Chapter Text
Sugawara took unpredictability to be one of the merits of life. In contrast to Asahi’s meek pessimism and Yui’s passionate optimism, he found there was always some room for a middleman: you could equally fail and succeed. It was a philosophy that hadn’t always stayed true to, but one that stubbornly kept him both grounded and confident through his disaster of a life.
The best part was probably how it made destructive situations seem like a passing tumbleweed. A twenty foot tumble weed. Made out of barbed wire. Sometimes. But passing nonetheless. Sugawara, in his infinite war with fate, had encountered a good number of such tumble weeds in his life: his first year of high school, his cheating college boyfriend, sudden calls from his dad, and other ungodly titles.
Though the one thing that could compete with that was how much better it made watching other people go through their plights.
“I’m going to throw up,” Yui groaned.
Sugawara handed her a water cup. This time, Asahi didn’t protest; it seemed as if they both agreed that Yui’s two-hour bridal makeup was less important than the risks of her tossing cookies at the altar. This, of course, does not make his other best friend any less worried.
“Y-Yui, come on,” Asahi stammered as Yui downed the water like her bachelorette party beer. “You’ve known Ennoshita for seven years! Suga and I are… are very aware of how dedicated you are to each other.”
“How else could a man you got banned from a grocery store in his first year of college ask you to marry him?” Sugawara commented cheerily. He rubbed his chin in false contemplation. “It’s like a harlequin novel: She left him… poor and starving… He resented her with a burning passion… one that would soon turn on the both of them… until death do them part.”
“Koushi, shut up!” Yui punched him in the chest, but not hard enough to ruin his suit. She did look significantly less like she was about to cry, however. A+, Sugawara.
“Hey, we both know your love story is much cheesier than that,” Sugawara assured her, kneeling next to her vanity chair. “Just regard the whole fight to be a typical boy-meets-girl scenario. Ennoshita loves films; he knows the risks of the fleeing-the-altar scenario. They usually end really tragically. He wants better for you than that.”
“But what if he wants artistic flare!? Remember Enchanted? They were engaged for ten years and they still broke up!” Yui stared hard into the vanity mirror, terrified.
“Well that kind of thinking,” Sugawara interrupted, “is not one of the Michimiya Yui I know.”
“Suga’s right,” Asahi managed to say to a startled Yui, which was impressive considering Sugawara’s mood. “You’re not going to be holding that Michimiya title for much longer. You can’t leave it a bad name.”
Yui sucked in a breath as Sugawara continued proudly. “What happened to the determined woman who was going to look back at her poor college self and shove in her face that ‘Hey! I married that lowly freshman moron from the grocery store and he damn right loves me!’ Unquote.”
Yui blushed wildly at the echo, but it blew away in the instant a fire lit in her eyes. With one last deep breath, she smacked her cheeks painfully hard that Sugawara could feel the sting. “Like I wouldn’t accept anything less!” she yelled. “I… I will not walk out of this church a Michimiya tonight!” And Asahi gave the most tremendous sigh of relief.
“That’s I like to hear,” Sugawara said with his most brilliant grin. “Now, if you want, Asahi is going to make sure you stay that way while I go steal you some of your own wedding cookies.”
Yui whined something incomprehensive, and the moment Sugawara was sure Asahi wasn’t going to object to the sudden job, he escaped.
All things considered, he was absolutely sure Ennoshita wouldn’t leave Yui at the altar, he knew him too well for that (as Sugawara made sure of). The groom was probably crying in panic onto his best man right now and Nishinoya was probably making it worse with every word.
Sugawara sighed. He felt so exhausted. He couldn’t imagine what it was like getting married. Yui always said he would have the easiest wedding ever since all he needed was to get him and his lovely hubby—probably some doctor or a business owner by her predictions— in a couple of fancy suits and grab some marble cake someone’s mom probably made, wasn’t that what guys did?
It sounded really sad when she said it.
Well, it’s not like I would make it easy for Ennoshita to leave her. Sugawara suppressed a laugh at his now-far-off college memories. He didn’t think he would make it to the point where he would be surveying wedding halls for illegal cookies to feed to his best friend, the bride. It seemed like only yesterday Asahi was helping him write an essay over Yui’s death cycle of veterinary classes, and now they were 27 and suffering through their particularly regular adult lives.
Though so much has changed, he thought, making his steps slow. Sugawara shook the feeling off quickly and sped back up. If he so much as thought about it, he wouldn’t be able to stop. That wasn’t what he needed right now. He needed to help Yui, get his act together, and make sure this wedding went off without any unpredicted disasters—
“Ow! Oh, god—” Contrary to his intentions, Sugawara didn’t focus enough to stop himself from crashing into the man right around the corner. He stumbled, failed to regain balance, and didn’t refocus until a strong hand grabbed him and set him upright again. Sugawara was in such a daze that it took him a couple moments to actually register the face of the man in front of him.
“Hey, are you okay?” The guy said, and wow, he looked… absolutely horrible.
“Yes…?” Sugawara said, as if he shouldn’t be the one asking that question, not when the man before him looked more as if he were about to walk into a grave than down an aisle. His voice was ragged, his hair was a mess, and Sugawara had to count the bags under his eyes. But when he looked up, it was like looking into the sun itself. Sugawara took a moment to clear his throat. “Do you need to sit down?”
“What?” The man said, as surprised as he could be in such a drained state. Watching him try to smile was like trying to watch a fish breathe air. “I’m completely fine! I’m just here to watch a wedding. Make a speech at some point. I…” He bit his lip, lost. “I…”
“Sit down,” Sugawara told him sternly, and when he didn’t, Sugawara pulled him down into a nearby bench. “Much better,” he said with his best smile as the other man blinked awake.
“What was I doing?” he asked, confirming Sugawara’s suspicions.
“Telling me about the amazing speech you made for my best friend’s wedding,” Sugawara told him and fought to hide his laughter.
The man’s expression crumbled. “Wait, you’re… But Nishinoya was Ennoshita’s… Or, oh my god, am I not keeping up with social circles again—”
“I’m best friend of the bride, stupid,” Sugawara sighed, with a light cuff to the man’s scruffy head. “Hey, I’ve got a bride I have to send down the aisle in about an hour, and I need you to see how amazing she is before you find some decent sleep. Where’s your wallet?”
“My what?” The man only gave him a confused look, and close to panicked.
“Nevermind, here.” Sugawara fished a decent amount of money out of his own wedding suit stash and shoved it into the guy’s chest. When he tried to protest, Sugawara only let go with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it! The nearest convenience store is about a ten minute walk from here and I want you to have some of that sludge. Do you have anyone you can send to get some for you?”
“Um…” The man only made a horrid, reluctant face. “My younger brother. But he’s…”
“Daichi!”
The man— who finally had a name, thank god— jumped and turned to a tall, terrifying boy lurking at the other end of the hallway. Sugawara felt his heart drop to his feet as he stared at the two of them with icy eyes and a presence that could fill a gymnasium. But despite his dark looks, Sugawara’s fear quickly subsided in that he was, one, a teenager, and two, being directly challenged by Daichi next to him.
“Tobio, don’t yell in the halls!” Daichi hissed, and met to face him. “We can’t screw this up for Ennoshita. I promised him I’d be ready.”
“Shut up, you’re the one who was invited,” the teenager hissed.
Daichi shook it off and glared hard. “Stop acting as if you weren’t invited.”
“Honestly, I think Ennoshita will see worse than people yelling in the halls,” Sugawara commented, side-eying Daichi. “Like guests who show up half-dead.”
Daichi flinched. “That’s not…”
“You’re Tobio, right? Are you his brother?” Sugawara asked the teenager.
“Um.” Tobio appeared to be caught off-guard by Sugawara for some reason. He thought hard about his next answer, as simple as it should have been. “Yeah. Why, what do you want?”
“For you to buy your brother bad convenience store coffee.” Sugawara took the money from Daichi and handed it to Tobio, much to their surprise. “And quickly.”
Tobio stared down at the money as if Sugawara had just handed him a gun and told him to shoot his brother. What kind of family was this? “Tobio,” Daichi said, obviously trying to be less embarrassed than he already was.
“Who is this?” Tobio snapped back.
“Now would be nice,” Sugawara said before Daichi could answer. He gave Tobio a push toward the exit. “Well? Hurry up, and help me take care of your brother. I’m not delaying my best friend’s wedding for you.”
Tobio stared at him for a few more seconds, but at a loss of words, he made his escape. Sugawara sighed with relief. Mission successful. He turned back to the man next to him, who was staring at him as if he had just pulled off a miracle.
“Maybe next time you’ll think twice about going to a bachelor party organized by Nishinoya,” Sugawara told him with a snicker.
The look on Daichi’s face told him everything he needed to know. “I… I don’t have an excuse for that, honestly.”
“Nobody does, that’s why I decided to stay with the bride yesterday,” Sugawara admitted, and then his smile turned more genuine. “Don’t think too much about it, really! I’m sure Ennoshita’s happy you came, even if it is by the skin of your teeth.” Oh, that reminded him. “I’m on a different mission right now.”
“If you’re busy, I think I’m going to be fine,” Daichi told him, though still flustered from the sudden events. “You’ve already done enough to help. As long as the coffee doesn’t taste like it came out of a truck.”
“No promises,” Sugawara told him, hoping he was right. With one last wink, he waved and said, “I’ll hopefully see you around, but Yui first.”
“Hopefully,” Daichi echoed with the first smile Sugawara had seen him manage, and wow, was it stunning. It took all of Sugawara’s effort to turn and walk away.
Yui first, he told himself as soon as he turned the corner and fought the blood rushing to his face. Yui first, Yui first, Yui first…
It worked. The wedding went off without a hitch, vows were made, Ennoshita cried, and they managed to safely escort everyone to the reception building without any major incident, so any destruction anyone had been waiting for could happen at the reception itself.
Sugawara was excited.
In all, very few people were actually worried about what chaos would happen at the wedding reception, Yui and Ennoshita were too drunk in each other to care about how drunk everyone else was getting, the speeches, as Sugawara had designed his own to be, were wonderfully horrible to both the bride and groom, and Yui promised there would be a piñata for the sake of not turning 30. That received a lot more positive attention than a room full of adults should have given.
And Sugawara nearly fell out of his seat when a revived Daichi stepped back onto stage with a bright and healthy face.
He looked amazing. His dulled eyes were a bright gold, accompanying the bright, kind glow of his grin. Sugawara couldn’t take his eyes off of him, from the shifting expressions on his face as he went through his speech, how he could go from friendly to sinister in a moment, to the bold air of confidence that filled the room as he spoke. It was exactly what Sugawara needed, and it was almost terrifying how well Daichi could pull it off.
Asahi might have noticed and given him the most pitiful expression. Sugawara hid his face behind the program instead.
Relaxation finally came in the form of dancing, albeit not the participation of it. It was something Sugawara had never found enjoyment in and wasn’t planning to for as long as he could avoid it.
Sugawara took one look at Yui’s face, looking as lovely as it could be in her joy, and sunk back in his chair with relief. The last few months had been the worst in more ways than one, so he allowed himself to relish in at least this. It was enough, even at the price of his own envy. Not to mention he would have to have an apartment all to himself now.
“You should dance with her, Suga,” Asahi told him from his designated seat, as the only one left at his table. His smile was anything but relaxed, but Sugawara could tell he was trying to help.
“Do you remember the last time I fake-danced with Yui?” Sugawara asked his other best friend, and Asahi grew pale. “You were better, you should steal her from her husband.”
“But you should still…”
“I have cake, go shove aside Ennoshita before we have to watch them leave for their honeymoon,” Sugawara teased, though Asahi wouldn’t ever do it that aggressively, no matter what his appearance said. He was like a big bear. A very fragile bear made of porcelain. “Or you could dance with someone else. Like Saeko, or your favroite…”
“S-Suga,” Asahi stammered. “I know from the look on your face who you’re going to suggest and please, please, please don’t.”
“Then go dance with Yui,” he told Asahi, who sighed, got up, and did just so. More politely and with less dramatics, as Asahi was. It was a beautiful sight.
“Hey.”
Well, it looked as if he wasn’t allowed to be alone with his feelings. But that thought immediately fled him the moment he turned in his seat and saw a familiar teenager.
“Tobio?” He said. “Oh, yeah, good job on getting your brother his coffee! He looked much—”
“I don’t know if you care but Daichi thinks you’re really hot,” Tobio told him in the most monotone, stone-cold voice he could muster, growled, and then crossed his arms, leaving Sugawara as terrified and confused as before.
“Wha… What?” Sugawara stammered.
“That’s—!” On cue, Daichi rushed into view and shoved Tobio out of Sugawara’s frame of vision, only to immediately be met with resistance. “That is not true at all, shut up Tobio,” he said as he pushed back against his teenage brother.
“Well you weren’t going to talk to him! So I did!” Tobio snapped back angrily.
“Oh, why don’t you go back to asking bystanders if they know how to jump serve,” Daichi shot back, and Tobio took a step forward.
“You play volleyball?” Sugawara cut in, desperate to keep this from escalating any further.
It was like magic, it was almost scary. “Do you play?” they both said, turning to Sugawara at once.
“What did you play as?” Tobio asked, getting right into his face. “Do you know how to jump serve? Daichi doesn’t and he’s the one who taught me how to play, how stupid is that?”
“You just don’t know when to shut up, do you?” Daichi warned, but Sugawara waved him aside.
“I was a setter.” Tobio’s eyes lit up like stars. Daichi looked as if he was doing his best not to do the same. “But no, I don’t know. I stopped in the middle of college, but I’ve been playing since high school. It’s something Yui, Asahi, and I have always been into since then.”
“You’re… You’re Sugawara-san then, aren’t you?” Daichi said, cutting off whatever Tobio was about to ask next, much to Sugawara’s surprise. “That Sugawara-san, you’re Michimiya’s best friend, well, I guess she would be Ennoshita now, but… I can’t believe I didn’t gather… Agh, dammit.”
“I don’t think you were in the best of conditions to be remembering who the bride’s best friend is anyway,” Sugawara scoffed. “But I would be Sugawara Koushi, that’s right. But some people call me Suga.”
“Sawamura Daichi,” Daichi introduced, and bumped shoulder with the teenager next to him, “and my brother, Tobio.”
“Sawamura Daichi,” Sugawara echoed. Where had he heard that before? He hoped he didn’t sound too wistful. Luckily, the only one who noticed was Tobio, which turned out to not be such a lucky thing at all.
“Daichi, sit down,” Tobio said.
“No,” Daichi said back automatically.
In one sudden movement, Tobio shoved his older brother down into Asahi’s empty seat and rushed away before Daichi could recollect himself enough to get back at him. The whole event happened so fast that Sugawara could only watch as Daichi found himself properly seated before him.
“He’s gone,” Sugawara said, and watched as a stressed Daichi brushed his hair back. He looked even better up close, not just on stage, as he should have known already.
“I am so sorry about him,” Daichi said quickly. “It’s just the way he functions. He’s honestly not a bad kid, he just doesn’t think before he acts sometimes.” He paused. “All the time.”
“Daichi, I’m a teacher. And if you think that I could know someone like the people sitting in this room right now for years and be fazed by your brother, then I don’t think I’m the one who has to hear this right now.”
Daichi shook his head. “This shouldn’t be so hard for me. I run a restaurant, and I was captain of a volleyball team and they were full of teenagers, but that was…” He sighed. “It’s a lot weirder when it’s your own brother.”
“A restaurant?” Finally, it clicked. “Wait, you’re that Sawamura! You’re Ennoshita’s boss, I thought you were— hmm…”
Daichi narrowed his eyes. “Thought I was what?”
A lot bigger, fearsome, more likely to rule over a kingdom than a household, but those were Ennoshita’s words and by Yui’s law he couldn’t use them. “Taller?”
“Wha— Just because I am shorter than my younger brother does not mean I can’t run my own restaurant!” Sugawara was too busy laughing at how badly Daichi was blushing to respond. “You’re enjoying this,” Daichi said.
Sugawara gave him a wobbly smirk that was anything but sorry. “Is it true that you think I’m attractive?”
“Well, it would be hard to say otherwise,” Daichi told him without an ounce of shame. Sugawara would be lying if he said it didn’t make him feel mushy inside. “The coffee really helped, even if it tasted like mud. But Tobio just likes to butt in where people start interfering with my life. I don’t think he thinks I’m doing a very good job of it myself.”
“You expect me to disagree with him after the display I saw earlier?” Sugawara asked, and Daichi made a dismissive sound.
“The restaurant is taking an off day today. I was up all night trying to get it ready,” Daichi told him defensively, and then proudly: “We’ve been doing so well lately. Has Ennoshita told you how far we’ve come? It’s like a miracle. Just taking one day off for personal reasons was almost against me, but Ennoshita’s been working with me since way back, I couldn’t just ditch the opportunity to speak at his wedding.”
“A true hero,” Sugawara told him, and at that, Daichi finally laughed. That smile came back, and it seemed to light up the whole room.
“He’s worked hard. I’m really proud of him,” Daichi said, glancing to the man in question fighting Asahi for his new wife. “I might have made him swear to make me the godfather for his and Yui’s first kid since I paid him throughout college.”
“Too late, I made Yui promise to make me godfather when we graduated high school,” Sugawara retorted. “You’re going to have to prove yourself if you want to take away that position from me.”
“If you thought that would scare me away, then you’re very wrong, Sugawara Koushi,” Daichi said with a smirk, eyes flashing. Sugawara swallowed. “For a teacher, you’re very mouthy.”
“It’s part of the charm,” Sugawara said.
“The charm that put you off from visiting my restaurant for the past few years while both of your best friends were frequenting it?” Daichi challenged, mock offense in his voice.
“Well I’m sorry I am neither a chef nor living on a veterinarian’s salary,” Sugawara scoffed, but Daichi only laughed it off.
“I was kidding. But you should eat there. I am promoting to everyone here,” Daichi said proudly. Which was true, it was part of his speech and he didn’t seem regretful of it in the slightest. “But to you especially, since you seem to be the best face out of everyone out here tonight. It’s not every day someone orders me and my brother around to life-saving coffee for a successful wedding. You’re pretty cool.”
If Sugawara weren’t trying his absolute best to be smooth, he probably would have done something incredibly stupid at Daichi’s grin and comments. Maybe fall out of his chair or say something idiotic like “thanks, you have the most wonderful eyes,” or something else about how Daichi seemed more and more like an actual god in front of him than anything. Like the strong lines of his face, or how well his suit fit on him.
“Yeah,” Sugawara said instead, absolutely sure his hands were sweating and doing his best to hide it. Yeah.
And he swallowed back everything he wanted to say after that. Like if Daichi was available. If he wanted to go out sometime. What his favorite movie was or his preferred music, maybe if Sugawara had a chance, because it was scaring him to try. It curled at the put of his stomach and reached the blood rushing to his cheeks. It was so easy to care so quickly and too hard, because that just lead to…
At that moment, they were cut off by the convenient chime of Daichi’s phone. Sugawara, still holding his breath and trying to look as good as possible, waited as Daichi picks up and said, “My ex-girlfriend.”
Sugawara hid how big his sigh of relief was. “Girlfriend?”
Daichi, flustered, was quick to save himself. “Oh, sorry! I turned it off at the beginning of the wedding, but I needed to keep it on for work, you know, and—”
“Go answer it! I mean, I had a boyfriend who wasn’t friendly with me missing calls back when I was in college, and, you know…” He was getting nervous, he could feel it from how hot his neck was getting and the stutter in his tongue. Slip it in there, tell him it was alright, maybe see how he reacted to your sexuality, if…
Daichi, though, barely blinked. In fact, he didn’t react at all. He just gave his sunshine smile and said, “Thanks for everything, Suga,” and then left. Sugawara took in a long, extended breath and completely crumbled the moment Daichi was out of sight.
“Hey, Suga,” Tanaka’s voice came from over him, dead and gone on the table. “I dunno if I should be telling you this, but Yui said if you’re not gonna dance with her then she’ll take your entire stash of Firefly DVDs before she finishes moving out.”
Sugawara picked himself up quickly, and shook off his extra emotions. Tanaka, grinning, smacked Sugawara’s back hard.
“Knew you could do it, buddy! Come on, Noya wants to start the dance off soon and Ennoshita still doesn’t know. We can make it.”
“I hope I go home and remember absolutely nothing that happened tonight,” Sugawara told Tanaka in his most cheerful voice, and then skipped off to save his DVD collection. Yui was absolutely ecstatic.
He did end up remembering, but at that time, it was much better than actually acting on all of his dumb impulses.
He almost ended up catching the bouquet, too, but Yui’s old volleyball teammates had different ideas about that and saved him from a horribly ironic fate.
In the next month, Sugawara did everything he could to throw everything he knew about his old life and replace it with his reinvented new life. He was able to keep all of his DVDs, thankfully, throughout Yui’s entire move, redesigned the apartment for one, tried to throw out everything and anything he could that reminded him of anything that wasn’t relevant anymore, and edited his teaching plans for the next year at least three times.
The changes for the past year had been anything but invalid, but he couldn’t dwell in them any deeper than he had been. His neighbors would laugh at him. That was never fun. So he just worked hard, kept his medicine cabinet tidy, and focused on the needs of 30 children.
And not one failed crush from a wedding. That, he was completely over with, and he was happy about it.
“See ya, Sugawara-sensei!” yelled a tiny voice as the last of the students passed him on his way out of the school. Sugawara waved back as they kicked over the new December snow and met their family at the gates. What terrible creatures to indulge his career in, he thought with an unavoidable smile.
It was a pretty simple day, and those were getting more and more frequent. It was such progress, what a great way to end that year. And just as he was heading out of the gate himself, all of that changed.
“Hey!”
“What!?” Sugawara jumped and stumbled back, and for a minute, he didn’t recognize the boy at the gates. But a second look at those sharp eyes and stiff stance, and it all came rushing back like a forgotten dream. “Wha… Tobio? Sawamura Tobio? What are you doing here?”
Tobio opened his mouth to reply, but stopped short. He buried himself into his big scarf and prim Karasuno gakuran instead, thinking hard and avoiding Sugawara’s eyes. Sugawara, confused, moved to meet his wandering gaze.
“Um… did you need something from me?” he asked helpfully, catching Tobio off-guard.
“I…! Ergh… Not this again…” Tobio grumbled something incomprehensible, and finally, met Sugawara’s eyes straight-on. Unlike every other look he had received from Tobio, this one was pure honesty. “Are you free? I want to talk to you.”
And Sugawara, faced with a troubled teenager and a lifetime of terrible fate, completely forgot about his vow to normalize his life into the next year and the completely influential man he had met at the wedding just a month ago, and said, “Yes, of course.”