Archive of Our Own

„Akaashiii~ ♫ “

A familiar voice and the light tapping of a tiny hand against his cheeks woke Akaashi from his peaceful slumber.

„Rise and shine! The weather's great today with only a 20% chance of a short rain shower tonight.“

Turning his head to the side he slowly blinked his eyes open, coming face to...body with his mobile personal computer who was already awfully cheery so early in the morning.

„How does your head feel? Do you need painkillers?“

A set of curious golden eyes observed Akaashi while waiting for his answer.

„No thanks. I'm fine, Bokuto...“

„Get up then, sleepyhead! I started the coffee maker 5 minutes ago~“, his persocom announced before bouncing off the mattress and landed on the ground with a soft thump.

Surely Bokuto would be way more noisy if he wasn't just 9 inches tall.

Peeling himself out of his selfmade blanket burrito, Akaashi climbed out of his bed and immediately slid his feet into his slippers to avoid coming in direct contact with the cold wooden floor. He followed sluggishly behind Bokuto, entering the small kitchen. The display of the coffee maker blinked rhythmically, indicating that its job was done. Akaashi cradled the steaming mug in his hand before taking a seat at the table. He didn't even had to prompt Bokuto to rattle off his checklist for today.

„Work starts at 8:00, your favorite ramen shop has a special lunch offer this week. We're almost out of tea and only have one pack of face masks left, so we should go shopping after your shift is over!“

Humming in agreement Akaashi carefully took a sip of his drink waiting for the caffeine to flood his system and get him more awake. His mind drifted to the workload that awaited him later.

Working for a cyber security company was a challenging job but Akaashi liked the way it tickled his brain, having him think of new solutions and find flaws he could eliminate. There's also the advantage of working indoors. It wasn't like he despised being outside but because of his allergies, asthma and general affinity to catch a sickness if something was going around Akaashi felt saver in his office.

Finishing his morning routine Akaashi left his flat, a white face mask securely covering the lower half of his face and Bokuto perched on his shoulder like some kind of bird.

He'd gotten the little healthbot from his parents for his 20th birthday two years ago. Since then the two had been pretty much inseparable.

At first Akaashi only saw Bokutos practical device that reminded him when to take his medicine, alerted him of increased poll or dust pollution. When it turned out that the artificial intelligence was able to evolve and develop his own character, acting just like a human being, he became Akaashi's companion as well. To him it didn't matter that there're improved and better persocoms available at the market, he wouldn't trade the best of them for Bokuto. The little guy managed to conjure a smile on his face even when his nose was running like a leaking faucet.

Arriving at work half an hour later, Akaashi stepped out of the elevator when they reached the 33th floor. He walked along the hallway, most of the offices still empty, until he reached his own little glass cube. The lights turned on as soon as he stepped inside illuminating the two work desks and several computers inside.

Bringing the electronic equipment to life by swiping over the screens Akaashi took a seat, checking his email inbox first. Five new messages, nothing to worry about. If there'd been an hacker attack there could be hundreds of people who needed an security update.

Footsteps approached, announcing another co-worker arriving, which wouldn't be anything special beside the fact that Bokuto suddenly straightened up from his sitting position on the table.

When his mouth opened he wasn't talking like usual but had his sound system activated. 'Eye of the tiger' started playing, Bokuto's lip syncing the song just when a tall man with spiky, jetblack hair entered the office.

Kuroo pumped his fist in the air when the song ended after the few strophes and did a little pirouette that suggested he'd rewatched Black Swan for the ninth time before lowering his hand to give the small persocom a high five.

„Thanks bro, I feel so much more motivated to kick some Trojan horse butts after this! And good mornin' to you, sleeping beauty~“, Kuroo addressed Akaashi with a lazy grin plastered on his face, showing off his slightly crooked canines.

„Good morning, Kuroo-san.“, was the polite greeting he got in return, combined with Akaashi's trademark deadpan expression.

Kuroo and Bokuto were productive at their best behavior (although Bokuto wasn't an official employee) but together they could also be the worst source of distraction for Akaashi.

After three hours of work they'd decided to take a pre-lunch break and play some trash ball. A sport that was a combination of basketball and volleyball without the corresponding rules because they're hindering their 'flow' - at least that’s what Kuroo called their not-so-smooth moves. The goal of the game was to get a crumpled-up paper ball into a trash can. Akaashi's trash can to be more precise.
It wasn't even a bin but a pencil holder that was unfortunately shaped like a little basket, standing innocently beside Akaashi's big main screen. It was an old-school habit, using it to discard any post-it notes he wrote as little reminders. He knew he could just make a note in his calendar but old habits die hard.

Just when he was in the middle of doing some complicated coding a paper ball landed on his holographic keyboard, causing a heavy case of keysmash. Akaashi's fingers came to an abrupt halt, greyish eyes slowly averting from the screen to fix the culprit with a stern glare.

Bokuto lifted his hands in slow motion as if he was dealing with a wild animal. He didn’t want to upset the beast any further.

„I'm sorry!“, Bokuto verbal apology followed right afterwards and his body seemed to deflate visibly under Akaashi's disapproving look.

Meanwhile Kuroo pretended like he hadn't been involved in the game at all busily typing and putting on his 'serious business' face. The twitching corners of his mouth ruined the expression completely.

„No more trash ball.“, Akaashi announced, flicking the paper ball into the actual trash bin.

The rest of the day passed without further incidents - except for the part where they went to get lunch and Kuroo manged to crack up about one of his own horrible puns while eating. As a result, noodle soup dripped out of his nose making Bokuto join in the laughter. Even Akaashi couldn't hold back an amused smile. It was difficult to say if this was the reason Kuroo was single or the fact that his cat Sprinkles turned into a hellspawn whenever her can opener brought someone home with him.

On their way back home they made a they made a short detour to the supermarket. Bokuto tried to convince Akaashi to buy Kellogg's Cocoa Hoots because he liked the big white owl on the cover and the other cereal names were super lame.

„You can't eat them anyway, Bokuto.“, he reminded the healthbot, placing his usual cereal box in the shopping basket.

„I know...“

Bokuto sulked for the rest of their grocery trip. He didn't like to be reminded of all the things he couldn't do since he wasn't human like Akaashi. He'd love to have dinner with his friend but his body had no organs to digest the food and it wasn't like he had taste buds either. Sometimes when he read the words 'spicy' or 'sour-sweet' on a menu he tried to imagine how those would taste but all he could come up with were more synonyms for the same terms.

Akaashi noticed the sudden change of his companions mood. It wasn't exactly the first time something like this happened. A software programmer might call those emotional up and downs a flaw of the system. To Akaashi they're simply part of Bokuto's personality. He wasn't always feeling dandy either, so why should an artificial intelligence behave any different. After all they're created to imitate the human mind.

Just when the door fell shut behind them rain started to fall, quietly drumming against the windows. Akaashi liked the rain. It created an relaxed atmosphere and had a calming effect which made it easier for him to fall asleep, although it was way to early to let himself sink into Morpheus arms already.

Bokuto was more of a sunshine type. Not that his body was vulnerable to water damage but whenever he watched raindrops sliding down the glass they reminded him of tears. Tears he couldn't shed himself.

There're basically two options how to handle Bokuto's mood swings. Sometimes it was the best to ignore them and wait until the little perscom recovered from them. Akaashi favored the second option. The one that contained him finding a way to distract his companion by giving him small tasks, making him feel useful and in turn lifting his spirits.

Dusting. Definitely not his favorite chore but one he had to do quite often in order to keep the effects of his dust allergy to a minimum.

„I could need your help, Bokuto.“, Akaashi addressed the other, voice always sounding a bit muffled when he's wearing his face mask.

„What is it?“, came the reluctant reply.

„I need a brave knight by my side to defeat the dust bunny army that took shelter in my home.“

Akaashi knew that his choice of words was a bit...over the top - if not to say downright ridiculous - but it seemed to work.

Bokuto only snorted in amusement at first, then rolled his eyes and finally a small grin spread over his lips.

„Don't pretend you're a damsel in distress, no one who actually knows you will believe that~“

Arming themselves with rags and special dust wipes they started in the living room where most of the dust seemed to accumulate. Akaashi wasn't one to keep lots of knick-knacks and his flat looked rather basic in general. Only on special holidays Bokuto was able to convince him to hang up some decoration.

He's in the middle of wiping off the glass table, a house warming present from his parents, when he heard a dramatic gasp. Turning his head he couldn't make out Bokuto's whereabouts at first but was able to locate him behind the television when he heard him starting to talk.

„Stay back, there are some dust bunnies looking for trouble. I'm gonna take care of them!“, Bokuto announced bravely before throwing himself onto his 'enemies' with a screech, holding up the damp rag in front of him to cover the dust completely. It sounded like some bird of prey attacking it's unaware victim. May their souls rest in peace.

„Everything alright?“, Akaashi asked hesitantly after a few heartbeats of silence.

Bokuto appeared from behind the television just when Akaashi closed his mouth, raising an eyebrow in expectation.

„Got them!“

„Well done. Thank you, Bokuto.“

Half an hour later the rest of the flat was speckless as well and Akaashi rewarded himself with some rice and vegetables for dinner. This time Bokuto didn't seem to be upset that he couldn't eat with him, maybe because he's playing some hunting game on Akaashi's tablet. No wonder the battery was always dead when he actually wanted to use it...

They spent the rest of the evening watching a dance movie. Akaashi didn't even try to remember the title since the plot of those movies weren't exactly varying. Mostly it was about a girl and a boy united by their undying love for dancing and after overcoming some barriers, including dance battles, they fell in love with each other as well. Also winning an important contest.

Bokuto was excited about it as always, trying to imitate some of the dance moves, which ended with him landing on his face or butt. Those little dance interludes were way more entertaining to Akaashi than the movie itself.

The rain still hadn't stopped when they went to bed two hours later. Well, Akaashi slipped underneath his blanket while Bokuto took a seat at his energy station. The persocom didn't need to charge his accumulator very often, only on a weekly basis, so most nights he just went into standby mode.

Watching his human fall asleep in a totally non creepy way Bokuto used his alone time to browse the internet for the latest articles concerning artificial, humanoid intelligence. He liked reading about all the updates that'd happened and researches that're still going on.

When he dreamed - and yes Bokuto knew that he could do that, no matter what some scientist might say - he dreamt about being an adult sized human. He'd still be at Akaashi's side but felt more useful and more like they're equals. Being a mobile persocom, therefore having a portable size, a lot of humans or bigger persocoms didn't take him serious. They treated him like a child, cooed at him or tried to pet his head like he was chihuahua that would happily slobber all over their faces.

Akaashi never treated him like a kid or gave him silly nicknames. At first he even called him 'Bokuto-san', which was super weird and fortunately after some time he dropped the suffix again.

If he were bigger he could help Akaashi with the groceries, get him lunch when the other was too busy at work to get some himself or they could even go clubbing together!

Akaashi had told him he didn't like clubs because they're really noisy with too many people squeezed into a tiny place. The last time he'd gone out together with Kuroo some intoxicated guy had hit on him before throwing up the content of his stomach in front of Akaashi's feet. Charming.

So yeah Akaashi didn't like clubbing but Bokuto had looked up a few places online, where you couldn't just dance in a relaxed atmosphere but also have live music. The old school jazzy one Akaashi enjoyed so much.

Unfortunately the update and transfer to a bigger model was really expensive. In a few years the prices would drop and more people would be able to afford them but until then it seemed like Bokuto was stuck. He couldn't ask Akaashi to spent such a huge amount of money on him, even if he could scrape it together.

Bokuto could dream though and in his dreams he carefully held Akaashi against his chest while they slowly danced to soft piano sounds, caught in their own little world.