Chapter Text
Daichi leant on the corral wall, forearms flat against the wooden surface and leaning more on his right leg as he watched the contestants begin to walk around the ring with their Holstein heifers in tow.
He looked for his father, seeing the older man with their heifer and grinning as the older Sawamura met his eyes and smiled.
He switched legs, leaning on his left.
God, his legs were sore, standing still for such a long time made him feel stiff, stiffer than that gate at his father's farm that took the two of them and his father's apprentice to force open.
All of this was new to Daichi, he'd only been on the farm for two months and he was still woefully greenhorn with just about everything other than carrying hay and feed. Even then, he was fairly certain the twine ties weren't meant to snap and cause the bale to implode in his arms.
Adjusting from wrestling his way through crowds to wrestling his way through cattle had been a huge change, and he was already feeling the pressure of the expectation of continuing in his father's footsteps. His father had won countless awards for his farming and show attendance; show winning cows and heifers each year coming from his father's well established dairy cattle bloodline.
It didn't help his father's apprentice, Sugawara Koushi, was a literal tornado in the body of a man who was younger than Daichi but still running rings around him, and most of the time that was him just taking the piss, Daichi didn't want to see him when he actually put effort into succeeding.
Although, Sugawara wasn't representing them today, instead he was observing. But he had his own cattle from his own farm in a later show a few months away, a calf, apparently. Something about liking a challenge.
Daichi looked to the silver haired man who was perched on the wooden corral wall, realising he hadn't actually even asked his age. For all Daichi knew he could be older.
All he did know for sure was his skill was undeniable.
Daichi felt like his father and Sugawara didn't realise just how hard it was to adapt...while grieving his mother, no less. But, Daichi had gone from crying into his pillow to burying his face into his favourite cow's neck. That had to count as something, right?
... Who was he kidding? He rested his forehead on his forearms.
He sucked as a farmer and he sucked as a farmer's son.
And to think his dad wanted him to take part in the show.
He'd lose immediately.
He looked up to see the judge inspecting his father's heifer, quizzing his father and the man replying with a humble confidence and silver words.
Daichi could never even hope to be like that.
"Oi, Daichi," he looked up to the silver haired apprentice, "wipe your cheek, you got a little...something."
Daichi swiped at his cheek, feeling the wetness that was undoubtedly saline.
Fuck.
It was so hard.
He inhaled through his nose and swallowed around the lump in his throat as he ducked his head to look at the dusty corral floor.
"Thanks." God he hated how shaky his voice sounded. Someone impale him on a bull horn before he made an even bigger fool of himself.
"Y'know, you may not think it, but you're doing great."
Daichi looked at the apprentice, cynical words passing his lips, "I might be new to this but I'm definitely not stupid, I know how much I suck."
The apprentice hummed, "you're dad's had much worse newbies," Sugawara looked out at Daichi's father, "and I've grown up on a farm my whole life."
Daichi observed the apprentice's expression, lips pursed around a comically cliché blade of grass as he watched the show in the ring.
"What?"
Sugawara spat the grass from his mouth, "makes my tongue go numb." He thumbed his own chest. "And, this devilish stud of a cattle farmer you see before you was once a kid who nearly got trampled by a heifer!"
"You did?"
"Oh yeah, only, like, seven times."
"Seven times?"
Sugawara hummed, "kid me was stupid."
"How long ago was that?" Daichi asked standing up straight.
"Huh, well, the first was nearly fifteen years ago?" Sugawara hummed. "Like, I was nine, I think? And the last happened just last month."
"Wow...so even after all these years?" So they were the same age...he wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse.
"Yeah," Sugawara smiled, patting the wood beside him and motioning for Daichi to hoist himself up, "you're new, you're grieving, but you're doing a damn good job...so cut yourself some slack. Oh, and another thing, the way Bugsy is with you? You've been hella adopted by her."
"I have?" Daichi jumped up onto the wooden wall, kicking his legs over and sitting beside Sugawara.
"Oh yeah! Totally," Sugawara smiled at him, the duo watching the judge move down the line of heifers and then to Daichi's father again, "she's always the first to the gate to see you and she lets you cuddle her Yeah, I saw you crying on her, but that's okay! I do that too. Bugsy is the most mothering out of the herd, so of course you'd get adopted." Sugawara grinned broadly.
Although Daichi wasn't sure if he wanted to be adopted by a cow that weighed just shy of one-thousand seven-hundred pounds. But...he guessed it meant something if Bugsy wanted to adopt a city kid from over two-hundred miles away.
"Hell, you could probably drink straight from her teat!" He laughed.
Daichi looked him up and down, unsure whether he was serious or not. "I'd...rather not."
He heard Sugawara exhale a breathy laugh, his hands landing on either side of him on the wooden divider, Daichi feeling calloused fingers against the back of his hand but made no attempt to move away.
"Hey, Daichi?"
"Yeah?"
"I wanna go to the big city one day, will you take me?"
"Uh," Daichi hadn't been expecting that, "sure? I guess."
Fuck, now he was thinking about all of his friends back home.
When his mother passed away he began looking for any information on his father, finally meeting him by chance at her newly laid resting place. He'd been so caught up in the fact his father was right there he decided to throw everything he had away to travel almost two-hundred and thirty miles, drop out of his post-graduate degree, leave all of his friends behind. For a dairy cattle farm.
"Hey, looks like your dad won again." Sugawara threw his arms up in a cheer. "Go Sawamuraa!!"
Daichi looked into the ring, the blue ribbon now attached to their heifer's halter and the victorious smile on his father face.
"Go dad!" He cheered, unable to stop his own smile at his father's victory.
“One more thing before we leave,” Sugawara said, jumping down from the wall, “it was a prank, I was cutting the hay bale twine to mess with you,” he was grinning widely now, unabashed joy on his face, then he winked and Daichi's heart stuttered in his chest, “I like me a man covered in hay.”
Daichi felt his face heating up, both at the statement and from embarrassment, Sugawara was already several strides ahead of him now, so all he could do was give chase, hearing Sugawara’s laughter as he did so and finding himself joining in as they went to greet his father from the ring.
Maybe he wasn't doing so bad after all.