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September 20th started early for Akaashi. The morning sun filtered into the room through the curtains, making the whole room glow in a golden light. He squinted his eyes open, rubbing the sleep out of them. Bokuto, who was sleeping soundly next to him, wasn’t awake yet. Akaashi used this quiet moment to look at the usually loud boy.
The rays of sun shrouded Bokuto in a warm yellow light, making him look like some ethereal being. His face was slightly covered by his hair, and it made him look 5 years younger than he actually was. His features were smooth, but Keiji could still see the slight wrinkles next to his eyes, which appeared every time he would smile.
Keiji smiled at Bokuto, and tucked a soft tuff of hair behind his ears. He got up slowly and carefully, trying not to wake up the other boy, not that it’d matter. He knew that Bokuto was a heavy sleeper, especially after a grueling and long volleyball training. He could probably bang pans and pots together and make noise all he wanted and Bokuto still would not wake up, but he had no intention to do that.
He had planned a quiet morning in for Bokuto’s birthday. He decided to make pancakes, and try to serve the breakfast in bed for the other boy, but his boyfriend of 3 years usually woke up to the delicious smells wafting from the kitchen whenever Akaashi made breakfast. After doing his morning routine, he started on the batter. Once he was done with that, he put a pan on the stove and started frying the pancakes. True to his prediction, he didn't have to wait for long before Bokuto came out of their room.
"Mornin', Keiji," he mumbled sleepily while rubbing his eyes. Mornings were not Bokuto's thing. He was sluggish after waking up and until he had at least half an hour to wake up properly, he was quiet. Keiji loved mornings because of this.
Mornings showed a whole other side of Bokuto, one that other people didn’t know, and that made Keiji fall in love with him even more. People usually knew him to be loud, cheerful and energetic. But in the early hours of the day, Bokuto was a whole other person. He usually dragged his feet on the ground with barely opened eyes whenever he moved around the apartment. It was such an endearing sight for Akaashi, he couldn’t get enough of it.
"Morning, Koutarou," he answered with a smile as he flipped the pancake. He heard Bokuto walking towards him, and soon he felt the weight of the other man against his back as he hugged him from behind. He could feel the taller boy burrowing his face in Keiji’s shirt.
"Watcha makin' there, Keiji?" he asked against Akaashi's neck, words muffled by his T-shirt. Keiji chuckled as Bokuto's hair tickled his neck.
"Pancakes. It's your birthday after all," he answered as he put the pancake on the top of the pile. "Just one more and it's done," he said, pouring the remaining batter into the pan. It sizzled as it made contact with the hot pan, and Akaashi twisted his wrist with easy, practiced moves. The batter evened out, and he put it back on the stove, then turned around to face his boyfriend.
"Hey, Koutarou, go wash up, I'll put on water for the tea," he said after he kissed him. Bokuto hummed, but made no move to actually go.
“C’mon, you gotta get ready,” prodded Akaashi. Eventually Bokuto gave in, and started his morning routine. He was ready within minutes, but he still wasn’t fully awake yet. He also didn’t bother with his hair today, he left it hanging over his forehead. Akaashi loved it when Bokuto left it like this, he looked so much younger than 22. They sat down at the table, and started eating the breakfast. For a while, only the clinking of the utensils could be heard, but then Bokuto broke the silence.
“Hey, did you plan anything for today?”
“No, I didn't, I hope you don't mind. I thought that today should just be a lazy day.” Well technically it would be, he himself didn’t plan anything. However, Kuroo organized a little surprise party at one of the bars, knowing full well his best friend’s love for surprises. It can’t even be called a party, it’s more like a little reunion with some of their friends. Oikawa and Iwaizumi, Hinata, and Miyuki’s boyfriend, Eijun was coming. Kenma and some of their Fukurodani friends were invited as well, but sadly they couldn’t make it.
“Of course I don't mind, I love it. Thanks Keiji,” he answered and placed a light kiss on Akaashi’s lips. Keiji smiled into the kiss, which made Bokuto chuckle. Their peaceful morning was interrupted by the door being thrown open by a very enthusiastic Kuroo.
“Yo, Bo, happy birthday!”
“Good morning to you too, Kuroo-san”, Akaashi commented quietly. There goes their quiet morning in.
“Kuroo, I told you not to barge in with your spare key! Who knows what you could’ve seen…” came a teasing voice from the door. There stood leaning on the doorframe a very smug Miyuki Kazuya. While he stepped inside the apartment with a quiet “pardon the intrusion”, Bokuto and Kuroo were talking animatedly about something. ‘Seems like Koutarou woke up’ thought an amused Keiji to himself.
“Hey, Bokuto, happy birthday!”, said Miyuki, cutting off the conversation between the volleyball players.
“Miyuki, thanks man!” hollered Bokuto to the other man. They got to know Miyuki at math class. Miyuki was studying mechatronics, and both Bokuto’s major, kinesiology and Kuroo’s major, biochemistry, had that class, so as a result they had it together. As Akaashi heard from Bokuto, they instantly hit it off with him.
As it turned out later, Miyuki was a baseball player at a powerhouse high school. Well not just a player, but the team’s main catcher and in his third year, its captain as well. Whenever they went out for drinks, they liked to talk about their old teams.
“I don’t wanna interrupt anything here, but if you don’t want Fukuzawa-sensei to chew you out for being late, I think we should go,” Miyuki commented, and both Bokuto and Kuroo looked at him, then nodded.
Bokuto went up to Akaashi, and planted a soft kiss on his lips while Miyuki and Kuroo filed out the door.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can and then we can do anything we want tonight,” he said with a blinding smile, and Keiji found himself smiling as well.
“Sounds good, I’m looking forward to it,” he replied. “Now go, you don’t want to be late,” he nudged his boyfriend, who in turn pouted, but started to get ready nonetheless.
“See ya later, ‘Kaashi!” Shouted Kuroo as a goodbye, followed by Miyuki’s ‘Later, Akaashi-kun’. Once they were out the door, he himself got ready for his own classes, thinking that the dishes could wait until tonight.
As they stepped into the main hall of the university building, Bokuto spotted one of his groupmates, who was Miyuki’s senpai when he was in high school, Takigawa Chris Yuu, but he preferred Chris.
“Hello, Chris-kun! Are you up for another super interesting History of Medicine class?” asked Bokuto with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Chris only smiled at him, and wished him a happy birthday.
“What are your plans for the afternoon and evening?” he asked Bokuto, when they settled in their places. The grey-haired boy looked up.
“Well, I didn’t really plan anything, and Keiji didn’t either, so not much,” he answered. “I think when I get back home we’ll just watch some movie and stay in,” he added.
Chris was pleasantly surprised. He would’ve thought that Bokuto would take any chance to have a party, considering his outgoing and enthusiastic personality. As he opened his mouth to say something, Fukuzawa-sensei came in and immediately started his lecture. By the time the lecture was finished, Chris forgot what he wanted to say, so he bid farewell to Bokuto, but not before wishing him happy birthday again.
The rest of the morning went by quickly after that class. Some of Bokuto’s groupmates wished him happy birthday, just as some of his old teammates had called or wrote. He thanked each and every one of them, and made sure to ask about them in turn. He did this because one: he thought it was polite, and two: because he sincerely was curious about them. As he started heading home, his phone started ringing.
“Hey Mom!”
“Hey Kou-chan! Happy birthday!” exclaimed his mother happily.
“Thanks Mom! How are you?” he asked her.
“I’m fine, but what about you? You haven’t been home in a while. Are you eating enough? Are you sleeping enough? How is Keiji? When are you two going to visit me? Is he eating enough? He’s always been so slim-“
“Mom, stop!” laughed Bokuto, “I can’t keep up! We’re both fine, we’re eating and sleeping enough, and we’re going to visit soon, I promise!” he reassured his mother.
“You better! Sorry sweetie, I have to go back to work, but I’ll call you tomorrow, alright?”
“Alright Mom.”
“Bye Kou-chan, I love you!”
“I love you too, Mom,” he said with a smile, and put his phone down. As soon as he put it down, it pinged with an incoming message. He opened it, and saw that it was from Kuroo.
From: Kuroo 12:41
you wanna come and eat lunch with me and miyuki?
To: Kuroo 12:43
Keiji texted me earlier that he’s making lunch thanks tho
From: Kuroo 12:47
alright man have fun
Bokuto just huffed with a smile on his face, and pushed the apartment’s building’s door open. He trekked up the stairs to the 4th floor, as the elevator in their building was broken for a good 2 weeks now. Once he arrived in front of his door, he pulled out his keys, opened the door and went inside.
“Hiya Keiji, I’m home!” he sang as he stepped inside. Keiji’s head popped up at the kitchen door, and smiled softly at Bokuto. Bokuto melted at the sight, just like he always did when Keiji smiled. His smiles always came slowly, but when they did, they lit up his whole face and made his eyes close. His soft smiles were different. They were tight-lipped, but just as warm as his regular smiles, and there was a different twinkle in his eyes. What Bokuto loved the most about Akaashi’s soft smiles though, were his dimples, that only showed these times.
“Welcome back, Koutarou,” he answered, “the food’s almost ready.”
“Alright. Can I help with something?” Bokuto asked as he leaned in for a kiss. Akaashi complied, and gave a chaste kiss to Bokuto.
“Could you set the table?” Akaashi asked as he stirred the food in the pot, and Bokuto just hummed in answer. They moved around each other with practiced ease, never bumping into the other. Once the food was ready, Akaashi served it, and after a mumbled ‘itadakimasu’ they dug into the food. A comfortable silence settled over them. Neither of them thought to break it, as both of them didn’t feel the need to. The only thing that could be heard was the clinking of the utensils.
After lunch, Bokuto collected the plates, and started washing them. Akaashi hopped onto the counter next to the sink, absentmindedly fidgeting with his fingers as he watched the other working.
“How was your day, ‘Kaashi?” Bokuto asked him.
“It was fine, though one of the professors assigned us a 10 pages long paper, but that’s not due for at least a month,” he answered.
“Well that’s good then,” Bokuto commented as he shut the tap. He turned to Akaashi with an innocent look on his face. Keiji became alarmed, because by the looks of it Bokuto was not up to anything good.
“Koutarou, what are-“ he started, but then Bokuto lunged at him, and smeared a handful of soap bubbles over his cheeks. Akaashi sit there for a moment frozen, then smirked at Bokuto.
“The war is on, Koutarou,’ he said, then scooped up a handful of bubbles and promptly smeared it on his boyfriend’s hair.
“C’mon, Keiji, not the hair!” Bokuto exclaimed, but launched a counterattack nonetheless. Both of them were throwing bubbles at each other now, while laughing uncontrollably with glee. Soon the bubbles were gone, and Bokuto was standing in front of Akaashi, his hair wet with the remaining bubbles still in them. Keiji cupped his face, leaned down and kissed him. The kiss was slow, and tasted faintly of their lunch.
Once Keiji broke the kiss, he noted that they should clean up before one of them slipped on the wet patches on the floor. Once they’d done that, they moved into the living room. Bokuto plopped down on the couch, and laid down. Akaashi looked at him unimpressed.
“Koutarou, please move over.”
“No,” he answered, dragging the o out.
“But Koutarou, where should I sit then?” Keiji whined slightly. Just because he was composed and serious most of the time, it didn’t mean that he didn’t whine occasionally. Bokuto just pulled him down onto himself, so Keiji was laying on Bokuto’s chest now.
“Is this acceptable, mister?” smiled Bokuto at Keiji, who just smiled back at him.
“More than acceptable. What should we do now?”
Bokuto contemplated the question, and he came up with the idea of watching a movie. One of his favorites was Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so they put that in, and started watching it. Once that was over, they switched to a channel, just to have some background noise. However, the warmth of their bodies and their exhaustion after a long week, with the TV as background noise, lulled both of them into sleep.
Bokuto was the first to wake up, and not wanting to wake up his boyfriend, he tried to be as still as possible. His attempt was in vain though, because Keiji woke up not long after that. He opened his eyes, and with a husky voice he asked what the time was.
“It’s 6 in the evening. We slept two hours or so,” Bokuto whispered. Keiji just hummed, and started peppering Bokuto’s face with kisses. Bokuto laughed heartily at his actions, as he was kind of ticklish, and Keiji’s hair tickled his nose a little bit. Bokuto actually loved that Akaashi was so affectionate with him. To most people, he didn’t seem like one, but usually Akaashi was the one who started the kisses or demanded cuddling, especially when he was tired.
Their calm evening was disturbed however, when yet again, Kuroo barged in.
“Get up everyone, we’re going!” he announced. Keiji just groaned.
“Oh come on, not again. Why did we think that giving him a key was a good idea?” Bokuto just huffed and tried to look at his best friend. He only had to tip his head back, because Kuroo was squatting next to the couch’s armrest.
“Hey man,” Bokuto greeted him, as he looked at him upside down, “where are we exactly going?” he asked the middle blocker, while trying to get up. Akaashi sat up as well, so Bokuto could get up as well.
“It’s a surprise! So I won’t tell you, but you gotta get ready. You have,” he looked at a clock, and then continued, “about half an hour to get ready because we need time to get there.”
Akaashi just watched exasperated as his boyfriend started dashing to the bedroom to get dressed and still have time to do his hair. Once Bokuto was gone, he turned to Kuroo.
“First of all: next time please don’t barge in without at least telling one of us. Second: what are you planning?” Akaashi asked Kuroo with a suspicious and disapproving look.
“I sent both of you at least 2 texts that I’m coming over, and it’s just karaoke with Miyuki and his boyfriend, Hinata, Oikawa and Iwa. And obviously the three of us. The rest of the Fukurodani guys couldn’t come and Kenma has an assignment due this week so he’s working on that,” he explained. Akaashi checked his phone, and indeed there were two texts from Kuroo saying that he was coming over.
“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. Like when you both went up to random strangers and started asking them random questions and weirding them out,” he reminded Kuroo. That was not a really fun night for Akaashi to follow his tipsy boyfriend and his best friend and apologizing for their behavior to everyone they went up to. Kuroo looked slightly abashed, but didn’t say anything. Akaashi also left Kuroo to change out of his sweatpants into something more appropriate for a night out.
After they got ready, Kuroo tied a cloth around Bokuto’s head so his eyes were covered, because he didn’t want to spoil the surprise. After 15 minutes of walking they arrived to the bar, and went inside. After Kuroo exchanged a few words with the staff there, they were led to a room. Bokuto was asking questions non-stop, trying to figure out what was happening, but he didn’t get any answers, because Kuroo refused to answer them. Once they were outside of the room, Kuroo opened the door and told Akaashi to wait a little bit outside with Bokuto.
They didn’t have to wait for long, because Kuroo appeared in a minute, and led them inside. The lights were off in the room, but there was a cake with 22 lit candles on it. Kuroo pulled the blindfold off Bokuto’s head, and Bokuto gasped.
“Happy birthday Bokuto!” yelled everyone already in the room.
“Oh my gosh you guys! You did this for me?!” he shrieked with his eyes blown wide. He jumped onto Kuroo in an attempt to hug him, but with the force of it, both of them ended up in a pile on the ground. Kuroo just laughed.
“Of course we did, it’s your birthday after all!” he smiled at his best friend. Bokuto smiled back at him and got up. He extended his hand to Kuroo, and pulled him up. He looked around, and saw that Miyuki, Hinata, Oikawa, Iwa and Miyuki’s boyfriend, Eijun was there. He met with Eijun a few times, and he liked the kid. He was a bit like Hinata (and he himself), with his boisterous personality, but Bokuto saw him playing baseball once. He became the exact opposite of himself on the mound.
They sang happy birthday for Bokuto, and told him to wish for something before he blew the candles out on his cake. After that they cut the cake, and set up the karaoke. The first one on the stage was Oikawa, and he started with The Script’s Kaleidoscope, in an attempt to serenade Iwa. After that, Kuroo, Bokuto and Miyuki joined him on the stage after choosing a song. As the first chords sounded, Akaashi just snorted. And then the singing started.
“Is this the real life, is this just fantasy?” started Oikawa, gesturing with his hands dramatically. Kuroo followed after him.
“Caught in the landslide, no escape from reality.”
After that, all of them started singing, and made a show of it. Dramatic hand gestures, acting out some parts of the lyrics (Bokuto formed a gun with his hand and put it to Kuroo’s head, then ‘pulled the trigger’ and Kuroo fell down on the floor. ‘Drama queens’ thought Akaashi amused.) and air-guitared at some of the instrumental parts. Their performance was met with enthusiastic clapping from Eijun and Hinata, while Iwa and Akaashi was laughing at their dramatic bowing.
After that Eijun took the stage with Maroon5’s Animals, and neither Akaashi, nor Bokuto would’ve thought that the boy had a really great voice, and could actually sing without being off-key. Once he was off the stage, Akaashi struck up a conversation with him while Hinata was trying to sing in the background.
“You have a really good voice. Have you ever had singing lessons?” he asked the younger boy, while Bokuto came over to them and hugged Akaashi from behind.
“No, I didn’t. Actually, not much people know that I can sing, only Harucchi and Kuramochi-senpai knows besides Miyuki,” he said with a sheepish smile as he scratched the back of his head.
“How come?” asked Bokuto, and thankfully he didn’t shout into Akaashi’s ear. He loves his boyfriend, don’t get him wrong, but sometimes Bokuto forgets about how loud his voice can be.
“Well with Harucchi it came up somehow in a conversation, and Kuramochi found out accidentally, because I tend to sing when I’m cleaning and we were roommates for 2 years and he came into the room and heard me,” he explained.
The night went on, filled with laughter and singing and conversations. Around 11.30, the party was starting to wind down a bit. After all, all of them were college students, and it was a long week, filled with training for most of them and judging by the bags under their eyes, not enough sleep. But somehow they convinced Akaashi to sing, and although reluctantly, he gave in in the end. He flipped through the catalogue, and his eyes fell on a song. He found it perfect, and started it.
“Well, you done done me and you bet I felt it
I tried to be chill, but you're so hot that I melted
I fell right through the cracks
Now I'm trying to get back,” he started, as he looked at Bokuto.
He sang the whole song looking into Bokuto’s eyes, never breaking eye contact. He knew the whole song by heart now, because it was one of his favorites.
“Oh, I'm yours
Oh, I'm yours
Oh, oh,
Baby, do you believe, I'm yours?
You best believe, you best believe, I'm yours,” he finished the song, and everyone started clapping, making him blush.
“Keiji, that was awesome!” Bokuto shouted, and Keiji could feel his face getting more heated.
“Thank you, Koutarou,” he smiled at him. After Akaashi’s performance everyone started to gather their belongings, and started to head home. They parted ways at the entrance, but only after Bokuto thanked all of them for coming. He took Akaashi’s hand and started heading back to their apartment.
“Did you know that Kuroo was planning this?” he asked Keiji.
“I didn’t know exactly what he planned but I knew that he wanted to surprise you with something,” answered his boyfriend. “Did you like it?”
“I did, it was one of my best birthdays ever!” he exclaimed with a loud voice.
“I’m glad, I was hoping that you wouldn’t mind it, especially that I told you in the morning that we’d have a quiet day in.”
Bokuto looked at him.
“I wouldn’t mind anything as long as I’m with you,” he said. Akaashi blushed. He still wasn’t used to Bokuto’s sometimes blunt confessions, and every time it happened, his cheeks became red. After that, they continued their way home in a comfortable silence.
Once they were back in their apartment, and burrowed under their blankets, Bokuto turned to Keiji.
“Thank you for this awesome birthday, Keiji,” he whispered. Keiji smiled back at him.
“Anytime, Koutarou. Anytime.”
“I’m gonna do something really awesome for your birthday, just you wait,” he said, trying to muffle a yawn.
“I’m sure you’ll do,” Keiji answered, and pecked his lips.
“Goodnight, Koutarou,” he said.
“G’night, Keiji,” came the drowsy answer. Bokuto brought his hands around Keiji’s middle, and furrowed his head into Keiji’s back. He always held Keiji like this when he went to sleep, but as he started to drift off, his hold became weaker. The last thing Keiji remembered was feeling Bokuto’s breath tickling the back of his neck and thinking that he was lucky to have someone like Bokuto.