"Atsuya, I think I left my eleven band in the shower. I'll be right back" With these quiet words, his brother made a U-turn and hurried away.

It has been 3 days since Atsuya was in Russia, and he was thoroughly confused. Don't get him wrong, it was really fun to play soccer with his brother again. While he might not have been back to full strength, and will not be until after the FFI was over, just getting to play at least one match alongside his brother and become the princes of Icefield on the national team together was a dream come true. To be honest, he really missed his big brother in the last one month when he was away on the national team and he himself was back home. So, when he was invited as an additional member of the Inazuma Japan, he was thrilled. The only blimp on his happiness was his brother would leave after their match against Spain and only one Fubuki brother would be on the team. Again.

The last three days were something. He was swarmed with practice as he needed to fit into the team before the next match. He needed to get used to his teammates' play style and they needed to familiarize themselves with his. So, for the last three days, he had been practicing with various teammates from sun up to sundown. They had played with various team combos and it was exhilarating. He did lock horns with Haizaki, Hiroto and Fudou frequently, but that is a given. Their personality clashed too much.

While people presumed that he was arrogant and rash and thought everyone was beneath him, he didn't actually think so. His big brother had taught him a lesson of humility early on and it had stuck. He was a little brash since childhood and had developed that persona as a strategy for the games. It kept opponents focused on him and away from his brother when needed. Fubuki brothers were just capitalizing on people's perception of them.

Atsuya was also not an idiot. He could see that something had really disturbed his brother. Apart from his injury, there was something in the team that set off his usually chill brother to the extent that he would go out of his way to avoid certain people. He actually saw his laid-back and people-pleaser brother stammer and reject an offer from a team-mate. That was disturbing. Out of the two of them, Shirou could never refuse anyone. Sometimes, Atsuya had to tell jerks to shove it, because Shirou just would not. Atsuya would pick fights for him and Shirou would make sure to get him out of trouble. While his big brother would bail him out of problems, Atsuya made sure that Shirou would never get into one. Because while Fubuki Atsuya was a hurricane trapped inside a boy, Fubuki Shirou was calm, collected, confident and fearless. He could face against a bear just like him without a flinch. So why did he get nervous and started to stammer?

Was something wrong with the team? Was someone troubling his brother? Was someone threatening his big brother?

Shirou seemed fine in his room or when they were alone together. He would try his best to hide his injury from the team and smile prettily at them to put their mind at ease. He would also try his hardest to keep up with the practice to not draw anyone's attention. But Atsuya could see his wince every time Shirou had to push through his pain on the ground. Still, his big brother would smile at him and brave through the pain. Even when Atsuya tried to intervene, Shirou would smile, and he had to stop himself from outing his brother's secret.

But there was this one person whom his brother was avoiding as much as possible. For the first few times, Atsuya was confused about who was the guy that his brother was avoiding. But after that, he could clearly see that it was the guy with blue hair, Ichihoshi. His big brother would change the direction (just like right now) if he saw that Ichihoshi guy heading towards him. In the mess hall, Shirou would choose a table farthest away from him and would give a tight smile if he approached. He wanted to ask about that but they rarely had time between all the practice sessions. And unfortunately, when he got here, Shirou was already rooming with Tatsuya.

And he was getting sick of it. So, he decided to get to the root of the problem by asking the root of the problem.

"Hey, what did you do to my brother?" He growled at Ichihoshi.

Ichihoshi, who had been immersed in something on his tablet, looked up confusingly.

"What?"

"I asked, what the fuck did you do to my brother? Are you giving him any kind of trouble? Threatening him?", he was getting frustrated with every second.

"I don't understand, Atsuya-san. Is something wrong with Shirou-san?" The guy looked genuinely confused. And this caused him to narrow his eyes in anger.

"He just saw you walking this way and fled. Are you blackmailing him?"

Ichihoshi looked flabbergasted at this, "No. Atsuya-san. I….I don't know. I'm sure you're mistaken. Shirou-san was just fine this morning when I was talking to him. Even during the practice, he was fine. We even talked about that new hisasstu you two had developed."

Atsuya gave him an incredulous look. "You think he seemed fine? He looked seconds away from fleeing. Are you kidding me? Aren't you supposed to be some kind of genius strategist? You didn't notice that my brother was avoiding you for weeks? It took me just one day to see that my brother was scared of you. And let me tell you, Shirou is not scared of anything. We were fucking 8 when we faced a bear and got the name 'bear killer'. He didn't even flinch when facing it. But you? You did something that scared him. So what? What did you do?"

Ichihoshi looked so confused that, for a second, Atsuya was ready to believe him.

"But I didn't do any…th….", and with this, Ichihoshi lost all the colors in his face. And this alarmed him.

"What? What did you do?" Atsuya was getting angry now. His fists were clenched, ready to punch this fucker. And he was not scared to deck the bitch.

"Is everything ok, guys?" Asuto asked nervously. He had walked in on them a moment ago and instantly felt the tension in the air. He stood beside Ichihoshi and looked concerned.

"I think it's because I injured him," Ichihoshi told meekly and could not meet his eyes.

"What did you just say?" Atsuya saw red and grabbed the fucker from his collar.

Asuto squeaked in alarm and instantly tried to get between them. But Atsuya was having none of that and slammed Ichihoshi against the wall.

"I think it is because I caused his injury," Ichihoshi said in a teary voice.

"Atsuya-san. Please calm down. We can explain. I promise" Asuto said hurriedly and tried to pry his hands away from Ichihoshi's collar.

Atsuya just shoved him with a snarl "Stay out of this, Inamori"

"What's going on here?" Nosaka and Nishikage arrived hurriedly, "We heard a loud noise"

While Ichihoshi looked at Atsuya in alarm and said, "During that match, I targeted Shirou-san to eliminate him from the game. And he got injured. After the game, he said he was fine, but I don't think that's true"

Before anyone could react, Atsuya reared back and decked Ichihoshi in the nose. Ichihoshi slid down with a squeak and held his nose. While Asuto, Nosaka and Nishikage shouted in alarm. But one punch was not enough for what Ichihoshi had done. His big brother was so hurt that he wouldn't be able to play in the rest of the tournament. Even deciding to play against Spain was pushing it. So, he dove after Ichihoshi again. But Nishikage was quick to grab him from behind and restrain him.

"Let go of me, you simp. I'm gonna kill this bitch. How dare he? How dare he hurt my brother? Did he think nobody would hold him accountable? That there wouldn't be any consequences?" Atsuya was struggling so much that even Nishikage, with his taller frame and lithe strength, was having trouble keeping a hold on him. It was like trying to restrain a grizzly bear with bare hands.

Apparently, the commotion drew others as well since Hiura, Golem, and Hiroto rushed in, quickly followed by Kazemaru and Endou. All they could see was snarling Atsuya in Nishikage's grip, while Asuto tried to placate him. In front of them, Nosaka bent down to help Ichihoshi up.

"Atsuya-kun, I understand that you're upset." Nosaka started in his calm tone, "but it was not entirely Ichihoshi's fault. He was ordered by the Orion to sabotage Inazuma Japan at any cost. We devised a plan to make Shirou-san the target and prepared him for that. We made sure that Shirou-san could avoid worst-case injury and he pretended to be hurt"

"You think I give a shit about his reasons. I don't care if he was ordered by the Queen herself. How dare he touch my brother," Atsuya growled and nearly slipped from Nishikage's grip. At that moment, Atsuya looked no less than a bear ready to pounce on his prey. And his eyes never left Ichihoshi, who was being looked at by Hiura. Endou, Golem and Nosaka immediately placed themselves between pissed Atsuya and cowering Ichihoshi, while Hiroto watched the beatdown in interest. Because it was a beatdown. Ichihoshi was not even trying to defend himself, much less trying to retaliate. So, it couldn't be called a fight.

"I'm really sorry, Atsuya-san," Ichihoshi said tearfully, "I have no excuse. What I did in those moments cannot be forgiven.."

"Ichihoshi, everyone forgave you. Even Shirou-san and Kidou-san." Asuto cried in between and turned to Atsuya, "Really Atsuya-san. Ichihoshi immediately apologized after he realized his mistake and Shirou-san forgave him"

Atsuya looked at everyone in disbelief. Everyone was imploring him to forgive the fucker who fucked up his brother's chance at playing in the national team. Atsuya gave a mirthless laugh and said, "My brother is so nice that he is a borderline pushover. You can stab him in the back and he would apologize to you for getting in the way of your knife."

Because his brother was the sweetest and had no mean bone in his body. Yes, he did show favoritism by always defending Atsuya, but his brother was not mean. He was witty, snarky, calm and forgiving. No wonder he forgave the dickhead.

Nishikage must have thought that Atsuya was calming down because his hold slackened and Atsuya took that moment to lunge at Ichihoshi over Nosaka. The commotion that was slowing down re-started with new fervor, and everyone was shouting at once. By this point, almost everyone in Inazuma Japan had arrived, drawn in by the shouts. Nosaka looked around for older Fubuki brother but could not find him. So, he turned to one of the calmest person in the fray, "Kazemaru-san, please get Shirou-san. I don't think anyone will be able to stop Atsuya-kun at this point."

In the middle of the commotion, Atsuya had knocked down Ichihoshi and climbed atop him to punch the blue-haired bastard, who had covered his face to protect himself. All the while, Atsuya was roaring, "You're the reason he's hurt. You're the reason he won't be able to play in this tournament anymore. Do you know he is so hurt that he cannot play after the match next week? He will need a complicated surgery to repair the damage and if that goes south, he might never get to play again"

By this point, everyone was stunned into silence while Ichihoshi had started to sob behind his hands. They hadn't realized that Shirou was really hurt to this extent. Even Nosaka lost a little color on his face.

"What happened?" called out the approaching panicked voice of older Fubuki, "Atsuya"

Everyone immediately parted for him as he entered the center of the commotion. Even Atsuya stopped and turned around to look at his brother. And to the shock of everyone, Atsuya had tears in his eyes. But it looked more like angry tears. Shirou immediately reached into the middle and pulled Atsuya away from Ichihoshi. Atsuya let himself be pulled easily, although reluctantly. Ichihoshi, on the other hand, didn't move from his position on the ground and sobbed.

"What are you doing, Atsuya? You could be suspended for fighting like this? Why did you hit him?" Shirou looked absolutely frantic as he grabbed his brother's hand and inspected his knuckles for injury. He could see others trying to help Ichihoshi up from the ground.

"You didn't tell me that he orchestrated that attack that hurt you. Why?" Atsuya whined angrily.

Shirou looked stunned. Since his injury looked like a simple accident from the game, the team had decided not to let anyone know about the reason (for Ichihoshi's sake) and brush it under the rug. Especially since they could see how distraught Ichihoshi was after he regained his memory and senses. Ichihoshi had been so remorseful and ashamed of his action that he had tried to leave the team. Even after they convinced him to stay, Ichihoshi had tried to repent for it by taking up everyone's chores and practically running himself to the ground. But looks like Atsuya found out.

"It's ok, Atsu. I was prepared for that. We planned it, but I was not entirely successful in evading the attack properly. And Ichihoshi-kun was genuinely remorseful for his actions. He apologized, and I forgave him. It's ok. I promise. I will be fine soon. Helping him was more important at that moment." Shirou looked into the tearful eyes of his hurricane of a little brother and tried to convince him to let go of his anger.

"But you're still scared of him. You thought I wouldn't notice?" Atsuya sobbed in frustration. He didn't like to see his big brother so nervous and unsettled like this. He wanted to eliminate the factor that haunted his brother, but he didn't want to pull his hands away from Shirou's gentle hold. Shirou also looked alarmed at this. "I wanted to play alongside you. I was finally getting the chance, but he took it away. But the most important matter is he scares you. You think he will come after you again, so you avoid him like plague. I was confused at first, but when he admitted his crime, I understood the reason. Why is he still here if he was responsible for multiple sabotage? Inamori said he was also responsible for Kidou-san's doping charges"

"I'm not scared of him, Atsu," Shirou looked so desperate for Atsuya to believe him. But it had the opposite effect. All he could see in his big brother's eyes were fear and plea.

"You don't even look at him straight, Aniki" By this point, everyone but Ichihoshi had gone silent. The blue-haired boy was sniffling in the background while Asuto and Nosaka tried to look at his injury. "You avoid him at every possible turn and your smiles are so tight when he's around. But you won't admit it because you are too nice"

"Atsuya, please. It's not like that" Shirou was not happy with how this was going. Atsuya was so worked up that he might jump Ichihoshi again. He doesn't have time. If he keeps this resentment even after Shirou leaves the team, he might decide to punish Ichihoshi then and he won't be around to stop him. Atsuya had always been overly protective of his brother, even if he was younger among the two. And if things escalated later on without Shirou around for damage control, it might affect Atsuya's soccer career. He will have to tell him. He didn't have time.

"Because it feels like it was supposed to be me"

I was watching Orion no Kokuen and I noticed that Shirou reacted very uneasily when Ichihoshi was offering him a second serving in the episode where he was trying to do everything out of guilt.
Plus I don't think I have ever seen Shirou interact with Ichihoshi properly.
Ares no Tenbin and Orion no Kokuen are literally AUs of OG Inazuma Eleven
They also hint at alternate universe when Kappa was mentioned and Hiroto/Tatsuya has obvious reaction in both timelines.
So... this idea was born.