Chapter Text
Atsumu wants to wonder why Sawamura suddenly becomes friends with him. But then again, they did sort of rescue each other. Sawamura is a really nice guy, he learns while he’s still trapped in the hospital. He gets along with just about anyone and not because he’s a people-pleaser or because he’s being fake: he’s just naturally that way. He seems like the honest guy you’d be neighbors with, who would get your cat out of a tree, but he isn’t simple. He’s a lot more complicated than that.
The man’s also good at talking. He weaves stories like nobody’s business, telling him funny tales from his high school days, practices with the Raijin, how chaotic Hinata used to be. He tells him about the far-off land of Argentina, his unlikely friendship with that stupid setter Oikawa, his mentality and fear of not being enough which resonates with Atsumu’s own heart.
Atsumu is never alone in the hotel room. His teammates (Sakusa even!), Osamu, Sunarin, Sawamura. Therapy is horrible but his brother is with him all throughout it. During visiting hours, Sawamura spoils him with homemade food and sweets with combinations of ingredients he’s never tasted before.
“ What’s in this curry?”
“Chocolate.”
“BLEH- wait a moment...it’s actually good… ”
And when he was finally discharged, he found himself not wanting to leave Hiroshima. Meian and Foster told him that they’re staying for another three days before they have to get ready for their next game in a month. The reminder makes Atsumu remember the fire again. The burns on his body have healed and faded really nicely thanks to whatever the doctors have given him. Sawamura has a few burns that look like they might lightly scar, especially the one on his jaw.
“Say- is that a missing tooth? Did yer teeth never grow back in?”
“Ah, no. It was the preliminaries for Nationals, the one I beat you in.”
“Mean.”
“Anyway, it was a collision with Tanaka- he was our ace in your third year- but it knocked my tooth out and gave me a pretty nasty bruise.”
And then lunch. Day one. Day two. On day three, the day they leave, he asks the question. He knows that he shouldn’t be so straightforward and assumptive, but he needs to know! He’s going to be in Osaka by tonight. There’s going to be hundred of kilometers between them!
“Hey Daichi?” He asked, for once going with the man’s insistence of calling him by his first name since Atsumu insists upon the same. “Are we...correct me if I’m wrong, but are we dating?” Daichi’s chopsticks freeze in his miso soup. The man looks up and his large eyes look so soft, just like hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day. Why am I doing this ? He thinks. Daichi looks like the guy who’s probably straight. Got a lot of confessions and one or two steady girlfriends before he marries a nice woman, has two children and a dog, grows old, doesn’t really argue…
Except Daichi has proven a lot of that wrong.
He likes dogs, yeah, but he’s allergic so he can’t stay around them for long. He has argued with Atusumu about a thing or two when in the hospital. And he remembers their disagreements on the Day, when Daichi had tried carrying Atsumu out of the burning hotel room. Daichi never got an excessive amount of confessions- he’s gotten all of two: one during valentine’s day of his first year of high school, and another by his close friend Michimiya Yui who plays on the national foot volleyball team or whatever (they’re still friends). He also learned that he’s also never had a girlfriend, rejecting both of them.
Daichi never answered why. Until now.
“I-I mean, if yer straight and I never had a chance-” he begins to ramble. Daichi laughs, leaning forward across the top of the table.
“Atsumu” he says and there’s something with the way he says his name, especially the tsu , that melts Atsumu’s insides. “You know all about my romantic life- there’s a reason that for the three weeks we’ve known each other I told you that. I’m as straight as a volleyball.” Atsumu blinks at him. What ? Daichi sights. “I mean, I’m gay. And, as for the dating part…” Daichi blushes and looks away, back down at his miso. He fiddles the chopsticks.
And Atsumu? He’s smiling.
“You stupid baby cow crow captain” Atsumu says while shaking his head, smile spreading wider and wider. “You’re my night in shining armor.” Daichi looks up with a small huh ? Atsumu folds his hands under his chin. “Is that what you’ve been doing all along, Mura-kun? Have you been trying to make me” he bats his eyelashes, twisting his head “ fall for you?” Daichi’s cheeks burn brighter and Atsumu laughs.
“Sh-shut up” the older man mutters but a shy smile starts to spread across his face. Aw . “But, uh...you could say it was me you fell for you along the way.”
“Nice” Atsumu says, leaning back in his seat. “Just like a shojo. I love it. We’d have ta settle for a long distance relationship, but Suna and Samu are doin’ fine. I say we give it a try.”
“Oho- are you asking me out?” Daichi asks.
“Stop acting so coy” Atsumu says. “Of course I’m askin’ yah out! Have you looked at yourself? You’re...amazing.”
“And so are you.”
The next time the MSBY Black Jackals and the EJP Raijin meet on the court, Daichi keeps his eyes on Atsumu and Atsumu smiles at him. And even though the Raijin loose that time, allowing the Jackals to face of against the Schweiden Adlers, it’s only smiles that are traded after the game, not tears.