Work Text:
Nijimura still recognizes him five years later, parting the waters in the same way that he’s always done it, eyes sharp and fingers poised to surprise the classroom with his erudition. It’s like the years don’t do any harm to Akashi at all; his presence is unwavering and dutifully absolute, and Nijimura finds himself wondering if maybe, 20 years from now, Akashi would still maintain this appearance. What a terrific idea.
He keeps his head down. There’s no reason for him to believe that Akashi would even remember him at all–rather, Akashi might have even put in some amount of effort to forget about him. Their shared past is enough to make anybody want to, broken twigs and lyrical dishonesty and open wounds that are sweet enough to hurt his teeth. The videotape continues to roll.
Akashi sits down next to him before he says anything. “You look well, Nijimura-senpai.”
Nijimura looks up then, and resigns himself to any and all of these terrific implications. “As do you, Akashi-kun.”
They listen to the lecture. Nijimura’s professor has a habit of touching his nose whenever he reaches an important vocabulary word, and Nijimura marks down most of them in his book. Akashi doesn’t take any notes. He listens with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I don’t forgive easily,” Akashi murmurs quietly in the middle of the professor’s speech, quiet enough that nobody else can hear him except Nijimura but not quiet enough for Nijimura to pretend that he didn’t hear anything at all. “But I think I’d like to try it with you.”
The lecture finishes five minutes before the hour, and Nijimura turns to him. “I don’t care what you say, you know. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I do not believe I ever gave you that option.”
“No,” says Nijimura, “you gave me no options at all, clearly. I’m just making my own.”
“Then why won’t you listen to m–”
“Hey, now see here,” says Nijimura. “When I ceded those dumb captaincy rights to you, I ceded any power you had over me, too. Do you understand? It means I don’t want to be ordered around by you. That was one of my conditions.”
Akashi’s mouth twists into a small frown. “You had no trouble listening to me before.”
“I thought it was helping my case.” Nijimura rolls his eyes. “I wanted to be your friend, did you know that?”
“…I don’t understand.”
“Oh well. It doesn’t really matter anyway. Look how well that’s worked out.”
“…”
“It’s been a while since then, Akashi. I’m think I’m ready to give it up. So stop thinking about it.”
When Nijimura picks up his books to leave, the expression on Akashi’s face is unreadable. He continues to sit there at the lecture bench instead, doesn’t correct this error of judgment, and when the classroom is empty save for himself, he rests his forehead on the desk with a dull thump. The videotape continues to roll.