Chapter Text
The black ink on Bokuto’s skin is formed into words he hoped he’d see since he heard them that day.
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
He just transferred to another high school, because his whole family moved to Tokyo. Fukurodani Academy was huge, so much bigger than his former small town school and his first day was… well, awful. He had no idea where to go, who his classmates were or where his teacher was. He took a deep breath in and out and walked into the first building.
He gave it up after ten minutes. When he asked the other kids, they didn’t answer him or looked at him like he was joking. He walked out of the front door and sighed. And then he heard it.
“Are you lost?”
He turned around and saw a pretty boy watching him with his dark blue eyes. Pretty eyes. They looked like they had stars in them.
“Um, I’m Akaashi Keiji. I’m a first grader, but I know it here pretty well.” He stopped, but Bokuto was still just staring at him without a word. “I heard you’re a second grader and you just transferred here, right? I can show you the way to your classroom, there’s still enough time before the first lesson starts.”
Bokuto just slowly nodded and followed him to another building where the second graders went to. They were halfway there when Bokuto finally spoke: “You’re Akashi, right? That’s a pretty name.”
“It’s Akaashi, actually,” he didn’t even look at the older boy.
“Even better!” Bokuto beamed. “I’m Bokuto Kotaro.”
“You should have asked any teacher or any adult here where to go. The students can be pretty mean.”
“But not you,” Akaashi could feel the big smile on the other’s face, “you’re just pretty.”
“I… T-thank you?” the raven didn’t seem comfortable hearing that, so Bokuto didn’t add anything anymore.
“We’re here. You should see the number of your classroom at the door,” Akaashi stopped in front of the entrance and looked at the other.
“Wow, thank you, Akashi, you’re a blessing! See ya later!” Bokuto ran into the building, leaving the younger one alone.
“It’s… Akaashi…” he mumbled, but still could feel his cheeks burning. Oh, man. What a great beginning of his high school time.
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
Bokuto doesn’t really remember the whole situation, he knows most of it only from Akaashi’s irked talking (when he admitted to not remembering a thing and even messing up his best friend’s name at first, Akaashi got quite mad for some reason). To be honest, he blacked out after the first three words - if it wasn’t obvious enough. But that was all he needed, he knew that. Because those three words are now written on his forearm, lining his radius bone.
Are you lost?
He smiles. He was waiting for this day for so long, his twenty-first birthday was coming so slowly, but now he finally got what he wanted. Looks like it’s Akaashi after all. It’s all he needs in his life, he deserves to wish for him, he can dream about him, he can ask him…
Bokuto stands up from his bed even more energetically than usual. He can’t wait to tell Akaashi! They are supposed to meet at the train station and walk to the same college together as they always do on Wednesdays. Maybe he’s even going to ask him out in the afternoon! Finally! It will be a great day.
He closes the bathroom door to take a shower before changing. As he’s taking off his PJ shirt, he takes a random glance in the mirror, not really paying attention. That changes immediately as he pulls the shirt over his head and notices something on his bicep. His eyes go wide. He has to see wrong.
Bokuto rushes closer to the mirror, but he trips and is unable to grab onto anything to stop the fall, because his arms are still tangled in the shirt. His forehead hits the sink and the dull pain which spreads through his whole head doesn’t help with the panic he’s going through right now at all.
He can hear his mother shouting from downstairs, asking what happened, but he’s not able to let out a sound other than a few deep, quiet grunts. He takes his shirt off fully, still on the floor, and after blinking several times to focus his sight, he stands back up.
He’s scared. He’s really scared of looking into the mirror. Maybe he was still a little sleepy, maybe it was a shadow…
It was not.
On his bicep sits another tattoo he didn’t have when he was going to bed last night. He stares at it for a while.
Careful, you might hurt yourself!
He doesn’t remember anyone telling him that before; other than his family members when he was a child and he would run around a lot, of course. But that is out of the picture. Or is it? Can family members be soulmates?
Why am I even considering that this is also a soulmate thing? he asks himself. He hasn’t heard of anyone having more than one soulmate, so why does he have TWO tattoos on his body?!
“Bullshit,” he mumbles.
“Kotaro? Are you in there? Did something happen?” he hears his mom from behind the door.
“Yeah, I just… Slipped,” he answers and his voice trembles a bit.
“Are you alright?”
He looks in the mirror. There is a little bit of blood on his forehead.
“I’ll take a shower and I’ll show you, it’s nothing big. Don’t worry,” he quickly says and the woman leaves, though still with worry in her voice.
Bokuto scans his forehead properly, touching it with his left hand while pushing his hair up with the right one. Yeah, nothing serious, just a scratch. But, God, he’s so clumsy!
He brushes his hair back with both of his hands, trying to process everything that’s happening.
I can’t believe your hair expresses emotions, too.
All of his breath is pushed out of his lungs.
His tricep. There is another sentence on his tricep.
He is petrified. Just standing there, frozen, eyes wide, hypnotizing the third tattoo.
When he finally snaps out of the shock, he shakes his head: “No. No, no, no, this is wrong, this is a mistake. This is a mistake!”
He undresses and checks all of his body. Thankfully, the tattoos stop at the number three. But that doesn’t calm him down the slightest.
How can he have more than one soulmate? Who are those people? Why isn’t Akaashi enough? Will Akaashi have three tattoos as well? Is Bokuto broken?
He wears long sleeves that day, which wouldn’t be that suspicious, since it’s late September, but the plaster on his forehead? Amazing. He’s ridiculous. He knows he’s a bit jumpy and pale, his mom did ask about it when she saw him. He blamed it on the excitement from his birthday and the fact that he hit his head, so he wasn’t feeling the best. She didn’t even get to ask about his soulmate, fortunately.
“Bokuto-san,” Akaashi’s voice wakes him up from his thoughts.
“Ah, you’re here,” he tries to smile, “morning~”
“Happy birthday,” Akaashi smiles back, genuinely, “I’ll give you my gift on Friday after classes, we’re both free at that time. But what happened to your forehead?”
“I slipped,” he explains again.
“You should be more careful, even if you’re very excited,” Akaashi doesn’t question it, he knows him well. Bokuto does get extremely hyped up sometimes. But the words he uses make chills run down Bokuto’s spine.
Careful, you might hurt yourself. He remembers.
“Are you okay? Got a little cooled down by the injury?” Akaashi lightly jokes when Bokuto doesn’t start speaking for over a minute. That is unusual. Bokuto always has something to say. And Akaashi loves to listen… to him.
“Yeah,” he fake laughs, “my head still hurts a little. I learned my lesson, I guess.”
“Well, I hope it’ll stop hurting soon. Or I won’t be able to take you where I want to take you,” Akaashi says mysteriously, trying to make his friend cheer up a little. Unlike himself, Bokuto loves surprises, this should work.
Except it doesn’t.
“I hope so, too…” the older hums and they continue walking in silence all the way to their college.
It’s Friday, long after five o’clock in the afternoon, the sun is going down and they’re sitting on a bench in an amusement park after a few rides. The cotton candy tastes sweeter than Akaashi remembers; the sky is more beautiful than ever, too. Maybe it’s because he isn’t cold anymore, since Bokuto gave him his jacket a while ago. Or maybe because his thigh is touching Bokuto’s and neither of them seems to mind.
Actually, Akaashi feels like Bokuto hasn’t even noticed yet. He has seemed lost in thought the whole time and not even the rollercoaster ride could make him forget about… That thing that’s obviously been worrying him.
But what is the thing? Did something happen at home? Has he been sleeping badly? Is it just the small injury? Or… Is it about his soulmate?
What if it isn’t me? Akaashi’s heart misses a beat. Right, it’s obvious Bokuto has a crush on him, Akaashi knows that very well. Honestly, the only person who doesn’t realize it is Bokuto, himself. And Akaashi has been flirting with him for the past eight months. Without a single reaction. Bokuto always either turns it into something funny or he just completely ignores it. He kept telling himself that if Bokuto didn’t catch on till his birthday, he’d just spill the beans the second they’d be alone together.
However, Bokuto’s mood these days changes everything. This isn’t him. This isn’t him at all and Akaashi is getting really worried. Just what happened that he’s acting this way? And who is his soulmate?
If Akaashi admitted that he wanted to know the answer to the last question especially, he’d also have to admit he is selfish and he absolutely refuses to accept that. It’s not something he (or any other person) should pull out of anyone. Although they are very close, it’s still extremely personal information and Bokuto doesn’t seem to want to tell him. So Akaashi doesn’t ask.
“Hey, Akaashi,” Bokuto suddenly says, looking somewhere in the distance.
“Yes?” the raven peeps.
“Let’s try the ferris wheel. The view should be amazing now,” the older offers without any sign of emotion in his voice or on his face.
“S-sure,” his voice is higher than usual, which would be quite embarrassing if he wasn’t so certain that Bokuto doesn’t really perceive things around him right now.
It’s a pleasant surprise that they don’t need to wait for the ferris wheel for too long. They’re getting on when the sun hits the horizon and the sky starts turning orange. What perfect timing. Did Bokuto plan this?
They don’t speak for a while and just enjoy the view. The horizon is bloody red and the white clouds turn pink and purple. The people below them look so small from up there and Akaashi is so grateful he isn’t scared of heights, because he wouldn’t be able to enjoy this so much.
But Bokuto is still quiet.
Akaashi doesn’t really mind, it’s peaceful and he can relax. On the other hand, his anxiety is thriving. What is going on?! He needs to know so bad! It won’t hurt if he asks, Bokuto doesn’t need to answer after all… Right?
They’re almost on the top of the wheel when Akaashi breathes in to talk, but before he can even open his mouth, he hears his favorite voice: “‘Kaashi.”
His name has always sounded so lovely coming from his friend. But this? Bokuto sounds like he is holding back, but is finally present, not just thinking out loud. His voice is so deep that Akaashi has to fight the urge to tremble for a second.
“Yes, Bokuto-san?” he pushes out.
He obviously is holding back. Or at least fighting with himself about whether or not to say anything. Thankfully, he decides to do so.
“Has there ever been a person that had more than one soulmate?” Bokuto half-whispers, still looking out of the window. The question hangs in the air, leaving Akaashi wide-eyed. He’s not assuming, but it basically explains what has been happening with Bokuto all this time.
When he gets over the shock, he answers: “I don’t know, Bokuto-san. Personally, I’ve never heard of it, but it might be possible.”
Bokuto doesn’t react, but his eyes seem focused on what his friend is telling him, even though he tries to pretend that the country outside is more interesting than him. Akaashi knows he is just subconsciously trying to hide his real emotions from him like this; at least sometimes he does so. Bokuto’s heard a lot of critique about his expressions throughout his life, so this turned out to be a bad habit of his. Akaashi just wishes for him to stop hiding from him as well. But this is maybe too personal to deal with openly, even for someone like Bokuto…
“I can definitely check in the library, there’s a high chance I’ll find something about it there,” he tries to sound supportive, but all he gets in response is a hum of agreement. He doesn’t even try to get anything out of his friend for the rest of the ride. He can feel Bokuto staring at him, but he also knows he’d look away the moment Akaashi’d look back at him and the mood would get awkward; especially because Bokuto would get worried about saying something, even if he’s not feeling like talking at all. So Akaashi stays still. He doesn’t mind, the view is amazing anyway.
Bokuto couldn’t care less about the view. Instead, he can’t take his eyes off the colors traveling on Akaashi’s skin. The whole sky is mirroring in his eyes, the colorful lights of the amusement park and the sun are shining on his face and glittering in his hair and it all makes him look like a god. He’s too beautiful.
Are they really soulmates? Or is it somehow one-sided? Will Akaashi get a tattoo from him?
“It was a great idea to come here now. It was beautiful,” Akaashi says when they’re almost reaching the ground again and he finally looks at the other man - the man who, surprisingly, doesn’t face away, but keeps gazing at him, seemingly deep in thought again.
“Yeah,” he lets out, “it was.”
Akaashi didn’t think he’d be the one getting flustered, but here he is, blaming the sunset for the pink on his cheeks.
When they get off, the sun is already completely gone. They look around and Akaashi takes the word again: “Wanna go somewhere?”
“I think we had enough fun,” Bokuto replies, “and since the sun is down, it’s gonna get cold pretty fast, I can’t let my precious companion get sick, can I? I’ll walk you home?”
“Yeah, sure.” Akaashi’s heart jumps. Precious. Bokuto called him precious. And he doesn’t want him to get sick… He cares about him even when feeling very complicated, himself. Butterflies in Akaashi’s stomach spread warmth to his whole body. He doesn’t even need the jacket anymore, Bokuto’s words are enough to keep him warm.
Right. Bokuto gave him his jacket and it’s getting colder and colder.
“Oh! Here, your jacket,” the raven takes it off and hands it to its owner, “thank you so much, I feel much better now.”
“You can keep it for now,” Bokuto offers, but when Akaashi shakes his head and says it’s really okay, he puts it on. It’s warm and it smells a little like Akaashi’s cologne. God.
When Bokuto gets on the same train with Akaashi, the younger looks perplexed: “When you said you were going to walk me home, I didn’t think you meant it literally …”
Every time Bokuto ‘walks him home’, it just means they’re going to part at the train station and take different trains closer to the places they’re staying at. That is, apparently, not the case today. Or is Bokuto so out of it that he didn’t even notice getting on the wrong train?
“Bokuto-san-” the raven whispers, just not to bring much attention to them and make other passengers angry, but his friend cuts him off.
“I just felt like it,” he says shortly, not meeting his eye.
They sit next to each other in the half-empty train car, silence surrounding them. Akaashi doesn’t know what to think, this has never happened before. What is Bokuto thinking? Why did he feel like it this time? Don’t people do this… after dates?
No, Keiji, don’t think like that. Your wishes are blinding your mind again, he scolds himself internally, he’s obviously not feeling well, maybe he just needs someone to stay with him…
He’s still living with his family, though, he has people around him all the time… Well, their house is pretty loud and full of laughter, maybe he just needs some silence for a while.
“‘Kaashi.” The mentioned looks up and sees Bokuto eyeing him with a small smile. “I can hear you overthinking. Stop it. I just felt like it, there’s no other reason.”
“Okay,” he peeps and tries to give him the smile back.
The rest of the ride goes quietly and Akaashi isn’t sure if he’s grateful or disappointed about it.
Bokuto really walks him to the house he’s currently living in with a bunch of roommates. They stop before Akaashi enters the house and he turns to his friend. Bokuto is looking at his shoes.
“Thank-”
“I know I wasn’t very excited today,” Bokuto cuts him off again, still refusing to look at him, “I mean, I didn’t look like it, but I was. I’m just…”
“I know. It’s complicated, right?” there is a soft smile melting on Akaashi’s pretty pink lips and Bokuto loves it. It gives him the courage to finally meet the night of Akaashi’s eyes. He always understands him, maybe even better than Bokuto understands himself - he can thank those five years of being together all the time for that.
“Yeah,” he breathes out. The pretty smile is contagious. Especially when you’re addicted to it. And Bokuto can never resist trying to see it as often as he can.
“But I promise you, I had so much fun today. Thank you for the gift, I loved it,” he tells him honestly. And Akaashi knows.
“I’m glad, then. It was my pleasure. And thank you for walking me home.” An awkward silence spreads between them. Akaashi can’t stand such situations. “And I also don’t want my precious companion to get sick, so you should hurry home, too.”
“Of course,” Bokuto nods with a cute awkward smile and rosy cheeks. Akaashi can’t believe he doesn’t realize his crush…
“Unless you wanna stay the night,” Akaashi tilts his head and that has Bokuto’s whole face going absolutely red. The younger man can't help but quietly chuckle.
“No, thanks, I’m fine!” Bokuto states louder than normally and Akaashi is having the time of his life.
“Alright,” he answers, “get home safe, then.”
“Sure! Thank you… again… for the, uh… afternoon. See ya on Monday, I guess,” Bokuto stammers and rushes back to the station.
“Good night, Bokuto-san,” he tells him, “and don’t get lost, please.”
Bokuto’s heart shakes.
Are you lost?
He doesn’t answer anymore.