Chapter Text
Reo’s body toppled to the ground in a flurry of purple and blue. A thump echoed through the court.
“...Reo…?” Nagi’s lips barely wrapped around the name. His mind seemed to be working at a quarter of its regular speed. Something felt… wrong, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Igaguri rose from the ground.
Reo didn’t.
Distantly, Nagi wondered why. Why wasn’t Reo even trying to get to his feet? They were in the middle of a match—
Blood dripped from Igaguri’s elbow— but he didn’t have a wound there, where did the blood come from— Nagi followed the trail of red—
His vision blurred—
“Reo!” The sound tore from his throat, unbidden. He wasn’t even aware he was sprinting until he fell, rolling over his own legs on the green field. Frenzied, he sprung back up without hesitation, hysterically dashing towards the body (please, somehow, he must’ve been mistaken, it wasn’t Reo, it wasn’t).
“Reo…!” He panted out, finally reaching him. Blood seeped through his violet hair, and Nagi combed through the strands (oh, he missed touching Reo’s hair, but not like this, never like this— not soaked through, matted with clots of, of bloo—) — “Oh god , Reo. Reo, Reo.”
His hands came up stained with his blood, and Nagi wasn’t sure he was breathing.
“Reo, you’re ok. You’re ok. Reo…” He cradled Reo’s head in his lap. “Reo, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You’re right, I don’t try hard enough. I’ll try harder. You’re ok. Reo, you’re ok. Reo, I’m sorry, really.”
He was shaking so hard that Reo’s head lolled to the side of his thigh. “Reo…” He grabbed Reo’s limp hand, lacing their fingers together. Reo did not squeeze back.
What used to be a comfort now filled him with panic.
“You’re my treasure, Nagi.” Reo’s warm hands squeezed his. His violet eyes were half-lidded, sleepy in the warm afternoon light. Nagi turned his head closer to Reo’s shoulder, snuggling a giggle out of him as his hair tickled Reo’s neck.
“Don’t leave me…” Nagi pulled Reo’s hand to his chest. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking when I called you a pain. I didn’t mean it… I didn’t leave… I would never… Reo…” He sunk lower to the ground, clutching Reo’s hand to his forehead. “Get up, Reo, get up, please get up…”
A shadow moved over him.
“So what do you know, you do care,” it muttered. Nagi looked up to meet Shidou’s eyes.
Before he could respond, a torrent of sound came from his left. Isagi stood face-to-face with Igaguri, enraged.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” He took a threatening step forward. “We need Reo for the U-20 game coming up, you fucking idiot!”
“Igaguri…” Bachira came up beside Isagi, as he always did. This time, he wasn’t smiling. “I hate people who play dirty.”
Igaguri visibly shivered.
Isagi wasn’t done. “What are you gonna do if he can’t play anymore?!”
“Don’t say that.” The words left Nagi’s mouth without his control. “Don’t…” He held Reo’s (limp, it was too limp) body closer.
“He’s only been playing for 6 months!” Igaguri finally spoke up. “Don’t any of you… doesn’t anyone here ever feel like it’s a little unfair for him?!”
“Shut up,” Nagi whispered. He didn’t know shit about Reo.
“He’s the spoiled young master of a super rich family! He doesn’t need this like I do!” Wisps of memories of Reo’s empty apartment, of flickers of loneliness between fake smiles flash before Nagi’s eyes. “And I’ve been playing soccer since I could walk! I need this! If I get eliminated here, I have to, I have to join the monastery…! What could someone like him know about—”
Before he knew it, Nagi was on his feet— his fist collided with Igaguri’s cheek—
Igaguri fell down like a ton of bricks.
“Igarashi Gurimu.” Nagi hardly recognized his own voice, a cold, deep threat that made Igaguri scramble away from him. “If you say another word, I’ll kick you into the floor so hard you’ll never get up again. Stay down like the dog you are.”
Igaguri looked away, unable to meet Nagi’s furious gaze.
“I, I didn’t do anything wrong—” He asserted.
Nagi was on top of him before he could continue. He stomped his cleat (Reo had bought them for him, and now they were dirty) into Igaguri’s stomach, knocking all the wind out of him in a painful sounding wheeze. Once Igaguri had finally taken a breath, Nagi slammed his fist into his teeth, smothering him.
“S, stop–”
Nagi didn’t. This piece of garbage had hurt Reo. Reo, who lay unmoving behind him. Reo, who was the first person in the world to see something worth treasuring in Nagi. Reo, the kindest and most devoted person in the world, who might not be able to chase his one and only dream because—
Nagi’s fists kept going, even as Shidou and Isagi tried to drag him away.
Because of this motherfucker—
Distantly, Nagi knew that his knuckles were dripping with a shade of red that was a mix of his and Igaguri’s, but he couldn’t stop— he wouldn’t stop— not after what he did to Reo—
“Seishirou.” A pair of familiar arms wrapped around his waist. “Sei, stop.”
Nagi froze.
“...Re..o?”
A soft nod from behind him. “Down.”
Nagi flipped to look at him. His eye was bruised, his lip was bleeding, and blood trickled from his temple, but he was awake, he was ok, he was ok.
Nagi clutched him to his body. “Reo,” The name came out in a sigh of trembling relief.
“Good boy.” Reo rested his forehead on his shoulder. “Ugh, sorry, I think… I’m gonna close my eyes… for a bit…”
“Reo…?”
Nagi blinked back into reality. Igaguri’s face was a mess of crooked teeth and quickly forming bruises, blood dripping from several open cuts. Reo had collapsed into him, arms limp around him as he breathed.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see nurses bringing a stretcher onto the field. Bachira must’ve sent for help. The nurses loaded Igaguri on first— when they reached for Reo, Nagi reflexively clutched him tighter.
“Hon, we need to treat him…” A nurse rested a gentle hand on Nagi’s shoulder.
“I… I can’t…” leave him, not again…
“Fucking— just go with him!” Shidou shoved his back.
Nagi blinked. Oh. Right. That was an option.
He peeled himself away from Reo to help load him on the stretcher. He walked off court with the group of nurses.
Shidou rolled his eyes.
“‘Nagi doesn’t want me,’ he said, ‘Nagi doesn’t love me,’ he said.” Shidou snorted. “Then what the fuck do you call that?”
Nagi’s fingers were still intertwined with Reo’s as he walked. Gray eyes watched Reo with undeniable warmth as he brought Reo’s hand to his lips.
“Nagi can sure be scary when he wants to be, huh, Isagi?” Bachira nudged Isagi in the side.
“I’ve never seen him like that— I didn’t think he was capable of it,” Isagi replied.
“Hm… I did!” Bachira chirped.
As the last nurse left the field, the monitor lit up.