p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"A/N: Hello loves! /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I'm so sorry that this story doesn't have a clear time line and that it alters a lot in different stuff but I wrote the first part a very long time ago. Hope it's possible to keep up with it either way hehe. Well, hope you'll enjoy this chapter!/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""He said em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he'd like that,/em" Bokuto explained with a punctuation on each syllable. "As in he'd think it would be em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"fun/em! Or nice, pleasant or something, I don't know exactly but he'd. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Like that/em." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Whatever do you think he could mean with that," Kuroo responded without looking up from his phone. Candy Crush was currently taking all off his attention, even though it was doing nothing but kicking his ass. What the Mushroom didn't understand was the uttermost em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"importance/em of this situation. Class A. Therefore, Bokuto got even further out on his couch seat and proceeded to exclaim,/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Why aren't you more exited?!"br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Kuroo finally paused his addictive game, doing a dramatic swirl of his head before looking with over exaggerated attention at Bokuto. "Wow, well it's almost like you'd expect me to be in shock after hearing it for the twentieth time?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, wow, it's not at all like this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me!" Bokuto responded with a try at the same dry tone Kuroo had used, but to no avail. His happiness shone straight through it. br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You said that the day you tried fried cheese as well. And when you found that Viking lamp. And when-"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto cut his roommate off, knowing that there was a likely chance that the list would go on. He'd always been a (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"n maybe slightly over the top/em) exhilarated person after all. "Okay, I see where you're coming from. But I can't really say I've ever met someone like him, you know?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, you've told me he's pretty. What else?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"A slight pause. "Well, I don't know much about him," Bokuto answered, his tone slightly damped as he realised this. "But it's definitively not just his looks. He's just…" Here, he stopped, because it was very near impossible to describe Akaashi. He was beautiful, yes, but he was also simply fascinating. Like he had the world within him, and it needed to be unravelled. Bokuto loved his dry comments, the way he'd show patience and care like no other, his smart inputs and warm tone of voice. Most of all, he loved the strange feeling bubbling all throughout his stomach as he made Akaashi smile. He wanted to meet much by the simple reason to make him do that again. He knew one world that summed it all up the best. "He's just so captivating. He's a librarian (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"here, Bokuto promptly ignored Kuroo's "wow, exciting/em"), and he used to play volleyball as a setter!" (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Kuroo did actually seem to find that part stimulating/em). He did a short pause. "And he gave me a cupcake./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Kuroo laughed, ruffling his black hair up with one hand. "A cupcake?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Suga/em."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ah, you must excuse me then. I wasn't aware it was a heaven's gift," Kuroo said with a fake gasp, leaning back in sudden laughter. Bokuto was just about to ask what the heck was so funny when his best friend wheezed his explanation out. "Wow, you've already got it so bad, huh?"br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto paused in his attempt to open his mouth, eyes growing wide as he understood what Kuroo was going on about. "I do not. I want nothing more than to meet him up and get a nice friend." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"(em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Well, just maybe. But he wasn't going to admit that to himself just yet. You couldn't just /emstrong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"like/strongem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" a person you'd only exchanged minutes with. But if he was to be very honest…/em)/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 393.75pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""If you say so," Kuroo responded ruefully, in which Bokuto quickly responded,/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I say so." Kuroo waited through the dragging silence, knowing what Bokuto would say next. "Do you think em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he/em thinks it's a date?"br / br / Kuroo was completely quiet for a few seconds, opening up his game and leaving Bokuto thinking that his statement had gone through the Mushroom's skull. That was before Kuroo suddenly started murmuring something that sounded suspiciously much like the sounds of wedding bells. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto launched at him before he got through the fifth note./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"cCc/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Aaah, our little owl has got/strong…! Eh." As Oikawa lost his artificial words Suga quickly helped with excitedly signing strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"a/strong strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"crush /strongfrom his right, jumping up and down. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I do not/strong," Akaashi both signed and spoke to get his message across as clearly as possible. A crush was something only young people could get by a few meetings with another person. Maybe he was… Slightly interested. Yeah. That sounded well enough. Because he'd only met Bokuto for short moments, didn't know him well enough about anything. He didn't even know if the man was homosexual or not. As that thought hit him, he couldn't help the slightest lowering of his shoulders. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Off course Oikawa picked that up. He'd studied psychology for many years and never failed to use his knowledge of the meaning behind the slightest of changes in the air, even though he seldom said them out loud. He'd always been particularly attentive around Akaashi, being a pretty overprotective, not to speak of overreacting, person. Add that with Suga's never failing concern, and Akaashi had a hard time getting away with hiding his emotions. Therefore, he wasn't shocked as Oikawa asked, "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"What's wrong/strong?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Well, he'd probably be perstered about it if he didn't answer, so he did. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Nothing, really. Just keep in mind that as far as I know, he's straight, aromatic or not even interested." /span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi had no idea of how the proper sign for either aromatic or interested was done, so he hoped his small charade marks got their meaning across (it wasn't unusual for any of them to use imagination after all). Suga had known sign language almost fluently on beforehand because of his deaf little sister, and had taught Akaashi a lot between the courses he had taken himself for years now. But it was no doubt a complex language, and they all found themselves at loss sometimes. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Anyway/strong, strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I can't have a crush on a person I know nothing about/strong."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 100.3pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh don't even try it, Aka-chan,"/span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" Oikawa signed and spoke at the same time, doing dramatic expressions. After a moment's thought he gathered up most of the signs to continue his sentence, jabbing a finger at Suga. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Just like Mr and Mr Sawamura, you were both strongly hit by love at first sight, and now you'll forever be living on clouds and sunshine, in the arms of your beefy knight." /strongSuga snorted as Oikawa hugged himself and flexed his ungenerous bicep with movements way over the top/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"You just reverted back to Oikawa-san to me/strong," Akaashi signed, maybe a little too quickly for Oikawa to catch properly. He didn't have time to find out as Sugawara interrupted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"You guys are too cute together,/strong" Sugawara signed with a wide smile. Then he sat himself on their counter, beside freshly cooled chocolate cookies and their currently awaiting strawberry filling. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Know where you're going on your date yet/strong?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Oikawa looked slightly lost at the signed word 'date', so Akaashi waited for Suga to verbally clear it up, huffing as Oikawa's face just brightened like crazy. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You've got a date together?!" The other burst it out within a second, forgetting to use sign language. Didn't matter as Akaashi knew what he was going to say even before he'd said it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""It's not ah date," He cleared up slowly, crossing his arms./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"He should take the yellow shirt/strong," Suga signed with a grin beside him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 313.9pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You are the worsht."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Definitively with black jeans!" /span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Oikawa decided, promptly ignoring Akaashi's words./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"cCc/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi stood outside their apartment complex the next day, fiddling his hands repeatedly. Honestly, he had no idea whether this was a date or not. He knew that he and Bokuto were getting lunch, but he had no idea where or how casual it was supposed to be. With that came the question off what the dress code was, because he didn't want to seem too formal or too sloppy. Therefore, he'd quickly given up on trying to decipher what was best and simply went with his yellow sweater (yes, the one Suga told him to wear) and riffled, black jeans. And if he was to be completely honest on everything, he was really nervous. Simply because, he'd never really done anything like this. Sure, he went out on lunch with Suga and Oikawa from time to time, and during the week the three would repeatedly hang out and talk in the former's bakery. But he knew them inside and out, and they both knew sign language. All of his other relationships (and even though there had been a few, none had lasted for more than a few weeks) had been before he stopped / br / Sure, it was a bit off a relief that Suga had apparently told Bokuto about his hearing, and that their meet up was still on. But it had gone okay at the library simply because it was deathly silent there and Bokuto had spoken really loudly (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Akaashi really was a bad librarian, wasn't he?/em). It wasn't too hard to understand the content with those undertones and his expressive mouth movements. But in a restaurant? With other sounds, from hardware, people, bells and busy streets? Without the help off small sounds, his lip reading was way too far off to hold a proper conversation. Their first time, Bokuto had commented on his stuttering. Something that he tried to train away, but it was hard as he so rarely heard himself. What if Bokuto found it abnormal? Or what if he simply wasn't patient enough to repeat his words, to clarify everything?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He would have brought his hearing aid, but he'd kind of promised Suga he wouldn't use it. He'd used it yesterday at a meeting with work, and after an hour he'd gotten pretty dizzy. The static in his ears was close to ringing, until it got harder to hear with it than without. He knew that he wasn't allowed to use it within such short time periods (he wasn't even recommended to use it at all) but he didn't trust his talking much when he didn't have it. As much as it made him uncomfortable, he had to leave it if he didn't want his hearing to suddenly short-cut. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Just as he looked down at his phone to check the time (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"just one tiny minute before 13/em!) he felt a somehow familiar presence to his left, maybe ten metres away. He didn't look up however, because Bokuto seemed to have made a clear stop. Akaashi couldn't help a tiny smile tilting his lips to the side as he felt the others gaze, yet he patiently waited until the white haired man finally walked the last of the way. Bokuto called a greeting that could just be heard over the half-empty street of Tokyo, but his smile could be seen for miles. br / br / em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"He's always so radiating/em, Akaashi thought quietly, looking up and taking his own moment to stare. A little more discretely, hopefully (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"yet doubtfully/em). /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hello, Bokuto-san," he said back, sliding his phone down his back pocket. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto's smile didn't waver, and somehow it made Akaashi feel all warm. It was as if Bokuto had found a way to transfer energy and light from the sun itself. "How are you?!" He said, nearing a tiniest bit more as if going in for a hug, but instead he just threw out his (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"yes. Still beefy/em.) arms out and smiled wider (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"do his lips ever crack from that?Maybe in the winter?)./em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm good, thank yo'uh," He replied, before, hoisting up his bag in a slightly self-conscious gesture. Bokuto really was putting all his attention at him. Not that he particularly minded, it just… Felt unusual. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm great! The weather is wonderful and I-" Akaashi tried frantically to keep up, but a car honking on the other side of the building threw him off and suddenly he knew Bokuto's lips were moving way too fast for him. Before he knew what to do with that, Bokuto suddenly gestured for him to join, turning around to walk down the street. Akaashi nodded, and did so to find himself in a cab a few minutes later. In the quiet car, he felt relieved that he could pick up the conversation a bit in the quie again, but even so, he didn't talk too much. It seemed okay as Bokuto rambled expertly, catching Akaashis undying attention in every weird topic. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He felt a little disappointed as the cab ride got to an end really quickly, but he quickly reminded himself that Bokuto wasn't going anywhere. As he stepped out of the car (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Bokuto's hand jerking back and forth as if it maybe wanted to help him out but never found the courage to do so/em), Akaashi took a look at the place they'd stopped in front of. It wasn't too much, a cute lunch place that he'd walked past a few times. Its décor was simple but nicely coloured, windows many and wide. The colours were soft, and the cashier waved at Bokuto before they'd even entered. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"To Akaashi's great relief, the place was nearly completely empty. The only guests were an old couple that sat in the back, a woman on her phone and a teen with an ungodly pile of school work. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi ordered a black coffee, while Bokuto ordered a hot chocolate, which was actually made from white chocolate. Akaashi had no idea that even existed, but he honestly thought the order was kind of cute. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto held himself to start a conversation until the two were sitting down at a small table, just by the largest window. Most of it blurred by his ears as usual, but he understood enough so it didn't really matter to much to him. Frankly, he was pretty okay with just looking at Bokuto, catching the main subject off his different topics and seeing how excited he was about them all. Though honestly even that was a bit hard because man did he speak fast, Akaashi almost gave up on lip reading after a while. He'd trained hard on it for three years, but it was an impossible language like no other. If it had been anyone else, he probably would have given in, but he was to intrigued by how interesting stories Bokuto seemed to have. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"It also felt nice that there weren't a lot of people there to judge his slurred speech. Therefor, he felt comfortable enough to talk pretty much, and even to let out a laugh or two (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"that, honestly were probably style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHe'd heard he did that/em.)span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"So it was pretty great. It was nice. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"But not before long, other guest started coming. It started with a couple talking pretty loudly, then came three more, and suddenly there was a shouting group of teenagers just behind them. Akaashi just stared as Bokuto's voice became drowned static, and many minutes passed without him being able to give any form of input. He felt his chest begin to tighten, because okay now Bokuto must think that he wasspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanbeing ten times more rude than before. Must think that Akaashi was bored, or didn't care, or didn't em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"try/em, even though he did, he wanted to hear Bokuto's stories so bad, wanted to-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Suddenly, a hand was waved in front of his eyes and Akaashi found himself jumping a bit. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hey, are you okay?" Once more, Bokuto managed to speak a slow sentence, and his expression showed that it was almost unsurely as he had a concerned crease between his eyebrows. "I'm just babbling; you must be getting bored." That was what he said, right? Or was it Bokuto who was getting bored?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi swallowed, opening and closing his mouth three times before he willed the words out/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ah can't hehre you," he tried to get style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHe couldn't hear his own voice at all, in differ to the first time they'd talked. He felt the gazes of the teenagers at the table behind them, and he wondered just how loudly he'd said that. Or maybe just wrongly. But to him, the place was both buzzing with all the sounds in the world and nearly completely silent. Bokuto kept the concerned look for just a moment longer before he nodded quickly, getting up from his seat. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi's eyes fell down to the table, shoulders slumping a little bit. Off course Bokuto would leave. He'd known that. Maybe he would never see him again now, but that shouldn't come as painfully as it did. They had no future. Not once his hearing was gone, it was enough trouble even now that he actually had some left. Maybe there wouldn't have been a future for them anyway, but this was without a doubt a deal breaker. Bokuto didn't know sign language. Akaashi couldn't hear him without destroying his last hearing with his aids, couldn't comprehend more than the slowest of basic sentences with lip reading. They were doomed from the start, really. And with that thought Akaashi realised that his eyes had slowly gone slightly moist. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He'd known this. He knew Bokuto would leave, realized that-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And then there was a calloused hand in front of his vision, gently reaching out as if to help him up. Akaashi's eyes shot up to meet Bokuto's, warm and golden, a gentle and pardoning smile on his lips. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""It's okay," was a sentence Akaashi could understand from his mouth, but the one coming next was completely lost on him. But he slowly took Bokuto's hand anyway, following as it guided him up. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto didn't let go of his hand as they wandered outside, and so he let himself be steered towards a calmer alleyway between a few closed boutiques. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi was about to open his mouth, most certainly to apologise for being so difficult, for making things impossible between them. But before he'd done so, Bokuto quickly searched through his backpack. Ignoring the small notes that blew out, the other nearly aggressively pulled out a small notepad. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"With a grin on his face, with a slimmer of tongue sticking out between his lips, Bokuto dug for a pen and scribbled on it for a second. Then, he pushed it towards Akaashi's chest with that grin still in place, yet somehow he seemed encouraging and kind as he did so./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi stared at him for just a second longer before turning his gaze down to the papers now in his hold./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Hello/strong." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He stared in slight wonder at the, oh so simple word. Then his eyes darted to Bokuto's now warm smile, his beautiful eyes. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi took the pen as it too was pushed at him, letting it hover a bit unsurely in his hands. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Hi/strong," he wrote back after his second off hesitation, feeling some tension slowly drop from his shoulders./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto carefully took the items back, their hands touching just slightly, before he quickly scribbled down his messy letters and held it up next to his face. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I really enjoyed tonight/strong! span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span:D"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi couldn't help staring at him for a bit longer, contemplating if he meant that. He'd said barely anything, hadn't even managed to listen properly. He'd made their meetup a boring mess, even interrupting it before they'd finished drinking. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"As Bokuto realized Akaashi didn't know what to say, he kept writing, obviously a longer message this time around. Akaashi waited with his heart fluttering like birdwings in his chest./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""We can use paper, a tolk or anything you'd like, it's fine by me! I just…! Kinda want to meet you again."/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Here, a deep red blush crept up Bokuto's neck, dusting his cheeks and ears but making way for his shy, yet wide, smile. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi couldn't stop his own smile even if he'd wanted to. Because, suddenly, there wasn't a need for words anymore. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Throwing his previous nervousness to the wind, he leant slightly up on his tip toes to peck Bokuto quickly on the cheek, re intertwining their hands as he came down. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto just stared, his already wide eyes even larger. He nodded his head up and down two times, not that Akaashi knew what he wanted said with that. He just kept smiling, this time being the one to take the lead as he dragged Bokuto out of that dark alley./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And so, they just slowly walked side by side, eyes travelling over the beautiful landscape, over each other, and over their feet as they blushed. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto's warm hand, his amazing smile, his comforting presence and lingering eyes spoke volumes. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"They didn't touch the notepad again until they had to go their separate ways, stopping right in front of the bakery where they'd first met. And all that was written was a promise in some bendy letters. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Again."/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"A/N: Hello loves! /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I'm so sorry that this story doesn't have a clear time line and that it alters a lot in different stuff but I wrote the first part a very long time ago. Hope it's possible to keep up with it either way hehe. Well, hope you'll enjoy this chapter!/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""He said em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he'd like that,/em" Bokuto explained with a punctuation on each syllable. "As in he'd think it would be em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"fun/em! Or nice, pleasant or something, I don't know exactly but he'd. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Like that/em." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Whatever do you think he could mean with that," Kuroo responded without looking up from his phone. Candy Crush was currently taking all off his attention, even though it was doing nothing but kicking his ass. What the Mushroom didn't understand was the uttermost em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"importance/em of this situation. Class A. Therefore, Bokuto got even further out on his couch seat and proceeded to exclaim,/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Why aren't you more exited?!"br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Kuroo finally paused his addictive game, doing a dramatic swirl of his head before looking with over exaggerated attention at Bokuto. "Wow, well it's almost like you'd expect me to be in shock after hearing it for the twentieth time?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, wow, it's not at all like this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me!" Bokuto responded with a try at the same dry tone Kuroo had used, but to no avail. His happiness shone straight through it. br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You said that the day you tried fried cheese as well. And when you found that Viking lamp. And when-"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto cut his roommate off, knowing that there was a likely chance that the list would go on. He'd always been a (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"n maybe slightly over the top/em) exhilarated person after all. "Okay, I see where you're coming from. But I can't really say I've ever met someone like him, you know?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, you've told me he's pretty. What else?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"A slight pause. "Well, I don't know much about him," Bokuto answered, his tone slightly damped as he realised this. "But it's definitively not just his looks. He's just…" Here, he stopped, because it was very near impossible to describe Akaashi. He was beautiful, yes, but he was also simply fascinating. Like he had the world within him, and it needed to be unravelled. Bokuto loved his dry comments, the way he'd show patience and care like no other, his smart inputs and warm tone of voice. Most of all, he loved the strange feeling bubbling all throughout his stomach as he made Akaashi smile. He wanted to meet much by the simple reason to make him do that again. He knew one world that summed it all up the best. "He's just so captivating. He's a librarian (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"here, Bokuto promptly ignored Kuroo's "wow, exciting/em"), and he used to play volleyball as a setter!" (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Kuroo did actually seem to find that part stimulating/em). He did a short pause. "And he gave me a cupcake./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Kuroo laughed, ruffling his black hair up with one hand. "A cupcake?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Suga/em."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ah, you must excuse me then. I wasn't aware it was a heaven's gift," Kuroo said with a fake gasp, leaning back in sudden laughter. Bokuto was just about to ask what the heck was so funny when his best friend wheezed his explanation out. "Wow, you've already got it so bad, huh?"br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto paused in his attempt to open his mouth, eyes growing wide as he understood what Kuroo was going on about. "I do not. I want nothing more than to meet him up and get a nice friend." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"(em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Well, just maybe. But he wasn't going to admit that to himself just yet. You couldn't just /emstrong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"like/strongem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" a person you'd only exchanged minutes with. But if he was to be very honest…/em)/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 393.75pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""If you say so," Kuroo responded ruefully, in which Bokuto quickly responded,/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I say so." Kuroo waited through the dragging silence, knowing what Bokuto would say next. "Do you think em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he/em thinks it's a date?"br / br / Kuroo was completely quiet for a few seconds, opening up his game and leaving Bokuto thinking that his statement had gone through the Mushroom's skull. That was before Kuroo suddenly started murmuring something that sounded suspiciously much like the sounds of wedding bells. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto launched at him before he got through the fifth note./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"cCc/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Aaah, our little owl has got/strong…! Eh." As Oikawa lost his artificial words Suga quickly helped with excitedly signing strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"a/strong strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"crush /strongfrom his right, jumping up and down. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I do not/strong," Akaashi both signed and spoke to get his message across as clearly as possible. A crush was something only young people could get by a few meetings with another person. Maybe he was… Slightly interested. Yeah. That sounded well enough. Because he'd only met Bokuto for short moments, didn't know him well enough about anything. He didn't even know if the man was homosexual or not. As that thought hit him, he couldn't help the slightest lowering of his shoulders. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Off course Oikawa picked that up. He'd studied psychology for many years and never failed to use his knowledge of the meaning behind the slightest of changes in the air, even though he seldom said them out loud. He'd always been particularly attentive around Akaashi, being a pretty overprotective, not to speak of overreacting, person. Add that with Suga's never failing concern, and Akaashi had a hard time getting away with hiding his emotions. Therefore, he wasn't shocked as Oikawa asked, "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"What's wrong/strong?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Well, he'd probably be perstered about it if he didn't answer, so he did. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Nothing, really. Just keep in mind that as far as I know, he's straight, aromatic or not even interested." /span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi had no idea of how the proper sign for either aromatic or interested was done, so he hoped his small charade marks got their meaning across (it wasn't unusual for any of them to use imagination after all). Suga had known sign language almost fluently on beforehand because of his deaf little sister, and had taught Akaashi a lot between the courses he had taken himself for years now. But it was no doubt a complex language, and they all found themselves at loss sometimes. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Anyway/strong, strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I can't have a crush on a person I know nothing about/strong."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 100.3pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh don't even try it, Aka-chan,"/span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" Oikawa signed and spoke at the same time, doing dramatic expressions. After a moment's thought he gathered up most of the signs to continue his sentence, jabbing a finger at Suga. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Just like Mr and Mr Sawamura, you were both strongly hit by love at first sight, and now you'll forever be living on clouds and sunshine, in the arms of your beefy knight." /strongSuga snorted as Oikawa hugged himself and flexed his ungenerous bicep with movements way over the top/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"You just reverted back to Oikawa-san to me/strong," Akaashi signed, maybe a little too quickly for Oikawa to catch properly. He didn't have time to find out as Sugawara interrupted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"You guys are too cute together,/strong" Sugawara signed with a wide smile. Then he sat himself on their counter, beside freshly cooled chocolate cookies and their currently awaiting strawberry filling. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Know where you're going on your date yet/strong?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Oikawa looked slightly lost at the signed word 'date', so Akaashi waited for Suga to verbally clear it up, huffing as Oikawa's face just brightened like crazy. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You've got a date together?!" The other burst it out within a second, forgetting to use sign language. Didn't matter as Akaashi knew what he was going to say even before he'd said it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""It's not ah date," He cleared up slowly, crossing his arms./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"He should take the yellow shirt/strong," Suga signed with a grin beside him. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 313.9pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You are the worsht."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Definitively with black jeans!" /span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Oikawa decided, promptly ignoring Akaashi's words./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"cCc/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi stood outside their apartment complex the next day, fiddling his hands repeatedly. Honestly, he had no idea whether this was a date or not. He knew that he and Bokuto were getting lunch, but he had no idea where or how casual it was supposed to be. With that came the question off what the dress code was, because he didn't want to seem too formal or too sloppy. Therefore, he'd quickly given up on trying to decipher what was best and simply went with his yellow sweater (yes, the one Suga told him to wear) and riffled, black jeans. And if he was to be completely honest on everything, he was really nervous. Simply because, he'd never really done anything like this. Sure, he went out on lunch with Suga and Oikawa from time to time, and during the week the three would repeatedly hang out and talk in the former's bakery. But he knew them inside and out, and they both knew sign language. All of his other relationships (and even though there had been a few, none had lasted for more than a few weeks) had been before he stopped / br / Sure, it was a bit off a relief that Suga had apparently told Bokuto about his hearing, and that their meet up was still on. But it had gone okay at the library simply because it was deathly silent there and Bokuto had spoken really loudly (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Akaashi really was a bad librarian, wasn't he?/em). It wasn't too hard to understand the content with those undertones and his expressive mouth movements. But in a restaurant? With other sounds, from hardware, people, bells and busy streets? Without the help off small sounds, his lip reading was way too far off to hold a proper conversation. Their first time, Bokuto had commented on his stuttering. Something that he tried to train away, but it was hard as he so rarely heard himself. What if Bokuto found it abnormal? Or what if he simply wasn't patient enough to repeat his words, to clarify everything?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He would have brought his hearing aid, but he'd kind of promised Suga he wouldn't use it. He'd used it yesterday at a meeting with work, and after an hour he'd gotten pretty dizzy. The static in his ears was close to ringing, until it got harder to hear with it than without. He knew that he wasn't allowed to use it within such short time periods (he wasn't even recommended to use it at all) but he didn't trust his talking much when he didn't have it. As much as it made him uncomfortable, he had to leave it if he didn't want his hearing to suddenly short-cut. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Just as he looked down at his phone to check the time (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"just one tiny minute before 13/em!) he felt a somehow familiar presence to his left, maybe ten metres away. He didn't look up however, because Bokuto seemed to have made a clear stop. Akaashi couldn't help a tiny smile tilting his lips to the side as he felt the others gaze, yet he patiently waited until the white haired man finally walked the last of the way. Bokuto called a greeting that could just be heard over the half-empty street of Tokyo, but his smile could be seen for miles. br / br / em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"He's always so radiating/em, Akaashi thought quietly, looking up and taking his own moment to stare. A little more discretely, hopefully (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"yet doubtfully/em). /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hello, Bokuto-san," he said back, sliding his phone down his back pocket. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto's smile didn't waver, and somehow it made Akaashi feel all warm. It was as if Bokuto had found a way to transfer energy and light from the sun itself. "How are you?!" He said, nearing a tiniest bit more as if going in for a hug, but instead he just threw out his (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"yes. Still beefy/em.) arms out and smiled wider (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"do his lips ever crack from that?Maybe in the winter?)./em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm good, thank yo'uh," He replied, before, hoisting up his bag in a slightly self-conscious gesture. Bokuto really was putting all his attention at him. Not that he particularly minded, it just… Felt unusual. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm great! The weather is wonderful and I-" Akaashi tried frantically to keep up, but a car honking on the other side of the building threw him off and suddenly he knew Bokuto's lips were moving way too fast for him. Before he knew what to do with that, Bokuto suddenly gestured for him to join, turning around to walk down the street. Akaashi nodded, and did so to find himself in a cab a few minutes later. In the quiet car, he felt relieved that he could pick up the conversation a bit in the quie again, but even so, he didn't talk too much. It seemed okay as Bokuto rambled expertly, catching Akaashis undying attention in every weird topic. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He felt a little disappointed as the cab ride got to an end really quickly, but he quickly reminded himself that Bokuto wasn't going anywhere. As he stepped out of the car (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Bokuto's hand jerking back and forth as if it maybe wanted to help him out but never found the courage to do so/em), Akaashi took a look at the place they'd stopped in front of. It wasn't too much, a cute lunch place that he'd walked past a few times. Its décor was simple but nicely coloured, windows many and wide. The colours were soft, and the cashier waved at Bokuto before they'd even entered. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"To Akaashi's great relief, the place was nearly completely empty. The only guests were an old couple that sat in the back, a woman on her phone and a teen with an ungodly pile of school work. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi ordered a black coffee, while Bokuto ordered a hot chocolate, which was actually made from white chocolate. Akaashi had no idea that even existed, but he honestly thought the order was kind of cute. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto held himself to start a conversation until the two were sitting down at a small table, just by the largest window. Most of it blurred by his ears as usual, but he understood enough so it didn't really matter to much to him. Frankly, he was pretty okay with just looking at Bokuto, catching the main subject off his different topics and seeing how excited he was about them all. Though honestly even that was a bit hard because man did he speak fast, Akaashi almost gave up on lip reading after a while. He'd trained hard on it for three years, but it was an impossible language like no other. If it had been anyone else, he probably would have given in, but he was to intrigued by how interesting stories Bokuto seemed to have. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"It also felt nice that there weren't a lot of people there to judge his slurred speech. Therefor, he felt comfortable enough to talk pretty much, and even to let out a laugh or two (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"that, honestly were probably style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHe'd heard he did that/em.)span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"So it was pretty great. It was nice. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"But not before long, other guest started coming. It started with a couple talking pretty loudly, then came three more, and suddenly there was a shouting group of teenagers just behind them. Akaashi just stared as Bokuto's voice became drowned static, and many minutes passed without him being able to give any form of input. He felt his chest begin to tighten, because okay now Bokuto must think that he wasspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanbeing ten times more rude than before. Must think that Akaashi was bored, or didn't care, or didn't em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"try/em, even though he did, he wanted to hear Bokuto's stories so bad, wanted to-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Suddenly, a hand was waved in front of his eyes and Akaashi found himself jumping a bit. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hey, are you okay?" Once more, Bokuto managed to speak a slow sentence, and his expression showed that it was almost unsurely as he had a concerned crease between his eyebrows. "I'm just babbling; you must be getting bored." That was what he said, right? Or was it Bokuto who was getting bored?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi swallowed, opening and closing his mouth three times before he willed the words out/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ah can't hehre you," he tried to get style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHe couldn't hear his own voice at all, in differ to the first time they'd talked. He felt the gazes of the teenagers at the table behind them, and he wondered just how loudly he'd said that. Or maybe just wrongly. But to him, the place was both buzzing with all the sounds in the world and nearly completely silent. Bokuto kept the concerned look for just a moment longer before he nodded quickly, getting up from his seat. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi's eyes fell down to the table, shoulders slumping a little bit. Off course Bokuto would leave. He'd known that. Maybe he would never see him again now, but that shouldn't come as painfully as it did. They had no future. Not once his hearing was gone, it was enough trouble even now that he actually had some left. Maybe there wouldn't have been a future for them anyway, but this was without a doubt a deal breaker. Bokuto didn't know sign language. Akaashi couldn't hear him without destroying his last hearing with his aids, couldn't comprehend more than the slowest of basic sentences with lip reading. They were doomed from the start, really. And with that thought Akaashi realised that his eyes had slowly gone slightly moist. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He'd known this. He knew Bokuto would leave, realized that-/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And then there was a calloused hand in front of his vision, gently reaching out as if to help him up. Akaashi's eyes shot up to meet Bokuto's, warm and golden, a gentle and pardoning smile on his lips. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""It's okay," was a sentence Akaashi could understand from his mouth, but the one coming next was completely lost on him. But he slowly took Bokuto's hand anyway, following as it guided him up. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto didn't let go of his hand as they wandered outside, and so he let himself be steered towards a calmer alleyway between a few closed boutiques. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi was about to open his mouth, most certainly to apologise for being so difficult, for making things impossible between them. But before he'd done so, Bokuto quickly searched through his backpack. Ignoring the small notes that blew out, the other nearly aggressively pulled out a small notepad. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"With a grin on his face, with a slimmer of tongue sticking out between his lips, Bokuto dug for a pen and scribbled on it for a second. Then, he pushed it towards Akaashi's chest with that grin still in place, yet somehow he seemed encouraging and kind as he did so./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi stared at him for just a second longer before turning his gaze down to the papers now in his hold./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Hello/strong." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He stared in slight wonder at the, oh so simple word. Then his eyes darted to Bokuto's now warm smile, his beautiful eyes. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi took the pen as it too was pushed at him, letting it hover a bit unsurely in his hands. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Hi/strong," he wrote back after his second off hesitation, feeling some tension slowly drop from his shoulders./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto carefully took the items back, their hands touching just slightly, before he quickly scribbled down his messy letters and held it up next to his face. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I really enjoyed tonight/strong! span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span:D"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi couldn't help staring at him for a bit longer, contemplating if he meant that. He'd said barely anything, hadn't even managed to listen properly. He'd made their meetup a boring mess, even interrupting it before they'd finished drinking. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"As Bokuto realized Akaashi didn't know what to say, he kept writing, obviously a longer message this time around. Akaashi waited with his heart fluttering like birdwings in his chest./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""We can use paper, a tolk or anything you'd like, it's fine by me! I just…! Kinda want to meet you again."/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Here, a deep red blush crept up Bokuto's neck, dusting his cheeks and ears but making way for his shy, yet wide, smile. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi couldn't stop his own smile even if he'd wanted to. Because, suddenly, there wasn't a need for words anymore. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Throwing his previous nervousness to the wind, he leant slightly up on his tip toes to peck Bokuto quickly on the cheek, re intertwining their hands as he came down. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto just stared, his already wide eyes even larger. He nodded his head up and down two times, not that Akaashi knew what he wanted said with that. He just kept smiling, this time being the one to take the lead as he dragged Bokuto out of that dark alley./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And so, they just slowly walked side by side, eyes travelling over the beautiful landscape, over each other, and over their feet as they blushed. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto's warm hand, his amazing smile, his comforting presence and lingering eyes spoke volumes. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"They didn't touch the notepad again until they had to go their separate ways, stopping right in front of the bakery where they'd first met. And all that was written was a promise in some bendy letters. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Again."/span/strong/p