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Today was the day.
Bokuto had been staring at his reflection in the mirror practicing his lines, watching every little drop of sweat drip from his head as he talked. He listened to his voice crack about a million times over and he had finally put an end to that. He memorized all the words from the crinkled lined note paper that he had originally written just a couple of months ago.
This was it.
Today he would confess his love for Akaashi Keiji.
He was never really one to look into the small details. Being more of a “wing it and figure it out later” guy was all he had ever been, so he wasn’t particularly well-acquainted with the anxiety pulsing throughout his body as he shoved the note paper into his pocket. His tongue twisted into knots in his mouth, not being able to form the words correctly. But it wasn’t time for that now anyway. Now was time to wait.
Bokuto sat on his living room couch with his hands clasped together and his back arched, leaning forward onto his knees. God, this was like torture. Normally, he wouldn’t be so nervous, he wouldn’t be as aware of every feeling in his body, every tang of nausea, every twitch of every muscle. Nerves were seriously getting to him. But this was Akaashi Keiji. He was the world to Bokuto, something so beautiful and full of life that you find yourself getting so sucked in, so immersed in every single detail about it. He could look at Akaashi Keiji for hours finding new little features he never noticed before. It’s all he wanted to do, really. And Akaashi was thoughtful, Bokuto knew that very well. So he wrote, revised, and rewrote the same little note again and again, just to be perfect for Akaashi.
Then again, he was fully expecting rejection, so maybe it was all truly just theatrics.
Tapping his foot against the ground at a thousand miles per second, Bokuto (very impatiently) awaited Akaashi’s arrival. It was the longest five minutes of his entire life.
He almost mistook the knock on the door for the beat of his own heart, but it wasn’t nearly loud enough for that. He had felt his fingers tremble as he unclasped them, and he realized he had never been this anxious.
Slowly getting up off the couch, he made his way over to the door and cracked it open, just to be met with the dark night sky that resided in Akaashi’s eyes, pulling Bokuto in and not letting them in. If he stared long enough, he was sure he would be able to map constellations in there.
He smiled softly. “Hey, Bokuto-san. Are you ready?”
“No!” Bokuto said enthusiastically, face turning red.
Akaashi paused. “You aren’t? You called me asking to come earlier. I would’ve given you more time if I had known you wouldn’t be ready now.”
“No no no!! Sorry, I was thinking of something else!! We can go now!” Bokuto was not used to being this nervous ever. He felt so insanely sweaty. Was it hot in there?
Akaashi lifted an eyebrow. “Bokuto-san… are you… okay?” He asked, a clear look of concern on his face, which somehow ended up making Bokuto even more nervous and sweaty. “We don’t have to go if you’d like to stay home.”
The little voice in the back of his conscious yelled at him, begging him to take Akaashi up on that offer and stay home. But he wouldn’t listen. Bokuto was restless, he was ambitious, and he wouldn’t allow himself to be the kind of person to let opportunities run away from him like that. He had been working on this stupid little verbal love letter for months, and he was not about to let it go to waste. He had to catch his confidence.
“Nope! Let’s go! Let’s go right now!!” Bokuto yelled with a bit of a squeak, gently grabbing onto Akaashi’s arm and walking out the door, much to the shock of Akaashi Keiji.
“Bokuto-san..!!” But he had already let go of Akaashi’s wrist and was jogging down the street, breath shown in a white smoke because of the bitter winter air. With a small smile and a quick stretch, Akaashi quickly followed suit.
After a good fifteen minutes of true jogging together, the two ended their little workout at the local park, arms crossed over the fence holding them back from the water. Bokuto watched Akaashi’s eyes as he peered down into the pond, a soft smile on his face as his eyes scanned the surface. He looked so peaceful, Bokuto thought as his eyes settled on the red of Akaashi’s cheeks. It was cold out, the kind of cold that would’ve left him shivering if he had let himself think about it. Luckily, there was a distraction, something that his mind couldn’t deny itself the thought of even if he wanted it to, and he was right in front of his very eyes.
With a glance, Akaashi turned his head to look at Bokuto, his gentle grin not faltering for even a moment. “Is there something on your mind, Bokuto-san?”
Bokuto felt his face heat up, and he prayed the sharp cold hid it well. “Well, there is this one thing…”
“Oh?” Akaashi turned his body to lean his left side against the fence. “I’m listening.”
Well, if Bokuto had been “the most nervous he’d ever been” before. He wasn’t exactly sure what to call himself at this moment. But it was a thousand times worse. His hands shook in his pockets as he held onto the note despite not necessarily needing it. He felt his mouth run dry with anxiety, desperately searching for the words he had memorized only just this morning, but now they were gone from his mind. His eyes searched the landscape, feigning to be locked into Akaashi’s but not allowing themselves to. He couldn’t let himself look into his eyes, to get lost again. He had to find the words and simply spit them out.
He took a deep breath in, regaining his composure. “Akaashi Keiji, I–.”
Interrupted whilst mid-love confession, he felt the gentle push from someone behind him, watching a bike pass from his side as he stumbled forward. Unable to catch himself, he held his hands out in front of him and tumbled directly into the boy standing in front of him. Akaashi’s eyes widened as he collided with Bokuto, and Bokuto wrapped his hands around the back of Akaashi’s head, shielding him from the rough surface of the ground as they crashed. He hadn’t had any time to realize the feeling of his lips grazing against Akaashi’s own until they were already on the grass, clothes stained and cheeks red. Wordlessly, Bokuto parted from Akaashi, staring at his red-painted, wide-eyed face. Of course this would happen to him.
“We just–,” Akaashi said, simply in shock, but quickly snapped back into consciousness as his eyes focused on Bokuto. “Bokuto-san, you’re bleeding–.”
“AUGGGHH! That wasn’t supposed to go like this!!!” Bokuto whined, wiping the blood off of the small scrape on the left side of his forehead as he clasped his hands against the sides of his face.
Akaashi tilted his head. “Huh? Explain.”
Bokuto could feel the words bubble up from his stomach, and the word vomit poured out of his mouth as he lifted his head to face the sky. “I was supposed to confess my love and then we were supposed to kiss! NOT the other way around!! Now we kissed before I got to even start my confession! It was supposed to be perfect!”
Akaashi blinked. “What? Bokuto–.”
“I’m sorry, ‘Kaashiiii!!” He squeezed his face a bit. “I wish I could’ve made it perfect–.”
“Bokuto-san.”
“Maybe then we could’ve actually kissed and not just bumped mouths! But now there’s no way you’re gonna wanna do that–.”
“Bokuto-san!”
“Now I just have this stupid speech and nothing to do with it– Mmh!”
He was swiftly cut off by the feeling of two hands holding onto his own, and then the presence of a pair of soft lips on top of his. In almost a state of shock, it took only a few moments for him to truly process the situation, but he quickly melted into the kiss, closing his eyes and inching just a bit closer to Akaashi. This was it, the moment he had been waiting for the second his gaze reached Akaashi. The blessing part of “a blessing and a curse”. He felt his palms wrap around the rose, but this time he didn’t feel the thorns, just the sweet, flowery aroma of the beautiful rose lingering around him.
He pulled away. “Oh!”
Akaashi smiled. “Thank you, Bokuto-san.”
“What for? If anything I should be thanking you!!” He beamed with a beet-red face, hand over his head to scratch the back of his neck.
“Because today was perfect.” Akaashi scooted closer, sitting next to Bokuto on the grass, head leaning on Bokuto’s own. It was comfortable. It was nice.
“But I didn’t get to say my whole speech!”
“You didn’t need to. I think I understand the main point, and guess what? I love you, too.”
Bokuto looked down at his setter. “You mean that?”
“I do.”
Bokuto crumbled up the note in his pocket even more, now sure more than ever that he wasn’t a poet. He didn’t need a thousand words to describe his feelings for Akaashi. All he needed were three short, simple words, and Akaashi had already beat him to it. And he was alright with that, because with the warmth of the boy with his head against him, he could hardly feel the cold, harsh winter, and the scent of his slightly floral cologne lingered in the air. Everything was perfect.