Chapter Text
Prompt= “Hey, hey, don’t fall. I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.”
Chapter Text
Takeda had extreme depression. His life hit a rocky patch, and even though he clung to the lifeline, the rope was slowly coming apart. His thread, his connection, was fraying.
A while ago, he had dreamed of marrying the man of his dreams. Ukai Keishin, his boyfriend of 2 years.
“Hey, are you okay?” A sympathetic voice snapped him out of his trance. Takeda turned to look at Ukai.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Why? Do I look not okay?” Takeda placed his hand over his beating heart in mock betrayal.
Ukai lightly chuckled at his childish reaction. “Now I never said that! You just seem, well…” Ukai had always struggled to find the proper words in situations like this.
“Out of it?” Takeda finished for him. The literature teacher had never been overly good with words, but not as bad as Ukai.
“Yes, that’s it, forgive my bad grammar. I guess I’m a bit off today as well, huh” Ukai joked.
Takeda only laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. It’s just stress and, well… you know the deal.”
Ukai suddenly became very, very worried. “Is it bad? How long? Do you need anything? Just let me know! How can I help?”
Takeda just sighed. “Well for one thing, it’s not bad enough that I’ve completely collapsed yet. Two, it’s been around 45 minutes”
Ukai’s eyes widened at this but said nothing.
“Three, I’m alright for now, and four, just you being here is enough for me”.
Ukai silently nodded but still got up to make a pot of tea and on his way back into their shared living room, he grabbed a pillow and blanket just in case. He briskly grabbed two mugs and poured the roasted dandelion tea into two mugs for himself and Takeda.
What he saw when he got back shocked him to his core.
Takeda was curled up in his favorite chair, silently crying to himself. He shuffled a bit but looked up when he heard Ukais footsteps.
“O-oh! Keishin, I didn’t see you there. Haha, I must seem pretty pathetic right now, huh. Why do you put up with me? I mean, I’m just a bothersome dumbass, right.”
Ukai almost dropped the glasses at that. Why would someone as wonderful as Takeda ever think that about himself? Ukai knew he had bad self esteem issues, but it was never this bad.
“Ittetsu, why would you think that about yourself? You’re a wonderful person, anyone will agree. Ask the team, I guarantee you they can name at least 50 different things each.”
Takeda sighed. “Well, that is where I have to disagree. I can hear, Keishin. I know people talk. I know they talk about me, the pathetically inadequate volleyball advisor. I know they ridicule me for being gay. I know.”
With everything going on, these words made Ukai’s heart shatter into millions of fragments. He briskly walked over to his boyfriend, his lifeline, his one and only.
Takeda gasped as Ukai lightly grabbed his face and pulled him into a kiss. It was a soft kiss, one of the light ones that made Takeda’s heart go wild. They broke apart and Ukai looked him in the eye.
“Please, Ittetsu, snap out of it. So what if people talk? I swear, I will be your lifeline. I will pull you out of the tough points in your life. I will always be here for you.”
They pulled each other into a hug. They stayed like that until Takeda fell asleep, and Ukai set him down on the couch.
He placed the blanket over him and set the pillow under his head, placing a chaste kiss to his cheek then pulling away to put away the tea mugs.
—————————————————————————
The next day, Ukai woke up to a shock. Takeda wasn’t in bed, which was expected since he was asleep on the couch, but when Ukai went to the living room, Takeda wasn’t there.
He looked around, but then he saw the corner of a paper underneath a couch pillow. His eyes widened as he realized what it was.
‘Oh shit, no no no this can’t be happening’ Ukai thought to himself. The paper was folded, the inside contained a suicide note.
Dear World,
I’d like you to know this was for a reason. You can find my body below the edge of the roof at the Hampton Inn on Raeford Rd. I have a few things to say. To the Karasuno volleyball team, great job guys. I hope you get to Nationals again! That'd be great. I know you can do it. No one can call you the Clipped Crows now. To my mom and dad, I love you guys but please be less homophobic. I couldn’t deal with it any longer, obviously. And to my dearest Keishin, don’t take this too harshly. Please don’t mourn, accept my decision please. I want you to know that I love you and thank you for keeping me alive for an extra year.
Goodbye,
Takeda Ittetsu
Ukai ran outside to his car, and briskly drove to the Hampton Inn. He bustled up the staircase to the roof, when he turned to face his loved ones back. Takeda was standing on the edge, looking down into the bushes.
“Ittetsu, please don’t do this. I beg you.”
“Oh, Keishin. Fancy seeing you here!”
“Step away from the edge, please.” Ukai pleaded.
Takeda smiled a grim, bittersweet grin through the tears. He turned back around and spread his arms, about to take the dive when Ukai grabbed his arm.
Ukai pulled Takeda away from the edge, grabbing him into a hug and slowly sitting down. This moment was not unlike the night prior, with Ukai lightly combing his fingers through Takeda's tangles hair while Takeda cried and grasped onto Ukai, his lifeline.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You didn’t fall, you’re safe now. I’m here.”
Ukai gently pushed his lips onto his lovers, slowing the shaky sobs and tears coming from Takeda. They smiled at the bitter sweetness of the moment, and Ukai walked Takeda down into the building and away from the disaster our hotel, away from Raeford Road, and to their apartment where they could forget and improve from the traumatic experience.