Sugawara shifted nervously, glancing around the room at the other dog owners gathered nearby. This was his first time at puppy training with his new Akita puppy, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it yet.
A small noise from beneath him caught his attention to his feet, where his tiny puppy was staring up at him, panting with his mouth open in a little puppy grin. Nishinoya wagged his fluffy, curled tail when he got his master's attention and Suga couldn't help but to lean down and scratch behind the fawn-colored puppy's ear affectionately. Even though he'd only had the puppy for about a week, Sugawara was absolutely enamored with his boisterous, overly friendly new puppy. So, naturally, he was very nervous about how this puppy class was going to go.
He knew that, as an Akita, Nishinoya would need all the contact he could get with other dogs while a puppy so he didn't react fearfully or aggressively towards other dogs later in life. This puppy class was designed exactly for that: to provide socialization opportunities with other kinds of dogs and their owners for puppies that were too young for real training but still needed the contact with new experiences in their critical puppy learning period.
Nishinoya was doing a lot better than Sugawara had thought he would, based on what he'd heard from other Akita owners. Sure, he was repeatedly pulling on his leash to go greet the other puppies, but that was normal puppy behavior as far as he was concerned. He was doing much better than the puppy to his left: a bullmastiff puppy with huge paws who was cowering behind his owner, his tail tucked fearfully between his legs.
The instructor gathered them all in a wide circle, telling them to let the puppies off their leashes and let them play in the center of the circle. Nishinoya shot off immediately after being unleashed to go tussle with a larger, equally enthusiastic chocolate labrador from across the circle.
The neighboring bullmastiff was much less enthusiastic, cowering further behind his owner's leg as he was unhooked. "Oh, come on, Asahi." The bullmastiff's owner laughed, scratching behind his neck with a tanned, muscled arm. "You're bigger than everyone else in the room yet still the most scared, you silly thing."
"He's a shy one, isn't he?" Sugawara asked, chuckling as he leaned down towards the frightened puppy. He stretched out a hand for the bullmastiff to sniff cautiously, settling down on the floor on the balls of his feet to seem less huge and scary. Soon, Asahi was licking his palm affectionately, calmed down by Sugawara's serene and soothing attitude. "Though, he's definitely a sweetheart." He complimented, lifting his head to grin up at the puppy's owner.
The black-haired man's eyes widened slightly, nodding his head in agreement and breaking eye contact sharply, almost like he was embarrassed. Was that a tiny blush settling on his cheeks?
Something thumped into his back abruptly. Sugawara looked back to see Nishinoya crawling under his legs towards Asahi, his excited panting stretching a grin across his black-masked face. The larger puppy whimpered pathetically as the Akita approached, backing up until his butt bumped against his owner's boot-covered foot. Nishinoya padded closer, sniffing the entire way. Sugawara was about to intervene for the scared Asahi's sake, but Nishinoya slowly bent down into a play bow, stretching his tiny white paws forward with an impatient yawn. Sugawara recognized both the bow and the yawn as friendly signals from all his dog behavior books, meant to appease the other dog and show that he wasn't there to harm the other dog.
Asahi inched forward and sniffed under the other dog's belly, cautiously allowing the other dog to do the same as well. Soon, his tail was wagging and he nudged playfully at the smaller dog, initiating the start of some very lively play that sent the two puppies tumbling around the room.
"Well, I'm glad someone could pull him out of his shell." Sugawara laughed in relief, straightening from his crouch to stand next to the other man.
"I'm Sugawara Koushi." He greeted with a smile, extending his hand out towards his neighbor.
The black-haired man took it and firmly shook it with a smile in return. "Sawamura Daichi. It's nice to meet you, Sugawara-san." Sawamura's voice was pleasant but deep, Suga noted, releasing the other man's warm hand. His hands were much larger than his own, leading up to toned, muscular arms revealed by the rolled up sleeves of his button down shirt. Now that he had a closer look at the man, there definitely was a blush staining the tops of his cheekbones, something that Sugawara found thoroughly attractive. Actually, just about everything was attractive about Sawamura; from his large arms to the way his broad shoulders filled out his shirt. Sugawara could only imagine how fit his body must be underneath all that business casual attire.
Sugawara mentally shook himself out of that train of thought, fervently hoping that Sawamura didn't notice him checking him out. "So, how long have you had your puppy for? What was his name again? Asahi?" He asked politely, determined to keep this conversation from turning awkward.
Sawamura nodded in response. "Yeah, his name is Asahi. I picked him up from his breeder about a month ago, so he should be around 3 months old now."
"Ah, that's about my Nishinoya's age. It's been a pretty nerve-racking few weeks for me, since he's my first dog." He admitted nervously, scratching the back of his neck as he watched the boisterous chocolate lab from earlier join in on Nishinoya and Asahi's playtime. "I don't want to mess anything up!"
"Oh, is he? Asahi is my first puppy as well, though I did grow up with dogs in the family as a kid. Puppies are a lot harder to deal with than I remembered them being from my childhood, though."
"Mmhmm, they really are a handful. The other day, Nishinoya ate half of a sock while I wasn't looking and I was panicking, thinking he'd have to have surgery to get it out!" Sugawara explained exasperatedly. "He pooped it out the next day, though, so it turned out fine."
Sawamura chuckled at that, and Suga's heart nearly skipped a beat in his chest at making the taller man laugh.
The two chatted the entire training session and it seemed like only a few minutes had passed before the two-hour training session was over and he was hooking his exhausted Akita back onto his leash. He ended up having to pick Nishinoya up and carry him back to his car, watching as Sawamura loaded Asahi into the front seat of his black Jeep before driving off.
He really should have gotten Sawamura's number, he sighed deeply in regret. Hopefully he was there for the next training session, and then Suga would get his number.
—
It turned out that he didn't even need to wait until the next training session to bump into Sawamura again. He saw him only a few days after the puppy training in the local dog park near his house. At first, Sugawara was firmly against the idea of dog parks for Nishinoya. Puppy training was one thing, but letting his tiny rambunctious baby around other unknown, potentially aggressive dogs did not sit well with him. He'd seen many a dog that had been poorly socialized and trained as a puppy being toted around by their irresponsible and oblivious owner as a friendly dog when they really weren't. Sugawara knew that these dogs could absolutely be around in any dog park unsupervised and he was not about to put the tiny Nishinoya in that situation.
However, the nearby park had a special section just for puppies under a certain age, so Sugawara was much more comfortable bringing Nishinoya to the park. Sometimes, he was just too much for Suga and he needed to play off his energy so he could sleep through the night.
He'd only been there for about fifteen minutes before he noticed a familiar fawn-colored bullmastiff slink scaredly into the park. His hyperactive Akita noticed his friend at about the same time as Sugawara and barreled excitdly towards Asahi, immediately snapping playfully at the other dog.
Sugawara craned his head around, looking for Sawamura's broad frame. The man was nearby, noticing Suga when he waved at him, walking briskly towards him.
"Good evening, Sawamura-san. It's good to see you again so soon." Suga greeted happily, excited to see the other man.
"Ah, it's nice to see you again too, Sugawara-san!" Sawamura grinned back at him, that same adorable blush growing on his cheeks again.
"I see our dogs haven't forgotten each other either." Sugawara noted as he watched Asahi chase Nishinoya around, tail wagging excitedly. "They get along very well, despite being from such different breeds."
Sawamura nodded his head in agreement. "They really do. Asahi even acts like a normal puppy around your Akita, not the painfully shy teddy bear he usually is around other dogs."
Sugawara giggled softly at the image, Sawamura's description of his puppy fit Asahi perfectly. "Do you come to this dog park often this time of day, Sawamura-san?" Sugawara asked, trying his hardest not to blush. Sawamura was just as tall and handsome as Suga thought he was the other day during puppy training. "Our dogs seem to be fast friends. We should definitely meet up here more often so we don't deprive them of their friendship." He suggested, half because he wanted Nishinoya to be around his new doggy friend, but half because he wanted to spend more time with Sawamura.
The light was getting dimmer as the sun began to set, but Sugawara swore he saw the black-haired man's blush darken. "Ah, yes, I am! Usually only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though." Sawamura answered. "It'd be good for Asahi to be around another dog he likes more often."
A voice on the loudspeakers announcing that the park was closing soon interrupted their conversation before Sugawara could respond, and he left with an apology to go wrangle up his puppy. "I'll see you on Thursday then, ok Sawamura-san?" He called over to the black-haired man and his bullmastiff, who was cowering under a bench from the scary loudspeaker. Sawamura nodded, waving at him as he attempted to coax the scared Asahi from his hiding place.
Sugawara was just locking the protesting Nishinoya into his kennel in the back of his car when he heard someone calling his name from behind him. He turned around to see Sawamura trotting up to him from the other side of the parking lot.
"Oh, hello Sawamura-san!' He greeted as Sawamura caught up to him. "Was there something you needed?" He asked as the man panted for a moment from the run.
This huge, adorable man was actually fidgeting, Suga noticed with a fond feeling flooding through his chest. The blush was definitely back, too.
"Actually Sugawara-san, I was wondering if I could possibly get your number?" The larger man shifted on his feet after the question, reminding Suga so much of his bullmastiff in that moment. "You know, to go out for coffee or something like that sometime."
Sugawara beamed brightly up at Sawamura, happy beyond belief that the man sounded just as interested in him as he was to Sawamura. "Of course! I'd love to go out for coffee with you!"
Sawamura visibly perked up at his answer. "Um, I don't have my phone with me, could you-?"
Sugawara laughed, cutting the stuttering Sawamura off as he fished a pen out of his pocket. He lightly grabbed the other man's wrist, scrawling his number on his palm, hesitating before adding a heart at the end. "Call me, Daichi-san." He murmured, winking up at the taller man.
He couldn't help the amused fondness that crept through his body as the much taller man stuttered an affirmative, visibly flustered as he said goodbye and made his way back to the Jeep at the other side of the parking lot.
Oh, he was definitely going to keep this one.