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twodongs2017-05-28 10:56 pm
necessarian) wrote in twodongs2017-05-28 10:56 pm
Entry tags:
round three (29 may - 4 june)
TOP LEVEL COMMENTS ONLY
| DAY | PROMPT | PUNISHMENT |
|---|---|---|
| Monday (May 29) | write a sentence 100 words long | not allowed to dm (one/both) |
| Tuesday (May 30) | work on an event/exchange fic | write 300w of kurotsukki |
| Wednesday (May 31) | aro: not allowed to describe eyes (gaze, glance, stare, etc.) or smiles isy: not allowed to describe hands | not allowed to dm (one/both) |
| Thursday (June 1) | write femslash | write badfic (with epithets) |
| Friday (June 2) | retroactive title drop | not allowed to dm (one/both) |
| Saturday (June 3) | work on a year-old wip | namedrop someone we hate in public |
| Sunday (June 4) | create a new/atypical simile/metaphor | not allowed to dm (one/both) |
* feel free to edit/add new comments if more is written on the day; comments are meant to encapsulate everything that is written, not just the part that fulfills the prompt
** clarification - "not allowed to dm" is a punishment for the day after, not a preexisting condition
MONDAY, MAY 29
TUESDAY, MAY 30
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31
Isy: No hands
THURSDAY, JUNE 1
FRIDAY, JUNE 2
SATURDAY, JUNE 3
SUNDAY, JUNE 4
end me
Re: TUESDAY, MAY 30
look femslash, no hands (today and yesterday)
“Are you trying to be this annoying, or does it come naturally?” Pansy shoots back. “I thought you said you wouldn’t interrupt.”
“I lied,” Padma says. “Seems like it might be a skill that comes in hand, in this trade.”
“Oh, you are infuriating.” Pansy gets to her feet, begins pacing around the small, oval-shaped rug in the centre of the room. “Listen closely this time—the listings are a formality. You might think they’re outdated, but they’re how we do our business. Sometimes deals are made without them, such as everything surrounding the Avery Geode, but that is an exception to the rule. We play this by the book—especially for a rookie like you—and that’s how we get things done. No trouble, no repercussions.”
When Pansy looks back to the couch, Padma doesn’t seem flustered at all. Pansy had hoped for at least a minor reaction—a flinch, a rebuttal—but, no, Padma is calm as can be, all high and mighty on her throne, even though Pansy is looking down at her.
“Well?”
“Well, it all sounds very tame,” Padma says. “All my friends from other houses would have a go at me for being such a stick in the mud, so blue all the time. So I think I can manage this.”
Pansy levels her with an unimpressed glare. “Don’t be cocky. You can and will screw it up. Like you did last time.”
“Maybe that’s just because I was up against you,” Padma says sweetly.
That is absolutely the final straw. “If you think flattery will get you anywhere, IKB, you’re—”
“Tea, ladies?” It’s Zacharias, poking his head in from the other room. “I know you like the electric kettle, Pansy.”
“What I like is none of your business!” Pansy near-shrieks. Deep breaths. Calming down, she adds, “Black. Strong. No milk or sugar.”
“I’ll have green,” Padma says. “Remind me again why we have to use his house?”
Pansy shrugs. “Neutral ground. Free food.”
“I’m very much still here,” Zacharias says. “Are you going to come watch me put on the kettle or not?”
“We will continue this lesson,” Pansy says, “later.”
The look Padma gives her is the opposite of what Pansy wants. It’s all superior and I told you so and Panssy wants to kiss that stupid smirk off her—no, not thinking about that. This is strictly mentorship and Zacharias’ extensive tea cupboard. Nothing else.
filling my femslash quota [almost nsfw]
You shake your head, and gesture to Beast. "I don't, there was," you say, and then nod your head back to where the construction was going.
She nods understandingly. "I see," she says. Her eyes trace over you - you in your hoodie and unimpressive khakis. "Have you had dinner yet?" she asks casually.
You furrow your eyebrows at her. "Yes."
"That's a surprise," she says; you wonder if she's just walking with you as an excuse to criticize your lifestyle.
Then she says, "Can I come over?" and she says it so casually that if it were any other circumstance, you would be suspicious - that she's asking to sabotage you, or exploit you.
But you say, equally casually, "Sure," and the both of you head back to your place.
She closes the door gently behind her - and you don't remember the whole journey here, you were just walking and now you're both here - and then she presses you against the door, teeth all hard and soft on you at once. You let her, watching the soft hard soft way she presses herself against you, mouth against mouth, body against body - she pulls back and says to you, "Mark."
"Yeah," you say to her.
"Are you going to fuck me?" she says.
Then you're up on her, eyes closed, needing to feel every bit of her. The soft hum of her body; when she arcs under you, smirks, and your hands are on the waistband of her jogging shorts, needing to touch more of her
being the middleman
Mark hadn't given a second thought to the Winklevosses before. He doesn't give a second thought to anyone who isn't of relevance to him, especially if they propose something as inane and useless like HarvardConnection and ask him to work on it. Mark isn't the type of person to say no, but that doesn't mean yes, either.
So when he'd absentmindedly replied to the last email, he thought it might be the end of it.
When he responded to the C&D, he thought it might be the end of it again.
Cameron Winklevoss had somehow managed to prove him wrong.
"Zuckerberg," Mark had heard, on his way back from Dworkin.
Mark swore under his breath and tried to run away again like last time. This Winklevoss was sure to be the angry one this time -
But when he turned, it was the same as last time. The nice one.
He'd grabbed Mark's arm, unfortunately. Mark scowled.
"What do you want?" he asked.
Cameron frowned at him. "Ever since thefacebook launched, you've been fielding my and my brother's and Divya's emails."
"Yeah," Mark said. "Take a hint." He wrenched himself out of Cameron's grasp.
He thought that might be the end of it, but then Cameron kept pace with him instead of actually taking the goddamn hint and leaving. Mark tried with all his might to ignore him the whole walk back from Dworkin, but he was shorter than Cameron and he wasn't sure if he could outrun him this time when he was starting so close.
Neither of them said anything until Mark started heading down the street towards Kirkland. He knew Cameron already knew where he lived, but that didn't make him any less wary.
"Thefacebook is more important," he burst defiantly, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. "I don't have time for HarvardConnection. I never cared about it."
Cameron seemed surprised. But then his expression smoothed, more interested than anything else.
"Okay," he said to Mark. "What can we do to help?"
Mark hadn't considered the Winklevosses' help. Didn't want it, really - he had Eduardo and that was enough.
But apparently that wasn't enough for the Winklevosses to get.
"My friend put up the money," he gritted through his teeth, after Cameron accosted him for the sixth time that week. "I don't need your help."
"Do you have experience in business?" Cameron asked. "My brother's good with numbers."
"Could've fooled me," Mark mumbled.
"Hey," Cameron said, stopped in the middle of the street. This got Mark's attention - he stopped with him, to his own dismay. "You have good ideas, Mark."
"And, what," Mark said, "you just want a way to ride on my ideas while offering money so you don't feel bad about it?"
Cameron's expression shuttered, but he wasn't fazed. "I'm saying that we can recognize when an idea is good," he said. "Let us help you. Your friend's money isn't going to hold thefacebook up forever."
"It could," Mark said stubbornly. "Wardo's bad at saying no."
"And you're bad at saying yes," Cameron said, which got Mark to spin around and continue walking off. Cameron caught up with him, anyhow. "I promise, this is the last time I'll ask," he said. "Do you, or do you not want my brother's and my help?"
Mark wouldn't meet his eyes. He said, "I'll talk to Eduardo about it."
Eduardo hadn't really minded, to Mark's disappointment.
"They actually have a business model in mind, Mark," he said, when Mark turned back to his computer because Eduardo hadn't said no fucking way like Mark had hoped he would. "I could do with a second opinion."
"You have mine," Mark bit out.
"A second opinion against yours," Eduardo said gently. "Or for yours. They wanted you to work on their dating site, right?"
"Yeah, and it sucked," Mark said. "They have terrible ideas. We don't need them."
"We don't need them, but we should at least talk to them," Eduardo said. "See what they have to offer. It's not a bad idea."
Mark didn't protest when Eduardo managed to procure the Winklevii's email addresses from him, but he still wasn't all for it.
Their meeting felt more like a first date.
They were at Bartley's for dinner, so burgers weren't as fancy as first dates typically were. Mark was wary of the menu, because it looked more to be suited to people who were shaped like the Winklevosses, not like himself who was small and knobby, or Eduardo who was kind of reedy and lean.
Both the Winklevosses sat across from him. The more tolerable one - Cameron - was in front of Mark, and didn't make Mark feel any better even when his smile was encouraging. Mark didn't need encouragement - he needed this to be over with, so he could go back go coding for thefacebook and not waste his time.
"This is awkward," Mark declared, as soon as the waitress had left them. "You guys tried to set me up with your father's in-house counsel - " He pointed between Tyler and Cameron " - and Eduardo, you don't know either of them."
"That's the whole point of this, isn't it?" Cameron said to Mark. "So we can get to know each other?"
Mark buried his face in his menu. "I don't care," he said, scowling at the burger names.
Eduardo, because he's Eduardo, said, "Sorry about Mark. What were your ideas for thefacebook?" He said this all so casually, but Mark knew that Eduardo could be bitchy too.
Tyler said, "Well, what my brother and I - and our partner Divya, but he has a meeting tonight - originally had mind was a networking site for students across Harvard, and - "
"Ty," Cameron said quickly.
Eduardo had frowned. "That sounds a lot like what Mark had done with thefacebook."
Mark raised his menu higher. "They didn't give me the idea," he said from behind it. "I had my idea first."
Tyler sneered. "Yeah right - "
"Tyler," Cameron said emphatically.
Eduardo said to them, "I'm sure Mark didn't mean it - " and Mark put his menu down and glared at all of them.
"I'd been thinking of making a campus-wide face book since I got here," he said, mostly to Tyler. "It's a coincidence. People can have the same ideas."
"Yeah, you had access to our system and got out ahead - "
"Mark didn't do that," Eduardo said in Mark's defense, to just about everyone's surprise. "Maybe he did get inspired, but he wouldn't do anything like that deliberately."
"Sure, because he values the integrity of original ideas so much - "
"Don't you?" Eduardo said to Tyler.
Tyler floundered. "I do," he said.
"You're not the one who actually wants to help invest in thefacebook though, aren't you?"
"I'm not against it," Tyler conceded. "I don't - My brother and I are just looking to invest - "
"And not the credit?" Eduardo challenged.
He kept his gaze level with Tyler's. Tyler floundered again and picked up a menu for himself.
Mark set his own menu down. "I apologize for Eduardo," he said dryly to Cameron, who'd merely been tracking Eduardo and Tyler's conversation, with amusement. "I don't know what got into him, usually he doesn't start shit."
"I'm right here, you know," Eduardo said, annoyed and taking a sip of his water.
Cameron had his elbows rested on the table. Mark was glad he had better taste; he was clearly the superior Winklevoss twin. "I'm used to mediating, don't worry," he said, which made Mark's mouth quirk up to his own surprise.
Eduardo took a gulp of water and then said, "I'm going to the bathroom." He got up and left the table.
Mark watched Tyler watch him leave. After another second, Tyler said, "I'm going to the bathroom too."
Then it was just Cameron and Mark alone. Cameron waited patiently, giving Mark all the time he wanted, but Mark had already settled on what he wanted so he called the waitress over. After Mark ordered, he said to Cameron, "Are you eating?"
"Yeah, of course," said Cameron, before giving his order to the waitress, who nodded and took their menus back. Cameron hadn't even looked through his.
"You come here a lot?" Mark said, awkwardly. Eduardo didn't usually leave him alone with people very often.
Cameron shrugged. "Yeah. Creature of habit." He picked up the drink menu thoughtfully.
Mark blurted. "I knew you're the preferable Winklevoss twin, but not by this much."
Cameron raised his eyebrows. "You think I'm preferable?" he said, amused.
This was when Eduardo and Tyler had come back from the restroom, Eduardo with a red mark on his neck and Tyler's lips dark and bruised. Both of them had their hair disheveled, and Mark just stared and didn't know if he either wanted to bleach his eyes forever or gouge them out.
"Well," Cameron said. "That just happened. We already ordered, by the way."
"Of course," Tyler grumbled, reading down the menu. He said, "What are you getting?"
Cameron opened his mouth like he thought Tyler was talking to him. Eduardo said, faster, "I think I'm having the Charles River."
Tyler grinned at him, like they hadn't just had an argument ten minutes ago. "Good choice."
They barely talked about thefacebook. It would've been annoying, except by the way that Mark liked the way Cameron talked when he wasn't bothering Mark about thefacebook - and then when he was, at the end of the dating, and saying, "So are we helping you invest or not?"
From anyone else, it would've sounded challenging, a threat. Instead, Cameron seemed to be asking a genuine question and Mark surprised himself by saying, "Sure."
It didn't help that Eduardo and Tyler kept giving each other looks that made Mark just want to tell them to go home and go at it again.
"I've got a single," Eduardo said to Tyler.
"I'm not coming home tonight," Tyler said to his brother.
Mark and Cameron walked together after Eduardo and Tyler had gone off to their way back to Kirkland. Cameron didn't bring up thefacebook again, just chattered about the restaurants he had been to on Harvard campus; and suddenly Mark was thinking about Cameron shoving him up against a wall and ravaging him.
Or, really, taking him apart gently. Mark wasn't too picky.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have taken his chances. But Cameron was the one who had bothered him nearly every day for two weeks, so Mark always had that to fall as an excuse on. And even if he didn't, he could always pull back the investment in thefacebook if he got too badly rejected.
Mark said, interrupting Cameron's spiel, "You'll be alone tonight since your brother's not coming back, right?"
Cameron paused. "I don't have to be," he said, and the smile on his face made Mark's stomach all warm.
They continued talking on the way back - Mark recounted the time he and Dustin and Chris and Eduardo had gone to the Kong and shared a Scorpion Bowl and Cameron howled with laughter - then Cameron knew all the good Indian restaurants on both sides of the Charles River, and liked all the same things Mark did. Mark suggested, "We could try some together," and Cameron had lit up at that. Being with Cameron was just so nice.
Then they were at Cameron's dorm, and Cameron said, "You're coming in, right?"
Mark nodded, and then he was being pressed up against the inside of Cameron's dorm, right next to a bookshelf, and being kissed.
Mark liked being right.
Afterward, with Mark's head lying on the endless chiseled planes of Cameron's chest, Mark rested his chin on his pec and said, "I wonder what Eduardo and Tyler are doing right now."
"Oh god." Cameron laughed and covered his face. "Don't make me think about it."
"Sorry," Mark said, only feeling it a little bit. "I can't believe they had sex in a public bathroom."
"Jesus." Cameron still had his hand over his face, but he was laughing still too. "Ty probably calls Eduardo Eddie in bed."
"Why would you make me think about that," Mark said, elbowing him in the stomach.
Cameron yelped in surprise, but he was still laughing. He was golden when he laughed; they'd left the lights on, and even though Mark had felt skinny and pale and awkward, Cameron was gorgeous and had made him feel like he was more than just the idea for thefacebook or something to invest in.
Cameron said, "I'm glad you have better taste than my brother," and Mark said, "I do, too."
Mark rests against Cameron next to him on the mattress now, shutting his laptop off and listening to the sound of his boyfriend breathe. He's glad that someone came out to California with him.
i hate this but whatever
“Great,” Damen says out loud. “Fantastic.” The little old lady across the aisle gives him a look, so it’s a good thing he’s just getting off.
The site—well, you could call it that. It’s a hole in the ground with a harbour view, and Damen is viscerally, insanely jealous. And this must be Laurent. At 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, the final nail is driven deep into Damen’s coffin, because Laurent is his type. Even with a hi-vis vest, a hard hat under his arm, and an expression of the most pure distaste on his face, Laurent is still willowy and blonde and pretty in exactly the way that every person Damen’s ever dated has been.
“You’ve cleared the site already,” is all Damen can say.
Laurent raises one eyebrow—threaded?—and gives Damen a look so withering it could kill a landscape architect. (Luckily, Damen only designs buildings, and his foundations are stronger than just dirt and nutrients.)
“I thought it best to get started early,” Laurent says, giving nothing away. “So I had the old monstrosity on the site totalled before I even thought about bringing in an architect.
This, Damen realises, is going to be an uphill battle.
(2/13)
It was kind of weird, since the last time he'd seen Suga was that morning they never talked about, and with Daichi it was - here, a goodbye that felt like okay. They'd texted a handful of times, but Asahi just assumed that Daichi had a lot of schoolwork and didn't have time for him, which was okay. Asahi didn't want to distract Daichi from his schoolwork; Daichi had more important things to do, anyway.
Nishinoya had told him that both Daichi had told him that he was coming back on the twenty-first with Suga; Nishinoya and Tanaka had wanted to meet them here until Ennoshita reminded them that they had practice after school and had to prepare for the spring tournament, since they weren't retiring this season. They were all determined to defeat Datekou this season; the now-third years wanted to live up to last year's legacy against Nekoma. Asahi was proud of them, but felt empty not being proud of them without Daichi and Suga at his side.
His phone pinged as he waited at the bench. Nishinoya had texted him if he was with Daichi and Suga yet. Asahi typed back no and tried not to stress out too much until the five o'clock train came.
It came to a slow stop in front of him and Asahi stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets. He was wearing a scarf and his hair was tied back; he suddenly felt self-conscious as the doors opened. His eyes darted back and forth, looking, until -
"Asahi?"
Suga's voice rang loud on the platform. Suga's pink cheeks were flushed, certainly a sight; Daichi was trailing after him, surprised but pleased as well.
Asahi smiled at them. It would've been trying, but it suddenly just felt natural to be here. "Hi," he said, then realized that Suga and Daichi were looking at him for an explanation of some sort. "Um. Surprise?"
"I'll say," Daichi said. He instigated a hug - there was a brief moment of hesitation that Asahi was sure he was hallucinating - but then Daichi's arms were warm around him and Asahi could think of nothing else. "What are you doing here? We didn't even tell you - "
"Nishinoya told me," Asahi explained.
Suga said, "We would've, but we didn't - " He chanced a glance to Daichi, who shrugged. "Well," Suga said. "I'm glad you're here, I don't know about this guy - "
Daichi elbowed him. "Of course I'm glad to see Asahi," he said, and his grin was so head-on that it startled Asahi for a moment. Daichi looked so happy to see him, and Asahi didn't know what to do with that, nor the tumble of nerves that started in his stomach. "What've you been up to?"
"Oh, you know," Asahi said, scratching the back of his head. "Working for Shimada-kun, Takinoue-kun - "
"Using honorifics as friends!" Suga barked out in laughter.
Daichi said, "Are you trying to replace us, Asahi?"
Asahi was flustered. "No, of course not," he said, but then Suga went to hug Asahi too, and Asahi started. He'd forgotten how warm, how soft Suga could be so close to him, in his touch, like when they'd woken up that morning.
When they pulled back, Suga's cheeks were even more flushed than usual, like he was thinking the same thing. Suga quickly let him go; Asahi missed his warmth.
"We know you can't replace us," Daichi said, looking curiously between them. Suga avoiding Asahi's eyes, which Asahi would be more worried about if he wasn't doing the same thing. "Don't worry."
"I, ah, yeah," Asahi said, tugging at his scarf. "Do you want to go to Karasuno? The Neighborhood Association isn't supposed to be practicing today, but." He shrugged. "We could."
Suga lit up at this. He looked back to normal, so quick that Asahi thought he might've imagined his own hesitance too. "That's a great idea!" he said. "I miss playing."
Daichi laughed. "I thought you played a little bit at school."
"Yeah," Suga said, as they began to walk off. "But with exam season, not recently..."
They made their way out of the train station and into the countryside. It was a breezy December day and Asahi thought again back to when they were all third years in high school, chattering about volleyball and universities and the future. Now Asahi was feeling more relaxed, which was strange to think considering he was out of school, afterward; but he supposed that contrasted with Daichi and Suga, who were talking about their universities and the more intensive exams they had, and the stress between owning their own place and attending classes and having a life in between.
"There was this one time," Suga was saying, "that Daichi and I met up - "
Daichi shot Suga a look. Asahi looked between the two of them with interest.
"Not that time," Suga continued, to Daichi's calculative stare. "When we got lunch and you decided to show me around your school - "
"Oh yeah," Daichi said. Both of their schools were in the city; Asahi wondered how far away they were from each other. How often they met up. "We got lost," he continued to Asahi, "because Suga wanted to explore - "
"We didn't get lost!" Suga protested. "I knew where we were!"
Daichi snickered into his palm. "Sure," he said.
Asahi decided to go out with it; he curled his hands into fists and dug his fingers into his palm so the jealousy wouldn't spread too far. "Do you meet up a lot then?" he asked.
"Oh, not really," Daichi said. "It was just the couple of times - I haven't seen Suga since October."
"Yeah," Suga said, nudging Asahi. "Don't worry, we aren't replacing you either."
"I mean," Asahi said. "It's fine if you want to - "
"Of course it isn't," Daichi said. "Do something without you? It's better when you're around."
Suga said, "If I had a choice, Daichi wouldn't - "
"Hey!" Daichi said.
He elbowed Suga; Suga was standing in between the both of them, and it just felt right, standing in a row except for when the occasional car had to pass by and one of them would just instinctively pull back while the other two would keep walking next to each other, in no particular pattern.
Suga continued, "Daichi's a thorn in my side - "
"It's okay," Asahi assured Daichi. "I like it when you're around."
"Yeah," Daichi said, looking pointedly at Suga. "Me and Asahi don't need you - "
Both he and Suga looked at Asahi like they expected him to protest. Asahi let a beat pass before a smile spread across his face, and Suga whacked him on the shoulder.
"Hey, you scared me for a second!" he said. "I thought - Asahi - "
"You've gotten meaner," Daichi said approvingly.
Asahi said, "I'm not mean, it's just the two of you - " and they bickered the whole way to the high school.
When they arrived, the others were in the middle of their practice when Hinata suddenly shouted, "Asahi-san! Suga-san! Daichi-san!" and everyone else's heads turned to them. Suga grinned as they received the onslaught of attention and "we miss you"s, though Tanaka added, "I mean, we miss you too Asahi-senpai, but we saw you just last week - "
"It's fine," Asahi laughed, patting one of the new first years who had no idea who Daichi was but had joined in on the chaos anyway.
Daichi said, after he greeted the new first years, "Asahi had the brilliant idea of us practicing with you, so you can make it through Spring nationals - "
"Of course," Nishinoya bellowed, too loudly. "We can beat you old men any day!"
"Old men?" Asahi crowed indignantly.
Suga said, smirking, "We'd like to see you try," and they began taking off their jackets as Ennoshita divided his team into practice groups, two first years and Tsukishima going with Asahi, Daichi, and Suga to balance them out.
On one side of the net, with them - with Suga setting for Asahi again, with knowing that Daichi was there to keep them balanced, with patting the new first years on the back when they made a particularly good save or spike, with Yamaguchi grinning at them with trust - it sort of felt like coming home, but with something new, that they were all on their own paths but still together.
*
(3/13)
Good idea, Suga replied.
Asahi asked his parents, then sent, My house is free tomorrow because it felt like it'd been a while since they'd been over, and Asahi wanted it to be balanced, that he wasn't always intruding to their parents' spaces so often and never his own.
Daichi sent, As it should be, you're our host.
Daichi and I are the ones visiting, after all, Suga chimed in.
Asahi grinned stupidly at his phone screen - all the things he worried about before, just brief moments that meant nothing because they happened in the past - they evaporated suddenly, because Daichi and Suga were back. It was okay if they visited each other more, talked to each other more - Asahi believed that they'd only seen each other the couple of times, but the worry meant nothing when they could talk like this.
Asahi said, I am your humble host.
Humble, he says. Daichi's snort was near audible through his text.
I suppose we should be grateful, Suga added.
That was how the next day, Asahi opened his door to Suga first. "Is Daichi here yet?" Suga said, peering behind Asahi as Asahi welcomed him in.
Asahi shook his head. "Not yet," he said.
Suga made his way into Asahi's house and Asahi attended to him, suddenly feeling very awkward. There was a lot of space between their bodies, he noted, and he wondered if maybe they should -
And then there was a knock at his door and Suga was clambering up and saying, "I'll get it."
"Hey," Daichi said, as he walked in. He asked the both of them, "Have you had lunch yet?"
Asahi shook his head and Suga said, "No," so then all three of them took over Asahi's kitchen, with Daichi suggesting things they could eat and Suga shooting them down and Asahi suggesting something that he knew that all three of them liked. Asahi knew he was the better cook of them, but Suga tried desperately to help and Daichi was pretty resigned passing him ingredients, and they all laughed when Suga tried to get the garlic and got it mixed up with a turnip.
"I miss being like this," Asahi blurted, as he stirred the food.
Daichi elbowed him. "So honest," he said, but didn't meet Asahi's gaze like he felt the same.
Suga said, "I do too." He hummed as he watched Asahi stir the food. "What've you been up to? Since my birthday, I mean."
"What were you up to on Suga's birthday?" Daichi added. "Suga told me that you celebrated together but wouldn't tell me - "
Asahi could see the pink blooming up Suga's neck and cheeks. He tore his gaze away so he wasn't staring; there was something unreadable in Daichi's own eyes, though. Not just interest, but a tinge of something offended. Asahi tried not to panic and racked his brain to think of why.
"Nothing happened," Asahi said, as honestly as he could. "I said happy birthday, I slept over, I helped out with his family's garden - "
"He already does that," Suga explained to Daichi. "Asahi's an all-around good guy."
"Can't trust a guy like that," Daichi teased. "Is that what you've been doing, working around?"
"I've been thinking of helping out at Ukai-san's farm too," Asahi said. "Especially since he's helping Ennoshita, I can manage the shop - "
"You can be the new Ukai-san!" Daichi laughed.
Suga covered his face. "Don't say things like that," he said to Daichi. "I can't think about Asahi like that."
"Neither can I," Daichi admitted.
It was disorienting to think about that Daichi didn't know that Suga and Asahi had shared a bed all those months ago, that - Asahi and Daichi had accidentally kissed that one time. There was a part of Asahi that hoped that they'd told each other and that none of them really wanted to talk about it, except both of them were the type to - bring it up, if they did, and Asahi would be too if even thinking about discussing it didn't feel like it was giving him a rash.
They didn't hide anything from each other - it wasn't even hiding, neither of them knew, and with all three of them in the same room again - not just on the train station on the high of seeing each other again, but of Suga peering into the bowl and asking Asahi if lunch was done yet - not just texting, but Daichi telling Suga not to bother Asahi - and Asahi was suddenly doubting everything again.
He was brought back into the conversation when Suga said, "I think Kiyoko's back too."
"Yeah, Yachi was talking about her last week," Asahi said. "She's at a school closer to us, right?"
Daichi nodded. "Not into the city like me and Suga," he said, nudging Suga.
Suga said, in an impressive impression of Tanaka, "City boys."
Asahi and Daichi laughed. Asahi said, "We're all going on with our own lives."
"Oi, don't get philosophical on us," Daichi said to him.
Suga said, "Kiyoko's doing physical therapy, right?" Asahi nodded; he and Kiyoko met up every once in a while when she was in town.
Daichi said, "Ah, and Yui's going professional," leaning back on his elbows as the timer hit and Asahi turned the stove off. "You could do professional volleyball, Asahi - "
Asahi blushed and ducked his head down behind the pot as he got their servings into bowls. "I don't think so," he said, but then remembered not to be too modest. "Maybe," he tried.
"That's the spirit," Suga said, as he got his lunch from Asahi. "Daichi will have boring jobs - "
Daichi said, "I will not have a boring job - "
"We'll support Asahi," Suga continued, ignoring him.
Asahi laughed, so quick that he had to put his ladle down so he wouldn't splash. "Support me?" he said.
"With our boring jobs," Suga said. "Unless you become an Olympic athlete - "
Daichi reached over to get his own bowl from Asahi. "Once he finishes his training with high schoolers?"
"They aren't average high schoolers," Asahi said. "They could be impressed - "
They spent the rest of lunch discussing Asahi's hypothetical Olympic volleyball career, the future - a topic that would've made Asahi anxious before, but now it was just them folding back into each other, and Asahi couldn't stop smiling over his food, because it was so much easier to think of them as Daichi and Suga, and not the things that happened with them separate of each other.
*
Re: FRIDAY, JUNE 2
now you're in (you can't get out)
Their mouths collide - it's hot, the way Peter's ravaging Wade's mouth like he actually wants to kill him, and Wade's fingers are fumbling with the sides of Peter's suit, wondering where in the damn hell this thing ends. He can't find a fucking opening - "Am I supposed to tear apart your suit?" he demands.
Peter tears himself apart and glares at him. "Don't you dare."
"I'd like to see you try to stop me," Wade says, but then Peter's pushing him back in his apartment, knocking Wade onto his couch and stripping his suit off.
Wade hadn't been feeling... great today, great in the sense that the words in the yellow box were his words today, and Wade's never heard of a moral compass before. (Well, he's heard but that doesn't mean he has one, today.) So he'd kind of fucked up and might've killed some innocent people and then Peter came and beat him up for it. Wade doesn't think there's such thing as fairness when you're listening to the yellow box, just that you do shit and then shit happens to you.
Peter's one of those things - Wade did shit, and now Peter's teeth are scraping along the rough skin at Wade's jaw and shoving him onto his couch.
"Fucking - hate you," Peter says, getting the top of Wade's suit off and pushing his hand onto his chest.
"Language," Wade says.
"Shut up." Peter's eyes get glinty in the dark, they haven't even turned the fucking light on and some infomercial is playing on Wade's TV because he doesn't care about saving energy. Peter's taken Wade's suit off somehow, says, "Of course you're not wearing any fucking underwear," and then his hand is on Wade's cock.
Wade says to him, "What did I say about language?"
"You can't tell me what to do," Peter says, stroking and twisting his hand. Oh, he thinks he can shake Wade to the core. Well, he's got another thing coming -
Peter does this thing with his thumb, presses hard and it nearly fucking hurts, feels so good.
Wade groans, goes, "Jesus, Spidey, you sadist."
"You don't even like me that much too, do you?" Peter says.
Wade frowns at him. "I like you plenty - "
"I have to clean up your messes," Peter continues. "Even the Avengers won't - "
"The Avengers are hacks."
"God, why can't you shut up?" Peter says, and his hand is working quick on Wade's hand that Wade hates how it's numb and hurts and he's oh so fucking sensitive that he might come at any moment. He wants to, he really wants to, but then Peter takes his hand off and says, "Finger me."
"W-What?" Wade says, dazed.
Peter grabs at the lube Wade keeps on his living room table - like he'd expected it to be there - shoves it into Wade's hands, and then says, "Finger me."
"Fucking Christ," Wade breathes.
He gets himself prepped. Peter's naked and nimble above him, his pale lean body shoving itself onto Wade's finger without abandon. Wade groans, the insides of his brains feeling like metal grinding against metal with the hot, tight way Peter keeps fucking himself onto Wade's finger, not even making a sound like he belongs here. Wade's going to lose his mind - Peter's so tight and Wade's biting his lip, his head's going to fucking explode before he's even inside Peter -
"I'm going to fuck you," Peter declares, moving himself off Wade and stroking along the underside of Wade's cock. Wade really just wants to cry - Peter looks so determined, and Wade can't even move because Peter's sitting on him, pinning him to his ratty couch here and then he's rubbing the head of Wade's cock at the rim of his entrance.
"Shit," Wade says, as Peter sinks onto him fully. "Fuck."
"Fuck me," Peter breathes, barely panting.
But he's the one who fucks Wade, really, pushing Wade's dick inside of him and rocking down at him fast, so fucking fast like he wants Wade to feel it, to get over sensitive from the grind of him pressing thickly into Peter, against his walls as Peter thrusts down on him, again and again. Wade tries to grab the curve of Peter's ass, but Peter digs the heel of his palm down on Wade's chest, prevents his stretch.
"Thought you wanted me to fuck you," Wade growls, as Peter watches him, eyes glinting in the infomercial light again.
"Thought you were stronger than this," Peter taunts, squeezing around him, the backs of his thighs twitching, making Wade's own eyes nearly roll into the back of his skull.
Wade is. But Peter is, too, and sometimes Wade wants to growl into his mouth, bite into his skin, make Peter bleed and see who can make the other bleed first. Sometimes that's the yellow box, and sometimes it's just the way Peter looks at him and bites his lip and drives Wade crazy and he knows it.
Wade could take him in a fight. He could take Peter like this, rolling his hips down onto Wade's dick, letting out all these sexy sighs and running his fingers down his chest and keeping Wade down and not letting him move, his pale muscled body bluish in the light. But Wade wants to watch Peter fuck him too, Peter saying, "Don't fucking call me after this," as he leans over Wade, breaths coming out a little faster. Peter's hand finds his, and Wade isn't really thinking as he reaches down and clutches Peter's ass, and he's really just touching him because Peter is the one fucking down on him faster and faster until there aren't yellow boxes or white boxes in Wade's head anymore, just coming into Peter's tight little hole carved out for him.
"Fuck," Peter says, and yanks himself back, jerks himself off until he's coming onto Wade's chest and a little bit on his mask. Wade watches him through it; but he must dissociate because the next thing he knows, Peter's yanking his clothes back on, putting his own mask over his head.
"Call me when you feel good again," Peter says, as he makes his way toward Wade's window. He glances back. "Or don't call me at all."
Wade watches, with his own spent dick on his stomach, as Peter disappears into the night, swinging between rooftops like the fucking hero he is.
(4/13)
There was a toy store Asahi knew some of his siblings liked, as well as a trinket store that they often stopped to gawk at. It might be nice to take them inside one day, but as Asahi could afford to look in himself, he poked around and found a few ornaments and notebooks and toys one of his younger sisters would appreciate. Deciding, he grabbed some things from the shelves, careful not to bump into the racks so he didn't knock anything over.
He bustling when he ran into a body. "Oh! Excuse me - " Asahi started.
The familiar back of Daichi's head was there. He spun around and met Asahi with surprise, smiling upon first glance.
"Of course you're here," Daichi said, and Asahi had a strange sense of deja vu. "Shopping for presents?"
"You too?" Asahi said, and Daichi nodded.
"I've never been in here before," Daichi told him.
"Neither have I," Asahi said.
"Well, we're here now." Daichi admired the ornaments hanging from above them, some of the wooden horses rocking on the shelves. "Have you finished yet?"
Asahi shifted. He wasn't sure what answer Daichi would prefer - what he would prefer. "No," he said.
Daichi grinned at him. "Okay, neither have I," he said. "I'll look with you - maybe you have good taste."
"I don't think we're looking for the same things," Asahi said, though he looked at a few baubles that they passed, leaning over for inspection. Then he realized that he could knock them over and quickly moved back, while at the same time trying not to run into Daichi.
It was - well, Daichi was weirdly quiet, like he was thinking the same thing as Asahi was. That he was thinking about last Valentine's Day, too. It was snowy as before and they had run into each other as before - but Asahi tried to dispel what he hoped he was imagining the awkwardness to be with, "What do you think of this?" and pointing at a mug. with a gaudy decoration on it.
Daichi said, "Please get that," and Asahi looked at it carefully. "I'm kidding," he added, when Asahi looked at it more seriously.
"I still might get it," Asahi said, just to make Daichi laugh all over again.
Asahi found stationary, and Daichi bought a set too, presumably for his sister. They went to check out, and Daichi brought up what might happen if Asahi's own siblings ran into Daichi's sister and they had the same stationary set, to which Asahi was amused by. As they departed the store, Daichi looked between Asahi and the snowy road, and then asked, "Have you had lunch yet?"
A part of Asahi painfully wanted to say no (because he hadn't) and eat lunch with Daichi and talk and laugh about things. Another part of him wanted to flee as soon as possible, because it was feeling far too - Asahi wasn't sure if what had happened last time would happen again, and he didn't want to risk it.
His mind was running into overdrive. It was like being here, with Daichi - and Asahi could remember the taste of the kiss so well, the texture of Daichi's lips - the excitement running through his veins, and now with Daichi looking at him expectantly.
Asahi blundered, and said, "Um, no, but I'm not hungry."
Daichi frowned at him. "We should eat something," he said.
Asahi shook his head. "It's okay, I think my dad's making something at home." He meant for it to be a lie, but he remembered it was true and revised, "I mean, my dad is making something at home."
"You eat with your family every day." Daichi nudged him, and Asahi supposed it was meant to be teasing, encouraging, but right now Asahi just felt bad. "You can eat with me."
That made Asahi just think about eating with Daichi and his family, and suddenly Asahi felt like he was back with Suga and his family, Suga's birthday, the spray of the hose and waking up so close and - Asahi's stomach twisted into knots, at Daichi and his bright face against the white snow, what Suga looked like in yellow morning light, and Asahi didn't know what to do. His stomach kept turning and turning and he was sure that if he actually did eat something, genuinely, it would just come up again.
Daichi was frowning at him. "Is this upsetting you? I didn't mean to - "
"It's fine," Asahi said quickly, waving him off and not meeting his eyes. "I, um. I remembered something I forgot to get."
"What did you forget?' Daichi asked.
"Another present." Asahi racked his brains for an excuse, to get away from Daichi - he felt awful, but it was just so much, what it felt like to be millimeters and warmth with Suga, tangled and twisted with Daichi.
"For who?" Daichi asked.
"Um," Asahi said, and stopped. He needed to get out of here - looking at Daichi gave him heart palpitations suddenly, and Asahi didn't know how he coped with it before. With Suga and Daichi back again. Back in high school when he saw them every day. The first few days of them being back, like a honeymoon phase.
That distance in Daichi's eyes, like when he'd closed off after Valentine's Day last year too.
"Sorry," Asahi said quickly. "I - sorry." He sped away with the holiday presents in his hands, through the snowy streets, trying not to wish too hard that it was February again and he was racing through the snow with Daichi instead.
(5/13)
But after Christmas, Asahi's phone pinged with a message in an MMS early in the morning and it was Daichi and Asahi's stomach did all sorts of things. Daichi's message read, Hey. We should hang out again, the three of us.
And before it would've sounded fine - before Asahi realized what being alone with Daichi was doing to him, before his brain started replaying those days, Suga in the morning, Daichi and the kiss, over and over again. It was like his mind had been waiting for the least opportune moment, when Daichi and Suga were back and Asahi had no excuse to not hang out with them, to make him worried about it repeatedly, what he felt, the confusion of being torn between the both of them.
It didn't help when Suga was the first to respond, as Asahi sat alone in his room reading their text message responses. Of course! I'm free all day.
Before he knew it, Asahi was tapping out rapidly, I'm not free, sorry. He hit send before he could think - he was of course completely open today, but he felt like he was back in that space where he and Daichi weren't talking again.
Why did he have to run into him while it was snowing again? Why did the lights outside and in town make Asahi recall the faint taste of leek on Daichi's tongue, warm and wet against him?
Suga replied first: ? What's up? It was still in the MMS; Asahi panicked, then made himself patter out a reply.
Busy with family. Sorry.
You already said sorry, was, of course, Daichi's response. Asahi's heart thumped; he didn't know if he wanted Daichi to revert to that not-really-talking thing again, or if he wanted them to be okay. Of course Asahi wanted them to be okay, but that didn't mean he couldn't deal with not thinking about Daichi.
If he was with them again, his eyes would stray to Daichi's mouth, or remember what Suga had looked like half-naked in his room, and -
Asahi quickly replied, I have to go. Sorry again, and put his phone down, trying to set his mind at ease.
But a text from Suga came on its own mere minutes later. What's wrong? Suga asked, not in the MMS.
Did he notice that Asahi was avoiding Daichi? Or that it was something between him and Daichi? Daichi answered again, to Asahi's message in the MMS: That's the third time you've said sorry! that Asahi didn't think it was that obvious. Well, Suga could sometimes be pretty clairvoyant.
Asahi ducked his head under his covers to read his phone. It was early enough so that his siblings wouldn't bother him for piggyback rides through the snow until the afternoon. The morning sun was gentle beneath his covers, even though Asahi was doing his best at hiding.
He responded to Suga's text, not in the MMS. Nothing's wrong. Can't hang out today.
You're not very good at lying over text, Asahi, was Suga's response. Something is up with you and Daichi, or at least you.
It's just me, Asahi quickly tapped out. Not Daichi. I just don't feel that well, I guess.
Why are you telling just me if it's not Daichi? And this is something we should talk about in person.
Asahi's stomach dropped, and he stared at Suga's message, from still under his blanket covers. He didn't want to say No or Okay, but having to deal with it face to face - with Daichi's lips in his line of sight, with Suga just there - Asahi wasn't sure if he could handle it.
He didn't respond, but Suga stopped texting him for the rest of the morning. Asahi's siblings came in to bother him, and he tried to keep the dilemma out of his mind.
(6/13)
All he wanted to do was wrap himself in his blankets and not think about it. It was like the tumultuous feelings, his brain fixed on those two spots in the past, weighed heavy on his shoulders that Shimada-san asked him if he was okay when he spaced out at work during the day after the MMS. And Suga wanted to talk to him in person - Asahi couldn't bear the thought, of Suga being himself and asking him straightforward what was going on through his head and Asahi not being sure if he actually knew how to answer.
Nishinoya had texted the three of them in another MMS that they were going to practice the next day, and if Asahi, Daichi, and Suga wanted to come and practice with them? Despite the lack of activity in their own group message, Daichi had answered, Sure, why not? and Suga said, I'm game. Asahi looked at the messages - if he didn't reply, then Nishinoya would know something was wrong and Asahi would never hear the end of that.
He envisioned Daichi and Suga looking over their phones, waiting for his own response. Expecting him not to say anything after the last disaster.
Asahi replied, I'll come.
So then the next day Asahi made his way to the high school, dreading volleyball for not the first time in his life but the first time in a while. He told himself that it would be okay - well, Daichi and Suga were the type to confront him even in front of others, but if Asahi kept his distance, then there was a possibility they would just leave him alone. They knew he didn't feel well - maybe they'd take that into consideration and not do anything.
When he got to the high school, he saw with relief that Daichi and Suga were already there - that he didn't have to be alone with him. "Oh," Daichi said, when he saw him in the gym. Ennoshita, Tanaka, and Nishinoya were busy setting up. "Asahi's here," Daichi said to Suga.
Asahi's stomach plummeted. Here it would come...
But Suga merely glanced up at Asahi and said, "Hi Asahi. How was your Christmas?"
Asahi was flustered. Both of them were watching him like this was normal - like Asahi hadn't totally flaked out on the both of them last time, and especially with Daichi, whom Asahi had flaked out on twice. "It was fine," he said hurriedly, and quickly took his outer clothes off and tried to tell himself to get into the mentality for volleyball.
That, at least, was easy, muscle memory. Ennoshita called his team over as Asahi, Daichi, and Suga waited on the side; Ennoshita assigned who was playing, and then, "Kinoshita, you'll be with them," nodding toward them.
"Oh, good," Suga said with delight, patting Kinoshita on the back who jolted a little. "We have Kinoshita with us."
"We'll be really formidable," Daichi agreed.
Asahi tried to laugh, and strayed to the back immediately while they got into formation. The distance between him and Daichi was normal as far as volleyball went, but Asahi tried to widen the space anyway, in his mind.
Ennoshita had set up a rotation for the third years - "Watch how your seniors play!" Tanaka called to them, earning jeers from the first years. Hinata and Yachi were keeping score, Hinata saying something excitable to Yachi.
Asahi crouched down, and braced himself.
Nothing about volleyball felt new, so each receive, "nice toss!", run-jump-spike after Suga was still settled into Asahi's bones. And it tricked Asahi for a brief moment, thinking of nothing but volleyball, but just being a part of the nucleus that was him and Daichi and Suga and Kinoshita, a cycle of serving and receiving and spiking.
Then Suga met his eyes as he shouted, "Asahi!" and Asahi was taken by the lock of Suga's gaze, a shine in his eyes, how the color hit this side of his hair and his skin just right, and -
Asahi didn't mean to feint, but there was no force as he barely hit the ball over the nut. Nishinoya, Narita, and Ennoshita dove down to try to catch it, and Tanaka called, "Asahi-senpai, what was that?"
"Sorry!" Asahi said, even though he knew he didn't mean to. And then to Suga, who was looking at him oddly, "Sorry, I didn't - sorry." He went back to his side of the net, neck burning with embarrassment.
He saw Daichi and Suga glance at each other - Kinoshita was watching between them too, having not missed it. "Asahi?" Daichi tried.
Asahi shook his head. "It was still a point," he said, mostly to the net, not meeting either of their eyes.
Suga came up to him. "Asahi, what are you thinking about - "
Shaking his head again, Asahi forced himself to make contact with Suga - it threw Asahi off, how easy it was to just look into Suga's eyes, to stay there, so Asahi focused his attention on Suga's mole instead. There was Daichi to the side and the rough texture of his mouth on Asahi's, and - Asahi really focused on Suga's mole, before worrying that maybe Suga would notice. He fixated on an eyelash instead.
"I just got distracted from volleyball," he told them. Then: "Sorry Kinoshita."
"It's fine, Asahi-senpai!" Kinoshita piped up.
Daichi and Suga didn't look persuaded, but Ennoshita called for the game to start again so they obliged with the game. Asahi tried his damndest to focus his senses on the scent of salonpas, the weight of the volleyball against his forearms - and nothing else.
(7/13)
Asahi nodded through his mouthful. He set his fork down, chewed, and swallowed. "It's sweet," he said.
"That sounds like a complaint," Daichi teased, before forking down his own pastry.
Asahi glanced around the cafe with instinct - and if he was honest with himself, nervously as well. He could flee, but the amount of space he'd been trying to ward was going to go nowhere now that he was here with Daichi. Daichi had knocked on his door and essentially dragged Asahi out into the cold, saying that they should get something to eat and hearing none of it when Asahi tried to protest that he was sick, that he was busy, that he just couldn't.
Asahi could, and he did, and now he was here in this cafe with Daichi and trying to pretend his palms weren't as clammy as they were.
Daichi said, of his own pantry, "Oh, you're right, it is sweet."
"Did they make them the same?" Asahi asked.
"No, I'm just pointing out the obvious like you." Daichi smirked.
Asahi tried not to let his gaze follow the motion of Daichi's tongue, his mouth as he ate thoughtfully. Asahi's gaze kept dropping and Daichi was bound to notice sooner or later. Asahi didn't want to mess a good thing up - didn't want Daichi to know that he kept thinking about something that never should have happened. Asahi couldn't bring it in himself to regret it.
Daichi said, after a short period of silence, "The few times that we met up during college, Suga and I could only talk about how much we missed you."
"Oh," Asahi said, flustered. "Sorry I'm not with you guys - "
Daichi rolled his eyes. "Not about that," he said. "We're just moving on with our lives - you are, too - and we just miss you when you're not here with us. It's not your fault."
Asahi shrugged; he could give himself that. "It happens fast," he agreed, relieved.
"It does." Daichi poked at his pastry. "I wish I'd come to visit for the summer. I feel like I missed out on a lot."
"You didn't," Asahi said. "Suga really only came for his birthday - you were having fun at college."
"Yeah." Daichi laughed a little. "I guess I was..." He trailed off, looking suddenly thoughtful. "A lot has changed," he said decidedly. "About all of us."
"Our birthdays are still coming up," Asahi reminded him. "We still have that."
Daichi looked him in the eye. "You still want to sleepover with us?" he said dryly.
Asahi put his fork down frantically, and it clattered to the table. "Did you think that I didn't want to?" he said. "Because I - "
"No, it's - " Daichi said, then sighed and stopped. "No, never mind. Yeah, we can do it if we still want. I miss how often we used to study together."
"Like last year," Asahi said.
"Suga and I don't do that anymore," Daichi said, and then stood up. "I'm going to get a drink."
"Okay," said Asahi, and watched Daichi go over to the cash register.
Asahi breathed out a sigh - it wasn't relief, but he wasn't sure how this conversation with Daichi was going, but - it was going. It was fine and they were here and Asahi had no excuse to not be looking at Daichi, to not be talking to him - when Daichi came back, it was with two cups of green tea, and Asahi reached out to get one.
Daichi smiled at him. "Hey. Who said one's for you?"
"Are you, um," Asahi said, wondering if Daichi wasn't joking with him for once despite that he was smiling - but Daichi rolled his eyes and handed a glass off to Asahi.
"Yes, it's for you," he said to Asahi. "Take it."
"Thanks," Asahi said gratefully, and Daichi rolled his eyes again. It was endearing, and Asahi smiled back.
Daichi looked outside the cafe, where the snow was billowing persistently. "I'll have to shovel outside of my house again," he sighed, before turning back to Asahi. "How about you?"
Asahi swallowed. "Oh - yeah," he said. He was thinking about shovels again, and Daichi. "It's snowing really hard, isn't it?"
Daichi snorted. "Look at us old men, talking about the weather."
"Plenty of people talk about the weather," Asahi said.
"Sure." Daichi seemed amused though, so Asahi decided not to worry about it. "Your shovel didn't break again?"
"No," Asahi said quickly, and drank some of his tea so he could think before he said anything too fast. "I - It's fine."
"You don't need me to help you look for new snow shovels anymore?" Daichi grinned at him. "You should help me, since you're strong enough to break them."
"I'm not," Asahi said quickly, though he was blushing. "But I can help you if you really want me to - "
"It's fine, there's not much to do," Daichi said.
Asahi nodded. Daichi leaned over and stole a bit of Asahi's pastry, but Asahi didn't terribly mind - Daichi was eating it thoughtfully, and said, "Thanks," as Asahi nodded. Then Daichi said, "Are you - you're okay, right? With everything recently?"
So they were talking about it. Asahi poked at his pastry again and tried to answer as normally as he could. "Yeah," he said to Daichi. "It's just - anxiety."
"Of course," Daichi said, though it wasn't demeaning. He licked at his fork. "You're right, it is sweet," he said to Asahi, in that teasing tone again.
Asahi tried not to stare at Daichi's mouth as he smiled back.
*
(8/13)
"Your time's up," Suga said, forcing his way into Asahi's house before Asahi could say anything. "What's wrong, Asahi?"
"What - " Asahi stammered, because Suga had spun around while in Asahi's house and glared at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Is this because - " Suga started, before closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Never mind. Asahi, we need to talk about what's been going on."
"What do you mean?" Asahi said, red creeping up his neck immediately. Suga's own skin was pink, from anger or from emotion, as it usually was, and Asahi remembered what it was like holding him like - that. Being so close. Asahi tried not to blush again and continued, "Nothing's going on - "
"Bullshit," Suga said, startling Asahi. "Daichi and I have been back, and everything was fine until you started being weird at that one practice - "
"I wasn't being weird!"
Suga raised his eyebrows. They were standing in the foyer of Asahi's house, and Asahi's family in the living room and kitchen were looking at them curiously. Asahi felt self-conscious - it was unfair of Suga to barge into his house like this, although Asahi supposed he wasn't terribly surprised as it did what Suga wanted it to do - Asahi couldn't easily get away when they were in his own house.
This was when footsteps came up onto Asahi's front porch and Daichi's voice was saying, "So you started without me."
Asahi looked at Suga, who shrugged. "I invited him," Suga said, not even bothering to hide it.
Daichi glanced between Asahi and Suga, evidently seeking that something was wrong. "What's up?" Daichi said. "What are you talking about?"
"Let's go to Asahi's room," Suga decided, in Asahi's own house.
He did wave and apologize to Asahi's family as they made their way through Asahi's house, though, so he wasn't terribly at fault, Asahi figured, even though he was bewildered and a little - well, upset, that Suga had come and thrown him off-guard so much. Asahi knew he couldn't protest, though, because Suga wasn't wrong - though Asahi had thought it was between him and Daichi, that there was nothing for Suga to really have anything to say about.
Once they were in Asahi's room, Suga locked the door, worrying Asahi even further. Even Daichi raised his eyebrows, asking, "Was that really necessary?"
"Just as a precaution," Suga said, his eyes darting around.
He looked between Asahi and Daichi and then back. "What's up between you two?" he asked.
"Between us?" Daichi said. "Suga, don't you think - "
"You're the one who came into my house!" Asahi cried. "Me and Daichi - we're sorted, there's nothing going on - "
"Sorted." Suga narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean?"
Daichi flinched. Asahi noticed it; Daichi's eyes were boring into Asahi now. "Yeah," Daichi said. "I didn't realize we were sorted, Asahi. I didn't realize there was something we needed to sort out - "
"There," Asahi started, and then was at a loss for words. Both Daichi and Suga were staring at him hard, and Asahi wanted to curl up and cry a bit.
He settled for exclaiming, "Is there - there nothing between us, then?"
"You need to specify," Suga said dryly. "I mean, between me and Daichi - "
"Suga," Daichi warned.
"Me and Daichi had something - "
"Suga."
"What?" Asahi said, because now Suga was looking at Daichi in the same way. Daichi had his arms crossed, expression warning - and what did Daichi not want Asahi to know?"
"It was minor," Suga told Asahi. "One of the few times we met up, we were both stressed, and - "
"Do we really need to tell Asahi?" Daichi asked him.
Suga spat at Daichi, "We never talked about it. I hate this - we all pretend like this is normal when this is not." Then to Asahi, "Daichi and I hooked up. Once. It was - "
" - nothing," Daichi said.
"It was something," Suga insisted.
Asahi's mind was reeling. Of course this would happen - when Daichi and Suga were off at college together, alone -
Suga seemed to be able to read his mind. "Not that none of us have something with the other," he continued, and glanced between Asahi and Daichi. "Right?"
Daichi sighed. "Okay, last Valentine's Day, Asahi and I kissed - "
"I thought we settled that," Asahi said.
Daichi looked at him incredulously. "How? We didn't talk about it."
"That's because you never want to talk about it." Asahi's room felt like it was getting smaller, and his throat was constricting. "And there's - and Suga, we, in your bed that one time - " and Suga looked at him like he expected Asahi to say that, like he could read his mind, and Asahi felt like he was stepping on all the wrong places, right into a trap.
He closed his eyes and sat down on his bed. "I can't stop thinking about any of it."
Suga sat down next to him. "It's okay, Asahi - "
"I don't want any of this," Asahi continued, the anxieties roiling through his mind. "I don't - if they hadn't had happened - "
That seemed to be the wrong thing to say. His body was acutely aware of how close Suga was sitting to him - and then not anymore, when Suga got up, expression shuttering, giving Asahi a calculative look. Even Daichi looked somewhere between baffled and irritated.
Asahi looked up at them. "What?"
"You don't - " Daichi said, because Suga was just going back to Asahi's door and unlocking it. "What do you want, Asahi?"
"I don't know," Asahi said hopelessly, feeling more and more like he was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and he didn't know how to salvage it. "I just - don't like the way this makes me feel - "
"What do you feel?" Suga said. His voice was hard.
Asahi shrugged. He wanted to say I don't know, again, something like I have to pick between the two of you but he didn't have to, and he didn't want to say, Both of you, didn't want to be -
Daichi was saying, "Tell us when you figure it out," and his voice was cold too.
"We're going," Suga said to him.
Asahi watched as Daichi and Suga left, and Asahi had no idea what to do. What he had said. What he had done.
Why he was now alone in his room, feeling like this was supposed to end up somewhere else.
(9/13)
Do you know what you want yet?
It was a text from Suga. Asahi stared at it; it was only the next day, and Asahi's stomach had been so bad, he'd nearly thrown up. He managed to stave off the feeling, but still he felt awful - and he kind of wanted to wait until Daichi and Suga went back to school and just - pretend. That's what they were good at, right? That's what they'd been doing - pretending.
But Suga was texting him, asking Asahi knew what he wanted - and how was Asahi supposed to know? The feelings he had for Suga, and for Daichi, were a whole mis of two in one, and he didn't know how to keep them apart.
The thought of them being together - not without him, but the two of them -
Asahi sent back, I don't know yet.
And then another thought occurred to him and he asked, Are you texting Daichi right now?
Yes, Suga replied, and said nothing more.
*
(10/13)
It was his own birthday, and they weren't at Daichi's house, or Suga's house, or even Asahi's, and Asahi felt alone. Well, he wasn't when he arrived at the high school - Tanaka and Kinoshita tackled him almost immediately, and since there was no room for Nishinoya, Nishinoya instead yelled in his loudest voice possible, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN."
"Old man?" Asahi said, and laughed as Kinoshita leaped off him so Narita could hug him. "You - You guys are only a year younger than me."
"You're all old!" chirped Hinata. "I wanna be an old man, too."
"No you don't, Shouyou," Nishinoya said, as Kageyama told Hinata how stupid he was. "Not an old man like Asahi-san."
"Asahi-senpai," Tanaka said, "is going to be the ripe age of - "
"Okay," Ennoshita said loudly, clapping his hands. "We've got to practice now - Asahi, did you come alone?"
"Yeah," Asahi said, stomach sinking at the reminder. He hoped it didn't show on his face.
"Okay," Ennoshita said again, and began to lead the time into its stretches. Asahi followed suit so he wouldn't sprain something while playing - he watched and listened as everyone talked excitedly about the new year.
No one asked him about Daichi and Suga - and it felt better to be with other people, so Asahi's mind would get off it. Still, there was that part of Asahi that wanted to be around Daichi and Suga so badly, that wanted to be laughing into Daichi's mouth after the haze of a snowy race, that wanted Suga curled up and warm against him again.
Asahi was divided off into a practice team with Nishinoya, Tanaka, Tsukishima, and two first years. Tanaka and Tsukishima started bantering; Asahi tried not to realize how isolated he felt. Maybe he had to ask the Neighborhood Association to come practice when Asahi wanted to, too.
Nishinoya seemed to notice that Asahi was lost in thought, since he piped up, "So, what are you doing for your birthday today, Asahi?"
"Oh," Asahi said, thinking on what he was actually going to do (be with his family, slice a cake) than what he wanted to be doing (being with Daichi and Suga, in between them, in Suga's house, cycling like a machine between using the bathroom.) "Um, celebrating with my family."
"And with us," Nishinoya added, grinning.
Asahi allowed it. "And with you," he said.
It occurred to him that Nishinoya also knew Daichi and Suga quite well - of course, obviously, as they'd all played on the same team together for two years and Asahi was sure that the both of them would've come to practice if Asahi had asked.
Nishinoya didn't ask him about either of them, but Asahi asked, "Nishinoya, what do - would it be weird if I, um. If I was interested in two people at the same time?"
Nishinoya's eyes widened, and he stopped from where he was stretching his legs to pat Asahi on the back. "You're getting around!" he said, making Asahi blush. "What's weird about it?"
"Well," Asahi said, and then fidgeted.
He didn't - Suga had certainly suggested that he felt the same about Asahi, that he wanted - well, he wanted to know what Asahi wanted. It couldn't be as easy as that, because it was - and Daichi, Asahi didn't know what Daichi thought about any of it. Daichi had kissed him, and they hadn't talked about it, and then they closed off and opened up and got back together again except they weren't, and -
Asahi felt so confused and so nauseous that he clutched at his stomach.
Nishinoya peered at him curiously and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"I just," Asahi let out, and decided to say the first thing that came to mind. "Then what am I supposed to do about it? It just makes me feel so terrible all the time."
"Tell them, then," Nishinoya advised. "You'll feel better if you just talk about it, you know. I promise."
"I don't know what I'm supposed to say," Asahi despaired.
Nishinoya pat him on the back as Ennoshita called them back to form their teams. "You'll figure it out."
(11/13)
Asahi said nothing, did nothing, and Daichi's birthday passed.
But they were going to go back to university soon and Asahi kept thinking about what Nishinoya had told him. Saying - talking about it could end horribly, could make nothing reparable between them ever again - but that's sort of what this felt like, that there was going to be a canyon between them until Asahi said something. Until Asahi did something.
And the day after Daichi's birthday, Asahi felt horrible for not saying anything to him, that he must've been in some altered state of mind when in the middle of the day he went into the MMS with Daichi and Suga and sent, I have to tell you something.
Before he could regret it, his thumb was pressing send. Immediately after, panic climbed its way and spread all over Asahi's chest that Asahi immediately dropped his phone. It was lucky he was on his bed; it fell with a soft thump! and lay open, like it was judging him.
It was barely a minute afterward when Suga said, You know what you want now? Asahi hated how accusatory Suga sounded - how much Asahi also wanted to kiss him, the desire suddenly so overwhelming that it nearly surprised Asahi. But he shouldn't be surprised, should he? That's what this had all been leading up to - the weird bubbly feeling, rising to the base of Asahi's throat.
Asahi said, In person the same moment his doorbell rang. Asahi scrambled up to get it, thinking maybe it was Suga -
But Daichi was standing there, reading over his phone and looking up when Asahi opened the door. "I figured," he said to Asahi, waving his phone. "We'll just wait for Suga then."
"Ah," Asahi said, and then forcing his mind to process the words. "Yeah. I'll just - I'll get a jacket."
"We're going outside?" Daichi asked, his eyebrows raised.
Asahi shrugged. "I want to - talk, while we," he said, and then shrugged again. Maybe it was giving him more room to run away, or he could leave when he wanted to - or Daichi and Suga could, his mind told him, and Asahi was trying not to panic as much as he wanted to. "Outside," he said.
Daichi squinted at him. "Okay," he said, as Asahi began to get his jacket and scarf and earmuffs.
Asahi tugged his overcoat on, and then remembered - Daichi standing here, how much Asahi wanted to touch him, to feel every bit of him. But also -
"Happy birthday," Asahi said to him. "Sorry, I - "
"Oh, yeah," Daichi said, like he'd forgotten. Under ordinary circumstances Daichi definitely would've berated him, but right now Daichi just kept glancing between his phone and Asahi. "Thanks," Daichi said. "Happy birthday to you, too."
Asahi shuddered. "We're the same age as Suga now."
"I shouldn't miss Suga's birthday next time," Daichi said.
Asahi thought he might make some comment about what he - Daichi had missed, last time during Suga's birthday, though Asahi realized that Daichi didn't even know, even though Asahi wasn't sure what had happened then either, but it was definitely something, both Suga and he knew.
Asahi said, "I wouldn't want you to," and blushed, thinking about what it would be like waking up in between them - pressed close together, not in their own sleeping bags.
Daichi cocked his head with interest. "Asahi? Did you want to - "
"I'm here," Suga said, appearing at Asahi's open doorway and panting breathlessly. "You guys left the door open? You're letting the cold into your house, Asahi."
"Sorry," Asahi said by instinct, but he was already ready to go and was getting to close the door. "I - Outside then?"
"Okay," Suga said, stepping back and letting Daichi and Asahi join him on Asahi's front porch.
Asahi closed the door, and noticed Suga and Daichi watching him. "Can we," Asahi said, gesturing vaguely in front of them. He didn't want to do this in his house - so close, and last time, that hadn't been - that hadn't gotten over well.
Daichi and Suga seemed to be something along the same lines, because they nodded and started off. Asahi breathed through his mouth, watching the cold air turn to wisps in front of his face, still freezing.
Daichi laughed when he saw Asahi shiver. "Your tolerance for the cold hasn't gotten better?"
"He's still growing," Suga said to Daichi. Then, smiling at Asahi, "We all are."
His smile was bright, as was the snow around them, as was the sun shining through the clouds. Asahi's heart missed a step, and he swallowed and said, "Um, yeah."
"It's not that cold out," Daichi said, though his tone was teasing and his gaze was fixated on Asahi, like he was waiting for a reaction. Suga looked like he was waiting, too - Asahi realized they were waiting for him.
They may have been waiting for him after all these days. Asahi wondered how long they would - not just for this, but for the future. For everything - volleyball, getting themselves back together - he wondered if Daichi and Suga had hooked up again after they'd talked about it, it being in the open, without him, or -
"I'm not alone, am I?" Asahi blurted, stopping suddenly.
Suga blinked at him. "Alone?"
"You're not," Daichi said immediately, though his eyebrows were furrowed like he didn't understand what Asahi was saying.
Asahi shook his head. "I'm just - " he said. "I don't want to be alone, I don't want to think that you two - "
"There is no us two," Suga said immediately.
"Really," Daichi added. "You're not alone, Asahi."
"Because," Asahi said, and then bit his lip. "Because I don't either of you to think that - I don't want the - " He flailed his arms helplessly, and then between the two of them. "I don't have to pick, do I?"
"Pick between what?" Daichi said blankly.
But Suga seemed to get the idea. He smiled at Asahi, and slipped one of his hands into Asahi's like it belonged there. "Of course you don't," he said. "When we woke up on my birthday last year, I realized that there wasn't - there wasn't just one of you."
"Suga," Daichi said, annoyed.
Suga swiveled to him. "He means between picking between the both of us, duh," he said, before elbowing Asahi with the arm that had the hand Asahi was holding. "Right?"
"Right," Asahi said, and then looked straight at Daichi, who was staring at the two of them. "The three of us together - that's what I want," he said, to Suga, to Daichi. "Not just - friends, but when we - like sleepovers."
"Sleepovers," Daichi repeated.
Suga rolled his eyes. "Oh, give him a break," he said to Daichi. "You know what he means."
"I suppose," Daichi said, though he was getting closer to them. Asahi saw him take Suga's hand, saw Suga squeeze, and nothing had felt more right. "This isn't just something we're not going to talk about, is it?"
"If by that you mean we are going to talk about it," Suga said, and Asahi laughed.
"I - didn't know how to say it before," he admitted. "I thought - I didn't think you would both - "
"We know what you mean," Daichi told him. "There's just something better, isn't there?"
"About us?" Suga laughed too. "Definitely. I don't know about either of you - "
"I feel the same," Asahi said quickly, before he messed something up this time, before something got lost in translation.
But Suga beamed at him, and Daichi did too, and Asahi didn't feel like he needed to wait for the summer, or their next birthdays, to feel this together and warm. "I think we should have a sleepover tonight," Suga said, and this time squeezed Asahi's hand. "To make up for the both of your birthdays."
*
(12-13/13)
"Occupied!" Suga called.
"I know," Asahi said; Suga had announced rather unceremoniously that he'd needed to go to the bathroom just minutes ago. "Daichi and I were just wondering if you minded taking the middle."
"Why would I take the middle?" Suga said. "It's your birthdays."
"You're the guest," Asahi tried to protest back. "And there can't be two of us in the middle."
"You two figured it out," Suga said through the door.
Asahi made his way back to Suga's bedroom. Daichi was sitting on Suga's mattress, and said, "So?"
Asahi shook his head. "He wanted us to pick," he said.
Daichi slung Suga's sleeping bag in the middle of his and Asahi's. "Suga's in the middle, then," he said.
Asahi yelped, though he didn't know what to do - he and Daichi had already arranged their sleeping bags as so. "I mean, he said that he shouldn't be in the middle, because it'd been our birthdays," he said.
Daichi rolled his eyes. "Well, yeah. But we can't both be in the middle."
"That's what I tried to tell him," Asahi said.
Daichi patted Suga's sleeping place cheerfully. "So Suga's in the middle then," he said. "If you're okay with that."
"Of course," Asahi said quickly.
Daichi just laughed and then he was standing up, close to Asahi - and they'd done this earlier, both nearly a year ago and today - but Asahi was sure he'd never tired of it. Daichi licked into his mouth, chaste and wet and certainly enough.
Asahi's eyes were closed when Suga's voice said, "Oi, don't do anything without me."
Asahi rushed to pull back, but Suga was grinning at them. His eyes were dark with interest, as Daichi said, "It took you long enough."
"Yes, sorry I occupy a functioning body." Suga rolled his eyes, then glanced and did a double-take at Asahi's dresser. "Asahi, what's this?"
"What?"
Suga was gesturing to a photo Asahi had propped up on his dresser - a picture of him, Asahi, and Daichi, Daichi's arms slung around the both of them, all of them grinning at the camera. It was the same - and Asahi knew it, even though the photo had been up before he knew - identical in Suga's room, in Daichi's.
Asahi knew what he was really looking at though, as Daichi said, "Oh, I have that picture in my dorm, too."
"You forgot to bring it to college," Asahi said. "Your sister told me."
"I like to keep it as a reminder of high school," Daichi said. "And of other stuff."
But Suga had his eyes narrowed, and said to Asahi, "You didn't break into my room and steal this from me, did you?"
"No," Asahi said quickly. The photo was in a frame - identical to the one that Asahi had given Suga for his birthday, but not the same. "I'd just - I wanted us to match - "
"What!" Daichi squawked. "You guys have matching photo frames?"
"Are you serious?" Suga said.
Asahi looked between them and nodded. He was blushing, he knew; now Suga was just grinning at him, and strode over Asahi's room and gave him a quick peck on the lips.
"You're cheesy," he said to Asahi.
"I thought it'd be nice," Asahi insisted, even though Suga had give him another kiss, on the jaw.
"You're too earnest," Daichi told him. "I want one too. This is what I want as my belated birthday present."
"I should just get it for you tomorrow," Asahi said.
Suga sat next to him, but reached over his body to press a kiss on Daichi's mouth, too. "Or next week," he suggested. "Not that soon."
"Soon," Daichi said petulantly. "You're not allowed to be matching without me."
"Ugh," Suga said, pulling away. "Did either of you brush your teeth? I'm getting an aftertaste."
"That's what you get for jumping too quickly," Daichi told him.
"I don't mind the taste," Asahi said, and Daichi grinned and curled his body over so that his and Asahi's mouths could meet too.
Suga whined, "Hey, you guys should brush your teeth. I mind the taste."
"We don't care," Daichi said, but Asahi was already getting up and heading out of his room.
"We do," Asahi called behind him. "Daichi, let's go to the bathroom."
"I can't believe you guys are planning things without me," Suga said, though his tone was teasing and he was following Daichi out anyway. "Kissing, going to the bathroom - "
"I don't think you want to be there when we go to the bathroom," Daichi said to him.
"Of course I do," Suga said, following him in. Asahi was already getting the toothpaste on his toothbrush, then handing the tube to Daichi. Daichi took it; they exchanged a grin in the mirror. "Why would I want to miss any of this?"
"I can think of a few reasons," Suga said, and Daichi smeared toothpaste on his collarbone, and Suga yelped, and Asahi laughed through his toothbrush so hard that he only barely managed not to choke.
*
They were all still awake some hours later, some time after they had returned from the bathroom and Suga had pointed out that there was no point for them to spread their sleeping bags all over the floor, even though Asahi's bed was not nearly big enough to fit all of them, but they tried, anyway. They were squeezed together, laughing a bit, even Daichi, who was in the middle and his shoulder kept bumping into Asahi's mouth.
Suga said into the dark, "You have to come visit us, Asahi."
"At university," Daichi added.
"I want to," Asahi said. He felt warm - inside and out - even though it was a cold winter. "Alone?"
"Yes," Suga said, at the same time Daichi said, "No." Asahi heard a cuff - probably Daichi on Suga's arm - and Suga laughed. "What other choice does he have?"
"We all have to meet up, together" Daichi said. "Usually."
"It's not like Asahi can visit us every weekend," Suga said.
"I can try," Asahi said with bravado, and both Daichi and Suga snorted this time. "I can! I have the money, I can - "
"We won't make you do that for us," Daichi told him, rolling over onto his back.
"I want to," Asahi said.
Both of them were quiet; then Suga punched Daichi's shoulder. Asahi could see it in the dim light of the outside, a bit of the moon shining through his window, and he propped up onto his shoulder. "Look, we underestimated him," Suga said, and Daichi laughed, chest shaking with glee.
There was a pleasant warmth all around Asahi's middle, and it felt like it was threatening to burst and Asahi would let it. Waking up - sleeping with - sharing a space with Daichi and Suga was much better than the morning after Suga's birthday.
Though, Asahi realized, that hadn't been that good too.
"You have to help me clear out the garden at my house tomorrow," Suga was saying. "The snow there - it's ridiculous."
Daichi rolled his eyes and looked up at Asahi. "He only wants us for our muscles," he said.
"I have muscles," Suga said.
"Suga does have muscles," Asahi said, mostly to Daichi who's lips twitched.
"So that means we won't help him tomorrow," Daichi said.
Suga whacked his bare shoulder again. "You will," he insisted, and both Asahi and Daichi laughed. Then, "We can shower together afterward."
"Stop being suggestive," Daichi said, as Asahi felt his whole body heat up - and Daichi could surely feel it, he was pressed up against him. "You're making Asahi blush."
"Maybe that's my goal," Suga said.
"You're both blushing too," Asahi said, glancing between their faces in the evening light.
"We are not," Daichi said, blushing. "You're the blushing one. You get embarrassed easily the most."
"I do not," Asahi said, and then Daichi was tackling him. They were a mess of limbs and kisses, and Suga said, "I'm embarrassed for the both of you."
The night was a mess of things - happy things, like they were in another world and Asahi could barely believe that there was a place outside his bedroom, where he and Daichi and Suga were, joined together like puzzle pieces on his bed, too tight but maybe just right. It was dark, but also so bright, and sleeping had never been so easy and comfortable before tonight.
*
And then they were at the train station, and they weren't kissing because Tanaka and Nishinoya and Yamaguchi and all the others were seeing them off too, but Asahi kept glancing at Suga and Daichi and saw the same thing in their eyes - that they didn't want to go, that they'd see each other soon.
They were like a circuit, buzzing perfectly, and Asahi didn't know what the future would hold.
"We're going to be at college soon too!" Tanaka was saying, and Suga broke his gaze from Asahi's to react.
"Oh no," he laughed. "We better watch out."
"We'll be city boys too, right?" Ennoshita said to Tanaka, who said something about texting Taketora from Nekoma, after the spring match. Asahi was going to practice with them as usual; he was going to be working with Shimada-san and Takinoue-san as usual; he was going to go at his own pace, and so were Daichi and Suga.
They'd already made plans to meet up two weeks from now, and Asahi couldn't wait.
As the first and second years bid their goodbyes, Nishinoya turned to Asahi. "So!" he said loudly to Asahi. "Did you tell the people you liked you were interested in them? Do I get credit for giving you advice?"
Asahi turned beet red as Suga and Daichi turned to them curiously. "I, um," he said.
Daichi came over and slung his arm over one of Asahi's shoulders. "Who were you going to talk to?" he asked Asahi. "I hope they're cute."
"I hope they're sane," Suga said, before going to say something to Yamaguchi.
Nishinoya looked between Asahi and Daichi and Suga with a grin, before throwing his head back and laughing loudly. "I'm joking!" he said, though Asahi highly doubted it. "About the credit thing - you did say something, though, right?" His eyes were twinkling, like he knew the answer.
"Thanks you to, I guess," Asahi said.
Daichi tightened his grip around Asahi's neck and gave him a little squeeze. "You don't have to give Nishinoya credit for anything."
Nishinoya puffed his chest. "I deserve credit for everything."
"Don't you think I deserve credit too?" Asahi said.
"You deserve credit for existing," Daichi told him.
Suga came over to them, bumped shoulders with Daichi. "Hey," he said to Daichi, before the rest of them; his gaze lingered on Asahi's, and Asahi smiled. "Our train's coming, we should go."
"You're going off to college again," Tanaka sobbed dramatically. "And Kiyoko-san didn't even come to visit - "
"I visited her," Yachi interrupted.
Tanaka and Nishinoya turned on her. "What?"
As they pestered the cowered Yachi for questions, Asahi said to Daichi and Suga, "We - I'll see you soon, then." Daichi and Suga's train was coming in, their hair whipping as the air gusted around them.
"Obviously," Suga said.
Daichi gave Asahi one last - a real hug. "We can't wait for you."
"I hope you can," Asahi said, and he and Daichi and Suga all smiled at each other - they'd kissed their fill earlier, the past days, the past evenings. Daichi and Suga were going to go back to their classes, Asahi was going to go back to his life - but they were all on the same path, had time for each other.
Then Daichi and Suga were boarding the train, and Asahi was waving along with the rest of the Karasuno volleyball team. "Bye," Asahi said, as the train took off towards the city - and it was a promise for something bigger, for them.