Work Text:
There were cookies on Suga’s desk again.
He picked up the disposable container and looked at the desserts through the clear plastic. They were snickerdoodles this time—his favorite. Was it a happy coincidence or just a good guess? Since he didn’t know who was baking them, there wasn’t really any way for him to tell.
Suga snapped off the red lid and took a single cookie, putting the rest in the deep bottom drawer of his desk. When he bit into it, he almost moaned at the sweet flavor and soft texture. The cookies were just as delicious as always, and he found himself once again wondering who this person was and why they made him cookies every week.
In any case, they were great to have around on the occasions when his blood sugar crashed. He took his final bite as he went to get some coffee.
There were only a couple other people in the break room at this time of the morning, and he smiled at Oikawa and Iwaizumi as he reached for the coffee pot.
“Good morning!” he said cheerfully, leaving plenty of room in his mug for creamer.
“It’s Monday,” Oikawa sing-songed, “were there more cookies today? I’m dying for my sequel to this adorable story. What flavor were they this week?”
Suga opened his fresh container of French Vanilla as he avoided meeting Oikawa’s eyes, “…Snickerdoodles.”
Oikawa squealed, and Iwaizumi slapped the back of his head.
“Shut up, dumbass. It’s only 8:15.”
“I can’t help it, Iwa-chan, this is too cute to not squeal about. Suga-chan has a secret admirer!”
Suga felt his face heat up immediately, spluttering as he turned away from the fridge, “I do not have a secret admirer!”
“Then how do you explain the cookies?” Iwaizumi asked, seemingly despite himself.
“I don’t know!” Suga’s voice rose in pitch, “Maybe they just… Really like baking?”
“You don’t sound that convinced, Suga-chan,” Oikawa teased, “has your mysterious suitor left a poem? A note? Maybe at least their number?”
Suga’s face was flaming as he called out “bye!” and stalked back to his cubicle.
So what if he didn’t know who was baking these cookies for him? This had been going on for just over two months now, and he’d tried to figure out who it was, but the mystery baker clearly didn’t want to be found. Suga felt a tug in his chest when he thought about it.
Thinking back, he knew that the cookies started appearing after an embarrassing display in the break room a few months prior.
Suga had made the mistake of missing breakfast in his rush to get to work on time, and had nearly passed out in the break room. The warning signs had all been there, too; he was shaky, clammy, and vaguely lightheaded. He’d been in the middle of a conversation with Iwaizumi, though, and he hadn’t wanted to be rude. He was so sure that he’d be fine for a few more minutes, but then he felt thrown off balance. He grabbed at the counter, ears ringing and arms shaking. Iwaizumi guided him to a chair and heated up his lunch. It was only ten AM, but he inhaled the burritos without a second thought. Within half an hour, he felt fine again, but news traveled fast in their department and his coworkers had been concerned for weeks after.
Ah, memories. The first container showed up the following Monday with no note or indication of identity—it was simply a box of sugar cookies, freshly baked. It lasted him the whole work week, and the next Monday there were more. The cycle had been in place ever since, and Suga hadn’t been surprised in the least to find more today. The cookies being snickerdoodles was a welcome change, though. Snickerdoodles were delicious, okay? He bit into another as he started his work for the day.
Around lunchtime, a bald head peeked over the cubicle wall.
“Hey, Suga-san! Heard you got snickerdoodles this week. Are they good?”
“Yes, Tanaka, they’re good.” Suga reached into the container and broke off a small piece, holding it up to his coworker, “Here. Just don’t tell—“
“More cookies?!” Nishinoya crowed, popping into view from his shared wall, “Can I try?”
Suga sighed, breaking off another piece to hand over silently. He felt kind of possessive of the cookies, and Tanaka and Nishinoya were—while lovable—total vultures. His cookies were never safe with them around.
“Those are so good! Do you know who it is yet?”
“Nope,” Suga said, popping the “p” and pressing his lips into a firm line.
“Aw man, still? Whoever it is, they’re totally into you!”
“So I’ve heard,” Suga replied shortly, “so why haven’t they introduced themself?”
“They’re probably just intimidated by how pretty you are,” Tanaka replied easily, folding his arms over the wall to make himself comfortable, “or they’re building suspense!”
“Ooooh!!!”
Suga glanced at Nishinoya quickly, squinting. The shorter man mimed zipping his lips.
“Well, they’ve been ‘building suspense’ for long enough,” he muttered, turning back to his computer.
He finished the cookies in four days. Friday was torture.
Suga accepted a ride into work with Iwaizumi and Oikawa on Monday, so they were still with him when he reached his desk. There were more cookies, but something was different this time—there was a note on top, written on a Post-it. He froze for a moment, and Oikawa took notice immediately.
“Suga-chan?”
“There’s a note.”
“What?!”
Suga plucked the paper square off of the lid, reading it over to himself a couple times before passing it off to his friend.
“Heard these were your favorite. I made extra. I hope you enjoy them, with a smiley face? Still no number?!”
“Oikawa, calm down.” Suga chuckled, taking the note back. He stuck it to the wall of his cubicle and took out a cookie. It was debatably more amazing than last week’s batch. God, what were they doing to these things?
Oikawa just groaned, turning to flounce off to his cubicle. He let out a drawn-out, dramatic “I can’t believe this!” as he turned around the corner.
Maybe it was butter. Was this anonymous person adding extra butter to their batter? The cookies had that slight gooey, salty quality that he liked so much. Was there a particular brand of ingredients that just made them better on their own? Was he just imagining that they were amazing because he had an idealized view of this person by now? Possibly. What of it?
Suga was in a meeting when he got the shakes. Luckily, he wasn’t presenting, so he just sat back and took deep breaths. What did he eat that morning? He couldn’t remember. His supervisor’s words washed over him without meaning as he glanced around the room. Most of his coworkers were actually paying attention, but one of them—a newer man who he was pretty sure was named Daichi—was watching him intently. He seemed concerned. Suga must’ve looked as terrible as he felt.
The meeting seemed to drag on forever, and when it was finally over everyone was quick to rush out, including their supervisor. Suga rose shakily from his seat and turned toward the door, mostly unaware of his surroundings. He jumped when a hand lightly brushed his shoulder.
“Are you okay?” The man—Daichi—asked.
“I’m fine, thanks,” Suga said airily, “just waited too long to eat, I think.”
Daichi’s eyes widened at that. Shit, he must’ve heard.
“Oh my god! Are you going to pass out? Come sit down!”
“I’m really okay,” Suga chuckled, “I have this weird endless supply of cookies? I was just going to go eat a couple and wait it out.”
“Okay, yeah, that sounds good. I’ll go with you.”
Suga could tell there was no point arguing, so he just nodded and made his way to his cubicle. It was on the edge closest to the meeting rooms, so the trip was short, and he sunk into his chair gratefully. The container was in the drawer like normal, and he pulled out two cookies as Daichi watched intently.
“Do you want one? They’re really good.”
“Oh, no, thank you.” Daichi smiled.
An awkward silence fell as Suga munched on his cookies. Daichi leaned against the wall, watching as he ate. It was kind of unnerving.
Suga finished the cookies in record time—he was practically inhaling them, and Daichi looked amused and surprised. For some reason, Suga felt the need to defend himself.
“What? I told you they were good,” he mumbled, Daichi laughing at his sullen expression.
“You did,” he chuckled, “I just didn’t realize how serious you were being.”
“Well, uh, I’m fine now,” Suga smiled, “I appreciate this, but you don’t have to watch me. I’ll be okay.”
“Do you need anything before I go?”
“No, thank you. But your name is Daichi, right?”
“Yeah, and you’re Sugawara?”
“My friends call me Suga,” he smiled.
“Okay. Well, Suga, enjoy your cookies!” Daichi grinned and turned away, disappearing from Suga’s view immediately.
It was Friday, but Suga had so many cookies left that it took him until Sunday evening to finish him. This person was really spoiling him.
On Monday, there were two containers—one the usual massive size, and then a baggie with a few extras. There was a piece of paper inside.
For long meetings :)
Wait. What?
“Oh my god.”
It suddenly all came together for Suga, and he craned his neck up to observe the office. At 8:10 AM, mostly everyone was in the building already, and a couple of people looked back at him with curious expressions. He ducked back down after a second and rushed to Oikawa’s cubicle.
“Do you know a Daichi?”
Oikawa jumped and looked up at him, “Good morning to you too, Suga-chan.”
Suga leveled him with a squinting glare, crossing his arms.
“Why do you ask?...”
He still clutched the baggie in his hand, and he held it out to show his friend. “These were on my desk this morning with the usual batch.
Oikawa grabbed the bottom of the bag to steady it in Suga’s hand, reading the note.
“What does this mean?”
“I crashed during a meeting last week,” Oikawa’s eyes widened, “I’m fine! Really. But Daichi followed me back to my desk and made sure I was before he left. He’s the only one who noticed, at least as far as I know, so I think it’s him.”
Oikawa pursed his lips, looking from the cookies back to Suga’s face. “I don’t know any Daichi, Suga-chan, but Iwa-chan might.” He stood and grabbed Suga’s hand, pulling him along behind him through the cramped aisles of cubicles to the break room.
Iwaizumi looked surprised by their appearance, his brow furrowing for a second before he spoke.
“What’s going on here?”
Oikawa spoke up before Suga could offer any explanation, “Do you know anyone named Daichi, Iwa-chan? It’s very important.”
“And if I do?”
The cookies were ripped from Suga’s hand, and he called out an offended “hey!” as Oikawa held them up with a meaningful look in his eye.
“Then Suga-chan and I would really like to know where he is.”
Iwaizumi’s eyes widened the tiniest bit, and he looked up at Suga. He passed his coffee off to Oikawa and motioned to Suga as he walked to the door.
“Come with me.”
He probably didn’t realize, but Iwaizumi seemed to always default to a powerwalk. Keeping up with him meant maintaining a low-speed jog, and Suga had to rush to not lose him in the maze of cubicles.
They stopped suddenly, and Suga nearly ran into Iwaizumi as he frowned.
“What?”
“He’s not here, but this is his cubicle.”
“Oh…” Suga pursed his lips, “Do I just wait?”
“I don’t see why not,” Iwaizumi mused, but Suga caught sight of something on the desk and gasped.
“I have a better idea!” he pushed past Iwaizumi and grabbed the Post-it notes and pen on the desk, scribbling a note that he then stuck to the closed laptop resting beside them.
Thanks for the cookies :)
Iwaizumi craned his neck to try and see, but Suga bashfully shielded the note from his eyes, pushing him back down the aisle. He’d just wait and see what happened.
Daichi didn’t come by all day. Suga tried to remain in his cubicle as much as possible, afraid of missing him when he came by, but 5:00 PM eventually came and went with no contact. Had he read the signals wrong? Did he just make a fool of himself in front of someone who was just being nice? He tapped his pen against his desk, staring blankly at his computer as it shut down for the day.
He couldn’t help but feel bitter about it. Two and a half months and counting and he thought he’d figured it out, but Daichi’s absence was leading him to believe otherwise.
There was a knock on the fabric-covered wall of his cubicle, and Oikawa was standing there when he looked up. He looked sad on his account. Suga frowned at him as he stood up.
They were silent for a moment as Suga pulled on his coat and gathered his things, and Oikawa finally mumbled a soft “sorry” as he wrapped his scarf around his neck.
“It’s fine,” Suga replied bitterly, “I just really thought I’d figured it out, you know? And I kinda wanted it to be him.”
He said the last part under his breath, and if Oikawa heard it, he didn’t say anything.
Suga was late to work the next morning, and rushed to his cubicle after excessively apologizing to his supervisor when he ran into him in the hallway.
He pulled off his coat as he made his way through the office, messily throwing it over his arm, and he tossed it at his chair as he passed by to go get coffee. There were a couple younger employees in the break room, and he greeted them before sweeping out of the room as quickly as he’d arrived.
When Suga got back to his cubicle, there was someone in his chair. Daichi. Daichi was in his chair, with his coat in his lap. He chuckled when Suga noticed his presence.
“I was going to get your attention earlier, but you were so fast that I didn’t have a chance,” he explained, “Did you really not notice me?”
Daichi was smiling, so Suga did, too. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I was running late this morning, and I ran into Ukai-san in the hallway, so I was trying to rush and get to work.”
“Understandable.”
They fell into a brief silence then, and then both spoke at the same time.
“You go first,” Daichi said, standing up from the chair.
“Oh, uh… Do you bake?”
“I do. Mostly cookies.”
“Is that so?” Suga smiled, “Did you get my note yesterday?”
Daichi paused, looking guiltily down at his feet. “I did. Sorry I didn’t respond until today—I was just used to being anonymous, I guess.”
“You did out yourself, though,” Suga chuckled, “Good thing, too. I was starting to wonder if it was some elaborate prank.”
“I did,” Daichi laughed and scratched at the back of his head, “So…”
“So?”
“Could I take you out sometime?”
Suga smiled up at him. “I’d love that.”
☆
“Oh my god, I was right.”
“What?”
“That’s a ton of butter, Daichi. Did you just put two whole sticks in there?”
“So what if I did?”
“I love you.”
“Love you too, Suga.”