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It starts at the grocery store.
Keiji isn't particularly fond of this grocery store; it's unorganized, and has weird hours, and the flow of customers is unpredictable. But, it's close to him, and considering that he hasn't purchased groceries for his apartment (and he lives alone) in over two weeks, it's probably time to at least pretend he eats fresh food sometimes. That's how he finds himself standing in front of the fruits in the produce section, contemplating whether or not he wants to purchase apples, blueberries, a watermelo---
"Hi."
Keiji glances up from the sea of different apples (is there even a difference in the taste, anyways?) to see the strangest looking man he's ever seen. He's obviously young, but his hair is gray and white, his eyebrows the same shade. It's styled in peaks with more gel than Keiji even wants to guess at, but that's not the important thing.
".. What did you say?" Keiji realizes, too late, that he's been spoken to by this grinning stranger.
"I said, you wanna hear a joke?"
"I'm just picking out fruit."
"I can tell you a joke while you do it!"
"Fine?"
The stranger's smile widens, impossibly so, and he leans across the other side of the produce stand before starting his joke,
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Who."
"Who who?"
"I didn't know I was knocking an owl's door!"
Keiji doesn't laugh. He stares back at the stranger, mouth straight, as the guy cracks up at his own joke, and then sneaks a look at Keiji.
"You didn't think it was funny? Y'know, I made you say 'hoo, hoo' like an owl, hooting, y'know?"
"I know what the punchline was. If you could call that a punchline."
The guy's eyes - are they golden? - go wide and he suddenly looks considerably less cheerful. His lower lip slips out, as if he's going to pout right in the middle of the grocery store, and then he really is pouting. He's a grown man, Keiji thinks, and he's pouting in the middle of the fruit section with a box of ramen under his left arm. He's silent for a few moments more, and as Keiji picks up a bunch of bananas and turns towards his cart, the man speaks up.
"If you gave me your number, I could tell you better jokes."
Keiji turns, slower than he intends, and the look of mild confusion on the stranger's face make him think that he might've turned like a doll out of a horror movie, maybe.
"My cell phone number? Give you, a stranger whose name I don't know, my cellphone number."
"I don't know your name either! But! My name's Bokuto Koutarou, and I know we just met, and it might be unexpected but that's, y'know, that's my motto - that or YOLO, maybe?? - and, I wanna get your name and number."
He winks, and Keiji wonders if he's eaten something unadvisable that day. Is he hallucinating?
"... No."
He leaves and pretends the other man isn't looking visibly more upset than pouting.
---
The next time it happens, Keiji is at the gym.
"Holy shit man that's so fuckin' /cool/."
"Please teach me how to do hanging crunches, oh my god, I always skip abs and now my back hates me."
"Your abs, bruh. /Bruh/. Please. If I had abs like that, my spike would be so much stron---"
Keiji can't tune him out. He's trying, because he knows if he speaks he'll forget what number he's at in his set, but he can't handle the incessant chatter in his ears as he hangs upside down, backs of his knees over the bar, and does crunches. So he stops, hanging upside down, and looks at the man - Bokuto, if his memory serves him well - with narrowed eyes. Before he says anything, the other speaks more.
"Yo, Akaashi. Can I call you Keiji? It's such a good name, it fits you, so, I was thinking,"
"Please stick with Akaashi, also, that sounds dangerous," Keiji deadpans, and then he pauses,
"How do you know my name?"
"Your waterbottle!" He holds up said bottle, and takes a swig out of it before Keiji can even try to stop him. He's torn between disbelieving laughter, and shock.
"This is crazy. You just drank out of my water bottle. I don't know you. Leave me alone?"
Bokuto beams, unaffected by Keiji's commentary, and then reaches into his pocket to remove a piece of paper. Keiji can't see what's on it, but he's getting a little light-headed from hanging upside down, and he can't swat away Bokuto's hands as he tucks the paper into Keiji's tight workout tank.
He winks at Keiji - fucking /winks/ - and then smiles more. "Akaashi - call me, maybe?"
He drinks from Keiji's water bottle again, puts it down, and sashays out of there so hard that Keiji is torn between kicking his ass, or staring at it.
---
Needless to say, he doesn't call, and then it happens.
He's getting ready to go into his apartment, the top level of a duplex, when he hears it.
"You didn't call me, Akaashi!! Akaashi!!!"
Is he being stalked? Did he sin a couple weeks ago, and karma is hitting him harder than a freight train? Is it his mother, cursing him for moving out as soon as he possibly could? He doesn't have time to consider which of these options it is, if not all of the above, before Bokuto is in his face again, the same bright, happy expression that he almost always seems to wear on his features.
"I gave you my number!! I was a little sweaty when I wrote it, did the writing smear or something? My hands were all clammy and nervous-- not nervous, nevermind, just like. Clammy 'cause I worked out a lot, yeah! A lot!"
Keiji lifts a hand to his head, staring at Bokuto as he massages his temples. Not allowing himself to think about what he's going to do, he says, almost robotically,
"Get your phone out."
"W-wait, whaaaaAat? Dude, you're not s--"
"You have maybe ten seconds before I start saying numbers, and I'm only saying it once."
Bokuto scrambles to get his phone out, in some weird rubbery case that's shaped like an owl, and Keiji perhaps gives him about thirty seconds before he says his number. Something about the try-hard, do-hard attitude that the other's exhibiting is... endearing. Endearing in the way that a puppy biting at your heels is, he tells himself, even if something in his brain insists that might be a cover-up story.
Is the other man... tearing up?
"You won't regret this! You won't!" He declares, and Keiji ignores the internal feelings that say yes, yes he will.
"Please leave so that you don't know where I live." Keiji sighs, and he watches Bokuto sprint down the block, whooping and hollering, before he dares unlock his door and head up into the duplex.
---
'yO U WANNA GO TO THE GYM'
'already here'
'IM COMING OVER!!! WAIT UP FOR ME!!'
'no promises'
---
'i'm staNDING OUTSIDE i brought u FOOD?'
'how do you manage to capitalize like that'
'FOOD'
'leave it on the doorstep and walk away from it'
'PLS don't be like that i got SMTH 4 U and 4 me!'
'... i'm coming'
---
'whats ur fave color?????'
'gold? i don't know'
'COOL BEANS'
'???????'
----
Two weeks after Keiji gives his number away, and more texts than he can count, it really begins with a phonecall (not the first, really).
"Bokuto." Keiji says when he picks up the phone, sitting in his living room and watching a show on Animal Planet about cats getting stuck in trees, which gives him a vague sense of fear and satisfaction all at once.
"This is going to sound so out there, but like, I'm outside??? Come see me??"
"I already ate, I don't want to go to the gym, I'm too full for ice cream, and I do not want to go to the zoo."
"Seriously man, please, I'm sweating so much I'm probably dehydrated."
"Bokuto, it's snowing."
"Doesn't matter I am one sweaty hunk of man creature right now, please."
Keiji sighs, gives a forlorn look to the orange cat stuck in the red cedar, and then moves to the stairs to head outside. Opening the door, he's greeted with the sight of Bokuto, standing there in a terribly metallic gold button-up, and holding...
"You're c...rushing.. the flowers..." Keiji's instinctive, gut-reaction to comment on that is almost stopped by the shock, because he's yet to see Bokuto in anything but workout gear and t-shirts, and the way that the tight dress shirt sits on the man is distracting to a tee.
"Fuck, I, shit. Uhm. I got these, uh, for you."
"... For me?"
"Ugh, okay, listen, I, I wasn't looking for this, I. B-but now, you're in my way. Uhm, at first sight, and it's real, I didn't know I would feel---" Bokuto stops, swallowing air like a fish out of water, "But I, I wanna take you on a date, and, well, I, I wish ... I want you to know that."
Keiji is shocked. He's unable to respond for a few moments, shivering in his oversized sweater and his boxers on the front step of his apartment.
"... Where?" He asks, and Bokuto's eyes widen, before he throws his arms around Keiji. He doesn't pull away, but sneaks an arm around Bokuto's back - but only one.
"We can go anywhere you want. I'll even call ahead."