જ⁀➴ The King cries for the first time as you walk toward him at the altar ♡
˚₊‧꒰ა "You nervous?" BAROU SHOEI didn't even spare Isagi a glance. He stood before the mirror, fingers smoothing the front of his tie for what had to be the sixth time.
"I'm deciding whether I should throw you out before the ceremony."
"That's a yes."
"You've been saying that to everyone who's walked in here. Just admit it."
Barou finally looked over.
"The only thing I'm admitting is that you're getting on my nerves."
Someone let out an amused laugh. Bachira appeared in the doorway, resting his shoulder against the frame with a grin that looked impossible to wipe off.
"I've never seen Barou check a mirror this much."
"I've never seen him blink this much," Chigiri chimed in.
Aiku folded his arms, watching the scene with obvious amusement.
"I've never seen him willingly let someone else be the center of attention. Historic day."
"Tch."
Barou ignored them all and adjusted the cuff of his sleeve with practiced precision.
"My suit has to be perfect."
"Your suit already is perfect," Isagi said.
"And my shoes."
"They're polished enough that I can see myself in them. Trust me, you're not finding anything else to fix."
Barou shot him Aiku a flat look.
"Then stop looking at them."
A lazy yawn echoed from the couch. Nagi hadn't moved since he'd sat down twenty minutes ago.
"He's been cleaning imaginary dust off himself for ten minutes."
"I'm making sure everything is in order."
"Uh-huh." Nagi stretched his arms over his head. "You keep saying that, but you've been fixing things that aren't even messed up."
For a moment, no one said a word. Bachira was the first to crack, doubling over with laughter. The rest quickly followed, and soon the room was filled with voices and snorts. Even Isagi had to rub at his eyes.
"You know," Chigiri said, "this is weirdly reassuring."
"What does that supposed to mean?"
"You've always acted like you're untouchable," Chigiri said. "It's nice knowing there's at least one thing that can shake you."
"It isn't shaking me."
"Of course it isn't," Isagi replied, trying not to laugh.
Aiku chuckled.
"That's the Barou we know."
Before another joke could make its way around the room, the wedding coordinator stepped inside.
"It's time."
The laughter faded into a comfortable silence. Barou straightened his jacket one last time. As the others walked past, they each gave him a pat on the shoulder, their grins softer than before. The teasing had run its course. This was the moment they'd all been waiting for.
Isagi lingered by the doorway a second longer than everyone else. He flashed Barou a familiar grin.
"Don't cry."
Barou gave him an unimpressed look.
"As if."
The music faded into the background as Barou took his place at the altar. He barely noticed the guests rising from their seats or the sea of white flowers decorating the aisle. His attention stayed fixed on the doors until they slowly opened.
Then he saw you.
For the first time that day, his mind went completely blank.
You looked at him with a smile he'd seen countless times before, yet somehow it felt entirely new. It wasn't the polite smile you'd worn while greeting guests or posing for photographs. It was the quiet one reserved for him alone, the one that had always managed to disarm him no matter how much he'd deny it.
As you began walking toward him, memories came flooding back without warning. Late nights when he returned from training to find you still waiting for him. Mornings spent sharing breakfast before he left the house. The familiar feeling of your hands fixing his collar whenever he forgot, followed by that tiny smile that always said, What would you do without me?
You had seen every side of him. His pride, his stubbornness, his impossible standards, the parts of himself that pushed everyone else away.
You had never once asked him to change. Instead, you stayed beside him through every victory, every setback, and every version of the man he was still becoming.
Barou had spent most of his life believing that a king stood alone. Yet as you walked toward him with that same unwavering smile, all he could think was that, somehow, you had chosen him. And you kept choosing him, every single day.
His vision slowly blurred. And the tightness in his chest only grew stronger as you drew closer, and before he even realized what was happening, a tear rolled down his cheek.
"...No way," Bachira whispered from the front row.
Chigiri stared, his hand instinctively covering his mouth.
"Is he actually..."
"No," Isagi answered without looking away. "There's no chance he'd cry before the ceremony even starts."
By the time you reached him, his eyes were already red, the tears refusing to stop no matter how many times he blinked them away. You looked up at him with a gentle smile, completely unbothered by the tears staining his cheeks.
"They're all staring at you," you whispered, your voice soft enough that only he could hear. "You're giving them exactly what they wanted."
Barou let out a quiet, uneven breath.
"I know."
"They're going to tease you about this for the rest of your life."
"I know."
"And I guarantee Isagi is already thinking about how he's going to bring this up tomorrow."
"I know."
You couldn't help but laugh. Even now, with tears in his eyes, Barou still looked at you with that same unwavering devotion.
"You can cry all you want," you whispered. "You're still the coolest man I've ever known."
That was all it took.
Barou let out a quiet, breathless laugh, shaking his head as fresh tears slipped down his cheeks. He had no idea he was even capable of crying like this, let alone in front of half the people he'd spent years trying to intimidate.
From the front row, Isagi pressed a hand over his mouth, doing a terrible job of hiding his grin.
"I can't believe this," he whispered. "Barou actually cried."
Bachira was already fumbling for his phone.
"Oh, I'm never letting him forget this."
"You'd better not," Chigiri muttered, though he was smiling just as much.
Aiku watched the two of you at the altar before letting out a quiet laugh of his own.
"I honestly thought I'd see pigs fly before I saw Barou cry."
"Yeah! Our king finally lost."
Aiku shook his head.
"No." His smile softened as he watched Barou look at you with an expression none of them had ever seen before. "I don't think he lost anything."
He looked back at the altar.
"I think he finally found someone he was willing to put before himself."
Barou had never cared what anyone thought of him, whether it was on the field or off it. If his teammates wanted to laugh at him for crying on his wedding day, they were free to do it. He knew they would never let him forget it.
For years, he'd chased the title of king, convinced that standing above everyone else was the only way to live. Now, standing at the end of that aisle, he finally understood.
There was no throne in the world that could compare to coming home to you.
a/n: let’s go to the beach, put it out in the open. if you’re in the sea, i’ll go to the ocean.
ocean metaphors because he grew up near the sea in kanagawa and his favorite animal is the seagull.
ac goes to Halihlalco
everyone thinks kissing sae itoshi would feel like winter. they're only half right.
the first kiss steals the warmth from your lungs. his lips are cool against yours, careful and inexplicably still, like the tide touching your ankles for the very first time. every instinct tells you to flinch, to retreat from the shock of it, because he has always loved from a distance, in quiet glances and hands that hover just long enough to ask permission. even now, he kisses as though he's afraid of asking for too much.
but oceans were never meant to be understood from the shore. so you stay.
and little by little, the cold disappears as you learn him. you learn that his thumb always brushes your cheek without him noticing. that he exhales softly through his nose whenever you smile into the kiss. that beneath the still surface is water warmed by sunlight you've never seen, currents that have traveled thousands of miles just to find somewhere safe enough to rest.
kissing sae is realizing the sea was never cold. you were simply standing outside of it.
once you're surrounded by him, there's nothing unforgiving about the water at all. it carries you effortlessly, lets you float without asking you to earn the privilege first. the silence between your mouths isn't empty – it's vast, stretching endlessly like the horizon, where words become unnecessary because he's already saying everything with the way he lingers for one heartbeat longer before pulling away.
when he finally does, your nose stays against his, and the world feels strangely smaller than it did before. you understand then why people spend their whole lives chasing the ocean.
because once you've let it hold you, every patch of dry land feels like something you've settled for. and sae kisses exactly like the sea. the first touch takes your breath away. every kiss after makes you wonder how you ever lived without drowning.
Synopsis: Reader is really sensitive and emotional when it's that time of the month and Rin is there to comfort you.
wc: none, just fluff.
A/N: Thanks to @nyoceanna for asking me to write this, I enjoyed writing this and I sure hope you like it ♡.
Here more of the same but with Isagi, Bachira and Sae -> Here :D
‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵
♡ For many people, Rin seems cold and probably uninterested. If you ask anyone, they wouldn't say he is the right person to comfort a rather vulnerable and sensitive person. Although... What if he is?
♡ He may not show it to everyone, but he cares—a lot. Especially about those who are close to him.
♡ Though he was still a little awkward when it came to comforting someone so obviously emotional. That's why he chose to stay in safe territory– which somehow still blew up in his face.
♡ The moment he received your text about not feeling well, he showed up a few minutes later at your place with a single bag in his hand. It had some things he thought you might need, along with your favorite treats.
♡ You didn't even need to ask. He was there like it was the natural and only right thing to do.
♡ Wasn't he so considerate? Wasn't it so damn sweet? It made your heart squeeze in a way you had started getting used to ever since you started dating him.
♡ When he saw your face, he immediately took it as a warning and shoved the bag he was holding into your hands, clicking his tongue.
♡ "Why are you making that face? This is supposed to make you feel better, not make you cry." He said as he took off his shoes at the entrance of your house after closing the door behind him. He looked down, suddenly very focused on his task. If you looked really closely, you would be able to see a very faint tint of pink spreading across his cheeks.
♡ "I feel better! It's just, you didn't have to, it's so sweet—"
♡ When he heard the slight tremor in your voice, he interrupted you again.
♡ "Of course I had to. I'm your boyfriend, not some lukewarm whatever, this is the minimum. Now go back to bed, I'll make some tea."
♡ He said it in a decisive voice, but not an unkind one, as he headed toward the kitchen, already familiar with your home.
♡ After a few minutes, he appeared at the doorway of your bedroom with two cups of tea. You were already sitting with your back against the headboard under the blankets, your laptop resting on your lap as you were already digging into some of the snacks Rin had brought you.
♡ You couldn't help but beam at the sight of Rin standing in your doorway and quickly made space for him beside you on the bed.
♡ Rin walked over to your side, carefully handing you a cup of tea before placing his on the bedside table and settling down beside you. The two of you quickly came to an agreement to watch a comedy movie. He would've much rather watched a horror movie, but he could make a sacrifice for you this time.
♡ And all the time, actually, but he would never admit that out loud.
♡ The movie was supposed to make you laugh as you snuggled against his side, just a sweet moment overall. A silly movie with some meaningful moments here and there. What could go wrong?
♡ Apparently, quite a lot.
♡ As soon as the credits started rolling, he sighed, ready to make some observation or criticism about how predictable the movie had been. However, all thoughts about it disappeared when he felt a small shake from you.
♡ The moment he turned to look at you, there you were—your lips quivering into almost a pout, your eyes glassy as you tried to take deep breaths to hide the fact that you were about to cry.
♡ It made him freeze for a moment. His usually sharp eyes looked soft and round as he stared at you. He had really thought watching this movie was a guaranteed way of avoiding exactly this. Don't misunderstand him– he wasn't annoyed by you crying, not at all. He just hated seeing you cry. Especially when he was supposed to make you smile and feel better.
♡ He sighed and draped an arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer and letting you hide your face in his chest and sob as much as you needed. He could handle a lot of things; seeing you cry wasn't one of them.
♡ "...That was a happy ending," he murmured, his fingertips gently rubbing your shoulder.
♡ "I know."
♡ "But you're sad."
♡ You just nodded, feeling a lump in your throat that almost hurt.
♡ "Did I... was it something I did?"
♡ "No– you didn't do anything."
♡ "Then what's the matter?"
♡ "I guess the movie was touching...? I don't know. I don't even know why I'm—"
♡ A sob interrupted your sentence. It was confusing. Just as always, everything felt unnecessarily intense, and your chest ached.
♡ "I just... I'm sorry. It's so dumb."
♡ Rin took a soft breath and gently took the now-empty cup from your hands to place it on the bedside table beside his. Then he proceeded to wrap both his arms around you.
♡ "Nothing about you is dumb. Cry all you need, I'm not going anywhere."
♡ And he stayed.
♡ Even after you felt better, he kept holding you close. Even when his heart ached at seeing you like that, he couldn't stand the thought of leaving you alone either.
♡ If by any chance you happened to mention it, he would just look away, flustered, pretending to be annoyed and ask if you were complaining, already knowing the answer would be no.
♡ It didn't matter how annoyed he tried to act, though. His words would always be proven false by the way he refused to let go of you.
♡ This would eventually become a routine. It didn't matter if he sometimes acted as if it were inconvenient for him. Still, you never really had to ask anything of him, it was always of his own accord.
A/N: I gotta say I was thinking of including him on the original post, but I just wasn't sure how, the request actually gave the motivation to finish what I started. I was also thinking of posting him along with other characters, but I'm not feeling really creative for this one specific topic. I really need to fix my sleep schedule, go to sleep at a proper hour or you'll have dark circles under your eyes like me ;;
Sae's daughter has a new toy that he's less than happy about
When Sae was out of the country and couldn't take you and Kimiyo with him, he never missed your nightly FaceTime call. Every evening at exactly 7:30, no matter what time it was on his end, his phone would ring.
The calls were usually more for the two of you than for Kimiyo. She adored her dad, but she was only two. After a minute or two of excited babbling, something shiny or colorful would steal her attention, leaving you and Sae to actually catch up.
Tonight, though, she was determined to stay.
Earlier that afternoon you'd bought her a little Jellycat bunny, and she'd been talking about showing him ever since.
"Daddy!" she squealed the second his face appeared on the screen. "Look! Mommy got me a bunny!"
She bounced in front of the camera, squeezing the plush against her chest.
Sae blinked.
"...What?"
He was sitting against a locker in the team's changing room, one AirPod in, towel draped over his shoulders. He adjusted the earbud like maybe he'd heard her wrong.
"A bunny!" Kimiyo held it closer to the camera. "Isn't she cute?"
He stared at the stuffed rabbit.
You frowned for a second, confused by his unusually blank expression.
Then it clicked.
You slapped a hand over your mouth.
"...Seriously, Sae?" you laughed. "She's two. She doesn't know the lore."
The muscle in his jaw twitched and a faint vein appeared on his forehead.
"Kimiyo," he began, taking a very measured breath, "Daddy will buy you any toy you want,” His voice stayed perfectly calm. "if you take the bunny back."
You had to bite the inside of your cheek to keep from laughing.
Kimiyo gasped dramatically, clutching the plush tighter.
"No!" she whined. "I love Bunny!"
"I'll buy you two toys."
"No!"
"Three."
She shook her head so hard her pigtails bounced.
"Bunny stays."
Somewhere behind Sae, one of his teammates poked his head into frame.
"Everything good?"
Sae didn't even look away from the screen.
"No."
The teammate quietly disappeared.
Kimiyo, blissfully unaware of the silent war she'd started, kissed the bunny on its little head.
"See? She loves me."
Sae looked offended, but his heart softened at the sight of his baby girl so happy.
After another failed attempt to negotiate with a toddler, he finally sighed.
"...Okay, love. Daddy has to go."
"Bye, Daddy!" Kimiyo waved enthusiastically before running off to her room, bunny tucked under one arm.
The second she disappeared, Sae's eyes shifted to you.
"Y/N."
"I know, I know," you laughed. "She saw it in the store and refused to let go. What was I supposed to do?"
"You were supposed to buy literally anything else."
You smiled, then instinctively glanced down the hallway to make sure Kimiyo was out of earshot.
"Besides," you said quietly, resting a hand over your stomach, "I figured we should let her have this one. We still don't know how she's going to handle becoming a big sister."
His expression softened instantly.
The irritation melted away like it had never existed.
"I know."
A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"I can't wait to come home and hold all three of you."
You smiled back, warmth settling in your chest.
From somewhere off-screen, someone called his name, followed by what sounded like the coach telling everyone to hurry up.
Sae sighed.
"I have to go."
"I figured."
"Don't stay up too late."
"You'll be calling when I wake up anyway."
"It'll be late for you."
"I don't care."
His voice was quiet, but certain.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"And when I get home," he added with one last glance at the phone, "that bunny is disappearing."
You laughed.
"No, it's not."
"We'll see."
The call ended before you could argue, leaving you staring at your own reflection on the dark screen.
A few seconds later, Kimiyo came running back into the living room.
"Mommy!"
"Yeah?"
She hugged the bunny with all the strength her tiny arms could manage.
I'm sick = I must draw hugo (?) HELLOOOO IM BACK WITH MORE HUGO ART AND THIS ONE IS FOR MY FELLOW HUGO YUMES 😝😝😝😝 I experimented with my artstyle mwehehehehe...
