Chapter Text
Sugawara was looking down at his feet, absentmindedly carving patterns into the ice beneath his skates. Scratching jagged swirls and circles while contemplating his life’s current overwhelming predicament. A familiar hand pressed on his shoulder, and he begrudgingly dragged his gaze up to face the tall man in front of him as he spoke. “Please, for the love of GOD, just go talk to him. All this moping is making me depressed.”
Suga scoffed, “I’m not moping, Oikawa, I’m just-“
“Moping.” The other man quickly interrupted.
He held his hands up in surrender and pushed himself from the wall of the rink in defeat, skating past Oikawa. Now calling behind his shoulder to the mop of brown hair disappearing from his peripheral vision. “Fine, I’m moping. Can I not mope in peace?”
Suga heard a frustrated growl behind him, followed by the sound of skates growing closer, and his mouth twitched, suppressing a giggle from bubbling to the surface. “Suga, if you’re so distraught, why don’t you just do something to make him jealous. See if it sparks any reaction from him?”
Suga looked to the man now skating beside him, who was regarding him with a genuine, open and honest look on his face. It was a ridiculous idea, and Suga was now fighting the urge to forcefully push at Oikawa’s shoulder just to see how far he would slide. Possibly far enough to hit the wall of the ice rink with a loud ‘oomf’. “You’re serious? That’s a stupid idea.”
“Why?”
“Because Daichi has known me since high school. Plus, we dated for a year and a half, which is the reason I’m in this mess in the first place; he’d see right through that bullshit.”
“Well, so have I, and I think you should do it.”
Suga came to a startling halt. He contorted an overly dramatic mask of confusion on his face and cocked his head innocently at Oikawa. “We never dated?”
Oikawa slowed his roll and gaped at Suga, jutting his head forward in annoyance, coming to a complete stop. “No, you idiot!”
Suga’s face split open into a bright, dazzling, triumphant smile.
Oikawa sighed and composed himself, slightly embarrassed, as he was being teased. He should have known. “Very funny.” He internally rolled his eyes and started to skate circles around the other man, now just standing stationary in the centre of the rink. “I think you should do it is all I’m saying. Tell him you’re dating someone new and see how he reacts. It’s an easy way to decipher if he has any lingering feelings left for you.”
Suga sighed dramatically and folded over himself, letting his head hang. “That’s never going to work.” He wined before crumpling completely to the floor, sitting with his legs criss-crossed and his head in his hands. After a few seconds of grumbling and groaning, he felt a towering presence come to a stop behind him, followed by a light tug at the single tuft of untamable grey hair on the crown of his head. He whipped his head up at the slight pinch at his scalp, craning his neck to shoot daggers at Oikawa, who was standing above him, staring down at him with a sly grin and an almost imperceptible hint of sympathetic pity in his eyes. Suga didn’t think he was very fond of that look. He didn’t want anyone to feel bad for him ever. Even if he knew that look was coming from a friend who cared and only wanted what was best for him. Even if it was misplaced.
“Come on, Mardy Bum, get up.” Oikawa beckoned Suga with the nimble fingers of his outstretched hand, gesturing for him to take it, and he did. He let himself be hoisted up and dusted the back of his joggers with his hands.
“Your ass is fine.” Oikawa placed a reassuring hand on Suga’s bicep, and Suga scoffed at that unnecessary comment. “Now, are you going to do this or not? The hockey lads should be arriving any minute; their timeslot is from two-thirty, so you’ve got all of five minutes to decide.” The two men lock eyes, and Suga pressed his lips into a thin line, humming in hesitation.
Before Suga could come to his decision, the large metal doors to their right swung open with an unforgiving crash, and suddenly the illusion of choice had been ripped away from him. Oikawa was now gripping him by the shoulders and steering him towards the group of rowdy men who were piling into the rink, with Daichi being the first to reach the ice’s edge. He was laughing in tandem with Kuroo, blissfully unaware of the disaster that was about to unfold. Shit.
With a finalising shove and the ghost of a “Good luck!” whispered into his ear, he was now standing, alone, in front of the familiar-looking group of paper-tiger hockey players, looking dumbfounded and well…just dumb. He whipped his head around in panic, and of course, Oikawa was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, the storm clouds cleared in Suga’s mind, and the ever-so-visible sun rays of a brilliant idea shone through. He cleared his throat and let out a slightly hoarse and unsure “Daichi”. The man in question’s attention was ripped from his clearly invigorating conversation with the spiky-haired man beside him, and he was now staring at Suga with confusion in his eyes and a small but still warm familiar smile on his lips. Luckily, the men surrounded them graciously ignored his presence and continued to converse boisterously, transforming what Suga was mentally preparing himself to be an outright humiliation ritual into just a slightly embarrassing encounter. Suga took one final step towards Daichi and gingerly placed a pre-apologetic hand on his forearm. Well, here goes nothing. Taking a shallow breath, he spoke. “Can I talk to you?”
-
Oikawa was getting bored with waiting around. He was struggling to contain the buzzing of anticipation zapping the nerves in his fingers and toes. Suga was taking far too long, and it was so cold outside that Oikawa was starting to think that maybe the buzzing he was feeling was actually just the first sign of frostbite. His hands were starting to turn all different shades of purple, and- oh god, what if Daichi and Suga have already reconciled and were now having make-up sex in the locker rooms? Maybe he should go…
“Oikawa!” He heaved a sigh of relief at the sound of the sweet, familiar voice calling his name. Ok, so no make-up sex. Good.
“Suga-chan! What happened? Tell me everything.” Oikawa exclaimed, turning to his friend, hands clasped together, and practically grinning like the Grinch who stole Christmas. He loved gossip.
“I told him,” Suga replied plainly while just staring back at him with a tight-lipped smile as if that was the entire story and Oikawa should be marvelled. Nothing more to add, just ‘I told him.’ Was he being obtuse on purpose? Trying to build suspense or something?
Oikawa placed a hand on his hip. “Yeah, and how did he react?”
Suga shrugged and frowned in indifference, “Oh, I don’t know, he seemed kind of bewildered?”
“Huh?”
“Well, he asked me who I was seeing, and I panicked…”
“What do you mean, panicked? What did you say?”
“I may have, sort of, possibly told him I was dating you…”
Oikawa’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, and he clutched his metaphorical pearls. “WHAT?”
Suga scrunched his face up apologetically and reached a timid hand out to lightly graze Oikawa’s forearm, probably in an attempt to soothe the man’s shock. “Yeah, sorry…But it’s ok, maybe we can work with this.”
“How? We’re very clearly not dating.”
“Ok, well, no, we’re not ‘very clearly’ not dating, we’re just not very obviously dating.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No? Just-” Suga sighed and hunched his shoulders over in frustration, pulling in his chest and ducking his face down.
He continued his voice barely above a whisper, “Just can you please pretend to flirt with me…only when he’s around?”
Oikawa knitted his brows sympathetically and lightly patted the sleeve of Suga’s sky blue puffer jacket, “Suga no.”
“Please?” Suga started with a heavy breath, looking back up at Oikawa. “Our original plan was a bust; he didn't give me any indicators apart from mild confusion, so I have no idea where we stand…”
Oikawa raked over the pathetic appearance of his poor, dejected friend and sighed. God, he was going to regret this.
“Ok, fine, whatever. One time, just to see. To help a friend out, I guess…”
Suga’s face burst open into an impossibly large grin. Pure unbridled joy was alight in his eyes as he pounced on Oikawa, tackling him into a suffocating bear hug. The man was squeezing him so tightly he thought his lungs were going to rupture and his eyes were going to pop out of his skull. He managed to let out a strangled “Release me,” and thus he was unhanded awkwardly.
“Do not fret, my slightly shorter and significantly more pathetic friend, your dear pal Tooru is here to save the day,” Oikawa announced, theatrically clutching his hand to his puffed-out chest.
Suga giggled, “This is why I like you,” stated with all the sincerity in the world.
Oikawa grinned. “I know. Now what’s the first order of business?”
“Well, we have practice tomorrow morning, and the guys are using the rink right after us, so maybe we can start then?”
“Ok…but I mean, how do we go about it? How obvious should I be? Any rules or boundaries?”
Suga quirked a brow “You’re really taking this seriously, huh?
“Well, of course I am!”
“Ok, well, I’m not sure about rules, this is a one-time thing…maybe no kissing?
Oikawa grimaced, and Suga nodded to himself. “Yeah, that’s it really. No kissing.”
“Yeah, that would be weird…”
“Yeah…hold on, wait, why would it be weird? Why are you making that face?” Suga gasped, pointing an accusing finger at the other man’s chest.
Oikawa laughed. “Why do you sound offended?”
“All I’m saying is kissing me would definitely not be weird.”
“You’re the one who came up with the rule!”
Suga sighed in defeat. That was true. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so quick to be offended; it probably had come off a bit strange.
“Ok, whatever, tomorrow, we on?”
“We’re on.”