i know who my first call will be to — sae misses home more than he thought he would
Itoshi Sae’s heart stays behind in Spain whenever he leaves for overseas matches.
An absurd notion, most certainly. Ridiculous, in every sense that exists to the word. So unbelievable, in fact, that he still has a hard time believing it himself.
Nevertheless, it remains the only explanation behind the ache in his chest whenever he goes to sleep in an empty hotel bed. It’s why his meal times are dull and monotonous; why he finds himself pushing past his bedtime to remain glued to his phone, listening to you recounting your day.
Sae isn’t sure if you know it — how he desperately yearns to remain by your side. And if you do, you’re good at hiding it (he likes to think it’s for his sake).
His grip on his phone tightens just enough, a soft hum rumbling in his throat as he absentmindedly agrees with something you said.
When you lean closer to the screen, Sae nuzzles into his pillow, holding it tight as he pretends it’s you instead. You cup your chin with your hand, looking away as you trail off mid-sentence.
“I miss you,” he says, quiet and soft and so, so unlike himself, filling the faintest gap of silence.
Your eyes flit back, meeting his own through the screen. Sae has to strain to catch the soft exhale that leaves your lips. Then, you smile — gentle and (somehow) pitying at the same time.
“You’ll be home soon enough,” you say, your tone full of warmth.
“I want to be home now,” he replies, almost petulant as the pillowcase slightly muffles his words. His gaze softens when you do. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” you whisper, lightly poking the camera in a manner that has him instinctively scrunching up his nose. You tilt your head to the side, studying half of his face as best you can through a phone.
“My flight back is on Saturday,” Sae says, studying your face in return.
“I know. Want me to pick you up?”
“I land around midnight,” he mumbles. “I don’t want to keep you up—”
“Sae.”
The tips of his ears burn, embarrassment painting his cheeks red when your eyes meet. After a beat, he huffs in complaint, his brows furrowing. Still, your gaze softens; and he melts almost instantly.
He sniffles, lightly shifting onto his side. “I want you to pick me up from the airport,” he clarifies, trying to will a little firmness into his voice.
“Hm,” there’s a fuzzy feeling in his chest, fluttering and clinging to every corner at your soft hum. It further roots itself into him when you grin. “I’ll think about it.”
“What’ll it take for you to say yes?” he asks, trying to bite back a smile. He nuzzles into his pillow when you lean back, pretending to be deep in thought.
God, he misses you so bad. He misses being near you with every bone in his body.
“A kiss, maybe. If you want.”
Sae rolls his eyes, fondness buzzing in his chest. “I thought you were going to be more ambitious than that.”
You shrug, nonchalant, “I’ll max out your card when you get home.”
“Mm.” Sae rolls onto his other side, switching his phone to his free hand. “That sounds more like you,” he mumbles, soft.
The corners of his eyes crinkle when you guffaw, quickly defending yourself against his claim. His expression softens impossibly so — he’s sure the press would have a field day if they saw him like this. (Part of him thinks he wouldn’t care if they did; you’re the reason behind it, anyway).
“I wanna go home.”
“You’re staying in France for, like, two more days. You’ll be fine, Sae.”
He rolls his eyes, picking at the edges of his phone case. “Have you washed the bedsheets yet?”
“Yesterday,” you reply, absentminded. “Why?”
“Just wondering,” Sae murmurs, hushed. “Did you use the detergent I like?”
“Yeah?”
He makes a soft noise, “I hope you know I’m collapsing on our bed when I get home.”
“I don’t—”
“And I’m bringing you down with me.”
A soft, amused huff leaves his lips at your expression. His eyes narrow just a little, the action fond and affectionate in nature. When you sputter, Sae scrunches up his nose. He wishes he could kiss the frown off your lips.
“Whatever,” you grumble, softly clicking your tongue. “You’re lucky I miss you.”
“I miss you more,” Sae whispers, soft and gentle and so, so unlike himself. He supposes his demeanor is your fault — his heart turned to mush the moment he gave it to you. The thought is stupid and utterly asinine, truly.
Still, Sae doesn’t mind. He believes it more and more, letting it take root in his soul every time you brighten up at his tender, ‘I love you’s.
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SVSSS AU where Original Shen Qingqiu | Shen Jiu, from around the time of his death, replaces Shen Yuan in the Water Prison. Luo Binghe is fanatically in love and rather deranged, and he looked away from SQQ for two minutes and comes back to SQQ who is traumatized and missing his limbs, tongue, eye and WHAT THE FUCK DID HUAN HUA DO TO MY SHIZUN??? Luo Binghe, Liu Qingge, and Yue Qingyuan are united, both in the absolutely awful time they’re having and their desires to RAZE HUAN HUA TO THE FUCKING GROUND. They’ve got all the demon realms and all the goddamn cultivation sects on their side.
Old Palace Master: *chuckles* I’m in danger!
SJ is has never been this confused in his life, and completely lacks the means to communicate this. LBH and Meng Mo try to search SJ’s dreams to figure out what happened but only find dreams about Luo Bingge. LBH absolutely will not let anybody know this until he’s found whichever monster stole his face.
And then Shang Qinghua gets in on the action. He sees SJ and frankly this is very traumatic for him, like how did things get worse than PIDW?! He promises “Cucumber-bro” that he’ll make sure he ends up in the plant body and now SJ is assumed dead! And Cang Qiong is trying to figure out who is the traitor who killed SQQ, and SQH is sweating buckets trying to pretend it wasn’t him.
___
Meanwhile, where’s Shen Yuan in this? Probably in SJ’s original place. System gives him an error message and then a mission to survive until he can be restored to the SVSSS timeline. He fucking books it and does everything in his power to keep away from LBG. With System being so cooperative, he manages with a lot of near misses.
Where does his side of the plot go from there? The obvious answer is that he manages to thoroughly wife beam LBG between all the near death experiences. The less obvious answer is that SY really gets along with all the many wives, and eventually to protect him they manage to assassinate LBG, Ides of March style. “Et tu, Ning Yingying?”
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