Work Text:
Sighing, Akaashi took off his glasses, folded them and wrapped his hands around his coffee; it was hot, but not too hot. It was just right, as he liked it. Slowly, he brought the cup to his lips and took a sip. Although it burned on his tongue (as expected), it was good. Usually,he wouldn’t be the type to have such strong coffee before 8am, but today was an exception. The past few days, he had been working until late hours of the night. It wasn’t like he couldn’t handle the lack of sleep, it was just the fact that he was so used to getting a good amount of sleep, he forgot what it felt like to be tired.
He looked around the coffee shop. It was new in the area and not many citizens paid attention to it, so it was near empty. Actually, it looked like it was just Akaashi and the few workers on shift. This didn’t bother him, knowing that he wasn’t too keen on being in crowded places this early in the morning. The place was small and not over-decorated - inside, it was warm and you would just immediately feel safe. In Akaashi’s opinion, it was the perfect place to start working. As a bonus, one of the workers was very interactive. And, maybe, attractive.
At that moment, only whispers about the latest volleyball games and soon-to-be-released movies could be heard, other than that, everybody was more or less just keeping to themselves.
The chatter slowly died down and the black-haired male put down his coffee. Grabbing his glasses, he put them back on and read through his open document. It wasn’t anything interesting, honestly, just a review for a meeting he had a couple days ago. He hovered his fingers over the keys before beginning to type. The whole time, he remained expressionless, not paying attention to the people around him either.
As he typed, his eyes flickered from the keyboard to the screen. In the reflection of Akaashi’s glasses, the plain screen could be seen, black blurs, which you could just assume were words, scattered in any blank spaces. To any normal person, it looked like he was going at an extremely fast pace and wasn’t anywhere near stopping.
Minutes of endless typing passed and he glanced to the corner of his screen. The word count box displayed the number ‘4729’ in bold. 271 more words, then I’ll be satisfied. I need to reach 5000 as soon as possible.
Leaning back in his chair, he sighed and took another sip of his coffee; it felt like he had a little less than a quarter of it left now. It was a shame, he was really enjoying it, but it was enough to get him through the morning. Maybe he would order another one on his way out.
When Akaashi finished typing, he made sure that he had saved the document multiple times before relaxing in his chair. It felt so good to finally be finished. Shutting his eyes, he leaned his head back. Now, he had a few minutes to himself between now and the time he had to be in his office. Gradually, he began packing his laptop into his bag and tidying the area that he was sat at, not wanting to give the morning workers any extra labour.
“Thank you,” the worker at the counter said as soon as he was close enough to hear him. Puzzled, Akaashi raised an eyebrow.
“What for?”
“Cleaning up after yourself,” he laughed. “Sugawara hates cleaning up after people when they leave most of their things behind,” A soft smile spread across Akaashi's face, glad he was able to make somebody’s day.
“It’s not much, honestly, some people are just really rude. Plus, it’s still early in the morning - you guys shouldn’t have to work as hard when you’re tired,” he replied and reached into his bag. He took out some change. “Can I get another one of those?”
The worker at the counter nodded, took the change and walked into the kitchen. Akaashi stood beside the counter, fiddling with his phone as he waited for his coffee to arrive. A short while later, a familiar, smiling, silver-haired boy walked out of the kitchen and passed him his coffee; it was the worker from earlier. Just something about him seemed different to other men Akaashi had talked to. Each word that escaped that boy's mouth sounded so soft and genuine. He hadn't gotten to know him yet, but something inside him was telling him that he was going to make his life that tiniest bit more interesting.
“Sorry for the wait, I was talking to Azumane. He told me about what you did and all, so thanks. I really appreciate it,”
Nodding, the taller of the two said, “So you’re Sugawara then? And that was Azumane, yes?” The other grinned and showed him a thumbs up.
“You’re smart,”
“Not really, it's just common sense at this point,” Akaashi smiled. “Thank you for letting me stay here this morning, I'll probably come by tomorrow as well,”
“You're welcome here anytime!” Sugawara told him and waved goodbye. The worker watched him walk out the building, turning around as soon as he was out of sight.
Akaashi spent the rest of his day sitting in his office, typing away on his laptop, only averting his attention to other things when getting a snack or signing some things that needed signing. He was trying his best to concentrate, he really was, but a certain coffee shop worker was on his mind; it was rarely that he had been in a good mood since the very morning, so how had he done it so easily? All this time, he would feel uncomfortable and out of place when talking to strangers out of his work building or home. It felt odd to Akaashi, thinking about somebody he barely knew and what a positive impact they had on him already. He wasn't complaining, and he didn't want it to be the last and only time that happened. Now he knew for sure that he was visiting the next day - he longed for that warm, happy feeling again.
Taking a short break from his typing, Akaashi tilted his head to both sides, shook his arms and melted into his seat. Like any other person, he needed a few minutes to relax too. If he didn't, then he would have probably fainted within the next three hours. Grabbing the frame of his glasses and placing them to the side, he stood up and dragged his feet to the break room. As soon as he walked in, Akaashi slumped onto the sofa.
“You seem unusually tired today, are you getting enough sleep?” The sudden voice startled him, causing him to in the direction it came from. His eyes trailed to Kuroo. Although he wasn't too fond of the man during work hours (due to his immaturity), he had to admit that he did keep him company and was a good person. Maybe, he wasn't somebody he expected to be friends with, but it was better to have one friend than none.
“I haven't been able to get a good night's sleep for nearly a week, so,” Akaashi replied, sarcasm dripping from his words. "I'm definitely not tired."
“Is Boss giving you a hard time again?” the other sighed and sat beside him. “If you can't handle all the work then you can hand some of it over to me,” He immediately shook his head and turned to him, his eyes half open.
“Thanks for offering, but since Boss assigned the work to me, it's my responsibility,”
"Dude, you look like you're going to pass out. Are you sure about that?" Worry glowed in Kuroo's eyes and he placed a comforting hand on Akaashi's shoulder.
"I'm sure," he sighed. He knew that he was just putting more pressure on himself at this point. He knew that Kuroo would try to take over some of his duties anyways. He knew that anybody in the right mind would worry. He just didn't want anybody to go through any more stress.
The rest of the day went by in the blink of an eye and the next thing he knew, Akaashi was already waking up for a new day. Beside him, his alarm was ringing, the time reading 5:35. Tiredly, he dropped his arm on the alarm to turn it off and grabbed his glasses, sitting up. When he put his glasses on, he opened the curtain beside his bed. The morning was always the worst time of day for him, he always felt unmotivated and just didn’t want to do anything. Multiple times he had considered just skipping work and staying at home, even though he knew that he would probably get fired if he did so. Sometimes he thinks about what would have happened if he hadn’t got this job.
These sorts of thoughts always appeared in the early hours of the day, so he just had to push them away to keep himself going.
Akaashi stood up from his bed, walking into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Carefully, he twisted the handle and the cold water came sprinkling down from the shower head. While he waited for the water to become the right temperature, he undressed himself and got a towel from out of the cabinet under the counter so that he didn't have to look for one later. A few moments passed and Akaashi was under the running water, massaging the shampoo into his hair. Today’s shower took a bit shorter than usual, probably because of the excitement in his body - he couldn’t wait to see Sugawara again! He had only met the silver-haired boy yesterday, but he could immediately tell that he was a good person.
By the time he had finished his shower, it was only 5:50. This left him time to get changed, have a proper breakfast and make his way to the coffee shop. And think some more about Sugawara. Hurriedly, Akaashi dried himself off with the towel and walked back into his bedroom to get his uniform. After he finished putting on his green tie and put his gray blaze r on, he packed his laptop away into his bag and walked out of his bedroom and into the kitchen.
It had just turned 7:20 when a certain black-haired male walked into the coffee shop. He was greeted by the same long haired worker who was at the counter the day before. They exchanged smiles and he walked to the counter, the other walking behind it, ready to take his order.
“What would it be today?” Azumane asked.
“Anything, surprise me. I need to try everything in this place at some point,” he answered and took out his wallet.
“Oh? Then I’ll get you our staff favourite,” Akaashi tilted his head and nodded.
“And that would be..?”
“And that would be a secret!” Akaashi chuckled at his response and took out a note. He passed it over the counter and put his wallet back into his bag . Mystery order, that sounds nice.
“Keep the change,” he stated. At around this point, he realised that there were no traces of Sugawara anywhere. He looked around the coffee shop in hope that he was cleaning up or something, but he wasn’t in sight. “Have you seen..?”
Azumane took the hint and shrugged. “I think he called in saying that he was going to be a bit late today. He’ll probably be here by the time you’re leaving though, so don’t worry!”
Akaashi nodded and waved to the other as he went to the back to start making his drink. The place looked exactly the same as it did yesterday, so he went down to sit in the same place. Taking his place, he placed his bag on his lap and brought out the few things he needed; his phone, his notebook and, most obviously, his laptop. He started up his laptop and opened his notebook, skimming through the notes he made in his office. It was mostly just messy reminders for the next few days, a few tasks he needed to complete and when he had to complete them by. In the top left-hand corner of the page, there were a few doodles. Of course, they were of Sugawara; Akaashi rolled his eyes at his childishness and flipped to the next clear page. He took out a pen from one of his blazer pockets and began scribbling down the date and goals for the rest of the day, in which one of them read ‘talk to sugawara’.
While writing, he saw a figure coming towards him from the corner of his eye and put his pen down.
“Your drink,” the worker said and placed it down beside Akaashi.
“Thank you, Azumane, I’m sure it’ll be great,” he smiled.
“I’m glad. I’ll tell you when Suga arrives since you seem to want to talk to him,”
“Thank you,”
A few minutes passed and Akaashi was back at it, typing away at his computer, the same emotionless expression on his face. His eyes were focused on his keyboard and keyboard only, no looking up or away. He was obviously thinking really hard and not many things could distract him now. The sound of his fingers lightly tapping each key filled his ears, the speed of the typing only slowing down every time he went to take another sip of his drink. As he came to the end of his writing, Akaashi stretched his fingers and smiled when he hit the ‘Save’ button. That was one task down.
Before he could open a new document, Azumane was making his way towards his table whilst talking to another member of staff - Sugawara. Akaashi looked over in their direction and waved, earning a wave back from the both of them.
"Sugawara is here, he was just running a bit late. It's fine though, nobody came in except for you, so I didn't have much trouble." he told him then looked at the silver-haired boy. "You, I told you you shouldn't have worried. No way he would leave, he was looking for you!" Akaashi's ears turned a bright shade of red and he looked off to this side. Him? Worried I would have left?
They were alone now, just the two of them; just Akaashi and Sugawara. The two sat across from each other, and awkward silence between them.
“I-”
“So-”
Both of them chuckled.
“You can go first,” said Akaashi as he shut his laptop, putting it into his bag along with his other belongings, then leaning forward.
“I never got your name?” the shorter said, embarrassed. His cheeks were red and he couldn't keep a straight face.
“A-Akaashi, sorry for not saying earlier. I completely forgot,” Sugawara grinned and stuck his hand out.
“Sugawara, nice to properly meet you!”
Akaashi placed his hand in his and shook it. “Nice to properly meet you too, Suga,”
“Well, what did you want to talk about?”
"I think we should hang out. Let's be friends."