Chapter Text
When Akaashi first saw Bokuto Koutarou, he felt like he was staring straight into the sun. The bright cheer of his personality was utterly overwhelming. Akaashi had never been a particularly passionate guy. He liked to play volleyball and he enjoyed the feel of the ball in his hand in the split second before it rolled off his fingertips in the direction of his hitter. He enjoyed watching as a player swung their hand to connect with the ball, and he liked the thud the ball made after a particularly hard spike.
Akaashi liked volleyball but he didn’t love it. After watching Bokuto spike the ball just one time, he knew what it looked like to be utterly engrossed in the sport. Akaashi barely took his eyes off Bokuto for the rest of the match and suddenly a decision, that five minutes before had been impossible to make, had been made.
Even if Akaashi himself would never be able to reach that level of passion, he would at least be able to watch and just maybe….
When Akaashi first met Bokuto Koutarou, he felt a kind of excitement that he wasn’t used to feeling. Of course, he knew that excitement wasn’t reflected on his face. Being right next to the wing spiker was a wholly different experience than watching him from the stands. Despite the fact that he was barely taller than Akaashi, the weird set of his hair and the way he always seemed to be talking made him feel larger than life.
“I am Akaashi Keiji from Mori Middle School. I played setter. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Bokuto’s first words to Akaashi were in response to his introduction and he’d gotten Akaashi’s name wrong.
“Hey, uhh, Akashi-Kun. Could you please help me practice spikes for just a little bit?”
Akaashi could barely feel the passing of time as he set ball after ball to Bokuto. The only indication that the world was still moving, seemed to be the increasing ache in his arms and the sweat that had begun building on Bokuto’s face. Both observations were pushed from his mind as he heard, “Akashi! Your tosses are the best!!”
Akaashi didn’t even mind that Bokuto had gotten his name wrong again and he couldn’t name the feeling that seemed to make his chest swell.
When Akaashi first experienced Bokuto Koutarou’s emo mode, he could almost feel himself realize that Bokuto was still human. As Bokuto became uncooperative, for a reason that no one seemed to understand, Akaashi began to wonder and he began to plan. Before, his eyes had always been inexplicably drawn to Bokuto without his permission but after, he began to watch purposefully. He kept track of every slump Bokuto experienced, and he watched to figure out what caused them. Of course there were what some people would call the trivial causes:
Weakness number 6: he wants to stand out.
Weakness number 22: he loses jumping power if his hair isn’t properly styled.
Weakness number 37: if he becomes too fixated on one thing, he’ll completely forget how to do anything else.
There were people who would laugh at Bokuto’s weakness and many people did. And yes, Akaashi may have been one of those people if he had gone to a different high school but Akaashi hadn’t gone to a different high school, and Akaashi knew that Bokuto’s slumps were rooted in his two biggest weaknesses:
Weakness number 1: He has never forgotten a loss and each one weighs his shoulders further down.
Weakness number 38: He never wants anyone to view his teammates as weak.
Despite what anyone outside of the team might think of Bokuto’s weakness, Akaashi knew that those weaknesses were what made Bokuto a true ace.
As Akaashi had discovered each of Bokuto’s weaknesses, he tried his hardest to come up with strategies to defeat each of them. Akaashi knew that he would never love volleyball. At least not in the way that Bokuto did. But, if he couldn’t love volleyball, he could at least do everything in his power so that Bokuto would never stop loving it. If that meant ignoring him in a game, he would do it. If it meant stroking his ego at every turn, he would do it. If it meant practicing spikes with Bokuto until he thought his arms were going to fall off, he would do it.
If there was one thing Akaashi knew, it was that he never wanted to see a dying star. Especially when it was the only thing that kept him out of total darkness.
When Akaashi first heard Bokuto Koutarou’s stupid catch phrase, he wanted to serve a ball into the back of his head. It was the most annoying sound Akaashi had ever heard. Akaashi wasn’t exactly sure why it annoyed him to no end but eventually, it was the frequency of the phrase that he came to hate more than anything.
After a service ace, “HEY! HEY! HEY!”
After a cross spike, “HEY! HEY! HEY!”
After a straight, “HEY! HEY! HEY!”
After a block, “HEY! HEY! HEY!”
After recovering from a slump, “HEY! HEY! HEY!”
Eventually, Akaashi learned to accept it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t occasionally hit with the urge to pick up a ball and serve it straight into the back of Bokuto’s spiky head. For a long while, Akaashi couldn’t think of a sound that he hated more than Bokuto’s overly enthusiastic, “HEY! HEY! HEY!” It wasn’t until his first trip to nationals that he thought of one. Well to be more specific, he thought of two: The sound of the opposing team cheering as Bokuto’s cross shot was stuffed, ending their trip to Nationals in the first round and the sound of Bokuto crying in a locker room that he thought was empty.
Akaashi decided that Bokuto’s catch phrase wasn’t really that bad.
When Akaashi first saw Bokuto Koutarou lose a game, he knew he never wanted to see it again, even if the way he silently pouted beneath a table was cute (wait, cute?). Despite that fact, there was nothing Akaashi could do to stop the inevitable losses. He watched as each one added a weight to Bokuto’s shoulders. Even days later, when everyone thought Bokuto had moved on, Akaashi could almost see the weight on his shoulders as if they were labeled with the name of every team Bokuto had the displeasure of losing to. Nekoma, Itachiyama, Hayarukawa Tech, Shinzen. They were so obvious, he wondered why no one else seemed to notice them. It must have been because of the strong set of Bokuto’s shoulders.
Akaashi wanted to remove each weight from Bokuto’s shoulders, one by one, the same way that an owl molts its feather so that new ones can grow in. Somehow, though, he knew that was impossible. The only thing Akaashi could do was try to make sure that the weight added never became unbearable.
Akaashi watched as weight after weight was gradually added to the already heavy burden on Bokuto’s shoulders. At the same time, he watched as those shoulders broadened and the slump became almost nonexistent.
Maybe, losing wasn’t that bad, especially if it meant that Akaashi got to see Bokuto’s sulking face, watch his shoulders grow, and spend an entire day alone with him, a ball, and a net.
When Akaashi first saw Bokuto Koutarou transition into the ace that he always believed he was, Akaashi knew he was a goner. “Up till now, I've been ‘an ace that is coddled by the rest of the team’, but in a few days we're all going to say goodbye to each other and go our separate ways, so it's about time I became just, ‘an ace’.”
As Akaashi thought back to all the firsts he had experienced with Bokuto, he couldn’t believe it had taken this long for him to realize. Akaashi had learned so many things about Bokuto in the two years since they had met:
Bokuto Koutarou always blamed himself for every loss.
Bokuto Koutarou had the most annoying catchphrase.
Bokuto Koutarou had almost too many weaknesses to count.
Bokuto Koutarou was addicted to practicing.
Bokuto Koutarou loved volleyball.
He had learned all those things about Bokuto but it had taken all that time for Akaashi Keiji to realize what had become the most important thing about himself.
Akaashi Keiji had fallen in love with Bokuto Koutarou.