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Just after practice ended on Friday, Suga had said goodbye to his team, his boyfriend, Daichi, and hopped on a flight from Miyagi Prefecture to Osaka to visit family. He was staying with his cousins for the next week to celebrate Obon, and would return the next Friday, just shortly before heading off to the Summer Camp that Nekoma was hosting.
He was sad that he would be missing out on summer practices with his team, but they had Kageyama to sit in for him (even though Kageyama did end up playing matches more often then he did, not that he minded). And besides, he was glad to be able to catch up with his relatives, participate in Bon Odori, and release the paper lanterns into a river.
He would have asked Daichi to come, but most of his relatives were not the most.. progressive as he would like. Especially his older relatives. Suga truly loves Daichi, but he also wants to maintain peace with his relatives for now.
Now, Suga was a few days into his stay, laid down, attempting to sleep on a rolled out futon in his older cousin’s room. Normally he would be sharing the room with his cousin, however they were studying abroad so this time he had the room to himself, although sleeping in his cousin’s bed felt weird to him, so he settled for the futon. If he said he was getting good sleep, he’d be lying. Osaka was a pretty busy city in the first place, even if they lived on the outskirts. Plus he didn’t travel to Osaka often, so he wasn’t used to the home he was staying in. And finally, he didn’t have Daichi’s tan, strong, muscular, toned- Suga stopped himself there and covered his blushing face, letting the moment of fangirling pass. Anyways, he didn’t have Daichi’s arms there to fall asleep in, nor a goodnight kiss.
He always adored getting these small tokens of affection from Daichi, but he didn’t realize how much he would miss them until now. Truth be told, these last couple of days were exhausting, and the lack of sleep didn’t help. Suga almost wanted to have a burnout cry and move on, but he didn’t want to wake anyone on accident.
‘Maybe Daichi is still awake right now?’ Suga wondered as he turned, arm propping himself up onto his side.
Suga sat there staring at his phone in the dark, debating firstly, if he should even call Daichi this late into the night, and secondly, what exactly could Daichi do for him.
‘Stupid thought, I don’t want to wake him,’ Suga thought to himself as he laid back down.
Not even five seconds later, he shot back up again, with his arm propped and everything, and grabbed his phone, turning it on.
He always loved just staring at his home screen’s background. It was a picture of him and Daichi during New Years, himself in a kimono with a white nagagi, sky blue haori, and seafoam green hakama. Daichi’s kimono was more simple with a black nagagi, white haori, and black hakama, but boy did it suit him. In one hand, Daichi held up his dango, his other arm securely around Suga’s waist, so that they were hip to hip. Suga held a peace sign between him and Daichi, and a sparkler in his outside arm. The pair were smiling hugely with festival lights and fireworks in the background. Everything about that day, that night, that man was so perfect to Suga. He really didn’t deserve him.
It was only until Suga snapped out of it that he realized he had spent around thirty minutes just staring at the picture, not even reaching out to Daichi yet. Although if Daichi was asleep, Suga guessed that he could settle for just staring at the picture and imagining his voice.
Suga opened his message and sent a simple “Hey, you up?’” to Daichi. Within seconds Daichi replied.
“Yeah why? Is everything okay?”
Suga fiddled with sentences. What should he say? Should he be upfront and tell him that he was having trouble sleeping? Or would that worry Daichi too much? Gosh he’d feel bad if it worried Daichi, that was one of the last things he wanted to do. But, he was in a relationship with him, and weren’t you supposed to be able to tell eachother things?
He must have taken a while trying to figure out what to say, because another text popped up from Daichi.
“Suga?? Are you there? Are you okay?”
Suga was worrying him. Shoot. So he decided to ask for what he originally intended to ask.
“Can I call you?” Suga asked.
“Of course” Daichi quickly replied.
So Suga dialed Daichi, now fumbling over what he was going to say to Daichi in his head. Daichi answered after the first ring, with concern in his voice.
“Suga?” he asked.
“Daichi!” God it was so good to hear his voice again, even if it had been only a few days.
“Are you okay? What’s going on?”
“No yeah. I’m fine. Um…” what should he say, what should he SAY?
“No you’re not,” Daichi cut in.
“What do you mean?” Suga nervously inquired.
“I can tell, Suga. What’s wrong?”
“... I can’t sleep. I try to, but I keep thinking about you, and I can’t.”
Suga and Daichi were blushing on both ends of the call, even if they couldn’t see each other.
“Oh. Are you not comfortable at your Aunt’s?”
“It’s not that, I just miss you. Although hearing your voice is a huge relief,” Suga sighed.
“My voice?”
“Yeah..”
“Then… how about I tell you a story?”
“A story?” Suga said curiously. He wasn’t a little kid, but this seemed more intimate. Different feelings than when he was younger, just the same premise and some age. Not to mention that this was his first time being told a story in a romantic relationship.
“Yeah. Then maybe you’ll be able to sleep. All you gotta do is close your eyes, and listen.”
“Alright. Yeah, I’d like that, Daichi,” Suga said, feeling his face and ears flushing, as he placed his phone next to his ear on the pillow and laid on his back and fluttered his eyes shut.
And with that, Daichi softly spoke a tale about a prince, and the most faithful knight:
“Once upon a time there was a beautiful prince. His beauty was spoken of throughout the lands. Poets wrote tomes filled to the brim with sonnets and limericks devoted to his beauty. Artists filled entire galleries with paintings and sculptures trying desperately to capture his near perfect form. His beauty was surpassed only by his wisdom. His father, the king, had raised him to be a fair, just, ruler and over time his only concern became the happiness and safety of his subjects.
One fateful day, another charming prince came to town. He has come to woo the prince and woo he did. They spent hours together. Hours became days. Days became weeks and the beautiful prince began to fall in love with the charming prince. Their love was spoken of throughout the kingdom.
One day, the charming prince took the beautiful prince to a shady meadow at the edge of the deep woods. He began to tell him how much he loved him. He said that if the beautiful prince loved him, he would go into the deep woods and pick him the rarest flower in the world: the scarlet rose. The sun began to set and just when all seemed lost, he happened upon the rose. He reached for the beautiful bloom but, at the very touch of the thorns, the beautiful prince fell into a deep sleep. The charming prince then appeared. He stood over his body and smiled. It had been his plan all along. He then stole all the beautiful princes’ riches and stole away. He had a maiden waiting for him in another kingdom and he left the beautiful prince all alone in the deep woods.
The king sent out search parties but to no avail. Months passed until, one day while hunting, the king happened upon a beautiful man covered in vines. It was his son. He tried to wake him but try as he might, he would not stir from his deep sleep. The king lamented over his beautiful son, taken from him in the prime of life. He called his advisors to him who took the beautiful prince back to the castle. They laid him down in his bed chamber and pondered what to do. His advisors studied his sleep and found that the cause was the poison of the scarlet rose. When they informed the king he begged them to give him an antidote but no such antidote existed. They tried every potion in the kingdom to rouse him but none would wake the beautiful prince. The king’s advisors came to him and told him that all they could do was wait for the poison to run its course. The king, enraged, searched the kingdom for the cause of his son’s sleep. He found nothing until he heard word from another kingdom of a young prince whose fortune arose seemingly from nowhere. This was the charming prince that had betrayed him.
The king, then, issued a decree that, from that day forward, should a man wish for his son’s hand that man must wait at the kingdom for her to awaken. Men from across the world came to wait for the hand of the man of incomparable beauty. The suitors lined the streets of the kingdom. Each trying to prove his worth and so it was.
But as the years went by the stories of the princes’ beauty faded from record and the art made in his image was lost. And slowly men began to grow weary of waiting believing that the beautiful prince would never awaken. One by one they left the kingdom. Days turned to months turned to years until the streets, once lined with suitors lie barren. All the suitors had left the beautiful prince. Save for one.
A lone knight remained. Knelt at her bedside, he had not budged from the moment he arrived. His armor, heavy with rust, he waited on. Time passed until one fateful day the prince finally awoke. When he opened his eyes, only one person knelt before her: the most faithful knight. As he looked in his newly opened eyes, he spoke of what had transpired: The poison, the king’s decree, and how he’d waited for him.
But then the most faithful knight said something that surprised the beautiful prince. He spoke of how he had always loved him from afar. He said he had become a knight in hopes of one day serving him in his court. The beautiful prince was moved to tears. He called in his father who was elated to see his son in full spirits yet again. Out of his joy, he promised her anything he desired. He said he wished for only one thing: the faithful knight to join him in his court. But not as a knight, but as his husband.
They were married the next day and the kingdom rejoiced. And for years to come the kingdom would tell the tale of the beautiful prince and the most faithful knight.”
“Suga?” Daichi whispered upon the conclusion of his tale.
When he heard no response, he whispered into his phone, “Goodnight, my beautiful prince”. Before hanging up.
That night, just before Daichi himself drifted off to sleep, he stared, smiling at his lock screen of him and Suga on New Years. Their favorite photo.
‘For you, I would wait forever.’