#hq-nextgen

“Yeah!” Noya pops his head around the hallway. Because he had a game a few hours away yesterday, he and the rest of his professional volleyball team had the day off. Chikara still bursts with pride when he sees Noya in action as a pro libero- and the libero for the Japanese Olympic team. That’s my boyfriend, he grins each time he sees Noya on court.

With Noya’s off day, Chikara assumes this “surprise” kept his boyfriend busy. After all, he never stayed still for long. “Come on!”

“Christmas is a few weeks away still,” he reminds his boyfriend. “Same for my birthday.”

“It’s December, go with it!” Noya encourages, wrapping an arm around Chikara’s and tugging him to the bedroom. “It’s in here!”

Their bedroom door is wrapped like a present, but that’s not the surprise. They decorated their apartment together over the weekend when they both had a break from work.

“Close your eyes,” Noya excitedly says, looking up at Chikara with bright eyes, like a child on Christmas morning.

Chikara does as he requests and a second after his eyes flutter shut, the bedroom door opens. Noya leads him inside and seats him on the edge of the bed.

“Alright, open!”

Chikara opens his eyes and gapes.

Noya rubs the back of his neck. “I know we already had a tree, but I thought another one would be nice and I saw a bunch of old photographs and figured you’d like it. Do you like it?” He bites his lower lip, trying to hide his nerves.

“Yuu,” Chikara whispers, getting up and walking towards the Christmas tree in the corner. “It’s beautiful.”

The tree is around the same height as their tree in the living room, but that’s where the similarities end. Instead of rainbow lights, this new tree has orange lights, the Karasuno color. Instead of ornaments, photos of all kinds adorn the tree. Game pictures, newspaper photos of when they went to nationals, photo booth images of them and one where their fellow grade friends barged in on them, team pictures (including the one where they’re practically dog-piled on top of each other with the manages, Takeda-sensei, and Coach Ukai in the background amused), photographs of Chikara and Noya by themselves and with their friends, a tree of memories.

“Yuu, I love it.” Chikara blinks to stop his watering eyes. “You did all of this?”

“Of course!” Noya sticks out his chest. “All by myself. We had a lot of photos! I had to go out and buy the tree and lights, though.” He gives Chikara a hug from behind. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“You surprised me in the best way,” Chikara smiles, twisting around to kiss the top of his head. “I love it, Yuu.”

Noya practically purrs as he moves to hug Chikara from the front and rubs his head against the taller’s chest. “Good. I didn’t live on the side of dangerous paper cuts for you not to like it,” he jokes.

Chikara laughs. “My brave Yuu,” he teases before tilting his head slightly, examining the top of the tree. “Why are there no decorations at the top?”

Noya doesn’t skip a beat. “Because I couldn’t reach up there.“

Chikara tries to hold back another laugh. “Want me to help you?” he offers.Noya rests his chin on Chikara’s chest, looking up with twinkling eyes. “There’s actually a cool ornament we can put on it,” he says. “It’s in the box on the counter.”

With Noya still wrapped around him, he manages to get the box the libero referenced. He reaches into it and finds two crows bearing resemblance to him and Noya. The two crows are snuggled together and holds a bare wreath between their beaks.

Chikara blinks. “That’s not a wreath they’re holding, is it?” he whispers.

“A wreath?” Noya gives him a confused look. “Silly Chika-chan, it’s a ring!”“Oh my goodness, Yuu are you serious?” Chikara mutters with wide eyes. “Oh fuck-”

“Did you mean to say that out loud?” Noya tries to play it off with a laugh, but his eyes reveal his nervousness. “Well, I was wondering if maybe this amazing, hot, gorgeous, intelligent man in front of me would due me the honor of marrying me?”

Still holding the ornament, he hugs Noya as tight as he can. “Yes!”

Noya makes a sound of surprise, not expecting the hug. “Really?!”

Chikara responds by wiping his eyes through his laughter. “Yes, Yuu. Please take care of me.”

Somehow the two stumble back onto the bed, limbs tangled together and lips pressed to each other’s in a messy, loving kiss.

“I’ll take good care of my Chika-chan,” Noya softly says, gently pushing side Chikara’s bangs. He takes the ornament from Chikara’s hands. “Did you see how they look like us? Crow me is giving you the ring and you’re accepting!"It would’ve been really awkward if you said no, because this was a custom ornament and I wouldn’t have been able to return it.”

Chikara kisses the tip of Noya’s nose. “Is that ring for me or just for show?”

“It’s for show,” Noya says. “But never fret, Chika-chan! I have a special ring just for you.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a velvet box. Once opened, a beautiful, glistening ring shines in the light of the Christmas lights. “Hold out your hand so I may give you the ring, like in all the romance movies we watch.”

Chikara’s face hurts from all the non-stop grinning he’s done in the past few minutes. Noya is the same way.

He slides the ring on Chikara’s ring finger. “I did a good job picking it out, right?” Noya asks. “I mean, I did ask Kino and Nari and Ryuu for help, but I picked it out myself!”

Chikara gives Noya another sweet kiss. “It’s perfect Yuu, just like you.”

It felt like a perfectly ordinary day. That’s what was so strange as Yuuji Terushima lay in bed amidst the soothing sunlight filtering through the curtains. He checked his alarm clock to make sure it wasn’t a dream. Nope, 7:02 a.m., and he felt no different.

He forced himself out of bed, with a little less resistance than usual, and went about his routine. He was so sure after the news from Futamata yesterday that he’d feel some novel, sprightly energy, but the day felt quite normal. The shower water in his apartment was still slightly hotter than he wanted, and he still had to brush his teeth and shear his stubble over the same impeccably scrubbed sink.

When he thought about it rationally, there was no reason he should feel any different. His efforts (and Futamata’s with a handful of others) had invented an antibiotic that could potentially eradicate malaria by altering the virus’s genome. The first prototype, Futamata confirmed last evening, was ready for testing. It was an unprecedented breakthrough, the pinnacle of a painstaking career studying DNA. It was so monumental feat that, as far as Terushima was concerned, it didn’t matter that he’d acquired the research for the proto-vaccine through technically illicit means.

As he got dressed, the familiar hum of traffic and pedestrians sounded distinctly normal too, despite the existence of a nearly global war going on. Terushima attributed the constant ease in the city to the fortune of currently residing in a country that was officially neutral—“officially” because everyone knew which side they were actively supporting, but that face didn’t faze the average citizen one bit.

In one sense, it was all getting a bit boring.

Alas, the incessant monotony couldn’t be helped. Yuuji had to get back to his lab at the national Department of Health to continue his real contribution to this research project. And so, he wrestled his head through his shirt and adjusted the collar to his liking.

Yup, today would be just another ordinary day.             

Suddenly all went black. His breaths gasped against a hood thrown over his face. He flailed as someone—multiple people—throttled him to the floor, hoisted him up, and escorted him away.

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