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Akaashi could remember the first time he noticed. It was one of those warm and sweaty nights in the late summer he spent spread out on the bed in nothing but his underwear, blanket kicked to the floor because the air conditioning had broken down and Akaashi really needed to fix it but somehow that hadn't happen. So he was bound to lay there in the heat and try to make the best of it.
Somewhere between 10:30 and 11 pm he heard how the guy in the apartment wall to wall with his came home and unlocked his door. There were some shuffling and a few thuds, and Akaashi suspected the guy was drunk. It wouldn't be the first time. The house they lived in was pretty old and you could hear the neighbors flush their toilets, putting in the charger to their phone into the wall, and other fun business. He had more than once heard the guy, named Bokuto, stumble home on late Friday's/early Saturdays, hooting and doing other weird noises.
But this time there was a difference. A few minutes after Bokuto had closed his door behind him, he could hear his voice. It sounded slightly panicked and nervous. Then he heard a quiet 'meow' and some more panicked mumbling. Akaashi thought about it for a second and came to the result that the drunk bastard probably had had a huge throwback to 2008 and was watching Funny Cats on YouTube. But then there was a lot of meowing and a lot of 'shhh', 'quiet kitty' and 'are you hungry? Are you tired? What is the problem, kitty?! Why are you meowing?!' and Akaashi scratched that idea but thought nothing more of it.
The second time he noticed was a few days later. Akaashi had just gotten home from his usual jogging route and was met by Bokuto in the doorway, who seemed to have been shopping for groceries, one full plastic bags in each hand. This did not stop him from holding the door open to, a very sweaty, very out of breath, Akaashi though. The raven thanked him and somewhere in the back of his head, he wished he wasn't smelling like three days old gym clothes. But then again, why would he care? They went past the landlady's apartment, the grumpy middle aged couple, with relationship problems that they liked to solve loud and clear so the whole house knew exactly what the problem was, in the one beside hers, and walked up the stairs to their floor.
Just as Bokuto was about to take the last step, he fell over himself and both of his grocery bags went flying together with his believed coolness. This was definitely not caused because of Bokuto staring at Akaashi's ass instead of where he was putting his feet, and said boy turned around when he heard the very, very manly yelp that left Bokuto's mouth.
Akaashi was quick to run over and help the black and white haired man to pick everything up.
"Ah, thank you!" Bokuto said as he hurried to shove everything back into the plastic bags. Akaashi took the other and, gently but quickly, placed the milk inside the bag, together with a bag of beans, a cucumber, asparagus, mini pizza, cat food, another mil-
Akaashi paused his movements and picked up the cat food, gaze running over the purple package. He then looked at Bokuto who didn't seem to notice Akaashi's discovery, but it didn't take long for the other to realize why the raven had stopped helping, a terrified look on his face.
"Ah-I can explain.." He started, a celery in hand.
"Is this cat food?" Akaashi asked even though he clearly could read 'cat food' in big black letters.
"W-well, technically yes.." Bokuto answered, gaze falling to the floor, determined to not meet Akaashi's.
"You do know we can't have any animals, right?" The raven said, keeping a poker face even though he wanted to smile at the others reaction. Of course he was just teasing.
"Yes, but I don't-" Bokuto started but stopped mid-sentence. He paused before opening his mouth again, but nothing came out.
"This is how we're gonna do," Akaashi stood up, still holding the cat food, and Bokuto snapped the celery in half, probably out of fear. "We're gonna make a deal." Bokuto swallowed hard.
"I won't tell the landlady that you have a cat even though she made it very clear that we couldn't have any kinds of animals, and in exchange," at this point Bokuto was blabbering about money, and 'it won't be a problem, I swear', 'I will do anything!'. "I want to come over and pet them."
"Yeah, of course, I have money, I'll-" And Bokuto looked at Akaashi with big eyes. "What?"
"I'll go back to my place, take a shower so I don't smell like a Viking, and then I'll come over and pet your cat." The raven explained, gaze falling to the floor where the rest of the groceries laid, noticing a LOT of other types of cat food too. "And maybe help you out a little.." This time he couldn't help but smile slightly because Bokuto's face suddenly lit up like a little child's in a candy shop.
"Oh, okay. Do you.. Um.. Want, like, coffee?" Bokuto asked, scratching his neck, still on his knees. And Akaashi couldn't help but to let out a laugh because Bokuto looked so utterly awkward, a crocked smile feeling slightly out of place at the same time it fitted just right.
"Yeah, that would be nice." Akaashi smiled and looked down at the cat food, still in his hands. "Be right over then." He threw the package at Bokuto, who wasn't ready but still tried his best to catch it, before walking over to his door, unlocking it.
As fast as he had stepped inside his apartment and closed the door he realized what he'd just done. And, oh my god, he had just blackmailed his neighbor into letting him pet their animal. It wasn't illegal.. Right? No, Bokuto didn't seem angry or unwilling so he should be fine, right? But the blackmailing... Oh shit..
He wavered between opening the door, apologizing and say it was all a bad joke, but when he looked through the peephole and saw Bokuto smiling to himself, he decided that, no. He would not back out on this. He would pet the kitty.
So he hurried into the shower and out again before realizing that he actually was really excited. He rarely got exited, and if he did it was definitely not on this level, because Akaashi really loved cats and if the landlady would allow animals, he would definitely have gotten one. Or fifty.
He stood in front of the mirror and tried to fix the still wet hair, sticking up a little here and there. Most of it had dried by now but the tousles that hadn't, existed just to make sure Akaashi would have to waste energy for them to lie as he wanted them to. He was sure of it.
He smacked his cheeks, as to make himself clam down because he was starting to get nervous, and walked out the door. Bokuto had already (thankfully) picked up all the food and went into his own apartment. It would've been quite weird if he hadn't. Nobody could be that slow.
Akaashi walked up to the door and raised his hand to knock, hand lingering in the air for a second before tapping the door four times with his knuckles. A weird feeling tumbled around in his stomach as he swallowed hard. He still had a chance to turn around and pretend like nothing had ever happened. All he had to do was to tell Bokuto how stupid he was and apologize.
Exactly 1.5 seconds after he had knocked, the door opened and it felt like the air was pushed out of Akaashi's lungs, because the energy that radiated from the man in front of him, took him by surprise. His aura was so different from when he was standing on his knees minutes ago. It drew the raven in and chained him to the ground, no possible way to walk away like he had concidered.
"Hello, it wasn't yesterday!" Bokuto said rather loudly and Akaashi was reminded by all those times he had heard the other talk on the phone with someone. He sounded confident, unrecognizable too before.
"No it wasn't yesterday, it was 15 minutes ago." Akaashi deadpanned but his behavior didn't seem to affect the other. He just smiled even bigger.
"Well then, come in!" He said and Akaashi wondered if Bokuto was a schizophrenic. How could someone have such huge mood swings in the matter of a few minutes?
He stepped in through the door, stunned and didn't really know what to say because he had not been prepared for this. Actually, what had he been prepared for? It wasn't like he thought Bokuto was a quiet and shy guy. He'd more than once seen him greeting their neighbors and being awfully friendly with everyone.
Everyone except Akaashi... And he wondered why. Had he done something wrong?
Had he done something to make Bokuto ma-
"Meow"
And just like that all Akaashi's worries washed away, because in the door opening to what seemed to be a kitchen stood a small cat, fur shiny black, short and looking extremely silky. Their nose were pinkish, and big, curious eyes green.
Akaashi didn't even care if Bokuto hated him or was a psycho because he squatted down and reached his hand forward, as to get the kitty to come closer. And the cat trotted froward and stopped right before Akaashi's hand to give it a sniff, careful around the new human.
"Aww, it took me two days to get him to even come close to me.." Bokuto whined from where he stood, leaning against the hallway wall, observing the exchange of friendship between the two creatures on his floor.
"What's their name?" Akaashi asked, a whole new tone in his voice.
"I have no idea.. I don't even know if it's a boy or a girl.." Bokuto said as he too squatted down, feeling a bit left out. Akaashi's hand circled the cat to get them to follow it and turn around.
"It's a boy." He said, a small smile playing on his lips.
"How can you tell?!" Bokuto asked confused as he moved a little closer to look at the cat from Akaashi's point of view.
"He got balls, Bokuto-San." Akaashi said now, for the first time since he saw the cat, looking at Bokuto, and he was definitely smiling now. How on earth had Bokuto missed to check if it was a girl or a boy? And who doesn't name their animals?
"Oh..." Bokuto paused then started laughing. Loud and bubbly, and the cat pressed himself to the floor in shock of the sudden sound. "Well then. Let's call him Hercules." And Akaashi wanted to turn around and go home because Bokuto did not just name his cat after a mythological hero.
"Whatever floats your boat.." Akaashi said and kept petting the now named Hercules. Bokuto laughed even more and stood up, his hands settling on his waist.
"So, coffee?"
Akaashi realized he was needed. It turned out Bokuto didn't know two things about cats except they need food to survive and a litter, thank god for that, so Akaashi made it his responsibility to help the poor guy. He showed him what food was the best and how he could arrange his apartment to make it more cat friendly. Days passed and Akaashi found himself coming back to Bokuto's apartment almost everyday. They had moved their conversations place from the hallway floor to Bokuto's couch, and as Hercules grew more comfortable around both of them he often joined.
Their conversations quickly left the cat topic and they began to talk about other things. Interests, family, sports (because it seemed like both of them liked volleyball) and so on.
One day Bokuto knocked on Akaashi's door with Hercules in his arms, both of them looking slightly terrified.
"Akaashi, you have to keep Hercules at your apartment! The landlady is coming to check up on my room!"
And Akaashi gladly accepted the offer. Later that week, the landlady knocked on Akaashi's door and started asking questions about Bokuto.
"Sorry to disturb you, but do you know anything about Bokuto-san? I've been suspecting he's got an animal but I didn't see one while I was over.."
To which Akaashi lied that he did not know his neighbor so well and that she probably was mistaken. They weren't allowed to have animals after all, to which she nodded, apologized for the trouble and left.
Akaashi later went over without knocking first, because they had made that deal so they wouldn't sound too much, causing the landlady to get even more suspicious, and reported the whole thing to Bokuto who laughed and started to talk about how it felt like they were doing something really illegal.
"It's just the adrenaline pumping. You won't be this happy when she catches you."
"She won't catch me. I have you as my back up, right! We're unstoppable together!"
"I suppose.."
As the days turned colder and the nights grew darker, Akaashi found himself longing for the next day to come so he could visit the Bokuto household again. He smiled to himself as his whole life felt like it was spluttered with color, vibrate and warm, even during the early December.
They spent Christmas together. It had happened as a coincident as Bokuto had made plans to go see his family while Akaashi would stay home with Hercules (who now was more like their kid, only with less responsibilitys) but his flight was cancelled in the last minute due to storms and other bad weathers. Bokuto had appeared in Akaashi's doorway with soaked clothes because the snow had melted and now it was raining instead. The taller had made a depressed sound and pulled the other into a tired hug.
"Bokuto-San, you're soaked, stop hugging me!" Akaashi yelped as Bokuto didn't care.
"I had to walk from the airport to here.. There is no available taxis during Christmas apparently.."
To which Akaashi started laughing and pulled the other inside. They spent the rest of the night wrapped together with Hercules in a blanket, after Bokuto had changed his clothes of course, watching sappy christmas movies and somewhere between 1 and 1:30am Akaashi had fallen asleep, leaned agains Bokuto as a heat resource, Hercules curled awkwardly in both their laps at the same time. And Bokuto had smiled, lowered the volume on the movie and closed his eyes, arm pulling Akaashi just a little bit closer.
The next day Akaashi woke up on the floor as Bokuto was snoring on his couch.
As December passed, January surfaced and the two males spent a whole day walking the streets in their town just to laugh at how pathetic everybody looked where they ran around and acted like they would be a whole new person just because the number in the year they lived in changed.
"Do you have any New Years resolutions, Bokuto?" Akaashi asked, still not used to dropping the 'san' that Bokuto had pestered him about not using.
"Hmm... No, not really... How about you?" He answered.
"Nope. As long as I still can see you and Hercules I'm happy." And Akaashi didn't really know what that warm feeling tumbling around in his stomach meant as he uttered those words.
January ended eventually and February began. It was snowing and Akaashi wondered where this snow had been during Christmas.
Bokuto and Akaashi was now visiting each other's apartments like it were their other home, not bothering to knock and Akaashi had woken up a few times to Bokuto raiding his fridge. Bokuto also thought it was nice to come home from work to find Akaashi on his couch, zapping through tv channels and petting Hercules, and it was just that that'd happened.
Bokuto leaned on the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest as he looked at his feet. Akaashi had noticed that he was there but didn't bother looking.
"Ya'know.. It's Valentine's Day this Sunday.." He began, not really sure if had the courage to do this.
"What about it?" Akaashi answered as he still didn't look at Bokuto.
"Well..," Wow.. He didn't have the courage.. Did he? "I was wondering.. If you.. I don't know.. Maybe wanted to do something then?"
Oh shit.. There it was. He said it. Now if only he could crawl into a pit and die, that would be great.
Akaashi looked at Bokuto but the taller was too afraid to look back.
"Did you just ask me out?"
Oh, shitshitshitshit... Poop..
"...yes..." Bokuto answered quietly. Then there was a silence, and Bokuto didn't dare to look up.
"Did you hear that, Hercules? He's asking me out." Akaashi said, smiling. Hercules let out a meow as if he felt the tension in the air, and Bokuto finally looked up. And he stopped breathing.
Akaashi was smiling. But not like the smiles he used to smile from time to time, no. This was a whole new type of smile, one that reached his entire face. And Bokuto stopped breathing.
"Is that a yes?" Bokuto asked when he remembered how to suck air into his lungs again.
"What do you think it is?" Akaashi asked, still smiling that goddamed smile.
"I don't know.. You sometimes seems to mean something but it's actually the opposite.." He said, hope slowly leaving his body in thought of rejection. Until a toy rat hit him in the face. Bokuto looked down and saw Hercules's rat laying at his feet and Akaashi looked ever more happy than he was before.
"Yes, it is a yes." He chuckled as Hercules sprinted after the thrown rat.
"Oh.." Bokuto said, smile slowly spreading across his face as he realized what Akaashi just had said. "Oh."
Akaashi remained quiet. Sitting on the couch, knees under his chin and still smiling.
"Well then, what are we watching?" Bokuto asked as he plopped down beside Akaashi on the couch.
"Some boring reality show." Akaashi answered, but it didn't really matter if the show was boring, because Akaashi was sitting in the guy he liked's apartment, with the guy he liked right beside him, with the guy he liked just asked him out on a date on Valentine's Day, with their now shared cat on the floor, playing.
He really didn't need anything else.