, happy sound. "Mhm, this is so good," she sighs, sending a hot jolt up his spine. She finishes chewing a bite. "Are you sure you don't want some, Yocchan?"
'She must be doing this on purpose.' He convinces himself as he dazedly watches her lick a stray sprinkle from the corner of her mouth and leave a streak of icing. 'There's no way she can be this fucking clueless, right?'
He hears an echo of Mei's judgy voice: "are you a perf?"
And he concedes, maybe he is.
When he doesn't immediately respond to her question, the stupid genius just shrugs and nonchalantly goes back to sucking on the frosted treat and-
'Nope.'
He abruptly plucks the stick from her hand, ("Hey! What are y-") and swallows what's left down in two bites. He realizes it was an indirect kiss only after he's consumed the overly sweet dessert. 'Shit, will she care?'
She grins evilly. "I knew you couldn't stay strong for the entire evening! The call of yummy, sugary goodness was just too tempting."
'Naïve little idiot.' He mentally sighs in relief. "You have a bunch of shit all over your mouth," he grabs a tissue from the stand near them and slaps it over her face.
She huffs before grabbing the tissue with her free hand, and wiping her mouth with it. Then the cheeky girl pokes his side with her elbow. "So where are you taking me next?"
("Deep into the forest, where you can make as many sounds as y-")
"What do you want to do?" Yoichi wraps his fingers back through hers, resolutely pushing away the voice.
"Not going to lie…" She grins. "I kind of want to head back and buy another choco-banana, since you, well, ate mine."
'No way in hell.' He pulls her further away from the direction of the choco-banana stand. "You won't sleep at all tonight if you have another," he tries.
'Pretty sure I won't either.'
"So how about another game instead?" He redirects.
She brightens, easily distracted. "Oh, that's perfect! But we need to find one that I can play well."
Yoichi snorts. "Considering you can't throw, kick, or honestly, even aim… Your options are kind of limited, genius."
"Hey!"
"If you see a prize you want…" he pauses. "I can just win it for you."
"No, you don't get it." She shakes her head, squeezing his hand. "I don't want another prize. I want to play a game where I can win you something too." And she smiles at him so wholesomely that Yoichi's pretty sure his insides melt into mush.
(Oh man, he was gone.)
Miracle of all miracles, they find a game she doesn't suck at. It's underwater coin dropping, of all things.
The dark-haired genius presses her face right up against the massive tank as at least ten people try their luck at it. She keeps mumbling something about timing wave patterns, sufficiently weirding him out. But then, when she drops the coin into the tank, he watches in amazement as it wriggles around until it taps into the small metallic bowl at the bottom. She cheers brightly, turning to him with a radiant smile, and he quickly decides he likes this game best of all.
"Well, well!" The man at the stall says. "Congratulations, dear. You're the first one to win my extra-challenging Suichuu Coin Otoshi tonight. Which of these prizes catches your fancy?"
She analyzes each of them with such careful thought that Yoichi can't help but be amused. He creeps up behind her, and leans down to murmur into her ear. "I can hear you worrying from across the grounds, genius. Don't think so hard."
'Not when I'll like anything you pick for me.'
He remembers what he wanted to do to her after ring toss. He's in the same spot now, so if he just lifts his arm, he can wrap it around her waist, and pull her back into his chest. Feeling bolder than before, he starts to raise his arm. His hand hovers, mere millimeters away from latching onto her waist, when she suddenly whips around.
"Turn the other way!" She instructs, as she whirls to face him. When he doesn't immediately listen, she starts poking his shoulder until he finally turns. He rolls his eyes, but also smiles as he grows increasingly entertained by her antics. "It's going to be a surprise." She justifies to his chuckling back.
"Liar," he teases. "You're just indecisive and can't pick something."
She shushes him, of all things. 'Impertinent little…' And for a moment, he toys with the idea of swinging her over his shoulder and throwing her into the tank. 'Now that would be a surprise.'
Reina spends another good five minute debating before he hears her politely ask the (remarkably patient) vendor for, "umm, that one, if possible, please?"
After she thanks the man, she walks around and steps up in front of him. She hesitates for a moment, before abruptly pushing the mask into his chest. "I, umm, here!"
He looks down, taking the ceramic face from her. "Not bad." He admires the black and blue mask. It has a rather intricate design, considering it's a festival prize. He actually likes it. The swirls and angles look almost like hazy, icy flames erupting from the creature's eyes and mouth. "I get the blue, but why the wolf?"
"It's weird." She tilts her head. "I was going to get the stag one, since it was fancier. Or even the fox one, since it was wooden. But I don't know, this one just kept pulling me towards it?" She offers him a soft smile. "I suppose it just reminds me of you?"
("Oh, how fitting." The voice titters. "She can already sense that you're going to devour her.")
Wanting to keep his hands free, he ties the mask around his neck and lets the ceramic wolf hang between his shoulder blades. He adamantly ignores the voice as he pulls her hand back into his. "So, where to next?"
"Yo-yo fishing!" She lights up. "Your mom and Aoyama-chan told me about it. And I bet I can beat you at that, at least!"
She doesn't. She's not even close. He catches five balloons before she's able to get one without the hook breaking. "Well, you could have told me the trick to it before," she pouts, blowing a stray strand of her hair with an annoyed puff of air.
It's strange. He's never wanted to kiss someone on the forehead before. Is that weird?
("Danger, danger," the voice sings. "Temporary, remember? That's not the way to kiss a girl you won't be keeping.")
As they continue walking together, he feels a bit relieved that she hadn't noticed what he was about to do before she spun around. Because if he had put his arm around her, and she had swatted him away, it would have hurt.
It's crowded enough this year, and people are so busy with their own family and friends, that he and Reina actually don't encounter anyone he knows. Not from his school, not from his neighbourhood, and not even his parents. Honestly, Yoichi's fine with that. He doesn't need any more people interrupting his limited time with Reina.
But then he gets a stark reminder that the festival is a frequent place to hang out for the entire prefecture. Specifically, a reminder in the shape of "The Jewel of Japan."
'Ryosuke Kira... Shit.'
Pretty please leave a review if you enjoyed : )
Asterisk Notes
* Five big space languages / countries with best space programs - made up. Just picked the languages and places that worked best for future plot purposes.
* Law change = reference to changing age of being considered an "adult" in Japan from 20 to 18 (to match most of the rest of the world)
* Geta = traditional platform shoes
* Shateki = Gun-shooting
* Ikayaki = fried squid
* Takoyaki = octopus in fried batter balls with yummy toppings
* Kakigori = shaved ice with syrup
* Princess Elaine of Avalon – yes, reference to Elena of Avalor
Preview for future chapters of Onikko
"After an entire night of denying yourself, surely just one taste is okay?" the voice coaxes, in an eerie echo of Reina's earlier words. "It'll be our little secret."
Responses to Reviewers
perseusdiangelo007 - Sae & Rin's reactions are coming! You'll actually get Sae's first ;)
ErlanggSIOC - "insanely toxic" – omg yes, hence this chapter (and the upcoming one). I am SO excited to write Sae's reaction but there's a few things that need to happen first just to up the drama ;) Omg don't apologize I love reading outbursts they make me grin :D Ultimately it will be HEA (but there will be drama/angst/toxic before they mature and grow and we get there). OMG yes! I love it when other authors write spin offs of my stuff! If you do, could you add it to the Onikko-verse collection so I can read it too if/when it's up! :D
uzu i-sa - Ngl the plan initially was for Barou and Megumi! I'm surprised/glad you caught that! I ended up not going forward with it since I wanted this fic to focus more on Isagi/Reina, but I'm probably going to allude to Barou/Megumi in this fic and write a focused one shot in Onikko Outtakes (at some point lol)
NoodlyNoodle – I read your first comment and was going to PM you the link to Onikko Outtakes before I saw the second comment lol! Hope you liked it!
IkkiNiko – I totally side-ship Anri and Ego together too. It might be a bit hard to write them until after BL/NEL though. I feel like Ego would be so consumed by BL he wouldn't want any "distractions" until he created his perfect striker.
NotJamesHoffmann - oh totally, but try not to be too hard on Megumi! She's totally accommodating to others (she's got a "barista mask" she slide on when needed), she was just especially hostile towards Isagi because of her protectiveness over Reina ;)
EikampJJ5 - oh def eventually we'll eventually get to Yoichi, but first she's going to "keep some distance" with the cutesy monikers ;)
Sp8cefluff - the inner voice will continue to be evil for a few more chapters lol
Isagi loves thighs - Should I be expecting to hear from your lawyers soon ? ;P lots of fanservice this chap just for you ;D Omg his bio is totally what I used to justify his jealously/pouting over being ignored in that scene! Lots of fanservice in this chapter and the next ;D What's interesting for me is I absolutely HATE the damsel in distress trope in other fics but it's so much fun to write ! But also in this fic, there is a reason, I promise, for super amazing Reina to keep falling into that trope and it will be explained in her POV chaps and she will overcome it! hehehe thighs galore coming up next chap just for you (it was initially going ot be this chap, i just physicially couldnt fit it wihtout making this chapter like 25k words long). Yes! They will be! About 3ish chaps from now (ish)