Work Text:
Tendou had sensed something was up when the boy from Karasuno joined their friendly that weekend. The weekend volleyball group wasn’t exclusive to Shiratorizawa’s former players and their immediate friends, but it was still highly unusual for a Karasuno boy – especially that annoying silver-haired one -- to join them.
And then he saw how Ushijima was unusually... attentive towards him.
“You like him.” Tendou said pointedly when he caught him alone during a water break. Ushijima was taking his turn at the water fountain and he nearly choked on Tendou’s words, “The last time I saw you with that look in your eye was with Kenjiro back in first year high school. Aw man, what is it with you and pretty boy setters?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Ushijima said when he finished drinking.
“Heck, the boy clearly hasn’t practiced in a while but you’re having him play with us? And you’re coaching him on the side between sets? You aren’t that nice to just anyone.”
Ushijima wiped his mouth, and walked away. Tendou smirked.
Thing is, Sugawara and Ushijima were having a relationship, if one could call it that.
Ushijima had wanted to simply reach out as a friend after that first night, but it was soon clear that they couldn’t be left alone without something happening between them. After the first weekend friendly, Ushijima had offered to drive Sugawara home. The gym that they rented was quite out of the way and Ushijima often brought his own car for convenience’s sake. At some point during the drive, Sugawara had gotten playful, and reached to tease his crotch area. Ushijima quickly found a secluded area to park so Sugawara could finish him off.
After the deed, Ushijima caught his breath as he leaned the car seat back. Sugawara stayed upright, idly gazing out his window at the mountain view.
“That was...surprising.”
Sugawara shrugged, “That last time you got yourself off. I thought I’d do you a favor.”
“I wasn’t expecting a repeat.”
“Oops then. So no more from here?” Sugawara’s eyes grew wide in feigned innocence as his tone became teasing.
Ushijima suddenly found himself tearing off his seatbelt, seized by sudden need. He reached for Sugawara, pulling him in and kissing him hard. Sugawara stilled, surprised at first before giving in and kissing him back. There was just enough room for Ushijima to pull him over to his side so he could drape him over his lap as they continued to make out. Sugawara moaned softly as he clasped and raked his hands over Ushijima’s shirt. Their hips ground against each other, teasing, up until Ushijima stopped himself shy of pulling down Sugawara’s shorts. He pressed his forehead against Sugawara, panting, his hands on his hips.
“Don’t say that.” Was all he could say. “There’ll be more.” There was a pause as Ushijima realized the raw honesty of that admission, masked only by the seriousness of his tone. He quickly added, “So much for not kissing your tricks.”
“You just promised me more than one night. I’ll let that pass.”
Ushijima felt like he should say more, something about not wanting to just fuck, that it’s okay if they hung out from time to time even without the others. But flustered by what just transpired, he eased Sugawara off him and back to the passenger’s seat.
“Will you ever tell me what it is that’s bothering you?” Ushijima had to ask him some days after. They had agreed to meet at the inn after dinner and went straight to business; without so much as a hello, Sugawara had barged into the room they booked, kicking the door closed behind him, and had pinned Ushijima to the wall to fuck. They didn’t even reach the bed till after.
As they wound down, sleeping on their end of the big bed yet again, Ushijima had to ask. He felt a pause from Sugawara before he answered,
“I said goodbye to someone I loved. You know the cliche.”
“Oh.” Was all Ushijima could say. He felt a pang of envy inside him, but couldn’t admit it right then and there. Soon, he heard Sugawara drift off to sleep, snoring lightly.
They need to stop this, Ushijima realized. This would not be good for either of them, not when he was interested in something more than meeting up at odd hours. He wanted to tell him that when they woke up hours later and got ready to leave, but again, words failed him. Out of awkwardness, he didn’t text Sugawara for a while. He didn’t even remind him of the next weekend friendly.
“What happened to your silver-haired crushie, Wakatoshi?” Tendou asked as they hit the bench between sets.
“He won’t be playing with us for a while. He has things to do.” Ushijima replied.
“Hey, you forgot to remind me about the friendly. Can I join the next one?” Read the text from Sugawara some days after.
Ushijima hesitated before he replied. He finally replied a few hours later, “Yeah. There’s one next weekend.”
“Great!” Sugawara's next text read, “Hey, let’s meet up. Tonight? At the inn?”
Ushijima was in the library when he read it. It took him a few more re-reads before he decided.
“Dinner first.” He typed, then paused, and changed the period to a question mark, “Dinner first?” He sent that message instead.
“Okay!” Sugawara replied.
Ushijima breathed a sigh of relief, and returned to his school readings.
Ushijima and Sugawara met for dinner near the inn, at a place called Le Blanc that specialized in coffee and curry. The cafe was quiet, even for the dinner rush hour. The prices weren’t bad for the food, and the middle-aged balding man who prepared their coffee was all too happy to talk a little about the way he prepared the beans for their brew before attending to one other customer in the other booth.
Conversation was relaxed – how their day went, adjusting to college life, and light gossip about some common friends in volleyball. Kageyama and Hinata had been made captain and vice-captains of Karasuno High School’s volleyball club while Oikawa and Kuroo were slowly rising in the ranks of their respective college leagues. Daichi, like Sugawara, left volleyball to focus on his studies and work as he had plans to propose to his high school sweetheart soon.
He liked listening to him, Ushijima realized.
And he also noticed that Sugawara was sneaking glances at a wavy-haired young boy with glasses who was studying by the counter.
Ushijima’s heart sank.
“Would you like to invite him to join us?” He asked.
Sugawara looked at him, “Seriously?”
Ushijima shrugged, sipping his coffee.
“Ushijima? Is something wrong?”
“It’s just... this is my treat, so I was hoping it would be just us tonight.” Ushijima admitted.
Sugawara looked at him curiously, “Was this a date?”
“You didn’t know?”
“You didn’t ask me.”
“I did!”
“You asked me to dinner, not a date.”
“...I shouldn’t have assumed.” While usually he took pride in his height and build, it was times like these where he wished he could shrink and hide somewhere until this all passed.
And just when he thought the night was over and they all lost out, Sugawara spoke,
“Ask me.”
“Huh?” Ushijima balked at him.
“Ask me out now.”
Ushijima knew that look in his eye. It was similar to the when he first came on to the court during the inter-school. Seeing no way around it, Ushijima cleared his throat,
“Will you-- would you like to--”
Sugawara nodded, encouraging him.
“Go out with me?”
“Yes.” Sugawara saw that Ushijima’s eyes lit up for just a second. “I still would have said yes if you asked earlier, if that was what you were worried about.”
“So... what...” Ushijima wondered if Sugawara could see the red creeping up his cheeks, “I guess we’ll go now? Where do you want to go?”
“We did have plans--” Sugawara could see Ushijima’s shoulders sink at his words, “You asked where I’d want to go.”
“I know!” Ushijima suddenly straightened up.
“So why the disappointment?” Sugawara watched him carefully.
“...Since we’re on a date now, is it really proper to go straight to a hotel room alone right after?”
“It’s just a date, Ushijima, nothing else.”
“I-I’m not—!” Realizing that he sounded panicked, Ushijima got ahold of himself, “I don't mean to put a label on us just yet. I won't impose that on you.”
Sugawara took a deep breath. “We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. But we have a room, and I like spending time with you. If you’re really looking for time together, it doesn’t matter if it’s out in the open or behind closed doors, right?”
Ushijima slowly nodded.
Sugawara smiled.
“Now that that’s done, shall we?”
Ushijima realized as they entered that it was the first time they had checked in together. They closed the door behind them, taking the second to get accustomed to how familiar and new their surroundings were.
Sugawara stepped ahead of him and sat at the edge of the bed. But this time, he didn’t make a move to take off his clothes as he usually did. He gestured for Ushijima to sit next to him. Ushijima followed, and a silence passed between them.
“You’ve liked me for a while, huh?” Sugawara asked.
Ushijima exhaled. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking about you since we met again, and not because of...that. But I also really enjoyed ‘that’.”
“Sex? We’re adults, Ushijima. No need to be shy about saying it.”
“That’s the thing.” Ushijima sighed, exasperated and finally tired of appearing like some high school virgin, “I don’t want us to be defined by that. We first reconnected as different people on a dating app as BigBadBoy--” Sugawara couldn’t contain his chuckle as he said that, and even Ushijima had to smile for a bit, “And SwitchySilverfox. I wanted to get us to Wakatoshi and Koushi but you had things to iron out.”
Sugawara was silent.
“I like you,” Ushijima finally admitted, “But I also have a history of being someone that people fall back on when nothing else works out and I don’t want that.”
A pause.
Then he felt Sugawara’s hand move over his hand.
“I’ve pined for the same guy since high school,” Sugawara admitted, “I confessed my feelings to him but he didn’t feel the same way. For the first time in over three years, that is no longer a part of me and I’m still getting used to it.” Slowly, he closed his hand over Ushijima’s, “I want to get to know you better, but I’m also working on that. Will that be alright?”
“That’s fine.”
Ushijima held up their hands and pressed a gentle kiss on Sugawara’s knuckles.
He let go after, and Sugawara reached out to hold his face in his hands – looking intently at him. Ushijima swallowed, feeling his heart race as their eyes met.
Sugawara leaned over and kissed him. His lips brushed against his, gentle and affirming. The tender gesture made Ushijima think of caged butterflies finally being released into the wind. He kissed him back, tempering familiar feelings of desire that threatened to rise to the surface as the kiss lasted. They broke away, and he pulled Sugawara into an embrace. Mischievously, Sugawara pushed him back so they fell on the bed.
Ushijima looked surprised as Sugawara loomed over him. He’s adorable when he’s disarmed, Sugawara realized, and he smiled down at him before they moved further up the bed.
Sugawara snuggled against Ushijima, wrapping his large arms around himself as he did.
“Is it okay if we start here?” He whispered.
“Yeah.” Ushijima whispered back.
He nudged his face towards Sugawara's, still shy out of disbelief, and kissed him again.
And it was just that, kisses, chuckles, soft conversation as they got tangled in each other's arms. That was all that they needed as the night passed.