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Tendou squints up at the sun as he waits for Ushijima to finish grabbing his things from the back of the rental car. It’s warm out in the open but there’s a cool breeze preventing it from being too unbearable thankfully, and the forecast had been completely clear of all threats of rain and storms. The perfect day for a hike, all things considered.
It begins, as most things do, with a terrible idea. See, Tendou is hopelessly in love with his best friend. The same best friend that’s currently snapping his backpack buckles into place because of course he’s the type to get a backpack with buckles and actually use them. Tendou has been in love with his best friend since their first year of high school and at this point, over a decade later, it’s frankly quite embarrassing that he hasn’t told him yet. So he finally made the decision that this would be the year that he’d finally confess his feelings to Ushijima.
Except then October rolls around and he’s still yet to follow through. Then one day as he’s sitting in the waiting room at the dentist and idly flipping through a random magazine, an article catches his eye. “Top Five Most Romantic Ways to Confess to The One” the title boasts, and considering Tendou’s complete lack of ideas and inspiration it can’t hurt to read it through to see if there’s anything worthwhile.
It turns out there is because one of the ideas suggested is a romantic wilderness hike where you can be alone with the object of your affection and guarantee no untimely interruptions or inconveniences from other people or any outside forces.
Tendou no longer plays volleyball after graduation sure, but he’s still a reasonably active guy. Ushijima of course remains an absolutely unparalleled machine of peak physical fitness, so a hike through the woods during the best part of autumn for beautiful fall foliage and sights is right up their alley.
His original plans had involved a hike up and around Mount Takao, not too far away from where they both currently reside in Tokyo, but a cursory glance online squashed that in an instant. This time of year the mountain is a zoo and finding the privacy to muster his courage to confess to Ushijima would be difficult. Lacking any other ideas, Tendou had posted in a hiking group he found online asking for ideas on where else they might go for similar views but less crowds within the area.
He’d gotten only one response, but they recommended a mountain in a nearby park only a few hours drive from the city that would be far less crowded. The poster had joked that rumors of trickster spirits haunting the trails and hiker disappearances keep most locals and tourists away from the area, but Tendou had never been very superstitious. All he needed to know is that he’d be guaranteed alone time with Ushijima.
“Are you ready, Wakatoshi-kun?” he asks cheerily, ignoring the way his heart gives a traitorous little clench at how cute Ushijima looks in his hiking gear. The purple short sleeve polo and cargo pants are so different from what he usually wears, but certainly appropriate for the task at hand. Tendou feels suddenly ill prepared in his jeans and regular t-shirt, but at least he’s wearing a decent pair of boots.
“I am. Though I’m surprised to see that it’s just us. I thought such a beautiful day would have everyone outside,” Ushijima muses, following after Tendou towards the start of the trail.
The air seems to crackle with electricity the closer they get to the treeline and Tendou eyes the sign nailed to a post right at the mouth of the trail.
“Don’t leave the path or you might never find your way back,” he reads out loud, raising an eyebrow at Ushijima, who shrugs a shoulder. That seems reasonable enough, if a bit unnecessarily dramatic in Tendou’s opinion.
They step forward onto the path and it feels like stepping into another world. The trees overhead shield them from the heat of the sun and the air seems cooler and fresher than it had by the car. Tendou clearly needs to get out more. Maybe he’s the one being dramatic here.
There’s leaf litter all over the path but it appears otherwise fairly well maintained, with no trash or other signs that humans have been here recently beyond some footsteps in the dirt. The guy from the hiking group said it usually takes a few hours at a leisurely pace to hike to the top of the mountain and back down again, so Tendou has some time to find his courage. His heart is pounding in his chest in a way that has nothing to do with the exercise he’s getting and he attempts to distract himself from his growing panic by looking up at the forest around them.
The trees are full of brightly colored leaves in a rainbow of fall colors. A dizzying mix of oranges, reds, yellows, and browns fill his vision, mingled with the last few green leaves that are clinging to life before they too inevitably end up darkening and falling to the ground. It’s beautiful, in a sad kind of way Tendou supposes. It’s hard to get a view like this in the city though so he drinks it in, along with the crisp, cool autumn air. Tendou has always been partial to spring, but he supposes autumn really does have its merits.
Ushijima is silent as they make their way slowly up the steadily increasing incline of the trail, but the silence isn’t really uncomfortable by any means. Their usual dynamic involves Ushijima listening while Tendou chatters about anything and everything, but this time Tendou allows himself to embrace the peace and quiet stretching between them.
There are bird sounds above them in the trees and the soft crunch of leaves with each step they take, and honestly? Even with the exercise aspect it’s all rather relaxing despite Tendou’s nerves about how to even begin to confess his feelings to his best friend.
Being in love with someone like Ushijima Wakatoshi isn’t easy. While Tendou just works at a chocolate shop, Ushijima is off changing the world of volleyball one spike at a time. He’s helped take the Schweiden Adlers to the top of the division in his years playing for them and won a silver medal for Japan in last year’s Olympic games.
Ushijima Wakatoshi is and always has been a Someone and Tendou, well. He never much cared about being a Someone. All he’s ever wanted is to be Ushijima’s Someone. And while he’s spent years struggling to convince himself that it is enough to get to be his best friend, he knows in his heart that it isn’t true.
Tendou wants more, he needs more. But in order to have more he has to tell Ushijima the truth about his feelings. Now, right now, before it’s too late.
“Satori,” Ushijima says suddenly after they’ve been walking for over an hour in complete silence, and Tendou glances up to see the other man has stopped and is now standing in front of him.
His expression is characteristically serious and yet Tendou can’t help the spike of anxiety that shoots through him. Does Ushijima know what he’s planning to do?
“Satori, I’ve been trying to tell you this for a while now. I was relieved when you reached out to ask about going on a hike together because I didn’t want to say something so important over the phone.”
Scratch that, is Ushijima about to confess to him first?
“You’re making me nervous, Wakatoshi-kun. Just tell me what it is so I can tell you what I want to say, too,” Tendou presses him, feeling his heartbeat quicken into a staccato rhythm against his ribcage with his growing excitement.
In all these years he never dared to hope that his feelings might be reciprocated and yet–
“I’m moving to Poland, after the end of this season,” Ushijima finally murmurs and Tendou swears the entire forest goes dead silent at the same time his heart drops into his stomach.
“You’re what?” he asks dumbly, not sure if he heard him correctly.
Ushijima’s adam’s apple bobs as he swallows and he shrugs and looks away, as if he can’t bring himself to look at Tendou any longer.
“I’m moving to Poland. I got an extremely generous offer from one of the best teams in their professional league and I’ve accepted it. I’m leaving once the season comes to an end in the spring.”
Tendou takes a step back, staring at Ushijima as the shock sets in. Ushijima is leaving. Not just leaving, he’s leaving the entire country. The entire continent and moving half a world away to Poland of all places? Tendou’s eyes narrow when he comes to a realization and he steps forward again, climbing up the path until he’s right in Ushijima’s face.
“How long have you known? They must have approached you not long after the Olympics for you to already have plans made. That was over a year ago, Wakatoshi, so why am I only just now hearing about this? And don’t give me that spin that you wanted to tell me in person, there have been plenty of opportunities between then and now and you waited until there’s only a few months left before you told me? What gives, Wakatoshi?” Tendou demands, feeling desperate and lost as Ushijima looks down to meet his gaze.
“I’m sorry, Satori. You’re right, they did approach me after the Olympic games. I don’t have a good explanation for why I waited so long to tell you, I just… did,” Ushijima responds lamely, only further incensing Tendou.
Tendou scoffs and steps around Ushijima, storming up the mountain as his chest fills with anger and confusion. All thoughts of Ushijima maybe reciprocating his feelings are now long gone because there’s no way he could possibly love Tendou and then go and do something this cruel to him.
He waited too long. He waited too long to confess his feelings and now it’s too late. Ushijima is leaving him and he’s never coming back.
“Satori!” Ushijima yells after him and Tendou ups his pace, refusing to look back even as footsteps thud from behind him. He’d worked so hard on organizing this trip, on finally mustering his courage to confess his feelings to his best friend, and now it’s all a waste. How is he supposed to tell him he loves him now when he’s about to leave him forever?
“Go away, Wakatoshi,” he snaps, staring straight ahead even as Ushijima chases after him.
His pulse is roaring in his ears and his vision is blurring as his eyes threaten to fill with tears. He scrubs at them viciously and when he pulls his hands away there are tiny flashes of light winking in and out of his line of sight.
Ushijima calls his name again but Tendou barely hears him, continuing forward as best as he can with his heart and mind in total shambles. All of his hopeful plans for a future with Ushijima have been completely shattered and Tendou doesn’t know what to do with himself. How can this be happening?
Suddenly there’s a hand grabbing at his wrist and forcing him to a halt and Tendou comes face to face with the cause of his current distress as Ushijima makes him turn around.
“Satori, why are you running away?” he demands and Tendou blinks up at him, feeling as if he’s looking at him through a thick fog.
“Where did the sun go?” Tendou asks dazedly, not even acknowledging that Ushijima had asked him a question.
They’d arrived in the early afternoon and have only been hiking for maybe ninety minutes at most, and yet the forest around them is growing steadily darker as if it’s much, much later in the evening. He tips his head back to look up at the canopy overhead and he can see that the sky has a reddish-orange sunset glow to it now. It feels like only seconds ago that he’d seen clear blue and afternoon sunshine.
“How long have we been walking, Wakatoshi?”
Ushijima pauses, glancing around and apparently coming to the same confusing realizations that Tendou did based on the pinched expression he’s wearing. He releases his grip on Tendou and pulls out his phone, only to frown when it refuses to turn on.
“The battery was full when we left this morning,” he murmurs, and when Tendou withdraws his own cellphone from his pocket he finds it is also dead.
Ushijima is still inspecting his phone when Tendou comes to another second, far more horrifying realization.
“Wakatoshi… Wakatoshi,” he says insistently, reaching out to grip Ushijima’s forearm to get his attention. Ushijima blinks up at him, seemingly confused by the sudden panic in Tendou’s voice.
“Wakatoshi… Where’s the path?”
Somehow in the midst of Tendou’s internal turmoil he had managed to step off the path. He’s not sure how on earth he could have managed that no matter how distracted he was given the thick brush he had seen lining both edges of the path when they were walking on it but somehow… he did. They’re surrounded on all sides by trees and bushes and dead leaves and mushrooms, but no sign of the path to be seen.
It feels impossible and so, so stupid, and yet the evidence is clear. Tendou had somehow wandered off the path and apparently spent hours trying to run away from the inevitable while the unstoppable Ushijima chased after him.
“It’s going to get dark soon. We should probably stay put overnight and then try to find the path in the morning. It isn’t safe to go stumbling around in the dark,” Ushijima murmurs and Tendou nods absently, still struggling to wrap his head around how they could have lost so much time.
It sounds good in theory but neither one of them had planned for or packed with an overnight wilderness stay in mind. Ushijima’s backpack has food and water, a sweatshirt, sunscreen, and bug repellent at least. Tendou’s backpack also has some snacks and a soda, a rolled up blanket he’d originally included for them to sit on when they stopped for lunch, a thin jacket, and an extra pair of socks in case his feet got wet. It’ll be enough to keep them decently comfortable but it’s definitely not ideal for how cold it’s going to get as night creeps over the mountain in earnest.
They have nothing to start a fire with and zero experience between them on how to get one going without it so they end up sitting side by side with their backs to a thick, sturdy tree. There’s a springy bed of dry moss at the base of the trunk which means they can use the blanket to cover themselves and Tendou finds himself absently staring up at the high arching tree as he eats the lunch bento he had packed for himself.
It’s much larger than the rest of the trees around it and vines hang off its tall branches, creating something like a protective curtain around them. Its leaves are a dark, almost blood red and when the setting sun shines through them it creates an unearthly, spooky glow that Tendou finds rather disquieting. The worst part of all of this is that on any other day of any other month of any other year Tendou would kill to get to spend a night alone with Ushijima like this, but right now? Right now Tendou just wants to get as far away from him as humanly possible.
“So this is perhaps a great time to remind you that I’m not the biggest fan of the dark,” Tendou mumbles awkwardly, hunching into Ushijima’s side as night truly begins to settle over them.
He distantly realizes that he hasn’t heard a single animal sound since he and Ushijima got into their argument, but that’s a low rung problem compared to the other 47 things that seem off about their predicament. The encroaching darkness feels suffocating in its absoluteness and the moon casts an eerie light across everything, causing reddish shadows from the leaves to dance through the edges of Tendou’s vision. It reminds him vividly of being trapped in storage closets and shoved into dark lockers by his supposed teammates when he was in middle school. There was no one to help him back then, either.
“It’ll be okay, Satori. Once the sun comes up enough to see we’ll head back down the mountain. Even if we can’t find the path we should be able to find the road if we just follow the slope down,” Ushijima murmurs, offering Tendou one of the bottles of water from his pack.
They don’t speak to one another again for a while and the night drags on, which brings with it a whole host of new problems.
Tendou swears he can see eyes. Some logical part of his brain tries to argue that it’s just the moonlight peeking through the tree branches and reflecting off the damp leaves as a chilly fog settles over the forest.
A branch snaps somewhere in the darkness and Tendou jerks upright from where he’d been pressed against Ushijima’s side for warmth. Panic is starting to override the sensible thoughts and he wraps his hand around Ushijima’s elbow with a vice like grip, flinching when another branch breaks. Is Tendou mistaken or was that one a lot closer?
“Wakatoshi? Wakatoshi did you hear that?” he hisses through his teeth, hunching his knees up in front of him as if that might protect him from whatever is stalking around them. “I think there’s something out there!”
It’s almost too dark to see Ushijima’s face but Tendou can tell he’s frowning. They fall silent again as they both listen and when a third crack echoes, sound even closer this time, Tendou startles to his feet like a deer.
“There’s something out there, Wakatoshi! We can’t stay here, what if it’s a bear or something?”
Tendou’s heart is beating frantically in his chest and he presses himself back against the tree bark, desperately scanning the inky blackness looking for any sign that an animal is intending to make them its next meal. He can’t see anything with this much fog though and the moonlight peeking through the leaves overhead only exacerbates the problem.
“It can’t be a bear, Satori, we’re not far enough north or south for-”
Ushijima doesn’t get to finish his sentence. The instant Tendou’s gaze alights on a pair of bright, shining eyes floating in the darkness he bolts, unable to stand it a moment longer. There’s something crashing through the brush behind him and that only makes him move faster, his lungs aching as his breathing comes fast and panicked. He’s going to be eaten, he’s going to be eaten and he still hasn’t told Ushijima how he feels about him.
Tendou’s foot slips on a patch of loose moss and pain explodes in his leg as he goes crashing to the forest floor in front of him. He can feel the fresh scrapes and cuts all over him but nothing compares to the throbbing agony in his left ankle, which had caught on a tree root on his way down and wrenched at an ugly angle. He can still hear the crashing thing behind him and braces himself to be run down by a ravenous bear when suddenly–
“Satori?”
Tendou lets out a soft, wracking sob as relief floods his aching body. Ushijima steps into the patch of moonlight Tendou fell into and winces when he sees the mess that has become of him. He kneels next to Tendou and carefully dislodges his foot from the root, carefully easing his boot and sock off to inspect the injury.
“I don’t think it’s broken but you’ve sprained it badly, Satori. You can’t walk on this,” Ushijima murmurs and his hands are so, so gentle as he feels around for any sign of a fracture.
Now that Tendou’s calmed down slightly he feels utterly ridiculous. What had he been thinking, taking off in the dark in the middle of a forest he knows nothing about? Ushijima is right, they aren’t in the right area for bears. The largest thing they would probably have encountered on this hike would be a raccoon.
Tendou slowly sits up and winces as his scrapes and bruises protest the movement… and then looks at Ushijima and is immediately distracted by the thought that he looks absolutely beautiful in the wash of moonlight from overhead. The stark brightness of it throws his handsome features into sharp relief, highlighting the proud arch of his nose and the strong curve of his jaw. Not for the first time, nor the last, Tendou acknowledges that he is so deeply, hopelessly in love with his best friend.
“I’m sorry, Wakatoshi. It’s my fault we’re in this mess,” he sighs, wincing when Ushijima carefully eases his sock and boot back on. He ties it as tight around his ankle as he can make it to give Tendou as much support to the injury currently possible, then slips his arms beneath his body and lifts him. Ushijima picks him up like he weighs nothing more than a volleyball to him, waiting for Tendou to wrap his own arms around his neck before he starts off back towards the dark outline of the massive tree they’d made into their makeshift camp. Tendou tries not to think about all the places their bodies are now touching, or the steadiness of Ushijima’s grip as he carries him.
“It’s okay, Satori. I know you don’t like the dark. I’m sorry, I should have done more to prevent you from taking off like that,” Ushijima murmurs, carefully stepping over rocks and other tree branches looking to trip them up again.
Tendou hadn’t really been referring just to his injury, but he leaves it at that.
The “eyes” are still there when Ushijima sets him against the base of the tree trunk once more. Now that Tendou has calmed down it’s easy to recognize that they’re just wet leaves and not, as he had feared, the eyes of some giant monstrous animal set on devouring them whole. Tendou smothers his embarrassment in one of the candy bars he had packed, refusing to look at Ushijima despite the ever present reminder of his throbbing ankle.
He doesn’t resist when Ushijima puts an arm around him and bundles him against his side to keep him from bolting again. In fact, as the night grows darker and the air around them becomes more and more crisp he welcomes the embrace of the living furnace beside him.
Ushijima has gotten so tall and even more broad shouldered in the years since high school, but the way he rests his cheek against the top of Tendou’s head is still the same. They used to sit like this back when they were teenagers watching anime on Tendou’s tablet, huddled together on the floor of his dorm room. What Tendou wouldn’t give to be back in his tiny cramped dorm room.
There’s isn’t much time for them to do things like that these days. Ushijima’s career in professional volleyball takes him all over the country, often for long stretches at a time. Tendou had gone to culinary school in France for two years after graduation and then moved back home to Japan to work under a master chocolatier in the heart of Tokyo. His dream had always been to open his own chocolate shop one day, but lately his heart has been pulling him in another direction.
Even through all these long years, he and Ushijima have remained best friends. They call one another at least once every week to talk, even now with almost a decade between them and their younger years together.
But Poland… Poland is so far away. With Tendou going to France there had at least been a deadline when Tendou knew he’d be returning to Japan, but volleyball contracts can be so unpredictable. Ushijima could injure himself and have to retire prematurely, or he could spend the next ten years in Poland playing for this other team. He could meet someone while he’s there and decide to stay forever, even after he’s done playing volleyball professionally.
Tendou might never see him again.
Silent tears begin to slowly slip down his cheeks as the reality of the situation finally settles over him. Ushijima is leaving and Tendou might never see him again. He’s a few short months from losing his best friend and the only person he’s ever loved in his entire life and he’s completely and utterly helpless to stop it. What good would confessing his feelings do now except to drive a final wedge between them? Ushijima could take off to Poland and never speak to him if he feels uncomfortable with Tendou being in love with him. Tendou is on the precipice of losing everything and it feels like there’s no way back from the ledge.
Exhaustion settles heavily into his aching body and Tendou turns his face so he can bury it against Ushijima’s shoulder. He’s suddenly grateful for the dark surrounding them because Ushijima can’t see his misery, or his tears. This may be Tendou’s one last chance to be close to him before he’s gone forever and the realization only makes him cry harder.
His ankle pulses angrily and Tendou rubs at his aching leg, though it does little good. Neither of them had brought pain medication or an ice pack, so all Tendou can do is try to sleep and hope it’ll feel better in the morning.
He presses closer to Ushijima’s warmth and distantly registers the arm around him tightening ever so slightly. The last thing Tendou sees before he closes his eyes is the soft winking of dancing lights in the distance, and then there’s only darkness.
🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐
“Satori,” a soft voice whispers, and Tendou distantly registers warmth of fingers brushing against his cheek. “Satori, you need to wake up.”
Tendou blinks, then winces as watery grey sunshine fills his tired eyes. The throbbing pain in his ankle makes itself known once more and he slowly sits up, expecting to see Ushijima standing above him but finding himself alone against the tree trunk. He frowns, glancing around for any sign of his best friend and finding none. Who had woken him up?
“Oh, Satori. You’re awake. I was just looking around to see if I could find any sign of the path before I came to get you.”
Ushijima’s voice startles him out of his confusion and he turns to stare up at him, squinting against the brightness overhead. It must have just been a dream or something.
Tendou feels itchy and gritty all over from sleeping in the dirt all night and his aching body groans almost as loudly as he does when Ushijima helps him up. He tests his injured foot and the only thing that prevents him from going sprawling back onto the ground is Ushijima’s strong arms reaching out to catch him.
“I don’t think I can walk, Wakatoshi. You’re going to have to leave me and go get help,” he sighs, hating the idea the instant he says it. What if it takes Ushijima longer than a day to get down the mountain? Could Tendou handle a night in the woods on his own?
He’s relieved when Ushijima vehemently shakes his head, guiding Tendou back so he can lean against the tree for support.
“No. I’m not leaving you here by yourself, Satori. I’ll carry you if I have to,” he says firmly, leaving no room for argument.
Tendou certainly isn’t about to disagree with him. The idea of having to stay out here alone is absolutely terrifying. He watches quietly as Ushijima packs all of their things into one of the backpacks, accepting the granola bar and water bottle he’s offered and making an attempt at eating.
The pain in his ankle is nauseating and now that the sun is rising Tendou can see all the other scrapes, cuts, and bruises he had acquired all over his arms from his unexpected fall. There’s a bad rip in the knee of his jeans and dirt covering every square inch of him.
He can’t wait to climb into a bath and forget this entire miserable trip ever even happened.
Tendou takes the full backpack from Ushijima and slips his half eaten breakfast back inside of it before he loops it over his shoulders. He even does up the buckles, watching quietly as Ushijima slides on Tendou’s now empty bag.
While Ushijima is getting himself situated, Tendou turns to look up at the tree they had sheltered under. Tendou feels like the tree protected them last night, even though nothing had really happened. The thought is a strange one, but he leans in and presses his forehead to the rough bark anyways, closing his eyes and exhaling softly.
“Thank you for keeping us safe,” he murmurs, and then he pulls away.
It takes a bit of finangling and Ushijima ends up having to carry him over to stand on a log to get a good enough angle, but Tendou manages to climb on his back and loop his arms over Ushijima’s broad shoulders to hold himself steady. Strong hands wrap around his thighs just above the knee and Tendou sighs, burying his face against the back of Ushijima’s neck as they finally begin their trek down the mountain slope.
The hike is treacherous without the maintained safety of the trail to guide them. Ushijima’s full attention is on each step in front of him and he struggles to avoid rocks, holes, tree roots, and anything else that might send them sprawling and injure Tendou even more.
Tendou stays quiet to allow him to concentrate but the guilt that Ushijima has to carry him is slowly eating him alive. What if their pace is so slowed by this that they have to spend another night in the forest? It would be Tendou’s fault entirely then, more so than it already is.
He doesn’t know how long they’ve been walking for when he finally does speak, and when he does it’s to finally re-ask the question that’s been burning at him since yesterday.
“Wakatoshi… Why did you wait so long to tell me about the offer? And don’t tell me that you don’t know. I deserve the truth, so please just. Talk to me,” he asks, his voice a soft, sad thing in the utter stillness of the woods.
Ushijima doesn’t respond for a minute, keeping his face forward as he navigates around a slick looking patch of moss. It’s dotted by little white mushrooms, shining with dew in the early afternoon sunlight, and Tendou distantly thinks that it’s almost too bad that everything has gone to shit.
In any other situation this might have been an almost magical experience.
“I was afraid,” Ushijima says finally, and the rumbling baritone of his voice against Tendou’s chest startles him out of daydreams of forest hikes with Ushijima.
“I was afraid that you might tell me about your own plans if I told you about mine. I know it’s selfish, but I didn’t want to hear about your plans for the future that don’t involve me.”
Tendou frowns against the back of his neck, tightening his arms as he considers what Ushijima is saying. He swears he can almost hear the faint sound of birdsong off in the distance, but right now all of his attention is on Ushijima. His heart is beating so loudly he worries that Ushijima can feel it against his back, but if there were ever a moment for Tendou to finally tell Ushjima the truth, this is it.
“I don’t have any plans for the future, Wakatoshi. I mean, I want to open a chocolate shop of my own someday, but that’s… I couldn’t see myself making any concrete plans because I didn’t want to plan for a future unless you were in it,” he whispers so quietly that he fears Ushijima didn’t hear him.
And then Ushijima is slowly coming to a stop and setting him down to sit on top of a large, moss covered log, turning to face him with an unreadable expression on his face.
“Come with me, Satori. To Poland. I know I have no right to ask you to leave your home and your family and everything you’ve ever known just to come with me to an unfamiliar country, but I’m asking anyway. I want you to be mine. Always. I thought I would be able to leave my feelings for you behind if I went away, but now I know it would be utterly impossible.”
Ushijima sounds so sincere as he speaks and Tendou feels his breath catch in his throat as they stare at one another in a moment seemingly suspended in time. It feels as if the entire forest contracts around them and the trees close in, surrounding them with the echoing silence that has been their constant companion since the moment Ushijima broke Tendou’s heart.
And then Tendou smiles softly, reaching out to brush his fingertips against the softness of Ushijima’s cheek.
“All you ever had to do was ask, Wakatoshi. I’ve been yours since the moment we met,” he whispers, and when Ushijima’s lips slot so, so gently against his own, Tendou feels a peace he never thought possible.
He closes his eyes and it’s like fireworks going off behind his eyelids; a now familiar dancing of lights that he’s seen thrice now.
He doesn’t care. Not about the lights, or the pain in his ankle, or the sudden return of birdsong echoing through the trees above them. All he can think about is Ushijima and the desperately careful way he’s cradling Tendou’s face between his palms, as if afraid Tendou might shatter if he touches him too roughly.
When the kiss ends and Tendou opens his eyes again for what feels like the first time in years, a bright flash of yellow over Ushijima’s shoulder catches his attention.
“Wakatoshi… It must be our lucky day because I think I found the trail,” he chuckles, and Ushijima twists to look at where he’s pointing.
Tendou carefully climbs onto Ushijima’s back again and they slowly pick their way towards the yellow, holding their breath as they dare to hope that they might just be saved. Sure enough once they get closer it is indeed one of the brightly colored trail markers and Tendou could almost cry when Ushijima steps back onto the blessed, beautiful path once more.
The hike back down is much easier and quicker after that, though Tendou doesn’t help much when he spends most of it kissing the back of Ushijima’s neck and head. They still have so much to talk about but Tendou now realizes there’s all the time in the world to do it.
The path starts to widen as they approach the bottom and Ushijima’s pace quickens along with Tendou’s heartbeat. He can hear voices and as much as he loves being alone with Ushijima he’s eager to see another living breathing human being again, and their rental car. God they were supposed to return that yesterday, the late fees are going to be killer.
Tendou expects to see maybe two people at the bottom of the path, or perhaps at most a small family preparing for their own hike. What he doesn’t expect is half a dozen vehicles, three police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck all crowded on the side of the road and a small army of people clustered together around their car. Someone yells when they notice Ushijima and Tendou stepping out of the trees and everyone turns, looking shocked to see them.
“Would your coaches have called out the cavalry already? It’s only been one night, there’s no way Rieko called the police on me for missing work this morning,” Tendou says incredulously, watching as people start rushing towards them. Ushijima seems equally nonplussed by this development, coming to a halt and slowly letting Tendou down just as the first police officers reach their side.
Everything happens rather quickly after that. The policemen help Tendou to the ambulance and he and Ushijima are given blankets and coffee from a thermos someone had brought while one of the EMTs puts a makeshift splint on Tendou’s sprained ankle. It’s then that they’re informed they’ve been missing for days, to which Tendou nearly spits out a mouthful of coffee on the poor EMT squatting in front of him.
“We were only in the woods for one night!” he protests, but his words fall on deaf ears.
As far as they’re concerned, Ushijima Wakatoshi and Tendou Satori have been missing for almost a full week. When Tendou didn’t show up for work after three days and hadn’t answered his phone, his boss had called the police and reported him missing. Ushijima’s coaches had done the same after four when he missed practice and no one seemed to be able to get in contact with him. Not long after, the rental agency they had gotten the car from reported it stolen, and last night a passing motorist had finally called the cops about an abandoned vehicle that had been on the side of the road for the past several days.
They had been mobilizing a search party to comb the woods for them when Ushijima and Tendou had unexpectedly stumbled out, looking like they’d just seen a ghost.
Tendou wonders if that isn’t actually that far off.
The police pull Ushijima aside to take his statement on how they’d gotten lost and Tendou looks down at the EMT currently cleaning his scrapes and cuts with alcohol swabs. It seems impossible that he and Ushijima could have been missing for so many days without realizing it. But then again, everything about this entire experience has seemed impossible.
“There’s magic in these mountains, you know,” the EMT murmurs softly, and Tendou blinks at him, not sure if he heard him right. “They say it leads people astray and won’t let them go until it’s satisfied. You’re both lucky to have gotten out of there alive, Tendou-san.”
Tendou privately agrees with him. Things had been looking quite bleak for a while there, especially last night when he’d sat in the pitch blackness and mourned a love he thought gone forever. Perhaps it had been the darkness in their own hearts that had opened them up to becoming so lost, both literally and metaphorically.
He considers the lights he kept seeing when he closed his eyes, then smiles faintly. Once he and Ushijima told each other the truth and were honest about their feelings, the forest chose to let them go.
He looks up at Ushijima and watches him as he talks to the police officer, unable to resist the fondness creeping into his chest. Tonight he’ll get to go home with him and fall asleep in his arms again, but in a much more comfortable venue than the middle of the woods.
“I don’t know exactly what happened to us,” Tendou admits, his heart doing a little flip flop when Ushijima looks over at him and olive eyes crinkle slightly around the corners in the smallest of smiles.
“But I’m grateful for it. It gave me everything.”
Later that night as Tendou lies in the safe circle of Ushijima’s arms, he opens his phone and toggles over to the hiking group. He scrolls until he finds his old post and clicks onto it, pleased when he sees the comment that had guided him to the mountain in the first place is still there. He types out a quick response and then shuts his phone off, carefully rolling over to face Ushijima so as not to disturb his sleeping boyfriend and burrowing against his chest.
The comment he left simply reads: thank you for the recommendation.