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Akaashi loved photography, or at least he was damn sure he does, since he’s majoring in it. All his life, he’d always been in love with his assortment of cameras; they came just second to volleyball. Somehow, all the emotions and words he always had a hard time expressing became clear through his photos. Whenever he peered through the viewfinder, his mind always calmed, no matter how stressed he felt or how much Bokuto was nagging at him. And he had always felt this way about photography. That was, up until this moment.
He was taking shelter in his usual cafe, and had just gone through the photos he’d already taken throughout the day. He was looking through the viewfinder to check if the lens was still faring well even after he ran through the sudden rain with it. He held it steady and aimed it around parts of the cafe, playing with the settings as to prepare for taking photos under the overcast sky. That was when he shifted the camera, and it landed perfectly on someone’s smile. When her eyes turned and looked straight at his through the lens, he thought—
‘Oh shit.’
The sound of the camera shutter went off, and for once, Bokuto immediately stopped talking. He looked at Akaashi, eyes unblinking and head tilted. He followed Akaashi’s line of vision, and raised an eyebrow to see that it landed on a girl behind the counter. Akaashi thought that he was safe when he noticed that she was too engrossed in conversation with a coworker to hear the sound of the camera. However, his safety was immediately jeopardized when Bokuto realized that he recognized said girl, and began calling for her, arms flailing.
“Heeeeeyyyyy! (Y/n)-chan! Over here!”
“Bokuto-san, what on earth are you doing right now?” Akaashi hissed under his breath, voice straining. Her attention was already held.
“You were looking at her, right? Well, well?”
He narrows his eyes in response.
“Well.... what?”
Bokuto takes a long sip from his iced tea, leaving the inquiry unanswered. Instead, the girl has now taken note of the familiar face and began to head towards the pair. Akaashi fumbles with the camera in his hands, and decided to act completely engrossed in cleaning the lens, even though he knew that it was most definitely clean from immaculately caring for it day after day of use.
“Bokuto! What’s up? I didn’t think I’d see you around here,” you chirped, tying the ends of the apron around your waist as you approached the table.
“Hahaha, you think? This place is his usual spot,” Bokuto spoke, gesturing towards Akaashi. “What’re you up to? DIdn’t know you worked here. I would’ve run into you sooner otherwise!”
You rolled your eyes. Clearly you seemed experienced in dealing with the chipper energizer. “Just started actually. It’s not too far from home and the pay is pretty decent. Plus,” you paused, looking around cautiously before leaning in towards them, “I get free coffee, on the house. Although, you aren’t supposed to know that,” you smirked before standing back up to your full height.
His ears twitched and stood at attention while processing what you’d said. “What??? Hook me up with some of that!”
“No can do, Bokuto. Who knows what’ll happen if I give you a shot of espresso. Stick to your iced tea,” you snorted. You glanced over at the other guest, and noticed that he’d just been sitting silently. “So, Bokuto. Who’s pretty boy?”
He exploded into laughter, some strands of his expertly gelled hair fell out of place. “Pretty boy? Pfft—HA! I like the sound of that, don’t you, Akaashi? Right! I didn’t even introduce you two to each other yet!—Akaashi, this is (Y/n)-chan. (Y/n)-chan, this is Akaashi, an underclassman. We played for the same team back in high school!”
Your face suddenly became grim and nodded at Akaashi in understanding. “Akaashi-kun, it must’ve been tough for you, huh? Dealing with this single brain-celled bastard for so long. My condolences.”
“I’m right here, you know!” Bokuto huffed, opting to angrily slurp the iced tea when they continued to ignore him.
Akaashi couldn’t stop from holding back a chuckle, and was especially pleased to see your lips revert back to and it was out before he knew it. “Indeed. It seems that you’ve had to go through your fair share of troubles as well, (Y/n)-senpai.”
“Well, I’d love to stick around more and chat, but I just got this job, and I intend to keep it,” you said, waving before turning to return behind the counter. You abruptly stopped and turned on your heel. “Akaashi-kun! If you ever come by while I’m on shift, I’ll get you something on the house! Not you though, Bokuto!”
Bokuto shouted back, whining about how cruelly you treated him when all he ever did was look after you, “and maybe just that prank that one time…”
Akaashi silently regarded your words. All he knew was he would have to pull out all the stops and make sure that Bokuto never found out that you actually made his heart pound in his ribcage, even harder than when he used to play on the court. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust him. Akaashi knew that Bokuto was someone who would take a bullet for him—but it was exactly that he didn’t trust him because Bokuto would stupidly take the bullet instead of simply pushing Akaashi out of the way. In that same manner, Bokuto would surely blurt something out mindlessly, even if his intent was completely harmless. However, reality proved that Bokuto was much sharper than Akaashi had made him out to be.
“Akaashi, you are so done for,” Bokuto said, poking at him. “And don’t even try to deny it with that kind of look on your face.”
He raised an eyebrow, unsure of what Bokuto meant by that.
“Oh my god. You don’t even know what you look like right now, do you? You have this stupid smile on your face.”
Akaashi hadn’t even realized that the corners of his lips were upturned and relaxed his expression tout de suite. And it hit him then and there, that from the moment he first saw you, it was pointless to resist. His whole being was entirely enraptured by you.
So much for making sure that Bokuto never found out about it.