Work Text:
At the very top of the grassy hill outside of Fukurodani Academy, Bokuto sat under a small Amur tree with his lunch pale at his side. He twisted one of the tree's bright orange leaves in his hands. Bokuto scanned the mass of students sprawled out in the grass, searching for Akaashi. Despite seeing no sign of the familiar black hair and brown eyes in the crowd, he couldn't stop himself from checking five seconds later...and five seconds after that. Patience was never his strong suit, and Akaashi was late. He frowned. Akaashi did say they'd have lunch outside, didn't he? A few minutes and one failed attempt at a leaf flower crown later, quite footsteps stopped in front of Bokuto.
“Hey, hey, hey! What took you so long? I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me!” Bokuto pouted.
“How could I possibly?” Akaashi said, sitting down next to Bokuto.
“Did you get distracted by all your fangirls?”
“I don't have fangirls. I stayed behind in my college prep class to ask about the homework. You didn't have to wait for me.”
Bokuto shrugged and dug into his lunch pale. The pair ate together in silence. Well, mostly silence. Bokuto tried to talk through his meal despite most of his words being muffled by rice. After their lunch, Akaashi produced a book from his backpack, while Bokuto folded his hands behind his head and leaned against the tree. His mind drifted to volleyball, then back to Akaashi, then to the conversation he had with Kuroo about Akaashi the night before.
"Just tell him how you feel! Get it over with already! Or at the very least, stop complaining to me about it."
"But Kuroo! If I tell him, then he could reject me and stop tossing to me! Or worse, he could stop being my friend all together!"
"I really doubt that. Who knows, he could be madly in love with you and let you drag him off into the sunset."
Bokuto snorted. "Akaashi only feels that strongly about his favorite practice volleyball."
"Probably. I still think you should confess sooner rather than later, before someone else does…," Well that was new. They'd had the similar conversations about Akaashi many times, but Kuroo had never mentioned Akaashi with some with someone else. Bokuto's face heated up.
"What, why? Who's planning on confessing to Akaashi? Tell me right now!"
"Nobody! It's just...some one else is bound to find him tolerable eventually, so...you should do it first."
He let out a high pitched whine. "Kuroo!"
"What? You know I'm right!"
"Yeah...I guess. Whatever. It doesn't matter anyway, the cute ones are always straight. Except for me."
"Hey now. I'm not straight."
"Exactly!"
They bickered well into the night, until Bokuto could hardly keep his eyes open and Kuroo was yawning into the reciever. Akaashi cleared his throat and Bokuto was pulled out of his thoughts. “We should start heading back.” he said, tucking his book away. Bokuto looked over at him, taking in the wavy black hair and rich brown eyes. Yep, definitely too cute to be gay.
Weeks later they sat in the same spot, eating their lunches together. "Hey Bokuto? I need to tell you something..."
Bokuto tilted his head. "What's up? Did you kill a guy? 'Cause if you did I have shovels. Lots and lots of shovels."
There was a moment of silence.
"I'm gay."
Another second of silence. Bokuto grinned. "Hey Gay, I'm Bokuto!"
"What the-can't you be serious for like five seconds? I just came out to you!"
"How can I be Serious when I'm already Bokuto ?"
Akaashi narrowed his eyes and muttered something about 'why do I even try with you?'. He went back to his book, but a few seconds later Bokuto cleared his throat.
"I'm gay too."
Akaashi smirked. "Nice to meet you Gay Too, I'm Akaashi."
After lunch,in the back of classroom 3a, Bokuto Koaturo sat straight up with his golden eyes wide open. Other students might have even thought he was paying attention, but the sound of the teacher talking had become mere background noise. He couldn't think about anything besides their conversation. He stared down at the blank paper in front of him, so excited about what he was going to write on it that he was moving his head back and forth. A thousand different options swirled around in his head, ranging from paragraph upon paragraph about how much Akaashi meant to him, to "Hey baby, your gay, I'm gay, let's be gay together!" Eventually, he settled on something simple and to the point. As the fished a writing utensil out of his backpack, a small voice in the back of his head wondered if confessing was still a bad idea...no! If Kuroo can confess to Kenma, then so could Bokuto, and it would be the best confession that had ever been written! When the bell rang, Bokuto bolted from his seat, backpack slung over his shoulder and note clutched in his hand. He fought through the thick hallway and bounced up to Akaashi at his locker.
"Hey, hey, hey! I've got something for you Akaashi!"
He raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn't say anything.
"It's a picture of a line as straight as me!" he cheered, shoving the paper into Akaashi's hand.
He frowned. "Bokuto, this is a circle."
Bokuto wiggled his eyebrows."Yes."
"We literally went over this an hour ago."
"I know that! I was making a point!"
"And that is...?"
"Turn it over!" He did so, and in big, blocky, red letters were the words "I like you more than volleyball! Go out with me?" Akaashi narrowed his eyes at the note.
"Did...did you write this confession in red crayon?
"Of course! Red is the color of romance!" He snorted, and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as the school bell rang through the hallway.
"I'll see you later, Bokuto." Akaashi said, stepping around him and disappearing into the crowd. As Bokuto made his way to his next class, he swore he could feel his heart sinking into his shoes. Was that it? He felt like he should just be glad Akaashi didn't freak out and swear off their friendship all together but he wanted...more. Akaashi could have smiled, or even...given him a kiss. Yeah, that's what he wanted. Once again, Bokuto couldn't focus on anything around him. The hour of whatever class he was in dragged by painfully slow, but by the end of it Bokuto wasn't in a rush to leave. He wasn't looking forward to seeing Akaashi in the hallway. Bokuto trudged out into the hallway but picked up his pace when he saw something white taped to his locker. The white paper had elegant cursive in red ink scrawled in the center: Of course I'll go out with you. Bokuto let out a triumph 'whoop', and he heard a familiar laugh from somewhere behind him. Before he was able to turn around, warm arms wrapped around his waist and pulled him backwards. Akaashi rested his head on Bokuto's shoulder, his hair tickling Bokuto's cheek.
“I see you used red ink,” Bokuto mummered eventually.
Akaashi turned and kissed Bokuto's cheek. “Of course. Red is the color of romance after all.”