Chapter Text
It was a promise.
Winning the nationals was a dream that not only Akaashi and Bokuto shared, but it was a collective ambition that all Fukurodani had for as long as they could remember. There was no member on the team that didn't have that goal very deep in their hearts or in their heads, framed in the highest as the supreme goal that someday they had to reach. No matter the cost, winning each match one after another was the daily life philosophy of the players in every training, friendly matches, and in every second they were faced against adversity.
And the interesting thing was that they were players capable of overcoming adversity. Yukie always said, as a joke and also very seriously, that they were capable of big things if Bokuto never lowered his arms and if the rest of the members supported him no matter what. Because Bokuto could easily draw sports spirit even from the rivals who were losing painfully against them. His sportsmanship shouted to everyone that the first to surrender was a coward who didn't deserve to remain on the court. His personality shouted at his rivals that even if they hated him, they would admire him anyway because when Bokuto entered the zone, he was unstoppable and it was impossible to not look at him with admiration. His own mouth shouted, to himself more than to his team, that the match had not ended yet when his will seemed to fall to see the score and not being in advantage, but in the worst of the losses. Bokuto had in himself an essence that always pushed everyone forward, and his team was always the most willing to follow him, not because he was the captain, but because he was Bokuto.
Bokuto Koutarou, the captain and Ace of Fukurodani who always led his team to victory.
And that day, that glorious day couldn't be different. Shouldn’t be different.
There were still hours left, many hours for the game and Akaashi knew it. His brain also knew that it was necessary to go to sleep once and for all, but we can't always have what we want, and at that time what Akaashi wanted was to be in the fifth dream as most of the team members and to be ready for the final in the morning, but in his current reality it seemed an impossible mission. It was midnight and being awake watching matches of his opponents was not healthy for anyone's mental health. Not even Washio, who usually kept him company when he watched volleyball games until three in the morning, wanted to keep him company that night.
Advancing to the final had been a long and very difficult journey. Each game was more complex and absorbed as mosquitoes all the energy and motivation of their bodies, but thanks to Bokuto and his incredible spirit, everyone could arrive at the end of the day to the hotel to eat until they were full and then go to bed. The scoreboard always favored them and after moving to the semifinals they seemed to have entered the category of favorites to win the tournament.
And the statistics weren't very far from reality.
Karasuno had won to Itachiyama, who had Sakusa of the top 3. And Fukurodani had won to Kamomedai High, who had to Kourai Hoshiumi a promising and new small giant. The four semifinalists teams had very promising players, but the reality of those who had made bets with different results to the current ones needed to have better analysis of the situation.
Because Karasuno had Kageyama, and Fukurodani had Bokuto. And if that weren't enough, to have players of renown only feeded the hunger in the other members of the teams to grow to be recognized, and little by little, the names of the players of the finalist teams were recognized by everyone. There wasn't a soul that didn't recognize the great players who with many losses and overexertion had reached the end of the goal.
And for Akaashi it was funny how the analysts called the end of the cup the "end" of the goal, when the match hadn't even happened yet and the result was uncertain.
Bokuto on the other hand seemed too enthusiastic after a gratifying amount of reporters said that he was top 3 material. Deep down Akaashi was happy for him because Bokuto deserved it. Every smile, every praise, every show of admiration and affection for his person were well deserved and it was warm how happy Bokuto was when he heard other players or professionals tell him that he was doing an incredible job. Akaashi couldn't agree more.
Konoha and Komi, in their own worlds, were happy with the amount of cheerleaders from Fukurodani's cheers that had been confessed to them. Akaashi didn't believe that there was a team player who didn't receive a confession after going to the final, and although it was a distraction, for many of them served to raise their spirits so Akaashi didn't have think so deeply. They were still high school kids and it was normal to get excited about things as mundane as the confession of a pretty girl. It wasn't his case, but he was happy that with most of his friends and teammates it worked positively.
Sarukui, Onaga, and Washio on the other hand, were very grateful to be alive to see Fukurodani go so far. Onaga was still a first-year but he managed to be a starter and a great help for Akaashi on the court, and it was good that at least he was going to be on the court with him when the third years graduate.
Moving so far had been something truly positive for both Fukurodani and Karasuno. If we put aside all the nervousness and anxiety that they would have for playing the final in a few hours.
Many fans bet on Fukurodani as well on Karasuno, but nobody would know the final results until it happen. Which was the grace of the bets, make assumptions according to the instinct of each person or according to the results of each team individually in their respective parties, but never being completely sure until the events happen and the results were put on the table. Nothing was true until the last heartbeat and the last point scored making a difference in the score that defines a position of victory or defeat. Nothing was completely assured and it was... scary.
Akaashi's brain was terrified but also damn ready to get up and enter the court once and for all. His hands itched and trembled with a desire to have a ball between his fingers to throw it in the direction of Bokuto's moving hands. It was almost a reflection, without even having control over his body, when Akaashi raised his arms and pretended to place a side ball for Bokuto. Not many seconds later he heard a small tap of wood coming from the door. There was nobody but he was almost sure that someone had left.
Akaashi didn't take long to straighten up and look at his sides. All his teammates, Akaashi should be following suit, or were snoring, or were wearing ear muffs, or were drooling on their pillows, but all and absolutely every one of them in the fifth dream.
Everyone except Bokuto.
Curiosity was eating away at his gut and his lack of sleep was not much help, so Akaashi didn't hesitate to put aside the blanket that warmly hugged him to feel a small shiver of the change in temperature as he very quietly left his futon and headed towards the exit.
With his slippers already on his feet, Akaashi walked down the hallway of the floor where they were staying until when he reached the elevator sector he saw that someone had used it to go up to the 26th floor. The last floor of the building.
While Akaashi called the elevator he wondered if Bokuto was being sleepwalker, because he didn't find any other logical explanation for the fact that he was on the top floor of the hotel when he should be sleeping. It was almost impossible to believe that Bokuto, who always fell asleep early and was sleepy, was awake at two in the morning a day before the most important game of his life in high school, making who knows what in a possibly unoccupied floor.
Which by the way Akaashi had no idea if they were allowed to step on.
When the elevator doors opened, the first thing Akaashi saw was a large party room with a small stage on which there was a piano and a few wind instruments. There were a few tables and doors that led to the bathrooms and others that possibly led to a kitchen or a store. Akaashi wasn't sure, but the lights were off and the room would be in total darkness but for the huge windows that let in the moonlight.
It was a pretty luxurious place, and Akaashi had been a few seconds impressed until he could see, as at the end of the room, were a glass door with a giant window leading to a balcony adorned with many flowers and a few armchairs, with an impressive view of the Tokyo city. And right there, on that balcony in the cold of the night, a tall boy was wrapped in a blanket leaning against the rail of the balcony overlooking the city.
Akaashi walked slowly towards the balcony, almost not wanting to scare Bokuto or not wanting to inform him of his presence, until when having to open one of the glass doors, a bell that was on top of it sounded, making Bokuto jump instead and causing him to turn quickly to look in Akaashi's direction. His eyes shone very brightly in the darkness of that cold January night and some strands of his hair fell over his brows and forehead, giving him a more serious air than when he had his hair combed up. His body was completely wrapped from the neck down by the quilt that had previously sheltered him on his futon, and he didn't seem so scared that someone had surprised him, but rather he was relieved that the person who had discovered him had been Akaashi instead of some hotel employee.
Akaashi felt a chill run down his spine before blinking many times and taking the first steps forward, towards the railing where Bokuto was.
"Hey." Bokuto said in a soft voice. Almost inaudible with the quiet but audible noise of the city's nightlife.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping, Bokuto-san?"
Getting to where Bokuto was wasn't a challenge, not even being able to withstand the cold of the night was. But what presented as a setback, was to support his hands on the railing and see the landscape of the city from a floor as high as that. The people walking in the streets looked like ants and the colorful lights of the different buildings were so hypnotizing that Akaashi forgot to breathe for a few seconds in which Bokuto smiled leaning against the railing supporting one of his elbows on it and his chin on one of his hands, looking in Akaashi's direction.
"Same thing to you, Akaashi. Shouldn't you be in bed?" Akaashi didn't respond. "Before closing the door I saw you raising your arms, but sometimes when you sleep you do that you know. You do this thing as if you were being a setter even in your dreams, and that's why I thought that this time you also were asleep and dreaming that we were winning tomorrow."
Akaashi looked at his side, more specifically in Bokuto's direction, with a bit of surprise. He knew that from time to time he dreamed that he played volleyball games, but he didn't know that his ambition in his dreams had reached the point of moving so much while in theory he slept.
"Did I really do that?"
"Yep."
"Well, this time I was awake. And I didn't think about anything specific about tomorrow's match-"
"Today's match!, heyyy, it's past midnight."
"As I said, I didn't have anything specific in my mind." Akaashi looked back at the landscape of the city, ignoring that previously Bokuto also said tomorrow instead of today. It was so easy to look at the dark places of Tokyo that you couldn't see from below and leave your head blank. "I was just, thinking that a ball was between my fingers and I had to throw it in your direction."
That answer seemed to ignite something in Bokuto, whatever it was.
"Heyyy! That's already a good omen, Akaashi."
"I'm not superstitious."
"Well you should," Bokuto insisted, never stopping looking at him. "Once when I was little, I think I was in third grade, a girl in my classroom said she dreamed how my favorite volleyball team won a match. And I was on the court playing and scoring the winning points."
"I think the girl was flirting with you, Bokuto-san." Akaashi smiled slightly.
"But my favorite team won that match!" Bokuto exclaimed slightly with emotion and nostalgia, Akaashi ran his eyes to look at him a few seconds, but due to the intensity of Bokuto's eyes he couldn't hold his gaze for long and returned to look at the city. "And the best part is that my dad got tickets for that game at the last minute and I was able to go to watch the game right there. I didn't play or score the winning points, but I was there and I saw them win."
"It must have been... nice."
Akaashi trembled slightly when a gust of wind danced between them. They were at a prominent height and the full cold of dawn, and Akaashi was simply wearing his pajamas. Anyone would think he was insane, and in part he knew he was, he should be in the fifth dream like the rest of his team instead of being on the top floor of the hotel where they were staying chatting with his captain.
"It was. It was very, very, very nice." Bokuto looked at him with great interest before straightening up. Akaashi was about to look in his direction, out of curiosity to know if Bokuto was already planning to go to bed, but surprisingly he turned his head at just the right moment to see Bokuto pull his blanket off to put it gently on Akaashi's shoulders. His neck and ears burned slightly at the gesture his captain had with his bones that were freezing. "It was so nice that remembering it leaves me warm. I don't need this for now, you can have it, you're shaking from the cold."
"T-Thank you, Bokuto-san."
"It's nothing, Akaashi." Bokuto smiled at him before leaning his body back against the railing, but way closer to Akaashi's body. "You know? I remember that I was so happy that my favourite team won that day that I gave that girl in my class a green handkerchief that my grandmother gave me to donate to charity. She was so happy that she almost kissed me."
"Oh, did she?"
"Nope." Bokuto shook his head and laughed a little, as if the memory was a private joke or something he was ashamed to remember. Akaashi's chest contracted slightly as he heard the boy laugh. "The point is, many things in the world don't make sense, finding sense is a pain in the ass and that's why there are people who have the job of doing it for us, but still nothing is completely true until it is proven."
"But there are assumptions?" Akaashi tried. His brain was very overwhelmed looking at the landscape, thinking that in a few hours he would have the game of his life, and finally, his nose was very sensitive to the body odor of Bokuto that had been impregnated in the blanket. "I mean, tests were already done on certain things in the past and from experience some patterns tend to have a certain purpose."
"We are not the weather, Akaashi." Bokuto laughed lightly and as a joke, or so he supposed, made his knee tap lightly on Akaashi's thigh. "We are humans. We are much more complicated than an exercise in mathematics and more complex than the theory of relativity. Our emotions are very important when it comes to the future." Bokuto threw his body a little against Akaashi's. His arms and shoulders were glued to each other and Akaashi wondered if Bokuto was feeling the cold of the night. "For example, although the statistics say that Fukurodani, we, are more likely to win because you guys have me, I can wake up from the worst of moods, not recover, and cost everyone the game. Because the assumptions only calculated my value as a player, but not my value as a person. They didn't take into account my feelings or how my emotions affect me and made an assumption about facts that with a robot could be true. But I'm not a robot. Neither are you, nor is Konoha or Komi or Saru or Washio. We are volleyball players, we know what we do and what we need to do to win, but we are also human. Whatever the result is tomorrow, we will never know until the result exist. But whatever happens, we will have given the best of us."
Bokuto... he was certainly right. Akaashi stared intently at the lights of a building that was far away and thought of how comforting Bokuto's final words were. He didn't know for sure whether they would win or not, but the determination in his voice only shouted that during the match against Karasuno they would do their best as they had come far for a reason, and when Akaashi looked at his side, in Bokuto's face direction, the big boy was looking at the landscape of the city and his eyes shone very angelically thanks to the light of the moon and the neighboring buildings. Akaashi was a few seconds hypnotized by Bokuto's face, until he saw fire in the eyes of his captain, fire full of hunger to win, ambition to raise the cup of champions as many times they had dreamed. The emotions in Bokuto's eyes were so intense that Akaashi had to look at the city again. His brain couldn't process many emotions in those moments, and seeing Bokuto in that way was making his chest cry to get closer to him, and he knew it was crazy and that only his head at two o'clock in the morning would think such a thing.
"But whatever happens, we will have given the best of us." Akaashi quoted Bokuto in a whisper. Bokuto looked in his direction. "Do you think that is enough if we don't win?"
"Oh, Akaashi." Bokuto smiled, this time throwing his head over Akaashi's shoulder with a little shove before raising his forehead again and looking into his eyes. "I know I said many complicated things about the assumptions contradicting what I said about my superstitious side, but I wanted to make it clear that whatever the final result will be, it will be our product and not an analyst or an expert in betting thing. Whatever happens in the game, the results we will do will be ours, and as a plus, your head already thought the final play that will make us win." Bokuto's smile was immense and his eyes shone like those of an owl in the middle of the night in a dark forest, his irises bathed with flashes of the city's nightlife and with the determination of his words. Akaashi felt overwhelmed, almost without air, but couldn't take his eyes away from Bokuto's. "Also, isn't it more fun when we make our own superstitions or assumptions instead of depending on others?"
Akaashi... he couldn't help it. Not when Bokuto was so close and talked like that and it was almost three in the morning.
In a sigh and without thinking about anything specific but his emotions blooming from his heart and wrapping his most important lungs and organs, Akaashi leaned slightly to his side where Bokuto's face was, and without breathing and closing his eyes, he gently clasped his lips against Bokuto's.
His brain wasn't working properly, possibly for the hour and for the cold, but that didn't stop him from pushing his dry lips against Bokuto's soft ones a few more seconds before shyly moving away. When he opened his eyes he felt his cheeks burn when he saw the features of Bokuto's face relaxed and his eyes closed. Akaashi couldn't believe what he had just done and was about to apologize, seriously he was about to say that this was a mistake not calculated in time, until Bokuto slowly opened his eyes and stared at him.
Bokuto's eyes shone with a new determination. Akaashi felt his soul about to leave his body when Bokuto moistened his lips before leaning himself into Akaashi's face.
But Bokuto stopped and Akaashi's soul really left his body.
"This... Does this mean anything?" Bokuto asked in a whisper against his lips. Their faces were practically glued to each other and Akaashi's eyes were a little bright because of how overwhelmed his heart felt. Bokuto's menthol breathing hit his lips when Akaashi nodded slightly to answer Bokuto's question. "Heyyy, what a surprise."
"Oh, shut up." Akaashi didn't feel his cheeks burn, he felt them drown in lava. And he was about to look again at the landscape of the city, but one of Bokuto's hands reached out to take his chin and keep him in place. His eyes involuntarily, wanting it, they watched Bokuto's lips for a few seconds before looking at his eyes.
Bokuto no longer saw him in the eyes. More specifically he was looking in the direction of his lips and his breath mingled with Akaashi's at the same time that his hand that had been on Akaashi's chin was moving up to his neck. And the moment he closed his eyes and thought that Bokuto would kiss him, he felt wet and soft lips sweep over the skin on his cheekbone. His breath caught in his throat and his eyes closed with more pressure when Bokuto's lips kissed his cheekbone, and they moved never leaving his skin to kiss his two cheeks, forehead and nose. Each kiss was barely wet, affectionate, and very intense despite being just caresses against the skin of his face. Bokuto brushed his lips slowly against Akaashi's most sensitive pores until he reached his chin where it seemed to moisten his lips again, and then finally Akaashi felt his warm breath crash against his lips. Almost by inertia Akaashi momentarily opened his lips, and then felt something more humid than Bokuto's lips, which Akaashi supposed was his tongue, caressing his upper lip very playfully and slowly. Then, Bokuto's tongue came down on his way to his lower lip to which he gave more attention. His tongue brushed all of Akaashi's lower lip, moistening it and at the same time savoring it in the cold of that night and Akaashi felt his hands tremble slightly before bringing them to Bokuto's chest.
Finally, Bokuto parted momentarily before kissing the corner of Akaashi's lip, and then simply sticking his lips against the setter's.
Both their lips were wet thanks to the care that Bokuto had given them both, and although the touch was cold due to the night wind and the height at which they were, it was impossible not to enjoy the warmth of Bokuto's hands on his cheeks or how tasty his lips were while kissing his. His breathing was irregular but that didn't stop him from kissing Bokuto more deeply by making his head a little sideways to have more comfort in deepening their mouths, one against the other. A hand of Bokuto traveled to the nape of his neck and pulled their faces impossibly closer still as Akaashi's own arms went up Bokuto's chest and collarbones to wrap around his neck. Akaashi felt the blanket fall from his shoulders and the cold hit him like a wave against his body, but he didn't care when he had one of Bokuto's hands on his waist and the other on his neck pulling him against his body and giving him all the heat that his body needed.
Bokuto's saliva was on his lips and his own tongue was inside Bokuto's mouth savoring whatever he could, when one of them, Akaashi was not entirely sure, let out a little gasp followed by a very soft moan. Akaashi's head was very overwhelmed and his eyes were still closed, but the pressure in his throat and chest didn't allow him to breathe properly and his legs felt weak as hell.
Bokuto noticed it, obviously he noticed it, and he separated slowly from Akaashi, but not before leaving two soft kisses on his lips and one on his nose.
"Wanna sit down?" He asked as he reached down quickly to take the blanket that was on the floor and then, never letting go of Akaashi's waist, guided him to one of the sofas that were adorning that balcony.
The sofas were comfortable and very cushioned and much softer than the futons in the room, and Akaashi looked embarrassed closing his eyes due to the comfort and relaxation that his legs felt as they just leaned back on the cushions. Bokuto looking at him being so comfy laughed lightly and then threw himself next to Akaashi and covered them both with the blanket, then wrapped Akaashi's shoulders with one of his arms making Akaashi to comfortably rest his head on Bokuto's chest, and that made Akaashi to move one of his hands to balance himself on the captain's abdomen.
The night was cold and the wind that danced on that balcony of the highest floor of the hotel wasn't so friendly, but somehow the mix of tiredness of his own head due to the nerves of the match they would have in the morning, the night landscape of the vivid Tokyo city, and also Bokuto's warm body attached to his under the blanket, wasn't a bad combination at all.
"Bokuto-san." Akaashi whispered when he thought Bokuto had fallen asleep. "Tomorrow, no, Today, we will win. Neither the adversity of the suppositions will win against us."
"In that case," a whisper over his hair surprised him a little. But he couldn't help but smile when he felt Bokuto's nose rub against his hair in a caress similar to that of a puppy looking for attention. "It's a promise. A promise of ourselves to ourselves, not a cheap assumption."
"It's actually a bet between us, but we can say it's a promise."
"Akaaashiiiiii." Bokuto whimpered, rubbing his face against his hair and Akaashi laughed lightly. "I'm going to miss you so much."
Akaashi tried not to think too much. They still had enough to live in just hours to worry about the fact that Bokuto would graduate in a few months. So Akaashi just left a short kiss on Bokuto's chest and snuggled a little more against his warm body. His muscles were relaxed and his brain too tired to think or release coherent words.
Bokuto whispered something more against his hair, but Akaashi had already fallen asleep to understand him, or to want to understand him.
It was a promise, despite everything.