Work Text:
POV-Daishou Suguru: Age 27
“So how did you guys meet?”
“You really wanna know? It’s kind of a boring and long story…”
“Yeah! I mean it’s better than reading,”
“Well in that case, I was four when I met him. Yeah, if I recall we actually met at a park. Jones park to be exact. It was near a creek and I used to go there with my old dog all the time, you know, just walking around with my mom. No one really went there since it was more of a ‘private’ part of the town, so most of the time it was peaceful and the park was always kept clean. Mom let me wander around a bit as long as I stayed within her sight, so I’d take pierce [my dog], and walk along the edge of the creek. “
"Ooo"
-----------------
POV- Daishou Suguru Age 4:
I’m walking down the creek with Pierce as I always do but then this boy comes up to me. He has really light brown hair, it sorta looks like the color of dry leaves on the floor right now.“What’s your name?” he asks me.
I’d never seen him before but he seemed nice enough and mom said I should make more friends. “Suguru Daishou. You?” He smiles at me as if he’s actually happy to know my name. He seems kind of weird but so far okay.
“Yuuji Terushima! It’s nice to meet you!”
“Same?” I’m not sure what to say here, usually I only meet the old people around and they usually do all the talking. Does he want me to talk to him? I just kinda look at him kinda confused. There’s nothing I wanna say to him. I just like walking with my dog. So I’m gonna walk away now.
“Wait! Don’t walk away!” I pause and turn back around waiting for him to say something else. “Wanna be friends?”
Oh. “Sorry I’m friends with my dog already.”
“You know you can have more than one friend right?”
“Yeah. I was just hoping you’d go away.” Why did I say that? Whatever, he might as well actually leave for all I care.
“Well I don’t wanna go away. And you seem like a loner!” rude. “I think you need a friend!”
I just sigh, there’s no point in fighting him. “Fine Yu- whatever your name was.”
“Yuuji! My name is Yuuji Terushima.”
“Yeah whatever, I guess we can be friends. But ONLY if my dog likes you.” I look down to where Pierce was and unlucky for me, he was already really eager to meet Yuuji. Who even was he to like strangers. But a promise is a promise. I guess I just made a new friend.
“Your dog likes me!”
“Yeah, he does.”
“OKAY I’M GONNA TELL MY MOM I MADE A NEW FRIEND!”
“Wanna meet back here then?”
“YEAH! Give me like five minutes! We’re gonna be great friends!”
-----------------
Daishou Suguru- Age 5
Yuuji and I are friends. Still. We hang out every week at his mom’s place. Turns out he just moved in when we met at the park! Actually, he isn’t that bad anymore and Pierce likes him a lot. I think that’s a good sign? My moms says Yuuji is a good influence on me. She said I was smiling more. That’s true, but Yuuji is not a good influence. We actually get into a lot of trouble at the park but that’s fine, we have fun. Actually, I’m about to go see him right now. Our moms get along well. Turns out, his dad is away on business a lot of the time.
We get to his house and instantly, Yuuji comes at me with whatever new toy he has this week. It’s always cool to see what he comes up with.
“HEY! Suguru!! Look! I got this new water gun and it’s so cool!”
“Yeah!” My mom lets go of my hand and lets me come inside.
“Have fun Suguru! Don’t cause too much trouble for Mrs. Terushima!”
“ I won’t mom!”
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 9
“Suguru.”
“Hm?”
“Join the volleyball club with me?”
“Yeah sure why not.”
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 10
Volleyball is actually fun. Yuuji tried setting the other day and it was really funny, because he wasn’t that good at it and Coach got mad. I didn’t wanna try setting though, I thought it wouldn’t be for me. There’s another person in here though, his name is Oikawa and he’s really getting good at Setting.
On a side note, Yuuji learned another swear word today. I still can’t believe it took him till age ten to learn the word fuck. I mean, I feel like I was practically born saying that word. It’s kind of fun, but my moms get mad at me when I say it, so I say it in my head.
“Daishou!” Oikawa? That’s weird, he usually doesn’t talk to me unless I’m with Yuuji.
“Yeah?”
“Terushima got hurt and I think he sprained his ankle.” Oh shit. I told him not to fuck around so much but low and behold… “Where is he?”
“Coach just called your mom to come get him since she’s his emergency contact and his mom didn’t pick up!” he was frantically explaining and I sorta felt bad for him. It was unspoken that he was basically our captain so I could tell he was panicking just a bit. Yet knowing how stubborn Yuuji was, he’ll be back in no time.
***
“It’s not fair Suguru! I wanna play!”
“Yeah well you can’t play if you’re injured, idiot!”
“I’m not an idiot! You are!”
“Ha??” God he’s so annoying when he gets hurt. It’s like a break doesn’t exist for him. I just wish he’d relax every once in a while. Life isn’t always action action action! “Look I’ll stay with you till you get better okay?”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 15
He’s fourteen when he gets his first girlfriend.
“I don’t know Suguru. I really like her but there’s no connection.”
“Then maybe don’t lead her on?”
“Yeah I agree, but I also don’t wanna disappoint her.”
“Guess you have a point. But if it were me dating you, I’d wanna know if you didn’t feel the same way.” Maybe I was imagining things but his ears got a little pink. Who knows.
They broke up two days later.
“I took your advice.”
“I can tell… are you alright?”
“I guess.”
***
Another week, another girlfriend. This time she was blonde, versus his first girlfriend who had brown hair.
“Well you know what they say, blondes have more fun!”
“Gross.”
“Sheesh, I didn't mean it that way Suguru.”
They broke up three days later. I wasn’t really surprised though, Terushima spoke about her like he wasn’t too invested in the relationship. It was honestly annoying.
He stopped dating for a bit after her. Instead we worked on our volleyball skills.
***
“Oikawa hey!”
“Hey Daishou! How’s your serve coming along?”
“I think it’s alright. You?”
“Better than yours I bet,”
“Well we’ll see about that during our scrimmage now, won't we?” I smirk back naturally because it’s Oikawa. We actually get along great now.
“Hmph, can’t wait! By the way, where’s Teru?”
“Uh…” That’s right. I don’t know where he is. Usually he pops in a few minutes late but we’re halfway through practice and he isn’t here. “I’m actually not sure. I don’t even think he went to school today.”
“Well whatever it is, I hope he’s alright,” Oikawa smiled.
As soon as practice was over, I headed home. When I opened the front door, there was my mom, but next to her was Yuuji.
“You weren’t at practice today Yuuji!” I nag.
“Su-” wait, were his eyes red? Was he crying?
“Yuuji? Are you okay?”
“Suguru, you forgot your phone today.”
“Yeah but that isn’t a reason to be crying dumbass,”
“Suguru.” My mom was trying to shoot me a death glare but honestly I was more worried about why Yuuji and mom were on the verge of tears.
“Yuuji, what’s going on?”
“I stayed home from school today,” I nod because it was obvious he did. “I wasn’t feeling well and needed medicine, so your mom said I could come over to pick up some medicine. So I came right? But when I got here I tried to wake up Pierce before I left, but he wasn’t waking up-”
“No.” Everything in that moment clicked, but Pierce can’t be gone. There’s no way. He was supposed to stay with me for a bit longer. I frantically rushed to where his usual spot is, but he wasn’t there. “Where’s Pierce?!”
“Suguru calm down!” My mom yelled.
“How the fuck can I be calm?! Mom! Where’s my dog?”
“Not here.” she answers. “He wasn’t waking up and we assumed the worst. Except we wanted to make sure he wasn’t gone, so we took him to the vet.” You could tell she really thought he wasn’t gone yet. “When we got to the vet, we tried calling you but-” My phone. Before she could finish her sentence I grabbed my phone from the kitchen counter, sure enough, seven missed calls.
“I left my phone at home…”
“Yeah, you did… The vet confirmed it at the spot and I’m sorry Suguru.”
“Where is he?”
“The vet said they could keep Pierce for a day or two, until we figure out what we wanna do.”
“I'm sorry Suguru,” Is all Yuuji had to say to me. I don’t blame him, if the tables were turned, I’d be the same.
***
We decided on cremating and turning his ashes into bracelets. Four to be exact. One for my mom, another for mother, one for myself, and then-
“Me?”
“Yeah, you loved him just as much as the rest of us Yuuji.”
“Yeah but-”
“Yuuji, we want you to have this. You were his family too.” Next thing I know, Yuuji has his arms wrapped around me, and I could somewhat feel the tears coming onto my shirt.
“Thank you.”
***
The rest of the year felt weird without Pierce. However after some adjusting, I got back to my normal routine.
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 16
At this point, It’s been exactly a year since Pierce died. I decided to just spend the rest of the day at home once I got home from practice. Yuuji on the other hand is off with some girl. I’m not that surprised though. He started dating again as soon as he turned fifteen and usually most of his relationships don’t last more than three weeks. Typical of him to be honest.
I feel bad for the girls. Most of his exes I’ve met always thought they could change him, you know the usual “He’ll stay with me longer,” yet he never does. I try knocking some sense into him but no. It's whatever though, I’m only his friend anyway so what can ya do.
Right now though, I'm focusing on reading this book Mika recommended to me. We met last week and she seems really cool, so we began talking. Her girlfriend is super nice too, I think her name was Shimizu. Anyway, the book she recommended is actually good. Who knew it took two teenagers about to die to get me hooked on a story.
“Suguru!” The fuck? What does my mom need at eleven at night?
“What mom?” Before I get up to go see what she wants, there’s a knock at my door. “Come in?” Who even knocks these days? Not anyone I know, that’s for sure. Whoever it is just opened the door and holy shit. “What in the actual -”
“Look! Before you say anything, let me explain!”
“What the hell Yuuji? You’re hair! It’s blonde?”
“YEAH BUT YOU HAVEN’T EVEN NOTICED THE OTHER THING” he starts pointing to his ears and that’s when I see it.
“YOU PIERCED YOUR EARS TOO?”
“YEAH, OF COURSE I DID”
“...”
“So I’m just gonna explain…”
“You fucking better,”
“Wait, are you mad? You look, well I don’t even know”
“No im not fucking mad, but a heads up would’ve been nice. I wanted a piercing too.”
“Wow. Okay well then I’ll get a tongue piercing next time and you can get whatever you want!:
“Deal.”
“Look, we both know what day it is. And I didn't wanna leave you alone today but, I also wanted to do something to surprise you in a way? I know Pierce meant a lot to you and since his name sounds like ‘piercing’, I decided to get one, you know, in his honor.”
Oh. Wait, “And your date?”
“You really think I took my date to a hair salon and a piercing shop?”
“Wait yeah, my bad. Now that you mention it though, the blonde hair?”
“ That was just for fun.”
“Figures.” It was sweet of him though and I really can’t help but smile.”You’re undercut looks like trash though,”
“Shut the fuck up,”
“Never,” it’s weird because he pulls me in for a hug and usually I’d shove him away but right now, it’s me that holds on to him for a few more seconds. “Thank you.”
“Hm? For what ru?”
“I don’t know, just being here I guess.”
“Always.” And for the first time, I felt my heart ache as he smiled at me. Yeah this isn’t a good sign.
***
I’ve come to terms with the fact that maybe I like Yuuji.
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 17
So update. I still like Yuuji and these feelings won't go away. Sad thing is, I’m pretty much friendzoned all the time seeing as he has a new girlfriend every month. Whatever though, it’s not like I don’t lie to him about my feelings all the time. Ye
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 17 [a few months later]
Yuuji has a boyfriend. He has a fucking boyfriend. So he really doesn’t like me, and even if I did have a chance, I’d rather not be broken up with two weeks later. His boyfriend seems nice though, and you know maybe we can be friends. His name is Daichi or something like that, he’s captain of the lacrosse team. Well, let’s see how it goes I guess.
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 18
Yuuji just texted me; they just broke up. This was by far his longest relationship. I’m sort of surprised but the end had to come eventually. We just graduated [Daichi and I] so it’s common for a lot of people to break up right about now. And now I’m just waiting for… there it is
***
Yuuji:
I’m coming over
***
See no matter how long or short his relationships are, Yuuji ends up coming over at some point just to binge watch movies, though usually he’s never too beat up about it. Now though, I’m kind of worried. Yes, in a way I’m happy they broke up but he's also my best friend and I liked Daichi. I can’t help but feel sorry for them, they were good together.
Next thing I know there’s a knock on my door and as expected it’s Yuuji.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” he sighs, and god he looks really upset. I could tell it wasn’t an easy breakup, you could still see faint tear marks around his eyes. It hurts to see him like this but I don’t know what to do, do I- oh. “Look I just need a hug right now is that alright?”
“Yeah, I’m here for whatever you need Yuuji,”
“I know, thanks.” We stay like that for a bit more till he finally pulls apart. “Sorry,”
Why the fuck is he sorry?”Hey, you just went through a really hard breakup, I really don’t blame you.”
“Yeah but I know you don’t like showing affection,” well… that’s debatable.
“Look, don't worry about it, just- come on. Let’s go sit down.”
We walk over to the main room and just sit on one of the couches. I wait for him to talk because I could see it in his face that he wanted to say something. “
“I actually liked him.”
I sigh, “I figured that out as soon as your relationship lasted longer than three weeks.” I point out, “So, did he break up with you because he’s moving?”
“No. I broke up with him.” He stares at me, eyes wide open, as if I know what he means, but for the first time in many years, I really don’t.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. It just wasn’t right to be together anymore. We both want different things I guess.” there was a faint smile, and a fake one at that falling on his face.
“Well hey, you’ll find someone better one day Yuuji. I don’t doubt it.”
“You know, I thought exactly that for a split second as soon as I broke up with him.”
“And what changed?”
“Well we were both sad about it of course, but he also said he expected this at the start of our relationship, he said I wasn’t willing to stick with anyone for too long according to what he’d heard about me. He apologized as soon as he said it though, because we did date for over a year and that wasn’t really what he thought of me anyway. Except it still hurt in a way, because they’re right.” No they aren’t, what the hell.
I take his hand and grip it to let him know I’m serious when I say this. “Yuuji, listen to me. I’ve known you since we were what, four? If people think that about you then let them, but I know for a fact when it comes down to it. You’re the most loyal person I know. So what? Sure, you dated a few people here and there, sometimes for questionable amounts of time, but seeing your last relationship with Daichi, it confirmed you could be loyal, and I never doubted you for a second. Okay?”
He just smiles at me and nods but that’s alright, it’s all I need from him to know he’s gonna be okay.
***
If we spent the rest of the night watching movies or gossiping about his shitty exes, then so be it.
***
Well it’s official, I graduated. No more dealing with Oikawa every practice, seeing Yuuji in the halls, talking to the rest of the volleyball team on how to sway the refs [a personal favorite of mine]. Or even occasionally saying hi to Mika even though we don’t talk as much anymore.
It’s weird but change is good in a way.
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 19
I’m in college now and Yuuji’s gonna graduate soon. It’s funny because for a split second that summer after I left highschool, I thought maybe, just maybe I’d lose feelings for him.
It sort of worked as I left for college but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter who asked me out, or who I saw, they weren’t him. It sucks because this shit is never gonna work out and all I can do is hope for the best. Meanwhile, last I heard from Yuuji, he’s dating some new guy, I think his name was Komori Motoya… but don’t quote me on that. Komori was either his new friend or his boyfriend, at this point I barely keep track. In all honesty I probably need a distraction.
***
“So what college are you going to?”
“The one you’re at.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. You’re stuck with me Ru.”
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: Age 20
Fucking hell. College is a bitch. Yuuji doesn’t make it any easier either. He’s here basically every day at my dorm and practically stays over. At this point I feel bad for my roommate but eh, who cares. I’m also surprised he hasn’t dated anyone in college, maybe he’s changed his ways? Who the fuck knows. Point is, we’re spending every day together and low and behold, somehow I still like the fucking loser.
***
[three months later]
“Suguru, why don’t we just get an apartment together?”
“Huh?”
“What? You don’t wanna live with me?!”
“No, it’s not that, just caught me off guard, that’s all. But sure, let’s do it.”
***
"So. I think we found a place."
"Yeah, guess we did."
***
We moved in together and a week later I met someone at the campus cafe. We went on a few dates and it was fun, I liked him. At the end of the day though, we were too different and wanted- no, needed different things. He needed someone who was sure a relationship ship could last with him, and I… Well, I couldn't promise him that. Sorry Kuroo, hope you find someone.
Yuuji on the other hand, is still as single as ever.
-----------------
Daishou Suguru: 21
Throughout the year, I dated a few people, except it kinda sucked because every day I'd come home to Yuuji and it was just a constant reminder of what I wish I had.
Example A, right now we're fucking watching movies and you have no idea how easy it would be to just wrap my arm around him and hold him close. Actually you know what? Fuck it.
"Suguru, you just put your arm around me" is this bitch really chuckling at me right now?
"Okay… and that's a problem because?" You know what, I'm done. I think I'll just confess at this point to be honest.
"I'm gonna start thinking you like me!" He smiles.
"And if I do?" Oh no, his face just dropped, what the fuck. I think I just threw away the longest friendship I've had…
"Don't fuck with me like that." Wait, what?
"Excuse me?" He looks upset now.
"I said, don't fuck with me like that." He just pulled away and I think I definitely fucked up. "Don't give me hope Suguru." Or maybe I didn't?
"Hope for what? The truth?" He's staring at me with wide eyes and I'm not sure if I said the right thing at this point.
"So tell me Ru, you actually like me? And you aren't just messing with me ?"
"Does it look like I'm joking?" As if I haven't been obvious this whole time. I swear he better not give me hope. "Of course I like you! There isn't anyone else Yuuji, it's always been you!" God that felt really good to say.
"You're kidding." What? "Suguru. I've liked you since we were, wait no, since I was fourteen. "
"We're fucking idiots aren't we," I sigh in relief. I should've sucked it up and asked him out sooner.
"Yeah we really are," he smiles at me. "But now that I know you like me…" did he really just-
"If you wanted to cuddle you could've just said something,"
"Ehhh, it’s been six years Ru, lemme have this"
"Yeah, alright.”
-----------------
Suguru Daishou: Age 27
“And then we got married like three years later, adopted your brother two years ago and now we have you!”
“Dad… that story was too long,”
“You asked!”
“Hm? What story?” Yuuji walks into the room carrying Hikaru on his back.
“She wanted to know how we met and I may have rambled,”
“Father told me that story too!” Hikaru smiled, he was very dramatic though.
“Was not!”
“We’re too! You sounded all gushy, it was gross.”
“Hikaru, I will drop you right now.”
“You can’t do that!” he stuck his tongue out, “I’m only six and you’re my father.” he grinned.
“...”
“He got you there love.”
“Dad’s story was also dramatic, and he swore!”
“Oh no! Ru! You shouldn’t swear in front of the children!” Yuuji shut the fuck up.
“Why not? Not like they don’t hear this shit elsewhere, and it trains them to control their language around others!”
“Fine whatever, but I’m gonna go now! Carrying Hikaru is taking a toll on my back,” he groaned as he walked away to Hikaru’s room.
“Bye!!” I yell out along with our daughter. “And you should sleep as well Mina.”
“Okay… Goodnight!”
“Night.”
I head over to Yuuji and I’s room for the night and there he was, “hey.”
“Hey.” He smiles. “They’re right, you know…”
“Hm?”
“We should’ve gotten together at fourteen Ru,” he laughs.
“Yeah, well time was never on our side, was it.” I smile back at him.
“But then it was.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. Goodnight.”