Chapter 3
Back on the the convention floor, amidst the swarms of people, they looped in and out of tables for good ten minutes and argued over which way to hold the map before Hinata found Kageyama’s table number on the paper and they maneuvered themselves out of the line of foot traffic in the right direction.
Daichi couldn't help notice that it was different at this end of the convention floor; they had started from the other end, close to the entrance of the building, when they arrived. He hadn’t seen much of interest there, just a lot of shirts, mugs, and plastic toys, generic mass-produced merchandise that also lined the windows of countless stores in the mall. He had been a little disappointed that the lackluster background scenery of the mall had followed him to the con and that he had paid to be there, but where Hinata and Daichi stood on the opposite side of the room, everything was unique. Each table had a person behind it, either sketching quietly, chatting with customers, or joking with the people next to them.
Hinata shoved a bunch of books into Daichi’s chest, almost knocking the wind out of him. “Hold these a sec?”
He agreed and cradled the books in his arms while Hinata rearranged the purchases in his bags. Daichi looked over the tables filled with rainbows of color and then down at the books in his hands, black and white on newsprint. “So this is the area for artists, right?”
“Yup,” Hinata mumbled from his bags.
Daichi wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask, but a table full of books seemed out of place in the hurricane of color that surrounded them. “So... Kageyama’s table is here?”
“Yeah?” Hinata eyed Daichi warily. He reached for his books and relieved Daichi of the burden in his arms, but not the one on the tip of his tongue.
“I guess I just see a lot of pictures and, uh, visual art here, so I didn’t know if there was a separate place for writers?”
“Sometimes, if there’s enough space, but this one’s kinda small so they lumped them all together,” Hinata pressed his mouth into a thin line. “For a second, I thought you were saying that you didn’t think writers were artists. Because that’s dumb.”
Daichi whacked him upside the head. “I get that writers are artists, but it’s not like they have sketchbooks or fancy posters to look at. I feel kind of bad, like maybe they get overlooked?”
Hinata hummed and bit the inside of this cheek as he thought about it. “I guess you’re right, but we’re here for a writer. We’re paying attention!”
“True enough,” Daichi admitted, and, instead of reaching out to hit Hinata, Daichi pulled him close. People could say what they wanted about Hinata, that he was brash, outrageous, or too much, but the kid never failed to see a silver lining and it was one of the many reasons he kept him around.
“So, I was thinking about what you asked me, about Sugawara,” Hinata started.
Daichi hummed.
“Remember? Like two seconds ago?”
“Your faith in me is reassuring," Daichi joked. The real question, however, was how could he forget?
“Like I said, I don’t know much about horror, technically, but I was thinking about some of Kageyama’s interviews and the snippets I’ve read of Sugawara’s, and what Noya has told me. Some of it’s monsters, like Dracula or Frankenstein, or, like, psychological stuff and serial killers. Oh! And dystopian worlds! And gore. Like, body horror and severed limbs and - ”
The guy from the panel had laughed when Kageyama mentioned Sugawara Koushi, who, apparently, wrote stories about rotting flesh and sociopaths and things that made Daichi’s stomach turn, which was an interesting turn of events. Did that mean laughing guy was into this stuff as well? He tried to reconcile gushing blood and oozing wounds with the guy’s dimpled cheeks and easy smile and came up with nothing.
“Why did you ask about him specifically?” Hinata asked abruptly. It caught Daichi off guard.
“Ah, can’t I be curious about someone your precious Kageyama mentioned?”
“Maybe, but you haven’t really asked about anyone else here -”
An unfamiliar voice interrupted them, stopping Hinata from delving further into the nebulous and frankly impure reasons for Daichi’s interest.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt, but you’re that guy from the queer comics panel just now!”
Hinata smiled. “Hi! You mean Kageyama’s panel?”
“That's the one! I was in the audience. Sugawara Koushi.”
When Sugawara dropped his name, Hinata, in turn, dropped everything he was holding and used his hands to clap as he jumped up and down. “Oh! Oh my god! I'm Hinata Shouyou. Wow!" Hinata looked at Daichi and then back at Sugawara. "You’re Sugawara Koushi?”
Sugawara seemed taken aback by the recognition, but dutifully ignored it. He also noticed the shared look between them, much to Daichi's horror. “Oh no need to be so formal, Hinata. Just Suga is fine. And of course I remember you! Not many people stand up in front a room full of people and embarrass the hell out of strangers," he grinned.
For the first time across the course of Daichi's acquaintance with Hinata, he looked bashful. “I didn’t mean to embarrass him, exactly. But I did mean it!” Hinata’s eyes got wide with a sudden realization. His modicum of shame couldn’t last forever. “Oh, you would know! Does Kageyama have a boyfriend?”
Suga made the motion of zipping his lips and throwing away the key. “That’s not my place to say.” He shifted his eyes to Daichi. “This your friend?”
Daichi froze in place when Suga's eyes met his. Sugawara and the guy from the panel. Sugawara was the guy from the panel. He was standing right in front of them and looking at him with the ghost of a smile still haunting his face. Sugawara, the horror writer? Laughing guy, Sugawara, wrote about oozing sores and murderers. Sugawara. He had a mole under his left eye and Daichi noticed that his eyelashes weren’t black, but a glittering shade of pewter. He willed himself to move, but his arms refused to obey. He tried to speak, but it didn’t happen.
“Yup, that’s Daichi!” Hinata chirped.
“Aw, Daichi, you a big fan of Kageyama’s? That's sweet!”
Daichi looked down at the books in his hands. He had picked them up when Hinata flung them to the ground and had completely forgotten he was holding them. He begged his body to do something, anything, and all he came up with was a soft gurgle and a shake of the head.
“I’m the fan!” Hinata corrected. “Daichi’s actually my boss.”
Suga pursed his lips and lowered his gaze. “Wow, you make your boss carry your stuff? You’re even more ballsy than you let on.” The words sunk in like a lead weight and Hinata yelped as he grabbed everything out of Daichi’s hands.
Without anything to hold and nothing to hide behind, Daichi felt naked. It was ridiculous. Everything about the situation felt ridiculous.
“That’s a little better, huh?” Suga cooed.
“Thanks,” Daichi croaked.
“It’s nice to meet you, Daichi.”
Lured by the silver waves that stuck out of his beanie and the teeth that shone white between his lips, Daichi found the words that were stuck in his throat. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Sugawara.”
“Just Suga, really." He bit his bottom lip in an attempt to hide his smile. “If you’re the boss, does that make this a work outing? That’s a pretty sweet deal. Are you guys writers or something?”
“No, we work at the mall. This is just fun. Daichi got me the passes for my birthday!” Hinata answered. “It’s his first time at a con.”
Daichi willed him to stop talking, but to no avail. He had never been embarrassed by his job before but, for some reason, standing with two artists, in front of a table of artists, insecurity snuck up on him and stuck its claws in his mind. It didn't matter, Daichi knew that, but his heart fell at the thought that Suga might think less of him.
“Oh, you're first time?” Suga said knowingly. “That explains the shell-shocked look on your face.”
“It’s pretty funny, right?”
They laughed together at Daichi’s expense, which was fine. They were partially right, the day had taken its toll on him, but, most importantly, Daichi got to see Suga laugh again and he was able to forget, just for a moment, that he might not be worthy of the acquaintance.
Suga’s phone buzzed in his pocket and his face lit up when he checked the screen. He tapped out a message, got an immediate reply, and typed another message. “That was Kageyama. He’s on his way over.”
Hinata’s breaths became shallow and fast. “He’s coming?! Are you sure you can’t tell me if he has a boyfriend? I need to know! Or, wait! I have a different question!” Hinata put his hand up to Suga’s mouth to stop him from answering, even if he was about to, and Suga looked at Daichi with surprise. “Could you at least tell me if he likes guys? I know we were at the queer thing, but I don't want to assume! Please, Suga, please give me something!”
“Well,” Suga looked over his shoulder and then beckoned Hinata to come closer, “I’m not going to say anything, but if you, I don’t know, just happened to see our texts, I wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it, right?”
Daichi looked aghast as Suga’s lips curled and he grinned like the devil might when he made a lucrative deal and showed Hinata his phone. Against his better judgement, which had been thrown unceremoniously to the wind, Daichi leaned over Hinata’s shoulder to read the messages, too.
From: KT
On my way. Anyone there yet?
To: KT
Ya. Here w that guy from the panel……..
From: KT
Omg the dumbass who asked me if i had a bf?
To: KT
Maaaaaaaaybe. He’s p cute up close.
From: KT
He’s hot but not the point! Be there in 5.
Hinata grabbed Suga’s wrist with one hand and Daichi’s with the other and bounced on the balls of his feet between them. “Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?”
Suga and Daichi spoke at the same time.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“You should slip him your number when he signs your books!”
Hinata gasped and dug into his backpack, making it obvious which piece of advice he took. Daichi tried to get his attention to dissuade him, but Hinata was too far gone in his mission.
“What? Not a fan of young love?” Suga asked quietly.
“It’s not that,” Daichi watched Hinata, who had plopped down between them and started to draw on a blank page of his sketchbook. “It’s just, maybe it's better that he doesn't surprise Kageyama, I mean, a little goes a long way with him.”
Suga moved closer and the warmth of his body crept into the pores of Daichi’s skin and coursed through his veins, scorching his face with a violent blush. “Ah, well, some surprise is good. And a little never goes far enough with Kageyama, so maybe it's good for them both.”
The way he said it, tenderly but slightly exasperated, did things to Daichi’s heart. Sugawara Koushi, beguilingly handsome, freaking adorable, a tad mischievous, maybe a writer-deviant, and probably not a jerk.
“Hey, when Kageyama said he learned everything from you, during the panel, why did you laugh?”
Suga looked at Daichi with an eyebrow raised. “It was that noticeable, huh? I told him to say it, but I meant it as a joke, and Kageyama tends to take things seriously.” Suga looked at the ground. “I suppose I’m kind of an asshole sometimes,” he murmured.
Unbidden, Daichi’s hand found Suga’s arm. The fabric was soft beneath his palm, the muscle firm under his touch. “No, you’re not. Not at all.”
“Oh,” Suga breathed. He parted his lips and his eyes lingered on Daichi’s face for just a moment before he caught someone else’s eyes over his shoulder. Suga waved and moved from Daichi’s grasp. He closed his fist quickly, like it would stop Suga’s warmth from dissipating into the air.
“Just saw my friend, so I have to run and grab him. It was really nice meeting you! Maybe I’ll see you guys around! Bye Hinata!”
Hinata said goodbye from the ground, still scribbling on a scrap of paper, and Daichi waved, entranced. With memories of Suga’s lips and and the tingling warmth of his body still fresh in his mind, he watched Suga walk away, toward the guy he sat next to during the panel.
“Were you checking him out?” Hinata shrieked from the floor.
Daichi spun around. That weasel. “No! And keep your voice down! Jesus.”
Hinata grinned wide and hauled himself up. “You totally were! I caught you in the act!” He stroked his chin. “Don’t blame you though. He does have a fantastic ass.”
“N-no. Definitely not... that,” Daichi replied. He half-expected someone to jump out and give him a prize for the world’s least convincing denial. "Hey, you were checking him out?
“Couldn't help it! Those pants were so tight! Hey, maybe after Kageyama and I fall madly in love, we can go on a double date!”
Daichi groaned inwardly. It was true, Suga's pants were very, pleasingly, perfectly tight, and would probably keep him up at night. But, in the end, he walked away. “Sure Hinata. When Kageyama decides to date his stalker, we’ll all go out." A group of people made their way toward the table. At the head of it, a tall guy with a newly familiar scowl.
Hinata clutched his books close to his chest. “It’s happening!”