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Akaashi knew his team wasn’t the best. They were ok but most of them just treated the game as that: a game. Most of them didn’t put their full effort into it and it left their teams losing more often than not. It was a little discouraging honestly and it left Akaashi wondering if maybe he just shouldn’t play in high school. He’d been looking at Suzumeoka and was a little confused to get a recommendation from Fukurodani. At first he thought they’d seen his grades, which were fairly impressive if he said so himself.
“Maybe you should go look at their team?” Watabe, his team libero who gave half a damn, suggested after practice.
“The volleyball team?”
“Yea. Heard they’ve been good for a couple of years. Made it to Nationals last year and they’re looking good to do it again this year.”
So he found one he could actually get to and went to watch.
The team was good.
What caught his eye though was the number 12.
He was amazing to watch. The way he’d jump and hit the ball was… Akaashi had never seen anything like it in their age range. He was good too, possibly the ace. There was a point in the second set where he seemed to slump and the rest of the team yelled at him and the coach yelled at him and finally just pulled him for awhile. He was back for the third set though and practically won it for them.
Akaashi decided that he wanted to play with the number 12, Bokuto Koutaro.
He got in and signed up for the volleyball team. The afternoon of his first practice couldn’t come soon enough. He eyed the clock the entire time and was one of the first out the door. Finding the gym was a little bit of a pain, but he eventually found it and walked in to find them warming up.
And he ends up in his worst nightmare.
Yes he’s made it to the volleyball team, but apparently he’s the only first year and all attention is on him when it comes to introductions.
“Akaashi Keiji… I’m a setter.”
The captain starts introductions for the team though Akaashi forgets most of the names. The only ones he remembers are Captain Saito, the Setter, Chiba, and, of course, Bokuto.
He gets put through some drills so they can see where his skills are at and he thinks he does, at least, reasonably well. The third year setter wasn’t thrilled to have him there. Akaashi could just feel it. He wasn’t sure why… Maybe it was just having another Setter on the team…
It doesn’t take long to figure out the dynamics of the team. They work around Bokuto... mostly… He gets into slumps every so often and nobody seems to know why or how to get him out of them so they just end up yelling at him alot which doesn’t help. He picks up on a few patterns and files those away.
Another thing he notices is that Bokuto can’t get enough practicing in.
Every night for that first week, he’s begging somebody, usually Chiba, to stay behind and help him hit ‘just a few more spikes’. Half those nights somebody, not Chiba, stays with him. Tonight’s the same.
“Come on! Chiba-san! Toss to me!”
“Practice is over. I’m going home.”
“Just one!”
Chiba mildly glared at him and Bokuto visibly deflated… like even his hair seemed to droop.
Akaashi decides now’s his shot, “I’ll toss to you, Bokuto-san.”
The huge gold eyes lit up, “You will! Hey Hey Hey! ‘Kaashi right?”
“Akaashi,” he replied but Bokuto was already not listening. He’d bounded off to grab a ball and Akaashi followed. One of the third years said something along the lines of ‘good luck’ in a disparaging tone, almost like they felt sorry that he’d been roped into extra practice.
Akaashi didn’t care.
He was getting to practice with the ace, the reason he’d come to this school.
Bokuto tossed him the ball and Akaashi set it. It wasn’t perfect and Bokuto ended up tipping it, but they adjusted and readjusted and rereadjusted until they got it right and then Bokuto was slamming them down over the net every time. THey practiced until Akaashi’s hand hurt and then practiced some more before the coach found out they were still there and kicked them both out for the night.
They fell into a routine. Bokuto didn’t ask anybody to stay behind anymore since Akaashi had taken the spot indefinitely. Their private practice followed the team’s and then extended to before classes after about a week. Sometimes one or two of the other second years would join in but it was mostly just them. Akaashi was a little smug when he realized that Bokuto hit his sets slightly better than Chiba’s.
Of course that pissed Chiba off… especially when Bokuto asked him to readjust how he tossed to him.
“My sets are fine! They worked for you all last year!”
“I know, but Akashi-”
“Don’t care!”
Their first practice game had Akaashi on Bokuto’s team and… well they won… by abit. They’d almost lost too when Bokuto kept getting shut down at the net. He’d slumped and gotten depressed. Akaashi had tried various things to get him out of it before deciding that he should just ignore him and tossed to the others until Bokuto managed to pull himself together.
The Interhigh tournament went well though he didn’t play much. Chiba was determined to keep him on the sidelines and it worked… mostly. Akaashi was called in for a few minutes about halfway through the third set because Chiba needed to get his fingers looked at and then taped. Bokuto scored twice which he was proud of.
All of the third years retire after that, the rest of them deciding that Bokuto should be captain. Aoki, one of their second year middle blockers, was named vice-captain and Akaashi was bumped up to starting setter. He was unreasonably excited about that.
The summer training camp was interesting. He actually got to play in games with people who wanted to play and play well. Bokuto’s weaknesses came out a little more due to the multiple games played. The evenings were taken up with more practice but it wasn’t necessarily Fukurodani team members they played with. He was introduced to a middle blocker from Nekoma named Kuroo Tetsuro who Bokuto had befriended the year before. The new first year setter, Kozume Kenma, seemed less thrilled to be at the camp though Akaashi found something of a kinship with him in regards to their exasperation towards their respective teammates and the single braincell they apparently shared when they were together and not playing a game.
Overall he did learn alot. The other schools were very friendly when not playing actual games and the older setters showed him a few things he hadn’t known or cared about before. He hadn’t actually cared much about hiding his sets when he knew Bokuto could hit them but, his mind was changed at some point during the week and he’d slowly worked on not projecting as much.
The following weeks are more of what they’d been doing. Practice broken up with a practice game here and there. Bokuto still slumps from time to time and sometimes Akaashi notes him not twisting his body as he should or his shoulders sometimes seem stiff. Once or twice he spots colorful bruises as Bokuto quickly changes before or after practice. He tells himself they’re just there from practice.
But he doesn’t quite believe himself.
It’s some afternoon in September when he hears it.
The team had been given the day off but Akaashi had assumed Bokuto wouldn’t care and had come down to help him practice. He was rather surprised when nobody was there though... the lights were on… The sniffle in the storage closet made his brows crease. He weighed his options and ultimately decided to investigate when it sounded a little too much like Bokuto. The thing was though…. Akaashi had never seen Bokuto cry. Oh sure he’d seen his emo mode more times than he cares to, but actually crying?
Never.
Yet there he was… crouched in the storage closet, curling in on himself. His shoulders slump, his entire body just looking… defeated. Akaashi is very much confused on what could make the violent sunshine that is Bokuto Koutaro this sad.
“Bokuto-san…?” he closes the door and steps closer, “What happened?”
Bokuto curls in on himself tighter.
Akaashi sinks to a crouch, “Bokuto-san…”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
Akaashi blinked, “What…?”
“Am I stupid.”
“No… why?”
“They said I was.”
Akaashi furrowed his brows, “Who did?”
Bokuto didn’t reply, just sniffed because, of course, he wouldn’t want anybody getting into actual trouble.
He was too good-natured for that.
Akaashi wasn’t though.
He’s already plotting as he slowly reaches out and lays a hand on Bokuto’s knee. The older boy might want a hug instead, being the way he was, but it was a little much for Akaashi. It ended up not mattering though when Bokuto leaned into him and Akaashi kind of had to wrap his arms around broad shoulders and deal with the facefull of gelled hair. Bokuto flinches a little if he touches one spot so he does his best not to.
“You’re not stupid, Bokuto-san. Maybe silly and excitable... but... not stupid…”
It took awhile for Bokuto to stop crying, but when he did gave Akaashi a watery smile and looked embarrassed. Akaashi didn’t say anything, too horrified at the split lip and wondering what else he is hiding under his shirt. He just let the older male lead the way out the gym doors and out to the street where they walked side by side for several blocks where they parted ways. Neither mentioned the fact that Bokuto wasn’t taking advantage of an empty gym. Akaashi had the feeling Bokuto needed time to really regroup.
“... ‘kasshi…?”
“Mm?”
“... Thanks… for all that.”
He offered a flicker of a smile, “Of course, Bokuto-san.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” and the two-toned hair walked away, still droopy with shoulders hunched, favoring his left ankle just a little.
Akaashi narrowed his eyes at the retreating back, glancing at the general direction of the school before heading on home.
He couldn’t understand why kids bullied… Well no he did… understood the power trip or the need to feel big because somebody else made them feel small.
Didn’t mean he was going to let it slide though.
Bokuto was a good soul… maybe a little dumb and definitely too loud… but he was good and didn’t deserve to be pounded into the dirt.
So he did what he did best: he listened.
He listened to the gossip, to whose names were mentioned in relation to Bokuto. One of Bokuto’s classmates was bribed into giving him a list of their class, figuring they’d have the most opportunity. When asked about bullying or the like, the classmate shut down and scurried away.
Turns out her boyfriend was one of them and hadn’t realized who Akaashi was in relation to Bokuto.
He figured out the three guys responsible for Bokuto’s depression and the, likely, the bruises, and spent the next two weeks gathering information on them. Only one of the three’s an honest schmuck, but he’s got evidence of forged homework and bought test keys that the second one can’t get out of. It’s enough to keep all three in line. He sends them an anonymous note to meet after class one day and then spends a couple of hours choosing which photos to print. The evidence of cheating on tests and homework is, of course, used but he adds a few if the ringleader cheating on his girlfriend and spying on the girls’ locker room.
The afternoon arrived. He waited until Bokuto left to go to practice before sliding into the room. All three were hanging around, one sitting on a desk. They sized each other up, Akaashi finding them all to be losers.
Apparently they thought the same.
“And who the fuck are you?”
“Akaashi Keiji, first year.”
There was a snort, “Ok. And?”
“And you will leave Bokuto-san alone.”
The following snort sounded painful.
Another one laughed obnoxiously, “You’re funny!”
He dropped the pile of photos on the desk. The 2nd years picked them up and sifted through them. Akaashi watched with satisfaction as their faces dropped a little. “I have one hundred copies. Of each. If I see Bokuto Koutaro upset again, I’m posting them all over the walls. If I see him with a single damned bruise, I’m posting them on the windows. If I see him as anything less than his chipper self, I post them anywhere I damn please… You will leave. him. alone.”
One tried a brave snort, “He’s got a first year fighting for him-”
“The first year will ruin you second years. Leave him alone. Don’t touch him, don’t speak to him, don’t look at him... and we’ll forget this happened,” he turned and left.
Over the following week he’d expected some sort of retaliation from the troublemakers or maybe they’d get a teacher involved… but nothing ever came.
And Bokuto wasn’t found crying in the closet again.
And the only bruises to be found were the ones he gave himself when he played too hard.
The Spring Interhigh Qualifying rounds come on them and they win though it wasn’t much of a surprise. Akaashi’s practice over the summer camp did wonders even against the third year setter. Bokuto slumps once or twice but Akaashi manages to pull him back with the various ways he’s filed away, depending on the type of emo mode the second year’s suffering from.
They leave as one of the favorites to win the whole thing and go to Nationals. Akaashi’s lowkey confident that they’ll make it… until Aoki tells them about a week later that his father took a job in a different prefecture and that he’s leaving. It’s a blow to the team honestly, but he does what he can, for as little he actually emotes or talks, to keep spirits high and attentions focused.
Akaashi’s not surprised when Bokuto asks if they can meet up at a park that Saturday for some practice at a public net. The second year seems distracted when he gets there though. He doesn’t even notice Akaashi for a few minutes.
“Bokuto-san?”
“Oh! ‘Kaashi!”
Akkashi’s long since given up on Bokuto says his name right, “Are you ok?”
Bokuto bit his lip and shuffled his feet a little, “We know Aoki’s leaving right?”
“Mhm.”
Bokuto scratched the back of his head, looking nervous, “Well-I-… Wouldyoubemyvice-captain?”
Akaashi blinked, “...What…?”
“Vice-captain! Be my vice-captain, Agaashi!”
He fought a laugh at just how much effort Bokuto was putting it, “Of course, Bokuto-san.”
Bokuto punched the sky, “HEY HEY HEY!” and he grabbed AKaashi, spinning him around a few times, “We’re gonna be the best ever!”
Akaashi just clung to him until he was put down. Bokuto didn’t step away though. His hands just stayed put on Akaashi’s hips. “Bokuto-san…?”
Bokuto looks a little... hesitant, “We’re gonna be the best right…? We’re gonna win. This year... and next year... “
Akaashi smiled, “Of course, Bokuto-san. We have one of the best ace’s in the country.”
Bokuto beamed like he's just been given the world, “And the best setter!”
“I doubt that.”
“Well you’re my favorite at least!” Bokuto looked a little more serious, “I don’t think I’d be here without you, Akaash…” he touched Akaashi’s face, “Thank you… I don’t even know what all you do but… you help. I know you do. And those bullies… I don’t know what you did but… I know they're leaving me alone because of you... Thank you.”
The blackmail wasn’t one of his proudest moments… but he’d do it again… to protect Bokuto.
Bokuto, who’s all violent sunshine and kind heart…
Bokuto, who’s weakness number 10 is being called stupid and requires cuddles to bounce back.
And he’s willing to give all the cuddles Bokuto-san needs.
Akaashi could only stare… and watch as Bokuto slowly leaned in, bright yellow-gold eyes watching for any hesitancy. Akaashi didn’t give him any. He let it happen…
Let his first kiss get stolen by a dorky owl who he’d come to care for more than he’s genuinely thought possible.