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The sun had risen more than an hour ago, and Noya misses his husband, but he pushes a little lower and spurs Sparrow forward. “Just a little farther,” he whispers to his oldest companion, and laughs when she neighs in what sounds like an enthusiastic approval. “Hell, yeah, darlin’ go!”
With the wind in his hair and Sparrow’s big body shifting under him, adrenaline coursing in his veins and blood pumping in his ears, Noya feels as free as he could ever imagine.
Yet, his heart is starting to ache the way it always does every morning, telling him it’s time to go home. Gentle, dawn-kissed memories fill his mind, reminding him; long brown hair splayed over soft white pillows, his fingers combing slowly through it as if enchanted to do so like every morning. Soft, sleep-warm skin under his lips as he kisses his sweet husband good morning and goodbye. The sleepy hum and smile and the heavy hand that had reached for him as he got up.
God. If riding in the morning is his freedom, being next to his husband, his beloved Asahi, is his heaven, his peace.
And his heart is calling him home.
“Let’s go home, sweet girl,” Noya clicks his tongue, and Sparrow slows down before turning around without needing to be guided. “You miss him, too, huh?”
Sparrow snorts as if to say, “Duh.” And Noya laughs.
“Right, stupid question,” he pets her head. “Let’s go back to him quick,” he says, and they’re off, back to where they’d both left a piece of their heart.
Freedom is only so much sweeter when your heart has a home to return to.
-
They’re trotting on the outskirts of their neighbourhood when Noya sees a familiar hunched back as they work on their garden. “Suga-san!”
The man turns around with a smile already on his lips. “Nishinoya, good morning!”
“Good morning!” Noya returns brightly, easing Sparrow to stand by the fence of the Sawamura-Suga household.
“How was your ride today?”
“Fantastic! How’s the garden coming along?”
“Great, actually,” Suga-san smiles happily, as he always does when someone asks about his little projects. “Actually, I was just waiting for you.”
“You were?”
Suga-san hums, his eyes crinkling and lips tipping up in one corner like when he’s especially pleased with something. “I want you to give those to Asahi,” he says, grabbing the basket that was on the ground beside him. “Ta-daaa!”
“Ooh! Strawberries!”
“Yes! First of the season, tell Asahi to make his pies, will you?”
“And, of course, the price is to give at least one pie to you too.”
“Duh.”
Noya laughs, waiting for Suga-san to pour the strawberries from the basket into an easier-to-carry bag for someone on horseback and gladly accepts the gifts. “Asahi will be happy to bake for you.”
“He always is,” Daichi-san groans, coming out of the house to stand by his husband, hand reaching to rest on his side as if guided by a magnetic force. “Getting a little soft on my midriff these days, thanks to your man.”
“I’m sure Suga-san doesn’t mind,” Noya shoots back with a grin.
“And you’re right,” Suga-san points a finger-gun at him, turning to embrace his husband and whisper something in his ear.
Which makes Daichi-san turn visibly red and right! As fun as it would be to watch the stoic man squirm, it only makes Noya more desperate to get back to his husband and make him squirm with his teasing.
He waves them goodbye and eases Sparrow to an easy trot up the little hill where their home is.
-
The Rolling Whispers ranch was a horse sanctuary where old and neglected and tired horses, at the end of their career, came to find the quiet they needed to finally rest and recover. Asahi had set it up all on his own before Noya had met him.
And the first time Noya had seen him, wide and big but shy and meek and with the kindest smile he’s ever seen as he coaxed a stubborn old racehorse to eat from the palm of his hand… well. It was love at first sight, pretty much.
He feels some of that old surprise and tug at his heart when Sparrow climbs over the last of the hill and finally sees his husband.
Asahi is inside the round yard, stroking their newest rescue’s mane and whispering in her ear. She notices Noya’s arrival first, huffing a little and stepping back from Asahi as if annoyed by their return, but Asahi is quick to soothe and coax her close again.
“Still doesn’t like me, I see.”
“She just needs a little more time,” his husband smiles, a hand raised to his forehead to cover the sun from his eyes as he squints at Noya.
Noya hums, still pouting a little, but changes the subject, “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“You do?”
Noya grins, “Got to follow me and find out.”
Asahi laughs, quiet and soft. Noya’s hands shake with the need to hold him close, but he still waits until he whispers a few more words into Lara’s twitching ears and leaves her to burn some more energy in the yard.
When Asahi has locked the fence behind him, Noya finally proceeds with their usual greeting and throws up his hands, “Husband! I am back!”
Asahi’s laughter is loud and bright, “Welcome back, husband,” he replies, one hand on Noya’s thigh and the other reaching for his shirt to pull him down for a kiss.
Noya hums into it. He’s too aware of how sweaty and covered in dust he is and how fresh and smelling like mint and flowers (like the conditioner Noya buys for him cuz that hair is his responsibility now) his husband is to really give into it, but Asahi keeps him in place for a while longer, tongue teasing the seam of his lips as he leans back. “I missed you.”
They grin and press their smiles together again when they realise they’ve said it at the same time.
Noya leans back, stroking the side of his husband’s face before he eases Sparrow to move towards the stables, Asahi keeping pace by their side.
While Noya removes the saddle from Sparrow, his husband makes sure she has plenty to eat and drink and checks on the other horses as well.
When they’re finally done, the husbands gravitate back together like magnet pieces, their hands licking into each other’s.
Noya holds out the brown paper bag Suga-san had given him.
Asahi takes it curiously and immediately exclaims when he sees what’s inside. “From Suga?”
“Yeah,” Noya grins. “Wants one of your pies in return.”
“Of course,” Asahi laughs happily and holds the strawberries close, and pulls his husband towards their home.
-
Freshly showered, with a towel around his shoulder and his hair still down, Noya pads to the kitchen, following the mouth-watering smell of breakfast cooking. “I’m starving,” he groans as he eyes the sausages and eggs.
Asahi laughs, “I know,” looking like a dream in his pretty apron and hair tied up in a bun.
Noya feels like he won the lottery when he leans down to peck him on the lips. “What are the plans for today?”
“I was thinking about going to the farmer’s market, have lunch out,” he blushes sweetly, “Hold your hand all the while.”
Noya feels the sudden urge to punch or squeeze something until it pops. He goes up to his husband and pulls him down for a tight hug instead. “Yeah, big guy, that sounds perfect.”
Asahi’s laughter is warm and content as he nuzzles into the back of Noya’s neck and leaves a tiny kiss. “I’ll bake the pie after and we can have a slice for dinner.”
“Looks to me like we’re gonna have the best day ever,” Noya tells him, feeling warmth and excitement spread inside him.
“Breakfast first,” Asahi says solemnly, immediately breaking into a smile.
“YES!” Noya sits at the table and fists a fork and a knife. “Breakfast!”
Asahi’s laughter is loud and joyful, and Noya thinks he could spend the rest of his life listening to it and still want to hear it more.
-
They go to the market after Noya lets Asahi pick an outfit for him. It’s one of his favourite things to watch, how his husband gets that little excited glint in his eye as he puts together the perfect outfit for the occasion.
Noya has never been better dressed since he married this man, and he’s totally smug about it. Hell yeah, his husband makes him even hotter than he already is!
“Dressing you is so fun because I can use so much colour,” Asahi had told him the first time they’d gone clothes shopping together, as he picked the brightest vests and shirts Noya had ever laid eyes on.
Now his closet was mostly pieces that his husband had either chosen or made himself because Noya had actually married a genius who could cook, bake, sew clothes** and whisper to animals and so much more.
“I truly won the lottery,” he says to himself, now, bringing the hand he’s holding up to his lips to kiss.
Asahi tugs him closer with the same hand and drops a kiss to his temple, “So did I.”
Noya is so fucking happy he could replace the sun in the sky, but his man is here and holding his hands, keeping him tethered to this life he’s come to love better than he could’ve thought possible. So, he’ll be the sun for just one; make sure to keep him warm, safe and happy.
-
At the market, hand in hand, they walk and stop at almost every stall, saying hello to their friends and marvelling at the great harvest of this year.
They buy oranges and share one together as they continue on. Noya breaks the skin and stores it in a corner of the paper bag they came in and feeds it segment by segment to Asahi, who dutifully leans down to make it easier for him.
“Oh.”
“Mhm?”
Asahi turns to him, already smiling wide, “I think you’ll like that stall,” he says, pointing a little further ahead.
Noya squints, trying to see what he means and breaks into a laugh when he sees, “Let’s go!”
“Mornin’, friends,” Ukai smiles with just one corner of his mouth.
“Good morning,” Asahi says warmly, already leaning to one side of the stall so he can watch Noya completely lose his mind.
“What do you think of this one,” Noya asks, putting the first cowboy hat on. It was made out of dark blue felt and had a slim brown belt around the base.
“Looks good,” Asahi nodded.
“Or this one?” swapping it for a more classic-looking one. Brown with a darker brown braid going around it.
Asahi hums, eyes crinkled at the corners, “Suits you well.”
Noya looks himself in the mirror and turns his head this way and that, “Mhmm.”
“What about this one,” Ukai-san says around his cigarette, holding a black hat.
“Oh, yeah.” Asahi laughs softly. “I think we have a winner.”
Noya takes it and holds it delicately in his hands. Pitch black with a white rope and silver skull charms around the base. “It’s so cool!”
“We’ll take it,” Asahi grins, straightening and coming to stand back by Noya’s side as he paid his favourite hat-seller.
Noya puts the hat on with one hand and looks at his husband. “What do you think?”
“That I married the coolest man on this planet.”
“Hell yeah!” Noya cackled, wrapping an arm around his husband’s waist and continuing on.
They buy more produce and bread – so much bread – and Noya also gets a pretty black ribbon to give Asahi, knowing that he’ll love to tie up his hair with it. But keeps in his pocket as a surprise for later.
When their feet start to ache and the sun sets, and Asahi gets a little worried about leaving the animals on their own for too long, they make their way home.
-
Noya hangs his new hat by the door and takes the old one to their bedroom, hanging it on one of the many pegs designed for his hats in their walk-in closet, while Asahi goes straight for the shower.
Noya starts on dinner, chopping garlic, onions and mushrooms as he lets the rice cook.
He gets a damp kiss on the bare skin between his neck and shoulder before Asahi settles beside him and starts on the pie, the two of them moving around in a familiar and well-practiced dance of golden-coloured domesticity that never fails to make Noya feel utterly content.
When the pie is in the oven, Noya half-full of the strawberries he stole before his husband could cut them, and the dinner assembled, they sit at their table, legs tangled. Noya’s voice and Asahi’s soft laughter filling up the house with love-coloured memories.
-
After his own shower, while they’re both in bed and too full from a slice of strawberry pie that they’d been too full to eat but still ate, Noya takes the ribbon from where he’d hidden it in his bedside drawer and holds it out to his husband. “For you.”
“It has little skulls,” Asahi gasps, pleased. “Matches your hat.”
“Yeah,” Noya grins.
Asahi kisses him, folding himself in his space, the ribbon held in between them, “Thank you, I love it,” he whispers against his lips, and Noya shivers.
He flops on his pillow, too tired to do anything and feeling a little grumpy about it. Asahi follows him, smiling at him like he knows exactly what he’s thinking about and strokes the delicate skin under Noya’s eye. “Did you have fun today?” Noya asks, hushed, eyes closing under his husband’s soothing touch.
“So much fun,” Asahi promises, thumb following the curve of his eyebrows and nose.
“Good,” Noya whispers, pushing into Asahi’s touch so he can conquer the space between his arms and nuzzle his husband aggressively.
Said husband huffs out a quiet, happy laugh, and Noya smiles to himself as Asahi’s arms settle around him, welcoming, like every night.
Tomorrow, he will ride Sparrow again and come home to his husband whispering warmth and safety into their new rescue’s heart, and they will have breakfast together and laugh as Asahi baked enough pies to feed the neighbourhood, and they will go to Suga-san and probably stay for lunch, and it will be warm and good and perfect.
Each day starting and ending with the man that kept the freedom he’s always needed safe and who gave him the peace his heart always craved.
“I love you.”
Warm lips on his forehead. “I love you, too.”