Chapter Text
"Welcome to McDonalds," the teen in front of him greets in a monotonous tone. Akaashi waits for another line from him, but apparently, that was it. The teen blinks at Akaashi, waiting for the dark haired teen to say something. But Akaashi himself was too busy observing the youth in front of him.
His hair reminded him of Nekoma's captain, what seems to be another type of bed-hair, but his hair was the type where it would shape flawlessly after a long sleep and instead, make your hair look better. The hair suits him, Akaashi thinks.
His eyes were droopy and his expression was shows that he would like to be anywhere but here.
"Um," Akaashi finally says. He thinks about ordering three double cheeseburgers for himself, but every time he does that, the rude employee would ask him, "wouldn't that be too much for yourself?" after Akaashi tells them that he'd be eating here and it would make Akaashi's low self esteem go off and he would find himself blushing and changing his order. Though, he couldn't blame himself or his constant craving for food.
The setter's eyes glance down on the bored employee's chest, who was currently typing on his phone - was that even allowed? -, and spots a small rectangle clinging on his shirt. The nametag on his uniform simply says '潜' and Akaashi wonders if 'Kuguri' was his surname or just his first name.
"There's a line behind you," Kuguri spoke without looking away from his phone
Akaashi looks behind him and blinks. His eyebrows furrow before looking back to Kuguri, "I can see that."
"Then please order," he says. There were no signs of impatience or anger; Kuguri was simply reminding him on what he was supposed to do. Usually, an angry employee with low patience would yell or speak with an annoyed or bored tone at the customer who would take too long to order. A happy employee would cheerfully remind the customer to hurry and order. Akaashi could not decide if Kuguri was really into his job or was just really bored.
He sighs, "three double cheeseburgers, please," he finally grits out. Kuguri nods and calls out to another employee about his order. Akaashi was surprised with the different treatment he got from Kuguri.
"Would you like a drink and fries with that, or three drinks and three fries, or a la carte?" he continues while typing.
"A drink and fries..." Akaashi spoke with amusement in his tone. Kuguri says a small 'ok' before typing in his order.
As Akaashi took his first bite, the food suddenly tasted better than usual. His eyes widens in disbelief. What kind of sorcery happened to this...burger? He thinks. He turns to his right to see Kuguri taking someone else's order while subtly glancing at Akaashi. It was a quick glance, but Akaashi saw it.
Akaashi pauses his eating to observe the employee more. Staring directly at him earlier would be creepy, so now was his chance to 'observe' without bothering him.
His jawline was sharp; it could probably be used to cut Kuroo's hair, Akaashi thinks. His eyes may look dull, but Akaashi knows that Kuguri might not be as dull as his eyes show.
Another thing Akaashi notices was his height. The boy was tall. Though Akaashi did beat him by a couple of centimeters when he stood in front of him while he was ordering. His uniform shirt fit him perfectly, his sleeves wasn't tight against his arm, though his biceps weren't that small either, but not as large as Bokuto's.
'He might be a basketball player,' Akaashi thinks, 'or maybe a volleyball player....'
Kuguri glances at him again, catching Akaashi's gaze. He eventually looked away in an instance, looking somewhat slightly panicked, but his professional poker face made it hard to see.
Akaashi was very intrigued by the interesting specimen; a young McDonalds employee named Kuguri.
**
"Akaashi please!" Bokuto grabs onto Akaashi's ankle in a childish way. "This is the only way to get it-" Akaashi turns to glare down at him.
"Bokuto-san, I am not going to McDonalds and buy the kids meal just so you can get a stupid toy," Akaashi scolds. "It's embarrassing," he adds. 'I don't want to embarrass myself in front of the kinda-hot employee' Akaashi silently adds.
"But Akaashi! I don't have time to go there! My mom wants me to help organize my grandmother's birthday party as soon as practice finishes and today is the last day they're going to sell that toy," Bokuto grumbles.
Recently, McDonalds has been selling wooden owl toys along whenever you purchase from the Kids's Menu. They were well made for a fast-food-restaurant-toy-quality toy, Akaashi admits. There was a horned owl one that Kuroo jokingly said it looked like Bokuto and he should get it and call it 'mini-me'. Apparently, Bokuto took him seriously and Akaashi suffers it.
"C'mon Akaashi! Please!"
"No."
"Please!"
"No."
"I'll wash your jersey!"
Akaashi glares at him again, "the last time you did that, my jersey came back pink and I had to order another one!"
Bokuto huffs, "well, I guess so..." He looks down sadly but Akaashi did not spare him any pity. He knew Bokuto was about to guilt-trip him. "Imagine when I graduate, Akaashi. I won't have a dear underclassman to-" Bokuto starts, though Akaashi groans loudy.
"Fine, Bokuto-san. I will do it," Akaashi finally gives up, not wanting to hear the rest of his speech that he might find heartbreaking. But Akaashi will never admit that to his captain.
And like that, Bokuto's attitude took a quick turn and a large grin was plastered on his face, "I knew you cared about me, Akaashi! Let me hug you!" Akaashi lets himself be embraced by Bokuto's strong embrace. "Now, let's practice!"
Akaashi internally sighs.
**
"Back again?" Kuguri says, a slight hint of amusement in his voice.
"You...remember?" Akaashi slowly asks him.
The other teen nods, "well of course. You wore the same jacket here last time and right now," Kuguri looks up from his phone to Akaashi's attire.
"Well of course..." Akaashi replies absent-mindedly. He continues to fiddle with his finger while looking at the menu displayed behind Kuguri. He was grateful that the restaurant was empty this night, which saved him from experiencing public embarrassment. But after looking at Kuguri again, he'd rather have the latter happen to him. There was no way he wants to sacrifice his dignity in front of Kuguri.
"Just say it's for your nonexistent little brother or something! Besides, what is so embarrassing about this for you?" Bokuto's voice rang in the back of his head.
Akaashi bites his lower lip, "so, my friend wanted- I mean, my younger sibling wanted the...kid's meal," Akaashi starts. When did he get so nervous about things? He is Akaashi Keiji and he is not supposed to be nervous or shy in any way.
Kuguri raises one eyebrow, "well there are three choices."
Akaashi stiffens, "well, he said I could buy him whichever. He wants the horned owl...toy..." he awkwardly finishes.
Kuguri silently stares at him, causing Akaashi to unconsciously fiddle with his fingers. "So, what would you like to order?" Kuguri finally asks after a moment of silence. Akaashi mentally slaps himself for making a stupid reply earlier. How awkward could he get?
Akaashi looks at the menu displayed on top of the counter. Like Kuguri said, there were three choices in the Kid's Menu; Packet A, Packet B, and Packet C. All three of them were at low price and somewhat looked pleasing.
"Packet A. I guess." Akaashi answers. Kuguri nods at him before calling out the cook Akaashi's order.
Meanwhile, Kuguri observes Akaashi's appearance. Kuguri fancies his his dark, messy hair and green eyes. Akaashi's hair, unlike Kuguri's natural bed hair, was probably intended to happen like that.
Kuguri was not ashamed of himself for learning the latter's name through Daishou through Kuroo, which took a lot of coaxing. He knew Fukuroudani as a powerhouse school in Tokyo, though his school never matched up against Fukuroudani.
"Please wait for a few minutes," Kuguri spoke, Akaashi simply nods him off. Though Akaashi stood still on his spot rather than finding a chair to sit and wait. "Are you a volleyball player?"
Akaashi nods, "yes, I'm from Fukuroudani. How about you?"
Kuguri nods, "That's a powerhouse school. But I go to Nohebi."
More silence.
"Didn't quite catch your name," Kuguri wanted to be acquainted to Akaashi, but he knew Akaashi would find it creepy for him to know his name before he told him. But little did Kuguri know that Akaashi knew of his name before he told him as well. On another note, Kuguri had too much pride to ask Akaashi's name in a form of a question.
"Akaashi Keiji."
"Kuguri-"
"Oi newbie! Long-fingers-setter's order is up!" one of the employees yelled. Kuguri senses the light teasing on his tone, the young man turns to look the other worker with a displeased look on his face. Akaashi snorts behind him.
"Is that how you described me, Kuguri-san?" Kuguri sighs out loud.
"You have long fingers," Kuguri deadpans, "and because of that I assumed your position is setter," he lies. Kuguri didn't know how Daishou coaxed Kuroo, but he did dig himself a hell lot of information about him, much more than Kuguri bargained for.
Kuguri is weird, Akaashi thinks. He watches as Kuguri walks away to retrieve his order from the kitchen, he returns with 5 plastic bags containing different wooden owl toys, one of them contained the one that Bokuto wanted.
"Choose your poison."
"The horned owl."
"Good choice. It's popular with the kids, " Kuguri, still expressionless, puts back the other toys and places the horned owl toy inside a paper bag along with Akaashi's food.
"Anything else?"
Akaashi musters his courage, "do you want to...hang out sometime?" he asks quietly.
Kuguri shrugs, "sure, why not?" Kuguri hands Akaashi a small piece of paper with numbers scribbled on it.
Akaashi wonders why Kuguri had that prepared already.