Chapter Text
To Atsushi's delight, Ranpo's friend Poe came to bring him to training half an hour before Akutagawa was supposed to come over, so Atsushi could just follow the two of them to the pitch instead.
Atsushi quickly found out that he liked Poe; the two came from similar backgrounds, with the brunette having moved schools half way through last year.
"I understand what it's like to be the new guy, Atsushi." He reassured him as they approached the field. "But everyone here is really welcoming. At my old school, everything was so cliquey, but there's less of that here."
Atsushi nodded. "Thanks Poe."
"Just don't trust Ranpo for directions. I made that mistake when I first got here too."
"Being bad at directions doesn't even mean anything!" Ranpo protested, folding his arms, making Atsushi laugh.
"I know it doesn't. Anyway Atsushi, don't stress out about the match or anything. You play goals, right?"
"Yeah."
"Ranpo and I are both backs, so we'll be relatively close by. Plus the guys won't go too hard on you."
Atsushi felt a little better as he headed into the changing rooms, but all of that disappeared when he was met with Akutagawa glaring at him.
"Where were you? I thought we agreed I would pick you up from your room?" The boy sneered, folding his arms and scowling at Atsushi.
"Oh yeah, about that." Atsushi nervously laughed. "I didn't want to bother you, so I came with Ranpo and Poe-"
"I stood outside your door for twenty minutes. You could have told me you were going with someone else."
"I'm so sorry, Akutagawa-"
"Stop. Don't say my name."
Atsushi raised his eyebrows.
"What should I call you then?"
"Nothing. I don't like talking to any of these guys on a good day, and you keep proving yourself to be worse than them all. If I talk to you, it's because of Mori, and nothing else. Got it?"
Atsushi nodded, and sat at the opposite end of the changing rooms, next to a group with oddly colourful hair.
"Ranpo wasn't joking then, huh." Another boy with grey hair spoke up.
"What did you even do to him, Nakajima?" The boy Atsushi remembered to be the team captain added.
"I didn't do anything!" Atsushi blurted out. "He just hates me for no reason!"
The third boy in the group next to him sighed as he shrugged on his shirt. "It has to have been something, dude. I mean, Akutagawa doesn't get all pissy like that for no reason."
"Albatross, he can hear you!" The captain hissed, looking over to a livid Akutagawa.
"Right, sorry Chuu. But seriously Atsushi, what happened? You punch him in the face or something?"
"I keep telling you, I didn't do anything! Maybe he's mad because he has to help me with my classes. Mori told him to."
"That doesn't check out though." Poe added. "He had to mentor me when I first joined, and he wasn't nearly that bad."
"Am I just that hate-able?" Atsushi questioned, running his fingers through his choppy bangs.
"Don't say that." Albatross reassured. "Akutagawa’s always got a stick up his ass about something."
Nakahara shot a warning glare at him, but the boy didn't seem to mind.
"You may not get along with him, Atsushi, but you have the rest of the team." Nakahara said, putting his hand on Atsushi's shoulder. He smiled in return, feeling a little bit better about the whole ordeal.
-
Akutagawa knew training today was going to be bad, but he hadn't anticipated it being like this.
The day had already gotten off to a bad start, with Akutagawa waiting outside of the new kids room for minutes on end just for him to never show up. He didn’t know why he even bothered to wait for that long. He should have left as soon as he didn’t hear an answer.
Akutagawa rarely disliked a person as much as he did with Atsushi. The kid clearly knew nothing about him, and how he operated. Maybe it was irrational, but every time Akutagawa looked at the boy’s face, all he felt was an intense surge of anger.
He pulled on his helmet and quickly left the changing rooms, leaving with Gin, who didn’t even attempt to diffuse the situation. Whenever Akutagawa got like this, there was no stopping him.
He wanted training to go as usual, but of course everything today was centred around Atsushi. Sakunosuke, their previous goalkeeper, was more than happy to switch to forwards to let the kid play in his preferred position. Why he couldn’t just suck it up and play forwards was beyond Akutagawa. But of course everyone had to accommodate him.
They didn’t even play a proper match that day, it was just the forwards trying to score against him.
Chuuya, who had been standing next to Akutagawa on the sidelines, picked up on his frustration.
“I know you want an actual match, but it’s just for this one practice.”
Akutagawa scoffed. “I just hate how we have to accommodate him like this. Mori has me ‘looking after’ him like he isn’t sixteen years old and fully aware how to read a timetable.”
“I don’t know why you hate him so much, Aku. You were fine with mentoring Poe last year.”
“That was entirely different.” Akutagawa protested. “Poe didn’t uproot everything.”
“Atsushi isn’t either.” Chuuya butted in. “He told me himself, he has no idea what he did wrong.”
Akutagawa sighed. “Do you ever just look at someone and instantly dislike them?”
“No?”
The black haired boy turned his head to Chuuya. “Seriously?”
“I may have a reputation for holding grudges, but I’ve never hated someone from the first interaction. Not unless they’ve done something really uncalled for.”
“Yes, well I feel that way towards the new kid. He just gets under my skin.”
Chuuya raised his eyebrows.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Nakahara?”
“There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“No there isn’t.”
“I mean, there has to be a reason why you hate him so much! It makes no sense.”
“Maybe I just hate people like him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nakahara! Akutagawa! You’re up to score against Nakajima!” Fukuzawa’s voice echoed out across the pitch. Akutagawa wanted to slap himself.
“But sir, I thought it was just the forwards-”
“You’re both midfielders, you should practice scoring no matter what. And please, show Nakajima some more hospitality. You remember your first day at Kiai, I assume?”
Akutagawa’s fists tightened around his hurl as he walked over to Atsushi, with the latter boy looking terrified.
Akutagawa kept a straight face, and took a deep breath as he raised the ball, hitting it with all of his strength to the back of the net, right beside Atsushi’s head.
Akutagawa had near perfect aim when it came to scoring: he knew exactly what he was doing by having it barely miss Atsushi. The last thing he wanted was to spend even a second more with him, and so Akutagawa employed the tactic of scaring him.
“You're not going to go easy on him?” Chuuya questioned from beside him.
“And why would I do that?”
“Because he's new and probably scared of you?”
“He should be.”
Chuuya rolled his eyes. “Save it.”
The redhead took his turn at a penalty shot, and Akutagawa could tell it was done with a lot less effort than usual. Atsushi quickly blocked the ball, face still screwed up in concentration.
In fact, during the entire practice that day, the only goals scored were by Akutagawa. The fact that Atsushi was an actual capable player in goals just made him more detestable to Akutagawa. He knew that Kiai wouldn't let in any dead weights to the team, but maybe it would have been easier if the boy wasn't just someone else to become better than.
Akutagawa rose the ball to take his third penalty, and locked eyes with Atsushi. He was surprised to see the lack of fear on Atsushi's face while he glared at him.
Another surprise of that practice was how Atsushi blocked the goal. Admittedly, it was barely blocked, but the boy still got a round of applause all the same.
“Hell yeah, Atsushi!” Albatross called out. “Even Oda can't block Aku's goals, you're incredible!”
Akutagawa scoffed as he passed the ball over to Chuuya, rolling his eyes.
-
Atsushi took off his helmet in the changing rooms, worn out from practice. He exchanged small talk with Ranpo and Poe, and even Albatross came up to him to congratulate him on his playing that day. Atsushi was glad that the majority of the reception to him joining the team was positive.
“Hey Atsushi, can I talk to you for a second?”
Kyouka whipped her head around the door, her hair tied in one ponytail instead of two, and dressed in a football jersey. Atsushi was alarmed when she walked straight into the boys changing rooms. He was even more surprised when the rest of the team didn't even bat an eye. Atsushi supposed she did that often.
“Um, yeah, sure.” He replied, standing up to leave with her.
“I watched your training today.” She admitted by the closed door. “Well, parts of it since we have training at the same time. I just wanted to say something about Akutagawa. I've seen the way he talks about you, and I'm going to give you some advice.”
Atsushi laughed. “Be nice to him?”
But Kyouka shook her head. “No, don't. Niceness isn't going to get you anywhere with Akutagawa. If he's going to keep being an asshole, you have to put your guard up. It's going to be difficult, but you have to let him know that you're not going to get walked all over.”
“So what, I insult him back?”
“Not necessarily.” Kyouka pointed out. “Just match his energy a bit more. He says he doesn't want to talk to you, say you don't want to talk to him either. He says he only spends time with you out of obligation, agree with him. Just put up space, or this year's going to be really difficult.”
The two were interrupted by Akutagawa himself walking out of the door, still glaring at Atsushi.
“I suppose you don't know where the psychology classroom is?” He said bitterly.
Atsushi stood up straighter. “I don't need your help, Akutagawa. I can find it by myself.”
“Is that so? Please, enlighten me, where is it?”
Atsushi didn't actually know where their psychology class was, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let Akutagawa speak down on him like that. Not anymore.
“I don't know what I even did to you in the first place!” He protested. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“Because you don't belong here!” Akutagawa spat. “You only blocked one of my goals today, you don't deserve to be at Kiai!”
“But you hated me before that! Tell me what the hell I did to you!”
Akutagawa’s hands balled into fists, and Kyouka slowly backed away.
“You act like no one has ever disliked you before. And I find that hard to believe.”
Atsushi could feel every heartbeat in his chest reverberating throughout his entire body. He wasn't going to show his weaknesses like that.
“I find it hard to believe that people like you!” Atsushi shouted, feeling his anger rise up. Why did Akutagawa have such a problem with him?
“I don't find myself occupied with things as trivial as friendships.” The boy scoffed.
“Quit being overdramatic and answer me!”
“Why can't you just accept that some people don't like you? I have absolutely no reason to. You're loud, you're annoying you can't even block goals properly-”
“Akutagawa-kun.”
Akutagawa felt his heart drop through his stomach.
“Mori sensei.”
The principal stared at him with ice cold eyes.
“I expect to see the two of you in my office in ten minutes. I implore you not to be late.”
And with that, the headmaster walked off, leaving Akutagawa and Atsushi staring at each other with loathing on the damp grass.