Work Text:
.April 2017.
TO: azumaneasahi13@mail.co.jp
FROM: [email protected]
SUBJECT: re:re:re:re: photos & shit
Asahi -
Check out these sick portraits of Ryuu I took on our hike a couple of weeks ago. I’m actually really proud of them, look at him! He and Kiyoko are made for eachother.
Speaking of, kind of a giant favor? I know you said she was coming to Tokyo next week and I was hoping to maybe, give her a few? Is that weird? I'll pay for the printing fees, but could you do that for me? If it isn't weird? I just think she'd like them, yaknow? Maybe?
I attached the photos, and some of the landscapes I took a few days ago of the coastline. Isn't this city fucking beautiful?
Yuu x
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hey are we like
boyfriends ?
we didnt ever say
Noya settles his phone on his chest and watches the fan spin on the ceiling above. Shouyou will be back in a few minutes, as boisterous and as nosy as ever. Not that Noya doesn't absolutely love Shouyou for both of those things, but five minutes without questions to text his boyfriend(?) is also nice. Noya taps his fingers impatiently on his phone and hopes Asahi actually got up on time for work today. Twelve-hour time differences are, it turns out, rough to navigate.
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:45 PM]: Noya, it isn’t even 9 AM here yet.
But not impossible.
Noya chuckles.
o sry too much too early ?
good morning (:
should i call u my ringleader instead? my One And Only? Teammate??
sugar daddy doesnt feel right but i could make it work
Noya’s been in Brazil for two weeks and it’s incredible. It's sunny and warm, despite the autumn quickly approaching, and it's a stark difference to the crisp Japanese early-Spring he'd left behind with Asahi on the tarmac of Haneda Airport. The first thing he'd done when he touched down was stuff his hoodie all the way in the bottom of his bag.
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:47 PM]: Nooyyyaaaa
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:47 PM]: Boyfriends sounds nice.
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:48 PM]: Or partners?
isnt that the same thing??
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:49 PM]: They’re interchangeable if you want them to be.
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:50 PM]: And I can't be your sugar daddy, sorry, I don't have any money.
Noya grins, chest warm, and then follows up on the routine they've established; he pulls up his phone’s photos and picks the best ones from today. He’ll eventually send the ones from his camera when he has the chance to edit them.
LOL good thing im actually into this relationship bc it gives me an excuse to stare are your arms all day *shrug*
well, boyfriend, we went to the beach again
have i told u how much i suck at beach vb yet??
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:57 PM]: Once or twice
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:57 PM]: I'd love to hear updates, though.
no updates i still suck
AZUMANE ASAHI [8:59 PM]: ah haha
AZUMANE ASAHI [9:01 PM]: Well, if your ego is too bruised by the time you leave, there's a team here that thinks you're the next best thing.
i hear their ace is pretty kind on the eyes
AZUMANE ASAHI [9:03 PM]: Whoever told you that must be biased.
or they just can see?? with their eyes?? asahi really?????
and i am really excited to see the team again
have you heard from nakamura?
AZUMANE ASAHI [9:05 PM]: Yes! His wife is doing really well - I might be sending you baby pictures in the next few weeks.
thats so crazy!! i cant imagine taking care of a baby rn
AZUMANE ASAHI [9:09 PM]: Oh god, me either. I’m enough work as it is.
AZUMANE ASAHI [9:10 PM]: This sunrise is gorgeous! Where were you?
right?? took a different route on my jog this morning
The door creaks open and Shouyou pops inside his room. “Back!” He shouts, and Noya grins up at him.
“All good?”
“Yeah! She was super happy to hear from me.”
It's Hinata’s mom’s birthday tomorrow - well, this morning, in Japan.
“The timezones must make it hard to talk to your family.”
“Yeah, sort of,” Hinata says, clambering onto his bed and sitting criss-crossed. He stretches his arms up above his head.
(When Noya met Hinata the night he arrived, Noya had whistled at Hinata’s shiny new muscles.
“Dude,” he'd said. “Are you sure you aren't training to be a bodyguard? You look like you could snap me in half.”
And it had taken just that for first-year, flustered Hinata to come right back out. Panicking, “I wouldn't - why would I do that?” )
“But we've figured it out. It's harder to keep up with friends - everyone is so busy, you know?” Hinata seems to catch himself. “Which is great! I'm really happy for them. It's just - I don't know.”
Noya studies him. “It's okay to miss your friends. They miss you right back, you know.”
Hinata laughs, a little wetter than Noya had expected to hear. “I guess so.” He rests his elbows on his knees, chin in his hands. “How do you do it? Does your grandpa even know how to FaceTime?”
Noya snorts, then laughs loudly. “He does not, but we work it out with phone calls and e-mails and postcards.” He taps his fingers along the back of his phone, one-two-three-four. “And as for my friends, well. I really only regularly keep up with Ryuu and Asahi. Everyone else I catch up with when I can, yaknow? I guess that's what being an adult is about, or whatever.” Noya lifts his eyebrows, then shifts toward Hinata conspiratorially. “Can I tell you a secret?”
Hinata’s eyes widen. He mimics zipping his lips and tossing the key away.
“Ryuu is going to propose soon. Like, maybe next week soon.”
Hinata’s elbows slide off his knees. “What! To Kiyoko? They're getting MARRIED?”
“He showed me the ring and everything.”
“What! That’s - amazing!” Hinata shouts again. He flops over, face-to-pillow. “Ahhhh, Noya, does this mean we're getting old?”
Noya laughs again. “Maybe?”
Hinata is silent for a moment. Two. He's starting somewhere beyond Noya.
“I love it here, but,” Hinata whispers. “But I'm ready to go home. To keep going.”
Hinata is waiting on a call to find out if he's been signed to a team in Japan. In six months or so, he’ll know if he's been selected or not.
Noya opens his mouth, and then closes it sharply. For the first time in years, he realizes he is ready to agree. He’s ready to go home.
It hits him hard in his chest. He's been restless for - for forever, really. Restless, always moving. And there's so much of the world he hasn't seen yet. But there's also -
He squeezes his phone in between his fingers, tight. He imagines where Asahi is right this minute, drinking his morning coffee with his reading glasses on his nose, hair clipped back and a soft sweater to ward off the April chill. He thinks about the little collection of figurines on Asahi’s couch table. He swallows down the fears of not being able to have both.
Noya swallows again, and again. He forces out a chuckle. “You better get home soon, then, if you want a wedding invitation,” he jokes, and pretends he isn't saying it a little to himself.
In three days, Noya will leave Rio and will hop on a 13 hour bus ride through São Paulo and into Curitiba. He's going to take a train through the mountains and spend a few days in Morretes before packing back up again and heading back to the city to catch a plane to Chile. The Andes are calling his name.
He's here now. He’ll make it count.
.
Hinata has a game today - Noya has been very graciously allowed to take some pictures.
“I'm not sure if they'll be any good, I haven't ever had the chance to photograph volleyball before.”
Hinata balks. “Really? I figured that's what you would have practiced on first.”
“Nah,” Noya says lightly. “Whenever I'm looking for matches, it's always because I want to play.”
Hinata nods. They're finishing a quick breakfast before heading to the beach. Hinata's roommate had bid them an early goodbye on his way to work.
“Do you miss it all the time?”
Noya blinks. He rips at the leftmost edge of his bread. “Sort of,” he says. He's not too surprised that he isn't sad saying it, though. “I will always love volleyball - it's the reason I am who I am. But I - I really had no idea who I was when I wasn't playing. I've been in it since I was nine years old. And, I'll be honest with you - it was the only normalcy in my world for a long time, so I relied on it, like, a lot. You didn't know me in middle school, but I was. Not doing great. Except with volleyball.” Noya chuckles a little to himself, around the tiny burn in his chest. “And when everybody started talking about graduating and what they wanted to do - I just. I didn't know anything except volleyball. So I decided I'd try and find out what I loved outside of it. Doesn't mean I don't miss it, though.
“I've got an open invitation to play on Ashai’s neighborhood team, though, which is fucking great. And I'm sure Ukai would let me play whenever I'm in town visiting Gramps, so. It's alright.”
Hinata hums, thinks, then claps his hands together. “I don't get it! But I'm glad you're doing okay.”
Then Hinata stares at him for a long moment. There is something too perceptive in those eyes - the kid has gotten smarter as he's aged, oh god.
“Sooooo,” Hinata hums. “You’re keeping up with Asahi, huh?”
To Noya’s eternal irritation, his face heats up. “Oh, shut the fuck up. You're - what? You grow four centimeters taller and think you can poke fun at your elders, is that what this is?” He shifts a little and reels it in, but can't seem to meet Hinata’s eyes. “And yeah, of course I am. We're dating now.”
Hinata chokes, halfway through his last bite of Pão Francês, and bangs the table. “ Really? ” His grin is a million volts. “That makes me - I'm so happy! Does Yachi know? She was trying to convince all the first years to root for you two, like, early.”
Noya - again, annoyingly - blushes a little more. “Look, I don't need anyone else to tell us we were blind to a good thing in high school, alright?”
“Sure, sure,” Hinata laughs.
“And what about you, hm?”
Hinata looks back at him, blank. “What about me?”
“Any particular high school obsessions you want to talk to me about?”
Hinata furrows his brows. “No? I don't think anyone was placing bets on me like they were on you. Who would it even be?”
Noya is fully laughing at Hinata by the time he's finished. Hinata flails his arms. “What? What?”
“Nothing,” Noya wheezes. “You should ask your own first years.”
.
The sun is blazing by the time Hinata is on the court. Noya knows Hinata is an excellent volleyball player, watched him grow as a second year and fight for every single ounce of growth he's managed. He'd watched as Hinata and his fellow third years and new team had fought and bled for third place at nationals.
Not just anyone would learn beach volleyball to get stronger. Noya can’t help but be proud of the kid. But watching him fight out here in the sand - it's something else. Noya is glad he has his camera.
It's one of his only days he doesn't have to work, so Hinata plays all day and into the afternoon. As the sun is starting to sink, Hinata is finishing up his last set, sweating and grinning like a fool. Noya can relate.
His stand-in partner sets the ball. Hinata runs and jumps, flies , just like always. Just as amazing.
Noya snaps a photo. Hinata’s curled body silhouetted against the sun. His head and hand well above the line of the net. The ball just inches from his palm. A Little Giant.
Huh. Maybe Noya isn't a half-bad sports photographer, after all.
That evening, after dinner and well-deserved showers, Hinata sits and works on Portuguese with his roommate and Noya uploads this week’s photos to his laptop. He scrolls and selects a few of the jungle shots he'd taken on the Pedra da Gávea trail, including an awesome shot of a monkey peering down at them from the trees (monkeys! They look so different than the macaques they'd gone to see when he was in grade school, but still somehow seem to know more than they were letting on. Creepy, but incredible). He hadn't had many opportunities this week to take anything earth shattering, but he'd practiced his portrait work with Hinata (who was so embarrassed about it, the dweeb) and Pedro (who was incredibly accommodating and super photogenic for someone so shy) and the old woman who ran the counter at the corner shop just down from Hinata’s apartment (who chatted with him in a hilarious mix of both of their broken English and his thirty words in Portuguese and her five in Japanese and some strategic Googling and hand gestures). He pulls some of those photos to work on, too.
Finally, he gets to the shots from this afternoon. He quietly scrolls through them, pulling a few, before he stops on that final pose of Hinata’s, poised over the net. He decides he'll do these first, so he can get them to Hinata before Noya heads out.
He pushes through them, some coming together easier than others, some having to be scrapped altogether except to be sent to Asahi for fun. (The action shot of Hinata turns out fucking great , and he gives himself a mental high-five for it. There's also a great candid of Hinata and Pedro that he makes a mental note to take to the print shop tomorrow and stick on their fridge).
His phone buzzes on the table top and startles him out of his flow. He glances at the clock. Already 8:30!
“Hello?”
“Good evening.”
Noya grins to himself. “Good morning.”
Asahi sounds like he's just woken up, which, in all fairness, he probably just has.
“Am I interrupting you?”
“Never. And don't let me stop you from getting your day started.”
“This is the best way to get my day started,” Asahi murmurs, and Noya kicks his feet a little bit. “How has your day been?”
So they settle in to talk, Noya picking up the sounds of the coffee pot clicking on and the kitchen cabinets creaking open. It's gentle, nice.
“Oh, I saw your email,” Asahi says. “And I think giving photos to Kiyoko is a great idea. They turned out really well - you really have a knack for portraiture, I mean it every time I say it.”
Noya wiggles uncomfortably farther back in his seat. “If you say so.”
“I do say so.”
“Well, what kind of boyfriend would I be if disagreed with you when you're so certain, huh?” A beat. “Or partner, or teammate, or sugar -”
“Noyaaa,” Asahi whines. “We've been over this already -”
“Uhm,” Noya interrupts, loud and sudden. Asahi immediately falls silent. “You can, uh. You can call me Yuu, you know. If you want to.”
“Oh,” Asahi says softly. “I do. Want to.”
“Oh,” Noya repeats. “Well. Good. I'd, uh. I'd like that.”
“Okay, Yuu,” Asahi says, still soft, still quiet.
Noya nearly tips over and combusts. It's all worth it.
.
Hinata walks with Noya to the bus stop, on his final morning. Pedro had proudly wished him safe travels in Japanese, and he'd responded his thanks in Portuguese. It was a lightening moment.
Noya pulls - taller, broader - Hinata in for a tight hug. When he leans back, he claps Hinata hard on the arm.
“It's been really good to see you, Shoyou. I'll see you next in Japan, right?”
Hinata beams. “Can't miss the wedding of the year, can I? I'll just have to be signed by then.”
“You will be.” Noya doesn't hesitate for a second. He believes it with all his being.
Hinata swells up, and then hugs Noya again.
“I’ll see you then!”
.
TO : kozumeinquiries @ mail.co.jp
FROM : [email protected]
SUBJECT : Headshots???
hi kenma !!!! you asked me a million and two years ago about having some pictures taken… guess what!! check the attachments!!!
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TO : [email protected]
FROM : [email protected]
SUBJECT : Photographer
Kuroo,
Are you still looking for a photographer for the season promotion in a few months? I have a familiar face that might work perfectly.
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