Chapter Text
“Why'd you waste all the time, Back and forth in my mind.
Cleaning out, tell me now, Was it worth all the time?
You're not here, with me dear, Can we go, through the years?
Take you there, every night, Say that it's only right”
Akaashi Keiji liked music. Liked listening to it, humming and singing along, even composing his own songs in his head. He liked the way the melodies drifted through the air and changed moods and atmospheres. He liked the shivers it would send down his spine when a piece was perfectly composed.
He wasn’t great with emotions or words, but music was like a second nature to him. If something can't be explained in words, chances are it can be explained with music.
He wasn’t quite sure exactly when music had become so important to him, but he could think of a few specific instances where it had saved him.
Memories of staring at the kitchen floor through blurry tear stained eyes, ears burning from his mother screaming at him after his report card came back, his grades not as high as she had wanted them to be. The painstakingly slow trudge up the stairs to his room, collapsing on his bed tears still streaming down his face, pain sitting heavy in his heart. He had put on his headset and drowned out his thoughts with music, letting his worries fade away and the pain in his heart dissipate slowly.
Music was something solid that he could rely on, it had depth and layers, just like people, but was far less finicky. Akaashi wasn’t great with people, but music sometimes helped with that. His one friend from primary school he had met in the school band. They had both played clarinet, and had liked the same bands so they had ended up becoming rather close. Unfortunately, he had moved away before their 3rd year, leaving Akaashi alone with just his music again. Not that Akaashi minded of course, people were hard. Music was easy.
Akaashi slid his headphones over his ears and turned up the volume, playing one of his favourite songs. Long day at school? Drowning out the outside world with music for the 20 minute walk home was the perfect way to remedy that.
He had stayed after school, helping his English teacher with extra credit work meaning his walk home would be blissfully uninterrupted seeing as most every other student had already gone home, or was still deep inside the school in the middle of some club related activity. He started to hum along, humming quickly turning to singing. Luckily, his singing voice wasn’t half bad, so he wasn’t too humiliated over singing out loud on the somewhat isolated walk home.
He let the music fill him up, restoring the energy he lost throughout the day at school. The world around him was mostly silent, so he could enjoy his music to the fullest.
Unfortunately enough for Akaashi, the universe seemed to have slightly different plans for him.
He was only about halfway through his second song when underneath the melody drifting through his headphones, Akaashi swore he heard... voices coming from somewhere around him.
He quickly shut off his music while keeping his headphones on so he could eavesdrop on whatever random conversation these hidden people seemed to be having. It’s not that Akaashi was a gossip, he couldn’t stand being involved with drama; but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a little nosy from time to time… He tuned his ears to the conversation coming from somewhere behind him, now slightly curious.
“I’m telling you, we need an actual vocalist, you moron! And this guy fits the description.”
A guy’s voice, probably a teenager judging by the sound of it.
“Honestly Komi, I'm a bit offended that you don’t think I'm a good enough singer to lead. But… I do see where you’re coming from. This guy is pretty good. Although the real question is, does he know how to sing anything other than shitty indie pop?”
“First of all, it’s not shitty, maybe you just have shitty taste. Secondly, shouldn’t the actual question be whether or not we can get him to join? Or have you already decided the answer to that for him?”
Another voice, slightly deeper and laced with sarcasm.
The voices started to pique Akaashi’s curiosity. He was certain they were talking about him and yet surely… they couldn’t be so stupid as to think he couldn’t hear them.
“Anyways, you guys know he can definitely hear you, right?”
“Shit.” said two of the voices simultaneously.
“I dun wanna ask! You do it!”
“Well, I-!”
“Honestly-” The voices continued to bicker as Akaashi rolled his eyes listening to the commotion.
He was tempted to keep walking, to pretend he couldn’t hear them over his music, but something nagged him at the back of his mind. Annoyingly enough, something, maybe the effect of the crisp spring air, or perhaps a desperate need for something interesting to happen after an exceptionally boring first year persuaded him to look around over his shoulder.
Sure enough, about 20 feet behind him stood three guys who looked about his age, all wearing Fukurodani academy uniforms. They were staring directly at him.
There was a guy with straight dirty blonde hair, fox eyes and a nasty smirk who had what looked to be a guitar case strapped across his back. Another guy with dark, messy, curly hair and a friendly smile who looked about the same height as Akaashi holding another guitar case. The third guy was much shorter than the other two, with short spiked brown hair and an undercut, who flashed him a thumbs up and a dopey smile.
Other students? What did they want with him?
The blonde one broke the silence. “Hey you! The one that was singing just now!”
Singing? What about his singing?
“How would you feel about joining a band?” The short one asked.
“I’m sorry… what?” Akaashi responded, still slightly confused as to why they would ask someone they didn’t know and randomly followed home to join their band. The three guys started to walk over towards him, the blonde one launching into what seemed to be a monologue on why he should join their little musical entourage.
According to them, they had a small band that consisted of them and two other guys. They did mostly covers at the moment, but they were also working on producing original songs. From what Akaashi had gathered, their lead singer had graduated and moved away for university leaving a gap in the band that needed to be filled.
“And well, you see, you made the unfortunate mistake of singing loud enough to attract the attention of us, who just so happen to be looking for a vocalist.” Fox eyes replied, still smirking.
“And besides, you must be a second year right? That means you’re legally obligated to listen to your upperclassmen.” The short one said with a grin.
“So anyways, Mr. I look like I'm above you,” said the smarmy looking one, putting his hand on Akaashi’s shoulder with a devilish smirk, “You’re now obligated to attend at least one rehearsal with us.”
“That is, if you’re not too busy right now, it would be nice if you’d consider it.” The curly haired boy added on, obviously trying to maintain at least some standard of politeness. Akaashi let out a sigh.
“I’m probably going to regret this, aren't I?” He mumbled under his breath. “Seeing as you haven’t given me much choice, I’ll attend your practice. I make no promises about actually joining your band, but I do have a free night tonight so I don’t see any harm in joining you guys tonight.” The three mystery guys grinned and started leading Akaashi back to the school.
“Sorry for following you. Those two can get a little carried away sometimes. I’m Sarukui Yamato by the way, but most people just call me Saru. I play the bass. The one with the dirty blonde hair is Konoha Akinori, he’s our guitarist and the short one is Komi Haruki, he’s on drums.” The curly haired one- Sarukui told Akaashi.
Akaashi glanced over at the other two boys who seemed to now be bickering about something completely unrelated and stifled a sigh.
“Don’t worry about it. Believe it or not, that’s not the first time something like this has happened. I’m Akaashi Keji, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Akaashi offered up a small smile, hoping that he wouldn’t regret taking them up on their offer.
“Yeah no wonder you don’t have a girlfriend with a personality like that.” Akaashi overheard from the other boy’s conversation.
“Yeah well at least I'm not a 5’3” stoner with a shitty haircut.”
“I’m 5’4” you PRICK!”
“And that’s why you’re gonna be a virgin till you’re 25.” Akaashi sighed. Last year must have messed him up more than he thought, because accepting this offer was probably the last thing he should have been doing. He’d just have to make up some excuse so his mother wouldn’t find out he was hanging around with delinquents after school instead of studying. She most certainly wouldn’t approve of that, because god forbid Keiji would want to do something he actually enjoyed.
Perhaps though, this might not have been the right way to go about it.
Yup, he was definitely going to regret this.
Sarukui had filled in Akaashi with a couple of other details about their band on the walk back to school.
According to him, there were two other members in the band. A bassist that Sarukui had called Washio and a… Konoha had interjected and called him “a Bokuto” so Akaashi wasn’t actually sure what instrument the guy played. Konoha had said that Akaashi would see what they meant once he actually met the guy. Akaashi decided not to question it.
They didn’t technically have an actual rehearsal space, but luckily enough the school let them use a small practice room off by the school’s music room for their ‘extracurricular musical activities’ which were apparently highly encouraged by the school’s actual music teacher. Sunlight streamed through the windows lining the hallway that led to the music room, rays of light dancing across the floors and walls.
Akaashi could hear a faint piano melody steadily growing louder as they approached the music room. They turned to the left towards the small practice rooms where Konoha knocked on third door down, labeled practice room #3 before shouting;
“We’re back!” As he swung the door open. “And we brought a friend.”
Akaashi peered into the practice room and locked eyes with a tall, severe looking guy with spiked hair and what looked to be a permanent scowl on his face. Akaashi realized that was probably the other bassist that Sarukui had told him about. Akaashi for the life of him, could not remember what he had been told the guy’s name was. The new guy put down the bass he had been holding to glance over at Konoha and mutter a “What took you guys so long?”
“We got caught up in finding ourselves a new friend.” Replied Konoha, closing the door behind him after they had all entered the practice room. Akaashi bowed slightly before introducing himself.
“Akaashi Keiji, nice to meet you.” The other boy bowed back. He was still scowling, but Akaashi began to think that that was simply how the guy’s face looked.
“Washio Tatsuki.” Akaashi took a moment to wonder how on earth this polite, and seemingly serious boy had come to have friends like these.
“Say uh Washio…” Komi glanced around the room as if he was looking for something he had lost. “Where’s Bokuto?” He asked. The tall severe looking guy- Washio simply shrugged his shoulders, mouth still pulled down into a scowl.
“Again? Are you serious? Man, he needs to learn how to sit still.” Konoha groaned, walking over to the door.
It wasn’t until the door to the practice room swung open that Akaashi realized the piano melody coming from the main music room had stopped.
“HEY! You guys are back!” What seemed to be a ball of pure energy came bounding into the practice room. “Took you long enough! You guys were gone for so long so I got bored and Washio threatened to forcibly shut me up if I didn’t let him have ‘a moment of peace’” The boy said, making air quotes with his fingers.
Akaashi took a closer look at the boy that stood at the doorway of the small room. He had grey hair fitted with black stripes that stood practically straight up on his head. Accompanied by a set of honey golden eyes that seemed to be chock full of childlike wonder and mischief. A huge smile was plastered on his face. The whole strange getup almost made him resemble something of a great horned owl.
“How strange…” Akaashi thought to himself observing the boy’s strange appearance before he caught the attention of the peculiar owl-man. When the set of shimmering golden eyes met Akaashi’s own, he saw the other boy falter, even for just a second.
“HEY! New guy! What’s your name?” Akaashi began to answer, before he was interrupted by another flurry of words. “I honestly didn’t think Konoha would actually be able to convince you to come to our practice, you look like you’re wayyyy above a tiny high school boy band! Your voice is amazing though! I wanted to tell you how great you sounded, but Konoha wouldn’t let me come with him because he said I'd just scare you off. I’m Bokuto Kōtarō by the way.”
Ah. So this was ‘the Bokuto’ that Konoha had mentioned. Stranger still, even his name corresponded to that of an owl. What a bizarre person..
“Holy shit Bokuto, give the guy a second to answer the question or at least yaknow, breathe maybe? Before you assault him with nonstop talking?” Konoha interrupted Bokuto before he could add anything else, giving Akaashi a moment to respond.
“It’s fine, I don’t mind.” He bowed slightly, trying to maintain at least some standard of etiquette. “My name is Akaashi Keiji, pleased to meet you.”
“Akashi?”
“It’s Akaashi.”
“Anyways Akashi, you’re here to sing for our band, right?”
“For today at least, yes.”
“Do you play any actual instruments other than singing?”
“Bokuto, how about you stop pestering him with questions so we can actually get to practicing?” Konoha abruptly interrupted while pulling his guitar out of it’s sticker adorned case.
“Right!” Bokuto abandoned his effort to thoroughly question Akaashi and walked over towards the far side of the room, presumably where he kept his instrument. Akaashi set his school bag on the floor, looking up in time to see Bokuto pull out what looked to be… A triangle.
“You can’t be serious.” Akaashi muttered silently under his breath.
“It’s easier if you just don’t question it.” Konoha stated, patting Akaashi’s shoulder.
“Without further ado my new favourite kohai, welcome, to The Owl’s Den.”
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For a highschool boy band that ran out of a tiny practice room that students sometimes snuck into to hook up in over lunch break, they honestly weren't as bad as Akaashi had expected them to be.
That was however, with one noteworthy exception.
“Bokuto, for the love of all things holy, if you miss your entrance one more time, so help me god, I will shove that triangle so far up your ass it’ll take a week to shit out.” Konoha stated, looking like he was ready to strangle the triangle playing owl-boy. Washio looked mildly tempted to bend the triangle into a very non-triangular shape. He was probably strong enough to do it too. Sarukui just wore one of the most exasperated looks Akaashi had ever seen, while Komi was positioned to throw not one, but both of his drumsticks at bokuto’s head.
Akaashi was not certain how it was even possible to mess up that badly while playing a triangle. Of all instruments. Bokuto, for all his enthusiasm, seemed to not have even the slightest sense of rhythm. Akaashi swore he had even somehow managed to make the triangle sound off-key. How that was even possible, Akaashi had yet to figure out. How did Bokuto even convince them to let him join the band..?
Konoha let out a loud sigh. Bokuto’s face was twisted into an expression that landed somewhere between disappointment and frustration.
“Counting that many rests is too hard! It's so boring I always lose count!” Bokuto argued.
“Bokuto, you were the one who wanted to play the triangle. You brought this on yourself. Washio stated, not a single shred of sympathy in his voice. Bokuto pouted, but gave up on arguing over it.
“One more time, from the top.”
Akaashi glanced down at the music in front of him, letting himself get lost in the rhythm and melody that surrounded him as the song started. As much as he didn’t like to admit it, the band played well. The music kept it’s flow, sending shivers down Akaashi’s spine as the melody heightened, filling the atmosphere with a sense of joy. Akaashi had to admit it, he was actually enjoying himself. Their high energy seemed to lift Akaashi up as well, making him forget his worries even just for three minutes at a time. Akaashi was actually disappointed when they finally called it a day and started to pack up.
Akaashi gazed over at Bokuto with his peculiar hair and glimmering amber eyes, and felt some sort of internal conflict.
In some strange sense, he felt drawn to him, but everything he seemed to learn or realize about Bokuto only brought on more questions.
What a bizarre person. But for some reason, he had the feeling that the strange owl-boy was the glue holding the band together. Bokuto had ambled out of the practice room with Washio, presumably to grab something from the main band room, which gave Akaashi his chance to confirm his theory.
“Erm, Konoha-san, if you don’t mind me asking, why is Bokuto-san a part of the band? He seems like an interesting person, but he doesn’t seem to be exceptionally musical and you all seem to get frustrated with him often.” Akaashi probed, curious about what Konoha's response would be. Komi and Saruikui exchanged a knowing glance and Konoha cocked an eyebrow, an amused look on his face.
“For someone who comes off as polite and restrained, you’re pretty blunt Akaashi.”
“Pardon?” Akaashi asked. Konoha chuckled before starting to explain the situation.
“Well, you see, he’s kind of hard to say no to. We’ve been friends since elementary school, so when he asked to join I quite literally could not bring myself to tell him he couldn’t. We figured there wouldn’t be any harm. We thought he could just play a simple instrument like the triangle or tambourine, but as you can tell… He’s not particularly focused once he gets bored of something. That being said, he does try his best, he just has an obscenely short attention span.” Konoha answered, his statement punctuated by enthusiastic nodding from Komi and Sarukui.
“Anyways, it’s not like we could just ask him to leave the band, that would be an insanely shitty thing to do. And knowing his personality, it would absolutely kill him. Plus, as awful as he is, we really wouldn’t be the same without him.”
“And, he helps keep our morale high. He’s pretty much a ball of energy, and his enthusiasm is infectious and pretty much impossible to ignore.”
“In the end, Bokuto is Bokuto, no changing that. He might be a really-”
“Really,”
“Really,”
“Really, big pain in the ass, but he is our friend. And his intentions, as stupid as they may be sometimes, are always goodhearted.” Konoha said, chuckling to himself. Akaashi nodded.
“He’s a complete moron, but he means well.” Washio mentioned, walking back into the room. Bokuto bounced into the room a couple seconds behind him.
“Who’s a complete moron?” Bokuto asked, a curious look on his face. Komi was making valiant efforts to stifle his laughter yet utterly failing.
“You.” Konoha deadpanned, no remorse in his eyes.<
“Hey! I’ve been getting better, I have a 42 in math this year!” Konoha patted Bokuto on the shoulder.
“How you’ve managed to make it this far will continue to remain an unsolved mystery.” Sarukui said, completely straight faced, causing Bokuto to pout again.
“Eh we’re only kidding Bo! You know as well as we do we couldn’t bring our best without our beloved simple minded triangle playing leader.” Komi piped in, putting his hand on Bokuto’s other shoulder. Bokuto’s mood seemed to instantaneously perk up.
“Of course you couldn’t bring your best without me! What would you do without my fantastic triangle playing skills?” Everyone burst into laughter. “What’s so funny?” Bokuto asked, mildly confused.
“Bokuto,” Konoha declared between laughs “Please never change.”.
After packing up their instruments and tidying the practice room, the six boys walked along the sidewalk towards the train station together. Between the three extroverts in the group, they made sure there was never a moment of silence. Akaashi was happy to listen, they seemed to have some interesting stories about botched practices and what they called “Bokuto syndrome”.
“Yaknow we actually used to have a keyboardist too-” Konoha disclosed, interrupted by a certain loudmouthed triangle player.
“Yukippie!” Bokuto grinned.
“Yeah, Yukie Shirofuku. But then she dumped us in favour of her girlfriend.” Konoha stated, clearly slightly irked over her choosing romantic pursuits over the band. Komi pulled a face.
“She’s managing the girl’s volleyball team now.” He said with a nod. Bokuto seemed to shift awkwardly at the mention of volleyball, his face turning downwards.
“Does she like volleyball?” Akaashi asked.
“No, but she likes her hot girlfriend who just so happens to play it.” Konoha responded with a snicker.
“Hm. Jealous Konoha-san?” Akaashi’s voice was laced with sarcasm as he shot his fox-eyed senpai a deadpan look. Konoha forged an expression of great offense and Komi and Bokuto burst out laughing.
“Only official members are allowed to bully me about my relationship status!” Konoha practically yelled which only made Komi laugh harder, which earned him a smack upside the head from Konoha.
“See, now you’re practically obligated to join us.” Sarukui declared, gently elbowing Akaashi in the side. “The more people to keep these morons in their place, the better.” There was no denying it, Akaashi kind of liked having people to hang around. Sure they were a bit strange, and albeit a little annoying, but Akaashi finally felt like he even somewhat fit in somewhere. He could practically picture his mother’s face if she found out though, the scandalized line of her lips pressed tight, brow furrowed into a frown.
“So, Akaashi, what say you? Care to join us for the immediate future?” Konoha asked, an expression of intrigue infecting his face.
Akaashi thought back to his first year at Fukurodani. Months of eating alone in the library, boring nights spent alone, doing all that was expected of him, but never trying for anything more. Not that he minded being alone, people were exhaustion inducing.
That being said, maybe there was something to be gained from this. He could pursue his passion for music outside of school with other people who felt the same way he did. Plus, their ...interesting personalities would be a surefire cure for his boredom. Perhaps it could give him what he lacked… A sense of belonging somewhere? Yeah, that sounded about right. Bokuto was grinning and flashing him a thumbs up, seemingly excited at the prospect of a new official member of the band.
Akaashi sighed. Looking at Bokuto, he could understand what Konoha meant by saying Bokuto was impossible to say no to.
“I better not regret this.” He muttered under his breath. “Yes, I will join you.” He declared, a soft smile spreading across his face.
“Thank god, because you saying no would have been insanely awkward after we already added you to the group chat.” Komi said, prompting laughter from everyone.
It felt good to laugh with friends, Akaashi decided. His face broke out into a smile.
No matter what, this year would certainly be much more interesting.