Work Text:
"Your bangs have grown long," Ennoshita says, reaching out and tucking a strand of hair behind Akaashi's ear. "It's no good for your eyes."
"Hn," the fellow captain says absently, eyes never leaving the document in front of him. It is the draft schedule of their joint training camp, of the last day to be precise: the one with the much-debated social activity.
The document, once filled with the tidy and clean notes Yachi took during the captains' meeting, is now covered in Yamamoto's erratic and illegible scribbles and Kozume's comments, in much smaller and organized handwriting to serve as translations. Ennoshita has always admired Kozume for his ability to make sense of Yamamoto's roars of emotion, convey them in concise thoughts, and deliver them along with his immediate disapproval of them. Next to the mess Yamamoto had made are the few lines from Shinzen's newly appointed captain Shimafu, Ubugawa's Isahara, and Ennoshita's vice-captain, Yamaguchi. Akaashi marks something on the third page, circles Yamaguchi's entire entry, and writes a short note under one of Kozume's comments. Ennoshita's attention is far from the paper - he can't take his eyes off of Akaashi's almond-shaped eyes curtained by thick, black lashes, except for the occasional peek towards Akaashi's plush-looking lips.
In the beginning, he didn't think of Fukurodani's captain as the most beautiful creature in the world; he had always found him handsome and somewhat interesting, but the realization of Akaashi's true beauty hadn't dawned on him until after they suffered alongside each other during long and tiring captain meetings like the one this afternoon.
The idea to organize some fun before they all part for the preliminaries of the National Tournament had originally come from Ennoshita - now, facing a new and different complication at each step of the organization, he regrets having been swayed by emotion and nostalgia. He would have never expected the workload that comes with arranging an outing for a group with over 60 people. Even though the extended hours spent on captain stuff have their perks to them, for example, staying late in the career counseling room of Fukurodani - which had been offered to accommodate their captains' meetings - in the company of Akaashi and Akaashi alone.
A thick strand of Akaashi's bangs fall back into his face again, and Ennoshita tucks it behind his ears reflexively. This time, his hand stays fingers lingering above a masterfully shaped ear, and Ennoshita's thumb brushes against Akaashi's cheekbone.
"Do you plan to grow your hair out?" Ennoshita asks.
Akaashi hums again, non-committal, flipping through the pages.
Ennoshita's sure Akaashi couldn't hear him, for his attention seems to be focused entirely on the pages detailing the logistics of taking 60 excited and hyperactive high schoolers to the sea, and still keeping it somehow a secret.
"I should cut it," Akaashi says then, surprising Ennoshita. "I planned to, haven't had time to go yet."
Ennoshita didn't think he would get a reply. He didn't think Akaashi would tear his eyes away from the papers either, nor that he would lean into Ennoshita's touch.
"I see," Ennoshita says, suddenly out of words and finding himself with a throat dry as parchment. He gulps. Keeping eye contact with Akaashi proves to be a difficult task.
Akaashi lets out a huff, almost like a short, fond chuckle. He blinks slowly. With his eyes closed, plush lips turned in Ennoshita's way, Karasuno's captain is forced to fight a losing battle with his instinct to close the gap between their mouths. He is on the verge of giving in when Akaashi blinks again, quickly, and turns back to the planning.
"We can use the Fukurodani and Shinzen buses, don't you think so?" Akaashi asks, his voice calm and mellow as ever. "Ubugawa is renting and you guys don't have a vehicle either, but if we group students randomly, we can fill the two buses and make some opportunity for new interactions as well."
Ennoshita's true self keeps admiring how sharp Akaashi's jawline is from this angle, while his professional, captainly self replies. "That's all good, but what do we do with the adults?"
"We have a minivan," Akaashi says, giving Ennoshita a side glance with a smirk.
Strangely, they never discussed romance among them captains and vices. Topics like attraction, crushes, or ideal types - things Tanaka would otherwise never shut up about - were somehow never brought up. Ennoshita, under any other circumstance, would be thankful to be saved from another lengthy monologue in full Tanaka fashion about the beauty of Shimizu Kiyoko, but for once he is honestly curious about the preferences and feelings of one particular captain in their group. Not that Akaashi had ever been giving out obvious hints but sometimes, mostly when it's just the two of them, Ennoshita feels as if he is being flirted with. It's never Akaashi's words - though admittedly, Akaashi can even make bragging about a minivan sound hot - but his nonverbal communication that gives Ennoshita hope.
When they share knowing glances during captains' meetings and one of them rolls his eyes over one of Yamamoto's extreme ideas, Ennoshita feels that there is a bond between them. When, after a lengthy meeting, Akaashi walks him back to the guest dorm room and their hands bump together on the way and Akaashi jokingly grabs Ennoshita's hand after it happened the umpteenth time calling it a "hand protection measure", Ennoshita feels they might have something, a spark of attraction. When Akaashi decides to sit next to him on the couch instead of sitting on the armchair at the opposite side of the table in the counseling room - and when he inches closer ever so slightly once the others have left, it makes Ennoshita hope that the spark has found its kindling in Akaashi, and he burns just as much as Ennoshita from the sheer proximity of the other.
"... Chikara?" the soft, mellow voice reaches Ennoshita at the same time a hand is placed on his thigh.
"Huh?"
"Are you tired?" Akaashi asks. "You haven't been responding for a while."
He is objectively too close with his face mere centimeters away from Ennoshita's, his hand on Ennoshita's thigh, their knees touching and his entire torso turned towards Ennoshita.
Ennoshita knows that if someone were to measure his heart rate at the moment, he might be advised to retire from the club and scheduled for heart surgery.
"Sorry," he manages, way too aware of the fact that the tips of Akaashi's fingers are scraping the edges of his volleyball short. "My thoughts were elsewhere."
"Maybe we should wrap up for today," Akaashi offers with a smile.
His hand does not budge.
"Yeah," Ennoshita replies.
Akaashi stares at him for a while as if he was waiting for him to add something more and lets out a sigh.
"Ok, should I kiss you or do you want to kiss me first?"
"What?" Ennoshita jumps, creating unneeded friction between his thigh and Akaashi's hand. "Where did this come from?"
Akaashi makes a disappointed pout before he removes his hand, putting distance between them.
"We've been going in circles for a while, don't you think?" he asks from the opposite wall. "Stealing glances at each other, teasing each other just on the verge of flirting, touching each other for no apparent reason…"
"I… thought I was subtle," Ennoshita says.
"You were," Akaashi nods. "But I spent two years with Bokuto-san trying to read his mood."
"Ah. True."
"I don't know about you," Akaashi continues, "you might like the idea of a crush more than the actuality of a lover, or you might be attracted to me without wanting anything from me, but I want to kiss you and for a while, I've been feeling that you wanted to kiss me too. Correct me if I'm wrong and I take back everything and we go back to normal."
"You're not wrong, I just…"
"You just?" Akaashi asks, side glancing Ennoshita.
"I've never been confident enough to believe that the signs you were sending my way were actually signs and not just my wishful thinking," Ennoshita sighs, and when he leans against Akaashi's side, Fukurodani's setter does not pull away. "I fancied the thought of being suaver than I am, but I never knew how to do it. I wanted to hook my pinky in yours whenever our hands bumped into each other while walking side by side but I was afraid of rejection."
"Hm," Akaashi hums, nesting his head in the crook of Ennoshita's neck. "I'm the same."
"How are you the same when you grabbed my hand and asked for a kiss!"
"When I get nervous," Akaashi says and from his voice, Ennoshita can hear he's smiling, "I tend to either blubber something stupid or be way too direct. I usually make things worse than they were in the first place."
"I… I would've never guessed," Ennoshita says, breathing in the scent of Akaashi's hair. "You always behave so calmly and collected, I just… didn't expect you to be…"
"Clumsy?" Akaashi guesses.
"Nah, that's me," Ennoshita shakes his head.
"Nervous?"
"That's more like it."
"I didn't expect you to lack confidence either," Akaashi replies with a chuckle, reaching out and twining their fingers together. "You always seem to know what you want and lead your team with such a proud, loud voice… to be honest, all summer I've been wondering whether you were only flirting with me for the sake of it. You never acted on it or showed any sign of wanting more. If you didn't stare at my lips just before I wouldn't have asked if you would kiss me, but it got me so nervous I just blurted it out. Sorry if it surprised you."
"It did," Ennoshita replies, looking at their clasped hands, "but it was a pleasant surprise."
"Hn."
They sit in silence for a while, enjoying the sheer proximity of one another and the certainty of their entwined fingers. Slowly, they ease into the situation; the gap between their bodies disappears as one's side melts into the other's, their hips lining up and shoulders folding over each other. Akaashi, albeit taller, crouches a bit so he can keep resting his face over Ennoshita's collarbone, and Ennoshita raises his free hand to absent-mindedly fiddle with Akaashi's outgrown hair.
For a while, all they can hear is the cicadas' cry outside the window and the murmuring of the mini-fridge in the counseling room, which neither Tanaka nor Yamamoto managed to pry open.
"I want to, "Ennoshita says finally, voice tearing into the serenity of the scene.
"Hn?" Akaashi hums in question, turning his head to face him.
"Kiss you first."
"Ok," Akaashi says, and his voice hitches when Ennoshita presses his lips against his scalp. He turns his head slightly, and the second peck lands right beside his eye, cool lips soothing the skin of his temple. Akaashi lets out a content hum, turning in the couch to face Ennoshita properly, and grabs onto Ennoshita's hoodie for support as he leans in, kissing the forehead of Karasuno's captain.
Ennoshita chuckles before he hooks his arms around Akaashi's neck, pulling him onto him with a snarky remark. "I can't believe we're still shying away at this point," he murmurs onto Akaashi's lips before finally meeting them in a soft, lingering kiss.
He can feel Akaashi's smile against his mouth before Fukurodani's captain pushes him down onto the couch, deepening their kiss belying the innocence of first kisses.