Chapter 1: The Tattoo Parlor
Chapter Text
The Tattoo Parlor
Akaashi walked in on his now ex-boyfriend cheating on him. He had had a pretty stable job at a tattoo parlor, and he was one of the top artists there, but the problem was that his ex worked there as well, so he decided to move back to his hometown to get away from him and his life there.
Two of his best friends, Oikawa Tooru and Sugawara Koshi, invited him to move in with them. They had an extra bedroom and were already looking for a roommate so everything seemed to work out as it fell into place.
"Thank you guys again for letting me move in with you guys," Akaashi said gratefully on his first day moving in with them.
"Of course Keiji-chan!" Oikawa grinned.
Sugawara agreed, "Yeah, it's no problem at all Keiji, we were already looking for another roommate, so really this is perfect timing."
"Well thank you again anyways, I just couldn't stay in that town anymore with him. It was too much," Akaashi chuckled awkwardly, to try to make it seem a little less serious than it was.
"You are always welcome Keiji-chan." Oikawa told him.
They helped him move his boxes to his new room and starts unpacking a few things after Sugawara and Oikawa leave him to settle in. He just unpacks the essential things, some of his clothes, his hair brush, his toothbrush, etc.
It was really late so he decided to go to sleep and look for a tattoo parlor the next day in attempt to get a job.
"I'm going to head to bed for now and job search tomorrow," Akaashi said to Sugawara and Oikawa who were sitting on the couch watching tv.
"Alright, goodnight!" Oikawa turned his head to see Akaashi standing in the hallway.
"Oh shit, I didn't tell you?" Sugawara seemed shocked as he got up to walk towards Akaashi in the hallway, "I could've sworn I told you. I got you an interview where I work, it's a small, but pretty well known tattoo parlor and it's just down the street." Sugawara explained.
"What?! Really?"
Sugawara nodded, "Yeah, I thought I told you already... Oh well," He shrugged, "It's tomorrow at noon. The boss is pretty chill and I've put in a good word with her, so I'm sure all will go fine, especially since you already have almost 6 years of experience."
"Well- I- This would've been great to know earlier Suga," Akaashi sighed, he wasn't expecting to already have an interview tomorrow, but at least that meant he wouldn't have to be in search of a job for too long.
"Yeah, sorry. I thought I told you," He playfully held up his hands as if he were surrendering
"It's fine, it's fine..." Akaashi smiled softly, "Thank you Suga."
"Of course."
"Okay! I'm feeling really left out of this conversation!" Oikawa finally joined in, pouting, "I'd like to join!"
Akaashi and Sugawara both chuckled, "I'm about to go to bed Tooru," Akaashi rolled his eyes at him, "You and Suga can go back to watching tv."
"Ugh, you are absolutely no fun Keiji-chan," He whined, dramatically leaning over the arm of the couch, "C'mon Ko-Chan, let's go back to being fun."
Sugawara laughed, "Alright Tooru, I'm coming..." He walked over to the couch and sat on the side where Oikawa wasn't being overly dramatic and paid his attention towards the tv.
It was about 2 in the morning and Akaashi went to bed.
***
The next morning, Akaashi woke up at about 10 in the morning giving himself a little more than two hours to get ready which was more than enough. He took a little while to just prepare for the interview before he got ready for it. He turned on the water in the shower and waited for it to heat up for a minute and then hopped in. Once he was done washing his body and hair, he got out and dried himself off. He got dressed, not anything too fancy but not something that made him look homeless.
He was almost fully ready by 11:45, Oikawa was still sleeping and Sugawara had already went to work at the tattoo parlor.
Sugawara told him where the place was earlier that morning, it was a 5 minute walk. Akaashi took a few deep breaths before putting his shoes on and heading out to the tattoo parlor.
He got to the street that Sugawara said it was at, he looked around. He saw a cafe, a flower shop, some fast food places, and then he spotted the tattoo parlor. He walked in at 11:52 and Sugawara instantly spotted him, "Hey, Keiji-Kun, you made it. Cool, okay, so, Shimizu-San is in the back room but she'll be ready for you soon," He explained.
That's when Shimizu walked out, "Oh, well speak of the devil," Suga chuckled, "Here's Shimizu-San now," He turned to Shimizu, "Shimizu-San, this is the person I was telling you about, Akaashi-Kun."
She had black hair that was slicked back into a ponytail, with her bangs covering her forehead. She smiled softly, pushing her glasses up, "Hello Akaashi-Kun, it's nice to meet you," Her voice was gently but sincere, "Would you like to come back for the interview now?"
Akaashi nodded, "Yeah."
"Perfect, follow me," She turned around and started walking away, Akaashi followed her to the back room where they sat down and had the interview.
It was just simple questions, that Akaashi had quick answers for.
"Why did you quit your last job?"
"I needed a little bit of a change."
"How many years of experience do you have?"
"Five years, 10 months."
"What kinds of designs do you do?"
"I can do very many varieties of designs. I'm assuming Sugawara-Kun gave you my portfolio?"
"He did, I enjoy your work thoroughly."
About 20 minutes later, the interview was coming to an end, "Well, Akaashi-Kun, I have heard very amazing things about from Sugawara-Kun, he's spoken only good things about you and your work. I think you can really work with us here, so, that being said, when can you start?"
Akaashi couldn't help but letting out a small smile, this was shocking news, the interview had been so short and she liked him and wanted to hire him already, "Well, uh, I- Whenever is convenient for you Shimizu-San." He finally settled on saying.
"How about this monday?"
"That works," He smiled kindly at her, "Thank you so much Shimizu-San." He got up and bowed to her.
"See you monday."
He walked off and Sugawara immediately asked him about what happens, and Akaashi told him that he'd be starting on Monday, 3 days from now.
Chapter 2: The Meet
Notes:
And here's chapter 2, enjoy :)
Chapter Text
The Meet
On the sunday before he was going to start his new job at the tattoo parlor, it happened to be mother’s day, and luckily Akaashi was in town now, so he could actually get something for his mom.
He had issues figuring out what to get his mom originally, until Oikawa seemed to have a good idea, “Isn’t there a flower shop nearby Keiji-Chan? Go get her flowers!”
“That’s… actually a good idea,” Akaashi admitted.
He brought his hand to his chest, faking offence, “I’m going to try not to take offence to that!”
Akaashi chuckled, “Sure, okay. Thanks Tooru.” He went to go put his shoes on and head to the flower shop.
He walked over to the same street the tattoo parlor was on and walked across the street to a small but friendly looking flower shop.
Once he walked in he saw a young girl, probably a little youner than him, with short blonde hair there, she was putting together a bouquet with a variety of flowers, he looked over at her nametag and it said ‘Yachi’, “Um, excuse me Yachi-San?”
That seemed to startle her a little, causing her to jump before looking up at Akaashi, “Oh, hello there. I didn’t hear you walk in,” She laughed nervously, “What would you like?”
“Well, I just need-” He started but was cut off by someone else, who seemed to come from the back of the store.
He had black and white hair that was standing up, that added a few inches to his height. He was also very loud, which is something Akaashi noted.
“Hey, hey, he-” He started, loudly, until he noticed Akaashi. Instantly he thought that he was the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, “Hey…” He smirked, walking over to Akaashi.
Another guy, one with black hair, pulled him back, “Chill out, dude,” He whispered.
“Tetsurou, do you see that guy?” He whispered back, “Are we looking at the same man?”
“Yes, Bo, but you can’t just walk over there, you have to be cool about it. Yachi-Chan is helping him right now, so you can’t just take over…”
“Watch me.” He chuckled and marched on over to Yachi and Akaashi, “Hey, hey, hey! Is there anything I can help with?”
“Oh, no Bokuto-Kun, we’re okay here,” Yachi smiled, “I’m helping him, don’t worry.”
“But- I-” He stammered, “I wanna help him….”
“We’re doing okay Bokuto-Kun, no need to worry,” She reassured him.
Even Akaashi chimed in, “Yeah, Bokuto-San,” He got his name from the name tag he was wearing as well as Yachi saying his name, “thank you but Yachi-San is helping me just fine.” He smiled gently at him, chuckling softly.
Bokuto stared at Akaashis thin lips, that seemed to make a perfect smile, Bokuto’s face turned bright red, “I- Okay-” He chuckled and slowly walked backwards back to Kuroo.
“Told you~” Kuroo teased, “Your face looks like someone just threw a can of tomato soup on it. Why are you blushing so much, he’s a stranger, dude,” Kuroo whispered.
“A really very hot stranger…” Bokuto stared at him dreamily, “Really really very hot stranger indeed.”
Bokuto seemed to catch Akaashi’s eye as well, though he wasn’t completely sure why, he didn’t need to be in any kind of relationship with anybody anytime soon because he just broke up with his now ex boyfriend a couple of weeks ago, it was still a fresh wound. Somehow, Akaashi kept catching his eyes drift over to Bokuto, who was now going through the flowers and trimming some of them.
“Alright, well I think these are perfect for my mom, thank you Yachi-San,” Akaashi smiled at her as they went up to the register so that Akaashi could pay for the bouquet of peonies, roses, and calla lilies.
“Here you go,” She handed the bouquet to Akaashi after he was done paying. Then he left the flower shop.
“Oh, he’s gone-” Bokuto whined when he noticed that Akaashi left, “I’m never going to see him again, am I?”
Kuroo laughed, “Bo, you’re an idiot.”
Then Sugawara ran out of the tatto parlor, waving at Akaashi, which caused Akaashi to stop and say hello.
They talked and smiled, and then Akaashi handed Sugawara the flowers to look at.
“Oh, Tetsurou, he has a boyfriend, look at that-” Bokuto gasped dramatically, “He is just a dream. I knew it was too good to be true.”
“You do know he bought those for his mom, right?” Yachi chimed in giggling at Bokuto being dramatic.
His eyes lit up, he was hopeful, “Really? Why’d he just give them to that guy then?”
“Maybe, just maybe, Bo, that’s his friend who wanted to look at the flowers,” He held up his hands like it was an impossible solution, “Just maybe!”
“Why does he have to be so…” He sighed, pouting, “Elegant? Beautiful? Gorgeous...” he finally settled on.
“Dude, you spoke to him for less than a minute.”
“But- Oh, oh, Kuroo- He’s looking back!” Bokuto started smiling, “He looked- and he’s gone…” Bokuto frowned as Akaashi and Sugawara walked out of view.
*
Akaashi seemed to be smiling as Sugawara approached him, “Keiji!” He shouted, “”Wait up!” He ran up to him.
“Oh, hey Suga-Kun,” He turned around to look at him, “You off work? It’s kinda early.”
Sugawara nodded, “Yeah, I don’t have any appointments for another 2 hours, so I decided to leave until then, Shimizu-San was okay with it since it’s a fairly slow day, so walk-ins don’t seem too likely, and other artists are there anyways.”
“Ah, okay. That makes sense,” Akaashi nodded, they stood on the sidewalk talking, “Look, these are the flowers I got for my mom.” He handed them to Sugawara who took them and looked at them.
“Oh my god, these are amazing. She’ll love them,” Sugawara smiled.
Akaashi couldn’t hold himself back anymore, he looked back over at the flower shop and looked for the guy who caught his attention in the shop.
Sugawara looked back to, “What’re you looking at?”
“O-Oh, nothing.” He shook his head and looked away from the shop, “Let’s go.” He grabbed the flowers back and started walking back to their place at a fast pace.
“Okay, hey” Sugawara chuckled as he caught up, “Who did you meet at the flower shop?”
Akaashi cleared his throat, “Nobody.”
He smirked, “Was it the blonde girl. Y’know she and Shimizu-San are friends. Oh, wait…” He remembered, “you’re gay-” Sugawara seems to sometimes forget that not everybody is bisexual like him, “Was it that tall guy, the one with spiky black hair? I see him outside the flower shop all the time.”
“Both of them were there, yes.” Akaashi confirmed as they continued walking, a bit slower now.
“So it wasn’t? Who caught your eye then?” He pushed.
“Nobody,” He sighed heavily, trying to stop the conversation from going on any longer.
“C’mon,” He dragged out the ‘o’, trying to get Akaashi to give in.
“Even if somebody did catch my eye, which nobody did, I can’t get into another relationship right now, Suga.” He rolled his eyes, and they were silent pretty much the rest of the way home.
Once they were down the street, Sugawara spoke again, “Hey Keiji, no offense, but your ex was a jackass, and you were broken, well you still are broken over him. If you don’t want to get into another relationship you do you, but I think it’d be good for you.”
Akaashi shrugged, slightly annoyed because he thought that Sugawara had let it go by now, “Okay, Sugawara... I’m just going to go drive to my mom’s house and give her these flowers, and spend some time with her.”
“Alright... Well see you later then.” He put up his hand and waved once, as Akaashi walked over to his car and got in. He carefully set the flowers down in the passenger's seat.
He put on his seatbelt and just tried to forget about the guy from the flower shop.
He drove over to his mom’s house, which was about a 25 minute drive. Once he got there he knocked on the door, gave his mom the flowers which she was very happy to receive, and he talked to her for a little while until deciding to head home.
“Alright, bye mom. I’m going to head home,” He said, getting up from the floor, “I’ll see you soon. Happy mother’s day, once again.” He smiled at his mom and gave her a hug once she got up from the floor as well.
Once they released each other from the hug, his mom looked at him, “Alright sweetie, thank you for coming over. The flowers were lovely, Keiji.”
“I’m glad you liked them.” He nodded and walked over to the front door to start getting his shoes on, “Welp, bye, I love you.”
“Love you too, Keiji, goodnight,” She said, even though it was just 4pm. He had been there since noon.
“Goodnight,” he responded, politely, and walked out the door. He got back into his car to go home.
Once he got home, Oikawa immediately talked to him, “Keiji-Chan!” He waved, “Welcome back. Ko-Chan is in the shower, he told me that you met a guy today. Details?”
Akaashi sighed, slightly angry with Sugawara for telling Oikawa something he wasn’t even sure of, “I did not meet any guy.” He denied, blatantly lying and Oikawa knew that.
“Oh c’mon Keiji-Chan, stop holding back…”
He sat down on the couch and glared at Oikawa, “There is no holding back because there is nothing to tell.”
Sugawara came out, putting on his shirt, his hair was still dripping, “Hey guys, did you get him to talk Tooru-Kun?”
Akaashi rolled his eyes, “There is no getting me to talk, because like I just told Tooru, there is nothing to tell.”
“Lies, I saw you eyeing somebody in the flower shop, dude.”
“Oh my god, fine.” Akaashi finally gave in. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes and forehead in annoyance, “His name is Bokuto-San.” he finally said.
Both Oikawa and Sugawara’s faces lit up, “I knew there was someone!” Sugawara smiled, proud of himself.
“He was just so… I dunno... captivating?” Akaashi shrugged, “He seemed-” Akaashi tried finding the right word, but couldn’t seem to.
“Was he hot?” Oikawa asked.
Akaashi half scoffed, half chuckled, “Very,” He admitted, smiling, just slightly, but they saw it.
“Oh my god! You really like him, huh?” Sugawara smiled, pleased that he finally got Akaashi talking.
“I don’t know, Suga.” He shook his head as he tried to think.
***
Bokuto and Kuroo both left work at the same time, and drove over to their shared apartment, “Tetsurou!” Bokuto flopped dramatically on the couch as soon as they got into the apartment, forgetting to take off his shoes.
“Koutorou!” Kuroo gave in the same amount of dramatic energy in saying Bokuto’s name, but then dropped down to his normal energy level, “Take off your shoes and place them by the door.”
“But- You saw him, right?” Bokuto stared over at Kuroo, “He was gorgeous, and I’m never going to see him again.”
“Yes, Bo, I saw him, you still have to take off your shoes.” Kuroo sighed, and sat down on the couch next to him, pulling Bokuto’s legs onto his lap and taking off his shoes for him, “You are such a child, Bo.”
“Thanks!” He smiled. Kuroo threw Bokuto’s shoes over to the front door.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Y’know, his friend came out of the tattoo parlor from across the street, and he works there, you can talk to him, maybe.”
“I’ve never seen him before, I’m sure I would have noticed him, Tetsurou.” Bokuto whined, “I wouldn’t forget his face.”
“I’m not talking about the guy from the shop today,” Kuroo sighed, having to explain everything, “They grey haired dude, he works at the tattoo parlor, and he seems to know mystery guy-”
Bokuto interrupted, “Yachi-Chan said his name was Akaashi-San.”
“Well,” Kuroo continued, “The grey haired dude works at the tattoo parlor, I saw him there when I went to go get my tattoo. He didn’t give me my tattoo, but he works there.” Kuroo nodded, “You can go talk to him tomorrow and maybe get Akaashi-San’s phone number or something.”
Bokuto’s eyes lit up, he hopped off of the couch, “Oh my god, Tetsurou, you are a genius! I love you!”
Kuroo chuckled, “It was a simple solution, Bo.”
Chapter 3: The Second Meet
Notes:
If you couldn't tell, I am not very creative when it comes to chapter names lmao- Oh well, here you go-
Chapter Text
The Second Meet
Akaashi woke up, ready to start his first day of work. Once he and Sugawara were both ready, they walked over to the tattoo parlor together. It was pretty early, about 6am, so that Sugawara could help Akaashi get accustomed to the way things worked there.
They arrived at the shop, “Alright, here we are.” Sugawara unlocked the door and they walked in and turned on the lights. Sugawara closed the door and locked it again, “So, each of the artists have their portfolio’s laid out for the customers to look at to see their style you know how that works already,” Sugawara shrugged, and then brought Akaashi over to behind the counter, “Alright, here is where we all switch off duty. If someone is tattooing, and you’re free, go ahead and man the desk unless someone is already there, if you have to leave the desk, go find someone who is free to fill in. There are 7 artists, including both of us, so normally there is always someone free,” Sugawara explained.
Akaashi nodded, “Alright, so is this the appointment book?” he said, pointing at a book that was laid out on the desk
“Yeah, it is. We also accept walk-ins as long as we have an artist available and the customer likes that artists work, otherwise the walk-in can make an appointment if they so desire. Shimizu-San laid out your portfolio yesterday and you have 2 appointments for today so far.”
“Jeez? Already?” Akaashi was shocked to have 2 appointments on his first day there.
“I told you I put in a good word for you, Keiji-Kun.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded and went back to explaining, “Anyways, if you are manning the reception, um just answer the phone if it rings, you’ll say, ‘Hello, this is Akaashi at Tattoo’s Xtreme, how can I help you?’ you know the drill from your old job right?”
“Yep, pretty much. It’s not too difficult.”
“Good, that’s pretty much it. We open at 7, but I have an early appointment in 10 minutes, so you can just get settled in. Your appointments aren’t too complicated, they both actually just picked something from your portfolio, no too specific of requests, so it should be easy enough,” Sugawara told him then went over to unlock the doors for his early appointment, but not turning the sign to ‘open’, “I’m gonna go get ready, you can look around. Send Kiyami-San back to room 3 when she gets here, she’ll know where it is. Oh, and a couple more tattoo artists will come in before opening.”
“Alright, sounds easy enough. When are my appointments at?” Akaashi asked.
“Oh, uh...” he thought about it for a moment, “I’m not sure, actually, you can go ahead and check the book. It’ll say it in there.”
Akaashi nodded and Sugawara headed back to the room to get things ready.
About 10 minutes later a young lady, probably about 26, walks into the store, she had a few visible tattoos, “Oh, we’re actually clo-” Akaashi started and then remembered that this was probably Sugawara’s early appointment, “Oh, wait, are you Kiyami-San?”
She smiled softly, “Yeah, that’s me.”
“Ah, okay then,” Akaashi smiled, “Sugawara-Kun is ready for you in room 3.”
“Thank you…” Her voice trailed off like she was trying to remember something, “What’s your name? Are you new here? I thought I knew everyone’s names...”
“Yeah, I am new here. I’m Akaashi Keiji.” He introduced himself.
“Oh, okay,” She chuckled, “Yeah, I come in here fairly often so I know pretty much everyone. You had me confused for a second there.”
He chuckled back, “Well, Sugawara-Kun is waiting for you.”
“Thank you Akaashi-San,” She bowed and then walked back to room 3.
Just a couple minutes after that, a couple more people walked in. They looked kind of familiar to Akaashi until he remembered that they were here when Akaashi came for his interview, they’re two of the other artists.
“Hey, you must be the new artist?” One of the guys questioned. He had short brown hair, and dark brown eyes.
“Yep,” Akaashi walked to the front of the counter and bowed, “Akaashi Keiji. Nice to meet you two.”
The two people in front of him bowed as well, the one who hadn’t spoken yet introduced herself first, “I’m Tebi Aika, nice to meet you.”
“Sawamura Daichi,” The other introduced himself, “Nice to meet you Akaashi-San.”
Akaashi immediately recognized the name. That’s who Sugawara said that he’s been talking to, he mentioned the name once a few weeks back.
After introductions, Akaashi went back to behind the counter and Sawamura and Tebi walked to the back of the store.
There was a small waiting area, with a little library that separated the back of the store from the front, and there was a little gate that employee’s and people getting tattoo’s could go through to get to the back.
Akaashi decided to look at the appointment book now. They were actually pretty booked all day among all of the artists. Akaashi’s two appointments for the day were at 7:15am and 2pm. “Hm, fairly far apart…” He mumbled to himself, and then went to take a look at the tattoos they were each requesting, “Okay, about an hour for the first one…” He thought to himself, “And almost 2 hours for the second one…”
He waited at the reception desk for his first customer to come in. Once the parlor opened at 7, a couple of people came in for appointments. Akaashi told them where to go, and answered phones until his customer finally came in, “Hello, excuse me?” A lady who was probably on the older side, about 46 or 47, just walked in, “I’ve got an appointment.” She said.
“Alright, who’s your appointment with ma’am?” Akaashi asked.
“Akaashi Keiji.” She answered.
Akaashi smiled, “Oh, well then that would be me. Are you Akatsuka-San?”
She nodded, “yes I am.” she confirmed
“Okay, perfect. Come with me.” He moved from behind the counter to next to Akatsuka. He opened the gate leading to the back of the store and let Akatsuka through. They walked over to room 2, “Could you wait in there for a moment?”
She nodded and walked into the room. Akaashi walked over to one of the artists who weren’t doing a tattoo at that moment, “hey, could you take over reception?” He asked.
He got up and smiled, “of course.” He walked on over to get behind the desk and Akaashi walked into room 2 to get started on the tattoo.
“So,” Akaashi started, “You wanted a name, correct?”
“Yes!” She nodded, “I saw your handwriting in your portfolio and really enjoyed it. I am getting my daughter’s name tattooed, Emica.”
“Perfect, and you wanted that with this snake, right?” He pointed to his portfolio. He didn’t like doing names of lovers, but had no problem doing names for family members, so this snake was one of the few tattoos he had that would incorporate a name into it well.” It was a coiled snake, and the name went in a small space in the middle of the snake.
“Yes, my daughter really likes snakes, so I saw that and figured it was perfect.”
“Alright, well let’s get started then.” He got ready to start tattooing the woman’s arm, that’s where she wanted the tattoo.
About an hour later, just before Akaashi was finished, Sugawara was at the reception desk and Bokuto walked in.
Bokuto immediately smiled when he saw Sugawara, “Perfect. That’s his friend.” He thought, happily.
“Hello, how can I help you today?” Sugawara asked.
“O-oh! Um… I wanted to… Uh-” He chuckled nervously, trying to think of a good excuse as to why he was there, “Um, get a tattoo.” he finally decided that that was a good explanation for why he was there. Getting a tattoo in a tattoo parlor, perfectly logical explanation, except for the fact that he didn’t actually want a tattoo.
Sugawara laughed, “Yep, that’s what we do here. Would you like to look at some of the artist’s portfolio’s? or do you have an appointment already?" Sugawara asked. Bokuto shook his head, "Oh okay, well the portfolios are just right there,” Sugawara pointed to the front of the desk where the portfolios were layed out in folders, each folder having an artist’s name labelled onto it, "You can take a look at those if you'd like."
“S-sure…” He reached for a random one without reading the name.
“You can go ahead and sit down in one of the seats and look.” Sugawara said.
“Okay, thank you!” He walked over to a seat and sat down, “Well this wasn’t part of the plan,” He thought to himself.
That’s when Akaashi came out with Akatsuka, “Alright, Akatsuka-San, you are all set. If you have any questions or problems feel free to call.”
“Thank you so much Akaashi-San,” She bowed, “I really like this tattoo.”
Bokuto looked up at the name Akaashi, and sure enough there he was. The guy who was the reason he was here in the first place.
“Of course, Akatsuka-San,” He led her out of the door and she walked off, that’s the exact same moment when Akaashi looked at Bokuto.
They locked eyes for a good 2 seconds before Akaashi quickly turned away from Bokuto, thinking that maybe he was just imagining things, he walked over to the reception where Sugawara was, it was just one step from him, “You see that guy in the waiting room too, right?” He whispered.
“Yeah?” Sugawara was confused, and then his eyes got wide as he figured it out, “Wait is that-!”
“Be quiet Koushi!” He whisper-yelled. He took a deep breath, considering his next words carefully, his voice went back down to a normal whisper, “Yes… That’s Bokuto-San…. Why is he here?”
Sugawara’s mouth broke out into a huge smile, and shrugged, “Well he’s coming over here.”
Akaashi started freaking out when he was tapped on the shoulder, he turned around nervously, “Hello.”
Bokuto couldn’t believe that Akaashi worked here. This had been easier than he thought it would be. He didn’t have to get a tattoo, he just had to ask Akaashi for his number and say he’d like to get to know him and everything would be fine, “Hi…” He said, nervously, “I really like this tattoo…” He pointed to a random tattoo in the portfolio without even looking, “Who did this one? I’d like to get it.” he was really just making up an excuse to talk to Akaashi.
“Are you… sure?” Akaashi looked at him confused, hiding how nervous he actually was, after all Bokuto was pointing at a tattoo of a cute little bunny rabbit.
Bokuto looked at the tattoo he was pointing at and his face turned bright red, “O-oh no…” He pointed at a different one, next to the bunny one, actually looking this time. He pointed at a small skull tattoo, “This one. I meant this one!”
Akaashi laughed, he found that adorable, “Okay, well that is one of my tattoos.”
Sugawara was watching this with great interest.
“Oh, r-really? You?”
Akaashi nodded, “Mhm…” He closed the portfolio and pointed to the front of it, which had his name on it.
Bokuto’s eyes widened, “Huh, okay. Well I like that one.”
“Okay, that’s a 2 and a half hour tattoo and it will cost about $150."
"Okay."
"Do you have time or would you like to make an appointment?” Akaashi asked, he was actually containing himself more than he thought he’d be able to.
“I have time!” Bokuto said eagerly, he really wanted to spend time with Akaashi, but he may have forgotten that it required getting a tattoo.
Akaashi licked his lip and smiled at Bokuto, “Alright, Bokuto-San, I have time to do that tattoo for you.”
“You remember my name? From yesterday?” He asked, and a huge grin appeared on his face.
“I do. You were kind of hard to forget. Loud even.” Akaashi shrugged, “Could I see your ID please?”
“Oh, yeah!” He fumbled to grab his wallet and then his ID. He gave it to Akaashi to look at, which he did and then handed it back.
“Looks good you can follow me over to room…” He sighed, not sure which room to go to, he turned to Sugawara, “Is room 1 available?”
Sugawara nodded once, he was still smiling from the joy of watching the conversation that had just happened.
“Okay then you can head over to room 1,” Akaashi pointed to the room with a big number 1 above it, “And I will see you in there.”
“Okay!” He nodded, confidently now, clearly he wasn’t too nervous about the tattoo, and walked to the back over to room 1, he entered the room and sat down.
“So, that’s the guy, huh?” Sugawara teased, “He caught your eye? Really, Keiji? You never go for the loud, outgoing type.”
Akaashi rolled his eyes at Sugawara, “Shut up.”
“Well, I don’t think you have to worry about him liking you back. I’m pretty sure he came here just to see you.” Sugawara smirked.
“I’m about to spend the next 2 hours tattooing him, Suga-Kun…” He stroked his fingers through his hair.
“Good luck?”
Akaashi shook his head, "You're one to talk. I saw Sawamura-San, he's not your type either," Akaashi smirked right back at Sugawara as Sugawara turned bright red and Akaashi walked away from him. He walked into the room and turned to Bokuto, “Alright, are you ready?” He asked.
“Well, yeah, I guess!” He smiled as he saw Akaashi’s face walk into the room.
Chapter 4: The Tattoo
Notes:
I'm not even going to lie, I finished this chapter a couple of day ago and thought I already posted it, so... Clearly I'm just bad at keeping track of things.
Also, the end of the school year is coming up so I'm going to be a bit slower when it comes to posting because I have to make sure I'm caught up and not completely failing my classes.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The Tattoo
“Alright, so where would you like the tattoo then?” Akaashi started discussing immediately.
Bokuto thought about it for a moment. He wasn’t planning on even getting a tattoo today, so he had no idea where he wanted it. He decided he should have it somewhere he could easily hide, “Right here.” He pointed to his back right shoulder blade.
Akaashi nodded, as he was cleaning off the tattoo needle, making sure it was sanitary, “Okay, could you take off your shirt then?”
Bokuto was shocked, “What?! Why!?”
“So that I can look at and tattoo your back…” Akaashi said, confused. He did ask for his back to be tattooed, right?
“Oh,” He laughed awkwardly, “yeah- I can do that…” He grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled it off.
Akaashi got distracted by Bokuto’s abs, a six pack, for just a moment before shaking his head, to maintain focus. “Go ahead and lay down on your stomach.”
He did as Akaashi said. He laid down on his stomach, resting his head on his arms.
Akaashi got right to it, he put on his gloves and started drawing out the design before going in with the needle.
“So…” Bokuto started making conversation, “How long have you been doing tattoos for?”
“Almost 6 years.” He answered, still drawing on the outline, it was a small tattoo so it wouldn't take him long.
“Wow… Did you just start working here?” He asked.
“I did. Today actually.” Akaashi explained, “This is my hometown, I moved back here on Friday.”
“That’s cool,” Bokuto smiled, “I’ve lived here my whole life. Worked at the flower shop with Tetsurou-Kun for a couple of years. He’s actually my best friend, we’ve known each other since highschool and…” He started telling Akaashi about Kuroo and their friendship.
Akaashi loved seeing him talk about something he liked talking about. Though Akaashi knew he couldn’t get into another relationship despite how much Bokuto caught his eye.
Akaashi took a picture of the line art once he finished and showed it to Bokuto, “Does that look good? Do you like it?”
Bokuto smiled, “Oh my god, I love it! That’s awesome!” He may not have been planning on getting a tattoo, but he actually really liked how it looked so far.
“Perfect. I’m going to start the inking process now. Do you want color or not?”
“No color,” He said. He’d never gotten a tattoo before so he figured he should at least keep it a little more simple.
Akaashi nodded, “Okay.” He got the needle started, “Here I go.”
Bokuto took a deep breath to prepare himself, once the needle hit his skin, he held his breath. It hurt, but luckily it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it was going to.
Bokuto was silent while he was getting used to the needle on his skin.
“You okay?” Akaashi stopped to make sure that Bokuto was okay because he had been very talkative since Akaashi started the line art, but suddenly stopped talking.
“Yeah, I’m okay, just getting used to the needle…” Bokuto said.
“Alright then.” Akaashi nodded, though Bokuto was staring at the floor so he didn’t see the nod. He started the tattoo again.
Soon, Bokuto was comfortable enough to start asking questions again, “So… Why did you get into tattooing?” he asked, suddenly.
Akaashi thought about it, because honestly he didn’t fully know why, “I got a tattoo one day, when I was just turning 18 because I lost a bet to Sugawara-Kun, and I just thought the whole process was really cool and I mean I’ve always enjoyed drawing and art and was pretty good at it and everything so I just wanted to get into it I guess.”
“Oh," He seemed interested, "What kind of tattoo did you get?”
Akaashi laughed at this, pausing his tattooing because he didn’t want to mess up, “Oh, it’s bad…” He sighed, half chuckling, “There is a small tattoo of a tree with a pink and yellow bow wrapped around it on the left side of my lower back… It was done by Sugawara-Kun on his first year of tattooing so it isn't too good...”
“Pink and yellow bow?” That was the only thing he questioned.
“Yeah, the right half is pink, the left half is yellow and the tree leaves fade from pink to yellow from the top to bottom.” He started on Bokuto’s tattoo again.
The two of them talked for the remainder of the tattooing session and they got along really well. Akaashi was afraid that he was going to catch genuine feelings for this guy, but he knew that he wasn’t even close to emotionally ready to get into a new relationship.
Bokuto, on the other hand, had already caught those genuine feelings for Akaashi that Akaashi is afraid to catch. Bokuto seemed to get attached to people very easily and usually it ended up biting him in the ass yet he can’t seem to keep away from getting attached.
Once Akaashi was finished with Bokuto’s tattoo he put vaseline on his back over the tattoo and then wrapped the tattoo, “Okay, you are all set Bokuto-San.”
“Thank you so much Akaashi-San!” Bokuto’s smile gave Akaashi butterflies.
Akaashi gave a sheepish smile along with a small chuckle, “Of course, that’s my job after all. You can go pay at the desk,” He reached for Bokuto’s shirt to hand to him, but Bokuto reached for it at the same time. Bokuto’s hand grazed the top of Akaashi’s, causing him to immediately pull it back and change the subject, “I’m gonna clean up here.”
Bokuto nodded and walked out to go pay. Sugwara was still at the desk, Bokuto walked up to him, “Hi.”
“Hello,” Sugawara said, smirking, “How’d it go? It’s 160 dollars.”
“It went great!” Bokuto blushed thinking about Akaashi’s hands on his back, “Here’s my card.” He handed him his credit card.
Sugawara inserted the card into the machine and waited for the payment to go through before handing him back his card, “Alright, everything looks good!”
“Thank you.” He smiled.
Sugawara nodded, “Before you leave, you should wait for Keiji-Kun, or sorry, Akaashi-Kun as you know him, he might have something to tell you about your tattoo.”
Bokuto smiled, he knew Akaashi’s full name now. Akaashi Keiji. “Okay.” He finally said, and stood there to wait for Akaashi.
It didn’t take long for Akaashi to walk out. He walked over towards Sugawara and Bokuto. “Oh, you can go ahead and leave Bokuto-San.”
“Oh… Okay,” He seemed kind of dissapointed that Akaashi didn’t have anything else to tell him.
Akaashi went to walk behind the desk as Bokuto started to walk out. Bokuto opened the door, and then suddenly turned back around, standing in the doorway. He sheepishly grabbed at his neck with his right hand, holdiing the door open with his back, “Hey, Akaashi-San?” He asked.
This startled Akaashi, it was unexpected, he turned around quickly, “Huh?”
“Do you think I could-” He sighed heavily and decided to just blurt it out, “Can I have your phone number?!”
A huge grin appeared on Sugawara’s face at this question. Akaashi turned bright red, he really wasn’t expecting those words to come out of Bokuto’s mouth.
“Keiji.” Sugawara looked over at him, “If you don’t give him your phone number, I will.” He leaned over to whisper to Akaashi, “I’m almost a hundred percent sure he got that tattoo just to talk to you, so you better give it to him.” He said sternly.
“Okay, okay…” Akaashi sighed, he didn’t do well with guilt trips, “Give me your phone Bokuto-San.” He reached his hand out.
Bokuto walked back into the store, and over to Akaashi, the door closing behind him. He fumbled to grab his phone because of his excitement but finally he got it and placed it into Akaashi’s hand.
Akaashi went over to contacts and added himself. He typed in his name, Akaashi Keiji, and then his phone number. He handed Bokuto his phone back, and Bokuto smiled brightly, “Thank you Akaashi-Kun!”
“From San to Kun in the span of a day huh Bokuto-San?” Akaashi smirked.
“O-Oh!” He chuckled nervously, “If you don't like it, I can go back to Akaashi-San, Akaashi-San.”
Akaashi laughed, “I’m just messing around with you Bokuto-San. Call me whatever you want, you can call me Keiji for all I care.”
“Akaashi-Kun it is!” He smiled and then turned away and walked out of the parlor. Not giving them another chance to exchange anymore conversations.
“Woah, Keiji-Kun, look at you go you little flirt.” Sugawara bit his bottom lip in excitement, also to hold in some of his laughter.
Akaashi looked at him deadpanned, “Shut up.” He rolled his eyes.
“Oh my, he’s getting defensive now, is he?”
“Koushi, I swear.”
“Okay, sorry, sorry,” He surrendered, holding up his hands, laughing to himself.
“Why does he have to be so… Charming? Captivating?” He leaned his arms on the desk, “I don’t know.”
As he said those last few sentences, Sawamura walked over, “Who are we talking about?”
Akaashi turned around, leaning his back against the desk now, “Nobody.” He immediately said.
Sugawara froze upon Sawamura’s arrival.
Akaashi turned back around and leaned in to whisper, “Look who's being awkward now? I can do the whispering thing too.” He smirked.
Sugawara hit Akaashi on the head, “Shush.”
“I- Oh my… Bad time?” Sawamura asked, “I can go- Lovers quarrel?”
Akaashi and Sugawara both burst into laughter at that, “Pfft- I couldn’t-” Sugawara couldn’t get through a full sentence without laughing, Akaashi’s laughter had already died down a little bit, but not too much, “I couldn’t be in-” He was still laughing, “in a lover’s quarrel with Akaashi if I tried, Daichi-Kun.”
“Oh…?”
“Suga-Kun is like my brother…” Akaashi joined in now, “Don’t worry, he’s all yours.”
Both Sugawara and Sawamura blushed at this.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Akaashi held in his laughter and recomposed himself as he apologized, “That was a bit bold of me I didn't mean to break you two. I’m just gonna…” He started walking backwards towards the back of the store, “Go now…” He pointed to behind him with his thumbs and then turned around and walked to the back of the store, sitting down in a chair and pulling out his phone.
***
Bokuto walked into his apartment and there Kuroo was on the couch waiting for him, “Bo- Why were you gone for like more than 2 hours? What happened…?” He stood up and walked towards him.
Bokuto was taking off his shoes, “So… I did a thing. A really impulsive thing. Tetsurou-”
He sighed, disappointed, “What did you do Bokuto?”
“Well… you see… Yeah, it’s probably better if you just look actually…” He pulled off his shirt, carefully since his arm was pretty sore from the tattoo. He turned around and showed Kuroo the tattoo.
“You got a tattoo?!” Kuroo yelled, “Why Bokuto?!”
He turned back around so that he was facing Kuroo again, then he walked past him over to the couch, “Well you see, Akaashi-Kun works there. He actually just started working there today, so that’s why you’ve never seen him, but… Uh, I couldn’t think of a reason I was there when I saw him so I just…” He chuckled, and sat down on the couch heavily, “Got a tattoo. He gave me a tattoo.”
“How much did you spend?!”
“Like… 160 dollars…?”
Kuroo sighed, “Oh my god, Bo.”
“On the bright side,” He lit up, “I got his phone number!”
“Only cost you 160 dollars, good job Bo.” He teased.
“Hey! It’s a good tattoo though, right? I actually really love it.”
“Yeah, it is.” Kuroo looked at Bokuto’s back, which he had turned towards him so that Kuroo could see the tattoo better, “He actually did really well with the shading and everything. How long has he been tattooing for?”
“He said almost 6 years.” Bokuto answered.
“Wow…”
Bokuto nodded and sat with his legs criss-crossed on the couch now, “Y’know, apparently he used to live here when he was younger? He said that this is his hometown and that he moved away when he was 21.”
“Why’d he move?”
Bokuto shrugged, “he didn’t say.”
“Why’d he move back then.”
“I don’t know, Tetsurou!” Bokuto shook his head, “He didn’t say. He didn’t say either of those. He’s very calm and collected, and logical, so he clearly didn’t want me to know or else he would have told me!”
“So he’s very different from you?” Kuroo scoffed and laughed at the same time, playfully. Bokuto was the kind of person who spoke whatever was on his mind unless there was something, or someone, clouding it.
“Shut up Tetsurou!” Bokuto whined, “All I know is that he’s really nice and cute and… nice...” He sighed, “He’s too good to be true and I actually have his phone number.”
Kuroo laughed at Bokuto, “So, are you going to call him?”
“Not yet!” He almost yelled, “He’s at work and I, like, just talked to him, I don’t wanna seem like… desperate or something."
“Makes sense,” Kuroo nodded, “When are you gonna call him?”
“I don’t know! When are you gonna call Kozume-Kun?” Bokuto turned the conversation around.
Kuroo blushed, “Well, for your information, I happen to have a date with Kenma tonight.” He bragged, smirking.
Bokuto’s mouth dropped, “What? Since when? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Kuroo chuckled at Bokuto’s surprise, “I called him last night, at like midnight and asked him to go on a date. He agreed.”
***
Once Akaashi was finished with his third tattoo of the day, the 2nd one that actually had an appointment, he went over to the reception desk, relieving the person who was there of her duties, since she had been at the desk for the last few hours.
Shortly after that, Sugawara came to join Akaashi, “So…” He said, opening the gate that leads to behind the desk, and sitting on a chair next to Akaashi, “If he calls, are you gonna agree on a date?”
Akaashi sighed heavily and leaned his forehead against his hand that was propped up on the desk, “I don’t know,” He was rubbing his forehead, “I just got out of a relationship like 2 weeks ago, Suga-Kun,” He looked over to Sugawara, “Besides he might really just wanna be friends and I’m not sure I even want any sort of relationship anymore. Love is just fucking bullshit.”
“I think it’ll be good for you, Keiji-Kun, you suspected for a year that he was probably cheating on you, you’d already accepted the fact that it was probably true…”
“I know, I know… But actually catching him in the act,” He gulped, “I just… It hurt more after I saw them together in our bed…” He grabbed his head with both of his hands and rubbed both of his hands through his hair and looked to the ceiling, “I loved him, I really loved him, Suga…” He tilted his head to the right to look at Sugawara, “But I wasn’t enough for him and I’m not sure I can go through anything like that again...”
Sugawara sighed and licked his lips, “I’m sorry… I know that Tooru-Kun and I have been kind of pushing this on you about this. We just want you to be happy, we don’t like seeing you all upset like this all the time. Especially after you called us, sobbing, that night.”
“Heh, yeah… I just don’t think that I-” The phone rang at that moment, “Oh, got it.” He picked up the phone, “Hello, I’m Akaashi, thank you for calling Xtreme Tattoo’s, how can I help you?”
“I’d like to book an appointment please?” The person over the phone said.
“Okay, do you have a specific artist in mind?” Akaashi asked.
The voice stayed quiet for a moment, that Akaashi almost thought he lost the line, “Um, no, not really.”
“Oh, alright. What kind of tattoo are you looking for?”
“I’d like a portrait of my son.” The voice said.
“Okay, so we actually have two really good artists that do portraits…” Akaashi continued talking to the person on the other line and by the time he was finished, Sugawara had gone back to do another tattoo as his client entered the building.
***
At around 7pm, both Sugawara and Akaashi were able to go home. They walked together and when they entered the house, Oikawa was there on the couch watching tv.
He was home before them pretty much all the time since he was a professional volleyball player.
“Hey Tooru-Kun,” Both Akaashi and Sugawara greeted him as they took off their shoes as they walked in.
“Hello Keiji-Chan and Ko-Chan!” He waved, “How was work?”
“Well…” Sugawara started, “Keiji-Kun’s little crush came into the parlor today and he gave him a tattoo!” Sugawara told Oikawa as he sat on the couch next to him.
“No way!” Oikawa smiled.
“Yeah…” Akaashi sighed, “It happened.” He walked over to the couch and sat on the opposite side of the couch that Sugawara did. Oikawa was in the middle of the two.
“And, get this,” Sugawara continued, “Akaashi gave him his phone number.”
Oikawa’s mouth dropped wide open, turning to Akaashi, “You didn’t!”
Akaashi nodded reluctantly, and then his phone rang, “Oh speak of the devil, it’s a random number, wonder who it could be…”
“Answer it. It’s probably him!” Oikawa said.
Akaashi sighed, “I know that it’s probably him, but do I really want to-”
Oikawa took Akaashi’s phone, answered it and then handed it back to Akaashi.
Sure enough it was Bokuto, “Hey, Akaashi-Kun?”
Akaashi gave Oikawa a death glare, and Oikawa held in his laughter as he backed up toward Sugawara who was laughing, “Yeah, is this Bokuto-San?”
“Yeah!” Akaashi could tell that there was a grin on Bokuto’s face just from his voice, “How’re you?”
“I’m doing well Bokuto-San, how about you?”
“I’m actually doing really good!” Bokuto told him, “Do you wanna hang out tomorrow?” He asked and then quickly added, “We don’t have to, I was just wondering if you wanted to, but like…” His voice trailed off, “If you don’t want to we don’t have to.”
Akaashi chuckled, and turned away from the absurd faces that Sugawara and Oikawa were making. That’s when there was a knock on the door, Akaashi was getting up to open the door, but Oikawa ran in front of him to get it first so that Akaashi wouldn’t have an excuse to hang up on Bokuto.
But the person on the other side of the door was excuse enough, “Hey… Bokuto-San… I’ve gotta, uh, go…” And before Bokuto could answer, Akaashi hung up.
Akaashi walked over to the door, and Oikawa moved out of the way, “What the hell are you doing here?” He crossed his arms.
Staring back at Akaashi was his ex, Tsukishima Kei.
Notes:
So I was initially coming to post chapter five because I just finished that chapter (But haven't read through it yet), but because I'm not very smart and forgot to post this one, I had to read through it and make sure it was all nice and grammatically correct and stuff, so uh, I don't have the energy to read through chapter five now because it's 2:32 in the morning and I need to sleep.
I will post chapter five sometime tomorrow most likely since it is already done, just not read through.
Chapter 5: Confrontation
Notes:
And here's the chapter that was supposed to come out last night but because I'm not the smartest person, chapter four had to come out last night.
Here's chapter five, it's kinda short, but the next chapter is going to be a lot longer.
Chapter Text
Confrontation
“Keiji…” Tsukishima looked Akaashi up and down.
“That wasn’t an answer to my question, Kei, what the hell are you doing here?” Akaashi scoffed.
He sighed, “Well you blocked me… on everything… and moved away without saying a word, so here I am.”
Akaashi rolled his eyes and now both Oikawa and Sugawara were behind him, “What do you want?”
“We were together for 3 years, Keiji, you can’t just up and leave without talking to me first.” He flailed his arms.
“Yeah. We were together for 3 years, but you were cheating on me for a year of that relationship, so I’m not too sure you deserve a conversation, Tsukishima.” He shook his head and crossed his arms, “I left because I couldn’t stand seeing you or all of the places we went, that you probably brought Yamaguchi-Kun to as well. The memories were too much, Kei.”
“I’m sorry Keiji, really, I am.” Tsukishima reached for Akaashi’s hand on his arm, but Akaashi unfolded his arms and put his hands behind him, he sighed, “Please, can we just talk?” He glanced over at Sugawara and Oikawa, “...Alone…?”
“Why?” Akaashi asked, “Why should I talk to you?”
“Please?”
He looked back at Sugawara and Oikawa, then back to Tsukishima, “Fine.” He slipped on some slippers, walked out of the house, closing the door behind him and sat down on the step.
“Keiji, I’m so sorry that you had to catch Tadashi and I…” Tsukishima started his explanation, sitting on the step next to Akaashi.
He took a deep breath, “I knew it was happening. You two weren’t careful about it at all, but if you were in love with him you should have just broken up with me. You didn’t need to lead me on. Yamaguchi-Kun is a nice guy and I know the whole childhood friendship made you two really close, and even when I knew it was happening I tried not to accept it because I didn’t think you’d actually do something like that to hurt me-”
“It wasn’t to hurt you!” Tsukishima interrupted.
Akaashi ignored him, and continued, “We were living together. you asked me to move in with you, Kei, so as to why you would cheat on me I have no fucking idea. I loved you- Love you so much, but clearly it’s not reciprocated.” He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.
“Keiji!” He stood up and pulled Akaashi up by his hands, “I didn’t cheat on you for a year and not tell you because I didn’t love you god damnit! I cheated on you because I love Tadashi too and I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to hurt you!” He shouted, holding both of Akaashi’s hands.
“Too late.” He licked his lips and looked down at the floor, “I’m beyond ‘hurt’, Kei.” He made eye contact with him now, “You broke me. I didn’t get out of bed for almost a week. I stayed at a hotel for both of those weeks and survived off of room service, beer, and television. I didn’t talk to anybody except for Suga-Kun and Tooru-Kun on the night I caught you. They called me many times afterwards but my mental state could not handle talking to anyone. After that week I tried leaving the hotel but things kept reminding me of you. Eventually I started running out of money because I got fired from my job because I wasn’t coming in so I couldn’t pay for the hotel and I moved back here. I was finally starting to piece myself back together.” He let go of his hands now, and slowly reached up to Tsukishima’s face, stroking his cheek with the back of his hand, “Seeing you here… I am trying my best not to break down on the spot.” His eyes started filling with tears.
“I really didn’t mean for this to happen, Keiji… I am so sorry.” Tsukisima wiped Akaashi’s eyes so that they were void of tears, “Please don’t cry…” He whispered, tears starting to form in his eyes.
“I’m trying not to…” He took a deep breath and blinked back his tears, “Can you just please leave? Go be happy with Yamaguchi-Kun and just… leave me alone so that I can be happy too?”
He sighed heavily, “I can do that if it’s what you really want, Keiji…”
Akaashi smiled, “Thank you.” He started crying and pulled him into a hug, burying his face into his chest, “Thank you, Kei…”
Tsukishima stroked his hair, “mhm… Of course.”
Akaashi let go of him and wiped away his tears, taking a deep breath and chuckling so that he wouldn’t cry again, “I love you, I always will. Goodbye.” He stepped on his tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek which Tsukishima returned and Akaashi turned to go back into the house.
“I love you too… Goodbye…” He went to walk back to his car, where Yamaguchi was waiting for him.
Once Akaashi got back into the house he found Sugawara and Oikawa scurrying away from the window, “That was very obvious coming from you two,” Akaashi said.
“You kissed his cheek and he kissed your cheek.” Oikawa stated the obvious, “Why did you kiss his cheek?”
“Why cheek kiss?” Sugawara added.
“It was a goodbye kiss. He’s gone for good.” Akaashi gulped and shrugged, heading towards the kitchen, “I don’t really wanna talk about it.”
“Well are you okay?” Sugawara sighed, “You were crying…”
“I’m fine.” He said, “Everything is fine.”
“Are you sure Keiji-Chan?” Oikawa asked.
“Yes, I am sure.”
***
“Kuroo!” Bokuto ran out of his room, about a couple minutes after Akaashi hung up on him, and into Kuroo’s room, “Kuroo! Tetsurou! He hung up on me!” He whined, “He hung up on me, he probably hates me, I think I did something wrong!” He flopped onto Kuroo’s bed.
“Who?” Kuroo asked, “Akaashi-San?”
Bokuto nodded, still whining, “Uh-huh.” He frowned.
“Well maybe something came up.” Kuroo suggested, “Just because he hung up doesn’t mean he hates you Bo.”
“Ah, but what if he does hate me? What if I annoyed him, or tried moving too quickly and now he hates me?”
Kuroo laughed, “Calm down Bo, I’m sure something just came up and he will call you back.”
“Or he hates me.” Bokuto added.
Kuroo shrugged, not arguing with Bokuto, “Or he hates you,” he nodded, teasing Bokuto for overreacting.
Bokuto sat up and threw a pillow that was at the end of the bed at Kuroo’s face, “Rude. You’re supposed to reassure me into him not hating me. Hmph," He pouted, and then remembered the time, "Hey, aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for your date?”
“No, it’s not until 8:00…”
“It’s 7:30, Tetsurou…”
His eyes widened, “What? Really? Already? Shit, his house is 15 minutes away and I have to pick him up. Sorry Bo, you’re on your own….” He got up, panicking and started getting ready as quickly as he could.
Bokuto sighed and went back to his room. He sat down on the floor and stared at his phone, “What did I do wrong?” He mumbled to himself.
Then his phone lit up and started ringing, the caller id said ‘Akaashi Keiji’, Bokuto lit up almost as much as his phone, he had a huge grin on his face as he answered the phone, “Akaashi-Kun, hi!”
“Hello Bokuto-San, I’m sorry about hanging up on you earlier, someone came to my door and I had to talk to them. I’d love to hang out with you tomorrow.” Akaashi said, remembering what Bokuto asked before Akaashi hung up.
Bokuto smiled, “Really? Well we could go get ice cream or… go to the park… or we could just go get coffee if those things are too childish, I dunno… Tetsurou-Kun says I’m really childish but-” He started suggesting ideas.
Akaashi interrupted him, “Bokuto-San, calm down…” He chuckled and it gave Bokuto butterflies, “We can do whatever you want. I’ll probably be off of work around 5pm, unless a walk-in comes in and I have to do that.”
“Okay, well then we can go get ice cream and then take a walk in the park?” Bokuto suggested in the form of a question.
“That sounds good.”
“Perfect, I’ll be at work, the flower shop,” he reminded Akaashi, “When you get off work you can just come across the street and we can go.” He chuckled though it was more a giggle of excitement.
Akaashi loved hearing the sound of Bokuto laughing, it made him chuckle as well, “Sounds good, Bokuto-San, I will see you tomorrow.”
“Okay, see you soon Akaashi-Kun!” Bokuto smiled and Akaashi hung up.
Chapter 6: The First Date
Notes:
Okay, longer chapter. Enjoy :)
Chapter Text
The First Date
Akaashi walked out of his room after his call with Bokuto. Oikawa was in the living room, but Sugawara was in his room.
“Hey Tooru,” He walked over and sat on the couch next to Oikawa.
“Keiji-Chan, hey!” he looked over at him, “What’s up?”
Akaashi sighed, “Okay, don’t freak out, or get too excited but… I have a date with Bokuto-San tomorrow…” He started talking quickly now, “Well at least I think it’s a date. He made it sound like a date but-”
Oikawa got very excited and cut him off, “Oh my god! A date? Really?” He got up and ran to Sugawara’s room, instead of talking to Akaashi, he slammed open the door without knocking, “Ko-Chan! Keiji-Chan has a date!”
Sugawara came out of his room, “No way. You’re lying.”
“I’m not! He does, tell him Keiji-Chan, tell him!”
Akaashi sighed, “Yes, I have a date…” Akaashi admitted.
Both Sugawara and Oikawa were more visibly excited than Akaashi was.
“When is it?” Sugawara asked.
“Whenever I get off work tomorrow,” Akaashi sighed, “Can we not make a big deal out of this? I have a tattoo request to go design.”
“Fine…” They said and Akaashi walked off to his room and sat down at his desk, getting started on a tattoo design.
He worked on the design for about 6 hours and was able to go to bed a little after 2 in the morning.
***
Akaashi woke up at 7 and got ready for work. Sugwara had left about 30 minutes before he woke up, and arrived at around 6:40. Akaashi arrived just before 8:15.
Akaashi’s day seemed to go by very slowly as he thought about Bokuto and spending time with him.
He didn't know why he was so excited, after Tsukishima cheated on him he told himself that love was bullshit and that he was going to take some time before even considering another relationship, yet he kept glancing out of the window, across the street to see if he could spot Bokuto, but he never seemed to be in Akaashi's range of sight.
A customer for Akaashi walked in so they headed to a back room and started on the tattoo, which kept his mind off of Bokuto for a while. Akaashi showed them the design that he had prepared the night before and the customer liked it, so he went ahead and got started.
The tattoo took him about 7 hours to complete, and by the time it was completed it was already almost 4pm.
Once the tattoo was complete, he went over to the reception desk and sat down.
He sat there for 30 minutes before one of the older tattoo artists, who happened to be a manager at the shop as well with 20 years of experience tattooing, walked over, “Hey, Akaashi-San, you’re free to go. You did a long tattoo today and Sugawara-Kun said you have somewhere to be, you can leave.”
“Really?” Akaashi smiled, “Thank you.”
He nodded, “Of course. Have fun.” He smiled.
Akaashi got up, bowed, and headed out of the parlor. He took a deep breath before walking over to the flower shop.
Once he entered the flower shop, there was no Bokuto in sight, however, Kuroo noticed him, “Hey, Akaashi-San, right?”
Akaashi nodded.
“One sec, Bo is in the back, let me go get ‘im.” Kuroo said, already walking to the back of the shop.
Yachi smiled at Akaashi, “Bokuto-San seems really excited. Good luck.” She chuckled sweetly.
Akaashi turned his head over to Yachi as he heard her voice, “Oh, thank you.” He smiled softly.
Bokuto came running out with Kuroo walking behind him, “Akaashi-Kun!” The smile on big bright Bokuto’s face was contagious, causing Akaashi to smile as well, “You came!” He had his hands behind his back as he approached Akaashi, he brought his hands to the front of him once he got to Akaashi and there was a bouquet of flowers in his hands, “Here.” He handed them to Akaashi.
“These are for me?” Akaashi was appalled, he wasn’t expecting any sort of gift.
Bokuto nodded, “Mhm!” Akaashi found his smiling and nodding adorable.
“Well, thank you Bokuto-San. Shall we get going now?” Akaashi asked.
“Yeah.” He said and they both walked out of the flower shop, “Do you wanna walk or take my car?”
“We can walk. The ice cream place is just down the street,” Akaashi pointed over to it.
They walked over to the ice cream shop together and once they got in they walked up to the counter and ordered their ice cream, “I’d like a scoop of french vanilla please.” Akaashi said and turned to Bokuto, “What do you want?”
“Um…” He looked at all of the flavors, “I dunno, you pick one for me!” He giggled.
Akaashi chuckled, “Okay… How many scoops do you want?” he sighed and looked over at the flavors, awaiting Bokuto's answer.
"Um... 2." He smiled.
Akaashi then looked back up to the person who was scooping the ice cream, “2 scoops of sherbet for him please.” Akaashi chose the colorful ice cream because it reminded him of Bokuto’s personality.
“Alright,” The person scooped the ice cream then walked over to the register and told them the price.
Akaashi reached to get out his wallet to pay when Bokuto stopped him, “I asked you out, I’m paying.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll pay.” Akaashi smiled, opening his wallet.
“No! Me pay.” He reached for his wallet too.
Akaashi sighed and put his hand on Bokuto’s, closing his wallet, which made Bokuto freeze immediately, feeling the touch of Akaashi’s hands, which were surprisingly warm compared to the other day during the tattoo, “Bokuto-San, please. Let me pay. You can pay next time.” He insisted.
Bokuto smiled softly, “There’s… gonna be a next time?”
Akaashi blushed, “I mean… I don’t see why not.” He shook his head to maintain focus, “Come on, let’s pay this poor man, he doesn’t need to watch us.”
“Oh, no worries.” The employee said, “Take your time.”
“Thank you, I apologize.” he grabbed his card out of his wallet and handed it to the employee, “Here.”
The employee swiped the card and they grabbed their ice cream and went to find a table. Akaashi didn’t want to sit near too many people so they found a nice, isolated, table near the back of the store next to a window.
Their conversation started, “So….” Bokuto started, “What’s your favorite thing to tattoo?”
Akaashi laughed at the suddenness of the question, “Um… I really enjoy things like swords and dragons.”
“Really? I was expecting like… books or something. Since you’re, like, so quiet.”
Akaashi nodded, “I enjoy the variety in both swords and dragons. They can both be very simple or fairly detailed. They are also some of the more common tattoos people come in to get, as well as skulls, similar to the one you got.” Akaashi explained.
Bokuto liked hearing Akaashi talk almost as much, if not more than hearing himself talk, “How many tattoos do you have?” He asked.
Akaashi thought, counting them in his head, “Not too many, but I have let Suga-Kun experiment on me a couple of times. I have about 4 total.”
“Really? What are they?!”
“Um…” He hesitated because there was one tattoo he didn’t really enjoy anymore, which also happened to be the main reason he doesn’t like tattoing names very much, “I have the small tree I told you about on my lower left back, I have a small lightning bolt near right here,” He pointed to his right side, right underneath his armpit where his arm would cover, “And I have a this one too,” He showed Bokuto his left wrist, which on the underside of it had a small black infinity sign, but covered the spot right underneath it with his sleeve, seeing as it had the name ‘Kei’ written under it, he got not too long after he and Tsukishima moved in together, Tsukishima got a matching one with his name, they had always liked the play on their names. Kei and Keiji. “Finally, I have a rain cloud on my left shoulder.”
“Wow…” He had pretty much finished both scoops of his ice cream while listening to Akaashi talk, “That’s so cool! I only have the one from yesterday…” He chuckled.
“Really? That was your first tattoo?” Akaashi was surprised because of how well Bokuto handled it, “I’m surprised.”
“Surprised? Why?” He was confused.
“Most first timers have a really hard time getting used to the needle. How’s it healing by the way?” He asked, entering work mode, “How much reddness is there? Is it sore at all?”
“Oh- Uh…” Bokuto panicked with all the questions being thrown at him, you’d think he’d be good at keeping track of questions with how many he asks, but he isn’t, “It feels fine, I guess? Tetsurou-Kun says it’s healing well and he has like 6 or 7 tattoos, I’ve lost track.”
“That’s good, as long as it isn’t too sore.” Akaashi nodded and focused on Bokuto, “How many piercings do you have?” He asked, motioning towards his septum piercing.
“Oh just this one,” Bokuto started playing with his septum piercing, “Tetsurou wanted me to get one with him, so I agreed!”
“Well I think it looks great,” Akaashi complimented, causing Bokuto to blush.
Akaashi finished his ice cream, “So, do you wanna go to the park now?”
Bokuto nodded, still blushing as they got up and walked out of the ice cream shop, and over to the park which was really close by, “It’s actually really nice out today.” Akaashi mentioned, “Especially for it being 5.”
“Mhm…” Bokuto agreed, but seemed distracted by something.
Akaashi noticed, “What is it Bokuto-San?”
“Well- I- Uh-” He stammered, “I want to- Can I hold your hand?” He finally got the question out.
Akaashi’s lips curved into a soft smile, “Yes, Bokuto-San, you can hold my hand.” He chuckled at how nervous Bokuto was.
Bokuto’s expression turned into pure excitement and he was practically jumping up and down, “Really?”
Akaashi nodded, “Yes.”
Bokuto grabbed Akaashi’s hand and they intertwined their fingers, it felt like it was something they had been practicing everyday for years. It felt natural.
They were walking along the path in the park, talking, when suddenly Akaashi stopped near the water fountain, where two people were sitting and talked, holding hands and laughing. Those two people happened to be the two people that Akaashi definitely did not want to see today, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, laughing.
“What’s wrong, Akaashi-Kun?” His eyebrows furrowed into a confused look.
“Um,” He gulped, remembering the conversation from last night, “Let’s turn around… Away from the fountain.” He said, staring at Tsukishima who was staring at Yamaguchi with a look of pure happiness on his face.
Akaashi made eye contact with Tsukishima for a split second before tightening the grip on Bokuto’s hand and pulling him away from Tsukishima, “What’s going on? What’s wrong?” Bokuto asked again.
Akaashi glanced behind them, and then looked back at Bokuto, their hands still interlocked, "Um… It was just someone I knew that I don't wanna run into…" He told Bokuto.
"Oh…" he shrugged, "okay then! Let's go this way." He started walking, with Akaashi, further away from the fountain.
However, someone tapped Akaashi's shoulder and when he looked back, it was Yamaguchi, and further back was Tsukishima looking slightly embarrassed and upset, "Akaashi-San…" Yamaguchi said.
"Yamaguchi-Kun." Akaashi greeted him, trying to keep his cool, especially in front of Bokuto.
Bokuto stood idly by, a tad confused, but didn't want to interrupt.
Akaashi let go of Bokuto's hand, crossing his arms, "What do you want?" He looked behind Yamaguchi, a good distance away, to Tsukishima, who was coming closer now.
"To apologize." Yamaguchi said, "I was in the car the night Tsukki came over to your house and I saw you... and I came over here so that I could apologize because-"
Akaashi interrupted him, not wanting Bokuto to know too much about the situation, "I'm kind of busy right now."
Tsukishima was next to them now, also probably noticed the flowers in Akaashi’s hand as well as him previously holding Bokuto’s hand, "Tadashi, let's just go. I promised Keiji that I'd leave." He said, in a hushed voice.
"Tsukki, I have to apologize. I feel terrible after seeing him like that-"
"Just… let's go Tadashi." Tsukishima grabbed his hand and started pulling him away.
Bokuto looked at Akaashi, "who were they?"
"The people that I know who I don't want to talk to." Akaashi said bluntly, Bokuto's face looked very confused but he tried going with it. Akaashi sighed in defeat at Bokuto's clueless face, and decided to just tell him the bare minimum, despite only knowing him for a couple of days, “The blonde one, with the glasses, is my ex.”
“O-Oh…” Bokuto was shocked by this information, but didn’t really want to press Akaashi about it, because as much as he loves asking questions he knows when to hold back.
Akaashi nodded, and the two started walking again, Akaashi taking Bokuto’s hand and leading him elsewhere. Akaashi brought Bokuto to an area of the park that was very secluded from the already very limited number of people there. It was a small area that was surrounded by trees with grass on the floor growing flowers. It was quite a secret little area now that Akaashi actually thought about it, but he had found it one day when he was 9 and it became a comfort spot for him. He was glad to see it still around after so many years, and in pretty amazing condition too. He had kind of brought Bokuto there without really thinking because he was slightly stressed about seeing Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, but he was almost happy to share this spot with Bokuto.
This spot that he hadn’t actually been to in almost 5 years now. Akaashi sat down and Bokuto did the same, sitting next to him, he looked over at Akaashi, “This is a neat place!” He stated.
“It is.” Akaashi simply agreed, playing with the grass with his unoccupied hand after setting down the bouquet of flowers on his lap.
“Just to be clear…” Bokuto started, a bit more serious than himself previously, “You do- You are- Are you interested in me? Because…” He let go of Akaashi’s hand so that he could look him directly into the eyes without being distracted by his touch, “Because somehow I feel that you’re both too good for me but I feel like you might actually like me. I mean I never was good at catching onto signals being thrown or anything like that,” He rambled, “But, the accepting this date and the holding hands makes it so much easier to convince myself that someone as amazing as you could like someone like me and that’s what I’ve been doing since I saw you in the flower shop on mother’s day…” He gulped, “Besides, I’m not too sure you’re too over that ex of yours that we just saw,” He admitted, slightly jealous despite not really having any certain reason to be, especially since they weren’t even technically dating, “And I don’t want to be used as some kind of rebound or-”
“Look, Bokuto-San,” He interrupted him in his rambling, “I am interested in you. I’m not sure why, if I’m being honest, but something about you caught my interest and you’ve kept my interest. But, I am interested in you, more than I’d like to admit to myself, because after Kei I convinced myself that love was a fucking joke and that there was no way I'd actually want a new relationship any time soon, but I do, in fact, like you,” He admitted, surprised that Bokuto, this lively and energetic guy he knew, could actually be so serious, “As for Kei, I won’t lie to you, I don’t want to lie to you, I don’t think I’m completely over him at all and I’m not a hundred percent sure that I ever will be. We’ve known each other for almost 8 years now, the tension was there for about all of those years. Long story short, He admitted his feelings towards me about 2 years into our friendship, I denied them because I thought there was no way I could be gay and we stayed friends with quite a bit of awkardness.”
Akaashi couldn’t believe he was actually telling Bokuto all of this. He had just met him a little over 48 hours ago, yet he continued, “I realized that I was, in fact, a gay man a while later and came out publically when I was 20, a couple months shy from 21. Kei then asked me out, taking it as his chance, and I agreed, we moved really fast and within 2 months of dating we moved in together in Miyagi. We both got this tattoo,” he revealed the full tattoo on his wrist, name and all, Bokuto seemed more shocked by that than anything else Akaashi was telling him.
“Things were great for the first 2 years, we both worked at the same tattoo parlor, we lived an amazing life together. Then I suspected him cheating on me, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t want to lose him.” He shrugged, moving on, “A year later, I caught him and Yamaguchi-Kun in our bed, both of them…” There was a small pause, “naked.” He inhaled sharply thinking about that horrible memory, “Kei admitted to them doing this behind my back for the entire year I suspected it. I was in a really bad place for a couple of weeks, until I moved back to Tokyo, here, with 2 good friends of mine and met… you.” He smiled softly, even after telling Bokuto so much, and ready to probably get fairly judged, “And, Bokuto-San, by no means am I trying to lead you on or use you in any way.” He said, very genuinely, “But I might be using you as a rebound subconsciously to try to forget about Kei. For that, if it is true because honestly I don’t even know, I apologize. However, Bokuto-San, I do genuinely have so much interest and captivation towards you, and want to get to know you some more. We might just have to take it a bit slower in the romantic category, for my sake, or maybe even more for yours, I don’t want to end up using you in the slightest and I’m not sure why…” The long story that he had made shorter had still ended up as a fairly long explanation.
All he got out of that whole thing of pouring his heart out to this man he just met was a lively smile and a, “Okay then! I appreciate your blunt honesty.” His smile softened a bit, “I’m sorry about your ex. We can most definitely take it as slow as you want!”
“If at any point you feel like I’m using you… please, call me out?” He told, no, asked Bokuto.
“I will.” He chuckled, reassuring Akaashi, “I really like you and if you’re willing to tell me all of that, trust me with it despite barely knowing me and without really knowing my intentions, then… I think you’re trustworthy.” Bokuto being a lot more calm was somehow refreshing, and reassuring Akaashi that Bokuto wasn’t too energetic for him.
“Didn’t really expect to have such a deep conversation on the first date…” Akaashi said.
Bokuto laughed, “So you do consider this a first date? I wasn’t completely sure…”
Akaashi just then processed what he just said, he was normally very good with thinking before speaking but the words just kind of came out. He stayed silent and just looked at Bokuto, admiring his features.
“Akaashi-Kun?” Bokuto tilted his head at the silence.
Akaashi zoned back in, “Yeah? Sorry.” He nervously looked away from Bokuto and focusing on a flower on the ground, avoiding eye contact.
Bokuto moved on from the question he asked, his normal personality shining back through. He practically threw himself on the ground looking up at what would be the sky, but was instead a layer of dense leaves, no sky peeking through, “How’d you find this place? It’s very… hidden.”
“I found it when I was 9. Koushi, or Sugawara-Kun as you know him, Tooru, who you don’t know, and I all found it together. We deemed it as a secret hide out of sorts. I also came here a lot to think, and generally just sort out my thoughts, moreso when I was a teenager questioning my sexuality, or thinking about volleyball strategies, or whatever.” he explained, sheepishly chuckling, “Basically, Koushi, Tooru and I were just exploring, we always came to this park on saturdays, one of our parents had always agreed to take us, and we were exploring, adventuring and Tooru found this area.”
“It’s so cool!” Bokuto smiled up at the leaves, admiring them.
Akaashi smiled warmly, “I’m glad you think so.” He looked down at his watch, “Oh jeez, it’s nearly 7:00… I should probably get home.”
Bokuto sat up, “Yeah! Me too.”
The two of them walked out of the park and back towards the lower shop, where Bokuto’s car was.
“You sure you’ll be okay walking by yourself? I can give you a ride, Akaashi-Kun!”
“My house is really close. It’d just be a waste of gas, thank you for the offer though, Bokuto-San.” Akaashi insisted on walking.
“Okay then, I will talk to you later then…” He smiled, and waved, “Bye!”
“Bye.” He nodded and started towards his house.
About three minutes into his walk, a car approached him, one he deemed to be more familiar than he’d like, it was Tsukishima’s car.
It crept towards him until it came to a full stop, Yamaguchi came out of the passenger seat, and Tsukishima walked out of the driver seat, sighing. Visibly embarrassed.
“You’re alone now.” Yamaguchi stated the obvious, “Can I apologize now?”
“There’s no need for you to apologize.” Akaashi mumbled.
“Yes there is.” He pressed, “I was a dick to you since Tsukki and I met you because I had always had feelings for Tsukki but he liked you. I was even more of a dick to you after you guys started dating. I almost enjoyed seeing you so upset after catching us.” He admitted.
Tsukishima sighed, “Tadashi.” He said, sternly.
“However,” Yamaguchi glanced over at Tsukishima almost as if he were saying ‘calm down, I know what I’m doing’, he turned his attention back to Akaashi, “Seeing you break down like that on your porch made me feel really, reallly bad. I’m truly sorry, Akaashi-San.” He bit his bottom lip in an almost reluctant, or scared, manner, “We should have just come clean to you.”
Akaashi nodded, coldly, and turned around and walked away, not having anything to say to Yamaguchi.
“Sorry, Keiji…” Tsukishima said as Akaashi walked off.
Akaashi quickly turned back around, he wasn’t going to say anything if Tsukishima didn’t, but Tsukishima did, “I thought you said you were leaving. I’m trying to be happy here, I’m trying to move on.” He motioned towards the flowers, “It’s really fucking difficult with reminders of you everywhere.” He scoffed.
“We’re leaving tomorrow morning.” Tsukishima said, “You won’t ever have to worry about us anymore, Keiji.”
“Good.” He remarked and walked away, leaving them there.
***
Once he got home, he unlocked the door to find Sugawara looking very annoyed on the couch, followed by the sounds of moaning coming from Oikawa’s room, “Oh my. Who’s he got in there?” This was definitely not what Akaashi wanted to come home to.
“Some new guy I think. Definitely sounds like a guy, but some of those sounds are almost convincing me otherwise,” Sugawara sighed heavily, clearly this had been going on for a little while before Akaashi got home, “Come here,” He patted a spot on the couch next to him, “Suffer with me.”
Akaashi nodded, “One second. Gotta put these in a vase.” He said, motioning towards the flowers, walking towards the kitchen, which had a very convenient vase just sitting on the counter, he put some water in it and put the flowers in the vase then went to sit next to Sugawara, the sounds from Oikawa’s room not still ongoing.
“So, how was your date?” Sugawara smirked, “I see you got flowers.”
“Well… We got ice cream, we talked, we went to the park, we talked, we uh… ran into Kei,” He said that part quickly, “then we talked, we went to that spot in the trees of the park, then we talked.” He summarized it.
“You ran into… who."
“Kei.” He repeated
Sugawara raised an eyebrow at this, “I thought he was leaving?”
“He was… He is… tomorrow.” Akaashi told Sugawara. They then heard more sounds and a little bit of mumbling from Oikawa’s room, “Yay for thin walls, am I right?”
Sugawara chuckled, “Yeah, at least I have the decency to not come here, where I have roommates, for sex.” He rolled his eyes.
“Hm, so you are getting sex.” Was the only thing Akaashi gathered from that sentence, “Sawamura-San?” He smirked.
Sugawara blushed brightly, “Shut up.”
“Aha, it’s nice not being the one on the accusing side for once,” He chuckled, “Is that why you left at like midnight last night? A booty call?”
Sugawara rolled his eyes, “Keiji, if you don’t shut the fuck up I will suffocate you with this pillow!” He shouted, holding up one of the pillows on the couch.
Akaashi snorted, “Good luck." He laughed, and they talked for a little while longer, until Oikawa quieted down, "Hey, sounds like Tooru and mystery guy are done.”
“Hopefully… It’s been going on since I got home at 5:45.” Sugawara groaned and then decided to get up to bang on Oikawa’s door, “You finally done in there? Can we finally get some peace and quiet?” He shouted.
“Shit!” Oikawa’s voice was heard on the other side of the door, he threw on some clothes and walked out of the door, carefully as to not show who the mystery guy was, “You’re home? Since when?”
“You know I normally get home around 4-6. I got home at 5:45. It’s 7:00, Tooru. Like, get it, dude, but at his house next time?”
Oikawa winced, “Yeah, okay… Is Keiji-Chan home too?” He was really hoping he wasn’t.
“Yeah, he is.”
“Hm, great.” Oikawa whined, “Why didn’t you tell me you were home?”
“I didn’t necessarily feel like knocking on your door during that,” Sugawara said almost sarcastically, walking back towards the living room where Akaashi was, Oikawa following behind him, “I decided to let you enjoy yourself.”
Akaashi smirked, “Sooo…. You guys got me to tell you about Bokuto-San, so who’s the guy hiding in your room Tooru?” He wasn’t normally one for pressing people for details, but he was feeling like pressing today.
Oikawa shrugged, “I guess you’ll never know,” He grinned, “I should go take a shower though, I’m a bit unclean currently.” He brought his hand up to behind his neck, rubbing it.
“Ugh, whatever, you’re no fun.” Sugawara rolled his eyes, “Go take a shower.”
“I will.” Oikawa walked away, towards the bathroom.
Once he was out of sight, Sugawara turned to Akaashi, “C’mon.” He whispered, “We’re gonna go talk to the guy.”
“Suga!” Akaashi whisper-yelled, “If he doesn’t want us to know, we shouldn’t go behind his back.”
“Keiji, we have all known each other for over 2 decades, we don’t have secrets.” Sugawara flailed his arms and then grabbed Akaashi’s wrist, dragging him over to Oikawa’s room and opening the door without knocking.
The guy inside was one who neither Sugawara and Akaashi recognized, “Oh, and who might you be?” Sugawara asked the guy who happened to be shirtless at that exact moment.
He panicked and grabbed the nearest shirt, tossing it on, and whipped his head towards Sugawara and Akaashi, “I- uh…” He sighed, “I’m Iwaizumi Hajime.”
“Hm,” Sugawara observed him, “You are Tooru’s type. Muscles. Pretty yet serious face. Professional looking, y’know now that you actually have a shirt on.”
“Looks like a lawyer.” Akaashi mentioned, he seemed to have a knack for figuring out people’s careers.
“How did you know that- Who are you guys?” Iwaizumi questioned.
“Tooru’s roommates.” Sugawara smirked, “Why don’t you go join Tooru in the shower? Bathroom is the room across." He pointed to the bathroom door behind him, "I’m sure he won't mind.”
“Seriously?” Akaashi thought, “You were just annoyed by these two, now you’re convincing this guy to go visit Tooru in the shower?” Akaashi kept to himself.
“Actually, wait a minute, what’s his nickname for you? Probably something stupid, right? Haji-Chan? Iwa-Chan maybe?” Sugawara asked before the guy walked past him to enter the bathroom.
“Iwa-Chan…” Iwaizumi admitted, “How did you know?”
“He gives everyone nicknames. My name is Sugawara Koushi, his nickname for me is Ko-Chan.” Sugawara explained then looked over to Akaashi to speak now.
Akaashi rolled his eyes, he didn’t agree to interrogating this poor guy, “I’m Akaashi Keiji. His nickname for me is Keiji-Chan, which in my opinion is much better than his old one, Aka-Chan.”
That’s when Oikawa walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, his wet hair dripping over his face, he wiped it away from his eyes, causing Iwaizumi to blush, “Guys! Leave Iwa-Chan alone.” He crossed his arms, "I knew you two would do this. That's why I took a quick shower," He sighed.
“Well you wouldn’t tell us who it was, so we had to see for ourselves.” Sugawara chuckled, “It’s what happens when you’re loud for the past hour and a half, I need some form of entertainment after having to listen to that.”
“In my defense, I did not agree to talking to Iwaizumi-San.” Akaashi chimed in, “I’m just going to go to my room now.” Akaashi started walking off, and once he passed Oikawa, he leaned into his ear to whisper, “Good luck with this Tooru-Kun.” He walked over to his room and sat down on his bed, hearing the mumbling of the conversation through the wall.
About 10 minutes later he heard the front door open and assumed that Iwaizumi had left. His suspicions were confirmed when both Oikawa and Sugawara walked into his room without knocking and sat down on his bed, “So, Keiji-Chan, tell us about your date!”
Akaashi rolled his eyes, he was sitting at his desk doing something on his laptop. He closed his laptop and turned around in his swivel chair to look at Oikawa and Sugawara, “Well… When I went over to the flower shop after my shift, he was in the back. His friend went and got him and he gave me flowers,” Akaashi smiled thinking about it, “And we walked down the street to an ice cream shop, the one we used to always go to as kids,” He told them, “And, uh, we talked over ice cream and it was really nice…”
“Okay, well you mentioned running into Kei?” Sugawara recalled.
“Oh right…” Akaashi remembered telling Sugawara that.
Oikawa’s eyes widened, “You ran into Tsukki-Chan? No way.”
Akaashi nodded, “Yeah, after we finished the ice cream, Bokuto-San and I went to the park and walked around talking for a while…” There was a short pause, “I saw Kei and Yamaguchi-Kun sitting on the fountain holding hands, laughing with each other. They noticed me, I walked away with Bokuto-San, but Yamaguchi-Kun approached us and started talking, Kei walked over and told him to stop then Bokuto-San and I left,” He explained as best he could without taking up too much time, “Bokuto-San and I went to that spot in the trees-”
“Wait, that’s still there?” Oikawa asked, appalled.
“Yep.” Akaashi continued, “Then Bokuto-San and I had a pretty deep conversation, which I wasn’t expecting since he seems so… unserious.” He placed his head on the back of his chair and sighed heavily, then he continued to talk with Oikawa and Sugawara more about the date. Including the hand holding, and the conversation.
Sugawara and Akaashi even got Oikawa to talk about Iwaizumi, which honestly wasn’t too difficult because Oikawa really wanted to show off anyways.
***
Bokuto arrived in front of his and Kuroo’s apartment building. He parked in one of the parking spaces and walked up to his apartment, walking up a flight of stairs and unlocking the door.
He got the door open and there he saw Kozume Kenma sitting on the couch, in Kuroo’s shirt, which was obviously too big for him, while playing on some kind of gaming device.
“Kozume-Kun?” Bokuto asked, confused.
“Hello Bokuto-San.” Kozume mumbled, not looking up from his game, “Kuro invited me.”
Clearly both Kuroo and Oikawa had the same idea; to invite someone over while their roommates were out.
“Oh! Where is Tetsurou-Kun?” Bokuto asked.
Kozume shrugged, “Bathroom maybe?”
“Tetsurou!” Bokuto shouted, still standing at the doorway, taking off his shoes now.
“Jeez, do you have to scream?” Kozume huffed, “Can’t you just walk to Kuro?”
“Sorry…” Bokuto mumbled and walked over to the bathroom, knocking on the door, “I’m home!”
“Oh, Bo!” Kuroo shouted from the bathroom, “I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Okay!” He walked over to his room and sat down at his desk, thinking about Akaashi.
Their hands intertwined. The surprising warmth of Akaashi’s hands because they were so cold on his back during the tattoo. That might have just been because of the gloves though, Bokuto thought.
He thought about the conversations they had. He thought about how time seemed to fly when he was talking with Akaashi. He thought about how they ran into Akaashi’s ex…
He thought about what Akaashi told him, “I might be using you as a rebound subconsciously to get over Kei.” He frowned.
But almost immediately perked up remembering what he told him afterwards, “However, Bokuto-San, I do genuinely have so much interest and captivation towards you, and want to get to know you some more.” He thought about Akaashi’s deep voice, trying to imagine him saying that to him once again.
Akaashi actually liked him. He was interested in him.
Bokuto sighed and placed his forehead on his desk with his hands folded over his head.
He walked out of the room to go find something to snack on in the kitchen, and stumbled upon Kozume and Kuroo making out on the couch.
Bokuto cleared his throat to gather their attention.
“Oh shit- I forgot you were back…” Kuroo chuckled nervously as he got off of Kozume, turning to look at Bokuto.
“I told you that Bokuto-San was here and that we should go to your room Kuro.” Kozume mumbled, rolled his eyes and grabbed his game that was set on the coffee table.
“Shut up Kenma.” Kuroo grumbled, “It’s not my fault you’re so irresistible.”
Kozume blushed behind his game, “Stop it Kuro.”
Bokut sighed dramatically, “I just wanted food.” He walked over to the kitchen.
“Oh, I made dinner. There’s some in the fridge for you if you wanna warm it up.” Kuroo told Bokuto as he entered the kitchen.
“Okay…” He walked over to the fridge and pulled out some cold curry that Kuroo made, he warmed it up and then went to go eat in his room, “Have… fun, I guess…” Bokuto sighed, “Come talk to me after Kozume-Kun leaves, Tetsurou.”
“Will do.” Kuroo smirked at Kozume, dismissing Bokuto.
Bokuto went back to his room and Kuroo took Kozume’s game out of his hand, placing it back onto the coffee table and bringing himself on top of Kozume, interlocking their lips. Kozume pushed Kuroo off, “Let’s go to your room this time.” Kozume said.
Kuroo whined, “Fine, let’s go…” Kuroo picked up Kozume, Kozume wrapping his legs and arms around Kuroo. Kuroo smirked and pressed his lips against Kozume’s again and brought him to his room, laying him down on his bed.
A little over an hour later Kuroo walked into Bokuto’s room, “Kozume is a lot louder than I thought he’d be.” Bokuto said upon Kuroo’s entrance, Kuroo sat on Bokuto’s bed with him.
Kuroo smirked, “Yeah… that he is.”
Bokuto groaned, “Ugh, I need to get laid.” He complained, “Didn’t you and Kozume-Kun just go on your first date like yesterday? You guys are already having sex?”
Kuroo laughed, “Yeah, but we were having casual sex for like a few weeks before that, I’m pretty sure I told you.”
“As if I’d remember anything about your sex life,” Bokuto rolled his eyes, “I can barely remember my own.” He laughed.
“That’s because the last time you had sex was like forever ago, you’ve got Akaashi-San now though, don’t you?”
“We’ve been on one date, Tetsurou.” Bokuto sighed, “And besides, he, like, just got out of a relationship.”
“Really? Don’t pursue him then, man, he’s probably emotionally unavailable.” He ran his fingers through his hair.
“I really like him though!” Bokuto smiled thinking of Akaashi, “He’s really sweet and I feel like he genuinely cares about me.”
“You just met him on Sunday, Bo, it’s Tuesday.” Kuroo scoffed, “You get attached way too easily.”
“We had a really good time today and he told me quite a few personal things about him,” Bokuto explained, “I’d feel horrible just leaving him after that, and I’m the one who pursued him. Besides, he is a really amazing person Tetsurou.”
“Whatever you say, Bo, but that means you probably won’t be getting laid anytime soon.” Kuroo let a chuckle out of his nose.
Bokuto shrugged, “It’s already been like 5 months, I think I can wait a little longer.”
“Good luck with that Bo.”
“Well, moving on!” Bokuto started telling Kuroo all about the date.
Chapter 7: Taking it slow- Love?
Notes:
I'm not going to lie, there is a part in this chapter (multiple parts actually) where there is texting (one time on messenger the other time just normally, so it is a bit different in the layout) and the text while texting is supposed to be italics (slanty letters), but I gave up on trying to fix it and make all of it italics (because my laptop broke so I'm on my phone until I can either fix my laptop or get a new one), so some of it is italics some is not so, um, just... pretend?
Chapter Text
Taking it Slow- Love?
It took a little over a month of dating, and 8 dates total, before Akaashi and Bokuto’s first kiss.
It was at the end of their 8th date. They had gone on about 1 or 2 dates a week, though it hadn’t really been anything really fancy, just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.
This 8th date was probably the fanciest one yet. Akaashi had told Bokuto that he was going to take him out to dinner. Akaashi picked Bokuto up from his house and they went to a nice restaurant.
They ate and talked, laughed. By the end of the night they were both very happy. Akaashi drove Bokuto back to his apartment building and walked him up to the door. It was almost 10:00 at night after all, they had been out for 3 hours.
“Goodnight, Bokuto-San.” Akaashi smiled and went to walk down the flight of stairs and over to his car but Bokuto grabbed his wrist before he could start walking, “huh?”
“Can I… kiss you?” Bokuto asked, staring into Akaashi’s eyes which were staring right back.
He hesitated at first, not knowing what to say or do, he nodded, “I’d like that.” He finally said, and leaned towards Bokuto’s face, their lips interlocking and Bokuto let go of Akaashi’s wrist, bringing his arms up to Akaashi’s shoulders, pulling him in by gently wrapping his arms around the back of his neck.
Akaashi pulled Bokuto in too, grabbing his waist. It was his first kiss since Tsukishima and it felt so much better than he thought it would. Their tongues intertwined with each other.
Akaashi inhaled deeply and pulled back, not too far away, from Bokuto, their faces still inches from each other, their foreheads resting on each other, “I feel weird just leaving now…” Akaashi mumbled.
Bokuto chuckled, “Don’t worry, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He mumbled back.
“I’m sure you will, Bokuto-San.” Akaashi smirked.
“When are you going to finally start using my first name, Keiji-Kun?” Bokuto asked.
Akaashi licked his lips, “Would you like me to?”
Bokuto nodded.
“Okay then, Koutarou-San,” Akaashi said, “I will see you tomorrow.” He pulled away and walked down the stairs.
Bokuto walked into his apartment, Kuroo immediately started clapping, “Whoo! Finally got that first kiss, hey?” He laughed.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Bokuto smiled brightly, letting out a dreamy sigh, “Oh it was as good as I imagined it to be.” He walked over to the couch after taking off his shoes and sat down next to Kuroo.
“Only took 8 dates,” Kuroo teased, “have you guys even had the talk about being a couple yet?”
“Nope!” Bokuto responded, “But after that, I’m assuming it’s coming.”
“That was like a good long kiss there, I almost thought that you weren’t gonna come in,” Kuroo laughed.
Bokuto took a deep breath thinking about it, “I wish I didn’t come in. I wish I could just kiss him forever.” He smiled.
***
Akaashi walked over to his car after the kiss. He opened the door to his car and sat down in the driver's side. He inhaled deeply and touched his lips, “That really just happened, huh?” He mumbled to himself.
He was feeling slightly overwhelmed, I mean it was the first guy he kissed after Tsukishima. It had only been 2 months. 2 months since he caught Tsukishima and Yamaguchi.
Even with the overwhelming feeling he was feeling, he also felt absolutely amazing. He felt like he wanted to kiss Bokuto another million times. Although, he couldn’t help but to think of Tsukishima. They were together for 3 years and in those 3 years there were so, so many unforgettable kisses. Unforgettable moments.
He was moving on so quickly and he wasn’t sure how he would be able to handle it. How he was handling it. He decided to start driving home, so that he did. He got home about 15 minutes later, walking into the house he saw Sugawara sleeping on Sawamura’s lap on the couch. Sugawara’s head rested on Sawamura’s lap with Sawamura stroking Sugawara’s hair. Their relationship had been moving pretty quickly, Sawamura stayed the night every now and again and those two became official 3 weeks prior.
“Daichi-Kun.” Akaashi greeted Sawamura, whispering so that he wouldn't wake up Sugawara, even though Sugawara was a pretty heavy sleeper.
“Hey Keiji-Kun,” Sawamura whispered back.
Akaashi finished taking off his shoes and started walking to his room, then he stopped at the couch, “You should bring Suga to his room. I’m assuming you’re staying the night tonight?”
Sawamura nodded, “Yeah, he just fell asleep though and I don’t wanna wake him.”
“Alright, well see you tomorrow then, Daichi-Kun.” He walked into the hallway and towards his room, then decided that he should probably let Oikawa know that he was home.
He walked over to Oikawa’s room and knocked on the door, “Come in.” Oikawa’s voice was quiet.
Akaashi walked in to see Iwaizumi sleeping, cuddled up next to Oikawa who had his glasses on, and was working on something on his laptop.
“I’m home.” Akaashi said.
“Alright.” Oikawa smiled, “You can tell Ko-Chan and I all about your date tomorrow, I don’t wanna wake up Iwa-Chan.”
Akaashi smiled, “Alright.” He decided to tell Oikawa about the end of the date right at that moment though, “We had our first kiss tonight.” He smirked.
Oikawa’s mouth dropped open and his eyes widened, he looked away from his computer screen and to Akaashi’s face, “Great, now I’m gonna have to wait for the details!” He pouted.
Akaashi chuckled and backed away slowly, closing the door, “Goodnight Tooru-Kun.” He closed the door fully.
He walked over to his room, grabbed his laptop from his desk and sat down on his bed.
He was just scrolling through facebook on his laptop when, a little while later, Bokuto messaged him on messenger.
Bokuto Koutarou
Sent at 10:44pm
Hey Keiji, I saw that u were online and wanted to talk
Akaashi Keiji
Sent at 10:45pm
Hey Koutarou-San.
Bokuto Koutarou
Sent at 10:45pm
Can we talk about the kiss? And us??
Oh right… the kiss… Akaashi brought his hand up to his lips, touching his lips again. Remembering the sensation of Bokuto’s lips on his. The way Bokuto wrapped his arms around him.
Akaashi Keiji
Sent at 10:47pm
We can talk about whatever you want.Bokuto Koutarou
Sent at 10:47pm
Well im just gonna say it then, am I ur boyfriend? Are u my boyfriend?
Sent at 10:48pm
Weve been seeing each other for like a month and a half now and I really like u…. Are we a couple?Akaashi Keiji
Sent at 10:48pm
Shouldn’t we have this conversation in person?
5 minutes of seeing Bokuto typing only for the dots to just disappear made Akaashi feel like he did something wrong, until his phone started ringing and he looked over at it to see Bokuto face timing him.
Akaashi answered the facetime, “Hello Boku-” He stopped himself, remembering Bokuto asking him to call him by his first name, “Koutarou-San.”
“Keiji-Kun.” He was laying at the foot of his bed, holding his phone above him, “Could you please answer my question? This is kinda like being in person!” He smiled.
Akaashi chuckled, “Okay…” He hesitated, “Well… I really like you, a lot, and that kiss,” He smiled thinking about it again, “Was amazing… and you, Boku- Koutarou-San are amazing, I’d be lucky to call you my boyfriend.”
Bokuto’s smile grew 5 times wider, which Akaashi didn’t even think was possible, and he sat up in his bed, “Really?” He was laughing from excitement.
“Yes Koutarou-san.” Akaashi smiled, Bokuto’s smile was extremely contagious after all.
“So…” Bokuto confirmed, “You’re my boyfriend?”
Akaashi nodded, “And you are my boyfriend.”
Akaashi found the sheer amount of excitement on Bokuto’s face adorable.
He’d never actually felt this way about someone before. He had a highschool girlfriend, who he definitely did not feel this way about. He had a college girlfriend, who he also didn’t feel this way about. Mainly because they were female, but then there was Tsukishima, who he hadn’t felt this way about either, but he was the closest to comparing how he felt about Bokuto.
He loved Tsukishima, he truly did. But what he felt towards Bokuto was different somehow and he couldn’t quite place his finger on it.
Tsukishima helped him find out who he was. Helped him figure out his sexuality, helped him get through so many different things in his life. Tsukishima was there when Akaashi’s dad died. Tsukishima was there for Akaashi for so many years, but Bokuto was there when Tsukishima left.
Tsukishima who convinced him that relationships were a joke. They’re bullshit, is what he thought. But Bokuto, Bokuto is here to convince him that there are more people there for him. Bokuto is here to convince Akaashi that there is true love. If this is even love.
Love.
Is that what he was feeling? No, no way, he’s only known him for a month and a half, he couldn’t… love him… could he?
No, that’s crazy.
They’re taking it slow… right? Right.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then Keiji!” Bokuto said.
Akaashi smiled, “See you tomorrow Koutarou-San.”
They hung up the phone and Akaashi went back to his thoughts. Boyfriend. Couple. Love?
***
The next morning Akaashi woke up, after just 4 hours of sleep, at 7:00am. He got ready for work and before he headed out he said goodbye to Oikawa and also Iwaizumi, who happened to still be there.
Sugawara, Sawamura, and Akaashi all headed to work together, Sugawara pressing for details about the date and the kiss, which Oikawa had told him about. Sugawara and Sawamura were holding hands, while Akaashi was just walking next to them.
“Why didn’t you wake me up to tell me about the date?” Sugawara whined.
“Because you had just done a 12 hour tattoo in one session,” Akaashi said as if it were pretty obvious, which it was, “You would have literally killed me if I woke you up Suga.”
“Well, that’s true but still!” He continued to whine.
“Babe, calm down,” Sawamura sighed, “Keiji-Kun can tell you all about it when we get to work, neither of you have tattoos scheduled until like 9.”
“Ugh, fine.”
Once they got to work, both Sugawara and Akaashi sat at the reception desk, while Sawamura had to get straight to work because one of his clients came in a little earlier.
“Okay, tell me everything.” Sugawara demanded before Akaashi could even sit down.
Akaashi sighed, “Well, there’s not much to tell…” Akaashi shrugged, “I picked him up, we went to dinner, I drove him home and we… kissed.”
Sugawara almost seemed like he was happier by this news than Akaashi was, “Finally! When are you two gonna make it official? It’s, like, pretty much already official, even sealed it with a kiss.” He chuckled.
“We actually made it official last night… via facetime.” Akaashi told Sugawara.
“And you didn’t think to lead with that?”
“No…?”
Sugawara rolled his eyes, “You are useless. So… When are you two gonna… y’know, seal the deal?” He smirked.
Akaashi turned bright red, “Suga!” He wacked him on the head, “I am still recovering from my past relationship. There’s no way I can ‘seal the deal’,” He scoffed as he used the phrase that Sugawara used, “with Koutarou-San any time soon. Kei still hurts, Suga.”
“Sorry…” He mumbled his apologies, “You’ve just been so much happier with Bokuto-San… You didn’t talk to Tooru and I for 2 weeks after you found Tsukishima and Yamaguchi so… It’s nice seeing you this happy.”
Akaashi shrugged it off and opened the appointment book to verify the timing of the tattoo he had to do that day.
About 6 hours later, Akaashi was sitting in the back of the tattoo parlor, about to take his lunch break when Bokuto walked in, perfect timing.
Bokuto looked over at the reception desk, "Is Akaashi Keiji busy right now?" He asked Sawamura, who was at the reception desk.
"Um, no. He's not available for walk-ins right now though, he's about to go on his lunch break." Sawamura explained, not realizing who Bokuto was.
Akaashi walked over after hearing Bokuto's voice, "Koutarou-San? What're you doing here?"
"I wanted to have lunch with you!" He smiled.
"Oh…" Sawamura realized, "You're his boyfriend. Sorry I didn't realize earlier."
Bokuto shook his head, "Oh no, don't worry! It's okay!"
"Well you came just in time, I'm taking my lunch break now. We can go get something together," Akaashi smiled warmly.
Akaashi reached out for Bokuto's hand, so they could hold hands as they walked, Bokuto grabbed Akaashi's hand eagerly and they headed out.
"See you later Daichi-Kun. I'll be back soon." Akaashi waved with his free hand.
"Bye Keiji-Kun." He waved back.
Bokuto and Akaashi walked to a cafe and got some coffee and lunch together.
Afterwards they both went back to work.
***
Bokuto walked back into the flower shop, “Hey, hey, hey! I’m back!” He said upon entering.
“Hey Bokuto-Kun,” Yachi greeted, while she was taking care of some of the flowers.
“Yachi-Chan,” He greeted her back, despite being the one who originally greeted, “Is Tetsurou in the back?”
She nodded, smiling softly.
“Thanks!” He walked back and found Kuroo getting some pre-arrangements for flowers to be picked up ready, “Tetsurou!”
“Bo!” He yelled back with the same amount of energy.
“Can you please explain to me how I have the most amazing boyfriend ever? Because like… he’s so fucking adorable!” Bokuto couldn’t help but smile thinking about Akaashi.
“I’m sorry, but I have the most amazing boyfriend ever, Akaashi-Kun can be second at best. Kenma is better,” Kuroo grinned.
Bokuto rolled his eyes, “Keiji is the best. That’s it. No arguments! Today at lunch, like 15 minutes ago, we were holding hands, right? And...” Bokuto started telling a random story about something that happened at lunch with very much enthusiasm.
Once Bokuto was finished Kuroo laughed, “God, you’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
Bokuto stopped in his tracks immediately and started blushing, “love…? I-I dunno…” He chuckled, stammering, “No… It’s not love…”
“Quit denying it, Bo.”
“We’ve only been dating for like a month and half, we just became official last night! I don’t love him!” He refused, but it felt beyond wrong as that last sentence came out of his mouth. He sighed heavily, knowing that it wasn’t true. He did love him. He loved him, but he knew he couldn’t admit it.
They’re taking it slow. He can’t… admit it. The last thing he wants to do is scare Akaashi away.
“Bro, you’re just lying to yourself at this point,” He rolled his eyes and started wrapping a bouquet of flowers.
Bokuto pouted, “I can’t love him, can I Kuroo?” He leaned against the wall, ignoring what he was supposed to be doing. That being helping Kuroo arrange the flowers.
“The heart wants what the heart wants.”
“Ugh! You are absolutely no help!” Bokuto complained.
Kuroo laughed, “Sorry?”
He shook his head and started helping Kuroo with the flowers again.
***
After work, Sugawara got off earlier than Akaashi, Akaashi walked home to be greeted by Oikawa, Iwaizumi, and Sugawara.
Oikawa and Iwaizumi were sitting on the couch while Sugawara was in the kitchen cooking, “Do you ever go to your own house?” Akaashi asked, looking at Iwaizumi, “I swear you, like, live here now.”
“Keiji-Chan, be nice. I will have you know that Iwa-Chan actually went home this morning, leaving me all alone. It was quite rude of him if you ask me. I protested, he did not listen.”
Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, “I do have a cat, you know, I can’t leave her alone for days at a time. I have to go check on her everyday, in fact she’s angry at me because I’m not spending enough time at home.”
“Hmph. Not fair.” Oikawa complained.
Akaashi finished taking his shoes off and started walking towards his room.
“Then why don’t you stay at my place more often then, Tooru.” Iwaizumi sighed.
“I second that!” Sugawara shouted from the kitchen.
“As do I,” Akaashi agreed, looking back at the living room from the hallway, “Y’all have 0 decency. I’m not sure I can handle those sounds every other night.”
“Exactly,” Sugawara said.
“You aren’t any better, you hypocrite!” Akaashi shouted, “You and Daichi-Kun are just as loud if not louder!”
“Sorry…” Sugawara mumbled as Oikawa was snickering at this argument.
“I think you’re just upset, Keiji-Chan, because you need to get laid.” Oikawa chimed in.
“Oooh-” Sugawara chuckled, “I wouldn’t bring that up. Sex? Him? Not ready after Kei.”
Akaashi nodded his head, not saying anything.
“Oh. Sorry…” Oikawa said.
Akaashi shrugged and then went to his room.
Later that night, Akaashi came back out to everyone watching a movie.
Oikawa got up from the couch and walked over to Akaashi, “Keiji~” Oikawa giggled, “You’re pretty.”
“Is he drunk?” Akaashi turned to Iwaizumi and Sugawara. Sugawara was laying down on the floor.
“Of course I’m not!” Oikawa said before Iwaizumi or Sugawara could answer, “I’m as sober as a…” He paused, “judge!” He claimed.
“Yeah, he’s drunk.” Iwaizumi sighed, “So is Sugawara-Kun.”
“Hey! Don’t bring me into this!” Sugawara yelled, from the floor, louder than necessary.
“Hey, Keiji,” Oikawa gulped, “When do I get to meet Bokuto?” He pointed at Akaashi’s face, almost as if he were accusing Akaashi of something, “You’ve been dating him for a month and like half a month, and I’ve yet to meet him!”
“I think you need to go to bed, Tooru-Kun.” Akaashi sat Oikawa down on the couch next to Iwaizumi, “Your coach isn’t going to be very happy when you have a hangover in the morning.”
“I agree, babe, let’s go to bed.” Iwaizumi said.
He dramatically spread out his limbs all over the couch, which also happened to be over Iwaizumi, “But I wanna meet Bokuto!”
“You will. We can go on, like, a double date or something evenfually.” Akaashi suggested, and then immediately regretted suggesting that to drunk Oikawa with drunk Sugawara in the room.
“Triple date!” Sugawara sat up quickly, “Oooh- Dizzy.” He blinked a few times.
“Just go to bed you two. It is midnight,” Akaashi shook his head and went back to his room without getting what he originally came out of his room for, food.
Akaashi sat down on his bed and got out his phone to text Bokuto.
you
Sent at 12:19am
So I may have accidentally suggested a double date (which then turned into a triple date) in front of two of my drunk friends… How do you feel about that…?
He sent the text and started working on new tattoo designs. He got a response much quicker than he thought he would.
Akaashi breathed a sigh of relief, he wasn’t sure why he was worried about Bokuto not wanting to meet them, he is a very social person and Akaashi knows that. He was just scared that Bokuto would be scared he guessed, not too sure of himself.Koutarou
Received at 12:23am
Really?! That sounds so much fun! Yknow we could invite my friend and his bf too
Actually… his bf doesn’t really like being around lots of people so that might not be a good idea-you
Sent at 12:24am
So you want to meet my friends? You don’t mind?Koutarou
Received at 12:24am
Ofc I don't mind. Ive already met 1 of ur friends briefly i’d love to meet moreyou
Sent at 12:25am
Well this went better than expected. Like I said, they were drunk when I suggested it, but they both tend to remember everything from when they were drunk so I’ll talk to them more about it tomorrow. Er- Today technically.
You’ll be meeting my friend Oikawa Tooru, who I’ve talked about and Koushi Sugawara, the one you’ve already kinda met. As well as their boyfriends.Koutarou
Received at 12:25am
Looking forward to it! :D
Chapter 8: Triple Date
Notes:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I'm sorry about the delayed update! A friend of mine (that I didn't even know I had) wanted to interact socially with me, so that was... A thing. I also had to go swimming because, summer. There was also like 4 different directions that I was trying to decide to take this chapter by the end, so my indecisiveness didn't help the delay of this chapter either lol.
Also, my laptop is broken (which I think I've mentioned in the notes of this fic, but it very well could have been in the notes of the other fix I'm writing), so I'm writing with my phone which isn't necessarily ideal...
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Triple Date
That morning, Akaashi talked to Sugawara, Oikawa, and Iwaizumi (who hadn’t left because he knew Oikawa would most definitely have a hang over) about the date.
They all remembered and all agreed to it, Sugawara said he’d talk to Sawamura and then could come up with a date for the date.
Later that day, the date for the date was uncovered. It would be a week from then on a Saturday.
***
They all met up in front of the restaurant that they had all agreed on.
Bokuto was the last to arrive, he’s not too punctual, “Hey Koutarou-San.” Akaashi grabbed his hand once he got close enough to Akaashi.
Akaashi introduced him to everyone, pointing at each person as he said their name, “That’s Oikawa Tooru, resident drama queen and his boyfriend, Iwaizumi Hajime, who somehow puts up with Tooru. I don’t know how he does it,” He whispered, though it was loud enough for everyone to hear on purpose.
Iwaizumi chuckled, “Trust me, I don’t know how I do it either.”
“Rude.” Oikawa mumbled, “I’m getting attacked.”
“Anyways, moving on. That’s Sugawara Koushi, he tends to always speaks his mind, and he’s quite chaotic. That's his boyfriend, Sawamura Daichi, who puts up with Suga somehow. Seriously, I don’t know how Daichi-Kun and Iwaizumi-Kun do it.” Akaashi told Bokuto.
“You literally live with us, Keiji, shut up.” Sugawara grumbled.
Akaashi ignored Sugawara's comment, “And everyone, this is my boyfriend, Bokuto Koutarou.” Akaashi wrapped Bokuto into a side hug. Wrapping his left arm around his shoulders and reaching down and grabbing his left hand.
“It’s nice to meet you guys!” Bokuto waved with the hand that Akaashi was holding and bowed.
“Nice to meet you too,” They all said varieties of that same phrase and bowed.
“Welp, let’s go in.” Iwaizumi said.
They all nodded in agreement and headed in, Akaashi walked up to the person there, “I have a reservation at 7:00” It was 7:03pm, “for 6, under the name Akaashi Keiji.”
“Oh perfect, right this way,” The waitress smiled and led them to a big table.
They all sat down, each person was sitting across from their boyfriend. Sugawara and Sawamura were sitting on the left, Akaashi and Bokuto in the middle, and Oikawa and Iwaizumi on the right. Sugawara, Akaashi and Oikawa were on one side of the table while their boyfriends were on the other side.
“So…” Sugawara started, “Bokuto-San, would you like to know some embarrassing stories about Keiji?”
“Suga.” Akaashi grumbled.
Oikawa grinned, “We have plenty. Ko-Chan and I.”
“I will tell both Iwaizumi-Kun and Daichi-Kun embarrassing stories about you two, don’t try me.” Akaashi warned.
“I’d love to hear embarrassing stories about Tooru,” Iwaizumi smirked, “I need something to hold against him.”
“I personally think we should just tell Keiji’s embarrassing stories, because his are the funniest.” Oikawa chimed in, “I, am in no way trying to avoid my stories being told.” He claimed.
Everyone laughed, “So, Bokuto-San, would you like to hear Keiji’s embarrassing stories?” Oikawa changed the subject.
“Of course!” Bokuto smiled.
Akaashi sighed, “You guys better not tell the one I think you guys wanna tell…”
“Oh, I’m most definitely telling it.” Sugawara chuckled, evilly.
“Daichi-Kun, you and I are talking later so I can spill all the stories about Suga.” Akaashi said.
Sawamura laughed, “Okay…”
“Okay, so,” Sugawara started telling the story, “We were all like 6 or 7? Our moms took us to, like, this lake-pond thing and there were ducks, right?"
“Oh! This one?” Oikawa smiled, “Okay, yeah, so there were these ducks, and Keiji-Chan thought that it was a good idea to start chasing them,” Oikawa took over the story telling, “He’s chasing them and his mom is behind him, chasing him, trying to stop him from tormenting the ducks,” Oikawa stifled his laughter so that he could get through more of the story, “Ko-Chan and I were yelling at him to stop.”
Sugawara continued now, “Yeah, we were yelling and his mom was chasing him, and he…" Sugawara laughed before finishing the story, "he trips over a log, and ends up face first in a puddle of, like, mud and water and grass, and maybe feces? It was just gross. So, anyways, his face is full of mud, right? He gets really upset and when his mom asks him why he was chasing the ducks, he said that he wanted to give them a singular cheeto." Sugawara held up one finger, "There were like 9 ducks.”
“He’s sitting there, in the mud, holding up a cheeto and crying because he couldn’t give the ducks the cheeto.” Oikawa laughed, and everyone else started laughing too except for Akaashi who was embarrassed.
“I thought that the ducks would starve if I didn’t feed them, okay!” Akaashi pouted.
“Keiji!” Bokuto was crying with laughter, “I didn’t think you had the spirit to chase down 9 ducks!”
“I was 7!” Akaashi flailed his arms and looked at Oikawa, “How about we talk about the time you tried to feed the giraffe at the zoo because you thought that feeding it your mom’s lipstick would make it prettier, Tooru-Kun?” He looked over to Sugawara, “Or, what about the time you tried pouring an energy drink into your fish tank because you thought it would make them faster, Suga-Kun?”
“Suga?” Daichi questioned, laughing, “Really? You tried that?”
“I expected that from Tooru. He is kind of an idiot,” Iwaizumi chuckled.
“Offense taken.” Oikawa mumbled, “I was 8 and I didn’t know how makeup worked. Hmph.”
Akaashi had a smug look on his face, “Told you I’d tell embarrassing stories back, you're lucky I didn't go into detail like you guys.”
“I honestly have no excuse. I was 13, I knew very well that it wouldn’t work but I tried anyway.” Sugawara winced remembering it.
Everyone started laughing again and that’s when the waitress came by. Everyone ordered food and then went back to talking, “Oh my god! Have you told Bokuto-San about that time when you tried getting a girlfriend but she was like-” Sugawara started.
Akaashi interrupted, “Can we not tell the whole table my embarrassing memories from when I was a very closeted teenager?”
“Keiji-Chan, it’s not even that bad. How about you tell it instead?” Oikawa offered, “If you won’t then we will.” he smiled.
“Fine, fine, fine,” Akaashi sighed, “I’m going to murder the two of you one of these days.” He said under his breath.
“You know you love us.” Oikawa grinned.
Akaashi rolled his eyes and looked at Bokuto, Sawamura, and Iwaizumi, he told the story hesitantly, “Okay, so I was like 15, and I walk up to this girl to ask her out, right? I’m talking to her and I ask her out and she goes, ‘I thought you were gay…’ I mean she wasn’t wrong but-” That got some laughs from almost everyone, “But like, 15 year old me was in, like, huge denial. So I just go…” He paused in hesitation, “I go… ‘what’s gay?’ Mind you, I most definitely knew what gay was. Both Suga and Tooru had already come out, and I was very deep in the closet. I knew what gay was.”
Everybody burst out in laughter at this, “Mhm, and why did you say that?” Sugawara asked between laughs.
Akaashi took a deep breath, “I don’t know, I panicked! Anyways," he sighed, "she goes, ‘aren’t you really good friends with Sugawara-San and Oikawa-Kun?’ and,” He sighed one more time, “I just nod, and she’s like, ‘aren’t they both gay…? How do you not know what gay is?’ and at this point, I’m just, like, baffled, I don’t know what to say so I’m just standing there, awkwardly, Suga and Tooru watching me, laughing, and I just… shrug.”
“Then, then,” Sugawara took over the story now, allowing Akaashi to sigh in slight relief and embarrassment at the same time, “she goes, ‘Akaashi-Kun, it’s okay to be gay, you don’t have to hide it. Besides, I’m not into guys anyways.’ The girl he tried to ask out was a lesbian.” He concluded.
“It was bad…” Akaashi mumbled.
“It was hilarious,” Oikawa corrected.
“Oh, Keiji, you poor thing!” Bokuto was still laughing, he reached his hand across the table to hold Akaashi’s.
Akaashi held Bokuto’s hand, “It was horrible… I said nothing after that, just walked back to Suga-Kun and Tooru-Kun who were laughing their asses off at my awkwardness.”
“This is just gonna be a night of you three exposing each other to us, huh?” Daichi chuckled, “I mean, I’m not complaining, just stating the facts.”
“Daichi.” Sugawara pouted, “You better not hold any of what is said here tonight against me.”
“Oh, you most definitely should use everything said here tonight against him,” Oikawa interjected, “But not you Iwa-Chan, don’t use anything against me.”
“Oh Tooru, babe,” He smirked, “You should know better, of course I’m using everything that’s said here against you.”
Sugawara and Akaashi both laughed, “Good job, Tooru-Kun, wonderful convincing there bud.” Akaashi patted him on the back.
He pouted, “This isn’t fair. Let’s tell more embarrassing stories about Keiji-Kun.”
“I second this.” Bokuto giggled, “These are entertaining.”
“Please… No… What about…” Akaashi thought for a moment before saying anything else, “How about we talk about when Suga-”
“Nope. Nope. Nope.” Sugawara denied, “We will not be talking about me.”
Sawamura smiled, “Well, I think we should talk about you, babe, sounds fun.”
Akaashi took it upon himself to tell a story about Sugawara, “Well, Suga and I went to a volleyball match when we were like 17. It was Tooru-Kun’s team against, uh, my ex boyfriend’s team and Suga and I are sitting there, on the bleachers, watching the game, when suddenly Tooru sets the ball to the ace, they get the point, and win the set, right? Well, this guy, Sugawara Koushi, stands up and decides to yell, on the top of his lungs, ‘Wooo! Go you sexy moootherfuckerrrrs!’”
“You didn’t.” Sawamura held in his laughter.
Sugawara nodded, “Yeah… I got really excited to say the least… It was a close game, okay?!” He tried defending himself, but it wasn’t working in the slightest.
Akaashi laughed, getting his revenge was fun.
The waitress brought out the food, calling out the food names, and each person got their food.
They ate their food, finished up their conversation, paid, which was a bit more complicated than it had to be.
The waitress came over, “Alright, here’s the bill. Are one of you paying or is it going to be a split check?” She asked.
“Oh, split it 3 ways please,” Akaashi said. Sugawara, Oikawa, and Akaashi had all agreed that they’d pay before the date even began.
But suddenly, all 3 of their boyfriends offered to help pay as well, “Koutarou-San, no. We all brought you guys out, we’re paying.” Akaashi told him.
“Exactly, and that’s final, Daichi.” Sugawara said.
Oikawa nodded, “For once I agree with something you two say. You aren’t paying anything Iwa-Chan.”
“So… 3 way split? Or 6 way split?” The waitress needed to confirm.
“Just a 3 way split.” Sugawara confirmed for her, handing her his car, Akaashi’s card and Oikawa’s card.
“I could’ve helped,” Bokuto grumbled.
“Koutarou-San, you literally paid for a tattoo in order to talk to me. I’m paying for dinner tonight. It was our idea for us all to come here, not any of yours, so we are paying.” Akaashi told them all, but mainly Bokuto.
The waitress came back and handed them back their cards. They left the restaurant.
“It was nice meeting you all,” Bokuto smiled, a huge smile, “I had a really great time tonight.”
“It was nice meeting you too, Bokuto-San.” They all said, except for Oikawa who had come up with the nickname ‘Bo-Chan’ for him.
They all separated from each other to head home. Akaashi heard Sugawara shout at Iwaizumi and Oikawa, who were making out next to Oikawa’s car, “Get a room you two! Can’t even get through a dinner without needing to suck face!”
“Shut up Ko-Chan, nobody asked for your opinion!” Oikawa shouted back, then went back to kissing Iwaizumi.
“Yep, those are my friends,” Akaashi said, barely even believing it himself, “Yelling at each other in a parking lot.”
Bokuto laughed, and squeezed Akaashi’s hand, which he was already holding, “I really wish you could meet my best friend for more than just like 3 seconds at the flower shop. Maybe the three of us can go out together sometime soon?” He suggested.
“Well, what if I just met him tonight?” Akaashi asked, “I can come over and meet him, if you want of course.” he quickly added on the end.
The smile on Bokuto’s face grew bigger than Akaashi thought possible, “Really? You’d be okay coming over and meeting him? Really, really, really?!”
Akaashi couldn’t help but smile, “Yes, Bokuto-San- Koutarou-San,” He corrected himself, “Sorry, it’s a habit…”
Bokuto giggled, “It’s okay! I think it’s cute when you mess up,” He smirked.
Akaashi blushed, “Shut up. I’m going to my car, I’ll meet you at your place.”
Bokuto nodded and got in his car, they met up at his apartment building, which was a 30 minute drive.
They got out of their cars and walked over to each other, they interlocked their hands and walked up the flight of stairs to Bokuto’s apartment.
Bokuto unlocked the door to find Kozume sitting on the floor playing a game and Kuroo in the kitchen, “Oh, Kenma-Kun, I didn’t know you were here.”
“Kuro said you were going out and he invited me over.” Kozume mumbled behind his game, not even looking up.
“Hey Bo!” Kuroo shouted from the kitchen, also not looking back, “How’d it go with your precious little Akaashi-San?”
“Tetsurou…” Bokuto blinked, while Akaashi was stifling his laughter, “Keiji is here… to meet you.”
“Oh. Shit.” Kuroo chuckled awkwardly and turned the stove off, turning around to see both Bokuto and Akaashi standing there, “You could’ve warned me. What if Kenma and I were-”
“Kuro, don’t say anything weird in front of Koutarou-San’s boyfriend. Especially if it’s about us.” Kozume looked up from his game to look at Kuroo.
“Sorry, sorry…” Kuroo mumbled, “It’s nice to meet you Akaashi-San,” He bowed, “I’ve heard much about you.”
“Likewise.” Akaashi smiled softly, also bowing, “It’s nice to meet you Kuroo-San.”
“That’s my boyfriend,” Kuroo pointed over at Kozume, “Kozume Kenma.”
“Nice to meet you.” Kozume said, not paying too much attention to anything but his game.
“Nice to meet you too Kozume-San.” Akaashi bowed.
“We should all do something together!” Bokuto decided, and took both his and Akaashi’s shoes off.
“I could have taken my own shoes off, Koutarou-San.” Akaashi sighed.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Bokuto dismissed, “What do you guys want to do?”
Kuroo sighed, “Well, the thing I want to do, you two wouldn’t be included in.”
“Kuro, I told you I didn’t want to have sex tonight. I’m too tired.” Kozume said.
Kuroo nodded, “Yeah, I know, I’m sorry…." His voice then turned into a softer, harder to hear voice, barely a whisper "And you were the one who said not to say anything weird in front of Bo's boyfriend.”
“Ignore them,” Bokuto whispered to Akaashi, “They have, like, no filter.”
“Let’s play, like, truth or dare, or never have I ever, or something!” Bokuto was restless.
“Never have I ever sounds like a fun way to become more acquainted with Akaashi-San.” Kuroo smirked, “Let’s play. We’ll just, uh, totally ignore the food I was making-”
“You can starve, it’s fine.” Kozume told him.
“Whatever, but you’re playing Kenma.” Kuroo walked over to him and took his game.
“Kuro! I was about to beat the level!” Kozume yelled, which shocked Akaashi slightly.
Kuroo went and got a bottle of tequila and four shot glasses, placed Kozume’s game on the coffee table and sat next to him on the floor, leaning against the couch, “too bad, we’re playing and I’ve got the alcohol.”
“Let’s play!” Bokuto moved the coffee table slightly so that he could sit in front of Kuroo, “Come here,” He patted a spot next to him, “Sit, Keiji-Kun.”
Akaashi walked over and sat down next to Bokuto, in front of Kozume.
“So, let’s just get started then!” Bokuto clapped, “Who first?”
“I’ll go first.” Kuroo smirked, “Never have I ever….” he glanced over at Bokuto, “gotten a tattoo to talk to my crush.”
“Tetsurou! That’s targeting! That’s mean!” Bokuto complained and held out his shot glass that Kuroo gave him. Kuroo filled it up and Bokuto took the shot.
“I have.” Kozume said.
“Wait a minute, what? Kenma?” Kuroo questioned, clearly he didn’t know.
“Yeah,” he nodded, “I wasn’t sure how to talk to you, so I got a tattoo so that I could ask you about it since you have lots of tattoos.” He explained and held out his shot glass.
“Damn…” Kuroo shook his head and filled Kozume’s shot glass. Kozume took the shot, “Okay, Bo, you go.”
“Okay, how about I use some of my newfound information from tonight?” Bokuto looked over at Akaashi, “never have I ever chased 9 ducks to give them a cheeto.”
“That’s… oddly specific…” Kuroo laughed, “You aren’t gonna get anyone with that Bo, the point of the game is to-”
“I have… I thought this was supposed to be ‘never have i ever’ not ‘I know you have’” Akaashi held out his shot glass begrudgingly, “Fill it up.”
Kuroo did so, shocked and partially laughing, and Akaashi took the shot, slightly annoyed, but more so just embarrassed.
“Guess that means it’s my turn.” Akaashi said, “Uh… Never have I ever… uh, gone from extremely excited to overly upset in the span of 0.2 seconds.”
“I can’t help but feel targeted here.” Bokuto mumbled and took another shot, “Go Kenma-Kun.”
“Um… Never have I ever…” Kozume thought about what to say because he wasn’t completely sure, “willingly gone to a party.” He shrugged.
“I have, like twice,” Akaashi said, “My friends normally drag me to places though.” Akaashi took a shot.
Both Bokuto and Kuroo took a shot as well, “parties are so much fun though!” Bokuto beamed.
“They are exhausting.” Akaashi mumbled.
“I agree with Akaashi-San on this one.” Kozume concurred.
Kuroo grunted, “Parties are really fun though, Kenma!”
“No.” Kozume rolled his eyes, “Just go Kuro.”
“Okay, okay, okay, fine,” Kuroo took his turn, and they played the game for a little while longer, until they were all pretty drunk.
Akaashi had taken 4 shots, Bokuto had 12, Kuroo had 9, Kozume had 4.
“Akaashi Keiji, you,” Bokuto blinked a few times, “There are 2… No, 3 of you-ou.” He gulped.
“Koutarou-San, that’s because you’re drunk.” Akaashi said.
“We’re all drunk!” Kuroo chimed in, “Let’s dance, Kenma.” He stood Kozume up and started dancing with no music.
Kozume shook his head, “I need sleep.” He walked off to Kuroo’s room, “Goodluck, Akaashi-San.”
Akaashi sighed, “I need to get home.”
“Nope. No drunk driving for you- Bo’s boyfriend can’t die so soon!” Kuroo said, “You can stay here.”
“I’m just a little tipsy, I’ll be fine.” Akaashi stated.
“No, you’ll stay here Keiji-Kun… All of you.” Bokuto ordered, his words slurred.
“Fine. I’ll sleep on the couch. You two should go to bed.” Akaashi suggested.
Kuroo was already halfway down the hallway, “‘kay, night.” He waved and walked into his room.
Bokuto walked over to Akaashi and hugged him, “I wanna cuddle with you. You can sleep in my bed.” His words still slurred.
“Bokuto-San. Go to bed, you’re really drunk.”
“Come with me!” He whined.
“I have to tell Tooru and Suga that I’m staying here.” Akaashi pulled Bokuto off of him.
“Hmph.” Bokuto complained, “Will you come cuddle with me after?”
Akaashi gave in, he didn’t want to argue with drunk Bokuto, this was actually the first time he had seen him drunk, he was surprisingly not as energetic when he’s drunk, more clingy, “Fine. Let’s go.”
Bokuto walked to his room with Akaashi's help, because he was unable to walk in a straight line. Once they got to his room, Akaashi sent a text to Oikawa and Sugawara and then he got into bed with Bokuto.
It was weird for him to lay down and cuddle and sleep with someone again. He missed it. Holding someone in bed. He was spooning Bokuto, despite Bokuto being taller. He had his right arm over Bokuto’s side and along his arm, holding his hand, and hugging Bokuto’s chest. He had his other arm, his left arm, under the crook of Bokuto’s neck, Bokuto resting his head on Akaashi’s hand.
They said their goodnights and then went to sleep.
***
It was morning, 7am, and, because Akaashi happened to be a very light sleeper, when Bokuto woke up and rolled onto his back, it woke Akaashi up.
"Oh, Keiji!" He already had a lot of energy just waking up? Where does he get it all from? Not to mention he probably had a severe hangover. "Did I wake you?! I'm sorry!"
Akaashi groaned, "no, it's fine," he was going to say something about how he was used to waking up early because Tsukishima was an early riser, but he kept it to himself, "don't worry, I always work early anyways so I'm used to it." Is what he settled on instead. Which wasn't a lie, at his new job he had been waking up pretty early since he normally started anywhere from 7-10am.
"Still, I didn't mean to wake you…" Bokuto rubbed Akaashi's arm that was splayed over Bokuto's chest, bringing his own hand along Akaashi's arm to meet Akaashi's hand and hold it.
Akaashi smiled softly, "it's really fine, Koutarou."
"I- did you just say my name without using an honorific? Wow, this really is a day to remember." Bokuto laughed.
Akaashi half scoffed, half chuckled, "oh shut up. How's your hangover? Probably pretty bad, huh?" He changed the subject.
"Yeah, but I'll survive," he rolled to his side so that he was facing Akaashi now, "you're really amazing, you know that?"
Akaashi chuckled, "Am I?"
Bokuto nodded, smiling, squeezing Akaashi's hand. They stared at each other in the silence for a few minutes.
"Do you mind if I go back to sleep?" Akaashi asked, breaking the silence, "It's my day off today…"
"No, of course I don't mind! I actually might go back to sleep myself, this hangover sucks."
Akaashi cuddled up next to Bokuto, who had laid on his back again, and put his head on shoulder.
They went back to sleep.
They woke up again 2 hours later. Bokuto accidentally woke Akaashi up again.
"Sorry…" he said again.
"It's okay, how's your hangover now?" Akaashi asked.
"Still horrible…" Bokuto brought his hand to his head.
"You should go take a painkiller and drink some water," Akaashi suggested, "I have a small hangover too, but probably not nearly as bad as yours."
Bokuto shrugged, "Yeah, I probably should, but first…" He leaned over and kissed Akaashi.
"Oh…" Akaashi mumbled, surprised but smiling and returning the kiss. He brought his hand up to Bokuto's face, gently placing it on the side of his cheek.
Kuroo walked in with two bottles of water in one hand and a bottle of aspirin in the other, he paused in the doorway as he watched them make out, "Oh- sorry… Should've knocked…" he chuckled awkwardly.
Akaashi and Bokuto sat up quickly. They didn't notice him enter until he spoke.
"Tetsurou…" Bokuto sighed.
"Sorry, sorry…" He walked over and places the two waters and aspirin on Bokuto's side table, "I'll leave now-"
"Bye Kuroo-San. Thank you." Akaashi waved, slightly embarrassed about Kuroo walking in.
Akaashi grabbed the aspirin and one water bottle off of the side table and handed them to Bokuto, "here, take some aspirin."
Bokuto nodded and opened the bottle, pouring 2 of the pills into his hand and tossing them into his mouth, then he opened the water bottle and poured some of that in there and swallowed it, "here you take one." He poured another pill onto his hand and gave it to Akaashi.
Akaashi accepted the pill and grabbed the other water bottle from the side table. He took the pill and just then, a phone (also on the side table) started ringing.
Akaashi looked over, it was his phone. He grabbed the phone and looked at who it was, 'Mom' it read on the screen, which was clearly visible to both men.
Akaashi glanced over at Bokuto before answering, "Hey mom. What's up?"
"Keiji. I called your house phone and Tooru picked up, he said you weren't home. Where are you?" His mother asked.
"Ma… why'd you call the house phone?" Akaashi held in his laughter.
"Because I wanted to talk to Tooru and Koushi as well as my own son." She answered, "Now answer my question please…"
Akaashi did so, "I'm at my boyfriend's house, mom. I got a little tipsy last night, he didn't want me driving home."
"Well good. I don't want you driving drunk either." His mother claimed, "wait? Did you say boyfriend? Kei? Doesn't he live in Hiroshima? I thought you two broke up…" his mother's voice got softer.
Akaashi took a deep breath, glanced over at Bokuto and then back away, "Yeah mom… Kei and I broke up a while ago." He was slightly frustrated with his mom for bringing Tsukishima up.
Bokuto grabbed Akaashi's hand, rubbing the top of it, soothing Akaashi.
"Was there anything you needed mom?" Akaashi asked.
"Oh, yes…" she sighed heavily, as if she didn't really want to tell him what was on her mind. He was able to read his mom pretty well, but it was much harder over the phone, "Kaya," that was his older sister, why was she bringing her up? "She… uh… Was diagnosed with cancer last week, she didn't have the heart to tell you herself but-"
"What?!" Akaashi shouted, startling Bokuto as he jumped out of the bed, "How bad is it?" Akaashi started pacing.
"It's stage 3 liver cancer…"
"I'm gonna call her." Akaashi stated, "love you mom."
"I love you too Keijj. Don't make her worry about you worrying about her please. She's already stressed as it is."
Akaashi grumbled in agreement and hung up. He immediately looked for his sister's contact, ignoring Bokuto as he asks what happened, he put the phone up to his ear.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Finally, an answer, "Keiji…" his sister's voice on the other end of the phone sounded exhausted, "you know, don't you.
"Kaya." His voice broke hearing his sister like that, so exhausted, stressed, "Mom told me…"
"Keiji…" she repeated, her voice sounding more sad and broken now, like she was about to cry knowing that he knew.
"How are you feeling Kaya?" He asked her, knowing that the answer wasn't going to be a mere 'good'.
"I'm… hanging on." He could picture her soft smile on the other side of the phone, the one she would give him if he had scraped his knee or something, it was a smile that made him feel safe.
His sister was 5 years older than him. She was 29.
He sniffed, "if you ever need anything you better never hesitate to call me. I am always available for you and I always will be."
"Thanks Keij…" that was her nickname for him, which she rarely ever used anymore, but used a lot in their younger days, "But there's not really anything you can do." She mumbled, "but uh, actually, there was something I wanted to ask you.."
"Hm?" He answered as a, 'yeah, go for it.'
"I'd prefer if it were in person Keij." She said.
Akaashi nodded vigorously, despite Kaya not being able to see him, "of course. I can stop by today?"
"Alright. See you later then." She mumbled, "love you."
"Love you too Kay.." He smiled as if he were trying to keep from worrying Kaya, who couldn't even see him as the call hung up.
His smile dropped and he stroked his hand through his hair, the one without the phone in it, stressed, "fuck." He muttered.
"What's wrong…" Bokuto asked warily. He didn't want to pry too much but he could tell Akaashi was stressed by those calls, and he wanted to try to comfort him, if possible.
Akaashi stopped pacing, he looked over to Bokuto and took a deep breath, "My sister was diagnosed with stage 3 liver cancer last week…" he revealed.
Bokuto was shocked, his eyes enlarging, "Oh… Keiji… I'm so sorry…" he stood up and approached him, grabbing his hand.
Which Akaashi almost jerked away from, but ultimately didn't. Akaashi's eyes started to fill with tears, which he blinked back, "I should… uh, go… I have to take a shower and meet up with her. She wants to ask me something." He shrugged.
"Yeah, okay…" Bokuto let go of Akaashi's hand, and instead wrapped him into a hug.
This shocked Akaashi, but he appreciated it, the unexpected gesture felt nice and comforting in the stressful moment, "thank you.." Akaashi mumbled before grabbing his keys and walking out of his room.
Kuroo stopped Akaashi as he was walking out, "hey, are you leaving because of me?" He asked.
Akaashi shook his head and started making his way to the door.
Kuroo stopped him again, "wait. Don't leave because of me- I'm sorry I walked in on you two, I didn't kno-"
"I'm not leaving because of you." Akaashi mumbled, "I have to go home and then meet up with my sister later." He explained, leaving out a slightly important detail.
"Oh… okay…" Kuroo shrugged and slid back into his own room.
Akaashi made his way back home.
He was greeted by Oikawa who was cooking something in the kitchen, "Oh! Keiji-Chan! Your mom called, said it was important."
Akaashi nodded, but Oikawa had his back turned to him. Iwaizumi, who Akaashi had totally overlooked, saw the nod however. "Yeah… I talked to her." Akaashi said.
"What did she need?" Oikawa asked.
Akaashi gulped, "Where's Suga…? He's off today, right?"
"Mhm, he went to get coffee with Dai-Chan." Oikawa explained.
"Oh…"
"What's wrong?" Oikawa asked, turning the stove off and turning to Akaashi, after really listening to the tone of his voice, "Keiji? What happened?" He got even more worried upon seeing the expression that was on Akaashi's face.
"It's Kaya…" He felt a knot form in his throat, and tried to hold back tears, which he didn't know why were there because his sister was still alive and doing decently and it wasn't even stage 4 cancer, it was stage 3 which was still bad, but better than 4.
"What about her?"
"She has cancer… stage 3 liver cancer..." Akaashi told Oikawa.
His heart dropped, Kaya was like another sister to him (He already had a biological older sister), "no…"
Akaashi nodded, his expression was blank, "she got the diagnosis last week. She wants me to go see her so she can ask me something today. I dunno what it is," he shrugged and walked off to the bathroom to go take a shower, before turning back, "could you tell Suga please? I can't say it another time…"
Oikawa nodded, still in shock, "yeah."
Akaashi entered the bathroom and Oikawa sat down at the table, where Iwaizumi was, "Who's Kaya…?" He asked,. reluctantly.
"Keiji's older sister." Oikawa told him, "she's pretty much like a second sister to me…." A small tear fell down his cheek without him realizing it. Iwaizumi wiped away the tear.
"I'm sorry babe…" Iwaizumi brought his hand down from Oikawa's face and over to his hand, grabbing it and rubbing Oikawa's thigh with his other hand.
***
Once Akaashi finished his shower, got dressed and then texted his sister to tell her that he was on his way, "I'll be back. Bye everyone." Akaashi said. Sugawara and Sawamura had arrived back home while Akaashi was in the shower.
He left the house and got in his car, driving 45 minutes to his sister's house.
Once he arrived he grabbed the key that was hidden under a specific rock, and unlocked the door, "Kaya?" Akaashi called out as he entered.
Kaya shouted from the kitchen, "In the kitchen!"
Akaashi walked over and stood by the counter while Kaya dried her hands.
She walked over to him and gave him a hug. Akaashi hugged her back, he knew she probably needed it.
There were bags under her eyes, but other than that, she looked normal to him. He guessed that she hadn't started chemotherapy or anything yet. He wasn't too sure, and didn't want to push his seemingly exhausted sister.
"How are you Keij?" Kaya asked after they released each other from the hug.
"I was better before finding out you had cancer, that's for sure…" they both chuckled. They had always used humor as a way to distract themselves.
If Akaashi were to fall while playing volleyball or falling off if a swing it something when he was little, Kaya would always make a joke to distract him from the pain.
They walked over to the table and sat down across from each other, "Where is Emica?" Akaashi asked. Emica was his 2 year old niece.
"She's taking a nap in her room… I don't know how to tell her all of this…" Kaya shrugged, "but she's actually what I wanted to talk about…"
"Hm?" He questioned, "What about her?"
"Well… I wanted to ask you if..." she let out a shallow breath, working up some courage, "If you would take her… if I die…"
"Kaya…" Akaashi could feel his heart drop as he heard her say that, "Don't talk about you dying… please… You just got diagnosed, it's stage 3. Don't…"
"Keiji." She gulped, "While there is a strong possibility I will survive, for at least 5 more years, hopefully, I want to get my will and everything like that in order. So can I put you down as her guardian if I were to die?" She asked again, desperately this time. Emica's father had died before she was even born, so Kaya had been raising her on her own. She was her pride and joy. Her everything. So for her to ask Akaashi this… it was a big deal.
This cancer was real. It was a real thing…
"Yes…" Akaashi choked on his words, tears forming in his eyes, "Yes, if you die, which you won't," he was hopeful, "of course I'll take Em in…"
She smiled, "Thank you Keiji, thank you," she breathed a sigh of relief as a couple of tears drip down her face.
He nodded, "I love that little girl so much, Kay, you know I'll do anything for her. For you. But you are going to be okay. You're going to beat this."
She took a few breaths, "I really hope so."
Just then, disturbing their conversation, the baby monitor was heard.
"I'll go say hi to her," Akaashi said.
Kaya nodded and wiped away her tears.
Akaashi walked over to Emica's room, he saw her there, smiling at him, "Hey Em!" He picked her up.
"Uncle!" Emica giggled.
Notes:
Okay! There it is! :) Hope you enjoyed!
I apologize again for the delay...
Chapter 9: Sudden
Notes:
Ahhhhhhhhh, this is so much later than I planned to put this out. I've been, like, really into one of my other fics that I totally forgot that I had chapter 9 written for this one- Sorry.
Anyway, I finally set aside the time to proofread this chapter and get it out, enjoy :)
Btw... I could not think of a name for this chapter for the life of me, so "sudden" was the best I could come up with. Not sure it makes too much sense though-
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sudden
It was a month since Kaya was diagnosed with cancer, she had shaved her long black hair 3 weeks in, as it had started falling out. She tried to pretend it didn't bother her, but it very clearly did. She loved her hair, styling it, playing with it. It had been 4 months since he started dating Bokuto. Their relationship had been a bit rocky since the diagnosis. Akaashi had been a bit distant from Bokuto, but Bokuto decided that he should try to give him some space. They still had a somewhat-solid relationship, just while Akaashi was dealing with his sister's diagnosis they were a bit more... distant.
Sugawara walked into Akaashi's room, Akaashi was sitting at his desk drawing. Drawing was something he loved doing, that's part of the reason why he became a tattoo artist. Drawing always helps him get his mind off of things. He placed his pencil down before turning around in the swivel chair he was sitting in, "Hey Suga-Kun" he said.
"Hey, what're you doing?" Sugawara asked.
"Just drawing, what's up?"
"Daichi, Tooru, Iwaizumi-Kun, Tobio-Kun, and I are all going out to the bar tonight, wanna come?" Sugawara sat down on Akaashi's bed.
"Um… No thanks, I was planning on going to see Kaya tonight. She said she was feeling really tired and I offered to come over and watch Emica." Akaashi explained.
"You sure? You've been going over there like every night for the past few days…" Sugawara sighed.
Akaashi nodded, "Chemo is really fucking her up. She's been losing even more sleep, she's lost her appetite… It's bad…" Akaashi rubbed his forehead.
"You've been overly stressing yourself Keiji… You should come meet with us after Emica-Chan goes to sleep." Sugawara suggested.
Akaashi was reluctant, "Maybe… I'm just trying to be there for my sister as much as I can, Suga. She needs my help, I can't just leave her…"
"Yeah… okay…" Sugawara sighed heavily and got up, walking out of the room.
***
Akaashi was talking to his sister on her couch, while Emica was sitting in front of them, playing with a toy truck, "Hey, do you mind if I leave after Em goes to sleep?”
"Of course I don't mine, you can leave whenever you please." Kaya said, "I really appreciate you helping out but you never have to stay if you have something to do… I don't want to take you away from your life Keiji..."
"No, Suga just wants me to go to the bar with him, Tooru, their boyfriend's and Tobio-Kun." Akaashi shrugged, "it's not too much of a big deal. And I'm always here to help you out Kay."
"I know you are, and I appreciate it so so much."
Akaashi nodded, "Kaya… you should really eat something. Want me to make dinner?" He changed the subject.
"Mm… I don't really have an appetite right now." She mumbled.
"You never have an appetite. You need to eat anyway." Akaashi got up and walked towards the kitchen, "Emica should eat something too."
Kaya agreed with that, "yeah, she should. Y'know, you should go hang out with your friends. I don't wanna keep you, I can make Emi dinner." Kaya said.
"You need to eat too…" Akaashi sighed.
"I will. Go hang out with your friends. I don't want this cancer thing affecting your life. You've literally been here every night for the past few days, and I appreciate it so much, I really do, but you're 24, go live your life…" Kaya told him, they were standing by the kitchen counter now, "Don't you have a boyfriend again? Mom told me. I don't wanna take you away from anything. No need to come over if you aren't free…"
"Jeez Kay…" He felt horrible for wanting to leave, "Will you be fine if I leave?" He asked for reassurance. He really didn't wanna leave her alone, er, well she had Emica, but 'alone' in the sense that there was nobody there to help her if she needed it.
"Yes."
"Will you eat?" He asked her.
She sighed, "Mhm…"
"Promise?"
"I promise." She nodded.
"Okay," he smiled softly, "I'll see you tomorrow then.."
"You should bring your boyfriend by, if he's free, I wanna meet 'im" Kaya smiled.
Akaashi nodded, "Alright. I'll talk to him. Goodnight Kay. Love you."
"Love you too," She waved her brother off and then he walked out.
He said bye to Emica and then left. He texted Bokuto, telling him that he left his sister's house and was going to the bar to meet up with Oikawa, Sugawara, Iwaizumi, Sawamura, and Kageyama.
Then he texted the group chat he has with Sugawara and Oikawa and told them he was coming.
He didn't get a text back from Bokuto, which he found odd because Bokuto always answered him fairly quickly. He shrugged it off, he was probably just doing something.
Once he arrived at the bar, he saw everyone he expected to see. Oikawa. Sugawara. Sawamura. Kageyama. Iwaizumi.
But he also saw two other people sitting there, Bokuto and Kuroo.
"Hm, so that must be why he didn't answer." Akaashi thought to himself.
He walked over to everyone, "Keiji-chan!" Oikawa shouted, louder than necessary.
"Hello Tooru-Kun." Akaashi greeted.
Bokuto turned around, "Keiji? What're you doing here?"
He smirked, "I could ask you the same thing." He sat next to Bokuto, "I texted you and said I was going to the bar. I wasn't expecting to see you here."
Bokuto immediately took his phone out of his pocket and checked, "oh…" he murmured upon seeing the text message notification there. Akaashi could tell that Bokuto was slightly drunk.
"Hey, Keiji-Kun." Kageyama waved at him.
"Tobio-Kun." Akaashi greeted back, "How are you?" He asked.
"Pretty good." He gave a small smile which was rare for Kageyama, "Shoyo and I just got engaged last night."
"Oh, really?" Akaashi smiled, "Congratulations. How is Shoyo-Kun by the way?"
Kageyama nodded, "Thank you. He's doing really well actually. He's actually planning on participating in the Olympics, as am I." Kageyama said.
The two caught up for a little longer, before Akaashi turned his attention back towards Bokuto, after Kageyama had mentioned Kaya. ("I heard about your sister… I'm really sorry… Shoyo and I are here if you need anything.")
Akaashi thanked him and then turned to Bokuto, who was talking to Kuroo, "Hey, Koutarou-Kun. I wanted to ask if you wanted to come with me to my sister's place tomorrow? You can meet her, and my niece." He had yet to tell anyone that he accepted becoming Emica's guardian, only because he didn't think it was even necessary. The doctors were going to get rid of the cancer and everything would be fine. Right?
Kaya would continue to raise Emica, and everything would be fine.
He wasn't trying to hide the fact that he accepted, though, he just wasn't explicitly telling anybody. He wouldn't mind if someone knew, it wasn't too much of a big deal to him.
"Yes! Of course!" Bokuto smiled hugely, "I'd love to meet them!"
"Perfect." Akaashi smiled softly.
***
The next morning, around 11am, Akaashi drove to Bokuto's place, which he hadn't been to since he got the phone call about his sister, and Bokuto walked out of his apartment and got into the car
"Hey Keiji!" He smiled.
"Hi." He brought one of his hands off of the steering wheel and offered it to Bokuto to hold.
Bokuto quickly accepted the hand, squeezing it once, and keeping that grip, as he grabbed it.
They drive to Kaya's house, holding hands all the way there. Once they got to her house, they parked in the driveway and Akaashi looked over to Bokuto, "Okay… We're here. Kaya shaved her head a week ago so don't bring that up. Or the fact that she's very clearly exhausted and malnourished. She's lost her appetite since she started chemo… Just… try not to bring up the cancer thing?" Akaashi suggested, unsure.
Bokuto nodded, "Alright! Let's go!"
"Let's." Akaashi smiled, and they let go of each other's hands to get out of the car. Once they were both out they held hands again and walked up to the door. Akaashi fished out the key, which Kaya had made him a copy of so that he didn't have to use the hidden one every time, and unlocked the door.
Emica came running at them, "Uncle!" She giggled as she wobbled over as fast as she could.
"Emica!" Akaashi smiled, matching her energy.
Akaashi picked up Emica with his free hand, her legs wrapping around his side and she wrapped her arms around his neck for support, "Where's your mom?" Akaashi asked her.
"Uh… I dunno." She shrugged.
"Hm…" Akaashi furrowed his eyebrows, "Kay?" He shouted.
No response.
Akaashi started to get worried now, Kaya had always greeted him when he arrived.
Akaashi walked over to the kitchen to find Kaya passed out on the floor.
He freaked out, letting go of Bokuto's hand, handing him Emica, "bring her to her room. It's in the hallway. The first door on the right."
Bokuto nodded vigorously, hiding Emica's eyes from her mom lying on the floor.
"Kaya!" Akaashi shouted, now that his niece was gone, he knelt down next to her and checked her pulse, "Fuck, fuck, fuck." He held back his tears and pulled out his phone, he dialed 119.
Once someone picked up he spoke, "I, uh, I need an ambulance at xxxxxxxxxx. My sister is passed out on the floor."
"Your sister? What's her name and age?" The dispatcher asked.
"Akaashi Kaya, she's 39, just send an ambulance. Please." He sighed, really trying not to cry, "her pulse is really weak."
"Are you sure you checked it correctly? Do you know why she might have passed out?"
"Yes I measured her fucking pulse correctly!" He was getting impatient now, "she has cancer, so just send the damn ambulance."
"Okay, sir, an ambulance is on the way. Stay on the phone with me until it gets there please. Let me know if anything changes with your sister."
Akaashi rolled his eyes, "Okay." He was still constantly checking her pulse, making sure that it was still there.
"The ambulance is 7 minutes out, is anyone else in the house with you?"
"Mhm… my niece and my boyfriend." He answered, more focused on his sister.
"How old is your niece?"
"2 and a half," he answered almost immediately, "well 2 and 5 months."
"This is your sister's daughter, correct?"
"Mhm… fuck…" he mumbled, "her pulse is getting weaker, hurry please…" he begged, knowing that the dispatcher couldn't do anything about the ambulance getting here quicker. He was desperate though.
"The ambulance is 5 minutes away."
He sighed, stressed, "C'mon Kay… please…" He whispered to his sister, but the dispatcher heard, they stayed silent as Akaashi whispered to Kaya, "You have to be okay. You're gonna be okay…" he held her hand and waited for the ambulance to get there
It felt like forever before it arrived.
The ambulance took her to the nearest hospital, and told him that he could meet them there.
He took a deep breath and walked into Emica's room, Bokuto was sitting down playing with her.
He stood up as he saw Akaashi, "What happened?" He whispered.
Akaashi shrugged, a million thoughts were pacing his mind and honestly he didn't feel like talking to Bokuto in that exact moment, "I'm going to the hospital. I'm taking my sister's car so that I can bring Emica. You can drive my car home or whatever." He handed Bokuto the keys to his car.
"I'm coming to the hospital with you. I'm not leaving you alone." Bokuto said, handing his keys back to Akaashi.
Akaashi sighed heavily and shrugged, he knelt down to Emica, "Hey Em… You know how your mom told you that she was really sick?"
Emica nodded.
"Well… she's still really sick and right now she's in the hospital. Do you wanna go visit her?" He asked
Emica smiled, "Yes! See Mommy!" She nodded.
"Okay, c'mon." He picked her up and they walked out of the room.
Akaashi grabbed Kaya's keys and they all left the house. Akaashi locked the door, and they all drove to the hospital.
***
They waited in the waiting room for a while. Akaashi texted his mom, who rushed to the hospital.
"Keiji." She rushed over to him once she arrived at the hospital, "Anything about Kaya?"
He shook his head, and Emica, who was on his lap, felt the need to answer, "Mommy's okay Gramma!" She giggled.
"Oh, Emi, sweetheart." Akaashi's mom picked up Emica and sat down in an empty seat next to Akaashi.
"Oh. Mom." Akaashi said a couple minutes later in silence, "this is Bokuto Koutarou. My boyfriend." He introduced them. He had meant to introduce them earlier, but with them trying to find answers about Kaya and just overthinking things, he almost forgot.
"Oh… It's nice to meet you Koutarou-San." Akaashi's mom held her hand out, across Akaashi to Bokuto.
Bokuto shook her hand, "It's nice to meet you too Akaashi-San. I just wish it were under better circumstances…" he sighed.
She nodded in agreement and that's when a doctor came out, "Family of Akaashi Kaya?"
Akaashi and his mom, who was holding Emica, got up and walked over.
"Mom… give Em to Koutarou." Akaashi said and then turned around to look at Bokuto, "Hey, Koutarou-Kun, can you take Em for a second?"
He nodded and came and grabbed Emica. He went back to his seat and sat her in his lap.
"Okay…" the doctor started, "Akaashi-San is alive." Relief rushed over both Akaashis, "She passed out from malnourishment. It doesn't look like she's been eating for a while?"
Akaashi sighed, "She said she had a loss of appetite because of chemo."
The doctor nodded, "Okay, well she has an IV which is giving her the nutrition she needs. She is awake and was asking to see her daughter."
Akaashi breathed a sigh of relief, "so the cancer isn't any worse or anything?"
The doctor shook his head, "no, it's still pretty much the same…."
Akaashi nodded, "can we see Kaya?"
"Yes, you all can come." He answered.
Akaashi walked over to Bokuto and grabbed Emica, "Let's go see your mom, yeah?"
Emica smiled, "Mommy!"
"C'mon, Koutarou-Kun." Akaashi held out his hand for Bokuto to grab.
The doctor led them all to Kaya's room.
"Hey Kay." Akaashi sighed and smiled, he was so grateful to see Kaya there, alive, awake. He placed Emica on Kaya's bed.
"Emi, my baby girl." Kaya smiled, pulling Emica into a hug, ignoring everyone else.
"Kaya. I told you that you needed to eat, and now look." Akaashi shook his head.
"I'm sorry…" Kaya mumbled, "I really did eat last night as I promised but… I couldn't keep it down…"
He sighed, "Okay…" he dismissed the conversation because of the people there, but she definitely wasn't hearing the last of it from him.
Akaashi's mom walked over and gave Kaya a huge hug, "I'm beyond glad you are okay. I can not lose you."
"I'm sorry mom…"
They spoke for a little while longer until Akaashi introduced Kaya to Bokuto, "This is my boyfriend, Bokuto Koutarou."
"Nice to meet you," she bowed her head, since she couldn't fully bow while in bed.
"Nice to meet you too," he bowed.
They all spoke for a little while longer, and Akaashi's family got along with Bokuto pretty well.
Akaashi got up, about 30 minutes after entering Kaya's room.
He pulled Bokuto aside, "Come with me."
He dragged Bokuto out to the front of the hospital, fresh air, "I wanted to apologize to you, Koutarou-San."
"Apologize? For what?" He was confused.
"Being distant," Akaashi said, "er, not giving you enough attention lately…"
"Keiji…" Bokuto grabbed both of Akaashi's hands and smiled warmly, "You don't have to apologize, your sister has cancer, it's perfectly normal to pay attention to her instead of me."
"Still… I feel bad, this is a new relationship and I just…" He took a breath, "I should be giving you my attention… We haven't gone on a date in a month, we've barely even seen each other in person this entire month… So, I'm sorry…"
Bokuto chuckled, "You literally text me all the time, you make sure I know where you are, which you don't have to do, and your sister has cancer, I definitely shouldn't be the first thing on your mind…"
Akaashi breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. He hadn't actually genuinely smiled since his sister's diagnosis. He pulled Bokuto into a hug, "thank you…" Bokuto being so understanding was such a relief for him. So much of a relief that he started crying, he wasn't sure why, and didn't even notice until Bokuto pulled him out of the hug, as tears fell on his shoulder from Akaashi, and spoke to him.
"Keiji… don't cry," Bokuto wiped the tears from Akaashi's face. He planted a small kiss on Akaashi's cheek before pulling him into a hug again.
"Thank you…" He gripped the back of Bokuto's shirt while they were hugging as he said the same phrase again, and then he mumbled out a phrase he wasn't expecting himself to say, "I love you." He tensed up a little bit as he realized the words that just came out of his mouth. Was he moving too quickly, especially after Tsukishima? He was the one who wanted to move slowly, but he was still scared of what Bokuto's reaction would be.
He relaxed a little more when Bokuto squeezed him tighter and whispered, "I love you too."
Akaashi smiled and looked at Bokuto, still hugging him, but looking at his face, which had a huge grin on it. Akaashi pressed his lips against Bokuto's.
They stayed like that for longer than they probably should have, seeing as they were in front of a hospital, "thank you… so much…" Akaashi rested his head on Bokuto's shoulder now, "For being so understanding during this."
Bokuto smiled, "of course! I'm here for you no matter what."
Akaashi nodded, moving his head off of Bokuto's shoulder. He took a deep breath, "and I really, really appreciate it." He continued to nod. He took one more big deep breath before wiping his face to make sure there were no more tears, "We should go back in… my mom as sister are probably wondering where we are."
"Okay, let's go!" Bokuto grabbed Akaashi's hand and they walked back into the hospital, heading up to Kaya's room.
Kaya was sitting up in bed, laughing with her daughter as they walked in, "Keiji, there you are!"
Emica waved, still giggling.
"What's going on in here?" Akaashi asked, smiling, as he walked up to the bed. He ruffled Emica's hair and gave a quick pat to Kaya's shoulder before sitting down on the couch next to the bed. Bokuto was still holding Akaashi's hand, and sat down next to him.
"Emi and I were just having a tickle war before you entered, isn't that right?" Kaya smiled at Emica.
Emica giggled, nodding, "tickles!" she mispronounced the word.
Bokuto was being unusually quiet, but he was smiling.
"Where's mom?" Akaashi noticed his mother was gone.
"Oh, Emica said she was hungry so mom went to go get her something from the cafeteria." Kaya rearranged Emica to sit on her lap.
Akaashi nodded, then his face got a lot more serious. He took a small breath, "Hey Koutarou-kun, can you take Emica down to the cafeteria with my mom so that I can talk to my sister please?"
Bokuto nodded and got up to pick up Emica. The two of them walked out of the room.
Akaashi closed the door behind them and turned back to Kaya, "Kaya…" he looked up, laughing, but he wasn't amused. He was just laughing so that he wouldn't cry. However, that laughter quickly came to a stop as he brought his head back down and stared directly into his sister's eyes, "what were you thinking? Not eating?!"
"Keiji…" she gulped, sniffing, she knew the conversation was coming and shrugged helplessly, "I wasn't- I couldn't…" she inhaled sharply, "I don't know, Keiji." Tears filled her eyes.
"god Kaya, I know I can't be angry with you because I know how horribly this cancer is treating you, but fuck…" He almost threw himself back onto the couch, and shoved his face in his hands. They stayed silent for 5 seconds before Akaashi started again, he looked back up to her, "You have a daughter, Kay, and she is amazing, so please, please try to eat for her if not for yourself. If not for me. If not for mom. Eat for Emica."
"Keiji…" Tears fell down her face, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Akaashi shook his head which turned into a nod, "I know, I know you are. But please, Em is still so fucking young, if you die she won't remember you," Akaashi started tearing up now, "she needs to remember her amazing mother, so you can't die. You need to take care of yourself Kay… We just lost dad not even a year ago, I cannot lose you too Kaya. I know we fought a lot as kids, and god were you annoying when it came to you being older, but Kaya, just…" He took a deep breath before continuing.
Kaya took this as her chance to speak, "I know Keiji, she's the only thing I think about when my death even crosses my mind. You don't need to tell me about Emica. I know we lost dad, and to top it all off, I lost my fiance so Emica doesn't even have a father. I know all of this, Keiji. I don't want to leave Emica here without a mom, I don't." Tears were flowing down her face now, her vision getting blurry from the tears, "I don't wanna leave you here without a sister, or mom without a daughter. But I am so overwhelmed and stressed about everything right now, so with the lack of appetite and the amount of things I have on my plate, Keiji, I couldn't eat." She brought her hand to her head, and started rubbing her head.
Akaashi wiped his tears, but they just replaced themselves.
"So I'm sorry Keiji. I-"
"I thought you were dead there on the floor Kaya. That was the most terrifying time in my life, seeing you there." He shook his head and covered his eyes to try to get himself to stop crying. It was unsuccessful.
Kaya broke down, sobbing.
Akaashi moved himself. He got up and sat down on the edge of Kaya's bed, holding his sister, "I am going to come over, every night, and make you dinner. And I won't leave until you eat it." He claimed. He took a shaky deep breath, wiping his face, "look at me."
She did so, removing herself from her brother's hug.
"You are going to beat this cancer, okay?"
She shrugged, looking around the room helplessly, "we're gonna have to see about that one." She chuckled through her tears.
***
Akaashi got home that night, completely stressed. Kaya was going to be staying the night at the hospital so their mom brought Emica home with her to watch her for the night.
He walked through the door to find Oikawa on top of Iwaizumi, the two were making out on the couch, Akaashi scoffed. He was already not in a very pleasant mood, and Oikawa knew that, but there he was, as if he didn't care at all.
"Where's Koushi?" Akaashi asked once Oikawa stopped kissing Iwaizumi.
Oikawa sighed guiltily, "Keiji-chan…"
Akaashi rolled his eyes, "Just… Is Koushi in his room? Working late? Or what? I want to talk to him."
"He's working late, shot me a text a few minutes ago. He didn't wanna bother you at the hospital." Oikawa explained.
"Great." Akaashi started walking to his room.
"Hey, what'd you need to talk about? I'm ready and available," he smiled, trying to make up for his inconsiderate actions.
"Honestly, Tooru, I don't want to talk to you, believe it or not." Akaashi continued his walk to his room.
"Oh, c'mon Keiji-Chan, stop being a dick."
"Mhm. My sister almost just died, you know that, I called and told you, and I come home to you on top of your boyfriend, in a shared place may I add because god forbid you have the decency to go to your own room." Akaashi scoffed and chuckled, "but yeah, I'm the dick." He shut his eyes and licked his lips, "thanks Toor. Can always count on you to be supportive," he breathed an amused breath out of his nose.
"Keiji…" Oikawa looked away from him, scratching his nose.
"You can be so fucking disrespectful sometimes." He walked to his room, with no stops this time, despite Oikawa calling after him.
Once Akaashi was gone, Iwaizumi held back his laughter, "didn't know he had that in him… I told you we should've gone to your room."
"Iwa…" Oikawa sighed heavily, uncharacteristically, "could you just shut up." He looked over at Iwaizumi, who looked slightly shocked and maybe a little hurt, but nodded.
Oikawa ran his fingers through his hair, and after about 15 minutes of silence, Oikawa decided to go talk to Akaashi, "I'm gonna go talk to him."
"Mkay…" Iwaizumi mumbled.
Oikawa got up and walked towards Akaashi's room. He took a deep breath before walking in. He stood there silently. They stared at each other.
Akaashi broke the silence, "what do you want?"
"An apology?" He leaned on the doorway, not taking his eyes off of Akaashi.
"No." Akaashi turned back to his laptop.
"Y'know, not everything revolves around you, Keiji-chan. Other people have lives too. We all live in this house, I think I can kiss my boyfriend on the couch." Oikawa invited himself in, and sat down on the bed.
"You really think that's why I'm upset?" Akaashi scoffed, "It's not even the fact that your room was like 2 seconds away from the living room, which is a shared space mind you, it's the fact that my sister almost died, you knew that I was coming back from the hospital, and still didn't have the decency to at least go to your room." Akaashi rolled his eyes, "Maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't care, could you just leave my room?"
"Keiji. I'm sorry." Oikawa apologized, which was definitely rare for him to do, with the height of his ego. All of his confidence makes it hard for him to admit when he's in the wrong.
Akaashi ignored him.
Oikawa sat there, not knowing what to say for once.
They sat there, silent for a while, Akaashi was just typing on his laptop until, after a good few minutes of silence, Akaashi's phone rang.
Akaashi answered, "Hey, what's up?" That was followed by silence as the person on the other line spoke, "Uh, no. Not really, just working on tattoo designs, what do you need?" More silence, "Yeah, I can." He sighed at the phone, "M'kay, see you soon … Yeah … Okay … bye, love you." He hung up, and stood up from his desk, closing the laptop in the process.
He grabbed his jacket, "I have to go to my mom's. She's trying to calm down Emica and I might have to bring her here for the night, my mom can't really keep up with her. She said that she's sobbing because Kaya's not there,” he told Oikawa before Oikawa could ask, "I'll call Suga on the way so that he's aware that she might be here. I'll be back in a couple of hours."
"Alright…" was the only thing Oikawa could get out of his mouth before Akaashi was gone.
Like Akaashi had predicted, he arrived back home 2 hours later, but it was without Emica.
Everyone was eating dinner in the living room.
"No Emica-Chan?" Sugawara asked.
Akaashi shook his head, "Once I got there I was able to get her to sleep after a while. Can I talk to you, Suga, later?"
"Yeah, sure…" Sugawara nodded, "I'll come to your room a little later."
"Thanks." Akaashi walked back to his room.
Sugawara walked in about an hour later to find Akaashi looking very stressed at his desk. Sugawara closed the door behind him, "how ya holdin' up? Tooru-Kun told me about what happened earlier with the two of you…"
Akaashi shook his head, "I overreacted." He let out a deep breath, "I think…" he shrugged and changed the subject slightly, "I've been so fucking stressed out this past month, and especially finding Kaya on the floor like that today and just god Suga, why did this have to happen?"
Sugawara shook his head, shrugging, "I have no idea, Keiji… I'm sorry about all of this, and trust me, Tooru is over it, he just wants you to forgive him. You guys are both just stressed out, especially you with everything going on about Kaya."
"Y'know, I agreed to become Emica's guardian if Kaya dies…" Akaashi admitted to Sugawara, wanting to finally just talk to someone about it, "and I didn't think it was going to happen when I agreed to it, but after today," A knot formed in his throat, he tried to stop tears from forming in his eyes, "Kaya dying is a very real fucking possiblity, Suga, after seeing her there on the floor, her pulse barely even there, I'm realizing how much this cancer is already affecting her." Akaashi inhaled a shaky deep breath.
Sugawara nodded his head.
Akaashi did the opposite, shaking his head, "I'm sorry, I've been on about Kaya's cancer since she was diagnosed, I'm sure it's getting annoying by down. Go ahead and go back out with everyone, I'll-"
Sugawara interrupted him, "Keiji, shut up. Don't apologize. I'm used to hearing about your shit after over 20 years. This is no different. Kaya is family to me, and to Tooru, we both realize how much this is affecting not just her but you as well. Just chill out and try not to overstress yourself. Kaya's cancer hasn't progressed, so just…" he took a deep breath, almost as if it were an example, "take a breath, calm down, and don't be scared to talk to Tooru or I, you should know better after so many years. Plus, you have Bokuto-Kun now too."
Akaashi smiled, "yeah… thanks Suga."
"Mhm, now go fix things with Tooru, I heard he actually apologized, so just forgive him?"
Akaashi nodded, "yeah, okay." He sighed and then walked out of his room, Sugawara following behind him.
Oikawa and Akaashi made up, and everyone hung out for the rest of the night.
***
The next day, Akaashi got off of work early and walked over to the flower shop.
"Oh! Keiji-Kun! What are you doing here?" Bokuto smiled upon seeing Akaashi enter. He stopped working with the flowers and walked over to Akaashi.
"I got off early and wanted to come see you," Akaashi smiled softly, taking in Bokuto's presence.
Bokuto's smile became larger, "Well, I get off in a few minutes, we can go do something after?" he suggested.
"Sounds good, I'll wait." Akaashi couldn't help but smile even more just being around Bokuto.
Bokuto walked back to the flowers, but seemed to keep getting distracted by Akaashi just standing there. He kept glancing over at Akaashi.
Akaashi was just staring at his phone.
Eventually, Bokuto finished his shift, "Yachi-Chan, it's 2 so I'm gonna leave."
"Okay," her smile was soft, "bye, see you tomorrow."
"See ya! Tell Tetsurou-Kun I said bye, he's in the back and I don't feel like going back there." Bokuto said, walking towards Akaashi.
"Okay, will do." She nodded.
Bokuto grabbed Akaashi's hand, "let's go!"
Akaashi squeezed Bokuto's hand and they walked out of the shop. They walked around, looking for somewhere to go, but they ended up just walking around the park and talking.
"Why'd you get off work early today? You said you were gonna have to stay late today?" Bokuto questioned.
Akaashi nodded, "yeah, I was supposed to have an 8ish hour tattoo, the appointment was at 1:30, I waited 20 minutes extra for them to show up and they didn't, so Shimizu-San, my boss, said that I could just leave since I didn't have any appointments because that one took up my schedule for the day. So, now, here we are." Akaashi explained.
"Oh, well I guess I have some random stranger to thank for giving me this time with my amazing boyfriend!" Bokuto giggled from happiness.
Akaashi nodded, "Well then, thank you random stranger." He agreed, simply.
They walked over to the place surrounded by trees where they had their first serious conversation. Their first date.
They sat down and continued just enjoying each other's time.
About an hour later, they agreed on going to Bokuto's apartment. Bokuto said that Kuroo was working until 9, so they'd have the place to themselves for dinner.
They just hung out, watching tv for a while and they started cooking at about 6. They being Akaashi doing all of the cooking while Bokuto provides moral support because he was scaring Akaashi every time he picked up a knife.
Akaashi was washing his hands after cracking some eggs when his phone went off because of a text message, "can you see who that was?" Akaashi asked, "and what they said?"
"Okay, uh..." he reached over to grab his phone, "it says it's from Kei."
Well things just got awkward.
Akaashi sighed, "Okay, don't even read the message out loud, I don't wanna know what he has to say." Akaashi dried his hands and carried on cooking.
"Are you sure? He's just talking about your sister…"
Akaashi groaned, "fine, what does it say?"
"It says, 'hey Keij. I just heard about your sister's diagnosis. I'm sorry, I know you're probably under lots of stress rn. If you need anything at all, I'm here. Hope that everything turns out okay. Kaya became like family to me, and I don't want anything bad to happen to her or your niece for that matter. I know you probably don't want to see a text from me, and Tadashi says I shouldn't even send one because of how clear you made it that you don't want to speak to me, but even so, I had to reach out to let you know that I'm here if need be. I know you, Keiji, and you won't take care of yourself if you think there are more important people to take care of, so, take care of yourself.'" Bokuto read the entire message out loud. He had only really read the first portion to himself, which is why he knew that Tsukishima was talking about Kaya.
Akaashi bit the inside of his cheek, to stop himself from crying. It had been a while since he heard such touching words from Tsukishima. Akaashi blinked away any tears that tried making an appearance, "Thanks, Koutarou-Kun. Do you mind responding?"
"Of course not, what do you wanna say?"
"Just tell him, 'thanks Kei. I appreciate it, it's nice to know that you're there but I have enough of a support system as is. Suga and Tooru have really been helping me, and so has my boyfriend. Thanks anyway. Feel free to reach out to Kaya and talk to her, but please leave me out of it. I meant it when I said that I didn't want to talk to you anymore. I've moved on, finally. You should have taken Yamaguchi's advice and not texted. Thanks. Bye.'" he spoke at a pace slow enough for Bokuto to type the words as Akaashi spoke.
"Okay… I got all of that, but are you sure? That seems kinda… cold?"
Akaashi shook his head, "Send it. Kei should have gotten the hint by now." Akaashi shrugged as he cooked.
"Alright…" he hit send, and then set Akaashi's phone back down on the counter.
They continued the conversation they were having prior to the text message. A couple of minutes later, another text message popped up, “Can you read that, please?” Akaashi asked Bokuto.
“Yep!” Bokuto nodded, grabbing Akaashi’s phone. He looked at the message for a second before reading it out loud, “‘Okay. I have a client coming in for a big tattoo in a couple of minutes, so I guess this short lived conversation really is over. Don’t be afraid to reach out… Just because we aren’t a couple anymore doesn’t mean that I can’t be there for you still. Talk to me if you need it, if not, I’ll really stop talking to you this time, I promise.’” Bokuto stopped reading as he got to the end of the message.
Akaashi scoffed, “Just ignore it.” Akaashi shook his head.
Bokuto sighed, “Okay…” He turned the phone off and placed it back onto the counter.
They ate, and then continued to hang out for a little longer before Akaashi decided he should leave, “I’m going to go cook dinner for my sister.” He said.
“M’kay, be safe ‘Kaashi!” Bokuto smiled, giving him a kiss.
“‘Kaashi? Where’d that come from?” Akaashi asked.
Bokuto shrugged, “I like it. My nickname to you!”
Akaashi rolled his eyes, playfully, “If you say so.” He laughed, “I’m gonna get going, love you.” He said it so casually that he didn’t even realize he was saying it until he heard the words come out of his mouth.
“Love you too!” Bokuto reciprocated, relieving Akaashi.
Notes:
Okay, so the pacing of Akaashi and Kaya's conversation seemed a bit wacky to me, but the pacing of this entire fic has felt kinda wacky, so we're just gonna go with it.
Chapter 10: The Phone Call
Notes:
Alright, really just lost motivation for this, so this is really just bleh. I dunno- Proofreading? Didn't do it. So if you see typos, no you don't. Um, grammar mistakes? Not there.
Um, yeah, I just lost motivation, so this is the last chapter, I was planning on doing like 3-5 more chapters, but like I said motivation = gone, so the ending was just quickly put together. I think it's alright though, I'm not too upset about it. I hope you enjoyed!
Chapter Text
The Phone Call
4 months later and the shock of the phone call that Akaashi would get would break him, so much that he wouldn’t even be able think anymore. So much that just looking at anything, anyone, would hurt.
Now, onto that phone call. It was 4 months after the dinner with Bokuto at his house (which had become a more regular thing lately), 4 months after the text from Tsukishima. 4 months. Just 4 months. 5 months since the diagnosis.
5 fucking months. Things were finally starting to become normal again. Akaashi was accepting the fact that his sister had cancer, he was getting into a normal routine again. But all of that came crashing down because of one phone call.
Akaashi was at work, doing a tattoo. A long one at that, and by the time he was finished and he checked his phone, he had a missed call from 5 hours ago. It was from his mom.
He called her back, “Hey mom? What’s up? I’m at work right now.”
“Kei- Keiji…” She choked on her words, “She’s… she’s dead.”
“What?” Akaashi aksed out of shock. ‘She’ couldn’t be Kaya, right? It had to be a different ‘she’. Kaya was supposed to have 5 years left.
His mother slowed her breathing so that she could speak more clearly, “Kaya…” she hesitated, “is dead.”
“No.” Akaashi refused, “No she’s not.”
“Keiji, don’t make this harder than it has to be, please.” His mother pleaded with him, “Just… help me sort her things out… plan the funeral…?”
“No. No. No.” Akaashi mumbled it a few more times, “No, she has 5 years left mom, 5 years.”
“Keiji.” His mother scolded now, “Stop it. She is dead. The cancer grew too much too quickly and the doctors didn’t catch it. She’s dead. Stop making this hurt even more!” she shouted.
Akaashi’s eyes filled with tears, “Mom…”
“Please just come over. Emica has been asking where Kaya was for the past couple of hours, I can’t tell her…” His mom broke again, he knew she was crying by the way she spoke.
“Fuck.” Akaashi mumbled before dropping his phone as long as himself onto the floor. Upon hitting the floor, his phone ended the call, hitting the side of his hand.
Akaashi broke down into tears, no matter how much he tried holding them back, they came. He buried his head in his knees. He sat there for 15 minutes before Sawamura walked in, “Hey, we need this room, your guy left 20 minutes ago- Are you okay?” He asked once he noticed Akaashi on the floor. He hadn’t realized he was crying yet so he wasn’t too worried.
Akaashi subtly shook his head.
“Well, uh, can you clear the room?” Sawamura asked, not knowing why Akaashi was sitting on the floor in the first place.
He shook his head, more visible this time. He looked up at Sawamura, his face in tears, that’s when Sawamura got worried, “I-I’m sorry,” he stammered, “I’ll get Suga?”
He nodded, not saying a word yet tears continued falling.
“Keiji? What happened, why are you crying?” Sugawara rushed into the room, “I stopped mid tattoo for this so it better be good,” He semi-joked, he didn’t know why Akaashi was crying.
Akaashi stared up at him, his expression blank, “Kaya’s dead.”
Sugawara’s heart dropped, he had just made a stupid joke before finding out what happened, needless to say, he felt horrible. He held back his own tears to the best of his ability. Kaya was like a sister to him too, “I’m sorry…”
“I can’t-” he gulped and sniffed, stopping his tears which he didn’t even know his was capable of, “I saw her yesterday… she was fine, she was laughing, she was baking, she was…”
“Alive.” Sugawara finished his sentence.
“Alive.” Akaashi agreed. His phone was ringing, it was his mom, he answered, “Sorry mom… sorry… I’ll come right over.” He said as soon as he answered and then hung up again.
“Keiji. Are you gonna be okay to go by yourself? Do you want me to come?” Sugawara asked, helping Akaashi up.
Akaashi shrugged, “I’ll be fine. Uh… tell Koutarou that I’m sorry.” Akaashi smiled, “I’m going to leave. With Emica. We’re gonna go somewhere away from here.” Akaashi nodded, “Far away. No more memories. Of anybody.”
“Keiji, think this through dude. You’re in a committed relationship. You have me and Tooru as well, we can help you.” Sugawara stopped him from walking out of the door.
“I appreciate that. I’ll go stop by Tooru’s practice and let him know, but I don’t think that I can confront…” He paused, “him…” he said, referring to Bokuto.
“Keiji. Stop it, take a breath, and think. Don’t do anything rash.” Sugawara shook his head.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to help my mom get things situated, I’ll stay with her until the funeral, then, once that’s over, I’ll take Emica, since I am her legal gaurdian now, and we’ll go somewhere else. I’ll raise her the way that Kaya would want her to be raised. Loved.” Akaashi took a deep breath and walked out. He turned back around to a frozen, shocked Sugawara, “Thanks Suga. You are an amazing friend, better than I ever could have asked for.”
“Stop acting like you’re dying.” Sugawara snapped out of his shocked state and grabbed Akaashi by the shoulders, “Your boyfriend loves you, if you are really going to leave like you say, the least you could do is give him an explanation. And Tooru and I will always be here for you, even if you’re somewhere else.”
“I can’t, Suga. Please just… I can’t,” He sighed heavily and walked off.
He drove over to the gym where Oikawa had volleyball practice. He walked in and over to the coach, waiting for the team to complete the round of warm ups they were doing.
“You need to talk to Tooru-San I assume?” The coach asked.
Akaashi, staring off into the distance, nodded slightly.
“Oikawa!” The coach called out, and motioned for him to come here while the rest of the team completed warm ups.
Oikawa ran over, “What’s up? Oh, Keiji-Chan, what are you doing here?” he smiled.
“Kaya…” Akaashi glanced over at the coach and then back to Oikawa, “died…”
Oikawa was beyond shocked, and so was the coach even though he had no idea who had died, “No…”
“Yep. Just came by to tell you that and that I’m going to my mom’s house until the funeral, and then I will be taking Emica somewhere, anywhere, else.” Akaashi sighed.
“What?” He lifted an eyebrow, “You’re leaving? What about Bo-Chan?”
Akaashi shrugged, “I can’t talk to him, I can’t really talk to anybody without breaking right now, Tooru. I’m barely holding it together here. I’m gonna go now.” Akaashi started walking off.
Oikawa pulled him into a hug, “I’m sorry about Kaya. She was an amazing person.” Oikawa released him from the hug and Akaashi walked off after mumbling, “Thanks.”
“Wait.” Oikawa ran up to Akaashi before he left the gym, “That’s it? You’re just gonna leave like that Keiji? Really?”
“Mhm.” Akaashi left without saying another word. He got into the car, letting some of his tears fall before he started driving to his mom’s house.
His sister was gone and he couldn’t really understand how she could be doing perfectly fine 16 hours prior. Now she was gone?
How can someone be there one second and then gone the next? How could it be that in just a moment one of the people you love the most could just not exist anymore? The tears stopped and he pulled over for a moment, it almost didn’t feel real.
All he was told was that she was dead, it was just a few words that broke him so much. How does that work? He took a deep breath, he was close to his moms house so the reason he pulled over was to clean himself up a little bit. He didn’t want his mom to stress about him, because he knew that she was already stressed enough about Kaya’s death.
Once he had wiped his face clear from all the tears he continued driving. He made it to his mom’s house shortly afterwards. He unlocked the door and walked inside, “mom?” He called out.
There was no response so Akaashi went looking for her. He find her in Kaya’s old room, the one that she had when they were kids still living with their mom. The one he had gotten kicked out of so many times when he tried talking to Kaya while she wasn’t in the best mood. The room that was filled with so many memories about his sister. No matter where he looked it felt like everything was just taking a piece of him when he looked away.
Somehow, everything made him think of his sister. They were always pretty close, despite the 5 year age gap.
“Mom….” Akaashi mumbled, his mom was sitting down on the floor, staring at a picture that had beed left on the nightstand next to Kaya’s old bed.
The picture was of Akaashi’s mom and Kaya, before Akaashi was born. Kaya was about 4 years old, sitting on their mom’s lap, who was knelt down in front of a big tree. They both looked so happy.
“Your father just died not too long ago, Keiji, that was enough to make me wanna stop living myself, but I still had Kaya and you and now…” She gulped, and looked up at Akaashi, “Now I’ve lost Kaya as well…” She touched the picture frame, “Please, please don’t let me lose you too Keiji.”
“Mom, I promise you that I’m always going to be there for you, whenever you need.” He walked up to her and knelt down next to her, “I promise.”
She changed the subject, not wanting to start crying, her eyes and nose were already really red and puffy from crying, “You know that Kaya put you down as Emica’s legal guardian, right?”
Akaashi nodded, “She asked me when she first got diagnosed if she could put me down, I agreed.” He looked down at his lap, “I didn’t think it would happen so soon…”
“Neither did I…” Akaashi’s mom agreed.
“I actually wanted to talk to you about Emica. I was planning on taking her somewhere far from here and all of the memories. Just start over and raise her the way Kaya would have wanted her to be raised.” Akaashi started.
Akaashi’s mom interrupted, “What about Bokuto-Kun? Or Suga and Tooru?” She asked.
“I already talked to Suga and Tooru, they were both… against it, I guess?” He shrugged, “I haven’t talked to Bokuto-San yet, and I don’t plan on it.”
“Akaashi Keiji.” She scolded, putting the picture aside, “I raised you better than this. You don’t just abandon somebody. He is your boyfriend, and I raised you to treat everyone with the respect that they deserve. You can’t just leave him without any sort of explanation.” She almost started yelling, “Furthermore,” Her voice calmed down, “You shouldn’t even leave in the first place. I’d like to still see Emica, if you leave, it’ll be much harder to do that. Besides, Suga and Tooru are your bestfriends, you’d be leaving them as well.”
“Mom…” Akaashi sniffed back the tears that he felt were coming, “I’m making this decision because I know Bokuto-San. I know that he’ll offer to help with Emica, I know he’ll be overbearing without meaning to, I know that he’ll…” He gulped, “Do whatever it takes to make me happy. I don’t want him to distract himself from his own life. I just want him to be happy, and he will, by no means, be happy if he’s helping to take care of 3 year old. I’m leaving after the funeral, and my decision is final mom.”
His mom started shaking her head, “This is not what Kaya would want. She’d want you to be happy. She wouldn’t want you sacrificing your own happiness. She wouldn’t want you leaving this town, leaving behind everything you know. You already did that once,” She referred to when he impulsively moved out to live with Tsukishima, “And that didn’t work out too well. At least talk to your boyfriend, Keiji.” She got up and started walking off before turning back around to say one last thing, “I have to go meet up with the people who are helping with her funeral. Stay here and watch Emica, she’s taking a nap in your old room. In fact, she should probably be waking up soon. Tell her about Kaya, please, I couldn’t bring myself to.”
Akaashi nodded and his mother walked off. He heard the door downstairs open and then close again. He got up and walked towards his old room, he opened the door to find Emica already wide awake, staring up at the ceiling.
She looked over and smiled, “Uncle! Where’s mama?”
He smiled softly, “Well, Emica…” He dreaded having this conversation. He sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to break this down slowly for her, how would he even explaining the concept of death to a 3 year old? He took a deep breath, “you know how mama was sick? Like, really sick?”
She nodded.
“Okay, well, that sickness took over her body,” He tried making funny gestures to make it seem a little less serious, he was talking to a 3 year old after all. It seemed to have worked, because the silly gesture he did made Emica laugh, “And so… that sickness took over her body so much that eventually she couldn’t handle it anymore.”
“Huh? Where is she?” Emica seemed to understand a little more now. Was she not going to see her mom anymore?
“She’s not coming back, Emica, she can’t.” He explained, letting it out finally. Ripping it off like a band-aid, “But, Em, I want you to know that your mom loved you so so much. More than anything, and she definitely didn’t want to leave.”
“Where’d she go?” Emica asked, still confused.
“She died. Do you know what that means?” Akaashi asked.
Emica shrugged nodding, “Kinda. My dad did that?” She said, though it was more of a question, as if she wasn’t completely sure she was right. Kaya had told her a lot about her dad.
“Mhm, before you were born, he died.” Akaashi sighed, “Now, Kaya has died. That means she can’t come back, even if she wanted to.”
“Would she want to?” She asked, messing up on the word ‘would’.
Akaashi let out a breathy chuckle, trying to smile instead of cry, “I think she would want to, yeah. She’d want to be here for you.”
Emica smiled, “Then it’s okay!”
That broke Akaashi. He knew she wouldn’t understand too well, but he wasn’t expecting her to say it was okay, “It’s not okay, Emica. Your mom is gone, she can’t come back.”
“But she wants to!” Emica’s smile still hasn’t left her face.
Akaashi sighed in defeat, “Mhm, okay…” He accepted that he’d have to explain it more to her when she got older. The reality of what happened.
She’d grow up barely remembering her mother if at all.
“Let’s go get a snack?” Akaashi suggested followed by a nod from Emica.
Akaashi lifted her off of the bed and they walked downstairs together. Akaashi gave her some cheeze-itz in her high chair and then went to answer the door, after the doorbell had just rung.
“Go lay down.” He told the dog that his mom owned, so that she didn’t run out of the door. The dog listened and walked over to her bed.
He opened the door, and there he saw someone he didn’t want to see just then. His heart dropped and in instinct, he shut the door. Then a knock followed. He took a deep breath beforing opening the door again after a minute of constant knocking, “Bokuto-San, why are you here?”
“Bokuto-San? We’ve downgraded that much in just a couple of hours?” Bokuto chuckled, clearly hurt by the name that Akaashi just called him, “I was, ‘my love’, during our last phone call.”
There was a moment of silence while Akaashi tried figuring out what to say, “Bokuto-San, please just leave.” he finally said, but it felt wrong.
“I think you should invite me in, actually.” He walked in, before Akaashi said anything, “Actually, I’ll just come in myself, we’ll have a proper conversation.” He smiled, closing the door that Akaashi was almost frozen in front of.
Akaashi slowly turned around to Bokuto who was behind him.
“If you wanna leave, go for it. If you don’t want to be in this town, I can’t really stop you, can I?” Bokuto shrugged, “But I should at least get a conversation before you decided to leave. An explanation even.” He scoffed, Akaashi had never actually seen him mad before, it didn’t feel nice. He’d seen Bokuto so many other things. Happy, sad, embarrassed, excited, but not once has Akaashi ever seen him angry until now, “You can’t just leave. We are in a committed relationship, you don’t get to just walk away.”
“I’m sorry,” Akaashi wiped his face to find tears on it. He was unsure why they were there, but there they were, “You should just go.” The way Akaashi saw it, Bokuto deserved better than someone like Akaashi. Someone who had decided to just leave him, someone who would be raising a young child, someone who, despite any fair reasoning, would abandon Bokuto.
Akaashi saw it that Bokuto should be with someone who would love him indefinitely. Someone who would communicate better. Someone who didn’t shut people out at the first sign of a problem. Someone who wasn’t Akaashi. Though, he could never actually say any of that out loud, he’d find it too embarrassing.
“No.” Bokuto crossed his arms, “I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”
“Bokuto. Please.” Akaashi pleaded, “I can’t do this right now. I don’t have the time or energy for us. For a relationship. My sister died today and I can barely think about what’s best for myself, my mom, and Emica, I definitely can’t think of another person right now. So just, please leave. Bokuto-San….”
“‘Kaashi…” He took a couple steps closer to Akaashi. He stared at Akaashi for a short moment before he started talking again, “I know you’re stressed. I know you can barely think. I know. But I’m here to help you, not be a burden to you, and if that’s what you see me as, a burden that you want to get rid of to make it easier for yourself then I’ll go-”
“No, that’s not what I meant, you know tha-” Akaashi intervened.
Bokuto stopped him, continuing his own sentence, “then I will leave you to go do whatever you want. But I love you, so… Just... “ Bokuto grabbed Akaashi’s hand, “Just talk to me. Please.”
Akaashi fought back tears, “Bokuto-San…”
“‘Kaashi,” Bokuto gave him a weak smile, “I’m here for you, I’m not going to leave at any given moment. I’m here for the long run, I promise. You just need to talk to me, please.”
“I-” Akaashi took a deep, shaky breath, “I can’t.” A single tear fell down his face, “I don’t know what to say.”
“Then just let me know when you do.” Bokuto smiled and let go of one of Akaashi’s hands to wipe the tear from Akaashi’s face, “Don’t run away.”
“Okay.” Akaashi smiled, sniffing, “Okay. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
The two of them kissed, a long kiss, intertwined with more tears from Akaashi, grieving his sister’s death. They kissed and Akaashi felt just a little less pressure, just a little less stress, and just a little more relaxed. They leaned their foreheads against one another, “We’ll figure this out, slowly. I promise.” Bokuto whispered, his breath cool against Akaashi’s face.
Akaashi whispered back, “Thank you.”
CheCheCheer on Chapter 1 Mon 10 May 2021 02:09PM UTC
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JayJaay on Chapter 1 Sat 31 Jul 2021 09:30PM UTC
Comment Actions