Chapter Text
The colorful pennants of the practice ground snapped in the autumn wind.
Daichi had taken cover in the shade of some trees out of the way listening to the buzz of people. Somewhere the minstrels had stuck up a lively tune, Daichi certain his sisters were in that crowd, dark hair crowned with summer’s final offerings, laughing as they danced among their friends and neighbors. They’d sworn up and down they’d watch Daichi in the brackets but he was sure they were not. He’d sunk to sit a moment, gulping down the not quite cold watery beer one of his friends had deposited into his hands. He had a break before the last match. He hadn’t taken a look at the brackets to see who it was likely he’d stand up against in the final round, whoever they were, they were probably in the ring right now. If Daichi had cared a little more he might be watching them looking for weaknesses. Instead he choked down the beer, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“It’s not looking good.”
Daichi looked up to spy Kuroo, he’d taken off his helmet and was in the process of stripping his chain mail, hair wilting in the heat. He’d been knocked out in his last duel.
“What’s not?”
“Your chances, Sawamura. Dragon Slayer just bested Tanaka. Pantsed him even.”
Daichi barked a laugh at that image.
“It’s no laughing matter.”
“I’m not scared of him.”
“You ever won a match against him? Even in the sparring ground?”
“I don’t spar with him.”
“You’re doomed,” Kuroo sighed, “You ready to be humiliated? They’ll be calling you up any minute here.”
As if to prove him right, at this moment the red headed little page for Lord Shimizu appeared, eyes bright and eager.
“Sawamura, sir, you’re up!” he said bouncing on the balls of his feet. Daichi handed Kuroo the remains of his beer and straightened his hauberk. Kuroo passed him his helmet.
“Rest in peace, Sawamura.”
“Shut up.”
Old Dragon Slayer, as many of Daichi’s brethren in arms liked to call him, wasn’t present as Daichi entered the ring for the final round. The crowd roared approvingly for him though, a nervous pulse through his stomach as he scanned the crowd searching for his brothers or sisters. His father, maybe. There was Kuroo and his medic friend, short and honey blonde. Lord Shimizu presiding. His beautiful daughter beside him, talking to her lady’s maid behind a fan. The supposed prize of the tournament was a kiss with the fair lady, and while that had motivated many a man, Tanaka for instance, Daichi had made it this far on a desire to test his skills instead, pure competition.
He was beginning to wonder if Kuroo had been teasing him when at last the crowd parted with another cheer to reveal the favorite, and man that Daichi had sworn to one day best, old Dragon Slayer himself. He hadn’t pulled on his helmet yet, ash blonde hair nearly bleached out in the sunlight messy but tied back in a tiny ponytail at the nape of his neck, his face lit in a smile that Daichi couldn’t help but feel his heart pull at. He waved to the crowd, there were the squeals of several girls, a yellow flower sailing from the crowd to land at his feet, smiling softly Dragon Slayer picked it up to tuck behind his ear.
“Gentlemen?” this was Captain Ueno, looking regal in his full dress uniform. Dragon Slayer with a rueful smile lifted his helmet, giving Daichi a smug look before hiding his much too pretty face behind it. Daichi was grateful his face was hidden, sure it would distract him to look into those twinkling hazel eyes. It wasn’t entirely true when Daichi had told Kuroo he didn’t spar with Dragon Slayer. Just that he didn’t spar with Dragon Slayer anymore. When he’d started out, young and cocksure, he’d challenged Dragon Slayer all the time, and he’d obliged him every time with that half laughing smile of his before he proceeded to soundly beat Daichi into the ground. He was fast as hell, and twice as strong, wily and observant. He’d taken these beatings for almost six months before Dragon Slayer had been sent off on a quest, since he was a seasoned knight at that point but not before one last defeat.
“Don’t challenge me again until you can put up some sort of fight. You bore the shit out of me, Sawamura,” he’d said casually, Daichi lying at his feet, bleeding from the delicate cut across his cheek, blood drawn by a man with absolute skill. Daichi’s face had burned, been unable to meet Dragon Slayer’s eyes. “Hey, eyes up, looking at your feet is going to get you killed,” Dragon Slayer had added, Daichi looking up to find the other knight offering him a hand up. He’d refused it, staggering to his feet under his own power, though he thought about that moment a lot, what it might have been like to reach out and take the offered hand.
That had been over four years ago, he hadn’t challenged Dragon Slayer since, though he’d had plenty of experience under his belt since then.
Ueno looked to both, lifting a white cloth in the air to indicate to the crowd they were about to start. A hush descended over the onlookers.
“Sawamura?”
“Ready,” Daichi took a defensive pose.
“Sugawara?”
Daichi could feel Dragon Slayer grinning at him, his skin prickling.
“Ready,” Sugawara answered voice light, taking his ready, form cool and confident. Daichi was already gritting his teeth.
“Begin!” Ueno called dropping the cloth.
Sugawara lunged at him first, a hit that Daichi parried, stepping back then swiping forward, Sugawara dodging just as easily. They circled a moment before Daichi struck beating against Sugawara’s block. Sugawara tossed him off, swinging forward with just as much force, the blow sending reverberations up Daichi’s arms, rattling his teeth, stumbling back. Sugawara was more calculating than he’d been before, Daichi watching him thinking, just his eyes visible through the visor of his helmet, before he was lunging forward again, nearly sweeping Daichi’s feet out from under him, blow ringing off his shoulder plates, the crowd gave a gasp, Sugawara’s eyes glinting. Daichi swung his elbow up throwing Sugawara back a handful of steps, blade arcing forward to score the final blow, Sugawara dropped low beneath it, gauntlet on his fist catching Daichi in the breastplate. Daichi’s breath rushed out of his lungs, staggering back.
By this point in any other duel it’d be over, but they pressed on, sweat breaking out on Daichi’s face and neck, Sugawara’s eyes looking harder by the moment until they were mossy steel bearing down on Daichi without hesitation, some small part of Daichi proud that he could hold his own against the famed Dragon Slayer. Sugawara smashed through his defense suddenly so close that Daichi felt the air once more evaporate out of his lungs, Sugawara’s eyes liquid gold, dazzling, he could see the grin on his face through the crinkles in his eyes, Daichi barely lifting his sword in time to stop the blow that would’ve set him back on the ground, he stumbled back, Sugawara giving no quarter. He swung forward
Their blades locked. Sugawara stepping close. A clash of wills. In any other world Daichi would’ve been the stronger of the two, he was marginally taller, built broad and thick to Sugawara’s light and lean. And maybe that was Daichi’s final mistake, thinking Sugawara might be easily overcome, already thinking ahead to what he intended to do once he’d set his opponent off balance. And in that moment of lapsed judgement Sugawara threw him back, sending him sprawling ass first onto the ground, sword knocked loose, before Daichi could scramble to his feet, a knee pressing hard against his breastbone, sword blade at his throat.
A horn blew, but Daichi barely registered it, Sugawara’s eyes still locked with his both heaving heavy breaths, Daichi’s heart pounding out of time.
He couldn’t hear the yells of the crowd.
The world was contained only in the laughing glint of Sugawara’s eyes, the heat flashing across Daichi’s face that had nothing to do with the stuffiness of his helmet.
Ueno’s hand clapped onto Sugawara’s shoulder then, breaking the spell, Sugawara lifting the pressure on Daichi’s chest but not on his heart, still drumming in a way that made him dizzy with visions of hazel eyes and starlight hair. Sugawara pulled off his helmet, face red and damp beaming at the crowd, Ueno lifting his hand as the victor as the crowd roared.
Daichi collapsed back, tension bleeding out of his body, the adrenaline beginning to fade to a buzz.
Another loss.
Sugawara would walk off now, crowned with a laurel wreath, to kiss Lady Kiyoko. He shut his eyes only to snap them back open as a boot prodded his hip.
“Get up and walk off, don’t make it seem like that was all you had to give,” the teasing lilt drew Daichi’s eyes right back to the honey trap of Sugawara’s, offering him a hand up. Daichi clenched his teeth pushing himself up to sitting before reaching for Sugawara’s outstretched hand, Sugawara withdrew it before their palms could connect.
“Ha, too slow,” he said with a grin before grabbing Daichi’s hand with shoulder wrenching force and dragged him up to his feet, slapping him hard on the back the reverberations of the metal armor making Daichi’s head ache. He tugged off his helmet to drag a full unimpeded breath as Sugawara walked off toward the grand stand where Lady Kiyoko waited.
Koushi had never really forgotten Sawamura Daichi, the brown eyed, stubborn bastard who’d stood up against him every morning on the practice field for the six months before his mentor died. No matter how many times he knocked the kid down, the little wet behind the ears upstart that he was, he’d roll back to his feet, get to his knees, stagger back upright, eyes always bright with the challenge. Koushi had felt his heart thump that very first day, the kid’s form all over the place, knocked down, disarmed, Koushi gently whacking him on the head with the practice sword for emphasis, but he’d gotten back up with a wide grin. “Again!”
When he’d come back. When he’d come back. One might forgive Koushi for avoiding the rank and file, for demanding another quest, something to throw himself into with all that he had and avoid the punishment of languishing.
Four years later Sawamura Daichi was the one everyone spoke of as a shoe-in for captain of the guard, someday when crusty old Ueno stepped down. He was strong and dependable, known to be capable and smart. Koushi had watched him in the practice ring, put friends and challengers to shame alike, had smirked to himself that in some ways he was still clumsy, slow motion, nobody Sawamura, thinking just a little too much, anyone with half a brain ought to see it and exploit it.
He gave him the best duel of the day, one Koushi had thought in a handful of instances he could have easily lost, Sawamura’s eyes dancing behind his helmet, eager as always.
“Time to claim your prize,” Ueno had slapped him on the back with a look Koushi was uneager to decipher but gratefully did not follow him to the Lady’s box.
“Are you going to kiss me now?” he asked when he’d arrived, leaning forward against Lady Kiyoko’s box, and she smiled back at him affectionately. The crowds had dissipated, there was no audience now. Kiyoko leaned forward and ruffled his sweaty hair.
“I don’t think either of us would enjoy that, Suga.”
“Fair enough,” he said, turning a smile to the lady’s maid looking at him with terror. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before.” She squeaked turning a frightened look to Kiyoko who laughed and set a gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Lady Yachi Hitoka, my friend and confidant.”
“Sir!” Yachi squeaked again and Koushi smiled warmly at her.
“You’d protect our Lady Kiyoko with your life, right?”
“Sir! I would sir!” she answered.
“Good, we can be friends then,” he told her and offered her the flower from behind his ear, it was a little wilted from his helmet, she blinked at it worriedly glancing to Kiyoko who nodded. Yachi took it.
“Thank you!” she yelped.
“How was your assignment?” Kiyoko asked, “You looked in good form today, I thought that other man nearly had you a couple of times.”
“It was okay,” Koushi sighed, he’d barely been home three days, they’d sent him out to the borderlands again this last month to assist the standing guard. Watching the mountains rising out of the mist never ceased to make his blood run cold. “I’d beat Sawamura any day of the week. I’ll challenge him to a rematch to prove it to you.”
“Better wait until tomorrow then,” Kiyoko smiled, “Ah, father’s watching, lean in, Suga,” she said flipped open her fan, Koushi couldn’t help but giggle as they hid behind the fan a minute as if sharing a kiss, Yachi watching somewhere between baffled and indignant.
Daichi dumped the bucket of water over his head, trying to dispel the image of Sugawara’s honey eyes and the way his heart was still beating a touch too loud. The heat of midafternoon would give way before much longer to the chill of autumn night and they’d light the bonfires in the square. He’d intended to make for his father’s stall in the market, endure some ribbing from him and his next oldest brother, who’d tease him for making it so far only to get knocked out. The training ground had emptied out pretty quick, crowds dispersed back to their merry-making, Daichi half hoped his family might be waiting for him but there was no sight of them. He did however catch sight across the way, Sugawara and Lady Kiyoko kissing behind her fan, momentarily disgruntled by the sight though he’d had no real desire to kiss Lady Kiyoko himself.
“Ah, there you are!” Kuroo appeared at his side, half emptied beer in hand. “You put up a good fight, no need to sulk about it.”
“Not sulking,” Daichi stole the beer to take a swig for himself. Kuroo snatched it back giving Daichi a shove for his trouble.
“You sure about that?”
“Have you seen my dad?”
“Nah, come drink with the boys, I’m sure he’s got business keeping him busy today. Let’s celebrate!”
Daichi let Kuroo drag him into the crowds, get lost in the smells of street food and the whirlwind of color and sound.
“Daichi!”
He didn’t catch sight of Midori before she was pulling hard on his tunic dragging him down so that Maruko could place the crown of flowers on his head.
“Hey!” he argued as she threw her arms around his neck and he was forced to pick her up.
“No fair!” argued Midori and Daichi scooped her up in the other arm, both twins shrieking with laughter as Daichi pretending to sway trying to hold them up. He set them back down with a drawn out groan, Maruko with a handful of his tunic.
“Buy us candy apples Dai, Tomoya is being mean and won’t.”
“What do you think, I’m made out of money?”
“Yes!” sang Midori back giggling fiercely.
“My treat,” Kuroo broke in, pulling a coin from behind Maruko’s ear, her eyes going big as saucers.
“Me too!” Midori protested before Kuroo withdrew one from her ear as well. The two girls marveled at their coins.
“Thank you!” they squealed running off.
“You’ll spoil them,” Daichi grumbled.
“It’s the harvest festival, have a heart, Daiii~,” Kuroo cackled back and Daichi punched him in the arm.
“Sawamura-san, sir!” The red headed page was wiggling his way through the crowd toward them.
“Ready for an assignment?” Kuroo asked raising an eyebrow. Daichi felt his shoulders sink. He’d been looking forward to enjoying the rest of the day.
“In the middle of the festival? Are you shitting me?”
“That’s what you get for being top of the heap. I told you to cool it in the tournament, but noooo, does anyone ever listen to wise old Tetsurou?”
“Sawamura-san!” the boy was out of breath puffing out his chest. “Captain Ueno has summoned you!”
“Right now?”
“Right away, sir,” the redhead nodded before dashing back off into the crowd.
Kuroo walked with him through the crowds toward Lord Shimizu’s palace.
“More borderland trouble?” Daichi asked. Kuroo chomped on the candied apple he’d bought himself and shrugged.
“I heard there’s a dragon up north, nearly razed a village to the ground.”
“That’s what Sugawara’s for isn’t it? He’s the one with dragon slaying experience not me.”
“You’re right, you’re right. Probably is the borderlands then,” Kuroo said quieter with a frown. “It might not even exist,” he said after a moment brightening, “the dragon? Probably just some crotchety old wizard making mischief again, burning down stuff on accident. You’ve got experience with that.”
Daichi let out a harassed sigh, kneading his brow for a second with the recollection, while Kuroo cackled delightedly. Of course he’d laugh, it wasn’t his problem being sent up north to slay god knows what. Daichi certainly wished it would be another wizard, as opposed to a dragon, though he was not eager to be locked in another three day hostage negotiation with a man who reeked of moldy cabbage.
The guards at the palace wall let him in without question.
“Guess I’ll leave you here,” Kuroo said coming to a halt, “Promised Yaku a beer, and my hand in a dance to some fair maiden,” he wiggled his brows and Daichi punched him in the arm again. “Catch up with us afterward, huh?”
Koushi had been escorted to the captain of the guard’s office. Ueno offering little more than a grunt of greeting, looking at his fingernails while his aid shuffled papers anxiously.
“We’re waiting on one other,” the aid had mumbled, “Before we explain the details. Take a seat please, Sugawara, sir.” Koushi leaned up against a bookshelf instead, eying Ueno and wondering what bullshit was going on now. Ueno had said precious little to Koushi since the borderland dispute, where Lord Shimizu had instated him as captain instead of Ueno. Ueno had been retired too long, a case that Koushi had argued before Lord Shimizu the night everyone had left to secure the northern border.
“Ueno thinks you’re boning Lady Shimizu,” Yaku had told him sometime later, beneath a tent doing very little to keep the rain and coursing mud out. Koushi was cold and wet and tired, Yaku was a medic, smearing some sort of miserable smelling paste across Koushi’s ribs.
“Ueno can fuck off,” Koushi hissed back flinching at another round of cold and wet was spread across what ought to be his warm and dry skin.
“We’d all stand with you,” Yaku said, “If he tried something, but this would be a piss poor place to do it. Though I wouldn’t put it beyond him to do it sneaky. You ought to have a second hand man to stand guard with you.”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Koushi said though the idea was laughable. Just let Ueno try to kill him, that cowardly sack of shit.
“The one who comes to mind is Sawamura Daichi, you know him?”
Koushi didn’t flinch, but hearing the name made his chest tight for a second with ancient memories.
“Nah, never heard of him,” he said instead.
“You ought to have heard of him, he’s your outside flank commander,” Yaku laughed, “Jeez Suga what do you have against the guy? Though I guess they do talk about him as the next captain of the guard and he is pretty good with a sword.”
“Huh,” Koushi mumbled in answer, hoping his face wasn’t too red as to give him away. Yaku started bandaging him up.
“You should be okay as long as you keep it covered, I can apply more salve tomorrow. Stay out of trouble, Captain.”
When Daichi entered Ueno’s quarters he found he was not alone. Leaning against his bookshelf, and turning his head to eye him with an air of disbelief, was none other than Sugawara, looking clean and polished and not like he’d spent the whole day dueling other knights, like he wanted to lie down and eat a hearty meal and go to bed. That was how Daichi felt, out of the heat of the afternoon he was exhausted.
In retrospect Daichi should’ve expected to be paired with Sugawara. He’d said it himself, Sugawara was the top of the whole company, he’d been on easily twice the quests Daichi had. Been a knight since he was sixteen, with years of being a squire before that. He’d slain a dragon. Daichi opened his mouth only to find no words, Sugawara cocking a smug smirk at him.
“Look who it is. What’s the problem, Sawamura, cat got your tongue?”
Daichi snapped his mouth shut to glare at the other knight who had turned back to Ueno.
“Alright, you’ve got us both here, now what’s this all about? And on the harvest festival no less.”
Ueno exhaled with a look somewhere close to distaste and climbed to his feet. Daichi had always thought him a calm, stately, reasonable man, but with Sugawara in the room Ueno was bristling like a dog about to bite.
“I’ve gathered you two for an urgent task. You’ll need to leave in the morning, there’s no time to waste.”
“I’ve just gotten back,” Sugawara protested at the same moment that Daichi piped up:
“What’s the task?”
“Up north in the village of Karasuno, there’s been reports of a dragon,” Ueno said and it was like a shadow had passed over the sun. Daichi’s stomach sank. The air of the room seemed to tighten in on them, the shadows heavier, he glanced to Sugawara who’d slumped a little against the bookshelf, eyes on the floor.
“You’re certain it’s a dragon? Not just an unhinged wizard up in the hills?” Daichi found himself reaching for anything if Sugawara was going to keep his own council. He nearly jumped at the loud bark of laughter from Sugawara.
“You’re sure Sawamura is the best you’ve got? Clearly he’s as dumb as he looks,” Sugawara spat out drawing Ueno’s glare back to him, “At least send me with someone with a little more experience. Sawamura’ll get us both killed at the first sign of trouble. You’d be better sending me on my own,” Sugawara said dispassionately, Daichi’s neck growing hot, grinding his teeth.
“You asshole…”
“But ideally a squadron should go,” Sugawara continued without paying him any heed, “Two aren’t enough. And me plus Sawamura is more like one and a quarter.”
“Now, now, gentlemen,” Ueno spread his arms projecting magnanimity and physically blocking Daichi from jumping at Sugawara. “We cannot spare a squadron, not with the tenuous borderlands situation, as you well know. And either way I saw Sawamura give you a run for your money today, Sugawara.” Sugawara snorted at that.
“You saw wrong.”
“You’re both fine swordsman. Capable. The best we have.” Daichi ground his teeth while Sugawara continued to sneer at him. “Daichi has been up north at least as much as you have, he’s got good tracking skills, he’s strong and he’s smart.” Daichi couldn’t help but puff his chest a little at the captain’s complements.
“Ha,” Daichi breathed out.
“And Sugawara is a seasoned veteran, Sawamura, he’s as wily as he is fast. He can outmatch anyone in this company with a sword, as you know. And he’s fought a dragon before,” though he addressed this to Daichi, Ueno’s eyes had flickered to Sugawara with a menace. Sugawara did not back down.
“Which is exactly why I know that Sawamura is only going to endanger both of us,” Sugawara said irritably, straightening. Ueno was taller than either of them but hands on his hips Sugawara approached their captain with a scowl. “He’s too by the book, too slow to react, he’s no idea what he’s getting himself into. Send me with Iwaizumi at least, he’s at least fast.”
“It may not even be a dragon,” Daichi said then frowning at Sugawara, “It could be a wizard. I’ve got experience with that.” Sugawara rolled his eyes.
“Unlikely.”
“What do you know?”
“Helluva lot more than you,” Sugawara snapped back, pointing an accusing finger at Daichi.
“Well…!”
“Gentlemen!” Ueno crossed his arms, eyes narrowed on the two of them. “You’re both going and that’s final, wizard or dragon you’re the two Lord Shimizu authorized me to send so you best get used to the idea. You leave at dawn. You’re dismissed.”
Koushi stormed out.
Anger flooding his body, from his burning cheeks to the tips of his fingers. He knew Sawamura was watching him and he just as viciously shoved that awareness from his mind. He wanted to get out of the palace, suddenly the air too thin. In the courtyard he let himself heave in breath after breath. He found the tree where he’d cut his initials, and slumped to the ground, handfuls of the grass. A hundred moments he’d buried, resurfacing with acidic clarity.
He could hear snatches the music of the harvest festival caught alight on the breeze. He knew Kiyoko would not come looking for him here, he knew better than to hide in hope she’d haul him back down to earth. In a moment he’d steadied the stampeding of his heart, standing up and feeling silly for running. It was all a farce, all of this, the look on Ueno’s face had made it perfectly clear, he had no intent for them to return. Times like these the oath he’d sworn rose like bile in his throat but he choked it back down, digging the flask from his cloak to choke down a mouthful of whisky.
To come and to go, in peace or war, in living or dying.
So be it. If Ueno meant for this to kill him, let him try.
“I’m coming back,” he declared to no one in particular, to the empty courtyard, the trees burnishing slowly towards reds and orange, to the ghost of his younger self, who dreamt of being a hero. “I’m coming back!”
Daichi meant to return to the festival, to find Kuroo, to drink with their friends and maybe try his two left feet at the raucous dancing. Instead he was sharpening his sword, gathering provisions. When he went to bed early he could only lie awake with the nervous pulse of what lay ahead thrumming in his chest. It felt like half the night had crept by when at last he finally drifted into an uneasy slumber.
Tanaka was the one waiting for them with their horses in the pre-dawn glow, dark circles beneath his eyes. Daichi wondered tiredly who Tanaka had pissed off to get tasked with this. And for that matter, who he’d pissed off to get stuck on this perilous quest with fucking Sugawara. For all his talk of Daichi being slow, Sugawara was nearly a half hour late. Daichi and Tanaka stamping their feet in the bitter morning chill, the horses beside them swaying sleepily.
“Winter better not come early this year,” Tanaka grumbled. “I’m not ready for that shit.”
“Maybe you’ll get sent off to the south, somewhere nice and warm,” Daichi suggested, Tanaka’s frown deepening.
“See that’s the problem, I want to get into Lady Kiyoko’s personal guard but I can’t do that if I’m not here.”
“You’re incorrigible. You know that?”
“She’s an angel, Daichi, a literal angel…” Tanaka trailed off mid-sentence lifting his head to the figure approaching them in the gloom. It was Sugawara in his wool winter cloak soft pumpkin orange, carrying a heavy pack with an unreadably dour expression. Daichi wanted to make a crack at it but suddenly found he didn’t dare, Sugawara’s breath puffing out into the morning, there was something so sad about his face that Daichi felt all words dry up on his tongue.
“Your horse, Suga,” Tanaka said gathering up the chestnut charger’s reins to offer to Sugawara.
“Thanks, Tanaka,” Sugawara mumbled in answer, eyes fleetingly skating over Daichi without settling. He strapped on his supplies before swinging up into the saddle with a careless grace, something tightening in Daichi’s stomach. Admiration or irritation or something else entirely. “Ready, Sawamura, or are you going to keep staring?”
Tanaka snorted, smacking Daichi in the shoulder. Daichi shoved him back with equal force, flushing with a growl as he climbed up into his own saddle. Sugawara’s face transforming from an unreadable sorrow to a shit eating grin, pushing his horse to a trot before Daichi had even gotten situated.
Riding out, it crackled between them. Or at least Daichi imagined it did as they clattered on in the chill, the world hazy, through the barely beginning to wake streets of the capital, through the north gate, Sugawara whistling to the wall guards as they approached the closed gate. He waved.
“Wish me luck!” he called up.
“Good luck, bastard!” a voice called back, tiny figure waving back, the gate creaking open and then it was truly just them alone on the road.
Daichi found himself racking his brain for what kind of normal chatter he’d make if it was anyone besides Sugawara riding half a horse length ahead of him. All he could draw was a blank, instead finding himself watching Sugawara’s posture as he rode, the way the rising sun had his pale hair glowing nearly gold, the ride jostling the messy locks loose of the tiny ponytail he had it tied back in, the way he closed his eyes for a second basking in the sun’s warmth.
“You think there’ll be an early winter?” Daichi finally worked the words out of his mouth, sounding stupid hanging in the air between them, without the relatable comfort Tanaka’d had when he’d said it this morning. Sugawara turned in his saddle to look at Daichi, raising an eyebrow.
“Are you making small talk? Can’t a man ride in peace, Sawamura?”
“Sure, I just thought,” Daichi bit off his sentence feeling dumber by the second. “Nevermind.” Sugawara threw him a curious glance but leaned back leisurely in his saddle.
“You think there’ll be an early winter?” he echoed back, and for a second Daichi felt a flash of warmth before the prickly certainty that Sugawara was setting him up.
“Maybe,” he answered.
“That’s it, that’s all you’ve got to say? Maybe?” Sugawara snorted. He turned to drag a hunk of bread from his pack and took a bite. Daichi’s stomach was growling but he hadn’t put his food supplies where he could easily get them.
“I mean I hope not, harvest isn’t done yet, that’d be trouble. Probably bankrupt my father.”
Sugawara glanced at him again.
“I hate the cold,” he said.
Silence returned and Daichi chewed his lip, Sugawara took another bite of his bread, humming below his breath, swinging his feet in time.
“What song is that?”
“Huh?”
“That you’re humming. It sounds familiar but I can’t place it.”
Sugawara grimaced at him.
“Anyone ever told you, you’re awkward, Sawamura? I liked it better when we weren’t talking.”
“The road’s long, it’d be better if we were friends.”
Sugawara snorted and him and Daichi ground his teeth.
“Okay, good buddy.”
“So how about we talk about the plan.”
“What plan?” Sugawara asked back around a mouthful of bread, and giving Daichi a look that was anything but kind.
“The plan for slaying the dragon. Since you’re the expert,” Daichi spat out. Why had Ueno assigned him to this quest with Sugawara? Sugawara, who’d clearly been put on this green earth to be a permanent thorn in Daichi’s side. Sugawara gave him a wicked grin, shoving the remaining bread into his pack and leaning against his horse’s neck like he was bored.
“How about you tell me, since you’re the big shot who deserves to be on this mission.”
“So the plan is we just saunter right up to the thing’s lair and we kill it?”
Sugawara barked out a laugh and rolled his eyes.
“Are you sure you’re not still a squire? With a plan like that.”
“I was just asking you, deferring to your wisdom,” Daichi spat back and Sugawara laughed again.
“A little kiss ass as well. You’d think with a silver tongue like that you could’ve at least gotten yourself a tutor to help you be a better swordsman. Or maybe a rich patron so you can quit this life of tribulations. Lord Daichi.”
Daichi was burning with irritation, fists clenching until his knuckles ached, Sugawara still grinning at him like he was relishing pissing Daichi off.
“Fuck off,” Daichi shot back kicking his horse to take the lead, Sugawara’s irritating bell of laughter behind him, the thunder of hooves as he urged his horse into the lead. Daichi growling beneath his breath and dug in his heels until they were at an all-out gallop leaning low over their horses’ steaming necks. Sugawara was edging ahead, mouth drawn in a grin, Daichi hating himself for not being able to tear his eyes away, digging in his heels again to protest from his horse. They kept this up only for the short burst it took for them to blast past two supply wagons. Angry shouts sounding out behind them, Sugawara pulling back with a laugh.
“I won!” he sang.
They pitched their first camp off the road a hollow near a babbling creek. Daichi would’ve picked higher ground where they were less concealed but able to see out. They weren’t talking though and he wasn’t about to break their silence and protest Sugawara’s choice. Sugawara dismounted on light feet, setting to removing his horse’s saddle and gathering wood for a fire.
Daichi in contrast felt himself walking stiff, the first day back in the saddle was always hard, his whole lower body aching. Good thing he wasn’t in the business to start a family any time soon. He uncinched his horse’s saddle, rubbing him down, turning him loose to graze beside Sugawara’s steed in the long grass before flopping down in the dirt and shedding his surcoat, and the heavy as shit chain mail. He’d been hot and sweaty but as soon as he was stripped to his undershirt he was tugging his tunic back on. The days were already getting shorter, the sun nearly down. Sugawara returned with an armful of sticks and branches, silently he built the fire while Daichi watched. Striking the flint again and again to no success, sparks catching and dying just as quickly, Sugawara’s face contorted in frustration.
“Maybe if you…”
“If you think you can do it better why don’t you do it?” Sugawara huffed sitting back on his heels. Daichi crouched beside him, building the tinder into a different shape and borrowing Sugawara’s flint, struck a spark into a dried handful of grass right in the center. It took a couple of tries before it struck, the small fire crackling as it caught hold of the tinder. Daichi watching, legs aching, to see if that’d be enough to get it going. For a minute it seemed to be going and then it was losing steam and shrinking. Sugawara crouched low to blow a slow breath over it, the fire expanding and then seizing hold of the fuel with a new life. This time the intensity didn’t diminish and the bigger sticks began to catch flame.
“Thanks,” Daichi grumbled.
For a second Sugawara caught his eye as if he meant to say something but then thought better of it, gaze darting away as he staggered to his feet. “I’m going to catch some fish before it’s too dark to see.”
-
Daichi woke in the middle of the night, shivering in a cold sweat, pushing the trapped air out of his lungs and trying to drink in the stars over head to flood out the dream. Scales and flames, long talon-like claws, a terrible heavy breathing, bat wings beating against the air, trapped in the pitch black. He tried to replace these with images of home, imagining his brothers and sisters, their parents, the shop, his Grandma Sawamura, when she’d been alive, in her nightgown and shawl at the wood stove smiling at him. She’d warm him a mug of milk and tell him stories until his eyelids grew heavy again. His heart beat slowed, aware of the night time sounds, faint singing of a cricket, Suga’s breathy snores. He rolled over, the moon still visible, hanging low on horizon, Daichi watching as it gradually dipped behind the far off mountains before winking out of sight. He rolled over again before sitting up and wrapping his cloak around his shoulders stoking the embers of their fire that had long since shuddered into darkness. A tiny flame rekindled, Daichi feeding it a couple of small sticks until it was crackling again.
When he was a child he used to have nightmares nearly every night, all sorts of terrible monsters, his mother had reprimanded his grandmother more than once for telling him stories that put these ideas into his head. Though Daichi had never really felt certain that was where they came from, only that he’d wake in the dark on the floor of the house’s single bedroom, shaking and crying and if one of his parents didn’t scoop him up into their arms, he’d crawl into their bed worming between them like a dog until he could sleep safe in the comfort of their presence. When Tomoya had been born, a small finicky baby, Daichi was forced from the bedroom to sleep at the hearth of the fire instead, wrapped up in the dark trying to sooth away the dreams, gazing into the embers until his eyelids felt heavy once more. They lessened over the years but never really went away. He watched the flames dance now and wondered if he was finally about to encounter a monster to give his dream beasts a run for their money. His blood had run cold when Ueno had talked of the dragon, as it ran cold now thinking he was on an unalterable crash course with it.
Sugawara snorted in his sleep, sound of a sigh and rustling blankets and all was still again.
“’isit dawn yet?” Sugawara’s voice was rough and dry with sleep.
“No,” Daichi answered him feeling the spell over him break, he slipped back beneath his heavy wool blanket, pillowing his head on an arm, “Go back to sleep.”
Sugawara grunted something to that, Daichi shutting his eyes.
It was only a dream. Nothing more.