A Co-Captain's Doubts

Part of the Family

"There you are, don't you look so much better after a bath. Take a seat, how are you feeling? Are you hungry?"

Warm savory scents from what was cooking on the stove swirled around them familiar and comforting as the two teens entered the kitchen. Suga didn't have time to process everything before Mrs. Sawamura was across the room. She took his face into her palms and gently squeezed, her thumbs brushing over his cheeks with care. Daichi could tell he was unfamiliar with all the touching but smiled anyway.

"I'm okay." He managed, his cheeks flushing beyond the fever that tinted them.

It was amusing to watch Suga appease his mother's excessive need to check on him, but Daichi decided to throw him a bone.

"Mom, I know you mean well, but I think you're crowding him."

"Oh hush, someone needs to make a fuss, look at these bruises. How could anyone mark up your sweet face?" She said, her eyes were soft, a depth of worry and sadness pooling in warm brown orbs. "I just want to—Oh, I just want to kiss you all better." She said, then tugged his face closer and pressed a motherly peck to the beauty mark obscured in bruising. Suga took in a short breath, his eyes blinking and the flush on his cheeks spread to the tips of his ears.

"Mom," Daichi lectured with a coughed laugh, a hand touching her shoulder.

"I suppose that was a bit much. I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I, Koushi?"

Brows pulling together awkwardly, Suga's laugh was breathy and uncertain. "Uh, I don't mind. It's—Uh. Nice." His eyes shifted away to avoid looking at them. Daichi could tell there was an embarrassment in the admission, at wanting someone to dote on him.

"See? He needs someone to kiss him better. Sit down, baby."

Mrs. Sawamura steered him to one of the sturdy wooden chairs at the kitchen table and pushed him into it. "Daichi, there are fresh bandages on the table, help rewrap his hand while I finish at the stove."

"Yes, Ma'am," Daichi said, bringing two fingers to his forehead in a salute.

Dragging a chair to the corner of the table, Daichi sat down next to Suga and pulled the bundle of wrapping to him. Without having to be asked, he raised his hand and rested it on the wooden surface, trusting the captain would be careful.

The bandages were damp and beginning to unravel from plunging his hand into the bathwater, so it didn't take much to remove them. As the wrapping came undone, lilac blooming into deeper blues was revealed across Suga's knuckles, the sight a painful one with thin black thread holding the gash together. When they got to the end of it, Suga sucked in a breath as the cotton stuck to the stitches, prompting Daichi to grimace and apologize. With a little more coaxing, he was able to get it off without causing too much pain. Just as Daichi discarded the bandages to the side, their progress was interrupted by Mrs. Sawamura reappearing.

"Here, dear. Open your mouth."

Suga went cross-eyed as Mrs. Sawamura popped a thermometer between his partially parted lips and nudged his chin to close his mouth. Startled, the disoriented setter sat stiff and upright as she pressed a button on the little device and rested a hand on her hip to watch the numbers climb.

"Mom, you've got to take it easy. You're going to give him whiplash." Daichi said with exasperation, shaking his head as she waited to see his temperature. He knew Suga wouldn't protest no matter what she did, even if she was unintentionally overwhelming him.

She didn't turn her attention away from the thermometer, and her brow furrowed as she watched the little digital screen. "I want to see if his temperature came down at all, it was so high."