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Koutarou Bokuto was in a great mood. He had finally graduated high school and would be going to a college with an excellent volleyball team so that he could continue to play. On top of that, he got to spend tonight with all of his best friends at an awesome party full of free food, volleyball chatter, and loads of cute girls telling him how amazing it was to watch him play at the Spring Nationals.
The only thing that could make this night better would be if he could convince you to dance with him. He had focused so hard on ball throughout high school that he'd never worked out how to actually date someone at the same time. Being outgoing and flirty was part of his nature and having girls come up and compliment his skills on the court certainly wasn't a negative as far as he was concerned, but when it came to somebody he could actually see himself dating, there was really only one girl.
Besides his teammates, no one had been there for him like you had. Other classmates constantly talked about how Bokuto was only cool on the court, while in school his grades weren't special, he was always saying something idiotic, and he came off as kind of an airhead. They respected him and his reputation to his face, but behind his back they called him stupid. He wasn't really that concerned about it usually. To be honest, he was kind of an airhead. Sometimes, though, it would go too far or be too obvious and put him in a dismal mood. During times like that, when his best friend Akaashi wasn't around (the two were in different school years), there was still someone willing to help snap him out of his funk.
"Oi, Koutarou. What's the issue?" you would ask.
He usually gave a short explanation and then sat silently. If he felt like sulking, you would let him for a bit before eventually reminding him to stop being such an idiot about things.
"Who cares if you're not the smartest in class or if you're kind of a dork..." you would usually start.
"Not helping," he would pout, though it was a farce. He knew what you were getting at.
"The point is not a single one of them can do what you can do...not another high schooler in all of Tokyo...and only three other teens in Japan had higher skill than you! Let them say whatever they want. You're a hell of a cool guy!"
"Do you have to throw in that I'm only 4th every time?" he would moan. He would try to keep convincingly pouting as he nudged your shoulder with his, but it never worked. He was always smiling again by that point.
"Hey! I'm just calling it like I see it!" you would say, nudging him right back.
Then he would inevitably ruin the moment by saying, "Admit it! You're just trying to get me to kiss you so some of my talent rubs off on you!" followed by him leaning forward and puckering his lips in a very over exaggerated manner.
You would scoff and put your hand in his face, holding him back with your fingers to his forehead. "Sorry, Koutarou. Even the great Ace of Fukurodani isn't that cool!"
It came across as just a joke between friends every time, but it wasn't the way he would have preferred it. He almost hoped one of those times you would actually kiss him or that maybe you would confess, taking some of the tension out of the his pining, but he supposed things were better the way they were. Volleyball pretty much consumed his free time.
Now, though, the both of you had graduated. Now he wouldn't see you in class daily. Now he would lose his chance completely if he said or did nothing.
You were already standing next to him and the two of you had been flirting casually. It was nothing more than usual, but he was feeling pretty confident about his chances.
Then things started to go wrong, and they started to go wrong quickly. First, while recounting their last game with too wild hand gestures, he accidentally smacked you in the face. It wasn't that hard, but the fact that it had left a red mark on your forehead was the first step down in his mood. After that, he'd been laughing hard at something Kuroo had said and clapped him on the back firmly, causing the plate of snacks Kuroo had to dump right onto your dress. Besides that, other girls at the party kept showing up to interrupt just when he would be moving to ask you to dance with him, and he definitely was no longer in the mood for their empty flattery. He was torn between wanting to snap at them to go away and wanting to remain polite.
Finally, you were standing alone, leaning against a wall, with your eyes closed, and you looked extremely bored...or was it frustrated? He thought he'd already been walking towards you, and only realized he was still standing in place not moving a muscle when Akaashi appeared beside him and gave him a little shove in your direction. Looking back briefly, his setter gave him an encouraging nod and Bokuto was ready to ask you to dance.
He wanted it to be cool. It was you, after all, and you deserved nothing less in his eyes.
Instead, he said, "Hey, (f/n). If you're bored over here, you could always come dance with me." He winced immediately at how pathetic it sounded.
You furrowed your brows and responded sarcastically, "Gee, thanks. I didn't know I looked so pitiful over here by myself."
Frowning deeply, he grabbed you gently by the hand. You looked at him expectantly, your features softening. "S-sorry. That wasn't--" but the rest of his sentence was cute off.
"Excuse me," said one of the boys from Shiratorizawa. Bokuto was startled into releasing his hold on your hand. The other guy looked at him and then back at you to continue, "Am I interrupting? I couldn't help but notice you, miss. I-I was hoping you might like to dance."
Mood already steadily declining, this was like the last little shove into that hole of self-pity. He didn't notice you'd been waiting for him to say something.
When he didn't respond, you did. "You're not interrupting. We're just friends. Right, Koutarou?"
It felt like a twisted knife in his chest. He'd waited too long, after all. Why would you want to be with a loser like him anyway? He turned silently and made his way through the packed ballroom, out into the hall.
This definitely deserved a sulk.
= = = =
Excusing yourself from the potential dance partner, you tried to follow your long-time crush, but were stopped by Bokuto's best friend.
"What was that?" you asked, completely at a loss as to why Koutarou had acted that way.
"He likes you, and I mean it in the way that he wants you to be his girlfriend," Akaashi said straight-forwardly.
"What?! Since when? He told you that?" you grilled suspiciously.
"No, but Bokuto-san's not exactly discreet. It's basically been obvious since I started to Fukurodani that you're really important to him. Maybe you can't see it because it was too close to you," the setter mused.
You had actually had a feeling more than once that he liked you as more than a friend, but three full years without a move or so much as a peep on his part, had pretty well convinced you that your feelings were one-sided.
While it was certainly true that he was incredible on the court, you liked him for so much more than that. He was energetic and positive, for the most part. He was hilarious and so attractive. But above any of those things, he was kind. He had a heart for helping and often went out of his way when he thought he could make a difference for someone. When a person asked him for help, even when he didn't know the solution, he would at least find them someone else who might.
You knew he had a bad habit of getting inside his own head and self-sabotaging, and if that's what had been going on with him for the last hour or so, it was kind of an epic fail.
"Crap. Now I'm sure he's gone all emo on me."
"I'm sure," Akaashi agreed.
"You really think he likes me?" you asked one more time.
"Just go find out," he stated.
Sighing, you moved through the party to go search out the boy you liked. Walking past the lobby and down the hallway that led to an elevator, you spotted the familiar silver and black streaked hair. Bokuto was sitting on the floor, chin on his knees, staring off into space.
"Oi, Koutarou. What's the issue?"
"Same as always," he responded gloomily. "I can't do anything right. I smacked you in the face, dumped food all over you, and hurt your feelings. It wasn't how I thought the evening would go. I thought I'd finally tell y-- Doesn't matter! I ruined it already, anyway. I'm sure you'd rather be in there dancing with that guy...or any other guy besides a loser like me."
"Yeah, I could see why you might think that. Who wants to deal with one of your pity parties, right?"
"That's not very nice, (f/n). Besides, you've always put up with them before," he said, lip stuck out in an unintentionally adorable pout.
He glanced up in time to see you standing there, offering him a look that clearly said 'no kidding, idiot.'
"Ah. Right," he said quietly, gears slowly clicking back into place in his head. "You always put up with me."
"Why do you think that is, genius?" you asked.
"Uh...because Aces are cool? There's only 3 people better than volleyball or something?" Everything came out very half-heartedly.
You couldn't help but laugh as you slid down the wall to sit by him. "Yeah. That's probably it. I've put up with you for three years because you're so good at volleyball. It's the only thing you think you can do well, so that must be it, huh? Couldn't be something else. Couldn't be that I like you or want to spend time with you and don't expect you to be happy and pumped and 'on your A game' all the time. It couldn't possibly be that I've wanted desperately for something more between you and me for the last three years. That would just be too obvious."
"What!?" he said, looking truly stunned. He ran his hand over his face and smacked his fist into his forehead. "Three?! Aw, damn! I really blew it, huh? I wanted to say something awesome and sweep you off your feet or whatever. Look how lame it all turned out."
"Lame? I don't know about that. I think there's still a chance you might turn the night around. Aces are pretty awesome, I have to admit." you said, moving from your seat beside him on the floor so you could kneel directly in front of him. He was so gorgeous, looking at you with those big golden eyes like the two of you were finally seeing each other for the first time. You wanted to be face to face. "I mean, who but Fukurodani's ace could draw me in this way and make me wanna..."
Your words were lost as you pressed your lips to his, curious to see if he was as interested in you as Akaashi had said. Pulling back after a few seconds, you could see that he looked more than a little surprised, but he quickly shook that off and rose up to his own knees. Taller than you once more, Bokuto wasted little time finding your lips again and made no game about being shy. It was like you'd just opened a flood gate, and it was clear that he definitely wanted you. Maybe he hadn't only been teasing all these years.
His tongue sliding in waves against yours might have been enough to buckle your knees, were you not already on the ground. When he sucked your lower lip and pulled lightly on it with his teeth, you could feel all the blood rush to your head. By the time his soft, full lips were travelling down your jaw, throat, and collarbone, you were struggling not to gasp out the excitement he was causing.
Hands in his salt-and-peppered locks, you squeezed your eyes tightly and reminded yourself that you had every intention of leaving this situation as the ace player for once. Both of your hands gripped the back of the collar on his soft, green, dress shirt and slid around to the front. Popping it up and free of the jacket, you yanked him from the delicious kisses he was leaving on your neck and made no mistakes about who was in charge. Your kisses followed the opposite of his path, starting at his collarbone and wandering back up, along his jaw and behind his ear.
After kissing him on the mouth again, long and hard, you made your way up his cheek to the other ear, tugging the lobe gently between your teeth and earning yourself a low sigh of pleasure from him before finally pulling away.
You felt as startled as Koutarou looked. You almost wanted to laugh because he truly looked like an owl at the moment. He was holding his raised collar where your hands had just been. His golden eyes were wide and wild, his mouth still pursed, open slightly to form an "o."
You had a number of things you wanted to say to him...you should confess to him after all this time, but you'd waited this long. Right now, you were walking back to the party like the total match for Bokuto that you knew you were. You stood and smoothed your outfit, ran your fingers through your mussed hair, and licked your lips--wiping carefully at the corners to get any that had smudged to your cheeks.
"Don't look so surprised, Ace!" you called, before heading back to the party.
You didn't mention all the lipstick smeared across his face. Letting him brag about it to the rest of the guests was just another way of cheering him up, reminding him that he had every right to be confident, and it wouldn't bother you in the least if people knew you had been the one to make out with him. You couldn't be shy when it came to him. He was loud and boisterous in his best of moods and you loved that about him. In his worst of moods, he was especially hard on himself and you didn't mind being the one to go easy on him--not as long as you got to be the one in those kind and comforting arms and on the other side of more of those incredible kisses.
= = = =
Still slightly shell-shocked, Bokuto's eyes were glued to your retreating form, appreciating fully the confidence in the way your hips swayed as you walked away from him. Running his fingers through his heavily gelled hair, he let out a low whistle.
You had not only changed his mood in a few brief moments, you let him have the ego boost he needed without complaining. He wondered if you would let him get away with just a little more.
Grinning wide, sure he looked rather pleased with himself, he stated, "Yep! I knew it all along! I've still got it!"
You raised an eyebrow and smirked, and he waited for you to berate him for taking your credit. He knew he'd done it. You knew he'd done it. Unlike him, it wasn't necessary for you to call attention to that fact. Instead, you shook your head, flashed a killer smile, and winked, before heading through the door to the party. Koutarou's heart went wild in his chest. Even he wasn't stupid enough to let a girl like you get away from him again.
He pumped his fist before jogging down the hall to follow you back to the party and ask you for a dance and maybe a proper date, as well. He was a little confused but thrilled at all the envious stares and cheers the other guys seemed to be offering as he pushed through the crowd to grab your hand.
This time he wouldn't let go so easily.
"Admit it," you said with a grin. "You're just trying to get me to kiss you again so some of my talent rubs off on you!" The mimicking of years worth of conversations was too much for him.
"I absolutely am!" he admitted, spinning you in towards him and dipping you back far enough that you squeaked in surprise and locked your arms around his broad neck. As you smiled wider and closed your eyes waiting for him to close the distance, he thought this night definitely couldn't get any better.
Bokuto was almost so lost in your kiss that he nearly missed Kuroo saying, "Damn it! How does he keep managing to look so cool?!"