Mr Refreshing

The Intervention

"No way," Suga huffs as he bites into his pastel blue Gari Gari Kun, its color matching his favourite scarf that he's donning around his neck in a cute little knot, as he always does. "Nuh-uh,"

Daichi eyes his boyfriend fondly, as his own hands wrap around his cup of takeaway coffee for warmth. It was a very much 'Suga' thing to do, picking a popsicle of all things from the konbi they stopped by earlier, despite the days getting colder as autumn fades into winter.

Asahi sits in between them, tapping his feet restlessly on the bleachers in the neighbourhood park. It's Daichi's favourite place, where the evening light filters through the leaves in soft rays, where the air always smells fresh and crisp, where he first realised he'd fallen in love with Suga.

"I'm telling you," Asahi sighs exasperatedly. "I saw them. I'm not even sure why we're having this interven- is this an intervention?"

Suga makes tiny stomps with his feet as he takes another bite of his soda-flavored popsicle. "But I'm always right about these things..." He's almost whining, but not quite. Daichi thinks he sounds more like a dejected puppy instead.

But Suga's right, he is usually right about things like these. "Maybe she was his cousin or something?" Daichi suggests helpfully.

"Who kisses their cousins on the lips?" The ace's head is between his hands now, making him look unusually small and forlorn.

"Is she from our school?" Suga asks.

"I don't think so, I've never seen her before... I think?" Asahi frowns. The tips of his ears are a bright pink, despite the air not being cold enough to feel biting yet.

"Is she like, taller than him?" Daichi snorts, "I mean, there's no way he found someone short-OW!" Suga had reached over Asahi's bun to smack Daichi on the head. Daichi pretends to sulk, looking at Suga with accusatory eyes.

"You deserved that man," Asahi remarks.

"So heartless, Azumane."

Suga has forgotten about his Gari Gari Kun by now, seeming completely oblivious to the ice melting onto his fingers. He's leaning forward to look into Asahi's eyes with a concerned expression, as if trying to read the bearded giant. After a moment of silence, Asahi clears his throat uncomfortably. Suga presses his lips into a thin line. "How are you feeling about all this, Asahi?"

Asahi blinks. "What do you mean?" He shifts uncomfortably. "Oh god, this is an intervention isn't it?"

"No, it isn't," Suga says firmly. "We just wanna know how you're doing."

Daichi reinforces this with a nod, finding the need to say nothing himself, as his boyfriend was doing fine on his own. If anything, Suga was the best at breaking down walls, or melting the ice, or getting people to open up, or whatever you call it.

Asahi clears his throat and swallows. "I'm doing fine, I don't know why you'd ask." A hand shoots up to brush a stray lock of hair from his eyes, but Daichi thinks this might've been a feeble attempt on his part to avoid eye contact with Suga.

Daichi sees Suga's eyes soften as he mindlessly tosses his popsicle, or what was left of it, into a plastic bag. Suga then searches his own bag for a wet wipe to clean the mess from his fingers. "Okay," he says gently, and Daichi is all too familiar with this. When Suga's voice pitches just a little bit higher, but he manages to sound soft and warm; when his eyelids lower just a touch – here comes his motherly mode.

Asahi apparently, was no stranger to this as well. "C'mon, you are not doing this to me now," he groans.

Suga ignores this, continuing to peer into Asahi's eyes. "So you saw Noya last weekend, he was walking with a girl; holding hands." He waits for a reaction from Asahi, but the bearded giant says nothing. "You saw them kiss, and you're saying he saw you too?"

Asahi clears his throat again. "Y-yeah..."

"And he just looked away?"

Asahi sighs as he nods.

"Asahi..." Suga starts, and Daichi sees Asahi bracing himself, as the nervous tapping of his feet stops abruptly. "We all know how you feel about Noya." Daichi makes a mental note of how Suga didn't say 'how Noya and you feel about each other', because at this point, despite how sure Suga had been earlier, no one really knows anymore. Asahi makes no move to deny this, and seems fully resigned and dejected now. "Is this why you've been avoiding him?"

Again, this is something Daichi had failed to notice, but by this point he's gotten used to his boyfriend's... emotional acumen, if you may, and how he'd point out his perceptions as if everyone else was expected to have also known. It's another part of Suga that Daichi loves, but with this observation, something gnaws on the inside of his chest. If Suga is hyper-perceptive of the people around him, surely he'd realised how Daichi had been feeling by now?

"I..." Asahi cranes his neck upwards to sigh at the leaves overhead, and Daichi snaps out of his reverie. "I don't know," Asahi starts. After a brief pause, Asahi continues. "Oh, fuck it."

Suga has done it, as Daichi knew he would. He's coaxed the shy, nervous giant out of his shell.

"To be honest, I'm kinda pissed." Asahi was still looking towards the sky, and Daichi could see his adam's apple bobbing in his throat as he spoke. "I mean, was it just me? There was flirting, right?" He turns to look at Suga, then Daichi.

Daichi makes a humming sound, which he hopes would serve as some sort of vague affirmation.

"There was the broom, and the vase, and the wig," -Daichi finds himself involuntarily shuddering at this- "and he said he wouldn't play if I wasn't on the team, and he said he had my back, I mean, what was all that? I thought-" It's at this point that Asahi catches himself. He takes a deep inhale, and continues, now sounding defeated and small. "I just thought..."

Daichi doesn't quite know how to react, so he slaps Asahi hard on the back, once. At the same time, Suga reaches out to put an arm around his broad shoulders. Asahi isn't crying, for a start. He just looks... pained. He looks pained and mad, and Daichi isn't sure he's seen Asahi like this before.

"You have to talk to him," Suga says gently. "I know it's gonna be hard, but we leave for Tokyo in three weeks, and it's gonna be even worse if all this goes unresolved."

Asahi scoffs. "It's just me though. Nishinoya doesn't need to know this."

Daichi finally speaks up, because as well as the soft approach works on Asahi, sometimes he just needs to hear the truth. "There was something. You said it, Suga said it, and even if I don't trust you to know, I sure as hell trust in Suga's instincts." Daichi slaps Asahi on the back once more. "And if there was something, then you deserve to know. I fucking hate to see you like this."

Asahi just blinks at Daichi, his lips parting soundlessly.

"Or are you just gonna feel like shit, while Nishinoya is none the wiser? Is that fine by you?"

Asahi clenches his jaw. Daichi is familiar with this too. Despite how soft the team ace is, he can actually be stubborn beyond measure. "It's fine by me."