Work Text:
Tragedy strikes on Monday.
There's nothing peculiar about this particular Monday. Kiyoomi beats his alarm by five minutes but isn't surprised to see he's still the last one out of bed. He hears the shower running and figures it must be Keiji getting ready for his trip back to Tokyo. Which means Koutarou is probably in the kitchen making a bento for Keiji to have on the trip back. All in all, it's as normal as a Monday can get for them.
Tragedy strikes on Monday and it all starts with a bottle of hair gel.
Kiyoomi is taking a shower in their guest bathroom when he hears the shriek. It's a high-pitched, kicked puppy one, albeit the puppy, in this case, is 191 lbs worth. He hears Keiji yell out a concerned, “Kou is everything okay?”, but there's no reply.
Kiyoomi doesn't budge for a second, not wanting to step out of the shower without finishing up, but the shrieking has softened and turned into dramatic whining. He turns off the shower, dries himself, and heads to the master bedroom, only to be greeted with the sight of a very confused and very concerned Keiji who looks relieved to see Kiyoomi. He raises an eyebrow in question and Keiji shrugs. The whines are now wails, so Kiyoomi decides to take the plunge and nudges the bathroom door open to see what’s going on. Knowing the source of the sound, Kiyoomi could never possibly prepare himself for what awaited him.
But he braces himself to learn the reason behind today’s theatrics.
And it’s as ridiculous a reason as any.
Koutarou is standing by the sink, hair wet and hanging limp on his forehead. There’s an empty bottle of hair gel on the counter. It takes Kiyoomi a second to process what's wrong with the scene, but once he does, he backtracks to where Keiji is.
“He’s out of hair gel,” Kiyoomi says, the surrealness of the sentence hitting them both like a serve to the back of the head.
“H-How?” Keiji stammers out, clearly not expecting this. “Should I call Udai and let him know I can’t come in today?”
“I don’t know,” Kiyoomi huffs out. “Kou, are you alright?” he asks in the hopes that Koutarou might answer them.
“I’m fine,” it’s a sniffle. Definitely better than a sob, and Kiyoomi counts that as an improvement.
“Do you want to try mine for the day?” Kiyoomi suggests though he knows there’s no way any of his hair products can tame Koutarou’s hair, still he hears a soft, “maybe” from the bathroom.
Kiyoomi gets him the hair gel, and as expected, it makes no difference whatsoever to Koutarou’s hair. Keiji tries to bunch it up in the hopes that he can replicate the shape of Koutarou's trademark updo, but it barely holds for a minute, before losing its shape.
“It’s all sticky,” Koutarou whimpers, touching the gel coating his strands, and Kiyoomi fights the urge to point out that his usual gel is stickier. Keiji pats his head softly and suggests Koutarou go without hair gel for the day. He pouts, the big baby, but Kiyoomi nudges him towards the shower and asks him to rinse off the gel they’d slathered on.
Keiji double-checks his luggage as Kiyoomi gets dressed. They're running a bit late, but Keiji doesn't seem too bothered by it. Kiyoomi wants to try and convince him to stay, and he'll most likely say yes right now, but he also knows Keiji enjoys his job, so he decides not to.
“How did he run out of hair gel?” Keiji asks once he's made sure he’s packed everything. “Doesn't he buy so much of it that the store begged him not to?.”
“He usually does,” Kiyoomi replies. “But I remember him telling me that he ran out and I'd added it to the shopping list. Was it not there in the one I forwarded to you?”
“Probably not.” Keiji pulls up the list Kiyoomi had sent him. “There's no way I could've forgotten it.”
“It's right there.” Kiyoomi points at the "HAIRGEL" spelled out in all caps at the bottom of the list. “Guess you forgot.”
“How could this have happened?” Keiji says, trying to recall the events of the weekend. He was still on the train when Kiyoomi forwarded the list to him. Keiji racks his brain to list out all the things he did after reaching Osaka: here's Akaashi Keiji getting out of the shinkansen and making his way to the supermarket. Here's Akaashi Keiji perusing the aisles, and ticking things off his list one by one. Here’s Akaashi Keiji receiving a not-so-safe-for-work text from the demons disguised as his disgustingly attractive boyfriends. Here’s Akaashi Keiji rushing through the shopping list and breezing past the hair product aisle so he can hurry home to said boyfriends.
And here they are now.
Kiyoomi is about to open his mouth, when Keiji glares at him, daring him to point out he fucked up. He lets out a sigh instead and Keiji slumps against him. “Should I stay back?” he asks and Kiyoomi shrugs. Koutarou pads back to the room just then, eyes a little red and hair freshly washed, and piles on top of Keiji and Kiyoomi with a whine.
“You’re a big baby,” Keiji half-laughs-half-tells him.
“A big, big baby.” Kiyoomi reiterates and Koutarou smacks them both from where he’s lying down. He sits up, effectively crushing them both, before getting up from the bed. They watch as he changes into a loose hoodie and slips on a mask and grabs his gear. He pulls the hood over his head as a last-ditch attempt to not let the public know what Bokuto Koutarou looks like when he’s not Bokuto Koutarou.
“You do know you can’t practice in this get-up, right?” Kiyoomi asks and Koutarou fixes him with a glare.
“It’s just one day,” Keiji consoles Koutarou and Kiyoomi feels as if he’s trying to convince himself as well. “I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
It certainly was not okay.
They drop Keiji off at the station a little later than usual. Koutarou fidgets with his hair for the entirety of the car ride. He runs his hands through it, fluffing it up, trying to get it to resemble an owl, and pouting every time it fails to hold the shape. Kiyoomi is struggling to not laugh at it, and Keiji smiles at the entire situation. This is certainly their least teary goodbye, and it makes him want to stay for a bit longer. He would have, had it not been for Udai’s manuscript and the looming deadline. Keiji kisses them both goodbye before stepping out of the car, apologizing to Koutarou for not getting him the hair gel and asking Kiyoomi to keep him updated about their current situation.
He gets a text from Kiyoomi not even thirty minutes after he’s boarded the train.
they like the hair, the text reads. There’s a picture underneath it and it’s of Koutarou mid-stretch, surrounded by the MSBY Jackals who appear to be cooing at him.
Keiji responds with a simple, how could they not? Which, after all, is the truth. Koutarou’s usual hairstyle is charming and while it does suit him and his public persona, Keiji will never be able to reconcile how pretty Koutarou looks with his hair down. This is what they call gap moe , Keiji thinks, making a note to check in with Udai and see whether he used the term correctly. His phone chimes again and it’s another text from Kiyoomi. This time Kiyoomi is in the frame, annoyance gracing his features; annoyance that Keiji knows stems from a place of possessiveness. Followed by, Keiji they like the hair a bit too much￣へ￣. don’t want others to see him like this.
He tries to comfort Kiyoomi, knowing full well that Keiji will have to clear his schedule for the night now that Kiyoomi’s possessiveness has flared up. He snaps a picture of him having the onigiri that Koutarou packed him and sends it in the hopes that it tides Kiyoomi over, and Keiji smiles to himself when he gets a very approving text in reply.
It’s Hinata who says it first.
They’re doing spiking drills when he muses out loud, “Bokuto-san is very super cool with his usual hairstyle, but he looks so pretty with his hair down. Like insanely pretty.”
There are hums of agreement and Kiyoomi shifts his attention to his boyfriend who’s mid-spike now. Koutarou’s form inspires envy and admiration in everyone, and Kiyoomi agrees with what Keiji said about Koutarou being a star. He spikes the ball, perfect as always, but fails to stick the landing. His hair falls over his eyes and it is a pretty sight, but Kiyoomi realises it’s also obscuring his vision. It’s an unruly mess, but that’s by virtue of being Koutarou’s hair, and he’s trying to push it away from his face rather unsuccessfully. Kiyoomi sighs before walking over to him, and Koutarou half-smiles- half pouts at him, and Kiyoomi wonders how he’s able to pull it off.
“You should’ve brought a hair tie.”
“Kuroo made it look easy,” Koutarou pouts again for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day, “How did he do all that blocking if I can't even get one spike in?”
“Beats me.” Kiyoomi shrugs, taking the hair tie he usually carries with him and gathers Koutarou's hair into a ponytail. It's a shoddy attempt, but it looks like it’ll do its job. Koutarou blushes at the gesture and Kiyoomi is tempted to risk Meian's wrath and kiss him in front of all their teammates.
“Ya know,” Atsumu says, “I've always thought Bokkun was a very attractive man, but this,” He points at his hair, “this is a whole ‘nother level.”
“Is this why we’ve never seen you with your hair down before?” Inunaki muses in lieu of teasing, “Cause you don't want us to feel insecure?”
“Y-you guys! It’s not like that,” Koutarou stammers, his usual confidence replaced by bashfulness now that he’s not sporting his usual look.
“Do you gel it up so it doesn't get into your eyes?” Adriah asks as if it was a genuine doubt. “It seems to get in your way, so it’d make sense for you to gel it up.”
Koutarou whines.
Kiyoomi sighs.
It’s going to be a long day.
Keiji’s halfway through discussing the changes he wants Udai to make to the manuscript when all hell breaks loose.
It’s yet another text from Kiyoomi and this time it’s a link to an Instagram post. Keiji excuses himself for a second and taps on the link, only to be redirected to Miya Atsumu’s profile. The post in question is a picture of Koutarou and Keiji can’t help the smile that creeps onto his face. Koutarou’s looking at the camera--the two-toned hair a messy halo on his head, a shy smile on his face, red colouring his cheeks--and Miya had cheekily captioned it, Guess who???
The post’s raking up a lot of likes and Keiji thumbs at his screen to take a glance at the comment section and closes it just as quickly. Everyone is going wild in the comments and gushing about how good Koutarou looks with his hair down. He understands where Kiyoomi is coming from now and Keiji would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit peeved at their little secret being revealed to the entire volleyball world now. He sighs and makes a mental note to clear his schedule for the night before typing out a reply to Kiyoomi.
we’ll make sure to never run out of hair gel again.