ᶜᵒᵐᵖᵒˢᵘʳᵉ / ᴅᴇᴘᴇɴᴅᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ

        they’ve just gotten a new transfer in — a male — that his boss is hoping will mate with one of their females and all morning has been a struggle to re-establish his ‘alpha’ position, so to speak. it would help, probably, if he had a name to call the wolf by. it would probably help, also, if the two females didn’t growl at him for smelling foreign to them. this is his least favourite part of getting new animals.

         if getting a wild animal to not hate him wasn’t enough of a downer than the fact that it’s kept him from participating in the Field Trip Activities certainly is. suga loves teaching kids, especially about animals he loves and that love him ( though on days like today, he’s not so sure they do ).

      winter has long since broken into the heavy rains of spring ; the near birth of summer, even, but the air still holds an edge of chill to it that makes suga wish he’d had the foresight to bring his scarf and draw his shoulders up around his cheeks when the wind blows.

      a hand tightens around the strap of his bag, eyes averting themselves from pairs of eyes and the hush of silence as if he doesn’t notice the deafness of a room when he enters it. his shoulders straighten ; his smile brightens ; his heart sews itself to the sleeve of a hand he offers to marshal ukai, himself.

        “ sugawara koushi, reporting for duty, ” he offers, and by some blessing of the gods, his voice doesn’t shake. the marshal offers a gruff expression that might be a smile, suga thinks, if the circumstances of his arrival were any different. after all the why him specifically may be a loud and clear mystery but the reason for new pilots never is. suga saw the jaeger go down on live television with everyone else in the sendai base.

         his gaze shifts to the man beside the marshal who is introduced as his new partner ( the word potential is left out of it but suga hears it anyway ), sawamura daichi. the sight of him only winds koushi a little for what it’s worth but he only nods and offers his hand again. 

        The last practice of his high school career ends before he really has a grasp on it. Asahi would probably say something sentimental but the time for that hasn’t quite come for him yet. Everyone has already said their piece at Nationals anyway; the third years still have graduation to look forward to in a few days. Suga knows it’s probably a sign of his reluctance to accept the fact that it’s really over.

      unfortunately last night was mostly spent making sure this bento box came out as perfect as he could make it for the occasion, and it was majorly spent in the kitchen with his mother. the studying he’d wanted to get done the night before wasn’t as in depth and much as he’d previously hoped. 

      “well…” daichi’s pupils flit toward the top of the ceiling, mouth slightly open before his brain has a chance to form what his sentence was actually going to be. “i don’t think it was my best performance on an exam, but i feel confident enough that i’ll still have a decent mark.” his gaze returns to the setter with a smile.  

      daichi is a bit surprised, still, that suga’s birthday celebrations are rarely even there compared to everyone eles’ ( maybe that’s because his birthday and asahi’s birthday are literally on festivals ). despite everything he knows. 

      “all that recalling information has really worked up my appetite. want to have lunch outside today? it’s so nice out, shame to let the weather go to waste.”

     daichi’s confidence earns him a good-natured pat ( perhaps a bit more like smack ) on the back for his troubles. “ that’s the spirit, daichi. decent game performance, but a win never the less. least that’ll keep you on the court, ” he teases, doing his best impression of their coach. if it’s one thing the third years have learned, it’s that there is always room for improvement if you work hard. 

     “ maybe we should study for finals together, keep each other from getting distracted... ” suga offers, though it seems easier in theory than it likely would be in actuality.

     laughter bubbles up and out at the stereotypical dad-ness of the statement. he half expects him to say something like good day to be a dog or bees knees to follow up. the smile on his face brightens, delighted. he presses his shoulder into daichi’s just in the wake of his laugh ; a balm for the earlier smack, maybe.

     the spices are still making his eyes water.

     daichi is not a cook, well he’s not a great cook. 

     with their break for lunch just starting, daich grabs his lunchbox and heads to meet suga in the hallway so they could walk to their lunch spot together. his bag is a big heavier today, because he’d gone and made suga his own birthday bento box.

     he’d already said his happy birthdays’ to suga this morning when they’d met up for their walk into school, but he feels the need to say it again, maybe he’ll save it for when he gives him the bento box. “how do you think you did on that exam?”

     having already appreciatively blushed through birthday wishes from daichi this morning, suga isn’t suspicious of receiving gifts. 

     his birthdays have never been of much importance growing up and while that leads him to being a bit more extravagant on the occasion for others — when it comes to himself, he has a bad habit of pretending the day doesn’t exist.

     it would be safe to say that he’s even forgotten already that today held any more significance than an exam he’d spent all night studying for.