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Nishinoya had been sleeping all day. Moving day was hard, so he had spent the past three days recovering. He was groggy and messy. He could not have looked worse. Which made it so much worse when, as he was leaving his apartment to go on a search for some coffee for Tanaka, he ended up hiding behind a potted plant. A potted fucking plant. He didn’t know what was more embarrassing, hiding from a ridiculously attractive, stupidly tall man, or the fact that he was actually able to hide behind a plant.
After careful consideration, and ten minutes of waiting for this man to leave so he could make his dash without being seen, he decided that the plant thing was worse. His back was killing him, and his legs had long gone numb. He raced back to the safety of his apartment, despite Tanaka’s complaints, and plopped down on their beat up, cheap couch.
“What the hell, man? What happened to my coffee?” Tanaka demanded, sitting on the couch with equal aggression.
“Listen, dude, if you wanna go out and get your shit, you can, but I’m never walking out of that door again.”
“What? Why?”
“I just embarrassed myself. And it was in front of a hot dude.”
“What, did he make fun of you for it?”
Nishinoya paused, “No, I don’t think he saw me.”
“Then you’re fine, my guy! Just put it all behind you and move on!” Tanaka said, rising up off the couch and into the kitchen.
“You don’t understand, he was right outside . How am I supposed to ever leave the apartment without the risk of him being there?” Nishinoya was starting to panic.
“You’ll just have to introduce yourself so he knows to expect how fuckin’ strange you are!” Tanaka supplied unhelpfully.
“Geez, thanks man,” Nishinoya said sarcastically.
“Anytime, my guy. Now go out there and get me some coffee! I believe in you!”
Tanaka’s terrible ideas were no help to Nishinoya. He spent the next week carefully scoping out the hallway before making a mad dash to get to the elevator before the stranger left his building. By the end of the week, he had become somewhat of a master of this technique. It worked every time.
That is, it had worked every time. Unfortunately, he had not taken into consideration the fact that maybe, just maybe, the stranger also needed to take the elevator. He had just made it in, in record time at that, and the doors were closing when he heard a rumbling voice yell, “Hey! Hold the doors!”
Not knowing how to react, Nishinoya stuck a foot out to catch the doors before they closed. The elevator doors opened to show what Nishinoya had already been expecting; the tall stranger that Nishinoya had hid from a week prior.
“Thanks, I really appreciate it. I’m running kinda late and my boss will kill me if I’m late to this meeting.”
Nishinoya gaped up at him, trying his best not to combust right in front of this stranger. “Uh, yeah. No problem.”
They stood in silence for a moment.
“I’m Asahi, by the way. I assume you’re the one who moved in two weeks ago?”
“Yeah,” said Nishinoya, “it’s me and my friend. We’re roommates.”
“I assumed as much. I live with my friend, Daichi. He can be terrifying sometimes, but he’s the only reason our apartment hasn’t caught fire more than once, so I keep him around.”
“Your apartment caught fire?”
“Yeah, it had something to do with a ‘recipe gone wrong’ apparently, but I wasn’t even in the house. It wasn’t really a big deal though, and Daichi handled it pretty well.”
“That’s good. I can’t imagine what would happen if me or my roommate, Tanaka, ever started a fire. I don’t think we’d survive,” Nishinoya said, shuddering at the thought.
Asahi looked like he was going to say something more, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the elevator doors opened, popping the bubble around their interaction.
“Well,” Nishinoya said, trying to figure out a normal way to stall his departure, “I guess I have to go…”
“Will I see you around, stranger?”
Nishinoya laughed, enjoying Asahi’s cheesiness. “Maybe. And it’s Nishinoya. ‘Stranger’ makes me sound mysterious.”
“Maybe you are.”
“I’m definitely not.”
And with that, Nishinoya reluctantly turned and walked away, hearing Asahi’s rumbling laugh as he went.
"I'm just saying, man, talk to him! He was giving you vibes!"
"Fuck 'vibes', Tanaka," said Nishinoya, "I don't wanna be creepy."
"Oh you're way past the point of creepiness."
“What do you think I should do? Since you’re such a master of romance?”
“...”
“Exactly, asshole. So shut up.”
Tanaka rolls his eyes and walks away, “Just talk to him!” he said without turning to face him.
“No!”
Tanaka just flips him off and leaves the apartment, presumably to get the coffee that he now had to get himself, since Nishinoya was limiting his time outside the apartment. Noya sat and sulked, trying not to envision what might happen if he went over and just fucking went for it , asking Asahi out. It would be so much easier to just get it over with and deal with the consequences, good or bad. Then, he wouldn’t have to tiptoe around in his own apartment building.
How would he even do that? It wasn't like he could just walk over here and confess his feelings. What if Asahi wasn’t home? What if someone else answered the door? He couldn’t do it...
...but he really wanted to. He would just have to wait and see.
Nishinoya waited for a while. Two more weeks went by, with him having short, awkward conversations with Asahi every time he accidentally ran into him. He spent more and more time complaining to Tanaka, and Tanaka continued with his insistence of just telling Asahi.
Nishinoya was in the middle of a rant about the most recent time he had run into the tall stranger-turned-acquaintance when Tanaka rushed in from the kitchen, looking panicked.
“Do you have baking soda?”
“What?” Noya asked, startled, “I thought you were just behind me. When did you get to the kitchen?”
Tanaka shook his head, “That doesn’t matter. Do you have baking soda?”
“Why the fuck would I have baking soda? All that shit is in the kitchen , where you just were, apparently.”
“I need baking soda!”
“For what?”
Tanaka paused. “It’s none of your business. I just need some?”
Nishinoya rolled his eyes. “How much do you need?”
“Two cups.”
“Two cups? Of baking soda ? What the fuck are you doing in there?” Noya asked incredulously.
“Once again, none of your business. Just, go ask the neighbor for some baking soda. As much as he can give you.”
“Asahi?”
“Yes, Asahi! Here, take this,” —Tanaka revealed the measuring cup that he had hidden behind his back— “and go ask him for some baking soda.”
“You asshole! I can just go to the store!”
“No! By then it’ll be too late. Go!” Tanaka said, pushing Nishinoya to the door. Noya reluctantly left the apartment and knocked on the neighboring door. He heard footsteps, and braced himself, expecting to see Asahi. Instead, there was a strange man, shorter than Asahi —though not by much— and smiling kindly. “Hi? I’m Daichi, and you look confused. Even though you knocked on my door.”
“Does Asahi live here?”
Daichi snickered, “Are you Nishinoya?” —Noya nodded— “I’ll go get him for you.”
Daichi closed the door and Nishinoya could hear him yell for Asahi, then a sound of scrambling footsteps. The door swung open, revealing Asahi with his hair down, a sight Nishinoya had never seen. I’m gonna fucking die.
“Nishinoya! What’s up?”
“Uhh…” Nishinoya was having trouble remembering how to breathe.
“That was Daichi, by the way. I don’t know if you remember me talking about him,” Asahi looked down, probably noticing the panic on Nishinoya’s face, “What’s going on? Did you need something?”
Noya nodded, holding out the measuring cup. Asahi laughed, “Lemme guess, you need a cup of sugar?”
“No.”
“Oh. Then what did you need?”
“Baking soda, actually. Two cups of it.”
Asahi looked caught off guard. Understandably. “Why the hell do you need so much baking soda?”
“It’s kinda a long story. It’s for my roommate.”
“Tanaka, right?”
“Yeah… How did you know that?”
“You’ve mentioned him a couple times.”
“You listened to that rambling?”
“Of course I did,” said Asahi, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
There’s silence for a moment, as Nishinoya processes what Asahi said. He made eye contact for the first time since the beginning of the conversation, and saw the impossibly soft look in Asahi’s eyes.
This is it. This is what Tanaka told me to do. He just went for it. “Would you like to go on a date? With me? Tonight, preferably?”
“Of course.”
Noya grinned. “Great, well, I should go. I’ll make, like, reservations or something. I’ll come get you later. You know what? We might as well exchange numbers. Or is that too soon? That’s too soon, I’ll just knock. Sorry, okay, I’ll just—“
“Nishinoya, give me your phone.”
“Right.”
Asahi entered his number. “Text me when you’re ready. I’ll come get you. And don’t worry about reservations. I know a place.”
“Great, uh… I’ll see you then.”
Nishinoya turned and ran back to his apartment, too giddy to hide it. It wasn’t until he saw Tanaka sitting and watching TV that he realized he hadn’t gotten the baking soda. “Shit, Tanaka, I completely forgot the—”
“It’s fine. I didn’t actually need any. It was just a way to get you over there.”
“Tanaka! What if you made me do this and it didn't go well? What if he decided to never talk to me again?”
“Well, he didn’t. And you have a date tonight, so stop yelling about me.”
Noya laughed and headed toward the bathroom to start getting ready.
“Oh, and Noya?” Tanaka called from the couch, “I refuse to answer to anything but The Master of Romance from now on.”
“Fine. Your advice did kinda help. So thank you”
“Thank you, what?”
“Okay, Thank you, Master of Romance.”
“You’re welcome.”