Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Daichi wasn’t sure what to make of it when Hajime was summoned down to the big house right after the family arrived. Sure, the Sugawaras liked to meet the new workers that showed up while they were in town, but they usually waited until they unpacked – and they never singled out one person from the group.

Daichi shaded his eyes with a hand and watched the dark figure skate down the slopes of the tea fields that cupped the big house, sweat dripping in his eyes. He wiped his brow with an old rag tucked into his sash, dirt in the creases of his face. The worker next to him snorted and asked, “Jealous?” Daichi balled up the rag and threw it at Asahi’s face, biting back a grin. Asahi stepped away so it fluttered into the black dirt. Daichi glared at him until Asahi sighed and bent down, careful of the leaf-full basket strapped to his back, and picked it up, handing it back while hiding any rolling eyes behind a hand. He squinted down at the kicked anthill of the big house. “Looks like they’ve got company.”

The workers in earshot looked up and closer at the chaos, sorting colors and insignias on display into ‘Sugawara’ and ‘Other’. Two rows downhill, someone groaned at the teal-and-white teardrop.

“Not those guys!” they moaned, falling on a tea bush in their distress. “I ain’t gonna go to the North Pole and you can’t make me!”

The taller, balder guy next to the complainer laughed and slapped the basket on his back, leaves rustling. “Aw, come on, Yuu, it’s fun! You, me, the open road-”

“Cold, gross, snowy mountains, angry army types, cold, no girls!” Yuu lifted himself from the bush so he could drape himself over his partner, loud sobs wracking his slight frame. “Ryuu, why?”

Ryuu shushed him, cradling his rat’s-nest hair to his chest. “It’ll be okay, man – maybe Kiyoko came down with them!” Yuu bounced back up, chattering in Ryuu’s face as Daichi and Asahi exchanged a glance and got back to work.

As the sun sank on another endless day, Daichi finished off his basket and trudged uphill to the overseer’s stand, a wooden chair lifted over the highest point on the hillside. He rapped his knuckles on a support. “Ready to bring it in, Dad?”

His father on the stand looked to the dropping sun and nodded. “You take the north, I’ll handle the south.” Daichi nodded and marched along the top of the hill to the northern half of the property, calling in the workers for the night, storing the day’s harvest in the barns to be processed the next day.

The sun had truly set by the time the harvest was packed against the approaching storm and Daichi could slide down the neat green rows to home, cheating a little by earthbending a sled until his momentum evened out at the foot of the hill. The big house was at the center of the half-valley cup, but home to him was set to the side at the edge of the line of trees that separated the Sugawaras’ property from their neighbors – a circle of old cabins where the permanent staff lived. Since his dad was the foreman, the two of them had a house to themselves at the center of the clump, but it was a rare night when they didn’t have visitors sitting on their porch for a nightcap and some conversation.

Tonight was no exception, although there was a new face among the weathered veterans of the tea fields and the house servants. The oldest son of the Sugawaras had his bare feet tucked under him where he sat on Daichi’s porch step, sipping sake out of the nice cup as he talked business with Daichi’s dad. Daichi smiled, a new warmth trickling down his sweaty spine.

He snuck up in Suga’s blind spot and plopped down hard on the planks next to him, making Suga jump and whip around. Suga beamed, that sunburst only he possessed, and set his sake on the wood behind him to hug Daichi around the neck.

“Stars, it’s good to see you!” he said to Daichi’s temple. Daichi chuckled and patted his back, trying to keep his stained and sweaty skin away from Suga’s nice clothes. Suga held him out at arm’s length, fingers gripping his bare upper arms. “I swear, every time I come back you’ve gotten broader.”

Daichi shrugged, holding Suga’s elbows in return. “It’s unavoidable.” They smiled at each other. “I’m glad you’re back, Suga.”

“Suga!” Yuu screamed from across the yard. Suga and Daichi dropped each other, sliding away as the kids their age, now almost grown, ran up to yell in Suga’s face about the happenings during the months of his absence while Daichi recovered from their close encounter. Suga laughed, overwhelmed; Daichi caught his father’s eye as he slipped back inside. His dad winked and mouthed, ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

Eventually, everyone stopped talking over each other and piled around Suga, not bothering with cups as they passed the sake bottle around the circle. “So, Suga,” Ryuu said, arms crossed on Yuu’s head and chin resting on his crossed wrists, “a little birdie told me you called the new guy up for a chat. What’s up with that?”

Suga sighed and scratched the back of his head. “It’s… complicated.” He shrugged. “But he’s Tooru’s problem, not mine.”

“Tooru? Like… Oikawa Tooru?” Ryuu and Yuu narrowed their eyes in unison, and Daichi had to cover his mouth with his hand to keep his amusement in check. “He’s here?”

Suga didn’t bother containing his own laughter, bubbling out of him like hot water. “Oh, calm down, he’s not that bad.”

Yuu huffed, crossing his arms and leaning back on Ryuu, propping his dirty feet in Suga’s lap. “Says you, you don’t care when he takes the only pretty girls in the whole damned backwater town in the middle of nowhere.” He moaned and knocked his head on Ryuu’s chest. “I don’t wanna go,” he moaned. Suga patted his ankle, face impassive even when dried mud flaked off onto his white linen tunic.

“You know Papa won’t send the shipment without an earthbender escort, despite the Oikawas,” Suga said in consolation. “And you’re the best one we’ve got.”

Yuu pulled a face that made Chikara chuckle from his perch on the porch railing. “What about the new guy? He’s an earthbender, right?”

Suga scratched the back of his neck under his ponytail, which was grayer each time they met. “Well, I could mention it to Papa, but I’ve got a feeling he won’t be under our employ much longer.” Daichi frowned, but Suga shrugged it off. “Besides, Papa trusts you, as strange as that may seem.”

The conversation turned to news from the Inner Rings as rain started to drizzle down in the yard. Daichi sat back to listen, his trailing fingers digging deep furrows in the packed earth two feet below his hands in the deep shade of the lantern light.

Daichi woke up just before the late spring dawn, taking his morning tea out on the porch for a few quiet minutes before another long day under the clearing sky. The yard smelled of damp earth and dew; he breathed it in, leaning on the porch railing and looking out over the rolling stripes of green that he knew like the grooves of his fingertips.

A heavy body swung down from the roof to sit on the banister by Daichi’s elbow, wood barely shaking with his weight. Daichi sipped his tea. “You’re going to break something like that one day,” he said to the newcomer, voice scratchy with sleep.

Hajime shrugged. “Probably.” He jerked his chin at Daichi’s cup. “You got any more of that?” Daichi poked a thumb over his shoulder at the pot and extra cups waiting on a barrel that served as the porch table. Hajime hopped to his feet and poured himself some before resuming his seat on the railing, joining Daichi in watching the sun rise over the hills. Hajime frowned down at his cup, steam in his face. “I keep expecting that if I work here long enough I’ll get tired of this.” He tested the temperature and sighed. “Nope.”

Daichi chuckled. “It helps to drink in moderation.” He drank. “What happened in the big house yesterday? Suga only said it was his friend’s problem.”

Hajime set his tea on his knee, frowning at his dangling toes. Daichi poured himself more tea while he waited. Even though he had only known Hajime for a few months, they were similar people. Daichi could give him time to think.

“I… knew Tooru, when I was in the city,” Hajime said at last. “I’ve left that life behind me now, but Tooru has a way of getting under your skin.” He knocked back his cooling tea. “I’ll be going with him now, so I guess this is my resignation notice.”

Daichi tilted his head at him. “So you’re taking Yuu’s spot after all?”

Hajime frowned. “What’s that mean?”

“Oh – whenever the Oikawas’ trade caravan comes around, the Sugawaras send a shipment with them. Two of us usually go with it, for the master’s peace of mind.” He traced the uneven patterns drawn into his handthrown cup. “For a few years now it’s been Ryuu and Yuu, since they’re the best fighters we’ve got.” He smiled at his hands. “And also to wear them out for a while.” He swirled the dredges. “But Yuu hates it. He’d probably cut off his own arm to get out of it, but Ryuu’s not a bender and Mr. Sugawara won’t send it without one.”

Hajime narrowed his eyes. “And you won’t go because…”

“They never ask.” The convex horizon was a bright orange. “I don’t think it’s ever occurred to anyone that I could leave the estate.”

Hajime tilted his chin up. “But it has to you.”

Daichi shrugged, shoulder hunched up against Hajime’s heavy stare. “I wouldn’t mind seeing more of the world beyond the farm over. But I’m needed here.”

Hajime snorted. “Not that badly.”

Daichi picked at a splinter in the banister. “I’ve also never used my earthbending to hurt anyone, or do anything but plant.”

“That’s something easily fixed.” Daichi glanced up in time to catch Hajime’s bitter smile. “I’m not taking Yuu’s spot,” he said. “I’m joining Tooru’s detail, because that idiot needs as much protection as he can get.” He drained his tea and hopped off the railing to put his cup on the barrel-table. “But you should remind them that you’re an earthbender, too.” He moved the hat hanging by a ribbon from his neck to the top of his head as he headed out. He paused on the porch steps, looking back at Daichi. “If you don’t, I’ll make Tooru ask for you.”

Daichi chuckled. “Blackmailing me into getting out more?”

Hajime grinned, the first time Daichi had seen his teeth with his smile. “Now you’re getting it.” He flicked a salute at him and jumped the last two steps down, wandering off towards the fields and the big house.

The rest of the estate was stirring now that the sun was over the hills. Daichi finished his tea, waving as people passed in the opposite direction of Hajime towards the bathhouse, then took the pot and cups back inside. His dad was eating last night’s rice for breakfast at their kitchen table, as old and worn as the house. He looked up at Daichi’s entry and smiled. Daichi chewed on his thoughts as he joined him at the table, taking the offered bowl and eating without feeling.

His dad reached over and poked his temple with the butt of his chopsticks. “What’s on your mind, daidai?”

Daichi shrugged, staring out their open shutters at the rectangle of field and sky, their own kind of wall art that looked different each day. But not different enough. “What if I offered to take Yuu’s place with the northern shipment?”

His dad was quiet for a while, humming as he ate his rice. Daichi picked at his own, gut churning. What a silly spur-of-the-moment question, he was needed here, and who’s to say he wouldn’t turn tail and run home the second they were out of sight? He should let Yuu go and stay here, where he knew what was expected-

His dad cleared his throat. “I’d say I’m gonna miss you.”

Daichi raised an eyebrow, swirling thoughts disintegrating like flour in dough. “That’s it? No ‘maybe next time’, no ‘not ever in your life’, nothing?”

His dad sighed, stretching back, lacing his thick fingers together behind his head in his loose hair. “Son, take it from someone who’s lived here forever,” he said with a lilting smile. “It’s high time you got out.”

“But- the harvest-”

“Will be brought in just fine without you,” his dad interrupted. He snorted with a grin lighting up his beard. “Actually, with Yuu sticking around, it might come in faster.” Daichi’s stomach twisted as he forced a smile. His dad’s eyes softened. “No one’s gonna replace you, son. But the farm will be here when you get back.” He cleaned his bowl and stood, clapping a big hand to Daichi’s shoulder. “As long as you come back at the end, it’s your life. Live it like you want.” Daichi smiled up at him and scarfed his breakfast down for another day’s work, but this time with the promise of adventure under his tongue.

Yuu was ecstatic when Daichi approached him about relieving him of his travelling duties, dragging him off in the middle of the day to corner the Sugawaras’ steward for the shift change. The harassed Mr. Takeda didn’t care beyond jotting it down on his everpresent notepad, but he was the exception to the norm. Their fellow staff varied in their shock – Daichi had never shown vision beyond the plantation, as much a fixture of it as his dad and the big house, and he bent so rarely and mundanely they had almost forgotten he was an earthbender at all. Ryuu accepted him with open arms, although that may have been so he could cry on his shoulder about Yuu abandoning him in his time of need.

As the sun set, Daichi skated down the hill of the fields to the big house. He skirted the fancy windows and clean swept porch to the side veranda, sunbaked orange tiles with mystery pawprints imprinted on them curving out from the kitchen doors. Daichi laid back on the border, looking up at the fluffy yellow clouds as the tiles warmed his back, and waited for Suga to find him.

It took a while, long enough for the sun to touch their neighbor’s land, but the door creaked open behind him at last. Sock-shoes padded across the patio to rest beside him, that second layer of warmth from the night before returning. Cloth shifted as his visitor knelt.

“Hey, Daichi.” Suga’s voice cracked on his low tone. Daichi’s head flopped to the side to smile up at him. Suga smiled back. “How’ve you been?”

Daichi shrugged and sat up, propping himself up with his hands. “Usual.” A pause. “Town treat you well?”

Suga hummed, drumming his fingers on his knees. “As well as always. It’s nice to come home, though.” He reached up to pull his ponytail tighter, brushing loose curls back from his face. “There’s no one quite like Yuu there.”

Daichi chuckled. “I’d hope not, for the sanity of Ba Sing Se. One Noya’s enough.” Suga laughed and knocked his shoulder into Daichi’s, always harder than expected.

Suga sighed and shifted his legs from folded under him to the side, leaning sideways so Daichi could just feel his body heat through their tunics, their supporting hands a breadth apart. “I’m gonna miss him while he’s gone north, though.”

“But he’s not going,” Daichi said. “I am.”

Suga whipped to him, hand flashing out to strangle his wrist. “What?” he hissed, eyes wide.

“Yuu wanted to back out, and I’m an earthbender, too.” Daichi stared him down as Suga’s fingers convulsed around his pulse.

“But… I just got here,” he said in a tiny voice. “You’re… you’re not supposed to leave!”

“Your dad already cleared it, and so did the Oikawa captain.” He looked away from Suga’s shining eyes. “We head out in three days.”

“No.” Suga shoved to his feet, pacing in a tight circle. “No, I’ll talk to Papa, he’ll-” Suga fell to his knees again at Daichi’s side and grabbed Daichi’s arm just above his elbow. “You’ve never left before! Why would you-” He shook Daichi’s arm. “It’s dangerous out there!”

Daichi chuckled, laying his hand over Suga’s on his bicep (it swamped it). “Careful, or people might think you care.”

Suga punched his stomach, mouth twisting as he fought a smile. “Shut up, you clobberhead.” Daichi grunted with the punch, folding in, temple brushing Suga’s silk shoulder. Suga latched his punching arm around Daichi’s head, vicious in his clinging affection. “Do you have to?” he whispered, breath ghosting down Daichi’s neck. Daichi patted the hand under his.

“You’ll be okay without me,” he murmured. Suga huffed.

“I’m not the one I’m worried about.” He let Daichi’s head go, hand sliding down Daichi’s neck, back, to fall in his own lap. Daichi scooted away to give them space, the back of his neck burning. “I don’t want you to go,” Suga admitted, head down.

Daichi chuckled and released Suga’s hand to lean away, away from Suga’s magnetic field. “I think Hajime would hogtie me and hide in me a cart if I didn’t go willingly.”

Suga frowned. “Hajime – you mean Iwaizumi?”

“Who?” Suga’s jaw worked. He jerked his thumb back at the house.

“Uh – Tooru’s guy, I never knew his first name.”

“Well, we never knew his last.” Daichi grinned. “He showed up a few months ago with some migrants and just never left.”

Suga laughed, shaking his head so more curls came out of his topknot. “Together we make a full name, then.” Daichi laughed along, the easy humor Daichi forgot he had in him whenever Suga wasn’t around.

He flopped back on the tiles, arms flinging out to catch the last rays of sun. “I am gonna miss you,” Daichi admitted to the clouds. Suga hummed, falling back beside him, head on Daichi’s arm. He bit his lip and didn’t move. “I’m sorry to leave right when you got here.”

Suga reached up and flipped his ponytail out to splay on the tiles, resting his bared neck on the tender skin of the inside of Daichi’s forearm. “Let’s make the most of these last days, then, yeah?”

Daichi’s dad cut him loose for his last three days at home. He spent the mornings in the stifling heat of the processing barns, but after lunch, Daichi would slip away, to pack, to complete odd chores he had never had the time to do before, and to drag Suga out of the house on walks around the estate.

Unlike some of their neighbors, the Sugawaras were hands-on proprietors, not just interested in the success of their crop but in how it was worked and the well-being of the people in their fields. Suga himself had always been inquisitive to a fault, back to when they were small and he snuck out of the big house to catch fireflies with the kids his age, getting dirt all over his white lawn pajamas. As they grew and the other children started to work with their parents, Suga was careful to stay close and involved for the future day when he would take ownership from his own. Suga waved to every other person they passed on their circuit, pausing to ask about their family or their bad knee or their pet sparrowkeet. Daichi kept him from embarrassing himself or getting his feet wet, talking about the weather and how to tell good dirt from bad while avoiding any discussion of his impending departure. They would end the day parting ways by the orange kitchen patio, Suga to join his family for dinner, Daichi to retreat to the comfort of the staff cabins until Suga could break away from country society to sneak down and catch fireflies.

The last evening before Daichi and the caravan set off for the North Pole, a new face joined Suga on his after-dinner venture to the staff cabins. He was in a stablehand’s uniform without additional embellishments, but even so, he stood out, a few inches taller than even Asahi, hair unusually cut, smile gold. The girls in the yard turned to watch him go, tittering behind their hands, but Tooru was oblivious. He listened to Suga, head bowed, as Suga led him to the Sawamura porch, hands talking with him. Ryuu and Yuu growled from beside Daichi. He smacked their heads to make them shut up and got offended looks for his troubles.

Daichi stood as they neared, smiling to himself at how senseless they were to the way the bystanders parted to their passage – or how accustomed. He crossed his arms; the movement drew Suga’s eye, and he lit up like he hadn’t been spending every waking moment of the last few days with him. “Daichi!” He waved at the porch crowd. “And everyone else!”

“You heard that, Ryuu? We’re ‘everyone else’ now!” Yuu laughed as Suga scowled before striding over to cuff Yuu’s ear. “Hey!”

“Want me to call you ‘you idiots’, then? It’s more accurate.” Daichi laughed as they bickered.

Tooru paused next to him, hands on his hips, waiting until Daichi glanced over to smile. “So you’re the farmhand Koushi talks about so much, huh?” Suga spun at his name, pale cheeks dusted pink in the lantern light, but Tooru ignored him and held out his hand to Daichi. “You’re bigger than the last time we met,” he said as they shook. His hand was lily-soft against Daichi’s callouses. Daichi grinned up at him.

“And you’re taller,” Daichi shot back, trying to connect this self-possessed man with the knobby kid Suga had brought to visit when they were young. Tooru grinned, eyes squinting shut, and there he was.

“Glad to know you’re not boring,” Tooru said with a laugh, bending down to pick up a loose stone at his feet and heft it in his hand. “When Koushi said Nishinoya over there was being replaced, I was worried I’d have no distractions on this trip.”

“Well, Ryuu’s still coming, so you won’t be totally without entertainment.” Tooru grinned again, then stuck his tongue out through his teeth and sidearmed the rock into the darkness over the Sawamura’s roof like he was skipping it across a pond. Daichi turned to look, confused, and just heard a grunt where it struck.

“Get down from there, Iwa-chan, you’re giving me a headache,” Tooru called, fists on his hips. Silence from the rooftop, then Hajime dropped down from the eaves, meadow vole-quiet. Ryuu and Yuu jumped into each other’s arms at his appearance, but Hajime paid them no heed, glaring fire at Tooru.

“Asshole,” he growled, opening his closed fist to release the ground dust of Tooru’s stone.

Tooru stuck his tongue out at him, winking at Daichi. “You’ll have to watch this one,” he said with a hair flip as Hajime stomped over. “For an earthbender, he really likes high places.”

Hajime grabbed the front of Tooru’s tunic and yanked him down to snarl in his face. “If I hadn’t just sworn to protect you I’d kill you right now.”

Tooru smiled and patted the top of Hajime’s head, extracting Hajime’s fingers from his clothes. “Ah, but you did, so I guess you’re stuck.” Hajime tossed him aside and marched to a shadowed corner of the porch to claim as his own. Tooru beamed at his audience. “Isn’t he just the sweetest?” A tiny rock flew over to peg Tooru in the forehead. “Ow!” He pouted at Hajime as the porch laughed at him.

Ryuu set a clinging Yuu aside to lean forward on his spread knees. “So, jerk, is your old man leading the processional this time, or is it your sister again? Who’s got your leash?”

Tooru smiled, eyelids lowered, the kind of face that could talk you into jumping off a cliff to see if you could fly. “Papa’s trying a new route to the South Pole, and my sister’s third kid is due any day now,” he explained, “so I convinced them to let me go alone. Well, alone of us.”

“Ryuu.” Yuu grabbed Ryuu’s face and yanked it so he could stare into his eyes, a breath apart. “I love you, man, but I am so glad not to be on this trip.” Ryuu shoved him away, cursing him for leaving him to his Oikawa-ridden fate, skin flush-blotchy. Tooru glanced at Daichi and rolled his eyes before joining Hajime in his corner, perching on the edge of the porch as they talked in low voices.

Daichi went back to his spot on the steps. Suga had taken a seat a level up, feet where Daichi was supposed to be. Suga grinned when Daichi frowned at them, and tucked them aside just to prop them in Daichi’s lap when he sat down. Daichi huffed, but laid his hand on Suga’s ankle, tracing the ball of his joint idly as Suga kept up his conversation with Chikara about big house gossip, twisting his fingers in the short hairs at the back of Daichi’s neck. Daichi closed his eyes and tried to pull this last porch night into his chest to hold for the next three months.

The caravan left just after dawn. Daichi said a quiet goodbye to his dad in their kitchen, then slung his bag over his shoulder and fell into step beside a bleary Ryuu along the beaten path from the staff quarters to the big house. The reassembled caravan waited in the teardrop parkway curved in front of the wide marble steps and ornate buttresses of the big house, guards and attendants swarming around it like smoke-drowsy butterfly-bees. Most of the dozen carts and wagons were driven by the Oikawa employ, the reason why their fellow merchants hired them for the long haul across the world to the distant Water Tribes. The Sugawaras were allowed to be difficult because of the families’ close relationship – Suga had once told Daichi that when their mothers were pregnant together, they had fantasized about their future children’s marriage.

Those dreams had been left in the cradle, of course, but when Daichi looked for the designated Oikawa family member for this excursion, he found Suga standing by him and his buffalo-yak, dressing gown held tight around his chest, hair only barely held up with an old ribbon. Daichi tossed his bag in their cart and left Ryuu to bully the servants packing the shipment against rain and wear to join them at the head of the train, avoiding lightly-armored guards and drivers on the way.

"I've never seen you up this early,” he commented as he got close enough to be heard. Suga turned from Tooru at his voice. “Come to sigh after our dust?”

Suga smiled at him, weak and sleepy, answer interrupted by a yawn. Tooru winked over his head. “If I couldn’t sleep in, then neither could he.”

Suga snarled through his yawn. “Bastard, you’re a morning person anyway, that’s not fair.” He rubbed at his face. “’Sides, Mama sure wasn’t gonna come out and hold your stirrup at this hour.” He tried to shake the sleep from his head but only succeeded in shaking his hair down, ribbon wafting away. “Oh, blast it.”

Daichi caught the ribbon before it could hit the dust and stepped behind Suga. He pulled his fingers a few times through Suga’s thick waves, the last few inches still the soft brown of his childhood, to get the worst of the tangles out. “Ryuu should have everything in order on our end soon,” he reported as he wove a fishtail braid into Suga’s hair, fingers quick from years of doing his dad’s in the mornings. Suga held still, shoulders tense. “Why do you have so much hair?” he asked, chuckling as he got close enough to the end to tie it off with the ribbon.

“He doesn’t want to lose the last sign of his youth,” Tooru said, singsong, petting the wet nose of his buffalo-yak. Suga slapped his arm.

“At least I don’t cause a ruckus every time I walk into a room,” he snapped, hopping on his toes to ruffle Tooru’s hair, too short to tie back. Tooru made a face as a guard walked up – father-aged, the gold borders around the teardrop insignias on his armor indicating him as the captain of the guards.

“We’re ready to move out when you are, sir,” he told Tooru, whose face turned to a pout.

“Stop calling me sir, Mr. Nobu, it’s weird.” Tooru flicked a hard between the captain and Daichi. “Oh, this is the guy taking Nishinoya’s place.”

The captain’s eyes narrowed as he bowed to Daichi, laugh lines tucked away in his face. Daichi hurried to respond in kind. “We met earlier,” the captain said, voice a rumble. “We’ll have plenty of time to chit-chat on the road.” He glared at Tooru on the last few words. Tooru sighed, shoulders dropping with his exaggerated eyeroll.

“Fine. Let’s go, let’s go.” The captain nodded, turning and barking orders at his guards as he strode away. Tooru slung the arm not holding his reins around Suga’s neck, face pressed to his hair. He murmured something Daichi couldn’t hear; Suga shoved him away, face burning. Tooru laughed as he swung up in his saddle, making it look easy, clicking his tongue at his mount as he rode to give the caravan a last glance.

Suga turned to Daichi, still hovering – he knew he should go back to the cart now, should’ve gone when the captain gave the go-forward. Suga threw his arms around his neck, burying his face there. Daichi’s hands flew up, unsure – three to six months. He squeezed Suga back, hard enough to crack, breathing in his black tea and ginger, sharp this close to his bed.

“Get back soon, okay?” Suga ordered his shoulder. Daichi nodded, letting him go and stepping back, hands slipping away.

“Don’t miss me too much.” Suga nodded, twining his braid around his wrist. Daichi bit his lip and spun on his heel, marching to the cart where Ryuu had some poor kid by the collar, teeth bared. He sighed – it was going to be a long trip.

They drove out as the sun crested the hilltop behind the house. Daichi looked back once to see Suga watching from the porch steps, swishing the end of his braid against his palm. He didn’t look back again.