[A continuation of the wizard/herbalist au. Requested by Trinketesque]

"You're stirring counter-clockwise," the Wizard Ukai pointed out, glancing at his apprentice, Sugawara, who only hummed absentmindedly in response, not even looking at the bubbling cauldron that he was stirring in the wrong direction. "A bit distracted, are we?" Ukai laughed, and Suga blinked, and finally looked at his master. "What's on your mind?"

"Huh?" Suga looked down at his cauldron and realized he was stirring the wrong direction. "Shoot!" He frantically added cresses to stabilize the mixture, and began stirring clockwise. "Sorry Master Ukai," he chuckled nervously, scratching his cheek.

"What's going on?" Ukai tried again. "You're not usually so absent-minded."

"Sorry, I was just thinking of the herbalist's son," he admitted, his face pensive.

"I see..." Ukai smirked at his apprentice. "He is a handsome boy, isn't he?"

"W—what‽" Suga looked at his master with a start. Ukai continued to smirk knowingly. "Well, I suppose so. He's a—a bit awkward though."

"Well, I'm having Karasuno send another order," Ukai said offhandedly, "maybe he'll be back to deliver it." Suga smiled slightly, but didn't say anything for fear of sounding over eager.

A few days later, the request had been sent, and Suga was anxiously awaiting the delivery, and not just because he was almost out of cresses. He wanted to talk to Daichi again.

––• •–• ––– •– –•

"Visitor!" screeched Karasuno, the raven.

"Hello again," greeted Ukai as none other than Daichi walked through the passage with a package for the wizard. "Please take that to Suga, he's in the workshop." Daichi nodded and went to the workshop where he had first met the apprenticed wizard.

"Uh, hey..." he said nervously as he entered. "I brought your order. Fern, cresses, clove-oil, and cypress, right?"

"Yes! Thank the gods! Please hand me some of those cresses before this mess boils over!" Suga said as he looked to be having a small freak-out over an extremely bubbly cauldron. "Quickly!"

Daichi's eyes widened as he ripped off the brown paper and sifted through for cresses. "Here," he handed them to Suga who sprinkled some in deftly, and quickly stirred the liquid to mix the new addition in. "What happened?" Daichi couldn't help but ask.

"I lost count of the number of vanilla beans I was adding, and accidentally put in one too many," Suga explained with a sigh. "The magical property of cresses is stability; it keeps potions from being too disastrous, but sometimes it nullifies the effects. This anti-nerves potion is completely useless now, but at least it's not going to explode."

"Wow, I didn't know that," Daichi remarked, he knew all the medicinal properties of herbs, but had never learned the magical properties. "Why were you brewing and anti-nerves potion?"

"Well I..." Suga pressed his lips together for a moment before continuing. "Master Ukai wanted me to practice potions with abstract effects. Non-visible things. Things that give people bad-dreams, or add years to their life, or get rid of nerves." Nice cover Suga. He thought to himself. The true purpose of the potion was to help him talk to Daichi, so he supposed it had served its purpose, if not in the way he'd intended.

"That's amazing Suga!" Daichi grinned. "I bet you know what all this stuff is for, huh? I might know the non-magical uses for about half these things."

They continued to talk about herbs and flowers. What they meant, and what they were used for. The two boys didn't even notice how late it was getting until they looked out and realized the sun was almost set.

"It's getting late, care to stay the night?" Suga offered. "I'm sure Master Ukai wouldn't mind, and it's probably a bad idea to walk all the way back to the village once it's dark."

"Sure, but my dad thinks I'll be back soon," Daichi frowned, "he'll get worried."

"I'm sure Takeda will be more worried if you show up at three am covered in blood and bruises." Ukai was standing in the doorway. "I was just about to ask Suga to help me with dinner, I'll send Karasuno with a note if you'd like." Daichi nodded, and they went to the main house to make dinner.

That night sparked a long friendship between the two boys, and eventually it would become something more... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[740 words

This is the last part. Sorry it's a day late, I completely spaced. To make up for it (hopefully) here's this!

Bonus: The Note (UkaTake)

Dearest Takeda,
I hope you're doing well, and that your injured knee heals quickly as I'm rather eager to see you again. Your son got a bit carried away talking to my apprentice this afternoon, I believe they've taken a particular liking to each other, so he'll be staying the night, and returning in the morning. Please don't worry; we'll take good care of him.

Sincerely yours,
Love,
Ukai

Ik it's short, but Ukai doesn't seem the type to write a lot. Love y'all.

<3 Raaor!]