#ryuran

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Kurona didn’t stand out.

He did what Shidou told him to do.

He was compliant. Followed along. Did what he needed to to make it through the second selection and beyond, and then faded into the background of Blue Lock as a secondary character to Shidou’s own story.

He was a stepping stone.  

Another piece in the puzzle.

A loyal pawn on the chess board, and a perfect foil to whatever striker he was paired with.  

Shidou forgot about him when he wasn’t in his direct line of sight. 

But when he was in his way, he couldn’t get Kurona out of his mind. 

Kurona was a strange one. An expression that never changed, and he never seemed particularly excited about anything in particular.  But still, he was impressive enough to catch Shidou’s attention during the second selection, and he picked him because of how well he bounced off of the other players in his team, and, for the sheer fact that he had that number 4 on his jersey.

Shidou knew it didn’t mean much. Clearly, because his team lost to Shidou who had passed through with the 111 jersey. But, it did mean that Kurona was confident in his own abilities. That he would do exactly what he needed to every time.

Reliable. 

Consistent.

But never outstanding.

Off the field however…. He was an enigma.  

The first time they were alone together, Reo and Igaguri having wandered off to mope and be annoying elsewhere, Shidou finally got a taste for his true personality.

Kurona never said much when it was the four of them together.  Shidou wasn’t even sure if he knew what the other boy’s voice sounded like.  So maybe that was why it was so shocking when Kurona finally spoke, unprompted and completely unrelated to anything that had been discussed in their time together. 

“Hey, Shidou-kun. Did you know that female ferrets die if they don’t mate once they go into heat?”

Shidou tore his attention away from his phone, looking over to the boy on the bed beside him.  He was sitting cross legged on his bed, weird little braid obscuring his face, and face turned towards the phone in his lap, as if he had not said a single word. 

“Did you say something?” Shidou questioned, really convinced his mind was playing tricks on him in the quiet dorm room.  Kurona turned his head, same typical, neutral expression on his face as he spoke again.

“Female ferrets die if they don’t get a mate once they go into heat.  A hormone builds up in their body until they mate or die from anemia.”

As if that was a simple, normal fact to share with someone. But still, it was the first time Kurona had said more than “Okay” or “understood” to him, so, he was curious about why the other had chosen to speak now of all times.

“That’s crazy. You like animals or something?”

Kurona shrugged, answer noncommittal as he turned his head back towards his phone. 

“Ferrets are kind of cool, I guess. But I wouldn’t want one. They’re related to skunks.”

“Oh. Weird.” 

Shidou wasn’t used to not having anything to say.  He was usually ready with a quick retort or something sassy to say in response to anyone.

He wasn’t sure why a simple statement like that, even if it was a weird fucking thing to say out of nowhere, threw him off in the way it did.

But for now, he brushed it out of his mind. 

Kurona hovered in his periphery for the remainder of their time together in Blue Lock.  They made it through the second selection together, and Kurona picked his team to play on in the games of 5 on 5 to determine the Blue Lock 11, for which Kurona was selected as a reserve player.

Always there, but never drawing focus.  

When they all returned to the Blue Lock compound after a short break, Kurona approached him once, right after arrival, and before they went their separate ways once again as they chose different teams to join. 

“Hey.” 

His appearance made Shidou jump, as if he had materialized out of thin air. And, he may as well have, because as soon as he was done, he disappeared once again. 

“Oh, hey. What’s up? Have a good break?” 

Kurona nodded his head once, not saying another word as he held up his hand, balled into a fist. Shidou wasn’t totally certain how he was meant to respond to the gesture, so he tapped his knuckles against Kurona’s in a simple fist bump.

Clearly not the correct answer. Kurona’s hand remained extended, and he shook his fist slightly to signify that he was holding….something. 

Placing his open palm under Kurona’s fist, he waited until Kurona opened his fingers, dropping a small piece of plastic into his hand. 

A button. An old, slightly faded button painted with the picture of a European style dragon. 

Picking it up with the tips of his fingers, Shidou inspected it, curious as to why Kurona had handed him this.  He tried to give it back, but Kurona refused to open his hand to take it. 

“For you. I found it while shopping over the break. Reminded me of you.  Dragon. Ryu. Ryusei, Ryusei.” 

Opening his mouth in a surprised “oh”, Shidou grinned before pocketing the button, because while it was strange, it was still a thoughtful gift. 

But Kurona was strange, and each time they interacted, Shidou was just reminded more and more of that fact.

Strange, but like in a funny, “I want to see more of this guy” kind of way.  

So it only made sense to ask for his number the next time he saw him.  Since the button incident, Kurona’s weird little mannerisms and general way of existing had grown on his brain like a moss, always sticking around and thriving, but not so all consuming that he couldn’t focus on other things.

It was a curiosity. 

An investigative venture. 

He snuck away from his team a few nights before PXG was meant to play Bastard Munchen. He ignored the other players who asked what he was doing, and pushed Igaguri away when the idiot assumed he was here to see him.  Isagi pointed him towards the dining hall, where apparently Kurona got a few minutes to himself after a long exhausting day of dealing with those on his team, to find the little redhead sitting on a table, building a house of cards in the dim light. 

Kurona jumped when Shidou called out his name, rocking the table just enough to send his tower fluttering down to the ground.  The first expression Shidou ever saw on his face was a pout as he turned around, angry and disappointed, but that look quickly melted away to one of surprise as Shidou joined him in sitting on the table after picking up the cards that had fallen to the floor.

“Why are you here?” Kurona asked, watching as Shidou gathered all the cards into a pile, pushing them together until they rejoined into their original state as a deck.

“Had a free moment,” Shidou explained, shuffling the cards in his hands, holding the deck up once he was done. “Wanna play?” 

Kurona nodded, watching as Shidou out the cards without saying a word. In fact, not too many words were said. And maybe that was why Shidou wanted to come. 

He missed the companionable silence that Kurona brought.  The lack of needing to act up and look cool.  He could just exist in silence for a bit, play a game that didn’t matter for once, and just be with someone else that also enjoyed the silence.

They both reached for the mess of cards at the end of the game, trying to pull them together so Kurona could take them back to his room and Shidou could return to his team, and their fingertips touched for the briefest moment and it surely meant nothing. 

But it felt like it meant something. 

“Missed hanging out with you,” Kurona mumbled as he shoved the cards back into their box, taking his time to prolong their eventual departure. “You… Don’t try to make me feel weird.”

“You are weird though. But I like it.” Shidou hopped off the table, reaching out a hand to grab Kurona’s so he could easily drop to the floor. “I like your vibe. And I think you like mine. Yeah?”

Kurona nodded his head, but then shook it. “Don’t wanna say yes, cuz then something will go wrong. Always does.”

Shidou wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but he knew he would learn about it later. Sure, Kurona was a bit of an odd duck, but he was cool.  A mystery to be cracked.

“Give me your number.  I wanna talk to you more.”

Kurona didn’t hesitate.  He turned red in the apples of his cheeks, though no other facial displays let Shidou know what he was thinking. It was enough though, because he had been wondering about it ever since Kurona gave him the button.

The little dude had a crush on him, and was expressing himself in the way he knew how.  Like a damn crow, offering up trinkets he had found as a way to express how he felt. 

It was cute.  He wasn’t pushy, or overly demanding with his feelings, and all Shidou wanted was to see. 

He knew if he cracked the code, he would know who Kurona really was underneath that blank, neutral exterior. 

Though, cracking the code was as simple as listening.  Responding to text messages, no matter what the content.  Never being judgemental, and just accepting Kurona as he came. He was guarded, but Shidou enjoyed when he began to talk more, and shared the millions of thoughts bouncing around inside of his skull. 

They went on their first date on the next break from Blue Lock, and Kurona approached him cautiously and shared his hobby of thrifting and going to antique stores and looking for things that were unique and most people their age would overlook or throw away. A second button was gifted after the first shop, this one with a cartoony picture of a shark. 

“So you can think of me,” he explained as he closed Shidou’s fingers around his gift. 

And so the mystery began to unravel. 

A peculiar kid with peculiar interests.  He never made friends easily, and when he did, he never made them for very long.  He only wanted to be liked, to be useful, so he found himself hiding his interests and his way of speaking that clued people off to the fact that he was “weird”. He molded himself to fit perfectly to whomever he was with, and supported them thoroughly in whatever they needed, only making room for himself as a striker when the opportunity came. 

He didn’t like to stand out.

He didn’t like to be perceived.

If he was, then people could see the real him, and would judge him for it. 

He liked Shidou because Shidou himself was strange, and yet, while similar, was completely opposite from himself.

He was loud. Bold.  He didn’t let others talk shit or else they would fully get hit, and Kurona admired that.

“I wish I could be more like you,” he mumbled once, as Shidou rubbed his back and comforted him after he clammed up once again while in a group. 

“I like you like this,” Shidou reassured him.  Because it was true. He wouldn’t change Kurona for the world, because there was always something new. Something extraordinary that would never have crossed his mind had it not been for the boy in front of him.  “Now keep talking about what you were saying before.  What was the turtle shell thing called again?”

Kurona smiled, a tooth popping out from between his lips as he did, satisfied to share when he was encouraged to do so.  “Scutes. They shed as the turtles grow bigger. Kind of like a lizard but not.”

Shidou now had a collection of trinkets in a bowl beside his bed.  For some reason, Kurona had enjoyed giving him buttons for a long time, but had shifted his attention to small metal figures of animals. Just things that Kurona thought he would enjoy, gathered inside a bowl Kurona had picked out for him on one of their outings. Mementos of his affection, collected over time as Kurona grew more comfortable and opened up more and more. 

They stayed up for hours talking, staring out of the windows of Kurona’s bedroom, seated on his bed as he stared at the stars and rambled about whatever came to mind.  The silent moments were gone, because Kurona never had to doubt that Shidou would listen to every single word that came out of his mouth. 

Shidou now understood, as he fiddled with the necklace Kurona had gifted him for his last birthday, adorned with a charm that represented the constellation of Kurona’s zodiac sign, why his little boyfriend was associated with the galaxy.

He was so far away, mentally out of the reach of most people.  However, he was always there, sparkling away and shining light on those who needed him, but still, a never ending mystery.  But as you got closer, you found he had his very own unique gravitational pull.  Shidou found that he had gotten himself sucked right in, and he knew that he would spend the rest of his life getting to know the mysteries of Kurona’s brain if he had to. 

For now, he would kiss the doubts that still lingered away, grabbing Kurona’s shirt and pulling him into his lap whenever that worried look graced his face. Concern that he had said too much, that he had bored Shidou with a topic he didn’t care about.  That Shidou had finally had enough of him, and would cast him away, just like all of the others who didn’t understand him did.

“Ranze, you’re such a freaky little dude,” Shidou grinned as he pulled away from their kiss, Kurona’s cheeks red and flushed and his eyebrows still furrowed in concern until Shidou booped his nose and kissed him again. “I love that about you.  I want you to tell me everything about everything.”

Kurona was everything. 

And Shidou needed everything he had to give.

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A/N : Wee woo wee woo another rarepair alert This time, a rarepair that I am surprised hasn't taken off more! I mean, Shidou and Kurona were together on teams two whole times. So like, of course?

Kurona is one of my favorite little guys too. And I ship all my favorite boys with Shidou. So, here is this. Hope you enjoyed.