Chapter Text
It isn’t the first time that Kotaro Bokuto has asked Keiji Akaashi to marry him.
There was no way it could possibly be worse than the first time.
He had been so caught up in the romantic atmosphere at the Karasuno captain and vice-captain’s wedding, along with the three beers he had drank in the first fifteen minutes (a dare from Kuroo), that he had tried to propose to Keiji during the reception. He was told later that his boyfriend had dragged him out into the hallway and lectured him for a solid 20 minutes about how badly he’d screwed up. Kuroo claimed he could hear Keiji screaming at him from down the hallway whenever there was a lull in the music, but Kotaro felt that he would remember that, even in his drunken state. That would explain why Keiji’s voice had been hoarse the next day, though.
The next time he had seen the newlyweds, they said they weren’t mad at him, but that was probably because Keiji had gotten on his knees and bowed all the way down to the floor for about 10 minutes, until the two had told him to stop.
Not for the first time, Kotaro wondered why Keiji even wanted to talk to him, let alone date him. Do I even deserve to ask him to marry me? He could find someone better than me in no time. But since he hasn’t left me yet, I still have a chance, right?
During the next practice, Kotaro had brought the idea to his team.
“I understand if you guys wanna say no, but… the next time we win at home, I want to propose to Keiji.”
“You mean like, at the stadium? Dude, why? It smells like cheese farts. Why would you want to get engaged there?” One of the spikers, Oliver Barnes, had asked. “I mean, no offense, but… I would never pop the question to my girl at that nasty ass stadium.”
“And, I may be wrong, since I don’t know him very well, but he seems like he would hate being proposed to in public,” a setter, Atsumu Miya, pointed out. “Things could go really badly if you did that.”
“Don’t worry, Bokuto! I’ll help you out!” Shoyo Hinata, Kotaro’s favorite former member of Karasuno, called out.
“Thanks, my little protégé! Even if nobody else wants to help me, if I have you, I’ll do just fine!”
“We never said we wouldn’t help you,” Oliver replied. “I was just questioning your location choice, but if you’re going to be like that, then maybe I won’t help.”
“No, no, please help me! I’m so lucky I have guys like you on my side, helping me out! I don’t know what I’d do without you!”
“You mean, besides fail horrendously and end up alone forever?”
“Fuck off, Miya!”
“No thanks, you’re not my type. And judging by Akaashi, I’m not your type, either.”
“Honestly, I’m still not sure if I’m actually gay or bi or whatever, or if he’s so attractive that I’m just going along with it. And at this point, I’m too afraid to ask.”
“I think the fact that you’re even considering asking Akaashi to marry you is proof that you’re at least slightly into guys, even if you’re not completely gay. I’m straight, and yeah, Akaashi is a good looking guy, but I don’t think I’d want to go to bed with him or anything.”
“Yeah, cause I’d kill you.”
“That’s not the point I was trying to make, but okay. Do we want to come up with a proposal plan, or are we just going to argue about stupid shit? Cause we only have time for one.”
“So I was thinking, could we ask him to come play with us?”
Keiji Akaashi had no idea why his boyfriend, Kotaro Bokuto, invited him to play volleyball with his team.
Kotaro is a professional player, and I haven’t played since high school. At least I was able to get out early today.
Keiji’s job as a journalist didn’t leave him with a lot of free time. He was in charge of writing the script for the local news. They had tried to get him to be an anchor, but he had refused, not wanting to deal with any attention from strangers. Their offer to be a foreign correspondent had been a lot more tempting, but if both he and Kotaro were traveling, they might go months at a time without seeing each other, and their relationship probably wouldn’t last under the strain.
He had been humiliated when a drunken Kotaro had tried to propose to him at the Sawamura-Sugawara wedding. But he couldn’t deny that, if the circumstances had been different, he would have accepted. He wasn’t happy that he had nearly ruined a wedding, but after the first day or so, he was really only pretending to be angry.
Keiji adjusted his tie as he walked into the team’s practice building. He had only been there a few times, but normally the place was relatively populated. Now, however, it was nearly deserted. The receptionist, a kind woman named Masami, had told him to go to Gym B, which had struck him as odd. Why would she tell someone in a business suit to go straight to the gym?
He got his answer when he (eventually, he almost got lost a couple times) made it to Gym B. He opened the door and was surprised when it was completely dark inside. Just as his eyes were starting to adjust, a spotlight shone down onto the empty bleachers on the side and a song began to play over a stereo system.
It started with a drum beat and a voice rapping. He was pleasantly surprised to see Kotaro’s young disciple, Shoyo Hinata, was the one rapping.
And now we got Mr. Sunshine, Bokuto, where you at?
Kotaro had walked down from the top of the bleachers, dressed in the same suit he had worn to the wedding. And now he was… singing? The song seemed to be about how the singer is rich and famous (kind of a stretch, but he won’t think about it), but is still dedicated to their partner.
He wasn’t the best singer ever by any means, but his dedication was unparalleled. It amazed him that Kotaro was willing to go to the effort of doing something like this for him. The chorus used weather as a metaphor for the good and bad parts of a relationship.
As the next verse began, some men he recognized as Kotaro’s teammates, also wearing suits, came out and started dancing behind him.
As the chorus began again, Kotaro had started walking down the steps, carrying an umbrella with him. Just as it reached the line, “You can stand under my umbrella,” he walked over to Keiji, opened the umbrella, and held it over the two of them. As he reached the bridge, he tossed the umbrella off to the side and grabbed Keiji’s hand. Kotaro sang directly to him, saying he’d be all Keiji needed and more.
As the chorus began for the last time, more men in suits came out and started dancing. He recognized all of them- former teammates at Fukurodani, Kuroo, Yamamoto- Kenma was on the sidelines, but not part of the dance.
Kotaro stops singing as the song fades out, looking uncharacteristically… shy? Scared? Over the years, Keiji has seen many of Kotaro’s emotions, but this one, whatever it is, is a new one.
It only lasts for a moment, though, as he sees a flash of recognition going across Kotaro’s face- this is the face he makes when he’s just remembered something.
He suddenly gets something out of his pocket and gets down onto his left knee.
“I know I’m not always the best boyfriend and I embarrass you sometimes, but I really do love you. So that’s why I want to ask you, will you stand under my umbrella?” He opened the box that he was holding, a gold band inside of it. “Or maybe I should say it like, Keiji Akaashi, will you marry me?”
Keiji laughed. “Well, last time I rejected you because you were drunk and you proposed during somebody else’s wedding reception. Neither of those things are happening now, so… I’m going to say yes.”
“Dude, did you seriously get wasted and hijack someone else’s wedding?” Keiji could hear Kuroo’s wheezing laughter, but he was choosing to ignore it.
“Shut up, Miya! I hadn’t been to a wedding before- I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to do that!”
“I think that’s why we weren’t invited to the other Karasuno weddings. I don’t think Tsukishima will invite us to his wedding, either, when they start sending out invitations.”
Kuroo finally stopped wheezing long enough to say, “I would laugh so hard if Sawamura and Sugawara pretended to get re-engaged at your reception, just to get back at you.”
One Week Later
“Kotaro, your dance is on the team’s YouTube channel.”
“Oh, really? I wasn’t planning on having it filmed, but I guess someone did.”
“It’s really good quality too. Maybe someone had one of the team’s videographers to do it.” Akaashi had paused, noticing something strange. “It says it was uploaded three days ago, but it’s been viewed… ten million times.” Keiji had clicked on the video and was now reading comments. “It looks like Kenma mentioned the video in one of his livestreams, which would explain a lot. And it-” Keiji had completely frozen in place, mouth hanging open in shock.
“Keiji, what’s wrong?” Kotaro came over to look, half expecting to see some stupid homophobic comment, before realizing that he probably wouldn’t be reacting like this. The comment chain he found, however, was very… interesting.
OMG how did Bokuto land that gorgeous man
I’m a straight guy but if he was trying to switch me he would probably succeed
I’m a lesbian and same. Like, no one is that gay
I saw a man so beautiful I started crying?
“Really, Keiji? You always do this whenever someone says you’re attractive! That’s why they keep asking you if you want to be on TV at work.”
“I don’t want the attention. You give me enough as it is.”