Chapter Text
Kazuya woke up with a start. Sawamura's small room was dark around him. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. He'd been dreaming, he knew. Something dark and anxious, pushed through his subconscious as his time in Nagano came ever closer to ending.
The return to the Sawamura home, the day before, had none of the cheeriness of the time they'd left in the morning. Both Sawamura and he had been quiet, and he'd been more or less unable to let go of Sawamura at all as they made their way back. Junko-san had thankfully not commented, but Kazuya knew the three adults in the house could tell something was not quite right the night before. Sawamura had been significantly subdued, but had stuck close to Kazuya as though it were second nature.
Kazuya did feel somewhat bad about it, but he couldn't deny it'd been a comfort. He glanced at Sawamura, asleep next to him in the guest futon. Despite how unwilling he'd been to let Sawamura go the day before, Kazuya had insisted they try to sleep separately – he couldn't allow himself to get used to having Sawamura within touching distance overnight.
It was no use though. After several hours of both of them lying stiff and unmoving, unable to fall asleep, Sawamura had bit out a muffled “Screw this,” and rolled off the bed, making his way to where Kazuya was lying in the guest futon, summarily ordering him to “shove over" and declaring they could “figure things out tomorrow." Kazuya could not argue, especially since he'd fallen asleep so much more easily with Sawamura next to him.
He looked at Sawamura’s sleeping face. The pitcher was close enough Kazuya could make out the details of his features even without his glasses, including the dark lashes feathering his cheeks.
Carefully, gently, Kazuya brought up a hand, gingerly touching the other boy’s cheek with the back of his fingers. Sawamura’s skin was soft, and warm. He didn’t wake. He didn’t even react to the touch, though admittedly it had been light.
Kazuya huffed an amused breath, his touch becoming bolder. He gently went over the curve of Sawamura’s nose, withdrawing as the pitcher wrinkled his nose in response to the light touch.
Cute Kazuya thought absently. The dark anxiety that had pushed him into waking fading into a distant wariness of the days to come.
As Sawamura settled, he continued his light exploration of the pitcher’s features. Kazuya didn’t bother thinking closely about what he was doing. He was content, wrapped in the cocoon of warmth of the guest futon, taking the chance to map Sawamura’s features from up close. It was new, to be able to look at him this closely. In the field, in the dorms, he rarely had the need or the chance to be this close to Sawamura. In Kazuya’s own mind, they were at their best together when standing 18.44 meters apart. So it was interesting that this new, physical closeness felt just as natural, just as right.
Kazuya breathed out softly, watching Sawamura’s brow wrinkle as he pouted in his sleep. He wondered what the pitcher was dreaming about, to make such a dissatisfied expression. Fondness swelled in his chest as he reached out again to smooth one of Sawamura’s brows back into neatness. As he did so, Sawamura’s face twisted in response to the movement, and his eyes flickered open slowly, the vivid golden gaze freezing Kazuya in place. Sawamura’s eyes really were his best feature, Kazuya thought somewhat hysterically, flushing in embarrassment.
“Hmmm…” Sawamura hummed softly, nuzzling absently at Kazuya’s hand. “G’d mrrrng..”
Seeing as he apparently wasn’t bothered by the fact that Kazuya was basically petting him, the catcher gave up, resuming his movement and moving up into the pitcher’s soft dark hair.
“Morning.” He whispered back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Sawamura just breathed out in contentment, pushing back against Kazuya’s hand much like a dog would do in search of more pets. Kazuya smiled at the image of Sawamura dressed as a shiba inu that popped into his mind – he really was like a dog.
“What time is it?” Sawamura asked, blinking blearily at him.
Kazuya stopped petting his hair as he twisted to try and get a look at the bedside clock by Sawamura’s bed. He then realized the uselessness of the movement – he didn’t have his glasses on, and while Sawamura was close enough for him to see without them, all he could make out of the clock was a blurred red light where Sawamura’s bedside table was. If they were in Sawamura’s bed he could probably see the numbers a little more clearly, but unfortunately the guest futon was significantly lower than the bed, so it was no use squinting at the red blur.
“Don’t know. I can’t make out the numbers from here.”
Sawamura huffed out a breath in response.
“I forgot you’re blind without your glasses. Give me a minute.” He rubbed his eyes vigorously before flipping over and pushing himself up on his elbows so he could look at the little clock.
“Hmm.. Might be perfect timing actually.” Sawamura said, absently. He wasn’t looking at Kazuya. Then he started getting up.
“What? What do you mean?” Kazuya asked, somewhat bewildered. Was Sawamura planning to go running?
“Are you planning on going back to sleep?” Sawamura asked, without bothering to reply. He was pulling on a pair of sweats, dressing with surprising efficiency given what’d happened the day before.
“No, not really.” Kazuya responded, somewhat miffed at not getting a proper answer.
“Great!” Sawamura said with a decisive nod. “Get dressed and then come downstairs! I want to show you something but we can’t waste time!” Without waiting for a reply, Sawamura started getting dressed himself, dashing out of the room as soon as he was done with only a harsh “Hurry up!” whisper-shouted at Kazuya.
The catcher could only stare, perplexed, at the open door to the room. He considered ignoring Sawamura for a second, but then breathed out a resigned sigh and started getting up, pulling on his glasses so he could get dressed and go after his pitcher.
He made it downstairs in about 10 minutes, peeking into the kitchen in search of Sawamura.
The pitcher was standing by the counter, carefully filling a small thermos with just brewed dark, fragrant tea, going by the near full pot he was carefully tilting towards the opening of the thermos, tongue peeking out of his mouth in concentration. A second, closed thermos sat at the counter, likely already full.
Kazuya waited until Sawamura had placed the pot back on the counter and closed the thermos before coming closer and poking him in the back, delighting in the startled wiggle he got out of Sawamura.
“Geez, Miyuki Kazuya! Don’t just poke me out of nowhere! You could have just told me you were ready!” Sawamura huffed, brows furrowed in annoyance as he glared at Kazuya.
“What would be the fun in that?” Kazuya asked with a smirk. He nodded towards the two thermos. “What are those for?”
“It’s going to be pretty chilly where we’re going, this early in the morning. I figured it’d be good to have something warm to drink. I thought about making you coffee to take, but I wasn’t sure… after yesterday…” Sawamura trailed off, not looking at Kazuya.
Kazuya’s heart swelled with fondness, even as he inwardly grimaced at the reminder of the unfortunate misadventure with the coffee ice cream the day before. It was probably a good thing that Sawamura thought better of making coffee – Kazuya himself was unsure as to whether he’d be able to stomach the taste after the vivid flashbacks of the day before.
“Tea’s fine. Where exactly are we going, anyways? It’s still dark out.” It was true. It was ungodly early in the morning, they were probably still at least an hour out from a proper sunrise, and were it not for the anxiety that had woken him up Kazuya would probably have been happily ensconced in warm blankets, sleeping.
Sawamura beamed at him.
“It’s a surprise!” he chirped. “But we’ve gotta go, otherwise we’ll miss it! Come on!”
“Do your parents know we’re going wherever it is you’re dragging me?” Kazuya asked blandly as Sawamura started actively tugging him away from the kitchen. The full body freeze Sawamura performed at that question would have been impressive if it weren’t so comical.
He quickly let go of Kazuya, leaving him snickering at the threshold to the kitchen, holding the bag with the thermos bottles. He quickly came back with a little notepad, leaving what was presumably a folded up note explaining where they were going on top of the coffee pot, sure to be seen by the first person in the kitchen after them.
“Right! Now we can go.” Sawamura said with a satisfied nod.
Sawamura kept hurrying Kazuya as they got dressed into warm jackets. The two finally stepped out into a surprisingly cold morning, to a dark sky and surroundings filled with fog. Yellow streetlamps occasionally threw a warm halo of light over the darkened streets, the light reflecting into the fog causing everything around to take up a hazy glow.
Sawamura confidently led the way through the darkened streets, where few buildings showed any sign of activity – usually no more than a square of light representing a room with an awake occupant.
Sawamura kept a pretty quick pace, finally turning into a side road bordered by massive pine trees. The road climbed in a steady incline, up into the fog. Kazuya vaguely recognized it – it was the one Sawamura had pointed out the day before, the one with the trail that climbed towards the summit of Mt. Nishidake.
Just as Kazuya thought about it, Sawamura turned into a wide walking trail, just off the narrow road. Despite the fog, it was easy to follow, though its incline was more dramatic than that of the road. A rope rail was at the right side, looped through iron rods that stuck out from the ground in regular intervals. It was certainly helpful for some of the steeper parts of the trail.
“I can’t believe you dragged me into mountain climbing before breakfast.” Kazuya whined, a little breathlessly as they finished climbing a decently steep section surrounded by massive boulders. The towering pines were all around them releasing a sharp fragrance into the cold air.
“Shut up, Miyuki Kazuya” Sawamura retorted, rolling his eyes. “It’ll be worth it!” The pitcher wasn’t even winded. That stamina really wasn’t fair.
The pair resumed their climb, and, while it wasn’t actually that strenuous a trail, Kazuya was pretty relieved once the slope gentled. They passed through a large set of pine trees growing evenly spaced on either side of the trail, only to step through the last pair to a wide opening on the side of the mountain. Half hidden by the fog, Kazuya could see the wide gate of a temple. The more interesting thing though was the large clearing before the temple, with a very wide wooden deck at one end, looking over the side of the mountain. This, then, would be where the town’s festivals would be held.
The wooden deck overlooking the mountain had a sturdy rail, and Kazuya could see benches at a couple of different points around its length. Sawamura made his way through the clearing, up onto the deck, happily choosing one of the benches overlooking the darkness below. The sky was starting to lighten ahead of them, but the sun had not yet cropped over the mountains.
“Is the temple even open?” Kazuya asked as he sat next to Sawamura.
“Not yet. But I didn’t bring you here so you could see the temple. Look, we had perfect timing!” Sawamura pointed out to where the sky was starting to lighten.
Indeed, Kazuya barely had the time to look out to where Sawamura was pointing. Seemingly as soon as he turned his head, the sun started cropping out from behind the mountains and everything before him changed.
The whole world seemed bathed in a golden glow. The darkened space below became awash with the bright light of dawn. The light bathed the fog rising from the trees as a warm haze, and it was as if the landscape itself was on fire, though with none of the heat. The light reflected off the peaks of the pine trees, and the pale plum and apricot blossoms on the flowering trees dotted throughout the landscape flared like bright torches due to their much lighter hues.
It was breathtaking. Kazuya had seen sunrises before, of course he had, but nothing quite like this.
“So?” Sawamura asked, and even without looking at him Kazuya just knew he’d have a shit eating grin all over his face. “Worth it?”
Kazuya could only laugh a little breathlessly, not taking his eyes off the sight before them.
“Yeah.” He finally replied, turning to look at where Sawamura was also bathed in that dawning light, eyes flashing gold in the sunlight. “Definitely worth it.” Sawamura smiled back at him before turning back to the sunrise ahead of them.
“You know, Miyuki-senpai. I think, in the end, we’re going to be okay. I know you said you'll always remember me dying, but I think, with enough time, it's going to be easier to remember I'm alive than to remember I died before!”
He turned, beaming at Kazuya once again.
“Remembering I'm here and it didn't happen this time is going to be as easy as remembering the sun rises in the morning! And I can promise that as long as the sun keeps rising, I’m also going to keep going, too!”
Kazuya stared at Sawamura. He couldn’t control his grin, something inside him settling at Sawamura’s ridiculous certainty that everything would work out just because he wished it so.
“You know, the sun is definitely going to outlive both of us, so there’s no point in saying that. Really, Sawamura, are you an idiot?”
“GEH! I was trying to be reassuring! REASSURING, Miyuki Kazuya!!!”
Kazuya just laughed at him.