Chapter Text
It was like rain as the leaves of the dense green willow fell to the ground, spinning as fast as if they were riding a merry-go-round. It was like rain, but it was warm, not a single drop fell from the sky and Keiji loved it. He needed the quiet and the warmth to block out all the things from his home that would hit him like loud thick drops of water.
That’s why he came here, day after day, sitting under the willow at the edge of the park, near the water, and enjoying escaping all the hustle and bustle.
With quiet steps he went under the tree and brushed the long branches from his shoulders. With a relaxed smile, Keiji dropped his bag into the soft grass and sat down against the tree trunk.
There were no worries here.
At almost thirteen years old, it must have been strange to sit alone under a tree after school instead of going to play with your friends or be with your family. But in recent years, Keiji had learned that not every child could carry the old familiar image of a normal home. Some families just weren’t cut out for it.
There was no specific time when he cut all the strands to his old friends. It had simply happened at some point and by now it didn’t bother him anymore or make him sad. He managed well on his own and he was quite happy that he didn’t have to be a burden to anyone. So no one else had to be involved.
Keiji sighed softly before pulling out his notebook from his backpack and opening it. He looked around and reached for a leaf, which he placed next to a blank page to draw on. Letting his thoughts run free while drawing, but at the same time escaping the real world, was a way for him to breathe a sigh of relief. And by now he was really good at it — only that day he was interrupted in his world of thoughts after the first few strokes.
“Psst.”
Keiji looked up and turned his head, but there was no one in sight. Confused, he frowned. He could have sworn ...
“Psst!”
Oh, there it was again! So he hadn’t been mistaken after all. But what had that sound been? Was there a cat here that had lost its way?
“Psst! Hey hey hey!”
It was a voice; a very soft voice. And as Keiji just thought of a cat, he found, when he put his head in the neck, a boy, who was just like the fluffy animal hiding up there on the thick branches of the willow. He had dark brown hair and a cheeky grin on his face that either meant he was looking for trouble or he just found a lot of fun in ... well everything.
Keiji’s eyes widened in amazement — not every day he saw a boy sitting up there — and he stood up.
“Uh ... yes?”
The boy grinned some more and leaned forward a bit, making Keiji afraid he was going to fall off. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know real quick that I’m up here. Don’t want to scare you!”
“Uh…” Keiji pressed his lips together and played with the hem of his shirt in embarrassment. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t answer kids his age when they talked to him, but that very thing hardly ever happened anymore. He had become shy, even more so than before, and so at that very moment he was getting almost no sound out.
The boy sitting above him on a tree, however, just kept talking, as if he hadn’t even noticed (which was probably the case). “And if my buddy shows up here and asks you where I am, please don’t tell him, okay? We’re playing hide and seek and I want him to lose.”
How could his grin get any wider? And how could you want to win at playing hide and seek when you were the one hiding? Didn’t you then automatically already lose because no one found you and you had to stay in your hiding place forever?
“I … uhm o-okay,” Akaashi said with a nod. He could still manage that much.
“Thanks!” The boy giggled softly and hid a bit more behind all the branches again.
Keiji watched him for a moment, but then decided to sit back down, not wanting to reveal his position with his curious eyes. But before he could turn around, the willow was opened like a magical gate, briefly letting in sunlight, and another boy emerged. The first thing Keiji noticed about him was the tousled black hair that hung over one of his eyes, blocking half of his vision.
When he noticed Keiji, he stepped towards him and tilted his head. “Hey, kid—”
Keiji pouted slightly. He might have only been a head shorter, but that didn’t mean anything!
“Have you seen a boy hiding around here? My buddy and I are playing hide and seek, and we bet for an ice cream that I’d find him in the next ten minutes.”
Okay, now it made sense to want to win. But he couldn’t tell the boy in front of him, he had promised. Besides, he didn’t like being called small.
The boy looked around carefully and also up among the branches, searching for his friend. Keiji shook his head.
“No, sorry…”
He had to swallow hard as the boy looked at him again. It almost seemed like he was just waiting to catch him in a lie. But Keiji had learned to keep his mouth shut through so many situations in the past years.
When the boy sighed and shrugged his shoulders, Keiji relaxed a little. “Well, okay. Thanks for your help anyway.”
Keiji could only manage a small nod before the boy disappeared. After that, it was his time to breathe a sigh of relief. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then he looked up.
And there was the other one, trying to climb from the tree not quite so skillfully. At one branch, his legs were too short to reach it, so he kicked back and forth a few times until he lowered himself further and found proper footing. Then he turned to Keiji and jumped down with a grin.
“Thanks, buddy!”
Keiji couldn’t reply, because for a moment he was far too taken in by those golden eyes. How had he not seen them before? It seemed as if they could glow even in the darkness, so bright and intense were they.
“Wow. Are these your drawings?”
This question snapped Keiji out of his train of thought again, and so he turned to the boy, whose name he still didn’t know, but who was crouching on the grass and looking at his notebook with curious eyes.
Keiji had probably never reached out for it so quickly and lifted it off the ground. He hugged it to his chest and looked down as he sat down in the grass next to the stranger. He must have looked pretty scared because the boy’s next words, were thoughtful and gentle.
“Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.” He waited a few seconds for Keiji’s eyes to lose the fear and now give way to shame and sadness. “It was lying there open and I didn’t touch it, honest! I wouldn’t want to if it was my book, so sorry.”
Keiji frowned uncertainly, but slowly dared to lift his head and look into those big, shining eyes. The boy smiled at him encouragingly and strangely Keiji believed him.
“I’m Bokuto Koutarou, by the way,” he said, holding out his hand.
Hesitantly, Keiji reached out and took it. “Keiji…” His voice was almost a breath, which was why he raised it a little. “Akaashi Keiji.”
“Nice to meet you, Agaashi!” Keiji momentarily screwed up his face, but Koutarou didn’t even look, instead picking up his pen. “Here, don’t lose this.”
Keiji took the pen, noticing that the boy obviously relaxed again and began to smile broadly. He blinked a few times before thanking him with another shy nod.
“May I ask what you—”
“I knew you’d be here!” A voice exclaimed all at once, causing Keiji to wince violently. Turning around, he saw the boy whose name he didn’t know yet and who had been looking for Koutarou.
The latter stood up and groaned loudly. “Noooo!”
The other laughed at the top of his lungs as he pointed at Koutarou and threw his head back in his neck, clearly amused. Keiji didn’t quite know what to make of the situation — should it be all the same to him, or was he allowed to be amused himself? But when he saw Koutarou pouting dejectedly, he himself was overcome with the feeling of having lost, and he knew he didn’t think it was funny the way the other boy was laughing at him.
“That’s so unfair, you can’t look twice in one place, that’s what the rules say,” Koutarou said with complete conviction.
Oh do they? Keiji tilted his head in wonder after standing up.
“Stupid, you’re talking nonsense,” the other boy said, rolling his eyes. “You just don’t want to pay for the ice cream.”
“Ugh, fine. I’m coming.” But before Koutarou took a step forward, he turned to Keiji at the speed of light and grinned broadly at him. Hadn’t he been sulking just a moment ago? “Akashi! Do you want to come with me? I’ll buy you an ice cream too!”
“Oh, to him you volunteer to buy ice cream, but I’ll have to bet you?!” the other boy yelped again.
“Oh, shut up, dummy!”
“Jerk!”
The two stuck their tongues out at each other and it almost seemed like they were about to growl. Keiji followed the whole thing with only half an ear, being completely overwhelmed by Koutarou’s invitation. Sure, he would love to do something with other kids his age again, but when he thought about how curious Koutarou had just been, he realized that it wouldn’t just be the notebook that would catch his attention. And Keiji hated dragging other people into his problems.
So when Koutarou turned back to him and asked him again, Keiji panicked all at once. He grabbed his backpack and threw it over himself, his notebook pressed close to him as he ran through the long branches of the willow and away from the two boys.
“Akaashi!”
Keiji didn’t even notice that Koutarou had pronounced his name correctly for the first time.
“What’s wrong with him?” Tetsurou asked as he turned to his cousin.
Koutarou shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe I was too pushy?”
Tetsurou frowned. “How can you be pushy when you’re offering ice cream?”
Again, Koutarou shrugged. He didn’t know the answer to that, but figured that maybe Keiji was hurt because he had looked at his notebook. Remorse spread through the young fourteen-year-old and he ran his hand over his arm uncertainly.
Tetsurou noticed and tapped him once gently on the shoulder to bring him out of his daydreams. “Hey, now, don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’m sure he just needed to get home in a hurry.”
“Hmm, yeah, maybe so …” Koutarou nodded as they stepped out from under the willow and were blinded by the sun. “It’s a shame, though. He seemed really nice.”
His cousin chuckled. “Knowing you, you say that even though he barely got a word out, right?”
Koutarou looked at him from wide eyes. “You should really stop trying to read people.”
“Why?” Tetsurou grinned. “It works, doesn’t it?”
“I hate you,” Koutarou muttered and ran off, his cousin behind him just laughing.