#okay but who did narita marry??? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

villainscomplex · 3 years ago

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this, at least.

hey so anyway yall know how there was that big boom of angsty ship fics right

,,,,,i wanted to write one too and I have no other excuse

!!! MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH !!!

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In his dreams, Asahi dies slowly.

His body is a mass of static and there is nothing but pain and pain and more pain. He’s vaguely aware of someone, somewhere, calling his name. Asahi, they’re saying, Asahi, please wake up.

And he does.

Asahi jerks awake violently, legs tangled in his blankets and hair plastered to the back of his neck, cold with sweat. He still feels like there’s — what? He doesn’t know the source of the pain, only that it is sheer pain, radiating through the core of his very being. It’d be easy to think it’s something simple, a bullet wound or head trauma, but the way it nestles into his chest and takes root there begs to differ.

In his dreams — nightmares, they prefer — Asahi is made of fear and desperation, of please, no, and the unnerving feeling that he’s forgetting something. There’s always someone with him, always whispering his name, fingers cold on his face.

It’s always the same scene.

He steps into a doorway and panic swells in his chest, but he’s never sure what triggers it. There’s nothing in the room but darkness, and then his feet come out from under him, and he is falling. The ground is far, and he falls forever and ever, until time stops short. He crashes into it in one graceless dive, shatters apart, and reforms at the seams with the sweet familiarity of agony.

He’s sure, with every fiber of his being, that something is missing. He doesn’t know what, or who, only that it is missing and the absence feels like a hole in his chest, a hollow place where the pain doesn’t reach.

Asahi leans forward in his bed, struggling to catch his breath. His hair falls like a curtain around his face. He can’t remember why he keeps it long, only that the idea of cutting it feels wrong, and so he lets it grow.

Suddenly, his bed feels unappealing and cold, and he staggers out of it into the quiet of his apartment.

If his life was a story, the narrator would say something like this — Azumane Asahi is a twenty-six year old man with severe amnesia and a wedding ring on a necklace, to which he doesn’t know the location of the missing pair. And that’s it, they’d say, just a detective with no memory and a lot of anxiety. He doesn’t think he’s important enough of a character to warrant any sort of life story.

His phone is where he left it when he’d arrived home the night prior, tossed onto his side table in a fit of weariness. The screen blinks dimly back at him, still miraculously alive, but only with about six percent to spare and at least three new messages to speak of. They’re all from one of the few people he actually texts, and even without looking at the contact name, Suga’s typing style is distinctive from Daichi or Shimizu’s.

He checks the time in the corner of his screen. It’s nearly five-thirty in the morning, which isn’t a bad time, but it’s still earlier than he normally gets up. Going back to sleep is about the most unappealing thing he can think of right now, so even if he isn’t a morning person, he plugs his phone up, clicks on the shabby TV, and goes to make a pot of coffee, listening to the steady drone of the early weather report.

The ring around his neck is a cold weight against his bare skin, small and heavy against the hollow where his throat meets his clavicle. It rolls and clinks softly against its chain as he moves, a quiet, ever-present reminder of a past he doesn’t remember.

It’s easy to make assumptions. He doesn’t know who has the pair to this ring, only that it feels too important to get rid of, so he keeps it around his neck. For all he knows, he was married once. Someone else had — maybe still has — the pair to this ring. He doesn’t remember being married or who his partner is, but he’s sure they must exist.

Maybe they’d left because he’d forgotten.

Asahi tucks the assumption away before his anxiety can take it and run. He’s got a life now and he can’t go ruining what he has by overthinking whatever he used to have. Lacking the vast majority of his memories hadn’t stopped him from rebuilding his life these past few months, bit by bit.

It’s only been a few months since the accident and even though he doesn’t remember it personally, that’s all everyone keeps referring to it as. The accident, like he’d gone and suffered a massive memory loss by total coincidence.

Asahi kind of hates it. He tries not to think too hard about it.

In hindsight, it hadn’t been an easy recovery. He supposes nobody ever really thinks about what would happen if they lost a chunk of their adult memories and nobody would tell them why. He’d had friends to support him through it, even if he had taken a while to remember the three of them, and because of their support he’d been able to get back on his feet.

He’s still a rookie at this detective work, but sitting down and poring over the facts and figures of the cases he’s investigating is oddly comforting.

Light peeks out from over the horizon as the morning settles in, blanketing the world outside and the living room within in a sheet of pale light. Asahi’s eyes ache from his lack of sleep. The bags beneath them have gotten worse, and he’s sure he’ll inevitably get scolded about them when he sees his friends again.

By the time Asahi arrives at his workplace, the city around him has come to life. It’s never quiet here by any means, but once the sun is up, it seems everyone takes to the streets at once. He leaves early to avoid the rush, but always inevitably catches the start of it and makes it just in time, stumbling into the doorway of the detective agency’s office.

“Hey, Azumane,” the receptionist greets with an easy smile, leaning over the desk to be seen, “just in time. Still relearning the trains?” Asahi isn’t too familiar with Narita, but the man is calm and rarely bothered by high stress situations, and he appreciates the cool head and easy attitude first thing in the morning. He’d been one of the first to make sure Asahi had felt welcomed here, and Asahi is eternally grateful for it.

“Yeah,” he rubs the back of his neck, averting his eyes, “it’s a lot to get used to all over again. I keep hoping I’ll just jog my memory somehow and miraculously remember.”

Narita laughs. “I’m sure it’s somewhere in that head of yours.”

Asahi doesn’t stick around to chat much longer, heading up to the main office. There’s only two others inside, both at their desks doing very different things. Akaashi, ever studious, is hunched over a case file from a recent completion of his, scribbling away. Kozume, on the other hand, their resident cyber specialist, reclines back in his chair, tapping away at his phone and looking like he’s half asleep. “Azumane,” Kozume yawns, “there’s some files on your desk.” There are in fact — Asahi turns to confirm — files on his desk.

There’s also a boy there.

His back is to Asahi, but he can see the slicked black hair, wild and dark, sharp against the evident paleness of the boy’s skin. The boy visibly straightens when Asahi turns to look, whipping around in his chair.

Okay, no, a man. A grown man.

Asahi feels a little like deer in headlights, caught in the sharp stare of the man’s golden eyes, interrupted only by the equal shock of bleached blond hair in the forefront of his bangs. Asahi feels pinned in place by that unblinking stare, and it takes him a moment to remember to move.

He circles to his desk a little hesitantly, starkly aware of the other man’s stare following him the entire way around. It’s still on him when Asahi seats himself on the opposite side of the desk, and Asahi steels himself to meet it, smiling nervously.

“Hello,” he greets, “I’m Azumane. Sorry, I wasn’t expecting any clients today.” “I’m Noya!” The man declares, gives no further context, and slaps a file down in front of Asahi. “I need you to look into this.”

The words CASE CLOSED stands out in stark red lettering on the front. Asahi resists the urge to frown. It isn’t uncommon for them to receive requests to look into closed cases, but generally speaking, they’re a waste of money and time.

“Listen,” he starts hesitantly, “honestly, I’m still very new at this. Could I recommend you to one of our more experienced investigators?”

Noya shakes his head adamantly, looking appalled at the mere suggestion. “No!” He says, loud enough that Asahi flinches. “This is important to me! You have to do it!”

“I-”

Noya stares at him, lips turned down, eyes wide in a silent plea. Asahi takes the file.

There’s no photo inside, but it's very clearly labeled as involuntary manslaughter. The victim had only been twenty-five, but the details are absolutely minimal. There really won’t be a lot he can do with this, even if he does accept it. He’s sure the case is closed for a reason.

“Look,” he starts, raising his eyes.

Noya is gone.

Asahi leaps out of his seat, file in hand. Noya had just been there. He’s not surprised the man is fast, but Asahi hadn’t even accepted the case yet, and Noya hadn’t even stuck around to answer questions. Asahi races out of the office and into the entry lobby, head swinging from side to side in search of the shorter man.

“Narita,” he asks, leaning over the side of the receptionist’s counter, “did you see where that man went?”

Narita frowns at him. “What man? I haven’t seen anyone pass by.”

“I-” Asahi sighs, dragging his fingers through his hair hard enough to yank it out of his half bun and just resigns himself, tucking the file under his arm. “Nevermind. Thanks anyway.” Narita gives him another odd look as he turns away, returning to the main office. When he enters, Akaashi and Kozume both glance up strangely, matching the look Narita had previously given him, but Kozume loses interest much quicker than he’s gained it, as if this is a perfectly normal, everyday incident. Akaashi’s gaze tracks him all the way back to his desk, and only then does it fall away, leaving Asahi to his own devices. For a long time, Asahi just stares at the file. Case closed stares back at him, bold and red and final.

It isn’t to say that it’s quite uncommon for them to get a closed case to investigate. Generally speaking, it’s recommended to avoid closed cases. More often than not, they lead to dead ends and more broken hearts than when they began. The police may not investigate as much as private detectives, but they weren’t always wrong by any means. But Noya hadn’t given him too much of a choice in the matter, so against his better judgment, Asahi opens the file.

It’s almost pathetically small, three pages at most. There’s no photos, but from what Asahi can gather, it’s a twenty-five year old man who fell victim to an armed robbery incident, whose death was ultimately ruled involuntary manslaughter as a result. The culprit had never been caught, but the man’s partner had suffered some sort of collateral damage. There’s no further information on any of the three; the partner is unnamed and there are no photos of the man or the partner.

There’s nothing here that points to the case being anything other than what the file says, much less any sort of connection. He considers, briefly, that maybe Noya is the partner and wants the man brought to justice, but he doesn’t have any confirmation to this theory. It just seems like a home robbery turned homicide.

It’s essentially a dead end. There’s no address to begin the investigation and no family on the file to contact in regards. If Noya is the partner, Asahi could start there, but if he’d suffered some sort of trauma related to the incident, then Asahi has to take his testimony with a grain of salt. And this is all based on assumption — he doesn’t even know the extent of Noya’s personal involvement with this entire situation.

Noya hadn’t left him any contact details.

The thought strikes him abruptly, and Asahi sighs. This isn’t going to go anywhere without Noya’s cooperation. Asahi hadn’t agreed to investigate it in the first place. Resigned, he closes the file again and slides it underneath a few others on his desk, where it’s quickly forgotten in the wake of the rest of his work.

When he leaves that evening, files tucked away in his bag, the sun hangs low over the horizon, lethargic orange rays reclined across the darkening sky. It’s as beautiful as it is ominous, and Asahi ducks his head to avoid wandering eyes as he hurries to the train station, long coat swishing behind him.

The temperature sinks as it grows late, and despite his scarf, Asahi’s face burns with chill by the time he gets to the stairs leading down into the train station. People swarm around him, talking and huddling, faces as red as his own and stark with the relief of getting somewhere decently warmer.

Close enough to the rails to actually get on the train, but not close enough to get trampled by those trying to get good seating, Asahi tucks his chin into his scarf and takes a steadying breath.

He wonders if he was always an anxious person like this; had too much noise always been overwhelming to him? Had he ever walked with his head up, unconcerned about the opinions of those around him? Was this ever present bundle of nerves set deep in the square of his chest just a side effect of a tragic accident that nobody will tell him about?

He slides his thumb over the crest of the wedding ring on his necklace, a motion that feels like nothing but pure instinct, and then nearly yanks it clean off his neck when a hand grips his elbow, hard, and he flinches.

Asahi looks down.

Staring back up at him indignantly, lips fixed into a frown and golden eyes wide, looking as if he’s entirely unbothered by the cold despite being in nothing but a t-shirt and basketball shorts, is Noya.

“Azumane-san!”

Asahi is unbelievably shaken right now. After all, the odds that Noya would show up at the same train station as him were slim, even for this side of the city, but here he is, grip hard on Asahi’s elbow. If Asahi had gears in his head, they’d be stalling right now, and the little embodiment of his consciousness would be trying to restart it to no avail.

When the wires finally reconnect, Asahi gasps. “Why don’t you have a jacket?”

The words come out more demanding than he intended, but it’s too late to apologize, so instead, Asahi strips off his overcoat, and then the coat beneath it. Goosebumps prickle over the nape of his neck where it’s exposed to the cold, and he hurriedly yanks the long coat back on, handing the other off to Noya. Noya, who has since let go, looks a little surprised as he accepts it.

“I’m fine!” Noya huffs, but he pulls the jacket on regardless.

The sleeves slip past his fingertips, effectively dwarfing him. Asahi thinks it would be rather comical if he wasn’t so upset at this precise moment, but even swallowed up by Asahi’s undercoat, Noya feels like a force to be reckoned with, a storm lying in wait.

Asahi can’t put his finger on it, but Noya’s brash personality seems familiar, somehow. Mentally, he goes through his limited list of friends. Sugawara fits the bill closest, but even his chaos is of a different sort.

The train whistle breaks him out of his thoughts. He spots the lights as it barrels down the tunnel.

“Have you solved the case yet?” Noya asks, gaze still fixed on Asahi, unwavering.

Asahi frowns at him. “Listen,” he begins, turning his gaze back to Noya.

His words die in his throat. Noya stares back at him, eyes glittering in the faint light of the underground station, wild hair stirred around his face by the gust of cold air the train brings with it. The doors hiss open, but Asahi doesn’t move to get on yet. People stream by them on their way on or off the platform.

He can’t say no. He doesn’t know what it is, but Asahi is suddenly resigned to seeing this through. Noya’s eyes are intense and focused, hard with determination and a type of fire that Asahi can’t remember ever seeing before. He can’t say no.

“I haven’t,” he says, “but I’m going to investigate it as best I can.”

Noya’s grin makes him think that perhaps this is the right decision after all.

The train whistles again. Asahi starts, whirling back around to the platform. Oh no, the train’s going to leave.

“Are you-” He begins, glancing back to Noya, intending to ask if he’s getting on the same train.

Noya is gone. Asahi stares incredulously at the spot where the man had been, dwarfed in Asahi’s coat. He turns, glancing a full circle around himself, trying to spot that shock of blond in the crowd, but no, Noya is gone.

Maybe he got on the train.

Asahi follows suit, tucking his overcoat a little tighter around him as the doors slide shut. The people on the platform all blur together in a mass of color as the train pulls away, but Asahi swears he catches the piercing stare of golden eyes. It’s gone before he can think too hard about it, and Asahi spends the train ride and subsequent walk home staring into space. He hadn’t gotten Noya’s contact info.

“I’m home,” he says to no one as he opens his door and steps in, taking his shoes off.

Maybe he should get a dog.

Sighing heavily, Asahi drops his bag onto the floor by the door, where it tips to the side and lets a few papers and files slide halfway out. He pays it little mind, figuring he can think about it later, and makes his way down the narrow corridor into the bedroom at the back.

It’s sheer muscle memory that gets him through his nightly routine, and by the time he lets his hair down and flops into bed, he’s too exhausted to think. The somber tendrils of heavy sleep drag him deep into the sheets.

He dreams. (He has nightmares.)

Wake up, wake up, wake up, the voice is saying. Asahi, please wake up. Please don’t leave me. Please, no. Please, no.

This time, when Asahi jerks awake, the sun is still low below the horizon and his phone reads 4:36 A.M, but there’s no chance of him going back to sleep so he dons a hoodie and decides to do something with himself. In the end, Asahi goes for a run. It’s been a while since he’s just gone out like this, so he takes the short route that loops through the backside of a local park. Asahi jogs what he can, but it quickly becomes clear that he isn’t nearly as in shape as he clearly had been once. He can tell he used to be muscular and healthy prior to the accident, but he’s hardly been focused on maintaining that post memory loss. Still, running feels natural, so he tries to keep it up.

He runs into Noya again. Asahi rounds the bend, huffs of breath forming white clouds in the chilly morning air. There’s only a handful of other souls up and about this early, and from what Asahi can tell, they’re all out running too. It’s a nice change of pace to get his mind off of everything, but it’s clear the universe has other plans. As he nears the park’s massive lake, he spots a figure sitting right at the bank of it, leaning precariously over the water.

Even from this distance and without his glasses, he recognizes Noya’s wild hair paired with the white t-shirt and black shorts combo. Noya’s back is to him, but he visibly straightens as the sound of Asahi’s footsteps approach, head twisting around to fix those ever startling eyes on the taller man. “Azumane,” his eyebrows pinch, “what are you doing here?” There’s this nagging feeling in his chest. It strikes him as odd again; something about Noya is so unnervingly familiar to him, but he can’t put his finger on it. He’s sure if they had known each other prior to his memory loss then someone as headstrong as Noya seems to be would have said something about it by now, but Noya doesn’t seem bothered like Asahi is. He shakes it off.

Something seems off. Noya is quieter, more pensive. His gaze has returned to the surface of the lake immediately after confirming that he knows the person approaching him. It’s a strange change from the loud, fierce boy Asahi has started to know him as. “Noya,” he greets softly, joining him carefully by the water. “I was out for a run. Are you okay? Aren’t you cold?” “Oh,” Noya seems to remember something, “I forgot your jacket. Sorry.” Asahi shakes his head. “It’s okay. You couldn’t have known I was going to come running. It isn’t like I’ve done this in a while.” Noya is staring at him again, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. He’s frowning — it’s only a faint, downward quirk of the lips, but it seems so out of place on Noya’s features that it catches Asahi off guard. A matching frown slips onto his face.

“Have you made any progress?” Noya asks suddenly, peering up at Asahi intently. “With the case, I mean.” “Noya, it’s only been a night,” Asahi reminds him gently. “I’ll look into it more later, but nothing’s changed from when you asked me yesterday.” “Yesterday?” Noya echoes, as if confused. “Oh… Right. When you gave me the jacket. Okay.” “Are you sure you’re okay?” Asahi persists. “I’m fine! Listen, I’ve gotta go, ‘kay? I’ll catch you again sometime soon.” Noya takes off before Asahi can so much as consider asking about contact information. At this rate, he’s going to be stuck only contacting Noya whenever they happen to run into each other in town. Belatedly, near the tail end of his run, he realizes that Noya must live nearby, to have been at the park.

So why had he been all the way across town yesterday? Asahi glances back, as if the answer will appear behind him. The cold wind replies, whispering through the bare branches of the trees. He just can’t shake the feeling that something is too familiar about Noya to forget. Maybe it’s just the man’s strange tendencies or the way he seems so desperate for the case to be solved as soon as possible, but Asahi just can’t get rid of this feeling. He doesn’t know what it is yet, only that it feels too important to completely dismiss a third time.

So this time, he tucks it away in the back of his mind for safekeeping.

⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤

“Oi, Azumane,” Kozume leans around his laptop, “what was that new file you got? An investigation?”

Asahi starts at the sound of his voice. After the two loudest members of their agency had gone off on lunch, the room had finally become quiet enough for Asahi to focus on his research. His desk is in clutters, public records scattered across the surface, laptop balanced precariously on the corner and held in place only by half of a large, opened book. Asahi is in the middle of rereading the case file when Kozume speaks up. He's so focused that, in his surprise, he nearly takes out his laptop himself. Kozume just lifts one disinterested brow, strands of dark hair slipping back into their usual place over his face. “Uh,” Asahi begins, eloquently, “something like that. Client wants me to look into a closed case. I think he’s probably got some pretty personal roots in it, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him it isn’t a good idea to reopen old wounds.” “You’re too nice, Azumane-san.” Akaashi remarks from his desk without looking up. “Sometimes, it’s best to put a stop to it before it can start.” “Then again,” Kozume muses, “I guess we are getting paid for this, huh?”

They lapse into a mutual silence again.

Asahi feels like there are still eyes on him, but Akaashi is still looking at the paperwork on his desk and Kozume has returned to his laptop screen. The rest of the employees aren’t here, and Narita is presumably still at the front desk. With a faint frown, Asahi shakes the feeling away and returns his attention to the files.

His information is severely limited. That’s the biggest issue. If there had been an address on the file he could have started his investigation there, but Noya would be the easier source. The only issue with that is that Asahi still hasn’t gotten Noya’s contact information to ask him about it. That being said, he’s not even sure if Noya actually knows anything or if this just happens to be a personal investment of his. Asahi isn’t in the habit of prying about people’s personal connections to a case. As long as he can get their information and go on about his business, he’s content, but Noya is so forthright and intense that Asahi can’t help but be curious.

It bothers him, but he doesn’t know why.

“Oh,” says Kozume, voice breaking into Asahi’s thought process abruptly again, “another robbery. I wonder if it’s a chain?”

When Asahi looks back up, Kozume is still looking at his laptop, but now he’s leaning closer to the screen, visibly reading something. He turns away and wheels his swivel chair over to the side table by the door to retrieve the remote.

“Last I heard, there wasn’t any correlation between the places that were being hit.” Akaashi replies, gaze lifting from his papers. “They’re thinking it’s separate cases, but who knows. The police don’t read too into situations if the evidence is obvious.” “Lazy asses,” Kozume scoffs, clicking through channels on the overhead TV.

“Robberies?” Asahi speaks up, confused.

He hasn’t been actively keeping up with the news outside of early weather reports recently, a little more concerned with his own issues and his work. It’s more than enough to balance work and the whole memory loss thing, and while he definitely should be better about keeping up with the rest of the world, it hasn’t been his main concern as of late.

Kozume settles on a news channel. The news anchor is in the middle of reporting on the subject at hand — another local robbery. It’s the third in the past two weeks, but there’s no evidence to connect it to the other two. This one had targeted a tiny, one bedroom home on the city outskirts. Asahi frowns at the news coverage. He doesn’t understand why anyone would target a place where there was unlikely to be anything to be gained, but he feels bad for the homeowner. The newscast says they came out undamaged since they weren’t home at the time, but nonetheless, he understands the feeling of having your life uprooted suddenly.

Asahi shakes his head and returns his attention to the files before him, scribbling notes down on things to look into further and potential leads. He’ll have to remember to find Noya again and get his contact information this time. Noya is the best lead he has at this point, and hopefully he can get something out of the other man to get him somewhere in this seemingly dead end case.

In the background, the television drones on.

When evening gives way to the end of his work day, Asahi finds himself searching the rush hour crowd for the tuft of electric blond that he’s becoming so familiar with. He can’t figure out why he’s trying to find Noya here; after all, he’d come to the conclusion that he lives on the other side of town, so he doubts he’ll see him here. On the other hand, it’s possible Noya works over here too. It’d be a strange coincidence for him to be in the same working and living situation as Asahi himself, but it’d make sense as to why Noya had come to their agency in particular. It's possible that it's also the opposite way around, with Noya living here and working on the other side of town. All of the facts Asahi knows check out with one of those theories; it’d explain why Noya was at the train station, too.

But by the time he gets to the station, he hasn’t spotted Noya anywhere. Even amongst the people waiting on the platform, he can’t see the wild, dark hair, and there’s a pang of disappointment in his chest. He tries to ignore it, but it’s a persistent feeling, and more surprisingly, one that doesn’t feel new. He can’t imagine forgetting someone like Noya, but he’d forgotten someone like Suga already, so his memory loss isn’t discriminating.

The train whistles a warning. Asahi startles, hurrying on instinctively. He hadn’t even realized the train had pulled up. He looks for Noya one more time, but upon confirming that the other man is nowhere to be seen, averts his gaze to his feet. The train doors hiss shut around him, before it lurches into motion, pulling away from the platform.

It’s strange, he thinks, how lonely the platform looks disappearing behind them.

When the train comes to a hissing stop at his destination platform, Asahi’s phone begins to vibrate aggressively against his thigh. He waits until he’s clear of all the people to check it, unlocking the screen to several tests and a missed call from Suga. Just as he’s going to check the texts, Suga’s name lights up his screen again. Asahi nearly drops his phone in his haste to answer the call.

“Asahi!” Sugawara practically yells. “Have you been keeping up with the news?”

Asahi slowly brings the phone back to his ear as he walks, having held it away in his haste to avoid having his eardrums blown out.

“The news?” He echoes. “Like the robberies?”

“Yeah! Apparently, there was another one! I guess the person tried to fight back and get this - they ended up in the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.”

Asahi grimaces. If all of these robberies are connected, then it could be a problem. Generally speaking, most robbers would flee if they were caught or met with resistance, but if this one had no qualms with hurting people, it could get dirty. Asahi is hoping they aren’t connected, but it’s starting to look doubtful. He’ll have to catch up on the situation when he gets home.

“That’s-”

Asahi cut off, turning his head to follow the abrupt streak of color that had caught his eye. He’s a few blocks from his apartment, at best, but now he turns around entirely, gaze searching. He spots it again just in time to watch it vanish through the door of a tiny coffee shop. Asahi hesitates.

“Asahi?” Sugawara calls from his phone. “Hellooo? Earth to Asahi! What happened?” “S-Sorry, Suga,” Asahi says quickly, feet already guiding him towards the building, “I have to go. I’ll call you back later, okay?”

“Huh? Hold on, wh-”

The line goes dead as Asahi jabs the end call button, shoving his phone unceremoniously back into his pocket as he enters the cafe. The bell chimes gently overhead as he pushes the door open, and someone at the front calls out a greeting that he only half hears. He’s busy thinking about how Suga will be upset with him later for hanging up so abruptly; he’s thinking that maybe he should feel a little worse about that than he does, and it has him wondering if he’s less of a friend for it. He’s busy thinking about how he’s sure to get an earful later, but his body is moving across the cafe, toward a booth in the corner where he can see the backside of dark, wild hair, and the small flick of a tag sticking up from the inside of a white t-shirt.

The man in the booth lifts his head when Asahi rounds the table, piercing gaze fixing onto the detective. It’s as if he comes back to earth all at once, awareness lighting his eyes and his expression picking up in something vaguely resembling surprise. “Asahi!” He half yells, slamming his palms into the table and standing in one motion.

Asahi flinches at the abrupt shout and one of the employees glances their way. Ducking his head bashfully, Asahi makes himself as small as possible as he slides into the booth across from Noya, reaching out to gesture Noya back into his own seat. Preferably, he thinks, as quietly as possible.

Luckily, Noya drops unceremoniously back into his seat, staring intensely at Asahi.

“What are you doing here?” He demands.

“I…” Asahi grimaces, knowing how strange this is going to sound, “I saw you coming in. You never gave me any sort of contact, so I haven’t been able to reach you for anything regarding the case.”

Noya visibly straightens. “Have you figured out something new?”

“Well, not exactly, but-”

“Oh,” Noya continues, cutting him off, “I don’t have a phone.”

Well, that certainly threw a wrench in things, didn’t it? It’s just Asahi’s luck, he supposes. Still, he’s got to figure out some way to keep up contact with Noya, since he’s Asahi’s only sure link to the case.

His phone buzzes incessantly in his pocket.

“Okay, then take mine,” Asahi grabs a napkin from the table, fishing a pen from the front breast pocket of his jacket. “And if you can, just let me know if you come across anything new. Can we meet again sometime here to sit down and talk? Like Friday?” Noya takes the napkin and with surprising tenderness, folds it, and tucks it into the pocket of his black basketball shorts. He’s staring at Asahi still, but Asahi can’t tell what he’s thinking about.

“Okay,” Noya says, “Friday.”

And there it is again; Asahi meets his gaze and he feels like he’s missing something, like there’s a piece here that he should be aware of. He can’t shake it, that feeling that he just knows Noya from somewhere, from before all this.

“Noya,” he breathes, “have we met before? Before you came in with the case?”

Noya scrutinizes him for a long moment, almost unresponsive, as if the question hadn’t even registered to him. There’s something off about the entire moment, the motionless state of someone who feels like he should always be moving. Slowly, his lips pinch into a frown, just a little downward tilt that looks so off on his features. His expression darkens, hooded over like a shadow fell across him.

He looks unsure. He looks scared.

It’s only for a moment, so quick that Asahi is sure it must have been his imagination because then Noya is laughing, loud and rambunctious and more like the one that seems familiar to Asahi.

“No way!” He decides. “You must be imagining things, Azumane-san! There’s no way you’d forget someone as cool as me!”

Asahi feels like his veins have frozen over. He’s cold down to the bone.

“Of course,” he agrees, smiling shakily, “that’s true.”

There’s a seed of doubt rooting itself in his chest, and Asahi is too scared to try to figure out the root of it.

He stands again, bidding Noya a good night, and hurries out the door before the other man gets another word in edgewise, but he feels Noya’s gaze follow him out the door. His phone vibrates in his pocket again, and he takes it out, preparing himself for the earful he’s going to get.

Something is reassuring about Suga’s ranting on the other end. It gets him home.

When he looks over the case again that night, he writes details about the recent robberies down on a notebook next to it. He gathers what he can from the news and more from the internet. Tomorrow, he’ll get more info on it from Kozume, and Friday, he’ll get what he can from Noya. He doesn’t know yet if he’s making progress here, but he’s hoping for the best.

At this point, it’s all he can do.

It isn’t until he’s getting ready for bed, braiding his hair back out of his face, that the thought strikes him. He’s thinking about the tiny coffee shop, about the bell over the door, about the way Noya had called him Asahi. He has the distinctive memory of introducing himself only as Azumane.

So where had Noya gotten his given name?

⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤

“You look different,” Noya remarks.

Asahi feels like he’s having deja vu. He hardly knows where the week has gone, and now he’s back at the tiny coffee shop with Noya. They’re seated in the same booth as before. Noya’s shirt tag is sticking out. Asahi has his hair loose.

“It’s the hair,” they say, in sync, and Noya grins when Asahi cracks a smile.

“Finally!” He laughs. “I was starting to think you couldn’t smile properly! You’re so nervous all the time that I was starting to wonder how you’d ended up in this line of work.”

Asahi tucks a strand of hair behind his ear. “Well, I’m sure it probably wasn’t my dream career, but I don’t remember enough about my old life to know how true that is. I guess it seems like a pretty unpredictable career, but it’s routine enough to be comforting.”

Noya frowns at him. “Whaddya mean you don’t remember?” Asahi winces. Outside of the fact that nobody else wants to discuss the accident, Asahi tries not to talk about it too much. Trying to remember gives him an intense migraine, and he hates the pitying looks he gets from it. He hates feeling helpless, and there’s this part of him that wouldn’t be able to handle it if Noya looked at him like that.

“I had an accident a while back,” Asahi replies vaguely, waving one hand dismissively, “nothing important.”

Noya’s watching him like he doesn’t believe him. Asahi avoids his gaze; he has the distinct feeling that Noya will see right through him otherwise.

“Okay,” Noya finally says, “then what about that necklace you’re always playing with? The ring. Are you married or something?”

Asahi doesn’t even realize he’s messing with it until Noya points it out. He’s busted, caught like a deer in headlights under Noya’s drilling questions. His words die in his throat, lips parted but nothing coming out.

I don’t know, he thinks, clenching his fist around the ring. He shoves it back into his shirt and grips the edge of the table, focusing on keeping his hands there. “No,” he manages, smile tight again, “but it doesn’t matter. We’re here to talk about the case, remember?”

Noya’s gaze flicks down, but he doesn’t push it.

“Right.”

Noya talks. It’s not all connected, more stream of thought and dropping details as they come to him, but Asahi listens. He takes notes, putting things that he knows already on one page and things he’s hearing for the first time on another. Some of Noya’s tales have nothing to do with the case, but Asahi lets them slide, and then he realizes that Noya hasn’t been talking about the case for a while.

But here’s Asahi, pen down and still listening. There’s something about Noya’s energy that’s so easy to get wrapped up in, and Asahi hadn’t even realized he was in it until it was too late. Maybe it’s the way Noya feels familiar to him, like second nature, or the way he’s sure he must know Noya from before, but the sensation is contagious, quick like electricity and quiet like a thief.

“Azumane-san?”

Noya’s voice breaks into his thoughts again. Asahi starts, focusing back on the task at hand. He doesn’t know when he’d stopped writing, or when the case discussion had ended and the casual talk had begun, but he does realize, belatedly, that they never got their coffee. The baristas bring them out here, he’d noticed, so it strikes him as a little strange.

“Sorry,” Asahi tells him, “I just realized we don’t have our drinks.”

As if on cue, Noya’s gaze moves from Asahi to the woman approaching their table. Asahi tears his gaze away from the man in front of him to focus on her as well, putting on his most polite smile as she sets the coffee down in front of him.

“Here you go,” she says, “sorry about the wait.”

She turns to leave, and Asahi realizes that she’s only brought his drink.

“Sorry, ma’am?” He calls quickly. “What about my fri-”

He turns to gesture at Noya and falters. The seat across from him is empty; Noya is gone. The employee gives him a strange look, glancing between him and the empty booth across from him. Asahi swallows his sentence back down, where it feels like a thick lump in his throat.

“Nevermind,” he says instead, “thank you.”

She glances at the booth opposite of him again and then seems to simply accept it as strange, for she turns and heads back to the front, leaving Asahi alone with the ghost of Noya’s electric presence.

He ends up getting a to-go cup for his coffee.

Asahi doesn’t know how he got back to his apartment, only that he gets there and he comes back to awareness when he’s unlocking his front door. He falters, hand on his doorknob, gaze fixed on the crook between his thumb and his forefinger. Everything comes back all at once. Is this the right thing to do? Should he have just followed the advice and refused the case upfront? He doesn’t even know when Noya had slipped out. Had it been the brief moment he’d turned his attention to the girl at the shop? Asahi hadn't even heard the bell.

Why hadn’t Noya said anything?

Asahi is starting to think he’s getting too ahead of himself, thinking one normal conversation and a borrowed jacket makes them friends or something. But there’s the thought he’s been hesitant to admit to himself; he wants to be friends with Noya. Something about the other man makes him feel comfortable, regardless of his eccentric nature, and he’s starting to think that maybe Noya was right about his career choice being the wrong one for him.

He can’t afford to get attached to every other person he meets in this line of work. Noya is the first, but Asahi can’t say for sure if he’ll be the last, and Asahi doesn’t even know when the line in the sand got washed away. He doesn’t know if it happened halfway through their conversation or the first time he’d realized something about Noya was too familiar to ignore. Still, Noya had been right about one thing: there’s no way Asahi could have forgotten someone like him.

It’s the only reason Asahi is hesitant to let the feeling of familiarity go.

He realizes with a start that he’s still standing outside, so he pushes the door open and ducks into his apartment. Whatever he ends up deciding to do here, he’s got all the information he thinks he’s going to get from Noya. For now, he needs to crack down on the case. The longer he drags this on, the worse it will get for the both of them. He wants to give Noya the best chance he has of moving on from this, and the only way to do that is to solve it as soon as possible.

Asahi takes his shoes off at the entryway and heads into the living room, setting his bag down next to the low table in front of his couch. He yanks his hair up into a half-hearted bun and collects his notes and files, adding them to the growing pile on the table. Clicking the television on for background noise, he gets to work sorting. The details are still minimal, and the progress looks minimal, but it’s better than nothing. Besides, there’s still that robber at large, and while Asahi has no surefire proof to connect the two outside of a gut feeling, he’s learned very quickly to trust his gut.

He glances up at the TV just in time to catch a glimpse of a reporter standing in front of a house, door caved in and front yard taped off by obnoxious yellow crime scene signs. It catches his attention immediately, so he glances down at the caption.

Armed robbery. Voluntary manslaughter.

Asahi’s heart jumps to his throat. His eyes dart down to the file. What were the odds?

What if it hadn’t been involuntary? The file states that the person had been found dead at the scene, a victim of multiple gunshot wounds from a robbery gone wrong. Robbery. Check. Armed suspect. Check. Had they considered a lack of qualms against hurting people? Asahi flips his notebook to a fresh page and begins charting all the locations the robber had hit thus far. Maybe there’s some sort of pattern they’re overlooking, a rhyme or reason to the places the robber is targeting.

His facts are minimal but sure.

The robber only targets houses, never businesses. The types of houses vary. No known pattern thus far.

The robber is armed and dangerous. Generally, there’s minimal damage to any people they happen to rob, but when those people get in the way or fight back, it’s a different story. There have been people both hospitalized and killed.

The robber has no qualms about killing people who got in the way.

Asahi stares at the page. Finally, at the bottom, he writes Noya? beneath his list of facts. He doesn’t know what the precise connection is with Noya’s case in all of this, but if he can predict where the robber is going to strike next, maybe there’s something to be found there. That’s only if the police themselves don’t beat him there first. Either way, hopefully, some sort of confession would come out and Asahi could call this closed properly. If this is unrelated, then he’s going to have to think of something else fast.

It’s nearly four in the morning when he finally talks himself into going to sleep, but it’s restless at best, and he rises early. He’s off on weekends, so they’re his only opportunity to go get things done if he doesn’t want to go right after work. The case weighs heavily on his thoughts for the entirety of his morning run. When he passes the lake he’d run into Noya at that time, he pauses, only for a moment, to glance around, but Noya isn’t there.

Asahi keeps running, but he’s starting to feel less like he’s keeping active and more like he’s trying to get away from something. He feels like he’s running away from a lot of things, as of late. It can’t be helped.

Azumane Asahi is a coward, he tells himself, and this time he doesn’t think it’s a lie at all.

The next time he sees Noya, it’s on the same route and nearly a week later. Asahi finds himself searching the route consistently without even knowing if Noya even lives in the area, hoping to catch some sort of glimpse of the other man. He hasn’t heard anything from Noya since the day at the coffee shop, and he’s starting to grow a little concerned.

His traitorous heart says something else, but Asahi tries not to listen too hard to things made of glass.

There’s rustling overhead when Asahi passes beneath a tree. It’s followed by a loud yowl, and it’s this that makes Asahi falter in his steps. He pauses, turning his head up to squint into the branches. The early morning sun is bright, near blinding, but the shadow that covers Asahi blocks it out.

He sees the little tag sticking out of the collar of the white shirt first, and then the outstretched arm, pale and skinny, reaching out to a higher branch. Asahi can mostly only see the person’s silhouette, but he knows that figure anywhere.

“Noya?” He calls up hesitantly.

Golden eyes fix on him immediately. Noya looks vaguely surprised, arm still outstretched, lips parted into a perfect little circle. There’s a cat a few branches up from his perch, a skinny little tabby with all of its fur puffed out. Its teeth are bared at the other man, a low growl rising in his throat.

Asahi hasn’t ever seen a cat react like that to someone. Usually, the strays around this area are calm, used to the joggers and families who come through the park trails all the time. He frowns a little at the sight, putting one hand on his hip and using the other to shield his eyes as he peers up.

“Oh,” says Noya, “Hey, Azumane. Fancy seeing you here.”

“I run here every morning now,” Asahi frowns, “you already knew that. What are you doing up there?”

Noya gestures to the cat, who swings at his moving hand. “I came up to save him, but he won’t let me anywhere near him. I think I’m just gonna grab him and deal with the consequences later.”

“What.” Asahi intones.

Noya reaches for the cat.

“What?” Asahi repeats. “Wait, no-”

Noya stretches out of his crouch and snatches the cat in one quick motion. The tabby immediately begins yelling, claws sinking wherever they can reach. Noya yelps, and then takes a surprised step back into mid-air. Asahi shouts. All at once, Noya and the cat come crashing down through the branches, and Asahi slides down on his knees beneath them, breath leaving his body as they collide.

Asahi groans softly from his place on the ground. Noya scrambles off of him, eyes wide. He’s still holding the cat, who looks shaken, but overall unharmed.

“Asahi!” Noya gasps. “Are you okay? Shit, I’m sorry!”

Asahi waves him off with one hand, sitting up slowly. His torso aches where he’d ungracefully caught them, but at least they seem unharmed. His hair falls loose around his shoulders, and he looks around for the tie, only to find it snapped on the ground. It’d been fraying, so he isn’t surprised, but it’s still a little inconvenient.

“It’s okay,” he manages, when he finally catches his breath, “are you two okay?”

Noya beams, holding the cat up victoriously. “We’re totally fine!”

The cat bites Noya’s hand. Noya drops the tabby, and he bolts without so much as a glance back. The short man sulks as he stares after the vanishing animal, crossing his arms over his chest. There are claw marks down the length of his forearms and branches still stuck in his black basketball shorts.

“Rude,” Noya says, getting up.

He offers a hand to Asahi, but Asahi, a little doubtful that Noya can lift him, stands on his own.

“You should be more careful,” he says, frowning.

“I had it handled!”

“You fell out of a tree.”

Noya purses his lips. “You know. Fair.” He sticks his index finger out as if to agree that Asahi has a point. “You got me there.”

“How did you even get up there?” Asahi asks, gazing up at the tree.

There aren’t any visible branches that Noya could have used to climb, and Asahi has to admit that even with his height, he would have been hard-pressed to reach the lowest ones. There’s no way to get a handhold on the trunk, either, so he’s not sure how Noya got up there to begin with.

Noya shrugs. “I climbed? The cat couldn’t get down so I went up to help him.”

Asahi sighs. “Okay, Noya. My apartment isn’t far from here, so let me at least treat the scratches. It’d be bad if you got something.”

Noya hesitates, but then he looks down, inspects his arms, and grimaces a little.

“Okay, lead the way.”

Asahi tucks his hair behind his ears and turns, starting at a steady pace back up the pathway. Noya keeps at his heels, carefree and cheerful as he turns his arms over, inspecting his new battle scars. It’s almost endearing, Asahi dares to think, but he’s still not over how the cat had acted with Noya. Asahi is sure Noya isn’t a bad person, but he’s never seen a reaction like that in the months he’s been running here.

He frowns back as if the tree itself will give him answers, but it stands tall and silent, shadowed against the pale blue sky.

When they climb the steps to Asahi’s apartment, the realization hits him like a bullet. He’s bringing Noya into his apartment. How had they gotten here? Is his apartment even clean? It’s so plain that he doesn’t know what Noya is going to think about it. Had he done the dishes already or were they still sitting in the sink?

Anxiety settles in like a second skin, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. They’re already at the door and Noya is looking up at him expectantly, waiting for him to unlock it. Asahi tries to hide the way his hands shake as he puts the key in the lock and opens it, letting Noya into the dark entryway.

Noya kicks off his shoes at the entrance, and Asahi follows suit, stepping in ahead of the other man. The sink is clean. The living room has a few books on the table and stray papers from his brainstorming session the other night, but otherwise it isn’t unacceptable. He flicks the light on and crosses to the table, shoving the papers messily together.

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting company,” he says, “make yourself at home and I’ll grab my first aid kit.”

Noya plops onto the couch, looking around like a curious child. Asahi feels strange having someone over like this. He seldom has company, especially new company, and he feels like he’s being assessed for some sort of test. Clutching the papers to his chest, Asahi hurries into his room for the first aid kit in his bathroom.

Noya is still sitting on the couch when Asahi returns. His gaze is fixed on a photo hanging on the wall. It’s of Asahi, fresh out of the hospital, Suga and Daichi standing just behind him in the frame. Shimizu had been the one to take it, and it’s one of the earliest things he still remembers. Noya frowns at it a little, like he’s struggling to think about something, and Asahi just figures he must have zoned out.

“Noya?” He says as he nears.

Noya straightens, almost imperceptibly, turning his gaze to Asahi as the other man crouches in front of him, opening the first aid kit and setting it aside on the table. Noya gets the hint and offers out his arms while Asahi prepares a cotton pad for cleaning the scratches.

“Ouch,” Noya hisses once Asahi starts dabbing over them.

Asahi shakes his head, holding Noya by the wrist to keep his arm steady.

“Are those your friends?” Noya asks suddenly.

Asahi glances up at him, and then back at the photo. “Yeah,” he says, turning his gaze back onto his task. “The one with the silver hair is Suga. The dark-haired one is Daichi. Our other friend, Shimizu, took the photo, but she’s not very fond of being in them. They were there with me when I was in the hospital for a while.”

“What were you there for?”

Asahi grimaces, remembering why he’d avoided the subject the last time he’d talked to Noya. “Uh,” he starts hesitantly.

He can feel Noya’s gaze on him, but he doesn’t meet his eyes. Asahi gets the feeling that he’ll spill everything if he does, so he stubbornly keeps his focus on treating Noya’s scratches.

“It’s okay, Azumane-san,” Noya laughs, “you don’t have to tell me. I was just being nosy.”

Asahi exhales, a little relieved. He wraps up Noya’s first arm, having finished treating the scratches there. Moving onto the second one, Asahi grabs a fresh cotton pad. He frowns as he sets back to work.

“Noya,” he starts, “where did you go, the other day? At the cafe, I mean?”

Noya stiffens a little under his grip.

“Sorry about that,” the other man mumbles, “I had an emergency I had to handle, so…”

“Oh,” says Asahi, unconvinced, “okay. I was just worried… You just up and vanished without saying anything.”

Noya doesn’t go into any more detail, and Asahi doesn’t push it. He gets the feeling Noya isn’t telling the whole truth, but he’s not going to try to force it out. He has his own secrets, and he’s sure Noya has plenty himself. Despite seeming like a very open person, he’s come to notice that Noya is strange, like he’s never quite there most of the time, and the times that he is, he seems so full of life that he’s ready to burst with it.

“I didn’t mean to worry you,” Noya’s voice is painfully soft.

Asahi’s heart aches. He doesn’t know why that gentle voice hurts, only that it does something strange to him. He catches himself holding his breath, as if even that will break this moment. He knows better. He knows better. He doesn’t know Noya, and Noya doesn’t know him. They’re client and employee, nothing more.

Asahi doesn’t even know himself. How could he even hope to let someone else know him?

“It’s okay,” Asahi gets out, but his voice sounds foreign to himself like it’s coming from someone else speaking in his place instead of him.

Something about the intimacy of the moment makes Asahi feel like he’s an outsider, watching his own hands and fingers tenderly take care of Noya’s newly acquired scratches. He knows there’s more on the man’s face, but he’s scared to raise his gaze. He’s scared that whatever is happening is going to shatter the moment they make eye contact. Asahi is going to realize it’s all in his head, or Noya is going to realize it’s strange for him to be in what is essentially a stranger’s house.

He feels like he knows Noya. The feeling won’t go away, but Noya has told him that he’s sure they’ve never met. Asahi couldn’t forget someone like him, and Asahi is inclined to agree. He’s stalling now, and he knows it, and he’s sure Noya knows it, but neither of them say anything about it as Asahi cleans over the scars a second, and then a third time.

Finally, he bandages the second arm. Noya’s skin is cold beneath his grip, freezing like the other man has been standing in negative temperatures for hours. Asahi knows this isn’t the case, so he assumes Noya must just run cold in comparison to Asahi himself. Noya seems unbothered, either way.

“Thanks,” Noya finally breaks the silence.

Asahi dares to raise his gaze. Noya’s eyes are trained on him, sharp and focused with such intense clarity that Asahi is momentarily taken aback. Noya looks as if he’s a page ahead of Asahi, waiting for him to catch up. Asahi isn’t sure if he should, much less if he wants to.

“Well,” he replies, averting his gaze to get another cotton pad, “I wasn’t just going to leave you after I watched it happen. I don’t mean to be rude, but you seem like you’d neglect taking care of them.”

Noya grins crookedly in the corner of his vision. “You’re right,” he says, “I would. But that’s not all I was thanking you for.”

Asahi pauses, mid-turn, pad raised to start in on the scratches on Noya’s face. He blinks, confused. “Huh?”

“That was for everything,” Noya continues. “I know this case isn’t easy on you. I’m sorry I dumped it on you, but something told me you’re the only one who can handle it, and I always listen to my instinct. It hasn’t steered me wrong yet. So I was saying thank you for putting up with all of this.”

Oh, Asahi thinks, and then says, “Oh.”

Noya laughs. “Oh?”

“Sorry. No, wait. I mean… You don’t need to thank me.” Asahi reaches out, carefully starting to clean the scratches across Noya’s cheek.

“Ow,” Noya says, again.

“Sorry,” Asahi frowns, knowing there isn’t much he can do about the pain.

“It’s okay. I got myself into this, so I’ll tough it out!” The golden-eyed boy declares.

Asahi smiles to himself. Noya’s energy is near contagious, and he’s just about forgotten about his previous anxiety of having the other man in his house. Noya seems nonchalant and uncaring, like he doesn’t care to judge how Asahi lives either way.

“There,” Asahi says, putting bandages over the last few scratches. “Done.”

Noya gives him a double thumbs-up, grinning so widely it looks painful. “Cool! Thanks, Asahi! You’re the best!”

Asahi holds both hands up placatingly. “I wouldn’t go that far…”

“No!” A fire lights in Noya’s eyes, and he reaches out, grabbing both of Asahi’s hands so abruptly that the brunet squeaks. “It’s true! Don’t go selling yourself short, okay?”

Asahi’s voice catches in his throat. He wants to protest again, but Noya’s gaze is so intense that he physically can’t bring himself to do anything more than nod in agreement. It seems to satisfy Noya, so he releases Asahi’s hands and hops up from the couch.

“Alright! I’m gonna head out now, but I’ll see you soon, yeah? We’ll get this done!”

Noya reaches out, bumping Asahi’s shoulder with his fist. The little tap startles Asahi back into reality, and he scrambles to his feet, following Noya to the door and watching him put his shoes on. At the door, they both hesitate. Asahi looks down at his feet, but he can feel Noya’s gaze on him.

“Be safe,” Asahi says, finally.

Noya stares at him for a long moment. Finally, he reaches out, squeezes Asahi’s arm, and then turns away and bolts down the stairs. Asahi watches him jog down the road, and then vanish over the crest of the hill, out of sight, but never out of mind.

Maybe, he considers, he should have tried to make him stay.

Asahi stares at the hill Noya had vanished over for a long moment longer. He stares as if he’s waiting for the other man to turn around and come back, citing that it’s too late to head home, and the trains aren’t running anyway, so it’d take a while on foot. Asahi still doesn’t know if Noya lives nearby or closer to the agency, but either way, he could have thought of something.

He stares on, but Noya doesn’t come back. Finally, Asahi closes the door behind him and flicks the lock.

“You’ve been busy lately,” Kozume remarks, the following Monday, without looking up from his Switch screen.

Asahi doesn’t know how he gets away with playing video games at work so often, but he supposes as long as Kozume is efficient at his job, their boss doesn’t really care. He’s starting to give Asahi some eyes about the case he’s on, so he knows it’s time to hurry up and wrap it up.

Narita comes in, bearing coffee. He hands them out to each of the others in the room, setting Kozume’s next to him and handing Akaashi’s off. Crossing to Asahi, he offers out the coffee.

“Same as usual? How’s it going?” He asks.

Asahi accepts the warm drink from the receptionist. “It’s going,” he sighs, “I haven’t made too much progress outside of some guessed predictions. My sole witness has this habit of up and vanishing and apparently doesn’t have a phone to contact.”

Narita nods sympathetically. “Client isn’t making it easy, huh? This is probably your first one of those, but I see them come through all the time. It’ll work out, so don’t stress too much.”

“He can do with a little stress,” Akaashi comments, taking a sip of his coffee.

Narita turns to give him a withering look and then turns back to Asahi. “Anyway, drink up while it’s warm and then go back into this thing with a fresh mind, yeah? Good luck, Azumane.”

Asahi watches the receptionist go, and takes a long drink of his coffee. It burns his tongue, but he doesn’t flinch away. The moment of pain, however brief, does its part to make everything come into sharper focus. Three days from now, he’ll have been slugging through this case for a month. That’s the time limit he’s going to give himself; if he hasn’t figured this out or made any significant progress in the next few days, he’s going to tell Noya he can’t do it.

Resolution set in his mind, Asahi dives back into his work with renewed vigor.

“Don’t stay too late,” Akaashi says, later that night.

Kozume is already long gone, and Akaashi had finished his work, so he’s getting ready to leave too. It’s just Asahi now, with everyone else out. The black-haired man puts his jacket over his arm and strolls out. Only a moment later, Narita peers in.

“Azumane? Someone is waiting outside for you.”

Asahi glances up, confused. He hadn’t been expecting anybody, but it’s as good a reason as any to change location. He nods in acknowledgment to Narita and hurries to pack his things, pulling his bag over his shoulder and heading out.

Outside, he glances around in search of the person. It takes him a minute to spot them, but when his gaze shifts down, it catches on the streak of blond in Noya’s hair. The other man looks up when Asahi emerges from the building, and then stands immediately when he realizes who it is.

“Noya?” Asahi questions, surprised.

“Hey,” Noya smiles crookedly, “sorry for showing up out of nowhere. I was out and I just ended up here. Are you getting ready to head home?”

Asahi readjusts his bag. “Yeah, I just finished for the night. How did you end up way out here again?”

Noya opens his mouth to answer, and then closes it again, frowning in confusion. Finally, he just shrugs a little, as if he isn’t sure himself.

“I just did,” he says. “Can I walk with you?”

Asahi hesitates, but finally nods in concession. Noya falls into step beside him as he heads out towards the train station. It’s later than Asahi usually leaves, and the streets are nearly empty now. The sun is starting to set beneath the taller buildings in the distance, and Asahi gets the feeling it will be well past dark by the time he gets home.

“Do you live around here, Noya?” Asahi asks, glancing down at the other man.

He recalls seeing Noya back near where he lives, as well, but maybe the shorter man just gets around a lot. This is his chance to finally figure it out, so Asahi seizes it.

Noya hesitates a little, lips parting like he’s going to speak, then closing again. “Uh,” he starts, glancing around, “well-”

Noya cuts off, gaze catching on movement nearby. There’s a girl, no older than seven or eight, stumbling down the sidewalk. Even from this distance, Asahi can see the scrapes on her knees. She’s bawling, rubbing her face with the back of her hands, but steadily making her way down the sidewalk nonetheless, like she’s on a mission.

Asahi exchanges a look with Noya, and they both hurry toward her. Noya reaches her first, crouching in front of her and starting to talk. Asahi is a short pace behind him, catching up just in time to hear the child speak through her tears and sniffling.

“A bad man came into our house,” she sniffles, stuttering around her hiccups, “and Mama told me to run away and get help, but she’s stuck there with him!”

Asahi’s blood goes cold. This is it. The one time he hadn’t been trying to find the man and it practically fell into his lap. Noya is clearly thinking the same thing, expression hard and eyebrows downturned. He meets Asahi’s eyes and nods.

“Hi,” Asahi says, crouching down, “I’m a detective. I can go help your mama, but I need you to tell me which house is yours. Can you do that for me?”

The girl sniffs, looking up at him. “T-The one with the flower mailbox Mama and I painted…”

Noya is already running. Asahi squeezes the girl’s shoulders, getting back to his feet.

“Listen carefully. We’re going to go help your mama, so I need you to be brave for me, okay? Find someone and ask them to call the police for you. We’ll make sure your mom is safe.”

The little girl’s gaze follows him as he runs after Noya. He has no chance of catching up with the spitfire of a man, but Noya waits at the door for him, clearly trying to find a good way in. Asahi glances into the shattered window. The coast seems clear. He gestures to Noya and creeps around to the front door, opening it slowly.

It doesn’t creak, and Asahi thanks any god that exists as he and Noya sneak into the quiet house. Asahi puts a finger to his lips, signaling for Noya to follow him. Together, they quietly round the corner and immediately come face to face with the robber.

They catch the man by surprise. Asahi sees it in the glance he gets of the man’s expression before he’s forced to leap out of the way, bullets riddling the wall where he’d just been standing. To his right, Noya hisses from his spot on the ground, and Asahi has to suppress the nausea that rises in his chest at the sight of red blossoming across Noya’s shoulder.

“Noya,” he gasps, scrambling over, “I’m so sorry. I should have reacted faster. You’re going to need medical attention-” “Asahi,” Noya’s grin edges on pained, but he’s pushing through, nudging Asahi away. “I’m fine. I'm tough, remember? So don’t worry about me. I’ll live, so worry about that kid’s mom first. You bust that guy for the both of us, okay?”

His fingers brush Asahi’s cheek, cold against the skin there, and Asahi’s everything zeroes in on just that sensation. He focuses on the way that Noya’s hand feels against his cheek, electricity at his fingertips. He focuses on the way that regardless of whether he’d known Noya before or not, he knows him now, and he wouldn’t ask for it any other way.

Kissing Noya feels like second nature. He’s careful of the other man’s shoulder, even if it’s nothing more than a brief press of lips, but when he pulls away, Noya exhales like it’s the first breath he’s taken in years.

“Stay safe,” he tells Asahi, “‘cause if you die on me, I’ll summon you back and annoy you as a ghost.”

Asahi laughs. “I won’t. Get somewhere safe, Noya.”

He squeezes Noya’s hand and then hurries into the hallway, keeping low and staying alert. He doesn’t know where the robber is, but the robber doesn’t know his location either. But only one of them has a gun, and it isn’t Asahi, so he’s at a disadvantage here. His priority is getting the woman out safely, but he hasn’t seen her yet, so he’s hoping she’s already hiding somewhere safe. His and Noya’s arrival had distracted the robber for a moment, and he just has to hope the moment is enough if he can’t find her first.

Asahi ducks behind the couch just in time to avoid being seen by the man who creeps in through the next hall. He drops to his hands and knees, sneaking around the side to watch the man’s slow progression towards the kitchen, where he assumes there’s a side door. The man’s gaze sweeps the room once, twice. Asahi creeps forward when his back is turned, and the moment he takes a step to move away, Asahi lunges.

He’s scared. God, he’s terrified. He shouldn’t have made any promises to Noya. He isn’t immortal. If this man gets the upper hand, Asahi knows he has no chance.

But he can’t think about that. Right now, he can only focus on survival, on grappling with the man before him for control over the single gun. The robber’s eyes are wide, wild with disbelief. Asahi can’t figure out what he’s so surprised about; surely, he’d expected someone to come after him eventually for all of this? Asahi pulls and the man resists, They shove and turn and twist, brute strength against brute strength, fighting for control of the situation. A stray shot shatters a vase, and there’s a muffled whimper from the closet next to it.

The woman.

Asahi has the upper hand. It’s only for a moment, but the sound distracts him, and the moment is more than enough. The robber twists around and slams his elbow into Asahi’s face hard enough to send him pinwheeling back into the coffee table, head slamming into the wood hard enough to make his vision go black, and then blurry. The aftermath leaves Asahi feeling like there’s an army in his skull waging war against the bones, pounding relentlessly against his forehead.

It hurts. It hurts. He can’t think. He can barely see straight.

He’s been in this situation before.

When he manages to get his vision to focus, only a little, he is staring down the barrel of the gun. The man’s chest heaves, expression twisted in fury, all bared teeth and vicious stance. And this is it — Asahi has no chance here. This is the end, and his promise to Noya will go unfulfilled after all. He thinks about Noya, laughing loud and free, holding his hand to the sunlight so the golden band on his finger glitters. Except Asahi doesn’t know where he picked up that memory. His head is pounding, a steady thump, thump, thump against his skull. His head is pounding and he is thinking and Azumane Asahi is going to die here and now, just like the man in the case he’d been trying so hard to solve. He can’t even close his eyes, watching the man’s finger on the trigger as if in slow motion.

But it never comes.

Instead, there is Noya, howling bloody murder, all feral motions and vengeful anger, streaking out of the hallway and barreling into the man. They both hit the ground and the gun skids away from them. Asahi’s shaken, but he still notices the lack of red staining Noya’s white t-shirt. Asahi trembles, but he realizes right away that Noya’s wound looks as if it had never existed to begin with. Noya looms over the man like a wraith, teeth bared, golden eyes glittering with a promise, a threat, and Asahi thinks to grab the gun before the man recovers from Noya’s winding attack. The would-be thief writhes beneath the other man, but Noya is unyielding and less hesitant than Asahi.

He takes the flower pot off the table and breaks it over the man’s head, knocking him out cold. Asahi is left in stunned silence, clutching the gun, staring at Noya as he hunches over the unconscious man, shoulders heaving with every breath. Asahi is still concerned; he can’t see Noya’s wound, or any sign of it, but for all he knows, Noya had just managed to find an extra shirt. It’s doubtful and farfetched, but it’s the only possible explanation, isn’t it?

“Asahi,” Noya gasps, “Asahi, are you okay? Did he hurt you? You’re bleeding.” He hadn’t noticed, but now that the adrenaline is wearing off, Asahi touches his head and his hand comes away red. He stares at his fingertips, dizzy, and finally sinks to his knees. Noya scrambles off of the man and barrels right into Asahi, straddling his waist to lean over and inspect Asahi’s head. Outside, sirens wail as their backup arrives, and Asahi sighs, relieved that the little girl had found somewhere safe. The officers come flooding in. Asahi feels like hell, but he’s more worried about making sure everything gets taken care of, so he directs them to the woman hiding, and then to the unconscious robber on the ground. It’s over.

Reaching out to touch Noya’s face, Asahi feels like sobbing. “I’m okay,” he rasps out, “I’m okay. You got shot, though, didn’t you? You shouldn’t do reckless things with a wound like that.”

Noya scrambles back off of him and out of Asahi’s reach before the detective can inspect his previously injured shoulder. He takes a little step aside, gaze averted, frown fixed on his features. Asahi’s eyes follow him as he moves away a little.

“Noya?” He frowns, moving to stand.

One of the officers shouts. Asahi’s attention catches on the shout and his gaze follows, catching sight of the previously unconscious man thrashing on the ground. He’s on his stomach facing Asahi, and one of the officers is straddling his back to cuff him. It’s his expression that catches Asahi’s notice, the sheer rage, face twisted up in hatred. His eyes glitter furiously, lips pulled back to bare his teeth in a snarl.

“You’re supposed to be dead!” He shouts. “You both died! I know I killed you, so why the fuck are you still alive?!”

Asahi’s heart falters in his chest. His head hurts. God, it hurts.

“I robbed you months ago! I shot that boy to death! You were dead! You’re supposed to be dead!”

He keeps shouting it. Asahi is cold to the bone, dropped into an endlessly deep pile of fresh snow with no way out. All he sees is the man’s face, and all he hears is dead and his head hurts so much. He’s supposed to be dead? He’s alive, though. He’s alive, but he doesn’t have memories, and he’s supposed to be dead. What boy had he meant? Noya? Did that mean Asahi had known him before after all? Had they both lost their memories?

Something is screaming in the back of his mind to come out. Asahi clutches his head in his hands, feeling panic swell heavily in his throat, suffocating him. His vision is dark at the edges and the gun is on the floor beside him, just within his gaze.

“Asahi,” Noya croaks behind him, voice soft and pained.

Asahi, it echoes and echoes and echoes, and all at once, everything slams back down. He remembers, and he doesn’t know how he could ever forget. The wedding band burns against the hollow of his throat like a brand. He watches, dumbstruck and breathless, as the robber is hauled out. He remembers who he is. He remembers who Noya is.

“Yuu,” he gasps, whirling around.

But the other man is gone.

⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤⏤

Asahi hates the smell of hospitals.

The nurse tells him he’s fine to leave, but he needs to come back for another check-up in a week to make sure there isn’t further head or brain damage. The doctors know his memory has returned, so they’re hopeful, but Asahi can’t share their joy. He goes home, empty-handed and desolate. He’s thinking about everything, about Yuu, about the wedding band around his throat. He doesn’t know where the other man had vanished to this time, but he hopes he’d at least had the sense to get medical attention.

And a week goes by.

In the seven days that Nishinoya Yuu is gone, Asahi dreams.

In his dreams, Asahi dies slowly.

His body is a mass of static and there is nothing but pain and pain and more pain. He’s vaguely aware of someone, somewhere, calling his name. Asahi, they’re saying, Asahi, please wake up.

Except this time, he doesn’t. This time, the pieces reconnect themselves. He is not the one in pain, nor is he the one being called out to. In his dreams, Asahi comes home to their shared home and finds Yuu on the floor, riddled with gunshot wounds and already bleeding out. In his dreams, Yuu is unconscious, and Asahi is sobbing, his voice cracking as he tries desperately to call the police.

“Yuu,” he’s begging, “Yuu, please wake up.”

In his dreams, Azumane Asahi does not make it home in time to stop his husband from fighting a robber. Azumane Yuu had fought alone and lost, and by the time Asahi had gotten back, he’d already been half-dead. Asahi hunches over him, pleading with any god that might listen.

He doesn’t know when he got up, only that he’s standing. He doesn’t know when the man appeared around the corner, only that he’s surprised by his appearance, and when they fight, Asahi does not win. He sees the table come into his line of vision.

There’s pain, and then there’s nothing.

Asahi wakes slowly from the darkness as the pieces slide together in his mind. Suddenly, everything makes sense. He hadn’t given the theory any thought before; it’d simply been the most unbelievable thing, but now he’s sure. It all makes too much sense. The name, the vanishing acts, the same outfit all the time, the strange looks Asahi would get when he would bring Yuu up with others, the missing bullet wound in his shoulder.

Yuu is already dead.

Asahi thinks the cold chill of resignation is the hardest part.

When he sits up, Yuu is sitting on the end of his bed. Asahi can see the door through his blood-stained shirt. The sight makes his heart ache anew. How cruel, he thinks, to make him fall in love with this man all over again, only to lose him once more. Had he really ever had Yuu to begin with?

Yuu looks like he had the last night Asahi had seen him as Azumane Yuu, and not Noya. His face is pale and hollow, golden eyes set into his features, a shade duller than Asahi is used to seeing them. His shirt, previously white, is riddled with bullet holes and stained with blood. Asahi is scared to even breathe for the fear of Yuu leaving once and for all.

Yuu doesn’t look at him when he speaks.

“I’m dead.” It’s not a question. Yuu knows this is a fact. “Right?”

“I’m sorry,” Asahi chokes out.

It isn’t enough. This isn’t enough. He has so much more he wants to say to Yuu. He wants to tell him how sorry he is. He wants to tell him that it should have been Asahi who’d died that day. Yuu had so much to live for, and Asahi barely knows how to live for himself. He wants to tell him how much he loves him, how they were supposed to have a whole life ahead of them. Their adventure had only just begun and it had been torn out from beneath them before they could take the first step.

Asahi chokes on his breath. It isn’t fair. It still isn’t fair.

He wants to say, please, don’t leave me again.

Yuu’s form flickers. Asahi covers his mouth to stifle the sob there. Yuu is in front of him now, gaze soft with acceptance. Even in death, he is the stronger of the two of them. Even now, his unwavering dependability makes Asahi feel safe.

“Asahi,” he says, ghostly fingers brushing past the strands of hair by Asahi’s ears, “I’m sorry.”

“What?” Asahi manages. “Why are you sorry? Yuu, I’m the one who should be apologizing. If I hadn’t gotten held up that day-”

“Then you would have died too.” Noya cuts him off.

Yuu stares him down, golden eyes piercing, and Asahi falters beneath that gaze.

“Asahi, I’m saying sorry because I promised you forever, but I have to go now. I love you so much, you stupid crybaby. I love you more than anything, and even if we were reborn, I’d find you again in ten thousand lifetimes. It’s always going to be you. You’re the kindest, bravest person I’ve ever known, and I’d do everything the same if it meant I had the chance to love you.” Asahi feels like he’s suffocating in his own words. He wants to grab Yuu and hold him close, but his hands pass right through the other man’s shoulders.

“I don’t know what to do without you,” he sobs, “Yuu, I don’t want to go without you. I don’t know how to socialize properly, and nobody else reminds me to take my meds. I can’t ground myself alone when I have an anxiety attack, and you always know what to say when I have a nightmare. I’m not brave. I let people walk over me when you aren’t there to tell them to lay off. You can’t leave because I don’t know what to do without you. I’m brave when you’re around because you make me feel like I can be.”

Yuu laughs. It’s a strangled half sob.

“Someone as cool as you shouldn’t be such a crybaby. You’re your own person, Asahi. You don’t need me or anyone else, even if you think you do. I’m not the one who makes you brave. You do that. And I need you to be extra brave for me now, okay?” His smile wobbles as he reaches out, hand hovering over Asahi’s cheek. “I need you to be brave enough to live the rest of your life, even if I’m not there to live it with you. I wish I could stay and make you as happy as you made me. I wish we could travel the world and have kids and grow old together. But I’ll always be with you.” And this time, when he reaches to touch Asahi, his palm settles over the ring strung around Asahi’s neck and stays there. The point of contact is warm, pulsing out into Asahi’s chest. He feels like he can breathe again. Asahi is so tired of being scared.

He manages a shaky laugh. “You still have my jacket.” Yuu smiles, something soft that touches the edges of his eyes. “Yeah,” he huffs, “sorry about that.” Asahi covers the hand Yuu has over his chest with his own. “Yuu,” he says, “I love you. I love you so much and I always have, and I’m sorry I never said that enough. I’m sorry that we couldn’t have the life we deserved. But I’ll keep living for you, as long as you promise to wait for me. Find me again in the next life, and the one after that, and the one after that. Please let me fall in love with you again.” A single tear slides down Yuu’s face.

“Always,” he says.

Asahi does not get his coat back, but he feels it like a pit of warmth in his chest when Yuu is gone. He sinks slowly forward, gathering the blanket up in his arms and pressing it to his face in a futile attempt to gather the last bits of Yuu’s presence from the fabric. But he’s gone, and Asahi is alone again, with nothing but the ghost of his memory and a promise. His room is empty and the pit of warmth in his chest is a sorry excuse for Yuu’s presence. He’s alone for now, but he’s going to be brave, and he’s going to find Yuu again in the next life. He may not have him now, but he’s never going to let him go again. He has that.

His fingers close slowly over the ring dangling from his neck, pressing the memories there deep into his chest where they’ll make a home.

(And this, at least.)

#asanoya #azumane asahi #nishinoya yuu #haikyuu #major character death #unreliable narrator #marimo writes #haikyuu!!#marimo give asahi a break challenge

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shirohcsbecausewhythehellnot · 6 years ago

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Prompt: HI! Can I get a Shiro x female reader please. The plot will be that they are both actors for Voltron and that they're secretly dating. The whole cast of Voltron went to a convention and a bunch of fans during that convention asked if Shiro is in a relationship. Of course, since both Shiro and his girlfriend keep it low key he didn't respond because his girlfriend inst there. But then he talked to her about it then they revealed it during the convention meet up. All the fans go wild (1) Hey Hey! Can I request a Shiro x Female reader. Both of them are visiting his mother. And Shiro knows about reader and Shiros love for each other (and their married) but both of them are they to tell her news. Me personally, I think Shiros mother was a single mom so it can be like that in the story. So Shiro and reader during the day take his mother out where ever she wants to go. But after lunch, Shiro and reader reveal that reader is pregnant. Shiros mom gets emotional and happy for them. (2) So its about Shiro x Fem reader actor AU and how both of them are a couple and his mother approves of reader. In my opinion I think Shiro's mom was a single mom so can that be included in the story? Anyways since Shiro and reader are back from acting scene for Voltron, Shiro wanted to visit his mother in Japan and he wants to surprise her with something. Of course his mother is exited to see her son and her daughter in law so she clears her schedule to see them. The first week shiro,reader and his mother go out eating and do what ever she wants, becuase shiro and reader respect her and love her. After the first week, Shiro goes out with his mom and tells her that reader is pregnant. His mother is in shock and starts crying joyish tears. Once they get back home she hugs reader and tell her she happy for them. You can change the ending or whatever but It needs to be cute! THANK YOU (3)

Okay so this was a long-ass prompt and it was requested to me literally months ago. Not even kidding. ANON I’M SORRY! So I think that the person who requested me this was the same who DM’d me to add more detail (The last prompt) and so I just added the two together. If not, I’m sorry whoops. I guess you can request again once I open them. Also, this isn’t the first AU that I was requested but it was the first one I completed WOOT WOOT! *gives self lame high-five* Anyway, enjoy!

Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defender

Pairing: Shiro x Fem!Reader

Genre: Actor!AU, Fluff?, Slice of Life

Word Count: 9,642

Warnings: I’ve decided to remove swearing as an official warning so no

“And… cut! That’s a wrap, guys! Great job!”

You heard applause from the staff as you and the rest of the group walked off the set. You had just finished filming the pilot season of Voltron: Legendary Defender that will air on Netflix not long from now. Being advertised on such a huge platform was going to give you a lot of street cred. This was going to be your first big break.

“This is going to be a hit, guys! I just know it!” The director enthusiastically walked up to all of you with a beaming smile on her face. You returned her smile before taking a sip from your water bottle. You noticed your boyfriend, Shiro, walk up to you. You smiled at him as well.

You two had met before briefly during auditions for previous roles but the relationship never went further than that. He was just the “hot dude in auditions” amongst you and your friends. That is until you were both cast for this show. You played as the stowaway engineer while he played as one of the Paladins. You were also each other’s romantic interests. Although, it was only hinted in the first season. And it wasn’t even intentional. Your chemistry was just so great on-screen that everyone agreed it would be a good idea to add a bit of romance to the, otherwise, action-based show. However, what the crew didn’t know, except for the cast who had their suspicions, was that the on-screen chemistry was a direct result of your off-screen chemistry after months of quick glances, flirting, and blushing. Neither of you was entirely sure how it started, you were just glad that it did. You two were just rehearsing a newly added scene between your characters in Shiro’s apartment which then lead to the day ending with the two of you naked and in his bed. You grinned slightly at the memory before locking your gaze with Shiro’s.

“Hey, you.” He said fondly. He had already removed his scar makeup and fake prosthetic, although his white patch of hair was still there.

“Hey.” You replied. You looked at your surroundings to see if anyone was watching before you reached up and planted a quick kiss on his lips. He looked at you amusedly before he grabbed your hand and sneakily brought you two behind the Black Lion prop that hid you from the eyes of others and kissed your lips deeply. You sighed softly as you wrapped your arms around his neck and brought him closer to you. You slowly parted from each other with a small smile and stared lovingly at each other.

“So I was thinking…” He trailed off with a grin.

“Yes?” You inquired.

“Well, we’ve been dating for a little over a year now…”

“Uh-huh.” You urged him to continue.

“And we’re going to be so busy once the pilot airs…” He said dramatically. You rolled your eyes.

“Get on with it already, Shirogane!” You said teasingly. He let out a quiet chuckle.

“I was thinking, while we’re free before the pilot airs if maybe we could go visit my mom? She’s been dying to meet you.” Your mind went blank for a split-second before it flooded with thoughts. Aside from what Shiro said about his mother being an angel, a part of you was nervous about meeting your boyfriend’s mom for the first time. Although, the bigger part of you couldn’t deny that you were happy Shiro wanted to show such an important part of his life to you. You squashed down your fears of the worst-case scenarios and beamed at him.

` “I would love to meet your mom, Takashi. I can’t wait.” A breath of relief left Shiro’s lips before he bent down and kissed you once again.

“That’s great.”

A week had passed since then and you were repacking your suitcase yet again for your trip to visit Shiro’s mother in Japan. You had just closed your suitcase when you heard the door to your bathroom open. You turned around only to be faced with a wet and nude Shiro. The only thing covering him was the towel wrapped around his waist. You didn’t even try to be subtle as you admired your boyfriend’s physique.

God damn, I’m the luckiest woman on earth. You thought.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” Shiro said smugly. You only hummed in agreement. Your eyes trailed his form until they rested on the top of his head. His previous white patch of hair now replaced with a black one. Your eyes widened in surprise.

“Oh, my god! What did you do to your hair!?” You asked in shock. Shiro raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“I dyed it?”

“But why?” You inquired.

“Because it’s my natural hair color, Y/N.” He stated. You let out a little pout.

“But your floof…” Shiro sighed affectionately before he went up to you and lightly pinched your cheek.

“It’ll come back when we film the next season, don’t worry.” You sighed softly.

“Fine.” You grumbled. Shiro could only chuckle. You turned around to zip up your suitcase. It was then that he realized that you had just finished packing. Shiro wrapped his arms around your waist and hugged you to his chest as he rested his chin on your shoulder with a confused pout.

“You just finished? I thought you were halfway done before I got in the shower?” You rubbed the back of your neck sheepishly.

“This is probably the fifth time I’ve repacked, actually.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just nervous about meeting your mom.” You sighed softly and leaned into his embrace. “I don’t want to give a bad first impression. It’s bad enough that I won’t be able to have full conversations with her due to the language barrier.” You averted your gaze from his. You heard him sigh before he gently turned you around to face him. You slowly looked up and met his tender gaze.

“You don’t have to worry about anything, Y/N. She’s going to love you. And you can’t blame yourself for not knowing the language. You weren’t raised in an environment where you had to and she gets that.” He gently rested his forehead against yours. “You’re going to do great and everything is going to be just fine.” You let out a deep breath to calm your nerves before you nodded in agreement.

“Right, you’re right. I got this!” You said enthusiastically. Shiro smirked at your reply and stroked your cheek affectionately.

“That’s my girl. Now come on, we should go to bed. We have an early flight to catch.” You nodded and huddled under your covers as you waited for Shiro to dry himself off and get dressed. He soon joined you in the bed and immediately wrapped his arms around you in another comforting embrace. You snuggled into his hug with a sigh.

“Night, Kashi.” You whispered.

“Night.”

It was a little after 4 in the afternoon when your plane finally landed at the Narita Airport. Your nerves once again resurfaced and you even felt a little nauseous from it. You felt a big, warm hand gently wrap around yours. You turned to face Shiro.

“Relax.” He said softly. You slowly nodded your head and forced yourself to calm down.

Relax, Y/N, relax! You’re just meeting his mom, you don’t need to get worked up over this! What’s the worst that could happen? She doesn’t accept our relationship? She makes Shiro choose between us and obviously he has to choose his mother because come on, it’s his mother! Or maybe- You mentally shook your head to stop the pessimistic thoughts from filling your brain. Shiro told you everything was going to be fine, so it’s going to be fine. And besides, Kashi literally talks about how much of a sweetheart she is. Also, since she raised him by herself and he turned out this great, she’s bound to be just as great. You were too caught up in convincing yourself to calm down that you didn’t even realize that you and Shiro had exited the airport and was headed toward the bullet train to Osaka. You two entered the train and found your seats. You looked out the window as the train started to leave to soak in the sights of Japan. You felt Shiro’s hand lace between your fingers and you looked over at your boyfriend who was smiling at you softly.

“We’re really lucky we were able to get here right before the cherry blossom season started in Osaka. I really wanted to show it to you.” You beamed at him.

“Really? I can’t wait! I’ve seen the pictures online and they look so beautiful.” Shiro let out a little chuckle.

“Trust me, the pictures pale in comparison to the real thing.”

“I have no doubts about that.” Shiro hummed softly in agreement and brushed some hair behind your ear.

“I’m really glad that you’re here, Y/N.” You looked into his dark eyes that were filled with love and you gave him a warm smile as you squeezed his hand.

“Me too.” You murmured. Everything’s going to be fine. You thought.

After a few hours, you finally got off the bullet train and stepped out of the station. You took a deep breath of the slightly chilly air and noticed a hit of salt from the sea. But what was most significant, was the mesmerizing aroma of the street vendors holding various types of delicious foods.

“Everything smells amazing.” You said in wonder to Shiro. He smiled at your reaction in amusement.

“Osaka is quite known for its food. We even have a saying here, ‘kuidaore’. Basically, it means to eat until you drop.”

“Oh, I intend to, don’t worry.” He let out a little snort at your response as he hailed a taxi.

You finally made it to his mother’s house. It was a small two-story house wedged in between two others that faced the beach from a distance. You noticed the laundry that was hanging from the second story balcony and the flowers that decorated the fences and front yard. It looked very homey. You were admiring the exterior of your boyfriend’s childhood home when you heard the front door open. You quickly focused your attention to the petite woman exiting the house and unconsciously straightened your posture.

Shiro’s mother reminded you of him. She might be a bit short and her dark hair might be greying slightly at the roots but she had his warm smile and dark eyes specked with silver that was filled with the same strength. Her hair was tied back and she had an apron wrapped around her waist as a delicious scent came from the house. She was probably preparing dinner when you two got here. She walked up to the two of you, beaming, with her arms spread wide.

“Takashi.” She said lovingly. Her voice shook a little and her eyes were filled with unshed tears.

“Kāsan,” Shiro muttered before he dropped his bag at his feet and quickly walked up to her, engulfing her small frame in a hug. Your heart warmed at the sight of him being reunited with his mother. Her arms were wrapped firmly around his back and she patted it lightly before slowly parting from him. She placed a hand on his cheek with a smile filled with motherly affection before her eyes glanced to you. You again straightened your back as you held your breath.

“Is this her?” She asked, a hint of excitement lacing her voice.

“Yes. This is my girlfriend, Y/N.” He replied looking back at you with a small grin. You only stood there and smiled nervously as you wondered what they were talking about. Shiro’s mother fully detached herself from her son as she walked up to you and cupped your face with both her hands. She tilted your head from side to side as she looked at you with a scrutinizing gaze and you sweating anxiety bullets before she smiled yet again and hugged you firmly.

“Arigatō.” She whispered into your ear. Even though you lacked greatly in your Japanese skills, you were at least able to understand the meaning behind those words. Your body relaxed immediately and you returned the hug. You looked over her shoulder and smiled at your boyfriend who was staring at the two of you lovingly. Eventually, she let go of her embrace before she bent down to grab your luggage.

“Oh, ma’am. That’s fine, really. You don’t need to-” You stopped yourself short, remembering that she didn’t speak English and looked at Shiro with pleading eyes. He looked at you amusedly before he turned to his mother.

“Mom, you don’t have to. Y/N says she can carry it.”

“Nonsense! I’m perfectly fine. You two just had a long trip, you must be exhausted. I just finished dinner. I made your favorite.” His mother didn’t even bother to stop as she continued to walk into her house. Shiro sighed as he glanced at you and shrugged his shoulders.

“She’s stubborn.” He said. You grinned slightly.

“It must run in the family.” Shiro rolled his eyes and muttered for you to shut up before he bent down to grab his luggage and follow his mother into the house. You giggled slightly and moved to follow him before you stopped abruptly at the sudden wave of dizziness that washed over you. You pinched the bridge of your nose and took a deep inhale of air as you tried to steady yourself.

“Y/N, are you okay?” You looked up and saw Shiro standing at the entrance, his mother behind him, both looking at you with concern. You smiled warmly and waved your hand.

“I’m fine, just a little tired. Probably from the lack of sleep.” You reassured. Shiro sighed slightly in relief before he turned around to explain to his mother. She said something back at him while glancing at you and he turned around to translate.

“She said that it’s probably best if you take a nap to regain some energy.” You shook your head softly and looked at her gratefully.

“I’m fine, really. Thank you for your concern. I’ll regain energy from eating your food. It smells delicious.” You smiled gratefully at his mother. Shiro smiled as well while translating for you. You grinned at the moment where you assumed Shiro was complimenting your mother’s food for you when you noticed her raise her head in pride. Shiro’s mother spoke again with a grin as she entered the house and you and Shiro followed. “What’d she say?” You asked as you caught up to him. He glanced at you and smirked.

“‘Damn right.’”

“The food was delicious- uh, babe, how do you say that in Japanese?” You said quietly, reminding yourself, once again, of the language barrier.

“Oishī” He whispered back.

“Right, yes. Oishī, Shū…tome?” You said hesitantly, glancing at Shiro for confirmation that you said mother-in-law (after his mother insisted) correctly. He nodded at you with a smile and you returned it. Of course, the two of you weren’t married, yet. Let alone, engaged. But you couldn’t deny that you have been thinking about it recently. You were taken away from your thoughts and hopes for the future when you noticed Shiro’s mother stand up and begin to pick up the empty dishes. “Shūtome, I can take that-” You stood up quickly and stopped yourself mid-sentence when another wave of nausea washed over you. You leaned against your chair slightly and pinched the bridge of your nose.

“Y/N!” Shiro quickly stood up and rested his hand on your forehead. “You’re a little sweaty, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. I guess I just stood up too quickly.” You tried to settle his nerves with a smile but he still looked worried. You sighed and placed a hand against his cheek. “I’m fine, honestly. Don’t worry.” You looked up to see Shiro’s mother walk up to you too. You smiled at her reassuringly. “Daijōbudesu.” You muttered and turned to look back at your concerned boyfriend. “I’m just gonna go use the bathroom and splash some water on my face, okay?” Shiro’s eyes scanned your face before he relented.

“Alright. You know where it is, right?” You nodded and turned your back on the two of them as you headed to the bathroom as calmly as you could. When you turned a corner and was certain that you were out of sight, you quietly bolted to the bathroom, covering your mouth with the back of your hand. You had just barely made it to the bathroom before you coughed up your recently eaten dinner into the sink. You turned on the faucet to wash it away and to drown out the noise as it continued for a few more minutes. Once you were sure it was over, you washed your mouth with water and washed the sweat away from your face. You leaned over the sink and groaned quietly.

“Not again…” You muttered. This had been going on for the past few weeks. You’ve hidden it from Shiro because you didn’t want him to worry and because you needed to finish shooting the final episodes of your show. You were sure that it was just a stomach bug at first but they shouldn’t last this long. Your eyes snapped open. “Oh shit.” You whispered as you hastily pulled out your phone and checked your menstrual tracker app. You gasped silently in shock as you read the screen. You were over two months late. At first, you chalked up your first late period to stress from the shooting but by the time the second had been missed, you completely forgot about it due to the show. “Oh shit.” You said again. You looked up at your pale reflection as you tried to calm yourself down. “Okay, don’t stress over this, Y/N. This isn’t the first time you’ve missed more than a month. Finals week was always brutal to your cycle.”

‘Yeah, but you weren’t having sex during finals week.’ A little voice in your head replied. “That’s true.” You responded out loud. You started to panic. I can’t be a mom. Not right now. I don’t know if I’m ready! Plus, what’s Takashi going to think about this? Worst-case scenarios started popping up in your head before you mentally cut yourself off. “Okay, I think that we can all agree that we shouldn’t be freaking out over this until we take an actual test first.” You said to no one. You nodded to your self in agreement as you walked out the door and into the living room with a smile.

You entered the living room with the view of Shiro and his mother talking. They noticed you right away and Shiro’s mom walked up to you and cupped your cheek.

“You… okay?” She asked in hesitant English. You felt touched at the effort she was putting in to communicate as you nodded with a soft smile. She smiled back and grabbed your hand as she lead you to the couch. Confused, you allowed it at sat down next to Shiro. He put an arm around you and squeezed your shoulder lightly.

“Are you sure? I can take you to the doctor’s if you’d like.” You gave him a quick peck on the lips in response.

“Thanks, but I’m good.” You heard Shiro’s mother softly clear her throat and you returned your attention to her. She raised up both hands, fingers spread apart and made a small gesture.

“Wait.” She said. You nodded to let her know that you would before she walked off again. You glanced over to your boyfriend and he just shrugged his shoulders as you both waited for his mother’s return. Not long after, she re-entered the room with a couple of photo albums in her hands. You sat up straighter in excitement while Shiro groaned.

“Mom, we don't need to show her these.”

“Well, why not?” She asked.

“Because…” Shiro trailed off.

“Because?” She urged him to continue.

“It’s just embarrassing.” He muttered. Shiro’s mom rolled her eyes.

“Oh please! It’s just pictures of you as a child! Worst-case scenario, she sees a picture of you in the bath but what’s the big deal? She’s definitely seen more than that.”

“Mom!” Shiro gasped, mortified. You sat quietly in between the two of them bickering as you tried to stifle your laughter. Despite not knowing what was being said, you had a pretty good guess based on the photo albums before you, your boyfriend's flushed face, and his mother’s triumphant one. While the two of them went back and forth, you quietly picked up one of the photo albums and opened it. You started flipping through the pictures of Shiro’s childhood with a smile on your face. Shiro and his mother both noticed and Shiro sighed in defeat and reluctantly started looking through them with you. You landed on a picture of Shiro, no older than ten, in a baseball uniform, a band-aid and a little dirt on his face, and a wide smile with a gap from a missing tooth. Shiro’s mom pointed at it with a fond smile and held up nine fingers to tell you his age. You smiled in response as you continued to look through the album. You closed it and picked up another right away, the teddy bears on the cover indicated that these were his baby photos. You quickly opened it and let out a small squeal in delight.

“Oh my god! Kashi, you were so cute!” You turned to see your boyfriend with slightly flushed features as he averted your gaze.

“Kawaii ne?” Shiro’s mother asked. You nodded enthusiastically and continued to look through his baby pictures fondly.

I wonder if our kids will look like this? You asked yourself. You mentally shook your head at the thought. You intended to not think about it until you were certain and dammit, you were going to. You finished looking at the final page of the album and reluctantly closed it and picked up the last one. Most of the pictures were of him in middle and high school. The pictures of a younger and smaller looking Shiro being goofy with his friends made you smile the most as Shiro pointed them out to you and gave you a brief introduction on them. You remember a few of them that you and Shiro met when they visited you in LA, but most of them were strangers to you. You flipped the page again and another picture caught your eye. It was old. The faded colors and grainy filter told you that. And in the picture wasn’t Shiro but a young woman with a slightly older man. You instantly recognized Shiro’s mother for she barely aged a bit. She was probably in her early twenties and she was looking up lovingly of the man who was clearly of European descent. He met her gaze with a similar look.

“Hey, babe, who’s this?” You pointed at the man in curiosity.

“Who?… Oh.” You felt the mood drop instantly. You looked up and saw that both Shiro and his mother looked a bit grim.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to-” You were quickly cut off.

“No, it’s fine. That’s just… my father.”

“Your father?” You repeated softly. You looked at the man closer and noticed a bit of resemblance between him and Shiro with the facial structure. Shiro never talked to you much about his father. All you knew about him was that he was from Sweden and Shiro’s never met him. Other than that, he basically didn’t exist. You felt a small hand rest over yours and you looked over to Shiro’s mother. She was smiling sadly as she spoke to you in Japanese. After she finished speaking, you turned to look at Shiro for a translation. He looked over at his mother for confirmation that it was okay to repeat it and she nodded.

“She said that he was a professor at her college. And that they had a secret relationship with one another and that they were doing really well. But when she found out that she was pregnant with me and told him, he quit his job and left the country almost immediately because turns out, he was married and had a family back in his country. He’s probably somewhere in Sweden, the bastard.” He added angrily with a hint of hurt in his voice. You laid a hand on his shoulder and turned to look at his mom with an apologetic look. She smiled and patted your cheek.

“Daijōbudesu.” She said with an optimistic voice. She looked over to Shiro and looked back at you. Even though she wasn't communicating to you with words, you understood what she meant. ‘In the end, I got Takashi out of this so I don’t regret a thing. If anything, he’s missing out.’ You grinned and nodded in agreement.

Shiro’s mother tried to stifle her yawn as she glanced at her watch. You checked the time as well and noticed that it was around 11 o’clock at night.

“Hey, Takashi, it’s getting late. We should probably try to sleep and fight off this jet-lag.” Shiro seemed to have snapped out of some trance and nodded automatically. You got up from the couch and turned to Shiro’s mom. “Oyasuminasai, Shūtome.” You said hesitantly, praying that you bid her good night correctly, before walking up the stairs with Shiro.

“Oyasuminasai.” She replied.

You closed the door behind you after entering Shiro’s childhood bedroom. Bits and pieces of his past were shown through the things that he had in them. You looked over to see Shiro staring out the window silently. You frowned slightly and walked up to him. You hugged him from behind and rested your cheek against his broad back.

“Hey, you okay?” You asked. You heard him let out a big sigh.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just… bad thoughts.” He muttered.

“Sorry for bringing up those bad thoughts.” You replied, guiltily. Shiro sighed again before he turned around and returned your hug.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. If anything it was him. I mean, how could somebody do that? How could somebody just leave a pregnant woman who was carrying his unborn child alone without a good reason?”

“I don’t know Takashi. I don’t know why or how people do it. There are just some people like that in this world, unfortunately.”

“But still. If it were me, I wouldn’t leave. There is no way in hell I would leave. And yet, he did.” You felt yourself let out a little breath of relief that you didn’t even know that you were holding. You were glad to know that if you did find yourself pregnant, he would be with you.

“You’re not like him Kashi. You have a heart. And you do what’s right.” You felt Shiro hug you a little tighter.

“But… why didn’t he care?” He asked in a whisper. You felt your heart clench at the hurt in his voice. You pulled back slightly and cupped his face in your hands.

“Because he's a coward, Takashi. He’s a coward who doesn’t even deserve to know you anyway. You’re a better man in a day than he will ever be in his life. You’re better than him.” You repeated firmly as you tugged on his chin to look you in the eyes. “And he’s worse off without you.” Shiro stared into your eyes deeply and in silence, processing your words. He parted his lips, preparing to speak before he shut them. Finally, he let out a breath.

“You… you are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, you know that?” You grinned slightly.

“That’s a given.” Shiro gently shook his head in amusement as he bent down to brush his lips softly against yours.

“I love you.” He murmured against your lips.

“I love you, too.” You replied. You two continued to softly caress each other lips before slowly parting from each other.

“Let’s get ready for bed. As you said, we should fight off this jet-lag.” Shiro said before leaving your embrace and unpacking both of your toiletries.

“Okay.”

It had just past 4 A.M and you still found yourself unable to sleep. Shiro had managed to doze off a few hours ago, hugging you close to his chest. However, you didn’t even feel the least bit tired. And by keeping to yourself in the quiet, the unwanted thoughts of a possible pregnancy started to resurface. You tried to block out the thoughts by shutting your eyes and trying to force yourself to sleep but eventually, you gave up and let out a silent groan in frustration. You slowly started to get up from the futon when you felt Shiro’s arms tighten around you.

“Babe, what are you doing? It’s the middle of the night.” He mumbled, sleepily. You turned around slightly and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

“I can’t sleep. I’m going to take a walk around the neighborhood.” You whispered.

“But you don’t know the area. I’ll go with you.” He replied as he started to get up. You quickly stopped him and gently pushed him back down to the futon. Luckily, he didn’t put up much of a fight.

“I’ll be fine. If I get lost, I’ll just use Google Maps.” Shiro cracked one eye open and looked at you curiously.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“Positive. Now go back to sleep. I’ll be back within an hour.” You said as you kissed his lips gently. Shiro hummed in acknowledgment before his breathing quickly went back to a slow, steady pace. You smiled softly and ran your fingers through his cropped hair before getting back up and putting on a pair of jeans and a hoodie. You quietly walked down the stairs, hoping that you don’t wake up Shūtome. You sighed in relief when you reached the door. You slowly opened the door and picked up your shoes from the shoe-rack outside and slipped them on. You put the hood on over your head and started to walk off in a random direction.

You continued to walk in whatever direction you felt like before you halted in front of a Lawson. You noticed that it was still open so you decided to walk in and grab a quick snack. You nodded politely at the cashier who welcomed you before you started walking down the different aisles, grabbing snacks that you thought looked appetizing along the way. You were about to walk into the next aisle when something caught your eye. It was a small, pink box. You couldn’t read the words written on it but you could swear that it was a picture of a pregnancy test on the box. You quickly pulled out your phone and opened up Google Translate just to be sure. When the words on the screen matched the label on the box, you quickly reached out for it. Just before you were going to grab it, you hesitated.

Should I really be doing this? You asked yourself. I don’t know if I’m ready to know the answer.

‘It’s better to know now than having a random baby popping out of you and ending up on I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant.’ A voice replied. After a swift internal battle with yourself, you steeled your resolution and picked it up. You headed over to the counter and pulled out your wallet from the pocket of your hoodie. You quickly exchanged your money for the items and muttered a quiet “Thank you” in Japanese before heading out again.

You quietly entered the house again and tip-toed up the stairs. You placed the snacks in Shiro’s room before heading to the bathroom with the pregnancy test in hand. Once you were finished, you placed the test on the counter near the sink while you washed your hands. You set a timer for two minutes on your phone and turned away from the test. Seconds seemed like hours as you anxiously waited for the result. When you finally heard the soft chime from your phone, indicating that the timer was done, you slowly turned around with your eyes screwed shut. After some attempts, you picked up the test.

“Okay, Y/N. You got this. Just open your eyes on the count of three. One. Two…” You slowly opened your eyes and looked at the test. At the end of the stick, you saw two lines. The moment those lines hit your vision, every doubt, every fear or concern or hesitation flew right out the window. You were pregnant. And it was with Shiro’s baby. You were going to be a mother.

“…Three.” You whispered with a smile. Tears started to prick at your eyes as you let out a watery laugh. “I’m gonna be a mom.” You still couldn’t believe it. You rested a hand on your stomach, it was too early for a bump to be visible but you stared down at it lovingly. “Hello, little baby.” You whispered. You felt a tear slip down your face. “I’m your Mama.” It felt right having those words leave your lips. “I know you can’t hear me yet but I hope you know how much I love you already and I can’t wait to meet you. Wait until your Papa hears the news. I can’t wait to see the look on his face.” Happily, you left the bathroom and headed down the hall to Shiro’s room. You glanced out the window and saw the faintest hint of sunlight. You checked your phone and saw that it was ten minutes to six. You knew that you were defiantly able to sleep with this news so you decided to go for a walk on the beach in front of the house. You entered the bedroom and knelt down to look at Shiro’s sleeping face. You smiled warmly at the thought of the future before you reached out and gently shook his sleeping frame.

“Mmm.” He groaned sleepily.

“Hey… hey Kashi. Wake up.” You whispered.

“No.”

“Come on. Let’s go see the sunrise.”

“We can see the sunset. Let’s just stay in bed.” He muttered as he grabbed you and brought you down to him. You let out a little squeal of laughter as you playfully pushed against him.

“Please?” You asked cutely. When he didn’t respond you sighed and continued. “Please?Please? Please? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-”

“Alright, fine. You win.” He groaned as he regretfully pushed himself off of the futon. He slowly dragged his feet and changed into some jeans and a hoodie as well before you two set off for the beach.

You walked against the tides hand in hand, your shoes in the other. The chilly seawater tickled at your feet as the sun continued to rise, slowly, over the horizon. You two stopped walking soon after and sat down at the edge of the sea. You sat side by side as you watched the sun ascend.

“This is beautiful.” You said in awe.

“Yeah. You were right.”

“I always am.” You said with a grin.

“Shut up.” Shiro chuckled. You did as well as you continued to stare into the distance. Alright, Y/n. Now or never. You thought. You opened your mouth to speak, your eyes still set on the rising sun.

“Hey, Kashi?” You said. When you heard him hum in response, you continued. “I’ve been thinking.”

“About?” He asked.

“You know, about us. About our future.”

“Is it a good one?” He asked. Even though you weren’t looking at him, you could hear the smile in his voice.

“Obviously.” You snorted.

“So what is it that you saw in our future?” He asked.

“Oh… you know. The basics. Engagement, marriage…. kids.” You added softly. Shiro didn’t respond.

“Do you… do you want kids?” You asked hesitantly, daring not to look at him. Shiro softly cleared his throat before he answered.

“I mean, of course, I want kids. And I especially want them with you. Eventually. But with the show going on right now and our schedules, we can't possibly-”

“Takashi, I’m pregnant.” You blurted out. Everything was silent again. You held your breath as you waited for a response.

“…What?” He said in disbelief. You sighed softly and turned to face him. His face looked like if the word ‘shocked’ was created for just this moment.

“I’m pregnant.” You said again, quieter. You didn’t think Shiro’s eyes could get any wider but they did.

“You…” He took in a shaky breath and stood up and took a few steps into the ocean. The water soaking the ankles of his jeans. He didn’t seem to notice or care. You followed suit and walked up behind him. You placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Are you upset?” You asked. You knew that he wasn’t going to leave. His declaration from the previous night confirmed that for you. But you still couldn’t help but feel scared at the thought that he doesn’t want this baby. When his reply didn’t come, your heartbeat quickened. “Takashi?” You asked hesitantly.

“How long have you known?” He asked quietly.

“I had my suspicions but I just found out. When I went out for a walk, I bought a test and took it.” You replied.

“How far along are you?” You took a moment to think about it.

“If I’m correct…. then a little over two months.” You heard him let out a quick breath.

“Takashi? Are you upset?” You asked again, quieter now.

“Of course I’m not upset.” You heard him whisper. He slowly turned around and looked into your eyes with the biggest smile you’ve ever seen. His eyes glistened with unshed tears. “How could I ever be upset. We’re going to be parents!” He said with a watery laugh as he picked you up and spun you around. You let out a little scream in shock before you laughed with him. He eventually stopped and slowly put you down, still wrapped around in his embrace.

“But you just said-”

“Forget what I said. I meant it theoretically. But now that I know that you- we,” He corrected as he placed a hand on your stomach, the bump still invisible. “are going to have a baby, I wouldn’t have it another way.” A single tear slipped down your face as you hugged him tightly. He returned the hug and let out a dreamy sigh. “I am so, so in love with you, Y/N.” He whispered into your hair.

“I’m in love with you, too.” You replied. You two gently pulled apart from each other and stared lovingly into the other’s eyes before you both slowly leaned in and kissed deeply. He slowly slipped his tongue inside your mouth and twirled it around yours. You let out a soft moan in delight as you pulled him closer. After a few minutes of loving kisses, Shiro’s body tensed and he immediately pulled away.

“Ah, shit.” He muttered. You looked at him curiously.

“What?” Shiro let out an exasperated sigh.

“I left it at the house. Had I known… wait here.” He said before quickly jogging towards the house. You stood there in shock as you watched his figure get smaller.

“O…kay?”

You waited for your boyfriend’s return, your feet splashing the water slightly. He couldn’t have been gone for more than a few minutes but it felt like hours. You soon heard footsteps and you quickly turned around to see Shiro running up to you, a little out of breath.

“I was going to do this when we went to go see the cherry blossoms, but I guess now is better than later.” You raised an eyebrow at him.

“What are you talking abo-” Your voice left your lips when you saw Shiro kneel down and pull out a box from the pocket of his hoodie. The sea water was basically soaking all of his jeans but his only focus was on you.

“Y/N, you didn’t know this, but I’ve been set on you for a while now. Even before we were official. When I saw you for the first time at one of our previous auditions, I knew that you were going to be a special part of my life. And when we got cast together for Voltron, I knew that I had to get to know you. And then after our first night… I knew that I was done for. That you were the one for me. I fell for you hard and fast and I couldn’t wait to ask you to be mine forever.”

“Oh my god.” You whispered. You felt your heart swell at his words.

“Every time I picture my future, you’re there, Y/N. You’re always there. And I know that we’re a little young and that we just got our careers off the ground but hey, we’re going to be parents now. Life is unpredictable.” He said with a chuckle. You laughed as well. “So what I’m saying is…”

“Yes?” You whispered.

“We’re going to have a baby soon…” He trailed off.

“Uh-huh.” You replied. Your smile widening at the familiar scene.

“And you’re the love of my life…” He said dramatically. You giggled slightly as you rolled your teary eyes.

“Get on with it already, Shirogane!” You teased, your voice shaking with tears. Shiro hummed in amusement before slowly opening the box and revealing a gorgeous ring. In the center, it held a round carbonado diamond that sat on a band of white gold. An intricate pattern was carved in the band and held smaller carbonado diamonds along with miniature crystals within. You let out a quiet gasp.

“Marry me?” He asked. His voice was soft and loving as he stared deep into your eyes. The dam finally broke and the tears spilled down your face. You couldn’t speak so all you could do was nod frantically before you finally found your voice.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Of course, I’ll marry you!” You sobbed. Shiro let out a small breath of relief before he stood up and gently grabbed your left hand.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this.” He whispered as he slipped the ring onto your finger. You laughed in disbelief. You looked up and saw that a few tears slid down Shiro’s face as well before you quickly grabbed his face and crashed his lips against yours. You soon parted and stared at each other lovingly.

“We’re going to get married!” You squealed. Shiro softly kissed the tip of your nose.

“I know. And we’re going to be parents.” He reminded you as he looked down onto your stomach. You gently rested a hand over it and Shiro rested his hand over yours.

“I can’t wait.” You muttered happily. Shiro hummed in agreement. His eyes still focused on your unborn child.

“You’re going to be so spoiled, you know that?” He said to the baby with a smile. You giggled at his interaction with the baby.

“You’re going to be a great dad, Takashi.” You whispered. He finally looked up and smiled at you.

“And you’re going to be a great mom.”

“Speaking of moms, we should tell your mother.” Shiro gently shook his head.

“Not yet. Let’s surprise her.” He looked back down at your stomach. “Your Baba is going to spoil you rotten as well.” He chuckled.

“Baba?” You asked.

“It’s short for Obāsan. It means grandma.”

“Ah.” You understood. You looked out into the horizon and noticed that the sun was fully up. You checked the time and saw that it was a little past 7 A.M. “We should head back. We don’t want your mom worrying about us.” Shiro nodded.

“Yeah, okay.” You started to walk off when you felt a little tug on your arm. You turned around just before Shiro pulled you close and kissed you passionately. He slowly parted his lips from yours and smiled.

“I’m so happy.” You smiled back.

“Me too.”

You entered the house with Shiro and was greeted with the smell of steaming rice.

“I guess your mom’s up.” You said. He shrugged his shoulders.

“She’s always been an early riser.” You noticed his mother poke her head out of the kitchen and walked up to greet you.

“Ohay-” She stopped abruptly in her tracks. Her eyes focused on you. Or more specifically, your hand. She quickly ran up to you and brought your hand up to her face as she examined the ring. She looked up to Shiro with questioning eyes. When he nodded his head with a smile, she let out a squeal of delight as she crushed your body to her small frame. You let out a little laugh in surprise before you returned the hug just as forcefully. She removed herself from you and held your face in between her delicate hands. “Welcome!” She said gleefully. You felt yourself tear up again at her kindness.

“Arigatō.”

It was the last day of your two-week trip to Japan. You spent a lot of time with Shiro and his mother. You also got to meet some of his relatives and childhood friends. You and Shūtome had gotten really close over the past two weeks despite the language barrier. You had managed to get by with your minimal Japanese, her limited English, Shiro’s translations, Google Translate, and a whole lot of hand gestures. You silently vowed to yourself to become fluent in Japanese as soon as possible after what could possibly have been the thousandth time you or Shūtome called over Shiro for translation help. During the trip, you and Shiro sneakily went to the doctor who confirmed that you were nearing the end of your first trimester of pregnancy. You, along with Shiro and his mother decided to have a picnic in the park where the cherry blossoms were. Even though you and Shiro knew that it was probably best to share the news after your first trimester, you both agreed that you wanted to be there in person when you told her the news. And plus, you were going to head into your second trimester within the next week.

After you had found a decent spot to sit, Shiro set up the picnic blanket while you and Shūtome pulled out the food that you had made together earlier that day. You glanced up and admired the view of the cherry blossom trees that surrounded you.

“You were right, Kashi. The pictures pale in comparison to the real thing.” You said in awe.

“I know, right? You don’t see things like this in LA.” You hummed in agreement before pulling out your phone and snapping a few pictures. You noticed from the corner of your eye a pair of kids running around and playing with kites as their parents sat nearby. Your thoughts were once again brought back to the baby that was currently resting in your womb and you absentmindedly rubbed your hand against it with a smile. Shiro noticed your gaze and gave you a knowing smile. You returned it.

“So when should we tell her?” You whispered. Logically, you knew that she didn’t understand what you were saying but you couldn’t help but be secretive. Shiro rolled his eyes amusedly at your actions.

“We’ll tell her later. Let’s just enjoy lunch. You especially, since you’re eating for two.” You grinned slightly as you picked up a plate of food that Shiro handed to you. Ever since you told him about the news, he has even more attentive than before. Sometimes, you even woke up in the middle of the night to find him talking to the baby in hushed whispers. And now he will only sleep with his arms around you and hands resting protectively over your stomach. Sometimes you think that he’s being a little too cautious but you couldn’t deny that you found the whole thing really cute. You silently took a bite into the delicious food, glad that your morning sickness has been wearing off.

“Oishī?” Shūtome asked you. You turned to face her and smiled.

“Hai.” You replied. She returned your smile and continued to eat as well. You, Shiro, and Shūtome engaged in a limited, but lively conversation throughout the meal.

You all had spent most of the day at the park. Taking pictures with one another and admiring the cherry blossoms as they fell around you and into your hair. The sky was now bright orange and you turned over to look at Shiro with a knowing look. He nodded in agreement and turned to his mother.

“Mom?” Shiro called out.

“Yes?” She replied.

“There’s something that Y/N and I need to tell you.”

“Really? What is it?” A curious look appeared on her face as she turned fully to face the two of you. “Well…” He trailed off and glanced over to you. You smiled and gently grabbed Shūtome’s hand and rested it against your barely-visible bump. She looked at her hand that was over your stomach questionably before recognition flickered in her eyes. Her head quickly shot up as she turned to look at you then at Shiro.

“Takashi?” She asked. Her voice laced with hope. He nodded slowly with a smile.

“Yes, mom. Y/N’s pregnant. Nearly three months.” Shūtome gasped at her son's words before she turned to face you. She grabbed your other hand with her free one tightly.

“Baby?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Hai.” You responded. Shūtome’s eyes immediately filled with tears before she pulled you and Shiro in close for a hug. You both returned the hug and smiled at each other over her shoulder.

“That went well,” Shiro said happily.

Nearly three months had passed since your trip to Japan. The release of Voltron: Legendary Defender was a month prior and, like your director said, was a big hit. You had informed the cast and crew about the pregnancy and engagement and everyone congratulated you. You even noticed Lance hand Keith a twenty dollar bill in defeat. You grinned at the memory. You and Shiro were preparing to appear at Comic-Con. Your bump was extremely noticeable now so you wore an oversized sweater, despite the heat, to hide it.

“You ready? We don’t want to miss out flight.” Shiro asked. You turned and saw that he was heading towards you. You stood on your tip-toes and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

“Yup. Let’s go!” You said excitedly.

When you and the rest of the cast showed up for Comic-Con, you were all immediately swarmed by fans asking for pictures, autographs, even to just shake your hand. It was all very hectic. And you loved it. You couldn’t believe that in less than a month, your show had this much attention. Surrounded by fans, you looked over to Shiro who was surrounded by his own and smiled. The fans started to ask you and the cast questions and theories about the show. You were trying to be as discrete as you could when you felt a warm hand on your shoulder. You turned and saw Shiro smiling at the crowd.

“We would love to answer these questions for you. However, you’re going to have to ask at the panel. Where we have to be soon.” The fans all let out a collective sound of disappointment and you had to hide your smile behind your hand.

“See you later.” You said as you waved at them. You and the cast walked away from the fans and headed off to the panels.

“Hey, guys!” The director said as she walked up to you. “Did you see the fans? We’re swarming with them!” She exclaimed happily.

“We just experienced it first hand.” You giggled. The rest of the cast nodded in agreement.

“Well, anyway. We have to get ready. Our panel starts in an hour.” The director replied. You all went your separate ways to prepare.

Your panel finally started and the room was filled with fans. There was barely any room left for any of them to sit. You and the cast and the director greeted the fans enthusiastically while the fans returned it with the same energy. You all had a lot of fun talking about the future of Voltron and making the fans laugh with your bickering. Finally, it was time for the cast to ask the fans questions. A bunch of fans stood in a line, waiting for their turn. There were some questions that you could answer, couldn’t answer, could answer vaguely, or just made you laugh.

“Alright, next question!” The director called out. A bubbly girl, no more than 16, walked up to the mic.

“Hi! First of all, I just want to say that I’m a big fan! Especially, Lance’s character!”

“Why, thank you,” Lance replied smugly.

“So my question is: Do the cast know about the big shipping wars going on? Especially Klance?” Lance’s smug look quickly turned to one of embarrassment and you had to stop yourself from nearly spitting your drink from laughter. You heard squeals from the audience and you and the rest of the crew stared at Lance and Keith with amusement before you reached over and picked up a mic.

“Trust me, they know. We’ve read the fanfictions and we were all very amused, surprised, and a bit disturbed.” You said with a laugh. The rest of the audience laughed as well. “Maybe next time we should have Keith and Lance reenact some fan fiction.” You said teasingly. The whole audience erupted in excitement at the thought. Keith quickly grabbed a mic as well.

“Nope. Not gonna happen.” He said.

“Oh, come on! Everyone wants to see it!” You replied. You glanced back at the fans. “Isn’t that right?” You asked, holding your mic in the direction of the audience. A series of screams and agreements were heard as you glanced back smugly at the two actors, the rest of the cast stifling their laughter.

“N-next question!” Lance said in mortification. To his, and Keith’s relief, another fan walked up to the mic.

“Hello! I love your show!” They said enthusiastically.

“Thanks!” The director replied. The rest of the cast nodded in agreement.

“Adding on to the last question on shipping,” They continued. “Many have noticed the sparks happening between Y/N and Shiro’s characters. Will there be any more development in the future?” Now it was Keith and Lance’s turn to grin at you mischievously. You rolled your eyes and gave Shiro a playful look.

“I don’t know, Shiro. Will there be more development?” You asked dramatically.

“Well, I don’t know myself, Y/N. What do you think?” He asked back, just as dramatic.

“I think….” You trailed off, keeping the suspense. “That you all will just have to wait and see in the next season.” You said with a grin. You heard the audience let out a collective groan in mock-disappointment which only made you grin wider.

“Although,” Shiro quickly piped in. The audience’s focus was back to him. “that next season might take a while.” He said as he looked at you. The crowd immediately erupted in a commotion. Your eyes widened slightly before you smirked.

So this is how he wants to tell them? You thought. Alright, I’ll play along. You brought the mic closer to your face, your eyes never leaving his. When you were sure that you had most of the audience’s attention, you started to speak.

“Really?” You inquired. “And why is that, Shiro?”

“Well, we couldn’t possibly film the next season right now. Not with the baby and the wedding coming up.” The room got so silent you could hear a pin drop. It sounded as if there was no one left on Earth. Suddenly, all at the same time, the audience exploded.

“WHAT!?” You heard one say.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS!?” Said another.

“OH MY GOD, I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT THIS IS HAPPENING MY REAL LIFE OTP AGH!”

“I KNEW IT! I KNEW THEY WERE A THING FOR REAL!” You glanced back at the audience before you returned your attention to Shiro. He shrugged his shoulders with a grin and stood up from his seat before pulling you up as well. First, he held up your left hand, showing off your engagement ring. Then he looked into your eyes for a silent question. When you gave him the okay, he slowly lifted up your sweater and revealed your very visible bump. The audience was destroyed at this point. You heard a series of congratulations and applause from the fans and you beamed at them with pride. Shiro bent down slightly and picked up the mic from the table.

“And I think that concludes the end of this panel. We hope to see you all again soon. Maybe even with the baby next time?” Said teasingly. The entire audience squealed at the thought. You rolled your eyes at his actions before you and the rest of the crew walked off, waving at the crowd.

“Wow, way to make a scene, Shirogane.” You said as you walked backstage. He shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

“What can I say? I’m an actor. I have a flair for the dramatics.” You snorted and shook your head in amusement before you pulled him down for a kiss.

A/N: She lives! For like a day lmao. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE YOU GUYS ARE HONESTLY THE GREATEST HUMANS!!!

~🐼

Masterlist

#shiro x reader #shiro headcanons #shiroxreader #takashi shirogane #takashi shirogane x reader #shiro voltron #voltron #voltron headcanons #voltron lengendary defender

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cost-of-chaos · 6 years ago

Text

All you Need is Love (Chapter Three)

Roger Taylor x OC

Word Count: 1.8k+

Warnings: Phonesex, masturbation

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

It had just past 9 and I had finally found myself some peace from nosy relatives, in the corner of the grand ballroom. I sat with my back against the baroque style panelling, cradling my cake in my lap as a sat cross-legged on the floor, giving some respite to my aching feet. I should have insisted against these new pair of heals, since when is wearing heels in for six hours ever a good idea?

I still couldn’t get my head around the fact that my 22 year old sister was getting married to some annoyingly pompous asshole she met while studying at her fancy pansy American college. As I watched her sway offbeat to a poor rendition of Elvis’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ by a tone-deaf wedding singer, I couldn’t help but judge her a little bit. Don’t get me wrong the song brings a tear to my eyes on a good day, but she was literally throwing her life away for someone she met a year ago. I reached for my flute of champagne and downed the whole thing in one gulp.

When I was her age, I’d only just started dating Roger, now here we are seven years later and I’ve not thought of marriage once. I’ve never been happier with my life. My art is growing in popularity, gallery showings are becoming more frequent and living together with Roger has been just as amazing as I thought it would be. We are best friends, lovers and dare I say even soul mates, but alas my little sister was showing more commitment to her man than I had ever shown to the love of my life. All we had to show for our relationship was a rented out flat and a cat. Just like that, I was feeling inferior to my baby sister for what felt like the hundredth time this week.

I was transfixed by the happy couple, in the middle of the dance floor completely oblivious to the world around them and I began to really miss my man after a week apart. Right. That’s it, enough of listening to lame music surrounded by most boring people in the whole of Connecticut making fools of themselves on the dance floor and enough weaving to avoid horribly awkward conversations with distant relatives. I stood up and walked up to the waiter who had just popped the cork of a Moët Chandon, I swiped it from his hand and kept walking, I needed to get drunk. I took another glance at my surroundings once more, scratch that, I need to get drunk and be alone.

After finding my way back to my room after getting lost in the rabbit warren that was this fancy hotel I undid the zip on my dress all the way down to the bright pink bow sitting over my ass. I shimmied out of the heavy taffeta and flopped onto the large bed, open bottle of champagne still clutched in my hand.

I brought the bottle to my lips and took a large gulp of the bubbly yellow liquid. I nestled the bottle between my breasts so I could take my hair out of its intricate updo. As I was removing the many clips keeping my hair up, I noticed the underwear I was wearing. It was the pale pink lace underwear set which Roger had bought for me for Valentine’s Day last year. And just like that, I was overwhelmed by the desperate need to hear his voice.

I pulled the phone off the bedside table and dialled the number he’d told me he’d be reachable on for the next couple of days. “Hee-loo” I heard the groggy raspy voice I was so used to hearing when I woke up.

“Hiya Rog” I said sheepily, now feeling slightly guilty for waking him up.

“Ronnie, its 4 in the morning, is everything okay? Are you okay?”

“Everything is fine… sorry for waking you up I just miss you is all” I said, wrapping the phone cord around my finger as I counted the ceiling tiles above me. “I miss you soo much, your touch, your kisses, I want to feel you next to me, holding me. I long to feel your skin next to mine and feel you inside of me again,”

“Oh!” Roger exclaimed with excitement as he realised what was happening.

“A week is too long Roggie.”

“I miss you too V, You wanna know what I’d do if you were with me right now? I’d kiss you, leaving a trail from your lips to your neck, between your tits, to that tender spot on your upper thigh, leaving hickeys all over your body. I want to feel your wetness through your panties while I tease you.” I was growing wetter with every word he was saying, I could feel my breathing deepen as my desire for him grew.

“Alright love, I better get back to sleep, I have to get up early in the morning”

“Oh no you don’t bucko! “You’ve gotten me all wet, now you’re not going anywhere until I cum”. I took another swig of the champagne, this was going to be fun.

“Did I tell you what I bought the other day while I was in New York City for the bachelorette party? I visited a little store called Eve’s Garden and they have all sorts of wonderful inventions. Truly wonderful inventions. I bought one and it’s been keeping me company while I’ve been soo many miles away from you but… I think this will be muuuch better”. I could hear Rogers breath hitch through the phone when he realised what I was talking about. I scooted off the bed and rifled through my bag until I found the wand. I plugged it into the socket and laid back down on the bed.

“You ready baby?” I asked, in the most sultry innocent voice I could manage.

“More ready than you could imagine, I’m already so hard thinking about you baby girl.”

“Good. Picture this. We’re in our apartment. I push you up against the wall and I crash my lips onto yours, I lick your lips for permission to enter and you quickly allow…” I let out a quiet moan as I turned on the device and the vibrations made me arch my back up off the bed in pleasure. “I trail my hands up the back of your shirt and I feel our muscles relax. I kiss you breathless before moving my kisses down your neck. I pull off your shirt and place wet kisses down your chest and trace down the waistband of your pants.” I licked my lips as I thought of Rogers manhood, “I miss sucking that big cock baby.”

The line was silent, and I was worried I was the only one still turned on but he faintly heard him moan, before speaking again. “Sorry love, I got a little carried away, you’re so hot, is your pussy nice and wet for me angel?”

“Mmhmmm” Was all I could murmer into the phone, even him calling me angel was almost hot enough to be my undoing, I needed him to keep going and keep going now.”

“I kiss you deeply, breaking the kiss only to remove your shirt, I reach around and unclasp your bra, moving my kisses lower and sneaking my hands past your thighs, under the hem of your skirt to your knickers, and baby they’re so wet for me already, are you wet for me baby?”

I let out a strangled moan. “Roger, I miss you, I need you. I want to feel you, I need to feel you inside of me”

I could hear Roger’s own breathing starting to become heavy, he moaned as I begged for his cock. I want you to suck those fingers of yours love, insert them into your tight pussy.” I eagerly followed his orders, loving this sense of dominance which I didn’t see an awful lot of and I quickly found my g spot.

“Roggie… Rog… I’m going to cum baby” I said as I bucked my hips violently into my hand.

“Love I’m not far behind you” He said breathlessly. It only took seconds but I could already feel myself start to shake, and my moans of extasy were soon joined by Rogers as we rode out or orgasms together.

I turned the massager off and dropped it beside me on the bed, as I lifelessly lay there panting, my ear glued to the phone listening Rog do the same thing. After our breathing finally regulated, I was the first one to speak.

“I really miss you babe, I can’t believe we still have a week left until I get to see you again”. I said, sadness washed over me as I realised I was only halfway through my trip to America.

“I miss you too V, but it doesn’t have to be another week if you don’t want it to be.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, truly confused as to what he was talking about.

“Look inside your suitcase, I believe there may be something in there with your intimates which might help us out.” He said, I could tell he was smiling on the other end of the line. I jumped up with haste and excitement and fell to the floor where my suitcase lay open beside the bed. I rifled through the suitcase until I found a little piece of paper, I pulled it out and as I read it, I couldn’t contain a scream.

“I take it that you like my little surprise?” He asked chuckling. Sitting in my hand was a one-way ticket from Bradley International to Narita International, for tomorrow morning.

“Oh my god! Roger! I can’t believe you did this! I’m going to be in your arms this time tomorrow! I don’t know what to say!”

“You don’t need to say anything! I honestly can’t wait love. I don’t know how I lasted this long without you... Is that totally pathetic?”

“No! It’s like magic to my ears, because if I’m being completely honest, I’ve been missing you like crazy! It’s all love central over here aswell which isn’t making things any easier!”

“Try being surrounded by thousands of girls screaming for you! And the guys… well, let's just say they’re making the most of the attention” My stomach dropped, I hadn’t actually thought of all the girls who would be throwing themselves all over the boys over there.

I sat there, frozen in place as a sense of dread slowly filled my stomach as my mind flipped between different scenes of Roger in precarious situations.

“I love you, Veronica. I can’t wait to see you later, I have a car organised to pick you up from the airport, I really wanted to do it myself, but apparently, there is a safety issue. I’ve missed you so much... No girl even comes close to you.” He said, reassuring me. Why was I even worried, I knew how amazing he was, of course he’s not going to hurt me. “Well love, I’d love a round two but I need to get up in a few hours, and I believe someONE has some packing to do.”

I groaned in response, knowing our conversation had to come to an end. “ Love you babe, thanks for this chat, I’ll be seeing you later!”

“Love you Ron, keep that pussy ready for me because I’m going to fuck you so hard you won’t be able to see straight.” The line went deed and I looked around my mess of a room, and back at my large electronic friend beside me. The packing could wait a little longer, I wasn’t quite ready to pack this baby up.

Tags: @perriwiinkle @theglowissodivine

#ben hardy! roger taylor #ben hardy!roger x reader #ben hardy! roger taylor x oc #roger taylor #roger taylor x oc #roger taylor x reader #roger taylor fanfic #roger taylor fanfiction #roger taylor imagine #bohemian rhapsody #queen #queen imagine #fanfiction #all you need is love

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spring-emerald · 6 years ago

Text

trying to find (my way back into you)

Kuroo thinks he’d prepared himself enough to meet Sawamura again, after all these years. He’d planned on approaching their inevitable reunion with the maturity he’s gained over the time they’ve been apart and had gone without any communication. With the gap that separated them for years, Kuroo thinks he’s well enough to face him again- normally, pleasantly, without feeling any lingering pang of hurt.

He’s thinking of approaching the other man first. As soon as he sees him, ideally. Offer a polite greeting, and maybe their standard handshake too, if he can push it.

He definitely wasn’t expecting that it’s going to be when they are breaking up a fight between their former underclassmen.

It’s a blessing in disguise that Kenma had shoved him out of his waiting room, after Kuroo had given him his final pep talk before he becomes a married man. The door had just been unceremoniously closed on his face with more force than Kenma usually would put into things, when Shibayama arrives, visibly distraught and showing all signs of distress and panic. His stammering of the words that have ‘Yamamoto-san’ and ‘fight’ was enough to make Kuroo sprint to the vague directions Shibayama is giving, his kouhai following him at the same quick pace.

He hears the scuffle just as he rounds the corner, coming from the rest rooms nearest to the entrance of the wedding hall. It’s far enough that a commotion wouldn’t immediately be heard, but as the shouting match escalates, the guests were bound to notice sooner or later.

Lev is holding back a struggling Yamamoto, who’s yelling angrily at Karasuno’s former Baldy ace. He’s doing the same kind of struggling, but was doing a better job at it.

The person holding him back, another former player, the one with sleepy eyes whose name escapes Kuroo at the moment, doesn’t have quite the leverage, and he was concerned about keeping his face away from Tanaka’s head to avoid being head-butted.

Kuroo takes wide, hurried strides and places himself between the two of them.

“Hey, that’s enough.” He keeps his voice even but with enough tone of authority, pushing them apart and taking care not to be hit by their clawing hands and kicking legs.

“Take back what you said, you bastard!” Tanaka spews out from his right, glaring hard at Yamamoto, not even giving Kuroo a glance as he shoves the hand pushing on his chest away.

“Why should I? It’s the fucking truth. It’s not my fault you can’t take it!” Yamamoto glares.

Whatever the reason they’re fighting is lost to Kuroo, though he doesn’t linger on that. Breaking up the two of them is what’s important at the moment.

“Daichi-san is not like that!” Kuroo freezes when Tanaka shouts that. He suddenly has an idea why they’re fighting and it fills him with frustration and dread.

Frustration at Yamamoto’s lack of social decency for doing this now, out of all other times. Dread because he certainly doesn’t want that particular can of worms to be opened, ever. Most especially not now that they’re both in the same place.

He foregoes the plan to break them apart from the middle, and instead focuses on pushing Yamamoto away from Tanaka.

“Tora, that’s enough,” he warns between his teeth. Yamamoto doesn’t let up, doesn’t even acknowledge him as he still continues to lunge for Tanaka, but he doesn’t get to shout anything as another person beat him to the punch.

“Tanaka!”

Kuroo doesn’t know how or why, but hearing that voice again- deeper than the one he still remembers- seemed to make everything stop.

For a moment, he couldn’t feel Yamamoto struggling in front of him, doesn’t feel the stuffy, uncomfortable stretch of his suit around his tensed body. His breath hitched and his heart skipped a beat.

After that momentary stillness that affected only him, everything starts moving again.

“What are you doing? Stop this right now!” Kuroo gulps at the clear authority and righteous anger evident in his voice. He almost shivered at the contact because Sawamura’s behind him now, and this is the closest they have been after all these years.

His distraction cost him, because he was unable to prevent Yamamoto from saying what he’d been burning to say before. “Yes he is! He’s a two-timing cheater!”

Kuroo snaps his mouth close, grinding his teeth harder, and letting some of his anger fuel him to push Yamamoto back. “Tora, that’s fucking enough.”

“YOU BAST-”

“Tanaka!”

“But Daichi-san-”

“Enough!” There are some rough shuffling behind Kuroo, and he assumes that Sawamura’s finally lost his cool too and had pushed Tanaka rather hard. “Do you really want to do this now? Do you really want to ruin Hinata’s wedding?”

“But he-”

“Do you?”

His question, albeit directed to his own underclassman, seemed to have sobered Yamamoto just a little. And Kuroo takes this opportunity to drive a point across his own kouhai too.

“Don’t do this to Kenma, Tora.” His voice is low enough for only his underclassmen to hear.

Kuroo doesn’t see, but he hears the resigned “No” from Tanaka behind him, and Yamamoto deflates, finally through with his struggling.

“Then behave. For the rest of the ceremony and reception.” There’s a defeated sigh followed by silence. “Ennoshita, take him inside. And watch him. You too, Narita. Go inside.” Sawamura orders, calm but no less firm.

Kuroo gives Yamamoto a silent but meaningful look that means to warn him just the same before easing off him. Yamamoto scoffs at him, then roughly pulls his arms away from Lev’s hold, and straightens his suit.

“Tora…”

“I will. For Kenma.” He walks away after that declaration, throwing one last stinky eye at Sawamura’s general direction.

Kuroo sighs, then pats a still nervous Lev on the shoulders and reached out for Shibayama to do the same.

"You two better go inside as well. If Yaku asks, tell him I will tell him later, alright?”

The both of them nod and Lev starts leaving first but Shibayama hesitates, looking at Kuroo, then glancing at Sawamura. Kuroo notice his reluctance and offers a reassuring nod.

They both walk away and Kuroo watches as they disappear around the corner, leaving him and Sawamura completely alone.

He’s not sure why he stayed. He really should’ve gone with Yamamoto to make sure he doesn’t pull anything stupid again. But it seemed wrong to leave Sawamura, since he didn’t immediately leave with his former teammates as well.

Kuroo risks a glance at him, finding that he’s back is still on him. He nervously licks his lips. “Sawamura, I-”

“Is that what you told them?”

“…What-”

“That I cheated on you?” Sawamura turns around to face him.

Kuroo snaps his mouth shut.

Sawamura, well… he doesn’t look happy to say the least. There’s a lot of different emotions that Kuroo can’t decipher right now, except from confusion and hurt.

“Sawamura-”

Sawamura huffs, cutting him off. “Well, I guess that makes a more compelling break up story than the truth.”

“No, it’s-”

“Save it.” Sawamura shuts him down. “I will stay away from you, and I will make sure my former teammates don’t bother anyone from yours. You should do the same.” With all of that said, he leaves Kuroo.

Kuroo stands there for a few moments, before scoffing. He scoffs at the nerve that Sawamura has to be angry at him, when he should be the one who has the right to. For making him feel guilty when it should be Sawamura who has to. He also scoffs at himself, disdainfully at that, for still caring, for still expecting.

He was expecting a lot of things, he planned and prepared for most of them. But it certainly was not the fucking train wreck that it currently is.

----------

“Oya, oya… Does the loud tiger already need his predecessor’s wise guidance?” Kuroo says as a greeting, when he meets Yamamoto by the gym, when the latter asked to meet him during lunch. “And here I thought it would at least take you another two weeks before you cave in and swallow your pride. So out with it. How can your former, great captain be of help?”

Yamamoto just scowls up at him, but even then, it wasn’t the usual one. “It’s not about that,” he grumbles. “Well, it’s… I don’t know how to say this…”

Kuroo cocks an eyebrow at Yamamoto’s unusual display of nervousness. “Oi, Tora. If you’re confessing to me, you know that I have a boyfriend, right?” He jests, testing the waters by teasing his kouhai. He gets a very pronounced eye roll for his efforts, but Yamamoto just turned more serious after that.

“It’s about that actually.”

“About Sawamura?”

Yamamoto nods. “Did you… meet up yesterday? Like, I don’t know…had a date or something?”

“..Uh, no?” Kuroo looks at him confused. “We usually meet up every last weekend of the month, and it’s his turn this month, so he’ll be coming down to Tokyo then. Why do you want to know?”

Yamamoto looks away from him for a moment, before he huffs and steels himself. “Well, I saw him yesterday. I was running an errand and I saw him in one of the coffee shops in the shopping district near my neighborhood.”

Kuroo scoffs. “I think he would’ve told me if he was coming here. Are you sure it’s him?”

“I’m sure, Kuroo-san. I’ve seen him a lot of times during the training camp and during the Nationals to know it’s really him.”

“Okay… so he was in a coffee shop and he didn’t tell me. It’s fine.”

“He wasn’t alone.” That made Kuroo stop, and he raises an eyebrow at Yamamoto in a silent urge to continue talking. Yamamoto hesitates for a bit.

“He’s with a guy.”

“And what did this guy look like?” Kuroo asks if only to humor Yamamoto.

“Blond with an undercut and piercings.” Kuroo’s expression turned blank, a familiar face popping up in his mind’s eye.

“Your reaction tells me that you know him.”

Kuroo swallows, then shakes his head minutely. “I do.” They stand in silence for some time, then Yamamoto says “I’m pretty sure he has his reasons. And I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, but… I thought I should tell you what I saw… Are you going to be alright?”

Kuroo nods, then pats him on the shoulder. “I know. And thank you, for telling me. And don’t worry, I’ll ask to Sawamura about it. Although I’d have to ask you to keep this between the two of us, for the meantime, alright?”

Yamamoto nods, albeit a little hesitatingly.

-----

That had been a week ago.

Kuroo waited for Sawamura to say something about his trip to Tokyo during their nightly conversations, but Sawamura didn’t bring it up. And the coward that he is, he didn’t ask. He’s afraid that he might sound accusatory, and he doesn’t want to offend or make Sawamura mad.

Of course he trusts Sawamura and believes that he’s not the sort of person to do that. There are a lot of things they still need to discover about each other. But from what he’s known about Sawamura since their first meeting, since their bonding during the training camp, it’s enough indication of his personality for Kuroo to trust him.

There’s also the possibility that Yamamoto was actually wrong. Not that Kuroo doesn’t believe him, he trusts Yamamoto, not just as a member of the club, but as a person. What could Yamamoto gain by lying to him about it? And honestly, what’s giving him a pause was the description of the other guy Sawamura was allegedly with.

He knows about Terushima Yuuji. Sawamura’s told him about the junior captain. That was when he noticed that this boy keeps on liking Sawamura’s posts in the few social media accounts that his boyfriend has. It had been amusing albeit quite annoying that time, and it even lead Sawamura to tease him about it. But ultimately, Sawamura told him that he’s got nothing to worry about when it comes to Terushima.

Of course, Kuroo believes him.

But… there’s this sliver of doubt that took hold since Yamamoto told him about it. It’s steadily growing bigger the more that Sawamura isn’t telling him about it. It’s like a drop of black ink that otherwise disturbed the clear waters. And as much as it diffused, no longer visible, one knows that it’s not the same anymore. Kuroo refuses to think more of it, but he can’t deny that the thought has been eating at him. He’s convinced himself that it’s just his jealousy clouding his judgment.

It’s probably the reason why he’s scrolling through Terushima’s social media. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for exactly, but he’s also not stopping. He scrolls down some more, knowing about the interests of this guy more than he cares to, when he comes across a photo.

An aesthetic shot of a drink and cake on a polished wooden table, with a tissue paper with the coffee shops logo smartly placed beside it. It’s innocuous enough, but what caught his attention was the caption.

Had a great time in Tokyo! #SpillTheBeans #goodcupofcaffiene #greatcompany

He looks at the time stamp of the post and finds that it’s the same date that Yamamoto said he saw Sawamura. It has a considerable amount of likes and comments.

Against Kuroo’s better judgment, he taps the small speech bubble icon and reads the thread of comments. They’re mostly about how the photo was taken nicely, but there’s one that asked: ‘What are you doing in Tokyo alone?’ Under which is Terushima’s cheeky reply: ‘Who said I was alone? There’s literally a hashtag saying great company, dumbass!’

It continued on to: ‘Oho… so it was a date then?’ To which the reply was a mysterious ‘…Maybe’ all complete with a winking smiley.

Kuroo just stares down at it, coming out of his stupor a few minutes later, closing the app with a hard press on his phone’s home button. He throws his phone on his bed and starts pacing, trying to make sense of what he just read and what could it possibly mean.

It wasn’t until three days after that, that he found the courage to finally ask Sawamura about it.

During the days between that, he’s been called out by Yaku because his concentration was really shot, which he lied (not convincingly, but was still bought though) about being nervous for the final exams. And by Kenma, who pointed out that he’s been quietly annoying, which in Kenma speak means if he has a problem, then he better do something about it if he’s not going to talk to him about it.

Kuroo knows that it’s time he do something about it instead of rationalizing or jumping into conclusion or thinking about the worst case scenario. It wasn’t helping ease his doubts. If he wants to know, he simply just have to ask Sawamura.

There’s no way he would lie, right?

“…No, I didn’t.” Kuroo releases the breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Sawamura took a while to answer his question. The brief but anxious moment of silence was Kuroo’s first clue.

He’s lying. Sawamura’s lying to him about it.

“I mean, why would I be there without telling you? Besides, I’ll go there at the end of the month.” Sawamura continues but Kuroo’s not particularly listening anymore, caught in the loop of his incriminating thoughts about Sawamura lying and trying to figure out why he would do that.

“Yeah… you’re right.” He hears himself say detachedly then goes by the motion of saying his goodbyes to Sawamura over the phone.

That night, Kuroo lies awake with his head between two pillows. Not because it’s how he usually sleeps, but to block out how loud his mind is going about, asking why Sawamura lied.

-----

The remaining few days leading up to their meeting left Kuroo in a hurt haze, one that stings of betrayal and confusion and disillusionment. Unanswered questions kept looping inside his head. Whispers of doubt and insecurity was his companion before he goes to sleep, if he can even manage that. Crying and feeling so low and so bad about himself had become a routine.

He can’t- won’t try to rationalize Sawamura’s behavior anymore, and can’t- won’t chalk it up to jealousy too.

Because Sawamura lied. Kuroo asked him, and he fucking lied. Because he betrayed Kuroo’s trust and damn it, it fucking hurts.

What took the fucking cake though, was when Sawamura asked for them to meet on the very same coffee shop where he went with Terushima. Kuroo thinks that Sawamura was a lot of things, but damn if he isn’t being cruel at the moment.

How can Sawamura still smile like that at him like this? How can Sawamura act as if he’s not being unfaithful to Kuroo? How can he act normal around him? Was it so easy to juggle another man with him? Was Kuroo not enough?

Everything just made Kuroo feel ugly things. And he doesn’t want to feel like this anymore. Kuroo wants it to stop.

“Do you want to order first? Their cheesecake is the bestseller.”

You would know about that, wouldn’t you? Kuroo thinks angrily.

“No,” he answers coldly, and sees the way Sawamura stiffens at his tone. Good, he thinks maliciously.

“…Okay. Well, I have something to tell you.”

“Me too.”

Sawamura blinks. “Oh? Well, what is it?”

“Let’s break up. I can’t do this anymore.” Kuroo says before he can stop himself. He makes sure to look into Sawamura’s eyes with his cold, flinty ones. And before he can be taken in by the vulnerable look on Sawamura’s face, he ups and leaves him without looking back.

tbc...

The post break up fic for kurodai week 2018 that never was.

#haikyuu!!#kurodai #kuroo tetsurou #sawamura daichi #hq fanfic

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ravenqueensspecialboi · 6 years ago

Text

Come What May

DaiSuga Week 2018 Day Seven: Mafia or Kissing Rating: G Summary: Before Daichi could stop him, Koushi bolted from the room. Once he was far enough away, he stopped, leaned against the nearest wall, and gasped for breath. He wasn't just falling in love with Daichi. No, he was deeply, madly in love with him. So much for professional integrity. Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15810462

Fic under the cut!

Eight in the morning was too god damn early, in Koushi's professional opinion. If he had it his way, they wouldn't be meeting until at least noon, but no. Koushi stifled a yawn as he observed the room before him with disinterest. He stood at the front of a large stage, overlooking the house of the local theater. Takeda had brought up the house lights before vanishing into his office, giving Koushi a full view of the empty room. From where he was standing, Koushi could see a dark stain on one of the front row seats; someone must have ignored the "No food or drink" rule and spilled on the seat. Koushi would have to talk to Takeda about it later, ignoring the irony as he took a sip of coffee from his thermos. He checked his watch; the actors wouldn't be arriving for another half hour at the earliest.

Koushi sat down on the edge of the stage, grabbing his copy of the script. The theater's fall production was Moulin Rouge. Koushi had seen the movie a handful of times, but he never really got much from it. It was a forbidden romance story with the world's worst twist ending (worst by Koushi's—again—professional opinion). Needless to say, Koushi wasn't exactly enthusiastic about Takeda's choice. At least he'd have fun as the show's Music Director.

"Excuse me," a voice called from the back of house.

Koushi looked up from his script. A man was standing in the doorway, shuffling from foot to foot. He probably had been standing there for a few minutes.

"Hi there," Koushi said.

"Is this where the cast is supposed to meet?" the man asked.

"Are you here for the Moulin Rouge cast meeting?"

The man nodded, making his way down the center aisle. "I am. My name's Sawamura Daichi, I'll be playing Christian."

Koushi had to admit, he looked perfect for the part. He was no Ewan McGregor, sure, but he worked. He had that sort of softness that Koushi would have expected for a Christian. Plus, he was good looking. Takeda had been spot on.

"I'm Sugawara Koushi," Koushi said, hopping off the front of the stage. "I'm the Musical Director and pianist."

"You're doing both?" Daichi asked. "That's impressive."

"What can I say, I've got talented hands," Koushi joked.

Daichi laughed. He didn't have to, Koushi's joke was terrible, but he did. Koushi could feel his face heat up a little, but he squashed the feeling immediately.

Keep it professional, Koushi.

Daichi and Koushi chatted for a bit as the other actors began to file into the theater. Koushi spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd, he had worked with a lot of them before—Azumane Asahi, the Tanaka siblings, the Tsukishima siblings, Ennoshita Chikara, Kinoshita Hisashi, Narita Kazuhito, Nishinoya Yuu…. Koushi could see a few that he hadn't worked with too, but he recognized their faces from productions he had seen. Yuu waved at Koushi as he took a seat next to Michimiya Yui, one of the few people Koushi hadn't worked with. Koushi was actually extremely excited to work with her; Koushi had heard all about Yui's vocal range from her fiancé and Koushi's longtime friend, Shimizu Kiyoko, and he couldn't wait to work with her on her solo pieces. Yui had actually given Koushi an extremely tight hug when she first arrived and promised to bring homemade baked goods to the next rehearsal, cementing her as Koushi's Favorite Person for the production. Eventually, Takeda emerged from his office, arms full of script books that swayed dangerously as he made his way to the stage.

"Good morning, folks," Takeda said as he dumped the scripts onto the stage. "My name is Takeda Ittetsu, and I'm the Stage Director for this season's production of Moulin Rouge. As we get closer to tech week, I'll be introducing you to our Technical Director, Ukai Keishin, and his team. And this is Sugawara Koushi. For those of you who don't know Sugawara, he's our Musical Director, and will also be the show's pianist and playing the part of Satie, the Bohemian pianist."

Koushi turned to stare at Takeda. "I am?"

"We'll talk more about it later," Takeda said. "For now, let's go around the room and introduce yourselves. Tell us who you're playing and what you're looking forward to the most."

The company had mostly been doing that before Takeda arrived, but they humored him and reintroduced themselves. Koushi noted that, for the most part, he wasn't that surprised by the casting choices—of course Ryuu was Zidler, of course Yuu was Toulouse-Lautrec. He was a little surprised that the eldest Tsukishima brother was playing the Duke, but he figured it'd probably be a fun challenge for the guy. It also surprised Koushi that Daichi was the last to talk.

"My name's Sawamura Daichi," he said. "I'll be playing Christian, and I'm most excited to work with our Musical Director."

Koushi blinked in surprise. "You are?"

"Of course, I've heard a lot of good things about you," Daichi explained. "I hope that we work well together."

"Me too," Koushi replied, hoping that his voice didn't crack as badly as he thought it did.

***

Never knew I could feel like this, like I've never seen the sky before. Want to vanish inside your kiss, every day I love you more and more.

***

Rehearsals were going better than either Takeda or Koushi expected them too. All of the actors were taking things seriously and putting in more effort than Koushi had seen in past productions. They were able to move from script reading sessions straight into song rehearsals, starting with the large group numbers. It took Koushi a bit of time to get everyone used to singing with each other, but soon the actors had themselves sorted and were singing well together. Koushi could have cried; they were making his job so much easier.

Two people stood out to Koushi more than the others, he would admit. First was Yui. Kiyoko had massively undersold her fiancé and her vocal ability. She was incredible. She already bringing so much emotion to her parts that Koushi had to call for a five minute break so everyone could recompose themselves. Second was Daichi. Koushi knew that Daichi had to be good; he was cast as Christian, after all. But watching him sing was something else. Koushi found himself entranced by Daichi every time he opened his mouth. He found himself wanting to work with Daichi and only Daichi. It was becoming a problem.

Towards the end of their first month of rehearsal, Takeda provided Koushi with an excellent opportunity to work one on one with Daichi.

"Alright, so in a few rehearsals, we're going to start working on blocking, as well working on solos and duets," Takeda announced. "Hopefully you all have started looking at those, but if you haven't, now would be a good opportunity to start.

"If you guys have parts you want to work on with me individually, you're more than welcome to schedule something with me," Koushi chimed in. "See me after rehearsal and I'll give you my number."

Takeda ended rehearsal soon after. A few people took Koushi up on his offer of private sessions, coming up to the piano to swap numbers with him. Koushi was pleased to find that Daichi was one of them.

"Is it okay if Yui and I come in together to work on 'Come What May?'" Daichi asked. "We wanted to work on it a bit beforehand so we get used to making lovey eyes at each other while singing and not crack up while doing so."

"Is that a problem you guys have been having?" Koushi asked knowing full well that it was.

"Yeah, just a bit," Daichi said, giving Koushi a sheepish grin. "She's like a sister, so it gets a bit weird sometimes."

"Have you guys tried it with the recording?"

"We have, but we wanted to try it with just the instrumentation," Daichi explained.

Koushi nodded, "Yeah, we can work something out then. If you wanted to, we could start tomorrow."

"We definitely could," Daichi offered.

Koushi ignored his inner monologue's screams of celebration.

"Sounds good to me."

***

Listen to my heart. Can you hear it sing, and telling me to give you everything?

***

"Daichi was saying that you two were having a hard time keeping straight faces during 'Come What May'," Koushi said, taking a seat on the piano bench.

The room had cleared out pretty quick at the end of rehearsal, leaving Koushi alone with Yui and Daichi. The pair stood next to the piano, exchanging sheepish glances.

"You'd think we'd be used to it after years of playing love interests," Yui commented.

Koushi nodded, then turned to the piano. He played a few bars of 'Come What May', then turned back to the leads.

"So, this song is the love song of the musical," Koushi explained. "I know that 'Elephant Love Medley' is what people think of first, but as far as the love songs in Moulin Rouge go, 'Come What May' is more important. This is the part where Satine and Christian pledge their undying devotion to each other. This is the song that gets the reprise."

Daichi and Yui nodded, their expressions earnest. Koushi found it endearing.

"I want you two to visualize something for me when you sing it," Koushi continued. "Think of the one thing in your life that you love more than anything. Whatever that thing is, picture it, visualize it, sing to it. Yui, I see you blushing. You thinking of Kiyoko?"

Yui's face went pink. She mumbled something that Koushi assumed was an affirmative. Koushi gave her an encouraging grin as she covered her face with her hands.

"No, don't be embarrassed, you love her! You're getting married to her next year! I should know, Kiyoko asked me to be her best man."

"I know, Kiyoko's the most amazing woman in the world. It's just a little embarrassed to be read that easily," Yui groaned from behind her hands.

"Listen, I don't blame you for being head over heels, Kiyoko's an incredible woman," Koushi said. "Channel your love for her into the song, and you're golden."

Yui nodded, pulling her hands away from her scarlet face. Koushi turned to Daichi and raised an eyebrow.

"How about you, Christian?" Koushi teased. "Got someone in your life to motivate your passion?"

Daichi rubbed the back of his neck as he replied, "Right now? I mean, sort of. I wouldn't call it love, it hasn't been that long. Maybe an infatuation? I want something to come out of it, because it'd be great motivation, like you said. I just need to think about it a bit more."

Koushi almost missed the meaningful look Yui threw Daichi. Almost.

"Well, hopefully it becomes something a little stronger than an infatuation," Koushi said. "I'd love to see where it could take you."

The way Daichi said, "Me too" nearly knocked Koushi flat. The way that his eyes lingered on Koushi just long enough left whisperings of hope in Koushi's heart. Maybe, just maybe, Daichi was thinking about him.

***

Seasons may change winter to spring, but I love you until the end of time. Come what may, come what may, I will love you until my dying day.

***

As the second month of rehearsals progressed, more and more people began asking Koushi for one on one sessions. It was fun for Koushi to run the sessions—his favorite so far aside from Daichi and Yui's duet had been Ryuu and Akiteru's rendition of 'Like a Virgin'. But it left Koushi in a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, he loved that everyone had enough enthusiasm for the production that they wanted to take on extra rehearsals. On the other hand, more private sessions with the others meant less private lessons with Daichi, especially since Koushi had to learn all of the songs and learn lines. He understood why Takeda had cast him as the Bohemian piano player; it was a fun stylistic thing to have the orchestra gradually appear onstage as the show progressed. But still, the less professional part of Koushi was mad that it was cutting into his time with Daichi.

The universe had a habit of dropping good things into Koushi's lap, however. Yui started showing up to less one on one sessions, stating that she had her parts down pretty well. Eventually, she stopped showing up to them altogether. Koushi had a sneaking suspicion that Yui had done this on purpose, but he also wasn't about to call her out for it. He appreciated the alone time with Daichi.

"You've improved," Koushi noted during one session. He and Daichi had been running through his part in 'El Tango de Roxanne' and Daichi had perfectly embodied the sad jealousy needed in their last runthrough.

"Thank you," Daichi said, draping himself dramatically across the back rim of the piano. "I've had lots of inspiration recently."

"Oho?" Koushi chuckled. "Feeling jealous about something?"

"Truth be told, yes," Daichi admitted. "My muse for 'Come What May' has been busy with other people recently. It's a little hard to not be jealous."

"I didn't take you as the jealous type," Koushi said, ignoring the nervous fluttering in his chest.

Daichi didn't respond for a beat; he was too busy studying Koushi. Koushi shifted in his seat. There was something in the way Daichi looked at him. It was intense.

"Can we run through my part of 'Come What May' next?" Daichi asked. His voice barely rose above a whisper.

Koushi swallowed—was it always that hard to swallow?—and nodded. He stumbled over the first few bars, earning a soft chuckle from Daichi. Koushi stuck his tongue out at Daichi and started again. He gave Daichi a nod when it was his time to come in. As Daichi's voice filled the room, Koushi felt himself fall a little bit more in love with Daichi. No, he wasn't just falling in love. Koushi jolted, fingers stumbling over the keys and bringing the song to a grinding halt.

"Um, Koushi?" Daichi asked.

"I-It's fine," Koushi stammered, getting to his feet. "I just need a quick break. Be back in 10."

Before Daichi could stop him, Koushi bolted from the room. Once he was far enough away, he stopped, leaned against the nearest wall, and gasped for breath. He wasn't just falling in love with Daichi. No, he was deeply, madly in love with him.

So much for professional integrity.

***

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place. Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace. Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste. It all revolves around you.

***

"An entire rehearsal dedicated to kissing practice seems a bit much," Daichi commented as Koushi set up the piano.

It had been a few weeks since Koushi's revelation. To his credit, he had made it back to the room to continue his session with Daichi. And there had been no further incidents since then. Koushi had been keeping it together, thank you very much. Plus they were three weeks out to opening night, he had no choice but to keep it together.

He was a little surprised that Daichi wanted to continue one on one sessions. Daichi didn't need the help, he had his lines and lyrics memorized. Hell, he'd had them memorized a month and a half in. But he still insisted on meeting with Koushi whenever he could. Koushi tried to not read too much into it. Tried.

"Well, sometimes actors need it," Koushi said. "Even if they've been friends for years."

"I know, it just seems like a lot."

"No such thing as too much practice," Koushi reminded him. "Speaking of, what are we working on today?"

"'Come What May'?" Daichi asked.

"Daichi, you've had that one down for months," Koushi pointed out. "Do you really need to run through it?"

Daichi shrugged. "I just like running through it with you."

And wasn't that telling.

"How about we run through the reprise version," Koushi compromised.

"Are you going to sing Satine's part?" Daichi teased.

"I could, but it won't sound anywhere near as good as Yui's version," Koushi said.

Daichi gestured for Koushi to start. Koushi inhaled, exhaled, and began to play. Just a few bars, then he began to sing, "Never knew I could feel like this, it's like I've never seen the sky before. Want to vanish inside your kiss, every day I'm loving you more and more. Listen to my heart, can you hear it sings? Come back to me, and forgive everything."

Daichi sat down on the bench next to Koushi, his eyes never leaving Koushi. Koushi blushed, but continued, "Seasons may change, winter to spring. I love you, until my dying day."

Daichi joined in, "Come what may, come what may, come what may, come what may-"

"Come what may-"

"I will love you, until my dying day," they finished in harmony.

It wasn't until Daichi pressed his lips to Koushi's that he realized how close the two had gotten. Koushi let his eyes slip shut, enjoying one blissful moment before the imminent crash of anxiety. He braced himself against the piano bench as Daichi pushed forward, his fingers threading into Koushi's hair. Koushi moaned, a soft whine of a noise, as he placed a hand on Daichi's chest and pushed. Daichi opened his eyes, confusion evident in those soft brown eyes that made Koushi weak.

"Daichi, we can't do this," Koushi whispered. "Not now."

"Koushi-."

Koushi shook his head, trying his hardest not to start crying at the look of hurt on Daichi's face. "I want- I want nothing more than for this to happen," Koushi said, "believe me, I really do. I've wanted this for months, Daichi. But I'm your Musical Director. This can't happen while I'm still your Musical Director. If we started something, people would claim nepotism. If we broke up, imagine what would happen to the show. It just… can't."

Daichi studied Koushi for a moment, then nodded. He moved back from Koushi, then got to his feet. He grabbed his stuff and headed for the door.

"Daichi," Koushi called.

He could hear Daichi pause.

"It's not a 'no'," he said. "It's a 'wait until the production's over'."

"Come what may," was Daichi's only response, and then he was gone.

As the door closed behind Daichi, Koushi broke.

***

And there's no mountain too high, no river too wide. Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side. Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide, but I love you until the end of time.

***

The two week run was a smash hit. Critics loved it, audiences loved it, it was everything Takeda wanted it to be. He hadn't been sure how the production would turn out; both Christian and the Musical Director had sudden, incredibly noticeable changes in mood, but things had been fine in the end. Moulin Rouge was a success.

Koushi avoided the cast party the night the run ended. As soon as he was out of costume, Koushi had left the theater without a backward glance. Things between he and Daichi had taken a turn for the worse after they kissed. Daichi stopped coming to one on one sessions, his performance during 'Come What May' was lacking. It was week one all over again, and Koushi knew it was his fault. It didn't help matters that he did his own fair share of sulking. It got so bad that Takeda had canceled rehearsal one day, unable to stand what Daichi and Koushi were doing to the production's atmosphere. Ryuu, Asahi, and Yuu had dragged Daichi out of the theater while Yui had pulled Koushi aside to lecture him. It quickly turned into a coffee date where Koushi could word vomit his feelings at Yui.

"Koushi, you turned him down," Yui had pointed out.

"I just spent five minutes telling you my feelings and that was your takeaway?"

Yui had made a face at Koushi, then moved right into her lecture, "Well, yeah. He made a move on him, you told him not right now. The way I see it, you two just need to move passed the awkwardness and things will sort themselves out. So quit moping, you're killing the vibe of the show. This show's about freedom, beauty, and above all, love. Right?"

Things improved with Daichi after that. They were still incredibly awkward with one another, but they were congenial. Takeda was willing to let them be, and the show went on. They survived the last two weeks of rehearsal and two weeks of performances, then it was over. Koushi knew Daichi wanted to talk to him, but Koushi couldn't bring himself to be alone with him yet. He was scared, scared that Daichi was going to reject him after he rejected Daichi. He needed time.

So he went home without a word to anyone. He made himself the spiciest tofu he could, then collapsed onto his couch. Koushi was ready to sleep for the next thousand years.

The universe had other plans. Koushi's phone went off, ringing once, twice. He fished it out of his pocket, accepting the call without looking at the screen.

"Hello?"

"How come you're not at the after party?" Daichi asked.

Koushi froze. Panic set in.

"I never really go to after parties," he said, aware that he sounded like he was lying.

"Koushi, I've seen the photos on Facebook."

Okay, yeah, he was busted.

"I don't know, I just didn't feel like going," Koushi explained.

Daichi was silent. Koushi would have guessed that the call was dropped if it weren't for the sounds of a standard cast party in the background.

"Daichi?"

"Can you meet me in the park? The one by the theater?" Daichi asked. "I want to talk to you."

Koushi wanted to say no. He so badly wanted to say no.

"I'll meet you there in fifteen minutes," he whispered.

"See you there," Daichi said.

Koushi's phone beeped; Daichi had ended the call. With a sigh, Koushi put his tofu in the fridge. He grabbed his coat, put his shoes on and left. He had a meeting to get to.

***

Come what may, come what may, I will love you until my dying day. Oh come what may, come what may, I will love you.

***

The cold, November air nipped at the tip of Koushi's nose. He cursed himself for not grabbing his scarf, but there was nothing he could do about that. He had promised Daichi that he'd be at the park, and damn it, he was going to stick to his promise. Now, if only Daichi would do the same. Daichi was actually five minutes late, by Koushi's count. The longer he stood there, the more Koushi started to worry that Daichi had stood him up. Which would be fair, considering the mental bullshit Koushi had subjected him to.

The sound of footsteps caught Koushi's attention. He turned, and there was Daichi. Daichi smiled at Koushi, then started walking towards him, his movements slow.

"You said you wanted to talk?" Koushi called to him.

"Never knew, I could feel like this-"

Koushi cocked his head to the side, "Daichi, what are you doing?"

"-it's like I've never seen the sky before."

Realization hit Koushi like a train. An embarrassing and emotionally overwhelming, but incredibly welcome realization.

"Daichi, oh my god, we're in public."

"Want to vanish inside your kiss-"

"I can't believe you."

"-every day I love you more and more."

"This is unfair, I helped you learn this song."

Daichi stepped close enough to grab Koushi's hands.

"Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing? Come back to me and forgive everything."

Koushi pressed his forehead to Daichi's shoulder as he said, "Daichi, that's not even your part."

Daichi paused. Koushi lifted his head, and Daichi cupped his cheek."Seasons may change, winter to spring," Daichi whispered as he caressed Koushi's cheek.

"Daichi, please-," Koushi whispered back, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.

"I love you, until my dying day."

"Daichi," Koushi sobbed.

"Come what may, come what may, I will love you until my dying day."

Koushi couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed the lapels of Daichi's jacket and dragged him into a bruising kiss. Daichi responded in kind, wrapping his arms around Koushi's waist. When Koushi pulled back for air, Daichi pushed forward, kissing him with all the desperation of a man who had been separated from his lover for years.

"Daichi, I'm so sorry," Koushi whispered against his lips.

Daichi pulled back to rest his forehead against Koushi's, his breath coming to him in ragged pants.

"Don't apologize," he told Koushi. "You did the professional thing."

"Avoiding you wasn't professional," Koushi countered.

"We're both guilty of that," Daichi said. "But believe me, Sugawara Koushi, I love you. And I want to be with you. Even after all of that, I still want to be with you. You make me feel whole."

Koushi kissed Daichi again, softer than he had before. Daichi melted into the kiss, drawing Koushi in close.

"Be mine?" Daichi asked when they parted for air.

"You can't get rid of me now, Sawamura," Koushi teased, his eyes gleaming with tears and unbridled joy. "You sang a love song at me."

***

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place. Come what may, come what may, I will love you until my dying day.

#daisugaweek2018 #daisuga #theater au #haikyuufanfics #haikyuu fanfiction #hq writers #moulin rouge

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nightglider124 · 7 years ago

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Japan: My Trip

Thought I’d put together a little photo diary of my two weeks in Japan because why not and I just like to share with my tumblr pals.

Read on to find out what I got up to.

Sunday 13th May

This was the day I flew out to Japan. I packed my bag and was ready to leave at 11am UK time. I’m not gonna lie to ya’ll, I was an emotional mess, leaving my family behind.

You should know, I’ve never been on a trip without my family and I’ve never been out of Europe. So, going out to Japan with just my best friend was a big thing for me. So, was pretty tearful and then my mum like burst into tears; she’s a worrier.

Anyway, my dad dropped me off at the airport to meet my bestie and we did all the boring airport stuff and soon enough, we were on the plane. The sky is ridiculously pretty at different times during an overnight flight or at least, a flight that crosses different time zones.

Pretty uneventful. I mostly ate, slept and wrote chapter 1 of CTD: Bound.

Monday 14th May

So, I arrived in Japan’s Narita airport at 11am.

Then I went up and grabbed my suitcase as well as going and grabbing my pocket wifi - Something that is tremendously helpful if you go to Japan. I don’t know what it’s like for you guys but in London, I pretty much have wifi anywhere I go whereas in Japan, it wasn’t as easy to come across; at least not for free.

The pocket wifi was a godsend. It can connect up to 10 devices and it lasts all day long when fully charged. Now, there were a couple times it tapped out but you just need to turn it off and turn it on again.

It cost about £60 for 2 weeks but if you’re going with people, it works out better. Me and my friend split it so we only paid £30 each but very worth it.

But, yeah, defo recommend this for anyone who is going to Japan. It was a big help, especially when needing to look up locations and/or directions.

Next, we went and grabbed our Japan rail passes which look like so:

This was probably the best thing I bought for Japan. Not even joking.

Even if you aren’t going very far, this thing helps so much. It’s a pass that allows you to use any trains that are owned by the JR company which is a fair amount that helps you get around Tokyo and surrounding districts. Note: You have to buy it before you fly to Japan and take the exchange form that comes in the post with you to Japan. You exchange it at the airport and they give you the passes above. Just make double sure your passport has been stamped because otherwise, they won’t let you have it.

Anyway, this was £310 for 2 weeks but again: WORTH IT. It does depend on what you’re doing but me and my friend were out and using transport every single day. We also went far. We went to Hiroshima, Kyoto and Osaka - All covered by the passes. And for example, £310 is basically a return ticket to Kyoto so you are already making your money back.

So, we picked these up and using them, hopped on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Shinjuku (Sound familiar, Titan fans? Yes, it’s the ‘roughest part of town’ according to Robin in the Trouble in Tokyo movie). It took about an hour and then we checked into our hotel which was: Shinjuku Prince Hotel.

It was a really nice hotel actually. The staff were friendly and spoke really good English. I recommend staying here; it’s right in the heart of busy Shinjuku and was only 5 mins from the station. We booked a deluxe twin room because two rooms worked out more expensive and it was not too shabby at all. I didn’t actually take any pictures so I snubbed some off google.

Anyway, we were running a little late and we had tickets to the Studio Ghibli museum so naturally, I was freaking out because the website expresses that they are strict on being on time for your slot. I nearly had a breakdown because... dunno if ya’ll remember but I had a right time trying to get a hold of these tickets. They sell out so quickly it is unreal. Anyway, our slot was 4pm and they only allow you to be 30 mins late.

We arrived at 4:50pm and I was close to tears as I ran into the park it’s situated in. I was so annoyed and so scared they weren’t going to let us in. But...

They did!! The guy was so sweet; I think he could see by my face how much I wanted to go inside. He was like all smiley and was like it’s okay, go on in. I was like THANK YOU JESUS. Here are some photos:

They don’t allow photography inside to preserve the magic of visiting. And honestly, it was so nice inside. It felt just like a Ghibli movie and seeing the animation process and the short film and the original drawings... it was all so amazing. Being a Ghibli fan makes this 1000% better but it’s still great for people who aren’t as into it. My friend isn’t really into Ghibli movies but she thought it was still pretty cool whereas there was me in like awe over all of it.

Anyway, we stayed there about an hour and as you can imagine, we were frazzled af. We were tired from the flight but I wanted us to force ourselves to stay up so jet lag wasn’t as much a problem.

After, we made our way back to Shinjuku where I took some pics from my hotel room:

Then we grabbed some McDonalds which was literally just across from us; something quick so we didn’t starve. I facetimed my family, showered and fell asleep.

Tuesday 15th May

So, the first full day we were there, it was a more chilled, sightseeing day. Nothing too taxing and we felt a lot more refreshed after a proper sleep.

First, we went and checked out the Tokyo Imperial Palace which was really pretty but we couldn’t go inside. It was mega hot the entire time we were in Japan; I thought I’d die. I hate the heat.

And because I was out in the heat all day and didn’t think to put suncream on... yeah, you can see where this is going...

More on that later, because then we carried on to the Yasukuni shrine which is just down the street from the East Gardens of the palace.

The shrine was cool and everything was so pretty; very tranquil and peaceful.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the Sunshine City mall in Ikebukuro where I forced my friend into the Pokemon Centre Store which was LIT.

I was fucking excited, ya’ll. I got some really cute stuff too. Got myself some Mimikyu chopsticks, an Eevee tail key holder, a Pikachu glasses case, a Pikachu makeup bag and a little Mimikyu figure bc Mimikyu is a fave and I have no cool stuff with it on.

I also got my brother most of his souvenirs in here because we have loved Pokemon since the dawn of time. I mean, we’ve fallen out of it in recent years because all the new gen pokemon etc... we’re more for the original pokemon and original series and games. Seriously, when kids come up to me like, do you even know Pokemon I’m like bitch step back you don’t even KNOW. It’s like I got a Pokemon CD for my brother and it had a japanese version of one of the songs from the first movie and we were like screaming. That film man, don’t even look at me.

Ahem... the Pokemon store was so wicked but mega expensive like shit son. Glad I took so much money with me because I NEEDED IT.

After the Pokemon store, we went down a level to the Studio Ghibli store where I didn’t get as much stuff as I thought I was gonna.

But, I got a Spirited Away fan with No Face on it, a Totoro and No face figure as well as a Totoro bib and hat for my niece.

Then we went and had fooood where I noticed... I was extremely sunburnt... Like in the below pic, you can’t see it that much because it hadn’t really come out full pelt yet.

Pls ignore my hamster face but see my chest? Burny burny burnt burnt. I got back to the hotel later that night and I had the shakes where it was hot and all the heat was there rather than all over. It was horrible.

I’m lucky I decided to wear full on makeup that day otherwise my face would have gotten buuurnt. Well done, Estee Lauder foundation, well done.

But yeah, it wasn’t the best end to the day because then I was all uncomfortable and my skin was sensitive and I was mad at myself for not putting on cream so then I got all upset and cried but I think I was still tired from the journey too and I was overwhelmed but yeah; kinda sucked.

Other than the sunburn, I also didn’t pack shorts for under my dress so my thighs rubbed and were in agony as well as my vans gave me like 4 blisters on each foot so I couldn’t walk or at least was in extreme pain when I tried so getting back to the hotel was a damn hoot.

Besides all that, it was a pretty good day!

Wednesday 16th

This was the day we trekked all the way down to Hiroshima which is like a 5 hour journey by train. We had to take two trains but it was actually not too bad. It certainly didn’t feel like it took that long to get down to Hiroshima.

One thing I will say about longer train journeys; remember to reserve a seat. Some like the one from Narita Airport are reserve only so you have to reserve a seat for it. But, others don’t need it and have “non reserved” cars but mark my words, if you’re travelling on these trains at a busy time, it really pays off to reserve a seat. We didn’t for Hiroshima and whilst we found seats for the 3 hour part of the journey; on the second train, we had to stand for like 45 minutes because there were no seats and then even when we did get to sit down, it was separated so yeah; book your train seats, people.

Once we arrived in Hiroshima, we hopped on a ferry which took us to Miyajima island. It’s about a 10 minute journey and once again, it’s covered by the JR pass. I loved that thing to death not even kidding.

Here’s some pictures I took on the ride over:

This island is home to the big red Torii gate that people may know of. I picked up some cute souvenirs and ate katsu. And there were even deer roaming around the place! A couple got married too whilst we were visiting and it was so nice. Again, it was mega hot so I was dying from that aspect but otherwise, I could live on this little island.

Unfortunately, we spent so much time at the island; we didn’t get round to doing the two other things we had planned which were seeing Hiroshima Castle and the Atomic dome memorial. I was kinda bummed by not seeing those but the last train was at 5pm and we weren’t staying the night so we had to get said train. It was okay though; it’s something to add to the list of things to see when I eventually revisit.

We got back at about 10pm and then it was lights out because we were exhausted.

Thursday 17th May

This was another sightseeing day that was fairly local considering we were pretty tired from Hiroshima still.

We traveled over to Asakusa which has the lovely Senso-ji temple and shrine. It was really cute, the walk up to the temple is lined with all these little shops and souvenir like places which have charms and fans etc. Really nice.

Inside, they do this thing where you pay 100 yen and you shake a metal box that contains lots of sticks with numbers on. When you bring out a stick, you find the number it matches and you bring out the fortune. You get a good fortune, regular fortune or bad fortune. I got myself a regular ol’ fortune XD.

But, they also have this rack so that if you get a bad fortune, you tie it to the rack to rid yourself of the bad fortune whereas a good or regular one; you would carry it with you.

Other than that, we hung out and then went back to our hotel for a while before heading out again to check out the nightlife of the area. Everything was mega lit up and was so nice. We went and grabbed dinner and also went and got crepes. They were a m a z i n g. Like they were so good ugh.

After that, went back, showered and slept. Pretty uneventful day; just being touristy.

Friday 18th May

Again, more sightseeing on this day. We went and saw the Tokyo Metropolitan Building and looked out over Tokyo.

Then, we went to the Meiji Shrine.

Aaand lastly, we went to Shibuya for the evening.

Yes, those are people dressed as characters from Mario Kart driving in the streets of Tokyo. This place was crazy. XD

After seeing the crossing scramble that is so infamous, we trekked back to the hotel and fell asleep.

Saturday 19th May

This day we literally went on trains all day to collect stamps. In Japan, they do these things called Eki stamps which are stamps you can find at stations, museums, shrines, tourist spots etc.

I haven’t got any pictures of mine but i got like 50 of them whilst I was in Japan. Going on one train line at all the stops got me like 30.

We had nothing else planned on this day so my friend suggested the collecting stamps XD.

Sunday 20th May

This was one of my two absolute favourite days whilst I was there. It was the day I went and saw Mt Fuji and went into Aokigahara forest.

It was approx 2 hours from Tokyo but we’d booked a tour instead of trying to do it ourselves. It worked out a lot easier. When we reached the highest point you can go to on Mt Fuji, by vehicle anyway, we had 30 mins to sightsee. We took pictures and went into the souvenir shop etc.

My god, it was so frickin’ cold up there. Obviously. We were high off the ground like shit, it was freezing. But, pretty pictures.

We then went caving in an ice cave that is iced over all year round and is not usually open to the public.

After that, we were taken back to Shinjuku where we grabbed food and went back to sleeeep.

Monday 21st May

We went to Kyoto on this day. We managed to see all we wanted to as well but then again, Kyoto was only a 2 and a bit hour train ride away.

When we got there, we saw the Fushimi Inari Taisha.

They were pretty but boy, was there a lot of people. I had to wait for so long to get pictures with none of very few people in it.

Then, we headed over to Kinkaku-ji which is this golden temple.

Again, very pretty.

Lastly, we checked out the Arashiyama Bamboo grove which was pretty also.

After that, we headed home to our hotel. We had an exciting day the next day.

Tuesday 22nd May

TOKYO DISNEYLAND, BITCHES.

I was excited and I can see why people hype Disneyland up. No matter which one you visit, there is this big sense of nostalgia and magic. It was unforgettable and wasn’t half as busy as some theme parks get here. But, I suppose we did go on a Tuesday.

Would hate to see it on a weekend.

The mike melonbread was delicious <3

Disneyland catered to the childish side of me and I loved every single bit of it. <3

Wednesday 23rd May

On this day, we visited Osaka which is about the same sorta time out from Tokyo as Kyoto is. Again, not too much going on. We checked out Osaka Castle.

And then, we checked out Dotonbori which was also very cool.

After that, we headed back to Tokyo. There wasn’t too much we were desperate to see in Osaka and it was raining which wasn’t the nicest.

Thursday 24th May

Last full day meant Harajuku and Shibuya for shopping day. I haven’t got any pictures but omg we went and did those purikura photo things? They are hilarious. It was funny doing them but even looking at them; they funny XD

I bought a bunch of stuff for myself as well as my family as souvenirs. It was funnn.

Friday 25th May

The day I flew home to London :(. I was sad to leave Japan but I was really happy to be coming home. No matter how much you may call your country a shit place, there’s no place like home.

Omg, I went over my bag weight limit with all the stuff I bought. I’m allowed 23kg and my suitcase was 27kg -.-

I paid £65 for that extra weight because I was not about to be that person who opens their suitcase in the middle of check in trying to decrease the weight XD

Pretty straight forward afterwards. I flew home and when I got to my house, my family let me have reign on dinner so we got KFC.

So, that is what I got up to in Japan. I loved every minute I was there. It is so very different than London and it has much more beauty than any city I’ve been to has.

I can’t wait to go back someday and I encourage anyone and everyone to go there. It is something else! <3

Thanks for reading if you made it to the end! I appreciate it ^.^

#night in japan #night wants to travel #nightglider124

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danrdarrenc · 7 years ago

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Best Friends Since Forever

Will and Paul and Sonny are three best friends in their last semester at Salem High. Will and Paul are both on the baseball team. Sonny is their nerdy but lovable friend. What happens when someone realizes they want to be more than friends?

or, the high school!teen!baseball!au @dinglehorton asked for. One-sided WilSon, Horita endgame.

“So. You guys ready for the season to start?” Sonny asked. He was sitting in the Java Cafe in Salem Place with his two best friends, Will Horton and Paul Narita.

They were catching up after the winter holidays, Paul having been off in Japan visiting his late mother’s family, and Will having spent Christmas in Switzerland with his Aunt Carrie, Uncle Austin, and young cousin, Noah. Sonny had stayed in Salem with his parents and three older brothers who had graced Salem with their presences for the first time since they had gone off to college.

“Ugh. Don’t remind me,” Will moaned, dropping his head onto his arms, which were folded on the table in front of him.

Paul snorted in amusement. “Will neglected his training over the offseason no matter how many times I bugged him about it.”

Sonny grinned. “What about you?” Sonny asked Paul.

“I’ve been in the gym every day for the last two months. I’ve been practicing my pitching with Dad. I’m ready.”

“Showoff,” Will mumbled, his face still in his arms.

“What about you, Sonny?” Paul asked, taking a sip of his coffee. “You going to try out for the team this year?” It was the same question Paul had asked Sonny since middle school, when he and Will had first joined the school team.

Sonny laughed nervously. “I don’t think so. I can barely walk without tripping over my own feet.” It was the same answer he gave every year.

Will picked his head up to laugh. “Come on, Son. It’ll be fun. It’s our last year of high school! You don’t have to play. You could be the bat boy or something.”

“You’d be surrounded by a lot of cute boys,” Paul teased.

Sonny had come out to them two years ago, during their summer break between Freshman and Sophomore year. Will had admitted he was also gay almost immediately after Sonny’s confession. Paul followed them out of the closet a month later, just before the start of the school year.

They had been best friends since forever, Will and Paul having grown up together due to John and Marlena being married just before they started elementary school, and Will and Sonny having grown up together due to sharing cousins in JJ and Abigail Deveraux and Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Jack. Will had been Paul and Sonny’s link but they had hit it off immediately and the three of them became inseparable, spending practically every minute of their lives together that was not occupied by school or their families.

Nothing had changed between them, the three of them being out, except that perhaps they had formed an even tighter bond in solidarity with each other.

At least that had been the case until this past summer, when Sonny had realized he was in love with Will.

Sonny blushed under Will and Paul’s teasing. “All the same. I think my place is in the stands.”

Will laughed. “Spoilsport.”

“We should get going if we don’t want to be late for our first class,” Sonny said by way of response.

“Always so serious about school,” Paul said, but followed Sonny’s lead in clearing their table.

“We don’t all have a full scholarship to Salem University,” Sonny answered, as they walked out of the coffee shop into Salem Place and headed towards Salem High School.

Over winter break, Paul had gotten the news that he was being given a full ride to the town’s college. His grades were excellent but he was to be the star pitcher of the university’s baseball team.

Will was also granted a scholarship to Salem University, although not a full ride, but significant enough that he couldn’t turn it down. Although he was to play on the baseball team beside Paul, Will’s scholarship was an academic one and he looked forward to pursuing a career in sports journalism.

Paul had the decency to blush.

“Sonny, you’re the valedictorian of the class by like twelve points. You’re not going to fail if you miss one class,” Will said, trying to lighten up his friend.

“Still. I’d not rather not miss a class.”

Will shook his head in exasperation at the old, tired argument and they walked the rest of the way to school in silence.

“I can’t move,” Will said, falling face first onto Sonny’s bed.

“Practice was that bad?” Sonny peered at Will’s dramatics over the top of the book he was reading.

“I already hurt everywhere and it’s only been one day,” Will mumbled into the comforter.

“Where’s Paul?”

Will turned his head so he could talk and breathe properly. “He’s having dinner with John. Just us tonight.”

“Won’t your mom be wondering where you are?”

“Probably not. Too busy boning EJ or something.”

“Will!”

Will swatted away Sonny’s scandalous objection and crawled up the bed to sit next to Sonny. As soon as he was settled, Will plucked the book out of Sonny’s hands. “Let’s watch a movie.”

“I have homework to finish.”

Will glared at Sonny. “It’s the first day back from break. How much work can you possibly have? Come on, Sonny! We haven’t had a sleepover just the two of us in ages. You pick a movie. I’ll make some popcorn.”

Will grinned at him, leaving Sonny no choice but to concede. “Alright,” Sonny sighed.

Will squeezed Sonny’s leg in his excitement and hopped off the bed to go downstairs to make the promised popcorn.

Sonny stared after him, willing his heart to stop beating a mile a minute. He was acutely aware that tonight would be the first time since realizing he loved Will that the two of the them would be sleeping over together just the two of them. It would do him no favors to freak out over spending the night with Will without Paul as a buffer. For the last six months, Sonny had made sure to always make plans that included all three of them, staving off plans with just Will if Paul wasn’t available.

“What movie did you pick?” Will asked, coming back into Sonny’s bedroom with a big bowl of popcorn.

“Star Wars?”

“We’ve seen that like a hundred times.”

“We’ve seen all my movies a hundred times.”

“True. Star Wars is good. You choose which one.” Will resettled himself on Sonny’s bed and immediately began stuffing popcorn into his mouth.

Sonny’s lips turned up at the corners as he turned away from Will to grab a random Star Wars movie off his shelf and popped the disc into the DVD player. Steeling himself, Sonny crawled onto the bed next to Will, hyper aware that their elbows were touching.

They watched the movie in comfortable silence for about a half an hour until Will asked, “Are you alright?”

“What?”

“Are you okay? You seem kind of quiet.”

“I’m fine,” Sonny answered, trying not to panic that Will was picking up on his stress.

“Are you sure? Is this because Paul and I were teasing you about school? Because you know we don’t mean anything by it.”

“I know,” Sonny replied, focusing pointedly on the movie. “What are you doing?” Will had paused the movie.

“I want you to tell me what’s going on with you.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Sonny repeated adamantly, his panic rising.

“Son, we’re closer than brothers.” Sonny twitched at Will’s words, ‘brothers’ stinging him more than he wanted. “We’ve practically spent every day together since we were born. I know you’re lying. And - why are you so tense?”

Sonny shook his head, unable to speak for his panic.

“Sonny?” Will asked, his voice soft with concern.

“I’m - I’m alright,” Sonny stammered, taking a deep breath. “I am kind of tired though. I don’t think I’m up for a sleepover tonight. I’m sorry.” Sonny slid off the bed, putting as much space between himself and Will as possible.

“I - alright,” Will conceded albeit confused. “I’ll see you tomorrow for coffee, like usual?”

Sonny nodded, not looking at Will, who left without another word. Sonny choked back a sob and curled into bed, his heart aching.

Sonny took a deep breath before pushing open the doors to the Java Cafe. Will and Paul were already seated at their usual table.

“Hey,” Will said softly when Sonny approached. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah. Sorry about last night,” Sonny apologized, accepting the coffee cup Paul was holding out for him.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Should we head for school?” Paul asked. He didn’t seem confused by Will and Sonny’s exchange so Sonny assumed Will had told him about the night before.

Will and Sonny both nodded and followed Paul out into Salem Place.

A little over a month later, the three of them were lounging in Will’s bedroom in Lucas’s apartment, when Paul said suddenly, “Why do none of us have Valentine’s dates?”

“Probably because we’re the only three out gay guys in school?” Will offered, not looking up from the essay he was typing on his laptop.

Paul glared at him and Sonny grinned in amusement.

“Well, why don’t we go to the Spot then?”

“The gay bar on the other side of town?” Sonny asked.

“Yeah.”

“We’re not old enough to drink.”

“So what?”

“Yeah, so what?” Will echoed Paul’s question. “I’m game if you are.”

“Come on, Sonny. It’ll be fun,” Paul coaxed.

“I think I’ll pass.” Sonny squirmed uncomfortably. He knew he should probably go, try to meet someone to get over Will but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “You two have fun.”

“No. Forget it.”

“Really, Paul. Go. I don’t mind. Go or I’m not going to go to your first game next week.”

“That’s it. We’re going,” Will said. Sonny had been at every one of their games since middle school; for him to threaten to not go was a serious matter.

“Just don’t be late for Java tomorrow!” Sonny called after them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“This is it?” Will asked. He and Paul were standing in the doorway of the Spot.

“Expecting something different?”

“I’m not sure what I expected.” Will shrugged. “I guess I was thinking of it more as a club than a bar. Loud music, bouncers.”

Paul laughed. “Can I buy you a drink?”

“Sure.”

“Two virgin Bloody Marys,” Paul ordered as they settled themselves on stools in front of the bar.

“Are you worried about college?” Will asked randomly.

“A little. Yeah.” After a beat, Paul said, “I’m the star of the team here, but what if I’m not good at the college level?”

Will’s hand found Paul’s on the bar top. “Hey. You’re going to be great.”

Paul grinned sheepishly. “You really think so?”

“I have been on the other side of your fastball. I know I looked like an idiot trying to swing at it.”

Paul laughed and Will laughed at having made Paul feel better. “Salem University obviously thinks you’re good enough to warrant a full scholarship, P. I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Thanks. What about you? Are you worried about the writing gig?”

Will fiddled with the napkin in front of him. “A little? I mean I’ve interned at the Spectator for years but I don’t know if that’s because I’m good or because my aunt owns the paper.”

“I don’t know. I think you’re a pretty good writer. I’ve always found your articles to be particularly compelling.”

“Shut up. You’re just saying that.” Will blushed under Paul’s praise.

They lapsed into silence until Paul asked, “Wanna dance?”

Will made a face.

“Oh. Don’t be like that. No one’s going to care if you dance like a robot.”

Will threw his head back with laughter. “Fine. Let’s go, smartass.” Will hopped off the barstool and held his hand out to Paul.

Paul smirked, took Will’s hand, and followed him onto the dance floor, just as the song turned slow.

“Oh. We don’t have to,” Paul said.

Will searched Paul’s eyes, all trace of a smile gone now. “No. It’s alright. We can dance.”

“You sure?”

Will nodded and slid his arms around Paul’s waist. Paul accepted the gesture and wrapped his own arms around Will’s neck.

“You know, I’ve never done this with a boy,” Will admitted quietly.

“Me either.”

“Is this weird?” Will asked.

“Dancing with a boy?”

“Dancing with me.”

“No.”

They stared at each other for a second before they leaned in simultaneously. Their lips met in a soft kiss. At first, it was nothing more than a press of mouth against mouth. Then Paul parted his lips, his tongue pushing against Will’s. Will allowed the access and pulled Paul closer. Paul went willingly, tightening his grip around Will’s neck, and deepened the kiss.

They stayed locked together until the music changed to a faster pace, breaking them apart. They looked at each other, both flushed from the kiss. After a second, they grinned at each other.

“That was unexpected.”

“But not unwelcome?” Will asked.

“Definitely not unwelcome,” Paul confirmed.

“Walk me home?”

The walk back to the DiMera mansion was a quiet one. At the door, Paul said, “We should tell Sonny.”

“Maybe we can keep it just between us for now?” Will asked and took Paul’s hand in his. “Until we know if this is going somewhere?”

“Is this going somewhere?”

“Do you want it to?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” Paul said, ducking his head and smiling uncharacteristically shyly.

“Good. Me too.”

“So we keep it quiet for now,” Paul agreed. “On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“We go on a real date. Tomorrow night?”

Will nodded. “Can I kiss you?”

Paul answered by pulling Will to him and kissing him gently.

“Goodnight,” Will said when they broke apart.

“Goodnight, Will.”

Will smiled and let himself into the mansion.

“How was the Spot?” Sonny asked the next morning.

“Surprisingly uneventful,” Will answered. Sonny was fiddling with his coffee cup so he missed the glance Will and Paul exchanged.

“I think we might try going back in a few months...or years,” Paul said. “You were right to bring up that we couldn’t drink. It was pretty boring without alcohol.”

“No dancing?”

“We’re...not really the dancing type,” Will said with a snort of amusement, though he held Paul’s gaze.

“Let’s just forget the bar thing happened,” Paul said, though he smiled softly at Will.

Will and Sonny both agreed.

“This isn’t weird, right?” Will asked Paul.

They were walking along the pier on the way to Shenanigan’s, the piano bar/restaurant on the far side of town. Paul had picked the place, having heard about it from John and Marlena, suggesting that it was somewhere Sonny wasn’t likely to stumble upon them.

“Us going on a date? Surprisingly, no.”

“Surprisingly?”

Paul laughed. “We’ve been friends forever, Will. I guess - I guess I never considered us being anything more than that.”

“Me either,” Will admitted, stopping outside the restaurant. “But I’m not sorry we are.”

Paul searched Will’s eyes and smiled. “Me either. But it does feel weird not telling Sonny.”

“I don’t think he’ll have a problem. I think he’ll be happy for us.”

“I want him to be,” Paul replied. “But you know what? No more talk of Sonny tonight. Agreed?”

Will bit his lip, smiled shyly, and nodded, following Paul into the restaurant.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“I had a really great time tonight, Will.”

“Me too.”

“You know, last night after I left you, I wondered if it might be hard to transition to being more than friends.”

“And?” Will asked. They were stopped outside Lucas’s apartment, where Will was staying for the night.

“I don’t think it’ll be hard at all,” Paul answered, pulling Will to him by the waist.

Will grinned and willingly accepted Paul’s kiss, soft at first, deepening to something more, Will wrapping his arms around Paul’s shoulders and tangling his fingers in the hair at the base of Paul’s neck.

“I really like kissing you,” Will mumbled against Paul’s lips when they broke apart a little bit for air.

“I really like kissing you, too,” Paul muttered, his eyes still closed and his forehead pressed against Will’s.

“I should go inside,” Will whispered, after a few minutes of them standing in the doorway, just holding each other.

Paul pressed another chaste kiss to Will’s mouth and then extricated himself. “See you for coffee tomorrow?”

“Dinner too?”

“Come to the townhouse after practice. We can do homework together.”

Will agreed silently, kissed Paul again quickly, and went inside.

Sonny didn’t see much of Will and Paul for the rest of February. They had baseball practice every afternoon after school, getting ready for their first game against Oakdale High School from the neighboring town, and they were all getting swamped with school work, midterms only a couple weeks away.

They managed to keep their morning coffee dates but Will and Paul were obligated to sit with the baseball team for lunch in the run up to the start of the season. Sonny was left to have lunch with other friends they’d all grown up with, Gabi Hernandez, Chad DiMera, and Tad Stevens.

“You okay?” Chad asked. “You haven’t touched your food.”

“Will and Paul went to the Spot last week for Valentine’s Day.”

“Together?” Tad asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

“It wasn’t like that.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I am,” Sonny said forcefully.

“Why are you still brooding about it then?” Chad asked pointedly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We know you’re in love with Will,” Gabi said gently.

Sonny’s mouth dropped open. “Is it really that obvious?”

The three of them nodded at the same time.

“Shit,” Sonny mumbled. “Do you think Will knows?”

“Will is oblivious to stuff like that,” Gabi replied, squeezing his hand. “But maybe you should tell him.”

“No! I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” T asked.

“I don’t want to make things awkward between us.”

“How do you know he doesn’t feel the same?” Chad said.

“Because I do,” Sonny huffed. “I have to go.” Without another word, Sonny picked up his tray and left the cafeteria.

“Are you nervous about tomorrow?” Will asked, even as he stretched his neck out to allow Paul more access with his mouth.

They were on Will’s bed in his bedroom at the DiMera mansion, their backs against the headboard, their homework lying abandoned at the foot of the bed.

“No,” Paul said shortly, peppering Will’s neck with kisses and working his way back up to Will’s mouth.

Will grinned into the kiss, immediately pushing his tongue past Paul’s lips and clawing at the T-shirt on Paul’s back. Paul returned the pressure, swinging his leg over Will’s, straddling him. Will let out a groan, his hips bucking up involuntarily. Paul gasped into Will’s mouth but didn’t break the kiss. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Will’s neck and pulled him closer. Will went willingly, sliding his hands under Paul’s T-shirt and clawing at the bare skin of Paul’s back.

Paul broke away, breathless, but rested their foreheads together. “Wait. Wait.”

“What’s wrong?” Will asked. He looked at Paul, whose wide-blown eyes were surely a mirror image of his own.

Paul swung himself off of Will’s lap. “I think we’re moving too fast,” Paul said, not looking at Will but instead running his hand over his face.

“Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course,” Will said softly, lacing his fingers with Paul’s on the space of bed between them. “Do you remember Chad’s fifteenth birthday party when we played Spin the Bottle?”

“You kissed Gabi.”

“You landed on T but he called foul.”

Paul laughed and nodded. “What made you think of that?”

“You’re the first boy I kissed,” Will admitted quietly.

Paul squeezed his hand. “You were for me too.”

Will looked at Paul. “What about that guy you were hanging out with last summer? Derek, wasn’t it?”

“We never kissed,” Paul said with a shrug. “I don’t even know if he was gay or bi or whatever.”

“I’m glad you were my first kiss,” Will said, his face flushed.

“Me too,” Paul answered in kind, dropping his head onto Will’s shoulder.

March blew into Salem with bitter cold and a snowstorm threatened to postpone the high school’s first baseball game. But the weather cooperated and students, teachers, and families alike piled onto the bleachers to support their boys on the field.

“Good luck!” Sonny yelled through the fence. He waved at Paul who was warming up on the mound and at Will who was getting settled at shortstop.

Will and Paul both smiled at him and waved back, also waving at their families who were in the stands next to Sonny and his own parents.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“You were brilliant out there,” Will told Paul.

The locker room had cleared out of the rest of the baseball team, their teammates all going their separate ways to celebrate their first win of the season.

“You weren’t so bad yourself,” Paul said, pulling Will to him by his belt loops.

“I’m not the one who threw twelve strikeouts,” Will responded, smirking.

Paul shook his head in mock exasperation and quieted Will with a kiss. Will smiled into it, draping his arms across Paul’s shoulders. Paul pulled Will through the distance left between them, sliding his arms around Will’s waist.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

His throat sore from cheering, Sonny hurried through the empty school to the locker rooms to congratulate Will and Paul on their win and to pick them up for their tradition to celebrate a win with ice cream sundaes at the Brady Pub.

As he slowed outside the locker room, Sonny found it surprisingly quiet. The team must have already left for the night. But Sonny hadn’t seen Will or Paul waiting for him so he assumed they were still inside.

Sonny pushed the door open ready to call out for his friends, but his words died on his lips. Will and Paul were kissing passionately, Will’s arms around Paul’s neck, and Paul’s arms circling Will’s waist.

Sonny let out a strangled cry, his heart shattering. Will and Paul jumped apart, startled. They both paled at the sight of Sonny standing in the doorway, staring at them.

“Sonny -” Will started but Sonny turned on his heels and sprinted down the hallway and to his car.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“Shit,” Paul swore, lightly punching a locker.

“Hey. Don’t hurt your hand,” Will said softly, pulling Paul’s hand away from danger. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“He looked really upset, Will.”

“He was just surprised,” Will assured. Will took Paul’s face in his hands. “It’ll be fine. He’ll be upset for a couple days and then things will go back to normal. Yeah?”

Paul nodded but didn’t look convinced.

“I’ll call you after I talk to Sonny. Okay?”

“Okay.” Paul’s lips turned up a tiny smile.

Will kissed Paul quickly and hurried after Sonny.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Somehow, Sonny managed to drive himself home and clamor his way up the mansion staircase before collapsing on his bed in tears.

There was a knock on his door what seemed like a minute later. “Sonny? Can I come in?” Will asked.

Sonny hiccoughed on a sob, took a deep breath, and sat up to face Will.

“You’ve been crying,” Will said, shocked, and closed the door behind him. “We should have told you. I’m sorry. Paul wanted to but I talked him out of it.”

“How long?” Sonny asked quietly.

“Since Valentine’s. At the bar,” Will answered honestly.

Sonny looked away but he felt Will sit down on the bed next to him.

“I really didn’t think this would be such a problem for you,” Will said.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” Sonny turned angrily to Will.

Taken aback by Sonny’s tone, Will asked, “I don’t know. I guess because at that point it was just one kiss.”

“At that point?”

“We’re dating now,” Will replied.

“Oh.” Sonny found it hard to breathe. “And you still decided not to tell me.” Sonny said robotically.

“I’m sorry if you feel like we’ve betrayed you. We didn’t plan this. It just...happened.”

“Please stop talking, Will.” Sonny heard the quake in his voice.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a couple minutes. Then Will said, “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

“You don’t want to know.”

“We’ve always been brutally honest with each other. You can tell me what you’re feeling.”

“I love you,” Sonny whispered. He said it so quietly he wasn’t even sure he’d said it aloud.

“What?”

Sonny swallowed thickly, turned his face to Will, and said, “You want to know what I’m feeling? My heart is fucking broken, Will.”

Will blinked at him, shocked by Sonny’s extreme reaction. He hardly ever swore. “We never meant to hurt you.”

“Well, you did! I can’t breathe it hurts so much.”

“I don’t understand,” Will said slowly.

“I’m in love with you, Will!” Sonny blurted out.

Will shrank back, as if Sonny had struck him across the face.

Sonny choked back a sob and turned away, burying his face in the pillows. “Please leave, Will.”

Sonny heard rather than saw Will respect his wishes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Will? What’s wrong?” Paul asked when Will walked into his bedroom. “I thought you were just going to call.”

“I needed to see you,” Will said, crawling onto the bed next to Paul.

“What happened?”

Will worried his lip, anxious. “It was so bad, Paul.”

Paul draped his arm around Will’s shoulders and pulled him closer.

“He’s in love with me,” Will whispered.

“What?”

Will looked at Paul. “He’s in love with me. I had no idea. How could I have no idea?”

“Hey. Hey,” Paul wrapped his other arm around Will so he could hug him properly and kissed his hair. “I didn’t know either. He hid it well.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Paul answered honestly. “But we’ll figure it out. We’ll give him a few days to cool off and then we’ll talk to him.”

Will nodded against Paul’s chest. “Can I stay with you tonight?” Will asked, looking up at Paul. “I don’t want to be by myself.”

“Of course.”

Will smiled sadly, kicked his shoes off, and curled into Paul’s side. Ten minutes later, they were both asleep atop the covers, both still in their jeans and T-shirts.

Will and Paul didn’t speak to Sonny for nearly two weeks. He didn’t show up for their daily coffee dates and he avoided them in school, sitting with Gabi, Chad, and Tad for lunch, and choosing seats in their classes on the opposite side of the room; Will and Paul’s afternoons continued to be preoccupied with baseball.

Will and Paul finally cornered Sonny in the Cheatin’ Heart, of all places, one Friday night in the middle of March. He was behind the bar, helping his mother out due to the bartender calling out sick. They had gone there for a night out, not considering that Sonny might be there.

Biting the bullet, Will and Paul made a beeline for Sonny.

“Sonny?” Paul asked tentatively. “Can we talk?”

“I’m busy,” Sonny said curtly, turning his back on them.

“Please, Sonny,” Will practically begged.

Sonny sighed but said to the waitress, “I’m taking a break.” Then he followed them to a booth at the back of the bar behind the pool table.

They sat down, Will and Paul across from Sonny.

“We’re sorry we didn’t tell you,” Will said.

“Oh. So you’re a ‘we’ now?” Sonny mocked. “I assume Will told you what I told him?”

Will flinched.

“Sonny. Tell us how we can make this right,” Paul tried gently, choosing to let Sonny’s question go unanswered.

Sonny clenched his jaw and looked away. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I want you to say that we haven’t broken our friendship,” Will said quietly.

Sonny looked sharply at Will but said less harshly than expected, “I’m not mad at you. I’m just hurt.”

“We didn’t know,” Paul said.

“Would it have really made a difference?” Sonny asked.

Neither Will nor Paul replied. Sonny blinked back tears, sighed, and rubbed his hand over his face.

“I don’t want this to be the end of our friendship either,” Sonny said after an uncomfortable minute. “But I just need time. I don’t need you to like it but I need you to respect it.”

Without allowing Will and Paul to respond, Sonny slid out of the booth and walked back behind the bar.

No more than a minute later, Will and Paul left the bar and went to the Brady Pub instead.

“Is Coach Sisko pushing us harder this year?” Will asked, collapsing on his bed and stretching his neck, trying to crack it. “I hurt everywhere.”

“It’s almost April. Are you still not used to the stretches and exercising? And general baseball activities?” Paul asked. “Or are you just being dramatic?”

Will stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend.

“Oh. Nice. Very mature.”

Will grinned.

“Come on. Lie down on your stomach and take your shirt off.”

Will squinted at him suspiciously but conceded to Paul’s request. “Are you just trying to my clothes off?”

Paul laughed, as he crawled onto the bed and straddled Will’s hips. “No, it’s not,” Paul said into Will’s ear. “Just relax.”

Suddenly, Paul’s hands were on Will’s shoulders, his thumbs tracing circles on Will’s back muscles.

“Nngngngh,” Will breathed out. Paul laughed.

“Feel good?”

Will nodded against the bed. Paul massaged Will’s back in silence for a few minutes, Will drifting into a light sleep.

“How are you feeling?” Paul asked, breaking the quiet, peppering Will’s neck with butterfly kisses.

Will’s lips turned up in a slow smile. “Better,” Will said propping himself up low on his elbows and turning his face to capture Paul’s lips with his own.

Breaking the kiss, Will flipped himself onto his back, so they could get a better angle. Paul smiled down at him and ducked his neck down to kiss Will again, languidly. Will’s arms circled Paul’s waist as the kiss deepened, Paul’s tongue in his mouth and his fingers in Will’s hair.

As the pressure and intensity of the kiss increased, Will scratched at Paul’s back and clawed at Paul’s shirt, working haphazardly to shed him of the material. Paul broke the kiss, and searched Will’s eyes.

The air in the room had changed, suddenly charged with electricity and a heat that hadn’t been there when they’d first come in.

Will’s hands stilled on Paul’s back. Staring up at Paul, his eyes blown wide with lust and his lips swollen and red from kissing, Will couldn’t help but feel the swell in his chest. “I want to,” Will said. “But only if you do too.”

Paul kissed Will again, hard and sloppy and fast. “I want to,” Paul said on a breath.

Will arched up into Paul, sliding his hands under Paul’s shirt to push it off. They broke the kiss only to shed Paul’s shirt and the rest of their clothes.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“You okay?” Paul asked. Will was curled into his side, tracing circles on Paul’s chest.

“More than okay,” Will said with a soft smile. “You?”

Paul nodded against the top of Will’s head and kissed Will’s hair.

“I love you,” Will mumbled, drifting off to sleep.

“I love you, too.”

Will was sitting on the white couch in the newly renovated Horton Town Square reading a book when Sonny sat down next to him. It was the beginning of April and they were on Spring Break from school.

“Hi,” Will said cautiously.

“Hey,” Sonny answered and gave Will a small smile.

“How are you?”

Sonny looked away from Will and fiddled with a loose string on his jacket. “It still hurts, Will. For a lot of reasons. But I miss you, Will.” Sonny turned back to Will. “You and Paul.”

Will scooted as close to Sonny as he dared. “I miss you, too, Son. So does Paul. It’s great, the two of us, but it’s not the same as having you around too.”

“Chad and Gabi and T are fun to hang out with but it’s different, y’know? They’re my friends but they’re not my best friends. I want my best friends back.”

Will lips turned up in a smile. “We can take it slow if you need to,” Will offered.

“Can you promise me one thing?”

“Anything.”

“Could you maybe keep your PDA to a minimum around me? At least for now?”

“Absolutely,” Will promised.

Sonny nodded his thanks and then asked, “So, are you busy?”

“No. I’m meeting Paul later for dinner with John and Marlena but I’m free for the day.”

“You, uh, you maybe want to get some lunch at the Pub? I think we have a lot to catch up on.”

“I’d love to,” Will said, and followed Sonny out of the Square.

The first time the three of them hung out together again was awkward for all of them. Will and Paul were exceptionally careful about not touching each other and Sonny was clearly still in some slight distress.

It was still too cold to do any extended activities outside so they opted to go bowling at the alley in Salem Place. Over pizza, french fries, strikes, and spares, Will, Sonny, and Paul began the slow task of rebuilding their friendship.

“Do you remember that time in fourth grade when we went bowling with our class?” Sonny asked, dipping three fries into honey mustard.

Will and Paul both nodded, mouths too full of pizza to talk.

“Paul kept throwing gutter balls,” Sonny said, grinning evilly. “Couldn’t get his aim right.”

“And somehow he became the star pitcher of the baseball team,” Will deadpanned.

Paul glared at both of them, but his lips twitched.

“How did that happen?” Sonny countered, his grin stretching even more across his face.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Will said, playing along.

“You know what?” Paul said in mock anger. “I can see today is take the piss out of Paul day. That’s fine. I can take it.”

Will and Sonny both threw their heads back with laughter. It almost felt like things were back to normal.

“Sonny, can I ask you something personal? You don’t have to answer.”

Paul and Sonny were sitting at a table in the Kiriakis garden enjoying the first warm afternoon of the season. It was a rare day off from baseball and Will was spending the day with his parents and his brother and sisters.

“Sure.”

“How long have you been in love with Will?”

Sonny looked up from his book to stare at Paul. “Does it bother you?”

“No. I’m just curious.”

Paul’s look was so earnest Sonny had no reason to believe he was lying.

“Do you remember that makeshift camping trip we had at the lake last summer?”

Paul nodded.

“Will was pointing out all those constellations he learned from his trip to the planetarium with Sydney and the twins. His face was alight with excitement.” Sonny smiled to himself, dazing off into the garden, almost forgetting that Paul was there. “We couldn’t really follow what he was talking about it, he was talking so fast. But his eyes were shining and I don’t think I’d ever seen him so passionate about something, even baseball or writing. I looked at him and I just...felt something shift in me. That was when I knew.”

“I’m sorry,” Paul said quietly.

Sonny pulled himself out of his reverie and looked back to Paul. “I don’t need you to be sorry, Paul. It’s not anyone’s fault.”

“But we hurt you.”

“No. I mean, yes. But you didn’t do it on purpose. You fell in love with Will same as I did. And Will fell in love with you,” Sonny said, the words hurting his heart a lot less than they would have two months before. “Will never saw me like that. That’s all there is to it.”

“Someone will love you, Sonny,” Paul said, grabbing Sonny’s hand on top of the table. “I promise. You have too big a heart for it not to be shared.”

“Have you heard from any of your colleges yet?” Will asked Sonny.

The three of them were lounging on the couch in Horton Town Square, nursing coffees and sharing muffins and breakfast croissants. They were enjoying the nice almost mid-April weather and their last day of Spring Break before they returned to the push towards finals and graduation.

“You should be hearing soon, no?” Paul added.

Sonny tore off a piece of croissant, stalling answer the question. “I have, yeah.”

“And?”

When Sonny looked up from the food, Will and Paul were smiling at him excitedly.

“I got into a few but I’m turning them all down.”

“What?” Will and Paul asked simultaneously.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last couple months. I think I need some space from Salem for a little bit.”

Will’s smile faded and Paul’s brow furrowed. “Because of us?” Will asked, stung.

Sonny shook his head. “Yes. No. A lot of things. The truth is really that I’ve been getting a bit of wanderlust. There’s a whole world out there. I want to see it.”

“How long will you be gone?” Paul questioned.

“I’m going to defer Salem U for a year, go to Europe, Asia, maybe. I might even try climbing a mountain or two.”

“So a year, then?”

“That’s the plan right now. But if I like it? I don’t know. That plan might change.”

“When will you leave?” Will asked, sadness clouding his face.

“Right after graduation.”

“So soon?” Paul’s face was sad too.

“If I don’t go soon, I’ll never go. And this is something I need to do.”

Will and Paul nodded their understanding.

As April barreled into May, Will, Sonny, and Paul continued rebuilding their friendship. They returned to spending as much time as possible together but they also set ground rules, allowing Will and Paul time to spend alone without Sonny, and allowing Sonny to spend time with Will and Paul individually.

Slowly, Will and Paul integrated displays of affection into their time with Sonny. To his credit, Sonny handled it gracefully; the shaky new foundation of their friendship didn’t seem to suffer for it.

“Let’s go to the lake,” Paul suggested, one Saturday morning early in May. “The weather’s beautiful today.”

“Alright,” Sonny agreed and followed Will out of the townhouse so they could get their stuff.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“This was a good suggestion,” Will said. He and Paul were lounging on a shared beach towel, their legs intertwined. Sonny was on his own towel, next to them.

Will tipped his head back onto Paul’s shoulder, turning his face up to the sun. “The warmth feels so good.”

“Mmm,” Sonny agreed, folding up a towel to use as a pillow. He had just laid down when a beach ball bounced onto his legs.

“Sorry!” a voice called. A second later, a boy a year or two older than them appeared. “My little sister hit the ball a little too hard and the wind just carried it.”

“No problem,” Sonny said, handing the ball back to the guy, who took the ball but didn’t move.

“My name’s Brian, by the way.” He held out his free hand to Sonny.

Sonny shook his hand. “Sonny.”

“Nice to meet you, Sonny.”

“You too.”

After a beat, Brian said, “I, uh, I should get back.”

When Sonny didn’t say anything, Brian left.

“Sonny,” Will said.

“What?”

“Do you really have to ask that?” Paul said with a laugh.

“What?”

“He was flirting with you!” Will clarified.

“No. No. No, he wasn’t,” Sonny babbled, his face heating up.

“He was,” Paul confirmed. “You should go talk to him.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because why?” Paul pushed.

“Go talk to him,” Will nudged gently.

Sonny stared at Will and Paul. After a minute, Sonny conceded. “Fine. I’ll go talk to him.”

Grinning, Will and Paul watched him go. When he was out of sight and earshot, Paul turned to Will.

“Good. He’s gone. Now I can do what I’ve been wanting to do all morning.”

“What’s that?” Will questioned, even though he knew the answer.

Paul grinned mischievously and captured Will’s lips in a kiss, pulling Will on top of him, Will relaxing into the kiss and embrace.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“This was a really fun day,” Sonny said. They were sitting at a table in Horton Town Square, eating ice cream.

“Sure it was. You got a date with a cute boy,” Paul said, grinning as he spooned ice cream into his mouth.

Sonny glared at him, but his lips were stretched in a small smile.

“It’s really great, Sonny,” Will said. “Even if you’re leaving in a month, I’m glad you’re putting yourself out there.”

Sonny’s smile faded and he stirred the ice cream that had melted in his cup, not looking at Will and Paul. “It’s a lot easier than it used to be. I figure I might as well take that next step.”

“Good for you,” Will said, taking Sonny’s hand in his briefly. He hoped he wasn’t pushing his luck and crossing a line but it was a good sign that Sonny didn’t flinch away.

Breaking the somewhat tense air that had settled over their table, Paul said, “Dad and Marlena are in Chicago for the night. You want to come back to mine and watch the Cubs game or maybe watch a movie?”

“Who says we can’t do both?” Sonny suggested, freeing his hand from Will’s.

Paul smiled and followed Will and Paul out of the Square.

As May flew by, their time together changed from leisurely pursuits to stressed out cramming sessions for school, sharing notes and quizzing each other for last minute tests before finals. Whatever other time they had was spent with Will and Paul on the baseball field and Sonny cheering them on.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“How’s it going with Brian?” Will asked from a lounge chair on the edge of the DiMera pool. Sonny was lounging on a raft in the water. Paul was inside making sandwiches.

They were taking time out from baseball and studying to relax at the behest of their parents.

“It’s not.”

“Oh no. Really?”

“He was too full of himself. Boasting about being first in his class in his pre-med program. I don’t know. He irritated me.”

“Were you just not trying?”

“I tried, Will. Really. I did,” Sonny insisted. “Maybe I’ll meet someone during my travels. Some fancy French artist or some hot Spanish flamenco dancer.”

Will shook with laughter.

“So you’re really going?” Paul asked, picking up on their conversation.

“Yeah.”

“You know we’re going to miss you, right?” Will said.

“I’m going to miss you, too,” Sonny admitted, climbing out of the pool and settling at the foot of Will’s lounge chair, joining Will and Paul’s picnic of sandwiches and lemonade.

Summer, the end of the high school baseball season, and finals converged on Will, Sonny, and Paul’s lives in the middle of June.

“We’re free,” Sonny said, collapsing on Will’s bed.

“Don’t say that to Paul. He’s still got a final tomorrow.”

“Sucks for him.”

Will muffled his laughter in a pillow. “Wanna watch a movie while he suffers with studying?”

Sonny grinned at him and crawled up the bed to sit next to Will. “Let’s watch The Breakfast Club. We haven’t watched that in ages.”

“Okay.” Will climbed off the bed to retrieve the DVD from his shelf. “Want popcorn?”

“Nah.”

Will shrugged and climbed back onto the bed, popping the movie into his laptop, which he propped on a pillow in the space between their legs.

Almost immediately, Sonny dropped his head onto Will’s shoulder. Happily surprised, Will smiled and dropped his own head on top of Sonny’s.

They watched the movie in comfortable silence, falling asleep midway through, their heads still nestled against each other.

“Are you sad the season’s over?” Will asked, tracing circles on Paul’s bare chest.

Paul skimmed his fingers up and down Will’s arm. “Yeah. But I’ve got the college team to look forward to.”

Will smiled.

“You’ll come to the games, right?”

Will shifted his head on the pillow so he could look at Paul. “Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know.”

Will propped himself on his elbow. “Hey. Talk to me.”

“College is hard on high school relationships,” Paul said, staring at the ceiling.

“And you think that’s going to happen to us?”

Paul turned his face to Will. “It could.”

“It won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“For one thing? We’re going to the same school and we’re still living in the same town.” Will smiled a little. “For another, we love each other.”

Paul smiled at that. “We do.”

Will’s smile stretched across his face and he bent down to kiss Paul. After a minute, Will broke away.

“I have an idea.”

“Always dangerous,” Paul teased.

Will stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend. Then he said, “Why don’t we dorm together?”

Paul blinked at him and sat up, turning his body towards Will. “I wasn’t planning on living on campus.”

“I know. Neither was I. But I think we should. Together. That way we can ensure that we’ll be able to see each other. Even if we can’t make time for each other during the day - which I hope we do - we can be sure to see each other at night.”

“We should make a plan to make time for us anyway. Like lunch on Fridays no matter what.”

“Anyway?” Will asked hopefully. “Are you saying yes to us living together?”

“Yes. Yes. I’m saying yes,” Paul confirmed with a grin.

Will’s face lit up with bliss and he launched himself at Paul. Paul laughed and caught Will, falling back onto the pillows with Will on top of him.

“I love you,” Paul said, blinking up at Will.

“I love you, too,” Will replied, ending the conversation with his mouth on Paul’s.

“I can’t believe we graduate high school tomorrow,” Sonny said.

They three of them were sitting on the beach on the edge of the lake. It was the middle of June and they were enjoying the beautiful weather, celebrating the end of the school year and the baseball season.

“Do you remember how scared we were to start?” Will asked.

“And we all promised that no matter what we’d stick together,” Paul added.

“And we did,” Sonny said, smiling broadly at his two best friends.

Things between them had gone back to normal, Will and Paul loosening up around Sonny, and Sonny seemingly free of the greater part of his love for Will. Now they were closer than ever.

“I wish you were coming to school with us,” Paul admitted.

“I know. I do want to,” Sonny said. “But I need this gap year. Otherwise I’ll be restless.”

“Come back to us, Sonny,” Will said.

“I will. I promise.”

“You can still stay, y’know,” Will said.

He and Paul were standing with Sonny outside the gate of Sonny’s plane at the Salem Airport. Justin and Adrienne had wanted to take Sonny to the airport but Sonny had insisted on Will and Paul driving him.

Sonny smiled a little sadly. “I’ll email you and send you pictures as much as I can. And we can FaceTime whenever I get the chance.”

Will nodded, blinking away tears, and pulled Sonny into a tight hug. Sonny returned the embrace, equally tight.

“Don’t forget us, okay?” Paul said when Will and Sonny had broken apart.

“Never.”

Paul also pulled Sonny into a bear hug.

“I should go,” Sonny whispered, extricating himself from Paul. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.”

Will and Paul moved to stand with each other, supporting each other as they waved goodbye to their best friend.

#dool #will horton #sonny kiriakis #paul narita #horita #wilson #my fic #myhoritafic #mywilsonfic

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