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1.
It’s late September in their second year the first time the rain catches them.
They’re headed home from practice together, going to Suga’s house to watch a movie, when the gray-clouded sky starts to rumble. Daichi looks up at it with a disconcerted expression. “I really hope it doesn’t start raining,” he says. “You don’t have an umbrella with you, do you?”
“Nope,” Suga replies. “It’s been sunny all day, I didn’t think I’d need one.”
“Well, let’s just try and get to your house before—”
The first drop strikes the top of Daichi’s head.
A few moments later, the sky opens up and the rain starts to pour.
“Shit,” Daichi mutters, moving to take his jacket off. “Can you hold my bag while I—”
“Yep, got it,” Suga says, already reaching out for it.
Once his jacket is off, Daichi takes his bag back and shoulders it before draping his jacket over his head and upper back, protecting him and his belongings from the worst of the rain. They repeat the process as quickly as possible so Suga can do the same.
As soon as they’re done, they look at each other in all their ridiculous, dripping-wet glory. Suga is the first to crack, cackling at the way Daichi looks hunched over under his jacket, and Daichi’s laughter follows not long after.
They make it to Suga’s house eventually, soaked to the bone despite their best efforts to shield themselves from the rain. They’re freezing, sure, but the warmth of each other's company makes it all worth it.
2.
The second time it happens is the day after nationals.
It’s only a drizzle, but everything is grey. Daichi is standing outside the gym, staring at nothing in particular, trying in vain not to let the tears escape his eyes.
They do, regardless of his wishes, but if anyone sees, he’ll just say it’s the rain.
What did I do wrong?
He knows he shouldn’t blame himself, knows that it had always been an impossible dream for them to win anyways, knows that there’s nothing more he could have done to change their chances.
He holds himself responsible anyways.
Daichi doesn’t turn his head as he feels footsteps approach, doesn’t react to Suga calling his name. He doesn’t move at all, just stands there in the rain with tears running down his face, until Suga shakes him by the shoulders, bringing him halfway out of his reverie.
“What the hell are you doing, Daichi?”
Daichi blinks at him. “I’m thinking.”
“In the fucking rain?”
“I—”
“What are you fucking thinking about that is so important you have to do it out here?”
Daichi has never heard Suga this angry. He looks just about ready to hit Daichi, and not in the affectionate way that he often punches many of the members of the team—well, the way he used to do that, anyways.
His voice sticks in his throat as he starts to reply. “It’s my fault,” he croaks, with an not-insignificant amount of effort.
Suga narrows his eyes. “What, exactly, do you think is your fault?” he hisses at Daichi, the tone of his voice implying that Daichi should choose his words carefully.
“We— We lost, Suga. And there’s just, just, so much more I could have done. I failed them as a captain and as a teammate. It’s my fault that Hinata ended up like that, I should have been paying more attention—”
He’s cut off by Suga crushing him in a hug that will probably leave bruises the next day. “Never— never say that again. Don’t you ever, I mean, how could you even think that?” And now Suga is weeping, too, heaving sobs that wrack his entire body. “You’ll always be my captain. Always. You didn’t fail me, or us, you were perfect. You—you—”
His words fail under the intensity of his tears, but Daichi knows what he’s saying. He wraps his arms around Suga in return, still crying, but the pressure on his heart eases a little.
Suga manages to calm down enough to whisper one last thing to Daichi before falling silent again.
“There will never be anyone better than you were.”
3.
The third is a cliché.
Daichi is standing outside of Suga’s door in a fierce downpour, pressing send on the message telling Suga that he’s here. He knocks again to make sure that someone hears him, the tension under his skin building and building until finally the door swings open to reveal Suga in front of him. “Daichi, what—”
“I’m in love with you.”
Suga just stands there, eyes wide, and opens his mouth to respond, but Daichi continues before he can say anything.
“I love you. A lot. I have for a while now, I’ve known since last year, and I was too scared of losing you to say anything, but we’re both going off to college in two months and I just—I just couldn’t let it go by without telling you. I’m still really fucking scared, but I just, you’re so beautiful and you’re my best friend and I love you.”
Suga laughs, which does absolutely nothing to make Daichi less afraid.
“You’re such an idiot, Daichi, oh my God,” he says, wiping away a tear from the corner of his eye.”You—do you even know how long I’ve been in love with you? And I can’t believe you actually came here in a rainstorm with no umbrella just to confess your love to me. Actually, no. I can believe it. You’ve been watching too many rom-coms.”
“Um. Then you—”
“Like I said. You’re an idiot,” Suga repeats, before descending on Daichi and kissing him hard, no longer caring about the rain pouring down around them.
“I love you too, Sawamura Daichi,” he says once they separate.
The rain has never felt better on Daichi’s skin.
4.
The fourth time it happens, it cancels Daichi’s plans.
Suga is coming to visit him at college, finally, after two whole months of not being able to see each other in person. Those eight weeks were filled with more calls at every hour of the day than they’d ever had before, Suga growing increasingly restless without getting to be with Daichi in person. Now, though, the wait was over, and they were going to spend the weekend together and go out on a date, and everything would be perfect.
Or so Daichi had planned.
When Suga arrives in the lobby of the building, Daichi can’t stop himself from pulling him into a kiss. “I’ve missed you so much,” they say at the same time after pulling back, and Suga bursts into laughter. Daichi chuckles, too, but he’s really thinking less about their shared wavelength and more about just how beautiful his boyfriend is.
They stay talking in the lobby for a while, reluctant to go anywhere, because while they have a date to get to, Suga will collapse if he doesn’t enumerate every detail of the past two months to Daichi first. And Daichi is more than happy to listen; he is, as Kuroo would say, whipped.
Eventually, Suga’s narrative winds down, and the excess wound-up energy seems to have finally left his body. It’s replaced by excitement for the day ahead as he asks Daichi if they can get going to the cafe down the street, to which Daichi affirmatively replies.
As they step out of the building, hands intertwined, Suga feels something hit his shoulder. “Daichi,” he says as drops slowly start to fall around them.
Daichi’s eyes are already closed, and he sighs through his nose. “Yeah. I know.”
Suga nudges him with his shoulder. “Hey. C’mon. Let’s go back inside, yeah? We can always go on the date tomorrow. Don’t be grumpy.”
Daichi smiles softly at that. “I’m not grumpy. I just want to spend some time out and about with my lovely boyfriend. Is that such a crime?”
“Hmm… no, I suppose it isn’t,” Suga says in mock contemplation. “But really, it’s not so bad that we have to head back into your apartment.”
His voice lowers as he leans closer to Daichi and looks up at him through his lashes. “I’m sure we can find some way to pass the time.”
Suga cackles at Daichi’s now-beet-red face, teasing him all the way back up to his room.
(He was right, though. It turned out to be pretty good in the end.)
5.
The fifth, Daichi sticks to the plan anyway.
They’re on a picnic in a park near their shared apartment when the storm clouds roll in. Suga groans in frustration at the sight of them. “God, can’t we have one thing without rain ruining it?”
“Suga, we have plenty of dates that don’t get interrupted by rain—”
“Shhhhhh, Daichi. That’s not the point,” he says as he moves to pack up their things.
Daichi assists him, but he’ll be damned if he’s letting his plans get circumvented this time.
As they finish getting their things together to leave, Daichi sighs a little louder than normal. “Well, damn. I wanted this to be perfect, but I don’t want to wait any longer, so…”
Suga turns around to face him with a questioning look that rapidly turns into shock as Daichi drops to one knee, withdrawing a small box from his pocket. “Oh, you bastard,” Suga whispers, which Daichi knows is the best kind of response.
“Sugawara Koushi,” he begins, already feeling his throat start to close up with emotion. “You are the light of my life, but I’m sure you know that already.”
Suga is crying, now, as the rain starts to fall lightly on their heads, and lets out a teary chuckle at that.
“I’ve loved you almost since the day I met you. And I wasn’t planning to propose to you in the rain, but it’s more fitting than I could have ever hoped. When I told you that I loved you, outside your house in a torrential downpour because I watched way, way too many sappy rom-coms, I was so afraid that you would be lost to me forever. I still get scared that something will happen to you, to me, to us, but then you’re there, and I— I can’t think about anything but how much better my life is because you’re in it. I don’t think I’ve had one truly bad day since the day I met you. Because you were always there, no matter what, and no matter how bad it gets, I know that you’ll always be there. You’re my everything, and you always have been. You were the greatest best friend, the greatest setter, the greatest vice captain, the greatest boyfriend, and now, Sugawara Koushi, will you do me the honor of being the greatest husband I could ever ask for?”
They don’t even care that it’s raining anymore when Suga mouths a silent Yes, tackling Daichi with a kiss.
His clothes are a mess, and he’s incredibly cold despite Suga’s warmth, but Daichi still wants to live in this moment for the rest of his life.
1.
It’s late September again.
The drumming of rain on the roof of their home has been going on for a couple hours now, but they don’t mind. This time, the storm is much more a comforting backdrop than it is a liability for their time together. They have nowhere to be right now except where they are: in each other’s arms.
It’s been a slow day for the two of them; the weekend has left them with ample time to do whatever they want. Today, that’s mostly consisted of making dinner together and eating while they watched a movie—they opted for something the both of them love, namely Pride and Prejudice. (Daichi, of course is a hopeless romantic; Suga just really likes Keira Knightley.)
Now, after the movie’s ended, Suga is reclining against his husband, encircled in his arms. He tilts his head up to press a kiss to Daichi’s jaw, thinking the entire time about how lucky he is to be here.
“We’re so cliché,” he remarks absentmindedly. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love it. But you really confessed to your high school sweetheart in the pouring rain and then married him five years later, and now look at us. We’re so domestic. Ugh.”
“Yes, honey, I know. Except for the part where we’re gay, it’s all very textbook,” Daichi says with a snort. As if he didn’t plan for it to be this perfect.
“Mm,” Suga hums against Daichi’s neck. “That is true. I did forget about the fact that we’re both men.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“No, I didn’t.”
They lay there in comfortable silence for several minutes, the only audible noise the beat of the rain and the sound of their breathing. It’s then that the storm decides to wane, letting light in through the windows of their living room. Suga disentangles himself to slide off of the couch and go gaze up at the sky, eliciting a mildly indignant grunt from his husband.
Something that Daichi can’t see catches Suga’s attention then, and he laughs that beautiful laugh that Daichi fell in love with all those years ago. “Babe, come look at this,” he says, beckoning Daichi over, and he obliges.
Wrapping his arms around his husband, Daichi follows Suga’s pointing hand to see what’s so entertaining. In the distance, a faint rainbow is forming above the trees, the byproduct of the day-long rainstorm. “It’s us,” Suga says with a laugh, and Daichi just snorts, burying his face in Suga’s hair.
The rain has always been lucky for them, Daichi thinks to himself. Everything that it’s interrupted has led to something better, something more. It’s responsible for where he is now, married to the love of his life, embracing him in the home they own together.
Daichi can’t wait to live this every day for the rest of his life.