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Okay, sakuatsu bodyguard au: Atsumu is the spoiled son of the CEO of a big company. He's semi-involved, but as he doesn't really have to take on too much responsibility yet, he spends his life partying.
Since Atsumu enjoys picking fights for sports, his father decides to hire him a bodyguard: someone a little more subtle, trained in martial arts. Enter Sakusa.
Naturally, Sakusa has a lot of prejudice, he thinks Atsumu is spoiled rotten and rude, but a job is a job, so he accepts. As long as he gets paid at the end of the day, he can endure it.
Atsumu's twin brother pursued other dreams, so Atsumu doesn't really have a choice. One of them will have to inherit the company at some point, and truthfully, he feels pretty lonely and under pressure without Osamu. They've always been a team.
Sakusa hasn't been by his side for long, but he can tell Atsumu drinks without control. He stays up late, gets out late, takes all the validation he can. It's not really Sakusa's business. But one day, after getting rejected by someone at the club, Atsumu comes on to Sakusa hard.
Sakusa handles it professionally, but he feels resentful. This job is crossing some of his boundaries already. But what he doesn't expect is Atsumu apologising profusely the next day. He waves it off with a quick "Well, I'm glad your father talked some sense into you."
Atsumu is like "...actually, I came to you all on my own." and Sakusa just raises an eyebrow at him. Atsumu laughs one of his fake laughs, and adds "Look, I know you think I'm a shitty person, but I'm not THAT bad, okay. It won't happen again."
And true to his word, he doesn't hit on Sakusa again. But he starts countless drunk philosophical talks at 3 am, about love, about freedom, about duty. Sakusa is not sure why he's at the receiving end, he doubts he gives sufficient answers.
It takes a while, until he actually sees Atsumu in a business setting. This Atsumu is bright and confident, charismatic and surprisingly well prepared. He's nothing like the petulant child he's come to know, and against his own will, he comes to respect that side of Atsumu.
In contrast, Atsumu alone with him is at his most terrible and honest. He knows Sakusa will stick around, because that's his job, so in a very strange way it's freeing to be his worst around Sakusa, who barely comments on it.
One night, when Atsumu spirals, worse than before after seeing Osamu doing really well, and the only person who willingly sticks around Atsumu is someone who gets paid for it, Sakusa lets a small admission slip: "if i really hated this job, i'd have quit long ago"
And it's a strange thing for Sakusa, too, someone trusting him with their worst sides, a lot more intimate than he could have imagined. Being so vulnerable in front of him, expecting him to guard this knowledge.
That night, Atsumu asks him to stay so he won't be alone with his thoughts. And Sakusa isn't quite sure why, but he reluctantly agrees. They stay up late and talk, and Sakusa finds himself giving up more information than he thought he ever would. It feels strangely fair.
Atsumu talks about love, about his hookups, about how he actually doesn't think that is what he really wants, about his anxiety of messing up the company because he knows he has a temper, people only liking him for his status, expecting him to be someone else.
He asks Sakusa if he's ever been in love, and Sakusa finds himself looking at the ceiling, consideringly, before replying: "I'm not answering that." Atsumu looks tired, he is not about to try and pry the secrets from Sakusa's tongue. He mumbles "suit yourself"
before finally dozing off. And he looks younger, softer, hair unruly, looking a little lost in a king size bed too big for him, or anyone really.
Strangely, ironically, a tiny traitorous voice inside of Sakusa tells him it's his duty to protect this man, and he almost quits on the spot right then, because gently something has taken root inside of him and is threatening to spill out and get out of control.
ok this is all i've got so far, with some lovely input from Kate and bree, idk, i might draw or expand this or i really don't know, but i had to get it out of my system.
Adding here too, so i can find it: Whoops, ok, one more thought for the bodyguard au: Sakusa insisting Atsumu need some self defense training and phew, the unresolved sexual tension in ground fights and headlocks and straddling, thank you
He really didn't mean for it to escalate, but something about how Atsumu submits to him sometimes, seems to enjoy someone making decisions for him, just giving in and following his lead, submissive in a way he won't let many people see, trips Sakusa up.
Sakusa has always thought the hookups were trouble: inconvenient, unnecessarily high-risk; but he didn't think to do anything about them. It's still not his place to have a personal opinion on them, and also doesn't concern him outside of his profession at all.. he tells himself.
In hindsight, he doesn't know what possessed him, but he finds himself offering to take off the edge one night before Atsumu can get blackout drunk again, stunning him into silence.
And he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a bit of a power trip, having Atsumu so malleable in his hands, doing things exactly Sakusa's way, being so damn trusting that Sakusa finds himself breathless sometimes.
He tries to tell himself sleeping with Atsumu is really just an extension of his job, makes it easier because he doesn't have to deal with him inviting strangers into his bedroom on an almost nightly basis and maybe, if he was more lucky, that would have been the end of that.
Naturally, as things involving Atsumu usually do, things get more complicated. And Sakusa curses himself for it, because he should have seen the shift in Atsumu's behaviour, bleeding out from the bedroom into their everyday dynamic.
The confession scene is almost an out of body-experience, he sees Atsumu, he hears Atsumu, but it doesn't really register. He only feels the panic rising, the rushing of blood in his ears, his pulse quickening. What /WAS/ he thinking?
He keeps his tone professional, his voice clear, gives out excuses and "we can't"s, but when he sees Atsumu slumped over, like a caricature of a person with a broken heart, he barely manages to get the want, the /need/, to reach out under control.
And things somehow go back to normal, to before, except Sakusa knows the way Atsumu tastes now, and that somehow, out of all the people in the world, Atsumu developed tender sick feelings for him, his curt replies and perpetual scowling.
And he can clearly see Atsumu is not the same. He still trusts Sakusa with his life, but ...no more with his feelings. Does he imagine the challenge, the defiance in Atsumu's eyes when he leads his partner for the night past Sakusa?
