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“Hm…I dare you to do a handstand for five minutes!”
“Too easy! I’ll stay up for six minutes!”
Nothing good ever comes out of playing truth or dare with Tanaka and Nishinoya, but Suga knew when to pick his battles. They’d been studying for an hour and to Suga’s delight, the pair stayed focused during the entire hour, even when Saeko barged into Tanaka’s room offering popsicles. Suga predicted that the second-years’ motivation would eventually dip, and he was prepared to humor his friends with a game—that’s why he’s currently watching Noya’s face turn red from being upside down.
Hair flopped down over his eyes, the libero’s arms shook slightly with effort, but he held out for the whole six minutes. He tumbled clumsily onto Tanaka and smiled a crooked grin.
“Told ya, bro! I’m the handstand king of the world.” Noya sat up slowly, still dizzy from the blood rushing to his head.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Tanaka said with a grin. “Now you ask Suga.”
Suga flashed an amiable smile, but Noya wasn’t fooled. He could see the mischief hidden in the third-year’s eyes.
“Truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“I dare you to…dye your hair!”
Although he wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, Suga could see a practical issue with that dare.
“We don’t have any hair dye,” he said and ran his fingers through his soft, silver hair. “And I’m not using any weird homemade concoctions you two make.”
“My sister has dye,” Tanaka jumped up, “and I bet she’d let us use it.”
“Yeah! Nee-san’s the best!” Noya scrambled to leave the room, Tanaka close on his heels.
Sighing like a wizened old man, Suga got to his feet and followed them. A dare’s a dare, he thought, and hey, this might be kind of fun.
~~~
Daichi almost didn’t notice at first. Almost. Busy helping Hinata with his receives while Kageyama, Kinoshita, and Yamaguchi practiced their serves, Dai gave Suga and Asahi only a cursory glance when they walked into the gym. Wait. He did a double take and stared hard at Suga. Something was off, but he couldn’t put his finger on—
“Watch out!” The words had hardly left Hinata’s mouth before Yamaguchi’s serve clocked Daichi right in the jaw. The captain winced and rubbed his cheek, which would surely develop an ugly green and yellow bruise, but he was thankful it was Yamaguchi’s float that got him instead of Kageyama’s bullet-like serve, which probably would’ve taken his head clean off his shoulders.
“Are you okay, Dai?” Suga jogged over to assess the damage, and Asahi went to comfort Yamaguchi, who was squeaking out apologies for nearly killing Daichi. Yamaguchi and Asahi seemed to feed off of each other’s stress, however, and Tsukishima, sighing, had to step in.
Meanwhile, Hinata awkwardly looked away as the captain and vice captain gazed at each other. He didn’t have to pretend to be distracted for long—scarcely a second had passed before Kageyama was insisting that they continue practicing.
“I, um, I, uh…” Daichi stuttered amidst the chaos as he stared at Suga. No, not at Sugawara’s soft, loving face. At his hair. His blue hair. Baby blue and fluffier than ever, the locks framed his face so beautifully that the setter looked like a cherub.
“I can’t tell if that’s a yes or no, Captain,” Suga said, a coy smile playing on his lips.
Daichi could feel his face heat up. “Um, I’m fine. I’m great. Yep, totally gay—I mean, great. So great.”
“Good,” Suga said with a laugh. He shed his jacket. “Now let’s do some drills, hm?”
“Yeah, uh, yep.”
Practice began officially, but Daichi found himself watching Suga and his pretty blue hair more than the ball.
~~~
That was the first time Sugawara dyed his hair, but after seeing Daichi’s reaction, he knew it wouldn’t be the last. Bubblegum pink, marigold orange, a luminous white that seemed to glow in the dark, pale lilac, flaxen yellow, and other pastels followed after the blue washed out.
The rest of the team occasionally joined his hair-dying parties: Hinata dyed a streak of his hair navy blue, Asahi dip-dyed the tips of his hair blonde to match Noya’s golden tuft, and even Tsukishima got in on the fun. It’s unclear whether he actually wanted his hair colored or if he just wanted Sugawara to quit pestering him, but Tsukki ended up walking around with a head of inky black hair for months. (Suga swore the first-year secretly loved the dye job and was regularly touching up his roots—after all, Sugawara used temporary dye that came out after only a couple of weeks).
With some tips from Kenma and Noya’s help, Suga even managed to create a pastel rainbow in his fluffy hair. Daichi’s breath had hitched when he saw him with that multicolored cotton-candy hair—Suga could practically hear his boyfriend’s heart start to pound faster. They’d shared a particularly passionate kiss in the equipment room after practice that day.
After he cycled through all the colors of the pastel rainbow, Suga let his hair rest and forwent the hair dye. He’d grown to think of his natural hair color as boring, but he didn’t want to damage it by constantly assaulting the locks with dyes. Next time I get a haircut, I’ll dye it again. Maybe we’ll go with dark colors next time? Burgundy and evergreen and deep blues…Ugh, but the good dyes are so expensive. Damn Noya and Tanaka for getting me hooked on this.
Walking into practice sporting his normal hair color, Suga collided with Daichi, who’d stopped dead in his tracks after setting eyes on his boyfriend.
“Dai?” Suga poked his cheek. “Whatcha doing?”
Daichi shook his head a little to bring himself back to reality.
“I’m just looking at you. Is that a crime?” A smile tugged at the captain’s lips.
“Nope! Not at all, but there’s not much to look at today.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just plain ol’ me today. No “seafoam greens” or “blushing reds,”” he said, gesturing to his naturally ash blond hair. Suga felt strange and rather old when he looked in the mirror that morning. It was as if he didn’t quite recognize himself.
“I’m kinda glad. I missed the silver,” Daichi said softly and ran his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair. “Your hair is always gorgeous, but this color is my favorite.”
“Yeah?” Suga bit back a smile and began to stretch for practice.
On second thought, maybe I’ll go without the dye for a little longer.