Chapter Text
Dachi was never fond of birds. He found it annoying the way they chirped in the morning, how they pecked and flapped and ruffled their feathers like everything was right, oblivious to how the world suffered in front of them. He almost envied them, the ability to fly away and start over when things got hard while he was bound to the earth beneath his feet and the memories that lay with it.
So it was a mystery, really, how he landed inside the Tokyo Aviary.
He’d die before he’d admit it, but Daichi was amazed. The huge caged dome was practically the size of a mansion, obviously made to be a sanctuary that let people marvel at the winged animals inside. It had two stories, but the second was just a bunch of suspended walkways so that people could walk among the birds in the higher parts of the trees. The clear walls housed the biggest plants Dachi had ever seen, and he boggled at them as he weaved in between families and running kids. He reached out to touch a Colocasia- as the info card read- and let the smooth leaves run along the pads of his fingers. It really was a beautiful sight.
He looked up briefly, for his eyes to catch a red blur. He followed the blur with his head, and it stopped and rested on a high branch on one of the trees. Daichi’s breath catches his throat, startled by the beauty he finds in the bright crimson of the feathers, it’s black rectrices and wings. It reminded Dachi of his roommate Asahi, who had been struggling to come up with a new outfit for his fashion show- maybe Asahi could find some inspiration with this creature. Still enamoured, he reaches for his phone to try and capture its magnificence. The bird seemingly poses for him, turning to the side- and then it flies away. Despite his best efforts, Daichi finds a smile playing at his lips.
Playing hard to get, huh? Two can play that game.
Dachi quickly follows the bird while staying on the roped path as much as he could. He held his phone up, jogging and snapping, hoping for a good picture. The bird stops and rests on a branch and ruffles its feathers, and Dachi catches his breath. Finally. He holds his phone up to take the picture when he hears the staff door behind the bird open. He glances at the door, thumb hovering above the camera button, turning his attention quickly back to the bird- but it vanished. Dachi almost screamed. He was furious, about to send 100 daggers in glares to the staff member who opened the door, but all his rage dropped when he saw the employee.
He had round and soft eyes, fair skin and hair that was a unique shade of silver. His jaw was pronounced, but the edges were soft, and his cheeks were a natural pink. When he noticed someone watching him, the employee’s caramel eyes met with Dachi’s and he almost dropped his jaw. Now fully facing him, Dachi could see a little mole that was under his left eye. He was beautiful.
“Do you need anything?” The employee asked. Devoid of any knowledge on how to react, Daichi just nodded. Wrong move. Angel face put down whatever he was doing and walked over. Shit.
“How can I help you?” He asked softly, a smile crinkling the edges of his eyes. Daichi stood there in a stupidor, unable to formulate an answer for the gorgeous man in front of him. The employee gave him a perplexed look. Dachi, do something!
“I- uh-” Dachi scrambled for a question, and suddenly a lightbulb popped in his head. He gives a sheepish smile. “That red bird, um, what’s the name of it?”
The employee laughed and Daichi should have felt offended, but he only felt disarmed by the stranger’s odd charm. “There's plenty of red birds here, you’re going to have to describe better than that.”
Daichi internally face palmed. “I mean, it was kinda fat, and small. It was more bright crimson than anything, and it had a black tail and black wings.”
The man’s face softened in recognition. “Ah yes, he’s the beauty of our sanctuary. His name is Kiko. He’s an Scarlet Tanager, and will be released next month.”
Daichi nodded. Desperate to keep conversation, he asks, “Why is he being released?”
The employee smiles fondly. “They’re not native to Japan, and even if they were, we would still set them free. This is a place for birds to heal and recover while we collect data, so we can get them back into the wild as soon as possible. That’s why I love this place.”
Dachi saw fireworks in his eyes while he talked about the bird sanctuary. It was amazing. He doesn’t think he could ever see birds and nature in the same way this man does- with the same childish admiration. He smiles.
“That’s good.” Is all he can think of to say and he wanted to kick himself in the nuts.
“Oh sorry, did I ramble? I tend to do that.” the employee blushed, and Daichi panics.
“No, no, no, you are totally, completely fine!” Daichi blurted, and the man laughed.
“Alright then. If you have no more questions, I’ve got to take some bird samples.” The staff member scrunched his nose and Dachi pieced together what bird samples meant. He cringes.
The man turns around, about to walk away, but Dachi couldn’t just let him go. Not when he just saw the most beautiful person he’s ever seen- he had to at least know his name. Maybe some smooth, suave, pick up line to let the employee know Daichi’s interest. Yeah. He opens his mouth and calls:
“Who are you?” Dachi made a mental note to have Asahi kill him when he got home.
The employee gives him an amused look. “Sugawara Koushi, I’m the main director and ornithologist here.”
Koushi. Dachi’s heat pounds.
“Sawamura Daichi, but you can call me Daichi. I’m.. uh.. just visiting.” Dachi now had the strong urge to forgo Asahi killing him and just jump off a bridge himself.
Sugawara laughs as he walks away, and Dachi hears bells. He wants to melt.
----
“So why were you at the bird sanctuary again?” Asahi asked, hunched over his sketches for a new design. Daichi had sent him the pictures from earlier, but they were all horrible, so Daichi just told him to look up “Scarlet Tanager” on the internet.
“I don’t even know. I don’t even like birds, but my shift at the station was over and I thought I’d wander around, like Kiyoko-san recommended. I ended up at the Aviary and somehow I met the prettiest guy i've ever seen.” Daichi stood in the doorway of Asahi’s office, which was really his bedroom in their shared apartment space, and sighs.
“You gay ass mess!” Nishinoya, Asahi’s energetic boyfriend, pipes up from the couch behind him. Dachi blinks, and Nishi’s now at his side, teasing him about the apparent homosexual wreck he is. He doesn’t even know how Asahi deals with him. Daichi would have dropped Nishinoya’s body in a lake by now.
“You know you’re gay too, right?” He shoves Nishi off him and the smaller whines. Nishi zips over to Asahi, demanding attention from the huge man. It was almost comical, the size difference between them. It looked like Asahi could swallow Nishi whole, yet Nishi was the one ready to devour his boyfriend. He jumps onto Asahi’s lap, making Asahi resign from his sketch and hold his tiny ball of energy.
“I’m bisexual! Plus, when’s the last time you got any action?” Nishinoya chirped, and stroked his boyfriend's chest to prove his point. Daichi shook his head and put on a stern look. He was not going to dignify that with an answer.
“Yuu’s right you know,” Asahi’s light voice fills the room, letting his arm’s drape over Nishi’s waist. “When’s the last time you had fun, or took time for yourself? Maybe this is a good thing, Dai, I can’t remember the last time you had a crush.”
“It’s not a crush, Azumane.” Daichi’s face heated up, a telltale sign of lying, but he kept his glare on Asahi. The latter seemed to shrink, and looked around the room.
“I’m just saying.” Asahi buried his face into Nishinoya’s shoulder. For such a drastic difference in- well, everything- they were really cute together.
“I think you should go there again, and probably prepare a pickup line or something.” Nishi giggled when Asahi’s nose nuzzled his neck. Daichi wanted to hurl.
It was so odd how they could be so domestic when one of them was feral 99.9% of the time.
Daichi flopped on the couch. He was too single for this shit.
------
Despite his best efforts, he could not keep Sugawara out of his thoughts. He tossed and turned, thinking about honeyed voices and pink lips. When sleep finally came, he had an intricate dream that involved him, Sugawara, and blue jays. He couldn’t figure out how or why the blue jays were in his dream, but it didn’t really matter when Sugawara was holding his hand and kissing the scars on his knuckles.
It was the first time in a while that Daichi hadn’t had a nightmare.
------
The next day, he found himself walking toward the Tokyo Aviary after his shift, again, but with a newfound bounce in his step. Nishi had teased him about his eagerness to get to work- Daichi hadn’t been this excited in a long time.
Once he got inside, though, he just stood there. He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do. He didn’t even know if Sugawara worked today. He raked his brain, cursing himself for not thinking this through. While lost in thought, the red bird from yesterday flitted in front of his eyes, and Daichi followed his flight.
“Kiko,” he whispered, and his lips cracked into a smile. The bird, almost knowingly, chirped, and flew off to another branch. Daichi trailed after Kiko, branch by branch, thinking that if Kiko led him to Sugawara before- he could do it again. It was stupid to bank all this on a bird, but he let himself wonder for once.
So focused on trailing the bird, he almost didn’t feel the collision that sent him to the floor. He looked up, ready to tell the opposite face “sorry”, when he met those caramel eyes again. He immediately heated up.
“God! I’m so sorry, oh god, I’m a klutz!” He jumped up and extended his hand to Sugawara, who just looked at him amusedly. Daichi always liked to think he was cool under pressure, but something about Sugawara just made him unravel. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
“It’s alright, Daichi,” Sugawara assured, and Daichi flushed hard at the way Suga spoke his given name. Well, everyone calls him by his given name, but somehow this was different.
Play it cool, Sawamura.
“How has your day been, Sugawara?” He questions sheepishly. Sugawara gives him a tight smile and sighs.
“Please, call me Suga. It’s been stressful, running samples and such. Birds are peaceful but they can also be a hassle.”
Daichi nodded, unsure of what to do with himself. Having no knowledge of birds, he really couldn’t keep the conversation long. His mind scrambles for a talking point. He awkwardly played with his hands, avoiding Suga’s confused gaze. The tension was almost palpable between them- Suga must've sensed this, because his smile gets tighter and moves around him.
“Now if you excuse me Daichi, I have to go attend to these pesky birds.” He chuckles, and Daichi whipped around. He had formulated an idea, crappy although the best he could come up with.
“I can trail you, if you want.”
“What?”
“I mean, it must be tiring doing all the bird sample stuff alone?” it comes out more of a question, and Daichi wants to cry.
“I’m not alone, I have other people in my lab doing the exact same thing.” Suga’s amused, lazy smile returns and Daichi relaxes. That grin, he thinks, It’s refreshing.
“That’s not what I meant. I mean, I can accompany you while you do your tasks. Though I totally get it if you want me to leave and think I’m a creep.”
Suga snorts, and the sound startles Daichi. Suga looked to be all polite and manners, so hearing such an unsavory noise from him was a surprise Daichi fully welcomed. It only added to the man’s charm.
“Well then, lets be on our way, the birds can’t research themselves!” Suga starts, and Daichi takes the cue to follow.
-----
Suga leads Daichi behind a big red door with an Employees Only sign, and he has to bite down a smile. He felt like he was a teen again, breaking all the rules.
Suga shows Daichi everything he knows about his work place and the animals that inhabit it. He shows Daichi the labs in which he works, analyzing feathers and feces, collecting data to be presented to and studied by ornithologists all over the world. He watches carefully as Suga preaches about the dangers of plastic and pollution on birds, shows his office where he’s got the world's rarest bird species listed and crossed off on his board. “I’ve seen most of the birds on this list. I only have a few more to go!” Daichi laughs and the excitement in Suga’s eyes as he goes on about the places he’ll need to go to see them. He lets Daichi watch him feed some of the birds, even letting Daichi do it a few times.
He introduces Daichi to his roommate and coworker Oikawa Tooru, who liked to tease Daichi at every opening he got while judging him with intense eyes. He’d get along with Noya swimmingly, Daichi thinks.
“Suga-chan, are you sure you’re allowed to bring unauthorized guests back here?”
“Hey, what Admin doesn’t know won’t hurt them.”
The brunette huffed and mumbled something incoherent, turning back to his work.
Suga rolls his eyes, ruffling Oikawa’s hair. He leads Daichi away from the office and down the corridor, laughing at the indignant squawking of the man they left behind.
They turn a corner and run into a square shouldered security guard with a stoney expression. Suga freezes and Daichi follows suit, staring at Suga for guidance.
“Heeey, Aone!” Suga starts out, his eyes trying to seek out an exit from around the solid build of the guard. “How has your day been?”
Aone grunts, points at Daichi. Daichi stiffens, and prays that this guy doesn’t break him in half. Suga steps between them and laughs nervously.
“Oh, this guy? Yeah… he’s new, I’m just showing him around!”
Aone blinks, then his finger turns into a flat palm. Suga’s eyes widen, and Daichi silently panics.
“Oh, he doesn't have a badge yet, sorry Aone-” Suga’s cut off by Aone leaning into his face. He says nothing, but his eyes slide to indicate that he wants Suga to move. Suga laughs again, and looks down at an invisible watch. “Oh look, what time it is. Daichi and I have to go, so...”
Suga trails off, and starts to turn, but is stopped by a firm grip on his shoulder. When Aone speaks, it almost startles Daichi how quiet he is. That didn’t make his voice any less intimidating.
“I don’t know a ‘Daichi’.” He states simply. “Unauthorized persons are not allowed back here, you could get in trouble for this.”
Suga smiles. “That’s funny, that’s the same thing Oikawa said. Speaking of him, there he is! Hey Oikawa!”
Suga turns his head back to the corner they just came from. Aone dropped his hand from Suga’s shoulder and craned his neck. Daichi did the same, seeking out signature brown hair.
He didn’t really get the chance to actually see him, though, because Suga grabbed his arm and sprinted the other direction. It was a blur, the world around him, the only thing he could focus on was the rhythmic thump of his feet and the laughing man infront of him. They reach the side exit, breaking out into the open Autumn air. Cool wind threads through Daichi’s hair, sprinting away and only stopping when Suga drops his body against the side of the building. He's laughing harder now, hysterically, and Daichi’s afraid that he’ll lose all the breath in his lungs.
“Oh god, that was close.” Suga coughs, and Daichi bursts into giggles again.
“Oikawa wasn’t actually coming, was he?”
Suga shakes his head and they both erupt into laughter once more, clutching sides and wheezing.
“Will you get in trouble? That Aone guy didn’t seem like he was playing around.”
“It’s fine, Aone’s used to my bullshit but he knows it’s all in good fun, so he won’t tattle.” Suga sighs and Daichi slides down beside him.
“I haven’t done that in such a long time.” Suga muses, turning to Daichi.
“You’ve done this before?”
“Once, yeah. It was wild- Aone chased us throughout the entire building.” The smile softens on Suga’s face as he reminisces.
“Us?” Daichi questions, curiosity getting the better of him. Suga shook his head, a sad glint in his eye.
“Nothing. You should probably go home, though, before I go inside- Aone may let me off but I can’t say the same for you.” Suga chuckles again but the sad glint doesn’t go away.
Daichi gets up, and dusts himself off.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Suga.” He says, and wonders if he’s being too forward. He figures it’s okay though because Suga’s smile gets a little brighter, and the glint in his eye turns pleased.
Daichi walks around towards the parking lot, smiling to himself.