Chapter Text
"Hey, Kei."
He slowly tilts his head to look at the brown haired boy peeking out from the door and lifts one single eyebrow, giving him his attention.
"I know you should be about to leave right now, but we have a new customer and everyone else has already left."
Akaashi sighs and is about to complain, but his coworker reads through his behaviour and adds: "Plus, they look like they're Chinese or something and I don't speak a word of English."
'Does he even realize that China and Japan speak two different languages?'
Akaashi mentally curses, Europeans apparently have a really hard time discriminating between oriental countries. Everyone with almond eyes is from China, that's the world they live in.
He knows Diego means well and isn't trying to piss him off, so he doesn't even bother to correct him and gets up from the small couch they have in the staff room.
"Thanks man" Diego says as Akaashi passes him by, heading towards the counter.
"Good afternoon, welcome to Inked. How may I help you?" He absent-mindedly states as soon as he reaches his customer, catching their attention and making them approach the counter from the sitting area.
He doesn't recognize them at first, since he normally barely even looks at someone in the eye when he's talking, but they do.
One of the two boys approaches the tattoo artist with a huge friendly smile on his face, which immediately freezes on his lips and starts crumbling downwards when his brain connects the sound of the voice to the boy on the other side of the counter.
The other one just stands there, mouth agape as soon as he hears Akaashi speak. His eyes burn a hole through Keiji's head and the tattoo parlor is eerily quiet.
When Akaashi feels his skin tingle, he realizes that the atmosphere has changed and something's off.
He slowly lifts his eyes, fidgeting with his hands. Even this nervous habit stops when he meets the eyes of the customer.
"Akaashi?"
He blinks once. Twice.
He gulps and then thinks about slapping himself, but luckily he is interrupted by Diego, who is heading out of the back door. "I left the keys on the shelf, you close the shop today alright?"
He doesn't give him the time to answer, because Diego immediately shuts the door behind him.
Akaashi turns around to see that both guys haven't left, confirming that he isn't hallucinating. He sheepishly lifts a hand in a greeting gesture and breaths out a shy "Hi".
"What the hell man, is that all you've got?" Kuroo laughs loudly and reaches over the counter to envelop him in a longing embrace.
At this, Akaashi lets out his breath and feels his shoulders loosen up, the pressure slowly leaving his body.
"Holy moly, Akaashi, it's been ages!" He keeps Akaashi at arm length and takes a good look at his new appearance. "You've changed so much, bro." He says with a hint of melancholy.
He knows he has changed. In fact, Akaashi didn't even think his old high school friends would recognize him. He has brow and ear piercings now, along with full sleeve tattoos clearly visible from his t-shirt. "Yeah, I'm a tattoo artist... gotta keep up the looks, you know" he shrugs.
Both of the boys seem to remember at the same moment the presence of the other one, still standing by the armchairs. He looks like he's seen a ghost.
"Hey, Bokuto-san" Keiji manages to smile in his direction, even if old feelings are coming to crush him "How are you doing?"
Bokuto shuts his mouth instantaneously. Then he opens it again, trying to say something, but his lower lip starts quivering so he smacks his lips close and storms out of the door, leaving the sound of the bell behind him.
Kuroo sighs and turns back to Akaashi with an apologizing small smile. "Sorry about that" His eyes analyze carefully Akaashi's blue ones, which are still lingering on the now closed door, zooming out.
He feels like he should distract him. "Anyways, I... no, I mean, we were actually here to get a tattoo." He quirks his eyebrows.
"What? Seriously?" Keiji is genuinely taken aback by his statement.
"Yeah, why? Are you the only one who's allowed to be all cool and tattoos now?"
"Uh? No, I meant... does he really want a tattoo?" Akaashi furrows his forehead, he's always thought of Bokuto as a soft guy.
"Guess so... I was surprised as well, but he said he didn't want me to get one alone" Kuroo shrugs and glances back at the glass door. Bokuto is outside, apparently not moving. He's just standing there. Watching the door.
"So, did you have something in mind?" Akaashi tries his best to ignore a sulking Bokuto right outside of the door and takes out a folder.
"Something volleyball-related, of course."
Akaashi flips through his sketches but soon stops to look back at his friend with a questioning glare. "Why are you even here?"
Kuroo snorts "To get a tattoo, obviously."
He shakes his head and corrects: "I meant, what are you doing here in Rome?"
"Oh, that" Kuroo chuckles nervously, then his thumb points towards the white-haired guy standing out of the door "The horned owl bastard out there got in a volleyball team here" he shrugs.
"Really? Wow... that's odd." Akaashi quietly giggles under the gaze of an amused Kuroo. "So. We were saying volleyball, right?" Kuroo nods leaning on the counter. "And what about Bokuto-san? Are you two getting the same one?"
"I hope not" he twists his nose and pulls a face "Kenma would kill me if I got a matching tattoo with someone else."
"Oh, so you two did get together after all" he smiles but keeps it hidden while flipping through the pages.
"What do you mean 'after all'?"
"Well" he contains a laugh "you two had quite the sexual tension going on back in high school."
"We got together only three years ago, you shouldn't even know about this." Kuroo doesn't show any sign of surprise, he's simply unamused.
"Took you long enough."
"You're one to talk." He teases back, but realizes his mistake only when he catches a flash of regret light up Akaashi's eyes. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I should learn when to keep my trash-hole shut."
"It's fine" Keiji shrugs, but the atmosphere has already turned colder.
"This is what I have about volleyball. You choose one and then we can discuss where to do it. But you will have to get an appointment if you want to have it tattooed, we close in like 15 minutes." He takes out a red agenda from behind the counter and looks for a vacant space.
"I should probably go and ask that sulking nut-head what he wants to do with his life."
With that, he turns around and exits the door in two large steps. The air outside is brisk and chilly, a typical October evening. Bokuto is literally staring at nothing in front of him. He's not even seem to batting his eyelashes.
"Oya?" He gently shoves his shoulder, waking him up from his hypnotized state.
"You done?"
"What? Of course not, weren't we supposed to do it together?"
"Oh, that" He shrinks in his jacket and averts his eyes from his best friend "I don't feel like it anymore."
Kuroo sighs and shifts, so that he's standing in front of him. "Listen up, Koutarou"
Bokuto blinks. He never calls him by his first name.
"I know you miss him. And I know it's been hard for you" Bokuto is already lowering his gaze "But I also know that it hasn't been easy for him, neither."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, get a hold of your feelings. It's been 8 years."
"Almost. Eight years." Bokuto underlines.
"Whatever, bro." Kuroo rolls his eyes. "Just get back there and talk to him, he won't bite you." Bokuto is about to nod, convinced, when Kuroo adds "Unless you ask him to."
"You" slap on the neck "jerk" slap on the forehead "bastard" punch on the shoulder.
Kuroo doesn't stop laughing even when they get back into the tattoo shop, lifting Akaashi's mood once again.
"Oh, good, so you've decided" Akaashi greets them with a nod.
"Uh" Bokuto just stares, he doesn't seem to have unlocked his communication skills at all. Kuroo shoulders him in the back, making him stumble towards the counter. "Hey, 'Kaashi" he gulps loudly but doesn't stutter.
Akaashi lifts his gaze from the sketches. And he smiles.
Bokuto chokes on his breath.
"Hi Bokuto-san. Congrats for your new team."
"How do you know about it?" he has to hide a smile, already hoping that the younger boy had managed to keep up with his life, somehow.
"Kuroo-san just told me" he nods towards his friend and Bokuto pouts just a little.
"So, Kuroo was saying he wants a tattoo related to volleyball and here is what I have. You can choose one, then we'll discuss together where to do it."
Bokuto snaps his eyes off Akaashi's brow piercing to look at the folder. "Wow, did you draw all of them?"
"Yeah, those designs are mine" he shrugs "but if you'd like something different, I'll show you some of my colleagues'." He's already retrieving more folders from various shelves.
"No, please. These are beautiful" Bokuto passes his fingers on the page before flipping it "I didn't even know you were so good at drawing, how did I miss it?"
"It's something I found out when I came here." The statement lingers in the air between them for a couple of minutes, both of them pretending the sentence didn't have any second meaning.
"Oh, I found mine! I want this one" Kuroo holds up the sketch pointing at a cute tattoo representing a kitten curled up around a tiny volley ball.
Akaashi didn't think Kuroo would go for that one, so he smiles. "Yeah? That one would look great on your shoulder or, if you prefer, somewhere on your back. Even on your chest wouldn't be bad."
"I think I'll go for the shoulder."
"Awesome" Akaashi takes down some notes "Is it alright if I book an appointment for the both of you for this Thursday? I'm sorry but I am pretty busy this week."
"Sure, I'm on a holiday after all. Don't have much to do" Kuroo smiles.
"Bokuto-san?"
"Uh?" Bokuto swiftly lifts his gaze from the page and his large eyes blink back at Akaashi "Thursday's fine. Not in the morning, though. I have practice."
"Sure" Akaashi nods and writes down on his agenda. "Did you find anything you like? If you have an idea that isn't in there, I can customize something for you."
"No need to, I was actually just staring at this the whole time" Bokuto smiles and holds up the folder, pointing almost proudly to the drawing.
On the page there is one single sketch. It's not volleyball related, but Akaashi can easily understand why Bokuto likes that one. It's an owl sitting on a branch, staring at the horizon. Akaashi always thought it had Bokuto's eyes and maybe he unconsciously drew them alike.
"Beautiful choice, Bokuto-san." He nods while the tiniest smile forms on his lips.
On the other side of the counter, Bokuto is beaming right back at him.