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Bokuto is ready. He’s sure his plan is foul-proof. Kuroo has found the perfect song, made the perfect situation, and drilled it into Bokuto’s head. There’s no way he can fail.
He sits anxiously on the bus, having arrived a bit too early. Kuroo had advised him to claim a seat early before everyone else boarded and put his bag on the seat next to him. Then, when Akaashi entered the bus, Bokuto could call him and invite Akaashi to sit next to him while stopping anyone else from sitting next to him. Then it would be time for Bokuto’s attack!
Well, he isn’t really going to attack, but he’s going to attack Akaashi with his confession!
Bokuto’s leg shakes, and he plays with his phone nervously. His finger is hovering over the recommended song. He can’t quite understand it, as it’s in english, but Kuroo had assured him that this was the perfect song. Apparently english songs are ‘super romantic’, but Bokuto feels a bit of doubt. Nonetheless, he has faith in Kuroo. Kuroo wouldn’t lead him astray.
Bokuto spots the team heading towards the bus, and his heart rate skyrockets. His eyes immediately land on Akaashi, and he lets out a hopeless sigh. Akaashi is so very very pretty, and Bokuto is a sucker for Akaashi-pretty.
He’s not just pretty though. He takes good care of Bokuto, and he stays behind and does spiking practice with him, and he’ll hug Bokuto when he gets the urge to hide under a desk. Hugs are rare though, so Bokuto is careful not to ask for too many on a daily basis. When Bokuto gets in a depressed mood during a match, Akaashi knows how to cheer him back up, even if he doesn’t toss to him for a while.
So in conclusion, Akaashi is both pretty on the inside and outside! Even if Akaashi was a monster, Bokuto would still like him all the same. No, he’d even say that he’d love him all the same!
Bokuto’s cheeks turn red at the forbidden ‘L’ word. It’s too early to be thinking about that! He tries to will his blush away, as he can see his teammates approaching the bus, but his eyes stay fixed on Akaashi. There’s no saving his tomato face.
The chatter from his teammates fill the bus as they pile in one by one. Bokuto is sitting in the very back, and he waits anxiously for Akaashi to enter. As soon as he spots the familiar hair, he waves wildly. “Akaaaashi! Come sit next to me!”
Akaashi blinks, startled by his loud voice, but he makes his way to the back. Bokuto grins. Step one is a success! They usually sit together anyways, so no one looks at him suspiciously. Bokuto removes his bag and kicks it under the chair in front of him. Akaashi comes and sits next to him, and Bokuto mentally pats himself on the back. Step one is complete!
“You played well today, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi says, and Bokuto’s face flames red once again. Akaashi frowns and reaches over to place his forehead against Bokuto’s forehead. “Are you alright? Do you have a fever?”
Bokuto is completely frozen. He can feel where their foreheads are pressed together, and he can feel Akaashi’s breath on his face, and it’s all too much for him.
He quickly pulls away and laughs a bit hysterically. “Yeah, I’m fine! I’m great! I’m totally okay and there’s nothing wrong with me, absolutely not,” he says with a nervous grin. Akaashi does not look like he believes him, but he drops the subject.
Bokuto fumbles with his earphones and puts them in his ear. His finger lingers over the song, where he had titled it ‘CONFESSION SONG!!!!’. After taking a deep breath and gathering his courage, he faces Akaashi once again.
“Akaashi! Do you want to share music with me?” He asks, his voice a tad bit high. He holds out an earphone hopefully, and Akaashi stares at it for a few moments before shrugging.
“I don’t mind, Bokuto-san.” Akaashi takes the earphone and puts it in. Bokuto lets out an internal cheer. Step two is complete! Now is the moment to confess! Bokuto squeezes his eyes shut and presses the song.
His heart beats wildly as he waits for the song to play. Bokuto startles as his earphone drops out of his ear, and he fumbles with it for a few seconds. Akaashi turns to him with a strange expression, and Bokuto’s heart drops as he prepares for rejection.
“Bokuto-san?” Akaashi says slowly. “Can I ask what we’re listening to?” He doesn’t sound grossed out, mostly confused, and Bokuto wonders why. Kuroo couldn’t have possibly picked out a strange song, right?
Bokuto slips the earphone in and his mouth falls open in shock. “W-wait, Akaashi, I don’t usually listen to this!” Bokuto tries to defend, the words falling out of his mouth in his panic. “I downloaded it because Kuroo made me!”
Bokuto had accidentally clicked on a different song. His life is over, Akaashi will laugh at him forever, and he’s missed his chance to confess.
Akaashi suddenly starts laughing. It’s a very soft laugh, and Bokuto stares at him, entranced. “I didn’t know you and Kuroo liked Crazy Frog that much,” Akaashi says with a smile. Bokuto doesn’t bother explaining himself as he’s enraptured by Akaashi’s beautiful smile.
It’s only when they arrive home that he remembers his confession failed. He calls Kuroo late in the night and laments about his mistake, then hangs up on him when Kuroo cackles for five minutes straight.
Bokuto fumbles with his hands nervously. He has his phone hooked up to a mini speaker, and he’s ready to serenade Akaashi into dating him. Kuroo gives him a thumbs up from where he’s hiding behind a tree with Bokuto’s phone.
Bokuto reaches over and taps Akaashi’s window. His heart starts beating faster as he gets more anxious, and he waits hopefully. There’s no answer, so Bokuto knocks again. There’s still no answer.
“Try knocking harder,” Kuroo whispers, and Bokuto knocks a bit harder. He hears a groan and the sound of something shuffling, and he tenses.
“He’s coming!” Bokuto squawks, suddenly unsure as to whether he should stay or book it. Unfortunately, the window opens before Bokuto can make up his mind, and something dead-looking appears.
Bokuto lets out a small screech before the creature raises its head. To his relief, it’s only Akaashi. He makes eye contact with Kuroo who grins and mouths ‘good luck!’ at him. The music suddenly starts playing, and Bokuto stumbles over his words, spouting out something incomprehensible.
“Bokuto-san,” Akaashi says, looking very, very tired and very, very irritated. Bokuto’s mouth immediately glues itself shut. “It is currently three in the morning. I stayed up studying until one. We have early morning practice in a few hours. Please tell pain-in-the-ass Kuroo-san to shut off the music, then go to bed.”
Bokuto stares at Akaashi, terrified out of his wits. Akaashi takes his cue to shut his window and close his curtains. Kuroo makes eye contact with him, and they both shiver.
“Let’s never wake him up in the middle of the night again,” Kuroo says nervously, and Bokuto nods his head rapidly. They quickly shut off the music and scamper off when Akaashi opens the window again and glowers at them.
Bokuto comes to the conclusion that music is out of the questions. His first two attempts failed miserably, and he’s not willing to have a repeat of any of those. He’s absolutely determined to win over Akaashi by the end of the week, so they can have their valentines date!
Therefore, he believes that the answer is a movie date! He asks Konoha to secretly buy two romance movie tickets for him, since Akaashi seems to know everything that Bokuto does. He doesn’t want Akaashi to find out his plan ahead of time. At the end of the movie, when the mood is all soft and warm, Bokuto will ask Akaashi out! It’s a perfect plan.
“Akaaashi!” Bokuto waves energetically when he spots his beautiful future boyfriend. Akaashi hurries over to where Bokuto is waiting, and Bokuto suddenly wants to hold his hand. Bokuto resists, because right now is not the right time. The tickets are in his pocket, and Bokuto bounces up and down on his heels.
“Let’s go!” He cheers, and Bokuto leads the way to the theater. He hands the tickets over, and the attendant smiles at them before handing a pair of stubs back. “It’ll be the last theater in the back to the left,” she says with a pleasant tone.
“Thank you,” he chirps before they enter the theater. “Do you want something to eat?” Bokuto asks, spotting the colorful concession stand. Akaashi shrugs.
“They’re overpriced,” he says simply. Bokuto eyes them before nodding, deciding that Akaashi is right. They walk past the stands and make their way into their theater. In his excitement, Bokuto almost trips over his feet, but Akaashi manages to catch him before he falls.
“Sorry, Akaashi,” Bokuto laughs cheerfully before heading into the theater. He fails to notice Akaashi pause outside of the room for a moment, eyeing something carefully before following Bokuto inside. They quickly find their seats, and Bokuto tries his best to keep his legs still.
“I’m really excited,” Bokuto blurts, and Akaashi eyes him. Bokuto frowns, wondering why Akaashi is giving him such a look. “Is everything okay?” Bokuto asks, a little worried.
“What movie did you purchase tickets for?” Akaashi asks, and Bokuto flinches. He can’t quite remember the title, so he flubs nervously.
“O-oh, haha, it was just something that looked fun,” he stammers with an overtly loud laugh. Akaashi’s gaze turns into something strange, but the screen suddenly fades into black from the previews. “Ooh, it’s starting,” Bokuto hurries to say, pointing at the screen. Thankfully, Akaashi doesn’t say anything and turns his attention to the screen.
Bokuto watches the screen attentively, but he feels confused when eerie music starts playing. He’s pretty sure a romance movie shouldn’t start like this. His confusion grows when the scene flashes to an abandoned house.
Bokuto screeches when something jumps out from the side and latches onto Akaashi. “Akaashi,” he sniffs, terrified out of his wits. Thankfully, Akaashi doesn’t brush him off, and lets him hang there.
For the rest of the movie, Bokuto hides whenever something scary appears. Akaashi remains straight-faced, and never shakes Bokuto off once. Bokuto can’t believe that Konoha bought him tickets to a horror movie.
He’s going to spike a ball at his face at their next practice.
As soon as the movie ends, Bokuto sprints out of the theater. “Akaaashi, that was really scary,” he cries, clinging onto him tightly. “I didn’t know it was a horror movie,” he whines, dragging his feet.
“Did you buy the tickets?” Akaashi asks calmly. Bokuto shakes his head, looking despondent. Akaashi merely pats his head and leads him out of the theater.
“Was it Konoha?” Akaashi asks. Bokuto gapes at him, looking surprised.
“How did you know?” He asks urgently. “Did he spill? Did Kuroo say anything? Was I too obvious?” To his surprise, Akaashi smiles at him. If Bokuto didn’t know any better, he would say it looked...fond?
“Don’t worry about it,” Akaashi says.
Bokuto later beats himself up for failing for a third time.
“Ohoho, this’ll be perfect,” Kuroo says, looking immensely proud of himself. Bokuto also feels very proud, and he thinks that he can’t fail this time.
Somehow, they two of them had managed to cook dinner. Kuroo had ever so generously volunteered to taste it and he was still alive, so Bokuto considered it a win. Kuroo was his true bro. After finding several duck shaped candles at the store, Bokuto had insisted on using those instead of regular candles. And since Kuroo claimed that flowers were necessary to woo Akaashi, Bokuto had bought several white roses and scattered them across the table. It’s a little messy, but Bokuto is very pleased with the final result.
“Kuroo,” Bokuto sniffs, looking teary-eyed. “You’re my real bro, the mvp of my heart, the one and only man who would help me in my pursuit of love.”
Kuroo cackles and smacks Bokuto on the back. “Thank me after you get your man,” Kuroo says wisely, as if he’s imparting wise words of wisdom. Bokuto nods eagerly. He can feel it in his gut, he knows that this is the night!
“When will Akaashi get here?” Kuroo asks. Bokuto checks the time and gulps nervously.
“He’ll be here in five minutes,” Bokuto says, and his palms are sweating. He wipes them nervously on his pants, and Kuroo gives Bokuto a comforting pat on the head.
“Cheer up! What’s the worst that could happen?” Kuroo says cheerfully. Several scenarios pop into his mind, like Akaashi rejecting him, or Akaashi telling him the food tastes horrible, or Akaashi laughing at the stupid little duck candles.
Kuroo seems to sense that Bokuto is having sad thoughts, so he tries to tickle Bokuto to cheer him up. Bokuto flails, laughing wildly as he tries to escape Kuroo’s fingers. Unfortunately, his elbow hits the table and knocks over a lit candle, and the thin tablecloth quickly catches on fire.
“FIRE!” Bokuto screams, and the two of them scramble to find something to put the fire out with. The fire spreads across the table and takes down two ducks before Kuroo throws a large pitcher of water over the fire.
Silence.
“I think we messed up. Big time.”
“Yeah.”
(Bokuto ends up leading Akaashi to the nearest ramen place when he arrives, while Kuroo tries to deal with the aftermath of the fire. The fire was his fault, after all.)
Bokuto sulks. He despondently traces his finger on the ground, depressed at his results. Ultimately, he failed to ask Akaashi out.
And Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. It seems that he won’t be getting his date tomorrow.
Bokuto groans and hides his face in his arms. Why is he so pathetic? He grumbles to himself, thinking of all the times he had failed. The mistake with the song had been so embarrassing, and the dinner he worked so hard on ended up in flames. It was all Kuroo’s fault.
No, that isn’t fair to his best bro. It was Bokuto’s fault, because he couldn’t even get one confession right. Bokuto wails inside his head and traces little circles on the ground.
He suddenly hears footsteps walking towards his location. Bokuto takes a peek from his arms when they come to a stop near him and spots a familiar pair of shoes. He swallows nervously before cautiously glancing upwards. Thankfully, Akaashi doesn’t look upset.
Well, Bokuto’s not sure if Akaashi should have a reason to be upset, but he feels like he’s done something wrong. Akaashi sits on the ground across from Bokuto and waits patiently.
“Aren’t you going home?” Bokuto says after a few minutes of silence. “Practice has been over for a while now.”
“I could ask the same thing of you, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi says, raising his eyebrow. Bokuto winces. He doesn’t know what to say, but it’s obvious that Akaashi is waiting for an answer.
Should he tell him the truth? It’s really embarrassing though, and he finds he doesn’t want to admit that he’s been trying to ask Akaashi out all week. He lets out another heavy sigh and continues sulking as he thinks.
Well, Bokuto’s never been good at hiding secrets. Akaashi is really nice to him, so he’ll probably forget about this whole week if Bokuto asks nicely. At least, he hopes so. This is probably his last chance to properly confess if he wants to take Akaashi on the best Valentine’s day date.
After he makes up his mind, he draws together all his courage and quickly glances up as he opens his mouth-
Only to come to a stuttering halt.
Akaashi looks radiant from where he’s sitting. The light from the windows casts a gentle glow around him, and Bokuto wonders if he’s seeing an angel. There’s a single sunflower in Akaashi’s hand, and it’s being held out to Bokuto. A soft smile graces Akaashi’s face, one that Bokuto has rarely had the pleasure of seeing.
“Will you go on a date with me, Bokuto-san?” Akaashi asks. Bokuto stares at him with a gaping mouth, stunned into silence. A moment later, he comes to his senses.
“Y-Yes!” He yelps. His mouth is currently incapable of forming words, so he ends up looking like a fish out of water. Akaashi laughs behind his hand, and Bokuto thinks that he can happily ascend to heaven now.
“Please accept my gift,” Akaashi says, his eyes warm. Bokuto’s hand immediately latches onto the flower and brings it close. It smells nice, and Bokuto plans on keeping it forever. He’ll never let it die, and he’ll take super good care of it.
“S-So,” Bokuto says, shaking from excitement, “Are you my boyfriend now?!” Akaashi reaches over and laces their hands together. Bokuto’s heart stops for a moment.
“I hope so,” Akaashi says. “I didn’t bring this sunflower for someone else.” Bokuto cheers wildly, and he can’t wait to tell Kuroo about his success.
“We can go on a date tomorrow, right?” Bokuto asks eagerly, and Akaashi’s cheeks turn a pale pink. Bokuto wants to kiss them.
“It’ll be the best date,” Akaashi promises, and Bokuto believes him.
Omake:
“I refuse.”
“But Akaaaashi, we have to! We’re a couple now!”
“This is ridiculous, Bokuto-san. It’ll be extremely inconvenient, and it’s impractical.”
“Please? Please? Please please pleeeeeease?”
A sigh.
“...Alright. But only this time. Never again.”
Bokuto cheers before slipping into the couple sweater. He wiggles his eyebrows as he lifts the sweater and gestures for Akaashi to join him. Akaashi sighs and slips into the sweater. It’s big enough to hold the both of them, and Akaashi wants to curl up into a hole and disappear.
“I changed my mind. I can’t do this.” Bokuto panics as Akaashi tries to escape the confines of the couple's sweater.
“W-Wait Akaashi! We’re going to fall if you keep movi-”
Crash.