[^^Daichi is the son of an apothecary/herbalist, and he is sent to bring herbs to a Wizard and his apprentice, Suga. (I found the pic you were talking about on Pinterest!!)
Requested by Trinketesque
(Also, this wasn't part of the request, but I've decided to make Daichi's Dad Takeda-sensei, and the wizard Coach Ukai just for the hell of it.)]

Daichi was in the herb garden, that morning, picking sage and rosemary for a woman who had run out, while his father, Takeda, the owner of the shop, was inside mixing armour for a man who's daughter had a bad cold. Once he had found the proper herbs, he hung clumps of them in the sun to dry with a bit of string.

"I've put out Ms. Fuyōna's cooking herbs to dry," he told his father. "What should I do next?"

"Oh, I need you to make a delivery," said the Apothecary, not taking his eyes off what he was doing. He had fallen from a ladder while retrieving an order several days ago and injured his knee, rendering him unable to make deliveries himself. In truth, the only deliveries he had been doing were the ones that required long journeys, but Daichi was plenty old enough to handle them now, so he'd been considering letting his son do the deliveries even after his knee had healed. "The batch of herbs I had you dry last week, remember."

"Vervane, yarrow, dogsbane, yew..." there were a few more, but that was sufficient to clarify what he was talking about.

"That's the one," his father confirmed. "It's for a wizard in the woods. I've packaged everything, and I put a map on the shelf, so all you have to do is put them in your satchel, and follow the map there and back, it's almost a day's journey, so you'd better get going if you don't want to be in the woods too long after dark."

"Alright." Daichi grabbed his satchel, and grabbed the herbs and the map off the shelf before stuffing a candle, a matchbook, a canteen of water, and a roll of bread in as well for the journey. "I'll be back by tomorrow! Bye Dad!" he called behind him as he exited the herb shop and headed down the dirt path out of the village and into the woods.

There was only one path in the village that led to the woods, but once it was taken, it was long and winding and had many forks and branches, so Daichi was glad for the map, though he hoped it wouldn't get too windy. He only had so many matches to read the map by when it got dark.

As soon as he entered the woods, the neat dirt path became overgrown, and covered in trampled plants and leaves. The only people that really used the paths in the woods were woodcutters with their carts, and of course the wizards and such who lived in the woods for privacy. He had heard that there was more magical energy in the woods as well, but he didn't know how much truth there was to those rumors.

Daichi followed the map. Left at the fork, straight at the crossroads, take a detour around the fallen tree, then over the river. Twist, and turn, and climb over, and double back, a bite of the roll, a glance at the map, a short sprint from a growling sound. Another left, and then a right, and then he reached the densest part of the woods.

The trees surrounding him were so close together, it seemed like the path had come to a dead-end, and the branches overhead blocked the sun so entirely that it could've passed for late evening instead of mid-afternoon.

He knew he was in the right place, but he couldn't find the entrance. Carefully, he scanned his surroundings, searching for some sort of clue, but he didn't even notice any insects, or plants that were out of place. The only thing around was a large black raven, and Daichi had the strangest feeling of being watched by the bird.

"Hello?" he called out in question.

"Here to see the wizard?" squawked a voice from above. It was the raven, and Daichi smiled at it to hide his horror and surprise.

"Yes. I have an herb delivery from the apothecary," Daichi answered, glad to have a valid reason for being there. Wizards' guardians and familiars were known to attack intruders and annoyances.

"Password?" the raven cawed.

"Uh..." Daichi didn't remember any password. He looked at the map to see if his father had written one, but he hadn't. "I don't know any password," he admitted, but he continued quickly. "But I was sent here by my father, Takeda, I have the herbs that the wizard ordered!" He hoped that that was enough to keep from being killed by the raven.

"Takeda-san‽" the raven squawked, apparently recognizing the name. "Why didn't you say so? Come!" The raven fluttered down from its perch and landed on Daichi's shoulder. "Onward!"

Not sure what else to do, Daichi followed the raven's order, and walked forward, right into the dense line of trees. To his surprise, however, the trees seemed to move out of his way, allowing him plenty of room to pass through between them. Past the trees he found a clearing, and when he looked behind him, the path he had walked through was gone.

The raven flitted off his shoulder and flew to a man with blond hair pulled back in a headband of some kind. On his chin grew the beginnings of a beard, and a short pipe rested in his mouth as he sat, carving something into a long staff. When the raven landed on his shoulder, he removed his pipe, and looked at it.

"Did something happen Karasuno?" he asked the bird.

"Visitor," the raven answered. "Knows Takeda-san, but not password." The blond man turned to look at Daichi, apparently just noticing him.

"You know Takeda?" he prompted the boy to speak.

"Yes," Daichi said quickly, not wanting to waste the wizard's time. "He's my father."

"You must be Daichi, then." The boy nodded. "I take it that means you've brought the herbs I asked for?" the wizard said, and Daichi nodded. "Takeda usually does the delivery himself, did something happen?"

"Yes, he injured his knee," Daichi informed the wizard. "He sent me instead."

"Well, Daichi," the wizard smiled at him, "I am the Wizard Ukai, it's nice to meet you. I'm afraid I'm busy at the moment, so I can't talk any longer, but if you could bring the herbs to my apprentice, Sugawara. He's in the workshop." Ukai gestured to a shed. "Oh, and please wish your father well for me, I hope he heals quickly." Daichi nodded again, and thanked Ukai, before heading to the shed.

First, he knocked, but when there was no answer, he entered. Though it had looked fairly small on the outside, the workshop itself seemed much larger from within. That was cancelled out, however, by the great amount of strange plants, machines, and experiments that took up so much room, that there was about as much available space as there had appeared to be from the exterior had the shed been empty.

There was a table in the center of the room, covered just as entirely, and the boy sitting at it jumped and whipped his head around when he heard the door open. Daichi thought the boy looked breathtaking. His hair was silver, his skin was Ivory, his eyes were gold, and when he smiled at Daichi, his teeth shimmered like pearls. Daichi could feel his face start to heat up and he pushed the thoughts away in favor of digging through his satchel for the parcel he was delivering.

"Herbs!" he said, maybe a little louder than necessary. Holding the package out for the other boy.

"Thank you," the boy said, and somewhere in Daichi's brain he knew it was time for him so head home, but his legs wouldn't move. "I'm Sugawara, Wizard Ukai's apprentice, but Suga is fine. What's your name?" Suga asked somewhat awkwardly.

"I... my... er," he had to force himself not to stammer anymore. "I'm Daichi."

"It's nice to meet you Daichi." Suga smiled again, and Daichi was once again entranced and unable to move. Was this magic?

"You too," he answered, wanting to talk to Suga, but too flustered to manage more than a few words. He had to leave before he embarrassed himself further. "I should go! It's a long journey home!" It was too loud again. He couldn't seem to control his volume when he was nervous, but Suga just laughed.

"Goodbye then, Daichi," he said, "I hope to see you again." Daichi left the wizard's workshop practically skipping with happiness.

The raven led him back through the line of trees, and the whole walk home he was giggling, and sighing, and beating himself up for embarrassing himself in front of Suga. He was like a lovestruck girl. He didn't really look at the map much on the way back, but he had an excellent sense of direction, so by the time it got dark, he was almost out of the woods. Good thing it was summer.

When he entered the shop, he leaned against the door with one more lovesick sigh. His father was working on something by candlelight, but he noticed when Daichi came in.

"What are you sighing for?" he asked curiously.

"The wizard's apprentice is gorgeous, and I made a fool of myself when I tried to talk to him." He groaned. His father's eyebrows knit together in slight confusion, trying to remember what Ukai had said about his apprentice when last they spoke.

"Sugawara, right?" he recalled, "we never met, but..." he hesitated, and for a moment Daichi didn't understand why, then the bomb dropped. "Isn't he a boy?" Daichi's eyes widened with horror as he realized what he'd just inadvertently given away.

"Y—Yes." He kept his voice from squeaking with fear, but he still cursed himself for stuttering.

"Hey, it's okay," Takeda assured, immediately noticing his son's discomfort. "I'm not upset, you're fine. I was just surprised is all. Nothing's wrong." He put a comforting hand on his son's shoulder to assure him.

Daichi let out a breath of relief. "Thanks Dad."

"You know..." Takeda said with a sly voice. "Ukai will probably have another order in about two weeks, and my knee will likely still be injured, so..."

"Your saying you'll send me on the next delivery‽" Daichi grabbed his father's arms excitedly. "I can see Suga again‽"

"Woah! Calm down Daichi!" Daichi removed his hands and took a step back with embarrassment. "Ukai usually prefers when I do the deliveries myself, but yes, that's what I'm saying." Daichi beamed and hugged his father tightly.

Two weeks. He could wait two weeks.

[1826 words

There will be a second part, in the meantime, I found more pics on my tumblr.

The original art/au credit goes to c-sushi on tumblr. Love y'all.

<3 Raaor!]